This is the Beverly Hills City Council special study session. Today is Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024. It is a little after 3.30 p.m. And we will start with any public comment on any non-agentised items. We do not have public comments on non-agentised items. Okay. So with that, before we go to item number A1, I believe council member Korman has something he wants to say. Yes, thank you. So I am a member at the Los Angeles Country Club, and I understand Los Angeles Country Club draws water from the Santa Monica Basin, and as a result, I think I have to recuse myself from this matter. So that recusal is fine, correct? Yes, that is fine and Craig should leave the room for a discussion. Okay, a question. But we, some of us are homeowners in the basin that draws, do we need to recuse ourselves? Actually, I don't think anyone is a homeowner. The basin just is a very small sliver of Beverly Hills. And I don't think anyone here is a homeowner. What if we have relatives who are? No, I don't think that would qualify as a recuse. No, because my mom lives in that area, I can say. It's a, I don't think that would. I don't think it's just a function of the fact that there's property over the base. I think the club is actually taking water from the basin through a well. So that's also the base of the refusal. Okay. Okay. Then you've been. We will get you for the next item. Okay. So we're going to have a presentation on the Santa Monica Basin groundwater sustainability agency issue. And we're going to have a presentation on the Santa Monica Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency issue and Robert Welsh is going to present to us. Good afternoon. Mayor, vice mayor, council. My name is Robert Welch. I am the utilities general manager in public works and I will be giving you a presentation on the Santa Monica Basin groundwater sustainability agency and asking for your direction referring to the continued discussions on administrative cost sharing. So I'll give a quick background on sigma, what a GSA is, some information about our Santa Monica Basin GSA, the cost, sharing considerations, and then the direction needed from Council today. So SIGMA was established in 2014. It required local agencies to form groundwater sustainability agencies for basins, emphasizing local control with these public agencies. The GSAs are required to develop a sustainability plan for the basin, and that is to achieve a sustainable basin over a 20-year horizon. And again, this is tailored to the resources local to the community, so focusing on local control. GSA, as I mentioned, will develop an overall sustainability plan. It will conduct studies in the basin, register and monitor all groundwater wells, require reports for groundwater extraction, regulate that extraction, implement capital improvement plans that are identified in the sustainability plan and assess fees to cover costs. So here's an exhibit showing the Santa Monica Basin. The Santa Monica Basin GSA, it was established in 2017. The City of Beverly Hills joined the GSA through an MOU. There are four other members in the GSA, Santa Monica, LADWP, Culver City and LA County. The City of Beverly Hills makes up a small portion, as you can see in the outline of the basin, the upper right hand corner about 2% of the basin is within the city of Beverly Hills. The GSA holds quarterly meetings. There is an equal voting power for each of the members that sit on the on the board and it requires an unanimous vote to move anything forward. So in 2017 we formed the GSA through the MOU, the City Council deferred all cost sharing administrative cost sharing at that time. At that time the city of Santa Monica was bearing the full cost. 2019 Santa Monica and LADWP agreed to share that administrative cost, 50-50. And that brings us to the discussion today, revisiting the cost sharing for administrative costs associated with the GSA. There is a five year anticipated cost of $887,000 that we as board members have been discussing how to deal with that cost share. We have shared, I have shared the City of Beverly Hills preference of the 2% cost share across the board. Previously when we came to City Council we looked at a proratus split, an equal cost share across the board. Previously, when we came to City Council, we looked at a Pro Rada split, an equal cost share, 20% for each member. We looked at the percentage of land area. We even looked at an average of land area, Pro Rada split, and percent of pumping that's occurring. And then we also talked about opting out as also an option. And at that time, due to the pros and cons of City Council, unanimously agreed to stay in the GSA because of the fact that we need to have a seat at the board for future groundwater pumping possibilities in the basin. So at that September 19th meeting, again, the City Council gave direction to staff to present a 2% cost share for all costs, which include administrative legal and capital. I did want to point out at that time there was a some litigation that was occurring that has been wrapped up. Lit litigation that was occurring at the time the city council was discussing this, but that issue has been resolved. So we went to the GSA on the following three quarterly meetings in October, January and April to discuss this 2%. We could not get consensus among the member agencies on a cost share option. They asked that we come back to the council and focus on the administrative costs only. The other member agencies did not want to address the legal fees and the capital improvement the legal fees and the capital improvement fees that would be associated with capital projects and Asked that we come forward and just to brief the council on what the other agencies where they're leaning right now County of LA city of LA and Santa Monica have been advocating for an equal split And Culver City has been leaning more towards the percent of land area in the basin and have also talked about a percent of groundwater pumping by the agency. City of LA did also suggest in last meeting that we could potentially look at a percent groundwater pumping option moving forward as well. So understanding now that there are CIP projects that are potentially in the works. Santa Monica is contemplating some projects. And that's why we're asking the city council to reconsider the 2% cost share to exclude CIP costs because that would put the city in a position to contribute 2% of that cost. So we anticipate one of their projects to be maybe around 5 million that could be potentially $100,000 of fees that would be added to the City of Beverly Hills. added to the City of Beverly Hills. And then we're asking to exclude the legal fees because as the MOU identified each agency is represented separately by legal counsel and we're to bear our own costs for that representation. And then each agency also has potentially different interests and therefore we're recommending and there for recommending excluding that legal fee and recommending to pursue a cost sharing agreement if there were to be litigation issues in the future for each one of those issues. So next steps after direction here from City Council we would return to the GSA in July and report the direction that we received. And again, staff is seeking direction for the consideration of the administrative cost share portion for the GSA. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay, thank you. And we will go to any public comments. We do not have public comments on the side. Okay, then we will go to Council Member Questions. Let's do questions only. Okay, thank you for being here. I have just have a couple questions One is with regard to the groundwater sustainability plan itself. It's a plan that's a 20 year plan What year was that originated? We we've finalized the plan in 20 I think we submitted in 2022 And then that gets revisited every five years. That was my next question. And the City of Beverly Hills participated in the development of that plan? Yes, we as board members we review the plan or City Attorney's Office provides input. But there is a consultant that's hired through the city of Santa Monica that prepares all of the plans and or reporting that is required to go to the state. And as a member we have the ability to have a say in who they hire for doing that and or reporting. Yeah, we would have a seat at the table as a member on all of those efforts. My other question would be with regard to situations where for example golf courses are doing their own using the land for water for their own private entities. How do you assess costs for, or how does the, the, the, the group assess costs in those situations or is it go to the city. So for example, if it's a golf course in Los Angeles, is it LA that then just absorbs that portion of it? Is it LA that then just absorbs that portion of it? So this is part of the future potential pumping charges that we could be looking at as part of the GSA to assess fees for those that are pumping within the basin and that would be a future discussion as part of the overall structure of the GSA, how we would potentially collect fees from those pumpers to administer future CIP projects. Right, I'm thinking of it in an example because you're looking at it, how do we look at potentially what percentage we pay as a city, and if that includes the present of pumping, then how do you incorporate that into that calculation? So right now the city of Beverly Hills doesn't, the only pumper that we have in the basement right now is Santa Monica. So everyone else is not pumping. So when we came forward previously for an option of percent pumpers, like to develop a fee based on the percent of pumping. Santa Monica would bear the entire cost at this time. Now if we were to enter into that basin, say the city of Beverly Hills wants to start pumping, then we would look at the percentage of pumping that's occurring in that base and develop a fee based off of that that we would tribute. Okay, thank you. Councillor Romero. Thank you. You are current plans where we're trying to become a little bit more independent of MWD include pumping in any of the areas in the basin. No. It's not foreseeable that we would Do we know if any of our residents or any businesses within our or any other entities within our city are actively pumping from the basin. LA Country Club is actively pumping from the basin. Okay, but they're not in Beverly Hills. The sliver that is in Beverly Hills is is pumping. Okay. There's a small, there's a piece of the LA Country Club that's in there. Okay, aside from that. I do not believe there's any other. Isn't most of LA Country Club in LA proper? I'm not sure exactly, but it. There you go. Yes, Council Member Mirish. Additionally, Hillcrest, which is obviously not in Beverly Hills, either does pomps on that of out of this, this basin as well. Again, not Beverly Hills, although does pompa summit out of this basin as well. Again, not Beverly Hills, although I guess we have members of the whole crest who live in Beverly Hills. You go back to the previous slide. So basically, we're saying that we should continue the 2% cost share, but you're recommending excluding it for CIP. Why would we pay for CIP when our businesses, residents, or whatever are not using it yet? Again, that's exactly why we don't think we should include the cost. So excluding meaning not that we should pay 2%, we should pay nothing? Exactly. Okay. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. And legal fees, we'd be paying our own legal fees because we'd be hiring our own lawyers. Okay, thank you. So essentially this is a different plan. This is still the 2%, but we're now changing the plan a bit and saying 2% of specific items is supposed to the whole follow-x. Correct. We're asking just 2% of the administrative cost only to the direction on that. Vice mayor. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for the report. We visited this a little while ago, didn't we? In September. Yes. And so why is it coming back to us? We went to the GSA three times to talk about cost sharing. And each time our direction was the 2% for across the board. We could not get consensus. They asked if we could focus on the administrative cost because we were talking about the legal cost could be we could look at a cost sharing for legal costs as litigation occurs, which Larry can chime in on, but our city attorney's office agrees that's a better way of going about this. Sorry to put words in your mouth, Larry. But and then the CIP costs when we started reevaluating what the potential impact would be, we just think it would be more fiscally prudent to exclude those costs. And other agencies, how do other GSAs deal with something like this? Typically they either go percent bumper, the bumper charges, or they go like we do in our Bayona Creek similar situation for dealing with stormwater. We look at percent of the jurisdiction in the basin. So we're not pumping, we're not utilizing, why would we agree to pay for any of it? Again, I mean beyond the 2% that we're committed to. Staff is recommended in the 2%. We think that's on par with what we've done in other agencies and what other GSA's are doing and like I said earlier the council considered the pros and cons and making sure we were at the table and that's why we were thinking it's better to stay there at the table at the 2%. I absolutely agree that we should not opt out. We should stay as a part of it and future groundwater pumping possibilities. However, we're also putting our own money towards pumping and would it, what? But not in the base. Right. So, I would definitely exclude a lot of the legal fees and what have you that's been recommended. Okay. Just so I understand what we're talking about right now is yes paying the 20% portion for administrative costs of the agency, but excluding the CIP costs, which we would only end legal. Is that right? I mean, we're still paying the $20 cent or are we not? So our recommendation is 2% of the total value based off of the percentage of our jurisdictional boundary in the basin, and excluding any CIP costs, so we're not planning to pay 2% of CIP costs. We're not planning to pay 2% of legal. We're excluding that completely. We're just focusing to pay 2% of CIP costs. We're not planning to pay 2% of legal. We're excluding that completely. We're just focusing on administrative costs only. Okay, so isn't that proposal even less than we proposed to them in the three meetings that we've had already? We didn't know what the CIP costs and or the legal costs would be. So the numbers that you see here today were the same numbers we brought forward to you in September. Because we only have the projected administrative costs, which is the 870, 887,000 over five years. So what was the estimate before you came to us with this proposal? What was the estimate as to how much money it would cost the City of Beverly Hills to stay within this agreement? The estimate would be the number two option here for administrative costs, the 17,500 over a five-year period. That's a five-year number. With the caveat that we were going to pursue a 2% cost share on any future CIP and 2% cost share on any potential legal fees, that was the direction in September. We're asking now to remove the CIP and the legal fees from the equation, focus only on the administrative costs. And that dollar amount would be the 17,520 over five years. Okay, so once again, I'm going to ask the question because maybe I'm missing something. Isn't this proposal that you're asking us now to endorse? Isn't that less of a participation financially than it was that you proposed the last remediates? It would be an entity. Yeah, it would be less because we would not have any of that potential CIP or the legal fees we would deal with on our own. Yeah, if you will. On the legal fees, I believe the council said and I did not review the tape, but I believe the council said 2% on the legal fees too. But as we went back and looked at it It's a little difficult to predict well. We might have a different interest than any of the other participants in the Ground base ground water basin authority You know this will put it off this will put off You know, this will put it off. This will put off figuring out how much of legal fees that we would actually have to bear. We may have to bear all of our own. We may be able to combine with other entities and share costs. But this, we had pre, the Council of Prizes said 2% including legal costs and now we're saying 2% not including the legal costs will have to deal with that when we get some litigation that will require us to spend legal fees. So as far as the other agencies are concerned, is that a more attractive offer for them to consider accepting or is it less attractive? Well, I will turn back to that. So we haven't had that. We've had some discussions. I think this is more attractive, but we would have to discuss it at our next GSA meeting in mid July. OK. Let me go to a couple other things. In terms of the sliver that we have in Beverly Hills. Is there any public property over there that could potentially be used as a well? Well, there's the park in that area. But being part of the GSA, we could potentially drill outside of our jurisdictional boundaries like we are doing in the along the La Siena Gacorador. So, to answer your question, yes, there is some public land over there. We currently do not have any plans to put a water well there, but down the road, who knows? But there is the potential to expand beyond our borders, like we did for the La Siena-Gawell. Okay, so the park you're talking about is Roxbury? Roxbury. So what if we were to want to drill there obviously the cost of the purchase of land wouldn't be an issue because we own the land already unlike La Siannago we had to purchase the land. Why are we not considering that area as a future pumping station. So we focused on the La Sianna Go corridor, the central basin. We have plans for an additional, well, we have the Gregory and Ladou Wells that we're currently bringing online. We have plans for at least another well. And we have the infrastructure to bring that water to the treatment plant. If we were to pivot and look at something in that area, we do not have the infrastructure to bring that raw water treatment plant. I got you. There would be infrastructure that would be necessary in order to do that. Got it. Unanimous vote is needed as to everything. Yes. What happens we don't come to an agreement? is needed as to everything. Yes. What happens we don't come to an agreement? What happens? Anybody? We revisit the item every quarterly meeting. Or until it goes to a legal discussion. No, even if it goes to legal discussion, it has to be unanimous. So if there's no agreement, there's no agreement. We're not paying right now. Okay, those are my questions. Go back to direction with council member Wells. When you say that we don't have if we don't have unanimous agreement then it comes back at the next quarterly meeting. What happens in between are we part of the GSA or are we not? We're continuing to be part of the GSA. It seems to me it's really it's an opportunity to be participating and the amount is the $17,520 and that's for five years. It does provide an opportunity for us to choose to pump water in these areas. In some ways it seems unlikely if we don't have the infrastructure there, but as things can change, I think it provides an opportunity for us, so I would be willing to support this. Councillor Member of Marish. Yeah, I'm supportive. I mean, the two, you know, certainly don't want to pay a fifth. I agree with the suggestion that for CIP, which we're probably not going to be benefiting from or be a part of, that we do not, that we only, you know, that we don't, don't pay anything. If there were a project that would impact us, then we could come back and say we'll pay our fair share, I think. But I agree with those recommendations. Thank you. Yes, I too think that we should stay a part of this GSA and the 2% admin fee cost only not to include CIP or legal. Thank you. And that would be my direction also. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to, oh, we need to get Councilmember Korman back first. Okay. Okay, going on to item number eight, two proposed retail queuing permitting process. We have Massa Alkair and Chloe Chen presenting. Yeah, good afternoon, Mayor Friedman and members of the council. Chloe Chen, senior planner for the long range function of the community development department will be doing the presentation tonight. This afternoon, this is a outstanding item from the OpenBH program which authorized various outdoor uses quickly during the pandemic. She'll be describing a formal approach to authorizing queuing on the sidewalk using existing city regulations for minor encroachments. Thank you. Thank you and good afternoon, Council members. This item is a discussion of a proposed procedure to allow retail queuing in certain commercial areas of the city. The term retail queuing refers to the use of a free standing stanchion and rope that is set up to allow visitors of a business to form a queue typically located at the entrance to the business on the public sidewalk area. This type of installation was allowed during the temporary open BH program to help businesses limit occupancy inside their stores. However, before and after the pandemic, there are certain retailers who often have lines for entry that may need to use queuing to control the flow of patrons into the business. For example, a business may use this on a temporary basis for a sale or on a more regular basis if there is a desire to provide a more luxury retail experience with a limited number of patrons at one time. And businesses who have utilized retail queuing during the OpenBH program have expressed a desire to continue this practice. In response, staff has proposed a process to allow retail queuing on a permanent basis. The code currently provides authority to the transportation or engineering official to issue encroachment permits for minor encroachments on the public right of way, and a retail queuing use would be considered a minor encroachment under this section. To implement this, staff has created a draft retail queuing compliance form which contains standards for the retail queuing setup, location and operation. And this includes minimum sidewalk clearances, and an allowance for one single file line parallel to the business storefront. And businesses would be allowed to use these during operating hours, but must store them inside when not in use. In addition, a retail queuing permit may only be used by businesses located within the business triangle area of the city. So for the permit issuance process, the applicant would be required to submit an application form, an encroachment agreement, and a certificate of insurance, as well as photos of the sidewalk area. The permit would be able to be issued over the counter after staff's review and would be active for a one-year period tied to the expiration date of the insurance policy. And these permits would be eligible for renewal after expiration and a permit fee would be required per the adopted fee schedule. And no public notices required for a study session, but a courtesy notice was provided to the business community, as noted here, and one comment has been submitted in support of this item. And with this, staff requests that the City Council confirm the proposed process for retail queuing, and thank you, I'm available for any questions. Okay, thank you very much. So we'll go to public comment on this item. We do have one written comment. Thank you. And from Kay Monica Rose from the Rodeo Drive Committee, she's the president. The Rodeo Drive Committee on behalf of its merchants respectfully request you consider maintaining the retail queuing on Rodeo Drive. Merchants have come to rely on the order and safety they provide considering the uncertain political times that we are facing. They will continue to provide a better and safer experience for visitors and employees of Rodeo Drive. And that concludes public comment. Okay, very good. Thank you. So we will go to council member questions. Let's do just questions. I have a couple questions. One, with regard to the number of people in acute, like from from a QNX, say you're having a big event or sale or what have you. Is there a way to control the maximum number of people in the queue and where that flows into if it's going in front of other storefronts and how many people and so one is how do you control the maximum and to how do you ensure that you're keeping the ADA access at the same time? Sure. So as currently drafted, the standards would only allow a queue to form in front of the business facade. And so you would not be able to block an adjacent business facade that would be deemed out of compliance with the standards as proposed. As far as limiting the number of people, there is a minimum clearance that would be also be required for a sidewalk walkway and a maximum width of four feet for that queuing area to form. So it really would be dependent upon that particular businesses storefront length as far as allowing the number of people there. And as far as I'm sorry the second question, well how do you control it if it's more than that? What's the mechanism for that? As part of this form we do have a business sign an acknowledgement that they will be complying with these standards and acknowledging that any violation would be subject to a code enforcement or community preservation action. And so if there is an issue that a business is creating we would be able to take an action on that. And then the second part was about ADA clearance. Ensuring that we have that clearance. Yes. In addition, the standards require that the queue would not block any of the entrances which require a clear swinging door to be opened. And the six foot that is required on the sidewalk would also be in compliance with ADA requirements. Okay, and then related to this, but it's maybe completely separate, is also allowing for parking in front of retail business. So if they're doing a big event, is the queueing permit separate from, you know, taking the parking in front of their retail store for whatever events they may be having. Do you mean like a valley permit that would be issued for use of the parking spaces along the center? I do love permits for like if it's normally it's metered parking but it's an event for the retail to, the retail business to have a permit to utilize those spots in front of their store. Good afternoon. I'm Mara Richell with the Public Works Department and I'm a project manager. It will be separate. The queuing permit would only be for sidewalk queuing, any events where they're going to have to take parking or what they want to take parking, we have a separate permit process with special events that they can apply for. And is there a limit on how frequently they can ask for the permit or is it an ongoing permit? So it'd be for a one-year initial period tied to the expression of the insurance policy. So if that insurance policy expires before that one period, one year initial period tied to the expiration of the insurance policy. So if that insurance policy expires Before that one period one year period is up We would be able to extend that for the full year term once they provide an active insurance policy to cover it Thank you Councilor Corbyn. I have no questions. Thank you Councilmember Mirish I have no questions. Thank you. Councillor Moura-Mirish. This isn't only for road-day or drive. Is it for the triangle or? For the business triangle area, yes. Would there be any other parts of the city where businesses might want it? Generally we have seen that the businesses utilizing this during the open BH program and after have been located in the business triangle area, I don't know if there are any others. Would this also apply to restaurants, for example? We also have not generally seen restaurants utilize queuing. Yeah, no, it seems like restaurants also have alternative means on creating a queue for these gadgets that they use. Lining up for a restaurant is not something we've seen a lot of. So if restaurants are using virtual cues, which avoid people blocking the streets, wouldn't it make sense to try and get the stores to implement a virtual cue system rather than actually physically have people. I mean, I get it sometimes where people are lined up. They're like, wow, that must be something worthwhile. That's cool, that whatever. But just from a street management perspective, especially stores on rodeo drive, you think they all have apps, they all have this sort of thing. Wouldn't we consider having them look at virtual cues the way maybe restaurants do I mean there's the potential to do that to I think that there is a desire and there's been some interest in in still allowing this authorization of cues like physical cues and that's I'm I said because you know a bunch of people are outside a store, maybe it looks good, but just from a safety perspective from a street management perspective when other alternatives exist, I'm not sure Why we wouldn't try it, but I guess those are my questions. Thank you Thank you. Thank you for the report It's interesting because I often notice this and I have a couple of questions. I think that the $2 million liability insurance is a great idea. How much will the fee be for people to apply for this permit? There is an existing fee for an encroachment permit in our fee schedule which is $963. Would it be, I kind of agree with Councilmember Mirish, ideally it would be great to have everybody on virtual cues but I think that that's part of the cache of road a drive and I think a lot of these stores want to have the ability to be able to line people up. So the first thing is here it says in the report that if people line up they would line up on the side of the building. What if it goes beyond their own store and then it starts to go into other stores. Is there any type of, for example, on Canon, there is a store that what is it called? Sample sales store. Everybody knows the store, yes. So the sample store, and I have seen at times that it's completely gone into other businesses. So how is that going to be dealt with? Yes, so that would be considered a violation of the standards as proposed, and would be subject to a code enforcement action. Of course, with any code enforcement action, we do try to obtain compliance voluntarily with the business. And so we would probably flag that to the business as an issue and work with them to find other solutions. Perhaps as we mentioned the virtual queuing or perhaps an ability to locate that QL swear. Yeah, because I'm all for putting in standards and regulations, but if we can't enforce it, and if it's not realistic, what's the point? Okay, I actually think that getting a permit for all of the stores on Rodeo Drive would be a great idea if we could have them apply for it and have it ready, because a lot of times if they have an influx of people, they may not be able to realize that they need a permit. And is there a way that we could put this so that they have a valid permit but would pay for it once it goes into effect in case there's stores that want to get a permit and then in case there is an issue that they that they hadn't foreseen. I mean there are stores that want to have the queuing option. That's a given. That's a separate thing altogether and I'm in favor of that. But I'm saying if there are businesses that maybe don't anticipate but but as a as a proactive approach to be able to have that available Because I'm thinking if somebody has a sale or something happens that they didn't anticipate At that point it's too late to come and get a permit because it take it's a process Yes, and I think the process is to authorize them annually So let's say they did want to have a sale at some point during that year They would be already authorized to be able to do it. I think that we could proactively work with the road day-to-day drive business community to let them know that they can get these authorizations so they can be ready for it. It is a pretty simple application process, you know, relative to a lot of application processes that the city runs. Great. Thank you. One other issue, if I may, I along with the former council member, Bossi, sat on one portion of the Open BH committee and I wanted to bring up another area that we may have to look at and possibly bring to back to council because we omitted the T1 zone as part of the open BH programs. And so now it looks like there are businesses that are being affected by this and it was something that was not put into the current zoning. And I think that that's something that we would need to revisit. So I just wanted to bring that to our mayor's attention. Thank you. Just a couple questions. Right now, if a store in the triangle wanted to have queuing and are they allowed to do it right now? Because it's still open B.H. Although the temporary open B.H. program is no longer up and running, we have allowed retail queuing at this time until we figure out a permanent process for it. We're kind of allowing it right now, but this would legitimize it, so to speak. Right. legitimize it so to speak. In terms of the Permit running from from the Up to the date that the insurance policy Shows or it's expiration how would the permitting fee work on that let'sires they would be able to bring in transparency is active, we wouldn't charge another fee for that entire rest of the year term. So it would be a one set fee for a one year period. So the first one could possibly most likely be part of a year, but then thereafter it would be a full year. That the intention? The attention is we would issue the permit and it will be valid as long as the insurance is valid. Once the insurance expires, they have the opportunity to renew their insurance, give us a copy of their certificate, and we would then renew their permit for that remainder of that year allowance that they've already paid for. So wouldn't there be a period of time? So they would be renewing it not on their insurance expiration date. It would be renewed always upon the date that they apply for it. Correct. And then they would just show the policy mid-year, let's say, and it would just extend it to the end of that period than they would do it. Okay, I got it. Correct. I got it. Okay, I don't have any other questions. Sure. I'm sorry, I have one more question. What is the outreach going to be like to let businesses know that this is coming? I noticed also in the report that I said no masking tape on the street. Some businesses have been using that and creating lines in that sense. So what is the outreach going to look like? So we have been working with our community outreach manager, Magdalena, to notify the businesses that we are discussing this with the City Council. We will also be taking this item to the property owners task force to present it. And we will provide an update based on today's Council meeting, the direction moving forward with this process. If you have email, and I don't know if Mike Daly wants to add anything else. And the fee is just $900 in some odd dollars for the entire year. That's correct. We're going to try and demonstrate value during our education. Even if somebody uses it every day. Correct. So whether you're gearing and you have a twice yearly sale or whether you are actively using this every day to limit the amount of folks in your store based on the luxury goods that you sell, it would be the flat rate. And we'll have a full educational outreach campaign Colleague did mention the property owners task force. We also have a small business task force as well as our partners through the Chamber of Commerce and Rodeo Drive Committee. So through a combined both social and out social e-newsletter, and then we have something called neighborhood walks, where they actually go and walk. And I think the monthly roadio drive committee meetings will also be effective for what was mentioned earlier in case they'd like to be proactive and get this permit in the case of the elections season or another one that might come up where they want to limit it or a sale that they might be doing on Black Friday or something like. Right, and I don't know if we're doing updates on open BH. I'd like to recommend that we do get updates and this be included in all of our open BH because this is all new territory and we really want to see what the program looks like and if there are any areas that we're going to need to tweak or any of the fees or what have you that we need to take a look at. So I'd like to put that forward as well. Thank you. We'll note that for community development being diligent on following up and getting that to businesses. Thank you. Okay. So we'll go to direction. Council Member Wells. Can I just ask one other question. For retailers outside of the triangle, if they may not want to have a full year permit but say they want one, do they have that available to them, should they want it? And two, for those that may only want it for certain events, I'm assuming that it's available to them to get a permit on a short-term basis. I'm used big to both, actually. For the possibility of extending it beyond the business triangle, I think if there was a consensus amongst the council that you would like to extend that opportunity, we could remove that standard as only applying to the business triangle. And for the temporary permit, I believe we would charge the same flat rate fee and then they'd be able to utilize that permit throughout the year. Yeah, and I think this is an issue of the insurance and sort of other requirements. I think it becomes difficult if we're doing this on on one off basis. Okay. Well, I would suggest just making it available outside the triangle for those that want to participate. I don't see necessarily that there's a downside to allowing them to be able to do it unless I'm not thinking of seeing what that downside would be. Maybe part of the concern is, I mean, one is the interest. We've seen the interest in the triangle. And once you get outside of the triangle, there's different sort of sidewalk configurations. Some of the sidewalks are quite narrow. So that could be a concern. But I mean, it is a policy call. So we can potentially allow this throughout the commercial areas. You still need to maintain that six foot clearance which is what's going to be the problem in other areas I suspect. Yes. Even if it was open, it may not be available. I'm sorry, even if it was open to other areas, it may not be available to them because of the restrictions. I see. Okay. Well, I would consider it if he started to get interest and other than that I do support it so thank you. Councillor Pembergormann. Thank you. So I guess I'm a traditionalist. I've never really loved the lines on Rodeo Drive. It doesn't feel as welcoming to me as it did before the lines and it feels a little Disneylandish to me. But I do recognize the reasons why the stores want them and I certainly think that those are valid reasons and we should let them have the the queuing. One thought though I had to this was John's comment, the virtual queuing I think is an interesting idea because it solves a lot of different people's problems without having the you know the people standing on the street. I don't know what the viability of those programs are, those virtual, queuing programs are, I mean, I'm used to seeing them at large restaurants where they give you devices and you come back and they're like beepers. It seems very primitive to me. I would imagine they have cell phone based things today. I don't know how easy it is to register using those cell phone apps. But I do think that if that is a not an expensive option, and if it's something that's easily implemented and available at some point in the future, I would think we might want to pivot to that instead of the physical lines just for aesthetics and for convenience for everyone. People don't understand a line. They can go visit other stores while they're waiting to get into one of the more mixed and stuff. Some stores do that. Chanel does it. Some of the stores on radio are already utilized. Vice mayor is correct. Yes. Some of the brands do implement a virtual queue to both Council Member Corman and Mayor Schist points. They do experience a virtual queue to both Council Member Corbyn and Mirce's points. They do experience a high number of walk-ups, walk-ins similar to how restaurants do. You have your reservations, for Chanel, for Gucci, for other brands, particularly the LVMH or Karen-owned brands. Do you have a process and they've invested in quite a bit of it? The allure of rodeo drive is that it is attainable, accessible luxury and so they do have quite a bit of walk-ins, walk-ups with some limited staff and with very high end goods. The queues has allowed them to maintain a certain level of safety rather than be overwhelmed. So I was aware of the advanced reservation system in Chanel. I was not aware that a walk-up could could come, because someone could walk up and say, well, I'd like to get in. They say, I'm sorry, we're full now, but we can buzz you on your phone in the future if you give us the information. So, you know, if that's readily available to merchants, I don't see the need to have physical queuing because that's a better option. Yeah, it's a combination of both for most of the brands. I can speak in particular to the LVMH brands. Use a combination of both where you don't have one nor do they have a reservation available for the day. They're full up, however you're welcome to wait. And when someone doesn't show or there's someone who finishes their shopping quickly, then they let you in. So you could be there for hours waiting for somebody to drop off their laundry rest. I'm sure like. Okay, well. That would be a very good problem. Again, I mean, I know this is the way it's being done. I don't want to pull the rug out from anyone at this point, but I do think at some point would be a good idea to study the idea of pivoting exclusively to virtual queuing, because I think it's better for all concern. Thank you. Councillor Mourning. So, to Council Member Corbyn's point about being Disney Landish, that's not really a bad thing. But I actually agree that I don't see there's a reason for us to do this. I get it that stores might think it's cool to have a bunch of people waiting out. That tends to be the human reaction as well. There must be something there. And in this day and age, we've heard that other stores are doing it. And I also thought of this that if they're standing in line, they're not shopping in other stores, they're not eating in our restaurants, they're just there. And so from my perspective, I don't have a, didn't have a problem with this at all during COVID, but I don't think this is a trend to support. I think we should phase it out. I think we should introduce virtual queueing. It's very easy to do. People will then, as said, be able to go to other stores or maybe get a quick bite or whatever. In this high tech day and age, I just think it's time to transition to something else. And as said, I think it's better for the merchants in general too. People standing in line aren't shopping and they're not spending money. So I'm actually not going to support it. I would support a transition, but I think we need to make it clear that queuing all a Disney land or wherever it's not appropriate in this day and age for a day or driver for any of our streets and that we should use technology and that gives people the opportunity to even if they're just window shopping to walk around it's better for everybody I think. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Yes, thank you. I am in favor of allowing the stores to do what they feel they need to do to keep their stores in order. I think a combination would be a good plan. A lot of the ADA standards and if it is encroaching, I think that we need to have our code enforcement available for them to actually show up when it does in fringe on the space for other businesses. Because a lot of times, again, we put in policies but we don't follow up and if it is going to impact other businesses, we want to be mindful of that even if those stories super busy and they have a lot of people wanting to get in. And that's probably where a combination of both would come in. I also want to be able to give our stores the options for protection. And I think that this also is a form of assisting them with managing the number of people that come in with as it relates to retail theft. And a lot of the issues that Radeo drive has experienced in the last couple of years. So I am in favor of it. Thank you. couple of years so I am in favor of it. Thank you. So let me ask a question first if I may. The request for the retail queuing process generated how, who wants this to occur? I believe this came out of the temporary open-bh program as a solution to allow businesses to continue this practice. The business community has expressed a strong desire to continue this. So it was generated by the business community itself. I believe so. So, and that's what I suspected. We are dealing right now and hopefully we will have some sort of legislation that may assist but we have a significant retail theft issue going on statewide. And I think that this is just another tool that the retailers are able to use so that they can limit the number of people in a store at any one time. I don't, contrary to what I've heard, I don't think the retailers want to keep people waiting outside. I don't think the people that do business at stores that are on-road day or drive are really impressed by there being a line outside. I think this is really just another control mechanism that they have to save any problems occurring within the store. I am going to support this. I will hope that when the matter comes to council that we do have some of the stores come and talk to us about it so that you know any of us can either change your mind or either way. But I think that it is something that was organically processed through our retailers. And I think that they saw that it worked somewhat during the COVID issues for other reasons, but I think it's a positive all around. So I think we have concurrence to move this forward if I'm not mistaken. They comment. Sure. So no one's questioning the need for some kind of queuing and limiting the access to the stores. And the only issue that John and I have is, is there a better way to do it beyond the physical line with a virtual queuing system that allows people to walk in other stores, shop perhaps, buy food elsewhere in the triangle, and yet still virtually stay in line and then return to the store when it's their time to enter. I recognize there may be instances where all the appointments are used up and they tell people, go ahead and stay on outside, maybe you'll get in, maybe you won't, and that's enough of a reason to have the physical line, so be it. But no one's quibbling with the idea that we do need some kind of limited access to the stores. The only question is how best to do it. I'm just not sure that, again, I'd like the retailers to come in and tell us what it is that they want. But I think there's something that we should move forward here what they have to say. So with that, I think we have the ability to move forward. It's just one thing. I mean, the purpose of this study session is we have these existing regulations on the books for minor encroachments. Staff is just identifying that we can apply those minor encroachment regulations in this way. We don't necessarily have to come back to council again. We wanted to council's feedback on if you would like staff to apply the regulations, the minor encroachment regulations in this manner. If so, then we can start using the process that Chloe outlined. OK, so then that poses another question that we should all go around again and on that specific issue, whether or not the existing minor encroachment should apply to retail queuing, correct? Yes. So that's something that we'll start back with, Council Member Wells. We'll start back with council member Wells The question that staff is asking is should we apply the minor encroachment regulations that exist in our code in a manner where we can do this Q-Win process Yeah, so we have it in the code and We outlined how we would apply that process the way that we're going to do that. So we have to do that in the process. So we have it in the code and we outlined how we would apply that process. So my answer would be yes. But I do agree with my council members about, you know, I would like to hear from retailers and our businesses about this option of using the virtual queuing, because I do agree that it could be a better look for our city down the road, but with regard to this specific question, yes. Council member Corbyn. So that was my understanding that the idea was to see whether you wanted to use that part of the code to as the basis to go forward with this program instead of coming up with the whole new program. And I would support that if that's what everyone wants, but an alternative would be, instead of just approving the program today, maybe agenda another session, another study session on this matter, with the hope that merchants would come and weigh in on what the right way to handle this situation is, and maybe we might get some more of a dialogue that sounds like some of us would like that. And then we could have a better idea of what the best way to move forward is. Maybe, as I said, maybe it's we do this for a while and we sunset this to virtual queuing, but if we we're going to move forward. I think we're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. We're going to move forward. I would agree to it, but phase it out. Now, I'd like to hear from the police if there are potentially any safety issues, public safety issues, if the crowds get too big. Anyone here has Chief St. Brook around somewhere? I believe he's in the room next to us. Yeah, there he is. Yeah. Hey Chief, so we know up to now we've seen it, but you know, is there, you know, if there's a hot new item or something, you know, if they're huge crowds. Yes, you can control, but isn't it better if you don't have to. Well, sure, but honestly, so far I go by and drive and walk around. I see these crowds all the time and they're usually well-behaved and well-mannered. Of course sometimes you could get something that's maybe a hot item or a celebrity shows up and it can get a little bit. Would people use crowds to do? Who were intent on doing something bad? Could they use that to, you know, for cover, if you will? Honestly, with these pop-ups and these lines outside the source, I haven't seen that. I think their security does a pretty good job of controlling it. You know, we always hope we get a little of intelligence first and if there's going to be something that's either controversial or maybe it's something really hot or a celebrity shows up that we get a little advanced notice from the store and we can take care of that or help them. But I haven't seen any issues so far since I've been here and I haven't heard anything from my staff in the past about security issues surrounding these kind of things. So to me if it's bringing business into the city, I'm all for it. Okay, thank you. Well, my point is that it's bringing people standing around and they could be shopping while they're waiting. So I definitely think maybe we agenda not just this but looking into development of a virtual queue system which the city could assist with as a way of dealing with this. Because as said, I'm thinking that I'm thinking that it's like with you know go back to Disney and I'm like a fast pass if you have a fast pass you can go around do other things as opposed to actually just waiting in line the whole time and in this case it's going to patronizing our restaurants or window shopping or whatever and I think that's we have a very walkable business triangle. So from my perspective, I think we should look into that. I said I would support a transitional period, but I think we should figure something out that's better. This may have been okay for COVID or directly post COVID, but we'll be on that now. Thank you. Bye, Senator. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. I support this. I think that it's our responsibility to support the businesses on rodeo. They're extremely important. And this is what they're requesting. So these are businesses that really don't need the city's assistance to figure out a queuing process. I think that throughout the world, wherever you go, this is what's been working for them. And I think it's our responsibility to support the needs of our businesses so that they flourish and they are able to bring in the revenue that supports our quality of life. So I am in complete support of what the businesses want. That's why I recommended bringing it back in a year so that we can look at it and see the success of it and how it's been working. But as of right now, I don't really think that these multi-billion dollar businesses need the support of the city to figure out what works and what doesn't for their system. But I do think that many of them do use the queueing, the virtual queueing and it works well for them. But I think it's also nice to have both options available for the businesses. In my mind, I can just think about what the retailers are saying that government is going to help you control your lines. They're going to go the other way. I'm fine with this. I just don't think that this is that big a deal in terms of what the city, well, it is a big deal in terms of the city giving limitations to what the queuing process is. And I think with those regulations, I am okay with it. Whether we bring it back in a year, I'm fine with that if it's not working. I don't have a problem with that. But in terms of keeping this going, I'm okay with the being the minor modification or as a minor encroachment authorizing them as a minor encroachment. Minor encroachment being extended to retail queuing. I don't have a problem with that. So with that. So just to keep my scorecard straight, what I heard was three are in support of allowing this retail permit process. I want to get changed. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So with that, we are going to go into our closed session for those items on the closed session agenda. Excuse me. Go before we go to that. Can we just mention National Night Out for the community? Sure. Yes, so thank you, Council Members. We did have a contingent from our police department here earlier since it's a C item. I wasn't sure that we'd be discussing it this afternoon and I figured they may have other duties to attend to. So as it indicates in our packet, National Night Out will be on Tuesday, August 6th from 5 to 8 p.m. As it usually is here on the 400 block of North Rexford Drive. We'll have all kinds of wonderful activities like we do every year. The SWAP team will be there, the K9 unit. Our drones will be there, different emergency vehicles. And if people are interested in getting more information, they can go to www.bellerleyhills.org slash NNO for National Night Out. Okay, was there anything else you'd like to? No, is it sorry. I just wanted to come to the community and know about it. Councillor Buerren. Can I go back to the last item just for one second? Sure. It just struck me. I have no problem with continuing the fiscal queuing. Would I be correct that if someone engaged in a virtual queuing system, they wouldn't need the permit or pay the fee? Sort of that would be like a cost incentive, cost saving incentive for people to pivot to a virtual queuing system while still maintaining the possibility of a physical queuing system. I don't know why they would need to permit if no one's lining up in front of their businesses. Why? Well, what Michael answered that. Sounds like in order to need to permit, they're going to need to use the public a right of way. If they're not using the public right of way, then I don't think they're going to need a permit at all. But go ahead. Yes, that is correct. The encroachment permit is for the use of the public right of way. So if the virtual technology is such that people are not standing or gathering in the public right of way, and they just walk up when it's their turn, that would not require permit for them. Very good. Thanks. Very good. Thanks. Okay. So now we will we're going to adjourn to those items on the closed session agenda. We will need a roll call and then we will take public comment on that. And also there's a special meeting which also has a closed session agenda and we would be adjourning for the special meetings closed session agenda as well. So the regular meetings closed session agenda and the special meetings closed session agenda. Just like you said. Just like our city attorney mentioned so we have the closed session and then we have the special closed session. Gendas of the roll call is council member well. Here. Council member Cormin. Here. Council member Mirish. Vice Mayor Nazarian. Here and Mayor Friedman. Here. Councilmember Mirish. Here. Vice-Mare Nazarian. Here. And Mayor Friedman. Here. And we do not have public comment for closing. Okay. So now we are adjourned for those purposes previously stated. Thank you. Thank you. The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the Peter applied the rules with accuracy and precision to achieve great depth in his paintings. Another innovator of this time, Uchello, was so crazy about perspective. He was said to work throughout the night, ignoring his wife's insistence that he gets him sleep. All he'd say was, oh, what a delightful thing perspective is. Around 1440, Uchello drew an image that today looks as though it could only have been created on a computer. This is Ocello's actual drawing. While some of the dramatic developments were occurring throughout Italy, a German artist of tremendous imagination and skill was gaining fame in the North. Albrecht Dura. Albrecht Dura was known for his elaborate engravings and woodcuts. Dura was determined, divisitiously, with a definite goal in mind to bring Italian artistic theories back to Northern Europe. He not only succeeded in his goal, but became a pioneer of ideas as well. This woodcut by Dura is one ofdepth studies of the human figure from the standpoint and proportion. Some of Dura's analytical drawings also look strangely as if they've been computer generated. Dura wasn't the only Renaissance artist who seemed to have a prophetic eye? Leonardo da Vinci, scientist, inventor, musician, architect, sculptor, and painter, was a primary influence in his time. A dominant characteristic of Leonardo's personality was his desire to reexamine every aspect of his world. His notebooks are filled with intricate writings and sketches, scientific observations, endless studies. His utter fascination with sight, how the eye perceives, led him to a series of experiments. His goal, to understand the physiology of the eye itself. He rejected the ancient notion that light rays emanate from the eye. Instead, he argued that light enters the eye. Of course, he was right. An important element of Leonardo's optical research was his analysis of light and shadow. The language of visual art makes extensive use of light and shadow. Light, how it falls on and defines form, is a critical tool for creating illusion. Filmmakers often borrow lighting ideas from the masters to bring out form or to create various moods. During the Renaissance, the artists made careful observations of the effects of light and shade and then applied those principles to give a greater illusion of depth to their paintings and drawings. The simplest form of all, the sphere, was the basis for establishing the rules of light and shade. When modeling is added, including a shadow on the form and a shadow cast by the form, the drawing begins to appear more three-dimensional. With the addition of a heightened core shadow, the area between light and shade, the illusion of reflected light creates an even more convincing sense of depth. The Renaissance masters applied these techniques to more complex forms. Some of the most beautiful images from the Renaissance are drawings that exhibit these basic principles of light and shadow. These drawings are from Michelangelo's studies for the Sistine Chapel. These are examples of Raphael's figure studies. The masters reached even greater heights of illusion when using these principles of light and shade in their paintings. Late in the Renaissance, Raphael painted with bold theatrical lighting effects. Leonardo experimented on a very subtle scale, softening the shadows, creating a superbly delicate contrast of light and dark. Leonardo's observations of the subtleties of light and shade may have led him to examine the visual effects of atmosphere itself. In the hills surrounding Florence, Leonardo first observed the air which is interposed between the eye and the scene object obscures the object to some extent. And if the interposed air is of considerable quantity, then the scene object will be strongly tinted with the color of this air. Well, that's another way of saying that as distance increases, the background becomes more blue with atmospheric haze and reduces in contrast as well. In the movie business, we use fog machines to create the same effect. We call the effect atmospheric perspective. Leonardo called it the perspective of disappearance. You can easily see Leonardo putting his observations into practice to enhance the depth of his paintings. The foreground contains warm or red-yellow tones. The background becomes cooler, more blue, and has less contrast as it receives. In exploring depth illusion, the Renaissance artists use their magic to create visual riddles as well. One of the most intriguing was anamorphic art. as well. One of the most intriguing was anamorphic art. In the 1490s, Leonardo drew the first known anamorphic or stretched image. When seen from a normal viewing spot from the front, it looks like nothing more than a pool of water. However, when viewed from an extreme angle, it takes on a new appearance. One of the first to master the anamorphic technique was a German artist Erhard Schern. Schern created anamorphic illusions that disguised double meanings within the images. For example, in this picture puzzle, Schern makes his portraits with scenes from an historic battle. His clever illusion lampoons the royalty with comic portraits while contrasting them with the serious nature of the battle, giving a new twist to an art form as old as government itself, political satire. Portraiture became one of the more common uses of anamorphic art. Probably the most famous example of anamorphic art during the high Renaissance is this painting by Hall Byn the Younger, best known for his portraits of Henry VIII's court. At first glance, the painting seems fairly obvious. It's a double portrait. However, on second look, you can see something strange in the painting. Something smeared across the floor. When the painting is tilted, the smear changes into a recognizable form. A human skull. Some scholars believe that the painting contains a message of salvation, emphasizing that death comes to all in spite of our worldly acquisitions and learning. Others have suggested that the skull is actually a pictorial pun, playing off Holbein's name, which in German means hollow bone. The exploration of wide-angle perspective led to other results besides anamorphic puzzles. The masters began experimenting with unexpected viewpoints the way movie makers today use camera placement. One painter in particular explored this idea to great effect, Andrea Mantenia. This remarkable painting, unfortunately destroyed during the Second World War, beautifully illustrates the sense of drama that Mantenia achieved through his creative use of point-to-view. The young jailer in the foreground, begging forgiveness, provides the motivation for the unusual angle. He forces himself to look up at St. James, the very man he kept in prison. Mantenia makes us identify with the jailer's humility by placing us at ground level with the jailer. In a later painting, Mantenia once again forces the viewer to sit at the feet of his subject. Yet this time, it's an even more powerful effect. The artist brings Christ's feet right up to the viewer, making us vividly aware of Christ's wounds. of Christ's wounds. The point of view is stark and severe. Mantegna pushes the spectator closer than he wants to be, close enough to feel the coldness of death. In the Duke of Pallas in Mantua, Mantenua was commissioned to paint a small ceiling. He used the opportunity to create another striking viewpoint, but this time for a less serious The characters in the painting look down on us as if they are the ones enjoying the view. They become the spectators, we become the observed. With so many visual principles fully established, the masters began using the techniques of illusion on a monumental scale. During this explosion of creativity known as the higher innocence, Michelangelo and Raphael were commissioned to decorate the walls and ceilings of the Vatican. They went beyond drawing and painting, Hagelangelo and Raphael were commissioned to decorate the walls and ceilings of the Vatican. They were beyond drawing and painting, redefining the limits of architecture itself, literally exploding the boundaries into the heavens. The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World The Great Wall of the World Michael Angelo's work in the Sistine Chapel eloquently expresses his knowledge of form and his love of light and shade. Michael Angelo has made these figures heroic, larger than life. In another part of the Vatican, the young Raphael created his own visions. The high Renaissance was to end in the 1520s. Raphael to become its final master. Raphael's frescoe called the School of Athens certainly utilizes the techniques of illusion, but it does more than just present beauty. It chronicles Raphael's time. In it, Raphael has painted portraits of Leonardo, standing in the center as Plato, and on the left, Michelangelo as another Greek philosopher. These great masters of illusion are caught in one image for all time. And back in the right-hand corner, almost hidden, stands the young Raphael, looking innocently, yet confidently at the viewer. Perhaps he knew that the masters of illusion and their visual achievements would not soon be forgotten. In fact, they would have set the foundations of the visual arts for centuries to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The Oh, a plane took off and left its pontoon's behind. Powerful engine. I'm going to catch up. See? Point. See? Point. See, point. I'm high at the moon and I'm a wildlife filmmaker and conservationist. I've made films across America from the great Smoky Mountains to the Wild West. And today I'm joining my friend Tim Watkins from the National Park Service on an epic adventure. We're exploring the history of a national park 70 miles off the coast of Key West, called the Dry Tortuga's National Park. Hi I'm Tim. I'm a biologist and science communicator. I recently learned that Dry Tortuga's National Park includes the site of America's first tropical marine laboratory. But the tortugas are far away and hard to get to. So I wondered what was this outpost of science and why was it here? Let me tell you, the views from up here are gorgeous. What an amazing coastal seascape, the shipwrecks are ominous. Clearly, it was difficult and dangerous to be isolated from the mainland. Even from the air, I'm getting a sense for why scientists wanted to come way out here. We'll be joining Ranger Curtis, the lead interpretive park ranger for the Dry Tortuga's, and a team of scientists to uncover the history of this unique park. And of course, we'll be capturing all the incredible wildlife and natural beauty of the Dry Tortuga's, along with our trusty camera woman, Grace. Say hi, Grace. So join us on this exciting expedition as we journey to the Dried Routes National Park. Uncover the mysteries of the past. Learn about what science was conducted here. How the tradition of science continues today. And gain a deeper appreciation for the natural wonders of this protected area. for the natural wonders of this protected area. That flight was gorgeous, wasn't it? Yeah, I loved it. My first tea plane flight. Me too. Cool. Hey, I'm going to go meet up with Curtis. See what's going on. All right, well, I got somebody to meet on the ducks. All right, see ya. See ya. In the summer of 1905, a marine biologist named Alfred Mayer opened a tropical marine laboratory on Loggerhead Key. He saw a need for a lab where scientists could study natural history and conduct experiments. The Carnegie Institution of Washington agreed to pay for the lab. Both Mayer and the Carnegie Institution wanted to strengthen American science and rival the famous marine laboratories in Europe. Once it opened, the Carnegie Tortuga's lab hosted scientists every summer until 1939. The most popular feature in the park is massive Fort Jefferson on Garden Key. It was built and occupied by Americans during the 1800s. The Fort reveals these islands' significance for sailors, trade, and military affairs. But this building has a hidden connection to the rich marine life of the Tortugas. Curtis taught me all about it. These islands, this place, provided much needed sustenance for those sailors. It also provided demise and even death to some. There are over 300 historic shipwrecks that we have located in the park. Now in the 1800s, the U.S. Navy said these coral reefs're losing so many of our own ships as well. We need to start blowing channels through the actual reef and blowing the coral up. That sounds really horrible to us now. It gets her back in the day, people thought nothing of it. They didn't know what coral was. They didn't know as the keystone species, how many other things that supported the beauty and the life and the tropic cascading effects that happen if we don't take care of our corals. So there's a lot of brick, but I understand there's actually coral in the fort in the walls. Right. Good point and that's another one. It's not a fact that a lot of people know this place is much more than just a big pile of bricks in the middle of the ocean. We also have a whole lot of coral that was used to build this fort. Can we go see something? I can totally take you somewhere and show you something. And you will be able to understand the gravity of how much coral is actually in late in this fort. Let's go. Let's check it out. Let's check it out. So Curtis, we're now on the second floor of the fort and tell me about the walls. So the bricks, that 16 million bricks, it's really just the outer two layers, but the walls of the fort were made eight foot thick. Now look down, what did they use to make this whole... Wow, this is all coral, I reckon this is all coral right here. So they made basically concrete. It's a northern controlled fort in the southernmost part of the United States, so therefore they had to get building materials and bricks from as far away as Maine, over 2,000 miles. But what building materials did they have that were readily accessible? Sure. They're all right out there and they're these beautiful, living, amazing coral reefs that support all kinds of life, but just like the Navy and the 1800s and the government that wanted to blow up these corals, we didn't understand the significance of them. And it's just amazing that you can look and you can see how much of the coral literally makes up this fort. Curtis, all this coral makes me think that this place is almost like a monument to coral death and destruction, right? In some ways you're absolutely right, it pains me. I mean, for instance, the one that I'm holding right here, Acropora's Server Cornus, also known as Staghorn. It's a federally endangered species. And we use millions of pounds to create this fort. However, it's not all death and destruction today because our mission has totally changed. At the very location the government once blew up Reath to build a fort, the National Park Service and its partners now work to protect corals. Hi, it got to check in with one of those scientists. So what are you doing here? I just saw you working with your bucket. I think I'm not really sure. We are assessing coral reef health across the park. We look at how the reefs are changing over time. A lot of us, we're brought on to prepare for the stony coral tissue loss disease. Stony coral tissue loss disease is a very devastating disease to corals. It's really easy to spot underwater because you see bright white. So, you know, the corals are usually supposed to be all these beautiful vibrant colors. But when the coral is dying or when the coral is dead, you just see bright white. And you can identify some of your coral tissue loss disease by this really stark bright white line between the dead coral tissue and then the living coral tissue. We've lost a lot of coral cover from the disease. We don't know exactly what causes it, if it's a bacterial or viral agent. In the meantime, we have found that a antibiotic treatment is effective in at least halting the disease. Oh, wow. How do you administer this antibiotic? We mix up our amoxicillin antibiotic powder, just like how people take the same amoxicillin, anabatic powder, just like how people take the same amoxicillin as used treat coral. So that needs a delivery device, right? Because it is a powder. So this is called base2b. It's basically a really kind of like mushy, sticky material that was developed. Sticky, because I thought it looks like yellow, and would you modify it? Yeah, sure. It's really actually quite sticky, and it gets over. That's interesting. That's interesting. Everything. So, in the park, we were anticipating the Z's was going to be very... Is that a cult? I'm sorry. Is that a cult? Is this like what you would get from the hardware store? It is. Exactly. We would get from the hardware store. A lot of complicated scientific tools that you're using. Yes, yes, I know. Science is really innovative a lot of the time. What is it that drives you to get out here, be a far away from society, get in the water every day? What is it that makes it all worth it? I've seen with my own eyes a reef go from this beautiful, bustling, lively environment to something that's degraded. Due to this disease, in particular, and I've also seen it do to other, you know, human and natural impacts and and seeing the beautiful and really important resources that we have within this park makes me want to prevent that from happening at least to the best of my ability. Thank you so much for spending time and explaining this to us. And thank you for showing us your tools, but I'll let you get back to work. It was great meeting you. Great meeting you. I wonder if this makes Carly a choral doctor. Carly and her colleagues are doing wonderful work. They're part of the scientific legacy of all the people who came here to study at the Tortuga's Lab. Tomorrow we'll get out to coral reefs and loggerhead key in the site of the lab, but for now we're enjoying some of the nocturnal life around the fort on Garden Key. The sun is setting and I'm walking by this bush and I hear what sounds like rain. I look up, there's no rain. It's all a bunch of hermit crabs all in this bush. It literally sounds like rain dropping. Do you hear that? Look at this guy right here. Look at how big one, big fat one over there. That's my fist. I've never seen this made hermit crabs in my life. And the hermit crabs weren't the only creatures that emerged with the moon. Curtis broke out some black lights to reveal a critter that we couldn't see well with the naked eye. Scorpions. The blue green glow comes from a substance found in the hyaline layer, a very thin but super tough coating in a part of the scorpion's exoskeleton called the cuticle. The next morning we got a bright and early to meet Curtis down at the docks for our journey to logger headkey. Good morning Curtis. Good morning, I'm Curtis. Morning, Tim. Morning, Tim. Good, good. You guys ready for a little ride over logger head? Yeah, absolutely. I'm so excited to be out on my water. Let's thank you, beautiful race. Our first stop was a colony of magnificent frigate birds. Largest wingspan to bodyweight ratio of any bird in the world. It's like they own the air. Those are the kind of birds that you look at, and you're like, wow, those are definitely related to dinosaurs. Like, those are tarot dackels. So we... Seeing the wildlife from the boat is amazing, but we know there's a world of marine life down there. It's time to dive right in. How exciting it was to swim in the very place that inspired mayor and other scientists. And by filming, we connected with a little history of technology. The world's first underwater color photographs were created right here at the lab. A biologist named William Longley was studying how the color of fishes could camouflage them against the reefs. He collaborated with National Geographic Photographer Charles Martin to solve the color of fishes could camouflage them against the reefs. He collaborated with National Geographic photographer Charles Martin to solve the problem of providing enough light to expose the photographic plates several feet below the surface. They built an underwater camera that was connected by a wire to a floating raft filled with a whole pound of magnesium flash powder. Enough to kill a person when the diver pushed the shutter button. The powder exploded in a bright white fireball. And it worked. They published these photos in National Geographic magazine in 1927. Yeah, 2.51230 here. We are in route loggerhead ETA 10 mics. After landing on loggerhead to find the site of the Tortuga's lab, we decided to get an aerial view from the top of the lighthouse. Hey, we're going to the lighthouse right now. It's freaking huge. It's also really, really hot. So I've heard the stories about how hot this can get. Let's experience it for ourselves. The other thing that's in the flat is just I'm going to be trying to ask what's in that. Okay, so where was the lab? Right on the sand here? I think the lab itself was more like, I don't remember where it was right there. So it was right on the middle of the water. Yeah, there's a dock that went out. Mayor planned and built his lab on the north end of Loggerhead Key. It operated for 34 summers from 1905 to 1939. At any one time, the lab could house about 12 scientists all invited by Mayor himself. Over the decades, they studied everything, from the geology of coral reefs to the chemistry of fertilization and development of embryos. To skim one of Mayor's annual reports to the Carnegie institution is to survey the natural world from the level of a cell to that of an ecosystem. Tropical marine diversity, marine biodiversity is just so inspiring for so many people. And I think that's been true for so very long. People from all walks of life are like, wow, these beautiful coral reefs. Mayor was a jellyfish biologist and when I was snorkeling I was like up close with these moon jellies. Some of which, a couple of which were like this big, that was really exciting for me. Do you see jellies around a lot? They're gorgeous. We do. We see them around quite a bit, and they are. You can see the reproductive organs and those moon jellies, the four circles that are there. I love the way the light shines through those. They sting you. It's not too bad. You just have to watch out for the Portuguese man awards that come in around February time frame. Both those will really reach out and get you. I think one of the best examples of the rich biodiversity here is Alfred Mayer himself. When he knew he had a terminal illness, he chose to be here and immerse himself in these resources rather than a hospital. Right, and then he died on the beach. He died on the beach. That's like, that's the perfect ending for marine biologists to die on the beach. And that's the way that he wanted to live, to me. It's just an absolute beautiful place from a personal perspective. After being in the military and doing multiple engagements overseas, this is a place where I find my identity, where I find my zen, where I'm able to see the beauty above. But then I put a mask on underwater, and it is like a whole new world. And I don't worry about common stresses. It is just, it's the way that I can really connect with this place. While Tim and Curtis discussed the connection between mayor and the park's biodiversity, I went to meet up with someone who's been on the island for months, continuing the tradition of science in the park today. You're the total mother I'd say. I'm Maddie. I'm interning with the park service this summer with their C-Tronom Monitoring program. We have about 150 loggerhead nestles on the beach right now. 150. It's definitely been a good year for them and our population I think is doing pretty well Here in the dry tour too because we have our own Genetically distinct sub population basically the turtles these turtles aren't going to North Carolina Oh, okay jeans here kind of stay within so they're like this is it this is heaven I'm not leaving exactly. I mean as you may or not know, turtles come and they nest at the same beach they were born at. So all these turtles that are hatching today are gonna come back if they survive later to nest here as well. One in every couple thousand survives to adulthood. And they lay about how many eggs per clutch? About a hundred. A hundred. So, yeah. Their likelihood higher, there's more and more more 100. Yeah. So, yeah. They're likely hood hires. Yeah. More and more babies. Yeah. In comparison to the past 100 years, there hasn't been a lot of women out here doing science. You know, yeah, it is a little rare sometimes to see women out there doing stuff and having these positions. So I think it's been a great experience. Like I'm really happy to have been chosen for it and been able to work with some of these other great people. It's really cool to see how science continues here in the modern way with young fresh minds. Thanks for being out here and doing this. As Maddie continued her work as Turtle Mother, we decided to explore the island. To be on this island untouched by modern society, we're seeing nature exactly as those scientists did at the Carnegie Lab those many years ago. As clouds rolled in, we got a call in our walkie-talkie from Maddie, and she had a little surprise for us. Some baby turtles that she's been helping incubate have started to hatch, and it's time to release them What is there like a certain spot that you look for to release them? Typically we try to release them kind of where we find them. Okay, where we X-Mate. Yeah, we go ahead and release them. Alrighty. Yeah As a field ecologist, I've always felt my work helped understand or repair our world. But nothing I've done professionally gives me a greater sense of hope than releasing baby sea turtles to the ocean. There they go. Seeing these little critters reminded me that the tiniest creatures can possess incredible strength and resilience. Oh, look, no, no. Well, all right. Yeah, I think it was rain time to go. Be careful. Look like it. That's it. Oh. We're deep in it, Grace. Yeah, this is the most of the rain in a minute. Do you want to have an avid of Chateau? For the camera? I got to. Mayer died in 1922. Carnegie closed the lab in 1939 because it was not feasible to operate a laboratory for only three months a year on a faraway island repeatedly hit by hurricanes. Now, Hayden-I are looking for one of the only things left. The lighthouse is behind us and we are here at the location of the actual laboratory. All that remains is this plaque and it's even obscured by these sea oats. But I'll read the plaque. It's a memorial to Alfred Mayer and it says Alfred Goldsboro Mayor who studied the biology of many seas and here founded a laboratory for research for the Carnegie institution, directing it for seven, eighteen years with conspicuous success, brilliant, versatile, courageous, utterly forgetful of self. He was the beloved leader of all those who worked with him and who erected his memory, born 18, 68, died 1922. They're Roman numerals and it's like, so here we are, this is it. It's a neat place. What I've learned is that dry-tour tugas hosted a laboratory during a period of great change in the study of life. There was a shift from natural history with its focus on collecting and describing specimens to biology as an explanatory and predictive science, one with experiments, hypotheses, and the fundamental organizing principle of evolution. Mayor and his colleagues and this place were very much a part of that transition. And today, the science continues to grow to include conservation and restoration of species and ecosystems. This trip has been absolutely stunning. Literally, nowhere else on Earth is like the Dry Turquoise. And I, you know, I'm saying goodbye, but I know I'll be back. It's more like a see-you later. As we set sail back to Key West, I can't help but feel grateful for this incredible adventure that we've had. Meeting with Curtis, Carly, and Maddie reminded us that science is still making waves in this one-of-a-kind national park, from uncovering the location of the Carnegie lab to swimming in the vibrant coral reefs. This expedition was unforgettable. My takeaway? Science in the Tortugas never stops, even if laboratories and people come and go. Try Tortugas, we'll miss you, but we'll be back in no time to these islands of discovery. you What's up for July? The moon gets the band back together, find planet Uranus with some help from Mars, and the star clusters that feel the scorpion sting. All month in July, as in June, the planetary action is in the AM sky. Find Saturn rising around midnight and climbing high into the South by sunrise. Mars rises a couple of hours later with Jupiter trailing behind it and shifting higher in the sky each day. On July 2nd and 3rd before sunrise, the crescent moon will join Jupiter and Mars in the east. Looking for them before the sky starts to brighten, you'll also find the Pleiades star cluster above Jupiter, as well as Bright Stars, Capella, and Aldebrin. As the moon swings round the planet in its orbit, this same group gets back together at the end of the month, but has a much tighter gathering of Jupiter, Mars, and the moon with the Bright Stars of the constellation Taurus. Then on the evening of July 7th and 8th, those with an unobstructed view of the Western horizon can spot Mercury shining brightly low in the sky with a slim, crescent moon. Look for them starting 30-45 minutes after the Sun sets. Observers in the Southern hemisphere will find Mercury a good bit higher in the Northwest sky all month after sunset. On July 13th for the first few hours after dark, look to the southwest to find the first quarter moon snuggled up with bright blue-ish white star Spica. For much of the lower 48 United States and most of Mexico, the moon will appear to pass in front of Spica, an event called an occultation. Next over three days in mid-July, grab your binoculars and have a look at Mars in the early morning before the sky starts to brighten, and you'll find the distant planet Uranus quite close by. Uranus is not too difficult to see with binoculars or a small telescope anytime it's reasonably high above the horizon at night, but you really need to know where to look for it. Or use an auto-guided telescope. But occasionally the moon or one of the brighter planets will pass close to Uranus and the sky, making for a great opportunity to find it with ease. The winding form of constellation Scorpius, adorned with the bright red star and terries, is a feature of the night sky around the world this time of year. And at the tip of the Scorpion's tail are two well-known star clusters that are well placed for viewing at this time of year. M7, aka Tollamy's cluster, and M6, the butterfly cluster, are both located about 5 degrees east of the bright stars that mark the stinger end of the scorpions' tail. They reach their highest point in the sky around 10 or 11 pm local time. To find M7, imagine a line toward the east through the stinger stars Lesoth and Shaola, and it will lead you straight to the star cluster. M6 is just a couple of degrees above M7. Both are open star clusters, meaning they're loose groupings of stars that formed together in the same region of space, and they're only loosely bound together by gravity so they'll eventually go their separate ways. M7 is just visible to the unated eye under dark skies as a hazy patch just left of the tip of the scorpion's tail, but it's best seen with binoculars or a telescopezy patch just left of the tip of the scorpion's tail. But it's best seen with binoculars or a telescope with a wide field of view. Its stars are located in a distance of about a thousand light years from us and they formed about 200 million years ago. The cluster was discovered by Greek Roman astronomer Tallahme in the year 130, hence its other name. M6 is about half the apparent size of M7 and contains fewer stars. It's also a bit farther away from us at about 1600 light years. It's estimated to be about half as old as M7 at an age of around 100 million years. It was discovered by Italian astronomer and contemporary of Galileo Giovanni Battista Haudierna, in 1654. These two clusters are easy to observe in July, and their location in Scorpius makes them pretty straightforward to locate on a clear night. So there's no reason to fear this Scorpion sting. Instead let it guide you to two distant star clusters and see for yourself two little families of stars in the process of spreading out into the Milky Way. Here are the phases of the Moon for July. Stay up to date on NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I'm Preston Dykes from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that's what's up for this month. Hello and welcome to another episode of Adoptipet today. Sponsored by the Pet Care Foundation. And today we're at the West LA Shelter on Pico Boulevard just in the shadow of the 405 Reway. Now if that's not a convenient location for you, there are five other LA City shelters. One near you, you can find out where they are at LAAnimalServices.com. That's LAAnimalServices.com. Now, we're going to show you some wonderful dogs, wonderful cats, and a few bunnies. One I'm sure you're going to want to adopt. So grab a pencil and paper if you're serious adopter because you want to jot down their A numbers. Those are numbers that this city uses to identify the animals. And the way you can find them on the website and get more information about them if you want. We also have Reina Barker, our resident dog trainer to give you dog training tips. And Sally Samut, who's going to MC the show We also have Reina Barker, our resident dog trainer to give you dog training tips. And Sally Samett, who's gonna MC the show and introduce you to the dogs and cats. Now, if you can't adopt, remember you can also foster, and that's a short-term arrangement, where you can take in an animal just for a few days or a month or so. It helps out the shelter, it helps out the animals. So if you can do that, do that if you can adopt. But you can also donate donation items like food, pet clothes, doggy beds, newspapers. They always need that and you can always, always volunteer. They always need volunteers. So let's get started and see our first dog. Raina here and Sally with Baxter. Baxter is so handsome. You're six years old aren't you Baxter? He's at West L.A. His A number is 2017935. He likes other dogs. He likes people. He likes to roll on his back. What do you say Raina? He's a strong boy. He's a strong boy. He's a strong boy. He's, you know, adult, strong boy, but pretty mellow. He's a goofball. And everybody loves him here. He's been in play groups, isn't that what they say? Yes, yes, he's good with other dogs. Good other dogs, which is a bonus, you know? Huh, sit. Good boy. But you got a big strong dog. So you got to know what you have, even though he's mellow, got to walk him and you got to have some obedience on him, which he has a little bit already. It looks like you're good you're so good did you like it that was so good was that awesome huh here it good job let's see if he knows to lie down do you know what I'm now can you lie down oh oh good boy backster oh hi come see this boy let's get him a home. He's been here since February. Yes, he has. Yes, he has. He's a beautiful boy. You need to know that he's strong. I mean, not all big, huh? He's okay. He's strong. He puts his weight into it. He just gets training and he'll be good. Okay, we now have DJ, a three year old female. Pretty much a very different personality than Baxter. She's also three years younger, but one of the things that Raina's gonna tell you about is that all dogs have different personalities. They may look similar, but just like people, different personalities. This is DJ, her A number is 207, 431, 440. That's baby. She likes streets, Raina. She does, she's baby. Hi. She likes treats, right? She does. She's a little anxious. She came out here a little overwhelmed and anxious, but she is a favorite. She was in a foster home for a couple months and great with dogs and people and doing good. But, you know, her tail's down and tucked. You gotta learn to read your dog. No matter what dog you have or what you get, understand emotionally where they are and help them you know in the situations where they get anxious or nervous and you know it's not that you're bad it's just a week go through our stuff too right? Absolutely, absolutely. Come here, please. She doesn't know us. She doesn't know us, she doesn't know what's going on. You're being a good girl. Yes you are. She's such a good girl very pretty she's darling a nice size kind of a lightweight you know medium size but a lightweight and full ground for your soul and tails up now we're doing better huh you doing better yeah and their dogs in the yard next to us and she's interested in what's going on with the dogs, not for a good thing. Good girl, here. Let's come look at the camera. Can you do it? What do you say? DJ is three years old. She's at West LA, one of the things about all the animals at the city shelters. Before they go home, they're vaccinated, microchipped and sterilized. So you get a really made dog just to move into your home. Oh nice shake, can you shake? And she can shake. We are looking at Athena. Athena's a little older, probably late. Late teens, she's seven. Hi. Hi. What have I got for you? She likes her treats. Let me give you an A number. By the way, A numbers are important because the shelter doesn't find their animals by Hi, what have I got for you? She likes her treats. Let me give you an A number. By the way, A numbers are important because the shelter doesn't find their animals by name. They find them by numbers. So if you see a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a turtle that you want, you need to have the A number. One nine nine zero four four two. A husky look kind of a wolf look and pretty mellow, Rayna. Yeah, well she's seven, kind of like been there, done that. So she's an older girl, but she's still got at least five years, six years on her. If you take care of the right feet, I'm right. I love the middle age older dogs, actually. They're so great. Easy to walk pretty much. They really understand how to settle in pretty quickly. This girl has already been in a play group. She's, what they call, she told me dog selective. Now that doesn't mean she's aggressive. She just, I don't care about you, I'd rather play with that one. Or, yeah, it's no big deal. doesn't mean she's aggressive. She just, I don't care about you, I'd rather play with that one or, it's no big deal, it's just you gotta learn the dog and understand I don't wanna play with you, but I'll play with you. You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with that. And that's why she said it too. I know, I like you, but I don't like you. Yeah, I know. I know, So there's something wrong with that, but she's a very pretty calm girl doing really well. And she does love to play. She likes actually the smaller dogs to play with. Which is kind of interesting. Some of the bigger breeds, you know, look at them as toys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she likes to actually interact with them, but she's a good girl. And we did see her in the yard next to us as she is not afraid of water. No, she liked the pool, huh? So if you have a little play pool, just be aware that Athena may like to spend some time in the play pool. Hi! Does she know something? Oh, yeah, she does. She knows it. This is Athena. Seven-year-old female at West L.A. A-199-0442. This is a theme up. Seven-year-old female at West LA, A1990442. Nope, didn't know the down. Don't know the light down, but that's okay. Hi! Okay, we've got another seven-year-old. This is Pluto. It's so good. Pretty mellow like a theme. Oh my God. Let me give you a rate number because she's Rana's in the, maybe I won't get, she can have four or five dogs. 203, 5244 Pluto, and he's got, I don't know if you can see it on camera, but he's got a black overcoat with like a brindle undercoat. Oh my gosh Rana, he a doll. He's a doll. Hi, whatcha doing? Whatcha doing, Pluto? So he's been here how long, Sally? April, beginning of April. Okay, come a month. Hi you, he's in great shape. You know, his weight is good, his coat is good. Hi, he's to hand some boy. Yes, he reminds me of my boy, same size, dark, I'm in love. So anyway, come here. So he's awesome. You know, he's great. We do talk about, you know, how handsome, how pretty we think the dogs are. I have to throw in here. It's gotta to be a personality pick first. You've got to go with the dog that talks to you. Do we want beautiful handsome dogs? Of course we do. It's not necessary. It really is. And it's a matter of what you find beautiful. It's in the eye of the boulder. But the thing is too. Even though you may think they're beautiful and you may think they're wonderful, there's work involved. I've adopted, I've fostered, I've done so many, you know, being a trainer, of course, I work with a lot of dogs, but in your home it's a whole different story. You know, you've got to really have them learn the rules and their manners and have structure for them. My new boy I got in February, I mean he's a big 90 pound dog, you know, and he's awesome. You know because I just, it's just the rules, this is the way it is and you got to stick with it. Exactly. You know, and it doesn't have to be harsh in any way. You need to know that you're committing to. Good boy. 24 hours a day for a week, for a month, for a couple of months. They need to settle in. It's like you. It takes, it's gonna take, you know, he's been with me for four months and every week, every week you see a change with your dog when you spend that time with them and do that. You know, and it takes a while. It really does. It's not two weeks. You know, every dog is different. Some may take four months, some may take six months, some may take a year. It depends upon, you know, what you do And keep in mind that most younger dogs are going to be more active. We've so far looked at the youngest we have, was it three-year-olds? And much more busy than our six and seven-year-olds. Okay. Ray is working on getting the attention of Bulldo. Oh. Doesn't want to look at the camera because you know what happens when your face gets captured on film. Bolo, look at Dusty. There you go. Okay, so the good news about Bolo is he's a wonderful dog. He likes other dogs. He walks well on a leash. He's good in play group. The bad news, he's been here two years. He's only four years old. This is kind of... How you doing? Second home, but would like to see him in a real home. Both of you are pretty mellow. He's four years old, guys. A2010946. Let's give Boulder a home. Let's make twenty twenty four his year to go home absolutely you know this he's adapted he's adapted to the shelter sadly but it's good because he's not you know having a meltdown he's doing very well but that means it's gonna be a big transition in a home because this is a very different environment than a home. And so he may not understand a lot of stuff initially. And he just got to have the patience for him and let him keep this world very small to start. But you do that with any dog you adopt. I was going to say, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You take them. People go too fast too far too soon with Remy With Remy and my boy, he was in the backyard doing leash work for two weeks before I even took him out of water. Right, right. Yep. So, bulldoze environment is the shelter. His walker in the shelter. So unless you live next door to the shelter, he's gonna go where in the heck am I? The house, he can be restricted in the house. He can go out in the yard on a leash, so he knows what's going on. Good job. Good job. He's got a great face. He's got a great face. This is coming to adopt this boy. Although A2010946, we've got another big dog, and I'll tell you why we feature big dogs at the shelters on our show is because 95% of the dogs they have at the shelter are big dogs. If you're looking for a big dog or two or four we have them at one of the six city shelters. This is Logan and Logan's been here for about three months. He was very shy. He's come around, but Logan is not one of those guys who says, I can go anywhere with anybody at any time. He's going to need some work, right, Rayna? Just some patience. You know, it's a matter of don't be interested. Let him, you know, get used to you in his time. He initially was avoiding me at the end of the leash and then I just stayed calm and he approached and now we're doing better. You know, it's just time. He's not fear-aggressive in any way. He's just timid and just a little overwhelmed and obviously he's been here just a short time, takes a while for them to, and some of them have a tough time with all this. And I like bald oval, okay, this is where I am, so. But this is harder on some of them. And you know, I'm just gonna throw out that dogs have incredible hearing. And it's really noisy here. I'd be a little crazy myself with all the noise. It would help if you were deaf to be able to adjust. But this is Logan. He's beautiful. Beautiful black and tan. Sweet boy. He's three years old. He still had, you know what, once he adapts, I bet you he's gonna be busy. He's gonna be awesome. I bet you he'll go after balls, he'll play maybe with a flute pole, is that what you call it? Yeah, well he was running around in the yard by himself there. He had a good time. Yeah, he was. But now it's like, oh, who's the camera? Who's that? You know, so it's just new stuff. He doesn't know This met us his A number 2130776. If you have patience, if you wanna spend some time working, maybe working a little more than you'd have to with Boldo or one of the others. You know what, dogs take time. I saw him wear this tail when he saw the dog next door. He goes, yeah, I kinda like that dog next door. This is Logan. One more big yeah, I kind of like that dog next door. This is Logan. One more big dog. This is Bruno Mars. See, I'd say better looking than Bruno Mars, but hey, that's just my opinion. He's two years old. Actually, pretty comfortable to your all, pretty comfortable, hard to tell with a dog with no tail, Raina don't get that body language message do you yeah and when the ears are shorter too I mean that's their expression parts of their body you know wagging or stare for down and the ears back or forward he has some ears he's darling though you can see that little nub go sometimes right right up he's he's really cutie, so nice size. He's very compact. And he's being very good. He is high energy. But he's being very good right now, probably because he's going, what the heck? Yes. And where am I now? I mean, I can't wear these people. Yeah, yeah. But he's being very good. I've had him where they're just bouncing and jumping all over the place because they're also a little nervous but this is good you'll be in a very good boy. A play group rock star and what does that mean Bruno? That just means he has a great time with all the dogs and is very social with them doesn't have issues kind of gets along with everybody in place with everybody so if you have a dog or two and want to add to your pack, you know Bruno might be somebody you want to look at because he's already good with dogs. We have super sweet Mr. Maroon, actually his name is Maroon. He's been here like a week, possible owner turning, okay, this cat was owned by somebody who loved him and would like to, Meron says I want to be loved again. I'm two years old. My A number is to 145934. Right now this cat is awesome. He's awesome, sweet. He's very confident. He's like checking things out, engaging with people, friendly. He's like checking things out, engaging with people, friendly. He's just, he's a good boy. He's young. How old are they now? They're the two of you. Yeah, he's young. He's not saying no more than three, but he's darling. Come see him. Beautiful, green eyes. Look at those eyes. Yeah. As soon as I walked in the room, he started talking. He says, I'm here. Come see me. I'm here. I mean, for a cat that was just turned into the shelter, look at this behavior. I mean, he'd move into your house and go, oh, I've lived in a house before. I know what this is all about. You know, but like Raina said, with the dogs, they need time. You don't just give them your whole 5,000 square foot house when they move in. You want to be able to find them the next day. Maybe one room, a bathroom, a bedroom. Give them time to decompress, although this kind may just move right in. But they will hide when they're first overwhelmed if you don't give them a small space to decompress and settle in. So it's usually just one room where you can go and visit them, spend time with them, and then they acclimate pretty quickly, you know, if you do that carefully, especially if you have other animals, and then they come out and they go, oh, this is okay, you know, I kind of get it. We're now looking at one of a pond bonded pair who said, yeah, whatever. Just capture my face on film because look at how cool I am. We've got Goliath and Golem and they both look pretty much exactly the same. We'll show you the other one. They're number and by the way, they're a bonded pair who need to go home together. And he said, I'm ready. I'll move in. A number 213-9989-213-9987. West LA, they were left here. How does that happen? I don't know. But he's pretty calm. Are they both the same age? Yes. And that is two. OK, siblings are bad. Yeah. We're gonna show you the other one the other all black kitty ones Goliath and ones golem and They're both oh This eyes and this one are a little more yellow. You pick which is which. Very green. Yeah. Columns is very green and Goliath is more yellow. Very, very cool. We have named them. They are fabulous. I love black cats. I love the black cats. I love the black dogs. There's just something about them that is I think soothing and they're beautiful and they have they're amazing. I love them. Yeah. Golem and Goliath A213-9989-213-9987. This is sunset. Oh my goodness. He's a year and a half. He's been here for about two weeks. His A number, 214-4141. Those of you who know Orange Tabby's, they're almost always male. And they're almost always really, really nice cats nice cats right now if you had one. I haven't had one but I have known many and they are they are just they're just easygoing they're friendly they're they're just confident they're just wonderful and this one's beautiful the eyes on this this boy is just matches his fur almost identical this gold. It's just beautiful. He's got some great stripes on his tail. I mean, you know, we talk about the look of the animals, the dogs and the cats. A lot of that look is accomplished too by their personalities. Look at this guy. He's young. He's a baby. Okay, now we're looking at Prince, who happens to be sharing an enclosure with Maroon. We missed him. He was kind, both males, a two one two six four three nine for Prince. Man, if you... He's a bigger boy too and he's so handsome. Yeah. Where's your buddy? So again, if you want two cats, we just saw two all black beautiful cats. This is Prince, he and Maroon. I'm guessing came in together. They were listed as possible owners, but this guy is also very confident. It's just not quite as outgoing as Maroon is. Yep. But, you know, the bonded pairs, or if you do get two cats together, it's really easier than doing two dogs. And they actually do settle in a lot more quickly. This not is, especially if they know each other in their bondage already, the competition over resources and stuff that some dogs do. These guys don't. They're like, oh, here my bud. I'm glad you're here. And let's just play together and have a good time, you know, so they do help each other settle in So I'm off for that and he decided while he was on film that he needed a drink of water We didn't ask him first if he needed a sip before we turn the camera on But he's quite comfortable just getting up there having water which is a good sign Yeah, all these cats we've been seeing have not been intimidated by the camera. Some of them do and some of them are not thrilled. But these guys have no problem. Most of them have been great here, so they're awesome cats. So it does, on the black cats we just saw, it does say they have to go home together. You have to take two. These don't say that, but man, if they're already friends, yeah, do two cats already. How hard is that? It's gonna crack some you. Yeah, they're great, they'll be great together. And it's fun, it's fun to watch them play and interact, but they're not gonna be kitten-crazy. They're gonna just hang together and be there for you and they will play and entertain themselves, but they're past that. This is Prince of the Prince and Maroon team. This is Quill. He may look different than the Missal Cats we've seen because this guy is seven weeks old. Okay, you know we've talked about taking two cats home. This guy is a kitten. Right now he really does need to go home either to another cat or with another cat. Very easier when you have two. But that's fun to have one. I mean I'm not you know but it is easier for the cats and easier for you. It's not really that much more work like it would be with a dog. And I love, I have three dogs. But the two cats, you know, they really, really do help each other. And the kittens, kittens can be, they can be crazy. But we love them. And when they have another cat or something to occupy their time and their claws and their teeth when they're you know growing it's nice for them to direct it on another cat instead of you and learn appropriate behavior from another yeah exactly exactly it helps you know so you know but I love the kittens too I love them all they're they're really a lot of fun and fun to watch and they're fun to train you know you when they're young you can train them so you, you know, they, they do that. This is Quill, his A number 2143698. Maybe you have a slightly older cat at home who you think and he thinks, once a friend, you know, it could be Quill. He's here at West LA, vaccinated microchip to and sterilize and said, I want somebody to snuggle up to instead of this stainless steel shell. Come be my cuddle buddy. We're still at the shelter and this is not a cat or a dog. It's our rabbit, yes. The shelters have rabbits. They sometimes have guinea pigs and turtles and roosters and chickens. But we're in the rabbit room. What we're showing you right now is not how checkers lives 24-7. This is an X-pan, which is how the rabbit should live in your house. And maybe even with another rabbit. For those of you who have had rabbits before, checkers is a beautiful, Let's call her a tuxedo rabbit. Dutch? OK, Kim is the rabbit volunteer with us today. And she's just correct to me. She's a Dutch rabbit. For those who don't know like me, I'll call her a tuxedo. OK, Kim, tell us about checkers. So checkers is pretty new. She's still kind of getting used to us here. But if you look at we've got her litter box in here. If this was a home setup we would have her water bottle and some toys for her to play with. This is just her getting her wiggles out. And they get out. They're what maybe 25 rabbits in the rabbit room to 38. Okay I was almost right. 38 rabbits. This is not there in closure because we're in a pretty small room and they get out every day and an X pen to move around. So this is what rabbits need to do. Raina, our dog trainer, also had a rabbit. Where did you keep your rabbit, rabbit, Raina? Well, my rabbit was trained to be a house rabbit. So he had run into the house, but I didn't start out that way. He started out in an X-Pen in my house, and he had got litter box trained. And so he was never in a hut, she was never in a cage, she was part of the house. There are some people, I've had clients who actually have a room for their rabbit, if they have other animals in the house. So the rabbit has its own room. I also would let my rabbit come out into the backyard with an ex-pen with me supervising so he could get some fresh air and run around in the yard. I had a client who I educated about her rabbit when she got one and we set it up for it. So they don't need to live in a hutch and they can go in there to sleep maybe at night if that's what you want to do but they need to get out, they need the exercise, they're very social, they're very social animals and they can be loader box trained and they're fun, they're a lot of them. Yes, they actually really like companies so if you have a bonded pair that's best, if you have a rabbit that doesn't bond well or you haven't found its partner yet, they will be very attached to you and so you can have a rabbit in a room in the house but I wouldn't even recommend in closing the door I would set up a baby gate keep it open so they can hear you. Also just so you know all the rabbits at the shelter have been spayed or neutered they've been microchipped and they've been vaccinated for our HDV2 which is the rabbit hemorrhagic virus which is going we it's we have a resurgence of it here in L.A. County Ventura County so we definitely recommend people keeping the rabbits indoors and making sure they're vaccinated. That's our show thanks so much for watching. I hope you found an animal that you want to make a new part of your family and you'll rush down to the West LA shelter to adopt them. But if you didn't please go to the website LAAnimalServices.com you can see all the animals at all six LA city shelters. Remember you got to spay a new to your pets. It's the only way to keep them safe, happy and healthy at home with you and it's the law. Now if you can adopt, please volunteer or please donate. See you next time on Adoptipet Today. you When you adopt a shelter pet, you discover all the things that make them unique. They're a little bit of a lot of things, but they're all pure love. The Friends of the Beverly Hills Public Library, warmly welcomes Judith Palars in conversation with Debbie Gennler Subnack. So let's give a warm welcome. Hello. Hi, Beatles fans. Beatles fans, you're in for a treat. And if you're an archbitals fan, you're in for a treat anyway. The book that our author has written started in her mind a long time ago. She's from New Jersey. How many of you were from New Jersey? Right. Any from Oakland, New Jersey? Well, here's the one from Oakland, New Jersey. Then Boston University, Cllomlawe, then television producing. Working for CBS, working for ABC, working for many channels. Over 900 produced shows. 9,000? 9,000. 9,000. Okay. Over 9,000 produced shows. Please correct me if I get anything wrong. Okay. And yet the book was, the Beatles were always in the back of her mind. And she's going to tell in words and pictures her story about the Beatles and how she came to write this remarkable book. Now she had passion, excitement, everything to do with the Beatles craze, and it never went away. That's why many of you are here today. So without further ado, Debbie, I wanna hold your thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And please begin to tell your story. Okay, thank you very much Judith. It's a pleasure to be here to tell your story. OK, thank you very much Judith. It's a pleasure to be here. Would people like me to stand or sit? Would you? But everyone can you see Debbie? Can you see me? I'm happy to stand, you know? Yeah, absolutely. So well, thank you for coming. And I really appreciate you spending your time here to hear about the book. Just to start out really briefly, this is the first time I've spoken about the book on several other occasions. But this is the first time that I have the inspiration here with me, the two women who really sort of said, yeah, why don't you do the book? So I'd really like to just briefly introduce them. And the first one is Gay Lynnville, and my other friend Sue Steinberg sitting there. And so I was both gay and sick. What happened is, is that I've had this story within me for many, many years. And ten years ago now, for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, CBS did a three and a half hour special. And I was interviewed in that special. And what happened is, as afterwards, the Grammy Museum put on a talk. And at the talk, both Gay and Sue were there with a few of my other friends who were here today to sort of give me support and everything like that. And at the end, I was on a panel and Gay was there in the back and she said, well, what about your book? I'd like to really hear more. And I had been thinking about a book for a while and had notes, but I never thought that anyone would really find it interesting besides the people who were here, like Susan, like that new me, that they would be wanting to hear about my story. But gay and then with Susan's insistence constantly, it took me nine years to write this book. And I can't tell you how many times I put it away. It was a fine line between divulging a lot of things I somewhat knew and what I didn't know. But the story really starts out where family friends went to England for a vacation. And this was April 1963. They didn't know what to bring me back as a gift. But their middle daughter was sort of like my semi-baby sitter. Even though I was already 13, my mom felt, you know, funny leaving the in the evenings and afternoons coming home to an empty house. So their daughter would meet me at my house and she was a devoted American bandstand fan. So her parents in England thought, oh, that I must love music. It aged 13, so they went into a record store and they purchased, they said to the guy, what's they latest selling record here? He goes, oh, it's from some guys up north. And I thought, oh, I got this album as a gift when they came back. And that's what they brought me. And I thought, oh, I got this album as a gift when they came back. And that's what they brought me. And I opened it up and I took one look at that album cover. It was, please, please, me. And I thought, oh, these are the cutest, cutest guys I had ever seen. And this is before I even heard their music. And I just fell in love with them. So there I was loving the Beatles but I couldn't interest anyone else to love the Beatles. I invited friend silver. My mom was attacked in our local grand union that was sort of like the, you know, supermarket chain in northern New Jersey where I lived because one mom said that I was trying to corrupt her daughter and liking these guys, you know. And it caused really a big ruckus. So I didn't know what to do. But I did find out in the receipt that came along with the album was if you loved the Beatles join their fan club with an address that I still remember 13 homies straight, London, England. And I wrote a letter to the fan club. I never heard back for months. Now this was May 1963. I went away to summer camp and in Maine. And when they took us to places where kids could buy postcards to send back to their family, not me. I remember I was in North Conway, New Hampshire, and they were selling the postcards, and I thought, oh, yeah, I know the address. Instead of my parents, I sent to Beetlefan Club 13 Mamas Street, and I wrote, remember me, Debbie Geller, Oakland, New Jersey. I still remember I bought three five-cent stamps because I wasn't sure air mail how much it would cost to get it to England from Maine. So I made sure it would go air mail and I still never heard anything until it was Halloween weekend. And I came home from school that day and it made it been exactly Halloween or day after and my mom was standing there. She was holding a telegram and it said that the Beatles management is planning a trip in November to the US to set up, you know, organize the Beatles trip to America. And they were looking for fans, they needed fans. So my mom called the office the day after and I was invited to a meeting at Brian Epstein's Lawyers Office, Walter Hauffer, in New York. We lived about 26 miles away and my dad drove me to this meeting in New York City. Fortunately, it was Veterans Day and we had the day off from school. And I went in, and there was Brian Epstein in the distance. The lawyer's secretary greeted me. My dad was with me. You want something to drink. I said no. I walked in, and there were three men speaking with the most beautiful, beautiful British accents. And I'll still remember Brian's gold cuff links. They were glistening in the reflection. And I was introduced to him. Of course, I didn't know who he was. I mean, there was no way to know of a Brian, it's done, whatever. So I said, hello, Mr. Epstein. And he goes, mm-hmm. No, I said, no. He goes, I am Epstein. So I made a mental note at that one. And I always remembered he's Brian Epstein. I like correct people, too. I'm like obnoxious with that now. And so anyway, I, you know, I said, I can't do a job. I'm 13, I have to go to college. I still remember that line. I have to go to college. And, you know, the meeting was over in about 20 minutes. They were really lovely. I was still impressed with their beautiful, beautiful British accents. But as we left, I was called over to Walter Hopper's Secret Harry's desk. She goes, I want to confirm your address and your phone number. And if this later today, Brian Epstein is going over to the Delmonico Hotel to meet with Ed Sullivan. If they agree upon a date and it's all set, the Beatles will be on the Ed Sullivan show. It's sometime coming up probably in February and if it works out we will send you a ticket and that's how I got to get my ticket to go be one of the fortunate 728 people who was screaming in that audience. Wow! And that's sort of how that's how I got there and because of that meeting with Brian, he obviously knew who I was. So when they needed fans, they would always call upon me. I also learned Walter Hopper's office moved from 55th Street to West 57th Street because with Brian he needed a bigger space because he was doing all of Brian's legal work as well as everyone else's and he gave the US fan club the official club Beatles USA limited one of his supply closets was made into the fan club headquarters of their secret secret location that I was sworn to secrecy and I would go over there on summers, weekends, days off from school and I would volunteer. I do everything I could. I'd help respond to other fan club chapters and in the myths I did you know that with the club and here was one of the things like, and if you remember, a lot was done with Western Union telegrams in that era, was getting fans, the sale of tickets to the Beatles first film, movie goes on sale and they want to looking for volunteers to camp out. So they'll be first in line to buy tickets. Signs, placards, carried will be helpful. They'll supply materials. So I was called into action, of course. And I taught 11 of my fan club chapter members into joining me, sleeping on the street on Broadway over and over. If you want to ask, were any of you fan club members of a Beatles fan club, raise your hand. Okay, we were West coasters and so we had There were lots of chapters, you know, I learned my US geography Truly because the Beatles fan club there was a really active club in Livermore, California Wow really active Hollywood Florida Wow. Really active. Hollywood, Florida, Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was like, it was like all over. They may not have been as big as East Coast chapters, but let me tell you, they were here. They were guarding the Beatles at the Hollywood Ball. They were outside on Benedict Canyon when the Beatles were there, when they met Elvis. So there were chapters all over America. But here, getting back to camping out, was this is what it's a little bit older, but it really looked like that. There's the Astor Theater, where we literally slept on the sidewalk at night and you see in the extreme right there, you can see, what a mat. Okay, that's where we got our food that night. As we walked down to that automat, but we slept on the street for the stale of those tickets. But that's some of the crazy kinds of stunts that I did. I went on a local New York show called The Clay Coles Show. He was a sort of semi-dick-lark wannabe, but was actually in movies and brought a lot of the stars and celebrities to local TV. And I was going and I'd promote the Beatles fan club. We did won a novelty record that was out because 1964 was also a presidential year. These, everyone tried to get on the Beatles bandwagon, including these people who wrote a song called Ringo for President. And I still remember I have the Ringo, as a matter of fact. You see this right here on my bed. This was taken the day after I met the Beatles, but you see that for the record, Ringo? If you could see the rest, that was the banner I had to take in the day after I met the Beatles, but you see that for the record, Ringo? If you could see the rest, that was the banner I had to carry in 1964 and walk around in a circle, Ringo, for president. But, you know, it was a crazy time, a wonderful time. And it's, and I went on many other kinds of adventures It's, and I went on many other kinds of adventures because of the club and everything like that. I don't, Judith, do you want me to stop or go into when I met the Beatles or? Well, I think I think I'm ready to hear when you want to hear. You want to hear? Okay. So, great. So, but the Beatles. So, I was hanging around the club, as I said, an awful lot. And I happened to be there one day when Brian was at the lawyer's office arranging for one of his other people to come. He wanted to start coming to America, still a black. And it was in sort of probably January or something like that of 1965. And Brian was there and I was able to get in and he said, would you like to see Silla when she comes to America? I said, yeah, I do, I do. I want to really see Silla. And he said, well, you saw the Beatles when they were here in the summer, right? You met them. And I said, no, I did. He goes, you didn't meet them when they were in the summer. And I said, no. He goes, OK, you're going gonna be the first to meet the Beatles when they come for their trip. But meanwhile, I had gone and in April of 65, I went and I did meet Silla at the Ed Sullivan Show backstage and saw Brian again. He said, you'll meet the Beatles, but I didn't quite trust him. And I knew that in the tickets would be going on sale, and I read about it. So I like everyone else in the area, wrote in for tickets to Shay Stadium, and I ordered the maximum four tickets. And I still hear, I heard though, in July, I was at the club because it was summer. I wasn't going to camp anymore in Maine. I begged my parents that I had business to do in New York and I would stay at my grandmother's apartment who lived in the city. And so I overheard that the promoter of the show at Chase Stadium would select a fan to go to the press conference and then meet the Beatles. So I went to the woman who directed the fan club. Her name was Bernie Shiong and I said, Bernie, could it be me? Could it be me? Please, please." She said, well, you know the man who's going to be making the choice. And that was Sid Bernstein. Now he wasstein and notstein. So Sid Bernstein and I said, I know Sid and she goes, I know you do, let's say no, you want to be considered. So the Beatles fan club was at 221 West 57. SIDS office was at 119 West 57. I walked to SIDS office. I said, please choose me, please choose me. And he goes, well, it's all under consideration and sure enough, I was selected. So it was sort of my final, you know, thank you from them. I got to go to the Ed Sullivan show. I got to sit in that audience. I got to scream and let it change my life the way it changed, you know, millions of people. I mean, there were 73 million people watching that night of Ed Sullivan, but here I was now fortunately able to go and knew I was going to meet the Beatles. So I went to the Warwick Hotel where they arrived directly from London. They had flown in. It was Friday, August 13th, and they arrived, and they went right to the warwick hotel, up to their room on the 33rd floor. I was standing in the lobby with my mom, and we waited, and then I was told, go up to the mezzanine for the press conference. I went there, I took a seat, very close where I was instructed to go sit right next to their table where they would be coming. And I was so excited because there was an empty seat next to me. And I saw Kazen Brucie, Kazen Bruzmaro from WAB, Biedelsee taking a seat. And I was gonna sit right next to me. He was so nice. He was so nice. And I thought, wow. And let me see, where's my next? So here I was at the press conference. And I found a photo that someone had put of me. There I am standing there at the conference. It wasn't until a while ago that right there, Andy Warhol, right, was there. Right, yeah. I still don't know who that other guy was. I'm going to try and find out. Anyway, but there I was standing. Well, the reason I was standing is because Cousin Brucy, as lovely as he was at the beginning to welcome me, he turned into a monster. Cousin Brucy started with his left elbow when the Beatles walked in, jab me out of the way, because he wanted to be in front. And here I was, I was now 15 years old, right? And he was like stabbing me to move out of the way. But I did, and first, before he did that, he autographed my autograph book to cousin Debbie. high doll, Bruce Morrow, right there, but turned into a monster. And so I had to stand up to move away from him. The press conference was great. There's one of my photographs that I took. I was horrified sitting there to see Ringo and they're in their same clothes if you go online and you can see their clothes when they land. They're wearing the same thing, but I was horrified because there's Ringo wearing a shirt that he wore in the movie Help. I could not believe, you know, you remember certain bots in your head on certain events? There's Ringo wearing the same shirt. He wore in the Austrian skiing scenes and help. And I thought to myself, can't he even like buy some clothes that he was wearing wardrobe from the movie. So anyway, there's another picture. And the reason I have a close-up is I'll get to that. Here's George Drinking Water. The press conference was over, and I was told to remain in my seat, and everyone had gone. You know, a Friday night in New York, all the reporters, they just wanted to get out of there. And so everyone emptied out. I was sitting in my seat and then no one else was around. But I looked at this table. On the table was Ringo's cigarette pack twisted was Ringo's cigarette pack, twisted, still with the stamp on it duty free from the plane. There was a napkin that I think George was using. They were all smoking. They were almost like chain smoking the entire time. There was an ash tray between John and Ringo for ashes. And Paul was drinking, as you can see, in that close-up that I've sort of turned around the glass. So I saw all these things on the table, and I was all alone, and I thought, mm-hmm. This is thought, this is the time. Do I take them or not? And I couldn't figure it out. But I suddenly said, you know, that nasty cousin Brusty would have taken everything. So I said, OK, so I quickly looked around. I was all alone. I took Ringo's cigarette pack, the first thing in my bag. The ash tray with the ashes and the cigarette butts in there. George's napkin. And then I saw Paul's glass of water that he's drinking from had about an inch and a half of water. And suddenly I heard the door opening to the freight elevator to take me upstairs. And I didn't know what to do. And I figured, oh, okay, boom. I took the glass of water and I threw it right into my bag. And then the girl came who worked for Sidburn Steen and said, oh, time to go upstairs. So I said, okay, I grabbed the press kit that they had given out to all the press because the movie helped had just come out. And so I had a press kit and I went from to my seat because I was standing when she walked in. I picked up the press kit and was ready to go upstairs with my bag over my shoulder. I got up there and I was let in and there was a humongous commotion going on because there was a big window and not as big as these but like half the size a really huge window and outside on the side fire escape was a girl crying knocking at the window and they were trying to open up this window to pull her in because she had walked up. 33 flights on the fire escape. She was crying, security was there. She said, you should have, like, unbelievable. And I'm standing there, like, I'm supposed to be at the Beatles and all this is going on. So I was standing, I was trying to back up as much as I could because I did not want to be associated with this girl. Because, you know, I got there for hard work. And, I mean, she too, but she was like, I'm on the out, on the fire escape. So I'm there. She's being escorted out and literally pulled the window and I hear this voice, which I recognize immediately as George telling someone behind the wall, let her stay, let her stay, and someone in security saying, no, we can't permit that because other people will then find out here from her and will have kids climbing up 33 floors. They let her out and it was my turn to walk in. So I got laid in and it was sort of like erratic. Brian Epstein was standing in the distance actually and that's why I wasn't surprised to see Andy Warhol because Andy Warhol was there talking to Brian when I walked in. Also, who was there was this guy, Tony Barrow, who with the microphone was standing there sort of conducting the press conference. I have questions for my own on the show. And I'm going to go over there. Hello. I'm going to go over there for the last couple. We've never seen them. I'm present. You're on your phone. Have you worked with me? have you worked up any new new things for the American people? How does that come to you? We changed. We're doing lots more things for the people. Anyway, there was Paul. He was the first one to meet me and no surprise that he spent so much time in New York and married in American. I remember just thinkably thinking, how happy he looked to be in New York. He really, really looked like he was enjoying himself just being there and just all the hubbub. And then there was sort of George, George sort of nodded, like he had just met me like 90 seconds before, like on the side, like he knew me. So there was like no need to really meet him. And then, I was standing a little further away was John Lennon. And I like looked at John and I was so excited. And he was looking down. He wasn't looking at me. He was like this. And he says to me, what's this? And I looked down and I see a spot on the carpet. And from the crease of my bag over my burger was dark water, ash, dripping out onto the floor because it was on an angle and he goes, what's that? And I was like, I have to tell you, I still remember this moment because it was so horrifying and I said, oh, it's for my collection. And he goes, collection. I said, yeah, my member of Bielia collection. And he goes, OK, open it up. Yeah. And I went. And I turned like sort of towards him and took it down. And I stood like this. towards him and took it down. And I stood like this. And he looks at it and he goes, this is rubbish. And I said, yes, it might be to you. But to me, it's for my collection. And I love it. He goes, no, he goes. You are rubbish girl. And I was like just really upset, like almost ready to cry being called rubbish girl. I actually, at one point, wanted to call the book rubbish girl, but everyone said no, but it was really for me like the most meaningful title. I didn't select this title in the book, by the way, but it was like, I just didn't know what to do. Ringo, who was sort of, then the other side of John, just sort of threw down his hands and walked away. So I never met Ringo that day. He was sort of like off to the side and had nothing to do with me. So John was there and I showed him. I said it's very precious. It's from my collection and I didn't know what to do. And suddenly, and I know there's going to sound funny, but I got saved by a sandwich. Because what happened is that someone suddenly came in with a tray of sandwiches from the stage deli. And boy, were these guys hungry. Because remember, they had just flown in, went from JFK Because remember, they had just flown in, went from JFK and right to the war with Cotel upstairs and 20 minutes later, they were down at the press conference. So they arrived like for something and it was now like about 6, 15, 6, 20, something like that. And so the sandwiches came and they were big roast beef sandwiches. Paul Ringo were still eating meat then, with lots of Russian dressing and cold slaw and everything like that. They were famished, so they said, would you like a sandwich with us? I said, oh yeah, yeah, I'd love a sandwich. So I sat down and I ate my sandwich and everyone else ate. Brian did not eat. I remember that. He didn't eat, but good old Tony Barrow ate. I remember that. And Neil Aspenall ate and everyone who I guess was on the plane, Brian. And, um, Cousin Brucie was there eating Murray the Cave, who was my favorite DJ, not Cousin Brucie. Murray, I didn't see, um, there at that moment. But anyway, and we ended up where I closed my bag, but I ate very quietly. And then cousin Brunsey led the four beetles into a sweet, off of the main sweet, for an interview. And I figured I'd better go. Everyone was just letting me sit there. And I didn't know what to do. No one came back for me. So I was just like there. So I figured, well, it's time to go, I guess. And I decided, well, I should go and say goodbye to the Beatles. So I went into the room and I said, goodbye. John sort of looked at me like, oh, I can't believe this girl. And Kazim Buru-Ci, and remember that in here, Kazim Buru-Ci wrote, high doll. I guess that's what he called everyone, because when I left, he said to the Beatles, she's a doll, isn't she? And I thought, ah, just don't make it any worse. Just like, just like, let me leave. And I did, I went out, Neil Aspinol motioned me over. And he said, thank you for coming. I said, oh, thank you. And there was a security guy as well in the elevator going down, the freight elevator, where my mom was waiting for me still in the lobby all that time, patiently. And Neil pulled out of the jacket he was wearing, a copy of John's latest book, A Spaniard in the Works. And he said, it's from us to you for your memorabilia collection. And this is a picture of me taking the day after meeting the Beatles after that incident. And here I am reading the book, the Spaniard. Okay, I have to show two things. That is Ringo's cigarette pack. And I just wanna say one thing immediately after this. There was a lot of newspaper coverage of first-team to welcome Beatles, but I just want to say that I got hate mail. Even in 1965, there were still hate mail for the Beatles. People did not like them. They didn't like the things that they stood for. Moving on from that 13 year old girl, tell us about your involvement later. Okay. Well, in 1967, I had done so much to help the Beatles, but I never got paid anything. Brian took ill in the fall of 1966, and I heard about it from people, and I went to the hospital, and I actually made them cookies. I put the recipe in the book for Snickerdoodles. And the reason I chose Snickerdoodles is because it was in one of my mom's cookbooks and it had currents in it. So I thought being British, he would like currents. That was truly the only reason. But I had had established back in 1964 a correspondence with George's mom, Louise Harrison. She had selected fans. I was not alone in this. That she had really a lot of correspondence with. And I was one of those people. There wasn't a letter when she didn't send me a piece of George's clothing. I have socks, I have shirts, I have pajamas, I have lots of stuff that belonged to George. We had a long, long correspondence. After I met Brian and went to visit him in the hospital and brought him the cookies, he said, had you ever been to England and I said no. And this was like October or so, 66. He said, you know, April is a wonderful time. Why don't you come to England in April? I said, I would love to. And I was 16 already. I would be over 17 by the time in April of 67. And he said, my assistant Wendy Hanson, who was a lovely woman who worked for him. And we struck a wonderful relationship. Many of her letters, correspondences, also in the book. But I also wrote to Mrs. Harrison, because I said, Mrs. Harrison, I'm coming and she says it's okay to come. You would have to take a train to Warrington from Houston, London, George and Patty are here. They're fine from the trip to India and she always gave me a little bit. So we started corresponding a lot and it ended up that my mom who came with me remained in London and I went up to Liverpool on the train and I stayed two nights with Mr. and Mrs. Harrison. There's their photo I have to tell you, Mrs. Harrison was the loveliest, loveliest person. She had just come back from a trip to Florida and she loved Keyline Pie. And she wanted me to make a Keyline Pie. I said, I don't know how. She said, she thought it's like a ride a passage that everyone, every girl in America knows how to make a pie. So I did, but I helped her that night with other fan mail. And I also wrote Angela McCartney, who had married Paul McCartney's father a few years before that. That I was also coming to Liverpool. She said, well, to write her also closer to the time. And if it worked out, I could stop by. So when I went to the Harrison's, I brought the letter with me, Mrs. Harrison said, sure, bring her up tomorrow. So she did. So there I was sitting in the back seat of the Harrison car going from Warren Dinn, which is pretty much the biggest town right outside of Liverpool to meet Paul's dad. When I got there, it was like magical where I stood outside of the home that Paul had bought his dad and his brother when he got famous. And there I was with the Harrison's and Jim McCartney and out came Mike McCartney, Paul's younger brother about 18 months younger. It's where I first met Michael and have since 1967 had a 50 year friendship with him. Here when I found out he was coming to America, and when we lived on South Clark before we lived in our, this was our first house in Beverly Hills. I gave my Caparti, a launch party at our house, for his book and had maintained a lengthy friendship with him. But in 1967, I was there for this with the Harrison, and it was lovely. I had a wonderful evening with, at the Bag of Nails Club, I went and saw George Martin at Appy Road and Loem Behold, Holmacartney and Ringo Starr were there. They had just started working the night before on the magical mystery tour and they stopped by. And it was Paul who said to me, had I been at any clubs. I said no, I didn't know people to go to clubs with. That seemed I guess important to him. So he said, well, he goes to this bag of nails club. So sure enough, my mom heard that. She was sitting in the back of the room. We have to go get closed. So we quickly went to Selfridges on Oxford Street and there was a new line of clothing with self-ridged. Anyway, long story short, I saw him that evening at the club with Mel Evans. He came back, and here's just one quick, funny story there. You know how in fifth grade you have states that you do book reports on, and everyone chooses their state? Well, I chose Colorado. Well, Paul was talking about, and now, how he and now had just about two weeks before come back from Colorado. They went to see Paul's girlfriend at the time Jane Asher perform in a in a play. So I said, oh, really? I said, I love Colorado. Colorado was my state that I chose. He said, oh, what's your favorite part about Colorado? I said, well, I had never been there. So he like, look at me like, you are totally strange. First you were the rubbish girl with all the rubbish and then I said I chose Colorado and I had never been to Colorado and and anyway that was you know it was all a lot of strange things like that but the reason I pointed out Tony Barrow to you earlier in the pictures at the press conference was that years later I was with my husband where he was giving a speech to a music gathering in Can France. So I couldn't let him go to Can without me going. And it was at a big music conference. Mip, mip, mida, mida, I'm sorry, mida. And I was walking around the Palais while he was doing whatever. And all of a sudden I saw Tony Barrow there. And then again, and he said, you know, George Martin is here. I said, really, I grabbed my husband. I said, this is your chance to meet Tony Barrow. He didn't know if he was. I said, but George Martin chance to meet Tony Barrow. He didn't know if he was, I said, but George Martin. And let's go. So I grabbed him and Tony Barrow proceeded to tell me how John Lennon for years talked about rubbish girl and how I had collected his rubbish. So I knew for sure that it was really a story that he told I had read something somewhere later but anyway that he had you know referenced that sort of some crazy fan was taking their trash or something. Anyway so and years later I kept going with my whole, like, little thing. I think it truly was the earliest, earliest, I taught one class before this, and then one class after at UCLA in 82, and then again 83. That's the Walter Shenson, the producer of both their movies, The Hard Days Night in Help, and then that smart VM, the fellow who wrote the screenplay of Help, happened to be visiting Walter, and so he came to the class. So, and here's other things when McCartney's visited some pictures that I took. Mike came to the US. I booked him when he was promoting some of his photographs in San Francisco. So that's us on a rainy night on a cable car going back. And this was just a couple of years ago now. There's a lot in the book about Mike. And this is at their home, Fourthland Road, where this is the famous drain pipe, and Mike's telling me how Paul and he used to slide down the drain pipe, you know, escaping from the house. So that's a little bit, and that's pretty much it. Well, this is so up close and personal. I was really transported with Debbie's words and her pictures all the way back to 1963 and all the way up to 2022 when the friendship endures. So Debbie, I know you'd like to hear from them. Absolutely. So I'm going to turn this mic off. Does anyone have a Beatles story that you could share with Debbie because she encourages at the end of the book. She encourages at the end. That's the double point of my book really. Yes. You know I had this book and I had you know these wonderful adventures and was able to do that but yeah I never really got to the end of my story because with a lot of people over the years, because everyone would stop me with their Beatles story. So now it's the chance because whether you were there for the original, whether you were there to see them on Sullivan or go to the Hollywood Bowl or whatever, or see Paul McCartney and concert at the forum or whatever, or Steve Paul McCartney and concerted at the forum or, you know, whatever. Now so what is your Beatles story? Well, at the time my mother was in real estate and she knew the owner of a condo on Wilshire. This goes back to the 70s or 80s, I don't even know. She comes home, she said, I just leased it to one of those beetles. I said, what even one of the beetles? She said, tell me the name. So I'm reading off the four names and she said it was Ringo Star. And so honored today to be here in Beverly Hills presenting my sculpture to the city, the father and I love and I've called home for many years. As people travel down the Santa Monica Boulevard, they may see my hand and think peace and love. Hopefully spread the message of peace and love wherever they are going. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! I want to thank the Mayor of Beverly Hills and all the members and everybody in Beverly Hills. Now we've got the hand up in Santa Monica, peace and love. Ah! Thank you. We've got the hand of Santa Monica, peace and love. ["Piano Song"] Ah! Thank you. When my kids were younger, they're in their 20s now. The garage guitar hero, excuse me, or garage band whatever the game was, released a Beatles version. And it told the story of their Beatles through the songs historically chronologically and you got to the end you know you did all the song and the premise is the kids sang the songs and played the instruments so we have video of our kids I think Mallory's son is in one of them singing the Beatles songs I was the drummer because I I was the only one that could figure out how the drums on this game worked. And I, my kids love the Beatles. Your kids each need a copy of this book because this book is story after story. And Debbie only just touched on the stories. What you were saying about the, you know, you visiting his brother and everything, when I saw that documentary, I didn't realize this. It was such a family operation. Oh, it was a family club. You know, it was a family. Brian, the parents were involved in that. Brian was really the oldest, and when he died, he was only 32 years old. So everyone else, you else, it was new. Everything was an exploration. We had nothing in New York or whatever. It was all in Brian's head. That really shows, I mean, I have to identify myself as being a real Brian groupie in a sense, because I witnessed this guy at work, and he honored the fans, he appreciated the fans, and he knew that his band was good, but only as good as the fans that they were to promote them. And was always conscious of that. But yeah, it was a real mom and pop organization. Look at Mrs. Harrison, she just sat there and wrote and wrote and did that. You were a pen pal with Mrs. Derrickson. Oh yeah, a lot of pen pal. So this is more like maybe a crazy fan of the Beatles, but when I was in middle school, my brother had been a fan and then he was a little over that and he gave me all the Beatles albums. So when I was in middle school and high school, all I did was listen to The Beatles and read about them and learn every lyric and everything. And I remember in sixth grade, I was in like math was super difficult. And we used to, my friend and I, changed the lyrics to the Beatles songs about how difficult math was. And the teacher let us sing the songs to the class, like at the start of class or at the end of class. And then I remember being in religious school and someone said they had all these Beatles posters and my mom took me to buy all his posters. He lived on motor avenue. Like I just remember they think my whole bedroom wall was Beatles posters and I still have some of them. And then I was lucky enough to see Poma Cardney, the one and only time he played in Tel Aviv, which he played with his band. So yeah, lifelong fan and I just love hearing you. Thank you. And everything to every set jogged our memories of that time. That was such an important time in the 60s. So much was going on then. I was driving my grandson to school one day and I said, Remy, do you listen to classical music? He said, oh yes, the Beatles. Oh, that is wonderful. Well, there's a movie called Yesterday. And if you see, and nobody remembered the Beatles, nobody, it was a fantasy, but it's really a fun thing. Okay, one or two more comments, because Debbie, this feels in your thing over here and then over here. Okay, you have the last question. You talk about timing. Does everybody remember we're in when they were when John Lennon was shot? I know exactly right. Mm-hmm. If, and anytime you go to New York and walk by the Dakota, you think of John Lenny and in the park, there is an imagined area in Central Park. So I think this gentleman's gonna have almost the last word. I was just curious if you could tell us anything about your memories around the time of the dissolution of the Beatles, around 69 and 70 when that came about. Were you part of the fan club? Were you aware of what was going on at that tour time? Well my individual chapter had already ceased to exist. In 1968 I left New Jersey and went away to school in Boston. And it was very, it was very bittersweet for me that close up the fan club and say goodbye to a lot of friends, people, many of whom I never met. I just knew them from correspondence and them being fan club members. But when I got to college, it was really exciting because I was in my new dorm. I just arrived and I went next door to meet the two girls who lived next door to me. And one of them said, her name was Sarri Schaefer. I said, Sarri Schaefer, I'm Debbie Gellner. She goes, what? She was a member of my fan club from Long Island. From Long Island, she was right next door to me. So what happened is, is that when I was there, the next year was the big Paul is dead thing that happened. And my phone even started ringing, we had a little wall phone in the dorm and I remember being called and said, so I sort of thought, hey, guess I guess this fan club thing will never really end. But in 1970 when they disbanded. I was, of course, upset, but at the same time, I really, I don't know, I had to appreciate who they were because I remembered, you know, I started being a fan in 1963. I was 13 years old. It was now 1970. I was already 20 years old. Well, my life had really changed from 13 to 20. And I had to respect the fact that, although I hated to see them not together anymore, they too had to grow as individuals, and they had different pursuits and different experiences to themselves. So yeah, I was, of course, upset that there was a world no more beetles really as beetles. But at the same time, I was like trying to be respectful of them as people. And I really figured by then, you know, with George having his own music and Paul and John and, you know, Ringo, Ringo was like interacting at that point, you know. And I just felt, hey, you know, this is the natural way. I was really never a Beatles follower of their individual careers. I mean, I went and saw the different concerts and things like that. But I'm sort of like a purist where at 1970, my collecting, my scrapbooks, all sort of collecting my scrapbooks, my this, and that, you know, all sort of fell off. And, you know, was there to see their individual career, but not like, I don't think if I went to a Polmacartney press conference, I would have taken this glass of water at that point. Let's leave it like that. Do you think it was the fact that you did all this and by the time you turned 20 and then eventually graduated from college and had this phenomenal career with CBS and ABC? That propelled you to get that position or do you think it was the tenacity that you had back as a teen, you know, getting to meet Brian Epstein? That's interesting. I think it's a combination of the two because when I was young, after I went and saw the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Show, I learned how you get tickets to go see Ed Sullivan. So I'm madly started to write when I knew I could be out on a Sunday night, there was no school on Monday. I would start writing for tickets to CBS. So I went to see the Ed Sullivan show about 11 or 12 times after. I mean, I saw it like from Tom Jones to Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald to Harold Arlin performing some of his great music to, as I said, Silla. I went to Billie J. Cramer and the Dakota's. I didn't see Peter and Gordon there. But a lot of others. So I started, as I sat in the audience all the time, and then I went to game shows too at NBC, at Rockefeller's Center, went to see this show concentration, and went to see others. So I started to watch the production crew. So I would say I was greatly influenced by that. And just coincidentally, at college, I went and worked at CBS New York. And that's how I found myself here. They transferred me to LA. So I'd still be living in New York if it wasn't for CBS. But so I think that that's part of what it is. And you have a tenacity of it to stick to this. Yeah, you know, I sort of think it was definitely, you know, influenced by all of that, early. Hi, this is not technically a Beatles story, but I wanted to, it's a magical story. I interviewed Julian several times, John Sun. He told me that his father told him, if anything ever happened to him, he would come to him as a white feather. Julian was doing a concert in New Zealand. He was a musician in his own right, and some aboriginal tribes came to him and said, we need you to help us. And the leader of the tribe came to him on stage and presented him with a white feather. And he said, he knew, I got chills when I said that. He knew that he had to help. And so he's devoted himself. He has a white feather foundation and he teaches children about healing the earth and environmental issues and he believes it's all the voice of his father coming to him through that white feather. Another magical tour. What a beautiful story. your magical tour. What a beautiful story. Well, you know we began when I said, I want to hold your hand. Well, I think Debbie has held all of your hands today and taken you on her trip. And we thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you. You're watching Beverly Hills Television. Thank you. I'm I'm going to do it. I'm going to have a little bit of a little bit of back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna go back to the school. I'm gonna have to go. Now. I'm going to start a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm So This is the City of Beverly Hills City Council regular meeting. Today is July 2nd, 2024. It is a little after seven and we will start with the pledge of allegiance and if I can have the roll call. It's good evening. The roll call for this evening. Council Member Wells. Here. Council Member Cormin. Here. Council Member Mirish. Here. Vice Mayor Nazarian. Here. And Mayor Friedman. Here. the Court. Okay. If. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, very good. Welcome everybody and we are going to do our 60 second shout out and this evening 60 second shout out recognition goes to one of our city's most unique businesses Bosley known for their hair restoration and transplant services located in Beverly Hills. If I can have the people from Bosley come up please. So Bosley founded in 1974 by physician Larry Lee Bosley and this year marks Bosley's 50th anniversary. Over the past five decades, Bosley has transformed the lives of over half a million patients and earned a global reputation as a world's most experienced hair restoration experts. Bosley has established itself as one of the largest and most long-standing employers in Beverly Hills, providing rewarding careers and meaningful development for passionate, diverse teams of medical professionals. What began as a small office down the street on La Sianega is now a beautiful flagship location on Wilshire Boulevard, the headquarters of Bosley's 70 locations across America. It's our pleasure to acknowledge Bosley's remarkable achievement. We look forward to many more years of success, innovation, and contributions from Bosley in our great city. Congratulations on your 50th anniversary and thank you for your continued commitment to excellence here in Beverly Hills and beyond. So if I may turn it over now to the Bosley team CEO Rob Sparell and Dr. Ken Washington to say a few words and accept this very special reward. Thank you so much Mayor Friedman and esteemed City Council members. On behalf of everyone at Bosley I want to express our deepest gratitude for this incredible honor. Celebrating our 50th anniversary here in this beautiful city of Beverly Hills as a milestone was cherished deeply. Beverly Hills is a city founded on achieving dreams, inspiration, and a world-class reputation. Dr. Bosley knew that when he founded his business here in 1974 and we built our organization around those principles. Over the past five decades we have been proud to call Beverly Hills our home. I have had the personal pleasure of working down the street, the Dohenian Welsher for 28 years. During that time, so many amazing Basit team members, past and present, have seen our organization thrive and this city thrive together. We pioneered aesthetic medicine from this city in a way that the world has never seen helping over 500,000 patients worldwide and in over 70 offices throughout the US. Your unwavering support in our endeavors to break down the barriers for men and women in dealing with hair loss and what medical options they have changed the entire landscape for cosmetic medicine. This vibrant community spirit that has been instrumental in our growth and success, this recognition from the city is a testament to the strong partnership we have built together. Thank you for this prestigious acknowledgement. I know, I truly know that Dr. Bosley would be so proud and is smiling down from the heavens with this honor. We look forward to many years contributing to helping our patients here and thriving within this wonderful community of Beverly Hills. Thank you so much for the honor. Yep. And if I can give it to our chief medical officer, Ken Wushenek. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor Fuehman. The distinguished council members, thanks so much for this incredible humbling and wonderful acknowledgement of our five decades here. I've not been there five decades, but over over two decades. So I've been there for 22 years. And Beverly Hills in fact has just been a wonderful, privileged place for us to establish our medical practice. We take care of people with a big problem. They're losing their hair. They feel poorly about themselves. We're able to give them their confidence back. We bring smiles to our patients because they come to us in need and from our headquarters in Beverly Hills as we spread out across the country we've been able to let our patients access the latest technology, the latest advances in hair restoration and help deliver their dreams. And we do it all because we started in Beverly Hills and it's just been a wonderful ride since then. It's very humbling and we're very privileged and we don't plan on going where so we look forward to seeing you again in a few years. Thanks so much. the Thank you. I'm going to put this here. Thank you. So being your wife's daughter is a perimeter. We've got a couple of things happening here. This is real. I guess this is. I'm just going to check. OK. We're good. OK. So next is a special recognition for one of our long-term employees this evening. I couldn't be happier to recognize a dear friend, an incredible leader who has dedicated over 20 years of service to our community. Lisa Castaneda, please come up to the day. So Lisa, you are a true public servant, someone who doesn't stop at anything to do what is best for our community. Your dedication to the preschool and youth programs at our La Sianna Gah community center, especially your leadership throughout the pandemic, has ensured the continued education and well-being of the children in our community. Lisa, your accomplishments and contributions are never ending and your work and devotion to our city have made us all stronger. Your colleagues and the community partners you worked with will always remember your warm nature, kindness and inclusivity. We applaud you for your years of education and contributions and we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your exemplary service and wish you a very happy retirement. So, let me say, give the microphone to you say a few words. Everybody knows how much I loved talking for people, but I started my career here in 1998 at the age of 28 and was the best move I ever made. So 26 years later I'm retiring. I did have 12 years under Glendale, City of Glendale too as well. So it's a long time. I worked from babies all the way up to the most recent. My year here I was with the seniors at a Roxbury Community Center. So I've worked with all ages from in this wonderful community. I've had numerous friendships made support for my supervisors. It's been wonderful 26 years, and I am so grateful for working here. Now it's my next chapter, and I move on to my family and enjoying my dad, my husband, my son, and my daughter, and just move on to the next chapter of my life with them. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You want to take a picture with family? Yeah. Yeah. Can we have a family come up with? I know they won't want to, but. I know they won't want to, but... I know. Thank you. Thank you. And the federal board is working with your wife and the office. Thank you. Okay, so here we have a repeat performance. If I can have Richard, Zail Richard Rubens, please come up. You will remember him from the fine job he did with the Pledge of Allegiance. Oh, that's it? That of allegiance. Thank you all for the appreciation. So I'm pleased tonight to acknowledge one of our new city commit, well he's not that new. Commissioners, I would like to have my colleagues join in recognizing him. Our commissioners play such a critical role in our city government. So let me thank you in advance for committing your time and expertise to serving Beverly Hills, which you have done so well in other aspects before this too. So thank you, Richard, Zail Richard Rubens. I'm going to get it right one way or another. And we, I have certainly in my office, and I think some of our other council members have remembrances of you. We have pieces of your artwork in our offices so it's always a reminder that you're around. So thank you for being an invaluable part of our city and like you say a few words about your upcoming job. Thank you very much. This is my third commission and it will be at the end 18 years of service to the city. And I'm extremely proud of my work and I will continue to be proud of my work and I will produce well. But at the same time I'd like to ask anybody watching or listening, volunteer your time. Give of yourself to your community and it will give back to you. And with that, I'm done. Thank you. Thank you. We can do this. I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. You, Dad. See you around. I get you all the paperwork. I want you to do a little bit of the same. Okay, everyone. So we are going to go on with TextBH. Text messages on any city related topic may be sent to 310-596-4265. three one oh five nine six four two six five city staff will acknowledge receipt of the text message within one business day however resolution of issues may take longer. We're also going to start our oral communications portion of the meeting telephone call in number is three10-288-2288. If anyone has a call in please do so now we will recognize you. We're going to take comments on non-agentized items first and I have one speaker card on Anan, Agendaist Item, Gidey, Java Harry. If you please come forward. Hi, Your Honor. I'm Gidey Java Harry and I have a very simple question. Why do we have this meeting on the holiday when everybody, most of our neighbors, are out of town? And this is not right. I think everybody must be here and they have to talk and they have to say what they think about this project. I mean, it's the long weekend. Nobody's here. Look, everybody's out of town. That's my question. Okay. Okay, thank you. Do we have any other comments? We have no other non-agendaist comments. Okay, we will continue on to our regular agenda and were there any any items that my colleagues want to hold. Seeing none if we can of council member Wells read looks like all of them. Yep. I move the adoption of the consent agenda as follows. Number one, review of budgeted demands paid. Number two, payroll disbursement report covering dates June 18th, 2024 to June 24, 2024. Number three, renewing its military equipment use ordinance and accordance with government code section 7071, first reading for introduction. Number four, the salary schedule reflecting all city job classifications and approval of fiscal year, 2024-25. One time appropriation from various funds totaling. 313,000. Number five, the Beverly Hills City Council legislative lobby committee recommendations to support, support if amended and or oppose various federal and state legislative bills. Number six, requests from not today, Councillor, the host run of the stars of 5K run walk on Sunday, October 6, 2024. Number seven, agreement with rodeo drive ink for fiscal year 2024 2025 marketing and programming and purchase order for fiscal year 2024 2025 and then not to exceed amount of $197,998. Number eight agreement with the Beverly Hills conference and Visitors Bureau for promotion of the City for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and purchase order for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and the not-to-excite amount of $4,987,891. Number nine, agreement with the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association for business attraction and retention services for fiscal year 2024 2025 and purchase order for fiscal year 2024 2025 and then not to exceed amount of $553,245. And before we have a vote, I understand there's a comment on public comment on item number five. Yes, it's from Oscar Canales. Please go ahead. Hello. Yes, go ahead. Hello. Hi, my name is Oscar Canales. Sorry I could be in person. I'm saying, I'm sorry for the bad news. I wanted to say thanks for having me. And I want to say, I want to say what an honest and I don't have a question for everyone that's listening. Is it better to be served or to serve? There was a prince who was fascinated with the world he created that he would watch this creation from the heavens. This creation was lost so he had, he had it served and destroyed every idol as fast as that they considered God. And his church did. With the prince, Austin, and all knowing her, this creation complain and say, if God is so real, why is he letting this occur? So God is signing up to serve his creation. So he decided to come into this room as them. He was born all over this universe because one tribe was served, so he has to serve all tribes. So he taught them how to read, write, forgive, and relate themselves, and overcome struggles they would deal with. Many people were dying and not making it to heaven. So God decided to serve His creation and self-sacrificing self for His creation by having His creation a murder him for a bigger plan. The characters were changed, but the story would be the same. Be born of a virgin, live a childhood, speak to His creation about peace and heaven, but His creation reduced him even though he served him. He would die and get to the heaven and come back after so many reincarnations into the room. He finally decided to come up with a plan of quotation. And the plan was to leave clues for his creation to inform them where he was born to be born, what time, and he saw that his creation continued to ridicule and reject him. So he was born of a mother and father to be born of the two biggest tribes, humanity because God, all-knowing and all-seeing, hurt, human say, if God is real, why would he allow things to happen? So God decided to be born and the time where his creation had access to the world wide-wind. They were filled with excuses, they said, we're poor. They don't have access to do research. So he gave them all the act for it because he loves his creations. As a child, when he was born, everyone loved him. The world rejoiced that he was born exactly how he did to the sea. Love his personality and attribute. As a child, he was easy to love. But God loved his creation so much so he decided to break every generational curse that his creation brought upon themselves. So he went on this mission quotation to be like his creation he was born in the poorest part in the richest country he created. The illuminated one's questions I wear a set but never the last appearance persisted. So I feel what he said a long time ago because I am not a man that I need to lie. So, he said that all to see and all fails to see what he was doing. And they began to hate their God. They all betrayed him, but as the God he is all knowing and all seeing, he knew this was going to occur. So, now I am here to tell you God saw the future and he saw all would be in the redemption, the whole universe, animals, plants, human. So we just would say, thank you. Sir, your time's up. Thank you very much. We did get a second. We had a second and now. Perfect. And then I can take it. Thank you. Council Member Wells. Yes. Council Member Cormin. Yes. Council Member Mirace. Yes. Vice Mayor Nazarian. Yes. And Mayor Friedman. Yes. Okay. Going on to item number E1. An appeal of the Planning Commission's February 8, 2024 decision approving a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for the construction of a new eight story mixed use development with ground floor commercial uses and 56 residential dwelling units at 9229 Walshablevard and a resolution of the council of the city of Beverly Hills conditionally approving a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for a new eight story mixed mixed-use development with ground floor commercial uses, 56 residential dwelling units on the second through seventh stories and rooftop restrooms on the seventh story at 92.29, Wilshire Boulevard, and denying a related appeal. Having said that, what is now the time and place for Miss City Clerk? This is the time and place set for a public hearing to consider an appeal of the planning commissions February 8, 2024 decision approving a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for the construction of a new eight story mixed use development with ground floor commercial uses and 56 residential dwelling units at 9229 Wilshire Boulevard and a resolution of the Council of the City of Beverly Hills conditionally approving a development plan review and density bonus permit to allow for a new eight-story mixed-use development with ground floor commercial uses 56 residential dwelling units on the second through seven stories and rooftop restrooms on the seven story at 9229 Wilshire Boulevard and denying a related appeal. Let the record show that the notice of this hearing was published as required by law. The records and files of the community development department and the report of the assistant director of community development city planner, considering this matter, shall be entered into the record. Now is also the time for council members to enter into the record any communications or other evidence not currently in the record that council members have received before this evening's hearing. Okay, we will start with council member Wells. I have nothing to report. Council member Cormin. I had a very brief conversation with the appellant a couple days ago. He emailed me and I called him as a result of the email. He simply asked me or talked to me about postponings and nights hearing and I called him as a result of the email. He simply asked me or talked to me about postponing tonight's hearing and I said that that was not something I could talk to him about. Thank you, Council Member Mersh. I also received maybe similar email or the same email and spoke briefly yesterday with the appellant. I was not able to make any comments on the merits of it. I did, however, mention that in many ways cities are being preempted by the state, and that the discretion that cities have to approve or disapprove such projects is in some cases limited. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I was also, I received a similar email and because the item was up for discussion tonight, I did not want to have to recuse myself. So I was advised to not meet with the public. Okay, and I've had no communications. Okay, so may we have a very from my script here. May we have an all report on this matter from the director of community development, please. Thank you, Mayor Friedman, members of the City Council, Michael Forbes, Director of Community Development. As the City Clerk indicated, the hearing before the meeting,