Music Recording and progress. Would the meeting please come to order? This is the March 11th, 2025 special meeting of the Irvine City Council. The time is 305. We have what should be a brief agenda this afternoon and then of course there'll be the reception for the state of the city presentation and then after that the presentation itself But we do have a little business to transact now At this point I'll turn to the city clerk ask him to please call the roll council member Carol here Council member go here council member Lou here Member true theater here by his mayor And Mayor Eagren? Here. You need to get your microphone fixed. It's a little fuzzy. Thanks. At this time, we moved to public comments for non-agentized items. Those who wish to participate via Zoom may now raise their hand electronically to enter the speaker queue. For this item, any member of the public may address the City Council on items within the City Council's subject matter jurisdiction, but which are not listed on the published agenda. However, no action may be taken on matters that are not part of the posted agenda. We'll be allowing up to 30 minutes for non-agendaist public comments initially and hope that will accommodate those who wish to comment publicly on non-agentized matters. At this time I'll defer to the City Clerk so that he might tell us how many speakers there are Who should be heard now? Thank you, Mayor. We have four requests to speak It's like a New York subway Okay, we have four speakers. How many of those are in person and how many are zoom? We have three in person, one on zoom. All right. Why don't we call the first speaker if you would. Thank you, Marifike. Call forward Susan Sayer, Alan Meierson and Jason Garzfield. each of these four speakers will be a lot of three minutes. Any coming in afterwards, simply 90 seconds. Hi, good afternoon. My name is Susan Sayer and I'm an Irvine resident. The conditions have changed locally, nationally, and internationally. Irvine's priorities must be adjusted to increase support of Irvine's residents and workforce in order to meet the housing and cost of living related needs of our residents and members of our workforce, to protect the health safety and well-being of Irvine residents or in workforce and visitors, and to enhance our efforts to support environmental sustainability. My priority recommendation issues include, but are not limited to, support the Meals on Wheels program and school lunch programs, even if federal funding is cut, support guaranteed affordable housing for Irvine residents residents and for all people who work in Irvine should they wish to live in Irvine. This should serve to reduce traffic congestion and support environmental sustainability. As many federal state and county government workers have been or will be laid off due to federal budget cuts resulting in funding cuts to local programs and services. We need eviction protection, medical care and other support services for impacted Irvine residents. We need to provide free, low-cost public transportation, accessible by all Irvine residents, people that work in Irvine and tourism by expanding Irvine Connect public transportation system. We need replacing artificial turf with real grass and paying for costs of appropriate field care and maintenance. And we need acknowledging and supporting our veterans, including enforcing the city council's previously acknowledged and consent to abide by the will of the voters to create a veteran cemetery in the great park. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Mr. Mayor Apologies for the interruption, but we seem to be having a technical difficulty with zoom. I'll defer to the City Attorney, but there's no audio on zoom. So we're trying to work through that but do we need to recess or can we continue? Did you say there's no audio on zoom? Correct. Mayor, if we could take a recess for about five minutes I think that would be better because it means the zoom presenters can't hear what's happening. If it was, I think we could continue. I'm going to turn to our city attorney at this point just to clarify how we're going to proceed. Mayor, we have made every effort we could to get the Zoom audio working and so far have had no success with that. For better or worse we need to proceed with the meeting and so our suggestion is that you take the remaining two in-person public speakers that'll give us a few more minutes to see if we can get the zoom working. We'll give it one last try. We have one speaker on zoom. We'll try and get that speaker engaged at that time. And if it doesn't work, then we just have to sincerely apologize to those that chose to participate remotely. Thank you. Let's just review how many people wish to be heard now. We have three remaining. We have two in person, one on Zoom. We have three who wish to be heard now in person. We have two in person and one on Zoom. Oh, two in person. The two in person speakers will each be allowed three minutes and we welcome the next speaker. Please identify that speaker for us. Thank you mayor Alan Myerson Welcome, Mr. Myerson by the way, do you know anything about telephones and how to fix this kind of stuff? I don't That's a standard answer Good afternoon council members Alan Myerson. I Want to first I want to to second everything that Susan Sarasad I agree with everything she said. And today, especially based on what's going on in the country, federally and nationally, I want to say something that some people might find controversial, it might not agree with, but I feel compelled to say this. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity. Do our dain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America. I feel like today, especially with our economy and our government under attack from what is people are calling a president and a henchman working for him who has not taken a note to the Constitution, but he's attacking our federal services, our economy, our jobs, our federal jobs, social security, Medicare, the Department of Education, and he's saying this is all waste without any experience or knowledge in these areas whatsoever. I find it disgusting, I find it scary, and I really hope that something could be done about this. I know it isn't at this level and it's not within your jurisdiction, but I felt a sincere desire to express my feelings about what's going on in our country because it is under attack from within. Thank you. Thank you for your very well expressed views. Jason Garcefield. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I would like to add in prompt to that the technical difficulties involving Zoom are a good sign of why these comments should be either eliminated entirely or severely curtailed going forward. Daylight savings time is an abomination against both man and nature. For eight months of the year, Irvinians and all Americans are subject to a forced, authoritarian, and entirely arbitrary assault on our circadian rhythms. Standard time, now relegated to four months of the year, is most in line with nature, with standard noon being closer to the true solar noon. Daylight savings time was the brainchild of William Willett, a British aristocrat who enjoyed golfing in the evenings. For six decades, American workers and families have suffered under the disruptions caused by Willett's great plan. Studies show that Daylight Savings Time causes as many as 30 deaths a year with no commensurate benefit. Permanent DST, implemented in 1974, was a fiasco rejected by the public. How much longer do we have to suffer so that our social betters can have more time to golf? I am on this council to issue an official proclamation in support of year-round standard time for the benefit of Irvine and the world. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. In May, we have one last speaker on Zoom, Mr. Nishanian. I'll attempt to connect them, but I don't know if it will be successful, but I'll try. Mr. Nishanian, you may unmute your mic. So Mr. Mayor does look like he's providing comments, but we can't hear him either. We apologize to Mr. Mishanian. We thank those who offered their comments. That concludes the public comment section of our agenda on non-agentized items. At this point I'll turn to our city manager for his report. Mr. Mayor, no report this afternoon. There being no report from the city manager we now can move on to council announcements, committee reports, council reports. Any of my colleagues I wish to be heard. I see councilmember Liu wishes to be heard. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few announcements. It is with Grace All that I share news of a Hindu temple being penalized into Muradino County. This last week I stand in solidarity with the Hindu community during this difficult time and want to make it clear that I condemn all acts of violence and hate. And the next one is I'd like to thank Shawnee and the Iranian Chamber of Commerce for inviting me and the council to their celebration of a new roof or Persian New Year. This festival is a beautiful reminder of renewal, hope, and the strength of our diverse community. As a part of our celebrations of women's history months, I wanna take a moment to honor my chief of staff, Evac Cam. She's not only a dedicated public servant, but also serve as a staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, her commitment to our community and nation continues to inspire us all. And my team and I are proud to announce our upcoming women's health and wellness resources fair on March 22nd, located at the Great Park studio. I'm honored to be joined by Assemblymember Coddy Petri Norris. And Councilmember Goh, this event will offer resources and information to empower women in our community to lead healthy, balanced lives. I encourage everyone to attend and take advantage of these valuable offerings and don't forget if you're interested in participating in yoga, bring your own yoga mat. And a special shout out to Pretend City for their newest edition Farmhouse Friends. This interactive program is dedicated to teaching the importance of animal habitat conservation in environmental preservation. It's vital that we instill in our children the value of protecting our planet for future generations. And that concludes my announcement. Thank you. I see no further requests for announcements from my colleagues. That being the case, we'll move on to the next section of our agenda, the Consent Calendar. The Consent Calendar this afternoon consists of items 1.1 to 1.7, all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the city manager to be routine and all will be enacted by one roll call vote. There will be no discussion of these items unless members of the city council request specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate discussion. But before I turn to my colleagues, we'll consider public testimony on items listed on the consent calendar. Mr. City Clerk, do we have any requests to be heard under the consent calendar? There are no requests to speak mayor, but if I may just clarify for the record item 1.7 was removed from the agenda There was one item removed you say correct. That was item 1.7 There was a revised agenda that went out and that item was removed from the consent calendar. Being removed for consideration or being removed is simply no longer a part of the agenda. It's no longer part of the agenda. All right. That having been withdrawn from the agenda, the consent calendar consists tonight of items 1.1 to 1.7. There will be no public requests to be heard. Would any members of the city council wish you have an item or items withdrawn from the consent calendar? Yeah, Mayor. Just item 1.6, please. Council member Carol requests that item 1.6 me taken off the consent calendar and item 1.2 please 1.2 is requested by council member Lou We'll take them in the order they appear on the agenda With that that I'll turn to council member Lou. We can go down. Sure, if you like. Why don't you identify the item by subject? Mr. Mayor, just one other question. Did you want to take a vote on the balance of the consent calendar first or did you want to consider the idea? Good idea. Let's proceed with a motion to adopt the consent calendar items 1.1 to 1.6 with the exclusion of 1.2 and 1.6 that have been withdrawn. Is there a motion? So moved. Check in. It was moved by whom? Kathleen. By Council Member Traceeter and seconded by Council Member Liu. There being no requests to the motion. I think we can have a roll call at this time. Council member Carol. Yes. Council member go. Yes. Council member Lou. Yes. Council member Traceeiter. Yes. Vice Mayor Mai. Yes. And Mayor Eagren. Yes. Carey 6-0. I'll turn now to Councilmember Liu, who withdrew item 1.2. Please, please identify that item by subject if you would. Thank you, Mayor. Item 1.2 is a proclamation to proclaim March 14, 2025 as Holy Day. All right. And I think for this purpose, would you like to step down? Or should we address the item now and then step down? It's up to you. OK. Go right ahead. I'm here by glasses. Okay. As we've heard from a few residents already, we are facing a challenging time and in light of these challenges, it's become, it becomes even more important that we come together to to uplift and celebrate the rich cultures that make up our diverse community. So this is why I'm honored to introduce this proclamation recognizing March 14th, 2025 as Holy Day in Irvine. Holy also known as the Festival of Colors marks the arrival of spring and signifies renewal, joy and unity. It is time to celebrate the triumph of good over of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the process of the please to share that we have a few, we have South Asian senior association that will be hosting a Holly celebration at Lakeview Senior Center on Friday, March 14th, from 2 to 430 in afternoon. Everyone's welcome to join the festivities and experience the joy of this vibrant tradition. And tonight we have a team members of communities here to accept this proclamation. And it is my honor to introduce a few of the people. If I call your name, please come down. And I think I'll go down to it. Why don't we finish the rest of this? Why don't we step down for the balance of the presentation? So it is my honor to introduce Harish Murthy from Acta Center, pretty saying from South Asian Senior Association. If I butcher your name, please excuse me. Benam-Mutnick and Anna Chal Sitja and Shopee Muthar from Orange County Indian Women's Group. And thank you for your leadership for fostering culture awareness and bringing people together through this beautiful celebration. And we wish everyone a colorful and happy holiday. All right, but with that, why don't we have the rest of the council come down? Yes, yes please. Please join us. Oh, excuse me. No, no, no. Get right in here, right in here. We wanna get good pictures on naturally clothes. Okay. All right. Everybody. Here we go. Three, two, one. Thank you. I can hear please. Thank you. Three, two, one. One more. One. Thank you. We go three, two, one, one. One. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think we need a motion, don't we, on the proclamation? Yes. Would you like to make the motion? Councillor Member Liu? Yes. Let me get to that. Simply to adopt the proclamation. So I'll make the motion to adopt the proclamation to proclaim March 14th, 2025 as Holy Day. Thank you. That's a second. Seconded by Council Member Vice Mayor Mai. With that I see no request to be heard. I think we're gonna have a vote and I think it's gonna be a good one. Thank you Mayor. Councilmember Carroll. Yes. Councilmember Goll. Yes. Council member Lou. Yes. Councilmember Traceeer. Yes. Vice Mayor Mai. Yes. And Mayor Aigren. Yes. Curry 6-0. You unanimous. There we are. Thank you all. Thank you. Having taken care of item 1.2, we now turn to item 1.6 with the clerk. Please identify this item by subject. Item 1.6, legislative platform for the City of Revine. I'll turn to council member Carol at this time who requested that this be removed from the consent calendar. Great, thank you mayor. This is just very brief and just it's a technical correction on page four on the erata on the graphic district four and five are transposed so if we could just, for the final version of the report, distributed, just switch district 4 and 5. And that's all. Thank you, Mayor. And I move the item. Thank you. Thank you for that correction. The motion to adopt the item has been presented by Council Member Carol. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Council Member Liu. Would the clerk please call the roll. Council Member Carroll. Yes. Council Member Goh. Yes. Council Member Liu. Council Member Trezeater. Yes. Vice Mayor Maye. Yes. Mayor Aigren. Yes. Carry 6-0. Item passes. Thank you that concludes the consent calendar taking us to Council business. At this time we have one item of Council business, a resolution, item 2.1. Would the clerk please identify this item by subject? A resolution of the City Council of the City of Irvine, California authorizing the issuance and sale of not to exceed $25 million aggregate principal amount of City of Irvine reassessment district number 05-21 limited obligation improvement bonds fixed rate series group 5 approving the execution and delivery of a fifth supplemental indenture and a bond purchase agreement. Thank you. Why don't we turn to our city staff? Is there a description of this item? Staff presentation at this time. There is, Mr. Mayor, like to introduce Dale Bullisson, or administrative services director. Dale, would you run us through this particular item this afternoon? Welcome, Dale. Thank you, City Manager Chi. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council tonight. For your consideration is the City of Irvine Limited Obligation Improvement Bonds, Fixed Rate Series Group 5, Reassessment District Number 0521. Also joining me tonight is NS Arabian, our financial advisor for Fieldman Rola to help answer any questions about the transaction. So just a bit of background, the assessment district 0521, which is the orchard hills neighborhood was formed in 2006 at the request of the Irvine company at that time, $80 million in variable rate bonds were issued for that district for improvements in and around the area. In 2011, the variable rate bonds issued by the reassessment district were refunded. And as development occurred, portions of the outstanding bonds, variable bonds have been converted to fixed bonds. So there were four groups thus far that were converted to fixed rates between March 2014 through December 2018. And in December 2024, the Irvine company, who is the sole owner of the underlying area, asks that the Group 5 bonds also be refinanced to convert it from a variable rate to fixed rate. And IHC funding to LLC, which is Irvine company owned will be acquired, acquiring the debt via a private placement. Some details about the bond. The estimated based on current rates is $24.2 million. The recommended action has $25 million as a not to exceed amount to create flexibility for any market changes to the conversion date. Estimated fixed interest rate is between 3.25 and 4.85% for estimated true interest rate of 4.66%. And this is set based on market comps at the time of conversion. Maturity date is 25 years. Proceeds would be used to convert the outstanding portion of the variable rate bonds and also fund reserve and cost of issuance. And this bond has no financial obligations to the city as it will be secured by special assessments on properties within the district. And this is a map of the assessment district. It's in the northern part of town. Again, in Orchard Hills neighborhood bordered on the southern end by Portola, Parkway and the 261 on the west side and Jeffrey Road on the east side. Here's another photograph, aerial photograph of the area. And then some pictures within the area of some of the model homes being built and some infrastructure around the assessment district as well. 520 single family homes is planned for the area and would be sold to merchant builders and eventual homeowners starting June of 2025. And of course with any bond transactions there's a lot of hands that are in play and putting it all together with retain our bond council with praisers straddling bond purchase council or district administrator will dan bond trustee and of course our financial advisors who are here tonight as well. This is a timeline so we reviewed this transaction with the finance commission on march 3rd, which was unanimously approved for recommendations to Council's approval. We're here tonight, March 11th. We're looking to have the conversion notice and redemption notices sent by the trustee March 31st for eventual close on April 15th. So the recommendation tonight is to adopt the resolution, authorize issuance and sale of a not-to-exceed amount of 25 million aggregate principal amount of the city of Irvine, Recessment District 0521, limited obligation improvement bonds, fixed rate series group five, approving the execution delivery of a fifth supplemental indenture and bond repurchase agreement. With that, more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for that presentation. Do any of my colleagues have a question or comment on this item at this time? being none will turn to see if there are any public comments that are being offered. Thank you, Mayor. There are no requests to speak. No requests from the public to be heard. Motion to adopt the resolution would be in order at this time. So moved. Is there a second? Seconded by I think that was Councilmember Mai. A matter being properly before us at this time. With the clerk please call the role. Councilmember Carroll. Yes. Councilmember Goh. Yes. Councilmember Lou. Yes. Councilmember She's either vice mayor my yes mayor a grin yes carry six zero thank you that concludes this portion of our special meeting today at this time will be recessed the reception begins at 4.30 and we will be reconverning. We convening here at 5.30 and we hope everyone enjoys the afternoon. I declare us now in recess. I'm going to have a little bit of a little bit of And thank you. I'm very pleased to see so many wonderful people here tonight. The festivities of this state of the city presentation take place in the context of a city council meeting which actually began this afternoon. Those are all just technical explanations of where we are in the agenda. This is the Irvine City Council special meeting of March 11th, 2025. It has been reconvened at 544. With that, we're going to have the pledge of allegiance. In a moment I'm going to ask you to rise if you're able for the pledge and remain standing after the pledge for the national anthem. At this time to lead us in the pledge, I'd like to invite forward Isabel Gann, Senior at Portola High School, and Katherine Lowe, Jr. at Sage Hill School to lead us in the pledge. And I might add that these two fine young women served as interns with my office and outstanding futures ahead of them. Would you please rise if you're able? Please place your right hand over your heart. Ready begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God in the visible with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. standing. Thank you very, very much. At this time, all right, Carl, I already need help here. There we are. At this time, we're going to have a musical presentation, of course, for the National Anthem. This is inviting forward Portola High School vocal quint, under the leadership of David Palanco, assistant director and comprised of Sarah Heider, Golsa Kamsa Nia, Deep Goswami, and Luke Chao. They'll be performing the National Anthem, followed by America the beautiful. Welcome. I'll say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, for the land of the free and the home of the brave. Please be seated. be seated. Carl? All right. You'll have to come back for a performance of America the beautiful on another evening. Thank you so much. At this time, I'd like to turn things over to Vice Mayor James Mai, who will be making a number of introductions of elected officials in attendance tonight. So thank you, James, and thank you for being such a terrific vice mayor, by the way. Thank you, Mary Agrim. Good evening, everyone. I am vice Mayor James May, proudly representing the third district of Irvine, and is my honor to welcome you to the 2025 state of the city address. Address, we live in a truly exceptional community, one that thrives on innovation and opportunity. From our top to your schools to our beautiful parks, Irvine continues to be a place where families grow, businesses succeed, and cultures come together. It is a city that embodies progress and opportunity for all, and I'm excited about the future we are building gear together. I'd like to take a moment to recognize the distinguished elected officials and former Irvine mayors who are with us today. We're honored to have the following elected officials in attendance tonight. Please stand and be recognized as I call your name. Katrina Foley, fifth district supervisor, Orange County Board of Supervisors. Carolyn Inman, president, South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. Ryan Dack, Member, South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. Kathy Copeland, PhD, member, Tustin Unified School District, Board of Education. Allison Moones, Damikolas, member, Tustin Unified School District, Board of Education. Mayor Ted Bowie, Fountain Valley. We are also grateful for the dedicated service of the past Irvine mayors, some of whom are with us here tonight in the front row. G. Kang, former mayor. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. And Christina Shea, former mayor. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Several officials who represent Irvine at the state and federal level were not able to attend tonight at the state of the city due to their obligations in Sacramento and Washington, DC. But I would also like to thank the following officials who have their staff here representing their office tonight. Please wave or stand if you are in the audience. Governor Gavin Newsom. Okay, U.S. representatives. David Min. State Senator Steven Choi. Assemblywoman Cadi Petri Norse. Let's give them all a hand of applause. If there are any elected officials, I may have missed. Please stand so we can recognize you as well. Thank you for being here and your commitment to our shared community. Alright, Mayor Aigren was first elected to Irvine City Council in 1978 through 1990, of which six years he served as mayor. He returned to public service on the Irvine City Council in November 1998 through 2014, including four years as mayor. Mayor Aigren once again returned to public service as city council member in November 2020 and was elected mayor in this last cycle in November 2024. Under mayor Aigren's leadership, Irvine received recognition for its pioneering programs in child care, affordable housing, recycling, and open space preservation. He was also especially active in establishing the Great Park at the former El Toro Marine Corps air station. As a highly respected public interest attorney and not a public policy expert, Mayor Aigren has led several nonprofit organizations and has served as legal counsel to the California State Senate Committee Council to the California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare and has taught legislation and public policy at UCLA school of law and the Paul Mirage school of business at UCI. Mayor Agerin resides in Irvine with his wife Phyllis, a pediatrician who is also Orange County physician of the year in 2024. son Ken and daughter-in-law Carrie have two children, Morgan Elizabeth Agrin and Benjamin Sawyer Agrin. On a personal note, Mayor Agrin and I have had the honor of serving as vice mayor and mayor. We come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and even different generations. But what unites us is a deep love for the city of Irvine. Mayor Aigren, I wanna thank you for your leadership, your guidance, your friendship, your dedication to the city is inspiring, and I'm grateful to serve alongside you It is now my pleasure to introduce and call forward Mayor layer Agren to deliver tonight's state of the city address Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. Thank you, thank you very much for such a warm welcome. Thank you, Vice Mayor Mai, for your very kind words. And your continued leadership. It's truly an honor to work alongside such a dedicated and talented group of individuals committed to our community's well-being and future. I'm referring, of course, to my council colleagues. We're part of a new and expanded city council. Six of our seven seats now are filled. And each of us comes and brings a unique perspective and invaluable experience to our council. So I'd like to introduce them by district if I could at this time. Councilmember Melinda Liu, who proudly represents District 1. Next, Councilmember William Go, who represents District 2, and that includes the great part. Councilmember and vice mayor James May representing district three in the center of our city. of our city. Councilmember Mike Carroll who represents District 4. And Councilmember Kathleen Traceter, who is serving in an at-large capacity while she represents the entire city, she lives in what is District 6, which will be up for election in 2026. Catherine, Kathleen, please sign. APPLAUSE And I just want to take an opportunity now to reintroduce former former mayors who are present with us tonight. You know, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'm an old dog and I've learned a lot of tricks from them. Because I've served with each of them, just outstanding public servants. Let me begin with Suki Kang again who served in the early 2000s. And did a wonderful job as mayor. I most recently served with Mayor Farrakhan. Please stand. Who taught me a lot, particularly in the last couple of years, as we've tried to heal our community and the face of a number of riffs. And I think she did an outstanding job of leadership in that regard. And I'd like to introduce Christina Shea. Applause Long time council member Ann Mayer, who also served our city at a time of real strife during the COVID pandemic. So, having introduced them, are there any people who regard themselves as dignitaries who haven't been introduced? If so, now's your chance. I again wanna thank you all for being here And for... Contribute. I again want to thank you all for being here and for contributing what you do to our community, to our city of Irvine. In the early part of each new year in cities across America, not just here, but in cities across America, mayors deliver their state of the city speeches. Here in Irvine, it's now my honor to do so. Right here at our city hall in this beautiful city hall and council chamber. Tonight I want you to know that I am very grateful for this, and I feel privileged as the mayor of Irvine to be standing here. Actually, now that Philips and I are both official octogenarians. We feel privileged to be standing anywhere. In truth, standing before you now, I feel more energized and more optimistic than ever before about our city and our future together here in Irvine. So let me begin tonight with a clear definitive statement. The state of our city, our beautiful master plan city of Irvine is excellent. Our financial underpinnings are strong, our budgets are balanced, and our reserves are extraordinarily large. At this moment in our city's history, we're once again poised to make major public investments that will build an even brighter future for the entire Irvine community. Incorporated as a city in December 1971, Irvine has been a self-governed municipality for only 53 years. It takes somebody who's 80 years old to say 53 years is a small amount of time. During that relatively brief period, successive generations of Irvine citizens have worked together to first imagine and then create a truly remarkable city. Irvine's success has been based on the shared conviction that it's better to grow a new city in accordance with a master plan and careful strategic planning rather than leaving growth and development to chance. We have every right to be proud of our achievements over the decades and yet I know most of us want our city to be an even better place to live, learn, work and play. So I ask you tonight to join me in embracing a shared aspiration. To give you a good life, work and play. So I ask you tonight to join me in embracing a shared aspiration. Together, let's do what we can to make Irvine not only America's best plan city, but also to make Irvine the safest, smartest, greenest, healthiest, and kindest city in America. So what do I mean when I say America's safest, smartest, greenest, healthiest, and kindest city? The liar was the male� from the ground, she was the male� from the ground, and the male� from the ground was the male�. Stop. healthiest and kindest city. I'm sorry. Excuse me. at this point, at this point, I'd like to have our police officers escort these individuals out. I'm glad you're here. Thank you. This... This is nothing compared to what we've seen before in this chamber. We celebrate the right of free speech in this city at the same time, at the same time we know there are appropriate time, place, and manner rules that help us live together as a civilized society. So, what do I mean when I say America's safest, smartest, greenest, healthiest, and kindest city? Let me explain, taking it one category at a time. First, let's talk about public safety. Here at City Hall, just as in Sacramento and Washington, D, DC, the top most priority of government at any level is to keep people safe. Traditionally when we think of what public safety means at the local level, we think of our police department and its mission to protect the public from violent crime, murders, robberies, violent assaults. These are the kinds of vicious crimes that victimize not just individuals and families. They also diminish the sense of security and the quality of life for everyone. When I was last mayor from 2000 to 2004, our once small city of just 10,000 people had grown to more than 200,000 people. We entered the ranks of America's bigger cities. In fact, at that time, we were among the 100 largest cities in the United States in terms of population. Now with 330,000 residents were America's 60th largest city. Bigger than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, and many other large American cities that took nearly two centuries to reach their current size. So when I was mayor in 2001, 24 years ago, I set a goal for our city to make Irvine America's safest city as measured by FBI statistics on violent crime for cities with more than 200,000 people. To reach this goal, we hired the best and the brightest, including a new police chief named Michael Berko. We instituted new crime prevention strategies, including citywide, geo-policing, and neighborhood community policing. And all of our police officers were assigned to be closer to the people, including at our Irvine schools. Our police officers were rigorously trained in what Chief Berkho called constitutional policing, enforcing the law while always respecting people's rights. I'm pleased to report that it all worked. By 2005, we did it. We had become America's number one safest city. A public safety, national ranking that our remarkable police department has managed to hold for 20 consecutive years. I'd like to ask at this time Chief Michael Kent and a number of our Irvine police officers who are here tonight to please stand so we might acknowledge your outstanding work. We're on duty even tonight. Proud as we are of our top national ranking, we know we can always do better in keeping people safe from violence. This includes avoidable injury and deaths in connection with vehicular violence, which year in and year out continues to be the leading source of avoidable deaths in Irvine. The simple truth is that we need to do better. We need stepped up law enforcement to curtail speeding and to apprehend red light runners, street racers, and yes drunk drivers. And we need new stronger strategies to protect pedestrians, young and old alike from the dangers associated with e-bikes. We need to adopt strong local policies and enforceable ordinances that provide for mandatory licensing, regulation, and strict controls placed on e-bikes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's apply a little common sense here. As a practical matter, most e-bikes are not bicycles at all in the traditional sense. They are more accurately described as electric powered motorcycles, and they should be regulated and controlled accordingly. To truly be America's safest city, we need to move ahead with a series of strategic plans to meet public safety challenges. We need plans for enhanced security at our schools. We need plans for pilot programs to improve pool safety and prevent child drownings. And we need updated strategic plans to protect our city and our people in the face of truly catastrophic events, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and toxic contamination. We need to be sure that our two-year city budget, which will adopt in June, includes ample funding for strategic public safety planning to prevent bad things from happening when we can and when we can't to mitigate the harm to our residents and businesses. While we aspire to be America's safest city in all respects, we also aspire to be America's smartest city. But when we say America's smartest city, what do we mean? As I see it, there are two principal aspects to being a smart city. Of course what immediately comes to mind is a city with good schools, the strong public education system, a city with good colleges, universities, and lots of smart grown-ups with advanced degrees. I want to come back to all that in a few minutes. But right now let's Let's talk about another component of being a smart city. That component is the city government itself. A city government with a smart workforce right here at City Hall and in all of our city's operations. Just how smart is our local government? I can tell you from years of personal experience working first as a young lawyer at the State Capitol in Sacramento followed by many years of public service as an elected official here in Irvine. I can tell you without hesitation that our Irvine City government, your Irvine City government with its workforce of some 1500 people is very, very smart. I'll go further. I believe our city's workforce is the best educated, best trained, best equipped, and most productive municipal workforce in the entire United States. They do it all. They deliver the police services and the top-notch social services, senior services, and family and childcare services. They oversee our community centers and our fine arts facilities. They maintain the roads and parks and recreation facilities, as well as the streetscapes and landscapes that make our city so beautiful. And they are always searching for best practices, for ways to do their everyday work better, more efficiently, in short smarter. At a time when career public employees are being denigrated and viciously attacked by politicians at the very highest levels. Especially in Washington, DC, I want you to know that the city of Irvine public servants we rely upon every day are exemplars of competence, not chaos, compassion, not cruelty. Now, let me take this opportunity to introduce Irvine's first city librarian, Julie Zioly. Julie. There we are. Julie will be heading up our Irvine Library Operation with a 53 member workforce. We so appreciate your being here to be recognized that we have hired you as our first city librarian is going to be a real milestone in this city's progress. You see, when we talk about smart city government, we also talk about making smart institutional changes that will benefit our citizens in big ways. After years of tough negotiations and planning led by our city manager Oliver Chi and community services director Chris Salama. Effective this summer our city will be taking ownership of of the libraries in Irvine and will begin operating them as our own. Later this year, Irvine citizens will begin to see improvements in our libraries, improve physical changes, improved maintenance, some remodeling and planned enlargement of our libraries, and significantly improved library services. You'll be hearing much more about all this in the weeks ahead. And you'll also be hearing more about preliminary plans we're developing for two new libraries in Irvine, one at the Great Park and another in Woodbridge. Like there we are. And the one in Woodbridge will likely be at the Woodbridge Village Center where where the Barnes and Noble Bookstore operated for years. Right now we're working with the Irvine Company on that possibility. I'd be remiss if I failed to mention some wonderful Irvine volunteers who I think are at home tonight, but I want to recognize them nevertheless. These are the friends of the library groups who over many years have invested thousands of hours and raised many hundreds of thousands of dollars to support our libraries and make books available to generations of readers. In the process, they continue to uplift our entire Irvine community. These true friends of our libraries, I believe, will be instrumental in the successful transition to an Irvine library system that will, in time, be ranked among the best city library systems in America. Let's do it. Now I want to take a small detour to say a few words about compensation for our public employees. For many years, I believe that in order to recruit and retain a smart and highly motivated workforce, we have to be prepared to pay our city employees well. That has been our city's policy for decades. And from every perspective, it has been successful. The city of Irvine ranks among the most desirable large workplaces in Orange County. I'm pleased to report that just a few weeks ago we successfully concluded interim negotiations with our several public employee unions, The agreements that we reached guarantee continually peace with appropriate pay adjustments that will fit well within our projected budgets for the next four years. We also established that the city's workers who are not in a public employee union, these include our lowest paid, hourly city employees. They'll now be paid not a state mandated minimum wage of just $16.50 per hour, but a city of Irvine living wage of at least $20 per hour for part-time hourly workers and at least $25 per hour for full-time hourly workers. Applause Now, let's talk about being the smartest city in traditional terms of education. Irvine schools are not run by the city of Irvine. In fact, they are California state Schools. They're governed by the five member school board of the Irvine Unified School District and in the northwestern part of our city by the five member school board of the Tuston Unified School District. While The IUSD and TUSD are independent entities. Everyone in Irvine has a stake in the success of our public schools. Irvine schools are among the highest ranking schools in California, and we want to keep it that way. That's why, year after year, the city of Irvine includes in our budgets about $10 million in cash grants and in-kind services that we provide for Irvine schools, for crossing guards, school resource officers, assistance with school bus transportation, as well as matching grants to enhance classroom education and for after school activities. Tonight I'm asking that we put in our soon to be adopted city budget additional funds to support Irvine schools including at least $100,000 in added funding, earmarked for at least another 50 city of Irvine scholarships. These would be up to $2,000 each. These scholarships would be awarded to Irvine High School students who will be attending Irvine Valley College as an affordable first step in their quest for higher education. Applause For the record, Irvine Valley College is ranked as California's number one community college. It's a higher education gem that frankly is hidden in plain sight right here in the middle of our city. Anything that we can do to promote its growth and sustained excellence is a smart investment for our entire Irvine community. I'd like to take just a moment to reintroduce two remarkable public servants and have them again be recognized. Carolyn Inman, president of the Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District. And Ryan Dack, her colleague, who is also a trustee. And we are extra fortunate that both of them actually live in Irvine and have lived here for quite a while. We look forward to working together with you much more in the months and years ahead. All right. In addition to aspiring to be the safest city and smartest city in America, we aspire to be America's greenest city as well. That requires us to display bold leadership that can at once safeguard our Irvine community and serve to inspire others locally, nationally, and even globally. This past year, we quietly began implementing a remarkable deal to shut down the All-American asphalt plant in North Irvine. Finally eliminating the source of massive toxic air pollution from Orange County's largest industrial polluter. The deal we struck involved the transfer of 700 acres of Irvine company land to the City of Irvine. This allowed us to replace the asphalt plant with a vast open space preserve. We call it the gateway preserve that will forever add beauty and value to our lives. I wanna take this opportunity to publicly thank our hardworking city staff on this project, especially city manager Oliver Chi and our city attorney, Jeff Melchee. I want to also thank my council colleagues, all of them, but especially Mike Carroll, the Irvine company, and the scores of North Irvine citizen activists who were all key partners in securing this deal. As we have learned throughout our city's history in meeting major environmental challenges, leadership matters. It makes the critical difference. I'll tell you a little story about a big deal. 35 years ago, the most immediate existential threat to our global environment was the growing hole in the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer. Of course, the ozone layer is what protects us from the sun's harmful rays. Working right here at UC Irvine, Professor Sherwood Roland, along with a team of brilliant atmospheric chemists, discovered that man-made chlorofluorocarbons, known as CFCs, as well as other ozone depleting compounds used in spray cans, refrigerants, and certain industrial operations, these were responsible for the damage to the stratospheric ozone layer. As a matter of public policy, if we could control and even eliminate the use of these compounds, further damage to the ozone layer would be halted, and the ozone layer would begin to repair itself. At that time, I began meeting with Professor Roland, and as mayor, I was fortunate to gain City Council and community support to enact the world's first comprehensive municipal ordinance to locally eliminate CFCs and other ozone depleting compounds. Our action actually, yes. Our action actually made the front page of the New York Times and it was very big news around the world. Soon other cities, counties and states took action. Cities and citizens became part of a movement that led to international agreements and industrial controls to actually eliminate CFCs and allow the repair of the ozone layer to begin. And just a few years ago, Bloomberg News recounted this history. noting that the ozone layer was now unscheduled to be fully restored and recovered by mid-century. Bloomberg credited Irvine with, in their words, kick-starting the global movement that spared humanity a terrible fate. Yes, I say I say again, Irvine Leadership Matters. Professor Rollin passed away in 2012, but not before he won the Nobel Prize for his research in atmospheric chemistry. Over the years, he shared his insights into what we then called the greenhouse gases or a global warming issue. Of course, today we tend to use the broader term climate change. I remember asking Professor Roland as a practical matter. What could our country do to meet the emerging climate crisis? He said basically there are two things. First he said drastically reduced reliance on fossil fuels by shifting to renewables, especially solar, to generate electricity. And the second thing he suggested was to plant trees, billions of trees, to clean our air, cool our cities, and sequester carbon. He even suggested we plant a great American forest, many billions of trees. A forest big enough, he said, to cover the state of Georgia, and I added, how about Mississippi and Alabama as well? Well, Professor Rollins imagined 21st century great American forest never happened. But maybe we can get things going by creating our own 21st century urban forests, beginning with planting many tens of thousands of trees right here in Irvine, including 20,000 trees right away in our great park. And let's see if we can kickstart worldwide tree planting while adding to Irvine's growing reputation as the most tree-friendly city in Southern California. And let's be ever mindful of the Chinese proverb, which is my favorite. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. And let's also remember Professor Rollins' advice about harnessing solar power and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. It's time for our city government to organize and help fund our own city of Irvine program to install solar rooftop and battery storage systems. Tens of thousands of these systems on residential and business rooftops throughout our city. This will dramatically reduce our dependence on electricity generated by fossil fuels and bring remarkable savings to homeowners and businesses alike. Let's identify the funding sources and plan on becoming America's leading city in transitioning to rooftop solar and battery storage systems and let's get started this year right now. Also, after years of struggle and setbacks in promoting non-polluting transit in Irvine. It looks as though we're beginning to experience real success with the fledgling Irvine Connect bus system. This cross-town pilot project transit system launched last year by then mayor Farrakhan experienced steady growth in Irvine ridership throughout the summer and fall. And we expect more growth in ridership this year. I'm pleased to report that a few weeks ago, the City Council supported Council Member Kathleen procedures proposal to provide for a major expansion of the Irvine Connect system, mostly to include Central and South Irvine. I'm told by City Manager Chi that we can expect to see additional Irvine Connect routes implemented this summer and fall. So, yes, we aspire to be America's safest, smartest, and greenest city, but that's not enough. We should aspire to be America's healthiest city as well. Let me explain. Exactly five years ago today on March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. Days later, Governor Gavin Newsom began issuing emergency orders, essentially shutting down the state and enlisting local governments across California to help control the pandemic. The truth of the matter is that like most cities in our state and in our nation, we were unprepared for what hit us. Nevertheless, under the leadership of successive councils led by then Mayor Christina Shea, who was with us tonight, followed by Mayor Farrakhan, we did better than most Orange County cities. But by the time the pandemic was over, more than 200 Irvine residents, family, friends, our dear neighbors were lost to COVID. According to epidemiologists and community health experts, if we had been better prepared, perhaps half of those who perished could have been saved. We learned many lessons from that tragic period. Most of all, we learned that we had a lot of work to do in Irvine and throughout Orange County to improve all aspects of public health, individual and family health, physical health and mental health, school health and community health. We learned that we need to improve our performance in every one of these categories. And we need to do better to educate our citizens, improve public hygiene, and yes, get our vaccination rates up right away. We also learned that we have to focus more attention on what it called the social determinants of health, including the adverse determinants, such as the lack of decent affordable housing and the lack of access to quality health care. And we have to confront and overcome food and nutrition, insecurity, and child poverty that exists in our midst. I community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, community, services. We are organizing resources in a way that expands our city's capacity to deliver not only health services, but all kinds of social support services and human services that allow us to realize our vision of health and wellness for everyone in Irvine. The Chief Director of our newly created Irvine Office of Health and Wellness is Heather Stratman, who reports directly to Assistant City Manager Brian King and City Manager Oliver Che. Heather Heather and Brian if you're with us would you please stand so people can get to know you? There we are. You're gonna be you're gonna be seen and hearing a lot more from them. Just two weeks ago, the City Council approved the bylaws for a new 11-member health and wellness advisory committee which will help us organize and accelerate our efforts to make to provide the healthiest city in America. Our Office of Health and Wellness will be enlisting an array of institutional partners. Included among these will be four, count them four, amazing, billion-dollar hospitals and medical centers here in Irvine. each with many hundreds of extraordinarily talented health professionals. You probably know them, Kaiser Permanente, UCI Hospital and Medical Center, City of Hope and Hogue Hospital. These organizations and others deliver much more than excellent hospital and health care services. They are increasingly committed to best practices that involve providing what are called wraparound mental health and social services through their networks of outstanding nonprofit organizations. So now it's my privilege and it's my pleasure to make what is truly an important announcement. We've been informed by the Hogue Hospital Board of Directors of their intent to make a major gift to the city of Irvine. Hogue will be donating tens of millions of dollars to build and sustain a much needed center for nonprofit organizations dedicated to health and wellness. Hogue and its board of directors are fully committed to partnering with Irvine on this project and they're now in the process of completing all necessary due diligence. Irvine's Center for Nonprofit Organizations will be modeled after the very successful Melinda Hogue Smith Center for Healthy Living, located near Hogue Hospital in Newport Beach. The idea is to locate a similar center on a few acres of land at our 36-acre heritage park in Central Irvine to best serve our entire Irvine community. I want to, of course, take this opportunity to publicly thank the Hogue Hospital Board of Directors for their extraordinary gift. In particular, I want to thank Hogue Hospital CEO Robert Prathway, who has championed this initiative from way back. Joining us tonight from Hog is Randy Ruggier. Is Randy here? There we are. Applause. Randy is Senior Vice President with Hog Hospital. We so appreciate what you're doing, not just for the Irvine community, but for the larger Orange County community with this gift. All right. That was a good applause line. There have been a number of good applause lines tonight. My son told me he had a good one for me and I'm going to give it to you right now. I only have ten minutes to go in this speech. All right, we're on to category five. Yes, we're on to category five. Yes, we aspire to be the safest, smartest, greenest, and healthiest city in America. How about becoming the kindest city in America as well? I thought I'd hear silence. The expression of the doubters who were asking themselves what in the world is he talking about. Some kind of kumbaya notion here of how we can and should all get along. Well, kind of, but a little more directed than that. Let me tell you what I'm talking about. I'm taking this opportunity to call on all of us as Irvine civic leaders and participants in government. And yes, citizens everywhere to model kindness. Kindness is not a show of weakness on the contrary to the show of strength. Let's apply the lessons and values we were taught by our parents and teachers to talk respectfully to one another even when when we disagree, maybe especially when we disagree. To be especially kind and helpful and generous toward others who are struggling or in need of our help. Institutions can be about kindness too. Here in Irvine we're blessed with nonprofit organizations whose mission is kindness and healthfulness. I think of families forward, human options, the assistance league, working wardrobes, friends of outreach for senior citizens, and many, many more. Businesses, profit-making businesses, even big corporations, can and do show kindness as well. And yes, government at its best demonstrates programmatic kindness. For example. do show kindness as well. And yes, government at its best demonstrates programmatic kindness, for example, by helping see to it that people don't go hungry and that people don't go without housing. Most people don't know that Irvine is home to two hugely important related organizations. Harvest Solutions Farm and Second Harvest. These organizations distribute nutritious vegetables grown on 45 acres of very productive farmland right here in Irvine. with help from scores of wonderful Irvine volunteers, Irvine Solutions and Second Harvest, C2IT that outstanding produce is distributed to many tens of thousands of Orange County residents in need. In what would be an act of great kindness and generosity on our part. In the weeks ahead, I will be urging our Irvine City Council, representing the people of Irvine, to embrace a bold, food and nutrition security plan. Under this plan, our city would provide additional Irvine farmland and funding to quickly scale up food production in Irvine. This in turn would enable us to soon join with harvest solutions and second harvest and and all the other food banks in Orange County in declaring that because of our enhanced efforts, Orange County, California, America's sixth largest metropolitan county has finally become 100% food and nutrition secure. Applause Now I'd like to point to an example of kindness in business and government as it relates to housing. Of course, most of us know we are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis here in Irvine and throughout Orange County in most of California. Irvine is not new to the struggle to provide affordable housing. In fact, our city has pioneered the provision of affordable housing from its earliest days. So far, after five decades, we've managed to produce more than 5,000 permanently affordable housing units, mostly apartment units with steeply discounted rents to accommodate lower income households. I also want to let you know tonight that through negotiations with the Irvine Company, we are putting an additional 2,750 new affordable housing units in the pipeline to be delivered in the next few years. Applause But as we all know, we can't wait a few years to receive those. So the question is whether our existing programs are enough and they aren't. I believe we need to grow the number of affordable housing units in Irvine to 10,000 and quickly. We can't do this through new development alone. A typically long and tedious process. we we can do it by negotiating right now with the Irvine company, Irvine's major apartment owner to bring about what I call instant affordability. This involves negotiating right now for dramatically discounted rents, first on hundreds, and soon on thousands of existing apartment units. I'm pleased to report tonight that even before new negotiations begin in earnest, the Irvine company is making dozens of existing apartment units immediately available on an instant affordability basis. These will be for designated Irvine families, typically their working families, with children enrolled in Irvine schools, but these specific school children have been identified as having an extremely unstable housing status. These families may live in nearby motels or they are temporarily doubled up or tripled up with others in Irvine or they sleep in cars or vans or in our parks. My hope and belief is that as we work in partnership with the Irvine Company, this spring and summer, we will begin scaling up a comprehensive, instant affordability program that will guarantee that no child in Irvine ever again experiences homelessness. There are three senior executives from the Irvine company here with us this evening. I'd like to have them stand if they would and be recognized. Jeff Davis. We've been engaged in many fruitful discussions with Jeff over the years and we look forward to more fruitful ones to come. Michelle Grande and Jamie Yoshida should be recognized as one. Applause We want you to know that we value our partnership for affordable housing and the chance through our work together to show what it means to be among America's kindest cities. I don't think that's a moniker that the Irvine company has exploited before. All right. Well, you'll be able to do it now. All right. Now here's another pause line. In conclusion. Well, finally, at long last, the political campaigns of 2024 are over. And while there is one seat District 5 on our expanded city council yet to be filled in the April 15 special election, my hope is that we can put the campaigning and and the partisanship behind us for a while. And that we can, for the balance of this year, and hopefully even beyond, focus on the nonpartisan, hard work of governing. Working together, let's demonstrate to ourselves, to our constituents, and to everyone else that we are serious, focused and committed to doing all that we can to make Irvine the safest, smartest, greenest, healthiest, and kindest city in America. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We are technically still in a council meeting and my last act for the evening will be to say meeting adjourned. Thank you.