Summary

​

In this recap we cover public comments about the impact of too many visitors, and a proposed high density housing project; the streamlining of Artist work/live Occupancy Permits; Transition Plan for Outsourcing Management of City Investments and Modifications to the Roles, Responsibilities and Compensation of our elected City Treasurer; and, a troubling 2023 violent crime report from the US Dept of Justice (DOJ).

 

 

Notable Items from Public Comments

 

Too  Many Day Tourists
 

Greg Viviani said that we do NOT need to increase the hotel bed tax (TOT) to get more people into town. He said our beaches and town are already over “carrying capacity.”

 

John Thomas said the City subsidizes visitors to the tune of $20 million for Police, Fire, Marine Safety and Public Works services.

 

Mary Hurlburt said overtourism has an impact on residents and we need to educate tourists on stewardship of our local environment.
 

[GW: That was the goal of Visit Laguna’s cancelled “Leave No Trace” initiative.]

 

Tex Haines said that there is a lot of trash at Aliso Beach that needs to be picked up, which is another negative impact of overtourism.

 

Brad Wood said there is too much trash on our beaches and that we should limit building heights.

 

Zach said trash bins were full around town and he saw tents all over Thalia Beach and saw trash dumped into the ocean.

 

Chad Strick said he does not like funding Visit Laguna and said that the beaches are littered with trash.

 

GW on Overtourism: Residents have complained that they have never experienced the large scale of visitors as occurred during the week of the 4th of July. One resident said it took an hour to get from Wesley Drive to Crown Valley Parkway.  Some police patrol officers reported being  overwhelmed with the number of visitors, which slowed down their ability to get to sites when needed or in an emergency.  Many residents have complained that Visit Laguna is promoting Laguna as a day tripper destination when its mission is supposed to be to attract overnight hotel guests.

 

When I asked Councilmember Mark Orgill, a prior President of Visit Laguna and the Council’s liaison to this organization, why Visit Laguna dropped their “Leave No Trace” visitor program he did not supply an answer. This program’s goal was to educate visitors to respect our town by taking their trash with them. It would be useful to learn from Councilmember Orgill if there was a problem with the “Leave No Trace” program and if Visit Laguna has any strategies for remedying the trash problems from our visitors. 

 

Neighborhood Congregational Church (NCC) Affordable Housing Project:
 

Greg Abbott said Related Companies’ other affordable projects were in communities with much more open land, such as the ones he saw that were in high traffic areas near freeways.

 

Diane Harris expressed concerns about the density of the NCC affordable housing project.

 

Jacob Cherub pointed out that the NCC project may house up to 250 people as 36 of the units will be two- or three-bedrooms. The remaining 36 would be mostly 1- bedroom and some studios.

 

Cindy Newman opposes the NCC project’s size and density.

 

Sabrina said we have strict construction rules except for NCC where high density would be allowed.

 

Helga Yaillen, who moved here because Laguna was an art colony and has lived here since 1987, said the NCC committee seems hostile.

 

Tanya Ho said “no” to the NCC project in its current form.

 

Sue Cross said she was priced out of the rental housing market in Laguna Beach and had to move elsewhere, so affordable housing is badly needed here.

 

Ceasar Covarrubias, Director of the Kennedy Commission, said that the NCC project would create affordable housing for working families and that Huntington Beach has spent $4M fighting the State over quotas for affordable housing.

 

NCC Pastor Ron Eccles  said he met with families and the El Mirador Neighborhood Association and asked that people visit the NCC website to learn more about the project.

 

Ketta Brown, Chair of the Housing and Human Services Committee, said she has seen nothing from Related Companies on their plan as one has not yet been officially submitted to the city. She thinks Related Companies and NCC people will be reasonable.

 

Bruce Duiyer said that a new organization, Reasonable Housing for Laguna Beach, opposes the magnitude of the NCC Housing project.

 

GW on NCC Project: First, I am for clearly defined affordable housing so that our seniors, artists, single-parent families, workers, and city staff have the chance to live in town.  However, in its current form the NCC project seems out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood. If the evidence on density driving down rental and housing prices was accurate, then we would have seen lower prices in our densely-built communities in cities, such as Chicago or New York City—but we have not.  Regardless of State mandates and the passing of SB 4 (which allows for density bonuses for Church owned properties), the integrity of the neighborhood should be the first priority. The City should do its part to keep the project neighborhood compatible.

 

Second, it appears that building 72 units provides more in the State and other subsidies to the developer and NCC. Is it true that with many fewer units, a point is reached where the project is not financially viable---and, at what point is that nonviable rate reached?  Is that number 30 units? 40? 50? We need to understand the financials of this project.

 

Other Notable Public Comments:
 

Mary Locatelli, a notable CPA, and Auditor asked who authorized the change of the city’s financial auditors after only 2 years. She said the optics of doing that are not good.

 

Gary Kasik, Sensible Laguna, asked what action is being taken after the Council voted 5-0 to build its own municipal swimming pool. He wanted to know why the City Council’s annual joint meeting with the laguna Beach School District was removed from the tentative calendar.

 

Jennifer Zeiter disliked the drone show and thinks we are not being patriotic. She held up Huntington Beach as an example of a city that was standing up to State legislation that takes away local control. 

 

Jan Hobbs loved the drone show, but wished it were longer.

 

REGULAR AGENDA
 

Item #14:  Amending of code to streamline review of artist occupancy permit applications. Passed 5-0

 

Background:  The City and committee currently receive 20 applications/month for artist work/live occupancy permits, but there is a backlog of getting them reviewed while waiting for all the committee members to be able to meet on them according to Sian Poeschl, Community Arts Director.  The proposal amendment was to have Ms. Poeschl review them alone since the criteria requirements are firmly established: a body of artwork, formal training, and art show display. She said this would speed up the review and permit process.

 

GW:  I queried whether this put too much power in one person’s hands since there would be only one person making the decision.  Councilmember Whalen pointed out that other committees have used this process without any problems.

 

Item # 15 – A-Transition Plan for Outsourcing Management of City Investments Passed 5-0 with modifications; and B-Modifications to the Roles, Responsibilities and Compensation of the City Treasurer and Finance Director. Passed 3-2 (Mayor Kempf and Mayor Pro Tem Rounaghi dissenting).

                    

Background: Previously the City Council voted to outsource responsibility for the city’s investments to Meeder Investments. Meeder had provided data from Anaheim and Irvine that showed they had managed returns of 2.8 and 3.2% while the returns of the investment fund as managed by the  City Treasurer has only achieved a return of 1.8% recently. This item was brought forward to approve a transition plan and also recommended cutting the work hours of the Treasurer and transferring authority for managing Meeder to the City’s Director of Finance.

 

Public Comments:

 

Laura Parisi said the changes will interfere with her duties as Treasurer. She said that under state law she has custodial responsibility for the City’s investment funds.

 

The attorney for the Office of the Treasurer cited many state codes, 41001 and 41009 that set forth the duties of a California city treasurer. The treasurer needs to have oversight of the investments and creates the investment reports.

 

Bill Pullet noted that the proposed salary changes for the City Treasurer did not make sense and likened it to only paying lifeguards according to how many rescues they had performed or fire fighters for how many fires they had put out.

 

Jennifer Zeiter said that Laura Parisi has 25 years of experience. What problem are we trying to solve, she asked?

 

Deborah Laughton said that Laguna Beach’s voters elected the City Treasurer to perform certain tasks with specific responsibilities outlined in the 2020 voter guide, and that its Laguna Beach’s voters who should have the right to vote on a change in an elected official’s duties.

 

Robin Hall, a CPA for 44 years, asked about the segregation of duties. What did our outside auditor say about this? For 6 years the Finance Department did Not submit a year end audit on time until the end of the next year.  She noted that in 2023 the completed audit took over a year to finish.

 

Mary Locatelli, A noted CPA and Auditor, asked why the Finance Department would oversee investments. Does the current finance staff have the expertise to do it and what impact will that have on their other duties? We need to segregate the duties.

 

John Moorlach, former State Senator, and OC Treasurer said he worked with Laura Parisi for 25 years and thinks highly of her skills. He warned that chasing returns on investments is what led Orange County into bankruptcy. He said there needs to be more transparency.

 

Jacob Cherub said that if it is not broke do not fix it.

 

Gail Waite said she is the head of a 501c 4, the Laguna Canyon Conservancy. Cutting the hours of the elected Treasurer and asking her to do more work is not right, particularly when there has been an increase in staff and pay role from 260 to 337 staff in 2024.

 

Mike Marriner said that the duties of the city treasurer should be expanded not cut. The audit reports should be clean and available to the public. Plus, the Audit Committer should have members with CPA or auditing experience. 

 

GW: There were two other components included in this item, reducing the hours of the City Treasurer, and recommending that the Finance Director oversee investments. In meetings with various accounting and investment firms, I learned that a distinct set of skills and training was necessary for auditing versus for investing, and it seemed that our Finance Department and Auditing Committee were focused only on the investment part instead of the auditing part which the City Treasurer was worried about. 

 

Below is what I had to say about all the prior performance of the Finance Department at the City Council meeting of July 9, 2024:

 

GW: I would like to understand certain issues that have been raised relating to operational issues, audit issues, and a lack of transparency within the city’s finance dept, headed by our CFO and Asst. City Manager, Gavin Curren.

 

1. Eide Bailley has been our auditor for two years and in April Mr. Curren made a unilateral decision to change firms despite our contract having one year to run with an option for an additional year.  He made the decision to issue an RFP to hire a new auditing firm---without consulting the Audit Committee or the City Council.   
                    

2. In addendum 1, question 2 of the RFP provided to candidate auditing firms, it lists, “Why is the City considering the change in auditor?” Answer:  “City is considering a change in the auditor because the City had concerns about the quality of services provided by the previous audit firm.” This is a misleading answer as Gavin later stated he did not think the Eide Bailly could deliver their final audit report on time.
    

3. Question 13 in the RFP asks: “Did the Auditors identify any noncompliance, significant deficiencies of material weaknesses in the FY 2022-23 audit” Answer: “There were no instances of noncompliance, significant deficiencies or material weaknesses noted by auditors in connection with the FY 2022-23 Audit.” This is also inaccurate information as the auditing report we have received in the letter of 6/30/2023 says there were material weaknesses.
    

4. In the June 30, 2023, letter  from the auditor Eide Bailly it states on Page 1: “We identified certain deficiencies in internal control, described in the accompanying Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs as item 20232-001 that we consider to be a material weakness. For purposes of clarification this is all about “Internal Control over Financial Reporting”
    

It is concerning that the CFO who has presided over numerous audits over eight years has not been able to resolve  issues flagged as significant and material weaknesses. Please see the attached document that provides information on this.

The CFO admitted that prior audits have been late due to a lack of staffing within the Finance Department. That by itself raises questions about  management performance. As a testament to this we recently lost our Finance Director who had been here less than a year and the prior one was with us for less than two years. What is wrong with this picture?

I recommended that we reject the transition plan but proceed with outsourcing of the long-term investments with the Treasurer to  manage the oversight responsibilities for Meader.

 

GW: In the end the Council compromised, and the City Manager will provide investment oversight while the compensation of the City Treasurer increased by 5%. Meeder will present monthly reports to both the CFO and the City Treasurer.

 

A Note about the 2023 Laguna Beach Crime Statistics

 

It was surprising to recently learn that Laguna has the third highest rate of violent crime for its size of all cities in Orange County. See table below from the US Department of Justice. The statistics match those on our website which I have also pasted below from the city’s website.

 

In April made a request to the Acting City Manager, Gavin Curren that LBPD provide a crime report for 2023 to City Council and the public. This should be standard procedure, so we know what LBPD is doing to keep us safe. A few weeks after my request LBPD just released the report and issued a press release.

 

At the last City Council meeting I mentioned this report and asked if the Chief could address the US Department of Justice statistics which are taken from a report LBPD submits to the FBI.

It would be useful to know how many crimes were committed by residents and how many by visitors and in which neighborhoods these crimes took place. Also,  what steps are being taken to reduce violent crimes? Shouldn’t residents know?

 

 

​​​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

2023 Laguna Beach Crime Statistics Show Overall Decrease in Violent and Property Crimes
 

LAGUNA BEACH, CA—The Laguna Beach Police Department is pleased to report that the City was safer in 2023, as violent and property crimes decreased overall for the third consecutive year. The 2023 crime statistics show an overall 7% decrease in Part 1 violent and property crimes compared to 2022 and a 9% overall decrease since 2021

The 2023 crime statistics show LBPD observed a 26% decline in auto theft, effectively reducing the number from 47 incidents in 2022 to 35 in 2023. Additionally, there was a commendable 6% decrease in larceny cases. In 2023, there were four more reported robberies than the previous year.  Weapons were involved in only two of the robberies, demonstrating that the use of weapons in these incidents is relatively uncommon.

"This reduction in overall crime is a testament to the unwavering passion of our police force, coupled with the incredible support of our community," remarked Laguna Beach Police Chief Jeff Calvert. "While we take pride in this achievement, our mission to transform into the safest coastal community in Orange County remains our top priority. We are committed to sustaining exceptional policing practices and fostering meaningful community partnerships to realize this goal."

This year's crime statistics demonstrate the outstanding efforts of our police department and the strong support of our community in maintaining Laguna Beach as a safe and welcoming place," stated Laguna Beach Mayor Sue Kempf. "The significant reductions in overall crime rates are a testament to our ongoing commitment to public safety. Under the steadfast leadership of Police Chief Jeff Calvert, we will continue working together to uphold and enhance the safety and well-being of our City."

The Laguna Beach Police Department remains dedicated to providing exemplary service, maintaining the highest standards, and ensuring the safety and well-being of all Laguna Beach residents and visitors.

​​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​