WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.111 --> 00:00:11.311 This is CivicFM, with the week at Los Angeles City Hall. 2 00:00:11.991 --> 00:00:26.256 The council approves five Van Nuys Airport leases over neighbors' objections, renames a youth and community center for departing Councilmember Curren Price, and asks for a plan for unhoused Angelenos during the 2028 Olympics. 3 00:00:26.256 --> 00:00:32.471 This episode was produced with AI from the public recordings of the week's meetings. Links to the sources are in the show notes. 4 00:00:37.573 --> 00:00:49.013 Our top story this week: what's next for Van Nuys Airport. On Friday the council approved five leases there. The Board of Airport Commissioners had already approved them on September twenty-third. 5 00:00:49.013 --> 00:01:14.743 The two biggest go to subsidiaries of Sky Harbour Group, for general aviation facilities on Hart Street and Woodley Avenue, with terms of up to thirty-two years. The airport board estimates they'll bring in about twenty-nine million and about eighty-three million dollars over those thirty-two years. The other three are with Joby Aero, Paramount Global's corporate aviation arm, and The Condor Squadron Officer's and Airmen's Association. 6 00:01:14.743 --> 00:01:38.123 These leases drew more public comment than any other item on the agenda, and it split. About six speakers, most of them airport neighbors, including members of its Citizens Advisory Council, asked the council to delay or reject them. They wanted an airport-wide environmental review first, and raised jet noise and fumes. Several said they weren't asking to close the airport. 7 00:01:38.123 --> 00:01:51.448 About six others spoke in favor, from groups including the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Laborers Local 300, and Sky Harbour itself. They pointed to jobs, investment and electric aviation. 8 00:01:51.448 --> 00:02:03.893 Councilmember Imelda Padilla said she'd expected a presentation from the airport department before the vote. None came, and she agreed the leases could move ahead. They passed with thirteen votes and no debate. 9 00:02:03.893 --> 00:02:22.973 Afterward, during announcements, Padilla said the leases would upgrade buildings to premium energy standards and get rid of buildings with lead in them. She said she had introduced a new motion that day so the airport's remaining sites put high-paying aviation jobs first, and so future leases bring measurable cuts in air pollution and noise. 10 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:38.594 Next, a farewell that came with a vote. Councilmember Curren Price, who has represented the Ninth District since 2013 and leaves office next month, was honored by colleagues and community leaders on Friday. 11 00:02:38.594 --> 00:02:54.069 In his own remarks, he said his office broke ground on Slauson Connect, which he described as a forty-million-dollar youth and community center. He acknowledged setbacks and criticism during his tenure, and said misinformation sometimes tries to tarnish a person's name. 12 00:02:54.069 --> 00:03:08.234 During the tribute, the council took up Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson's motion to rename that center after Price. It held a ceremonial voice vote, and fourteen members voted yes. Councilmember Nithya Raman was absent. 13 00:03:08.234 --> 00:03:36.294 That vote came before public comment, and about eight speakers objected to the renaming, two of them also to voting on it before hearing from the public. Some complained about the roughly two-hour tribute, and one said public comment was limited after it. Several pointed to Price's criminal case. He's charged with twelve felony counts, including embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest, and has pleaded not guilty. Those are allegations, and he's presumed innocent. No one on the council addressed them. 14 00:03:36.294 --> 00:03:49.579 After public comment, the council took the official vote, and the renaming passed with thirteen votes. The motion directs city departments to rename it the Curren D. Price Junior Youth and Community Center and put up signs. 15 00:03:51.955 --> 00:04:28.435 Our third story looks ahead to the 2028 Olympics, and to people living on the streets near the venues. The council asked city departments, working with LAX's operator, Metro, the Homeless Services Authority and the Housing Authority, to come back in ninety days with a plan for outreach, encampments and housing placement around Olympic venues and transit hubs during the Games. The plan is to include timelines, costs and possible funding sources. The council also asked the county to have more mental health, substance use and recuperative care beds ready before the Games. 16 00:04:28.435 --> 00:04:35.155 The council amended the request before voting. Just before the vote, a councilmember behind that amendment made the case. 17 00:04:35.795 --> 00:04:55.865 Our unhoused neighbors aren't just inconveniences or obstacles to successful games, They aren't just the clutter around our house that you need to hide when guests come by. They're real people. Angelenos whose stability and lives depend on our government doing its job effectively, and the clock is ticking. 18 00:04:56.769 --> 00:05:07.529 It passed with thirteen votes. Separately, in general public comment, one speaker warned the Games could displace about six thousand unhoused people near venues. 19 00:05:09.934 --> 00:05:40.784 Now a few shorter items from around City Hall. If you drive in the harbor area: Councilmember Tim McOsker announced that Caltrans would fully close the Vincent Thomas Bridge for a deck replacement starting at 12:01 this morning. The closure is expected to last about sixteen months, with reopening scheduled for February twenty-ninth, 2028. City transportation officers will direct traffic and cite truck drivers who leave the designated detour routes, and McOsker said Caltrans is paying for those officers. 20 00:05:40.784 --> 00:06:13.794 The council asked the Housing Department to recommend rules on landlords' use of AI and algorithmic software to set rents, including a registry and disclosure, notice to tenants, and whether the city can restrict software that relies on competitors' nonpublic data. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who brought the motion, stressed it only gathers information for now, and a landlord group's representative said state law already restricts common rent-pricing algorithms. It passed with thirteen votes, and one member recused himself, saying he's a landlord. 21 00:06:13.794 --> 00:06:40.164 The council also asked the Housing Department to report within ninety days on expanding pet-friendly rentals, and the City Attorney to recommend an ordinance easing breed, weight and size limits on pets in housing that isn't publicly funded. Hernandez, who brought this motion too, argued no one should have to give up a pet to stay housed. The same landlord group's representative warned it could put small landlords' property insurance at risk. It passed with thirteen votes. 22 00:06:40.164 --> 00:06:57.979 An ordinance adjusting the Ethics Commission executive director's salary, as the commission approved, passed twelve to one on first reading. It wasn't said who voted no. Councilmember John Lee had called it for a separate vote, and it returns Friday, November thirteenth, for a second reading. 23 00:06:57.979 --> 00:07:03.974 And a member announced a Día de los Muertos celebration today, at San Fernando Mission Cemetery. 24 00:07:06.410 --> 00:07:33.240 Before we go, here's what's coming up. The council meets next Tuesday, November tenth. On the agenda: the continued hearing on up to sixteen million dollars in bonds for school facilities on Friar Street and Victory Boulevard, a proposed report on bringing qualified Homeless Services Authority employees into city jobs, and a proposed report within twenty-one days on how the city is preparing to protect unhoused people from a predicted super El Niño. 25 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:51.450 Also proposed: raising the fee people other than the applicant pay to appeal a planning decision, to one thousand one hundred forty-five dollars within the notice area and two thousand two hundred eighty-nine dollars outside it. And a request that LA28 commit to a guaranteed amount of spending with businesses in the city itself. 26 00:07:53.865 --> 00:08:00.705 If you hear something we got wrong, there's a link on the episode's page to tell us, and corrections are read on air. 27 00:08:00.705 --> 00:08:04.465 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.