City Council — March 24, 2026

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All right I will now call to order tonight's City Council meeting. Will the city clerk please call the roll?

Yes, thank you. We have four closed sessions on pending litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.98. The first one is Greenberg v. City of Thousand Oaks. Second one is Greene v. City of Thousand Oaks and the last two are GI Industries v. City of Thousand Oaks.

Thank you. We have no speakers on this item so we will be going into closed session. We'll see you guys here in an hour.

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Welcome everyone, we are back from our closed session. Miss Noonan is there anything to report?

Nothing to report.

All right Thank you. If you are able can you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Ready, begin.

everyone, we're so excited to be here. My name is Kate Vong and I'm a student at Westlake High School. I'm Cadence Lee and I'm student at Newberry Park High School So as he mentioned we met 15 years ago at Camp Amgen And even though we all go to different schools today We remain each other's best friends The campaign has actually ended, but we were all co-candidates for the Student Visionaries of the Year program led by Blood Cancer United, formerly known as Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We just wanted to spend a couple minutes sharing how we got here and the work that Blood Cancer United does for patients and their families.

I became involved in Blood Cancer United because both of my aunts on my dad's side are currently battling cancer and my aunt on my mom's side has passed away from it. I wanted to raise funds that would lead to better treatments, more hope, and fewer families losing the people they love.

Both of my best friends have had very close experiences with cancer, and even though I have it myself, I recognize so many more every single day fighting this battle that no one should ever have to go through. Cancer patients lose so many opportunities and experiences that many take for granted, and Blood Cancer United is the largest organization that helps those patients.

Sorry. The work Blood Cancer United does for its patients and families is truly inspiring, and we could not be more grateful for the opportunity we get to make an impact.

In the seven weeks, we raised $68,000, and we won the Patient Support Award which was because of our dedication to Blood Cancer United's patient support and education services during our campaign. Out of the 21 teams just in Gold Coast, $1,100,000 were raised for patients and their families which is so incredible.

Thank you to our communities and to all of you for your time.

Next we have public comments. Will the City Clerk please announce the comments?

This is the time and place for public comments. Speakers are requested to state their name and community of residence for the record. Four individuals have requested to speak and pursuant to Council standards, speakers are allowed three minutes. The yellow light displays when you have one minute remaining.

All right, and I'm seeing one on Zoom. Rest in person, correct? All right, I'm gonna call in-person speakers first and then I will call our Zoom speaker after that. Everyone will have three minutes and so you're gonna see an orange light pop up that's gonna be your sign that you have about a minute left and then when the red light hits, that's gonna be your full three minutes. So if you haven't finished your statement by then, I'll give you five, 10 seconds but let's get it closed after that. First speaker will be Michelle I'm not seeing a last name. Okay.

Good evening, my name is Michelle and I am Thousand Oaks adjacent in Santa Rosa Valley. And good evening to you council members. I wanted to address a comment that was made a couple weeks ago by a Zoom meeting attendee It was a comment in response to another request made by a prior speaker who is requesting that our national motto and God we trust to be placed in the council chambers.

This person who was making this spontaneous comment, this Zoom attendee claimed that she wanted to honor our traditions as Americans but also wanted to keep church and state separate. Council members, I'm not here to school you because I have every confidence that you already know about the Constitution its elements and our nation's founding. But if anyone in attendance or is listening in hears this these words these facts and seeks the truth for themselves then I think that these words are worth saying Keeping church and state separate, as the attendee had said or commonly parroted separation of church and state is an incorrect damaging destructive phase phrase excuse me that has been said over and over again and has been used to manipulate for decades.

And the fact is that this separation of church and state is found nowhere in the Constitution Furthermore, part of our First Amendment—the very first words as a matter of fact of our First Amendment were created to keep the state out of religious business and to protect religion's free exercise and establishment. And so I will read verbatim the part of the First Amendment that applies right now.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Is there any word that says separation? The separation of church and state phrase, eight words that were actually lifted and used by the U.S. Supreme Court for their own agenda were words that Thomas Jefferson had written to a Danbury pastor to reassure the pastor that the state would not interfere with the Church's business.

Thomas Jefferson was not even at the Constitutional Convention Nor did he collaborate with any of it, but yet a phrase that was lifted from a letter and used incorrectly has been lifted and manipulated. Thomas Jefferson actually is considered the father of the Declaration of Independence. And actually God is mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence.

And what I want to say to you in the few seconds that I have left, because I didn't get a chance to time myself is please do your own research. Seek the truth especially as we are approaching the 250th anniversary of basically the birth certificate of our nation, the Declaration of Independence. Please do your own research and learn and educate yourself. And I thank you for your time this evening. God bless America and God bless ICE.

Thank you. Next up, we have Anne.

Hello City Council. I appreciate your time this evening, it's so nice to see each of you here. I just wanted to thank you for remembering the foundational values that our country was founded on and appreciate you bringing them to our local venues here in Thousand Oaks. It means so much that you uphold and honor the original reasons that we are even here today, that we get to enjoy our freedoms and liberties as Americans here in the US of A.

Our national motto is In God We Trust. And when I moved here so long ago, I remember seeing it in our city and local buildings and such. It felt unifying across the country that we were all on the same page remembering our national motto of In God We Trust. That motto comes from E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin for of many comes one. And our country are local and nationally we have been really focusing on the differences that we have But we have so many things in common as Americans that we get to appreciate and enjoy together. And E Pluribus Unum recognizes that. Of many, we become one.

One of the many things that we have in common is our foundational values and God, the reason that we are even here. It's on our money, our little Abe Lincolns that we all have in our pockets. It' s in the buildings, and I'd really like to see it honored here at Thousand Oaks. I appreciate the council and the city respecting our nation in its founding documents, which made our nation the amazing land of liberty and freedom. You have an opportunity as our local City Council to unify your constituents by honoring the very values that founded our nation on God in the Bible.

Other cities, such as Torrance and others in Ventura and L.A. counties have already brought back and God we trust in their local buildings where they meet and such and I'd like to see the same here in Thousand Oaks especially as we are celebrating our 250th birthday as a nation. I look forward to hearing what Thousand Oaks decides to do in recognizing that special day. Thank you so much.

Next up we have John.

Aloha City Council. How is everybody? Good, thumbs up yeah can I you've already heard me speak about In God We Trust a couple months ago so I'm not gonna repeat that but a friend of mine gave me this quote from Abraham Lincoln so I want to share it with you I'm gonna read it and then you guys can read along with that I'm gonna put on this this guy here

TOTV we have something to show

what oh Okay Abraham Lincoln he said we have been preserved John flip it started flipping around there we go so now I can read it too okay thank you Abraham Lincoln said we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.

And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts That all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. I don't think so. I think it's not virtue and superior wisdom of our ourselves. I believe it's God, so let's get in God we trust up. Let's bring him back into our consciousness. And encourage people to seek him and seek his wisdom And then I could say more, but I know you got a busy schedule tonight. So God bless you guys. I love ya.

Next up we have on Zoom Nora Hayes.

Hello, thank you for letting me speak. I don't necessarily want to make comments as much as I have some questions. There's actually four different issues that I wanted to address but I understand I might not be able to address all four of them tonight so that's perfectly fine if I can't. The first thing that I wanted to ask about I am the board president of the HOA where I live.

In working with the board and property managers, et cetera. I understand that at some point in time the city had, I believe some sort of legal counsel that was available to homeowners who are having issues with HOAs. I don't know if that still exists or not. But the question that I would have, since HOAs are not regulated other than from my understanding by the CCNRs, the bylaws, their rules and regulations which are all interpreted in many different ways.

Is there anything that this city can do to help homeowners? You know we all are taxpayers and living in this community Is there anything that the city is able to do to help people who live in HOAs where their rights are really not, they're not being allowed? And again I'm coming as a board president. of an HOA. We have a pretty good board and a strong board, but like a lot of HOAs we're dealing with our property management company that really tries to control what's going on and continuously tells us oh you could be fined or even imprisoned for certain things and we find ourselves going okay I guess we can't make any decisions or do much of anything But I'm wondering, is there any legal counsel available within the city for homeowners that don't understand their HOA and don't understand how to establish their rights within the HOA?

I guess if that's the best way to put it.

All right, thank you Nora. We had somebody sign up just last minute so Ina McGinnis, I hope I pronounced that right.

Hi thanks for this opportunity. I did not have this planned. I've never been to a city council meeting but I just heard some people talk and I thought that what they were saying was just Something I couldn't let go without responding to. So the discussion about having God and messages inside the City Hall, you don't have to believe in God to know about how to be kind, about how to do the right thing. There's lots of people who believe other things and I think that a lot of times people use God as a mask or something they hide behind to actually isolate other people who aren't like them. And I think that what we really want to do in our city is be inclusive and embrace people who have different opinions. I think fundamentally, we do want to be kind.

We want to make the right choices. I assume that all of you want to do that but you don't have to do that in the name of God. You can do that as just a person who knows the right things to do and inherently in your DNA, you know what the right things to do are. And also in terms of the constitution and how it evolved It may have been different when we formed the Constitution, but there is a concept called court. The Supreme Court then rules on things and makes additional case law and that case law has continued to reinforce the separation of church and state and this is something that we have functioned very well doing and by that we protect people. We are not all Christians and it's okay to not be Christians I'm happy too Associate with people who believe something different than me.

It does not mean that they are bad or different So to make the fact that God is the thing that unifies us all it's just not true And I hope it's something that you never think has to be the rule by which you operate or make rules or laws Thank you

All right, does the city attorney have anything to say for the comments? I know there was one about HOA.

Yeah just to let the speaker know, so HOAs are separate legal entities and the HOA regulations that are created by HOAs and imposed on the residents who live within that HOA those are private contracts. So the city cannot involve itself in private contract disputes between a separate entity and an individual. But there are resources in the community, there's a Caneo Free Clinic provides some legal services but the city itself cannot provide legal advice to individuals.

Okay so maybe best move is find legal counsel yep okay thank you all right next up is consent calendar does anyone have any questions or would anybody like to pull any of the items? If no discussion can I have a motion to move Mr. Newman

Thank you Mr. Mayor, I move the consent calendar.

All right we have a motion will clerk take a vote please?

And that motion passes five to zero. All

right thank you next up is our first public hearing will the City Clerk please open this hearing

Yes, hearing advertised as required by law is open to consider agenda item 10A film permit ordinance and related fees. There are two speakers who have requested to speak. Speakers are requested to state their name and community of residence pursuant to council standards each speaker will have five minutes the yellow light displays when you have one minute remaining

Thank you, and presenting tonight's item is Deputy Cultural and Community Services Director Melissa Hurtado.

Thank you, and good evening Mayor Taylor and council members. On the dice with me I have Jonathan Surrett our cultural and community services director and Tracy Friedel assistant city attorney. And we're here tonight to discuss film permits in Thousand Oaks. Thousand Oaks has a long history in the film industry. You can go all the way back to 1935 when The New Adventures of Tarzan filmed right on the land that we are sitting in today, when it was jungle land. Spartacus was filmed at Wildwood Park and what you see here in this photo is the series Gunsmoke that filmed at what is now California Lutheran University and in Wildwood Park. So prior to the adoption of the film permit ordinance in 1997, there were no regulations for filming in the city unless city streets were being used and then only an encroachment permit was required.

So it became a bit of the Wild Wild West, no pun intended, especially in residential neighborhoods where crews parked vehicles on residential streets and impacted neighborhoods. When the original ordinance was introduced, rigid restrictions were enacted especially with requirements for approval from neighboring businesses and residents. The ordinance was brought back to City Council in 2009 but the ordinance was only slightly modified leaving a lot of the restrictions in.

The permits were historically processed by the Planning Division and our Community Development Department. In July of 2025, film permits were transitioned to the newly formed Cultural and Community Services Department The transition to community services gave staff the opportunity to look at these permits through a new lens. When we first learned that film permits would be coming to our department, we decided that before delegating permit processing to staff, we needed to really understand and streamline our business process. So I along with our office manager Tracy have been processing all of the permits ourselves. We quickly realized that there was a lot more that could be done with this program.

It's been a great opportunity for us to engage with the film industry and ask them questions, to talk with other cities and learn best practices, and speak with groups like the Economic Development Collaborative, the California Film Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, to understand how filming can benefit our local economy. And of course, our colleagues at the Thousand Oaks Police Department, Ventura County Fire Department, Public Works Planning and Co-Compliance have helped us to understand the challenges that we may encounter if proper regulations aren't applied. So we knew that we needed a balanced approach. What we also learned about working with folks in the film industry is that it is far less transactional and much more about relationships.

They would prefer to just give you a phone call and walk through things rather than using email. We've been working to build their trust and provide them with as much information as we can to navigate through filming in Thousand Oaks. So in this picture here, you see Freak Your Friday, and that was filmed at Newberry Park High School. We found this incredible map from 1927. This is Paramount Studios, and it depicts all of the different places in the world that could be filmed right here in California.

As a location managers that I've talked to over the last several months have expressed that Thousand Oaks is a very desirable location for filming. We have great landscapes. It's close enough to Los Angeles and many crew members actually live in Thousand Oaks but unfortunately we've fallen off of production companies radar Our regulations are more rigid than other jurisdictions, and we have a hefty $5,000 expedite fee for applications submitted within 10 days of filming. That fee alone has caused a lot of productions to just completely overlook Thousand Oaks. The industry moves pretty quickly and five thousand dollars can eat into budgets for some smaller or short-term projects.

You've probably heard a lot of talk about productions moving outside of California. California has responded to that and began offering tax incentives to keep filming in California, and in Thousand Oaks we kind of have the best-of-both worlds situation. Half of our city is located within the 30 mile zone or the TMZ, and based on union agreements filming within the 30 mile zone helps keep labor costs down since they don't have to pay per diem or provide accommodations. Basically it's just like showing up for work for the day and going home to sleep in your own bed.

And the other half of Thousand Oaks is outside of the TMZ, but it's within a secondary zone that still offers some of the same union benefits. In many cases it's treated a lot like the TMZ where most people just go home at the end of the day unless the filming extends past a certain threshold. But production gets additional tax credits to film a certain percentage of shots outside of the TMZ so it's kind of like a win-win for production.

So why do we want filming in our city? Aside from being pretty cool to see familiar neighborhoods on screen, there can be significant economic impact. First the crew being in town might be spending on food shopping and gas and you might be thinking kind of what I thought when I first went into this well they bring in catering so how are they going to be spending money at our restaurants but here's a story that I heard from another city when I asked that question and they were talking about how there was a film shoot that was across the street from a coffee shop And the coffee shop owner walked across the street and said, hey I know they're giving you guys free coffee here but we have some really good coffee across the street. Here's some coupons stop by.

Guess what? They did. And from what I understand this is very common. The crews like to go and spend their money at local joints. But it's not just the crew spending, production is spending a lot of money here. They have to pay property owners to rent their properties and not just for filming but for staging equipment, for crew parking and for their base camps. They may need supplies or equipment and we'll be sending someone to our local stores to make those purchases. And when needed they will set up people in our local hotels for accommodations. In 2022, economic impact from filming in Ventura County reached $90 million. As I mentioned before with some productions moving away from California we have seen a decline but hopefully the tax incentives will help improve these numbers and we in Thousand Oaks can benefit more from this As staff worked through the various permits, we identified areas where improvements could be made.

So listed here are just a few examples that I'll talk a little bit about. The first item, signature surveys is not considered best practice in today's permitting world. Our current ordinance requires that for filming of three days or less 90% of residents and businesses within 200 feet must agree to the filming and for filming of four days or more 95% of residents or businesses within 300 feet must agree to the filming. While in theory this may sound good, in a lot of cases it's unnecessary. We have many film shoots that are very small scale where residents or businesses would have no impact or even know that there was something going on. On the other hand if we had a film shoot that had widespread impacts, we may want to even provide additional notifications beyond what is required in the current ordinance.

Best practice is to have notifications that contain required information delivered to the residents and businesses, while only requiring signature approvals in specific cases based on the impact of filming. We currently have an expedite fee of $5,000 that is charged when a production applies for their permit less than 10 days in advance of filming. In speaking with location managers we have found this has been a huge deterrent to filming in Thousand Oaks. We have found ways to streamline our processes, eliminating unnecessary steps and a flexible policy will provide additional streamlining. We don't see the need to charge this fee and instead setting a reasonable expectation for permit processing timelines is best practice.

Larger film productions may need to use several locations not just for filming but for parking, staging their equipment and for base camp. The way that the ordinance is currently written a separate permit is required for each of these locations This has caused extra work for the applicant and staff chaotic organization of paperwork and inaccurate reporting data And finally, we're currently using software that does not work well for these types of permits. We're unable to provide access to agencies like Thousand Oaks Police Department or Ventura County Fire Department to review and approve applications. So we're doing the majority of work through emails which is not ideal.

To achieve the needed flexibility, staff is proposing that City Council adopt an ordinance that provides the basic framework for filming but authorizes the city manager to approve an administrative policy that would establish specific rules and regulations. But even within that policy, flexibility will be built in. For example, our new policy would have a requirement to notify surrounding businesses and residences within 300 feet of filming But we had a film permit application come in recently for something that was going to be filmed in one business within a small strip mall. And the plan was to have the crew park on site, and they were going to take up half of that strip mall parking. So that would impact the other businesses in that small little strip mall.

So in this scenario, under a flexible ordinance we would require the regular notifications to the other businesses within 300 feet. But for that particular strip mall we would require a signature survey of those businesses to make sure that they approve of this taking place since it would directly impact their business. With the film industry always evolving, having our regulations built into a city manager approved policy will allow for updates to be made as needed without having to return to City Council. And let's be honest we've been at this for less than a year and even though we've been able to consult with so many helpful people in crafting the future of filming much like the evolving industry we will also need the flexibility to amend the policy as it needs to be adjusted It will be much more efficient to adjust our policy internally when needed rather than scheduling a public hearing and amending an ordinance.

We did some work to evaluate our fees, determine the amount of staff time that it takes to perform the tasks involved. We're proposing a restructured fee model taking away a per day administrative processing fee and eliminating the expedite fee. We are instead proposing to replace it with a model that is not only more reflective of the work performed, but only charges for what's needed for any given permit. Our old fee model penalized smaller productions by charging them for things that they didn't need. But they didn't charge enough for productions that were more complex and kept returning to staff with changes. This model which was reviewed and approved by our fee consultant is sort of like an a la carte menu where you only pay for what you need.

Additionally, we added one rental fee that we didn't already have included and that is for empty city-owned lots that can be used for parking staging or base camps. And since we are in the middle of a user fee cycle this gives us roughly a year to work under this new model if approved and any adjustments can be brought back during the Citywide User Fee Study There are several rental fees that are listed in the user fees and those will remain unchanged With your approval tonight, staff will be working to finalize and approve an administrative policy.

Part of our request includes software maintenance fees. So last year we found that adding a module to our existing business licensing software would provide the capabilities that we need for these permits. We had sufficient budget for implementation in this fiscal year's annual maintenance fees but are requesting budget for the maintenance fees for next fiscal year. We are on track to launch the software on the day that this ordinance would become effective. Additionally, we will update all of the information on our website related to filming. In the next fiscal year, we will hire part-time staff to process both film permits and special event permits. We'll continue to streamline processes by learning as much as we can, striving to make our office a one stop shop so that production companies aren't having to contact multiple people to film here.

What I'm most excited about are the opportunities we have by partnering with our economic development staff and partner organizations to welcome filming into Thousand Oaks and highlight our beautiful city while building filming into a thriving component of our local creative economy. We've come across some great ideas, and by working with our local businesses and residents, we can make filming something our city can be excited about.

So as a reminder, here are the recommendations tonight. In addition to the three of us on the dais I also have in the audience Bill Bartels who is the film liaison with the Ventura County Film Commission as part of the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County and he's also the current president of the film liaisons in California statewide so we are all available for questions.

Thank you so much that was a great report does anyone on council have any questions? Mr. Engler

Thank you for the good report and I'm all for doing what we can to make filming a little bit easier in our community. I think just a couple of small questions. I think what we had before was too rigid. I'm looking at this right now and thinking that, are we able to give you enough guidance for the policy? Because basically the policy now is turn over a lot of discretion to staff to make those decisions. Do you have enough information from us to be able to guide the companies in a way that's acceptable to the city?

Absolutely, and we've done a lot of work talking to other cities and consulting with others on sort of best practices that have worked for their cities. Of course I think for us We may have to adjust those a little bit But the good thing about having this type of policy is that if we decide down the road Hey, we need to tweak this a little bit Now we can just go and do this through an administrative policy. So it's just having the city manager adjust the policy, but fortunately we have a lot of cities that are using this model, and we'll be able to pull a lot from them as examples.

At what point would you come back to us? Is there some trigger point that would have you come back to us on more of a policy issue?

We wouldn't necessarily come back with an ordinance change, but we'd be more than happy to come back with a report in the future to show you how filming is doing after this maybe a one-year type of report.

Thank You

Mr. Adams Thank you, Mayor. That's a great report, Melissa. I can see you're very gung-ho to get started on this. Very enthusiastic. That's important. I'm glad to see that there is an initiative to revive filming in the City of Thousand Oaks as the report says. We have a long history of it. So I like what you are proposing. Certainly make it easier. On the marketing side, are there plans to maybe I see Danielle Borges here to work with the Greater Canadian Valley Chamber of Commerce to market our city as a desirable filmmaking location.

We've had discussions with Danielle and team, and right now this is kind of like our first step. So after we get this into place and we set up our policy, we get everything ready to go online, and we actually start working on the permits, then the plan is to take the next step if City Council desires more filming in Thousand Oaks, we can absolutely take the next steps and work with the chamber, with our economic development team to see what kind of strategies we can develop to help bring in more filming.

I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, I think we have to get the word out That this is a great place to film and I'm sure the chamber Would be a big help in that Thank You

Mr.. Newman

Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you very much Ms. Hurtado for your report, very interesting about our history. Following up on Councilmember Adams' question I had a conversation with a location manager, location scout showed him the proposed law His response and his company's response was very favorable, which is encouraging. I'm wondering if you've gotten that kind of response from other production companies as well?

We have and like I said, they like to call us. So we're usually dealing with them over the phone when they're calling to look for locations and looking to get their film permits. And so we asked them what would be helpful to you? Obviously, we recognize they recognize that our goal is to protect our residents, to protect our businesses, to lessen the impact for them. So there has to be a balance in that, right? And they completely understand that. But a lot of the ideas that we got came from them and came from what best practices are in other jurisdictions and the California State Film Commission. We actually sent our ordinance to the California State Film Commission and had them review it and provide us feedback as well. So we have had very encouraging words come from location managers in the industry definitely.

I'm encouraged to hear that thank you.

Some of that advertising council member will happen internally with word-of-mouth with additional location scouts, you know So as Melissa was saying so much of this business is relationship bill Relationship building and as we have a chance to work with those Location managers and streamline our processes and show them how easy and convenient it is in Thousand Oaks And how wonderful it is here. Certainly We're expecting that word-of mouth to continue as the best type of advertising for us

Maybe just building on that very quickly because it's a great question You can hear the passion from miss Hurtado. Mr. Surratt This was a strategic move the council and community will remember when we did the departmental merger There were a lot of things that we contemplated when we pulled libraries and cultural affairs together in this Community Services model afforded us the ability to To take this permit class, both these film permits and these special event permits. These permits are for the Rotary Street Fairs of the world.

And afford us some additional capacity in community development that is inundated with considerations right now and put this into an area where we can have more boutique handling and service. And really treat it as more of an economic development incentive and an opportunity to leverage our existing venues like our theaters and our other things. So there is a endless amount of promotion and collaboration with the Chamber and others that we can do here, but in this case I think just bears repeating that this was a strategic move to take this into a department that had the capacity and the bandwidth to dedicate this time and attention.

Mr.

Engler

yeah, go ahead Thank You mr. Mayor I think as I read through the proposed Guidance, um, I noticed that it was the hours of filming with 7 to 10 p.m Is there a reason to go as late as 10 p m is that something that is industry-wide and That is

I'm sorry that is standard. However, this is that was just a sample ordinance or a sample policy That is not going to be our final policy We're going to go back and work we needed to make sure that you guys would approve an ordinance that would allow us To go back and do the work So we'll work with our planning team, you know look at our noise ordinance We want to be mindful of what kind of other ordinances we have in place that might impact this And so what you saw in front of you was just sort of a sample of what we can have I

see so Thank you very much. It seems that this is a one size fits all approach. Is there any thought of small productions, say someone doing a documentary who's just two or three people? There's no street parking for cast or crew. Is there some way, is this policy broad enough to accommodate small productions?

It is, actually this is the opposite of the one size fits all. We had a one size fits all before. This is kind of like an a la carte thing so we will only require what is needed for that particular permit and so a small type of production that would come in isn't going to have to pay for police and fire review or police and traffic review for example. The only time that would happen is if we have our production that's going to impact our city streets. And we're gonna have this approach where it's tailored to the actual impacts to the city And actually, just going back to your point about the filming times.

Right now our kind of approach is a one size fits all and we've had things happening in like industrial areas where nobody cares what happens at night for example versus a residential neighborhood where that is truly impactful. We can take a look there and if somebody, if there's a production that wants to film late at night then that's when we go back and we require signatures Right now, our kind of a path forward would to be having notification process. But if it was to be outside of the norm then we would require those signatures and make sure that they are on board with it. So yes what you were asking about with the small productions definitely this is going to be not a one size fits all but rather very much an a la carte type of thing where they are only going to have to apply for what they need and pay for what they need

Thank you.

All right, I have just one quick question and it's just jumping on what Mr. Powers talked about. So with the idea of making it more competitive for our city so you know we have an industry that's coming in here and I recognize why the a la carte fees is structured the way it is did I take this the correct way? That the fees are meant to be more of a cost recovery not an income generator and that in turn will get people here and then we'll shop at our stores etc., etc.? ?

That's exactly right. So our fees are just based on the time that it takes us to process those applications, so we took a hard look now that we've had almost a year into processing. We kind of have an idea of what it takes to do each task and so we're charging only for that. The only fees that you will see in our fee ordinance that are not actually based on the cost recovery are the rental fees. So if somebody wanted to come and use City Hall for production or the theaters for Jonathan, we would actually charge something that is more than cost recovery

Okay. And then I'm hearing this correctly from what you just said to Mr. Engler, the industry needs flexibility and so you feel like this policy allows you guys to be flexible to work with the cities and figure out the best way to get their crew in regardless if it's a three-person crew or 100 plus person staff?

Absolutely. And I think we're trying to create something that is going to be streamlined and take a lot less time to process. We are only going to be, for example the reviews. We are not going to have TOPD review every single application. They've already told us they don't care about certain ones that are not going to be impactful. So we've been working with them to understand what those are. And so now, we've been able to work our business process to eliminate some of the reviews that might take a little longer for some of the bigger productions. So we can have these short-term small productions come in, get their permit very quickly and be able to do their film shoot.