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Bringing you culture, human interest, lifestyle, sports, and politics from San Clemente, California, the best place in the world to live.
SCP_213_Andy Hall_City Manager_260723
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome to the San Clemente Podcast, the only local podcast in the best beach town in the world. We're here to bring you weekly episodes highlighting everything from sports, culture, entertainment, politics, and everything else this beach town has to offer
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the San Clemente Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Moore, joined by me always, as always, Brian De La Puente.
We've got a very exciting podcast coming to you today with two incredible guests, people that know the ins and outs and heartbeat of San Clemente better than anybody else, City Manager Andy Hall and Assistant City Manager Brian Brower. Welcome to the show.
Speaker: Wow. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity.
Great to be here. Thanks for
Speaker 3: having
Speaker 2: us. Awesome. Well, kick us off, Brian. We've been talking for 30 minutes. Yeah, we got... I
Speaker 3: mean, there's a, there's a bunch of stuff we've already talked about. Um, I always like to kick it off, like, getting to know you guys a little bit better. So let's, Andy, let's talk about how, how we got to San Clemente.
How did your path and, like, where you grew up and all that stuff and how you ended up in, as our city manager. [00:01:00]
Speaker: I'm old. That's a long story. I'll truncate it a little bit. Um, my... Previous to here, I was in the city of Imperial Beach for 10 years. And when City of San Clemente was looking for a city manager, they wanted to narrow that down to city managers that had coastal experience, right?
So that narrowed the field quite a bit, 'cause there's only 61 coastal cities in California. People don't realize there's 483, I think, cities in the state, but only 61 of them are on the coast. Yeah. So we're outnumbered when it comes to coastal issues. And, um, so it was... But at least at that point in time, one of the big issues they had was trying to find ways to get sand on the beach.
Right. That's, and that's still probably a number one priority for the city council. And we had done a lot of beach nourishment and whatnot in the city of Imperial Beach. And so I just think coastal experience and some of the things they were looking for, I just had some of that same experience, and it was a good fit.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker: Got here and it was exciting, and it's been fantastic. It's just-
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I, I think that you've done a [00:02:00] great job and, um, ta- let's jump into sand. Like, what is... I know that we've, from a user of the sand, we've seen it all at T Street, and it's, it looks great. It's done great. What's the status of that, and what's the plan going forward?
'Cause we've had some s- big swells all summer. I'm sure we've lost a bunch of it or if it's down, down at Cotton's or something, I don't know. But, um, I know that's a big topic, and what's kind of the plan from the city manager's perspective?
Speaker: Sure. I think that first, the, the s- it took a long time to get that Army Corps project moving.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: It took couple of decades. And when we finally got that project to, to move forward, I think people were... At first, I think the biggest concern people had is that the sand was a different color. Right. It was- Yeah. It was a little bit more pink than- Sure ... the white sand that we had had. That actually turned out to be a blessing for us a little bit, is we were able to see how the sand migrates.
There's a lot of theories, and, and people say, "Well, you know, the sand's gonna do this or the sand's gonna do that." You never know, [00:03:00] 'cause the swell has something to do with it. Sure. It just, you really can't predict. But what we were able to do is see primarily that the sand is going to stay in the system.
So I thought every, I think everybody thought maybe the sand gets washed out to sea and it's just a waste. Don't put any sand on the beach. Right. It's just a waste of mo- It's really not. We found out that if you put sand on the beach, it builds the sandbar at T Street, and the T Street wave, I think-
Speaker 3: Yeah
Speaker: has recovered. Yeah. I think it's a great surf spot again. Yeah. It was always good. I think it's back to maybe what it was before we got a, a, a new sandbar out there. But we've seen the sand migrate all the way down to Cypress Shores. It's, it's, it, you can see where that pink sand just went both ways. It went north also to Linda Lane.
So I, I think the challenge that we have with sand is that everybody kind of wants it to be this one and done. Right. Let's put sand on the beach, and then we're all good. But sand is infrastructure just like, just like all of our infrastructure. We'll pave a road, and it's fantastic, and then the road gets potholes, and you pave it again.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And gets potholes, and you pave it again. [00:04:00] Well- Sand used to have natural transport either from San Juan Creek or every time there was a landslide like Castle Romantica, all that debris would end up on that beach, and the trees would get washed away and everything, and the sand would stay there. And so the sand, I think there's this feeling that sand erosion is new.
Speaker 3: Right. It's not
Speaker: new. Sand erosion's always happened.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: Um, it's just that it had transport that was rivers or streams or whatever. Well, we built railroad tracks and roads, and we've channelized rivers, and we've stopped the sand, and we've built, literally built diversion structures so that debris doesn't end up on the beach.
Right. And so the beach has started to get a little bit starved. We just have to overcome that and, and put sand back on the beach. Sand is free.
You're
Speaker 3: right.
Speaker: Putting sand on the beach is really expensive. Right. So-
Speaker 2: Yeah ...
Speaker: so that's the big issue.
Speaker 2: So two things there. You mentioned one thing about the waves in at T Street, and I can tell you for sure that they are amazing.
I saw Brian there last weekend getting tubed out of his mind. Bodyboard, dude. Life. [00:05:00] Dragon, which is incredible. Second thing I just wanna delineate, so city manager, Brian, assistant city manager. I know we talked briefly about this. Just talk to us a little bit about your role within the city in comparison to Brian, and of course, we'd love to hear your role as well.
Speaker: Well, that's a great subject. So the city manager's role is really outward-facing. So my job is to be that interface between the residents and the city council, the city council and the staff, um, and then also work with external groups that, that influence our city, whether that's OCTA, or maybe it's the Marine Corps, or it could be, you know, SCAG or, you know, all these, all these outward organizations that have impact on our organization.
So I focus most of my effort outside of City Hall and really trying to make sure that we have good communication and coordination with, you know, all these, all these groups that influence our quality of life here in the community, so.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people too, from what we hear, appreciate [00:06:00] how responsive, receptive, and open you are.
They always say- Yeah ... that Andy Hall is always returning emails, returning calls, so I know the community, I can speak on behalf of, I think, appreciates that.
Speaker: It's only part of my job I really like- ... is getting to talk with
Speaker 2: people. I love it. And yeah, Brian, again, assistant city manager, and I think it's important because most people and most of the community probably don't know the difference between city manager, assistant city manager, and the roles.
So what say you?
Speaker 4: Well, the, there is a lot of overlap between what we do. Um, you know, Andy's the outward-facing guy, but I'm here, you know, doing a podcast with him today. So we do overlap quite a bit, but, um, my main focus is internal to the organization. I directly oversee finance, HR, and IT, risk management, that kind of thing.
Um, but also interface directly with all the other departments. Um, you know, the, the internal services are important. I often characterize it as being the part of the iceberg that nobody can see. Um, it's usually don't hear about it unless something goes wrong.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: But, [00:07:00] um, there's, there's a lot to be done there and try to keep the, the ship, you know, sailing smoothly.
So that's my focus primarily is the internal side of things. But we do, we work together every day and we, you know, both involved in just about everything.
Speaker 2: You guys do a great job. We have a ton of projects in and around San Clemente right now. Uh, any projects that come to mind or, or future projects that you guys wanna speak on?
Speaker: Yeah, the... It was really nice to finally see the food hall open, right? So that's been under construction since Brian was in middle school, I think, or whatever. A local here- Right ... and he tells me about the days he used to go there to the movie theater and- Yeah ... I think you guys grew up and remember- Yeah
all that kind of stuff. And he said you had to leave your shoes behind because they'd stick to the floor. All these, all these great stories that I hear about that building, but it, it was nice to see it repurposed instead of eliminated.
Speaker 2: Yeah. '
Speaker: Cause in today's society, lots of times you would take something like an old bowling alley and a movie house and you'd just say, "Eh, it's a throwaway.
Let's do [00:08:00] something different and put in something that has, you know, red stucco roof and white, white stucco and put some more trinket stores in there." It's really nice to kinda keep that, that structure and keep that facility, and I think it's been a big hit. Now, it, it's, it's a challenge because that, that, that building is maybe more popular than it has parking for, and so we're just trying to deal with, you know, hope- I, I think it's very popular right now, so it's really busy trying to get across the road and some of those kinds of things, and I think it'll normalize a little bit.
But we're down there right now trying to really Be creative on how we can get people to move from the parking lot on the other side of the road to the facility safely.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And, um, it's, it's fascinating to me. There's a sign right there where everybody crosses that says, "Please use the crosswalk." And there's an arrow to the crosswalk.
They just walk right on by. Right. So, so, so just because the manual says it and we put a sign up [00:09:00] asking people to do it, doesn't mean it's gonna happen. So we just have a responsibility now to go back in there and see if we can find a way to ma- make it a little bit more safe.
Speaker 3: Is there any, like, ways from a city standpoint, like, to make it a pedestrian, s- to, like, not have that be cars on that street?
Or, like, what are, what are some tactics in terms of doing that?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a really good point. So, so what we've tried to do is we've tried to inch into it because we don't wanna overdo it. Right. You could overcook it. We could say, "You know what? We're gonna close that road. We're gonna make it a pedestrian road."
And, and we're not sure whether or not it requires that level of, of government in- interference.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker: So we, we started by some small things that people didn't realize. We actually put in some, some striping right by 7-Eleven. We put a white stripe on the side of the road just to narrow it down a little bit.
That slowed down the traffic a little bit. Um, right now we're looking at perhaps putting some bulbs in right between the casino and the food hall and the park on the... And then on the other side in the parking lot, just to narrow the [00:10:00] amount of road that you have to cross.
Speaker 3: Gotcha.
Speaker: So, and that, and that in turn will also slow down some of the traffic.
So we'll inch into that.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: If it just isn't working and, and remember, there's more to come.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: Um, the event center hasn't opened yet, so there's gonna be even more people that are coming to that location. Um, I do believe that they're... The old restaurant building there that, that used to be It's Your Berry's.
I'm probably saying
Speaker 3: that wrong. No, you got it. You
Speaker: nailed it. Oh, that's good. See, I'm a local almost. Um, so that'll reopen at some point in time. I think the vacant city lot there has some potential. And so I think that there's gonna be even more movement. There's a hotel being planned across the street. So, so we're gonna have to accommodate a more pedestrian-friendly circulation there- Sure
than what's been there in the past. It's been dominated by vehicles at this point. But getting people back out is gonna be important. E-bikes are new to this community. They're just taking the community by storm. So there's kind of this new pedestrian [00:11:00] bike culture that's happening in the community, and we just have to adapt to that.
For a long time, we all got in our cars and just drove where we wanted to go. Right. People are out more. Yeah. They just wanna walk more. People wanna eat outside. That's the parklet problem- Right ... that we keep talking about, and... But people wanna be out. Yeah. It's just a, our culture's changing a little bit, and that's fun.
I think we all like it,
Speaker 4: so. The challenge is we, we don't wanna create a problem by fixing that one. So, you know, there's heavy pedestrian traffic there today, probably as we speak, or there will be in a couple hours. But that thoroughfare coming down Pico and going, you know, crossing back the other way, that's how that whole neighborhood gets- Gets there.
Gets home ... gets there, gets home, and, and, and leaves home. So the Las Bolas, Buena Vista, you know, that, that whole area is accessed through that intersection. Right. And so trying to reconfigure their access presents a challenge at the same time that you're trying to-
Speaker 3: Fix this problem ... fix
Speaker 4: something else.
Yeah.
Speaker 3: So [00:12:00] that's the... Yeah, you don't wanna, you don't wanna fix a problem to make a problem.
Speaker 4: And, and that's exactly the type of balance that we deal with-
Speaker: Oh, no, we do ... on a daily basis. That's, that's the motto of government. If they broke- It- ... fix it till it is. I
Speaker 2: think one- That's absolutely ... yeah, I think one of the comments we get the most on our podcast is, "Don't overdevelop.
Save our city. We're losing our city." So just speak to what we were talking about a little earlier with regards to there's not a ton of space to continue to develop really.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that that's really important. I... One of the things that's great about San Clemente is the way that the city developed and what they wanted it to be.
This is not a typical beach town. This... Typical beach towns would take their waterfront, there'd be hotels and, you know, tourist-driven kind of development all along your coastline. We kept that for surfing, a beach trail. W- you know, this is an authentic still beach community, and probably the last one you're gonna see in Southern California because they've all now...
You know, you go to the other beach towns. This is, this [00:13:00] is fantastic. Um, but But what that's done, I think, is that when people drive into the community, they see a lot of this open space and these hills, and they think, "Wow, this town's really gonna grow someday." No, our town is actually built out. Um, what is not built on at this point in time is either in a conservation easement or it's open space or it's unbuildable.
So, you know, this is kind of it. And so, uh, the real goal we have here is keeping this community authentic.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and still s- facing the financial pressures of the future and putting sand on the beach and how we're gonna do all that, um, because we don't have those hotels and sales tax and car dealerships and some of the things that other beached communities have, and we don't want it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: So, so hanging on to that is, is gonna be really critical, and that's the challenge w- that Brian and I have more than anything else. How do we keep that balance and keep what makes this community so great and so special and paradise, not, I [00:14:00] mean- It's Friday afternoon. I can only imagine what the traffic is right now in Laguna Beach- Right
or Newport Beach or Huntington. And still, yes, it's busy here, but it's different. Yes. So it's more family. It's great. It's awesome. But how do we still- Evolve ... make ends, make ends meet? Yeah. Yeah. How, how do, how do we have progress without change, right? Yeah.
Speaker 2: How do we- As, as much as
Speaker: change, it's almost- Yeah.
How do
Speaker 2: we, yep. How do we continue to evolve and develop and support good projects and continue to stay up with the current times while salvaging our current culture and our community? Yeah. And that's a, that's a hard problem to solve. It's a very fine line to walk, and I don't envy the position that you guys are in.
Speaker: I love hear- I love hearing that. Stay- there's nothing harder than staying the same. Staying the same is the hardest thing. You're either gonna go backwards or forwards. Staying the same is tough.
Speaker 3: I think that speaks volumes of you guys. I think that it's important to the community that that is at the forefront of your guys' mind, is how do we grow and make ends meet while preserving the history, the...
'Cause San Clemente is rich [00:15:00] in all of that. Like, it's a, it's a special, special place. Um, it brings, when you're talking, it brings the development and the harbor to me. How does that affect what you're doing on a day-to-day basis? Do you guys have any input in that, or is that... Like, what is the collateral of that big development happening?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a good point. Um, y- and that's where, that's where Brian's so important. We were talking a little bit earlier. Brian's not just some government dude that, you know, is running the city. He grew up here. Right. He grew up here. He started as a lifeguard. He's seen everything from being a lifeguard up to where he now runs the organization, and, and can h- and help understand how to keep things the way they are.
I, I- when I was looking at doing some sand issues and how our beaches have been affected by development, one of the things I looked at was the impact on the harbor on, on sand in our community, and it's had an impact. Yeah. A pretty significant impact. And to see [00:16:00] what Dana Point was just in the '60s and what happened after the harbor, that community completely changed.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker: And so w- we don't wanna see any cataclysmic change like that. We want our change to, we want our change to be natural like we were talking a little bit earlier. The bikes are so much more popular now. Okay, that's a change. Let's, let's modify our community to accommodate the new culture of bikes.
Let's not put in, let's not take out roads and put in, you know, change everything that it is just for bikes. Let's, let's find ways to accommodate as things change. I, the harbor itself and the changes in the harbor, I think actually, and maybe I'm, maybe I'm being too Pollyanna here, I think that actually helps our community.
There's a lot of pressure. We live in paradise. We live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, right? And have a lot of people want to be here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: [00:17:00] And the ni- the good thing about Dana Point is it provides a place for all those tourists to be and stay and go and, and whatnot, and might actually preserve all the things we're talking about where we can continue to be a great beach community because there's a lot of pressure on this community for tourism.
Right. People wanna come here. Right. It's beautiful. It's paradise. And, you know, over time, I, I hope that what Dana Point's doing in the harbor will accommodate some of the tourism in this area so that we can continue to maintain some of our more, you know, hometown family-friendly type beach community than...
I, I, I think- Yep. Yeah ... it'll have an impact on Dana Point. Yeah. And I think it will impact us. I agree. But I hope it's a positive impact.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sure. Have the tourists come spend their money here, spend their time here. Eat some dinner. Yeah. Eat some dinner here. Go home. And go home. Or go stay in Dana Point.
Yeah. Go stay in your hotel in Dana Point.
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah. I lo- I think it's, that's a great way to look at it. I mean, in terms of [00:18:00] growth happening We're just taking the benefit of all of that growth happening, and we're being able... We're, we will be able to maintain- Take the best pieces.
Speaker 2: Yeah ...
Speaker 3: yeah, we'll be able to maintain some of our, our history and what's important to all the people that grew up here.
Speaker 2: Yep, without having to provide all the infrastructure and accommodations and parking and traffic. Yeah. So talk a little bit about just affordability. That's another one that we get a lot of. "It's expensive to live here. I'm getting priced out of San Clemente. Um, my mom and dad were a firefighter and a teacher.
They could afford it here. That same scenario can't." So just talk a little bit on that from your perspective.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a, that's a really important topic that's happening in our community right now. Um, what people may not realize is we're actually losing population. We've lost population for several years now.
We, we peaked about 10 or 15 years ago, and since then we've been losing population. Well, it's not people moving out of town. It's that the family dynamic has changed because the kids that grew up in a household, went to high school [00:19:00] here can't afford to live here, so they're leaving. And a household that used to have five or six people in it now have two.
And, and how many people do you know in our community that are living in very large homes and there's two of them living there?
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: But they can't, they really can't afford to go anywhere because they can't really replace that housing because if you've got Prop 13 and other issues that... If I, if... My, my Prop 13 right now, I pay, you know, $2,000 in property tax, and if I go buy a million dollar home, it's gonna go up to 10,000.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And so we've- Affordability in our community is really important, 'cause again, we're gonna graduate hundreds of high school kids this year, and very few of them are gonna have an opportunity to stay in their hometown. Yeah. And, and, um, so we're trying to find places for housing, but, but it comes back to what we were talking before.
The residents of this community don't want change. They don't want to s- see anything change, and so there's this... trying [00:20:00] to strike that balance of let's find a few places in the community where housing might be appropriate, where we, where there's good traffic circulation, maybe in underutilized properties, and see if we can put some housing in there that, that can provide some of this.
Um, and I think people hear things like affordable housing. I, I think Jeff mentioned it earlier when we were just kinda talking about it. Affordable, affordable housing has this connotation that it's Section 8- Yeah ... or something like that. Affordable housing in South Orange County, it's basically anything that's 80% of the median income can be qualified as affordable housing.
80% of the median income in Orange County is pretty good for a high schooler. Right. Even that's not gonna be affordable. It, this is not gonna be inexpensive housing. I, I hope by just having more housing, at least there's some more opportunities for people to stay in their hometown. I... You guys, the three of you are just blessed.
I don't know if you know how lu- I, I grew up in a little cow town in Wyoming. You don't know how lucky you are to [00:21:00] have lived in a town like this, and grown up here, and stay here. And I don't know if your kids are here. They are. They might be the last generation, because it can be very hard for the next ones to even find any housing, you know?
So it's, it's a real issue. It's important.
Speaker 3: And do you think that is, is some sort of development? Like, is that something that needs to happen? Like, it, I mean Is that the answer, do you think? Like, a, a, having a big housing kind of a... I, I mean, what is the... what does that look like? Is it a 20-unit condo complex?
Or like, what is that from a city standpoint? Like, what fixes that? Does that even make a dent?
Speaker: Yeah. I'm, you know, I'm a recovering planner, so I was a planner before I became a city manager, and, um, I, I think there's this fixation at the state level on density. And, and no matter... I, I... There must not be any planners in the legislature.
Um, because one of the things that they always talk about is density, right?
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And, and no matter what you try to tell them, the most dense housing in the United States of America is [00:22:00] probably Manhattan Island.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: If you look at the real estate value, it's not cheap.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker: Um, probably the most dense housing in California is downtown San Francisco.
It's not cheap. Not cheap. Um, dense- density doesn't equal affordability. Um, in fact, in, in San Clemente, the most affordable housing units in our entire community are probably single-family homes. They're the... The mobile homes in the community are probably the most affordable. But somehow we keep being told...
Excuse me. Keep being told we need to build higher, we need to build high-density housing, and the reason that's not happening, even though the, the state laws basically allow it, by right you can build these big monstrosities, it's 'cause it's so expensive to build. They're like, "Well, this is-
Speaker 3: Doesn't make sense
Speaker: this isn't affordable."
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: So what we really need to do is say, "You know, this is a low-profile, two, and at most three-story community. I think our housing needs to be two, and at most, most, um, at [00:23:00] most three-story housing that fits into the community." And I think more, more of it where we can put it will help bring the price down.
But guys, I... No matter how much housing we put in San Clemente, I think our kids are gonna struggle to li- This is-
Speaker 2: Yeah. The reality of the-
Speaker: It is just such a nice place ... w- Yeah. This is gonna be an afford- This is gonna be an affordability issue forever in this community, and it's just so nice here. Yeah.
It's just so beautiful.
Speaker 2: So find a way to make more money. Yeah. I think, I mean, it's...
Speaker: Jobs are important, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Jobs are important.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But I think that's important, and I appreciate you covering that and touching on it, is how do we continue to grow? How do we continue to salvage and keep our culture?
And yeah, that's, that's- That's the balance ... that's, that's the balance. Absolutely. So responsibility for day-to-day operations, does that kinda fall more on your lap?
Speaker 4: Probably, probably myself and the other department heads.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4: You know, we have a community development director, a beaches, park, and recreation- You have to be very
Speaker: humble
Speaker 4: and [00:24:00] maintenance director, a public works director, and then managers below them. And so it, to say it's all on me is not fair.
Speaker 2: What does that look like, though, day-to-day decisions? I know you probably have a staff of people that you work with as well, but what does that look like when you're faced with either a tough decision or a, a project's brought forward?
Just walk us through that.
Speaker 4: Well, uh, there's no shortage of challenges that pop up every day, every week. It's, it's something new. Um, typically, you know, we... It, it's funny, like it's often someone brings something to your attention, right? You know, somebody might be, everything's going well day to day for a particular division, but then something happens.
You know, someone raises an issue. Maybe it's a member of the public, maybe it's an employee, maybe it's a council member. So then you're You're just kinda trying to seek information, trying to understand the issue. Like, that's one thing that I try to do, is try to think about the issue from all perspectives before we take action.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Try not to overreact, try not to under-react. Think [00:25:00] about, you know, the implications of the community. There's always... Anything serious, there's always a conversation with Andy. Um, you know, it's been sometimes he's the one letting me know about
Speaker: these- You know, I think what he's sidestepping probably a little bit, 'cause Brian wants to tell you that there's never anything wrong, right?
That's just Brian. One of the real challenges I think that we have is that all of our employees are wearing more than one hat, and they're kind of working managers even. So the department heads don't have time to just manage. They're out- they're actually out working, and, and the people below them are working and whatnot.
So the challenges that drop, that, that kinda bubble up are those that are difficult like, how do we get a contract signed? How do we get someone to come in and fix our swimming pool? Because we're really out, we're out here busy. We're trying to clean the swimming pool, and we're trying to get kids in and out of the swimming pool, and we're trying...
We [00:26:00] don't have time to even bring someone in to, to try to fix the swimming pool. And, and so Brian tries to balance all of that government minutiae.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And I think that that gets really hard. I- we get thrown things at the state every year, like people wanna know why it's so expensive for government to do anything.
Well, we get hit with stuff like prevailing wage. Everything's gotta be done, and you gotta pay a whole bunch of money to do it, and that's just by law. So I'm just really glad I don't have to do that side of
Speaker 3: it. You get to go be the face.
Speaker: He makes it sound like, "Oh, you know." Yeah. "I have great people, and they're wonderful."
Uh, he- I'm glad he does it. Yeah. 'Cause I couldn't. I- it would drive me crazy.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about city council meetings. Brian and I, and Ryan Terry talk, again, often about people getting involved. If you have a problem, get involved. If you wanna advocate for something, get involved. City council meetings, they take place, uh, once a month, Tuesday nights or-
Speaker: Twice.
Twice ...
Speaker 2: okay, [00:27:00] so every other Tuesday. First and third. First and third Tuesday of the month. Talk to us about what a average day looks like when you have a council meeting on the agenda.
Speaker: So, it's not r- it's not an average day. That's a really good, um, that's a really good segue. So the council packet is usually a few thousand pages.
It's, I don't know, it's, it's usually about this thick. And so we spend, I would say, about a week putting that packet together. So the council meeting gets over on a Tuesday night. We start on Wednesday morning, and we take about a week to get the pack- packet put together so that on that following Wednesday, it can go out to the council members for the meeting on the following Tuesday.
So it's just this cycle. And so council meetings consume most of our time, I would say, during a given week. That's... We spend most of our time either preparing the packet, and then on Monday and Tuesday, we spend most of Monday [00:28:00] and Tuesday of the council meeting briefing council members, and they wanna go through e- everything in the packet, what's gonna be on the agenda, help us understand that, and, and whatnot.
So the, the month of July, the city council goes dark. And so we try to cram a whole bunch of catch-up into one month, and so we do a lot of work in July and try to catch up on everything that's going on. And then, yeah, most of our life is that council cycle, and it, it's kind of an endless cycle. Right That what you kind of have to get used to is right now Brian and I are living in the third week in August.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: We've already kind of prepared for the first meeting in August, and now we're living for the third week in August. And sometimes I just don't, I don't even know anymore which day it is- ... 'cause I'm always living like two or three weeks in the future.
Speaker 3: Right. '
Speaker: Cause that's what you're working on, and it's like, "What?"
I'm not sure what today is. I know it's sometime in July.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker: We're already thinking August, so, uh-
Speaker 2: [00:29:00] Yeah. Well, I love that people come to our podcast and, and come here for local news and updates and what's happening in the community, and we're gonna continue to always provide that. However, I will say if you wanna know what's going on in the community, attend a city council meeting.
Absolutely. You will get all the meat, all the potatoes, and you will find out exactly what's going on.
Speaker: Yep. And we, we know that not everybody can just hike down there on a Tuesday night, right? So we do have a broadcast that you can catch on YouTube. Um, and we- and the meeting is actually taped, so you can watch it later when you can't fall asleep or whatever.
Just watch it late at night and fall right to sleep. But-
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker: Actually not. I think it's the most enter- It's actually the most entertaining show on television.
Speaker 2: I agree. I watch
Speaker: it If you have reality TV, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: I agree. I watch the city council meetings on YouTube consistently every single one of them.
It's great. Maybe not the full- It's really entertaining ... it's amazing entertainment. And you get to see what's happening. And you get to know what's happening. Entertainment plus get to find out what's happening. Incredible.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 3: What's happening with, uh, [00:30:00] the beach trail? The- Oh, great ... the zone- So glad you asked.
Yeah. ... the zone between the- No
Speaker: one's asked. This is the first time. No, just kidding.
Speaker 3: The... I know that we've, we- everyone wants to use it, right? Yeah. What's happening with the, the opening, the plan, all that stuff?
Speaker: You know, I, we, we've talked with OCTA. They still kind of have this September timeframe in mind. It...
I was down there this week. I think it's more October, maybe even November.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: But, but there's a couple things that come out of that. Um- I was a little bit surprised. I knew the trail was gonna be elevated so you could see over the railroad tracks.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: If you go down there right now, it's really elevated.
It's like 10 feet above the railroad tracks. It's gonna be, it's gonna be fascinating. It's gonna be beautiful. And, and it's gonna be a lot better than it was before. Um-
Speaker 3: We're talking about the stretch between Linda Lane and-
Speaker: And North Beach ...
Speaker 3: like 204s. Yep.
Speaker: Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 3: That elevated part.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that's gonna be all reworked.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And it won't be a bridge. It'll be literally, it'll be DG all the way. [00:31:00] Um, so the, the bridge was difficult for some people, especially when it was wet, 'cause it was a little- Sure ... slippery. Now it will be flat. Oh. It'll actually be ADA accessible. So- Right on ... so it'd be relatively flat. Um, and the wall that's there, we're gonna...
It, I know it's a little stark. It looks a little big right now, and it is a big wall. But they're gonna do some landscaping, and we're gonna soften it and whatnot. But there was another development that happened there down by Linda Lane where, where we fixed some of the slope there by, we call it the Marquita Station, and they fixed the slope, and it, and it opened up some areas.
So in the future, we actually wanna enhance the trail, maybe to have a few more benches along the trail, maybe some picnic tables, maybe even some workout stations where, where the trail is more than just walking. It c- you can actually stop and, you know... When you look like Jeff, you know, I know he does a lot of pull-ups-
and that kind of stuff to look like this. And so he can, he can go down to the, the- Yeah ... beach trail
Speaker 2: and- I can squeeze. [00:32:00] Okay. True or false, I'm gonna take us on a little weave here. Andy Hall lives on a boat down in Oceanside Harbor.
Speaker: Wrong. Oh. Close. Wrong. I moved my boat to Dana Point Harbor. You did. So now I'm really close.
Yeah. Oh. It, it took me a while, but I finally got a slip. I was on a waiting list for a pretty long time. I mean,
Speaker 2: are boats not the best thing in the world?
Speaker: Oh, man. Right? Everybody should live on a boat. I agree. I just think everybody should do
Speaker 2: that. Yeah. In the South Pacific.
Speaker: No matter how much Brian makes me angry during the day, I can go home and- Ah
and just kinda like, "Oh." Just like a big- All of a sudden Brian just a f- I don't care anymore. You know? So
Speaker 4: it's- He doesn't get stuck in traffic anymore, though.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker 4: So that's...
Speaker: There was one night-
Speaker 4: Well, he does on the way back to the real home, but...
Speaker: Yeah, there was one night I called Brian, and like, it was Basalone Road, and it said it was gonna take four hours.
Speaker 4: And so you can't do anything.
Speaker: Brian, I said, "I have a bed in my house," and I was like, "You know, I bet this accident will clear up. I, I... They're saying four hours, but I'm sure it's gonna be quicker." Yeah. It was four and a half hours. I watched The Godfather and half of Face Off on my phone [00:33:00] while waiting - Oh
Speaker 3: my
Speaker: gosh
to get to Oceanside.
Speaker 3: There's nothing you can do.
Speaker: No.
Speaker 3: Stuck.
Speaker: There's nowhere to go.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker: You're just... So-
Speaker 3: Oh, that's
Speaker: boy ... so it's really nice to be closer. Plus, not only that, I've been surprised at- You get a feel for the community the more that you're here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, so it's been nice to get a little bit of a feel for South Orange County in the evening and whatnot instead of jetting out of here and going to Oceanside.
Speaker 2: And how different is South Orange County and San Clemente in comparison to your last city manager job?
Speaker: Wow. So my last city manager job, of course, was right on the Mexican border, and if anybody's spent much time on the border, it's 24/7, 365. Your hair is on fire all the time. It never stops. It just seems like, uh, uh, those...
It's a blur. I can't even remember. San Clemente is way more civilized. It's way more... This is, this is paradise, and people wanna keep it this way. They are... So it was a [00:34:00] complete departure. Um, Imperial Beach was, "We want it to change. We want it to be different. We want this and that." And the big issue was we were able to get a hotel opened, a, a Marriott Autograph right on the sand.
If you haven't been down to Pier South, it's f- great hotel. Got a whole bunch of new restaurants opened, and the residents were begging for it. "Yes, we want new hotels. We want new restaurants. We..." I came to S- San Clemente, "We don't want anything." Right. "No" was the first answer, and that's where we wanna st- So it was a little bit of a transition from we want a whole bunch of change to we don't want anything to change.
Right. And that was really good because, you know, you get, you get in a career like this and you've been doing it for so long, it was nice to have a new reality of people wanting to keep what they have exactly like it is, where I had just spent a decade, "We want everything to change. We want everything new.
We want everything..." S- so that was really energizing for me, and it's been, it's been nice. Sure. 'Cause [00:35:00] it... Knowing that people love something and wanna stay it that way, there's a little bit more passion about that than, "We hate this place, and we want it to change." Yeah. So yeah, it's been a great change for me.
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah. Talk to us about the Olympics right around the corner. Yeah. I'm surprised you didn't ask that question. Oh, that was, that was my next one. Okay, ask it, Brian. Yeah. The what? The who? Yeah. The where? The what are we doing here? Does anybody know anything about, uh- I forget the Olympics ... Brian, ask that question.
Yeah.
Speaker 3: We're, uh... The Olympics are coming to town. We're hosting- Yes ... an event. Yep. Um, but we're also, we were talking about our beautiful parks getting used by some other countries and, and- Yeah ... talk on that. I think it's exciting and cool- Yeah, the- ... to show off our town.
Speaker: Do you... So we, we are hosting surfing, and that's, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, you know, it was interesting. This is a little side note. I was, I w- went to the WSL a couple of years ago, and I was sitting with the president of WSL, and I thought I was gonna be all cool or cute or whatever, and I said, "So just tell me, where's the best surfing spot in the world? Where y- what's your favorite surfing spot [00:36:00] in the world?"
He said, "You're sitting here."
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: Said, "This is the best wave in the entire world." I said, "Really? The whole world?" And he said, "It's the most fair, it's the most consistent. You can go left, you can go right, you can go big, you can go small. And, and so nobody has an advantage." Right. "Every surfer has a chance to show off their skills on this wave like no other wave in the entire world."
So we talked a little bit about how San Clemente residents just maybe don't understand how special this place is. Right. As much as they love Trestles, I'm not sure they know how special that wave is. That, that's the best wave in the world- Yeah ... according to, you know, someone that probably knows. Well, one of the challenges we have is that that best wave in the world doesn't have a very big beach, and in fact, right now, if you've been down there the last few days, it's really ero- they're having some challenges.
Now it'll, we're having an El Niño year, so typically in El Niños we'll get some pretty good swell in the, in the fall, and we'll probably get a lot of sand back. But right now it's pretty, pretty narrow, [00:37:00] and They've limited the amount of people to 4,000 tickets, and that's about half of the people that go to a WSL event.
So it's, in terms of the event, it, it's gonna be real challenging. Well, there's gonna be a lot of people, I think, in our own community that wanna be part of it. So we're trying to get with the Olympics and have some kind of a viewing party or something where people can, instead of watching it at home, come, k- kind of like those viewing parties they had for the World Cup.
Sure. People just wanna be around other people- Yes ... when that's happening.
Speaker 3: 100%.
Speaker: So we wanna create something like that around surfing and, and have some kind of a viewing party here in the community. Um, what I'd r- what I'm pushing for and what we all need to write letters for, if we can start a letter campaign or whatever it is, um, the real im- the real coolest thing about the Olympics, I was lucky enough to b- to participate in one of the Olympics in the past, but at, as a city manager.
I didn't participate. I was around it.
Speaker 3: Sure. Wasn't on
Speaker: the [00:38:00] team. Wasn't a Jesse Ventola. I, I look like a, like a Greek god here but anyway. But the medal ceremony. That brings... So, so let's say someone from Australia wins a gold medal. Every Australian that's here for the Olympics in Southern California is gonna wanna be here that night.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And, and it's the coolest thing ever. So we need to start some campaign to see if we can get the medal ceremonies to be somewhere down by the pier. That would just be fantastic. Um, and that's the coolest thing about the Olympics is seeing that national anthem and, and that kind of stuff. But, but as you talked, we, it was interesting, we had the assistant consul from the British Consulate come down, and they're, they're looking at space for their athletes to train during the Olympics or whatnot.
And we took her out to Vista Hermosa Park to show her the, the pool. She was blown away. And Vista Hermosa Park is one of those places in this community we, uh, uh, I think our residents take it for granted. They don't know how amazing that facility is. It is just [00:39:00] incredible. Um, right now the German swim team has, has, has committed that they're going to do their training here.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker: And then we probably have room for... That was, that was me. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Um, I got, I got guys ringing all over. People are coming to the door. Um, we have probably room for three or four swim teams if they wanna come here. What we're trying to do though is be really careful. We wanna balance that.
There, there are some cities that have entire teams coming to their community and kinda taking it over.
Speaker 3: Right
Speaker: I don't know that our residents for two months wanna give up all of their ability to play soccer and Little League- Right ... and go to our pools and whatnot. So we're trying to limit how many teams are actually coming here, just to make sure that our residents continue to, continue- Right
to use these great facilities. Um, but we've asked them if, if the Germans [00:40:00] come, we've asked them, "Hey, we want some exhibitions so that some of the kids in- I
Speaker 3: see ...
Speaker: town can, can maybe even take some swim, you know, the high school swim team can imagine spending a session with the German swim team, and how they train and how hard it is and how hard they focus on it, and just what a great experience that would be for them, and for the public to go out and maybe see the sprints at the end of the practice- Yeah
where they can watch d- you know, Olympic caliber athletes and, and how that works. So we're, we're trying to make sure that we have a really positive Olympic experience. I, I, I've heard so many people say, "I'm on, we're at my house and I wanna get out of here for two weeks." There's gonna be some people that just don't wanna be in Southern California during the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker: But for those that wanna stay here and have a great Olympic experience, we wanna be catalysts for that. We wanna create some really cool, um, experiences to, to make that happen.
Speaker 3: Will those teams stay in town, or is it, is there like logistics involved with that?
Speaker: They, they have indicated that they s- [00:41:00] some of the teams have, have indicated that they wanna rent any number of homes, and then some have said, "No, we're gonna stay at, at a hotel."
I, the Germans have already identified a hotel in another community. I can't... I'm not gonna promote them.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: But, um, because we don't have a lot of hotel facilities in our community, um, so they're gonna stay somewhere else, and they'll just, they'll just bus them over. Um, they're really, really... I found in my, in the one experience I had, the athletes are really great a couple weeks leading up to the Olympics.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker: And then the Olympics start, a different clock ticks on on them, and they don't talk to anybody, they don't- Sure ... it, it gets really focused. Yeah. So, you know, we just wanna use those couple of weeks. Now, that brings up an interesting point. Um, there's been some people say, "We want the city council to relax the rules on short-term rentals during- Right
the Olympics so people can rent out their homes or whatever." And we've had other people say, "We don't want a bunch of [00:42:00] visitors here in the community. Don't..." D- So, so the council's gonna have to find some balance in h- because we don't have hotels. Right. How, right, how many- How lenient are we going to be in these residential communities to allow strangers to come in and rent homes?
And- Yeah ... some people are excited about that, and some people are very- Right ... leery about it. Um, I think during that period, I think the people that are coming here for the Olympics, they're not coming here to make your-
Speaker 3: No ...
Speaker: neighborhood difficult. But they probably are coming here to have some fun. They are.
So, so we've got, we've gotta have this balance. So,
Speaker 2: sure. Yeah. That's it. Some European fun.
Speaker: Yeah. They, they tend to have fun. You've seen the soccer crowds. Yeah. They, they enjoy themselves.
Speaker 2: How lenient will we be? And, or is that up to the city council- Yeah ... and is that future?
Speaker: It's up to the city council. I think that they probably, in the next year or so, are gonna have to have some hearings on that and just kinda hear from the residents.
And, you know, you guys are in touch with the community. The, that's the real challenge is if you go to council meetings, they work in a vacuum. [00:43:00] Right? You know, 20 or 30 people might show up out of 60,000.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: And those, so those voices are un- unfairly amplified.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: Uh, one, one comment at a council meeting is speaking for thousands of people really, when you think about it.
So they really need to hear from the community, and I'm, I don't know the best way to-
Speaker 2: Yeah ...
Speaker: to understand that. I-
Speaker 3: Comment on our Instagram. Yeah. Comment, like, I mean-
Speaker 2: That's a great
Speaker 3: way- Like-
Speaker 2: Yeah ...
Speaker 3: do we want, do we want people at their houses? Do you wanna rent your house out? Like, that's a good question, um, for the community to answer.
Like, be heard. And I know that we've got a ton of comments, good and bad, and I think that, like Jeff said earlier, like, m- make your voice be heard, or s- you don't really have any room to be upset or not upset if you don't voice your opinion, so.
Speaker: Well, we have surfer sponsors that wanna be part of the Olympics, but they're not- Right
because the Olympics are very strict about-
Speaker 3: Right ...
Speaker: advertising and stuff. So do we try to plan something couple weeks or a week [00:44:00] before the Olympics where they're sponsors? 'Cause remember, these guys, these guys need s- their sponsors to, you know-
Speaker 3: To make their
Speaker: living ... surfing's, yeah, surfing's not like football or baseball- Right
where they're just gonna make money automatically. They, these sponsors are really important. So do we have a sponsorship party or-
Speaker 3: Yeah ...
Speaker: some of these things, but, but there's a lot of people saying, "No, we wanna downplay the Olympics. We don't really want..." It's that cha- we don't want any change the-
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker: I, I, the, the thing that's missing in all of this is that 2028 is also the city's 100th birthday.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: So we've got the Olympics coming. We've got the 100th birthday, and so what I'm, what I'm hope we can encourage people to do is, even if you're an old fuddy-duddy, let's take a couple weeks and just have a big party.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: It's our 100th birthday. The Olympics are here. Let your hair down a little bit. I think-
Speaker 2: Close down Del Mar. I love it. Don't- Close down Del Mar, right? For
Speaker: two weeks. Don't, don't call in at 9:30 and say I'm trying to go to the bank. Let, let's just cut loose for a couple weeks and just really have a party here- Yeah
and just really [00:45:00] take it in and kind of enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Well- And it's a two-week- ... I think we can embrace it ... yeah, it's a two-week period of time-
Speaker: Yeah ...
Speaker 2: out of your entire life.
Speaker 3: Now, it being at Lower's, that is not technically San Clemente, so how, how have, have you worked with other jurisdictions in that process? And security, I know there's a ton of stuff that goes into it, but who, who ha- do you have to work with?
The city has to work with the state, state parks, m- uh, military. Like- Right ... what are all those relationships? Had
Speaker: two Olympic meetings this week and have another one next week. We're, the, they're, I, I think they're really late in the game trying to get organized, but we'll, we'll find a way. We'll get there.
But, you know, when, when I started getting calls from LA28 and they said you know, what's really important here. And I said, w- there's really only one thing important to me, that when you announce the Olympic venues, that it incl- that it's City of San Clemente is the Olympic host.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker: [00:46:00] And we're not really when you think about it.
Yeah, it's in San Diego County, but if you look on the LA28 website it says the host city is San- City of San Clemente, and that's the only thing I asked for-
Speaker 3: Right ...
Speaker: for them. They said, "What does the City of San Clemente want in the announcement?" And I said, "Just that it's in the City of San Clemente." Um, that probably rubbed some people in San Diego County wrong and I don't care.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: But we, we claim, you know, people don't know this, but the county line actually goes up and circles around. We, we, we claim Lowers. We claim all of, we claim all of
Speaker 2: Transamerica. Yeah, Lowers belongs to San Clemente. That's right. 100%. Well, in addition to the Olympics coming to San Clemente, it being the 100-year anniversary, what else is happening in San Clemente that year?
Speaker 4: It's in addition to those things, it's also the 50th anniversary of the Ocean Festival. Ooh. Which literally historically takes place I think on the third weekend of July- Right ... which overlaps with the Olympics. Um, so that's- That's huge ... that kinda, it's this trifecta of the city's [00:47:00] 100th birthday, the Ocean Festival, and the Olympics.
So there's gonna be a lot going down. I think the challenge there is gonna be appropriately blending it all together- For sure ... and kind of turning it into one big kinda two-week maybe an extended celebration or- Yeah ... or however you wanna phrase it. But, um, it's gonna be an exciting time here in town. And
Speaker 3: if we can fit into that and help and do whatever, I think that, um, there's gonna be so many cool people and cool stories in town that we should try to capture.
Maybe we set up a... We've talked about- Podcast.
Speaker 2: A live
Speaker 3: podcast, yeah. Just do like a mobile set up and go down to the parties and talk to the people and talk to the, I don't know. Just kinda spitball, but I think it would- You
Speaker: guys willing to do that, we'll, we'll plan that in.
Speaker 3: We are. I think it, I think it would be super fun and, and just even l- just little guys.
Little 10 minute sit downs I think would be rad.
Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely. Well, we appreciate it Andy Hall, Brian Brower. On behalf of Beach House Studios and the San Clemente Podcast, thank you for everything you guys do. Oh, man. It was so nice. You guys- Can we do it again sometime? We can do it again. This was great.
I could do this and sit down with you guys for hours upon hours, and there's so many other [00:48:00] questions. Yeah. But honestly, you guys are great assets to the community. We are very lucky to have you guys as both ambassadors and just really, as I like to look at it, as CEOs of the city. So thank you for coming on the podcast.
Thank you. Really appreciate
Speaker: it. Such a
Speaker 4: pleasure. Thanks for having us. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Like the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. Thank you guys
so much.