​

Please save us.

Many of us have dedicated years to hospitality because we genuinely care about service, standards, and creating memorable guest experiences. Unfortunately, under the current General Manager, those values have deteriorated significantly.

There appears to be little regard for true fine dining or Forbes-level service standards. Management positions and hires are being filled primarily with former friends and coworkers from casual dining establishments such as Buffalo Wild Wings, many of whom lack the experience necessary for the level of hospitality this property should represent. Basic cocktail standards are inconsistent, with bartenders unable to properly execute even simple drinks like an Aperol Spritz or Espresso Martini.

There is little structure, accountability, or quality control in both the kitchen and bar. Instead of leadership and support, blame is frequently shifted onto servers for management failures. Since arriving, the General Manager has created a culture where employees feel forced to fend for themselves rather than operate as a supported team.

Constructive criticism or concerns are often met with threats of reduced hours, creating a workplace environment driven by fear rather than professionalism. Meanwhile, management frequently remains in the office with minimal floor presence unless specifically called upon. At the same time, friends of management are regularly brought in for complimentary dinners.

This property has incredible potential, and many hardworking employees still care deeply about its reputation and future. We simply hope ownership takes a closer look at what is truly happening within the culture and operations of the restaurant and hotel before more talented staff and loyal guests are lost.

Sincerely,

A concerned employee

Please save us.

Many of us have dedicated years to hospitality because we genuinely care about service, standards, and creating memorable guest experiences. Unfortunately, under the current General Manager, those values have deteriorated significantly.

There appears to be little regard for true fine dining or Forbes-level service standards. Management positions and hires are being filled primarily with former friends and coworkers from casual dining establishments such as Buffalo Wild Wings, many of whom lack the experience necessary for the level of hospitality this property should represent. Basic cocktail standards are inconsistent, with bartenders unable to properly execute even simple drinks like an Aperol Spritz or Espresso Martini.

There is little structure, accountability, or quality control in both the kitchen and bar. Instead of leadership and support, blame is frequently shifted onto servers for management failures. Since arriving, the General Manager has created a culture where employees feel forced to fend for themselves rather than operate as a supported team. Constructive criticism or concerns are often met with threats of reduced hours, creating a workplace environment driven by fear rather than professionalism.

Meanwhile, management frequently remains in the office with minimal floor presence unless specifically called upon. At the same time, friends of management are regularly brought in for complimentary dinners.

This property has incredible potential, and many hardworking employees still care deeply about its reputation and future. We simply hope ownership takes a closer look at what is truly happening within the culture and operations of the restaurant and hotel before more talented staff and loyal guests are lost.

Sincerely,

A concerned employee

UPDATE - this meeting is cancelled due to no quorum. OC Parks proposes to spend $103,000 to pay a consultant to study how to conduct a 4-7 year study to discover if there are any rare, unknown or endangered creatures along our trails that might be disturbed by bicycles. The first $103,000 spent is not a study, it is to pay a consultant to study how to conduct the study. The final study is not proposed to include the impact of loud music, dogs, cigarette butts or horses, it singles out just the impact of bicycles.

Background.

OC Parks cyclists now are comprised 50% Class 1 MTB and 50% ‘acoustic’ mountain bikes. Class 1 MTB are mountain bikes with a small motor, no throttle. These are not e-motos, they are bicycles according to the laws of California and heavily used by the 50+ year old community to keep riding on our steep trails. For 5 years, mountain bike riders have been switching to Class 1 MTB and local bike shops now sell 50% of their mountain bikes as Class 1 MTB. Their use of the trails data is freely available and updated daily at the trail level and provided to OC Parks by Strava in full detail at no cost.

For 5 years, we have been monitoring the trails and witnessed no impact by the rapid rise of Class 1 bikes. Previous analyses, and our own eyes, show that MTB use of the trail has very low impact, even less than hiking and much less than horses. None of these has anywhere near the impact to our trails compared to a single big rainstorm and routine bull dozering and chain saws to fix rain damage or the weed eaters to keep the trails clear of growth.

However, OC Parks is unconvinced by all the data and now proposes to start a 4-7 year tax payer-funded analysis costing upwards of a million dollars to discover if there is any undiscovered creature uniquely impacted by Class 1 eMTBs, but not by traditional MTB or cigarette butts, trash, dogs, horses, loud music and other trail nuisances we all complain about - just class 1 bicycles.

After 5 years of first hand experience seeing with their own eyes, OC Parks will begin paying contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars on a hunt to find something, anything, to help them justify banning Class 1 MTB in the parks.

By the time the study is done, it is projected that 75-85% of all bikes will be Class 1 MTB.

Do you think this is smart use of tax payer money, is this good for our business community or the improved health of our citizens?

The Trails Subcommittee meets in Tustin tonight at OC Parks Headquarters at 6. Show up and share your opinion on OC Parks handling of this issue.

hi everyone so my wedding is set for June 27th this summer in laguna beach!! my fiancé and i are super excited. however we are running into a major unforeseen issue...we booked a photographer from 3-10pm for the whole day and were planning on either doing a quick private ceremony (only us two and the officiant) in our hotel room or at crescent bay park. and then continue to take more couple photos together at the park after and maybe also at treasure island park. our reception starts at 6pm, so we really wanted to take individual pictures together before. however, as i'm going online to apply for the permits it seems Laguna doesn't allow any professional photography from 10am-6pm in the summertime!!! oh no :( is there anything we can do to get around this and still get a permit? any advice? or are we just screwed at this point? any help is greatly appreciated thank you

Hey, Im from Santa Cruz visiting and am staying in Dana Point a few months and want to find more chill spots with a more surfer down to earth vibe to hang out around here. Beaches, karaoke, open mics, any recs welcome

Hi! Newly engaged here. I know Casa Loma just renovated. Any advice, thoughts, recommendation on Casa Loma as a wedding venue? I know they don’t have much parking- any advice on how to rent parking elsewhere?

Serving South Orange County

Where do you go?

I have this beloved memory of eating breakfast with my dad in a restaurant at Laguna beach that had a patio full of plants and a bunch of decorative stone fountains. I know I ate pancakes, but I have no memory of other menu items. This was 10+ years ago, so I’m not sure if it still exists. Does anyone local know what I’m talking about??

Just wanted to put out a warning for folks who take their animals to Laguna Beach Animal Hospital. My family has been taking our beloved dogs here for years and we have been noticing that it has been declining in quality and care over the last couple of years, but today things went too far. My elderly dog was given the wrong medication and after witnessing her immense decline over the weekend we finally were able to talk to someone today and after much digging they discovered that she had not been taking the medication she needed and instead we were given the wrong meds all together. Never again will I visit this vet and I recommend that you too choose a vet that does not put its patients lives at risk like this.

Hi! I am traveling the area and was wondering what the water quality for Laguna beach is and if it’s safe for kayaking in terms of bacteria. I know there were several advisories about rainfall and such so I just wanted to be better safe than sorry. I checked ocbeachinfo but I’m not sure how up to date it is.

Nine trees axed at midnight, a charter city killed in real time, and a hedge feud goes to council — your April 28 Laguna Beach Council meeting recap

The April 28, 2026 regular meeting clocked in at 5.5 hours. Buckle up. Here's what actually happened, with deep links so you can skip to the good parts.

🎥 Full video: City Council Regular Meeting — April 28, 2026

TL;DR

• 🌳 City Manager Dave Kiff explained — and apologized for — the midnight removal of 9 eucalyptus trees on the Forest Avenue Promenade. Two arborist reports + a $28M cautionary tale = trees came down before the public knew.
• 🏛️ Charter City idea: dead on arrival. After a long staff presentation, every speaker opposed it and the council unanimously dropped the matter.
• ⛺ Beach canopy ban at most beaches passed second reading (with Council Member Kempf voting no on canopy provisions, wanting a full ban).
• 🌿 The council denied a hedge appeal at 511 Brooks Street, ordering a 33-year-old eugenia hedge trimmed to restore a neighbor's ocean view.
• 💚 Meeting adjourned in memory of longtime resident Roger Kempler.

🌳 The Promenade Tree Massacre — Item 15

This was the main event. On the morning of Sunday, March 22, an old eucalyptus on the lower Forest Avenue Promenade construction site fell on its own, in the middle of the night, hitting heavy equipment. No injuries — pure luck.

What followed: two independent arborist reports (Dudek + a peer reviewer), air-spaded root inspections, and a soil analysis. Their findings were grim — buried root collars, fungus, dead roots, and old plastic root barriers from the '70s/'90s strangling the trunks.

Then on April 20, after dark, 9 more trees came down with about 90 minutes of public notice. The community erupted.

🔗 Full staff presentation begins at 54:51

The legal hammer

City Attorney Megan Garibaldi laid out the liability picture: California's "dangerous condition of public property" doctrine + a recent SCEPA insurance pool case where a city paid $28 million after a tree fell on a wedding guest in an LA County park.

🔗 Megan on the $28M case at 1:04:12

The gut-punch moment

Kiff shared a deeply personal story: on September 15, 2011, while he was city manager elsewhere, a 29-year-old woman named Ms. Miller was killed by a falling eucalyptus while sitting in her car on Irvine Avenue on a clear, windless day. He watched the fire department spend two hours extracting her body.

🔗 Kiff's "this is why we moved fast" moment at 1:23:51

The community reaction (a sampler)

The room was packed. Highlights from public comment:

• 🔥 Jacob Cherub (36-year resident): "The disaster that has occurred a couple of blocks from here is of your own making." 29:23 and again at 1:32:12
• ❤️ Mark Christie (lifetime resident, Tuvaloo owner): defended the council, pledged $10,000 to replace the tree in front of his restaurant. 1:25:58
• 🌱 Ruben Flores (Laguna Nursery): tore into the replanting plan — wrong species mix, wrong soil knowledge, salt intrusion concerns, irrigation will kill eucalyptus. "We aren't feeling like we're being heard." 1:29:01
• 🏠 Lisa Mansour: had her own eucalyptus rip out of the ground in 2017 — five minutes after texting an arborist who said it was fine. Landed on her neighbor's house. 1:39:18
• 🇮🇹 Anne Kristoff: came back from a rare trip to Italy to find the trees gone, urged caution on the Quercus virginiana (southern live oak) selection. 2:18:17
• 🤔 Jerome Pudwell: "Why did the city council use the same arborists who originally failed to declare the problems?" 2:29:10

The replanting plan

• 33 total trees (up from 30 originally planned, 24 originally there)
• 27 eucalyptus polyanthemus + 4 quercus virginiana (southern live oak) + 2 retained ficus
• Silva Cells underground (suspended pavement system for root growth)
• Tree grates, dedicated irrigation, 3-year contractor maintenance

🔗 Council deliberation begins at 2:33:18 — Mayor Pro Tem Hallie Jones publicly took ownership: "Be mad at us. It is not Dave up here alone shouldering this."

🏛️ Charter City: Killed Before It Could Walk — Item 17

After a thorough staff presentation by Assistant City Attorney Pat Donigan on the differences between a general law city and a charter city, the public hearing was a unanimous wave of opposition.

🔗 Charter hearing begins at 3:52:52

The pitch was narrow: more flexibility on parking enforcement (currently a gray area for general law cities), public works contracting, and fine amounts for misdemeanors. No housing law changes. No zoning changes.

But every public commenter saw a power grab. Speakers cited:

• Loss of state-law guardrails
• Lack of articulated cost-benefit
• Trust deficit after the tree removal
• Slippery slope to a documentary transfer tax

🔗 Council kills the idea at 4:36:35 — Council Member Rounaghi: "the juice is worth the squeeze"… isn't here. All five council members agreed not to pursue it. No vote needed.

⛺ Beach Canopies & Tents — Item 12

Second reading of the ordinance restricting easy-up canopies to small zones at Main Beach and Aliso Beach (effectively banning them on ~95% of beaches).

🔗 Item begins at 3:18:39

The wildest moment: 4th-generation resident Whitney Aronoff described a turquoise tent that sets up daily in front of lifeguard HQ where two men sell Australian face cream over WhatsApp in a foreign language. She also called out "Tent City" weekends at Heisler Park.

🔗 Whitney's testimony at 3:33:02

Outcome: Ordinance passed (Council Member Kempf voted yes for the record but had previously opposed the canopy provisions, preferring a complete ban). Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond committed to bringing it back in a year for review.

🌿 The Brooks Street Hedge War — Appeal B

A 33-year-old eugenia hedge at 511 Brooks Street vs. an ocean view at 527 Brooks Street.

• Lee Hoskins (vegetation owner, 50-year resident) said the hedge has been there for decades, the new neighbors built a two-story-with-porch ADU and now claim a view she argues never existed at that vantage point. 5:03:16
• Amy & Jeff Calvert (claimants) said the hedge crept up to 13–14 feet (twice the legal sideyard limit) and obliterated their ocean horizon. 5:10:42

🔗 Full appeal begins at 4:50:25

Outcome: Council unanimously denied the appeal and sustained the hearing officer's order — hedge to be trimmed to 10 ft (max 11 ft). Staff was directed to set a physical benchmark so this doesn't end up back in chambers.

💵 Other consent items of note

• Item 5 — New financial guidelines ordinance adopted; quarterly (instead of monthly) financial reports to council. 3:11:13
• Item 8 — Clean Laguna Stewardship got an additional $66,845 from the Cultural & Environmental Stewardship fund (visitor-funded). Public pushback on whether this is the right priority vs. more trash cans. 3:14:54
• Appeal A — 30801 Driftwood Drive was resolved between the parties before the hearing. 51:39

🕊️ Adjournment

Meeting adjourned in memory of Roger Kempler — lawyer, historian, recreation committee member, husband of Ellen and father of Holly and Alex. A formal proclamation is coming at the May 12 meeting.

🔗 5:30:14

Cast of characters

Dais: Mayor Mark Orgill, Mayor Pro Tem Hallie Jones, Council Members Sue Kempf, Alex Rounaghi, Bob Whalen Staff: City Manager Dave Kiff, City Attorney Megan Garibaldi, Assistant City Attorney Pat Donigan, City Clerk Ann Marie McKay, City Treasurer Laura Parisi, City Engineer Tom Perez, Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond

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