From: Michele Burgess
To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: OCTOBER 15, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, AGENDA ITEM #10, FILE #24-740 Date: Monday, October 14, 2024 4:47:41 PM
To the City Council:
To put it bluntly, what the heck is going on? An item appeared on the September 17 agenda to establish a Sister City relationship between Huntington Beach and Ramat-Gan, Israel. Now there’s an item on the consent calendar to adopt a resolution authorizing a Twin City partnership with Ramat-Gan, and the nonprofit Israel Global Foundation (IGF) assuming responsibility for acting as a liaison between the two entities.
This process has completely bypassed regular channels. Why the rush? At the September 17 City Council meeting, public speaker Maureen Anzvino, vice president of the Huntington Beach Sister City Association, noted that the Sister City program is a citizen-to-citizen commitment to each other, not a political relationship. She described the years of vetting required to confirm suitability, similar expectations and goals. She noted the City does not provide funding for the Association; therefore funding constraints must also be considered before approving a new Sister City.
So many questions!!!
How did this come about in the first place? Did Mayor Van Der Mark meet Yan Killy (CEO of IGF) somewhere, perhaps at the ICAA 3rd Indo-American Christian Leadership & Religious Freedom Event on September 7 where they were both guests of honor? Did Mr. Killy mention his nonprofit foundation and propose collaborating? At the September 17 City Council meeting, Tony Strickland said he looked up the Israeli Global Foundation website on the internet (three times he said Israeli when the actual name is Israel) and his expectation was that IGF could provide management, but that the issue would certainly be discussed and determined through proper protocol. The motion was amended to include formation of an Ad Hoc Committee and to follow protocol in developing a Sister City relationship.
It carried with 4 ayes and 3 abstentions.
The Ad Hoc Committee consisted of Van Der Mark, Strickland, Burns, and Deputy City Manager Jennifer Carey. They submitted a Memorandum of Understanding with no proof of work or other background on how they arrived at the content of the MOU. It appears no attempt was made to follow proper protocol, and that the relationship name was changed to reflect that — changing Sister City to Twin City and forging ahead with the initial plan under a different name, with an unvetted middle man.
So let’s address that point.
10/15/2024
10 (24-740)
What is the Israel Global Foundation? A records search shows IGF was registered by Yan Killy with the California Secretary State as a nonprofit corporation just five months ago, on May 21, 2024.
According to the
Articles of Incorporation, its purpose is to “foster and promote the development and protection of Israel as a Jewish state, and to combat and eliminate global antisemitism and anti-Zionism.” Mr. Killy’s candidate statement on the Villa Park city website says he “recently started a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization,” though a tax-exempt organization search with the IRS doesn’t return any results; perhaps his application is pending or he hasn’t filed yet. There are three officers and the business address is his home in Villa Park.
Yan Killy is Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Killy is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at Dassault Systems in Irvine. Currently a candidate for Villa Park City Council, he represented as non-partisan to the OC Register, but has been endorsed by the Lincoln Club of Orange County and the Republican Party of Orange County. His personal Facebook page is highly partisan and critical of President Biden and Democrats. Also per the OC Register, Mr. Killy faced weapon charges in Irvine in 2009 (“Man who hid in bushes and fired gun faces weapon charges”; the results of his mental health evaluation and resolution of the case are unknown.
Erica Tabibi, Chief Financial Officer, is cofounder, with her husband Dekel, of DT Custom Homes in Corona del Mar.
Thor Johnson is Secretary. He’s a self-described entrepreneur who loves to travel and surf, a two-time failed candidate for the San Clemente City Council, and has a California nonprofit (Together as One Philanthropic Society, registered in 2014) to take autistic children to Knott’s Berry Farm and surf camps. The nonprofit was suspended by the Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board in 2019 for failure to file, reactivated in 2022, though there’s no record of any philanthropic activity since 2023. It is not registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit with the IRS.
Since it’s too early for IGF to have filed any financial information, we have no idea how donations are used, if the officers receive any salary, or what actual expenses might be.
The IGF website itself is opaque. The ICANN domain name lookup for www.igf.ngo shows most information “redacted for privacy.” All mailing addresses are in Reykjavik, Iceland. Likewise, the email address is a very long series of letters and [email protected]. The registrar information is NAMECHEAP INC.
The website’s home page has a blog with only one item in it, an article about Israel blowing up Hezbollah’s beepers in Lebanon. Then we have IGF’s Documentation Project on Antisemitism and Radicalism, which contains seven stories. All four listed events have already taken place: two were with Holocaust and October 7 massacre survivors, one was from the front lines inside Gaza. The most recent, on September 11, was “Exposing Antisemitism & Terrorism” — “Meet leaders of Orange County who dealt with antisemitism and terrorism.” Speakers were Bijan R. Kian, Senior Executive in International Security; Steve Knoblock, San Clemente City Councilman; Mike Munzing, Mayor of Aliso Viejo; and our own Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark. What? When did she deal with anti-Semitism and terrorism?
Clicking on “Get Involved” takes you to a donation form, where you can choose between donating once or monthly. Click on “one time,” the payment page has a tiny “auto-renew until canceled” notice and the total shows the amount charged monthly until canceled. The second time I tried it, it changed the $10 to $50 on the payment page. However, there is absolutely no contact information anywhere on the website. No name, no email address, no phone number, nothing. So how could you possibly cancel this unwanted monthly charge to your credit card? More questions:
Why Ramat-Gan? Who approached whom? Did Mayor HaCohen approach Mr. Killy or vice versa? Did Gracey or Tony reach out to Mayor HaCohen? Ramat-Gan currently has Sister City relationships with 14 cities worldwide, including Phoenix in the US. Why would we need them and why would they need us? Has Yan Killy visited Ramat-Gan? If so, how many times? Has he met Mayor HaCohen or spoken to him on the phone? Do you know that Ramat-Gan is rated second highest among 85 cities and municipal authorities in Israel for being the most gay-friendly? Does Mayor HaCohen know that the Huntington Beach City Council majority has banned the Pride flag, is controlling LGBTQ+ books in our public library, and we now have an ordinance to force city employees to out children suspected of being gay to their parents? Does Mayor HaCohen know Huntington Beach has a long history of anti-Semitic and white supremacy hate groups? Or that the Jewish Anti-Defamation League called out Mayor Gracey for her anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial remarks? What about her association with the Proud Boys? There’s photographic evidence of her harassing Jews with Proud Boy Johnny Benitez and Charlottesville white supremacist August Invictus. Does Mayor HaCohen know the majority four gutted the city’s Human Dignity Statement, including removing anti- Semitism as a protection, or that a local rabbi was shouted down and now only Christian prayer is used at City Council meetings? And now to the details of Resolution No. 2024-55, authorizing a Twin City Partnership with the city of Ramat-Gan, Israel.
You’ve listed some pretty lofty goals, probably unachievable due to Ramat- Gan’s size compared to ours. Their population is a bit similar, but that’s pretty much it. Ramat-Gan has many skyscrapers (we have one six-story building at Warner and Beach Blvd.), it’s an important manufacturing and industrial center with a huge Diamond Exchange District, and they have the country’s largest sports stadium, largest hospital, second largest university, many foreign embassies, a zoo/safari park with 1,600 animals, and several museums. They are not like us.
As for the Israel Global Foundation acting as an intermediary, Mr. Killy runs his nonprofit out of his house and, as far as I can tell, has no board of directors, no staff, no team. So why do we need to provide use of meeting space at City facilities for holding meetings in which to conduct the routine business of IGF or to support special activities and education events? Why would we provide staff support? Considering how iffy the donor button on their website it, why would we want to be involved in their accepting public and private donations in any way connected to us? Why does this authorizing resolution remain in effect for 3 years? Frankly, it should be repealed before it’s even passed.
The Huntington Beach City Council (particularly the majority four) should stop wasting time and staff support on matters pertaining to other states and countries, and concentrate on keeping our city in good condition, particularly with regard to the upcoming budget deficit. Stop wasting money on stupid stuff. Pay attention to city business. And don’t even think about using taxpayer funds for a fact-finding jaunt to Israel for your little group of four (or five if you include the city attorney).
Michele Burgess
Huntington Beach resident since 1961
From: Fikes, Cathy
To: Agenda Alerts
Subject: FW: OCTOBER 15, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, AGENDA ITEM #10, FILE #24-740 Date: Monday, October 14, 2024 5:51:08 PM
From: Michele Burgess <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2024 4:57 PM
To: CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) <[email protected]> Subject: OCTOBER 15, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, AGENDA ITEM #10, FILE #24-740
To the City Council:
To put it bluntly, what the heck is going on? An item appeared on the September 17 agenda to establish a Sister City relationship between Huntington Beach and Ramat- Gan, Israel. Now there’s an item on the consent calendar to adopt a resolution authorizing a Twin City partnership with Ramat-Gan, and the nonprofit Israel Global Foundation (IGF) assuming responsibility for acting as a liaison between the two entities. This process has completely bypassed regular channels. Why the rush?
At the September 17 City Council meeting, public speaker Maureen Anzvino, vice president of the Huntington Beach Sister City Association, noted that the Sister City program is a citizen-to-citizen commitment to each other, not a political relationship.
She described the years of vetting required to confirm suitability, similar expectations and goals. She noted the City does not provide funding for the Association; therefore funding constraints must also be considered before approving a new Sister City.
So many questions!!!
How did this come about in the first place? Did Mayor Van Der Mark meet Yan Killy (CEO of IGF) somewhere, perhaps at the ICAA 3rd Indo-American Christian Leadership & Religious Freedom Event on September 7 where they were both guests of honor? Did Mr. Killy mention his nonprofit foundation and propose collaborating? At the September 17 City Council meeting, Tony Strickland said he looked up the Israeli Global Foundation website on the internet (three times he said Israeli when the actual name is Israel) and his expectation was that IGF could provide management, but that the issue would certainly be discussed and determined through proper protocol. The motion was amended to include formation of an Ad Hoc Committee and to follow protocol in developing a Sister City relationship. It carried with 4 ayes and 3 abstentions.
The Ad Hoc Committee consisted of Van Der Mark, Strickland, Burns, and Deputy City Manager Jennifer Carey. They submitted a Memorandum of Understanding with no proof of work or other background on how they arrived at the content of the MOU.
It appears no attempt was made to follow proper protocol, and that the relationship name was changed to reflect that — changing Sister City to Twin City and forging ahead with the initial plan under a different name, with an unvetted middle man.
So let’s address that point.
What is the Israel Global Foundation? A records search shows IGF was registered by Yan Killy with the California Secretary State as a nonprofit corporation just five months ago, on May 21, 2024. According to the Articles of Incorporation, its purpose is to “foster and promote the development and protection of Israel as a Jewish state, and to combat and eliminate global antisemitism and anti-Zionism.” Mr. Killy’s candidate statement on the Villa Park city website says he “recently started a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization,” though a tax-exempt organization search with the IRS doesn’t return any results; perhaps his application is pending or he hasn’t filed yet. There are three officers and the business address is his home in Villa Park.
Yan Killy is Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Killy is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at Dassault Systems in Irvine. Currently a candidate for Villa Park City Council, he represented as non-partisan to the OC Register, but has been endorsed by the Lincoln Club of Orange County and the Republican Party of Orange County. His personal Facebook page is highly partisan and critical of President Biden and Democrats. Also per the OC Register, Mr. Killy faced weapon charges in Irvine in 2009 (“Man who hid in bushes and fired gun faces weapon charges”; the results of his mental health evaluation and resolution of the case are unknown.
Erica Tabibi, Chief Financial Officer, is cofounder, with her husband Dekel, of DT Custom Homes in Corona del Mar.
Thor Johnson is Secretary. He’s a self-described entrepreneur who loves to travel and surf, a two-time failed candidate for the San Clemente City Council, and has a California nonprofit (Together as One Philanthropic Society, registered in 2014) to take autistic children to Knott’s Berry Farm and surf camps. The nonprofit was suspended by the Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board in 2019 for failure to file, reactivated in 2022, though there’s no record of any philanthropic activity since 2023. It is not registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit with the IRS.
Since it’s too early for IGF to have filed any financial information, we have no idea how donations are used, if the officers receive any salary, or what actual expenses might be.
The IGF website itself is opaque. The ICANN domain name lookup for www.igf.ngo shows most information “redacted for privacy.” All mailing addresses are in Reykjavik, Iceland. Likewise, the email address is a very long series of letters and [email protected]
. The registrar information is NAMECHEAP
INC.
The website’s home page has a blog with only one item in it, an article about Israel blowing up Hezbollah’s beepers in Lebanon. Then we have IGF’s Documentation Project on Antisemitism and Radicalism, which contains seven stories. All four listed events have already taken place: two were with Holocaust and October 7 massacre survivors, one was from the front lines inside Gaza. The most recent, on September 11, was “Exposing Antisemitism & Terrorism” — “Meet leaders of Orange County who dealt with antisemitism and terrorism.” Speakers were Bijan R. Kian, Senior Executive in International Security; Steve Knoblock, San Clemente City Councilman; Mike Munzing, Mayor of Aliso Viejo; and our own Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark. What? When did she deal with anti-Semitism and terrorism?
Clicking on “Get Involved” takes you to a donation form, where you can choose between donating once or monthly. Click on “one time,” the payment page has a tiny “auto-renew until canceled” notice and the total shows the amount charged monthly until canceled. The second time I tried it, it changed the $10 to $50 on the payment page. However, there is absolutely no contact information anywhere on the website.
No name, no email address, no phone number, nothing. So how could you possibly cancel this unwanted monthly charge to your credit card?
More questions:
Why Ramat-Gan? Who approached whom? Did Mayor HaCohen approach Mr. Killy or vice versa? Did Gracey or Tony reach out to Mayor HaCohen? Ramat-Gan currently has Sister City relationships with 14 cities worldwide, including Phoenix in the US. Why would we need them and why would they need us? Has Yan Killy visited Ramat-Gan? If so, how many times? Has he met Mayor HaCohen or spoken to him on the phone?
Do you know that Ramat-Gan is rated second highest among 85 cities and municipal authorities in Israel for being the most gay-friendly? Does Mayor HaCohen know that the Huntington Beach City Council majority has banned the Pride flag, is controlling LGBTQ+ books in our public library, and we now have an ordinance to force city employees to out children suspected of being gay to their parents? Does Mayor HaCohen know Huntington Beach has a long history of anti-Semitic and white supremacy hate groups? Or that the Jewish Anti-Defamation League called out Mayor Gracey for her anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial remarks? What about her association with the Proud Boys? There’s photographic evidence of her harassing Jews with Proud Boy Johnny Benitez and Charlottesville white supremacist August Invictus. Does Mayor HaCohen know the majority four gutted the city’s Human Dignity Statement, including removing anti-Semitism as a protection, or that a local rabbi was shouted down and now only Christian prayer is used at City Council meetings?
And now to the details of Resolution No. 2024-55, authorizing a Twin City Partnership with the city of Ramat-Gan, Israel.
You’ve listed some pretty lofty goals, probably unachievable due to Ramat-Gan’s size compared to ours. Their population is a bit similar, but that’s pretty much it. Ramat- Gan has many skyscrapers (we have one six-story building at Warner and Beach Blvd.), it’s an important manufacturing and industrial center with a huge Diamond Exchange District, and they have the country’s largest sports stadium, largest hospital, second largest university, many foreign embassies, a zoo/safari park with 1,600 animals, and several museums. They are not like us.
As for the Israel Global Foundation acting as an intermediary, Mr. Killy runs his nonprofit out of his house and, as far as I can tell, has no board of directors, no staff, no team. So why do we need to provide use of meeting space at City facilities for holding meetings in which to conduct the routine business of IGF or to support special activities and education events? Why would we provide staff support? Considering how iffy the donor button on their website it, why would we want to be involved in their accepting public and private donations in any way connected to us? Why does this authorizing resolution remain in effect for 3 years? Frankly, it should be repealed before it’s even passed.
The Huntington Beach City Council (particularly the majority four) should stop wasting time and staff support on matters pertaining to other states and countries, and concentrate on keeping our city in good condition, particularly with regard to the upcoming budget deficit. Stop wasting money on stupid stuff. Pay attention to city business. And don’t even think about using taxpayer funds for a fact-finding jaunt to Israel for your little group of four (or five if you include the city attorney).
Michele Burgess
Huntington Beach resident since 1961
From: Harry McLachlan
To: [email protected]; CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) Subject: Agenda Items #10 (24-752) and #19 (24-750)
Date: Monday, October 14, 2024 10:25:06 PM
Attachments: Clouds Over Huntington Beach.docx
Please see attached.
Huntington Beach City Council Meeting Oct. 15, 2024 Submitted by Harry McLachlan, Huntington Beach Resident RE: Agenda Item #10 24-752 (Twin Cities) (Vote No)
Agenda Item #19 24-750 (Symphony of Flowers) (Vote No)
Clouds Over Huntington Beach
Like the Karmic Clouds that kept the Air Show from view, The MAGA 5 now seek to do the same thing to you.
Regarding their clandestine hidden corruption:
They hope to avoid an investigation eruption!
Along with their Israel “Twin Cities” ploy
They pray an “Electronic Light Show” will bring us all joy.
At the same time these unscrupulous 5 MAGA turds
Don’t give an owl’s HOOT about the fate of the birds.
But up north an audit of their skullduggery is brewing, The results of which will have them all stewing
And fretting that late at night knock on the door:
The DOJ’s coming, and you’ll swagger no more!
Your embarrassing Clown Show continues. Your self-serving “press conference” was an embarrassment. You gift co-grifter Kevin Elliot another $2 Million. Mayor Gracie joins the rest of the MAGA cultists at Coachella.
Sincerely hope you had a nice walk to your car after your orange Pig-God stiffed all the attendees on the return transportation.