Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety

Good afternoon everyone. We are not in session, so this is an info hearing at this time. I want to thank all of you guys for joining us for the Senate Public Safety Committee informational hearing on California's safety strategy for hosting major global games.

I'd like to go over a couple of housekeeping rules for those of us joining in-person. We are in room 1200 in the O Street building and we are also live streaming today's hearing. To our witnesses, presentations are limited to roughly 5 minutes maximum per witness.

Presentations are organized per panel, so following each panel, there will be room for questions and answers and a discussion from the members at the dais before moving on to the next panel. We will be taking public comments at the end of the hearing and I want to highlight that several of our members are slated to join us but are a little delayed, so we will start without them.

As we look ahead to the several high attraction games that will be hosted in California, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to ensure that the state is fully prepared to host these major events while upholding the highest standard of public safety and human rights.

In particular, I do want to highlight that the World Cup is probably the most significant and most important to our state from an economic standpoint, but also just an entertainment standpoint. It has not been hosted in the United States in over 30 years.

So that is the one that we are going to be prioritizing in this particular hearing. But it also presents challenges that must be addressed with careful planning, coordination, and transparency.

Our goal today is to ensure that all relevant stakeholders from state agencies and local governments to host committees and law enforcement are aligned in their efforts to protect the safety and well-being of everyone involved, that's including the players, the fans, the workers, the tourists, residents, and local communities.

We are here to discuss the measures being put in place to prevent risks related to crowd control, emergency response, data privacy, human trafficking, and the protection of vulnerable populations. It is also essential that our state agencies work collaboratively and effectively to meet these challenges in a way that prioritizes human dignity and respect for civil rights.

We are joined today by representatives from several key agencies and organizations who will provide insights into their preparations for this event. I encourage an open and constructive dialogue to ensure that California leads the way in delivering a safe, secure, and inclusive experience at each of these games.

With that, I'd like to thank our panelists for being here and I want to highlight our very first panel. Number one, I do just want to highlight that we're going to have three panels, right? Panel one will be the host committee representatives. Panel two will be local government representatives.

Panel three will be state agency representatives and then we will close out with public comments. So our first panel, and I just want to highlight this, we may have PowerPoint presentations from these individuals. At this particular lectern, we are going to have the panelists speak.

If you are speaking together, please come together, and then as the panel is concluded, there will be questions and answers. If not, you can then go back to your seat and we will move on to our next panel. So panel one is the host committee representatives.

It's Zaileen Janmohamed, president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Host Committee, and Maria Camacho, government affairs advisor from the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission. Please join us here.

Good morning. Thank you for having us here today to talk to you about all of the major events that will be occurring in this great state of California and thank you to all of our partners that joined us as well. As this will be a collective effort, we are going to be in a really amazing time in this state over the next couple years and beyond.

As mentioned, my name is Zaileen Janmohamed. I am the President and CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee, a relatively new organization in the Bay Area responsible for hosting, bidding, executing global sporting events in the bay.

I'm joined here by my colleague Maria Camacho who's representing the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission. They have been around for a lot longer than we have and we rely on our counterparts in LA as they lead the way on this journey with us.

If we can move to the next slide. As mentioned, California will be the epicenter of sport, culture, and entertainment over a two-year period, not even including the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Over the next two and a half years, we will host the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in the Bay Area next February, Super Bowl LX in February of 2026, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in February of 2026, the FIFA World Cup across both the Bay Area and LA in the summer of 2026, and then Super Bowl LXI in February 2027.

The Bay Area and LA will be representing California as one of only two states that have two host cities for the FIFA World Cup, the other one being Texas, and the Bay Area will be the only region to ever host a FIFA World Cup and a Super Bowl in the same calendar year in the history of time and likely in the future as well.

Next slide. These events are bid for, run by, and the requirements fulfilled by two not-for-profit organizations, LASCC and the Bay Area Host Committee. Both entities are required to fulfill hundreds of requirements governed by the event owners, in this case, FIFA, the NFL, and the NBA.

And these leagues and governing bodies importantly do not share any of their revenue structures with these not-for-profit organizations. Our role is to work with and localize these events with a number of different stakeholders, many of which you see in the room today, and by doing so, bring both positive economic and societal impact to the region.

Each organization, important for everyone to know, has built in significant operational security, logistics, capacity, transportation, and mobility capacity within its own organization through full-time staff and/or advisors and consultants. Let's move to the next slide. As Senator Wahab mentioned, our focus today will prioritize primarily be on the FIFA World Cup.

It is really important as one takeaway for today to know that no template exists for this tournament in this country. There are two reasons for that. One, it has been a very long time since we last hosted a FIFA Men's World Cup in this country and the world has changed significantly since that time, since 1994.

The second reason, FIFA themselves have never implemented this kind of expansive tournament before. Three countries, 16 cities, with an expanded tournament footprint in terms of number of teams, athletes, VIPs, heads of state, et cetera.

We actually as host committees were not aware of these changes and the expansiveness of the footprint when we bid for this tournament many years ago. These changes occurred, as you can see from the timeline in front of you, after we had already bid and won as host cities.

A secondary point, but equally important for this version of the World Cup, there is no coordinated central organization that's representing all 11 U.S. host cities. In 1994, there was a central organization that was responsible for coordinating with FIFA, raising the revenues required, et cetera. In fact, in most cases there is a central nationally represented organization.

It happened in Qatar 22. It's happened in prior versions of the World Cup, and for this one, no such organization exists. U.S. soccer is not the central body that is governing the World Cup on behalf of the host cities. FIFA is working directly with each host city as it manages and plans this tournament.

Next slide, please. So rightly so, when people think of the biggest global sporting event, their minds naturally go to the Olympic Games. Especially since today it's front and center for most Californians and those of us in the LA region.

We are very, very excited to host and see what the LA 28 does for and brings to our Southern California region and region in general. The FIFA World Cup takes place, however, in our region before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, providing an important precursor and test run, if you will, for the summer of 2028.

Also, key to note is that FIFA World Cup is significantly larger. The national footprint is larger, fandom is larger, more of the world plays the sport, and exposure of the tournament is more than twice that of the Olympic Games as shown in the slide here.

Sadly, truly, if something goes wrong in 2026, it's not going to bode well for us in 2028. Next slide, please. So let's look at what this massive tournament means for California specifically. We will together host 14 matches, including the opening match in the United States at SoFi Stadium.

We will host at least half a million visitors between us, us in the bay, and bring over $1.2 billion of economic impact to our regions. Next slide, please. Matches will be hosted at our new SoFi Stadium, which is not so new anymore, but it was opened in 2020, and we will host eight matches there.

As mentioned, the U.S. portion of the tournament will begin in LA with the men's national team playing first in our city and Inglewood, I want to say to my friends from Inglewood. The eyes of the world will undoubtedly be on us for this momentous occasion.

Of key importance here are the significant security needs that LA and the region will be responsible for around this opening match as we host heads of state and other leaders. Higher levels of security, much like that will be required for the finals, will be required with us at the first opening match.

In addition to the opening match, Inglewood and Los Angeles will also host three playoff games, including two 'round of 32' games and a quarterfinal.

Okay. And the Bay Area will host six matches at Levi Stadium together with our friends and colleagues in the City of Santa Clara. These will include five group stage matches and one playoff elimination game. The diversity of the bay makes it a favorable location for international teams and visitors alike.

And while the U.S. Team is not slated to play in the bay during the group stage, although we're hoping they make an appearance in the round of 32 elimination game, we will see as a result a number of international teams and potentially their heads of state represented and visiting our region.

The FIFA World Cup draw will take place in December 2025. This is when we'll learn about which countries will be playing in each of our markets. Next slide, please. My biggest takeaway after working in sport for two decades and that I share with you today is that there is nothing, nothing like a FIFA World Cup.

And it's important for us to all be aware of the uniqueness of this sport and its fandom. First of all, we've spoken about this before. The tournament footprint will be vast and large. A majority of the tournament obviously takes place at our individual stadiums, at SoFi Stadium and at Levi Stadium.

But that will not be the only place that we will experience fandom. FIFA typically requires, and as we're working through in each of our cities, fan fests, watch parties, community celebrations, and we expect both regions to have a tremendous number of visitors and residents alike that will want to be involved in the tournament and engage in the tournament in some way.

Fan behavior, I think all of us have seen recently, both in the U.S. and internationally, how avid and engaged this fan base actually is. They are passionate and they're a very, very highly loyal fan base. They will travel, they will arrive early, they will likely establish country celebration zones.

And according to the latest research, fan culture has become more violent and abusive in recent years in this sport. We expect significant cross state travel. The proximity of matches between the Bay Area and LA is actually quite tight.

So there's a match in the Bay, it's followed by a match in LA, there's a break, and so on and so forth for the first two weeks of the tournament. And so we expect fans to travel between the two cities quite consistently throughout the first two weeks of the tournament.

And of course, there is going to be a considerable need for VIP management. Attendees will include FIFA senior officials, highly popular teams and players, corporate executives, heads of state, et cetera. And depending on that FIFA World Cup draw, we could have heads of state that will require more attention versus others. Next slide, please.

On this slide you can start to see, I know it's small, but you can start to see how the matches start to play out. As I referenced in the earlier slide, the two bottom cities there, San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, will show how the matches are starting to land.

With a match starting in Los Angeles, then the bay, a day off, Los Angeles and the Bay, a day off, et cetera. Again, that starts to speak to the cross state travel and the things that we want to actually maximize as a region from a tourism perspective.

We do believe people will stop in places like Monterey in the cities between Los Angeles and the Bay from a tourism perspective, and we actually want to encourage that type of behavior.

Our biggest and most important requirement right now is around safety and that is where we're spending the bulk of our time together with all of our agency partners. Exceptional planning and execution will be required to mitigate public safety, cyber terrorism, et cetera, all of which has changed considerably since 1994.

We are also spending a considerable amount of time on establishing a turnkey mobility plan, both cross state, but also within our own markets.

I know the Bay has, depending on who you ask, 27 to 29 transportation agencies that we are trying to coordinate as this fan base will expect a mass transit option as compared to other sporting events. We want to maximize tourism and sustain the legacy and the impact we bring to our region. Next slide. We will need help.

Again, as I started this presentation, we cannot do this as just two not-for-profit organizations. We will require a number of different stakeholders to come along this journey with us. We are working with all levels of government to educate as many stakeholders as possible on what lies in front of us.

And the support we received in the next three to six months will dictate how this tournament will look like in each of our regions. We look forward to working with all of you in making California a best in class region to host major sporting events and allow the world to see all that we love about our great state. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Do we have any questions? Senator Bradford.

Thank you. Good to see my good friend, Ms. Camacho, here. Thank you for your presentation and all the work that you do. You were just speaking of security and I'm just wanting to know is there adequate budgeting already do you see for security or will you require some help from the State of California as well?

We will require some help. It will be a request that we ask from our federal counterparts. All 11 host cities have requested some support, specifically and primarily in the area of public safety. We do believe that the federal government will ask for for state matching in some way, shape, or form.

And we will require both levels of government as well as local support to ensure that we meet all of our public safety needs.

All right. I do just want to ask a couple of questions and obviously we're trying to prioritize this as much as possible for the public's benefit. I do want to say that the City of Santa Clara is in my district, so obviously I care deeply about, you know, the safety and making sure that this goes well.

The City of Inglewood I believe is in Senator Bradford's district and I'm sure he feels the same. With that said, considering this is the first time FIFA has returned to California in more than 30 years, how are the public safety implications of hosting the World Cup in California different, if you would like to highlight, compared to 30 years ago, just off the top of your head?

I'm going to start, but I'm going to ask my colleagues when they come up to actually help me answer that question. I think the tournament itself and the sport on its own have gained a sense of popularity that we didn't see 30 years ago.

And so behavior, for example, that we saw at the Copa America last year, in our city for sure in Santa Clara but even as you saw it across the country, is different types of behavior, right? And so that fan behavior, the seemingly appropriate or not appropriate permission of fans to act in a certain way, that has definitely changed.

We are hosting it at different stadiums this time around, right? The capacity of Levi Stadium is significantly more than where we hosted in the past, and so just having that mass number of people coming to a venue is different.

That being said, we're working in a city that knows how to do these events. I spent time with the captain and his team yesterday at a 49ers game. They walked me through very meticulously their operational model, their command structure model, and I feel good that the reps that they have, they've done this before.

I know the same thing exists at SoFi Stadium, that we're not working and starting from scratch as maybe what did happen in 1994. We have well-used stadiums with well-run practices that we will rely on to really make this thing come together.

Yeah, and I think to that point we have partners here that, we're all in it together. So we're excited to put on something that we're used to, but also something that we're ready to be creative and nimble on.

Okay. And one of the concerns that I have, obviously it's not just in the City of Santa Clara, but the games, including several of the other games, will be in Oakland.

It will be, you know, there will be fan zones in San Francisco, in other parts of the Bay Area, San Jose, a lot of our major cities and just, you know, making sure that, you know, transportation is obviously one of the big concerns as well. Correct?

That's right. So there's two points there that I will mention. The first is our hope and actually the opportunity for us is to expand the access to this tournament as widely as possible. Most of the people who live in the Bay actually won't go to a FIFA World Cup match.

And so it's our responsibility to ensure that the citizens of the Bay Area, in all nine counties, the same as LA, are experiencing the tournament no matter where they live and whether or not they have access to a match or not.

And so we're encouraging activation and engagement in the communities outside of, you know, Santa Clara as much as we possibly can. As I mentioned, this fan that comes in, especially international, will expect a mass transit solution. That's how they behave normally for a soccer match.

And so we are working right now to put together that type of mass transit transportation plan that allows really seamless, fair integration, turnkey operations, depending, no matter what train that you get on and off of, and to make the transit actually part of the overall experience as well.

Okay, and then does your organization, overall, I just want to highlight this as much as possible, have zero authority and have to defer completely to the state in regards to public safety or do they have, you know, their own standards and protocols that must be met?

Like, does FIFA have any certain public safety standards that basically need to be met?

Yeah, there are. FIFA has established 18 different security-related working groups, many of which I think some of our counterparts have been involved in already. And we received, I don't know, a thousand requirements as part of the bid process that we're going to have to manage against. That being said, Senator Wahab. Right.

Every market has their way of doing things, and that level of expertise actually has to come back and flow through FIFA to make sure that the safety and security plan is actually localized to that market as well.

Okay. And then my biggest concern is we've seen a lot of these big games, whether it's the Super Bowl and so forth, throughout the United States, and it always seems to be a human rights and human trafficking issue attached to these games, right?

And I just want to understand, you know, what are some of the efforts that your organization is trying to combat some of this.

Yeah. So part of FIFA's thousand requirements is to actually establish a human rights action plan. And so we are both in early stages, but in stages of putting together what that plan looks like. It will include experts in our specific market that actually deal with this on a day-to-day basis, including law enforcement.

So we are, we will have to put something like that together and that has actually started already. That planning has started already.

Perfect, alright. I do appreciate it. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your presentation. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you.

We're going to move on to panel number two, which is local government representatives. We're first going to hear from, and I apologize if I mispronounced the name, Mark Fronterotta, chief of police of City of Inglewood.

And then later we're going to hear from Jovan Grogan, city manager of City of Santa Clara, and then Doug Arnot, senior advisor for operations for the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission. Thank you, Mark, appreciate it.

Well, thank you, and that was a great pronunciation. I appreciate that. And good morning to the staff. Senator Bradford, good to see you again. I know you had a wonderful event about a week ago or so.

And so, as it relates to the upcoming FIFA World Cup games in Inglewood and Santa Clara, I was speaking to the newly elected chief here a minute ago. You know, in Inglewood, obviously we have concerns with any great event like this and we're certainly well preparing for it as we speak.

We have hosted worldwide events in the past for many years in Inglewood. And so the blueprint that we use to work these events and bring a level of public safety is really something we have well established. That blueprint is the same we've used for Super Bowls.

It's the same we'll use for FIFA, another Super Bowl, and culminating with the Olympics in 28. And what I heard reference to a couple questions to the previous presenters, you know, in terms of our preparation, we have a great working relationship with our state, local, and federal partners in the LA County region.

And we have been meeting already talking about these events and planning for them, dealing with some of the issues that you brought up, Senator, in terms of human trafficking and those aspects of it which unfortunately come along with these types of events.

But we have elements and we have detail subcommittees and folks to pay attention to that and work that, again with our local partners and federal partners as well.

So we bring in a mutual aid concept and under the incident command system, which is bread and butter in our profession and it works well and we've used it and we'll expand it for this event and I feel very confident that we'll be able to meet this demand.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Do we have any questions?

You kind of touched on it, but I'm just seeing the level of collaboration with the surrounding local law enforcement agencies. There is a blueprint already established or you're building out with the surrounding communities as well?

Yes, Senator, we have a blueprint and we've used it for many years now and obviously it will be bigger for FIFA and also the Olympics and yes, that's already in place and being built out. I should say a lot of it's being built out as we speak.

And is it any new technologies that's going to be used as far as security, such as artificial intelligence or facial recognition, will that be part of the overall security protocols?

Yeah, I hope so. We're a little bit different, as you know, than Santa Clara because that's a privately-owned venue. However, you know, we know working with SoFi Stadium and you know, the technology they have, and we hope to enhance that. We're looking at some things internally.

We're piloting some things in the city right now that I'm very hopeful will pay some benefits. I believe it will when that time comes.

Thank you. Appreciate it. We're going to move on to Jovan Grogan, the city manager of Santa Clara. All right, before we begin, can we transfer to his slides?

All right. Okay. Good morning and thank you to Senator Wahab from our home district 10 in Santa Clara. And nice to see you, Senator Bradford. Jovan Grogan, city manager of Santa Clara, and I have a few slides that I will present to you today. I'm here not by myself.

I am here with Police Chief-Elect Cory Morgan, who will be the police chief during 2026. I'm here with Captain Richard Fitting, who is our commander at Levi Stadium and was the commander at yesterday's game with the Seahawks, as well as Assistant City Manager Chuck Baker who has more day-to-day oversight operations for our stadium authority.

Next slide. As we've talked about in 2026, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara is scheduled to host a series of major events, Super Bowl LX in February and six FIFA World Cup games beginning in June 13th through July 1st.

Levi Stadium, which our master tenant is the 49ers, Levi Stadium is actually owned by the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, a public entity that was formed by the City of Santa Clara in 2011. Really a truly amazing regional asset and the premier outdoor stadium in Northern California.

The Stadium Authority contracts with the 49ers management company for day-to-day operations both for the NFL season and what we call the non-NFL event season, so six months. Six months. The Santa Clara Police Department is the lead public safety agency for Levi Stadium, responsible for planning and operational implementation.

Over the last 18 months, the City of Santa Clara has been working collaboratively with the Bay Area Host Committee, the 49ers, the NFL, FIFA, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, FBI, DHS, the California Highway Patrol, California National Guard, and Cal OES, as well as various other partners to begin planning for these major events that will occur in our city and really benefit the entire region.

Next slide. So a little bit about Levi Stadium. Opened in 2014, Levi Stadium has hosted over 200 major events with 9 million plus attendees. It is important to note that we have hosted a number of major non-NFL events, but also want to note we hosted Super Bowl 50 back in 2016.

So 10 years from when we're scheduled to host Super Bowl LX. We've hosted six Taylor Swift games, Beyonce concert, WrestleMania, NFC Conference championships as well as Copa and Gold Cup International soccer matches. Important to note we are Safety Act designated because we employ specialized technology to combat combat terrorism.

We also frequently meet and exceed the NFL best practice standards for stadium security and fan conduct. Next slide. As the smallest city in the U.S. with a major NFL stadium, we don't do this alone. In fact, we partner with over 70 federal, state, and regional policing agencies from across California to support normal operations at Levi Stadium.

We employ both both per diem staff, so staffing from other law enforcement agencies in the region and frankly across California that support Levi Stadium on a regular basis.

Just as a note, our regular sworn staffing ratio for a regular NFL event that occurred in October of this year, only 23% of the staff were actually from the City of Santa Clara and 77% were from allied partners or our per diem officers. So truly a statewide effort to support Levi Stadium. Next slide.

Also important to note, doing this we have implemented a number of cost optimization measures over the years. We've converted some of our sworn staff to non-sworn positions to save on costs. We have a layered approach where guest services and security are the first line before sworn law enforcement.

We also have an ongoing effort to recruit per diem officers from across the state and so agencies up and down the state, we are, on the slide is a flyer, where we're regularly looking for people to support this effort. Next slide.

We know that we are but one small component of the financial ask that will be before the state. However, I did want to provide you with just a high level summary of our public safety costs for the City of Santa Clara and that's Levi Stadium. Important to note, these are not really all City of Santa Clara costs.

We are approximately 25% on a normal day. For a major event, our staffing could be in the teens if not the single digits. And so we've worked over the last several months to develop public safety cost estimates for both the FIFA World Cup games as well as Super Bowl LX. Those are on the screen.

It's respectively just over $12 million for FIFA World Cup and $7.5 million for Super Bowl with an estimated total of just under $20 million. Over the next 12 to 18 months, a number of items will come into view and impact these cost estimates.

We will periodically be updating these estimates, but we will work with the Bay Area Host Committee, our federal and state partners, as well as the NFL and FIFA World Cup who are actually the owners of the event as Zaileen Janmohamed mentioned.

And so as the security perimeter is finalized, as the modes of transportation to and from the stadium are finalized as well as pathways to the city from the larger region, that will certainly impact our planning efforts and may adjust these numbers.

Also important to note that our posture on security may change if there's an international terrorist incident leading up to the games. Lastly, it's also important to note that the teams that will play at Levi Stadium and their fan base is a major consideration. And so, as we all know, those teams will not be known for several months.

That concludes my presentation. I want to thank the Senator for having this session, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Thank you. So I do have a couple of concerns. Number one, I do just want to highlight for the public and those watching this info hearing that these numbers are not finalized at all, number one. And they are being reviewed vigorously.

And there has not been an agreement made between the NFL, FIFA, or I should say the Host Committee, as well as the City of Santa Clara, correct?

Yes, we are.

Okay. So since there is not an agreement yet, I believe that these numbers are going to be fluctuating and I want to prioritize the fact that we're talking about public safety before we talk about budgetary costs.

But I do have a concern in regards to the homeless population around these venues. What is the local city's plan for potentially dealing with it?

Absolutely. So thank you, Senator Wahab. We are formulating those plans as we speak. We do have a grant from the state for $1.8 million for homeless services. We are currently looking into safe RV parking sites, and as you know, we have a significant homeless issue, not just in our area, but in the region.

And so we are formulating plans. One of the things that we lead with is compassion. And so our approach will be compassionate. But we really in the City of Santa Clara are really retooling all of our homeless efforts.

We recently appointed a deputy city manager to oversee all of our homeless efforts, to knit together all of the work that all of our departments do to really lead with compassion.

But know that there's significant, not just for these major events, but significant quality of life issues for both those experiencing homelessness and our residents that we need to grapple with on a daily basis.

Definitely. For the city, what is the expected number of, let's say, fans/tourists that will come in to the city around that time?

Yeah, don't have those numbers. I will tell you that Levi Stadium seats approximately 68,500. And we normally have sellout games. Santa Clara has Levi Stadium, but the entire Bay Area region will be activated, and so we do certainly expect fans to come to Santa Clara that are not attending the game.

And our safety plans will address that. But we also know that there will be a significant fan base in San Jose, in San Francisco, and in Oakland.

It was mentioned in your slides. You guys had six Taylor Swift concerts and a Beyonce concert.

Don't tell my daughter.

Yes. Do you often see from a city perspective that, you know, your hotels are filled up and all of that, or how does it work?

Absolutely. It is one of the major economic benefits to the city from the stadium. We don't have a major mall. We have a little slice of valley fare, but we do get significant tot revenue from hotels. We are expecting to sell out of our hotels around both of these major events.

Okay. And then from a transportation perspective, from the previous panel, we heard that obviously people want public transit. You know, how is that being organized from a city perspective, especially a small city that doesn't necessarily have as many BART stations as we'd prefer or something else?

Absolutely. We don't have a BART station, and the city does not operate a transit entity. And so we will certainly be partnering with the Bay Area Host Committee, who has the responsibility and the leadership role for knitting together all of the regional transit agencies around Levi Stadium. We are partnering with VTA.

As you know, there's a VTA light rail line that runs right in front of the stadium. During Super Bowl 50, that line was not active, and so there was a hard perimeter around, and so we are working through all of those plans and more things will come into view over the next several months.

Okay, and then what is your, if you could be very blunt about it, what is the ask from the state?

Sure. So the City of Santa Clara is really in partnership with the Bay Area Host Committee for the financial ask, knowing that there is, yes the events at Levi Stadium, but all of the events across the Bay Area region and across the state. And so we are partnered with a global ask. I will say, and you noted earlier, that the costs have not been agreed to.

It's important to note that we are in the process of finalizing what's called a assignment and assumption agreement, where we will formally assign FIFA World Cup to the Bay Area Host Committee, and they will essentially be a tenant to put on those games. While we are but in the process of negotiating that, there is not a hard dollar amount for public safety because we cannot place a hard dollar amount for public safety.

The public safety operational plans and deployment will really be based on the known threats at that time and so we based our cost estimates, wanting to very much project out our best guess based on Super Bowl 50, based on other events that we have.

But as more things come into view over the next 12 to 18 months, it really will hone in on those cost estimates, and the Bay Area Committee has entered into what we called an interim funding agreement to fund our planning costs at this time. And so we are billing them for those costs.

All right. I do appreciate it. Thank you for your time and thank you for your presentation. Thank you. Sorry, Senator Bradford has a question.

Yes. One issue that constantly comes up when you have major events like this is the utilization interaction with local and minority-owned businesses. Is there any type of program to make sure that those local businesses in those communities benefit directly, other than the residual effects that might happen, but some direct collaboration with those?

I've heard it from a lot of my local chambers and especially a lot of the minority businesses that they would like to be at the table to be engaged in a real way.

Absolutely, Senator, that's a great question. And specific for these 2026 major events, the Bay Area Host Committee is actually primed to answer that. They are partnering, I know, both with the NFL and FIFA for a program to benefit businesses.

Yes, in Santa Clara, but also across the region with a particular focus on small local women and disadvantaged businesses. And so they're working on a very robust program and we're excited about it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. We're going to move on to Doug Arnot, senior advisor for operations, LA Sports and Entertainment Commission.

Thank you very much, Senator. Senator Bradford, good to see you. Just a little bit of my own history, I was the executive vice president for operations for the 94 World Cup, similar role for the 96 Olympics, similar role for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, similar role for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

I've also been on the senior management teams for the London Olympics where I was the managing director and executive vice president finally for all operations. Also did similar roles for Sochi and the Rio Olympics.

And I'm currently working with Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission for the 26th World Cup and a senior advisor to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. All of that is just to help me to underscore what a huge opportunity these games will be for the entire State of California. But with huge opportunities, of course, come huge responsibilities.

And it's evident that you understand those responsibilities, particularly as they relate to public safety. And we look forward to your help, your support to make sure that we can have a fantastic tournament, but also a very safe tournament. You had asked earlier what the difference is between the 94 World Cup and this World Cup.

This World Cup will be twice the size of the 94 World Cup, two times as many games, many more cities, the fan base significantly greater. It will also be a much more expansive tournament with regard to those activities that happen off-site, away from the stadiums. My colleagues have already referenced fan fests and watch parties.

An opportunity for a broader community to be able to participate in the tournament and enjoy what is the world's most watched event. You've also heard from some of our public safety colleagues, this is a collaborative effort. It needs to be a collaborative effort.

We are just now beginning to formulate much more significant subcommittees to be able to develop plans in some of the areas that you've addressed, including community relations, human trafficking, opportunities for minority-owned businesses through the procurement programs.

So a great many of the questions that you've already raised are questions that we ask on a regular basis for events of this sort. And I think in general what I'd like to be able to tell you is that it is a collaborative effort.

We've worked very closely with Chief Fronterotta and his team, also with California Highway Patrol, LAPD, LA Sheriff's Department, and as has also been stated, even in Inglewood, it's a significant mutual aid program that we pull together for every event that we have there. So we think that we're on pace. There's a lot of work to be done.

The last 18 months of these events become, are absolutely critical. And I'm here to answer any questions I might for you.

Thank you. I do want to understand, for example, what are the plans in place to ensure proper communication regarding safety, information, and updates to the community's residents, especially during any possible restrictions during these events.

So each of the groups, each city will have a Community Relations Department. The community relations will work closely with public safety.

We will develop a command and control structure that allows us to make sure that we have real time information, but also information out in advance so that people know what are traffic restrictions, what's going to be happening?

How are the games themselves going to impact the lives of the people who are in the vicinity of the event and also might be affected particularly by traffic and other events associated with the games which may not be planned by the organizing committees.

Okay. And then from a public safety perspective, with tourists and transportation, we've talked about it through multiple different cities. What are you guys planning to do in support of the homeless population around these venues and these games?

Again, it's a community relations program where we work with the local community, in the case of Inglewood, in the case of Los Angeles, we are working with, we'll be working together to develop plans for the homeless population and also for just the residents around the facilities themselves to make sure that their lives aren't interrupted.

And if the plans of the games aren't well communicated to the homeless community, it's difficult for us to plan with them. So this is working collaboratively with the homeless community for them to understand what's going to happen in their neighborhood so we can plan with them, not for them.

Okay, so what are kind of the larger efforts and goals of this plan with the homeless population?

Senator, I'm going to be very honest with you. We're 18 months out. I think the specifics of those plans will be developed as we go forward. But at this point, having it on our radar screen and beginning to work with the specific communities. We do not yet have fan fest locations yet for the City of Los Angeles.

We don't have the watch parties. It's difficult for us to say which communities are going to be impacted as we begin to understand that we'll be able to develop those plans more broadly. The Senator understands very well what's done on a regular basis around SoFi Stadium.

And we'll continue to work with Chief Fronterotta and his team on the development of specific plans for the population around there.

Can you share what is happening right now? So, for example, the NBA All-Star games is only months away. So I'd like to understand what is the current protocol if we don't have the plans in place for months away?

Which All-Star Game?

Any of the games that you guys have right now, for example.

Well, we don't. So Los Angeles doesn't have an All-Star Game for some time, so we haven't started any work on those. However, the area around the new Clippers stadium, which is where the NBA All-Star game will be when it comes to Los Angeles, is not an area that has a significant homeless population.

It's much more of an industrial, of a commercial area than it is than an area for homeless population. I can rely on the chief.

I can add some comments there. Yeah, great question. In Inglewood, and I'm sure the Senate is aware of this, we have an extensive homeless outreach program. I have a DMH person embedded with us from LA County, one of the first ones in the county to formulate that team.

So we have housing, work with groups for housing and you know, we work closely with our homeless population. It's a difficult task, as you know, sometimes they don't accept some of these offerings, but we work hard to find placement for them.

And having the DMH person embedded with a whole team that I have and I'm sure a lot of the municipalities have that as well. It's a great way to at least extend our services to these folks and provide the help that they need.

Okay, so for example, the City of Santa Clara said that they are going to have safe RV parking sites and things like that. And obviously a homeless navigation center is throughout the Bay Area and I'm sure that LA also has it. What happens if they do not accept your services?

Well, we, unfortunately we can't force them, but we continuously try and offer them vouchers for food, housing, things of that nature. And I have a great team and I know other municipalities do as well. So we, you know, strike a chord with these folks. And I think the Senator is familiar with Ms. Cindereller.

She's an amazing person who has gotten people that have been on the streets for a decade, veterans, and got them to be reunited with family members or into some supportive housing and so forth. So we don't give up easy.

Okay, I appreciate it. My concern, and I think that this is going to be a point of concern moving forward, is how we deal with the homeless population in a respectful and dignified approach.

Obviously, we want people housed and we also know that some people have problems that they don't want to be housed or they refuse services or they have a mental health condition or whatever the case may be. I just want to ensure for all the panelists here that we do not just drive out or move homeless people from one place to another, number one.

And number two, when engaging with them, we are still respectful that they are human beings and so forth, even if they make people uncomfortable or it's seen as unsightly for others and so forth.

So I leave that, I'm hoping that there is more of a plan there, especially considering that LA does have far more activity than we'll say even in the Bay Area in regards to entertainment. And then, at the same time, I do also want to prioritize the human trafficking piece. That is a big concern.

We already see it in the United States with other large games and events. So again, hopefully that the entire state can prioritize this and work on this, because I do not want to see it in the news. Thank you.

Thank you.

I would just piggyback on that as well and recognize that, as the Chief stated, much of the homeless population is outside the City of Inglewood.

So I want to commend the mayor, Mayor Bass, for her aggressive program that has nothing to do with this, but she is already having a great impact on getting people housed and I know her commitment is going to even expand that as these games come closer to fruition here in throughout California.

But she has made it a priority to give people housed safely and respectfully and in a very humane way. So I know she'll continue to work with all the parties involved in this. Thank you.

I agree. I concur, Senator.

We will start with panel three, state agency representatives. We're going to have Donald O'Keefe, chief law enforcement division, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, followed by Rodney Ellison, assistant commissioner, California Highway Patrol. Thank you.

Good morning. Excuse me. Good morning, Chair Wahab, Senator Bradford. My name is Don O'Keefe and I am the chief of law enforcement for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. I also am the statewide law enforcement mutual aid coordinator on a statewide basis. Every disaster emergency starts and ends at the local level.

Cal OES Law Enforcement Branch coordinates local, state, and federal law enforcement stakeholders in response to incidents and needs throughout the State of California and beyond to protect lives and property, build capacity, support communities, and for resilient California.

Working directly with all 58 California sheriffs, 334 city police chiefs, and other law enforcement professionals, the Law Enforcement Branch provides guidance, personnel, critical resources for agencies to successfully and efficiently manage events occurring throughout the state and in some cases at the same time.

To that end, Cal OES and Homeland Security Division have been working with multiple partners' jurisdictions in preparation for the upcoming large scale events to include, like you've heard, 2025 World Club Cup, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2026 Super Bowl LX, 2027 Super Bowl LXI, and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Cal OES has been engaged in wide ranging discussions related to the formation of a regional Public Safety Committee and multiple coordination efforts chaired by the host jurisdictions.

The National Security Special Event, also known as an NSE, is a designated event that due to its political, economic, social, or religious significance, may be a target for domestic or international criminal activity. Due to its national significance and high visibility, the United Secret Service is the lead federal agency.

A Special Event Assessment Rating, also known as a SEAR, is a risk-based evaluation process serving as a starting point for Interagency Special Events Working Group by providing an initial numerical risk score for all events submitted. Recently, both the Olympic and Paralympic Olympic Games were designated as a National Security Special Event.

The 2025 World Club Cup and the 2026 World Cup will have a SEAR 2 rating with the final matches being a SEAR 1 rating.

We are and will remain engaged through the planning, response, and relevant post-event needs. Several meetings have already occurred for the 2028 Olympics and Cal OES had its first meeting with the Santa Clara Police Department regarding resource needs for the 2026 World Cup and Super Bowl LX.

To that end, there are best practices that, when put in place, can set communities up for successful events that are safe, seamless in implementation, while maintaining a festive and uninterrupted experience for all.

As the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris approached, Cal OES seized a valuable opportunity to engage with a delegation from the French government in February of this past year. Some of the key takeaways. Ensuring a robust uninterrupted communication plan for intelligence sharing leading up to during and after each event.

Discussions focused on sharing of threat intelligence, particularly concerning AI, cybersecurity, security measures, and safeguarding critical infrastructure while emphasizing a proactive approach towards large scale events like we're going to see with the World Cup, Super Bowl, and Olympics.

Set up security measures that others have used and have worked for their community, recognizing that security measures may look very different across different cities and counties with different needs. Start preparing now.

Communities who have mutual aid agreements should review and update it accordingly. If they are lacking any agreements with relevant departments and agencies at the local and regional level, those discussions should begin now. For large scale stadium and crowd events, at Cal OES, we begin preparations if not years in advance.

The law enforcement. I'm sorry, we begin months, if not years in advance. The law enforcement mutual aid system brings stakeholders together and leverages ongoing partnerships with city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. At Cal OES, we use an all hazards approach in planning.

The potential for concurrent emergencies and their cascading impacts needs to be carefully considered and planned for. This includes events like earthquakes, floods, fires, and active shooters.

A case in point, on October 17th 1989, a 9.6 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond while game number three of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics was being played at Candlestick Park.

Cal OES's role is preparing or pre-planning assistance of the agency with primary law enforcement jurisdiction over the event.

Specifically, my staff will help to write incident action plans, ensure the agency is aware of the standard emergency management system, or SEMS. Coordinating mutual aid being requested. Working with the State Threat Assessment Center and Regional Fusion Centers to gain intelligence on the event.

Participating in tabletop exercises. Identifying law enforcement resources that can be used in the event of an emergency or disaster and planning for the use of state resources if local and regional resources have been exactly exhausted.

When Cal OES and Law Enforcement Branch is on site during the event, we relay critical information and situational awareness to Cal OES leadership and the Governor and key staff. Provide on seat coordination of law enforcement mutual aid in the event of the disaster or emergency and provide technical assistance with after action reports.

In addition to the law enforcement, the Cal OES Homeland Security Division, which is comprised of the California State Threat Assessment Center, also known as the STAC, and the California Cybersecurity Integration Center, also known as Cal-CSIC, will provide various levels of support through the entirety of the large scale event.

The STAC will assist in the information-sharing environment as well as various working groups in preparation for the upcoming event. The STAC will also provide real-time open source intelligence research and analysis to identify emergency threats during the event.

Additionally, the STAC's Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit will assist federal, state, and local partners during a threat vulnerability assessment in preparation for the events. The Cal-CSIC will provide the following. Assist in the sharing of cyber-related information and participate in cyber working group groups in the lead up to the events.

We also identify and assign cyber analysts to provide real-time cyber support during the operational period to ensure resiliency of the cyber infrastructure. In summary, Cal OES will continue to be actively engaged with all partner agencies ahead of the events that have already been stated.

And we look forward to the ongoing communication, collaboration, and coordination that will be necessary to ensure these events are safe and secure. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to testify today and I look forward to any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Thank you. I do have a couple questions. Senator Bradford will start first.

Mine's real quick. You briefly touched on natural disasters and you spoke to earthquakes. Are there any protocols that are preparedness for wildfires? Unfortunately that's been more of a recurrence thing. So if there are any potential plans for that.

Well we would also just, I mean mine is law enforcement branch, but at Cal OES we have our fire rescue branch, we have our recovery section, we also have our emergency services coordinators that would be available to help coordinate if we did have a fire with the local resources, coordinating getting them, fire, law or whatever that necessary. So we would have those folks available as well.

Thank you. So you talked a lot about mutual aid. I want to understand your effort around planned aid. I'm sorry? Planned aid.

Planned aid? Right, so the law enforcement mutual aid system is based really for disasters and emergencies. The master mutual aid agreement that we have. When it's a planned event, then that is up to the agencies to leverage MOUs with different agencies.

I think the chiefs have talked about, or the city manager in Santa Clara, how they're going out statewide. Those will be through MOUs to bring those law enforcement resources in. You know, talking to Santa Clara, I think, you know, in the Los Angeles area, there's a lot of resources. In the Bay Area, it's a little different.

Not as big as cities, but they are proactively looking to get those additional offices in place so that they have the necessary, both private security as well as law enforcement.

Where we would come in if there was something above and beyond a disaster, God forbid, an earthquake, then we would leverage the mutual aid system and bring the additional resources in throughout the state.

Okay. And I completely understand because you guys are the Office of Emergency Services, so I understand that. My concern here, though, is with the amount of vacancies in law enforcement across the board, right? Every single city has roughly 20-25% plus vacant units for law enforcement professionals. Planned aid seems a little hard right now.

And I just want to understand, is there any effort from Cal OES to offer some type of mutual aid for FIFA's World Cup in California just because of the magnitude of interest in this particular game?

Well, the mutual aid would have to come from the cities and the counties throughout the state. We cannot force them to provide those resources. I understand there's some possible financial funds available that may be able to assist with that.

I will say one of the things, and I did this during the civil unrest earlier in the spring. You know, it's not uncommon for me to make phone calls to chiefs and sheriffs and say, listen, we really need your help. Those basically were pre-planned events, but they're not obligated to send any personnel.

Okay. With that said, I also want to understand, you know, what are some of the safeguards? Again, I know that you guys have the cybersecurity unit housed in OES to protect people's personal data from misuse or surveillance during these major games.

Right, and that's actually a different division from where I work. But I do know that the First Amendment considerations are always taken into consideration. Those are built into our policies and procedures. So that is constantly being evaluated and to ensure we don't have those issues.

Alright, well, I appreciate your presentation. Thank you. Next we have Rodney Ellison, assistant commissioner with the California Highway Patrol.

I don't know if this will rise up. Okay. Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members. I'm Assistant Commissioner Rodney Ellison, and I'm here today on behalf of Commissioner Sean Duryee, who extends his appreciation for allowing us to come here and share with you this morning.

I want to touch on on four items I think would help kind of explain our posture for these events that are coming to our great state. The first one is how has the CHP approached events in the past?

The CHP has played a significant role in California's past major events, including the 1984 Olympics, which were also hosted in Los Angeles. As mentioned before, communication and planning and collaboration are essential for our success.

We welcome engagement from the host committees from both Los Angeles and the Bay Area as we rely heavily on these event action plans for our success. Each event has an event action plan that's developed and provided to all personnel involved in the event.

The event action plan also provides a mission statement and outlines the roles and responsibilities of the host committee and the local, state, and federal agencies involved in contributing to a safe and secure event for those attending the communities and the communities hosting the event.

For example, In June of 2022, the department worked closely with the United States Secret Service Service, the United States Department of State, and LAPD for the 9th Summit of Americas, which was a high profile event involving 55 dignitaries and heads of states from 35 different countries.

The event utilized multiple venues where communication and coordination, personnel, travel routes, public transportation, escorts, this was essential to the success of the event.

The Olympics and the World Cup games will have similar events which will take place at different venues requiring communication amongst all stakeholders to ensure we provide the highest level of safety and service for the event.

The second thing I want to touch on is how is the CHP working with local law enforcement agencies in the past to ensure security?

Well, the CHP has always worked closely with local, state and federal agencies to assure that we have enough equipment, training and resources available to ensure that everything that we're going to do is going to be safe again.

That's why these event action plans are key and they're the result of several meetings and a tremendous amount of collaboration with all the stakeholders that are involved. The third thing I want to touch on is transportation. Now this will be key for all the events that are that we're talking about here.

Multi agency command centers are utilized to coordinate all activities of involved agencies. The CCP works with local agencies, Caltrans, county roads and local transportation agencies to identify and establish freeway closures, details detours to mitigate traffic congestion for the duration of the events.

The fourth thing is what measures have been put into place for previous events for potential incidents? Well, the CHP has a special response team that we deploy. We can deploy at a moment's notice.

We used this team recently with the APIC Conference in the Bay Area Super Bowls in Northern and Southern California and the College National Football Championship game. As noted earlier, we also use the same team for the Summit of Americas to give you some insight of our special response team.

As I said, we have one in each of our eight field divisions and these teams consist of about 80 members on each team. They're specially trained to respond to mitigate civil unrest and to address any emergency that may arise. This team has been successful through many of the things that we've had them called to do.

Recently we had an uprising at the UCLA campus in Southern California where we had thousands of people there. And our team down there was able to come in and mitigate that. The incident that took place for the Copa America at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami is a good example of how this team could be utilized.

So we take our posture for our teams. We'll be ready for whatever comes with these events that come to California. And Commissioner Durya recognizes that the fan bases for soccer, baseball, football, basketball are all different.

We have a lot of people that are going to be coming to California to engage and share in our great state as a result, to kind of get some insight to that. We've been speaking with our international partners as well.

And Commissioner Duria actually sent someone to the Paris Olympics over the summer to get inside of some of the challenges that they had so we could get good insight to how we would address issues for LA28.

I can assure you that the Department is proactively seeking out strategies that can be utilized in California to provide the highest level of safety and security to all those who will be living in California during these major events and visiting our great state.

In closing, I'd like to the Department would like to recognize these events in California will be in public view for the world. And we know that having specific roles and functions that we all need to be accomplished for us to have a successful event in California.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee Members for giving us the opportunity to appear for you today. And I'd like to take any questions that you may have for us.

Thank you.

Number one, I just kind of want to understand, you know, the Governor's office in this past year deployed a lot of different public safety efforts in the Bay Area, largely around Oakland, but throughout the Bay Area, are we able to see an effort like that for roughly the month, that is a targeted month from June to July around the World Cup?

Yes, we'll be able to respond in a similar fashion with resources that will provide the right level of coverage. That's where those meetings that we have, we work with our local partners all the time and talking about things that we're going to need but will be.

Our posture is that we'll have the same level of coverage that we have now.

And granted, our first panel stated that public transit is one of the things that a lot of the fans are going to be looking for. But we also have a lot of Uber and Lyft and so forth. But with that, again, human trafficking and homelessness and so forth are also of concern. What are your comments around that?

Those are very important issues and we're always looking at ways to improve our training and focus on those issues.

The homelessness issue is something that we engage in routinely now with Caltrans and the resources around that. So we're going to continue to do that and as we ramp up for that, we'll be able to address all those things. In regards to human trafficking, there are several task forces throughout the state.

We're working on our current training internally to make sure that we're ready to address that as we currently do now when we come across it, definitely.

And then you referenced UCLA and I also just want to reference that because these are games, this is entertainment. I am hoping that law enforcement across the board, whether it's local police or CHP or any other agency involved, use non lethal efforts if need be. But for the most part, nobody should die because of a sports game.

Absolutely. With that, when we have games like this and we deploy our special response team, we communicate and we have that visible presence. And I think it's been shown when we show up that way, when we have a lot of resources available and present, it kind of thwarts any.

Anything that may happen and that's been successful in the past using that model. So we'll make sure we have our teams deployed ahead of time. We'll have good conversations, there'll be good communication, and we'll work with all the agencies involved to have that visible presence out there.

As I said, that goes a long way in stopping things before they start.

Definitely. And with a lot of conversations I've had, many people have highlighted LA and the Bay Area are definitely economic hubs for the State of California. But also with the World Cup being here and one of the most highly viewed, highly publicized games in the world, period, there's a lot of concern of potential protests.

There's a lot of concern regarding human trafficking, regarding homelessness, regarding a lot of different things that would require law enforcement engagement. And so my concern, and I want to prioritize this as much as possible, is that there will be a lot of scrutiny if mistakes are made. And obviously mistakes are bound to happen.

But I want to just make sure. And the whole reason for having this informational hearing is to prioritize more planning and preparation rather than a response to something. Right. And granted, we cannot control every single aspect of what will happen, but I would appreciate that every single organization work collaboratively with each other.

We all have one goal, which is a successful entertainment period in the State of California and hopefully more to come. But with that said, I just want to make sure that my final comments genuinely is that everyone collaborates in good faith with each other and we protect California's interest, we protect the residents, and we move forward together.

Yes, that's. I appreciate that we use Intel quite a bit now. All the agencies that are here today and they're going to be a part of this uses Intel. So the Intel will give us a lot of insight of who may show up.

And usually with that, there's an event organizer or someone we can talk to to get an understanding of what their concerns are, why they're going to be there with the numbers they expect. That allows us to have those conversations ahead of time and then it makes for a safer event.

We've been doing that quite a bit lately and we'll continue to do that as we ramp up for these events. Thank you. And I appreciate your presentation. And Senator Bradford has a question.

I just piggyback on the staffing level. As we just saw in Paris, they deployed 30,000 officers, but they had to supplement that with 25,000 private security.

Understanding our overall shortage in law enforcement here in California, will we also have to significantly rely on private security to help augment and do what all law enforcement agencies will need to do?

Yeah, I would say that as we move closer to these events and see the number of personnel that we have for all those critical roles, I'm sure it'll be sworn peace officers. But where we can supplement, we'll see if that makes sense when we get closer to it.

But I think as we move forward, we'll be able to answer that as we get closer.

And I asked earlier about artificial intelligence and facial recognition. Will any of that be deployed through your agency?

Yes, we'll be using Flock cameras and our LPR readers during all of these events, and those are real successful tools that we use right now.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you. We're going to have public comments.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Senator Bradford and Dr. Wahab. Chris McHailey here on behalf of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. We have over 1400 Members employing over 650,000 individuals. First, we wanted to applaud the Committee for holding this hearing. Second point, Dr.

Wahab, just to piggyback off of your last comments about collaboration, we definitely feel strongly that in addition to safety being a top priority, we also think that that will be achieved by coordination and developing a regional approach to ensure an inclusive and safe games.

Maria Salinas, our President and CEO, has been working diligently this past year and will continue to do so with regional and state partners on ensuring both a successful World Cup and Olympic and Paralympic Games and also a Super bowl sandwiched in between.

She wanted to emphasize that the business community is standing ready to partner with all of these folks. And also these global events will provide an important opportunity for the region itself, from job creation to infrastructure development.

And when you consider ways to ensure our public safety at these events, we want to or we encourage you to include input, involvement, and opportunities for small businesses. We think that the business community can help ensure that small and minority enterprises have access to all these types of opportunities.

So again, we would emphasize the collaborative approach that you've outlined. Dr. Wahab, thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any other public comments? Seeing none. I appreciate everybody's time. I do just want to highlight again that this was an informational hearing regarding public safety. The comments regarding any budgetary carry request or collaboration with small businesses and so forth is obviously deeply of interest to all of us.

However, this is not necessarily the forum. So again, I appreciate everybody's attendance, everybody's participation, and again, we would like a successful games moving forward. So thank you. This meeting is adjourned.