City Council Meeting — August 18, 2021

29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17, 2020. Accordingly, Council Member will be provided with a meeting lock-in number and conference

call number that will not be physically present at Council Chambers.

Pursuant to the Governor's order, the public may provide public comment utilizing the method set forth below.

Note that City Hall is currently closed to the public. It will not be admitted to City Hall. General information. Document related to the agenda item are available to the public in the City Clerk's office located at 320 West Newmark Avenue,

Monterey Park, California, 91754 during normal business hour and city website at www.monitorepart.ca.gov.

The public may watch the meeting live on city web cable channel MPKTV, AT&T U-verse channel 99 or charter communication channel 182 or by visiting the city's website at www.monitorepart.ca.gov. The agenda may include items considered by city council acting on behalf

of the successor agency of the former Monitoring Park Redevelopment Agency on February 1st, 2012.

Successor agency matter will include in the notation of SA next to the agenda item number. Public participation in accordance with the 7-order number

and dash 29-20 and guidance from California Department of Public Health on gatherings, remote public participation is alLod on the following ways.

Via email, public comments will be accepted up to 24 hours before the meeting via email to mpclerk at monitorpark.ca.gov and forward it to the City Council.

Written communications will not be read.

They will, however, file as part of the City Administrative Record. Via telephone, public comments may be submitted via telephone during the meeting before the

close a public comment by calling 888-788-0099 or 877-853-5247 and entering soon meeting ID

289-222-5995 then press pound. When prompted to enter participation ID number press pound again. If participants would like to make a public comment they will enter star 9 then clerk office will be notified and you will be in a rotation to make public comments. Press star 6 to unmute yourself when called upon to speak. Participants are encouraged to join the meeting 15 minutes before the start of the meeting. You may speak up to five minutes on a gender item. Speakers will not be alLod to combine time. The mayor and the city council may change the amount of time alLod for speakers. As part of the virtual meeting protocol, anonymous person will not be alLod to provide public comments. Important disclaimer, when the participants

call in to join the meeting, their name and phone number will be visible to all participants.

notes that all public meeting will be reported. So now Vincent, city clerk,

would you please prepare the flag and let's do the, oh, sorry, let me see, call, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's do the pledge of allegiance together.

Okay, let's put your right hand on the card and follow after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag

and to the public, to the stands, to the public, one nation, one nation, one nation, one God, visible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all. And so, Vincent, would you please call out?

Good evening. Okay, Councilmember Hans-Leyang, or Peter Chai?

Here.

Okay, Councilmember Hans-Leyang?

Here. And Councilmember Fred Cernoso? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo? Here. And Mayor Yvonne Yu?

Here.

Very good. All present. Thank you.

Thank you. And City Manager and City Attorney, do we have any agenda, addition, deletions, and change of adoptions?

Yes, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. My recommendation is to consider Items 4A and 5A together. And then when we get to Item 4B, to open the public hearing and continue that hearing to September 15, 2021. That is all. okay madam mayor yes council members we would like to continue item 2a to the september 1st meeting and that would be a change to the agenda

okay and so senior attorney I just wanted to catch that you said 4b you wanted to move to september 15th I mean sorry extend continue the public hearing to September 15 for 4B, right?

That's correct.

Okay, okay. Because 4A is also September 15, but you'd want to combine the 4A down to 5A.

Correct.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

So next, okay, Cindy, WC Clerk, do we have any public communications?

Audience, if you would like to speak during oral communication, now is the time to do so.

please use the raise hand feature,

or if you're on the phone, press star nine.

Okay, Diana Garcia, City Librarian.

Thank you, Deputy City Clerk. This is Diana Garcia, City Librarian. Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. I just wanted to speak to the community this evening and remind everybody that the library is open to the public.

We're currently open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and we are open for all services. So if you need a passport, if you'd like to pick up some books, please come on in and see us. You can make an appointment to do so on our website up to seven days in advance. And we also have some limited walk-in space available. As of right now, we do not have any in-person programming at the library, but we've done our best to move as many of those outdoors as possible. So we're currently offering story times, teen programs, and adult craft programs in Barn Park. You can find all of the information about the upcoming programs on our website. And please follow us on social media for any service updates.

Thank you so much for your time this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have our Fire Chief Matt Halle.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Port Tim and Council. I just wanted to give you an update on some of the things we're doing with regards to testing and vaccinations associated with COVID. As you all know, we've seen an increase in the number of cases, not only in Monterey Park or LA County, but across the nation. And to that, we've been very aggressive in ensuring that our community has access to testing and vaccinations. And as you know, we've been doing weekly testing at Barnes Park on Saturdays. That was to conclude the 21st of this month, this Saturday. However, due to demand, they've extended it through the end of September. So we still will be offering free testing in Monterey Park and Barnes Park Saturdays from 9 to 3. And in addition to that, this Saturday, L.A. County Department of Public Health will be offering free vaccinations also at Barnes Park in the left field section of the softball fields. They will be offering Pfizer as well as Moderna. That will take place this Saturday from 9 to 4 p.m. Again, you can contact the fire department and we can assist you with the registration link. However, walk-ups are also alLod. And I believe we'll have another speaker to discuss another testing opportunity that we've been setting up. But if they don't, I don't want to steal their thunder, so I'll let them speak. But if they weren't able to make the meeting, I'll hop back on and give you the details behind that. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. City Clerk Vincent Chang.

Thank you, Cindy. Good evening again, Mayor, members of the City Council, members of the general public. Tonight, my concern is a provision in our agenda template, which was added on. And specifically, that involves the... I'm sorry to bother you. Hi, Vincent. Your screen is... Oh, now...

There we go. I took the camera off.

Okay. All right. Sorry. Anyways, the provision that I'm concerned about is the provisioning referencing the written communication and the fact that it's going to be filed with administrative record rather than being read during the council meeting.

While it is the council's prerogative to control its meeting, you know, in a time, place, manner, whatever, I have concern that this new provision for written communication may really have a negative effect upon our city. You know, public speaking is one of the greatest fears among most people. According to the National Health Institute, 75% of the people have concerns about public speaking. And, you know, so many of us choose not to speak if they don't have to. It's tough enough. So they choose other methods if it's possible to communicate with members of their representatives and whatnot. So many choose to write their thoughts and opinions. And these days, rather than send a letter, they also send by email. So in a sense, that's great. That allows for our community to be able to talk to our representative and give us their opinion.

Others, you know, they may not be able to come to the city council meeting to talk because, you know, they have family obligation.

They have work obligations.

So it's also difficult.

So they try to find other ways, such as communicating in writing or by email.

And specifically with our community, you know, the majority of our residents are not maybe not English native speakers.

You know, they speak other languages such as Chinese, Spanish and whatnot. But that doesn't mean that they don't have opinions.

and they may ask people to help them write their letters or whatever to communicate with the city

council and with the rest of our staff. So those are the folks that tends to write in

and they maybe not be able to come and speak our city council. So to actually take their communication and just put it on into the file, really do them a disservice. And, you know, the rest of our community that would not have a chance, of course, you know, they can pull it from

our city records, but, you know, the reality of that is, you know, it doesn't happen that often unless there's a specific reason. So I really, you know, like to advise the city council and And please think about that before we add that provision in. And because unless there's really necessity to do so, like if it's really, really long meeting or something like that, then really please think about that, the chilling effect of this particular section. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, phone number ending in 472.

So you can please press star six to unmute yourself. Please state your name.

Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Hi. Good evening. Thank you, city council members. My name is Dr. Maxwell Jen. I'm a board-certified physician and the medical director of SCMG Medical Group, and I work with Fire Chief Matthew Halleck. And as he mentioned earlier this evening, our organization is happy to announce that we'll be offering another site where the community can go for free COVID-19 testing. So we will be located at the Langley Senior Center, located on 400 West Emerson. And we'll be operating daily from Wednesday to Sundays between the hours of around 10 a.m. to around 4.30 or so. Our first day of operation will be this Sunday, August 22nd. We'll have QR codes that the community can scan, register, and show up to. But if you wanted to do a walk-up testing, we'd be happy to have you there as well. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the next speaker will be myself. Thank you.

So my name is Cindy Tran, the deputy city clerk of City of Morning Park, and we are currently hosting a series of virtual informational meetings via Zoom to educate the public regarding the redistricting 2021.

So this past Monday, we just had a meeting and we will be having another meeting next Monday at 630. So we will be hosting two meetings.

nd we will be hosting two meetings each month from now to November. ! I encourage the public to come and join us to learn more about the redistricting process.

! Thank you. ! That's all the speakers, Mayor. ! Thank you.

!

There's one more hand raised. That's a 909 number.

No.

That gentleman just spoke regarding the COVID testing.

We've got Cindy's number. Your hand's raised, Cindy, I think.

No. No.

No. Okay, so no more public communications. Correct. Then we move to consent calendar.

So we have consent calendar for 3A to 3G.

Is there any council member would like to pull any item? Okay.

Yeah, I would like to pull item 3B. Okay.

That's the investment report. Thank you. Okay, just 3B, right, Council Member Chen? Yes. Okay, and so Council Member Sinoso? Item 3C, C as in Charlie. Okay. Thank you. And then May Pro Temlo?

Nothing. Oh, just to clarify, so did the City Manager say we are continuing item 2A to the next Council meeting?

Right.

Okay. Okay. And that's September 15th or no, the one before that? That'll be September 1st.

September 1st. Okay, thank you. The one before that. Thank you. Okay, so. All right, so do we have a motion to approve? 3A, 3D, 3E, 3F, and 3G. So move. I second. Thank you. Vincent, please call roll. Council member Peter Chan. Yes. Council member Hans Liang. Yes. Council member Fred Cernoso. Aye. Mayor pro tem Henry Lo. Aye. And mayor Yvonne Yu. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. So for item. Can I speak? Yes. Can I speak?

Yes.

I think the speaker ending the phone number 240 want to speak.

Okay, so we missed her, right? So yeah, let her speak.

Speaker 240, please press star six.

Yeah, this is Isabel Wu.

Okay, Isabel, please. Go ahead. On behalf of the Monterey Park Chamber of Commerce,

we at Greater Monterey Park Chamber of Commerce

would like to invite the city council and our business community

to come together to enjoy the music and to have a nine-course

emperor meal.

This will be...

Hello? Yes, please continue.

Isabel?

Isabel?

I think we lost connection, Mayor.

Isabel?

I think we lost connection,

so we want to proceed with the consent calendar.

Sure.

Okay. So for item 3B, monthly investment report that pulled by Council Member Chen. NEW SPEAKERS, THANK YOU, MAYOR. AND I WOULD LIKE TO ASK THE CITY TREASURER, JOSEPH LEON, TO MAKE THE REPORT. AND THEN I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR HIM. NEW SPEAKERS, JOSEPH.

NEW SPEAKERS, GOOD EVENING, PETER. GOOD EVENING, MADAM MAYOR, CONSUME, STAFF, AND OF COURSE RESIDENTS OF MONTERY PARK.

YEAH, JOSEPH LEON, CITY TREASURE. AS FAR AS THE MONTHLY INVESTING REPORT, I'M SURE THE CONSULT IS LOOKING AT IT RIGHT NOW. You can see where our investments are mostly with the county and the state and a few CDs.

Is everyone still there?

Yes.

Okay, because I went blank. Okay, I can see you now, Mayor. Thank you. And again, most of the investments are the county, the state, and the CDs. Most of the funds right now are with the state, which has a slightly Lor interest than the county. But I've been working on this issue for some time now with our Director of Management Services, Martha Garcia, our City Manager, Ron Bowe, and our City Attorney, Carl Berger.

And I'm planning to bring a full report next month when I bring up the discussion of a

mid-year annual policy review. At that time, we'll go with the City's policy investment review and make any recommended

changes to the Council to approve.

But at this time, just really brief, because I don't want to repeat myself for next month,

per city attorney has reviewed the regulations and our investment policy, and we are limited to the amount of funds that we can invest with the county.

That's why you can see in the investment report, most of the funds are currently invested with the state.

in life. But Carl has helped review the regulations and our investment policy and we have recently moved another $28 million to the county. So now we have approximately 42% of our funds with the county. And per Carl's understanding and his interpretation of the regulations, we are now tapped out. We cannot invest any more funds with the county at this time.

The regulations are very complex. I know Carl is still reviewing them and we're still waiting to obtain additional information and we're hoping to have all the information for the council next September when I bring a full report regarding the investment policy. But that's the reason why if you look at the investment policy

most of the funds are with LEIF which is a state investment

pool because we are limited by state regulation as to how much money we can invest with accounting. And

excuse me, if you look at your For current investment report, I know it's only approximately $9 million, but we have

invested in an additional $28 million, or $20 or $29 million, because Carl reviewed it over again, and if you interpret it vaguely, that's the maximum we can invest.

So we have approximately now $38 million worth of accounting, which is about 42% of our funds.

And that's up. We haven't answered any questions, but we'll be bringing up a full report. I was hoping to bring it now, but we're still waiting to obtain additional permission.

We're going to have to wait until next September, until next month to get the additional information so I can bring everything to the council, including our investment policy. So the council will get a copy of our current investment policy with recommended changes, which may include changes to the county investments. Thank you. Any questions they have to answer? Thank you, City Treasurer, for the explanation. I think you answered my question because I can see the county investment fund is a lot less than the state life, and they make more percentage return. But you answered the question because of the administrative laws and everything, so that is the reason. and I will wait for your report next month on the policy and everything. And one question that maybe you or maybe the finance director may answer is that the seven-something million dollars from the relief fund, is that included in these deposits? Because last time it was mentioned that we received the seven million dollars already. SO MY QUESTION IS INCLUDED IN THIS INVESTMENT. NEW SPEAKERS I'M NOT SURE PERHAPS MARTHA CAN ANSWER THAT QUESTION. SHE'S MORE SPECIFIC AS TO WHERE THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN ALLOCATED.

NEW SPEAKERS GOOD EVENING MAYOR COUNCIL MEMBERS. YES, THE 7 MILLION IS INCLUDED IN OUR INVESTMENT PURTFOLIO. THE REASON IT'S SLIGHTLY LoR THIS MONTH THAN LAST MONTH IS WE PAID OUR PENSION OBLIGATION BONDS UP LAST MONTH. SO THAT'S WHY YOU SEE A SLIGHT REDUCTION.

NEW SPEAKERS OF THE BUSINESS. RIGHT. OKAY. YOU ANSWERED MY NEXT QUESTION ALREADY. OKAY. THANK YOU. NO MORE QUESTIONS. AND THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD JOB. AND KEEP THE MONEY SAFE AND KEEP MAKING SOME INTEREST RETURNS. SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR WORK. NEW SPEAKERS OF THE BUSINESS. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. AND I'LL BE MAKING THE REPORT HOPEFULLY NEXT MONTH. THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKERS OF THE BUSINESS. THANK YOU. SEE YOU LATER. NEW SPEAKERS OF THE BUSINESS.

THANK YOU.

And so, Peter, would you like to make a motion to approve item 3B?

Oh, sure. If there's no more questions from the other council members, then I would make a motion

to accept the monthly investment report.

I'll second that. Okay. Vincent, would you please follow? Thank you. Council member Peter Chan? Yes. Council member Hans Leung?

Yes.

Council member Fred Sinoso? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo? Yes. And Mayor Yvonne Yu? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. So for item 3C, and the bring up by council member Fred Sinoso, receive and file administrative use permit number 21-02. And so, council member Fred Sinoso, you have questions or you want to bring up the staff report? Yeah, staff report, please. Okay, thank you. I saw Frank Lopez already on the line. Thank you.

Yes, good evening, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem, this is Frank Lopez, the Public Works Director. The item before you is a receive and file request. As part of Raising Cane's conditional use permit granted on May 12, 2020, the applicant was required to seek relief for the drive-through and parking setbacks through an administrative use permit. You might remember that the administrative use permit was part of the business redevelopment

program that the city approved a while back. In compliance with the conditions of approval, the applicant did seek such relief and reduced setbacks were granted by the city planner, which I am acting city planner, on August 4th, 2021. The administrative use permit process requires that the approval be brought before the planning agency for notification and filing. Due to related items, staff is requesting that the city council serve in the capacity of the planning agency in this case this evening and accept the file, receive and file the respective item. That concludes my report. I can answer any questions if you have any. So, Member Carson-Nils, do you have any questions?

So, you mentioned changing the setback. I believe the setback is the distance from the sidewalk to the edge of the building. Is that correct?

Usually from the right-of-way, but there is some in our code that is specific to, yes, the sidewalk or the curb to the drive-thru. And due to the configuration of this lot, it's not a standard lot. That's one of the reasons the AUP was developed, because unfortunately not all of the code complies, or I'm sorry, not all lots are configured the same. And so to apply the same code would be burdensome to some applicants and developers. And so this was a way to help relieve that.

So is there a, does it obstruct the current sidewalk? Is it gonna, is the sidewalk gonna be narrowed?

Or is it not gonna stay the same?

No, not at all. It's just not set back in the lot

as far back as the standard application is. And that won't create any kind of

like hazard or anything, except the drive-throughs a little closer to the sidewalk than normal? We don't believe so. The developer, obviously, is conditioned to look at their traffic, similar to how Chick-fil-A manages their traffic in the heavy times. They put out cones and they direct people. Raising Kings is also conditioned to do the same, And so we didn't feel this seems to be conducive to the flow that would be coming in. And so we felt this was acceptable.

And this Raising Cane, are they in a septal walk-up traffic or is it strictly drive-thru?

No, they have an outdoor patio that will take some walk-up. but this is a new special design for Monterey Park for this lot.

It's like a unique design, especially for Monterey Park. Yes.

Okay. No more questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions from any other council member? ! Okay. ! If not then, ! Council member first and also, would you like to make a motion to approve item 3C?

! Okay. ! I make a motion to approve item 3C. !

! Any second? !

Yeah, we second that.

! Okay. City clerk?

All right. Thank you. Council member Peter Chan? Yes. Council member Hans Young? Council member Hans Yang? Yes. Council member Fred Sinoso? Yes. Pro Tem Henry Lo? Yes. And Mayor Yvonne Yu? Yes. Great, motion carries, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving right along. And we have the 4A, which will combine with 5A later. So then we will actually start at the 4B, public hearing 4B continuation of public hearing work regarding modifying precise plan PP-14-02 conditions of approval for a hotel located at 555 North Atlantic Boulevard. So since this is a continual public hearing, now I would like to still open the public hearing. So Cindy, as Deputy State Clerk, do we have any public communications?

Thank you. audience if you want to speak on item 4b please use the raise hand feature or if you're on the phone please press star 9 at this time

madam mayor i do not see any speakers for this item okay so um then we will continue um the public hearing does to September 15, 2021. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

If we could have a vote on that, just to make sure that the record's clear that we're moving back to September 15th, I would appreciate it. Ah, okay. Thanks so much. So I just want to be clear on the agenda. It says continuing the public notice for August 18th on the agenda. Okay, so to the future date would be the September date, correct? Correct. That way we retain the noticing provisions that we've already had. Otherwise, we'd have to re-notice. Okay. I move a motion to approve 4B, continuing the public hearing to September, what was the date? 15? 15. 1-5.

So, City Clerk, any second?

I second. I second that.

Okay. Thank you. City clerk, this call roll.

Council member Peter Chan? Yes. Council member Henry Lo? Yes. Council member Fred Zernoso? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo?

Can you just call me? I'm sorry. Okay. Missed council member Hans. Yeah, then.

Wave. Yes. Mayor Henry Lo. Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo. Well, yes, I guess. Okay. Mary Manu. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So for item 4C, resolutions modifying conditional use permit CU-19-13 as to business hour for operating a retail eating establishment

located at 1970 South Atlantic Boulevard. AND SO NOW I WOULD LIKE TO OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARINGS. CINDY, DO WE HAVE ANY PUBLIC COMMUNICATION?

YES, WE DO. FIRST SPEAKER, DAVID WAYNE.

MADAM MAYOR, IF I MAY SUGGEST THAT WE FIRST HEAR THE STAFF REPORT ON THIS AND THEN INVITE THE PUBLIC COMMENT ON IT, ORDINARILY THE APPLICANT HAS FIRST DIBS ON THE PUBLIC COMMENT,

So after the staff report, I know that there are two representatives from the applicant here to speak to the city council tonight. Okay, sure. So Frank Lopez, our director of public works, would you please have the staff report?

Yes, thank you. And good evening, Mayor, Mayor Patem, council members. This is Frank Lopez, public works director, acting city planner. The item before you tonight is a request on behalf of Raising Canes to modify the conditional use permit granted on May 12, 2020. As you may recall, at the time the CUP was granted and as a result of public input, the council conditioned the reduction of the operators' hours from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. In keeping with like businesses and hours of operation and given the fact that the opposition was formally withdrawn, the operator is seeking to modify the conditions of approval to allow operations from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. This is consistent with the businesses in the immediate vicinity and other drive-thru operations elsewhere in the City of Monterey Park. As such, staff is recommending approval of the modified hours of operation.

and I can answer any questions. And I believe as was mentioned, the applicant is also here tonight.

And Madam Mayor, members of the city council, I just for the public's knowledge,

there was a supplementary staff report that was added

that proposed a new draft resolution,

which had a change with regards to the environmental assessment. and that is posted on the website and was distributed to the city council.

Thank you.

So, fabulous city clerk. Cindy, do we have any public communication?

Yes, we do.

City attorney,

you mentioned that the applicant should speak first I'm not sure who are the applicants

I believe Mr. David Waite is an applicant I'm not sure who the 370 is and under the city's protocols the applicant actually has a total of 20 minutes to give a presentation they can

reserve part of that for rebuttal at the end if they wish thank you

David?

Yes, good evening, Madam Mayor. This is David Waite. I am from the law firm of Cox Castle and Nicholson, and I represent the applicant Raising Cane's Restaurant. Also, this evening with me is Kristen Roberts, who's also on the line, and she also is available to answer any questions. I certainly hope everyone is doing well this evening and staying safe. Thank you for all of your efforts to move our business forward despite the challenging environment that we're operating in. I will be brief in my remarks this evening and will be certainly available to answer any questions. And essentially what we are presenting this evening is as you will recall last September

after the city planning commission approved the conditional use permit allowing construction of the new Raising Cane's retail eating establishment with a drive through with business hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Sunday, the city council heard an appeal from a neighboring property owner and in so doing upheld the planning commission approval, but at that time modified the business hours of operation to a closing time of 10 p.m. on Monday through Sunday. Well, things have of course changed and as you can see more fully in the attachment three to the agenda item, there is no longer any opposition to the business hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Sunday. In light of that, Raising Cane seeks a single modification to the approved conditional use permit to restore the business hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Sunday as initially approved by the Planning Commission. Not only would this be a restoration of hours that would initially be analyzed through the Planning Commission, but it would make the restaurant's hours of operation

more in line with other existing restaurants operating in a similar fashion

along the city's main commercial thoroughfares, including South Atlantic Boulevard, a couple of which have a 24 hour operations. To the extent to which any council member may have concerns about noise associated with restoration of hours, that all of course, has been adequately addressed in the conditions of approval that are already part of the conditional use permit. And those will continue to apply for the project. More specifically, those conditions of approval will require the volume of speaker boxes to be turned down at 10 PM every night and require that the noise mitigation plan will meet the Monterey Park Municipal Code requirements and be approved by the city planning prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the restaurant. And then I'll just make one brief note in terms of our CEQA compliance on this that I've been working with your city attorney, Carl Bergeron. We would just simply point out that this project is exempt under CEQA. CEQA provides for the so-called common sense exemption set forth in the state sequel guidelines, section 15061B3, and where it can be seen with certainty that there's no possibility that the activity in question will have a significant effect on the environment. The activity, of course, proposed to you tonight is simply restoring the hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Sunday. The restaurant has already been approved, and that, of course, is not before you this evening. As mentioned earlier, the city planning commission approved the restaurant with the same hours of operation being sought tonight. and it approves the planning commission found that there were no significant effects on the environment associated with those hours of operation. And that finding was upheld by the city council on appeal last September. So we are essentially in conclusion, I'll just simply say that we appreciate your consideration of our amendment to the CUP to allow the operation hours to be restored to 1 AM as requested. And we thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you. Next speaker, phone number ending in 370.

You can please press star six to mute yourself and please state your name.

Can you hear me all right? Yes. Excuse me. Okay. Thank you so much, Santa Mayor, City Council.

This is Kristin Roberts, Senior Property Development Manager for our cooking cashier with Raising Cane.

I can only echo what David said and could have no way said it as well as he did.

So I will defer our time to anyone else on our team that's on the call that may need it, but I'm also here to answer any questions you may have. And thank you so very much for your consideration this evening.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, there are no other speakers on this item.

Okay, thank you. so I would like to let me see

this item

then I would like to close the communication

the public hearing and do we have any questions from any council member council member Fersinoso

you're on mute are you on mute

yeah Fred we cannot hear you

Oh.

Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. So my question is not so much the hours of operation.

I'm just curious on when are you planning on breaking ground and when do you feel that the project will be completed

so that you can have an opening.

This is David Waite. I'm going to let Kristen Roberts respond to that.

I don't actually have the construction schedule,

but I'm sure hopefully somebody on the Canes team can answer that question.

Thank you, Councilman Starno for that question. Chris, can you answer that?

Oh, I'm not sure what I can. Am I unmuted by chance? I'm hoping I'm doing this on my phone while watching on video.

So I hope it's coming through all right.

Now we can hear it. Okay, fantastic. Great question. Really appreciate that. We're actually finalizing some paperwork

and some routing through the city. city staff has been wonderful to work with and continues to be. So we're hoping to potentially break ground here in, I want to generally say, about two months.

And then from there, it'll take us approximately 140, 160 days based on whether to complete and start hiring halfway between that process and get rolling.

Okay. So sounds like right around October sometime and then completion early next year.

we would generally hope so yes sir okay then can you uh familiarize me with your

menu i'm not familiar with raising cane i know you guys sell chicken but can you tell me what your menu is or just the general absolutely we sell four things and we do it really well

our one love chicken fingers we also sell crinkle fries whole slaw and texas toast and we also have fresh squeezed lemonade and sweet tea. And you can tell I'm hungry, but we are very proud of what we do, who we do it for the community. We sell four things, do it right. Like I said, as soon as you drive up, we know what you're going to order and we start dropping birds.

And we have a great time and we really look forward to becoming a part of the Monterey park community.

And what are, what are chicken fingers?

chicken fingers are oh um um if we just have our excuse me uh they're fried chicken fingers

i didn't know chickens had fingers oh gotcha yes

That'll be on you, Joel.

person also um council member liam you have questions no okay i may put a time load do you have any questions uh yes um uh this is actually directed at staff um uh frank or whoever public works can maybe answer this question um so i know in previous council meetings there was an update

about what the neighbor our neighbors the um the um uh atlantic village i guess um are they also

doing some type of construction work in the north end of their complex as well. And the, uh, uh, and, and the intersection that abuts the, um, the property where raising cane is going to come in.

Uh, I mayor pro tem low air council members. I can probably best answer that question since, uh, I'm dealing with Atlantic square as we speak. They have some tentative plans, no official plans on any type of construction at this time. So there's really nothing to talk about. Should there be any conflict or anything? They do understand that they have to reconfigure their driveway going into the north end of their property. And that has nothing to do with what Raising Cane's is doing or the alley.

But are there any potential impacts to traffic and this impact next door to Raising Cane's?

Not that we are aware of at this time because there is no future project for Atlantic Square on the north end. Okay. All right.

And actually, I wanted to just a few comments. And on May 12, 2020, you know, we approved from 9 to 10 p.m. And we have a lot of people raising their voice against racing cane to be billed due to traffic, noise, etc. Now, May 2020 was a short time into pandemic. So we have no idea how serious an impact to our community. And now is a year and a half after our last approval. I can see how hard the restaurants are, problems of hiring, lack of businesses, and even problems finding restaurants open during late evening. Ex-McDonald's and Fast Food and other restaurants, they're closing a lot earlier than it used to. I can only find in and out open until 11 p.m. And now we can see it's very different from our public communications that we don't see people against it anymore. and so yeah I would like to actually I do actually change my mind about the opening hours I would like to see more restaurants have drive-through and open till later time so that you know we have more options and we hope also to rebuild our economy so yeah to me I would be agreed to the original hours which from 9 a.m to 1 a.m so hopefully it will not be a lot of noise and traffic and if that's the case i'm sure our uh police chief will notify us and you know that we'll take action from that point on but uh for now i have no problem with the the hours so um so any um if we don't have any questions do we have motions to approve item 4c oh okay council member chen thank you madam mayor and uh thank you the uh representative from uh raising kings FOR THE PRESENTATION. AND I HAVE A QUESTION. ACTUALLY TWO QUESTIONS FOR THE STAFF. FIRST ONE IS MAYBE THE POLLYBURG DIRECTOR, MR. MILPES MAY ANSWER THAT. WE IN THE REPORT YOU SAID LEGAL NOTICES WERE SENT OUT AND POSTED IN THE LIBRARY AND SO FORTH. And 104 property owners were notified. And do we receive any communications or any response from those people that we contacted? MR.

No, Councilman Chen, we did not receive any communication. Okay.

Okay. And then the other question, you said last time that we approved the CUP, that's the conditional use permit. and every conditions are in place. And tonight is only the extension dating hours from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. And everything stays the same as previously approved. Isn't that correct? Yes, that is correct. Okay. Yeah, that's what I want to clarify. And so everything is the same as approved and it's only the hours that's extended. Okay, thank you. Thank you. If there's no more questions, any motions to approve item 4C? I move to move. Madam Mayor, I'm sorry for interrupting. Madam Mayor, members of the council, just for clarification, my recommendation would be the draft resolution that was attached to the supplemental staff report

for purposes of adoption.

Okay. So we wanted to make a motion to adopt a resolution, modified resolution number 12194s to business hour from 9 to 1 a.m., right?

Correct. That was posted yesterday on the website and distributed.

Sure.

Thank you. So moved.

Any second? Okay. So, Finston, please call it.

Council Member Peter Chan?

Yes.

Council Member Hans Liang? Yes. Council Member Fred Cernoso? So yes. Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo. Yes. Mayor Yvonne Yu.

Yes.

Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you. So for number five, item five, a new business, Monterey Park Geologic Hester Abatement District, MPKGAD. So we have John Turner, Acting City Planner. Would you please provide a staff report to us?

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of council. Can you hear me okay?

Yes. Wonderful.

So tonight I'm before you to discuss the Monterey Park Geologic Hazard Abatement District.

We are recommending that city council consider adopting a resolution initiating the formation

of the Geologic Hazard Abatement District and then scheduling the public hearing regarding that. Also, the recommendation is that we continue the public hearing that was noticed for August 18th

to September 15th. So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the GAD, Geologic Hazard abatement district. The geologic hazard abatement district, or GAD, will help ensure that the

hillside improvements required for the Good Views development project are constructed, maintained, and most importantly, repaired at the cost of the property owners located within

the GAD jurisdiction. The geologic hazard abatement district, they are formed for the purpose

of preventing, mitigating, abating, or controlling geologic hazards associated with certain parcels.

So, to better define a geologic hazard, a geologic hazard is an actual or threatened landslide,

land subsidence, soil erosion, earthquake, fault movement, or any other natural or unnatural

movement of land or earth. So attached to the proposed resolution in front of you tonight is

what is called a plan of control. That plan of control is a document that was prepared by a

consultant, Geosyntec consultant, and it was reviewed by city staff. In that plan of control, it outlines the hazards, their locations, and that document was prepared by a state of California

certified engineering geologist. That's a requirement for preparations of plans of control.

Also in that document, it outlines the proposed prevention, mitigation, and abatement of the

geologic hazards associated with the site. So the city council will serve as the board of directors

of the proposed GAD, but the GAD will be a separate political subdivision of the state of California.

It will not be part of the city of Monterey Park. So the GAD, as I mentioned, will finance all of the activities. That includes assessing the geologic hazards, performing maintenance associated with those hazards, and then also putting together repairs. And all of that is outlined in the plan of control.

The assessments are going to be recorded against the property owners. There will be no fiscal impact to the city for the GAD because the property owners will

be assessed to pay for it, the activities of the GAD, and also the developer, the good

views property is required to reimburse the city for all costs associated with the formation

of the GAD.

So in order to form a GAD, we're bringing before you tonight the California law requires

that the city council adopt a resolution that initiates the formation of the GAD.

When we return for the public hearing date, which you will also be setting for September 15th, we will adopt several other resolutions which go through establishing the board and adopting the assessment.

So that will be discussed at that future public hearing meeting. The way it works is if the property owners, more than 50% of the property owners protest the formation of the GAD, the GAD will not be formed.

However, if we do not get more than 50% protest of the GAD of the property owners that the GAD will be governed over, then the board of directors will be able to move forward with the formation of the GAD.

With that, I am available to answer any questions regarding this topic.

Thank you, John. And any questions from any council member?

Council members.

Yeah, just for some clarification. So this is just the initiation of the process to form the GAD and that at the following public hearing, the community will be able to provide their input

their comments support or protest regardless of what that may be at that meeting and that this action here is not actually forming it but starting the process for that just is that am i getting that correct um council member liang and members of council yes uh i wanted to let you know that tonight you are correct they we are just initiating the formation when we hold the public hearing, we will go through the different processes that are required to actually set up the GAD. But the formation of the GAD is dependent on the protest votes of the property the owner or owners that are affected by the gap.

Thank you. Of course. Thank you, Council Member Lian. Council Member Chen. Thank you.

Yes, I would like to ask,

is this logic hazard abayment district? Is it only for the Goodview property area, or is it applicable to the whole city?

Council Member Chan, members of council, this GAD is only applicable to the Goodviews parcel, one parcel.

It is not applicable to the entire city.

and then I would like to ask our city of any uh carl okay is that uh because city monterey park has a lot of hills and slopes is it possible to create this this shape to all affected uh slopes and uh areas

Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the council. I did want to tag team on Mr. Turner's comments. The initiation and formation of the GAD right now only affects the one parcel that deals with the Good Views property. If in the future the city council wishes to add to its jurisdiction, it can. And actually, a GAD is one of the very few public agencies in California that allows for non-contiguous jurisdiction, meaning that you could have a parcel of good views, you could have a parcel somewhere else in town, and the jurisdictional boundaries don't have to actually attach to one another. It can be non-contiguous within and actually outside of the city's jurisdiction because, again, this is a political subdivision of the state of California. It is not a city. It is.

parcel. So that would mean creating a new engineering report with regard to the new parcels that are going to be added into the GAD and what have you. And all of that would require

a separate process in order to expand the jurisdiction. But that vehicle is available

to the city and to the GAD if sometime in the future that's something that the city council

acting as either the board of directors for the GAD or as the city council wish to consider.

It's just that for this particular formation, we're only dealing with one parcel.

And the advantage to that also is it's only one parcel owner that we're dealing with.

So if this parcel owner, which as a reminder to both the city council and to the public, is under a nuisance abatement settlement agreement to actually agree to create all of these things, if that property owner objects, it will have some issues with the city attorney's office, certainly with the city. So we're not expecting any objection to the formation of this particular dad, but certainly in the future of some, if the council wants to look into an expansion of the jurisdictional boundaries of it, that's certainly something that the city council can do. Happy to answer any other questions.

So if we don't have any questions and do we get a motion to approve item 5A?

motion to approve 5a any second i second so vincent please call roll and i'm sorry if the

motion maker would clarify that that includes the continuation of the august 18th public hearing to

september 15th so that we don't need to read notice yes including the continuation date of

SEPTEMBER 15TH. THANK YOU KINDLY. THANK YOU. I SECOND AGAIN.

OKAY. VINCENT PLEASE CALL ROW. READY? OKAY. COUNCIL MEMBER PETER CHAN?

COUNCIL MEMBER PETER CHAN?

ARE WE LOCKED UP?

looks like he fell off looks like he yes like he's not there's nothing on his screen

yeah it looks like he's frozen okay all right we'll come back to him

and council member uh han zhang yes council member fred chernoso yes mayor pro tem Henry Lo

yes mary yvonne yu yes and there's council member peter chan again there we go What's your vote? Oh.

Thank you, Tim. My next question is to send me some...

Hello, Peter. Are you there?

I'm saying I, can you hear me?

Um, not quite. Uh, excuse me.

Maybe you want to join me at city hall later.

How about we all just go to the city hall, I'm pretty sure.

Hello, Cindy.

Okay.

Okay. Did we lose council member Peter Chan there? Yes. He's trying to sign on again.

Yeah.

Okay.

You know, if that's the case, maybe we can cast his vote a little bit later when he sign on again.

Then we can actually move into item six, city communications,

and we have a council member Liang. Please go ahead.

I have nothing to report, but I think we have to sing a song later. Oh, yeah, you remind me.

Okay. Okay. And so for council member first and also?

And just want to remind everybody this Friday night is Monterey Park night at Dodgers Stadium. So those of you who are going, we look forward to having a good time at the game. So go Dodgers. I also, on Saturday, I'm going to start volunteering at the History Museum. So if you guys want to stop by and say hello, I'm going to be being trained as a docent. so I'm gonna learn all about the history of Monterey Park going back to the start of the city back in the, what, like right before World War I, right? Long time ago.

1916. Yeah, something like that. Wow.

Just before I was born. And then we have some activities with the Monterey Park Police Department coming up, so I'm looking forward to that. And then also I'm looking forward to getting together with my colleagues next week at Center Barber to attend conference recording in progress maybe have some fun surfing or scuba diving or whatever wrestling with sharks or something but running with Henry in the morning training for the marathon so we'll see but uh anyway got some some fun things interesting things coming up in the near future so thank you that's my report for today

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Sinosto. Council Member Chen, are you there?

Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me?

Yes, but your screen is frozen. Yeah, I know. Okay. Yeah.

And we do need to pass your vote for item 5A.

Yes, I will.

Let me see.

Is that a yes?

Yes, it's a yes.

Okay. City clerk Vincent?

I got it. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

The vote's unanimous. Thank you. And so, Council Member Chen, can you do your remarks? City communication. Yes, thank you. And sorry for the technical problems. Technical.

Recording.

Okay. So council member Chen, the floor is. Hear me now? I think I have some technical problems but anyway

I think they want to disconnect

I have two iPads here but anyway let me put one away and then I'll just get back to it

okay now?

yes okay thank you sorry for the inconvenience And let me see, there's a few things that I want to report. Is that on the Cork Transportation, I have a chance to meet with the new Metro CEO, Ms. Stephanie Wiggin. And I invited her to come to San Gabriel Valley and see for herself, you know, firsthand on what's going on in the Metro service. And also I would like to report that in the Metro Service Council, there's one item that may be of interest to the city is that there's some funding for Metro for the first last mile fundings and the city is only can put in 3% and Metro will put in 97% for the first

last mile to the stations within like half a mile for walking sidewalks and stuff, three miles for bike lanes and so forth. So I would like to ask the city staff to look into that and see if we can get some funding for that.

And then I, and also they also talk about AB 43. That is to reduce speed for safety because we have gone through, I think Hans and I, we went through that before. I think the new councils were not here yet and about the speed limit in the city. And usually we have some issues that when everyone is going faster and then the speed limit will have to increase. That's under the state law. But with this AB 43, they will have local jurisdiction to talk about setting the speed limit in local. So I think we can ask staff to look into this AB 43, and maybe we can consider to support it or know better about it. And then I would like to ask the city staff to tell us the next housing element meetings

and the redistricting meetings, or post it in the website so people can come in and voice their opinion. And lastly is that the mayor and I met with the Japanese council general in city hall, and it's a good meeting and I think the mayor will talk more about it. So thank you and just take care and have a good night. Thank you.

Thank you. And Mayor Pro Temlo?

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. Since our last council meeting,

I'd like to report to my council, colleagues and community that on August 5th, I attended the installation dinner for the Los Angeles Division of the League of California Cities. And this event was held at Calabasas City Hall. And our new president for the LA Division of the League of California Cities is Calabasas Mayor James R. Bozajian. and it was nice to go and meet many of our local fellow council members from the LA County area to break bread. In some cases, this was probably over a year since many of us were able to see

each other in person because of the pandemic, but I did see some of our local council members

from the Singapore Valley as well as neighboring gateway cities attending this event. And

And hopefully, I mean, although, yes, we know that the Delta variant is causing cases to go up,

but hopefully, you know, we'll still have an opportunity to be able to meet with our local colleagues,

local council members in the LA area.

So we have a lot of mutual interest on issues such as transportation, the environment, job creation,

public safety, and community participation.

Also, I'd like to actually give a congratulations to our colleague Peter Chan. On August 6th, many of us attended at the Marriott Hotel, the institution dinner for the Chinese American Elected Officials Network. and of course it was to inaugurate the new president of the organization but also to acknowledge the contributions and work of the outgoing president which was our own Peter Chan. So thank you Peter for putting on so many hats. That's the diversity of our community as well. And then lastly I also really want to give my compliments to the whole community of Monterey Park. And the reason why is because, you know, this morning at the council meeting, I checked the LA County Department of Public Health to see what are our vaccination rates. And again, because of the rise in the Delta variant cases, and I really was impressed to see that Monterey Park has a vaccination rate of 85%, which actually puts us above many of our neighboring cities, certainly our immediate neighboring cities. And I know it's because of the partnership we've built with our school districts, with community-based organizations, as well as the partnership we've built with organizations like Harold Christian Center and Chinatown Service Center for administering these vaccine shots. And as our Fire Chief Matt Halligan mentioned earlier, we're right now partnering with CORE Los Angeles to provide free COVID testing on Saturdays in Barnes Park, although I think this Saturday, the 21st, is the last free testing day.

But I think this demonstrates that our community understands its responsibility in being part of the solution, in making sure that people are vaccinated as well as continue to observe protocols for health and safety.

And hopefully, you know, if all of us can continue to encourage vaccinations and wear masks as well as observe these safety protocols, hopefully we will flatten the curve again.

And I'll see many of you this Friday at Dodger Night. I'm sorry, Monterey Park Night at Dodger Stadium. And of course, happy birthday to our colleague Fresenoso. And I have my singing voice ready to sing happy birthday. All right. Thank you. We leave the singing after me, after my comments. So I had a meeting with Kira Motol, the Council General of Japan last week with Council Member Chen and our Assistant City Mayor Jainez. He gave us actually a few suggestions of a partnership including hydrogen stations, crafting cherry blossom trees on and other trees just to increase the survival rate of the cherry blossoms in the city of Monterey Park. And he also mentioned about cherry blossom tree in Japan. is actually more white in color than the one we have is which is more pink in color and he also hope that we have more japanese language classes provided by school districts so we will make the proper referral child partner in the school district to work with him um i also attend the moderate part hospital they celebrate the frontline recognition frontline workers recognition dinner and finally they can all sit down and celebrate the events together um the modern hospital chief of staff dr no is actually my neighbor actually right next door i'm proud to be invited by him and i said i would not complain if he has a house party in the future i also attend an arcade concert and movie night and they have over 1 000 people attend due to a band called answer um do you guys know the band um is that a famous band it answer okay they said it's a good deal to hire them um maybe we can look into it as well and um now um can we actually have we like to sing a birthday song you know to our council member first and also and which

can we have everyone turn on their video and all join us we don't want to just a few of us to say but hopefully more people can join us and it will be a city hall staff sing together

so and and the birthday song will be lead by our mayor pro tem henry lo so um henry so we all follow your direction. Sure. Let me get my dog to sing Happy Birthday to you. Okay, yeah. Let's all sing Happy Birthday to you. All right, everyone. Okay. One, two, three. Happy birthday

to you. Happy birthday to you. Oh! Happy birthday

Happy birthday, dear Fred. Oh, wow.

Thank you, little dog, Fred. Thank you. Council member Fersonoso, would you like to say a few words? Thank you for singing happy birthday, and thank you, little Mac, for the kisses that you're giving me right now. He's a sweet little guy. How did you celebrate your birthday?

Watched the Dodgers win. What was the score on that night? It was like 14-4 or something. I was going back and forth with our city manager and our fire chief. We were all big Dodger fans, so we were texting back and forth

and having a good time. Oh, great. Kind of fell asleep for a few innings, but then that's part of being old. You know, get that privilege of falling asleep. But I woke up and got to see the end of the game, so that was pretty cool. So go Dodgers. So if I fall asleep Friday night, you guys have the right to throw peanuts and stuff about me. They're at the stadium to wake me up. All right. Happy birthday, Fred. Happy birthday. And I have one little request. This is the city clerk's office. he said can you delete the last part of this council meeting well the picture is okay but the soundtrack can we delete the happy birthday soundtrack I think that's the the one is good we'll have to think about that one that sounds that good so Vincent and Cindy is it possible to we get the pictures but get the soundtrack off You guys sound great.

Madam Mayor, if you have a moment. Madam Mayor, if you have a...

Maybe we could start our own band instead of being the answer.

We could be the Monterey Park answer and start singing at Barnes Park.

Oh, I think that's a good idea. But who's the audience? I think it's only us. There will be no audience.

Well, you know, the ticket is to get us to stop, you know, when they pay the ticket.

We can charge double. If asked us to stop, then we charge double.

Madam Mayor, if I may, I wanted to add another comment.

You know, I was reminded by our fire chief regarding the testing at Barnes Park.

I know that it was initially slated to end in August or I mean, end this Saturday. but it's been extended through the month of September. So the free testing will still continue until the end of September, just to clarify.

Great, great, thank you. So any last minute comments? Okay.

Madam Mayor, there's an audience that raised the hand that you want me to call.

Okay, okay. Speaker 240.

Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Hi, I'm back again. Oh, okay, you're back. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, because I was cut off. And thank you, Council Members. And my name is Isabel Wu. And on behalf of the Monterey Park Chamber of Commerce, I'm excited to announce that we'd like to invite the city council and business community to come together to enjoy the music and have a nice course, Emperor Meal, and listening to Gu Zen. It will be on Saturday, September 18, 2021, and it's going to be from 6 to 10 at the Tangon Restaurant. And this is the first time the chamber event after the pandemic from the last March of 2020. so I would like to invite the chamber members and all the community members that's what I wanted to talk about thank you for listening thank you thank you Isabel and so yes

no that's okay I'm done okay thank you Thank you, Isabel.

Thank you. Thank you, chamber member.

Thank you, Sandy.

Any other communications? Any other comments before we adjourn?

No? Okay. So now the meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. Have a good night, everyone.