Monterey Park Hospital,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont members, Wednesday, June 1st, 2022, 6.30 p.m. Welcome, everyone, to today's meeting. Hope you're all doing well. Let's see, I just called to order, so, okay, let's do the flag salute.
TL;DR
The council adopted a $5 million transfer from the Local Agency Investment Fund to the Los Angeles County Investment Pool at [1 (62:15)] while also approving a suite of consent‑calendar items, user‑fee and maintenance district renewals, election resolutions, and an LGBTQ Pride Month recognition [1 (9:41)], all with unanimous votes.
- Council adopts minutes from May 4 meeting (3A) (71:12)
- Council directs biennial COI review (3B) (71:12)
- Council reappoints Lisa Duong to Library Board (3C) (80:56)
- Council adopts George Elder Memorial Day resolution (3D) (28:32)
- Council adopts notice of completion for Garfield & Graves signal improvements (3E) (93:20)
- Council adopts SA Associates on‑call engineering agreement (3F) (95:22)
- Council adopts SB 1 street‑maintenance project (3G) (96:00)
- Council adopts new user‑fee schedule (4A) [1 (9:41)]
- Council renews Citywide Maintenance District No. 93‑1 (4B) [1 (15:45)]
- Council adopts election resolutions for Nov 8 (5A) [1 (16:19)]
- Council adopts LGBTQ Pride Month recognition (6A) [1 (22:54)]
- Council approves $5 million transfer from LAIF to County Pool (6B) [1 (62:15)]
Summary
(minutes) The June 1, 2022 council meeting focused on a broad range of policy actions. After staff presentations—including a transit feasibility update, Army recruiting outreach, and library board reappointment—the council moved through the consent calendar, approving minutes (3A), a conflict‑of‑interest review directive (3B), the library board reappointment of Lisa Duong (3C), a resolution declaring June 9 as George Elder Memorial Day (3D) (28:32), a notice of completion for the Garfield & Graves traffic‑signal improvements (3E), an on‑call engineering agreement with SA Associates (3F) (95:22), and a Senate Bill 1 street‑maintenance project (3G). The public‑hearing portion saw the adoption of a new user‑fee schedule (4A) [1 (9:41)] and renewal of Citywide Maintenance District No. 93‑1 (4B) [1 (15:45)]. New business included resolutions calling for the November 8 general and special municipal elections (5A) [1 (16:19)] and a resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ Pride Month (6A) [1 (22:54)]. The treasurer’s request to transfer $5 million from the Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) to the Los Angeles County Investment Pool was moved by Council Member Chan, seconded by Liang, and passed unanimously at [1 (62:15)] (mixed) The council also discussed revisiting investment policy and signature procedures, though no resolution was adopted on that topic. No procedural boilerplate or ceremonial items were highlighted in the overview.
Transcript
Audience, please rise. Today, our flags will be provided by the Amara Park Place Explorers.
Ну, Ну, Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну Ну
Ну
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
which it demands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.
Poguard, order, colors.
Poguard, outward, face. Forward, march.
Poguard, post, colors.
Thogard, about face. Thogard, dismissed.
Again, thank you very much, Mario Park Police Explorers. Audience, please step.
Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you. Councilmember Yvonne Yu. Here. Councilmember Peter Chan. Here. Councilmember Hans Liang. Here. And Mayor Henry Lo.
Present. Thank you. All present. Oh, yes, thank you.
Okay. Public communications.
While all comments are welcome, the Brown Act does not allow the City Council to take action on any item not on the agenda. The council may briefly respond to comments after public communications is closed. For instance, may, in addition to any other matter within the city's council subject matter jurisdiction, comment on agenda items at this time. If you provide public comment on a specific item at this time, however, you cannot later provide comments at the time the agenda item is considered.
Clerk, any requests?
Yes, we have one speaker, Bill Lamb.
Okay.
Welcome.
Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you.
Thank you. So this is Bill Lamb for the record, a longtime resident of Monterey Park and a current Cal State Norfolk student. So I gave my comments to the city clerk and the clerk has distributed my comments to all of you here. So I'm here to talk about the issues of public transit on Monterey Pass Road. Metro Line 258 used to run the Monterey Pass Road until it was moved over to Floral and Eastern beginning on December 13, 2020, as part of the NextGen Bus Plan Phase 1 service changes. Since then, there are people who are having a hard time walking on Monterey Pass Road or Fremont between 10th and the South Alhambra border for 10, 20, or 30-plus minutes heading towards Floral, Garvey, or Helmand in order to catch the bus. An alternate service on the Monterey Pass Road segment only has the Monterey Park Spirit Bus Route 4 running on Monterey Pass Road. However, the Monterey Park Spirit Bus Route 4 only runs southbound on Monterey Pass Road, only in which goes through the Highlands neighborhood in Monterey Park, then returns back on Garvey to City Hall. Spirit Bus Route 4 doesn't reach Floral and Alhambra area between the 10 Freeway and the South City border, and it makes it very inconvenient getting to Monterey Pass Road from Cal State LA with multiple transfers with other buses. Currently, Spirit Bus Service has been suspended right now until further notice, but I'm very happy that it's coming back on July 1st. Last year on February, I had a chance to walk around Monterey Pass Road as well as some parts of Fremont Avenue in Alhambra between the 10 Freeway and the South City border, and I met some or a few people who used to ride a Metro bus line on Monterey Pass Road or Fremont Avenue and the majority of people said that they felt very impacted by the Next Gen Bus Plan, which is already approved by Metro, service changes in which it forced them to walk all the way down to Floral, Garvey, or Helmond to catch a bus along with driving to that location or catching a ride share service. My proposal for the Monterey Pass Road segment is that we should bring back the Metro Line 258 service on Monterey Pass Road instead because El Sol's Elac City Terrace shuttle also runs on Floral and Eastern in order to avoid duplication with that line. However, if Metro Line 258 doesn't return back on Monterey Pass Road, then I strongly consider extending Metro Line 256 south of Cal State LA to ELAC via Monterey Pass Road or Fremont Avenue and First Rate during all-day weekdays. And, well, I have to put parentheses that it says maybe on weekends where I select trips if it's feasible, in order to replace Metro Lines 258 and 106.
So this is the overall map of line 256.
That one is my proposed on the extension south of Cal State LA.
And the other page is the 258 and the 256 alternate on Monterey Pass Road.
And sorry about that.
and I apologize I had to print both black and white in color because I want to make sure it
has to be a you know better quality but I tried my best of printing it out on those photos so
so so for 256 I'll start from Castelli all the way down to Elac going through Maripass and first that's all the bus stops, but I made a list, so I'm not going to read it since I'm almost out of time.
Let's see.
Metro Line 256 should never be merged into Line 182 and keep the existing Line 256 including Collis Avenue between Sierra Madre Villa Station and East LA. Metro Line 256 used to run staff of Cal State LA to Eastern Union Pacific and Commerce via Eastern until it's now served by Commerce Transit Line 200 since December last year. A Metro Line 256 from Cal State LA to ELAC via Maori Pass Road 1st is a better way to serve the needs of the people who are living near Maori Pass Road as well as for the win-win of the Alhambra residents living on Fremont Avenue between the 10th freeway and the South City border, which includes some of the apartment buildings that are possibly owned by the Cal State LA students who need to get to campus on their class attendance.
so in closing do you think that that is the right or wrong thing to do to cut a metro bus service
off of marie pass road if it's wrong then i strongly urge all of you to please please please tell metro to bring back the marie pass robust segment thank you very much for your time thank
you for presenting click you have a copy of the president's statement no we have it thank you oh Oh, you have. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Any further requests?
Next speaker is Nancy Okurie.
All right. Thank you.
Hmm? I beg her? What?
Okay. Never mind. 6B.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Before we proceed with staff communications, I realized in my eagerness to hear public comment, I had skipped over an item. I skipped over agenda additions, deletions, changes, and adoption. So if I may ask staff as well as Council, are there any agenda additions, deletions, staff, changes and adoptions?
Mayor, Council, if you could move 3D under consent up in front of the presentations before the San Gabriel Valley Transit Feasibility Study,
I'm sure the audience that's here for that item would really appreciate it.
That would be the only change to the agenda. Thank you. All right. Thank you, City Manager.
Council members are we agreeable to that? Okay, then we will move item 3d To the top of the presentation Section of the agenda. Thank you. Okay, if hearing no further Changes and we'll proceed next we have staff
communications
Development staff present please
Okay
Joseph Taurus
Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council members.
This is your Economic Development Manager, Joseph Torres.
Our city's economic recovery would not be possible without meaningful connections to resources, programs, and economic development partners. And due to the pandemic, it has been a while since the city connected with our economic development partners in the commercial real estate industry. Consequently, the city of Monterey Park is eager to reconnect with our commercial real estate partners and is hosting a commercial broker's luncheon on June 28th at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. The city's Economic Development Department would like to invite commercial real estate professionals from all over San Gabriel Valley to come to our commercial broker's luncheon to learn about existing and new projects in our city and learn about opportunities for desired uses. In addition, commercial real estate professionals attending the event will be able to connect with the city's planning, engineering, permitting, and economic development teams to assist with their project or tenant needs. So if you are a commercial real estate broker or agent and would like to attend, please contact me, Joseph Torres, at 626-307-1314 or visit our website at montereypark.ca.gov forward slash econdev, that's E-C-O-N-D-E-V, to RSVP. Mr. Mayor, Council Members, thank you for your time.
I'm happy to answer your questions. Thank you Joseph colleagues. Okay, again. Thank you. Thank you
Next communications recreation community service department. We have
our second annual San Gabriel Valley Pride Festival and parade and with me
tonight I have my pleasure to introduce to you Alhambra Teachers Association Tammy Scorsia who's going to share a little bit more about this weekend's
event. Hi I'm president of Alhambra Teachers Association and a Nunez teacher so happy to be here. I'm excited that we're hosting with the city the second annual pride event. We're going to start with our parade at Mark Keppel High school at 9 30 a.m. and then we're going to march down Garfield over to Barnes
Park. We now have 23 booths from various vendors. We have the Boys and Girls Club. We've got the library. We've got ATA as well as the city. Then we're going to have lots of great swag. I was packing swag bags today. We have a DJ and we have student performers. So we've got some performers from Mark Keppel and we've got poets from all three of our high schools in the Alhambra Unified School District. This is an exciting event. I will tell you, we've got people coming from as far as Riverside and beyond because they're seeing what we're doing here in the San Gabriel Valley. And I personally want to thank Monterey Park for really embracing, and I thank Robert for really helping make this part of the community. And I've had students that have reached out to me. I've been in the district 25 years who are so excited. I have parents who said it's about time and we thank Monterey Park for bringing this to the community and to our family. So thank you so much. I do have some pride stickers. I don't know. Do I give it to Vincent? You give it to Vincent, yeah.
I think it's half of that. So thank you so much. And I hope you can all join us.
We do have Judy Chu supposed to be joining us. I know Mike Fong is joining us. Supervisor Solis, hopefully if she's feeling better. I know she's kind of under the weather. I canceled that event last Friday. So hopefully she'll join us. and we have other dignitaries that will be joining us. I hope we can all come out there and have some fun.
Next slide, please.
So also as a part of this year's Pride event, Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez and myself had discussed prior to this year's event
something unique and special that we could do
to kind of each year celebrate the students.
When we presented the idea to ATA and to the students that participated in the annual Pride event,
they were very enthusiastic about painting electrical blocks.
So this year...
Students from Alhambra High School from the GSA, the Gay Straight Alliance. Students actually painted a box that you can see now that's on Garvey and Garfield right in front of Bank of America. So, a few weeks ago, they were out there on a Saturday morning, painting away. It was quite inspirational. You had a group of students and teachers out there and lots of passerby, curious folks stopping, honking, giving thumbs up, stopping taking pictures with the students. So it was very inspiring to see how much pride and enjoyment the students got out of it, as well as the teachers. And what we're working on doing is each year we'll paint a box, and then we'll work on a four-year rotation where after four years those boxes will rotate,
and students will be able to see those boxes throughout their high school careers,
and then new students will be able to have an opportunity to also paint those boxes.
Now that box is along the route that Tammy had mentioned, so while those students and teachers are walking along the route to Barnes Park, they're going to pass right by that box and hopefully snap some pictures and make some memories. So that's enough about the Pride event.
Now, next slide, please.
Just wanted to also leave you with, on June 11th, there is still time to sign up. Anyone 14 years and under, you can join the Junior Home Run Derby. now participants in this if you do win you do have an opportunity to to compete at the world series so after this event the winners do go on to a regional competition and the winners from that will ultimately go on to participate at the world series so we are still taking signups up until june the 11th pre-registration is required for that event and so we hope some folks will come out and swing some home runs for that
Next slide.
And just as a reminder, if you're not already liking or following us on social media, Monterey Park Rec is the place to keep up to date with all of our events and activities and programs.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Geary. Next, Library Services.
good evening mayor and council members my name is Kristen Oliveres and I'm the senior children's
librarian at the Monterey Park Brighamire Library I'm here this evening with my colleague
Deborah Niblick, who is our senior reference librarian, to share information about the 2022
summer reading program, Read Beyond the Beaten Path. Next slide, please.
The summer reading program is for all ages and runs June 7th through July 30th. Participants
will register and track their reading using the Beanstack website or mobile app. Next slide,
please. Here you can see what the landing pages for each of the three challenges look like in
Beanstack. Readers can see an overview of each challenge, log their reading, and view their
progress in the challenge. Next slide. Next slide please. The 2022 Read Beyond the Beaten Path
reading program is an eight-week program aimed at preventing the summer slide which is a tendency for students, especially those from low-income families, to lose some of the achievement gains
they made during the previous school year. By participating in the summer reading program,
youth can maintain or improve their reading skills over the summer. Next slide.
The children's summer reading program is open to children ages 0 to 12, and children who are age 12
will be given the option to register either for the children's program or for the teen program.
children who are not yet able to read independently will count hours read to them and for
participating in the program those children who read for 12 hours will receive a Panda Express reward those who read for 24 hours will receive a free book and a Raising Cane's reward and for every four hours that the children read they're going to receive a raffle ticket to be entered
to win one of 10 grand prize baskets. Next slide.
In addition to the reading portion of the program, the summer reading program will also feature bi-weekly performances on Wednesday afternoons
at the Langley Senior Center,
as well as weekly crafts and story times. And all programs and performances are free of charge
and no registration is required. With that, I'm going to toss it to Deb so she can talk about teens and adults.
Awesome. Good evening, honorable council members. My name is Deb Deblick and I'm the senior librarian of adult reference services. So just like my esteemed colleague, we dress up in our finest hiking wear to present on this year's teen adult summer reading program. Next slide, please. So just like children, the library encourages teens to participate in the summer reading program by reading anything from books, manga, or listening to audio books to connect with the written word in a fun and meaningful way. Next slide, please.
So for the teen summer reading program teens ages 12 to 18 can register for the for the program through Beanstack which I'll reiterate teens can also earn a free book by logging 12 hours of reading or listening and they can earn the Opportunity to win a gaming keyboard and mouse by completing five activities of their choice next slide, please So in addition to earning prizes teens can participate in a variety of gaming and craft events such as Dungeons and Dragons
DIY Sharpie mugs, DIY book bag, and joining the library's Junior Friends Volunteer Group.
Next slide.
So next slide. For the adult summer reading program, adults are encouraged to read, to unwind, unplug, and relax while modeling the value of reading to younger generations. Next slide, please.
So adults ages 18 and up can register for the summer reading program through Beanstack, again, and young adults age 18 do have the option to register for the teen or the adult
program. And adults can earn a free book by logging 12 hours of reading or listening, and they can also earn an opportunity to win a pair of cool hiking poles like these.
Next slide, please.
So in addition to earning prizes, adults can attend a variety of programs such as movie screenings, craft programs, gaming programs, even Dungeons and Dragons for adults, Hans and Mary Lo, and educational lectures and more. Next slide.
And to kind of wrap up our presentation, again, children's, teens, and adults can register for the 2022 Summer Reading Program starting June 7th by registering at Beanstack. And next slide, please.
Oh, yeah. That's pretty much it. Visit our website or follow us on social media at Monterey Park Lib. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you. Questions? Colleagues? It's okay. No. Thank you so much. Thank you. Exciting. Okay.
And that is it for our staff communications. And so we're going to continue on to presentations and I'm sorry, we're going to, I'm sorry, proceed with item 3D, which was moved ahead of presentation. And so let me read item 3D. Item 3D is George Elder Memorial Day Resolution.
Chief Gordon, please present.
Good evening, Mayor. Honorable Councilmembers. as I'm knocking over Inez's glass.
So this evening, the reason I come to you with this presentation or this resolution
is to recognize George Elder Memorial Day.
So typically, we have police officer Memorial Week, and we recognize all the officers that were killed in the line of duty.
This year, we're going to specifically recognize our one officer that was killed in the line of duty due to actually being actively engaged in a gunfight. We have another officer who was killed in the line of duty, but that was in a traffic collision.
So this year, we're going to recognize June 9, 2022, as George Elder Memorial Day. This day is celebrated annually and honors Officer George Elder. He was only 29 years old when he was shot and killed in the line of duty. George Elder was hired on December 1, 1957. He was killed in an exchange of gunfire while attempting to apprehend two robbery suspects
who had just robbed the Star Market at 350 West Garvey, again on June 9, 1961.
As the suspect ran towards the getaway car parked in the alley, they exchanged gunfire with Officer Elder. Officer Elder was struck multiple times and was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The two suspects and the getaway driver were apprehended in Whittier days later, in large part because when Oster Elder fired his weapon, it hit the vehicle, and there were bullet holes in that vehicle, which were part of the investigation that led to the apprehension of the suspects. All three suspects were eventually convicted of first-degree murder. Oster Elder was survived by his wife and three children. I'd like to recognize his son, George Elder II, who is here this evening. You can just stand.
His brother, who went on to become the chief of the Monterey Park Police Department, John Elder.
As well as John Elder's son, Robert Elder.
So with that, we're enlisting your support in the form of a resolution to honor Officer George Elder, who was murdered protecting the residents of Monterey Park. I want to continue by saying, as we look in the back of the room, tonight we have officers, and this is our graveyard shift, that while all of you sleep, make sure that the city of Monterey Park is protected. And not just protected, but truly, I will say this, and I still believe this today. Law enforcement is still the noblest of professions. regardless of what you hear and what you see. The men and women of this department serve at the truest public servant's heart for our community.
And I often don't get to share, but I think this is fitting because with Officer Elder's family here and recognizing it, you know, all these years later, it doesn't take away anything that happened in 1961.
It just doesn't. But you should know and the community needs to know that our officers are compassionate, empathetic, and still part of the most noblest profession.
And do the little things. For example, someone flagged down one of our officers the other day because they found a wallet. That officer could have just come to the station and booked that wallet as safekeeping.
The officer instead looked at the ID, went to the house, did actually quite a bit of work because it wasn't as straightforward or as simple as it could be to return the wallet to that resident.
So it's those small acts that no one would have ever known about that go unnoticed and go unspoken of that, along with protecting our community in the face of danger, also protect them in different ways and truly care and love our community.
So I just want to recognize with Chief Elder and George and Robert here tonight, you know, Officer Elder gave his life in service of what I still consider
and will always consider the noblest of professions. And the men and women that you see standing in the back of the room are just a small section of who continue to do that here in this city every day. so thank you for your time and I appreciate you moving the item forward tonight
for John's family and as well as you know
I wanted to make sure they didn't get called and keep them in here too long because then I'd be in trouble so thank you
Thank you Chief Gordon for those very moving words colleagues questions or comments? Councilman Chan you have your mic up? Thank you Mayor and great to see you, Chief Elder, again. Saw you two weeks ago in Bounce Park.
So thank you for coming back to the city and thank you, the Elder family,
for your sacrifice of George Elder, you know, line of duty, you know,
put in his life to protect us. And that's important. And I want to appreciate, you know, not just the Elder family, but all the police officers who put their lives on the line to protect all of us, and that's important, and make Monterey Park one of the safest cities in St. Gabriel Valley. So we really appreciate all your efforts and your protections and your duties to all of us. So thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chan.
Ms. Yu?
Yes, I would like to support it in form of resolutions to honor Officer George Aldo, who sacrificed his life to protect the residents of Monterey Park. It's such a sad story, but we see the courage of George, who become our role model. And thanks for honoring such a hero, and we'd like to spread his story to everyone around us. And it's our honor to meet his family as well today. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Hugh. Mr. Lange.
Thank you, Mayor. I also would like to recognize the elder family, also to recognize George for his service and his sacrifice. I also want to thank you, Chief Gordon, for taking the time to notice things like this that need to go noticed and that things that oftentimes go unnoticed or as time progresses people forget. So I want to commend you for not forgetting. And, you know, some of those things that you said, like the wallet and things like that, I think, you know, oftentimes, as you said, you know, you see the press focus on the small percentage. State,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont that it's a sign a sort of silent reverence about their job and about their commitment to what it is they're doing and it's a selfless profession oftentimes so I want to thank the elder family thank Chief Gordon for being thoughtful and bringing this forward and I also want to thank all the officers in our Monterey Park Police Department day in and day out who come to work and who protect us and maintain safety in our community. So thank you for that and thank you again, Chief. Thank you very much, colleagues.
Well said. Well said, indeed. Well, any other further comments or questions?
Okay. May I just ask one more question? Yes, of course. Did one of the elders ever work at the Museum of Tolerance? okay because i work i still work for probation and i remember uh going to the museum of tolerance uh and you were giving classes right and it was i remember that and i think at that time it was just when uh you made the transition out and i think jones umoy had come in uh but when i was thinking wow that was you know it's it's amazing how fast the time goes by but you're looking great and thank you always for your
commitment. He's never left service.
And always way ahead of his time.
Thank you.
Okay, then I would like to make a motion to adopt a resolution declaring the day of June 9th
to be George Elder Memorial Day in the city of Monterey Park.
Moved by Council Member Chan.
Second. Second by Council Member Lang. Members, please vote.
Votes unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilmembers. We'd like to thank the Council, and especially the Chief,
for this wonderful honor.
Please.
And thank the government.
On behalf of the family, I'd like to thank very much the council for this wonderful honor for my brother George.
I can remember the night it happened just as if it was tonight.
At the time, George Elder, little George, was three years old when his father died in the line of duty.
And sometimes time goes by and you tend to forget, but this will keep my brother forever in the memory of Monterey Park.
The other thing I'd like to do is I'd like to thank the chief here and especially the police department for the wonderful service that they provide to our community every single day, every single night.
I still live here. I've lived here for many, many years, and our department is as good as anywhere.
And thank you again so much for this wonderful honor.
Thank you.
Okay, Council Members, we will now continue on to presentations.
And our first presentation, presentation 1A,
Sanguva Valley Transit Feasibility Study Updates. Staff report, please. Oh, should I actually... Okay, yes. Presentation provided by the Sanguva Valley Council of Governments by Mr. Alexander Fung.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor, Honorable Council Members,
Thank you so much for inviting the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments to provide you with updates on our grand San Gabriel Valley Transit Feasibility Study. My name is Alex Fung, Project Manager with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.
I'm joined today by Ricky Choi, R. Cox, Director of Government and Community Relations, as well as the Regional Vice President from Kim Lee Horns, Brent Ogden. So the three of us will provide you with a quick presentation on the work that we've been doing with the Transit Feasibility Study for the past year.
Next slide, please. So some of the topics that we'll touch on today include just a quick background on what our study is about, the scope and timeline, the study goals, technical approaches,
study outcomes, our scope and accomplishments, and the next steps. Next slide, please.
All right, so a lot of people have heard about our transit feasibility study, but we also want to touch base on some of the backgrounds.
So in 2020, two years ago, the Metro Board of Directors decided to withdraw the SR-60 alignments under the Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2.
Some of you may remember that back then there was discussion to potentially extend the Gold Line ending at the Atlantic stations to South Almonte. But instead, the Metro Board decided to move forward with extending that to Whittier instead.
As a result of that, Metro has identified $635.5 million of local transportation funds for near-term transit capital improvements, and that is based on about a 15-year timeline. So to basically figure out how we can best utilize the $600 million, dollars. Metro has graciously provided us with 1.5 million dollars in funding for this fiscal year to initiate the San Gabriel Valley Transit Feasibility Study with the goal of identifying the next high quality transit solutions for the San Gabriel Valley study area.
With regards to the study area that encompasses the entire jurisdiction of the San Gabriel Valley
Council of Governments, which includes 31 cities in our valley. And we started this study in July
of 2021. We're very happy to report that at this point, the Metro Board has committed $1.8 million. That is another $1.8 million for us to finish the rest of the study within the next fiscal year. Next slide, please.
So there we go. Thank you so much. So this is our scope and timeline for this fiscal year. And we like to highlight this work as phase one. So we've identified our study area, the mobility problem.
We went through the initial screening and criteria. area, we developed some of the proposed concepts and alternatives, as well as looking at the
ridership and cost estimates. And right now, within this final month of this fiscal year, we are going through feasibility analysis before moving on to the next phase. So we'll talk a lot about what we've done within this fiscal year over the next couple of slides. Next slide, please. So I've mentioned that it is the goal of this study to identify the the next best transit solution for the San Gabriel Valley for the near term. But in addition to that, these are our sub-goals. Develop near-term and long-term mobility options for the entire region. Provide transit service for peak and off-peak trips. Address unmet mobility needs for trips within our region. Create accessible transit service for the region. Balance needs of goods, movement, and transits, as well as developing transit service that is compatible. with surrounding land uses. We never forget about any of these factors as we progress with the study. With that, I would like to turn over to our technical experts, Mr. Ogden, to provide the
technical approaches. Thanks, Alex. Okay, so I'm going to just talk a little bit about the approach we've used to date. We are incorporating big data, which is internet-based, and the advantage of the big data is that we can turn back the clock and look at pre-COVID travel patterns, which, of of course, they're very important because they may be more like the future than the current situation. And it also allows us to gather a tremendous amount of information about person trips within the valley without having to, you know, count cars or count people. We're focusing on mobility hubs and activity centers. We're trying to tie in all of the major educational institutions in the valley to various routes that we've identified. and also we're developing mobility hubs. We're looking at places where services can be brought together to facilitate transfers and provide for freedom of movement. We have incorporated a pretty robust stakeholder and outreach program which we'll talk about a little bit later but each step along the way we've had various meetings including community meetings and technical advisory committee meetings. Our approach has been sort of what we call tiered screening, which is, you know, we started out with something like 15 initial concepts. The 15 were winnowed down to about half that number, and then those were then evaluated, and we're sort of down to about the surviving several alternatives that I'll talk about further. Next slide, please. The outcome of this study, we're actually trying to produce a vision plan so this is sort of a long-range ultimate vision for high capacity high quality transit services throughout the sangria valley it'll be an integrated network would be included in it which means that there's good connections between north south and east and west and services being brought together at things like hubs and transfer points and also we'll have an implementation roadmap that I'll talk about recommended short-term, mid-term, and long-term opportunities and investments. Next. So this is the diagram that shows the entire San Gabriel Valley. The entire valley is our study area. We weren't going to try to focus it down narrowly to the SR-60 corridor, which was the subject of the previous light rail alternative from the East Side Extension studies. However, we have put an emphasis on the green zone. That's the area south of, you know, from 10 south to 60 because that's the area that the original extension was, you know, potentially going to serve. And so we're sort of focusing that area for short-term investment opportunities. Next. So talk a little bit about modes. We're pretty much focusing on the rubber-tired modes. We received numerous letters from cities that are in the valley saying they didn't think that a light rail solution is really appropriate for this territory. We agree with that. On the far left, you'll see what's called like a rapid bus. That's started out a metro-initiated rapid bus service. It has transit priority so it can get through the traffic lights faster. And then that's the Wilshire BRT in the far left. So initially, as you can see in the top view, the bus was running in traffic, and then later a curb bus lane was put in in Wilshire, and that had tremendous benefits for the Wilshire service, and that's the difference between a rapid bus and a BRT. The center, two photos show other on-street BRT systems, San Bernardino and Alexandria, Virginia. And on the far right are sort of busway solutions. We weren't excluding busway solutions, but of course if you start building facilities just for the buses, it's going to be approaching the same cost as light rail. So we're sort of focusing more in the sweet spot of the rapid bus and the BRT.
Next. This is our screening process. I'm not going to go through it in great detail, but the key thing is that we started out with the initial goals of the study. And the goals that Alex just reiterated to you, those actually were used, they were fashioned into metrics, and the metrics were then used to evaluate the alternatives. But, of course, the metrics were informed by stakeholder inputs, and they were also informed by data analysis. The red boxes showed the screening process for the east-west routes. So we screened the east-west routes first because it was the principal routes, and then subsequently we screened the north-south routes, and we screened the north-south routes in the context of the most favorable east-west routes. And, of course, one of the other outcomes of this thing is long-range recommendations for things that just aren't credible in the near-term or the mid-term, but in the long-term they really should be part of the plan. Okay, so let's talk about the alternatives. Next slide, please. Well, this is actually the evaluation matrix. So maybe I'll show you the matrix and then I'll show you the alternatives because that's probably what you're more interested in. But these are the east-west concepts. As you can see, there are seven of them there. And the goals of the study are listed down the left. So each row, you know, is one of the goals of the study. And they were scored sort of on a three-point scale, positive, negative, or neutral. The red Xs are negative scores. The check marks are the positive scores. And as you can see, alternatives 1, 2, and 5 were the most promising of the east-west alternatives. They clearly had the most benefits and the fewest negatives. So 1, 2, and 5 were advanced for further study. They were refined a little bit, and scores were developed for the ridership and for the costs of those solutions. Let's go ahead next. So these are the alternatives, the east-west alternatives. So this is concept one. This is basically following Valley Boulevard, coming out of Los Angeles Union Station and following Valley. Monterey Park. The whole length really east and west of I-605. Taking a little bit of a deviation coming into Pomona to service the Mount San Antonio College and Cal Poly Pomona. Next. So this is Concept 2. This was a bus version of the light rail extension that was previously studied by Metro. So it actually starts at Atlantic Station and follows the frontage roads and hops on the freeway. Goes up to the Shops at Montebello sort of generally follows the freeway pretty closely through crossing over by Workman Mill and Crossroads Parkway and then getting back on to the 60 and hopping over to Hacienda Heights area, coming in variously on Valley Boulevard, crossing over to Kalima and then following Kalima and then getting back on the freeway to head on into Pomona. The next one, this is Concept 5. So this one is a little bit different than Concept 2 because it does not follow Route 60. It heads north and east out of Atlantic Station. It comes up Potrero Grande, works its way up to Garvey, follows Garvey for a bit. Excuse me. And then east of 605, it comes down Valley Boulevard and goes down Valley Boulevard on the north side of the rail corridor all the way to Azusa. And then it crosses over to Azusa into the Pointy Hills area and then follows Kalima. And this one actually follows Kalima, Golden Springs, Diamond Bar Boulevard. It goes the whole length of the 60, but on surface streets, coming in on mission into Pomona. next so the north-south ones that were screened this is a this is a Rosemead service so there's an existing bus in Rosemead but this would potentially upgrade the Rosemead service by providing dedicated bus lanes and this one really has a benefit in terms of providing connections down to Pico Rivera in that area and of course it could also potentially further extend all the way Long Beach, Faya Lakewood. Next. This is a concept that is following just to the west of the Rio Hondo and 605. So it starts out, it comes down Peck, routes through the El Monte where it meets both the train station and the El Monte Bus Transit Center, comes down Santa Anita and wends its way through South El Monte on down, crossing over onto Workman Mill and eventually going through to service Whittier. And it terminates at the proposed future end of the Eastside Gold Line extension at Washington Lambert. And if you were to do this today, it'd take three buses to do that. So this provides a one-seat ride, and it connects gold to gold. Next is the Azusa service. Again, Foothill's running service on Azusa, but it is wide enough to support bus lanes, and it could be a good candidate for improvements and upgrade to Rapid Bus or maybe even BRT. It also has a possible future extension down to connect with the area, you know, in La Habra area in Orange County where there's OCTA services that are available. And then the last one is, this is a Citrus Grand routing. Foothill Transit is running a service on Citrus, and they're running a service on Grand, but they don't connect. So what we're looking at here is making a connection so you can go all the way from Citrus College APU up at the Foothill Gold Line, come down Citrus. It stops at the Citrus, stops at the Metrolink station on Citrus in Covina. sort of also interfaces with the stops that Foothill Transit has at Workman near Eastland Mall, and then continues on down via Grand into Diamond Bar. And it actually extends beyond Diamond Bar down into Brea, and that's something that Diamond Bar is very interested in with access to Orange County services. So those are the surviving alternatives. Let's look next here. So, yeah, so here's what we've done so far. You know, we've done a lot of reports have been prepared, documenting this process all along the way. And the ridership forecasts, actually, at the time this slide was made, they were still in process. We actually now have the ridership results. So, and, you know, based upon the ridership results, We'll be sharing those with the TAC next week and making some suggestions about which services will be advanced into the plan and for further study. What we still have to do in Phase 2 is actually meet with all the cities and talk about what these things actually, what's the implications for putting it on the street. Because we're not talking about widening roads to make room for buses. We're talking about reconfiguring existing streets. So there are trade-offs that are involved to provide the bus service benefits, but clearly giving the buses bus lanes will make them much more efficient than just, you know, making the signals work better. So that's sort of where we are. Let's see, do we have another slide? So you probably can hand it off at this point to talk about outreach. Yeah.
Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. So public engagement has always been a priority for us during this process. The study's efforts, you know, focus on connecting communities to opportunities, including jobs, housing, education, mobility options, and healthy communities. So we just want to make sure that, you know, all residents, as many as possible, community groups and key stakeholders, had the access and opportunity to provide input and feedback. So we sought out to conduct a comprehensive outreach effort, community engagement effort, including holding a series of workshops and meetings to gather input and feedback from diverse communities in the Singapore Valley so that the diverse communities of the Singapore Valley are served and that their needs are all taken into account in the development of the preferred alternatives. So what we did was we've technical advisory committee, we formed a technical advisory committee and it was made up of member cities with a focus on the areas obviously with opportunities for new service including the city of Monterey Park and also other stakeholders including county public works, county regional planning, Caltrans and of course other transit agencies such as Metro, Metrolink,
and photo transit and Montebello bus lines and others. The group was, and we met every other month or so
from October through June. We had four meetings with the technical advisory committee
and the group was instrumental in helping us develop the study area map and also review the conceptual alternatives. With regards to public agency's elected official briefings, we separately, we held a briefing.
I believe it was March for elected officials in the San Diego Valley and public agencies to brief them and update them on this study as well.
Website with interactive maps.
We have a webpage on our San Diego Valley COG website that's dedicated to transit study. And it provides people, visitors with the opportunity to obtain information about the study in multiple languages.
Given the demographics of the Singapore Valley, we made sure that all of our materials, fact sheets, we have a FAQ sheet.
Many other collateral were translated into Spanish and Chinese. And then also there's an interactive map there where you can see the proposed alternatives, as Mr. Ogden provided.
and obviously the public can provide input and feedback and comment for us to consider. The community open house meeting, we actually held a number of online meetings in February to provide information and also to share the information regarding the alternatives to the public and again to provide the public with opportunity to provide input and feedback. We also had a public opinion survey early on during the study. I believe it was in December. We conducted an online survey to get insight on mobility needs and travel patterns for residents and commuters in the area to help us define the study area map and to develop the conceptual alternatives.
The survey was launched with the help of a very robust social media campaign.
And these key stakeholder briefings, we did a series of these that included nonprofits, community organizations, transit advocacy organizations, and environmental justice organizations, and so forth, just to make sure that all groups are well aware of this opportunity and the study and to provide additional feedback. so yeah as you can see we did we the last couple months of that this past year we conducted a lot of outreach within the same valley with limited resources and so are the you know and we want to engage the public and provide as much opportunity for feedback as possible you know with that that's
our outreach efforts I'll turn it back over to to Alex to to us to talk about the next phase of our
our study. Thank you so much Ricky. So I promise this is our last slide. Okay so we've talked a lot about what we've done for the past 12 months. This study still has 12 more months to go. Mr. Ogden had mentioned that we presented our seven surviving alternatives which were narrowed down from 15 but over the next couple of months they are going to be narrowed down to three for potential short-term implementation. It does not mean that the rest of the alternatives are not going to be considered. They will be likely recommended for medium or long-term implementation,
but our focus here is to make sure that we have something that is good to recommend that our cities and our residents will be on board with within the next 15 years.
So as a result of that, our phase two, which is the work that we're going to do in the next fiscal year,
which basically talk about the draft conceptual engineering work plans, refining our conceptual engineering documents, providing illustrative urban design concepts, refining our cost estimates, and developing efficient plans with recommended phasing.
Additionally, in the next couple of months,
over the summer or into the fall, we're going to have another round of comprehensive outreach programs that Ricky is going to be leading, making sure that as we present these alternatives, all of the public's feedbacks are gathered so that we make the right decision.
We really mean it when the COG invites our council members, our city managers, our city staff to have one-on-one briefings. Our doors always open if either of the council members would like to have a one-on-one or if the city staff or city manager would like to have a one-on-ones. We're very happy to walk through everything that we've talked about in more detail.
So I believe that is our final slide.
Thank you so much for your time, and we're here to take any questions. Sure.
Well, thank you so much for that very comprehensive presentation. Members, do you have any questions? Councilor Chan. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation. and I know this is not in the agenda items, so we cannot get deep into all the presentations that you just presented. But to me, all the alternatives that you presented, I don't really see the good impact to Monterey Park.
is all around the city, unless you enlighten me, on what's the good thing about Monterey Park. I think it's just touch on 60 and not much, but our problem in the city is Garvey, Garfield, Atlantic, but I don't see it in here.
So unless you can, I don't know, I really don't want to waste the time because this is not the time to discuss in detail, but I really don't see, you know, too much of a good impact.
Mayor, would you like us to respond?
Yes. Yes, please.
Okay, yeah, we'll provide a short response. And so, yeah, Council Member, thank you so much for your comments. Certainly, Monterey Park is a critical part of the SR60 corridor cities, and we have received a letter from City Manager Bull indicating that there is support and interest to at least consider, to have something on Garvey Avenue, have one of the alternatives beyond Garvey Avenue. And we certainly want to make sure that that is something that we'll be moving forward with. But Mr. Ogden, who does the technical analysis, can probably share more.
Sure.
So I think in the next phase of the study, as it moves forward, there will be alternative analyses, as I indicated. So the alternative analyses would be looking at different routings for some of these concepts. These concepts look like they're very finalized because they're drawn with nice crisp map tape, but they're still, you know, think of it more as a sketch rather than a hard line. We had Atlantic in originally as one of the north-south routes, and some of the input we received was indicating that Metro was pursuing a BRT service on Atlantic and that we should, you know, focus our sites a little bit further to the east. but we did have that concept number five that comes up to Garvey and certainly looking at and Atlantic Garvey Routing is an alternative to a Potrero Grande. Santa Anita Routing is certainly within the cards, you know, as we move forward. We will be meeting with the cities that are involved in these alternatives and if there's interest in supporting, you know, more bus lanes along a greater extent of Garvey, we'd be very interested in that. Thank you, Mr. Auckland. And if I may add, um, all
Though the sketches and the maps are very nicely drawn, they're not final. The stations can be moved. The streets can, like, the routes can be moved. And so we're very open to having a one-on-one with your, like, with the council, with the staff to kind of hammer out what would be best for the city of Monterey Park. So just want to reiterate that invitation.
Okay, thank you. And then do you have the copies of your slides?
Yes, it is on our website as well, and then, yeah, the city manager has them too.
Okay, then can I have a copy?
thank you thank you yes to counsel I have a copy of the presentation and I
will forward it to you all yeah because you know it's so far away so small I can hardly see so I would like to see the all these slides and and go from there and would welcome the meeting one-on-one or you know more than one-on-one to save time yeah but looking forward to the meeting so that we can exchange ideas and hopefully we can come up with some solutions that will benefit City of
Monterey Park. Thank you. Absolutely. And Mr. Ogden has shared that the ridership and cost estimates are available. We're actually presenting this information to our studies tag next Wednesday, which the city of Monterey Park is a part of. A lot of city staff sit on that tag. We certainly encourage the city of Monterey Park to continue participating. We'll also share key updates to our transportation committee at the COG as well as the governing board when needed. And we know that Mayor Lo and Council Member Chen are very active members at the COG. But aside from that, if you want us to come back at another time to share additional updates, we're very happy to. Thank you very much. And I think it would behoove us to take up that offer to perhaps invite them back for further updates, as well as having possible one-on-one
consultation and meetings to find out more about these proposed routes.
Okay, thank you so much. Thank you very much.
Next on our presentation, item 1B,
Monument Park, U.S. Army Recruiting Office and Career Center.
Mayor, Council Members, the presenter is Staff Sergeant Elijah Mockaby.
All right, I'm going to make this very short and sweet. Thank you very much, Mayor. uh council members to all the staff ladies and gentlemen um so this was very special this is my first time i've ever attended this um i was offered the invitation so we certainly wanted to come down introduce ourselves we are here on behalf of the united states army um to my knowledge we actually have a office thanks to mr chan i believe um so anyways that is something that we would like to do is just make sure that we are informing the public um what we what we can offer we want to be tree free trusted help within the community um so what we we typically do is we offer opportunities for anybody aged 17 to 34 years old so something that uh the police that they were talking about earlier is some of the misrepresentation i believe it was uh you council member that talked about um the misrepresentation right and often we are misrepresent we are misrepresented as well. So, you know, the Army is no longer a place of last resort for our troubled youth and forgotten orphans of society. So we are, you know, an upwardly mobile career choice, and we are actually seeking out the best and the brightest. And if you see pictured here, this is a young lady that on the left-hand side, she was actually the valedictorian of her high school. She got herself a $20,000 bonus, and we have what's called the Army Reserve. It's part-time. Most people don't know that we have that. We have full-time service, which is full-time active duty. You can get stationed anywhere you want in the whole wide world. That is what I am a part of, is active duty. She is in the Reserve, and she is going to UCLA. She's a very bright young girl. She can go anywhere she wanted to. She was very, very smart. But anyway, she got herself a $20,000 bonus, and she's doing an office job. So when it comes to job, ladies and gentlemen, we have, I've had braces, right, after I met my wife. She was my dental hygienist. I have braces, and I have corrective jaw surgery. I've had LASIK eye surgery, and the reason I tell you guys that is because we offer everybody that helped me that I just mentioned, they were in the army. So we have dental technicians. We have
lawyers. We have doctors. We have physicians, the actual orthopedic surgeons. You name it, we have that. Most people don't know that. So we would love to speak with everybody. We would like
to integrate ourselves. We're obviously on the right-hand side. That's another young lady. She goes to ELAC. She was highlighted in the campus news. She got herself a $20,000 bonus as well.
So for active duty, they're offering $50,000 bonuses. So there's never been more incentives on the table right now. They are letting them choose their station of Hawaii or Germany. There's all kinds of endless opportunities but we would encourage you guys anybody that you do know age
17 to 34 we're also going to talk with the the gentleman for the with the parks um and and try to help you know organize some things with them and you know this was very very um it was very
good very insightful so i do thank you guys for all of your time um at this point remarks complete
pending any questions thank you so much for that presentation council members mr chad thank you
Mayor and thank you, Sergeant Mockaby, coming to the city to present yourself and talk about the career center. Yes, I did spend the time and effort to ask the Army to put in a career center in the city of Monterey Park.
Because the reason for that is because I would like to have the students to have one more alternative. Right. Because they can go to a college and pursue their own interest in their future career. But also army or the military also provides that because you can be an attorney, doctors, dentists, accountants, all the professions in the private world.
The military also provides that. So it's just an alternative that if you want, this is a place to consider. so it may not be suitable for all of us or any one of us but give it a try so thank you for coming and if you have any open house activities in the career centers we are here to be willing and be happy to participate and cooperate with you thank you
I would also like to add real quick you just sparked something actually on June 11th We're having a VIP from the Army. He's coming from D.C. His name is General Funk. He's actually coming to present an award. We have a brand-new program. It's called SORD, S-O-R-D. And what they're doing is they're going to all the different districts. L.A. is one of the cities. Houston is another city. They're coming here, and they're offering full rides to any college that these young men and women choose. full rides no strings attached to become a part of the ROTC which is the officer corps and actually
one of y'all's districts is I want to say was Montebello is one of the supplemental districts that has been targeted there's a few in Pomona as well but they're basically just saying hey district give me two nominations so the best and the brightest that you have and they're offering
these young men and women full ride scholarships to anywhere they want to go and that's like there's
no limit to that you know we have rotc and yale and you know a lot of your ivy league schools so
it's a very extraordinary thing that's happening but he is coming to the capital restaurant the
seafood restaurant is it is that right capital seafood restaurant yeah it's coming on june 11 so that is something i'll get you some more information i just found out on the way here
but he's a four-star general so you know he's uh coming from dc it's a very very big deal yeah
please send out the information on june 11 a week of time we will participate you bet yeah okay
please thank you any other questions any more questions comments colleagues you know thank you so much for coming and we are very pleased to meet you and we are grateful that you're part of our city and we look forward to working together
absolutely thank you very much thank you very much
okay that concludes presentations moving on to item two or business none Moving on to item 3, consent calendar 3A, 3G. We already took action on 3D. For remaining items, colleagues or staff, any items that wish to be pulled?
Yes, I would like to pull item 3C. 3C. And then on 3G, I have a question for the city attorney
because I see my street is on the chart.
Do I need to abstain or need to recuse myself on this item?
On page 96 in the iPad.
Oh, you mean the 3G resolution item in public works remaintance projects? Right. Okay.
Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'm eyeballing the extent of this. I believe that you're okay. it's $1.3 million
and it's a citywide program
so you should be fine under the FPPC conflict rules. Okay.
I would like to put that item then. C and G.
So item 3, 3, 3G. Council member
any other items?
Yes. Council member.
I was going to motion to approve the remaining items.
Clerk, do we have any requests?
We have a speaker put item 3C.
Okay, so 3C, which has already been pulled by Councilman Chan.
Any other items?
Not for the consent items, no.
Okay, so just 3C and G.
Okay, well, with that, may I have a motion, please?
So I move to approve items 3A, 3B, 3E, 3F.
Okay, thank you. Second, please. Second by Councilman Yu. Okay. Councilman Harris, please vote.
Once more.
Both unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you, Councilmembers. Okay.
Item 3C, reappointment to the Library Board of Trustees.
Let's see. You said we have a request to speak? Mayor? Okay. Yes. Why don't you? Your comments. Okay. Sure. Yeah.
Before we do the presentation, I have a suggestion. Okay. So I just want to ask my colleagues to consider. because next Wednesday, we are going to interview three potential candidates for vacancy. And I think that vacancy is left by Mr. Jason Ting. And we're going to replace it. So I would like to suggest that we would like to also do this at the same time as next Wednesday. So I just want to suggest that. Is it okay, City Attorney, can we do this? Or it has to be, because I know that this is a continued term for Ms. Lisa Dong. But can we put this together to next Wednesday? That's fine. That's fine. It's possible. So I just see if my colleagues would like to do it at the same time instead of do it two times.
Now, again, but these are two different seats.
We have one, which is vacancy, another one, which is reappointment. Okay.
I'm prepared to move forward with it today.
Yeah.
I'm just curious, is there a, I guess, advantage to having all together?
Because the one next thing is for a vacancy, right?
Right. Okay.
Yeah, this one from Ms. Lisa Dong is the second term.
Okay.
So it's different. The vacancy from leave by Mr. Jason Ting is a new term.
I see. So that's different.
But I just suggest seeing you.
Okay. Ms. Yu, any opinions?
I don't quite understand, Council Member Chen. And is there any advantage to move it to next time?
Just that we can ask questions and know the presentation and so forth. More detail.
Since we already prepared and then maybe someone already ready to speak for the item.
That's why I just opened it up and asked for suggestions. No, of course. And no, thank you for bringing this up. Let me ask, though, I mean, for this item, would it have been, were we as part of, I guess, preparing for this item, would we have invited the trustee to move forward, or is that not practice?
Mr. Mayor, members of the council, honestly, since we're coming out of COVID, I don't exactly remember off the top of my head what our past practice has been.
But I do know that the librarian Diana Garcia is here in the chamber,
and she can answer any of those practical questions for you. Okay.
And I can, from my experience, this is seldom happened
because the vacancy is vacancy, but the vacancy together with the continuation
or for the second term, I think this is the first time. But Diana may correct me.
Thank you. Good evening.
Mr. Marin members of council
So just to to clarify a bit there are two openings come State Ну,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont
The practice in the past has been for if a trustee would like to be reappointed, that
comes before council to make that decision.
But you could definitely combine those two items and interview all four potential applicants
for the two positions next week at the meeting on June 8th.
Okay. Thank you, Ms. Garcia, for that clarification.
You know, just my thoughts, as I'm listening to comments, although it's the same governing
board, which is the Board of Trustees, but they are two different seats.
And since this is already on the agenda today, I almost wonder if we should just take action because, as Ms. Cressy explained, for the vacancy next week, we will be interviewing candidates and asking questions,
and I imagine that will take up a significant portion of our time.
And I'm just wondering, for the sake of if you can consider fresh minds.
In other words, if we take up this item today, then next week,
we can focus entirely on the vacancy.
I mean, that's just my thought.
Yes, Mr. Lang, I'm sorry. Yes, uh-huh. Yeah, I think that, like I said, I'm ready to move forward. I think that Board of Trustees Lisa in her past term has done a decent job, you know, did a good job, actually, and I think that if she's willing to continue
and there have been no issues with her service, that we should just approve it tonight
and then interview, as you had mentioned, for that position, not a reoccurring position, but a brand-new position on the 8th.
Thank you, Mr. Yang. Any other comments or questions, Council members? No, I just make a suggestion. If you want to move forward. No, no, we appreciate that.
I mean, I can also understand that we all do it in one meeting as opposed to spacing it out. Well, I mean, it's already an agenda, and I feel like it's already an agenda, then why not take action?
Unless there is pause or reason because of the person in question.
And I don't think I'm hearing any.
I would like to hear from Lisa.
Okay.
Okay, sure. I mean, okay.
Well, actually, Mr. Clerk, so we have...
We have a speaker.
Okay, then can you please invite speakers?
Yes, the speaker is Jason Ding.
Okay.
Good evening, Mayor Lo and Council Member. You know, it's been two years. I kind of missed this. But anyway, I was hoping that you guys would agree so I don't have to come up. but I just want to let you know that I first met Lisa at an ESL appreciation luncheon organized by the library. She was volunteering as an English second language teacher for the LAM literacy program at the library. So we sat at the same table and chatted a little bit about the
luncheon. She was asking a lot of questions about the Board of Trustees because I was there as a
representing the board. So, you know, so 2018 she handed an application when there was a vacancy, so she was one of the candidates. There was an interview when Larry Sullivan was appointed. And then 2019 she applied again and was finally appointed to the board. So So she's pretty consistent. She's pretty passionate about the library, and she's a great supporter of the library. During the time I've known her in the last three years, you know, she's gone out of, you know, she's, I'm sorry, I got out of place here. So during those times, you know, out of her own time and curiosity, even before she was appointed, she's attended numerous board meetings as an audience and as a guest to see if she likes, you know, being on the board of trustees.
And the good thing is she keeps coming back.
So I see that as a positive. So as everybody's mentioned, this is actually this month is my final month. on the library board of trustee. So, you know, I'm being termed out. I'm termed out after two terms and six wonderful years in the library. So I'm going to throw my way around and strongly urge the city council to reappoint Lisa for second term. Thank you. Thank you very much. Clerk, any further comments? I'm sorry, requests to speak. No. Okay.
I know, Mr. Chan, you were mid-sentence.
I'm sorry. Yes. Oh, okay, sure. Well, actually, Ms. Duong, if you are willing and able to come up to speak on the podium. Hello. Good evening.
Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Lisa Duong, and I'm currently President on the Board of Trustees of the Library. and during the past two and a half, three years, I've worked closely with Diana Garcia, who has been a wonderful study librarian of the library, as well as the other staff that I continue to work with. I remember volunteering at the LAMP as an ESL tutor and citizenship tutor, as well as teaching an ESL class for one entire semester. And I was very, very proud that we had graduates who became U.S. citizens.
So they are part of society, serving as part of a society with a strong foundation that can continue to build a future.
the library serves as a place for youth
adults and the elderly as well
to learn more about the services the resources and for that I'm very passionate about the library serves as a foundation of education and numerous resources and as a former student myself and current student I am always learning
we are always learning and yearning for opportunities to improve society to improve our standard of living
in the great city of Monterey Park
so I would like to be reappointed
for my second term as a Board of Trustees.
And I hope that this serves as a great
explanation and introduction about myself. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wong.
Council members, do you have any questions or comments for Mr. Wong? Councilman Chan, yes?
Thank you, Lee, sir, for your service.
and seeing that you're in your uniform, so you must be in the medical field, right? That is correct. You're a doctor, nurse?
No, I work in the medical field as a medical assistant.
What? As a medical assistant. Oh, medical assistant.
So, yeah, so thank you for, you know, because the last two and a half years is a tough time for you. Anyone that's in the medical field is, you know, overwhelmed with the pandemic and the danger that you are facing day in, day out. So thank you for, you know, taking your time, you know, and helping the patients and also the, you know, everyone that has medical issues and they have to see you and that kind of things. and you put yourself and even your life on the line, you know, because you have, you know, the danger of contacting the virus and you get, you know, affected as well. So thank you for your service. My only concern that because you're in the medical field, so how's your time that because I know I've been the Library Board of Trustees before myself and the time is very demanding because there's a lot of things to read. and a lot of things to consider, and every month is a meeting. And so how can you handle all those work with your career, also demanding as well?
The answer to that question, Council Member Chan, is that I believe there's work-life balance. However, my passion about the library in the city of Montalpoc, I believe it speaks for itself, and I, as a pre-med student, I'm able to be able to face the challenges that I've encountered so far. So yes, I am able to balance, and I believe I've done a great job in attending almost all of the meetings.
Thank you. Okay, thank you. Colleagues, any of you have any questions you'd like to ask Ms. Duong? Ms. Yu, we have the mic.
Yeah, actually I greatly appreciate it. I always love to see Asian women running for office, running for any position to serve the community and I have heard good things about you and also I'm happy to see that you have great passion to serve our second term so I have no problem and fully support that thank you
thank you thank you Mr. Lair yeah just really briefly uh I want to thank you Lisa I know we had some discussions and I uh kind of asked around and uh you've been doing a great job I I also want to uh thank Jason for taking the time to come here to give your support as you are on the library Board and you do have to work with other members, I think it says a lot especially when you're going to be thank you for your service but especially that you're stepping down to actually you took the time to come here to show your support for Lisa. So I think that speaks volumes as well. So I don't know if the Mayor has any comments but if not I would like to... Actually if I may
thank you colleagues. Mr. Wong, again thank you very much for coming forward to the hot seat
before us but we appreciate your service to the library, to the community, and also for having this conversation with the council. My question is this. Should the council decide to reappoint you, can you share with us some of your goals, objectives that you would like to accomplish, you would like to work on for a second term on the board of trustees?
My answer to Mayor and Council Members is that in my first term, I believe I have expressed my strong interest in improving the technology and the services programming at the library.
And having the citizens having access to the materials, the resources here at the library that we offer for free.
as well as goals to improve technology-wise. If you were putting another term, what would your goal or objective you would like to accomplish
during that tenure on the Board of Trustees?
It would be actually a long-term goal, so I would continue my objective in pushing forward the technology, such as robotics, or especially one of the goals right now, which is gaining the bookmobile, which is being able to offer books and services, library cards, around the city of Monterey Park. And as you may have known, during COVID, everything shut down. So having access to education resources was very limited. And now that we have extended our resources to online, now that has broadened up the accessibility for all of the citizens
in the city of Monterey Park and outside of Monterey Park as well. Okay.
So your interest would be to focus on technology
with the goal of increasing accessibility? Is that what I'm hearing?
Yes. That's one of my goals. Okay. Obviously, I have other interests in mind as well
that I'd like to push forward, other initiatives.
Okay. Sure. Another follow-up question, if I may. Okay.
Do you think the library, through its programming, its collection, does an adequate enough job of representing ! the full diversity of this community, and whether you believe that or not? ! And even if it does it do you believe that.
! And if it does it do you believe that. ! And if it does it do you believe that.
Then how would you improve how library services reflects our community?
I believe the answer to the question would be, I'd like to see a glass half full and half empty. There's always room for improvements. Nothing is perfect in itself. As you may see, there can be chaos everywhere created over time. However, with all the community members coming together and working together, we'll be able to improve the services and even broaden it to different, I guess, citizens of different languages in the city with time.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Colleagues, any more questions, comments? Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Lang, yes?
Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to approve item 3C.
Okay.
Motion moved by Council Member Lang, seconded by Council Member Yu.
Council members, please vote.
Votes unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you so much. And Mayor, before we go to another one,
I want to say thank you to Mr. Jason Ting for your service for the last six years?
Two terms. Right. Okay. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Okay. And again, congratulations.
Okay.
Moving on to item 3G, resolution identifying a public works street maintenance project to be included
in fiscal year 2022-23, budget and funded by Senate Bill 1,
the World Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. I know the item was pulled by Councilor Chan.
Okay, we'll have a staff report. Okay, sure.
Good evening, Council and Mayor. Tony Antich, Interim Public Works Director. The matter before you is the adoption of a resolution. This resolution is not new to council. This will be the sixth time you've seen a similar type of resolution. This allows us access to about $1.3 million in funds that will be applied towards street resurfacing, primarily in the area around both east and south of Garvey Reservoir. It involves coal milling of those streets and placing down a new rubberized asphalt membrane. it'll smooth out the driving and get rid of the poor condition of the road if you have any questions
I'm prepared to answer thank you so much mr. Chan so this is only to adopt it we going to start this maintenance project and accept the money so we don't have the schedule of when to do it or, you know, that kind of thing, which street yet, right?
We're hoping to be out to bid during the summer of this year. That's how quickly we want to act on this.
Okay.
That's good because, as I mentioned before, you know, my street is in the list.
So that's why I'm concerned on that. And I would like to know, you know, that the days that you're going to block my driveway. Oh, yes.
Every resident who's affected by this will be notified well in advance. We'll try to coordinate. Some people, as you know, have other plans such as moving or other family activities. And we'll try to accommodate as best we can by adjusting the schedule. So we will be giving people enough fair advance warning so that they can move their cars and work around the paving schedule.
Good. And there's no, it's all money from the funds, but no general funds is involved in this.
Well, we haven't gone out to bid yet. and depending upon what the results are for the bids, we may come back at the time of the award and ask for additional funding if the bids come in higher. And with what we're hearing from our neighboring cities is the price of asphalt paving has gone up, and so we should be prepared for that.
Yeah, labor costs as well.
Labor and materials.
Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chan. Further questions, comments?
I would just like to add, and again, thank you to my colleague, Mr. Chan, for asking about the schedules. And I think we all can acknowledge that over the months we've had during numerous council meetings, residents come up with concerns, questions about, you know, when will my road be paved?
And so I think this is something that, you know, I think we'd all haste if we can,
because I think that's something that our residents really would be pleased to see us moving forward on.
Yes, we agree. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. With that.
Then I would like to make a motion to approve item 3G.
Second. Okay. Moved by Councillor Chan. Seconded by Councillor Liang. Councillors, please vote.
Votes unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.
Colleague, before we proceed to public hearing, actually, can we take a brief break?
Because as our colleague just did,
I think some of us may need to use the restroom break. How about to 8.15? It's 8.07. How about we recess until 8.15?
Yes, yes.
And so time to go, you know, to relieve yourself.
Okay, thank you very much.
We are adjourned until 8.15. Thank you.
OK. OK.
OK.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mary, Mary,
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
. . . .
. He moved the mission.
I hope you're here.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, they are.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay, it is now actually 8.16. We are women over.
So why don't, okay, I'm going to resume session.
Hello. Yes, please. Everyone.
I'm sorry. One more minute.
Yes. Okay. Okay. Right. Okay. Okay. 8.17.
Okay.
Okay. We are. Thank you. We are back from recess. Hello. On to item four, for a adoption of resolution updating user fees and charges. And I see we have Tim, right?
Okay. Thank you very much. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, and City Attorney. Cities traditionally provide a range of municipal services for members of the community, including construction of public facilities, providing recreational activities, and providing safety services. These types of services are generally paid for through various sources of tax revenue, such as property tax and sales tax. The cost for specialized services, however, is generally paid for by persons who use these services. Without charging user fees for these services, the city would be required to decrease funding of other more traditional public services that are used by a broader range of the public, such as police protection, animal control services, as well as street and park facility maintenance. The amount of user fees must be carefully balanced. If the charge is too high and the fee exceeds the cost of providing the service, this could constitute a special tax that can't be collected without gaining voter approval. If we charge too little, then the city would be unable to fully recover its costs. The law does not require mathematical certainty in calculating fees. It only requires a reasonable relationship between the cost of the services and the fee amount. In some cases, the city might find that subsidizing the cost of certain services makes sense. For example, user fees for recreational activities may be less than the full recovery costs, since those services generally serve the public good. In contrast, it may be in the public interest to charge fees that ensure full cost recovery for private development projects. The assumption in fee amounts recommended by staff is that the cost of services that benefit individuals and not the public in general should be borne by the individual receiving the benefit. For the 2022-23 user fees and charges, the proposed increase is 8.3% using the CPI index for all urban consumers for the prior 12-month period ending on April 30th. The new fees have been calculated with a reasonable relationship between the cost of services and the fee amount. To any fee adjustment, a municipality must hold at least one public hearing and publish the notice of the hearing 10 days before the public hearing is held. Pursuant to the Government Code, Section 66017, all fees related to economic and community development of the city set forth by the resolution will become effective 60 days after adoption and will remain in effect until repealed or superseded. All other fees and charges will become effective upon adopting the resolution. This concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you very much, Tim. Colleagues? Oh, should I open the hearing first? Okay.
Since this is a hearing, and again, thank you, staff, for that explanation, presentation. I'm going to now open the hearing up for the audience who wishes to make comment.
Any speakers? Any comments? Speakers? Yes? I don't think we have speakers. Okay, very good. Thank you, Dennis. Concludes this hearing. Okay. Colleagues? Questions? Comments? Yeah, just really quick, so I'm getting it right. For all the fees, the general formula you used was just an 8% increase on the current, whatever the current fees were. Is that correct? Across the board?
It's not quite across the board. there are a few exceptions. Some of the fees for recreation, they did not increase by the full 8% just because they didn't want to price themselves out of getting more customers to use those services. And there are some other fees for, I believe, the development impact fees that are increased by a different method. So those remain the same.
Okay. Are there, you know, based on your last review of all this, would you say that there are any of those fees that would stick out as unusually high or unusually low?
No, and we worked with each department to get their review of everything. We worked with them for several weeks before we put this together. So no, I don't believe so.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Lang. Chad?
Thank you, Mayor. And I go through the fee schedule. and yes, I agree with you
that a lot of recreation fees kind of like no increase at all. It stays the same, which is good because yes, the city may not recover the exact costs because we charge the residents a whole lot less money than if we have to go to private sectors. They will recover the cost plus a profit. That will be a lot of money. But the city is providing services to our residents.
So we keep the cost low, and that is good. And then I have no issues or no questions that we keep on doing this
because the main thing is the city is here to provide services to our residents. And, of course, like the private developments, the impact fees,
and those I think is reasonable. If you want to do business in Monterey Park, you know, there's a charge, there's a fee, and that's all the cities and all the government agencies are doing the same thing. So we are just doing the same thing as, you know, the others do. So I think this is good, and we'll maintain this for the year. and then we'll see how next year goes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chan. Okay, hearing no further comments or questions.
Let's see.
Then can we have a motion to adoption then?
Yeah, then I would like to make a motion to adopt the item 4A.
Okay. Moved by Mr. Chan. May I have a second, please? Second. Moved by Ms. Yu. members please vote vote unanimous motion carries thank you so much next hearing
item item 4b the city is required to conduct a public hearing to consider
assessments for the citywide maintenance district number 93-1 for fiscal year
2022-23,
pursuant to street and highways code
subsection 22500, et cetera.
Staff report, please. Oh, Martha, please.
Good evening, Mayor, Council members. In 1993, the city formed a citywide assessment district to finance the operation and maintenance of public street lighting and landscaping. The assessment must be renewed each year in order for the city to continue collecting the assessments.
The city started the process to renew its citywide maintenance district for the fiscal year 2022-23 at its April 20, 2022 council meeting.
At that time, the City Council approved the engineer's report, adopted the resolution of intention, and scheduled the required public hearing for tonight.
The resolution adopted at the April 20, 2022 Council meeting proposes an assessment per single-family home at $40.97, same as last year, for fiscal year 22-23.
The cost for the operation and maintenance of the city's landscaping and lighting is approximately $1.4 million.
The assessment district will fund $1 million of the cost, and the city's general fund will cover the remaining $400,000.
The resolution of intention, which includes the public hearing date and protest procedures,
was published in the Monterey Park Press on May 16, 2022.
to date no majority protest was received
against the proposed assessment district renewal for the fiscal year
22-23 and that concludes my presentation
thank you Martha colleagues
I will open up the hearing
those who wish to thank you for that and I conclude the hearing
colleagues okay
All right. Okay. Then if I hear no comments or questions, may I have a motion, please?
We'd like to make a motion to approve item 4B. Okay. Moved by Councillor Chan.
Seconded by Councillor Yu. Please vote.
Vote unanimous. Motion carries. Thank you very much, clerk. On to new business.
First item of new business, 5A.
item 5A, resolutions for November 8, 2022,
general municipal election. Staff, clerks? Okay.
Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. The general municipal election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2022, for the purpose of electing two members of the City Council for District 1 and District 5, a city clerk, and the city treasurer for the term of four years each. Additionally, the city council opted to call for a special municipal election to fill the vacancy left by former Mayor Pro Tem, Fred Cernoso, and to represent District 3 to serve a term of two years. These elections will be consolidated with the statewide general election conducted by the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder's Office or RRCC. $200,000, $11,200 is budgeted from the general funds in the fiscal year 2022-2023 budget
for expenditures associated with the November 8, 2022 general and special municipal election.
So the submission of candidate statements, if not more than 200 words, for inclusion of the official sample ballot booklet is optional for any cost. Oh, let me back up there. I'm sorry. Very important term.
The nomination period will begin July 18, 2022, and concludes on August 12, 2022.
So going back to the requirements is that also a $500 deposit is required for English only or $1,000 for English and Spanish candidate statements. Our RCC will be the central county place for election. SEMIFINAL RESULTS WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED AND DISPLAYED ON THE COUNTY'S WEBSITE AT WWW.LAVOTE.GOV. THAT'S LAVOTE.GOV THROUGHOUT ELECTION NIGHT AND DURING THE OFFICIAL CANVAS. THE FINAL DECLARATION OF THE RESULTS AND THE OATH OF OFFICE WILL BE TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2022. and the city clerk will be conducting voter outreach and as required by the Federal Voting Rights Act. So any questions we will be happy to answer for you.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
Before we proceed to council comments and questions, are there any requests to speak on the item?
No. Okay, thank you very much. Colleagues, questions, comments?
Yes, Mr. Chan.
Just one quick question is on District 3, the election to fill the vacancy left by Mayor Pro Tem, Fred Sonoso.
Do we need to specify is the position as Mayor Pro Tem or what kind of or just council or what is that?
Mr. Mayor, members of the council.
Yes, Carl.
The titles of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are determined.
State,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont
I will watch with interesting observation. Okay.
Okay. That's all I want to clarify. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chan. Any further questions, comments? Okay. Hearing none, then may I have a motion, please, for approval.
Yeah, I move to adopt resolutions for general municipal election on November 8, 2022, person to election code 1301 and also adopt a resolution calling for a special municipal election on November 8th, 2022 person to election code 1301 and also adopt a resolution requesting the county of LA to consolidate the city of Monterey Park's general and special municipal elections to be held on
November 8th, 2022 with the statewide general election on the date person election code 1301.
And lastly is to adopt a resolution establishing requirements for candidate
statements filed with the city clerk to be included with voter information for the election on November 8th, 2022. Second.
Moved by Mr. Chan. Seconded by Mr. Lang. Come from our office, please vote.
Votes unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you so much.
Now moving on to item 6, city communication, 6A, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Monarch Park recognized the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month.
This is requested by me.
You know, I just want to say that I'm very pleased that this is now the third year in which this resolution has been brought back.
And in those three years, you know, we've seen the community excited about Pride Month.
then as we heard earlier tonight from our Parks and Director, Mr. Geary, as well as our guest, Tammy Scorsia from ATA, there is enthusiasm, and we will be holding our second Pride Celebration event this Saturday.
And so, you know, I ask that I'll make a motion, and if my colleagues would like to second.
Anyone?
Second, I can miss you. Okay. Council members, please vote.
Vote's unanimous. Motion carries.
Thanks so much.
Item 6B, City Treasurer requests to transfer $5 million from local agency investment fund
LAIF, Delay County Investment Pool, requested by City Treasurer Joseph Lea. Since this request by City Treasurer, would you like to come forward?
Good evening, Mr. Treasurer.
Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, and of course, residents of Monterey Park. Joseph Leon, City Treasurer. At least for the next five months or so. Then I'll be trimmed out. It reminded me when our City Clerk mentioned the upcoming elections.
Anyway, I'm here tonight to request a temporary movement of idle funds of $5 million from Laif to the County Pool.
And the reason for the request is right now the county pool has a higher return on the investments in LEIF. And basically all I'm doing is trying to get the best return on our investments for the residents of Monterey Park. And again, it's only a temporary move because it fluctuates every so often. So if LEIF rates should go up, we're going to move the funds back to LEIF again. So it's not a permanent movement.
For the Monterey Park, policy investments are to be diversified as much as possible. There is no requirement in the policy that the funds in Lafe and County be equal. During most of my term as Monterey Park Treasurer, we have kept most of our investments in Lafe and the County pool, moving the funds between the two pools as needed.
During the last four months, Council has alLod Lafe to have substantially more funds than County. Please refer to the January 2022 investment report. There was approximately $10 million more in Laif than County, which Council approved. Again, in February of this year, if you look at the investment report, there's again $10 million more in Laif than County, which Council approved. In March, in the monthly investment report, there was approximately $5 million more in
Laif than Council approved. and at the last investment report last month there's approximately three million dollars more in life that county approved and in fact staff confirmed with me today that there's still three million dollars more approximately in life than there is in county so it doesn't have to be the funds don't have to be equal it's up to the council to decide you know how much in each fund
if need so as far as the policy itself i don't think it's an issue but i know council has expressed
in the past other concerns. I know Councilwoman, you mentioned before about the ratings. I recently looked it up online and the S&P Global rating for LA, which is the state fund, was AA- which is very good. But then the rating for the county was AA+. It was actually a
better rating than the state. So as far as security, moving the funds from
life to county is not an issue. As far as liquidity, which could be another concern,
today I spoke to Rubina from the county's investment program, from the county pool investment program. I spoke to her today, and she confirmed that as long as the two required
signatures are submitted to them prior to 9 o'clock in the morning, the funds, if less than $200, dollars will be wired to Monnier Park the same day. Less than two million dollars. Two million will be wired the same day back to Monnier Park. If it's more than two million dollars, in fact up to the other funds if needed in an emergency, it will take approximately 48 hours to wire the funds back to Monnier Park. So the liquidity is not really an issue.
In addition, I want to remind the council that back in February of this year, the Chandler
corporation made a presentation and it was determined that the city had 40 million dollars
40 million dollars in other funds that could be investing in long-term investments with them
and i believe they were they were requesting a five-year contract
so in so in this case it's not a long-term investment because the funds can move back and forth within either a day or 48 hours in max in conclusion as this minor park city treasurer and just trying to get the best return on the city's investments while maintaining security of funds. The requested funds will be secured, liquid, and not needed by Monnier Park in the near foreseeable future. Therefore, we'll be prudent to authorize the movement of the funds. Thank you for allowing me to come up and speak, and I'm here for any questions you may have.
Yes, thank you very much for your presentation report. Colleagues, do you have any questions or comments? Mr. Lange?
Yeah, I just want to make some comments. Thank you. Actually, I'm sorry. We do have a speaker.
Oh, I'm so sorry, yes. Clerk, please call the speaker.
Nancy O' Curry.
Okay, thank you very much.
Good evening, you all. Henry, I swear I used to be a drummer when you were a kid, huh? Pots and pans? Too loud for me? Anyhow, I'm here tonight to support Joseph Leon's request to transfer $5 million from LEAF to the LA County investment pool. We lost more money and more than $2 million in sales tax during the pandemic. And so it's very important to keep our money safe for our hometown. Please consider allowing the money to be transferred back and forth. And being 44 years in the banking and mortgage industry when I was working, hey, Interest rates go up and down, so I've got to ride along for the best. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Clerk, any further requests to speak? No. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Chan, I know you had your mic to speak. Okay. I'm sorry, Mr. Lang. Mr. Lang, sorry.
Thank you, City Treasurer, for that report. In your presentation, it seemed very clear to me what you're asking for. I think some of the issues that we were concerned about liquidity the timeline to get it out safety all of that kind of stuff and You know the 48 hours up to the maximum amount now those are all very positive things and things that
Would encourage I think us to make a decision in that direction but if we can have Martha come up and Just give us what if there are any downsides or things that we may need to keep an eye out if we make this transfer.
Bless you. Sorry, is that... Oh, don't tell him. Okay. You okay? Sorry.
Should I have not called... No, just kidding. Sorry.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Lan. Martha, if you can, please. Yes.
Yeah, because, you know, like with every type of investment or whatever it is, there's no such thing as zero risk. We know that there are low-risk investments, There are high-risk investments that provide higher yields, et cetera, et cetera. I think Treasurer Leon was very clear and succinct in explaining what the ask was, why the ask was there, and some of the issues that he explained regarding liquidity, the ability to move money back and forth quickly. All of those things seem to support a decision to move, to earn more interest, knowing that if something went wrong, we can move it right back. So we are not treasurers, we're not finance directors, but if there is, Martha, if you could tell us if there are any risks, what the risks are, and what we need to keep an eye on in terms of if we decide to make this decision.
Well, I don't believe there's a risk between either one or it's the same risk between the two. So moving more funds into L.A. County versus LEIF, the risk is very similar or the same. And LEIF is mostly used for cash withdrawals because I monitor cash daily. So, for example, on the payroll week, if there's not enough funds at Bank of the West, we draw down from LEIF. And LEIF is within less than a day, we have the money in the bank so that we can pay payroll.
So it's mostly LEIF.
I use mostly for quick liquidity.
and it's very, because LA County can take, it takes two signatures and quite a bit of a process so it could take up to two weeks sometimes it's taken to move money.
So basically, securities, the risk is the same. Mostly LAFE is for liquidity.
And then with the LA County fund,
can you do the same thing that you're just describing right now if there's a shortage or whatever can you go to
LA County and take that money out to cover any short short not in a
24 hour period normally I move about 2 to 3 million Bank of the West doesn't give us interest doesn't pay interest so that so whenever there's too much money in Bank of the
West I move it to Lafe and then I move it back and forth
throughout the month depending
on the need so that they can earn
interest but
Like I said, LEIF is the more liquid one that I can move within 24 hours or less. With L.A. County, like I said, I've had situations where it's taken up to two weeks to move funds from one direction to another.
So then with the movement of the number of $5 million, would that allow you or leave you enough in the slave fund in order to do those transactions that you're talking about in the case when the necessity arises?
Would there be enough to cover it?
Yeah, I would leave about $30 million right around there, a little bit more maybe.
and it should be enough and if we ever went you know with it if it ever
dropped down to 15 or 10 then we can have another conversation but it would just drop
to about 30 million
okay those are those are my questions for now thank you
thank you Mr. Lang John
yeah we'd like to ask the city attorney is there any
requirements
on the percentage of investments into the labor and the county.
Mr. Mayor, members of the council, as you're aware, the city council is in control of its own money.
So pursuant to that authority, it has adopted an investment policy which has been implemented by the city manager and by
the management services director in accordance with the city council's direction. I believe the city treasurer
is seeking authority from the city council, which you can do,
to simply take separate action to move the money into a different fund.
In terms of legally, you can make whatever safe investment is necessary
pursuant to the terms of the government code,
which generally says that you can't obviously invest in risky stock options. You can't do all the types of stuff that you see on Wall Street,
which is in essence white-collar speculation with regard to trading. But you can take any safe and prudent measures needed to protect the public fisc and you can make your own investment decisions from the dais if that's what you want to do. But that's the reason that this is in front of you tonight is simply State,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont
Then I have some confusion because the Treasurer said and Martha said that both LEIF and the county funds are both safe.
That is true. What I'm saying is that your investment policy talks about investing the city's idle funds in certificates of deposit, other types of low-risk types of investments, and in LEIF and in the L.A. County Fund. So my only point is that the investment policy that the city council has adopted allows for greater diversification of the funds as opposed to simply investing in these two particular funds. Right. But that's the City Council's policy decision.
Right, right. But there was no restriction on to each delay fund or the accounting fund?
No, no particular percentage in either one.
Right, that's my question. Yes, that's correct.
If I may really quick too just to clarify, with Martha, myself and our team manager and assistant team manager, We try to get together every so often to discuss possible investments, including we have quite a few CDs. We've been purchasing more and treasure bills, whatever we think that's safe for the city. So, yes, since I've been city treasurer, I think prior to me, most of the funds I've been invested with LEIF and the county because it's secure in their, you know, their big accounts. But we try to, you see the investment reports every month. You see it next month. We keep purchasing CDs if we can. We try to get treasure bills. We always get together and diversify as much as possible. But keeping in mind security is the number one priority.
Right. Sure, I understand that. And I understand from my author is that the county thing, because you need two signatures, and it may be some delays in the transfer. But I think this is kind of like management issues that we can streamline internally and cannot. Can you explain?
The two signatures are L.A. County requirements, so we cannot streamline their process.
The city treasurer and myself.
Oh, so is there any issues in getting the signature fast enough or not?
It's not because to get together, it may take a day or two. But just to let you know, it's actually, to me, it's a good thing. The county just changed the procedure during the COVID for security reasons, because before, like LEIF, it just needs one signature. Actually, our director of the manager, she can withdraw money from LAIF and put money to LAIF without my authority or my signature. But she cannot do that with the county, and neither can I.
Right. But actually, it's good to have two signatures. Yes, it is.
I think LAIF should require two signatures, but then it would make it more difficult for Martha to receive. But it's a safeguard. I think it's a great change in the county program. because not that Martha and I don't have anything wrong, but I'm sure there are cities where, you know, someone could sign off when you want a signature and all of a sudden you're missing $10 million. What happened? Given a city treasurer, I would rather have two signatures instead of just mine, just to be on the safe side.
Yeah, because this is internal control. It's not that the trust or not trust. That's not the case at all.
And it's public funds. I was keeping that in mind.
And, you know, two signatures should be the norm, I think, because regardless of what, especially, as you said, this is public money, and not in the area of trust, so don't think that, don't misunderstand me. But I say this is a good management and good policy to have two signatures at all times, I think. Right. But I think still, if it's you, the treasurer, and Martha, the finance manager, director. I think both can work out some time schedule. And Martha is working. I think, are you still to work at home or you have to come to the office? I'm here in the office. Every day you're in the office. Yes. And I know that the treasurer, you can ride bike here within five minutes, you know, a walk, half an hour or less. You know, you can be here, so I don't think a signature will be – yeah, I know you are an attorney, you'll be busy, but to get the signature is not really that difficult, isn't it?
Right, but you don't need to do it just for the county pool. Right. For LEIF, you don't. So at least Martha can proceed with the money that she needs for liquidity through LEIF. Yeah. If she ever comes to a point where we need more money, then we'll get together and work out as far as pulling money out of the county. But hopefully nothing will happen, you know, like an earthquake or anything, and I want to get the money like tomorrow.
Yeah, and of course I can see that like the payroll is one of the biggest money transfer that we need, but of course the payroll time is a fixed time, you know, like every two weeks, Friday, I assume. So we can work that out. I mean, so you need that money, the signature, it was two days from the county, So the latest you have is you know the signature maybe Monday or Tuesday and that that will work out
I think yeah, and I kind of did tell me today they confirm that as long as I get the signatures Within them nine o'clock in the morning they can have the two million dollars wired to us that same day Okay anything any any more than that takes 48 hours I mean there have been issues in the past because I do work full-time You know getting two signatures together, but if there's ever an emergency of course I would make time to be here and make sure we get it done like yesterday. So we need funds.
Well, since you're elected officials, you're committed to the job. So if you need your signature, you have to be here, right?
Well, we can do it electronically. But if you need it, I'll be here to make sure it's done. Right, right.
So I think it's your duty to sign it. That's not an issue. But we had an emergency. If things can work out, I have no problem. and if it is okay with the, there's no legal constraints to move the money here and there. Of course, we'd like to see more interest, you know, return for the city and equally safe. Then I have no issues. I have no problem with that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chan. Mr. Yu, yes.
Yeah. I actually want to have a question to the city treasurer. And since you proposed, I heard that you proposed to transfer $5 million many times. So since you proposed to transfer to the L.A. County investment pool and understanding that, you know, when we need money, we need your signature as well on the transactions, will you be committed to, you know, come here and immediately, whenever there is a need to transfer money and not to delay any of the transactions. Since you are the one who proposed the LA County Investment Pool, so you will be the one that actually make this commitment to sign the check when we need to do the transaction. So are you ready to take on the prompt responsibility? Of course, yeah.
All of us here are here for the Residence Minor Park. I'm sure if we have to be here until 2 in the morning, all of us would be here to serve the public.
Yeah, you know what, I have no problem, you know, approving the $5 million. I'm sure the council also have no problem. But I wanted to, in the future, I wanted to hear from Martha, if there's any transaction we're being delayed because we cannot obtain two signatures due to the transaction. So we may consider doing the reverse or not allowing to do any more transfer. because we earn a little bit more interest, but then it incurred a lot of inconvenience. So, yeah, I wanted to also take that into consideration, that I wanted to hear from Martha in the future if there's anything that's causing the delay. We don't want to do the transfer.
And just to be clear, too, because the rates fluctuate, so if the rates in the leaf should go higher than the county, I would propose to allow Martha to move funds from the county back into life because you want to get the best return because they do fluctuate on occasion
but then you said you need two new signatures to transfer
right so if the rates go up she can let me know and we'll do it
thank you
thank you very much Mr. Treasurer Mr. Lang yes you have
Yeah, I have some additional comments and some questions maybe city attorney can answer. Well, first of all, I'm going to be an attorney here. I'm going to put on my attorney cap, even though I don't have a law degree. You know, maybe I'm being very picky on the words, but just right now, Joseph said, if the interest rate changes, he would allow Martha to move the money back, right?
So what if we move the money over and then somebody decides, no, I'm not going to sign it because I don't believe that that's the right move?
What authority does somebody have to say, I'm not going to sign it?
City attorney.
Well, Mr. Mayor and members of the council, I think you put me into an awkward position.
you're pitting me putting me in the middle between the elected officials which i know city attorney likes to be in i will tell you this the the city council is ultimately the authority for determining how city money is invested period it has the power to delegate to the city treasurer or quite frankly to bypassing the city treasurer to simply staff to make those determinations based upon an investment policy. The city council here has adopted an investment policy that creates a committee upon which the elected city treasurer sits. And the issue that I think you are really debating here is staff is trying to implement the investment policy. The city treasurer is observing that the rates in one particular investment pool may fluctuate and go higher and therefore wishes to do the best job possible for getting the most revenue out of those idle funds and would like to move that into the fund that is identified as having higher rates. In, I suppose, in an ideal world, there would be one person that would make that determination and be able to move the money back and forth in order to gain the greatest yield on the rate of return.
The city council has not traditionally done that, and that's not reflected in the investment policy. What you're asking me is whether or not somebody, whether it's staff or an elected city official, has veto power over one way or the other. And the answer is, based upon the way your investment policy is set up, the answer to that is yes.
If you don't get a second signature on the transfer of money, effectively there is a veto power involved with it.
Can you elaborate on that? Well, if I refuse to sign the check, money doesn't get transferred. And so you're then left into a position of getting direct city council authority and direction in terms of how to transfer the money.
So we would have that, the city council, whoever may be sitting up here, in an isolated or unlikely event that that happened, they would have the authority to bypass or proxy a signature for L.A. County, L.A. County would accept it?
no there would be no second signature that could be verified by la county so if in order to break the log jam if you will the city council would have to weigh in and provide direction in terms of what would occur in order to direct that a second signature be affixed to it whether it be somebody from the city council who could be authorized to do it or however the city council
wanted to so then martha like in terms of the uh signers and la county requiring two signatures How does that work? Do they say, tell us who your two people are going to be and these are it?
There's a resolution that identifies the city treasurer and myself by title.
I'm just being an attorney, right? I don't think that any of those people would say, no, I'm not going to sign it. But we've seen crazier things here. I just want to make sure that it does not create a scenario in which a very small amount of people can manipulate the money of the city if they chose to. Now, as Peter mentioned, if there's a way to mitigate the signature, Joseph made a commitment that, you know, he's committed to that and he would do that. That's fine. But, you know, Joseph's not going to be there forever. And if somebody ends up going in there, that's why I'm thinking more attorney minded is that what if somebody's not like Joseph and says, you know what, I'm not going to sign it. And then are we going to be held hostage because of the non-signature, right? So it sounds like to me that if that situation occurred, the City Council could take action to resolve that matter. In essence, I think what I'm hearing is that we could override. We ultimately have the ability, let's just say someone decides of the two not to sign,
which would be like a veto or a soft veto,
we have the authority to override it by taking action, right? Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, perhaps I can differentiate the two issues.
One is a legal issue and one is a practical issue.
The legal issue is that the city council can designate whomever it wishes in order to transfer money.
The practical issue is outside agencies that control those funds have certain requirements in terms of who signs off on that.
And if somebody is unavailable, for example, to sign the check, whoever it is, they're in the hospital, they're sick, whatever it is.
State,ontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontontont
But I will tell you that, you know, generally speaking, it's a 24 hours notice.
There's plenty of time for the City Council to make that determination.
Or you can change your investment policy and make it a sole signature or have, you know,
two or three signatories that are available and two out of the three are sufficient to do it.
However, the City Council wants to set it up.
Recognizing that as a practical matter, we also have to deal with the outside agencies
that have their own security requirements.
Okay, and then another question I had is that I know that there was discussions about this particular action and the investment policy.
Is it not possible that if we did engage in this particular move, that that would not limit us from still meeting the mandates or the guidelines of the investment policy?
Does that mean that all the money's gone into the fund and now we can't buy CDs anymore or diversify somewhere else?
or we're still able to meet the investment policy goals even if we move this 5 million? I mean, you understand what I'm saying? I'm just trying to get a picture.
If you move the 5 million over and there's no more money to buy anything else,
we're not adhering to the policy which says diversification, right?
But if we do do this move and we still have available funding to diversify and other things, you know, that's just what I want to get at. Is this move going to prevent us from meeting the policy
or would we still have room to purchase and engage in other investments that would be an adherence to the policy?
So if we move the $5 million, I think we're going to be around $30, $32 million.
I don't remember the exact dollar amount.
We would have some funding to continue to buy CDs. The CDs were set up to where they come right out of our Bank of the West when we buy them. and then I just monitor Bank of the West accounts to make sure that we have enough funding to cover all our bills. My concern would be that with the Good Views project,
that LEIF balance is going to drop, and I'm not sure how much it's going to drop,
probably the $17 million, but it's going to drop, so then I'm going to be down to like $12 million in LEIF
to be moving back and forth.
So May, oh, you wanted to say something, Joseph?
Yeah, just for clarification, I did the numbers earlier before I came today. And if we move the $5 million, we're going to have approximately $43 million in the county, and we'll have $36 million in LEAF. So it still should be enough to move funds around. I know she was saying approximately, but I did that math before I got here tonight because somebody was going to ask. So it will be $36 million still in LEAF.
So at least what I'm hearing, I'm hearing the treasurer talking about the availability I also understand what Martha is saying regarding our good views issue and that money getting tied up for a couple of years before we're able to access it. I don't know. I'd like to hear what my colleagues have to say. Maybe an approach would be to do half of it and then after a certain period of time do the other half. I don't know if that's an option. In order to ensure that funds are available to do the transaction necessary given that, how much is that that's going to get views? 12? 17?
About 17 in the next year and 18 months.
Yeah. And then those are my thoughts. I think that eventually, instead of, if that's a concern,
instead of $5 million at once, maybe $2.5 million,
and then as time progresses, another $2.5 million. I think that may be an option.
Those are my comments. Love to hear from my colleagues.
Thank you, Mr. Lang. Actually, I do have a question.
I mean, just for the sake of conversation, should this council decide of having it segmented,
I think it would behoove us, though, to make a recommendation of what would be a timeline.
In other words, do we wait three months and a quarter, or do we have a year before we make a move?
I do think that we should then, if we're going to set policy,
then I think we should then have a very careful conversation about what that means.
Should we decide to entertain that proposal?
Mr. Chan, yes, you look like you. I think the numbers, 40-something million in leave, 30-something in county, the 5 million does not make that much of an impact because what Martha mentioned is $17 million on the Woodwave Slope project. We are not going to pay them right away. The $17 million is not just one check. That's correct. It has to be throughout I think it may be at least a year or until the end of the year and we pay part of it you know portions of it and and I don't expect that to be paid all at once. So we still have time to pay them, and it's our finance and management to pace out the payments and also pace out the revenue, when to have money coming in, when to have money going out,
And I think that's exactly what the finance department is, you know, that's the duty of the finance department to make those decisions and find out, okay, this month, the next few weeks, how much money we need, and then how much money we will come in.
And then that's all calculations. So I think that's manageable. It's within the scope of your duties. And so really $5 million is really not impacting the funds in the city because we're talking about $80 million, $90 million, and more than $90 million plus the cities and stuff. So $5 million is not really that much. But I have, since you bring it up, I just want to advocate, because I remember and I know that all the checks that's written out, I think it's only one signature, isn't it? Or two signatures on the regular city payouts. It's one signature. It's the treasurer's signature. so city attorney my question is if our treasurer didn't like me at all so he refused to sign my check then what can I do
Mr. Mayor
members of the council remember the city council approves the warrants
so those checks are issued now it is
I can't say that I can think of any case off the top of my head with regard to a treasurer specifically,
but there have been instances where, for example, a directly elected mayor has refused to sign a contract or a check,
and the city council itself has had to go to court to force the signature to be affixed to whatever document was needed to be affixed to. Those are unusual circumstances. This is a general law city, and we really haven't had that issue arise. But if you want the brutal, legal, honest truth, you would have to go to court in order to get a writ for that signature to be affixed to the check.
I see. But it never happened before.
Not in this jurisdiction.
Okay. Okay.
And then as for the two signatures for the county, because, of course, Lock and Wood, I hope everyone's well and healthy. But if someone gets COVID or has some emergency, cannot sign the whatever. I mean, not just the county thing, but all other stuff that you need.
Because it may happen to all of us, maybe an accident, maybe some emergencies, that you cannot obtain the signatures. So what's the alternative? What's the plan B?
And Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I think that's something that you can bring back on a future agenda to have that resolution brought back.
As Martha mentioned, there's a specific resolution that the city council adopts around the same time that it adopts amendments to its investment policy, which provides specific authorization for certain persons to be signing off on the transfer of funds to the L.A. County pool. So that's certainly something that we can revisit and have an alternative signature. I should add one thing to my previous comments on the warrant approval list. Really, at that point, it's a ministerial issue with regard to the signature. I don't think our city treasurer goes in and signs every single check. They're electronically affixed to all the documents. He would get carpal tunnel syndrome at that point. In any event, the resolution, though, can be revisited. and if you want to revisit the investment policy, we can do that all at the same time, but that would need to be on a future agenda, so that was probably noticed for the agenda.
So would that signature resolution issue have to be resolved before we move the money?
No.
You can change it. I mean, would L.A. County say, if we made a resolution, you can go back to L.A. County and say, hey, City Council made a resolution, we're adding these signers on this, or would they say, no, you've only got these two signers and that's it?
No, the resolutions would supersede the current one.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You know, I mean, this has been actually a very interesting conversation.
I feel like it's a real-time application of our investment policy in a particular circumstance,
and I think perhaps we should at some point revisit that policy based on just the scenario that has been in this conversation today.
I think so.
I think for future agenda we should probably then revisit our investment policy
given the issues that have been brought up just based on
how we have used our policy to apply to this particular
item regarding the transfer. In the meantime,
regarding the item, because it's
it's part of communications. Is this a resolution or do you or we assume you would need consensus from the council regarding the recommendation? Yeah.
Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, although it is under the treasurer's name, it is rife for action. So he has requested action and I would ask for a vote on it if that's something that you want to do. If not, table it and you can go from there. But you can act on the request
tonight. Okay thank you so much thank you so much okay. Well council members I mean I think this has been a very robust
conversation. I would be ready to make a motion to approve the transfer of five million dollars from the from the Lave to LA County investment pool. Thank you. As requested by our treasurer. Thank you. Moved by Mr. Chan. Second please. Second. Second by Mr. Lang.
Council members, please vote.
Votes unanimous. Motion carries.
Thank you very much.
And as I said, I think we should at some point revisit the policy. I think we need to revisit the investment policy.
Okay.
Moving on. Feature agenda items.
Hearing none. Closed session.
Hearing none.
And then if there's no further business for tonight.
Actually, I'm sorry.
This is communications. Why don't we go down the desk and miss you. Anything to report? Thank you. Last week, we attended the ICSC in Las Vegas. And finally, it was almost back to normal. We met with two days of appointments, spent time with staff and colleagues. and we should be able to bring some businesses to Monterey Park hopefully. I want to say good job to our staff to organize those appointments and when our whole team show up, people are very impressed with our team spirit and pay more attention to our potential projects. So good job everyone and I really enjoyed the trip and to be with all of you. That's all for me. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Yu. Mr. Chan.
Thank you. Quite a busy two weeks before. Attended the Public Works Open House on the 19th. And good to see a lot of people coming out.
And the Public Works Director was there and the staff was there. And good hamburgers and hot dogs and also chili.
and I have proof that I ate those chilies because it dropped in my shirt. I have to clean it. So that's the proof that I had the chili.
And then on the 21st is the fire department promotion and introduction of the firefighters
and it was held on fire station 62 on Godfell
and it was well attended. A lot of kids going there with the parents.
They go up to the fire trucks, took pictures, and they had a good time. And also they have hot dogs, although I did not eat it, but I think that was good. And then there was the Scout Pancake Blackfast in American Legion on the 22nd, which is the morning of the ICSC. So I went to that.
right on South Atlantic, next to the Atlantic Square.
And well attended, and hopefully they do good, and I think they will do good.
And yesterday was the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and today is the grand open. It's open to public.
So let's go to support our local business. Thank you, and good night.
So to make it brief, I went to everything that Peter went to except for the pancake breakfast because I was on my way to ICSC. It was great for all of us to get together and also today Raising Canes was, was that today? Yesterday. And I don't know if Fred's watching, but we were joking about Raising Canes before it came in and I promised him that when it opened I'd bring it over to him. So I went over to go see him after
and dropped off some chicken fingers for him. So that's all I have to report. I wish everyone have a wonderful evening. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lange. And I'd like to also take this time to acknowledge and thank, actually, our American Legion Post 397, because as my colleagues mentioned, they were host to our local Boy Scouts handkick breakfast,
but also for Memorial Day.
They were the location of our Memorial Day event,
and I think that during that ceremony on Memorial Day,
one of the speakers said that if we want to be able to be of assistance,
help to our veterans community, then to support your local veterans post.
And I think that was very, very accurate.
And again, we do thank and acknowledge the hard work of our veterans post 397,
as well as also welcoming our newest business in Monterey Park, Raising Canes. I attended, well, I did get the time mixed up, but I did attend, nonetheless, the ribbon-cutting,
and now I refer to Kurt, but nonetheless, I did give my well wishes to the staff.
And I want to say that what does please me is that this really came during my conversation with the manager before the ribbon cutting was that they have employed
nearly 150 people and I think that that is important to acknowledge
because that site if I'm not mistaken was empty for many many many years and and it took a lot of effort, a lot of patience on the city's part to find an investment.
And so I'm pleased that, you know, this is an example of the city bringing in much investment
to an area that was in need of investment and will also generate jobs for the city.
So I'm very pleased by that.
And I think I do want to close tonight's meeting. In my communication, I should also say that, you know,
I'm very saddened before the council meeting that there was news of another shooting this time
at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
And this is a week after a shooting that occurred in schools. And it is a shame. It's sad and certainly something that I think should be a causal concern because for example in Monterey Park we have two hospitals and certainly I hope that something like that doesn't happen here but I think really speaks to
broader national conversations about public safety so on that note I'd like
to adjourn this meeting okay no 19 p.m. okay Yes.
Counciloris