City Council Meeting — July 6, 2022

Let's see. Public participation.

You may speak up to five minutes on the agenda item. You may combine up to two minutes of time with another person speaking.

I'm sorry? Oh, I'm sorry. Oops, you know what? I'm sorry. I don't know. Okay.

I just called to order.

Let's now proceed with the flag salute.

Made possible by our great Monarch Park Fire Explorers.

Please rise.

Thank you.

Board mark. !

Present. Present. Put it. Place your right hand over your heart.

Ready? Begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic of which is passed, one nation, under God, indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.

Prepare to pose colors. Forward, march.

Pose colors.

Thank you very much you may be seated.

Thank you very much you may be seated Thank you Thank you

Okay.

Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Yu? Here.

Council Member Leong?

Here.

Council Member Chan?

Here. And Mayor Liu? Present. All present. Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk.

Agenda addition, deletions, changes, and adoptions.

Do we have any? Mayor, Council Members, we do have two additions. if we could have the police department follow after recreation and community services department,

and then also management services directly after the police department. Those are the only two additions. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Moving on to the agenda, public communications.

While all comments are welcome, the Brown Act has not alLod the City Council to take action on any item,

not on the agenda.

the council may briefly respond to comments after public communication is closed. Persons may, in addition to any other matter within the city council's subject matter jurisdiction, comment on agenda items at this time. If you provide public comment on a specific agenda item at this time, however, you cannot later provide comments at the time the agenda item is considered. Clerk, do we have any requests?

Yes, Mayor.

Proceed.

Thank you.

First speaker, Sarkis Antonio.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, staff, and audience. It's nice to have a little audience back there. Okay, so when I mentioned about Costco over here, So one of our customers came to the station,

and he waited a half hour, and he only saved $10.

So what am I getting at?

So seven days a week, they're burning their fuel, polluting the air, and yet these environmental wackos are saying this and that.

To me, that's wrong. When you're polluting air just to save $10, Just go to a regular gas station, get your gas five, ten minutes, buy your lottery tickets, your cigarettes, if you smoke a little bit of junk food, you're on your way. And I don't see nobody out there patrolling the traffic.

When it gets busy, hire a couple more employees where I like to use to be and when it was full service, pump their gas and get them out of there so we can drive in there and don't have to be bothered with them. Because I have to go around Paramount's side, and if I go back to that, I can walk down there.

That's how close I am. Okay, that's one thing.

Another thing, this electric vehicle. Okay, Michigan, they're using a lot of their vehicles, police, on the Mustang E, the electric. New York's going to change over. So why don't this city be the first city to get a Mustang E electric police car? And then you can get the idea of, see, how good are these vehicles?

You could be the first city in the San Gabriel Valley if there's not any other ones. And those kind of things. And for that person to say, liberal world order?

So go tell all the dead people throughout the years that fought these wars that they show on TV

where they're coming back with no legs, no arms. They have to have special homes for them to get around with. That's not called for at all. And this gas price that was manufactured, my first vehicle, and it was a 73 Mercury Cougar

that was 55 cents a gallon. Then the first embargo, it went up to $1.10. A lot of you up there don't remember the odd and even days. where today would be even day to which you would line up to get maybe 10 gallons of gas. That was back then. So it's no excuse why. And oil is the lifeblood of any country. How do you have these lights on in your air conditioning? With a windmill on top of there? Come on, man.

So all this stuff, who's why I'm getting on this? Because you people see Sacramento

and Washington, D.C. far, far more than we do. So this is like a stepping stone type of thing. So this whole thing, and there's no, and when they call it United States,

and California has the cleanest air, la, la, la, la, la, that Smok Jack 2 program,

like I said for years, that's a biggest ripoff from day one. It's not going for the roads. So we got a five cent increase in gas tax. So how come this Hammer Avenue has not been fixed from Newmark up to Mark Keppel? You can only go 20 miles an hour, or you're going to mess up your alignment or whatever, or blow a tire, or mess up some suspension parts.

So they go and pave up there in the residential area around Hillcrest.

The major streets that are used daily, those need to be repaired first before you go doing residential. And then they do the codosacks. Well, how do you get to the codosack with the main street? And thank you.

Thank you, Sargis.

Next speaker, Nancy R. Curry.

Good evening. I want to just advise the City Council and our City Clerk that I spoke to several longtime Monterey Park residents on June 25th who did not remember their voting districts since our city has been divided up into five voting districts. Please advise our residents of their voting districts before our November elections.

We have our City Council elections in District 1, 3, and 5, as well as our election for City Clerk and City Treasurer. I hope we have a Meet the Candidates Forum before November

so all the residents can hear from all of the candidates and their ideas for our hometown.

And I want to know if the projected housing site on New Avenue north of Garvey, the old New Avenue school site, will have a traffic light with a left-turn signal into the project to improve flow of traffic on New Avenue. The school site did not have a traffic light, and it caused a dangerous situation on New Avenue. Please let me know if the city staff has approved a new traffic light with a left turn signal at that site. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy.

Next speaker, we have Carol Sullivan and Jason Dean.

Okay, everyone. I probably have to read because I'll forget something because I'm not Larry Sullivan that does this. First of all, good evening to the City Council, Mayor Henry Lo and City Manager Ron Boe and City Attorney Carl Berger. I am here on behalf of the Bonnery Park Women's Club to thank all of you for your support for our annual fundraising fashion show that supports many causes. Also, a thank you to Nancy Okuri for taking pictures that day for us, and it will be put online, Citizens Voice, for you to review. And also want to thank Paul Inokis of the police bid management for their support also in their donation. And we are really we are sold out. And maybe it's because our fire chief, Matt Hallock, is modeling and we have a police detective modeling also. So thank you. And Jason here has a few words also.

There's a reason why I'm dressed up like this. So for the women's club, it's going to be a 100 years of fashion, and we are encouraging all the attendees to dress up in their favorite attires or their outfits. So I've got my cowboy outfit on, so that's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, we do not have any other speakers.

Okay, thank you very much, Clerk.

Okay, we want to staff communications. First, we'd like to call up Recreation and Community Services Department.

Memo.

Good evening, Mayor Lo and members of the City Council. My name is Memo Chavez, Recreation Supervisor with the Recreation and Community Services Department. I wanted to start by thanking all the departments and employees who helped make the July 2nd Independence Day celebration a positive and successful event. Traditionally, the city has offered the event on July 4th, but this year, due to low staffing by both the city and by the pyrotechnic company, they were unable to offer the actual event on July 4th. However, we did receive positive reviews from the community that enjoyed the event on Saturday, July 2nd, because it still gave everyone an opportunity to come out, enjoy the fireworks show on the Saturday, and still enjoy the actual 4th of July event with their friends and family on Monday.

So, again, thank you to all the employees and everyone that helped out with the event. We really appreciate it, and it was a very positive experience. I also wanted to thank everyone again for coming out to a few other events that we just held.

On June 11th, the Recreation Department hosted MLB's Junior Home Run Derby at Garvey Ranch Park. We saw 36 participants come out and try to hit as many home runs as they possibly could to try to advance to the regionals. We also had, on Thursday, June 23rd, a movie in the park at George Elder Park in conjunction with the Farmer's Market. The movie shown was Disney's Encanto. And lastly, the Langley Senior Center held a two-day ping-pong tournament, which saw 36 participants. The tournament was on Friday, June 24th, and concluded on Saturday, June 25th. I wanted to thank the sponsors, Garfield Medical and Ultimate Pace, for participating and contributing towards the event.

Up next, we have a few events that we'd like to invite everyone to come out to. We have a movie in the park on Friday, July 15th at the Barnes Park Field. The movie showing will be Sing To and will begin at dusk. It's sure to be a fun family evening, so we hope to see everyone there. Next slide, please. In honor of former Council Member Fred Sornoso, we will have a friendly Fred walk with a Council Member on Saturday, July 16th, beginning and ending at Bella Vista Park. Make sure to wear comfortable shoes, clothing, and sunscreen.

A waiver must be completed before participating and could be found at www.montereypark.ca.gov backslash walkability.

Also coming up in July, a Grease Sing-Along at the Barnes Park Amphitheater on Friday, July 29th.

Friends and family, just come out and be ready to sing.

The movie, again, will begin at dusk. And lastly, we will have, there's still plenty of Dodger tickets available for the Friday.

Friday, August 5th game versus the Padres. Tickets are only $36 and could be purchased online at www.montereypark.ca.gov backslash dodgers. There will be a firework show following the game. Make sure to follow the Recreation Department on social media at Monterey Park Rec. And thank you again for allowing me to share these updates with you. Thank you so much. Council Member, any questions? Thank you so much. Thank you.

Next, staff communication from our police department.

I'm sorry? Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. I'm Paul Inigis. I am the lieutenant that oversees our Community Engagement Bureau and in charge of organizing our National Night Out this year. National Night Out is an annual community building event that brings law enforcement and the community together. Millions of residents take part in National Night Out across thousands of communities from all over the United States. This year is a great opportunity for the residents of Monterey Park to get to know the police officers that serve their community. I would like to invite you and the community to this year's National Night Out on August 2nd in Barnes Park from 6 to 9 p.m. Join us for free hot dogs, potato chips, water, and a performance from the band Rock Tops. Vendors from all over the city, such as our newest food establishment, Raising Canes, will be participating as well. We will have our specialized units, such as our special response team, canine units, our FAA Part 107 pilots, along with their drones outperforming. And lastly, our traffic bureau will be hosting a bike rodeo. children will be given bike lights to join in on the rodeo again this August 2nd at Barnes Park from 6 to 9 p.m. I hope to see you all there. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Questions, comments? Thank you. Okay.

Next, staff report, management services.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Diana Garcia, City Librarian.

I'm here this evening to talk about the city's upcoming community workshops and to invite all of our residents to come out to a meeting.

These meetings, we're going to review our city priorities and to plan together for the future of the city.

As you may know, these meetings are a continuation of the financial forecast workshops

that we've been doing for the past several months.

And just to give a quick recap of those, those have been taking place since March.

To date, we've had about 14 or 15 of those meetings.

They've been both in person and virtually.

At those meetings, we provided an overview of the city budget process.

We described how funding was allocated

or appropriated to various city services.

The meetings provided a forecast of some funding needs

over the next five years. And at those meetings, our community members shared and provided input about their priorities for the city.

In addition to these meetings, we had sent out a community survey and invited residents to participate

and give us their input about what was important to them to see in Monterey Park.

So since receiving input via the survey and in person from the attendees,

we're inviting our residents out to our most recent series of workshops.

And those are the community workshops you see here on the flyer. Our residents are invited to learn about the recent results of the survey and to hear from

leaders and staff about some of the services and priorities in the city.

We will also be serving light refreshments.

The next meeting we have will be Thursday, July 7th, which is tomorrow.

That's at 6 p.m. at Garvey Ranch Park.

That is going to be presented in English.

Following that, we will have a meeting Saturday, July 9th at Bella Vista.

This meeting will be presented in Spanish for our Spanish speakers.

The next one will be Monday, July 11th at Monterey Highland School.

This meeting is in English. And then the final one we will have Tuesday, July 12th at 6 p.m. at Sierra Vista Park,

and that will be presented in Chinese. There's more information about these on the city's website on the management services page.

And thank you very much for giving me a little bit of time to share.

Thank you very much. Comments, questions, council members?

Hearing none, thank you so much, and I hope in the community we get good turnout

at these very important listening workshops.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to presentations, none. Old business, we have item 2A, 2022, City Hall carpet replacement. Reject all submitted bids and adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a public works contract with JJJ Floor Covering Incorporated without the need for additional bidding to complete the city hall carpet replacement project.

Staff report, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tony Antich, interim public works director. And the matter before you, as the mayor described, is the purchasing of new carpet for city hall.

By way of history, this project goes back at least two years or even a little bit longer. Staff started, when the city replaced some of the furniture in City Hall, they discovered that the carpet really needed to be replaced.

It's a 30-year-old carpet, and usually these kind of carpets only last about 10 to 15 years maximum. So it's well beyond its useful life. so when we started taking a look at doing this replacement project we did go to city council back in march and got authorization to go out to bid we only received one bid and unfortunately that one bid was a little bit higher than our budget and the bidder was also non-responsive in the bid that was received. So the action tonight would reject that bid that we did receive and allow for the purchase of carpeting in the open market. We did go to a service that provided a very competitive price carpet replacement, and they're registered with the state DIR, and they're ready to begin work.

So the one bid that we did receive was at $216,000. It was nonresponsive, so we didn't even consider it. But we were able to find another vendor for $189,000, so there is this cost savings. So we're asking that we, authorization, move ahead in awarding this contract so that we can get this long-weighted project off the books and completed. And I'm prepared to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you so much. Colleagues, let's see, Ms. Kusmer Yu, you have the mic.

Thank you, Mayor. I came from a private sector, and it is a must for us to get at least three bids or three referrals on each business-related transactions. The reason behind the process is to reduce the liabilities and conflict of interest, especially due to the recent controversy and scandal about no-bid contract. we as elected officials are very cautious in approving contractor which is not under the formal bidding process. Knowing that bidding process is costly, I'm sorry, yes, it's costly, it's time-consuming, but this is the proper procedure and legal process for us to obtain the contract, a fair contract. I'm sorry to not being able to agree to a no-bid contract, knowing that this is not an urgent matter. Carpet replacement is something that we can wait. I would like to propose another formal bidding process in order to avoid any conflict.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council Member Liang, you have a mic?

Yeah, just so I can understand this, we had put it out for bid. We only got one person or one company to respond to the bid. and then when you went to go contract with them, they didn't respond. Is that what I'm hearing?

So they were required to provide references for, three references for the projects they'd done previously. For example, one of the issues for non-responsiveness, they gave us two references for the same project. So we couldn't really proceed ahead without adequate references.

So then what do you see in terms of, I mean, I don't know what the dynamics are of why there was only one bidder. If we were to open it up for bid, are you seeing a situation where you would be able to have multiple bidders? Or do you see, I mean, I don't know the why.

I really don't see that we're in an environment now where there's going to be a lot of bidders. What we're finding, and it's not only here in Monterey Park, but it's across the nation, and prices are really up. And when you take a look at construction materials,

some products are up like 40%. So I don't think that, in my personal opinion, I don't think by going out to bid, this is going to encourage more people to bid on our project. We did satisfy the requirement. We did go out and we publicly bid the project. and the state law allows for us when bids are rejected, if we can get something in the open market at a cheaper price,

we should do that because the benefactor of this cheaper price is the public.

We could not look at the irregularities of the bidder and say, oh, we're going to look over that and just go ahead and award it. But this is at least a $30,000 savings in cost. So I think the public's interest is served by awarding this project.

And then if it is approved, what's the timeline? Like how fast? And then also if you can explain to me what you mean by open market. Like are we buying carpet and putting it in ourselves? You know, like what does that mean?

So I don't have the exact time period on doing this

because it has to be done after hours when employees are not around.

We're going to have to schedule that time. Typically, it's going to have to be after hours or on weekends,

moving the furniture and putting things down.

My guess is that it could be like 60 days. I don't have the exact number of days in the contract.

But in terms of open market,

it's going out to vendors and saying, how much will this cost? We did utilize the service of a competitive or cooperative service called Buyboard. They had some concerns about being registered with the Department of Industrial Relations. They satisfied that requirement. And so we felt this was enough for us to move ahead on this project rather than going through the process of advertising. And given the way the inflation and the cost of products are, we think it's just a better choice now to move ahead on this pricing.

All right, thank you. You know, it is a situation, right? We do want to get the best. We want to do the open bidding because we want it to be fair. We understand that, I mean, you know, in your explanation that there was only one bidder, right? Now, I do support, you know, and understand going out to bid and all of those things. But I think the question we have to ask, too, is if we went through the process again, are we going to spend the money and then end up having no bidders or just one bidder? And that's kind of why I asked in terms of the market why that happens. because usually you would think that, oh, government contract people would be bidding for it right away.

I wish I could predict the future for you as to what costs are, but I can't do that prediction. What I can say is I've seen from my coworkers in other cities, not only on the West Coast but also as far away as Florida, costs are up.

and we all see that every day when we go to the gas pump and try to fill up. Everything's more expensive. Yeah, even when we were at the International Council Shopping Centers, it was interesting because there are developers that we work with, partner with the M&M, the people that did Costco, and they were saying that they had contracts already for developments and those subcontractors just said we're not going to do it. They go, we're not going to do this contract and put ourselves out of business. so it's interesting what you're saying in terms of the increase in cost it's because of that those subcontractors couldn't do it anymore at the prices that they had bid before because of the increase so they said well sue us because we're not going to do it to lose money so I think that you're accurate on that trend I'd like to hear the other comments but those are the considerations that I would have

Thank you Council Member Liang. Council Member Chan you have the mic? Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And I would like to ask the city attorney that we've been doing this beating process before, and there's only one beater, and now we reject that, and then we go to this new JJ. ! JJ ! JJ company to do it ! and

first of all to answer the question you may bypass bidding requirements particularly in circumstances such as this and and i think the public works director was didn't fully give you the entire chronology of the events he mentioned that we've been trying to do this for three years but the context of this is obviously we had since 2020 been in a pandemic during that time period we also tried to find a carpet replacement contractor and and tony can correct me when i get my facts wrong if i am getting them wrong but we have tried multiple means to be able to identify a contractor that would come in at the right price to provide carpeting and that included while the city was in emergency operations and quite frankly we were unable to find any contractors the present bid is unresponsive for the reasons that were already explained and under the the law the public contracts code you may go out and select a bidder that is qualified to do the project without having to go back to another bid. In this circumstance, as has already been explained, this particular contractor provided a quote to a clearinghouse, if you will, that's available to public agencies. Now, its bid, which is what the quote reflects, to that clearinghouse was made under Texas law. It was not made under California law, but I have reviewed the competitive bidding requirements for Texas law. They substantially conform with what California expects in its own bidding laws, From that perspective, I think it's fine. It is competitively bid, and unlike other contractors, this particular contractor is registered within the state of California, is probably registered with the Department of Industrial Relations, has the proper licensing, and is willing to do the job, and on top of everything has achieved what the California law is expecting with regard to competitive bidding and actually provided a price that's $26,000 less than the single unresponsive bid that the that the city received so from that perspective both the public policy behind public bidding has been satisfied and I do believe that while that again it wasn't bid under California law it was competitively bid under a another state's law which is substantially similar to that of California happy to answer any other questions okay so we

are okay with this process they'll be going as you know I'm fairly conservative

in providing and greenlighting things moving forward. This is a particular circumstance where I think that the City Council can rest assured that the person selected is somebody that the City can use.

Okay. Thank you, City Attorney, to clarify this point because this is important. And I remember during, you know, the last so many years in the Council

that we had once also similar situation and we reject the bid. And then, well, it's similar but not exactly the same, is that we continue to extend the contract or have open bid. So this is a little bit different. And then the council with the majority vote to have open bids and come back a lot more expensive than if we extend the contract. So that's the experience that Hans and I had before. and so that's why I asked the question to the city attorney

that we are in legal grounds, that we are okay with the process

and because of the economic situation, the inflation and everything, it's hard to find the workers to install and do all those things and so long we are in legal grounds, that we are okay, then I have no problem with go to this company to do the

comments. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Council Member Chan. I have a question. So, Carl, just again,

for my information, probably for the audience, so you said that we have been going through this

process since 2020, trying to find, the city, I mean, has trying to find a contractor willing to

do the work? I believe the Public Works Director has an entire page of the chronology of this, if you want to go through step by step. I do.

This is a long chronology. It goes back to November of 2020 when we first started thinking about doing this.

And several months during the pandemic period,

we did reach out, got quotations from different... When was that?

So you said we started in November and then when did we reach out?

Like two months later, a month later? When did we...

When you say reach out, what do you mean?

Well, because you said that we started this process in November of 2020, correct?

Yeah, November of 2020, we were completing the City Hall workstation project, and we saw that there was a tremendous amount of wear on the carpeting, and so we budgeted.

We went to the process of budgeting additional money for this, and then in July, between July of 2021 and December of 2022,

We reached out to different vendors, five local contractors, got back some responses. These were just verbal quotations.

And then they were much higher than we anticipated. We had to prepare a staff report. we were going to head down in one direction but at the advice of the city attorney's office we thought it would be best to go out to bid on this and then we did approach city council at the time the city council had to authorize staff to go out to bid we did do that and then on April 12th we only received one bid

this year?

This year, that's correct. We only received one bid in April of this year. It was over budget, and this was the same one that I referred to as being unresponsive. And so we continued to work to make this project feasible, and so we went to this cooperative service, found that there were other contractors that can do this type of work can provide that service to Monterey Park, and that leads us to where we are today, that we would like to proceed ahead with this project, reject the bid, and go with the bidder that we did find at a $26,000 savings.

And Mr. Mayor, members of the council, if I could just tag team on those comments. Again, to put this into context, the city was operating under emergency operations during the pandemic. It's only in April of this year that the City Council discontinued those emergency operations. So when he discusses quotes and reaching out to contractors, that was under the context of being able to assert emergency powers and being able to bypass bidding requirements in any event. There were various considerations that were put into the process, including, for example, taking an older carpet contract that was already on the books,

reaching out to that particular contractor who had already installed carpeting for a previous contract since that contract had been previously competitively bid. That particular contractor was unable to do the work or had discontinued doing the type of work that's needed. so the point in all of this

and I think the public works director's point is we have done all legal and due diligence actions that should be required

for this type of project and the public works director's next plan was to go and find somebody that could do it on a nationwide basis

the original

contractor that gave a quote was not registered in California

and so this particular contractor meets all of the qualifications for it

and also meets the expectations for competitive bidding, which is to provide you with the best price possible.

I see. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Yes, Councilor, are you? Yes.

Yeah, I have a question. Then how come JJJ floor covering, they did not join the last bidding process? And my second question will be, if we start a new bidding process, maybe we can invite JJJ to join us so that it will just follow the proper procedure instead of doing a no-bid contract for them.

So to answer your first question, I don't know why bidders don't bid on projects. I would love a lot of bidders to show up at every one of our publicly open bidding projects. I and no one else can tell you why they chose not to bid. They may not have been aware of this. you are correct that if we did go out to bid again and we told J&J that we wanted to go out to a public bid, they may or they may not bid on it. There's no guarantee that because we rejected them this time that they would be inclined to want to bid on a project in the future. There's no guarantee for that either.

I'm sorry. There's a follow-up question.

Why JJJ, if you really wanted to do the project for Monterey Park,

and why do they refuse of beating it if they may?

I've talked to a lot of different contractors about this. When do you bid on projects? When do you don't bid? There's a lot of things that go on.

Maybe they just got a new contract and they don't have the availability of staff and they can't complete, they can't make that commitment.

Or there are other factors that come up that I may not be qualified to even talk about.

But just because we bid it does not mean that somebody will bid the project. I've heard many times in my experience where people promise that, yes, I will bid on it. but in the 11th hour they say things have changed we're not going to bid on it

and so going we can either it seems to me there's a choice we can either go with what we have today

or we can reject it and go out to bid and hope that we're going to get somebody at a less

expensive price. But given the prices that I've seen, this seems like a reasonable price, and it's a good price.

Sorry, just a follow-up comment, that if someone decided not to follow the legal bidding process,

I don't think that is suitable for the city. So that's it. Thank you.

I agree.

Thank you. Yes, Councilor Chair. Yes, your mic. Yes.

We'd like to make motion to reject all submitted bids submitted soon to the solicitation authorized via Resolution No. 2022-R13 and to adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a public works contract with JJJ Floor Covering, Inc. in the amount of $189,910.09 without the deed for additional bidding to compete the City Hall carpet replacement. project and to authorize the director of public works to approve change orders and contingencies up to $9,496 or 5% of the contract amount and appropriate an additional $9,407 from the general fund for this project. I'll second that. Okay a

A motion has been made by Council Member Chan and has been seconded by Council Member Lange. Then if there's no further discussion, I hear none. Okay, then, members, please vote.

Mayor, we have a split vote. Council Member Yu, no.

Council Member Chan, yes. Council Member Lange, yes.

Mayor Lo, yes.

Motion passes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration.

Moving on to consent calendar items numbers 3A to 3J.

Members, any items that need to be pulled

as well as any public comments, clerk that requires us to pull an item?

Mayor, we have one written communication on item 3F.

I'm sorry, 3F? Yes. Okay. 3F, comment, okay.

Oh, that's it? Oh, yes.

Okay. Members, any items you wish to pull?

Yes, Mayor, we'd like to pull 3C and 3D.

I'm sorry, C and E?

I'm sorry, 3D and E. No, C and D.

Oh, C and D. Excuse me. Sorry, 3C and 3D.

Okay, thank you.

okay any other items members okay hearing none then can we have motion to approve approve consent agenda item with the exception of item 3c 3d and 3f so

move move by council member Chan second please second second by councilman

Liang no further discussion hearing none members please vote

approved unanimously

okay thank you very much

okay first item 3c for discussion

acceptance of a donation in the amount of

$113,333.33 on behalf of City of Monterey Park

for the Brighamire Library staff report

or Mr. Chan if you would like to.

Okay, staff report, please.

Monterey Park School. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Robert Lo from his estate in the amount of $113,333.33. Excuse me. It's a tongue twister. So pursuant to resolution number 11776, the City Council is required to accept donations with a value estimated at over $25,000. So it's requested this evening that the City Council officially accepts the donation and that they also allow us to appropriate $20,000 of that into our fiscal year 2022-23 budget for the purchase of children's books. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Diana. Council members? Mr. Chair, you have the mic?

Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Diana, for the presentation. and is very appreciative and grateful to Mr. Robert G. Lo and his family for this generous donation to the library because it's earmarked for the purchase of children's books and to improve their reading skills, encourage them to read more. And I think the youth, the children are so important because they are the future of our country. So I just want to really appreciate Mr. Lo and his family for this generous donation. I don't think they are here, right?

No. As far as we can tell, I can't determine that he had a direct relationship with the library. He left a donation to a handful of local libraries, us included, including Monrovia, Pasadena, Arcadia, Glendora, and Temple City. I believe in talking to the directors at some of the other libraries that he may have worked as a high school teacher at Mark Keppel High School, possibly in the 60s, but I haven't been able to determine if he had a direct relationship with the library at all.

Okay. just want to relay my appreciation and thank you to this general generous donation and if the like the library board is approved or whatever I would like to send a thank-you card to the family as well so let me know thank you

thank you councilmember Chan any other council members there's been comment

okay hearing then thank you very much and to echo my colleague sentiments yes

we would love to convey our deep appreciation for this investment by the family to our library. Thank you. Okay.

Then I would like to make the motion to accept the donation in amount of $113,333.33 on behalf of the City of Monterey Park for Buchenmeier Library.

Thank you. Moved by Council Member Chan. May we hear a second, please?

And also have the authorized city manager $20,000 of this donation to the 22 to 23 budget.

Thank you. And I believe it was seconded by Council Member Yu, correct? Okay. We move and second it. Hearing no further discussion. Members, please vote.

Thank you. Thank you.

Moving on to item 3D, purchase of two automated license plate reader systems from 2020 Urban

Area Security Initiative Grant. Staff please report.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members. Good evening. It's nice to see the full audience from the public as well tonight. So I've come before you with a staff report. In 2020, we applied for a Urban Areas of Security Initiative, also known as UASI, which is the term you've probably heard on Council before, for the procurement of two mobile automated license plate reader systems.

It's also you typically hear referred to as ALPR.

We purchased them, and then the city of Los Angeles is who the UASI grant is funded through,

and then they reimburse the city. So we have two licensed reader systems that are extremely out of date,

in desperate need of replacement.

The technology in them, the cameras themselves, are no longer able to be repaired.

Our current infrastructure and technology supports Motorola Solutions, their products and software. So what we'll be doing is reconfiguring our software and getting the new hardware to support the system. That's why we go with Motorola Solutions in this particular vendor and these particular types of machines. Motorola is used in approximately 37 these ALPRs, other cities in Los Angeles County, and they're also used throughout California and the nation. But it is the preferred system by many law enforcement agencies.

So we're requesting that we waive bidding requirements because we already have the current infrastructure

versus going out and replacing the infrastructure.

and we already have approval through this grant process and they approve us to use a sole source for this particular.

So we're requesting that we waive the bidding.

We award the contract to Motorola through the 2020 UASI grant

and the initial expenditure is actually already accounted for in the budget. It doesn't require a new budget allocation.

and the total amount is going to be $76,252,000.

And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.

Thank you, Chief Gordon. Council members, Councilor Chan, you have the mic.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chief, for the presentation. Just a few questions. This is an update on our existing system, right? and there's no general fund from a city. It's all from the grant. Correct. Right, so this is a good one. This is very good. Right, right, since we don't have to spend any money of our own and we got the 100% grant to improve the system. But I would like to ask you, now this reader, is it mainly for stolen cars or identified maybe the alleged robbers or, you know, something like that? Or is it what's the most useful?

So the system's used for stolen vehicles. So when we enter a vehicle into the stolen vehicle system,

through this system, if an officer with this particular system on the car

passes that stolen vehicle, the system will alert the officer that the stolen vehicle is right there.

Same thing is if, let's just say, you have a vehicle that is wanted for,

let's say a robbery or a burglary and has been entered in the system as wanted for such,

the same thing. The officer will get an alert that this vehicle is in the area,

that the camera's just picked up on it, and it'll alert the officer that this vehicle

is also wanted for whatever it's wanted for. But there are certain requirements that have

to meet the standards. It's not just we're looking for a red car. It has to be a particularly identified car by license plate number that's what the that's what this system reads is that particularly reads the license plate number that's why there's multiple cameras on it because it tries to catch the license plates front and rear as you're passing so it's very advanced technology because it's got to be able to pick up at any speed you're picking up that license plate you're

not just picking up a red car you're picking up the actual plate and that plate has to be a verified plate that's in the system, whether it's as a stolen vehicle or a wanted vehicle for whatever crime that they're wanted for.

Okay. Thank you. But I noticed that right now, especially those new and expensive cars, they don't have the front license plate, only a back one. So, and I think it's against the California DMV rules that you have to have two license plates, I think.

The vehicle code requires that you have a front and rear license plate affixed to your vehicle.

So with this system that people don't have a front plate, so does it jeopardize the work to identify the...

It just makes it a little more difficult because now you're trying to catch one plate versus two plates because the whole purpose of a front plate is if we're opposing lanes of traffic, right? So if you're traveling west and I'm traveling east and we're going by each other, it's difficult for the cameras to pick up the rear plate versus the front plate. So it's not impossible. It just makes it more challenging.

I see.

So that's why it is one of the reasons that it is against California vehicle code not to have a front license plate on your vehicle, which is one of the reasons that we still enforce that.

So does the city enforce that? Yes. Oh, we do? Yes. So it's not just the state enforcement.

Our officers enforce the California Vehicle Code, which that is part of it.

I see. Okay. Then I would like to ask the residents, you know, to put in the front plate because it's against the law. And you may get cited, right, and get penalized. and although it may look weird in the, so the curve in front, the bumper, which is nice, with maybe an ugly license plate, that may not be looking good, but still it's against the law.

It is against the law.

Right, so I just want people to be aware of that and if you don't have a license plate in front, better put it on. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Chan. Any other comments? Council Member Liang, you have the mic. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Chief Gordon, for the report. I just wanted to ask some questions on technical stuff. I was writing with some sheriffs, and they were showing off. They had a system, a laptop, and you get these alerts like, oh, this car passes place at this time, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm wondering, in terms of this system, is it something that's eventually only going to cover Monterey Park, or is there interoperability with other, because I know other cities have been putting up the same type of, I don't know if it's the same brand, but they have license plate readers as well.

So that's one of the particular reasons that we use this system because there are 37 other cities within the state that use this system.

So there's interoperability, but when it comes to certain things,

there's also even more interoperability because if it gets entered into California,

into the database by any agency, it will pop up on this database.

Yeah, I just want to make sure that, like, let's say if a car gets identified in Monterey Park going a certain direction, that if it leaves Monterey Park and goes into another city that has a camera network as well?

Yes, it will show how many hits we have in other cities and other places, and based on that, what we call in detective work, we create a geofence, And we try to predict where we think, based on the number of times we've seen the vehicle in the system, you know, what that leads to.

So there's the ability for agencies to work together? Yes. Okay. That's all I wanted to know. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilman Chan. Councilman Yu, you have the mic. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, actually, kind of related to the previous item, this is also waiving bidding requirements. knowing that it is a little bit more urgent than corporate repair and also this is a lot smaller amounts. But I wanted to ask you, because I don't want to make it a habit of waiving all the bidding requirements. And so what if we enter a formal bid? How long will it take and how much more costly to do that? And what will be potentially other company besides Motorola? that may join the bid? I know you can't forecast, but then I wanted to kind of foresee what will happen if we don't, let's say, waive the bidding process in the future.

Well, there's a few things that happen.

Because this is a UOC grant, this is what we are funded for is these particular ALPRs. So we would actually have to go back and request and go through not just the bidding process.

We then have to go back, and this is our maximum amount.

we're not going to get more than this dollar amount. This is what we get from the grant.

So we'd have to go back to the city of Los Angeles and say we want to use a different system

and get approval for them as well. But in terms of bidding, we're only replacing certain equipment

and upgrading our software system. If we were to go out to bid and try to get another system, another ALPR system, we'd have to replace software, hardware, and all the infrastructure. so instead of $76,000 you can bet that that would be significantly higher probably double that price

because you're replacing all of your infrastructure and all of your technology we're not replacing any of our technology or infrastructure we're upgrading what we have and we're upgrading the hardware that actually cameras that sit on the cars because the cameras we now have a lot of higher high

definition cameras and the ability

Director of Public Works. Council Member James. City Attorney. Paula. Paula. Paula. That equipment is, the technology has come a long way. So, it's not just, if we were to go out to bid, and I will tell you, you'd probably still end up with Motorola, because they are the top of the line equipment for this type of system, you're the cost of the bidding, but not only that, like I said, let's just say you happen to get another, you know, company, they're not going to be compatible with Motorola.

So even if we went out to bid and said you have to be compatible with Motorola because we have to be able to use our existing technology

The only person that you would get to bid would be Motorola And Motorola bids it under a government procurement

So we get the best rate available because we're going with Motorola Okay, thank you

No further Yes, I'm sorry I do not, I know

Okay, then I will make a motion to waive beating requirement present to Monterey Palm Municipal Code Section 3.20.050, bracket 2, and bracket 4, and authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement with Motorola Solutions, Inc., in the form approved by the City Attorney, not to exceed $76,252 for the purchase of two mobile automated license plate reader system.

Moved by Councilman Chan. May I hear a second, please? I'll second that. Seconded by Councilman Liang. Any further discussion? Hearing none, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Okay, next item, item 3F, a resolution declaring the month of July as Parks Make Life Better month in the City of Monterey Park I believe, Clark, you said there was a public comment for Item 3F.

Yes, Mayor.

So we received one written communication from John Travera. John expresses concerns for no fruit-bearing trees or female trees in city parks.

He added that there are too many trees which produce excess pollen,

causing hyper-elegant nasal passages on a regular basis.

He requests for consideration to bring back fruit trees to city parks and make parks alive again. The full extent of the communication is available on the city's website and in the public agenda binder in the back of the chamber. A copy was also distributed to our council members.

Okay. Thank you very much. Council members, any comments, questions on this item?

Councilman Chan, you have the mic.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. And I think this is a very good resolution to declare month of July, and actually not just the month of July, but every day of the year and for all the years, because parks do make lives better. And I can assure you that I use the park extensively. Defensively, I walk the park. I swim in Elder Park before I even hear Bons Park to exercise and be healthy. And when I'm tired at home or, you know, want to get off the house, then walk out and go to the park and breathe some fresh air and some changes. And just this walk is healthy. It's good for your body, especially now with the pandemic. make everyone is looking for health. So I think we should promote the parks and want to thank the Parks and Rec Department for doing this. And they did a great job maintaining the parks well and the swimming pools and the landing center. You know, people are doing exercise, playing table tennis, pool tables and exercise room, weightlifting, and all kinds of stuff in there, even dancing and singing and all kinds of activities there. So I just urge the residents make use of our parks. All residents are within walking distance to a park, I can assure you. So be healthy and use the park. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Chan. Any other comments from Council Members, questions? Okay, hearing none, then can we have a motion, please?

I would like to make a motion to adopt a resolution declaring the month of July as Parks Make Life Better Month in the City of Monterey Park.

Okay. Moved by Council Member Chan. Seconded by Council Member Yu. Hearing no further questions or comments, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you very much.

And that concludes consent agenda items.

Now moving on to public hearing 4A, public hearing and approval of the 2022-2023 Annual Action Plan as required by the Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnership Programs.

Staff, please report. If there is anything to report. Okay, thank you, Martha.

Again, this is a public hearing, so once we hear the report, we'll also open up the public hearing.

Thank you, Martha. Please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Today we're presenting the CDBG in-home grant for fiscal year 22-23.

Every year we present a one-year annual action plan, and we also present a five-year plan.

Today's presentation will be by our consultants Priscilla Davila and Debbie Sotek.

And I think, Priscilla, are you ready to go?

Yes, good evening. Can you hear me correctly, Martha?

Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Priscilla Davila, and I am the CDBG Home Consultant for the City of Monterey Park. Before you tonight, we are asking for you to open the public hearing and approve the 2022-2023 Annual Action Plan, as is required by HUD for the Community Development Bulk Grant, CDBG, and Home Investment Partnership Programs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides funding to the city with its CDBG and home funds.

The City of Monterey Park is an entitlement city and is eligible to receive these funds over the past many years. Before Monterey Park can receive these funds, federal regulations require that a consolidated plan, which is a five-year plan, be adopted by the city that serves as a federal planning document for those jurisdictions receiving CDBG and home funds. The consolidated plan was adopted by the city council in 2022. In addition, HUD requires that the city submit annually an annual action plan to this five-year consolidated plan that operates on a single program year. For instance, the one in front of you will start July 1st, 2022 and will go through June 30th, 2023. This plan needs to be submitted into HUD by the statutory deadline of August 16th, 2022.

The city has folLod its citizen participation plan and had a public notice advertised along with the draft action plan for the citizens of Monterey Park to review it for a total of 30 days and to comment on any proposed activity and funding level. If you will see attached in the staff report on page three, it details exactly where the funding will go for this program year. For this program year, the city anticipates receiving $602,926 of CDBG funds. Of that amount, up to 20% can be allocated to admin. That is $120,585. The city is also proposing to award $25,000 to the Fair Housing for Fair Housing Services, to the Housing Rights Center. Again, that will fall under a public service and HUD has a maximum cap amount for public services of 15%. And the next activity the city is proposing to award CDBG funds to is the Langley Center Restrooms for an amount of $457,341. Under the home program, the city can award up to 10% for admin. That is $33,888. The city will continue to administer the homeowner rehab program for a total of $254,161. And the last project proposed under the home activity is the Chodo project. This is a requirement of HUD, and it requires that the city allocate a minimum of 15% to Chodo funds, and that is $50,883. The public notice was published on June 30th, 2022 in the Monterey Park Progress newspaper. The city ended the 30-day public review period on tonight, July 6th. We're proposing that these activities and these funding levels be approved by city council.

That concludes my presentation. I'm here to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you, Priscilla. Martha, anything else to add?

No, I don't.

Okay, thank you.

All right, then why don't I open the public hearing then?

Public hearing for this item is now opened.

Anyone wish to come forward on the item?

Okay, I hear and see none.

Public hearing closed. Okay.

Okay, council members, do you have any comments or questions about the item before us for this public hearing?

Hearing none, okay.

Then can we have a motion for the item, which is the approval of this program?

I believe we have to approve item, what is that, 4A?

Yeah, 4A. I'll second that.

Moved by Council Member Lang, seconded by Council Member Chan.

Hearing no further comments, questions from Council, please vote, members.

Thank you very much.

On to new business, item 5A, initiative petition for health care worker minimum wage ordinance. Let's see, staff report, or do we want to hear public comments before we hear any staff

reports?

Okay, why don't we do staff report and then we'll proceed with public comments.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mayor, member of the City Council, City Clerk Chang, he apologized for not being present here to present the staff report.

He is away.

However, he is listening in through Zoom. Before you for consideration is an initiative petition for health care worker minimum wage ordinance. On February 11, 2022, the city clerk received the notice of intent to circulate a petition and a request for title and summary for the proposed initiative filed by the proponent, Potencia Armanderas, a Monterey Park resident. The notice was published and circulated for signatures. The signed petition was filed with the city clerk on May 11, 2022, which was then forwarded to the L.A. County Registered Recorder's Office for Signature Verification. The Los Angeles County returned a report on the signature verification, and based on the report, there are sufficient signatures on the petition to qualify for a special election. Attachment two to the staff report is the city clerk's certificate of sufficiency of the initiative petition entitled. initiative requiring persons employing part-time and full-time health care workers including without limitation clinicians nurses certified nursing assistant aides technicians maintenance

workers janitorial and housekeeping staff persons groundskeepers guards food service workers

laundry workers, pharmacists, non-managerial administrative workers, and business clerical workers, but not managers or supervisors, to pay a minimum hourly wage of $25 to be increased on an annual basis. Upon presenting the city clerk's certificates, I mean certifications, the city Council may generally take one of the three actions. One, adopt the petition without alteration tonight or within 10 days. Two, place the petition without alteration on the ballot for a special or regular election. The next available election date is November 8, 2022. Three, order an impacts report to be presented and returned within 30 days after the City Clerk's certification. When the report is presented to the city council, the city council must either adopt the ordinance within 10 days or order an election. In order to meet the county's deadline, the decision must be made at the August 3rd council meeting at the latest. The city council may designate one of its members to draft an argument if it desires to do so. The council may also direct the city attorney to prepare an impartial analysis of the proposed ordinance. Attach a resolution relating to calling the election, impartial analysis, arguments, and rebuttal arguments.

my report. Staff and the city attorneys are available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And do we have any requests to speak on the item?

Yes, Mayor. We have 12 speakers and a written communication.

Okay.

Proceed.

Yes, proceed.

Thank you. Paul Young, representing Hospital Association of Southern California.

Good evening, Mayor Lo, members of the council. My name is Paul Young, and I work with the Hospital Association of Southern California.

We strongly urge the council to refer this measure to the ballot now that the measure has been certified. These measures are deeply flawed, inequitable, and discriminatory, and the voters should be given a chance to weigh in and evaluate the measure.

Toward the end of last week, we submitted a letter to the city attorney requesting modest edits, to the proposed ballot question to fix misleading language that would give voters the false impression that all health care workers are included in the measure. We urge the City Council to adopt a resolution to update the ballot wording to make it more accurate and to clarify that.

The error in the ballot in question is that it simply states that the initiative applies to persons employing part-time and full-time health care workers, giving the false impression that the measure includes all persons. As indicated more fully in our letter, the error is significant in that it will mislead voters as to the scope and effect of the proposed initiative. With the addition of just two words,

noting that certain persons employing certain part-time and full-time healthcare workers to the proposed ballot question,

you can help eliminate the false and misleading aspect of the proposed ballot initiative. we'd ask that you amend the proposed ballot question as outlined in our letter submitted to the City Attorney.

Thank you for your time, and I'd be happy to take any questions.

Thank you, sir.

Audience, I apologize if I misspell your name, or I mean mispronounce your name.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Jennifer Acosta.

Is there any way that we can switch for Tony Ramirez first?

She stepped out?

Oh, no, she's here, but she wanted to.

She'll speak later? Okay. Tony Ramirez?

My apologies for my small nature.

Good evening, City Council members, Mayor, City Manager and Attorney, and civil workers. We want to thank you for letting us speak today. On behalf of 25 members of ours, SEIU members and family, we come today to talk about our measure and our

city ordinance. We are expressing the support for passing the health care

workers minimum wage ordinance because we are essential workers. We are folks that work in the city of Monterey Park and we are here today to let you guys know we we are essential we would like to move up the minimum wage just because us ourselves um we're living in a time where inflation is really high um and we want to make sure that that that we get that word out there for for the city and our essential workers now um we did take a short survey within the hospitals of monterey park and garfield medical center and then garfield medical

Center, our short survey, out of 133 members, we noticed that short staffing was the number

one issue within the hospital. So 83% said that the department's staffing levels are somewhat and severely understaffed.

It's a little jarring to me that the hospital itself is understaffed to take on emergency

situations.

Also, 74% felt that sometimes they lack the proper amount for dedicated patients or assigned tasks.

98 of those folks that took the survey said that they couldn't do their tasks on a daily day basis. Now, my family lives in Monterey Park. My nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, they all live in Monterey Park. They've been to the hospital. I had a grandmother pass at Garfield Medical Center. I had an aunt pass at Garfield Medical Center. I had a cousin's husband pass at Monterey Park Hospital.

And within all those times, the biggest issue we saw was that there was not enough people to take care of those folks.

Now, 68% said that they were denied care because of the staffing issues.

Now, I'm a critical care technician at Garfield Medical Center. And as you could tell, most of my critical care folks who are here, we have about four of them, they unfortunately can't do the task that we do for the critically ill patients.

And we're asking in your support today an urge that healthcare workers minimum wage retain

and recognize outstanding health care workers in our city of Monterey Park.

I mean, it's great to see you all outside of, you know, our events, but we really would like to see you guys recognize the essential health care workers. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, Carmen, Colorado.

I believe she stepped out. I'm so sorry.

Next speaker, Clara Nunez.

Good evening. Council members, if Mayor, if you remember or if you recall, I was here about two weeks ago. Once again, my name is Clara Nunez. I've been employed at Garfield Medical Center for 18 years. Not only am I here, but my coworkers and my son is here with me today. Just to express our concern, and as you can notice by my voice, I am a very concerned, not only employee for the city, but also concern for everybody around the city. We've come across a lot of issues, not only the short staffing, the underpaid, and the overworked. And when I say overworked, I know we all work a 9-to-5 job here. A lot of us have worked 8, 12, 16 hours in one day. And this is not one day today, three days next, or whatnot. It's consecutive days. We have not been able to come and see our kids, our family, because we're dedicated.

Not only do we are dedicated, but we love what we do. We love what we do, and we like to continue not only with the experience, but also with the learning.

and would like for at least my kids to have a good education, try to help them see that the health care service is something that everybody should go to because that's how we all are able to maintain healthy and try to keep the community going. My employer at Garfield Medical Center sponsored one of the ping pong events you guys had. Not so long ago, I didn't even know about it, honestly. But I'm pretty sure they spent hundreds, thousands sponsoring for employees of the city to come and join, for the members to wear the T-shirts. That's money that they're spending that can easily be used to our coworkers, to myself, to you guys, so that we can provide better service. And it's not being done. there's patients that come in and have to wait hours this is not a county facility unfortunately where you know they have to be seen whether they like to wait or not sometimes they end up going elsewhere and it's unfortunate i would like for you guys to actually think about it and express as well as your concern to us our concerns to you

I've worked at Monterey Park City, like I said, over 20 years.

I was 19 years old when I started at Dynostic Medical Group.

And I've been in Monterey Park ever since.

Not only have I embraced the culture, but I love what I do in the city that I'm in.

That's all I have for tonight. Any feedback? Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, I have Alberto Lopez.

Okay. Ah, buenas tardes. Ah, mi nombre es Alberto López. Ah, gracias por darme la oportunidad de hablar.

Ah, yo trabajo para Monterey Park, Haskell.

Ah, creo que estamos un poco bajo.

Estamos pasado sobre una pandemia. Yo estuve con la enfermedad. Muchos de nosotros hemos estado con la enfermedad y hemos salido adelante.

Hemos luchado. Muchos de nuestros compañeros se han unido, pero nosotros seguimos peleando por algo mejor para todos.

Y creo que, pues, como persona, necesitamos una mejor vida. Gracias.

And I'll be translating. Hello, my name is Alberto. I work at Garfield.

And as a person, I've been affected by the pandemic. And we're all fighting for a better future for ourselves. and I think that there's room for us to come together and have better wages.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Jesus Roderick.

Good evening, distinguished panel of judges. My name is Jesus Rodarte, and I am an ER admitting rep at Garfield Medical Center, ER, in the city of Monterey Park. I also live there.

I want to keep it short and sweet.

I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's right.

and I don't think it's just that my coworkers are not able to afford the cost of living in the city, in one of the biggest cities, in the biggest economies, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I would like for you to consider the things that we are all saying right here

and help us by helping all of the county really bring up the minimum wage to a 25-hour minimum.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, Esteban Ramontes.

Good evening, Mayor Lo, Council Members. Thank you for having me. My name is Estaban Viramontes. I work at Garfield Medical Center in the Dietetic Department of the Kitchener Hospital. I started in December, and towards the end of my first month there and into January of

this year I worked 23 days straight with no breaks and being called in early in

the morning to come in to work I like for the wage to be raised to a minimum

of 25 an hour just to help out because I have to drive to and from work and I

have to fix up an old car that's slowly breaking down. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, I have Paul Ninos Miranda.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members.

My name is Paul Nino Miranda.

I'm sorry I'm not prepared for this, but I remember last year, the start of the year,

my father-in-law told me, save your money.

Because he said, inflation is coming.

I tried to save but it's what we did

and this year

I don't think we can

I work in the

dietary department

I am a cook and sometimes I do stuff besides cooking

just to get saved some money

and our department is shortstop. and our department is shortstop I'm sorry but I woke up 3 o'clock this morning

! ! and my shift starts at 4.30 ! early morning

! and I made an airport to be here ! just to be here

and I'm here to express my support

for passing a healthcare workers minimum wages

as an ordinance.

Thank you and good night.

Thank you. Next speaker, Sonia Simons.

Sonia? She's gone? Yes. Okay.

Rolando Calarul?

I'M GOING TO BE ABLE TO PUT THEM IN THEIR

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR. COUNCIL MEMBERS.

MY NAME IS ROLANDO CALERO.

AND I WORK AT GARFIELD

MEDICAL CENTER. I'VE BEEN THERE FOR OVER 10 YEARS. AND I ALSO SUPPORT THIS

bill, especially in my department.

I'm sorry, I'm a cook.

And like my coworkers have been saying,

there's continuous days where we work,

if not overtime. We're asked

to work in our days off. And of course, you want to enjoy your day off because you want to spend time with your family or just maybe your body is not responding from the previous double shift that you had to do. And when I say had to do, it's because of the fact that we're underpaid. So we're trying to, you know, acquire as much hours as we can just to sometimes pay your bill or pay your rent because of the fact that, you know, everything has gone up. Gas has gone up. Rents continue to go up. And it's just very difficult with the wages that we have at Garfield. And also, I believe in Monterey Park, that, and I say this with sincerity, that, you know, Some people find it funny, but I say that we're one paycheck less away from being homeless because if we are not able to meet the total amount for the month in our wages, it's very difficult to pay the rent.

You have to sacrifice sometimes from buying or paying certain things because you have to move money to pay your rent. Or now, you know, with the gas completely gone crazy, you know, it seems like more than half of your check is going to pay for your gas.

especially for myself that I live further from Monterey Park. It's just super, super difficult. So I'm here also to support the $25 minimum wage for all my coworkers.

And thank you so much for allowing me to speak.

Thank you. Carmen, Colorado.

Carmen, last call?

Yeah, she left. I'm so sorry. Okay, thank you.

And then Jennifer Acosta.

Hello, Mayor, Congressman.

So I really didn't have nothing ready, but I'm just going to give you a story of what I've went through and what we've gone through in the last couple years.

Back in, I started working in 2017 in Central Supply, and within four years, the pandemic came. and we were already so short staffed that we were working crazy amount of hours between 16 to 18

hour shifts 12 hours six days a week seven days a week sometimes if we needed to and during that time um the pandemic came and it was even more short staffing that we already previously had before it got even that severe we were protesting for short staffing for ppe and thankfully they did give us ppe but their short staffing never came but why didn't it come who no one's going to want to come work, say a CNA works for $15 an hour, has a whole floor to herself because no one

wants to come and work for us. So during this time, the union came up to me and asked me if I wanted to help and try to make a difference, and I did. And then that's when we started protesting and all that. But that's when the stories came, people coming up to me with their stories, crying that

they're so short-staffed, but they don't know what to do because they're being asked to come in. and they're scared for their lives because there's no proper PPE, but they still came and worked and wanted to do what was right for this community. And to this day, the pandemic might have went down a little bit, but it's still here. But through it all, they've all still been here. They never gave up. And all we're asking for now is for you guys to try to help us because we've not only been affected emotionally, but physically as well.

I used to do three months straight, 16-hour shifts. Now I could barely do my three hours. my three shifts in one week because by day four I'm winded my chest hurts COVID hit and it affected us all physically so I was I'm just asking today for you guys to take that into consideration that it's not just us asking for money we need it okay thank you so much

and last speaker Louis Portillo representing San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership.

Good evening, Mayor Lo and Council members. My name is Luis Portillo, and I'm the president and CEO of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak here on this item that would raise the minimum wage for select health care workers to $25 an hour. We want to urge the council to refer the proposed ballot measure, the proposed measure to the ballot, now that it has been certified. And also additionally to echo some of the comments made earlier by the hospital association, we urge you to clarify the description of the ballot to make it clear that this applies only to certain health care workers. This is not everybody. The proposed measure is discriminatory, it's arbitrary, and it jeopardizes the health care, and voters should have a chance to vote. Voters should know that the majority of health care workers are not covered by this measure, that it excludes a large number of them. The health care field is one of the largest fields in the San Gabriel Valley. About 12% of our workforce is employed in this sector. We would urge the council to request an economic analysis to understand the thorough impacts and unintended consequences that this type of increase would have, not just on this sector but on the valley as a whole. This is a measure that would set a precedent that needs to be examined. I want to commend the work for a lot of our health care workers who really came through the pandemic and all of our essential workers who were with us throughout the end time and helped us, kept our cities running, kept our communities operating. But they should also, if we're going to provide this type of increase, we need to examine why would we deny it to them. And if we're going to provide it, we should at least know what the impacts of that would be. So we would urge you to refer the item to the ballot measure. Thank you.

Thank you.

And we did receive one written communications from Thomas Hiltek of Bell McAndrews and Hiltek.

And it's similar to what Mr. Paul Young has mentioned earlier regarding the letter that was sent to auxiliary attorney.

Thank you.

Okay, so if there's no further public comments, then why don't we proceed to our conversation, Council Members.

Anyone would like to... Okay, Councilman Lang, you have the mic. I'll start, yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank you all for coming tonight to express your needs and your concerns about this. You know, I empathize with you, and I feel for you guys here For us, working in probation, a lot of the same things are happening in our juvenile halls. We've even had people that had to work 24-hour shifts. In our juvenile halls, we have what's called post positions. And if you're on a post and someone doesn't come to relieve you, you have to stay on the post, right? So, you know, through our working with the department, we've at least minimized it down to the maximum of 16 hours uh um you know being held over we called it so you know while we've been going through the pandemic it's the uh the demand has not decreased it's actually increased right so um i empathize with you and what you're going through we're going through the same things uh i think that um for us here on the council right We need to be able to balance and make decisions that we think are best for everybody. And as representatives for the city, that's what we were elected to do. There are some options that are presented, the option to adopt a petition, place a matter on the ballot, or to order an additional report that would answer some questions regarding information about the fiscal impacts, limitation on the city's actions etc I think that may give us a clearer picture and then at that point in time we can make a decision I think we have it says 10 days to either order the election or pass an ordinance correct after the report is that correct yeah so you know while I I feel you guys right but I I think that it would be prudent to do an analysis. That way for us on the council, we've been able to look at all the details specifically and then better be able to better make a decision with more information. So of those three options, I think for me personally, I would support at this time to order a report to be prepared regarding the petition, the third option that's presented on the staff report today. So I think that would, at least for the public and everyone else, to be able to see what we're talking about, the specifics, what the impacts are, if there are any, and be able to create more of a transparent picture on this decision that we would be making, whether to go to the ballot or to adopt a petition. So those are my comments. I don't know how my colleagues feel about it, but I would support going to auto report to be prepared regarding the impacts. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Merliang. Councillor Chen, I see you have the mic.

Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank all the speakers tonight. Take your time out. Talk to us. You know, state your concerns. And very thank you for doing that.

And I would like to ask the city attorney, you know, some questions. One part is on the enforcement part. so can you explain what the city's into this enforcement what thank you mr.

mayor members of the council at the I can explain to you what the petition says with regard to enforcement on page 275 and the proposed section 5.9 2.060 it lays out what the enforcement requirements are for the city you'll notice that there's a laundry list of items that the city is expected to do. It also authorizes the city to enter into an agreement with the county to take over enforcement requirements. And then, most importantly, from at least my perspective, it also adds what is in the business called a

private attorney general clause, which allows persons other than the city to file civil suit in order to enforce the clauses of this particular petition. It would obviously be up to the city Council to prioritize what types of enforcement mechanisms would be used by the city but that's

what the petition lays out. Thank you City Attorney for clarify that and and so we have three options right just want to clarify that one is to put it into the ballot in November and we cannot change any wordings or anything because it has been approved by the more than 10% of the voters in the city. So it's already certified by the county. So that's what it will be in the ballot. So we can put it onto the ballot. That's number one. Number two is that the city council can adopt an ordinance based on the same language, and we cannot change anything at all. Just based on that petition, and that we still have to adopt it as is, as is presented. And the third one is what Council Member Hans Leon just mentioned, that we order a study and know all the facts, and then we make a decision at that time. So those are the three alternatives that we are looking at tonight, right?

Yes, Council Member Chan, you're correct.

Okay. And I tend to agree with Council. you're you're correct okay and uh i tend to agree with uh council member hans leung that uh that uh ! that we do some analysis and uh and see what's you know in fact what's going on is not that uh

! we don't approve or disapprove what's going on and i think all the health workers they deserve ! what you need to to get and uh! now things are so expensive and now things are so expensive and everyone's trying to make ends meet and I really and I really happy and also appreciative of all your efforts to throughout the last two and a half years fighting through pandemics you know weeks your life weeks on livelihood to help us so I really appreciate what what you're going on but in order to make good analysis and a good judgment that we

would like to see some facts some figures so we can consider all and and

go from there so thank you for that Thank You Councillor Chan

Councillor Yu you have the mic Thank You mayor actually knowing that SCI you got signatures to put on the November ballot measure. You guys have collected 3,272 signatures, so I wanted to say it's not easy. Congratulations, you know, good job. If voters, I wanted to ask the questions that if voters pass it on November, I know it is not easy to reverse, but now if the council decided to pass it as an ordinance then my question would be what if the council after a while because we will have three new council in november so what if they reverse the

ordinance um then do you guys have to collect the signature again to put it on the ballot measure so this is the question for our attorney thank you uh mr mayor members of the council

If you were to adopt the ordinance, it would go into the code verbatim, and unless voters approved changes to that in subsequent years, you would not be able to change it. So this petition does not delegate authority to the city council on its own ability to make any changes to it. To answer your question, no, you would not have to go back out to circulate a petition unless there was somebody that wished to change that particular code section that was opposed to it, or if the city council itself wished to put something onto the ballot. But in either event, it would still have to go back onto the ballot to have anything changed.

Okay, so that means the council can change the rule of needing the voters to change this ordinance. No. No? Okay. So the situation is that if we need to change, reverse that ordinance, the voters have to vote on it. Okay, so that is more safe. That means there will be more safe. But compared to if they go on the ballot measure, what's the difference of the orders that we pass in November they pass the ballot measure? What's the difference on reversing it? How is that the same that has to go through the voters to reverse it?

Yes.

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. Colleagues, any further comments or questions? Okay. Hearing none. Well, thank you. Well, first, my turn.

First, let me just thank everyone who came here tonight to offer their public comment. And I always say, we always say that government works best when we get to hear from the public.

And I will say that at a personal level, your comments, your testimonies are very moving because we know, especially for health care workers throughout the industry,

regardless of their position, certificated or non-certificated, it has been challenging and trying times.

And in fact, as I was listening to the comments as well as my own colleagues,

I recalled in the flashback that in the beginning of the pandemic, this is probably after some of us who were elected in March were seated,

but even at that time we knew that the pressures in which healthcare workers were put under,

and I specifically recall being invited by STIU 121RN to actually provide lunches, meals to, well, their members, 121 at Garfield. And so I did go to one of our local restaurants in Monarch Park because I believe in supporting local businesses. And so I did buy meals for the 121 RN members. But also hearing their stories of, again, this is the beginning of the pandemic, but hearing their stories at the time of the hours, not to mention the access to the protective gear to keep workers safe. And so certainly they were very compelling. And I think that no one here or in this community would disagree or disagree, but the value in which those who work in health care have provided to our community. I think all of us up here probably know someone who was born, passed away, treated at this hospital, and we're very fortunate that we have two hospitals, actually, in this city.

As I'm reading also the staff report, and what the report was provided was,

and thank you clerk for providing this, a report on the outcome of the petition gathering

and what is alLod by us as decision makers as prescribed by the election code.

And so what I think moving forward, at least for me, is that because what we are being asked to consider does affect policy to the delivery of health care services,

and as council members, it is important for us to be able to look at the impact of decisions we make into the policy and in this case, the delivery of health care services. And so I think that if I'm not mistaken, because we do have a timeline in which before we make a final decision and if we do have the option of asking for an impact report to be commissioned to be done,

I would say it behooves us to then ask for that impact report to know ultimately what this policy change will mean,

whether it is approved by the City Council via ordinance or by the voters in the fall election. So I think that is where I am right now. I, too, would like to see an impact report. also I think because it also then gives us and the people in the audience and the

community time to weigh in on what is being considered to also be able to

continue having these conversations as a community as far as what this means for

us as a community. I know very much that yes I think nine cities have been part of this petition effort. I believe some have adopted an ordinance.

Others may, like us, be considering impact reports, or others

may be considering putting on the ballot. I don't know, because I have not had a chance to speak to my counterparts in the other cities and their city councils,

but I think that for me at this

moment in time, that I think, as a policymaker, I think it's important for us to have all of the facts, all of the information. And also because I think it's important also for any individual, anyone that's part of the community to also know our political history and how we often do things in this city.

And what I mean is that if anyone here were to look at our political history,

then you make an observation that a lot of major policy decisions

are made via the ballot box from, let's see, our land use element

to election by district to major developments,

housing developments in this community,

and if I'm missing anything, please, enlightening counsel.

But certainly it has been our tradition to have issues decided by the voters.

But at the same time, we are elected by the community to make policy, to make executive decisions, and that's why we're here as well. So I think for me to make an informed decision how I wish to move forward and how to approach this question before us, I would be more comfortable with having an impact report commissioned.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, point of clarification, because it sounds like this is the consensus of the city council. So we have, realistically, 16 business days between tonight and the time period within which that report would have to be drafted. Okay. That is a very short amount of time. Okay. So the reality is that if this type of report is going to be performed by city staff, what is going to happen is city staff will reach out to the proponents for this particular petition and the opponents for this particular petition to obtain information from those two sides with regard to their perspectives on the impacts of this particular petition. That information will then have some objective review by city staff and will be presented to the city council. And that's really the extent of the report that's going to be presented to the council. Because to select, for example, a third-party consultant to go into an in-depth fiscal analysis of how this might impact the community as a whole, as opposed to the city as a public entity. That's going to take, A, more time, and it's going to take a lot more money. So I just want to be upfront about what that report's going to look like. So come August 3rd, when you have to make a decision, and you see the report in front of you, and questions arise about, well, was this reviewed by a third-party financial consultant? The answer is most likely going to be no, unless that's what you want, in which case we would also ask for an allocation of money to be spent on that type of analysis. So, like I said, being upfront with the city council on what it's going to look like.

Okay. Thank you so much. Colleagues, do you have any comments or questions? Okay.

Well, then, okay.

then what I believe is required of us next is then to take some action. As presented to us by staff, we have three options. And again, let's see, one option is to pass the petition via ordinance.

The second one is to have them forward to the ballot or to commission an impact report.

and staff has already heard from our city attorney about what would entail, what are the parameters, and what can we expect from such a report when it is concluded and presented to us.

Move to go with option three to order a report.

Okay. Councilor Yang has made a motion.

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Chan. Do we hear? Let's see.

Hearing no further comments or questions,

Council members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Moving on to item 8, city communications.

City Council. Council member, you.

Okay, the last remark. So thank you everyone for participating. I'm sure everyone knows how inflation is high. So interest rate has increased fast to calm the inflation.

I keep telling people before when interest rate go up, the bond price will go down. The bond price has gone down 10% already since the interest rates are going up. Remember a few months ago when we discussed to hire investment consultants to manage our portfolio? If we give them our $40 million asset, we can easily loss 10%, which is $4 million today. A lot of people have been misunderstanding about the risk of bond markets.

The fluctuation can be double digits in a year.

I remember at council meeting, I asked one of the consultants doing presentation from the investment firm about how to prevent bond price from going down.

The lady said, they're not investing in stock. They're investing in bonds. so there's not much risk. Then I know she has no idea about bond investment, and I blocked the city to do investment a few months ago because I know this will happen.

Losing 10% is a lot of money, and the interest rate is still increasing, so that means the bond price can lose more than 10%.

Remember we issued $110 million pension obligation bonds a year ago. We captured the Lost interest rate at 2.66% for 25 years and saved the city over $55 million.

I'm sure you may have heard from me saying that over and over again.

For those who have questions about how we save $55 million, which is the difference of interest rate we pay to CalPERS on the balloon payment at 7% versus 2.66%. We can save over $55 million over 25 years. We have a spreadsheet prepared to show that we can save $55 million when we discuss the issuing of POB.

We can save $55 when we discuss the issuing of POB last year budget meeting on May 26, 2021. ! You can review the Zoom meetings when Martha explain about the pension funding.

! I'm taking credit on the bond because I suggest an initiative initiative at the right time. ! Now, as I just explained the bond price has dropped 10%. ! That means if we want to buy the bond. ! That means if we buy bonds a few months ago, we lost 10%. But reverse, since we sold $110 million pension obligation bonds, obligation bonds. If we want to buy back the bonds right now, excluding the fee, we can easily buy

back at $100 million, which means that we can make $10 million profits from this transaction alone

in just one year. So I know that we have almost nothing to lose if we do the POP at that time. But on the other hand, buying bonds will lose so much and have so much. So I hope you guys have

more understanding about investment. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much for that investment 101. Council Member Yu. Council Member Chan, you have the mic.

Thank you. I would like to appoint Mr. Bethel Wilson to the Parks and Recreation Commission.

And we've just passed July 4th Independence Day, and thank you for the Parks and Rec department and city staff to uh host the uh july 4th actually july 2nd uh event in mp theater and the fireworks and just want to have a happy independence day to all for you thank you

thank you councilman chan councilman liang give the mic thank you mayor um i want to wish everyone

a happy fourth of july there were a number of events uh that i was scheduled to attend the Laura Scudder banquet along with 4th of July. But unfortunately, I contracted COVID and I was knocked out for a couple of days. I've already tested negative for four days now, so I'm well on my way to recovery. But again, be vigilant out there. That's why I'm wearing my mask today. I want to be as safe as possible for my colleagues. But happy 4th of July. thanks to all the city I was able to at least that night sit on my balcony and watch the fireworks but you know as you know we were quarantined for you know my wife was also sick so but we made it through and you know I'm you know I regret being that I missed those functions but just a reminder everyone out there to be safe and I know especially our audience today with the healthcare profession you guys know that more more than anyone else so thank you

guys. Thank you, Councilman Liang. And now my turn. I also want to just thank everyone who is here tonight. I know you could be somewhere else on Wednesday night. And so I do thank everyone who is here tonight who

shared public comment as well as remaining to listen

to our deliberations. And I also

like to wish everyone a happy

4th of July. Everyone had a restful and festive Fourth of July.

I'm certainly appreciative that after two years,

we were able to hold a fireworks show

as well as a community concert.

I and some of my colleagues attended the ceremony prior to the fireworks,

and I was very pleased that we were able to recognize our own Veterans of Foreign War VFW Post 397. And for those of you who are not familiar with Post 397,

In fact, they're just across the street from the City Hall, but they have done a tremendous job in their leadership in providing valuable services during the pandemic from opening a food bank, raising gifts, cash, food for Thanksgiving baskets, holding a holiday toy drive,

doing a lot, going above and beyond, and really doing it without much support

from any other outside entity, except for personal donations from the community

and support of the Veterans Post.

And so it was very nice that we were able to recognize

VSW Post 397 in our ceremonies before the fireworks,

as well as thanks to our colleague, Councilman Chan,

for also inviting members of our local community who are in active duty service. We were able to recognize them as well.

And I think that as much as we use Independence Day to celebrate and to enjoy our company, our time with friends and family, but also to remember those who have put themselves in harm's way to protect the liberties and freedoms that we have, and also to remember the values of the United States, our Constitution, and what it means to be an American during Independence Day. I also want to thank many of the community organizations that held their own events and invited me to attend. That included the Chinese American Military Support Group, CAMS, which held their barbecue on Sunday. And for those who don't know of CAMS, they are a nonprofit community-based organization created to support Chinese Americans and their families who serve in the armed forces of this United States.

and also I want to thank the Cambodian Ethnic Chinese Association,

also based here in Monterey Park.

They had their own 4th of July celebration

and I was very pleased I was able to stop by

and wish everyone there, again many of whom live in this community,

a 4th of July.

And moving forward, you know, earlier this evening, you heard from our Parks and Recs,

management services about our upcoming events and I'd like to just reiterate that these some of these upcoming community events are very important for us as council members and for the city we have

several upcoming community survey meetings where we are encouraging the community to come and to

share with us their priorities their needs what they believe is important for us as a city to

address moving forward as well as the upcoming friendly Fred walk on July 16

10 a.m. at Bellafester Park and for those of you who follow our council

meetings will recall that we had a resident Mr. Paul Izzosaki who came and

made a suggestion and and and if I recall I spoke to him as well and it

called a friendly Fred walk in recognition and acknowledgement of our

former colleague Fred Sonosa who I hope you're listening Fred we're watching tonight's proceedings

but the idea is that yes because the pandemic is hopefully subsiding but me it means that all of

us are able to gather the community and what I am hopeful for is that we get a good turnout of

people on the 16th of July to what I hope is the first in a series of community walks

that originate at a park in the city and will include a council member.

And really, it's an opportunity to, number one, talk to your elected representatives, but number two, go for a friendly walk and to wave hello to your neighbors and wave hello

to anyone that wants to participate in the walk and really have a conversation,

which I think we've all recognized.

Being able to have direct interactions,

direct conversations has become so much more important and something we may have taken for granted

prior to the pandemic, but we realized it was so important,

especially during that period in which we had to stay at home, quarantine.

I know some of us still have to work

or stay at home for health reasons or work reasons.

and so but at the same time you know we should not lose sight especially as

council members that you know we were elected to represent this community and I think it was an opportunity for us to go for a nice hopefully not too hot walk on in the morning and hopefully have be able to have a conversation with people in the community and as I said I'm hoping that this is the first in a series of walks then please I invite everyone including everyone in the audience today to join us on the 16th of July

at our walk, 10 a.m. at Billavista Park.

And I think that's it for me.

Let's see, any other comments? Questions? Okay, hearing none.

Seeing none, okay. Then future agenda items.

Everywhere? Oh, okay. Hearing none.

Closed session items, none. Then with that, we are adjourned at

8.40 p.m.

Thank you.