Special City Council Mtg. Meeting — August 1, 2022

Good evening. City Council of Monterey Park. The City Council Act on behalf of the successor agency of the Former Redevelopment Agency, the Housing Authority, the Monterey Park Financing Authority, and the Monterey Park Geologic Hazard Abitement District um agenda. Special City Council meeting August 1st, 2022 as um this meeting has been called to order at 6 30 p.m. Um um please rise for the flag salute which will be provided by the Myer Park Fire Explorers. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

We say, callers, please place the right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Open pose colors. Forward march.

Open pose colors.

Cloud face. Forward march.

Thank you. Please be seated.

Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you.

Councilmember Yvonne Yu. Councilmember Peter Chan. Here. And Council Member Hans Liang.

Here. And Mayor Henry Lo.

Present. All present. Thank you, Clerk. Let's see.

Staff and Council, do we have any agenda, additions, deletions, changes, and adoptions?

None from the City Manager's Office.

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, I do have a supplemental staff report regarding Item 2A, which is addressing a letter that was received by my office at 425 p.m. this afternoon. That's available to the public, and I believe the Council has a copy as well.

Okay, thank you Mr. Burger. Okay, I'm hearing no further changes.

Public communications.

While all comments are welcome, the Brown Act does not allow the City Council to take action on any item not on the agenda. The Council may briefly respond to comments after public 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 item at this time, however, you cannot later provide comments at the time the agenda item is considered. Clerk, do we have any requests at this time? Okay, I don't have any communications for oral communication. Just item 2A.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay. Continue on.

Staff communication is none. Presentation is none. Old business, item 2A.

impact report regarding health care worker compensation initiative petition, also known as the initiative petition. Staff report, please. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. The health care worker compensation initiative petition has qualified for the November 2022 ballot and was presented to City Council on July 6th meeting. At that meeting, City Council requested that an impact report be prepared and presented outlining the potential impacts to the City of the initiative petition if they were to become law. The staff report outlines the positions of the proponents and opponents of the initiative petition and additionally provides information regarding projected ongoing costs of the City. To prepare this report, staff contacted both opponents and proponents of the initiative petition to try to get objective data regarding potential impacts. The responses from both parties are included as attachments to the staff report. The proponents of the initiative petition, which is primarily supported by SEIU, offered some data with objective sources. SEIU provided the following regarding how increased wages would affect private hospitals and stated, At Garfield Medical Center, about 229 members would be impacted. Assuming that all of these workers are full-time employees, the annual cost of bringing them up to a $25 an hour minimum wage would roughly be about $2.3 million. At Monterey Park Hospital, an estimated 73 members would be impacted. assuming all of these workers are full-time employees, the annual cost of bringing them to $25 an hour minimum wage roughly would be about $650,000. SEIU did not provide similar data regarding dialysis clinics that would also be affected. The opponents that responded to the city's request for information are the Monterey Park Hospital and Garfield Medical Center. The responses provided by the opponents primarily encouraged the City Council to place the initiative petition on the ballot. In addition, the Monterey Park Hospital provided the following and stated, New research from the Berkeley Research Group has found that 54% of Monterey Park health care workers who make under $25 per hour would be excluded from this initiative. The analysis also found that the proposed measure would increase salary expenses for covered facilities in Monterey Park by 9.3%, or approximately $8.6 million. Next, I will cover the potential cost of the city. The initiative petition requires that the city enforce minimum wage regulations. There are two enforcement options for the city to consider. Option one is to use the city's own resources and employees for enforcement, or option two, which is to contract the enforcement services with the Los Angeles County's Consumer and Business Affairs Department. Staff speculates that enforcing the initiative petition with the city's own resources and employees would likely be similar or maybe even higher than the proposed cost by L.A. County. For option two, the city contacted L.A. County to request preliminary information about minimum wage enforcement services. It is estimated that administering and enforcing the initiative petition would cost the city approximately $125,000 annually. This information is based upon L.A. County's contract with the City of Santa Monica for administration and enforcement of minimum wage regulations. In summary, the ongoing administration and enforcement of the initiative petition would cost the city approximately $125,000 per year. In addition, as described at the July 6th meeting, it will also cost the city approximately $30,000 to place the initiative onto the November ballot. It is recommended that City Council receive and file this report and consider one of the remaining two options, which is either to place the initiative petition onto the November ballot or adopt it as an ordinance. This concludes my report. Staff, as well as our city attorney and city clerk, are available for questions.

Okay. Thank you very much for that staff report. Clerk, do we have requests to speak on the item? Yes. Okay. Please proceed, please.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Please be sure to fill out a card if you wish to speak.

It's a yellow card. Thank you. All right.

The first speaker is Nancy Okuri.

Who will be folLod by Nairi Bagzerian.

Good evening. Thank you for reading the impact report because it was not included in the public information we got off the Internet. I wanted to know, can Garfield Hospital afford to pay their employees $25 an hour and still stay in business?

I'm not happy to spend $30,000 for a ballot measure that does not involve our city's business. Can you amend the ballot measure to disclose that this $25 an hour race, if it wins, will only increase the income of people working at a private hospital?

Will Garfield Hospital have grounds to sue us if this measure is approved by our voters?

Currently, the California state minimum wage is $15, and the federal minimum wage is $15 an hour. What makes these employees demand their employee pay them $25 an hour, which is $10 more than state and federal minimum wage?

They should speak to their human resources department to request a raise if they're doing a good job. I will not support a measure that could increase the cost of my health insurance. Thank you.

Thank you. Nairi Bagdasarian, who will be folLod by Paul Young.

Good evening and thank you, Mayor and members of the Monterey City Council. My name is Nairi Bagdasarian, and on behalf of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, I'm here to thank you for the time you and your staff has spent on this matter and to urge you to let it go to the ballot.

I want to begin by saying I understand that it is really hard for people right now. The cost of living is going up, and you as a governing body want to make sure

that the people you represent are taken care of and are able to take care of themselves. Adopting the measure rather than allowing it to go to the ballot won't accomplish that. While they recognize the time and effort put into the economic report, there are a few things it does not consider.

If the city council decided to be proactive and adopt the measure, you're opening up a very wide door.

As it stands, the proposal would set an arbitrary pay requirement for only some health care workers at private hospitals and health care facilities,

while completely excluding thousands of health care workers doing the same jobs as public hospitals and community clinics. While on the surface the proposal appears to be aimed at health care workers, it also covers janitorial staff, security, cafeteria workers, and groundskeepers. Many of these positions are also employed by the city and other employers within the city. Adopting the proposal will inevitably result in the excluded workers to come to the city council and demand similar salary increases.

The measure has the potential to increase costs significantly in all areas of the city or result in the appearance of discrimination by this governing body. I'm urging you to let the proposed measure to go to the ballot and have the voters decide what policy to adopt.

While staff did the best they could with the economic impact analysis, they provided an incomplete picture.

There is an expectation that if one group receives a pay increase, so will all others up the chain.

The full scope will include essential workers who work for the city and other sectors who are excluded by this policy to come and ask for the same $25 an hour wage as their private hospital counterparts.

Is the city prepared to take on that cost? Thank you.

Thank you. Paul Young will be folLod by Ada Tesley. Hi, good evening. Mayor Lo. Members of the council, my name is Paul Young, and I'm with the Hospital Association of Southern California.

As I've mentioned in previous meetings, we have serious concerns about the measure's impact on health care providers,

the health care workforce, as well as access to care in the Monterey Park community. Our members' hospital support conversations to address health care worker recognition and pay, but in a fair and equitable manner.

This measure isn't the way to go about enacting policy. It's inequitable and discriminatory.

We urge you to continue to push this to the ballot and let the voters decide, as it's unfair to arbitrarily pick who is deserving of an increase and who is not. Thank you.

Thank you. Ada Tesley will be folLod by Rolando Calero.

Good evening. My name is Adina Tesler, and I'm with the Hospital Association of Southern California. On behalf of HASC and our members in Monterey Park, we want to thank the Council for allowing us and others the opportunity to comment on the Unwe Equal Pay measure. We also want to thank the Council for requesting an economic analysis to better understand the measure's far-reaching impacts. We have very serious concerns about the measure's impact on health care providers, the health care workforce, and access to care in Monterey Park's communities.

Health care workers deserve support, recognition, and a living wage. And our member hospitals support conversations to address health care worker recognition and pay in a fair and equitable manner.

But this measure is not the way to go about enacting policy. It is inequitable and it is arbitrary.

Based on our analysis, the proposed measure would exclude workers at 75% of health care facilities in Monterey Park. That means it would help less people than it would exclude. This measure targets only private...

bad policy to pick winners and losers by facility type, and it creates an unequal system. This is

in a workforce that is already drained by 20-25%, where recruiting and retention is very difficult

right now. We respectfully request that the Council refer this measure to the ballot as it was originally intended, and allow voters the opportunity to examine the merits of the measure and determine what makes sense for your city.

When you send this measure to the ballot, we ask that you amend the language as other cities have outlined to make clear that only certain workers will benefit.

The current language is misleading to the voters. The ballot language should be clear that this does not impact all health care workers, but rather only certain workers at certain facilities.

Voters deserve the opportunity to decide whether the proposed ways measure is right for Monterey Park. Thank you for your time and for your consideration.

Rolando Calero. Be folLod by Martha Capra.

Thank you.

Good evening, council members.

Thank you for having me here today for the opportunity to speak.

I just want to say that it's been hard on everybody.

And I keep hearing these people in front of me talking,

And they keep saying that it's going to affect certain people and it's discriminative to certain other people.

But to me it sounds like they would rather them have nobody get $25 and they will be okay with that.

They don't know our situation.

They don't know how we struggle. They don't know what goes on in our facilities.

If you want to put numbers, you know, I know that for a fact, you know,

A-H-M-C Health Incorporated, Garfield Medical Center,

makes $1.2 billion in revenue every year.

You know, just alone in these couple of years, they made $970 million in revenue.

But yet, they make a big deal and they put all their walls just for us not to get $0.26, $0.36 raised to their billion in revenues. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me.

You know, we as healthcare workers, dietitian department, housekeeping, you know, we basically live paycheck to paycheck, you know.

Struggling to see how we're going to pay our rents, how we're going to pay our bills.

having to figure out how you're going to survive with $100

or sometimes less after all the bills that you paid.

$25 an hour is not a lot of money.

I'm pretty sure we're going to be in the same situation struggling, you know,

because believe it or not, the more you make, the more taxes they take away.

that's the reality, you know? But the fact is that

our company is the one that discriminates their workers, you know?

They'd rather look at a profit than

how to go about increasing,

you know, the health care provided to their patients.

and this is going to have an effect I believe because not only the surrounding hospitals and businesses are going to suffer because of the fact that you know we're short staff

the customer service is not there people are overworked they're overstressed they're leaving

our companies in my department alone in the past few weeks we already lost four people

a lot of my co-workers couldn't be here because of the fact that they're doing doubles you know

so it's a question of either you know do you see profit because at the at the end of the day that's

what it's all about for these companies you know or do you see the humane side of it that is

hard-working people asking for your help to better their lives to better the lives of their kids

You know, just because we're going to get a couple hundred dollars more, you know, it's not going to make a big difference, but it is going to help in certain aspects.

You know, I'm a little bit emotional because, you know, I've been coming to these meetings and, you know, I hear everybody speak about how they represent me.

These companies, these corporations represent me, but they don't know nothing about me.

They don't know how I'm struggling.

They don't know that I have to work sometimes 13, 15 days in a row and to look at my paycheck and still have nothing to show for.

After I've been there over 10 years, I still have nothing to show for. They don't know that.

You know, so they don't represent me. We're here and we're talking with honesty that is up to you. the council members to please consider this bill. Thank you.

Martha Capra, be folLod by Esteban Cromantes.

Hi, good evening, everybody.

My name is Marta Capra, and thank you to the council members.

I am a CNA in Garfield Medical Center, and I work in Garfield for six years,

and I'm here to express my support to pass a health care worker minimum wage as an ordinate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Esteban Caramantes will be folLod by Hong Yang Yang.

Good evening, council members. My name is Esteban Viro-Montes. I work in the dietary department of the Garfield Medical Center. if you don't remember or forgot

during my first month or when I first started I started in December last year and when I started I had to work almost a month straight

from the end of December to almost the end of January a whole month straight even now I've worked a lot of double shifts and this past weekend I got barely any sleep. I had to wake up, I get out of work on Saturday at 8.30, come back to work at 6 in the morning. Had to work a double shift from 6 in the morning to 8.30 at night and to come back this morning to work again at 6.30 in the morning, roughly 7, 7 and a half hours of sleep. There are days where my feet hurt, and even now just sitting, I felt a shooting pain up my foot. And, yeah, it's been really hard.

It's not, yeah, just very hard and very tiring.

So I please urge you guys, please pass this ordinance for a minimum of 25 an hour. Thank you. Thank you.

Hong Yan Yang, who will be folLod by Lisa Edwards.

Hong Yan?

Last call, Hong Yan.

Okay. Lisa Edwards? Motion. He'll be folLod by Bing Fu Guan.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us. I've been in medicine for almost 40 years. When medicine became a business, things did change. There's just no question about it.

But the bottom line is we still have to do a good job. And in order for us to do our jobs as nurses and technologists, we need the backbone. We need our CNAs. We need housekeeping. We need the people that cook the meals. If we don't have them, how can we do our job? I'll give you an example. This weekend alone, I work an MRI in a trailer outside of Monterey Park Hospital, and we bring in Alhambra patients, Greater Al-Mani. So we have no secretarial staff. We have no housekeeping. So I'm the secretary. I'm the housekeeping. But what that means is I'm delaying service to my patients. If there's a stroke patient, he has to wait. I'm still being secretary. And if that's your mom or your dad and we're not providing care, what kind of nurse, what kind of tech does that make me? The struggle is real. And the bottom line is we're all going to be patients one day and we all want quality care. When it's your mom or your dad, you don't want a tired person that says, oh, I'm burned out. I just can't do it. You want somebody who reaches out and says, I'm going to give them my all. And that's us every day. You want somebody to hold your mom's hand while she's dying? COVID has worn us all out, but we still come every day. Every day we're there. And it's hard. It hurts every day we're there, though. So if we don't have our backbone, if we don't have people that are trained and that can help us, we're hurting. We're hurting our people. We're hurting our own patients. That's not what we're here for. We're here to do a good job. We signed up for health care because we care. So please help us and support us. Thank you for your time

Bing Fu Guan

Good evening everyone. My name is Bing Fu Guan. I'm a CNA at the Garfield Medical Center.

I worked there almost 10 years. It's really hard to take care of the patient.

Hopefully everybody support our wages the minimum wages for 25 dollars. Thank you

Marvin calls

Marvin calls

Okay, Mark Garcia

So Mark is going to be folLod by Jose Inesqua.

Hello, Council Members, Mayor. My name is Mark Garcia and I worked at Garofield Medical Center as a scheduler in nursing operations

for five years. My department was in charge of day-to-day operations and staffing.

I worked directly with the house supervisors and the hospital administrators, CNOs, unit directors.

I would converse daily with the staff from charge nurses to CNAs to techs.

So I had a special perspective in seeing both sides. Daily staffing in a hospital setting has always been a struggle.

But nothing can prepare you for a pandemic. safe, appropriate staffing became near impossible,

especially with the amount of people that got sick or the amount of people that quit. Even with our shortages, there was a hiring freeze for budget purposes.

Now, because of the shortage, we were instructed to increase the ratios where we can.

CNAs, for example, we had a matrix that said 1 to 8, approximately.

We were instructed to increase that to 1 to 12. That means 1 CNA for 12 patients.

Even with that, those instructions, sometimes we'd be so short,

we'd have 1 CNA in a unit for 30-plus patients.

I would get feedback from the staff.

It's hard on them to provide...

that we got, the turnover rate was really high. I understand that working in a

hospital, it's not for everyone. It's labor-intensive, stressful, and you're

constantly putting yourself near health, at jeopardy, every time you clock in. We

should do what we can to support our staff and show appreciation to their continued sacrifice. This starts with appropriately paying them a living wage. Maybe with this increase we can return to safe staffing ratios. I'm asking today to support the $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers. Do the right thing

for your essential workers. Thank you.

Okay, Jose, I'm sorry, I cannot read your writing here. It looks like Imezqua.

I-I-M-E-U-E-Z.

Okay. Okay, he's going to be folLod by Yu-Zi Yang.

Sorry if I'm a poor man's penmanship. My name is Jose Jimenez. I work at Monterey Park Hospital.

I'm an MRI tech.

Thank you for your time and listening.

I work in an MRI trailer, and during a shortage of MRI techs, I work three months, six days a week by myself.

I had no transportation, no CNN, nothing to help me with patients. I had to physically lay on patients to stop them from falling off the table or hurting themselves. Some of these patients have Alzheimer's, psychiatric issues, and they're combative.

I had no help. Just recently, we hired a transporter on December 2021. He only stayed two months. He left for seven more dollars an hour. My next question is how long would the new transporter last, making only $15 to $16 an hour?

In the past year alone in radiology, we have lost five out of nine techs. They left to other hospitals for increased pay and less responsibilities.

They don't have to answer phones. They don't have to transport patients. They're able to do their job sufficiently and professionally. where we're not able to do that because we have to be the secretary, the transporter, the house cleaning lady, or the house cleaning man, anybody. So thank you for your time and listening, and hope you approve the $25 measure. Thank you.

So Yu Z. Yang.

She's going to be folLod by George Hernandez.

Good evening, everyone. Everyone, I'm sorry. My name is Cece.

I am a CNA from Garfield Medical Center.

I work in the Galfield Medical Center as nursing assistant for six years.

Can I ask you all a question?

How much do you get per hour if you pay $17? Would you want to take care of the COVID patient?

I invite you to come and do one sip with me, only $8.

My hourly rate is $17.24. I would like to speak out for our CNA. During the pandemic, we work in the form light. The workload is so heavy. Most of the time, we have to take care of 16 patients. Every day, when I walk, I am sweating all over. Legs, weak fatigue at the end of the shift. Most of the time, we only have one CNA for whole floor, 35 patients. And sometimes we have none. We are working in a K hospital. We are facing sick people.

Every time we work, we put our family and ourselves in a great risk in this critical moment.

We are so disappointed. The hospital cannot hire any CNAs because they don't have a competitive pay. Why nobody wants to work in the Garfield Medical Center as CNA? Our pay rates even Lor than nursing home and cashier working in market. Once they hire three of them, they only work one day, then quit. Nowadays, the prices are going up due to inflation.

We need a job that we can depend on to make a living. We love our job.

We love that we do to serve our patients and our corps.

We hope Garfield Medical Center can get better and stronger. I am asking for the city council and mayor to vote yes to increase the minimum wage to $25 for healthcare workers in the city of Montlipar. Thank you.

Okay, George Hernandez will be folLod by Jairo Castillo.

Good evening, everybody. Mayor and council members of the city of Monterey Park. My name is Jorge Hernandez. I've been working at Garfield Medical Center for 22 years, one of the transport and surgery. What I see the first time since the pandemic started, I never seen this situation in Garfield Medical Center. This situation is very bad for the patients and for all the employees there that we're working too much.

We are transported to pick up patients, but I'm doing three jobs, housekeeping, CNA,

and pick up patients, and a lot of other things. And I want to ask you, please, touch your heart, think about us and think more about the patients that they need to take care of them more. I hope one of you that will not be in this situation and surgery that turnover cleaning supposed to be terminal cleaning is not doing it right now. It's really bad. All the management thinking about patient satisfaction and I think this time then we're not doing that because surgeons are pushing pushing to turn over everybody thank you very much

I will Hyrule Castillo we folLod by Ning Zhu

hello good evening mayor good evening city attorney and

council members my name is Hyrule Castillo I was hired by Garfield medical senator in October of last year

as a full-time position with a pay rate of seventeen dollars I was in that position for three months then I give up the position because of the shortage. There was short staff. I was about to quit, but I love treating patients. I do that for more than five years. And we're treating patients. We're not treating animals. The short staff needs to stop. The longer chief needs to stop

because we care with the front lines employees there.

We deserve the $25 an hour. I think that is fair. Garfield Medical Center and Monterey Park, they're making over $1.1 billion. And I think we can save. I mean, we can pass the ordinance instead of going to the ballot because my co-workers deserve a dignity salary because we are the support for our families.

And as I said, we treat for the patients. It's so sad when we see the nurses saying they're short and there's eight or nine hours to see the doctor.

Imagine if it's our dad, our grandpa, our father. We treat him with the strokes. Those patients are coming with the heart attacks, ambulance. We're burnt out. We need to make an action now. This is the time and I know that together we can do it and this is the moment. I do support the $25 because we deserve it with the frontline employees. Thank you.

Ning Zhu. Ning Zhu.

N-I-N-G-Z-H-U.

Last call? Nope. Okay. Ying Gong. Ying Gong. Y-I-N-G-G-O-N-G. Okay. How about Juan Hui Huang.

Let me spell this. H-U-A-N-H-U-I-H-O-A-N-G.

Last call.

H-U-A-N-H-U-I-H-O-A-N-G.

No? Okay.

Okay, Oscar Naharo.

Okay, he'll be folLod by Leo Sangalang.

Good evening, Council members. My name is Oscar Naharo. I work in Garfield Medical Center for a long, long time. And lately we are struggling with short staffing. We work some time with 30 plus patients in one nurse station.

And I think it's not right because we cannot give the quality that the patient needed, you know,

because this is pretty hard. Only one nursing assistant. The whole nursing station is not a... Even we tried very hard, but it's impossible because we need more people. Before the pandemic, we used to work for nursing assistants and now we only work one with 30 plus patients and we cannot give good care because it's impossible. Okay, thank you. Have a good evening.

So, Leo will be folLod by Tony Ramirez. Hi, good evening, Council members. My name is Leo Sang-Gilang, and I've been a resident of Monterey Park, California,

and a critical care tech at Garfield Medical Center for over nine years.

We all know that the cost of living here in Monterey Park is high.

Last month, our landlady yet again increased the rent.

her reasoning was everything is going up but what about my wage it hasn't gone up like it

hasn't kept up with it um last year my parents moved to a realtor in san bernardino county they used to live here in a monterey park

She'd moved over here and find a job. When she said that, that reminded me of my coworkers.

They left, my old coworkers who had left

and had a change of career during the height of the pandemic.

So I believe that if this minimum wage increase is passed,

it will help keep our local health care workers here in Monterey Park to continue providing care for our community. That is all. Thank you.

Tony Ramirez is going to be folLod by Suzanne Jimenez.

Good evening, City Council members, Mayor, Assistant City Manager, City Attorney, and Civil Workers. I'm here this evening to talk to you about retention, about health care workers, about our wages, and all alone, my personal strife. My name is Tony Ramirez, Jr., and I've been a critical care technician at Garfield Medical Center now for five years.

I wanted to speak to you again today about the health care worker crisis and retention, and it goes hand in hand. we have seen several healthcare workers either quit, leave healthcare, or retire early because

of the pandemic. Now, we know, unfortunately, this industry has turned its ways. It's all about the

money and the almighty dollar. It's a lot about the burnout and the lack of staffing. I personally

have brought this up to my administrators, my managers, and we heard tonight that we should be bringing it up to our Human Resources Department, well we have and nothing has changed. These Human Resources Departments are all about the almighty dollar again.

Now that we've seen an influx of positive cases with the new variant, it has brought

back a lot of PTSD thoughts and ideas surrounding the healthcare industry.

Due to the lack of staffing within the hospital, our leaders tell us all the time, unfortunately

only that's what it is and how it is.

How am I supposed to say that to a family member that I go back home after 16 hours of a burnout shift?

This is, it's a lot.

It's a lot to come to talk to you guys today about the reasons why we need this $25 minimum.

You know, I'm a healthcare worker and I started there at Garfield Medical five years ago at $17 an hour.

It's been five years and I only make 19.20 an hour.

Can you believe 36 cents raises each year, 50 cents raises each year is not worth it. Inflation is up to 9% now, today.

I spoke with Representative Judy Chu and she told me herself that she agrees that we shouldn't be having to take on three positions or three roles or three different jobs.

Right now currently I'm a part-time at one hospital.

I'm also a part-time at another hospital, and at another hospital I do a per diem shift on a night-to-night basis. So sometimes I work 24 hours.

Sometimes I work at the night shift so I can pick up extra hours to do the things that I care and have joy around.

Garfield Medical Center doesn't care about us.

They don't care if we have a living wage. They don't care about the policies within the hospital walls.

And these folks here to the left of us, they don't care about us as well.

So I say to you guys today that you really need to open your hearts and look in your minds to figure out if we really deserve that $25 minimum. Now, we want to talk numbers. Garfield Medical Center has an annual revenue of $1.2 billion and 907 employees.

The hospital is the second largest employer in Monterey Park. It's really sad when the employer at Monterey Park or the city of Monterey Park knows that

these folks are paying us at a living wage of $15.40 for someone who's turning your grandmother,

turning your family member, and unfortunately it's just not worth it.

I just wanted to let you guys know that it's really tough on us. We have over 60 members here today that are here with either family and friends and people

who actually live within the city walls that really want to let you know that we really deserve a $25 minimum.

So I'm asking you guys today to do the right thing. Follow your counterparts and the cities around you.

Downey has passed this ordinance. Los Angeles has passed this ordinance.

And we really would like to see it be passed the minimum wage here in Monterey Park.

I appreciate your guys' time, and I really wish that you guys would open your hearts today. Thank you.

So Suzanne Jimenez will be folLod by Maki Peters.

Okay.

Hello, Councilmembers. My name is Suzanne Jimenez. I am the Political Director at SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. We are the main sponsors of the measure. And so you've heard from health care workers today. You're going to hear from more that are going to talk to you about what it's been like, the day in, day out work that these folks have had to go through. And I think there's a lot of things that I want to spend my time and just really share with this group. So one, there was a question about can Garfield afford this?

They absolutely can afford this. There's been talk about, you know, workers deserving.

of course all workers deserve this and we wish we could get all workers to $25, but right now we're talking about hospital workers. And I think what has been really challenging throughout the discussion around this minimum wage is really the divisive language around which workers are deserving. So when patients come into a hospital and they have to check in with the security guard, they are just as deserving as the person that is putting your patient into a bed. And so we really want to make sure that we're very clear that no matter who you are that works in a hospital, you are a health care worker because you're part of the team that actually is caring for patients. And so it's really unfortunate to hear, you know, many of the folks that are that, you know, are either administrators or work for administrators of hospitals talk about security guards, groundskeepers, dietary workers, janitorial EVS staff as if they're not deserving. The other thing I want to say is, you know, we're going to hear a lot, or you probably already heard some, about how this could potentially increase costs for patients. There's no reason that costs should be increased by patients or for patients. AHMC can afford this, and the other, the dialysis clinics, can afford this. There is no reason that costs should be passed on to patients. And so I really hope that you all look tonight, listen to the stories from health care workers, really understand what they've gone through the last two, you know, almost two and a half years now. And we continue in this pandemic and really lead the way with the city of L.A., with the city of Downey, and pass the minimum wage here in the city of Monterey Park. Thank you for your time.

Maggie Peters. Okay. We'll be folLod by Janie Rojas.

hi my name is Maki Peters good evening council members mayor and city attorney thank you so much for taking the time to hear from workers and all of us today I am a representative of

SEIU UHW I am proud to have the privilege of working alongside these health care workers

who have made such tremendous sacrifices throughout this pandemic I wanted to first address some of the things that had come up in the impact report the first being that the city's estimated enforcement cost of $125,000 is 0.25% of the $50.5 million general fund in the 2022-23 adopted budget. These costs would be incurred through a contract with a county, and the impact report notes that the county informed the city that some of this may be recoverable through fines. The opponents proposed changes to the ballot label, specifically that it covers certain part-time and full-time health care workers is unclear because all workers in covered facilities are included. The opponents also told the city this would increase expenses for covered facilities in Monterey Park by approximately $8.6 million, and they quote the Berkeley Research Group report. However, they didn't send the report to the city. According to our reading of the report, BRG assumes, this report assumes, workers making $25 to $35 an hour will also receive a 10 to 20 percent raise. The source they cited, however, does not conclude that ripple effects of this magnitude will occur, and their analysis doesn't take into account more recent evidence showing more modest spillover effects. With that said, the Berkeley Research Group is a known entity that provides one-sided analysis for businesses, which might explain why that wasn't provided to the city. In addition to that, these corporations are asserting that we should put this matter to the voters rather than adopting it as an ordinance today. This matter has already been put to the voters. That is how this measure qualified for the ballot. And who we have here are people who are comfortable with deceiving members of this council and the public. Whether this is passed by ordinance or by ballot measure, the steps for the folks on this side of the room will be the same. They will file a referendum like we have seen in the cities of Los Angeles and Downey. In those cities, they are deceiving voters to qualify the referendum to take away money from workers who are already struggling. The difference will be that we will have wasted resources of $30,000 to send this to the ballot that could have been better allocated to other pressing issues in Monterey Park. We would assert that the opponents do not care about costs incurred to the city or about the well-being of the community, but rather about their bottom line. If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to allow the staffing shortage to worsen. If we do not take urgent and immediate action, the City of Monterey Park may be in a very different kind of crisis. By the California Hospital Association's own infographic off of their website, they have stated that we are going to need 500,000 workers by 2024.

They are very well aware that we are in a staffing shortage crisis,

however, are not willing to participate in this part of the solution. And another point that's really important to mention here is that Planned Parenthood is exempt from this measure and has not taken a position on this.

So again, just wanting to call up, I think, one final point. We care very much about the well-being of the city and the patients in this city and the citizens of this city or residents of this city.

We also recognize that there is a sales tax that is destined for the ballot this year and wanting to raise the flag that the opposition is going to be very likely spending a lot of money on encouraging the voters to vote no on our measure. I am concerned about the effects that that may have on the sales tax and the ability of voters to be able to differentiate between the two issues. And so rather than running the risk of, you know, losing something that's very important to the city, we could take action now to do the right thing for workers. So please pass this ordinance today. Thank you so much.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is Jaime Rojas. Here representing tonight the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I'm the former President and CEO of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I had a written testimony, but it's been pretty much heartfelt, and so I'm going to speak from the heart as well. My mom was a CNA for over 25 years. Single mom, raised two boys, lived in Pico Union, worked pretty much for 25 plus years driving to Simi Valley day in and day out. Nothing was given. She had no union. She had no representation other than support of her staff members.

Today, we do not support this ordinance as written.

And let me repeat that again.

We do not support this ordinance as written. never said anything how we felt about people and not supported about workers,

vice versa. This is a poorly

written policy. And I say that and I hope the city attorney has a lot on his plate in regards to

something that is unprecedented. The people behind

me who work hard for the hospital has a union by the name of SEIU. They have collective bargain agreements.

Now you have one union in the city of Los Angeles with multiple unions, the carpenters, the teamsters, etc., who respect collective bargaining. And the reason decades ago collective bargaining was established was to put both the employee and the employer together and to compromise. SIE knows exactly what they are doing. They're circumventing the process that other unions respect.

that they don't. Let me give you an example.

For example, we're dealing with education and the

Monterey Park City Council decides

we're going to give money and support and raise wages of the teachers in private schools, but not to the teachers

at our own public school system. This

is exactly what this ordinance says. Only raising to those 25 percent

employees in private hospitals, not to those in public hospitals. Let me give

you another thing. What happens if the City of Monterey Parks Police Department union decides to negotiate?

Monterey Park. As unprecedented as this situation stands here, I'll give you another unprecedented situation. The City of Montebello City Council decides, you know what, your police, Monterey Park, needs higher wages. We're voting on that. Really ridiculous and unprecedented. We're in the same situation right now. Let the people vote. The people signed signatures to bring it to the valley.

it. It doesn't stop there if people understand the process of a referendum. How many people here live in Monterey Park? I do not. And I want to ask how many of those employees here live in Monterey Park and who actually vote. I'm gonna say

many don't. But I look at you, the council members, and I ask you, the reality that their union decides not to do collective bargaining is ridiculous. Taking advantage of their workers to circumvent something that's been here for decades is ridiculous. The due diligence of both the city attorney, the city manager, the council members is to ask the other unions if they agree with this process or not. I heard many elected officials' names come up.

None of them have decided to put onto the ballot statewide increasing minimum wage.

but they decide to tweet or to talk to certain people in the union that they support them because they support them in order to pay for the next election.

Why don't they do the hard work and put minimum wage statewide and increase it?

Because they're scared.

They'd rather talk behind the walls in order to say yes to the unions

because they know that's where they get their money for their elections. And we know that's the truth.

Lastly, I end this.

You're opening up a Pandora's box. And I know the city attorney is listening, and I know he agrees.

I ask you, you have the opportunity to let it go to the voters of Monterey Park.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Joan

S-A-N

S-A-N-J-U-A-N? Yes. Okay, thank you. All right. We'll be folLod by Monica Gonzalez. Okay.

Hello, my name is Juan, and I'm here on the Alley Metro Hispanic Chamber. Thank you, Mayor Lo and honorable members of the Council for allowing members of Monterey Park, community, and general public to provide thoughts on this measure. We strongly urge the Council to refer this measure to ballot. The initiative only applies to certain workers, covered health care facilities, and other private-owned facilities. But the initiative excludes workers from all other health care facilities in Monterey Park, including public hospitals, clinics, community clinics, urgent care centers, nursing homes, etc. This means winners and losers, workers, treated unequally. This matter should be determined by voters. Where is the council to put this measure to ballot and let the voters of Monterey Park weigh in? Thank you for your time, City Council. Let the people vote.

Monica Gonzalez? Yes. Hello, my name is Monica Gonzalez. I'm here to speak on the behalf of No Monterey Park Unequal Pay Measure Coalition. Thank you, Mayor Lo, honorable members of the Council,

for allowing members of the Monterey Park community and the general public

to provide their thoughts on this measure for requesting an economic analysis. We appreciate your desire to be thoughtful in your approach to this matter. We strongly urge the Council to refer to this measure to the ballot.

This measure is deeply flawed, inequitable, and unfair, and voters should be given the chance to evaluate and weigh in. These matters should be determined by us, the voters of Monterey Park.

We urge the council to put this measure on a ballot and let the voters of Monterey Park weigh in. Thank you for your time.

Michael

Juarez be folLod by Gabriel Montoya

Hello, my name is Michael with the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Thank you Mayor Lo and honorable members of the council for allowing members of the Monterey Park community and the general public to provide their thoughts on this measure and for requesting an economic analysis We strongly urge the Council to refer this measure to the ballot.

The initiative only applies to certain workers at covered health care facilities that are privately owned, including facilities such as a hospital, a psychiatric hospital, dialysis clinics, physicians group, a health care service plan, Medicare foundation clinic, or other facility or clinic. There are too many unintended consequences in this flawed policy that put the City of Monterey Park residents at real risk.

These matters should be determined by the voters. We urge the Council to put this measure on the ballot and let the voters of Monterey Park weigh in. Thank you for your time.

Okay, Gabriel?

Gabriel will be folLod by Lorena.

villain villain know with thank you hello city council members thanks for having us tonight my name is Gabe Montoya and I am an EMT in Alley County and been in Alley County EMT for 17 years now I currently work at Kaiser Downey and I represent I sit in a statewide seat at SIU HW as a rank-and-file executive committee member so I represent my brothers and sisters at

Monterey Park also. Here's the conversation that I want to have. The CHA and everybody else that they organized to come to this meeting and speak against us, here's the reality. They're not going to come here and have a conversation with you about we're here to protect our clients' profits. Of course, they're going to move the conversation to equity. But if we're going to have a conversation of equity, then we should talk about the fact that the same CEOs that are paying the CHA and

everyone else in this room that's speaking against us also get paid millions of dollars a year. There are CEOs in this state for hospitals that make $8,000 an hour, while our members are making $15, $16 an hour to care for patients.

My voice is shaky because I take offense to them standing up here and saying that food and nutritional workers, the people who repair food, the people who clean the rooms,

the people who keep our hospitals secure are not healthcare workers. When you walk into the door of most facilities here,

Who's at the door making sure that people come in and ask them questions about their COVID symptoms are clear to come in? It's the security guard. When you go into the ER, before you go into that room to be seen, who's making sure that room's been disaffected and clean so that you're safe while you're seen by a doctor?

The housekeeper. When someone gets admitted to a hospital and has to eat, who prepares that food and oftentimes has to go into the room with patients who may have communicable diseases to make sure they eat?

It's the food and nutritional worker. We are all health care workers.

I would also add this. In the words of City Council Member Donald LaPlante of Downey, when he voted in favor of this ordinance in the City of Downey, one thing he said is he got a flyer from the CHA that really did this, wanting to pin health care worker against health care worker. He said instead of having a real discussion about what health care workers are going through and how do we pay them, they wanted to pin us against each other. And that's the same strategy they're using here. And if we don't believe that they won't use it if you send this in ordinance, we just have to take a trip down the 605 to the city of Downey,

where they have signature gatherers right now lying to people and telling them they're signing a petition that would help health care workers.

Where they're lying to people and telling them they're signing a petition that would Lor their premiums. I was there, I know, because I got asked by one of them. So here's what we need to really discuss.

What is the strategy to make sure that we have enough health care workers to care for the community of Monterey Park?

I had the pleasure of attending your strategy meeting on Saturday, and I got to commend you guys for your great work on looking towards the future of this city.

But part of that is how do we make sure that we are staffing up this city correctly?

How are we making sure that the wait times in the ERs at both these hospitals don't grow worse as people leave health care?

Why would someone risk getting themselves sick with COVID, risk their families getting sick with COVID,

and where they can leave and make more money at Panda Express making $21 an hour, and that's a real thing, right? They can leave here and go flip burgers at a fast food joint and make more money than they do working in a hospital serving their community.

I also want to say this.

Please do not dismiss health care workers as not being part of this community. Whether they live in this city or not, they have sacrificed day in and day out for the patients in this community.

Many of these workers will spend far more time in the halls of their hospitals and in the city of Monterey Park than they will be able to spend with their own families. Many times because they have to work two jobs to make ends meet because the health care industry decided that they were willing to put profits over patients and people.

it's a sad reality when we have health care workers who often sleep in parking lots at their next job waiting to clock in because the people who are who sit here and say they're here to represent patients in the community refuse to pay them a living wage look someone said that we should be having this conversation with HR someone said we should be doing negotiations between the employer and the union. Well, for us, this is negotiations. For us, this is bargaining. Because the workers behind me and myself, we're tired of the empty pizza parties. You can save your pepperoni. We're tired of the empty healthcare hero signs at the corner of each of the medical centers, when in fact we know when we walk in the doors, we're often going to be treated like zeros. Today, you all can be healthcare heroes for us by passing this as an ordinance and making sure that we can all can continue to live healthy by having a living wage for ourselves and our families. Thank you.

Lorena.

Okay. All right. Who will be folLod by

Lena Chu.

Good evening, Mayor, Low, and City Council members. honestly I wasn't even going to speak today I've been coming to these meetings I wasn't going to speak at all but I had to today one because it is an opportunity before you guys make this important decision I wanted to tell you a little bit about myself yes I do not live like many of these people here in Monterey Park but many difference between me and maybe possibly them is that I used to be a healthcare worker. I worked at California Hospital Medical Center for 11 years, and I used to be a CNA. I used to be a phlebotomist. The last job I did there, three years before, patient care technician and OB tech. I practically did everything in that hospital except, well, yeah, sometimes I did have to clean the rooms. The big difference between me and my brothers and sisters that I represent, because I'm the union rep there at these hospitals, is that when I left the hospital in 2001, I was making almost $16 an hour. And that was a non-union hospital. And the minimum wage, I can't remember exactly, so I'm trying to keep everything truth, was about $8.50 or $8 something. In 2001, making almost $16 an hour, I could afford a two-bedroom apartment in Downey. If you know Downey, I know River School and Stewart and Gray. That same apartment is almost $1,800 now, the last time I checked. I was struggling to pay that apartment as a single mom at almost $16 an hour. I don't even know how half of, almost all of our members that are making $15.95, $16 after nine years, $18, how they're doing it. But I'll share a little bit. I go and pick up some of our members. they're living in shared rooms that are the size of closets because they cannot afford a place to live.

I walked into the floors when I was the rep at Garfield in 2005. On the fourth floor where Oscar works,

he's a CNA, we still have four CNAs.

And he shift.

three or two on the night shift. I walk in there, Oscar has his boots that come all the way up to his knees because he's running to go shower. Eight patients. This happened two weeks ago. As he's getting ready

to walk in there all suited up with a patient ready, he's being pulled to go down to the

me to stand here because some words you couldn't pronounce.

I've seen her take care of over 30 patients with a lot of her other co-workers.

All because the hospital cannot recruit and retain staff. You're talking about, someone said about dietary and all these other classifications. You know Rolando has to work with the dieticianist because he's the one that actually cooks the food.

So if you're on a low-sodium diet, if you're on a restrictive diet, a diabetic diet, you better have Rolando cooking your food because otherwise you're going to be in trouble.

And all of us, all of us are going to be patient. And I'm going to tell you, when I was out there helping collect signatures, a lot of the people that we talked to that live in the city of Monterey Park I was shocked because I don't live in Monterey Park they don't come to these hospitals because they know about this stuff so I urge you you want to call these workers healthcare heroes then treat them like heroes and it's not fair that 20 years later these workers are making what I was making 22 years ago. Thank you.

Lina Chu. This is going to be folLod by Arturo Perez.

Hello. My name is Lina.

I work in the radiology department at Monterey Park Hospital.

and I enjoy working there because not only do I get to work there,

I was born and raised in Monterey Park. So for me, I really enjoy being able to serve my community.

So I started in February, but within my department, I've seen a lot of short staffing.

But this is happening in too many departments.

By increasing pay, it will not only help retain, but bring in more staff members.

and I would like to see more support for the people that serve our community.

A lot of the people that work here, they're trying their best. Every day we try our best,

but to try your best and still feel like you're struggling, it shouldn't have to be that way.

And so I hope you vote for this measure. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Arturo Perez, folLod by Clara Nunez.

Hello. I wasn't going to speak. I saw myself in the last minute.

My mom taught me fairness and honestly, and I kind of feel bad that they are literally getting paid like $15

when I'm getting paid $19 working as a quality control at a warehouse.

and it's sad that they're literally fighting to get paid $25

when they're, like, literally risking their lives, saving lives with COVID.

And it's literally sad that they are against it. I mean, like, I'm pretty sure that probably, like, she said,

that one day we're all going to be patient. You know what I mean?

and that's all I got to say that it's not fair that they're literally getting paid less and I'm getting paid more. You get me? All right.

Clara Nunez.

We folLod by Jose Barrera.

Good evening. My name is Clara Nunez. and I've been employed at Garfield Medical Center for 18 years. I don't know if any of you remember me, but I was here by myself, the first meeting that we have. And continuously after the first meeting, we've been getting more and more employees that, unfortunately, have a story. Yeah, they don't know it. They might not know it. They might not live dead. They might not even have any knowledge of the stories that we have because it's our reality. A lot of these people that are here, unfortunately, have never worked as a health care member. They don't know the struggles. They don't know the day-to-day. They don't know the physical, emotional, and psychological effect it brings us, unfortunately, to have to live in this pandemic. I personally was a victim of a physician that put his hands on me. And what did Garfield Medical Center do? asked him to apologize, just like anybody else would have. What did he say? What did he do? He refused. My 18-year seniority and my knowledge of the job that I do wasn't even a little bit of sympathy for him to say, you know what, I do apologize. The pandemic, this and that, nothing. Till this day, I've come across the doctor myself, and I can tell you that I am ashamed to say that he works at Garfield Medical Center, even though I see him on a daily, because he can't even come across me and look at me in the eyes. It's unfortunate that I have to come to work and have to see him, but that's not going to scare me. The pandemic didn't do it either. I love what I do. I like where I'm at, and my co-workers I love to be with them. They ask me, come and work extra hours, no problem. They ask me, can you do this, no problem. I'm an insurance verifier. I'm a claim adjuster. I'm an admitting representative. I'm a PBX operator. Whatever it is that my department needs, I know it. That's why in my department, I am one of their leads. Not only because I have the strength to go ahead and bring my department into what we are now, but because they know that I have the knowledge. I, unfortunately, I am here to ask you guys to acknowledge that we are heroes. And not only because we don't wear the cape and we don't go on TV like a lot of these heroes do, we are heroes in our hearts and in our community. Our community is not where we live. Our community is where we work. Because we choose to come to Monterey Park. We choose to be in this facility. Whether it's 15, 16, whether it's the struggle, whether it's the day-to-day job that we have. We make that choice. I here was with my daughter last two weeks. I am here again with her. We were talking as we were coming into this meeting, and I was telling her how I was apologizing for not being able to give her and provide the summer vacation that she would have wished she would have had. Just like many of you are going to go on vacation or have been going on vacation, whether you're going back home or whether you're going ahead and just taking a trip down the coast, down to San Francisco, San Diego. I, unfortunately, as a single mother, cannot afford that.

It breaks my heart. But just like she sees me on a day-to-day, 16, 12-hour shifts, she's the one to cook at home. She's the one to clean the house. She's the one to tell me, don't worry about it, Mom. It's going to be okay. Don't worry about it, Mom. I don't need that right now.

Why? Because she sees the day-to-day struggle and how I'm never hardly ever home. Because I have a job that I love, and just like I have a family that I love, I am being asked to choose what is best for my family at the moment. I do want to ask you guys to really think about the importance of it, and nevertheless, the wealth that we are going to go ahead and be able to provide more safety, more employees to come to the facility and want to stay, not only because they like the money, but because they like what they do.

That's all I'm here for.

I choose Monterey Park.

And just like everybody else does, we want to maintain here.

Thank you.

Jose Barrera.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor Lo and members of the City Council. My name is Jose Barrera. I'm one of the representatives for SEIU UHW. you. And as we go through the night, I appreciate everybody listening to our public comments and really hearing the heartfelt stories of our members. As we went out through the night, I was taking a few notes and I wanted to address some of the things that were being said tonight. First of all, the Berkeley Research Group is a known entity that provides one-sided analysis

for business groups. And that's why they're in opposition and provide a study and have failed to provide a study to Monterey Park for the purpose of producing an impact report.

If the minimum wage measure is set to the ballot, then we will have to spend thousands of dollars on this campaign, but the opposition will spend and outspend us

largely on a no campaign. And there will be no insurance that wages will increase, and we will continue to lose workers in a workforce that's already in crisis with verified signatures and registered voters in Monterey Park

are already evidence that the public is in support of this measure. As we can see, we have workers right behind us who live in Monterey Park. And even if they don't live in Monterey Park, let's acknowledge the fact that they spend most of their time in the city, paying taxes, eating out of restaurants, and really building up the economy locally. Furthermore, I want to address some of the comments that were made

by one of the former speakers representing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Rojas mentioned that this measure would fail to provide for publicly funded hospitals. Well, that's true. Publicly funded hospitals cannot be set wages at the local city municipalities. We should not be misleading the local public.

And the same groups that oppose this measure are also opposed to many of our statewide community fund clinics and have spent thousands of dollars to prevent anything, providing $400 million in funding for the public in the state level.

Furthermore, we've had support from our local legislators. I know one of our members mentioned earlier that Congresswoman Judy Chu is heavily in support, and so is Assemblymember Mike Fong. But we've also had support, and the letter was sent out by Supervisor Hilda Solis, heavily urging the support for this measure. And we also had a letter be sent out by our Class 1 Fire Department here, which our firefighters provide an excellent service to our community. and we want to be able to get our hospitals to be at the same level as the fire department. So I just wanted to address some of those comments. Furthermore, I also heard that Planned Parenthood would be one of those exempts. Well, Planned Parenthood is exempt from this. You know, they have not come out in support or in opposition. They have made no statement here, and I just want to put that clear for the record. And happy to continue to work with the council if there's any other questions. and I urge you to pass this $25 minimum wage as an ordinance. Thank you.

Okay, April Valle.

There are any more speakers, please bring up a card.

Good evening, Council Member. I was here the last meeting we guys had.

Where I'm standing today, I cried because I was frustrated. I felt unhurt as well as many other health care workers here today

who continue to come after 12-hour, 16-hour shifts to show support for each other.

The only time I get to see my mother is when she comes home after 12, 16-hour shifts. There's times where I sit alone with my brother for dinner because my mom cannot make it

due to her work schedule and the understaff that is happening at her job.

There has been times where we have been out on a weekend And she has been called in for work

She goes home, sleeps two, three hours And goes to work the next hour

My brother and I struggle

Because we cannot see our mother as much as we would like

Next week I start school as a junior my brother as a sixth grader. We're going to go back to a schedule that will not allow our family to have dinners together

like you do with your family.

I urge you to listen, take into consideration of the organization. take in consideration of the ordinance of $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers,

! because they are my hero. ! Thank you. ! Thank you.

! Okay, anybody else wants to speak?

! Last of the speakers, I do have written communication. One actually, the communication that was sent in, the person spoke.

So that was the letter. And then there were three communications that were actually sent, but they were untimely.

I don't know if you want me to read out who they sent in. Sure. Why don't you? Okay.

One is from TTC. The other one is from BizFed.

Okay. And the last from the Board of Supervisors, from Hilda Solis.

Okay.

And I'm sorry, did they take a position? Yes, the first two, I believe, were opposed. And the supervisor is in support of the measure.

All right, thank you.

And that's it?

Yes. Okay, great. Okay. Can we take a 10-minute break and reconvene at 8.10? Okay.

So I'll take a little break at 8 o'clock and we'll be back at 8.10.

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. 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.

Okay, it is 8.10 p.m. We want to reconvene back in session. Thank you all for your patience. And all right, well, we've, I think, heard all the public comments tonight, both oral and written communications. And let's see, and a little staff report. So why don't we then go to Council Commons. Yes, Councilor, are you? Yes.

I want to say before we start our discussion, I would like to thank both sides of your time and efforts in fighting for your arguments.

For SEIU, I want to say it's not easy to obtain over 3,000 signatures to bring up the initiative for your people. I admire your unity and efforts.

Knowing that I've been questioned by residents since the last council meeting about two weeks ago about me actually and another council member with potential conflict of interest in making today's item 2A decisions. I'm sure many of you know that my husband is in healthcare industry.

At first, I don't realize the conflict at his not working for the hospital, nor being a hospital owner.

But after a detailed discussion with him last week, I realized that my husband's company do have contracts with hospitals,

which the item 2A will directly and indirectly affect the revenue of his business.

So with that, I should disclose the conflict and would like to recuse myself from voting.

And in addition, our resident also questions another council member, Hans Liang,

which he also has maybe a potential conflict. We will let him explain.

Knowing that the council member Liang is a very outstanding union leader as president of the probation union, Local 685, and VP of LA Federations of Labor. I want to say, even though we say we can be unbiased

in making our decision, it is in public perceptions that our decision will still be biased. I would like to leave this to Attorney and Council Member Liang

to discuss his potential conflict of interest. and now actually let me recuse myself from the meeting. So is that okay, everyone?

Yes, yes, thank you for that explanation. And then the attorney, again, that was the document that was correct.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, council member, you can certainly recuse herself if she believes that she has a conflict. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, council member.

And do you want to address the additional questions she had regarding a potential conflict for myself?

Sure. Councilman Liang? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. City Attorney?

Council Member Liang, I don't believe you have any legal conflicts.

So no legal conflicts? None that I'm aware of. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay.

All right. Next. Okay. Any other comments?

Okay. I guess I'll start. I want to begin again by thanking everyone on both sides for coming out to address this issue with us.

I especially want to thank the health care workers for all the hard work that they do day in and day out.

As was stated earlier, it's no secret that I serve as the president of AFSCME Local 685, which is the L.A. County Deputy Probation Officers Union. and in that position as president I also serve as a vice president for the LA

Federation of Labor and as this is a AFSCME you know I'm part of AFSCME SEIU is not we don't represent

members in the City of Monterey Park. So I just want to share, you know, it's some of the comments that were made regarding not knowing what it's like for you guys to do your job or to be put in the situation that you are. But I think that for myself, I know it. Two reasons I'll explain. I know it because in probation, we are facing the same type of issues that you guys are having. Understaffing at the halls. hiring freeze and not allowing uh uh our chief who is supporting us to hire more staff uh covid

right um covid you know and the thing is is that you can kind of see covid's not going away anytime

soon it's going to be it's already kind of been part of the way that we conduct our lives now um you know just just now i don't wear my my mask because i saw on the news okay no mask mandate

numbers are going down okay you know i i think i mentioned it before i was uh you know i experienced

my uh bout with covid which was not pleasant but uh you know i understand that now in terms of covid uh the demand does not decrease the demand increases right so and and to magnify that and

i'm talking about this because this is what happens to us in probation especially those of us who work in our juvenile halls or institutions is that the demand increases because not only are you

supervising or doing your regular job, but now you have to add additional responsibilities

because of COVID, quarantine rules, reporting rules. All of these things have become additional work for us in probation. And to top on top, to magnify that, we are, as you are, we are, well, we are in our halls, they call it post positions, where you're on a post and you can't just leave

when your shift is over, right? We've had incidences that continue now where people are just,

let's say for example, I'm working my regular eight-hour shift and then at the end of that,

my relief is not coming because they called out and says, I can't make it. And there's no one to cover the hole and it's a post position. So what happens? That person has to be held over. That's what we call holdovers. And at its worst, and I heard some of you saying it today, at its worst,

we had people that were working 24-hour shifts because they were being held over. And it

magnifies itself because you have people that are out because of COVID. So you have less staff that are available. When less staff are available, the kids in the halls are more aggressive. They're more defiant. And, you know, I understand the magnification of the duties and how that affects your day-to-day life, especially with COVID. Now, I think that the timing is right for this.

As I said, I don't think things are going to change much for COVID. I think that it's just going to be part of our regular practices from this point forward in terms of the new policies, regulations, protocols that are going to have to be implemented and executed by all of you.

So, you know, the demand has not gone down for us. It's not going down for you. Now, I'll share some stories during the COVID, you know, well, let's just say during these past

couple of years, I've had a couple of experiences where I had to interact with Garfield Medical center, right? And I want to say that I really give it to the staff that were, you know, the time that I was there, you can tell that they're running a little low and you could tell because it takes a little bit of time for you to get what you need. Now, in terms of the reality of doing the job,

right, I know what you guys go through, right? Let me share something with you. For us, you know, when you guys signed up, you signed up because you wanted to be in the medical profession, you wanted to help people, and it's your tendency when you're doing your job, these are humans,

right? They're probably not in the best state of mind or health or whatever, and you have to

help them, not only them, but their families, et cetera. And some of the things that are not seen are, like, for example, I know when people are not in the best of health, that are also really not in the best of moods. And I saw it myself where a lot of these staff were being disrespected.

And it's understandable people are dying or whatever. It's like they're not really happy or they get bad news.

But those are the things that people don't see.

For example, with us in probation, they signed up because they want to work with kids. They signed up because they want to be law enforcement. They want to do their job.

But when they go in the juvenile halls and then we have this cascading effect of people

getting sick and then people that are being held over 24 hours, they just can't come in the next day. I'm calling out. I can't do it again. You know, it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse.

And to have to deal with, and this happens on a regular basis, right, because of the staffing issues, you may get some bad attitude or whatever, but you guys don't get assaulted by people at your work on a day-to-day basis.

That's what happens to us. You don't get spit on, gassed.

You don't have used feminine hygiene products thrown in your face,

which is what happens to us. You know, that these are not isolated incidents.

And so in terms of knowing, I know it's not just the title of the job that you guys are doing.

I understand that there's a lot that goes behind that.

And most people don't know, right?

So for me now, we, as a union president, I've always advocated to the board, to management, to explain to them what our needs are. Our management, probation, our chief, very understanding and very supportive.

But you know what? He doesn't get to make a decision on whether they're going to lift the hiring freeze. He doesn't get to make this decision that these officers in the juvenile halls are waiting for the cavalry and the cavalry's not coming. And I think someone made that reference in the last meeting, that you're holding on and you're waiting for the backup to come, and it's just not coming, right? So we understand that feeling. I mean, I understand that feeling.

and you know the another incident you know as you know or may or may not know our colleague mayor pro tem former mayor pro tem fred cernoso just passed last month from a fight with cancer and during those times you know we were involved like myself i know city manager along with our fire chief were there to help him because he needed to get to the City of Hope. He needed to

get to Monterey Park Hospital. He needed a ride, whatever. And I remember one night he called me and he was at Monterey Park Hospital. He had some issue that he had to deal with.

And then he called me and he said, hey, Hans. I go, what's up? He goes, can you give me a ride home?

And that was not uncommon. Like, sure, I'll give you a ride home. Where are you at? Monterey Park Hospital. Where should I pick you up at? I'm going to be at the emergency drop-off zone. I said, okay, fine. So I drove out there and I parked my car off the side, try not to block all the emergency traffic. And then I texted him. I said, I'm here. And he goes, oh, I'm waiting for somebody to take me from my room to the whatever. I said, okay, I'll wait. I'm here, right? So five minutes, 10 minutes. It's like, why is it taking so long? Like, I couldn't understand that, right? So I said, where are you at? And then he goes, I'm here in this whatever. I go, I'm at the emergency exit, I mean, the emergency entrance, like where he goes, oh, go down the hall, go whatever. He gave me directions. So I walked in there, put my mask on, went in there, I found him,

and then I wheeled him out and I brought him to my car. And when I was on the way out, I remember one of the staff was like, oh, we can help you with that. And I said, it's okay, don't worry, I got it, right? We put him in the car and then I took him home. But then that again goes

to support those things that you're saying and that we understand that maybe someone waiting

for a ride is not going to get the immediate attention maybe and then someone comes in that's

like bleeding all over the place, right? But it kind of opened my eyes on that incident. Well, the incident where I was working with Garfield Medical on some family issues and then again when we were working with Fred before he passed. So I know what you guys are going through.

And as I said earlier, all we can do as union leaders, advocate for our position, we can hold rallies, we can have people come to meetings, and those are all parts of things that unions do.

And it's not an easy thing to get everyone together and to spend their time here this evening.

but as I said before in this case of the Board of Supervisors I don't get to make those decisions

but today here in this chamber I have the authority to make that decision and I'm not making it haphazardly

because of I think one way or the other I think that based on what we've seen over 3,000 signatures I believe that it's time to move this forward I am

in strong support of passing this ordinance. We don't have time to wait for the Calvary. We need to get this done so you guys can get the support that you need.

And, you know, there were some people that made some comments about money and all that, right?

Hospitals are a business, right? So we have to appreciate the fact that as business people,

they have to make money in order to pay staff to keep the lights on, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I'm not demonizing the hospitals for saying that they've got to watch out for their profits because that keeps them open.

But I do believe that there's a balance that can be struck in being able to provide you guys and all of those workers that level of support. As I said, you guys have mentioned it. You said 9%. I remember the last time we were speaking in support of something that was maybe three months ago, 8% inflation. Now, you guys are saying 9%. It's not going to go down. At least not anytime soon.

So I think one of the things that was said that was very important is the human element.

Because a lot of times we think of the position as the job description.

Must be this, work these hours, able to lift whatever.

And we kind of have in our minds, okay, that's what they do. But the day-to-day human element of coming to work with your colleagues, to have people coming in that are sick and need help

and wanting to help but not having the resources or the staffing available to provide help quickly, right? I think really we're talking about raising standards here, right? And I think that it's a reasonable ask to raise the standard to that high.

I think that for us, we have maybe 40 or 50 people that get hired through Academy.

They go in and maybe 10 or 15 of them will drop out in the first week because they went to help kids and they wanted to do whatever, and all of a sudden they're getting assaulted and beaten down in the juvenile hall by these kids that don't listen, right?

So I have no problem standing in support of passing this ordinance. I think that based on what we're hearing with the signatures that it's most likely going to pass anyways,

I think that we do need to pay attention to the human element of it

Because the 25, this ordinance, the impact on all of you is going to be significant, I believe, than the impact, the negative impact on the hospital, right? So again, it's got to be a balance of what you're making and how you're taking care of your human resource, right? So I'm in support of it. You know, I know and I've been on those labor fights, you know, and like I told you, We have our staff that we just had last week. One of our staff was assaulted. Well, actually, well, he had broken his hip and had to have surgery immediately. So, again, for us, it's like, oh, you're a probation officer. You work at the halls. You watch kids. Yeah, that's the job description.

But no one knows what it's really like until you're there, right? So for you guys, I understand what the job description is, as most people do, right? But I've had some experience in seeing what it really involves.

And some people, it's almost like one thing you forgot to add, not only secretary or phone

answer or whatever, but you also have to be like psychiatrist or therapist sometimes. Because when you come into that patient and they're not feeling good and they're not happy about their situation and they're depressed or whatever, right?

it's those people that make the contact that oh you know like how are you doing

today oh no you know it's gonna get better you know I we can see you know

your doctor's gonna be whatever but that's part of the human element as well

and that also I believe is important to the level of service that gets provided

to people that live in Monterey Park and in the Monterey Park hospitals I know it was a big effort for you to come out I stand in firm support of passing this ordinance without going to the ballot we don't need to spend the additional $30,000 and 3,000 signatures from residents in Monterey Park, I think that speaks volumes.

So I think also when we talk about raising standards in terms of the retention, like

I said, we lose people quickly.

We cannot, we don't, you know, right now we're working to get that hiring freeze lifted so that we can start getting people in to cover for these holes that are occurring.

So the retention issue is important as well.

and a lot of these people leave to go to other industries.

But the retention is important. And I think that by raising the standards, by raising it to $25, you're raising the standard, right? And thus you're raising the retention because people are going to look and see where they're going to want to work.

If I'm going to do the same job and get paid more, why wouldn't I go to that job instead of this one that gets paid less? It's pure economics, right? And if the job is good, it's my belief, at least in my experience,

that the members want to keep their jobs.

They want to do their jobs.

So, you know, sometimes it's campaigns, right? So for labor, there are a lot of tools that are utilized, and that's why we have labor,

is that we can utilize these tools in situations where we, you know, we don't feel we're getting what we want and we want to be more empowered.

So I think those are my comments.

You know, I have a lot of respect for what you do. I understand the burnout because you can only take so much and I support passing

the ordinance without going to about it thank you

thank you very much come to the land any other comments my colleagues yes come from the chair and you have the mic thank you mayor and I want to thank all the speakers coming out, not just tonight, but also the previous meetings. You spend time. I hear you. I sympathize with you. I understand what you have gone through. I've been to the hospital before, and I got good care by the workers. Thank you so much. And we do, well, lock on wood, try not to get into hospital or whatever, but sometimes you just cannot avoid it. And it's not if you will go, it's when you will go. Eventually, I think everyone will go through this kind of process and need some medical help. And I really appreciate what you have done year in and year out. Now, we are elected officials. We have to look after the whole city, not just one particular group.

And I did ask, and this is one of the toughest situations that I faced, you know, the last nine years or so in the council.

It's really on top of it. It's very emotional, and it's a tough decision.

So I did talk with the city attorney a few times and clarify some stuff. And one question that I ask the city attorney is that, do we have any ordinance before that we have done this minimum wage

for one particular group of workers? and he said not to his knowledge.

Then I asked the city attorney again, then how come the state, the federal, the county, they have minimum wage? And then he told me that the minimum wage is for everyone.

Does not distinguish one group or another group. It's across the board.

So the thing is, it really bothers me that this come to the council.

And I think it's between the management and the labor.

It's the negotiation. It's the bargaining.

And I knew pretty sure that you have gone through the process.

talk to the management and ask for increasing salaries and working conditions and so forth. And I would say the management may not listen to you as much as they should, or else it won't come to hear. It won't happen.

And I really would like to ask the management to really sit down with the laborers,

to come up with a solution, to come up with something that both can live with.

And I really don't appreciate the hospital sending letters to the council with the implication that if you pass the ordinance, then we'll sue you or implicate that we will sue you. That does not work. It won't work here.

because we are looking after everyone in the city, regardless of who they are, and we have to take care of all of them.

And so I really would like to ask the management to really sit down and talk with you

and negotiate to a result that is beneficial to both. Because management, you need labors. If there's no workers in the hospital, you have to shut down. And then labors, of course, you need someone to make the paycheck,

sign on the paycheck so that you can live on. that's both sides

and

I really think that

we should not or you know meddle in this process is

we have to look after the whole city that's the bottom line I would like to say

Not that I'm not sympathized with you.

Not that I don't appreciate your work. I do.

Because I went through that. And I really appreciate all your efforts. But I think this is not a political matter. This is the matter between management and the labor. and since the ballot measure has

got all the valid signatures

and I don't know what's the result of the vote afterwards

later. Whatever

that is, pass or not pass in the ordinance or not you have a chance

in the ballot to make it for the people to vote on it.

So I just want to leave it at that. And I think it's oh and one more thing is that I also not appreciate that

the hospitals say that they demand the council to change the wordings. That I also talked with the city attorney and he told me specifically that the council cannot change any wordings. It was

signed by the citizens of the city,

and we cannot change it. And I think, city attorney, you can concur with that, right? So we cannot change it. So I really don't appreciate the hospitals come up with strong tactics

and kind of like force the city to do this, to do that. And I still strongly recommend the management sit down with the labor, talk through it,

instead of having them come out. And I think this is the last thing you want to do. You want to stay home. You want to have a rest after long hours of work. And I really appreciate that. And I really hope that the management will do their part, sit down with you, sit down with the labor, and negotiate. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Chan. And I want to thank my colleagues for their eloquence on this matter. And I also want to thank everyone who has come forward, not just tonight, but also the last few meetings on this matter. So it has been an interesting experience in education. I think both sides have been vigorously lobbying members of the council on this matter. And it's understandable because of not just the subject matter, but also the implications.

But first, I do want to say is that I don't think anyone here on the dais here at Citi

underappreciates the value, the labor of those who work in the healthcare industry in our city. And I think that the pandemic advancing amplified probably the importance of health and human services, not just here in Monterey Park, but really in the country. And I think how we as a society really have to look at how do we address the gaps that became very apparent during the pandemic, during the period in which people were seeking care, later vaccinations, as well as treatment.

And I know that the health care workers here in Monument Park,

they do care about the community they work in, and I know that this community certainly values the work of its workers. In fact, if I recall, 20 years ago, this community stepped forward in support of health care workers when they start to unionize at Garfield Medical Center. And as my colleague Peter Chan has said, when we are thinking about policy, our decisions have citywide implications. And this really is an issue which I think does really has caused all of us to think really long and hard about

where we're going to go on this matter and also how this affects other aspects of the city. And I know for me we do have some important issues on our plate, not just as council members but also as a community and issues that I think residents will be considering in the next few weeks as we go into the fall. And certainly, for me, I do question the timing of where this issue is before us and its potential to be distracting when our residents should be focusing on very local, qualitative issues. and you know I and I do look at you know why are we here at this moment you know pop in a you know in in a lens that you know I'm sure that yes there have probably been meetings or efforts to collectively bargain but you know the fact that members had to go and collect signatures then perhaps demonstrates to me that or maybe the bargaining didn't go as well as they should have and and and perhaps both sides then bear responsibility of communicating with each other, having these conversations, and also, you know, in those communications also asking themselves, well, then how can we also then engage our city government? Not just, you know, when there is a potential ballot measure or when there might be an issue that is on the agenda. But really, I think we all believe in health care.

I think we all believe in the importance of quality health care.

And I think then really, for both sides, after tonight, I would ask you, I would challenge all of you then to come back and communicate and to ask how can we work together? How can we work together to deliver the best quality of care? And how does also then collectively together, both workers and hospitals, engage with the city of Monterey Park? If the issue is funding from the state or the feds, then we should be united together

to advocate, to lobby the state,

to properly reimburse hospitals, the feds to fully fund the ACA

as well as the county.

And so this is certainly an interesting issue,

but I think for my vote,

ultimately, I'm also looking at, again, given that the other issues that we have as far as a community, how best to make sure that the community is focused on those issues,

which I think will have, of course, lasting impacts on all of us.

And so I think that's going to drive how I vote.

And I think that's it for my comments.

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council,

regardless of how you decide to move forward with the actual petition, you will need to certify that it has sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot.

and that's number one on the July 6th staff report. So there's a resolution available for that,

and then after that you can decide what to do from there on.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

Okay. So let's see. Oh, for the comments. Okay.

All right.

So, Carl, could you...

I didn't get the... You said no matter how we decide we're going to have to... What?

If you look on the Master page 11. You'll see under the recommendations for the City Council, number one is adopting resolution blank which certifies the petition as qualifying for the ballot based upon the City Clerk's certification. So regardless of whether you move forward with an ordinance or place the matter onto the ballot, that resolution needs to be adopted to certify the signatures. Adoption. And has the, can we do that today? Yes. Okay. Okay. In fact you need to. Okay. So what I'm hearing then that we need to first take action to adopt the ballot.

resolutions certifying the signatures are valid right okay well why don't we

at least do that then can we motion then I make a motion to put the ballot into

November's election I thought we had to at least certify the signatures right

correct so this would be recommendation number one this is adopting resolution

number? Well, I think let's, Peter made a motion. It may not go in alignment with but... In order to make his

motion, you need to certify there's sufficient number of signatures. Okay.

Okay, either way. Yeah, I can do that.

Okay, so can you amend or rather, wait, repeat your motion? I'm sorry, repeat your motion?

Just like the city attorney said, to certify the signatures and put it into the

in November ballot. Got it. Okay, thank you for clarifying. Okay, may we have a second, please?

I think it would be more accurate to say certify the signatures, right? It simply certifies the

petition as qualifying for the ballot based upon the city clerk's certification. So you'll see,

and we can go through the, and maybe that's easier. And then now the question would be whether,

what we're going to do, put it on the ballot in November. After you certify the

petition is qualifying for the ballot then you can make a vote on whether or

not to adopt by ordinance or to actually place it on to the ballot as a measure.

Okay so then would that be a friendly amendment Peter to just say that we move to certify the signatures? Yes I was about to say that yeah. Okay thank you.

So just to certify the signatures. Okay that's it. Yes. I'll second that. Okay thank you. Okay then members please vote.

Oops.

Let's do it again.

Something wrong with the machine? Yes? Okay. Okay.

Okay, thank you. Measure passes. Okay. The most unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Let's see. So then, Mayor, if I may make a motion? Okay, sure. So I move to receive and file the report and to adopt it as an ordinance.

Okay, sure. Okay, thank you. Is that proper city manager?

Let me just make sure that we are all literally on the same page,

and let me refer you to... Let me get there. Yeah, no, I got that part. I'm going to refer them to the actual ordinance that would implement that.

This would be, that's the certification.

If I'm, if it would be, it would be, actually, to clarify, Mr. Liang's,

would it be adding new chapter 6.40 to the...

Right, so this would be on Master Page 20.

You'll see that there's a draft ordinance prepared for your consideration,

and this would be an ordinance adopting an initiative entitled,

and it provides the title for that.

It would create a new chapter, a new Chapter 6.40,

and the petition would be renumbered to fit within that chapter,

and you'll see that the only section in there that would be part of that chapter

would read as follows.

Voter approval required except for this section, the regulations set forth in this chapter were adopted pursuant to Elections Code 92.14a. Consequently, this chapter may not be amended except by a vote of the people or as otherwise

provided by the Elections Code.

So the petition would fit into that portion of the Municipal Code.

So what would be a proper motion?

Adopt petition by ordinance set forth on Master Page 20.

Okay, so move.

Mayor?

Oh, I made the motion.

Oh, I'm sorry. Do you have a second, please?

We're hearing none. I'll make the second then.

Okay. So motion to be made and it's been seconded. Members please vote.

Okay.

So we have a split vote.

The motion passed

with

Council Member Lange voting yes.

Councilmember Chan voting no and Mayor Lo voting yes

Okay

And Mr. Member, as the council, that ordinance will become effective 30 days from the date of adoption

so 30 days from today Thank you

Can we have Councilman Yu come back in since this matter has already been decided and we can continue on with the agenda?

Okay.

Okay welcome back Council Member U. Okay continue on to item three consent agenda item number 3a to 3g members of staff or as well as clerk any items that need to be pulled

okay hearing none okay then may i have done a motion to approve consent agenda items number

number 3a through 3g please move to approve the consent agenda okay a motion made by

Council Member Chan, second please.

Second. Second with Council Member Lang. Any further comments and questions? Hearing none, members please vote.

Votes unanimous, motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay, let's see.

Public hearing none, new business none, city communications. Okay, Council Member U. Anything to communicate with us?

Yeah, actually, I attend our former Mayor Pro Tem Fred St. No Soul Memorial meeting last Tuesday at the Langley Senior Center. I would like to thank Council Member Hans Liang for hosting the meeting and bring back a lot of good memories of Fred. And it's also good to meet a big group of his family, neighbor, church, and friends. I'm sure Fred is still watching us and protect us as a guardian angel. So thank you. That's all for me. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilman Yu. Councilman Chan.

I also attended Fred Sunoso's celebration of life in Ang Lee Center last week. It was well attended, and so it's an honor and privilege to serve with Fred.

So Fred, rest in peace. and also

I think most of us have attended the Women's Club's fashion show. It was a great event

and after the absence of two years and finally they

staged another fashion show which is

well attended and everyone have a good time. So thank you. Have a good night. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Chan. Councilman Liang.

Yes, I attended Fred's memorial as well, and I also had the privilege to attend the actual service at Rose Hills.

Fred, you will be missed.

I want to thank the family for all of their support, and I was more than happy to host MC the event.

Fred and I shared some really good moments together, even though it was for a couple years.

But again, we'll miss you, Fred, and condolences again to the family.

Thank you, Councilman Chan.

And, you know, I think that will also conclude my comments tonight. You know, all of us who dearly miss our dearly departed colleague, Fred Sonoso, were very honored that we were able to be with his family and friends to celebrate his life during the memorial service. And as Councilman Liang had mentioned earlier tonight that he actually, while he was receiving care during his final days, received the care of Myrtle Park Hospital. And I think it's appropriate to thank all those at the hospital who gave care and comfort to Fred during those final weeks of his life. So thank you very much.

And let's see, future agenda items. Hearing none.

Closed session.

attorney no not required then if there's nothing else then I will adjourn tonight's meeting at 8 55 p.m.