City Council Meeting — September 7, 2022

Please write for flag salute which will be provided by the My Park Fire Explorers

for Mark

Bright face, present colors

Put your right hand over your heart Ready to begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Ready, two.

Opposed, face. Forward, march.

March. Pro to post colors. Post.

And salute.

Ready to forward march.

Thank you. Please be seated.

Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Yu? Here. Councilmember Chan? Here. Council Member Leong? Here. Mayor Lo?

Here.

All present. Thank you.

Thank you. Clerk.

Agenda additions, deletions, changes and adoptions.

Do we have any staff?

None from the city manager's office.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council.

For item 3B on the consent calendar, we are pulling the August 1st, 2022 city council meeting minutes,

and we'll bring them back at a subsequent time.

So 3B is being pulled?

No, 3B, only with regard to August 1st, 2022 meeting minutes.

All the rest are fine. Okay, got it. Thank you. August minutes. Okay, thank you so much. Council?

Hearing none. Okay.

Moving on, public communications. While all comments are welcome, the Brown Act does not allow the City Council to take action on any item not on the agenda. The Council may briefly respond to comments after public communications is closed. Persons may, in addition to any other matter within the City Council's subject matter jurisdiction, comma, on the agenda items at this time. If you provide public comment on a specific agenda item at this time, however, you cannot later provide comments at the time the agenda item is considered. Clerk, do we have any requests at this time?

Yes, Mayor. Receive, please. Thank you.

First speaker, Jason Wang.

I'm sorry.

Come forward to the podium.

Thank you.

Hi, I've been a resident of Monterey Park for my entire life, 17 years, and I'm proposing

to the City Council to hold a fLor contest for the city of Monterey Park.

A city flag offers residents an opportunity to directly engage with the city's civic life,

creates a symbol for the city residents can identify with

and brings out the creativity of the people.

All across America, towns are designing new flags people love,

whether it be Tulsa or Milwaukee.

With a rich history and a future, Monterey Park should do the same.

I made a comment about this proposal in a past public outreach meeting,

and the officials there, in particular the police chief,

liked the idea, telling me to propose it to the city council.

And so that's why I'm asking you to consider holding or creating a committee investigating how to best approach and hold a flat contest.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, we have Troy Grant.

Of three seats. Okay. Thank you.

There are no other speakers except we have two.

No, it's okay. That's all, yeah. Thank you.

Okay, okay.

So we will reserve that request to 3C when it's time.

Okay.

Then let's continue on to staff communications. First communication is from the city clerk's office.

Mayor, member of the City Council, my name is Cindy. I'm the Deputy City Clerk. Today, I just wanted to give you a brief information regarding the November 8, 2022 general and special election.

Next slide.

So when is the election? It's on November 8, 2022.

And what are we voting for?

So we have City Council position to represent District 135, a City Clerk, and a City Treasurer. and we have a ballot measure MP, that's the general tax proposition. Key dates to remember, September 29th is the mailing of the sample ballot booklet. October 10th is the mailing of the vote by mail ballot. October 24th, that's the last day to register to vote. And on October 29th, that's when the vote centers are open for early voting. so the www.lavote.gov that's the county's website community and registered voters can look for their district at this website so they would go to the website and then click on the register of voters next slide and then from there under the election they choose find my district

the green arrow next slide and from there they want to choose under the top

field there they want to choose the district map lookup by address and then under there they'll enter the home number and then on the right side the

street name and then next slide and then these are the different districts

related to that particular address. So for instance, this slide here, this is for the City Hall. So as you can see, the City Hall, we belong in District 2.

Next slide.

And so we're doing also different outreach.

So one of the events will be September 15th.

That's the Farmers Market, and that will be held at George Elder Park. On October 8th, we're also going to be at the Electric Park event. That's going to be at Barnes Park. October 13th, we'll be at the Farmers Market again. And then there's a health fair at the Langley Center on October 22nd. And the final outreach event is going to be October 27th, where we're going to be out at the Farmers Market again. And for more information, the residents can contact the city clerk's office at 307-626-307-1359, or they can visit the county's website at 800-815-2666 and choose option 4. There's also a QR that takes you directly to the city's website.

Next slide.

And that concludes my presentation.

Any questions?

Thank you so much, colleagues. Questions? Okay.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

And proceeding on to next communication we have from Library Services.

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

I'm here this evening to speak briefly about the library's current strategic planning process

and to invite you all, as well as our residents, to participate in a community needs survey.

So the survey is a really important part of gathering input about our community needs,

especially as they relate to library services. And the results of the survey are going to help inform our strategic plan,

And that's really going to help us develop services, programs, and collections that are going to serve the community for the next three to five years.

Residents can take the survey by visiting our planning website at the URL seen here on the screen.

The website and the survey are available in English, Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, as well as many other community languages.

The website also has more information about the strategic plan and the process.

We've got a timeline there of the process and an idea wall as well to share comments and give feedback.

Paper copies of the survey and comment cards as well as a physical idea wall are available at the library

and at all of our outreach events over the next couple of months.

We really encourage everybody to take just a few minutes of their time this evening to complete the survey and share what's important to you.

The more input we receive, the better. So whether or not you are a regular library user,

we definitely want to hear what matters to you

so that we can develop and implement a shared vision for our library.

So to learn more about the strategic planning process

and to take the survey, please visit the website. I also encourage everybody to share our posts on social media

to help spread the word. That's a really good way to get this information out there.

We're really looking forward to hearing from everybody

and seeing what comes from our survey. Thank you guys so much for your time.

Colleagues, questions? Hearing none. Again, thank you for that presentation. Thank you.

Next, communications from management services.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members.

I'm here today to present Laura Borjon. She is the city's new finance manager. She started on July 25th.

She comes from the city of Dublin.

She has 22 years of government experience with five years in finance.

She also has a degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix

Good evening mayor and council members

I'm honored to be here as a public servant proud public servant of the city of Monterey Park and

I look forward to many years of service with you

Thank you. Welcome welcome. Welcome Monterey Park colleagues Councilman Chan, you mic up. Just welcome and looking forward to working with you. Thank you.

Yes, same thing. Welcome and good to work with you, but only for the next two, three months.

Because we'll be term out. So still, we'll be a good next few months. Thank you for the services.

Councilman Ryu.

Welcome, and I will be here longer. So, yeah, I look forward to working to you. Thank you.

Yes, as will I.

And so, again, welcome to Monterey Park. So your previous position was at the City of Dublin in Northern California, right?

Correct. Oh, wonderful. Okay. Well, we're very fortunate to have you.

Yes. Thank you so much. I feel fortunate as well.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

And then next we have Recreation and Community Services Department.

Hello and good evening, Mayor and City Councilmembers. Robert Aguirre, Recreation and Community Services Director. So tonight, I just want to start off by first thanking the Community Participation Commission for helping put on another successful Hollywood Bowl trip. So we had 100 well-behaved Montero Park residents that attended the Diana Ross concert. and from what I hear back from reports, at 78 years old, Diana Ross has still got it. So everyone had a great time, great trip, and we had a 100% return rate.

Everyone made it back safely. So next slide, please. Just want to remind everyone,

this Sunday marks the 21st year of the tragic events

on September 11th.

We will be having a Patriot Day ceremony

in front of City Hall.

So definitely want to invite the community out to come and remember and honor those that lost their lives on September 11, 2001, so we can make sure and never forget their

stories. Next slide, please.

And just another reminder, you're going to see me a few more times about to see...

to come out, show your support, that way we can continue to do these types of events. So it'll be on October the 8th from 2 to 10 p.m. in Barnes Park. It's going to be a festive event, lots of fun DJs.

Just booked, actually, a headliner.

We'll be revealing that at a later date. And hopefully people are excited to come out and enjoy a day of some good music.

Next slide, please.

And then finally, this event is actually, or this pickleball tournament is happening in November,

but I do want to let folks know that we are starting registration now. We did sell out at the first annual pickleball tournament, and we do expect to sell out again for our second annual. It is $4 per team, and it is open doubles, so that means it could be a mixture,

male-female, male-male, female-female. There are three divisions, beginner, intermediate, and pro.

And so do encourage folks to visit our website, montereypark.ca.gov backslash pickleball,

and you can sign up to enter to the pickleball tournament and show off your skills. Next slide, please.

And then finally, just to make sure you keep up to date with all of the wonderful activities

and the programs, events that we have going on in the city,

follow us on social media at Monterey Park Rec.

Thank you for your time. Thank you. Colleagues, questions? Councilman Chan, your mic up.

Yes, on that electric park program,

is it just in the empty theater or is it the whole park?

Actually, we're going to be in the park on the softball field, and I forgot to mention it's open to all ages.

There's no age restriction, and it's completely free. So come out, enjoy yourself. We're going to have some shade structures up, plenty of good food. There's going to be some food trucks there.

Oh, okay. and some good music.

I'll put it in my calendar.

Another question is not to you but to the mayor and council member you. I know that you

participated in the first pickleball tournament but I never hear anything from you so anything you want to say? It was

pickle-icious.

Actually we did not attend.

I'll save them here.

They actually were gracious enough to open their position up for another team.

We had a waiting list of teams, and they were gracious enough to release their team to another set of folks that were waiting to play.

But they did come and they did cheer on. I did see them at the event.

And report back to us.

Only a few come as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay.

Let's see. Okay. Next presentation from our police department.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members. I'm before you tonight because I want to share some of my feelings and comments with you. as all of you know, but I'm not sure that the public actually all knows. After much thought and discussion with my family,

I have accepted the position as the Santa Barbara PD Chief of Police. My last day with Monterey Park will be September 16th, which will be next Friday. During my time with Monterey Park, I feel fortunate to have had the support

of an amazing group of men and women who are dedicated and serve this community and exemplify the best of law enforcement,

whether they're sworn professional staff, volunteer, they are the best of the best. I appreciate all the support I've had from you as the city's elected officials because without your support, none of us could do what we do for the community. Ron, I feel very fortunate to have had Ron as a city manager and as my boss. the wise legal advice of Carl

the community the rest of the incredible department heads our executive team I say it's bittersweet because I'm looking forward to the new opportunity but I really enjoy the amazing group that is going to continue to do amazing work here in the executive team and of course I've had a lot of support of my fellow chiefs here in LA County Over the last two and a half years, the department has consistently risen to the challenges of increased scrutiny and public expectations. As a result, you have a department more resilient and better able to overcome adversity,

more sensitive to the needs of our community, and better equipped to assist those experiencing homelessness and a mental health crisis. I'm confident the women and men of the police department will continue to move the department forward.

I'm extremely proud of each of them and everything that they do every single day. It's been an honor and privilege to serve this amazing department and this community.

So with that, thank you all very much for your support. I look forward to watching the great things that the city and this department are going to continue to do as we all look at new opportunities and continue to grow. So thank you. Thank you. Colleagues? Don't let it go there.

Absolutely not. Colleagues? That's right, Leon.

Sure, I'll start. You know, when I first heard the news from Ron, you know, first thing I felt was a little disappointment, but I also felt very happy for you because, you know, I think that would be such a great opportunity, you know, to be out there in Santa Barbara and to move your career ahead. You know, I remember when you first came in under Jim, You were, you know, Jim was chief at the time. And, you know, it's been a rewarding experience, I think, for us to work with you. And you've always had the energy and the initiative to make things happen. So, you know, for me, I'd really want to thank you for that. While we're sad, we're glad to, at least I am. and definitely when I make my trips out to Santa Barbara we'll have to get together and have coffee or something to eat. I'm sure you'll know where all the good spots are. But again, thank you, Kelly, and all the best to you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Lang. Council Member Chan.

Yeah. Thank you, Chief, for the last two and a half, three years service as a chief. And this is the tough years because of the pandemic and, you know, all those different things that happened, not just in the city but in the country. And you went through all those and showed your leadership and showed your strength as the chief of police in the city of Monterey Park. And when I heard the news from Moran, yeah, I was just like Council Member Liang, that, boy, we lost a good chief. but at the same time I'm so glad that you moved up to a bigger city and my son graduated from UC Santa Barbara so I went to Santa Barbara quite a lot of times at that time but now give me a reason to maybe visit you well not coffee but ice cream

and I like that and so you can take me to the best ice cream in the town And also, when you come to the city, always I can treat you dim sum anytime, okay? So make sure to come back and visit us.

I stream for dim sum. It's a deal.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Chan. Council Member Yu.

Hi, Chief. I'm really sad to see you leave, but then I'm very happy for you. I'm always happy to see people moving up, especially female leaders. and I've been working with you for about the last two years. I know your style. You are very flexible but very efficient. So especially last time that you helped me to chase my iPad, you know, that I lost it in one of the restaurants. But I'm very impressed with Chief, how she handled things with flexibilities. But at the same time, she will, like, chase people down but not intimidate people. so I'm very impressed with the way that you handle and I'm also happy for you to move to Santa Barbara because I'm I have another nickname called Miss Uni so I love Santa Barbara Uni so if I go to Santa Barbara next time have Uni then maybe you know I will see you so look happy for

you please stay in touch and send us your email so that we can keep in touch thank you so much

for your good work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you colleagues and you know what I would like to just say is that you know when those of us, Councilor you, myself,

our colleague, Councilor Fred St. Nelson, when we were sworn in in April of 2020,

little did we know the incredible journey that's been and the many challenges this

community has faced. But you know for me I think what I have been most grateful

immensely I feel fortunate is that we've had the steadiness the temperance of our

chief who has seen us through our present crisis with the pandemic and other issues and has continued to serve not just this community but members of

this police force and so I think that you know we will miss you and I think that

we are incredibly fortunate that we've had the opportunity to work together and

I think I'd like to take this time and have my closest stand but everyone please stand and let's give a round of applause to Hugh Gordon

Thank you, Mayor Lo. Can I sit down now, Ron?

Oh, wait. Would you like to?

Before you go, so figure out a way to have coffee, ice cream, and uni together.

Okay. I've already figured out where the best coffee spot is, I think, but I'm still working on it. So we'll go from there. Okay.

So I just have one final question, and it's one of the top questions that people have asked me in the past 10 years when they learned that I was a mayor or council member. So when I'm in Santa Barbara, if I get pulled over, I mention your name, I won't get a ticket, right?

I can't make that promise, that's for sure. I'm just joking.

Thanks again, Kelly. Thank you.

Ron, do you have anything to say? Mr. City Manager?

No, my comments are saved for a different format and a different time for Kelly. But thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay. Oh, yes. Let's do a photo. Yeah, definitely. Thanks, . That would be great.

We have to get her photo so she can put it in her office, right? Uh-huh.

All right. You're okay? Oh, okay. Yep.

3, 1, 2

1, 1, 2, 3 Okay, guys

Thank you

Okay

Okay, next item presentation.

Presentations, I should say. So first presentation,

I don't want a MPK Rewards Program update.

Okay. Ready?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council

Members. This is your Economic Development

Manager, Joseph Torres.

Thank you for allowing me to provide you with an update on our innovative shop local app,

Mondrian Park Rewards. Next slide, please.

Please allow me to share our presentation agenda tonight.

First, I'd like to give you a quick MPK Rewards program overview.

Then I'm happy to report the successes we've achieved with the program since launching it about eight months ago. I'll share some of the growth metrics we used, how we measure success,

and finally, I'll talk about the next steps or what staff recommends for the program moving forward.

Next slide, please.

As you know, we launched Monterey Park Rewards app in November last year to spur economic recovery for our small business amidst the pandemic. With $1 earned for every $5 spent, we believe that funneling money back to our residents and visitors from neighboring cities incentivizes them to continue shopping locally. In addition, the city pays that $1 earned to keep the participating local merchants whole. The program creates a sense of civic pride and leverages the power of our communities to spur economic growth.

Next, please.

In just eight months from the program's launch, I'm happy to report that our app users grew to 1,251 users with a link card conversion rate of 31%. Just so you know, the industry standard is 20%, and we started in November at 24%. We increased participating retail businesses to 162, participating meaning these are businesses that award points only. Out of those 162 participating businesses, Office. We onboarded 31 redeeming merchants which are businesses that award and redeem points. Next please. From launch date in November to July 2022 which is the most recent data that we have MPK rewards granted 9,307 MPK points to users with 6,275 points redeemed thus far. Those 9,307 MPK points to users with 6,275 points redeemed thus far. Those 9,307 MPK points to users with 6,275 points redeemed thus far. Those 9,307 MPK points to users with 6,275 points redeemed thus far. points generated $82,387 in economic activity, a 92% economic multiplier. You may be wondering what our cost is to support the program, and that would be about $62,000, which includes the points redeemed, software licensing fees, and promotional costs. Next, please. To further track the success of the program, we compared app usage between first quarter and second quarter this year from quarter to quarter, total economic activity grew by 93.5%. Average monthly NPK rewards transactions at local businesses went up by 82%.

And from Q1 to Q2, NPK rewards gained traction with app usage increasing by 32%

and app usage by non-link users increasing by 19%.

Next, please.

When we launched the program in November 2021, the transactions or economic activity generated by MPK rewards jumped by more than 400% the following month. And from then on, MPK rewards transactions have increased by an average of 40% to 60% each month through July.

Next, please.

So by looking at the trend in the previous slide, and even if we assume a modest 10% growth or monthly growth,

we can expect NPK rewards economic activity to approach more than half a million dollars by June of next year.

Next, please.

As with the old 80-20 rule, where 80% of production comes from 20% of producers,

our top producers are

Kwanghua Supermarket, Tokyo

Fried Chicken, Alice's Kitchen Mama Lu and

others on this list have contributed significantly

to the program's success next piece

but don't just take my word for it according to Ara Tian at Chop Chop

Chicken the app is giving them

a new way to connect to their existing

customers while allowing them to attract new customers and Aaliyah Lavalin not only

embraced the program, but has creatively leveraged the program through their own promotions.

Next, please.

Despite these successes, there are many more ways we can leverage MPK Rewards program to

engage our communities.

For instance, we can use the app to promote sustainability by incentivizing water conservation or promoting public transportation or even electric vehicle adoption. We could use the app to direct and boost traffic to where it's needed in the community to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we can use the app to increase civic engagement by incentivizing residents to respond to surveys, for instance, volunteer their time to the community, or attend specific civic events.

Next, please.

As with any new and innovative program, there's always room for improvement. We continue to work with the software developer to improve both the user and business experience. And based on our input, the developers have incorporated improvements into the app, such as new screens, tighter security, and more automated processes.

Next, please.

Our software contract for MPK Rewards ends on October 30 of this year. However, economic development has enough budget to extend the program to December, and we will extend it to December. But as you can see, the program has gotten a lot of traction. Therefore, staff is recommending renewing the program for another six months through June 30, 2023. This would help our small business community, especially in the first few months of the year when retail tends to be slow. Consequently, I may go back to council to request additional funding for the extension of the program to the tune of about $40,000. as I would have used up all my budget just to extend it through December of this year.

Next, please. If you do extend the program another six months,

we would target to grow local business participation at 250, grow our registered users to more than 3,000,

and aim to reach a minimum local economic activity of 300,000.

We would implement new use case programs to support causes such as water conservation, climate action, and other civic engagement. And we would further expand our reach by partnering with ELAC, Cal State Los Angeles, various church groups, fitness groups, the library, and the recreation department, to name a few. And the next slide would conclude my presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council Members.

I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you very much.

colleagues questions

Councillor Verlaine

yeah just a comment real quick thank you Joseph I'm really impressed actually to see those kind of numbers you know I'm the first to admit in terms of apps and you know using those things I have it on my phone but I really don't use it actively and I was just wondering a couple days ago how the app was doing and you know we have that report today and I'm you know that's very impressive to see those numbers and I think that a lot of the younger generation that are very apt at using their phones and you know buying things selling you know getting discounts I think that is really kind of showing as well so um good job and I think that uh you know I'd like to see how

how high we can get it you know thank you councilor chan you have mic uh yeah thank you

Joseph for the presentation. And yeah, my question is that since you say the funding is going to be done by the end of the year, so you need to get some maybe $40,000, but it only goes to what, June of 23, do you have a plan for an even longer period of time or to do it like a permanent app for all the residents of Monterey Park?

Given the traction it has gained in the last few months, keeping it permanent has come across our minds. Ideally, if given a choice, I'd like to extend it for another 12 months.

but given our funding availability,

I would be happy to extend it to six months

but if I had a choice,

I would extend it for another year.

Councilman, you have the mic.

Thank you so much, Joseph. You did a very good job. I don't expect such a small amount can go that far

and I think based on your consistency, I see the number grow quite fast.

I mean, hopefully that will, you know, I hope to see faster than what we expected.

But have you ever thought about, you know, maybe we can place an ad on the, you know,

kind of newspaper or Chinese newspaper somewhere that is actually pretty cost effective

and can reach people because we have a lot of Chinese populations that they really like to take advantage of some of the discounts. So I don't know about other newspaper. Those are maybe more expensive. But the Chinese and Asian, they do have publications that are pretty cost-effective. So maybe we can look into it, and hopefully we can grow faster.

Thank you, Council Member Yu. that's actually in our plans moving forward. Now that economic development has a full staff,

both of which speak Chinese, we will leverage that skill

and actually reach out further

to the Chinese community with our messaging.

Yes, Council Member Lange. The mic again.

Yeah, piggyback on Council Member Yu's idea. I think also if you're going to advertise it,

in print media that you can utilize a QR code so that people, you know,

explains what it is and you just scan it and it goes straight to the play download or install, right?

So that may be an easier way also to help other than just the advertisement to have the QR code ready to go.

Yes, good advice.

We do have those QR codes appended or included in all the ads that we put out.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Joseph, for that presentation. The only question I have, and it's actually something I've brought up in the past, with

the app, well first of all, I want to say congratulations for promoting this app, and

I can see that it has gained a foothold in our community.

I was wondering, with the software company that designed the app, is it a possibility

that they can also create bilingual language built into apps,

because I think that might also help promote greater usage in our community?

That really is an excellent idea, and that's something that we've requested from the software developer out of the gate when we launched the program. What they have is kind of a white-label product because other cities are using it as well. most of them in the east coast so they've kind of made it generic but we did request them to

at least have the ability to um display like chinese characters they won't be able to interpret

it for us but as long as we can interpret it and provide them with a narrative that's a good

possibility and they're working on it may i have to make a suggestion that perhaps we can um ask

to the company as well is that

because there are several other cities besides us that are using it, and I understand that there's a cost involved not just extra code for more pages, but also having the ability to make sure it's linguistically readable, but would it be a possibility that if we request it to be in other languages that the other cities that use it as well would benefit from it? In other words, perhaps the city that all users now could collectively pitch in, call it an extra investment so that it can be used by all customers?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I can see where the other cities would benefit from that functionality, and that's why Encolu Technologies, the software developer, agrees. So that's why they're working on it, and they will be able to provide that functionality, not only in Chinese language but in several other languages as well.

How soon do you think that those new utilities will be developed and completed?

Well, we check with them every time and, you know, they tell us it's a work in progress.

But I will get a more definitive answer.

Well, the reason I ask is because, you know, the holidays are always in which most retail derive most of the revenue.

And so, of course, we have HalLoen, Thanksgiving, the holidays in December. But in this community, we also celebrate Lunar New Year. And I think for probably a lot of our businesses, Lunar New Year is where I would imagine they devour a lot of their revenue. So I would imagine that it would then be useful for this app and also for us to expand its usage by businesses, especially if it could be timed right before Lunar New Year. I mean, I think we should at least ask and try and press upon why the sooner the better.

Agreed, Mr. Mayor, and we will keep pushing the vendor to come up with that functionality as quickly as possible.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any further questions? None. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Next presentation, 1B, Spirit Bus Transit Service Evaluation.

Our Public Works Principal Analyst Sochi Tipan will frame the Spirit Bus Transit evaluation,

and with her is our consultant, which will chime in after she's finished. Thank you.

Hi. Good evening, Mayor Lo and honorable council members. As you know, Spirit Bus was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, and resume services in July. Earlier this year, staff also began working with IBI group consultants to evaluate its spirit bus system and transportation programs. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the existing services and also identify service improvements that would best meet the community's needs. The consultants are analyzing ridership data, current routes, available technology, and other factors to assess the effectiveness of the system. As part of the study, the city just released a community survey that's currently available to the public, and we will also be holding community meetings in the month of October to provide the community an opportunity to give input regarding current transit issues and also recommendations for improvement. Today we have Steve Wilkes from IBI Group. He will be giving a presentation and providing an overview of the project, its objectives, and discussing more about the city's efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sochi. Mr. Mayor, members of Council, I'm Steve Wilkes with IBI Group. Thank you, Sochi. Mr. Mayor, members of Council, I'm Steve Wilkes with IBI Group, part of the consulting team that has been working closely with the city's project management team on the spirit bus service. ! I just want to spend a few minutes and provide an overview of our work program in terms of the study objectives and what we have set out to do.

! Just share with you what I refer to as this evolving mobility landscape.

Because it's a really exciting time to be in the new mobility space and how to because it's a really exciting time to be in the new mobility space and how transit is evolving to better meet the customer's needs and the customer expectations that are changing over time. And then talk about next steps in terms of building or mirroring what Associate just mentioned around the community surveys, engaging the business community and other key stakeholder constituencies. So in terms of, you know, key elements of the project objectives, this is a very important step in the COVID recovery phase. Associate mentioned the service had indeed been suspended for a period of time. It's now, you know, back up and running. And we really need to, you know, look at what kind of service improvement strategies are appropriate for the new normal in terms of whatever that's going to look like. so we're undertaking a detailed evaluation of existing spirit bus services and when I talk about existing yes we're looking at the data derived since the recent service restart up but also the you know deep dive into operating data pre-COVID to get a good understanding for the past performance of the service and certainly targeting to you know enhance the customer experience, provide better transit service, grow the ridership and the number of users, and certainly to identify fiscally responsible, sustainable changes that could be implemented using existing resources, and to identify specific service improvement strategies that could be implemented over the next three to five years. Next slide. So three key elements of our work plan include what I refer to here as investigation. It's number one in terms of just reviewing and getting a good understanding for the unique characteristics and attributes of the community, community demographic profile, socioeconomic characteristics, things of that nature, sort of the numbers side of the equation, as well as the detailed evaluation of the spirit service in terms of operating performance financials. The next key element I refer to as innovation, you know, based on what we're hearing from the community, what the numbers are telling us, to start developing some conceptual alternatives, different options for going forward in terms of service improvement strategies. And finally, to have those options, concepts vetted with the community and develop an action plan or implementation plan for going forward. Next slide. So the key tasks include a community survey that is currently up and running and available through a link and QR code from the city's homepage. a student survey. We're advancing the engagement of the business community and have had a preliminary meeting, a joint committee meeting that Joseph was able to orchestrate to share the objectives

of this study and how transit and mobility options can indeed contribute to the economic engine of the community. You know, what are the views of the business community to provide mobility for employees,

certainly customers, things of that nature. So, you know, that's work in progress in terms of advancing additional steps in that regard. And then, as I mentioned, the current conditions, operational analysis, and system evaluation that is underway. And ultimately culminating in this needs assessment and service restructuring plan, developing that blueprint for implementation, the key steps to implement a number of service improvement strategies over the next three to five years.

So just in terms of existing service, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on, you know, the Spirit Bus Service currently operates five routes, community-based, you know, routes one and four and different shuttle-type operations. We've looked at the route configuration, the linkages and connectivity to major attractors and generators in the city, as well as what's higher-order transit doing in the city with Metro and access to rail and Montebello bus lines. It's taking that broader based or more eclectic perspective on all of the mobility options within the city. Next slide.

So there's a whole lot of small print on this slide, and I appreciate, but what the different color graphs are telling you is, you know, when we've done the deep dive into the data on the performance of the Spirit bus service over the last three to five years, And, you know, we've looked at by route, ridership. We've looked at the financials in terms of operating costs and asset management and capital costs and things of that nature, as well as identified a number of performance metrics, which are just, you know, numbers that might speak to number of trips per hour or cost per hour, Those kind of things that we would typically use to measure and profile the performance of the service.

Now I just want to spend a minute and just talk about that evolving mobility landscape that I alluded to in the introduction in terms of how the world is changing and this whole area of next-gen mobility, which is really made possible by advanced technologies and communications. You know, we're all familiar with the many apps that we likely have on our phone and, you know, our ability to e-hail a vehicle and know in real time when that vehicle is going to arrive, have options for mobile payment, all of those things and it just speaks to how might we be able to incorporate some of these ideas or concepts into the delivery of public transit or mobility solutions for residents, visitors, employees here in Monterey Park. And then it's also important to acknowledge or recognize the changing customer preferences and expectations. and it's back to my point of a moment ago when we're all walking around with these smart devices and want information in real time and the ability to know exactly when the vehicle is going to arrive and those kind of things. And then with this whole area of next-gen mobility options, we're seeing alternate mobility types with microtransit and smaller purpose-built vehicles to the other end of the spectrum from being autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles, which again are gaining prominence in many communities as part of the public transit delivery framework and then advanced technologies of the smart applications and pretty robust data that could be generated from these applications. Next slide. So in terms of next steps, as we've talked about, there's the community and student surveys that are currently available through link and QR code from the city's homepage. They'll be up and running for the month of September and we'll be targeting into the October period to get into the analysis of results and get that good understanding for what the pulse of the community is. Similarly, community meetings and three that are scheduled for October. We'll be updating the service evaluation piece. When I was presenting in numbers a moment ago where we'll be updating that to include the more recent operation of Spirit Bus in terms of since it's service start up July 1 and ultimately based on what the customers are telling us, based on what the numbers are telling us, develop service improvement strategies. And finally, just the reminder of and would invite all residents to go to the City's home page, complete the survey and then please come out and attend one or more of the community meetings being scheduled the October 13th will be virtual zoom meeting and then we'll be in person at the Langley Center October 17th and the monster mash booth on October 20th and at that I thank you very much all right Thank you. Colleagues? Council Member Chan, you have the mic.

Yes. Thank you for the presentation. And I just want to say that Spirit Bus was with us for a long period of time.

And the pleasant routes, the five routes around the city, has been with us for, like, maybe close to 20 years or so.

And last time we tried to change it but did not, due to some oppositions and some noises around. But of course, lately, the last few years, things have changed. Drastic change because we don't have a marketplace before. Now we have. And the East LA, the metro line terminal, that was not there before. and even in the city, the commercial areas, the downtown areas all changed quite a lot. And then North Atlantic with the numerous hotels and shopping centers and so forth and so forth. And so we need some changes, that's for sure. But, yeah, I would like to ask the residents to give your suggestions, ideas. And since you have the few days of public hearings, virtual and Langley Center and so forth, and so, yeah, please come out, voice your opinions, what is the best for the city. I think that's important. And we have to really tackle the problem. And also, before, we don't have Uber, we don't have Lyft, we don't have all kinds of those services. And now, so it's how is the transportation change and so forth. So it's a challenge ahead of time. But I would thank you for the job. And it's not easy, but we need to do it. So let's work together and make it happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Chan. Council Member Yu, you have the mic.

Just the questions. Is it possible that you hear more of our residents' voices by putting maybe QR code of our survey on the Cascade, like a newspaper, so that it will just reach more people to make sure we hear their voices?

Yes, so the survey, QR code was put on this issue of the Cascades for September. And there's also flyers posted in different city facilities, giving them the opportunity to just scan and complete.

Oh, great. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I have a question.

Do we also have time to also maybe promote it in some of our local media?

Specifically, I'm thinking some of the newspapers that are headquartered in Monopag,

like such as World Journal or those that serve multilingual communities,

is it possible to maybe also promote it in these papers as well, given the demographics?

Yes, we can look at additional advertising, and the survey is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

Okay, thank you. Colleagues, do you have further questions or comments? All right, hearing none, thank you so much.

Okay.

Old business, none.

Consent calendar, item 3A to 3G. Colleagues, anything, any items that we wish to pull?

I understand Officer Troy Grant will talk about 3C. Okay.

And then I would like to pull 3D.

So 3C and 3D. Any other comments, colleagues?

Any other items, colleagues? Hearing none.

And clerk's office, do we have any items that have a request for public comment speaking?

No, only for the item 3C.

Okay, so 3C and 3D. Okay.

Then can we then have a motion to approve the rest of the agenda items, please?

Yeah, we'd like to make a motion to approve all the consent agenda items except 3C and 3D. Okay.

And would that include the, was there, is that 3B the item about the minutes?

Yeah, the minutes.

I already pulled those at the top, so.

The minutes is pulled, right? Yeah. Okay. Just the August 1st ones, though. Okay.

Just one. Okay. Yeah, I'll make the motion already.

Okay. Motion made by Council Member Chan, seconded by Council Member Lang. Second. Okay.

Hearing no further comments or questions, members, please vote.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

! Okay. Okay. Okay. First item for discussion. Resolution.

Approving the amendment of understanding between the city and Monarch Park Police Office Association for the term of July 1st, 2022 to June 3rd, 2023.

We have a request to speak, correct?

Okay.

Okay. Do we want to have a speaker speak first or do I have a presentation? Or do we have... Okay.

Um, why don't we have a speaker speak and then we can proceed with the

presentation? So...

So I agree? Do you want to speak?

Uh... Okay.

Okay.

Why don't we do a presentation and then we'll have the public comment. Thank you for your indulgence.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Christine Tomikawa, the Director of Human Resources and Risk Management.

So before you is a resolution to approve the memorandum of understanding

between the City of Monterey Park and the Monterey Park Police Officers Association,

which represents our officers and corporals for the Monterey Park Police Department. the enhancements in the mou that's before you is a one-year agreement to go from july 1st 2022 to june 30th 2023 and then there is a increase in base salary and then there are enhancements to different specialty pays such as the education pay longevity pay and their special assignment pay. So that is the item that's before you.

Okay. Thank you very much.

If there are any questions. Okay. Thank you so much.

Then why don't we proceed to public comment? Victor? Charlie?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. City Attorney and City Manager. It's an honor and a privilege to be here tonight. My name is Troy Grant. I'm President of the Police Officer Association. I'm humbled, delighted that this process of the collective bargaining for this year contract of the MOU happened so quickly, faster than most of my officers or members predicted. but I can tell you it was a joint team effort by our collective bargaining team and the Christine and her staff and the city staff so again we humbly thank you for this resolution I speak in favor of passing this agenda item tonight I'd like to acknowledge the collective bargaining team on our end Ray Coda my vice president and Gonzalo Gabriel Rudy Contreras Sandy Castillo and Russell Amundsen on their own time worked hard at collecting information that we needed to bring to the city for our argument and so forth and we got it done so thank you and I think all of you again it isn't just this team but it's the relationships that we've always had with all of you and the police officers themselves so again thank you this is a shot in the arm for public safety in this community I'm proud to work with the women and the men that wear the uniform and the badge that come out here every day to make pride in the past and faith in the future real forever Monterey Park is where it's at today because of what these men and women do and I'm humbled and on behalf of the Monterey Park Police Officer Association I I am in favor of this passage, and I humbly ask all of you to pass it. And at this time, I will step away and let you do your thing. It's been a pleasure. Have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you.

No further public comment?

No. No others. Okay.

Colleagues, questions or comments?

Motion to approve, item 3C.

Okay. Moved by Council Member Lang.

And I would make a comment and then do the second. Of course, please. Please. Okay. And I want to thank the police officers for, you know, come to the table and pass this MOU. And thank you so much because I know safety, public safety is the most important thing in the minds of all the residents. And I can share one example. is that during just the weekend, a few days ago, and there was somehow during lunchtime or after lunchtime,

a friend of mine had lunch in Capital Seafood, and her van was broken. The window was broken. And she was, you know, upset and called me,

and I gave her the phone number, 626-573-1311,

and police officers came in within two minutes. And then she was interviewed, and she spoke highly of the police officers handling the case, although she's still upset that her window was broken for no reason and that there was nothing in the car and there's nothing there. So just a broken window, and that's a few hundred dollars for the repairman.

But on the whole, she's happy with the services that she received from the police officers. So I just want to share the story, and thank you to all the police officers.

You've reached your life, you know, taking care of all the residents and taking care of all of us. So thank you so much, and I'd be glad to second this motion.

Thank you for sharing with that. And also thank you for seconding the motion, Councilman Chan. Hearing no further comments, then I will call for the question. Members, please vote.

Approve unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to item 3D, which has been pulled by Councilman Chan.

Mr. Chan. Staff report. Okay. Staff report, please. Okay.

yes please proceed thank you good evening mr mayor honorable council members my name is ziyad masbudi i'm the acting cip manager for the city today in front of you is a presentation on the local road safety plan that we have developed and we have a couple of resolutions at the end

that we're recommending that the council adopt.

This is an overview of my presentation. We're going to talk about the project overview, what is its purpose, some of the safety trend. We did some case studies, and I'll talk about them.

Some of the tools in the toolbox that we developed as part of the plan.

And then I'm going to talk about Vision Zero a little bit, and then we can take any questions you have.

around june the city hired kimley horn to develop a local road safety plan this is a requirement from caltrans for every city in the state to develop and to in order to apply for grants this is a data-driven safety plan so it is not a subjective thing we analyze the data the accidents that we have and then this is how the plan is developed it is developed in close coordination with stakeholders and the public. We had various stakeholders from public works, from our fire department, police department. We reached out to the neighboring schools, the school district, ELAC, and then we opened it to the public also to get comments from them.

So the goal is to proactively address local traffic safety needs, reduce traffic accident fatalities, and serious injuries on

all public roads it is intended to be a living document that is periodically evaluated and updated the trends change during covet the type of accident we had before and during and after covet we saw a variety of different trends and and we looked at some of those

so an lrsp it creates a framework to systematically identify and analyze the safety problems and then and we recommend safety improvements. So we look at different similar situations, and then the tools in the toolbox then tell us, when you have a similar situation, if you do have an accident, this is some of the tools that you can implement to improve the situation. It offers a proactive approach to addressing safety needs and demonstrate agency responsiveness to safety challenges. It's a program organized and funded by Caltrans, so we got a grant, actually, that paid for the development of this. So it's necessary to receive Highway Safety Improvement Program, HSIP, and I'll mention later what we're applying for, funding, and then it makes city competitive for other grants as well. So we're using it for the other grants we're applying that I'll mention. So the Caltrans Strategic Highway Safety Plan addresses what we call the four E's of traffic safety, engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency services. So the purpose is to understand the factors.

Why are we having an accident at this location more than another location? We analyze it and we try to find some engineering solutions. Sometime we may have to have a cop at that location so that we write tickets because people just aren't following the law and that's the enforcement part. Sometime maybe pedestrians maybe need education so that they realize what is unsafe for them

We have applied for grants, for example, our police department applied for grants from Office Traffic Safety,

and they're doing some education, and we will be doing the same. So we developed strategies to reduce those traffic injuries. We developed an action plan to prioritize safety improvements, and then we increased the city's competitiveness for safety funding. I know you can't see this very well, but we have the actual local rights safety plan available to you, and we have it on the website so you can look closer at some of the map and I'll just say if you look at the map on the left so where you have the largest dots that's where you have the majority

of the accidents as the dot gets smaller and yellow etc that's less accident but you can see for example on Garvey we have some you know two of the major accidents in our downtown but you can also see in the map on the right citywide where we have a lot of accidents. Next please. The crash

type. So we look at the type of crash and some of them you know went down but then we had maybe more

fatalities. So even though we had less accident we may have had more fatal accident because people were speeding more after being home for a year and just want to get out and speed. So we analyzed the different types of collisions that we had, and then we analyzed, are the crashes going down over the year? So the report provides some of that data.

So what we did is, after we had a couple of stakeholder meetings with the groups that

we had, we identified some locations.

These are not the highest accidents, but these provided different types of accidents that we wanted to analyze but still those were part of the high accident rates that we have in the city

so we went to those two 10 locations and then we looked at them and then we identified recommended solutions for some of these locations and next please so some of these for example the plan identified this what we call them countermeasures you know that the city can choose from depending on the situation that we have. And some of these, I'm just listing a few here, is there's something called leading pedestrian interval signal timing. So for example, what we do is we provide the pedestrian a few seconds head start before the light turns on the other side so that they can cross the road faster. We're going to improve some of the striping, you know, to the Leon 8 parking, and that makes the road appear narrower when we stripe it, so people tend to slow down. We're going to install retroreflective backplates on the signal heads, and that makes the light stand out a little bit more when a car is driving. Some of them include maybe having some flashing stop sign beacons, so the lights really stand out. Somebody sees there's a light coming up. We have some location, I think like on Atlantic, where we're putting continental crosswalk.

The continental crosswalk versus a regular crosswalk has more stripe.

They call it like a piano striping. So it's more visible to car versus the traditional, just regular two bars crosswalk. Then we're going to have maybe some feedback signs, speed feedback signs. So this is if you're driving, it flashes. If you're speeding, it tells you what is your speed. Some people say those people get used to them and just drive by it, even look if it's showing 70 or 30. But some people, they affect them, they see them, they slow down. So there are two grant opportunities actually that we're just about to submit. Next week I am submitting a Highway Safety Improvement Program and we'll be submitting a grant, an implementation grant for traffic signals. So we're going to upgrade signalized intersections citywide, and then we're going to install high-visibility crosswalk also and some other pedestrian upgrade at some of the high accident rate locations. And then the other grant we're submitting for is called the Safe Streets for All grant. This is a brand-new grant that the federal government just did, and I'm submitting for a Vision Zero plan. And this is going to include a safe route to school plan. So we're going to analyze all the school access and, you know, identify safe route to school potential projects. We're going to look at active transportation plan. And then if you recall a few months back, you adopted a resolution on complete streets. So we're going to apply.

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in the city in the in the state and and then it came to you know to the US and the variety of

cities now are implementing those so why how do we do it we increase safe healthy and equitable

mobility for all next please so some of the statistics for Monterey Park from between

Between 2017 and 2021, we had 20 fatalities and 34 severe injuries. We had four deaths and seven severe injuries at the other location. Two-thirds of the fatalities were walking or bicycling.

40% of the pedestrian bicyclists' fatalities were 59 years or older.

So as we analyze the data, we see who is our target, really, people that we're trying to protect. We have a lot of seniors, pedestrians, bicyclists. So in our mind, as we do develop this, we want to try to focus on the people who are facing these fatalities.

Next, please.

This is what I was just saying. Senior children, people with disability, and people in low-income communities face disproportionate risk of traffic injuries and fatalities. So this is just general statistics. That's not necessary here. but we notice in Monterey Park that seniors and pedestrians are affected a lot by these accidents. Next, please.

So the approach is going to be multidisciplinary. You know, there are certain accidents, no matter what we do, we cannot prevent them. If I have somebody who just lost his mind in driving 100 miles an hour, he may crash, he may hurt somebody. These are really not preventable accidents. We try to design for the normal person, the normal driver, and then we try to educate. And even as we educate, we look at different cultures. We look at how people look at the different engineering things we do, and we try to understand it and then apply it as we do projects in the future.

So we do education, engineering, enforcement,

then work with emergency services to see how we deal with some of those.

So we create an environment where human error does not cause death or severe injuries. Unsafe driving behaviors are reduced.

So as part of the policy, and this is the resolution that you're going to see, we want to create a Vision Zero task force that involves staff from different departments affected like police, fire, public works, engineering, and public planning. Safety is the highest priority in transportation efforts. It requires us to develop a plan. And as I mentioned earlier, I will be submitting for a grant to develop this plan. And we'll look at other grants, funding that are available. So what we presented to you, there are a lot of things that are coming. But the goal in all of this, and this is what the state really wants the cities to do, is every time you have a project, you look at it and you try to identify solutions that you can incorporate in it to incorporate some of the measures that we have. Next, please. So the recommendations from staff tonight is to consider adopting a resolution approving the local road safety plan that we have in front of you and then adopt a resolution adopting a Vision Zero policy. With that, I will take any questions. Thank you so very much. Colleagues. Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have any requests to speak on this item? I'm sorry.

There are no speakers on this item.

Thank you. Colleagues.

Councillor Chan, you have the mic. Thank you, Mayor. And, yes, safety is the most important thing. And we do, last year, had some fatality in the city. And I understand that you have studied, you know, in different areas. but I saw the mainly in the commercial areas have you done the also study on the residential areas because we do have schools around the cities and also we

have 14 parks in the city and I live in the by the rest of our Gavi Ranch Park

and you know that that's the hillside and there's a few times that I see kids

You know, youth, they ride the bike down the hill, skateboard down the hill fast.

And sometimes when I drove by, it's dangerous.

And it's not just on Orange, but like in Awe Paddle, Brightwood, you know, all around the city has the same kind of situation. Parks, schools, kids.

It's, you know, how do we address those? Have you addressed those things as well?

Yes, Councilman Chan. We analyzed, we pulled all the data, and the data that we got showed residential and commercial. And as part of our, you know, drive, we looked at some of the residential streets, and we saw, actually, we're standing there with police officers and everybody, and we saw how people were almost not stopping at the stop sign and passing. And we're incorporating some measures in the plan to deal with some of these locations. So we looked at residential and commercials, and the countermeasures we have don't just apply to commercial. They apply to any location that has similar conditions where we're noticing there are accidents. And I believe the city also has traffic calming measures that as we see things happening, we can implement some of those.

Yeah, but I think education is important. I think we need to take it to the schools, address the issues,

tell them those are the dangerous situations.

If you ride bike, skateboard, or roller skates, or whatever, you have to be very careful.

And sometimes even at night, it was dark, and you can hardly see, but there's a bike just passed by without stopping. And we do have a lot of people riding bikes around the city. So I think enforcement, education is important. And then also on Garfield and Atlantic,

trust between Newmark and Gavi. The example is the Marie Callender and also that little takeout restaurant on Garfield.

And before there's already vehicles crash into the lot.

So I don't see you have a study in that area.

You have Newmark, the cloud session on Newmark, and cloud session on Atlantic, and Gavi, and Garfield, Gavi. But in between, have you done anything on that?

Well, this plan didn't – I mean, we looked at all the high accident rate areas, and we visited a lot of them. And then we saw where we have certain things that we can improve. and if you looked at the plans, we actually show a lot of these locations, some of them that you mentioned where we have maybe a bus stop or we have some crosswalk, we saw fast cars going, and we made some recommendations for those that we took into consideration and as we implement projects, we plan on going at these locations and implementing some of the countermeasures.

Okay. Yeah, please include all those dangerous areas. And I think it's a right step forward to the right direction.

And although now this is only a plan, it's only a vision, only something we want to see, but of course still we need money to make it happen because, as you say,

you need engineering, implementations, and constructions and all those things.

And so, yeah, think of where to get the money, where to get the grants, how to get it, and how competitive it is, that kind of things. So it's a long way to go. But I think we need to have a plan and a vision and to avoid all kinds of injuries because any one injury is one too many. So I will support this. but Yeah, but we need to do a better job fast. Thank you

Thank you councilmember Chan colleagues and when I ask Council really angle the mic

Yeah, I think thank you for the presentation I just want to add one real I know we're really just passing the resolution. We're not talking about details But when I first started on the council one of the things that I had advocated for was the feedback signs right which you may see we have a number of them throughout the city but but just one important thing you know I had read a study on that and the the study had some data saying that it had an 11% reduction in speed up on an average a mile past the sign and then and then after that people speed up again right but very important that on the signs I've seen in other cities they just have the sign, and this was noted in the article as well, they have a sign and it just says how fast you're going, but there's no speed limit. So if you know on all of our signs, it says a speed limit, a placard, and it says your speed, right? So that way the feedback loop works, right? They see it, they get some data, they see what the standard is, and they can make a correction if they're inclined to. But when a sign just comes up with the speed, it's like, oh, thank you. I agree. Thanks for letting me know how fast I'm going. I don't know what the speed limit is, but, you know, so I know that's details, but important in terms of if we're going to implement more of those to ensure that the feedback loop is set up properly.

We'll make sure any time we put a feedback sign, it will have a speed limit with it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments?

Okay, what I would like to just say is I'm very pleased that this is before us on the agenda because I know that it's something that, as was raised during your presentation, that I have brought this up in the past, and it's also something that I think all of us on the council continue to hear from residents about traffic safety. So I think this is a very positive step in the right direction. I'm very pleased that we're going to also seek out funding for safe routes to schools because the number of schools we have and the districts that service our students here in Monterey Park

so yeah I'm very glad that this is a good first step in the right direction for our community

thank you I would like to make a motion to approve item 3d

Moved by Council Member Chan.

Seconded by Council Member Yu. Any further requirements or questions? Hearing none. Call for the question. Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Moving on to item four, public hearing none. Item five, new business. Item 5A, inclusion and housing ordinance discussion item.

Let's see. Staff presentation or yes.

Our planning manager, Jessica Serrano, will be presenting the item before you. Thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Jessica Serrano. I'm the planning manager. and the item before you is a discussion of the inclusionary housing ordinance. Next slide. This item is being brought before you because as part of the city's housing element, which was adopted in January of this year, a program was included to research and develop an inclusionary housing ordinance

for consideration by the city council. and currently staff is working alongside with our city attorneys to draft an inclusionary housing ordinance.

Next slide. The goals for tonight's discussion is to provide a general explanation of what an inclusionary housing ordinance is, discuss the structure of an inclusionary housing ordinance,

and also options within the ordinance itself, and to gather your feedback. We want to hear about what your preferences are, and this is intended to be a dialogue. So feel free to stop me along the way if you want to chime in and provide some input. We're all ears. Next slide.

If the city adopts an inclusionary housing ordinance, housing developers will be required to include a percentage of units for affordable households or pay in a LU fee.

The image before you depicts what this would look like.

So on the screen you see the tall high-rise building on the left.

And with the new housing development, some of the units must be affordable while the remaining units are market rate.

On the image on the left, it shows that if a developer prefers to pay an in-lieu fee, the fees will go into a housing fund.

and this fund will be used to create affordable housing elsewhere in the city. The overarching goal for an inclusionary housing ordinance is to produce more

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Director of Public Works Director of Public Works Director of Public Works Director of Public Works Director of Public Works Director of Public Works Director of Public Director requirements. And there's different approaches to the fee, but for tonight's discussion, we're not going to get into the different options for the fee. We're just hoping to get some general guidance from the City Council on the ordinance itself. Next slide. As part of the structure, that includes defining what types of projects would be affected by this, what size of the projects would trigger this ordinance. This would also include what percentage of the units must be affordable. Additionally, the ordinance would define what household income level is targeted. And lastly, the ordinance could also provide alternatives to achieving affordable units, such as the in-lieu fees or relaxed development standards. Next slide. So for this first question for the City Council, we would like to know what you think about when the requirements should apply. And through the ordinance, we can establish a project size threshold for when the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance applies. For example, the ordinance could say all of the projects, regardless of size, trigger Inclusionary Housing. or it could also state that residential projects with a specific number, let's say 10 or more, trigger the inclusionary housing. So those are variables that we can include into the ordinance that you can provide feedback on. Next slide.

Another question is, what is the minimum number of units to set aside as affordable? as most jurisdictions they will range 10% to 20% and the higher percentage of affordable units it could create a financial feasibility impact and the Lor the less number of affordable units may be easier to develop some jurisdictions require as low as 5% some as high as 25% but the majority are within the 10% to 20%. Next slide.

Another question for the city council is how should the minimum, how should the percentage be distributed amongst, across income levels? So is there a specific target income group that you would like to address through the ordinance?

That could be defined in our ordinance as we draft it.

An example is with a 10% requirement when units are affordable to very low income thresholds versus the 15% requirements when units are affordable to low or moderate income thresholds. So this is like a sliding scale, like the higher the number that, you know, if you target it to a higher AMI, like a higher income group, then you must provide more units.

If you target a Lor income group, then you provide less units.

So we can create a sliding scale that way as well. Or it could be a mix of incomes within the percentage. Next slide.

This next slide shows the household income categories. These are numbers that are produced by HCD, by the State Housing Community Development Department. And there's income categories. Under extremely low, for a four-person household, it's $38,650. For a very low household income of four persons, it's $59,550. For low, it's $95,300. Moderate is $109,300. And for the L.A. County area median income, it's $91,100. And just to give you an idea of what the AMI is, if you were to line up all the households in order from like the poorest to more affluent, the households at the very middle would be the median. So just to give you an idea, this is what these numbers represent. These are the median numbers for each of these household income categories. Next slide. now I'd like to hear about what alternatives or incentives we want to offer so if a housing developer doesn't want to include affordable units within their project you know the the image here shows one of the options which is the in lieu fee in in this image you'll see the developer pays a fee at time of development those fees are used to create affordable housing elsewhere in the city another alternative is flexible development standards so if the zoning allows for a taller building in exchange more units in the building must be affordable and so the remaining units could be market rate so that's an example of a flexible development standard a couple others are allowing off-site affordable units so a developer could say I don't want to provide

the units at the property but I would like to provide them at another property I own elsewhere and you know provide affordable units there they can also

opt to do a land dedication and that's an option that the City Council could choose to offer as a flexible option for developers next slide this slide provides It's a summary of some of the cities in the San Gabriel Valley that we surveyed, including Alhambra, Duarte, Pasadena, and South Pasadena. And beginning with the number of units that trigger the inclusionary housing requirement, South Pasadena is the Lost with three or more housing developments triggering the requirement and Pasadena being the highest with 10 or more housing units triggering the inclusionary housing requirement. Now, the inclusionary housing percentage represents, it's split actually between the four cities, 15% and 20% amongst these cities. All of the cities allow a developer to pay in lieu fees as an alternative to providing affordable units. and additionally for rental housing development each city provides a very target income category and uh like for example alhambra they didn't really specify an income category so it would be any of of the Lor income or the moderate income um duarte and pasadena allow the affordable units to be very low, low, or moderate, and South Pasadena has a specific breakdown depending on the size of the housing development. Larger housing developments must provide 50% of their affordable units to extremely low or very low, and the other half to low income. And for ownership developments, each city provides varied target income categories, and And Alhambra allows any income category. Duarte and South Pasadena targets the moderate income for the ownership projects. And Pasadena offers it to very low and low or moderate. And feel free to identify any of these requirements amongst these cities. If you think you like what maybe Duarte did or Pasadena, feel free to chime in there. Next slide. This next slide shows the anticipated timeline for the ordinance itself. Beginning with September and today's discussion, we are initiating the inclusionary housing ordinance discussion today. Following that, we're drafting the ordinance itself, incorporating any preferences that we hear from our city council today. and also will be presenting the draft inclusionary housing ordinance to the Planning Commission, folLod by the first reading before City Council, then the second reading, and then finally the ordinance effective date, which is estimated to happen in December.

At this point, City staff recommends that the City Council provides feedback and direction for the inclusionary housing ordinance and that you receive and file this report and presentation. At this point, I am happy to receive any questions or comments from the City Council. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues? Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have any requests to speak? Yes, Mayor.

So we don't have any individuals speaking. However, we did receive two written communications.

Okay, please.

They're fairly similar,

and it's from Linda Tang and Jisho Yang. And so they wrote, they're recommending that the city council create an ad hoc committee to discuss the development of the ordinance, create a policy that will at least require 15% of new units affordable for the low and very low household, and then evaluate the existing models of the inclusionary housing ordinances from other cities.

Okay. Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Colleagues.

Councilman Lange, you have the mic.

Thank you, Mayor. Just really quick, I know that this is a receiving file. I just had some questions real quick. On the AMI, it indicated four-person household. is that assuming that four people are all working is that a four income house those are numbers that

are produced by our state um department of housing and community development um the assumption is that um to be honest i'm not 100 sure about that because i yeah i was curious i'm just curious

because is it like two parents that are working on two kids or is it for generally i would assume

it'd be you know working parents and children okay and then you know i think that uh in terms of uh

the housing ordinance inclusionary housing ordinance i think it's a positive thing uh i think for me one of the things i would want to investigate or look into is for those cities that have implemented it uh what effect did it have on their development did it stop development did it slow it down did it speed it up um did it limit or did it open for more uh you know in terms of the market are there a lot of developers that want to do smaller units or you know I'm just curious as to the effects that occurred for those cities that implemented it if it had if you can get that any type of the positive effects negative effects just some information because I think at the end of the day we would want to pass it but we're also trying to find the right the right place to land I think you can't make it too restrictive and then developers just don't want to come in it doesn't pencil out for them and you can't be too liberal otherwise otherwise we're not creating the kind of you know inclusionary housing that we're trying to achieve here in Monterey Park so I don't have anything specific in terms of specific inclusions for what you presented it's still rather new to me but I think those are some things that I would want to know about the effects that were experienced by those cities that went forward with this, and then also the kind of trends that you would see in terms of what development started looking like after that.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Lange. Councillor, are you? Do you have the mic?

Yeah, actually, I have a question. I remember that we need to build additional 5,200 affordable housing units. By what time? By which year? I think 2028.

That's a housing owner, right?

It's an eight-year cycle.

Eight-year. And then what is our penalty if we don't achieve that?

Those are housing goals, and so they're not actual production goals. But although the state emphasizes that the city must plan for those units, we must show in our housing plan that we have capacity to meet those housing goals. Although they say it's only a goal and we must show capacity, They do track our construction levels and rates. There's an annual report that we have to give the state every year that tracks how much housing we are actually building. And so if we're not keeping up with how much we're supposed to be, our housing goal in general, there is a penalty in that we may need to approve housing projects by right. not through a public hearing process. So there are some penalties if we're not producing enough housing in some cases.

So we don't know what the exact penalty would be.

It looks like our city manager wants to jump in. Our city attorney, I apologize. I'm not the manager.

I just wanted to tag team on some of the comments.

First of all, just to clarify, the city does not build houses. The city processes applications to build houses. and we need to provide incentives for those houses,

for those types of houses to be built.

But when we are discussing we, it's not us.

It's developers that come in with plans to develop housing. And, yes, the city needs to help facilitate those housing projects

and not put barriers in front of them. But I just want to...

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pay an in-lieu fee to the city so that we can leverage that money that in this

case it is the we leverage that money to assist other private developers to come

in to build affordable housing that meets the housing element requirements in

terms of your direct question from HCD with regard to penalties I guess I will

say this publicly I disagree that HCD has the power to impose any penalties

and I would think it would be a substantial demonstration of evidence

that a public agency was actually obstructing the ability of private developers

to come in and construct housing to allow any court to actually impose penalties.

So I just want to make sure that the council understood what we're talking about. Thank you. And actually I think the direction is that we should consider per units that if the developer doesn't want to build affordable housing. So per units that we can actually penalize, that means we can actually have the in-lieu fee to penalize by per units instead of the housing project's amount or different square footage. I think per units is the one that we're looking for. So let's say if people applying for jurisdiction range from 10% and 20%, let's say, for example, if we pick 20%, that means every five units we should penalize the developer without doing affordable housing for one unit. So we actually later on can come up with the per units penalized penalty to charge the in-lue fee if we decided to do so. But then I think it's something good that if we penalize those developers, then we can get some fee to subsidize other developers that are willing to build affordable housing so that it will be incentive for other people to come as well. So that we kind of discourage some developer building units that is not affordable, but then we attract more developers coming in to build affordable housing. I think that is the trend, although a lot of residents may not agree to it, but that's the trend that we need to build more housing so that I think this is something the city should do to consider to incentivize and penalize people that are doing it differently. So to me, I think I agree with IHO, which is Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. And I actually do think that 20% makes sense. And the threshold units is like five plus units with no limits on the low or moderate housing. The reason of my suggestion is that because I wanted to base on per unit, this is what the state mandates and also what people are looking for. So this is just my two cents. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Yu.

Yes, Council Member Chan.

Thank you for the presentation. And I would like to start with a little history that why we are coming, this item comes in.

Is it at least, I think, 1991, I think Governor Brown took away the CRA, Community Redevelopment Agency.

and before we, the city of Monterey Park, we have CRA. So CRA is a tax increment that use that money to revitalize the bright areas. So it can be a shopping center. So the Atlantic Square, Atlantic and Regan in south part of the city, that's the CRA project. And we can see how good it is now because of the project. And then we have the CRA money to have some low-income housing.

But since 1991, if I'm not mistaken, about a year, CRA is gone.

And then the city no longer has the funding to operate or build affordable housing. And that's across the board from the whole state of California. It's not just Monterey Park is affected. And that's the reason why housing is such a crisis at this time and homeless because of lack of affordable housing and because the housing prices are so expensive and the rental is so expensive. And so people got evicted or got no homes to stay and so they become homeless. So affordable housing will be with us in the state of California or the whole country for the next decade or two because we do have to address that. And I'm happy that the staff and city manager to bring this item back to the council to consider. Now, this is only the first step to consider and to address the issue. and during the strategic session I talk about this and so thank you to bring this to the formal council consideration. Now, but I want to

put in some suggestions. First of all, I would like to ask council members, you don't use the word penalized or penalties. is we can provide incentives, but don't penalize people. It's not good for the developers coming to the city that if they come to the city, then they got penalized if they don't do the word. But we should use some other terms, better terms than penalties.

You know, don't use the negative stuff. Let's use some positive. Because these are positive stuff.

It's good for the people, good for the city. We need affordable housing, but we also need the market price housing as well. So I would like to ask to consider some balance. It's a balance act. If we put in too stringent the percentage of the new cash, if the developer does not want to put in the affordable housing, then the money, what is the percentage? is reasonable. That I don't know, but we should study that. We should put in more thinking.

What is the percentage of very low, low, moderate,

all those, what is the right percentage? When I look at the other cities,

Alhambra, Pasadena, Durante, the numbers, it does not calculate.

Three units and up, 20%, that's a portion of a house.

Ten units, 10%, that's one unit, I understand. But three units, 20%, so what is that? So it's not even one unit. So is it part of the house, some of the bedrooms? I mean, it doesn't pencil out, so I don't understand that. But if I can think about it when I look at it, so I think let's make it reasonable. Instead of, well, if I build one house, a single family house, one of my rooms has to be affordable. It doesn't make sense. So it can be. So we have to think about all those things. It's good that we put all those up here so that we can think about it, do what's the best for the city. And the most important thing I would like to say is we must balance. Still have some incentive for the developers. Have them to come to the city to develop housing, commercial, mixed use. We all welcome them. But not to the extent that they have to put in so many units of affordable housing that they cannot pencil out, or put into the new cash that they cannot pencil out the project, because I understand, we all understand that they're here for profit too, or else they won't do it. We have to understand that, and we have to recognize that, and to honor that.

That's the system.

So how do we attract them to come to the city, do developments, at the same time, do some good things for the society, for the residents, and bring in more affordable units to the city? I think that's important, but I would like to leave it to the staff to make some analysis and see. Now you have Alhambra, Duarte, Presidente, and South Presidente, and maybe expand the samples,

see what the more cities do and how they do it.

Or call them and find out from them what's the response. Would that scare away the developers? Would that attract developers? What's the right percentage?

I think that's a study that we need to explore

instead of, hey, it's a good idea, let's just jump in. No, I think we should do it carefully, slowly,

consider all the angles,

and don't jeopardize the opportunity for the developers to come in to build houses in the city. I think that's important.

And I know that this is a long time study. I'll be gone in November.

So this is something for the new council to consider. but I still have to emphasize the point that we need to make some kind of balance that they can come in, developers can come in with a reasonable return, and also the residents can benefit from their affordable housings. So it's a tough task.

It's not easy. But let's go on and go ahead and do it.

It's the right thing to do. And since we have to lean the numbers to fill, and then since we don't have the CRA money, so this is the annual cash will be giving some resources to the city to maybe buy some apartment houses

or convert some motels or, you know, do something that, you know, we have to think outside the box.

We have to be very, you know, try to get some ideas, new ideas, whatever that will be. And let's start from there, brainstorm, and see what we can come up with. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Chan. Can we go back to the slide that had the income levels?

Okay, let's see.

And the reason why I asked is because I looked up, according to the census, what is the medium income here in Monterey Park.

And I think, according to the census, the medium income is $63,389.

And I'm wondering, you know, should we use that then as a starting baseline?

If that is the medium income of residents, and you can look it up on the census, then that would put us a little above very low, but below low income category.

But nonetheless, if that is what is our medium income for family, residents here, I think that should then be maybe a possible baseline to at least begin with. I mean, I know the state also in its housing only requirements also require that we provide housing for different income levels, but I think at least that might be a good starting point.

That could be a good starting point. This is just a reflection of what HCD puts out, and they put out these annually, and so they're updated on an annual basis. And so we would use this as a guide to help us target a specific group. And if you're saying it's $63,389, if that's our median income for the city, then you're correct. It would fall somewhere in between the very low and below.

I mean, again, I'm sure if we go to the census, they probably can break it in further. there but I suppose that's what I would at least start with is what the census tells us.

And then I want to also ask, typically when a city does adopt inclusionary housing ordinance,

do they also put in how long say a unit remains affordable?

In other words, is it affordable only the first time it's rents out and then once whoever that tenant or president moves away, it changes, or do we also then need to consider putting in a

policy about how long it remains affordable? Yes, that could be stipulated, and it generally is stipulated in the ordinance, and generally it's a 30-year. That's just a general number, but it could vary. It could be up to 50. It could be up to 50. ! Okay. And the city would enter into an agreement with the developer !

As well I think that's it for me

it for me for now so I was gonna just ask do we need a motion to receive and

file or not see you do any motion for everything I

mr. mayor members of the council you can do a receive and file motion I just

want to make sure that do you have enough direction yes okay Thank you. Motion. Move to approve item 5A or receive and file item 5A inclusionary housing ordinance report.

Moved by Councilman Liang. May we have a second please? Oh, I'm sorry. Second by Councilman Yu. Thank you very much. Any further comments? Questions? Hearing none. Members, please vote. Approved unanimously. Thank you so much and thank you. Okay. Let's see. Item six, city communications, city council.

As always been our practice, we'll start with Councilman Yu.

Actually, just a little personal thing. A personal thing.

Last Friday, I attended my son's White Coast Ceremony as he started his medical school,

the MD-PhD program at UC San Diego.

Congratulations.

As you know, here's the reason why I moved to Monterey Park when he attended Cal State LA when he was 13, and now he's 21 years old. So time flies. When he turned 21, I handed him his custodial account, which I helped him to invest for over 10 years. I just handed it to him. So luckily, I picked some good stock, and I consider my investment record as quite good. I make about 10 times the return in 10 years for him,

so he can afford to buy his new property in San Diego soon. There are actually around 150 medical students,

but only 11 of them are MD-PhD. My son is one of them, and when they introduce them, they also introduce their undergraduate school. I'm proud to say that he's the only one not graduated from the top Ivy League school.

I heard Harvard, I heard Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Caltech, and here's my son from Cal State LA.

So I'm proud to see that Cal State LA can get actually up to the medical school in New City, San Diego.

So during the medical staff introductions, they said those medical school students will be doctors in four years, but they don't know when those MD-PhD program students will graduate. So it really scared me off.

Hopefully my son can get done in eight to nine years. He has an experience to argue with professor just to make sure that things have done correctly. So hopefully this is not inherent from me. His IQ is good, but EQ really needs to work on. I'm not posting any picture as he does not allow me to do so.

I'm sure for those parents who have teenager kids, you'll understand and understand me what I experienced.

But you can tell I'm still a very proud mom. So that's all for me. Thank you.

Again, congratulations. I mean, that is an achievement.

I'd say we should invite him here to congratulate him.

but I don't know if he wants to come.

But again, nonetheless, you know, it's in achievement.

So thank you. Councilman Chan.

Thank you. Congratulations to Councilmember Yu.

Nice family too. Yeah.

And yeah, I want to report that I attended the Officer Sonorio's, what the fundraiser for the family last Thursday in Blue Kitchen. A lot of people came. City manager was there and a lot of police officers, firefighters, and city staff. And also from other cities also went there to support the police officers. So thank you for that. That was a great event.

And at the end of August, I was invited by the U.S. Navy to attend the graduation of the boot camp. And actually, every week, there's a graduation boot camp. And every year, the graduation is like around 50,000 recruits graduated from the Navy boot camp. And that was in the Great Lakes Division, which is in Chicago. And before they have one in San Diego and one in the East Coast, but that too was closed. So the only boot camp is in Chicago, north of Chicago,

which, and I can tell you, the climate in Chicago is amazingly fabulous. It's better than here.

It's not as humid, and it's not as hot. And it's green because they have a lot of rain.

And I have the opportunity to go through all the training for the recruits, and it was great. And they used this to design the facilities.

And we were took to the replica of a quarter of a destroyer or cruiser or whatever, I don't know.

but it's a dimension and the inside and everything is the real thing and the dark everything is the real thing and even you smell like at sea you smell salt water and you hear the seagulls

noise and everything so it was kind of like the 100% replica of the real life and the reason for that they explain is for the sailors after the training after the boot camp when they were assigned to the vessels, that's what they are facing.

That's what they will do.

So they're familiar with what's going on during the boot camp, and when they're in service, they can do it right away. And there was some saying that soldiers, they enlisted, they only do one part of the work and don't even know the other part of the work or some other stuff. You're assigned to this job, you just do this and nothing else. But not in the Navy. Because we were explained, when they were at sea, they may be there like three months or half a year or even longer. And they have only a few hundred sailors there. And so in case there was a fire, they have to deal with it. Any emergencies, they have to deal with it. So they know the operation of how to do all the things. Emergencies, how to save themselves, how to save the others.

So it was a fabulous training. and it was great. And I can see them march. I saw them doing runnings, push-ups, and so forth. And I asked the question, what is the failure rate if they cannot do all the things that's required and they cannot graduate?

So what's the percentage? They say it's less than 1%. It's just 0.5 or 0.6%, very low percentage. And I saw them in action, as I see in the gym, and they were supposed to run, you know, like 100 meters in like 15 or 16 seconds. And if some kids, they cannot reach that point, they were put to another training area. And field trainers will train them, strengthen, and identify what's the problem of the person,

why they can run within that time limit. And so they train them on that specifically

and help them to attain that level.

So they say, so it's the personal training and everything is good.

And I'm very, very impressed on the training. But I can say, as a taxpayer, we put in a lot of money.

And I also talked to the leadership. He said, boy, we put in so much resources to train the recruits. And after they are done, they only signed up for four years.

And that's it, four years. And I say, can you extend it so that we can, the dollars,

since we put in so much money, resources to train military personnel?

Can we extend it more? But the answer is that we put in like six years, seven years, ten years, and the kids may not like to sign up as a recruit so that we may have lost those people. So four years, I think they have to study, and it's just the right time,

And so they need so many, like 50,000 new recruits every year to fill all the military personnel in service.

And I can say I'm very impressed.

And if I were a lot younger, I may join the Army or Navy. But, of course, now I cannot even pass the boot camp.

But if anyone be interested in seeing the boot camp, I can refer them since I know the leadership now. And the graduation ceremony and this kind of a tour of the boot camp, although I said the graduation is every week, they have 1,000 cadets graduating but for the ceremony and they have the ceremony there but invited guests only two times a year and one in summer, one in winter and I don't suggest that you guys go to Chicago during winter time but August is a good time so if anyone interested let me know I will try to put you in and let you see it first hand Thank you, and good night.

Thank you very much for sharing that. That was very thorough. And it's also because we have a recruitment center. Is that the connection? We also have a recruitment center. That is AMI. Oh, AMI, okay. Obviously, okay, obviously.

And AMI also have different recruiting strategies and so forth. And AMI, they need more than 50,000 recruits every year because there are more people in the Army. Okay.

And I think the lease is, of course, the new one, the space. For now. Right. And then the Air Force, like our city manager from the Air Force, it's hard to get in, but they don't need as many people.

So I think it's the Navy and the Army.

They need a lot of recruits, and so they ask the community,

and people like me, they invited us.

And we see it, and then we can be the, you know, to promote them. Yes. You know, that they need people. Yeah. But it's good. I would recommend you to join next year. Oh, okay. Thank you. In winter, I don't think you like it. Under the snow and the cold weather. Well, remember, I went to college in the state of Maine,

so I think I'm familiar with cold weather.

Yeah, but we'd be outside most of the time to see what's going on. Well, inside and outside, put it this way. But let me know if anyone interested. It's a good experience.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilman Lange?

Oh, and one more thing. Yes, yes. Everything is paid for by the Navy, even the airfare. But it's economy, and if you do your upgrade, it's up to you at your expenses.

And they give you the airfare. The hotel is called John Marriott. It's not bad.

And the meals is all included. But we have to file the form 700. Of course.

That's for sure. But it's good. It's very good. And one more thing is that I got delayed in the airport. I stuck in LAX for like, what, at least six or seven hours.

So by the time I arrived in Chicago, it was midnight. And then the next day, a check in the hotel is already won. And then at 6 o'clock, we have to get up and start the program. So I have only four hours of sleep.

Very good.

Thank you, Mayor. Sounds a lot like your trip to the Boys and Girls Club.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. It was also to Chicago. Yes. Yes.

So I attended Officer Guardiel Solorio's funeral. And I just want to share something really quick. I remember when we were all informed, I think we all saw it in the news, I had come to City Hall. ! I had come to City Hall and I ran into Troy Grant, who was here earlier, who was the president of the union. ! And I kind of asked him, I said, you know, hey, what's going on? ! You know, he said, you know, it's kind of sad because we really didn't get to know him, you know, because he was only working for two weeks. And I said, oh man, that's, that's terrible. And then he made a comment, he says, but it doesn't matter, he's one of ours and we're going to take care of him. Right? And then the day of the funeral, I mean that, I wish Kelly was still here so I could give some props to her. I wish Kelly was still here so I could give some props to her I mean it was they took care of him for sure for us that attended you know the transportation the buses it's one thing you know yeah I mean you I'm sure everyone's been to a funeral before but you know to go from the church load up on a bus and to see a convoy of 30 or 40 bike officers along with a whole procession of law enforcement on the freeway from the mortuary to the cemetery.

You know, the motorcycle off the freeway was empty because the motorcycle officers were going in front and they were blocking all of the entrances on the freeway so that when officer Solorio's body was going by in the hearse it was clear

lights, everything going so I think it really touched me

that we did that for him and I really thought about

what Troy said when he says sad, he goes but it doesn't matter because we're going to take care of him because he's one of us

and then for Kelly to do such a wonderful job I have no words for it, it was very impressive

and to see all of our guys out there in uniform, you know, standing at attention. It was a very memorable ceremony.

I think the family, you know, it's great for us, but for the family, I think that will, it's an imprint in their memory about their son,

about how he served the community, and how we sent him off. So I just want to, you know, put my two cents out on there.

I want to thank Kelly again and also thank Troy and all the people that were involved in making that such a dignified and respectful event. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Councilman Liang.

And, you know, I think I'll begin my remarks also by really recognizing Chief Gordon on that day when the community of Monterey Park attended to honor the life of Officer Solorio.

And it definitely was a very moving funeral service, not only because of, you know, the community of Monterey Park accompanied Mr. Soil during, you know, that funeral service, but also to see public safety officers from throughout Southern California.

I mean, I saw officers from as far as Santa Monica to Almani and all over the region.

And so it was definitely something that I will not forget.

And, again, it all fell on the shoulders of Chief Gordon,

who essentially it was a marathon program from the service at the church

to the burial ceremony at the cemetery in which she presented the flag to the family.

And so it really was incredible to see Chief Gordon

perform all of those duties. And so we really are fortunate

that she has been our chief of police during this time.

And then, let's see,

this past week because it was Labor Day

I attended the annual Wilmington Labor Day March

in Wilmington and San Pedro

and it's something I used to do

often because of COVID you know unfortunately that was postponed but I did attend the

annual Labor March in Wilmington and it was great to see

so many

representatives from the House of Labor as well as community leaders

you know to recognize the value of those who work, but also to dedicate ourselves to making sure that we support working people

in this nation and this state.

And I think that's how I will conclude my remarks. And let's see, if there's no further, let's see, communications, we'll see no further agenda items, no closed session items to report, then I will adjourn tonight's meeting at 8.50 p.m.

Thank you.

Okay.