City Council Meeting — December 21, 2022

Monterey Park. Good evening. City Council of Monterey Park. The City Council acted on behalf of the successor agency of the former redevelopment agency, the housing authority, the Monterey Park Financing Authority, and the Monterey Park Geologic Hazard Abitment District agenda for regular City Council meeting at Monterey Park City Hall Council Chambers on this day, Wednesday, December 21st, 2022. It is now 636 PM. Let us continue with the flag which will be provided by the Mario Park Fire Explorers

program. Everyone please rise. which will be provided by the Mario Park Fire Explorers program. Everyone please rise.

Left face. Forward march.

Front face.

Present colors. Place your right hand on your heart. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Prepare to oppose. Others?

Oppose. Face. Forward. March.

Opposed? Colors? Flag salute. Above?

Face. Forward march. About it's for much

Thank you. Thank you.

Seated.

Clerk, can you call the roll?

Council Member Yu. Here.

Councilmember No. Here. Councilmember Wong. Here. Mayor Pro Tem. Sanchez. Here. Mayor Lo. Present.

All are here. Thank you. Okay. Agenda additions,

deletions, changes, adoptions, and I believe we have the clear item from the special session, item 1A, correct?

You're correct, Mayor. Okay. Item 1A,

resolution adopting regulations implementing Monarch Park Municipal Code Chapter 3.30 regarding the Monarch Park Transactions and Youth Tax Measure MP.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers, the report that you have before you is more administrative.

What we have found out as we process the paperwork for the Measure MP measure to start collecting taxes

as of April, we found out that the boards, the state boards, has changed their names

from State Board of Equalization to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

So what you have before you is a fix-it to change it from the municipal code,

which we cannot change at this specific time, into a resolution, which will suffice for the state. and we're asking for your action to adopt a resolution.

Thank you, guys. Staff report.

Any public comment requests?

One.

Okay.

Oh, not for this item. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you. Okay. Colleagues, questions, comments?

Okay. Then may I have a call for the question, please?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council,

just to make sure there is a red line version that's on your dais that's also available for public inspection. up at the top. The redlining was at the request of the state.

At the state, okay.

I'll make a motion to approve

the resolution

as recommended by

staff.

Okay, we'll move by Councilman Wong and it was seconded by Councilman Yu.

Okay, well

hearing no further comments Other questions and members please vote.

Sorry, please vote again.

Sorry, okay. Members please vote again.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

Okay.

Moving on, public communications. While all comments are welcome, the Brown Act does not allow the City Council to take action on an 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, comment on the agenda item 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 a request? One request. Okay.

Sarkis Antonian.

Thank you.

good evening mayor and new council and the new staff

have a have a good outstanding uh time in the at the being a council member and upcoming mayor

okay so and then have the good holidays christmas hanukkah and the new year

All right, so a few weeks ago, that accident over there by Marketplace, when the fake news called the possible speeding, I've drive there practically every day.

You can get 50 miles an hour easy with no sweat to keep up with the traffic.

So I like to see that sign, if you can afford it, drop it down to 35.

And then once you pass Markland, it says 40. That's residential. So you've got kids running around.

You've got the apartment building. You've got people walking around over there and everything like that. So that should be down to 35, too. And then I mentioned this when the marketplace opened, that why should people come and shop in marketplace from Arroyo to Newmark on both sides, west and eastbound side?

That section can't even be paved. So they go and pave residential roads. That's used how many people drive in that area daily.

Amongst the other Garfield, Atlantic, things like that, where the money should go to.

And with this $8 gallon gas, with this illegal administration, what's coming out? It should be plenty of money. And then they're telling me, oh, it costs too much money to light up a stop sign in certain areas. So go drive tomorrow morning. go over to Shura High School on the football side in broad daylight. There's three stop signs where the light lines up. So I don't know why they kind of have it up here.

And in getting back to that stretch on that Patero, when you go on Eastmont side, your vehicle goes like this, going 45.

So there should have been more accidents just driving that stretch. But again, I don't know what this traffic commission, to me, they all should be out of there. What are they doing? Sitting down drinking their Starbucks coffee? That's what I'm thinking. When you have traffic commission people that just meet twice a month, and I've been to maybe one or two of them, when they're not out there seeing what's going on,

even on Garvey Avenue from Rosemead up, you got a lot of traffic. And I mention this too.

Once there's an accident on the Pomona Freeway or the San Bernardino, so what streets they take? Patero Grande, and they take Garfield, Garvey, Atlantic. So this street, this city here is the highway till they can get back on the freeway where the accident stops the people. So this

city should get all the tax dollars to have the city run smooth with the upgraded single lights,

stop signs and so on and so forth.

And a lot of this traffic commission, are they out there on 5 o'clock in the afternoon

and maybe even on that Hillcrest up there? Being that one school closed in Rosemead, they're all driving up there to Hillcrest, so Orange gets full backed up.

You would think they would put some kind of police right there

because you can have about 10, 15 cars backed up to make their left turn, right turn.

So there's nobody up there really watching it other than your crossing guards. So they have to stay at the crossing guard. They're not seeing what's going on on Orange and Graves.

That's another thing. And then by the school over there on Graves and New Avenue,

you can't make your left turn over there before they want to, oh, hurry up, hurry up, make your left turn so I can make my right turn or left turn.

And how many times when there's a single light and they're in between the street,

they'll make the left turn, go to the single light and make your left turn. But they want to make a left turn when their traffic comes from both ends.

So then that causes accident. Remember, before you people were here, Monterey Park was the cheapest car insurance in any city. So now we're in the ballgame. So coming here, four years old from Michigan, this city has changed. So I hope this new council will start doing things and get out there and see what's going on. When one school closes, you're going to put traffic, you're going to put those Rosemead people up there at Hillcrest. when you're going to Marketplace, you're going to bring all that traffic up there. So Marketplace is the new hangout for people.

And that gas place should have been put in Montebello, not over there. And look into it, and thank you.

Okay, any further requests to speak?

No other speakers.

Thank you, clerk.

Okay, moving on to staff communications.

First communications, fire department.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Drew Especi. I'm with the Monterey Park Fire Department. I've been a paramedic here for over 20 years.

I've actually been a paramedic for almost 30.

If I may, I would like to pass out some documents.

Thank you.

I'd like to take a moment of your time to speak about the vial of life.

! Vial of life is life-saving information for emergencies. ! We started this program several years ago,

We started this program several years ago, and it's worked really well.

We've gone to the senior assisted places, and we've passed out these vials where what you have in front of you is information.

And this is vital information that paramedics need to have when you're having a medical emergency.

So the form is easily filled out. You can download more forms on vialoflife.com. and on the back side of it are simple instructions.

The vital life is important information for paramedics to have.

It has your medical history, your current medications, advanced directives or DNR,

also power of attorney for someone who is making health decisions for you if you cannot make it for yourself, and emergency contacts.

Basically, what this does is it speaks for you when you cannot speak for yourself or you can't remember. There's a new process. We have vials at the fire department to come if you want them. We also ordered more decals.

So the new process is if you want a vial, you can still use it. We look in the refrigerator.

The fire department knows where to look for these things.

You can also put in a Ziploc bag and place it right on your refrigerator with a magnet.

This information is vital for us to make sure that we get you timely and correct medical treatment.

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

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, questions? Yes.

Mike? Is your mic on? I heard it.

Is there an app for this where you can just put this on your phone where it's easier to access everywhere you go versus if you're putting it at your home?

Not currently, but that's a great idea.

Yeah. Thank you.

Mayor Patel. Yes.

Thank you for sharing this information.

I have a family, so a lot of this is really great.

If residents of Monterey Park wanted to get a hold of these vials or get... If the owner of a park wanted to get ahold of these vials or get more information can they visit the fire station or?

! Yes we have these vials I have a box full right now if anyone wants some and I have some of these forms they can fill them out now.

! The decals we ordered more we ran out of those but everything that you would need for the vial of life program the fire department will have.

! Thank you. Are we able to leave some at the library or at City Hall here?

Are we able to leave some at the library or at City Hall here?

Absolutely. Yeah, we can make that happen. Thank you. I have a comment.

Well, I know you were presenting to us, but how is the fire department promoting this useful tool to the community?

Well, we had a program in place, and what we did was we went to the senior living and the senior assisted housing, and we passed this all out.

So even when we respond on calls, we know exactly what to look for.

And with the decals, if you put them on your front window, if we go to a residence, we'll also know that you have the vial of life in this residence, and we know to go look at the refrigerator.

I think what we're in the process of doing too is we're going to do like a PSA to send out so that we get more awareness of this program. Okay.

Are you also working with the several school districts that are in the CERV Monterey Park to make sure that this information gets out to parents as well?

I don't know if we're doing anything with that yet, but it's certainly something that we can put on our agenda.

Okay. Yes, Councilor?

I would also recommend working with the community clinics in the area because I think, if anything, I'm seeing this as targeting our elderly in the community because that's where the need is. The clinics will see a lot of the folks as well as the senior centers. If you can have that program started, I think that will help a lot of the residents.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea too because when I called about this form, I wanted to see if I could get in other languages also.

The problem is if I get another language, they might fill it out in the same language, and we won't be able to understand.

However, if we're giving it to the clinics or their private medical doctors,

maybe there's someone at their clinic that can help assist them to fill this out.

Yes?

Yeah, let me connect you with the Chantown Service Center. There's a social service center here on Chandler. They'll do the translation for the residents in the city, and then there is a clinic here that they can help spread the news to the community.

That would be fantastic. Thank you.

Just a thought.

I don't know if it makes sense, but I don't know if we can just print this sheet in the cascades for people to cut out and just be able to put that in.

It's an easy.

Yeah. You can actually download the PDF from violalife.com.

So even if they make a mistake on one, you can print it out and redo it. Cool.

And I just wanted to say also just in terms of sharing perhaps even like the farmers market, having been able to share these in the public venue that a lot of the residents can get a hold of these. But thank you so much for this.

Thank you. Sure.

And just my final point, since some of my colleagues have touched upon language issue, I think that's also probably why reaching out to the school districts might be helpful because a lot of our school districts,

most of our school districts actually have

multilingual PTA advisory councils,

and I think that that would be a good vehicle

to also make sure that those who are bilingual is aware of this important tool as well.

That's a great idea. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, Councilman, you? Yes.

I actually really like Council Member Wong's idea

that put on the cascade.

so people can cut it out, even though for people without a printer at home. So it worked. Thank you. Good idea.

Okay, great.

Okay, well, thank you so much. Thank you. Okay.

Next presentation by our police department.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Pro Temp, members of the City Council. My name is Gus Jimenez. I'm the acting captain with the Monterey Park Police Department.

I'm here today to talk a little bit about our current electric vehicle fleet and our traffic bureau. There's a PowerPoint. We can go to the next slide, please.

So back in August of this year, the Monterey Park Police Department purchased three Chevy Bolt electric vehicle utility vehicles to augment our traffic bureau. We currently use utility trucks, but we purchase these three vehicles to help us with enforcing traffic, enforcement, parking enforcement more than anything else.

There's some statistics there for you. As you can see, these vehicles get about 250 miles on a full charge.

We got an eight-year warranty on the batteries and 100,000 – I'm sorry, eight-year, 100,000-mile battery warranty on the vehicles.

Currently, like I said, there's three vehicles that we have in service, and all of this was paid through the ARP funding, which was a great resource for the city of Monterey Park,

and it helped us purchase these vehicles. If I can get the next slide, please.

So with those, we also purchased level two chargers for our vehicles.

Now, the statistics here that are up on the PowerPoints, you can see it says it generally takes 10 hours to fully charge our vehicles. Our vehicles never get depleted down to zero. That's on a zero charge. But our vehicles, we rotate them periodically, so they're never going to be down to a zero charge. But the statistics that we do have are if the vehicles were ever drawn down to zero and we fully charge them,

the cost to the city is $9.44 to fully charge our electric vehicles.

That's a cost savings of about $1,400 per year on gas for the vehicles, and that's based on the size of the vehicle and comparable vehicles to that size, gas prices at the time where this statistic came out, and also the amount of mileage you can get off of these electric vehicles.

I do want to also thank our Public Works who helped us purchase these chargers, the Level 2 chargers, and also they installed them for us. So it was a collaborative effort through several different departments here at Monterey Park, not only the police department, our Public Works, our finance department who helped us with the ARP funding. So it was a collaborative effort to get these vehicles into our fleet. If I can get the next slide, please. And again, all this was the Monterey Park Police Department's, we took active steps, proactive steps to help make Monterey Park more sustainable. And obviously, we're continuing to look at different options to augment our fleet with hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles. we're still out looking and the chief is is continuously looking at ways to augment our fleet and make it more sustainable for our department and also for the city so that concludes

my presentation i'm i'm available for any questions i may have thank you so much colleagues questions

counter wall you got the mic yeah thank uh thanks gus i appreciate the efforts of the police department to transition to zero emission vehicles uh and would love to see if we have I know it sounds like we're thinking about how we transition the remaining vehicles in our fleet. I don't know if you know offhand how many vehicles do we have in our police fleet.

So currently operational, we have about 17 patrol vehicles, black and white, that are out in the field.

And we have looked, the chief has given his staff direction to look at hybrid vehicles for patrol vehicles.

We are researching it.

There's some agencies in the East Coast that are using those. There's just not statistics enough for us to really move forward here on the West Coast.

We are looking at other ways to augment our fleet with some hybrid or partially electric vehicles as well.

Are these three, the bolts, is that our full traffic?

It is not. No, there's three utility trucks that we also utilize.

All right.

Was it just three because that's the ARP funding that was available, or was there another limit or thinking to just changing out three of our...

The three just because of the three vehicles that it was replacing at the time.

Yeah, I would love to encourage continued transition to zero emissions as much as we can.

Right, absolutely. And that's the chief's goal is to try to go full electric if he can, especially in our traffic bureau.

But, yeah, it all depends on the vehicle's availability.

As you know, there is a shortage of vehicles, but the chief is always looking at ways to make those things happen. Yeah, and they're great.

I mean, having them drive around the community is a great way to showcase.

Yeah, absolutely. And actually, we're also, the slide went down again.

We also put our Monterey Park Go Green stickers on all three of our vehicles to promote the program

and have citizens ask us questions about it as well.

So, again, it was a collaborative effort with different departments here in the city of Monterey Park.

Yeah, I assume we'll probably hear more about this for the Go Green effort that's coming up for an update. but would love to see us transition more of our entire city fleet to zero emission as technology as feasible for those. Just curious, those Level 2 chargers, those are upstairs here?

They are, yeah. So they're upstairs.

I believe you all will be taking a tour of the police department. We'll be showing those all to you, but they're all upstairs.

You can walk up and see them. They're against the west wall of the upper deck, and they're parked right behind,

or they're actually situated right behind the three electric vehicles.

And just really I know this is kind of opt-off but would love to see us expand charging options for the community and other staff who I know have Electric vehicles as well and see how we can make those accessible to more of the public too. I know we have a DC fast charger here in the parking lot, but there aren't any level 2 or level 1 chargers available publicly in the City Hall area

Cool. Thank you. Any other comments questions? Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez? I had a question.

I agree with what Council Member Wong said. Do we have any idea of how many police vehicles might be coming up that might need replacement that we could potentially start looking at in terms of replacing with some of these electric vehicles?

Yeah, that's a great question. I know currently we have six vehicles that are coming to us. They're not electric vehicles. They're standard patrol vehicles, Ford vehicles, interceptors. and we have a second order of seven vehicles. And those were purchases that were made prior budget years.

So we have a fleet coming to us that's going to replace our current fleet right now.

But, again, the chief is always looking at ways when vehicles do go down.

His direction to staff is to look at different options

and not just order straight off of the normal ordering sheet, but see if we have the ability to order either hybrid or other type of vehicles.

But as of right now, we do have a current fleet coming,

but there's not gonna have any electric vehicles or patrol vehicles at least currently

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you

Okay next stop communications Recreation and community services department

Come on down

Hi. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members, Director of Recreation and Community Services, Robert De Geary. Before we get into the slides, I did have a few other announcements, so I did want to send a thank you out to Chinatown Service Center and also let the council know and general public know that if you are interested in getting some COVID tests, The Tynash Island Service Center has donated quite a big allotment of COVID tests right before the holidays. It's a great time for everyone to make sure they get tested before they go visit relatives and such. So if you'd like to pick up COVID tests, you can do so by visiting the Brighamire Library or the Langley Senior Center during operating hours. We are asking everyone to just take two boxes so that we have plenty for all residents. But if you do need more do it go and take a return trip and we will you know Make sure that people have enough tests that way we can be safe during the holidays

The other announcement I did want to make sure council and public was aware

The sequoia playground up at sequoia park it was removed this morning Sequoia playground is is quite old and there were some safety concerns with the condition it was in The good news is that we are actively planning for a replacement playground.

So it's already been budgeted, and we have already been planning

and designing a new playground, which we will see in 2023. So I just want to make sure the public was aware that the playground was taken out. There's still a swing set that's there at Sequoia Park, so still families can get some enjoyment. But the play piece, there were some definite safety concerns, and we definitely didn't want an incident between us planning, and you know taking out the old and putting in a new so just want to make

everyone aware if we can go to the slides please so wanted to thank everyone that

came out to our annual holiday snow village a huge successful event just kind

of give you an idea numbers wise we had over 1500 pre-registered youth for the event and we estimate that over 3,000 people have attended the event that night. People were not only able to enjoy sled runs and play areas, but also take pictures with Jack Skeleton and also with Santa Claus. A special shout out to our fire department for assisting us

with making sure that Santa was well taken care of that evening. And then I definitely want to

make sure and thank our sponsors who helped make the event and all the snow possible. The marketplace, TransTech engineers and also ARC printing here in Monterey Park. Next slide, please.

So I wanted to bring attention to our annual festival lights trip to Riverside.

This is a near and dear trip that we make every year with 100 residents.

I grew up in Riverside, for those that don't know, so this is me kind of introducing the Monterey Park folks to a piece of my heart and a piece of my past. So on December the 10th, we had 100 residents that went and visited out the Mission Inn in Riverside.

And as you can see, the Mission Inn has voted the best public light display by USA Today.

So they go out and enjoy some

festivals.

Monterey Park. We had a lot of impressive lights, some great food and shopping and they all had a great time. Next slide please. So I do have some news from Santa. He sent me a little email and was happy to report that we had he had received over 500 letters from Monterey Park residents. He was also excited to report that all of those letters have been responded to and all the good little boys and girls in Monterey Park should be receiving their responses from Santa if they haven't already. So So we are very happy to assist Santa in collecting those letters at the Langley Center and look forward to doing so again in the future.

Next slide, please.

So for those that have not heard, the farmer's market, after four years at George Elder Park, is going to be moving here to Barnes Park.

The farmer's market will be located in the area between the tennis pickleball courts and the pool building.

That will start on January the 12th. It'll still be on Thursday evenings from 4 to 9 p.m. And it'll still be the same delicious food, fresh produce, and live entertainment that everyone has grown to enjoy.

And then also, I just want to bring attention that the market does accept WIC, EBT,

and has a low-income healthy incentive program called Market Match.

Those that aren't familiar, Market Match is a program where it encourages those low-income families

that have those to go to the farmer's market,

and they will match the amount that they spend.

So if you spend $10, they match that with additional $10. It's a way to encourage people to eat healthier,

better than low income. Next slide, please. Lunar New Year Festival.

So it's been since 2020 was the last Lunar New Year Festival

you had here in Monterey Park.

So next year, on January 21st and 22nd,

will be the Lunar New Year Festival.

on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

This festival is open and free for everyone.

We encourage all cultures, ages. I mean, it's a very big festive opportunity.

There's lots of different types of entertainment,

tons of vendors, lots of shopping.

this will next year will be the year of the rabbit pronounced two is what I'm told and so the

motto that World Journal has kind of taken is let's celebrate together so quite a little catchy

slogan there there'll be carnival rides lots of live entertainment and so we look forward to

seeing everyone out at the Lunar New Year next slide please and then just finally I know lots

of our council member already follow us but I do want to encourage everyone to keep up to date with

all of our ongoing programming,

updates in recreation, events that are coming up, follow us on social medias at Monterey Park

Rec. So Monterey Park,

R-E-C, and you'll stay up to date

with all the things that are going on in the Rec Department. Valuable for any questions. Thank you so much.

Colleagues?

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Robert.

Appreciate the update from Rec and Parks. Or Recreation Community Services.

The Sequoia Playground,

so we're planning to we already have plans to replace the playground equipment, right?

Absolutely.

So we were already in the design phase of that playground, as well as, just to share with you, as well as several other playgrounds. So 2023 will be a big year for Monterey Park. There's lots of big plans in recreation with projects that are coming. So we're excited about not only replacing Sequoia's playground, Edison Trail's playground is actually will be coming a little bit sooner,

probably most likely in the first quarter of 2023 and then Edison Trails a little bit later in the year.

Yeah, no, that was going to be my question in terms of Edison Trails. I know we mentioned, the staff was mentioning when we had the town hall meetings earlier this year.

So Edison Trails and Sequoia were both play pieces that were built around the same time and from the same material

which was a recycled material that was very popular a long time ago and doesn't hold up very well nowadays.

So both of those playgrounds basically were taken out for the same reasons safety concerns and public safety is obviously more important than Keeping the people know especially with us having plans in place to replace them

No, that's great. We'd love to get a preview of what the new design is going to be for the playgrounds And if we can promote that as well as Cascades when when that's ready that'd be great And the farmers market as well I know we're already promoting it But if there's other ways to do direct outreach to some of the other folks that are around Barnes Park and others that have been frequenting the current Elder Park location, just to make people aware of the holidays, we can do more outreach. Whatever else that makes sense in, let's make sure we do that.

Absolutely. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Councillor Wong. Mayor Pro Temps-Sanchez.

Thank you so much for updating that park. My daughter uses that, and actually I took her earlier today, and, you know, I think we went like two days ago, and it was still up.

Yeah.

And so when we went today, it was just completely gone.

Yeah.

She started to wimper. I was like, all right, hold on. I'm like, I'm sure there's a good reason for this. You've got to get her on the swing.

That's what you get. Yeah.

Put her on the swing.

Yeah.

So I appreciate you updating that because it's definitely needed. Is there – I know you said in 2023, is there any specific time frame, like, just so that I – for parents like myself who are wondering what happened to that, or if there's any way we can put something there, like –

I would I would I'd caution myself on

Putting dates for the for that for the Edison trails playground. I do anticipate that it'll be completed sometime in first quarter most likely before April the other playgrounds there's about six seven other playgrounds that were actively in the design phase with and are looking to

Try to get those projects all done at the same time

so it'll be like I said it's going to be an exciting time for Monterey Park with lots of new things to play on so I don't have a hard day for you but I will definitely keep the public and also council updated as we move closer and then as we get closer to those ribbon cutting dates

when we can all celebrate and slide down the slides together if I could just suggest I know

you guys do an amazing job with your social media if you if there's any way you can post something like you know it might have disappeared but it's coming you know or something for parents like myself who are wondering what happened to the point that was there.

Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Any other comments?

Oh, I have a comment. Robert, thank you again for, as always, a great presentation. Out of curiosity, for a following mark, I think as long as I can remember, it was always in the evening, and I'm just curious, over the years, from our own community and our residents, have we gotten feedback? Like, is that the preferred

time, or have there been inquiries about doing it

during the daytime, like on a Saturday, Sunday in the morning or middle of afternoon?

To my knowledge, I mean, I know the farmer's market is constantly kind of in communication with the folks that go to the market as well as her vendors. To my knowledge, we have not heard any feedback as far as looking at different times or dates. The other, with the farmer's market producer, we are limited in as far as what days and times we can also do because she does run additional markets in other cities.

I see.

But it's something we can certainly continue to evaluate and look at and discuss with those that attend to see if there is something that might be more feasible.

The only reason I ask is because, I mean, especially in the summertime, it's fine, it's warm, but, like, in the wintertime, it gets colder,

and I just wonder if that deters people from wanting to go to the farmer's market when,

like, for example, like, on Monday, it was, like, 40 degrees.

not that I from market on Monday, but I'm just saying it's wintertime.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, just something to consider.

Understood. Absolutely.

And that's something we'll continue to look at as the market moves into Barnes Park in

January.

We'll kind of continue to reevaluate and look at how it's successful there in this new location and be looking at the date and the time as well.

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

Thank you.

Now, moving on to presentations. We have presentation 1A, Oath of Office to the newly elected City Clerk May Xiao Yi.

So, you're on?

So, thank you, Mayor.

So, the last Council meeting, our newly elected City Clerk May Xiao Yi,

she did administer the oath.

Well, I did administer the official oath to her and then she turned around and administered the oath to our newly elected council members. However, she was not available and she was not present. And so I want to introduce Kalia Garfield, that's Michelle's daughter, and she's going to administer the oath to Michelle.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I may shall ye do solemnly swear

that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California

against all enemies, foreign and domestic,

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to

the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely,

without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,

and I will well and faithfully discharge, the duties upon which I am about to enter. Thank you.

Any pictures?

City Clerk Michelle Yee.

Thank you. Thank you.

Can we deal with the city council? ! Yes, actually, and now that we have our full city government with our city treasurer and everyone, let's

Ready, one, two, three. Thank you.

And would our newly sworn in city clerk like to share a few words to the city community?

Sure, I'll share a few.

So, hi neighbors.

Well, if there was any doubt that the underdog could win, Amy and I certainly proved them wrong. We did it, guys.

I'm so proud of us and I'm so excited for what the future holds.

I'm hopeful. While we know the road is long and there is so much more work to be done, we also know together we can accomplish anything.

This is just the beginning.

Thank you so much for your support.

I'm honored to be at your service. Let's get to work.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, any words you'd like to share? Colleagues?

Catherine Yu, yes.

Yeah, hi, Michelle. I'm so excited that you joined us.

And I know it's not easy. Every election is not easy.

So thank you so much for all your hard work and contributions to the community.

I look forward to working closely with you in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Catherine Yu. Catherine Yu.

Michelle, welcome aboard. I think we missed you two weeks ago, but you're here. and as I mentioned to Amy,

let's get to work and serve the community.

That's what we're asked to do.

Thank you. Councilor Wong.

Yeah, again, congratulations, Michelle. I appreciate your efforts and looking forward to spending two nights a week at least for the next four years with you and my other colleagues on this council.

But no, really looking forward to it

and looking forward to getting things done together.

Thank you. Councilor Wong. Mayor Pro Temp Sanchez.

Congratulations on your win and we look forward to working with you this year

and the following years

and continue our work for our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I want to echo those sentiments.

Congratulations on the coalition you put together, and we look forward to working together

for the betterment of our community.

Okay. Moving on to the next presentation,

Item 1B,

Introduction of Interim Director of Community Development,

Jessica Serrano.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. I'll give Jessica a little bit of time to kind of settle in.

Of course.

I'd like to introduce our newly appointed Interim Community Development Director, Jessica Serrano. Jessica joined the City of Monterey Park team in November 2021 as the Planning Manager. She grew up and currently resides in San Gabriel Valley. Monterey Park. Jessica has a bachelor's degree in Sociology with a minor in Spanish and Art from Whittier College. A master's degree in urban and regional planning from Cal Poly University. She began her career in local government over 18 years ago. Man, you look so young though. Is that true? I was only 10. With the City of Norwalk where she was hired as the planning intern. and during her tenure she was promoted to the assistant planner, senior planner, and planning manager. Jessica also worked for the city of Montebello before coming aboard with the city of Monterey Park. Jessica's vast knowledge and experience in planning and is dedicated to serving the Monterey Park community. She is committed to ensuring an efficient and transparent development process by streamlining processes and implementing new software, making a positive impact to build the environment, supporting economic development efforts to help develop the thriving community, and supporting the city's green initiative to combat climate change. So that will segue into her framing of the next item, but I introduce you to Jessica Serrano.

Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that introduction, and I'm honored to serve the city in this capacity. As mentioned by Mr. Bo, I grew up in the area. I still live in an adjacent city, so Monterey Park feels definitely like a second home to me, and know that moving forward, I intend to lead the department with integrity, with efficiency, and with innovation, And so those are my intentions with the department, always keeping in mind what is best for our community. Our department is responsible for welcoming in new development. We take it from conceptual to through construction. And so the planning team ushers them in, presents them to city council planning commission, and our building team reviews the projects as they get constructed and ensures that they're safe. And so as we do this important work, I'm very thrilled to lead the team that ushers in new development in the city, and we're always looking for new ways to make our processes more streamlined and more efficient and more innovative. So I appreciate this responsibility, and I'm excited to hit the ground running and take on new challenges. At this point, I'm happy to answer any questions the City Council may have. Thank you. Colleagues, Councilor Yu.

Hi, Jessica. Thank you so much. Congratulations to take on the new positions. And I heard a few of your presentations. I was so impressed. your presentation skill and also your knowledge and it seems like you can be one man Ben you can just yeah know it all and so congratulations and I know you will do well so look forward you know to working closely with you thank you thank you

congratulations Jessica we've met the last it seemed like forever but it's only

been a few months and look forward to working with you and using your knowledge and your ability to work for the city. So congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

Catherine Wong. Again, congratulations. Looking forward to working with you in this new role. As you mentioned, you're the front lines in terms of economic development for the city. And it's, I think, clear to easy to say it's a priority for this council and for myself. And looking forward to working with you closely on that. And welcome to your new role.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

I wanted to congratulate you, and I really enjoyed that you mentioned innovation as one of your goals, so we look forward to working with you. I also won't hold against you that you're a wittier poet.

I'm an Occidental tiger.

Oh, okay.

We're rivals, but we will bridge that gap.

We'll work together.

Thank you. The kinship.

Let me just say how excited I am to see you step into this position. We've had many conversations during conferences, during council meetings, off meetings, about issues with housing to development. And so I think we're very fortunate that you bring your experience and your knowledge to this position.

And we look forward to working together.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Thank you. And with that, I'll go ahead and frame this next segment into our Going Green campaign. The City Council had previously identified climate change as a priority back in 2021 and in 2022. And now city staff, community development department began its work to implement the city's initiative and priority of climate change by developing a work program and assembling a green team, a green team that will be responsible for carrying forward the Going Green program. And as part of that work with assembling the team,

we looked to AmeriCorps, CivicWell specifically, they're an offshoot of AmeriCorps, to work with and partner with them to have a fellow work specifically with our city

to spearhead this initiative. This fellow has expertise and knowledge in environmental policy, and so we felt that this person was the perfect fit to lead the team responsible for the Going Green program. The Going Green program is a 10-month-long initiative that will culminate with the development of a sustainability plan. Now, as part of the Going Green team, We also asked each department to designate a member of their team to this Gold Green team. And so we have all the departments represented bringing different perspectives and ideas to this initiative. I'm going to go ahead at this point and introduce Olivia Williams. She's our Civic Spark Fellow, and she's leading the team that's moving this project forward. She'll get into more details about where we are and where we're headed. Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica, and good evening. My name is Olivia Williams, and I am a fellow serving the city of Monterey Park through Civic Spark. Civic Spark is a governor's initiative AmeriCorps program that is dedicated to building capacity for local governments to address climate change mitigation and social equity challenges. Next slide. Perfect. Monterey Park is addressing these challenges through the Going Green program. This program is focused on mobilizing a community-wide effort to mitigate climate change and prioritizes outreach efforts to ensure the city's climate actions are informed by community input and priorities. Monterey Park has already taken many steps towards a greener future.

The Going Green program will evaluate the city's existing and completed plans for efficacy and will identify best practices the city can adopt moving forward. The final work product of this program will be a sustainability plan which is comprehensive, understandable, achievable, and represents the voices of the Monterey Park community.

Next slide, please.

These priorities are all encompassed in the program mission statement, which reads, The Going Green program will empower Monterey Park to become a leader in sustainability as a city and as a community. Integrating past plans and engaging in best sustainable practices will ensure a safe and healthy environment for current and future generations. Next slide, please. Here I've provided a snapshot of the Going Green timeline with our current progress. We've assembled our Green Team with representatives from every city department, as Jessica mentioned, and have held biweekly meetings to develop and launch the community outreach campaign. The feedback we receive will be presented to City Council in early March and with direction from the Council, the Green Team will work to create the sustainability plan, which will be presented for approval in June with implementation starting in July.

Next slide.

I do want to take a brief moment to extend a thank you to all of the Green Team members pictured here.

They have already put in a lot of work and passion into this project and I'm really excited to see how their efforts make a difference in our community. I would also like to present our Going Green campaign logo, which was created by Brugmeyer Library technician Michael Lee. Looks great. Next slide, please.

You can look for the Going Green logo on social media posts, the city website, and outreach material to make the Going Green program easily recognizable and to get our community excited to participate. Right now, the Green Team is focused on collecting survey responses from our community members to evaluate their level of familiarity with climate change and environmental issues. Additionally, the survey seeks to identify which areas of sustainability are a priority in the daily lives of our residents. This information will be crucial in ensuring that the sustainability plan goes beyond the walls of City Hall and is truly integrated into the community. Next slide. So far we have connected with community members at Monster Mash, the Holiday Snow Village, and visits to the Langley Senior Citizen Center. We look forward to participating in upcoming Lunar New Year Festival, weekly farmers markets, and to hosting community workshops starting in February. Our online presence is starting to grow as well with a page on the city website at montereypark.ca.gov slash goinggreenmpk and on social media with the hashtag goinggreenmpk. I encourage everyone here tonight to follow Monterey Park on social media for program updates and to help the Going Green program gain momentum. Be sure to pick up a Going Green sticker. I know council should have received those already, but there's some on the back table as well. Put those on your water bottle, notebook, bumper, or laptop, and share a photo with the hashtag Going Green NPK to help us engage a wide audience. We welcome you to repost, reblog, send texts and emails, really anything to help spread the word and connect our community with this fantastic initiative. Most importantly, please take the sustainability survey using the QR code on the back of your sticker to provide your input. Links are also available on the city website and social media. And keep in mind, the survey is available in English, Chinese and Spanish. This survey will provide the direction of our sustainability plan, and all input we receive from the Monterey Park community is incredibly valuable. We're presenting this program to you tonight in the hopes that you will all help spread the word. Thank you so much for your time this evening, and we look forward to your support as Monterey Park goes green. Now, I think Jessica and I will answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Colleagues. Councilor Wong? Councilor, go. Okay.

I love the logo.

I mean, it really says Marley Park with the cascades and

beautiful logo. So kudos

to the designer. Is the person here?

Michael Lee from the library. Unfortunately, he's not here tonight.

So I think the librarians here, Diana, will you please pass a message? Kudos for the logo.

Yes, excellent job.

I appreciate the efforts that's going into this, and you answered one of my questions in terms of every department being represented in the going green team so appreciate that this is a city hall wide effort uh and look forward to the feedback that we're gathering and the actions that we're going to be presented to the council in the next few months uh quick question as you're going about it are we focused on greenhouse gas reduction efforts in particular

or are we looking at broader sustainability kind of broader sustainability that is one of the

aspects of climate change that we are addressing through the sustainability plan but we're also

looking at other impacts of climate change so it's a broader outlook that's awesome and we did

some of this funding is provided through a grant we've received right yes it is and that'll fund will that include a greenhouse gas inventory and specific measures that is the plan yes perfect uh and then are we working with the environmental commission and other commissions as well to get the word out about outreach and trying to get more people to provide feedback on this yes we are

doing our best to spread the word through our commissions through social media and other

avenues as olivia covered today perfect and i assume depending on the feedback but i assume this will be the actions that we're going to look at are going to be both internal to city kind of operations and calling on actions from residents and businesses that are here in the city in terms of what actions they can take to address.

You got it. Yes, exactly. It's not just what City Hall can do

but what the community

as a whole can do to address climate

change. Perfect. No, I appreciate this effort. Looking forward to it. As a former member and chair of the city's environmental commission, this is an action I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing and learning more about and helping to propel forward and appreciate your efforts in pushing this forward.

Thank you. Councilor Wong?

Mayor Pro Temps-Sanchez? Yes.

Thank you for your presentation and for the effort that you're putting into this. It's something that's very important to a lot of us. And I had some questions. I really like that you mentioned the word civics.

I'm a civics educator.

So I was wondering if there was any type of effort to reach out to some of our schools. We have a lot of schools and school districts within our city to try to get a lot more students involved in this as well and also get younger voice involved in this because I think a lot of younger people have a lot of opinions on this issue, but also want to be involved in this process. So I commend you for going out there and involving the community, but I'd like to hear what efforts might be made to reach out to schools and students as well.

Yes, I'll let Olivia take this one.

Funny you should mention, we actually have an email going out tomorrow to several of the schools in the area to see how they would like to distribute the survey

and also post flyers around the school and anything that they can think of to help students get involved.

I'm also looking at partnering with junior friends over at the library to have them fill out the survey

Farmers market and possibly the Boys and Girls Club as well But if you do have any other ideas for community groups, we can engage

all make sure they're included on this this in this effort for gathering feedback we are in the

process of reaching out to those groups as well thank you for that councilor go oh okay all right

okay thank you so much thank you okay next presentation and became words update

Again, good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members. This is your Economic Development Manager, Joseph Torres.

Thank you for the opportunity to present.

Next slide, please. Please allow me to share our agenda. First, I'd like to give you a quick Monterey Park program overview and the reason why the

city implemented the program, that I'm happy to report the successes we've achieved since launching Monterey Park Rewards about a year ago. I'll share some of the growth metrics we used or how we measure success. And finally, I'll talk about the next steps and future considerations.

Next slide, please.

As you may recall, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, small business owners braced for what seemed like a short-term inconvenience. But as the pandemic dragged on, many small businesses in our community were and are still operating at limited capacity or have closed their doors completely. In fact, foot traffic at Atlantic Times Square, pictured here on the Lor left of the screen, has gone down more than 70% from the outset of the pandemic. Although the federal, state, and county agencies were quick to provide business assistance during the pandemic, those resources were limited. It became more critical than ever for the city to help support our local businesses, with an emphasis on many of our restaurants and small mom-and-pop shops that have struggled due to decreased food traffic throughout the city.

Next slide, please.

Given the city's limited resources, we knew the best way to support our small businesses would be to leverage the awesome power of our community and develop and implement a shop-and-dine local program. However, we wanted to stay away from the traditional shop-local program such as discount cards and punch cards. The pandemic was already putting tremendous financial burdens on our small businesses. So the last thing we wanted them to do was to discount their products and services.

We also did not want them to have a shop local program that businesses would have to manage

because we knew they were busy enough just trying to keep their doors open.

Next slide, please.

As a growing and ever-changing city, we are always looking for innovative solutions to serve our business and our community better. So, in November 2021, we launched the Monterey Park Rewards Program, using digital technology to spur economic recovery for our small businesses amidst the pandemic. What's unique about the program? It's a shop and dine local program that uses our smart phones to leverage the awesome power of our local community. 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 and dining locally. In addition, the city pays that $1 earned to keep the participating local businesses whole. The program creates a sense of civic pride and leverages the power of our communities to spur economic growth.

Next slide, please.

In just 12 months from the program's launch, I'm happy to report that our app users grew to 1,700 users. We increased participating retail businesses to 135, participating meaning these are businesses that award points only. Out of those 135 participating businesses, we onboarded 31 redeeming merchants, which are businesses that award and redeem points.

Next slide, please.

In looking at the program's performance from January through mid-December, MPK rewards have granted $24,254 in MPK points to our residents and users from our neighboring cities. with 11,120 points redeemed thus far. Those 24,254 points generated 195,629, or almost $200,000 in economic activity. And in economic development metrics, that's an eight times economic multiplier.

And our cost to support the program?

about $70,000, which includes the points redeemed, software licensing fees, and promotional costs.

Next slide, please.

To further track the success of the program, we tracked app usage from January to mid-December of this year. Total economic activity grew by 1,353%. Monthly NPK rewards transactions at local businesses went up by 305%. and NPK rewards gained traction with app usage increasing by 262%. As you can see, the program is driving a more circular economy as we had hoped it would do.

Next slide, please.

As you can see in this graph, NPK rewards transactions have increased by an average of 40% to 60% each month from January through November 2022.

Next slide, please.

So, by looking at the trend in the previous slide, and even if we assume a modest 10% monthly growth, we can expect NPK Rewards economic activity to approach more than half a million dollars by June of next year.

Next slide, please.

As with the old 80-20 rule, where 80% of production comes from 20% of producers, our top producers are Kwan Hwa Supermarket, Tokyo Fried Chicken, Alice's Kitchen, Mama Lou, and others on this list have contributed significantly to the program's success.

Next slide, please.

But don't just take my word for it. According to Aratian 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 Lavaland not only embraced the program, but has creatively leveraged the program through their own promotions. And understandably so, because the program is designed to be easy to use. Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, please allow me to demonstrate.

Next slide, please. Hi, everyone.

Join me here in Monterey Park to use my MPK Rewards app to spend some local MPK points

and support a local business.

So I'll have a box of assorted bottles. and then I'm going to go ahead and pay with my MPK board to pass and use my points.

I'm going to read to you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I just got this delicious whipped cake at Aaliyah Lavalin and I paid with my MPK points. So cheers to that.

Next slide, please.

Despite these successes, there are many more ways to leverage the 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 electric vehicle adoption, to name a few. We could use the app to direct and boost traffic to where it's needed in the community to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Next slide, please.

As with any new and innovative program, there's always room for improvement. We continue to work with the software developers 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.

Unfortunately, this program will end by the end of this month. although I have enough in my department's budget to extend it one more month through January. And we will extend it through January. But as you can see, the program has gotten a lot of traction. Therefore, staff would like to renew the program for another six months through June of 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 plan on going back to Council in January to request additional funding for the extension to the tune of around $60,000 as I would have used up all my budget just to extend it through January.

Next slide, please.

If we do extend the program another six months, we would target to grow local businesses' participation at $300, grow our registered users to 3,000, and aim to reach a minimum local economic activity of half a million dollars. 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.

Next slide, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council members. I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you very much. Councilman Yu, you have a question? I'm sure I have a lot of questions. Yes. Yeah, I'm the one that we're the one that who started the program together. So I wanted to confirm one more time is that when we register using one credit card, then we just continue to use the same credit cards and, you know, spend on restaurants. And so we get the redeem, right? So this is still the case. Is that right?

Yes, ma'am, it is.

Okay. And when we redeem the points, then we need to use the app and tell the vendor that we wanted to redeem. So we have to have the app open.

Yes, you actually have to boot the app and show your screen with a number of points to the merchant, as it was shown in the video.

Right.

And then you tell the merchants, let's say if you have 100 points, if you only want to cash in 50 points, then you tell the merchants you'd like to have 50 points applied to the purchase. If you want to use up all 100 points, you can do so as well.

Is there any time frame that it will expire?

Well, the program is supposed to end by the end of this month. And again, we will extend it through January.

So when the program ends, all those points ends. we did add to our terms and conditions that the city has the right to terminate the program at

any time okay so the points will expire when the program terminated when the program ends yes and

that's why we want to continue to extend the program for at least another six months as you

can see we've gotten a lot of traction right and then so the budget to extend let's say another

six-month or a year, so it would be about, you mentioned that it's about $60,000 for the whole

year licensing? No, ma'am, that would be about $60,000 for six months. And that's because,

as you can see from that graph, the adoption has been increasing almost by 40 to 60 percent every

month. So the redemptions consequently will go up as well. So obviously that's going to require some more funding for the reimbursements, which is good because that encourages more circular

economy for us. It keeps the money in our city. Right, right. So that means people are getting

20% off because they spend $5 and they get $1 back. So it's pretty much like 20% off of their

purchase but then the dollar that it will just you know we have to the city has to pay out the dollar so that we have our budget is about sixty thousand dollars per six month but it will continue to

increase when the traffic increase right correct now the bulk of that sixty thousand dollars actually

goes to software licensing and also for the promotional uh and and advertising activities

to promote the program. But yes, as time goes by

and as the program gains more traction, a bigger percentage of that funding goes towards reimbursement for the community.

Okay, thank you so much. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman Rgo. I have a couple of questions, Joe. I went to a couple of your BDAG meetings

and I love the idea.

So it sounds like we've got about $10,000 left. That's why we've got a month left. for this program?

We have about a month and a half left of funding.

But we generate eight times, so that's the positive. And it sounds like the...

that this vendor has. We were one of the first adopters. It's a fairly new technology in terms of shop local programs. In fact, there's only two cities in California that actually have implemented the program. Most of them are in the East Coast, and there's about six or seven of them that have implemented this program, including the city of Boston. So because we were one of the first early adopters, they have given us the opportunity to lock in their introductory rate through May of 2024. So we actually have the ability to hold on to the program through May

of 2024 at that introductory rate. So technically we can expand beyond the next six months,

provided we continue to feed the budget. And what is BDAQ's position on this? To do it for

six months now? I guess that proposal hasn't come up yet, but that's the

upcoming recommendation?

Yes, both BDAC and EDAC are very

excited and very supportive of the program

because they understand the value that

it brings to the community and it understands

the

program's ability to promote that

circular economy. Thank you. You're welcome.

Councilman Wong?

Thanks, Joe. I appreciate the update on the

the application, the app.

So the existing money, the $60,000 that we are expending for the app to date, does that come out of just general fund money or is that from ARP money or some other?

That's actually part of my department's budget.

We have an economic development budget as well as other line items in my department for the year.

and so far because of our ability to lock in that price from the vendor we've been able to

sustain the program using just my regular budget. And then can you talk a little bit more you

mentioned potentially utilizing the app and leveraging it for water conservation and other behavior changes can you talk about how I'm not understanding how how you would do that.

Well, there's many ways that we can use the program to promote civic engagement, one of which is with a Go Green program.

Jessica and I have been exploring the possibility of promoting the survey that they're conducting through the app.

And to encourage our community to participate in the survey, we would provide them with bonus points, like maybe two or five bonus points if they participate in a survey. So because we have that many users on the program, we have that captive audience that actually are constantly monitoring the app. So anything that we feed into that app are being exposed to all those eyeballs. So it's a very effective way to promote civic engagement. One of the ways that we could look into it,

and this is still in the preliminary stages, is in terms of promoting water conservation,

we can set a goal for each user to perhaps, by working with the water department,

set their usage for the month, and if they achieve a certain percentage of decrease month over month,

you know, I mean, we don't really know how that looks like yet,

but there's a strong possibility that we can leverage the program to encourage that kind of civic participation

so we can reward bonus points to households that can Prove a decrease in their usage on a month-to-month basis for instance. Again, that's just an example

That's super helpful. That's that's very interesting to pursue a love to See see us kind of develop that and flesh that out a little bit more

uh no that's that's cool thank you thank you uh mayor protein sanchez thank you so much for your

presentation we we use this in our households and i saw some of my favorite restaurants up there um but i i just had some questions i know that uh in your presentation you said in the beginning that uh the money the points that the app was or people were earning through the app

is being you uh is being provided through city funds right um and we did that if i understood

you correctly as because of the pandemic and because what was happening that we were kind of putting that at any have we thought about um the possibility of because i'm assuming as as this app gets more and more popular that uh the traction and the amount of money that we will have to put into in terms of reward points is only going to increase as well as the cost of the app have we thought about what we can do to kind of share that cost as the economy perhaps starts

It's getting better with the businesses as well.

You know, that certainly is a possibility that we're exploring.

As an example, the new Shell station on South Garfield, right next to Starbucks,

we're in discussion with the owner because when we first launched the program,

our objective was to help the small business community first and foremost.

We didn't want to include the national chains because they have enough support from their franchisers to weather the pandemic.

We also didn't want to include the regionals, such as like Ono Hawaiian Barbecue and the likes, because, again, they were more able to weather the storm.

So we wanted to just have small businesses participate in the program because that's where support is needed the most.

But then again, we were getting approached by the likes of this Shell gas station who said,

you know what, I would really love to be part of that MBK Rewards Program.

Would it be okay if we became a member of it or a participating merchant, and we would fund the points that we would be awarding?

so that's a possibility and yes we are now beginning to explore the possibility of partnership

with these national franchises and more of the medium-sized larger-sized type of businesses

in this way they would be funding their own points instead of the city but we would be

administering it for them i just had one more question because i'm a teacher but

I'm not sure if you can see within your app usage

how many of the users are

or if you can stratify the data by age and see whether we have a younger population using it, is like an older population using it, and if it's not if we don't have a younger population, how we can get more younger people to use it because I know they shop and eat just like we do, if not more

Well I can tell you right now, the majority of the users are the younger

generation because it does take a little bit of a technical savvy to download and register

to the program. I mean, it's not that difficult, but for the most part, we do have a lot of younger users. And we know that because we have a good social media following on the MPK Rewards Program that are mostly from the younger generation set.

we also are working with our software developer to try to track the demographics of these users

because as we had learned from one of our analysis that we did sometime a few months ago 57 percent of our sales tax revenue is generated by non-residents consequently a lot of our app users

are from our neighboring cities as well. So it is working to that effect

that we're bringing in that revenue from other cities and having them contribute to our local economy.

One of the things that we're looking into doing,

and we've already approached ELAC on this, and we've spoken with the ELAC Community

or Student Support Services Vice President.

We introduced the program to her and wanted to partner with them in promoting the program on campus.

They were very excited about it.

They would like to launch the program this coming school year,

and that's why I'm really very excited about hoping to extend the program

because, as you know, this program is much needed,

especially for the community college students. You know, they're usually on a budget.

They're always looking for ways to save money.

And what better way for them to accomplish that

by, you know, using the app so that they can earn points

and at the same time they're contributing to the local economy. So it's a classic example of a win-win situation.

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much for those questions, colleagues. Joe, thank you for the presentation. I have a question.

So, you know, in the past when you've given us updates about the app,

I know I've asked a suggestion for the app, you know, if possible.

I think that one way in which it could grow usership is also if the app itself was able to have bilingual options.

And I know you said you would take this back to the app program, and I'm just curious, what has been the feedback?

Mr. Mayor, we are constantly pressuring our software developer to come up with this functionality. Part of the challenge is the way for them to keep the cost of the program low is for them to come up with kind of a white label program. In other words, any city can purchase the program and run it because it's basically the same format in general. Now, for customization, that does cost money, and this functionality is something that is still not in demand in terms of their overall customer base because most of the cities that are on the program are on the East Coast.

So the need for Chinese language functionality,

they're not still able to justify because of the cost associated

in having that functionality programmed into the system

because they have to put in certain logarithms

in order for that functionality to be made possible. However, we're making some progress.

I had a conversation with the Vice President of Operations of Koli Technologies, which is our software developer,

and they're actually beginning work on having not only Chinese language functionality on it,

but also Japanese and, believe it or not, Russian,

because they have a city that logged on to the program in the East Coast that have a big Russian community.

So we're starting to get some results on it. And hopefully we can get that functionality in place by the first quarter of next year.

Okay. During your presentation, you, well, let me ask you.

So besides Monterey Park, which is your city in California? You mentioned that it's currently employing this app.

Chula Vista is the other city. Okay. Other than Monterey Park. And then all the others are in the East Coast.

So, so far, no other city in California has.

Oh, I'm sorry. Rancho Cordova is also recently signed up.

And you said that most of the customers are in the East Coast. How many cities?

I believe they have five or six. Some of the ones that I know are Akron, Ohio, which is a pretty big city.

Boston, of course, is the biggest city that they have.

They also are working on Sonoma County up north.

And right now they're looking into the program.

And Los Angeles County is also looking into the program.

Now, and I'm kind of curious now what the Boston version looks like, because Boston, if anyone ever visit Boston, is a very diverse city like Southern California.

And actually, for example, if you're talking about the Chinese community,

it has a large Chinese community in Boston. So are you telling me that if I live in Boston and I happen to be bilingual, if I wanted a bilingual functionality, I can't get it in the Boston version?

Well, and that's probably why they're starting to give in to our requests, because Boston is now one of their customers.

And as you mentioned, they have a very diversified group of communities as well.

Okay. I guess, there's probably a little skeptical now, because they say that they value us as a legacy. And again, I know from your presentation that there has been some value, but if I were them, especially if they know the demographics of, say, this area, you know, given that it's not just a minor part, but we have several cities that have similar demographics, you would think that they would see the value and create that functionality. And also, if I'm not mistaken, when this app was presented to us first in the beginning of last year, this company originated in Israel, did it not?

Yes, it is.

And it also operated in Europe, did it not?

Yes, they do.

Meaning that obviously they had to have language functionality in those parts of the continent, although I understand they also went bankrupt in those countries too, did they not, and left those markets?

Not that I know of.

They actually have two divisions, one of which is the Bitcoin.

Is it Bitcoin?

Bitcoins.

That's how they actually got started, doing Bitcoin currencies. But they no longer are involved in that business, and they now are more focused on this type of program.

curious, you know, because I mean, I appreciate that they wanted to expand the United States, but I was very curious, too, why they left those markets also. And so, again, I know you want to bring it back to us in January, but I just think that if we want to make it a successful program, then they would value our input, and especially for the functionality. And I would imagine if they are, you know, they want to grow this app, then they also want to be able to expand it into a market like Southern California. And again, and also because if they've had already established experience in other metropolitan areas like Boston, then you would think having that functionality would be a given.

I'm just bringing that up.

So maybe those are questions you can ask. I know those are things I'm going to ask, again, if this comes back in January.

Definitely. I will definitely convey that message, Mr. Mayor, and with more emphasis at this time.

All right. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Okay.

Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to consent calendar items numbers 3A to 3K. Staff,

do we have any items that we need to pull?

Okay. Hearing none. Clerk, do we have any requests to speak on

items? We have a speaker for items

3C and 3D. I'm sorry, 3C and 3D.

3C and 3E, okay.

D. I'm sorry, D. 3C and 3D. Thank you. Okay, council members, any items that you wish to pull for discussion?

Can we pull any items? Yes.

3B. I'm sorry? B for boy. 3, okay, so 3B, okay. So let's see. Uh-huh, any other items?

Can I pull 3J and 3K?

Okay, 3J, 3K. Okay, so let's see.

So we have two requests to speak on item 3C, 3D.

We also have from the council a request to poll 3B, 3J, and 3K.

Okay.

Then may I have a motion then to consent the other remaining items, please?

I'll move.

Okay, moved by Mayor Pro Tem. Second Moved by Councillor Gauw and hearing no further comments or questions, please vote

Approved unanimously. Thank you clerk. Okay first item that was pulled 3b a staff report, please

Good evening everyone mayor mayor pro tem councilman We have the finance director here, Martha.

Do you have any questions on the report?

Specifically?

I called an item up just to wanted to, yeah, say hi to you and also wanted to hear from you for the report.

Sure.

So we just met just the other day, so I had an opportunity to meet everyone on the finance committee.

We just made a few changes.

As of November 30, 2022, invested funds for the city of Monterey Park is $77,975,943.52.

The investments for the city of Monterey Park is diversified with the LA County Pooled Investment Fund.

Currently we have 43 million.

In the local agency LEAF fund, we have 28 million.

And in CDs, we have 6.8 million. And that totals the 77,975.

We did make some changes. We found some higher yielding CDs and we had made those purchases. Yeah, and they'll be showing up next month.

And those will be reflected next month.

Great. Thank you. Colleagues, questions?

I don't have any questions, but I just have a request, either for Martha, City Treasurer, or Ron. If you can forward, I'm just curious and want to take a look at our investment policy and our reserve policy whenever...

I'm sorry, I caught half of that, Council Member.

May I answer?

we are going to be working with our financial analyst and with our city treasurer to update our city investment policy and we're going to bring it back hopefully in the next few months

oh cool yeah no i would love to just get an idea of what our investment policy is and then we can

provide a separately our our reserve policy we'll bring it back when we have a little bit more time

to work together, and we'll bring it back to Council.

Not urgent on my part. I'm just curious.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just wanted to say good job. I see you guys working together, and so, yeah, congratulations for the positions,

and also looking forward, yeah, to working closely with you. And I would like to so move item 3B.

And I'll second.

Thank you so much.

Moved by Councillor Yu, seconded by Councillor Wong.

Hearing no further comments or questions, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you, clerk. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay, next item, 3C. I understand there was a request to speak on the item?

Yes, it's me. Okay.

Good evening. My name is Masha. I'm speaking as a resident. I would like to speak on this item regarding renewing our retainer with Mr. Berger. I'd like to recommend to our city council that they use this opportunity to go out for a bid to see what other firms and services are available. I don't know how this firm was selected previously, but most public entities go through an open and public fair process in which they seek and solicit bids from other entities to see, you know, make sure that we're receiving the best services that are available to us. And so while perhaps in the past this was the decision that was taken, we have a new council, so you guys can decide for yourself. I don't know what the length of this retainer might be. Perhaps doing it temporary, I don't know what the length is, so that you're not locked in for an extended period of time without any option to seek out other options. So that is just my recommendation, to bring some more transparency to the process and to make sure that we're fair in the process as well.

Thank you. And are there no further requests to speak on item?

No other speakers. Okay. Thank you very much. Colleagues?

Any questions, comments?

Okay. Staff? Okay. Thank you very much. Okay.

Well, we do have an item before us, 3C.

Do we have a staff report on this?

I don't know. I'm sorry. What was the question?

Is there a staff report on this or anything?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, as indicated in the staff report, I've accepted a partnership with Burke Williams and Sorensen. The new firm has offered to take the current legal retainer agreement, verbatim in essence, and transfer it over. So that's the extent of my staff report. From my perspective, I think the city is better to serve with a bigger law firm.

It has more resources.

and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.

Okay. We have an item first. Do we have a motion?

Three C. Okay. Moved by counsel for you. Second. please. I'll second. Second. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez. Okay. For the comments or questions,

members please vote. Approved unanimously. Thank you very much. Let's see. Next item.

Thank you very much. Oh, thank you. Next item is polled 3D, adopted resolution confirming and extending a local emergency for the Goodview of the Bateman project. I understand we have a bequest to speak. Clerk?

Yes, it's me again.

Okay.

Hello again. It's Michelle.

I am speaking as a resident once again. I am speaking on this item because of the way it's written in the meeting minutes or the meeting agenda. I, it's concerning the way that the fiscal impact statement states that, and I don't understand why it's stated this way.

The staff report claims that there is no direct fiscal impact when it claims that the costs are going to be in excess of,

are calculated to be in excess of $14 million, and yet we've only secured deeds for about $8.6 million. So we anticipate costs to be more than $14. We only secured about $8.6 million, and that's no fiscal impact, no direct fiscal impact. If you do the math, it looks to me that we're already $5.4 million short.

So that's a concern.

Also, why does the report continue to say that it's only $14 million when we already know and it's been publicized that we've already taken $17 million from our capital funds for this project? That's another concern. It seems and it gives the perception that we're being evasive and that we're trying to minimize the appearance of the situation to make ourselves look better. Whatever the situation is, the public deserves the truth. We should be honest and transparent in our reporting and what we're telling the residents. You are all new council members, the three of you. I think you fought very hard for your seats,

and I believe that you also agree that transparency and honesty is of utmost priority,

and hopefully that will be something that you will bring to your seats. Your constituents deserve better, and we should demand better.

Are there any other requests to speak? Clerk? No other speakers. Thank you very much. Okay.

Let's see.

Colleagues or does staff wish to respond? Okay.

Can I have a staff report on this update for public records?

I'll start and then I'll have our city attorney chime in on the law side.

We have talked about this project for quite a long time. We've had several presentations on this project talking about where the status was.

prior to the election there was many comments by the by the public about this project what what I will summarize having to do with this project is that it's been a long abatement of a public nuisance

and a safety issue here the public property has not been mitigated or abated by the property owners. It has continued to be a safety issue to the community. We have put the property owner on notice numerous times. It's on record. We have taken the property owner to court for their

inability to perform. We have been promised many times that abating the property will be part of the project it's never happened they continue to string the city along while we still have a safety issue up there so the city took over the project to abate it for the safety issues let me let me remind everybody out there in the public we are not building a project we are fixing the safety issues and mitigating that hillside that is what we are doing as a city that is our responsibility That is what the city has decided to do to mitigate this project. Okay. Now, in the meantime, we also budgeted for it. So if the people are confused about what we have budgeted for it and where the money is coming from, I would suggest that they probably should look in the budget and take a good look at the budget because it's clearly in the budget on how we are funding this project. Now, we had estimates at the beginning of the project of $17 million. That was engineering estimates before we started the project. We are leaning the property. I think everybody...

owners and their ownership owns. We've talked about this publicly about El Monte, several properties, right? We are eminent domaining those properties too. So in a nutshell, we're not hiding anything. Everything's public documents. It's on the internet. People can look at everything we've done. We have been transparent through the whole process. You know, I think this whole issue about not being transparent has been a constant struggle for the people that aren't willing to look at records that is public to everyone. That's my presentation. If you want me to go into something a little bit more detail on the law itself, I'm going to pass it over to Carl. But I think we've done this quite a bit. And I would hope that a lot of the people that are out there understand what we're doing because I'm sure they are because I'm not having anyone ask any questions of the city other than a few people. So I appreciate the time and thank you. Mr. City Manager? Mr. City Attorney? Do you have anything to add?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the only thing I guess I would observe is with this particular their property owner we are now going into our 10th year of trying to work with this property

owner in order to abate the property we've we've for three years tried to obtain voluntary

compliance after that we entered into three separate iterations of a settlement agreement the property owner did not live up to any of the obligations under the settlement agreement and we continue to struggle to try to have the property owner realize its legal responsibilities with regard to this hillside. Previous city councils have authorized the legal efforts that the city has undertaken, has also authorized the current earthworks on the site. We are coming now to the getting to the end game of that project and we expect to be done in February, barring any additional delays, and we expect to be on budget with regard to the earthquake. The project was bid out at $12 million for a $12 million project. We expect to come, if not under, at that particular dollar figure, barring any other changes to the contract. I will say with regard to the secured deeds that we have on various properties, mainly the main property, and then there's another property in South Almonte, those were secured based upon engineering estimates in 2019. A lot has happened since 2019. You may notice that everything is more expensive, and that is also translated into public works projects. So happy to answer any other questions, but I think all of this is, the record is very replete with all of this. the City Council, this City Council,

you can see from the staff report,

has everything in there that has been filed with the court, the settlement agreements, what have you. Previous City Councils have adopted similar resolutions.

This is simply an extension of the ongoing emergency

that has been ongoing since the City Council first adopted it in 2021.

Happy to answer any other questions. Thank you very much. Any further comments or questions?

Just to clarify some of the questions that were asked earlier, Carl and Ron. So the discrepancies right between the $14, $17, $12 million, I mean, those are essentially just estimates confirming that that's the right understanding, but the actual expected cost at this point is $12 million for the abatement.

The dollar amount for the bid contract is not to exceed $12 million. dollars we're currently with that particular contract around eight million dollars in costs

that we've we've paid thus far on that contract so the overall budget includes engineering costs

design costs those types of costs that are not included in the actual public works contract so an overall budget of 17 million dollars i don't know that we're going to get to 17 million dollars I can only tell you that based even this from a conversation I had this morning from the project manager It appears that we're going to be at the contract price

For the actual public works portion of it

Thank you and and to those who might have questions still about this project Right the staff report that's attached to this council agenda is quite extensive in terms of playing out the history of of this project going back further than 10 years, right, decades actually, in terms of efforts to develop the property and failed efforts over the many decades in the last 10 years or so of litigation and going back and forth with this current owner around abating the safety hazards that exist on the hillside that having grown up here and with others who have grown up here have seen the slope on that hillside continue to fail and get into worse and worse condition over and especially so in the last few years and I think it was critical for the city to step in to make sure that we made that slope safe because there are actually apartments and homes that people that are driving along Garvey it's a very busy thrill fare for the city and the safety right hazard was very very clear and I think this was the appropriate action to take and I hope those who are have questions around the action that was taken will look and there is a website right that the city has set up a web page as part of our website that lays out every step of what we've done and the activity that's taking place now at Good Views and I hope that others will take a look at that and the extensive staff report and if there are still questions around there I think they can reach out to city staff to to get those answered if that's correct. Thank

you Councillor Wong. Yes I have a follow-up question so the expected

completion date is somewhere in February of next year and then when that's done then the public safety measures for the entire hillside will be fixed.

I'm going to use the term fixed.

So between now and February, can you make a statement that we're actually better today than we were three months ago, a year ago, five years ago? Is that a fair statement to make?

I can say that because I have been intimately involved with this project from day one. from the code enforcement section of it to the emergency response when 60 people were out of power and trees were falling and the hillside was sliding I was there I experienced it I helped clean it up so yes we are far better and if you have boots on the ground I've been walking up there looking at all the shoring that was put in there years ago that are dilapidated and the concrete walls that were put up there that have separated that are literally missiles that could come down that hillside that some of them have that we're just lucky enough that K rails were there to stop them and the big wall that we got a long time ago some grant funding for this yes we are in better off shape than we were a long time ago by doing what we did and I thank counsel for taking that action.

Thank you. Any further comments or questions? Okay, I have one question which I think is already answered.

How far back does this issue go now?

I think older than me, right? I am pretty old.

I started in 2013. I'll let that kind of date it.

The overall problem with the hillside originates from the original

approvals that the city council granted in 1977 and 1978.

Yikes.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Okay. Well, any other further comments or questions?

I'll make a motion. I'm happy to make a motion to adopt staff recommendation to extend the local emergency.

Okay. Moved by Councilman Wong. Seconded by Councilman Yu.

If there are no further comments or questions, members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you very much. Okay, next item, let's see.

3J, I believe that was a pulled item by a council member, receiving a file staff report summarizing the staff's emergency repairs of the Amari Path Road Water Line.

Staff report, please.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council. I'm the director of Public Works.

So we're bringing this item as an update

as many of you may know that this

water line has deteriorated and has become An increasing challenge for us to maintain so it was decided that we needed to replace the entire line as of right now We've worked with our consultant cannon and they have nearly completed the design of that that project We're also working with Ferreira the contractor that will be doing this work and our hope is to begin this

emergency work

hopefully by February. This is also dependent on the work that are the material that we can order again as you can see the staff report our goal is to reduce some of these costs by purchasing this material in-house which is typically uncommon of Public Works projects but again in an effort to save

the city additional funds we're going to go ahead and do that measure and Ferrer

has agreed to that so with that I'll answer any questions. Thank you very much.

Oh, actually, do we have any requests to speak on the item of public?

No speakers. Thank you very much. Colleagues? Okay.

Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Sean, for the quick staff report.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate the staff's effort quickly, the quick effort to address the emergency there in terms of repairing the water main. I just wanted to pull aside. I'm not necessarily having questions, but wanted to highlight to our city and our residents the need for significant infrastructure upgrades and maintenance that needs to happen here in the city. And I wanted to highlight that our city is aging, right? Typically coming from our water district before getting on the council, our water infrastructure and much of our infrastructure that's underground, typically the age of the buildings that are on those streets. And so in many areas in the city where you're looking at 80, 90, some places 100-year-old infrastructure, that is indeed of replacement. It is long outlived useful life. so hope that we will continue to look where we can be proactive in replacing infrastructure and ask for the public and our community's support in these efforts as we replace aging infrastructure to be patient with the city but also to participate with us

in making sure

that we're replacing these in a timely fashion and would like small requests to see at some further point down the line if we can get the council can get an update on our sewer water infrastructure and street kind of maintenance schedules going forward and in the future just for a heads up and also would love to see us I know part of the staff before mentioned that we will be doing community engagement with the businesses that are going to be impacted along Maury Pass Road if we can continue those kind of efforts and see how we can promote and help people understand that these are these impacts are coming down the line not just on moderate pass for other parts of our city that are going to undergo infrastructure replacement one to see how we can streamline as much I know it's difficult but as much as we can combine infrastructure replacement programs with sewer water streets and other things to have less impact on businesses and residents where we can but also give them as much of a heads up and to let them know what we're doing and how we're making investments to improve our infrastructure so appreciate the Public Works staffs efforts on this

Thank you. Yeah, and just real quick if I can add.

So we are, to your point, I think we want to make sure we are engaging with our community. We will be working heavily with some of these businesses on this project. There are a few that are 24-hour operations, so we have to work with them intimately to

make sure that we provide those services.

We will be coming back to Council next month to provide an update on how we're doing some

of our street replacement projects and how we're combining those with our sewer projects. And then also we are updating our website to make sure that we are engaging with the public because to me it's very important to make sure the public knows what we're doing. We have a significant amount of development and projects we're doing and to keep them updated and informed is huge. So again, thank you for pointing that out and I appreciate that.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez? Yes.

I just have one question. As I was reading the staff report on this, the $130,000 for this project, where exactly

is that coming from? I know this is like an emergency project. So the water

fund is an enterprise fund so we do have funds within that that specific area so we will be pulling those funds this is strictly for the design the overall cost will be a few million dollars so when we do get to that point we'll be bringing

that back to Council's another update thank you

oh come along yes no no if there aren't any other questions happy to make a

motion to receive and file this report by Councilman Wong second my customer you

Hearing no further comments or questions. Members please vote. Approved unanimously. Clerk next item 3k second amendment to professional services agreement with Kim Lee Horn for Petraro Grande intersection signal

improvements. May my staff report please for that. Oh yeah yes yes uh-huh yes. No speakers.

Okay thank you yes okay. All right so just real quick on this one this is we do

have two signals for the Paterra Grande intersections. This was originally gone out to bid and we actually had two different consultants doing the same street and two different intersections. So we decided that it would be best to re-bid this and go out and make sure that we're doing consistent work for these two intersections. So Kim Lee Horn was the best consultant to do this work. Monterey Park. They had provided originally on one intersection so they also got the second intersection. So again in an effort to really make sure we're cohesive in this project we wanted to make sure that we use one consultant to do this. But again this is to improve the areas along Proterra Grande area Marketplace and Saturn Street along with Marketland Drive. So in general this is to improve safety and transportation through that area. I have to answer any questions. Yes questions?

Yeah, similar to the previous item, just wanted to make sure we were highlighting this for the community that we are making traffic safety improvements in our city. And one of the public comment speakers mentioned this specific area as well. So I wanted to highlight that we are doing this. And if we can, again, continue to see where we can help the community understand and just be aware of these improvements that are coming traffic safety wise. And if there are other I know there are plans for other active transportation improvements on on Petro Grande and that whole area around marketplace. To the extent possible we want to promote that to the community and especially that neighborhood that is going to benefit from that. And appreciate staff's efforts to continue to be proactive on engaging our community and also making our streets safer for drivers and people who are walking and biking and others that are utilizing our infrastructure.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

Okay, hearing no further

Den may I have a motion please?

Happy to make a motion to approve the item

Second Second I'll second Okay Members call for questions, please vote

Okay, oops Members please vote again

Approved unanimously

Thank you Okay Okay, next item, public hearing.

4A, public hearing to approve the 2022 annual report

and the levy of assessments for downtown business improvement district number one. For program year 2023, it is recommended that City Council consider one, opening a public hearing, receiving both written and oral comments, and closing the public hearing, adopting the resolution, confirming the 2022 annual report, and the levy of acceptance for Business Improvement District No. 1 for Program Year 2023 and taking such additional related action that may be desirable.

And with that, I will open the hearing. Anyone who wants to speak, please come forward.

Okay, I will... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Claire.

Okay, let's see. Do you have a staff report for this? Yes, thank you. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council Members. This is your Economic Development Manager, Joseph Torres, again.

And thank you again for the opportunity to present.

Since we have several new Council Members and elected officials who may not be familiar with our downtown business improvement district,

please allow me to give Council a quick overview. Next slide, please.

Business improvement districts, or BIDs for short, have been important partners in the economic development of many cities, including our own. BIDs represent a concerted effort by business leaders within the district to establish well-funded professional organizations that can work to change perceptions of their district to surmount the limits of public resources

and to respond to challenges from regional malls or other competitive developments.

So what is a business improvement district?

It is a public-private partnership in which property and business owners elect to make a collective contribution or assessment to the maintenance, development, and promotion of their commercial district.

There is currently one active bid in the city of Monterey Park, which is in the Garvey-Garfield area, and has been in operation since 1983, when it was first formed.

However, as you can see in the map, not all downtown Monterey Park is part of the bid.

With the intersection of Garvey and Garfield at its center, the district goes as far north on Garfield to Emerson,

as far south on Garfield to Newmark.

On Garvey, it stretches as far west as Ramona and as far as Nicholson to the east.

There are currently 428 businesses in the district with annual assessments this year totaling $63,417. These assessments are paid through annual business license applications or renewals.

Next slide, please.

What are the functions of the bid? In general, the bid delivers a range of supplemental services in coordination with city services

and invests in the long-term economic development of the district,

including maintenance, landscaping, capital improvement, and marketing.

For instance, the bid funded the purchase and installation of the downtown holiday decorations,

planters and seasonal fLors, supplemental sidewalk cleaning, street furniture, and occasional holiday events.

Next slide, please.

The Business Improvement District Advisory Committee, or BIDAC for short, oversees the bid. It's a five-member committee appointed by City Council. Persons appointed to the committee must own or operate a business within the district.

In addition, the City Manager appointed the Economic Development Manager, yours truly, as staff liaison.

The committee has three responsibilities. First is to work with the bid businesses to determine the needs of the district. Second is to make recommendations to the City Council regarding operations and marketing for the bid. And third is to make recommendations to the City Council regarding the methods and ways the revenue is derived from the assessments imposed by Chapter 5.82 of the Monterey Park Municipal Code and California Streets and Highways Code 36500.

Next slide, please.

And that's what brings me here today, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. On behalf of BIDAC, the committee would like the City Council to open a public hearing, which you just did, thank you, regarding the assessment of businesses within the Business Improvement District for the 2023 program year. This public hearing was noticed in the Monterey Park Press newspaper, and every business in the bid was sent a hearing notice in Chinese, English, and Spanish. These assessment revenues will fund beautification, promotional activities, and special events to benefit the downtown bid businesses in 2023. And in support of bid businesses that may still be struggling under the financial pressures of the pandemic, the committee has selected to keep the bid assessments for 2023 the same as the previous three years. There is no year-over-year increase. However, the law governing bids provides an opportunity for all potential assesses to protest the proposed renewal, thus the public hearing. During this public hearing, if protests are received from bid businesses that pay 50% or more of the total assessment to be levied, the proposed assessment may not occur. If the protests received do not amount to 50% or more, then at the conclusion of this public hearing, the Council may adopt a resolution confirming the levy of assessments or adjust as needed. Mr. Mayor, Council Members, before we, of course, we already proceeded with the public hearing, I'd like to bring to your attention a correction on the resolution to levy assessments. On Section 2 of the resolution entitled Protest, the dollar value of valid protests required to prevent adoption of the proposed assessments currently shows $51,188. That amount should be changed to $31,574, which is 50% of the total assessment to be levied as provided to us by HDL, the outside firm that handles the city's business license fee collection.

Next slide, please Thank you. Mr. Mayor council members. I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you for that presentation colleagues

Yes, thank you joseph for the presentation and appreciate your efforts And the the bids efforts, I would hope that at some point the bid members or someone from the bid would or bid act would be here to kind of present to the council at a future date. Would love to hear directly from them what feedback they're getting from other businesses and members of the business improvement district. And would love to encourage them and hope you will help pass on this encouragement to them to continue to think innovatively and bigger about how we can reimagine what downtown Maori Park and the business improvement district should look like and how it can evolve and be more vibrant. one other I think correction section 1e on the suggested resolution or the draft resolution language I think it says so 1e adopting resolution blah blah within business improvement district number one for program year 2013 I think that should be 23 unless it is 13 and I don't know but that may need a change and otherwise I'm happy to make a motion to adopt staff recommendation on this with that change, with the two changes.

Yeah, 2023. That's correct.

And I wanted to inform Council that the new chairperson of BIDAC, Ms. Elizabeth Yang, had intended to be here tonight. Unfortunately, something came up on a last-minute basis, so she extends her apology for not being here.

But I will definitely extend the invitation to all the bid-act commissioners to come and present themselves to the Council.

Okay. Thank you very much for those.

Just real quick, I want to echo sentiments of Councilman Wong.

I think it would be good for us to be able to have someone from the BDAC present to us,

since I think it's a question, you know, especially if that's our downtown,

and really I think it's important for us to have that dialogue, that conversation about how we can collaborate

to improve that part of the city, which is very central.

Having that, there are no further comments or questions.

May I have a motion, please? So moved. Moved by Councillor Wong.

No second, please. Second by Councillor Yu.

There are no further comments or questions. Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you, clerk.

Okay. New business, none. City communications. Let's see.

We'll start with Council Member Yu.

I attended a lot. I think I attended the Holiday Snow Village at the George LA Park on December 8th. It is located at the farmer's market, and combining with the snow village,

combined with the farmer's market, actually, it brings more business to the vendors. So I think it's a very good idea. It was so crowded, so we were actually 5 out of 3,000 people that attended, and my kid has so much fun, so thank you for that. And last two weeks was the sworn-in week, so we attended a lot of cities, a sworn-in ceremony, including Arcadia, Montebello, San Gabriel, Alhambra, Mountain View School District, and also our assessor, Jeff Prank. So congratulations again to all the newly elected officials. Since this is the last sessions in 2022, and I want to wish everyone happy holidays and stay healthy and be happy. Thank you. Thank you, Katharine Yu. Katharine Ngo?

I will echo Councilwoman's sentiments in terms of attending many of our city's activities.

Very enjoyable.

Also add that we attended the women's group Christmas party or Christmas meeting. And there was many, many toys donated to our fire staff to be for our city. I just hope and wish everyone a safe and warm holiday. Enjoy it while you can.

Thank you. Thank you. Before I continue, isn't there something special about today, Council Member?

What could that be?

Another person getting a year older?

Yes. Who will that person be?

It is my birthday, and actually I don't really celebrate birthdays.

Well, happy birthday nonetheless.

Thank you. Council Member Wong.

Happy birthday, Council Member Ngo. Appreciate your being here and sharing with us your special day, turning 35 or 36. I don't know if this takes formal action. I would love to see and suggest that we take a look at redesigning or refreshing some of our city kind of public-facing documents, including our certificates in proclamation designs. I think they've been around for a little while and would love to, as we've been going around to a lot of different events honoring other people

who are celebrating things

and recognize them for their achievements, I think it'd be appropriate at this time in the near future to, and I'm inspired by this beautiful logo, to see if we can maybe refresh our external facing documents and documents that recognize other achievements. And I don't know if that takes action formally from the board or from the council.

Mayor? Well, speak. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes, please. Yes.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. I'm seeing a lot of heads shaking up and down that maybe there is some revival that's needed with our certificates.

So if your direction is to provide staff maybe looking at various different templates, sizes, the look of them,

I think we all have some pretty good examples out there that maybe you all have been given coming on board and maybe over your time of your career.

We'll take a look at that and we'll bring back something for your review.

And then possibly I would suggest also maybe a policy on giving out certificates.

them for a wonderful whatever you're there for I think there's probably some

things that we need to round in a little bit if that's the pleasure of the

council future agenda item okay yes definitely okay thank you

additional comment I guess this is kind of a question for a future potential item for discussion uh i don't know the history and whether there was discussion previously by this council on the san gero valley regional housing trust and why or why we didn't join or decide to join as a city i'd love to bring that up if there's support among the other council members uh to consider potentially joining the trust and what that would mean and what that looks

like mr mayor members of the council that your inclusionary housing ordinance is coming back for

consideration on the 18th of January and we'll have that on as a decision point

because the IHO does contemplate having a housing trust fund and actually

pre-funded by monies from Celadon so that I don't think there was any

decision made it was simply has not happened yet but there is I mean it's

separate from that right there is an existing San Diego Valley housing trust

right but I'm just saying that we can put it together it makes sense to have

together as one item okay yeah uh i think that's it on my uh just wish uh joining my colleagues

and wishing everyone happy holidays appreciate all the staff's work thanks for staying with us sticking with us uh late into the holidays tonight and uh looking forward to hopefully everyone gets some rest and enjoys time with family and loved ones and we'll see everyone in the new year thanks

Thank you, Councillor Wong. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

Yes. First of all, I wanted to thank staff for all of your wonderful reports. I especially wanted, my daughter always reminds me to thank the Parks and Rec Department and the library for all of the amazing programming that you guys do because it keeps us busy as parents. I know it does, a lot of my neighbors and people in my district who have kids really appreciate a lot of the programming that you do, so thank you. I also wanted to wish, wish Vinn, happy birthday and Michelle congratulations on your swearing in and then just wish everyone a happy Christmas and happy New Year and stay

safe and be well thank you thank you and let's see I'll try to keep it brief I do attend and love the I'm sorry against of our neighboring communities and school

districts because as I think I've often said issues like traffic public safety

economic development and they don't know boundaries and we have to work together as a region and no agency is a silent one to itself and it's always important that we

collaborate together. I also want to acknowledge that the day after our own swearing in of Council members and

new officers, Morgan Park also played host to the swearing in for our County Assessor Jeff Prang and it was a packed crowd, probably just as packed as our own council meeting that

night.

But we want to thank the county assessor for choosing Monterey Park to be the host city. And I think his staff was just completely pleased by the level of professionalism and cooperation by the city of Monterey Park. And I think, if anything, it put the city in a very positive light to the county of Los Angeles.

So job well done.

I also would like to ask if we can close tonight's council meeting in memory of a devoted public servant who unfortunately passed away, and that's Ms. Louise Davis.

And if the council will allow me, I'd like to also, for the record, read into a biography for Ms. Davis.

I'll begin now. On November 22nd, 2022, former Mayor Louise Davis passed away at the age of 90.

In 2001, the Honorable Louise Davis retired from serving over 20 years of public office in the San Gabriel Valley. Louise served as the mayor of Monarch Park for three terms, from 1980 to 81 and again in 1983. Prior to her mayoral term, she was elected as the, quote, grassroots candidate for Monarch Park City Council in 1976, where she served for eight years. She was a unique council member who spent her time directly addressing her constituents' problems and working to make Monarch Park a better place for all its residents. After a brief break from public life to enjoy her children and grandchildren, Louise accepted the encouragement from residents and ran for Monarch Park City Treasurer in 1988. She served in this capacity for 12 years.

It was known for her sharp wisdom and good judgment.

Louise was born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, graduated from St. Angelina's Academy where she was a class president and received a scholarship to pursue her college education in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin.

At the conclusion of World War II, she met Bill Davis and when he returned from the Navy,

they were soon to be married.

Louise and Bill Davis moved to Monterey Park in 1955, raised seven children, all attended

public schools.

Louise became heavily involved with the PTA and the Mother's March of Dimes.

She was appointed to the Community Relations Commission,

where she worked to foster better ethnic relations in Monterey Park, a city known for its multicultural and diverse population. She served as the hostess of the city's Welcome Wagon in the 1960s,

represented her community in the March of Dimes,

served on the Monterey Park Boys and Girls Club Board, the President's Community Advisory Board of East Los Angeles College,

and the American Red Cross Board, Thankable Valley Chapter.

She also worked diligently to preserve the history of the city.

She served so well as President of the Modern Park Historical Society.

Louise has served as a Charter Member as well as President of the Modern Park Historical Society. Louise has served as a charter member and president of Hillhaven Health Care Centre's Community Advisory Board and a charter member and chairperson of the Friends of the Langley

Senior Centre.

Among her many honours, Louise was named Woman of the Year by the Soroptim International

Monark Park.

She has been a recipient of the most valuable Citizens Award from the Monark Park Boys and Girls Club, an award of merit from the Monark Park Chamber of Commerce and the Community Service Award from the Monark Park Lions Club.