City Council Meeting — January 18, 2023

Monterey Park. Good evening. City Council of Monterey Park. The City Council acting 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 Abatement District agenda for a regular City Council meeting at Monterey Park City Hall Council Chambers at 320 West Newmark Avenue, Monterey Park, California 91754. On this day, January 18th, 2023 p.m. at 6.30 p.m. Let's all rise for the flag salute that will be provided today by the Mario Park Police Explorers.

Please rise.

Let's all rise for the flag that will be provided by the Mario Park Police Explorers.

Please put your hand over your heart. Please put your hand over your heart. Color Guard, present colors.

Ready to begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of the

United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of the nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Nice job.

Color guard, forward, close. Please be standing. Color guard, outward, face. Color guard, forward, march.

Color guard, halt, close.

Color Guard, on the ground, face.

Color Guard, dismissed. Color guard, all down, face. Color guard, dismissed. ! Thank you.

Thank you. Please be seated.

Roll call. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Yu. Here. Council Member Go. Here. Council Member Wong.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

Here. Mayor Lo.

Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Clerk.

Agenda additions, deletion, change, and adoptions.

None from the city manager's office.

Okay, thank you very much. Public communications.

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

Yes, we do.

Okay, proceed, please.

Vincent Cheng.

Good evening. I get to be first.

Well, hello, Mayor, members of the City Council, as well as City Clerk and our City Treasurer. Congratulations if I didn't get a chance to say that before. The reason I'm here is because on January 14th, this is past Saturday, we had a plaque dedication to the Grammy-nominated local band, Chicago rock group, Diera.

Actually, it's for Rudy Salas and Steve Salas, founders of Tierra. That's located on Garfield, on the corner of the brand-new Starbucks. So that will now be forever known as, hopefully forever known, as Tierra Corner. The reason is because that was where their recording studio was at. so I want to thank Monterey Park as well specifically our city manager our assistant city manager as well as the public works crew that came out and put that plaque in that will remain in perpetuity and hopefully it puts Monterey Park on the musical map so I understand that they have fans like as far as Japan. So hopefully if they get out here, they come to see the sign or the plaque and have a coffee. And this will be Monterey Park's little piece of Hollywood. So thanks again for all that was, who were involved, including the property owners as well, of course, in Starbucks. So if you haven't had a chance to, please go take a look at it. You know, it's really cool. And we had a great turnout, I think almost 100 people, despite the rain that was. And I think somebody mentioned that, you know, it was tears from heavens because the family was so excited to have that, you know, the fact that installed in their honor. Let's see. In other news, the Greater Monterey Park Chamber of Commerce will be having its annual dinner. I know that due to COVID, that has been postponed for a few times. This year, we're actually, the chamber will be giving awards to a number of local businesses, or business owners, I should say, one being minority, or was it women-owned business, young entrepreneur, as well as a brand new business. And, of course, you know, a special one for our educator, our local educator. So, you know, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reveal the name at this point, but, you know, I think they're all familiar to most of you, if not every one of you. So that will take place on January 26th, Thursday, January 26th, at the, of course, the brand new renovated Luminarius restaurant. I think it starts up at 6. So if you haven't received your invitation yet, you'd like to go, please email orphelia.ing at, I'm doing this in my memory, Garfield Health Center. check with them for the specific address. Okay, so again, thank you. Good seeing everyone.

And thank you for your work with the Tierra Landmark.

Okay.

Next speaker, Helen Romero Shaw.

So, good evening, Mayor, City Council, Ron Bo, the City Manager, and the rest of the staff. I'm Helen Romero-Shaw. I'm the Public Affairs Manager representing Southern California Gas Company. I'm here to talk about these historically high bills that are, and the bills are reaching all our customers. So I've been hearing that from different customers that there's a warning on the envelope that there's sticker shock. And so we're doing this outreach so that the city councils have a little bit more information. I actually brought a one-sheet page that explains the reasons and brochures, the customer programs that we have to help the customers. And then congratulations to the new council members. I do have business cards for all of you, but congratulations, and I know you're all going to do a good job.

So I'll give all this to the city clerk.

So first of all, SoCal Gas has been a distribution company for 150 years, and what we do is we buy natural gas on behalf of our customers. the residents and the small businesses. We do not set the rates. We buy it on either regional or national markets.

And whatever we pay, we pass along to the customer. We don't market up. We don't make a profit. We're heavily regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission.

So they scrutinize all our budgets and our programs. And so the reason this is happening, and that's I wanted to explain, and this one sheet page here that I have will also explain it. There is a really cold front, cold weather occurring in the western United States. These are the states of Washington and Oregon and California. And so our customers are using more natural gas to keep warm. They're using their heaters. And so the demand is very high. The supply is not coming in as we have been accustomed to, to have natural gas available. It comes from domestic sources, but also from Canada.

So there's been a pullback on the supply. that's adding to less supply of natural gas and adds to the price. Also there is a transmission

pipeline. You know our gas comes on transmission pipelines from the other states in particular

Texas and that pipeline has been out of order for some time so that reduces natural gas. The other is we have storage fields throughout Southern California. That's our service territory. The storage fields are not filled up like we used to have them.

We used to buy natural gas during the summer when it was less expensive and store it into storage fields.

There's been a lot of restrictions on us doing that. So we want to encourage our customers to go to our website or call the 800 number on your bill if you feel that you qualify for 20% discount or level pay plan. I mean, there's numerous programs. And also do things like Loring the thermostat if you can. I mean, health permitting, of course.

Loring the water heater. You know, sometimes customers don't realize that the water heaters are too high,

and it uses a lot of natural gas. So thank you so much, and if there's any questions,

you have my business card and my email and my phone numbers.

Thank you.

Thank you, and you also share, again, the website,

the number of customers want to find out more?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Mayor? Yes, and you said that you're also, can you also share the website and the number if people want to? Yes, it's

800-427-2200. That's the, is that what you're saying? Yes. And then the website is socalgas.com.

Okay, great, thank you. Oh, any other? Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, Councilman, Mayor Pro Tem. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well.

For residents that might have been financially impacted by the increase, are there any type of programs that you guys are creating to help offset this increased?

Yes, there is a lot of programs.

Are these on your website?

On the website, and I also brought a brochure that I'm going to give to the city clerk. It's all the customer assistance programs, so you can, you know, share this information. But it's all on the website.

But we also encourage our customers, if they don't use the Internet or they don't have a computer or anything,

they can call the 800 number and they'll get a customer representative.

They'll look up their account and they'll help them in finding out what programs are applicable to them.

Thank you for that. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you, Helen.

Council Member Thomas Wong.

Thank you, Helen.

I appreciate your work on behalf of SoCal Gas in our communities. But a question for Ron and for, I guess, whoever manages our social media accounts and other communications avenues, if we can help promote some of that messaging from SoCal Gas and our other utilities about customer assistance programs. Yes, Council Member Wong. I was doing hand signals to our ACM that we could probably use the links to link up with your web page

so our customers can actually get to that web page very easily through our portal.

And so we'll do that. And anything that she provides, we'll try to figure out how we can provide that information to our customers. Yes.

And if you have additional flyers or other brochures, I'm sure we already leave that out.

I brought you a little bag. Excuse us. Excuse us. Excuse us.

SoCal Gas. There's a bunch of stuff in here. But if you need anything else, you know, contact me. Yeah. And if you can leave more, if you can bring more, I think we'd probably put that out Langley Center and some of our parks. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Next speaker, Amy Lee.

Did you have to give up your time to me?

She's relinquishing her time. I'm relinquishing my time to Michelle Yee.

Next speaker, me. Correct.

Good evening.

My name is Michelle Yee, and I'm speaking as a resident of the City of Monterey Park. During our last City Council meeting, there was some confusion regarding the comments I made in regards to the Good Views item on the agenda,

whereas the City Council approved millions of dollars of the City's general funds to be spent on repairs on private property.

While I do disagree with the City's decision and how they went about approving the project,

the decision was already made and the damage was done.

so it wasn't the item at that point. At that point what my concerns were and what I was trying to convey was what seemed like the egregious nature with which the staff report was written to conceal and minimize the impacts of the project on the city budget. If you believe in this project and the decision that was made there should be no shame in being open and honest in regards to the fiscal impacts harbored by the cost of this project. Instead, staff and the city attorney continue to suppress the total costs by playing word games with the public and these council members regarding the contracted amount, amount spent to date, and muffling your words when informing them the $14 million does not include engineering and design fees. Most flagrant of all, writing in the staff report there is no direct fiscal impact from adopting this resolution how does spending 14 million dollars of the city's money on private property have no direct fiscal impact of course there will be a direct fiscal impact you made your decision own up to

it and tell the public and our city departments what the financial impact is let's look at the

numbers. As you berated the residents for being too stupid to see the costs were already publicized

in the city budget, let's take a look at the city budget. Here it is. This is the city budget. See this document, how thick it is? Are you guys blind? It's all right here. Never mind that it's buried in this document that's hundreds of pages long. It's not even listed as its own line item, but rather a footnote to a table and the footnote is listed on another page. You know how ridiculous it is to expect the public to be able to find that information in this document.

Have some respect for the people who you serve and don't be rude.

Let's look at the numbers too.

So no direct fiscal impact, huh? Let's read that footnote. Estimated cost for the Good News Project is $17 million. In fiscal year 22-23, unassigned and assigned funds will be reduced by $12 million. And in fiscal year 23-24, assigned funds are going to be reduced by $5 million. Hmm. Let's do the math. Total unassigned and assigned capital improvement funds are about $22 million. $17 million of $22 million is about 75% of the entire budget for only one project. So by 2024 and 2025, only $2.7 million will remain, with only $1.2 million left in fiscal year 25-26 from $22 million. And there's no direct fiscal impact? Are you sure?

They keep trying to tell you and reassure us, don't worry. They're putting liens on the properties. We're going to get our money back. You can't pay bills with liens.

What about all the other city departments who will have to suffer because we don't have any money now to pay for their repairs or projects? Do you think they are not feeling any direct fiscal impact? Of course you do. That's why you had our police chief and librarian begging for money by posing for ads for a tax increase. Did you tell them the truth?

Don't get excited and don't start your wish list anytime soon.

The money from this sales tax isn't going to go for new projects like the public was duped to believe. It's only making up for the money that was taken for this Good Views project. As public servants, we should have the utmost respect for the people who we serve and who pay our salaries.

Integrity, honesty, and transparency has to be at the core of all our actions and decisions. We all can do better. This could have been handled differently. Stop making excuses to try to downplay the situation.

Moving forward when preparing staff reports, do so openly and candidly.

If you believe in your decisions, tell the entire truth.

Council members, you are voting on these matters. These are decisions that you will have to bear.

At minimum, pretend to give a damn. Pretend to care.

Pretend like you're paying attention.

Instead of spending the entire council meeting patting each other on the back and high-fiving each other, ask questions.

Demand transparency.

if not for yourself, at least for the constituents you serve and who voted for you. Thank you.

Staff, do you have any response?

No other speakers.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to staff communications. First, communication, community development.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. It's my privilege this evening to provide a quick update to you regarding Monterey Park's Going Green campaign, which will translate to a sustainability plan to help guide us in future programs and policies as a city, as well as inform and help our community members become or be better practitioners of sustainability in their own lives. To date, we've conducted outreach efforts, whether they be to residents or our business community, for opinions about what the city or what they themselves can do related to sustainability efforts through our online survey. By attending city events, city staff has been able to have our most direct-facing outreach opportunity. Next slide. I'm also excited to share that we've partnered with MPK Rewards to offer incentives for completing the survey. Reward members who complete the survey will gain extra points for future redemptions, And this program was launched last week and is available to the first 100 respondents through our MPK Rewards Program. Next slide. We will continue attending community events, including the Lunar New Year Festival scheduled this weekend, where attendance is expected to be high. And we plan to publicize our attendance on social media platforms, such as the posting that's shown in the slide, as well as networking with our other community departments through their social media platforms. Next slide. while we've been focusing our outreach efforts on people completing the survey, we'll also be offering several workshops in February to reach people on a more individual basis and solicit feedback on the city's sustainability efforts. The workshops will be held both in a virtual format and in-person format at a variety of locations around town, such as Langley Center, Garvey Ranch Park, Elder Park, and El Encanto. There will also be a free food scrap container giveaway to attendees, and we look forward to meeting more members of our community and hearing what they have to say about sustainability. Next slide. This concludes my very short summary here of our Going Green outreach efforts. Just to reiterate, we'd love for additional community interest and participation. You know, everyone can keep up to date with efforts on the Going Green website. the city's social media with the hashtag going green MPK or just by taking the survey. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much, members. Do you have any questions? I have a quick question. So I know you'll be at the Lunar New York Festival, but how have you already been doing your outreach prior to today's meeting?

Sure. So our events have included being at the Monster Mash, at the Snow Village, even attending the Farmer's Market. I believe you paid us a visit at our booth on Thursday. So those were some of our more direct-facing social engagement efforts. We've also been appearing at the Langley Center. We will do so at a workshop scheduled to coincide with some of their programming to capture a good audience number and have good participation. Okay, great. Thank you.

Let's see. Is there a hard deadline when you guys are planning to end the survey?

Oh, yes. Thank you so much for bringing that up. Our hard deadline will be February 28th. That's when the survey ends and where we wrap up all our efforts on our workshops to give us time to analyze what the community is telling us and to prepare our recommendations as part of the sustainability plan. I have a follow-up question.

Thank you for that.

Was this survey shared with our local school districts and our local schools?

I know I see students in the audience.

It would be important to include them in our city's environmental sustainability plan.

Absolutely. So we did reach out to the Alhambra School District and all the other school districts that serve our city. Alhambra School District, who most of these people are affiliated with here, would have received a parental bulletin about our survey.

They've also been kind enough to include us in their social media efforts as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Next presentation, library services.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council and the audience. My name is Diana Garcia, City Librarian. I'm here before you this evening to just share some exciting upcoming things we've got going on at the library. Next slide, please.

so I just want to remind everybody that with the new year we have new hours at the library really excited we've got five full days of service Tuesdays and Wednesdays till 8 p.m.

Thursday Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Public has responded very very well to this even

with all the rain we've had the past couple weeks it's been extremely busy at the library

so I encourage everybody to come out come in check out a book attend a class attend a program

and say hi. Next slide, please. The next item I want to highlight is our free legal assistance

clinic. This we haven't had for a couple of years due to COVID, but we are bringing it back this

month. This has been an incredibly popular service that we've offered at the library.

This was organized in conjunction with many, many different bar associations. You can see

all the logos at the bottom of the slide there. This is multilingual. So we've got volunteer

attorneys that are working pro bono to provide assistance with questions about tenant law,

family law, employment, immigration, all of those different topics. To register for this program,

you can call the reference desk. The number is on the slide there, 626-307-1368. And I do want

to give a shout out to our board of trustees member Travis Kaya for helping us organize

this and bringing together all of the different bar associations to come in and assist. Next slide.

The next item I'd like to highlight is our computer classes.

So no, I don't read Chinese, but this slide is in Chinese because starting in February,

we're going to be doing computer classes in Mandarin.

These classes are on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7 p.m. They're basic computer classes, so they're great for seniors.

We teach skills like using a mouse, sending email, receiving email, using the Internet, and things like that.

Tuesday evening is the class, and then Wednesday there is a tech hour where people can come in and they can practice those skills.

We do those in all of our community languages.

So this month is English, next month is Mandarin, March is going to be Cantonese, April Vietnamese, and May will be Spanish.

In the summer, we'll take a little break, and then we'll restart those computer classes.

So if you're interested in attending these, you can call the library to register 626-307-1368. Next slide.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program is going to be returning to the library.

This is going to be starting February 2nd, and it's going to go through April 6th.

This is every Thursday, 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

This is presented in partnership with Chinatown Service Center,

who is an incredible partner for the library and for the city at large.

Volunteer CPAs come in, and they help folks prepare their state and their federal income taxes.

So there are some income restrictions. Folks have to be under $60,000. It has to be a simple tax form. This is great for seniors. And there are volunteers who help out in our community languages. So if folks don't speak English very well, there are volunteer CPAs who speak our community languages.

So to check eligibility, you can go to the website on the slide here, and to register, you'll call the library, same number, 3071368. And I just want to thank Chinatown Service Center for being an incredible partner and helping us offer that program.

Next slide. That concludes my updates. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

Come for you, Gilmike. Hi. I just wanted to bring back the slide for the Chinese slide. I was confused because the Chinese say calculator basic course. Instead of computer?

We'll take a look at that.

We've got our teen volunteers doing our Chinese translation right now, so I'll give them that feedback. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. No more questions. Thank you.

Thank you much. Any other? Councilman, go.

You have the mic. Yeah, I just want to make a quick comment. I think the the IRS has extended the fouling this year By a couple of weeks or a month we need to confirm that but that means that the VITA program will be extended

correspondingly

That's fantastic. Thank you

Complementary Wong of Mike just as a former VITA volunteer. I want to encourage everyone who is interested in income qualified to take advantage of this program it's a great way to get your tax tax return done and particularly for those who are income qualified it's a great opportunity to make sure that you're accessing your income tax credits and other tax credits are available from the federal and state government so I assume we are going to promote this on our social media channels and other communications channels hope that we can do that and it's great to see this program come back and other in-person

programs come back. Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you. A lot of good information.

Okay. Next, presentation on Recreation and Community Services Department. I'm sorry. Sorry about Public Works. Oops.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council.

Shawnee, Public Works Director. I'm here to give a quick update on the recent storms that impacted

the city. Overall, the city fared fairly well.

We didn't have any major issues that impacted the city. All the issues that did arise, the city was able to react appropriately and quickly. We had crews working around the clock during each of these events. I want to give a big thanks to all the departments, but especially police and fire for all of their assistance with various measures such as windshield surveys, even traffic control, things like that, and even just actual hands-on assistance.

So big thanks to them.

Here are some of the issues that we did have. Some minor leaks at some of our facilities, those have been either addressed or will be addressed in the coming weeks or months. We had a few slides that occurred, all of them on private property. One on Ridgecrest, 710 and Ramona, Garvey, between Campanita and Abajo, and then Orange near Saturn.

And then we had five trees that went down. All of them, again, were private trees.

Many of them didn't block city roadways So we did have to clear those just so we could allow traffic to pass through so There were two trees that fell at Garvey near Abajo Those were actually city of Alhambra's that fell onto our roadways. We had to clear those with our contractor

And then we had one tree at Culligan and Floral

Again private tree that fell under the right-of-way that we had to clear and then two pines That were at Ramona and Corpus Center with that. I will answer any questions. Thank you very much

Councilman Wong, you have the mic?

No real question, just appreciate Public Works and city staff for your quick response and continued response to the impacts of the storms. I know other parts of the state had it much, much more difficult time and are still recovering. Sounds like we've fared pretty well, but obviously the rain, the types of rain and the amount of rain has exacerbated

I think some of the

deterioration in our streets. and it would be great at some point down the line to maybe have a review of the payment management plan and our kind of street repair. I know that's on the agenda too, but to continue to help communicate those repairs to the public in our community and the status of those repairs going forward

in the next couple months to years.

I know my own family who lives in Monterey Park have expressed concerns around the state of disrepair of some of our streets and would love to just make sure that they and others that are interested

are updated about those. Great. Thank you. Councilor Gould. Just to follow up on that, I

noticed a lot more potholes with the rain, number one, and number two, if you can just kind of give

us a brief report. You had mentioned that the city fared relatively well. Do we have any major

street closures because of landslides or anything of that nature? No, we didn't have any. A couple

of them were closed temporarily but again they were all open fairly quickly.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other

comments? Okay great. Thank you so much. And again thank you for all the good work of you and your staff. Thank you. Appreciate it. Great.

Next, Recreation and Community Services Department.

Good evening Mayor, Mayor Prozen and City Council members. Robert de Gheary, Director of Recreation and Community Services. Tonight just giving some brief updates on some upcoming events. So as you all know this Saturday we're very excited the Lunar New Year Festival will be taking place on Garvey Avenue this Saturday from 10 to 9 p.m. on Saturday and on from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. So just to remind folks that the event is completely free. There's going to be carnival games out there, lots of vendors, delicious food, live entertainment all weekend. We're expecting beautiful weather. I know we've had some rain, so we're excited to have some sun. Still a little crisp in the air, but definitely it's going to be beautiful weather out there. Opening ceremony, I hope to see you guys all there on Saturday at 11, and you'll get to see some traditional entertainment, lion dance, dragon dance. Also want to point out that we do have a shuttle service that runs all weekend. There's shuttle stop at Mark Keppel High School and also Repetal High School, I'm sorry Repetal School that will run to the festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. It's completely

free and there's free parking available there as well. Next slide please. So just a reminder,

last Thursday was our opening night for the new farmers market location here at Barnes Park. It

was very well attended. We were happy even though we've again had some of the bad weather. It was It was nice to see that folks came out to the first night to kind of check it out. There's lots of delicious produce. I even took dinner home to my family that night, which my wife was very happy with. Live entertainment is going to be every week at the Farmers Market, and that's every Thursday Barnes Park from 4 to 9 p.m. So do encourage the residents and City Council to come out, enjoy the market. It's a great location, and we're looking forward to many successful weeks there.

Next slide, please.

Finally, I just want to let everyone know that Langley Center, we are extending hours so beginning Thursday, February the 2nd. Currently, our hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and then on Saturdays 8 a.m. to 12 noon. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are going to be extending our hours until 8 p.m. What we're looking to really do is to invite some of our new seniors, some of our younger seniors maybe that work during the week or maybe don't have an opportunity to get into the Senior Center during the day or maybe some of the seniors that just have never been into Langley Senior Center and want to kind of get in there maybe get into the new fitness area enjoy some ping pong or pool all activities will be open and this will be really an opportunity for us to invite some of our new seniors to the facility to get them comfortable with finding a new home that they'll hopefully enjoy for years to come.

And then finally, I just want to remind everyone, we continue to grow our following on social media.

We love pushing out all of the new and exciting information. We're also trying to share as much of the other things that are going on in the other departments. So please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter at Monterey Park Rec.

So at Monterey Park R-E-C. Thank you. And I'm available for any questions. Great.

Council members? Council member Wong, get out of the mic.

Thanks Robert and appreciate all your team's work on this and really appreciate the robust nature of the updates on social media. I think those are really helpful and I repost those a lot. Thank you. So keep doing that so I

can just repost. Repost it. Thank you. Appreciate that.

And yeah I appreciate for the services at Langley Center like the gym and exercise equipment. Do seniors have to pay

fees? Completely free. It's all free. Yeah, so you can come in, play ping pong, shoot pool.

We have, as I mentioned, during COVID, we expanded our fitness area, all commercial-grade equipment. It's beautiful, and lots of seniors are taking advantage of it. It's got a cardio area as well as a weight training area, and it's completely free.

Cool. No, that's great.

Any issues with overcrowding or lines or anything? Not yet.

People are pretty nice about just sharing equipment. Usually there's a high demand on some of the cardio equipment,

but people have been pretty friendly about using it for a short period of time and rotating in. And there's plenty of equipment there to kind of share amongst the seniors.

Are there locker facilities or changing facilities?

There's not a locker facility or changing area there, no.

And we don't encourage that in the restaurant.

And do you have to be a senior to utilize those?

50 years or over to utilize the programming at Langley Center.

Yes, 50 years or over.

So as you know like some of our new seniors 50 years are still working

And so that that's kind of what we were trying to target with them over extended hours is some of those folks may still be working

So they get off at 5 6 o'clock and this is a good opportunity for them to visit the senior center

Start to get familiar with it that way when they no longer work

They'll start they'll feel comfortable coming in at the other earlier hours. Yeah, no, that's great great to see

expanded hours for

And I'm gonna stop calling them senior and say active older adults

very good no i appreciate all that work and i appreciate our expansion of our services that are available for our community uh and look forward to continuing to expand our services hopefully in the months and years to come absolutely and would love an update on how how utilization is going for for that especially as we're the new year people taking advantage of or trying to to meet their new year's resolutions uh and just i think covet easing continuing to ease interested to see how everything's kind of being used or not. Absolutely.

Great. Thank you much, Council Member Wong. Any other

comments? Thank you. And again, I just also

want to echo the sentiment.

I had an opportunity to go to the

farmer's market last week, and

yeah, I think, you know, it's great to do at Barnes Park. It's a central location,

and I know it certainly means a lot to the community to be able to

have a thriving farmer's market.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And we look forward to it.

We think it's going to be a great location, and thinks the community is really going to enjoy the new location. So I look forward to seeing everyone out there.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night.

Okay. Let's see. Moving on to presentations.

We have the first presentation, 1A, Mark Capable Girls Tennis Team 2022 CIF Division for Champions.

And why don't I just describe?

So I'm very proud to announce that in 2022, the Mark Keppel Girls Tennis team won the 2022 CIF Division IV Team Championship. This was the first championship for girls tennis in 83 years for the Mark Keppel family and its history. Congratulations.

It's always a pleasure to recognize our residents for their achievement and also recognition for their dedication and hard work and practice. And so you make our community very proud And I thought I could also invite up your coach, Michael Ten, to perhaps say a few words about...

Actually, I should say the Honorable Michael Ten, who, Mr. Ten, who, those who may not know, was a council member for the city of South Pasadena for many years.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Pro Tem, Honorable City Council Members, City Manager, and City Attorney.

Mayor twice, two sessions for the city of South Pasadena.

I was also the vice president of SCAG for the term I was there.

Well, but we're here to talk about my girls here. Can they come up? Yes, of course.

Come on up, ladies.

Our captain, Vivian Dong, is right there holding the championship trophy. This is the first time in girls tennis Mark Keppel has won a CIF division championship. The boys have won one back in the 60s, but this is the first chance for the girls, and I know the mayor had said it's, I think, what, since 1939 to 2022. And I'm very proud of the girls that are here. I'm glad to bring you here to be able to meet them. And hopefully, Vivian, do you give her a chance to say a little bit to you? Please. Please. Monterey Park. Monterey Park. This is probably a future leader here. Wonderful. Just like I told you, Henry, you'd be here at mayor someday. Yes, and you're very prescient. Vivian will be one someday. Thank you. Good evening to the members of the City Council, the mayor, all the staff members. Me and my team are very privileged to be here today. I truly believe in the fact that we have some very talented members of this team, but I think that

we're more than just a few good playing members, but a lot of members here, every single one of them, they work incredibly hard. I see them come to Saturday practices. I see them give them all their efforts during after-school practices. Outside of school, they practice, and I'm really proud of all my members, all my teammates, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be their captain because as their captain I've gotten to see them grow, I've gotten to see them get better at the sport that they love to play and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to help support these wonderful girls and to be a part of a team that has done something so historic and so acknowledgeable and I just thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today and I would also like to thank my coach who has supported me through the four years I've been on this tennis team. He has truly helped to make a difference in my tennis career, not just as a tennis player, but also as a student, in helping me to become the person that I am today. So thank you very much.

Very eloquent, very well put.

I know we're running over time. The clock's not running. That's okay.

Saria and Vivian are four-time doubles champions for the Almonte.

They are undefeated in four years. Oh, that's wonderful.

And this year, besides our team competition, they made it to the top 20 in Southern California in doubles.

And we're very proud of that accomplishment. I don't think we've ever had girls in the Alhambra School District go that deep into the competition.

That's wonderful.

Great. Council members, any of you would like to share some comments?

Yes, Mayor Potem.

I just want to congratulate you for your victory and your win. It's hard for me to say that because I'm a teacher at Alhambra High School,

but we won't hold that against you, but more.

But I congratulate your win, and you make Monterey Park and Markepple High School very proud.

Thank you guys for being here tonight. Thank you, Mayor Potev. Councilman Wong, you have the mic?

Just to echo those comments, congratulations. As a former assistant coach for swimming at another high school, we were runner up in CIF my last year coaching there so I know how special this is especially to win and to bring joy and pride to our city appreciate all your efforts and know how much and you've already said Vivian how much sports and team sports especially help to build character and build yourselves as not just athletes but as good people and the skills that are there are going to benefit fit you in your careers and whatever future endeavors you have. So I appreciate all the time and effort you put in here. And congratulations as well to your parents who are instrumental in making sure. I know for when I was doing sports, the parents are the ones that are showing the students and the athletes around, making sure they get there on time and supporting them. And I know it takes support of family and the coaches and the staff at the school to make a successful team. So congratulations to the athletes, to the parents, and to the coaches and the staff. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Councilman Rowe, you have the mic.

Yeah. You know what?

As a competitor, you strive for the best. And I can tell you, your coach, at one point he was a strong competitor, but nothing beats the odds of being a championship coach. Because it means that he's turned around and realized the potential of all the athletes. and varsity tennis.

Wow.

I mean, I'm an Aztec, so mighty Aztec.

Well said. Councilor Yu.

I just wanted to say congratulations.

And then I know that a lot of the visitor has a hard time taking pictures.

Why don't we all come up and take a picture,

especially with the background, pride in the past, faith in the future. So thank you. Let's all come up.

Before we do, but we do have certificates, and I want to just read for the record each of your names. just again to show our utmost excitement and recognition of your achievement. And so the varsity team, Allman League champions, CIF Division IV champions,

they are Noor Abani, Tricia Farana-Bull, Valerie Ding, Valerie Ding again,

Vivian Dong, Shalyana Grant, Kelly Hu,

Gayna Kunza, Samantha Jung, Saria Paribia, Hazel Kwok, Yo-Yo Su.

And to your coach, Michael Tan.

So we do have certificates.

I hope I didn't forget anyone, but we have certificates we'd like to present.

And yes, take a picture as well.

Okay.

Go ahead. Come on up. Girls, come on up this way because they want to stand. Girls, come on up this way because they want to stand. ! ! You can show them how to show them. Okay. Okay. Nor? Nor? Yeah. Trisha. Trisha. Valerie. Okay. The other one. Yeah, one more. Well. Dana? Dana's not here. Oh, okay. Okay, all right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Saria. Okay. Hazel.

Who doesn't have one? There's only one left. Okay. Yo-Yo.

And horse coach. Okay. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Where's the council?

We're here. There he is.

Oh, that's okay.

! oh that's okay

okay Okay, congratulations to you guys.

We're graduating with two grads. Who's returning? Me. Oh, okay.

A lot of them. Okay. Okay, back to back. What are you doing? I'm not going to go to the back. I'm not going to go to the back. Where's the other watch out? Yeah, they're waiting for their apps. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You should be sitting here. Fantastic. Perfect. There we go. That's the last one. Congratulations. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Microphone. I follow you. Oh, I can't. Yeah. Is the microphone still on? Is the microphone still on?

Is it still on? Real quick, always a politician. Just want to make a shout out to Monterey Park Police Department for keeping our kids safe and keeping the streets safe. And also to Public Works.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Public Works, I like to give Council credit for your GoMPK website.

It works very well, and it responds quickly back to the residents or the people who put in the thing, and I wish my city would do that. They're still doing emails.

Thank you for the compliment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I think that was a dedicated, hardworking staff for this community.

Thank you.

Thank you. Again, congratulations.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Let's see.

Our next presentation is updating our street projects.

Public works. Okay. Oh, here you go. Ready to go. Okay.

All right. Good evening again, Honorable Mayor and City Council.

Sean Igo, Public Works Director.

Tonight I'm going to give you a brief overview of some of the street improvements projects we're doing. And these are not only just roadway improvements, but they're traffic improvements, safety improvements, things of that nature.

So with that, we'll go ahead and get started.

Maybe.

All right.

So this first slide depicts many of the efforts related to the bond measure that was passed, specifically for improvements such as this. It was because of the City Council's efforts related to this bond that such work has been and will continue to be completed. these improvements include slurry seal in addition to grind and overlay rehabilitation efforts um these uh so the completed projects as you can see are in purple and the ongoing projects are depicted in blue these are slid the items in blue are slated to start in mid-february we did delay some of these efforts because we had additional underground work that needed to be completed so instead of duplicating our efforts we want to make sure that we did the underground work first and

and then did the paving work or the slurry work.

So once this all starts up in mid-February, we're anticipating April-May timeframe to be completed.

Next slide, please.

This slide here, there's a ton of locations

that you can see all based on the pinpoints.

These projects include various locations to remove and replace damaged sidewalks and bus pads.

Funding from Prop A, Transportation Development Act,

Article III, and then gas tax and some street bond

will be used for these projects. Next slide, please.

Traffic signal improvements. This is through Highway Safety Improvement Program or HSIP Cycle 7.

These are depicted in blue. These are closer to the top of the screen. These are the current ones under construction.

You can see many of these have been delayed and the biggest reason is because of backorder

for material.

These have been backordered for several months.

We anticipate on receiving these in March.

once we see these in March, just a few months to get the work completed, which includes the installation of the signal heads, installation of ADA ramps,

concrete work, and then testing of the signals.

And then moving on to the ones that are coming up, cycle nine for HSIP. These include back plates only on the signal heads. So what these do is they provide additional opportunities for visibility, such as when power outage and things like that. I don't know if you've ever been driving at night and you can't see these when the power goes out, but this applies

applies these reflective

signal head surroundings so that we can actually see those. Caltrans has already started installing these at some of their locations. If you see near some of their intersections, you can see these being installed already. This cycle, the cycle nine project, this is anticipated to start in the coming months. We're waiting on Caltrans approval to give us the funding.

Next slide, please.

So these are various traffic improvement safety improvements. These projects are specifically

done by city crews and city forces. These include various measures such as striping

reconfigurations, signage, crosswalk enhancements, and things of that nature.

Next slide please. Pedestrian safety improvements. So these are part of active

transportation funds, specifically ATP cycle 4. These improvements include various measures measures such as restriping of crosswalks, replacement and addition of signage, additional installation of solar-powered rapid flashing beacons, there's an overhead pedestrian signal, ADA curb ramps, and additional measures. These are expected to start in the coming months, and once this project starts, it's anticipated to take approximately six months. It could take a little bit longer for certain locations based on off-product availability. So because of that

pedestrian signals similar to the ones we've had with the actual signals as part of the

Additional projects they could be six months to even nine months to lay on material

So this is just across the board for any type of signal installations

Next slide, please with that. I will take any questions. Thank you so much

Customers comes along up the mic

Thanks, Sean. I appreciate public works efforts on this I'd love to do a deeper dive on a lot of these improvements and I think it'd be helpful to help to make sure we're communicating a lot of these street improvements to the public. I know there's a lot of interest among my constituents, our constituents, and the city around a lot of these improvement efforts, and I think it'd be helpful to see how we can do this, communicate this through the Cascades or other communication channels, just to let them know these improvements are coming up. quick question on paper you talked about story seals and and repaving certain streets are we looking at cool payments or other types of more reflective uh pavement materials in any of these

cases um i we have not looked at these part of these these projects are actually already regarding out to bid and so they're already in the works so we have not looked at these as part

of these projects have we i don't know if this might be integrated into the green mpk and sustainable kind of city thinking but if we can start to look at cool pavement opportunities and to hire albedo and other solar reflective materials for our pavement inside

physical infrastructure kind of thinking going forward. Love to make sure that that does get integrated. Yeah, we can absolutely look at those. On potholes, for residents who are experiencing potholes as they drive around the city, can those be reported through the GoMPK app or through Public Works?

Yes, GoMPK is the best way to do that.

And they can also call Public Works and we can do that.

We do also have crews going around and checking on those. obviously the rain significantly impacts those um just pulling out that aggregate that's already there so we do go back i mean just from the rains we had a couple weeks ago we built some of these potholes and then the recent rains they pulled it all out again so it's a constant effort to fix these obviously as we continue to work through these replacement projects those will start to

go away because we'll have new roadways yeah no i i think that'd be i know there's a lot of at least i'm hearing a lot of vocal complaints around the proliferation of potholes just and the rains i know made that worse. Maybe if we can help to publicize some of our quick repair efforts to the extent that we can on, I don't know if it's just sending Robert out there to take some pictures of some potholes being filled. That would be great to just showcase to our residents that we're moving quickly onto these ishmas spousal and to help remind people to report potholes when they do experience them. Sounds good. Yeah, and just to reiterate, we'd love a deeper dive on all of the specific kind of improvements that we're doing on our streets. I don't know when that inappropriate time would be for that or if that's a workshop kind of item.

I'll leave it there. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member.

Any other comments or questions? Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

Just something very quick to add on to what Council Member Wong said. If we can share some of this in our social media platforms but also constantly be sharing the GoMPK app so that residents know I know I had a lot of people in my district that told me about some of the potholes and issues in the community but they didn't realize that the you know going PK app is there so just I mean we all know that's there but if we can keep advertising it maybe on a monthly weekly basis so residents know

that it's there we know I think that would be service service well thank you

so much thank you mayor pro tem any other comments questions okay um I'd

I'd like to just add to the conversation. Again, thank you, Councilman Wong, for asking staff to again do a deeper dive to the presentation. I know for me, especially the presentation and the update regarding pedestrian traffic safety, certainly I'd be looking forward to a deeper dive on how we are addressing those issues, especially because I think all of

us on the Council probably oftentimes have brought to our attention traffic and pedestrian safety concerns and I think it's something that I think our residents would like to also get an update on what we're doing to address those concerns. Sounds good. Thank you. Great, great.

Thanks so much. Okay. Thank you so much again. Okay, let's see what we've been just done.

Calendar items numbers 3A, 3H. Staff, do we have any items that need to be pulled?

There's no item from the city manager's office. Okay.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. Mr. Mayor, just a question.

If I wanted to make or announce appointments to commissions, do I need a poll 3C or can I just make that?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, you can just make it at the beginning of the consent calendar at the same time that public comment is welcome for the consent calendar. You don't have to pull the actual item.

And then just I know the conflicts of interest review came out for the slurry seal and the, I think the cat basin.

3H? Yeah, 3H.

I know a few of us have potential, I don't know how, do we need a recusal?

Yeah, so there's no need for a recusal as far as I can tell. If it were within 500 feet, that would be a presumption of a conflict. This is between 500 and 1,000 feet. there are certain criteria that would have to be triggered in order for someone to have a conflict, and based upon the nature of this particular agenda item, I don't see that any of those factors are there. So I don't believe that anybody needs to recuse themselves.

Okay. Thanks.

Okay, great. Yes, Councilman, are you?

I'm sorry. Items 3A, 3B, 3C.

Okay.

Thank you. 3A, 3B, 3C. Clerk, do we have any, we could speak on any of the items in the consent agenda?

One speaker, item 3C.

Okay, so 3C, okay, which has already been pulled by Councillor Yu.

Okay, so item 3A, 3B, and 3C. May I then have a motion, council, for the remaining item 3D, 3E, 3F, 3G, 3H, please.

I'll move to I'll move consent calendar the remaining consent calendar items.

I'll second. Move by Councillor Wong.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

Members please vote.

Approved unanimously. Thank you. Okay, first item of business, item 3A, monthly investment report.

Can we have a staff report? Or else?

I know. Oh, Treasurer?

Good evening, everyone. Mayor Pro Tem, Mayor, City Council people, City Attorney and City Manager.

I just want to report on our monthly investment report.

We have a total of $76.2 million invested, and that is divided into part of it is that the L.A. County pooled investment fund at 43.1 million, the lay fund 26 million, and in CDs we have 7.1 million. The bank

balance is at 12.9 million. I understand that the city right now, the finance department along with Mr. Bowe and Mr. Berger are evaluating the investment policy. So that will be something that we're looking at. I came in just recently, so I would like to be involved to request all communications and evaluations and prior drafts of the investment policy so that I can review that. If we could send that my way, I'd appreciate it. And we'll see and go forward from that point on. Do you have any questions?

Members, Councilor Yu, you have the mic.

Thank you so much for your good work. I just wanted to point it out, as we can all see that when we renew our CD, the new rates for the two-year CD is now at 5%.

That is correct. We did invest in a new CD, and the rates have gone up, so we have invested just last month. There was one for 5%, which is significantly more than what we have. So we'll be looking at that continuously as the rates go up.

Right, right. So I'm glad that we did actually make the decision not to buy any investment. Last year, especially like the bond, especially stock actually dropped about 20 percent. And even bond as the worst year in 2022, it drops about 13 percent for the index. So I'm glad that we didn't do any investment. And therefore, I think CD with fixed interest rate is the safe haven right now. and for now I think until next year so I would like to advise buying more CD with higher fixed interest rate and we can explore more options later when the stock market and bond market more stabilize and we're at the point when hopefully Fed decided not to increase the interest rate then everything will be more clear up so good job thank you so

much. Thank you so once again if we could get all the communications any emails regarding the investment policy I'd appreciate that for review. Thank you. Councillor Gould, yes.

I have one more comment on this and I

agree with Councilman Yu

here in terms of what we've been doing with the investments. Just a quick note, we have roughly 10 CDs that's

maturing

2024, August.

I believe there are like

245,000 times 10, so 24.5 million.

We're earning

0.07% if you actually just cut that out and forego that 0.7% and flip it into a new CD, even anything above 2%, and we would talk about 5%, you'd be still making money.

So let's look into that.

Yeah, we've been talking about it. I'm talking with the financial director about it,

and that is the plan, and we'll be doing that shortly.

Councilman Wong?

And just well, thank you Amy and the finance department for the report and the update Just a question to confirm that the investment policy when when when and if we are going to make changes that will come to the council, right?

Yes, that will be presented to the council if there is any changes it is up to the City Council to approve it. Thank you

We would want to make sure that all our investments are within the policy. So great. Thank you. Thank you

further Okay, we have the monthly investment report I'll move to approve to accept and file or receive and file the monthly report

Councilor Wong second my council are you there no further comments or questions members please vote

Approved unanimously, thank you

item item 3b

resolution of the Los Angeles County Treasury report local agency investment fund and California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

Can we have a DM staff report, please?

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Mayor Pro Temp. The county, LEIF, and the city TFA require written city council approval for the administration and examination of city funds. The three draft resolutions attached meet the requirements of each agency. that what has changed is we've added the city manager sorry we added the finance manager the assistant city manager and we've corrected my title on on the resolutions that's the difference that we are asked that we mean on the resolutions so staff is requesting adopting the three resolutions to allow the staff identified and City Treasurer to manage and monitor city funds. And that concludes my report.

Thanks so much. Members? Catherine, you've got the mic.

Yeah, I actually don't really have a question, but just wanted to reconfirm that as all of you can see that But from all the resolutions, only the city manager, assistant city manager, city treasurer, finance director, and finance manager are authorized to take action to money and money transactions. Among all authorized personnel, our city treasurer is the only elected officials. And city council members are not alLod to touch or transfer any funds. Just to confirm it for public information as there may be some misunderstanding out there. And also according to the resolutions of California Departments of Tax and Free Administrations, use taxes, especially the increased sales tax, for the purpose related to only the budget planning, revenue management, transportation planning, community and economics development, city administrations, business license, and tax administration. And just to reiterate that, the increased sales tax can only be used on the above functions, governmental functions of the city. We do things following resolutions, cut the contract, and only the authorized personnel can move money based on the resolutions directed us to do. So we're all monitoring, and no self-interest will be alLod here. So thank you. That's all for me.

All right. Thank you. Other council members, comments or questions? Okay. Thank you so much.

I move to approve item 3B.

Moved by Council Member Yu. Second. Second by Mayor Pro Tem. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yes, moved by, second by the Mayor Pro Tem. Okay.

No further comments or questions. Members, please vote.

I approve unanimously.

Thank you.

Next, item 3C, appointment of commission board and community members. I know it was pulled by Councillor Yu, but I understand there's also a public comment.

Okay, please. One speaker, it's me. Okay.

Good evening again. Unfortunately, my good neighbor, Tammy Sam, she was a member of the committee. but I wanted to reiterate her comments because as she has so eloquently done so many times before, she has requested that you reinstate or instate professional qualifications in regards to, sorry, public, I am discussing the, it's kind of backwards. I'm going to give you a report after I'm done commenting about it. the report is in regards to appointment of commissioners to on boards and

committees and some of our boards and committees and commissions do not

decisions are so impactful and if you do not have any expertise in that area it can be quite damaging if you're permitted to vote on such items so please take that into consideration and it's a very wise decision and move to make but also on that same note I'd like to please ask that we do a better job of letting the public know that these positions are available because I don't think a lot of our neighbors know that this is one way that they can serve. And so I'd like to implore our neighbors to look at this as an opportunity to give back to your community. I know how difficult it is. I work. I just came from a nine-hour shift at my job. And so I know

how it feels and the concerns you have with everything going on. But, you know, if we all

kind of pitch in a little bit and do our part, you know, we can make the city a much better place. And so I know a lot of you have a lot of talent and skill and expertise that can, you know, be lent to this city to make it a better place. And so I implore all of you to look into the various committees. I'm going to give the report soon so you'll know what the committees are, the commissions are. And so you'll be able to see if maybe one of those would suit your talents. And if you're interested, please reach out to your council members to ask, you know, for consideration to be appointed to one of these commissions. because definitely, you know, when we don't speak up and we don't say anything, we allow other people to make decisions for us. And so that can be at the detriment of ourselves.

So let's all do our part. Thank you.

Okay.

Can we have staff report, please? Okay.

Let's move on to that report. Appointment of commission, board, and committee members. In 2013, the City Council revised the Monterey Park Municipal Code regarding the establishment of commissions, boards, and committees and redefined the appointment procedures. Each council member appoints his, her respective representatives to the nine commissions to serve a maximum of two four-year terms. If an individual separates from serving on a board or commission because the individual has completed serving terms, such person cannot be reappointed to the same board or commission for at least 12 consecutive months unless authorized by City Council to extend their term. A commissioner's term is automatically rolled over unless otherwise directed by council members. Each Councilmember may appoint one member to the Business Improvement District Advisory Committee,

Design Review Board, Economic Development Advisory Commission,

Environmental Commission, Planning Commission, Recreation and Parks Commission, and Traffic Commission,

and two members to the Commission on Aging and Community Participation Commission. Certain commissions may have certain background requirements to qualify. each Commissioner serves at the pleasure of the appointing Councilmember Councilmembers please review the attached Commissioner assignments if there are any changes you would like made please complete and submit the attached

application that's it thank you Councilmembers yes

do you have a mic no I don't have any further question but just to bring it up that for those I think if we still have vacant spot then hopefully more people know that the information and hopefully they will reach out to council member and if they want to participate because it's hard to find people out there that wanted to serve especially during pandemic so now hopefully you know when the community always start to open up and we can meet in person so hopefully more people will be interested to participate and I think for me I wanted to also say that I do have commission on aging, vacant, and community participation commissions. I have environmental commissions. Those are the commissions that I'm still looking for people. So hopefully people come and reach out to us. Thank you.

Thank you. Can't for you.

Can't for you. Yes, you have the mic. Thank you. I'd just like to echo those comments and the earlier comments from public comment and see if the city can help promote And encourage residents to apply for commissions just so we have we can expand our pool of Potential commissioners especially as people kind of cycling out even regardless of the terms quick question on the term limits when I was looking at the list of

current Commissioners

some of them are marked as term limited I'm not sure if there's clarity on what that if that's an absolute term limit or if that's something that we can if they can continue to serve with a new council member that resets or what the term limit history is

so council member

some of the commissioners have served already eight terms

eight one year terms

and so they cannot be reappointed

to that same commission

unless the council authorized them. Usually when, so the municipal has been amended several times, and so now the appointing, the commissioner is going to follow the appointing council members. So if you appoint somebody, they're probably going to serve four years unless you decide that you want to switch them out or however you want to go about it.

So it's so if there's a current commissioner that is listed as termed out I cannot reappoint them to the same.

If they're termed out then no unless the city council approved to extend them.

So it would have to be the full city council that has to extend their term.

Right.

Now there are some other commissioners that may have served two years four years. They're not termed out yet. So once you appoint them then the clock starts over. so now they're going to serve for four years.

Okay.

That's helpful.

So I have a couple of term-limited people I have to replace pretty quick, I guess. Or what's the process if I haven't replaced them with anyone in their term limit?

So basically they have to fill out the application. The council members, they can contact the clerk's office and give me the information of the individual that you will be appointing them. I can reach out to them, have them fill out the application, and they're going to have to do a life scan. And then once that's cleared, then the city clerk will work with the staff liaison to administer the oath, and then they can take their seat. Now, if you have them fill out the application and forward it to the clerk's office, that can speed up the process.

So that's really helpful. if there's a current commissioner that is noted as being termed out and I don't have I haven't appointed a replacement that person continues to serve until I appoint a new person

Mr. Mayor, members of the council

the answer to that question is correct but I was trying to answer one of your previous questions which was what's the process for allowing somebody who's termed out to continue on and that that person would simply be on the consent calendar and the full council

would approve the ongoing term does that make sense if you want to point that person that's

already been termed out served their two four-year terms we'll just put them on as confirmation by the city council ordinarily it's just up to the individual council member to appoint somebody

without the need for council ratification well if if so if so i think there's like two two

commissioners I think my traffic commissioner or the traffic commissioner and the planning commissioner under my predecessor technically are termed out if I want them to continue until I appoint a new commissioner for those two

do I need to list them today inform the city clerk and we'll confirm it on the

next consent calendar with the city council but I do want to point three

new commissioners if is this the appropriate time to announce that which

you can do. Yes.

And I've already forwarded I think two of these to the clerk's office. I'd like to appoint Gabriel Grejeda to the Design Review Board, Laura Gallegos to the Environmental Commission and Oriana Chan to the Community Participation Commission. So those are three current vacancies I have that I'd like to make an appointment and

I hope the city clerk can help follow up.

Can I get the third name? If you can repeat it sLor

and we can write maybe a little bit faster.

So Gabriel Grajeda, G-R-A-J-E-D-A, to the Design Review Board. Yes, okay.

I think his application is already in.

Yes.

Laura Gallegos. Yes.

To Environmental Commission.

And then Oriana Chan, O-R-I-A-N-A-C-H-A-N, to the Community Participation Commission. Okay.

Got it. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, Councilman Gould, you have the mic.

I also have, actually, based on the schedule here, there's only one person I have,

Community Participation Commission, Fabian Regosa. I'll provide you with additional information. And then I guess my question is, I actually have a couple of folks who are interested, but my list here is full, or meaning there's no opening. However, I understand that in the different councils, there's open spots because of term out or for whatever reason, or maybe folks don't want to serve anymore. We can still have recommendations go into other districts as well, right? Because we're all serving the city from that perspective.

So these commissioners are citywide.

They're at large.

They don't belong to any district.

Okay. That's number one.

Number two, the names, the commissioners that are listed under you, they're the current commissioners that are on that seat. You can reappoint them. You can choose them, appoint them, or you can replace them.

It's up to you.

Those are just the existing commissioner on those seats.

You do not need to keep them.

The other point there, too, is, though, I think that Vin is trying to make, is if there, is there an existing pool of candidates that have applied for commissions that maybe we can choose from to appoint to some of these?

I do have a handful of applications, which I was thinking of, you know, forwarding to the council after this item, but it's only a handful.

All right.

Yeah, I think that would be helpful. And then I think the to Vince point on that if others are expressing interest and we don't have current Individual council members don't have current appointments if I think we can encourage them and correct me if I'm wrong Anyone we can probably encourage them to just get their application and so that that they can be shared among other council members that may have

vacancies to a point. Yes, the applications are shared among the council

Thank you

I have just two simple questions. For appointments and for appointments, can we appoint someone at any time? Or is there a specific time period?

You can appoint them at any time.

Okay. And then my second question is how are we advertising available appointments either on social media or is it just on our website?

The information are posted on our website. We have in the past had an article in the Cascades. We have done some outreach but not too much.

Is there a way to do it on social media just so we can get more widespread, you know,

Yes, we are.

We are looking into putting something.

Thank you. Thank you.

Before we do so, I just want to remind everybody, it's a voluntary position. It's not a paid position. Yeah, there's some confusion sometimes.

So just keep in mind.

I'm looking at Robert in the back to help post this on social media, too. It would be great to amplify that on our own social media channels when ready.

Thank you.

Also, I'm sorry, any other comments or questions?

I'm sorry.

I also want to thank the comment that was read by a clerk for Ms. Tammy.

She's actually my commissioner to the Planning Commission, and I am very fortunate that she has a planning background,

and this is something that I think is a good point I brought up.

And so perhaps especially when there are vacancies

or if people currently appointed no longer should continue,

are we also asking our commissioners too for recommendations? Because I think that given, well at least I can say for my commissioner for example, I mean given her background and also probably her network, she probably also has people that she can suggest.

Because again, given that, yes, I mean some of these commissions that are quality judicial

and given that the quality judicial nature, it probably is helpful to have people with relevant background. Again, I've been very fortunate that some of my commissioners have had that background. But again, you know, it is probably also behooves us to, I think, also, you know, work with our own commissioners to see, to recognize pool as well.

So that's something, you know, if we are, do we have vacancies?

Could we also, do we also reach out to our commissioners? Oh, that's something we should be doing as council members.

Both. Okay. Both.

Yeah, and don't forget also that after 12 months has passed from their last service, they're able to be reappointed. So another creative solution might be revisiting past commissioners with that experience that may, you know, have been termed out that may now be able to come back.

I have a last question.

Are they meeting in person right now or are they still meeting on Zoom?

They are meeting in person.

In person, right. Okay.

Thank you. Can I also get their schedule of meeting?

Sometimes I may want to visit them or sit in.

It's on their website and I can definitely forward you the meeting schedule.

Actually, one more. I'm sorry.

Given how, you know, throughout the night there was mention about our app, GoMPK,

and certainly I know it's an evolving app and it is something that I think grows in robustness, but do we, for example, advertise like any vacancies on the app?

Not at this time, but we can certainly look into it.

Okay. I mean, just a thought, you know, because I think that as we encourage more people to go to the app,

and certainly we want to make it as robust as possible.

I think it's something that we should do.

Just a thought. Yeah. Thank you for the recommendation.

We'll definitely look into doing more our week.

All right. Okay. Yes? Yes? I'm sorry.

Move to, yeah, move to approve. No more questions right here. No. Move to approve item 3C then.

Does that need to be including my appointments tonight?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this is just a receiving file and yours is informational,

so it'll be included in the minutes.

I'll second the motion. Okay.

Moved by Councillor Yu, seconded by Councillor Wong. Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to public hearing none. New business, item 5A, a resolution of City Council, City of Monterey Park, California appointing council representatives to specific organizations.

Okay, do you have a staff report?

Yes, yes, staff report, thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council.

Inaz Alvarez, Assistant City Manager. I'm just going to give a quick staff report.

So the City Council appoints representatives and alternates to various regional and community

organizations.

There are currently 11 organizations requiring a City Council representative or an alternate. One organization, which is the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, requires that the mayor be the council representative and the alternate representative has traditionally been the mayor pro tem attachment one to your staff report is a list of the previous resolution for reference attachment two is a brief summary of the organizations including the dates and times these organizations meet. Some organizations are having virtual or combination hybrid meetings. And so from here council can choose to stay on if they're already assigned to an organization or choose to rotate. So this concludes the staff report and staff is ready to note

appointments. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. colleagues I'll I can just state my interest okay as I reviewed the list and obviously hope my colleagues will I don't support that I would be personally interested in the San Diego Valley economic partnership I'm already actually a board member there for my employer so I will already be at those meetings and happy to represent the city of Murray Park as a member there as well and I'm personally interested in the Southern California Association of Governments seat. I know Yvonne has been serving there, but if she's willing to share, I'd be interested in that seat going forward.

Okay. Council Member, you. Yes, you have the mic.

Oh, perfect, Thomas. Yeah, I'm going to let you take over that.

And actually, because the previous council member

had already served on a few boards and so me and Mayor may not be able to serve on some of them,

but I'm actually interested in two, which is the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and also the sister city. So that's the only two that I'm interested in. Sure. Regarding the COG, because certainly, well, currently I am the COG member,

but I am of the opinion that I think it's helpful but to always build the praying trust of members. And so certainly if you're interested, and I will say that at the Cog,

we deal with all manner of issues that affect our local communities,

and we oftentimes have very lively conversations.

And really it's, I think, an opportunity to lend our voice to the conversations from the Marriott Park perspective.

So if you're interested, you know, certainly, you know, I'm amenable, if that's your interest.

Perhaps I can be your alternate in the event you're not able to – actually, I'm a packer. Does anyone want to be an alternate? I'm sorry. Actually, I shouldn't have said that.

Does anyone want to be an alternate to the cog?

Yeah, actually, because the time – that the meeting time is right for me. So that's why I'm quite interested.

But, yeah.

Let's see. Do we have to find like that? Because again, I'm just thinking out of fairness.

Well, out of fairness, again, at least for the call,

they do a lot of important work.

And I know before it was Councillor Chan,

and then I was the alternate, and then thank you Councillor Yu for wanting to be a delegate.

And certainly I am willing to firmly offer,

if anyone would be an alternate as well. Anyone, no?

Okay. Well. Okay, if it's all right, then why don't I be the alternate? Okay, but we can certainly, you know, switch places if anyone has an interest, you know. I beg your pardon? Do we have to finalize these today? It's no, right?

I mean, it's... Mayor, if I may have the mic a little bit. Oh, yes, yes. Mayor, Councilmembers, this is at your pleasure on how you want to disseminate the duties of representation. It doesn't have to be tonight, but if you can get some of the main organizations, I would say the COG, it would be great to have a primary. They do a lot of work continuously. And we do know that the sanitation district has to be represented by the mayor, whoever is the mayor at that time. All the other ones, if we can hash it out, that's great if we have the primaries. If we don't have all the primaries, that's okay. but I think Skag, the COG, we've got the partnership already covered. Those are three that I would be concerned because there's a lot of work in transportation that's getting done, a lot of money that's funding a lot of the program. So as a representation of the city, that would help for us to have that information to either act upon, whether it's a pro-lite program or against the program. Okay, thank you.

If I can suggest, Mr. Mayor, maybe we can just go down the list and council members can express interest.

Of course. Of course. Yes, that's a good suggestion. Thank you. Then why don't we do that?

Board of Education, City Council Joint Youth Committee, Alhambra Unified School District. Currently, I am actually the appointed representative. And well, unfortunately, due to the pandemic for past years, we actually have not met. however because of my relationship with other board members at the not to mention myself previously serving as a board member for the Garvey school district we don't I've been able to have at least one-on-one conversations and you know connect my city manager administration with school districts if there are pressing issues like for example when Mark Hample High school was the site of the vaccination drive-through in the beginning of 2021.

So again, you know, we certainly should revisit to see if the district is interested in resuming

these meetings.

But I would suggest that whoever wishes to have this position, you know, even if you can't resume these meetings, make effort to reach out to the members of the Alhambra

Unified School District. Yeah.

So Henry, you're interested in as a representative, but there's two representatives. No one else.

Only because, again, I do recognize we have three new board members,

a council member.

We need to actually ask for the second representative first to see if more than one interested, right? So if anyone would like to be the representative besides Henry.

I'm already an employee of the Unified School District.

So I don't mind working with our district.

Actually, I think I would like to do that. Okay.

So for the first one, you would like to...

Okay, then we have one, and I'm happy to relinquish that.

Before we continue, Clerk, do we have a request to speak?

One request, Joseph Leong.

Okay, yes. Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, staff, and of course residents of Monnier Park. It's Joseph Leon. I'm here actually tonight as a representative of the city of Monnier Park on the St. Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board. I'm telling you, one of your lists. I've been serving there for a few years. I really enjoy it. I'd like to continue to serve. Just to let you know in case you put up front there. my term does expire December 31st of this year so I'd like to continue to be on the position it meets I think you have it there on the third Wednesday I'm on the third Friday of the month or second Friday of the month and it meets over in West Covina at 7 o'clock in the morning and also the board members are also on two or three different committees and we meet at different times and different days I'm on the budget committee we meet this morning at 8 o'clock in the morning discuss the budget. So it does vary a little bit also besides the once a month meeting. And basically the mosquito board and vector control deals with the mosquitoes and the black flies. That's the only two really things that they really deal with. And trying to control the mosquitoes and the black flies. In the last couple years it's been dry so we have no really issues in Monterey Park. We have a lot of water recently so it might change in the near future because mosquitoes breed in the water. so I'll probably come up to you to the council in the future letting you know if there's any mosquitoes any nile viruses in the area right now Monaco Park is great there's no issues but I just wanted to express my interest in that position any questions? questions? thank you

and again thank you for volunteering all this time

I know it is important work

if I'm not mistaken when I was on the school board Bobby Bruch was our representative right okay yeah yeah thanks for getting that's up in the morning for these meetings okay let's see any other comments okay hearing none I mean I'm sorry any requests okay thank you okay moving away wait so we've settled the school board one thank you near pro tem next contract city see caught California Contract Cities Association, CCCA.

Actually, I would like to suggest new council member to join the contract city, independent city, League of California City, because that is actually a good platform for you to know other council member. But plus, they don't really meet often.

And they just only have like a conference,

I think twice a year. so you can participate on their meeting or not. Just try your best. It's good for the new council member to join and meet people.

Okay. So this is the CCCA. Okay. Members? Anyone have an interest?

I'm not interested but I just want to confirm that these seats will technically be board members

for these organizations. Is that right?

Yes. Delegate members. but it's a no i'm sorry not all of them right yeah mayor council members you are a representative

for the city of monterey park that will represent us at the ica or contract cities in that process depending on how long you're there they may elect you to be a board member and then at the board member level, you know how it works. You'll be able to make in policies and procedures and make decisions at that time. But it is a representative position for the City of Monterey Park. And I will remind you that we are an independent city. Usually independent cities are full service cities. And contract cities are just the opposite. They contract a good portion of their services to be qualified for a contract city. So just the difference between the two. Thank you.

And just to confirm, right, you don't have to be the representative to participate in their events.

You're correct.

And I can also attest to that because I know previously for the League of California Cities, Councilman Ferenoso was our representative, but I actively participate in one of the policy committees for the League, the Community Services Committee, not to mention I'm active with the LGBT caucus. So, yes, you do not have to be a representative to be active. Oh, that depends on the organization, you know, and the league does offer ways to be active without even being being an appointed representative

Okay, so for CCCA to see do we have anyone or with you would you !

Yes, Mayor Pro Temm, yes, you have the mic? !

Well, I was going to nominate Yvonne Yu again to do it again,

!

since she is well experienced, but...

Sure, if Councilman Yu is interested

and no one else seems to have an interest, okay.

Would it make better sense for us to just kind of sit down

and just kind of strategically figure out...

Well, that's why I have this conversation right now.

Because you can kind of lay out the dates and all. I mean, again, we're probably not going to accomplish

all this tonight.

Well, actually, let's try and do that tonight, actually, if we can, please.

Okay, let's revisit then. Okay, next, Independence Association.

Okay, if no one's interested, I mean, fine, I will volunteer if no one is interested.

I'm sorry.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem. Yes.

Are we still on ICA?

Yes. Okay.

I don't mind serving as an alternate for ICA.

Okay. If Yvonne wants to stay on.

Or someone else wants to stay on. Henry, you want to stay in ICA?

Well, I never was with ICA, but I...

I mean, that's fine. That's fine.

Again, the description also describes when they meet, and in this case, what ICA means are second Thursday.

Let's see. Are they during, what time during the day are these meetings for ICA? Usually at night.

Oh, perfect. Okay. Sure. Perfect. Okay. And Zoom. On Zoom.

On Zoom still. Okay. All right. Very good. All right.

Fine, then I will volunteer for ICA.

Next, League of California Cities.

Mayor Potem, would you be interested in...

Yeah, I'll do that one since my predecessor had that one.

Okay. I don't see their meeting times on the description here, though.

They, well, probably for the League, as the description explains,

there are division meetings and they're usually in the evening as well.

In fact, they just had one, I think, a week ago at the Metropolitan Water District. And so for the most part, the meetings are in the evenings.

And if you want, I mean, I can be your alternate.

And the reason why is because I currently serve on one of the policy committees, community services.

And as I mentioned, I am also a member of the LGBT caucus of the league.

Okay. Okay. Los Angeles County Sanitation District No. 2.

And as was explained, this has traditionally been the position of the mayor. And so currently I am the representative to the Sanitation District. Now, they also have their meetings via Zoom. And so at least for now, I think they will be on Zoom until the body decides they want to meet in person again.

they do meet around typically around 1.30

p.m.

and so again this district should go to the mayor

but we also appoint an alternate in the event that

the mayor is unable to attend

so perhaps when we do our rotation you know we can also discuss

who wants to be the alternate for the sand district? I think it's automatic

right it's gonna be the pro temp no but but even for the ultimate ultimate okay

well excuse me okay sorry I've been a good one all to me that's why sorry about that I apologize okay okay my bad excuse me okay next the same way council go we already discussed them sorry come from wrong no no no I come

for you I'm sorry my holiday cover you thank you okay do an alternate I don't

the answer to yes if no no wants to be option yes yes okay okay next the same

I'm muscular and vector control district I know we have speaker because of

interest unless someone wants to sorry sorry so for the cog words it was Yvonne

and Henry is the alternate yes correct and then for the economic partnership

Okay, yeah.

So just for clarity, sorry, I didn't hear you guys.

So Thomas is that representative and Vin Go is alternate.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Okay. Next we have the thing about the muscular and vector control district

I appreciate mr. Leone's time and long tenure of service on that I happy to support that it but would obviously I think it first priority would would and should go to a city council member if there's interest But if there's no interest happy to nominate And that's not against the rules to nominate a non-sitting elected official, right?

As long as he's not a board member, I think you'll be fine. Okay.

No one else interested? If not, I'm happy to continue sending Mr. Leone to make sure mosquitoes aren't spreading diseases among us. and Hopin will ask that he continue to update the council as appropriate for actions that are occurring there.

Okay. Next, let's see. Sister Cities, Councilman, you expressed an interest, correct? Okay. Yeah, I'm interested.

Oh, and how about Councilman, would you want to alternate them? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Okay.

Next, SKAG, Councillor Wong, you have expressed an interest to be a representative? Okay. Let's see. Anyone want to be an alternate?

I'll serve as alternate. Okay.

Mayor Potem, thank you.

The LAX community round table. Currently, I am the representative and Yvonne Yu, Councillor Yu is the alternate.

Actually, yes, let's see. Anyone else have an interest?

Okay, I can continue. And perhaps customer, would you like to continue to be the alternate as well?

Oh, you don't talk, okay.

Anyone else like to be an alternate then?

I see that it meets on the third Wednesday every odd month.

Well, currently they meet on Zoom. Okay, currently meet at Zoom.

Is this in the evening?

Currently meet on Zoom in the afternoon at 1.30.

Yeah.

Although you did make a good point because if they do resume in-person meetings,

then as I've actually brought this up to the round table that it would create some scheduling issues for us

since we have our first and third meetings of month for the city council.

So I have impressed upon the round table and hopefully they will take that into consideration. But for now, they are meeting on Zoom. Yes, at 1.30 on the third Wednesday.

In fact, they had to be today.

Okay.

Can you repeat the representative for?

For now, I'll continue.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, and if anyone...

Okay, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor.

I'll serve as alternate.

And then I think it said when we go back, is that only the contract city?

Yes. Then I will.

Yeah, I don't want it to have any position vacant. Okay. So anything else?

I think we've covered.

I could reread the list just to make sure that we got it clear.

Okay.

please let me know if it's incorrect so the first Board of Education City

Council joint use with Alhambra School District Representative Jose Sanchez

and I did not get a alternate correct oh Henry okay okay yeah you know yes if I

can be the alternate please sure yes okay and then contract cities Yvonne you no

alternate okay thank you then go ICA I have the representative as mayor Lo and the alternate

as mayor pro tem Sanchez okay League of California cities the representative is mayor pro tem Sanchez and the alternate is Mayor Lo.

Okay.

LA County Sanitation District, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem.

Okay.

And San Gabriel Valley Cog,

Representative, Council Member Yu, alternate Mayor Lo.

Good, okay.

San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership,

Representative, Council Member Wong,

alternate Council Member Ngo.

Yes, okay.

the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito Abatement District Community Member Joseph Leon Sister City Commission Representative Council Member Yu and Alternate

Council Member Go

SCAG Representative Council Member Wong Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez and LAX Roundtable Representative Mayor Lo and Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez

All right. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you so much, members.

And also, especially if those businesses are still doing alternate or if any of you have an interest, certainly we can always have conversations to see if a particular issue covered by agencies that you may have a particular interest.

Just to confirm, staff, we do this on an annual basis?

Yes, typically on an annual basis. Definitely the one that will rotate with the mayor is whenever there's a mayor change, correct?

Mayor and mayor pro tem change.

Perfect.

I'm happy to move the slate of nominees as stated.

Okay. Moved by Councilman Wong. May I have a second, please? Second. Second by Councilman Ngo.

Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. City Council Communications. Councilor Yu.

I attended the Lunar New Year Festival Street Fair press conference yesterday, I think along with a few council members. Yes, this Saturday and Sunday, our annual biggest Lunar New Year celebrations

We'll be on Garfield, starting on Garfield to New.

We stopped three years, and finally we're doing it this year. I still remember three years ago, I was, like, holding my lawn sign, campaigning at the street fair, and finally I will be able to participate

as a council member and be able to meet everyone out there. Please come with your family and friends. We will kick off the events on Saturday at 11 a.m. on stage. There will be performance, food, drinks, and games. World Journal is the co-organizer.

So the President Yu at the World Journal and also our city staff has been monitoring the weather forecast in the last month. It's really God blessing to have such a nice weather coming up this weekend. So Happy Lunar New Year to everyone. And I look forward to seeing everyone this Saturday and Sunday on Garfield and Garfi. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Yu. Councilor Irgo?

Welcome back, everyone, from the holidays. I trust that everyone had a great time spending time with family and just relaxing. And, of course, then the first two, three weeks of heavy rain, and I hope everybody stays safe. I know we have lots of potholes throughout the city, which I think our city is getting in front of it and taking care of it before the next storm hits. and of course this weekend is Lunar New Year and I remember just growing up in the city we were among the first cities to have the Lunar New Year fairs blocking off Garvey, we're a main staple point we're a great diverse city and it's great to celebrate and bring in local communities to our city to show them what we're made of so please come out with your families it's going to be a sunny day, no rain for this weekend I hope everyone enjoys the Lunar New Year and spend time with family.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Gold. Councilman Wong?

Also was at the press conference we hosted yesterday for this weekend's Lunar New Year

Festival.

Excited to bring this back in person after a few years of COVID and being shut out of

that.

And especially excited to usher in the Lunar New Year, the year of the rabbit. it. Mayor Lo and I share that year is our year, so happy to be in person to join with the community in ushering a new year and a year of prosperity and health hopefully in the year to come. Just a quick reminder, as others have already noted, we did experience a lot of rain. As a former water waterowner would behoove myself to remind residents and businesses that the drought is not over despite the amount

that we will all do our part to continue, especially with the rains,

turn off our sprinklers.

We probably don't need that for the next few days at the very least. And we don't know when it will rain again and how much it will rain, and so drought conditions continue to persist. They have eased somewhat. I've gotten this question a lot in the community because of my previous work. There are still existing drought conditions in California, including here in the Sangaroo Valley. there's still a long ways to go to make up for many many many years of very dry conditions and drought conditions and a long way to go despite the rains that have come recently and that's it I wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year look forward to seeing folks in the community on this weekend as we celebrate the Lunar New Year here locally and thank you to the staff that's been working very busily to prepare for the largest Lunar New Year festival in the region thanks Thanks so much.

Thank you. Councillor Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

I was also at the press conference yesterday and I'm so excited. I know my daughters and my family are very excited to participate in the festival this

weekend.

So I want to wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year. I also wanted to mention the farmers market. I have the opportunity to visit the farmers market with my daughters and there's a lot of great produce i know for those of you guys like myself who are trying to turn things around and eat a lot more healthy this new year a lot of great uh vegetables and produce that were available there also a lot of great dinner um options i saw a lot more vendors this time i had opportunity to talk to a lot of the vendors actually most of them and they all really liked uh the new location they said they were getting a lot more foot traffic a lot more sales so i wanted to thank um city staff for helping organize that i also really liked seeing city staff out there i think it was a great location for you guys to be able to come out and get some snacks um on thursdays um while you're still working here pretty late so i really appreciate that and um and for residents uh you should go check out the farmers market it's really great there's also live entertainment there is a band there uh as well so thank you um city staff for all the hard work that you do i know my daughters and my family really appreciate and the families of modern park appreciate a lot of the

program that you do. Thank you. Thank you Mayor Pro Tem. I also want to invite the community to come out to our Lunar New Year celebration. It has been a long time since we've been able to come together with the community for such a joyous occasion and as I mentioned at the press conference announcing the event, if you follow the Lunar New Year calendar that happens in various communities, we usually are the first one. And I'd like to say that Monterey Park kicks off Lunar New Year.

And, you know, please come not only because it's a great celebration, but also because

not only it doesn't kick off the Lunar New Year calendar in the community, but I also like to think that it also this year will kick off the programming throughout the year for City of Monterey Park because we are a diverse community. And I know that what we have always been known for are the quality of our family-oriented programs, be it the Lunar New Year, Cherry Blossom Festivals, St. Maio, Play Days. We are a diverse community, and we celebrate that diverse community. And so certainly for everyone's patience and resilience during this pandemic, I think that our reward is to be able to celebrate again. Also, I'd like to also note that next week is our mayoral rotation, which will be on a 24th of Tuesday at 6.30 p.m. And, you know, again, I am looking forward to seeing the gavel pass on. And certainly it has been a pleasure being your mayor for past, my goodness, 12 months. And although I will share more of my remarks next week.

and again, it's been a pleasure.

Again, I apologize I broke the gavel. Again, thank you also for giving me,

y'all in there, this is styrofoam, don't worry, it won't break. But again, it's, you know,

certainly the position of mayor,

it's, you know, you don't just simply run the meetings as well,

but, you know, in many ways,

you are, I think, a conduit and bridge for the community because one thing that you'll find as mayor is that

once they know who the mayor is,

everyone will contact you. But I've certainly enjoyed having these contacts.

And certainly I hope that people continue to contact me because certainly it's a good way to gauge, understand what are issues happening in our community throughout the city

because we all know we're not limited by district.

Again, these are artificial demarcations. We represent the city as a whole.

And certainly when we make the rotation,

I sort of will pledge,

I know so well, Councillor Yu, having also served previously as mayor, that we will help the next mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, continue to be that bridge, a conduit for our community.

And I would like to close. I'm sorry, yes?

I don't know if you're going to do the memorial, but it's closing in honor.

I am, yes.

Before we do that, if we can just announce as well tomorrow's ceremony for our police chief.

Oh, yes. I'm sorry, yes.

Yes, and that, you know, thank you, I was remiss, but yes, tomorrow at 6 p.m., 5 p.m., 5 p.m., sorry, about 5 p.m., okay, thanks for the reminder, 5 p.m., that here in this chamber, we will be witnessing the swearing-in of, well, he's already our chief, Scott Weiss, but certainly to make a ceremonial, and again, thank you so much for, you know, stepping up and being the face of the community,

and its public safety needs.

Thank you for the reminder.

Again, tomorrow at 5 p.m. here at Council Chambers. And then finally, I would like to adjourn, with everyone's permission, tonight's meeting

in memory of Honorable Pat Reichenberger.

I'd like to read for the record a bio for Ms. Reichenberger.

On January 5, 2023, former Mayor Patricia Reichenberger passed away at the age of 77. Patricia Reichenberger was a long-time resident of Monterey Park and had been living in the city since she was 7 years old. In her early life, she attended St. Stephen's School and Mission High School and attended East Los Angeles College. She worked as an assistant manager at the Monterey Park stationary store. In 1986, she was elected council member and served as mayor from 1989 to 1990. She was instrumental in revitalizing Atlantic Square and other significant commercial developments

during her tenure.

After stepping down from her role as mayor and council member, she continued involvement with the state of Monarch Park, serving on the Traffic Commission, the Economic Development Advisory Commission, and Historical Heritage Commission. Patricia was also active in the Soroptimus International, serving as president of the

Monarch Park chapter.

Others described her as a consensus builder and a dedicated public servant.

Pat enjoyed volunteering at Monterey Park, participating in the Women's Club, Juniors, Scouts, Mercy Auxiliary Board, Sports Club, Neighborhood Watch, and Play Days.

Patricia and her husband Joe enjoyed road trips throughout the U.S., visiting friends and relatives en route. Funeral services will be held at St. Joseph's Salesian Youth Center Chapel at 8301 Aurora Drive in Rosemead, California, adjacent to Don Bosco Technical Institute on January 23, 2023, with viewing from 10 a.m. to noon, folLod by a mass of Catholic Burial and Grayside Services at 2 p.m. at Resurrection Cemetery at 966 Petro Grande Drive,

Rosemead, California. With that I'd like to adjourn in her memory. Thank you very

much, have a good evening, happy Lunar Air and be safe. Thank you, okay.