Special City Council Mtg Meeting — January 31, 2023

I'd like to call the meeting to order. It is 6.06 PM. If we can do a roll call. Council Member Lo. Present. Council Member Lo. Present. Council Member Lo. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Wong. Here. Mayor Sanchez. Here. We have a quorum.

If we can please stand for the flag salute

Put your right hand over your heart Ready, begin

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

And to the republic for which it stands

One nation, under God, indivisible

With liberty and justice for all

I'd like to take this time to have a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting THAT OCCURRED IN OUR CITY 10 DAYS AGO.

May God bring comfort to our city and our residents. May God bring comfort to our city and our residents. We will start with public communications.

We have one speaker. It's me. Okay.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Michelle, and I'm speaking as a resident tonight and as also your city clerk.

A constituent was concerned.

They brought their concern to me that our fire personnel did not receive enough recognition for their heroic efforts that evening, the night of the shooting. And I have to agree. I fear that perhaps the message was lost because there was so much information in regards to the investigation that was going on, that perhaps that portion of the message may have been buried and all the other information. and I think it's an appropriate time that we take to commend our firefighters for the tremendous efforts and composure and resilience and professionalism that they showed during such a tragic and event filled with so much stress and stress and pain for everyone involved. And so I would like to take this time to thank our fire personnel on behalf of all of the city of Monterey Park and my neighbors for their efforts and to just let them know how proud they make all of us and how grateful we are to have the best fire department in the entire world here in our own city. And we're so grateful and will be forever grateful to them. along those same lines. I would also like to add that I'd like to remind my neighbors that don't forget, counseling services are still available through the library. So I know we've all been through a great amount of stress. There's a lot of stigma with saying that you need help.

And it's okay. It's okay to say that you need help. I'll admit, I need help.

and it's really hard for me to ask for help.

And on Friday, I went and I got help. So please don't be ashamed.

There's a lot that is weighing on all of us.

There is a lot of helplessness, unfortunately, that we are all feeling in this world right now. And so if you need someone to talk to,

please take advantage of those services.

They are available for all of you. I extend the same to our city personnel.

we are all facing a tremendous amount of weight and our hearts are waving very heavily right now.

So if you need someone to talk to, please take advantage of those services.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, may I make a quick comment?

Again, I want to thank the Speaker for bringing this to our attention. And, you know, I also want to just acknowledge that absolutely all of our first responders, fire, paramedic, police, exhibited extraordinary courage and leadership during this time. And, you know, during the past week when I was doing interviews from 3 in the morning to 8 p.m. at night,

I took every opportunity to thank our fire, our paramedics, along with our police responders

for just being valiant.

And I think that as a community, you know, we will be grateful for their valor.

And as we plot a path forward, excuse me, my voice is very hoarse, I'm sorry. as we plot a path forward that absolutely no one will be left behind because we're in this together and we need to lean on each other and also exercise self-care as well because as someone said to me, and this is advice I need to actually listen to as well, but you cannot help others unless you're a whole yourself.

and I think that

that is probably the widest thing someone ever said to me

in these past few days. Thank you. May I, Mayor?

Thank you, Speaker, for acknowledging

that and Council Member Lo

for extending that. I think our depth of gratitude goes beyond just the first responders but all those sitting in the back row there. Look, in 10 days, the city

was

chaotic, tragic.

There was so much that happened to us. But you guys kept the city afloat. You guys kept the resources afloat. You kept the services afloat. And you made it easier for the community to come together, to heal, to work together. I'm just very proud to be here to say that I'm a resident of the city. And I look forward to moving forward and making sure all that we do is going to become better for city and for residents.

Thank you.

If I can just echo that, I know we had earlier today a press conference as well to express some of these feelings. I'm happy to do it again and to thank, join my colleagues in thanking the amazing staff here at City Hall and the staff for the city, represented by the leadership of those teams in the back there sitting.

Appreciate all of your efforts,

particularly the fire department and the first responders that were heroic in getting there as soon as we got the call to provide those services and render that, saving many, many lives in that process and continuing to keep us safe in our communities and all the staff that have been all hands on deck to provide the services that the community continues to need and rely on. I appreciate all of your efforts. I know we've been saying this in private to many of you and your teams as well, but I'll say it again. I really appreciate all of your efforts. I know that staff have been making use of counseling services as well. I know this has been traumatic as an experience for many of our staff who live here and have very fond links to the community directly. And many have worked here for a long time as well. This hurts us as well. And I know and hope and encourage all of our staff to seek out these services as needed as possible, as needed to. And I just want to echo Ms. Yee's comments around accessing. I appreciate you sharing your own personal experience. I know there is, and totally echo your comments around the stigma that's associated, especially in our Asian communities, stigma associated with mental health and well-being and putting on a brave face and not looking and asking for help it's not a not something we're used to and not something we're generally taught in a lot of our families but it's important I think for us to work to break those stigmas and to encourage and urge and to share about those resources and how they can help us be better get better and start to to heal and and start the healing process in our community so appreciate you sharing that and I believe the library is offering walk-in counseling and mental health services in partnership with Chinatown Servants Center during library hours feel free to look that up but any hours the library is open you can just walk in and request service some services and resources there and we're continuing with the county's department of mental health for counseling and other resources that are available at the Langley Senior Center as well that'll continue at least through Friday and then the Langley or the library I think is going to go at least through next Friday and as needed will continue

those services if there's continued demand thanks I also want to echo and

thank the city staff our fire department our police department I think every chance that I've gotten to speak both to the media and during press conferences I always start by thanking all of you guys because we wouldn't be here if it weren't for your help and service. I want to share that my students actually in my classroom have created a banner both for the police department and for the fire department, and they'll be delivering those this week along with pastries and coffee to show their appreciation because they live in this community as well. So I've communicated that with our fire chief as well.

So we thank you.

And, of course, opening and keeping our line of communication open, if there's anything we can do to still provide support, we're always here to help.

And we appreciate you guys. Thank you. No other speakers.

Okay.

So we're now with new business items.

Are there any other public communications?

No? Okay. No speakers. Okay. So, agenda additions?

Oh, are there any additions or changes?

No additions or changes. Okay.

None from the city manager's office.

None from the city attorney. All right.

Very good.

So then I guess we can jump straight into new business We have two new business items

Council is there anything you would guys would like to hold?

Henry Do we have staff report for 1a staff report for 1a Is that it?

Okay, if we can get a staff report for 1a resolution extending a local emergency resulting from the mass murder on January 21st.

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. The agenda item that you have before you is to adopt a resolution extending a local emergency resulting from the mass murder on January 21st, 2023, and authorizing the City Manager

to issue an executive order to direct the California Community Foundation to administer

the distribution of donated funds.

The background on January 21st, 2023, Monterey Park community was traumatized by the murder of 11 individuals and the injury of nine others. In the aftermath of this horrific incident, the city resources are stretched thin. The Monterey Park Fire and Police Department are the most affected by addressing the public safety of the community. The other city departments, however, are also affected as well as we are all going under a crash course of dealing with this incident. Under these circumstances, it is apparent that the local emergency that has already been in effect because of 2023 winter storms must be brought in to include the mobilization of public resources to meet the community's needs in healing from the January 21st incident. In addition to the multitude of other matters, the outpouring of monetary donations must be appropriately administered. While the city does not have policies in place for accepting donations, the city simply does not have the expertise or capacity to undertake the important mission of ensuring that the funds so generously contributed by persons around the world to support the victim's families are properly distributed. Accordingly, based upon the advice from other communities that have previously dealt with the similar mass casualty incidents, the city manager selected the California Community Foundation to partner with non-profit corporations within the community to act on the City's behalf for the purposes of coordinating the distribution of donated funds. To implement this arrangement, it is crucial that the City issue an executive order. As described in the draft resolution, the executive order would make a final decision regarding the arrangements with CCF, nominating nominations for persons for the contemplated oversight board, authorized selection of fund administrator, and ultimately the name of the fund. The draft resolution and executive order may be adopted or modified by City Council at its discretion. It is crucial, however, that the executive order be issued by the City. Doing so will not only allow the City to endorse the fund identity for the City Council for information to confirm its trustworthiness and legitimacy, but will also ensure that those who receive monies from the fund will not be further victimized by, for example, a tax burden that would be otherwise imposed upon financial distribution from other resources. Also important is that the City Council allow CCF and its other anticipated non-profit partners, most notably the Asian American Advancing Justice Southern California, to form the Oversight Board. This will help ensure that the partnership established between the city and other nonprofits will share the responsibility of adopting and implementing protocols for distributing donations. For the public, this agenda item is on the record. It's part of our agenda, if you'd like to refer to it. The physical impact at this time is unknown. This is a very fluid situation that we're dealing with. and that concludes my report. There is a supplemental report. It is available to the public. It addresses also our ability with the suggestion of our fire chief to be able to have a local emergency resulting for our collection of funds for any work that has been incurred by our safety group and that is for you to read on the dais. And we are here for any questions and answers,

and I think our city attorney has some additional information. Mr. Mayor, members of the council,

if I could just tag team on some of the comments from the city manager. We do have a CCF representative with us on Zoom tonight. If you have any questions for that individual, I will share with the council, which I've shared with,

I believe some of you in private that...

Sorry.

Unfortunately, we're all having a crash course.

Anyway, apparently I can't go on. This touches me personally. my son was at the borderline shooting so anyway I'm going to hand it off

just for additional information CCF had dealt with the borderline shooting they're very familiar on setting this type of funds up we were referred to them

I think their expertise in this field and that's why we were led to them

Our city attorney, as he has stated, has had some experience personally and has been able to actually help us vet CCF.

So we have the recommendation before you.

And, counsel, I will just remind you, this is really for you to pick and choose on how you would like to administer this and what you'd like to do. But this is in a draft form.

you're obviously the governing body that makes the decision here

and we're more than welcome to not only answer questions but make changes as you see fit thank you very much

Council any questions

really quick I don't know if I think Carol

I can't read the name sorry it's really far

if she has any initial comments on

the fund and how that would be set up

Thank you. My name is Carol Worley and I am Senior Counsel for the California Community Foundation.

So I am the in-house lawyer for the foundation. Oh my gosh, that's my face real big on that screen, isn't it?

For Victims Funds, like this one and like others that have been administered by community foundations that serve their neighboring community. Our role is really to serve as a secure place to which members of the community, wherever they may be, and how they want to support the community can make a donation. We will steward those donations and work with an advisory committee set up by the council or recommended by the council and the city to help develop guidelines as to how the funds will be used and how people can go about requesting support from the fund. And so our role is more of an administrator than it is a decision maker, but we serve as a secure place where money can come in and we can work with the advisory committee. If I may, the California Community Foundation is your community foundation in the greater Los Angeles County.

We are a public charity and we are a grant maker.

And so we do discretionary grant making to support charities throughout the Los Angeles County area

and also work with many families and companies to help them with their philanthropy.

So administering funds and getting grant disbursements out is part and parcel of our business.

And Mr. Mayor, members of the council, my apologies. I think I've composed myself. I just wanted to mention that the redlined versions on the supplemental staff report are intended to replace what was in your packet. There are extra copies of this available for the public in the back, but this was done at the request of the fire chief based upon his conversations with L.A. County Office of Emergency Management, which recommended that we declare a separate local emergency for this specific incident as opposed to extending the local emergency from the winter 2023 storms, which we originally declared on January 8th. So I apologize for not clarifying this earlier, but that was the intent of my interruption.

Do we have public comments on this?

Do we have any public comments on this issue? No speakers.

I have just a couple questions, unless you guys want to go.

Carol, can you talk about the, if we were to proceed with CCF as the administrator of this fund, how that would, well, one, I know there are, we know there are already existing fundraising efforts through GoFundMe and other facilitators to collect funds to support victims, both directly for their families, I think set up by some of their families already. And then there's a number of API nonprofits that have set up a GoFundMe that's I think closing in on a million dollars now. How this potential fund intersects or might work with those funds and other existing funds or not, or what that kind of picture might look like?

Thank you. That's a great question.

This fund would be separate from those funds in that this would be an additional fund that new money would come into.

and that money would be governed by the guidelines and protocol set up by the advisory committee for this fund.

That being said, I have been in discussion.

I've had a discussion with leadership from AJ Southern California.

and in the perfect world we'd like to see how we might be able to work together to combine funds that can be combined to provide support.

So we continue to work on that. But at this time this would be a stand-alone fund that would not,

we do not have a formal plan of intersection with any of the other funds.

I will note that these funds will all be coming in and will allow the contributors to take a tax deduction. So it will be different than the GoFundMe funds. But as I said, we are working to find a way that we may intersect.

And I continue to remain hopeful that we will get there on that.

Do you mention something I want to help clarify for me and I think for others? So currently, if donors are donating to the GoFundMe directly, those are not tax-deductible donations, is that right?

That's correct.

And then if and when the GoFundMe and whoever the administrators are of those funds contribute directly to victims and their families,

those donations to the victims and their families could be taxed as taxable income?

It is possible. I will admit, without more information, I don't know the answer to that question.

There are many nuances.

But it is everyone's hope that the funds will not be taxable, taxable distributions,

but the funds coming in were not eligible for tax deduction.

And I guess this is a question for Carl. So the purpose, right, of us, if we adopt this, the emergency declaration and all that, the purpose of that is to make sure that both any contributions to this separate fund that would be at CCF or whoever we approve tonight, those contributions will be tax deductible. and under this emergency declaration, any distributions of those funds to victims and their families would also be free from tax for those families, right?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, that's correct. What was described to me from other mass incidents or mass casualty incidents like this is there's always the potential for additional victimization of the individuals that are involved. the model that was set up for example for the borderline shooting in ventura county was very much like what is suggested here today and one of the things in order to to cut through the irs codes is to have an executive order issued in the manner being proposed tonight certainly the partnerships with other non-profits are encouraged and we look forward to to working with them in the future but as as mr bobe mentioned that the city simply doesn't have the expertise and rather than wait to garner that expertise we thought it was in the public's interest to select partners that had already unfortunately gone through this and be able to guide the way and in addition to all of that one of the most important things that came out of certainly the ventura county experience was the actual distribution in the public buy-in on how that distribution occurred which is one of the reasons that it suggested that an oversight board

be created in order to establish protocols that have very specific distribution criteria accept

applications and start distributing funds in accordance with that those criteria and the reason for that is if you recall the 9-11 victims fund that was established by congress much of the

structure that occurred in Ventura was modeled after that particular process

so that there was that type of public input and

not only the input but also the buy-in to how those funds were distributed. There was always a question of, for example, the 9-11 consequence, whether a broker's family should get more or less depending on the economic, all these things that one doesn't like to talk about, but one looks at when, for example, one buys life insurance how much is somebody or somebody's family worth in terms of actual distribution of money so rather than have the city be involved with that it was thought better to put it to an oversight board and those people that could administer the oversight board that knew better than and certainly

the city does thanks mr. Berger a question for Carol how if we were to

proceed tonight with this and select CCF, how quickly could this fund be set up and start to engage with victims' families and get the funding out? My concern is one on the urgency of these families are already planning services for the victims and are already incurring costs and are going to have medical costs as well to pay off soon. How quickly can these funds be dispersed?

How quickly can this process be put together

so that the assistance can be made as quickly as possible

as the families need?

My understanding is the state victims' compensation fund and other funds that might be available, many of those are probably on reimbursement basis. So many of these families can't get that money up front

from government entities.

And so this fund would kind of be a bridge

for a lot of that, right? to?

The fund can be created very quickly

and be ready to accept money very quickly.

I think that is something we can

The question as to when can disbursements be made, there needs to be money in the fund obviously. And there really should be protocols that are put together. I know that some effort has started in identifying an advisory committee and their job will be to create the protocols of how money will be distributed and they will be distributed in the

and prepare the applications, really think about how people are going to let the fund know that they do need support. So that will take a little bit more time, but we are hopeful that everybody can get started working on this and they'll be ready to move on this as quickly as they have protocols in place.

and so the and then the the costs to administer the fund right in terms of the outreach to the

families and whatever other administrative costs that would also come out of uh the cost right whatever funds are contributed to this fund it would just be an administrative fee or right a percentage of the the total donated money that's uh accumulated in the fund or how how would the fund be administered in terms of the costs of the fund, I guess?

So the Community Foundation typically takes an administrative fee on funds that it administers. We have

made the decision that we will waive an administrative fee so

that all of the money coming in should be available for

disbursement out to victims and perhaps to non-profits that are

also providing services that are helpful to the community. All right, cool.

Yeah, I actually have two comments.

The first comment is that my belief and my understanding is that the Advancing Justice SoCal fund that was raised, approximately a million dollars, they have decided to give a portion of that up front. I think they ignited that or alLod that to be dispersed for folks who needed it, a small percentage, but folks who needed it, I believe that was done over the weekend. And the second comment, actually, question is for Carol, if you can confirm this. Because CCF is a 501C, by using CCF, it also allows folks who want to donate not only get the tax write-off benefits, but also if I work for a corporate entity and if there's matching gifts that the corporate world will also match the gifts. For example, if I wrote a check, my employer would also match a check, and that would be double the money that would go into CCF in order to go into this fund specifically for the victims, if you can confirm that.

That is correct, yes.

Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

It concerns, I guess, the point of contact, and I don't know if that's something that CCF would take charge

or if that's something the oversight board needs to develop protocols,

but how are we establishing a point of contact to the victims and the family members?

Is that going to be, again, if that's a protocol that needs to be established,

but yeah, is it going to be an email, an individual, or an organization even to be the point of contact?

I think that's very important that whoever the point of contact is,

is someone or an organization that understands the cultural nuances too as far as what the victims and their families are going through.

And I'm just curious.

Again, if I'm jumping ahead of myself, if that's something that CCF is going to do or is that the oversight board? I'm just a curious question I have.

And, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I guess I'll jump in here. The bulk, from the city's perspective, the bulk of the work from making those decisions is going to lie with the oversight board. but more importantly with the fund administrator who as you'll see in your materials is not identified

as part of the application process or as part of your agenda packet I should say.

One of the reasons for that is an individual that we reached out to was unable to take the job, consider the matter seriously but realized that that individual would not be able to give the full support that was needed for this. So it's been left blank in terms of who the fund administrator is. The recommendation from the city manager and myself, though, is to either throw out some names tonight or, as is in the draft executive order and in the resolution, simply appoint a fund administrator identified by the city manager with concurrence of the mayor within two weeks and identify and provide that information to ccf so that person is in charge of implementing the protocols of the oversight board in terms of all the nuts and bolts if you will you know which website do you go to who do you contact which phone number do you call what have you all of that from the city's perspective is in the hands of ccf to to take direction from the oversight board and implement other than naming the fund and there's a there's really a placeholder name that was included with your materials but from the city's perspective it's up to the oversight board and ccf to come up with the best name for the fund other than naming the fund and appointing the fund administrator and nominating nominating individuals for the oversight board the city's duty at that point will be done except at the request of ccf or or the oversight board that

that's the way it's set up at the moment okay and and that's fine but i just think that that

has to be handled very carefully, because even just my observation about the coalition of organizations behind the GoFundMe side, and again, I mean, they have just been extraordinary in their responsiveness to establishing this, but I know that there were those questions too, is that, well, a point of contact is important. I mean, if you will, it's almost like, I don't want to say caseworker, but again, because whoever interfaces with the victims and their families probably has to have that cultural

competency as well as, if you will, the recognition about interacting with people who have experienced

extreme trauma.

And I think that that's something that I just want to impress and emphasize.

it uh mayor mayor proteman council i just want to add in the the fund administrator is really the face that will be uh promoting this fund uh being able to um just be that face so that when you're

talking about the individual, it would be that fund administrator, that head.

That individual is not part of the oversight board. They are the ones that actually just participates, but they do not have a vote in this oversight board. They are the ones to help administer whatever the board has set for protocols and move the

money forward and be that interaction. So the fund administrator is a very key face for us. And just remember, there's a reason why we did not take it on ourselves. I think legally we can't. And this third party that we're trying to set up right now is important. And the fund administrator is just as important.

Just to clarify, so this fund administrator needs to be appointed by this council, or is that something CCF can do?

Mr. Mayor members of the council it's certainly if this if the City Council wants to authorize CCF or the oversight board to do it That's fine. The reason that it was recommended in this particular manner was to make sure that the elected officials that are part of the Monterey Park community and who were elected by the community were the ones to designate that person so that that person was If you will receive the City Council seal of approval for for administering the funds But as as the city manager mentioned that individual needs to be somebody that is

above reproach if you will and

The administrator could be an individual or it could also be an organization or entity or does it have to be an individual?

The recommendation that I've been provided and Carol can correct me if she has a different viewpoint Was that it's an individual it's basically the CEO of that fund that's implementing the board's direction that has adopted the protocols

the examples that have been given to me were retired Board of Supervisors retired sheriff

Court of Appeals Justice things along those lines that are apolitical have a very good reputation within the community and again are above reproach and you are the the ones that are elected to to identify that individual but certainly if the City Council wants to

delegate authority to CCF or the oversight board itself to select that individual that's that's certainly something that you can do I I took a

look at the passing the names there and I am very comfortable with the names because those are the names I have served this community and they have been involved in this community and you know first of all outstanding personnel if you look at the superintendent of the schools that support our community are retired police chief who continue to serve and a couple of folks the names there who have in just dedicated the time in serving the city I'm okay with that list

I mean I'm also okay with the list for but those are for the oversight board right I think in terms

of an administrator right my my I have a large and I think I share a sense of urgency in terms

of getting this going as quickly as possible I don't know that we can decide I don't know even without candidates, right, for this fund administrator, I don't know that we're going to be able to decide tonight. I don't know if the best course of action is just to delegate that authority at this point.

And that was what we did in the draft resolution, is simply authorize the city manager with the concurrence of the mayor to select somebody for the fund administrator. But in lieu of that, based upon the discussion tonight, we can simply amend the resolution so that in the absence of being able to do that in the next two weeks, authorized CCF to do so on our behalf.

Yeah, I would be comfortable with delegating authority to the city manager and if the city manager decides to delegate that to CCF, allowing for that.

It's still with the concurrence of the mayor or solely within Ron's authority?

This is a very important, I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. this is a very important fund for us and for the victims

I would not feel comfortable

this is probably one of the few times that I don't feel comfortable on making that decision alone

if you will entertain, allow me and the mayor

so that way we have a check on that

I'd really appreciate it because this is a huge undertaking to pick the right person to be the administrator

I'm fine with that if others are

I'm fine with that too

Same here.

And I'm happy to make a motion to approve staff's recommendation.

Yeah, I just wanted to make one last comment. I had a question for Carol.

For those of us who are not familiar with CCF and how they operate, I think most of us are familiar with, like, GoFundMe and stuff like that. Can you just briefly kind of explain to us how you operate in terms of how you collect funds from the community and other organizations, not just for ourselves, but also for the public who's listening, understands how this operates?

For funds that have more than one donor,

typically what has worked well for us and helped that fund to raise money is we can set up a landing page on our own website that is dedicated to the fund so that individuals can come in and make a contribution via credit card.

We also will put the address so they can send a check if they'd like to do that. We are able to accept wires as well.

And we can answer any questions that donors may have. We will take care of providing a gift acknowledgement letter, tax receipt, for their own tax purposes. And then we will coordinate with the administrator and the committee on reports about the fund, how much money has come in, what is available, and will take direction from the administrator and the advisory committee on grants going out.

And just another follow-up question. If this council decided to go ahead and go with CCF, just so the public knows and we're aware, how quickly can this be up and running?

the fund can be correct can be uh can be uh created tomorrow um the the landing page and all of that i think uh since it is tuesday will probably take through the end of the week to get that up um you know and we we'd really like input from someone um even if the administrator

has not been selected at this point, but we'd like input on what the language should look like, what it is that you would like the text to say for this particular fund,

and then we can provide the website address to the city if you wanted to link in any way from your own. to the city if you wanted to link in any way from your own webpage to that as well as to any other

! organizations in the area who might want to drive traffic traffic that way.

! We can get a fund up tomorrow to accept donations.

! The rest of it will likely take until the end of the week to get a landing page up. to get a landing page up.

And to add to that, I think part of your question may be even reading into it, but the California Community Foundation has been around for over 100 years.

Yes, we're 107 years old.

And is probably one of the leading kind of nonprofit foundation in the LA area and has a long history of administering not just funds like this, but a lot of other donor advised funds and corporate kind of foundations and others and have a long history of promoting good work in our community and investing in and catalyzing change in our communities on policy issues, but also on a nonpartisan basis too, right, on making our communities better. And it is based here in L.A. County and is kind of the fund of choice for a lot of entities who want to do work here in L.A. County.

And very reputable. Thank you.

A couple of clarifying questions as well since that came up. So for Ron or Carl, so if we take this action today to approve this and move forward on this, it wouldn't preclude the city can promote this fund as the fund for anyone who's interested in contributing or supporting victims. There's no way we could put the link up on our website, blast that out and all that stuff.

That wouldn't make it.

There are no restrictions on that.

Absolutely.

And that's one of the main reasons for encouraging you to take the action tonight, is to give the legitimacy to this particular fund, to endorse it on behalf of the city. And so all the questions that all of you and certainly all of we have had of who do we donate to, we can point to one particular fund that we know will take care of them.

And then to be clear, so once this, if we move forward on this and CCF, We can recommend a number of folks for the oversight board, but the number of people on that board and what they decide and everything would be up to CCF to really determine.

That's our recommendation, yes.

and then once the board is seated and the administrators in place the city would have no control no direct control over how the fund is operated and how this versus funds and all

all the prioritization of all that right that's correct and that's intentional and then just uh

for carol i don't know if off the top of your head you might have an answer this uh what do you know what the kind of the rate is when someone contributes to GoFundMe, what their cut off the top is for funds that are donated through that portal as opposed to what CCF, if someone's donating to CCF for this fund, if what that differential might be for donors in terms of what actual money will go directly to victims and their families?

You know, actually, I don't know the answer to that. And I would think that it would really

depend on what fee GoFundMe is charging and I don't have any information about that.

Yeah, my understanding is it's relatively high. So I would imagine if CCF is waiving its fees this would be a much more efficient way to make sure funds are going directly to the victims and the families. With that, I'm happy to make a motion to adopt staff's recommendation with the amended supplemental report to make sure that there is a separate emergency declaration made here and to move ahead with creating this the fund and moving ahead with the California Community Foundation as the liaison or whatever the language is in the staff report for this third-party fund and authorize the city manager in consultation with the mayor to identify and put in place a fund administrator. I guess that's my motion. And then I'd also like to add a few other suggestions and recommendations for the oversight board. I would suggest if they're willing to serve, Judge Bryant Yang at the Alda County Superior Court is a former resident, grew up here in Monterey Park, but is a judge and former lawyer and assistant U.S. attorney in L.A. also potentially Judge Ed Chow

formerly a legislator

was a lawyer here in the Sangiboo Valley and had a lot of clients here

in Monterey Park and Alhambra

and I think very well respected both of them

also Rick Ng I haven't checked in with him so hopefully I don't know

but Rick Ng his family has been in Monterey Park and owns some property here on South Atlantic and currently works for LA County in their LA vs. Hate campaign but also involved in the Chinese American Citizen Alliance. I think he's the president of that organization but very rooted here and used to be the executive director for the Alhambra Educational Foundation. And then Gay Yuan, a long-time community member here in Monterey Park, I think over 40 years. Also board chair for the Chinese American Museum and has deep roots in the Asian American community in Monterey Park. So those are just additional names I wanted to put into the mix. obviously it'll be up to CCF to seat the board. And a question, I guess, for Carl or Carol. If there are additional recommendations from the council for potential board members, should we just send that to you or Carol?

Actually send it to the city manager that way.

There's one point of contact,

and plus maybe he can grift some names for the fund administrator.

All right, sounds good.

So I made that motion. If there's a second.

I'll second.

Unless there's...

I'll second that motion, and I believe I share a compilation of some of those names with the city manager in a private discussion, so you've got those names already.

So, you know, at your disposal.

Okay, so I guess we will vote.

I second.

All right. let's call for a vote

approved unanimously thank you and I know we just thought that but if we can

get an update maybe invite CCF back once they've set this up to provide an update to the council at an appropriate council meeting I think that'd be helpful for the community as well to understand how this is going to work out

thank you Carol for answering all of our questions and for waiving the fee given the situation.

Do I have a motion to approve item 1B? Move for approval. Any seconds? Second.

Happy to approve this, but I don't know if we wanted to have a staff report for this or if there's a need.

It's really at the pleasure of the council. If you would like to have a staff report, we do have the division chief here,

and he could do the staff report.

Matt had been called away from his family, so he's not here.

That's fine.

If the division chief is available, please.

All right, staff report.

Thank you.

Battalion Chief Battalion Chief

It would be Division Chief Ryan Weddle

that will be presenting the report

Thank you

Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the Council What I'd like to go over tonight is the Fire Department is currently in the process of wrapping up an application for an assistance to firefighters grant through FEMA and this would be for the purchase of a new air compressor

at Fire Station 61 to fill our self-contained breathing apparatus bottles. The current equipment is over 20 years old, and it is in need of replacement for future self-contained breathing apparatus that the fire department will purchase in the next two years.

So the way this assistance to firefighter grant works

is it requires the city to do a 10% cost match of the total purchase price.

So the fire department is asking for $92,577.35, in which $84,000 would be provided by the federal government with the city's share of being $8,400.

I'm happy to answer any other questions related to the staff report you have in front of you.

Any questions from the council?

Chief, just a quick question on this.

I'm curious.

Is there a, for this grant program, is there a cap for how much a department can ask for?

I'm not aware of a specific cap,

but normally it's under a million dollars.

You can go over that if it's a,

but you would have to have adequate justification for like let's say a new

USAR vehicle or something like that. You know I'm more than happy to support this

if someone wants to make a motion but want to just encourage us in the fire department and other departments to go after more grant money if there if as as many of these opportunities come available as much as we can leverage out of the state and federal governments for equipment that we need like this and upgrades that we need, let's maximize to the extent that we can that assistance.

Mr. Pee, I have a quick question. So this air compressor is for Fire Station 61,

and I know over the years when I've spoken to the Fire Department and also done tours, I know that some of our buildings are of a certain age, but are there other stations that are also in need of equipment that, again, as my colleague mentioned, If there are other grant opportunities, we should seek them out because of my understanding about the age of some of our facilities.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, I'll take this question because I've had extensive conversation with our Fire Chief. We do have some renovations within Station 61 that needs to be completed. That has been on the books before, and we've kind of held it there. station 63 needs some serious retrofitting earthquake retrofitting

there's a there's a point where depending on how much we have to spend in that building it might be better for us to utilize whatever fund we would spend to look for a different location that's something that we've contemplated for the past two two years knowing that there's earthquake excitement work that needs to get done other than that those two buildings are are probably the two that we need to somewhat attack. As for the grants, my familiarity with the grants,

going back to Mayor Pro Tem's question,

is that you will find probably later towards the end of the, close to the end of the budget year, there will be a slew of requests from our fire department because what ends up happening is that kitty of money that was allocated to other fire departments does not get used up. So they do a last call, and that last call is literally within weeks to move that money off their books. So don't be surprised that you're going to be administering some requests by the fire department towards the end of the year.

So that's one. As for the large buildings, they're searching.

I know they're looking for it, but it's really difficult to get a grant of that magnitude because we're probably looking, especially nowadays, probably about $4 million building to be built. But I do know Chief Halleck and the Division Chief, Ryan Weddle, they are constantly looking for that. Okay, thank you.

And also just for the community's information, maybe just, again, just for the record,

Fire Station 6163, where are they located?

Just for the community's information.

Yeah, Fire Station 61 is located immediately to the west of City Hall, right here at 350 West Newmark.

And fire station 63 is at 704 Monterey Pass Road. Thank you

All right, well anyone like to make a motion a Move for approval second, okay, we can take a vote

I Proved unanimously. Thank you. Thanks chief

Are we doing council comments? Any last comments from the council?

Oh, sorry.

So I just want to share some of us, actually, I guess people up here, we were at Alhambra at the Lunar New Year Festival in which the hero who disarmed the gunman, Brandon Say, was honored.

And it was a very emotional, I think, moment for all of us,

only because, I mean, he prevented probably a tragedy from becoming an even worse tragedy.

And I think that it was very touching and moving that we were able to, you know, really...

It was very touching and moving that we were able to really thank him for doing something heroic.

! I think because as I said at the Humber event oftentimes, our instinct could be to flight.

I think in this case, he didn't run away. He actually faced the gunman to risk of his own life. faced the gunman to risk his own life and wrestles him and removed the weapon.

And I think that's just something that, you know, deserves praise and recognition for his valor.

That's all I want to say.

Yeah, I just wanted to add to that. Look, in the last 10 days, we've gone through trauma, tragic. I can, I had to write this down. we mourn, we grieve, we're healing, we're recovering. We need to get back to our routines in order for us to be better from a mental health standpoint. With that said, I was, along with some of our city council folks, We attended our Hammer Lunar New Year celebration in part to support and recognize Brandon Shee for the heroic acts that he did. And we were also at the Golden Dragon Parade in Chinatown so we can carry forward some of the traditions and the celebration of Lunar New Year. And this weekend there will be another event at St. Gabriel also celebrating Lunar New Year. we need to continue some of that so that we can get back to a routine we're blessed to be supported

by our community but it really is

on us, the residents to move forward

so we can carry forward because we're resilient that's the bottom line and I want to again

reemphasize that we really thank our staff many of you sitting back here

of first responders

for getting us through this.

We're a great city. We'll continue that way. Thank you.

I'll apologize up front.

I've got a bunch of notes in different places, so this may be a little disjointed.

To echo some of those comments,

this is our first council meeting back since the shooting about 10 days ago. And I think the council, we said it earlier today as well, continue to join our community in grieving the violence that occurred and the continued shock and anger and grief and sadness that the rest of the community is feeling. I hope that we will continue and urge staff to look at ways that we can continue to help bring the community together and provide resources and services that the community needs in the weeks, months, and very likely years to come. And as we think through those opportunities, let's identify what resources need to be made available to continue to provide those services to our community. and if we can encourage as much as possible the community's organic right opportunities to come together I know there's a vigil happening right now outside the ballroom star ballroom that's being organized by a Buddhist temple and I know others have have come up organically as well and hope that we will continue to encourage that and support those activities like my council colleagues have been intentionally joining other communities as they celebrate the Lunar New Year with their own festivals. And I think it's helpful to help reassure the community that it is safe to go out and to shop and to celebrate the Lunar New Year. And it's important, I think, for us to come together as families, as loved ones, as friends, as neighbors, to show support for each other, to see each other in person, and also to support our local businesses that continue to struggle, right, not only with the pandemic but with this violent incident occurring as well in our downtown neighborhood. A lot of the businesses there, I think,

are going to struggle for a little bit

in terms of making sure people feel safe to come back. And so to the extent that we can, hope that we will continue to encourage that. And I know that there are ongoing conversations with business owners in the downtown area that are around the ballroom. When those results are available, if we can have a report back to council so that we can look at opportunities to support them as well. And if we can get kind of a report on

how

Whether and how much the services in terms of counseling and mental health services are being utilized at the at Langley Center at the library So that we can as appropriate right extend those services further and see how else we can continue to support the community in

the grieving process

and just to echo comments earlier by a council member go want to ensure assure the community from my vantage point that we will not be defined by this incentive hate in this community I've already seen I think we've seen right the outpouring support and how resilient our community is and it's been very very encouraging to see everyone come together including to the city's organized vigil last Tuesday and we hope to continue to bring the community together and these with these opportunities to continue the healing

process which I know will be long several a couple other quick things if

we can continue to see if there are opportunities to organize roundtables I know the police department's going to do a town hall meeting or series of town hall meetings I think those are important to keep up if there are other opportunities for the council or the city to to bring communities together and provide the spaces to just hear each other out and talk to each other and express some of these concerns and and work together to address them I think that'd be very appropriate going forward and I know that there are I've heard right the Alhambra Chamber and others are talking about potentially providing business support I know the city posted about LA County's micro grants that are available to small businesses if there are other programs like that or other opportunities to bring in other business entities that can support our businesses whatever the council can do and the city can do to help promote those let's

continue to do that.

And then on a completely separate topic, I guess a question for Carl. There's a new law, SB 1439, on requirements for elected officials to recuse themselves from any issues dealing with contributors to their campaigns over a certain threshold. it might be appropriate for training or some sort of overview for that for the council at some point

i don't know if there's any thought or analysis on that i'll give you the thumbnail sketch if you'd

like thumbnail is it's a fppc opinion came out it's a prospective law meaning that you need to pay attention for this campaign year you don't have to pay attention for 2022 and if as long as you accept contributions that are less than $250, it would not apply in any event for

your recusal purposes.

So that's a very short overview, but I'm happy to provide additional information.

Thanks, Carl.

I think a lot of City Council members and City Attorneys are probably working through and thinking through how this might impact votes down the line. I know we're all still feeling this out. But my understanding, if you will confirm, is that the FUC did come out with an opinion, basically an opinion, a wide-ranging opinion that exempts contributions to candidates before January 1st of this year. And so this is only going forward from January 1st.

Correct.

So a warning to candidates that might be fundraising in the next year or two.

That is all I have, I think.

Yep. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Wong. I also wanted to share a couple of comments. We will be honoring Brandon, say, at our next City Council meeting. So for people who are listening and would like to come out and support Brandon, and saying the efforts that he did to preserve life in the city of Alhambra, where a lot of us, you know, it's our sister city next door. We share a lot in common with that community.

Just wanted to share that.

I also wanted to thank a lot of the community organizations, churches, and other cities that have held vigils in these last 10 days. A lot of us had the opportunity to attend many of these. I know I attended one on Sunday in the city of San Gabriel, outside of our own city. and just local churches as well. Feel free to invite us if you are hosting any and to make those public to us so we can also share and attend and share in this process.

And I'm also very happy that local cities, like St. Gabriel, for example, and El Hambro last weekend, are continuing with the Lunar New Year festivities. I think it's an important reminder to the community. I know a lot of our council members attended the El Hambro one. This past weekend, the San Gabriel one, which Councilman Ngo mentioned this coming Saturday, it's important to maintain those festivities, and not just in terms of giving a semblance of normalcy back to our community, but also to continue to celebrate the importance of Lunar New Year to a lot of our communities here in the San Gabriel Valley. I think that's very important. I've been taking my family. My daughters love these festivities. They're always talking about the lion dances. So I know they're really looking forward to the San Gabriel one on Saturday. And so I also wanted to just lastly end with thanking our city staff once again for all of your efforts and everything that you do on a daily basis behind the scenes. And I know that sometimes we don't get the gratitude that we deserve.

I'm a teacher.

I understand all of that.

but also to our first responders, our police officers, our fire department, and paramedics that were there on that day.

We thank you.

And it's hard to compose words in terms of how much gratitude we have

in terms of the work that you do. So with that.

Actually, Mr. Mayor, forgive me, because I'm no longer mayor. I have to realize I have to also be concise in my comments. But I do want to just add something.

Sure. And I will be brief.

You know, just like all of you, like everyone in the community, you know, I'm still trying to process and organize my thoughts. And, you know, one thing that I was just thinking during this crisis was that, you know, I had one point as acting mayor at that time. I made a phone call to Deborah Primrose from Half Moon Bay City to offer my condolences because we are now tied together to the tragedy of a mass shooting.

And, you know, unfortunately, we were a day ahead of Half Moon Bay City.

And so, you know, I said, look, I mean, anything that we can do to help you, to assist you, you know, we are there.

But, you know, especially as I'm, you know, especially, I mean, I've also counted how many interviews I've given as a face of our city.

But, you know, one of the things that I have to say is that, you know, this also should be a clearing call for action.

Because, you know, we're now on a list of cities since the year started.

I think at the last count it's 40 that witnessed a mass shooting. If that is a trend every month, then that means we could be seeing over 5,000 incidents at the end of the year. And frankly, I am mad that that's even something that we can consummate as acceptable.

And we really have to take action as part of a coalition to just say stop,

and we have to take action to minimize gun violence in this nation. And I think that that should be part of our agenda, in addition to making sure we as a community heal, plot a path forward. But this has got to stop, because I sure just think any other community has to experience what we did. And I think that this isn't a call to action to say enough is enough, and we have to do what we can for gun violence prevention in this country.

I'd like to add with what our Councilmember Henry Lo has been our mayor through this tragedy. I first wanted to thank you for the work that you did these last 10 days to get us through. But also wanted to echo exactly the same sentiment and the same regard in terms of the necessary reforms that are needed in this country as it comes to gun legislation and gun reforms. California has some of the strictest gun laws, but we're only as good as our neighbors are. And we need to act and we need to use this moment to be able to make the necessary changes. So I would like to also echo what my colleague said and create a coalition, even if it's just here in the San Gabriel Valley, leading to a possible resolution to move forward and encourage federal officials, including the president, to create federal legislation immediately to prevent tragedies like this. And I'll open it to the other council members if they wish to express any comment in regard to that.

I know we're getting into territory in terms of talking about, but I think it would be appropriate to direct staff to maybe research potential action items and legislation that would make sense for the city to potentially take action on.

anything else that I think runs the gamut of potential solutions to prevent this in another community.

We'll bring something back on a future agenda.

Thank you.

And if there aren't any other comments, I'd like to adjourn the meeting.

Thank you.