City Council Meeting — March 15, 2023

Oh, my God. Oh, hi. How are you, sir? Good. Good. Good. So good to see you.

Oh, Akadeka. Hi, Akadeka. How you going?

You're the winners. Oh, galician. Bye. Bye.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. We're going to go ahead and start our meeting, and we'll start at 634. The City Council of Monterey Park, 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,

welcome you tonight. We're going to go ahead and do a roll call.

Councilmember Lo. Present. Councilmember Yu. Councilmember Ngo. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Wong. Present. Mayor Sanchez. Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you.

We're going to go ahead and I'm going to ask you to go ahead and stand and we'll start with our flag salute.

If you can 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.

Thank you. Take a seat.

Are there any agenda additions, deletions, changes, and adoptions?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, there's an addition.

We're going to add Public Works Department under Staff Communications. They can go following Recreation and Community Services.

Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. Do we have any public communications? Yes, we do. Okay.

First speaker, Sarkis Antonian.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Member, staff. So when this so-called president came out here, I'm really surprised that he goes to the Boys and Girls Club. And this is maybe before some of your people's times. But when Nancy Reagan said, don't do drugs, You don't hear nothing from the left where they're saying none of that things. So with this wide open border for going on three years now, or two and a half years, whatever, with the fentanyl coming in,

from what I'm hearing, over 100,000 have died from it,

and approximately 200 die a day. So you went to the Boys and Girls Club, you figure they mentioned about that. And why? Because those kids are going to be upcoming. going to be doing what you're doing up here, what I'm doing when I'm standing here, and whatever keeps the system going, to be paying your tech, your social security, and keeping the system going. And by the way, whoever goes to these League of City meetings, what are the cities doing then? You used to see the flags out there about the drug in front of the police station, fire station, at the library. anything that's related to city about drug use, you don't see that no more. And I guess drugs have gone away and, you know, things like that. So you got a future, you got future kids, you got kids back here are going to be growing up and stuff, but yet they're bringing that stuff over like a hot cake. And I'm giving sources telling me how much police, how much law enforcement that was brought over here for him to speak at the Boys and Girls Club, and yet they didn't even put that on the regular news as live. Your president's here in your city. Come and watch it on the major networks, how they call it, the fake news networks. When they only showed a minute of him speaking at Boys and Girls Club, wasn't that kind of a, to me, that's a waste of tax dollars big time.

when you get a major person that's ahead of the country coming to here

and coming to the city for that one deal, and then still it's that shooting out.

It's on my mind every day I get up or every day I go to sleep, whatever, and then keep on bringing it up.

Hey, you want to forget that stuff.

You want to start better years upcoming, and you pray that stuff that will happen. They go and talk about that. You're not going to get rid of the weapons. Look at the weapons he had. Those were illegal. So are you going to go door to door? Hey, what do you have? I don't have weapons, so I don't have to worry about it. But when you come here from spending all that tax dollars, go and the media only shows one minute on the news, that's a slap in our face in this city that he comes over here. He could have went to the star dance. He could have seen what happened. and then he could have come down here and seen the pictures and all the ornaments, whatever they call it, the statue things for the people that were killed.

So he goes to the Boys and Girls Club.

That's a slap in the city. And then they block everything off. And then on top of that, he comes out here when it's raining so he can get sick. and end up in the hospital like some of them have been doing already. Why did he send them out here when it's pouring rain? Come next week when it's dry weather? At that age, you don't want them out there in this kind of weather.

And then I found out the wife didn't even come either. He just came down here by himself.

Well, you know, whatever.

And, hey, no more of this stuff going on.

have us get it out of our minds of what happened down there

and don't be rationing on it because you never will get rid of the guns that's period, thank you

next speaker

Byron DeArsco of TRC Retail

!

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor Sanchez, Mayor Pro Tem Wong,

honorable members of the City Council.

My name is Byron DeArcle. I'm Consulting Director of Entitlement Planning for TRC. TRC, as you know, is the owner of Atlantic Square, the oldest and one of the most patronized daily need shopping centers in Monterey Park. Atlantic Square is a source of significant sales tax revenue to the city.

Thank you for the opportunity this evening to speak with you about a very serious matter and to again ask for your help.

The Raising Cane's restaurant located at 1970 South Atlantic Boulevard,

immediately adjacent to Atlantic Square,

is not in compliance with conditions of approval imposed by the Monterey Park City Council. Indeed, the restaurant is conducting dangerous drive-thru operations that pose a threat to public safety, the safety of Atlantic Square customers, as well as TRC's ability to operate a safe, accessible, successful shopping center. Specifically, in violation of conditions of approval, municipal code, and its permits, Raising Cane's is purposely directing its drive-thru customers to use the public alley that separates its property from Atlantic Square's northern access driveway. As a result, during peak hours, the queue of idling vehicles very often extends beyond the drive-through lanes into the public alley and onto Atlantic Boulevard.

This creates dangerous and disruptive traffic conflicts that pose significant public safety concerns in three ways.

First, Raising Cane's customer vehicles often idle in line on Atlantic Boulevard, just north of the location where two northbound lanes merge into a single lane.

creating a serious safety issue for vehicles merging and continuing north on Atlantic.

This condition also poses a threat to pedestrians using the public sidewalks on the east side of Atlantic at the public alleyway entrance.

Second, Raising Cane's customer vehicles queued in the public alley routinely create dangerous conflicts with Atlantic Square customers attempting to enter and exit the shopping center from the northern access driveway. Third, idle Raising Cane's customer vehicles queued on Atlantic Boulevard and in the public alley could restrict emergency vehicle access to the rear of the northern part of the Atlantic Square shopping center.

This ongoing public safety hazard also continues to harm TRC's ability to ensure safe access to and operation of Atlantic Square.

Raising Cane's customers have been queuing into the Atlantic Square parking lot in order to get

in line for the drive-through menu impacting our customers ability to park in the center and to

enter and exit the center from the northern driveway. Tonight we have submitted to you an

information package that includes several photographic exhibits of the dangerous conditions I've described to you. It also includes a YouTube link to a nine-minute video documenting the ongoing use of the public alley and the significant traffic and circulation conflicts

that continue to occur. During the Planning Commission's December compliance review of

Raising Cane's conditional use permit, City staff reported that Raising Cane's needed six additional months to submit a traffic management plan for its operations. That plan, under condition of

Approval 26 was supported.

the major impacts I've described to you tonight have been ongoing since last June when Raising Canes opened. And since last June, we've repeatedly asked Raising Canes to address these issues, and to date, they've done nothing. We've had conversations with them, but they haven't produced

anything that works towards a solution. We've said from the beginning that what we want,

we want Raising Canes to succeed, and we do, but not at the expense of Atlantic Square.

TRC simply can't continue to wait and see what Raising Canes eventually proposes. In that light,

we again ask for the city's help to help us resolve the issue. This isn't just a dispute

between two parties. This is a public safety matter that the city should be concerned about, And any solution that we come up with jointly with Raising Cane's will not happen, nor will it be successful without the city's support.

We are asking that you enforce Raising Cane's conditions of approval, its permits, and your municipal code.

We urge the city to sit down with us and Raising Cane's to work collaboratively on a resolution to these issues that avoids continued litigation.

If we all work together, we're confident we can find a solution that's satisfactory to all involved and that protects public safety. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you for listening. You can contact me at byron at trcretail.com. Would love to meet with any one of you or all of you with the city manager.

We need to find a resolution. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'd urge you not to respond to any of these comments. As the commentator noted, we are in litigation, and I would also encourage you not to contact him during the pendency of the litigation.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Nancy A. Curry.

Good evening, you all. I was reading the resolution from the city of Monterey Park declaring March is Women's History Month.

Thank you on behalf of myself, all the women, and all the young girls in Monterey Park.

We've worked hard to get where we are, and I appreciate it. I have a question for you guys.

Now, with all the rain we've had, what's our status on the drought issue? Are we still in a drought?

Because I'm tired of swimming in my backyard, and I don't even have a swimming pool.

And then also I want to wish you all a very happy St. Patrick's Day. May you find a pot of gold under your rainbow. Thank you.

Next speaker, Joseph Leon, representing the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Division.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, staff, and of course residents of Monterey Park.

Joseph Leon on behalf of the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board.

Thank you. Actually, just a brief update since I haven't been here in a little while. Everything's great. There hasn't been no West Nile virus in Monterey Park. But with that said, though, we've had, as we just mentioned by Nancy, a lot of rain. And the mosquitoes breed in water. So I'll let everybody know, just a reminder to make sure you have no standing, or try to look for any standing water in your homes. Because that's what the mosquitoes breed. And you may think, well, it's going to continue raining. And it is supposed to rain, I guess, this weekend. But keep it in mind, and I'll come back again, because unfortunately what happens is, starting in the spring, people are complaining about mosquito bites. Because you forget to get rid of the standing water. So you make sure you go around, especially your plants outside, your pots. Like in my house, the pots are full of water. And you think, oh, but they need water. Not that much, like I said. And the mosquitoes start breeding in there. And people have fountains and ponds and pools. In fact, pools are a big concern. the way the district works is they have flights overhead and they see pools that are green full of mosquitoes. People forget because people aren't using the pools right now because it's raining and there's cold but the water just sits there and eventually the mosquitoes start breeding. So if you're a pool or a pond make sure you keep an eye on that. Another big issue that's been concerned is the water barrels. People use the water barrels now because it's raining to collect water so they can use the water later. But they forget the water's there. And months later they come back and they open it up and it's full of mosquitoes. Because the water's just sitting there. As long as you use the water, occasionally it's great. But make sure you use it. Don't let it sit there for months because the mosquitoes breed. And Monterey Park has been very fortunate in the past not having a new West Nile virus and we don't want to start.

But all this water this summer, that may be a big issue all over the San Diego Valley.

And if you have any questions for any residents or anyone, you can always contact at the district,

it's

626-814-9466. Again, 626-814-9466. And if you have any issues with birds,

they don't deal with birds or ruins, but they can direct you to the correct departments that will deal with that. Because I know sometimes you have issues with the mice or dead birds. They can direct you to those issues. Or ants. Sometimes you get a lot of ants. They can also help you direct you at the right department.

Any questions? Thank you so much. And again, have a great St. Patrick's. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, Ed Chen of Athens Services.

Good evening, Mayor Sanchez, Mayor Pro Tem Wong, and honorable members of the council. My name is Ed Chen. I'm with Athens Services.

I'm here to invite you and the public to our compost giveaway event next Saturday March 25th 9 a.m. To noon

We're having it at Garvey Ranch Park adjacent to the public works yard because of its popularity

We always have a 30 gallon limit per household so that everybody gets them

The last two hours is unlimited until supplies last

We've always had great turnout from the city of Monterey Park and we look forward to our continued partnership. Thank you

Thank you. Next speaker, Jennifer Tang of Office of Assembly Mike Fong. Assembly Member Mike Fong.

Good evening, Mayor Sanchez and Council Members. My name is Jennifer Tang and I'm here tonight on behalf of Assembly Member Mike Fong.

So Saturday, March 25th is going to be a really happening day at Garvey Ranch Park because in addition to the compost giveaway, our office is proud to partner with the City of Monterey Park to host a Clean California Community Beautification Day at Garvey Ranch Park from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. We want to invite members of the City Council as well as members of the public to participate in preparing Garvey Ranch Park for the spring.

We're going to be painting the picnic benches as well as planting trees. To sign up, please call our office at 323-264-4949. Check out our social media posts at ASM Mike Fong, or visit the Assemblymember's website at asmdc.org slash Fong under Upcoming Events. I want to say a special thank you to Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez, as well as the city staff, for partnering with us and for all your hard work in making this event happen. We're really looking forward to it. Again, the details are Saturday, March 25th from 8 a.m. to 12, Garvey Ranch Park Picnic Shelter,

and sign up by calling 323-264-4949. Also, because I am a proud alumni of Markeppel High School, and I know we have some champions in the audience tonight, I just wanted to say congratulations to our academic champions from Markeppel. No disrespect to Mayor Jose Sanchez.

as well as congratulations to Mr. Tran for all of your hard work. Thank you for making us proud. See you all on Saturday the 25th.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Jesse Chang.

Mayor Sanchez, esteemed city council. I was actually dragged here to support, I mean willingly, of course, to support idea for a community center here in Monterey Park. And I think in light of the tragedy in January, I think one of the things I realized is we needed to come together, but I also felt like there was a sense that sometimes we can get kind of into our own silos. But something like that really reminded me, like the strength is that we're coming together and those silos did not have to be in place. and so I think this dream or this thought that Julie and I have had about community center is really like where can we have a place that can really bring people from all those different silos in our community together in conversation in ways that can be creative and generative and especially in light of what has happened in our community I've just been thinking about yes we need to do the vigils, we need to do these memorials We need to change policy. We need to do all the things that we've talked about, things that the president even talked about yesterday. But just thinking about legacy and thinking about what's the positive, generative, creative, beautiful legacy that we can continue. And just thinking about, yeah, something like a community center in our city. I don't have any real estate or anything like that, but just thinking about having a dream for our city that goes beyond the tragedy, but just continues to create the beauty, things that are life-giving, things that are really going to create the kinds of connections and understanding that we all need in our community as we move forward. So I just want to throw that out there as an idea to dream together as a city of places that we can all gather and come together, break down those barriers, and create together. So thank you.

Next speaker, Johnny Fun.

Good evening, Mayor Sanchez and honorable council members. I'm here to speak on behalf of the community center that Jesse was alluding to. A lot of the, with the January massacre that happened,

and a lot of the people that were involved were first-generation immigrants, people that just barely immigrated here. And it made me think they gravitated towards a private business, right, this dance hall, to have this sense of community. Why don't we have some sort of place like this that is provided through the city that everybody can come to and share these experiences, share their cultures, and just share everything that they know

and just a place that people can gravitate to. And that's why I just wanted to speak and say that having such a place that would have existed, I think, would benefit this community greatly. And that's something that I would like to see happen, specifically here in Monterey Park. Thank you. I'd like to see happen in specifically here in Monterey Park thank you

! Last speaker Dr. Julie fun !

! Good evening, Mayor Sanchez, members of Monterey Park City Council. ! Before I begin, if I can give a big shout out to Mark Keppel. ! That is, I am an Aztec. What is up? Although I'm old. My name is Dr. Julie fun.

I'm a professor of Asian American Studies at Cal State LA and one of the founders of the Second College of Ethnic Studies in the NEA. in studies at Cal State LA and one of the founders of the second college of ethnic studies in the

nation. But before I was a professor, I was one of hundreds of thousands of boat people

fleeing Vietnam who spent my first year of life in a refugee camp and then migrated to Monterey Park to be reunited with my family. I'm a Monterey Park kid, 626 all the way. Even though I can't necessarily afford to live in Monterey Park now. I have to live in San Gabriel. I lived on Elizabeth

Street, close to Markeppel. I remember when Jenny's Market was built. It was the parents of my schoolmates. I remember Paris Restaurant because that's where my grandfather took me when he met up with his friends to gamble, to smoke cigarettes. And I definitely know Pronto's Donuts because it

literally was the only place that we could play bubble bobble for a quarter. I know Monterey Park

because it is still my home. I drive by every day as I drive to Cal State LA as a reminder that when

I teach my students about how special our community is, my touchstone is here, our history and our

continued legacy. Everybody that has come here has celebrated our diversity, but this is not enough.

How do we in this room also address the needs of the Vietnamese Chinese refugees fleeing from Vietnam? Multiracial Asian Americans who speak several languages, but none of them an Asian language. Second generation LGBTQ youth, Taiwanese Americans, Chiu-Jiu families that fled the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, only to lose their businesses during the LA riots, third-generation Chinese Americans caring for aging parents and grandparents,

black families who live here because it's safer than the neighborhood that they grew up in,

or Chicano neighbors who were 70s rock stars seeking health care. These are all people I know. They are all Monterey Park. We need a place where we can come to. We need a new community space that not only celebrates this diversity, but shows the rest of us.

for all nonprofits to build here. An incubator space, a kitchen, a market, a California native garden, an event space, all these things, all of it. This should be our legacy, not what happened on January 21st, not the legacy that my family has to bear as family victims of those in the mass shooting.

I want to build a place of joy. I want all of us to have this. I want a place to dance.

I want a place to commiserate. In short, I want a community space that all of us can call home.

I hope you consider this as part of your strategic planning as we move ahead and we move away from this tragedy that has put us in the nation's headlines.

I want our headlines to be Monterey Park, a beacon of joy, a beacon of diversity, a home for us. Thank you.

thank you no other speakers excellent if I can ask the council if we can perhaps move up the presentation 1a up before staff communications so we can do a presentation to mark couple we have students here who need to go home and study sure are there any objections council okay excellent So if we can move up the presentation if Council will join me down to present these awards.

Good evening. Good evening. We'll bring them up here. I'm going to, before I bring up the Markeppel students and their coach, I wanted to say a few words because in the last two years, I've gotten to know them pretty well, personally. But for those of you guys who might not know, Mark Keppel High School and Elhambra Unified in general has one of the best academic decathlon programs in the county and in the state and that's exactly right and we are here tonight to recognize one of those teams. Mark Keppel High School makes Monterey Park really proud and in this last competition, Mark Keppel was placed first in county, first in county. Let's give them a round

of applause. It is not an easy feat. For those guys who might not know what academic decathlon

entails, they have to study seven different subjects, math, science, literature, and they

have to perfect it to the point where they're taking multiple choice exams, 50 questions in 30

minutes and they have to get high scores. They also have to practice and create a personal speech that they have to memorize. They do interviews. They do amazing, amazing work. And so these Mark Keppel students are among the best in our county and in the state. And that's why we are here to recognize them. But I would be remiss if I didn't say that this is not their first feet. They are reigning champions. This is the fourth time that they have that they have placed first in county and are now going to go to state. So and they're going to

represent us well at state. I also want to talk a little bit about their coach. Coach Tin Tran has

been their academic decathlon coach because we all know behind amazing students there's also

amazing teachers. And Mr. Tin Tran has been teaching at Mark Keppel for 11 years now, and he's

been the coach. And in his tenure, he has helped his students and trained his students not only to

win county championships, but also state accolades. And so we know that this would not be possible if it wasn't for Mr. Tran and, of course, his students and, of course, our district. And I'm really proud that our superintendent, Ms. Denise Jaramillo, is here to support our students, so we appreciate you. She's a Monterey Park native as well, so we welcome you back. If I can have the students come up, and Mr. Tran, and also our superintendent and our school board member, Mr. Bob Jin.

Just lives a couple blocks away from me.

He had to leave. And if you guys can come up here. We can do some pictures.

By the way, if you didn't know, I'm the coach at Alhambra High School. We took third.

We can have the students line up here in the center with the coach. And then the council can.

Let's give them one more round of applause.

We don't want to keep them out too late because they have to go back and practice for state.

Thank you.

One, two, three, four.

I'm defeated. Wow.

I want to give the coach a chance to speak about his team. Thank you, Mayor Sanchez and city council members, our superintendent and our guests, and most importantly, parents. Students, may I have the time signals, please? that's our signal for doing your impromptu and I just want to say that as a coach it's a privilege for me to work with these kids and years pass but I want to give you a little bit of a history this is Mark Temple's sixth championship the first one was under a very shy person named Tom Riley and the last five were teams coached by me. But in our current streak of four, I told the 2020 team that, hey, let's be champions again and prove that Mark Keppel is a place to be for ACADEC. The second one that we won in 2021 was to say, hey, you win once, that's good. You win it twice, you're for real. And then last year, when we were going for three in a row, I told them, hey, you win three in a row, most of you guys are Asians, that's a dynasty.

And then this year, if you win four in a row, you made history, because that's the county record.

Now, I want to, just students that have been

on multiple championships, okay?

I'm going to go from this direction. Tell me how many, what your grade is

and what your, how many championships you won with the team. Go ahead, Jack. My name is Jack.

I'm currently a senior in Mark Keppel High School and this is my second championship with this team.

My name is Etron. I'm a senior at Mark Keppel

and this is my fourth time in Akadak.

Hi, my name is Ryan Lin, and this is my fourth year in Akadak.

I've been on the A team for two years now.

Hi, I'm Ryan Chan, and this is my second championship team, and I'm a junior.

Hi, my name is Sandra,

and I'm a sophomore in Market Bowl, and this is my second champion team.

Hi, my name is Pammy, and I'm a sophomore, and I think this is my first championship team.

Hi, my name is Janet, and I'm a sophomore in Marqueville. This is my first championship.

Hi, my name is Jerry. I'm a freshman, and this is my first championship.

Hi, my name is Karen. I'm a senior, and this is my third year on the championship team.

I'd like to close it out by saying that remember students, when we were at Rancho High School for day one, what did I tell you? If you win this one, what it would mean to the city, right? And what I meant by that was, yeah, we've all had to endure the tragedy that occurred here. But my Navy friends who are across the country called and said, hey, what's this all about? We thought you worked in a real nice area, and we do. But in our small part, and I want to make known that by doing what we do, we want to help redefine Monterey Park not just as a city where a tragedy occurred, but a city of champions. and we will hopefully continue that tradition as we go up to the state finals and I want to point

out that Mayor coach Jose Sanchez took third place his team and that's awesome okay and a good friend

of ours Ken Ma the San Gabriel coach was awarded coach of the year for LA County so it's it's not just Mark Keppel. It's the whole family. We work together. And even though I live in Diamond Bar, I spend more time at Mark Keppel than anywhere else. Thank you so much parents, board members, and police officers and my federal veterans. Hoorah!

Okay, guys. Alright, thank you, guys.

And let's study for a state. We'll see you up there. Next week.

All right. How about that, huh? Making Monterey Park proud.

So if we can go ahead and continue with staff communications, and we'll start with the library.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor of City Council.

Diana Garcia, City Librarian.

I'm here this evening to share some updates from the library for the month of March.

Next slide, please.

We wanted to remind everybody in the community that Chinatown Service Center is still offering drop-in counseling and social worker services at the library. Their schedule is Tuesday and Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m.

This has been very, very popular with the community since the January incident.

They've served about 280 people, and they continue to serve 10 people every day that they're at the library.

So there's definitely still a demand for those services.

They have multilingual caseworkers, multilingual counselors.

They can make referrals, and they can help people write in the library.

So we want to make sure that everybody knows about those services. Next slide, please.

The second item I wanted to mention this evening is an exhibit that's going on at the library.

We just had the opening last Saturday, the 11th.

This is called Herstory 2, and it's the legal history of Chinese American women.

It will be up in the library in the lobby area until May 31st.

Really interesting set of photos and stories of women, Chinese American women and legal cases in the United States.

State. So anyone can come in and see that whenever the library is open. Next slide, please. The next program that I wanted to mention is coming up this Saturday. It is a women's leadership panel and this is in honor of Women's History Month in March. This one is really special because it's actually being put on by our Junior Friends organization who are our teen volunteers, our service club. This panel features

four very important women in Monterey Park. We have our own assistant city manager, Inez Alvarez.

We have Carrie Situ from Chinatown Service Center. Jennifer Tang, who just left from the office of

Assemblymember Mike Fong. And we also have Elizabeth Yang, who is a lawyer in the community.

So a panel of heavy hitters. This is actually moderated by our teens, by the president and the vice president of the Junior Friends of the Library. So I encourage everybody to come out to that.

It should be a great program. Next slide. I also wanted to remind everybody that there are three more weeks to come into the library

to take advantage of the VITA tax preparation services. This is completely free to folks whose

income is less than $60,000 a year. It is happening Thursdays, every Thursday at the

library upstairs in the computer lab from 10 30 a.m. to 3 30 p.m. It has been incredibly busy lately

but we've had lots of volunteers so please come on in if you still need to do your taxes.

They actually have multilingual volunteers as well so great service and completely free.

Next slide. And just wanted to mention last slide is that the library foundation our president Bob Jin just left. They're going to be holding their first in-person fundraiser since 2019.

In just a couple weeks at the library, they'll be doing their novelty fundraiser. This is nearly sold out. I think we might have like two or three tickets left. So yes, I think we've got

you. And your daughter, one daughter? Okay. And one daughter. So I wanted to thank the council

members who are going to be attending and those who have sponsored and encourage you, if you still haven't bought your tickets, to please give us a call and let us know that you'd like to attend.

It is $55 a person. It is a Sunday afternoon event and just kind of casual and a lot of fun. So next slide.

That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your time. And yes. Yes.

We can definitely talk to Chinatown Service Center

and see if they're able to extend their volunteers.

Yeah, and we'll let you know. We'll keep you up to date.

Oh, thank you.

Any other questions, counsel?

Sorry, I missed it.

Did you say how many people were still taking advantage of the Chinatown Service Center counseling services?

Yeah, so I just talked to Nina Locke this morning, who is their behavioral health department head at Chinatown Service Center.

We've had 280 people since they started and about 10 people every day that they're there,

10 people in four hours, which is pretty great.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll do our next staff communication, recreation and community services.

Good evening, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers. Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services, here to share some updates. It will actually remind you of all the stuff that we have coming up because I've already shared some of this stuff at previous meetings. But coming up on some of those events coming up this week. So I just want to make sure and remind you all as well as the residents to come out.

And so next slide, please.

First one is this Thursday at Langley Center.

We are having our Shamrock Ball.

That's for all those older active adults over the age of 50 at the Langley Senior Center from 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock.

Somebody might want to help the chief.

We do have a live 70s band that's going to be playing at the event. Our last dance went really, really well for Valentine's Day, and so we're really excited about seniors coming together to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and dance to a live 70s band.

Next slide, please. Then finally, it's going to be here.

I know a lot of folks have been waiting for this after our very successful event in October. The second installment of Electric Park will be this Saturday, March 18th, from 4 o'clock to 10 p.m. This is a completely free event, very family-friendly. We encourage people to come out, bring your chairs, bring your blankets, enjoy a nice afternoon, evening in the park. It's a very organic feel. It really brings the community together, and it's a beautiful thing to see two-year-olds dancing next to 80-year-olds, dancing next to a group of families that maybe their parents used to go to music festivals or concerts, and then life kind of sLod down, and now they're able to bring their kids out and kind of share with them and dance with the rest of the community. Reminding everyone that United We Dance, we know that the recent tragedy was at a dance studio, and so we want to just continue to remind the community that don't stop dancing, don't stop enjoying what you do. There will be a large banner at the festival in several different languages that says just that, United We Dance. So hopefully some folks will take pictures next to that and also enjoy an evening in Barnes Park.

Next slide, please. Now coming up on, oh, oh, come on over. So I brought a friend with me to talk about our spring egg hunt.

Spring egg hunt is going to happen on March 30th in Barnes Park.

The event is from 5 to 7 p.m.

And we do want to remind folks that we are going to have designated times for different age groups. So each age group will have their own time slot. For the zero to three-year-olds, only one parent will be alLod in the egg hunt area. and we will make sure that only the children are picking up eggs. We understand that parents get very excited and they want to relive their childhood and go hunting for eggs, but we do want to keep it fun for the kids.

So for the older age groups, it will be exclusive.

All of the parents will be asked to stand outside of the Acon area and it will just be the kids inside the Acon area. So we have a nice controlled environment where everyone can make sure they get plenty of eggs and no child is left without some candy and treats. And we're also going to have over 100 grand prize eggs. And we have over 8,000 eggs that will be split between the groups.

So it's a significant amount of eggs.

And so we really think everyone's going to have an opportunity to get some great prizes and have a lot of fun. There's also going to be game booths. And you can come over and take photos with my friend here, the bunny. So hopefully everyone will come out and join us at the Spring Egg Hunt on March the 30th.

And then just lastly, I wanted to share with you some events that are coming up in April, just to mark your calendar.

Next slide, please.

So we have our Cherry Blossom Festival on April the 15th through the 16th.

And also on the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival, we always celebrate Earth Day.

So on April 15th, we also have Earth Day.

And then since we are now starting to do monthly events at Langley Center and monthly dances, Even though Mardi Gras was in February, staff still wanted to do a Mardi Gras celebration. So on April the 20th, we'll be doing a Mardi Gras celebration at the Langley Center.

Next slide, please.

And just lastly, I just want to remind everyone the best way to stay up to date with all of our –

I know Cascades is great, but if you want instant flyers, up-to-date information,

follow us on social media at Monterey Park Rec. And we try to keep it as lively and fun as possible. So even if you're seeing stuff on a daily basis You're still enjoying seeing what's on there That's my presentation. I'm available for any questions

Thank you any questions from the council

You know mr. May I know no questions, but just my compliments if they're really some great programming that are coming online this weekend next few weeks next few months and And, you know, this is what my park is known for.

We celebrate our community and our diversity. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate that. I'll look for the neprechaun next year before the...

You know, I had a green boa and I left it. I'm kind of bummed out about that. I'll do better.

Next meeting, Robert. And I'm hoping to see maybe Chief Weiss DJing at the electric park. That would be a dream.

I'm a little concerned after hearing those coughs. I'm not...

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Can we take a picture with the bunny?

Absolutely. Council, you guys want to... All right. I don't have my phone.

I'm trying to see if I can get the, yeah, there we go.

One, two, three. Awesome.

New profile picture. We all have reasons.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to Public Works.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor of Maripos, Tennis City Council. I'm really not sure how I

follow up with that act. I don't have any bunny partners to join me, but I'll do my

best. First slide please. Alright so as mentioned by one of our partners Athens

we do have our free composting event coming up on March 25th from 9 to 12. As you mentioned there are 30 gallon limits these are this is for Monterey Park residents we encourage everyone to bring shovels dollies certain containers so they can put all of their mulch in these in their items no plastic bags will be alLod obviously we're trying to go green and introducing plastic would not be the best of ideas. But again, while supplies last, we'll be partnering with Athens to make

sure that people can get some free compost. Next slide, please. As many of you know, we had to

cancel our last event due to rain, but we do have our next bulky item spring cleaning event, which is coming up on April 8th. That's going to be from 8 to 1, and that's going to be at Barnes Park. Again, we encourage everyone to come out and bring their bulky items. We'll also, again, I mentioned last time be partnering with Salvation Army to hopefully repurpose some of these items that are donated. So we're going to be hopefully, again, trying to go green, making sure that we're reusing some of the items that are dropped off from residents. We'll also be partnering with the fire department for wood chipping services. So again, make sure that if you do have things you want to bring to this event that we can provide some additional services.

Next slide, please.

AS WE CONTINUE TO PUSH OUR GO MPK APP, THIS IS JUST ANOTHER REMINDER TO ALLOW OUR COMMUNITY TO BE CONNECTED TO THE CITY. THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR RESIDENTS TO NOT ONLY HAVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION FROM THE FRONT PAGE, BUT THEY CAN ALSO SUBMIT SERVICE REQUESTS. AGAIN, IF THEY SEE POT HOLES, TREES DOWN, THINGS LIKE THAT. MAYBE NOT TREE DOWN. IF THEY SEE A TREE DOWN, YOU CAN CALL IMMEDIATELY. BUT MAYBE A SMALL LIMB DOWN. BUT AGAIN, WE ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SUBMIT THEIR REQUESTS THROUGH THIS APP. ONE OF THE NEW THINGS WE DID ADD, IF YOU DO HAVE THIS APP, You should see notifications that are popping up via this app. This is a huge benefit to residents. There's no need to actually create an account, which is huge, and you can still receive notifications from the city. Much like we pushed out yesterday with the president's arrival, we wanted to make sure the residents knew that the street was closed.

We could provide immediate updates.

There's also links that we can provide to our website. Again, we're trying to make sure that we have access to information for our residents.

This is a great way to do that. Next slide.

And again, trying to convey getting information to our residents.

Just a quick update on Monterey Pass.

You'll see this in the agenda item, but we do want to continue to encourage people to avoid this area as we continue construction and begin construction in this area. We encourage people to sign up for Nixle. Again, Nixle is a great opportunity for people to receive information so they can also get alerts should we have information that needs to be notified to them. and again just please encourage people to subscribe to all the posts that we have Nixle, GoNPK, Instagram all those different outreach items we have want to encourage people to subscribe to that so we can get updates to our residents and even people that are passing through and with that I'll take

any questions. Any questions from the council? Yes I just want to thank Public

Works again for doing the community cleanup day because I'm not this was a

very popular event and I encourage everyone in the community to you know

on that day not just encourage your neighbors but also if you have a chance to look around your streets drive around and if there's something you notice you

know pick it up take it to the location or let us know and we will make sure it's picked up

It doesn't seem like the rain will stop to let us fix them all. If we can highlight additionally any activities we're doing in the coming days and weeks on filling potholes just to help the community understand that we're addressing those as quickly as possible and to remind them as well to report those on the GOMPK app so that we can track those and get those filled as soon as possible too.

I think that would be helpful. Absolutely. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

I just wanted to say I lost my voice, so I won't be able to speak tonight, but keep up the good work.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and move on to presentations. Do we have a presentation by the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund? our treasurer.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and council people. I want to update you. We have some good news. We are up to $42,500, and that was as of Friday.

That's the total amount that has been collected.

We will also be starting our community outreach, and we'll be there this Saturday at the electric park.

So if you are there, please come by. We will have our donation. We'll be receiving donations at that time if you would like to make a donation. Any questions? Any questions from the council?

Actually, I just wanted to just say thank you for being proactive.

I was actually thinking about that since we have events upcoming, so that's great that you'll be at the electric park.

I'll be there with my glow sticks, and yeah.

We'll be at other events also, so keep an eye out. We'll be out there.

When is the last date we are planning to collect?

Is there like a drop date? No drop date yet.

So it will be ongoing for several months. But we will provide an update as the drop date.

But right now it's open.

The donation, you can make the donation through the Marnier Park City webpage under the resource tab.

You could also go to the Go Marnier Park app or calfund.org.

You can make those donations there. Thank you.

Really quick. Sure.

I don't know if you have the answer, but I know the Monterey Park Firefighters Association is doing their barbecue fundraiser. Is that, will those funds be directed to this?

Yes, thank you for reminding me. The Monterey Park Fire Department has been so great. They are hosting a barbecue for us next Saturday.

Let's see.

on March 25th between 12 and 3

where they're accepting cash and Venmo and the proceeds will be donated to the Monterey Park Healing Fund. So I hope to see everyone there.

Thank you. And if we can have our next presentation, Going Green Outreach and Survey Results.

We're all looking forward to seeing those results.

Hello, good evening. Once again, my name is Olivia Williams. I'm the Civic Sparks Fellow serving the city of Monterey Park. I'm super excited to be here today to share with you all of the hard work that the Green team has been putting into our outreach component of the Going Green program and how we will be moving forward with the sustainability plan in the coming months. Next slide, please. So looking here on the timeline, the green arrow on the slide shows where we are in the Going Green program timeline. From September through February, we have been using our outreach program to connect with our community members and today we get to share those results with you. After tonight we will be developing the policies and programs for the sustainability plan with a draft document available for public review in June. We will bring this document to you for approval in July folLod by program implementation in August. Next slide please. So hopefully you are all familiar

with the sustainability survey that we launched back in December which sought to determine our community's understanding of climate change, how it impacts their daily lives, and what they want to see moving forward. We attended many city events to promote the survey,

including the Holiday Snow Village, Lunar New Year, and the Farmer's Market. We disseminated

information about the workshops and survey through city bulletins and email blasts. We included a

link in staff's email signatures for the last few months. We posted in the school district's parent

newsletter and utilized all of the city's social media outlets and website, including GoMPK. This was a really, oh, we actually were able to partner with Economic Development to offer MPK reward users two free points for taking the survey, which was awesome. It's a great way to incentivize not only survey respondents, but also for community members

to sign up for the program and spend their money locally.

Our survey officially closed at the end of February with 543 survey responses and 194 written comments. Next slide, please. In addition to the survey, we hosted five

community workshops in February to engage with interested community members. One

was available online via Zoom to provide a more flexible opportunity to engage,

but we actually saw the most participants at our in-person workshops. We had one at Ellen Conto, Langley Senior Center, George Elder Park, and Garvey Ranch Park. All of the information about the workshops were distributed to the community in Chinese, English, and Spanish,

and we did offer translation services as needed in all three languages. During the workshop,

I provided an overview of climate change and how it impacts our day-to-day lives. We also discussed

the different pathways to sustainability that are going to be used to shape our sustainability plan. We used an activity board for our attendees to provide input on where they think the city should

focus our efforts. Next slide, please. So as I mentioned, the main topic of the community

workshops was the framework that we will be using to create the city's sustainability plan. This is a framework developed by the local governments for sustainability, which is a global network of local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. This framework recognizes that cities are complex and dynamic. It aligns with Monterey Park's goal to create a sustainability plan that is integrative, comprehensive, and focuses on more than just greenhouse gas emissions. These five pathways guide sustainable solutions that balance the patterns of human life with the built and natural environments. So now we're going to just take a

couple of minutes to dive into each of these pathways more specifically, and I'll tell you

a little bit about what they entail. Next slide, please. So the first pathway is low emission development. It reduces pollutants and emissions across all systems, such as transportation, food systems, and buildings. The programs under this pathway will aim to achieve climate neutrality

in line with the state's goals by committing to renewable energy and using nature-based solutions.

These programs will prioritize alternative transportation to personal cars, such as walking, biking, and public transit to improve the health of both human and natural systems.

Next slide, please.

The nature-based development pathway protects biodiversity and urban ecosystems, which are both key aspects of local economies and the resilience of our communities.

The programs under this pathway will help Monterey Park prioritize healthy local environments

in which air, water, soil, and all natural resources that sustain life are protected and nurtured.

These programs could help integrate rainwater capture into city infrastructure or improve

resident knowledge on how to keep rainwater in their gardens and out of the streets.

Nature-based development programs support urban greening by planting trees, protecting parks, and encouraging native landscaping.

Using programs under this pathway will support the well-being of our community members, both human and non-human. Next slide, please.

The circular development pathway promotes sustainable waste management options and prioritizes local economies that are born of circular development, where resources are exchanged,

not wasted. Programs under this pathway will support economic development while taking into consideration the environmental and social costs of goods and services. These programs can also support sustainable goals for our local businesses. For community members, circular development programs may support something like a lending library that allows residents to check out items

such as tools and equipment. It could also include teaching the community the best ways of composting and decreasing the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill. This pathway will guide the city to prioritize sustainable purchasing options, such as items made from recycled materials.

Next slide, please. The resilient development pathway anticipates, prevents, absorbs, and recovers from shocks and stressors on the community. Programs under this pathway will help the city place resilience as a core factor of all municipal strategies. In California, this means being prepared for fires, floods, definitely important these days, drought, and extreme heat through community education and strong infrastructure. The programs under this pathway also emphasize the need to build capacity for recovery after unexpected events and prepare for impacts while strengthening our community systems. Next slide, please. And last but not least is the equitable development pathway, which is focused on people-centered development. It addresses poverty and builds more just, livable, and inclusive urban communities. Programs under this pathway will help the city pursue secure and safe access to food, water, energy, and sanitation for all. Programs may include things like affordable housing, transportation availability, and accessible infrastructure through ADA compliance.

These values might take shape in our community through the farmer's market, a community garden, mixed-use development, and opportunities for the community to get involved with workshops, incentives, and rebates. Next slide, please.

So these five sustainable development pathways have actually alLod us to kind of categorize all of those 194 comments that we received from the community so we can really see what is most important to them. We received the most comments about circular development which is shown there in the lime green slice of the pie. Our community members really want to know how to keep waste out of landfills by recycling correctly and having opportunities to compost at home or in the community. In the kind of tree green color, we see 22% of comments were about nature-based development. Our residents want to see more trees and greenery being planted around the city and want protections for the trees that are already there. An equal amount of comments, that 22%, were about low emission development, which is shown in the aqua color. There's a lot of interest in incentives and charging stations for electronic vehicles and alternate transportation methods,

like being able to safely walk and bike around the city. In orange, equitable development accounted

for 12% of the comments. Here we saw a desire for more incentives and rebates for purchasing sustainable products, things like low-flow toilets, solar panels, and drip irrigation. Economic incentives provide an equitable opportunity for all of our residents to take sustainable actions. And finally, 11% of the comments focus on building resilience in our community through outreach and education. By attending workshops on subjects pertaining to sustainable living, our community can build lifestyles that foster long-term resilience.

Next slide, please. And of course, aside from all of those comments that we received, we have a lot of data that we collected from the survey. This graphic gives kind of the most prominent survey results that we received. It gives a little bit of a summary. So overall, this community is very passionate about this topic. In the first bar all the way to the left,

you'll see that 85% of survey respondents said they believe that the city needs to take action

to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. In the next bar over, we see that while

77% of respondents know the ways that they can take action at home to live more sustainably, only about 32% and the next bar over are aware of programs available to them to support these actions.

We see that number represented in the lime green there. Now, even fewer, just 15.5% of survey participants are familiar with the city's efforts to mitigate climate change through climate action planning and sustainable practices that are already happening. Fortunately, the majority of the community seen in orange on the far right really does want the opportunity to learn more about the subject of climate change,

what they can do to help, and how the city is partnering with the community to make a difference. Next slide, please.

So just to summarize the whole community's priorities that we really gleaned from this whole outreach process, our community really is interested. They're really motivated, and they want to be highly involved with the city's efforts. They are looking for access

to sustainable programs and support from the city to make sustainability an integrated component of living in Monterey Park. Along with educational programs to give them the know-how, residents would like to see incentives to motivate their friends and neighbors to participate and ensure sustainability is accessible to everyone. Finally, our community wants to see city beautification and greening. Our residents are proud of their city, and they want to enhance the natural elements that make it such a great place to live.

Next slide, please. So now we have some time for any questions that you may have about the presentation, about the sustainability plan. We really want to make sure that your feedback and ideas are integrated into this plan

as it's being developed over the next few months, so that when you get the draft in a few months, you'll be able to see your vision really represented.

Monterey Park. Thank you for that presentation. Council, any questions or comments? Mr. Mayor, yes. Yes. Go ahead. Again, thank you so much for presenting on the survey and results. Are those, like these results right here, those who answer survey, will they also be informed about the results? I think it'd be helpful, too, for our residents to know, you know, what is in their own community people are prioritizing as well. I think that also may help even

with buy-in and participation.

So will we be sharing that with, I guess, the community

as well as those who participate in the survey?

Absolutely. On the survey, we did include a question. Would they like to learn more? Would they like to receive emails?

And how they would like information to be distributed? So we have a whole list of interested community members.

And yeah, we're happy to send out kind of a newsletter,

provide some of that information.

And after the workshops, we also provided attendees with information on upcoming events and things that they had brought up.

So, yeah, more than happy to share this information and get everybody on board. Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

I just wanted to add my appreciation for the work, a lot of work that went into engaging the community around this. I know there were, what, a dozen or so community meetings, including online sessions. I appreciate members of the community that also took time to participate in these sessions and to provide their feedback. I'm hoping, and it sounds like we will, include that in terms of putting down goals and the actual actions and takeaways as we develop and flesh out the plan. I'm looking forward to that in the coming months. Can you remind us what the next step is in this process after this presentation?

Yeah, so if we go back to the timeline slide, really over the next couple of months is when we're going to be developing all of the programs and the policies that will go into this plan. The public review of that first draft is going to be in June. So that's kind of the next step. After we provide some of the feedback that we got from

the survey and get that distributed out to residents, we'll also provide those updates that it will be available for them to review in June. If I may add, also. As you recall,

A month ago we brought a contract with a request for a contract award for Rincon consulting services They are going to be supporting staff in this endeavor providing some technical support for the development of the plan So right now we are still working on getting them on board and soon we hope to have a kickoff meeting with them And get a more of a timeline as to how long they need to develop their portion

Great. Now looking forward to the draft plan being developed and coming back to the community for additional feedback and input and for the council to begin weighing in on specific plan and measures as the plan gets going. And I just wanted to finally kind of close on my comments on this. I really appreciate how the plan and the feedback especially has been noting the connection and the intersection between climate and environmental sustainability and social and economic sustainability for our community and how important it is that all of these things are addressed in a sustainability plan. I appreciate that those are all elements that have made their way into the feedback and the survey comments and will be integrated into the plan as we flesh that out. So thank you so much for your work. Looking forward to continuing this hard work and engaging the community in the months that come.

Thank you. I also want to just reiterate and say Thank you for all the work that you guys did in engaging the community and getting a lot of this feedback.

I was very surprised, but also very, I guess the word would be very inspired by the results.

So we definitely look forward to the work that's coming. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Okay, and our next presentation, Autism Awareness Month.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Gus Jimenez. I'm a captain with the Monterey Park Police Department. And this evening I'm going to be speaking about the department's Autism Awareness Patch, as well as Autism Awareness Patch, which helps support the message of Autism Awareness Month for the month of April. If I can get the first slide, please. So I wanted to give you a brief history about our patch and about the program. So in 2020, one of our own, Officer Sebastian Jimenez, initiated the Autism Awareness Project with the Monterey Park Police Department. A patch was created to honor those with autism and those who dedicate themselves daily to help individuals with their unique challenges. The patch, as you can see up there, the patch design displays multicolored puzzle pieces. The puzzle patterns reflect the complexity of the autism spectrum. The different colors and shapes represents the diversity of the people and families living with the condition. The brightness of the colors represents hope, hope that through awareness of autism and through early intervention and access to appropriate services and support, people with autism will lead full productive lives. All the proceeds and sales of our patches go to the Mercy Center, which is located here in Monterey Park at 525 North Chandler Avenue. Mercy is a 501c3 organization established in 1955. and I'll give you a brief history of their mission. Mercy's mission is to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in maximizing their independence and in becoming productive, contributing members within the community. So I wanted to just share some information about our patches and the fundraising that we're doing.

So I'm wearing the patch tonight. Beginning in April,

all of our officers who have the patches will be wearing those. You may see them around.

Just to show you, in contrast, this is our normal patch. So this is our autism awareness patch. Chief Weiss is also wearing it tonight.

So the information that's on the slide for the public and also for our city council. So we have three different autism awareness patches. So the first one is going to be what I'll just show you now.

It is a little bit smaller version. And it is a PVC, as you can see up in the slide, texture.

so it's more of a rubber texture. It has Velcro backing in the back, so you can stick it on your backpack.

You can stick it on anything you have that you want to show your support with.

And we also have autism awareness pins, which are these small little lapel pins that we're going to be selling as well. And then we also have a limited run of our shoulder patches

that we are selling as well to anyone who is interested.

As you can see up there, so each individual, the pin and the patches are $10 each. There's a $2 charge for shipping. So we already included in the price, but if you were to make an appointment, and Officer Sebastian Jimenez said that we can put his email address there, so please contact Officer Sebastian Jimenez. He will try to coordinate with people who want to save $2 to come to the station, and he will provide the patches and the pins to those that want to support. If you'd like to support, you can use the Venmo account, which is through our Police Officers Association. The address is listed up there. If I can get the next slide, please. So the first email address or the first website address you see on the slide is for the police department.

The second will take you directly to our Autism Awareness page, where you'll get a little bit more information on autism awareness and information about our patches. So all of the money that's raised, like we said, goes to Mercy. so we're hoping that we get great support this year and if anybody has any questions please reach out to Officer Sebastian or again reach out to any of our officers we'll be more than welcome to or more than happy to discuss the efforts of the Monterey Park Police Department in relation to autism awareness that concludes my presentation if you have any questions I'm available

thank you so much for your efforts Council are there any questions?

thank you Mr. Mayor A question just for clarification.

So if they go through the Venmo, are they to specify what they're ordering but also put their mailing address?

Correct, yeah. So you put your mailing address and those will be shipped to you.

And like I said, it's $12, already includes the shipping.

And, yeah, it's really important to add your home address so we can ship those out to you. Okay, thank you.

Just quickly thank you

and thank you to the officer for initiating this project. I just ordered it on Venmo. I put City Hall address so if you want to save on shipping

just bring it upstairs. Thank you.

Thank you as well.

I just wonder if you guys were planning to do any type of outreach in terms of maybe the electric dance park on Saturday or at the library or anything like that in terms of getting more awareness, but also maybe selling more of these? I know Mercy is a great organization that helps a lot of people with autism.

Right. So this project is spearheaded by Peace Officers Association. So any event that our association is located at,

they're the ones that are promoting the program.

But like I said, if anybody has any additional questions,

those are great suggestions. I'll reach out to the association and let them know

if they want to participate in any of those events.

you know like I said if anybody has any questions they can just reach out to us and we'll be more than happy to answer them.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay so we'll go ahead and jump into

old business 2A. Do we have a report?

Yes.

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

Inez Alvarez, Assistant City Manager.

Newly elected officials were provided an elected official's handbook during their onboarding process, which included the Code of Conduct and Healthy Work Environment Pledge. The City Council first adopted this resolution, 12182, in August 2020. Since so much has transpired since December, this is essentially just a catch-up item. as provided in the staff report council members Lo and you have already

signed this pledge

it is recommended that city council consider receiving and filing this report and also newly elected officials have been provided

with the pledge I believe at the dais at their work desk

there and if they'd like to sign

that this concludes

the report I'm available for any questions

okay thank you and

I think it might be a good time now if we wanted to for the council members who and elected officials who just recently elected to

kind of sign this and just uh turn these over to our acm and i i did sign mine publicly just

show it for the camera and i want to note that if that's okay i wanted to note how important this is to me personally as well and i think to many of us in the community to make sure that and for staff as well at City Hall to commit to providing and creating a healthy workplace and how important it is to show respect for each other and for our colleagues and for everyone right in every department here at City Hall and how important it is to have that productive and respectful environment for all of us to be able to work in and to be our best selves so appreciate bring the staff bringing this to us into our prior our predecessors on the City Council for initiating this initiative to really just set the stage and a foundation for us to make sure that we're on the same page in committing to building this right healthy workplace which is in a culture that requires all of us to be part of that so thank you so much

Councilman Ngo.

I'm going to echo the same thoughts as Council Member Wang.

I'm going to sit ahead. You already turned mine in.

And just for the record, I wanted to go ahead and just read this so that the public knows what we're signing. It says, my commitment to a healthy work environment. It says, as a public official of the city of Monterey Park, I am committed to the creation and support of a healthy work environment for all public officials and city employees. I understand that positive professional communications are critical to a healthy work environment and positive morale. I commit to hold myself accountable to adhere to the code of conduct as adopted by resolution number 12184 on August 5th, 2020, and demonstrate professional communications with all public officials, employees, residents, business, and customers of the city of Monterey Park. If at any time it is brought to my attention that my behavior is not professional, I agree to listen to the feedback and commit to work on improving the issue brought to my attention. I understand that ongoing negative communications are unacceptable. I commit to bring issues of unprofessional communication to the attention of fellow public officials in a constructive manner. And I'm also very proud to sign this, and I think this is very important in terms of doing the work that we do for our residents. So I'm very happy to sign this. any other questions or comments from the council

okay so do we need an approval just sign them over to you okay

okay great thank you

and we'll go ahead and move on to once again thank you for staff for bringing this we'll go ahead and move on to consent calendars 3a to 3j City Council are there any items you would

like to pull well I do want to pull two items real quick question Carl on the

minutes I just had one change do I need to pull that board can I just announce

the and edit to the minutes just announced the minute of the change so

for the minutes for January 31st.

and recalling the council comments for my comments it refers to at the end of that first paragraph SP 1339 that should be SB 1429 or 1439 that's the bill right for yeah SB 1439 just to we'll make the correction all right so other than that I'm good on the minutes and I wanted to pull item 3d for a quick conversation and 3H for our presentation.

So we have pulled 3D and 3H. If I can get a motion from someone in council to approve 3A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, and J.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Oh, Yvonne's second. She can't speak. We'll give it to Yvonne.

Okay, so if we can have a vote to approve those items.

Approved unanimously.

Excellent. If we can get a presentation on 3D.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, and Council Members. Martha Garcia.

On the executive order in 4220, what that was established by the governor, prevented public agencies from discontinuing water services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then and then later on, executive order in 0821 lifted that provision from from the pandemic, from the from the orders.

we though continued to continue with the shutoffs we continued them until

february of this year of 23 so we are bringing this notice to the council to just to inform council and our public residents that we are going to be

lifting our shutoff provisions and our late fees and we will begin

doing shutoffs like probably around May 31st and we will start to collect late fees as well.

And that concludes my presentation.

Are there any questions or comments from Council?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes, go ahead.

I do have a question.

Again, thank you, Martha, for the presentation. So I'm looking at the staff report and where it specifically says the MPMC, the municipal code, requires the city to offer payment plans for its customers with arrears, and the city has also enrolled in a state LIHWAP program as well as provide while you're using customers information to a state program, I'm sorry, actually a federally funded program to help with one-time payments.

If someone is, you know, past bills, do we make sure that they know about this program?

Like, do we, I mean, not just print it, but also maybe make sure that they are made aware either, like, through outreach that they can apply for assistance?

Yes, we inform every of our customers that calls in.

We let them know about the program.

We are also going to be sending out letters to every customer, letting them know about shutoffs that are going to begin, and we will also inform them about the program as well. We also have it on our website.

Okay. And I mean, I don't know if you have this information in hand, but I'm curious, and especially because given the language diversity in our community, do we know also for those who are facing the situation, what are the different language backgrounds?

we have in our finance department we have a Translation in just about every language that's needed. We have a Mandarin Chinese Mandarin and we have a Spanish as well So we do communicate when they call and we have not had any problems with translation. Okay. Thank you

Thanks Martha appreciate the work on this and I know that we're lifting our proposal here to lift the moratorium on late fees and on shutting down accounts is far later than actually where the state's mandate was and when the state and county lifted similar prohibitions on late fees and utility shutoffs. So I appreciate the extra time that many in the community have gotten. And I understand the importance of reinstating late fees and going after delinquent accounts. uh and from if and correct me if i'm wrong if i'm reading this wrong uh we did receive during the first year or so of the pandemic there was about half a million dollars in delinquencies among our water utility accounts and much of that was we were able to forgive because the state came in with one-time assistance to offset those delinquencies is that correct that's correct

We got them all current on around January of 22. Everybody, all our customers were current on their accounts because it also covered sewer.

Okay.

And then so all the current delinquency amount, about $653,000, is what has accumulated since January of 2022.

That's correct. Just in the last year.

and that so that number is greater than what was delinquent in the year prior during the that's correct beginning of the pandemic um do you know in terms of the scale i mean what's our annual budget for for the water utility like in terms of the delinquencies versus what our total budget is

is that a big chunk or smaller chunk i'm just curious for our budget i i can't i don't remember

honestly i don't remember what it is because it depends on how many cips are built into it i know um i'm building it right now and it's about revenues are coming in about 17 million with our but we also get a grant that takes care of some of the revenue that comes in from our

for our water services would you say that the current delinquency amount is that typical for

pre-pandemic times or is that much higher than it's much higher so we uh previously uh our shut offs or our accounts and arrears were about three to four hundred we currently have about twelve

hundred accounts that are in arrears but we i in analyzing some of these accounts some of these

accounts are probably people that have moved out because they they haven't had any service in the past 90 to 120 days so some of these account might be accounts that are already maybe they've moved or they've closed but they didn't notify us so we'll be able to when we go out with public works goes out to do shutoffs we'll be able to see if they're um they've there's nobody nobody in the residence and we'll be able to uh shut off the water and send them to collections that they because they didn't pay off their final bill so a lot of these might not be individuals that are currently reciting they're just we haven't been we haven't been going out to do any kind of shutoffs

understood um and just to echo uh councilmember Lo's comments around support programs and resources for those who are uh in arrears and behind on their bills uh i know we're making those resources available and helping to promote those to customers and our our households that

are in need.

And I know last, the last legislative session, there was a bill and there's a discussion, right, for those who are rate payers for electric and other utilities, there are existing programs that are funded to help low-income customers, right, offset their bills and get discounts and to receive bill forgiveness in some ways. And I know there's the federal program, the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, similar to LIHEAP and others that provide support for utility bills. But I know that there's, for water, right, those kind of programs and supports are much more limited. And if there are opportunities to track and to advocate for a statewide program or other programs to help supplement any existing programs, we have to help low-income customers and those who are in arrears address their deficiencies and be able to pay their bills. I think if we can support those and track those efforts at the state level and if there are any other locally, I think that would be helpful to push for and advocate for. I know we're pretty limited in what we can do to help people who are in need address their water bill delinquencies.

So we have 34 delinquent accounts

that are from our low-income individuals, and we

plan to call them personally and discuss it with them and direct them to the state website so they can apply for this grant. And we have seen, I've seen, I've been getting emails from the state. Some of our utility customers have been applying and have been awarded this grant.

So we have been seeing it and we do see it coming through.

And today, somebody, one of our customers must have saw our agenda and called in and already set up a payment plan. So it's, this is already taking effect in a slow, in a low scale right now, but we're definitely going to be calling every, our low income or the big, the big accounts and, and talk to them to see, to try to get them on a routine to start paying.

No, I appreciate that. And I think that as we send out these notices that the moratorium on shutoffs and late fees is going to be lifted, I hope and imagine many more will start to figure out that they need to pay their bills and I think that's the intended effect of of this but let's on our part on the city's part do as much as we can to over communicate I think where we've been in this pandemic and I think many people are still suffering economic impacts and inflationary impacts and are still having trouble with their their household budgets to the to the extent that we can if we can over communicate in the next few months ahead of the lifting of the moratorium if this is approved today assuming whatever efforts we can do let's redouble that just make sure we're communicating as much as possible both that this is happening and that there are resources that are available for some of these families to take advantage of and for those that are really in need to that we can work out payment plans and other opportunities to help them make sure that they can get up to speed on their bills definitely we'll take we'll do that thanks and with that I'm happy to make a motion to approve staff or

on this. Second. Okay if we have a vote on 3D. Approved unanimously. Thank you and if we can move to item 3H if there is a staff report.

Good evening again, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Ponteff and City Council. Sean Igoe, Public Works Director. So tonight you have before you a fiscal year 2022-23 sidewalk repair project. This is a new project that we're proposing to have the Council consider. This is standard practice for us if we don't have anything within our current CIP

to bring to you to approve to submit for bid for these types of projects.

So staff has prepared bid specifications for this project, and we're asking for Council's approval to supplement our capital improvement program. Several street improvement projects are within our CIP. This includes sidewalk repairs, concrete work, and various road repairs. This is very common in any CIP. However, we decided to pull out specific concrete work that's related to these type of projects to hopefully attract more professional bidders that are specifically focused on concrete work. That's why we pulled this out of our standard roadway repair projects, was to hopefully reduce some of our costs and overhead. This includes replacement of damaged sidewalks, curb and gutters, bus pads, and ADA curb ramps, along with removal of some trees that are damaging our sidewalks. If approved, the proposed scope of work would include, would improve walkability in the community, eliminate tripping hazards, and provide mobility and compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. We would be looking at, obviously, removing a sidewalk, which as part of that process would be removing some of the trees that are damaging, the roots are damaging our sidewalks. This is obviously to reduce liability, and sometimes whenever we go in and we remove these trees, if we decide to trim these roots, they're called root pruning. That could lead to additional liability with these trees falling over so obviously there there would be a few trees that would be removed as part of this project Total anticipated cost for this project is about 1.9 million dollars, which includes construction contingency construction management and inspections We'd be using prop a tda3 gas tax funds in addition to we're proposing to use approximately $1.5 million from a savings we have from our MTA Monterey Pass bike project. We're receiving additional funds from SR710 mobility improvement project that is improving bikes for this Monterey Pass bike project. So we're shifting our funding because we have additional funds

coming from the SR710 mobility improvement program. So with that, I will answer any questions. Any questions or comments from the council yes, yes, go ahead. Thank you again for that presentation. Um

Are we also planning once I mean if if council approves this project To also once the program moves along to also let the community either via our website

either through the app or through us as council members that they also are given updates about where and what we are working on?

Yes, we actually do have updates on our website. You can go on our website under Public Works, and we have all of our projects listed under our website so people can get updates not only on how the project is going, but they can also reach out to the project manager, the specific engineer that is responsible for those projects. Should they have any questions, concerns, we can address them directly through that project manager.

And do we also send out, I mean, I know what you're saying is that we are directing residents to go to the website, but do we also, I don't know, quarterly or will send out updates, again, just so we're proactive to let people know projects we're working on and also to direct them to the website?

We could do that.

We typically, not all projects will last that long. Usually if we start a project, our goal is to finish some of these projects within a few months. But if you're looking for additional quarterly updates, we can look to do that to the community. But again, typically we push them to our website because that's going to have the most up-to-date information for our residents.

Thank you. And again, you're right. I mean, it is on our website.

But I think it also, as a nice reminder, also let people know that this resource is there and they can see, you know, if it's their own street that it's being worked on.

Agreed. Thank you.

Thanks, Sean. I appreciate the report.

And I wanted to pull this item because I think this is a significant project. This is a lot of sidewalk that actually, if we get the bids in, and once we get the bids in, will begin to be repaired. Have we done, I think you've noted, we haven't done major sidewalk repairs at this scale in a while or ever.

Is that right?

That's correct.

Typically, when we do projects like concrete repair work, it's usually tied in with our roadway projects. So we'll resurface a road. As part of that, we'll typically do ADA ramps and some sidewalks within those areas. But because of the large work that we're doing throughout the community, we figured it would be better focused to do a larger project to get better bids on specific concrete work. So, yes, this is probably one of the larger ones we've done specifically focused on concrete.

Yeah, and just from personal experience with the rains, I know there are a lot of sidewalks in our city that also need repair in addition to the potholes that need filling and a lot of streets that need to be resurfaced, and I know we're in the process of doing as much of that as possible and accelerating where we can. So I appreciate Public Works bringing this to us to go out and be more proactive on repairing our sidewalks and addressing some of these issues for our community in terms of walkability. And to highlight and add my voice to Council Member Lo's, I think, suggestions on how do we promote more of this work that's happening I think we are doing a lot of work and the public works department is doing a lot of work to make repairs and to maintain and improve our streets in our walkways and I think we need to do I hope and want to encourage us to do a better job and do more to promote that and to help the community understand that this work is happening and that we're being proactive about it I think once this bid once we select the winning bid hopefully soon on this I think it'd be great to highlight right which which neighborhoods are going to receive sidewalk repairs ahead of those and even in the process and we can do kind of pointing to our social media maven in the back promote some of these opportunities right before and after pictures and just help help tell the story more about how much we're doing how much how the city is making these repairs as proactively and in an accelerated way as possible

Yeah, absolutely. I fully agree with that. I think not only utilizing our social media, but also our Cascades to push out that type of information. I definitely want to make sure, to your point, making sure people understand what Public Works does. A lot of the times Public Works is in the background, but I think it's good to highlight the work that we're doing. I know that a lot of the community sees what we're doing sometimes, but there's also times when they don't see what we're doing because we are all over the city. So again, to your point, it'd be great to highlight the before and afters, not only via social media, but our Cascades. However, we can additionally push that information down to our residents, we'll gladly do that.

Yeah, no, it'd be great to show and help the community understand that a lot of this work is happening. We're not, and it will continue to happen, and we're working hard on this. And especially, to your point, right, people see and experience the things that are visible, right, the streets, the potholes, the sidewalks, and the tree roots that are popping up and ruining some of our sidewalks. But the underground infrastructure, just as important, if not more important, to highlight all of the work that's going into our sewers and our pipe, our water system, and all the investments that are going on there. I believe our Delta treatment plant should be up and running.

Getting close. Keep my fingers crossed.

That would be great to help promote to the community as well. Let's make sure we're helping to tell that story more.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor and members of the council,

just as a follow-up to Council Member Lo's comments, Definitely residents and businesses impacted directly by any of our projects,

they are notified if they're more directly impacted.

So definitely we hear if in general, yes, we do push residents to our websites to look for information. However, if we know business areas or residential areas are going to be impacted directly by sidewalk work or even street work, we will, whether it's city staff or the contractor, make notice to the residents in that area that they're going to be impacted. So I just wanted to follow up.

Thank you.

With that, I'm happy to... I just had a question. How do we follow up with residents? Like, how do we communicate with them in instances like this?

Sure.

A lot of times the contractor will show a notice at their front doorstep,

explaining the timeline of the project, explaining the impact. There is times where absolutely if we're resurfacing a street, we have to let the residents know that they might have to not park on the street or move their vehicles because they will be impacted. So definitely a lot of times it's actually hand notice to the resident's front door or business, knock on the door, try to make contact with the manager or owner of the business.

correct and just to add to that so in addition to if we have larger projects we'll talk about monterey pass water line when we do larger projects like that not only are we doing we'll work with businesses but residents but we'll typically when we work with the businesses especially we'll provide a 24-hour contact information for the contractor just in case they need something after hours so that usually provided to the businesses and or the residents if needed so we do our best to make sure the residents not only have information but they also have access to not only ourselves but also the the project managers and the contractors

just a quick i more of a statement i guess um the right this funding i've just lost my thought so

i'm trying to recapture it uh all right to reiterate right we want to make sure we're

telling this story and one of the things you noted was the repurposing of existing funds on Monterey Pass Road improvements you mentioned this I want to reiterate for anyone who might be interested or is watching that those Monterey Pass Road improvements that we've been talking about the city will still continue we're just removing some of those funds temporary now for now that were allocated but the we expect that funding to be filled and backfilled in those improvements on Mario Pastro to continue that they will occur with a different

funding source right that is correct those those improvements still will

occur we're actually combining that with another project so that we can hopefully save additional funding so again we try to as we see projects overlaying we try to combine them to save additional money and obviously get them done not we don't want to duplicate our efforts so yes that this projects will still happen

great with that I'm happy to I'm happy to make a motion to adopt staff

recommendation and move forward on this. I'll second. Okay, if we can have a vote.

Approved unanimously. Thank you. So we'll go ahead and jump to public hearing. Are

there any public comments? Before we go to this item I think I have to recuse myself as last time, so I will leave the room while you take up this item since my employer has properties that I'm sure will be abated by the deadline, but they are sitting on the list, so I'll leave the room for now.

Okay. Okay. No comments.

No comments. Okay, so we'll go ahead and close public comment then.

Oh, open public comment and there's no, there is no, right?

So we'll go ahead and close public comment then, since there are no requests to speak. And we'll go ahead and jump into 4A, is there a report? Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. Tonight before you is the second in a series of three meetings that make up our annual weed abatement process.

The first was March 1st, where the council approved the declaration list for 2023. Tonight is a public hearing for those that are captured, parcel owners that are captured on that declaration list to come before the council to oppose or question their inclusion on that list.

it is up to you or the city manager to authorize a re-inspection of that property and once that inspection re-inspection is done they have the county will proceed with the abatement of those

properties and in the final meeting of the process will be in August where will the council will

accept the charges there on from the abatement process so that concludes my report I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding the process.

Are there any questions or comments from the council?

No?

So if we can get a motion.

I'll move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, so if we can have a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Excellent. Thank you. And I think we can call back Council Member Wong.

Excellent. So we'll go ahead to new business items. There's none. So we'll go ahead and jump to city communications. and we'll go ahead and start with Council Member Lo. You have anything to share?

Sure.

I mean, I'm sure we're all going to try to share about the events of yesterday. And, you know, I know it was already shared by my colleague earlier tonight, but I just want to thank our police department, our fire, public works, everyone in the city who I know worked many long hours in preparation for yesterday's visit

by the President of the United States.

And, you know, really, I know how many hours went into it.

And also probably the lead time to the event.

I know that because if someone from Secret Service couldn't reach someone from, say,

said they'd call me.

And I'd say, well, I know you're already working with our staff,

and so, you know, I'll relay the message,

but I know that you've been talking to them probably nonstop. And so, but just thank you for being attentive. And yesterday was a great event. And I think it was wonderful to see the president of the United States come.

I know people have often asked, you know, it's been seven weeks now since our tragic incident.

And, you know, have people moved on and forgotten. And I say, well, I think that's why it was important for the president to come to remind this community that our tragedy has not been forgotten. and that the president has made bold, so there's a good order action due to the extent that his office can addressing gun violence issues.

And I know my colleagues will probably have more to share as well.

I also wanted to just also share that last Wednesday, I was invited as a council member to speak at the National Asian Pacific Islander

American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship

roundtable that was, well, it was held in St. Gabriel at Hilton, but we did have people who are involved in our community attend this roundtable, and we also had a representative from the Small Business Administration, and I bring it up because the SBA had paid a visit to Monterey Park two weeks ago with the SBA Secretary Guzman, again, to make sure that our business is new about services and programs to help this is impacted by January 21st tragedy. And so again, I also had the opportunity to reiterate what

Monopack has been doing to reach out to our

federal, our state and our county representatives as well as community partners to make sure that our community is plotting a path forward and coping with this tragedy. I also want to share that last weekend, I and my colleagues also had the opportunity to attend the Southern California Community Swearing In for our Attorney General, Rob Bonta. and it was a nice event, but I also wanted to acknowledge that during our tragedy, the Attorney General himself also made sure to visit Monterey Park in the aftermath of the shooting incident

to make sure that his office was available to us and to also check in on all of us

to make sure we were doing all right as we were helping our own community.

And so again, we were excited to work with the Attorney General, Rob Bonta,

and to work together collectively for the interest of our community.

And that's about it.

person. So thank you so much. Thank you. Council member, though, I'll go next. Uh, again,

thank you to our fire and police for being the organizers and spearheading the, the presidential visit yesterday. Um, as if that was not hard enough work, we had rain all day,

which is good.

It showed that we are beyond prepared and it shows the expertise we have in

our two departments.

so I want to say thank you and congrats for doing an excellent job. So in addition to that, I think in the past week, I also got a chance as many of the council members as well to tour the police department and the fire department to see what goes on behind the scenes and things that we need from the city and things that we need in order to continue our public safety to both public safety and fire support. So I want to thank both chiefs for allowing me the time to walk the visit and to spend time there.

Thank you.

I'll add that last week as well,

I took tours of the fire department with the chief and the police department with the chief. I appreciate you guiding me around and running me through some of the issues and some of the concerns in the community. I really appreciate the look. I'm looking forward to other departments doing a tour and briefing as well last or two weeks ago on March 2nd I was at the League of California City's LA division dinner in downtown LA so I was able to join council members and other elected officials from throughout Los Angeles County to talk about some upcoming measures and addressing and addressing homelessness and housing here in California and Los Angeles. So I appreciated that conversation. I think a few others as well were with me a few days after that at Attorney General Rob Bonta's swearing-in in LA in Little Tokyo. I appreciate being able to join in that celebration to welcome in our newly elected, although already appointed, State Attorney General Rob Bonta. And then yesterday joined many here with President Biden coming to our Boys and Girls Club and our library across the street to help the community heal, bring the community together, and to join us in calling for additional gun violence prevention measures at the federal level and here locally. So looking forward to continuing that and that partnership with our federal leaders and our state leaders as well. I think Attorney General Bonta was there as well, as well as our state legislators. And I appreciate, like the others have mentioned, all of our staff for presidential visit was and is an all-hands-on-deck endeavor, so I appreciate everyone from police, fire, public works, recreation, community services, and finance, everyone that went into making sure that visit happened and happened smoothly despite the weather. I know we voted on some of these items already, but the library bookmobile we were talking about that we voted on, that grant application, I just wanted to note if we can maybe since that is a state grant application, I'd just suggest maybe we reach out to our legislators that cover our area for potential support letters. I see Diana nodding in the back. We have, I think, a direct link to one of our legislators

on the library board of trustees,

so maybe we can exercise that a little bit for some support. We already addressed potholes.

and then at the last regular council meeting that we had this council we collectively voted to support specific legislation at the federal and state level I know we passed the resolution and that's been fully signatured and authorized but I believe we need to issue a letter stating our support, the city's support and the city council's support on those specific bills so that we can be listed officially for those bill authors to list us as an organization of the city as formal supporters of those bills with a position. So if I bring it up during council comment, if there is not, I mean, I think that was our intent, but it wasn't in the actual language that we adopted in terms of issuing a letter stating our intent to support those specific bills. If there's agreement among the council today, maybe we can just provide that direction to the city attorney and city staff to make sure that that letter goes out on those specific bills that we took action on gun violence prevention at the federal and state level.

I just wanted to add that I agree with that, and I wanted to add, if possible, two other bills that are currently in the state for us to consider. One is AB28, which is the Gun Violence Prevention Act, and what it would do is it would create an excise tax. It's currently being debated. I was in the state capitol this weekend, got to meet with a lot of state legislators, including our representative, Mike Fong, to encourage him to support this. but it would create an excise tax on the revenue, the profits being made from gun sales and ammunitions, so it would only be an excise tax on the actual profit made by gun sellers. And the money would be used to provide, the money would be used for gun prevention programs in the state. The second would be SB2, which is a public carry law, which is in response to the Supreme Court's Bruin Act. It would allow the state to kind of reissue and redo and try to strengthen our public and carry concealed laws within the state to make it harder for people to carry concealed weapons and make our public streets and venues safer. So I'm hoping that...

I think we have to add that to the end.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I believe you have already supported SB2 in the resolution.

So that one's taken care of.

As with regard to AB28, we can certainly bring that back for consensus on the next consent calendar.

In the interim, I'm happy to move forward with providing the letters on the resolution that you've already done,

and then we can supplement it if the council decides to do that on a future agenda for AB28.

Good with me.

All right. Hearing no objections, that's the direction that I'm hearing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carl. That's all I had for Council Council.

I think we're going to take this resolution after.

I just wanted to add a couple of things as well. I first of all wanted to thank police officers, fire department, and city staff, just like my other Council members did. We really appreciate and we saw the amount of effort and work that you guys did behind the scenes to make yesterday's visit by the president possible. We really appreciate all the work that you guys did. Kudos to you guys in Bravo and thank you. We really appreciate you for all that work that you did. I also wanted to mention that on March 10th, I had the opportunity with our city treasurer, Amy Lee, to talk to our local Cub Scouts on the theme of public service. That was a lot of fun.

Did we bring the

letters? We'll maybe bring them and share them with the council later, but I have them. I forgot to bring them. But a lot of our Cub Scouts created actual comments about things and ways that we can improve Monterey Park. A lot of them were really, really interesting. These are fifth graders, and they had things ranging from we need cleaner restrooms in

the parks to we need to find better ways to trap rainwater so we can reuse it within our

city.

So they range from so many amazing ideas. I was very impressed by these fifth graders, and I wanted to thank our city treasurer for inviting me to be there because I know your daughter's a Cub Scout, right?

She's a Boy Scout. A Boy Scout, yeah.

Thank you. And I also wanted to thank Chief Wiese and also Chief Halleck for the tours of the police department and the fire department and making us aware of where we're at and what our needs are as we start thinking about strategic plan and all these different things, and also the opportunity to meet with other police officers and hear from them and firemen as well. Thank you so much for those tours. They were very insightful for us, especially for us new council members. So I thank you for taking that time and for organizing those. I also wanted to share... Oh, I already did. So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go up to the state capitol and meet with a lot of legislators. I was invited by Moms Demand Action, which is a gun violence prevention group here in our state, but nationwide. And so I joined them this weekend.

It was a lot of fun doing that.

But that's it for me.

And then we'll go ahead and go to city communications. We have item 6A, which is the resolution of the City Council of the City of Monterey Park declaring the month of March as Women's History Month, a national celebration that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. Is there a motion?

I'm happy to make a motion and just want to note that yesterday, I believe yesterday was equal pay day in recognition of the fact that women, on average, are paid, I think, 84 cents on the dollar for every man. And it takes them till March 14th of the next year to earn what, on average, for a woman to earn what a man makes in a typical year. So a long way to go still. We've made some, I think, progress in the years. But a lot of work to do still had to bring EQUALITY IN TERMS OF GENDER AND EQUITY TO OUR COMMUNITY. SO I APPRECIATE THIS BEING BROUGHT UP FOR US TO APPROVE TODAY AND HAPPY TO MAKE A MOTION

TO ADOPT THIS RESOLUTION.

IS THERE A SECOND? SECOND. CAN WE TAKE A VOTE?

APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

THANK YOU.

All right, so we'll go ahead and jump into future agenda items. Are there any

Any items from the council

Questions now I just like to bring one up Just if we can start looking into Possibly Look doing and writing up a land acknowledgement that we can potentially use in our city as we start our city council meetings As I look up here and I look at our motto, Pride in the Past, Faith in the Future, part of honoring our past is honoring the different groups of people within our community that lived here and were stewards of this land way before we were here. And so part of that is acknowledging the native tribes that used to be here. And I, for one, as mayor and as a resident of this community and as a parent, would love to see a land acknowledgement that we could potentially use, not just for city council meetings, but also for any public meetings that we have within our city to acknowledge the native tribes that are in this community and that have resided and still continue to reside within our community and acknowledge their cultures and their contributions as we look to the future. Mr. Mayor?

Yes, I would also support as well because I know some of our neighboring cities have already either have gone through that acknowledgement or in the process of it.

And I think for those who are familiar that this area has historically been the home of the Tongva-Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians.

And they actually are headquartered in the city of San Gabriel.

I would just echo that and support that and maybe if that's clear direction for staff to research this issue and bring back to the council for consideration.

Noted.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay.

Are we doing closed session?

Okay, so if there aren't any other comments, we will adjourn our meeting at 8.43 p.m. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.