City Council Meeting — April 5, 2023

in the toolbox Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 6.35 p.m. We're going to go ahead and get started with the flag salute.

If we can please stand.

Left face, forward march.

Front face, please 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. Amen.

Close colors.

Close space. Forward march.

Opposed colors. Absolute.

About space.

Forward march.

Thank you. If we can take our seats, please.

And we'll go ahead and start with the roll call.

Council Member Loeb.

Present.

Council Member Yu.

Here.

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

Thank you. Are there any agenda additions, deletions, or changes or adoptions?

None from the city manager's office. Thank you. We'll go ahead and... Sorry, Mr. Mayor,

members of the council, you should note that there's a supplemental staff report for item 3G. I believe there are extra copies available for the public. I just wanted to make you aware of that.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and move on to public communications.

Do we have any public comments? Yes, we do.

First speaker, Justin Burrell of the Monterey Park Firefighters.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Justin Burrell with fellow members of the Monterey Park Firefighters Association,

Local 1014, Dan Park, and John Chang. We thank you for the time to speak tonight.

We're here to brief you on the great success we had in a community barbecue fundraiser which took place recently on Saturday, March 25th in Barnes Park.

The Firefighters Association raised money for the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund for a total of $5,685.74 in just three short hours. The event was a great example of support we have from our Monterey Park residents, businesses, and community during the aftermath of the tragic events which took place on January 21, 2023. The money raised from this event will go towards helping those affected from the incident on January 21, 2023. We were proud to partner up with Amy Lee and the Community Healing Fund to raise money for this great cause. We would like to take a minute to thank all Monterey Park residents and community members who attended the event this day and gave their generous donations.

We would also like to thank the following individuals and organizations for making this event possible.

First off, Monterey Park Firefighters Association, Local 1014. L.A. County Firefighters, Local 1014.

Monterey Park Firefighters Relief Fund for organizing and handling of the finances for this event. Fire Captain Rich Tullius from Monterey Park Firefighters Association for his generous donation.

Chick-fil-A of Monterey Park Costco of Alhambra and also the Costco of Monterey Park

California Medical Building, Del Rosario Meat Company

and also Amy Lee for her partnership with us for this great cause

another quick announcement we invite the entire local community

to join us on our annual Fire Service Day open house event which will take place May 20th this is going to be from 8am to 2pm The event will take place at Fire Department Headquarters Station 61, which is right next to City Hall at 350 West Newmark.

We will have fun for all ages, such as a photo booth, live demos, the fire dog, face painting, and also CERT recruiting booth. At this event, your Monterey Park firefighters will be assisting the local Lions Club in a pancake breakfast fundraiser from 8 to 11 a.m.,

which is going to be $10 per plate and cash only.

Then from 11 to 2, the fire department will provide free hot dogs and refreshments.

Lastly, in closing, your Monterey Park firefighters really do appreciate the ongoing support this community shows towards its firefighters.

The barbecue fundraiser was such a great event, and it's a great example of what it means to be Monterey Park strong.

This is a tight-knit community and your firefighters will continue to do what we can in efforts to support all those negatively affected from the tragic events on January 21, 2023.

So at this time, we'd like to, if we could have Amy come up, Monterey Park Firefighters Local 1014 would like to present a check to Amy Lee and the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund for a total of $5,685.74.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

two three

Next speaker, Silvano Mendias of the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters.

Good evening, City Council of Monterey Park. My name is Silvano Mendias.

I'm at a local two and three with the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters.

and when we talk about tax fraud, some people think it's about cheating on your taxes. It's much more sinister than that.

Construction industry tax fraud is wage theft. It's workers' compensation fraud. It's labor trafficking.

It does major damage to hardworking families looking for the American dream.

Criminal exploitation of workers by developers and contractors is part of a business model that requires a vulnerable workforce that has no option other than to accept that opportunity and generalize wealth will be denied to them in hopes that the next generation of their family will not be victims to the same predators.

Tax fraud and human trafficking cost us, our communities, $8.4 billion a year,

all while developers and contractors add to their bottom line.

National Tax Fraud Days of Action, a week-long series of events to raise awareness about construction industry tax fraud.

Tax fraud is costing your community lots of tax revenue cheats, your community out of much-needed tax revenue

that fund your fire department's schools, libraries, house services, and road maintenance. With rising inflation, paychecks are stretched thin already. But if you're not even receiving a paycheck because you're paid in cash, if you're forced into the underground economy, times are even more desperate. Contractors use cash pay and illegal labor traffickers to commit fraud while taking advantage of vulnerable employees by underpaying them or not paying them at all. Workers are sent a clear message. The American dream is not for you, while the predators that exploit them enjoy the record profits.

So we are here today to ask you, what are you going to do to stop tax fraud? What are you going to do to protect our most vulnerable workers?

What are you going to do to protect local law-abiding contractors that can't compete with a criminal enterprise? We ask that you will stand with us and demand accountability for criminal developers and contractors that use tax fraud to exploit workers and leave the community to pick up the pieces.

the residents of Monterey Park deserve better we'll thank you for it thank you very much

actually Mr. Mayor I'm sorry thank you for speaking to us you said that there will be actions on the week of April 10th in our city

yes there will could you be able to share with our staff what those events are

So we will be, as a United Brotherhood of Carpenters, we like to protect our jobs, our wages, our benefits.

And we will be spreading the awareness of tax fraud throughout the cities. Okay.

Thank you very much.

And I had one more question.

If people wanted more information about your campaign and what you're doing, is there like a website they can visit that you can potentially share?

Yeah, with the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters.org, I believe. Yes.

If I may, we'll give you that information tomorrow. We'll send it in an email.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any more questions?

No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Amy Lee

I'm giving my time to Michelle Yee

Next speaker, me, Michelle Yee

Good evening, neighbors My name is Michelle

And while tonight I am speaking as a resident of the city of Monterey Park

I am also speaking as an elected official and member of the City of Monterey Park staff,

representing my own opinions, of course. So I apologize for the delayed response and for not speaking up at the last meeting. I have been very busy at work, and so I apologize.

I almost missed this one.

However, it's very important that I share this information with you

countless times now.

I have spoken at the council meetings regarding my concerns

with the lack of transparency and the disregard for honesty and integrity in our city process by our own city staff.

While you may have thought the city's code of conduct and healthy workplace environment pledge,

which was presented at the last council meeting, was an innocent HR standard that most employers issue,

I need to take this opportunity to provide my fellow elected officials with a quick history lesson

on where and how this ridiculous initiative was started.

The item was brought forth originally by former Council Members Hans Leung in August 2019,

in which I was present at the Council meeting to voice my opposition.

It was a very contentious time, as it was the public's perception that Council Members Stephen Lamb,

Peter Chan, and Hans Leung had conspired with the guidance of the City Manager and City Attorney

to oust then Council Members Mitchell Ng and Teresa Real Sebastian. Council Members Chan and Leung were facing recall,

and due to the timing of the issuance of this Code of Conduct Directive

barring any negative communications, it seemed as if they were attempting to censure and silence Council Members Real Sebastian and Ng.

Fast forward to 2023.

It seems as if history is repeating itself. You still can't get me to shut up, huh? Time to whip out the good old code of conduct again. Let's see if we can get her in line with this, this time. While the motion acknowledges the city council cannot obstruct my First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, you still demand that I sign a document stating, I understand that ongoing negative communications are unacceptable, and the consequences of my actions may include censure, sanction, and admonition. We're not in Nazi Germany and we're not in communist China. So what is this? It sure feels like a threat to me. Are you trying to bully or harass me into shutting up? This should not be acceptable to you. This is not the environment we want for our city and for our employees. You don't like what I'm saying, don't make me say it.

Respect is earned, not given. Respect the people that you serve and who serve you.

The city manager and city attorney report to you, the city council, not the other way around. Despite them trying to scare you with this document, public officials cannot interfere with the manner by which the city manager performs his or her duties. They're wrong.

Yes, you can. You can fire them.

And I'm not saying that we should fire them.

However, I need you to know what your power is so that when you're feeling bullied or you're feeling demeaned or belittled or talked down to, you know your right and you know your power. I'm only reminding you of your duty to protect

and serve your constituents, including the employees who work so hard for you.

I've already warned you, many of you, there is a serious problem in our house that needs to be addressed. In order to better our city and continuously improve, we need to cultivate and encourage open dialogue. The public, and most importantly, our city staff, should not feel threatened or fear retaliation when speaking up.

We should want to know when things are not right and how we can improve. Quite honestly, we need a whistlebLor hotline in this city if we don't already have one.

Open communication is why we live in this country. It's what democracy is all about.

Our votes, our voice, serve as the check and balance.

It is our duty, it is our responsibility to exercise that right. Two meetings ago, per the public's request, per your own constituents' request, I asked you to extend the deadline for public comments only a few hours more. To date, nothing has been done. Your constituents voted for you because they trusted you to protect them and advocate on their behalf. Please do your job. Thank you.

No more speakers.

Can I get a staff report on how many public comments were asked prior to the meeting? Do we know?

In terms of the need to extend that time, how many have we have in the past in terms of coming in at the day of versus 24 hours?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members.

I am not aware of any requests other than what was stated by the speaker.

I have not heard anything from the city clerk's office having that type of request.

And so far there's been no requests of this nature other than what was mentioned by the speaker.

Thank you.

I have a question for the city attorney. Were all of the healthy work environment forms that were submitted, were they all signed by the elected officials?

We do have signed copies of all the healthy workplace environment pledges. And as a note,

those are voluntary pledges. Okay and for the record can I can I read the

healthy work environment so people who are listening or in the audience know

what the elected officials signed? The Brown Act allows for a brief response.

Okay so I'd like to read it just because I've willingly signed this. It reads my commitment to a healthy work environment 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 121-184 on August 5th, 2020, and demonstrate professional communications with all public officials, employees, residents, businesses, 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 just wanted to read that for the record because I know that I signed it and I know a lot of my other colleagues did as well.

Thank you.

I'd like to say too that when I signed it, I crossed off the last sentence because I believe that was a violation of my First Amendment right.

You're out of record here.

Okay. If we can now move on to staff communications.

I'm sorry, Recreation and Community Services.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members.

My name is Orlando Mudo, Recreation and Community Services Supervisor. I'd like to take this time, next slide, to thank all our seniors that came out to Langley Center to dance through Niterway at our St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Ball. We had a great band playing good hits that kept them dancing throughout the day. I'd also like to thank everybody that came out to Electric Park, especially our sponsors, Geocorp, Man Realty, and U.S. Bank. All our DJs are playing all that electrifying music that kept our community dancing the night away. Next slide. And last week we had our spring egg hunt. We had a great turnout, a lot of children out here. We also had the bunny out there taking pictures. We also had an inclusive time slot at 4 p.m. that we're able to see a lot of smiles and a lot of children, you know, at different ages picking up all the eggs. I would also like to thank West Coast Arborist for their sponsorship that also helped purchase the eggs and special gifts. Next slide. I'd like to invite everybody to Cherry Blossom Festival, April 15th from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and April 16th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. here at Barnes. Come try out great food, crafts, shopping, and exhibitors. There'll be tons of entertainment like Tokyo Teeth Ceremony, Hula, and more. There'll be a free shuttle at three different locations, Langley Center, Inez, and Repetal School. Please use those. and finally come out and enjoy Earth Day celebration with our cherry blossom on Saturday, April 15th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. here at Barnes Park. There'll be information booths, resources, and giveaways. For more information, email gogreen at montereypark.ca.gov.

Continue to stay in the know, following us on social media here at Recreation. And we're here and we continue to thank you guys for coming out to support us. Thank you. Thank you.

Any questions from Council? Comments?

Mr. Mayor, yes.

I just want to just commend all the staff for working so hard. You know, I remember when some of us went to the library on March 18th for the Women Leaders Panel, which included our own Inez,

all of our assistant team managers,

but there was all your crew setting up for the Electric Park at 4 in the afternoon.

You know, no, probably early that day.

and setting up with the banner thing and hard at work. And it seems like just a bit of a full reactivity that extends all the way to our Easter egg hunt. And let me say, especially coming to last year,

this year went well. It was orderly.

I was there at the Easter egg with Henry, and you guys did an amazing job handling that and making sure that all of the families and all the kids got eggs as well. My daughters were so tired that day,

they couldn't make it up.

But I had an adopted family that day

that I was helping out, and that was a lot of fun for me. So thank you guys.

Thank you for the support. Thank you for being out there and supporting us as well.

Let me add the Langley Center St. Patrick's Day dance. I showed up and I couldn't dance with the seniors because they were just rocking it for four hours that day.

I know. I get tired just watching them.

They still have all the energy.

Electric Dance and Easter, the youngsters,

I know you guys can keep it going,

but the seniors were going for four hours nonstop.

Yep.

Well, continue. We're going to continue doing some events there as well, and we're going to continue keeping them healthy

by making sure they dance the day away.

But thank you.

Thank you.

Our next staff communication, community development.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Jessica Serrano, Interim Community Development Director. I'm here to share some exciting news from community development. First slide. I'm happy to report that last week, the California Department of Housing and Community Development certified our housing element. Yay. This is really exciting news. It's a giant win for the city because the city will benefit from this in many ways, including becoming eligible for state funding, as well as providing programs that will enhance opportunities for housing for all. And so this is a great accomplishment for the city as a whole. You know, we couldn't have reached this point without the collective efforts of the city council from the entire city team. but we want to give a special thank you to Steve Sizemore who's joining us on Zoom tonight. Steve came out of retirement a year and a half ago to help the city out when we really needed him. He served as the Interim Community Development Director and has stayed on board to help us with our housing element work. Without his important work we couldn't have reached this and so we We really want to thank him. In my discussions with Steve, it sounds like this may be the last of his work with the city. And so we wanted to bring him today through Zoom so that we can give him a special thank you for all the important work he did for the city. You know, he's been instrumental in reestablishing the community development department. He came in at a time when the department was becoming a department again after it had been disbanded. So, Steve, if you're there, if you'd like to say a few words.

Thank you, Jessica. One of the things that I've enjoyed working with the city is that this whole process has been a long time in coming, and it really is a teamwork effort. And one of the things that started us all was, Nez started this probably three years ago, four years ago. And she did a lot of that heavy lifting to get us up to the point where I was able to take over about a year ago. And we wouldn't begin the approval tonight if we hadn't had the work of Carl, our city attorney, and Jessica, our inter-community development director. Both of those have been instrumental in getting this approved. but it's been a long process and I'm just thrilled that it's completed and the city's been certified and it's moving forward with this. And I'm excited about the future direction of the city. I know that Ron's put together an excellent management team and the rebuilding of the community development department has been put in Jessica's hands. And I think it's going to be nothing but a great future for them. So it's nice to see all this occur. And I enjoyed my time working with city Monterey park. I expect to see wonderful things coming out of this city over the next 5, 10 years.

Thank you for allowing me to serve.

Mayor, if I may add some additional comments. Yes. Besides thanking the enormous effort by this entire team and everyone that has been mentioned here,

I think we also owe a debt of gratitude to the governor's office. the governor has helped us push through HCD and get them to really put Monterey Park's efforts to the forefront I know Jessica will talk about other cities that have been approved and percentages but I don't think the public and anyone

understands what a momentous effort it took to get here to get it certified and

And now we are going to implement what the housing element has written in it. But I just can't say enough for the team and everything that they've done.

And just thank you for allowing us to do our jobs and really just creating a conducive environment for us to really push this through. I'd like to thank council too.

Thank you. community development. In March, the department building and safety division launched the one-stop building permit center. Now, this permit center is a centralized online portal that allows customers building in the city to submit their plans and applications from the comfort of their homes or offices without having to drive to the city, and it's available 24-7. Applicants are also able to check the status of their applications through this portal in real time. So that saves them the trouble of having a call or come down to City Hall for plan check status. The new portal is in line with the city's Going Green campaign because it is a paperless, sustainable process which reduces the need for vehicle trips coming to City Hall. And this was made possible through enhancements to Acela, which is the city's permitting system, And also the city added ePlanSoft, which is an electronic plan review assist software. And this tool is a very powerful tool that will help our staff review plans more expeditiously. It has a lot of great features. And this portal, it took over a year to launch this. There's a lot of work that went into this. And so, you know, definitely want to thank the city council for their support with this. and also the hard work of our staff who put in a lot of hours to get this new system launched. I believe we'll be seeing a lot of great results from this.

In my last slide, for more information on this new system,

please visit our website at www.montereypark.ca.gov backslash building. Also stay tuned for additional information. we'll be posting additional information on this through the city's Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts and also in the May Cascades. This concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions or comments from Council? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Lo.

Yes, again, I just want to thank Jessica, everyone in your department for working so hard to getting our housing element passed. And also, I think this is important.

And we also want to thank the community as well, because while we have tweaked and edited and refined,

and even after the state sent it back to us, but a lot of our adjustments and improvements was also based on community input. So, you know, really, this is also a victory for the community as well. And I think it's important to acknowledge the community's participation during our hearings and public comment about how they want the housing stock in their city to look in the future.

But of course, I mean, it is important to also acknowledge this is a milestone

because, if I'm not mistaken, many cities are still waiting for HCD to have their housing element approved. and so I think this is also a testament and a compliment to the perseverance of

our own staff so again thank you for pushing forward to getting this and yes

hopefully also mean that we can start moving forward with some of our housing

goals as a community as well. Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to add my

appreciation thanks as was noted it takes it does take and I recognize how much

effort went into putting the housing element together I know the state has been scrutinizing every city's housing element and the additional amount of housing units that are being assigned to each city to plan for in the next eight years or so and I totally recognize how much ever had to go into that extra effort this time as opposed to other cycles in the past so appreciate the staff and as was also already noted by Ron and others we've got the plan now we've got to implement it which will take a lot of effort as well and a lot of planning and a lot of work on both the staff and on the council's part I'm looking forward to that work coming ahead Mayor Pro Tem you're exactly correct

we've hit a milestone but our work is not done we still have a lot of work to do with implementation

and ushering in new housing in the city.

So we're excited to move on to this next phase.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on with economic development.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council members. This is your Economic Development Manager, Joseph Torres, speaking. I am here to remind our community that the City of Monterey Park and Southern California Edison are teaming up to bring to our restaurant community an exclusive joint seminar on electric induction cooking and the benefits that this exciting new technology brings to their business.

Next, please.

The event will be held at El Encanto on Monday, April 10th, from 10 a.m. to 1130. This free seminar is exclusively designed for the Monterey Park restaurant community and aims to introduce the benefits of electric induction cooking, as well as highlight the various small business resources and incentive programs that are available through SCE. SCE's expert presenters will provide information and tips to help our restaurant community get the most out of this exciting new technology.

Next, please.

During the seminar, restaurant owners will have a chance to see demonstrations of induction cooktops. SCE experts will walk through the advantages of electric induction cooking, including its safety features, easy maintenance, and overall cost-effectiveness. They will also provide information on a wide range of small business incentives, resources, rebates, energy-saving tips, tools, and programs. These resources are designed to help small business owners operate more efficiently, save money, and reduce their carbon footprint.

Next. But that's not all.

This seminar will also explore the future of the restaurant industry and how electric induction cooking is poised to become a key player in the years to come. They'll also learn about the latest trends and innovations in the industry and how they can stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

Next, please.

Again, the seminar will be held on Monday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. located at 700 El Mercado Avenue in Monterey Park. So whether you're a restaurant owner, chef, or simply interested in learning more about energy-efficient cooking technologies, this seminar is for you. Please join us and discover how electric induction cooking can revolutionize your kitchen and make your business more sustainable. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Pro Tem, Council Members.

I'm happy to answer questions.

Any questions or comments from Council Member Lo? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you very much, Joseph.

Do we, I know it's only Wednesday, but do we know, for example, like, especially a lot of our restaurants,

Do we know if many of them will be attending the event on next Monday?

It is an open seminar. There is no RSVP required.

They simply have to show up.

We have been sending email blasts targeted to the restaurant communities. We have email addresses of all of them.

Out of 200-some restaurants and through constant contact, you can actually see how many of those emails were opened

and how many were actually read. So we're going by that,

and right now we have a 65% click ratio

on the messages that we've sent. Sending them repeatedly, not just one time, because we want to inundate our restaurant community with this very important information. We also have them emailed in Chinese language, English, and in Spanish. Okay. Would we be able to get a report back about the attendance? I think I think it's important for us also to know like are we get this information out especially to the many restaurants that

that, you know, anchor our restaurant retail economy. And I think it's important that they be aware of the information. So I'd be interested to know what would turn out, especially locally. And then, you know, will there be follow-up to make sure that they are aware about this information that's available to them?

Of course. Yeah, we'll keep track of all the restaurant owners in attendance.

There will also be a follow-up from SCE and from the Economic Development Division. This is actually a kind of a leading up to a series of consultations and even demonstration appointments at SCE's Irwindale exhibit office. These restaurant attendees can actually sign up for appointments, make appointments, not only to do further demonstration of the cooking equipment,

but they can also sign up and borrow a latest technology cooktop device for 14 days for them to try out.

In the event, we will also have representatives from various banks to provide financing, if any is interested in investing in those new technology.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Joe. Appreciate this.

I'll just note my employer is Southern California Edison. I appreciate that the city and Edison are working on this together, without getting into too many details on this. But I appreciate the fact that we're starting to promote events like this to help businesses understand options that are available for technologies that are advancing for cooking and other things. and I would note too that induction cooking is not just for restaurants but also for home use there are induction cook docks that are available right for for residential uses and I would expect that this kind of conversation will also make its way into our sustainability plan as we talk about building decarbonization and removing fossil fuel use from homes and businesses and this is one key aspect of that so appreciate that we're starting to help educate the community around this and look

forward to more events like this. Absolutely it is definitely the future

of commercial kitchens. Any other questions or comments? Thank you so much

for the work and for the presentation. Thank you. Thank you. We'll next have a library report.

Good evening, Mayor Sanchez and members of the council. Diana Garcia, city librarian. This evening I'm here to talk about some of our upcoming programs in the month of April.

Next slide, please. So the first program that I want to plug starts next Tuesday, April 11th,

and runs until May 11th. This is in partnership with our Recreation and Community Services Department.

It's the Play Days Read and Ride reading program. So this is for kids ages birth to 13.

They can sign up online at montereypark.beanstack.org.

They read four hours, log that in the app, and they get tickets for free rides at Play Days. So it's a great partnership.

This was an idea from Robert Aguirre, our Director of Recreation and Community Services, last year.

We launched it.

It was incredibly popular, so we're very happy to be offering it again this year.

Next slide, please.

The next program that also is starting or is happening next Tuesday, April 11th, will be our Free Legal Assistance Clinic.

As you may recall, we did one of these in the wake of the January 21st shooting that was extremely well attended.

This is sponsored by the library in partnership with APABA, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

This is completely free.

To register, our patrons can call the reference desk at the phone number here, 626-307-1368.

They'll be able to come in and speak to lawyers and get advice on questions that they might have.

The lawyers are multilingual and available to help in many different fields, and this is completely free.

Next slide, please.

I did want to mention that we've got updated hours for our counseling and services available in the city of Monterey Park.

These are provided by Chinatown Service Center at the library on Wednesdays and Fridays from 2 to 6,

and they're provided at the Langley Center by the Department of Mental Health on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

These are completely free services. They continue to be very well used in Monterey Park.

and I did want to note that we are going to be having a press conference tomorrow at the library

at 12 p.m. upstairs in the friend's room in conjunction with Chinatown Service Center

to help get the word out a little bit more about these services.

We want people to know that they are free, they're very easily accessible, and there's no shame or stigma in talking to counselors.

Next slide. in conjunction with that we have a ptsd awareness seminar coming up next week thursday april 13th at 2 30 p.m upstairs in the large classroom at the library this is sponsored and put on by garfield health center this is going to be talking about the signs of ptsd and ways to treat it this is going to be the first in four monthly programs about mental health and wellness that are presented at the library from Garfield Health Center, and this will be presented in English and Chinese. Next slide. The last time I was before you, I was talking about the VITA tax assistance clinic, and it was recommended that we extend that. So we reached out to Chinatown Service Center, and they were very happy to do that for us. This has been extremely popular in

the past couple of weeks, and the date is now extended till May 11th. So if you haven't done

your taxes yet and you need some help with that, come on into the library. It's Thursdays from 1030

to 330 upstairs in the computer lab. Again, completely free if your income is less than

$60,000 a year. Next slide. The next program I want to plug coming up in April is Dia de los Niños. It is a celebration of multilingual literacy, which of course is very important in Monterey Park. We are going to be doing a special story time at Barnes Park Amphitheater with activities for all ages. And we will have a few of our community partners there as well. Garvey Head Start will be there and Chinatown Service Center have both confirmed. April 29th, it's a Saturday at 10 a.m. Everybody can come out and have a good time. Next slide. This is going to be part of our National Library Week celebration.

The theme this year for 2023 is there's more to the story.

This is highlighting the fact that libraries are more than just books, that we have all of the wonderful services that I've mentioned already tonight and many, many more. You can see various programs for National Library Week here. We're going to be doing some 3D printer programming with Tinkercad. We've got a family game night, some crafts, Lego challenge, movies, and then our Dia de los Muños program. Next slide. And finally, I just wanted to give a big thanks to everybody who attended the novelty from the Library Foundation this Sunday at the library. It was a wonderful event. It was the first time that we were able to have this since 2019, since the pandemic. It was sold out. We had over 100 people there for the afternoon enjoying tea and crumpets and sandwiches with the crust cut off. We've got a picture of some of our council members up there at the top with the president of the Library Board of Trustees, Jennifer Tang. So thank you very, very much to everybody who attended and to everybody who bid on the auction items.

It got a little heated, but I think we had a good time with that.

we're still counting the checks

but we've made I think about $4,000

from that event so that is huge

and all of that goes to support library services

in the community so thank you again to everybody

who is able to come out on Sunday

next slide for any information about any of these programs and more

you can follow us on social media or check out our website thank you

Thank you. Any questions or comments from Council?

Just it is impressive the work that the library does and as I have in private conversation for librarians said you know those who live either in neighboring cities that have county libraries or are from Los Angeles and no offense to City of LA or county areas but people are generally very impressed with the quality and level of service that the city's library has. It really is, I think, a jewel that, again, is not just appreciated by our own residents, but for those who live outside of Mario Park, it's something to be impressed and in some ways

envied. Thank you. Let me add, first of all, thank you, Diana, and I want to commend you and the trustees of the library for opening up the library. A couple of weeks ago, we had folks in the community come and ask us if it can be more of a provider for a community center we have it right there you think about what we're doing in the library we're serving children we're serving adults and seniors from reading books to having events to sponsoring events to taxes mental health so we're doing that and you know let it be known that we're going to continue to grow that, use our parks and recs and many facilities that we have in the city to continue to serve not only our residents but the surrounding residents because that's what we're here for. We're here to serve.

Thank you, Dad. Absolutely. Yeah, the community

the library is definitely a community

center. The 21st Century Library is a community center. The title of our

strategic plan that we just published is Building Community and that's really

what we're all about.

Okay, well, thank you so much

for all that programming and just amazing the work that you guys are doing at the library. Very impressed. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next staff communication, Public Works.

Good evening, Mayor and Honorable Council Members. I'm happy to share that the city's Passio Go app is now live and sharing real-time information about the Spirit Bus service. The app is free to download from mobile devices and is also accessible through the web browser. And the app shows real-time status for bus routes, including exact bus stop locations, estimated arrival times, and then also shares service alerts if there's interrupted service or any bus stops or routes that are out of service. The need for real-time information was one of the things that we heard the most from our community during our transit study workshops and survey last fall. So we're happy that we were able to implement this. That will hopefully improve ridership experience and also will collect additional data that is needed to complete our study. and we know that riders have already started using it. We've received some feedback and are working on recommended changes, so I encourage everybody to download the app, share it with others, and ride our Spirit Bus.

Next slide.

I also want to share about our upcoming spring cleaning event. We will be collecting bulky items, electronic waste. We will also have shredding service available and chipper service provided by the fire department. The event is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the parking lot next to the service clubhouse, and it's open to Monterey Park residents. We will also have Salvation Army present there who will be collecting used items as donations. Their participation at the event really supports our Going Green initiative and sustainability efforts to divert waste from landfills and will give used items a second life by using them throughout their various programs. So I encourage the community to take advantage of this opportunity, clean out things in their homes and come drop them off on Saturday. Open for any

questions or comments. Any questions or comments?

Yes. Council Member Lo? Yes. I have a question regarding that. Actually I downloaded

So when each stop, there are fixed time points.

Are those then the schedule of when each shuttle is supposed to arrive throughout the day during their shift?

Yes.

Okay.

So the way our schedule is published is that we publish stop times for major bus stop locations. So all of those time stops that you see on the app will be the same as you see in our

regular schedule.

And it should tell you arriving in two minutes, three minutes, whatever that may be.

And right now, because I notice a lot of the shifts stop at 3.54, is it because the shift ends around 4 o'clock? toolbox toolbox toolbox But... Monterey Park. So, is it available on GoMPK or do they have to download it? Monterey Park. So, do you have to do it daily? Monterey Park. So, do you have to do it daily?

Monterey Park. Yes. Our current service hours are from 6.30 in the morning to about 4.30 in the afternoon.

Monterey Park. I see. And I'm also wondering why you're using this because in the future you may even adjust those schedules. Is that correct?

Monterey Park. So, if there's any future service updates, we would be updating the website, the app and then sharing that information with Spirit Bus riders in the community.

Monterey Park. Is it available on GoMPK or do they have to download it?

separately or rather if you go to go on PK is there a way to then redirect someone to download

this app so thank you councilmember Lo yes we can add a link where if they're ongoing PK they can click and then they'll be able to go directly to the app to download so thank you for that suggestion but yes we can definitely make that connection okay great no thank you I know in the

past some residents have come up to me and actually that has been one of their concerns is that not knowing real-time arrival to departure then so I'm glad that we're doing this and hopefully to residents out there who share those concerns that you will take advantage of it and also be carefully and so I will

I will confess that I tried it and I downloaded last week but I didn't pay

attention to when the shift ended and so I was standing not willing that the bus

has stopped running, but that's okay. But I learned my lesson. Thank you.

On the app, is that app available in Chinese or other languages as well? Or we don't have that capability yet?

No, it's not available in other languages at the moment.

It would be great.

I know we're exploring how to do that for the GoMPK app as well. If there's an opportunity to figure out how to integrate language access to the app,

that would be amazing.

But appreciate the effort for Public Works to address community concerns around the spirit bus schedule and the stops and estimated time of arrival for the buses so people have an understanding of how long they have to wait. If there are ways to make it even easier, if there's a specific text to find out when the next bus is coming to that stop specifically

so people don't have to download the app,

if there are other opportunities or ways to help make it even easier for people to access that information if we can explore those I think that'd be great as well thank you and then really quick on the bus shelters do we own all of the bus shelters in the city or is that Metro or how does that I don't know if

that's shown or that's a little off topic too but no no problem if we do own most of them and so we do maintain them yes that's correct just looking ahead to I mean not

I know this is not an agenda item but uh uh if we can look at right beyond and I'm assuming some of

these things came up when we were doing the spirit bus survey uh how do we address uh comfort and right for riders people who are looking to get on the spirit bus beyond just the schedule information but the bus stops safety and right comfort I know some of them are not shaded or not shaded well especially as we approach the summer and even with the rains I think a good reminder that if we can look at other opportunities to make riding the spirit bus and other public transportation in our city more accessible and more comfortable for riders I think that let's

look at those opportunities yeah that is part of what IBI is doing for us as part of the evaluation to determine the needs and the assessments of not only adding those, but also looking at stop locations. Should we have them in the current places we have them?

Should we move them? Should we add stops, take away stops? All that will be evaluated as part of their process.

And we'll come back to Council hopefully by the end of this year and beginning of next year with that evaluation.

Great. Thank you.

I just had a quick question. At the bus stops, the Spirit bus stops,

are there like a QR code or any of these like flyers for people who might be waiting for the bus and might not know that the app is there?

Might be a good idea to we can definitely look at that. Yeah

That would be great. Thank you

Any other questions comments, thank you so much for the presentation for your work. I've got some more. Oh, yeah, yeah

So good evening honor mayor city council Sean I go director of public works first off I just want to thank you. Thanks, so Chi type and she's our principal management analyst She's really the glue that holds public works together. And so I want to thank her for the further her efforts She's done a lot of efforts on not only this app, but just this whole entire Spirit Bus ridership program. So big thanks to her for this program.

And also Salvation Army.

That was a big part of what she was looking at pushing to get us to go, not only push the going green for MPK, but also looking at how we can divert some of that instead of throwing it to waste.

So big thanks to her.

So, again, just pushing our Go MPK app.

again we really want to encourage people to use this as part of this you know I know potholes have been a big hot topic this is a great app to use to not only report potholes but also to allow us to know where some of these locations are we definitely look to canvas areas where we know we have the majority of our potholes we average about a thousand potholes a month that we fill and that has gone up so since about December to current we've done we've done nearly 4,600 potholes that's up about 1,800 potholes compared to this time last year so obviously the rain has played a significant part of that and we're doing our best efforts to make sure not only we're hitting the areas that we can but then also responding to any ones that we get in through GO-MPK within one to two business days so again we understand these are issues we're also addressing these through our resurfacing programs and things like that which I'll get into a little bit later but again please you know we're encouraging residents and and you know people that are passing through usually go and pick up to report these issues so that we can get on them as quickly as possible so next slide please just a quick update on some projects obviously you know public works has a significant amount of projects that we're doing these are just a few that I wanted to highlight for you in general we have about you know 60 active projects in various phases but these are ones that are really coming up are currently in process so we have our

year one resurfacing project that's currently in in construction you've

probably seen a lot of that work that's another area where we have some potholes that have popped up because we started this project and we got significant rains so we're wrapping that up this area is going to be there on the north and south areas of elac so that's currently going on right now we have our SB1 project which is another resurfacing project that's going to be in the area south of Garvey reservoir and then now we have a we have another project for our resurfacing of our pickleball and basketball courts that's currently going on again we're looking at trying to get that Wrapped up at Sierra Vista Park. We have our cycle 7 program which is happening and this is the Project where you're seeing our signal lights being replaced. This is going to be at Garfield and Emerson Garfield and then Hellman and then Hellman and then Alhambra so Those are currently being replaced and those is an active project We finally got the polls and it took a significant amount of time just to delays with material We have our Emerson sewer repair and relining again. That's just a standard work that we're doing on our sewer mains We have a Monterey Pass water main project. You've seen that come before you several times an emergency project We're replacing a failing water main. That's along Monterey Pass Road We have our ATP cycle 4 that's various locations Throughout the city. We have about 13 locations where we have a crosswalk and pedestrian improvements. We have

about a hundred stormwater,

MPDS devices that are being installed throughout the city. This is to get us in compliance with our national

pollutant discharge emissions. National

holy cow, that's a big one.

National pollution

I can't remember what it is now. MPDS. We'll just go with that. So it has to do with stormwater.

We'll just go with that.

And then we have our slurry project.

That will come before you tonight.

That's going to be in the

north of Graves and east of Atlantic. The areas that will not be part of that, we actually will be rolling into the same area. So whatever areas aren't hit as part of that will be fully reconstructed. So you'll see some grinding overlays in the areas that aren't slurried. But that same general area, which is going to be again north of Graves and east of Atlantic. Then we have our HSIP program. Again, this is going to be enhancing some of our signals. So this is every other intersection along Garfield. this is putting reflective tape and reflective heads around our signals so that when the if for whatever reason we have a power outage and those signals go down you can still see them and they're reflective I've ever gone through a dark signal at night it can be very scary so this will hopefully provide some reflectivity seen Caltrans doing this we're doing that same

approach so that's all of our projects next slide please so I can't compete

with recreation but I did bring along my little buddy here I don't have an Easter bunny I don't have Santa but I've got my little water drop here for us to give us an update on droughts so as we all know we've had you know the three driest years on record but now we also have our eighth wettish year in 145 years this is in the LA area and although we've received a significant amount of rain and our reservoirs as you can see here are either near or over capacity I would say we definitely need to be aware that we're still going to need to consider drought a way of life in California. And that's really going to be water use efficiency. That's going to be reducing our water usage indoors and outdoors, being more efficient with the type of plumbing fixtures that we put in. So again, although many people say we're out of the drought, we truly are

not. MWD, Metropolitan Water District, one of the largest riders of water, they have, yes, they've

rolled back some of their restrictions, but they're still pushing the idea that we need to make sure we're changing the way that we think here in California. And that's continuing to be mindful of our water use efficiency. So again, although restrictions are being lifted

in other areas which were impacted harder

than Monterey Park, we're still pushing,

we're staying in stage two. We have not shifted out of it. We're not gonna shift out of it any further.

We didn't increase it when the drought hit.

Again, we get water from our groundwater basin

which is still trying to recover.

Although we're recharging that basin, we still need to make sure that we're using our water more efficiently.

Next slide, please.

So on March 25th we partnered with Assemblymember Fong so a big thank you to Assemblymember Fong and his office for coordinating the Clean California Community Days cleanup event this was at Garvey Ranch Park and such one of the base say a big thank you to them big thank you to the public work staff recreation staff council his office we again this is a great program a lot of volunteers thank you to all volunteers that came out this again was a great event you can see some before and after pictures here of the event. I truly enjoyed it. I think a lot of us that were there really truly enjoyed being there and supporting the community and cleaning up that park. Again, we repainted some of the pictures there, planted several trees. So again, just an overall great event. So with that, I will take any questions. Any questions or comments from

Council? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Go ahead. Again, thank you so much for that great presentation.

Regarding the pothole repairs, for those who are watching from home, if any resident wants to just be updated as to when these projects will be taking place, should they be signing up for any alerts about when work is being done on their street?

So they can.

Yeah, so again, we have updates not only on our website, but we actually are being more proactive in our social media outposts and pushing information out there to make sure

people know the projects are coming.

So we're trying to be more proactive in letting the public know that we're working on. But potholes, if they report a pothole via the GoMPK app, they'll receive a notification

that we've completed it. But for those who, I mean, of course, who live in the stream will benefit from it, but

nonetheless, if there is being work done, is there a way where we can let them know?

I mean, I don't know if that means sending out an email, just an alert to people.

Only because I've had a resident who said that although on the one hand they appreciate the work being done,

but because they weren't aware about the work being done when they left their home.

I guess the comment was it's a way in which we shouldn't let residents know.

It could be just citywide.

These are schedules of work being done in our city this week or this day.

I just think that that's something that might be helpful as well to residents if they need to plan their trips during the day on weeks when we're doing work done.

Typically with our smaller potholes, we're in and out of there pretty quick. It's not a huge impact to residents. It's going to be more of the larger patchwork that we're going to do or even the resurfacing projects.

With those, we typically like to notify residents they're going to be impacted. So if there's impacts to, you know, how they're driving or access to their homes, we typically like to notify residents.

Maybe also then we help just to remind residents as well that, you know, to also check in with

the city's social media or website, especially when we have a scheduled work being done. Again, just so for their own information.

Yeah. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Let me just add.

Sean, it wasn't just several trees. I think we planted eight trees that day, and there's more planned for other parks in the community.

So thank you for that.

And then going back to Councilman Lo's message, yes, let's go ahead and get the notices. I think the notices are out for street slurry or pothole paving, but let's just be mindful. It's maybe half an hour, half a day. We're getting the street fixed. So let's just be patient and let the city staff do the work and work together.

just smile thank you and I'll just echo that I appreciate public works and all

the work that you're doing to help improve our community and the infrastructure I don't know about the other council members but potholes and street repairs are probably the number one complaint I get in my email including from my family members that live in the city so I appreciate that that's a high priority for for the public works department and for staff here I'm curious if there's a way to get I know that you guys are posting and want to add my encouragement to continue to post about the work that we're doing in local neighborhoods as we're doing it that helps to I think everyone understand that we are getting to it as soon as we can and there's a lot of needs but

we're working on it

this next week or two right which streets are going to be repaved or clear sealed or what potholes were filled in the last couple weeks or just numbers right just so we can when I do get a question about it I can tell them look we filled a thousand potholes last week we're going to get to you eventually or some sort of data point to help share and ease some concerns yeah

like I said we typically do about a thousand a month that's our average right now so that's about what we're doing each month and as far as the resurfacing again we try to push that social media to give the general areas on what we're doing in the timeline is really the full length of the project but when we do areas specifically that's when we do the door the door to doors and let the people know they're going to

be impacted on a specific day so but we can be more proactive than that yeah thank you no i

appreciate it thank you so much yeah i also wanted to echo with um council member or pro tem um wong said that uh most of the complaints and emails that i get are from about the potholes But I also have been recommending the MPK Go app, which is actually, when I do that, a lot of the residents say that you guys are very responsive to that. So we appreciate that and all the work that you guys are doing.

Good to hear. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, sorry, real quick question.

You mentioned the Sierra Vista tennis courts and pickleball. I heard you say pickleball in there.

What exactly are you doing there?

Just resurfacing. Resurfacing? Yeah, there's no change. We're just resurfacing those courts. All right.

And so they are currently used for both pickleball and tennis, and they're sharing the court.

Yeah, there's no change. No additions, no changes. Just resurfacing. All right, thanks.

Sorry, just for clarification.

It's a pickleball court and a basketball court.

Correct. There's no tennis at Sierra Vista. Sorry.

At Sierra Vista?

There's no tennis courts at Sierra Vista.

The court that is fenced in around, that is a very short court.

I think it used to be used for handball maybe at one time.

Paddleball?

Badminton.

It was used for badminton, and so it's going to be paved. The majority of the use right now is pickleball, and so the court was just in need of resurfacing, and the basketball court will be done as well.

Sorry. Sorry, Sean. No problem. Good. All right. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

We'll go ahead and move on to presentations and we'll start with 1A, the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust overview.

Okay, thank you, Mayor and Council, for having me here tonight. And congratulations on your housing element. That's a really nice tie-in to this presentation. Okay, so I'm Brielle Salazar. I'm the manager of the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust. and I'm here to give you an overview of what the trust has been able to accomplish in the last three years. If we could go to the next slide.

So the trust was formed in February of 2020 by Senate Bill 751, which was sponsored by State Senator Rubio, and the trust exists to fund and finance the construction of affordable and homeless housing. To date, 22 cities have joined the trust. We have two member levels.

We have affiliate membership, which demonstrates your support for housing in the region and also connects you to technical resources. And then full membership, which enables you to apply to serve on our board of directors or to receive funding for a project in your community.

And the housing trust is able to leverage both public and private funding based on its JPA status.

If we could go to the next slide.

So this shows our board of directors, which was determined by our state legislation.

It's a nine-member board. Seven are elected officials, and two are housing and homelessness experts, which is defined as five or more years of regional experience in housing. We can go to the next slide.

Our funding sources to date.

So this shows that the Housing Trust was successful in leveraging something called Local Housing Trust Fund for the past three years. This is a one-for-one state matching source.

Regional housing trusts like the San Gabriel Valley Housing Trust can apply for up to $5 million each year.

We've been successful in the past three years in leveraging this source. And so that has supported projects in several cities, which we'll show in one of the next slides.

And this is a resource that is not available to cities directly.

So you have to go through a housing trust to access this particular state funding source. So one of the benefits to joining the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust.

Another benefit or another funding source is direct state earmarks. So not only did Senator Rubio help fund or help form the trust,

but she has helped to secure state earmarks in the following years,

which has helped to fund our pipeline, the development of our revolving loan fund, and our tiny home efforts and initiatives that I'll get into in our upcoming slides. And then we've also been successful in securing federal funds.

So thankful for Senator, or sorry, for Congresswoman Judy Chu for helping to push two federal earmarks through on behalf of the trust. If we could go to the next slide.

So how do you get a project funded? We have the San Gabriel Valley Project Pipeline, which is a list of projects that are in need of gap financing to be completed. and currently there are nine projects on that list totaling over 440 units and something that

the trust tries to do is to align with other funding sources so to try to get those local dollars into projects before they apply to the county or before they apply for tax credits to help those projects score higher on those applications. To date the trust has funded 690 units of affordable housing across 12 projects, which is very exciting. And our board allocates funding based on readiness to proceed. So usually projects that are shovel ready and

ready to go are going to be the ones that are funded first. And then also based on any particular guidelines for funding sources, the local housing trust fund, which I mentioned, has a specific 30% of your units have to be at extremely low AMI. So readiness to proceed and then any specific

criteria. We can go to the next slide. This shows those projects that I just mentioned. So those 12 projects and the cities they were funded in and the funding sources that helped to make them possible. And if you take a look at this, you're really seeing that the trust is putting in a relatively low amount per unit, helping to push these projects over the finish line and help get

them completed. So investment by the trust leverages about 20 additional dollars of private

and public investment into projects. Okay, if we could go to the next slide. This is renderings of projects the trust has supported. The photo you see in the top left is West Mission Apartments in Pomona, which was just completed. It will be the first project

funded by the trust to complete construction, so very exciting. And if we could go to the next slide.

We recognized that state earmarks, while wonderful, are not guaranteed every year, so we created a fund that will be here in perpetuity. It's our revolving loan fund. So it was started with $7.8 million in state earmark, and this is available for short-term loans,

so acquisition, pre-development, and construction, three- to five-year loans to help developers get their projects started.

And what's really exciting about this is loan proceeds and repayments will be used to help lend to future projects.

So this is a renewable ongoing funding source. Every three to five years, it will self-replenish.

So to date, we've funded two projects. We're hoping to fund some more at our upcoming May board meeting, but a really exciting opportunity also to help support acquisition and rehabilitation,

which often doesn't score well for other available funding sources. So if we could go to the next slide.

If that wasn't enough, we're also doing things on the homeless housing front. So in the last three years, opened three sites of interim housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness,

totaling 105 beds. So we have Esperance Sevilla in the city of Baldwin Park, which is 25 units for individuals.

It opened just before Thanksgiving in 2021. Operation Stay Safe in the city of Montebello is 30 units for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Both of these sites have local preference for those communities. And then Serenity Homes, which is the first tiny home site for families in the state, which we're really proud of, also in the city of Baldwin Park. and technical assistance is available to cities to explore opportunities like this or other

interim housing typologies. And if we could go to the next slide. Also have additional technical

assistance available to cities through our housing incubator, which can help cities look at sites and explore development opportunities, help look at financial analysis and subsidy layering to get projects built. We're also doing a couple of studies for the trust, so exploring bond financing as a mechanism. As a JPA, the trust is able to issue bonds. We have not done that before, but exploring that option. Also completed a land trust study, so another opportunity to separate the cost of the land from the developments on top of it to help make housing more affordable

in the long term. And then also a surplus land inventory to take a look at opportunities for development in our communities. And if we go to the next slide. Okay, so all of that culminates

together. And what the Regional Housing Trust is trying to do is support cities from the very beginning from their initial planning phase, also recognizing that different cities are in different places in terms of their housing development. So start at the very beginning,

and then support cities through pre-development and all the way through to construction and permanent financing. And with that, I'll take any questions.

Any questions or comments from Council?

Mr. Mayor? Abriel, thank you very much for that presentation. Question.

So for a city to become a member of the trust, should that be the pleasure of the City Council,

So what are obligations on the part of the city, as well as if we wanted to take advantage of these programs in order to meet our own housing obligations as well? I mean, I thought there are different ways in which one gets involved, but could you maybe elaborate a little more?

Sure. So the member dues are based on population size, and for the population of Monterey Park, affiliate membership is about $3,000 per year.

full membership $15,000 per year as an affiliate it's a letter agreement so just on city letterhead

saying we'd like to join the trust and support regional housing efforts and then to become a full member it's signing on to the joint powers agreement which details everything about the trust

and how it's operated so signing on to that and I think that there are instant benefits to joining and you can see really the amount of projects we were able to fund in the last three years

and the various cities that that occurred in. So especially if there are projects that are ready to go and projects that need that little extra push to score well for their other funding sources, I'd strongly encourage Council to consider this at a future meeting. Sure.

If I'm not mistaken, our neighbors are North Alhambra, they're a member of the trust, but do they have a project that was also supported

technically or financially by the trust?

Yes, the city of Alhambra has had two projects supported by the trust.

And thank you for reminding me. It is our position that affordable housing built across the San Gabriel Valley

benefits the San Gabriel Valley as a whole.

Homelessness does not know city boundaries. So neighboring cities also benefit from those projects.

But yes, member cities are seeing a definite return for their investment.

Okay.

Go ahead.

You know what, great presentation. The revolving loan fund, the RLF, just a quick question because I was just, I think you quickly

went through them.

My guess is it's approximately $100,000 per unit, give or take.

That's just a round number.

are they are they equity loans or are they construction loans for the developer

the construction loan for the developer and i think we're at 140 000 per unit per unit cool okay

thank you

thanks brie i appreciate uh the overview of the regional housing trust i'm very interested in the trust and would love to explore the city potentially joining a couple quick questions on this. You mentioned a lot of new construction projects that the trust has been providing cap financing for. Do you only look at funding new construction, or is the trust also looking at potentially financing or helping to resource rehabilitation of existing affordable housing units or other kind of opportunities besides new construction?

Yes. So everything we funded to date has been new construction because with the other funding sources that developers are going for, those projects just score higher. Sources like local

housing trust fund actually have negative points for rehabilitation. So that's one issue, but it's an exciting opportunity for the revolving loan fund in particular. And we're hoping that all of

these things will come together, right? So we have the surplus land inventory telling us where

there are older projects that might need rehabilitation and now this is a funding source that can help bring those projects to light. Great on the tiny homes you mentioned

with three sites did the trust fund just the capital construction of the sites or is the trust and or is the trust also funding ongoing O&M expenses or is that county funding from other

sources? Yes so the trust funded the development of all three sites and in the first year of opera.

were able to help both cities apply for county funds to operate the second year and we're still

involved assisting with project management for both sites. Very cool. On the projects that you

funded, I don't know if it's a, I guess my question is, do you, does the trust also consider potentially funding? It sounds like all the projects you funded are 100% affordable units. are mixed income units including market rate unit developments being considered for funding and at least in terms of the affordable portion of that or is that something that doesn't really

score well yeah it's sort of similar to your first question where those fully affordable

projects are successfully leveraging other sources um but the trust is able to fund up to 80 percent

AMI and we would be able to bifurcate and fund a affordable portion of a larger development that was mixed-use

Great. No, I mean just note and I think you brought it up right in terms of the housing element presentation We just gotten the approval there. There is a need where I think the our RENA numbers are a little over 5,000 Units that we need a plan for in the next eight years or so and I think A little over half of those are below market rate Units that we need to to start to plan for and start to implement in terms of building so something like this regional housing trust in the absence of Any other funding sources that the city does have to offset costs to incentivize affordable housing development We don't have very many tools. I think to to provide incentives and to help spur the development of below market rate units here in Monterey Park So I think this is a great opportunity for us to I think As an opportunity to bring a funding source into the mix as we begin this planning Right implementation of our housing element going forward in the years to come and looking at other opportunities to

provide funding to

incentivize and spur the development of affordable units in the city and so appreciate you being here and love to Make direction after some comments as well. I

I also wanted to thank you for your presentation.

It was very detailed and very informative. So I appreciate you being here tonight. I know housing is a very important issue, not just in our community, but in every community in our state.

I had some specific questions.

I teach in Alhambra and spend a lot of my time in Alhambra because I teach there. But I know where these two new facilities are being built. I noticed that Claremont and Alhambra had two particular projects that they're being with you guys. Do you guys have a set limit of how many projects you can, if we joined the trust, that we could potentially get funding for from you? Or in the case of like El Hambro or Claremont, they could probably have even more units coming?

Is there a limit to you?

There's not a per-city limit.

And so far we haven't taken action on place-based limits.

It is something we've discussed, especially if funding becomes more competitive and we're seeing that cities who are proposing projects that aren't being funded.

But so far, we've been very fortunate to just work with cities that joined early and had projects that were ready to go.

And we wanted to help make those a reality.

So I think it's Pomona, Alhambra, and Claremont have all had multiple projects just because they were ready out the gate.

Great. Thank you.

And I saw your tiny home projects that you shared there. Are there any plans right now from any of the other cities in the San Gabriel Valley in terms of building any more tiny home communities through the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust?

We don't have any commitments yet, but we're always doing tours,

and we're helping a couple of cities look into some sites that might be potential development opportunities.

I don't want to get out ahead of their public information, but we are helping cities build their technical capacity and explore options for tiny homes.

Okay. Thank you so much. Sure. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Thank you.

An example you gave with Alhambra and Claremont, for example,

when you said that those projects were ready to go,

can you maybe a little elaborate, if you have the time, what does it mean that they were ready to go?

I guess it's important for us to also understand, you know,

should we join a trust?

Like, what does that mean for a project that's ready to go?

Yes. So this could be a little bit of a chicken and an egg problem. But generally for the trust, it means ready to close your financing within 12 months. So you receive an award from the trust.

You apply to the state tax credit allocation committee, get an award.

And then all of your funding sources come together. You close escrow. You start construction within 12 months.

However, in order to incentivize developers to develop in your community, that they might want that assurance that they will have support applying to LACDA and to the county

and knowing that they'll score well by having access to this additional resource. But the way we're defining readiness to proceed is 12 months to construction.

So what that means is that, as you said in the chicken-egg example, we need to have already then work with a developer that has an interest,

and from our end we make the commitment that should they partner with us

that we will then be able to leverage funding from the trust

as well as from the state in order to move these projects forward.

I think it's even a little bit easier than that. You're able to demonstrate to developers you're a member of the trust

so even if they're perusing our website, they see that your city is a member

and this is a funding source that they're able to go for. And then ABLE Talks has technical assistance

And so if there's a parcel you want to develop, something the trust can do is help with issuing RFPs and going after development opportunities.

So if it's something you're interested in, you don't have to have everything wrapped up tied in a bow already. We're happy to help you get there. Thank you.

I Would like to I know we're not agendized for action on this But would like to see if there's support among the council to direct staff to research How to join in the process for joining the regional housing trust for Monterey Park and then place this on the agenda I don't know in the next 90 days possible For the council consider how to write the process for joining the regional housing trust going forward

I agree.

Anyone else?

Sure.

Okay.

So it seems to be a consensus among council to explore the idea of joining the San Gabriel Valley regional housing trust based on your wonderful presentation and also our need for

housing. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and move on to item 1B.

We have an update from our city manager on SB 710.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem.

We'll provide you an overview of the SB 710.

Next slide, please. We'll talk about the state highway route 710 terminus, traffic congestion of the 710, 10 freeway, the Terminus Regional Planning Committee, and impact to San Gabriel Valley. Next slide, please. The location of the Terminus that they are talking about in the bill is between the 10

freeway north to Valley Boulevard.

It is about a 4.5-mile stretch of the 710 freeway. North and southbound traffic is impacted.

transitions to and from the 10 freeway continues to be plagued by the amount of lanes that transitions from the 710 to the 10 freeway traffic impacts to the city of monterey park continues to be a problem because people are impatient on trying to get on the 10 freeway or continue down the 710 because they're going northbound through alhambra to other cities that they may live in so they're utilizing ramona boulevard off-ramp traveling down garvey avenue and exiting in any northbound street that takes them north if the freeway at the 710 continues to be log jammed they're utilizing other exits that take you on caesar chavez first street and also floral to take you up to monterey pass road or medneck to monterey pass road or up to North Atlantic. We know this. We experience it living in the city. We understand what the impacts are with the 710 discontinuing the freeway and something being built or something being done with that 710 freeway. Next slide, please. Here, I know it's hard to see, but this is the middle of the transition for the 710 to 10 freeway. You can see the ramps are conjunction with transitioning. You can also see what they talk about as the 710 terminus, which is the 4.5 mile stretch north of the 10 freeway. And then also some of the streets that are adjacent to the freeway that allows commuters to exit off of the ramps and enter into residential streets or secondary arteries or main arteries to get to their point of destination. This is a smaller picture of what you would see, but there is a lot more commuting across the region than what we see just in Monterey Park. Next slide, please. traffic congestion northbound 710 freeway west and eastbound ramps continue to be an issue part of the projects that are on the table that metro has approved is improving these transitions from the freeways to the other freeways when we're talking about the 710 and 10 freeway Also, Ramona, Garvey, Fremont, Corporate Center, Monterey Pass Road, Ford, Cesar Chavez, Monterey Pass Road again, is major cut-through traffic because of the 710 freeway being congested. Flores Cesar Chavez, 1st and 3rd Street, Mendick, and Monterey Pass Road are also streets that are impacted. Next slide, please. The Regional Planning Committee consists of, as the bill states, City of Alhambra, City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, LA32 Neighborhood Council, Cal State LA, MTA, Metropolitan Transit Authority, and one community-based organization. Yes, as you read it, Monterey Park is not on this committee or not recommended to be on this committee. The committee will discuss, study and address, but not limited to, issues of traffic connecting to the 10 freeway and potential land uses, including affordable housing, student housing, workforce development space, public university expansion, parks, open space and alternative transportation. whatever this committee decides will directly impact the city of Monterey Park because if you decide to do any one of these you still have to deal with the traffic that is important there will be traffic no matter what you do with the terminus as they speak in the 710 freeway so I I think we just need to make sure that we understand and track and make sure that our voice is heard from the city of Monterey Park next slide please impacts the San Gabriel Valley it impacts all of these cities Alhambra Monterey Park San Gabriel Rosemee Montebello South Pasadena Pasadena San Marino those are just the adjacent areas around the 710 freeway this traffic impact actually goes a lot further than that so the commuters of the 710 continue to use Monterey Park as an alternative to their destination impacting our community we know how what Garvey Avenue is like in the evening we know what it's like in the morning this is commuter traffic because of what the freeway has imposed on the city of Monterey Park. Next slide, please.

Any questions, anything? This is really an update of the SB 710. Anything, if you'd like to give me and staff any future direction. Also, I understand as of yesterday, the city of Alhambra is going to take a trip up to Sacramento. There is a committee meeting hearing this bill on the 11th. They have approximately 30 opposition letters opposing this bill. They have their mayor, their vice mayor, and other elected officials that will be traveling up there on the 11th. But this is important to them, and it's also important to the cities that are opposing the bill, which includes Monterey Park. I'm happy to answer any questions or if there's any direction that you would like to give me or the staff, we'll be more than happy to take that direction. Thank you, Council. Yes. Questions or comments from Council? Yes.

Thank you, Ron, for that presentation. You know, I think what's also at stake as well is that, you know, the communities that were part of what's called the 710 corridor have been allocated funding that would have gone to what was back then the gap for the 710. And a few weeks ago, I think it was March 23rd, I attended on Zoom Alhambra's presentation to their community of what proposals they have based on surveys they've done with the community.

And, you know, what is concerning about this legislation is that it didn't matter what my...

And a lot of assumptions were put into the project we put in.

And I think that this has, again, a lot of potential to, again, preempt, undermine the work that we put in locally in this community.

And so I think that it's important that we oppose this.

I think that we continue to send letters when we can. And not to mention also even when the members, the authors or those who support the bill, if they are in their district, they have to be in L.A., yeah, even ask to visit with these members to explain why this is, well, one, I think it's a preemption of local control.

But number two, also because even the way the bill is written now, I mean, as our city manager pointed out, we're not even included.

And the thing is that if you look at a color map of Monterey Park, then you'll notice that north of the stub between the 10 and 710 interchange is actually Monterey Park. South of that stub on both the west and east side is Monterey Park. and yet I find it interesting that they decided to include an incorporated county but not even us even though probably up to six miles of a sudden run through our city and so I don't know if that's an oversight or that was on purpose but it's also very clear to me that

the representation

the municipal representation not to mention the organizational representation is clearly skewed towards Los Angeles and I think that

that, you know, I mean, I'll be frank, I think even the inclusion of Alhambra is window dressing

because, you know, certainly Alhambra could try and advocate for itself or the thing in Valley, but the fact that you don't even include organizations like the COG or other regional organizations for the Sigma Valley and just one city, I think it's just almost just them saying, well, we, you know, we crossed our T&D with our I. We have one safe home in the Sigma Valley and that should be good enough. And frankly, I just think that it is actually very insulting to our region and not even confer with us, not too much even on Hambra, because I don't think they were conferred when this bill was even put together probably a few months ago.

I think that Council Member Lo did a good job of explaining the issues here. I live off of floral and over the past years, I mean, the traffic has just gotten tremendously worse. I have to wait almost five minutes just because there's just not a break in the traffic

for me to be able to get into my street.

So I would like to propose and push that we send a council letter from our city that opposes SB 710 and that we also reach out to all of our local elected officials and do the same and try to create a coalition of San Gabriel Valley cities and council members and elected officials that were not included in this bill. I agree with Councilmember Lo that it's very insulting that we were not included in this bill because it directly impacts our community. I know it directly impacts my neighborhood. So I would like to ask Council, and I know that Councilmember Ngo has a comment.

Yeah, I just want to add the comment, and you guys, both of you guys, are correct in the terms of we're a major stakeholder here because our property, our land is in this thing, but we have no seat on the table. So if we have no seat on the table, you have no voice. But we can ask our peer councils in the community

to help raise the voice,

and I commend you for making that suggestion,

and I welcome that.

And if I can also ask our city manager to write letters, maybe too late but at this point to let the folks who are in control to let them know that we need a seat in the table I know it's late but we can still raise

the issue oh I'm sorry I'm sorry well it's not too I mean although the bill is

going through its first committee I mean it's gonna probably go through several committees that's part of the they call it the sausage making of legislation but But I think that it is important to monitor to see, you know, after its first committee, are there any amendments that are made?

But I think moving forward, I think we should probably also, you know, as a city, I know we've reached out to our neighboring cities,

but I think we also need to reach out to our local school districts as well because they're impacted by this also. I know for myself, when I was a school board member, prior to becoming a council member, I was part of that coalition of cities and school districts that were at the time pushing for the closure of the gap. And again, ultimately Metro decided not to push forward the 710 gap closure project. But the reason why schools were also involved, school districts,

is because, you know, if you look at the locations of most of our schools,

not just in Monterey Park, but most schools in general,

they're located on major boulevards. Well, actually, yeah, here in Monterey Park, I mean, if you look at a map of several of our elementary schools,

as well as in Alhambra, they are on major corridors.

And so, again, this is why it's been so important that we as a region,

we pushed so hard to make sure that we had our share of this 710 gap funding to mitigate.

But again, you know, this legislation essentially sends a message that it doesn't matter what we do,

what we plan, what we painstakingly ask our residents to come and try to comment

because essentially a committee will essentially tell us what to do, you know.

And I would just add right my my frustration with this bill as as written and as I understand it as well

I believe we are already

Formally in opposition to this bill and I've already sent a letter right to that effect to the the bill author Or the chair of the committee that it will be heard in Agree with my fellow council members on continuing to send additional letters and make our voice heard I I understand And to date, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. City Manager, if the author has still not reached out to us to date?

You're correct, Mayor Prodell.

And that's, I mean, for me, that's equally frustrating, I think, in terms of knowing that this is a direct impact to our community and to many other communities in the Sangria Valley. And yet, a lot of that outreach has not happened. I first heard about this bill several weeks ago, and I think there's been plenty of time for them to do that outreach. And it is insulting that they have not continued not to reach out to us for input. I think it deserves our very clear opposition to the bill. And I think not just because we're not included with a seat at the table in this suggested planning committee, but also because there's already

Alhambra, the city of Alhambra on the neighborhood of the north

is already I think more than a year into a process for visioning and planning for what to do with the existing 710 stub. This bill as written would usurp that entire process and wipe it away and start fresh with a new committee and take that control for this property that exists in the city of Alhambra away from the city of Alhambra despite all the work and the money and the resources they put into already engaging the community on what to do with the existing 710 terminus in Alhambra. And I will add that their process so far, from my understanding, has taken into account potential traffic impacts to Monterey Park and other surrounding communities. And so they are doing it in a way I think that makes sense and is responsible to the surrounding community in the region where this bill is written and has laid out very much, not only wipe away that process and the work that's already been done, but it's weighted very heavily away from the interests of making the Sanguero Valley and West Sanguero Valley and Monterey Park, especially in particular,

not only not included, but to our detriment. And so I think it's extraordinarily important that we weigh in very heavily in opposition to this bill, especially as written, and to demand that the author's office engage the actual region and the community that will be impacted by any action on the 710 terminus and the south 710 terminus.

So I think, Mr. City Manager, I think you can see our council is in full support and I volunteer Council Member Lo to go on the 11th to Sacramento. on our behalf. But we should pursue this with extreme haste.

Mayor, if I may also add before we close this item up, we definitely understand the direction that Council has directed staff. I will also add that it's extremely important for you all because you all serve on various different major committees, whether it's SCAG, the COG, You're going up to a leadership summit next week. It can be very impactful next week to be able to lobby on what's going on there. We will do everything we can as staffers, but you also have the ability to really grab some ears up there in Sacramento, and that will help our fight. One other thing is I will say projects that have been approved by MTA as part of the 710 measure our money that was allocated we did that together as cities so it wasn't one project that was overrun with another project we did it because we understood that if we didn't do it regionally that we would be affected adversely if we didn't work together so our projects that are on board even Alhambra's and all the other cities we did it together we did it at MTA so now all that work is going to be for naught if this bill passes.

Any other questions or comments counsel?

Thank you.

I'm sorry would you like to have the city of Alhambra do the same presentation here

they have offered that with their project?

I think it would be helpful if you're referring to a presentation they made two weeks ago. You're correct.

I think it would be helpful to us, not just the council, but also for the community as well.

As has been said repeatedly, transportation is a regional issue.

and and certainly what Alhambra has been planning will have impacts to our

community as well so thank you yeah I don't know if it needs to be at a

council meeting if it makes more sense to set up a workshop or a virtual workshop for Monterey Park as well that we can help promote I think if whatever gets more access for more of our community members I think we should

encouraged that. Understood. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. We'll go ahead and move on to item two,

old business. Item 2A, support for AB 28. I believe that's our city manager. Thank you,

Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem. This item that you had before you was asked of staff to bring it back

as of the March 15th meeting.

What you have here is AB 28. It is the intent of legislature to enact legislation that would enact a tax-to-fund measure

to protect against gun violence on firearms and ammunitions purchase.

The staff report is suggesting that you, if desirable,

direct the city manager and the city attorney to express the city council's support of AB 28 with the California legislature. That's all for my reports.

Okay, would anyone like to move or recommend?

I'll make a motion to adopt a support position for AB 28.

Second it. Okay. If we can take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

Really quick, Mr. Mayor, if that's okay. If it's okay, or I would like to request that city manager or city attorney, I don't know how to resource this, but if we can track these bills as they go through all the bills that we've taken a position on relating to gun violence prevention in the legislature, both the state and the federal level, I know that as they go through the process, sometimes the actual bills and what they do can change. So I want to make sure if some of those change into things that we don't intend to support, that we make sure we're tracking that and responsibly adjusting our position as needed and if needed, if that's something we can do on a regular basis.

Understood.

And on that same note, if there's a way we can also share with the community, either through social media, maybe a list of bills that we are supporting so that they know what bills have been supported by our council.

We'd appreciate that as well.

Understood.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and move on to item 2B,

extending a local emergency for the Good Views abatement project.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'll take this one on. This has a couple of housekeeping items on it.

As you can see, the new retaining wall has been put in, and so that part of the retaining wall will be finished in a manner. Well, here's some more pictures of the current state of affairs. This is drone footage that was taken today, actually. What's going to happen next is that the old retaining wall is going to be taken out by crane. I believe that's scheduled to happen Monday morning, so the Lor portion there is going to be taken out. The higher portion is the new retaining wall for that slope. And what we're discussing tonight is the finish for that particular retaining wall.

And I think we sped up the video so that it wouldn't be the full five minutes of the drone, but it is available for full viewing in real time. What we're talking about tonight in terms of housekeeping is whether or not the council wants to have that wall finish stained or unstained. So when the City Council approved the specific plan for this area when it was originally anticipated to be for residential development There were three options that were available for the wall finish one was this one which looks substantially similar as the

the pass

On the 405 freeway if you look on both sides of the road Of the freeway there you'll see that particular type of stonework there was a second option which was more of a quarry feel and then there was a third option that was simply a nice flat face with blocks in it so the bid item came in with this particular design in mind and really the question is whether you want it stained or unstained at this point there's no difference in cost based upon the bid proposal and it's really a matter of aesthetics so those are the two main only two items for consideration for the City Council tonight one is to extend the emergency and the second is whether or not you want the the wall to be stained or unstained and then really the third was to show you the drone footage of in

terms of where we're at at the moment happy to answer any questions um are those are only two

options the stain or the the plan was for that particular rock i think in the staff report you

can see the three options that were originally approved by the city council back in 2021.

the rock was this

the faux rock I should say is the one that was selected at the time that the project was bid

any questions comments I have a comment

you know what I'm going to commend the power city council for kind of holding the ground and making sure this was

built I know we're almost done

almost being the key word hindsight is 2020 we had this atmosphere river in essence this

killer rain that happened

and we had no mudslides, we had no issues, we had no danger in the entire area. For the prior group for getting this project done, number one, it doesn't matter what color it is.

Does it?

The cost is the same, so my vote is...

To be honest, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, it gave you an opportunity to weigh in on how it looks,

while at the same time we're asking for the extension

of the emergency and giving you an update.

I THINK COUNCIL MEMBER WANTED TO RECOMMEND A MURAL.

ONE, I WANT TO ADD MY APPRECIATION TO THE STAFF FOR GUIDING THIS PROCESS AND ALL THE WORKERS THAT HELPED SHORE UP THE HILLSIDE. I WILL ECHO HIS SENTIMENTS. WE HAVE, WHEN IT DID RAIN LESS THAN IT DID IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS, WE HAVE SEEN SLIDES ON THAT HILLSIDE AND DAMAGE TO THE POWER POLE AND OTHER PARTS OF THE STREET IN OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

THERE.

and so I think it's a testament to the fact that the work that was done helped to keep this slope from sliding despite the near historic rains or near you know historic rains and the impact that likely would have very much have very likely would have happened and could have endangered right people driving by and walking by on that street so appreciate all the effort that went into this I also do not have a preference on stained or unstained I mean I really don't care uh we care that it is safely done and it is done as quickly as possible safely possible um to to the mayor's note uh like if there is a way to potentially not looking to add costs here but uh if there are artists or others in the community that are looking for an art project to do maybe this is something we can explore and put out there for a potential mural or art project or some other THING TO MAKE IT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN A ROCK WALL OR A

FOE ROCK WALL.

JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT DOWN THE LINE. IN TERMS OF TONIGHT, I MEAN, I DON'T KNOW. I DON'T KNOW IF ANYONE ELSE ON THE COUNCIL HAS A PREFERENCE ON THE COLOR OF THE FOE ROCK.

I DON'T KNOW. I'LL GO WITH THE GRAY. I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S SAINED OR UNSTAINED. I CAN'T TELL AT THIS POINT. NATURAL.

MR. MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL, THERE IS A THIRD option that's the quarry finish that was included in your staff report we don't have a slide of it

for the powerpoint but we can certainly ask if it's the same cost for the quarry finish which

would allow for a future mural if that's something that the council would prefer

you know what i kind of like the rocky look it's his natural intent right a rock barrier to prevent the slides and i think it's a testament to the legacy of the prior council that blessed it keep the same color keep the form it's the project that's done it's public

safety and I'm fully supportive of it so a question can we do both like one do it with a rock finish but also section of it also be alLod if in the future we're

able to as my colleagues have suggested do a public mural or a public art can we

do both or will that race cause it has to be one or any other? Mr. Mayor, members of the council,

I went to law school not to have to make these decisions, which is why you're making this. Okay. So I guess my knee-jerk reaction would be if you wanted to save the option for having a mural in the future, my suggestion would be to leave it natural or natural cement. And that way it can be painted over at some future date.

That's my recommendation. Okay. If I may add, you're talking about a large surface that stretches from Abajo all the way,

almost three-quarters of the way before you get to Campanita.

So to leave a bare surface that may be a proposed mural,

I'm not sure if we have somebody that can do something that huge.

I'm sure there's a lot of good artists that we come across every day painting things,

but I'm not sure they have the capabilities of doing that.

The rock finish is something that's common that you have along the freeways quite a bit,

especially in some of the exchanges, the newer exchanges.

I could assist you, but they told me to stay away because I'm colorblind, and the green may look like a different color to me, but the natural finish looks just fine to me.

I'm fine with the natural finish. No, I'm fine with that too, that's fine.

I don't want to get into, I don't have an art degree, I have no idea what is a good service and what's not, but I can also imagine not necessarily painting directly on the facade or the wall, but something you can put up in panels or right kind of like a billboard it doesn't have to be it's not a painted thing it can be something you roll out or whatever so I think there are options I don't think we're deciding that tonight but just putting food out there for thought and I'm happy to make a motion to stop recommendation on this and with the natural finish for the facade wall I

Second I'll second. Oh, all right. If we can take a vote

Approved unanimously

You know, are we once this project is complete are we planning any kind of celebration that's complete or any

That's completely up to the City Council. I mean, I think the amount of well, I know we are in a

Weird situation with the current owners But if there's a way to mark the completion of this project somehow publicly, I think we can we should explore that

From that perspective mr. Mayor members of the council We do have a the court did issue in order of prejudgment possessions so that means that the City Council or the city certainly Is presumed to be able to take over the property at the end of the eminent domain action So it's completely up to the City Council what you would like to do at that point my suggestion though is I Don't know how many more atmospheric rivers are coming through so Right now June 1st is the date that we anticipate everything will be completed and we'll be able to file a notice of completion for the project and we'll inform you at that point where we're at.

Thank you Carl for the report. We'll go ahead and move on to consent calendar items numbers 3A through 3K.

Counselor are there any items you would like to hold?

Yes I'd like to pull Mr. Mayor I'm sorry.

I'd like to pull item 3I. I HAVE A VERY BRIEF QUESTION. 3 I? YES.

3 D?

AND I WOULD LIKE TO PULL 3 E AND 3 G.

3 E AND 3 G.

So can we make a motion then to approve items 3A, B, C?

So moved. F, H, J, and K.

And if we can take a vote.

Oh, one more time. Oh, Thomas did.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

So do we have a staff report for item 3D?

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Council Members. I'm Christine Tomikawa, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management. The item before you is basically a summary report from a classification and compensation study that we started last year. We have the compensation summary report that will be presented by Ralph Anderson, but I just wanted to give a little background. The reason why we decided to do a classification compensation study is it's a good practice to kind of evaluate where the city is in terms of our classification, our job descriptions, and then with our compensation, which is benefits and base pay. A lot of that is also a benefit to us to kind of evaluate how competitive we are for recruitment and retention purposes with what we have open and then how we retain our employees compared to surrounding cities. So a lot of times the compensation is really a snapshot because it's just a certain point in time. Based on other agency MOUs, they change every couple of years or they give increases every year. So really, again, it's just a snapshot to give us a better idea of kind of where Monterey Park compares to surrounding cities and how we are competing in the job market with them. So I'm going to turn it over to Doug Johnson, who is our consultant from Ralph Anderson and Associates, and he's going to walk us through the summary report.

All right. Is that going to be broadcast, the report?

Yes. Got it. Okay. Very good. So I'm going to run through this real quick. If you want to go to the next slide. So I like to start talking about compensation surveys, putting in context, the reason why these are done. Mainly it's to inform decision makers. So you as a city council ultimately make decisions or provide direction to the city staff regarding compensation policies. And essentially data is providing the context or providing meaningful information so that it's an intelligent decision,

not something that's a guess or something that's based on an individual's personal thoughts,

but based on the context of data in the marketplace.

And what you're really trying to do is ascertain what the market is paying jobs that the city has

so that you have the ability to make strategic decisions and ultimately optimize the city's ability to recruit and retain employees.

These kinds of surveys are somewhat routine, both in the public and private sector. A little bit different in terms of maybe the data sources, but in the public sector, collecting data, utilizing that is a regular part of an organization's update of their compensation plan. Next slide. So the process that we used involved these cities. So basically, we're establishing a list of organizations that have comparable jobs that provide comparable services. So utilizing this group of cities gives us a nice snapshot of the region that you're competing in. And we're looking at similar

we wanna have at least three or four matches before we actually analyze data. There are some additional data points we can get. The job matches are determined by us. We're going through organization charts, job descriptions, position control listings, and essentially developing or identifying whether there's a match or not within each of the cities. Ultimately, you can kind of take this data and even further refine it into what I would call benchmark jobs, which simply means you're relying on this data to make strategic decisions with respect to salary ranges for a job or group of related jobs around the market data. Next slide. The scope of the survey involved first looking at base salary. That's kind of the biggest bucket if you think in terms of total compensation. It's probably the one item that is most looked at if you are hiring an employee or potential employee when you post ads and so forth. The salary range is going to be probably the most important thing that someone looks at. But there are other elements in your total compensation. You have longevity pay. And these may not be elements you have, but these are what we're surveying in terms of what the market has. Longevity pay, employer paid deferred compensation. There are retirement contributions and contributions that employees make towards the city's retirement plan. And then there may be specialty benefits like post or education incentive or uniform allowance when we look at sworn classifications like in police and fire. And then we look at insurance benefits. We don't look at employer costs of retirement for a number of reasons. Part of that is a reflection of the fact that we now have many tiers of retirement when we do a survey. You have closed tiers that are not available to an incoming employee. So some agencies, they have essentially a tier that only is used for existing employees. You have a tier that's in place that's subject to the Pension Reform Act going back to 2013. So there's tiers that were in place in December 2012. And whatever that tier is that was in place before this law took effect, that is the tier that an incoming employee would be eligible for if they're coming from a city or a public agency that has a qualified pension plan. And then anyone hired after January 1, 2013 that had no qualifying or prior public pension experience, they're in what we call PEPRA tiers. And PEPRA, which is the reform kind of acronym for the Reform Act, those tiers are all the same for cities. So it's unlike those other tiers where you can have different formulas, different costs, obviously of different populations of people that are in those tiers. but that can generate some anomalies in terms of measuring what the employer cost is, because you have unfunded liabilities, you have differences in terms of the pool employees that are there. So when we look at retirement, it's an imperfect item to look at. And so most organizations, they don't consider that as part of total compensation. That wasn't the case maybe 15 years ago, but Pepper really kind of sorted things around. And in a lot of agencies, a majority of employees are in pepper tears and so from that perspective retirement adds very little if any value to the analysis because again they're all the same pretty much next slide so the study process i just hit this quickly we went through a process where we're selecting the employers or confirming employers we're collecting data we're selecting the job classifications to survey we're doing all the analysis the number crunching and kind of providing the data to the city it's raw and in some respects in terms of it's just data and it's providing informative, you know, kind of metrics for the organization to be able to look at in terms of making strategic decisions with respect to compensation. Next slide. You have to decide as an employer is where do you want to pay relative to your peers? So there's this concept called market position. Do you want to pay at the bottom of the market, the top of the market, or somewhere in between? Most public agencies, at least as a starting point kind of adopt the middle of the market approach. And so they might look at 12 or 15 or 10 peers in terms of survey agencies, and they'll use the middle of that sample as kind of the point that they want to establish their pay range. Some organizations might go as high as 75th percentile. So when you think of percentiles are kind of a rank statistic. So 50th percentile, which is the median, the same statistic, just a different label. The median is the middle point in an array, so half the data is above that point, half is below. 75th percentile, if you were to position your compensation plan at that level, then only a quarter, 25 percent of the agencies

would pay more than you, and you're paying equal to or above 75 percent of the market.

So sometimes organizations will do that as a way to be more competitive. Maybe they have a lot of recruitment and retention issues. Maybe they're a large agency, and so they need to be a

little bit more strategic in terms of being able to position their compensation plan at a higher

level. Obviously, affordability and whether your budget can sustain this market position is a key part of making decisions with respect to this. But median is probably the most common target that public organizations use in terms of where they anchor or look at in their pay plan. So next slide. So this chart gives you, it's a lot of numbers. So I'm just going to kind of quickly walk through it left to right and just kind of highlight some things in this. So first off, we break the data into employee groups. Sometimes different employee groups will have different kinds of benefits and things. And so this way, we're able to kind of take snapshots that aren't individual job titles. They're grouped a little bit more. So we can kind of go left to right. You can see the employee groups that are shown there. And those are all different bargaining groups or employee groups that the city has established. And then we can look at the top line there, executive management. If we take that group of positions we surveyed, and I think there might be seven or eight or 10 positions in that group, the base salary analysis of that combined, kind of averaging out that group, that group was 11.8% below median. So one way to look at that figure is if you desire your pay plan to be at the median of the market, you would actually have to adjust salaries on average for that group 11.8%. Now, it may be that only some titles need

adjustment. You could have a situation where since this 11.8 is an average, you could have maybe a 15% increases required for some jobs and maybe nothing is required for others. But this is just kind of

giving you an idea group by group. If we stick with executive management, we look at cash. What that means is we have our base salary snapshot of 11.8% below median. We then add benefits. We have longevity, deferred compensation, and those benefits that I talked about previously. And the first group of benefits is what we call cash equivalent benefits. And if we then add those to base salary for all the agencies and for you, and then retake that snapshot, we find that you're 10.1% below median. So what that's saying is there's a slight gain, although it's not very significant, but there's a little bit in benefits that you have that's slightly improving your market position by a little bit. And then we can finally add insurance benefits, and that is a further improvement. You gain about 1% when you add in your insurance benefits, and so that's at least showing you that your benefits are equal to maybe slightly better than the marketplace. If we kind of look at it overall, so if you look at that bottom line there, overall, the city's jobs, if we're not looking at it in terms of individual groups, is 0.1% below median. So what that's showing is that you generally have a competitive compensation plan, but there's going to be jobs or groups of jobs within certain employee groups where there may need to be some sort of attention or adjustment in order to equalize to the median. And then if we look just at that far right, Lor right-hand number, that 2.7%, what that means is that when we look at benefits overall, you gain about 2.7% of value in the market in terms of your benefits being equal to or actually slightly better than the market. That's not statistically really significant. We want to see a change of 3% or 4% before we start digging in and seeing why is there this shift or change. You can see for captains and mid-management, if you just look up a couple lines, those figures are minus 6.2%. So that is more of a significant shift. And the reason for that is I think six or seven of the survey agencies have education incentive for sergeants and lieutenants, and you don't have that particular benefit for those jobs. You do have it for the POA, and that's why they're kind of more in line with everyone else. So that's just an example of how you can interpret this data. So next slide.

This is giving you kind of a bar chart. It's a distribution kind of analysis. So if we look in the middle out of the mentioned before, I think there was 88 job titles and that we had sufficient data for this kind of breaks that data down into 5% increments around the median. So if we look at that, that kind of center of this chart, going to the left, that first bar that's going to the left of that dark line shows about 17 jobs that are from zero to 5% below median. And then we have about nine jobs that are 5% to 10% below median, kind of continuing left. And then six jobs that are 10% to 15% below median, looks like three jobs that are 15% to 20% below and three that are more than 20%. So those things on the left, if you are wanting to ensure that you're competitive with the market, these would be jobs where you would need to do some sort of targeted increases potentially to the salary range in order to kind of close that, move them more towards the middle. You do have some jobs, if you look on the right, you have, it looks like 20 job titles that are within 5% of median, kind of slightly above it. So 0% to 5% above. And then you have 16 jobs that are 5% to 10% above median, 8 jobs, 7, 8 jobs that are 15% to 10%, 10% to 15% above median. And it looks like one job title that's 15% to 20%. So arguably, if you were really trying to get yourself aligned to the market, you might reset those ranges. You could reduce those ranges down. The employee typically isn't impacted by that. They would just have their salary kind of frozen outside the range. So if you wanted to be kind of more pure to the marketplace, you can make adjustments on both sides. Some organizations just focus on the left side of the chart to make sure that they're competitive and maybe don't worry that they have some jobs that are above market. But that's, again, a policy decision for the city to look at. And part of that involves bargaining strategy and, you know, the contracts and MOUs that you have for labor unions. That would all be part of that kind of strategy setting process. Next slide. This is that same chart, but now it's looking at the total compensation. So you can see that we've kind of moved up, as I said before, you gain a little bit in market position. So this is kind of shifting things slightly to the right. So what this is saying is that if you look at the benefit value of cash benefits and insurance benefits, you're actually slightly above median for these jobs. And it's just another way of looking at it. And some organizations policy wise will say our benefits, we're OK with them being a little bit better than market. They kind of consider that icing on the cake. Other organizations will want to do some sort of offset and kind of recognize the value of those benefits. So again, that's a policy decision or a strategy in terms of your labor bargaining that you would have based on the data. If you want to go next chart. I have a series of charts here that are just kind of breaking it into the different employee groups. So I'm just going to go through these really quickly.

Actually, I'm sorry for interrupting. I wanted to actually thank you so much for the report because I think time is kind of getting tight right here. And I think it's a very good reference point when we discuss about salary raise for our next few meetings. And this is a very good reference point. I'm sure that our human resource, Christina, will totally understand how to read all the reports so that we know that I see the report is actually quite long and a lot of information that I greatly appreciate. it. I wanted to point it out is because

I want people to know that the report is here and it's public so that we can all go back

whenever that we have considerations. But I wanted to thank you so much for the presentation and I'm sure that we wanted to use it as a future reference all the time that we want to go back and flip through all the presentations. And if we have any questions in the future maybe we can, you know, ask you for that. Is that okay?

Yes, that'd be great.

Okay, thank you so much. Thank you so much for the report. Thank you.

Thank you.

And Mr. Mayor, I appreciate, Councilwoman, you, I agree. I was able to review most of the report as well.

Appreciate the data.

And I know that this will help inform as we go into bargaining with each of the units now, that process. I appreciate all the data that went into this. I just had a few quick questions. how often do we do this class and comp kind of survey for our employees?

So I don't have the history on how often Monterey Park has done it. Typically you're looking at maybe doing it every five to seven years because things change over time, but it's usually kind of one of the best practices to do it on five under ten years. But I don't have data on when the last time we did one.

Great. Now, I appreciate that.

I would like to encourage us to make sure we are doing this on a regular basis to make sure we are competitive. And I know that we are not just our city, but many other cities and other employers are having a hard time filling vacancies. And I know that comp is at least a portion of that. And I appreciate that we're taking a hard look at what we need to do to make sure that we're competitive at not only attracting top talent and good talent from the region, but also retaining talent to make sure that not just the top-level step in terms of comp is comparable, which I'm relieved and happy to see that we're not far off from the median for our survey cities, but also want to make sure that when appropriate to address other issues in terms of our step process in the whole ladder and the full kind of compensation benefits package to make sure that we continue to be competitive and an employer of choice.

And sorry, Christine, just had a quick question.

Do you know what, I know this wasn't part of the comp study, but I'm just curious, it brought up for me, what's the hourly pay rate for our Lost paid employees in the city? I'd imagine that's for the part-timers.

Well, so minimum wage is $15.50 right now an hour.

So we do have employees, part-timers that are making minimum wage.

Yes.

And we do adjust that as the law requires.

Yes.

And then what, do part-timers or at what threshold do employees receive benefits, healthcare and retirement?

Only when they become a full-time employee.

So no part-time employees have any benefits?

So part-time employees can be eligible for going into PERS retirement system if they work over 1,000 hours in a fiscal year. So at that point in time, then the city does enroll them into the CalPERS system, and then they start earning credit towards CalPERS.

So there are no part, only full-time employees receive health care, is that right?

Only full-time employees receive health care or any benefits. The only benefits that part-timers are eligible for are sick leave, which is by law. And then we do provide a different type of contribution to retirement because we have to, since we don't provide to Social Security, we have another form that they provide contribution towards before they go into CalPERS.

It's essentially 20 hours a week, which is on a border, I mean, 20 hours a week in order for them to qualify for health benefits and PERS.

Well, for only CalPERS, there are no health benefits, even if you, correct, it's just PERS.

And do, I remember, I know we're getting a little bit off this topic, but during the pandemic, I know we, the city let go of a lot of our, and I think all of our part-time employees, have all those positions been replaced and filled back?

No, we still are having difficulty filling part-time positions to help with programs in recreation and library. It's just sometimes hard to compete when everyone has $15.50 as minimum wage, but then you have Target or somewhere else who's doing $17 an hour, things like that. It's definitely competitive for our part-time folks.

Yeah, I think the right as this study the comp class and comp study has looked at our full-time positions Correct. I hope that and want to encourage city manager and the staff to look at what else if there are adjustments that need to be made for our part-time

We are evaluating our part-time salary schedules as well. Great and hope that will come back to council as appropriate. Yes, thank you

All right, thank you.

We'll go ahead and move on to item 3E, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week Resolution.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, pro temp, members of City Council, I'm Gus Jimenez, Police Captain.

And yet before you, the staff report recommending that City Council adopt a resolution declaring the week of April 9th through the 15th as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in the City of Monterey Park.

Discussing actually this information with you, I'm going to call up our communications dispatch supervisor, Valerie Carter.

She's the expert when it comes to this information, so I'm going to go ahead and defer to her. Valerie.

Good evening, Council Persons. The Monterey Park Police Department is celebrating the week of April 9th through 15th, 2023,

as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. This week, sponsored by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials,

also known as APCO International, and celebrated annually, honors the thousands of men and women who respond to emergency calls, dispatch emergency professionals,

and equipment and render life-saving assistance to the citizens of the United States.

We are enlisting your support in the form of a resolution to honor these men and women in our area for the work that they have due every day to protect the citizens of Monterey Park.

Any questions or comments from Council?

No questions.

I just wanted to pull this to make sure that we are highlighting this and appreciate our staff and our dispatchers, especially for their work. You guys are stuck in a windowless room doing work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep our community safe and appreciate all the work that our dispatchers and our telecommunications professionals do. and appreciate leadership in the city teeing this up and hope that we will tee up other kinds of recognition for other staff as well throughout the year as these come up. Appreciate everyone and appreciate the police department and the dispatchers for all their work.

Thank you for recognizing us.

I also wanted to echo that and say thank you. I know that one of your telecommunicators is actually the parent of one of my former students from last year.

So thank you guys for everything that you do and for keeping Monterey Park safe.

Thank you, sir. I am

I'm happy to make a motion to adopt the resolution second second. Okay, and if we can take a vote

Yes, yeah should we wait

Okay, we'll wait for council women you to return

In the meantime, we can

Councilwoman, we'll fill you in. We made a motion to approve

Item 3E, National Public Safety

Telecommunicators Week Resolution.

And now we're about to take a vote. Okay.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to item 3G, the 2020 State Homeland Security Grant Program.

Mayor and members of the Council. Before you tonight is item 3G, which is a contract agreement amendment with counter-risk incorporated in the amount of $64,360. Background on the agreement, which was a contract that was approved by City Council on April 6, 2022. The initial contract amount was not to exceed $146,720 with a term ending May 2023. We are seeking to increase the amount of the contract with an amount not to exceed $211,080 to incorporate a cost savings from the state homeland security grant program year 2020 grant of $64,360. That concludes my report. But just to reiterate, this is no cost to the city. These are grant funds from state homeland security. WE ARE SIMPLY A HOST OF A GRANT FOR THIS PARTICULAR POSITION WITHIN LA COUNTY.

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCIL? COUNCIL MEMBER? THANKS, CHIEF HALLECK.

I APPRECIATE THAT WE ARE CONTINUING TO PURSUE GRANT FUNDING FOR THESE TO OFFSET WHAT WOULD BE GENERAL FUND COSTS, RIGHT?

I'M JUST CURIOUS.

IT WASN'T CLEAR TO ME WHAT THIS POSITION ACTUALLY IS OR WHAT THE FUNCTION OF THIS IS.

Sure. So when this contract was established in April of last year, the person who provides this service is a retired LA City Assistant Chief. His name is Mike Little. This position provides intelligence to the Los Angeles area. So I get, for instance, as a chief in the LA area, I get updates daily on security issues throughout the world. So it's a vital position

within the LA area given what's happening of course in Monterey Park but across the world

and what it also provides which we were waiting for a time of course we had in circumstances in January that delayed it but this position allows us or the council to take a tour of what they

call the JRIC which is a joint regional information center and so when the time comes we can certainly arrange that. It's

the hub of where all the intelligence for

the United States comes in. This particular individual, Mike Little, is a member of that committee or that process. So it's a

shared resource at the county level to share intelligence around potential threats to cities and then we're paying into this to help shoulder our portion of the

cost of running this system?

Well, the grant funds the entire position, so there is no cost to the city.

It's a regional asset that's available to all 29 departments in the L.A. area.

Great.

Now, I appreciate that and appreciate that we're participating in this, and it sounds like the full grant amount that we're receiving will cover the full cost at this point now with this additional grant.

Correct. Right. Okay.

I'm happy to make a motion to approve as recommended.

Does anyone want a second? I'll second. If we can take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. And now we'll move on to item 3i.

License agreement with the Salvation Army for use of space at the city's community cleanup events.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Sean Igo, Public Works Director.

Tonight, we have before you a license agreement with Salvation Army. As I mentioned earlier, this is an opportunity for the city to partner with Salvation Army

as we do our cleanup events to take used goods to be repurposed.

So typically in the past, we've just used this as an opportunity to throw a lot of these items away, and they would go to some sort of a waste hauling facility. So this, again, is an opportunity for us to, again, push our ideas of going green, and also to repurpose these items and hopefully reuse them. So with that, I will take any questions.

Questions or comments?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Rand, since I'm the one who pulled the item.

So I know in the past when the community would participate in these cleanups,

and I remember myself and a former colleague, Councilman Frist, and also we'd drive around picking up items to take.

So usually it would be then collected by Athens, and so I guess the difference is that when

they go to the location to drop off items, instead of going to Athens, the Salvation

Army would now be taking it to refurbish and resell? Or is that the intent?

No, the intent is, typically you're correct, Athens would take these items, but they would

take these for trash.

So now these items are going to be repurposed by the Salvation Army.

Okay.

All right, okay. So they will not be then, when we deposit or when we drop off anything,

they'll be not taking that, if they believe it's worthy for refurbishing.

And if it's not, then...

It still goes to Athens. It'll be a dual purpose. It's basically a dual facility. So Athens will still be there. They're their primary hauler, so they will be taking away any trash, and then anything that can be reused,

Salvation Army will be taking. Okay, great. I think it's a great idea, because I know...

One of the things that I remember remarking, and probably because it was a reflection of the pandemic, because so many people had to work from home, but I remember driving around with Councilman Fredson-Milson, boy, there were so many discarded office chairs.

And they were probably good chairs, but I guess people just didn't want them, you know.

And yeah, I just, I remember a lot of those items, not to mention old desks being discarded and probably because people were buying bigger desks.

But yeah, I think it's a great idea that if they can be reused for someone who needs it, then that's great.

Oh, I'm happy to make a motion. If no one else has a question, okay.

I'll second.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, and if we can take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Excellent, thank you.

We will now move on to item four, and we'll go ahead and open.

Mr. Mayor, as we go into this item, I'm going to publicly, I'll recuse myself from consideration of this item and leave the room as the property or this item and the property that it would affect directly sits adjacent to or borders property that's owned by my employer, Southern California Edison, and there are significant property interests there. So I'll recuse myself from discussion on this item.

Thank you for that. So we'll go ahead and open public hearing on item 4A.

No speakers.

No speakers. Okay.

Since there's no speakers, we'll go ahead. Oh.

Okay.

Okay.

We'll go ahead and do the staff report first, and then if there are any questions, we can go ahead and call on you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council.

My name is Beth Cha.

I'm the senior planner here making this report to you this evening. The item before you is related to the Monterey.

approval of the Monterey Park marketplace occurred in 2012 and was a project that the developer and

the city had worked on for many years to redevelop a former landfill site to make it a viable or

excuse me a viable commercial retail space that expanded the city's economic base the site is

bounded by the 60 freeway to the south edison property to the northeast and west marketplace Place Drive. Formerly Greenwood is accessed off Petral Grande Drive to the northwest and Paramount Boulevard and Montebello to the southeast. Again the site is a former landfill site that was bisected by the 60 freeway. The northerly portion of the site was permitted to be developed under a precise plan. The precise plan included full bell-delt of the site which at the time included retail uses as shown in the darker red triangular outline. Holdover operations from the landfill

include a leachate treatment plant called out in yellow, and that will remain. And the easterly

portion of the site shown as phase one in blue included the development of Costco, its gas station, Home Depot, guitar center and various retail and drive-through operations. Phase two which includes the LTP site included a roadway around that facility with phase three being the west portion of the site shown in red that remains at this point vacant and undeveloped. This project before you looks to make changes to the precise plan in the

form of the zone change, the specific plan proposal, as well as the amended development agreement. What's really been driving this project have been changes in the economy and

the way we conduct business. The build out of the original project with only retail spaces has become more difficult, especially since our economic base has changed so much since the pandemic.

Next slide, please. So the first item is the zone change.

The existing zoning on the site is RS, which stands for Regional Specialty Center, with a PD overlay. This encompasses the whole site in the triangular area, which totals roughly 68 acres, and that does include the LTP site, but again, that will remain as it's out of the control of

the applicant. Next slide.

So it's proposed that the entire triangular area of the marketplace, which is indicated

in blue will be rezoned to the marketplace specific plan. This recognizes that this area is uniquely situated in our city based on its history and current and future development goals.

And the specific plan will create or maintain a valuable economic resource within our city. This also creates the basis for future development of the site that may not currently be permitted within the RS zone.

Next, please. So in creating the marketplace-specific plan zone, there is in a company document the marketplace-specific plan that provides the framework for the eventual build-out of Phase 3 of the marketplace as shown in red in the Lor left-hand side of the aerial photo.

While the majority of the specific plan is based on what was alLod under the precise plan, the specific plan also addresses additional allowable uses within Phase 3 that were not contemplated as part of the original development in 2012.

The specific plan contains detailed development standards as well as implementation measures for the marketplace itself.

As stated earlier, since 2012, economic trends have changed and evolved. The need for retail spaces and brick-and-mortar stores has contracted significantly, especially since the pandemic, and the applicant is therefore proposing other alternative uses for Phase 3.

Retail remains an optional development path, but additional options include a last-mile distribution center,

a warehouse development, or an auto dealership with an integrated service center. Next slide.

Conceptual plans are included in the specific plan that addresses each of these scenarios. On the bottom left is the original approved concept showing the site with retail uses. The area shaded in green is phase three and where other development alternatives are proposed.

The alternative conceptual plans include the last mile facility at the top left, a warehouse option in the center of the box, and an auto dealership with the service center at the Lor right.

This change to what was previously approved will allow for flexibility in the eventual development of phase three.

no development is

immediately development of phase three is only conceptual in nature but allows the applicant to market the site differently to potential tenants who may at this point not be interested in such a site because these uses are not currently alLod due to the different nature of the three

additional options and the impacts they may bring to the city including traffic

The existing supplemental EIR dictates what type of traffic levels may be maintained,

and as future development comes forward, each use will be analyzed for its traffic impacts

so as not to go above the cap that was set within the supplemental EIR.

are. So as part of the original approval of marketplace, the city had also entered into a development agreement in 2013 with the applicant. Due to changes in the scope of the project and potential for additional uses, the city and applicant have negotiated an amended development agreement that will supersede the 2013 agreement. The new DA takes into account new potential uses that are permitted on the site and includes a public benefit payment to the city that will range from $25,000 to $175,000 yearly. The term of the agreement is nine years with payments to be made annually. Overall, changes proposed this evening help to keep the marketplace and by extension the city flexible in a changing market economy by setting up the framework for various developmental path development paths so at this time staff is recommending that the council consider introducing and waiving first reading of the ordinance for

the zone change from RS with the PD overlay to the marketplace specific plan zone along with the specific client document, as well as introducing and waiving first reading of

an ordinance approving the DA for the subject property, and also taking any such additional action as necessary. This concludes my presentation. We have the applicant on Zoom, I believe, from Monterey Park Retail Partners, as well as their legal counselor here in person to answer any questions, and staff is available for questions as well. Thank you.

Thank you for that detailed report.

Do we have any questions or comments from the Council?

Yes.

Council Member Lo? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Well, first of all, thank you very much for this very thorough report and presentation.

You know, I was curious when we are looking at what is being proposed for the MPSP,

how did we come to just these three options you know a warehouse and auto dealership and distribution center I know that's probably for the applicant but I'm just curious was that the only consideration for the phase three area?

Hello? Good evening honorable council members my name is Dale Goldsmith I'm with the AGD law firm representing the applicant.

The scope of added uses, which is fairly focused and fairly limited,

were based on inquiries that our client has gotten from various entities

who were interested in doing business in Monterey Park. It wasn't intended to be defining the entire universe,

but really it was responding to what we thought was the most likely chance of getting development and a tenant.

Sure. Meaning that we as council can make suggestions as well

Yes. Oh, okay.

No, so the reason why I'm asking, oh, no, that's okay, you can sit back down, thank you.

The reason why I'm asking is because, I mean, it is a large area of land,

and I just would like to suggest that on one hand, you know,

we do want to enhance retail choices in our community, but one thing that I've actually suggested in talking to the city manager regarding this item before the council meeting was that, you know, I'd like to suggest, you know, maybe also looking at ways to attract industries that are looking for room for growth. And one industry that I've noticed that has been looking for growth is the soundstage industry. For example, if you read news articles, you'll see that because land is such a premium in Southern California, you have many soundstage companies repurposing by either developing or even repurposing buildings for soundstage use. For example, when many of us who drive through downtown LA will notice the big LA Times printing factory. And if you actually look up that the printing factory has been purchased and is going to be repurposed as a soundstage.

And I think that, you know, we should be looking also at how we can also generate, I think,

jobs for our local economy.

I mean, that should be, I think, one consideration besides retail choices and better retail diversity, but I also think ways in which we can also generate, I think, good-paying jobs. And that's one area which I think, you know, just a thought, you know, why can't we add as a suggestion to the owner to look at maybe attracting potential soundstage development.

Thank you, Council Member Lo.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay.

So would anyone like to ‑‑ oh, you have a comment?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, if you wish, I have a brief reply or observation. If you go to page 326 of the staff report, you'll see the listed uses. What have been highlighted in the staff report are the three primary uses for this particular parcel. But there's no reason that similar use couldn't fit into one of these categories based upon interpretation by the planning director or otherwise listed in these particular uses. So a soundstage type of operation would be substantially similar to, for example, a warehouse or other type of establishment. So if an inquiry came in with regard to that and somebody wished to set up that type of use, we would first look at this particular category that's on page 326 and make a determination whether or not that use fit into one of these categories and we could make an interpretation at that point.

Would it be broadly?

Because I guess when I read it on feedback, a warehouse is a warehouse, a big building,

we store things.

You're saying that if someone did want to, for example, wants to look at, hey, let's build a soundstage in Monterey Park, that definition would apply?

So, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, it would depend on what your definition of a soundstage might be versus an applicant's definition of the soundstage. My understanding of it is, and I know that there are several uses, one I know of in Santa Monica, which is basically a large open area whereby folks can go in either cubicle-like

type of situations to set up podcasts, do other types of sound-related work, but all

of that is enclosed within a warehouse-like structure. And so the question becomes whether that use fits with a warehouse category simply from the standpoint of traffic, pedestrian, and vehicle, and the type of square footage being used by that particular establishment. So those are the types of things that a planning director would look at depending on the application coming in. First of all, whether it's specifically called out or substantially similar to one of these uses that's listed on page 326.

Okay. I mean, that's for clarification. And if you're wondering why I might bring this up,

it's because, you know, I think that when we are looking at development, again, it's one thing to say, you know, let's bring development,

because I need development to bring jobs,

but I'm always interested in development that can bring in, like,

high-paying jobs, high-quality jobs that also belong to industries

that we know will see growth in the future as well.

And I guess that's where, you know, I'm coming from as far as I'm making this suggestion.

Mr. Goldsmith can come up and verify, but I think from the applicant's perspective, the inquiries that it receives with regard to these properties are driving their particular

interest in the uses.

And from the City's perspective, so long as the main concerns from a public perspective

that the Community Development Director could make a finding that it was substantially similar to the permitted uses.

Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you.