City Council Meeting — June 21, 2023

Yeah, I need to do that. I'm in that. I'm in the law.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. No, it's definitely. Oh. Sorry. No. No.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Good evening. Good evening. The City Council of Monterey Park, the City Council acting on behalf of the successor agency of the former redevelopment agency, the Housing Authority, the Monterey Park Financing Authority, and the Monterey Park Geologic Hazard Abatement District Agenda, welcome you to tonight's beating. We're going to go ahead and get started at 6.37 p.m. I'm going to go ahead and start with our mission statement. The mission of the city of Monterey Park is to provide excellent services to enhance the quality of life of our entire community. And our land acknowledgement, we would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tavangar, the home of the Gabrielino-Tongva people. We show our respect to the future Gabrielino-Tongva people, as well as all indigenous people, past, present, and future, and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabriolino Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history, and join us in caring for this land. So we'll go ahead and start with our flag salute. So if I can get you to stand, please. Thank you.

Forward, forward.

No doors! Freeze and colors!

If you can put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.

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

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, other God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Color Guard, Order Colors! Color Guard, Outward Face! Color Guard, Forward March!

Color Guard, pulse colors!

Color Guard, about face! Color Guard, dismiss!

Thank you. Please take your seats.

City Clerk, if we can start with a roll call.

Council Member Yu? Here. Council Member Ngo?

Present. Mayor Pro Tem Wong? Present. Mayor Sanchez? Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you. City Manager, do we have any agenda additions, deletions, or changes or adoptions?

None from the City Manager's Office.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, just for the public's benefit,

the Council will go back in the closed session after the regular open session. to complete one of the items on the closed session.

Thank you for that.

City Clerk, do we have any public communications? Yes, we do.

A lot of public communications. Let's begin with oral. We received one letter.

It's okay. I'll do this first.

I'm going to read it for you.

Hello, City Council and Mayor Jose Sanchez. My name is Jose Mandeville. I work in public works as a street maintenance worker going on seven years. I am a proud member of SEIU 721. We have been here throughout the pandemic, but it's becoming very challenging to keep our departments fully staffed. With the cost of everything going up, many good workers have come and are now gone due to low wages. They are being offered more pay at other local cities. Myself at this time, as a father of a high school graduate, the conversation about if and how I will be able to afford for my son to attend college is very concerning. We are asking for your support and to consider the request from our bargaining team. Thank you. First speaker, Jose Hernandez.

Jesus.

Jesus, I'm so sorry. I swear I could. I forgot my glasses.

Thank you. Good evening, council members. You, go, and Mayor Pro Tem, Thomas Wong, Mayor Jose Sanchez. We're using this platform to voice our concerns and shed some light to important matters regarding the contract and negotiations between the City of Monterey Park and SCIU 721 union workers. Over the past years, many years, we've stepped up to the occasion, filling the shoes of vacant manager positions, handling supervisor duties and other city hall and field vacancies.

We've mentioned this before at previous council meetings. Now all these efforts and sacrifices are being muffled once again.

There's a sense of urgency from the city management team, the city's negotiating team. For our unit to come to a speedy agreement, it's being dismissive. The skewed comprehensive study hasn't been dealt with. Respectfully, we are in no rush, but we are seeking signatures in a timely manner. Our union chief negotiator has been patient with the city's team. Management has delayed our request for information, the data used to formulate a number, a proposal.

And now they're in a rush, neglecting important items, rushing with their short numbers. City Council should know. Our unit leaders provide good lines of communication. We are patient with the city's team, and we do not allow their sarcasm to lose our focus. Council, your management team fails to realize we seek a fair labor agreement and to not brush off the language in our contract. We are understanding and realistic and dealing good faith. We feel council is responding to our concerns. We thank you very much. We're meeting closer to the middle with those numbers. We're being optimistic. We're hoping the city's team gets a little nudge on council and the mayor and the residents. I'm the city electrician. I've been employed with the city of Monterey Park going on 11 years.

I'm a happy resident in this community and seeking the best contract for my coworkers.

In solidarity, SEIU 721, Chapter President, my name is Jesus Hernandez.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Next speaker, Lauren Frazier of SEIU 721.

Good evening, Council. My name is Lauren Frazier. I am the City of Monterey Park Children's Librarian. I am also the Vice President of the

of the SCIU 721 Chapter Board. I'm here today on reading on behalf of two of my colleagues. So I'll be reading that for you. Good evening. My name is Megan Munger. I am a children's librarian here at Monterey Park and also a proud member of SCIU 721 writing in support of our bargaining team. First, I want to make it clear how much I love my position working for this city. It has been my honor to meet and interact with the families of Monterey Park to get to know some of the many wonderful people and be a part of an incredible library that provides so much for the community. If I could pay my rent in tiny high fives and big smiles from the children who come to Storytimes, I would never have to worry. But the fact of the matter is that the already astronomical price of living is constantly rising while our wages have barely increased.

I already cannot afford to live in Monterey Park. I drive a long commute for the privilege of working here. It is only a matter of time before I cannot afford to work here either.

I know I am not alone in this. SCIU 721 is an incredibly diverse union. Besides those of us who work in the library, there are employees across numerous departments, public works, finance, fire, police, recreation and community services, parks, community and economic development. These are all incredibly important positions necessary for Monterey Park to thrive, but there are significant vacancies across several departments because we cannot attract enough staff at our current wages. I am asking you to consider that in order to recruit enough employees to fill those vacancies and in order to keep the dedicated workers who are already here, we simply must be paid enough to support ourselves and our families. I'm asking you tonight to please consider our bargaining team's proposals seriously with the gravity that we deserve as dedicated workers who are doing so much for this city please understand that what we are fighting for is fair wages so that we can continue to do the work that we love in this unparalleled community thank you so that was from Megan good evening Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council members My name is Madeline Ornelas, and I am a children's library assistant at the Monterey Park Library. I apologize for not being able to read this letter in person as I am working across the street, but I hope you hear this message nonetheless. When I am not working, I tend to my garden. I work with nature to help cultivate fLor blooms and tiny tomatoes. I see worms and bees working the soil and spreading seeds, and we all get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I hope you consider cultivating the garden that is Monterey Park by investing in the workers through a salary increase that meets today's inflation prices. This investment is a small price to pay for exceptional employees that maintain quality work. Not only do we invest our time and labor into this community, we create connections, relationships, and memories. Our labor helps this city thrive. As someone who has suffered from poverty, I dream of being retired alongside my partner. I dream of us tending to our garden, tilling the soil, planting our seeds, and watching it all grow.

So many of us just want that, but it starts with you. It starts with the livable wage. Thank you.

Next speaker, Bill Lamb.

You all can hear me, right? Okay, thank you. So, yes, this is Bill Lamb.

For the record, I'm a longtime resident of Monterey Park

and a current Cal State Northridge student. So what I'm talking...

So the one I'm giving it to you now is the new Metro Rail Map that was already open under the regional connector on Friday, June 16 of this year.

So what it is, it's the line that connects with, you know, the A Blue E Expo and L Gold lines in downtown LA.

And after it was open for service, there's only two rail lines. So there's no more L Line Gold from East LA to Azusa.

So there's the new A line in blue that runs from Long Beach to Azusa.

And another one, before I could say another one,

so it's the north-south line, which is the longest line in the system.

But the second line is the E line,

which runs from East L.A. to Santa Monica, all without transferring trains at Union Station and 7th Street. So I got a chance to, you know, to check it out for the first two days. And I explored those three brand new stations, which are Little Tokyo, Historic Broadway,

and the Grand Avenue, Arch Bunker Hill. So once it opens,

because everything is now history, because it marks the end of nearly 33 years of the A-Line

from L.A. to Long Beach,

11 years of the E-Line from LA to Santa Monica and nearly 20 years of the L-Line from East LA to Azusa. So I don't have my photos of the new stations yet,

but the good thing is that they have a lot of arts

within the station structures.

And so Monterey Park is like right over here near Atlantic Station.

So if I take a train from Atlantic Station, I don't go to Pasadena or Azusa through downtown LA.

I just take the train all the way down to Santa Monica without transferring through those two stations in Union Station and 7th Street. So that saves time, right? So imagine if you would take public transit to see what's around the community instead of staying through the congested freeway.

So yeah, I hope every one of you can try it out.

I mean, it's a great new line in downtown LA,

but it saves time from transferring trains at Union Station or at 7th Street.

And the second one, I want to, you know, want to say something,

because I'm very happy that the Spirit Bus is back until 630, not back, ends all the way to 630,

because the good thing is that Mark Keppel students have a better chance

to get home after school for more extra time, you know. I used to go to Marquette, but I just graduated like six, almost six years ago. So, but, you know, I really, but it didn't have Saturday service, well, as of now, but I really wish Saturday service could have added,

but 9, 10 to 5, 45, but, yeah, I really wish it could have happened.

And the last thing is that last council meeting, I talked about the Monterey Pass Road issue when 258 Metro was moved away from it.

So, well, I don't have it with me, but in closing, let's find, I hope all of you can find a better solution on having a transit service that can run, you know, both directions on Monterey Pass Road.

so that people who live or work near Monterey Pass Road can have a transit service to get around,

including the Fremont Avenue in Alhambra,

where residents had to get around, also between the 10 Freeway and the South City of Alhambra border. So I guess that's all for now, but thank you so much,

and have a great rest of the evening.

Next speaker. Next speaker is Daniel Martinez, who will be conceding his time to Lorraine. Following him will be me, May Shaly, who will also be conceding my time to Lorraine Martinez. The speaker, herself, Lorraine Martinez.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. First, I would like to commend the City Council for honoring George, Officer George Elder, at its last meeting on June 7th and declaring June 9th as George Elder Memorial Day,

a day Monterey Park celebrates annually. However, I must say, I was left with a bittersweet feeling. As I reflect on the murder of Officer Alder and his heroic actions,

I deeply believe he is not being honored in the way that he deserves to be honored. Let me explain.

A mural has been painted on the face of the George E. Alder Community Center. I would like to make it clear that my point here tonight is not whether someone likes or dislikes the mural. If they love it, hate it, or are indifferent, please know that my point here tonight is that the placement of the mural is inappropriate for this location. And quite frankly, the location of the mural grossly encroaches on the very building that was named in honor of Officer Elder. In short, the mural has invaded his place of honor. Please know it gives me no pleasure being critical of this Council's actions and narratives. With all due respect to this Council, I will explain what this Council has overlooked. As reported in the Officers Down Memorial page, an organization dedicated to honoring fallen law enforcement officers, and posted in the Citizen's Voice by Nancy Curry in 2018, let me tell you a story. It's a story that Police Chief Weiss reported to the City Council at its last meeting, and it deserves to be retold so no one will forget that Officer Elder died while trying to stop a crime and protect the residents of Monterey Park. On June 9, 1961, Monterey Park Officer George Elder was shot and killed while attempting to apprehend two armed suspects as they robbed what was then named Star Market on Garvey Avenue. Officer Elder was shot. Bullet holes in the suspect's vehicle from Officer Alder's return fire led to the suspect's arrest in Whitter a week later. George Alder was 29 years old. He was survived by his wife and three children. As you know, one of those children who was left fatherless on June 9, 1961, was George Alder, Jr. and he stood before you at the last council meeting telling of how proud he is to carry on his father's name. George Elder was a veteran of the armed forces and was a paratrooper before becoming a police officer with Monterey Park Police Department. Sadly, his life ended tragically while protecting the people he swore to protect. Officer Elder is a hero. Placing a mural on the very building that bears his name and memorializes his heroic actions is not how a hero is honored. Five, that is the number of votes that were cast by this city council and approved having the mural painted on the Georgie Elder Community Center. the result of your actions without a doubt encroaches on, minimizes, overshadows, and has invaded the place of honor dedicated to a hero. This council ceremonial unveiling of the mural with all its pomp and circumstance, the local news coverage, and the mural's enormous size has given the mural center stage and robs George Alder of his rightful honor. To make my point, let me echo what Council Member Ngo stated at the last Council meeting when reporting on the unveiling of the mural. Quote, we had the unveiling of Resilient Forever, a mural that will sit on the Elder Park gym wall. Great site. It's lasting memory of Asian American Heritage Month. With all due respect to Councilman Ngo, he referred to the George Elder Memorial Community Center as the gym wall, disregarding the name of the building that was named to honor Officer Elder. And he made it known that mural is permanent and forever. As far as I know, a memorial lives on forever. I ask, is the George E. Elder Community Center now just the gym wall? George Elder deserves to be honored and held in high esteem. Let me present sentiments made by Officer Troy Grant, President of the Police Officers Association, at the rededication of the memorial plaque on June 8, 2018. Officer Grant said, quote, Brothers and sisters in uniform feel they know Officer Elder and see his picture every day as they drive off to patrol the city. Any one of them could be killed in the line of duty. All the tears lost by the city on that fateful day could overfill a lake. County. He remembers George Elder and his spirit of service. Retired Police Chief Jim Smith stated that the police and fire departments have suggested to Council that the city have a public safety memorial to remember all of our dedicated employees who have died for our Monterey Park family. So on that note, I believe if any mural is to be painted on the George E. Elder Community Center, let it be one that honors the city. our Monterey Park Police Department and Fire Department. Let it depict our heroes, those that gave their lives, saved lives, and those who put their lives on the line every day for our residents. If I may make a suggestion for a resolve in regard to the mural, with high-tech digital applications, the mural's image can be imprinted onto large street banners and hung across our major intersections such as Garvey and Garfield, like the city does to announce our city's festivities. The artwork will give recognition to AAPI Heritage Month and be visible to all who pass through that corridor. And it will certainly be seen by many more people than at its current location. Let us take an optimistic approach to finding a resolve to this controversy that weighs heavy on our community. A resolve is attainable. and could give appropriate recognition and reverence to Officer Elder's memorial and the RAM's recognition to the American Asian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, all during the month of May. All it will take is creativity, the will, creative funding, and the City Council's approval. I cannot stress strongly enough that reverence to the George E. Elder Community Center should be respected and honor the hero that Officer Elder was, is, and always will be. And it should not ever be shared with or overshadowed by any other recognition. Let me leave you with these three reflections of Officer Elder as posted on the Officer Down Memorial page. First, George, I was 11 when my father, Deputy Chief of Police, Bud Austin, received a call that you had been shot. He raced out of the house and didn't come back for hours, and when he did, he was speechless. You are the one reason I became an officer, and all I can say is thanks and rest in peace. Sergeant John Austin, Hawthorne Police Department, 2007. Second, I was 12 years old when you were killed in the alley next to the Star Market. As a child, I would walk where you died and think what a hero you had been. The memory of your actions was one of the reasons I spent 32 years as an officer. I'm retired now. Thanks for all you gave and the examples you set for me. God bless your family, Anonymous 2006. And third, I'm sorry you were not here to be part of my life, but I am proud of your sacrifice and will make sure you are never forgotten. Great granddaughter Sophia Havard, 2019. I hope these sentiments touch you in a way that will move you to find a way to do right by Officer Alder's memorial, as well as the RAMS contribution to the AAPI community. Action speaks louder than words. The actions of this council to find a resolve, or your inactions, and allowing the mural to be overshadowed by George Alder's place of honor, will be written in our city's public records and become part of our city's history. And it will be under your watch should Officer Elder's memorial be forever overshadowed and referred to as the Rams AAPI mural on the gym wall.

Thank you for giving me your time and attention and the opportunity to express what I think is important. Thank you. Good night.

Next speaker.

No more speakers.

Thank you.

So we have a staff communications. We'll start with the fire department.

Hello. Good evening.

Honorable Mayor and City Council. My name is Jessica Estrella. I'm the Fire Marshal for Monterey Park Fire Department and I'm going to be here tonight to promote the safety and to remind

everybody the dangers of fireworks of every kind. Next slide. Every year injuries to children,

teens, and adults are attributed to the misuse of fireworks. Thousands of dollars in property damage have resulted from unlawful and handling of illegal fireworks and firecrackers. I also want to remind everybody to keep their pets safe. The best way to do that is keep them inside in a quiet, sheltered, and escape-proof area of your home.

Only safe and sane fireworks are alLod here in the city of Monterey Park. They may only be used on July 4th between the hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

and every Safe and Sane fireworks shall have this seal on them.

It stays directly on there, Safe and Sane, and that it's from the state of California.

Another reminder is anything that goes in the air is illegal in the entire state of California.

Safe and Sane fireworks are sold from approved license stands starting at noon on June 28th until 9 p.m. on July 4th. Residents may use fireworks on their own personal property, in open yard areas, or within their driveway. Fireworks should never be lit near any structures or upon any overgrown vegetation and should be kept away from vehicles as well.

It's important to remember that fireworks cannot be used in city parks. Fireworks used contrary to these regulations are subject to immediate confiscation and citations by authorities. Parents are also liable for any damages or injuries caused by children using fireworks. All of this information will be posted on social media platforms utilizing the City of Monterey Park and the Monterey Park Fire Department websites through MPK TV, banners, cascades. Fires will also be posted at City Hall and at the Langley Center.

We will have a task force out enforcing the health and safety and municipal code on July 4th and the week prior. fines of $2,000 and up to $5,000 will be issued for illegal fireworks per the municipal code.

Feel free if anybody has any questions or anything like that,

they can contact fire prevention at any time.

If you want to report illegal fireworks or dangerous fireworks, please contact the police department at the above, or I'm sorry, on the slide, the phone number there.

Do we have any questions?

Any questions or comments from Council?

Really quick.

I appreciate the update. And with July 4th coming up, I think we all appreciate the safety tips.

Do we typically only give a week for sale of safe and sane fireworks in the city?

I thought it was longer before.

It's actually ongoing.

going. The enforcement part with a specific task force is only four days prior up until the date. That includes police department and the arson investigators. It's a little bit more of an enforcement portion of it, but yes, PD is out continuously and looks for fireworks all the time.

Yeah, no, I mean the the fireworks stands, right, are only permitted for one week.

Oh, the stands, yeah, those, they are alLod to sell June 28th up until July 4th.

Was that period longer before?

That's codified in the municipal code.

It was rewritten six, seven years ago.

I don't remember what the timescale was before that, but I do know that it was shortened at some point to the 28th through the 4th.

Okay.

We give it one week, and then that's usually nonprofits.

Correct.

And they apply to the city for permits?

Correct. Okay. There's no council action for it?

No. Okay.

Thank you so much for that information.

Thank you very much.

And then I would like to introduce Captain Burrell from our fire department as well. He's going to give you an overview of the citywide AED program.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. Thank you for giving us this time.

Like Jessica said, my name is Captain Justin Burrell with the Monterey Park Fire Department.

I'm just going to do a quick overview of our citywide AED program and what it entails and where you can get some training. So real brief.

But the AED is an automated external defibrillator.

What we've found over the years is the best chance for patient survival with patients that have cardiac arrest or cardiac dysrhythmia is early CPR compressions and also some shock therapy. What this is going to do is the AED is going to shock the patient's heart back into a normal sustainable rhythm to where then we can transport to the local hospital for further care.

our AED program in the city has been going on since 2008 and just to give you a brief overview

of the locations we over the course of the last you know 15 years we've we've scattered these

things throughout the city you may have seen them in in various locations of the city just so you know what they are and the public knows what they are the locations currently we have one at City

hall we have two at the library one upstairs one downstairs uh barnes gym barnes pool the

emergency operations center across the street from station 61 has a has an aed boys and girls club

langley center in the in the front lobby and then also langley center in the back multi-purpose room so there's two at langley sierra vista clubhouse um la loma park clubhouse where the baseball field is up there it has a aed inside the clubhouse garvey ranch park clubhouse ellen canto where the chamber of commerce is elder jim elder pool station 61 in the front lobby city yard and the service club so as you can see we got them spread out quite a bit throughout the city and the biggest thing with these and the the residents recognizing what they are is the training

we're doing in the city most of our aed training comes through our cert program and i think you guys have heard about our cert program which is our community emergency response team we've had

a lot of success over the years with our cert program and we currently right now have a little

over 200 members community members in monterey park that are cert cert certified so they're

community emergency response team members we have an ongoing class right now in the fall but

in this class we give our residents the CERT training but also the CPR AED training. So they

get that through American Heart Association. So we're very passionate about this program. It's been going on for a few years. It continues to grow. And our primary goal is to get the word out to the community because with us as the fire department and when the paramedics arrive,

if we have a bystander who has taken action and grabbed one of these AEDs, initiated CPR, and has given early shock therapy with the defibrillator, it really increases the patient's chances for survival. So the other nice thing about these AEDs is they're the same manufacturer as our cardiac monitors that are with our paramedics. So if these patches are already on place with the patient,

our paramedics can come, just unplug the patches, plug it into our monitor, and we can continue with treatment. So just wanted to give you guys a brief overview on that and let you know. So if you do see these around the city and you know what they are now, and we encourage all residents, city employees, council,

if you'd like to get involved with our CPR AD training we do through the fire department.

And if you have any questions on that, you can call our front lobby at Station 61, talk to Yvette Becker, our secretary, or sometimes we'll post the training on our website. so that's it if you have any questions thank you for that information uh do you have any questions

i have a question so you said they're accessible at for example barnes park elder park elder gym there is it like a fire extinguisher where anybody yeah they're typically they're typically going to

be out in the open towards like a front lobby or a telephone kind of like where a fire extinguisher

would be so you know it's funny a lot of people if if you don't have the training you tend to

bypass them because you don't really know what they are you don't pay attention but once you've

had the training you start seeing them everywhere and they're not just in the city facilities you'll see them at movie theaters shopping malls grocery stores restaurants and and your situational

awareness is up a little bit when you have had the training so um yeah but to answer your question they're they're they're usually in a very obvious place and um usually next to a telephone because when you're grabbing the AED, you'll call for 911.

For the AEDs, is there training among city staff as well?

Yeah, we actually have assisted in training city staff in the past. We periodically reach out to department heads through our fire chief and see who needs the training, who wants the training. State University. Our Police Department's done a very good job about keeping their folks up to date with their AED and CPR training. And I think they have them in their staff cards as well. So it's over the course of the last, you know, five to ten years, it's really grown. And we've seen good success with it. So yes. That's great. And if we are we looking at adding more AEDs to other locations in the city? We are. And the back in 2008, these were donated to the city by various groups, organizations. I think the one that we're doing is a really good job. in the city hall here was from the monterey park kiwanis club back in 2008. so these were all donated but yes to answer your question you know depending on the donations and the other resources we have we'd love to get even more out but i will say for a small city like monterey park to have that many out in the cities is a big deal it's it's a it's a good success for us and then to I also have all those folks trained throughout the city and then also our city personnel. So it's safe to say that where all of these AEDs are located, there's someone there that's trained to use this? Yeah, so they're observed and maintained by the fire department. We go out and do monthly checks on them. We'll change the batteries if needed, change the pads if needed. So, yes, to answer your question.

but they're not locked up. Some of them are locked in a locked location, but if an event's going on like at George Elder Gym,

you want it to be accessible, just like a fire extinguisher for the people that are trained.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Thank you so much for that information.

Okay, thank you. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Next presentation, police department.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Mayor Pro Temp and members of the City Council. My name is Gus Jimenez. I'm a captain with the Monterey Park Police Department. I'm here to talk to you about a couple of things that the Police Department is going to be doing this summer. One of the things is our national night out. If I can get the first slide, please. The next one, sorry. so just a quick overview our national night out is an annual community building campaign that promotes police community partnership and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhood safer and more caring a place to live i'm sure all of you have attended national night out in the past this year's national night i was going to be tuesday august 1st from 6 to 8 at barnes park right behind here so we're actually going to be using the lawn area just south of city hall in front of the baseball diamond. So if I can use some words that the chief talked about when he said about this year's national light, I said this year is going to be epic. So I'm just throwing that out there. So we have a lot of work to do. So the chief, this year we're going to be having, like we normally do, food for the residents, hot dogs, chips, water. We're going to have some of our equipment out there. Fire department will be out there. Some of our city personnel will be out there from other divisions. we'll have some equipment this year we're going to be doing some demonstrations so this is just kind of a save the date to our public save the date for august 1st next month i'm sure we'll be giving some more updates on national night out but we want to just invite everybody to our this year's national night out bring your family bring your your dogs keep them on a leash bring your kids we can take pictures with with our officers you guys can get in our equipment so it's a good chance for us to meet our community members and for them to meet our police officers and ask any questions. So again, just a quick update on National Night Out. Any members of the council have any questions on National Night Out? Any questions? Comments? I just don't know what

Chief Weiss means by epic. I'm

looking forward to it. Yeah, it's going to be pretty good. He's already told us that he wants us to put

our best foot forward. So yeah,

we'll be making sure our public is happy with National Night Out this year.

All right, so next I'd like to bring up our Traffic Bureau Commander, Sergeant Peter Young.

He's going to be giving you an update on some traffic safety and grant opportunities that we took advantage of this year.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Peter Young. I'm the Traffic Bureau Supervisor. The mission of the Traffic Bureau is to reduce the number of injury and fatal traffic collisions within our community through education, enforcement, and the use of technology such as radar. We investigate traffic collisions and enforce parking regulations throughout the city. The Traffic Bureau provides the city with five-day-a-week motorcycle officer coverage and seven-day-a-week parking enforcement coverage.

Some of the traffic safety programs we offer to the community are pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and safe driving practices. We reach out to the elementary schools in our community, the senior centers,

and we're out at all the festivals. The Trafford Bureau is also out behind the seats working all your special events, doing the road closures and safety sweeps to keep everybody safe. We also provide merit badge courses for Scouts BSA. We put on a minimum of two.

Last year we had two of the merit badge courses where we packed the house with over 100 Scouts each time.

We offer 12 DMV certified mature driver courses at Langley Center. And next slide.

The Traffic Bureau actively seeks out state and federal grant funding to enhance the traffic safety in our community.

Some of the grants that we were awarded were the California Office of Traffic Safety STEP Selective Enforcement Program, which provides funding for DUI patrols, checkpoints, and primary collision factor enforcement.

We also received from the Office of Traffic Safety, a pedestrian and bicycle safety grant for the community where we conduct these presentations at different age groups for seniors, for children, and for school kids, elementary school kids at the schools. They also provide us funding to give helmets away in the community free of charge. and the most recent grant we've received is the impaired driving enforcement grant from the California Highway Patrol which again provides DUI patrols to protect the community from impaired driving. Some of the easiest ways to get a hold of the Traffic Bureau, next slide, is to submit service requests from the GoMPK app or call the police non-emergency number or the Traffic Bureau. at 626-307-1240. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you so much for that. Any questions or comments from the Council?

No, just thank you and looking forward to keeping us all safe July 4th weekend.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter. Next, I'd like to call up Sergeant Randy Esparza, who oversees our neighborhood engagement team, with an update.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, City Council members, and City staff.

I just wanted to say, put a name to a face. My name is Sergeant Randy Esparza, like Captain Emes has mentioned.

And I oversee the Neighborhood Engagement Team, otherwise known as the NET Program.

So in the spirit of staff development, I normally would be presenting tonight.

However, today I brought one of my team members Corporal Izzy Flores and I will be bringing them up shortly. He will be presenting for the remainder of the evening. Thank you for your time

Evening Mayor Sanchez members the Monument Park City Council as a Sergeant Esparza stated I'm a member of the net team so currently with our personnel We have our team sergeant who is Sergeant Esparza. We have a detective assigned to us which is Corporal Alice Porter she oversees any crime investigations that involve members who are currently homeless or that have some kind of mental health disorder also we have the net team officers I'm one of them another one is officer DeLong Lam and officer Tony Wynn who actually is also in charge of our Explorer program so you might see him in the back once in a while we also have a few civilian

employees that work with us we have our housing coordinator she knew Womack her main job is to locate facilities either be shelters resource centers even things like rehabs for members experiencing homelessness and then we also have on loan from la county department mental health is dario tejeda he is a psychiatric social worker who can also give evaluations and place people on mental health holds if they meet a certain criteria for our fiscal year 2023-2024 we're projecting to possibly adding another member to the net uh team just to extend the team's hours and to kind of give a balance so we have both a day and somewhat like an evening shift just to kind of spread out and provide resources to the community.

Next slide, please.

So for the year to date, these numbers obviously are extended from last month.

So currently, the homeless response and follow-ups, we had 76 individuals declined services from our team. We had 50 accept services. We had 63 repeat contacts.

And then we actually had 19 homeless persons that were sheltered. And those can range from either going into an emergency shelter or being reunited with family, accepting vouchers, a plethora of different things.

Estimated number of encampments that we've handled are 28.

We say estimated because understand what you may see as one encampment may actually be several people staying in one area. So we kind of divvy it up because it's sort of like if you live in a neighborhood, it is one encampment, but several members may be there.

Next slide. This is just for overall numbers for year to date. A total number of calls for service that the police department in total have gotten so far, 30,103. From that number, total number of mental health calls and homeless calls were 933. And then a total number of mental health and homeless calls requiring us to follow up. So this is after the initial call was 756. Next slide.

If a public needs to get a hold of us they can either go to the website

They can use our Instagram or Twitter and then obviously if you call dispatch and request the net team will respond

any questions

Well first off, thank you so much for that report

We're always very interested to see these numbers and the work that you guys do but any questions or comments from

Councilwoman you

Hi, yes, I wanted to say I'm so impressed and I think on that our net team is champion and lead by examples among other neighboring city and I know how tough it is for a team to build relationship with the

homeless and also talk to them for a long time and even sometimes give them food constantly in order to improve

the relationship in order to house them. So I know the whole process is not easy. I wanted to salute to you and I think you guys are our champion and lead by example among other neighboring city. Thank you. Good job. Well done. Thank you.

And just to reiterate, it is difficult, but it's doable, but it is time-consuming. So all we ask is please be patient. We're an open book. We're more than happy to discuss any issues that you have. But just understand it is a very long process, and California has a very large homeless issue right now. Any other questions?

Yeah, thank you again for everything the NET team is doing.

I appreciate it.

When I was, I've talked to a few business owners just in the downtown Murray Park area. I know they have expressed concerns around homeless folks sleeping behind their stores and in the parking areas. Some of them have been hesitant to call or don't know to call or have called once, and then they come back and they stop calling. Is there any way we can do more outreach to encourage people to at least report when they cite homeless people and to do more of that? I don't know how much of that we're doing in language already, but if we can do further outreach.

Yes, sir. I mean, there's always ways we can improve. I can tell you today I notified another member of our community who owns a shop on Garvey, ways that she could report. I think a lot of times the miscommunications, they feel that because it's a homeless issue that they can't call police.

But then we make them aware, like, our main focus with the NET team is to offer resources, not necessarily to enforce. Right. But at the same time, to make them understand it's private property. different rules apply to probably just like a private residence versus the public someone's on a public street not obstructing the roadway you know we have to try to get creative think

outside the box and try to find a resolution if it's private property and you don't want anybody there same as your home they're not alLod to be there I think as we're moving forward now that COVID restrictions are coming down neighborhood watch meetings would be a great place to start also as we continue to do the town halls to spread information and again we always encourage

not only property managers but if you know they have several property owners or tenants on their

property to by all means contact us or to spread the information that we're giving them just so everyone can be on the same page but it's a it's a step-by-step process yeah and so if a business

owner wanted to report a homeless individual they would just call a non-emergency line and just

report that right yes always call the non-emergency line because dispatch are the ones who tell us

where to go but they will obviously notify us they know if it's a homeless issue to contact

the net team so we have that kind of down pretty good great no thank you and then I don't know this

question is not really for you I think it's more follow-up on the budget right I think one of the questions we posed during the budget last meeting was on measure H funding I'm just curious maybe this is another part of the meeting but just wanted to ask this before i forget uh to find out how why we don't get the city doesn't receive any measure h funding to support the net team and other homeless services that we provide and to augment those resources i'm not putting you on

the spot but no no no i'll be honest i'm not 100 percent percent but i do know that with measure h

there are very specific guidelines to spending that money and i believe one of them is like for

example if you wanted to build a shelter it has to be like a brick and mortar building

or resources that are out there to help support our existing programs

and expand those for homeless individuals and services?

Yes. Currently, we actually partner with several different organizations. We have LASA with Salazar County Homeless Authority. We also have Lakata.

They specialize not only in homelessness but also with rehabs, drug habilitation,

alcohol dependency, things like that.

So we do work with a variety of different agencies. But again, Measure H, I'm not an expert on it,

but I do know that there's a lot of red tape when it comes to that.

Mr. Mayor Pro Temp, any type of questions in regards to that, we'll follow up with that, and then we can always get back to you with any more information, a little more specific information.

Yeah. No, my point being, if we need to bug someone about getting some of that money, I think let's make sure we bring that to council.

That comment was directed to the city manager's office a couple meetings ago. We are still filtering through the red tape with the county,

but we will get back to you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we'll go ahead and jump to our next presentation on Public Works.

Good evening Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. Sean Igoe Public Works Director.

Tonight I have an update for you on the Spirit Bus.

When the Spirit Bus first came back in service post-pandemic, not all routes were restored, nor were they restored to full service.

I am pleased to announce the epic and long-awaited return of Route 5,

which connects Cal State University Los Angeles Metrolink Station and East Los Angeles College Transit Center.

Additionally, the hours have been extended and are now 6.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, I encourage everyone to download the PASIO Go app, which provides real-time data for where buses are at, outage information, and things of that nature.

So with that, I'll answer any questions.

Thank you so much for that information. Any questions or comments from Council?

Just I want to be careful about the use of EPIC because I don't know what Chief Weas' definition of that is.

But no, I appreciate the update on the Spirit Bus.

I appreciate that we're bringing service back and expanding it and looking at other opportunities to provide better service and improve service for the community.

It's been long-awaited to get that route. We've got a lot of requests to get that restored back

for the university usage.

All right. All right, thank you so much. Thank you.

Next presentation, recreation and community services. All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Mayor Potem, City Council Members.

Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services.

Next slide, please.

So, I just want to start off tonight by thanking everyone for attending all of our recent events. So since the last time that we were here, we've had quite a few events. We had the Mental Health Fair in collaboration with the Brighamire Library.

It was hosted at the Langley Center.

We also had a senior prom, so our senior prom with our senior folks over at the Langley Center, our active older adults, as I like to call them.

We also recently had our summer luau.

We had over 150 participants at our summer luau at the senior center. And we also had our annual third, this was our third annual San Gabriel Valley Pride event, our largest attended in the three years, and it continues to grow year after year. and also our Memorial Day event in collaboration with the American Legion Post 397. So I want to thank everyone for coming out to those events and continuing to enjoy all the festive activities that we provide for the city and for the residents.

We're really having a great time with that. Next slide, please.

This Friday, I know it's sold out, but I just want to remind everyone that this Friday,

we have a number of residents that are going to be attending the Dodgers versus Astros game. I did want to extend the special thanks to Carl Berger and his law firm. They are actually sponsoring 41 residents going so when former council member or mayor pro-tem Fred Cernosa passed away Carl and his firm had actually sponsored a an annual trust to help sponsor families in need and so we worked with the police department to identify 41 residents that will actually be attending this Friday's game along with the other residents.

So we're excited about that. I'm now going to turn it over to Recreation Coordinator Alejandra Espinosa,

and she'll share some of our other upcoming events.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. Like Robert said, my name is Alejandra Espinosa, and I'm a Program Coordinator for the City of Monterey Park. For tomorrow, we would like to encourage everybody to come out and watch Disney's Lightyear movie. It's open to all ages and we encourage everybody to bring out their blankets and beach chairs We will be giving out popcorn to the first 200 people. So we encourage everybody to come out with their families next slide, please on Saturday July 1st, we will be having our Independence Day celebration located at Barnes Park again It's free to all ages and we will be having food trucks and performances By different bands starting at 4 o'clock and then there will be a firework show starting at 9 o'clock

Next slide, please

I'm encouraging everybody to participate in our summer pool schedule.

We do have a variety of different programs.

We have learn to swim programs, we have recreational swim, we have water aerobics, just a variety of different pool fun activities over at our

George Elder pool.

Anybody who's interested for more information on any kind of availability or pool schedules is encouraged to contact us at our recreation number.

And then next slide please.

During the month of June from June 12 to August 4th from 1130 to 1230 Monday through Friday We are partnering with the San Gabriel Unified School District to provide free meals for all ages 18 and under So everyone is welcome to come by and over at our picnic shelters We will be providing free lunches for those that would like it

Other than that next slide please

If anybody has any questions otherwise that pretty much concludes our activities

Thank you so much for all the programming that your department does. Any questions or comments from Council? Councilmember Ngo?

I actually want to thank Parks and Recs for doing a great job in involving our community

with all these events.

Robert, I'm going to give you a little test here. Because I know we have, I always refer to ourselves as the City of Monterey Parks because we have 13 parks. and I know we name our parks in recognition to a lot of our historians, honorees, memorializing them. So why don't you start and tell us for the folks who are not here today the names of our parks.

So the good thing about me is I'm always prepared and so I keep it in my phone all the parks in

in alphabetical order.

So we can start with Barnes Park,

Bella Vista Park, Beth Ryan Park, Cascades Park,

Edison Trails Park, Garvey Ranch Park, George Elder Park, Highlands Park, La Loma Park,

Pine Tree Park, Sequoia Park, sorry, Sierra Vista Park, Sunny Slopes Park, and then also it's not considered a park,

but we do have our demonstration garden just across the street from Garvey Ranch Park. So I do keep that in there because sometimes it's so many that I sometimes when I'm doing rounds, I'm like, oh, that's right.

We got that with the park.

And we're always encouraging our residents, not just our city residents, but also folks in the surrounding community to come to our parks and to enjoy our parks.

Absolutely. That's exactly why we try to do amazing events to try and not only encourage our residents to come out, but neighboring cities. I definitely believe that when we have excellent events that attracts people from other cities that is

Could be for our future residents, right?

So those people may come to an event and then tell their friend about the events and say when their friends looking for a house They say well, you should go to Monterey Park. They have a lot of great things going on over there great library great parks City Council that's supportive

so

Robert do you know how many

how many

How many people are going to the Dodger game Friday?

135. I feel like I'm on a game show. 135.

Yeah, the green light should go on because you're right.

No, I appreciate it.

I appreciate organizing the Dodger night again. I'm looking forward to watching Lightyear in the back over here tomorrow night, and hopefully others will join me tomorrow.

And as Lolly had mentioned, the first 200 folks that show up to the movie tomorrow night will be getting kettle corn.

So if you've been to our farmer's market, so don't forget, this is in conjunction with the farmer's market.

So you can come out, get some food, get some produce, some snacks, and get ready for the movie.

It's going to be right there in the grass area next to the farmer's market. So we will be giving some of the kettle corn.

She's very famous for her kettle corn.

So we'll be giving that to the first 200 guests.

I also want to thank Carl for sponsoring the 41 tickets. 41 this year, yes.

Greatly appreciate it.

On behalf of residents, thank you, Carl.

Is Carl going? I'm sorry.

I actually have tickets for the 25th.

I was going to say, Carl's going Sunday. No, but thank you so much. The department does a lot.

I mean, the community, I think, enjoys a lot of the events that are put on and appreciate the creativity that goes into all of the events that are going on. So appreciate all the work.

Thank you. Staff has a good time.

So I think that shows.

I want to reiterate the same thing. Thank you so much. I know my girls are really excited.

We're going to be there tomorrow. I didn't realize I have to bring launchers, but... I mean, you can bring a blanket. I'm sure Ron has a couple I could borrow. We still got some grass out there.

I know we're still in the drop, but we've got a little bit of grass left.

Or I could put a blanket and I could let it on the floor. But thank you so much for all the programming that you guys do. And I'm looking forward to the game on Friday.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

We'll go ahead and jump to presentations.

We have a presentation, item 1A, a presentation from the LA Area Regional Training Group. Good evening, Mayor. It's Fire Chief Matt Halleck. I'm on via Zoom tonight. Just to make sure everybody can hear me okay. Yes, we can hear you. Okay, great. Thank you. Great. Well, first, before I begin, I just want to express on behalf of the city of Monterey Park and the Monterey Park Fire Department our most sincere sympathy to all those that have had their lives forever altered after the events of this tragic evening that took place five months ago today. And while it was five months ago today, the wounds are as fresh as if it happened yesterday. So with that, the video you're going to see tonight was made in partnership with the Los Angeles area fire chiefs association and the regional training group. The Los Angeles area fire chiefs association is made up of the 29 fire departments that provide fire and emergency medical services to the entire Los Angeles area. The training arm of this association is the regional training group. The regional training group's purpose is to provide training in a uniform fashion to the entire region with the concept of training as one. In the weeks following the tragic event, the director of the regional training group reached out to me and expressed interest in providing a training opportunity with regards to mental

health for first responders. The initial concept was based around the compounding incidents in which we respond to and the impact they have on first responder mental health.

In December of 2022, the city of Alhambra had just experienced a fatal fire where a mother of five died tragically. We assisted them with response to that fire. They in turn assisted us in response to our tragic incident where 11 lives were lost and

countless others were forever impacted. The need to begin to recognize the impacts to

first responder mental health was evident. The video you're going to see are firsthand accounts from the brave firefighters that responded that evening. Many of those firefighters are in the audience with you tonight.

in conditions ranging from stable to critical.

There's some things that you can't unsee, and this is one of them. This is one of those calls that you'll see forever.

It's going to be significant for people for probably the rest of their life.

Unfortunately, this is a call for me that it triggers a lot.

Can you see how many people were shot?

Ma'am, ma'am, talk to the police department. They should be there.

I think in my time in Monterey Park, we've had our significant incidents, but never to the extent of what we experienced on January 21st.

We have several French topics in place.

The incident took place January 21st, about 10.20 in the evening. It was a Saturday. It was Lunar New Year weekend here in Monterey Park.

We had tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people that were anticipated being here in Monterey Park.

It's months in preparation, not just fire department, but city staff across the board.

So we have public works, obviously police department for security and fire department for EMS and any other types of incidents that will take place. Leading up to it, security is always a...

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trying to mimic what an incident is going to present to us. Granted, with the inherent dangers that we possibly faced during these incidents, it gave me a platform to start with.

The simulations prepared me, prepared us for the task at hand, but the severity of what we saw, we didn't prepare for, as far as what we saw. You never think you're going to become part of a mass casualty, but that night we did.

I always knew it was a possibility. I always knew it was something that was very important to stay up on and to be trained on. But I never expected to walk into something like we did that night, no.

Ten people killed, ten others injured in the hospital in conditions ranging from stable to critical.

The day was like any normal day. We had our briefing in the morning just talking about what some other members were going to be doing at the festival. But for the rest of us that were assigned to the shift that day, it was just going to be, okay, we're going to respond to calls, just know what streets are blocked off, which ones are open.

So the night of that call, my partner and I were actually at a local hospital dropping off another patient when that call came in.

They actually just came in as a single GSW for the engine. So the engine and the rescue took off. And just from all the gifs that we've had in the past, maybe one or two people that have been shot. We're not thinking anything big. So it's still kind of calm, collective, just kind of going about it with what we need to do, package if there's any bleeds and stuff like that. But it wasn't until we actually got on scene that it kind of started going the other way.

It was my first call for a gunshot wound, so I didn't quite know what to expect. but I was, I guess, mentally gearing up for a single patient.

What I started processing at the time as we start rolling is, you know, it was a big question mark of kind of like what's going on here. This is a time for celebration.

We got into staging. Verdugo, our dispatch, came over the radio

and notified me that we had an additional two victims possibly.

So I upgraded it to another engine and another RA and sent me a battalion chief and gave me attack channel.

Once I received our attack channel, the dispatcher came back and said, we have multiple victims.

And that's when battalion six was on the ticket, responded with upgrading to two more ambulances and two more engines.

as units began to respond and calls came in it became quickly evident that this was

not just one gunshot victim but multiple and something like this

is a you hope a low frequency incident we don't respond to mass shootings and And now we just had the largest mass shooting in L.A. County history.

When we arrived, there was still a question mark in my mind how secure the scene was.

I give PD a lot of credit for what they were going through and what they did. But as you can imagine, this was an overwhelming call for us. It was equally as overwhelming to the PD side. A number of officers that were available at that time, all those different things kind of play into what ended up being the enormity of this event. But I made the decision to go to work. I saw three victims not far from our apparatus back in the parking lot, So they were quite a distance away from the actual dance studio, which gave me a little bit more ease of getting off the rig and going ahead and extending some care to these victims.

I don't know if my captain and I exchanged looks or whatever, but it was almost like, we got to go. So it was like a sense between us two, and we just knew that some people needed our help. And kind of going back to the community and all that, we were just trying to do our best for them.

I headed out and I went into the structure thinking, like I said, Common Collective, one, two, just nothing too crazy. And it wasn't until I got inside and I realized what was going on that it kind of like, this is big, this is big. And yeah, I went in and right as I made the left, you have a ballroom. The center was just clear. You had tables alongside of the actual building. And you just, you know, unfortunately you see bodies everywhere just laying down, you know, supine upright. And I just hit autopilot. You just start going and you start triaging people and you keep moving.

Once we entered the dance hall, we immediately entered the lobby. took a quick left and we saw our first DOA, our first deceased.

After we walked in and I, I guess, looked at the first victim and then kind of looked around the room, that's when I realized it was going to be bigger than initially anticipated.

And we knew that we were in for a possible mass casualty incident at that point. We entered the dance hall. Music was still on. The strobe lights and dance lights were still on. And we had multiple patients down on the dance floor in the booths and in chairs. I immediately told my engineer and my firefighter to start triaging. We already had one firefighter in there from the quint. He came up, gave me a brief count of what he had. We had three immediates and we had ten deceased.

When you add the emotions, the screaming, the crying, the fear of what these first responders walked into, I just think that there's no level of training that truly prepared these individuals for what they walked into, yet they walked right into it and did their job and did it phenomenally.

there's a group that i consider them kind of the almost the unsung hero of a lot of these things are the dispatchers is she is she breathing taking taking breath

okay she's not breathing right now no okay and you don't see any blood anywhere we have a

fantastic group of dispatchers that they took these calls that night but they went through a lot that night too i mean the amount of calls that came in and the screaming i've heard the calls it's traumatizing to hear these calls i really want to recognize the performance

at such a high level from our dispatch system the the level to which our dispatch performed from the 911 call to the bitter end of this incident was above and beyond what I could give

them credit for. I mean, they really, they nailed it. From Monterey Park, we had 18 total personnel. That was our entire department. We had all three stations from Monterey Park Fire Department there.

We had outside resources as far as Glendale. Every station, every piece of apparatus responded

that evening to this call. We're giving thanks to the Monterey Park Fire Department for their life-saving measures. I was informed before coming out here we still have seven people, seven victims who are hospitalized and I'm sure that the work of our firefighters and police officers contributed to saving at least those lives.

I am aware of the enormity of this call and the resources it took to accomplish what we did. We still don't know what led to that 72-year-old suspect to pull the trigger.

It became incredibly evident that the impact to this community, the impact to this department was going to be long-lasting. but we still had a department to run and we still had calls to respond to.

After we got back to the station, some of the crew members, you can tell, they were kind of in shock. Some crew members were just, you know, just didn't know how to process it. Some guys, I mean, we were all together. We stayed up, we made a cup of coffee and we talked. Everybody, you know, hey, how you doing?

I'm good, Cap. I'm good.

I know they're not good because I'm not good.

It was the second day of their 48-hour shift. And how do we respond to calls? How do we go through our process of critical incident stress debriefing and talking about this through counseling? We brought in our on-call psychologist to begin the process of talking about this.

As an operational perspective, I feel like this incident went as smooth as smooth can be.

Everybody performed so well in a very ugly situation, very challenging situation.

After the call, you just moment where you want to be proud of what we did and how we were able to help the 10 that went to the hospitals, but then kind of also acknowledging what had happened it it was a weird feeling you know

you have you have the low low of the people that we lost and the friends and family and community that's going to be um hurting for a long time not realizing in my mind in all honesty that our members would be as affected as um some of them have been in my heart and in my mind i know

we did a great job and we did save, um, you know, um, lives that night. And that was the, uh, you know, um, the silver lining in a, such a tragic event. But I know that what we saw was going to sting and hurt for a while. And, uh, you know, I was feeling sense of sadness because, you know, you always want to protect your guys from injury and keep them safe. But the mental injury that they got that night, I wasn't able to protect them from, so I was sad.

What really affected me was that it had affected my brothers, my other firefighters, my other engineers, my other captains. like just seeing them emotionally hurt by it all, it was, I think that's what affected me the most.

That's my responsibility to try and keep these members safe and protected. You know, I take ownership for that. I wear that weight on my shoulders.

I met with the entire shift and had a conversation. and you know um they were hurting and at this meeting it was so poignant to me and it resonates to this day and will always resonate with me was one of our engineers turned to the group and he he just said uh thank you for doing what you guys did that night and he said

lives were saved because of what you guys did and when he said that it really hit home to me that

tragically lives were lost that night lives were forever impacted that night but if there's any silver lining in this at all is that lives were saved and it was what these guys

did. Take a look at this, Lauren and Doug. These are some of the scenes moments after the shooting took place. The shooting turning a parking lot into a trauma center with dozens of emergency

personnel assisting the injured. In all my years on the job, if I would rate this, this match casualty from zero to 10, this is definitely a 10. You know, this is a lifetime incident for most

people. It messes with you in the moment and it messes with you down the road too. And I just

wouldn't wish that on anybody whether you're on the call or not i think everyone has seen the impact that it has had on individuals we're human too and on top of that we're uh we care a lot there's been some rough days um for myself and just kind of seeing

um there's just some stuff from the event that you can still kind of see out there you know um Like for example, the event, like when I walked in, the music was still playing, the disco lights were still going. So myself, when I go to events or concerts, it kind of, just like small flashbacks of like, okay, I don't think I'll ever forget that night.

It wasn't until the following night where I had a dream, and I rarely have nightmares.

But it was just me, my mom, myself, and for some reason we're getting robbed.

this, as big as this was, and the lives that were impacted and will forever be impacted,

it's something that will be with us forever.

Thank you for allowing the video to be shown here tonight.

And I'm on the line. If you have any comments or questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Any questions or comments from Council?

Council Member Ngo.

You know what, guys?

Thank you so much for your service.

Thank you. I would just echo that. I appreciate everything our first responders

in the fire department and everyone did that night and continue to do in terms of serving and showing up to serve the community.

and just as a follow-up to that video,

I don't know if we have done anything else to put together lessons learned from the incident.

The sad fact is that more,

literally two days after our incident, Half Moon Bay in California also experienced the mass shooting and more and more of these are happening on a regular basis. If there's anything else we can do, one, and the council has taken a lot of action to support efforts to prevent other communities

from having to experience this.

The unfortunate reality is, of course, that more will. And whatever we can do in that, right, instead to help prepare communities to be more prepared for incidents like this

that are going to happen, to share lessons and to share preparation, I think that would be helpful.

And if we've thought through any of those potential efforts

or what that might look like,

I think that'd be helpful for other communities as well

to share those lessons out. Thank you and I also want to echo and I think one of

the things that stood out in the in the video was just the amount of lives that I know there was a lot of lives that were lost that day but also the amount of lives that you saved that day and so we thank you for being heroes on that day and for taking that active role and for for being and keeping our community

safe we are forever indebted to you we thank you any other questions or comments from council

thank you chief a really quick uh chief do you know when or i don't know if someone else has the answer to this if that video will be utilized some other way or if we would post that somewhere

or it would be hosted somewhere or the it's currently it's current the video is currently ON THE LOS ANGELES AREA FIRE CHIEFS REGIONAL, ACTUALLY TWO SITES, THE LOS ANGELES AREA FIRE

CHIEFS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE AS WELL AS THE LOS ANGELES AREA REGIONAL TRAINING GROUP WEBSITE.

I CAN PROVIDE THOSE WEBSITES WWW.LAAFCA.ORG AND THE OTHER ONE IS WWW.LARTG.ORG.

and the video is a link that's posted on that website and we can certainly post it to our website as well.

And I think to the Mayor Pro Tem's point, that would be a good idea if we could post it also on social media and maybe on our city website that's been revamped. Thank you. Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Before we go ahead and jump into consent calendar items, I just wanted to state for the record that Council Member Lo is not here today. He had every intention to be here. He's currently stuck somewhere on a plane. He's trying to get here, but he was in D.C. and so we appreciate his every intention to be here and he might, I don't think he might have been tied but we wish him well, just wanted to state that for the record before we go ahead and jump into consent calendars items 3A to 3L are there any items that council would like pulled for discussion

I have a comment and I'd like to

actually recuse myself from item 3H

due to my personal conflict. I am actually a volunteer board director

with Chinatown Service Center,

so I will recuse myself from discussion and vote on item 3-H.

Thank you for that information.

And I'll just note I have to recuse on item 3-K as well since that's my employer on the item.

But I just want to pull item 3-E for discussion.

Any other items?

Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the other items?

We have speakers. Oh, we have speakers. Okay, sorry. Before we move on.

On items 3G and 3H.

Okay. If we can get the speaker for item 3G first.

That's me, Michelle E.

Hi, my name is Michelle Yee. I'm speaking as a resident on behalf of my neighbors. I received several comments, so I'm going to be reading them to you. I received one from Cole Suhu. They ask that you figure out the traffic situation first before voting on this item. Another one from Brandon Drake, who also asks that you figure out the gosh darn traffic.

Darren Furukawa also asks that you figure out the traffic before approving the specific plan.

Haley Lee asks that you also figure out the parking. She is worried about the marketplace expansion. Figure out the vehicular circulation before approving the marketplace specific

plan. Another one from

I can't read the name.

Vote Wu. He asks that he's concerned and worried about the traffic holding up traffic there with the plan marketplace expansion.

Another one from Peter Castoron. Please figure out vehicular circulation before approving the marketplace specific plan. As it is, that place is a death trap with Costco holding up traffic at that end while In-N-Out clogs the other end, exit and entrance on the other side. Tammy Sam also commented, please figure out the ingress and egress before approving this. We lose all leverage if you approve this now before they show solutions.

So I truly hope that you take your constituents, your own constituents' concerns into consideration before voting this.

I see, I was not present at the last meeting, but I see that nothing was really done regarding the comments that were made at the previous meeting in regards to taking this item to your planning commission for consideration and recommendations before rehearing it. And that's really disappointing because those are your own planning commissioners who you asked for their expert opinion on items such as this, as matters such as this.

And the fact that you don't even choose to hear what they have to say or even want to run it by them, it's concerning.

Because that's what they're here for. You're not planning experts.

This is not your area of expertise. and you have folks that you entrusted with that responsibility

and why it doesn't behoove you to take that opportunity to do so,

it's questionable.

And it gives a bad perception to how things are processed and how things are done in our city.

When folks seem to think that they know better than others, that's concerning. And so I hope things change in the city.

I hope you start to, you know, actually put into process this. You have planning commissions.

You have experts.

You have people who want to participate. You have people who take the time to come and want to provide input. And when they see things being approved without that consideration and items being approved with the appearance that decisions are being made in back rooms, that perception, that's not good.

Because it's very hard right now.

People have lost trust and faith in our government. And we want to restore that.

And that is your job. That is my job.

That is our responsibility.

And I hope you join me in that endeavor and take your constituents' comments and concerns into light very seriously, please.

Thank you.

Sorry, just for my clarification on those comments, were those comments sent in as public comments or sent to you directly as a resident?

Thank you.

No more speakers. Sorry, one more speaker for item 3H.

Peter?

Sorry. Good evening. Honorable Mayor Sanchez, Mayor Poutine Wong, Council Member Ngo, and Council Member Yu. My name is Peter Ng. I'm a 39-year resident of Monterey Park as well. I'm currently the CEO of Chinatown Service Center. We have been serving in Monterey Park for the last 25 years on Chandler Avenue for Social Service. And we have a clinic over at Atlantic Boulevard that just opened last year. And I'm here today to express my gratitude to everyone here in the city of Monterey Park. First, the first responder react to this terrible, terrible tragedy that really devastated everyone here, not just in the city, but the surrounding community and the whole world, actually. but everyone came together and united to find a way to heal and to resilient so what we are doing here is in the items here is about a resilient center what happened is when this thing happened everyone come up and help and numerous numerous agencies, nonprofits, they came. And then, of course, we were there the very first day on Sunday morning. We've been there ever since. So our team, our staff, have been engaging the victims, whether they were deceased or injured or on a site. And so we were there. I personally engaged about seven of them, attended two funerals, and our staff have assisted in many numerous things that they needed help, including getting visa, getting death certificates to expedite the process and so on. So our feeling is we have to be together. So we were approached by the OVC, which stands for Office of Victims of Crime. is a federal agencies that they would come in and evaluate the situation and set up the Resilience Center on any of this type of tragedy so the Las Vegas one the Half Moon Bay one they are in the process of setting it up so they invited Chinatown Service Center to to to be the organizer to to lead and then would involve many other agencies including the county and also private

city to grant us to use as a leasing it to put

aside the lease until the grant is finalized and then we will pay back to the city. So everything is all of this grant is performance based. It's reimbursable. So

I do want to thank everyone

over here. It's so moving when I watch

THAT VIDEO AND BRING IT BACK THE MEMORY THAT WE ALL HAVE. I HOPE THAT WITH THIS RECELION CENTER IT WOULD BRING A BETTER MIND TO EVERYONE THAT'S BEING IMPACTED. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

QUICK QUESTION FOR CARL.

IF WE WANTED I KNOW THERE WERE SOME COMMENTS ON ITEM 3.

CAN'T REMEMBER NOW.

G on the specific plan

if we wanted to give I know the applicant's representative is here an opportunity to speak to some of those would we have to pull the item or can we leave it on consent

Mr. Mayor and members of the council as long as the council is simply

listening to the public comment before voting

you don't need to pull the item

if you want to have a substantive discussion about it

you need to pull it

I would welcome if the applicant IS OPEN TO PROVIDING SOME PUBLIC COMMENT.

MY SUGGESTION WOULD BE THEN TO PULL THAT PARTICULAR ITEM AND ACTUALLY ALL OF YOU NEVERMIND YOU'VE GOT YOUR FPPC LETTER SO

YOU'RE FINE. SURE. HAVE THE COMMENT AND THEN YOU CAN SEE FROM THERE. ALL RIGHT.

ARE YOU SAYING YOU WANT THAT ITEM PULLED? NO. ARE YOU JUST GOING TO SPEAK?

OKAY. THIS WILL BE PART OF PUBLIC COMMENT. THANK YOU.

my name is Dale Goldsmith partner with the law firm of AGD representing the

applicant I'd like to address briefly some of the public comment tonight I didn't bring my PowerPoint here with me this time but perhaps you can remember

from the last hearing the applicant is currently in the works to have a solution that will improve traffic flows increase safety it was in plan check two weeks ago I'm pleased to say that work will start on Monday and will involve rerouting the Costco gas traffic away from the Costco parking field and allowing a new entrance for marketplace drive. That will help segregate those queues from the gas through traffic going to the other areas of the shopping center and should really make a huge difference.

I actually happen to represent Costco. They are very keen on making sure that their queues are reduced and they don't have issues and there was a collaboration between Costco and the applicant that should provide a lot of improvement.

In addition, as part of the third phase, there's going to be a new travel lane that will wrap around the west side of the LTP plant

and provide for a more direct route to the Costco gas and the rest of the center. This specific plan will help facilitate development of Phase 3 and will help bring that solution to fruition. And I'm available for any questions you may have. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Any questions?

Don't feel compelled to ask any questions. Thank you.

If you're going to ask questions, then you should take it off consent and vote on the other consent items.

No further questions. Thank you.

Okay. Back to consent calendar items. I only heard item 3E pulled. Is that correct? Okay. Is there a motion for the other items?

I'll move to the other items, the remaining items.

Wait, you were recusing yourselves from a couple of them, right? No, no, you can motion.

I'll make the motion to approve all the items remaining except 3E with noting the recusal for Thomas for Council Member Wong on 3K and Council Member Ngo's recusal on 3H.

Okay. Seconded by Councilwoman Liu. If we can have a vote, please.

Approved unanimously. Thank you. If we can pull item 3E.

No need for a staff report. My only question here on this item was to see, I know the item is to authorize the mayor to sign.

I would love to sign this as well.

I don't know how the other council members feel. Maybe we can just turn that into a five signature letter.

That shouldn't be a problem from staff point. If you all agree that you would like to have all your signatures there.

I think that would send a lot more powerful message.

Thank you to the Mayor Pro Tem for suggesting that. Thank you, Council, and thank you, Council Member Lo.

So I'll make the motion to approve Item 3E with the amendment to authorize all Council members to sign the letter on both of these.

If we can take a vote, please.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

We are now going to jump into the public hearing section. I'm going to open public hearing on item 4A, resolution establishing citywide fees related to the inclusionary housing ordinance.

Are there any? We're just continuing the hearing. I'll make the motion to continue the item to August 16.

I'll second. Can we take a vote?

Approved unanimously. Excellent. And we are now opening public hearing on item 4B, resolution for the fiscal year 2023 on capital improvement plan.

Is there a presentation? Thank you.

I have a quick presentation for you. Well, I guess talk more than presentation. All right.

Good evening again, Mayor and Mayor Pro Temp City Council, Shawn Egal Public Works Director. Tonight, you have a four-year resolution for fiscal year 2023-24 Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP. The CIP continues to identify various projects throughout the city, including while not limited to parks, facilities, streets, alleys, traffic signals, storm drains, bus stops, water, and sewer facilities, to name a few. The identified projects with the five-year plan are currently estimated at approximately $158 million over the five years. After closing the public hearing, adoption of the resolution for the fiscal year 2023-2024 CIP, which conforms to the general plan and authorizes the city engineer to approve the plans, specifications, and the public works director to solicit bids for projects identified

in the CIP. With that, I'll answer any questions.

Thank you for that. Are there any questions, comments from Council?

Any? Mayor Projamro. Thanks, Sean.

I appreciate Public Works' work in putting this capital improvement plan together, and I think there will be a lot of interest in the community around these projects as they get underway. Are you seeing, I'm just curious, generally, are you seeing cost escalation, and do you expect further cost escalation in terms of these estimates for capital projects? going forward just in terms of the environment and what's going on?

Yeah, over the past several years we have seen significant price increases. We've seen some of that stabilize a little bit, but we will continue to see price increases. We try to do our best to project that over the current year plus for over the five-year period. But we will update these every year for the next five years, for every year for the five-year plan, not every year. So our hope is that we will continue to project those numbers out.

And then most of these, if we approve these in the SIP, that authorizes to go out to bid, but the winning bids will still come back for approval. That's correct.

I'm happy to move the item.

I have a quick comment before I move.

Thank you, Sean.

I know there's a lot of work going on in the city right now. Actually, some of the work's done by the Brightwood area.

It's done.

I know it's just got done because the lines are not even striped yet. It's just the resurfacing, and I think that's all over the city, so thank you for that. Just one quick question. There's a lot of people still waiting for their blocks to kind of get resurfaced. I mean, what do we really tell them, just to be patient? Because it's coming around, right?

Yeah, a lot of them. They can always call us. We can give them some updates.

But yeah, we do have several streets that are in the queue for repaving and for slurring So you guys did approve some that recently so you'll continue to see some of that work going on over the next You know year and more and beyond

Thank you

Thank you Sean, thank you

It's there I mean that I'll make the motion to approve their second second second if I can't go if we can take a vote, please

If we find more money, we can build more stuff, right?

I proved unanimously. Excellent. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to city communications. We'll start with Councilwoman Yu, if you want to share some items.

yeah actually what i wanted to share is that um after watching the the video um

yeah i was dragged into a deep thought and into the crime scene again and it was really dark and scary i keep thinking i was supposed to be there and it must be a nightmare um i feel sorry to

those who suffer and thanks to our first responder for for your sacrifices when people ask me if there's any special funding for to heal our business community with the new disaster SBA loan I wanted to highlight it which applied to small business suffering after tragedy and once approved it can be no interest for the first year and around three percent for the next 25 years I encourage the small business to apply and wanted to thank you congresswoman Judy Chu for your coordination. As part of the St. Gabriel Valley Council of Governments governing board, we have a meeting, sorry, we have the meeting on last Thursday. I wanted to highlight the SGV Works cohort one graduation celebrations. With governor approved about 1 million dollar budget to help both adult and youth who experience homelessness. They provide pay job training and wrap around service to participants. That day we have about 15, a group of 15 people graduating. So I hope to see more homelessness get back, get help and come back to the workforce. And I also wanted to announce that I'm proud to get elected to be the vice president of the CEO, Chinese elected official. I look forward to serving all of you in that capacity as well. So thank you. Thank you for sharing. Council Member Ngo.

Yes, and I echo the sentiment of Council Member Yu in terms of that video being very powerful. And actually, it makes me very proud to be the resident of the city, knowing that we have strong leaders and the first responders who were able to resolve and help as many people as possible that night and in the incoming months. and at the same time, you know, council just approved tonight the Resiliency Center at Service to Park. That's going to continue to help not just the folks in Monterey Park, but as well as local surrounding communities within the St. Gable Valley. You know, on a separate note, I guess for the last two weeks now, I've attended a number of local events, starting with the small business program. We had a press conference. From what I gather, and this is as of about a week ago, we had seen 50 plus applications for the Idle Loan, which is free interest for the first year, then 3.3% interest, which is a bargain in today's market, for our local businesses who were impacted by the January 21st tragic events. Then on the 11th of this month, we had the Boy Scouts Troop 329 pancake breakfast at American Legion. I think a lot of the folks locally, we ate a lot of pancakes. I'm just going to say that. Moving on, I think on the 13th, Mayor Pro Tem Wong and I attended the Mayor's Conference for Metro. it was a round table to basically discuss the Metro's touch points and their services to the entire LA County and what they can do so that was eye opening in terms of what our city I mean we have parts and stops of Metro but we don't have the rail system that connects directly to our city but it was good to understand that all 88 cities plus we're sharing part of this transportation corridor throughout LA County. Did a Parks and Rec tour with Parks and Rec's director Robert, and he pointed out all the memorial names of the parks we have in the city,

all 13 of them. So thank you, Robert. I love going through all of them.

Probably grew up playing in 12 of them. There was only one that I didn't know was officially a park, and that's right behind Lengley Center but it is recognized as a park. We have a

wasn't good it actually was very cloudy so the clouds were actually at about 10,000 feet they actually had the army flying knights who were going to do the paratroops right into a I want to say a square marked the size of less than the seats we have in front of us jumping from 25,000 25,000 feet from the air so weather wasn't cooperating so they had to cancel that but the The paratroopers showed us how to pack and unpack a parachute. And imagine how big the parachute is. They packed it into a backpack, smaller than a typical backpack that you would carry to a school if you were in high school.

Just think about the size of that.

And then, of course, this past Saturday, I was at the Bergenmauer Library where the Chantown Service Center, as well as Bank of America presented better money habits, we had more than a handful of high school students, residents of Mario Park and surrounding community learn about financial resources. And in

particular, these high school students actually picked a topic that I thought was probably a

little bit harder. It was home ownership. You know, usually you go with building credits or learning how to do finance 101, budgeting, but based on the survey, they wanted home ownership. So the presentation was home ownership and it covered a little bit of credit and budgeting and payments

so it was a good use of their time that's all i have thank you okay mayor pertumb i attended

almost as many events as vin i think um i appreciate uh all the work the staff has been doing

uh since the last council meeting as well i attended the sba um idle loan center i went to go visit that and great to see that we extended the center being open for in-person appointments and support for businesses and nonprofits and I know that the city continues to let people know and do outreach around the resources that are being made available so appreciate that it's also at the Metro Mayor's Roundtable with Vin talking about issues dealing and intersecting with the transportation system also attended Councilman Bruggeau was there as well the Sangre Valley Musa Water Strix Asian media briefing at NBC Seafood that same day on the 13th. So I appreciated helping to get the word out around current water conditions, which have improved since the winter rains, but it's still always a good time, and it's always a good time, to continue to save water and to be water-wise.

Had a virtual town hall meeting.

Appreciate all the members of the community that showed up on June 14th for my first town hall meeting as a council member. A lot of priorities, important priorities for people in the community. I'll just note that I'm having another town hall meeting this Saturday. If anyone wants to join to kind of chat and share your priorities for the city as well, I really appreciate that. And a lot of the feedback was taken in and appreciated and will definitely be helpful in helping to prioritize what the city does and how I will move about things. We also attended on June 15th the L.A. County City Selection Committee, the L.A. County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, which was created by the state legislature last year, is putting its board together, so helped to vote a new member for small cities as a representative to that seat. I want to commend on June 15th, the West Angry River Valley Boys and Girls Club across the street here had their Brent's Club reopening. They renovated the space for their Brent's Club, Brent Club members and other members of the club to use the beautiful space and appreciate all that they do for our community and continue to do for the youth in our community. On June 18th, this past Sunday, I attended a rally that was organized by members of the Burmese American and Burmese Chinese community in Alhambra, where they were continuing to call attention to the military junta takeover in Myanmar and Burma and the continued fight for restoring democracy and democratic control in the country. They expressed appreciation for our city and the city council passing and adopting a resolution in support of their efforts to restore democracy and the call for the United States federal government to continue to put pressure on and do what it can, what we can as a country to continue to put pressure on to change what's going on in Myanmar and Burma. And they actually gave me a certificate for the city, which I left in my car, but I will pass that on to city staff to hold and to appreciate. I just wanted the council members to know that it was very much appreciated that we took that action and they're using our resolution and the city of San Francisco, city and county of San Francisco's resolution to encourage other cities to adopt similar resolutions to get attention and keep attention on what's going on in the country. Again, I want to thank Chinatown Service Center. I know Peter Ng is still here. I appreciate all that they do to serve the community and our physical and mental health needs. And I just want to note the item that we adopted on the consent agenda. It notes that it's a license agreement between China Town Service Center and the city to utilize our facilities, but China Town Service Center is leading a coalition of nonprofits and community organizations. It's not just them that's providing services in the community in the wake of the shooting. So I appreciate their leadership and everyone else that's providing all these services for our community and those in need in our community. And the city is proud to vote for that and look forward to those services continuing to be provided to many in our community.

And then just a quick request. I would love to get, I know the NET team presented earlier,

uh would love to do a ride along with the net team i don't know if other council members do as well just lodging that request uh with uh with city staff if you can help me get that scheduled i

think that'd be super helpful uh also want to note that uh on the consent calendar we approved our

first um uh labor uh bargaining unit uh agreement um so proud that we're moving ahead on these negotiations in a constructive manner and looking forward to more of those to come soon and I'll note sorry going back to my town hall meeting one of the main one of the major kind of concerns that was talked about and expressed was around the pool and park facilities I just want to note that I know our Parks and Community Services Department is going to be undergoing there and starting off and kicking off their perks master plan process so we want to encourage people to look out for that once that's available and i just want to really quickly comment on one other item that we did adopt 3g for the mario park specific plan i know there were a number of concerns that were

noted around traffic and design as far as i mean those are very valid and i hear those arguments

or those concerns.

And I want to note that approving the specific plan, as far as I know, and someone correct me if I'm wrong,

approves the zoning of it,

but the design of the facilities, if anything even goes in there, whatever those facilities are, would still have to come to the city for approval. And there's no current design

in terms of what's going to go in there.

So a lot of those concerns would be addressed

at a different stage.

and that's all I have for now.

Okay, thank you. I'm just going to reiterate about the powerful video and obviously thank the fire department. Hopefully you're listening, but just the amazing work that they did that night, our extreme gratitude goes to them and just like Council Member Ngo said, makes us very proud to live within Monterey Park. I also want to thank Mr. Petering for being here and for representing the Chinatown Service Center and for partnering with us from day one. and we really appreciate all of the work that you're doing, and we look forward to this resiliency center when it opens up and the work that you're doing to get other nonprofits to work with you and to put this together. We appreciate the work that you're doing. I do have some, also some new future agenda items perhaps. I just wanted to say that this month, I know we celebrated Pride Month this month, but it was also National Immigrant Heritage Month, and I know that we have a lot of immigrants, in our community. We have, I know I'm the son of immigrants as well, so just wanted to make note of that because of the important impact that immigrants have in our community. And I just wanted to give direction to city staff and perhaps next year in June as we celebrate Pride Month. We also celebrate National Immigrant Heritage Month as well. And yesterday was National Refugee Day and according to the United Nations, there are over 100, last year in 2022, there were over 108 million refugees who left their homes because of war, other tragic incidents. And I know that many of those refugees came to our country, including California. If you watch the news, there's quite a talk about that. So just wanted to recognize yesterday is National Refugee Day, which goes in line with National Immigrant and Heritage Month. And that is all I have. Thank you.

And if there are any other comments from Council?

I have one comment. Sure. Happy birthday to our mayor. Thank you.

Mr. Jose. Say, Mayor Jose Sanchez. It's his birthday today. Happy birthday. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing how important this is, that's why I'm here. No better way to celebrate. Thank you so much for that.

And we will close at, huh?

Just as a reminder, we're going back into closed session.

And just as a reminder, the council, we're going back to closed session. It hasn't ended yet. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. Have a good night.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.