City Council Meeting — July 5, 2023

Oh, God. I know. I know. Yes, I work. I'm back in the class. I've been doing it. Oh. Hi.

Good. Yes, I know. I work great. I've been keeping so long.

How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, I was about to get some work first. Are you there? Yeah. Good-bye.

Good-bye. Good-bye.

Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye.

Good-bye. Good-bye.

Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye.

Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye. Good-bye.

If we can start taking our seats, please. Thank you.

We're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 6.35 p.m. and I just want to read our mission statement. The mission of the city of Monterey Park is to provide excellent services to enhance the quality of life for our entire community. I also wanted to share our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as the Tawangar, the home of the Gabriolino Tongva people. We show our respect to the Gabriolino Tongva people as well as all indigenous people past and present and future and honor their labor as original takers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabriolino Tongva people and invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land. I know we have a lot of people in the audience today, so we're going to go ahead and get us started with our flag salute. If everyone can please stand.

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

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

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please be seated.

Clerk, if we can do a roll call.

Council Member Lo.

Present.

Council Member Yu? Here.

Council Member Ngo?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Wong?

Present. Mayor Sanchez? Present. We have a quorum. Thank you.

Under the agenda additions, deletions, changes, and adoptions, we have a city manager communication. And I would like to ask the council if we could move item 6A on the agenda. Up under city manager communication? Yes. Excellent.

And I believe we have a resolution of, so item 6A is a resolution of appreciation to honor Ron Bo for his years of outstanding public service to city Monterey Park. And I know many of you are here today to honor Ron Bowe, our current city manager, for his many years of service to our city and our community. He's also, many people don't realize, a resident of the city of Monterey Park as well, which makes it extra special for us and having worked with him. Do we have the resolution?

It's a pretty long resolution, so I'm going to read portions of it.

That's okay.

Okay, so it says, A resolution of appreciation to honor Ron Bo for his years of outstanding public service to the city of Monterey Park. Whereas Ron Bow and his wife of 32 years, Lillian, have deep roots in Monterey Park, Ron and Lillian met and resided in Monterey Park for 19 years, and their two children, Lauren and Justin, who are in the audience, were raised and attended local schools. Whereas Ron, along with his wife Lillian, actively volunteered at local schools, Tigers Youth Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the early years of the Cherry Blossom Festival. Whereas in 1986, Ron began his career in local government in the city of Monterey Park as a water distribution operator, promoted to water distribution crew supervisor, and finally promoted to water distribution supervisor. Following his early tenure in Monterey Park, Ron also served other public agencies in various capacities, including utility superintendent for the city of Alhambra, water and sewer superintendent and water systems manager for the Ote Water District, and deputy director of public works, utility street manager, and director of public works for the city of Monrovia. Ron returned to the City of Monterey Park and served as the Assistant City Manager, Director of Public Works, and was then appointed as Interim City Manager in November of 2016. Whereas in 2017, Ron was appointed City Manager for the City of Monterey Park, whereas Ron provided exemplary service as he carried out his responsibilities in providing the overall direction and coordination of city operations and carrying out policies and priorities of elected officials to achieve and maintain the improvement of Monterey Park's municipal services and overall quality of life. Whereas during his tenure as city manager, Ron's high standards for professionalism and decision-making, work performance, interpersonal skills, and the promotion of achievement for all those around him have immeasurably strengthened the City of Monterey Park organization. Whereas Ron has brought a wealth of municipal experience to the City of Monterey Park, strived to promote cooperative management, and led the organization with a passionate drive to enhance the services provided to the Monterey Park community. whereas during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ron served in a critical role by coordinating vaccination efforts for city staff and community members to assure that critical services and city business continued while keeping everyone safe. Whereas Ron exhibited exceptional leadership and strength during uncertain and unprecedented times, his swift and decisive actions to protect city staff and residents and keep them safe from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic brought hope, optimism, and much-needed stability while ensuring the continued delivery of essential city services.

Whereas Ron showed indefatigable strength and leadership as he effectively managed the tragic mass casualty incident of January 21, 2023,

with courage, resilience, and fortitude, he efficiently coordinated with staff and various agencies to provide mental health services, recovery resources, and financial assistance to those impacted by the mass casualty incident. Whereas Ron demonstrated compassion, provided community members a place to heal, and infused a sense of hopefulness back into the city of Monterey Park. Whereas Ron is an inspiring individual and has demonstrated utmost composure and strength in leading the city of Monterey Park's day-to-day operations through crisis and admirable guidance. Whereas Ron also served 25 years in the U.S. Air Force in active and reserve capacities, Ron served in active duty from 1981 to 1985 and as an active reservist from 1985 to 2005. Master Sergeant Bo retired in 2005 to dedicate more time to family and retired with several achievement medals, accolades of work, and mobility A status. Whereas in 2015, Ron was honored by the California State Legislature 22nd District with the 2015 Veterans Service Award. In 2017, he was recognized and honored by the 49th Assembly District as the 2017 Veteran of the Year. Furthermore, in 2021, he received the 27th Congressional District Building Bridges Award, quote, hometown heroes of the pandemic, for his leadership and outstanding contributions, unwavering dedication, compassion, and selfless commitment to serve the community. Whereas his impact on positive change in local government and the city management profession goes well beyond the written words, and to all of those who had good fortune of knowing and working with him, he has left an abiding impression of the highest standards of city management that will serve the City of Monterey Park well into the future. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Monterey Park appreciates and commends the outstanding public service of Ron Bow, we gratefully record our appreciation and the appreciation of the citizens of this community for Ron's 17 years of meritorious service rendered. we congratulate him on his retirement and remarkable career. So if I can get a motion to approve this resolution.

Do we want to take a comment?

Take a comment? Do we have any comments?

Yes, we have lots of comments.

We're going to save the comments for later. So I'll move. Okay.

I'll second.

If we can take a vote, please.

I approved unanimously.

So help me in honoring Ron Bo.

and if the council can join me just down and so we can take a quick picture and I know Mr. Bo has some words.

Oh, I'm so uncomfortable with all this.

Thank you. Thank you. If Ron can join us down here. If Ron can join us down here. Many of us have just had a few months to work with Ron, but we wanted to, the City Council wanted to present Ron in the short time that we've... In the short time that we've had with Ron working with him, we've all very impressed by not just his ! ! But his dedication to the city of Monterey Park. So we have here on behalf of the city council, an award for Ron Bo. And it reads presented to Ron Bo ! With deep appreciation for your contribution, dedication and leadership to the city of Montere ! Dated July 2023.

And thank you for saying, že- že- že- All right. Whatever you guys want to do, you tell me.

All right. All right.

Get away from the . All right. You're the back.

Very sensitive, very delicate.

Very delicate.

All right.

We'll go into speakers.

Thank you.

And here's the resolution framed and signed by the council.

I know we also have a video to share of famous bloopers over the last...

If you can just give me one second, let the projector load up, please.

Have you seen the video? No. That's what I'm afraid of.

I apologize. The sound is not working. Just one second.

Thank you.

speak and honor Ron Boso. Do we have our first speaker?

Mike King on behalf of Congresswoman Judy Chu.

Yeah, Mike has some walk-up music. Am I standing? Michelle, am I standing here? Okay. Okay, well, before it comes on, I want to explain this is Hawaiian attire, and I'm from Hawaii. In fact, the reason I'm wearing this tie is that when Ron and I went to high school in Hawaii, this was what pure artesian water looked like. This is the water from Hawaii. Well, thank you, City Clerk Yee and Mayor Sanchez and City Council members. Congresswoman Judy Chu could not be here tonight, but she asked me to present a commendation to outgoing City Manager Ron Bowe, which I also do in my capacity as representing the City of Monterey Park and the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. Is it Mr. Bowe or Ron?

Mr. Bowe is being honored for his service mainly to Monterey Park, but his leadership has been national, regional, and local over the past 37 plus years. On the national level, we thank Mr. Bowe for his 24 years of active duty in the United

States Air Force.

You may not have heard this, but he was specifically in a squadron called the Red Horse, a civil

engineering unit responsible for initiating and defending America's runways, especially against dangerous explosive ordinance. On the regional level, we thank Ron for his service beyond Monterey Park, especially involving water management, being a public entity representative for the cities of Alhambra, La Verne, Monrovia, and the Ote Water District in San Diego. An An example of Mr. Bowe's regional impact was disclosed when he was a recipient of the United States Congressional Leadership Building Bridges Award for his work during COVID-19. When a lot of people in this region began asking themselves, when am I going to get this shot to protect against death? Thanks to the tireless efforts and ingenuity of Monterey Park City Manager Ron Bowe, over 2,000 Monterey Park and surrounding San Gabriel Valley residents received the required doses in time. In addition, Ron helped establish drive-through vaccine clinics at the Mark Keppel High School, coordinating with school districts and college districts and nonprofit organizations. After the City of Monterey Park was approached by local community clinic Harold Christian Center to see if they'd be interested in starting a vaccine program, Ron immediately said yes.

Coordinating with the Elhambra Unified School District, the Harold Christian Herald, Azusa Pacific School of Nursing, and various city departments, Ron spearheaded a free drive-through vaccine clinic at Mark Keppel High School.

Through his joint efforts, over 800 high-risk and vulnerable seniors, over 1,000 Alhambra Unified and Garvey school district staff and educators, later on students and their families, and over 100 Monterey Park City employees, 600 city residents and veterans were inoculated against COVID. Ron even set up a small clinic at the Pride March in Monterey Park. And these numbers say it all. As a direct result of your city manager, of our city manager and friend, 83% of Monterey Park residents received at least their first dose. What do you think about that? Isn't that great? As a result of these efforts, Ron was given the 2021 United States Congressional Leadership Award by Congresswoman Judy Chu. And as we also heard from our mayor, his service in public works, assistant city manager, and then interim and then permanent city manager has been outstanding. You'll hear accolades for his service to the city during a time of two nationally significant crises. The first being the COVID-19 pandemic and two, the recent shootings a few blocks from here that caused the president and vice president of the United States to visit our city of Monterey Park. Ron has not been just a leader. He's been a role model. In many of his positions, especially as city manager, he has been a first. One of these is that Ron Bo, who is Hawaiian-Chinese, was the first Asian Pacific Islander ever to be named a city manager, not in just this city, but beyond.

And just as Congresswoman Judy Chu was the first Chinese-American woman, yes, please applaud, that's quite an accomplishment.

And just as Congresswoman Judy Chu was the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to Congress, Ron Bo has become not just a leader, but a role model for the ages. So that future generations, some of them seated in this room or watching on the monitor, or even later on, will be able to say, if people that look like Ron Bo are people who look like me if he could do it maybe so can I on a personal note I want to tell you that public service runs in the family when I served as mayor and council member up there Ron's wife Lillian Bo was so outstanding in the city's leadership team in a way that Ron has been as well on a personal note my family back in Hawaii was very good friends with Ron's family in Hawaii where they are so proud of his achievements. And I want to tell you that I still remember attending Ron and Lillian's wedding in Little Tokyo.

I don't want to say how many years ago, but that was really a real high point looking

back on that. And I want to tell you, listen to this important fact. Ron Bo, city manager Monterey Park now joins Jason Momoa, Bruno Mars, Bette Midler, and Barack Obama as people of great accomplishments from the great state of Hawaii. How about that?

For these reasons and others that you will hear later on, it is my pleasure to present

the United States Certificate of Congressional Recognition

to Monterey Park's very own, Ron Bo. Applause

Applause Applause

Applause Applause Applause

Would you mind giving the city manager a standing ovation? Applause Applause

Thank you.

Thank you.

of State Senator Susan Rubio's office.

Good evening, everyone.

I'd just like to take a moment to thank Mr. Ronbo,

first for your service to this great nation,

as well as to the city and community of Monterey Park.

Even in the most difficult times, you were a leading and emerging voice, so thank you very much for that.

And with that, on behalf of the California State Senate, it is my honor to congratulate you on your retirement.

Your 17 years of public service and six years of service as city manager have left an indelible impact on the Monterey Park community.

Your selfless public service to Monterey Park is awe-inspiring and sets an example to follow.

As you embark on this new chapter of your life, may you find joy, relaxation, and fulfillment in all your future endeavors.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Next speaker, Jennifer Tang of Assemblymember Mike Fong's office.

Good evening. Jennifer Tang, Assemblymember Mike Fong's district director. Mr. City Manager, congratulations on your retirement.

It is the end of an era for the city of Monterey Park and the beginning of a very well-deserved retirement for Mr. Bowe.

I will keep this short because I know that this must be torturous for you. I did mention to the city council that we should throw a parade, have a party, but

on behalf of Assemblymember Fong, thank you so much for your leadership,

your service to this community, especially over the last few years

through unprecedented crises. I got to see your leadership firsthand.

Next speaker, Frank Liu of Supervisor Hilda Solis's office.

Good evening. It's an honor to be here today to honor Mr. Bo for his years of service to the Monterey Park community.

First and foremost, I'd just like to echo everything everyone else said.

But, yeah, what else is there to say? Your leadership has been apparent.

The past three years, our community has gone through so much.

And, like, for you to be able to, you know, lead the city through these crises is a testament to how much you care about the city and its residents.

And, yeah, congratulations on a well-earned retirement. We wish you happiness. Thank you.

Thank you.

of San Gabriel.

Would you like to come down

with Denise Menchaca

and Mark Lizaretto as well?

Good evening. The Mayor Sanchez, Mayor Patel Wong, and all the council members, also city managers. Congratulations. you have retired. I'm the council member of the San Gabriel City and the former mayor, but I really appreciate that especially we got elected on COVID-19. That time I have that time also the council member Menchaca is mayor too and our city manager. I have a chance to communicate with city manager. Also I feel like both of you have this good relationship, communicate together, to help our both cities and go through this pandemic period. And I really appreciate your service. And even like in the council, the conference, I have a chance to follow with you to give to them a lot of good ideas. I really appreciate. So yeah, it's also our both cities. It's a large population for Asia, almost more than 60% is Asia in the city. So it's really good sister city. So when you retire, here that you retire, so yeah.

Sometimes it's congratulating to you, but for me it's bad news. We lost good service people leadership too. So we should continue to help both cities. Okay, we can move forward.

and that way and by the way I saw you with the and the January for the your to monitor Murray Park tragedy you you have the good least leadership with the other council member include our way also our neighborhood of council members I was so obviously they have a lot of council members to come in to attend it to try to memorize the victim but also hopefully for the future we We don't want to hate. We need to love. Okay, thank you.

Before I say anything, I have to mention, Mr. Miking, aren't you from Hawaii too? So you forgot to mention your name as great leaders from the state of Hawaii.

So I wanted to bring that up. Well, Ron, I just want to make sure you understand that San Gabriel, we always try to be different. So not only do you have council members here to give you accolades, but we also have our city manager who insisted to be here too. But he's always welcome, of course. But I wanted to also say that we really appreciate, you know, we always talk about councils getting together, working together for regional issues.

But it's really important that the city managers also work together. And I know you and Mark have always had a great relationship. your bros, and you have really put the interest of our residents first,

and you both share that. If we didn't have Mark, we would definitely go to you next.

So we have so much admiration for you. But one of the things I wanted to bring up, because the list continues on of everything you've accomplished, but the one thing that really stands strong in my memory is when the Monterey Park shootings took place,

shortly thereafter we had the Half Moon Bay shootings. And I remember talking to you about it,

and I was just so taken back from the fact that you took time

during this really very chaotic time to talk to the city manager in Half Moon Bay

and to give them, I don't know if the word encouragement is right, but just to share with them what your city has gone through

and trying to make the process somewhat easier.

And you were just so empathetic. And to give your time, you know, we talk about being good neighbors,

you know, all the council members here, you know, we are good neighbors to each other.

But for you to take the time for Half Moon Bay and talk to everyone there,

it just shows that, you know, you just have such a good soul. You know, that's the best way to describe it.

And not only are you a leader, but such a good person. and you were looking out for the city manager and that whole community. So I just wanted to share that little story with everyone because they're not made like you anymore, except for Mark.

But I have to make sure Mark's in a good place too.

But anyway, so we do have a certificate, but I'm going to allow our city manager to talk because I think you might be the only city manager here right now. But let me just read the certificate. and recognition of your service as City Manager of Monterey Park. The Mayor and the City Council of San Gabriel wish to recognize your extraordinary leadership and everlasting impact on the city. We wish to thank you for your years of dedication and wish you the best of luck in your retirement. Thank you for your service.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. I would echo everything that Council Member Ding and Councilwoman Menchaca said, and I will leave unsaid all the bad things they left out.

But in all sincerity, Ron, personally to you, I am indebted to you for the help you gave me

when I started my career next door in San Gabriel.

And I hope by the time I retire I have half the humility that you have. I hope I have all of the sincerity and all of the sense of humor that you've managed to keep

through your years of service to the community and to the public.

and you have left big shoes to fill for whoever is lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, to take that spot. In all sincerity, Ron, thank you very much for everything you've done.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Bob Jean of the Hamburger Unified School District.

You know, it's a pleasure to be here today for this wonderful occasion. Our superintendent, Denise Haramil, wished she was here, but she's on an educational trip in Israel right now. So she asked me to step in, but I'm glad to step in anyway. But, Ron, thank you for all your service as city manager, but really collaborating with the Alhambra Unified School District when we have issues concerning our schools or parents having concerns about the safety of our schools and always working with us diligently to solving those issues. I think the biggest thing was during the COVID time. And I remember Denise calling me and says, You know, Ron wants to do this vaccination over at Martin Keppel High School. I said, oh, that's great. Because now we're trying to get over this COVID situation and get

out of virtual education learning and move on to in-person learning.

You know, and we really thank you for your leadership in that and helping the school district. Not only vaccinating all the senior citizens or people who came by the first time around but also vaccinating some of our staff members so we're making sure that

they're at school sites and are continuing to work because we know at that time that our if our

employees were out of work um had received covid they'd be out for 10 days then that's a lot of time for our work but you know really appreciate that and I think when you

start of that it really grew out to all the other cities because I remember I

talked to some of my fellow board members from different school district and they said how do you do that this is what we worked with our city manager and

we really appreciate it on behalf of the Board of Education in in the Elhampton Unified School District. In recognition of your outstanding service as city manager for the city of Monark Park and in many contributions to the community, schools and students of the Elhampton Unified School District, we commend you for providing an exceptional service in the extent our best wishes for an enjoyable

retirement. And as a friend, Ron, we thank you for your time and I'll tell you all the residents where we live as you know So you redid all the streets, and that was a big plus.

And you know what, another thing on that note, I know there was times that you guys were gonna do projects

in front of our schools, and then we said, oh wait, you can't do that because we have school coming up and you're willing to accommodate our school district

to make sure our kids were out of school and our staff were not around.

So when you did all the street projects, it would go a lot smoother. And for all of our parents who are bringing their students to school,

they wouldn't hit a bigger traffic area. But I really appreciate it. Congratulations on your retirement. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Sanchez and City Council for the opportunity to address you all. My name is Andrew Yam, member of the Garvey Board of Education representing the Monterey Park area, and I'm here with our district superintendent Anita Chu. So on behalf of the Garvey School District, we thank you for your steadfast dedication to public service and for your service to the students of the Garvey School District. With two of our schools here in the City of Monterey Park, we deeply appreciate the partnerships we have forged together with the City of Monterey Park under your leadership. We wish you all the best in your next chapter and have a certificate with us that reads in recognition of your exemplary leadership in building partnerships and leveraging resources to promote the wellness of life of the Monterey Park community presented and signed by the board members of the Garvey School Board. And so just quickly on that note, you know, I've heard from our superintendent, from my predecessors before me, of your leadership during COVID, of your leadership to put a stop sign near Monterey Vista, and essentially promoting school safety. And so, you know, on behalf of the students, I'm sure that the work that you've done in your public service career have deeply benefited our students and also personally as well I am a resident of the city of Monterey Park and so I thank you for being our city manager for being and as I think Mike Ng had noted for being an AAPI public leader because for me to have grown up in Monterey Park to see the people that represent us like Congresswoman Judy Chu former Assembly member Mike Ng and you City Manager Ron Bo have inspired me and my interest in

public service and giving back to my community.

So I thank you as a resident of Monterey Park and also as a member of the Board of Education

of the Garvey School District. So thank you.

I gave every single word to Mr. Yen. So now I own.

Mayor Adele Andrade of the City of Alhambra.

Thank you. Aloha. Aloha.

Let that be the first thing you say as you enter and as you leave here today. I just want to say thank you. I had to show up today, even though I saw you last week at our council meeting, and it was our city manager who said, he's coming in, he's retiring, and we moved the agenda to make you, to have you speak to us first. I just have to say how incredibly important role you played, not only in the city that I was raised in, Monterey Park, but in the city now that I live in, reside in, and the mayor in Alhambra. Because we know we're partners, even though San Gabriel said that they were closer to you. You can't compete when I was raised here. So Alhambra is going to miss that partnership.

We really are, because we knew we could call you when there was a bill coming down Sacramento that we were concerned about because they weren't thinking about the San Gabriel Valley

and Mr. Bowe, you're always there, always there to work in tandem with the other cities, and we really, really appreciate all your hard work in that. Of course, thank you for being the best host when the President of the United States came in. It was such a solemn time, and you managed to do an incredible job and pull that off. Not every city manager would be able to do that. That was amazing. Thank you for the friendship. Thank you for the partnership. And aloha.

Thank you.

Former Monterey Park, Councilmember Hans Leong.

Greetings, Mayor Sanchez, Mayor Pro Tem Wong, Councilmembers No, Yu, and Lo, as well as our City Clerk and Treasurers, Yi and Li. You know, when I first heard about Ron leaving, you know, the first feelings I had were a feeling of loss. But that was immediately replaced with happiness because I know that over the years, and Ron, we worked many years together. There's been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of things that we worked on.

And I really felt happy that now you have the opportunity to take a break, to go on and maybe do some of those things in your life that you didn't have an opportunity to do because, as everyone has said, you were very focused and committed to the city of Monterey Park.

You know, it's amazing when you look back. You know, we worked with three police chiefs.

We worked with three fire chiefs.

We went through many victories and successes, and we also dealt with a lot of tragedies. And I really want to also take this opportunity to commend all of you and the city staff, along with Ron, for your response during the tragedies that took place on Lunar New Year Eve this year. I also want to thank you Ron as a result of these experiences I believe that you along with a number of other

members of the city have formed a very strong and lasting

friendship and when it comes to those things Ron

I think that in terms of our friendship we don't need to speak about that I think that we a lot of things don't need to be spoken between us. And I really want to thank you. Congratulations. And while this is the end of your journey here, I'm glad to know that our friendship still has many years to go. So congratulations and thank you.

Nancy Okuri.

Good evening. I missed your elected officials that I didn't see at the 4 p.m. grand opening of our Independence Day ceremony. I watched as veterans from the American Legion Post 397 presented our colors and led our Pledge of Allegiance. I listened to the Air National Guard band performing many old classic songs as well as current songs to the delight of the audience. Then I went home because I was tired and sunburned after my afternoon at Barnes Park. Rambo, I want to thank you very much for your long-term dedication and many years of service to our hometown of Monterey Park. I wish you a very happy retirement. You'll like it, I know. And then I want to thank Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez for her dedication and service to our hometown. I remind you, City Council members, that you voted to honor Women's History Month in March and Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October.

Now we have an Assistant City Manager who will be Acting City Manager. Inez Alvarez has performed this job for us under the watchful eye of Ron Bo. So, Inez Alvarez has worked her way up over the years, up the ranks over the years. Please consider her as our best candidate for a new city manager. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, John Talichit.

Hello, Mayor Sanchez and the other council members. My name is John Talashay with the president of Specialty Restaurants. We have a luminarius restaurant here in Monterey Park. We've been a tenant of the fine city for over 50 years.

And we've had the honor of seeing how cities work. we've had over 40 locations that have had municipalities as our landlords. So the relationship that we've had with cities has been very important to us.

And I have to say that the relationship we've had with Monterey Park is one of the best we've ever had. Your city is an amazing city and really goes out of its way to be very supportive to businesses.

and I'm here to speak on behalf of businesses and the relationship we have. And I want to tell a little story. I've known Ron for over 30 years. Ron and I were in a group, and I think Ron was in charge of keeping track of the money, and part of the group, we would go and have pizza and beer, and we would make sure that there was enough money for pizza and beer. So that was a man of high integrity because if we didn't have the beer money, we'd start auditing the funds. So I've dated back a relationship for a long time,

and when I found out that Ron was going to be the next city manager, I couldn't be more pleased. And through that relationship that I've had for a long time, we made a major investment up in Burbank years ago, and Ron said, gosh, you know, Luminators is still my favorite restaurant, but this other restaurant is pretty close. You need to come and do the same thing here in Monterey Park.

And he stayed on me and stayed on me and wouldn't let me off the hook.

And I think it's through his perseverance and caring so much about this city that I think makes such a big difference. And I want to thank you, Ron, for staying on me to make sure that we lived up

to the expectations you had for us and really excited with what we've done. but you probably wouldn't have done it to the degree without you being there to push us.

So it's my pleasure to speak to just thank Ron for his years of dedication, friendship, and great retirement to you. Thank you.

Jesse Ching. I want to have the city manager make a comment. Just to clean that up with what John just said, we played fantasy baseball.

So this is not city things or anything like that.

This is fantasy baseball, and we've known each other since then. But thank you, John, very much.

Jesse Chang.

Thank you, Mayor Sanchez and City Council for giving the time. When I got the email, my first reaction was, oh, it was really nice of Ron to just email me and let me know that he's retiring.

And then the second question that came up to my mind was, what did I do wrong? And I think that feeling was just that, you know, you just represent a stable presence and have had so much stability, I think. And for me, that's really important, you know, that people are, when they care about the city and they love the city, they do that by sticking around through thick and thin, and you've done that. So thank you for being that stable presence, for being a rock in all the good qualities that a rock has.

And thank you for finishing well. So, yeah, so I just want to show my appreciation for just as a resident. And I'm also dressed in my gardening gear.

So if you ever need some help gardening, I'm here in the city. So thank you.

Lloyd.

It just says Lloyd.

Like Madonna. Hi, everybody.

Hi. My name is Lloyd. I'm a survivor of the shooting on that night.

Thank you. Thank you.

And I'm so glad that I'm finally able to come here. I met with the president.

And I recently went to Congress with Judy Chu. Congressman Judy Chu invited me to speak on behalf of the survivor on gun control.

and there is a lot of work to be done. Okay, one of the main reasons I'm here today

is because I have a group of survivors, which is about 20 or 30 of us. Ever since the tragedy happened,

we were kind of forgotten, you know, from everything. You know, there is the money that was given to the people that have family who die,

and then people that got hurt. But for us, we're treated like that, you know, nothing happened to you,

so you're not entitled to get anything, you know. And, you know, we had several meetings, and we tried to heal, you know.

and all I want to know is that if there is any money that are coming down to us,

make sure that we are taken care of

because sometimes we even have a difficult time finding a place to hold our meeting,

you know, to talk about our needs. Okay, I understand that you guys have allotted out some money

and then we're supposed to get $500. even getting that money the $500 we're scrutinized by people

you know you have to prove that you were there that night you have to have email you have to have

we're already dramatized just to get $500 we have to do that and so what I want to do is to make sure that if there is any compensation coming to us Come directly to us.

You know, in our meeting, people talk about, oh, I lost my cell phone. You know, this is broken.

I'm not able to, you know, sleep at night.

I'm not able to, you know, they were just really traumatized people. We are all hurt that night.

Maybe didn't get hurt physically, but there is so much, you know,

that I hear in our meetings that we talk about, you know. So I just hope, you know, I work with Pastor Eric, and he's really good with this.

to come out of that and to be, you know, a lot of long-term things could happen to us, you know, so I'm just hoping that, you know, you guys, if you have put out the money and say,

oh, we have $50,000 for you, but we cannot give you cash. You know, if you buy a cell phone, it's $1,500 for some of the guys, you know, that are in there. They keep asking me, when are we going to see anything? You know, at the beginning, everybody said, oh, you can get up to $70,000. Where is it? We haven't got a single penny. You know, we haven't got a single penny. And even if we have to try to get $500, we get scrutinized.

You know, so I hope by coming tonight, you know, I am able to relay the message, and hopefully someone from Monterey Park can, you know, kind of reach out to us and just help our group. and if there's any kind of help that you guys can give to my people, my group, really appreciate it. And I let Pastor Eric to, you know, to help me to follow through with all this. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor?

Can we make sure if he hasn't already been in touch with the community healing fund,

I know it's being managed by CCF, but nonetheless, can we make sure that there is a follow-up?

Yes, we have his contact, and I know that our treasurer is going to be doing a report today on the healing fund. I can give a report right now if you like. We'll save it for later. Thank you.

Are there any other speakers?

Not for this item.

Okay. Any other speakers?

For public communication, would you like to wait until after?

Yeah. We can, at this point, do the video.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to give this time now to give Ron an opportunity to share a few words.

I'll do my best to keep composed. I think it's pretty obvious that a lot of the accomplishments that have been said is not done solely by me.

It is done by the entire staff that we have here in Monterey Park

and especially the individuals that are sitting up in the peanut gallery, I call it, uh that is the department heads uh they have done an outstanding job during this time of probably some tough times over the past two to three years i would also um you know i'd like to thank the community and the staff to provide that provides service to the city of monterey park

however i do really have to start with my thank yous with this individual i must start with my

wife Lillian for 32 years also a public servant as you've heard spent 34 years here in the city Monterey Park she sacrificed the continuation of her

career for me to become the city manager in 2017 she had to retire obviously there's the the whole nepotism issue that you know comes along with somebody of my stature in the city manager's position but that's not the only sacrifice that she has done we've been married for that long and i've been in public service for 37 years so you can imagine the sacrifices that my wife has done with the family by the way i have my daughter lauren

right in front of me and my son justin in front of me too

My wife couldn't make it tonight. She's a little ill, so she's at home. I'm sure she's watching the video and she's probably saying a few choice words at me right now because I'm talking about her.

but you know she sacrificed a lot the family has sacrificed a lot for me to pursue a public service

career that ends as a city manager over the past almost seven years and you know it was really tough for them to have my absence during times where we had family gatherings during this time I also lost my father-in-law my mother-in-law my sister-in-law and then we had some personal losses here in the city of Monterey Park so it was really tough trying to balance both during this time but what I will say is just to clear the rumors here and in the community and that this city council

was more than willing to extend my contract for another three years

It was my decision to not take that extension to put my family number one as a priority.

That was really important to me because they sacrificed so much over these years, and it's time for me to pay back on those sacrifices. So that's what I'm going to do.

I'm retiring because of that. Not because the city council didn't want me to stay on as city manager. it was because of that and that is it there is no we are parting ways amenable and I do know that I am leaving the city in very good hands and I'll talk about that a little bit later I also want to thank the first group of city council members that alLod me to be the city manager here in Monterey Park council member Teresa former council member Teresa Real Sebastian She's sitting back there with Armin, her husband. We always like to say that our significant others, the ones that's probably better than us, and I agree with that. And also Hans, I think he's up here in the front. And then Lonnie, his significant other.

And I have Peter. I think Peter's around here somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah.

Peter and Jenny, you know. and then also steven lamb who's definitely not here and mitchell who's uh probably as i last

figured out i think he's still trying to figure out how he can become a musician on that guitar that's what he said leaving retiring or leaving here he was going to practice working on his

guitar lessons i'd like to thank all of you you gave me an opportunity you took a chance on me

and hopefully I delivered the best I could during times that we were faced.

I also would like to thank, you know, Fred Sonoso.

Fred Sonoso resigned early and he passed away.

He had a bout with cancer and he didn't win this time. He fought it back many and numerous times. And during that time, I spent a lot of time with Fred. I actually helped him get to the hospital for his treatment.

I actually helped him with the council meetings and going through that. I paid a lot of time at his home to help him, but it came to a point where he just could not do it.

And there are several other people in this room that I'm not going to mention that also helped him through that tough time.

He forever loved his community.

He loved his community so much.

I don't know who loved the community more, either me or him, but we both loved our community

and we wanted to do so much for the community of Monterey Park.

And God bless us all and go blue because he was a big Dodger fan.

Yeah. This city council that are my bosses now, I'd like to thank you for everything that you brought

to the table, everything that you've done in. short stint, those of you that just came on board. There's so much more to do, and I trust

the goals and everything that you set forward, you will achieve, because you have the horsepower with the staff and everybody that works in the city and the community that supports you.

I'd like to especially thank the people that got me to this point.

Paul Christensen, he was a water distribution supervisor when I started back in 1980. My first, you know, real job, you know, coming out of the service. And so he was important to me.

Bob Coniano, he was the water manager.

Both of them have passed away.

And God bless their soul, too.

Manny Magana, he was the utility manager in the city of Alhambra. Yes, Adele, I was an employee at the city of Valhamburg. Yeah, for almost six years. I'd like to thank Manny. And then Dan Kesey, director of public works for the city of La Verne. He was my boss when I worked there. Then I went back and I worked for Manny Magana again, who went down to Otay Water District, second largest water company down in the San Diego area, right behind San Diego. Dave Fype, Public Works Director at the City of Monrovia. And then Scott Ochoa, the City Manager at the City of Monrovia, who is now the City Manager in Ontario. And then lastly, the individual that convinced me to take on the job of being a City Manager, Paul Talbot. I don't think he's in this room because he probably knows what I would be telling him right now. them. But I'd like to thank all of them because they were very important in my career and I really appreciate everything they've done for me. And they took a chance. Every one of them took a chance

on me and I will forever be in their debt. I'm going to try and hold back the tears so hang in

there with me. Alhamro, San Gabriel, Montebello, Rosemead, you've all been a great partner and You know, partners that I don't think the city of Monarch Park could ever, you know, imagine. My relationship with each and every one of those city managers are very close to me.

You know, I can't speak.

Well, I don't want to embarrass Mark because your bosses are here. But, yeah, we're both. But Mark is just one of those city managers that you know.

They don't make them like that. anymore like Denise said and there's not a whole lot of city managers out there like us

but the future is bright for the city manager profession and I'm excited to see what some of the new city managers will bring to the table but thank you Mark for your friendship and everything that you've done for me and also assisting the city of Monterey Park I would say the same thing for jessica i said my you know alohas at your council meeting i missed san gabriel by a day and i would have been there my style is to thank people in person i'd like to do that

so thank you all i'm going to talk about the executive

Martha Garcia, Director of Finance, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services, Christine Tomikawa, Director of Human Resources, Sean Igo, Director of Public Works, and Jessica Serrano, Director of Community Development. Could I have all of you come up here and face the

community and and please

these are the individuals that really make it happen as a city manager you're

just basically the conductor of the group but these are the individuals that

make it happen. All my accolades are because of them and some of the previous department heads.

So I just want the community to see them. I want the community to also, or photographer, if you can take a picture of them. These are the individuals. You're in there.

Don't worry about blocking my view. Yeah, this is really about you all.

and just so you know how about a hand of applause for them

you will never again be able to assemble them together in aloha wear okay and look the way

they do uh don't they look great aren't they just a great team

no I'm still talking you know Monterey Park is in a better place because of you all your dedication to your craft and serving the community is undeniably second to no one when I first became the city manager in August in 2017 effecting change to the existing work culture was ingrained fairly deep in the organization and the employees. Departments were in silos and cross-department cooperation were only when necessary. Quickly fast forward nearly seven years later in making we have departments that generally genuinely want to help regardless if they are lead departments. Cross department resourcing has been effectively not only vertically but laterally for the entire organization because of them. It's because of you I'm getting these accolades and I'd like to thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. How How about another round of applause?

Okay, you guys are good to go.

What, you want a picture? Get a picture with him. Real quick? All right, all right, real quick, please.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all.

Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez. who will be the interim city manager upon my departure she is an amazing leader she is in her own right just someone that can not only lead a department but also create morale that and momentum that allows the organization to really move forward so i i just want everyone to know that even though I'm leaving, the successor behind me and that's in the interim role is not going to miss a beat for Monterey Park. And we have planned this for over five years with our succession plan. We have done this throughout the departments. We're working in each department with the second in command so that we don't miss a beat. So continuity institutional knowledge will not be lost as we move forward and lean forward for the city of Monterey Park. She was our director of recreation community services. She understands the community very well. Her heart is in the right place just as mine is and I expect everyone to rally around her and embrace her leadership as a city manager here in Monterey Park and like I said there's not many of them out there and she will do well for the city monterey park i am anxiously waiting on the sidelines and just get to watch all the wonderful things that's going to happen so i'm excited for her and just a very important part of our executive team and then i'll talk about carl burger a little bit he is our city attorney and i don't think anybody understands the relationship between a city manager and a city attorney that that relationship has to be very strong because that city attorney makes sure that I don't step in it. If you know what I mean, you know, stepping in it can be, can smell pretty nasty at times. So he makes sure that I don't step in it. And then also he makes sure that the organization also doesn't step in it. He's been an intricate part of our executive leadership team. We actually include him in a lot of our policy making our decision making everything that we bring forward to council has been vetted legally by our city attorney also carl's been with me the longest out of everybody that's on this team so we've been through a lot we've been through a lot together i started with mark hensley and really it was carl that was doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting but carl became our city attorney soon after and we just have a lot of good continuity with the city attorney that not only you can rely on but you can trust and even though he's a consultant I will tell you this his public service is in the right place as a city attorney and I can tell you that there are city attorneys that I've worked with that are not always in the right place when you're serving the public um thank you carl uh thank you inez for for we've got the uh one two and then the counter punch with the three of us so between the assistant city manager and the city attorney and the city manager we've got a good uh you know combination with a counter so uh it's been a great run and i appreciate everything lastly um the city manager's uh profession the city manager reports directly to the city council i'm not sure if anyone knows that so that means you work directly with five council members depending on where you work at it could be seven it could be 13 it could be nine depending how big the organization is working for five city council members can be very difficult okay difficult in a good way every council member has a different personality they have a different way how they want to address agendas things that they want to accomplish in their term whatever it may be however our job as city managers are to advise them and there's different types of advice that we give them and i think i can talk generally for for city managers we somewhat advise which means something to think about. We advise, think more than twice before you really make that decision. And then we highly advise, highly advise, don't do it, but here's what you can do. And sometimes those conversations and those answers are not always received well, but they understand that that's our job to do that. And I appreciate the embracing of our conversations with all five of you. And I will miss the one-on-ones and the discussions that we have because we don't just talk about city business. We talk about families. We talk about other things. It's just part of getting to know each other and have a relationship, which is very important.

So decisions are made by, you know, made at least by me and I would say for city managers that have it in the right place for the betterment of their community.

We took this job to be public servants.

You know, we look at it for organizational effectiveness for the community.

These decisions can be very unpopular.

You know, but not only it's not decided in a vacuum. It's not just a city manager's decision.

We collectively discuss issues seeking the best option for the community and the council.

I've been challenged many times, challenged by the community to maybe be fired, maybe You question my integrity, question my character, question many things, but I can tell you every

decision that I've ever made, it was always about the city of Monterey Park. And I'm retiring knowing that my integrity, my character, and my moral compass is all in place. And that's all I can do. I've given you more Monterey Park than I could ever give, and sometimes at the sacrifice

of my family as I mentioned but I do love Monterey Park Monterey Park sometimes loves me back sometimes Monterey Park doesn't love me back but I'll always remember the love me back type and not the not so love right at the end of the day I thank you for this opportunity thank you for the space to to say these words and at the end of the day this is not goodbye it's like what Jason Al Dean from country country singer said it's until we see each other again until we meet again along Monterey Park

you can join me in a standing ovation for

thank you

We can take a break.

Yeah. At this moment.

Oh.

Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh, we'll do one.

Thank you.

At this moment, we're going to take a quick break, and then we'll resume.

How many minutes?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night. Good night.

Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night.

and the degrees, but I'll just walk back, you know, a lot.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Sanchez.

So, I used to work for a listener myself, so it would be my suggestion, too, that I work

I would like to come right in the room, reach out to you,

you're a university senator, you're a member of climate office, and ask them like, give an opportunity to enter. Because I can't right now that some work

like a legislator, depending on the space,

I mean they could be a volunteer and intern, and so I would do that.

I would be that,

when do I live in the classroom and I live in the classroom? Where are you, where am I?

Do you live near Saturn? Yes, yes. I'm from the, I live on the garbage floor,

and so I live very, let's be afraid from letter B.

I'm really into other things. Okay, and what is your major? Okay, so one story, I live in college.

When did you go to Instagram? I was down to Instagram. Okay, okay, okay.

Those are actually really difficult to make. I actually had a friend who called to him. He was pretty confused.

People don't realize that they're different.

That's what they think. Shut up. Yeah.

So I'll be looking around. I'll just open it.

I'll have two people, so you know, then, you know, I can do a group to help them all as well, so yeah.

If you're ever looking for a group. Okay, sure.

Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.

Oh, yeah. Wow. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Okay. Thank you. And we'll go ahead and move on to the rest of the public communications. Next speaker, Vincent Chang. Good evening, Mayor, members of today's Council. And,

And Ron Bo, first of all, I want to say thank you for all these years that you gave to the community.

I know you're a former city clerk, so we worked together for many of those years.

And, you know, overall, it's been an enjoyable adventure.

Although I understand after, your meetings are much more exciting.

But, yeah, indeed. Thank you. I know you've done a lot. I know you work hard behind the scenes. so many times you know the members of the public never sees that so I know you spent many sleepless nights I'm sure you know you know thinking about our city and for example I just you know one of the things that you mentioned I thank you for your support for you know allowing and working with the Starbucks so that we can set up that Tierra plaque that's out there right now you know their fans are very appreciative of that so they continue to be. But the reason I'm really here I

just wanted to say that I'm really excited about the bike patrol which you'll be hearing about later. As a founding member of active SGB we are very much in support of alternative infrastructure,

you know, cycling, busing, whatever. But you know having the bike patrol in our community also will

be a great benefit to our community in the sense that bikes are much more stealthier than the police cars, and they're going to be great for patrolling our commercial areas.

So hopefully we will only expand from that, and it was a pleasure to try to help raise funds for that. So thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Next speaker, Troy Grant of the Monterey Park Police Officers Association.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council, City Clerk and City Treasurer,

outgoing City Manager and City Attorney.

My name is Troy Grant.

I represent the Monterey Park police officers, the men and women that come out here every day and protect the city.

And on behalf of them, Ron, we're very grateful to have known you.

I know you had a dialogue with every police officer out here. And I know deep down they appreciate that.

And on behalf of them, we appreciate that.

And we appreciate you for your service and the friendship that you've shown us over the years that you were here.

And I know we had some ups and downs, tragedy and good times, bad times.

But with the teamwork and the partnership that you provided us, we got through it. And I want to thank you.

On your watch, I want to acknowledge that we got our contract done on time. In the 23 years that I've ever been here, it got done on time. And I got to thank you. And I've got to thank HR Director Christine Tomacawa and her staff for helping us get it done. Extraordinary.

I also want to acknowledge my Vice President, Ray Coda, his team, Gabriel Gonzalo, Dave Castellano, Rebecca Miner, and Sandy Castillo for our team and representatives that helped get it done. But most important, too, I want to thank the City Council for your support

and friendship and partnership that we have. And I promise you, our police officers, the men and women that do come out here, that get up every day, come in every night, and risk their lives, say goodbye to their loved ones to come out here and protect the city, we're going to do so. And we appreciate it.

And Ron, again, goodbye to you. Not goodbye forever. I'm sure we're going to see you jogging or walking in town. I promise not to run you over. I promise. I promise.

But I'm not, it's a joke. Okay.

We're clear on that. All right. So, but I want to welcome Inez Alvarez.

Really looking forward to working with you, for you, and whatever you need from the police officers. I know we're going to be there for you, as is the city and citizens of Monterey Park. So thank you for your time.

Good evening, everyone. And Ron, take care. Let's have lunch sometime. Okay? All right? Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Next speaker, Eric Chen from the Monterey Park Victim Support and Advisory Group.

Good evening, everyone.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, City Council, and City Manager, congratulations on your retirement, of course, City Attorney and staff. My name is Eric Chen.

I'm Eric Chen. I'm a pastor with the PCUSA denomination. And as some of you know, I've been working very closely since day one on the Monterey Park victim relief efforts. And Lloyd invited me to come tonight to speak and to support.

and as he mentioned, he asked me, he and I have been organizing the Monterey Park Victims Support Group

because, as he mentioned, there is a quote-unquote forgotten group of individuals

who have been not looked after because they were not physically injured or they didn't pass away.

And in fact,

well, I've been working very closely in this relief effort.

So for example,

even when President Biden came into town, I was on the phone with the White House liaison, the White House AAPI staff, and I, we were calling. They called me to call every victim together. So I was calling deceased victims' families, injured victims' families, because she was a Korean-American, so I was with a translator. So I was calling one by one every deceased victim's family, every injured victim's family, and all the traumatized individuals. So I've been working very closely with all levels of government, as you all know. And after all the victims met up with President Biden, Lloyd in the car, and others said, you know what, unless we organize ourselves, we being the victims who are present at the scene,

but we're not physically injured.

Unless we organize ourselves, no one will look out for us.

And so at his request, that is why I have organized the Monterey Park Victims Support and Advocacy Group.

And because of that group, and again, this whole time,

nobody knew who those victims were. And with the help of Los Angeles County Asian American Employee Association, and with the help of the detective, I was able to get the list. And it was in April, and nobody had the list except for me and the sheriff. But because of our gathering, because of Lloyd's efforts,

we were able to get that list to all the service providers,

all the other because even LA County the the victims bureau LA County City the attorney district attorney's office the victims bureau nobody was able to get that list and nobody had that list so obviously if nobody had the list nobody knows who they are and then that's why none of them were getting reached or

helped but luckily that that issue has more or less been resolved because of

our efforts to organize all the victims and to connect them with Chinatown Service Center, Hero Christian, with the city, with the county, with the state.

So but we are still in the next phase of relief which is for example most most

recently we know that the thank you of the to the stinks the city the Monterey Park Healing Fund is giving all the victims who were present at the scene $500 grant. And it's been very difficult to administer that grant because there's been an updated list because I was able to refer many of the victims who fled the scene to the sheriff's

office.

Now, I'm not sure why, but as Lloyd said, nobody has the most updated list.

Now, I have my own unofficial list, but basically what ended up happening was to verify whether or not the victims were victims. They were calling victims and saying, can you prove that you're a victim? What document do you have? So we really need to get L.A. County to release that list to the Resiliency Center or to the Monterey Park Healing Fund, so we're not going calling each victim, making them prove, say, hey, show me what picture do you have, et cetera, et cetera. And lastly, I just want to close on this, which is that there's going to be a resiliency center. And right now, I am the representative of at least 20 victims.

They signed a paper.

And I have been asking, requesting to be a part of the core stakeholder group. And they just told me that, no, you're not a core stakeholder.

even though I told them that I am representing at least 20 victims.

So I don't know how I can be a part of the core stakeholder. I don't understand why victims are not core stakeholders. But I'm just asking that we can work together. Obviously, it's a challenge, but I believe that we've been working together. We've found many solutions, and we've worked where many of the victims

have been going through Chinatown Service Center,

and it's been very helpful. Lloyd has been going to that, getting the therapy.

So, you know, we've made a lot of progress. So that's all I want to say.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Next speaker, Angela Harry.

Harvey.

Hey, Jesus Rodardi. Jesus Rodardi, you got it. No worries.

Good afternoon, City Council members and Mayor Sanchez.

My name is Jesus. I live and work in Monterey Park.

I actually work down the avenue in Garfield Medical Center. I'm here to ask for your support by passing a resolution in support of SB 525,

Senate bill that would help all healthcare workers in California.

I'm here on behalf of my coworkers who are physically and mentally tired.

As I am, a lot of us have having to work multiple jobs and keyword multiple, not just two jobs.

I'm here to advocate for them and ask you to please support Senate bill 525. Thank you very much.

next speaker Shade Liu Vessi UUHW

hello all hi mayor and the city council member it's been a year since I've been up here at this podium I'm a resident of Monterey Park I live here my kids are grown up here and I work for a Garfield Medical

center which is also down the street I'm speaking on behalf of myself and also my second family which say because people who you work with are tend you tend to spend more time with the people you work with than your actual family and there is a bill that's being looked at by the state legislature I was called the SB 525 and we would like to have me and my second family at the hospital we'd like to have your support via a resolution. I'm a respiratory therapist at Garfield and I choose to work there because it's my city hospital and it's the place I turn to when my family gets sick and majority of you that lives in Monterey Park that's where we go to as well when we get sick and we need help and there are a lot of people that work at my hospital that are still making under the $16 an hour, and that's not a livable wage. And what this bill, the SB 525, does is it helps set a minimum wage for the health care workers. And it means a lot. It means that my second family, my coworkers, they don't have to work multiple jobs just to put food on the table and to pay the high rent that we see here in Monterey Park.

That's all. Thanks.

Sorry, I'm nervous.

Next speaker, Angela Harvey.

Good evening, Mayor, and to the City Council. My name is Angela Harvey. I

Monterey Park. I work for Garfield Medical Center. I do not live in Monterey Park. But I work for Garfield Medical Center. I am a CNA. So I work the floors. I see what our patients and our family members go through. I see what our co-workers go through. So I'm here to advocate for that you guys will support what we're asking for for SB 525 to raise the minimum wage because even though inflation is going up, our costs are going up. co-workers are working extra shifts. Even though we had COVID, some of them worked during the COVID pandemic, and some got sick, and some of our co-workers we lost during COVID. Even though COVID has not disappeared, it just settled down. But what I'm saying to you is that inflation is going up, and our paychecks are still at a low level. Rent is going up. Food is going up. and our coworkers are working extra shifts every day. They are burnt out. And if our coworkers are burnt out, how do we care? How do we give our patients what they need? How can we give them all of our energy if all of our energy are being pulled away because we work in short staff? We come on the unit and we got one CNA trying to handle 32 patients. That is not acceptable. That is not going to work. That is going to wear us down. And right now, as I look over the Internet, we have over 800 million nurses leaving the health care industry because of inflation is going up, like I said, and our paychecks are staying down. And what I want to leave for you when I leave this podium is to remember that if your loved ones was to go to Garfield Medical Center and they get sick and they come in and they're looking, you guys are looking for the best of care from us. But if we're short staff, how do you expect us to give your family the best care? That's what we're there for. Some of us have not left. Some of us are very dedicated. But if we're worn out, we cannot take care of your family. Thank you.

Next speaker, William Yin.

Ladies and gentlemen of the council, thank you for taking the time to hear me speak. I originally wasn't planning on coming in tonight, to be honest, but something came to my attention. I felt, yeah, I probably should show up and try to fill everyone in. All right. Where should I start?

Okay. So out of curiosity, does anyone in the council know what the ARDI program is? A-R-D-I. If not, it is a county initiative, the Anti-Racism Diversity Inclusion Initiative. This program was started three years ago in the wake of the George Floyd riots, and it was basically commissioned to begin colliding research about the structural racism that has faced minorities. And this program has primarily focused on the African American community. And recently, last week on June 27, at the last Board of Supervisors meeting, a comprehensive report was given by a doctor, D'Artagnan Scorza, to basically give a report on their findings after these three years. This report was given during the course of the meeting, and it was really interesting how it was brought to my attention.

I'm pretty sure a couple of you have seen me in the past couple of events lately and I brought some young people along to try to show them out, get them civically engaged and I gave them some homework and said, hey, you guys should watch these Board of Supervisors meetings. They provide some really good material about how county government can affect our community. And they took the challenge and one of them said, hey, I watched this Board meeting. And I was like, you watched all six hours? No, I skipped through it. I watched it on YouTube. to. But some program called ARGI came up, and I knew what it was, but I wasn't 100% sure what it was about. And when this student basically told me exactly what it was about, I thought, oh, wow, this is amazing. So basically, that report was given by Dr. Skorza, and basically it was detailing about a really detailed background about how the African-American community has been suffering the past three years in regards to structural racism, where areas are hurt the most, you know, plans of ACTION THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN TO HELP UPLIFT THEIR COMMUNITIES. AND THERE WAS A REALLY GREAT REPORT DONE BY PROFESSOR SIGORZA. AND THEN AS ALL THE SUPERVISORS ARE GIVING THEIR OPINIONS, MOSTLY ALL POSITIVE AND GLOWING,

SUPERVISOR SILIS ACTUALLY CAME OUT WITH THAT'S A REALLY AMAZING REPORT AND WE ALSO NEED for the AAPI and Hispanic community.

Because RE is a anti-racism diversity inclusion initiative program, well, we should include all minorities. Now I'm glad that she spoke up about it and I'm glad the student brought it to my attention and at this point I was wondering if it was possible that we can try to rally our resources and maybe petition supervisors, yes, please try to add the AAPI and Hispanic communities to the next time this report is done. So basically they call it a state of the African American Los Angelinos. So basically, as I said, the report basically kind of going over like, you know, how poorly things are going and all the ideas that like try to like uplift certain, like it's kind of like a scorecard in a way. Some things are not doing too well. Some things are actually improving. And basically their goal was to like give out like, you know, their suggestions. So again, as Supervisor Solis, you know, brought up, yeah, let's try to get other groups involved. I feel like that, you know, it's almost like I'm kind of like, yeah, like, this is a great thing that the student brought to my attention, and it's my responsibility to bring that information out. You know, this is basically what I hope civic engagement would be like, to be engaged on multiple levels, in that the people who maybe they were never, you know, we're not sure where to, like, look into this type of stuff. Like, I knew about the support of supervisors and beings, and, you know, I was told that, like, I should watch them as well. I do watch a couple here and there, but it's, you know, they're very long and very technical. But I was really impressed how a young student who I really only met the first time that time actually took to heart my suggestion of how they can get involved in regards to learning more about state-of-government. And I feel that it is, you know, it would be wrong of me to not, like, carry on and bring this really good tidbit out to more people. So, again, thank you very much for hearing me out. If you'd like to see this report, you can find it on the Board of Supervisors CEO Office. It will be called...

So it will be under the RD Program, the Anti-Racism Diversity Inclusion Initiative.

And as I said, you can find it on the LA County CEO's Office if you wish to prove to it.

It's about 25 pages.

Thank you. Next speaker. Next speaker is me, Misha Lee.

Hi, neighbors.

My name is Misha, and I am speaking as a resident tonight. There's a lot of confusion and misinformation surrounding the controversy regarding the Rams mural at Elder Park. And so it's really important that I clarify this for everyone and that everyone understands, number one, this is not a racial issue, and it's not about the mural itself. I truly hope our Community Participation Commission understands this and does not take any of the criticisms personally. This issue is actually very serious and about so much more.

When residents bring concerns before elected officials,

they should be able to trust their concerns will be heard and considered.

This process should be transparent and invite constituents to be a part of the process and the solution.

When decisions are made and actions taken prior to a vote being cast, that's a problem.

Not only might it be a violation of the law, it also degrades all integrity and faith in the system.

Residents already feel helpless and disenfranchised

that they don't even bother to speak up or participate as is.

Seeing this type of behavior from our local government

should cause alarm and be distressing.

While you might think, what's the big deal? It's only a mural.

If we let them get away with it this time,

what is it going to be next? I'm not saying that this has happened in our city, but this is a way that sometimes how it escalates.

And I'm definitely not accusing our elected officials of this, but other elected officials in cities outside of ours

have gotten in trouble for making backroom deals and are in jail for it.

If I were a voting elected official,

I wouldn't want there to be even the slightest appearance

that I might be involved in something like that.

sadly because no one is calling them out on this behavior

they've become even more bold and brazen in their level of disrespect

for you, their own constituents

the people who voted for them

just watch the last council meeting several of your neighbors asked me to help relay their concerns with traffic outside of Costco at the marketplace The council didn't even have the courtesy to even call the item the residents were expressing their concerns with for discussion so they could at least acknowledge and thank the residents for sharing their concerns and to explain why they were approving the item even though all the residents asked them not to. They don't care because they already made up their mind. What's there to talk about? They don't care what you think. because they already negotiated it with the developer, which is the impression they gave in having the developer speak instead of answering to their own constituents themselves. Didn't they promise you they would have your best interest in mind when you elected them? Is this type of behavior reflected of that promise?

Please remember this the next time you vote.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Armin Sebastian.

All right, Ron. Congratulations, my friend, on your retirement. I know we have the same age, so I'm jealous. Also, I'm told that we also have another thing in common, We are both ACDC fans. So, in the word of ACDC, for those about to rock and retire, we salute you. So enjoy your retirement and wish you many, many, many years. On another matter, I'm asking the city council, please consider the illegal fireworks along with the legal fireworks.

A lot of our neighbors are using illegal and legal fireworks, and it seems to be an increase in use of illegal fireworks.

And this time around, like yesterday, the air quality was so bad. And we saw a few neighbors using illegal fireworks. So I'm thinking to myself, especially I love Teresa, and she has asthma. And a lot of people have asthma, and they're stuck at home, can't go out because of the bad air quality. Also, a lot of our vets have PTSDs, and they get affected by explosions, and not to forget the pets that run away. They're scared. So I'm thinking perhaps the city council can require some kind of a permit. Like, you know how we have garage sales, and you could get a permit for something innocuous as a garage sale? Why not require maybe $10, $15 nominal fee for using fireworks? And that way we can at least eliminate some of the irresponsible use of fireworks. And so there's something to consider. I really think that you should look at requiring permits. It could be $10, $15. and that will be also the police will have at least notice of who's using it and in case there's some fire that we can go in and check

to see if they use illegal fireworks or legal. Anyways, thank you and good luck on your retirement. Thank you.

Next speaker is Kailea Garfield, who is conceding her time to Teresa Rial Sebastian. Next speaker, Teresa Rial Sebastian.

Good evening, everyone. And yes, I do have asthma, so I apologize if I have to use this,

because I despise the few days after Fourth of July because I cannot breathe.

Ron loved your speech.

Oh, the RENA numbers. Don't even get me started on that. So I really want to thank you for that. We had our differences, but yet, you know, we forged forward, and that's okay. And I wish you the best on your retirement. I'm sure your honey-do list has, like, more than tripled. And I'm glad that you mentioned something about Lillian,

because when the council was deciding whether to move forward with you or not, there was that concern of nepotism. and so I'm glad that you relate to the council that your wife would retire and as a result I

mean look at all that happened everything that you were able to implement which led now to this historic moment so thank you and again best of luck mahalo you also mentioned Ron that you love

Monterey Park I join you because I love this city I have on my car I heart MPK and anybody that will Melissa and I will tell them about Monterey Park and educate them about our beautiful city.

So I cannot even begin to tell you how much it pains me, it hurts me, to have to relay this information to you. Because it also includes staff members that I highly adored and highly cherished. So I will begin. I want to inform you, the council, elected city attorney and the public, City executive staff took action on an item before the city council heard public comments and made a decision. An example of broken government and a broken process. Executive city staff are Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez, Director of Public Works Sean Igo, Director of Recreation and Community Services Robert Aguirre. City Council was scheduled to hear the Dragon Mural Agenda item on Wednesday, June 16th. As you can see from the attached emails which I submitted, staff proceeded with the project before June 16th, before it was approved by you, City Council members. These emails which I received pursuant to a public records request demonstrate staff knew the item, quote, needs to get city council approval at the May 17th council meeting. Robert informed the artist PR person Leah and Inez and Sean were copied. That was on May 4th. Robert also informed you, Mayor Pro Tem Thomas Wong, the mural will go to the city council at the May 17th meeting for final approval. That was May 9th. However, the artist and his group wanted to start prepping the site, the wall prior to the council meeting and prior to your approval. As early as Monday, June 4th, and you can look at Robert's emails of April 27th and June 14th. Again, before the council approved the item. On Monday, May 15th, two days before the city council meeting, artist PR person Leah emailed Robert, which Sean and Inez copied. The email states We will arrive at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to begin priming the wall. Is it possible to have that first row of parking spots blocked off so we can have the lift there? They wanted to start the work one day prior to you approving the agenda item. Director Sean then emailed a subordinate staff inquiring if the no parking signs are out. and Director Robert replied that same day to Leah, confirming that the area has been blocked. Sean and Inez were copied on the email. As we know, on May 16th, the artist himself posted on his Instagram a picture of the wall primed, area blocked, and cherry picker ready to go. Many residents also witnessed the prep site, and it was brought to your attention at the May 17th City Council meeting because we asked who authorized this and no one responded. It is very concerning to say the least that executive staff are taking action prior to city council approval. Your approval. Instead of informing the respective parties that authority to proceed has not been granted yet, they should have told them, wait. And tonight, the council is slated to take action to make Assistant City Manager Inez Alvarez the acting city manager with a 5% bump and increase. There's also an item to increase pay for directors, including the two that I mentioned.

Ron, as you so eloquently put it earlier during your speech, and I will take your quote, these staff members, quote, stepped in it. So to the city attorney, Carl Berger, hey, Carl, what's up? What is the penalty for such conduct by executive staff? Is it a slap on the hand? Is it reprimand? Is it suspension? Or do we look the other way? And city council, I want to know, is this the type of executive leadership you want for our city? Is this how you reward executive staff when they disregard the procedure, the law, and your authority? The authority that we elected to give you. The authority to approve items. or perhaps your conduct will evidence in you all along what they were doing. Many of us are watching closely because we want to see what your character is and what you're made of. And again, I had much consternation about this because I didn't want to bring it up during your last meeting, but I felt I had to when I saw the agenda items. And Ron, I know you said Friday's your last day, please consider staying another month to address this issue. Because I will not stand here and allow this kind of procedure and these actions to be implemented in our beautiful city of Monterey Park. Thank you for your time.

Last communication is written. I'll read it.

janitors, account clerks, etc. We take care of your parks, your streets, your water leaks, your graffiti,

and ensure the residents of this city are taken care of when they call us with a problem or a concern. Not only has our bargaining unit not received an adequate COLA increase in the last five years, but the last compensation study also shows many of our positions are underpaid as well. Our wages are not comparable to other cities, cities, and as a result, we are also losing valuable staff members monthly, and the empty

positions that are being left behind are not being filled. Are you aware our streets division is

understaffed by 50%? That they're going without air conditioning in their trucks because the

trucks are so old and the parts to them are obsolete? These guys put up with a lot. To make

things worse, we have staff who resign and go off to work for other cities and come back and tell us how much better their wages are and their work conditions are in the new city.

How can you expect SEIU employees to keep providing quality services to residents

when we ourselves are understaffed, overworked, and underpaid? Please help us retain the good employees we have left by considering our bargaining team's proposals seriously. If the mid-management and confidential bargaining units have both received respectable COLA increase and compensation study adjustments.

Why can't we? Thank you.

Beverly Garcia.

No other comments. Thank you. Any questions or comments from Council?

I wanted to bring one issue up. I know one of the speakers talked about SB 525. I wanted to see if maybe we can bring that up maybe at a future Council meeting for discussion for possible approval, if that's okay with the Council.

Yes? Okay. Thank you. And just also if we can get, if we don't have already the contact information for Pastor Eric and Lloyd Gock.

And we'll go ahead and move on to staff communications. We'll start with library.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council. Diana Garcia, City Librarian.

This evening I'm pleased to introduce Kathleen Boley.

She's our senior librarian in charge of technical services and circulation

who's going to be giving you the monthly updates for the library.

Kathleen?

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Sanchez and members of the Council. I'm Kathleen Boley. I'm senior librarian.

This evening I'm here to talk about some of our upcoming programs in July.

The first one is Monterey Park Goes to the Beach. Folks can hop on a tour bus and visit an Orange County beach for some fun in the sun.

The morning of Saturday, July 8th, will be Bolsa Chica State Beach,

and Saturday, the 5th of August, will be at Huntington Beach.

This program was supported in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.

And our first trip to beautiful Bolsa Chica was last month, and it was a great success.

We had over almost 100 participants, and we think the coming ones will be even better because it will be hotter.

The next is happening during four Fridays at 3 p.m. throughout July.

And in this one, teens are invited to learn how to prepare and apply for the college of their choice in this four-week series.

Presenters from Chinatown Service Center will discuss choosing the right college on the 7th,

college application on the 14th, the college essay on the 21st, and the financial aid process on the 28th.

The next is part of our summer reading program for kids, and it encourages children to continue to read over the summer.

The Environmental Nature Center Animal Show is July 12th.

In this literacy-inspired program, kids will enjoy classic children's books that feature animal characters

and then meet the live, furry, feathered, scaly main characters from each story.

On July 26th, Magician, Christopher T. Magician will be performing a fun magic show with the audience participating and interacting. And both these are at Langley at 3 p.m.

For the adults, we have a fun trivia night on July 12th at 6.30 p.m. in the Friends Room.

Gather your team of five to show off your random trivia knowledge and earn prizes. On July 13th at 2.30 p.m. in the Friends Room, prepare for the hottest summer months with tips from Garfield Health Center.

Learn how to prevent, recognize, and respond to heat stroke.

On Saturday, July 22nd at 10 a.m. in the Friends Room, lawyers from Asian Pacific American Bar Association

and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Southern California, will be on hand to answer basic questions about planning your estate.

And now for the teens.

On July 29th at 3 p.m. in the Friends Room, teens will create a vision board

to set their goals and intentions for the new school year at the Teen Vision Board Workshop. And for the whole family,

join the pool party on July 28th from 12 to 2 at George Elder Park Pool.

Wrap up your summer with some fun in the sun.

Bring your swimsuits and towels for a get-together for the whole family. All ages are welcome.

Lastly, thank you for the visit by Council Member Vin Go. He came to speak to our junior friends.

The mission of the junior friends is to encourage teens ages 14 to 18 to connect with others in the community, to participate in city-held events, and volunteer at the Monterey Park Bruggemeier Library

and develop leadership skills. These activities help meet our 2023-24 strategic goal of civic engagement as City Council members are sharing their leadership experiences and encouraging participation in local government. So thank you. So for more information about any of these programs, please visit our website, follow us on social media, or give us a call. Thank you.

Thank you for that report. Are there any questions or comments from Council? Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Quick question.

Again, thank you for, as always, a very comprehensive report to council and community.

For the college preparation workshop, are we also making sure that...

Monterey Park. The school districts especially those of high schools are aware of this workshop as well. Well we do promote all of our programming on social media but we will have liaisons with the schools. So but good point and we will double check on that and make sure that words getting out. For sure especially because you know applying well applying for college it could be very a bill-willing process and I know. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yes.

I want to thank the library staff for preparing the kids for the college series. And they did the financial literacy program a couple of weeks back. And then we also spoke about career objectives, civic engagement. I think the library has done a wonderful job encouraging our youth to be involved and understanding what they need to do to get to the next level, which is to become adults.

So thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. And again, I just want to thank you for the amazing program you do for families, especially for personal life itself. We have three daughters. And I love especially the very summer-themed stuff. I like the idea of the pool party.

I don't know who came up with that. Maybe Robert, maybe Ron. Some collaboration.

I don't know who came up with this. Maybe it was you guys.

But I think that's an amazing idea, and you can count on me to be there.

I'll hold you to that. I guess. Thank you.

Thank you again. Our next staff communications is the police department.

I think we have Chief Weiss here.

Not in uniform. It's a little weird for me. I'll admit. Your new uniform is epic though. I think my kids say I was born in a police uniform so I've been in one since I was 15 years old. So that's a long time. but Mr. Mayor, City Council I'm very excited tonight to introduce for the first time on this stage our new Police Department Bicycle Patrol and to explain the iteration of the Bicycle Patrol, how it started where we're going with it, I want to introduce Randy Randy's our Net Team Sergeant, you met Randy Sparza and he is the Bicycle Supervisor so I'm going to pass it on to Randy

Thank you Chief, good evening Mr. Mayor and Council Tonight we're going to present to you a little history, brief history on the bicycle patrol unit for the Monterey Park Police Department. It's set up by myself and officers include Corporal Lizzie Flores, Officer DeLon Lamb who is not in attendance tonight, Officer Tony Nguyen, Patrol Officers Ricky Armani who is currently out of the country, Officer Michelle Contreras, who's here. Officer Orlando Martinez, who was ill. Officer Gerson Pletisse, who is here tonight. And Officer Angel Pena.

Back in 1993, the police department had three bike patrol officers.

Officers Hulse, Weiss, and Roach, who patrolled high crime areas utilizing bikes.

Another officer, Petrie, who was the former CEO of Garfield Hospital.

joined the bike patrol unit in 1994 and worked various city functions

including various citywide special events. There have been no bike purchases since 1994 and currently the police department has seven bicycles two of which are primarily used as backup bicycles.

With the resurrection the bike patrol team was

brought forth through community partnerships from city council past and present including the gentleman behind me

former council member Peter Chan,

and former city clerk Vincent Chang.

Community groups and other civic organizations.

The bike patrol unit is gonna be mainly used for high visibility at most city events, weather permitting.

The downtown corridor, the Monterey Park marketplace, directed patrol at city parks and problem areas and it's to help supplement the

patrol efforts and augment patrol functions. And without further ado here's

your bike patrol for 2023 and we'd like to show you some of the instruments that you see in front of you if you have any questions we're open to hear any.

believe it or not they have lights and siren and that's required by state law

the siren has to be at a certain decibel go ahead

the lights have to be a certain brightness to meet the state requirement of the vehicle code

they have the same people have the same obligation to pull over in a car if the Bicycle officers do an enforcement action on them. So a lot of the rules have changed since we started the program and I was on it years ago.

But it's gotten better. They still have to pedal the bikes like we did back in the day. You know, when I did it, it was uphill both ways, no matter which way you went. We did it in the snow. I mean, it was tough here in Monterey Park back in the old days. They have it really easy now. But a total of seven bikes will be able to go out in service at one time.

And it's a great program.

it's going to really enhance our ability to communicate with the public

it's going to enhance our ability to do enforcement but quite honestly when you put an officer on a bicycle and you put him out on the street it is a way for engaging the community in a conversation there's no steel walls, there's no glass the officer and the public are present and they talk and they communicate and there's exchanges of information and the community really embraces it. So we're really looking forward to this coming back as a way for our city to be out there and help our community. So if we could, I'd like to get a picture. If we could with everybody. You guys come up with your pictures too. Kill the lights.

All right, council, you want to come down

and take a picture? Back back a little bit. There you go.

Keith, question? Yes.

Can you put a battery motor to this to make this thing go a little faster?

No, not really. We looked at e-bikes. They're expensive.

And I'm going to try to secure some grants for e-bikes in the future.

These bikes alone were the same price as one police e-bike.

So it's an expensive process to get an e-bike. But we're looking at that for the future.

And there are some grants out there that we're going after to try to do that.

You got it? Yeah.

Can we all face it this way? � Can we all face it this way?

Can you punch you a little bit more? Come on. Don't be shy.

On three, say bike patrol. One, two, three.

Thank you very much. Any other questions? Do we have any beats or where are they going to be patrolling?

Quite honestly, the whole city. The high traffic areas, the shopping centers, when we have city events, you're going to see them all over.

The beautiful thing about the bike patrol is they're very self-eating. So if you're down at Costco, they will be in the parking lot, drive around. Now you may never see them until there's an enforcement action or next thing you know, they're zipping by you because they're out in the parking lot. So that's one of the benefits of the bike patrol. But they're going to be all over the city. We do have a vehicle for them to use to get places if they want to use a truck that we can use to put the bikes in and go to the marketplace to start off. But they're going to be all over the city. And they're going to be patrolling the bases? Right now it's because of staffing. It's going to be for special events and targeting certain areas. so there won't be, I can't dedicate them full time to being on the bike patrol yet, but we're working toward that. Right now it's going to be part of the NET team's responsibility and the five or six other patrol officers that are present on the team.

There we go. The five or six other patrol officers that are part of the team other than NET, they'll be supplementing that for special assignments. You're going to see them out a lot.

and we're going to put them out on social media they're going to be superstars by the time this is over

but they'll be on the bikes for National Night Out coming up in August

and we hope everybody can come out for that

thank you so much

see I told you we'd do it

thank you very much thank you

not yet

I wanted them to ride down the sides and they said no so Thank you so much.

All right, how about that, huh? All right, Public Works, you got your work cut out for you following the police show. Sean, you should have came in on a bike, man.

Yeah, the chief said no with the lights.

He said no, I can do it.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council.

Sean Igo, Public Works Director.

Tonight I'm here to talk about our free composting event in partnership with Athens. It will be held Saturday July 15th from 8 o'clock till 12 o'clock at Garvey Ranch Park at 751 South Alhambra Avenue. So our last event in February was a great success and we're going to see the same success this time around. So again we encourage all residents to come and participate in our event.

With that I will take any questions. Okay any questions from the council?

I'm not hearing any. All right great thank you.

All right, thank you. I'm going to bring my truck, but I know there's a limit on it, so I can't fill it up. Our next communication is Recreation and Community Services.

Aloha, Honorable Mayor, City Council, City Manager Rombo.

I'm Christine Alotore.

I'm the Recreation Manager for our Recreation and Community Services Department.

So first we're going to slide right in.

we'd like to thank the community for coming out and joining us for Dodger Night out at Dodger Stadium. We had 133 registered participants for this event. We enjoyed Friday night fireworks, and it was an exciting night to be had by all who attended. In addition to that, we'd like to thank everyone for joining us for our Independence Day celebration that took place this last Saturday here at Barnes Park. the evening started off with the Air National Guard Band and they played for those early park goers and then the night kicked off had people up dancing with Kaylin and the Last Frontier it was definitely an exciting band and we kicked off we finalized the night with fireworks in celebration of Independence Day, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Prior to the fireworks going off, if you were in the amphitheater and had a chance to turn around, you would have seen that our park was completely packed all up through the street

closure. It was a very exciting night.

Moving along, we have our movie in the park tomorrow, and that movie will be Puss in Boots.

This will take place at dusk here at Barnes Park.

It's open to all ages.

And we're kicking off our Parks Make Life Better month, which is happening in July.

So that means tomorrow and at the second July movie, which is Back to the Future, taking place on Thursday, July 20th,

we're giving out free popcorn, some free giveaway prizes.

So come on by and check out everything we have.

The movie on the 20th will be Back to the Future. We also have an upcoming top secret, we'll release it on Instagram, photo opportunity for the community to come on out and enjoy our movies. So we are having a ton of fun here at our parks.

Moving on to summer lunches, the St. Gabriel Unified School District has graciously offered to give meals to those 18 and under at Barnes Park throughout the week.

On the weekdays from 11.30 to 12.30 p.m., there is no registration requirement for this.

The people or persons who come out to the park just need to be 18 or under. How do you wreck?

So in celebration of Parks Make Life Better Month, we are reaching out to our community members, and we are asking, how do you wreck?

So we want to know how you're using our spaces, our parks, our playgrounds, our ball fields

in order to enjoy your type of leisure activities.

An example of that is just the other day we saw someone lassoing right outside of our offices in Barnes Park.

All you have to do to participate is send a photo to the Rec Department email which is recreation at montereypark.ca.gov or send a message on Instagram of the photo and the activity that these community members are enjoying and we will if selected we will send you some some giveaways for Parks Make Life Better month. If you have any questions you can contact the Recreation Community College.

Services Department. Other than that, I'd like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity

to be up here, and I will take any questions or comments. Thank you so much for that report.

Are there any questions or comments from Council Member Lo? Again, I want to just thank you,

as always, coming every month to report on all the programming for our community. I'm curious,

for the free meals for those under 18, so it's provided by the San Gabriel Unified School district correct oh wow that's interesting i'm just curious do we know is it because they have a particular pot of grant funding that allows them to partner with us for that um from my

knowledge this is something that has been happening throughout the summer to feed to

assist those who are in need of meals um any other additional information maybe robert can help us

out with do you have any other questions no i'm just kidding no no i'm actually very pleased that

we are doing this. As someone who, as many of you may know, I grew up as a latchkey kid and whose parents worked seven days a week, you know, certainly this is a program that I, growing up, had benefited from. So I'm very glad that we are also providing a summer program because, you know, for many kids, unfortunately, the free meals that they get at a K-12 school may be their only meal for the day. And so I'm really pleased that, you know, we want kids to be able to enjoy the summer as well as, if they're going to summer school, not we'll have to worry about filling their stomachs. So I'm very pleased that we are making sure that we're taking care of our kids.

Now, I'm just curious, too, as far as I know it's on the state's website,

and I know we also promoted probably in our monthly cascades,

but are we also making sure, again, working with our local school district to make sure that their students are aware of this as well?

Especially that office summer school.

Yes. The school district is aware of this program. Okay. All right. And so is the community.

All right. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments? Council Member Ngo? No?

I want to thank the Parks and Recs for doing a fabulous job again the last month, just engaging in the community.

The movie nights, Mary and I actually may pretend, we were there the first movie

that was just two weeks ago

and then tomorrow night we'll have a second one then the next one will be Back to the Future

I loved that growing up and watching that so

big fans of what you guys are doing

keep it up

yeah I just appreciate

everything Parks and the Recreation and Community Services staff are doing and echo comments earlier the movie night was very great invite others to come to the movie night tomorrow and the remaining one and hope that we can do more of those and continue

to do community building events like that. Thank you. I also had the pleasure of taking my family

to the movie night. It was Buzz Lightyear. We actually hadn't seen it and towards the end my daughters fell asleep so we had to watch it the next day so we knew what would happen at the end including myself because I didn't know how the movie ended. So I really I wanted to highlight a A couple things that went really amazing on that night. As we were waiting for the movie to start, how engaged the Parks Department was with the community as they were sitting there, doing a lot of events with them, dancing, giving prizes and awards, and then giving all the kids popcorn. That was really amazing. Of course, from one of the vendors from the Farmer's Market. And it's happening on the same night that the Farmer's Market is happening, which is very, very amazing. and I saw a lot of people going out to the farmer's market, buying some dinner, coming back, watching the movie. Very, very well done. Just wanted to give kudos to that. I know I have a, it already knows about the other one. She has, we have it on the fridge. She's like, we're going to go watch Puss in Boots tomorrow. So they're absolutely, we're going to take advantage of all of these. So I really want to thank you for engaging the community and families who have kids. This is very, very amazing. I saw a lot of, my daughter ran into a lot of her friends there. So I know that this is very valuable for people who have kids and families or who just want to come and do something. So really appreciate all the program that you do. Thank you. Can I ask the Parks and Rec Director,

Parks and Rec Director Robert, to kind of step up? I think I have some questions. I want to make sure we allow him to kind of set the record straight on some of the accusations that was made earlier in terms of timeline of the mural.

We still have... Well, let's finish this and then maybe we can...

Okay, all right.

Save it for later. Thank you. Thank you. We have a really long agenda tonight. All right, so let's go ahead and move on. We have a couple of presentations. We'll start with our first one on the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund. get an update. Thank you. Amy.

Good evening. Mayor Jose Sanchez, Mayor Pro Tem Wong, Council Member No,

Council Member Yu, Council Member Lo. I want to update you.

As of today, we have collected and raised $65,829.

The applications have gone out. They can be requested through the California Community Fund.

If anyone does need the application, they can email Carol Worley. Her email is cbworley at calfund.org.

If you look at the Monterey Park website and look up Monterey Park Community Healing Fund,

you'll be able to find more information to our fund,

and that will direct you to where donations can be made.

If you go to the California Community Fund, you'll find Carol's email, and you can send her an email, and she'll send out the applications.

So right now we probably have about 35 applications, and we're going through them now. The last day to submit them is July 31st.

To give a little background, initially this fund was created to help Monterey Park heal, And initially, the members of our committee decided that we were going to use the monies to help different grants and initiatives to heal the community and move forward.

But in learning in the times that passed, we found out that there are some victims that were not getting the compensation.

And that was what they believed to be from the GoFundMe donation account.

So what we did was we changed directions and we are now focusing on those victims.

We have collected some. I've spoken to Lloyd. He is part of that group. I've been at the support group meetings. I've been to several of them already. So we are in communication with Lloyd and with Pastor Chen. So don't worry about that. in terms of getting more donations.

People still can make donations. They could go to the Monterey Park website or they could go to the California Community Fund and look up the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund where they can make the donation.

In addition to grants to individuals that have not been injured,

we are also making community grants. There are also small grants

to community organizations, nonprofits. If they have a project they want to propose,

that's something that's also available, and they could ask for those applications through the same email.

And that's through carolworley at cbworley at calfund.org. Do you have any questions? Any questions or comments from Council?

Council Member, you? Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Lo? I'll be quick.

I'm just curious, again, when people from the community reach out,

and I understand that there's different programs that were conceived out there. There is, of course, the GoFundMe as well as the Seek Compensation Fund. But has anyone, I guess, communicated that they're having issues with trying to either, well, in the case of victim's compensation, like access them or else they have applied and are just awaiting response? I'm just curious because the other thing that we could reach out, for example, in the state compensation fund, that's our state representatives, if there is an issue of access or even just waiting for status. I'm just kind of curious, like, where are some of the, I think, challenges that you hear, you know?

Thank you for bringing that up. They are encountering some challenges.

I know that some of the members, they have applied for different grants, and they have not heard back yet.

And sometimes it may not qualify. I don't know what the reason is. But I know that some of them have been waiting for responses and have not heard back. I know they've asked questions about the GoFundMe, but we are not the same account, so I'm unable to provide that update for them.

Okay.

No, thank you for answering that.

Because, again, I think it would be helpful for us to know as well where are some of these bottlenecks. Because, again, yes, they are either a different management type of agency or a different level of government. but everything that we can do to certainly advocate, I think it would be helpful for us.

Even as our own fund, we've had some trouble getting information, and I spoke to Chief Wiese earlier,

and he's going to be helping with us on trying to clarify that list.

Okay, thank you.

And again, I do want to also acknowledge that I know that Chattanova Service Center has been heavily involved in working with us to provide those counseling services as well as navigating what seems to be what's been a challenge to just identify everyone that was involved

and making sure that those who are seeking aid, their need is something that we can actually help with.

Absolutely. That's absolutely true. And I just need to let all the applicants that are applying for this fund know that I understand And they may have received a call, but that's part of our due diligence to make sure that the money is going where it's supposed to be. And we try not, we won't call if we don't have to, but that was unfortunately one of the things we did have to do because we weren't able to verify all the names. But we're working toward getting all that ironed out, and the money should be hopefully distributed sometime in August.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Any other questions? I just had a quick follow-up, sorry, on something Council Member Lo said. But are you aware of any people that are part of the group that might have already received, like, some type of federal or state aid, like their application actually went through?

I believe some that were injured received some funding from the GoFundMe account. But the ones that have not been injured, I do not believe they've received any funds.

Okay. Thank you. Council Member, you?

Actually, I come across with a person who told me that he did apply for the fund, but he actually was not there at the dance studio. So I wanted to see if you have any procedure to make sure that that person is actually attended the dance studio because we want to reserve all the resources for the victims.

That is correct. So that is why one of the reasons we have to ask some follow-up questions. And as a group, we will decide, we'll be going through each application to see who qualifies and who was there that evening. But it's not an easy task.

Council Member Ngo?

Yeah, my understanding is that Advancing Justice has hired a private investigation firm to basically navigate through this challenge to ensure that the people who actually suffer, the folks who were there, get the benefit of the GoFundMe as well as all the funds that was put together for the purpose of restitution or support for the victims who were actually there that night. And I know it's going to be a challenge, and I think, I believe what we're doing is the same thing. We're kind of going through due diligence, and perhaps we can work with Advancing Justice to get their final product to say these are the known people who have verified to be there or who have verified to maybe they were there for a few hours they left earlier but let's make sure we get the money to the people who need it but get the money for the people who were really there.

Yes that is our goal and we have been working with Chinatown Service Center they've been helping us out reaching out to the applicants that don't speak English so we thank them for helping out. We will reach out to Agents of Advancing Justice and see if they could share their information with us.

But my understanding is that they are only providing funding for victims that were physically injured.

And right now, our recipients are going to be people that have not been injured, but they were traumatized and emotionally injured from the incident. And I just want to let people know that as you watched a couple of meetings ago, we had the video of the firefighters who were there, and you could see how much trauma they went through. And can you imagine these people that were there, they were never trained for this.

So they do have significant trauma, and they are not lost. They are seen. we are trying our best to make sure that we acknowledge them the best we can

Amy thank you again for all the work that you're doing and the members of the Oversight Committee as well. I see Ricky here as well. Has the fund thought about, I know our funding, or the funding for the healing fund is pretty limited, but there are, the state has a victim compensation fund that's available for anyone who has suffered harm in any way, shape or form from these kind of violent incidents throughout the state, including here, potentially offering support because I know the application process for those funds that $70,000 up to $70,000 per person can be complicated and difficult sometimes I don't know if there's a way to potentially look

at helping them access or providing some there we did have a support meeting and we had different

organizations help out and that was one of the the goals to help them out with the application

so there are applications there are organizations Chinatown service is one of them the Christian

Harold is another. They've been helping them fill out those applications. Unfortunately, they're very limited in what they can provide.

There are certain categories where it's covered and sometimes

it's not covered. I know for this application

for the Healing Fund for folks who are seeking

financial support, I think it was mentioned $500 per grant. Is that a maximum or is that depending on how many people actually have it?

We actually have not set an amount that was an approximation depending on how many applications we get.

And we do want to set aside some money for the community projects

that will help Monterey Park Hill.

Is the thinking for the amount, I don't know if this is settled or not, I'm just curious. And it's totally fine if it's not settled. Is the thinking that each of the potential victims victims who apply for the grant funding from the healing fund would they be equal amounts or is there potential thing they would be equal amounts okay so it wouldn't be differentiated depending on whether someone was there whether someone was nearby no kind of harm okay if they're determined

to be at the dance hall on that evening they would qualify amy i also wanted to thank you for your

work on this and please let us know keep us updated but also let us know how we can help as well Yes, that would be great. We'd love a meeting with you all and see how we could put our minds together and move this forward and maybe get some more funds.

Yeah, let's do this. All right, thank you.

Thank you, Ron. Congratulations.

And for everyone on the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund, the advisory board, I asked them all, why did you join? Because Ron called.

They couldn't deny you. That speaks volumes. Congratulations. Thank you, Amy. Our next item is the development project update.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. This is your Economic Development Manager, Joseph Torres.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present an update on the city's major development projects. I know we can all agree that land development is essential for our city's success and prosperity,

imperative for our community's prosperity.

These development projects generate more jobs, bring desired curb appeal, unite community members, and maintain or increase home values, not to mention additional revenue opportunities for our city. Whether the development is residential, commercial, or mixed use, these projects you're about to see bring economic stability to our city.

Next slide, please.

Beginning from the north end of Atlantic Boulevard, just a quarter miles out of the 10 Freeway, is the site of the new Holiday Inn Suites mixed use. currently under construction with 136 hotel rooms, 84 apartment units, and 5,136 square feet of retail space. As you can see in the bottom right picture, the condominium buildings have been completed, and we're just awaiting completion of the hotel component.

Next slide, please.

Moving south on Atlantic Boulevard and West Garvey is another under-construction project, 795 West Garvey, a mixed-use commercial and retail with 5,200 square feet and the feature home of Seven Leaves Cafe.

Next slide.

The City is excited to announce that we've received conceptual plans for an affordable senior housing on 130 South Chandler Avenue.

Next slide.

750 square feet.

Next slide.

Whitmore Villas is a two-story townhome with 63 units on 2.74 acres.

Next slide. And a downtown project we're very excited about

is the Celadon Mixed Use on Garvey and Lincoln. This transformative project will take place in the heart of downtown Monterey Park, occupying a piece of prime property that has been vacant for over 20 years. It's a six-story commercial residential mixed-use with 151 apartment units. By applying the principles of good density and mixed-use, the Selden Center will cater to a range of income and population groups and contribute to the vibrancy and authenticity of downtown Monterey Park.

Next slide.

And finally, the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, notes that one exciting phenomenon that has arisen from today's economic uncertainties, high interest rates, and inflation challenges is a sharp increase in business applications. So even with the economic headwinds and uncertainties, Monterey Park had 134 new business applications or openings since September of 2022. with retail and food service leading the charge.

Next slide, please. Mr. Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council members,

that concludes the development projects update.

I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you, Joe, for that report. Very excited about a lot of those projects. Are there any questions or comments from Council? Council Member Lo? Sure. Thank you, Joe, again, for that presentation.

I'm kind of curious, like, especially given, for example,

you know we have several shopping centers and has there been what have been some challenges especially

with um and i know some of it's just symptomatic of the economy or covid the pandemic but uh

you know especially as uh the economy is recovering you know what are ways in which we can

if possible streamline the process or other challenges that are that these um interested I'm interested in business when they come in. What are the things that we can do?

The best business attraction incentive that we can provide to businesses, to developers, to contractors, to investors,

is the quickest time between time of application to ribbon cutting.

Because the sooner we can get them to making money as opposed to spending money, the sooner that they will come to Monterey Park knowing that we are a business-friendly city. In addition to that, we've come a long way streamlining our new business application process, whereas before it used to be done on paper, now it's all digitized. It's basically online, and we're providing a pathway for prospective applicants to know exactly what to expect from start to finish in terms of applying for not only a new business license, but also for all the appropriate permits that they need to get from point A to grand opening. In addition to that also, as our Director of Community Development will elaborate more,

we've done a lot of streamlining in the planning and permitting process. Yes, thank you, Joe. I'm Jessica Serrano, Community Development Director. And just to add, as you already know, economic development and community development have joined forces.

And so we're together beginning a lot of initiatives to continue streamlining our processes. First, with the One Stop Building Permit Center, we're still adding more streamlining to that process.

and additionally we're going to be doing some additional streamlining with solar applications for example things like that so there's more to come we're definitely that's a work in progress and we're definitely working hand in hand together to work on different initiatives for that.

and now the curiosity like for example um if a restaurant is applying for a liquor license i mean have there been issues with the cabc board being able to process these applications again i realize there are some things that

maybe beyond our control you know like a agency but i'm just curious like are there

bottlenecks that you are observing um you know council member um Henry Lo economic development

or community development is a team sport.

We need to partner with our economic development agencies

and partners out there.

So when it comes to ABC licensing for liquor license applications, we work very closely with the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-Biz for short. As an example, we actually had a new restaurant,

a Kokoro Japanese restaurant,

who recently opened about three or four months ago.

They needed a liquor license.

It was taking them a couple of months, and there was nothing happening.

So they called us, and we tapped into our contact with the governor's office. And within the next day, they got a call from ABC, from the governor's office, and they received their liquor license a week and a half ago.

So we do everything we can to provide the support to our businesses.

We're very limited in our resources,

but we make sure that we tap into our economic development partners

and leverage their resources as well.

Thank you.

And also, I'm glad that we are trying to work to bring new businesses,

but also helping the business already established in the city stay in the city.

are we also making sure that we are in touch with existing businesses

to make sure that if they're encountering issues, like for example

those who were applying for SBA loans, especially those

approximated to the unfortunate shooting on January 21st I want to make sure also that we are equally focusing our time on not just bringing new businesses but also making sure established businesses that have been here for, in some cases, decades, you know, also through the love and are not, you know, ignored and that we make sure that they, if they have any assistance needs,

that we make sure they stay in the city?

Yes, we are definitely, your economic development team, Council Member Lo, is definitely committed to making sure that our existing businesses have access to all the resources, to all the tools, to all the programs they need,

not only to thrive but also to grow and succeed

and create more jobs for our local community. As a good example of that, and we will elaborate more during our next presentation, is we work very closely with the SBA, with the U.S. Small Business Administration, to administer the EIDL loan application, which we'll elaborate more, as I said,

in the next presentation. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Council Member Ngo?

Yeah, Jessica, you talked about streamlining and being proactive. So I guess I've got a couple of questions. So is it fair to say that a system to get something approved today, it's much faster than it was, let's just say, three years ago?

I would say absolutely. I wasn't here three years ago, unfortunately.

but I can say that we have gotten some positive feedback from the community

and from our staff in terms of the new technology that the city council approved

with electronic plan review.

That's made a big difference, and so the review time has shortened significantly.

We're getting to our backlog has shortened significantly, and we're going to continue to see that.

Well, I agree with that because I'm hearing from folks in the community that it's faster to get things done.

Now, are we perfect? No. We're still working on it.

But I think your quickness and the way the city has processed quickness has surprised a lot of folks in the community that they think you guys are bypassing stuff, but I think you guys are doing your work correctly

and getting it done

because you're streamlining the process

to make it easier. So I think with that said, we also talked,

and you had walked me through,

we're going into a new permitting process or software, and that is supposed to take us or make us even more proactive faster because now you have multiple departments talking at the same time is and when is that system going to roll out that was already

rolled out as of april 2023 okay and so we do have some applications that are still in the old process

but as the new ones come in and as we complete the ones under the old process we're slowly getting

all of the applications now in this new process.

faster approximately just an estimate sure just an estimate i would say at least 30 faster um

we're cutting down the review process from like you know 30 days for like a planning a planner to

look at the plan um to now like more like 15 um 17 days and so um and in some cases even faster

than that um so we're definitely you know pushing um to streamline the process as much as we can

So I guess this next question is actually going to be pointed at Ron. So I know it was under your leadership that this went through with community development. Ron, are you also doing that with the rest of the department to get things done and get it executed so that we can move forward?

Thank you, Council Member Ngo, the rest of the council.

we have improved many of our processes within the entire organization,

even how we do payroll, how we pay our bills, invoicing. Before, it used to take a little bit longer than we expected to pay our bills. Now we're paying it within the time allotted to pay the invoices so that we're not getting penalized for longer than 90 days or whatever it may be. So I would say yes to that. Going back to some of the questions or maybe thought process on how we can help businesses,

we help businesses as the problem occurs with them. If they're having a problem trying to get a connection with Southern California Edison, we make a phone call to the proper planner in Edison to see if we can get a priority.

If we're having an issue with the LA County wayside sanitation because they need to get

an applicant, they need to get a permit from them for their waste discharge, we make those phone calls. So we try to process the permits and whatever the application may be according to the circumstance that arises with each project. I will also say that depending on the size of the project, you can't always say that our first plan check is going to be 17 days because the length may be a lot longer if you're talking about a project the size of celadon it could be much longer so it really depends but

the other part of it is we have a lot of adu submittals so a lot of people are utilizing their

dollars to invest into their own homes whether it's a garage conversion whether it's a granny flattened back but those are also we're seeing the numbers higher so the same plan checking that

that everyone's kind of feeding into we just have to prioritize things and just make sure that it

flows accordingly but we are definitely faster than we were i would say 10 years ago seven years

ago and even three years ago I think to council member goes point would love to

see if we can assign or start to track specific metrics on right time time it takes to for permit processing and plan check and all those things for different kinds of projects but also see how we can and I guess this is more to our soon to be interim city manager to see how we can assign some of these metrics to other departments as well, just to track how long it takes from requests to fill a pothole, say, if we're improving this from year to year, just to be able to start showing to the community that these processes and the timelines are improving on a year-to-year basis or how quickly it is happening. And to see where it makes sense to start assigning and tracking some of these metrics across the board for our operations.

And then Joe, sorry, back to the businesses.

I appreciate the numbers in this update. Would love to get this regularly as well. 133 new businesses, I believe, opened up in the city since I think last September or so. Would love that kind of data and those kind of metrics to just be helpful. I talk to neighbors and community members that are interested in hearing, and when they talk about vacancies and that kind of stuff, it's helpful to have that kind of data in hand as well to talk to residents about. Do you know offhand if the vacancy rate for retail spaces and commercial spaces, how that's been changing for better or worse in the last few months as well along that timeline? I don't know if offhand you have any of that.

Based on what we see on CoStar,

which is the largest commercial real estate database. There has been a slight improvement in the trend, but it's not just inherent to our city.

It is nationwide.

There's a lot of economic headwinds right now. Interest rates are still going up.

There's still a lot of uncertainty,

particularly in retail and in food service.

the fact that we're seeing triple digits

new business openings in our city is

quite impressive compared to other cities but

it is not vacancies

I mean you drive down Alhambra, Rosemead

St. Gabriel you're going to see vacancies all over

it's just a fact of life and fortunately

at the rate that we're seeing new business license applications and new business openings you know they're they're hopefully gaining some more grounds in than what we've lost during the pandemic but we'll watch that very closely and we'll make sure to update council on the numbers

that we see yeah that'd be helpful I'd really appreciate that and would love these regular updates and then you mentioned license fees and I know we are undergoing I believe rate and fee study for all of our kind of fees structure across the board including I think business license and others do you know when what the timeline is I don't know who this question should be directed to but the timeline for when we might adjust and set new rates and fees for for these types of for business licenses and those kind of things or when we might expect that to come to

Council mr. mayor members of the council I'm the blockage to that I'm reviewing the study at the moment. So the study has been performed. There needs to be some tweaks. I know staff is anxious to bring to the city council, but it's still

under my review. So the study is looking at

comparing us to, well one, it's addressing what the actual costs to, one of the factors would be looking at what the actual cost of the city is to process the permit and those licenses and the other is, am I correct in saying or assuming that It's also looking at what the fees are set in neighboring cities to compare or that's not happening

Mr. Mayor members of the council as to the last part of your question usually that's included as a Informational item, but it legally has no significance with regard to your your fee setting so the real question in That I'm looking at from a legal standpoint is whether the calculations being made by the consultant in order to bring the suggested fee schedule to the City Council for consideration meets the legal requirements of both the California Constitution and the various propositions adopted by voters. We anticipate it will be in front of you by

the 19th of July. July. Okay, thank you.

Thank you Joe. Thank you Joe and I really like the cross collaboration between departments. We can continue to do that and even with the other departments I Library and Parks and Rec does a lot of that. I think it makes for a better run city and being able to bring those ideas together. So thank you, Joe, for all of that and the presentation. Thank you.

My pleasure. Thank you. I'm going to stay here because I'm the next one as well.

Oh.

Go ahead.

So again, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, I am pleased to provide

an update on the U.S. Small Business Administration or SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, Application Assistance Support Center that was held at the Barnes Park Service Club from June 5 to the 30th. This event aimed to provide support and guidance to small businesses in Monterey Park

affected by the tragic Monterey Park shooting. Next slide, please. Over there.

The event was a successful collaboration between the SBA, the Pacific Asian Consortium for Employment, or PACE, a nonprofit organization, and the City of Monterey Park. Its primary objective was to assist small business in Monterey Park with their applications for the EIDL loan, which can be daunting and challenging, particularly for business owners with limited English proficiency. To ensure effective communication and support, the SBA provided translators proficient in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and Spanish languages. These translators played a crucial role in facilitating the application process and bridging the language barriers faced by minority business owners in our community. The event achieved significant success in assisting local businesses, as demonstrated by the following outcomes. Number of businesses assisted. A total of 118 businesses were provided with one-on-one guidance and assistance throughout the event. SBA representatives and volunteers dedicated their time and expertise to help these businesses navigate the EIDL application process successfully. Loan applications submitted. As a direct result of the event, 117 loan applications were submitted to the SBA by the small business in attendance. These applications represent a significant step forward in accessing the financial support necessary for recovery and resilience.

Loans approved.

Out of the application submitted, three loans have already been approved, totaling $604,500. This achievement highlights the immediate impact of the event, with local businesses already receiving the financial assistance they need to stabilize and rebuild. This EIDL program is available until January 2024, providing businesses and nonprofits in Monterey Park with an extended time frame to access financial assistance. We encourage eligible entities to take advantage of this program by submitting their loan applications within the allocated period. To elaborate further on the next steps for our business community, we have invited Barbara Knightis, the Public Information Officer with SBA, to address the City Council.

Ms. Naitis? Thank you and I want to thank Ms. Naitis for being here tonight. I know it's been a long meeting and for being here for over three hours. We appreciate all the work that you're doing with our small business and also for being here. I appreciate you all for having me. This is what we're here for to help anybody that was affected in that shooting. I wanted to see

at least the survivors and I saw it here and that was the purpose. So I want to at least see there's some options there for everyone. So like I said, it's up to $2 million. That's what I want to mention for these businesses, as well as

non-profit organizations, including places of worship. So we can't forget those churches that

were there. They were affected. So the interest rate is as low as 3.0%, and it's 0% interest for

one year. So they do have that grace period to help them at least regain their losses, and then

they can start with that low interest rate after that one year and it does not accrue so as far as that for the for nonprofits as low as 2.37 percent so and this is what we have it's January 5th is the deadline people can apply online on disasterloanassistance.sba.gov we do have a 1-800 number at 1-800-659-2955 This also will help with language barriers.

So if they do call that, they can get their whatever languages and help them assist them with that process.

That's why I wanted to let everybody know. We have been receiving denials, so we do have that option of reconsideration. So please look at your denial letter or your withdrawal letter. You just could be missing a document or there was an error in your application. So at least follow through with that and check at least with your case manager or that 1-800 number.

So as far as that, I want to thank you all, especially for the council and you and the mayor,

and especially for Joe. He helped, you know, without him and all his staff, we couldn't get the word out for this community.

So thank you for all. Thank you. Thank you.

If you don't mind staying for a little bit in case we have some questions.

Start with Council Member Lo.

Yeah, thank you. I'm curious. So in the event that an application is denied,

Does your office get alerted that it was denied?

Yeah.

They will inform directly to the applicant. They will receive through email and notify them with a letter indicating what is missing in their application and an email address. Okay.

And is there, I guess, the follow-up question then, is there then outreach to just check in and say, hey, we understand your application was denied?

That's the outreach. They receive an email. They receive that email when it tells them that they were denied.

And what do they have to do to at least continue to get them out of that denial or withdrawal?

So that will help them.

And they can also check if they still haven't received anything, they call that 1-800 number. With the application number.

How long, I guess, if I receive a denial letter, is there a timeline of when you have to apply again?

You don't need to, you already applied, so it's just a reconsideration you have up to six months. You do have up to six months?

Yes, yes.

Monterey Park. Director of Public Works. Okay. Yes. I see. And a lot of the loans have been approved even less than three weeks. So but the maximum is three weeks is typically to get approved for a loan. As long as you have you know. I don't know. Go ahead. Yeah Barbara thanks for being here and thanks for providing insight on this. So I have a question in terms of the 117 applications. What was the aggregate amount? The aggregate of loan loans requested.

it well that's the thing so it's 118 is what issued so you understand and then one out of as 117 is actually have been received right so that one that one that one application that you see is a paper application okay so yeah so what's

the aggregate dollar amount that's required yeah that's so for that three

approved is that all of the 117 applications do we have an aggregate no

No, no, no, not yet. Okay.

Thanks Barbara, and thank you Joe for the work. I really appreciate, and I think many in the community appreciate the work of the in-person service center that was open for I think four weeks, right?

Yes, yes.

In total, really appreciate all the work SBA and other partners in the community pays.

I want to let everybody know that the loan does become an option at the end of the day.

You're not obligated to accept this, so at least see what your options are.

So it's there.

Some people just look back at it.

As long as they applied, they go back to it, and then they follow through. It's still there. Yeah.

No, I would love, Joe, if once the full number of applications have gone through the process, I would love to see the numbers of, I think to Council Member Ngo's point, see what the total loan amount approved and maybe denied and applied for kind of those kind of numbers in the next few weeks, if that's possible.

Yeah, Barbara and I, along with her colleagues at SBA, are going to be working very closely in monitoring those numbers.

It's really kind of hard to, a little early to say how much numbers are going to be in terms of the loans approved,

because it depends on the type of documents that the applicants submit.

They could be missing an income tax return here or an income tax return, you know, for the last couple of years.

It all depends on how quickly and how complete their documents are when they apply.

Once the SBA gets all the requirements that they have in hand, usually it's about a two- to three-week approval process, which is fast compared to what happened during the pandemic. During the pandemic, of course, it was a national EIDL program. It took months from application to actual approval. So this is really, truly fast in terms of EIDL application.

considering the SBA is busy processing other disasters in the nation.

No, I really do admire and want to, again, express my appreciation for approving loans of this scale in three weeks is huge.

And we really have come a long way for this is the first declaration for a shooting.

So this is history.

I really appreciate SBA's really jumping on this and really being on top of this for the businesses in our community. Really quick on the applications and the business assisted. Does that include nonprofits or did any nonprofits?

Yeah, they're included. Yes, yes.

Do you know what the general breakdown was?

They only show me what you said.

No, Jill or Barbara, if there's an opportunity to break down some of the numbers.

I'll try to get more of the metrics for you. i'll try to do it you know it's it's a little bit up in the upper staff yeah no it would be great to

i'm just curious if no i understand if uh how many of the these business organizations are in

monterey park and some how many were well i'll tell you this well the three businesses the three that have proved that they were businesses um mostly in moderate park and there was one little

bit outside of moderate park that's what i'm trying to say so if there wasn't a city you know It doesn't have to be Mario Park or outside.

If they were just a vendor or supplier during that time, they can apply.

That's why we have the L.A. County make sure, and the surrounding counties.

So that's why we have that reason.

No, thank you.

And then, Joan, do you know, or Barbara, for businesses who might be missing information or have to resubmit or whatever for their applications, will there be is PACE or others offering continued assistance to help them I know the

in-person support center has to shut down but yes we actually have Mayor Pro Tem we have we

actually have an arrangement with PACE to continue providing service to our community in terms of support and guidance in the application process including translating getting them into either Chinese, Korean, or Thai. So, and that's ongoing through the end of the program.

And we are going to promote that heavily in our community

to make sure that they still can connect with PACE at the same time as connect with SBA.

And they also have other options if they're not eligible for the IDLE declaration. They have SBDC also,

the Small Business Development Center. We can also help them with startups. The new businesses, they do have that option. And also a business advisor will help them as far as their financial statements

because it could be out of order and people, you know, during that time, they were traumatized. They, you know, they have lost a lot of things. So that's why it's there, that business advisor, to help them organize everything that's needed or accounting.

So that's it. Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah, it's all free. Yeah, I really appreciate that.

Do you know, Joe, if PACE and others are, or if we are planning or you are planning to continue to go out to do outreach to businesses and nonprofits in the city and the surrounding communities at all?

PACE is actually doing some outreach, but we are continuing our outreach efforts through the economic development team. We've been very successful in reaching the community in terms of social media, email blasts, in every possible way that we can do it. We're working with our nonprofit partners with the Chinatown Service Center in terms of promoting the EIDL program and the fact that PACE is there to continue their support on any language that they may require. so the strategy is to continue aggressively promoting this into the community through the

end of the program in January. That's great and are we planning I know the resilience center is going to be opening soon are we planning to have materials like this or outreach through that that entity as well or I mean I know China Health Services is already very engaged there.

In three languages yes great Chinese Spanish and English. Perfect thank you.

Thank you so much. And I just had a quick question.

I'm kind of curious of the applications that were submitted because you brought this up. Were any of them churches?

No.

No. Have we, Joe, reached out to any of the churches because in the city they do qualify as well, right? I have contacted the churches as well as nonprofit organizations.

So, yeah, I've been getting a hold of them today. Like I said to you, I've been working with the media and the radio stations at least to remind them,

at least that's there.

And we've done the same thing because what we've done on our part is we went

and reached out to church groups that are actually outside of Monterey Park,

but they have congregation or members from Monterey Park that attend them so that their leaders can help us spread the word to their congregation.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. And I had the opportunity to visit a couple times, and every time I went there was always people applying. So I want to thank you both for collaborating and for providing that service for our businesses here in Monterey Park. Well, thank you, SBA. Thank you. Oh, one more question from Council Member. Just one more question.

What is the deadline again?

January 5th of next year. Okay.

Thank you. And then so if they want to apply, so SBA.gov?

So it's disasterloanassistance.sba.gov. and then we have that 1-800 number which is customer service 1-800-659-2955.

Or council member you the easiest way is to just direct them to your economic development team

and we'll point them in the right direction. Okay thank you. I'm looking at Amy but the

healing fund also has this information and is sharing it if anyone comes to support.

Thank you so much for that information. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, before we move on, just a follow-up to the Mayor Pro Tem's questions on user fees.

I'm holding up Prop 218 user or rate fees study.

The user fee study is anticipated to come to you in August.