City Council Meeting — March 6, 2024

Oh, I like that.

What is yours? I'm with it. It's a little bit. It's very, yes. You like that.

Yeah. Yeah. I have a very popular thing. Oh, yeah.

All right. All right.

I can't do it. You can hold it.

We got a little, I mean, I'm only a free hour.

We got a free hour. Oh, really? Oh, really?

Oh, really? Recording in progress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Evening everyone we'll get our meeting started. I'll call the meeting to order and we'll start with the

Like salute right if you can join me in standing

Present colors.

Good night, fellas.

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.

Prepare to post others. Over and march.

Always Always !

Always Always

Always Always Always

!

Always !

Thank you. Please be seated.

And if the council can join me in the front with our civic superstar, Violet Lafort, fourth grader from Bella Vista Elementary School, thank you so much, Violet and her family, for joining us tonight and helping to lead the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you.

Again, thank you.

Thank you so much, Violet, and to Violet's family for joining us tonight. Violet, you did a great job leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. On behalf of the City Council, we want to recognize your civic superstarness for leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight

and doing such a great job.

We really appreciate you engaging with our city council meeting and with local government and our city council and city government. Thank you so much, and I hope you'll tell all your classmates how awesome this experience was. And you can show off your certificate tomorrow and all week, I'm sure, and let them know that they can sign up, too, for becoming civic superstars in the city.

Thanks, Mike. Thank you.

If you don't mind, we'll take a picture.

Right here? Right here, guys.

One, two, three. Awesome. Can we get the family?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Go. It's like you're going to have to sit in a way.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right.

All right. Thank you again, Violet. We really appreciate you being out here.

We'll start off with the land acknowledgement as we do and have for our meetings.

We would like to acknowledge that the lane we inhabit today was once known as a Tovangaar The home of the gabrielino tongue of a people we show our respect to the gabrielino talking with people as well as all indigenous people Past present and future in honor their labor as original caretakers of this land We commit to uplifting the gabrielino tongue of a people invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land With that if we can have the clerk to the local

Council Member Sanchez Here Council Member Lo Present Council Member Yu Here Mayor Pro Tem Ngo Present Mayor Wong

Present

We have a quorum

Thank you

We'll move on to agenda additions, deletions, changes, and adoptions

Mr. Mayor and members of the council

Just a few items

For item number 6B We wanted to make a notation

That there was a correction

This item was requested by Council Member Sanchez.

So we wanted to just make that notation.

And then the other item was at last meeting, we had made an announcement that Los Angeles

County was going to be here to provide an update about human trafficking, a report that they were providing back to the Board of Supervisors. They were unavailable to make our meeting tonight. So we are working back to find another date that they can make. So we still plan to have them come and give us an update, but we are waiting for direction from LA County of when they're available to come do so. So just a notation on that. And there is a request to move up the new business section, if possible, earlier in the agenda. We do have speakers on this item.

Thank you.

Are there any objections from the council to move the new business items 5A, 5B, and 5C up? If not, let's start with any public communications and then we'll move to new business items and then we'll follow that with staff communications.

First speaker, Randy King.

Good evening.

It was very nice to see some of you at the Lunar New Year banquet at NBC on February 23rd. It's a great way to see old friends make new ones and support students from the Alhambra Unified School District. We hope more people come next year. I'm here tonight to follow up on traffic issues at Chandler and Hellman and generally the Hellman Corridor. Since the four accidents in six days there last August, there have been more along Hellman. There was one November 16th, 2023, just east of Inez. Another at Hellman and Atlantic January 17th. one that appeared to be the end of a pursuit where the car ended up on the embankment at Atlantic and Hellman on January 23rd, and one near Atlantic and Hellman where the damaged disabled vehicle remains parked near the intersection. This accident probably occurred before February 13th. The car is still there almost a month later. It's sitting under a 30-minute limit parking sign. At least two calls to the police have been made. There may even be more accidents I'm not aware of. In 2017, the Police Department of Metro Nashville embarked on a traffic study entitled The Effect of High Visibility Enforcement on Motor Vehicle Crashes. It was published online by the National Institute of Justice. In a nutshell, this study targeted the reduction of crashes at specific locations based on identification of behaviors that caused them. These short-term specific targeted police interventions were successful in reducing crashes. The reduction of accidents at Chandler and Hellman requires both structural and behavioral interventions. We anticipate that the analysis and recommendations of the completed traffic study will result in improvements in structural interventions at that intersection, including hopefully no parking on both sides of Hellman in the actual intersection, extension of red zones, and multiway stop signs. Unfortunately, that does not address the behavioral aspects of this problem. These may include not stopping at the stop sign on Chandler at Hellman, ignoring the red light signal outside Atlantic Times Square, where there are two signals less than a block apart, excessive speeding along Hellman, excessive speed along Chandler, improper turning both left and right from Chandler onto Hellman, driving under the influence, distracted driving, following too closely, and failure to maintain lane. In the study, police were present for brief intervals at times when the most crashes occurred. Drivers whose driving behaviors were specific to those that caused crashes at that location were cited, and officers did not stop drivers for other enforcement problems, for example, no license plates nor expired tags. The program was successful in reducing the number of accidents. Its success is important in light of the limited number of resources used, the brief time commitment required, and the motivation of the parties involved in solving the problem. The frequency of traffic enforcement sessions was determined by the increase or decrease in the number of crashes at the location. For example, if crash numbers began to increase, the frequency of intervention would be increased. I'm sure there must be someone in the city who could come up with a novel, creative traffic enforcement intervention by the police that would reduce the number of accidents in this area. At this time, I would like to mention the local explosion of e-bikes. It's very difficult to walk my dog, Tiger Lily, and to have to dodge e-bikes on the sidewalk. They make no noise, have no horns or bells, and are being ridden on sidewalks that are reserved for pedestrians. It is illegal to ride e-bikes and bicycles on sidewalks in California. About 20% of residents of Monterey Park are over 65, and this group walks to preserve mobility and maintain bone strength. They are at high risk of being hit by e-bikes and bicycles. Even being startled by an e-bike or bicycle can result in a fall. Some riders even put their children on their bikes without helmets, and I'm sure some of us can't.

one fall to change the trajectory of a child's life and that of their family. I even have a photo of a motorcycle with license plates that drove right through Atlantic Times Square by all the stores exiting on the sidewalk. Montreux Park has become a traffic free-for-all. These are just some of the reasons I'm asking for the police to provide active traffic enforcement around Chandler

and Hellman to reduce accidents and prevent injuries to pedestrians. Thank you. Thank you, Randy.

No other speakers.

All right.

We'll move on then to item number 5A.

I've invited a speaker, Ms. Jennifer Teng, to actually speak on item 5A, but 5A is a bill that's being currently sponsored by our Assemblymember Mike Fong that addresses the California Victims Compensation Fund And also whether currently I think federal law doesn't require victims who've received compensation to pay taxes, but that's not so clear with our state taxes. So this would address this issue. And I've invited Ms. Jennifer Tang, field director for Assemblymember Mike Fonk, to speak a little bit about Assembly Bill 2979.

Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you, Council Member Sanchez. Good evening, everybody. Jennifer Tang, District Director for Assemblymember Mike Fong, who is the author of AB 2979, which is your item 5A today. I just wanted to give a little bit of background as to why the Assemblymember introduced this bill. It's kind of inspiration. It was inspired by our work with victims and survivors of last year's mass casualty incident on January 21st.

last year we had two bills that were signed into law by Governor Newsom that the assembly member introduced after the mass shooting

AB 732 which was a gun safety bill and then AB 1638 which was a bill related to language access during emergencies AB 2979 came about when we were working directly with victims and a lot of several of them expressed hesitancy in applying for these funds from CalVCB, the California Victims Compensation Board, because they didn't want to incur state taxes on those funds. The state of California, for folks who don't know, for victims of violent crime can apply for up to $70,000 in compensation to cover things like funeral costs, medical bills, mental health bills, lost wages, et cetera. And so when victims are able to apply and qualify for those funds, AB 2979, what it does is it clarifies California law so that that income is not considered taxable by the state. It's already clear, as Council Member Sanchez said, that the IRS maintains a policy that ensures that victims' compensation payments are exempt from federal taxes. So what this bill will do is do the same for the state of California.

Right now what you're looking at in your agenda packet is some spot bill language.

and so the specific language is being worked out and it'll be live in the next couple weeks

but I just wanted to be here

to answer any questions you may have as you discuss this item

and say thank you on behalf of the assembly member for considering support of this bill. Thank you very much.

Well thank you Ms. Chang for agreeing to come

on such short notice

but also to speak on the issue and also thank the Assemblymember for sponsoring this bill, given what happened in Monterey Park last year. I think this is a very important issue in the current climate that's happening, not just in our state but throughout the country in terms of violent crimes, specifically gun-related violent crimes. So I appreciate the effort the Assemblymember is doing with this bill. So personally, whatever effort we can do as a city to be able to help promote and and sponsor this bill I think I would love our city to be able to do something like that and provide a letter of support if the council is a agreeable

any other comments or questions Jennifer tough for for this bill in

particular I'm in total support and would love to join the council member in supporting this happening the city's position be in support of this bill I said a question on the specific language of the bill it sounds like it's an intent bill or a spot bill language is that that is planned to yes so that will be updated you'll

see you'll see the actual language in the next couple weeks all right but the it'll be on this

topic and yes yes um yes it it will uh it will do as we discussed perfect and i don't know if we

need it if you want i'm sorry actually no i thought that occurred to me um perhaps again when you do have a language if the assembly members office is inclined maybe you could we can do a press conference to introduce the bill to the public no in City Hall

I will certainly bring that up with him thank you yes that would be exciting

yeah I don't do we need a specific motion or is direction clear you know I'll

I'll defer to Council Member Sanchez on how he wants to proceed.

Sure.

So I move that we sponsor this bill that includes all of our council members' signatures, if you guys are agreeable, and that we send this out to all of our friends, but also the state legislature, that our city is in support of this bill.

I'll gladly second that.

Motion and a second.

I would just add that we do have Townsend Public Affairs on retainer to assist with legislative advocacy, limited legislative advocacy in Sacramento. So maybe we can add this to their bill tracker specifically and receive regular updates on how the bill progresses. And if there are opportunities for us to weigh in additionally, in addition to a letter, maybe they can coordinate with us

on some of those opportunities.

With that, there's a motion and a second.

We'll call the vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll move to item 5B, discussion and direction regarding SB 1094.

Councilor Sanchez.

Yeah, sorry, that's me again.

This is another bill, and I think this really highlights but also helps promote our civic engagement. as part of our strategic plan. But currently, as a civics educator, but also just civically, students in our K-12 system only get one year, actually less than a year, half a year, a semester, of civic learning that is required, which only happens in the 12th grade year. So when we think about the voter turnout, voter education, just civic education in general, students only get it for one semester six months or less in their entire 12 to 13 year education what this bill would do is it would require that at least will help expand and push districts to expand civic education in the elementary and middle schools but it would require that districts do at least one civic related activity with students in the one through sixth grade so elementary level and in the middle school level as well so that they are constantly at least exposed to civic education, civic activities, stuff like we were doing earlier with our civic superstar. And so I know this bill is currently also being sponsored and promoted by the LA County Office of Education because of the importance of civic education. So I would like, not just as an educator but as a parent and as our council member of the city to also help sponsor SB 1094

if you guys are agreeable, if all of you are agreeable.

Any council comments?

Questions? No, Council Member Sanchez, thank you for bringing this up. I think that

we do need to strengthen civic education and I fully support supporting the legislation. I think that probably for many of us, when we talk to residents about coming to a council meeting or being involved in our civic institution or even something as basic as voting in elections, I think sometimes people don't make that connection about how there's value in their lives. And I think that is probably a consequence of not having more robust civic education about why we need to be involved in our democratic governance institutions.

I completely agree

because you just reminded me going back, I mean, 8th grade was half a semester of Constitution

11th grade was

World History, then US History

one year, one year, and then government was

only six months, and I have not had any course in that field ever since so I think it would be good, I would be supportive

of the bill

Alright, sound like there's a motion

So I move that we endorse this bill and do what we can to help promote with our friends and send a letter of support to the state legislature.

Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilor Lo. Any further discussion? No.

We'll call for the vote.

Approved unanimously.

And if I can just add one more thing.

I know we have the Assemblymember's district director here. if she can also share this bill SB 1094 with our Assemblymember.

We'd appreciate it. Thank you.

And if, yeah, similar to the prior bill, if we can track them track the bill as well and report back on progress.

So anything else?

We'll move on to item 5C, Mallory Park General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report.

oh sorry and there is one public comment for this item we can take the comment now

we received one written communication from a Linda Tang who has written regarding updates

to the density bonus ordinance or housing element program she is concerned that while there were updates made, we are nowhere near achieving our very low and low income

RHNA goals. She notes that there were

only three non-deed restricted permits, permitted units during 2021 to 2023 while there were 171 above moderate units permitted. She recommends that the city begin the process of prioritizing the following city-owned sites. She has three listed for the development of affordable homes for low-income families in our city. She asked that the city verify whether these sites are surplus sites and if they would be subject to the Surplus Land Act. If so, she recommends that they be prioritized and developed exclusively for affordable housing in which 100% of the units are affordable to low, very low, and extremely low-income families. She also asks that the city consider selling or leasing city-owned properties on a long-term basis to housing developers in exchange for a long-term commitment to maintain all or a portion of units as affordable housing.

That's it. No other comments.

Thank you.

We'll go to the staff report.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. I'm Jessica Serrano, your Community Development Director.

Tonight, doing the presentation tonight is Beth Chow, our Interim Planning Manager.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council.

The item before you this evening is the 2023 Monterey Park General Plan Annual Port and Housing Element Progress Report.

Next slide, please. The reports.

the report's purpose is to comply with various government codes reporting back to you as the legislative body as well as reporting to the governor's office of planning and research and the housing and community development department or hcd the deadline for this is to report back by april 1st of this year of course after your consideration next please so before you on this slide is the list of general plan elements that we have contained within our general plan. We have

nine different elements, eight of which are required and one optional. So just to go over

the land use element and efforts in 2023, this element guides land use patterns for future development and redevelopment in the city. In 2023, the city prioritized fixing inconsistencies and the land use element and the zoning code. And to this end, we introduced and approved several different ordinances related to outdoor dining, creation of the firearm protection zone, compliance with state regulations related to medical marijuana delivery,

and we also started our RCD, our plan campaign, which in the last year focused on zone changes to bring alignment with the land use element designations in our zoning map. And these efforts will continue into 2024.

The economic development element is the optional element within our general plan, but it's been the guiding document helping to maintain a robust local economy. In 2023, there was a focus on small business. in 2023 there was a focus on small business assistance where our city facilitated financial assistance to various businesses and was able to facilitate 924,000 in loans to several business, and we created a monthly newsletter known as Business Connect which pushes out important messaging related to small businesses. which pushes out important messaging related to small businesses, such as new laws and trends. The newsletter also offers opportunities to spotlight local businesses. On a macro level, economic development began efforts on the Economic Development Strategic Plan, and that plan will be brought forward to you later this year. Next, please. The circulation element addresses both local and regional circulation in the city. examples in implementing the general plan have included the regular maintenance of streets, such as slurry seal projects, traffic signal improvements, and pedestrian crossings improvements, such as the one shown on the top right-hand corner of the slide. Circulation element also covers public transportation efforts, which are generally maintained by regional transit operators. However, our local transit system, Spirit Bus, made efforts to expanded services. Launched last year, the Paseo Go app now allows for live trip planning as well as real-time bus status to our local transit riders. Additionally, City reinstated Route 5, which connects the Metrolink station at Cal State LA to Elex Transit Center. and the hours of operation for Spirit Bus as well as the link shuttle were also extended to better serve the community. Next, please. As part of the housing element, the Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, certified the element in March of last year. So during the calendar year to carry forth efforts in the housing element,

building permits were issued for 67 new dwelling units, six of which were for single-family homes and 61 for accessory dwelling units.

In maintaining the city's existing affordable housing stock, 137 units that were deemed at risk were preserved, meaning their terms of affordability were extended between 14 and 40 years.

Among other work towards implementing the housing element includes the updated density bonus ordinance as well as the adopted inclusionary housing ordinance.

Next, please.

The safety and community services element helps to address protecting the community from unreasonable risks associated with disasters, including earthquakes, floods, fires, and landslides. So in implementing this element, city staff participated in trainings such as activating the EOC and other federal trainings related to the emergency management systems through FEMA. So training efforts were tested in the past year, as several events did lead to the real-time activation of the EOC. City also engaged in the community in leading CERT training for better emergency response within our community members. Lastly, the efforts towards adopting a local hazard mitigation plan were carried forward

where a draft was released last fall, and that plan will still need adoption by the

council and approval by FEMA.

Next, please. The latest required element within the general plan is the environmental justice element,

and this element helps to ensure a healthy environment for all, reduce pollution burdens in disadvantaged communities and provide technical assistance to those most impacted by pollution. So to this end, the environmental justice element has dictated that cities should promote civic engagement and prioritize that type of engagement within our disadvantaged communities. Listed on the slide are several events that were targeted to reach that broader audience, including town hall meetings from the council, from public safety, from our public works department, and also efforts, again, in our sustainability plan and our RCDR plan outreach efforts. Next slide. Other elements.

There we go. Other elements that were included in the general plan are listed in this slide. So as part of the resources element, this element addresses open space and conservation efforts, both of which the city has actively worked on, including park upgrades, such as the playground at Edison Trails, and other improvements, including the seat replacements in the Barnes Park Amplitheater. the healthy community element is intended to support and promote a healthy community and to implement this element city partnered with the county and other non-profit organizations to offer health clinics including vaccination events and making covid test kits available to the public last year there was also an emphasis on mental health specifically to deal with the trauma, and loss within the community. The MPK Hope Resiliency Center was opened at Cervis Park in response to such need for mental health services, and those services continue to this day. The sustainable communities element establishes goals and policies to guide the city in sustainable practices, and in order to implement this element, the city has hosted events such as composting events, water conservation events, and we've also continued our efforts in the Go and Game campaign to form a sustainability plan, which was released in its draft form in January of this year. So overall, this report is intended to provide the council and the state with a concise summary of activities that have been carried out in the implementation of the general plan within 2023. this concludes my presentation and at this time staff is recommending that council receive and file the 2023 general plan and housing element annual progress report direct staff to forward a copy to the to the opr and acd before april 1st of this year and taking any additional action as may be desirable thank you

thank you we'll start with any questions from council

No real questions, just more thankful for the report. It's great to see just the amazing work that we've been doing over the last couple of years to implement our general plan, but a lot of them I know happened in the last year with our parks improvement and so many other items throughout the city. So very thankful not just for the report, but just staff in general for all the amazing work we've been doing to help implement our general plan,

but also improve our city. So very thankful. No real questions here.

Any other? Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you.

I have a question, which actually was touched upon by the resident who sent in the letter. But do we have an inventory of not just all land that's owned by a city,

but also other public entities like the county or metro? I'm just curious.

Do we have an inventory of publicly owned properties in the city?

Yes, Councilmember Lo, I don't know of a specific inventory that's available, but we do have access to that information through HDL.

The city subscribes to that.

We could research and look for publicly owned properties or properties owned by specific owners, such as a public utility or other type of agency, such as that.

No, thank you.

I think it might be helpful if we knew what was available,

especially if we wanted to.

Given that the City of Monterey Park is now part of the San Diego Valley Regional Housing Trust, too, is that if there are opportunities for collaboration and partnership, it might also help us meet some of our RENA goals for income levels.

That's my question. Any other questions? All right.

well thank you uh i'll add my thanks to for the report we appreciate the work that went into this i'll i think similar to what the public commenter wrote in uh right 67 or so units in terms of

what was actually built permitted and built last year good to see any right given the market but

still well below where our arena numbers and the targets and goals are for for our city right which is 5200 something. So if we're looking at already three years past another nine year period and not a whole lot in the pipeline right now, but in the next year at least, we've

got a long way to go to even get close to reaching our

targets for at least planning for and trying to facilitate a number of units that the state has called for our city.

With that

said, and I remember some of these questions kind of coming up last year during this report you know much of this is outside of our control the city is not built housing generally and does not have the ability to do that doesn't have the funding to do that now that since redevelopment has gone away but just questions on some of the tables here but in your presentation one of the slides you mentioned

preserving existing affordable housing units I think you mentioned like 20 I I don't remember how many units, but can you detail, just talk about what work went into that and what are some of those units that were at risk that were preserved and what work we did there?

So we were able, well, 137 at-risk units were preserved.

I will not take all the credit for this preservation.

The city played a minor role where we provided supporting documentation for some of these nonprofits

to obtain or maintain their affordability status.

But these were sites that were identified at risk within our housing element that have since been preserved.

Are these existing senior? I don't know what the mix is, but I assume some of the senior and some non-senior?

I have a list here. Two developments were for special needs.

I'm not quite sure the specific special need. and then one was the Lions Manor, which is senior housing.

And then preserving means we help them refinance or they refinance

and put in some renovations, or I'm just trying to get a sense of what happened.

So typically when projects have an affordability component, there's a timeline, a term of however many years,

and these three projects that were preserved,

their expiration of their term was coming up.

So preservation means those got extended, in some cases,

14 years all the way out to 40 years from when they were preserved.

Okay, so it's preserving the affordability component, not necessarily that the unit was going to come offline completely.

Correct. Okay, that's helpful.

How do we currently manage or oversee, this might be Martha's apartment, sorry, but the existing stock of affordable units in the city, do we have check-ins? I know there are covenants and requirements for income limits for all these units. How do we police those kind of things? And also do we track age and wear and tear and those kind of maintenance needs that are going to be needed for some of these units? we have a large stock of senior affordable housing that much of which I would imagine is coming up at a point where they're going to need significant rehab at some point to continue to make those livable. Do we have any tracking or oversight of those kind of units in the city?

I would say most of those affordable housing developments do have covenants in place that require that affordability. Many of them are supposed to be submitting reporting to the city.

I'm not entirely sure or confident that they all have been doing that. That's definitely something that the city needs to enforce further.

But as indicated in our inclusionary housing ordinance, That is something that we would require future housing to do as well, to require that they provide some sort of reporting mechanism. Additionally, our housing element does have an inventory of these properties indicating when their affordability is up. So staff has a quick reference guide so that we can quickly see which ones are coming up and where their affordability is about to expire. All right.

If we can, especially as we come up on budget conversations for next year, start to, right, and I think we already are starting to think about how we resource the oversight function for affordable units.

Yes.

Going forward to make sure we have an enforcement mechanism and that we know one that every affordable housing provider and manager is at least reporting their information and then that we're checking that that information is correct to make sure these units are actually going to and serving the people that they're meant for. I think that would be great to make sure we're resourcing properly going into the future, especially as we hope to welcome and facilitate the development of more affordable units.

point of, well, I agree if there are other opportunities for us, I don't know if we are in conversations with

existing

and potential non-profit housing developers to

potentially facilitate

their coming in, just as we do for some for-profit developers.

If we can

help to, if there's anything the city can do to facilitate some of these conversations and to encourage some of these conversations for sites in the city, that would make sense

for fixed income

and affordable units. I think the council would be interested

in learning more about that,

and I think I would want to support making sure that we're helping to facilitate that process for affordable housing developers where we can. I know we have, right, the city's taken some of these steps to establish its own housing fund and potentially a source or a landing spot for in lieu fees for when our IHO will go back into enforcement at some point. But the regional housing trust for the San Diego Valley, right there's potential opportunities there to facilitate for the city a affordable housing development here in the city and so let's see if we can leverage more of those where we're possible and as much as possible and where we can be more proactive and engaging potential developers on the nonprofit side for affordable housing I think would be great and then we need to do I think a lot to my earlier show the earlier point around preserving existing affordable housing units in the city. I'd love to see us explore as we're talking about budget too in the next couple months,

potentially

utilizing our CDBG and home funds or at least a portion of those

for

existing affordable housing rehab for units that are

over, what, 20, 30, 40 years old

in many cases that will need significant help and maintenance and renovations in some cases to make sure that they continue to be accessible and and meet existing codes to meet the needs of residents. If we can start to think about what that structure and resource should be for providing this kind of resource and potentially funding for affordable housing owners and managers in the city, I think that would be great to make sure that that's baked into our program

going forward too.

Because we need to do as much as we can to preserve, not just the affordability covenants, but make sure that those housing units are able to, that they're not going to fall apart and that they're able to provide dignified housing for people that are in need.

That's all I have. I don't know if there is a motion from the council to receive and file the report.

I'll motion to file the report. I'll second

then moved and seconded any further discussion if not we'll call for the vote

approved unanimously

but thank you so much appreciate the staff putting this report together I'm hopeful that the next annual report will show even more progress and that we can show that the city is taking this seriously and doing as much as it can

All right, so we'll move back to the staff communications. We'll start with the library.

Good evening.

So we wanted to start with a few highlights from last month.

Next slide, please.

on Saturday February 24 library patrons and several of you enjoyed an inspiring reimagining Asian communities panel discussion with authors Curtis Chin, Jeff Yang and Paula Yu. The event was moderated by Dr Julie Fun who is assistant professor of Asian and Asian American studies at Cal State and Mayor Thomas Wong, Assembly Member Mike Fong and Library Board Member Travis Kaya delivered some opening remarks. So one highlight was the authors in the library unexpectedly receiving official certificates of appreciation from Assemblymember Fong. Next slide please.

The library celebrated Lunar New Year with a number of programs including an all-ages Lunar New Year celebration. So kids, adults and everyone in between enjoyed activities like bowling, toss the Yusheng cornhole, making fireworks and dragon headdresses, and taking photos at our photo wall. At our Junior Friends Social, which you can also see, our teens welcomed the new year by decorating red envelopes to give to their friends and family. Next slide, please. Teens spent Valentine's Day celebrating their love of K-pop. They made valentines featuring popular K-pop dance groups. They ate super spicy seaweed snacks and they mastered some impressive K-pop dance moves. Our teen librarians spend the next few days hobbling around after practicing the dance moves a little too enthusiastically.

Next slide please.

On February 16, 250 children and adults attended the library's Pokemon party. Families had a lot of fun making crafts, playing games, and participating in a Pokemon-themed scavenger hunt.

Next slide.

So moving on to our upcoming March events. So March is Women's History Month, and we have some great events to mark that. So first up, there is Art Her Story, which is this Saturday. Attendees can learn about famous female artists and their work, and they can have a go at imitating their styles. The following week, we're celebrating both Women and National Potato Chip Day.

Yes, it's a thing.

We're the potato chip queen of Monterey Park. So attendees can enjoy a fascinating talk about Laura Scudder, who in the 1920s defied convention by turning simple potato chips into a multi-million dollar empire. And afterwards, we'll be having blind potato chip tasting, and we'll try to find out Monterey Park's favorite potato chip. Did you know that Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time?

That's your trivia fact for today.

You can celebrate her at our Agatha Christie Tea Party on Sunday, March 30. The clues are gathered, the suspects have been questioned, but can you figure out the criminal? Work together or alone to solve the mystery. And our last Women's History Month event is for children at ArtZone, where children aged 5 to 12 can create masterpieces based on the work of famous artists. This month, they'll create abstract paintings based on works by African-American artist Alma Thomas.

Next slide, please.

We're continuing on with our popular Vita Clinics. So these are available until April 11 from Chinatown Service Centre. We have weekday clinics on Mondays and Thursdays and in March, Haven Neighbourhood Services will also be offering two weekend Vita Clinics on Saturday March 9 and 23. This program helps low to moderate income individuals file their taxes each year and is very much appreciated. Services are available in Chinese and English on weekdays and in English, Spanish and Mandarin on Saturdays and bookings can be made at the library.

Next slide please.

on Tuesday March 12th we'll be holding our monthly free legal assistance clinic sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Asian Americans Advancing Justice SoCal volunteer attorneys will answer questions about immigration criminal law civil matters estate planning government benefits and a whole heap of other really pressing issues We also have a housing rights clinic. Tenants at risk of losing their homes, they can get help in this free clinic on Saturday, March 23, in the LAMP Literacy Centre. There will again be attorneys from Asian Americans Advancing Justice, who will provide one-on-one legal consultations on housing rights issues specifically, as well as other questions people might have. There will be attorneys and translators for Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish and other languages.

Next slide please.

On Wednesday March 13, Chinatown Service Centre, one of our very favourite partners, will offer 30 minute one-on-one appointments to help job seekers with tasks such as writing resumes and cover letters as well as any sort of general job seeking strategy or question they might have. Help is again available in Mandarin, Cantonese and English.

Next slide, please. Spring break.

Teens are invited to spend their spring break with us at the library with a jam-packed week of activities. On Monday, Echo Park Film Centre will be conducting an introductory workshop on Super 8 filmmaking and processing with eco-friendly materials. There will be a pyjama party on Tuesday, a Hunger Games tribute, which sounds ominous, on Wednesday. Thursday will be the very first Smash Brothers Ultimate Nintendo tournament. And Friday will be a Tinkercad workshop where teens can learn how to create designs for 3D printing. Then it'll be time for school again.

And next slide, please.

Lastly, join us next week for our Elephant and Piggy party. We'll have games and craft based on the popular Elephant and Piggy series

by Mo Willems.

No registration is necessary and materials are provided first come, first served. This activity is for kids of all ages and I'm sure will be very popular as well.

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry, I just want to take a moment to introduce. This is Leonie Jordan, our senior librarian from our library.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Any questions from the council? Sorry, too speedy.

No questions.

I was just very thankful for all the programming.

Yeah, me and Mo Willems.

My daughter really loves it. So thank you so much for all that you do for our community,

the amazing programming.

I might have to stop by for the tax clinic, though,

to get some questions. Yeah, they're really popular. Thank you. Thank you.

I think tea time piqued my interest.

No, that'll be a great one.

That's okay.

We've stocked up an advocacy too. So thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Really appreciate everything that the library does. I know that's a full calendar, so appreciate it, and the community appreciate it. Next, we'll move on to Recreation and Community Services.

Hello, good evening.

Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services, here to share some of our upcoming events and activities.

Next slide, please.

So I want to start off by thanking everyone that came out to our Youth Mental Health Summit.

I also want to send a special thank you to Los Angeles County Office of Violence Prevention.

We had over 200 youth that registered for this Youth Summit. I think we had over 150 in attendance.

It was a really, really great event.

Lots of youth interacting, getting resources and also services,

but really learning how to deal with mental health

and kind of getting some of the tools to help them in the future,

not only themselves but also their peers. So it was a great event at Langley Center

and just really excited about how many youth came out

and participated on a Saturday

when they could have been doing a number of other things.

So great thing and definitely wanted to thank the county for their involvement in that.

Next slide, please. Also wanted to just send another special thanks out

to all of our commissioners and volunteers.

Recently, we had the pleasure of honoring

all of our volunteers and commissioners at a volunteer recognition dinner at the new Marriott Hotel. So there's a nice picture of actually the coin that each one of them received that evening and also the dinner at the new.

So it was very interesting.

A lot of our residents haven't been into the Marriott, so this was a really great opportunity for them to view the new building

and also hopefully invite some of their friends

family, and loved ones back to visit Monterey Park and maybe stay in the hotel in the future. So this was the first volunteer banquet that we've had actually since COVID. And so definitely saw that all of our volunteers really appreciated the upgrade in venue and hosting it at one of

our new locations. So next slide, please. I just want to remind everyone, still time to sign up to

receive notices for our park master plan. We're going to be doing a kickoff here in the next couple weeks and then you're going to start seeing city fabric who's our consultant out at some of our city events and there'll also be a survey that'll be going out to the community where folks will be able to start providing feedback and input on some of the parks amenities and future programming and so you can scan that qr code or you can visit our website that's basically to join the newsletter so that you'll keep up to date with upcoming events and activities around the parks master plan and then you'll be getting notifications as well. Also wanted to make everyone aware that we do have a spring break camp that's going on from March the 25th through the 29th. So if your little ones from ages 5 to 12 need to keep them busy during spring break, our daycare center does have a spring break camp. And so we do have, I just checked today, we still have about eight spots left. So anyone that's looking for that last minute camp, we do have some spots left, but I do

encourage you to hurry and get get enrolled next slide please a few upcoming events we do have

our ongoing health screenings at the Langley Center every fourth Monday and third third Thursday it's like a tongue twister we have health screenings available for free at the Langley Center

then for the first time we're actually doing something in the evening at Langley Center

we're doing a date night and so we're trying something new and surprisingly we actually are

already getting quite a few folks that are signed up for it so this will be a date night on March

the 21st for those adults 50 and over there will be live entertainment staff is has has something

up their sleeve.

50 plus. Yeah.

So 50 plus. It is live entertainment.

You'll be served dinner.

Dinner and show is what I'll share with you.

Dinner and a show. And so we're trying it out. And if it goes well,

we'll have more date night opportunities at Langley Center.

So an expensive night out in Monterey Park. Next slide, please.

Also wanted to share, we are currently hiring. So gearing up for our busy, busy summer season. We are taking applications currently for lifeguards and also for recreation leaders.

So if you're someone that is out there interested in working and having fun at the same time,

you definitely want to join the Recreation and Community Services Department.

So applications are currently open.

and then also I threw up there the our contract class instructors so if you're someone that has

a unique talent skill or you know how to teach guitar art martial arts or any of those types of activities we are our work contracted with instructors we do provide the location we also help get the word out to all the Monterey Park residents to the Cascades and make those classes available even if you're a business in the city of Monterey Park and you're interested in another avenue to kind of get business into your doors, we can also partner with you and develop a contract agreement to help publicize those activities in the Cascades.

So these are great opportunities to reach out

and provide new activities to Monterey Park residents.

Next slide, please.

And then what would be a presentation without mentioning our upcoming special events?

So just a quick reminder,

we had our Spring A client coming up on March the 28th, And then, of course, our annual, this is our 24th annual, believe it or not, 24th annual Cherry Blossom Festival in April 27th and 28th.

I won't get into the other upcoming events.

I know there's some big ones coming up at the end of spring and summer. So we'll bring those back later on. But definitely want to make sure to remind everyone about upcoming spring egg hunt and cherry blossom event.

Next slide, please.

And as always, always a great way to follow us and keep up to date with all the activities and wonderful events that are coming up. follow us on social media at Monterey Park Rec.

Thank you and that can be

for the presentation. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you, Robert. Any questions from

council members?

Yes, I have some questions, Robert. Can you go back

to the lifeguard ad?

Yes, you can be a lifeguard.

Yeah. You got to be able

to do a brick toe and a 300 yard swim.

Is there specific

requirements or licensing for the lifeguard position?

Yeah, so we do offer a lifeguard course. So there is a lifeguard course. It is $135.

But if you are hired, then we do, that fee is waived, basically. We reimburse that fee.

And is there a minimum age for? 16 years.

Okay, so since it's 16 years of age, do we advertise these with our local school districts?

We do advertise local school districts. Well, it'll be in the Cascades, social media.

We're trying to get as many people as possible, local swim teams, all that good stuff.

We want to get highly qualified kids that are ambitious, that want to serve and aren't afraid to save some lives. So they do have, on top of the training they get there, they do an additional 28 hours, I believe, of lifeguard training on top of that. And then they do ongoing training as their lifeguard. That's part of our curriculum.

Oh, great.

I just wanted to make sure because I know that we do have swim teams.

Yeah, absolutely. With a lot of our schools.

We try to encourage our – that's one of our, like, feeder programs is not only our local competitive swim team, but also the high school swim because, I mean, they're already swimming, so this is great training. They're already at the pool a lot of times, and so it's a good opportunity for them to get paid to, you know, do what they enjoy.

Well, thank you. And then can we go back to the St. Paddy's one? Yep. Did I get that right?

Was that a pub crawl or what was that?

There's no pub crawl.

I'm just kidding. I was very excited about the day.

There might be green juice, but no green beer. Okay, okay. The beer's coming at Playtime.

Just find you to see for future St. Paddy's events.

Maybe we'll do mocktails or something.

At the very first event that you were talking about, if you can go back to that slide, I know that Council Member Lo and I had the opportunity to stop by.

Oh, the Youth Summit. The Youth Summit.

Yeah, I think our paths crossed between the opening ceremony at Garvey Ranch Park

with MPK Baseball and the U-Summit.

But it was really great, well attended. Yeah, great to see a lot of students there. And I saw even school districts dropping kids off in school buses. And I ran into maybe two of my students. So great to see a lot of participation from the local area. I would love to see this be expanded and continue to work with the county to be able to work and continue this mental health summit.

Yeah, absolutely.

And advertise also within our city, of course, yeah. Absolutely. But thank you so much, and thank you for all the programming. I'm a little slightly bummed about the ACON because I might be on vacation that week.

I'm going to miss out. I know, so I'm sorry.

That's it for me. Thank you.

I have a question about the date night. Is that the first time doing it?

It is our first time doing it, yeah. And our Langley Center, so we're definitely trying to do some new programming that helps to attract some of our younger seniors. So our 50-year-olds, we want to provide a comfortable environment where some of our New Year's seniors come into Langley Center and start to experience the programming and start to feel like it's a home where they'll continue to come for many decades to come.

Is there any requirement it has to be single?

No, you can come as a couple or you can come single.

I'm sure that there will be some seniors there that will be single

and looking for dance partners.

Okay, so as long as you're over 50.

Over 50, yes. Okay, thank you. We're not carding you, though.

All right, Robert, good job.

Really good job on the volunteer appreciation dinner. It was very well attended, and I think we all can say you guys did an excellent job, the city, the staff.

Just observation.

I mean, there's so many activities in Langley Center. I want to say this time there's probably more activities than at the library.

Kristen, are you still here? Oh, you're trying to stir stuff up. Okay, so I see.

I threw that as a challenge for you guys.

I see what you're trying to do. So this is a challenge.

So I think next month the library will be a little bit up and I think that's the goal. The goal is to be friendly competition, to be as inclusive and invite as many of our community members and residents as possible.

I think we definitely try our best to keep the community as busy as possible for sure.

And ourselves.

Thanks, Robert.

I appreciate all the work that Recreation Community Services staff put into all these events. and looking forward to the ones that are coming up.

And, yeah, kudos. Appreciate the work.

Just the question for a friend for date night. Is there food being served?

There's food being served. Staff will be acting as servers.

There will actually be catered food, and there will be a professional entertainer.

Just asking for those who are interested, what is the meal?

I'll have to get back to you on that. I believe it's Italian, though. I believe it's an Italian meal.

Just so they know, those who may be interested in attending know how to dress.

In your best. In the best.

I'll be wearing my tuxedo t-shirt.

Good to know that that satisfies the dress code.

But no, thank you so much. Thank you.

All right, we'll move on to public works communications.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor of Port of Tenten City Council, Shawnee O' Public Works Director.

I can't compete with all of those events, but we do have our own event coming up, our composting event.

Yay! Yes. So it is coming up this Saturday, so feel free to attend.

If you want to attend in your best attire, I don't recommend it,

but feel free to do so.

Typically we hand out about 40 tons of compost,

have anywhere from 150 to 200 participants.

So we're looking forward to the community to come out and participate in our event. With that, I'll take any questions.

Where will it be taking place? Garvey Ranch Park.

Ah, okay.

Yes, because, and yes, to attest to your statement that it's very popular because I live right by.

You do.

And yes, I think by opening, 10 minutes before opening,

there are like probably 20 cars lined up.

Usually, and we usually do open a little bit earlier because of that.

So, but yeah, we do get quite a few participants.

So you have to prepare your own bag?

Yeah, you need to bring on your own equipment. We'll usually, we have Athens that helps out.

So between their crew and our crew, we usually help out with assisting with loading everything. But again, we do want to make sure that people bring the appropriate equipment to help load things. Don't bring equipment that's going to be too cumbersome that they can't lift into their own vehicles. But we do a good job of helping them out.

Is there a limit on how much compost you can take?

Yeah, in the first hour, it's limited to 30 pounds. After that, it's come and grab as much as you can.

Just asking for a friend.

Bring your truck if you need to after the first hour.

Yeah, someone has a big truck.

Any other questions for Sean?

If not, looking forward to this too. I'm sure many in the community are as well.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we will move on from communications to consent calendar. Are there any items to be moved off of consent or otherwise?

I just have one item, just a quick report on 3B.

All right, 3B we'll pull.

Just to highlight. Quick highlight.

I'm gonna pull 3e for a quick staff report, but some discussion

If nothing else is there a motion for the remaining items move for approve remaining agenda items. Oh second. Oh

Council are you seconds? We'll call the vote for the remaining items on consent calendar

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you.

We'll move to item 3B, annual military equipment report per Assembly Bill 481.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of City Council. This is Scott Weiss, the Chief of Police. What I have before you is our annual military equipment report done in accordance with Assembly Bill 481. We do this every year. It talks about the equipment that the state designates as military equipment, although it doesn't come from the military. And then it talks about our annual report, what we've used in training or in actual operations, and what we may plan to use in the future. Typically when we do this by state law, we open up a public hearing. We open it to anybody who wants to come in and comment or have questions. We do it through Zoom. We do it in person. And we have an email address that's open throughout the year, and people can make comments and ask questions. Currently, we have nobody that showed up that night to ask questions. Nobody came on Zoom, and we have no e-mails from anybody in the public asking any questions. I will answer any questions you have about the report. Pretty straightforward.

Actually, Mr. Mayor, I do have...

It's okay.

Thank you so much, Chief, for the report. I asked for 3D, and I think we misheard. But it's okay. I still enjoyed the report.

I can talk about whatever 3D is.

I can talk about that if you like. Well, it sounds like Council Member Lo has it.

But now Council Member Lo does have a question. I do have a question.

If I recall, Chief, in the staff report, so many items included were drones, right, if I'm not mistaken?

Yes. Okay.

Just for public information, typically what would those drones be used for?

So the police department has FAA drone pilots and a drone program.

Our website has a link to our drone program.

We use drones to assist officers on calls to where we need to get an advantage over a location to be able to look down, kind of like with a helicopter.

But it costs a lot more money than a helicopter. We do it to survey any kind of property.

We used it for the GAP project quite a bit to survey that property, to look for shifts in the ground, things like that.

And to assist, as you said, to kind of get a map of the area.

Exactly. The pilots are trained, and the only way that we can utilize a drone to go over private property is with a search warrant.

Oh, okay. Okay, actually, thank you for clarifying. Yep.

it's for surveillance, but there's nothing that precludes to have any type of offensive

capabilities. It's just for surveillance?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Just thank you.

And I only ask because I know in, not here, but I know in some jurisdictions, the use

of drone can be controversial. That's why.

I agree.

We use it very judiciously here, and all of our drone deployments are recorded.

so the public is welcome to look at our drone deployments that's per state law

alright is there a motion for this

for 3B I'll make a motion I'll second alright we'll call a vote for 3B approved unanimously

and we'll go to 3D for a quick discussion

I apologize for mine

It's okay.

It sounds similar. The shapes are similar, too.

You're deep. Okay, sweet. Thank you, Yvonne.

Yeah, Sean, if you could just share a little bit.

I just wanted to highlight this for people who are neighbors who might be watching. But can you tell us a little bit about the Spirit Bus Fair on Earth Day?

Sure. Good evening. I'm Monroe Mayor, Mayor of the City Council. Sean Igoe, Public Works Director.

so this has nothing to do with PD but this is all for giving you know as part of Earth Day it's again we would do this every year we do what we partner with Metro and Metro gives free rides during Earth Day so we're looking at doing the same thing there's pure bus riding free rides to to patrons who wish to use our spare bus so typically we average about 150 writers during the normal Fridays that we typically use this thing on, the spare bus. And so during last year's Earth Day, we averaged about 167. So we saw a 17 participation increase because of Earth Day. So I don't know if it's earth-shattering, but it definitely is a good way to reduce emissions and to provide our community with other options besides single-use vehicles.

So with that, I'll take any questions.

Excellent. Thank you.

I'm wondering if there's a way we can advertise this also to our schools, so that kids know they don't have to bring an extra quarter on that day. But also, just for myself, I really do plan to write on that day, because I know that the spare bus goes to Cal State LA,

and I have class on Monday night,

so I'm going to try to take it on that day for free. But also just to kind of advertise this and the importance of public transportation. So I appreciate the work that goes into this and for sharing those numbers from last year.

hopefully we'll see an increase in ridership I hope so so let me okay so I

get questions so you said we have average about 150 riders a day for for

that for the the Earth Day or typically on a Friday last last time we had it was

on a Friday okay but this is up this is a month this is a Monday we may

anticipate additional ridership it's it's again days differ but compared to last year last year compared to a Friday which we typically average 150 on a

friday for earth day last year we had 167 so and it's a quarter ride right so basically we're

talking about 38 bucks of fare correct um can we possibly make this entire week or maybe not this

year but next year i mean think about it's earth day earth week it's 40 bucks yeah i'm sure somebody here will write a check to help spot that for the week if we need to but i think making it the week is probably more Earth Week friendly. Just thought.

Again, that's Council's direction. That's their choice. So for us, we follow suit with what Metro does. So Metro gives that day for free. If you choose to go above and beyond, that's your choice and your direction.

Actually, I have a follow-up question. Since you mentioned Metro, and I'm curious, but I know a while back, Metro, we're exploring the idea of possibly even removing the fare box to encourage more, especially for students. Now, I know the discussion for Metro, I don't know if that's something that they've taken a serious look at. But since we do try to also articulate ourselves with Metro, I mean, if they are looking at eliminating fare boxes, I wonder if that's something we could even consider doing as well.

We'd have to evaluate what that would look like.

I like Mayor Pro Tem's recommendation for expanding free ridership for the week, if that's something we could potentially consider. I'd also like, and I know I brought this up to our city manager, just for future possible reports, a more detailed report about just the spirit bus in general, ridership, routes, potential new routes, all of those different things, and then maybe finding creative ways to be able to use our spirit bus, especially during downtimes when they're not being used, potentially partnering with local schools or organizations that could potentially make use of our spirit bus routes or buses or just in general. And then for future, future, just looking at our buses and seeing how we can start to look at transitioning into EV and other things, just because I know that, you know, that's better for the environment along with public transport.

Absolutely.

Well, so you have an opportunity to have that conversation in April. That's when we plan on bringing that to council. We've been in the works of evaluating the spirit bus, the routes, and how efficiently those operations are running. So you'll have an opportunity to talk about that. And, again, as part of that conversation, to your point, is looking at EV and alternative fuel vehicles for our existing fleet because our existing fleet is reaching its end of useful life. So we'll be having those conversations in the future.

Thank you for that.

Is there a motion for the week?

Yeah, I will ask for that.

I'd like to have a motion to have it rider-free for a week for Earth Week, not just stay.

I'll second that. Seconded by Council Member Sanchez. Any further discussion?

If not, we'll call for the vote.

Approved unanimously.

Great.

And I heard someone wanted to donate fair.

We can definitely do that.

We need. How do you calculate the amount?

Yeah, it's 150 writers times a quarter, so that's $3,750 per day. Multiply that by five, $150.

We'll be happy to write a check for $200 to supplement that.

Each council member will make that fair.

Sure. Out of our stipend, right?

Mark the Jesus.

All right.

But it would be great to get a report back on ridership and make sure we're promoting this and all that. And some of them did commit to fairs.

Yes, we did. So they're on record.

All right. Thank you, Sean.

Moving on to item 3E, pressure grounding.

I'll hand it over to Sean.

Good evening again, Mayor, Mayor Potem, and City Council. So this project is to complete installation of new signals and restriping to improve traffic flow at the intersection of Terra Grande and Markland and Marketplace. So we went out for design several months ago. This is now the construction component of it. So we'll be working on getting new signalization, new timing, and hopefully improve traffic flow at that intersection.

So with that, I'll take questions. Thank you.

any uh sean do you know if you have an update or any timeline on when patrol ground it might be resurfaced and the other uh improvements in terms of bike and pedestrian kind of improvements uh

the entire boulevard yeah so that'll follow that's a different project but that will follow this one um so we're anticipating going out for design in the next few months uh design is anticipated for another six to eight months after that then we'll go into construction construction is anticipated

anywhere from probably 14 to 18 months. So that's the general time.

So looking at about two plus years for all of that work. Again, it's a significant amount of work.

It's a large street. We're talking about a lot of improvements that need to be done, community outreach

to make sure that we're including them on our conversations about the bike lane improvements.

So it's going to be a little bit of a process, but we're anticipating to be completed within about two years, give or take.

Great.

And if there are any opportunities to accelerate that,

of course, let's explore those.

We always accelerate our projects as much as possible.

We want to get things done as effective and as efficient as possible as well.

Great to hear. Any other questions?

If not, is there a motion on this item?

I'll move. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Move and second. Any further discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call for the vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right.

So that concludes our consent agenda. We'll move to our public hearing item for an annual weed abatement protest hearing. So we'll open the public hearing. Any public comment on this item?

No public comment. All right.

We will close the public hearing.

All right.

Any council comments on the weed abatement protest hearing?

Council comments? No? Any?

No. Okay. I will just

make a motion. Is there a second?

Before we take a vote, I just

note that there are, I believe there are some SCE properties on there, but given

that this, Carl will correct my language,

But given that it's a CY project, no material impact on my employer, there's no conflict, and I am able to vote on this item.

So with that, there's a motion and a second. We'll call for the vote.

Approved unanimously.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you.

And we've completed new business. We'll move to city communications item 6 a resolution of the City Council declaring the month of March as American Red Cross month The resolution language is in our packets If there are any questions or speakers on this no no speakers Any council comments?

Yes, Mr. Mayor This is about the Red Cross

When was the last time the city co-sponsored with Red Cross a blood drive?

Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, from time to time, our fire department has coordinated some efforts with the American Red Cross

when we do blood drives.

I don't have the exact time that the last time a blood drive was done, but I'm going to say maybe once or twice a year.

Is that about right, Chief?

Yeah, about once or twice a year.

We try to partner.

if there's a need and they've reached out we have coordinated efforts so we can check in with them

if needed

Any other questions from council?

If not is there a motion?

Moved. Moved by councilor Lo is there a second?

Second. Second by councilor Sanchez Any further discussion? Hearing none we'll call for the vote

Approved unanimously

Thank you move to item 6b resolution of the council declaring and recognizing in the month of March as women's history month

Any council members anxious sure

This month is Women's history month, and I think that along with Celebrating women's history month it should be celebrated throughout the year but we know there's still a lot of issues that we face as a society when it comes to women equality. But given that I have three amazing daughters and a wife at home, I really appreciate them, and I want to make sure that as they grow into women that they have equal opportunities in society. So I ask that we celebrate in Monterey Park Women's History Month but also celebrate a lot of the amazing women that are in our city that have also helped establish our city. People like Congresswoman Judy Chu have been trailblazers in our community and some of the many trailblazers that are still coming within our community

that are being led by women.

And so if you would support this resolution to make this month in Monterey Park, Women's History Month.

Is there a move? there's seconded by council member you are any further discussion from council if not we will

call for the vote approved unanimously thank you any so complete we have completed our posted

agenda items we'll move to future agenda items and closed session or future agenda items all

Council communication we start with Sanchez sure so just share a couple of

items I know some of us had the opportunity to attend on the 27th the the celebration for Kenneth Tang to the CalSTRS board that's very important to

me just because I'm going to get my pension from counselors, but also to be able to recognize

a lot of important people in our community. I also wanted to share, let me see here, many of us got to also attend Mike Fong's birthday party here in Monterey Park. I'm glad he chose Monterey Park to celebrate, but I believe he turned 40. Well, he was born on a leap year, so he's technically 12 years old.

of us attended the Youth Summit also at the Langley Center, which we spoke to earlier, was very well attended. Great to see over 200 students from the community. Council Member Loha and I had an opportunity to attend that event. And I also took my daughters last night actually to vote at the Langley Center, which was a

family event.

We usually sit down and go through the ballot together. My wife has been gone for a week, so we usually turn them in earlier than this,

but we were waiting so we can have consensus as a family.

But great to see so many people actually turn out to a lot of our voting centers here in Monterey Park, in particular the Langley Center. A lot of people, community members also helping run the voting center. So I'm also thankful to staff for a lot of the publicizing of those centers and also reminding people to go out and vote.

and I think that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Again, just to, yes, did a lot of the same events on the CalSTRS installation for board member Ken Tang, as well as the Youth Mental Health Summit, which is actually incredibly well attended, and again, just my compliments to the city, Parks and Rec working with school districts and also the county to just have a very successful event. That same day, I also attended

the opening of the

Monterey Park Pony League

Softball and Baseball. It's held at

Gary Ranch Park right by my house, but it's something that I am just so excited to always see

our families and our youth

in full force to enjoy the season.

And of course, we wish all the teams

good luck during this year's season. Also attended with many of my colleagues the O'Hambra School District's Lunar New Year dinner

at NBC Restaurant.

This week is also Read Across America weekend, so I had the privilege of attending Robert Hill Lane Elementary School to read a kindergarten class about Ben Franklin.

And I know our schools throughout the district, I'm sorry, throughout the city,

are hosting Read Across America event, so I encourage all of you who have time to

read to our youth. Also attended the

Chinese-American parents

of the disabled youth with

Mayor Potem Ngo, and this is, again, an organization that has been around for

many decades, and

they actually have their meetings, I believe, in our city at Langley Center, and it's a support group for trans-American parents who

have children who will have

some type of disability. Again, this is a very grassroots organization.

Also, let's see. Oh, actually,

I don't know if anyone else is planning to say it, but can I say it? We're very excited that our U.S. Senator Alex Bedia

got $1.5 million for Station 61,

and that's on top of the grant money that Assemblymember Mike Fong got for the same station. And I know this has been a dream of our community because it's our oldest station, Station 61, along Monterey Pass Road.

And so we're just so grateful.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, just for clarification, correct, we did get funds for fire stations. 63 is the one on Monterey Pass Road.

That's the older station. That's okay. Just wanted to clarify.

But the one that we got news today on that Alex Padilla helped with, definitely we're drafting letters to say thank you. That one is for Fire Station 61, which is this one here.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, but that's okay. We're excited.

It is funds for our facilities.

So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And then finally, actually, for a future agenda item. So today I attended the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments Transportation Committee. So this is a committee that I represent the city in, and of particular interest, I think, to the city, which I wanted to use as a future agenda item, the Transportation Committee for the Sanguibah Valley Council of Government. One of the agenda items was a discussion about the Sanguibah Valley Transit Feasibility Study, which our committee approved to move forward to the governing board of the COG. But I think this is an exciting opportunity in the short term and long term for us to have a more robust rapid bus transit system. But what has been proposed is for some type of proposed bus rapid transit system, bus rapid transit that would begin where the Gold Line station and the Nistelle to go up Atlantic through Garvey, then El Monte. And essentially, the goal is to have a regional bus rapid transit system. And there are several benchmarks that they wanted. The COG is looking at working with Metro to do a demonstration kickoff project sometime by 2028, so only four years away. And some of the proposed locations actually are Atlantic and Garvey. And so, as I said, our committee did vote to advance the feasibility study to the governing board of COG. And once the COG, hopefully, if they approve it, it will then go to Metro because the funding is coming from Metro. And so I would like as a future agenda item for us to invite the COG to make a presentation about the feasibility study and also how we can, as a city perhaps, work with them to, well, you know, if they are looking at doing some bus rapid transit, I think it's important for our community to be engaged and know what this is being proposed, how it can benefit. It also impacts the community as well. And also because, as I mentioned, they want to do a kickoff demonstration project by 2028, but the full potential of this project may not be realized in 2035. And so funding is always an issue. And I think that perhaps, given that the City Council also in the past approved its project with Metro 710 money, that perhaps this is something that we could see if we can collaborate. Because one of the goals, too, of this Transifusibility Study is to have several modes of transportation, you know, buses, bikes, ride sharing. And so given that what we approved for the 710 money does include bike lanes, perhaps this is a potential in which we could collaborate with the COG and Metro to have a, again, more robust regional transportation system. So I'd like to have a broad presentation and discussion for the council.

And that's it for me, yes.

Noted.

I want to say I'm so proud of our library, that they have so many creative activities.

And I want to say we should all get ready to transform ourselves as AI technology is coming. A lot of jobs are at risk, so we should all be ready to learn new skills, get a new degree, and transform ourselves like a library. I'm very impressed with my friend who is around 50 years old in medical field, and he knows that AI will be replacing his job. So he decided to go back to school and get a master in management just to be ready to get a new job and transform. So I want to say our library offers not only borrowing books, but passport services, mental health booth, job seeker service, and even Pokemon Party.

I mean, yeah, so proud of our library that if library can transform itself, then we should all think about how we can transform ourselves as well, especially with the new technology coming. And last notes will be on February 22nd.

seconds I attend the commissioner recognition dinner with all the council. We were all excited to see all our volunteer commissioners helping our community. I heard that there are volunteers who work 4,000 hours at Langley Senior Centers. Amazing, and thanks for all the passion and

efforts. I remember when I ran for a council four years ago, I don't know anyone, and now I'm friends with so many of you

so I'm forever grateful for all your friendship thank you

so I attended many of the events the volunteer recognition dinner the Hamlet Unified Asian American Association dinner at NBC Ken Tang's swear in for CalSTRS Assemblymember Mike Fong's event at NBC the CPAP lunch celebration. I think that's the last official

Lunar New Year celebration

because we've been to so many

and that was at our Langley Center.

One other thing to point out is March also is employee recognition or employee appreciation month

and I know we have a number of events

from meetings to coffees to snacks to lunches

for our city staff.

Again, thank you to all those who are employees of the city.

You keep our city running. We really appreciate that. That's all I have this time.

Thank you, Councilor McGill.

Attended many of the same events.

Some on February 22nd, as the mayor attended the Regional City Selection Committee,

and just to report out,

was able to vote for our long-time representative for cities in this area for the Air Quality Management District Board, Michael Cacciotti, who was reelected to, I think, a third

or fourth term,

as the Air Quality Management District Board member for the cities in our area. So congratulations to him,

South Pasadena Council Member. And then

appreciate all

the events that are going on. Agree and adding on to our appreciation for

Senator Padilla

getting us funding for fire station here by City Hall. If staff can provide an update at a future council meeting on both where we are with design for station 63 and what our plans are for the funds here for 61, I think that'd be great to just get an update. And then just adding on to what Councilman Rouleau said on the Cog bus rapid transit route plan, Going through my park would love an update and would love to see how we can support that and See if we can accelerate some of the planning there and the build-out potentially For a transit line here in my bus rapid transit line here in Monterey Park And see make sure that we're integrating our own planning efforts for the metro funding for garvey

redesign

To make sure that aligns with what is being planned by the cog and metro for this bus strapper transit line. That would be great I attended with many others some of the Read Across America events but I went to Bella Vista

on March 1st

great to spend time with the I think it was the second graders there they were super adorable and very welcoming I appreciate being able to read to them

and also personally on March 1st

with CAUSE the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment with Councilman Ryu for their vote center food crawl we got to highlight the vote center here at Union Church on New Avenue. So appreciate that cause was highlighting voting and voting centers throughout the San Diego Valley and Los Angeles area for the couple of days that the vote centers were opened over this past weekend.

Hope everyone got a chance to vote

and looking forward to the final results for, and just applaud everyone that was part of the process of helping to count the vote and make sure that this election went off really well. Also, thanks to L.A. County and everyone else that contributed to those efforts. With that, if there are no final comments, we can adjourn the meeting at 8.13 p.m.

I'm going to go home.

Thank you.

We'll see you at the next meeting.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.