Special City Council Mtg. Meeting — March 26, 2024

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. I cannot believe that. No, I'm not. That's why I said you can't believe.

I can't believe that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. We will- Recording in progress. Call the meeting to order.

Welcome everyone to our rescheduled meeting for the city council tonight. We don't usually meet on a Tuesday, so appreciate everyone coming out. We will start with the Honor Guard. If you can all join me for the presentation of the colors.

I can't do it. Turn it off. Forward and left.

Outward face.

Outward face.

Present colors.

Put your right hand over your head. Ready? Begin.

I pledge of 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.

Order, colors. Outward, face. Forward, march.

Pulse colors. Pulse colors.

About face. Dismissed.

Thank you to our police explorers and I'd like to thank our civic superstar for tonight, Alice Zhou, for leading us in the pledge of allegiance. If the council members can join me out in front of the dace to present a little certificate.

that we'll be in the summer. Thank you.

Ready? Ready? Ready? Ready? And right here. One, two, and one more. One, two, and three. All right, right here. One, two, right here. One, two, three. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Who's your sister? Let's go! How's dinner? No! Why did she go to this so much? She's going to be a man! She's very excited! Yeah! And then with your brother in the heart! He's ready! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah, she did! Thank you! Thank you! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! I know! again thank you to alex uh zo who is a second grader second grader at rapetto elementary school thank you so much and thank you to the family for lending him to us tonight

We'll start off the meeting as well with our land acknowledgement. We'd like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as the Tovangaar, the home of the Gabriolito Tongva people. We show our respect to the Gabriolito Tongva people, as well as all indigenous people, past, present, and future, and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabriolito Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history, and join us in caring for this land. Again, welcome to our council meeting tonight. We'll have the clerk do the roll call. Thank you, Mayor.

City clerk, Michelle Yee, she's not available today,

and she apologized for not being here. Council Member Sanchez?

Present.

Council Member Lo? Present. Council Member Yu? Here. Mayor Potempo?

Present. Mayor Wong?

Here.

We have a quorum. Thank you.

Thank you. Any agenda additions, deletions, changes, adoptions? No, Mayor. All right. We will move to public communication.

Yeah.

All right. Sorry. There's not a change necessarily, but there is a request to consider moving up item 4A. It's the public hearing item.

if Council chooses to do so.

Any objections to the change? All right, so we'll take that up after public communication then. All right. We'll go ahead if there are how many? Cindy, do you know how many speakers there are?

There are only one speaker for public communication.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you. Gregory Moss?

City Council members good evening good evening to Monterey Park the reason I'm here is that I attended the meet the mayor meeting last night at the Bella Vista Monterey School and during the time the mayor mentioned about some ideas for development in some of the areas of the city which I guess are some vacant office spaces in Saturn and also what they would corporate center. If I understood correctly, that's what the mayor was asking for some suggestions. So I had some ideas that came to me last night, I thought that maybe be worth considering if you haven't already considered them. One of them might be contacting USC and asking them if they would be interested in some land space for some research, for laboratory work,

Maybe they want to have an outpatient facility available to them. USC is really kind of spread out a lot in the San Gabriel Valley.

They have a facility in downtown L.A. They have facilities in Arcadia. They're building a large facility on Fair Oaks in Pasadena.

And I think also in Verdugo Hospital, Hills Hospital, they're up there as well, I believe, and maybe some other places. And then, of course, they have their main campus over in San Pablo. So perhaps with their expansions, maybe they're looking for some more space. I don't know, but that was one idea that I had. Some of the studios like Disney, Warner Brothers, perhaps Universal Studios,

maybe they're looking for some facilities, store their prop equipment, maybe some high-tech development in an off-site area that might be of some benefit to them. I don't know. Maybe it would be beneficial for them if they had their facilities out here, so if they wanted to do any filming in the San Gabriel area,

they would have their costumes and props and things like that that would be available to them also.

And also, too, an area in North Carolina called the Triangle, that was originally called the Research Triangle, was developed in the 1950s, and it's supported by Raleigh-Durham and the city of Chapel Hill, I believe.

And they work together with, I think, the university there, and they have a number of high-tech companies that are there. I'm not sure which all the companies are that are located out there.

Maybe something with the police department. Maybe they need some more space or something that they could use, auxiliary offices out there.

was another idea. The one thing that I would suggest not doing is considering warehousing. Last year, warehousing development

has actually been on the decrease. Not sure what's driving that. But if you build a facility, or even if, say, like Amazon or Google

or some other place were to build a warehouse there, even if they pay for it, if they decide to abandon a project, who's going to pick up the tab for that? Who would be responsible for maintaining the building if the tenant's not going to move in. As I'm sure you're well aware, over at the corner of Atlantic and Garvey, the northeast corner, we have that, well, it was supposed to be a Starbucks building. It's built there. It's been sitting there empty for years. So you kind of get an idea what happens when there's businesses being developed but not following through like it should be. You could be stuck with a building that now the city would have to maintain. So basically that was just sort of the some of the ideas I had I think probably something in Director of Technology. You know, would be a green initiative idea where you're not having something that's producing what we prefer to as dirty pollution and so on. And also, too, depending on whether the building should be raised or just simply remodeled or combined together or something like that, you have an opportunity to develop a lot of solar panels out there or maybe look to developing this with using of solar energy. You know, I don't know how much solar energy cities across the country use, but I don't know how much solar energy cities across the country use, but I don't know how much solar energy cities across the country use. but if there's a chance to building a lot of solar power out there, Monterey Park could be considered a city that's really getting into the solar power thing. Or, well, I don't know if you could put wind turbines there. So that would be something else to consider along with that, I think. And sort of lastly, any development like over in the Saturn area probably needs a lot of input from the residents there. It's a really nice area, Monterey Park. I mean, Monterey Park is generally all a nice area to begin with. but I've met a few of the people that live over there. They have very nice homes, as I'm sure you're well aware of. They maintain their properties, and so any kind of development certainly would have to be from their input as well as what they would find acceptable to theirs. So that's basically all I had to say on that subject. Thank you. Any other speakers? No other speakers. I just heard my...

Andrew? Yes.

You want to speak on? Just for a general comment. Okay, sorry. Please.

Hi, good evening.

Mayor Thomas Wong and Mariette Park City Council.

My name is Andrew Yip.

I'm an Army veteran, community member, and a member of the SGV Sanguva Valley Progressive Action. I approach you today with a pressing humanitarian issue,

the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas has led to untold

suffering. The self-immolation of U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell in protests against Israel's actions and the lack of response from our leaders in Washington, which includes our local electeds, including our congressional representatives, serves as a tragic reminder to the death of despair felt by many Americans as we watch for the past few months on what's unfolding in Gaza. As expressed by my fellow Veterans for Peace member Dennis Fritz, Aaron died for the sins of our Congress and the Biden administration with over 14,000 children among the more than 32,000 and counting casualties in Gaza. In the blockade hindering aid, the situation is dire as UNICEF and the UN assessments point to an imminent risk of death from starvation for over 1.1 million Palestinians. Monterey Park, where Asians make up 65.6% of the population, is keenly aware of the situation in Gaza. Recent surveys have shown that many Asian American and Pacific Islander community members believe the U.S. stance on Palestine is out of alignment, with a significant number advocating for a permanent ceasefire. Numerous members of our community belong to ethnic diasporas that have been shaped and forced to flee their home countries by genocide, war, and violence, adding depth to our understanding and empathy for the people of Gaza. Given the lack of action by our congressional representatives, as we look to our city councils, cities like Pasadena, Montebello, and most recently, as of last night, Alhambra, who have passed ceasefire resolutions. It's crucial for Monterey Park to join this call. We urge the council to direct staff to draft a resolution advocating for a ceasefire and to review the resolutions passed by Alhambra and Montebello for extra guidance. And we are more than happy to support and advise. taking this step will demonstrate Mario Parks commitment to peace and justice and we will be back as soon as that's on the agenda

thank you so much

thank you any

any interest from the council direct staff on that

yes sure if we could perhaps at a future council meeting have such a resolution on the agenda

The direction would be to have staff look at these other existing resolutions and bring back a draft for consideration.

Is there consensus from the Council, Mr. Mayor, and members of the Council?

Yes. I would support

that. I think that it's a global crisis.

As a parent, it's very hard to stand by

and see so many innocent children suffer in families. And so I would support Council Member Lo's action to bring back a resolution to look at how we can, as a city, express our concerns about what is happening in the Middle East to our representatives in Washington and whatever efforts we can make as a city to ensure that a ceasefire is secured in this area.

Thank you. All right. So I think that's a clear direction for staff to do some work. All right. So we'll move on to presentation items. 1A, Los Angeles County efforts to address human trafficking. Oh, sorry. Yes. We moved the item up. So to item 4A, consider a tougher hearing for Monterey Park Senior Village. Is there a staff report?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. We are here this evening to conduct a public hearing pursuant to the Federal Tax Equity

and Fiscal Responsibility Act, or TEFRA, which requires that such a hearing be held by a

governing body in the jurisdiction where a proposed project is located.

This evening, Alexis Givorgian, excuse me, from AMG and Associates, is requesting that

the California Municipal Finance Authority or the CMFA be the issuer of tax-exempt financing

in an amount not to exceed $40 million for the acquisition and rehabilitation of the Monterey

Park Senior Village in Petrera Grande. The debt to be issued by the CMFA is the sole responsibility

of the borrower. The City of Monterey Park has no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities

with regard to the repayment of the debt. All financing documents will carry disclaimers that the loan is not an obligation of the city and the city will also bear no costs in the

issuance of the proposed debt. This evening it's recommended that the city council adopt a resolution approving the issuance

of bonds by the CMFA for the benefit of AMG.

The adoption is solely for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of the TEFRA and

the resolution will also authorize the mayor to execute the JPA agreement with the CMFA.

The applicant Alexis from AMG is here this evening and we have Anthony Stubbs from the CMFA joining us via zoom if you have any questions Thank you any questions from council or do it have to open the public hearing technically so we'll open the public hearing

Any public comment non-registered all right any comments or questions from council

Just to clarify, what obligation of any will the city have to bear with this matter?

The city bears no obligation.

The city is just conducting the public hearing for the purposes of the TEFRA requirements. So the applicant, the project is located within Monterey Park,

and the applicant and CMFA approached us to conduct the public hearing for those purposes.

I see. Thank you, Diana.

Any other questions? If not, I just have quick questions, and I don't know if Alexis or someone else might be able to answer this. I'm just curious if you can walk me through. So if we move forward with approving this, what are the plans in terms of using those funds for renovating the senior village?

Can you just detail that a little bit?

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. Alexis Kevorgian with AMG and Associates. basically the bonds that are going to be issued the proceeds are used to rehab the project acquire the project

it's going to have a technical change in the ownership although I'm still going to be in the new ownership and we're going to rehab

all of the interior of all the units the common areas the elevators furniture exterior painting, roofs. So it's a substantial rehab. And it's a project we built 20 years ago. This was actually my very first project going back 22 years ago. It's kind of nice to be back here. I was here when it was a completely different council. Well, I appreciate the ownership's proactive approach to making sure that this the property continues to be livable and dignified for senior affordable units uh and this mechanism will ensure it these units are not going to become market rate right they'll continue to be affordable and senior there's no no change to the covenants there in

terms of affordability yeah actually there'll be an extension to the regulatory agreement it'll be

pushed out even further out it was 55 years uh 22 years ago so it'll go on another 55

years from today. Awesome, great. If there are no other questions, if there's a motion on this from anyone?

Oh, do I need to close the public hearing? So we'll close the public hearing.

And is there a motion? Move for approval of item 4A. Second. Second. All right, motioned by Council Member Lo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Ngo. If there's no further discussion, WE'LL CALL THE VOTE.

APPROVE YOU NAMSLY.

THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT, WE'LL MOVE TO OUR PRESENTATION ITEMS.

THAT I CAN'T FIND.

STAFF COMMUNICATION.

YEAH, STAFF COMMUNICATION, SORRY. CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE.

Thank you. Good evening again.

Diana Garcia, Assistant City Manager.

We wanted to talk about a couple upcoming programs that are coming up next week.

The first one that we'd want to talk about is the Sound the Alarm program.

This is happening Saturday, April 6th from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is a great program that's a partnership between our fire department and the American Red Cross. folks can sign up using this QR code for an appointment and they can have volunteers from the Red Cross and our own fire department

come to their home and install a free smoke alarm and talk to residents about fire safety.

So appointments are going to take about 30 minutes.

If you go to sign up on this link and there are no more appointments available for the 6th, you will get an appointment on another day.

So we definitely encourage residents to take advantage of this program.

It's completely free.

The second event we'd like to call your attention to is our community cleanup this Saturday, April 6th at the Barnes Park Service Club parking lot from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

This is for Monterey Park residents, so we're going to require an ID or a bill.

And this is a drive-in and drop-off event so we can collect bulky items, electronic waste, and this is in partnership with Athens Services.

We'd like to remind residents that no hazardous waste such as batteries bulbs paint oil Things like that are going to be collected at this event

And then the final program that we've got coming up is going to be Monday April 8th 6 p.m. to 7 30 p.m.

At the library across the street on the second floor in the friends room

We're going to have a representative from the California Housing Finance Agency Cal

A who's going to present information about assistance programs for first-time home buyers

This workshop is free. It's open to the public. No registration is required and this will be translated into Chinese and Spanish for our residents

So we definitely encourage people to come out and learn about the programs and the assistance that is available to them as a first-time home buyer

That concludes my presentation. Thank you

Thank you, Diana. Any questions or comments from Council? Mr. Mayor? Yes. Diana, thank you for that update.

I'm curious, the first time homebuyer workshop, is that the only

scheduled workshop we have planned for the coming

spring or fall? It is right now, and depending

on the demand, we can definitely schedule more. Cal HFA has been very generous with their time in coming down and presenting these,

But we can definitely do more as the need as I know this in person which is great

But do does Cal HFA also do zoom

Workshops as well

We can check with them on that

I think maybe what we could do is probably set up a zoom link for this one if we're able to do it logistically, okay?

Any other any other comments or questions if not, thank you Diana appreciate it I'll move on to library.

Good evening, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and members of the City Council. Kristen Olivera, City Librarian, and this evening I'm here to share some upcoming April events with you. To begin, April 7th through 13th is National Library Week. If you visit the adult reference desk during that week, you can pick up an activity bookmark, complete all of the activities, and then enter for a chance to win a prize. Santa Cruz. On April 9th at 6 p.m. families are invited to enjoy a read-in at the library which will include special activities in the Children's Department. We're also very excited to debut two new library card designs created by the winners of our library card design contest. Jolie Ulevis and Makayla Kwok were the winning designs for that contest and the new designs will be available beginning April 8th. Additionally, the community is encouraged to complete the library's community survey, which serves as an opportunity for the library to hear how we're doing since we published our strategic plan in February of 2023. The survey is available online and printed copies are also available at the library.

The Play Days Read and Ride reading program for ages 0-13 will begin April 8.

Kids who read for four hours will receive a free ride ticket to be used at the Play Days Carnival in May. On April 6th at 10.30 a.m., Chinatown Service Center will provide Medi-Cal enrollment assistance at the library. And on April 8th, the LA County United Mental Health Promoters Program will discuss the mental health challenges of immigration and how to develop coping strategies and resilience. You can join adult services for an AI workshop on April 13th at 4 p.m. And all Swifties are invited to a Taylor Swift party on April 20th at 4 p.m. Lastly, families are invited to celebrate Children's Day on April 30th at 6.30 p.m. with a special Spanish-English bilingual story time and craft. Additional information about all these programs and more can be found on our website

and our social media pages. That concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Kristen. Any questions from Council?

Well, thank you so much for all of this amazing programming. I'm wondering if you, I don't see it in the slide deck, but if you happen to have any designs to share of the new library cards for us tonight.

No, I don't.

They'll be published on social media very soon.

Oh, that was going to be my second question.

so very good and then um i did have a question regarding the um let me see here oh the taylor

swift party yes um is this just open for kids or is this adult this is for this is for all ages

all ages okay excellent i'm just asking for a friend of mine so it's okay

thank you so much You're welcome.

Kristen, thank you for it. Keep that screen up there.

It shows seven different things for the month of April.

I'm sure there's a lot more, but these are kind of like the seven specific items that's non-recurring. Correct.

I'm just going to keep that in mind because I know who's up, and there's a little friendly competition that I'm tracking for everyone.

Our newsletter is available on our website, and like I said, this and much more is all on our website.

Any other comments or questions I'll just add I'm looking forward to the designs for the library card I will request on behalf of the council samples of the library card designs Maybe we can get some at the next meeting physical ones. I think we'd love to do that And then yeah, I would love to just encourage staff I think this is great to get the community involved in designing a piece of this right stuff. If we can find other opportunities to have the community get involved in ownership of what the city does and the services that the city offers, I think it would be great to promote more of that kind of effort in other parts

of the city as well. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We'll move on to recreation and community services. The bar has been set high.

Good evening, Mayor Wong, Pro Tem Go, Council Members. I'm Christina Alatori.

I'm the Recreation Manager for the Recreation and Community Services Department. We kind of scaled back our presentation tonight, just to kind of throw it out there for Pro Tem Go.

But we definitely packed a punch in our presentation. Next slide, please.

So first, we'd like to thank the community for joining us on the St. Patrick's Day Dance at the Langley Center.

We had a record-breaking 150 participants join us that day.

We featured a band called the Rock Tops.

The seniors are still talking about this band. We catered a meal for them, and it was a really, really great evening.

Next slide, please.

Our Langley Center, as you can see, has been very busy.

So for the first time in quite a while, we actually offered a date night, which is an evening event.

Typically, we offer events during the daytime to get our seniors to participate.

And we tried this out.

We actually had a magician called Richard Sky come out, and it was more of an intimate setting.

We had approximately 60 participants attend, sorry, 80 participants attend, and we had really, really great feedback.

The participants were asking for another date night.

So it was really, really well attended, and we have received very, very positive feedback. Next slide, please.

So we, along with the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley and the Alhambra Teachers Association, applied for an award with the California Parks and Recreation Society District 13.

and it was a Better Together award, and this was for collaboration efforts,

partnering with community organizations,

and we actually won an award, Better Together, for this year,

and it just highlights our diversity and inclusion efforts we have done here in the city,

and primarily this is highlighting the LGBTQ youth and community members here in Monterey Park.

It was definitely a celebratory night and our staff definitely feels thankful for being able to participate in an event just like this.

Next slide please. So as you know we have our parks master plan. This is a community driven plan.

If you visit any of our parks you're going to be seeing posters with QR codes.

We want as many people to take part in this survey as possible.

the survey is in three languages. It's in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

That way we can also be able to have the input from some of the folks who maybe

speak different languages in our community. And if anybody is watching

this and would like to participate, they can visit our website at

montereypark.ca.gov backslash parks plan to get their input. Some of the questions

are as simple as, what's your favorite park? What do you like about our parks?

Again, we encourage all community members to participate in this survey to be able to get as many public opinions as we can. Next slide.

So on Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. here at Barnes Park, we are going to be having our spring egg hunt. And it is open to all who would like to participate. this event again is going to take place from 4 to 7 p.m. here at Barnes Park and we actually

have a special visitor for you and it is the Easter Bunny

who will also be here on Thursday come on over and our Easter Bunny here will be taking

photos with the young ones. We'll have opportunities for the toddler age group to come out and participate. So we welcome all community members to come out and join us on Thursday

here at Barnes Park. Next slide. And that's all we got for you. The Easter Bunny and I

are here to answer any questions that any of our council members may have.

Council members, any questions?

Not any questions, just more accolades. Thank you so much for all of the amazing programming.

I know this year I'm unfortunately going to have to miss the spring ink hunt, but I know that I will be here in spirit.

I know, I know.

Robert just booed me. I know, I know. But I'm going to have to take a selfie with you. I know.

Before I leave because my daughters won't believe that I met you tonight. though. But thank you so much for all the amazing program that you do for our families and our residents here in Monterey Park. It's what makes Monterey

Park so special. So thank you and all of the amazing eggs you will lay out

throughout our city for our residents. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I'm

gonna run down and just take a quick selfie if you don't mind. Why don't we

take a council picture. I'm asking for a friend. Will there be enough eggs for

everyone in different age groups? Oh, yes. So we actually,

I know that. We actually, the

Easter Bunny is delivering 10,000 eggs

to be caught. Plus prizes in some of the

eggs. All right. Council,

if you can join us with the Easter Bunny down the dice.

Perfect, right?

Right.

Everyone's looking here.

Let's do one without buddy.

And then let's do one with everyone doing buddy. Yeah, yeah. So everyone gave each other money. There. All right. One, two, and three. Awesome. Good. Yay.

All right. Yay. All right. It's perfect.

Yes. Hold on. Hold on.

Yes. Yes.

And asking for Council Member Sanchez's friend, And adults can also take pictures with the Easter bunny, right? Yes. Yes, they can.

All right. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from Council on Recreation Community Services?

If not, thank you. Appreciate it. looking forward to the many programs coming up. We will move on to presentation item 1A, Los Angeles County efforts to address human trafficking.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council.

Tonight we have with us Rigo Reyes from L.A. County Office of Immigration Affairs

and also Joseph Milas. He's with L.A. County Office of the County Council. They're here tonight to give the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Diana.

Good evening, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. Rigo Reyes, Executive Director with the Office of Immigrant Affairs for the County of Los Angeles. And with me is Joe Mellis, as was mentioned earlier, with the Office of the County Council.

We want to basically give you an update of the work that has transpired since we were last year, I believe in January. And this concerns a motion by our County Board of Supervisors, authored by Supervisor Hilda Solis, representing the 1st District, which includes this area, where we were directed to conduct a study in regard to reimagining how we approach labor and human trafficking. We completed the report and submitted it back to the board, and we are now awaiting for direction as to the next steps. We tonight want to highlight some of the recommendations, the issues that came up during the process, and more broadly a discussion concerning the increase of new immigrant arrivals really throughout the county, and certainly Monterey Park is a destination, certainly for some of our new Chinese immigrant arrivals. So I'm going to pass it over to Joe, who did most of the writing for the report, But I just wanted to highlight that throughout this process, we are really looking at approaching this through the needs of the victims that are going through these horrendous conditions and make sure that our approach is centered on providing them the support services they need. And for that, one of the main recommendations, as we mentioned at the last presentation, we want to see if it's feasible to establish a one-stop resource center where victims can come in, connect with trusted service providers that have language capacity, that have immigration legal services available and certainly take into account the cultural issues that the victims, the survivors, have to confront as they tried to get through these ordeals. So I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Joe Mellis. And really what we wanted to do tonight is give you a broad overview and then be available for any questions that you may have, either directly to the... be available for any questions that you may have either directly to the report or more broadly in terms of like I said supporting this immigrants that we know are in our communities.

! Thank you. Good evening Mayor Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council members. If we could have the next slide please. ! So we were here in January and largely what we have on our slides is similar to what we had before and I'm just going to kind of walk through. What we have on our slides is similar to what we had before and I'm just going to kind of walk through it Fairly quickly since you're more or less familiar with it, but I invite you Now or as as I go forward to ask any to interrupt me with any questions you may have We really are here because we want to continue this partnership. We We want it to be clear that this is we're in this for the long term and we understand that this is going to take a lot of doing however it unfolds as Rego said the report has been submitted to the Board of Supervisors so we're in a holding pattern as it were as we wait to see what their reaction to it is going to be and and we hope that further instruction and direction from the board will come to us so that we can take action. But I do recall that there were questions that came from this group of people about whether or not the county was going to be a steadfast partner on this journey and on this issue. And part of being here is about that, is just to say even though we're in as much of a kind of holding pattern as you are in this regard. We will maintain that we want to maintain this connection and we want to maintain communication on this. So again, the report has been submitted. We're waiting for instruction. But the heart of it is really that our approach as a nation to this problem and really worldwide has been focused on a law enforcement approach, which is fundamentally, in a sense, passive. You can't take action as law enforcement until something bad happens. And what that has led to is really worldwide, in the United States, in California, in L.A. County, and obviously here in Monterey Park, is an increase in trafficking, and particularly in labor trafficking, but sex trafficking as well. And so what we're proposing and what the thrust of the report is about is taking a broader approach, what we're calling a public health approach, which is also incidentally an approach that the Office of Trafficking and Persons, which is a federal office, is now adopting as well, which is to really engage on the preventative side of things, to identify populations that are vulnerable to trafficking, that are vulnerable to labor exploitation, and to really treat labor exploitation as a spectrum of activities, of bad activities. But there's wage theft at the Lor end of things. But at the most extreme end is slavery, labor trafficking, sex trafficking. But our approach in terms of our historical approach to this problem has been to focus and isolate ourselves on we're just going to look for trafficking, we're just going to look for violations of the law that are obvious and that we can see. What we're saying is and what we're proposing is and what we want to do is to say, well, actually, anyone who is subject to labor exploitation, that entire group of people, which includes, for instance, all of these folks arriving across the border and coming and ending up here in Monterey Park, this whole population is vulnerable to trafficking because of the status of where they're at. They may be under debt bondage. There may be other coercive circumstances. They simply need to work, and they cannot turn down any job under any circumstances. So to really open ourselves up and become available to those populations is what this is about, the public health approach. So that's really what that part of it. That's kind of underlying all of this. Now, in terms of, if you could move to the next slide, please. In terms of how this would look in the real world, that really manifests in what Rego was talking about, which is a worker resource center. And our proposal involves a pilot worker center here in Monterey Park so that there's a place where people can go, not just victims, but people who are just under circumstances of exploitative working or they just don't know how to deal with their situation, where they can go and talk to folks who've been in their situation, been in their circumstances, who are able to offer them services. And we're talking about a whole panoply of services, legal services, employment services, housing, whatever we can bring to bear in order to kind of get these persons off a path that may lead them into a severely exploitative situation or even full-on slavery. So that's kind of this slide. If you could move to the next slide, please.

Ultimately, the goal here is not to create people who are dependent on government services,

but to create situations where people can realize their own self-reliance

and become persons who can go out and have a job and have housing and take care of their families.

But the problem, of course, is to extricate themselves from these exploitative situations.

And that's where we want to have the scaffolding of the worker center to offer paths forward.

Obviously, people have to avail themselves of these services, but we want to have those services available.

So that's really the kind of the essence of what what is being proposed here And again, we're we're going to wait to see how the board is going to what action the board is going to take But in the meantime, if you have questions, I am fully I invite your questions And and even if they're challenging questions, you know, this is a very challenging problem. It's multifaceted

It's deep.

It's going to take, and the scholarship has shown that there's no way that any one agency,

whether they're a community-based organization or a government agency, no single agency is going to be able to solve this problem. We are all in it together as a community, as a community of Monterey Park, as the wider community of the county, the wider community of the state, and the world community. So that's what this is about.

Thank you. No, I appreciate that. we'll open up to any questions from council members

Mr. Mayor

again thank you very much for coming back to the city council

and yes with having some more information

to share with us and I think we applaud the county for

making this an important priority issue and to working with communities like ours I guess the question I have

is well first I'm very glad that you know your focus is on the victims of human trafficking but I'm curious um does your mandate or directive also include I guess going after those who are the ones who are perpetrating the human trafficking and in another way we want to of course remove people who are

vulnerable in these situations but what are we doing also to to go after those

who are the ones who are organizing these schemes, if you will, that exploit people into human trafficking?

It's a great question, and we are absolutely... One of the things that has been a repeating theme throughout all of this is there is no... In no way, shape, or form is anyone suggesting that law enforcement doesn't have an absolutely critical role to play in all of this. So law enforcement's efforts that have been ongoing for these last many decades, we fully expect and are in partnership with them to continue in those efforts and to heighten them, to broaden them, to expand them, to particularize them. The benefit of this approach, this public health approach, of hopefully establishing real working communications with the population, the vulnerable populations, is that we can get better information about where labor trafficking is happening in real time rather than after the fact. One of the problems for law enforcement with doing work against labor trafficking is that it's a hidden crime. Sex trafficking has been the major focus of law enforcement, mostly because it's easier to spot, as it were, whereas labor trafficking is more difficult. So a major part of this is about creating infrastructure for information to flow to law enforcement so that we can actually get after these bad actors. And part of that is also reimagining the way that law enforcement and that we all conceive of trafficking,

which is rather than as this isolated activity, there's a model that's called the enterprise model. So we're looking at this as an entire system of various components that are involved in the ultimate act of enslaving people. but it starts in home countries, whether a person is going into debt to get themselves transported all the way over here to the United States,

but then the next phase is the distribution, as it were. How do they, when they get to the place that they're coming, for instance, here in Monterey Park, and how do they get to the next destination, which is where they're going to be exploited? And what are the companies, the businesses, the individuals, the activities that are involved in making that happen? So the answer to your question is absolutely. We remain dedicated to rooting out these bad actors, but the problem is that it's been very difficult.

So part of what this is about is creating a flow of information that will allow law enforcement to do their work with respect to labor trafficking and expand beyond just focusing on sex trafficking.

Is it only just local law enforcement that you're working with, but also like the feds, the state as well?

Absolutely. As I said before, the collaborative, the nature of the collaboration has to be between local, regional, state, federal, and global law enforcement.

So we work, Rigo's Office of Immigrant Affairs works with the Department of Labor. They've collaborated on these investigations of these poultry processing plants where, you know, large numbers of people are being exploited, including miners and miners who came across the border unaccompanied.

So it definitely is, as they say, to use a cliche, it's an all-hands-on-deck type of problem. So we look to all of the potential partners at the local, state, and federal level to be involved in this.

And we do have relationships with those groups, including the Department of Industrial Relations at the state level, the state attorney general's office, and we meet regularly with other counties, law enforcement agencies, and district attorney about these issues, and we learn from one another. So, yes. Great.

And what is your timeline? I know you said you are proposing a migrant center, possibly in Monterey Park. What is your timeline?

Well, that's a tough one. That's a very tough one. But I mean, as we envision it, we would really hope to be able to get the planning of an actual center up and the planning going, you know, within the next, hopefully within the next half year. and that we could perhaps stand up a worker center within 12 to 18 months.

That may be a little bit optimistic,

and we're urging the board to, in terms of the funding for this and our vision for the funding of it, is it has to be a long-term thing. It can't be, oh, it hasn't worked this year, so forget it. Let's get rid of it.

We're asking for an initial investment of resources and intent for three years from the opening of the center, not from starting planning, but really from the opening of the center,

because we understand that this is not going to be something that you can put on social media, and everybody's going to rush over. There's a lot of suspicion.

There's a lot of fear of anything that is involved with government, and we really don't want it to have a government, if you will, face. We want it to be, we want to contract with a viable

and robust community-based organization to really run the operation.

We want to be in total collaboration with them, and we want it to be, as much as possible, we want it to be staffed by persons with lived experience of trafficking so that they can talk to people at the level and about the issues that they know intimately and through their own personal experience. Thank you.

First of all, I greatly appreciated Supervisor Huda Solis. making a motion to do this private public partnerships and my question would be So I know it run as staff by trusted partner. Do you have any potential partner? I know you're getting funding and then the timeline coming up, but do you have any potential trusted partners? Maybe

You already have in mind or already partner or anyone looking for that our council can help

We we do I mean I well first of all Well, and it's hard to say, but I don't even want to say for sure that the funding is guaranteed. Like, we just don't know anything at this point. As you probably are well aware, at the state level, there's a lot of issues with funding right now and with the budget. So we remain optimistic. But in terms of community partners, yes, we definitely have some organizations that we have had, you know, preliminary conversations with. We have organizations that might not be appropriate for Monterey Park, but which have radical amounts of experience at doing these types of things, who we have gotten commitments from to help out and be in consultation and partnership with helping perhaps another community-based organization to be the face of this. So the short answer is yes.

I think you answered two of them.

My first question was pretty simple. What do we have now, just a level set? What do we have now to compare to what you will want to do?

You mean what's in place? What's in place now?

Well, I think largely it's a great question, and it's a tough question, because I think largely what we have in place is a shift in consciousness, if you will, that it really is time to change the way that we're trying to address this problem, that despite the very honorable and extraordinary efforts of all people in this county who've been working on this problem, the problem is getting worse. So instead of continuing to do the same thing, we need to step back and reimagine what we're doing, which is, of course, the title of the report.

And I would say that what we do have is a shift in consciousness, which I think is the predicate for making these material things happen. But it's a tough one, right? Because when you talk about sex trafficking of minors, that's very grave. And it is hard to say, well, what about this when you're focused on that? But the fact of the matter is that the evidence is very clear that we do have to expand our focus. And we do need to expand beyond simply looking for bad guys. We've got to address the vulnerable population. We have to be systemic in our thinking. And we have to be long-term in our thinking.

And we have to, unfortunately, we have to invite complication and invite nuance into this problem. because it is nuanced and it is a deep problem. So that may not be entirely satisfying, but that's really what I would say. I understand.

What I'm hearing is that the wheel is broken, and we need to be proactive to solve a problem that is not solvable today,

thus the program.

So my second question then is, from a funding standpoint, I was going to ask, and I think you answered part of that, what is the amount of funding where is it coming from it sounds like we don't know what the amount of funding is but do we know where it's coming from and is it sustainable and it sounds like we're going to go through or you will be going through a three-year process for part of the

funding how close is that being achieved that also is a somewhat of a mystery okay I would say you We do have a proposed budget for the workers' center. It's somewhere in the range of what? Two million or so. For a year of operation, around two million is what we're thinking. But, of course, things change when you get boots on the ground, as they say. So that sounds like $6 million over three years. On the one hand, that sounds like an insane amount of money. And on the other hand, we know that's a drop in the bucket. But it's all about funding priority. And so that part of it is beyond my pay grade. But I would say we have a clear sense of what we need to get it going. And we have a lot of dedicated public servants who have been already working at this for many years. And what we've really done is coalesce that energy into everyone pushing in the same direction, rather than everybody kind of just trying to get it done as best they can. What we're engaged in here is about unifying all that energy and pushing it in one direction instead of dispersed. Thank you.

And I think that makes a lot of sense. actually you know two men a year that's a small number when you think about the resources and number of people you're gonna use to run this program my last question you kind of indirectly answered that that was the resource the support groups that you have in the community it sounds like you have reached out to a lot of community nonprofit or for-profit partners and and I respect that you're working with them let us know we're here to help if you need to reach into a local Marri Park nonprofits or even for-profit community members who can help in part of this resource.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you so much. We will definitely take you up on that offer.

Thanks, Joe. I appreciate you being here and appreciate Rego and both of you coming back to update the council on this effort. I'll just echo what my comments were from last time you presented and that I would welcome, and I think this council would welcome, this effort. and we'd love to see I'd personally love to see this accelerated from even your ambitious timeline because the need is very clear we've seen a very clear uptick in the amount of migrants coming into the city coming to Dings Plaza and other places landing here looking for jobs, looking for housing doubling, tripling, quadrupling up in rooms in hallways and we've had an uptick in code enforcement issues in terms of dozens of people in units that aren't designed to house that many people safely. And we know that that will likely continue to grow. And the faster we can get a resource like this up to help connect these folks, the resources they need in terms of housing, jobs, other economic opportunities, and to get them settled into the services that they need, the better for everyone. Just to be clear on this, you're looking at potentially signing this center here in Monterey Park, but it would serve the wider region, right? Yeah, I mean, yes, obviously it would need to be open to anyone.

But the real point of it is we're calling it a pilot because the vision is that this works,

and then we're able to do more worker centers in other areas

where there are high concentrations of other migrants from other nations. So in La Puente, there's a lot of Guatemalans there.

So we envision having a worker center there that's oriented around that Guatemalan population.

But, of course, the doors are open to anyone who needs services,

and there's language capacity, and there's an ability to refer out as needed. So, yes. Yeah, great to hear.

and the county hasn't piloted this anywhere else to date right no sir no

sir this is this is a this is an innovation and appreciate that we're

being innovative I know government can not doesn't always as innovative and cutting-edge on some of these things to appreciate the effort and the timeline on this but my question will be what can we do how one we're obviously here to partner the city would love to be a part of the planning of this if it moves forward and how it moves forward but what else can we do to help accelerate these efforts right we're going in a budget negotiation or conversations for our own budget for the next fiscal year I imagine county is as well how do we make sure we get in on time with those discussions and planning so that we don't have to if we're waiting six months for a decision for a budget we may have to wait for the next budget cycle right for LA County if there's a way to push this effort and see how we can accelerate if if a letter from the city to County Supervisor Solis or the full board or something there is there anything else we can do to help make sure that this become moves up as a priority for the board for potential funding and the pilot to be kicked off sooner rather than later what that's my question and then to like I'd love to see how we can do that. Well, I think

a letter, that makes a lot of sense to me. I think that to the extent that you're able, gathering as much

data as possible about what is really happening here right now and having that as an ongoing data gathering project, which we can consult about that offline as it were and talk about how that might happen, but so much of what makes a public health approach of any sort. For instance, just getting kids off of cigarettes starting in 2000 in the state of California, the cigarette usage by youth fell and fell and fell. Now, when the vape came along in 2015, then it's, you know, nicotine usage by kids started to go up. But the reason that it declined so steadily and so dramatically over all those years is because there was this gathering of data and sharing of information and penetrating the community with the information. But it all starts with gathering information and knowing what's happening. You cannot go from a place unless you know where you're leaving from. So we need to know really what's happening. So I think materially that's something that could be done. Because you're here and because you have literal boots on the ground going from house to house, finding out what's going on, when your public service workers are going into these places to really make that a component of the work they're doing, is to just how many people are here, what's going on, where else is this happening, what other concentrations are there, because that makes it easier for us to say, look, this really is a problem. It's really happening. They're seeing it every day. And just to go back to the larger picture, we're very mindful of what's happening right now. And I believe the increase in Chinese migrants across the border, the southern border, is on the order of 5,000 percent over the last two or three years. So it's obviously, that can't be anything but an incredible drain and strain on public services here in Monterey Park. So we're very mindful of that. And we appreciate that you're thinking about it in a in kind of this forward-thinking manner So those are things that we will definitely consult with our team about other things that might be possible for your city to be doing right now that We could do together and and and be working in partnership to as you say to it hopefully accelerate this process if it's possible so Those are some just off the top of my head Those are things that I can think of and you obviously are already thinking of the letter, but you know the letter I think is Just to have that on the record. It makes a lot of sense Great is for the report that was sent to the board. Has that been sent to the city already or do we have can you yeah? Can you share that with the council? Well, then and then if if there's agreement among the council if there's a clear direction for the staff to draft a letter along those lines to encourage and urge the county board of supervisors to accelerate these efforts and to double down on making sure these investments are happening. Yes. Yes. All right. There's no objection to that. So if we can get that and coordinate with county staff on the timing of issuing that letter and what else we can do to coordinate communicating and advocating on this specific cause. Noted. Thank you. And I know you guys are already in touch, but continue to be in touch. And I think hopefully clear from the conversation here with this council that we would love to see this happen. And please count us as a full partner in realizing this opportunity. Absolutely. We fully intend to be back. You know, whenever you wish to hear from us, we're happy to be here.

And we just really appreciate the strain that you're under and the difficulties that you're facing.

And we're also mindful that what is going on here is going to spread into the rest of the county.

It's not going to stay isolated here. And so the work that we can do here with you is in service to all the residents of L.A. County.

And I think that that's an important thing to keep in mind. Great.

I appreciate you bringing this to us. Let's continue to talk and get this going.

Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We'll move on. if there are no further comments from Council members.

Item 1B, San Gabriel Valley Transit Feasibility Study.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council,

this item is being brought tonight based on the Council's request. We have with us tonight Martin Medrano from the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments,

along with Maya Boucher.

She's with Kim Lee Horn to do the presentation in person. We also have Ricky Choi joining us virtually via Zoom. And just as a quick note, I wanted to clarify, so a few months back, our Public Works Director, Sean Igoe, had given a presentation on Garvey improvement projects that we're looking to do, a Garvey improvement project. and so in our presentation to the community and to the council we had presented that the project that we're working on that's going to be funded through 710 funds with Metro the project

it did not

suggest any removal of parking on Garvey or a third lane of traffic so just wanted to clarify that that is still correct. As of today, the Garvey Improvement Project that the city is working on is still, based on Sean's last presentation, that's still accurate. So we know tonight this item is being brought forward because there is a larger feasibility study that's been done in the region and so we invited our San Gabriel Valley COG members to come and give this presentation so there's an understanding of what's occurring. So if there's anything further we can provide clarification on after the presentation,

we'll be happy to do so.

Thank you. Go ahead.

And I think Ricky's probably going to kick us off if Ricky's online. Yes, hi.

Good evening. Can you hear me okay? Yes.

Yep.

All right. Awesome.

Hey, Mayor Wong, Mayor Potempo, members of the City Council, Ricky Joy, Director of Government Relations.

project. Next slide, please. All right. Well, as I mentioned, it's great to be to present

before the City Council and Warner Park, and not only because it's my hometown, but thank you all for inviting us tonight to provide an update on the Santa Gabriel Transit Featability study and specifically the um the proposed um at gray the proposed uh near-term jumpstart projects uh in monarch park identified in the transit study and we want to discuss the continued partnership

with the city and the community and you may recall we were left here before the city council in june of 2022 while we were developing the concepts and obtaining feedback and refining

alternatives um as you know the cog in partnership with la metro have been conducting a feasibility study since late 2021 and with the goal of improving mobility and transit options here we had evaluated short-term and long-term transit options designed to really enhance the lives of

the residents and the commuters in the region especially with a focus on the underserved communities transit dependent populations equity focused communities and with particular interest and attention to those in the communities along the sr60 corridor and just to really recap what

we got how we got here the transit study was initially initiated back in 2020 when the metro

board withdrew the state route 60 alignment as part of their east side transit corridor phase project and that's going to extend the metro rails e-line which was formerly the gold line and the l line at the current terminus on atlantic station through montebello peak river and now

eventually to whittier and so the metro board subsequently had passed a motion led by supervisors lisa solis and former metro director john fasona to really honor that commitment of 635.5 million

dollars that was made to the san gero valley sub-region and keep that funding in our region

to be available for programming in 2035 and they also tasked the cog to determine how we can best

improve mobility and transit in our region so so reimagine san gero valley with enhanced transit

services with higher frequencies faster service and greater connectivity throughout the region

and imagine dedicated bus lanes transit signal priority improvements that facilitate a more reliable transit service, enhanced bus stops with real-time bus arrival information, improvements that increase access to mobility hubs and major activity centers, and improvements that facilitate access to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

So better connections for communities to opportunities, including access to jobs,

housing, schools, medical centers, recreational facilities, and I mentioned mobility hubs

throughout the region and really building an integrated network for the entire

transit network for the entire thing about the region and establishing transit as an effective

and efficient alternative to the automobile. And so we have this great opportunity to invest in

transit in our region that will be transformative, that enhances mobility and provides a more

dependable, convenient and accessible transit option for our region that we're truly extremely

extremely excited about. So on a personal level as a city resident myself, you know,

greater connectivity and improving mobility are definitely areas that we work on as a

region that have lasting impact that can have a lasting impact on our community. So next

slide, please, if you may. And so our transit study began in late 2020, where we had 15

alternatives and through the rigorous screening process and further analysis, we had narrowed

down to three uh three east-west options four north-south options and then carry those into phase two of the study which we completed and wrapped up last month and we have presented the feasibility study report to our cog transportation committee early this month and then and also to our governing board last week which approved the report and the transit study and staff was then directed to identify funding and proceed with the next phase of the project and that will entail

you know further analysis design refinements project definition and environmental clearance so we're looking at implementing the primary east-west hybrid concept featured in the midterm

plan as i mentioned from atlantic station in east los angeles to the pomona transit center that we

will mention a little bit more um when we talk about our jumpstart projects that are being proposed that could potentially be implemented in the near term by 2028 and that's very very exciting

next slide please and just here i just want to note that we've had engagement with the city and

the proposed conceptual alternatives throughout the study process uh since 2022 uh staff had served on the technical advisory committee uh and participated in a series of committee meetings that were held and then also we had um and as mentioned we had uh presented before the city council in 2022 we met with staff and we also got community feedback and participated in what we call a community pop-up event at the cherry blossom festival last year next slide please this just summarizes the comments and feedback we received from the initial outreach that we conducted during the study and as mentioned there will be there will be more opportunities for community engagement as we move into the next phase of the project um but generally the feedback we received was that

there was interest in supporting improving transit in the city uh interest explore what we could we

could be done uh along garvey uh garfield and atlantic um and the need to coordinate with

the street improvement efforts as i mentioned um that the city will be undergoing on garvey avenue

and now um i would like to turn it over to maya of kimley horn to review the jumpstart projects in the midterm plan, the proposed bus lane segments, and BRT configurations as proposed. Maya.

Thank you, Ricky. So part of this project, we developed a feasibility study, and that feasibility study was valley-wide, and so it covered a very big area. And as Ricky had mentioned, there was funding dedicated, programmed by Metro for 2035,

and that is in the amount of $635 million.

And so what we developed is a kind of comprehensive plan that looked valley-wide in how we could implement different BRT improvements.

And that included a new east-west BRT service from Atlantic Station in East L.A. to Pomona Transit Center in Pomona. We also looked at transit hub improvements in various areas, including Atlantic Station, El Monte Transit Center, Plenty Hills Mall, Pomona Transit Center, and Pomona North Metrolink Station. We also looked at north-south bus lanes along portions of Rosemead Boulevard and additional transit signal priority treatments and select major arterials in the San Gabriel Valley.

And so when we were looking at this, we also saw opportunity,

as we know that there's a lot happening on the horizon. We're planning to host the Olympics in 2028. We saw opportunity to advance some of this work into the year 2028

and potentially demonstrate some of these kind of smaller segments. And so I'll be talking about that today. in addition to the midterm plan and just kind of giving you an overview. As was mentioned earlier, this is, you know, valley-wide, so it covers a very big area.

This is kind of the first step in the process. There's a lot more work to be done, a lot more outreach to be done, and these are just simply concepts at this point, some kind of options as we move forward and for you all to consider.

When we're looking at the Jumpstart projects, it includes dedicated bus lane options

along six smaller segments, which I'll show on a map in just a moment in the east-west direction.

and then also transit signal priority along Valley Boulevard, Fair Oaks Avenue, and Atlantic Boulevard, Rosemead Boulevard, Azusa Avenue, and then White Avenue and Arrow Highway. Next slide, please.

So here is the Jumpstart Projects map, and this kind of gives you a sense of, like I said, it's a pretty big area, right? We're looking valley-wide, and what I want to turn your attention to is those areas in red.

So those areas in red are potential bus lane segments, and they're divided into six different segments. It's important to note that Segment 5 was actually included in a grant recently, which is on Valley Boulevard, that was awarded to Metro and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

It's the Neighborhood and Equity Access Grant, so that's really exciting. But specifically in Monterey Park, we're looking at Segment 1 and 2, which would be along Atlantic and Garvey. Next slide, please.

And then here's a map just kind of narrowing in a little bit more into the city of Monterey Park.

Next slide, please. And so when we're talking about bus rapid transit, there's a lot of different elements that we can consider that can really help improve bus service in this area. And so while we've talked a little bit about bus lanes, which would be dedicated right-of-way for bus service,

there's also other opportunities to enhance the experience for riders, including enhanced stops. So looking at different ways that we can make the experience more comfortable and pleasant for riders,

whether that's providing real-time arrival displays to show when that bus is arriving, maybe providing better stations, so potentially a canopy or walls to shelter riders from any sort of weather elements. In addition to that, we can also look at different opportunities to improve bike and pedestrian access in these areas.

And then on top of that, we also look at limited stops.

And what I mean by that is when we're providing bus rapid transit service, we're really looking at ways to enhance that service. And so while local service can still remain, we want to think about sort of spacing out those bus stops more so we can provide a more efficient service. So kind of in comparison, when we're looking at local service, we typically have about eight stops per mile. And when we're looking at BRT service, we're looking at every half mile to mile providing a stop.

In addition to that, I mentioned transit signal priority.

So this can really help operations, whether that's extending the green phase or, you know, prompting that green phase early on so that the bus can get through the intersection more efficiently.

And then also looking at more frequent service.

So when we're thinking about BRT service, we're thinking about, you know, service intervals of 10 minutes or even faster. And then we're also looking at providing longer service spans, so really providing service throughout the day and not just providing a lot of service during those kind of peak hours for more typical commute patterns. Next slide, please. And here's just some visuals about what kind of options we could have for improving BRT shelters.

There's several elements that could go into this, but just some examples. I mentioned canopy and walls for sort of shelter for those riders.

in addition to that, lighting, real-time, dynamic bus arrival signs, potentially a bench or lean bar, trash cans, and then potentially logo or branding for this BRT service. Next slide, please.

So going into some configurations, and I think it's important to note these are simply options.

We're pretty early on in the kind of stage of this project. This is a feasibility study. This is a planning study. We are not into engineering at this point. But this kind of gives you an idea of some different potential configurations we could look at, the first being on Atlantic Boulevard. And this here shows a curb-running configuration, so that would be where the bus lane is along the curb,

and then you see that there are two travel lanes in each direction. Next slide, please. The next one is also along Atlantic Boulevard, and this would be a side-running configuration with one travel lane in each direction, and here you can see that parking is preserved. Next slide, please. Going into Garvey Avenue, here we have the curb running configuration once again with two travel lanes in each direction and then the bus lane along the curb. Next slide, please. And then here, once again, we have the side running configuration along Garvey with one travel lane in each direction and parking preserved. Next slide, please. So jumping into the midterm plan, I mentioned this earlier, and just to kind of give you a sense, like I said, this feasibility study was really to look at what could be done by the year 20, starting in 2035, to really work on improving transit service valley-wide. And so this really builds on kind of those jumpstart segments that I showed earlier on that could potentially be demonstrated earlier in 2020, by 2028. And so you can see here that we have, from there, expanded where those bus lanes are. I think the biggest things to really point out on this map is The red are the bus lanes. The purple are the mixed flows. So that's where the bus would travel in the lane along with typical traffic.

And then also the red areas that are in squares are those transit hub improvements.

Next slide, please. And I think at this point I'm going to turn it over to Ricky to talk a little bit about some of the next steps for this project. And then I'll come back in when it's time for Q&A. Thank you.

Thanks, Maya. So we're very excited about the potential of these projects and our desire is to implement these improvements as soon as possible, sooner rather than later, especially the Jumpstart projects. Metro is pursuing grant opportunities to implement these near-term projects and continue the next phase of the project to support, as Maya mentioned, the 2028 LA Summer Olympics, which will be car-free. And so they'll really rely on transit for guests and spectators to get to and from the venue. So bus improvements such as these are going to be critical. And it's so important to move people to and from the games. Metro, as Maya mentioned recently, was successful in being awarded a U.S.T.O.T. federal grant. And so they're planning to pursue additional funding opportunities to celebrate implementation of segments one.

when it's available in 2035 and our near-term plan or jumpstart projects that we could implement and realize within the next few years with local support and if funding is available and could be secured in the next phase there will be more technical studies conceptual and final engineering design environmental clearance and we'll work closely with the city to further define what the

project looks like in modern park and and this means identifying and receiving the city's approval before proceeding with any of the proposed link configurations.

We're not going to proceed with any project without the support of the city. And so we're going to do some additional focused public outreach to obtain feedback from residents and community stakeholders. And should the city decide not to implement dedicated bus lanes, there would be no obligation of the city to implement what is currently planned in the feasibility study. However, we would hope at a minimum that we could implement transit signal priority treatments and possible BRT bus shelter enhancements that Maya had mentioned earlier, which would not affect existing lane configurations. But again, we truly believe that these projects can really improve mobility in Monarch Park and make a difference to bring high-quality transit service to the region that better

underserved underserved areas and really transform transit and how we get around in the singapore

valley and so i just want to take this opportunity to to appreciate and show our appreciation

and um with to the city staff for the collaboration that they've shown us so far especially uh thank you to over the city manager ianaz alvarez assistant city manager diane garcia um public works director uh sean um uh aigo and then the rest of the staff that were engaged with us from beginning of the transit study for collaboration and insight and we look forward to the continued partnership with the city of monarch park to making a more integrated transit network in this region a reality so that concludes our presentation and our project team would be

happy to answer any questions thank you appreciate the the very thorough overview I appreciate the COGS efforts. I know this has been a years-long effort to put a lot of this planning and the outreach together and to arrive at this point even. And I know there's still a lot of work to do, so we applaud the COGS staff and Kimley Horn, the consultants on all your work to get everyone together on this and really applaud the efforts to accelerate this and many other transportation projects in light of the Olympics coming up in just a few short years to see what we can do to accelerate and make when the world's eyes are turned on Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, to make it a little bit easier to get around during that event and upcoming events as well. But we'll open up to any questions and comments from council members.

Excuse me.

I also want to reiterate the thankfulness and this SGB cog for being able to develop a project like this. I think anything that helps make our city more pedestrian-friendly and encourage our residents to be able to take public transportation and at the same time encourage and improve our environment,

I think is such an amazing feat and accolade.

I would be interested to see a little bit more community engagement as we progress with this project and hear residents' inputs on a lot of this.

But I think it's an amazing project, and I applaud the COG for working on this.

I think it's definitely due, especially as the Olympics come to Los Angeles.

But not only that, but it also helps connect a lot of our SGB communities together as well. I know that I live in Monterey Park, but I also work in Alhambra. It would be great to be able to take a rapid transit bus that would get me there rather quickly to be able to commute from Monterey Park on public transport to Alhambra. And I think that's the same for a lot of many of our residents who live within Monterey Park who work in the surrounding community. So thank you so much for all the effort that the COG is doing on a lot of this work.

And then no real questions other than just really looking forward to a lot of this work.

Some questions will come up as we think about the third lane in terms of the last lane. And I think as we progress, I think a lot of those questions will have to be answered.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor?

Again, thank you very much for bringing us to the city's attention. And certainly this is something that I've been aware of as someone who sits on the COGS Transportation Committee.

I do have a question, which I know our city manager touched upon.

But when the city approved its own Garvey Mobility Plan, that's where Garvey Avenue, using 710's funding, we had made very clear to the community, which in an earlier iteration of that mobility plan had meant taking away parking spots, that we would not be taking away any parking spots off of Garvey, which was a main concern for local businesses. And so I'm curious, given that that mobility plan, even though it's a different part of money, it's 710 money by Metro, it's been approved by us, it's been moved forward by Metro, how would this then be integrated, articulated?

I know it's a different part of money.

It's SR60 money back when we were going to extend the gold line, but I guess what are the technical aspects of, you know,

should we move forward with this?

How would the two then make sure they're complementary to each other?

Yeah, that's a great question. So in terms of how we would kind of coordinate the efforts that the city already has planned, I mean, I think that really goes into kind of the next stages of the project. As I mentioned, we were looking valley-wide. It's such a big area. And so now that we really have kind of a little bit more focused areas, we're able to coordinate even more with those direct cities and start having these conversations about what does this really look like as it moves forward.

And I think in terms of coordination, I mean, there's a lot of ways to approach the parking question. You know, there are ways to, you know, I mentioned the side running configuration where parking is preserved. There's a lot of different ways to approach it. Some cities do, you know, curb running during the peak hour and then parking is preserved throughout the rest of the day. And so those are things that we can consider as we move into design. You know, the other thing is right now at this point, we're just kind of looking for general support. But, you know, the city has the, you know, the agency.

If, you know, those conversations continue and certain things don't fit and maybe they fit in certain areas but not in other areas, those are conversations that can be had. So I think ultimately to answer your question is it'll be a lot more coordination as time goes on. And we'll be, you know, mindful of the ways that we can coordinate the efforts that you already have going on in your city and making sure that what we're doing is consistent with that vision.

Okay, great. Thank you. And probably another comment is, and again, this is because of the experience of the city when we were approaching our Garvey mobility plan, is I hope that with COG and the city, we make a concerted effort to reach out to the merchants along Garvey. because I think those, whatever we, I mean, it's, well, this has multiple potential benefits, of course, to commuters, and I am someone who sometimes takes Metro Bus 70, so I know that Garvey is a very public-dependent street, but also that is our main commercial corridor, and so I think it would behoove us to make sure that we have robust outreach and also cooperation as well engagement with those, well, not just businesses, but we also have churches in Longarvey.

We have several public schools to make sure that everyone has had an opportunity,

as well as communities, an opportunity to really, I think, weigh in and give hopefully robust input on this whole process.

So I just wanted to ask for the bus-only lane, the first time I've seen it, just a question that is that allow car to drive to know? Okay, let's say if the car needs to pull over or use it, that means it would still be okay?

So during different transition zones, whether it's, you know, if it's getting to a right turn pocket or whatnot, that would be permitted. But during, you know, when you're moving through an area, it would not be permitted.

So during traffic, the car, even the car is not alLod?

They can use it to cross the bus lane, but they can't drive in the bus lane consistently.

Okay. And then, so, okay, asking through. So another question would be, so all the bus lane will be all printed in red, right? So it would be all the way, let's say, on Garvey.

So in case, you know, if... So the bus would not be affected by any car in case of traffic, so the bus can still go through. So that means the bus will not be delayed if they have to reach a certain station. So is that a benefit for...

Correct, yeah. So they, I mean, with the dedicated right-of-way, right, If you're riding a bus, you are not impacted by peak hour congestion, like if you're in a mixed flow facility where you have a bus sharing a lane with a car. And there's other elements to this that would be considered as we move into later stages of the project. But how does transit signal priority, if that's an opportunity that can be implemented at the signal, how can that help make operations more efficient? So there's a lot of different components to this to really improve transit service. And like I said, I think those things will be kind of, you know, hammered out in detail as time goes on. And, you know, there are several cities involved in the San Gabriel Valley. And so those, you know, different things will work for different cities, right?

Okay, I remember my question. So any penalty if the car actually drives? Yeah.

You know, there are, yeah. So, I mean, that kind of gets into the later stages of, you know, enforcement and sort of partnership there. but there can be penalties for driving the bus lane depending on how it's being used. But those are things that I think would be considered later on in terms of how we want to educate the public and whatnot. We definitely don't want to be moving into a situation where we're implementing something without educating the public of new facilities. Okay, thank you.

So I just have a follow-up question.

The bus only, is that permanent or is that only during peak hours or restricted hours? That was my basic question.

Yeah, that's a great question. It can be either, right? Both are an option. So a peak hour bus lane could be implemented, and one of the benefits of that is that you can, if it's curb running, you can preserve that parking during the day.

That's something that's really important to this community.

And then some of them are permanent throughout the entire day.

I think the other thing that's kind of an important thing to note in this situation is we have the jumpstart projects, which are for 2028.

And that's really an opportunity to sort of test these, demonstrate these, and see if they work for these communities.

And then we have the 2035 plan. So there's kind of some opportunities here, and that's really what I think, you know,

the Council of Governments and Metro is actively pursuing funding to see what kind of opportunities are out there

as we prepare for, you know, the major event that is the Olympics. And it really gives us an opportunity to test these different things out. Thank you. I appreciate this. I WOULD SAY THAT I'M VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS AND WOULD WELCOME FURTHERING THIS CONVERSATION. YOU SAID YOU WERE LOOKING FOR GENERAL SUPPORT. I FEEL LIKE THERE'S GENERAL SUPPORT FROM THIS COUNCIL TO MOVE FORWARD ON THIS. I KNOW IT'S NOT A VOTING ITEM FOR US TONIGHT, BUT I THINK HOPEFULLY CLEAR DIRECTION TO STAFF TO CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION AND SEE HOW WE CAN SUPPORT MOVING THIS CONVERSATION ALONG. Obviously, and you're aware that we have been in early-ish stages of planning our own Garvey Avenue and other main corridor kind of improvements as well. So making sure our concerns, I think, would be on making sure that the efforts we've already done to do some outreach around there and shape those plans, that they align well with what might take shape here with the BRT, potential BRT line along some of the same routes. so just making sure that we our designs align and are we're at the funding sources and everything in terms of planning for this right shape up so we're not planning for different things it sounds like we're already starting to have this conversation appreciate the cog coming here tonight to present this to us I think we're comfortable moving forward on this and seeing how we can support accelerating this conversation and going after potential funding to realize some this and as you were noting there are a few things I think are no regrets that we should pursue no matter what right bus bus stop and bus bus shelter improvements that's a no-brainer traffic signal priority is a pretty no-brainer I think and that's something we're already trying to look at in terms of traffic signal improvements along Atlantic Garvey Garfield and other places anyway so So some elements of this plan, I think, are already things that we've had in mind. And so how we align some of these other things and make sure we're addressing the concerns of those immediate neighbors that would be impacted by any redesign of Garvey. Let's just make sure, and it sounds like there will be outreach to them, but let's make sure that happens as quickly as possible, but also as responsibly as possible, and see how we can move together between the comments.

and I think also Ricky should probably chime in on this, but as he mentioned, right now they're actively pursuing funding

for these Jump Start segments, so I think that's kind of contingent upon what funding is secured.

Segment 5, which is outside of the city of Monterey Park, is already funded, so there's opportunity to kind of think about the next steps with that.

And when is Segment 5 again?

That's along Valley Boulevard.

In Alhambra?

No, if you go back to the...

Go back to the.

So segment five is right kind of in the middle of the valley there. OK.

OK.

So so I think for for kind of next steps is that, you know, that thinking about kind of where, you know, what happens if that funding is secured for segments one and four. and then also the midterm plan. There is still some time, but I know that the COG has some work ahead for the next year with Metro and finding kind of ways to progress this forward. And so, Ricky, do you want to chime in on anything else that I may have missed?

Yeah, I think you covered it. The COG is in communication and working with LA Metro on the next steps to identify funding to get us to the next phase of the project. I think we're going to continue with the design refinements, project definition, and environmental review phase pending additional funding from Metro in the upcoming fiscal year. So we're very much looking forward to that. And then obviously, as we mentioned, with the grant award that Metro got recently, that

would provide funding for segments east of El Monte through an incorporated LA County and Apocado Heights, which we're very excited about. And so we're looking forward to additional funding opportunities that would provide us and realize the segments from the Atlantic Station

through Mono Park and into the El Mahdi Trans Center.

So looking forward to that and looking forward to the partnership with Mono Park.

And so this regional project, is this one of Metro's 2028 priorities? priorities, you know, that's a list of 28 projects to be accelerated by 2028 for the Olympics. Is this one of them or is this going to be one of them?

So this project has been included in some of the grant opportunities that Metro has been

pursuing to support the 2028 Olympics.

All right.

So if you can help us from, I'm sorry, I've got a question. If you can help us from the diagram so you're speaking about bullet point five that's in Imani but where it affects our city city of Montepark that's phase two right that's two that's one and two one and two one is basically on the border of is that Atlantic from Montebello going through Garvey and then two is from Garvey Atlantic going through all the way through to Imani right yeah so three and four four would be Imani three would be Rosmeet, and two would be Monterey Park.

Yeah, so first segment is on Atlantic Boulevard from 1st to Garvey,

and then from there it's from Atlantic, on Garvey it's from Atlantic to New Avenue. Got it.

So those are the segments.

I just wanted to clarify that because we can't really see clearly the picture.

Actually, another follow-up question.

Because it does involve neighboring jurisdictions,

have you already made presentations to them?

And I'm just curious, since they are in neighboring cities,

what is their feedback?

I think, I mean, Ricky, if you want to chime in, there's, generally speaking, I think everyone has kind of their own feedback, but we've, you know, we've received a lot of support in terms of, I mean, we're in the early stages of the project at this point.

But, yeah, the neighboring jurisdictions have been engaged, and there's been conversations with all the cities that could potentially be involved in this project.

All right. Thank you.

I know we're talking about planning for physical improvements on the roads to add some sort of either permit or part of the day BRT. Are we also talking about or is Metro also talking about different service lines like buses like a bus line that's going to travel faster like the Silver Line or whatever adding that to this line because that's a separate

conversation right? Yeah that's a really good question so to answer your question

When we're looking at the Jumpstart projects, most likely we would be really just using existing service but providing physical improvements to better enhance that existing service.

But then when we look at the midterm plan, there is opportunity for operational improvements and looking at those kind of services.

But, you know, at this point in time, it's very early on.

We've, you know, Metro's been involved in the conversation, obviously. Foothill Transit has been involved in the conversation.

so they're both aware and kind of, you know, that would be something that would be sort of, you know, discussed further as things move on. But, yeah, I mean, service would certainly be something considered, probably not as much for the jumpstart project since it's so early, but something that we would consider for the midterm plan.

Great.

No, I think because a selling point would be how existing service lines, how much time improvement and service improvements we can, just with these designs without redesigning the line and the routes, what that might be in terms of the benefit for riders. But, you know, Council Member Lo might have a question. Thank you.

So, and again, I know this is a proposal for the Sangamo Valley,

but is there a comparable project that we could look at

just to see kind of what has been from concept to community outreach to feedback? Does Metro have any comparable projects that we could use possibly as a guide, just to compare?

I mean, there's definitely several BRT projects throughout Los Angeles County that you can look at.

There's different types of BRT services. There's the Wilshire BRT in the city of Los Angeles.

Metro's also done quite a few quick build, kind of comparable to what we consider the jumpstart projects throughout the city of L.A.,

and they have information on that on their website.

So, yeah, there's several different examples that can be looked at to see how those operate. And I know there's some questions about how does that play out in practice as a driver. And so there is opportunity to see those in action.

All right.

Great.

So if COG can keep the city staff apprised of any additional community outreach on these concepts and potential designs for this and the planning process, I think I know council members and members of the public would be interested in attending those and we can help promote Those opportunities alongside our other community outreach activities that are going to be happening and I think Safe to say this council supports moving ahead generally and we'd love to see how we can align our planning efforts and and See what we can do here for sure And if there's no other questions or comments from council, I think I'll just appreciate COG and Kim Lee Horn and everyone for the work on this. Appreciate getting to this point and looking forward to quick action hopefully soon on this in the coming months and a few years in the lead up to the Olympics. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alright. If nothing else on this, we'll move on to item 2A. Award of franchise agreements for residential and commercial waste collection and recycling services. And we'll start with the staff report, and then we'll have public comment.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Sean Igoe, Director of Public Works, and Amy will be joining him for the presentation. They're just getting set up. Just give them one second.

All right. Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. Sean Igal, Public Works Director. I also have Amy Ho. She's our Principal Management Analyst within Public Works. We also have online our consulting firm HF&H and leading that team is Laith along with April and Carla. So they're here to answer any questions that may be more technical related to solid waste questions.

So we'll go ahead and get started.

So tonight you have before you an award of a franchise contract for the City of Monterey

Park. So I just want to give you a quick overview on Measure BB again.

We did this back in the January 17th presentation, but I just want to give you a quick reminder

on these items.

On March 8, 2011, voters approved Measure BB, adopting an ordinance mandating the City Council to utilize a competitive bid process to award solid waste franchises with the city. The ordinance added Monterey Park Municipal Code Chapter 6.09 of the solid waste franchises. This municipal code requires the City Council to award solid waste franchises on a competitive basis with contracts not to exceed seven years. Franchises must be awarded based on the Lost proposed monthly rate to the customer and the City Council must award the residential solid waste franchise to a single franchisee but may at its discretion award commercial solid

waste franchises to up to three franchises. A quick timeline just to recap on the process

that we've been going through. Back in October 2018 to 2023 approvals to release requests for qualifications or RFQs were submitted. November 15th of 2023 deadlines for statements of qualifications or SOQs were sent out. And then January 17, 2024, approval of a list of companies qualified to submit applications and bid were approved by City Council. And then February 14, 2024, the deadline for applications and bids were received. And then now we're at this point for the award.

Based off the applications and bid received, Athens Services provided bids for a two-cart residential system a three-cart residential system and commercial services where disposal provided a three-cart residential system bid and commercial

services bid just a quick overview on residential service service options so

currently the city has a two-cart system which consists of part one which is mixed waste solid waste and recyclables and then a second car of organic materials the three-cart system is cart one is a solid waste only cart two is recyclable materials and cart three is organic materials and then for the two cart system bids again Athens is the sole provider of bids for this two cart system currently the city pays approximately four million dollars for single-family cart approximately two million for a multi-family bin and there's no additional charge for abandoned items this comes out to an

approximate cost of six million dollars a year the current bid received by

Athens is estimated about $10 million for single-family carts, $3.4 million for multifamily bin and $325,000 for abandoned items for a total cost of about

$13.7 million per year. The three-car residential bids, we don't have any

comparables if we don't have a three-car system currently. So, where disposal

provided a cost of approximately $5 million for a single-family cart,

approximately $1.5 million for a multifamily bin and $60,000 for

abandoned items for total cost about $6.6 million. Athens provided a proposal of $6.4

million for single family carts, $2.5 million for multi-family bins and $325,000 for abandoned

items for total cost of about $9.2 million. So what that relates down to the residents.

So here's a breakdown for the slide, the portion in green is what we're currently paying and the portions in blue are what's proposed for the residential cost per cart, sorry per month. So currently the cost is about $23.30 per month for the two-cart system at 96-gallon carts. Again we don't have a three-cart system so there's nothing compared to for the current rates. Monthly rate proposal for Athens is $58 per month for the two-cart system and where does Wilted have not provided a bid for the two-cart system. For the three-cart system we have a cost of about $38.69 per month from Athens and then where provided a cost of about $30 per month. I just want to make a note that these costs do not include the city's franchise fee. The franchise fee typically covers items such as staffing costs, damages to roadways caused by these trash trucks in addition to consulting fees. Currently we have

our franchise fee based off percentage. We're moving to a based off of this new proposal we're

basing it on hard costs occurred by the city. So I just wanted to highlight that note. These costs

will increase slightly. Finally, we have the commercial bids that were received based off

of our current system where their proposal is $2.5 million and Athens is $3.5 million. Again, just want to remind Council that based off of Measure BB they do have the option to award up to three commercial options. So again, the City Council could award both of these as providers for the city. So with that I will take any questions.

We'll open it up to public comment before we open up to council for questions. City Clerk, how many speakers do we have? So Mayor we have 12 speakers and forward in communications. Let's start with the speakers. Okay first speaker Jay where

Thank you. Well, good evening, Mayor and City Council Members. My name is Jay Ware with Ware Disposal Company. I'm the General Manager. I have with me my team of some of my team, my operations managers, and I also have the president of the company, Judy Ware. She's sitting in the background there. We saw you a couple of about seven years ago, and we were the low bidder on the commercial services at that time. And Council decided that they wanted to split it between us and Athens. and we very much appreciate it. It got our foot in the door and we've been providing services in the city for the last seven years.

Tonight, you have a different challenge in front of you, which is putting pride in the past and going with faith in the future. Mayor, you said it tonight. It's all about innovative and the best technology and that's what I've offered you for the Lost price.

There is no resident majority that wants to pay $280 a year more for trash services and recycling services and get the same service they're getting today.

It's all about innovation, cutting-edge technology, and that's what I'm bringing you.

We're bringing you the best, most advanced trucks on the market available today, the best and newest carts available today, the best bins today, all going to be rolled out in a timely fashion, and we're going to provide those services at the cost and proposal we've put forth.

That being said, you'll probably have questions after you go through your, when you have your

comments and I'll be more than glad to answer those questions.

But I just wanted to let you know that I'm here available to answer those questions and

from a company that's been in business since 1968, our name is on the side of the trucks

And we pride ourselves in this is for the residents and we look forward to servicing the city. Thank you so much

Thank you. And yeah, please do stick around. I'm sure we'll have questions for both the applicants next speaker

Thank you next speaker. We have Gary Clifford folLod by being low

Good evening, Mayor Wong, Mayor Pro Tem Ngo, Council Members Yu, Lo, and Sanchez. My name is Gary Clifford. I'm the Senior Executive Vice President representing the 2,500 men and women of Athens Services. Tonight, I ask you to consider adopting the recommendation for the two commercial haulers and continue the residential program the way it's currently with Athens. No operational changes to your customers. If you think about changing to a three-barrel system, gain some community input as contemplated by Measure BB. However, always choose Athens, and we can drop a blue barrel anytime you want in any part of the city. That's required. Athens has been your trusted waste and recycling partner for over 60 years. Our owners, the Eric Kellyanne family, actually drove trucks and cut their teeth in this city, learning the trash business, improving the quality of life for all Monterey Park residents, while building one of the most significant environmental companies in this region. We own and operate our processing facilities. It took me 15 minutes to drive here from there, where our trucks reside. They're local, nearby, and that's great and has a positive impact on the carbon footprint and the environment. Residential waste hauling is a very technical and important environmental service, one that requires us to be familiar with your families, your routes, and your homes, one that operates safely in your neighborhoods, one that supports your city and your city events. Athens is the only qualified residential hauler that submitted a proposal. The other hauler does not have one single municipal residential exclusive contract. They don't work with any city council, city residents, or city governance in the commission of an exclusive residential municipal contract, and the nuances of the required diversion, programs, outreach, education, and more importantly, safety. Using a county pocket as a municipal residential experience and comparing that to a company that has multiple exclusive municipal contracts is not an equitable measurement at all. Measure BB could not and did not contemplate what the future of waste and recycling legislation could bring to this industry. Measure BB requires not only a low price, but it requires haulers to meet material requirements and be rated on technical responses in addition to pricing. And when you do that, our competitors do not qualify. I speak to you on this point from experience. I am an elected official in my community with experience as a mayor and city council members on these very issues. I also represent the industry all over the state. I believe that you have the ability and the responsibility to deem the other hauler non-compliant and lacking a technical response. And you should continue your relationship with Athens Services. I truly believe this is in the best interest of the environment of your residents and your businesses. Please take note of what the hauler said tonight. For the past seven years, we've been serving your business community along with Wear Disposal together, and Athens has 90% of that business. Your customers have already spoken. They've chosen Athens. during this time where has not been able to nor have your customers been compelled to change their services from Athens and they love our recycling services. Think about what I just said to you. Where has 10 percent of the commercial business in this community over a seven-year period? To me, your customers have spoken. I visited them and asked them and they've spoken to you and that should be enough for you to make this decision tonight. We at Athens Services will continue our public outreach, our safe operations, our white glove service that we provide to your families and in your neighborhoods without changing a thing. Choosing Athens tonight will be the right decision. Talk to us, negotiate with us, and please note that we believe that we've demonstrated that we are the only qualified respondent to this process. Athens has served your community with pride. Our drivers have been here over 25 years, some 30. They are familiar with your families, with your neighborhoods, with your businesses, and with your community culture. Changing this service will have an adverse effect on your community, upset your residents, and have a negative effect on the environment. Athens is proud of our legacy and our service to your community. On behalf of the men and women that serve our company and the Erichelian family, I ask that you choose Athens tonight and allow us to continue calling Monterey Park our work home. My staff and all of us are available tonight if you have any questions or comments from us. Good evening.

Thank you. Again, stick around. I'm sure we'll have a very robust discussion. Next speaker.

Thank you. Ving Lo, folLod by Becky Chang.

Ving Lo, Mayor Thomas Wong, Mayor Pro Tem Ving Lo, and Council Members. I live in Rosemead, but I have a property here, a rental property in Monark Park, and my in-laws live here, and my sister lives here, and they have property here. I've been dealing, I just want to share my experience about Athens on trash collection in the city of Monterey Park. So over the last 13 years that I own the property here, I've never had problems with Athens, and service has been very good. They are exceptional with service. So every time I have a problem with tenants living, and they leave a lot of trash, I just call Athens, and next day the trash is gone. And the last time I had to deal with a tenant that I evicted, and I called and the routing supervisor came and picked up the trash himself. So I'm very happy with the service. I really seriously hope you take that into consideration. You know, Monterey Park is known for one of the best cities to live in, and the quality of service is very important. so please think about that and also switching to another company I had the same experience in El Monte when they switched to Valley Vista I had a lot of issues with the trash companies missing picking up trash because when Valley Vista took over they had a lot of problems I don't know maybe bringing in new trucks or doing stuff like that so that's my experience with them and also I want to share about two-cart and three-cart. I had switched from big bins in one of my sister's property in El Monte from a big bin because other people were throwing trash and I had constant problems with them throwing trash into my big bins, so I switched it over to the small bins for each individual apartment. but then with three beans when you bring this out to the street or you should see what my tenants were complaining about because there's no room in the streets and think about it, if you go to a three bean here in Moray Park and you have 12,000 beans coming out every week it's a big mess so I hope you take that into consideration I think that's all I have to say, thank you very much Thank you.

Not only because of my current role with the company of Athens Services, but my over 15 years of government service providing critical resources here to the city of Modern Park to benefit the residents of the Modern Park community.

If anything, I call Modern Park my second home because many of my community friends here have adopted me as part of their family. So tonight, I really urge you to compare the things that Athens has been providing in this city

that the current Lor bidder will not be able to match. Resources that are critical and catered to Marnory Park, given the unique characteristics of the city. One, institutional knowledge of the city. My years of public service work had alLod me to build positive working relationship with many of the nonprofit organizations that provided much-needed support to the residents of Monterey Park,

whether it's the Monterey Park Women's Club, Mercy, Chinatown Service Center, Boys and Girls Club, West and Gabriel Valley, and to our very own American Legion Post 387 under Commander Gabriel Suarez.

I am familiar with the city and the groups that support the residents of the city.

Second is the cultural awareness and language support.

For a service provider to be able to efficiently distribute information,

it needs to be intricately aware of the culture of the communities. is sharing the information too, and be able to share the information in the language that it

communicates, that these communities will respond to. And Athens not only have a customer service

hotline that has translation support to answer questions to all our customers in language of their preference and choice, all Athens critical resource materials has been translated into both Spanish and traditional Chinese to accommodate the diverse demographics of Monterey Park. Three, SB 1383. So even more so with the yet unfunded mandate of California Senate Bill 1383, where all Californians are required to separate their food waste away from their black barrel

into a green barrel to reduce climate pollution, does the Lor bidder have that type of education outreach

already in place to educate the residents

and the vast number of restaurants here in the city?

Will the Lor bidder be able to prevent the city of Monterey Park to be fined based on noncompliance from CalRecycle, the state agency that regulates such a bill. Because this year, 2024, is the year that CalRecycle will be executing and enforcing the right

to just do just that.

And yet, on the contrary, Athens Services has already been doing that for the past couple years.

We not only have dedicated teams that go out

to visit both our residential and commercial customers regularly.

We also have robust sets of educating and educational and marketing tools.

And mind you, in those different languages, to educate our customers

that what the state bill is about, how to accurately separate your waste under this new rule.

give presentation to 350 kindergartners to fourth graders about how to separate your waste.

So council members, I want to emphasize to you that I am confident that I am a trusted voice

in the St. Gilbert Valley and made even more positive contributions here in the city of Monterey Park. This is personal for me, and I'm now representing a company that has just done the

same for the city of Modern Park. So I ask you to really think about these before

you make your decision tonight on what is best for your constituents and I look forward to working with all of you, each one of you the city staff

to serve the residents and the business of Modern Park. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Xu, Xi, Yi.

FolLod by Daisy Ma.

Honorable Mayor and Council Members, my name is Sisi. I'm a long-time resident and a business owner in San Gabriel Valley. Previously, I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Monterey Park and Alliance Club.

My purpose tonight is to speak in support of well-disposal. Worth Disposal is a firm I have been knowing for seven years,

and I want to encourage the city councils to vote in favor of extending exclusive commercial franchise to the firm. Why?

Franchise where disposal is responsible and efficient, meaning that the customer enjoys among the Lost rates while receiving excellent services. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Daisy? FolLod by Gary Yuan.

I mean, Gary, sorry. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, and everyone here tonight. My name is Daisy Ma, and I am the Chief Government and Community Relations Officer for Chiantang Service Center, also known as CSC, a nonprofit agency that has two offices in Monterey Park, located at 855 South Atlantic and 112 North Chandler Avenue. We also oversee the Monterey Park Hope Resiliency Center. Both locations of CSC are commercially serviced by Athens Services, and CSC is very satisfied with Athens Services. As a longtime resident of Monterey Park for many, many years, my family and I are also very satisfied with Athens Services. It is of utmost importance for a community service provider to be culturally sensitive to the communities that it serves. CSC is one of those organizations, and Athens Services is another. Not only does Athens provide a customer service line that Becky just mentioned, they can speak multiple languages, and also provides its customers of language appropriate resources in all their outreach materials that educates the city residents on how to comply with state of California regulations. Most recently, at the annual two-day Lunar New Year celebration, Athens Services provided free large roll-offs to the event and had a booth full of their service materials in various languages and acted as a crucial liaison between the state CalRecycle. Unfortunately, WEIR, the Lor bidder of the waste hauling contract, didn't participate in the grand event with materials of the company's services. So I wonder, does WEIR have materials, first of all, in different languages that fit our residents and commercial community? What outreach resources do they have?

In closing, I respectfully ask the Council to vote for Athens Services as the City's next solid waste hauler for both the residents and businesses of Monterey Park. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I apologize.

Gay Yuen, folLod by Teresa Amador.

Good evening. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members, my name is Gay Yuan. I'm a over 40-year resident of Monterey Park and definitely consider myself a stakeholder and have a vested interest in the workings and the dealings of our city. Having said that, I also have these we're relationships that I develop, and one of those are the relationship that I've developed with my trash holders, right? And so in all these years that as part of a residence program, I've just been really, really pleased with the quality of service and how we are serviced by Athens in our complex. And our complex has over 40 different households, multiple generation households. And I can only talk about experiences because I'm a storyteller. And one of the things that, looking like this, I'm elderly. and when we were shut down for COVID, I decided it was time for me to clear out my house and declutter. So then I was faced with all these bags and bags of trash that I need to get up and I couldn't lift it to the bins.

So I would listen and when I hear the beep, beep, beep, beep, right, of that little red truck that comes to haul down the bins,

then I would run downstairs and I would say, would you please help me with these bags? And it's always with a smile. It's always helpful. It's always willing. And another story I'd like to tell was, this is pre-COVID now,

and Athens decided that it would fit their schedule more

if they change the dates of our trash pickup.

And we didn't like that at all.

And we didn't want those dates changed.

And Athens sat down and talked to our HOA, reworked out the schedule, and then very happily we got our days back. And they didn't have to do that. When you talk about large corporations and large companies with hundreds and hundreds of employees,

one small resident group is just that.

But they chose to listen to us and they chose to care about us. And to me, that's what's important.

when we talk about Measure BB and it's, you know,

what it requires you to do as a city council, when I teach as a professor at Cal State LA, I teach my students, yes, you need to look at data,

but very often there's soft data that you need to look at. It's not just objective numbers. but it's also subjective feelings and quality.

And I think that Athens gave us that quality

and that subjective data to make our lives better. And so I'm urging that the city council votes in favor of extending the Athens contract for the next cycle. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Teresa, folLod by Brandon Young.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council Members, City Manager. My name is Teresa Amador. I'm a former City Clerk of Monterey Park. I'm also a community volunteer and fourth vice president of the Monterey Park Women's Club.

I'd like to talk to you about Athens, but I'd like to talk to you not only about their service, but about community reinvestment. Monterey Park has a plethora of financial institutions, has a plethora of corporate centers, and many, many businesses. As community-based organizations, it's very difficult to raise funds. So I'd also like you to consider that as different corporations come to you to open up businesses and expand their businesses, that you ask them, what is your community reinvestment? How do you give back to the community? Athens has a proven track record of supporting nonprofits. It's very, very difficult since COVID to raise funds for nonprofits. For example, the Monterey Park Women's Club has their annual fundraiser, which is a fashion show. All of the monies that we ran, that we raise, we give back to the community. We reinvest in our local nonprofits. The Boys Club, the Monterey Park Foundation, the Women's Club, we give to all various nonprofits. So ask, what is your community investment? What is your commitment? So that's a really, really important component. Not only does Athens provide excellent customer service, they have been here a long time. On a personal note, my childhood sweetheart had esophageal cancer in 2011. And I'll never forget the act of kindness that my Athens driver did.

and on his own, after he would go and pick up our trash,

he would return the trash can back to our driveway.

He didn't have to do that, but it was an act of kindness. And as I hear tonight from various speakers,

they're committed to the community. They have a long track record, but most importantly,

they give back to our community.

So please consider the community reinvestment when you're making your financial decision.

Thank you.

Thank you, Teresa.

Brandon Young, folLod by Anthony Hernandez.

Good evening. My name is Brandon Young. I'm a partner at the Manette Phillips Law Firm. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of Athens Services. My comments will be brief. The city should award the city's residential franchise for source separation to Athens, as permitted under Municipal Code Section 60907E, which permits such an award because where does one, not meet the material requirements of the RFA, and two, where materially failed to file a responsive bid. Alternatively, Athens can be awarded the mixed waste award franchise. The issues are straightforward. First is an issue of competency. Measure BB requires an award based on the applicant proposing the Lost proposed monthly rates. The staff report refers to this as a must award. However, Measure BB also states the applications must be evaluated on the basis of several factors, including compliance with bid specifications, including technical responsibility. Can they do the job they say they could do? And the government code also states that selection must be made on the basis of demonstrated competence.

It is a misnomer to conclude that the city must award the Lost bidder. The purpose of the applicable law is to find the Lost technically competent bidder,

not the company who simply submits the Lost bid regardless of its ability to perform. Measure BB also gives the city discretion to award to other than the Lost bidder if it finds the Lost bidder cannot meet the material requirements of the RFA.

And that's the case we have here. There is no comparable experience.

Where is the least experienced residential applicant of the bunch? It only had one residential franchise of any comparable side, South Whittier, which isn't even a municipal contract. It has no comparable transition experience. The schedule here is so ambitious that other companies didn't even bid because as the staff report acknowledges, they needed additional time for the transition. WHERE doesn't identify any SB 1383 transition experience in the residential space, much less experience from a mixed waste to source-separated collection system. There's no discussion over how WHERE will be able to acquire 42,000 carts that would be necessary for a source-separated program, the dozen hauling trucks, the 14,000 new daily lifts. I see that WHERE provided a packet that the public has.

If it actually meets diversion. Again, it is the Lost technically responsible bidder, not just the Lost bidder regardless of anything else. And there's more. WHERE was asked to provide its technical ability in the RFA, didn't do that. It simply provided a boilerplate description of the company, great, and a list of franchises, none of which apply to the city that we have here. where again failed to even discuss diversion plans education and outreach compliance with law food recovery and when we look at the price proposal the one that was brought up before fair where doesn't account for landfill costs and it's tons collected are based on a partial year estimate not even the full year which constitutes nearly a million dollars in costs that aren't even considered Again, are they going to be responsible? And that has nothing to say about other omissions, such as experience or noncompliance, more directly, in the city of Los Angeles. Here's the deal. Measure BB gives the authority to award to Athens. By awarding a source-separated collection program, the city can do so after finding where is technically nonresponsible or competent, or by awarding a mixed waste collection program because Athens is the low bidder and is technically responsible. But regardless, the basic question before the council is whether the city is prepared to entrust its residential trash service to a hauler in the absence of technical responsibility, in the absence of demonstrated competence. South Report doesn't even talk about that. Despite the fact that Ware only served one similarly sized residential franchise, despite the fact that where has no municipal solid waste franchises despite the fact that where itself didn't even take the opportunity to describe its technical ability in its RFA response and again despite the fact that it didn't consider landfill costs or annualized tons. The answer to the question is no. The city should not do that. Award the residential franchise to Athens under measure BB. Thank you.

Thank you. Anthony Hernandez. He left. He left. Thank you. Ed Tsai Tsang, folLod by Charles Stapleton.

Good evening, Mayor Poutin and council members. My name is Ed Tsang. I'm a resident of Monterey Park.

My statements will be very brief, actually.

I'm here to express my satisfaction on the service provided by Athens.

They have done a very good job in providing waste removal services for my townhouse complex.

I can always count on them to show up on trash collection day,

if they're shy or shy.

Their drivers are very friendly and Curtis and one of them even get to know my dogs.

I'm also very happy with their customer service department and they're always

willing to work with me to handle special requests like collecting bulk

item. So in summary, I urge

the council to award the next contract to Athens. Thank you.

Thank you. Charles?

Vincent, did you want to speak on this item? Okay, you're next. Go ahead, sir.

Good evening,

Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. I just came from a giving a college lecture so pardon my speaking and my comments will be brief because the attorney just said most of what I was going to bring out to you on municipal code 16.09 so let me just give you my personal experience I moved to Monterey Park a real estate broker and a police officer in Los Angeles for the safety the quality of the service and the fact that we had a

city council that you could actually speak to when they listen to you, unlike Los Angeles. Although the comparison here is mainly for the safety in the first impression. I bought three properties on Village Drive in Monterey Park, bought the first house, I moved into it, and I was introduced to Athens when I put the trash cans out. We're on a hillside on Village, and it rained, and the neighbor's trash can came down the street and hid into my car.

And just as the trash truck was coming up, the guy got out of the car, helped me move the trash bin from my neighbor, and then dumped my trash.

That began a relationship where on Thursday morning I would know that the one bin, and hopefully it only remains with two bins, is picked up about 9 a.m. And about 1,500, 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the second bin comes around. We greet the driver. It's a friendly atmosphere. But most importantly, they assist when we have problems. When the rain comes and six cans wash down my hill down to Metro, the truck, as it came around, they stopped, and they helped me figure out whose can belonged where and tried to return them. That's the kind of personal service I've come to expect with Athens. And based on that and not knowing the other company, I would encourage you to give the solid waste contract to continue with Athens. Thank you very much. And I was awarded emeritus status at the university today. So thank you.

Vincent?

Vincent Chang.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council.

Vincent Chang, former city clerk, retired city clerk.

also I serve as the appointee for Supervisor Hilda Solis with the Rivers of Mountain Conservancy and chair the Water Conservation Authority

I wasn't planning to come up to speak tonight I was actually here for the other one but anyways

oh by the way great question on Taylor Swift very important thank you

with regards to the contract Right. Look at that slideshow. Man, I think how can you not pick?

Where? But the question is, is that really the best choice? Is that the real qualified choice? Right. That's the question we had to ask ourselves. Yes, they're quoting a low price. But we all know the reality is low price doesn't mean the best service. So think about that. We've had Athens disposal as long as I can remember. I've been a resident since the 1980s. And I was there seven years ago when the former city council discussed that matter with the trash contract. Now we're going to go into another seven years. That means for some of you, of course, you're going to go on better things and others will be up for re-election. That's a long time. That's a long, long time. And, you know, my experience, I think, is very similar to what some of the folks have said about the service that Athens provides. Now, aside from that fact, I have to ask the question, what kind of community service or what kind of community benefits do they provide? Okay. One organization, sure, claimed to provide the cheapest. But what have they done? What have they done for the community? Have you seen their name up anywhere? But, you know, the other supervisors, you know, we can count on to make contributions to the women's club, make contributions to the environmental with, you know, their, what do you call it? The, anyways, the plant deals. But I'm not into plants, sorry. But the bottom line is we have to think about those benefits that they provide us. And finally, I think the other thing is the trucks. Yes, they're CNG trucks. But, you know, California as a whole is going towards electric. And the point is, are they going to be ready for that? Is one of the competitors going to be ready to transition to that? That's a very, very expensive proposition. And I know they have reprieve from, you know, having to provide that, like all the other folks running, you know, diesels or CNG trucks right now. They're going to be transitioning to electric. Are they ready to do that? And as well, the other question is, where is the trash being taken to? Where's the landfill? I mean, I know the other competitor has very advanced recycling equipment. Does Ware have that? I don't know. We haven't seen it. So anyways, some of the questions to think about when you're making this decision. Thank you. Thank you, Vincent.

And that concludes the individuals here. I do have four written communications. One from Wong Tai Shen Center, a business on Atlantic. Ed C. Wong, a resident. Dr. Hua Cheng Su of California Medical Therapeutic Center on Atlantic, a business. and Elaine Pang, a community member, all fall-written communications are in support of Athens' disposal, and they encourage the council to adopt the contract, award the contract to Athens' services. The ring communications were sent out to the council, and then they're also on the back in the binder available for the public.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. And before we start with council comments and questions, I just want to thank everyone for coming out to express your feedback and to share that with the council. Really, we do appreciate that and take that into account. And I know if there might be, I anticipate questions for where and for Athens, if you guys want to position yourselves over here by the podium, I think that might be helpful, but we'll start with any questions and comments from City Council. Councilman.

Sean, is there possible we can go back to the monthly?

That's light. Thank you.

I mean, given, first of all, just to reiterate what the mayor has already said,

I thank you for everyone who came out to share their experiences with our current hauler and also for both of the haulers who are here to represent both of their companies.

To me, customer service is very important,

and I know that most of the discussions that I have are with my wife and my family,

and those are very important to me as well as my constituents. But one of the things that I think is going to drive a lot of the discussion tonight is this cost. Our current cost for a two-cart system is $23.30 a month.

And the new proposed cost, if I understand it correctly, Sean, is $58.04 a month for a two-cart system? That's correct.

And that's more than double the amount, right?

That's correct.

Okay. And then where is, where's bid is, what would be where's bid in terms of monthly cost?

That was their three-card system, right? This is, yeah. The 3860.

The Lor costs are for the three-card system.

They didn't submit a two-card bid.

That's correct. They did not submit for two-card. Okay.

And given the limits of what Measure BB imposes on our city and this council, we are obligated to some extent to select the Lost bidder.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

But also, I guess as we're considering this, and given the outpouring of the community in terms of where the stories and the contributions that Athens has made over the years to this community.

I think it's very important for the Council to know those contributions over the years

and the longstanding history that Athens has had in this community. I guess one of the questions I would have for Athens is a couple questions in terms of the cost, is why the cost increased so significantly. Secondly, given the increase in cost but also the outpouring of support for your services,

would you be

I'm here if you would like me to answer. I'd like to hear from Athens first, if possible. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Member Sanchez, I'm Gary Clifford. Again, I think those are very good questions. First, I would disagree, saying that, yes, you can. The low price is just one component of your decision, and I hope you take that under submission tonight. Measure BB has some specific requirements that haulers have to match. And again, I think there's more than just the price secondarily, I think that the that the the The three barrel rate that you're looking at is only a nine-month rate It doesn't consider the entire year and I think you heard that in the public testimony So I would tell you this and I and I mean this and this is kind of my expertise I would tell you that Athens services has a $58 rate because 1383 requires that you take a two-barrel system for the recycling to a high-diverting MRF. We're the only company I know that has a high-diverting MRF, meaning you take that to our plant, we are able to pull out more than just the regular recyclables, and in 2025, that converts from a 50% diversion to a 75% diversion of organic materials to the landfills. That's a heavy lift. Nobody else can do that. That's very expensive, and that's why that rate represents that. What I also said to you that didn't get to you was that if I was on the city council, and again, I have that experience, I would pick Athens Services, I would have us do the two-barrel system until a period of time,

and then drop a blue barrel. And I would ask us what those prices are, and I would engage us in a price negotiation.

and I think that's legitimate and within the spirit of Measure BB I believe this city council has the right to talk to Athens, to disqualify the bids, to talk to Athens continue this service and have some hybrid of what was put in I definitely think that we could continue the two barrel system at a Lor rate and when the time comes for the higher diversion MRF, if you don't want to go that method we'll drop a blue barrel And we don't have to drop a blue barrel everywhere. We can do that wherever it's convenient for the residents that want it. So I think you have a lot of flexibility with us. You have the ability to engage us. There's real legitimate reasons for those pricings. But the RFQ and RFP narrowed what we could do to this much. The industry has this much to offer. And I think the other bidders told you that. When you ask questions, I think staff will tell you if you ask them, why didn't more people put in for this? They gave you very specific reasons. We made sure that you were protected from those reasons. We will make sure that pandemonium won't break out when you try to change residential haulers and do all the things that only our company knows how to do because of our experience. It doesn't mean somebody else can't do them. I don't think that the competitor can do that. And I'm telling you that from my heart, not just from my head. And I want to tell you that I do think that you're on to something. with us, come up with some hybrid that meets your residence diversion and a different cost. You can do that. It's legal and ethical following Measure BB. Did that answer your question, sir? Not necessarily.

What caused the increase from 23 to 58?

Because right now you have to take a mixed waste processing two-barrel system to a high

diverting MRF, which is a different type of processing. It's different. So you have to take it to our facility. We guarantee you diversion out of that at a high level, taking out the organic fraction, and that's expensive to do. So we have to take the organic fraction out of the waste stream.

In 2025, which is within this seven-year period, that changes from 50 percent to 75 percent, which is a much more expensive endeavor. So the cost of providing you the diversion at a high diverting MRF is high.

Now, that's not high in the state of California. I mean, if you look up and down the coast, that's probably a median to low price. That's a high price here, but you're getting a high diverting MRF in a two-barrel system.

What I'm telling you is if you engage us and negotiate with us and change that method, that price can come down. But we didn't have that flexibility in the RFP proposal.

So currently, the contract that we have, we weren't doing what you were saying?

Correct.

Okay.

So one of my concerns with the new rate is having to explain to constituents that I'm okay with explaining to constituents that the price increased, given the quality of the service that we're getting.

But double and more than double the rate is extremely high.

and that's I mean as a former elected official

you would understand this

that's a really high rate

to you. So what I'm trying to say

is how can how can this rate

more than double and then number two

are you willing to renegotiate the rate to bring this Lor so that we can obviously please people who've had great service and and have already commended your service,

but also have a reasonable rate that is not more than double. Do you understand what I'm saying?

The answer is yes. The answer is if you pick us with a comparable three-barrel rate, the difference isn't that big because we bid it for 12 months, they bid it for nine months from a standpoint of tonnage. Our bids are very comparable. So it wouldn't be a huge lift going to three barrel. But on the two barrel, we would negotiate that with you. Because what I'm trying to tell you is that maybe the two barrel system goes for a couple years. And then you transition to a three barrel system over time. And that would drive that $58 rate way down. Way down. Probably to less than half of that. I'm just trying to tell you that that $58 rate is a seven-year rate that in 2025 changes from 50% diversion to 75% diversion. And that's a very important key figure in there. And if you decide to drop a blue barrel and change that two barrel, you could keep the two barrel system for two years, drop a third barrel any time at your leisure over the period of this contract, and that rate would fall significantly. And you wouldn't have to have a $58 rate. Just one last question.

Why wasn't a three-cart-barreled proposal submitted by Athens? We did.

Oh. We did, and it's comparable. And what I'm trying to tell you on that one is it is comparable. It's our argument. Go ahead.

No, no, I was just going to follow up with Carl.

Carl, are we able to renegotiate if need be?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, would you be more specific? There's only one bidder on the two-barrel system.

So if that's what you choose to do.

I think his question is, right, the bids have been submitted. Is there room for negotiation on the current proposed prices?

If the three-barrel system is what the council selects, there's no room for negotiation. Remember, this is a voter-enacted initiative. It's not something that the city council enacted that it gets to interpret from the standpoint of, well, what we really meant to say is X, Y, and Z. based upon staff reports, corporate history, meeting minutes, past conduct. This is a voter-enacted initiative that was enacted specifically for the purpose of encouraging competitive bidding.

So to answer your question with regard to two-barrel,

better.

So really your initial policy call is, are you going with two barrels or three barrels?

and beyond that what the Voter Inactive Initiative says is

if you're going with somebody other than the low bid you have to make specific findings explaining why you're doing that.

Thank you.

May I respond to that sir quickly? Very quickly the answer is yes you can negotiate with us if we're the only bidder as your counsel said but I think what's important is the other things that he said about making the findings I would just like to address that so you know. Right.

So you have two options, right? Option in no particular order, right? Mixed waste, negotiation, much more flexibility

in that context because there's only one bidder. And then as it relates to the three-cart system, as you have the authority to do under Measure BB, you can make a finding that where, for all of the soft reasons we've heard, for all of the reasons in their bid, is not technically competent to serve this city

in this rfa as proposed and if you do that then there's only one bidder and it would be athens for the three barrel option as well at least that's our view mr mayor members of the council

since lawyers like talking uh let me briefly respond to that which is the qualification stage for these bidders is already done and that was done in january there was no objection from any bidders with regard to the qualifications that were made. So the determination of whether or not the bidders that currently bid in this particular process,

that determination was made.

If there is a material defect in the proposal, that is something that the city council can pick up upon. I believe some of the speakers have said that there's a difference between the prices in the three barrel system based upon a 12 month versus a nine month tenage that's a factual determination that I can't speak to but we certainly have our consultants online that can speak to that

yeah so that was my question I want to make sure we set the facts straight and get clarification I've heard more than once now that one definition is for 12 months the other bit was for nine months can I have our staff and our consultant kind of explain that. I want to make sure we're comparing apples to apples here.

So I would actually defer to the hauler. They're the ones that put the bid together. So they're the ones that bid based off of nine months or 12 months. I'd actually defer to them.

Okay, so let's J-Ware with wear disposal again. This has been made up by Athens and the attorney

from a nat there is a factual tonnage amount and athens is short tonnage not where disposal

okay we have 45,240 tons is what we bid on athens bid on 43,762 their short tonnage

we're not short tonnage this is not a nine-month bid that price up there is a year bid okay there's

been a lot of other non-factual stuff brought up tonight. Please defer to me for those because

I can assure you they're providing you bad information about my company.

You're going to get a new speaker from Athens. Joe, yes, I will be quick, but I do want to clarify one thing. There was a statement made that things were supposed to be taken care of in the qualification phase. Now, I am reading directly from 609.070. Applications, that is what was submitted now, applications will be evaluated based on the proposed monthly rates pursuant to the franchise compliance bid specifications, including without limitation, financial and technical responsibility, proposed diversion rates, and a host of other things. So that technical responsibility is a requirement of the application, and that is what we have pointed out.

With respect to the tonnage rates, please note this. There were tonnage rates that were provided in the application, and those tonnage rates were based on an amount of tons from January 1st to the end of September. That is the number that Ware bid on. If you look at their sheet, that bid is at 27,475 tons. That is the amount for the nine months.

when you annualize that rate for the 12 you come up with the 31,664 tons this is on the residential

that is what Athens bid on so their bid by the by the documents in your own staff report is 4,000 tons less because they didn't annualize so that price is off by a million bucks that's

that's math thank you so I know we have other questions but on that specific question I don't know if HFNH or someone can do some quick math maybe I can cut

through that the city council is able to waive minor irregularities I believe the representative from where said that they were willing to to stick with that price with regard to a 12 month schedule so if that's what they're representing We can go through the tonnage and what have you, but if the Council believes that's a minor irregularity based upon the overall price, it can waive the irregularity if it

chooses to do so.

Perhaps a bigger question we need to face is do we have the technical and the expertise

to do this?

documentation of all of that has been provided to you. These trucks were ordered back in January of 2022. On top of that, we have given you letters of commitment from some of the largest waste cart

companies available to help and assist with the rollout and to provide all of these carts in time for the transition which will be in the month of August or prior to that if necessary. Also provided you letters of commitment from the bin container companies. They've already committed to providing all of the necessary equipment to the city for the city. On top of that, all of our ancillary vehicles are electrified vehicles. The only thing we're going to be waiting on is electrified large vehicles and as the time develops and as the time comes we'll be prepared to provide the highest level of technology available. Yes, I understand that change is difficult but again, you've got to have faith in that future. I understand that somebody's losing the contract tonight. I understand their frustrations.

Unfortunately, the three-card system is the way to go. This is what all the other cities have.

Cities have three-card systems and not only is your city going to have the best three-card system, you're also going to have every resident with an organics food waste basket which will

be an add-on to the services to ensure compliance with SB 1383. That's the city's biggest concern. No resident wants to pay $280 a year more for services because somebody doesn't want to put out a three-card system. They didn't bid it. They bid it at a higher rate. My rates are $30. It's what residents want to pay. It's what's considered across the county of LA. My rate is consistent. That 5804 is like no rate any other city has ever seen throughout the county of LA. If you have any other questions, I'm available. Thank you. And to make this a more

efficient process, maybe I'll ask the council members to direct some, if you have questions for staff around this, and maybe

where in Athens, you can take note if there are specific questions, but maybe we hold off responding so we don't have to go back and forth

all the time. But we'll go to council members to continue questioning on this.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

So

based on just what I've heard so far,

my understanding then is that the rate

for under a two-card system by Athens is

$8,004 a month, and it has been explained that because

it is to

I guess

for the cost or to pay for its MERF facility. So then does that mean that if they did not have a MERF facility

that it would cost less?

Because I'm just curious because then does that mean then for where's proposal?

So whatever has been sorted, actually I have a question. So under a three-card system, when all the items are sorted, and so you have stuff in the blue bin, because it doesn't have to be sorted, where does it go?

What happens after that?

Can someone explain that to me? Actually, no, not you.

Someone from where, please?

So when you're dealing with a three-card system, the resident or the business will be then separating materials. Usually organics or green waste will go to either a food waste processing facility or a green waste facility where they will either turn it into mulch, energy, it can be turned into, depending on where it's taken, it can be turned, the organics food waste can be turned into a food for animals. The recyclables will go to a diversion facility where they'll separate out the cans, bottles, glass newspaper. Earlier tonight Athens suggested we didn't have a material recovery facility. Actually their attorney did. He's sadly mistaken. We have a solid waste facility in Orange County called Madison Materials. It's on our website. It's been around since 2002. We process over, we've processed over two and a half million tons of materials and diverted it from the landfill. Anyways, that facility is at a high level of technology using robotics to sort out cans, bottles glass and newspaper mixed paper cardboard so all that material is then diverted and turned into different products and then the last part of it is the black barrel stuff black barrel materials are taken to either a high diversion facility or a press where they can take out some of the other recyclables that are still mixed in with the black barrel or it can be taken to a landfill we have a facility here locally that'll be taking a mixed portion Of the black barrel and processing it for the recyclables

Okay, thank you. And I think Athens want to respond Okay

Thank you councilmember low Athens

Owns and operates the facilities around this city including the pointy hills recycling center and our MRF So we would pick up on the three barrel system that we bid we would take the blue barrel to our pointy hills location We would take the black barrel to our City of Industry MRF, and we would take the green barrel to our City of Industry MRF and then take it from there to American Organics and process it to be composted, all in places that Athens owns. The City of Industry MRF is also a hub and a high-diverting MRF to be able to do the things that were explained earlier. In a two-barrel system, we would take all of the components of the barrel that I'll call the barrel that has the waste and recycling in it. We would take that barrel to our City of Industry MRF. We would run it through a portion of that MRF that's called a high-diversion MRF because we have to get the organic fraction out differently than the trash and the recycling, which is a different component. We would take that fraction of organic waste out at our high diverting Murph and send that to American organics for composting we would take the recyclables out and send that to the open recyclable market To sell on the market and then we would take whatever is left over to our landfill component and do it that way

So there's two different streams We have the mixed waste processing stream with which is a more expensive option

but allows you not to have any extra barrels and allows us to try to get more diversion because we do the work for you. And then you have the three-barrel system where you do the work, and then we just take it to our different recycling centers. Is that clear?

Sure. A follow-up question.

How many municipal contracts do you currently have in the region?

Exclusive municipal contracts, we probably have over 35. just in this region.

Okay. And out of the 35,

what is the breakdown of two-cart versus three-cart?

Off the top of my head, I would say that we probably have five or six mixed waste processing, and the rest are three-barrel.

So out of 35, you're saying that nearly 30 are three-barrel. I mean, I know you approximated three-barrel, but then it's only a small handful that is two-barrel, like us.

That is correct.

And why is that?

Well, because a lot of people like the ability for the higher diversion and to have two barrels and not have additional barrel because they don't have room. And then some people want the flexibility of doing both where they get an extra barrel for recycling and we still process the black barrel or we don't. But what's also important to note is in many of those communities, we do mixed waste processing on the commercial side too. So it's kind of a compilation of the entire city, but some cities recently we've had more. I would say we had about 10, and some cities with 1383 are moving to a three-barrel system and having us decide whether or not we process the black barrel at the processing plant or take it directly to a landfill.

But at the moment, is it correct to say that you have more exclusive municipal contracts in which the service involves three barrels versus two barrels. Yes, and that's why we bid the three barrel model here also Okay, but if I'm not mistaken you did not submit a

Proposal for a three card system. No, we did we submitted as said earlier

We submitted a three barrel where you can you can choose Athens on that one too or a two barrel. We submitted one for both

Yeah, they did submit one for both. So Athens submitted for a two-cart and a three-cart. Ware only submitted for a three-cart. They did not submit for a two-cart.

I see. I'm sorry?

Councilman Lo, is it possible to have Ware answer the same questions? That way we don't go back and forth.

Okay.

I apologize, Councilmember. So the question was, how many two-barrel cart systems do we... How many contracts in cities?

Residential or council contracts in cities do you serve? I service approximately 40,000 residential homes currently

throughout the county of Los Angeles.

You can include Orange County. Do you have any municipal contracts in Orange County?

We don't have any. Currently, we don't have any municipal contracts, exclusive contracts in the county of Orange.

Okay, so the 40,000 customers,

is that through a exclusive contract with the municipal?

With the county of Los Angeles. Oh, you have the county of Los Angeles. I have different pockets of the county of Los Angeles.

My biggest county contract right now for residential services is South Whittier.

I service over 14,000 homes in that particular area,

and we do a three-cart system plus the basket for food waste.

so um does that mean then it sounds like then the unincorporated area is where you

have your customers primarily uh for just residential services i service uh something

in the neighborhood of about 8 000 commercial businesses throughout orange county and los

angeles i have exclusive contracts for southeast los angeles with the count or the city of los

angeles i also service all of west san gabriel valley with commercial services and then i have

multiple contracts throughout San Diego as well as Orange County. I see. Okay.

Again, I apologize, Councilman Lo. I want to compare Apple. So you, so Athens said, I heard 35 cities, and I heard you say 40,000 homes.

For residential services.

For residential. So what is 35 cities number?

I would estimate we serve over 250,000 residential customers.

in municipal exclusive city contracts.

Okay.

I just want to make sure we get apples to apples.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And I do have some process questions on the RFP process.

I don't know if. Actually, I do have a full question.

So, actually, to weir. So, let's just say, hypothetical, you know,

Let's just say you happen to be awarded a contract.

So then what would be your timeline? How would you be able to get the three carts to residence? And what would that transition look like?

The transition is going to look...

So I have a commitment letter that you have on your desk there from the cart manufacturing company as well as the bin company.

The cart manufacturing company is a large cart manufacturing company throughout the United States. They'll be assisting us in producing all of the carts, and they will also assist us in the rollout of the carts. We simply gather the information from Athens on all of the streets and addresses that they currently service,

and we facilitate a transition of approximately a 30 day to 40 day period. There may be crossover depending on if the other hauler works with us or not where we utilize their existing carts while we're continuing to transition carts. We are prepared though with the vehicles and the carts. We can always transition the carts early and then the existing waste hauler will service the carts that we lay out. It just depends on how easy it is to work with the other waste hauler on the transition of the actual carts themselves. Carts are basically what happens is as trucks are going down the street, our trucks are following, and we're picking their carts up for them, or they're picking up their carts, and we're delivering our carts. We've done this before in other county pockets with the existing hauler,

and they've been, you know, no one likes to work together, but they have been easy to work with in some of the other areas. So I would imagine that they'll be easy to work with. The contract is a seven-year contract. They don't want to necessarily not have an opportunity to get it back. So they would, you know, everybody works together in the industry. You know, while we'd like to do, while we do like to battle it out, we at the same time have to work together at certain times to make sure the transitions are smooth. The most important is the least amount of impact for the residences, which is what our goal is. Okay. I guess that's it for now. I'd like to hear what... Well, I think to answer Councilman Rouleau's question, too, and maybe directing this a little bit to staff, the process for potential transition, no matter who the caller is, transitioning to a three-car system is going to be a lot, I think fair say. the requirement for once once the City Council awards this

And, you know, I think that Athens and where I've touched on this, it's not going to be an easy process. There's going to be challenges with this. But at the end of the day, where has said that they committed to doing this, you know, different than Athens. If Athens is committed to doing a three-card system, then they're going to be adding that third card. There's still a transition process with our residents. There's still an education process with our residents. So as long as we all understand that we're going to be working together with our community to engage and to educate, then, you know, we'll be able to work through this process no matter which hauler gets the bid.

And I would just emphasize on the transition point, regardless, right, if we move to a three-cart system, regardless of the hauler, it will emphasize your point, too. It's a huge lift, and there's going to be a lot of education required between now and the starting point for when the third cart shows up for every resident in the city in terms of how to utilize this third cart that we have not had ever. and how this whole process is going to work. And it's a short period of time to roll these out and to get everyone on board. And I anticipate that there will probably be a lot of confusion questions from residents and customers. And have we thought about how to address that in terms of additional staffing for these questions or how we would leverage or utilize the hauler for addressing these concerns and making sure that there's robust public engagement and community engagement in the run-up to the start of a new service? Of course.

I think that, you know, to Council's point,

we've always talked about community engagement,

making sure that we're proactive, and so this would be a very proactive approach to make sure that the community is involved, they're educated. Again, we'll do our due diligence to make sure we're with the hauler to educate in multiple languages. Again, we can't guarantee that we'll reach every single resident, but our goal is to do that via social media, via council meetings. we can do additional outreach via these meetings. I know that you have some of your meetings with the mayors.

We could look at doing those type of engagement tools.

So I think whatever opportunities we have to educate and bring this to light to our community, we will do.

All right, thank you. And so taking a step back, the first phase of this process was an RFA or whatever, the qualification process for those that would be qualified to propose and submit a bid. That process included HFNH and our staff looking at, I believe, 10 entities, businesses, submitted their applications to be qualified, essentially. And during that process, can you talk through what we looked at and what we, with the help of our consultants, looked at in terms of making sure that those who were qualified to bid, what those qualifications were, and in a very essential way, whether the firms that were qualified are able to deliver the services we're asking for?

Yeah, again, the highlights, they were responsible for residential services. They could meet the timelines and that they had the proper equipment, the proper access to the carts. So again, all of these things have been stated that can be provided both by Athens and Ware. The proposers that could not meet that or didn't feel they could meet that provided their responses in a way that said they couldn't do that and again Every hauler is different. I can't speak to those haulers. They can't speak because they're not here They they for whatever reason could not bid on it But again based off of those those criteria and based off of what we reviewed based off of what was submitted to the city Those the haulers that were alLod to they were presented to council that were approved by council were the haulers that met our requirements

And then on, I mean, going back to another question that came up, right, in terms of the potential miscalculation or whatever. But in terms of this bid and these rates that are proposed by Athens and Ware, if we award any of them, either of them, the contract tonight for whatever these services are, they cannot exceed what they have proposed if they accept the bid, right? That's correct.

And then there are limitations within Measure BB that limit them on their annual increases as well, which, again, goes back to some of the haulers, why they didn't want to propose on it. Some haulers like to increase the rates beyond CPI. So, again, Measure BB is restrictive in that nature as well, and so that's why some of the haulers didn't want to bid.

Right, so these estimated monthly rates are for the first year, and then to be clear for anyone who may be paying attention, the other six years of the contract, the following six years of the contract, the maximum the hauler would be alLod to increase their rates would be based on CPI for our region. That's correct.

And again, I just want to make sure that I note again that these costs will increase slightly based off our franchise fee. So not much, but they will be increased by our franchise fee.

And the RFA qualifying all of the qualification process for all the bidders, potential bidders, was that they would meet all state requirements in terms of diversion, SB 1383, whatever it is, organic diversion, recyclables, all the 75 percent, the very quickly coming up 75 percent diversion rate requirement by the state, and everything else they got to do, environmental, fleet transition over the next few years, all that stuff, from a very foundational point of view, everyone had to meet those requirements that the state mandates already, right? That's correct. And so if a hauler were not to meet or not able to perform to those standards, what happens?

So I'll defer to Carl on some of the more specifics, but, again, we have provisions within our agreement that allow us to take action against the hauler.

We can impose penalties and fees, or we can ultimately, and maybe Carl will speak this more,

look at doing an emergency metric to bring in a different hauler to acquire our needs.

So I can let Carl speak to anything else, but I might have missed.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. As Mr. Igo mentioned, there are provisions in there with regard to liquidated damages. If they're not able to be able to meet the requirements of the franchise,

There's also a surety which would ensure performance of the bond, or I'm sorry, ensure performance of the franchise agreement.

And in hopefully the unlikely event that whomever you awarded it to were to go out of business for whatever reason, the city would be able to turn around and hopefully make up the delta between whatever the current prices are and whatever the performance bond penalty amount would be in order to correct the pricing for that and ensure that a new hauler was coming in and taking over the routes.

Is there a recourse in terms of poor performance, in terms of customer service, or if there are concerns along those lines, is there anything built in in terms of this contract? So for purposes of the competitive bid, that's not part of the City Council's decision-making process,

but for your peace of mind, the franchise agreements do have provisions in there about customer service, how close physical locations need to be for the haulers, for example, how frequently and how quickly they need to answer the phone and respond to customer requests. Those types of typical customer service requirements, which are in every one of our franchise agreements with regard to solid waste, is in the template for franchise agreements. And to that point, I don't believe that Ware has said that they could not comply with any of those in the franchise template, to my knowledge.

And if, I mean, right, not that this

has happened, but if one of the companies weren't meeting some of those requirements, we do have recourse to fine or issue penalties and to potentially if we deem fit or if the case warrants we could, as you said, end the contract early before seven years and figure out how to continue to deliver service. In another way.

Any other questions? We can go for another round. Council Member, you?

I think we have asked enough questions. I wanted to say I hear you. I love Athens, no question asked. So I love their service, community involvement, two-car system. Even I visit the Athens facilities. They are very clean, very technology advanced. I'm very impressed. So I heard all of your appreciation of Athens service, and I'm also

a bit worried about changing the company, and especially from two-car to three-car system. I haven't used three-car system before, so I don't know how it works. But I'm sure, you know, if we continue to pick Athens, we'll have no problem in service. And I also understand the top quality service does have a price tag. And with the Athens two-card system increased from $5.9 million to $13.6 million,

it's 230% increase, not 23%. It's 230% increase.

It is from $23 a month to $58 a month.

But Ware keeps the similar pricing at about $30 per month. We have a few groups of residents asking for a three-car system before, which I think they think they will do a better job than the trash company. So I want to say no matter how much I love Athens, but I do have a hard time facing all the residents. As council member, we are making decisions for our residents and making sure it is their best interest. Especially, they all voted for Measure BB, which tells us they want to choose the Lor price tag and prevent the council to pick the highest bidder. And if we do pick Athens, I can foresee we will receive a lot of complaints from our residents to Athens and to our council. we will have a very hard time justifying why the trash company increased 230%

from their previous build compared to just 28% increase to change to three card system with wear so that's my two cents, thank you

yeah I have a couple questions and you know what, let's break the ice a little bit, the question I like to ask myself and I don't want anyone to

respond is what's your best and final?

At least I have a couple of cracking voices here. I'm going to ask my same three questions to both of you, and I got pieces of the information earlier, so I don't know where or at this anyone can respond. It doesn't have to be Gary or Jay here. So when I asked earlier how many residential accounts do you have, I heard 250 residential, so how many commercial? 250,000.

250,000 residents. How many commercial?

Half a million or more.

I can tell you that these are exclusive municipal contracts, too. These aren't county contracts. I didn't want that to gloss. That's okay. I just needed, thank you, just the number. I think if you look at it individually, like population, it's over 3 million customers. But the numbers off the top of my head are probably half a million. That's okay.

And then from, I think from where I heard 40,000 residential and 8,000 commercial.

Is that fair? Okay.

That's, again, we're just close enough, right?

My second question is, I'll ask where first and I'll go back to Athens later.

In the last, I'm going to go with the last 10 years. have you done transitions and how many or if you have how many transitions have you done changing from two bins to three bins or just engaging in a new contract in the last 10 years

in the last 10 years we've transitioned over 40,000 residential homes one of them actually we transitioned one of them we actually transitioned to Athens out and then they transitioned us back took over one of the contracts we lost and they transitioned back in but it was a we've transitioned over 40,000 homes so that was the last ten years in the last ten years with three card systems we've actually and and we've also delivered out to those 40,000 homes food waste baskets to each door okay with education and instructions on how to use that food waste basket which goes beyond the three-cart system so we know how to educate for SB 1383 and then with regards to the commercial bins we've transitioned west San Gabriel Valley just recently was our most recent transition we've transitioned the city of Los Angeles and these were all in very fast-paced environments. Some of these transitions were within a 60-day window where we had to transition many of the dumpsters out,

repaint dumpsters, and so on and so forth.

So there's been, you know, some of that movement was extensive and intensive and we were able to accomplish it all with very little issues to any businesses or commercial companies. Thank you.

And then Athens, the same question. How many transitions in the last 10 years?

Again, approximate. Mayor Pro Tem, I take exception to what I hear sometimes because you have to ask the question.

of Pomona recently, just in the last year, tens of thousands of customers, the city of Riverside, huge city. These are municipal contracts that we have transitioned over to the city of Redondo Beach, city of Hermosa Beach. I can just go on and on for the different cities that we have transitioned, and it's a very different discussion. This is a very unique city. It's not a county pocket it's a very unique municipal contract and and just going from two barrels to three barrels is going to be very challenging in this city we have that knowledge we don't it's it's something that we know how to do our three barrel price is not that much bigger uh council member to you just so you know than i'm just telling you yeah that's the question of how many municipal city contracts you've transitioned in the last 10 years. I'm just trying to figure out. I'm trying to, I'm just being open and honest with you, sir. So how many, so you name

probably a hand, more than a hand, probably name six or seven cities. Yes. That equates to how many customers? Customers?

A couple hundred thousand. A couple hundred thousand, okay.

And in our proposal to you, there are very specific. That's okay, that's okay, thank you.

I just want to get through this thing. I just want to make sure I ask the questions in my head when I have it before. And I guess the next question actually goes back to Athens. Language services. What language services do you provide now?

We provide over 100 different languages. Becky speaks Mandarin Chinese. Our people in the street speak those languages.

Our customer service center, which is local here, has over 100 people.

and they speak 100 different languages, and you get that right away when you get on the phone.

In addition to when we're out in the field with you, we speak Spanish, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Chinese, many different languages.

So official written language?

101.

Written?

Yes. Speak and written, yes.

Okay, great. Let's go to where real quick?

Councilman, we supply, I don't have 100 different languages. I don't even know if there is 101 different languages.

I'm not sure Gary knows where, if there's 101 different languages. But I can assure you that I'll provide enough languages here written for the education program

when we roll out our new CART system to all the residents within the community.

They'll have all the necessary languages available, whether it's Mandarin or traditional Chinese, if that's what's requested.

We can do Spanish. We can do English. We can do whatever other languages are necessary.

Jay, the question was, do you currently serve now?

We provide over 15 or 20 different languages.

I don't know what all those languages are, but we're capable of translating all of the necessary languages using translation services that we have via our phone lines and answer any questions that people have.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. I just needed to ask those questions. I apologize. I had a time.

This is akin to going back to the dating game, right? There's a wall here, and I'm trying to figure out what am I picking here. And I had to ask those questions for my benefit, and hopefully the rest of the council heard some of those feedback, because I needed to figure out the size of the company, the competency, the experience, meaning the transitions, and also the technical soft skills, which to me was the language issue here. Because in our city, many of you know, 65% of the folks in this city speak a language other than English. So I just wanted to have that in my bench. So thank you both for addressing those questions. That's enough question for me. I

Have a couple follow-up questions

Number one is how big is your staff like how many employees do you have within your businesses?

Thank you councilmember we have 2,500 local employees just regionally in Southern California here and the yard that's going to serve this particular area has about 350.

And then our corporate yard, which is about a mile up the road from that, has another couple hundred. And it's about 15.

I would say it was a 15 to 17-minute drive here where our facility is.

So 250, you said?

250 at the corporate yard and about 350 at the yard that will handle this.

So, I mean, a total of probably 600, 700 right there.

Okay.

And that includes our hauling division, our abandoned bulky item division, our street sweeping division, and our governmental affairs division.

And are they unionized?

We have both union and non-union employees.

Can you explain that a little bit more?

Yeah, we have particular yards that operate under a union contract,

and we have some work in the city of Los Angeles and in the southeast part of the Los Angeles area that is unionized, and then we have other yards that are non-union. They have the choice of going either way.

Do you have specific numbers, like what numbers of your 600 to 700 staff are unionized and which ones are non-unionized?

I could probably do it better percentage-wise, where if 100% is our total front-line hauling employee association,

I would say probably 25% of them are unionized. 25% unionized? Yes.

Thank you. You're welcome.

And can I ask where the same question?

Thank you, Council Member. That's great questions that you were asking. I have approximately 250 employees out of my drivers, and I probably have about 60 office-type staff.

My 250 drivers, mechanics, all blue-collar workers, they're all unionized.

They're all Teamsters, Local 396. They're very proud of their their team store organization and I work very closely with the Teamsters and

I believe that I have a good relationship with them and I believe that that helps me have a good relationship with all of my My teamster employees. Thank you. And just one more question to follow up

Hypothetically speaking if if you were to be awarded a contract would would you see your company having to expand? the number of employees that you might need to be able to meet the needs of a Municipal City like ours that has a lot of customers. Oh, absolutely

We're gonna be bringing on an office here with an education center For your local residents to be able to access that office not only to pay bills

but to talk to

This the the community staff that will be inserted within this community

We'll have an education center to be able to teach them about recycling or their children about recycling in all different languages, of course

and We will be bringing on additional employees and if there are any displaced employees from

The other provider will be more than glad to take those employees on as well and put them back to work

Thank you. And one more question when you said here in terms of office, did you mean here in Monterey Park? That is actually correct. Yes, Monterey Park

Thank you

Thank you. Actually, a follow-up question.

So currently for where, where do you take the non-diverted waste, where is it taken to?

Um, council member, are you asking about like which landfill, which I guess anything that is not that cannot, you know, that it's not recyclable, you know, that ends up in a landfill.

Where did what what do you do with that?

We take those to diversion facilities. So all the material that we'll be picking up here in the city will be taken to material recovery facilities throughout the Los Angeles area. And those material recovery facilities will go ahead and process that material and then that material once processed will end up either in the landfill or some of it will be taken to a high diversion facility up in North LA. As of right now, but there's no material we'll be picking up that will be going in directly into any landfill. We also have our facility down in Orange County, and we'll be able to process a lot of the recyclables and organics down in our facility in Orange County.

Okay. And walk me through then, again, let's say hypothetically, you know, we were to award you the contract.

then how does, describe a typical trash collection day when it involves three containers?

How does that, how does a typical trash day then would look to residents?

I'm going to estimate that there's between nine to ten residential trash routes each day that trucks will run. And so some of those trucks will run the black barrel, which is the trash route. Then some of the trucks will run the blue barrel, and then those trucks will go to the recycling facility. And then the last set of trucks will run the green waste barrel,

and then they will take that to the organics or the green waste facilities. So how many truck trips per day are we talking about then?

Each truck will pass by a house three times. Three times.

So that means then you have either the same truck or the different truck?

It's going to depend on the routing and the areas that we do.

But let's just say that three trucks will do black barrel. They do approximately 1,000 homes a day. So three trucks will do black barrel. Three trucks will do blue.