City Council Meeting — October 2, 2024

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Well, I should do it now.

I hope that we can get obsessed on the same part.

I apologize for the delay here. We have some technical difficulties, but we're ready. Okay, well, let's call the meeting to order. We'll start with color guard.

Please stand.

First vote is good.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice strong.

Prepare to pose colors. Forward march.

Close colors, flags loop, about face.

All right, we'll start the meeting with our mission statement. The mission of the city of Monterey Park is to provide excellent services to enhance the quality of life for our entire community. And of course, our land acknowledgement, we would like to acknowledge that this land we inhibit today was once known as the Tavengard, the home of the Gabriolino-Taven people. we show our respect to the Gabriolino Tomahar people as well as to all indigenous people past, present, and future and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabriolino Tomahar people invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Sanchez? Present. Council Member Lo? Here. Council Member Yu. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Ngo. Present. And Mayor Wong. I'm here.

We have a quorum.

Okay. Agenda additions, deletion, and changes and adoptions. Carl, we have an update here.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. We have a recommendation that the agenda be amended to add in the teleconferencing requirements for Mr. or Mayor Wong to participate in this particular meeting. At about 6.05 this evening, we were informed by the mayor that he was testing positive for COVID, and under the amendments to the Brown Act that occurred in 2023, he can, for just cause, participate in teleconferencing. In order to do that, my recommendation is to amend the agenda upon a four-fifths vote to add in the teleconferencing information. that link should be broadcast right now on the live stream and

i'm going to read it into the record now it is to access it it is zoom.us meeting id 894-6426-2105 password is 576011 this would be added pursuant to the provisions of the Brown Act that allows the council to make findings that a new item should be added it arose after the posting of the agenda and upon up in four-fifths vote the council determines that it's necessary before the next regular meeting in addition where the recommendation is from Mayor Wong to exercise as just cause provisions under the amendments to the Brown Act specifically

government code section 54 hold on sorry I had it right here in front of me 54

953 subsection F and that was the request of the mayor so if that's something that the council would do my recommendation would be again to upon forfeits vote add that to the agenda and then the mayor and whomever else would like to participate can participate versus via teleconference again the the live feed is showing that that link and I read it into the record happy to answer

any questions I move that we go ahead and make the changes so we can add the mayor it's be part of the council meeting

second so moved by councilmember Sanchez and second by councilmember Lo please

have your vote

approved unanimously

Mr. Mayor Pro Tem and Mr. Mayor my recommendation would be to have the Mayor Pro Tem officiate tonight since he's here in person rather than have the Mayor do it just for purposes of efficiency

I will be gladly do that though I see a smile in the Mayor's face I think he's resting comfortably at home sorry we got to drag you into one more meeting you can rest after this

I'm feeling okay.

Public communications.

First speaker, Chen Gu. Chen?

Gu.

Sorry, Chen Gu. I forgot my glasses.

Yeah, it's your turn.

Come on down.

Please come up to the podium.

So since I'm alLod to speak in five minutes, I will briefly.

Yeah.

So basically, it is the worry and the concerns of our community.

the background is we are living in the condo and there are about nine units and in 2017 there's one unit the owner bought bought the house, one of the condo houses and ever since then she ran to a renter or we call the attendants And ever since then, the attendants ran this unit as a boarding house. So the boarding house gave us, the community, a lot of accumulated worry and concerns. Majorly, the concern is tax evasion. Second is our safety. Because ever since then, there are a lot of abnormal and strangers around it. They even jump over the gate fence, and our community becomes like an unsafe place, and we have things stealing, safety, so on and so forth.

Then over usage of water, because there are so many people living in this apartment, the unit. And sometimes the neighbors said there are 12, it's about 12 people living there. So they waste a lot of water starting from 5 o'clock in the morning to the midnight because these people do all kinds of jobs.

And also fire danger because many people smoking. and the old men, almost they smoke inside and outside and the neighbor smelled the burning from the kitchen

and the next is disturbing the neighbors because many people these people living there many standing out of the room and they can make huge noises inside the room. They bend the door, they throw the things.

So the next door neighbor can't sleep

inside. They have high breath pressure or heart beating, fasting, so on and so forth. Then so we talked to the HOA manager, but there's no working solution.

and we ask for the original owner's phone. We want to tell the owner, but the owner never answered the phone.

So our request is check them if they are tax evaded. We strongly doubted it because it's seven years and there are so many people. Oh, that is true. So on March 26, 2024, which is this year, I talked to the one of the girls who are living there. I asked her, I said, how many people are living there? And she told me, three girls living upstairs and another six living in a garage because their garage never opened. We strongly believe they are doing that since. So our request is check if their tax evaded. second stop her in the boarding house immediately

that's it

thank you

staff can we get her information so we have some background

information

I think someone will talk to you to get more information

from you thank you

so how do I be contacted

Ray Lozano is going to raise his hand He's back here.

He's going to get your contact information.

Well, actually, I bet him. Okay. The day is because the neighbor had opened a case to that. So he is one of the guys searching.

But on the next day, right next day, they still do the same things. And people.

So our senior code enforcement officer, Ray Lozano, he'll get your contact information.

That way we can follow up on the property specifically.

Yeah, they are doing the tendency, don't be afraid of, don't be afraid to do the same. So we are just wondering what's going on. Right. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have tonight?

That was the only speaker. We have two other written communications that I'll read to you right now. The first written communication is from Cindy Yee. She writes regarding concerns with the overdevelopment of hotels in our city. She's concerned that we have all these hotels, but we have very little to offer them besides restaurants. She recommends that the property at Garvey and Atlantic, known as the old pumpkin patch and Christmas tree lot, be converted to include first floor retail and affordable housing above. She believes that this could easily blend in with the neighborhood, surrounding neighborhood. She states that residents have been desperate for decades because we need quality shopping and are tired of driving outside of our city. This type of development would enhance the revenue, the city's revenue and excitement for the hotels. affordable housing can blend into the rest of the surrounding communities because the transportation infrastructure is already in place along the Garvey and Atlantic corridors. The blight on the other two corners would be also cleared.

She states, with the problems throughout the city,

maybe we should place the moratorium in City Hall and establish the Citizens Committee to redesign and implement a plan to improve our quality of life within our city borders, eliminate our blighted intersections at Garfield and Garvey and Atlantic and Garvey, revitalize downtown Monterey Park, and enrich our reserves to support badly needed infrastructure for our community. That was from Cindy Yee. Our other written communication was from Bill Lamb. He wanted to discuss the upcoming November elections and asked if there will be a candidate forum for this upcoming election. The last time there was a candidate forum for the Monterey Park City election

was in February of 2020, before the March 2020 city election.

It was hosted by the League of Women Voters Pasadena and the city council chambers for people to attend and interact with the candidates running for office. He is hoping that there will be at least one candidate forum

before the election so that the people could attend

and watch the debate as well as meet all of the candidates

running for local office before the election.

so he asks that you consider any way possible to

encourage that and perhaps

plan that for the city residents

he'd greatly appreciate it thank you

let's move on to staff communication and we have the city

clerk's office and I have a feeling

it's about the elections

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council, and the community watching.

I am Helena Cho, Assistant Deputy City Clerk, and I'm here to provide some information regarding the city's upcoming election.

So I wanted to first start off by thanking all those individuals who registered during National Voter Registration Day.

There was over 2 million individuals who had registered to either update their status, register to vote, or check on their status on that day.

I wanted to also thank Alhambra Unified School District and Montebello Unified School District for sharing early voter registration information with youth 16 and 17 at their schools. A special thank you to our Public Works Department in working with the city clerk's office and the county recorder's office in making ADA accommodations to our Lating Center to ensure that it's a viable vote center. Monterey Park was the first city to make these accommodations for the county

and the quickest to make these accommodations.

So a special thank you to the Public Works Department.

So when is the city's election?

The city's election is November 5th, 2024. and some key dates that I want the public to be aware of. Next Monday, October 7th, your sample ballot booklet, I mean your vote-by-mail ballot will be mailed out to all residents in L.A. County. October 15th, you will get your voter information guide from the county.

October 21st is the last day to register to vote.

October 26th is when early voting starts. And November 5th is our city's election.

So what is on the ballot?

the city has two ballot measures that all registered voters in Monterey Park will be able to vote on. Measure BE, which is our business license tax, and Measure LG, the transient occupancy tax. More information on these two measures can be found on our city's website

or by downloading the QR code listed here on the PowerPoint slide.

for voters who reside in Districts 2, 3, and 3.

Center locations and date. These are locations that are city facilities. There are also other locations that are private facilities. We are hoping that the county has all this information out coming next Monday. So the vote centers that are city facilities is Garvey Ranch Park. That vote center starts on November 2nd and runs all the way through election date. November 2nd through the 4th will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On election day, it is 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Our second location is Langley Senior Center, same dates and times.

And vote-by-mail ballots.

Vote-by-mail ballots will open on Monday the 7th. The city clerk's office has already put wayfinding signs up both of our vote-by-mail locations,

which is City Hall in front of the driveway as you enter the City Hall facilities,

and another vote center ballot drop box station at Sierra Vista Park. So these boxes are open 24-7, and they will close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Resources for the community. Additional information on the city's election is on the city clerk's website. You can also find more information on the L.A. County Register Recorder site. And if you would like any ballot information on a preferred language, you're going to reach out to the county, and they will be more than glad to send you that in the mail. Just additional resources for those, you can follow. We are doing social media posts on the city's Instagram page,

and then there's a link directly to the city clerk's page for election information.

That concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Do we have any questions?

Just a brief comment. I just wanted to thank you and the city clerk's office for all the work that you are doing. I know this is a very busy time period, and I always see you at all events. informing the residents about everything that's going on in our city, about the election information, but also very important in working with our local school districts and ensuring that we are registering kids to vote and sharing with them the importance of voting and being civically engaged. So kudos to your office for doing a lot of that and spearheading that.

So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Again, Helena, thank you and your office for the presentation. I know I asked before at your previous presentation, But do we know if the county is also interested in doing some pop-up voting locations as well? And do they inform us when that happens?

So pop-up locations are on an as-needed basis.

If the city can find a location where there is a need for a particular group of voters that aren't being met, then the county will take a look at that and work with the clerk's office and ensuring that there's a vote center, a pop-up location on Election Day.

I'll definitely reach out back to the county to see.

At this time, there isn't anything in place for a pop-up center.

Okay.

I believe in 2020, I think the Lincoln Hotel lobby had a pop-up. It was one day, but nonetheless, I mean, it...

Right. I think it's more of a mobile center. I'm sorry, a mobile center?

Yes, yes. A mobile center. I'm sorry, yes.

But definitely we'll try to see if there becomes a need for a mobile center on election day,

and we'll definitely reach out to the county to work with them to get one established. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Thank you, Helena. Thank you.

So just a quick thought here. I mean, for the only obligation we have in this great country where there's plenty of freedom and opportunities, there's only one obligation, that's your duty to vote. so thank you city clerk's office for helping with the process

thank you

next up we have the fire department

good evening mayor and mayor pro tem city council chris thompson fire chief

I brought a bunch of the fire department staff to help explain some of the great events that we are having this month

I wanted you to be able to meet some of the different ranks that we have in our department and they're going to share a lot of the special events that we have

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Members of the City Council My name is Ray Lozano and I am the Senior Code Compliance Officer for Code Compliance Division Next week is a very exciting week for our division as it is Code Enforcement Officer Appreciation Week, which has been designated by the California State Legislator by way of resolution, which designates the second week of October as a week for recognition for all of the code enforcement professionals. during this time it's a time for us to celebrate the hard work that the code enforcement officers do for the community and maintaining the cleanliness contributing to the safety and the overall overall quality of life of the city and it's through this week that we're able to highlight all of the good things that the code enforcement division does so with that it's very

short to the point. Thank you. Good evening. I'm the fire marshal here for Monterey Park.

And also, my name is Jessica. And we're also going to observe fire prevention week, which

is October 6th through the 12th. And a little bit of background on that is we've been, National Fire Protection Association has been observing the Fire Prevention Week since 1922.

And during that week, we like to do a lot more public education.

NFPA always puts together a new theme. This year's theme is smoke alarms, make them work for you. So during the week of Fire Prevention Week, we reach out to children, adults, teachers. We teach them how to stay safe in case of a fire. Through public education, we can actually drastically decrease the casualties caused by fires. One of our events, we will be located at the Farmer's Market on the 10th, and we'll be handing out Fire Prevention Week materials and answering any questions.

Let's see. I knew I'd mess it up. Teamwork. so we're also going to do the partnership with dominoes again this year

so in case you don't remember that one that will actually be october 12th and if you place a delivery through dominoes there's a chance that we could deliver that pizza on a fire engine

and with the help of dominoes so we enter the place of it you know if the resident allows us to

and we check the smoke alarms. So the firefighters will check the smoke alarms. If the smoke alarms function, their order is free through Domino's. If we find a smoke alarm that needs batteries or doesn't function at all, we will actually replace that detector.

So basically you either get a free pizza or a whole order or you get new smoke alarms.

So it's a win-win from both sides, right, either pizza or safety. So basically we're very excited for the partnership again this year to promote the fire safety in our community.

Thank you very much.

Hi, I am Captain Scott Kelly, Monterey Park Fire Department, and this is Firefighter Paramedic Carter Ponce.

As we all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this will be our T-shirt this year.

It'll be sold for $20.

We're going to be selling them out of Fire Station 61 lobby starting Monday.

The first batch already sold out, so we're going to have to wait until Monday.

Go ahead. Give them a spin, everybody.

Feel free to come on by to Station 61.

We look forward to selling them. All the proceeds go to not only Breast Cancer Foundation, but also the Monterey Park Firefighters Relief Fund.

Thank you very much.

All right. Last but not least, good evening. My name is Rob DeRosa. I'm a battalion chief with Monterey Park Fire Department.

Two of my division responsibilities are community outreach and disaster preparedness.

So two events that we have coming up is our next CERT class. We usually try to do one in spring and then one in fall.

So the upcoming dates for our next CERT class are November 7th and 8th, which are going to run from 5 to 8 p.m.

and then 8th and 9th, I'm sorry, 9th and 10th, which are 8 to 5. So it's a four-day-ish class for those of you that have or may not have had it.

We've been doing this as a department since 2003. We've certified over 200 of our residents in disaster preparedness to become CERT members. You learn basic search and rescue, CPR, AED, and basic first aid, small fire extinguisher training. But most important, it's a big part of this program is disaster preparedness. Disaster preparedness skills that you can take home to your business, friends, wherever you need it. It's a great program.

We're trying to expand it and get more of a youth involvement, so we're working on that. We're also trying to encourage more of our CERT members to become disaster state workers. This is a little more education, a little more time investment on your end, but ultimately with the big picture of when a natural disaster happens, we can use more of those DSWs, as we call them, to kind of integrate into our city's plan, work with the fire department, and it's kind of that next level.

So we're looking to expand that roster with our existing CERT members and new ones.

So again, November 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, we usually take classes of about 20 people. We do it twice a year, and that's the next one coming.

The next slide is great shakeout.

Most of our city staff has probably received an email by me reminding everybody that October 17th is the Great ShakeOut. This is a nationwide event that takes place.

We as a city are signed up as a participant. But it kind of goes beyond the place that you work. That ShakeOut.org is a site that anybody can go to and has a ton of information regarding disaster preparedness in general, more specific earthquake safety.

It has the seven steps to preparing for an earthquake. It's offered in 16 different languages, so anybody can take a look at that, click on the language they want, and all that information is available to them.

So we as a department are really pushing this event. The staff is all involved. We have an earthquake drill. There's some Q&A. And then our staff that helps staff the Emergency Operations Center goes through about an hour-and-a-half program of getting another certification

that's required to work in the EOC. We kind of have some talking points, some discussions, and the end goal is that as a staff,

we eventually have tabletop exercises. So we're building towards that level in our emergency operations center. So we'll be busy that morning on October 17th, but we encourage everybody to check out shakeout.org, gather any information from there, and bring those questions the day of the shakeout. So that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for anybody here at the staff? Question?

Wow, it's a busy month for the fire department. So thank you for all of the activity, all of the advocacy as well, and all the work that you're doing. I do have some questions, or actually one main question. But I think the work that you guys are doing is amazing. And I thank you for – everywhere I go, I see the CERT team out there, a lot of our public events. My only question is, how are we working to do a lot of this stuff also with a lot of our schools in terms of making sure that even CERT or even advocating and doing some of these with a lot of our –

Since I'm new to this division and that's been one of the challenges I've been presented with, we've got a really good relationship with the Red Cross. And the Red Cross has got a great platform for involving high school students.

So my next step, Ryan Shan, who was our area kind of representative, got moved, but I'm still in contact with him.

And I'm working with him on getting with those groups and those outlets that the Red Cross uses

to involve the youth and somehow adapting in what we need and how we can involve those groups, get our message out to them

so they can get it out to the students that they go to school with

or the groups they're involved with so that they can hopefully get that message out.

That's our initial plan, but I'm all ears and open to suggestions if anybody's got any.

Well, I'll just say one.

For example, on October 17th, which is the California Great Shakeout, if there's any information that we have that we can share with local schools so that they participate, I think schools are like their own little communities. but sometimes it's good to kind of share this information and remind them what types of things they can do within the classroom because chances are they spend a lot of time there if there was a quake, it could potentially happen within the classroom as we all know, but it would be great to be able to share this type of information so teachers, students, everyone's educated and aware of the importance of being ready for a quake.

When we ran into it during the Safe Kids walk the other day

we had an opportunity to meet some folks and I know that's a relationship I'm going to be working on

is working with the school district and trying to formulate and get a better disaster plan all the way around

so we understand what you guys are doing, you understand what we're doing, and kind of get more on the same page so that we're working together.

Yeah. I think that's great. Thank you for everything that you do, and looking forward to see a lot of this happening this month.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I echo the same sentiments of our council. Our first responders are the best, so thank you for all your hard work, and there's more heat so I think you guys may have to go out and do a little more work hopefully you'll cross those fingers there won't be any more fires so thank you thank you thank you speaking of the heat we got library next

I'm the adult literacy coordinator. I'm excited to share with you some exciting events we have this month. First, we have our very popular Kauai Kitty Art Contest. This is for cat fans of all ages. They are invited to submit their artwork for the library's first ever contest sponsored by the Monterey Park Library Foundation, Blick Art Materials, One House Arts, and Tail Town. Pick up an entry form at the library or scan the QR code and submit your artwork by October 12. Winning artworks will be displayed in the library and printed on bookmarks. Next, for high school students, we have two programs for those entering college, preparing for college. Saturday, October 5, join C2 Education for an advice session on how to prepare for the SATs. Then on Thursday, October 10, join Chinatown Service Center for guidance on writing your personal insight questions for the University of California. Also for teens, join the L.A. County Department of Mental Health for Staying Safe, an informative workshop on domestic violence.

We also have some great programs for children.

This is another popular program starting October 5th to November 16th is the In-N-Out reading program for children ages 4 to 12. Register at montereypark.beanstack.org or scan the QR code, read five books, and receive a certificate for a free burger. Speaking of food, for kids ages 7 to 12 is our new monthly Books and Cooks program. With the children's librarians, we'll check out some food-themed books, learn how to follow a recipe, and practice some cooking skills. Registration is required. Then, later in the month for parents and guardians, is the Early Learning Resource Fair. On October 26, representatives from local preschools and community organizations will be at the library to answer questions about their programs and questions about enrollment. Now, for adults, join us this Saturday, October 5th, with Emmy-nominated writer Ellen Sandler for a journal writing workshop. Learn about journaling techniques, Sandler's personal writing secrets, and how to connect your voice to your writing. Registration is strongly recommended. Also for adults, we have two more programs by the L.A. County Department of Mental Health. First on October 12 is bullying prevention where attendees will learn about how bullying affects children, reasons for bullying, and how to intervene. Then on October 21 is preserving your memory where attendees will learn about useful brain exercises to keep moments of forgetfulness to a minimum. Two more programs for adults join us on October 26 for a resume writing workshop with library staff, and then stay for fire safety in the home with the Monterey Park Fire Department. Next, and this is for everyone, you are all invited to the Monterey Park Library Foundation's Fall Gala. Step up to the plate and support the annual fundraising gala for the Monterey Park Bruggemeier Library on October 25th at Luminarius. This year's honorees are Teresa Amador and Chinatown Service Center. Sponsorships and individual tickets are available at the Foundation website at montereypark.ca.gov slash libraryfoundation. And then last, this is something that's close to me. We are celebrating 40 years of library literacy services in California, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of Literacy for All of Monterey Park, or LAMP. Just to share a little history, in 1984, the California State Library rolled out funding for the California Literacy Campaign to address adult literacy. It began with 27 pilot programs, with the Monterey Park Library being one of the first ones. The need for adult literacy services proved to be immensely important and popular. and we're asking everyone to help celebrate this milestone by becoming a volunteer literacy tutor. Come make a difference in your community and help make a positive change for adults learning English. For more information on how to become a volunteer tutor, please visit our library website or give me a call at any time.

Thank you.

Questions, comments for Victor? 13 items.

13 things going on.

No, I think, well, Victor, thank you so much for the report. I think the work that the library does is amazing. So, and you're going to be seeing a lot more of us,

because actually I had a parent conference,

a daughter's parent conference, and one of the things they recommended actually was,

you should take her to the library and have her read some more. So we're going to,

they're going to definitely be going more often to the library. But a lot of the amazing programming, programming, we really appreciate all of the programming that you're doing for a lot of our families and students here in our community. Libraries serve an important role in our communities, and so they're, and you know that, and we all have, we've talked about this before, we all have library stories in terms of what libraries did for us when we were growing up, so I appreciate a lot of the programming. I saw the SAT, PIQs, I teach seniors, so I know exactly how that feels like, so I'm pretty sure those are very popular and will be very full, so thank you for doing that. Plus, I also need to update and get a new passport, so

I'll be seeing you pretty soon. Thank you so much.

Mr. Mayor Pro Temp, yes.

Victor, I thank you for your presentation. I didn't realize LAMP is 40 years old. I actually can remember back 21 years ago when I was a volunteer with Lillian Carwatani and Vincent Chang for the censorship program. And, yeah, I guess I was like, yeah, two decades ago. But nonetheless, you know, it was a great program, which I think even back then people admired for its opportunity to provide tutoring and volunteer. And so it's really a moment to be proud of that we celebrate 40 years, and hopefully we will continue to have people interested in helping as volunteers and to provide valuable mentoring services to our community.

Victor, great programs, really being there for the community of residents. And with the heat coming up this week, it's a cooling place. Plus, you get to, I see in and out, I see essay writing, SAT, journaling, just a number of events. So thank you for all your services, and thank you to the library for being a great service to our community.

Thank you.

See here, going from the library, we have the police department.

Chief?

Good evening. Mayor, Mayor Potem, Council, my name's Corporal Contreras here at Monterey Park Police Department, and I'm here to talk to you about the Pink Patch Project.

If you didn't know, over 900 law enforcement agencies now participate by wearing the Pink Patch on their uniform. This raises awareness for breast cancer. They each fundraise and raise money for education, research, and treatment of breast cancer.

So I'm here to invite you guys this year. We're having our second annual Pink Patch Project car show.

Last year we raised over $6,000. We had about 75 cars registered. So it was a really good cause. We had merchandise, T-shirts, patches, stickers, and this year we're having all that merchandise again.

I have some here. That pretty much concludes my presentation. Any questions about the Pink Patch Project?

Well, thank you for doing this, and I think it's a great cause, and I'm glad our department is participating in this. I purchased some stickers earlier to put on some of my items. So I encourage some of our residents who are here today to pick up a T-shirt or some stickers or a patch. I see some of you guys are waving it in the air. Thank you for supporting our police department for more, but also supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And we look forward to attending the car show as well.

Is it a different logo this year? It's a slightly different sticker.

Yes, we have new stickers. Yes.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Rex and Community Services.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem Ngo, Council Members.

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

I have a few updates for you for the month of October. First, over at the Langley Center, we have some health screenings and seminars.

On October 17th, in collaboration with the Garfield Health Center, we are going to be offering flu shots.

And on October 28th, we will be offering blood glucose and cholesterol screenings.

Also, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health, on October 10th, there will be a health seminar over grief and loss.

And on October 24th, there will be health seminar on the holiday blues. Again, this is in conjunction with the Department of Mental Health. We are offering a new class over at the Langley Center that has currently been full as of today.

It is called Sit and Get Fit.

This is offered to help strengthen muscles, to increase flexibility,

and increase overall health for our seniors.

And as you can see in some of the photos, we actually ran this version

of this program in our small gym that we have, which was much more intense.

And you can see some of the participants who joined this free program.

So again, the program is Sit and Get Fit, and it's a free program offered over at the Langley Center. Well, this weekend on Saturday, we are having our electric park event with headliner Richard Vision. Along with this, this is a fun family event, so we are going to be offering activities for kids, bracelet making. You'll see some corn toss and some longings out there.

We also have food trucks.

We will be having our pizza food truck come out, our bun and burger, which is a local vendor. Along with that, we're going to be having approximately 50 vendor booths. We will be having some resources along with art vendors to kind of go with the theme of Electric Park. This event begins at 4 o'clock and goes on throughout the night.

Again, it's an exciting fun family event.

Along with this, the Alhambra Educational Foundation will be hosting a beer garden for the first time out on the tennis courts. So it's a little bit of something for everyone in the family to be able to enjoy. At the Langley Center, for the entire community, we are going to be offering the Dia de los Muertos altar. This is going to be running from October 14th through November 4th. All photo submissions to be put onto the altar will be accepted through our recreation email,

which is recreation at montereypark.ca.gov.

And here's a photo of our last year's altar.

Residents submitted photos of their past loved ones, and we even got some photos of pets. So again, if anyone would like to participate in this,

they can email the recreation account to have a photo of their loved ones presented on the altar.

We have a couple older adult trips coming up.

So on October 10th, and both of these trips are free. So on October 10th, we are offering a free trip to the Vincent Price Museum.

There are a few spots available.

They're available on first-come, first-served basis. Participants or those looking to register can either visit the Langley Center

or call the Langley Center to register.

On October 7th, we are taking a full-load bus of our seniors to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

This trip is actually currently full,

but this trip will offer free ride and entry for all those who have registered.

So over at the Langley Center, we actually had a really, really great intergenerational program

where we partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of the Weston Gabriel Valley and some of our seniors to do self-portraits, well, portraits of each other. On October 15th, we are actually going to be revealing some of those portraits

where they will live temporarily in the Langley Center.

And this unveiling will begin at 6 p.m. And we are inviting all the community to come out here and to see what the younger generation and the older generation has done when they've come together.

And as you can see, we've given you a quick little view of some of the portraits

that we are going to be unveiling and posting at our senior center.

Now, our...

Monterey Park. Our annual Monster Mash is going to be coming on October 17th to Barnes Park. This event is done in collaboration with our library. So we are excited to partner up. We are going to be offering a live performance from Kids Imagination who will be doing an interactive live singing, dancing with kids out on our main stage. There's going to be trick or treating for those kids who want to dress on up and come out. We are also going to be having food trucks available for those who are looking to get a meal later on in the night. And this is an exciting event because not only is it done in collaboration with the library,

a majority of our city departments come out and they set up booths and they give out candy to all those kids who are participating.

On October 19th, in collaboration with UCLA Health, the Langley Center is going to be offering a community health fair. Screenings, information about Medi-Cal and everything regarding health and mental health will be offered at the Langley Center on the 19th.

we are offering our fourth annual pickleball tournament here at barnes park for forty dollars and it's forty dollars per team we will be having teams of intermediate beginner and advanced this is open to all those residents men or women who'd like to participate registration is just open so we are looking for our pickleballers to come on out and participate in this really, really fun event

here in Barnes Park. And that concludes my presentation. If you have any questions,

I'd be more than happy to answer those. Well, I counted more than 10, so I stopped counting

after 10. Comments from the council?

Yes. Thank you so much

for the presentation.

You've given us quite a bit to look forward to this coming month, especially for those of us who have kids, being able to go to the Monster Mash, the electric park on Saturday. I know that's really popular in my house. The girls are already

talking about Monster Mash.

Thank you for all the programming

that you do

for our families and for our residents it's always a pleasure to see and when we're out in public and people tell us Monterey Park does so much stuff

people notice so thank you so much for all that you do thank you

again

to reiterate my colleague it's definitely a busy month of October

I would like to also make a plug

for the Vincent Price

Art Museum at East Delay College. Many people I don't think realize that we have a museum in the city of Monterey Park and that's thanks to East Delay College and we're always happy to build our partnership with them. You know we recently had the self-portrait celebration that was featured at the Vincent Price Art Museum and in fact this past weekend I was there for the opening of one their new exhibits on the environment and indigenous cultures.

But we're actually very fortunate to have a place like this museum because it's free to the community, and they showcase not just local talent, but also they have partnerships with major institutions in the region like the L.A. County Museum of Art, MOCA, the Getty.

and through that partnership, they will borrow collections from these other institutions

and bring them to our own community. And when we talk about bringing culture so that people don't have to drive halfway across the city, I think we're very fortunate and certainly I think any opportunity we can to promote that relationship and to strengthen that relationship with the Vincent Price Art Museum, I'm all in support.

Thank you, Council Member Lo. It is definitely a gem in our city.

Again, amazing things going on in the city from the Little Kids Monster Mash to the Langley Center. I just want to point out that the Langley revealing of the intergenerational portrait, we have a celebrity in the house. Damien is actually part of that group, and his picture was there.

I was like, that's him right there. I know him.

So Damien, congratulations for being part of that.

And that's his picture.

I will say Damien's was one of my favorites that was revealed.

at the Vincent Price Museum. And one other question. I'm asking for a friend now. So I did hear that it's the sit and get fit at Langley. That's a free program. Correct. But please confirm that all you need to be is 50 years old to join Langley. You don't need to be 65. 50 years old

or older to join. And even if you weren't able to get into that get fit and sit class,

We actually do have a small gym with some quite advanced equipment.

I would say it's comparable to your 24-hour fitness or crunch gym,

and it's absolutely free for the community members. So anyone looking to run on a treadmill or lift some weights, they can join us at the Langley Center as long as they're 50 years old or older.

Yeah, you have over a dozen machines there. You also have table tennis.

Billiards. You have billiards.

and you have dance halls and

Mahjong

and Mahjong as well great so thank you so much

thank you

one more staff report

one just comment quick comment

and Langley Center is also a cooling center so I know it's warm outside both the library

and Langley Center are both cooling centers

you do not have to be

50 if you need to use

the cooling center at Langley Center you're more than welcome to go in

when it's warm outside as well.

Thank you.

Public Works.

All right.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council.

Sean Igoe, Public Works Director.

Tonight you have before you just an update on Clean Air Day. Today is officially Clean Air Day, but as you all are aware, you voted last month to not only allow today as free ridership for Spirit Bus for the entire week. So this is a reminder for the community, go ahead and jump on that Spirit Bus for free. Just utilize that service and download the Passio Go app to know where the routes are and updates from the Spirit Bus.

With that, I'll move on. So I'm excited to share this. This is some exciting news we have.

Our facility supervisor, Skylar Hickox, he worked with SoCal Wren to secure some funding for aging infrastructure at some of our facilities. So you can see here we replaced several units. They're hot water heaters. These are typically powered by gas. We replaced these with all electric units. So we were able to secure funding for their full replacement of six units. We've completed three thus far, one at Langley, one at Elder Pool, and then the last one is Fire Station 3. We're currently working on Elder Gym, Barnes Gym, and the museum at Garvey Ranch. So exciting to share these.

Here's a picture of what one looked like before and after. This is the Langley Center.

So we're just excited to share this not only work that we got done for free, but just, again, the advancements that we're doing at our facilities. So with that, I will take any questions.

Well, thank you so much.

I mean, any opportunity we have to not just get free grants to be able to update our equipment is always welcomed by us. but also when every time we can update to and convert to electric, that is always amazing. So thank you so much for hunting down these grants and for making these updates.

So thank you.

Thank you.

So, Sean, I saw that there were a number of public works projects related to Parks and Rec with the gym and Langley Center. I will say this. I mean, usually when you talk about government works, it's always the right hand and the left hand kind of working independently. I'm very proud to say our city, both hands are working together. You see the library working with Parks and Rec to make sure everyone is either in the library or out there running, and if they're not, they're in the gym or the senior center. So kudos to our staff for working together and making sure our city is really vital for not only the residents of our community, but also adjoining cities.

So thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem, I believe our mayor has his hand up. I think he would like to make a comment.

Go for it.

Thank you.

Really quickly, I appreciate everyone from all the staff reports. I appreciate that there's so much activity going on and so much work to help the community, the wider community, engage on everything that's going on in the community.

So I appreciate all the staff reports and all the departments that are doing so much work.

uh sean for your updates on the spirit bus uh for clean air week a week a day week whatever

uh after this week is there any way we can get just i'm just curious if we can get uh just numbers

if if we've seen an uptick at all in terms of spirit bus ridership uh with the free fair week

this week um just out of curiosity yes we can get the numbers great and then just kudos to you on the

conversion for some of the gas water heaters to electric heaters. Really appreciate going after the SoCal grant opportunity.

Can you remind me, I don't know if I missed it, how many switchouts happened

and if we did need or didn't need any other infrastructure upgrades

or changeouts that needed to happen to support the change to electric options?

Yeah, so we applied for nine, and we received approval for six. So the other units didn't qualify based off of the savings that we would have. So we were able to secure the six. There were some additional upgrades that were needed at those six sites, but that was all covered as part of the funding opportunity.

Oh, great. That's awesome. Good to know. Yep.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Let's move along on agenda item.

no presentations all business

Ture all business

we have staff coming

down to give this presentation

do we have a speaker? yes

looks like we have some public comments as well

first speaker

professor Charles Stapleton

Mayor Thomas, I hope you feel better. Mayor Pro Tem, council members, staff. I'm here to speak in favor of the committee's research and recommendation on the SPARC area. I moved to Monterey Park from Los Angeles, and I came here because mainly of the police and fire. We have our own services. They're known as top professionals. And I teach at West L.A. College. I teach real estate. I'm also a real estate broker and had an office in Monterey Park for a number of years. And every day when I go to drive to West L.A., I drive through this Saturn Park area. And over the last 20 years, I've watched it deteriorate rather than grow. And part of that has to do, I'm suggesting, as a commercial real estate broker, the change in people working at home versus virtually versus going to work. And so I'd like to quote to you as you listen to the report tonight from my textbook, now in its 12th edition, right? You can buy it online cheaper than from the college itself.

Under elements of land use, two items I'd like to draw to your attention. One is called highest and best use. Highest and best use of real estate is its most profitable, physically possible, and legally permissible use as we look at the community.

Currently, the zoning is for office professional. And in that zoning, I think we've only had one candidate, maybe two. I've talked to a couple of the real estate agents that have had those properties vacant available for a number of years right now. And I think we need to change.

We need to take a look at the current zoning, look at what's best for the whole community of Monterey Park, and address that little community in such a way to professionalize it, improve it. If we put residential down there, then it's got to be close to businesses. If you put businesses down there, they're going to compete with the shopping center and the project that's over there by Costco. So please give consideration to the presentation that you're going to hear. Thank you for letting me join those meetings, and I appreciate living in Monterey Park. I feel safe every night. So any questions? Okay.

I don't have a question, but Professor Stapleton, if somebody did get your book, you would promise to autograph it for them.

If they find you around in the community.

Yes, except that Lors the value, unlike the redevelopment area.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Jim Pugh.

Good evening, honorable council members and mayor virtually. I hope you feel better. And I just learned something new about land use from Professor Stapleton, it sounds like. So good definition there, by the way. Again, my name is Jim. M. Pugh from Shepherd Mullen. Represent the applicant for the data center project located at 1977 Saturn Street. We submitted a letter earlier in the week about our request for the council. I did want to highlight a couple points in that letter and ultimately let you know that we concur with what the staff generally recommended as far as a spark recommendation which is to expand the uses in Saturn Park. but not constrain them so three points really for me to emphasize for your consideration tonight the first one is the city as you know has an active project in hand we've submitted an application that's going through the environmental review process and we think ultimately that equals investment and community benefits in the city and in particular saturn park which you've been looking to have movement in over the last several years as some of the land is set vacant. So we would request that you should now expedite that 1977 project that's under staff review. We would very much appreciate that and think it's a good thing for the city. The second point I wanted to make is that the data center that is being proposed is consistent with the existing zoning. We know that from reviewing the zoning code and the city's concurrence with that. It's also very clear from the SPARC process that the community wanted to expand uses. Again, you've heard that word expand uses without, and I'm reading from the SPARC's recommendation, without eliminating any of the existing permitted uses. That's the will of the community now through the SPARC process. That was the will of the people when they originally adopted the existing zoning for the OP zone.

So, again, we request that any action that the council takes regarding the SPARK recommendation

be a more permissive or expansive zoning and not be more restrictive than the existing uses that are permitted today. My third and final point is that we believe the moratorium that exists for the Saturn Park area is no longer necessary. You may recall our initial position on that was that it wasn't necessary to start with, but we've been patient. We've alLod the SPARC process to play out, and we actually concur with the recommendation, as I mentioned in my initial comment. So we're asking the city council to consider allowing that moratorium to expire by its own term, which I believe is the end of this month, or terminate the moratorium at your next city council hearing. And ultimately, the reasoning for that is if the city council chooses to adopt SPARC's recommendation of expanding uses, then the 1977 project, which is consistent with existing uses or other projects that may come in that are consistent with existing uses, if you are only expanding, there should be no threat to the city or the public or the community regarding lifting the moratorium. So we think it's in the city's best interest, frankly, to remove that now so you can spur development in the area you're trying to redevelop. In closing, I'd say thank you very much. We appreciate our relationship with the city. The staff has been great. We look forward to continuing our productive relationship with the council and the city staff as we proceed with 1977. Thank you very much.

Next speaker, Brian Marsh.

Well, good evening, Mayor Wong. I hope you feel better.

I've had COVID at least twice that I know of.

Mayor Pro Tem, City Councilors. Brian Marsh, CEO, StratCap Data Centers.

We are the applicant for 1977 Saturn. I just wanted to say that I had the opportunity to attend all but one of the SPARK meetings.

I even flew directly from Sydney, Australia to make the first one.

and that was within a couple of day turnaround.

So it was a long trip, but I wanted to be there.

And the one meeting I couldn't make, I was represented by Scott Reinders,

who's working for us as an entitlement consultant. So he was able to speak on our behalf there. But it was a pleasure to meet the SPARK committee and also all the residents and stakeholders that attended the meetings. We were pleased to be able to talk about the project we have for 1977 Saturn, and I was impressed with the level of engagement by all those in attendance. There was a lot of healthy discussion and debate,

and I met a lot of great people that were very friendly and welcoming to us,

And so just reinforced in my mind and our belief in investing heavily in Monterey Park.

This is a great community.

We think we can help the city tremendously with the project that we're proposing,

nearly $400 million investment. Our estimates are roughly $4 million a year in recurring revenue to the city.

and we're also exploring the community benefits that we can incorporate into this project to help the city.

We've had a lot of great suggestions from swimming pool to affordable housing funds to a dog park to trail improvements,

EV charging stations, a lot of great ideas that we would like to help incorporate and be part of this project. So, you know, again, we were pleased with the outcome and the recommendation and really the feedback that the majority of the residents that attended the meetings voiced their support for the existing uses, including data centers. It obviously wasn't 100%, but that was the clear majority and clear winner of the feedback of the residents. and we're supportive of expanding the uses in Saturn Park.

We think that's a good thing.

But as Professor Stapleton said, there is the highest and best use, and the highest and best use in front of the city right now is a data center.

There's not a bigger, better project that's going to generate more revenue

and really set Monterey Park on a path towards the technology, innovation,

being recognized as a leader in this area for really what is now our digital economy

at the digital age we live in. This is the future. It's here, and we're all living it.

So it would be great for Monterey Park to be a part of that. So, again, we love the site.

We're appreciative of the zoning.

We're glad to have power available from the Mesa substation a block away. This is the ideal location for that, and so we just appreciate staff's cooperation,

your cooperation in advancing this project. Staff has been great to work with.

We're excited about getting the environmental report out for public review here very shortly

and just taking that to the next step where we can complete the entitlements

and move forward with the project.

So, again, thanks for all your cooperation, and we really appreciate it being part of the SPARK process.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Jairo.

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

Yeah, so I just want to speak in support of expanding the uses at Spark at the site. I think it's super beneficial to the city. It allows us to really kind of bring more people in, expand the tax base, create a really productive space there. That's just going to be beneficial for the future of Monterey Park. and I also, as the gentleman from the data center just said, I think really incorporating a lot of the community benefits, right? So as folks are coming into the community, making sure that we're really pushing for how they're coming in, becoming a part, we want to welcome them in

and what are things that they can do to provide that, which is parks for families and other great uses for the community. And then, yeah, just want to say once again that I really support that. Oh, and I think we also should incentivize mixed use of all else there. I think that is the most productive and beneficial use of that site, housing over retail, self-sustaining community, walkable, all of the amenities there for not just the people that would live in that Spark area, but the surrounding community as well. So thank you for your consideration. I really appreciate it.

Next speaker, Damien Joa.

Good evening, all city council staff and fellow residents.

My name is Damien Zhou.

I've been a resident for over a few decades in Monterey Park. I'm here in support of the development and improvement to

Saturn Park.

Mainly,

our city has been transparent in terms of getting public input, having several meetings, and notifying the public and of course there was turnouts in each of those meetings unfortunately there's been opposition mainly difference of opinions those who have expressed they weren't informed and our city has not been transparent regarding to this project being a resident for our city existing

council and prior councils I've observed there are those individuals and groups

who have consistently attacked proposals and developments for our city.

And look at our current state now. There are vacant lots, there are empty commercial and business spaces, and it basically discourages developments and investment to our city. I've always asked and addressed those groups and individuals, just like in our SPAR committee meetings. What are your ideas? What are your opinions? Constructive and progressive opinions.

What are your proposals? I've addressed them

in writing in their groups from in the past councils that they've unfortunately attacked and I'm sure they're currently still doing so at this time.

And

so in order for our city to continue

development and improving

we need to

address those years of stagnant

and undeveloped and properties

and lands that are still empty

you know how much more

how many more councils are we going to have until our city steps forward, gets up and steps forward to improve.

Currently there are candidates running for, I guess, various positions in our city council. I've also addressed one or two of them in writing in their respective groups. What are your proposals to address our existing problems with, for example, residential and property, burglaries and robberies, traffic issues, basically crimes and homelessness and so forth. So in order for those candidates to be voting upon, they should publicly state what proposals or ideas and opinions that they would put into it once they're in positions of our local government to help our city improve.

Thank you for your time.

Next speaker is me.

Hi, neighbors. It's Michelle.

I'm speaking as a resident, as usual. First of all, I want to actually thank you. Thank you for handling the Humber Avenue development project during the last city council meeting. You were transparent about the situation. You were empathetic towards the residents, and you actually tried to find compromise between the developer and the residents. And I commend you for that. Sadly, though, I can't say the same about the Saturn Park community meetings. Prior to the start of the process, I asked you to be honest with the residents regarding the situation and your true intentions.

You lied.

You led the public on. You pretended you were hosting community input sessions in which you would actually take the residents' concerns into consideration and would adhere to what the majority wanted.

while a great majority of the participants wanted the voter-approved measure J.G.

Laniusis to stand as is, you voted against the people.

Monterey Park. Director of Public Works. Director of Public Works.

Five-member city council has the authority to overturn that, and that's my concern because it's a slippery slope.

The minute that you give your vote away to five people,

that's what's going to happen next.

What are they going to try to overturn next?

And thank you, Ines. Thank you so much for trying to explain the law to me. I apologize.

It still doesn't make sense. The one question I keep repeatedly asking everyone and that everyone keeps avoiding responding to is it was explained to me by Jessica that the

that the move to revise the Saturn Park zoning requirements stem from the voter approved land

uses not of animation and technology not being in alignment with the zoning requirements for the

area of office professional designation because it includes breweries and distilleries. I've

repeatedly shown the staff the land use element as well as the public, so I've shown everybody

the evidence, where the verbiage specifically excludes breweries and distilleries from

Saturn Park. No one has responded to me regarding this discrepancy. In addition, the documents

you shared with me located in the agenda packet, if anybody wants to review them, only discusses

the city's need to establish zoning requirements. I did not

see where the city had the authority to expand use of zoning

requirements and designations outside of those approved by the voters.

Are you saying the city can institute whatever zoning requirements it wants? The zoning code does not have

to be in support of the voter approved land uses? If so,

please show me where it states that. Or perhaps does this matter pertain to statewide housing requirements? If so, can you show me

where the state law supersedes voter-approved law? Thank you.

I agree more affordable housing is needed. However, placement of these units must be done so thoughtfully

and in consideration of all those affected,

including existing homeowners.

They've poured their life savings into these properties.

This is their children's future.

It's so easy for politicians and people who are not affected by these developments

to tell other people what they should do within their neighborhoods and on their streets.

Demanding the city increase density exponentially,

remove parking requirements to make more room for more units,

and not provide cities with additional resources for our already overburdened police and fire departments

is not good planning. So neighbors, if you agree,

make sure you go out and vote.

Thanks.

I almost forgot. We got more written communication. All right.

First one from Cindy.

She wants to reiterate

her strong support for the data center project presented by Mr. Marsh,

presented to the SPARK committee

at the first meeting.

Mr. Marsh clearly outlines his vision by sharing the architect's drawing of the facility. Throughout the four meetings, there was not one word of objection to the data center. She notes that there has been some rumors regarding other data center interest

and asks why our city will not support that as it will significantly benefit from the tax base that these projects will generate.

And, oh goodness, I can't see.

It's like a shot in the arm for the city as it is with the marketplace.

So she agrees that we should support data centers. Next ring communication is from Caleb Sawyers. He agrees with the SPARK committee that the zoning should be updated

to allow for diverse developments,

including affordable housing, parks, playgrounds, bike park, and affordable shopping. He also has no problems with the original 2020 plan of an innovation technology district. He states that at the very least, by updating the zoning,

the huge plot of land has the potential to not only bring in revenue for Monterey Park,

but also add to our quality of life.

Sorry, I forgot my glasses.

Last communication is from Lucia. Hang on one second.

And Eric Roybal.

She expresses her concerns regarding the proposed zoning changes for Santa Park. She states that it's crucial that the legal process be folLod properly to comply with California law and local regulations. First and foremost, Saturn Park was not studied for land use changes in the environmental impact report, and proposed zoning change must be supported by an environmental review. Goal 25 of the general plan highlights the importance of maintaining Saturn Park as a destination business park for high-quality service industries and emerging jobs. Any zoning changes must be consistent with this goal, ensuring that development does not conflict with broader objectives of neighborhood preservation and enhancements. This includes avoiding overdevelopment that could increase traffic and noise levels. Measure JJ does not grant the city blanket authority to make major zoning changes without public input. by using Measure JJ to justify the proposed zoning changes, the city could be taking away our voice in the future of our neighborhood. We, the community, voted for Measure JJ based on a specific vision for the area, and this zoning change would go against that vision without proper community involvement and environmental review. If the city proceeds with this zoning change under the guise of Measure JJ, it would set a precedent where we could no longer have a say in the future development of our neighborhoods. This would undermine the democratic process and diminish the rights of residents to influence the growth and character of the community. She has questions about the accuracy of the data being presented to the public and concerns that there's no adherence to the Monterey Park General Plan, as well as it violates local zoning regulations under California Government Code Section, which may expose the city to lawsuits and aimed at ensuring compliance. She strongly urges the council take the necessary legal steps to avoid any such conflicts and ensure transparency and adherence to state and local laws. No further comments.

All right. Thank you. So, number of speakers.

But before we get started with the staff report, I'm going to have Carl.

this is going to be a surprise to you but can you level set what the spark committee was trying to

do and bottom line is you work for the city so you are the compliance person for the city

please fill us in on what we can do what we cannot do

uh mr mayor pro tem you want me to do that before the staff report I'll do that let me let me just read what the recommendation is for this agenda item there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding of what this particular agenda item is for this is an informational agenda item seeking direction from the city council to do something or to do nothing that's it there's no zoning regulation on this agenda there's no development agreement on this agenda this is a purely informational agenda item so let me tell you read for the record what the recommendation is for those of you that have not actually read the staff report it says it is recommended the city council consider receiving and filing the spark community visioning workshop series outreach report you're about to hear that presented to you approving the minutes for the sparks regular meeting of august 29 2024. receiving the saturn park advisory review committee's recommendation to expand alLod uses within saturn park and directing staff regarding the land uses for saturn park as deemed appropriate and taking such additional related action that may be desirable what does that mean is set the city council can take the sparks recommendation and either do nothing which means that the zoning will remain the way it is and we will continue processing all of the current applications the moratorium will expire The 1977 Saturn matter, once it's received full sequel review, will come in front of the city council for consideration, and we will go from there. Number two, the city council could decide to implement all of the land use designations adopted by voters in Measure JJ. number three the city council could say okay we have all the land use designations in measure jj and in addition as part of the mix we want to add in these particular uses that are consistent with those land uses those are the options in front of you there's nothing for you to vote on tonight other than providing direction if anything to staff that's it happy to answer any other questions my suggestion is to wait with those questions until after the staff presentation

then we can go from there. Thank you for that clarification.

Let's go ahead and have the staff report. I'm sure we'll have comments after that.

Good evening, Mayor Wong, Mayor Pro Tem Ngo, and members of the City Council. My name is Jessica Serrano, Director of Community Development.

I would like to introduce our Will Dan team,

who was responsible for leading the community workshop series as part of the Saturn Park Advisory Committee,

known as SPARC Outreach.

To my right is Juliet Arroyo, Principal Planner with Wildan.

And also joining us via Zoom, we have Sal Lopez.

I'm going to cue him up here. There he is.

And Sal Lopez will be providing an overview,

presentation of the SPARKS outreach and recommendation.

So at this point, I will turn it over to Sal

and he will go over a presentation for you.

All right. Thank you, Jessica. Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members,

staff members, and members of the audience. The item here before you is a short summary presentation on the Saturn Park Advisory Review Committee visioning workshop series that took

PLACE OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE.

THANK YOU. JUST A QUICK BACKGROUND OF THE SITE HERE, THE SATURN BUSINESS PARK. THE SATURN

PARK SITE IS CURRENTLY UNDER UTILIZED AND PRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT economic development for the city. Vacancy rates are high. Properties are for sale. And there has been some interest in the area from the development community. The current permitted land uses are limited to innovation technology. The council wishes to explore the options of allowing additional land uses. The council formed an exploratory committee called the Saturn Park Advisory Review Committee, SPARK TO REVIEW, TO REACH OUT TO THE COMMUNITY, INVITE PUBLIC INPUT, AND DEVELOP A RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL. WILL DAND WAS CONTRACTED TO FACILITATE A SERIES OF WORKSHOPS TO GATHER PUBLIC INPUT FROM THE COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDERS WITH THE GOAL OF COMING TO A CONSENSUS AMONG THE PUBLIC. STAFF PROVIDED NOTICES TO THE SORROWING COMMUNITIES AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHIN 500 FEET OF THE AREA POSTED ON THE CITY'S WEBSITE, PUBLICIZED VIA THE CITY'S SOCIAL MEDIA AND ANNOUNCED CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE.

THE PROCESS WAS A THREE-STEP PROCESS. THE FIRST STEP WAS THE FORMATION OF THE SPARK. THE SECOND STEP WAS THE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP SERIES. AND THE LAST STEP WHICH IS BEFORE YOU THIS EVENING, I'M SORRY, WHICH TOOK PLACE AT THE FOURTH OUTREACH SESSION WAS THE COUNCIL CONSIDERATION AND THE COUNCIL CONSIDERATION FOR TONIGHT. NEXT SLIDE. THE PUBLIC WORKSHOP SERIES WERE A SERIES OF FOUR WORKSHOPS THAT WERE HELD BETWEEN JANUARY 29TH AND AUGUST 29TH.

THE FIRST MEETING WAS JUST A LISTENING SESSION WHERE WE HEARD INPUT IDEAS, VISION, AND FEEDBACK about the future of the site. The second meeting was group discussion that helped to define future

potential uses in more detail. Those discussion items were innovative technology discussion,

the introduction and discussion of possibilities of housing and residential, commercial, and the

public realm. Meeting number three, including a ranking exercise, participants were given three stickers for each category and asked to place one of those three to indicate their preference.

A unanimous consensus was not found among the workshop participants.

Some support keeping the site's current allowable uses unchanged. Other participants wanting to see a more economically robust Monterey Park appear to support more flexible uses.

There are other participants that expressed concerns about traffic, noise, pollution, with any future development, particularly with a broader range of uses. Concerns were also raised about the city meeting its regional housing needs allocation.

We're also concerned about the tax base and felt that allowing commercial uses could increase revenues. The fourth meeting was when it took place on August 29th when was when this.

The yellow here represents buildings and sites that are vacant. The blue represents occupied buildings and or uses. And then red represents partially vacant buildings. Just a quick information on the site. The site is about 64.6 acres, building area of over 2 million square feet. There are about 19 parcels in that area. And there are 12 owners within the Saturn Park area. There are approximately 3,450 parking spaces, and as I said earlier, unoccupied buildings, square footage, and they are at approximately 82% vacant. Next slide. Some of the current land uses in Saturn Park. As we mentioned earlier, the designation, according to the general plan, is Innovation Technology. The regulating plan would allow a maximum height of 40 feet and a floor area ratio of 0.60. Some of the primary uses that are alLod within the Saturn Park innovation technology is research and development, some light manufacturing, some service commercial, professional offices and entertainment, breweries, wineries, distilleries. And there are other permitted uses like trade in technical schools and public utilities and similar uses per zoning regulations. Those similar uses are sales and service businesses, data centers, general research facilities, restaurant cafes, and studios specifically for art, dance, martial art, and photography. Some of the prohibited uses are warehousing, freight terminals, vehicle storage, and heavy manufacturing. Next slide. So there was mixed public responses. The public feedback from the workshops could be grouped into the following categories. They were all actually well attended with over approximately 440 people attending each of the sessions. Some participants favored keeping the site's current zoning and designation the same, which is innovation technology. Other participants favored allowing more uses to help invigorate the site and support a stronger, more economically viable Monterey Park. I know the group was still unsure about the process and what they were commenting on or felt that they would rather just hear than provide some feedback. There was general support of mixed-use and neighborhood-serving commercial introduced to the site, and participants were receptive to having mixed uses with the combination of commercial together with low density residential to medium density residential. I will say that there was an

overarching theme at all the meetings that we that the city make make it a point to preserve

the integrity of the surrounding neighborhood. Next slide. The Sparks recommendation following PUBLIC INPUT AND DISCUSSION AT THE FOURTH SPARK HEARING OR WORKSHOP APPROVED THE FOLLOWING MOTION AND THAT MOTION WAS TO RECOMMEND THAT THE MONTERY PARK CITY COUNCIL EXPAND LAND USES FOR SATURN PARK AREA WITH CONSIDERATION FOR AREAS AND PARCELS ABOVE AND WEST OF SATURN STREET VERSUS THE SOUTH OF SATURN STREET WITHOUT ELIMINATING ANY EXISTING PERMITTED USES. AS JESSICA NEXT SLIDE PLEASE. AS JESSICA INDICATED JULIETTE ARRORIO, the principal planner with our organization is in the is is that council chambers to answer any

questions and I am here as well and this concludes staff's presentation. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem and members

of the council if I could just tag team on Mr. Lopez's comments a very quick thumbnail sketch of land use and how it works in the state of California. The general plan has seven mandatory elements. One of them is the land use element. The land use element, in essence, is what courts call the constitution for land use within a particular jurisdiction. It provides you with the big picture ideas of how particular areas within the city should be developed. In Monterey Park, but generally not in any other jurisdiction, that land use element is adopted by voters. That's Major JJ. That is the big picture idea of what voters have designated Saturn Park to be. Zoning implements that big vision, much like any other constitution. If you look at the constitution for the state of California or the United States constitution, that doesn't encompass every single law that we have to comply with. Those constitutions, those big picture items, have to be implemented. And the way they're implemented for land use purposes is with zoning regulations. The zoning regulations is what this spark contemplated in terms of taking the big ideas that the voters have already designated that park for and then advising the council about how those big ideas should be implemented for that particular area. That's it. It's now up to the city council for policy purposes to make a determination what, if anything, should be done in that park. Should there be new zoning regulations adopted to implement those big ideas? Or shouldn't there? Are you fine with the uses that are there? That is very, very simplified, I realize. I'm happy to answer any other questions, but there seems to be some confusion about what zoning regulations are and what land use designations are for purposes of the general plan.

Thank you, Carl. Do we have any questions or comments?

Yes, I do.

Carl, thank you for that explanation, and thank you for clarifying also what the purpose of tonight's, or at least for this agenda item, what the purpose was. I had the opportunity to attend the first SPARC meeting, and I also saw a lot of people there talk about concerns they had about their neighborhoods, But I also saw a lot of people there interested about what could potentially be envisioned in Santa Park. And I know that, at least in my district, but also when I hear from a lot of residents, most residents are very excited and are very eager to see new development in Monterey Park. new changes and and and i've stated this multiple times here on the council as well and and i hear it from many residents as well that you know what we have in monterey park is great but it could be greater right and there's different things that could potentially be in monterey park that are not right sometimes people travel to montebello they travel to o'hambra or pasadena when they could be leaving those that those monies that they're spending on whether it's you know um shopping or particular areas that don't exist currently in monterey park that could be used here in monterey park uh my other concern is um and i think that i've expressed that before not just with this area but other shopping centers and developments is that every time we have empty space and you heard the report 82% of that of Saturn Park is vacant we are seriously losing revenue for the city that is impacting our city in terms of what we can do in terms of programming and also services that we can provide our residents and you already seen a lot of what our city you saw a lot of the reports today from from our library from Parks and Rec from the police department the fire department, of all of the amazing programming we do, expanding business allows us to have a bigger purse to be able to do that, those types of things. We also know, and I'm a teacher, and I know this firsthand, that there's not a lot of

available housing.

When I first started teaching, the big issue was we had overcrowdedness in our classrooms. I was sharing a classroom because we just had so many families and so many kids. and now we have the issue 20 years later because I've been in the classroom for 20 years the issue

is um under enrollment right some schools might have to close and the question is where did these

families go because they just didn't you know they it's they just left they left because there's no

housing there's not affordable housing right so there's a lot we could potentially do with Saturn Park to be able to resolve a lot of these issues that we have.

We can together envision something really great in that area, and not just Saturn Park,

but other areas as well. I mean, we're just discussing Saturn Park today. So as a council member, as a parent, as an educator in this community, I am all in and in favor of looking and expanding, finding ways that we can expand the zoning for this area so that we can allow for potential housing. We heard from a lot of residents that wanted

mixed-use development, that wanted affordable housing in these areas. That is a possibility.

We also know there's people who might want to have a place where they can have coffee or have a beer or go watch the game, right, and not have to go to Old Hamburg or somewhere else to do that. And that's okay. I'm looking for those types of places as well. And I live literally two blocks from East LA College and I hear a lot from those students and they want those types of spaces as well places where they can hang out where they can do their homework meet with their friends have a meal a lot of the social things that currently are not existing so I hear I and I heard from all of you guys who spoke today and what I'm hearing is that you want to see some of these items as well and so I am in favor of directing staff to look at potential new zoning for the Saturn Park area that allows us to envision something new and different at Saturn Park

Thank you.

I have a question which either Jessica or Ken answer. So last year the city submitted its housing element to HCD, which was accepted.

can you I could explain to us for the how the element that was adopted by us and approved by the state

how does that also I guess impact you know the work of what we're discussing here with green um sadden park and spark uh committee

sure the uh thank you for that question uh council member low the housing element is a plan as to how the city is going to plan for housing growth in the city for the next eight years. And it's a state requirement. It's a city's responsibility to allocate where those housing units are to be located. And as a result, we have to make sure that we have properties that are adequately zoned and that have enough capacity to meet our RENA number, which is 52,557, I believe. No, I'm sorry, 52,000, no, yeah, 52,57, yes. And so, you know, we have to make sure that we have enough sites that provide enough capacity to be able to fit that many units in the city in the next eight years. And so, you know, adding more capacity to our city helps us secure additional sites for housing growth in the city. I see.

And again, this is every community, not just us, but what are, I guess right now moving forward, what are some benchmarks, either characteristics which ACD is going to subject us to? you know one thing that they approved our housing element but at the same time I know that there's also going to be a timeline and I'm just curious what is that how does that impact us and

our decisions we make we are responsible for providing capacity but for housing units but the state also does have penalties if we're not producing enough and I could touch upon it very

lightly, you know, the state would then require the city to

approve housing by right if we're not meeting

by right. What does that mean by right? By right is that it would be approved without any public hearing, without any

process that's a public process. It would be just if it meets all of the code requirements, then it gets approved and it goes on to get a building permit. So that's one of the

the penalties you know for not keeping up with our

you know the production portion I'd like to defer this to our city attorney who could delve a little bit more into that

Mr. Mayor members of the council just to be clear we're in compliance with our housing element we are not in trouble with HCD that said the state legislature has declared there to be a housing shortage within the state of California. So the more housing that we produce, the better it is from the standpoint of HCDs, certainly the state's outlook on our housing production. The bigger buffer that we have, so when I say buffer, we have certain housing categories that we have to meet. Jessica mentioned that we have 52.75 in total that we have to provide, but that's that's the total amount that's not a breakdown in categories so generally speaking people are familiar with the model Colliderite. The low and the very low types of housing production that we have to produce. And we have certain numbers in each one of those categories. The most difficult ones to meet are the very low categories because those are not profitable for developers to develop. And so under those circumstances, those are the most challenging categories that all public agencies have to meet. I put all that into context because Saturn Park is not part of the housing element. In other words, it's not, has not, has not, has not, has not a element does not identify saturn park as an opportunity for housing but that doesn't mean that it cannot be and so one of the things that that has been i know part of the overall public discussion during the spark process and what have you is uh gee you haven't complied with sequa you haven't gone through public hearings well that's all true because there's nothing in front of you to do yet there are no zoning regulations we've received no direction from the city council about what types of zoning regulations to prepare and that direction is necessary to even draft something for city council consideration and in addition to that you have to have something on the books for you to review from a sequence standpoint so there is no doubt that we are very much not even at step one we're at step zero step zero is here's what the land use element identifies what do you want to do City Council with regard to implementing that vision.

Okay, thank you.

I read all your comments.

For the information, I was a member of our General Plan Committee in 2018 before I elected to be Council.

And when we developed the plan, COVID has not yet occurred. One of our goals was to prevent overdevelopment, which could lead to increased traffic, noise, and other issues. However, as you can see now due to COVID, many buildings remain unoccupied. I'm sure if we are doing the general plan committee now, the outcome would be very different. The city reported an 82% vacancy rate based on square footage. while one comments point out that this is misleading due to only 7 out of 19 parcels are currently vacant. I understand your concern. COVID has indeed changed the way many people live and work with more employees now working from home. Even though only 7 parcels are vacant at the moment, if we don't take action to expand alLod land uses, More than seven could eventually become vacant when their current lease expire. As a council, we aim to be proactive by offering properties owner more options without taking away their existing entitlements. And I'm also happy to see innovation technology like Data Center coming to us. And I agree that we don't need additional extension, and moratorium is not necessary at this point. We don't want any more delay of our current projects. So that's my two cents. Thank you. Okay. How about the mayor?

I think he was the chair of the SPARC committee. I'll let him go and then I'll wrap up the comments.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

A number of quick thoughts and also some questions.

In terms of starting off, I just want to thank staff and the World Dam team and everyone that helped to put the four meetings together.

I know it was an extensive outreach project, including notification for some of the neighbors, putting this in the cascades.

And I think to address one of the earlier comments that was mentioned, I think this was actually a very transparent process. AND ONE THAT WE WANTED TO BE AND WERE VERY INTENTIONAL IN MAKING SURE THAT WE ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY AROUND TO BE PART OF AND TO PROVIDE INPUT AND FEEDBACK ABOUT WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT AND WHAT WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT AND HAVE THIS CONVERSATION. I REALLY WANT TO THANK THE STAFF, WELL, DAN, EVERYONE THAT HAD A PART IN PUTTING THIS VERY EXTENSIVE REPORT TOGETHER. If you look at the agenda packet, you can see hundreds of pages of comments and the report that helps us summarize the four meetings and the outreach process and the engagement process that went on that got us to this point.

And I appreciate all the work that went into that to make this possible and get us to this point to the council having this conversation in a very informed way.

And I also want to appreciate even more than the staff and all the work that helped to put this together.

Critically important was the input from so many community members and residents and stakeholders, not only from the Saturn Park surrounding area, and also including the Saturn Park area, but also from throughout the city and outside the city as well.

who are interested and who have been and are interested in what's going to happen with the

future of the Saturn Park and Maccaslin Business Park area is and can be. And so really appreciate

the many dozens of people who not only attended and spent many, many hours with all of us

on the committee to provide your feedback, your thoughts, your vision as well for what the

Saturn Park area can and should be and could be in the future. And many others, dozens of others, I think that wrote in as well that maybe could not have attended, but sent in your thoughts over the course of those few weeks that we had those meetings and additional thoughts that have

come in even for this meeting and in the weeks since the report and the final meeting of the

SPARK committee occurred. Really appreciate this process. I think it was extraordinarily I THINK IT'S VERY TRANSPARENT.

AND I REALLY APPRECIATED HOW MUCH THE COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDERS REALLY ENGAGED IN THIS PROCESS.

AND I THINK THE REPORT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF IN TERMS OF HOW MUCH WORK WENT INTO THIS AND HOW MUCH INPUT WAS RECEIVED AND IS BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

AND I HOPE THAT THOSE THAT WERE PART OF THIS PROCESS FEEL THE SAME WAY.

I think a few of the speakers that were part of today's comments as well, I took away at least from that, noting that they felt appreciative of the process and the ability to really engage in this in a very wonky kind of technical topic in terms of land use and zoning for parts of the city in a real way and really, really appreciate everyone engaging in that sense. In terms of the recommendation that has come out of this report and that was adopted nearly unanimously by the SPARC committee, my question, I guess, is for Carl and for Jessica.

If we were to adopt and want to move forward with how the SPARC committee ended up with this recommendation to expand alLod uses in the Saturn Park area to allow for mixed use and up to medium, I guess, density housing, which I think is what the report ultimately came out to be.

What would be the process to do that?

What would be the timeline for that process to play out?

And what would we be looking at in terms of if we move forward in that direction today, what would that look like?

Thank you for your question, Mayor Wong. The process would involve a text amendment to our zoning code. and that tax amendment would be an amendment to the office professional zone. That's the current zone for Saturn Park. And it would be either amending that existing zone or creating a specific plan. You know, it could be two paths. And with that process, it would involve a series of public hearings. at the very minimum one before council potentially you know an additional one before planning commission if that's a direction that we receive from City Council but it would definitely involve additional public involvement and public

meetings and mr. okay if I can just tag team on the comments that as a

practical matter what we need from the city council is what do you want to do there and i think one of the the first questions for the city council perhaps to tackle is do you want some sort of

housing in that area and what does that look like my recollection from this from the report from the

spark was there was no interest in detached single-family residences so then that becomes a question to the city council if that's the case do you want some sort of mixed use with the understanding that the land use element gave specific examples of the types of land uses that the voters expect there and let me just address that particular issue because this seems to be an either an intentional or a simply misunderstanding of of measure jj voters specifically delegated authority to the city council to adopt zoning regulations for this area

consistent with the land use element it's right there in the in the ordinance that was adopted by

voters so the sense that somehow the city cancels undermining voter approval or intent it's simply contradicted by the actual language of major jj there's specific delegation of authority for you to do this now the question becomes from a policy standpoint those broad categories of land uses that were approved as part of the land use element what does that mean to the City Council it's their specific language with regard to breweries and innovative technology and what have you well what does innovative technology mean to you what types of uses do you want to see down there once we understand we being the collective we being the will dan team the planning team and what have you at that point we can start narrowing down language that will help implement those visions and that will be reviewed from the california environmental quality act and most likely the council will direct us i'm anticipating to go through the planning commission for planning commission input which means that there will be at least one public hearing in front of the planning commission and then there will be another public hearing in front of the city council so the standpoint that this somehow some fait accompli just doesn't make any sense.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thanks, Carl. I would just say kind of up front,

I and Mayor Pro Tem Ngo were members of the Spark Committee.

I've obviously voted to adopt the recommendations that are before you, and I'm here fully in support of those recommendations to add

medium and high density mean different things to different people, But to the density that is alLod under the existing restrictions for the height and all that stuff that I don't know that those can be adjusted here through this process, I think we'll look to legal counsel for what the kind of broader. I guess restrictions might be and what we're able to adjust through this process. But I would also support, I think as other counselors have mentioned, the recommendation

that the SPARK committee has forwarded on to council. And I would support directing staff to continue in the recommendation that the SPARK committee

had with direction from this council to pursue whatever actions are needed and bring back

to council either a specific plan or tax amendments to enable mixed use zoning in the

Saturn Park area and potentially allow for medium to high density housing within whatever

the restrictions are um but what we're able to to do in the saturn park area um

i'm trying to bring up my staff report again and get to the right page i had a few other notes uh

but i i would i would just note too that um as i've thought about this and and even through the

process of uh the spark uh community engagement effort uh i would just point out and i i don't

know if i pointed this out directly at the spark meetings but there are a number of vibrant

communities uh in terms of innovation and technology right that uh are here in la and

and throughout california and other places where mixing uses in terms of housing residential

commercial and these innovative technology kind of spaces is,

is what allows and enables those areas to be vibrant, right? Areas.

I would just point to places like the arts district outside where I,

as part of,

or outside of a proper downtown LA area where you have residential mixed

with office and commercial spaces and other like light manufacturing or whatever,

or former industrial kind of spaces that are being transformed into mixed

use and commercial and housing spaces. And it's because of those mix of uses that a vibrant neighborhood in a community is actually thriving. And you're seeing a lot of just new energy that's emerging in places like Arts District LA. And I think those are some of the things that we've heard from participants in the SPARK process that wanted to see more vibrant neighborhoods and wanted

to be able to see a redevelopment and reimagining of what an existing commercial space like Saturn Park could be if we reimagine some of the potential uses in the zoning.

And it seems like the tools at our disposal for the council exist to explore what those

opportunities might be and to pursue those further, given the current state and conditions

that exist in the Saturn Park commercial office space.

the current zoning rate has resulted in high vacancy rates. And some of those vacancies existed before the pandemic.

CLEARLY DECLINE. SO I WOULD SUPPORT MOVING FORWARD AND IT SOUNDS LIKE SOME OF THE OTHER

COUNCILMEMBERS AS WELL SEEM TO BE OFFERING SUPPORT TO THE RECOMMENDATION WHERE THE SPARK COMMITTEE ULTIMALLY ENDED UP AND HAS RECOMMENDED TO US. I DEFER TO STAFF IN TERMS OF WHAT THIS

SPECIFIC PROCESS NEEDS TO BE. I'D BE CURIOUS THOUGH JUST IF THERE'S AN IDEA OF KIND OF TIMELINE.

I think some of that idea might be helpful just in terms of being able to plan.

I heard earlier, right, one of the comments from one of the project proponents for the 1977 Saturn in terms of the existing moratorium.

I would note kind of separate from the SPARC process, but also kind of interrelated.

I agree, and I was on the SPARC committee, and part of our recommendation was not to eliminate existing uses.

I'm fully in support of that. But that's not to say that there aren't concerns, and I think there were some concerns actually expressed, or at least questions, about what data centers' potential impacts on communities and neighborhoods might be.

I know some articles have been sent in from residents or stakeholders through the process.

I still have some of these questions myself. That's not to say that there are concerns that should stop potential proposals for data centers.

I just don't know.

I haven't seen a data center myself personally. I would love to take a tour and just learn a little

bit more about how data centers actually operate. But some of the articles that I've read have talked

about impacts in terms of noise in the neighborhood, electricity use, water use, and other potential impacts that I think just need to be better explored before we pursue any kind of activity,

or at least so that we're better educated and informed as we consider these kind of projects

within the existing zoning. And it sounds like that allowable use will continue in this process kind of going forward. It doesn't seem like we're going to be eliminating

the potential use for data centers in the center and park area. So I'd really love to just on a personal level, and I imagine the other council members as well would love to learn more and just better understand how data centers work and operate and what their potential impacts are so that we can make sure we're as prepared as possible

to mitigate those and to address those concerns if and when they come up in the community. And even before, right, they come up in the community so that we're prepared as possible as a community for these potential projects to come into the city.

Thank you, Mayor.

Let me just kind of finish up a couple of thoughts here. First off, just going back to what fellow council members have mentioned, we want to thank the SPARKS committee for coming together and volunteering your time and your resources. We have, besides the mayor and I as chair and coach here, we have three members of the SPARKS committee who are here tonight. So thank you for your time. And that makes two, three, five. So four others who are not here tonight, thank you if you're watching for volunteering and being being part of the process. I have a couple of notes here. I basically wrote down transparency.

As the mayor noted,

this was a transparent process because if it wasn't,

then it would be hunky-dory

everybody say yes. But because we have people who went out there and said,

not in my backyard,

not across the street,

and then you have others who said,

yes, we need to do this,

why we need to do this, And I fall into the group that says we need to do this because I remember 40 years ago biking in the area was kind of dangerous because it was cars everywhere.

Now there's nobody there. Literally nobody there during the middle of the day.

And if you go in the evening, it's actually scary now because not only is it no cars, no people, but it's spooky. it was a collaborative process and I will tell you that because as I mentioned and as some of the council members have mentioned and many of you have witnessed, you got the yes component you got the no component, you got people who are in the middle well, things get done in this world not the all no's and the all yes they get done from people who work together and say well, this is what makes it work how do you get to a median and how do you get to something that's workable for both sides? So very collaborative in the sense that we came up, or the committee came up with a recommendation, and thank you, Udan, for putting together a list of what works.

We got it.

High density was a no because they didn't want too much foot traffic,

too many cars, but also residential stuff,

single-family homes just didn't make sense from a highest and best use purpose because remember, it's the landowners who actually have the rights to build and do what they want to do here. The city, we're just here as a component to help them. And in going back to this process, as our city attorney said,

we're not even at step one.

I actually go back and say we're at step zero because what we're trying to figure out now is what is land use, what is zoning, and we're in the beginning steps, beginning stages of figuring out, okay, let's do something proactively to maybe expand our zoning, which is within the land use element that was passed by Measure JJ, so that we can have a more vibrant community to add more resources. You listen to what we did with the library, the parks and rec, police, fire. That's all funded because we have an ongoing strong city budget. despite this vacant 60-acre or 60-acre lot in Saturn. You build that up, you add the revenues, we can do so much more for residents.

So that's the start.

And what I'd like to say to kind of explore this is tonight we're voting on just reviewing and filing the motion,

but I am with the mayor.

I think we need to kind of take 0.1,

not even step one yet,

in terms of what do we do as a council to expand this process

so that we can review the zoning process.

And I think part of that has to go back to we have a planning commission. Well, let planning commission and we'll have the public access go back and figure out let's fine tune some of those recommendations. And if that is generally what the community wants,

it will come back to city council, then we'll vote for the process.

Then we get to step one, and then we'll have step two. This is a step toward in the right direction. This is not a three-month process. This is not a one-year process, but this is a step in the right direction for a city. And I'd like to ask Carl, what is that process?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council.

I think it would be helpful

for us to provide the planning commission

with sort of a path forward

and even big picture types of ideas that are set. Well, let me back up for a minute. It would be helpful for the city council to set the table

of what we're going to have to eat.

So, for example, data centers.

Yes or no?

There's a pending application, and the gentleman in the audience would really like to know whether or not that's dead in the water or the moratorium is being held on and Mr. Pugh is sharpening his pencil on that one. So yes or no or yes with restrictions, and that's fine too. Two, do you let the moratorium expire?

Three, mixed housing.

Does that mean mixed housing with housing on top and commercial down below? Or does the planning staff provide you with a palette of suggestions with regard to that type of mixed use? Commercial spaces, what does that look like? The land use element suggests that they're small breweries, heating establishments,

things that would seem to work well in a technology-oriented type of neighborhood

with commercial uses?

And then would you look at a specific plan in terms of having everything unified or simply do text amendment updates to the municipal code and then worry about, for example, development standards on the back end of things so those can be more fully developed? And this last part also depends on the timing for everything. To the Mayor Pro Tem's point, this is not going to happen overnight. Statutorily, it can't happen overnight. A specific plan will take slightly longer. Even text amendments will take some time. Even if we were to go at breakneck speed, which I don't think anybody is recommending, it's going to take a minimum of six months for anything to come in front of the city council in any shape for consideration. And that's just based upon the statutory requirements of environmental review, public hearing notices, those types of things. And then, oh, by the way, we have to draft everything. So from that perspective, I think a very ambitious conservative timeline is a year from now. so to the gentlemen in the audience who have a pending application that year is a very long time and they would like to know i'm sure whether or not you are going to consider data centers in any form and so perhaps that you could start there tonight and give direction on that and then the next item would be the other types of things i'm talking about mixed use is that something that you want to see and in what form. And again, these are generalities. Not asking for specifics, because the only way we get to specifics is if you have actual language in front of you that you can work on and see pretty pictures up on the screen with. So if we have those generalities, we can at least start with putting together something that can be for planning commission consideration. Then it can obviously come back up to the city council for more refinement and go back to planning however you want to do it there's no rhyme or reason to it I mean look we've waited four years thus far to implement the land use element there's no ticking clock involved here it is simply a matter of this is what the voters wanted here's how we're going to implement it what does the City Council

want to do so so I'll go I'll go first my personal view on this is you take

what is currently zoned existing use, that should fall within the zoning, the land use. So to me, all those are checked, meaning I would support the data center because it's already part of the technology field.

That's one.

Two, I like Will Dan's, the report that you presented earlier. I need, if you can kind of be more specific to that and then share it with council and then council can basically kind of just get a big picture overview and say when we say mixed use, it is how many units approximately, ground floor retail, second, third story, fourth story, residential, commercial space. Put a parameter on that so that we can give that as guidance to go to planning commission and then give planning commission a couple of months to kind of go through, general feedback because technically they're the experts in the planning and the zoning of the city and then they'll come back and then we'll have another discussion and I'm thinking this is three four maybe five months down the line that would be kind of my view on how this kind of works out okay mr. mayor

pro tem yes yes and again I just again I'm just reading staff report and again if I read correctly, examples of uses allow pre-zoning regulations that does specify data processing facilities, which I'm assuming refers to a data center. So yes, I mean, I definitely would support, yes, I mean, especially the application that's before us. I also believe too that what the SPARC committee recommendation probably can complement, again, the primary uses that as well as other permitted uses already. You know, I mean, there are examples of work-lived spaces. And so, yes, I mean, if you allow, you know, professional offices, service commercial, entertainment, breweries, again, there are examples of spaces where you can work and live. And again, there are examples just close by. So I think that that's complementary. But again, as our mayor said, how one defines density, I think that everyone has a different definition. So I think that's where we need to be very mindful, be very intentional. And if we're going to hash it out, that again, everyone has a different view of mixed use. So therefore, how is it that we can, again, implement the LUE, uphold the primary uses, uphold the permitted zoning regulations, and also be able to address community concerns, as well as the housing element, which was adopted by HCD, which we submitted. So I think that's where I see as, you know, where I think staff can at least help us flesh out, along with the Planning Commission and the community's involvement.

Thank you, Councilman Lo.

Do we have enough from...

Oh.

And what I support, and it sounds like many on the council as well support adding uses, and I support adding mixed use in terms of commercial residential and medium, whatever medium density kind of, however, how that was kind of defined and within the restrictions that exist in the Saturn Park area for residential uses there.

I reiterate kind of my concerns around just because they're still kind of unanswered.

And I think in terms of data centers, in terms of potential noise, energy, water, resource impacts, and potential neighborhood impacts.

My question kind of, I guess, half question to Carl or whoever should answer this or is best positioned to answer this.

if we are still trying to learn more about what the potential impacts are of data centers,

and I don't mean to and do not have any intention of necessarily stopping the current proposal that's in our process,

as we have alLod that to continue to go through even through the SPARK process,

I have very intention of continuing making sure that continues on in the process. But in terms of in respect to the existing moratorium on new development in the Southern Park area, I still want to learn more about potential impacts of data centers and how data centers work and how they integrate successfully or not with existing neighborhoods and other parts where they are beginning to build out. I would be interested to learn more before lifting the moratorium or finding some way to, right, lifting the restriction on other types of development in the area.

Just to learn more about that use.

And also kind of in line with that concern or those concerns around data centers that were expressed and have been expressed that I share. how do we, right, is there a way to build in protections in the Saturn Park area into

the specific plan or whatever we're looking for in terms of adjusting the zoning,

the zoning code here in the Saturn Park area to make sure that there's either a buffer or some

sort of protection or, right, some sort of way of making sure that if there are potential impacts

from data centers to neighbors as we try to learn more about them, that we're integrating protections and safety kind of into our zoning code and what's alLod in terms of potentially buffering them from the neighbors in the area and neighbors that might develop in that Saturn Park area. Just looking for options for us to consider or for the Planning Commission to consider

as we kick this to them, it sounds like, to begin working on potential specific plan or language changes to what's alLod in the Santa Barbara area.

So, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, I think if data centers are on your mind, let's do this, which is we will take that as the first priority to come back with you within the next 30 days with some suggestions. That gives the city council an opportunity to understand exactly what data centers are and what have you. It also gives an opportunity for for the pending application to come in front of the City Council for consideration so those two things can happen. I think perhaps what you're looking at is more long-term for who's next, if anyone, with regard to a data center. And under those circumstances, we could have the City Council consider adopting interim zoning regulations that would affect any subsequent application coming in. That is certainly something that we can do and we can prioritize, and if that's the direction of the City Council, we'll start working on that immediately. so that you have something in front of you to consider.

And if that approach is acceptable,

then the rest of it will take not really a back burner, but somewhat of a back burner as we prioritize data centers as the main focus of the city council's attention at this point.

Carl, I just have a quick question, follow-up on that.

So are you saying that staff will come back with recommendations or just information to inform us about how to...

Both? Both.

Okay, on data centers specifically. Because to the mayor's point, I also have some concerns about data centers and the environmental impact that they might have, not just in that community, but just in Monterey Park in general. And you know, a recent LA Times article called Monterey Park a hotspot for data centers. And it's not necessarily...

I don't know that's the 5G hotspot.

So I think to the mayor's point, I think that before we decide anything on this issue, that we really do a deep dive and find out if this is what's best for our community.

And with regard to the pending application, the environmental review is not yet complete. We have draft documents floating around, but certainly there's nothing yet ready to come in front of the city council. So you have time to educate yourselves in terms of what the existing data centers look like. And as a reminder, it's simply a warehouse with a bunch of servers in it. it's not people sitting there taking phone calls in any event uh let's let's see that's a priority

if i may i i know it looks like from my vantage point that uh mr marsh and stratcap team are

there i would love to set up a tour of a data center if you guys have one or have a partner in the la area that will be willing to to set one up uh maybe we can direct staff to reach out I'd love to just see one kind of up close and personal, kind of get a feel for it,

and just be able to ask a few questions about how they work and what they look like and what the impacts are kind of in the neighborhoods that they're in.

Just to be better educated as these projects and likely other projects start to come up to the city for potential opening up.

Mayor Pro Tem

just to respond to

Mayor Wong

staff is working on trying to set up

a tour

we did reach out to the city of Vernon which we understand that they have a data center coming online that data center is not in it's not fully constructed yet or ready for

touring

but we are reaching out to other data centers in the area to learn more, to research, and to try to find opportunities to tour the facility so that council could become more familiar with the data center operations. So staff is working on that. Absolutely, we welcome Mr. Marsher, anybody else who can provide us with some guidance on contacting individuals. But city staff is working with other city staff to try to make those arrangements.

Mr. Mayer, may I? Yes.

You know, while we're talking, I recall, and I just found it, but, you know, during our Spark meetings, you know, we had a neighbor, a resident who submitted comment and copy, and it's here in Staff Report. The county of Fairfax, Virginia, had adopted a zoning ordinance regarding data centers. And I don't know if I'm chipping ahead of myself, but can this not at least be a basis for us to look at in crafting a data center ordinance? I mean, again, I want to thank the resident who submitted this, but it looks like, you know, here is an example of something that we could. Again, I realize it's in another part of the country, but nonetheless, it could be a guide for us.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, to be honest, we haven't looked at any zoning regulations because we haven't had direction from the city council. So if that's something that the council wants us to look at, we're happy to do that.

Okay. I mean, again, it's in the staff report, but thanks.

I believe the nearest data center is the one wheelchair building in downtown L.A. So Mr. Marsh, I don't know if you have any connection there or even Jim, Mr. Pugh. I mean, I'm sure Shepard Mullen has clients in that building. There's literally hundreds of data center cloud collection tenants in there that you guys will work with, and we would love to get a simple tool.

We're not investigating.

We're just doing a simple tool to see what it's like so we can get the process going.

Thank you.

Okay, let's move forward. We have in front of us a vote

for receiving and filing the Spark Community workshop.

What is it? Workshop series notes.

Is there a motion?

So the motion is to take the recommendation and move forward with potential?

No.

The motion is stated now. The motion is just to receive and file what was proposed in the committee notes.

The outreach report? In the outreach report?

In the report, yes.

Okay.

Mayor Wong? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Ngo?

Yes.

I made a motion and then...

I'll second.

Okay, so Council Member Sanchez second.

Please vote.

Mayor Wong? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Ngo?

Yes, just for clarification I apologize for interrupting because we have teleconferencing it requires a roll call vote each time you vote

So

You guys got it. Yes. Yes, because I didn't see the

member you

Council member low. Yes council member Santas approved unanimously

Can you just remind me or us?

so what will council expect to be the next step?

Mr. Mayor, members and council, just note that there's one other recommendation which is number two which is to approve the minutes for the Sparks regular meeting but to answer your question Mr. Mayor the next thing that you will see are proposed regulations for data centers within that area based upon our previous discussion on the city council's concerns

on data centers in general.

Based upon that discussion, I understand that the pending application will simply move forward the way it is that has legislative decision-making for the city council at the time that it's ready to be in front of the city council. We'll have an environmental report on that particular project, and the council can consider at that point the proposed regulations would affect any subsequent data center application

if there are any.

in the meantime we'll also start working on proposed pallets if you will for various uses based upon the land use element within saturn park and those will be presented to the planning commission for further refinement and then confirmation with the city council and once we have consensus on what to move forward with in terms of zoning regulations we'll put together those regulations have those go through the california environmental quality act and then we'll also go through all the necessary public hearings for consideration and potential adoption

of those regulations. Great. No, appreciate that. And I'll just note that it seems like the timing

in terms of the environmental report from the existing proposed data center project might time well with our actions on this because we'll learn from that what potential impacts there might be

to the neighborhood. And that could fold well into if we're looking at potential restrictions

on data centers in the area for future projects that should educate us in terms of what we should be looking at, right? Yes.

I think we're finishing up responses to comments on the draft environmental document.

It's my recollection. Sal, are you still on the line?

I'm still here.

Okay.

That's the process that we're in right now with regard to the environmental document,

correct? Is it response to comments? That is correct, yes. Okay.

So that should be finished up within what next one to two weeks

Within this this next week, okay, so that should be done this next week. Then we'll have to

File for the public noticing for the public hearing and move forward from there It'll be in front of the City Council Unless the City Council directs us to go to the Planning Commission the municipal code provides that legislative decisions such as this one because it involves a development agreement go directly to the city council as pursuant to the 2020 business recovery act that the city council adopted. So you can expect this in front of the city council within the next three weeks, and it's only three weeks really because of the noticing requirements.

Thank you.

And I'm happy to make the motion for the separate recommendation on the SPARC item

for adopting the minutes from the last meeting

since there won't be any more SPARC committee meetings.

you want to add number three there as well

which is 283 it'll have to be taken separately

I think we have plenty of direction

unless the council is based upon my summary

wants to do something else I think three is fine

so just number two I'll second

so let's take a vote

Mayor Wong

Mayor Pro Temgo

yes council member you council member Lo

aye council member Sanchez

approved unanimously

okay so we have direction

there let's go to the

consent calendar

any item any

member would wish to pull or have a discussion on

3 H

Council member U, okay.

3H.

Mayor Pro Tem. Mayor Pro Tem. I want to pull 3B just to highlight the item. Mayor Pro Tem. 3B. Do you have a motion to approve all the remaining items? Mayor Pro Tem. Yes, move for approval of remaining items on the consent agenda. Mayor Pro Tem. Second. So Council Member Lo and second by Council Member Yu. Let's take the vote.

Mayor Wong?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Ngo? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Council Member Lo? Aye. Council Member Sanchez? Yes. Approved unanimously.

Okay, let's go to 3B.

Mayor Wong, do you want a discussion or do you want something specific?

If I may, I'm sorry for interrupting. I just wanted to point out, I realize you already voted on it, But we do have an operating memorandum with regard to the development agreement that was discussed last time. I do have copies of it for the public if anyone's interested.

I apologize for not saying it ahead of time.

Sorry for interrupting.

And Carl, that was for the Elhamer Avenue project?

That's correct.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

For 3D, if there's a very, very abbreviated staff report, I'm happy to take that.

Yes, I'll be doing the staff report.

Let me go ahead and pull up the slides.

So good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council, Diana Garcia, Assistant City Manager.

This is Item 3B, official adoption of the city's mission, vision, and values.

So as you know, this goal was established by council as part of their 2024-25 citywide strategic plan,

and the process involved several key steps over the past months. We did a survey of all city staff, a staff workshop.

We work together in small teams to further define some of our values.

And then tonight is the adoption and then the implementation afterwards.

So the staff workshop was a really integral part of this process. Here are some photos from our in-person workshop.

We held this in July of this year.

And we had about 50 staff members representing all departments and levels of the organization.

We met together in the Barnes Park Service Clubhouse to develop the mission, vision, and values that are before you this evening.

Some additional photos here.

So you can see we had a lot of fun.

This in front of you on the screen here is the final mission, vision, statement, and values that will be adopted by council tonight, hopefully.

upon adoption we're going to integrate these into various city materials and communications

including our letterhead agenda templates employee recruitment materials training business cards

and we'll be doing a regular reinforcement through onboarding staff meetings performance

discussions etc so that completes my very brief staff report and I am very happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you.

Maybe Wang, additional comments? Sure. Thank you. I just wanted to appreciate

all the work that went into this process and getting to this point of revising our mission,

vision and values statements. And I know a lot went into this. I can tell

from the staff report and hearing from the city manager about the outcomes in the process.

I really appreciate all the staff as well that participated in this process and providing

feedback.

I just want to highlight how important work culture and organizational culture is. And from the results of the survey, it seems like we have a great team and we've seen that

in terms of the results and the events and all the work that all the different departments and City Hall staff and the non-City Hall staff for that matter, put in day in and day out and

the results there. Thank you all so much and thank you to all the City staff. All our City staff

were already exhibiting a lot of these values and living up to this vision and this mission.

And the hope is to make sure and right, bad culture and culture is hard to change, but

keeping culture and keeping positive and good culture requires constant tending and dedication

commitment and really appreciate the effort on the leadership of our city, right, the executive team,

but also all of the staff on up to the executive team that helped to provide input and to put this

process together and to get to this point. I'm proud to see this come forward and very, very

excited to support this. And I just wanted to note that, right, in some of the values, right,

and talking about, I wrote a note here I'm trying to find right now, but I want to note that everyone

that works for the city is a leader in their own right. You're seen as a leader no matter what,

if you wear the city logo on your polo shirt or your uniform in the city, a resident or anyone that's kind of walking up to you thinks that you represent, and to them, you represent the city.

And so in that respect, we appreciate everyone who is a leader and who provides professionalism and is committed to working to improve the community and improve the experience of all of our residents and everyone that comes into the city.

I know that a lot has to go into doing it and a lot does go into make sure the city runs on a day-to-day basis, but also making sure that extra step of making sure that people have not only a good experience, but a positive and a welcoming experience when they come to the city, whether they're resident or not, is really, really important.

And it is important, not just because we want to be a good place to be, but from an economic and financial perspective, we want to make sure that this is a welcoming place for people who do business, to come to eat, to spend money, and to do things that help to support our local economy as well.

So I really appreciate this. I think this is a great positive step forward in continuing to provide a positive work culture

and to make sure that we're investing in our people and the people that make the city run on a day-to-day basis.

I'd also note excellent service continues to be part of our mission statement.

And I know the change to the mission statement up here, right,

adding fostering growth and opportunity and creating a joyous and collaborative environment.

I would just argue that all of these things are very, very critical to making sure that we provide excellent service, right?

Making sure our workers, all the city, all employees for the city are happy doing their work

and have collaborative and supportive team environments and manager-worker kind of relationships and that they're able to grow, that each of you are able to grow and feel the opportunity to grow

and to be able to learn new skills or just excel in what you're doing.

That, I think, provides a culture that enables everyone to provide excellent services. So I appreciate that that's really integrated into the mission statement.

I look forward to seeing more of this around to continuously remind us about what we should be living up to

and how to achieve the kind of culture we need to provide to make sure that we have the finest,

continue to have the finest city in the region that continues to provide excellent services

for all of our residents and stakeholders in the city.

With that, I'm happy to make a motion,

if there's a second, to adopt the staff recommendation and all the work that went into this item.

All right, moved by Mie Wang and second by Council Member Lo.

let's take a vote. Mayor Wong? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Ngo? Yes. Council member Yu? Yes.

Council member Lo? Aye. Council member Sanchez? Yes. Approved unanimously. Thank

you. Let's go to item 3-H. Staff report.

Good evening, Mayor and Mayor of Rotem, City Council members, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services. Before you tonight, you have a receive and file staff report summarizing the ad hoc committee that was formed by City Council to address the Sister Cities Associations. On January 17th, City Council, Director of Staff, formed an ad hoc committee for the Sister Cities Commission, which consisted of the five Sister Cities Associations, along with Mayor Pro Tem Ngo and also Council Member Sanchez. That committee met on three separate occasions, once in February, another time in May, and then also a third time in July. At those meetings, it was discussed with the Sister City Associations about them forming 501c3 organizations.

They had decided that they would pursue forming separate 501c3 organizations.

It was later expressed by two of the associations that they were having difficulty having enough members to form those organizations. There were some of the associations that did not attend any of the meetings.

We did have a fourth meeting that was scheduled September the 24th.

Prior to that meeting, I did receive an email from Guangzhou, China. They had indicated that the association was going to suspend operations until a date to be undetermined.

I also received notification from New Taipei City, Taiwan,

indicating that they were not intending to attend the last meeting and were asked also to be removed from future communication.

The other sister cities associations did not attend the final meeting and it was only myself in attendance at the final meeting.

So that's pretty much what has transpired since January.

We've had, like I said, three meetings and then a fourth meeting by myself.

And so that's kind of summarizing what's happened with the ad hoc committee since January. And so tonight just receive and file staff report kind of summarizing the months since January.

That completes my staff report. I'm available for questions.

I like to add that I was in three and a half of those meetings. The last meeting, you gave me the heads up, and I was just on standby because I had another meeting. Unfortunately, the process for sister city is somewhat broken, and I will say there's only one city that has gotten its act together. They never really needed to come to any of the meetings because they knew independently what they needed to do. The other sister cities have a lack of leadership, just don't have the people to be involved with the continued volunteer. So that's what I meant by broken, because there's just no continuation of what that committee needs to be. And sure enough, I think two of them wants to be removed from the process. so my recommendation after going through this and sitting through almost a year of this thing now is I like staff to kind of go back to the well and figure out what recommendation we can have because even though our sister committee commissions are gone we still do have sister cities we need to fold that into a process that we have within the city perhaps and just brainstorming or perhaps with our CPC or CPC group that you head up to figure out how we can continue to have events

that spearheads part of the cultural, the tradition

in recognizing and celebrating those cultures during those holidays for each specific group. I know the Japan group, I mean, they got Cherry Blossom, and that's well run, and that's why they're very involved. But the other groups, just not in existence. So my recommendation is for Robert to kind of figure out a process and report back to council and say, this is the plan, and then we'll take a look at it, and then we'll drive that bus when we get there.

Yeah, and I do apologize.

As Mayor Pro Tem Go had mentioned, Nachiketsu, Japan, is the only sister city that has an active 501c3 status. They did still attend the meetings even though they already had that status and they are quite active as you mentioned with Cherry blossom also some of them are active with the Japanese American Club. That's out of Langley Center So that group is is very active and well organized. So just want to make sure I mentioned that

And if I can add because I was part of the committee, but I also got a sense during the meetings that perhaps there was a time and place where there was a purpose for these clubs, but they're not existent anymore. And I think part of that is also the groups that were part of this that ran it are also older, may no longer live in the city. Communication is sparse if nonexistent. So I think part of meeting was trying to figure out where they were at, who was still interested. Obviously the lack of attendance showed that there was a lack of interest, right? But also from our city perspective, you know, if they're operating within our city and with that connection and purpose, there was definitely a lot of concern about potential liabilities to the city. And so part of the reason why we met with them was to ensure that those organizations that we're going to continue. We're operating with a...

for our city. And so in that process, I think we figured out kind of where they're at. And so I think that that purpose is no longer there. Okay. So that's at least what I saw. But to the Mayor Portemps point, I think it would be wise if we, and maybe this is a question for you, Carl, or Menez also. But moving forward, what our policy would be if it has to be something written so that we not just extricate ourselves from these organizations for liability reasons, but also so that it is clear where we are at in terms of these organizations.

Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, staff can come back with a recommendation after hearing comments back. The purpose of tonight's report, as Robert mentioned, was a receive and file report. But if it's council's direction to have staff come back with a recommendation of what to do next, understanding that the relationship to the sister cities still exists and so we want to make sure that there's a mechanism to handle that, but also address the previous relationship with the city and those associations, we can do that as well. So if it's Council's direction for us to come back with a formal recommendation, we can do that.

I think that would be wise. And then at the very least, it's stated and it's not kind of left in limbo where there's still kind of a gray area or perhaps misunderstanding. So at least it's perfectly clear.

Okay. Do we have a motion?

I move that we receive and file and also bring this back

for recommendations.

We have a motion by Council Member Sanchez and a second by Council Member Yu.

Let's take a vote.

Mayor Wong? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Ngo? Yes. Council Member Yu?

Yes. Council Member Lo? Aye. Council Member Sanchez? Yes. Approved unanimously.

Okay, that takes us through the agenda items. Let's go to public hearing 4A.

Let's open up public hearing.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, Martha Garcia, Finance Director. The city submits a CAPER to the HUD annually as one of the conditions of receiving federal funds for CDBG and home. The CAPER outlines progress made in achieving goals established in the city's five-year consolidated plan and the annual action plan.

During fiscal year 23-24, the city spent $114,000 in CDBG funds, $367,000 in home funds, $320,000 in CDBG coronavirus funds, and $63,000 in home ARPA funds. today's hearing

is an opportunity for the city council and the Monterey Park community to review the accomplishments of the various program areas in the fiscal year 23-24 CAPER upon conclusion of this public hearing it is recommended that the city council approve the submission of the CAPER to HUD to satisfy reporting requirements for this year and this concludes my presentation and Priscilla Davila

Our CDBG home consultant is also available via Zoom for any questions.

Do you have questions or comments from the council?

May I long? Yeah. Thank you.

No, I appreciate staff and our consultants for putting this annual report together.

I have just a few questions in terms of how we're reporting out in terms of the spending of the funds for our home and CDBG funding.

In terms of the, I guess, the housing, the maintenance, retrofit, I don't know what the proper term is for those single family homes.