City Council Meeting — February 19, 2025

Thank you.

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

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She's gonna let me check out.

She doesn't drink coffee. She gets a pink drink. That's like going to a taco stand. I don't know.

I just don't know. I just don't know. I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I think we do this. Sugar? The sugar is going to mess up your life. I think that makes sense.

So does coffee. Coffee gets you into the coffee. No.

It's addictive. No.

It's addictive. It's addictive. Did you know that sugar is the most addictive substance in the world? I did.

I thought war or something. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

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

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

there's more room there, there's more room there, there's more room there, there's more

Let's call the meeting to order 638. First, I'd like to...

Let's do a land acknowledgement first.

First, we would like to acknowledge that the land we inhibit today was once known as the Tavengard, the home of the Gavolino Tongva people. We show respect to the Gavolino Tongva 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 Gavolino Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land.

OK, let's see here.

Let's do, no, let's actually do our flag salute.

So our explorers, please stand.

Thank you.

Outward face. Present colors.

Put your right hand over your heart.

Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation, another God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Order colors. Outward face. Forward mark.

Pulse colors.

About base. Dismissed.

You may be seated.

Roll call please. Thank you. Council Member Wong. Present.

Council Member Sanchez.

Present. Council Member Lo. Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Yang. Present. Mayor Ngo. Present. All present, thank you.

Do we have any additions, deletions, changes to the order of the agenda?

No changes, Mr. Mayor.

All right, no changes. Public comments?

None registered.

None. Okay.

Let's go with staff communication.

PD?

Can you hear me?

Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is Bill Cuevas. I'm one of your police captains here tonight.

Today's staff communication will be a presentation on our Explorer Post program

and also awards and trophy presentation at the end of the slideshow.

Giving the presentation today would be our Explorer Advisor, Officer Angel Pena.

Good afternoon, family, friends, distinguished guests, family of Monterey Park.

My name is Angel Pena. I'm a police officer here at Monterey Park Police Department.

I'm also the program coordinator here for the Explorer Post 300.

I am here with my fellow partners, Officer Tam.

He is my lead advisor, Officer Gonzalez, and Officer Corona.

Next slide.

So a little bit about ourselves. We are Explorer Post 300. The Explorer Program is a career development program in partnership with the Boys Scouts of America. The goal of this program is to maximize the potential of explorers ages 14 to 20 years of age to further their success in their career path of choice. The explorers are mentored by police officers like myself and other staff members and are provided in an environment where they can develop their professional skills. A little bit about this picture is our explorers and advisors, an after-action report of the competition scenario that was taking place in Chandler, Arizona. Next slide.

What do we do?

Explorers learn through hands-on experiences, which include a certified Explorer Academy, community services through city events, training in fast-paced, high-stress police scenarios, Explorer competitions, which include travel opportunities, police ride-alongs, administrative experience from climbing up the Explorer ranks, networking with other Explorer posts, weekly meetings, learning about law enforcement topics, and scholarship opportunities.

Next post.

ора CXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Explorer competitions test the Explorer's tactics, critical thinking skills, and physical fitness. Monterey Park has historically competed at SoCal Law Enforcement Explorer Competition hosted by CHP in San Diego, California. Ex-Con Explorer Competition hosted by Las Vegas Metro Police Department in Las Vegas, California. Monterey Park Explorers made their debut at Chandler, Arizona, Chandler Tactical Explorer Comp. in 2025 this past January, where they brought home four awards against 43 other teams.

Those awards include second place in Traffic Stop, second place in Tactical Relay, third place in Sniper Challenge, and third place in Welfit Check.

Next slide.

We're here to congratulate some of the explorers and their outstanding achievements.

Seven out of the nine explorers that competed in Channel Arizona are here present today.

I just wanted to show how much commitment some of these explorers have.

Some of them have been here for the past seven years.

That is Explorer Captain Matthew Chuang, folLod by Explorer Sergeant Ryan Lee, six years.

Explorer Corporal Nathan Villanueva with three years,

Explorer Corporal Bill Lai, two years, Explorer Corporal Annabel Magana, two years,

Explorer Corporal Jason Duong, three years, Explorer Stephen Bologno, three years,

Explorer Anthony Tang, one year, and Explorer John Leroy, one year.

All right. Can my explorers please get on stage?

As you can see, our explorers are very busy. At this point, we are going to show our trophies that we have won

and present the explorers and our advisors and our police officers

who volunteer their time in order to help lead our program,

be positive mentors towards them.

And we truly believe that it takes a village to be successful.

And without our officers that volunteer their time and travel with our explorers to these various states, we could not be successful.

But first off, we're going to recognize our explorers, our Explorer Captain Matthew Chong.

Let me invite Council to step down here with a group picture where I explore.

And then I'm going to continue to read off the names for the presentation. Explorer Sergeant Ryan Lee.

Explorer Corporal Nathan Villanueva.

Explorer Corporal Annabelle Magana. Explorer Stephen Banuelos. Explorer Anthony Tang.

Explorer John Leroy.

Officer Kenneth Tam.

Officer Sadrash Gonzalez.

Officer Samantha Garcia. Correction, Samantha Corona. Sorry, Sam.

And of course, our Explorer Advisor, who none of this would be possible with all his hard work

and many volunteer hours he puts into the program, Officer Angel Pena.

So I'll keep this simple.

Congratulations on your support, your commitment. It's almost like an obligation to duty now, right? Now you know what it's like to be just like an adult doing this full time, but that's what you're training for, and it's good experience for you with Captain Crevas and also with Officer Pena. And I see trophies there.

I'm not going to say anything else. I'm so proud of you guys.

We're happy for you guys and we're glad

you're here with our city. Thank you.

Here, officers. Use the step and step on the step back there.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

Okay, one more over here. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three.

Thank you.

Okay, just a quick plug that our officers' golf tournament is actually sometime in September. I have the date marked September.

Anyone know? 19. September 19.

So location, Bill, has the location been determined or is that still in the works?

He's coming down.

All right.

We will be back at our Hamburg golf course. Our Hamburg, there you go.

September 19th. September 19th. Yes. Okay. And flyers will be going out?

Yes. Our community engagement CSOs are Natalie.

Everybody knows Natalie, right? She's working hard to get that flyer out.

And we're already getting sponsors and donation prizes and whatnot. So I need you to practice your game and we'll be ready.

Do you know when the next Neighborhood Watch Zoom meeting is going to take place?

It's going to be next month. It's usually the second Tuesday of the month.

But I'll follow up with that. I know we are building some new Neighborhood Watch block meetings,

and we've identified some new captains, so we're in the mix of revamping the program.

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Captain.

Okay. Next up, Public Works.

Hello, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. Sochi Tipan, Public Works Manager. On March 8th, the city, in partnership with Ware Disposal, will be having a free compost and mulch giveaway event at Garvey Ranch Park from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. This is a drive-up event, so residents are encouraged to bring their containers no larger than 32 gallons. It is first come, first serve, so we will be there until supply is last. And this is one of our two events that we'll be holding this year. The next one's in the fall, but it usually has a good turnout, so we encourage people to get there early.

Thank you.

Questions, comments?

No?

Thank you, Sochi.

Thank you.

Okay. Recreation and Community Services.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Councilmembers. I'm here tonight to announce the official launch of the community engagement for our Greetings Tour mural project.

So starting tomorrow, we'll launch online the Greetings Tour mural. So if you visit greetingstour.com backslash vote, you'll be able to vote on some different images that have already been preselected of landmarks, historical figures, cultural activities, and events. You can choose up to five images. If there's images that you feel represent the city, maybe that aren't part of that selection, you can also suggest some additional images. And so the artist Victor Ving will be looking at those votes later on and then putting together the design for that mural, which I'll come back to Council, we're hoping, sometime in April. So the community outreach will start online beginning tomorrow,

and it will be in the Cascades.

The survey is also available in multiple languages, and so we are encouraging the community to please help us vote and select those images that help tell the story of Monterey Park. So once again, they can visit www.greetingstour.com backslash vote.

And you can actually, actually it's live now.

So if you wanted to start now and get a head start, you can already see that it's up and you can start your voting now. So please encourage your neighbors, family members, friends to help us make a beautiful mural that's going to be placed at 153 East Garvey and represent the city.

Available for any questions.

Questions, comments?

just a slight one when is the voting over?

we're going to run the voting until

March 17th

and so it'll be in the March Cascades and that'll give folks a chance to also vote

but if you vote now, you can get out ahead of it

I would say I'm very

much looking forward to this, thank you for getting this to this point and look forward to

the final design

and I will encourage people to, while they're visiting the site, look at some of the other designs so you can kind of get inspiration for what some of the other cities have done and how they've showcased

the art in their cities. So Robert, I know the

artists came by, was it September of last year or even earlier? November, yeah. November of last year, okay. There'll be online I guess suggestions from the residents. How does our CPC, our community participation group,

what role do they play in this? So they've been involved, one

from the very beginning of the selection.

They've also been involved with some of the font styles

and the font positioning there.

And so, yeah, they were actually the ones that recommended this project with the artist from the get-go. So, yeah, they've been working closely with this. And they're very enthusiastic about bringing more art to the city, and obviously they're wanting to continue to do more art throughout the city, which I know council is also excited about this.

And we look forward to the final product that comes for approval. So thank them on our behalf.

Absolutely. Thanks, Robert. Thank you.

No presentations, no old business consent calendar.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, before we move on, I wanted to let you know that we received a public comment after the public communications period. It's up to council, but there is a speaker who filled out a card, wanted to provide that information.

Sure.

Why don't we have the public comment go up since we're here anyway?

Okay, Andrea Tara says

Hi mayor and council I've never done this before so I'm kind of nervous I come here today reaching out to you to

Seek your help in a situation that happened today. I was unlawfully evicted from my home by someone that who chose to Forge a document and sent it into the sheriff's department The reason why I went to jail today was because the Monterey Park Police Department failed to

check that specific And I'm not I'm not saying that I haven't worked closely with a couple of the police officers to try to resolve the issue But I think there could have been a lot of things avoided and now I'm homeless right now I'm coming to you because I grew up in Monterey Park Since I was a little girl I went to Agnes Elementary School I graduated from Mark Keppel High School. And I'm here in a situation that I cannot believe that has happened because all they had to do was verify a document saying that that writ was not valid. And then I just happened to be coming on a day where you guys are doing a homeless count, and I'm someone that is not homeless. I have a home. They took out me, my husband, my dog, and my son on something that is not valid. This is a house that I know has a reputation that I'm now finding out from the police department. and my neighbors, and I've been here now for three years at the property that I'm at now, that it had a reputation for bad things. I mean, casinos, and I don't know if maybe the department is desensitized by the activity that comes from this place and maybe believes that this is something that, like, how could you not have an eviction? I just feel like I was judged because of where I live right now. But I'm here to tell you that since I have been there, I have cleaned up that property. There's no crime coming from that property. They hardly know calls coming from that property about any illegal activity. Not to mention that I'm very close to my neighbors who came out today and advocated for me.

And yet here I am standing before you, I don't even know how, but hoping that you guys can help me in some way because I am not homeless. I have a home. Mr. Uribe. County. City has illegally provided a writ to these police officers and they took the initiative to believe him without verifying with the Sheriff's Department. And I'm upset. And I'm hoping that maybe someone could help me with this. Because I love Monterey Park. I've been here my whole life. My grandfather had a house on Lincoln that we lived on pretty much all of my life. And I just wanted to come here and reach out to you guys hopefully, you know, that I can get some type of solution to this because this is unbelievable. that I was arrested for this today because I refused to leave because they didn't check the writ

was invalid. I guess that's pretty much what I want to say to you guys. Thank you for hearing me.

And I know that I'm expecting a miracle right now, but all I'm asking is for the two guys to look into this, please. Please. That's it. Thank you.

really quickly

I think staff PD was already having conversations with her I don't know if that team has some resources we can make available to maybe we can connect her to the housing rights center if we haven't already for

some immediate support. Thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the

council we will follow up to provide staff resources to the best of our ability to see what else we can offer.

Any other comments?

And I'm assuming we have her contact information and on file.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Let's move on to the consent items, 3A to 3M. just a quick note that I will be recusing myself on item 3J

because I live within 500 feet of that location.

I'll also be recusing myself from 3G because my office is within 1,000 feet of that location.

Just a question for Mr. City Attorney. Do I need to pull the minutes if I have edits for the minutes?

if they're clerical

Mr. Mayor, members of the council if they're just clerical just mention them and then we'll make those changes

and you can move forward with the approvals

I'm not pulling any items

for the minutes on page 23 of the

agenda packet

these are the minutes for the December 10th meeting it's Mayor Sanchez called me in order that should be Mayor Wong

and then on page

23 of the minutes for

sorry

page 29

the minutes for the December 18th special

meeting

that should be Mayor Go

not Mayor Wong just those two clerical changes

I'm happy to make a motion to

approve the consent calendar

we noted those adjustments

so motion by Council Member Wong

I'll second. Second by Council Member Sanchez.

Please take a vote.

Approve unanimously.

All right. Moving along. Wow. We are now

number four, public hearing. Do you have a public hearing? No public hearing. New business.

Let's see.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. One of my deputy city attorneys, Solange Fortenbach, will be giving this presentation.

Solange, we cannot hear you. Can you try that again?

Sorry, we're not getting any audio on you.

Let us try on our end. Give us a second, okay? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Test 1-2, check 1-2.

Solange, can you try your microphone again, please?

Yes. Can you hear me? Is that it? Can you hear her out there?

We can hear you.

If we can just adjust the audio to make it louder. But Solange, can you do another test for us?

Sure. Can you hear me?

It's low. I don't know if there's anything else that we can do on our end.

Does this make any difference?

Okay. Hang on, Solange. We're going to try to adjust the audio on our side, but you're going to have to probably speak up if you can.

Okay.

That's already better. Let's try again. Say test a few times so we can hear you. Test. Test. Test. Perfect. Thank you. We can hear you. Okay.

All right, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this is really an attempt to convince you to have better audio system within city council chambers.

But in the meantime, let me reintroduce Solange, and she'll give a presentation on this.

Hi, everyone. Sorry for the technical difficulties. My name is Solange Hortenbach, and I'm deputy city attorney. It's nice to be here with you all tonight. Let me change the speaker mode. Oh, never mind. I can't see you, but that's okay. I will just continue.

So this presentation discusses a request to approve the recording of a lien to direct abatement costs by the city regarding the residential property located at 803 Loma Verde Street in the city.

803 Loma Verde is a single-family residence at the corner of Loma Verde Street and Inez Avenue. Code enforcement, thank you for changing the slide. Code enforcement initiated the enforcement action in 2021.

We lost your audio, Solange, sorry.

No, still nothing.

Can you try to talk a little bit louder and see if we get anything at all?

Test, test, test.

So we could hear her, Randy and staff, we could hear her. It's just very low.

Sorry to steal your thunder. Why don't I just give the presentation?

Unless the council wants to wait. All right. I think what she was about to say is that we started code enforcement efforts on this property in 2021.

You can see the before condition here. After some effort and $16,000 later, we got to the after version, which is the next slide.

So this happened in June 19th, 2024. So to give you that perspective, that's three years in the making.

that was the after in June. Unfortunately, as of yesterday, I believe it is, once you go to the next slide,

we are back to some old habits. So this will likely require additional abatement activity on the property,

which will, of course, incur additional costs. At the moment, we're simply trying to recoup the costs that we incurred up to June of this year. That amounts to the dollar amount in your staff report,

which is about $16,000. The amount will be leaned against the property,

which means it will come up at the next time that the property taxes are due, and either the property owner will be required to pay it at that time

or we can foreclose on the property. Happy to answer any questions.

Questions, comments?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and appreciate the report on this. I have two kind of questions, I think. One, looking at the staff report, it looks like we gave plenty of time, the city gave plenty of time for this property owner to abate the nuisance. And we were very patient with this.

I hope that's an accurate characterization. From my reading of it, it was.

I would be comfortable moving more aggressively on things like this and shortening that timeline.

If there are nuisance to abate in our neighborhoods, I don't think we need to wait a year plus to take more aggressive action to clean up properties.

I think we should take more expedient action where possible.

We should still give the property owner notice and a reasonable amount of time to clean up.

But I don't think it's fair to our neighborhoods to have to sit through these kind of conditions for years on end. If there was opportunities for us to move more quickly on addressing some of these issues,

I think that would be good.

My second kind of – I guess that was more of a statement. My second – my question on this is, right, we're going to place the lien to recover costs. Did we also issue fines for nuisances on this property, and have those been paid at all by the property owner, or are those in –

So, launch by sign language, thumbs up or thumbs down,

or maybe ray can come up and give us an overview yeah ray our senior code enforcement uh supervisor

good evening honorable mayor members of the city council um there has been six citations that have been issued to the property none of which have been paid for by the property owner at this time

so what happens to the fines i guess for the citations did that get placed in the lane too

So the lien, those are not part of an abatement recovery cost. Those are actual separate fines, which requires us to take a separate action. Basically, we usually turn it over to a debt collector in order to try to collect those fines after the appeals period has expired.

So that's what happens with fines.

This is the actual costs, so legal costs, code enforcement costs, and Ray Lozano, who's actually in charge of everything,

We just look pretty next to him when we try to go in and enforce.

But he's the one that's actually in charge of it and could go through detail by detail how much effort was undertaken with this particular property. The amount is actually less than some other properties that you've previously seen and you've leaned those particular real properties for. But obviously it's going to be an ongoing effort. We may have to step up to your observation and perhaps even initiate litigation to try to get a receiver to take over the property in order to have it fixed up.

Which I will note also costs the residents of the city money to pursue these actions.

That's true.

With a receivership, what happens is if a receiver is appointed in a particular situation, the receiver actually fronts the money in order to clean up the property and then is able to sell the property afterward in order to recoup costs. So once a court order is issued from that perspective, the city recovers its costs, the receiver recovers its costs, and the property is hopefully cleaned up at that point.

Which is still, I mean, receivership is still a year or so long? Oh, it's several years long, yes.

I forget what the last receivership was, if you were in charge, but I think it took like four years for us to have it all put together. And I think some of you at least had a tour of the result for that property, which was a remarkable night and day difference, but it still takes a lot of effort.

More reason, again, for us to move more aggressively and to do whatever we can on our end to push for more expedient action on these kind of properties.

Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

regarding the citations that were given

you said there were four that were given six

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And we can issue daily citations every time the violation exists. So if it is still remaining thereafter, we can continuously cite and use that too as an enforcement effort as well.

And I think I'm completely in agreement with Council Member Wong's point. And I think whatever we can do, I'm not sure if an ordinance is required here in terms of trying to set even caps or limits in terms of how long. I mean, I'm thinking to myself if I were, I would not like to be in a situation where I'm living right next door to this and then having to wait about three years for some type of resolution like this to happen, right? So keeping that in mind in terms of our Monterey Park neighbors, whatever we can do, whether that's an ordinance or however that might look, to try to shorten that gap and get more action and be more aggressive, to Council Member Wong's point?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, there's no additional tools that need to be added to our toolbox. It's simply a matter of due process, attempting to work with the property owner.

With scoff laws, I hesitate to answer on Mr. Lozano's point,

but we're much more aggressive under those circumstances than first-time offenders, if you will.

but certainly as you know if you flip through any TV channel

properties like this are a challenge for every single public entity in the United States and so there is a process for it and some of it is beyond the council's control

it's a court process

it's one of those things that we deal with

but all that said

certainly the direction from the council is to lean into these types of things and that's certainly

something that we can be more interested in doing. And just one follow-up question, do we have more,

do we know of any other homes that are currently going through that process right now?

At this time we don't have any similar properties that are under the same condition right now.

Okay, thank you. So I'm familiar with this property, it is in District 2, which is my district, and I have walked by it before. Back in November, we did notice there was a lot of trash and debris outside,

and we reported on the GoMPK app,

and a lot of the residents who live on Loma Verde and Inez did complain about this particular property. So it sounds like this has been a recurring issue.

It did clean up.

It got cleaned up after the GoMPK report, but then it came back to what it appears to look like today. So I think with six citations and this history, I would be in favor of this.

I just wanted to add, I mean, I asked staff if we made sure we did a mental health check with the residents here, because sometimes there's something afoul here, but it sounds like that wasn't the case, and it's more of their choosing not to, one, respond to work with the city, pay the citation, get the work done, that we actually have to do their work on behalf of the city and the residents to clean up the neighborhood, so to speak, or the house. So here we are again, and I'm like the rest of the council here. We need to do something to expedite the process other than due process of time. If we need to write daily citations to make this work faster,

I'm in support of that so with that said do we

maybe a suggestion maybe on a website a public shame board it's like it's like

you know it's like nuisance of the month or nuisance of the day

I have a feeling the neighborhood already knows about this

well we'll let the whole city know about it I'm happy to make the motion

motion by council member Wang second second by pro tem Yang please take your vote

approve unanimously

and thank you Solange for an excellent report

I appreciate it

we did get to hear her in the beginning part of it

so thank you Solange thank you okay let's go with city council communication

kind of along the lines of the resolution we just passed if we can ask for a future update I don't know if this is closed session or open session, but status on 795 Garvey, the former Seven Leaves property. I know there's litigation there. I don't know if we can get a status on that and an update.

I'll briefly respond to it. It's somewhat on topic, but it's public information in any event. We did have a court hearing on Valentine's Day. The court has continued the matter for additional briefing on a couple of items, So we should know, and I forget if it was a two-week continuance, but we should know in a couple weeks where the court stands. It was less than, the judge was less than enthusiastic with regard to the property owner's counsel's arguments.

So we will see what happens next. That's encouraging.

Just to reiterate, this has already been a years-long process and still will be probably a few years long, even if things go well. so whatever we can do to push property owners to be more responsible with their properties including commercial property owners and encourage them to be good stewards and neighbors let's do that and this is just wasting everyone's time and money and making the city upset and the residents and the neighbors upset

that's all I've got

I just have two items. I know next month is Women's History Month, so if we can queue up a resolution for Women's History Month.

And then I'm not sure if you heard,

but Mark Keppel High School came in second in this year's academic decathlon.

Who came in first?

Yeah, yeah.

And anyhow, so. And who's the coach?

Who's the coach?

And congratulations to the Alhambra High School team that came in first at L.A. County.

And their amazing coach.

Thank you. Thank you.

But second place is actually a huge feat, considering there are 70 schools that are competing in all of L.A. County. So Mark Keppel took in second. So we can invite them in the future to recognize their – and they were number one and most improved team in L.A. County. So anyhow, so if we can invite them and their coach to recognize them at one of our future council meetings, that would be great. Oh, yes, I also want to acknowledge, because we're talking about students, I have two former students here in the audience who are here for their, I believe, political science class, right? So I wanted to welcome you to the Monterey Park City Council Chambers, and thank you for coming tonight. Great to see you, and it's been a year, but great to see you guys are still studying and still working hard, and to see you, more importantly, civically engaged. So thank you for coming here.

Last week I attended, as the representative for City Monument Park, to the Sangamore Valley Council of Governments Transportation Committee meeting. And one of the updates they were giving at the COG staff to the city's president at the Cog Transportation Committee meeting was the LA County Transit Signal Priority Program update, which my understanding is that Monterey Park has been a participant of in the last 20 years. And so certainly, you know, that's something I support, especially if it means encouraging more public transit and if it means giving more right-of-way to public transit during rush hour times.

I did ask the question that if this would complement in any way or have any impact on the signal prioritization program that we're doing, if I'm not mistaken, part of the Metro 710 money is synchronization of our traffic lights.

And they said that it shouldn't because they have been in touch with the city, making sure that whatever technology we are using for our signal synchronization would not interfere with the county's transit signal priority program.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we can definitely follow up with the COG just to make sure. but I think we have been in communication, so we want to ensure that it doesn't impact that program.

Great.

And then the other thing, and then with an update on the transit feasibility study that the COG has been engaged in, it's a multi-year program, and certainly I know when they look at corridors for potentially enhanced public transit, I mean, Monterey Park is among those routes, and so certainly, you know, again, And if there's anything that we can do, if it means I'm going to call to come back for an update, that's something I'd be in favor of as well.

That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you.

We have a new business in the city, VCA Engineers.

They just opened up on Atlantic, and we're going to have a ribbon cutting for them on March 13th. And also just a reminder for everyone in this city to fill out the HUD housing survey. What is the last day to complete that survey?

I believe we have the survey open until the end of February.

I think since our last push, we have received good results,

so we appreciate everybody's efforts in trying to spread the word.

Definitely this plan extends over the next five years and helps us to prioritize which programs to focus on. So thank you for that support.

Okay, just to wrap up, I attended a couple of events in the last couple of weeks. So on February 6th, it was our small business fair held at the service center in Barnes Park. And then on the 7th of this month, I was part of the INES Career Day. I think there were about 25 professionals who spoke at INES. And then later that afternoon, I was privileged to help coordinate with the Chinese community in Southern California. We raised about $160,000, and we split it to two groups. both fire groups. One is LAFRA, the LA Fire Relief, the LA Firefighters Relief Association, which is a union product of the LA firefighters. And they had a specific fund that provided money directly to the firefighters who lost their homes or who were heavily impacted and lost their homes through the wildfire. The second part of that is the regional training group, which consists of 29 cities, and the city of Mara Park is one of those cities, and that money went towards training,

infrastructure, equipment for the 29 cities within L.A. County that's outside the city of L.A.

because the city of L.A. has got their own big department, and every other local city around it is cobbling together to work on that. So I was able to coordinate some of that relief efforts. Also attended some Lunar New Year festivals.

And just last week was at the housing rights,

first for the tenants, and then the housing rights for the landlords conference seminar

at Service the Park.

And I wanted to give a shout-out for tomorrow night, the city is honoring the volunteers' dinner. I think we have over 100 people who are showing up because they all have volunteered for the city on the part of being a commissioner or just long-term volunteers for the city

who are being recognized.

So kudos to them. And with that, we are signing off at 727.

Oh, and tonight it's also the homeless.

Oh, tonight at 8.30, 8 o'clock, is the homeless count.

Signing off.

Thank you.