City Council Meeting — March 5, 2025

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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.

George. He's a cantor. So he got cantor. So you just carry them. Who's it? You got a hand. Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Henry? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Let's call the meeting to order. I'm going to start first with our land acknowledgment.

We would like to acknowledge that the land we inherit today was once known as the Tavangar, the home

of the Gabonino Tongva people.

We show our respect to the Gabonino 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 Gabonino Tongva people,

invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land.

Let's do the flag salute. We have a civic superstar. Come on. Come right here.

Where are you going to be? Right here.

Raise the plug.

Put your right hand before your heart. And we begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which

would stand one nation under God, invisible with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. Thank you.

Council members, do you want to join me?

By the way, that was our third grader from Highlands Elementary, Mr. B, the principal here.

Eaton, good job. Highlands Elementary Mr. B the principal here. Eaton good job.

Yeah, come on your parents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

! Thank you. !

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sandy, can we do roll call?

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Wong. I'm here. Council Member Sanchez. Second. Council Member Lo. Present. Mayor Po Tim Yang. Present. And Mayor Goh. Present. We have a quorum, thank you.

Thank you. Agenda additions, deletions, and changes.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, wanted to make a quick announcement for the audience. In following with public hearing publishing requirements, the 2025 Weed Abatement public hearing has been moved to Wednesday, March 19th, to allow for the mandatory 10-day noticing period. We apologize for any inconvenience. As such, the deadline to remove an address from the declaration list is now Wednesday, March 26th. If you have any questions, you can please contact our fire department, their administration office at 626-307-1262. So for members in the audience, if anybody was here for that item tonight, it will not be heard tonight. It's going to be heard on Wednesday, March 19th. That is the wheat abatement item. In addition, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, we would like to request that Item 1A be moved up, as we have guests in the audience, and also Item 6A, that is the recognition item for city employees. We wanted to see if City Council could consider moving those items up to be heard under public communication and before staff communications, please.

I don't hear any objections, so we're good. Okay, well, let's...

Item 1A is the Congressional App Challenge finalists.

So we are very proud of our students from the Humber Unified, and that's Markepo High School.

if I can have Drexel Go, Alina Ramos, Evan Lau, and Attica Champadro.

We have a certificate for you for what you did with your app. Do you want to briefly talk about what you guys did? Of course.

Is the mic on? The mic is on. Well, first, we would love to thank each and every one of you.

Thank you so much for allowing us to speak a little bit about our app, iSpeak. iSpeak is essentially a hands-free desktop application that allows for people who are paralytic,

people who have trouble using their hands, people who have trouble using their mouse and their keyboard on the computer.

iSpeak aims to provide that solution for them with speech-to-text, controlling the keyboard, and eye tracking to control the mouse.

So essentially, iSpeak is this hands-free, accessible application to help people navigate their computer.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. How about the rest of the team? You guys have any additional comments to make?

Well, we hope to publish I Speak in a few months. Hopefully, we are building the website as we speak,

and we are fine-tuning and finalizing our project, and hopefully it will be available to use for the public soon.

Great. Thank you, and congratulations again. We have some certificates, so council members, if you want to join me, we'll present it.

Can I thank a few more people? Okay. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, can we get the school district folks? The superintendent.

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We'll take one more.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Do you want to comment?

Do we need one? What's up, Steve?

Oh, yeah, of course.

Thank you.

Zip. We have our superintendent, our school board, our school administrators, our former teachers and current teachers, our family and friends. We just want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your continued support and belief in us. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, if it's okay for some quick comment on this.

So I just want to congratulate the four of you, and particularly I believe Drexel and Alina were here last year too for the App Challenge. Appreciate you guys continuing to lead and support our community with these kind of applications and thinking around how technology can help more people engage with our community. And so from last year's idea in terms of being able to respond to school shootings and public safety, and to this year helping people be able to access things like this. Really appreciate the kind of approach that you have in terms of thinking about how we can make things easier for those who struggle in our community and how to help make the community stronger. So really appreciate and look forward to you guys doing way more in the years ahead. I don't remember what year you guys, what grade level you guys are. Hopefully we've got you for a few more years here locally before you go off to college. but really bright futures ahead really appreciate you guys really investing like this and and doing what you're doing and leading and look forward to seeing your careers along go a long way and really appreciate all that you do

great thank you I just also want to echo what councilmember Wong said but Drexel you must be already at this point collecting so many city certificates I I hope you're sharing these with your family and with your classmates but we're always very proud of all of our Alhambra students and students here in Monterey Park and our we have amazing students here within our city so thank you so much for making our city shine in the way that you do and all of the contributions that you guys make because it it helps not just our community but it makes our community and our school district which has amazing students shine I also want to commend I know your teachers here miss Sanchez here as well So thank you for coming out and supporting your students.

Thank you, Mr. Sanchez. You know, on that note, I also want to just say that, again, congratulations,

but really this achievement is a testament to the entire school community. I mean, look at everyone here tonight, from family, teachers, administrators, school board members.

I mean, again, this is a collective community effort,

and really for those who are part of the Alhambra Scudas family and the Myrtle Park family.

I mean, this is really a celebration for our entire community. So congratulations to all of us.

Congratulations to all the challenge finalists and Drexelists,

since I have only heard from you so far.

I just want to say you're more eloquent than many of the attorneys that I've seen speak in court.

So if you're interested in pursuing law, feel free to contact me for an internship.

Again, congratulations. You've got a big, bright future, big out there.

So do your best, finish up high school, and you're going to conquer the world like you've never seen before. So congratulations again.

We're going to now go to public comments.

First speaker is Mistress Transgender Queen.

Good morning. So for the general public comment, I would like to talk about the Monterey Park Police Department. For me, for too many, one of you are pretty, maybe it's difficult for you to hard to understand, but I identify as an LGBT.

And I always have an interest in law enforcement career. So I always wanted, you know, explore my career option in the law enforcement related field.

But I did several researches in the local Los Angeles County Police Department, Sheriff Department, Highway Patrol, and everything I was exploring. There's several particular issues I want to share with the board.

Number one is that it feels like we have an emphasis on Spanish-speaking officers instead of everyone else. It seems like Spanish-speaking officers are always getting bilingual pay or preferential hiring, whatever. but it seems like you speak Spanish, you get the job. But I feel, I hope our city,

our city, Monterey Park Police Department, including the city council, can treat every language equally.

I believe, you know, if someone speaks Japanese, I believe they are equally talented compared to someone speaking Spanish. And if someone speaks Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, whatever, you know, I believe they are equally valuable

in the city of Monterey Park, not just Spanish. So I feel in the future if we can ensure there's an equal opportunity, equal competition hiring process in the Monterey Park Police Department application hiring process. That's the first concern. The second concern is the LGBT concern.

Recently I heard several good work from the LAPD. They have a dedicated bureau.

They have a dedicated deputy chief that's working on the LGBT officers. They recognize the LGBT officers. They have so many union programs or department programs to uplifting LGBT programs. But in the city of Monterey Park, I feel that nothing much. As far as I am aware of, I don't really follow too much the politics in this city, but as far as I'm aware, there's literally very minimal effort for the LGBT. So I just don't know that if I will be treated, if my gender identity will be respected or if my gender will be recognized by the city, by the Monterey Park Department, or whatever. But anyway, basically what I find is in the military, in the law enforcement, basically if you identify as LGBT, normally you receive bully, you receive discrimination, you receive whatever, isolation. So that's basically what I find generally online. So I wish, you know, again, in the future, if we can have some LGBT police officer applicant, I hope our city council can ensure their gender will be recognized, will be respected, and instead of just saying, I'm sorry, we don't have a role for you right here, sorry, we don't need an LGBT officer right here, something like that. So basically, I'm here to advocate LGBT, I'm here to advocate LAPD law enforcement, and in all the related fields, and I feel our city of Monterey Park, we can follow the footsteps of our neighboring bigger city, like the city of Los Angeles. I can follow our county of Los Angeles. We can follow our state of California. At their county level, state level, they constantly recognize LGBT or special gender population, but at Monterey Park, we don't have much. So that's it. Thank you for your time.

Next speaker, Frederick Douglass.

The language of the political arena is often abusive

and viterbitant. And what I mean by this is that many people do not understand what free speech sounds like. It's not pleasant. It's sharp. And it attacks people who have no knowledge to what the First Amendment is clearly stating or making reference to, as I will indicate in this Snyder versus Phelps case of 562 U.S. 443 2011. God hates the USA. Thank God for 9-11. America is doomed. Don't pray for the USA. Thank God for IEDs. Pope in hell. Priests rape boys. you're going to hell and God hates you. Now, you heard earlier a gentleman speak about LGBT queers and fags, and it has nothing to do with any one of us. Mr. Mayor, can we remind the speaker to not use slurs during public comments? I'm sorry, but I have the floor, sir. So until I'm finished, you will then keep your mouth shut and allow me to finish my five fucking minutes. Thank you. Police, Chief?

No, your language has to be appropriate.

I'm sorry, what was that?

Your language needs to be appropriate.

Now, language has nothing to do with my content. And the content of my speech is to provide a public civil rights of my ability to say what's my opinion and point. Now, the challenge of you bringing an officer here poses a threat because this identifies that you cannot accept criticism. Now, if I was Donald Trump and called you a stupid ass and you don't know shit, what are you going to say to me then?

Criticism is okay, but not with improper language, not in this venue. Okay. Cohen versus California.

Fuck the draft. Is that bad language? Go ahead and finish your comments, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Now, fuck the draft. Is that bad language?

Apparently not. Apparently, I'm using reference to what the Supreme Court ruled my content as free speech. Thank you, sir. And I freely have the right to exercise that free speech. Now, the terms that you dislike, God hates fags. It's not personal. is subjective to criticism, depending on the person accepting it. There are fags in this country. There are fags representing us. And God hates you, and you're going to hell. Now, I make reference to that because I believe that. I believe God hates homosexuality in the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 25 through 26. Now, if my reference to God is not the highest power, then who are you to point a finger at me saying that my fuck word is fucking bad to say? No one here. When people go to war, they don't say pleasant things. I'm sorry, faggot. Move to the side. They say, no move, motherfucker, because I need to shoot this gun to save my life. And as the same as said, in the city of Los Angeles, I found out they just fired a chief because she was gay. now am i for against it no i support christine crawley now what the bitch mayor did there was pull the wrong advice fire the chief and that type of subjection is harmful to everyone in the community it sets a precedence of an example that when the mayor dislikes you for what gender you are. See, I got nothing against gay people. Just the word fag and fucking fag is very clear to me. But it's, again, objective. How we pleasantly or unpleasantly relate it to a conversation. Yes, it may be sharp, abrasive, but the fact of the matter is I'm making a point tonight. And that point is, I'm following the law, my civil rights to the law, under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II, which prohibits discriminations on the basis of anyone's belief and anyone's passion for free speech and more. Thank you.

Next speaker. Next speaker, Javier Countenco.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Javier Caltenco. I'm a public information officer with the U.S. Small Business Administration,

Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. And the Small Business Administration is offering low-interest federal disaster loans

to businesses of all sizes, most private nonprofit organizations, homeowners, and renters. SBA is the primary source of funds to pay for repairs or replacement costs not fully covered by the insurance. We are currently assisting or providing assistance to those who were affected by the wildfires and straight-line winds. We have two different types of loans to bid for businesses. We have one for physical damages to their property. It could be from machinery, equipment, or anything similar. We also have the economic injury disaster loan for those businesses and nonprofit organizations who did not suffer physically, but they have any economic injury. So we want to make sure that they're aware of the... S Forest Forest

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Also encourage everybody to apply if they believe that they were affected, for example, the businesses and nonprofits.

We have several locations where they can go and apply.

They can also apply online at lending.sba.gov. We also have an 800 number in case they need to call. It's 800-659-2955.

and right now up more than $1.4 billion in this declaration

and we have disbursed more than $224 million we have disbursed already.

Thank you and if you would like more information we'd be happy to set up an appointment and provide you more information.

I know we're just in public comments. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, really quick. Yes.

I don't know if we're already, I believe we have been putting out information like this for businesses that may have been impacted through our channels. I just want to encourage us to continue to do that if we're not already.

Next speakers, Bob Gin and Carol Sullivan.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, yes, we know that and we'll continue to share out that information on that previous comment.

Okay.

We're representing the Monterey Park Library Foundation, and as you know, we had our gala last year in October. I just want to let you know we want to thank the residents of the city

and you as city council members and the citizens for coming out to support the gala.

We had such a great time. That was the day the Dodgers won the first game of the World Series.

But I just wanted to let you know that we raised over $40,000 from that event.

And right now, the board of directors met, and we put aside another $20,000 to purchase a bookmobile for the library.

And so we're going to, in fact, we had our meeting just the other day, and we deChinatown-International Districted to fund the whole bookmobile, the purchase and whatever else we have to do to make that bookmobile workable for the library. So I just want to share that out. If people would like to donate, because we still need to raise another $20,000. If people would like to donate, just, you know, they can send a check to the Monterey Park. Make it out to the Monterey Park Library Foundation and just drop it over at the library or send it to Monterey Park Library Foundation, P.O. Box 1161 in Monterey Park.

We'd also like to let you know our next gala to raise money is on 10-10. And I asked them to set a date that I would remember. So 10-10, October 10th is our next gala. We haven't deChinatown-International Districted on our theme yet, so just put that on your calendar. And I'm here on double duty for the Voluntary Park Women's Club. which is May 3rd. The police is on board for a table, and the fire department is on board for a table. We will have a model from each, and we'll have an inspiration from the fire department, and our mayor pro tem, Elizabeth Yang, will be our emcee. I do have 10 tickets here. They're $65 each, or $6.50 for a table, and I already count 10 people here. and you can donate more if you want and if you need more tickets you can let me know. Who would like to take charge of these 10 tickets? I think we all will. Who? We all will.

Okay. Okay. I just will take it.

Thank you.

So just let me know if you need more later and the date and everything is on there and the time is on there too. And see you also on 1010.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, for the first announcement on the bookmobile,

when it's appropriate, if we can maybe bring staff to agendize that for, I assume we have to receive the donation to make sure we recognize the Library Foundation.

No other speakers. Okay, thank you. All right.

Before I get into item 6A, I just want to make one comment very clear for our chamber here in our city.

Hate language, any kind of hate language, is not tolerable.

We don't stand for that in our city. Let's go to item 6A. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

6A is the recognition

a resolution of the Marley Park City Council recognizing March 2025 as Employee Appreciation Month we have many of our staff here

so why don't we do this I'm just going to read a couple of excerpts from here the city of Marley Park is committed to providing high quality

services that enhances the safety, well-being, and quality of life for all residents and visitors. Each department and division is an integral part of the city. Ensuring the governance, safety, fiscal sustainability, infrastructure,

community engagement, community enrichment programs, neighborhood and economic vitality, and customer service are supported

through daily actions and work performed by staff.

the city of mario park declares march 2025 as employee appreciation month so if i can

have staff come up here for a big group picture and a group hug

Thank you.

Maybe you can go behind. Go behind.

I'll go in the back.

You guys have to be to this side. This side is a city seal.

Pop mic, dude. Are y'all in?

Get in there, get in there. Everybody in?

Okay, I'm as tall as Carl and Robert. So.

Hang on. Ready? One, two, three, smile.

Okay. I think I got it.

Thank you.

Go ahead. Council Member Thomas wants to make up. Well, I'm happy to make the motion.

Someone wants to beat me to it for the resolution for 6A, but I just wanted to echo comments,

and as the employees are leaving,

just want to appreciate all of them for all the work that they do. Really appreciate, like, City Hall and our residents would not be served without, obviously, the workers here at City Hall with all the departments.

We really appreciate all their efforts, not only today, but throughout the year, every day of the year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the extra day in leap years. But thank you so much to all the staff who really just grind every day and make sure that the residents get the services they deserve day in, day out. So really appreciate and happy to make the motion unless someone wants to make it. I'll second. Second by Houseman Sanchez. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Okay. Let's get back to the agenda.

Staff communications, community development.

Next slide, please.

Good evening, council members and community members. I'm Janice Huang, economic development specialist.

It's my pleasure to share with you some exciting upcoming events and announcements.

The Meetup with the Mayor events are back, with the first one scheduled for tomorrow, March 6th, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Noodle City.

These events provide an opportunity for the public to meet the mayor in a casual setting, voice concerns, and connect with the city leadership while supporting local businesses. It's a great opportunity to connect with the community, share ideas, and strengthen the local economy.

Community members are encouraged to join in and rediscover local spots. Next slide, please. The Monterey Park Business Alliance MPPA invites you to its March Mixer, a women in business workshop and networking event on March 27th from 6 to 7.30 p.m. at El Alcanto. This free event allows local business owners to connect, access valuable resources, and gain insights on positioning their business for success.

The evening will include a panel discussion with successful business owners covering key topics like challenges and opportunities for women in business, strategies for success, networking tips, and work-life balance.

While the event is focused on women in business, entrepreneurs of all gender are welcome to participate, contribute, and learn.

Seats are limited, so be sure to register by scanning the QR code on the PowerPoint slide. Next slide, please.

Next, I'm excited to remind the public of the Love Monterey Park Shop and Dine Local Campaign, aimed at celebrating and supporting the unique local businesses that make our city special. This campaign encourages residents and visitors to shop and dine locally, emphasizing the important role small businesses play in our local economy. Our local businesses need your support to succeed. You can visit our city's website and pledge to shop and dine locally today. Finally, I'm thrilled to share the Taste of Downtown MPK Shop Local program.

Originally set to end in January, the program has been so successful that it will now continue until the funds are exhausted. The Taste of Downtown MPK is a promotion that allows you to earn 10% back on your dining purchases at participating restaurants in downtown Monterey Park. This initiative aims to support local restaurants, encourage foot traffic to the downtown area, and enhance the district's vibrancy. We encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy great food and support our local downtown businesses. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council members. That concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

I just appreciate everything the department or the team is doing on our development. I really appreciate all these efforts.

I know our businesses appreciate it and need these services.

I want to acknowledge and note that we are increasing our programming,

and the Margaret Business Alliance continues with its program. I really appreciate this emphasis on women-owned businesses and look forward to the next series of events that we'll be putting on to add additional resources for our community.

First of all, thank you for all of the amazing programs that our Business Alliance has been working on and doing. It makes a lot of sense why we got the most business friendly award here in Monterey Park because of programs like these. If we can go back to the slide with the women in business workshop I think even stuff like this is extremely important in terms of encouraging various different groups of people to and workshops like this are so necessary in communities like ours so very appreciative of all the work that we're doing and the connection that we're making with a lot of our businesses just like Council Member Wong said or I know our business community really appreciates and is benefiting from a lot of these workshops. So thank you for all of the hard work that we're doing. So I know we just appreciated you a second ago for appreciating you again. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. I'm kind of curious.

Again, I'm glad to hear that the Shop and Dine program is being extended. I'm curious. How many businesses or, I guess, restaurants are currently participating in the program? Thirty-eight. Thirty-eight. Okay. Are they close to bothly in large?

Sini Area for events because it's a beautiful space in our city.

I just want to add, thank you Janice, Joe, and Jessica

for doing a good work to put all these events together

to help stimulate locally our businesses in the time of need.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, City Council members,

members. Tonight, I'm Joe Torres, your Economic Development Manager. Tonight, we have the

pleasure of recognizing 360 Labs, Sensho Naturals, a business that proudly calls Monterey Park

home. Please allow me to introduce Mr. David Cardoon, founder and chief executive officer

of 360 Labs, Sensho Naturals, and Mr. Reiner Schindler, chief operating officer. If you

would please gentlemen come up here.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor and City Council members, my name is David Cardoon and

this is Reiner Schindler and I'm wearing this jacket I just came from a trade show

so we have our natural product show and we call ourselves matcha dealers.

that's who we are, but the legal way. We're not doing anything weird. So in Anaheim, there's a big trade show called the Natural Products Expo. I think it was today through Friday, so that's why I'm wearing it. I don't normally wear this shirt, so anyway. So the history of our company, we've been around for 24 years, and we started in Valencia, we went to East L.A., we went to a historical Filipino town, downtown L.A., and everywhere we moved, we never felt like it was home. And I think part of the reason is if we had something we did wrong, not intentionally, but let's say our warehouse, there was the fire alarm wasn't working or just random events. When you're a small business, things happen, right? The other cities would just come in and seem like they would find us, and it was always a tug of war. And we got to Monterey Park, and we had, I think, we had some pallets stacked too high inside the warehouse. And the fire chief, I wish I could remember his name, was a nice guy. He's like, David, I want to work with you. How do we work this out? And that was like our first three months in business. I was like, wow, what a different refreshing approach. Like, how do we work together versus here's a fine, figure it out yourself. I could call him any time. He came back to help us figure out how to get these pallet racks done properly and bolted down. So then we had a false fire alarm. I'm sorry, false police alarm went off for the police department. Same thing. They were just kind, generous, wanted to help us. They're like, no big deal when you're seeing acChinatown-International Districtents happen. And so this is the first city where we felt like we wanted to stay, and this is home, and we're planning to stay for a long time. We just want to thank everyone for creating that kind of culture in the city, which is more of a family feel, which is how our company is run as well. And it's unique, and we're very proud to be there. And that's why we weren't doing this for accolades. We just did it because truly from our hearts we're proud to be in this city, and we really love it. So we really thank everyone. Thank you. Well, I really appreciate you coming tonight and really appreciate the opportunity that we have to thank you for your investment. I drive down Marriott Pass Road regularly for years. I've wondered what business is that that, one, did such a great job of just making their property look great, and, two, where did that Marriott Park Strong mural kind of come from? I've always wondered, and I know we've asked staff about it for on and off, and it's great to be able to put a face to the business a little bit, but really appreciate hearing that as well. We've been working, I know this council and the staff have been working really hard to get to a point where we can and we are supporting our business community like this. I know we all acknowledge and know that there's still a lot more we can do, and we want to do it, and we want to continue to get better, but appreciate hearing that feedback as well, And we want to keep you here in Marnie Park generating business and jobs and making sure that we're helping you grow here as well. And so we'll look forward to you working with our economic development team, our planning team, and everyone else to continue to partner. And what a great example. And I'm really – my heart is warm to hear this great example that we can continue to share with other businesses as well about the partnership that can happen between the city and our departments and businesses. to really make every, right, there's a win-win here, win-win-win, really, for the business, for the city, and for our residents having property in a business like this in the city. So thank you so much. Really appreciate being able to mention this and to note this and highlight this as an example for other businesses in our community as well.

And also just want to give credit. This is Reiner, a longtime friend. He also is now the CEO of the company, and he lives in Florida. He moved out here. He could have lived anywhere. I'm like, do you want to live in Pasadena, Santa Monica? he's like, I love Monterey Park. He lives down the street, not because he has to, because he loves it.

Yes, correct. I had a wonderful experience, some dramatic ones. I want to speak very highly of Monterey Park Hospital. Something happened there, which, you know, not from the hospital side, but the care within the hospital was amazing. I ended up becoming friends with Dr. Levine, which is the ER head at that hospital. It has been an immense amount of support came my way in a certain situation. So that's just that, and all the restaurants we're visiting and the support is just amazing. So, you know, I must say I miss Florida, but not that much anymore.

Reiner's German. He used to love, you know, the streusels and the weiner streusels. Now he eats dim sum, so we converted him. He eats it more than us now. That's true.

I also wanted to echo the council members comments. I remember calling one day our city manager and my daughter goes to the gym studio right across the street. So I'm I'm there at least two or three times a week. You take our parking spaces. Yes. Yes. Yes. I do. We all do. I know. But while we do, we admire your business and your Monterey Park proud sign. And so I know that every, just like all of us that drive by and see that, we knew there was a story behind that. So I'm glad that you put that story, or you shared that story, but also enlightened us in terms of what's happening. And it's great that you're here, and we appreciate your business. And whatever we can continue to do to make sure that you stay, and then anything that you do, or expand, hopefully, one day, but we are here to help out. And I'm glad that you really, truly captured what Monterey Park is all about. Because we are here. We try to operate like a family. And so.

One thing. This was just an idea we had where we'd love to have a local school, if it's like junior high or high school, do a tour of the facility on how products are made, food products. So there's someone to get in touch with. And we would love to do like a tour. They can see how breath, you know, mints are made. And even. You can definitely arrange that. I'm a teacher.

You know, we told Joseph also that we're very willing to support other events. David is. You know, we're very much social oriented, so we have a kitchen. We serve all of our employees free food, free breakfast, and free lunch. We have actually a cook we hired for that, so it's not just a sandwich. We make healthy food within the facility. Are you hiring him?

So, you know, and that's why we're also very interested.

We told Joseph to even if there's an event that we can do something beyond what David's saying, we were highly motivated to do so.

All right. So we're something called a B Corp. I don't know if that's the way we register our corporation where we get measured every year. It's not just profits. It's people, planet, and profits. So we have, like, this scoreboard that we look at. And a lot of it, of course, is being part of the community. So volunteering, we give people time off to volunteer. And we try to reduce our waste. All the socially responsible elements are all four. So if there's something we can do to help, we're happy to.

We brought Lely along. She's one of our greatest staff team. She should be up here, too. She'll be more often visible as well. Thank you. Love her dearly, and she got us here that we all met you guys. So I'm going to recognize that.

Yeah, if one day you were willing to open your doors for us to tour and check out your facility, we'd be more than happy to be. There's always a welcome. We'd love to give you a little. I'm there three times a week. Okay.

Knock on the door. We're there.

It sounds like if you have some leftovers during dinner time, you might be.

Around 4 o'clock, there's some leftovers.

Oh, okay. All right. It's a date. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, again, I'm glad to just hear that you're interested in really being part of our community and also embracing the diverse community that is Monterey Park, and especially your interest in mentoring the youth. I myself served on an elementary school board for 17 years, the Garvey School District, a K-8 school district, and you may or may not know that here in Monterey Park, We actually have four school districts, as well as across the street, a local Boys and Girls Club. And so perhaps we can put them in touch with the school districts as well as the Boys and Girls Club, especially if there are opportunities for mentoring or for students to take tours of your facility. We'd love that.

Yeah, as a fellow entrepreneur, thank you for being here and explaining your business to us. Are you guys open to the public where we can come and visit?

Because of the laws with food safety, we're not open to the public during regular hours. But if it's after the shift is down, we're allowed to bring people in. We just have to arrange it. It's just because of food safety laws. We just can't do it. It's hard during working hours. But if we arrange it properly, we can. We just have to.

We'll definitely be in touch to arrange a tour.

So we supply Trader Joe's. When you go to the Trader Joe's at the register, that's our product. So we do B2B sales, not really to consumers directly.

But for tours, it's no problem. We just have to arrange it. Yeah. We'd love to do it. It's fun for us.

Awesome.

But I was intimidated coming up here after the kids that were giving their speech, that one kid. I'm like, I don't want to go. I don't want to go now and talk. He was so eloquent. I'm like, I'm afraid. Intimidating.

Well, David and Ryan, thank you again for being here, not only promoting the city, but also elevating our city as a great ambassador. I mean, one of the things we talk about in the strategy session for the city as a whole is we want Mario Park to be the best place to live, the best place to work, and the best place to play. So that all encompasses us in the same vision. So thank you so much. On behalf of the city, I'd like to present you with a certificate of recognition and take a group picture up here. You're going to be great. Thank you.

Do you want to speak?

Just right here. Just right here in the front.

Lily, come on.

Thank you.

One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Beautiful. One more. One, two, three. Cool. Thank you.

Thank you.

share that Jessica Serrano, our Director of Community Development, has accepted a job in another entity, so we're super sad

to see her go, but we want to take a moment to thank her for her services to the Monterey Park over the last three years, or four years.

Started as the planning manager here in Monterey Park and was promoted to a department head. So Jessica has done a great job in working with our Community Development Department

and really has progressed that department forward. So I just want to take a moment to thank her again for her service.

Tonight is her last council meeting. Her last week is next week with us, but this is her last council meeting, so we wanted to take a moment to thank her.

You guys want to say something?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And Jessica, just a bittersweet moment, as the city manager mentioned. I want to wish you all the best. We're very sad to see you go.

Because of your leadership and with your leadership, we've accomplished a lot, I think, in the city.

Sad you're leaving in the middle of some big projects, but I know we'll carry on,

and you've got a great team going here that will continue a lot of that work.

I appreciate your leadership and your work to really revamp some of our processes, make it easier. We just appreciate one of our treasured businesses here in the city. your department and your leadership has been at the forefront of making it easier for businesses to start here and to grow and to thrive and really appreciate all the efforts that you

helped to lead and championed yourself and got across the finish line. Look forward to your leadership down the line. I know it's a small ecosystem.

Sini Sini offini offini offini

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offini offini offini don't be a stranger.

I just wanted to say two things, Jessica. First of all, thank you for all of your hard work in helping propel our city. I know, like Council Member Wong said, there's a lot of projects that we were able to accomplish in those last four years, and a lot of them were because of you. So we really are very saddened to see you go. And I think Council Member Goh said it best before. We know you'll be back. But anyhow, we also want to wish you well in your new endeavors and your new job. And I know that our paths will cross again, whether it's at NBC or at the Citadel. So we wish you well in your new job and in your capacity. And we hope that you will bring that same type of talent and dedication to where you're going next. So wish you all the luck.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor? Jessica, I just want to thank you for your dedication to our city. I know, especially for me, you know, serving now for five years, and certainly during those challenging times we've had from the pandemic to the recession and everything, and you were there sticking out for our city and doing what was best for our community, as many of the employees that we recognize tonight. But, you know, Jessica, you are an example of someone who comes from the community, is a product of the community, and someone who is dedicated to giving back. And you really are a role model for anyone who wishes to work in the public sector and public service.

Jessica, when we first met four years ago, I was still on the Business Improvement District Advisory Council in blink of an eye.

It's been four years.

so really acknowledge you for all the projects that you've accomplished in the last four years.

So much has been done under your leadership. We're really going to miss you, but like Council Member Juan said,

once you figure out the grass is not greener on the other side, you're welcome to come back.

Jessica, I can't believe it's been four years. We appreciate all the hard work you put in terms of streamlining the process to the department,

And I know there were a lot of steps taken to make it easier because we speak all the time.

Thank you for your service to the city, and thank you for your service to the community, not only in this city but the neighboring city.

Good luck. Best wishes. We will see you around because this is a family.

You're always a part of the family no matter where you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Just real quick, I want to thank the council for all of your support. Working with you has been a true pleasure.

I love Monterey Park, and although I may not be working here anymore, I won't be a stranger.

I'll still be shopping and dining here all the time. I'm here every weekend at least once a week.

So, you know, definitely we'll stay in touch, and it's been a pleasure working with the city team as well. Thank you, Inez, for your leadership and your guidance.

and I know the city has a bright future

with all of you leading the team here. So thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Library?

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council. My name's L.V. Frazier. I'm the senior children's librarian at the Monterey Park Bruggemeier Library. I'm here to update you on some awesome programs we have coming up this month. So tax season is in full swing, so I wanted to remind you guys about VITA Clinic. Individuals or families who qualify are invited to participate in the Chinatown Service Center's free volunteer income tax assistance or VITA Clinic. This program helps U.S. residents or green card holders prepare their 2024 federal and state income tax returns and is open to those who earn an income less than $67,000 a year. So sessions will be held Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays through May, and you can check eligibility requirements and register on Chinatown Service Center's website or the library website. Assistance is available in Chinese for our Vita Clinic as well.

And we have on the second Tuesday of the month our free legal assistance clinic. So volunteer attorneys will be on hand to answer questions at our free legal assistance clinic sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Asian Americans Advancing Justice SoCal. So attorneys are available to answer questions about immigration, criminal law, civil matters, estate planning, government benefits, labor and employment, and more. So there are still some spots left in next week's legal clinic. And to register or for more questions about the program, you can give us a call at our reference desk.

All right. So are you a budding writer or do you want to hear the works of emerging authors? then join Art Farm in the Friends Room on Saturday, March 29th at 2 p.m. for Words from a Field,

which is a public reading of works from their artist and writer's residency in Marquette, Nebraska. So there will be a Q&A session and refreshments after. And to learn more about Art Farm, you can visit their website at artfarmnebraska.org.

Next slide.

All right. Kids of all ages are invited to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid party on Wednesday, March 19th at 3.30 p.m. in the Storytime Room. So celebrate Greg Hefley, Rowley Jefferson, and more by playing games and making crafts based on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. And Children's is excited to launch a new monthly program, Toddler Art and Play. This program invites children ages 0 to 5 to explore their creativity through open-ended art activities and play. So join us for our first one on Friday, March 21st at 10 a.m. in the Storytime Room. Celebrate Women's History Month at the library. We have Women's History Month book displays both in our adult and children's areas and our teens area. We have book lists on our catalog for all ages. We also have a free streaming service, Canopy, with your library card, and they have an excellent collection of Women's History Month films and films directed by women.

And to continue our Women's History Month celebration, teens are invited to participate in a Women's History Kahoot Quiz

to learn more about famous women leaders and win prizes.

So this program, We Can Be Sheroes, will take place on Friday, March 21st

at 4.30 p.m. in the Friends Room.

And that's all from the library.

Murray, any questions?

No questions, but keep up the great work. I love seeing all the new activities month after month. Thank you. I just wanted to say, I saw on your Instagram that you were also sharing a lot of the librarians, including yourself, your picks. So thank you for sharing those. I think those are also kind of, it's always great to kind of get librarians' perspectives about what they're reading, what their favorite books are. Kind of reminds me of like Blockbuster back in the day. You see their videos and what the staff is reading or what their favorite picks are. So thank you for doing that as well and sharing those with the community. It really adds a familial touch to it. So thank you. Thank you.

Again, I'm just going to echo the sentiments of the council here. We really appreciate the library for all the work you've done. I was kind of going through some of the stuff. It's basically you've got it covered from toddler all the way to seniors. And for adults, you've got tax, you've got legal services all the way up. So thank you for all the good work.

Thank you.

Next up, a little competition, rec and community services.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Memo Chavez, Recreation Supervisor with the Recreation Department. Thank you for having me today to share a few updates with you. Next slide.

First, we want to thank the 200 participants who attended the Valentine's Day dance at the Langley Center. The event, held on February 14th, was a tremendous success bringing together participants for an enjoyable afternoon. Next slide. Today, the Langley Center, in partnership with CalFresh, hosted a nutrition education workshop. The workshop covered a variety of valuable topics, including budget-friendly eating tips, how to prepare healthy meals, and effective ways to incorporate exercise into daily routines. The session was well-received by participants and provided practical advice to support healthier lifestyles. In addition, Langley Center is excited to announce a continued partnership with Garfield Health Center to offer glucose and blood pressure screenings for our community. These screenings provide an opportunity for individuals to monitor their health and receive guidance on maintaining or improving their well-being. The next scheduled screening will be on March 13th. Next slide, please. A quick reminder to everyone, don't forget to share your suggestions for the Monterey Park Mural Project. The city wants your input on what should be incorporated into the Greetings from Monterey Park Postcard Mural. Visit greetingstour.com backslash vote to provide your ideas. You can choose up to five options from the provided list or even add your own creative suggestion. This is your chance to have a voice in shaping the mural that will represent the community.

The voting closes on March 17th, and I believe we're up to about 200 entries so far.

Next slide, please.

Actually, I'm sorry. Back up a slide. Thank you. The Langley Center will be hosting their monthly themed dance titled Bloom and Boogie Disco Party on March 27th at 1 p.m. This event is open to participants ages 50 and over and promises to be a fun-filled afternoon with great music, dancing, and lively socializing. Next slide, please. The annual Fine Arts event presented by the Boys and Girls Club in partnership with the City of Monterey Park will take place at the amphitheater on Thursday, March 20th at 5 p.m. The event will showcase an array of artwork created by participants of the Langley Center and local youth from the Boys and Girls Club celebrating their creative talents and artistic achievements. In addition to the art display, attendees will be treated to an exciting fashion show that highlights youthful creativity and style. This celebration of local talent is open to the public and free of charge. Next slide. The Cherry Blossom Committee and the City of Monterey Park are delighted to present the 25th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival on April 12th and 13th at Barnes Park. The event offers a unique cultural arts experience celebrating Japanese and Japanese-American culture. Enjoy traditional Japanese dancing, music performances, martial arts demonstrations, handmade crafts, and delicious Asian-inspired food. come out and support this vibrant event and bring learning, entertainment, and community support. Next slide. Other upcoming activities include the daycare spring break day camp from March 31st through April 4th for kids ages 5 through 12. There are still plenty of spots available if interested. The City of Monterey Park's Farmer's Market will begin on Thursday, April 3rd at Barnes Park from 4 to 9. and the aquatics division is looking for lifeguards. If interested, please contact the aquatics office at 626-307-1476. Next slide. And lastly, the spring egg hunt is scheduled for Thursday, April 17th, from 4 to 7 at Barnes Park. Over 20,000 eggs will be scattered throughout the field for kids to find. Attendees will also be able to enjoy free carnival games and special appearance from Peter Rabbit. it. The Langley Center will offer a trip to the Broad Museum on Thursday, April 24th. The trip is for participants ages 50 and over and is free of charge. Thank you, and I'm

open to any questions. You did not disappoint. Comments? No questions, just really appreciate all the work to continue to integrate art into public spaces and engage the wider community. I'm really looking forward to the Boys and Girls Club art show. I didn't know that was happening so put that on my calendar so that's at the amphitheater right yes

question me looking forward to that and many more and whatever we can do continue both the library and recreation parks to continue to encourage more art

and I know I think I saw a note about us redoing some of the utility box art projects and all that and refreshing some of those opportunities would be great too so really appreciate everything we're doing thank you same

here. Just want to echo. Great to see a lot of the... Actually, I just can't believe how quickly we're already back to Easter and the A-Con. I feel like it was just yesterday, but always very thankful as a parent that we're doing a lot of family-friendly events that bring out a lot of our community. So very appreciative of that. I know that it takes a lot of effort and a lot of work to put all of this together, and I know that it's not always just one department. So I want to make sure that we... because it's also employee... I want to thank all of our employees, but also make sure that we thank everyone for all of the effort that people bring together to make sure that these events happen. So looking forward to the Cherry Blossom Festival, looking forward to the Egg Hunt, 4,000 eggs. I think that's pretty amazing. I know my daughter, huh? 20,000. Even better. Okay. I thought I heard 4,000. All right. Very good. Even better. Thank you. Thank you. You know,

I think that, you know, really the programming

that you presented today. This is what Monty Park represents, you know, a multicultural community

that embraces all of everyone who lives here and all.

A lot of all celebrated the diversity of this community. community. community.

I just wanted to add that you're not just making an impact in Monterey Park, but you're impacting all the surrounding cities as well. For example, the egg hunt, people, families from other neighboring cities all come to Monterey Park to participate. So thank you for all the activities. Thank you.

And I see you didn't disappoint because you had so many ideas here going all the way to April. And the egg hunts, you got the toddlers, the three-year-olds, all the way to the high schoolers. Those will come by.

and then you got the disco and of course you got the Valentine's Day dance that was actually at the Langley Senior Center and health screen so you're covering all aspects of age group in our city which is the great diversity we have so again thank you Parks and Rec that's a little challenge to the library for the next month thank you thank you very much

Okay, moving on to the next item here, old business, none, consent, calendar items.

Any items?

I'd like to pull 3C for quick discussion and 3E for the presentation.

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, if I may just make a notation. On item 3D, for that item, the start date for the interim Director of Community Development is March 17th. So there's a few dates that were listed on the resolution and in the agreement that had today's date, because this is the Council meeting that we're hearing the item, but we'd like to know that we're going to adjust those dates to March 17th as the start date for that interim director of community development who's also in our audience Philip Lazzafame he is here but just wanted to make that note for

that item thank you which item we have public speakers for items 3 e 3 f 4 a 6 B and 6D. 3E. Okay, yeah. 3F. 3E and 3F.

3E and 3F, okay. Let's go ahead and take the speaker first.

First speaker, Mistress Transgender Queen.

Can you clarify, am I speaking on 3E or 3F? Which one am I speaking to? E, thank you. For the 3E is about the housing element. Well, every time, I mean, it's a little bit funny. I talk about my gender, I got attacked, and then I talk about a housing element.

I'm pretty sure I already know I will get attacked again, but again, I'm already used to that. No problem. 3E is about housing element. I understand for a fact that the city of Monterey Park, everybody hates homeless people. I know the majority of the city, 90% of the city population hates me because from time to time, as a homeless person on the street, when police sees me, they probably take me to jail. You know, when the resident sees me, they may call the 911. So I understand Monterey Park is similar to Alhambra, similar to Arcadia, similar to San Gabriel, similar to Covina, whatever nearby city. They do not, Monterey Park do not want to see the homeless presence in their community. But I do want to make sure to send a message to the city council that when every single city rejects the homeless population, when no city wants to build affordable housing, low-income housing, when we have nowhere to go, when no city wants to deal with us, the homeless crisis will only get bigger and bigger. until the moment that our city, our county, our state, we were all three entities are working with the same goal that how to address the homelessness hard on. But until that day occur, I can only believe that our housing in the city level will get worse and worse. That's from the homeless housing element. And then I want to talk about affordable housing element. So we just appreciate all of our amazing employees, and it looks pretty good. But I really want to know that how many of the Monterey Park employees can come here and say, hey, I own a house in the city of Monterey Park, and I live in Monterey Park, because probably minimum housing price in the Monterey Park is, I don't know, $1 million minimum? I'm not too sure. So that's not considered as affordable housing. That's not considered as an achievable American dream. Because we came to the city, probably I have the similar goal, similar dream to every single one of you, to have my American dream, to have a house, you know, to live in the city where I can work, I think, but I believe. But I would like to make an assumption that majority of the Monterey Park employee, they have to live somewhere, I don't know, 20, 30 miles away. they cannot afford to live inside of the city of Monterey Park. So that's the affordable housing element. So even though on the street I definitely receive a lot of attack, but I just want to send a message to the Monterey Park community. Not every homeless person are drug addict. Not every homeless person are rapists. Not every homeless person are, I don't know, criminal, gangbangers,

or theft, robber, not every homeless are like that. They are law-abiding homeless. They are peaceful homeless. They are nice homeless.

So I hope, I want to send a message to our Monterey Park community that it doesn't mean that I live on the bench. It doesn't mean I have a hole on my shoes. It doesn't mean sometimes I have a ripped-out shirt. that means I'm a criminal. You have to call 911 because that's a stereotype. So I just want to send a message that they are good homeless. They are good ones, and I want to be the good ones. Thank you for your time.

Next speaker, Fred.

Good evening, Monterey Park. As many of you have realized that it's beyond a crisis when it comes to housing and how we achieve housing elements. Now on the basis of who we are or what we are as a race or a nation, especially here in California, we're finding out that the issue of discrimination is not on the basis of how much money you make or how many millions of dollars your home is worth.

but it's based on funds that are set aside for humanitarian progress.

Now, what the fuck does that mean in plain English, right?

Well, that progress is, have we determined by pointing the finger at ourselves as a problem to the homeless crisis? Have we not determined that by building, as I heard earlier, affordable housing, which is unbelievable, unachievable, and it merits no action? because we found out currently and recently that the population of homeless people are not just your service people.

It's the people that you see on a daily basis in the community.

And for whatever reason, God-fearing people that you are or want to believe you are,

we're finding out there's a hypocrisy in our government, which is the local enemy of this element of housing.

Because you have basically created a gentrification where our youth,

your children, our future will be competing for that million dollar home.

and the majority will all be living in the slums or the ghettos that you've created.

And it's shameful. And how did it all start? It started in the second greatest city in the state of California, Los Angeles.

When they began building downtown Los Angeles

and removing people from their rent-controlled homes in downtown Los Angeles

to create a vibrant new look, aesthetically,

for everyone to gosh about, right? Look how beautiful our city is. No, your beautiful city smells and looks like shit, L.A.

and it's time that local government gain control of the crisis that every mayor, every council member

has put together a plan and this plan is

we have it, you don't attitude

because if the solution was there why will we be building

affordable housing for $3,000 to $4,000 as rentals? Why would affordable condos for $5,000, $7,000 in downtown areas be so affordable at that price?

So you have to question yourself. Am I contributing or have I become the enemy of the people?

Matter of fact, earlier I could have swore someone said I was the enemy. The enemy because I simply exercised my first amendment, which someone said it was hate speech. The only hate speech in this arena tonight and in every city and every growing city is that we have a crisis of homelessness. So if you're going to build infrastructure that's unaffordable, not sustainable, then you will always have this eyesore, this patch that you wear on your clothing when you wake up in the morning and point your finger at every homeless person wishing they were dead.

For God's sake.

Really, Mr. Sanchez? Do something about it. Education? Education? No. Listen to the history of how government fucked up. Thank you.

No other speakers.

Mr. Mayor, I'm happy to move the remaining items on consent. Oh, there's one more. Let's get the speaker.

For item 3F, Mistress Chen's gender queen.

I'm seeing a lot of windstorm, wildfire on the news recently, and I saw this one on this item, so I do have some comments. So what I learned for what happened in the city of LA is that the city was not prepared. So I want to make sure our Monterrey Park City Council can learn something from that evidence. The LA firefighter, you know, until they had a wildfire, they realized their fire hydrants are not working. Until there's a fire, a thousand homes are burned down, they realize, oh, okay, our water reservoirs are empty. until thousands of people lost their home, they realized that, oh, okay, our fire truck needs maintenance. We cannot drive our fire truck anymore. So all of those, they didn't do any of those. And then right now, they realize, oh, okay, so when the real emergency occurred, we are not prepared for the city. So my message to our city council is that I believe and I hope we have already done that, that we need to make sure that it doesn't matter if it's our fire truck or fire equipment,

police officer, police car, whatever that may be,

we have to make sure those things are being inspected on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis. So the next time, just like in 2023, hopefully in the future,

when we have another mass shooting event, we are fully ready. So in the future, we have a wildfire event. fully ready. So in the future we have whatever sort of emergency, we are fully ready. So we don't have to be something like a city of LA. We don't have this, we don't have that, we don't have...

We don't have those, you know, whenever emergency occurred. So my message are short and clear. So I wish that our city of Monterey Park, doesn't matter is police, doesn't matter is fire, we can be better prepared before the emergency occurred, before the disaster occurred. Thank you. No other speakers. Mr. Mayor, I'm happy to move the remaining consent calendar items that were not pulled. Second. Okay. Moved by Council Member Wang.

and second by Council Member Lowe. Let's take a vote. Approved unanimously. Okay.

3E, short discussion.

Who's...

I don't need a staff report for this. I just have quick questions, if that's okay. Thank you, Martha, the staff, for putting this item together and appreciate the work that the staff do to help get return people's money back to them. My question is, I know we post this and it's part of the requirement to post in a local newspaper, right, the unclaimed property monies, right? Most of these sound like they're refunds or overpayments or other kind of things. It doesn't amount to a whole lot of money that we're sheeting back to the city of Monterey Park. But I'm wondering if we, I don't know if we do, I don't think we do post these in the Cascades or any information on residents being able to claim potential unclaimed money in the Cascades or other avenues, or have we explored any of those other channels to potentially get the word out?

We don't post it in the Cascades. It gets posted in the Monterey Park Progress newspaper.

I'm really leading to the point where maybe we can start to post this periodically throughout the year, even if it's a small announcement, if there are other opportunities to do that, and also maybe combine this with the state's unclean property program through the state controller's office that has state unclean property to just encourage people to check their name and address and all that stuff for potential money that is theirs, not owed to them, being held either by the city or the state that they should just take advantage of and periodically be checking because people move and checks get lost or sent the wrong address. In some cases, when I worked for the State Control's Office previously, people had thousands of dollars out there that the state was holding on to or other government entities. It would be great to just highlight this a little bit more for awareness for

community members. We can definitely look into that and work on providing more outreach of these checks and claim checks?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, if I may suggest, if the council is interested in us to post in the Cascades, we can

definitely do that. What we would request is that the council allow us then opportunity a window of time to post it and then if nobody responds within, let's say, I'm going to guess because we have to make a timing deadline for the Cascades when we get our goals in. We'll probably need like a 60-day window. By the time we put it in the Cascades and then give people an opportunity to respond, probably need about 60 days or so for us then to give them that grace period. And then if we don't hear back, then, you know, we continue on with the item.

Yeah, I'll leave the timing to staff to determine, but if we can help promote this program internally that the city runs in terms of trying to return property. I know we do direct outreach to whatever contact information we have for the owner of the property or the money, but if we can also maybe promote the state's program on a clean property too, and we think the state's holding like $9 billion worth of money that belongs to California residents, and that pot continues to grow, and if we can help promote getting people's money back to them, I think it would be great. With that, I'm happy to move this item, make the motion to approve item 3C. We have a motion. Do you have a second?

Second.

Second by Pro Tem Yang. Let's take a vote.

Take a vote again. Hold on one second. Okay.

No, I think we have to reset it.

the light's not coming up

approved unanimously

that was a little technical glitch item 3E short discussion I would like the presentation

We have to make Jessica work before she leaves.

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

I'm here together with Eliana Munoz, our senior planner, who will be presenting.

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

The item before you this evening is the Monterey Park General Plan and Housing Element Annual Report, which covers calendar year 2024.

The purpose for this report is to comply with various government requirements related to the general plan implementation and housing production.

The deadline to submit our report to the state is April 1st.

On this slide is a list of the elements contained within our general plan. We have nine different elements.

On this slide, I will go over the land use and economic development elements.

In 2024, the priority was to address inconsistencies within the land use element and the zoning code. To achieve this, in 2024, staff together with the city attorney's office brought forward zoning ordinances that I will detail later under the housing element slide. In 2025, the city will continue to implement the Our City, Our Plan effort, which was a campaign to make changes to zoning and update the city's municipal code.

Next is the economic development element. In August of 2024, City Council approved the Economic Development Strategic Plan.

In 2024, the city also hosted several events, such as the launch of the Monterey Park Business Alliance and a small business expo.

And lastly, very proud to have been awarded the 2024 Most Business-Friendly City by the LA County Economic Development Corporation.

Next is the circulation element. The element addresses both local and regional circulation in the city. In 2024, the city resurfaced 7.8 miles of streets and slurry sealed another 4.5 miles. And the city also completed its evaluation of the Spirit Bus Transportation Program. Next is the housing element. The housing element outlines existing and proposed housing programs and amendments that are needed to meet the statutory requirements and the city's regional housing needs, also known as RENA, or RENA allocation. During the 2024 calendar year, 45 units were constructed. Two were for single-family homes, three for attached units, and 40 for ADUs. Here, a detailed summary of those units were provided in the tables as attachments to the staff report. Here, and for the record, staff would like to point out that our team identified some discrepancies in the tables. Before submitting the report, though, to the state, staff will ensure that we review thoroughly and verify that all of the data is accurate. As mentioned earlier, in 2024, the city also adopted ordinances related to residential density standards, parking requirements related to multifamily housing developments, emergency shelter regulations, and supportive housing regulations.

The next element is the safety and community services element. The element addresses protecting the community from unreasonable risks related to disasters or earthquakes, fires, floods, and landslides. One of the efforts the city engaged in implementing this element was leading a CERT training. The latest required element within the general plan is the environmental justice element. Through 2024, the city promoted and provided the public opportunities with civic engagement, including workshops.

Some of the efforts that promoted community participation included community input sessions for the Economic Development Strategic Plan,

engagement workshops to discuss ballot measures and the city's fiscal health, and open house meetings for the parks master plan.

the other elements that were included in the general plan are resources healthy community

and sustainable sustainable community elements in implementing the resource element in 2024

the city installed five new playgrounds in our parks and also started work on the city's first

park system master plan under the healthy community element the past this past year the

The MPK Home Resiliency Center also found a permanent home in a commercial tenant space within the city, among other things that we did under the Healthy Community Element.

And finally, under the Sustainable Community Element, in April of 2024, a plan to help the city and its residents be resilient to climate change culminated in the city's new sustainability plan through the Going Green program.

This concludes my presentation and at this time, staff recommends that council receive and file the 2024 General Plan and Housing Element APR direct staff to forward a copy of this report to OPR and HCD before April 1st, 2025 and take such additional related action that may be desirable. And we are available for

any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, if it's okay. I don't have a lot of questions. I want to commend staff and appreciate the update. I know this is a required annual report for the city, and it shows progress in a lot of areas. I think the main number, right, in terms of housing units built and permitted and built in the city, while we know there's a lot in the pipeline, We know it takes a long time for especially larger developments to get through the pipeline and open. I would just note right on a personal basis, just in the last few years, other than the holiday inn development, the 84 units or so, I think, of housing there, we've really only seen much of the new housing units in the city the last few years has been ADUs. Is that correct characterization, by and large, other than that development opening?

Yes, Council Member Wong. That's correct. That's been the bulk of the new construction for housing units.

And are we seeing, I know we've, I think we're seeing like 40 to 60 ADUs every year, the last couple of years that are coming online. Are we seeing, how's the pipeline looking in terms of ADUs? Is that continuing to grow or is that kind of stable?

It's staying stable. It's about the same 40 to 60 on an annual basis.

and then do we I mean I know there in the report there's a pipeline of housing units proposed in the city although just because it's proposed I mean it's actually coming and I would note that the proposed units in this report from what I can tell where I include the Celadon project and then the project on the south southeast corner of Garvey and Atlantic proposed it looks like there's 360 something units there potentially but that both those products are still a long ways away from being actualized. Is that an accurate characterization?

Yes.

I know we are looking at a lot of other things we can do to help continue to promote development in the city building more housing units I think to the point of one of the earlier public comments. The need for rural housing as well in the city and market rate housing even in the city as noted in our RHNA numbers is very high and we have I don't think we're any different than most other communities that have RHNA targets as well not coming anywhere close to those goals. Is that a proper characterization?

Yes. It's a struggle for many cities to hit those really high housing goals.

So, I mean, the report is the report. I appreciate the work that was put into this, understanding we will change some typos, I guess, in the report before we send this off to the state. But I wanted to highlight this, one, in that I know that we, the council, the staff, the city, are working very, very diligently to work towards meeting our arena numbers and our housing goals in the city and to help meet our portion of the state's goals to address the housing and homelessness crisis and affordability crisis, knowing that there are enormous challenges to get there, but wanted to also encourage us, whatever else we can do, if there are other innovative things or programs that we should explore to consider adopting here in the city, I want to urge staff and note from the council perspective that I would love to explore any other tool or resource that can be at our disposal to get these Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini Sini

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I have a follow-up question. Actually, I'm kind of curious because, again, I know that, you know, we have seen an uptick in ADU development.

I'm curious what kind of ADU development types. Are they, like, additions to an existing building, or are they a conversion, like a garage conversion? I'm kind of curious if we know what has been the breakdown of ADU development in the city?

The most typical would be garage conversions because those are the most affordable, you know, it's an existing structure that they convert into a new unit. But we're also seeing additions to those garages or homes, and we're also seeing new freestanding ADUs as well, like detached from the main unit.

And I'm curious, I think I may have asked before, but would it make the process more expedient, for example, if we adopt a set of designs for certain types of ADUs to expedite plan checking? You know, again, as my colleague has said, you know, I mean, there is urgency to just see how we can grow the housing supply.

And I know that the ADU legislation that was passed by the state, you know, it is to try and spur that development.

But I'm just curious, would that be helpful if we were to try and streamline by also adopting common plans?

Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. Last year we did start an ADU prototype program where we solicited designs. They're basically standard plans for ADUs from drafts people, architects. We have seven currently in our plan check process that are in the process of getting pre-approvals. And then once those are pre-approved, the intention is that our team will go out into the community and spread the word about these pre-approved plans. We're going to put them on our website as pre-approved plans. They'll be able to utilize those plans, and basically they'll need to develop a site plan, and then they can attach that plan to their site plan, and it's already pre-approved. So it'll streamline the process. It'll be approved faster.

Okay, good to know. Okay, thank you.

Off of that, I don't know if you have an answer to this, But once those pre-approved designs and plans for ADUs, do we have any idea how much time that would shame off? Is that like a cut the time in half in terms of approval? Or I'm just curious if there's any kind of metric there. Well, state law does have some provisions that require streamlining for plans that are utilizing or for projects that utilize those pre-approved plans. So by law, we have to streamline. I believe it's 10 days. Don't quote me, though, but it is a shorter turnaround time for those plans.

Jessica, I have a question.

Off of what Henry, Council Member Lowe said, do we have a timeline in terms of when we think those seven plans you talked about would be ready and we would be ready to share those with the community?

I think you can anticipate April would be a rough time frame.

Right now, currently, as we speak, they're in plan check.

We gave them comments, and then they resubmitted. So those are still pending approval, but once they're ready, then we'll be able to share them with the community.

Oh, that's great news. Thank you.

And I know I think we're already teeing this up, but there's part of this general plan update to the state includes our sustainability element.

Looking to see if we can tee up an update on our sustainability plan since I think next month will be a year since we've adopted that. Just to see where we're at and check in and see what other progress we can continue to make on the sustainability plan.

But with that, I'm happy to make a motion unless someone else wants to do it

to adopt the receiving file this plan to make sure we can file this with the state on time.

Motion by Council Member Wong. Who's a second?

Second.

Pro Tem Yang.

Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. That takes us to the agenda items.

Now we are at public hearing 4A.

So I'm going to recuse myself here, and pro tem you're going to kind of take over this discussion.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and open up the public hearing for item 4A, which is the first item on the agenda. Is there a public comment?

One speaker, Mistress transgender queen.

Small business assistance program. This one, I have some concern because immediately after the summer of 2020, I think the small business are facing enormous challenges.

not from the government side, but from the street side. Because many, many times across the county, actually across the nation, I have seen on the news on a regular basis that this small store getting looted,

and then the police arrest them. The second day, they release them, get back to the street, and the next week, guess what? but they show up to the same small business and did whatever crime again. And then the police arrest them, and then they release them, get back to the street. It's a dead cycle over and over again.

It's a nonstop. And then recently there are some worst of worst news that occurred in our neighboring city, not in our Monterey Park, but I have to make sure that I'm pretty sure that our Monterey Park are facing the similar challenges that the city of San Gabriel and the city of Rosemead, several of their taco vendor, taco truck, whatever, they were gunpoint. They were gunpoint, and then basically all of their couple hundred dollars of cash robbed. They called the cops.

The police arrived like 15 minutes later, and then when they arrived there,

the criminals are long gone already. So I think the city supports the small business, and I did hear some sort of small business presentation comments earlier in the meeting.

But I do wish that our city can address the crime side of the small business. When the small business encounter a gunpoint, when they have to call 911,

when the 911 arrive five minutes later, I think that's a little bit too late.

And at the same time, I also encourage our city leaders to propose to the state level,

we have some harsh punishment so we can make sure those people who harm the small business that they do not come back again. Because under the current system is that I can go to a 7-Eleven, rob a store, and nobody can arrest me. And I can just go to steal something, shoplifting, and the police cannot do much about it. So if our city can make sure the criminal understands there's a consequence behind it, And then when the criminal really experienced the real consequence, so that will prevent them from coming back and hurting the business again. But at this moment, I don't see there's punishment for the crime that is hurting small business. So that's it. Thank you.

No other speakers. Thank you. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing and staff report.

Good evening, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and members of the City Council. I'm Jessica Serrano, Community Development Director, and I'm here together with Joe Torres, our Economic Development Manager, who will be making the presentation tonight.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and City Council members. Tonight, I am pleased to present the City of Monterey Park's new Small Business Assistance Program, or SBAP, for your adoption and approval. But before I begin, I'd like to point out to the City Council that there has been a revision for a couple of documents. On the resolution, reference to application forms were removed, and on Exhibit A, reference to matching funds requirement was also removed. Redline copies of those documents were provided to the City Council. Next slide, please. The SBAP program is designed to achieve five key goals for our community. To foster entrepreneurship, to promote existing business retention, to stimulate overall economic growth, to enhance business accessibility, and to improve community aesthetics. Next slide, please. This program will provide forgivable loans ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to eligible restaurants and retail businesses within Monterey Park. The loan is fully forgiven if the business remains operational in Monterey Park for three years. In the event a business leaves Monterey Park or closes within that three-year period, a three-year repayment term with a 1% fixed interest rate will apply. The Chinatown Service Center, pending City Council's approval, will administer the program, dispersing funds on a reimbursement basis, meaning businesses will complete their projects first. SBAP is funded through an initial allocation of $200,000 from Community Development Block Grants, or CDBG. This amount covers both the loans to businesses and the program administration fee. Next slide, please. Eligible expenses under the program include, but are not limited to, job creation and retention, such as payroll assistance and employee upskill training. Equipment and building improvements, including, but not limited to, major built-in kitchen equipment, dining room enhancements, and improvements to electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, and seating. Permanent Interior and Exterior Improvements, and Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, compliance upgrades. Next slide, please. General eligibility requirements include retail and food service businesses operating in good standing with all necessary permits and a valid Monterey Park business license with annual gross revenues not exceeding $1 million. Home-based businesses and those not meeting CDBG requirements are excluded. Specific requirements are as follows. Existing small businesses must have been in operation before January 1, 2023,

and demonstrate financial hardship or a decrease in sales over the past two years with required documentation.

Entrepreneurial startups, on the other hand, those in operation on or after January 1st, 2023, are not required to demonstrate financial hardship. Next slide, please. The Chinatown Service Center, again pending City Council approval, will be responsible for program marketing and outreach, application processing and technical assistance, reimbursement management, monitoring and reporting, ensuring CDBG compliance. The City of Monterey Park will oversee auditing and reviewing the program, tracking program performance measures, and supporting program marketing and promotion efforts. Next slide, please.

Staff recommend the City Council take the following actions. Open, conduct, and close a public hearing.

Approve the implementation of SBAP with the initial $200,000 CDBG allocation, with 20% of the funds dispersed to businesses allocated to program administration. And, subject to funding availability, authorize the ability to allocate additional funds. adopt a resolution to establish policies and procedures for distributing CDBG funds to qualified expenses and businesses participating in the SBAP, ensuring CDBG compliance, and of course, to take any other related actions deemed necessary. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council Members. A Chinatown Service Center representative, John Lin, is here, and we're both happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Mr. Torres, any comments or questions?

No real questions. I'm just really excited that we're getting this program kicked off. I know it's been a long time coming, and the council set aside the funding for a program like this in the last budget. We're looking forward to us kicking off.

My quick question, I guess, is if the council approves this moving forward tonight, when will CSC be able to begin their program and outreach to businesses that

might be in need in the city so tentatively we're looking at between April 1st to April 15th in between that I expect to do about two to four drafts between us and the economic Signing off the team. Great.

Now I'm looking forward to it and look forward and look forward back back some I know I know I know I know I know know know I I the

äus We can have that feed into our discussion around the budget going into next fiscal year, which starts July 1st. I'd love for us to be oversubscribed as we launch this program, and I know that there's a lot of need in the community and in the business community in particular, and there are a lot of businesses that just need a little bit of help to help them really get to the next level of being able to thrive and succeed in our city and would love to be able to provide this out. and I know this is one of the big takeaways that came out of our economic and strategic plan that we adopted last year as well,

among many other programs that I know Joe and the team are working very, very hard on to make progress on. I know we're going to do some hiccups on how to shape

and make sure this program worked and can work for our community. So really just excited about this and looking forward to seeing this hopefully succeed. Hopefully there's a lot of uptake on this quickly, And I know CSC is a trusted partner. The city is long partnered with Child Health Service Center on a whole host of issues. And I know you guys have a very robust small business and business engagement and support program already in other parts of the region that you serve. And so really welcome CSC and its services here in the business community alongside the health services and other services that you already provide to many residents and businesses in our community. So I appreciate staff bringing it to this point and getting this to us. I'm happy to support this and look forward to the program launching. Yes, I also share in the excitement in seeing this launch. I think this is a great opportunity for us to, and it also highlights why we got the small business, you know, that's friendly city. But anyhow, it also is very excited to see which businesses participate and get grants when possible and when we are ready. If we are also able to highlight any of the businesses that get grant funding and be able to share in their excitement and see what types of developments they were able to do in their businesses. We can coordinate a lot of those, whether it's in the form of a ribbon cutting or even just going out there and highlighting what they're doing. It's great to be able to partner and share that excitement as a city, but also with CSE, who's already been an amazing partner for our city. So really excited to see this kick off and see what type of businesses we get to participate in our program. So as we start issuing those grants, love to see just how they're using them, and if we can, like I said, highlight their businesses as well, maybe through our meet-up with the mayors or any of our other highlights as well.

Thank you. Madam Mayor? Yes. Joseph, I'm kind of curious. Give us an example that every year we appropriate a budget to the BDAC in downtown. Is there any way in which this program, should we approve it with CSE? Again, thank you, CSC, for the partnership. But is there any way in which what would be also appropriate for our downtown with a BDAC, is there any way that it can be leveraged with this program that is before us tonight?

This program is funded by CDBG Funds, and this is a citywide program that includes all restaurants and retail businesses.

Right, but I'm saying, but because we also have a BDAC and they have a budget, and I'm just saying is there any way in which it could be complementary or it could be used to leverage what is also, in other words, the businesses and the BIDAC that are in downtown, and again, because we often hear comments from residents about how do we make the downtown a more vibrant place, I'm just curious, is there a way in which they can also be, what we already spend with the BIDB also leverage with this program that's being proposed before us?

Councilmember Lowe, if I may, I just want to make sure that I clarify I think I understand

so, correct, our bid act businesses in the business improvement district, they do pay an assessment and that funding is collected and so I think what I'm hearing you suggest is if there's funds available through the bid act, could that funding be available to help this program as well. Is that correct? Okay, okay. So I think that's something that we can definitely look at. The bid assessment is usually, it's a smaller budget, but we can take a look to see what is available and to see if that's something that, if the council is interested in making that part of the budget, then we can definitely take a look. Okay, yeah.

Just to harp on what Councilman Rouleau was saying, too, I understand, very much understand the bid budget and the assessment results in a relatively small pot of money, and some of that's already dedicated to existing programs and cleanup and the cleaning services there for downtown Mallory Park. And there's not a lot left over. One, I want to encourage, and we have a former BIDAC chair here who has a small business in the area, and we're veering off of this specific topic for CSC, but whatever we can do, I want to continue to encourage the BIDAC and our Economic Development Advisory Commission and our team here on staff as well to encourage all the stakeholders to be innovative with resources. And if there is a need for resources that the city can provide to BIDAC for potential programs as well, I'm very open as a council member to, if they have ideas that they don't have funding for out of the BIDAC funds, if it's a good idea and will help our businesses, whether through this program or potentially other general fund monies that we want to set aside as we go into budget, I'm very open to that, and I would love to entertain ideas from BIDAC and EDAC and others.

I think this is a great program. Thank you for the comprehensive report. I think it's going to help a lot of small businesses in our city. Two questions. Can you go to the previous slide?

this yeah the eligibility so eligibility for entrepreneur startups does that mean that they can start up a business today and still qualify is there a timing where they have to have already

been operating in business for let me answer that question mayor pro tem for entrepreneurial neural startups, those should be the businesses that are in operation or after January 1st, 2023. So technically a business can deChinatown-International Districte to open today or tomorrow and they would still be able to apply for the SBAP program. Of course, they have to meet the CDBG

requirements as well. Got it. Okay, but no requirement to demonstrate

financial hardship. No requirements to demonstrate financial hardship.

Got it. And then my second question is, how do you guys plan to communicate this to our city's businesses?

Well, we're going to partner with Chinatown Service Center. John is going to be the project manager, and they are going to lead the communication outreach for the most part, and the city will support them in that process.

Great. Since I've been on BDAC, I know there's some BDAC mailing funds,

so maybe you can use the BDAC mailing fence to mail the notice out to BDAC businesses so that they get that mailed notice.

Absolutely. We're going to explore all available channels to promote this program.

Great, great. All right. Actually, I do have a follow-up question. Again, a suggestion because I know maybe a few counseling meetings ago, you know, just what we talked about again using social media. And again, given that this program has a lot of potential, So, again, perhaps I would also suggest, you know, looking at perhaps looking at using Meta on a targeted digital ad marketing campaign, especially if we are trying to target certain commercial corridors in certain parts of the city. Again, you know, I would suggest perhaps looking at ways in which we can, in a very affordable way, also use marketing tools, marketing digital tools that, again, that Meta provides.

Definitely.

We are going to explore all those available tools, and I know that John is very high-tech when it comes to community outreach. They've been doing it for a long time, and that's one of the reasons why we wanted to partner with Chinatown Service Center is because they're very well-known in the community.

They have the reputation. They have the credibility, and I think a partnership with them and the city would really make a tremendous impact.

Yeah, and I know the city already does a great job of this, but since many of our businesses are multilingual, providing the notices in all the different languages.

Absolutely, and that's where China Science Service Center's ability to communicate in both Cantonese and Mandarin would really be a huge asset for us.

Any other comments? Oh, yes.

And our team will help provide the translation so that all the marketing material going out is in English and in Chinese.

And Spanish as well. We're not going to forget Spanish.

Okay. Any motion?

I'd have to make the motion to adopt Zafra Windation.

A second? A second. All right. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. I will bring back. Bring Vin.

Is Vin listening to us?

Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Moving along. New business. None.

We're going to go with the resolutions. Resolution 6B.

Council Member Wong. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 6B is a resolution declaring and recognizing the month of March 2025 is American Red Cross Month. We adopted the same resolution last year.

Oh, sorry. Public comment. Public comments? If there is any.

First speaker, Frederick Douglass.

We'll keep this brief. The American Red Cross does an excellent job.

They've been doing it for years, just like the fire department has been doing their job for years.

And just like the nurses in California, they've been doing this for years.

but exceptionally the Red Cross is there to benefit those who come into the situation of a crisis

or a particular issue, for example, was this current fire, the Eaton fire and the Palisades fire.

So let's not forget their contribution in what they do and how they represent the American people. Thank you.

No other speakers?

Okay.

So item 6B of resolution declaring and recognizing March 2025 as American Red Cross Month. I'd ask my fellow council members to adopt this resolution in recognition of the amazing work that the Red Cross does. They came to support us in our time of need here in Mari Park two years ago plus. and as the public commenter noted as well, the recent fires that impacted the entire region, they continue to show up in the wake of disasters to help in emergency response and to help bring the community together and to provide necessary critical services for so many in need. So we really appreciate the American Red Cross, all that they do to help with both preparedness efforts and also emergency response. I think it'd be great to be able to continue to recognize them during this month and I'll make the motion if I have a comment actually I have a question

I'm happy to support the resolution but I'm kind of curious when was the last time the Red Cross did a blood drive in our city or is it an opportunity for us to invite the Red Cross to do a blood drive in the city? Mr. Mayor, members of

the council usually our American Red Cross works with our fire department I'm I'm going to say usually they host it probably about twice a year. I think the last one I want to say was in

the fall, the fall time. I don't remember the exact date, but yes. And so there'll probably another one, maybe like summer or so. But yes, so occasionally we do work with American Red Cross and our fire department coordinates blood drives. Great. Yes.

We have a motion by Council Member Wong.

I'll second it.

Second by Council Member Lowe. Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. 6C, Council Member Sanchez.

Yes. So if you listened to the library's report earlier,

it seems like it's National Read Across America Week in Monterey Park every week.

So I'm not sure if we necessarily need a resolution, but I did want to highlight that the National Education Association, of which I'm a member of, started the Read Across America about 1998.

and since 1998 has hosted and has helped promote reading and reading awareness throughout

National National National Read Across America Week here in Monterey Park, but also given so much, and we've talked about this before, here in these council chambers before but given a lot of the censorship that's been happening throughout the country with a lot of our diverse books and that are based on themes like LGBTQ plus or other or other groups so want to make sure that we highlight this and that we continue to show our community that Monterey Park supports our library, supports reading, and also access to all books. Okay, so I'd like to support and make a motion to approve this resolution, if the council would.

Thank you. Council Member Sanchez, is there a second?

I'll second.

Second by Pro Tem Yang. Take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Okay.

6-D. Council Member Sanchez, you want to start with that first?

Yes. We have two comments.

First speaker, Mistress Transgender Queen.

Recognizing the Women's History Month. Yes. It will be a long fight for me. And I'm assuming until the moment I die, I still cannot win this fight. But that's okay. I'm already prepared.

So recently, the city of Los Angeles included the LGBT in the Women's History Month. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, they had the pride flag in there.

In our school, we have a dedicated pride center to provide emotional support or any sort of education assistance for people who identify as LGBT. So I understand for Monterey Park to recognize us is probably I have to wait another, I don't know, several decades, but that's all right. I want to reflect on the past in the civil rights history in the United States. I have limited United States history knowledge since I'm still a little bit new to this country, but I still remember that Martin Luther King had to fight for their civil rights, and then unfortunately he has to get killed for that in order to fight for his civil rights. Cesar Chavez, he has to fight, march, fastening many, many years and decades of fight for the equal rights for the farmers. And then right now, the farmers are still struggling. The fight continues even to this day. So for the women's rights, and particularly biological women and transgender women's rights, My neighbor do not recognize me. Actually, my former neighbor do not recognize me. It took our school three years to recognize me. Sometimes I'm on the street, I'm on the bus. People do not recognize me. Or sometimes I interact in a store. I interact with an office member. If I can identify I'm a female, they say, why? How come? or something. That's literally the most, most scary question for me. Why you are a woman? So nothing scared me more than that question, but that's okay. But I do believe that the county has put a lot of effort. Our Attorney General, Rob Bonta, has put a lot of effort in there.

before the student athletes are not able to compete in the female division. But right now, Attorney General Bonta made it happen.

Before, a lot of other transgender folks, they do not have access to gender-neutral bathroom. But right now, City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, in their government building, they have that option.

So right now, I do see they are still alive at the end of the tunnel.

It's still far away, but again, I just want to inform the city council that maybe I will continue to receive attack from the member of the public. Maybe I will continue to receive attack from the city official or whatever, but I will not give up.

Just like Martin Luther King did, just like Cesar Chavez did, it is a long fight.

Probably there will never be an end to it, but I will just continue to voice, to stand up for our LGBT community. Thank you for your time.

Next speaker, Frederick Douglass.

In 1890, the first Native American graduate at Hartford, Nancy Cornelius, was the first woman RN.

Now, what's significant about this history of the Native Americans of our great country?

while we find out that they contribute to America's horrible dreams. When those 13 colonies swept across the United States, taking my Native American people off our lands

and putting us in the first concentration camps. But under that hardship, we had the first RN.

Native American. And we should be thankful to all women. Who motivate. Push.

And make us rethink our ideas like. Is it Leonor Roosevelt? I believe. She stuck with her man. Despite his disability.

and she motivated him to become a great president the way I hope someday some of you as councilmen will listen to your women or your men

whether they're gender, gay or homosexual, gay it doesn't matter

the point is, I'm trying to say is that the reason why we come into this world because God created a woman. And that woman gave us life. And that woman put in our mind how to be good abiding citizens. Because it's always been the structure that the woman of the house also wore the pants of the house. But in my house, I am God. And there is no woman except God.

And so when we consider what women do in history,

we have to consider what they've done in the past.

They pushed us through the thresholds of troubled times.

And if we don't believe it, then we're lost in our time.

Now for others, it is,

They believe that God sent Mary to become the mother of God. No, God put his son in Mary to become a God.

And to exploit the world's criminal, destructive madness.

And I hope and wish that many of you today, whether you're gay, lesbian, homosexual, faggot, queer, or a woman, understand that God loves you.

because I came from a woman,

a lovely woman who was an RN at Martin Luther King and did her time at County USC.

And so I can understand from a woman's point of view the role that a woman takes, whether her man is good or bad, such for example the badness and Mary Nuri Martinez from Los Angeles who made racist remarks about black children that's a negative

but if we look at all the other women who've done good

and you created two negatives into a positive and made a difference in our lives to push us to this point then we have accomplished one thing and that's right. That God loves you. God loves our women. And so do I. Thank you.

No other speakers.

So I wanted to bring forward a resolution commemorating March. as Women's History Month. And I know that we, this is the same resolution we brought forth last year. I wanted to highlight a couple of things from this resolution, particularly to highlight that we have item J, currently Elizabeth Yang and Michelle Yee and Amy Lee, who are, I wanted to highlight them, who are elected officials and are women here. Wanted to thank them for their public service. but I know there's a lot of women in this room here who within their own capacity are leaders either in departments or just helping us with our city. So I wanted to thank you and take a moment to thank you for all that you do. I've shared this with Inez multiple times. It's very great to have a woman who's a city manager and assistant city manager as well, which is not something that you see very common in cities. So thank you guys for breaking barriers within your own fields and within your own capacities, but also wanted to acknowledge a lot of the other, in the past, trailblazers, elected officials in the city who have helped open those doors for a lot of the women here who are here today, including Betty Tomchoo, our very own Congresswoman Judy Chu, and Teresa Amador. So I want to make sure that we not just commemorate Women's History Month this month, but that we continue to honor women all the time. As a parent of three young girls, I know this is very important to me, so I hope that you will join me in helping commemorate Women's History Month here in Monterey Park during the month of March.

Any other comments?

I will move this forward if someone would like to join me. Sure, I'll second. Thank you. Thank you.

Moved by Councilmember Sanchez and second by Pro Tem Yang. Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you. Let's go back to our city communications.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just wanted to close with, again, thank you to Jessica. I appreciate your years of service here in Maury Park and send you off with all the best. And if there's anything you're learning there in your new city that you want to send over here as well, and feel free to have folks on your team there have lunch in Maury Park or dinner as well. We have some hotels that can host some offsites if you would like, and I'm sure we can arrange that. But wishing you all the best. I also want to welcome our interim community development director, Mr. Lanza Pham. Hopefully I said that right. Appreciate you coming on board on an interim basis to make sure that we can continue to support our businesses and development and our residents in the city in this interim period as well. Welcome. I know it sounds like you came from or retired from Glendale. If there are any lessons that you'd like to impart on us in your time here, we're all open and encourage us all to be open to ideas and to different ways of looking at things as well. So this past weekend, I attended the Merced Avenue Greenway Project Ribbon Cutting, project years in the making in South Omani through the efforts of organizations like Active SUV and others in partnership with the city of South Omani, L.A. County, and many others, helped to redesign a street in South Omani to be a complete street, integrate more green and sustainable elements into design, dedicated and protected bike lanes, improved pedestrian access, and traffic improvements as well. I think a great model and the whole hope of the project was to be a model and a template for other cities to take as well. I think timely for us as we embark on our Monterey Pass Road Complete Streets Projects, and hopefully soon Garvey Avenue as well to redesign, rethink, and reimagine what these streets can be and how they can better serve our residents and our community and the businesses as well. I think it'd be great to, I don't know if we are. Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest

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to the next council member thank you I'll also keep this brief just wanted to mention that this month is the month of Ramadan so for any any Muslim people living within our city and beyond our city just wanted to make sure that I mentioned that in commemorate as they fast this entire month of Ramadan I wanted to highlight just two events that I had an opportunity to go to our volunteer banquet which we had at the courtyard great opportunity for us to be able to honor a lot of our volunteers that help our city progress but also help volunteer their own personal time to make sure that a lot of the programming that we offer in our city happens so I wanted to take time to make sure that we recognize and honor them and also thank a lot of our departments including our Parks and Rec Department for helping host that event so thank you so much for that. Also wanted to highlight, because a lot of us were there, but also the Asian American Association Dinner, which was at NBC, hosted by the Alhambra School District, which honored a lot of our students who received scholarships from our school district. So I wanted to thank Alhambra is not here anymore, but if they're listening, thank them for hosting here in Monterey Park, and also congratulate those students who received awards. So with that, I'll hand it over to my colleague, Council Member Lowe.

Thank you, Council Member Sanchez. And I think what I would like to highlight, and again, I attended many of the events that my colleagues mentioned,

but I think what I would also like to highlight is this past weekend,

some of us also participated in a community cleanup in our downtown Monterey Park

along Garvey and Lincoln by Ferry Dicken Plaza and in some of the areas.

And we want to thank the partnership between the city of Monterey Park, Parks and Rec, as well as Caltrans and OCAGLA. It was interesting, you know, particularly in the two hours of pickup.

And I know one of my takeaways was that it's a lot of secret, but in our area,

And I know what I've also said to staff is that, you know, maybe we should put up more signs about, you know, smoking in public parking areas like the parking spot area in a finding spot. But also maybe perhaps looking at putting public ashtrays because certainly, you know, if someone wants to smoke, you know, but they should be observant to have spaces where smoking is not allowed because of the consideration for family. but also that perhaps we should also look at maybe putting in more signage as well as public ashtrays,

so that they're not just piles sitting in the parking lot at Lincoln and Garvey.

Also, I want to highlight our police department in town hall that many of us went to last week. It was well attended and I think that it just showed a tremendous interest by residents to making sure that they look out for each other, make sure our communities are safe. And also to, right now, take the opportunity to thank our police department for apprehending some burglars who were engaged in some burglaries for a couple weeks in certain parts of the city. And again, just thank you to the PD and the work you do to protect our communities. Again, the tremendous outpouring of turnout at the PD just shows how much our residents value our police department, value our city, and also really looking out for each other to make sure we're safe.

and then

I'll close also by saying I want to thank my colleagues for putting together some of these resolutions like Women's History Month as well as our department staff who put on such

great programming that celebrates the diversity of our community for example I think there were some comments during public comments

throughout the night about LGBT community issues and just for the record a reminder

is that for the past three, four years, the city has actually celebrated Pride Month with a festival in the month of June in partnership with the O'Harembra School District as well as the Boys and Girls Club at our own city. And, you know, we've also put forward since 2020 annually resolutions acknowledging Pride Month. Just, you know, just for the record and a reminder to everyone, but again, because again, we are a diverse community and we celebrate and embrace

the diversity of our community and the people who live in it. And I'll pass it on to our mayor protest.

So it sounds like there's been a lot of events this past month. One more event that hasn't been highlighted was the ribbon cutting of Adobe Inn from last week. It's a renovated motel on New Avenue, adorable desert-themed motel. So if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend everyone checking it out. It's very cute. And then also this coming Saturday, the Monterey Park Police Officer Association is having a fundraiser. at Brew Kitchen Bar on Garfield from 6 to 8 p.m. It's for their Baker to Vegas relay, which every year law enforcement agencies from all over the world run 100 miles relay from Baker to Vegas. So everyone is invited to join on March 8th.

Okay, well, I will just add a couple of items here. So how does work get done in the city? What do we do? a lot of stuff behind the scenes so on February 22nd council members all of us as well as leaders of the staff we spent all day Saturday from 8.30 till 4.30 basically going the strategic overview of the city the one year, three year, five year plan so I just want to appreciate the city leaders and staff for your valuable time in getting the effort and making sure the community we want to live in and stay in is safe and vibrant. In addition, just an additional note to the cleanup that Council Member Lowe mentioned, on the first, the group collected over 100 pounds of rubbish, and there were over 35 volunteers that came that morning on a Saturday morning from 10 to noon, basically walking on the corners of Garvey, Garfield, heading east all the way to Newmark, and they were all the way to New Avenue, heading west up until Atlantic, and north toward the freeway and south toward, I think they got as far as beyond Graves. So that's the amount of help we got from volunteers that morning to help clean our city. So we're thankful for our community partners in OCA, Great LA, as well as Clean California for their commitment to that. And then also on the first, we all attended the Hambra Education Foundation Dinner Gala. we're always blessed to have a Hanover unified in our city. So with that, I also want to say, Jessica, we'll see you around, and Phillip, welcome. Do we have any future agenda items?

No, hearing none, we are closing the meeting at 9.08.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.