City Council Meeting — May 7, 2025

Thank you. Thank you.

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

Thank you. Thank you.

hi garth i'm with the city clerk's office can you give us a mic check Hi Garth, I'm with the City Clerk's Office. Can you give us a mic check?

Hello, hello, hello.

Perfect, thank you.

What do you think?

Thank you.

Thank you. No, no, no.

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

There you go.

There you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have to announce that?

Well, he's on Zoom. Oh, he's on Zoom.

OK. Yeah. I can make that. OK.

All right.

You want my autograph?

You guys. OK.

We don't have explorers just the Pacific Superstore, right?

No, we do have an explorer.

Oh, we do have one. Yeah. Yes, we just have one. He's going to bring in the flag, though. Okay. We don't have the two, so the California is already there. We have the...

Let's call the meeting to order.

Land acknowledgement.

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

Roll call, please. I'm sorry, let's go to Flexalute.

We do have the Moine Park Fire Explorer, so why don't we start?

Please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, which

stands by the nation under God, indivisible.

I pledge allegiance.

We'll do a retake here. I have a practice yesterday.

That was a good practice.

So you can go right there. All right. Okay.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Right face. Forward march.

Prepare to pose. Call it. Fly, salute.

Without face. Forward march.

You may be seated, but we have a certificate for Don Mai, who actually led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, so if I can have Council Members join me upstate.

Everyone's looking here. One, two, and three.

Thank you.

Okay, Madam Clerk, if we can do roll call.

Council Member Wong. Council Member Sanchez? Present.

Council Member Lo? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Yang? Present.

Mayor Ngo? Present. We have a quorum. Thank you.

Agenda additions, deletions, and changes.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council,

wanted to note a few items here. So there's a request to move item 1A

before the public communications, if that's okay with Council.

yes okay and then the other items just want to note our um city attorney city attorney is

joining us virtually today so he's on zoom um and then the other things wanted to note item 3e the draft um lhmp on page 69 of the agenda has the previous council listed so uh we will update the document to reflect the current council. It had a previous mayor and mayor pro tem listed. So I just want to make that note that we do understand that when this document was first prepared, we had different council members in different positions. So we want to just make a note that if this item is adopted tonight, we will make adjustments to the document. Next is item 3H. There was a typo on page 456. This is the Emerson Avenue sewer improvements. The chart had the incorrect CIP number and project name listed. It should read CIP 99011, and the name of the project is the Emerson Parallel Pipeline Project, just as a note. And then for item 5A, the sample letter attachment was not attached to the staff report, so there's copies that we provided to Council on the dais, And there's also copies of that sample attached, the sample letter, on the back of the chamber for reference. Those are the only changes, City Council.

Okay, thank you.

Let's move to Mark Keppel High School Academic Detail Team.

Do we have a speaker, or we're just going to...

Maybe we can invite the coach.

Let's invite the coach to say a couple of things.

Thank you, Mayor Ngo and city council members.

And I want to say hi to all my fellow veterans in the audience.

And Mayor Ngo, it's good to have a Vietnamese mayor of a city other than Westminster. I just want to point that out. And this year, for a rebuilding year, our team did remarkably well.

and we didn't expect to go all the way to nationals. And the only team that actually did a little bit better is council member Jose Sanchez Alhambra squad.

But I want to point out that like sister cities, Jose and I work like brothers in arms. And you can see throughout the year that both of our teams are very evenly matched. And the way we work, yeah, technically we're competing against each other, but we're also rooting for each other. And we also play basketball together, too. In terms of my students, they're outstanding. Again, this was supposed to be our rebuilding year, and they gave it everything they got.

and the funniest thing I remember was just recently going to Des Moines for the Nationals was the look on their face when they realized there's no Sam Wu nearby and that you're going to have to eat Midwestern food for three days and they learned something about the portion size in the Midwest

I want to say thank you to all the team members and more importantly

they represent the whole community, the parents support, administrators.

I'm a teacher, and we can't teach without students.

And so however well we do, it's reflected upon the whole community.

So on behalf of my team, thank you.

Thank you, Coach.

I'm sure the other coach has something to say.

I just wanted to thank Coach Tran. I'm actually going to ask him to stay up here because I think we have certificates for them.

We do.

And the students as well. But I think he's being fairly modest. I'm not sure if you realize how much they've accomplished this year as a team and how well they've done in representing not just the school district, but representing our community. representing LA County and representing our state at nationals. They did incredibly well. This is the first time in 40 years, ladies and gentlemen, first time in 40 years since 1985, that an LA County school from the Los Angeles County Office of Education has participated or even qualified for the national competition. So this is really huge. That in itself is an accomplishment. So I want to make sure that I highlight that and then we give them a round of applause for that.

they put monterey park and o'hambra unified school district on the map and they did an amazing job um there so i i know that there's this was their first showing on the national stage and i'm really looking forward to um what they're going to be doing next in the coming years and how and i know that they're going to improve because now they got a taste for nationals um so continue to represent our community well i know i spent a week uh about five days with you guys in des moines so that was a lot of fun being there with you guys, and I know that you guys will be back. Well, next year, it'll be here in California.

And again, our congratulations goes to the Mark Keppel Academic Decathlon team. I'm just going to say, not bad for rebuilding your coach, because the pressure will be on next year when you have returners. So please join us for presentations of certificates.

Front center. Look happy. I love you.

Yeah, if you guys could step back and scoop in, I'll be able to get a little bit of a

That one was great.

All right. One, two, three. Take a couple more. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you. We'll be training.

We'll see you guys next year. Thank you. Bring back. Bring back. I know. I know. I know.

I know.

Okay.

I just heard coach tell the team to go back and study for the APs. So it never ends until last day of school, but they're coming back next year.

Okay, let's... Public communications.

Okay. Yeah.

Public communications.

First speaker, Ivan Ng.

Good evening. My name is Ivan Ng, and I'm a proud member of the Marquepo High School swim team. I'm here to share my story. I stand before you not just as a student or an athlete, but as someone who has grown up with the Barnes Park Pool as the foundation of what I have accomplished as a swimmer. That's why I learned not just how to swim, but how to be patient, how to push through pain, and how to trust myself. But more importantly, I've seen what the pool means to others, to the young kids learning to stay afloat, to the older adults who come to keep moving and stay healthy, to families who gather there to feel part of something bigger than themselves.

This pool is a part of our city's legacy. It connects generations, it teaches life skills, and it builds character. Taking it away doesn't just affect people like me. It sends a message that spaces like this don't matter. That what we build together

can be torn down even when it's still being used, still being loved. I know decisions like these aren't easy but I ask you to think beyond the numbers. Think about the quiet impact, the lifelong memories, the ripple effect that

Barnes has had and will continue to have if we let it. Please don't let this be the end of something so important. Let it keep doing what it's always done, bring

people together. I started swimming at the age of six. I've had numerous private instructors,

but I learned the most right there at the Barnes Park pool. That one summer when my parents woke up early just to enroll me in the summer swimming program, I'm forever grateful that my parents

enrolled me in that summer program because it lit a fire in not just me, but a teammate of mine who competed last year in the state CIF. In fact, another teammate of mine was All-American and

is currently swimming for a D1 college. I was one of the last ones to swim at the Barnes Park pool

in the summer of 2021, and it's a shame that it's still closed four years later. As you can see, swimming is a part of our identity, Monterey Park's identity. Like many of my teammates, we feel like this identity is dying, and it's a shame. We don't have a good, functional, effective pool. Elders is not that.

We can't wait any longer. We need a pool. I ask you to please consider getting the pool done. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Next speaker, Wendy Matsuda.

Hi there. So I'm a parent.

My daughter, or I'm Wendy Matsuda. she's disabled she has a rare genetic syndrome i also have a teenager who's also on the mark keppel swim team um kendall and i we spend like two to three days out of the week during the summer in the pool but unfortunately not in monterey park and even elder doesn't have like their kiddie pool has been empty and dry. There is no ramp to get into the pool, and they don't even have like open swim time for families. So we have to go to other pools outside of the city to

participate in any aquatics. I'm also a physical therapist, and so, you know, from like infancy to

like the elderly, like every age person can benefit from water, aquatics, therapy. You know, I remember swimming with like my kids when they were infants, you know, taking

the classes together to get them, you know, to enjoy water.

My son has been swimming since he was two. But even when it was time to put him into swimming lessons,

it was so hard to get into a class that, again, we had to find another pool outside of the city. We drove to Pasadena to get him lessons.

And then, again, like all the not having sort of like that free time to be able to participate at Elder, there's like classes going on for the seniors,

which is great because, again, as a physical therapist, when you have patients,

but even just like, you know, again, an elderly parent, a disabled child, and not having like access.

So thanks.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Cindy Oda Lee, who will be giving her time to Margaret Leung.

Seven minutes total.

Margaret? Okay.

Next speaker, Margaret Leung.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, council members, and city staff.

My name is Margaret Leung and I'm here as a concerned parent and a proud supporter of our student-athlete and community swimmers.

I want to speak plainly and urgently about the importance of rebuilding our city pool. This is not about a facility. It is about opportunity, quality, and the future of our children. Today, students cannot no longer rely on good SAT score alone to gain admission into top colleges. Colleges are looking at the student, the whole student. And athlete, especially swimming, can be a crucial factor for our kids. We have incredible coaches in the city and teachers guiding our kids, but without a functioning facility pool, their chances to train, compete, and succeed are very limited. And I think you guys have heard the testimony of the students, the parents,

urging you folks to really to move forward with this swimming pool.

And actually, I'm sure that most of you have been in the city and grew up with the city and grew up with the swimming community, and that we have a lot of success story in the community.

The kids who made it to the top school, the Ivy League school,

some of the folks who attended the Monday night town hall meeting, those were the stories.

Those are the stories that every parent hoped for.

Let's be clear on the facts.

the city began backfilling the pool without a formal engineering assessment,

a move that may have caused irreversible damages to the pool.

Because I've heard people talk about the pools leaking, the structural integrity of the pool.

No one is qualified to make those statements without this professional assessment report. The pool sat dry.

for over four years, compromising its integrity due to prolonged neglect.

I'm not sure you guys understood or anybody explained to you,

you cannot really leave a pool dry for more than two weeks

because in the depth of the pool,

there is also water level on the other side of the pool.

So we might have been the ones that damaged the pool.

Okay.

This deterioration is the result of years of mismanagement and deferred maintenance.

This practice needs to change.

We cannot continue with an end-of-life approach to city infrastructure maintenance program.

That program needs to change.

It's really, it's not just a swimming pool.

It's other infrastructure in the city. It's mismanaged.

So I understand that, you know, a lot of the folks, a lot of parents has gone out and reached out to estimators, builders, constructor to get a quote because we don't have one so that we could have a starting

point to discuss what is and what is not.

And I think it's really a fair number.

A rough order of magnitude was provided

and based on the

research, the price is around $8 to $15 million for a basic facility, what we're talking about. And a more precise estimate will only come with a proper design face.

And we must get there. We have to get there. If not, we're just

talking in circles. In the recent

time, I mean recently, the city has embarked into

a park master planning survey. Swimming

was the most significant supported category with 415 votes,

even more than many other sports that was combined into that 400 numbers.

That speaks volume about our community's priorities.

The master plan is a tactical tool, not a vision. The real vision, I'll take her minutes now.

The real vision, right? So I just want to talk about that.

The master plan, the statement of work that we provided to the consultant to come up with this park master plan, that's just a step.

That's just a tactical step. It's not called a vision.

A vision, the real vision must come from you, our city council members.

We elect you to do that job.

our city leaders, and it should be focused on supporting our youth. That's the most important thing to us as parents, our kids.

We asked for a clear roadmap.

We talked about this at the town hall meeting on Monday.

We're going to continue to reiterate that.

We need to recognize the pool is a necessity to the community, not a luxury.

and we need to establish actionable steps to remediate and reopen the pool. In the interim follow-up during the meeting, I think, Mayor Vinn, you have asked the staff to assist the parent to help the swim team gain access to neighboring pools.

We need to do that.

We need to support our parent, making sure that the swim team is viable for the future generation.

And Mayor Vinn, I hope you follow through with the city staff for that.

That's a commitment, I hope.

And most importantly, provide timeline with regular updates on milestones so residents are not kept in the dark.

This isn't just about swimming.

It's about giving our children a fair chance to thrive, to earn scholarship, and to represent our city with pride. Let's not let poor planning and outdated practices determine the future of our kids.

Let's build something they and we can be proud of.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Christine Wong who will be giving her time to Cindy Yee. Next speaker, Cindy Yee, seven minutes.

Mayor and members of the City Council, thank you for the beautiful town hall meeting we had.

That was really a town hall meeting with discussion rather than empty seats.

It was filled to capacity at the friend's room at the library.

We just needed more time. One hour wasn't enough, so at least you were able to extend it.

what's wrong with bringing in professional residents in our city to help the needs of our community and the struggles that this city has to maintain a quality of life last city council meeting a 70 year old plus resident my friend paul you all know him as Paul Isosaki, spoke about our city council and staff that have no vision. Pickleball is an upcoming sport, and city's website has announced fifth annual pickleball tournament. We have plenty of empty properties, McClasson, Southern Parkway, Monterey Park, of course, with a restaurant that's going to be torn down, and there's already a parking lot for, if you want, put in some pickleball courts and they just have to walk right across. And there's also property up there on LA Corporate Center. Beautiful piece of property. Get some sponsors from the pickleball companies and buy the land, build the stadium, whatever, but you could take in a beautiful piece of property and make it a worldwide collection, international, whatever you want. But it could be a beautiful stadium, state-of-the-art pickleball. Councilmember Sanchez, you talked about that with your family, going to Mountain View.

And, you know, you guys have a vision. I have this vision, and I'm old. But what do you guys have? No vision. You guys need to bring in revenue to our city. You also need to start building out these empty lots.

After Monday night, I'm asking for a moratorium, possibly a referendum, and other avenues to save Barns Pool.

Today, at a luncheon, unexpectedly, I walked into Marie Callender's and sat across from some ladies who recognized me.

And I said, well, I did work at Cal State. They go, we did too. I hadn't seen them in 12 years.

One lady was president of the Cal State Union, Union Rep 9. She says, all you have to do is consider it historic property, a historic landmark. So I looked it up. The website says, and this is federal, property must have three essential attributes, sufficient age, a relatively high degree of physical integrity, and historical significance. Two, what makes a property historic? A historic site may have any building, landscape, site, or structure that is a local, regional, national, or global significance. This also means that the site must be 50 years or more. Well, what, the pool is what?

Eighty?

Three.

What does historic site mean?

Any past event or current state hasn't happened, whether it was significant or not. Historical refers to an authentic event that once occurred at some point in history and is fact and or evidence-based.

Four, we might be able to apply for a federal preservation grant for planning and rehab. I am asking for a moratorium to stop $50,000 of expenditure of dumping dirt into the pool.

Or you could dump a little bit of pool because when it rains, the water slides one way into the dirt rather than all over the pool,

which will cost a lot more money to dig it out. And we did touch upon the $17 million on that Garvey wall. Well, you five could ask for that lien to get back from a private property owner of $17 million for that wall because they didn't do their diligence by building that property that they built.

And I would like you guys to also look into so that this property, this hillside that CVJ found back in the 70s, that was a prehistoric landslide, to investigate why there's two other parcels for sale.

and you can check it out on Zillow, because one property owner on Abajo and Garvey received a million dollars of FEMA money when the dirt fell onto Abajo.

There is something fishy on that hillside. And I don't know, because the other thing is up on Sobrero, the same hill, one councilperson, ex-councilperson,

who served one year, sold that property to somebody, and somehow that property got approved. And I remember Yanez and a few other city councilors

Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Monterey Park. Leaming City Council people. City people had to come because it was a slope and they were trying to build into it and I texted my friend who lives below it that it's still not working. They're not building anything there. But they made a mess on that hillside. They've got a pool in there and that's collecting mosquitoes.

I don't know when the agenda for the parks master plan is,

but we have to take care of this issue. One of you five should request that it be on the agenda because it should be a separate identity from the rest of the parks plans.

and I think that's all I have to say, but I'm very excited.

A lot of people couldn't make it tonight because Open House at several schools plus Manta Rays had their annual fundraiser event,

but that's the reason why this room isn't filled tonight. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Next speaker Mike son ye son

Mayor City Council

It's great to see everybody. I love Monterey Park. Monterey Park is really deep in my heart. And I've been living here since about 2006. But 10 years before I moved to Monterey Park, I studied Monterey Park in a sociology class at UCLA. My professor, John Horton, had written

a book about the politics of diversity. Well, you guys know about politics. I know that. I know that. And I don't envy any of your positions because you have to play between all these people. So it's hard to take a definitive stand about things. And I understand that's what politicians do. And you knew what you got into when you signed up for the job.

But what I want to say is that Monterey Park is a world-famous city. I know of at least seven, eight books that have spent significant pages about Monterey Park, four or five books that are completely about Monterey Park. and it's very historic as you all know, first city in America to ever have an Asian American majority

Wendy Chang, who's an Asian American studies professor at Cal Poly Pomona wrote a book called The Changs Next Door to the Diazes

about the groundbreaking demographics of Monterey Park and so there's so much here

and I will admit my issue tonight is the Barnes Park Pool but beyond just the Barnes Park Pool, we saw the academic decathlon we had this fantastic young man saying the Pledge of Allegiance and that is what Monterey Park is about it's about the youth, it's about the future and people are talking a lot about vision you all have an opportunity to put yourselves in those history books you too can be a part of the future vision it's really up to you where do you want to go, what do you want to do how do you want to be remembered and I know you're all very committed to the city and I've heard you talking about all these different sides

And as I said, I don't envy your position. It's not easy. And there's a lot of people that you have to make happy. But we have Coach Perez, who is essentially the John Wooden of high school swimming. He just won another four league titles. He's won 90 league titles in 26 years. Anybody here that does math, that's essentially three titles a year. He wins the title every single year.

he's had over a dozen of his swimmers go to Division I schools.

Coach David was at Columbia. Thomas knows David well. They swam together. And so he's had swimmers that have been in the Olympic trials. My own son is swimming laps as we speak at Elder Park in the swim-a-thon. So what I really want to say is it is important to take actionable steps. I've written about Monterey Park myself, by the way, for PBS SoCal several times. And I've actually spoke about Monterey Park in numerous public lectures that I've given at Cal State L.A., Woodbury University, even in lectures I've done in other places up in the Bay Area and spoke about Monterey Park as a really groundbreaking city. And I love Monterey Park and I love our city and I support you guys. and I really hope you all can make mindful decisions

because you are public servants. You signed up for the job. And so there's a lot at stake right now.

That young man Ivan, he's a high school junior.

I presently teach high school. I teach 11th graders at this moment.

And he's stepping into civic engagement at a very young age. He's engaged.

This is a personal matter to him.

And, you know, so the academic decathlon at Mark Keppel has won, has done quite well. But the swimming team has done just as well, arguably even better. And so one of you is going to have to stick your neck out a little bit. Go out on a limb. And you know what? You will win because you are representing the people. And it's for the greater good. The greater good is what it's all about. Isn't that what Mr. Thomas Jefferson was talking about? Wasn't that what America was founded on? We did the Pledge of Allegiance earlier. And so there's much more to say, but I want to say thank you all for your service. Thank you. You're showing up here every other Wednesday and what you're doing. Mr. Sanchez, thank you for what you do at Alhambra High. And I appreciate you all, Mr. Lo. I spoke to you before, Ms. Yang. So all of you, please think about the citizens,

and it's time to, you know, maybe you might even have to offend a few people, God forbid, but the time is now.

And I want to thank you all so much, and to be continued. Thank you.

Next speaker Juanita Medina

Good evening City Council I am here to let you know that I'm very appreciative of all the outreaches you've been doing,

the town halls, and the possibilities to talk to the community members of things that are of concern to us in our city.

I've been part of Monterey Park since I was 11 years old,

and I've just grown to admire it

and it's now part of my blood ever since then.

I've also participated in community organizations here in our city

and I know how much work goes into various projects

and how much community needs to be unified for it.

I know there are two topics that are very serious to our community right now, having to do with the pool and with pickleball.

But there are also other topics that need to be addressed that are not as serious as those, but do need attention.

I ride the bus, and I've been riding the bus for many years. And I ride with my children, and I've ridden with my grandson.

Lately, we've noticed that what used to be the benches that are parked at the bus stops are eliminated now.

There are no benches.

They have been turned into what looks like stools or a leaning, or it looks like a leaning wall where only two people can lean on it.

this leaves those at a disadvantage that are handicapped the elderly those have been working

all day long we're paying for our trips on the bus and being told by metro that they have no control over the bus stops or the seating area that it has to do with our city

so I don't know if they're passing the buck onto St. Monterey Park or if it actually is a metro thing to be considered

but it's disheartening to see so many senior citizens

waiting for their bus on the southbound side of Riggin and Atlantic Boulevard

and there's nowhere for them to sit

and they're standing in the sun

and it's not good for these senior citizens to be sitting there like this especially now that the weather is changing constantly.

Please, please look into this. I know it was to deter homeless people from camping out on the bus benches,

but for those of us that are paying for our trips, please give us some sense of dignity.

We need those benches.

And if at all possible, lighting, because some of our bus stops here in the city are in unsafe and dark areas.

Continuing with the theme of transportation.

We have a transportation app that is to be, it's free from now until September apparently.

Well, I know other people that ride buses who don't ride that apt bus transportation

because it doesn't take them to where they need to go. It's limited to locations and they don't need that. They need something that's more, a little flexible.

So they rather take either Montebello Metro or the Spirit bus from Monterey Park,

and they're not using that considered transportation.

Okay. Also, where I live, which is near the Hat on Riggin and Atlantic,

I've seen an influx of graffiti, mental illness of people camping out on park benches.

They're standing around. They're sitting in the alley.

And I see syringes in the alley, on the floor. And it's getting worse. It's more.

It's awful.

when I can't even get into my building and there's too many mentally ill people yelling at each other,

yelling at the ceiling, yelling at a tree, and I can't go by to go home.

Also, my daughter has hiked at the Edison Trail, but since there was a body found there a year or two ago of a gentleman,

and a woman was beaten and left on the trail.

My daughter has no faith in going to the Edison Trail. She says, if it's not safe, I'm not going.

So I bring this to you because it's so important to me and my family. And please address even these little things that mean so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Medina.

If I can have Chief Reese out here.

Tom, can we have Chief Reese make contact with Ms. Medina? Because we just had a town hall just the other night to go over some of the issues around that corridor of the city. And in terms of the bus stop, if I can have the city manager look into it to see who actually is responsible for the benches.

Is it the city or is it Metro?

So we'll definitely look at that location or those locations. we have staff here that can make contact with you but we have your contact information I believe

I'm going to double check with our clerk if contact information was placed on the speaker card

yes perfect so we have your contact information we could make sure that we understand which locations you're providing but I did make notes about the benches and the lighting at the bus shelters

and then just for the record the app is actually for intra-city service complementing to the Spirit Bus and that service is free up until the end of August then it's two dollars for ride throughout the city assuming you get your information through the app so if someone needs information on that I

think staff can handle that as well. Mr. Mayor although I do think this

would be a good point and I think because it's a pilot program we should let the service no about

residents who want more flexibility and robustness of the service. Again, I can

attest personally that I tried the app to take the e-line, but it only dropped me off at e-lac. So I had to walk over to the e-line, which is not mine, but nonetheless, I think that's an example of what she

meant about it goes around me, but not everywhere.

It takes you to the edge of the city.

Well, it takes me to e-lac, and then I have to walk over to the e-line. Okay.

I put in my address to get to another area in Monterey Park, and it wouldn't read my address or the other location in Monterey Park.

Okay. We will have staff follow-up on you. Okay. Thank you. Next speaker.

Next speaker is Debbie Yamamoto, who is giving her time to Dr. Rock. Last speaker, Dawn Rock, who will have seven minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Town, City Council Members, City Manager, City Treasurer, City Clerk. My name is Dawn Rock. And as of last week, I've been a proud resident of Monterey Park for 58 years. Over the decades, I've celebrated not just my own birthdays, but the growth and milestones of the city that I love. I want to thank you for the town hall meeting, hosting the town hall meeting last Monday. it was powerful. And while the meeting wasn't officially about Barnes Park Pool,

the people made it clear the pool matters. It's more than a facility, it's a legacy.

And that's why I'm speaking to you tonight. Like so many others in the community, I grew up around the pool. I swam for the Monterey Park Manta Rays, Markeppel swim team. I worked summers as a lifeguard at Elder and Barnes Park Pools, my children played and learned in those very waters. And now, as a lifelong educator, I've watched in awe as our local coaches, Coach Ish and Coach David and their swim teams, have achieved incredible success. Can you imagine what they can accomplish with a regulation competition pool, backed by a

city that believes in them?

Barnes Park Pool has been the heart of this community for generations a place of health, joy, safety, and pride but today it stands at risk of being forgotten neglected and demolished at recent meetings as recent at the last city council meeting there have been concerns about the lack of transparency and too often these concerns are met with defensiveness I understand, I've been there As a public school administrator, I felt the same instinct to defend. But then I had a one-on-one conversation with a wise colleague, Mr. Doyle. We worked together at Muscatel Middle School when I was principal. And he told me, perception is reality. If people feel left in the dark, then that's their reality. And it's up to us to shine the light. From that point on, instead of reacting with defense, I respond with questions.

What do you need from me to feel included?

What information do you wish I shared with you? These questions open doors. They turn conflict into collaboration. And while I know public comments is not a place for dialogue, I'm going to offer my responses as if you had asked me these questions. So let me offer some concrete next steps. Number one, take action now instead of waiting for the survey. The survey has validity issues, and that's a discussion for another time. This pool doesn't need to wait for more surveys. It needs champions who will act now. Number two, get creative with funding. Identify underused city assets and properties. Consider reallocating and selling them. Let's get bold and resourceful. Number three, aggressively pursue grants. Thank you for applying in 2016, 2019, and 2021, but that's not enough. Let's go after every opportunity, public, private, state, federal. And yes, I'd like to request copies of those previous applications to better understand where we've been. Number three, if no changes or plans are being made until the master plan is done in the summer, are you open to creating a citizens group to start working towards this goal? And finally, number five, learn from Bell Gardens. At Monday's town hall meeting, Hector, a fellow Monterey Park resident, mentioned the Bell Gardens Aquatics Project. and instead of embracing his information and asking what can we learn from this, he was faced with defensiveness.

How many years did it take? And I believe it was seven.

He was faced, oh, do you know what made that project successful?

The city council reached out to their state and national leaders and asked them for help. Mayor Chavez pressed U.S. Senator Padilla, Senator Butler, and California 42nd District Representative Garcia to allocate funds to rebuild their pool.

Have you shared with our leaders how important this pool is to rebuild?

Hector understood the passion and commitment the Bell Gardens City Council had for their pool. We need to see that same passion, vision, and commitment from all of you.

You say that you believe the pool should be saved,

but belief is only the beginning. We need to see action. We need vision. We need visible, unwavering commitment. It's nice that you state the pool is important and you believe that it should be saved but that's not enough. We need to see that you truly mean what you say. There's no passion, no conviction to match your words. Please stand behind us. Show us you believe in our youth and their future. Show us that you believe in the health and the well-being of our residents. Let's not lose something so vital because we waited too long or didn't push hard enough. The time is now.

We are watching. And we are ready to stand with you if you're ready to lead.

Thank you.

No other speakers.

I appreciate again everyone for coming out to the town hall that we had on Monday and coming out tonight as well. I've had a lot of private conversations around the pool and the parks plan as well. I'm happy to have more conversations. Obviously not agendized because there's no action to be taken. There's no update on the pool tonight. but again reiterate what we said on Monday at the town hall meeting please continue to pay attention to the parks master plan as that process comes to the council in the coming months and our budget discussions every year we have our process for prioritizing capital improvement projects that parks master plan will feed into that I met I hope you all engage but if anyone has questions about what some of the conversation was on Monday if you still have questions about how we're approaching this i'm happy to have one-on-one conversations or small group conversations if you want to stop a meeting i'm happy to show up let me know my emails on the website and i've shown up to other meetings as well and had these conversations happy to keep this conversation going and to answer questions if there's a lack of transparency i hope that that is not the case and i i don't think that's the case i think we've been doing a lot of work to get information out there and i'm happy to continue to answer questions that people may have

Mr. Mayor and City Manager, especially like the estimates and some of the past city memos,

I mean, do we have that posted on the city website? I mean, I know it's something that was on past agendas, but do we have any of that posted for the public to see if they have follow-up questions for information?

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, I believe that there has been some public records requests, and so there is a public records request portal. The pull past staff reports and estimates that were received with the grant applications are posted there on the webpage.

Correct? Okay. Yes. Correct.

So it is there on the webpage under the Public Records Act request portal.

Okay.

Well, thank you, everyone, for showing up today. So I like the idea of having a citizens group, possibly, to get together and brainstorm a solution.

if that's a possibility.

So we can definitely look into that. And I'm also concerned to hear that the Elder Park Kitty Pool has been dry,

so we'll look into that as well.

Okay, again, we can have further discussion on this when we have it on the agenda or when we have another public town hall. So let's move forward with our agenda.

2A.

oh oh i just bypassed it okay staff communications we got library up

all right good evening mayor mayor pro tem city council i'm lv frazier i'm the acting city librarian at the Monterey Park Bruggemeier Library. I wanted to present some April highlights as well as some awesome programs we have coming up in May. So we have some April highlights to share. April 6th to 12th was National Library Week and here we have one of our lucky borrowers of the day with her library card mug and library swag. We also had volunteers from American Red Cross come in and teach kids about emergency preparedness on the left. We also had a staff training day where library staff were cross-trained on major functions of each library division, such as how our literacy department prepares to teach ESL classes, how to facilitate a great preschool story time, and how to use the 3D printer. During National Cat Lady Day, attendees made cat toys, which was a huge hit, as was our popular toddler art and play program. And finally, we loved celebrating with recreation at the Sprig Egg Hunt.

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with the library by checking out our book lists on our website and book displays in the library. You can also stream movies and shows for free with your library card on Canopy and check out their curated AAPI collection of movies and shows. May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. We hope that you'll join us at the Monterey Park Mental Health Healing Arts and Wellness Fair on Saturday, May 17th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the tennis courts. So during that event, you'll be able to meet representatives from community organizations, learn how to manage your mental and physical health, help loved ones, and enhance your well-being and happiness, take part in free creative arts activities and wellness classes, and free wellness kits will also be given away to the first 500 participants. So this event is presented in partnership with Asian Youth Center, Asian Pacific Health Corps at UCLA, Chinatown Service Center, and National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse. And on Monday, May 19th, at the library, join Chinatown Service Center and SSG Silver for an engaging mental health awareness workshop focused on reducing stigma, building emotional resilience, and promoting self-care strategies. This session will be presented in English and Cantonese. Teens are officially invited to our After Hours Teen Prom on Saturday, May 31st, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the library Friends Room. And this year's theme is Soiree Magique. Immerse yourself in a night of enchantment where you can mix mystical potions, craft your very own wand, indulge in a delicious feast, and witness the crowning of the newly elected 2025 to 2026 Junior Friends Board. A waiver is required for attendance, available for pickup at the reference desk. And this is proudly sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the Junior Friends.

Snoopy, Clifford, Biscuit, and more, kids of all ages are invited to celebrate their favorite storybook puppies with games, crafts, and fun activities, all related to some of the most beloved canine characters on Wednesday, May 14th at 3.30 p.m. in the Storytime Room.

And finally, we're very excited to announce our Save the Date for the library's annual summer reading program.

So this year's theme is Level Up at Your Library. We're starting on June 7th, and it goes until July 31st.

So kids, teens, and adults can read for the chance to earn prizes, and we will be offering a multitude of free events, such as performers, crafts, a gardening workshop, and more. So stay tuned for more details.

that's all I have. Questions, comments? Thank you so much for all that program. I know for

a lot of us the library is an amazing resource and place to go but I'm always amazed by all the programming so I'm looking forward to taking my daughters to some of these. So thank you.

And the puppies, okay, very good. I'll see you there. And can I also make a suggestion? I appreciate

cat ladies, but perhaps maybe also one day celebrate dog daddies?

Yes, of course. I'll let our adult and teen librarians

know. Thank you for all the great events. I'm looking forward to sending my kids to the teen prom. Oh, awesome.

Awesome. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Next up is the fire department.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council Members, City staff.

Here to talk about a couple of upcoming events that the fire department's putting on.

First is our fire service day. It's going to be Saturday, May 17th.

It's going to be from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon.

from 8 to 11 is going to be the Larry Sullivan Memorial Pancake Breakfast that has been going on every year but is now the Memorial Breakfast in honor of Larry Sullivan and all that he did in preparing it in the years past. Right now, tickets are on sale at the front office of Station 61 right next door to City Hall here at 350 West Newmark.

You come in, they're $10 a ticket.

You can pay via cash or Venmo, or they will be available for purchase the day of.

So come on down.

It's going to be a great time, good time for you and the family to check out the engine, the truck,

all of our tools and equipment that we have on scene. We're going to have some demos.

So you can go online to apply for the CERT program or come in.

We have old-fashioned write-in applications in the fire department office. The Friday night class is going to be from 5 to 8, Saturday, Sunday.

It's going to be longer days from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening.

But in the past, we've kind of done it over, you know, three, four weeks.

On weekends, now we're just kind of going to do a quick one-weekend burst.

We're going to teach community members, basically, emergency preparedness.

Should there be a big disaster, they're going to be our eyes and ears out there because, you know, we're so limited in our resources. We're not going to be able to get to the whole entire city at once. And these trained, certified CERT members are going to be working with us for us, for their community, basically helping make sure that everyone's safe.

if there's been an earthquake that they can help shut off utilities of their neighbors,

they can do a damage assessment, report back to us, and really be integral members in their community to help out and make sure that we're all staying safer together.

So, again, if you want to apply to that, you can go online to our website,

the montereypark.ca.gov cert program,

or we do have applications to fill out at the station. Thank you.

Any questions?

Questions, comments? No, thank you. We'll see you this Saturday. I'm sure.

Yeah, 17th. Man, yours has gone by too quick already.

Yeah, I get it.

All right. Thank you very much. Have a good night. All right.

Next up is Parks and Rec.

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

I'm Christine Alatori.

I'm the Recreation Manager for the Recreation and Community Services Department. First, I'd like to thank all community members who joined us for our spring egg hunt. We had over 20,000 eggs purchased, visits with the Easter bunny or the spring bunny, and it was an exciting event.

If you were there, you would have seen the lines and lines of people lining up just to get some of our eggs.

There were food trucks, and it was a wonderful event. We also had an entertainment, which was sponsored by the Music Center of Los Angeles County. Over at the Langley Center, we celebrated our rock and roll dance. And this is done in partnership with the MPK Hope Resiliency Center. So coming up, you're going to see that logo on a few of our Langley Center events. We've partnered with them, and they're helping us out with entertainment and snacks and items for our seniors.

Next slide, please. All right, mark your calendar. Right outside in Barnes Park, we are going to be celebrating play days.

That begins tomorrow. It runs Thursday through Sunday.

Carnival rides, food trucks, entertainment.

All throughout these days, we are going to be having a variety of entertainment. So kicking us off, starting tomorrow, we're going to be celebrating our Cinco de Mayo with some mariachi. And then later on, to headline our entertainment, at 7 o'clock, we're going to be hosting Cold Duck. On Friday, we're going to be celebrating 90s rock.

So Shockproof will be out here.

On Saturday, we will be celebrating 80s. And that ban will be identity theft. And on Sunday, we're going to be celebrating AAPI Heritage. So we are going to be having a variety of entertainment out at Barnes Park. For example, our Inez Elementary School is actually going to be doing a lion dance for us. We have YG Dance Studio doing Korean pop. Along with that, we were able to get a sponsorship from the Music Center of Los Angeles County. And we will be hosting taiko drums out at Barnes Park.

So it is a celebration to be had.

For more information, residents can visit our website. We are selling tickets on site and online. So that's what we have going on to celebrate our city's birthday. Along with that, swim lessons are coming up. So Tuesday, May 13th, we will be opening up registration for residents.

We have everything from toddler classes to adult classes during our summer months.

With that being said, we're also going to be starting a recreation swim that will begin June 9th. So Rec Swim is kind of like an open pool where people can stop by Elder Pool during designated times to just enjoy the pool with their families and with their friends. Along with the library, we are hosting the Mental Health Healing Arts and Wellness Fair. LV from the library gave you a lot of information about that. But just wanted to let you know that's going to be hosted on May 17th out on the tennis court. So we have quite a few events lined up for you these next couple weeks.

Next slide, please.

Over at our Langley Center on May 22nd, we've partnered again with the Hope Resiliency Center. We are celebrating Cinco de Mayo for our seniors. And as you could imagine, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, it is a place that the party is happening. So we welcome everyone to join us.

The cost is $3 at the Langley Center.

And I can say, because I've been there year after year, the seniors at Langley Center really enjoy our dances. On May 26th, in collaboration with American Legion, we are hosting our Memorial Day ceremony. Again, that's at the American Legion, and that will be right across the street from Barnes Park. If you'd like more information about that, again, for this and all of our programs, You can visit our website with the Recreation Department, and you can get more information.

Next slide.

So June 7th, Saturday, June 7th, we are hosting our SGV Annual Pride Parade and Festival. This is done in collaboration with the Alhambra Teachers Association, the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside, along with a lot of volunteers. We are securing entertainment from some of our high school students.

and it is a resource fair, a fun family event.

Along with resource booths, we're having entertainment and some giveaways. So a lot of city departments will be joining us out there that morning. And to celebrate our independence on Saturday, June 28th, we will be hosting our fireworks show here at Barnes Park. So there will be entertainment. um, Caitlin in the new frontier will be giving us all the tunes from today to the 80s. So that is something that you do not want to miss. Next slide, please. Other than that, that's all I have. If you have any questions or comments, I'd be more than happy to answer.

No questions. Just looking forward to all the amazing events coming up.

same here looking forward to tomorrow as well in the kickoff a lot of celebrating happening this

weekend thank you for all the work thank you very excited for all the upcoming events especially

play days this weekend yeah celebrating play day and i was at the easter hunt i can tell you it was

pretty chaotic with 20,000 eggs and thousands of children not only from our city but surrounding

City. The only thing I can say is kudos for all the work you do in terms of getting Barnes Park involved, but I can see Pickleball and Tennis complaining because you're taking away the courts for putting all these events there. I can just see that. But in any case, good job on getting the city engaged and

allowing for all the events. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And just shout out to our recreation

staff who put on these wonderful events for our community and working with our public works department, finance department, to make sure all these activities are here for our community members.

Thank you. Okay, Public Works.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council members. My name is Beverly Garcia.

I'm a Manvention Analyst for the Public Works Department, and I'm here to invite everyone to our upcoming Open House annual event. This year's event takes place on Thursday, May 22nd from 11 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at our city yard, which is located at 751 South Alhambra Avenue. The event is free for everyone who attends. We'll have a variety of vendors. We'll have food, drinks, giveaways, and division showcases to help the public better understand what it is we do. It's also a great opportunity for the department to inform the public of our current programs, such as MPK Transit Express and our upcoming capital improvement projects. The purpose of Open House is to celebrate Public Works staff and in recognition of National Public Works Week. the National Public Works Week was established by the American Public Works Association and the APWA puts out a theme every year and this year's theme is people purpose and presence which highlights the importance of public works and the direct impact it has on our daily lives and the department's efforts to maintain our city streets, storm drains, sewers, water distribution to our residents and our businesses, and so much more. In addition to our invitation to open house, the department is also recommending, within this meeting's agenda, the adoption of a resolution to declare May 18th through May 24th National Public Works Week in the city of Monterey Park. As always the department thanks you for your time and for your continued support of our projects And this really is a fun event and it's a unique way the department can Interact and connect with the community that we serve and we hope to see everyone on the 22nd. Thank you

Questions comments

Also looking forward to the open house and appreciate everything Public Works does to keep our city running great. Thank you, sir

Okay, thank you. Thank you

All business?

Let's go to 2A, update on the permanent memorial efforts.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Ngo and members of council. Diana Garcia, assistant city manager.

This evening, I am before you to provide an update on the permanent memorial efforts

and to request direction on budget and RFP development for a permanent memorial

to the victims and survivors of the January 21, 2023 mass shooting in Monterey Park.

So by way of introduction, at the March 19th meeting,

City Council received and filed the update on the permanent memorial process, including some recent survey results that were done by the Chinatown Service Center.

So by consensus, the City Council directed staff to move forward

with the site selection process for the outdoor memorial, placing an emphasis on the City Hall front guard to research previous memorial committees

and their design acceptance process and to report back to City Council for consideration

at a future council meeting.

So staff has reviewed recent and relevant examples of memorial planning processes,

including their RFPs from Aurora, Colorado, San Bernardino County, Sandy Hook Elementary,

and a recent RFP that was issued by Beverly Hills. As part of this research, staff also consulted with Community Arts, Inc.

That's a nonprofit public art organization that supported San Bernardino County in developing their own Curtain of Courage Memorial.

So this evening, staff is asking for direction on a budget to be included in the RFP.

I thought it would be helpful to take a look at four relevant projects.

So we've got two here on the first slide. The first is the memorial for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Their budget was $3.7 million.

There is a photo of their memorial there on the first photo on the left.

$3.7 million, and that was funded through a city bond. The incident occurred in 2012, and the memorial was dedicated in 2022.

The second example on the slide is the shooting in Aurora, Colorado in the movie theater.

Their budget was $250,000 and this was raised by the 720 foundation which was an independent nonprofit. The incident occurred in 2012 and the site was dedicated in 2018.

Additionally, we have the San Bernardino County Curtain of Courage Memorial.

This incident happened in 2015.

It was dedicated in 2022, and the budget for the project was $2.3 million,

and this was funded by the county as it had happened on county property at a county event.

And then the final one that we've included here is a current RFP that's out,

that has been issued by the city of Beverly Hills,

and this is requesting proposals to build a memorial to the October 7th incidents in Israel.

requesting council's input on a target budget or at least a range for our own memorial project. A budget is going to allow staff to move forward in drafting an RFP. And establishing a budget is critical to set some clear expectations for folks that are going to be submitting proposals so that they have got kind of clear expectations and we can attract qualified AND EXPERIENCE ARTISTS. IN ADDITION TO BUDGET CONSIDERATION, STAFF HAS PREPARED A DRAFT COMMUNITY SURVEY TO HELP SHAPE THE CREATIVE DIRECTION OF THE MEMORIAL. THE SURVEY IS INTENDED TO GATHER INPUT ON THE EMOTIONAL TONE AND THE CONCEPTUAL THEMES THAT THE COMMUNITY WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THE FINAL DESIGN. YOU'VE GOT THIS SURVEY IS ATTACHED TO THE STAFF REPORT AND WE'VE GOT SOME OF THE QUESTIONS up here. It's a very brief survey. But we'd like to administer this prior to issuing the RFP to ensure that any prospective artists have guidance from the community when developing their proposals. Different communities have different tones that they'd like to strike

with their memorials. Specific examples include Charleston, South Carolina, the memorial for the Emanuel Baptist Church, really wanted to strike a tone of forgiveness. That's super unique.

Other memorials don't want to reference the incident at all and just want to evoke a feeling

of peace. So there are different types of input that we'd like to provide to any artists who are

going to be submitting RFPs for this. So the survey would run for approximately 30 days,

WOULD BE AVAILABLE IN OUR THREE COMMUNITY LANGUAGES ONLINE AND THEN ON PAPER VIA PAPER

SURVEY IN OUR FACILITIES AND WOULD BE PUBLICIZED VIA ALL OF THE AVENUES AVAILABLE THROUGH

THE CITY. SO THIS EVENING STAFF IS ASKING THAT CITY COUNCIL CONSIDER PROVIDING DIRECTION ON A PRELIMINARY PROJECT BUDGET APPROVING THE DRAFT COMMUNITY SURVEY AND DIRECTING STAFF TO INCORPORATE THIS INFORMATION INTO an RFP and of course taking any such additional related actions as may be desired. Pending

council direction, staff will finalize and distribute the community survey, develop and issue the RFP, and will report back to council on a regular basis with updates and for further

direction. Thank you. That concludes my report. I'm available for any questions.

THANK YOU. I'M GOING TO LOOK TO MY TEAM HERE TO SEE WHAT YOU GUYS ARE THINKING HERE.

WELL, I APPRECIATE STAFF FOR BRINGING THIS TO US. I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG PROCESS AND WE'VE DONE SOME INITIAL OUTREACH THROUGH THAT FIRST SURVEY ALREADY. I UNDERSTAND THIS SURVEY IS A LITTLE MORE FOCUSED ON THE THEME FOR WHAT WE AS A COMMUNITY WILL BE LOOKING FOR TO help guide potential design down the line. My kind of broader point on this is I don't want to elongate the process more than it needs

to be.

Whatever we can do to get closer to the RFP, I don't want this next survey. I'm happy and support this additional survey. I just don't want it to take forever, right? I want to continue to see progress on this. and I know some of the dates for some of the memorials we've seen tonight and for previous reports is, right, decade-plus in some cases. I don't think that's what we need in our community, and I would hope that we would move a little more quickly than that. And so just don't want us to be holding us up for continuing input and continuing input and continuing input when we've gotten somewhere ready and we just want to get to a point where we're getting to a design, I think, where people will be able to give more direct feedback on something when they have something kind of to look at. With that, I very much support the general direction we're moving in

in terms of a budget.

I understand we just need to put a number out there, otherwise it's like, oh, this could be a $100 million thing or a $1 million thing or $10,000 thing. We just need an idea so that we have an idea for the RFP and for people who are interested in potentially helping with the design.

to have a scale and range, right, of what the design can and should be and what the kind of balance of that would be.

Given the presentation is given on some other similar kind of themed memorials, I would be comfortable just throwing a number out there for the sake of discussion in the 250 to $500,000 range. I think that's more appropriate and within kind of my general kind of feel of where we can be, knowing that we're not looking at acquiring property separately. We're looking at city-owned property, publicly city-owned property already,

and so that shouldn't be a cost to that.

And then knowing kind of the size and scale of what is available at some of our city properties

that we've been talking about.

I think that's kind of the right range. not to say that we're I know we need to it would help as we issue an RFP for those who are interested in putting in proposals and potential designs they just need an idea right am I gonna plate everything with this material versus this material and how much those kind of things cost I'm comfortable with providing kind of a range of 250 to 500 knowing that we will also I expect go after other grant funding that might be available looking at philanthropic partners, maybe some community fundraising, and then also looking at maybe the county, the state, federal government to maybe potentially help to fund this as well, knowing that we wouldn't be, I would not expect the city to shoulder the full cost of that. But if there's a proposal that comes in and it's like, it's a great proposal and a design and it comes a little over 500, like it's not, I would say I've just put out there, right 500,000 is not hard and fast like a dollar over is not going to qualify so I think providing a broad range just for the sake of conversation for guidance for the RFP process I would kind

of put out that range but knowing that if there's room there and obviously if it comes in Lor than

that off we're open to that too. I'm in agreement with those numbers as well I'm kind of interested So to see once we put the RFP out what type of projects or proposals we would get from the public. I think that would provide also some guidance for us in terms of where we are at in terms of monies. Like Council Member Long, I'm also hoping that we can find partners that will help us fund this so that it minimizes the impact on the city in terms of funding this project. But I do want to see this project move forward.

I think all of us are.

So I'm definitely in favor of setting at least $250,000 to get this process going.

Mr. Mayor, again, thank you, Diana, for making this presentation update.

I know it's taken a lot of staff time and effort as well as input from the community. And I think I'm comfortable, again, with that range. I mean, $250 to $500 or even less, because especially if we have to look for funding, and again, I don't want that to also delay any project, because I know it's... I mean, especially, I like, ideally, by the time we do our third annual visual possible to have something to announce to the community, as far as what we have, and minus the vision as far as memorializing the tragedy of 2023.

I have a random question.

The mural that we're doing, the one, you know, like Welcome to Modern Park, how much was that?

Do you recall?

I know it's a different topic, but what was the price tag of that mural?

The dragon one? No, no, no, no, no. The one.

40,000?

Okay, 40,000. Okay. I mean, just. Bob Park.

I know we're discussing ideas, but certainly, and I welcome the public's own input as to what is an appropriate monument, but I think I ask that because, too, maybe we talk about public art as well, perhaps that's something we could think about, but that could be expedient and not too expensive as far as something that is a balance of memorializing, but as well as also not trivializing the tragedy that occurred.

So as someone who's my family is three generation students of Star Ballroom, my mom, myself, and I, we all took lessons and danced at Star Ballroom. So the incident definitely affected us. And, you know, this memorial is very important to me. So I do echo my fellow council members' thoughts about getting this memorial done sooner. I don't think it has to be something very expensive because I think to the community, It's more about the emotions and the remembrance that comes with it rather than needing something really expensive, especially since the economy is unpredictable right now, our budget is tight, we have a pool we need to save up for. So if we can get a cheaper project and done quicker that really remembers the victims, I would prefer that rather than spending even $250K sounds like a lot for a memorial. So if we can get some ideas of budgets, but on the cheaper side and more

exudited, that's what I feel like would be good. Okay. I think for me, the emotion part,

the connecting part and the timeline, because I looked at some of the timeline on those projects, all those price tags are above what we're talking about here, but everyone's different, right? Every city is different. But I look at some of the timeline. I mean, the earliest is that one that's like six plus years so I don't want to go eight ten twelve years if we can do this the earlier we can kind of settle in and I think I would be supportive of the I'm going to say 250,000 range because that's kind of where where some of these are and then we'll say that if we get further funding we can add to that subject to you know further funding but I think I think an RFP around the 250 range is probably a decent number to start with. So I'm in agreement there.

I would just ask staff, what if with this guidance what would be the next step if you can just kind of help us think through what would happen or what would need to happen

kind of after this?

Sure. So in the staff report I've outlined some possibilities for the rest of the process.

we've already started working on some draft RFPs with the information that we already have but

the next step would be then to to do the survey we would run that for about 30 days the results

of that as well as the results of the CSC survey would be attached to the RFP so that the artist

would have that input and then we would we would issue and publicize the RFP that would be open

for a certain amount of time we would then review any of the applications we get different cities

and different communities have had different processes for that.

Generally, those are reviewed initially by a small committee.

That can include members of the community, survivors, family members, city staff in some cases.

For Aurora, for instance, they received, I think, about 200 or 300 proposals when they did this.

So the initial, yes, so that's a potential.

So the initial committee would then narrow those down to a top group. In Aurora, they invited, I think it was five to ten of the top submissions to then visit the city and visit the site, to see the area, to meet with the survivors, and to present their projects. So with an RFP, we'd be requesting them to provide sort of 3D model, images, ideas.

they could present those to the committee and potentially to the public in an open meeting at city council or at a town hall meeting to get additional input.

And then based on that input, the decision could be made by council. It could be made by committee. So those kind of next steps are a little open and fluid, and we're looking for direction from council on how you'd like us to handle that.

So I have a suggestion. I think because council members Wong and Lo were part of this committee when we started this, I like to recommend them or assuming they are okay with it to kind of take the lead and maybe add a couple of folks from Assistant City Manager Diana, you've been involved in this day one along with Diana and maybe folks from the Healing Fund, CSC, Hope Center, and maybe a couple of our either fire and police first responders, just a small group to kind of go over the RFP, because if we're going to get 200 or if we're going to get 50, you guys need to kind of channel that down to maybe three or five, and then from there figure out where we want to go and then report back if that's okay.

The mayor read my mind.

I was going to suggest similarly maybe it's a subcommittee of the council working with staff and then kind of establishing that committee to receive whatever proposals we do get. And there's a chance we might not get any, too.

I mean, who knows?

But if we do get a lot of proposals, I think I would prefer, from the council perspective, to be able to just review the top submissions. And maybe we can use this subcommittee with staff and making sure that the committee does intensive consultation with

viele

healing fund and victims through csc and other avenues and other key stakeholders i think we can do that um through whatever channels we can evaluate what makes sense and then bring back to the council potentially find more right high right a handful no more than a handful of designs to consider potentially moving forward on it i don't know yeah to the mayor's point it doesn't make sense if we do get 100 or hundreds of submissions for us to parse through that as a council maybe set this committee to filter that out and then bring top submissions to the council

to take potential next steps.

I think again at this point we probably do need a way to filter out what is realistic given the input we will probably have before us.

So do I, if that's an agreement, do I have the motion for a dollar amount? And then I guess the part of that motion could be maybe two representatives from the council as a subset. And then you guys can figure out who to include on the stakeholders to be part of that committee.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, before we go through the motion, just for clarification, I heard a few different dollar amounts in ranges. is i wanted to provide clarification uh to respond to your question about the greetings tour mural that that cost us about 40 000 just for clarification on that so 40 000 on that mural um the other item is i heard that potentially if if we do the rfp and there's a price range in there or a not to exceed amount in there um would submissions be looked at that are potentially over that cost, understanding that maybe if it's just over, right, you're interested in that so that we can include that language when we're preparing the RFP so we can give them like a target range or an actual dollar amount not to exceed. But if you're asking us to then maybe consider others, we want to add that so that there's as clear direction as possible so that all the submissions have an understanding of what, we're asking them to provide.

Perhaps not to exceed $500,000? $250,000. Not to exceed $250,000.

That's fine.

I would say, right, I think if we're going to put

a number in the RFP to give an idea of what design is going to

the scale of the design, I would say maybe we just put around $250,000

knowing that the city would seek additional funding from outside sources. So within that range and what's reasonable. And I think the committee can, I mean, we can look at everything that's submitted. If someone submits whatever, a $10 million design, that's fine. We'll parse through that. But knowing that this is the discussion from the council in terms of what range we're thinking, it probably wouldn't become one of the top submissions for the council to,

we wouldn't forward that on.

We can say something like a target of $250,000

potentially to be supplemented by any funds raised. Yeah.

I would say not a target of $250,000 because if you have a project that's $100,000, we don't want to make it more extravagant

just to try to hit the $250,000 mark.

Yeah.

So I think we have enough direction, so it sounds like it's a...

Around.

around, potentially not to exceed $250, understanding that the city is going to look for additional funding. Also hearing that all submissions will be considered, even though I understand priority-wise if they're over, then maybe those are going to be less prioritized. But yes, all of them will be at least reviewed. And then understanding that there's some consideration for a subcommittee of council, sounding like the existing subcommittee that we already had.

I'll make that motion if that's clear.

And just a point of clarification, go back to this slide here.

We're also asking that council approves the draft community survey. So just as long as that can be in the motion as well.

Yes, and approve the community survey as presented.

Council Member Wong and I, Council Member Lo second.

Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Okay. Thank you, Diana.

Thank you.

Consent items.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull item 3J for, I just have a couple questions, but unless other council members would like the presentation, I can skip over that.

3J for Council Member Wong.

I also had 3J, but I'd like maybe a short presentation just to kind of highlight what's going on there because it is pretty exciting, and I know I'm excited. I live near that area.

Okay, anything else?

Maybe we can pull 3B to just give an overview of our Council's strategic plan goals and objectives.

3B, okay.

And if that's it, I'm happy to make a motion to approve the remaining items.

Motion by Council Member Sanchez. Second.

Second by Council Member Lo.

Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Wait, actually, there were no requests for there for, okay.

No speakers.

No speakers? Okay. All right.

Bypassed it if we did.

Okay, let's go to the order that was, let's go to 3B because that's up first.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Diana Garcia, Assistant City Manager. I'm going to give you a brief overview of Item 3B.

This is adoption of the 2526 City Council Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives.

So at the meeting on February 22nd, City Council along with Department Heads established six overall strategic goals and objectives.

to guide the work for the city for the next 12 months.

So they're here up on this slide in an abbreviated form,

and then I'll kind of show the full ones in the further slides.

So we've got public safety, stability of fiscal and human resources,

strengthening the local economy and housing, maintaining or improving infrastructure and facilities, community resources and services,

and public communication and civic engagement.

And there's some photos of us from that day, from that meeting. So as mentioned, we set six goals.

Below each one of those six goals, we've got objectives and strategies to reach that.

I do want to make a note that many of these are carried over and updated,

the larger goals from our previous year's strategic plan.

A lot of these things are very long-term, but where the goals might remain,

the objectives and the strategies to accomplish those may change slightly.

So these are I won't read all all of them, but these are the goals and objectives here

So a lot of good stuff for staff to kind of dig their teeth into

And these are all in the attachment to the staff report so you can read these in full and

I DO WANT TO NOTE THAT THERE WAS A TYPO IN THE ATTACHMENT. I THINK IT WAS UNDER GOAL 4. THERE WAS AN ERRENT D HANGING OUT.

BUT WE'LL MAKE SURE WE REMOVE THAT WHEN WE PUBLISH THIS.

SO THIS EVENING IT'S RECOMMENDED THAT THE CITY COUNCIL ADOPT THE 2025-26 CITY COUNCIL

STRATEGIC PLAN GOALS AND OBJECTIVES AND TAKE ANY SUCH ADDITIONAL RELATED ACTION THAT MIGHT BE DESIRABLE. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. I'm happy to support this.

I know we've had a lot of discussion and appreciate staff and everyone in the community as well in helping to formulate this strategic plan. My only kind of question and request related to this is if we can schedule an update on our sustainability plan and our economic strategic plan since those are coming up on one year to just see where we are and check in on progress and see what wonderful things we've done on both of those fronts and progress that's still to be made on both of those fronts as well. But happy to make the motion or leave it to whoever wants to make a motion

to adopt this strategic plan.

Okay, so I have a motion by Council Member Wong.

Do I have a second?

I wanted to thank the staff for putting this together as well as the entire city council for all their hours at the strategic planning session that we had a couple months ago.

I will second.

All right, second by Pro Tem Yang. Take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Okay, moving on now to the other pool, item 3J.

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

Sean Igoe, Public Works Director.

I also have Maya from Kimley-Horn. She's going to be going through some of the presentation with us and giving us an overview of not only what we've done with the community outreach meetings, but also some of the items that we're looking at for you all to approve for some design concepts for the Monterey Pass Road Complete Street Project. We're obviously excited for this project and what it can do for the community and for this 1.6 mile stretch of Monterey Pass Road. Significant improvements to make some enhancements along this corridor. So with that, I will go ahead and hand it over to Maya.

Thank you, Sean, and thank you for having me here tonight. So I just wanted to provide an update on the project.

So we're looking at Monterey Pass Road, specifically between Floral Drive to Garvey Avenue and where Fremont Avenue meet. You can see the corridor here highlighted in purple.

And so this project is a complete streets project. So when we're looking at complete streets, we want to think holistically at all the different users and their needs. And so on this corridor, we're focusing on trucks, vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and then supporting elements such as landscaping and placemaking opportunities for the corridor. This project is grant funded through Measure R. These grants are specifically dedicated to Monterey Passroads. They can't be used for other purposes and they're specifically identified for EV charging infrastructure, optimizing traffic flow, developing accessibility and pedestrian improvements, integrating transportation technology, and developing bicycle facilities. And this project is part of the SR710 Mobility Improvement Projects, which aim to relieve congestion along SR710 between I-10 and I-210, which in this case includes Monterey Pass Road. So we developed project goals which aligned with not only the grant, but also the feedback that we heard from the community to develop accessible and safe pedestrian facilities. We know that the pedestrian facilities on this corridor are not consistent right now, which makes it challenging for pedestrians to access not only businesses, but to walk through this corridor. There are currently no bike facilities, so developing multimodal connectivity and encouraging a mode shift through bike facilities along this corridor to optimize traffic operations and truck travel along the corridor, and then to integrate sustainable improvements such as EV charging infrastructure. And then ultimately, we want to think about creating an integrated corridor which addresses all user needs of Monterey Pass Road. And so we developed a pretty comprehensive community outreach plan that looked at integrating both in-person and virtual meetings. We also offered interpretation services if requested at these meetings. And so we had three community meetings. Two of them were in-person and one was virtual. And then we also had a meeting specifically for the businesses, which was virtual. In these meetings, we identified a prioritization exercise. It looked a little different when it was in-person versus virtual, but very similar type of activity. And then we also had an interactive map exercise that was done in-person and virtually as well. And you can see the in-person version at the bottom. We had pretty large role plots that were set up in the room, and participants were instructed to draw on them, write any comments, so we could really gather feedback about priority areas and location-specific comments that we needed to focus on in our design.

For the prioritization exercise, we had posters around the board, and when participants attended the meeting, we gave them three stickers. They were instructed to choose their three priority areas as it aligned with the grant categories that I discussed earlier,

such as bike facilities, pedestrian facilities, traffic flow, goods movement, parking, and EV infrastructure. And so what we did is we did this in person, and then we also created a poll. And you can see here that these are the results, the combined results, from both the in-person and virtual meetings. Bike facilities and pedestrian facilities got the most votes, folLod by traffic operation and then goods movement, folLod by parking infrastructure and then EV infrastructure.

It's important to note that this exercise wasn't necessarily to eliminate certain specific elements, but to really think about when we're doing design, what are the most important areas of the project design that we should focus on.

some other points i want to highlight is what we heard from the community

the community really emphasized a need to design protected bike lanes and consistent pedestrian

facilities along the corridor so really an emphasis on safety on this corridor they also

discussed considering truck pedestrian and bike conflict points so this can take form in several different ways but line of sight is one of those developing additional additional pedestrian crossings to facilitate safer crossings on Monterey Pass Road. And then maintaining parking for businesses and then participants specifically identified that there are challenges with trucks parking either curbside or in the center turn lane. And then I wanted to highlight here

at things like complaint of pain, visible injury, severe injury, or fatality. We also looked at traffic operations. And so what we identified is that, you know, typically the traffic operations on this corridor, we don't see particularly high volumes. We see pretty consistent traffic patterns on the corridor, but we do see some delay at some of the intersections specifically for the side street approaches. And so thinking about ways that we can enhance the traffic operations for this corridor with these funds that are available for the city and making it more efficient and safer for everyone. So looking at this, we see opportunity for proposed signal at Brightwood Street, re-striping at Kern Avenue. These were two locations where we saw delay and then also extending the left turn pocket at Fremont and then developing signal coordination along the corridor to make travel more efficient. We also looked at different bike facility types and thought about what would be the most appropriate placement of the bike lane and what would be the most appropriate buffer treatment considering a lot of different factors and one of these main factors was also the community feedback we got. We also want to think about gap closure opportunities, so thinking about not only today but also what's to come for the city and how this plays into a larger bike network and also thinking about nearby light rail facilities and how this can create first mile, last mile opportunities for people. We also need to think about the truck loading docks. We know that currently larger trucks may extend beyond loading docks in driveways, potentially blocking the sidewalk or parkway area and the street. And so this is also a very important part of the project design. And so just wanted to briefly highlight the existing conditions. Generally, the corridor is about the same width. It's a little wider in the southern portion. It's about 72 feet curb to curb. And what you'll see in the southbound direction is that it pretty much goes down to one lane between Floral Drive and Kern Avenue. So it kind of already functions as one lane at that point. And then there is a center turn lane. In the northbound direction, there are two travel lanes. And in this part, specifically, parking is pretty much prohibited. So currently, there's really no parking in this area. For Kern Avenue to Fremont, so looking at that northern segment, it's a little bit more narrow. It's about 70 feet curb to curb. Generally, parking is permitted. There are some areas where parking is not alLod. And then there are two travel lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. Along the corridor, there are overhead facilities. And with those overhead lines, it's important to note that the city is currently working with SoCal Edison to underground them, specifically between Vagabond Drive and Mabel Avenue. So those are other things that we have to consider with our design. And so looking at the different opportunities and potential options for this corridor, we examined the different priorities for the community and also what we need to consider from a design perspective and we are early in the stages but for us our recommended concept is a class 4 bike lane. Now this class 4 bike lane would be parking protected so what that would mean is that the parking would basically fall along the travel lane and then the bike lane would run curbside. We would have one travel lane in each direction and we would also develop a continuous sidewalk to bridge those gaps where there's currently lack of sidewalk facilities. We would think about preserving existing parking where it is permitted. Some stalls would need to be removed, but it's important to note that that's not necessarily a byproduct of the design. It is bringing this corridor up to standards. So what that means is line of sight where it currently might be a challenge, but also driveway access for those trucks. We would also think about if there are opportunities to add parking where feasible and safe to do so, we would think about doing that between Floral Drive and Kern Avenue. and so just wanted to give you a high level project schedule of where we are we're right now in the kind of high level planning stage concept level design stage so bringing us up into kind of the end of spring 2025 and tonight we're hoping to get your approval to move into the plan specs and estimate stage so this would be preparing our design package and the design would incorporate several disciplines including traffic engineering roadway and civil design and landscape architecture so a nice kind of multidisciplinary project, that would then lead into construction. So we're thinking about a year-long design duration, and then construction would follow completion of the city in SoCal Edison undergrounding project as there are going to be improvements from that project that we can leverage for this project, so a good opportunity to sort of phase that approach. And so just to summarize, the request of City Council tonight is to consider approving the proposed concept for Monterey Pass Road Complete Streets Project and taking such additional related action that may be desirable.

Thank you. Questions, comments? Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I appreciate the staff and the consulting team for getting this project here. I, like Council Member Sanchez

and many others on this council, am very excited about this project.

I believe, if I'm not mistaken, this would be the first true Complete Streets Project in the city, in our city's history. so appreciate that we've gotten to this point

it's been years of

planning and plotting and working and getting the funding locked in and working with Metro and all these other partners and the stakeholders to get even to this point so kudos and appreciate the staff

for getting us here

I am fully in support of moving ahead on this project

to

not just to improve mobility but also to just make Monterey Pass Road a safer street I've run along my password. There's a lot of missing sidewalks. It's not the safest design currently And I think this will bring a lot. I know this will bring a lot of improvements in terms of pedestrian access bikeability and improve traffic conditions and mobility for cars and trucks that use this very important thoroughfare through the city on a regular basis appreciate all the work that went into this in the community input that we sought that helped to shape this

preliminary design. On EV charging, you mentioned that was one of the goals for the project.

It's not clear to me where we're talking about EV charging on this. If you can highlight a little bit of what that might look like when this project,

as we move forward on this project, what that might look like when build-out happens.

Yes. So we are evaluating this part

of the project. Obviously, because this is a complete street project, we're talking about roadway

improvements. So we are evaluating

how we can actually have charging in some of the parking lanes. Obviously, that's not always easy, but, again, we're looking at how we get there.

As you saw as part of the community input, there wasn't a lot of emphasis on that from the community,

but, again, it is part of our application process through Metro, and we are evaluating that.

There are opportunities there.

We're just looking at how we get there.

I will highlight I know there weren't a lot of community

calling for EV charging

I think we're moving ahead and the state regulations are there we're going to get there and we're going to need EV charging not just here but throughout the city I know we're working on not here tonight but ZIOD is working on and the whole team is working on signing and expanding EV chargers publicly accessible EV chargers throughout the city. So I want to make sure that that's integrated into this design

once we move forward on construction.

One of my questions slash concerns is I want to see us move forward on this. My concern will be, and I know the timeline is uncertain in terms of having to wait for the undergrounding project for utilities along this path. But what would be the estimated timeline for construction? And my real question is how long might some of the businesses be impacted along and those who use the thoroughfare be impacted in terms of how long the constructions might take?

Sure. I'll say in a perfect world,

if we can work in tandem with getting the undergrounding project done during the design process, hopefully that would take a year for the design, plus getting construction work done for Edison realistically. It's probably going to be a year and a half to two maybe for that. once they're done then we can move forward with our project so in a perfect world two to two and a half years realistically probably two to three or more again it's really going to be dependent on Edison's underground project that's really what hinges on this if we're if that is not causing any delays then we can move forward in about two years with getting this project complete going to your point about the businesses during that year of construction it'll be they'll be impacted obviously that's going to be part of the project scope is to work with those businesses to ensure that impacts are minimal and to ensure that our contractor works with them on their schedules for deliveries

and items such as that. Yeah.

So you've already answered my question.

I was going to come next, but I appreciate whatever we can do to minimize impacts of the businesses on Monterey Pass Road when construction is initiated and in process. Whatever we can do to align some of that stuff with the business owners there and those that are utilizing the street.

The timeline for construction is the timeline,

but whatever we can do to phase some of that or to avoid impacts wherever we can, let's work that into the plan as well.

Absolutely.

I know that I'm equally as excited about this project. I actually happen, my daughter goes to, has gymnastics on Monterey Pass Road, and I tried, my wife had a great idea of walking there from our home and strolling three girls through Monterey Pass was one of the hardest things I've done. So I'm really excited about this project. In fact, I hope my wife is watching because I'm not sure she really believed what I was telling her was going to be happening tonight, but I will send her pictures. So really excited about this project. I think when we talk to Edison that we make sure that whatever Edison needs to do and that they know that we hope to build EV charging stations so the appropriate you know electrical stuff they need to do to wire this area would be you know obviously appreciated and then when we get to that stage also alerting residents in this area who use this corridor to get from different parts of the city that they are aware I know I my wife and I use you know travel through the Monterey Pass to get to work and transport our daughters to school. I'm assuming during the construction phase, it's not just going to be businesses that will be impacted,

but residents as well.

So be mindful of that. But in the end, even though that's how construction works, I think the light at the end of the tunnel is going to be the amazing project

that we're going to be seeing.

So I'm very excited about this. I think there's going to have to be some next-level type of ribbon-cutting for this area, maybe closing down the street where people can bring out their bikes and bike through it and enjoy the walkability of this area would definitely be warranted, I think.

But looking forward to this,

and my council member, Wong, very excited about this project and that it's a complete street project. So can't wait for it to be finished.

Hopefully I'm still on the council then.

Mr. Mayor?

So a few years ago,

the city council adopted a complete streets resolution. And I'm glad after adopting that resolution that we are not executing that vision. And at the same time, we also adopted a vision zero resolution to minimize pedestrian fatalities and accidents. And I do appreciate the staff and recommendations regarding class four bike lanes, which I do support in concept.

and you know I think

that it's important to remember that

and especially because when it comes to things like bike land

I know residents or even people will say

well where does it go? Does it go anywhere? And I always say that you know think of long term

because there is a regional bike plan

and

like all great projects, all endeavors it takes a while but

you know when

this is important investment and first step and again the fact that it also

allows people to take the E-line and the larger regional metro

system. I mean again we're really talking about the cutting edge

of mobility

alternatives and so you know I think that my park you know should be very proud of itself for

you know being at the forefront

of again providing mobility choices for all residents.

I wanted to thank staff for putting on all of the town hall meetings for residents and ourselves to attend and gather all of the information from the surveys to put together this design. Initially when I saw this design I was actually a little concerned that we're replacing one of the driving lanes. I'm totally in support of the bike lanes but I was a little concerned that there might be more traffic with one less driving lane. But today I drove through Monterey Pass Road again during rush hour around 515. And from Floral to Kern, it's about a block. And then from Kern to Fremont, that's the main area, it probably took me four minutes from Floral all the way to Fremont. So there was no traffic in that area. The traffic actually starts after Fremont on Garvey. And I did see a biker when I was driving. The biker initially between Floral and Fremont stayed in the driving lane because there's no bike lane. And then after Fremont, he actually got onto the sidewalk. So I passed him initially, but once I hit the traffic,

he passed me. So he reached Atlantic before I did. But he was on the sidewalk because there's

so much traffic on Garvey. So I think this design will help slow down traffic, which is going to make it safer for pedestrians. And then when I was driving there, there was a big truck coming out that was blocking part of the lane. So just want to make sure that all the radiuses, the distances are taken care of so that when big trucks come out, it doesn't hit any of the cars.

I do have one question, though. For one of the slides you guys had mentioned, adding pedestrian crosswalks. Which areas on Monterey Pass Road will the crosswalks be added? So we are in the conceptual design, but I think a place that comes up quite a bit is near the gymnastics studio. And so if you look at that portion between Davidson and Vagabond, there's a pretty large stretch without any pedestrian facilities. So we haven't necessarily identified a specific crossing location at this point. But that would be the area that we're going to be able to do.

we're looking at and then of course that would be accompanied by additional sort of safety elements

such as you know lights that flash and that are initiated so that there is the the presence of a you know pedestrian that's made aware for drivers okay yeah that's great because sometimes with

crosswalks pedestrians just assume they're safe and then it becomes you know even more dangerous

so the lights i think would be very helpful yeah if i just can add to that real quick so part of

that evaluation is because that's at a curve we need to make sure evaluate the this line of sight distance for drivers so that's to the point of we haven't identified that area we really need to as part of the final design look at what

makes sense for any potential pedestrian crosswalks thank you thank you you know

in comments I just really quick forgot to ask earlier the right we're adding

bike lanes to Maury Pass Road. I believe we are looking at eventually we're going to do a citywide bike plan or revise or redo our existing city bike plan. Is that right?

We can look at that. I'll kind of actually I wanted to add to what Council Member Lo was talking about. So as you're aware we have a Treragrande project that's also going on. We have community meetings this month to identify that. That's in conjunction with Montebello So, Rosemead, LA County, and then obviously, the City of Monterey Park. But part of that project, that full stretch of Petro Grande will eventually tie into Riggin and then eventually tie into Monterey Pass. So that point of you have to have a vision, right? A lot of that ties that connectivity. So those three projects will finally connect. It's taken quite some time to get there, but again, that's that long-term vision that we have to have, which goes to that regional bike project. And so again, we'll we can look at that but right now that's not something that we have that we're actively working on

Yes, I would just make point as we go into budget in the next few weeks To see how we can make sure that these individual projects that are not currently connected once we build out Protero Monterey pass and I think Garvey is gonna come in a few months That we're connecting as many of these to make them as useful and usable and safe in terms of a full bike network in the city and seeing where we can also integrate these bike lanes that are going to be built out with our neighboring communities to where there are existing opportunities to do so. Let's make sure that we're building into the regional network, regional bike network that's growing in the area as well.

Yeah, the nice part about the Monterey Pass Road project that actually connects right into L.A. counties. So, again, we're doing our best to connect all those dots. Again, it's just having that vision and the patience, right, to understand that long term we will can have all this connectivity.

I'm glad someone has a vision up here. So with that, do we have a motion?

I'm happy to make a motion to pass item 3J.

I'll second.

Okay, motion by Council Member Sanchez and second by Council Member Wong.

Take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Okay. Moving on to four public hearings.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we are asking for this item tonight to be carried over the public hearing to be continued to the June 4th meeting.

Okay, so item 4A to be carried to June 4th meeting.

Do we need a motion for that or no? Okay.

Motion to continue the item to the upcoming June 4th city council meeting.

Motion by Council Member Lo. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Second by Pro Tem Yang.

Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right.

We shall continue that to the next meeting.

New Business 5A.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Just a brief staff report for you.

This evening, it's recommended that city council consider, if desirable,

directing staff to prepare a letter on behalf of the city supporting the request from Cal State LA.

Cal State LA is requesting that the city of Monterey Park consider submitting a letter urging the governor and legislative leadership to

reject a proposed $375 million cut to the CSU system and to uphold the state's financial commitments to CSU in the 2526 budget. The email received by Mayor Ngo and city staff is attached for reference along with information about the impact of the proposed budget cuts.

A sample letter, the sample letter mentioned in the staff report as mentioned at the beginning of the meeting was not included in that attachment.

So we've provided it to council on the dais and we also have copies should members of the public would like to look at that. That completes my staff report. Happy to answer any questions.

I have questions or comments.

I would just note I'm

okay with the city issuing a letter I would say

if I'm looking at the draft letter right now

my caution and

wariness on this is one I just read before the meeting

the news that

the governor is going to have his proposed budget

is May revised next week I think

and the projection

from the news is that the state will be

looking at a 10 to 20 billion dollar deficit going into the next fiscal year I think cuts it's right cuts in some way shape or form for many state programs are

on the table and so in that sense of course we want to protect local assets

like Cal State LA East LA College even our own funding that comes from the state I worry that we may be inundated with requests like this from everyone that is potentially going to potentially has funding on the table that may be cut I worry about getting into that kind of position and then the other part of it is also we have state funding that may be at risk as well and so are we going to argue against ourselves if this becomes the case and if we're at risk for funding cuts across the board from the state so that's my hesitation on this I also know I mean just generally if we write this letter I don't know how much it will actually help from the perspective that the state will have to cut from somewhere if it's not here it will be somewhere else that may be closer to home too so Mike I'm just putting those thoughts out there I don't if we do issue a letter I would say we should be a little less specific in terms of this the proposed three hundred seventy five dollar million dollar reduction to CSU maybe I think it's a letter that's more general in terms of the value of higher education and CSU system including to the wider region and calling on the state legislature and the governor to take that into account as they look at the fiscal picture going forward

for the state.

Something more general along those lines.

Mr. Mayor? Yes.

I mean, again, I get that, you know, all local agencies are facing possibly serious

cuts from the state.

And again, you know, every week I get emails regarding the grim news about the state's finances, not to mention potential impacts from the Fed. But again, I have no objection either to a very important, vital institution such as CSU, which has Cal State LA. However, if we're going to do this a favor to them, and I know I mentioned the city manager,

but what are you going to do for us?

Because for example, at our Monday Town Hall, we're going to park the park system. We have some residents saying they were trying, struggling to get slots at nearby pools.

And I think, you know, why not?

But if we're going to do this, we should at least then call CSU. I'm like, well, can you help some of our parents and our students swim at your beautiful Olympic pool over on your campus, which is just over 710 Freeway? I mean, you know, I don't want to just do this letter and we get nothing out of it.

Yeah, I think there is some kind of collaborative partnership there. And I, where I'm thinking on this is that I don't know if we need to go into the specifics about the exact dollar amount, but we as a council can say that we support education in general, higher education, and if the state budget can look at not reducing or not cutting that type of budget, I would be supportive of that. Very similar to this letter, but to a toned down version instead of just calling out a specific number, I think that's where I would support.

Sure. I'm hearing a more general support letter in support of higher education,

important educational institutions, not singling out a dollar amount and just

asking the governor's office and legislators to make sure that they're

taking into consideration the value of the Cal State University system when they're doing their budget.

I do have another request.

Of course, again, I'm in favor.

however, because I'm looking for where it's addressed to,

would it be possible to just have the mayor's signature on this letter? And the reason why is because, as far as you know, I work for the assembly, so there are actually struggles about me lobbying my employers.

So, okay.

I'm fine with it. And I have a comment.

Just generally speaking, I'm not sure if we can generalize the letter a little bit more, and I know it's focused specifically on CSUs and universities, BUT MAYBE JUST EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, JUST BECAUSE I KNOW THAT K-12 SCHOOLS MIGHT POTENTIALLY SEE A DECLINE IN FUNDING AS WELL. SO MAYBE JUST GENERALIZING AND SAYING JUST ALL OF OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, BE MINDFUL OF FUNDING, BECAUSE I KNOW WE HAVE FOUR DIFFERENT SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN OUR CITY.

I WOULD JUST SECOND THAT, RIGHT?

WE ALSO HAVE EAST L.A. COLLEGE, THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEVEL THAT'S IN THE CITY THAT PROVIDES SERVICES. SO IF WE CAN GENERALIZE THAT.

Okay, the vision now is we're just going to not reduce educational funding.

Well, Diana, that's your job to make this protect educational funding to the extent, to the fullest extent.

And only the mayor's signature. Am I hearing that? That's fine.

That's okay. That's fine.

Okay, do we have a motion?

I'll make that motion.

I'll second. Second by Council Member Sanchez, right? Okay. Take a vote.

Approved unanimously. Okay.

Let's go to 5B.

Good evening. Again, I'm a mayor, mayor of pro tem, and city council. Sean Nigel, Public Works Director.

I also have Sochi Tupan.

She's our Public Works Manager. And tonight you have an item before you about our refuse rate adjustment. And so Sochi's going to go through just a quick update on where we're at with these updates and the process for the Prop 218.

So with that, I'll hand it over to Sochi.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. Sochitipan, Public Works Manager. In September 2024, the City's new franchise agreements with Ware Disposal for Residential Trash Collection and with both Athens and Ware Disposal for Commercial Trash Collection went into effect. Those new agreements included changes to the City's collection program to comply with changes in State's regulations, including SB 1383 which requires organics recycling throughout the city. Because of these changes and changes in cost of services, the city with assistance from R3 consultants completed a solid waste franchise fee study to identify costs for the management and administration of solid waste services and refuse rate adjustments. The last study for refuse rates was last completed in 2014. R3 analyzed and calculated franchise fees to be paid by the City's trash haulers based

on three components.

This includes the City's cost for the management and administration of the agreements, charges for the use of the public right-of-way, and costs associated with pavement impacts. Based on the results of the study, it's recommended that the City consider a maximum franchise fee for both the residential and commercial solid waste agreements, the maximum annual franchise fee for the residential agreement would be $1,079,536, or 14.13% of gross revenues. The maximum annual franchise fee for the commercial agreements would be $502,883,000, or 14.4% of gross revenues. If approved, the refuse rates would be adjusted and become effective September 1, 2025. The new rates would also include the annual consumer price index CPI adjustment of 3.3%, which also takes effect every year on September 1st, as outlined in the current franchise agreements. Implementation of new solid waste rates requires a public hearing for considering such rates per the Prop 218 process. At this time, staff is recommending that City Council approve the proposed Prop 218 notice which provides a notice date of July 16, 2025 for a public hearing and effective date of September 1, 2025 for the implementation of proposed rates. If the attached notice is approved, it will be mailed to property owners and tenants who directly are responsible for paying refuse bills. Property owners and tenants have the ability to protest the proposed

rates until the closes of public hearing.

I just want to make sure, remind me of the timeline for if we move forward on this, when the notices would go out and when it would come back to council based on the vote or the lack of the return feedback, whatever.

So if approved, the notices need to be mailed out at a minimum of 45 days before the public hearing. We are requesting that council approve this public hearing be set for July 16th, so the notices will be mailed out at the end of May. They would be mailed out in three different languages to all property owners. On July 16th, the proposed rates that you see on the slide and that were included with the staff report would be considered for approval and implementation. And we would work with our trash haulers to update their customers' billing to take effect on the September 1st cycle.

I'm in favor of moving forward with this as presented in the staff recommendation. I would say my feedback and requests would be once assuming it's brought back in July with not enough protest votes to stop this. I would be in favor of looking at potentially phasing in the full amount over a period of time as opposed to all at once. And at least having staff bring options for how to phase the franchise fee if we're going to move forward on it. knowing that very likely in the next few months, the economy at this rate will probably be in a different place. I want to be sensitive to that with our residents as well. So if we can just direct staff to look at potentially how options for phasing in the franchise, the full franchise fee or the maximum franchise fee as options down the line, if that makes sense.

All right.

I know this is nodding, so it makes sense to her.

no comments that I agree with I think that's a great suggestion

is there a motion?

I'll make that motion

motion by Council Member Wong

I'll second

second by Council Member Sanchez

take a vote

approved unanimously

okay let's move on to 5C

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. My name is Rebecca Bohorkas, Principal Management Analyst in the Fire Department. Before you tonight is a staff report regarding entering into a master equipment lease agreement for financing up to $3 million, allowing the purchase of new fire department engine,

purchase and installation of replacement HVAC units, and a new public works dump truck.

Staff is recommending the use of a master equipment lease agreement with Bank of America Public Capital Corporation as it limits the use of the city's reserve funds and allows the payment for equipment to be spread across several years

at a tax-exempt fixed interest rate of 3.97%.

Okay.

We're going to interrupt this because I actually am going to recuse myself on this topic. Okay.

Okay.

All right. You may continue.

The Fire Department is requesting the purchase of a new fire engine to replace a 19-year-old engine. The aging engine has had significant use over the years, and as such, maintenance and replacement parts are becoming increasingly more frequent and costly. In following the Monterey Park Municipal Code, the department is using consortium pricing to ensure the Lost possible base price for the engine. The estimated cost for the turnkey replacement engine is approximately $1,179,156.

The new engine will come with a 10-year or 200,000-mile warranty.

The engine is estimated to be delivered in about 27 months. Public Works is requesting the purchase of a replacement Ford F-650 dump truck. This new dump truck will replace a 2005 dump truck, which is over 20 years old and has reached its useful life. The unit has had significant use and replacement parts are no longer manufactured. The truck is an important piece of equipment and staff is requesting council waived bidding requirements per resolution 2025-R3. The estimated cost of the replacement truck is approximately $120,000. The last purchase as part of the master equipment lease agreement is the replacement HVAC units at City Hall, the Delta Treatment Plant and Garvey Ranch Museum. By replacing these aging units, it will improve energy efficiency, reduce long-term maintenance

costs, and ensure a comfortable environment for staff and visitors. Like the dump truck purchase, staff is requesting council waive bidding requirements per Resolution

2025-R3.

The estimated cost of the units and the installation is approximately $1 million. The requested financed amount, which includes the cost of the equipment, as well as sales tax and a 20% contingency is $2,861,548.86. This would equate to a loan payment about $190,000

biannually over nine years beginning November 16, 2025 through May 16, 2034. The biannual payments would be committed through each year's fiscal budget appropriation process. And that concludes the staff report. Public work staff and fire staff and finance staff are happy to answer

any questions. Thank you for that report. Any comments? Thank you and appreciate staff bringing

this to us. My question is maybe more for finance. I'm just curious kind of our philosophy or our general kind of approach to financing purchases of capital purchase like this versus buying outright if we have the funds. I know we have finance purchase of equipment for certain projects,

but we also direct

we don't finance some projects too. I'm just wondering why, is there any

particular reason we're

planning to finance these three particular

items versus buying them outright and how we kind of approach it generally?

Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council, Martha Garcia is on, She's joining us virtually.

Martha, if you're there, do you want to take that?

Okay.

We're going to see if Laura, our finance managers, can come down and provide a response.

Mayor Pro Tem and City Council, Laura Bourgeon, Finance Manager. The reason we are choosing to or recommending to finance is to free up cash flow and to free up reserves. We don't

WANT TO HOLD UP RESERVES OR DRAW DOWN ON OUR RESERVES UNLESS WE REALLY NEED TO.

AND THESE PURCHASES WOULDN'T BE CATASTROPHIC IN NATURE.

UNDERSTOOD. I'M JUST WANT, RIGHT, BECAUSE THERE ARE TRADE-OFFS, RIGHT? WE PRESERVE CASH IN OUR RESERVES FOR EVENTS OR OTHER THINGS WE'VE GOT TO SPEND MONEY ON if we finance, but if we finance, we're, of course, paying more over time

than we would otherwise up front.

So I was just trying to balance that. I understand that there are good arguments and strong arguments for both of those approaches. There's a part of me that's like, well, I don't know if we need to finance the dump truck, but that's $100,000 for just, I mean, I don't know.

I don't know, but.

I'll try to jump in here as well.

So, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the Council, understanding that we have limitations of some of our funds, there's not availability for us to finance all items.

So, for instance, when we're doing capital improvement projects, such as we have some capital improvement projects that are coming up this year that we think are high priority, for instance, roofs, rooftop replacement.

So we can't, there's not a allowable financing option for a roof.

And so the tradeoff is we can finance a vehicle, lease a vehicle. It has a low interest rate. We spread that payment over time. And then that way we could go ahead and add the CIP project to the roof project.

So that's not financed.

So that's just an example of why these items, especially if they're high dollar amounts, we have these opportunities to then finance this and spread out over time. We try and we're mindful of the interest, and we understand that that's going to be an additional cost to the city. So we're not always exercising this recommendation. We did it in the past for a previous fire engine and I believe some radio equipment for a police department, but we're not utilizing this recommendation often. I'm sorry for my understanding. I think Martha could be heard on Zoom, but we can't hear her here in the chamber.

So sorry, Martha, for that.

I don't know why we're having difficulties there.

I'm fine with it.

I just want to be cautious about exercising the option of finance and tie our hands into the future too much and overpay right with interest. Knowing that we use this option pretty sparingly. I've this is the first time I've seen us finance equipment in my time on council at least I'm fine with this but if there are other questions or thoughts from the council open to those as well

do we have a ballpark of the financing terms such as Ballpark interest rate and also a number of years that we're gonna finance for

It's a nine-year loan, and the fixed rate is $3.97. Broken down the taxes and fees is $11,050.34.

So that's the sales, the broken down amount for the fire apparatus is on page three of

your staff report. 1.2 million for the apparatus sales tax is 123 approximately thousand. The HVAC is $1 million. The dump truck is about $103.9,000. Again, taxes and fees are about $11,000. The financed amounts $2,861,548.86. And it doesn't have a breakdown of the interest rate or the total interest paid but we can get that to you.

Do you know if there's a prepayment penalty if we wanted to pay it off sooner?

There is not.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Any motion?

I'll make the motion to adopt staff recommendation on this.

I'll second.

Let's take a vote.

Approved unanimously. All right, let's bring...

I had to recuse myself because I conflict with the employer who... This bank is actually a subsidiary of my employers.

I had to recuse myself for that.

Okay. Okay, let's go to...

Do you have any future agenda items before we go to... If not, then let's go to City Communications.

Thank you.

I was privileged to represent City of Monterey Park as our SCAG delegate,

but also as a regional council member at SCAG.

The California Association of Governments had their annual general assembly. last week in palm desert appreciate seeing hundreds of other local elected officials gather together every year to help set the budget in the priorities for the southern california association of governments going forward uh great to see some city staff there including our city manager and others from throughout the region really be able to collaborate on some of the important things from housing transportation and planning our region's future together and look forward to continue to represent Monterey Park, Alhambra, and City of Montebello as the regional council member for SCAG going into the next year as well. That's all I got. Okay.

Just very briefly, wanted to thank the chief and the police department for hosting the town hall on Monday at Bella Vista Elementary School in my district. Great to see a lot of community people come out and thank you chief for helping field a lot of those questions and concerns uh that residents had i got an opportunity to stick around and talk to some of the

the Mark Keppel Academic Decathlon team, because I had an opportunity to spend the week with them last week in Des Moines. I'm so glad that they did really well.

And I'll share just a little bit.

It was because it is very momentous, and I know our school district is very excited about this, but this is the first time an L.A. County school has made it to nationals in 40 years,

so it's just a huge deal.

And it's great that two high schools in our community made it to nationals, so that was pretty awesome as well. I know the kids were very excited, And so we had our first national state showing, a really good showing for both O'Hanbro High School and Mark Keppel High School.

So that was really, really, really great.

At the same time, as the U.S. academic decathlon is happening at this convention center in Des Moines, it was hard to not avoid the fact that there was also UFC fighting happening on the other side and also WWE Friday Night Smackdown happening on the other side and the indoor beach volleyball happening at the convention center as well. So a lot of excitement for them. But other than that, looking forward to tomorrow, Robert, looking forward to tomorrow. Start of play days, but also the kickoff for Cinco de Mayo. And just celebrating our city's birthday this weekend. So excited for the 80s music, the 90s music. That's my time period. So I'm excited for all of that and being here this whole weekend with my family. So thank you, Robert and staff, because I know it takes a village to accomplish all of those items. But definitely looking forward to this weekend. So I hope all the residents will come out and celebrate Monterey Park's birthday and have some fun. I already see the carnival rides out there. Almost deviated over there as I was making my way into the chambers, but glad I made it in here.

Okay.

Actually, I also want to just commend our colleague who has been such a diligent academic tech cast-on coach. And, you know, your student success really is a reflection of you.

So thank you for it.

And I think we're very fortunate to have an educator on the City Council. You know, I just want to give kudos to the Women's Club of Monterey Park, if you're watching.

Great event. You've always found a wonderful event.

And for me, I always tell people that it's always a week before my mom's birthday. so I get to every year buy a gift from my mom.

So thank you. And yeah, look forward to tomorrow.

Yeah, Women's Club Fashion Show was definitely a hit. Our first responders actually took the spotlight. So I think they were the most excited models on stage that day. Councilmember Sanchez and I actually got sworn in as new Kiwanis at the Kiwanis Club meeting today. so excited to be Kiwanis now and then also former mayor Anthony Wan just restarted the Monterey Park Lions Club there was an inaugural meeting last month and their next meeting is Tuesday, May 13th 12pm at the Monterey Park Lions Manor so inviting everyone to come and participate

I attended many of the same events but I'll highlight a couple that was not mentioned we mentioned about the 20,000 eggs for Easter and then tomorrow will be my part 109 years old so which tells you we have a lot of visioning to do because of all the infrastructure that's over a hundred years old so good luck to counsel on that also attended the student leaders from Mark Keppel a couple of weeks ago here actually they did a mock council chamber meeting the women's club gala fashion show and then of course the police town hall and the pool town hall that we had

for Parks and Rec at the library yesterday so that's it

we're going to close shop at 9.20

Thank you.

Thank you.

You