City Council Meeting — October 1, 2025

! We'll start with our land acknowledgment. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Talengar, the home of the Gabrileño-Tonfa people. We show our respect to the Gabrileño-Tonfa people as well as all indigenous people past, present, and future and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabrileño-Tonfa their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabrileño-Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land. Everyone please rise and let's have the Monterey Park Fire Explorers come for the flag salute.

Please rise and let's have the Monterey Park Fire Explorers come for the flag salute.

Forward march.

Right face. Forward march.

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, and liberty and justice for all.

Prepare to present color.

By face. Forward march.

Vote Pollard.

Black Salute. About 8.

Board Marsh.

All right, thank you. Everyone can be seated.

And we have a certificate for a civic superstar today. His name is Ian Wu, and he's in the second grade from Repetto Elementary.

Thank you so much, Ian. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Ready? Ready?

One, two, three.

Okay.

Yes.

All right, everyone here. One, two, three.

Thank you.

all right thank you again Ian and if anyone else wants to be a civic superstar feel free to

Thank you.

Thank you again Ian. If anyone else wants to be a civic superstar, feel free to come to our future City Hall meetings.

We always would love to have people lead the Pledge of Allegiance for us.

Madam Clerk can we get a roll call please

Thank you Madam Mayor

Council Member Gove

Present

Council Member Wong Present Council Member Sanchez Present Mayor Potem Lo Here

And Mayor Yang Present All present thank you

Thank you Any agenda revisions or additions

No Mayor

Alright

And Public Communications

All right, we have quite a few public speaker cards today. Let's see.

Looks like we have five speaker request cards.

And we also have two written communications. All right.

So we'll start with the first speaker card, Gabriela Robles.

Good evening, everybody. My concern is more on police patrolling around the neighborhood. And why is it that we don't have... I've noticed that on top of the light signals, we don't have cameras. Like not too long ago, as a matter of fact, a week ago, my son's car got stolen in front of our house.

About a year ago, my husband's tools got stolen from his truck in my driveway. And I mean, I moved from LA to Monterey Park about 20 years ago because I thought it was a safe neighborhood. Like I was willing to pay the rent, which is a lot higher than in LA. But it was because I knew that there was security here and I wanted my kids to grow up in a better neighborhood than what I grew up in and I've noticed that I want to say about a year now it's been declining a lot and that concerns me that's more of my issue right now where there's been a lot of theft especially on around my block

Madam Mayor and City Clerk do we have do we have her contact information so we can follow up we

want to make sure we follow up we do yeah we have a contact information thank you thank you yeah we can follow up with you. All right, thank you. Next speaker is Nathan Song.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, City officials. Thank you for giving me this chance to speak about my concern, which is the flag was recently flown at half-staff to honor a person that I don't think should have been honored. Now, my understanding is that the executive order comes down from the White House, but that only pertains to federal buildings, not city, not state, not county, not schools, not universities, not police departments, nor fire departments. Now my question and concern as a citizen and member of the LGBTQ community as well as a person of color, I am very concerned because we live in fraught times as we're all aware of.

So I'm curious who made that decision, who made that call to fly the flag at half-staff. I spoke to the Alhambra City Council, and in a nutshell, they said that's the way we've always done it.

But to me, that's not good enough because we can and should do better for our community, for all people here, as well as the country. And I think to simply Lor it because somebody gives this executive order is not right. So I'm curious, how does that process work here in Monterey Park? Who made that call?

Mayor, if we want to just remind the speakers,

public comment, it's not an engagement.

We have five minutes to speak, and then we can try to respond quickly after the public comment period.

Well, that's what I'm asking for is a response. Who made that call?

Was it a council member, city manager, your attorney, city clerk?

Who, Your Honor?

I don't have the answer right now, but we have your information, so we can get back to you with an answer, too.

Well, I appreciate that, and, you know, I've got to say I'm very surprised that you don't have a handle on who's making an important decision like that.

to fly the flag at half-staff for a man who was not a hero,

he was not a martyr, he was a racist.

And I have some direct quotes here by Charlie Kirk.

He said it was a huge mistake to pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He blamed Jewish money for ruining American culture.

He said gay people are destructive and endorsed having them put to death.

He said, and this is very ironic to me, he said of the Second Amendment, to paraphrase Charlie Kirk,

the Second Amendment is worth the cost of some gun deaths to preserve our God-given rights.

Now, that to me doesn't sound like a heroic person speaking. And he doesn't speak for me. He doesn't speak for everybody. He was a lone voice that worked to agitate a lot of people around the country and around the world. by us choosing to Lor the flag at such an important moment, a symbolic moment. To me, that was weak. That was very weak. And it was disrespectful to the many people, many citizens, and many immigrants that are under the gun right now. And we will continue to be hunted and persecuted if we all roll over. So excuse me for being agitated and upset, but I am. I can't help but be. And to come here and hear that you don't know who's making what decisions, well, I have to say, Mayor, I'm very surprised.

My representative in Alhambra did a follow-up call with me where he assured me that he would work for more open and more effective communication because apparently the city manager made the call in Alhambra.

He said he was unaware of that decision.

So I hope that you can do a better job for yourselves and all of us. Thank you. Thank you.

We have your information, so we'll look into it and get back to you. Next speaker is Dawn Rock.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council members, dedicated staff. My name is Dawn Grock, and I've had the privilege of calling Monterey Park my home for over half a century. When you say it that way, it sounds like a very long time, because it is, but truly, it's been a gift to live here for so many years. Madam Mayor, I want to thank you for reaching out to me after my last public comment, for your comforting words and for sharing the information on tree dedications, your kindness meant so much to me. I would also like to thank Robert Aguirre, our Director of Recreation and Community Services, who extended the same courtesy. I deeply appreciate both of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to listen and respond.

It feels good to be heard.

It matters to know when residents take the time to speak, city leaders and staff are listening. That kind of connection builds trust and strengthens the bonds between a city and its people. Which brings me to my request tonight. It is my understanding that under new...

no longer be able to extend their five minutes by receiving another speaker's time. If this is true, I respectfully ask the council to reconsider. I fully understand the need for efficiency and the concern that arose when individuals who may not even have been residents monopolize the meeting by speaking at length on every single agenda item. That situation was unfair and unproductive. But to apply these restrictions equally to residents of Monterey Park, people who live here, raise their families, pay taxes, and care deeply about this city, feels like we're being punished for the abuse of a few. Speaking up these meetings is not something I take lightly. I carefully prepare my comments, write them out, and time myself to stay within five minutes. But there was one occasion when I needed just a little bit more time. And a friend generously gave me their minutes. That small allowance made it possible for me to share my full thoughts respectfully and completely. I believe our residents should continue to have that option. For some, this chamber may be the only platform they have to make their voices heard in the democratic process. Removing that opportunity limits not only speech, but also engagement. Monterey Park is a city with a proud history of civic participation. Our diversity, our traditions, our collective voices are what makes us strong. I urge you to trust your residents, the people who love this city enough to let us speak fully when it truly matters. Policies are important, but so is the principle of listening fully, openly, and fairly. Please let us not close the door to those who are in good faith, seeking to contribute to the future of Monterey Park. and of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't talk about the pool please come by this Sunday it's finally here October 5th and watch Thomas swim at our community's first annual swim campaign to save Barnes Park pool

I think Thomas you're the only one swimming you think?

okay you can all join him in the pool if you want to yes yes and thank you

Thank you all for donating and for sponsoring this event and for caring to preserve a place where generations have learned, swam, and grown together. A couple of people in here have an example of the t-shirt that you all will be receiving. Thank you for your time, your service, and your commitment to our community.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Next speaker is Junior Friends of the Monterey Park Bruggenmeyer Library.

Good evening, council members, Madam Mayor, and city officials. My name is Linda Sia, and I'm currently a senior at Markupo High School, and I proudly serve as this year's Junior Friends president.

Junior Friends is a teen organization at the library that focuses on teen services and volunteerism throughout the community.

One of our goals this year is to become even more integrated, involved, and exposed to all the resources available in the community.

For starters, we've been able to successfully host socials and team programs at Barnes Park, arrange visits to city facilities, and are in the process of planning a Junior Friends

Monterey Park walking tour. Although Monterey Park has been a city I've known my entire life, Junior Friends never fails to show me aspects of the city that I have never known before.

Exposure to the city and its resources is something that we as a board hope to bring to not only our members but to more teens this year. Thank you.

Good afternoon Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Hannah Ho and I'm a senior at Mark Epple High School. This year I serve as Junior Friends Vice President. Junior Friends as a program dedicated to teens aims to assist teens like myself in various ways. For example one of our goals is to host men multiple innovative programs to help teens better prepare for higher education, as well as the real world as they move further down their journey. Just last month, we collaborated with the Youth Center from Chinatown Service Center to host a college prep workshop featuring USC students. We were also able to have the honor to have Assemblymember Mike Fung sponsor us for lunch. In the future, Junior Friends plan to continue to host more educational programs to teens and sponsor every sponsor teens in the future for their education in the future.

Thank you. Hello everyone. Hello members of City Council. My name is Dennis B. and I am a current Junior Friends Secretary. I'm also currently a senior at

Markepa High School. As part of the Junior Friends Board we have connected with local student clubs and organizations to form partnerships on teen programs. Recently, we have partnered with a nonprofit organization, Gradient Colors, where our members were able to design and paint their own tote bags, allowing teens and outlets to express themselves and let their creativity flow. Furthermore, we had a partnership with Thera Picasso a while back, where our volunteers learned to fold origami stars as a way to de-stress and also track their mood. Our collaboration on this event alLod help to bring awareness to mental health and also assist students in finding new ways to decompress. Our partnerships with fellow club organizations have helped us create more meaningful programs for teens and helped foster bonds within our local community. Thank you.

Hello, city council members and staff. My name is Celia Tang, I'm currently a senior at Mark Keppel High School and I'm a publicity for Junior Friends. Junior Friends has created a portfolio called

the teen scene to showcase all the events we have participated in throughout

the year. This includes both city events like Monster Mash and teen library

events. Another goal that we have been aiming for this year is to meet new

teens through online outlets through creative and thoughtful content. Moreover, we have

sent a proposal for Junior Friends to have an official Instagram account to meet a wider audience. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. My name is Shelby Young. I am a homeschooled student in my junior year

and I am the historian of Junior Friends. Another one of our goals is to help connect teens to businesses in our community through programs like Teen Entrepreneurs. Throughout

Throughout this past year, we've invited guest speakers who've taught us the fundamentals

of entrepreneurship and hosted logo creation and marketing workshops. We've also had the pleasure of touring the facility of Leaflet Coffee House, and we plan

on visiting the city's farmers' market soon.

We hope that with programs like the Teen Entrepreneurs, we inspire young people to start their own

business endeavors as well as spotlight and support small businesses in Monterey Park.

Thank you all for allowing us the opportunity to speak today.

We know that a lot of you have visited at Junior Friends meetings as guest speakers,

but Junior Friends gladly extends that invitation to all our teen events, so we hope you attend.

Thank you once again, and we hope to see you very soon. Thank you.

Thank you, Junior Friends.

And our final speaker for today is Margaret, Leon, and Cindy E.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members and community friends.

I'm here tonight on behalf of the Save Bond Parks campaign to invite everyone to a very

special community event happening on Sunday, October 5th from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock at

the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. This event is completely free to attend and it's an opportunity to bring our community together in support of preserving a historic and much needed public resource, the Barnes Park Pool. We'll have some special guests joining us that day. Coach Lee,

Coach Ish Perez will serve as our emcee. He is the swim coach from the Mark Keppel High School.

I'm sorry. And we're honored to also have Coach Lee, a 1988 diving Olympian who will be autographing t-shirt that day.

These t-shirts are available for sale at $20 a piece.

Thank you, Cindy. we want to

thank also Elizabeth, Henry

and many of our neighbors and friends who stepped up and sponsored us for this t-shirt and look how beautiful they came out

and they're like right behind us, your name could be behind the t-shirts

and we also want to acknowledge an inspiration

from our former mayor, Vinh,

and you generously donated $1,000,

and because of that, you inspire others to do so.

So I just want to let Vinh know that...

We need a medium. Oh, okay.

Thank you for stepping up. It always ticks the first person to take the first step,

and other people are following your step, and they are matching your pledge.

We just wanted to know if you're going to up your match.

And also, not to forget that Barnes Park Pool is set to be the home of the 2028 Olympic diving event. that's that basically has opened up the doors for us tremendously it's become a very visible event and not to mention that we have also partnered off with

boys and girls club they stepped up they're giving us more than support

They're giving us mentorships and so on and so forth.

We're going to be doing this as a community. We really need to.

So please come out Sunday, October 5th, 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock.

The door's going to be open and we're going to have a good time.

It's going to be a party.

Thank you.

I just want to say a few words. Thank you for all your support, especially the Monterey Park businesses that we solicited

in a very short amount of time.

But just think, it was less than six months ago when we started this mission to save Barnes

Park Pool.

Less than six months ago, we have created a 501 .

That is an amazing mission for a handful of residents who have one focus, to rebuild Barnes Pool.

And I want to also bring up the fact that Don Rock brought up regarding the additional minutes. I've spoken up at every single meeting since mid-April,

and I've always had the opportunity to bring up had to have another person with me to give me her time.

There's times when I've had to speak up and the five minutes just goes really fast.

And so I hope you bring back to where we can bring an additional speaker for two or three minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. And that's all for our public speakers today.

We did have one written communication from a Dr. Tomat Singh. And with that, we'll move on to staff communications. Item 6A, starting with the library.

I don't know mayor while the staff is coming up if I could address really quick some of the public comment very briefly I believe staff is working I think the gentleman left but in terms of the flag policy I think staff is looking at adjusting yes or a city manager

Ashley already spoke with him.

And then

the junior friends, as you guys are leaving, just thank you for coming. Appreciate your advocacy and the work that you put in today

and throughout the year.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of City Council. We have some fantastic programs coming up this month, and I'm excited to share with you

some of our highlights.

First, we have the always popular In-N-Out cover-to-cover reading club. where children can read five books and then receive a free burger. To register, visit montereypark.beanstack.org. Speaking of food, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, teens will make handmade arepas popular in Central and South America. To register for this event, please call the library's teen services. And for all ages, next week, the library's celebrating Banned Books Week. Kids can do a special scavenger hunt and learn about children's books being challenged and banned. And adults and teens can visit the library's pop-up shop in the adult reference area for some other fun activities. Kicking off this event, the library is screening 1984 on Monday, October 6th. And then for all of October, everyone can come and celebrate HalLoen at the library. We have some special spooky programs for children in the storytime room and some just as special spooky programs for adults in the friends room. The All Abilities Club is also hosting a HalLoen dance party with movement games for adults and teens are getting ready to go to the party. for a library fear factor on HalLoen Day. Other programs this month with our community partners include Your Job, Your Rights on October 8th, where Chinatown Service Center and One Stop Consulting Group will present about basic job rights. This will be in both English and Mandarin. We also have the three-part Pregnancy Wellness Series beginning Saturday, October 11th, presented by the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine and Chinatown Service Center. And we also have Elder Law Day on Saturday, October 25th, where lawyers from the Asian Pacific American Bar Association will be on hand to provide free legal assistance. Space is limited and registration is required. And then last, dress in your aloha spirit and join us next Friday, October 10, at Luminarias for the Monterey Park Library Foundation Gala and help support more programs and activities for the library. As always, please check our library website for more upcoming programs and events.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Wow.

Wow. Eight different things there. I'm counting.

I'm waiting for the next group to say they got more events.

So congratulations.

Good job on doing all that. Way to challenge the next group of departments on what they can do for the city.

Good job. Quality and quantity. I appreciate it. Looking forward to the events.

Thank you so much for all the programming. I mean, I'm not sure who's more excited about the in and out, my daughters or myself, but we've been going every week to read books at the library. In fact, I ran into our librarian, head librarian at the library as well. But I want to encourage kids and families to take advantage of this great opportunity to

promote literacy.

So thank you so much for doing that. Same thing, I know we have another item on the agenda dealing with banned books week, but thank you so much for, I got a chance to visit the library. saw a lot of different stands, including Hispanic Heritage Month recommended books,

both for children and adults.

But I also got to see a lot of staff favorites. And I took a picture of some of them. I was kind of interested to know which staff member, because I read the same book.

I'm kind of interested to hear, I took a picture of it. Let me see.

But anyhow, maybe I'll just talk to you later about it. But thank you so much for promoting literacy in our community. and it's great to see so many families and how engaged our library is. There's always something happening there.

So thank you so much.

Looking forward to all these events like the council member Ngo said.

And again, for those who are listening,

you haven't bought your tickets yet, please buy your tickets for the library gala

next Friday the 10th.

You still have tickets for it already sold out.

But yeah, it's a great opportunity for the community to come together to support our beloved library.

Thanks for always presenting amazing events. I don't know who the creative brain is behind, but really amazing events.

Thank you. Thank you.

Then I have some zines about band books for everyone.

Oh, great. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, next we have 6B, Recreation and Community Services.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members. My name is Christina Alatorre and I am the Recreation Manager for the Recreation and Community Services Department. So first we'd like to thank our community for making it out to tamale making in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. This was held on September 17th and we had approximately 50 people attend the Langley Center and learn how to make tamales. We'd also like to thank the folks who made it out to date night on September 18th. Approximately 80 people arrived for that event and as you can see, it was a great night shared by all who attended.

Next slide, please.

We'd also like to thank the folks that attended the Luell Ceremony on September 25th. We had over 100 people attend that event as well. And the community who joined us on 9-11 for the Patriot Day Ceremony right outside City Hall.

All right.

So we are starting an initiative, United Against Hate, to stop and prevent hate, implicit bias, and discrimination, which are a threat to safety and civility in neighborhoods, towns, cities, and counties. This initiative provides education, community outreach, and a reporting system through 211, which is LA County's line, to support victims and strengthen community safety. The initiative aims to embrace diversity and supports building inclusive and equitable

communities.

Now this is going to be held on the week of October 19th through the 25th. So with that being said, we have a few signs available right outside the lobby. They look like this. They're double-sided in English and in Spanish. As you can see, there's also a sign for Monterey Park. We will have those available beginning the week of October 13th. So signs can be picked up tonight right outside the lobby. starting tomorrow at the Langley Center and at the Bruggenmeyer Library as well. And again, just as a reminder, if you wanted a specific Monterey Park sign, we'll have those available beginning October 13th.

Again, Langley Center and the library. Next slide, please.

So we have been honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.

We've had quite a few programs with the library because we're all one team here.

So with that being said, library started off with the Dungeons and Dragons theme. We actually had a mariachi out at the farmer's market on September 25th. And from October 14th through November 3rd, we're going to be celebrating Dia de los Muertos at the Langley Center. So if any community members would like to honor their past loved ones or even their furry family members, animals, They can go ahead and do that by emailing the recreation email at recreation at montereypark.ca.gov. This information is also available online on our website.

Next slide, please.

At the Langley Center, we are going to be offering quite a bit health screenings and health services to our community members. So blood pressure, glucose and blood pressure screenings are happening every Tuesday. The next one is on October 9th from 9 to 10 a.m. And again, that's at the Langley Center. In collaboration with the AYC's United Mental Health, we are offering a senior safety series

workshop.

That will begin on October 7th. We'll have one on the 14th, the 21st, and the 28th from 1230 to 2. and they'll cover varying topics such as outsmarting scammers and building resilience against acts of hate. Along with that, in collaboration with the Asian Pacific Health Corps at UCLA, we are going to be offering a community health fair on October 18th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Next slide, please.

At the Langley Center, we are also offering an art workshop on October 3rd and 17th from 10 a.m. to noon. And in collaboration with the Hope Resiliency Center, we are offering a trick-or-treat dance party for $3 from 1 to 3. And as we tell you, almost every month that we offer a dance party, it is quite the place to be. It is a party place from 1 to 3 p.m. if anyone would like to join. And a new program we're starting at the Langley Center is Game Day, and that's every Tuesday from 1 to 2 p.m., and that is led by city staff.

Next slide, please. So some of our bigger events coming up.

We have Electric Park, and that is on October 11th from 4 to 10 p.m. It will be house music. It's family friendly and we're going to be featuring Adam Auburn and various DJs throughout

the event.

We'll also have food trucks and various booths throughout the day. Finally, for all families and those looking to come trick-or-treating, we are going to be offering our annual Monster Mash event on October 16th from 4 to 7 p.m. There's going to be free candy and our entertainment for that day will be Kittle Carew. It should be a fun time for all family members to enjoy.

That is all I have. If you have any questions or comments, I'm here and happy to answer your questions.

I'm just going to write something down.

You guys are number one.

15 items. Although four of them are in the past, but 15 items.

I'm so blessed to see our Parks and Rec and our library working together. You start with the seniors, and then you start also with the juniors and everyone in between. So I'm so blessed to be in a community where we are inclusive, as you mentioned earlier, and we're doing what's right and what's best for our community. And show that slogan again. Again, for those of you who can't see in cameras, it says LA County Neighbors United Against Hate, and there's another one that says Monterey Park United Against Hate, but the reality is we stand united against hate, and that's what makes our city strong, and that's why we love it, and that's why we're here. So thank you for all your work in this.

Thank you, Council Member Ngo.

Just echoing the appreciation and looking forward to all these events and the activities, and I'm very excited for the continued dad jokes from my left.

Same thing.

I'm very proud of this campaign. I think it's a great way to show our support for all of our neighbors and to show that we value diversity here in Monterey Park and that we don't stand for hate here. But I'm also very excited for all of the family-friendly events that are coming up. I know Monster Mash, my girls are already picking out their outfits in terms of what they were going to wear that day.

I'm still trying to decide mine,

but I can tell you what it's not going to be. But anyhow, very excited that we have, between the library and Parks and Rec, we have so much engagement happening for families and for our community to engage with our city. So thank you so much for all of the work

that you guys are putting in.

And I know that doesn't just take one person, so I appreciate all the collaboration that's happening between departments,

including public works. I see Sean somewhere over there, but yeah. All right, thank you.

Our annual HalLoen event is an excuse for me to buy a costume every year, so I'm looking forward to finding a costume for this year as well.

Well, I'm dressing up as K-pop demon hunters during Electric Park, so. Which one? Oh, yeah, which one?

Rumi. Rumi. I love your shirt. How do we get one of those shirts? Show everyone the shirt you're wearing, too.

Honorable Mayor, we have some for you up in the lobby.

Oh, perfect.

Well, thanks for all the great events.

We're very much looking forward to them.

Thank you.

Next up, we've got fire department.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council, City Staff.

Battalion Chief John Ginigan.

here to go over October's events.

So annual Great ShakeOut, it's the world's largest earthquake drill,

annually held on October 16th, and it's to help all individuals, businesses,

and governments prepare for earthquake safety.

ShakeOut, we encourage you to drop, cover, and hold.

I have a little file there to show a little sample of it,

and we encourage all people participating at home, at work here at the city to do that,

and we will take those steps.

Also want to take that time to encourage Edith.

So exit drills in the home.

A perfect time to practice with your families. Get out, practice the fire escape routes, and so everyone in the family knows

what to do in a fire situation.

Next.

And then we're also going to do internal city staff

training as well under EOC.

We always do the annual Great Shake-Out. We have everyone do the evacuation here, meet on the front lawn, have a little Q&A with some prizes, and then we take some of the staff over next door and focus on more disaster service worker certification and ICS training. And then we'll also be conducting citywide windshield surveys as well through the city where we focus on that on our apparatus and they go cruise windshields and practice that as well.

And then of course, we can take this opportunity

to encourage residents again to sign up for Everbridge.

That's the link there.

You can go on the city's website to do that and then get notifications.

And on the next slide, we can show

that it's been quite successful over this last week and stuff.

We've sent some out.

These are just samples of it that came across for the water main breaks, public safety notification for the great shakeout, practicing on doing it with the CERT members as well, and power outage that we also had affected recently on the north end due to an Alhambra one.

And that's it.

Other than that, there's the QR code to sign up and register on there.

We encourage the public to do that as well and we will do the same here for the city of Monterey Park again. Any questions? I'll start again. So first we have fun, then we have to prep for safety. So you guys are awesome. I love it. I can't wait till the chief gets up here, the PD chief. So that's going to be epic. Good work, guys. Perfect. Thank you. Ditto. Looking forward to this and appreciate the efforts that continue to keep our residents safe. Sounds good.

I think we're going to be able to get the residents prepared for emergency.

Thank you. I just had a question. The great shakeout stuff information, have we shared this already with residents

in terms of like the Edith, for example? Yeah, usually it's shared there. It's in the

Cascades as well, too. We have it on the city website. And then are we sharing it through our

social media platforms, I'm assuming, as well, right? If we haven't, we will. Thank you.

I know this is ours, but are we also doing anything with our local schools as well?

You know, what we're doing this week is the safe school, walk to school with the students, but we haven't tied in with the schools yet on some of the stuff. They do their own e-birderside drills on the same time, but it's something definitely we want to work forward and work with the schools.

Thank you for the updates and for keeping us safe.

Thank you. And next up, police.

Oh, I've got gifts. I've got swag.

Hello, everybody. Madam Mayor, City Council, Scott Weiss, Police Chief. I'm going to give you a couple updates tonight. Actually, I'm not going to do it. My staff's going to do it.

We're going to talk about Pink Patch. As you can see, it's October 1st,

So we're beginning our Pink Patch project, which will go until the end of November, along with Prostate Cancer Awareness with the Fire Department.

And then we want to introduce you to our new transparency portal for the public, called

Citizen RIMS, and my staff is going to introduce both. First I want to introduce you to Amaranta Reyes, who is our coordinator for Pink Patch, and she's going to explain the program and go through everything with you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members and city staff. My name is Amaranta Reyes. I'm a police officer and I'm in patrol with the city of Monterey Park. And I'm here to introduce the Pink Patch Project, which is a project that I'm very excited to introduce to you all

and that the police department is actually very proud to be a part of. So the Pink Patch Project, it is a public awareness campaign in the fight of breast cancer awareness. We work along with City of Hope, and a little history of the Pink Patch Project is that it started in 2013. It started with Seal Beach Police Department, and it launched the Pink Patch Project. So it was an idea where, unfortunately, they had their female staff where they would suffer from breast cancer.

So it was something that the department is able to support their staff members.

From there, in 2015, Irwindale Police Department, they actually folLod the Seal Beach, what they were dedicated to, and they started the patches.

And they sold $20,000 worth in patches. And in 2016, the chief of police for Irwindale PD, Anthony Miranda, he presented the project to the LA County Police Chiefs Association, where 25 agencies joined the Pink Patch Project. And as of today, the program includes hundreds of agencies worldwide across law enforcement, fire, EMS, and federal departments. Collectively, Pink Patch Project has collected about more now, I'm pretty sure the number

is higher, but about a million dollars.

The way that the agencies participate, the Pink Patch Project in general, it gives,

each department to kind of set up the project however it is that they like and that could be

through merchandise that could be through events and I want to talk specifically about Monterey

Park the way that we do we have merchandise I have given you all and I hope that you like it

it is a challenge coin and I hope you can all have it in your desk or somewhere where you're able to display it we have a Monterey Park my goal because I'm the coordinator now for the Pink Patch Project is to be able for not only residents that live in the city,

but other members that actually come and visit the city to be able to take something from Monterey

Park with the Pink Patch Project. So I implemented the cherry blossoms on there, which is a very,

I would say a very nice idea that actually something that they can take from Monterey Park,

along with the pink patch police patches where we encourage anyone wearing a

uniform that's sworn to be wearing the pink patches and today was actually the

first day that we launched it so I got a lot of questions and it's something that

I take the opportunity to be able to educate the public and let them know that the police department is actually advocating for those women that are

suffering from breast cancer. Another I have anywhere from t-shirts, from bottle

openers, pencils, pens, stickers. So all those funds at the end of the year they

go to City of Hope. Our point of contact is Raquel. And another event that we have is the this year we have the third annual car show which is a classic car show

event to register the vehicle it's $25 and motorcycles are $20 along with that event we have food trucks we have vendors we have other law enforcement agencies

that are joining us it's a good time it's open to the public and you coming

out have a good time it's like what I like to call like cruise cruise for the

day for a good cause so we actually have a very good turnout every single year so

we hope to have that this year as well so I please invite you all it's October 26th and it is from 9 to 2 p.m. So if you can stop by in the morning and show some love it would be greatly appreciated and you can check out the nice cars that come out and there are some agencies

that actually they like to decorate their police units in pink so that's actually very nice and and you can take pictures.

And next slide, please.

Okay, so who can we contact? You can contact me directly. I'm Amaranta Reyes, and my phone number is on there, along with my email at arayes at montereypark.ca.gov.

If you would like more information, you can go to the website Pink Patch Project. That's actually run by, like, the main contact with El Segundo Police Department. and we have also the City of Hope website.

And Raquel is usually the point of contact for City of Hope. She usually will address anyone who has questions,

and depending if the person may not know, they get directed to the actual agency that they wish to buy merchandise or attend their events.

Next slide, please.

As I mentioned, this is the car show, the flyer, along with the merchandise. Next slide.

And that's Shabiel, I really appreciate your time, and I hope that you like the coins. And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer.

Thank you, Officer Reyes. And Chief, you did not disappoint. That was epic. When you say something with safety and purpose, when you're targeting really half the population, but you're serving all the population with this purpose, I... I commend you for all your work you do and definitely will be there that day to support

you guys again and again again. So thank you for all you do.

Thank you.

Just echoing what Councilmember Ngo said, I appreciate all the work and looking forward to much more participation every year for the program.

Officer Reyes, I just wanted to thank you for your effort in leading the Pink Patch

Project.

I think it's very vital and important. But I'm also looking forward to the car show. And I go every year with my daughters. But so many amazing cars. So people in the community, I definitely recommend that you visit, not just for the cause, but also for the events.

Very fun.

A lot of very unique cars. And I think that's what my daughters, I think, like the most about. But thank you so much for the challenge coin as well. Definitely highlighted on my desk.

Thank you.

Again, thank you very much for reading awareness.

with the pink patch.

I think we're very appreciative

of our police department every year,

not just the patches, but the T-shirts,

really because it's for an important cause.

So thank you, and we're happy to support.

Yeah, I really like the cherry blossoms touch

on the challenge coin,

and thanks for the patch as well. I'll definitely be there on October 26th

to support the car show. Thank you for the updates.

Mayor, I have one more question.

Actually, I forgot.

I've been on the citizen, is it the citizen rims that has the maps with?

You're getting ahead of us. Oh, I'm sorry. That's coming up next. I'm sorry. Coming up next.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Give me a chance.

They've been waiting all week to come talk to you about citizen rims. I'm gonna have to wipe their tears.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to talk to you guys about the new police department's online platform.

It's called Citizen RIMS.

The Citizen RIMS platform is a tool to improve transparency, public engagement, and community

safety.

The portal allows access to crime data and access to department services.

Next slide.

Some of the features included are map of calls for services, monthly crime stats, missing persons, arresting information, vacation house checks, extra patrol requests, security camera registration. Marco and I will be discussing the map and crime stats.

Okay, so we're going to go essentially over each specific function of the crime portal. So we're going to start with the interactive crime map. Essentially it displays all the activity that PED does on a weekly basis. It has color coded markers and filters for the public to easily use. It's easily viewable activity, so it's very, it's a user friendly platform, it doesn't require

too much to know how to understand and how to use it.

And it helps the public stay informed on incidents that are near their locations as well. Next slide, please.

So the monthly crime statistics, this is updated as soon as we process police reports within the department. As soon as a crime report is processed with PD staff, that information is updated within 30 minutes, and it shows up as an actual stat within the specific module.

So residents can view, easily view crime trends to basically understand how numbers are going up and down throughout the month, and it gives a specific count for those specific types of crimes.

Next slide, please.

We also display people information, and that's specifically missing persons and arrestees. So this is all updated every 30, I'm sorry, this is also updated every 30 minutes, but we only retain this information for up to 30 days.

After 30 days, any still currently active records disappear from this list.

So this basically allows the community to stay informed, as well as allows the public to potentially assist PD with missing persons investigations.

Next slide, please.

We also now provide public services online that we only used to do in person at the front counter.

Some of these services include the vacation home checks and the extra patrol requests. So with vacation home checks, the public is able to register their locations, their residents, through this portal. And when they are on vacation, if resources allow for patrol, patrol can then monitor that specific area for those homes. Also, with extra patrol requests, residents can also request specific police presence within certain neighborhoods or even around certain businesses.

Next slide, please.

And also the last service that we also provide through the portal is security camera registration. So this is a voluntary registration that the residents and businesses can go ahead and collaborate with PD to do.

So this essentially allows residents and businesses to register security cameras to the police department. This does not grant the PD access directly to those cameras, so we don't have a direct access to view those links or those streams. But it allows PD to understand if a crime occurred in that area, we know that there's

a camera nearby that we can go and check to see if it captured any footage to help in that specific investigation.

So this helps to build strong partnership and collaboration with the public.

Next slide, please.

We're going to be doing a live demonstration out through the web portal showing you the tabs and the information you can access.

That's the map that's going to appear when you log on. Go ahead, Marco, take it.

Okay.

So first things first, whenever you access the website for the first time, you're always going to get this specific disclaimer. It basically indicates what the purpose of this specific web portal is for. After you hit close, the first thing you're going to see is the interactive web map. So it looks a little daunting because there's a lot of dots on the map, but what's important to know is this provides calls for service and crime activity. So for example, crimes or criminal reports are categorized as crime. calls for service are categorized as activity so if I filter this to only

show crimes it's obviously a lot less thoughts

So the majority of these dots are coming from our actual calls for service. You have specific filters here which you can allow, which allows you to specifically indicate what it is you want to see on the map. For example if I hit everything and I wanted to know specifically, you know, the types of burglars that are happening, any larceny theft, mortar vehicles, it displays a lot of information on the map. If you click on any of these dots, it's going to give you information specifically regarding that incident. It gives you the crime that occurred, the penal code, the type, the classification, the address. The address does not give the specific address of the location. It gives you a hundred block range and that dot does not lie directly on top of where it occurred either. We still want to protect the privacy of individuals that are victimized for these crimes. It also gives you the case number and then also the incident number. This allows the public, if they are a victim to this crime, to request a police report by knowing the specific report number.

Specifically as well, outside of crimes, you could also show the calls for service

if you wanted to know specifically animal control activity or even coyote-related incidents. Same thing. You click on one of these and it gives you information, date, time, location, and specifically the incident number. And then more information of these incidents can be found by requesting those records through the police department, through our usual methods, public record act requests, etc. You could also filter out up here, specifically how far back you want to look at this specific information. It always filters and defaults to one week's worth, but you could also change that. You can indicate a specific address, so then that gives you a general location of how, in a radio location, exactly how much activity is happening in that location. So we go on to the next person. section we are now looking at the missing persons. All this information is our currently active missing individuals. So as I mentioned, it's only retained for 30 days or until they are found, whatever comes first, afterwards they are removed from this list. And it has information up here. If you have any information, you can contact the non-emergency number at the police department. We display arrest information as well. So you can see we have a long list. This is also retained for 30 days. Afterwards it is removed from this specific list. You You could have a filter up here for date and time and then also do a name based search as well. Crime statistics. So as I mentioned, this is a line graph that essentially that we display. This is also interactive. You could go ahead and remove certain things and as you start clicking around, you kind of filter out exactly how you want this specific line graph to look like. You could also do it up here by selecting and checking off the specific crimes you want to see. It has a date range as well. As you scroll down, you have a specific count for each specific section and it gives you account total based off how you have it filtered and then so they show all then you have you have everything being displayed and it goes all the way right now it starts at July of this year because that's when we barely initiated our new dispatching system and records management system so that's how our counts are currently being counted there's a vacation home check as I explained essentially allows the public to fill out this information and then as soon as they fill it out and provide answers to these questions using this text box right here they can then go ahead and submit it they submitted we receive it in PD we then process it on our end all of this information is not being shown to the public by the way vacation home home checks directed directed patrol requests and security camera registration is all held internally and it's not displayed to the public. So to the next one, directed patrol request, the same thing as vacation home check, you fill out the information. As soon as you're done filling that out, you submit it. And then the last one being security camera registration, same thing as before, has the disclaimers in terms of what the PD has access to. And then similar as before, you could just go ahead and fill it out and then click on submit. And then the last portion, it just takes you to the Monterey Park webpage on the city website.

That concludes our presentation for Citizen Rims.

Are there any questions?

Madam Mayor, it's a wonderful thing because I just received the email earlier today and all he did was just the link to the mauripark.citizenrims.com map. they didn't even say anything. All they said on the subject line was loving the crime maps. In essence, they love what we're able to do to deliver for the community for them to check. And for me, just having you guys talk about this, I wrote something down.

I just wrote down

real-time transparency without judgments. So many of you have been on social media, especially among other things Mario Park Live. So you can just remove all the judgments and all the trolls and all the opinions out of there. Just post a map and let people go look at it and that's the truth. They can figure out what happened. So thank you so much

for doing this. Thank you. I appreciate the

tool going live. It is live

now, right? Yes. I appreciate it. And this is

fed the data. This has been enabled because we moved to the new data system for PDS?

Yes. This is the result of going to the new CATRMS system called RIMS. I talked

about this for months. We finally went live and this is what the transparency

portal is all about. And we've enabled most of the applications that the company

has in the system. We want complete access to the community.

I appreciate that and it's good to know that we're utilizing the data the tools that we are using internally to be able to provide more transparency and communication and engagement with the community and I know I assume we're going to help promote out the vacation request vacation check requests those those public kind of service yes there's a we did a Cascades article

that's going to come out. We've done our social media. We did a press release. And I believe that Channel 7 News is coming to do a story just about Citizen Rims because we're the first department in Southern California, first city department in Southern California to have this portal. So Channel 7 is coming to do a story specifically about this for us.

Great. No, that's cool. I have some, maybe kind of, some concerns around privacy. I know

we've addressed some of those in terms of what data is available for the specific crimes. You mentioned kind of the missing person data and some of those are going to only be up there for 30 days. I remember when the Coyote map was first published, and I think it still might be the case I haven't checked in a while right you we kept some of those sightings on there for over a year or more than a year and a half and so when you go on there it's not necessarily if you keep that kind of data on the map for longer periods of time it's not necessarily an accurate representation of how much right where the coyotes are and because the coyote can move all around the city throughout the year always saw someone cited a hundred coyote sightings in the city but it was the same coyote. So to that point are there also time limits in terms of what crimes are going to be posted on there and how long they stay on the map?

So as of right now there is no time limit. So it by default it filters out to a

week's worth from today going back. All that information is there so the crime crime stats specifically as well, it has a specific count kind of indicating what is our count for each specific month.

We try to make sure we are in the same level of how DOJ and the FBI publish crime stats.

We submit that every month to them, and they publish that yearly for every city.

So we kind of wanted to keep it in the same level, and so if that's being presented on that end, we kind of also wanted to make sure it's also presented through this portal.

Yeah. No, I appreciate that we're aligning with the federal. We have to report these things anyway. It's easy enough to put it in the same kind of reporting format, similar reporting format for our public portal. I just, I don't know what the answer is. I think we just need to give some thought to what might make sense to make sure that the right context is there for someone that's looking at, for a resident or citizen that's looking at the data, right? At a certain point, it's going to get, if we don't have a time kind of banned on this, then it's five years from now you're going to pop up a map, search all of them, and there's going to be crime everywhere right in the city.

Let me add, because I know what you're talking about. I have the same question. So a crime report enters the system when the report is approved.

The crime report leaves the system permanently when the report is purged.

Our current retention on normal reports is two years.

At that point it gets purged.

There are special reports that involve sexual assault, homicides, things like that, that we cannot purge by law.

But everything else, after a two-year period of time, is removed from the system automatically when the report is purged.

Yeah, so if it makes sense, as you said, a two-year kind of window for the crimes that are put on the public portal, that might make sense if that's already generally what our approach is for reports.

So Madam Mayor, if I may, I believe maybe Council Member Wong, if you could help me clarify, I just want to make sure that we're capturing your comment. So I believe what you're saying is you'd like to see, because right now we're defaulting that those crime statistics arrests reports are going to, they'll disappear from the system after 30 days. So I believe you're suggesting that maybe have an option where you can view it for longer than 30 days, but it doesn't maybe default to populate. So if I'm looking for specific arrestee information from last year and hasn't been purged, like an archived option, is that what you're requesting?

My understanding, if I'm wrong on this, let me know, but my understanding is that arrests and crimes would not automatically come off the map after 30 days. 30 days is only relating to missing persons and those kind of reports.

So the 30 days is specifically for missing people and arrestees. Arrestees, okay.

We normally don't want to try to keep arrestees displayed for too long because after a certain period of time, it becomes criminal history.

and that is protected. Yeah.

But yeah, the crime, right, the actual crimes, those do stay on the map. But if there's a two, I think there should be a window, whether two years or whatever makes sense, I don't know. But if we're already, if the general timeline for reports like that, to your point, Chief, is two years, then maybe we just default to that.

Yep. That's currently how the system's set up. That's our retention schedule here for crimes.

Like I said, there are specific crimes that we can't purge, but everything else we can. Marco's right.

We are under a lot of scrutiny from the state and the feds as far as releasing information. That's why you don't see pictures of arrestees.

After a period of time, that information becomes protected, especially when cases go to court.

so we have to make sure that that is left is removed from the system before that violation occurs

So it's a we constantly are watching the system to make sure we don't violate state or federal law

No, and I appreciate that and absolutely agree we need we should obviously abide by state and federal law in terms of what What legally we can share right in a public portal and all that I'm a little we can do more thing. I haven't not settled on this but Arrest doesn't mean guilty. I'm a little worried about people from the public kind of viewing a tool like this and then not worry, oh, I saw police cars on my street last night and want to look up whatever it was or last week whenever it gets on the portal and I know which neighbor of mine did that and found out what crime and link that. And people can make assumptions about whether they're guilty or not already. I just want to be careful about whether how this data gets handled and how people might interact with that if we need to make adjustments as this goes along in terms of keeping privacy.

The county has had this ability for many, many years.

Before we ever opened up this portal, you can go to the county sheriff's website, do an inmate search, and pull up information that goes back quite a ways.

you're right it is arrests it's not convictions if it was a conviction we

wouldn't be able to show it because that's privileged information that's

why we have the 30-day window on this yeah I just want to make sure we're

continue to think through it and there are changes we need to make to adjust this we should obviously continue to think through that and especially since this is a new tool for the region for on our municipal level we'll look at this

and do some research and figure out if we're in compliance.

And then just curious, our thinking around, well, what crimes, is it just part one crimes

that we're putting out here or these all sorts of crimes and calls for service, does this include fire department, calls for service, or is it just PD, calls for service?

Specifically, there are calls for service associated to the police department.

There are some calls where we do assist fire and you will see them on the map as well.

but majority of everything is calls for service directly to the police department.

911 calls come into our station. We filter them for police or fire.

If it's a fire call, we send it to Verdugo to dispatch.

We stay on the line.

We create a call if we feel that they're going to need an officer there to assist them, and that's the ones you see.

And then what kind of crimes are we reporting on the public portal?

Everything.

everything yep there aren't that many because we don't have that many crimes that occur here

luckily

was, we give a general location and we give a case number and an incident number and that's

about it.

Okay.

And in terms of calls for service, so if someone's house, this could be a common or it could

be a scenario, right?

I can imagine someone's house sitting or a neighbor is walking by, thinks someone's breaking in they call potential burglary whatever PD responds not a burglary someone just forgot their key whatever climb through the window is that does that would that

be put on as a service of burglary it's called a suspicious circumstance call

and that's how we would describe it as suspicious circumstances but that would

be in the system my concern with that would be that it wouldn't accurately reflect right if ultimately PD resolves it it was just the homeowner that was getting in through whatever their back door in a creative way but their own property not actual crime somewhat the residents if they're looking at that kind of that incident and see that they might think that that was an attempt at burglary or whatever because it was called for service for that but it's not an accurate reflection of what actually happened I'm just I don't know if we have ways to dealing with that I know there aren't that many that go on but I'm just thinking through these likely scenarios and I what I want to avoid to the extent possible is the public misunderstanding or misinterpreting the data that goes up because there's not a lot of context for the data that's up that's going to be up so madam mayor if I may

um councilmember Wong so for my understanding the uh to address the first concern the information that's put on the map is all public available information um the second thing I wanted to make sure that we're addressing too is that the calls for service will show up in the hundred block range so it doesn't go address by address right okay and then the last item about the calls for service so I believe that last scenario that you gave it would be classified as a call for service and not a burglary so even though they're responding there's a different icon color for burglaries that actually right that confirmed confirmed burglaries versus call for service so it'll be classified differently so those won't show up on the map as actual burglaries unless we're able to make sure that it was I appreciate

that it's trying to think through what how this might be what mr. interpretations will likely or could come out of some of this data being much more easily accessible I understand it's all public information already but making it super easy for people to just pull up a map makes it I think we just want to be careful I would think we need to be careful about how we utilize the

tool in terms of as well part one crimes all are gonna be reported camera my other

questions I'll pass it on and if I remember I'll be trying back in I had a

question how did we color coordinate the map I'm just curious like the different

sections are those so there's not really because I know they're not they're not

by district are they beats or yeah yeah specifically the layers in the background yeah they're there they're patrol beats and then I had a question

but first of all I do appreciate the transparency in in all of the activity that's happening on in our city I've been on this since it went live and I'm constantly checking specifically areas in my district or where I live just out of curiosity but wanted to thank you for

that and if I can ask you on the map to click on statistics is it statistics I see yes and if you

scroll down, it has the numbers, and I believe it's for three months, right? For July, August, and September. And I'm just looking at numbers, in particular, the higher numbers, like larceny slash theft for September. I'm sorry, for July, you have 54 incidences. Is that correct? And then it goes to 50 to 42 and then some of the other numbers like assault and then motor vehicle

theft.

Are we using this internally just in terms for us statistically to kind of see where, you know, what areas of need in terms of trolling?

Absolutely. And before we had to hand plot these maps and now it does it automatically for us. So the officers, when an officer logs onto his computer, he gets immediately, as soon as the computer recognizes him, he gets the vacation house checks, he gets the extra patrol requests, he gets the crime stats, he gets the interactive map, he gets all that.

So he can look and try to figure out where things are occurring.

And then our Detective Bureau utilizes a crime analyst, and then we look at crime trends

to try to predict where our high-volume activity areas are going to be, and then we target those areas.

Chief, and I'm wondering if you guys can speak to the larceny slash theft, because that seems to be the more higher number. and I know that there's a decline from July to 54 and then four incidences and then in September 42 incidences but maybe you can explain to us what exactly is happening here.

So for specifically with larceny as I kind of mentioned we want to try to go hand in hand with

what the FBI and what we published to the DOJ. Larceny is kind of like a catch-all to very several

types of crimes. Shoplifting counts as a larceny. Breaking into a vehicle and stealing things inside the car counts as a larceny. Stealing vehicle parts counts as a larceny. So as you

can see, that's why it's so high. Essentially, that's how, I don't know why the reasoning is behind that, but specifically that's how the state and FBI categorizes larceny. They

kind of clump, I think, like seven crimes under one specific umbrella, and that's why you see such a high number because there's so many different types of categories under that.

Because there's several items happening under that same umbrella. I'm not sure if you can speak anecdotally about what specifically the majority of those numbers are. Are those more like thefts, like a supermarket, for example?

I don't. It would be difficult right now to tell you how we break them down.

When the federal government switched to the NIBRS system for California, the rest of the country had been on NIBRS for 10 years. California switched a year ago, and it took just part one crimes and it increased it from eight out to 47 or 50.

So we increased a lot of the different kinds of thefts, and they put them into subcategories. I've created here on the map, this is larcenies for the last week, and it shows where these incidents occurred.

And they're all different. Some are theft from motor vehicle, like parts and stuff like that. Some is a theft from a supermarket. Some is a theft of a bicycle. It could be a theft of a package from the House. They're all considered larcenies.

But this shows on the map where these have occurred in the last week. We can look at that and try to come up with some predictive policing to figure out where we need to target some of these areas.

Okay, great.

No, I think this is a great tool, I think, for everyone. But it's very informative, and like I said, I've been on this for a while now, since it went live.

I'm going to warn you, it's a slippery slope. Why? Because you'll log on to this, and two hours will go by before you know it.

Because you'll be playing with it and doing all the different filters, and there's a lot. There's a lot that's in this.

Thank you.

No, I'll be brief. Actually, I want to thank my colleagues.

It's been a very robust conversation, and clearly there's a lot of interest, because I think public safety is on everyone's mind. I'm pretty interested in the website now allows you to request extra patrol programming.

And I'm just curious, have we seen people responding because of this service for extra patrols?

So there hasn't been a lot of public knowledge about this specific portal yet.

I feel like after today, the public will know more about it.

But even our current method before all of this, the public would normally call dispatch, and they would enter that extra patrol within the system. So the public is aware that we have extra patrol program within the department. This just kind of gives them a better option or more easier way to kind of make that connection with us.

I'm really excited about this program. I think it's amazing Monterey Park is the trailblazer in the community to have this program started I'm curious about the security camera registration. I think that's a great feature I'm definitely gonna register my security cameras and any residents who I know have security cameras I think it'll be great for them to register too, but how many Cameras have registered so far if you guys know

We don't have any right now. So the same thing as before we were barely launching this but I feel like as soon as the public is made more aware of it, the list will grow.

We're about 10 days into this. It's really, really new.

So we've got big plans for it coming forward, but you're the first to get it.

This is the unveiling right now, the soft opening, if you will.

Awesome.

And will we be sharing this with the community through the Cascades?

Through all the different portals, absolutely.

All right.

Well, we'll help get residents to register their cameras.

support. Marco's going to go door to door. There you go. Thank you so much. I'm going to be spending

some hours on this. Madam Mayor, in terms of the tool, going back to kind of my thoughts and

concerns around context for the crimes and the incidents that are reported on the portal, I'm also just wondering how I don't know what the answer is but if we can do some thinking around how we can provide context for the crimes that are listed in timeframes some way shape or form in terms of comparisons to previous years right there's think back to our town hall our our PD town hall in Highlands neighborhood when there was a series of break-ins or This year. Yeah this year earlier this year and there were a lot of residents that I think appreciate the chief and the police department coming out to reassure people right that we were on the case and then at that point by the time of the town hall we had caught the the perpetrators but there were a lot of residents that were very worried about the level of crime and I think we helped point out right that this we're working on it and that despite the series of break-ins actually crime was Lor than it was the year before and I think that kind of context is missing for for a tool like this too I don't know how to how to how to add that context in but I think it would be helpful well we'll brainstorm it

because uh you bring up a great point there are some there's northern California agencies that have used this system we have some partners up there that we dealt with when we were

implementing. They may have answers to this that we're not aware of yet, but

we'll definitely brainstorm how we can assign some kind of context to the

entries. Yeah, I don't know what it is. I'm just, I'm worried right now as a council member having members of the public, my constituents come up, they'll pull up this, I'm looking at it right now on my computer, they'll go the last 12 months on the on this tool like there's so much crime in the city what are you doing you're failing at your job how do we add some context to this that actually crime is Lor this year than it was last year in this neighborhood it's Lor than it was last year these kind of crimes that if we can add some of

that context somehow that that may be difficult to do other way you know on a

in that kind of a portal,

but we'll try to figure that out. We'll brainstorm it and see if we can come up with something.

Yeah, let's think through some of that.

All right, thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

And last but not least, we have Public Works.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor of Pro Tem and City Council. Sean Igoe, Public Works Director.

I DO APOLOGIZE I CAN'T COMPETE WITH RECREATION OR LIBRARY ON MY EVENTS. I ONLY HAVE ONE, NOR CAN I BE AS EPIC AS THE CHIEF AND HIS TEAM.

BUT I'LL DO MY BEST.

SO WE HAVE OUR COMMUNITY CLEANUP EVENT COMING UP THIS SATURDAY THE 4TH FROM 8 TO 12 HERE AT BARNES.

WE ENCOURAGE THE COMMUNITY TO COME OUT.

WE HAVE OUR BULKY ITEMS THAT CAN BE DROPPED OFF. WE ALSO HAVE OUR ELECTRONIC WASTE ITEMS THAT CAN BE DROPPED OFF. ADDITIONALLY FOR THIS EVENT WE'LL HAVE OUR PAPER SHREDING EVENT. And then we're also excited this will be the first time we've actually had our hazardous waste drop off as well. So paints, batteries, lights, things like that that we normally aren't able to collect. We were able to get a grant to help pay for this event. We will not be collecting any biohazardous waste or radioactive waste or substances of any kind that are illegal, ammunition, explosives. So if you do show up, we will introduce you to our partners in the police department if you do decide to show up with those items. But we definitely will not accept those. With that, I will take any questions.

Good?

Well, Sean, at least you're taking the trash out of the city, so good job there.

Right. Thank you.

Just to come over, you are taking batteries.

Yes. To recycle the batteries. We'll take those. That's hazardous waste. Looking forward to it. Thank you.

Sean, you already have a lot of events going on throughout the city, a lot of projects.

know in years past you know I'd combine it would just be a line of vehicles so

you know clearly it shows that people are interested in so you know thanks again for doing this for the community thank you and I've been to these events

you guys are really smooth in and out so thank you for the great work appreciate it thank you all right and that's all for staff communications any old business no okay then we'll move on to our number nine consent a consent calendar any

conflicts or any items so a question for the city attorney just want to confirm

for the 9g for the parks master plan that there's no actual conflicts for

council members who live here some of the parks thank you mr. mayor members of

the council it is a planning document there's no actual project in front of the city council for it to consider so accordingly you don't have a particular

the conflict unless there's something I don't know any public communications

none register okay we do have one written communication by an Anthony

Morelli all right I'm happy to make a motion unless someone wanted to pull it

on all right councilmember one makes a motion a second oh I'm fine supporting

but I just wanted to make a mention regarding and I had a question regarding item 9l uh we don't necessarily have to pull but i can just ask it after we approve okay

all right so second by council member go let's go ahead and vote

approve unanimously thank you and council member sanchez yes um so today's technically national

walk to school day. But I was interested

just if we had, I think one of the, I think someone mentioned it earlier. Do we have any

plans

in terms of I know last two years I think we've met students here at City Hall and walked to Inez Elementary School so I'm wondering if we're doing that and if we can share some of the details regarding that.

Madam Mayor,

members of the council, yes I believe I believe our battalion chief John Gin mentioned that their fire department and the police department

are coordinating efforts for the national walk and roll to school days. The way we coordinated the police department is, each school has an agenda. They, some days they want to, for the week, Monday it'll be one school, Tuesday it'll be a different school. We liaison with those schools, try to accommodate whatever they want to do, but they don't all do it on one day. They do it throughout the week. And they liaison directly with our traffic bureau. In talking to my traffic bureau commander, Sergeant Silverman, he's already been in conversation with the schools and we'll provide them with motors and CSOs to help them with whatever program they're trying to do. Some schools, they walk a long ways. Other schools, it's a block and some schools don't do anything so we're prepared to assist all of them do we have

thank you chief for that um do we have any dates already set in terms of i know last year i went

to the inez one brightwood and i think we i don't believe we have any yet okay um i've learned that

schools are very busy they have a lot going on and they don't want to walk to school well it'll be scooter to school day or a e-bike to school day pretty soon I don't have any specific dates in front of me if the schools are looking for assistance we're ready to provide it and we we ask them if they need it we we talk to them about it okay so if any of these develop you'll share those with us absolutely okay thank you great thank you then moving on to our public hearing

open up the public hearing any public communications none register all right and no written communications either so we'll proceed with the presentation

good evening madam mayor mayor potent and council members my name is Martha

Garcia I'm the finance director and today's presentation will be from a Priscilla Davila she is our HUD consultant Priscilla good evening mayor

and members of City Council. Tonight I will be providing an overview of the City's Consolidated

Annual Performance and Evaluation Report or CAPER for Program Year 2024-2025. The City of Monterey Parks Housing Division has completed the CAPER for the period of July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. The CAPER describes the overall use of Federal Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnership

Home Funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in relationship to the needs of the community

outlined in the 2024-2025

Annual Action Plan. The City's overall objective in the CDBG and Home Programs is to develop a viable community by providing decent housing, a suitable living environment, and expansion of economic opportunities, primarily for low- to moderate-income persons. It is recommended that the City Council conduct a public hearing to receive community feedback on the 2024-2025 paper and approve its submission to HUD. A copy of the draft paper was made available for public review

on September 17, 2025 until today, October, I'm sorry, until tomorrow, October 2, 2025. Copies of the draft CAPER were available on the City's website and also at the City Hall.

All comments received will be incorporated into the final CAPER. The City submits a CAPER to HUD annually as one of the conditions of receiving federal funds under the CDBG and Home programs. The CAPER outlines progress made in achieving goals established in the City's 5-year Consolidated

Plan and Annual Action Plan, including 1. funds invested in projects and activities, households and persons assisted, actions taken to affirmatively further fair housing, and other information relevant to grant-funded

projects administered by the City and that affect local housing and community development needs. The CAPER is an effective tool that is designed to ensure that the City stays on track with

its 5-year CON plan and annual action plan. The CAPER is also designed to provide a maximum amount of useful information to policymakers and residents.

During fiscal year 2024-25, the City spent $242,855.57 in CDBG funds and $14,319.73 in home funds and $320,289.50 in CDBG funds and $863,069.40 in home ARPA funds on a variety of community development projects.

The public hearing is an opportunity for the City Council and Monterey Park community to review the accomplishments on the various program areas for the 2020-25 paper.

Upon conclusion of the public hearing, it is recommended that the City Council approve the submission of the CAPER to HUD and satisfy

the reporting requirements for the year. It is recommended that the City Council consider, 1. Opening and continued the continued public hearing to receive testimony and documentary

evidence. 2. Approve the draft fiscal year 2024-2025 CAPER of the CDBG and Home Programs.

3. Direct the City Manager or designee to prepare and transmit the final document to HUD. for authorize a city manager or her designee to take actions necessary to submit the CAPER

and any other additional related or actions that may be desirable. At this moment, the presentation is concluded. I can answer any questions you may have.

Any questions? No questions. All right. Any motion?

All right.

A few questions.

Thank you, Priscilla, and I appreciate Martha and the team for the CAPER. I know this is a report out on the past year's activities, so I appreciate that. We've gotten a lot accomplished with limited funds. A couple of things to put out there, but also maybe have some discussion around. I know we utilized $200,000 from the CDBG funding for the small business assistance program, program. We'd love to, when we have an update, I know the CSC, we've partnering CSC and moving forward on getting the loan and grant funding out there when appropriate, when ready, we'd love to have an update on where we are with that process and which businesses are receiving assistance and all that, especially as we start planning for next year's budget. And I also anticipate as the economy continues to probably, probably not going to get better, probably going to get worse in the next few months given where things are going if the council needs to think about at least consider potentially augmenting the small business fund into the rest of the fiscal year in future years as well I think that should be part of our conversation and just to have that data for the program and how it's going would be helpful and then my other question this might be for Martha or for Carl, was there was the reason why we utilize CDBG funding for the small business assistance program is that because there's just more of that flexibility that allows us to do it or is are we are there restrictions on using general fund to do a program like that or is that just trying to understand that thinking?

Well mr. Mayor members of the council I don't like admit being stumped But that's one that I can't tell you from the dais, but our consultant can certainly delve into it

I can answer that Martha can answer it also

I will say in before I hand it off to Martha that general fund can usually be used for Whatever general purpose you want, but I'll let Martha take care

And then the city attorney is correct general fund can be used for this purpose or any other purpose But CDBG program allows for this type of activity and therefore we carved out some money with council approval to

Focus on some of our businesses, but yes CDBG can also be used. No, that's all me. Sorry general fund

No, I appreciate that and I was worried if it if it if there are restrictions on general fund being able to be used for a program like that then our kind of limit for what we could do with the small business program is limited to our full CDBG funding. So if that's not the case, then there's more. If we need to scale up, we're able to scale up the general fund. I do want us to think about, right, we've been going to some of these Garvey Avenue improvement projects, open houses, and I assume as that project is likely to move forward in the coming months, there will probably be some impacts to businesses along Garvey. I would love for us to think about a business interruption fund or a business disruption fund for businesses along Garvey that may be impacted by construction. I don't know what, and this might be a question for Public Works and Sean and staff planning. I don't know. The design is not ready yet, so we don't know. But once there's a timeline for what construction is going to look like, would love for us to consider some sort of set-aside funding if there are going to be longer kind of impacts that inhibit the ability of some business to open or things like that maybe we can augment or rethink what the small business assistance program can look like to redirect for at least for the time being for when the construction might impact Garvey businesses either have a specific program for for that or to kind of redirect the existing small business assistance program to Garvey businesses during that construction period and

I don't know what the scale is going to be, if a business frontage to the SRE is only going to be interrupted for a couple of days or whatever, unlikely. But if it's not going to be a big impact, then maybe that's not something we need to

look at.

But if that is something we should consider, we want to make sure because that will probably start to happen this fiscal year, towards the end of this fiscal year. So we need to think about that.

Yeah, we do have on our list to review when it's getting closer.

And I just want to confirm, I know we've been talking about it every time, every year that the CAPER and the HUD, the CDBG and home funds process comes up at council. But the home funds, right, I'm on page 142, but the home funds for the owner-occupied rehab loan program, confirming that we are sunsiding that program, is that right?

Yes, we are we are gonna be bringing a different program that allows us to rehabilitate units and instead of individual homes

all right, so are you talking about rental units or

Owner occupied still or it could be rental units as well. Yes

Right now. I would love to would love to see that and I think would be helpful I think going to my previous comments around owner occupied If you own your home there's that for those we have limited funds. I think there are people that own their homes and need help, need assistance, but we have very limited funds here with federal grant funding for CDBG and home funds. My perspective on this and I think our approach should be to do as much, to do help as many people and more people with the limited funds that we do have, and I think owner-occupied, you're more likely to have access to equity if you need to access that to be able to make some improvements, or you can sell and go do that but those who are in rental housing and affordable housing that is not owner-occupied probably need more so this limited funding can probably go much further and help more people for looking at beyond and not the owner-occupied housing we'd love to redirect that to other programs and other help more people I think with the limited funding that we do have

Thank you. And then just I know this has come up with on other conversations but have we've been seeing CDBGN home funding where this is federal grant funding.

And we don't do we expect that to continue in terms of the trend in terms of declining funding.

And we don't, do we expect that to continue in terms of the trend, in terms of declining

funding?

Correct.

Just noting that out there, for those who have looked to this grant funding to potentially do other things, that's just the reality, right? Literally today is the beginning of the federal government shutting down. I don't know if this will delay or impact programs like CDBG and home.

It will delay our drawdowns, but we were awarded the amount for home and CDBG for this fiscal year, but it will delay our drawdowns.

So if there are further, deeper impacts to our ability to utilize these, if you can keep the council apprised of...

Right. We haven't started spending this fiscal year, so we can hold off a bit longer before we start spending it this fiscal year money.

when do we usually receive the annual it's a drawdown so as we expensive we go

into the itis pro portal and we draw it down so it's it's a cost reimbursement

program so I have so we're holding off on spending our money up front to do okay and then in the home funding I know we've talked about this in terms of existing affordable housing in the city and housing that's income qualified for affordable housing. It's noted in the report that we're going to begin, we're working on the inventory of the existing affordable housing units in the city. Do we have an idea of when potential audits are going to start to happen in enforcement in terms of the income restrictions for some

of these? Priscilla, can you answer that one?

I'm not quite sure when you say when the odd meaning the units that we're going to go in and

rehab not so far we have existing well home I don't know I don't know when it says that we're creating the inventory of existing affordable units in the city if that relates to just home funded or home related home funding related units or if that's all deed restricted affordable units in the city and others that real money you see and others help to fund over the years if that's a fuller list or a smaller narrow list in terms of an inventory of all affordable units in the city but I'm curious when I know we've talked about the need to enforce those income restrictions for these units that are meant for people that are low income I'm just curious when we might be able to start the audits and some of that enforcement once the list is ready.

Madam Mayor, if I may.

Council Member Wong, so I believe the question is around the monitoring program for affordable

units.

So correct, this year and this fiscal year's budget, we did set aside some funds to have a consultant help us with monitoring. So I believe our community development department is working on that. And so as soon as we have our consultant in place, we'll start monitoring and then report back. At this time, though, we haven't started the auditing process yet.

Yeah.

No, I know the first step is to make sure we have an inventory. We know what units in the city are required to have people that meet certain income thresholds to live there. I know it's been we probably should have been doing this a little while ago, but we should be making sure that those units that the taxpayers have subsidized and others have subsidized to make sure that they are affordable for people that need affordable housing subsidized housing in the city that those are the ones that are actually getting used that aren't getting the benefit of those taxpayer subsidies and i think it's important to make sure we're enforcing that to the extent we can would look forward to that kind of program getting underway just want to make sure, right, the limited affordable housing units that exist in the city are going to those that actually need those subsidies and the subsidized housing that exists. And I think an enforcement program like this or an audit or monitoring program is we need to have something like that in place to make sure that the owners of these units and those that are operating affordable housing units in the city are operating like they should, right, that these units are going to actually helping people that need it.

not those that may not need it so when when we are ready for a timeline if we

can report back to the council on when that will take when we're able when we're

going to be starting to implement that noted but other other than that

appreciate this report and I know that this annual requirement hopefully there's someone at the federal government to receive this when we're

ready to send it in.

But appreciate our consultant and our finance team, your diligence on this. I know a lot has to go into federal reporting for grants like this. So appreciate our attention to this and looking forward to hopefully the federal government quickly ending its closure so that we can start to spend these funds for people that need it in our communities for community development for housing. I'm happy to make the motion to receive and file the report.

I'll go ahead and second.

If no other comments, we can go ahead and vote.

Approve unanimously. All right. And that's all for the public hearing.

Any new business?

No new business.

All right. than any city communications.

Well, I'll start.

It's been a busy two weeks.

Just going back from two weeks ago,

we had the Monterey Park Police Youth Activities Golf Tour event. Great event, well organized. Again, Chief, thanks for all the volunteers who put it together.

Very well received. Lots of raffle prizes.

Lots of happy golfers.

I think there's like students in the audience. Just wanted to thank you guys for coming and listening and want to encourage you to come back. Can I ask what university you're from? Make sure you guys come back. Thank you for sitting through the meeting. Hope you learned something. And if we can be of any help, I saw that you guys were looking for signatures. If you want to stick around, we'll only be, or I can go up there and sign them for you if you want. but staff can do it.

It's fine.

Yeah, we can do a selfie in five minutes when we close out.

If you guys want to stick around.

And listening in, I hope you guys learned something.

Okay.

All right, so we'll just have to kind of make this a little quicker. The CSC gala was on September 20th, so great turnout. Almost 500 people.

Also, this past weekend, many of us went to the ICSC Western Region

it's the international convention for shopping centers.

Essentially we went there to try to bring businesses

to come to our city, to invest in our city, to open up businesses in our city. So it was a very well attended event. I think it was 2,800 people who went and six of us from our city contributed to that. So hopefully we had a few good meetings and hopefully we'll bring in new businesses coming to the city soon and I

will stop at that just one if I know we've adopted the item for the parks master plan I know one of the items was the barns park pool outreach and design process I maybe when appropriate or in your city manager report maybe if the department can just give I'm curious about a timeline for when the hours is going to begin and how long that's going to take and then when the design is going to kick off

madam mayor members of the council yes we do have some community outreach community engagement meetings scheduled in november and i believe at the next council meeting recreation plans to present those dates i will share with them with councils as soon as we have them um solidified but um i know recreation is planning to share that at the next council meeting for sure great

Looking forward to it and all the projects that were kind of listed is first kind of tranche of priority projects for the parks master plan in terms of Being in construction on some of these things would love to maybe just in your city manager report Would be helpful to just have a timeline for when some of those might kick off In terms of pickleball courts and others I think there will be a lot of interest in the community for when those are going to happen and the Garvey Ranch Park picnic shelter and a couple of the other items, I think a lot of interest in the community.

I think I already used up most of my time, but I just wanted to do a quick plug for our free rides in Monterey Park this week. Want to encourage residents to use our public transport, including our MPK transit, because it's free all this week till Friday, right?

October 3rd, yes.

And I know Metro was free today, So, you know, if you still get on jump on a metro train go ahead and do so just today, but in honor of clean air day

so

also also went to ICSC Hopefully some of those businesses that we've made contact with come to fruition here in our city. We are after all

a

business friendly city, so hoping to see more new businesses come to our city And hopefully we continue to go to ICSC to encourage business within our city then And that's it for me. Thank you.

I also want to

thank our staff actually for setting up the means for those who attend ICSC and also for having a booth at ICSC and staffing the booth and you know speaking to anyone who was interested in finding out more about the great city of Monterey Park, but also just the logistics because my understanding is that is that

I guess the day before

when you said when you're setting up the booth apparently the warehouse had no air conditioning on and And so certainly my compliments and my admiration that you were setting up for this conference in what sounds like very challenging conditions. So thank you for doing that.

Yeah, thank you, staff, for setting up the booth at ICSC.

Just two additional events.

One is this Friday we're having a ribbon cutting for a new swing care salon at Atlantic Times Square.

That's going to be Friday at 4 p.m.

And next week on Thursday, October 9th, it's a code enforcement officer appreciation week starting at 9 a.m. till 11 a.m. And with that, we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 8.29 p.m.