City Council Meeting — November 5, 2025

It is 637. So let's start with our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tovangaar, the home of the Gabriolino-Tonvan people. We show our respect to the Gabrielino-Tongva 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 Gabriolino-Tonban people, invite you to acknowledge the history, and join us in caring for this land. Tonight we have the Scout Troop 141 doing the flag salute, and also Kara Joy Lee from Monoring Highlands Elementary School, our civic star today, who's going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. So everyone, please stand for the flag salute.

audience attention color guard attention color guard forward march

color guard halt color guard cross to colors

I would like to invite

Tara Joy to

please

please please Face the flag, put your right hand over your heart, ready, begin.

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

Color Guard prepare to post the colors.

Post the colors. Color Guard report.

Color Guard dismiss. May the audience be seated.

Thank you, Kara Joy Lee, as well as Scott Trub141.

We have certificates to thank you and recognize you,

including Caleb Chow, Audrey Wang, Luke Rivers, and Mason Madrigal, Ethan Madrigal. Let's take a picture with Cara Joy Lee first and we'll have the Scout Trip 141 come up after.

So if you want to stand, touch it.

We'll take one with her and then after the family.

Okay, everyone's ready.

I don't make a very good window.

Thank you.

Scouts?

No, I don't need to be in this. I'm just regular.

I'm definitely regular. Oh, let me take a picture.

No problem. Yeah, what do you think?

What did you show me? Okay, everyone's turning. Get closer.

You've got to come get inside. Get inside. Get inside.

Yeah, why not? Everyone, let's get here first. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. All over there.

I'm going to see you all. Thank you.

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

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Oh, thank you. No problem. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you again. Scout Troop 141 and our Civic Superstar. Madam Clerk, may we get a roll call please?

Sorry, I thought you wanted to do the roll call.

Okay, Council Member Ngo? Present. Council Member Wong?

Present.

Council Member Sanchez?

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Lo?

Here.

Mayor Yang?

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. any agenda revisions or additions tonight yes madam mayor there is a

request by councilmember Sanchez to move item 9g just making sure that that's the item number one second yes item 9g to after public communications we have a guest speaker Samuel Lopez in the audience joining us for that item tonight. In addition, we'd like to also add one staff communication item for public works. And if we could do that, the public works item is right in the beginning of staff communication,

so before finance.

Okay, noted. Thank you. Let's go ahead with public communications.

All right, looks like we have four public speakers tonight, starting with Joseph Leon.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, staff, and of course, residents of Monterey Park. Joseph Leon, I'm a resident of Monterey Park. I'm also the city's representative on the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board. I just want to thank the council for reporting me again at the last meeting. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be here, but I want to come by and thank you all for reporting me. I saw the tape of the last meeting, and I saw that Councilman Chance was worried about it, a little concerned about his area. That's the one that got sprayed recently. That was back in, I think, October 13th and 15th. And it wasn't anything major. There was just an abundance of mosquitoes, and as a precaution, they sprayed. But there is no West Nile virus in Monterey Park as of now or anywhere, not on wood. And I know one wonders why almost every year in a certain area, not the whole area, just a small section of that area, and it just happens to be a hot spot for mosquitoes. So we always tell the individuals to make sure that there's no standing water. and if you see any like build up a mosquito

just report it to the mosquito board so they can come in and treat it especially if there's pools around sometimes that happens because pools sit around and mosquitoes breed on the water

other than that I'm open here for any questions you may have on that

Joseph I just wanted to thank you for coming in tonight and for keeping us always As always a prize of what's going on in the mosquito world here and thank you for representing us I know that it's a very early meeting my district district 3 in particular Always gets like you mentioned impacted by mosquitoes yearly I know we just got sprayed recently But thank you for you for your commitment to serving on that board and for all keeping us a prize of what's going on And you know Congratulations on being reappointed. Thank you

Yeah, thank you for your service and for continuing to represent our city.

Thank you. Also, real quick, I just want to thank the council for bringing up Movember. If you notice, the Men's Prostate Awareness Month.

And on a personal concern, I actually had prostate surgery last July. So it's actually kind of personal now.

So I want to just emphasize to all men to get checked, you know, regularly, because I took it very lightly. I think, eh, it's not going to happen. and it comes to the age, and I'm still too young. Next thing I know, last November, I had issues. I went to a neurologist, and yep, I need a surgery.

In fact, I'm still recovering from surgery. It's not over yet.

So I'm just letting all men know. I know it's personal, but I want everybody to know because I took it very lightly, and now I regret it.

And I know it's a nightmare getting checked, and a lot of it can do in the blood too.

But I tell all men now get checked regularly because you don't want to go to a nightmare I've been going through. I've seen six urologists so far, and I may still need further surgery later. It's up in the air. So it's not over yet. So anybody has any questions or concerns?

Because I've felt alone for a long time on this. So if anybody has concerns, my cell number is 626-458-9949. And I've spent hundreds of hours online researching this. So if anybody has any concerns or somebody to talk to, and sometimes you feel like just by yourself. It's good to talk to you.

I've met a lot of people who have the same issues. You'd be surprised.

And also women because you're married and your husband, whatever, may come up, right? Just don't keep it to yourself.

Try to talk to others to let it out because it just builds up inside you. And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mike Sonxon.

Jose, I like that Dodger jersey.

I see these Dodgers here, okay? All right. Good evening, everybody. How's the night? All right.

Well, I am here to, number one, just say hello to everybody, and it's almost Christmas. It's almost the holidays, so catch your breath. October is the longest month because there's no holidays, so we got through October. But I want to talk very briefly about Barnes Park Pool and also just the spirit of our city. I saw in the Cascades a short note about inviting the public's comments about rebuilding the pool and getting people together about that. And the Manta Ray swim team and also Mark Keppel's swim team, everybody is really eager and really on the edge of their seat about what's going to happen with the pool. And we know these things take time, and it's going to take a few years. I know there's a lot developing. But there was a fundraiser that we held at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, and over 70 swimmers participated, including a council member named Thomas Wong.

Swim and laps, swim and laps.

So anyhow, I was in Cerritos a few weeks ago, and they have a, have any of you been to Cerritos?

They have a gorgeous Olympic-sized swimming pool there that has a sunroof and everything. And the city of Cerritos, I guess the difference between Cerritos and Monterey Park is they have the auto square and they have the shopping mall. And there was a city manager there in the 1970s who knew what he was doing about creating an income tax base.

and so the city of Cerritos though socioeconomically it's not too much different than Monterey Park they have a much better income tax rate because the way they set that city up and granted they folLod the Lakewood plan and then just updated the Lakewood plan any of you know about finance and cities Monterey Cerritos really knew what they were doing but we want to get that here in

Monterey Park and I want to commend you all I've been noticing the effort of attempting to to kind

of get people together and I'm glad of that because it's going to take a village to get this pool rebuilt and um thank you all for for doing I know about the parks master plan too and um

yeah just just wanted to I haven't had a chance to follow up as much lately with everybody Jose

I've been meaning to get in touch with you as well, but tell you that semester gets cooking.

And before you know it, it's November.

So anyhow, we're just here to talk about the Barnes Park Bowl was built in 1949.

We are coming up on 70 and it's going to be 77 years now. It's been closed four years now, but we got to get it rebuilt. And let's get an Olympic size pool and Monterey Park Manta Rays, which I represent,

and also Mark Keppel's swim team is probably the most successful high school swim team in the whole San Gabriel Valley. So we've got to give them a facility. And Coach Perez, he's the John Wooden of swimming. So we have a real legacy. We have a legacy here in this city.

County. And in order to really create a deeper legacy, we need infrastructure. So I want to commend you on your efforts and let's continue to do that and see what else we can do. And you know, here's to Monterey Park everyone, alright? And thanks for all that you're doing. And I have another piece that I'm going to do for you real quick. Build the bridge. Lay down the bricks. Fill in the ridges. Stack the sticks. Feed the fire. Consider the cost take it up high the city is ours la mpk okay thank you

thank you mike our next speaker is veronica prado

hello everybody my name is veronica prado i live on the other new mark west new mark

Barns Park Pool is vital to our community. It provides an affordable refuge from the heat while encouraging fitness enriching youth activities. As a child on hot summer days our house had one wall unit and it only kept the living room cool. Being confined to one room meant watching TV all summer, but the pool offered us the opportunity to engage with children and be active. So my mother would fill the station wagon with kids and take us to the pool. We would stand in line waiting desperately to get in at 1 p.m. to escape the heat. As soon as we all jumped in, we forgot about the scorching sun. We also took swim lessons with Joe. The classes encouraged me to swim in the deep end and jump off the diving board. When I was swimming in the water, I felt weightless. Any troubles were behind me as I swam. My experience at Barnes Park Pool gave me the confidence to be on my high school swim team. When my son was a baby, I enrolled him in swimming lessons at Barnes Park. Instructor Joe was there. It felt like a full circle moment. Shortly after he passed away, I didn't get the chance to tell him how much I appreciated his patience. I needed a village to help raise me, and the pool was that village. I also felt pride in our pool as a child. Not only because of my experience in the pool, but because the Olympics practiced at my pool. That summer, the summer of 1984, we couldn't swim. There were tarps all around, but there were small holes. I would peek through the small holes to watch the athletes swim in the same pool I swam. What a feeling of inspiration to a child, a child of immigrant parents who came to Monterey Park to provide their children with a better life. Today, my son is at Mark Keppel and is part of their swim team. To say I was upset that he practices in a below standard pool is an understatement. I raise my children in the same community I grew up in because I cherish the values I was given. I strongly believe Monterey Park is failing my son and all the other community members who benefit from an Olympic-sized pool. Barnes Park Pool, the Olympic-sized pool with two diving boards, a kiddie pool, and a splash pad outside was crucial for my upbringing. As a Monterey Park resident specifically from what was called the poor side It is imperative that Barnes Park pool receives the necessary funding to rehabilitate and upgrade its facilities. Thank you

Thank you our next speaker is Cindy BE.

Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, the little girl who led the flag ceremony is my granddaughter who is in first grade. She has progressed very quickly in the swimming lessons and is now learning the breaststroke. I have dedicated my time and efforts in one thing, rebuilding Barnes Pool as a new aquatic center for our community, just as our surrounding communities have accomplished in recent years. October 15th City Council Meeting Agenda Item 9C was alarming to me in that the previous

City Council in 2021-2022, shortly before their terms ended, approved expenditure from

our general fund of $17 million of taxpayers' money to build a wall on private property on Garvey and Abajo, claiming it was for public safety. Twice in history that I can recall, the top cell and brush fell into the south lane onto Garvey along with a few telephone poles and other improper fencing. Back then, the council had heard from the swim community more than once that the old but beloved city pool infrastructure was failing and repairs were needed. The current council, U5, inherited a very bad decision from your predecessor by approving to take back a $17 million lien for us taxpayers minus the property you absorbed from another parcel that CII owned, along with an additional, quote, double on liens that equals the appraised value, unquote.

and never mentioning for public records what the exact amount that taxpayers lost. You five city council people didn't ask one question of the city staff

other than pointing out another alarming fact. The property is only appraised at $6 million.

Thomas, you tried at least to see if the city council could recoup some of the money

that we taxpayers were forced to pay for that wa. You could have also asked finance department, how much did we lose in interest?

You all smiled and accepted the worthless property that now includes future liabilities.

In recent city council meetings, you shared that our city experts

expect to gain more revenue in the near future, likely the marketplace started by our millennial mayor Frank Fenty and Betty Tom Chu, the flamboyant founder of East West Bank, who led the way by spearheading the marketplace.

In earlier times, these two ex-city council members were partners with a third resident couple who formed a partnership in development.

They were known as CVJ, building homes in Nachi Way, J3, and Barnum Way.

They sold another hillside parcel, which is now known as the gated community of Cadiz. Mrs. Chew shared with me a fact that back in the 70s, they also wanted to build Angarvie. But their high-priced professional geologists advised them to stay away from this unstable site. Our city owes a great deal to these unsung, long-time community members.

What will this present council leave as your legacy?

A newly restored functional aquatic center for your constituents for costly worthless projects and empty lots that we see today. Now that we, the taxpayers, have paid for a 10-year parks master plan for Monterey Park, you can now merge another parcel to make it 15 parks in our community by creating a couple of dog parks and hiking trails to take in the massive view of CGV. For many residents, you are unaware we have another park that requires redevelopment, The Monterey Park Golf Course, the former site of the Monterey Steakhouse Restaurant.

Mr. Sanchez, you could put some pickleball courts there. Helped the next generation develop character, leadership, water safety, and their first jobs at the pool in a large, safe environment such as the New Barnes Park Aquatic Center, which has served past generations for 77 years and was abruptly halted in 2022.

The Mark Keppel swim families and young children who enrolled in the famous Manta Ray Swim Clubs

are now forced to drive all over the place for precious pool time. And I would like to thank this previous speaker.

That was a fantastic story about your family and how Barnes Park kept you cool in the summer. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Margaret Leung.

Hi. Good evening, council members and Mayor Elizabeth Yang

and staff.

I don't have a lot to go to talk about today.

I do want to mention about the

I'm not sure that everybody knows that the potato chip was invented in Monterey Park

and it was invented by a lady named

Laura Scudder and as such

we commemorated where her factory was

is right where Garvey and Atlantic was and there was a plaque there

and for some reason it's disappeared I know that several people has come to me

and asked me if they would go to the police and file a missing report

so I tried that myself, it didn't work So now I'm coming in front of the council members. Please find that plaque and put it back where it belongs, right where the factory is. It's the Scudder family, the Laura Foundation.

Laura Scudder Foundation has been a tremendous contributor to our city.

They provide numerous scholarship to schools, to church, to the historical society, you name it.

He's here every year, so please find the plaque.

If you cannot find it, please go make a new one.

If you need a picture to know what it looks like, I was informed by my husband, Even if you take out your cell phone and you play Pokemon Go, you actually could see a picture of that plaque in that location.

So please let us know if you guys could make one and make it quick.

So the other items that I have is that I just want to thank everybody that helped. As of yesterday, we launched a change.org petition regarding the Save Bonds Pool. Now that I think this is the right time to launch such petition because a lot of people,

a lot of the residents and students and swimmers, the seniors, everybody's involved.

So it's very hard to keep track of who is in and who is out. So this is a really good way to see how much support we have on this particular project. It would be very easy to justify going forward how much funding we're going to be getting from the state, from the county.

We will be knocking on my phone store very shortly.

Thanks to Council Member Henry Lo.

We really appreciate setting up that meeting.

and we are going to definitely be reaching out to Hilda Solis' office also. So with that said, I just wanted to give you folks some stats. Within 24 hours of launching this particular petition,

we have way over 300 signatures already.

And within the signature, all these folks, they are so generous.

they have donated $600 to the change.org organization to,

I think what they do is that they take the money and they further advertise and boost the, to provide awareness of this particular issue. So with that said, I really, I don't know what else to say. When I saw, when I woke up this morning, when I looked at how many signature we have on that petition. So we're really happy with the participation. So now that everybody understands the whole town, the whole village,

is really in support of this particular pool.

And I'm not talking about a party pool.

I'm talking about a regulation-sized pool

that will provide for flexibility in programming and the full programming,

not just a short course.

and not a pool that is set up for having party.

If the city would like a party pool,

please fix the one in George Elders Park. I think that facility is perfect for a party pool.

But thank you.

Thank you, Margaret. And our final speaker is Edalyn Takahasi.

Hello. Good evening.

Mayor Yang, City Council members, and us Wannery Park City Council staff. My name is Edlin Takahashi, and I was actually the Mark Keppel High School Aquatics Booster President back in 2014-2015. I served on the board also from 2013 to 2016. That was 10 years ago. And 10 years ago in January, I stood in front of city council to make a very similar plea.

You can go on record and find it.

To the best of my recollection, at the time, I believe the city council was in the city City Council Members were Mitchell Ng, Peter Chan, Hans Liang, Teresa Rial Sebastian, Anthony Wong, and City Manager Ron Bo. A vote was taken that evening to support the pool and it was unanimous. At the time Monterey Park City Council was applying for a state grant through the park system and we were in competition with many other cities throughout California and that was a

that grant would have funded the entire pool.

Unfortunately, our best laid plans and efforts fell short

and we did not receive that grant.

Also, I know that you have a meeting coming up

for a pool, what kind of pool,

and a very similar vote was taken.

We had a meeting on a Saturday and it was taken, and we were at the, oh goodness, the name of this,

the service club building right there on the corner.

And we did a gallery walk. They had many different types of projects that would possibly be put into a park. And overwhelmingly, it was the city count.

It was the Olympic-sized pool.

And you might be wondering why, you know,

the Olympic-sized pool.

Well, let me give you one example.

We used to have lifeguarding classes over there in the pool.

and the Keppel and the Manta Rays were alLod to go ahead and take that class to be applied to be lifeguards.

Who do you want to save you?

A person that trained on an Olympic-sized distance course pool

or the person that trained on the 25-yard pool that was alLod to flip-turn every 25 yards?

We produced endurance swimmers, endurance lifeguards.

You would have wanted one of our alumni to come and be your lifeguard to save you,

your family member, your grandchild.

so swimming is a lifelong sport.

In addition, to address the party pool,

at the time my daughter was in elementary school,

Barnes Park Aquatic Center Pool was rentable for pool parties on Saturdays during the summertime,

so I want to point that out, that is still a possibility

with an Olympic-sized pool.

Also, I spoke at this week earlier at Alhambra's school board meeting.

We have a meeting tomorrow with Superintendent of Schools Denise Amarillo to find out their commitment towards building this pool.

So I'm proud to say that, hey, we're making some really good strides this time. And a decade is a super long time to wait for a pool.

We fell short in 2021.

And it's time for us to do it again. So I'm asking City Council to also come on board with us. to try to go ahead and put this and make this a reality for our students. So all of you, I just want to challenge you, be better than your predecessors.

Let's make this really happen.

I'd like the city council to really outshine the people that were in front of you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Edlyn, and thank you to all our public speakers tonight. So now we're going to move.

I have a question.

The earlier speaker, Margaret, spoke about the plaque for Laura Scudder. Can we identify where that is?

And I'm just curious.

I'm assuming that's on public property versus private property. That's why the plaque should remain there, if that's the case.

Council Member Ngo, we can definitely look into that.

I'm unfamiliar with the plaque. It's like exact location.

so we'll have to look into it to see

if it was removed

by the private property owner and if they have it so we could definitely follow up

and get back to council about that

okay thank you if I recall

correctly I think it was in the

sidewalk previously it is gone

so I don't know where

yeah

I know there were recent sidewalk repairs there I don't know where

yes okay I think

Maybe we have an answer.

So Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services.

So Public Works is working on locating it.

It was removed from the Seven Leaves site, so it was on the sidewalk corner of Garvey-Garfield,

and so we are trying to locate that plaque. So it was removed during the construction so that it was not damaged.

Good news.

And then really quick, I just want to respond really quickly. maybe Robert you can stay up here and just announce the upcoming community meetings for the pool design the dates and all that time can you wait for staff communication all right wait for that but I hope that those who are here talking about the pool I know there are folks that haven't been here for the last few meetings where we've touched on the pool really appreciate everyone coming to continue to advocate for the pool and I just want to reiterate this councils in the city's commitment to moving ahead we're we're moving as we're moving ahead and asked everyone to be patient right through and to engage through the parks master plan process and appreciate that the council has elevated the pool project Barnes Park pool project as a priority we're moving on design or seeking input formally from the community about the design so Robert will touch on that in his report for recreation and parks and hope that people will engage in the process coming right we have a few meetings and we're hoping to find all this design in the next few months and to move forward from there. We've already approved a grant application. Don't know what will happen with that.

We're hopeful. You're going to take my whole presentation.

It's good to repeat these things because everyone keeps... It's coming quick. Sean's next

and then I promise I'll come up and talk about it. I just want to reiterate that

this council is working on this. Absolutely. This council is very dedicated and as was noted by one of the speakers, not just me, all of us showed up I think to the swim or the swim campaign event and really appreciate what pub and all the other the Keppel and the manta ray parents and the families and everyone your continued advocacy on this we're here to partner with you and we are partnering with everyone in the community who's

interested in making sure a pool gets built. Thank you Robert we will wait for your report shortly.

I know there's a request to move 9G from the consent calendar up and that's for the Native American Heritage Month resolution. So we have a speaker on this item, correct? Yes, you can please come up

Me hi, yeah, yeah, no, any something Lopez

Hello and welcome. My name is Sammy Lopez. I'm a descendant of the first people that inhabited this land

San Gabriel Benamishan Indians Gablin on Tongva. So I just want to say hello to everybody here

I also just wanted to thank you for your time.

Speaking on behalf of the tribe in support of 9G, in terms of, again, just having Native American Heritage Month in ink.

Reason being is because this month is a time for us to honor the first peoples of this land, those whose histories, cultures, and contributions continue to shape this city and beyond. It's also a time for us to acknowledge that we live and work on ancestral homelands of first peoples who have cared for this land since time immemorial. Native American Heritage Month also reminds us that celebrating First Peoples isn't only about the past, but it's about present and future generations and supporting their efforts and continuing to, again, have a relationship with land that is theirs by birth. By uplifting Native voices, protecting sacred sites, and promoting cultural education, we strengthen our whole community, and we give everyone in our community a voice, including those who have been historically kept out of conversation and just, again, having a seat at the table.

so I just again want to keep it short but I just want to thank you again for recognizing the importance of this and having this in writing for the city again as a descendant of the first people that actually again lived here and were raised here so again thank you applause

applause applause applause thank you so much any discussion or motion for item 9G

yes I just wanted to before Mr. Lopez leaves I wanted to thank you for coming tonight. The city created a land acknowledgement a couple years ago to acknowledge the Tongva people of this area, but also in keeping with our motto of Pride in the Past, recognizing the importance of the First Peoples in this area, but also, just like you so eloquently said, recognizing that Tongva people and First Peoples are still here and are still impacting our communities. and it's important for us to not just recognize them but also to study and learn their impact in and you know in our communities and and that they're still here so thank you so much for coming today and and sharing that with us and and showing our community the importance of learning about our first peoples in this community so thank you so much for being here today and I want to ask our city council to recognize in Monterey Park month of November as Native Native American

heritage month here in the city of monterey park so if council do we do i'll make a motion then to

pass an item item 9g all right i'll second so council member sanchez moves council member goes seconds let's vote i approved unanimously great okay so moving on to uh back to staff communications so we have public works first.

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

First slide.

All right.

So November 10th and 13th we will be hosting our second phase of the community meetings for the Garvey Improvement Project. They will be starting at 6 p.m. at the Langley Center. Both of them will be at the center located at 400 West Emerson Avenue. These meetings will focus on concepts related to the project where we'll allow the community to provide input on these concepts and hopefully provide opportunities to enhance what we are

doing with the project.

We've already done a small survey that's gone out of second phase survey which we're starting

to get input based off these concepts.

We strongly encourage the community to come out and provide their input at these meetings. Translation services will be provided at both meetings along with a kids corner that'll allow parents to bring their kids and hopefully allow them to engage in the community meetings. We, again, we strongly encourage the community to come out and give their input on this important project, which will impact not only the look, but the functionality of this corridor.

Yep. Oh, we're back up.

So the survey tentatively is slated to end on the 10th, but I will probably extend that to get additional input from the community, again, because this is an important project

for the community. Next slide please. We have our monthly compost event coming up

located at our public works yard this is 751 South Alhambra Avenue again this is a monthly outreach opportunity for our community to get compost we will be giving out bags of compost also with loose material we encourage the community to show up on time at 8 a.m. and get as many bags I can so two bags per customer for the first hour after that if we have additional bags left over they can take that. We also have loose material that they have available. So with that, I

will take any questions.

All right. All right. Thank you, Sean.

Next we have finance.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council Members. Martha Garcia, Finance Director. I'm here today to let everyone know that we are hosting our annual housing rights center workshops. We will be holding four of them this fiscal year.

We have two for tenants that are geared to tenants, but sometimes landlords do attend.

They will be on Tuesday, November 18th from 6.30 to 8.30. and then also on Thursday, January 22nd from 6 to 8. The landlord workshops will be from Thursday, November 20th from 6 to 8,

and Thursday, February 12th from 6 to 8.

All four workshops will be at the community center here at City Hall, or community room here at City Hall. We will have also Spanish and Chinese interpretations available at the workshops. We have posted on various At the cat on the cascades in our website For more information and you can also go to the QR code that's on this slide that and You can get more information and also you if if you would like you can also RSVP as well

Any that's any questions

Thanks Martha for those workshops. I don't know if we're planning to record those at all and post those.

We never have, but I can work on recording it this time. Yes, we can. If we can.

The other question I have is, do we have kind of an FAQ or a one-pager or a shorter document? Like if someone obviously can't make the workshop, something to hand out to renters and tenants and the landlords as well?

just the the housing rights center brings in quite a bit of pamphlets and they leave them behind with me and then I'll put them out in the lobby so we do have quite a bit of pamphlets that are provided in all three languages great

and if there's a way to PDF those over we have a PDF version that would be great

to post just on the web page or something we could do that yes

definitely I have a question I'm not sure if I are all of our workshops in

person yes they are are any of them online no but we can look work in we can

work towards putting them online or through zoom I think you know in the

future at least have one online for people cannot make it from person and we

can definitely do it for these workshops thank you thank you are these workshops

broadcasted on the Cascades yes they have been ! Yes, they have been. They were in the November Cascades. ! Great.

! And I think October as well.

! Okay. ! And we'll keep recording. !

We'll keep posting them until February because we have some we have one more in February.

! Awesome. ! All right. Thank you, Martha. ! Thank you. ! Next up, Recreation and Community Services Department.

Now it's Robert's turn.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, and City Council members, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services.

And tonight with me, Alejandra Swaza is our program coordinator. Alejandra Suaza is our program coordinator. Next slide, please.

So first, I want to just take an opportunity to thank everyone that came out to our massive Monster Mash event this year.

We had a huge crowd.

I think we went over like 150 bags of candy that went out that day. So shout out to all the dentists out there because they're definitely going to get lots of visits this next month. So just wanted to thank not only everyone that came out and participated, but definitely our sponsors. all of the city departments that participated and provided games, a lot of our community organizations that provided games. Everyone really came together as a community to provide great and memorable experiences for the families and for the little ones, so thank you. Also wanted to thank everyone that participated in our annual Dia de los Muertos Community Altar. We had a lot of people that participated this year sending in photos of loved ones, both humans and pets. and also one thing this year that was really nice is the folks at Langley Center,

which is where the altar is hosted,

they commented on how many people actually came by to visit the altar and then also how many of the seniors they saw visiting and also providing fruit or vegetables at the altar, which is an offering to relatives, and so really just honoring those that have passed. So it was really nice to see, and they were really, THE STAFF THERE EXPRESSED HOW NICE IT WAS TO SEE EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS YEAR.

SO THANK YOU. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE.

NO WORRIES.

SO THE BARNES PARK POOL, AS YOU'VE HEARD, WE'RE VERY ENTHUSIASTIC, AND I KNOW THE COMMUNITY IS GAINING A LOT OF MOMENTUM, AND EVERYONE IS EXCITED ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY TO REENVISION WHAT THE BARNES PARK ACQUATIC CENTER COULD BE IN THE FUTURE. So we do have two meetings coming up for community engagement. These are opportunities we're working with a consultant to really provide a vision for the future. And so this Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Langley Senior Center, and then also on November the 17th at the Bergamari Library,

will we be having sessions that we led to give people opportunities to provide the size of pools,

depths of pools, amenities that they'd like to see, and really start to envision what the future is. once we have a conceptual design, we'll also be working with the community on what those concepts look like and then also approving a concept that will come back to Council for final approval. And then obviously the next step for that would be us to look at funding construction designs and finally a project in the future. We do continue to go out for numerous grants. As mentioned, we did go out for the LWCF grant that was applied back in August. We hope to hear back from them sometime in February 26. We also submitted two applications for the pool with Measure A grants last Tuesday, or sorry, last Thursday. And so we'll hear back from those probably sometime in February, I'm sorry, March of 2026. And then early 2026, we also will be applying for another State Parks grant as well. And so we're, that's, you know, tons of things happening with the pool. There's definitely lots of momentum. Also with the community engagement portion of this, we also have released a survey, a public survey.

So that's gone out into the public.

You already see it online. It's on our city website. And it's been blasted out through our registration system. I think just in the last day or so, we've gotten about 200 surveys that have been returned to the consultant. So they'll utilize the information that they get both at the community engagement meetings as well as a survey to start helping develop those conceptuals. I also wanted to highlight that this month, during the month of November, we are going to be giving away free postcards that highlight the new greetings from Monterey Park mural. So if you go take a picture out in front of the mural, take a selfie, take a photo with your friends, your family, go over and show our staff at the Langley Senior Center, and they'll have these postcards available for you to get. So we've already had some folks that shared their pictures with us on social media. I know there's a local run club that runs every Monday from the Cascades area. So they actually take it upon themselves to run Cascades over to the mural, take photos in front of that, and they all came and picked up their postcards. So come out, get your postcards while supplies last. It's called a limited edition.

How about that? So come out, get your postcards.

Also, within community engagement, there's not a flyer up there.

but did want to share that currently we're in the process of providing a court resurfacing project

throughout the city, which will include all of our tennis and pickleball courts. Part of that project, we're currently doing a pilot program up at Garvey Ranch at one of our tennis courts where there's hybrid lines of pickleball. We really want to understand how that impacts the community there, how people are enjoying it,

how it's working out at that site.

So I want to encourage people, go to Garvey Ranch. If you play pickleball, check out the courts. And and see if that's something that you're interested we will have a recreation in park commission meeting on December the 1st Where the commission will kind of hear from the community. We're also receiving emails So people want to provide input on that project they can email us at recreation at Monterey park that CA gov And we'll be providing those to the commission as well for their recommendation at that meeting Next slide, please and actually I'm going to turn it over to Alejandra for the next slides

Good evening mayor mayor pro tem and members of the City Council My name is Alejandra Sousa and I'll be continuing the presentation of slides starting off with on November 13th Langley Center Will be taking a trip to the California Science Center Registration is now at capacity but for future trips like this one. We encourage everyone to contact Langley Center Langley Center has partnered with the Mahjong underground for an intergenerational Mahjong series Our event will be taking place on Sunday, November 16th at 10 a.m. For anyone interested in learning how to play mahjong and come enjoy mahjong with some of our seniors. On November 20th, in partnership with the YWCA, Langley Center will be offering a special Thanksgiving luncheon featuring special turkey lunches with sides and a dessert. This will be free of cost thanks to the YWCA and registration will be required. So if you're interested in registering for those 50 and over they're welcome to contact Langley Center for more information next slide, please Langley Center is continuing to offer the very successful game day Tuesdays where seniors can enjoy an hour of fun various activities We welcome seniors of all the mobility levels This fun activity continues to take place every Tuesday at 1 o'clock from now until November 25th In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, Langley Center will be offering a dream catcher activity. Adults 50 and over are welcome to join us on November 13th at 1 for this relaxing hands-on activity that is a traditional symbol of protection and positivity. And then we continue to honor Native American Heritage Month at Barnes Park on November 13th at 6 o'clock where we will be having a special performance by an eagle dancer as well as storyteller at the farmer's market.

Next slide, please.

Coming up on Veterans Day on November 11th, in partnership with the American Legion Post 397, we invite everyone to join us in honoring those who served at 11 o'clock at the American Legion. And then also our Recreation Department is offering letters to Santa. We encourage kids to submit their letters to Santa before December 5th and have Santa send them a nice or naughty certificate delivered straight from the North Bowl. And then finally we have our annual snow village event on December 4th from 4 to 8 We will have vendors entertainment and snow play activities for the whole family to enjoy You can register now for the snow play activities on our website and then next slide, please Looking ahead. We have Santa's jolly journey on Sunday December 14th at 6 o'clock And then our Lunar New Year festival where we celebrate the year of the horse on January 31st and February 1st

Next slide, please. And that's where I come back in.

So we have a special guest with us tonight.

If I can bring up Brandon Chow.

So Brandon has been working with me for how many, several months now on getting his Eagle Scout project completed. So I will pass it over to Brandon in just a second. But if you ever visit Barnes Park along McFerrin Avenue, you'll notice this wooden sign that's been here long before I was here. So it's, I would say, 30, 40. I don't know exactly how long that sign has been there, but it's been definitely over 20, 30 years. It was in very, very poor condition. And Brandon approached us about beautifying the community by refurbishing the sign. And I'll pass it over to him so he can kind of talk about the process of his Eagle Scout project. And also, I'm sure he wants to thank all the great people in that photo because they spent two days here at Barnes Park. Working diligently on improving this sign so attach it over to my friend

Thank you very much. Mr. Yee to start off. I actually wanted to thank the city of Rani Park especially mr. Greer for always

Replying to me in such a timely manner and grant me the opportunity to do a project that allows me to give back to my community

I also like to thank my scout master assistant scout masters and everyone from my troop for all the support they give me

my parents always believing in me and keep me on track and

And I'd like to give a special thanks to my project coach, Mr. Oscar Madrigal, for all support.

And I'd actually like him to come up here with me for a second as I'd like to give you an award.

Thank you so much for all your guidance you gave me, how to be better organized, a better project manager, and a better leader.

All of your time and dedication you gave to my project helped me immensely.

and as such I wanted to give you this award for all the help you gave me. Thank you very much.

Now as briefly mentioned, my project was to refurbish, repaint, and repair the wooden sign in front of Barnes Park, the tennis courts. And it took a lot of time, effort, and work, but we were able to get it done with all the support my troop gave me. And I would say this project has taught me two major things. The first thing is that planning and executing are two completely different things. For example, the signing of the project took way longer than originally planned. As previously mentioned, the decades of old paint that were landed onto the sign caused us to have to spend a lot more man force, as well as get additional orbital sanders to ensure that we finish to the timeline. This actually leads to my second point, which is the importance of having a great team. Without all the scout families lending me their equipment, as well as some of them on the day of, actually going back to their homes and getting more Orbita Sanders for me, I would not have been able to complete my project on time. And due to my birthday being so close, I would have cut it very close, and I don't think I would have been able to get my ego on time. So I want to thank my troop for that. as well as thank all the volunteers and scouts that were very motivated. All of them wanted to see my project come to life. And I think because of that, that is why my project turned out as incredible as it did. That's all I have. Thank you.

And with that, I'll take any questions.

But afterwards, we do have a certificate from City Council for Brandon. and so I do want to invite council down to take a picture with him.

But first, I'll take any questions about our ton of events that are coming up.

There's a lot going on. Adam, hear me.

Robert, thanks for, and staff for Parks and Recs for doing all those activities. I was a little worried at first because I counted like seven things all hovering around Langley Center. I was like, what about the kids?

What about the kids?

But you did not disappoint. You came back with the three most important things with Snow Village, Santa's Ride, and Letters to Santa. So I know that those are December events, but thank you, staff and Parks and Rec, for being creative and really involving all the residents and the community for the parks that we have.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ditto.

In terms of all the programming, we really appreciate it. I missed the Monster Mash. was out of town but sounds like if we need to ask for a little more money in

the budget next year for more candy I'm open to that here the Martha just a

little not have to blow the budget on on candy but a little more candy yeah

we'll ask the dentist to sponsor on the pool design I just want to confirm right

that when the previous council right one of the speakers mentioned right 2015 2016 I think was another kind of similar process where we were going through kind of applying for grants and having kind of a design but at that at that when when that happened right in 2016 and 2021 when we apply for additional grants we didn't have a full design for an actual pool right we just had concept

conceptual get a conceptual as well yeah and and at that time as well it was just the one LWCF grant that's the one we did apply for back in in August what's nice right now is we also have the opportunity for the two grants that we just applied for last week and then there is another grant coming up so we're actually being able to apply for three grants consecutively all going after the same project and hopefully we'll be able to get all three and stack those funds

and really fund fund the project and I just want to confirm for the sake of some

of the speakers that came earlier to the council this council has already approved

to City Council, at that time, council could provide direction if they'd like us to move into full design for an RFP using those concepts. So at that time, we will also need to ask for funds to be allocated to pay for that design. So that would be the step in the process. As far as direction from council to staff, we understand that council is interested in trying to get a shelf ready project, meaning that we need first concepts that we can utilize with engineers estimates to go after an RFP so that we can move to full design if that's what the council would like to do. That would give us a much better, clearer understanding of what would be built and the cost that will come. I know there was lots of discussion previously about what would it cost. So until we move through these steps with community engagement concepts and then go through the full RFP process for design, that's when we'll really know the true cost of the concept. so yes understand that this council has provided us with these first steps as direction to have a shelf ready project ready to go figuring out funding

strategies for construction of the pool coming after or hopefully with these

grant opportunities great no appreciate that and then Robert if you remind us

and sorry if I missed it the timeline in terms of communication we're doing and when we will have when we expect to have concepts brought back so community

engagement will be during this this month there's two two sessions then the conceptual designs will have some options in January for review and the community will actually have an opportunity to review those and then we expect to come back to council for choice of the conceptuals in February

and I just remind everyone who's here and interested in the Barnes Park

Aquatic Center

Whatever the next steps are going to be there to engage and hopefully show up to the please please take the survey

Please come out tomorrow. Please come out to 17th Engage we really want this to be a community-led effort

That's that's kind of the direction is you know the council has had the vision of us going through the park semester plan

We understood and the pole was elevated during that process and now is not just the pool But now looking at what type of pool and what that pool is going to include is the next step in that process

just engaging with the community.

Yeah, and I just want to highlight, right, the council and the city are taking the, right, there's a process to make sure we do this correctly so that we can be as competitive as possible for grant opportunities. Having a design that's ready to be built right off the shelf is, would make us more competitive than having just conceptual designs. That means we're ready to build or go out to RFP for someone to begin construction on a pool as opposed to having to take that step which would be further than we've I think the city has gone before yeah we're definitely trying to move the ball forward we're trying to move as quickly as possible there's there's a way there's there is a process to do this to make sure that we meet app grant kind of application guidelines and requirements for typical grants that are out there that we're going after so appreciate staff's work on this and hope that pub and everyone else will continue to engage with us and if there are questions or other other comments around the pool please come to the meetings and feel free to reach out um on we really appreciate the scout and the troop for uh refurbishing the barns park sign um i think there are other a lot of signs at all of our parks so i will definitely i will definitely

invite council if there are projects out in the community that you would do so definitely there We do get approached by scouts that are looking for Eagle Scout opportunities. So if there are projects that you're interested in, myself, Public Works, talk with us and definitely suggest and then we will work back with the scouts on putting those together. What Brandon didn't mention is it's a full process where they actually fundraise, he pays for the full cost of the project.

They have to do all the planning.

So it's a full scope project for them. It's a really great growing experience for him. and it was great to see him kind of get up here on the mic today because the first time I met Brandon, me and his father Bart did a lot of the talking and Bart kind of encouraged him to kind of, you know,

make sure he took the lead on stuff.

So it was great to see him come up here and he just grow so much just in the last couple months.

Yeah, thank you, Brandon.

I see a few other potential future Eagle Scouts in the making that I think would love to get connected to some city projects as well. It sounds like we don't have a formal kind of program if there are organizations like the Scouts or service clubs or Marquetteville High School Clubs or others. Is there a way we can think about kind of a formal program or even a list of potential projects that people could?

Yeah, so we've developed a potential project, but then we also try to ask the Scouts for if there's projects that they're interested in as well so that we do want them again to do some of that footwork, get out in the community, look at things that they can help improve as well.

Great.

That sounds great and would love to support that. If we can do anything to proactively get the word out to a bunch of high school groups and scouts and other service organizations in the city, I think that would be great to help inspire them to take on some projects in the city. I don't know I think kind of related but not exactly the same I'd love to explore kind of an adopt a park program or something in terms of just cleanups I don't you're nodding so it sounds like you're everything about something but if there are organizations like scouts or other service clubs are looking for honestly building a site or rebuilding a sign but something like a day or so

yeah so what's great is is actually within the parks master plan that's one of the programs that we identified is an adopt-a-park program so within our city so that is something that we'll we will be exploring would love to see that

come back formally so that we can get I'm just thinking there was a service group that reached out to us I think a few months ago looking for a service opportunity we were able to connect to Langley I think to do a service thing for half day or something like that but I'm sure there are other groups that would love to and especially students college high school students need service hours to be able to have an easy to sign up kind of program for some service hours would be great. I like an adoptive park program. If we can look at, and I'm looking at Sean too, maybe there are opportunities to do an adoptive sidewalk or adoptive street program to do cleanups to outside of just our parks. I'm remembering OCA and other groups that did a similar kind of street cleanup, neighborhood cleanup program. They were looking for a service opportunity too.

But yes, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Robert.

I think when we took my daughters to the electric park, it was my oldest daughter, Mia, who said, like, this is electric park. She said kind of kicks off that season where there's a lot of activities going on in the city.

All right.

So I know she's definitely very excited and just wanted to say kudos to I know it takes more. It takes a village to put together the Monster Mash, and you guys did an amazing job. I don't know any other city that can pull this off like we do in Monterey Park. I know that a lot of our neighboring community members come out to Monterey Park for that specific reason, for a lot of our activities, and it speaks very highly of our city and the programming that we have. So thank you for always having so much programming for families like mine and that you do it so well. So really looking forward to the – especially the Santa's Village. And, you know, I'm already thinking we have to do letters to Santa as well. So there's a lot coming up. So thank you for keeping us busy, Robert. But also wanted to thank Brandon for, I mean, this looks beautiful. Thank you for choosing to do this. It helps revitalize and share the importance of our parks here in Monterey Park. And as Council Member Ngo would say, Monterey Park is the city of parks. So thank you for choosing to do that. And I want to encourage everyone else, just like Council Member Wong said, to try to find a different spot or maybe a different park to help revitalize. Maybe we have a lot of parks that you can help out with. But thank you so much and looking forward to seeing a lot more projects like these.

Thank you. Thank you. Madam Mayor, again, thank you, Robert.

As always, your department is just phenomenal in not just programming, but also the tremendous work your staff has done in working with the community for completing the Parkmaster plan. And I think we're very proud about a very comprehensive document, which really will, I think, set direction and all the vision for our recreational services. And again, just thanks for all the work you do and also for being such a welcoming leader in our community in working with, for example, in this case, our local scout troop. And again, I'm very excited for the work that was done for Barnes Park sign.

and finally for Brandon over there.

So I hope when you have your Eagle Scout ceremony, you will invite all of us if that hasn't already happened. But if it does happen, please make sure we are aware. And if we are able to, we'll come to your Eagle Scout ceremony.

Yeah, we're very blessed to live in a city with so many events for all ages, from youth to seniors. So thank you for always putting on these amazing activities. Thank you, Brandon and the troupe for a very much needed beautiful sign. We hope you'll continue to do even more projects in our city. And also wanted to acknowledge Brandon's grandmother, Lisa Yang, who is an avid volunteer and founder of CACA in the San Gabriel Valley.

So with that, let's take a picture.

If we can get a real quick picture with Brandon.

Yes, picture. Yeah.

And I know my colleagues are up there grinning at me.

picture and i know my colleagues are up there grinning at me

yes One, two.

Great, thank you. Can we get family? Family on it, Oklahoma. Thank you so much. Grandma, how are you?

Okay, come in. Grandma, grandma, two.

Look right here. One, two, and three.

Thank you. Thank you.

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

Okay. Next up, we've got library. Good evening, mayor. Library, yay! Library, so shh.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right.

Yes, please proceed.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, members of City Council. I'm Linda Vera. I'm the Library Manager. So before we get into our November programs, I just wanted to show you some highlights from October.

We had a total of 51 programs with 3,043 participants.

So this is a snapshot of some of those programs that we have for all ages, toddlers through adults.

Okay, so as we all know, November is Native American Heritage Month. One of the ways that you can celebrate is by using your library card to access Canopy, which is our online streaming service. And we have a wide selection of materials that are available there for you to view that feature Native Americans. Next slide. In addition to this, you can access curated lists at the library's catalog. In addition to this, you can access curated lists at the library's catalog. ! And again, these are going to be books for all ages, babies, children, teens, adults.

! In November, we're going to be having a number of programs for children, including ! The DiNovember party, which will include a Flora's lava component. ! Do come for that. You can still enroll for the In-N-Out program. Currently, we have 1,100.

This is for kids ages 4 to 12, and they read for hamburgers.

The coloring club will be meeting, and they'll be decorating frames that they can use to put in pictures of people or things that they are thankful for.

Also in November, the teen entrepreneurs are going to be meeting with vendors at our local farmer's market, so that's going to be a great event.

The Junior Friends are going to be hosting a Nailed It Cupcake Decorating Challenge, and the teens will also be doing cards for veterans,

and those will be made available at the event on November 11th.

Adult programs include a poetry reading that is open to teens, so if you are interested, come on down. This is going to be with a women's poetry collective,

and the legal clinic will also be happening and this is a partnership with AJ SoCal.

And last but not least, we're going to be having an all-ages program, Boba Generations, so there will be interactive panels and discussions, activities, and samples. This is sponsored by our library board trustee,

Jennifer Tang, and Assemblymember Mike Fong.

and coming up shortly on November 19th the winter session of lamp classes will be open and available

so this is literacy classes to help people improve their reading writing and speaking English abilities so this is not all of the programs that we have you do have in front of you the library calendar so that's a complete listing of all of our programs that we have in November. Thank you. Any questions?

Just appreciation, especially for all the programs, but for the LAMP program that used to offer citizenship preparation classes. I'm curious, what is the current enrollment? If you don't recall, that's fine, but I remember when I was a volunteer many years ago that it was a very popular program among residents who were preparing to become a citizen by preparing on to take the test. I'm just curious, is that still a very popular program?

It is incredibly popular.

I don't have the numbers with me tonight, but we're constantly fielding calls about people

who are looking to get into the program.

Wonderful. That's great.

I just want to say that's amazing.

Over 50 programs in one month and 340-plus participants. It's a big impact on our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Last but not least, we've got our police. We have a little visitor tonight.

Madam Mayor, member of the city council, Scott Weiss, police chief. and this is a lost dog named Carlos that we're going to show you how we use our lost dog application.

In reality, this is a puppy of a dog that I was lost here in Monterey Park.

All of our dogs at home are from Monterey Park. They're all strays. And Carlos had Carlos' mom.

It's a girl named Carlos. You'll have to work through that in your own head. we found her in Barnes Park or in Garvey Ranch Park, looked for her mother for a long time, could not find the family that was belonging to the mom. I took mom home, took her to the vet to get her some shots.

Turned out she was pregnant. That means she's going to have puppies. We ended up having 10 puppies. So this is one of the puppies. This was the runt. And we bottle fed her from, I could hold her in my hand. And so she's going to be our test subject tonight for the new application. Go ahead. Next up. I want to talk to you a little bit about the daylighting section. So back in September, actually last year, the state passed a vehicle code section for parking that basically talks about if you park too close to an intersection on the approach side. So as you're driving up to a stop sign, the curb on the right-hand side needs to be free of vehicles for about 20 feet back from the intersection to allow for pedestrians to cross the street safely so that vehicles can see the pedestrian waiting on the corner. It's called a daylighting section. It's a California vehicle code. And starting back in September, we started warning people. We created a flyer. We put the flyer on the vehicles, and we issued a warning citation, no fine involved, that basically told them this is what the section's all about. It was covered in the news quite a bit, and we put it on our social media. So we think we did a pretty good campaign of getting the word out. We saw a lot of violations that eventually went away through the process of public outreach. Starting November 1st, we began citations. And I don't know what the current number count is right now, but we started issuing actual citations on the first. Go ahead, next slide. This kind of gives you an idea of what daylighting is all about. It gives the driver the ability to see the pedestrian as they approach an intersection. And even if there's no red there, it still applies. We're going to put red curbs at the intersections that we think have the most activity around schools, around the hospital. But it applies to every intersection on the approach side. Next slide, please. Again we started warnings around October 1st, a little bit before that. Flyers left on vehicles, citations started on the 1st. It's $22,500 and the California vehicle code and the fine is $233. Next slide. Monterey Park PD has started a campaign to represent Memorial Day and Veterans Day. You can see the patch I'm wearing right now, which is a camouflage patch that represents the armed forces. I have one for each of you right here. We sell the patches to the public. All the money goes toward the Tunnels to Towers Foundation. And this was designed by our veterans within the department. It's a pretty nice patch, but it represents both Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Thank you. Next slide. Now for the main event is our lost pet application. Who wants the dog?

Oh, yeah.

Carlos is super hyper, you can tell.

Okay, let me introduce will Estrada my control sergeant and Laura Rodriguez his partner

Good evening council madam mayor mayor pro temp council members And city manager Chief introduced me, but I'm animal services supervisor William Estrada along with Marco Martinez and Laura Rodriguez we

designed a pretty interesting it's a pretty interesting process to put something a photo on the internet the idea behind it is we want to have animals return home and not end up in an animal shelter so the online portal is something

that can be accessed on the city website, and it will show you photos of the animal, and then we'll go over the demo portion with the puppy. So we're going to have Laura Rodriguez go ahead and run through that PowerPoint.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Laura Rodriguez, and I'll be continuing the PowerPoint. Essentially, as how Officer Estrada stated, This is going to be a new tool for police department staff and the application is going to be used for when a domestic pet is impounded And it's going to be great because we're not going to have to use paper anymore

Essentially the app is used to reunite lost pets with their owners

Primarily dogs, but you'd be surprised we get the occasional tortoise from time to time in the city The app is going to be able to provide real-time information And that's going to include a general location of where the animal was impounded and the current location of where the animal is and it's going to be great because the application is going to be connected to the city website under the animal services page and it's going to allow residents to go ahead and see when the animal is impounded and it's going to include a photo of the pet as well. Next slide please. When an animal is impounded they're held at the police station at our upper deck kennels and when they have a type of identification such as a pet license or a microchip They'll be held for a maximum of 24 hours after the 24 hours if the pet is not claimed Then they'll be transported to a designated animal shelter Which for us is the downy animal care facility, which is run by Los Angeles animal care and control now in some such

Now in some situations even if a pet has an ID the they won't be held at the station And that's typically if they have behavioral issues or if they're sick or injured in those cases they're going to be transported to the animal shelter or to the veterinarian that we work with

in the city. Next slide please. When an animal is impounded they're going to be automatically

photographed and that's going to be with our city issued cell phone and it's not just us as animal service officers but that's also going to be officers from patrol. They've already been trained

on that as well and they've been doing great on it. The images that we're going to upload are going to be held on the city website for 30 days in attempts to try to reunite the pet with its owner and right here we have a prime example of it so essentially right here we have a husky and along with that you're going to see where the animal was impounded a description of the animal and the

status of where the animal is being held next slide department staff will be in charge of updating of the status of the pet whether it's fostered or returned to its owner after 24 hours if the pet is not fostered or returned to its owner then it's going to automatically indicate that it's been transported to the designated shelter, which is the Downey Animal Care Facility. Residents can access the city website to view the status of the lost pets, but for whatever reason, if residents still have a question regarding the status of the pet, they're more than welcome to go ahead and contact Animal Services. Next slide.

And now we're going to have Marco Martinez do a live demonstration of the portal, and now we can also photograph the dog.

Okay. Okay, so just to give you a little background on how the whole application works, this is essentially using GIS as its backbone.

We are taking all the applications and tools that the city has access to to kind of connect or better connect with the public to display specific information that we feel that would be important to share with the public.

So I'm going to give you kind of like a two-part demonstration in terms of what it is that we capture, the police department, whether it is animal services or even police officers who are on the field.

So starting with the actual survey of what it is that we essentially use.

Give me a quick second. Do you need to reload this?

Okay. ! Okay. So I guess we're going to skip that part.

OKAY, SO I GUESS WE'RE GOING TO SKIP THAT PART. SO ESSENTIALLY THE WAY THAT IT WORKS IS ANIMAL SERVICE OFFICERS, THEY HAVE ACCESS TO THIS APPLICATION ON THEIR PHONES. So they essentially take the picture of the animal they import information of where the animal was found specifically by indicating where on the map and then once that information is captured they then push that all that info out into a public portal. so on the city website itself during under the animal services section we have this specific area here where it has information on how we're kind of the Monterey Park Police Department pet portal and has a direct link to that specific portal so when we open this up it gives us this is essentially what the public has access to the very first thing that they see is this kind of disclaimer kind of in providing them information that they should be aware of one of the things that was previously mentioned was that we only hold animals up to 24 hours. We're only a temporary holding facility and has contact information as well, specifically for animal services as a phone number there, and even has the actual shelter that we use, Downey Animal Shelter, for if they want to go ahead and try to follow up and try to see if maybe their animal is now at the impound,

they could go ahead and contact the Downey Animal Shelter with the information provided.

SO AS SOON AS THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THE DISCLAIMER BY HITTING OK, THEY GO AHEAD AND THEN SEE ESSENTIALLY THE INFORMATION THAT IS AVAILABLE TO THEM. SO AS YOU CAN SEE HERE, WE HAVE INFORMATION, AND THIS DISPLAYS INFORMATION WITHIN THE LAST 30 DAYS. AND THAT IS KIND OF HOW IT'S SET UP AT THE MOMENT, WHERE WE'RE ONLY DISPLAYING INFORMATION FOR THE LAST 30 DAYS AND IT HAS A LIST HERE that kind of provides information. So as you could scroll down, you can kind of have access to that information on that list. So for example, right now, this is the information that was just entered

as part of the demonstration. We have the picture, right, of the chief and his dog. It has information of the golden retriever

and then the location of the impound. It has a general description. It does not provide exact addresses because we don't want to, you know, we want to have a generalized location of where the animal was found in case it was found at somebody's residence. We don't want to provide that information to the...

We don't want to provide that information to the public. ! So then what we want to try to do. ! ! Okay, there we go. ! So we have the map that is displayed here. And that information is also ! kind of gives a description ! of where these animals are being found ! and impounded from. So for example, we have these two examples here. If I click on the golden retriever, it's going to zoom in and flash the exact area where this animal was found. area where this animal was found. And then it's going to give the information here. It was found in the general location, South McFerrin Avenue. We have an incident number. Every impound generates a call for service within our dispatch center. So there's a way to track everything, every impound that we're generating. And then there's a mechanism in place for if we need a follow-up for whatever reason or if members of the public want more information of the specific call for service, we have an incident number that we are providing. We have the date and time of the impound. the status of the inbound, which right now it says it isn't currently in PPD custody. We have the animal type, the sex, the breed, and then the color. So then looking back at the map, you obviously see all these dots here. Then the map is interactive, so it allows you to zoom in and out, kind of drag around the map. You could click on these icons as well, and then when you click on them, it kind of gives you information of what animal was found there. It gives you information, the picture, and then, you know, the general area was located. There's a legend section as well. The green circles indicate that that current animal is in NPPD custody. Orange means that it was released to the county, and blue is it was returned to the owner. So it provides that information to the public in case it might be curious in terms of what the status of the animal is. So all that information, you have an interactive list you can go through, and just by clicking on these you get information of the animal, where it was found, and then information up here in obviously the picture. So it allows you to cycle through all this information within the last 30 days. It's a very interactive tool, you know, sophisticated method for the public to be better informed of the animals that we are impounding. And then that same disclaimer, that message is also here on this side and provides information that we only hold animals up to 24 hours. But we also provide a direct link to the county's website. So it says to access the county's website, we want to use this three-lined menu. When you click on this and you click on this link, it's going to take you directly to Downey's Animal County website, where if you scroll down, it gives you a list of all the currently impounded animals. So it even provides a further follow-up for the public to kind of further try to see if maybe potentially the animal, if it was taken to county, what is the current status at county. So it gives that information as well.

And that is it for the demo.

And if residents have any questions, they're more than welcome to go ahead and email us at that email address. Next slide.

and of course for any immediate animal assistance residents can call the Monterey Park Police Dispatch

I have a question

thanks for providing the service it looks like we're on the way to just track the pet it's a dog now but it could be a cat it could be a tortoise so we track them continually anytime it changes hands if it leaves our location

it goes somewhere else

we update it within 10 minutes you updated within half an hour or within the hour?

So as soon as it's in our custody, it's updated in real time. As you saw, they had the pictures of the golden retriever. As things are being, the status of the animal is being changed, animal services has access to the back end of this map. So they could go in there and configure the information that's being displayed so they can go in and change the status of the animal as things are moving and changing.

They're the ones who drop it off at the shelter. Yep. so they can get on their phone and immediately update the status, and it's real time. As soon as they hand the dog off, it's real time.

So it shows that we have two dogs in custody. So one dog is here in our kennels, and one dog is at the veterinarian. And then once it leaves the veterinarian or our kennel, we come back and we update it. So it shows that it's been transported to home or to a shelter.

So this is a resource we have within our website, But do we actually help push this out to social media to say that we found this dog? Or that somebody else, like an individual, can say, hey, my neighbor is missing a dog. I went to the police station, or I went to the police site, MPK PD, and I saw this golden retriever. I know you lost something else, right? You lost a chihuahua, but I can pull the picture from this and I can post it in My Park Life and say, there's a golden retriever found at MPK Police Department?

That's a good question. So every time we impound a dog, it's scanned for a microchip ID, which is required in L.A. County.

A majority of the dogs that we get are returned to home

because they have that microchip identification. If not, they'll have a dog license.

If somebody comes in to claim an animal,

we verify with veterinarian documents, photographs.

If there's any question that they might not be the owner,

We will hold on to the dog until we can determine that they're the owner. Okay. Good.

Madam Mayor, members of the council, I think what we can do, since this is new, this is a new program that we're launching, we can definitely put the information out in the Cascades and social media. So it's going to take a little time for residents to know to come to this webpage, but it's another resource. I know definitely people go to Nextdoor and post and Facebook and post, but this can be another tool for them to come here to see if their dog has been found by our animal control officers.

Thank you for sharing that. I think this is a great resource to connect pets with their owners. Along those same lines, is this going to be on the MPK Go app as well?

we could absolutely link it to the go mpk app good good yeah good recommendation we can do that

and um to council member go's point about social media um whatever we can do i i i can imagine that it would probably be really difficult and hard to be posting every animal that gets found and on social media but um i think whatever we can do to constantly remind people about this resource that we have i i mean if the last one that we shared people are looking up you know all the different crimes are happening in our city um this is another map that a resource that we can use i think people would definitely go on and try to find their pets my question is also for pets for example that are and this is for the downy situation um i know we're keeping pets for 24 hours and then we turn them over to downy how long do they keep the pets do we know like

they are required to keep them for five days but they keep them for a lot longer than that

so we'll see them kept for 10 20 days depending on the status of the dog as long as it's healthy

as long as it doesn't have any health issues or injuries and healthy happy dogs that are

adoptable, generally find a home or go to a rescue.

And we only hold them for 24 hours. Is there a reason why we only hold them for 24 hours? We only hold them for 24 hours because

the resources, right? We have to care for them. We have to make sure they're fed, make sure that they get water cleaned. There's two of us.

So we dedicate a lot of time to that. We're fortunate that we

have a pet living police department. The chief will go out there and check on

animals if we have them in the kennels. Our whole department will come and check, make sure they're fed.

So we're fortunate that we're able to even

keep them for 24 hours and make sure that they're safe and cared for.

Thank you.

I love how high tech our police is from Citizen Rims to now this technology. I think it's going to be a great way to reconnect all the lost pets.

Mayor, I just have a quick question for the chief. How many

dogs have you, how many dogs do you have at home now? Four. How many? Three cats, four dogs? What's your max capacity?

What's our maximum capacity, honey? We're at it. My wife's here.

Yeah, we're at it.

I got two German Shepherds, a Golden Retriever, and this baby Golden Retriever, and then three cats. They're all rescues.

So, yeah.

This is a great way for us to basically get missing pets back to their owners. We'll look at some social media options.

One of them could be we have an animal services Instagram page.

They already do a lot, so we'll look at that and see if there's a possibility for us to expand our social media when it comes to animal rescue.

They also help a lot of the other cities around us. We're one of the only communities in the San Gabriel Valley that has their own animal

services. It's the county. The county is not as popular with some communities because it takes a long time for them to get there.

They're taxed. But we are lucky here in Monterey Park to have animal services working seven days a week. So we respond to just about everything that comes up.

I think it's a good idea to figure out social media angle to promote dog or pet adoptions and things like that. I know the county already does something similar, and a lot of supervisors tend to highlight.

I'll talk to them. They're the ones who would have to manage it, so we'll see if we can do that. Whatever.

What's the reason why we're not going to go out of our way to build a—we don't have to compete with county in terms of doing all-out services.

Yeah, county has people that do it full-time. That's all they do.

But we—I'm always looking for something to, you know, reach out to the community and connect with the community.

and this is a animal services is a big part of our police department uh it's a service that

we're lucky that we can provide to this community so i want to expand that as much as i can all right i do have oh yes oh um i'd encourage you and again i i didn't realize that we're one of the few cities in the area that has its own animal bureau services but i'm kind of curious whether or not you know because sometimes you know pets do wander from neighboring cities whether

or not, we could encourage our neighboring cities to list this web service on their website.

I mean, I have a different jurisdiction, but, you know, if that's a possibility, since pets do

some days wander from... Some of the communities exclusively use the county. Some have a part-time code enforcement slash animal control component. Others use Inland Valley Humane or they use Pasadena Humane, which all have links also. We don't, we kind of exclusively deal with the animals here and we take our animals to Downey Shelter. We can, on our animal services website, we can link the other shelters so that people can look at those. But we know that if we find an animal here in Monterey Park, first we're going to try to connect it with the owners. Second is it's going to end up going to Downey Shelter. But we don't share the information with the other two big shelters in the area. We'd have to kind of look at that regionally and see if that would work out or not.

Okay. Okay. Well, thank you.

Yep. Great. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. I think that's it for staff communications tonight. Moving on to item seven. Doesn't look like there's any additional presentation. Item 8, no old business. So item 9 will be our consent calendar. We've already pulled item 9G. Any other items or discussion or motion?

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

All right. Council Member Ngo moves to approve the consent agenda. Council Member Wong seconds. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously. Thank you.

All right, so after the consent agenda will be public hearing.

Any public hearing? No public hearing? Okay, so then moving on to item 11, new business. Item 11A, adopt a resolution to cast votes for a city member to the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority Board.

Madam Mayor and members of the council Diana Garcia our assistant city manager is prepared to do a short presentation

Good evening Madam Mayor members of the council Diana Garcia assistant city manager

The San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority was established to develop finance and implement groundwater treatment programs in the San Gabriel Valley

And is under the direction of a seven member board

As a city with prescriptive water pumping rights, Monterey Park may nominate and elect a city member to the board. The city of Monterey Park has six votes to be cast, and all votes cast must be for only one candidate.

A nomination period was open to accept nominations for board member to represent cities with prescriptive pumping rights,

and two individuals were nominated, Robert Gonzalez, city of Azusa, mayor, and Jeffrey Maloney, city of Alhambra, vice mayor.

This evening council is asked to choose an individual to cast its six votes for and to adopt the attached resolution will be which will be submitted no later than December 16th 2025. That concludes my staff report. Thank you.

Thank you Diana. Any uh quick question for Diana. So we can vote our six votes anyway right so you can split the votes. Is that right?

All votes must be cast for one member. So as I understand the the member who is elected

There are two members that have been nominated the one with the most votes will be elected

The other will serve as the alternate

And I know ran The most votes will be elected the other will serve as the alternate and I know Randy's here

! So I want to acknowledge the executive director for the water quality authority ! Who's monitoring the election ! My understanding I don't know if other council members have been in touch with the two candidates I reached out to them for this ! I think that last time this came up ! I don't remember when a few years ago I assume two or four years ago

!

I think the situation was similar it sounds like they're in touch both Robert and Jeff are in touch with each other and intend to continue on as is in terms of to continue on as is in terms of Robert Gonzalez from Azusa being the member and Jeff Millen from Alhambra being the alternate, if I'm not mistaken, in talking to them. If that's the case, I don't know if other counselors heard differently, I'm comfortable moving forward in that way and casting our votes.

Yeah, I don't know Robert, but I did call Jeff and Jeff said that he's okay being the alternate and having Robert be the main representative.

So I'll make the motion to cast our six votes for Robert Gonzalez from Azusa, knowing that there are only two candidates,

so the other one will become the alternate.

I'll second that. All right, so Council Member Juan makes a motion to cast votes for Robert Gonzalez, and Mayor Pro Tem seconds. Let's vote.

approved unanimously

alright thank you and that's all for new business so item 12

city communications future agenda items

oh okay

okay well it was a busy

busy last couple of weeks

so just a couple of

items here at the Langley Center

we did a

stop senior scam. Thank you Assemblymember Mike Fung for hosting that event. I think it was a huge turnout that day. That was on the 17th of October. Then the next day we had a health fair which was staffed by UCLA students. So that was another back-to-back full day. I got the honor of attending Monterey Vista, the STEM night, which was hosted or actually had volunteers from a group of Star Wars, I guess they're non-profit volunteers who were dressed

up in Star Wars gear.

So they attended that event, and we're just getting ready to celebrate Monte Vista, 100 years in the city or as open as a school. So that's sometime next March. So looking forward to that. Among other things, a few of us actually did a neighborhood business walk with Senator Sasha Perez. So she got a chance to talk to the business owners here. And thank you, Community Development Group, for setting that up. Gave her firsthand Q&A on what's affecting our local businesses. So that was a good highlight for our city. attended the Mario Park Police Pink Patch Car Show Day. And I think just this past weekend there was a pickleball tournament with tacos that the city hosted. So that's my report.

first of all i i want to um last night was election night and uh so we only had one item on the ballot so which was prop 50 um which passed so um wanted to thank everyone who came out and voted i know i wanted to thank our city clerk's office for all the promotion of the election and getting a lot of the information uh out to the community in terms of uh where we could vote and i know there was three different places um that you could vote i i voted at elac um just because it was right next door to um where my daughter was taking her violin class so uh in the music building so anyhow got an opportunity to uh to be there and vote um also wanted to thank the police department for hosting the third annual pink patch um was very successful uh my daughters loved it uh got an opportunity to have not just check out of some really uh beautiful and amazing cars uh at the car show but a lot of booths and information out there um girls enjoyed the pizza as well. So thank you so much Police Department for hosting that and bringing awareness.

Really appreciate that.

Of course, who could forget?

Dodgers. They are now again national champions.

Very exciting

week

in terms of the World Series. Didn't get a chance to go out to the parade but did get to see the game. So especially the last game, which was pretty amazing. As a matter of fact, I took my daughters down to downtown L.A. for Dia de los Muertos celebration at Ovaris Street. And then had to rush back on the Metro to make sure we came back in time to watch the game. Pretty exhausting day, but lots of fun. I also got to attend the Angel Awards. Our supervisor, Hilda Solis, was named Women of the Year. And so this was held at the courtyard here in Monterey Park. And lastly, we just wanted to thank Robert again for the amazing turnout and hard work with the HalLoen mash. Thank you so much. And that's it for me.

Thank you. Okay, my turn.

Well, first of all, I think my colleague, Mr. Ngo, forgot to mention, last week also was the Garvey Education Foundation. And I want to thank our colleague who chairs the event for another successful fundraising for the Garvey Education Foundation. And for the public information, the Garvey Education Foundation was created many years ago by former board members and current board members at the time to raise money for the schools in the Garvey School District. And as a reminder, two of their schools serve Monterey Park, Monterey Vista and Hillcrest. And so thank you for the foundation for, you know, raising resources for our students. And then also, I think we can put that. Councilman Wong and myself participated in the Alhambra Pumpkin Run 10K. And the funds for the 10K actually go to the Alhambra Education Foundation, another great foundation in the area. and of course many residents know and may not know that the Ahamboa Unified School District oversees several elementary schools in Monterey Park and most students who live in the boundaries

of the Ahamboa School District

also attend Mark Keppel High School. So thank you very much to AEF for another successful run and it's always good to see people from our own community participating.

I think Councillor Wong, because he's so healthy, did the 10K twice.

in fact I think out of finishing it he was thinking on a second

loop

well yeah it's been a very busy few weeks since our last council meeting my colleagues already covered a lot of the events but we also had the Little Angels Dance Troupe visit from Korea and perform at the Barnes Park Amphitheater on October 19th. We had the Yihui Coffee Shop ribbon cutting on October 23rd, so welcoming another new business to our city. The Whitmore Villas also had their grand opening ribbon cutting. They're on New Avenue on October 28th, and AYC had a very successful active shooter training at the Langley Center that same day, October 28th. The American Cancer Society Youth Ambassadors had a conference at our library November 1st. Thank you to the city staff for hosting a great meetup with the mayor at Litt's Restaurant on October 29th. And upcoming meetup with the mayors is going to be November 18th at VCA Engineers on Atlantic and December 16th at Shinano, also on Atlantic. with that we're going to take some pictures with our mustaches from Movember and I will adjourn the meeting if nothing else adjourn at 8.31pm