City Council Meeting — December 3, 2025

! We'll call to order at 6. 42 p.m.

! And we'll start with our Monterey Park Fire Explorers for flag salute.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Right face.

Right face, forward march, right face, preside of colors, please place your right hand over your heart, ready to go.

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

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Prepare to pose colors, right face, forward march.

March.

Host colors, wide salute, a bow of face, forward march.

Thank you everyone. You may be seated.

Madam Clerk may we get a roll call please.

Councilmember Ngo. Present.

Councilmember Wong. Present.

Councilmember Sanchez. Present. Mayor Yang present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

All right. So thank you everyone for coming tonight.

During the past two days, you know, the city council was informed that there's been a social media campaign prompting a lot of questions regarding item number 10B on the agenda, which I believe many of you are here for today. Reading the original social media post, I prompted the multitude of written comments regarding this item. It's apparent that the applicant should take some time for community outreach and address a lot of the community's concerns. I believe that the applicant should take an effort to share a lot of information about item 10B, the project, more widely with the public. Also, I'm aware that the city's waiting to hear from the Fair Political Practices Commission regarding whether Councilmember Thomas Wong has an actual conflict of interest regarding item number 10 . The question was posed to the FPPC on October 31st, and we are still waiting for an answer. It would be better for all five council members to be considering this very important development. To give the applicant an opportunity to better explain the proposed project to the public and to give the FPPC time to answer the question regarding Council Member Wong, I'm asking the applicant and the council to continue tonight's matter until January 21st, 2026. If the applicant is agreeable to additional public outreach, then I suggest it provide some workshop opportunities, town hall meetings to discuss all of the concerns that the residents have posed to us in the multitude of written communications that we've received, including the concerns about water usage, electricity demand, environmental hazards, and a lot of other potential impacts to our city. Could we get the applicant Brian Marsh to the podium?

Mr. Marsh, are you in the audience?

I'm actually Brian.

This is Jim Pugh with Shepard Mullen who represents us.

Thank you both.

So you've heard my request. We wanted to make sure your company was open to this continuance and also to the type of public outreach that I've described so that you know the public's concerns can be addressed please let me know what your thoughts are about this yes very

much so mayor Yang and council we want to engage with the public as much as

possible we want to be able to share more details about the proposed project to hear their concerns answer their questions we do feel like there's been a

lot of misinformation out there so we'd love to set the record straight we think

that would be beneficial for everybody in the city to make a more uniform decision.

So we're happy to meet with them.

And we will schedule some times and a place and post that publicly so that we plan to

have a few different sessions, I'd say, between now and January 21st, right?

And so, yeah, we're more than willing to do it.

Do my colleagues have any thoughts about this?

Well, thank you, Brian and Jim, for being here. My suggestion is if you can incorporate some of the concerns are environmental, water, and power, and if you have your public session forums, if you can have the speakers who you have contracts or the representatives from those entities also be there to help present some of the the factual information I think that would be helpful can I

clarify Carl do I need to step out of the room for this thank you madam mayor

members of the council this is not substantive discussions it's really a scheduling issue so it sounds like the applicant is willing to continue and if

the council wishes to continue then my suggestion would be for you simply to abstain from the vote you'll not be counted as part of the quorum the other

three council members can make that determination

thank you mayor Yang I also have a lot of concerns about and questions but before I do I want to thank a lot of you guys who came out tonight I'm a civics teacher and I know how important civics is and and I want to appreciate and thank you for all the emails that you've sent I know that takes a lot of time and for being out here tonight but that also takes a lot of time out of your personal schedule. I have a lot of questions that I want to ask and I think moving forward with a town hall that or public forum where not just myself but anyone in the audience can ask a lot more detailed information about what is happening at the data center and pertaining specifically with water usage, electric uses, environmental concerns, I think would be a great way for us to be able to get a lot of our questions answered. And I know that a lot of you guys that are here today have a lot of concerns about those. And I think this is another great way to engage the community and share a lot of those concerns that you might have with the data center. I share some of those concerns as well. So I want to thank the mayor for suggesting this. And I think on our end, whatever we can do as a city to be able to share and publicize the locations, the dates of these events would be extremely useful as much as we can. And I think for people in the audience who are here tonight with questions about data centers, I think this gives you also more time to also be honing in on your questions and be ready to ask these serious questions to the data center applicant on these days. And I think it would also be important to just as Councilmember Go said to include Edison and if possible Our water providers here and or at least from our city on our end to be able to answer some of those questions Regarding water usage as well that I share concerns about those as well But I want to thank also the applicant for being amenable to having these meetings and I know that I'm looking forward to these and I know a lot of people in the audience are looking forward to asking you some questions regarding environmental concerns and water usage and electrical uses. So whatever we can do on our end

to help facilitate those

and also ensure that the communities engage

and the questions are answered. Thank you, council. Yeah, so all of us are residents of the city

and we take our community's concerns very seriously. And so we're all very concerned about some of the issues that have been raised.

And there's been a lot.

We have a whole stack of people who are against it and also people who are for it. So there's definitely a lot of concerns back and forth. But if you are amenable to hosting a town hall meeting to provide all the information that the public needs to them, I think that would be great. and like Councilmember Sanchez said, please invite Edison, the folks who can answer the water questions, the electricity questions, everybody who's knowledgeable on the questions so that we can get everybody's concerns addressed. So does someone want to make a motion to continue Item 10B? And we won't vote to approve a data center today.

I'll go ahead and make a motion.

So just to clarify, we're voting to extend the public hearing to January.

21st.

to give January 21st to give the applicant an opportunity to address the community's concerns regarding the environment, water usage, electric uses, and all of those.

So, Council Member Ngo makes a motion.

I'll second.

Council Member Sanchez seconds.

Let's do a vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right, so this item has been continued to January 21st, 2026. Let's take a five-minute recess right now.

Thank you.

All right, let's come back from recess. Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

Any other agenda revisions or additions?

Yes, Madam Mayor and members of the council. So request to move up the presentation items 7A and 7B to after public communications.

All right.

Any objection to moving up presentation item 7?

No? All right. We'll move up item 7. Any other revisions?

No other revisions.

Okay.

So we'll go to public communications. For tonight's meeting, we're doing five minutes for the agenda and five minutes for the consent

calendar.

So we'll go ahead and start with our first public speaker, Robert Ogawa Monroe.

Julie just confirming that you're speaking on oral communication, correct?

Yes, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council.

Last time I spoke, I warned about the poor condition of the Elder Park pool deck. deck. And as many of you know now, the deck did fail a few weeks later and part of it collapsed into the pool. The unplanned repairs forced an eight-week closure and the fall swim aerobic session that I attend was cancelled entirely. It would have been far better to plan these repairs than wait for an emergency. That said, the repairs do look good and I

thank you for getting them done. It really does look nice. I also want to share a story

about Disneyland ride maintenance. So when I was young, I knew a pinball repairman who worked at

Disney. And over the time, through his skill with tankering and repairing the machines, he rose into the senior roles responsible for ride repair. He was a true homegrown success. I also knew a young man about my age.

Young, yeah.

He wasn't a standout student, but he found success by serving the U.S. military as an aircraft mechanic. They trained him, and that's where he learned his trade. After leaving the service, he joined Disney's ride maintenance team. He was shocked to find that very few standard operating procedures for planned maintenance existed. In his world, SOPs weren't optional. They protected uptime, and they saved lives. At first, after he joined Disney, the old crew resisted. But after he hired a few of his military colleagues, and they brought on more systematic, standards-based approaches, the results spoke for themselves. Management embraced the changes, and many of the homegrowns eventually shifted to other departments. So switching back to our pool, for years I've pointed out that like clockwork, shortly after the first cold winter nights, either the Elber or Barnett Spark pool, when it still existed, the heating system would fail. When I asked about the pool covers, I was told they

were too old. nd I do understand that now the elder park pool cover was replaced but I'm not sure how it's

! I'm sure it's been a lot of the elder park pool cover was replaced but I'm not sure how ! I'm sure it's been a lot of the water ! I'm sure it's been a lot of the water

! I'm sure it's been a lot of water

discussion aside just to consider standards and the expertise of people and how important that is.

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and how important that is. The predictable failures are exactly why SOPs matter. Without them, we fall into a constant firefighting mode of emergency repair. So tying this together, our city has very few full-time employees,

and we rely heavily on consultants.

We have supported our homegrown staff,

and they do good work.

But for a major project like building a new pool, the design, community support, funding, we need broader expertise. I was underwhelmed by the recent community meetings. I believe we spent maybe around $40,000 of taxpayer money, and I think they gained very little. The meetings felt more like a checkbox labeled community outreach, not a serious attempt to steer a major capital project forward. The city needs to be much more proactive in managing this process. We also need to move beyond the verbal commitments and finally formalize a memorandum of understanding with SGV Pub. SGV Pub's chair, Margaret Leung, has exactly the kind of experience this project needs. If she were consulting, her billing rate would be over $400 an hour. As a volunteer with deep ties to the community and a genuine commitment to building the smartest, most useful aquatic facility, the city should be leveraging her skill, not sidelining it. So far, she's already helped produce tangible progress, including productive meetings with Olympic medalist diver and coach DeLong Lee on preliminary layout concepts and support from our Assemblymember Mike Fong, who represents 49th District. This is the momentum we should be building on, not slipping it away through delays, weak planning, and with minimal guidance. I really encourage the council to step it up.

If Margaret is not a lawyer, to create that memo of understanding, the council needs to do what they need to accomplish to get that done.

Verbal is not enough. Thank you.

Thank you, Robert.

Our next speaker is Cindy E.

Where did all those people go? Oh!

Madam Mayor, members of the council. I was one of a handful of residents who attended the four weekly meetings of the Spark Committee last summer when the data center was being considered at Saturn Park. The sole intent was to play a game with the residents of the Southeast end of Monterey Park to overturn the vote of the people on Measure JJ

and to not allow the data center to be approved, even though StrapCat had the legal right after purchasing the property in 2024. They have a right only because the area is zoned, professional, innovative technology. Due to this fact only, they have a legal right to sue our city for not complying.

However, the company needs to comply with all the building codes and EIR requirements

and correct all negative findings prior to demolition. What did four weeks of pathetic waste of our taxpayers' money in consultant fees over time for our city employees gain in this hideous practice of cat and mouse? How many years has us residents been attending all of these stupid consulting games and our city is still wasting money? On October 19th, City Council meeting, they approved U5 approved taking back a piece of Rotten Hill close to $20 million in an empty council chamber hall when the previous city council should have rebuilt Barnes Pool back in 2022.

to. SGV Pub has already shared with you the aquatic center and all you have to do is copy

it because it's just east of us. We've been going around visiting other aquatic centers and we have found that the best aquatic center is 20 miles away. Why spend the money to reinvent

We're going to invent the wheel. Our community deserves better.

Consultant fees after consultant fees, going to town hall meetings over and over again

is a waste of time and resources.

We need to get Barnes Park pool rebuilt.

All you guys do is waste time, more years are going by,

and it's doubling and tripling the cost.

Right, Edelene, how many years have you been fighting this? Ten years.

So after all these times of wasting of consultant fees,

I find that this city is incompetent

to take care of the needs of our community, Monterey Park. Thank you.

Thank you, Cindy. Our next speaker is Paul Isozaki.

Hey Dodger fans. Hey Dodger fans. Got you Jose listening now, huh? Okay, that's what I wanted to do is get your attention people because I want moderated park to be like the dodge organization let's be winners let's be champs okay well i want to say i'm here because i support the rebuilding of barns park swimming pool um you know i spoke to inez our city manager and robert head of parks and rec and had a very very uh informative talk And I'm going to tell you right now, they're for the pool.

They're for the pool.

And they're going through the process of the pool. But just like government, it's a slow process.

You know, they're doing step one, seeing what the needs are, what the public wants.

But I'm telling you right now, they're for the pool. Can't say that I agree 100% the way they're doing it, but in their heart, that's what they want.

Now we have another group.

the Save the Barnes Park Group. God, are they doing a great job in a quick time. First of all, they got a nonprofit number in no time. They set up a nonprofit organization. Not easy to do, people, but they did it. And with it, they have a couple of financial people with auditors to keep track of the money

because it's going to be big bucks, right? We're talking about millions, not thousands.

So you got to respect what they're doing.

and putting in grants.

But the problem is we have two good organizations,

the city of Monterey Park and their administration,

and then we have this group that's, you know,

applying for grants already. Unbelievably.

But they're not working together. They're not working together, and it's very important for these two organizations

to work together.

because if I was going to give $4 million, could I give $4 million to this group without knowing that they're not really in true step with the city?

Because then the money's got to go to the city to get it built. And I'm going to say to myself, I don't know if I could trust my $4 million going to this group.

So we lose the money.

Then on the other hand, but our city's not getting that money. So we have to work together and I look at you guys. The first one I look at you Thomas we swim together. I know Thomas would be a good person to put the two groups together because he knows swimming. I see Vin and I see Vin in community organization functions, fundraisers. Vin's there for us. He could put it together. Jose I don't know you that well but I will say this but it's Elizabeth, I think you're the person that can put it together. You can work with Inez, work with Robert, see what their needs are, and then go work with their group. Be the middleman. You know, I said I brought the other people but I look at you because I think you're the person. That's my guess. I could be wrong. Maybe Vince steps up and says I'm the man. But no, we need someone to put the two groups together. Otherwise, we're two different groups, and you know the saying, divided we fall.

And that's what's going to happen.

And we shouldn't be fighting over something we both agree on. You know, I'm going to tell you a quick story. With the Mark Keppel Alliance, you know, if anyone's been around, Mark Keppel was a dive.

I'll say it right now. It was a dive, a terrible school.

Education was okay. But then when the school district made the change, I said, no way and how am I going to send my kids to no lousy school? So I got involved, really involved with Monterey Park. And it was a time when Hillary Clinton wrote the book,

It Takes a Village. And that's what we did.

We got the city councilman here to help support us, businesses, the community, politicians, and we made it work.

We did it together. And we don't all get along.

We don't all get along, but we all put our differences aside and worked together to have this done. So what I'm going to say to you people is this. If we don't get it together, we're not going to get a pool. We're going to have to let go of our egos and we're going to have to start communicating

these two groups.

And you know what two groups I clearly made it clear, the city of Monterey Park and the

group supporting the people.

And if we don't work together and the petty stuff comes up, no way are we going to get

$22 million and we're not going to have a pool.

And that will be a shame for all the kids that use the pool. from learning how to swim, from joining a swim team like the manta rays, for

joining the high school program, to becoming lifeguards, to even working for

the city like Ken Imaizumi. So you know I just want to say please let's one of you say I'm the man that can put the two groups together so we can have a pool.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Paul.

All right, next speaker is Tanya Huang. Next speaker is Tanya Huang. !

Hello, Council Members. Thank you for having me here tonight. Hello, council members. Thank you for having me here tonight.

And I'd just like to make a general public comment.

Concerning large projects such as the data center,

I would prefer that we move forward with a full environmental impact report.

And I will reiterate concerns for the incoming pollution,

rising utility costs, and other negative impacts, possibly, for future reference, of course.

And, well, I'm not a resident of Monterey Park, but I live nearby.

I live three miles from 1977 Saturn Street,

and it considered the matter life or death for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Tanya.

And our next speaker is Zane Bodenbender.

Hello, everyone. Also here to talk about the data center. My name is Zane Bodenbender, relatively new resident to Monterey Park. I did try to take some time to go through the MND. It's a 7,000-page document, so only got so far. I'm an electrical engineer by training, so I tried to hone in on the things that I'm familiar with and that was the energy usage and looking at that there was some calculations for the increased impact of the data center it was something like 0.6% across LA County and that seemed a little bit off to me and I started looking at the reports we referenced some combined estimations for the increase in energy usage throughout California from a 2021 report dug into that a little bit more looking at 2024 updated report which was released in September of this year there was an extra section added specifically for data centers and that called out that the projections from 2023 to 2024 had been increased up to about 20 percent specifically for data centers. So I think when we're considering the goals of Monterey Park, which are things like improving air quality for future generations and improving health generally, it's frustrating to see it honed in on just that local aspect when the problem of data centers is much larger than that. And I think I would be disappointed as a resident to be contributing to that larger problem with having a data center in our city. So it seems like mostly a legal matter for how we talk about the data center and what we do about it. But at a bare minimum, I think a more detailed analysis of the effects of this data center is required. And to say that it is insignificant or that there's no impact is disingenuous. And I think we need to do better. Appreciate your time.

Thank you, Zhang.

Our next speaker is Margaret Leong.

Oh, no? Okay. All right.

Then our next speaker will be, I have two names on one speaker card, Harag and Emily.

I don't know if you guys want to come up together or separately.

Separately, so two cards. Okay. So Harag first.

Thank you so much. I'm a resident of Monterey Park District 2. Like many of the people that were here, I just learned about this data center project

recently.

and after my initial shock I started to dig and what I found was a city you know kind of going

out of their way to protect developer interests at the expense of the community. My comment here is

more for you actually counsel and less for the applicant which is why I thought it'd be worthwhile still saying a comment today. So the public hearing that's going to happen I guess in January is really about whether the MND for the data center is defensible.

I'm going to argue that it's not defensible, and we need a full environmental review.

Because the heart of the MND is the claim that this data center

will not have any significant environmental impact.

And your vote in January is going to rest on the plausibility of that claim. So how does the city justify no significant environmental impact when this project would consume 434 million kilowatt hours per year? That's more than twice what Monterey Park currently, what all current households in

Monterey Park consume currently.

So I want to make sure you all understand the scale of this data center.

Twice what Monterey Park currently produces.

So that means, you know, before the data center, you have one Monterey park. After the data center, you have three Monterey parks. That's a lot of electricity demanded from one location, the site of the data center. So the electricity is going to produce 85,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. So how could there be no significant impact?

You know, it seems like an obvious question, right? An obvious answer.

In 2012, the city's then city council gave Monterey Park a climate action plan to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions.

And this is kind of like centered around some key strategies like energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable land use. This plan was a strategic document adopted by Monterey Park to both guide the city toward a greener future and help make the city a better neighbor more broadly in the region. Okay, fast forward to 2024.

A data center proposal comes along from an Australian company

that would pump an estimated 85,000 tons of CO2 into the air every year. So, Mayor and Council members, now I want to provide an analogy here. So, imagine the state of California didn't mandate how cities define speed limits for roads.

and gave that power to cities to define however they wanted to.

So most cities will adopt some kind of numerical limits, right, for different kinds of roads based on research and common sense. So, for example, let's say L.A. creates a speed limit of 35 miles per hour in residential zones, 40 miles an hour on main thoroughfares, you know, so on and so forth, all based on their discretion but using common sense numbers. So Monterey Park, on the other hand, says, you know, we don't need to define speed limits

using numbers.

You know, let's use something more qualitative, like saying drivers just need to feel safe. You know, and that feeling of safety can guide their personal speed limit. So maybe this works for a little while and drivers respect each other and drive at a reasonable speed, but then a new kind of vehicle is invented. It can't go any less than 60 miles per hour anywhere. Instead of banning that vehicle from being driven in Monterey Park, we just let the drivers of those vehicles decide if they feel safe while they're barreling down on residential

streets at 60 miles per hour wreaking havoc to everyone else.

Would you allow that to happen? That is exactly the situation that Monterey Park is in today with this data center. The data center is the new vehicle and the speed limit is that threshold of significance. So CICA section 5064.4 says that cities like Monterey Park need to define a threshold of significance for environmental impact. CICA gives cities discretion in how they define that threshold. Most cities follow standard guidance, like that defined by South Coast Air Quality Management District, and define that threshold numerically, for example, 3,000 metric tons of CO2 or 1,100 metric tons or 10,000 metric tons at the higher level. And the data center is at 85,000 metric tons per year. So knowing this, Monterey Park is defining the threshold, that speed limit, not using a number, but qualitatively. So yeah, well, I'm out of time, but I hope that that full environmental report is commissioned and I think it's absolutely necessary

because the MND is not defensible at all. Thank you.

Thank you, Horag.

Next up is Emily.

Good evening.

Good evening, council members. My name is Emily Chu. I am a resident of Monterey Park in District 2. First, before I get into my comment, I just wanted to quickly say how disappointed I am by the intentionally misleading communication that happened earlier tonight to the public, you saw that this room was packed full of people to give comment on this item who wanted their voices heard, and they were led to believe that they would not be able to speak again,

which is not true.

So I'm glad that I'm still here. I have things I would love to say to you. I have been reading through a lot of documents about this entire process, and I have a number of concerns. that I would love to walk through with you. So I am here today to oppose Item 10B because I care about Monterey Park and I want to see it thrive. And as such, I don't think the proposed data center is the right solution for Saturn Park. This is not only based on my opinion, but also many things I've learned over the course of the research

that I talked about.

I've read through a lot of agenda notes, summary documents. So I wanted to walk through some of my concerns specifically focused on the Saturn Park Advisory Review Committee, or SPARC. Having studied these documents, I seriously questioned the validity of their findings. This is critical because those findings shaped everything that came afterwards. In short, the process was flawed from the beginning, and the community did not have the opportunity to give sufficient input. but I have a few examples here. So first, the SPARK Committee was supposed to be nine people to represent the community, but two of the nine were city council members. Most of the remaining seven had clear ties to city hall as either existing or past board members or appear to have personal relationships with council members. How could this be a representative group of Monterey Park residents? Councilmember Wong, who has only recently recused himself or may be recusing himself from the process due to a potential conflict of interest, was not only on the SPARK committee, but he was the chairperson of the SPARK committee driving the data center forward. Also, flyers notifying residents about the SPARK sessions were only sent to homes within 500 feet of the proposed data center, and the one online post about it on the city Instagram did not even mention the words data center at all. As a result, many Monterey Park residents did not know about it, would not have understood the severity of these sessions based on the promotional materials. I can say that I've talked with neighbors on my street this week, and no one knew.

No one knew about it. They were all here at the time. Also, the SPARC session seemed to be

very biased towards pitching the data center to participants. In fact, the CEO of the applicant company flew in from Australia to attend the sessions. There appeared to be no other presentations from any other types of companies, like mixed use or commercial developers, which were requested by participants and don't appear to have been folLod up on in any way. Lastly, during one of the SPARK sessions, participants voted on ideas. There were only 40 people present, nine of whom were the SPARK members themselves. Again, how could this be representative of our community? I also had some questions for the applicant who I think is not here anymore, but I would like to still read through so everyone in the room can hear. So first, as this project would triple the energy consumption of Monterey Park, precisely how much should residents expect their energy bills to go up? And how much should Edison customers across Southern California expect their energy bills to go up? And if the answer is that customers' energy bills will not go up, can you clearly explain why? When cities across the U.S. are seeing increased rates correlated with data centers, this would make Monterey Park so unique to the point that it is unbelievable. I have seen claims that residents will not pay for infrastructure upgrades to support this project. So who will pay for this, and how much is this estimated to cost? Lastly, noise pollution has not been clearly addressed. Residents living near other hyperskilled data centers report health issues. This is due not only to the loudness of the sound, but the frequency. Precisely, what is the estimated noise from the operating data center, including its generators, in decibels, and at what frequency? We should not rush forward. Workshops are great, but councils should also order a full environmental impact report, including estimates for indirect emissions and quantitative thresholds for evaluating emissions, and be transparent with the community about its findings.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emily. Next speaker is Stephen Kuhn.

Excuse me, Lisa, did you want to speak during public hearing or oral communication?

Oral communications?

Okay, thank you.

Hi, I'm Stephen Kang. Thank you so much, council members, for taking the time to hear out your constituents and taking our opinions very seriously. no data center company sets out to worry the residents, right? Of course, they've been presenting their best face. They give you a proposal, a pitch. But as we know, if we read the news, the reality is always far different. Just ask Morrow County in Oregon, or really any other rural town that's had a data center. There is a preponderance of undeniable empirical evidence about the harms caused by the data center. We can discuss what's in the proposal all we want, but let's be clear, it is in the company's financial incentive to downplay all harms and even lie to us. I encourage you all to read the University of Michigan study about what happens when data centers come to town, as well as the Rolling Stone expose from last week that tells you in grueling detail how data centers are now linked to cancer. These articles have no stake in the project.

They are objective.

They're not even talking about us. They're talking about data centers across the country. And I want to say the quiet part out loud. Monterey Park is a community of color. We are Asian, Latine, black, brown, and white, and every color of the rainbow. Our small community is being targeted because we are seen as poor, vulnerable, and desperate for promises of easy money. A data center would never fly in Brentwood, Henkark Park, or even like South Pasadena. They value their quality of life, and so do we.

That's what makes our city special.

We are too smart to be swindled by snake oil salesmen such as HMC Capital. A data center conflicts with the very core of our city identity. park is in our name not data center we value community green spaces and a peaceful quality of life a data center which is which enhances none of A data center which enhances none of these threatens to take all of those away. ! It belongs in a city that actively solicits industry like city of industry or commerce, which ! are literally advertising with their names.

! We are not that city.

! We are not the city.

!

It shuts down swimming pools to build data centers. If you don't understand that, you don't understand our city. A continuance is a waste of everyone's time. We don't need

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is a waste of everyone's time. We don't need a full environmental impact report.

The choice is clear.

Deny the permit to build.

Thank you.

Thank you, Stephen.

The next speaker is Julie. I don't have a last name.

Julie?

Hi, good evening. I stand here before you guys as a resident of Monterey Park and as a mother of children

who live here and are going to be here for a long time.

I just don't understand who wants this other than the corporation. There is no benefit to the community for this data center.

And like all the other neighbors earlier than me, I agree with everything they said.

I'm flabbergasted that we are here at this moment.

I just want to reiterate how terrible of an idea this is for our community.

And if it's in your power to prevent the data center from being built here, please, you

swore an oath to do what's best for the community, and the answer is very clear. So, yeah.

Thank you, Julie.

The next speaker's name is Yellow Lives Matter.

All right. Well, the name could be a little bit entertaining, but I'm really desperate right now. So start with general public comment. I have so many things to cover under five minutes. Let's try to make the miracle occur to that tonight. Number one, I heard some miracle words from the mayor. She said that we care about the voice of our constituents. I was like, oh my God, am I dreaming? Is this a reality?

I couldn't believe what I heard. Why is that? Because that several months ago, when so many constituents crowded the room

are talking about stop eliminating public comment

to five minutes, because we used to for so many years, so many decades that five minutes per item, but right now you can have 20 items, but you only have five minutes. And then at that time I was like, oh mayor, mayor, you listen to your constituents. Okay, did you, what did you do? And I was like, especially Council Member Rong, Council Member Rong said, you know, oh I care about my, the community voice. Okay, all right, we're gonna shut their voice. We're gonna cut their voice. I was like, oh okay, that is how you listen to your constituents.

And then tonight, we are having the same problem, right?

And I heard for the swimming pool issues, I'm not familiar, but all I know is for the previous several times I come here, the residents made their voice loud and clear, but a council member is like, oh, I don't know what do you want? I don't know what our residents want.

Okay, I don't understand. Can you clarify?

So actually for me, I have very limited English language skill, and I heard them loud and clear. The only thing who doesn't understand English is our mayor, is our

council member. Second of all is that talking about for whatever the comments I heard previously about the data center, by the way I just want to have city attorney I'm talking about a general public comment, I'm not talking about a 10b, this is general. So talking about the data center, let's start with the city manager. Okay and then several residents talk about they don't trust

the city manager. Well, the answer is pretty easy and clear. Now, we have to ask the city manager, do you care about the residence of Monterey Park or do you care about your $300,000 annual salary package? So I think the choice is easy because she has to go with the mayor in order to continue her whatever, $300,000, $400,000, $400,000 annual salary package. If she go with the residence, She she she no longer have a job. That's pretty easy right there. Second of all, let's talk about our city attorney City attorney is not elected You know for people like for people like a city attorney of Los Angeles City Sometimes we can rely on them because their job does not depends on the mayor But for this city attorney, well does he care about his firm? He's continuously annual contract with the Monterey Park or does he care about the

the life quality of the Monterey Park residents. Again, that's pretty easy.

A three years old can figure that out. So there's no, it's not a rocket science that politicians are not really trustworthy. So obviously this tool continue to lie and lie and lie.

Another thing is about a data center. When I heard about the word a data center because I have very limited understanding what is a data center. But I want to share about my understanding of data center. It's a police state, right? Data center, facial recognition.

Let's consider, you know, a licensed police raider. Or maybe some other cities that contract with ICE.

So what that means is that they run your automated licensed police raider.

And then, you know, whenever a police car passes your car, they automatically know who's driving your registration, whatever, whatever. And then in certain other cities, they have a drone. Or what does that mean is every where we like a three or four hours they have a drone flying backyard They call it make sure your neighborhood is safe, but you know sometimes you take a shower in your backyard somehow Yeah Your city is live streaming or whatever on your right there

So it's a huge concern about the right to privacy for me. Okay, I'm not really my concern is not really about the

environmental, that's not my expertise, but I am an advocate of a right to privacy.

Because some of my neighbors, they say that, well, we came to the United States because we believe a democracy, we pursue, you know, equality of life, we pursue our Fourth Amendment, which is right to privacy. But somehow, you know, right now we are trying to build a data center. That means all of your data will be collected by the city, will be shared, will be sold, will be, you know, do whatever. So there will be no such thing as as a right to privacy because all of your data are gone. So thank you very much mayor, you're the best.

Our next speaker is Kash Patel.

Interesting. Interesting. Interesting to know that politicians continue to pad their wallets, stick their greasy hands in scams, and forfeit the trust of the public. Right, Mr. Sanchez? No one fucking cares about teachers anymore. Teachers don't give a fuck about their students, because if they did, they would actually tell them the truth about what the fuck politicians are doing and what the fuck politicians are like. And the definition of Satan, and the asshole who speaks out loud behind me, is that Satan is a slanderer, and slanderers speak lies. Right, Ms. City Manager? Money is more important. That's what Matthew Perry's family learned today about the asshole doctor who killed him. Not intentionally, but for the fucking money. Where the money is green, the grass grows. And it feels good. Money and power always feels good, Madam Mayor Yang. but in my soul, in my spirit as the thunderbird, loud, is there's lessons to learn from this shit. He got 30 months, which is two years. Now he doesn't get to see his child grow up. Good. He just took the life of a man and had his family cry before a judge because the asshole, Mr. Sanchez, was saying to the judge, Just give me a day of service behind bars and let me walk away from my mistake. No, fuck you. 10B is a fuck you. You know why? Because tonight I heard a lot of compassion, real people in this community speaking out loud. What the fuck is wrong with you people? Right, Mr. Wint? How about you, Wong Wei? You're looking the Wong Wei, motherfucker. because when I speak, I speak loud and clear. Matter of fact, when I was in the federal courts the day before yesterday in front of David O. Carter talking about homelessness and hearing the outburst from the city of Los Angeles and LA County and that stupid fucking bitch Hilda Solis lie to the magistrate Judge David O. Carter that, oh, it's clear we don't have reports. Well, where is the $32 million fucking dollars you stole of the hardworking taxpayers here to remove veterans and remove homeless people off our streets and into housing? Well, we're still trying to find out. Tomorrow in court, we will find out. Matter of fact, we're going to find out the following week in court what Judge David O'Carter decides to punish the city of Los Angeles and LA County for stealing federal and state dollars, lying their ass off, paying a fucking asshole,

Gibson and Dunn, $1,300 an hour. $1,300 an hour for 15 dumbasses who lie their fucking ass off before me, their judge.

And I know what it's like to see people suffer. I worked in the medical field at County USC. I watched you dumb fuckers die from AIDS. That's how far back I go in life.

And now AIDS is just a fucking game. Bend over and collect.

No. No. But the case here, 220 for the record, CV02291,

Doc K-E-S, Mr. Berger, is what I'm talking about. Fucking reality.

And I'm reality. Because I hate to see corruption. God hates corruption. And I hate you that likes corruption.

So for those of you who believe in God, God, believe in your bullshit fucking pagan Christmas tree, pray for it. Because the hour and time is coming of judgment. You see it already. Every fucking city I've been to has the same manner of corruption.

So 42 SC 1983 politely, I will always be number one.

Fuck you for the record, and I hope you take that shit to advice.

These are for the record. Who do I hand them to? Yeah, thank you. Just a word of comment.

You know, this is a form of respectful, courteous communications. No vulgar language or hate speech is acceptable here. So moving on to the next speaker, Lisa Aragona.

Hi, I'm Lisa. I'm still learning about civics, so thank you for your help. I wasn't originally planning on speaking today but I will say I feel like there was a misrepresented

direction earlier tonight and that the audience was made to understand that if you spoke tonight on item 10b you wouldn't be able to speak in January and

I feel it was clearly understood widely as such because the crowd dispersed so I wanted to try to add comment, perhaps for the people who I feel were misled and left after

such direction. Anyway, I will be brief. I am not a resident of Monterey Park, but I am nearby in El Sereno, and I wanted to thank everyone who's spoken today and echo the local community's

concerns. I think my grounds to speak are that I am concerned about the president that this could

set for other local communities nearby, such as my own. And I think that's mostly it. Again, adding support to those who are doing the work to really do the research into the potential harms of constructing a data center. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Sark. Sarkis and Antonio I believe. Antonio.

Good evening Mayor, Council and audience. This has been about maybe over two years since I've physically came to a council meeting. So I came here late. So about seven years ago that same location. They wanted to use that location for a body harvesting. where they were bringing a dead body, cut it up, see what they could process, and sell it to other hospitals. That was like seven years ago. I don't know if anybody knows about that. So that's one issue. Number two, I'm in Pasadena three days a week where they have fire justice, where they have the two attorneys going after Edison on the fire in Altadena. So it was shown today there's only one house built. So that agenda, I picked it up Monday and I handed it to the attorneys. I see them three days a week when I go up there. So they're trying to put this processing center here. Those homes are not even built. And Christmas and New Year's is right around the corner. And there's people in that location that don't even have a place to live. They have to park their vehicles there on a monthly basis. So they want to build over there again? So go ahead and build. But what was over there years ago was a Tokai bank processing your billings, your credit cards, your checks, and stuff like that. So go ahead and put something like that over there again. So they're determined to open up that location and keep it open. It's been closed. They're losing money. and I drive by there almost every day. They pan a security guard to watch over the property. And if all this stuff is there coming out with, they haven't even finished the homes in Altadena. That's priority first. Go somewhere else. In Rosemead, they have that large location right there. Build it right there. That's where they're at. Why would they want to build that now when Edison has been there for years? So who's getting paid off over here? And the only two that know about this body harvesting was maybe the city manager. She had a different position. And I think the city attorney was here. And then somebody in the back and the staff, they know about this body harvesting. So every five to seven years, oh, let's see if we can build something there. And let's see, bring all these people out here in December. You're bringing people out Christmas time, Hanukkah, whatever, New Year's. You're bringing people out. They want to go shopping, buy Christmas gifts and things like that. You're bringing people out over here. Why? You want to do it? Do it at the first. and then you have to then you tell the people it's going to be the first of the year so why are we here for it why why are we speaking you're giving you're coming out here good thing it's not raining out but then the sun in back east is snowing in so that's so priority wise if you want to bring this on the agenda this we we shouldn't even be here you should just wrap up a little like you do in December, have little things, what's going on, and then have a fast meeting and that's it. Because this is December, it's a holiday month. You want to do this, do it next month, January, February, March, not tonight. You do not bother people in the holiday months that you're bringing people out here when they could be doing shopping or whatever they want to do. bring it out here and then all this other all this other things i've been to about i've been to 10 15 meetings a year i used to come over here twice a month to get up here and speak i used to be with what nancy curry sometimes she would be here till 11 o'clock at night sometimes 12 so this is the joke you just bring it on the agenda see how many people are going to come out here to be against it. And by the way, I'm against it. You want to put a center over there? Do it like it was before. A bank processing center. Not this humble jumble stuff. Humble jumble. Edison, let Rosemead take care of Edison. And I know the mayor and Rosemead for many years. They have a big complex over there. They don't have a level where they can put a processing and like the other speaker says, city industry, city of commerce. Do it where the industry, this is 60, 70,000 people and don't bring, like I said again, don't bring the people out here in December. And thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Bob Tam.

My name is Bob Tam and good evening mayor and all the council members.

I'm going to change it up a little bit because I'm going to talk about short-term rentals in Monterey Park. So hopefully it's a little lighter subject for tonight.

I feel the passion and the heat here. And so I'm going to try to lighten up a little bit. Maybe I can get a couple of jokes in.

Anyway, I live on the Brightwood Hill up here above Barnes Park, and I've been a resident in Monterey Park for about 25 years. And I also have another property down by Riggins. And so I have two properties here. But for the purpose of transparency, I have to let you guys know that I am not a Californian. I'm a Nevadan.

Okay? And all my notes here are from ChadGPT. But I'm not pro data center, nor am I anti data center. Okay? So don't beat me up on the way out tonight, okay?

What I want to say is that my neighbor, about a year ago, I have some new neighbors, and they added an ADU in their backyard. And what happened was they made it into a commercial for-profit center up in the Bradshaw Hill. And I'm very much concerned about that because I've been living there for 25 years, and it's a very residential area, okay? I'm nothing against Airbnb. I've used Airbnbs before. My daughter has used Airbnbs in South Korea when she visited. So I'm not anti-Airbnb. What I am concerned about is when you have homeowners that come in here and add additional units like ADUs and stuff like that. And then all they want to do is just rent out an Airbnb and make a profit. And I think they got popped. They got busted because they did not get the proper permits and licenses. and so I think they were fine and I noticed that they took it off of the rental off Airbnb website and I think they're applying so they I'm here because they sent me a letter telling me how many people they plan to rent on any particular given basis a maximum of eight individuals and they claim that I believe they said they have six parking spaces I can't even read the letter because it's very misleading it's typed over the word vehicles or something like that. So I contacted the planning office a few days ago, and I started doing research, and I found out that there are a lot of rules. I don't, I don't, my personal opinion is that the rules on these short-term rentals, I think they're inadequate to a large extent, and I hope that the city council will reconsider and maybe try to improve it so that Monterey Park does not become a commercial for profit in the residential area such as the Bradshaw Hill up here behind Barnes Park. So some of the things I want to touch on is that they're supposed to get a permit. They did not get a permit. They have renters there that were smoking dope. I experienced that about 12 months ago when I came back from Las Vegas. They were drinking, having beer bottles on the fence. I heard people talking on cell phones outside in the yard at about 1 1 30 a.m. in the morning I think these are things that i'm very concerned about and it really disturbs me And also i'm concerned about my property value right if you have a house that's doing nothing but airbnb rentals across the street from you How is that going to affect the property value? I mean when I buy property when I rent property I usually check the sex offenders website, right, to see if there's any sex offenders in my area. So am I going to have to start checking Airbnb and see how many Airbnb rentals are in my neighborhood? So I think Monterey Park should seriously consider that and look at the zoning and make sure that, you know, people don't come into Monterey Park specifically in residential single-family areas where they allow people to run a commercial for profit for Airbnb, okay? I don't think they got a resale license. I don't think they're paying taxes and collecting the occupancy tax and all that. So I think Monterey Park should probably try to strengthen that and enforce these laws. Another thing is that the letter says that if there's an issue, I'm supposed to call the homeowner. Well, who am I going to call 1.30, 2 o'clock in the morning? Do I call the police department and have them come? Am I supposed to take photos when all this stuff is happening in my neighborhood? The surety bond asking for $1,500. I think if somebody made a big mistake, probably a one-way ticket out of the country costs more than $1,500. So how could you have a surety bond that's only asking for $1,500, okay? The property value I'm concerned about. And the other thing is that I noticed that on the books, it says they're not alLod to rent Airbnb to ADUs. use. And so if you're going to do an Airbnb, I think in the spirit of the Airbnb concept and law, they should at least make the homeowner live in the premise before they rent places out. Okay? Thank you.

Thank you, Bob. I don't have your contact information, Bob. If you could leave your contacts with staff, they can follow up with you. I filled it out, but unfortunately I haven't been to these in over 10 years. It only has your name, no phone number or contact information.

Contact information?

So Chief Hing, can you see Mr. Bob Tam and get his contact information?

Chief Hing is over the Code Enforcement Division, and he will be able to help us. Thank you so much, Mr. Tam.

And also, Sarkis, I know you came in late, but we did take Tempe off today's agenda, so we're not voting on it tonight.

Yeah.

It's moved to January. Our next speaker is Maribel Castillon.

Hello, everyone. Good evening. My name is Maribel. I am a resident of Monterey Park. I've lived here now for approximately 30 years.

I've raised four children in the city. I love this city.

And I'm also a public health nurse for the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

I currently work with the Department of Children and Family Services.

And when people ask me if what I do is depressing, my response is, of course, it's heartbreaking.

especially, you know, knowing that I'm working with children who are being abused.

And I personally feel that the things that I see are a snapshot of our current society.

I believe that some parents don't mean to hurt their children,

but they are under so much stress due to life responsibilities that they lose control and take it out on their children. I oppose 10B data center because of everything that has been said thus far and because of what data centers feed into. We are now living in a time with the highest levels of anxiety in children and loneliness.

Social media companies are being sued because kids are committing suicide because of what they're exposed to. I'm still learning about the data center and all that information, but here tonight, learning that it's a company from Australia surprises me because I know that in Australia, they actually banned the use of cell phones for kids under the age of 16, but yet they want to come here and open a data center. So I am against the inhumane toxic technology governed by toxic incentives. I invite our city council to seek out interventions, progress, and evolution. Let's strive to return to being the best city to live in once again. Thank you.

Thank you, Maribel. Any other public communications? No? Okay. Thank you so much, everyone, for...

Oh, one more? I didn't... You submitted a card? Oh, I don't see it. But, yeah, Alex Lee? Oh, okay. Edlyn?

Maybe it got mixed in the pile, but that's why we asked. So, come on up.

If you submitted a speaker card earlier for public hearing items, you're going to have to let us know if you want to speak during oral communications because your card is already mixed with the other cards. So any other individuals who want to speak during oral communication, please let us know.

I'm sorry. There we go. Okay. ! Okay. Okay.

! Sorry about that. !

Good evening.

Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members, City Council members, City ! !

City staff. ! I'm here to ask for your support and commitment to rebuilding the !

And I wanted to thank you, Madam Mayor, for meeting with us last night, the board members

of the SGV Power Up Beacon to work together to show support for our organization.

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to work together to show support for our organization

because we need support for possible funders.

And thank you for leading us with the proper steps

to receive a memorandum of understanding

so we may move forward to gain momentum

for raising funds for the Aquatic Center and to give us more credibility toward possible donors.

Currently we have over 1,100 signatures

on our Change.org petition to rebuild the pool.

And our organization has also met with Assemblymember Mike Fong,

and Assemblymember Fong is interested in the rebuilding of the Aquatic Center,

has offered us suggestions and would like the SGV Park Beacon to keep him informed of our progress.

The Beacon has met extensively with the Mark Keppel coaches, Perez, and swimming diving coach, Lee,

and a water aerobics representative to have a pool design that incorporates the needs of swimmers,

divers, water polo, water aerobics, and swimming lessons. And with our design, we can simultaneously

run aquatic sports. We'd like the City of Council to seriously consider our design because it was made with the input of people who use the pool on a daily basis rather than a seasonal basis.

And I would like to respectfully request that Monterey Park City Council create a dedicated

account to show the dollar amount, the actual financial progress for the pool and aquatic

center as we go and raise the money to our goal of $22 million.

And it would just be nice to see a dollar amount just put aside, you know, set aside

just for the pool that it's for the public and for everyone to see.

And I also request that this become a regular meeting agenda item until the project actually begins construction. So thank you very much for your consideration and for your time this evening.

Thank you, Edlyn.

I've got another speaker card from Ronan Rock.

Hello. So I've been here a few times for a few other things, but I came to speak about the potential construction of the data center on Saturn Street. It's kind of, I've been working on a scientific report that's kind of in this realm. So to begin, we are being told that the project will be clean and a low impact project. There's absolutely no way to create a data center that is clean or low impact. Data centers consume an insane amount of electricity so fast that there is no way to sustain them on green or renewable energy like

solar or wind. Many cities implementing data centers are moving back on their green energy initiatives in order to power their data centers. Data centers produce a ton of carbon emissions contributing to climate change and destroying the quality of air. These centers run 24-7 all the time

and are equipped with diesel generators. This project in particular outlines having around 24 diesel generators. These diesel generators run fairly consistently, keeping the data center

running in order to create no downtime. The entire time a data center runs, it uses energy and emissions are produced. Diesel itself contains a compound known as black carbon, which is a carcinogen known for causing chronic respiratory issues, strokes, and heart attacks, as well as having negative effects on baby's developmental progress. Diesel can also emit sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other particulate matter. There is another concern of water consumption. Data centers become extremely hot while running, and in order to cool the machines, water is run through connecting pipes to keep the machines cool. Only 3% of the Earth's water is fresh water, and only 0.5% of all water is accessible and safe for human consumption. Data centers consume an insane amount of fresh water specifically, and on average, Google data centers consume approximately 400 450,000 gallons of water per day living in an area that is prone to drought this is a dangerous idea and it can and will increase water bills the data in the data center will also increase electricity bills this project is estimated to consume 434 million kilowatt hours per year of electricity this is effectively double the amount of the energy that Monterey Park consumes without the data center. There have already been multiple examples of data centers polluting air, water, and consuming copious amounts of energy in places like Nebraska, Texas, and other locations in California. There are some locations where residents' utility bills have tripled. All of this does not include the sheer amount of noise pollution and habitat loss that this will cause. The claim that the data center will create a sizable amount of jobs is also negligible. Data centers are run by a small group of people at all time. So besides the construction of the building, there would be no significant numbers of jobs created. I found that the use of the mitigated negative declaration, the MND, instead of a full environmental impact report quite interesting, particularly because I have seen this done in several case studies related to my report. A multitude of companies have done this before, resulting in mass poisoning of surrounding residents. An example of this is the Exide e-waste recycling plant that used to be located in Vernon, California. The company went forward with an MND and it resulted in heavy levels of lead poisoning in the soils of surrounding communities. At the time of the MMD's official release, it was stated that the project will, quote, have no impact on wildlife and the habitat upon which it depends, which is the exact same thing that is being said for this project. Exide ran the plant for 15 years, pumping copious amounts of heavy metals into the air and soil of the homes, schools, and parks around the plant. In a study analyzing the soil samples from the surrounding homes, it was found that over 80% of the soil collected and inspected was above 80 parts per million, which is the California limit for lead. A lot of the levels ended up shooting higher than 1,000 parts per million. To highlight, there is no safe levels for lead, so the fact that there is even 80 parts per million is exceedingly dangerous. Lead was found in the community's children's blood. It was found replacing the calcium of baby's teeth, and it is causing issues with residents' pregnancies and increasing the number of patients with cancer. Even worse, Exide was able to declare bankruptcy in 2020 and left the cost of the multi-million dollar cleanup to taxpayers. There are multiple examples of multi-million dollar companies pursuing an MMD resulting in a severe lack of health inspection, toxicity remediation, and the general care of residents. I would also like to mention we have a lot of residents under the age of 18 and about 44 percent of the populace in Monterey Park is over 50 years of age, all of which are extremely high risk groups to exposure to toxic emissions. There has been no clear and transparent communication. It makes this develop feel shady and untrustworthy. It doesn't matter if it's a private development. It doesn't matter if this development has no monetary cost to the city. The health concerns and increase of utility prices is a cost to the residents living in Monterey Park. I've seen no rush to prevent citizens being taken by ICE, no rush to help families priced out of their homes, and no rush to provide third spaces for communities to gather. And yet, there's such a rush to get this data center developed. I feel as if, again, the priorities of this council are not reflecting the opinion of the citizens. With so much space there are endless possibilities of community gardens, parks, accessible education locations, food banks, etc. I have to question why a data center is the first and most advocated choice for development other than of course personal stakes or gain.

Thank you Ronan. Any other public comments? All right. Last call.

Okay, then let's move on to presentation item. Oh Any comments from my colleagues?

Thomas council member one

Well first I want to thank everyone for sticking around and for making public comment really appreciate the engagement with the city council

and

especially on this meeting and hope you will continue to engage in future meetings and future items on On a few of these things, one on the short-term rental regulation, I think staff is already working on potential or proposed changes to our short-term rental regulatory scheme. Would love to see if we can get a check-in on that at some point in the coming months to look at what we can do. And appreciate the speaker coming in to share some of those comments, and I think those are things we're already on our radar.

on well that's that for Robert later on his item there are some speakers on the pool I really appreciate members of the pub and others coming to engage and continue to engage the council on this I know the survey we had out ended already in November right and we'll hear Robert he's nodding his head so appreciate the hopefully I think hundreds of people that both through the our initial parks master plan process to this initial kind of design phase hundreds of people engaging on the pool and barns park pool in particular in the aquatic center and look forward to the next steps as we've stated and told folks over a series of meetings we've been talking about this timeline we're gonna move to design soon in the coming months and expect early-ish next year to have more of these opportunities for the community engaged on a final design for what the Barnes Park pool might look like I hope you'll continue engage encourage all of you and anyone else who's interested in the future of Barnes Park in Barnes Park pool to continue engage there we've been part we've had many many discussions with power with Binkin and others who are interested in the final design and and getting a pool built, there's a long way to go still to get there and the city cannot, we'll not do this on and so on in terms of the city hall. We need a lot of participation from the community to make sure that we get there, just like we did with the library expansion project that happened 15 years ago or so. A lot of community engagement and community support

for something like that.

I'm hoping that we can partner with those that are here in the audience and others who have been part of this and hopefully others as well that haven't been and haven't heard about the pool project for some that might be here, haven't heard about it. I hope that you'll engage in this process of support. Next steps for that as well, because we're gonna need a lot of community support to get that to for future steps. But really appreciate the engagement along those lines for I know it's been years now, but really appreciate it.

Yeah. Yeah.

On the, I can't engage on the standard part in the data center product specifically. I do want to address because it's come up in a lot of social media posts and emails I've received and repeated tonight around this conflict of interest concern. I'll repeat this at the public hearing tomorrow or whenever it happens in January. For those who engaged and read the SPARK report, I appreciate that. For those that engaged in the SPARK meetings, I appreciate that. and Carl's going to stop me if I get into trouble here with my words. But the SPARK process, right, we started the SPARK process, the Saturn Park Advisory Review Committee, back in 2024, because we noticed as a city that there was significant vacancies in this office park, business park. The alLod use for data center wasn't alLod use in that area and other areas of the city for that matter way before the SPARK process and before and it was part of the land use element that was approved in 2020 2020 and was it alLod use I believe even before that in that area we had a data processing center which is not quite the same as the data center but just to be clear the spark process did not come out with data center as a new use or a use that was alLod in that area because of the spark process what came out of the spark process and I hope you'll review the spark report and for those who were engaged in the meeting the many meetings that we had then and afterwards to discuss what changes in the community and that neighborhood's interests in what the future could be included expanding uses and a lot of discussion was on potential what could go there and that's the purview of of the council to determine zoning and land use what's alLod in the Saturn Park area and other parts of the city for that matter in line with the land use somewhat that's approved by voters. Let's be clear, and I wanna be very clear, I received and the city asked the Fair Political Practice Commission, which is the regulator for ethics for elected officials and candidates in the state, received guidance and we pursued guidance to make sure that I could engage in on the project, was cleared by the FPPC to engage on that project because there was no, or on the SPARC discussions in that process because there was no project to talk about there we're talking about uses and potential zoning for the Saturn Park area and so there was there is a no conflict and was no conflict in terms of my engagement in the Saturn Park Advisory Review Committee for those that are continuing spread information around that I hope that you will take that into account and there is a potential conflict that we're hoping to get some clarification on from the FPC on a specific project that might be a customer that if approved would be a customer of my employer in terms of purchasing power just like everyone else who purchases it uses power in the city is so I just want to be clear there's a very very different right issue on the table in terms of what Spark was looking at and what a data center project is. So I just want to clear that up a little. I don't know if that helps a lot. Carl's going to help me out if I mess that up. But I want to be very, very clear. ! The SPARK process was,

! I think that I was chair of this.

! There are some allegations, that the community wasn't involved ! because they weren't on the committee. The point was to have the community.

We had dozens and dozens of people from that neighborhood, from the community, engaged in that process

and were taking input. And so,

I appreciate everyone engaged

in that process

and engaging now, today.

But I just wanted to make clear that

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around hopefully add some clarity and help provide some clarity around the potential conflict since there's been some information on that bandied about in social media. Carl's going to clear anything up if I mess that up.

Let me add to that because the Sparks project was created two years ago for the purpose of being a lifelong resident here for 46 years. When I grew up, Saturn Business Park was 99.6% occupied.

It was full.

For those of you who've been in the city, you know what I'm talking about. In the 60s, late 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Go back 15 years ago, it's been half full. For about 10 years, it's more than half empty. And when we engaged in this process, Saturn Business Park was 86% vacant. That's why we had this discussion. What can we better use for that strip of property? And there was community discussion. There were four different discussions. Forty members showed up. The committee consists of community members, two council members, seven other community members who are either volunteers with the city through the commissions or were shareholders in the community. I think one was a business owner and one was a property management company. for the property there and they wanted to see new signs of life. That's why we engaged in that process. But, you know, again, just to clarify kind of like how we got to the SPARKS project and there's a lot of misinformation out there. I just want to clarify that.

Madam Mayor, members of the Council, if I could just remind the Council that this is

a brief opportunity for brief response to public comment. I think that the SPARKS information I think the information is all online.

If people are interested, they can certainly look it up themselves.

And I know that I'm sure the topic will arise again in January when the council can participate in discussions about the applicant and the data center specifically.

All right. Thank you. Yes.

Councilmember Sanchez.

I just wanted to address the data center briefly and just say I wanted to thank people who came out today And we're civically engaged and I hope that you guys continue to engage not just us, but also the applicant I Know that we will be sharing information in terms of when we set those up so I just want to make sure that I Communicate that with our city manager and our staff in terms of sharing that information and I hope you keep an eye out

and that you do keep

and we hear your concerns. I received hundreds of emails in the last couple of days. So thank you guys for coming out tonight and I hope you will continue to come out.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you everyone for coming out and thank you to those who also had one-on-ones with me, including phone calls, in-person meetings. The discussion was very helpful

because in a council meeting,

there's not really room for discussion. discussion one-on-one so thank you everybody all right so let's move on to section 7 presentation 7a is 1688 West Garvey Avenue marketing good evening

madam mayor members of the council just wanted to briefly introduce this item this item was as being brought forward to council tonight this is based on the direction from city council to market the 1688 West Garvey property for sale so the city is working with Kidder Matthews and Linda Lee and Bill Boyd are here from Kidder Matthews tonight to just provide a brief marketing strategy about this parcel. Thank you Linda. Good evening good evening

Good evening, Madam Mayor and good evening, Mayor Pro Tem, along with Honorable Council Members, Mr. Berger and Ms. Alvarez.

My name is Linda Lee and I am a commercial real estate broker with Kidder Matthews, a regional commercial real estate brokerage firm.

I have been advising clients and doing business in this great city and the greater Los Angeles area for over 20 years.

I'm honored to be here tonight to present on 1688 West Garvey Avenue.

As real estate consultants to the city, the city staff has tasked my team and I with the following objectives.

Next page. Thank you. Our objectives are to identify the property's highest and best use, to determine the maximum the common potential value of the property, and to recommend marketing strategies for maximizing the property's potential. Next slide, please. So I think most of the people, it seems like most of the people are very well aware of this property, but for those who aren't, let me just give a little bit of a brief background. The subject property is located at 1688 West Garvey Avenue, just to the south of the intersection of Garvey Avenue and Abajo. The site consists of just a little over six acres and is situated on a slope about 150 feet above the intersection of Garvey and Abajo. These, let me see, I can't even see my own slide there. The topography of the property is moderate to steep slope. Some attributes about the property is that the property has no direct freeway access, no direct freeway visibility, and is not pedestrian friendly. Next slide. The property is currently under the 1688 West Garvey Avenue specific plan. This plan was adopted in 2021 as part of a development agreement with the prior owners. And this specific plan entails approximately 177,000 square feet split into 16 lots of homes ranging from 2,500 feet to approximately 5,600 square feet. The average lot size ranges from 7,500 feet to about 15,000 feet. So the average lot size is about 11,000 square feet. These are pretty sizable homes and lots. The specific development entails grading the soil and some remediation, reinforcements of the property, including building a retaining wall and performing some soil drainage.

Let's see. Yeah, I think that's it. Next slide. This is the zoning map of the city of Monterey Park, and the property is located at the top northwest area. You'll see it's a very tiny little sliver right along Garvey Avenue, just bordering the city of Alhambra.

This shows you that the overlay was created, and prior to that overlay, the property was zoned R3 High Density Residential.

The properties to the north, or the uses to the north of the property, include multifamily apartments. Some uses surrounding the property to the south are single-family homes. There's a church to the northwest side of this property, along with a senior living facility to the east of the property, just across the street on Abajo, and also a self-storage facility below that.

Next slide, please.

So part of our task was to determine or consider some alternative uses for this site. And based upon the surrounding, we've considered some residential and non-residential uses. In determining the highest and best use, we have to meet four, typically we have to meet four criteria. One is, is the property physically possible? Is the property legally permissible? Three, is the property financially feasible? And four, is the property maximally productive? So I think given the, number one, the physically possible, given the attributes and features of this property being located on a slope 150 feet above the intersection, the irregular shape of the property that's narrow and long, and just simply the physical attributes don't pertain to most of these non-residential uses. So we can eliminate the office, the retail, the industrial. The third one, financially feasible, can pretty much eliminate some of the single uses, such as a church, the hospital, and post-secondary education, as well as self-storage. So next slide, please. So we've determined that the highest best use is residential. But the question is, what type of residential? So right now, under the current zone, the specific plan allows for 16 single-family residences. Now, the specific plan is very specific as to how large and how these homes will be built and designed. So based upon that, we've attributed values to each of these different types of residential developments. So under the current zoning, it's 16 single-family residences. Under an R2, if we were to change the zone to R2 medium density, the maximum buildable units are 99. Not to say that that's what will be built, but that's the maximum buildable units. Under an R3 zoning, the maximum buildable units is about 186 units. You'll see the respective values that we've given to each of these categories, and it's not for us to say that yes, this property will be sold for this amount. It is really just to provide a range of values because really anything can be built.

Let's go on to the next slide. So we've determined that residential use is the highest and best use, but in order to maximize the property's value potential, we would need to zone it as R3. So let's move on to the next slide. So our recommendations are to remove the specific plan overlay and resort that and have the property be market as a multifamily R3 development opportunity. Now this is just to give the city the flexibility of obtaining different bids from different

developers for the different kind of residential developments and so that the city can decide

what will be built there and how many units and the design and size etc and

Madame members of the council if I could just tag team on the comments remember

this is just a marketing presentation we will have a future agenda item for you

to consider any of these strategies that you would wish in order to implement

that marketing strategy there's no action being asked of the city council

tonight but we wanted to make sure this was on your radar so when it popped up again for your consideration it wasn't coming out of the blue.

Thank you. Any questions?

Yeah, just a question maybe you can, I want to make sure I heard correctly.

Yes.

Because I may need reading glasses, maybe that's the reason.

I have distance glasses and I still can't see.

So highest and best use residential R3, potentially 100 plus units, right?

186 is what I see there?

Well, highest best use would be residential, but to maximize the potential value of the property would be to be R3. Would be R3. Okay.

Got it. All right. Thank you. Just real quick.

So the existing overlay zone, that came with the entitlement of the initial project that was proposed there, right, and that was entitled?

That's correct.

And that wouldn't go away if the project goes away?

uh well the zoning for it is specific plans so if as i said on the future agenda if if you want to consider how to maximize the potential price that a developer would be interested in paying for this particular piece of property zoning would be an issue so again we'll provide additional options

for you in the future but we wanted to make sure that you knew why we were bringing those types of

options to you for consideration under the current specific zone they it the developer has to build that particular set of plans basically 16 lots 16 homes so to linda's point the specific plan is the

zoning at the moment you would have to change the zoning either by changing the specific plan itself

or removing the specific plan as the zoning but it but it was r3 until that that plan proposed

was entitled so the original zoning for that property was R3 that's correct

any other questions no all right thank you so much for that presentation let's move on to 7b another presentation SGV Ford bus corridor transit improvement project update by the SGV cog

Good evening. Mayor, members of the City Council, I'm Ricky Choi with the San Diego Valley Council of Governments.

I'm also here with our consultant, our technical consultant Maya Boucher from Kim Lee Horn. We just wanted to come here to provide a brief update on the San Diego Valley Bus Corridor Transit Improvement Project.

I know it's a mouthful, so that's why we actually recently rebranded it as SJV Forward.

Before we begin, I just want to take this opportunity to...

sqv forward. Before we begin, I want to thank the city staff for their partnership and engagement ! We worked closely with city staff, so I want to thank you so much for working with the ! Garvey Avenue improvement projects team. Our alignment is isuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisu

know our alignment is on Garvey, compliments the work that you all might be doing in the

near future. So we definitely appreciate the collaborative effort. Mayor, I don't think you were on the council last time we were here last spring. So I wanted to just also

take the opportunity to provide some background and maybe it's a refresher for the rest of

you as well. So last time we were here, we had just wrapped up the San Diego Valley Transit FEASIBILITY STUDY. IF YOU RECALL, THAT WAS A STUDY THAT WAS BORN AFTER THE METRO BOARD IN 2020 DECIDED TO ESSENTIALLY ABANDON THE SR60 ALTERNATIVE FOR THE TRANSIT CORRIDOR PHASE 2 PROJECT,

WHICH WOULD EXTEND THE CURRENT TERMINUS OF THE METRO GOLD LINE OR E-LINE AS WE CALL IT NOW,

which now ends on Atlantic Boulevard. So the COG in partnership with Metro

initiated a transit feasibility study back in 2021 which was completed last year and we looked at short-term and long-term transit options to really evaluate how we can improve mobility and transit across the San Diego Valley and of course in the city of Monterey Park really focusing on underserved

communities and those specifically in particular along the SR 60 corridor.

We worked in coordination with all of the cities in the region and what we came up with were a series of jumpstart demonstration improvements for bus service. And so we are hoping to develop, continue to develop those and implement some short-term demonstration projects here across the region segment being in Monterey Park prior to the the 2018 Olympic Games. We see that as a great opportunity. We also have a mid-term plan for implementation in 2035 as well as a long-term vision plan which would really create an integrated

network for transit across the entire region. But right now the SGV forward project is really a continuation of the transit study. We're focusing on implementing bus improvements.

AND GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE. THERE'S SOME INFORMATION THERE. WE'RE FOCUSED ON DEDICATED BUS LANES, UPGRADED TRAFFIC SIGNALS AND ALSO IMPROVED BUS STOP AMENITIES. WE'RE ENVISIONING A FUTURE WHERE WE HAVE ENHANCED TRANSIT SERVICE ACROSS THE REGION WITH HIGHER FREQUENCIES, FASTER SERVICE AND BETTER CONNECTIVITY TO GET PEOPLE TO WHERE THEY NEED TO GO, TO JOBS, TO SCHOOLS, TO, YOU KNOW, TO TO RECREATION CENTERS TO HOSPITALS AND SO ON AND SO FORTH. AND OBVIOUSLY ALSO TO CONNECT THEM TO MOBILITY HUB ACROSS THE REGION.

SO WE'RE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS PROJECT AND THE POTENTIAL.

AS YOU MAY RECALL, WHEN WE WERE HERE LAST TIME, WE SAID WE WOULD BE DOING TRAFFIC STUDIES AS WELL AS PARKING STUDIES AND WE WOULD DO SOME COMMITTEE OUTREACH AS WELL. AND SO WE'RE BACK HERE TODAY TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF UPDATE ON WHAT WE'VE DONE SO FAR. SO I'M GOING TO TURN OVER TO MAYA TO GIVE YOU ADDITIONAL DETAILS OF ALL THAT WE'VE done this past year and what we plan to do. Maya.

Thank you. We can advance to the next slide. So just kind of an overview of the project limits and give you kind of a sense of where this falls locally but also regionally. We're looking at different opportunities to create quick build transit improvements. So ways to kind of test out these different transit improvements and then based on those improvements find different opportunities to refine it. But as we know as a region, we're preparing for a major event, and so we really see this as a great opportunity to incorporate these quick-build treatments. You'll see here we have six total segments, starting over here in the west and then heading all the way east. The furthest east is in Pomona. So for tonight, we'll be focused primarily on segments one and two, which fall within the city of Monterey Park. The first segment is along Atlantic Boulevard, and the second segment is along Garvey Avenue. We'll go to the next slide. So just starting off, there really is a nice demonstrated need for transit improvements in the region. The Metroline 70, which runs along Atlantic and along Garvey, sees 16,000 daily boardings. That is quite a large number. It already serves quite a few riders getting people to destinations. And within the San Gabriel Valley, more than 15% of households don't have access to a car. So that means that those households are relying on different ways to travel around the region, whether it's getting to schools or jobs, and they don't have access to a car. Now, we also aren't looking at another number, which are households that maybe have access to one car, and they're relying on other ways to get around the region. And so you can see here there's a lot of people already in the region that rely on transit to get around. Now, 44 percent of San Gabriel Valley residents are either senior or minor populations, and we know that these age groups often rely on other modes of travel besides a personal automobile. And within these improvements, looking at these six segments, more than 10 transit lines would benefit from these improvements. Now, Monterey Park has made a lot of commitment and investment to complete streets, so looking at different ways that different modes can be integrated into the roadway network, and that also includes transit as a key component. In 2028, we're preparing for a very exciting event, which is the Summer Olympics. and Paralympics, and this really provides a lot of opportunity from an economic development standpoint for this region. And so that's really where this kind of idea of moving some of these improvements forward, taking advantage of them being quick builds, so not necessarily totally permanent. They'll be put in place, but you're not necessarily committing to a long-term project, and testing them out and seeing kind of what they can do for the community, not only on a daily basis, but also from an economic development standpoint. Go to the next slide. So we've done quite a bit of work to get here, but we have focused on two kind of key components from the technical study standpoint. The first is a traffic study and this looks at an option which we're calling side running and I will show in the next slide in a moment what that looks like but the traffic study looks at what it would what would happen from an operational perspective if we were to repurpose a travel lane on these corridors so on Atlantic and Garvey and then the parking study looks at the option of of transitioning parking to a dedicated bus lane. So we'll go to the next slide so I can give you kind of a visual of what that would look like. These are just typical cross sections, but gives you a sense of kind of how that would fit within an existing corridor. And so you can see here the cross section on the left is the side running configuration, and that would be the configuration where we would use the traffic study to study what that would do from an operational perspective if we were going to repurpose a travel lane to a dedicated bus lane. Now it's also important to note that drivers could still use the bus lane right at the intersection to make right turns so it still would act as a right turn pocket for those drivers but they wouldn't necessarily be able to use the bus lane as a travel lane. And then on the right hand side is the curb running configuration and that looks at repurposing parking onto, from a parking lane onto a dedicated bus lane. And so specifically on these two corridors, we looked at both and we got some feedback on from Garvey. The small businesses on that corridor were pretty vocal about the importance of parking. And we also were working alongside the Garvey Avenue Improvements Project. So for Garvey, only a side running configuration was presented at these community meetings as an option. Atlantic, we haven't had a community meeting yet. That is upcoming in January. So both kind of options are on the table. And just to give you a sense of what we've seen, from the traffic study, we do see opportunity to improve operations from a signal synchronization perspective. I'm sure a lot of you have experienced this firsthand. There's a lot of starting and stopping on the corridor as it stands, so synchronizing signals will certainly help from an operational perspective. And then from the parking perspective, we saw that there was really a pretty low demand for parking at the peak hour on Atlantic Boulevard, and I think this is mostly attributed to a lot of off-street parking options on Atlantic. And then Garvey, it was really at moderate demand during the peak hour. Go to the next slide. So when we're looking at dedicated bus lanes, there's a lot of benefits that come from them. One is increased transit reliability and reduced travel time. So thinking about how people travel, and right now when people take transit, a lot of them have to add on quite a bit of time to account for that transit. We'll call it, you know, unreliability currently. Dedicated bus lanes provide more reliability for these riders. It also decreases single occupancy vehicle use. It creates higher person throughput and transit ridership. It improves transit access from a socioeconomic status. And it also Lors greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to regional sustainability goals. So we'll move into the next slide, which talks about transit signal priority. So we talked a lot about dedicated bus lanes, but this is also complemented by transit signal priority. And what this does is extends the green light or shortens the red light as the bus is approaching the signal. Now not only does this benefit the buses, but it also benefits the vehicles on the corridor, meaning that they are also getting an extension of the green time and a shortening of the red time so they're not having to start and stop at each of the intersections on the corridor. It also provides the opportunity and lays the foundation for the infrastructure for emergency vehicle preemption, and it also increases, like I said, vehicle throughput on the corridor.

The final kind of key component of these quick build treatments are bus stop amenities. And so right now there kind of are some varying bus stop amenities on the corridor. Some areas have no cover.

And as we know, it gets very hot during the summertime. And so people have to kind of find areas of shade to wait for the bus.

So integrating canopy for shade, including safety lighting for greater safety and security. Real-time arrival displays will help display upcoming buses.

And then maps for riders will provide some kind of situational awareness and understanding of kind of where they can go on the system.

And then we also have called out here for some of those more popular transit stops.

There could be an extension to accommodate additional transit riders waiting for the bus.

A key component of the design is really thinking about the long-term maintenance and longevity of this and also making sure that these stops feel safe and secure.

All right.

So as I mentioned, we have had a few community outreach events. The city has been a wonderful partner in all of this. And so again, thank you for your partnership. We attended the Monster Mash event on October 16th.

We also participated in the Garvey Avenue

Improvement Projects meetings, and those were on November 10th and 13th, and we are planning for another community meeting in January, which will be more focused on Atlantic, but will still provide opportunity for comment on the Garvey Avenue segment. And then we're planning to come back here to City Council once we've gotten that information and input to get your guidance on kind of the next steps

and what elements will be implemented as part of this project. So with that, I'm going to conclude my presentation and say thank you so much. I've left up two links for the project. The first is a website, which gives a lot of information, also has all the background documentation that we've prepared as part of the feasibility study,

and then also includes our email so that if anyone wants to reach out from the public, there's a way to contact us. So thank you again for your time and really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for that presentation. Any questions, comments?

No?

Well, I appreciate the community outreach you've been doing and the initial concepts and designs. For the current work in terms of the outreach and preliminary design, is this being funded by Metro Grant, is that right, for the SR-60? What are the potential sources for actual construction and moving forward to a final design and all that stuff?

Do you want to get some input? I can also share, too.

Currently, as part of the motion from 2020, there's $635 billion that is going to be available in 2035.

We're looking to perhaps hopefully maybe even advance some of that funding,

or also look for additional funding pursuing federal and or state dollars to do some of these demonstration projects sooner rather than later.

What's the, I know we're moving on our Garvey project.

How, what are the, I mean, I'm just thinking through what the challenges are to make sure they align if we're going to have to build something. I don't want to slow one down over the other and all that stuff. There's a way to integrate.

Yeah, I think that's a good, it's a really great comment. So we've been coordinating with that team. And right now they have certain elements of their project that I will say are kind of more what we call civil improvements. So they're kind of longer term improvements. Ours is primarily striping. So there would be some coordination between the two groups in terms of what that striping would ultimately look like on the corridor. And then also, you know, related to the transit signal priority that could actually come in a little bit later.

for us we would want to get all our improvements done by the end of 2027 because of the you know

upcoming year in 2028 and then same for the bus shelter amenities there would just need to be enough space for it but those could also come in so it really comes down to the striping and I think that that is been being coordinated between the two groups so there is some kind of time to make

sure that those two projects align great no I know we're working closely so appreciate that I don't know if you're able to model. I'm just curious if this were built, what the improvement in terms of the time would be for the segments that could be built out for BRT versus non-BRT and how much time that might shave off the travel time.

Yeah, so typically when we're looking at dedicated bus lanes, it's usually a 10 to 25% sort of reduction in travel time. We did look at it from end to end of the corridor,

but I don't have the specific numbers for each of these segments because they were essentially parts of that end-to-end corridor

that were pushed up to advance in these quick build improvements.

But ultimately, with that 20, 35 year, there are significant travel time savings because

people aren't going to have to, you know. !

I think that's a lot of the ! I think that's a lot of the

! On the map you had, right? The, you have potential quick build for certain segments, but not the whole potential route. Can you just talk about that? Why some of these are priority isuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisuisu And my concern is a little bit on if there are these gaps between, right, if the idea is to connect all of these. And I think BRT and public transit generally, right, the longer it is, there's more efficiency in terms of the construction and all that stuff. But also it makes sense just to connect actual things to actual places that our people are at to places people want to go as opposed to stopping short and not having a BRT or having a gap in the BRT might be an issue.

I'm just concerned around that if you have any thoughts. Yeah, so when we looked at it, we did a pretty comprehensive study and through that transit feasibility study, there's a couple of things that we look at. So especially when we're advancing certain segments, we want to make sure that there's high quality transit service, which along Garvey, there is that existing high quality transit service with the Metro line 70. We also want to look at segments that aren't overly congested, right, that don't have that necessarily space to repurpose a lane. But also we want segments that would present travel time savings. So if you have a corridor that basically everything is open, you're not necessarily going to see a travel time savings.

So there's kind of this balancing act there. And then also just looking at kind of key destinations around it, what's around in terms of land use, is there that kind of demand in terms of transit ridership. So that's ultimately how it was decided. And then from the feasibility study, there are certain segments that were advanced based on those pieces.

and I think ultimately we want to make sure those pieces are, even if they stand alone, they're going to make a measurable kind of positive impact

in terms of that travel time savings and reliability. And so that's how those pieces were decided upon.

And then I don't, it's also small and my eyes are not young, but the start of that segment one, is that at the East L.A. train station?

Okay. So it's at First Street. Okay, okay.

I have some questions. I think this is a great idea. I just have questions regarding the line 70. Is line 70 end at the El Monte station?

Correct.

But there's segments, and the first segment is in my district,

in the southern part of Monterey Park,

and I see a lot of people taking that line, a lot of the bus stops. So I know it's not just students, it's also a lot of community members. So I think in that sense, I think it's a good idea to be able to improve their transportation. But my concern is, I think Council Member Wong might have been hinting at it, is maybe the segments where they're not connected and just wondering if we can connect them. And I'm trying to guess here. Is that like Rosemead?

So Rosemead is included as part of this and we'll be doing community outreach there too.

So it does continue through Rosemead on Garvey.

So the segments one through four are continuous through the cities of Monterey Park, Rosemead, South Almonte, and Almonte.

And then in terms of kind of those pieces, you're seeing a gap from four to five,

which that, you know, when we're looking at those kind of characteristics that I mentioned earlier, it's why certain parts of it were advanced.

But there are parts of the project that would be kind of continuous throughout

that we're looking at such as transit signal priority where there would still be that benefit of integrating transit signal priority. Okay so so just so I

understand it so segments three and four which are part of Rosemead and Omani they've been there in favor of doing something similar? So right now we're in

we're in the community outreach stage so we haven't gone for any sort of formal like acceptance of the project. We are working closely with them in terms of the direction we've gotten from those cities is really to listen to the community see the input we're getting but they're certainly open to these

improvements. So the 70 I know goes on Garvey but one is on Atlantic does the 70 actually

change Ralph from what it did before? Yes so it turns from Atlantic on to Garvey and what what we're looking at too so I should you know without getting too specific into the design when it turns from Atlantic on to Garvey likely that would be a mixed flow so there would be kind of a small segment just because of the characteristics of that intersection and so after Chandler would be more likely where the dedicated bus facility would be considered because just memory

like 7077 that was on Garvey and 262 is where you have Atlantic that that was the original bus routes so that's all being interchanged to include it in part of

this so we're not making any modifications to service for this part

When we're looking at 2035 that is where service enhancements would be made

But when it comes to the 70 it does go along Atlantic and then it turns right on to Garvey as you're heading north

So it is a continuous high-speed transit line that exists with Metro service

Thank you. Um, well, thank you very much for coming and making this presentation as Councilman Sanchez mentioned part of the project proposal runs for his district,

the other part runs for my district.

And I am also someone who occasionally takes bus 70 to work in downtown. So I'm very familiar with how important this corridor is. And so I'm very pleased to see this proposal come before us. So if I'm not mistaken, you're saying your timeline, should everything align is to have this either constructed or completed by 2027?

Yeah, that's the goal. I mean, it is contingent upon funding, but we do have, you know, Metro supporting us, and we're looking at options such as advancing the funds that are dedicated for 2035.

I'm curious, given that this also runs through several jurisdictions, like our neighboring state to East Rosemead, what has been their feedback reception regarding this proposal?

So like I said, they're definitely open to it. We have a community meeting planned for Rosemead in January. So we'll be hearing feedback from the community then.

And then part of our work is also attending different community events and getting input there.

So we've attended an Open Streets event in South El Monte and El Monte.

We got a lot of positive feedback from the community there. A lot of people who rely on other modes of travel to get around.

But yeah, ultimately, the point of being here tonight is to brief all of you. but it's going to be up to the cities and the community based on what you kind of envision for the future of transportation within your jurisdiction.

So I think in terms of the feedback we've gotten, everyone's open-minded, but they ultimately want to hear what the community has to say.

And I also ask because given that you have multiple jurisdictions, I imagine that's what complicates it because let's say, hypothetically, we decide, oh, let's just do it 100% BRT, but then they basically say let's not. So is there any effort or possible to also try and articulate consistency along the route, if that's possible?

I mean, I think that would be wonderful. In terms of the implementation, it could be implemented in pieces.

So in theory, if one city were to say we want dedicated bus facilities, that could happen. We might also see in some cases certain jurisdictions might be more in favor of a curb running configuration

based on parking demand versus a side running or vice versa. And they still present opportunity for travel time savings and reliability.

So it's not necessarily that, you know, if there's one segment that's taken out that the, you know,

the enhancement or improvement is removed. So there's a lot of different ways that could be approached.

But these segments were decided upon to become a link that would have an actual measurable positive impact on transit reliability.

I see. And in terms of that articulation, is that where the COG takes the lead, or is there any role for, say, at our level of city to have conversations with, like, Willisby, for example, given that we're right next door to them?

I mean, I would say definitely. I don't know, Ricky, if you want to provide any, but yeah, I think in terms of that coordination across boundaries, I think that would be, you know, of course, helpful to the project.

And I only bring it up because, again, in side conversations I've had with our counterparts in Rosemead, I think they've asked us, like, well, what has been – and this is before today's presentation, but I think at least my – what I'm hearing is that maybe from the Rosemead side, too, is that, again, whether that should be at our level working with COG, but, again, I think there seems to be a need to have some more broader conversation between jurisdictions to make sure that, well, as you said, it reflects constituent needs. but also it presents a project that actually meets its goal, which is to make traffic flow. And I think that's your challenge, is that you have multiple jurisdictions, and you may have different ideas, inputs from the community of these different jurisdictions.

I think that's a great comment. Thank you.

Just for quick clarification, I know the SGVCOG right now is working on the jumpstart segments. just for clarification I might have missed it so I apologize if you clarified this but the Rosemead section is part of the jump start project as well or is that part of the larger

2035 vision so all those segments up there are part of the jump start that's just focusing on

the jump start improvement so Rosemead is included as part of that thank you thank you

Yeah, I appreciate you guys being proactive to share the information ahead of time and thanks for hosting all of the committee Meetings so that we can gather community input on this project. Do you have a date for the upcoming January meeting?

We don't have a finalized date, but it's likely going to be either mid or late January and we're working with the city right now to

Select that date and then we'll make sure it's on the calendar. Great. Yeah, we can publicize it to the community So more people can attend just a quick question. Thanks, mr. Mayor

Does anyone have peak hour only dedicated bus lanes, and is that an option that's being studied here or potential here as opposed to 24-7 dedicated bus lanes?

There's definitely the option for that. So typically when you look at a peak hour lane, it could be in a side running configuration,

but the most common that you'll see is a curb running.

And so what that means is that you can park curbside throughout the day, but then during

the peak hours you can't park there and it becomes a dedicated bus lane.

City of LA has done this in many many places and I know that they're advancing this also in preparation for you know

2028 I

Had this I had the same question as councilmember wrong, but the reason I say that is because I know there's a corridor On Atlantic that has a lot of apartments particularly I think around floral all the way to maybe Repetto And I see a lot of people park in that area, but but after the morning part maybe 9 or 10 and I see it's pretty vacant. So just, you know, thinking about, because I also foresee a lot of residents probably asking those types of questions, like, where's the parking, is the parking going to be gone? And we're already, in some ways, hearing it when we have these types of dialogues. I know I attended some of the Garvey Improvement meetings, and I heard some of the people asking those types of questions regarding parking, and I think for them, that's one of the probably major concerns

dealing with parking.

but the last thing I wanted to say is I think as we progress and move forward it might be useful to have meetings in conjunction also perhaps with Rosemead just to make sure that we're all aligned with this I think it just would make more sense and would also ensure that this dedicated bus route is successful and I think that the only way it can be successful is if we include all of the stakeholders and ensure that that bus line connects I would love to I serve on the Metro Service Council but I would love to take the bus line on a bus wrap all the way to the Metro station and Amani would be amazing in a shorter

amount of time thank you so much thank you both

right that completes our presentation section for this evening moving on to I will now turn to item 6 staff communications, 6A city manager's office.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. Diana Garcia, Assistant City Manager. The City of Monterey Park invites all community members to attend a public meeting on Thursday, December 11th at 5pm to learn about the proposed design for the permanent memorial honoring the victims and survivors of the January 21st tragedy.

community. This meeting will be held at the Langley Center in the Friendship Room and will provide an opportunity for residents and stakeholders to hear an update on the

project, view the conceptual design, and share their thoughts with city staff and architects.

Community participation is essential in shaping a memorial that reflects collective remembrance, healing, and hope, and we welcome all who wish to be a part of this important conversation to the meeting. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, item 6B, library.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is Kristen Olivares.

I'm the City Librarian at the Monterey Park-Burger Meyer Library, and this evening I'm here to share some events we have

coming up in December.

but first I wanted to highlight some of the programs that we held in November. In November we held 44 programs for 2,470 community members of all ages and depicted here are photos from the Junior Friends Cards for Veterans Program, a poetry workshop, Books and Cooks, and Die November.

Next slide.

Adults, teens, and children can join the 2025 Curl Up With a Good Book Winter Reading Challenge by registering at montereypark.beanstack.org and logging their reading hours for a chance

to win prizes.

The challenge runs from December 20th to January 3rd, and you can visit the library's website for more details. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Monterey Park Library.

Next slide.

The library is launching a new low-pressure

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Next slide.

Registration for the spring semester of LAMP Literacy classes will begin in January. Those interested in enrolling are encouraged to visit or contact the literacy department now to complete a pretest before joining classes. English as a second language classes, conversation groups, and citizenship preparation classes are free, and you can find more information on our website. Lastly, take some time to enjoy classic holiday-themed films and TV shows on Canopy. The home viewing for the holidays playlist features entertainment for the whole family and will put you in the holiday spirit. Grab your library card and visit Canopy.com to start streaming. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you so much. Next item is...

I just had one question. I'm glad you did a plug for Canopy because I think it's great. And there's a lot of amazing movies and documentaries. because in fact, I find stuff in there for my classroom and students all the time, so thank you for that.

Excellent, thank you.

Thank you.

Next item, 6C, Police Department.

Madam Mayor, Member of City Council, Scott Weiss, Police Chief. I'm here tonight to talk to you a little bit about holiday safety.

We talk about this every year. just a reminder for people as traffic patterns start to pick up, people start going out and

shopping, going out to dinner, so do criminals. And they will go out and take advantage of

different situations, both residentially and commercially. So I just have a couple slides here to talk about some things to consider residentially-wise. Not a lot has changed

other than the fact that criminals will be out there looking for targets of opportunity.

We like residents to create lighting situations at their house, motion lights, obviously cameras. They can register those cameras with us on our RIMS page, our CAT or MS page. We don't have access to the cameras. We just know that they have cameras in case we have a situation in their neighborhood. We then know that that residence has cameras and we can contact them to see if they have any footage. That helps us out quite a bit with investigations.

Obviously, residents need to make sure that their home security situations are current. I just did this at home recently. My cameras weren't working the way that I liked. I was very frustrated. I couldn't get them to log back on. Typical issues. And so I ended up going with a new camera system just recently that I have to install this weekend. But I try to do it once a year around Christmas time, just before the holidays, as I'm putting up my Christmas lights, because it gives me an opportunity to kind of get up there into the nooks and crannies of the house. So I kind of want people to start to do the same thing. We forget about those kind of things during the year, but when you're out on the perimeter of your house and you're getting ready for your Christmas decorations, also kind of take an extra opportunity to look at the security you have set up at your house. Go ahead, next slide. Vehicle burglary is still a big deal. Criminals like to break into cars. They like to take stuff out of your cars. They like to steal your car. We ask that when you're out shopping, don't leave items that you purchased in the open area of your car so people can see them through the window. Put them in the trunk or the back area of your car. If you're driving an SGV and you have the ability to close off the cargo section with a lot of the vehicles now have a pull-off screen that you can close, we ask that you do that so that your items aren't seen through the window. Make sure you lock the doors of your vehicle. If the vehicle comes with an alarm, set the alarm and listen for the alarm going off. Also don't leave your purses out in the open in the car, don't leave computers, backpacks, anything that can draw attention from a potential thief. They're looking for targets of opportunity. And it doesn't take very long to break a window, reach inside and steal the items out of the car. We haven't experienced some of the things that we've seen on the news up in maybe Northern California where people will pull up, jump out, break the window in the middle of a shopping center, grab the things when people are in the car. We have not seen that happen here. I'm not saying it won't happen, but it's something that we don't see very often down here in Monterey Park. But still, that kind of safety around your vehicle is super important. Go ahead, next one. We're always available to help out the community. Community Relations Bureau and quite honestly patrol officers, when they're out on their regular beats, they're a perfect opportunity for people to contact them. They'll give you advice of what they think works for that neighborhood, what works for your house. I can set up an appointment and one of my officers or one of my CSOs can come out, walk through the perimeter with the person and give them some advice about where we think they should enhance their security. We're always there to prevent what takes place. Although we will respond, obviously, and investigate, we're very good at that, we like to prevent crime before it happens in the first place. We want everybody to be safe this year. There's a lot of aspects of the holidays that cause people anxiety for all of us, whether it's traffic, whether it's gifts, whether it's all those different things.

So everybody just needs to kind of take it easy, calm down, take a breath, plan your day a little better, plan dropping your kids off of school the right way, and we'll get through this. But we're here to help with whatever people need. We're full service department, and we're available all the time to help out whenever we need. I'm available for any questions. Thank you for sharing that.

and again it's very relevant and timely information for the holidays. I'm kind of curious too, I mean besides the potential material theft during the holidays which just happens, but what about also theft that's targeted at you know people's I guess compassion like scams like charity scams you know especially you see them come up saying hey you know it's like sponsor a holiday meal for family or gifts or because of the recent Eden fires in our neighbors to the north, you know, and throughout the year, you know, you've seen examples scams. So I guess if how do – if someone is aware of something or has been scammed, do they also report it to our PD as well?

Absolutely. We're in partnership with county, state, and federal agencies that investigate fraud, internet fraud. fraud. They get, they're very inventive, some of these fraudsters. And some of them are obvious. If you get an ad for something and it doesn't appear to be correct, or it's just too good to be true, it probably is fraud. I receive two or three of those every day. Hey, come and buy this jacket that would have cost $500. We're only going to sell it to you for $10. It's like, okay, something's wrong there. It's not a real situation. We're starting to see people that will send out receipts saying, here's your receipt for this item that you purchased. When you know you didn't purchase it, what they're trying to get you to do is click on the connection to that website, and that's when you're downloading spyware to your computer, and they're going to hold your computer hostage.

So if you don't, if you hadn't purchased something, don't open the receipt. If you don't own a home in Tennessee and they're sending you your monthly HOA bill, don't open that HOA bill because it's a scam.

We put out information to the public quite often about that, along with the fraud bureaus from the Sheriff's Department, LAPD, It's the state and the FBI and Secret Service that deal with internet fraud internationally. So we work with all those partners. It happens all the time and they get very inventive. A lot of those people that are committing those frauds are not in the United States. So it's very difficult to do enforcement on them.

Yeah, thank you for that. I know Assemblymember Mike Fong recently did a seminar at the Langley Center about preventing

scams like that.

So maybe the police department can also put on some session as if the public okay great find it useful Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much Next item is 60 public works

Good evening mayor mayor pro tem and City Council Sean I go public works director Next we have our last composting event for the year It's coming up on December 13th at our Public Works Yard located at 751 South Alhambra. We encourage everyone to come out and get a free bag of compost. The event starts at 8 a.m. and it's on a first-come, first-served basis. And then we'll also have some loose compost there at our site too that people can come pick up anytime. So again, first-come, first-served basis.

With that, any questions?

More just compliments because I live by Garry Ranch Park and I know when we have surplus compost,

you already know that it's very popular people I see morning the evening will drive up their their cars to the side and start shoveling into their cars so

again clearly is very popular it definitely is yeah thank you I know a

lot of residents appreciate this thank you all right and next item is 6E

Recreation and Community Services Department.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is Memo Chavez, Recreation Supervisor with the Recreation Department. Thank you for having me this evening to share a few updates with you.

First, I want to thank all who joined us at our recent events, including the Veterans Day event at the American Legion Post 397 on November 11th. and the Native American Heritage Month event on November 13th in Barnes Park. Your participation is truly appreciated.

Next slide, please.

Langley Center will offer a holiday cookie decorating class on Thursday, December 11th. Registration is now open at the Langley Center. Additionally, our monthly theme dance social, this month's theme is Christmas Party,

will take place on Thursday, December 18th from 1 to 3.

The event is $5 and includes live entertainment and a holiday lunch. both programs are open to adults ages 50 and older and registration is currently

available at Langley Center looking ahead the Recreation Department will offer MPK night at the Clippers game versus the Chicago Bulls on Friday March 13th tickets are $30 and can be purchased using the QR code on the flyer

or by visiting the Monterey Park website at Monterey Park dot CA dot gov backslash

Clippers attendees are responsible for their own transportation for questions

please contact the Recreation Department at recreation at montereypark.ca.gov.

Next slide, please. Also looking ahead, please save the date for two January events. The first is the City of Monterey Park Resiliency Day on Saturday, January 17th at Barnes Park from 10 to 2. This event will feature wellness activities and serve as a day of remembrance and hope honoring those lost on January 21st, 2023.

Later in the month, the annual Lunar New Year Festival,

co-hosted with World Journal, will take place on January 31st and February 1st. The year 2026 will celebrate the year of the horse. Next slide. December will feature a variety of activities and events, all of which include a visit from Santa, who is here to make a special appearance as well. So come on down, Santa. Ho, ho, ho.

Please join us at the annual Holiday Snow Village event tomorrow night

here from 4 to 8 at Barnes Park featuring entertainment, games, food,

a sled run, snow play, and more.

Santa here has made himself available for photos at the event.

It's also not too late for children to send their letters to Santa at the North Pole. Letters may be dropped off at Langley Center, 400 West Emerson,

and must include a name and return address.

The final day to submit letters is this Friday, December 5th, by 4.30 p.m.

And finally, Santa's Jolly Journey will take place on Sunday, December 14th at 6 p.m.

as Santa travels along a designated route through all five Monterey Park districts.

We hope everyone enjoys these festive events. Thank you very much for having me this evening.

Thank you so much, Mr. Grinch.

What a nice, unexpected surprise from Santa. May we take a picture? Yes.

Thank you.

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Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it. A question more for Robert on the pool. I know we finished the input receiving input and soliciting some input for the preliminary design I guess or the concepts for what we want to do can you just lay out really quick for those might be interested what the next steps

are good evening recreation director box and recreation director Robert de Geary

yeah so we went through recently through the community engagement sessions now we're working with Dolan to develop a conceptual designs we're expecting those to come back sometime towards the end of January there will be an opportunity for community comment on some of those conceptuals then we'll bring those back to council hopefully sometime February early March for council decision on which kind of conceptual to move forward with later on potential design at the same time continuing to apply for grants and look for other additional funding

opportunities that LA County grant we made the application for in any others Do you know when we might expect to hear back from some of those?

So the first grant that we applied for back in August, LWCF, or Land, Water, and Conservation Fund, we expect to hear back sometime late February 2026. And then the Measure A, the two grants we applied for with Measure A, L.A. County, we expect to hear back sometime March 2026. So those are the dates they're currently giving us. We'll continue to follow up to see if we can get any additional information as we move forward.

Yeah, well, yeah, and when the proposed concepts or designs come back, I know we will, but let's make sure to do as much outreach. There's obviously a lot of interest in the pool.

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

And whatever email list and folks that have been coming to the meetings, make sure we're communicating to them when that will come.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Robert, first of all, thank you for the, before we address Santa, the Clippers game. As soon as I saw it, and I saw Ines sent it out, I bought some tickets.

Awesome. Awesome. I did want to highlight one thing.

So for that night, also anyone that is attending the game with MPK will also get a Japanese Heritage Night jersey. So that's included with your fee.

Even better. Your tickets.

Thank you.

And then I know you mentioned the Snow Village tomorrow.

Looking forward to that.

I know that's my daughter's favorite event. They've been asking for a while now. So looking forward to being there and as always

If any council members want to come by and test it out we start taking the test runs around 3 30 What time about 3 30 before we open if you want to stop by is the snow there already not?

No, there tomorrow. I'll be there tomorrow. Yes, Santa's dropping it off tomorrow

Okay, and then I'm glad Santa's here Santa. I think you might have missed it but I know that you know everything but and And, but just wanted to ask, you know, we don't ask for much here, but, you know, just a pool would be nice. You can make that happen in a lot of your magic. Robert knows all the details and you guys can communicate. But I'm definitely putting it in my Santa list and I know that I have until Friday to turn it in.

So, thank you. Awesome. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you so much.

We have one item of old business, nuisance abatement at 795 West Garvey.

May we get a presentation, please?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, Assistant City Attorney Tim Campen will be giving this presentation.

Madam Mayor, City Council members, good evening.

This is a presentation on 795 West Garvey Avenue to provide an update on the abatement status of this property following the hearing we had on this matter on September 17 and to seek direction with regard to further abatement of the property.

You are all familiar with 795 West Garvey. I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A VERY, VERY QUICK RECAP TO BRING US BACK INTO THIS CASE AND THEN

GIVE YOU AN UPDATE AS TO WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE SEPTEMBER 17. THE CHAND FAMILY PURCHASED THE PROPERTY IN 2007 AND THEN PROCEEDED WITH EVENTUALLY proceeding with development, city issued building permits in mid-2017. Construction began later

that year and progressed pretty solidly through 2018 and 2019 and then began to slow down and

eventually stalled in 2021 effectively. That resulted in that first building permit that

was issued in 2017, expiring in 2022 due to inactivity. They got another building permit, which also expired due to inactivity in 2023, and the same thing happened with a third permit in 2024.

Also in March of 2024, we initiated a civil enforcement action to hopefully encourage voluntary compliance, and if not, to seek a court order to mandate compliance by the ownership to finish construction. As you know, this is a public nuisance flowing from maintaining a property in a state of partial construction for many years, resulting in blight, attractive nuisance, illicit runoff, and many other associated public nuisances. The filing of the lawsuit seemed to get things sort of moving, and they did get some plans approved, over the following year just about and we had a meeting on May 21st of this year at which time the purpose of which was to go over what needed to be done and what the expectations were from ownership because they kept saying we're going to finish construction we're getting ready to go we're gonna do it at that time on May 21st they said they would have crews working in earnest not not just on any one particular aspect, but all aspects of construction of the property within two weeks. There wasn't any construction for at least seven weeks, which did not begin until July, and that only included a partial installation of the LID or Low Impact Development System, which is an on-site stormwater capture system.

Hope Springs Eternal, and we were hoping that they would

actually follow through and conduct and complete construction in good faith in a timely manner.

And partially that was one of the reasons why we dismissed the

action around August 8th of this year.

I will note that the court in that action recognized that it

looked like they were proceeding just as the court asked them to and understood why the city dismissed the case at that time under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, it continued to stall after basically placing a water capture cistern as part of the lid system and doing some manual covering it up. That was it. Nothing else.

So we brought the matter back before this body on September 17th for a public nuisance determination, administrative hearing, and to seek that determination and an order of abatement, which the findings were made and the order was given following the hearing on September 17. On September 19, we obtained an abatement warrant for the purpose of completing construction. construction. I'd like to note at this point that at the September 17th hearing, the owner's general contractor testified that the cost of completing construction should be between 500,000 and 750,000, and specifically noting that 750,000 was at the high end. Our own and the city staff estimated completion to be upwards of $1 million, hopefully not that much. But of course, that estimate was based on what the conditions were known at the time. We did not have complete access to the property at that time. We were not able to conduct a full and thorough and complete assessment to know exactly what had been done, what needed to be done, and the city is not going to be done and whether any additional work needed to be done in light of the city remaining in a state of partial construction for so long.

Then around October 6 is when we took possession of the property and executed the warrant on September 29 and then began getting on the property, inspecting it, getting a contractor,

and we had a few other U.S. builders on the property who was prepared to mobilize very quickly

and get working right away. We did have a few issues, unfortunately. The family, the owners, the responsible parties, refused to release the remaining lid components that they had paid for and that were custom fabricated for this project. They can't be used anywhere else. But they refused to release them to the city, meaning the city would either have to to basically order new parts to be fabricated, which would take months. We did get a workaround on that through the courts, which has not been done for reasons that will be explained in a moment.

They also prevented access to the property from the surrounding parking lot area, which they also own as a separate parcel. But they directed the city not to use any of that area for any kind of staging or to even access the property and would not provide the ability to unlock access from those sides, only from the Atlantic side off the street. So because we do have a warrant, we cut the lock to allow us access. But this is just an example of the lack of cooperation from ownership and allowing us to move forward. We also, like I said, had U.S. builders out there to give an estimate for building the project, or completing the project, I should say.

And that's where we are at now.

To give you a sense of the property, it looks the same as it did last time we showed you pictures. There's been no change. and that's true except for completion of sidewalk improvements that were part of this project that we completed immediately after taking possession.

Now the part of the issues that we, and I'm going to go through some of these issues here, one of the main issues we discovered was the condition of the roof, which was in substantial disrepair.

The cost is going to be at least $170,000. It needs to be completely replaced with all kinds of work to be done to it, including as part of examining the roof. It was discovered that this was the reason for water intrusion during heavy rains and had resulted in what appears to be visible signs of mold. We do not know how bad the mold is. It requires a professional evaluation and then a remediation plan. It should be noted that regardless of what kind of abatement we do, whether it's finishing construction or demolition,

that the mold abatement has to be done. It cannot be demolished without the mold being removed because of we don't want it escaping into the air

and being a public health hazard. AQMD regulates this very heavily. And that takes time as well.

Next slide.

These are just some just pictures of the roof. A little hard to see, but this calls out some various issues.

Next slide.

And you can see how you have parts that are peeling,

parts that weren't even constructed at all properly. Next slide.

This is just shows you the workmanship. A roof should not deteriorate this quickly. And this roof was probably from 2019. So the roof is only about six years old and it should not be in this condition. It simply was not constructed to acceptable standards. A lot of aspects of it were not done not just to standards but not even to code, including aspects that are required for the mechanical, such as air conditioning units and so forth to be on the roof. Next slide. The exposure has resulted in decay of many parts of the roof, and we've had several different contractors and estimates, and the consensus is that the entire roof needs to be taken off and redone. I focus on this not just because of the extensive cost that was not anticipated back when we on September 17, but also as something of what is a warning, that if this is what we can see immediately, what do we not know about and what will we not find out about until we really get into construction, start digging, start trenching, installing utilities, grading.

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which would require more remediation, more work, before we can even start doing the actual completion

of construction as originally intended.

What you see in there is a combination of junk, debris,

material supplies that have been there probably for four or five years. Has not changed.

So the issues include mold remediation, roof replacement, the HVAC platforms on the roof need

to be completely rebuilt. The grease interceptor that's out in the parking lot area

was not installed correctly, has to be completely redone.

Electrical panel and wiring appears to be, need to be redone to meet code.

Portions of the fire sprinkler system need to be installed.

There's plumbing that has not been inspected, that needs to be inspected.

There are no fire alarm security system plans that need to be done and to be installed at some point.

There's also issues with the facade.

These are design improvements that need to be done as well,

like awnings and things of that as part of the design, approved design of it.

And again, we don't know what we don't know.

But if the pass is any prologue to completing construction, we can, we should expect additional issues.

Our engineer, who's our current project manager, John Turner, estimates that the exterior portion is approximately five, maybe six percent completed, effectively not done at all. And so you can see a list of here of things that need to be done. This is only a partial list, by the way, and it doesn't include a lot of the fine details of things that are connected to all these systems, such as light standards, landscaping, the construction of the building, the LID system, grease interceptors, connecting sewer and water, electrical, all of these things. Again, the structure itself requires a great deal of work. One of the contractors that we had evaluate and provide estimates, which I will be providing in just a moment, I think the other one who was in the comment, made the comments, it looks like they didn't know what they were doing when they built the place. It was just poor construction and workmanship. And so again, we don't know what we're going to be dealing with when we actually get in there if we're going to complete construction. Next slide.

U.S. Builders came back with about $1.8 million cost, very itemized cost.

We worked with them to see if there were ways to get that down. We got down to $1.66 million.

That obviously was a shock and a surprise to us.

And so we wanted to get some more estimates from other contractors.

We got two more informal estimates, estimates, all they're both saying at least 1.5 million.

And expectations are this could reach 2 million, could exceed it.

We just don't know what we don't know about the property.

Six months to complete is still the estimate.

In comparison to demolition costs, the actual demolition itself, which includes taking out

the concrete foundation, the slab, and basically getting it to dirt, the whole lot to dirt,

grading it, making it level, and so forth. It's estimated at about $150,000 and be about another $150,000 to bring the property into compliance with the city's vacant lot ordinance in section 4.30.060, which requires fencing, ground cover, weed abatement, landscaping. It's supposed to have irrigation. I don't believe this covers actual irrigation for landscaping.

And that process would take four to six weeks to complete, factoring in possibly longer, depending on what the mold remediation requires. Mold remediation, the inspection of mold remediation could take weeks in itself, maybe even longer, depending on how extensive it is, but it doesn't look too bad based on initial observations.

Finally, if the Council were to direct staff to pursue demolition in lieu of completing construction, it should be noted that we would have to go back to the court and ask for the abatement warrant to be amended to allow for this type of abatement rather than completion of construction.

And that is going to be up to the judge. We don't know what the judge will say about that. Normally, I can provide a bit of confidence as to what I think a judge would do in a case,

based on my experience of getting quite a number of abatement warrants. In this case, it's more difficult, and I would be very hesitant to give my prediction on what the court might do on this case. it would be more difficult than most abatements because the property at least has the appearance of being almost complete, which it isn't, and that when it is in this state, the idea

of demolishing it could be a difficult sell for the judge.

I think on balance it's a better than 50% chance we would get it, but I wouldn't go

much further than that. Next slide. So you're presented essentially with three options here. Complete construction as we have been planned, understanding what the new budget considerations are,

demolition with vacant lot compliance. Of course, that would be contingent on approval by the court

or abandon the abatement process altogether, return it to ownership, and hope for the best.

Other considerations should be that the rainy season is approaching.

So we're going to have to act fairly quickly, especially if construction, if completion of

construction is the goal, we have to get on that roof and get that roof repaired ASAP

to try to mitigate the effect that any heavy rains coming this month would propose.

Next slide, please.

So I just want to also finish up by saying I think there's some question as to what is the value of the property. We did run a supplemental title report. It just hasn't been completed yet.

We ran a title report also known as litigation guarantee prior to filing our civil enforcement action, which showed that the owners were all of different percentages among the Chan family, but there were no real loans or encumbrances on the property.

It was owned free and clear.

It is unlikely since early 2024 when we had that initial title report run that any additional

encumbrances have been placed on the property, primarily because there's issues with title.

Without getting into too many details about it, the nature of recording ownership and

whether it's owned by a trust or an estate based on the deceased parents and so forth is being cured at this point. And because of that issue, it's unlikely that anyone would be able to get any kind of loan or use the property to secure any kind of loan. So I think it's unlikely that there are any encumbrances with the property at this point,

aside from any kind of property taxes that maybe need to be paid. But there's no indication that there are unpaid property taxes and so forth.

As far as the value of the property goes, it was purchased in 2007 reportedly for $3 million.

It is unlikely that it's gone down in value since then. Looking, we have not had a professional evaluation done for the value of the property both as an empty lot or if construction would be completed,

but comparable properties should be safe to say the property,

if completed, would be worth between $4 and $5 million. If it's reduced to a lot, it certainly shouldn't be worth less than $3 million. But again, we have not had a professional evaluation done. But that's just based on the information that we will be able to gather for your information. With that said, I'm available for any questions you may have regarding the status of this

property and the abatement options.

Madam Mayor, members of the Council, if I could just tag-team on those comments. I know there has been in the past discussion both in public and otherwise about interest from certain companies in this particular property. In particular, seven leaves has been often thrown around as a talking point. Recall that this is a nuisance abatement action. In essence, it is a law enforcement action to bring a property to compliance. The city attorney's office certainly is not in the business of negotiating contracts on behalf of private property owners. And so we have had no contact in that regard with regard to seven leaves. And certainly we have not invited seven leaves to be onto the property. We have no idea whether that particular business or a different business might be interested the property and that's not within the scope of our authority to to absolutely negotiate or or even approach anyone that would be interested in it our sole mission is to make sure that the property comes into compliance with the applicable provisions of the municipal code and follow the direction from the city council in that regard i would encourage you not to be talking about other businesses and what have you because that's really not what we're here to discuss it's not part of the overall nuisance abatement. That is a private matter between property owner and whatever business might be interested in that particular property. Again, Tim and I are here to happy to answer any questions. Yes, any questions? Yeah, I'm going to start. Tim, how much has been

spent to date on this? It's been almost two months now. I know when we took over the property, we had to do some work the fencing something how much has been spent to

date the the primary expense as far as construction goes was in completing the

the sidewalk and public works director I think can address those issues good

evening mayor mayor pro temp city council shanning up a work director we spent about $40,000 on the concrete work that was needed to get the sidewalk back into compliance so anything beyond that would have been some of the inspections and things like that, but about $40,000 thus far.

And we, I mean, I remember when the contractor was out there saying that it costs,

I asked him twice, actually maybe three times,

he confirmed that it was less than half a million to finish. So that number versus the number we have, and I'm going to trust our number because we have three different quotes here.

we didn't know about the extent of it looks like the roof leaks the other issues with the infrastructure the building to me that's also non-compliance within the building code meaning did our inspector go out there and inspect the property did they build it to a point where they say hey we've built it here and now get the inspection before they proceed?

Councilman Renaud, thank you for the question. So if I'm understanding your question you may be looking at that roof and say how did that roof ever get approved if it was built so poorly? Correct. And a lot of these conditions by looking at it you can't exactly tell whether they use the right kind of adhesives and so forth you know under under these tar roofs and whether it's certain materials were underneath and you also recall that the first permit expired due to inactivity so a lot of these things were in progress and we're getting intermittent inspections but didn't get final inspections for them them. And so that's what we're running into a lot of this. They've got inspections for roughing in the plumbing, for example. But we also noticed there appears to be some plumbing that was done after that inspection where there are cut marks in the slab where some it appears to be the tenant improvements by seven leaves did that in their portion to start installing some plumbing. That's about all they've done is some piping underneath the slabs that just hasn't gotten to inspection yet. And so they had a permit, they did the work, it just hadn't been inspected. And so there's aspects that just have been done, they just haven't gotten to the point of inspection. It's

the lack of calling for inspection that tells the city that they're not doing work that caused the permits to expire. It's by calling inspections that keeps

the permit active. So it sounds like there's been deterioration because that project has been standing and it looked like that shell has been in place for four or five years and that probably contributed to the deterioration of the property. And we're kind of left with three options, right?

One is to give it back, which defeats the purpose of calling this an abatement warrant

as a nuisance, two is to knock it down and demo it to lat form which is probably the original purpose of why we, well, not quite, but the original purpose was to get it finished. But get it finished within a reasonable

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helping them out when they needed it kind of thing and advise on occasion when they asked for it.

That contract was not a real construction contract. It was very vague. It did, it had general ideas of

what needed to be done, but it did not have a construction schedule. It did not have a budget.

It didn't call out any, um, nothing was itemized, let alone itemized for cost, like we got from, um, U.S. Builders, which is a very itemized list to understand what the costs are.

So, um, I don't know where that estimate came from, um, but it does not appear that it was made through the same kind of considered, uh, inspection and thoughtfulness that, uh,

our contractors we've consulted have done.

And if I may add, we did reach out to the contractor. The original thought was, well, if this individual can do it for $500,000 within four to six months, fine. The city will contract with that contractor and have it done exactly the way that was described. I think, perhaps I'm paraphrasing, and Mr. Igo can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the response was, hell no, I'm not doing that.

So I mean, I'm of the position that we're the city.

We don't own properties that don't belong to us. We did this for a reason, and that was because it was a nuisance. It was sitting there, it was an eyesore. We got many emails from the community. We listened to the community. That's why we took action and we did this abatement warrant. and to spend another 1.6 million and I'm going to guess by the time we finish it may be closer to 2 million. To me that's throwing good money after bad at this point and who knows after you finish it again we don't own the property we don't we can't force the owner to lease it or to rent it or to sell it because that's not in a position all we have is a lien on the property. I'm of the opinion that perhaps we can just spend 150k or close to the 300k just get it back in shell position and say we've got a lean on this it was an eyesore we took care of the problem it's back and if you want to build something if you want to sell sell it to someone leases one you start over with the construction and we're back again looking at the contracts looking at the construction timeline and the project timeline so that you are consistent to build something within the permitting process of either six months or a year that

that's that's my opinion on this is that sound reasonable mr. mayor our madam

mayor members of the council that's what we're here to ask you well you just heard

my opinion then yeah I'll let my other council members kind of chime in here

Mayor. I'll just thank you mayor. It's echo many of the same concerns that Councilman Rago mentioned around this project there there are no easy good options here right away I don't I don't like being in this position I don't want to be in this position did not want to get here I think we made every effort to encourage nicely and after being very very nice continue to give additional time to the property owner to abate this nuisance and to finish the projects that they had proposed

and they wanted to build.

And it has sat for years, and they forced our hand as the nuisance became worse and worse. And once we got in there, right, it's clear from the pictures you're showing here and the staff reports that it was in even worse shape than we knew of and expected going in and that we could tell from the outside that anyone could tell even their own contractor could tell from the outside and so my approach to this I think similar to Councilman goes is to approach this in my philosophy I think is not I think it is to reduce the risk as much risk as we can for the city and for the city's taxpayers on this as we all agree I think we all agree need to abate the nuisance that exists here and the options that are before us are you to complete the building which is going to cost at least twice what the project or the property owners own consultant and their contractor said it was going to cost at least that much right it looks like it might even be more because we don't know what's there or to demolish this so that it isn't a nuisance in into to reduce that risk and I'm leaning towards demolition option here because that that's what abates the nuisance that exists there the least cost from what I can see unless someone else unless I'm reading this understanding this wrong with the least cost to the city and taxpayers and the least risk to us in terms of the timeline and the impact and potential other issues happening as the rainy season isn't coming it's already here we had more rainfall in the last few weeks than we traditionally have and very clear what the damage was from this damaged roof already with water there and so can only imagine letting this sit longer if we're gonna build it finding other issues there's just too much risk in my mind to as council for goes saying to put good money after bad and this property or also has proven over right the record and over the last few years that they are not a responsible property owner and I worry that if we put money we put taxpayer city money park taxpayer money into finishing this product this building that and we hand it over to an irresponsible property owner that what happens then and I'm not confident that I'm gonna trust this property owner to operate that building or to find tenants responsibly and to get to a point where the development is actually generating revenue and doing well and adding a benefit to the community and so very much lean towards the option here which is I don't want to be in anyway and not would really would rather be a place where we're working with a responsible owner completing this project on their own and getting it to a point where it's actually serving this community in the neighborhood but that's not what we have that's clear from the record and clear from what we've seen from the inspection and from the quotes that we're getting for construction to complete this project which are showing everything that continue add to the record that this property owner has been unfortunately irresponsible and still is not coming to the table to cooperate when all we want to do from the city's respect is to abate this nuisance and to make sure that this lot is at a place that doesn't isn't detrimental to the neighborhood and to the community so leaning towards that I'll leave it to the other council members weigh in as

well thank you Tim for the presentation can we go back to the timeline I really appreciate the timeline because I think it's important for the public to know just how long we've been working with the chance to try to make this property

I think it says right there it's 5,200 square feet.

So I appreciate the timeline in terms of making, showing the public just how long we've been working or trying to work with them, right, in terms of making this building possible. And I know for the public it's kind of hard to understand sometimes just, you know, why we just can't construct something there or finish the construction. And I think for a period of time, you know, when the banner went up and it said for real this time, I think we were really anticipating it for it to be for real. And now we're considering options in terms of demolition, including demolition. I also wanted to go back, if we could go back to where the roof is. I mean, something that I'm really having trouble understanding is this is a completely new building.

Is this correct?

I mean, it hasn't been used. But it just looks so dilapidated. Like it's been around for a long time and not. And so to me, aside from all of the, I mean, look at that.

It's hard for me to understand that the owner was in good faith trying to complete this building to try to ensure that the tenant who was supposed to come here was ready to, you know, to do business here. And so I'm glad that we're showing these images to the public so they understand that this is a tough decision for the council to make. And we've done our due diligence in terms of ensuring that we are working with the owners to try to make this building come to fruition. And unfortunately, it's just been, we just haven't been able to do that. So thank you for your work in terms of doing that. I'm also in agreement with my council colleagues, Council Member Ngo and Council Member Wong, in terms of finding the cheaper alternative for the city in terms of ensuring that we abate the warrant, but also to ensure that we're not spending as much money, city money and taxpayer money, to try to complete this project. So I'm also in agreement in terms of moving forward with this with complete demolition.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a question for staff. If this council decides to move

forward with, say, the option of a demolition, is it possible to also then put signage to

inform the public for the reason? Like, in other words, this building is being condemned. And the reason why I say it is because, look, I mean, when I was elected in 2020, that building was already a show, and it has been five years. I am in my second term now, and we are still

discussing this building.

And as my colleagues said, residents come up to us and say, you know, why is that shell still there? This is a prime location.

And again, we have before us on record that we have tried in good faith to work with that developer. And so I guess my question is, if we were to go the option of a demolition, I would like to see it permissible to have some type of signage so the public know it's being condemned because of nuisance abatement issues.

Council Member Lo, thank you for your question. As long as we have possession of the property, there's no reason why we couldn't do that.

And I'm saying if we are going to do it, because you know, people are going to ask why after five years you're not turning it down, and I think we need to let the public know it is because of that, because of the nuisance, the mess, the little pile of mess they've created at the corner of Garvey and Atlantic.

Madam Mayor, if I may, I believe we can post, I think maybe putting some information on the city's webpage.

Yes.

And then the signage that we post, because as you know, it might be difficult to maintain signage out there, especially if it's like temporary. But we might be able to post something that has a QR code link about information,

about what's happening with this property. that way it links back to the web.

If it's temporary, I want it to be a large sign.

Understood. Yes. Yes, understood.

And can we even point to, like, and it's the people who own that market, you know, can we also say the owner of...

I mean, hey, let's shame them. Let's publicly shame them, you know.

Madam Mayor, members of the council, we'll certainly put together a sign that is legally appropriate.

Absolutely.

Tim, thank you for the presentation. I have a question about the timing. If you go to that slide where you're talking about the upcoming rang, if we go forward with the demolition,

the one with the court order,

where a court order is needed for demolition,

and where is it?

This one.

What would be the timing if we have to get court order for a demolition given the upcoming reigns you mentioned.

Madam Mayor, thank you for the question. So there's a different issue with completing construction and demolition. If we're going to complete construction, we need to get on the roof right away to mitigate further water intrusion and water damage to the structure. The rest of the parcel is undeveloped. And so that's why you have sandbags around the perimeter to try to stop some of that water that invariably runs off from the larger parking lot because of the slope into that area, which is why we had the water capture system and so forth. So that issue of sort of containing the illicit discharge from that property onto the streets and storm drains is essentially taken care of already. So if we're going to demolish, the timing is not as critical with regard to the rain, except for the to the extent that the there may be the need for mold mitigation the mold has to be removed before the building can be destroyed and taken down and raised so I I think we could it all depends on how bad the mold is this could be a matter of a week or two it could be a matter of a month or more depending on the degree of mold and how much remediation needs to be done to get it out of the structure. So to answer your question, I think it's less of an issue, less of a concern if we're going with demolition.

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it.

But it sounds like my colleagues are all in favor of demolishing it. So if that's the case, I'll probably align. Does anyone want to make a motion?

Well, I'll make a motion to basically proceed with the demolition of the structure, which

also requires us to get an expanded abatement warrant from the court. So I'll make that motion.

I'm having a second.

I'm just curious.

So we would have to go to the court for permission, right, for this specific action if we're going to demolish. How long would that take, and when might that come back? Would that need to come back to the council in any way, shape, or form?

Council Member Wong, I think the city attorney's office is advising

that if your direction is to proceed with demolition,

then we could go in no later than the end of next week.

Sometime next week, we will go in and request the warrant. We already have an abatement warrant.

I'm going to frame it more as amending the warrant

for a different type of abatement of the same nuisance.

And if that is granted, then we proceed. If it is denied, then we would come back before council to seek further direction.

understood and then I think to the mayor's concern to write how for my and the public's knowledge to write how what are the mechanisms for us to recover our costs whatever they are on this this potential project and how would that

work so regardless of whether it's a demolition or completing construction upon completion of the city's abatement action will send a demand for the full abatement related costs which includes not only our hard costs but also staff time attorney fees and so forth so we will submit that demand to ownership they will have a certain amount of time to pay that in full if they refuse or deny to pay that in full then we can proceed with bringing a resolution before a council to seek a lien an abatement lien and collection against that lien by special assessment essentially property taxes if there's a lack of payment of those assessments for commercial property I believe it's three years we can move for foreclosure of the property

understood thanks if you go before a court and they deny the demolition

request are you able to come back before the next council meeting for a new

decision which is December 17 I believe I believe we can definitely do that yeah

because if it gets denied and we do need to reconstruct then the reins will be a

big concern all right so councilmember go made a motion

Councilmember Wong second let's make a vote

No, we already have public comment for the agenda the next public comment will be for the consent calendar

Did it go through? Did the vote go through? Please.

Okay, clear the board. Please vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you.

Now we have the consent calendar, so we'll open up the public communications. First speaker is Yellow Lives Matter.

All right. Happy Thanksgiving. I thought that I was kidnapped right here for like three hours. I thought I could hear some amazing update, but I heard like non-stop two hours of BS. So let's start with item number nine. Let's go by one by one. Item number 9G, specifically 9G,

it is talking about human rights, okay? Let's talk about what is human rights. I believe that petition to the government, it is a human right. Right to petition, it is guaranteed by the First Amendment in the Constitution.

And then what I heard, one of our mayors said,

No hateful speech is acceptable right here.

And then the mayor is very polite in her language, very professional.

But however, her behavior destroyed thousands of thousands of lives.

People who want to swim, kids want to swim, they no longer have the opportunity to do that.

So if you ask me do I want a polite professional mayor who always use the beautiful words But destroy the lives of thousands of thousands of residents in their recreation Activities or do I want a mayor who gave me a profanity all day long But actually who actually care about the community and then give the community a swimming pool

They deserve not a nonsense data center that data center that nobody likes in this building

And then I would choose a big dirty mouth mayor because that mayor cares about community just have a dirty mouth

So our mayor unfortunately is the opposite always using

Professional language, but her behavior contradict every single word she made during her campaign

second let's talk about the human rights. I believe that First Amendment is a human rights, the right to

free speech, because the reason why that I'm not able to do that in North Korea, in Russia, in any other communist country, is because we do not have such thing as a First Amendment, as a freedom of speech. We don't have such human rights. But our Council Member Rong just said, thank you so much for your comments. Thank you so much for being right here tonight. That's what a council member wrong said But at the same time council member wrong also made the motion Let's cut all of the public comment in the consent calendar to five minutes So council member wrong is saying that thank you so much for our comments

I want to hear from you, but you know what hey no more than five minutes no more

So this is a contradictory

Council member in the best display right here So I am a professional communist because I do not speak with your capitalist political filter

I say what I think I say what I thought so I do not play with our political filter languages like your mayor

Her language is so beautiful that no one understand and no one believes her

Continue that I believe that boss services is also actually you know what not the bus We got a library right here. Library.

Right to toilet is a human right, if you ask me. Today, 5.40, I was waiting for the council meeting to begin. At 5.40, I was at the library. And I said, I need to use the toilet.

And then the library told me that, hey, you know what?

The last 20 minutes during the library hour, all toilet closed. And then I asked the library, I said, I'm on my period. I need to change my pad.

So what what can I do now and then can I shit in my pants and then the library told me that I

Cannot control what you do, but if you do decided to shit in your pants We will call 911 and get you arrested So I want to ask our council member if your daughter needs to change her pad in the library and then right now is 540 20 minutes before the library closed tell me tell me you tell me this is humane This is you under your city under your department under your leadership and you call this is humane

Tell me I really want you to tell me and then at the last minutes I don't know I think I don't have enough time for the bus services bus services

Nobody understand the bus better than me nobody we continue to have those bus corridor project manager who talking about bus services

But nobody ride the bus every single day I spend three hours on the bus average daily. And then what she said, I disagree literally every single word, every single sentences.

The only thing I can do is come back another time, another day for the bus services because I took a comprehensive vote, comprehensive notes for this.

But thanks to our mayor and the council member wrong, I have to come back, wait for another month, come back to talk about the bus.

Next speaker on the consent agenda is Kash Patel.

So, look at here. Local emergency. We went through a bullshit filibuster with Tim and this fucking attorney service and fucking five assholes that don't see that there's an eyesore in the community. Just tear the fucking shit down and wait till you get paid. Yeah, shut the fuck up back there.

That's all you have to say. Be proud, just say shut the fuck up.

No one's talking shit. Excuse me, we'll have-

I'm here at the podium and some asshole keeps talking behind my back like that.

Why is that? That's political violence, you know that?

That's fucking political violence, if you tell me. If you look at your item 9G, it says human rights. What's my fucking right if you don't protect me when I'm speaking up here? And you don't pause my time.

You don't tell the public in the back that they can come up here and say what they want or what they believe.

So why do you allow this shit? Well, Henry, thank you for interfering with that person back there.

You know, I don't have to look back to see what kind of asshole's behind me trying to cheer on his fucking cheerleading pride shit. I don't give a fuck. I'm here to talk about my opinions, and my opinions matter.

So going back to that shithole building over there,

taxpayers don't want to pay for it. They get nothing out of it. Nothing. Not one goddamn thing other than a bill.

And had the goddamn inspectors would have inspected each permit from the time it starts to the time it ends before issuing another permit,

you wouldn't have this fucking problem. And besides that, that roof, it needs metal capping on it. It doesn't have any metal capping. I'm not even a roofer. But you need metal capping on it. Flashing doesn't have it. So that's going to be an extra cost. Put that on the record. Now let me go back to local emergency.

That was my point. If that's a local emergency, it should be handled. Because if someone steps into that property, you're liable. Because now you've taken action.

Stay the fuck out of it. Get Mr. Chan and Greenleaf Tea or whoever they are. Take responsibility.

If not, send Tim, send Burger up there to the courts and the man, the judge, that this is nonsense. The public, I'm here representing the public right at this podium. And I say tear it down. Stop wasting taxpayers' dollars. But going back to 9G now, human rights months.

Well, Mommy Mayor there, Mommy Mayor made a comment about my last public comment,

which was non-agenda, making reference to my impermissible prior restraints that my language, my vulgar, my venom

was an insult. To who? I'm speaking to all of you.

Those are my thoughts. Those are my feelings.

More so, they're my beliefs constitutionally. I have a First Amendment. I don't come in here speaking shit about violence. I'm not the asshole immigrant throwing Molotov cocktails at a federal building because you hate ice. Because some fucking bitch from Cudahy and this bitch from El Monte who have gang members backing their ass up.

You don't see me doing that. I don't need a gang. I'm a one-man killing machine mentally. Mentally. Clinically. Physically. So in the future, keep the political violence down. Tone it down. Don't let these motherfuckers come in here and disrupt our meeting. Now if you want to disrupt it, stand here at the podium and present your argument.

Set your debate. Set your opinion. You have that right.

But when you're back there being an asshole, shut the fuck up for the record. That's my opinion. And so Mommy Mayor, with all gratitude and understanding, reach out to that broad Hilda Solis. She represents this area.

Ask her for money. Ask her for money to deal with the shit you guys can't deal with because your budget doesn't meet the criteria of what the taxpayers are.

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I'll move consent.

All right. We're going to move from Council Member Wong.

I'll second.

Second from Council Member Sanchez. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you.

Item 10A.

Let's have a presentation on the consideration and possible action to conduct a public hearing to read by title only, further reading and adopt an ordinance amending title 16 and 17 of the Monterey

Park Municipal Code. Good evening Madam Mayor, Honorable Counsel. Tonight's agenda

item is the second reading in the public hearing of an ordinance to amend titles 16 and 17 of the city's Municipal Code to adopt by reference the 2025 California building standards codes. This is a process that cities typically handle every three years. This item was introduced for first reading on November 15th and a second reading and a public hearing scheduled for tonight. Our building official is here with me, Dennis Tarango. He's here this evening to offer further details regarding the code adoption ordinance.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. The California Building Standards Commission updates the statewide construction codes every three years these updates are

intended to improve safety sustainability and the overall performance of all buildings throughout the state local jurisdictions may amend these state

codes with supporting factors however recent legislation places a moratorium on residential code changes preventing cities from adopting standards that exceed the state standard except for very limited conditions. Given these factors staff is recommending that City Council adopt the 2025 California building standards codes along with very specific city amendments necessary to protect the health safety and welfare of our community. We respectfully request that the council conduct the public hearing, read by title only, waiving the further reading of the ordinance and adopt the ordinance. I would be happy to answer any questions.

All right thank you so much for the presentation. We'll open the public

hearing. Okay we had one speaker, Kash Patel, but I believe he left. So any other

speakers on this item all right then we'll go ahead and close the public

hearing any questions for staff thanks madam mayor quick question for staff one

I appreciate the staff report and work that goes into this just for my edification and clarification this is just adopting essentially the state's mandates for we're not doing anything above and beyond what the state's mandates are being passed

down for billing codes exactly are we do have amendments but they're administrative amendments

basically how we use the code what requires permits how we charge for permitting the actual technical standards we're adopting the state thank you I'll make a motion to adopt to all right

Council member Wong makes a motion. Mayor Pro Tem seconds. Let's make a vote

Approved unanimously. Thank you

And item 10b has already been moved to January

So that concludes our public hearing for this evening any new business None. All right, then city communications

All right, I'll start I'm glad to be back I took the last council meeting off and you know when I came back today, I was surprised that everybody missed me so much they show up today all amass, but I'm glad we kind of went through the meeting today and just want to say Thanksgiving is now behind us how quickly it goes and Christmas carts are en route. So thank you Santa for making your trip to in my park two times in two days and I'm sure we'll see him again a couple of other times when we have our snow village this later this week and also the Santa ride so what I wish everyone a early Christmas and happy holidays to

everyone I'll just say I missed councilman Rigo immensely so appreciate that he's back with us but I'll echo that and we have another meeting before Christmas so we'll save that for for a few weeks from now but really appreciate staff and just expressing post Thanksgiving appreciation to everyone on the city team that's been really hard at work keeping everything running so thank

you yeah I think we've been lucky the last two days to have Santa and I think

he's coming tomorrow too right very blessed hopefully he is able to find us some monies to be able to build the pool. But I did wanna say the tree lighting ceremony that many of us attended yesterday at Atlantic Times Square was really well attended, very nice. I love the collaboration between the city and the business. I think that worked out well. I'd love to see a lot more of that happening in the city. Love to see it happen at Atlantic Square in South Atlantic Square.

so the

to them and to Byron the ball's in your court now so to make something like that happen on that end

but wanted to also

looking forward to Snow Village tomorrow

very good

and then right before or during for me it's Thanksgiving it was Thanksgiving break but I know that Councilmember

Wong and I had an opportunity

to meet with the delegation from

help me out here I'm a better blank.

The Bayin District.

Yeah, the Bayin District, yes. And I had an opportunity to look them up. They had an amazing video about their city. Got to learn a lot about what is manufactured there, their city, a huge shipping city, right? So we had an opportunity to meet with them. And they presented us, well, I think we should have brought it down with a gift for us. so maybe we can display it somewhere in our city.