City Council Meeting_ Mar 18_ 2026

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All right, good evening, everyone. Let's call tonight's meeting to order. We'll start with our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tovangaar, the home of the Gabrielino-Tongva  people. We show our respect to the Gabrielino-Tongva  people, as well as all indigenous people past, present, and future, and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabrielino-Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history, and join us in caring for this land. Now we would like to welcome the Monterey Park Police Explorers to do our flag salute. Please rise.

Thank you.

Upward face.

Present colors.

Order.

Please put your right hand over your heart and repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Order colors.

Outward face. Hold.

Thank you. You may be seated.

Madam Clerk, may we get a roll call, please? Council Member Ngo.

Present.

Council Member Wong.

Present.

Council Member Sanchez. Mayor Pro Tem Lo.

Here.

Mayor Yang. Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Any agenda revisions and or additions?

Yes, Madam Mayor. We'd like to add a presentation item to the agenda tonight, item 8A. and this is for recognition of Youth of the Year from the Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley for Nathaniel Hernandez.

Thank you. All right, any public communications?

And Madam Mayor, if I could request the Youth of the Year presentation made before staff communication and after public communication.

Oh, okay. So we'll move item 8 after public communications. No problem.

I request to move up 12A. Okay, yeah, we can move up 12A. So we'll do public communications, eight, presentation for Nathaniel Hernandez, 12A, and then seven, staff communications, and then moving forward. All right, so first public speaker tonight is Robert Ogawa Monroe.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager and City Clerk. My name is Robert. Monroe and I'm speaking I'm representing SGV pub first I'd like to begin by expressing gratitude to Cindy Yee For more than 40 years, she's been a beacon of concern and hope on numerous community issues. She was instrumental in quickly raising awareness of the fate of the Barnes Park Pool, and as she has many times before, she raised her voice alongside others, planting the seeds that became the San Gabriel Valley Power Up Beacon SGV Pub. as a 501c3 nonprofit. At the onset, SUV Pub consisted of leaders and volunteers with backgrounds in booster clubs and PTSAs. However, like many startup organizations, roles and responsibilities were unclear, creating tension when real work needed to be done. In the lead-up to the October swim event, the Rose Bowl, there were difficulties securing commitments. Margaret Lung brought corporate project management experience from Fortune 500 level firms and recognized the early signs of failure as some approached the event with a parent club mindset rather than a results-driven approach. I've read the emails. There were inappropriate remarks between members and not all directed at Margaret. That created unnecessary discord, including from the very founder who will help seed SUV Pub. As you know, coming up, SGV Pub has generated excitement for our upcoming March 28th award event featuring five-time Olympic medalist John Naber, and we're welcoming everyone to attend. It's going to be a fantastic event. However, I must say, behind the scenes, organizational issues persisted. records collected by the Parents Club lack proper age categories grouping 5-year-olds with 17-year-olds. Again, Margaret sent a professional request for assistance. I've read those emails as well. Unfortunately, the same individual responded inappropriately withdrew themselves from SGV Pub leadership communication and the resulting discord caused key SWIM community members those who could have helped resolve these issues to step back. This is unfortunate. However, as one of our well-respected youth coaches has noted, with those departures, there's renewed optimism.

Moving on to city transparency. Congratulations on the RPSOSD awards. That's fantastic news. And we have an account to put it in, right? The public should also know that SGVPub had identified and prepared for the same grant. LA County encouraged SGVPub to proceed with submission for the same program, with the understanding that the city can build the house and SGVPub can build the garage. However, the city did not complete the paperwork, a memo of understanding, with SGVPub. without a formal MOU from the city, we were disqualified. Our community, and especially our children, are being shortchanged by this lack of action. We recognize that the city owns the project, and there's also no reason that an MOU must be exclusive to a single organization. If multiple community groups organize and form legitimate 501c3 entities, the city should welcome that support without divisive politics. City council and staff actions should not be obstructive or favor certain groups. It should also discourage defamatory comments and petty politics. Recently, we've witnessed defamatory statements directed at Margaret and SGV Pub on Facebook by a Monterey Park planning commissioner while promoting their own non-profit supporting the pool. I was shocked. I was even more shocked when the city seemed to do nothing when it was brought to their attention. This is wrong. City representatives, even when acting as individuals, should stop being this divisive. The city and the community do not benefit from favoritism or petty politics. We all lose, including the next generation. Thank you for your time, and save the pool by voting for option B.

Thank you, Robert. Next speaker is Sharon Wu.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Sharon Wu. I am the president of the Mark Keppel High School Alliance. The Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Markepo High School through teacher grants, student scholarships, and campus improvements that enhance educational and developmental opportunities for our students. We strongly support the rebuilding of the Olympic-sized swimming pool at Barnes Park. For decades, Barnes Park Pool has been an essential training and competition site for Mark Keppel High School's aquatics programs. Its Olympic dimensions provided our student-athletes the ability to train competitively and safely. a resource that no longer exists within our city. Mark Keppel High School has one of the most accomplished aquatics programs in the region, with 81 All-Month League titles and nine CIF championships, a total of 90 competitive championships earned by our swimmers and divers over the years. These achievements reflect a level of commitment and excellence that requires proper facilities, including access to a regulation-sized 50-meter pool. Restoring an Olympic-sized pool at Barnes Park will also support our students' college pathways. Swimming and diving provide measurable time-based performance metrics that significantly strengthen college applications. Recruited student athletes, especially in aquatics, consistently receive higher acceptance rates at competitive universities, including the UC system, private institutions, and even Ivy League schools. Ensuring that our students have a regulation training environment directly contributes to their academic and athletic success beyond high school. Most Mark Keppel students and their families reside in Monterey Park. Our swimmers, divers, water polo players, and the broader Keppel community care deeply about the well-being and opportunities available to both current and future generations. Rebuilding the Olympic-sized pool at Barnes Park is not only a restoration of a historic community resource, it is an investment in youth development, college access, and the long-term success of our students. For these reasons, the Mark Keppel High School Alliance strongly supports the rebuilding of the Barnes Park Olympic-sized swimming pool and urges all decision makers and funding agency to prioritize this critical project. Thank you.

Thank you, Sharon. Next speaker is Dawn Rock.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, dedicated staff. My name is Dawn Rock, and on behalf of the Monterey Park Historical Society, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Mayor Yang, Councilmember Goh, and Assistant City Manager Diana Garcia for joining us at the Laura Scudder 100th anniversary celebration. Your presence truly meant a great deal to us and to the community. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to our city manager, Inez Alvarez, for her care and thoughtfulness in restoring the beautiful Laura Scudder plaque and making it available for presentation to her grandson, John Scudder. He was truly touched by the outpouring of warmth, admiration, and community spirit. As part of the celebration and a token of appreciation from John, each attendee received a jar of Laura Scudder peanut butter, a small but meaningful way to honor her legacy. If you missed the event, there will be another opportunity to receive one of these special treats. We will be hosting a booth at the Cherry Blossom Festival on April 11th and 12th and would love for you to stop by. for every new or renewed museum membership we'll be giving away a complimentary jar of Laura's Gutter peanut butter thank you again for your continued support and we hope to see you at the festival now congratulations are in order for Robert Aguirre and his recreation and community service team for being awarded a million dollars from the regional park and open spaces grant and now Robert, let me share with you how to spend it. With the pool design on the agenda, as the Mark Keppel PTSA president, the parents, staff, and students wanted me to share a letter that I had written, which I will send to all of you electronically, to whom it may concern. The Mark Keppel High School PTSA strongly and wholeheartedly support the rebuilding of the Barnes Park Pool as a regulation Olympic-sized facility. Mark Keppel High School's swim program is among the most respected in the region. This level of commitment is not accidental. It is built on consistency, dedication, and most importantly, access to a regulation Olympic-sized pool. Without it, sustaining this legacy of excellence becomes increasingly difficult. Rebuilding Barnes Park Pool as an Olympic-sized facility is not simply a preference, it's a necessity. There are three key reasons why a 50-meter pool better serves our students and the broader community than a standard 25-yard pool. First, an Olympic-sized pool allows high school and club athletes to train and compete under regulation conditions. Consistent access to a 50-meter pool strengthens performance, prepares students for elite competition, and expands collegiate recruitment and scholarship opportunities. Advantages a 25-yard pool cannot fully provide. Second, an Olympic-sized pool serves more people more efficiently. Through flexible lane configurations, the pool can support multiple activities at the same time. Lap swimming, swim lessons, team practices, and recreational use, welcoming beginners, seniors, competitive athletes, and families simultaneously. This makes it a truly inclusive, multi-generational community resource. Finally, a 50-meter pool is a smart long-term investment for the city. It positions Monterey Park to host long course as well as short course swim meets, water polo tournaments, and regional events that bring families and economic activity into the community year-round. With the 2028 Summer Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles, our community stands at a defining moment. While the rebuilding of the pool will not be completed, young residents will be inspired by what is possible, while long-term residents will feel that same pride and renewed excitement from the 1984 Summer Games of the past. Long after the Olympic flame is extinguished, Monterey Park will stand proud, knowing it invested in a lasting legacy of opportunity, excellence, and shared civic pride for generations to come. We, the Mark Keppel High School PTSA, respectfully urge all decision makers and funding agencies to prioritize the essential asset and move forward to rebuilding an Olympic-sized pool at Barnes Park, a true investment in our youth, our families, and the long-term well-being of the Monterey Park community. With gratitude and sincerity, Dawn Rock, Mark Keppel High School, President of PTSA 2025-26. Thank you.

Thank you, Dawn. Next speaker is Margaret Leung.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, Council members, and City staff. My name is Margaret Leung, and I am a board member of the Friends of the Senior Foundation. I'm honored to be briefly introduce myself and share an update on the work we are doing to strengthen long-term support for our senior community. Over the past several months, our board has taken important steps to build a more sustainable financial foundation for the organization. We have engaged with an environment.

the landing center manager to establish a formal grant application and review process. And this allows us to prioritize requests, allocate resources thoughtfully, and ensure the alignment with community needs. Together, these efforts reflect our commitment to accountability, transparency, and long-term impact. So that would be the Friends of Senior Foundation. I'm sure that we're going to have more discussion on that with City Manager and Robert Aguirre. And also, I would like to take this opportunity to invite the community to a special upcoming event. On Saturday, March 28, we will be hosting the Save Barnes Park Pool Community Award event. This event will recognize the swimmers and volunteers and community members who supported the effort to restore Barnes Park Pool. We are especially honored to have Olympian John Neber joining us as our keynote speaker. This is truly a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from one of America's greatest Olympic champions. We are also grateful that Mayor Elizabeth Yang will be attending along with former Mayor Lily Chan, who were the former mayor that hosted the Olympic and were able to get the Olympic destination for Monterey Park. That's very important to us. As part of the event, we also offer a special auction opportunity for lunch experience with Mayor Elizabeth Yang and former Mayor Yvonne Yu. That's very exciting because this will provide a unique opportunity for community engagement. So if you would like lunch with Mayor Elizabeth Yang and former Mayor Yvonne Yu, give me a call. The event will feature light refreshments and great door prices generously provided by the Chamber of Commerce and the law office of Jolene, too, along with holiday in-gift certificates. We got some surprises, door surprises for the attendees. And event detail and RSVP sign-up will be posted on the Facebook Monterey Park Life page, and we encourage everybody to join. This is more than an event. It's a reflection of what we can achieve together as a community. Thank you for your time, your support, and your continued commitment to the community. Thank you. So thank you. If you guys want to sign up, let me know.

Thank you, Margaret. That's all we have for public communication. So now we'll go to item 8, 8A Nathaniel Hernandez presentation. Thank you.

All right, Nathaniel Hernandez, we have a certificate of recognition to recognize you as Youth of the Year Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside. Congratulations. We commend your outstanding leadership and community involvement. Thank you for making a positive difference in our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Nathaniel Hernandez. To anybody who doesn't know me, as the Youth of the Year of the Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley in Eastside, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the city council, the staff who make it run, as well as my Boys and Girls Club for making this opportunity possible. Thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to be a youth advocate and leader. And I would like to take this time to specifically shout out Council Member Thomas Wong for being a judge at the Youth of the Year event. And thanks to you, you've been able to bring me up to be the person I am today. But above all, I would like to thank all of you guys for ultimately giving me this platform to speak and to make change within my community. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else want to get it?

I'm back with your phone. Hi, I'm back.

Alright, smile, up there, guys. One, two, three big smiles. Thank you.

That was the one.

7D because we have certificates for the Boys and Girls Club. All right, we'll do that. 7D and then we'll do 12A. All right, so 7D, Fire Department. We also have certificates of recognition for kindness and kindness is free. Oh, yes, presentation, please.

All right, good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council, elected official, City Staff. Battalion Chief John Jin here. I wanted to talk some of the events for the fire department. So the random acts of kindness. On February 6th, we had the Boys and Girls Club. We collaborated with them to bring up their little pop-up, and they served coffee and donuts to the fire department. We had it here at Station 61. It was a huge success. It actually went over the time limit we had allotted with a lot of city people that were trying to get their exercise in got a little bit detoured and got some donuts along the way. So it was a really good event. I'm very happy to do that for the first time here and very successful. And thank you. So we wanted to present some certificates to the Boys and Girls Club. And we have Senator Perez's office, Amber, who's going to be handing out the certificates to the members.

Good evening, everyone. You guys want to come up? Yeah, I'm just going to start this real quick. So my name is Amber Jiang, and on behalf of the California State Senate and Senator Saoirse-Nee Perez, I'm honored to join you in recognition of the Random Acts of Kindness Day hosted by the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside. The Kindness is Free campaign is a testament to your dedication to the community as you honored our first responders at the Monterey Park Fire Department. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to serving the residents of Monterey Park and neighbors across the SGV as you continue to invest in the greater community through love and kindness. Best wishes in our future endeavors. Now I have names on these, I'm so sorry. We've got Andy Kwan.

And then, I'm so sorry, City Council, for stopping on your toes. Mia Morales. Sophia Young.

Alan Nava. That's another, thanks. And then Nicole Balbera. And then Scott Ellers.

Yeah, and on behalf of the City of Monterey Park, we also have certificates of recognition for all the volunteers, too.

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

Oh, I also forgot to mention, too, it was also advertised on Channel 7, too, so we can find it on YouTube, and it's on the social media, so it was on there. was on there. So we've got some media coverage. Thank you, guys.

Before the Boys and Girls Club leaves, maybe we could offer, I don't know if others want to make comment. I just want to add some comment. I don't know if Vin wants to go first. But I just want to appreciate the Boys and Girls Club for being amazing neighbors to City Hall right across the street for those who don't know the Boys and Girls Club. We've long been neighbors and really appreciate the show of neighborliness and the kindness this free campaign that has been years long and helping to really help promote good behavior and neighborliness among residents and right businesses and other other people and I think I speak on behalf of not only the fire department but also the staff you're welcome to do these pop-up events any day and to bring donuts and snacks to our council meetings if you want there every first first and third Wednesday of the month we can set up some space for you if you like but really appreciate all the Boys and Girls Club does to help raise boys and girls in our community to really be men and women that really care about each other and about the community so really appreciate that and all that you do to make Monterey Park in our surrounding communities in the wider region because you guys aren't just Monterey Park but operate a number of other clubs as well do so much to help build stronger communities and more resilient communities So thank you so much for all that you do. And congratulations to Nathaniel, our two-time Youth of the Year out of this club. So congratulations as you finish up your senior year in the area. Thanks so much for coming by. And thanks to the Fire Department for hosting.

All right. Thank you. Anything? No? All right. Thank you all so much. My kids were also students at Boys and Girls Club when they were younger. and they really enjoyed their time there. So keep up the great work. Congratulations, all.

Thank you, guys. Congratulations. And then also I'd like to take this time to advertise our next upcoming disaster preparedness clinic, which is going to be this Saturday at the Bar and Service Club, and that will be from 9 to 12 over there, and we'll cover things from disaster preparedness, utility shutoffs, basic emergency exit drills, those type of things, too, and advertise, of course, our CERT program as well, too. to help and support the public any way we can and educate. Thank you very much. That's it. Any questions?

Thank you.

All right.

Happy birthday to your chief.

Yeah.

Happy birthday, chief.

Should I sing?

Should I sing for him right now?

All right. Now we're going to bring up 12A, the Barnes Park pool design selection. So jump to new business and then we'll go back. So presentation, please, on 12A.

Mayor Pro Tem, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services, here to speak about the- The Barnes Park Revitalization Project. So as you all know, back in August of 2025, Council adopted our first ever Park System Master Plan. So kudos to us for that. As part of that plan, that's a guide for the next 10 years for really how the community is going to move forward with all of our parks and future investments in our parks. And so one of the priority projects that came out of that plan was the Barnes Park Pool Revitalization. It's definitely been a staple in this community. And we heard a lot of of great feedback from the community with a robust amount of community engagement. So at that time, council allocated $250,000 towards future park system master plan items that were identified with that plan. And then we took a portion of those funds and utilized it to hire the Dahlen group and also the aquatic design group to help us with community engagement, facilitating surveys, what type of pool and what kind of future the Barnes Park pool would look like. And so we've had a robust amount of community engagement, a number of surveys, met with stakeholders. And so from that, so now we're currently in the design, conceptual design phase. So if you look at the diagram there, we went from the park's master plan over to the conceptual design phases, which is where we're at. During this entire time, we've also been going after funding opportunities. So just recently at our mid-year budget, council also allocated an additional million dollars, so thank you for that. And then as people have already started to announce before I got the opportunity to announce, we just got a Measure A competitive grant. It was the maximum amount for the planning grant, $500,000, which will go directly towards... Great job, Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, a little premature.

Wrong item.

So we'll take this quick moment just to highlight that we actually got two grants from Measure A. One is for a Garvey Ranch trail system, and the other is for the Barnes Park revitalization planning grant. So Easter Bunny, if you could please return back to your bunny hole. will have you come out during our staff communications.

That was awesome. So definitely a moment I'll never forget.

So with all of this funding, we definitely are hoping to get to conceptual design. That's what's on the agenda for tonight with City Council. We had a number of options that were available to the community, and they all voted on those. Now with funding available for construction design, we'll be able to move into that next phase following a vote. So tonight I have with the Dolan Group as well as the Aquatic Design Group, Daniel, Nick, and Stephanie. they're going to give a short presentation on some of the findings from our community engagement and from those surveys and how that led to our recommendation uh tonight which was ultimately option b uh from those and they'll kind of go into uh those those designs i'll turn it over to the daniel from don

Thank you robert a little bit of the spoilers option b there we have no surprise bunny either so it should be nice and quiet um mayor yang council members It's an honor to be here to represent the project of the Barnes Park Revisioning. We've been working with City Manager Alvarez, Director Aguirre, and many other city staff on this effort. It's been a pleasure working with the city staff to give a voice to the community for this process. They've really actively engaged and let them participate in what this facility could be. There were many opportunities throughout this that Robert just outlined and we'll cover in more detail, but it's been a very transparent and engaging to let the community decide what this park will be.

A quick introduction of our team, Robert quickly went through. My name is Daniel Berghauser, principal architect for DAHLIN Architecture Interiors and Planning. I also have Nick McGuire, who is the lead designer on this effort, John Canedo, who is the project manager, and then additionally from Aquatic Design Group, group by Stephanie Fujimura who led the pool design and effort. Robert did a great job, stole my thunder and went a quick timeline through, but just a quick summary on what we've done up to today so you can understand the engagement that's led to the results that we'll present later. The first effort was a survey that was released, about 25 questions, roughly 15 minutes. That was released for six weeks, and while that was active, we held three community meetings. Two were open to the public, and one, a more focused topic with the stakeholders, local swim teams, the high schools, so they could participate at a more granular level. with the with that data combining both the survey results and the community engagement with the many activities that were involved we were able to compile the findings and develop three conceptual design ideas working with city staff to continue to refine those ideas working to refine those three ideas we then went back to the community to present for input and feedback at that same time a survey was open for those who couldn't attend the event it's provide their input as well and all of that effort has led us to here today to present what we have done for this effort in this project going back one more slide these are just a couple of examples of the activities at those community engagement events there was a visioning board that had a range of activities and amenities that could be at this pool facility and the community got to voice their priorities. Additionally there was individual priority matrix that had another range of activities and opportunities at this facility and then lastly we had a build your own pool that allowed people a hands-on opportunity at scale to understand this facility the size and different amenities that could go within that area. I'm gonna pass the mic over to Nick and he'll relay a little bit on some of the survey findings from that engagement as as well as online survey.

Thanks, Dan. So for the first survey was the one that we sent out concurrently with the outreach meetings. This one again, it ran for six weeks, like Dan mentioned. We had 410 survey respondents, which is pretty high for a survey like this. You don't really see that much feedback or community input. We really looked at the demographics of who took the survey, and it was a pretty good cross-section of residents of the community. So it was not just one group, it was the entire city. From young high schoolers up until your elderly community. We kind of focused on what the high points of the facility needed. I pulled that information here. So the facility features being shade, comfortable seating, places like that. Year-round access to programming because Monterey or Barnes Park was pretty compacted for his programming. So having year-round access was very important for swim lessons and things that people couldn't actually get your access to all around. And again, shade was of big importance as well. So what we did, we took that information, we broke that down, and we started compiling data. This kind of led us to the compiled data of the outreach meetings, and we developed the three options like we all saw, and then we kind of developed those based on the feedback from the community and the survey and city staff input. And then turning it over to Stephanie, she's going to touch on the three options again so we can get where we are, and then we can kind of look again to the surprise answer at this point.

So based on all the feedback we got back from the survey, in addition to the feedback that we got back from the community outreach meetings, we landed on three very distinct options. So option A on the left is, you'll notice, is the only option with three bodies of water. So it is a 40-meter competitive pool, so with depths from 3'6 down to 12 feet, that will allow for 1-meter and 3-meter diving as well. In addition to that, you have a 25-yard shallower pool, recreation pool, and then in the bottom right corner there, you'll see a splash pad. It's the only one with the three bodies of water. Option B has a full-size Olympic pool, which you've heard the community talking about. So it's a full 50-meter pool. in addition to the 50 meter pool you have that what we're calling a recreation pool so the 25 yard six land recreation pool that would be at travel or water and that would be used for therapy uses learn to swim more community centric for the smaller children as well and recreation i'm sorry and then option c on the right is a 52 meter pool so it gives you all the benefits of a 50-meter pool, but what it has with it is also a movable bulkhead, which is about two meters long, which is why the pool needs to stretch. This allows you to separate the pool as needed. So this option, while it's the least expensive, it's also the only one with a single body of water, so it gives you the least amount of flexibility as far as programming. So one body of water means that you have to share both time and water space between the high school and the community. Next slide, please. So these three options were presented to the community on the second, and we also had another survey up for them that was out for two weeks to let them choose which of the three were their preferred. And of the over 1,300 respondents, which is fantastic, by the way, over 60% chose option B, which was the 50-meter Olympic pool with the recreation pool, so the one in the middle that we were looking at earlier. So in addition to just the what was your favorite question, there was an opportunity for people to add comments about what they felt was most important to them, why they liked certain things, why they didn't. So up on the screen you can see that the true 50-meter competitive pool was a huge push, but at the same time, family-oriented amenities were extremely important. As part of that, there were definitely responses of, well, why can't we add a splash pad? Maybe here, maybe in another park. So there's some flexibility in that. But at the end of the day, option B was by far the winner. So this is just a little bit of a closer look for you into option B. So as a 50-meter pool, we'd go from approximately 3 foot 6 down to 12 feet. This will support 1 meter and 3 meter springboard diving. It'll also give you a total of 21 swim lanes, anywhere from 11 lanes to 19 lanes of deep water. So it'll allow you to do three water polo practices at once. It'll also allow you to do both short course and long course swim. So 25 meter is short course swim. That is what I'm going to say 95% of high school swimming is. This also gives you the option to run long course swim, so the long length of the pool of 50 meters, which one of the community members mentioned there. South of that, you will see our recreation pool. So that is pretty flexible. We right now have it as a six-lane recreation pool. As far as steps, we can go from zero depth all the way down to five feet. We can go from three feet to five feet. Really, the intent is to program it for recreational needs. The beauty of a plan like this is also that because it is two separate bodies of water and it can be divided by a fence, that helps to lower operational costs for the city. So for example, in the winter when you're going to have fewer people willing to go out there in the cold and only the diehard swimmers are out there swimming or the high schoolers are out there practicing, you're able to shut down one pole completely without having to lifeguard it. So it'll give you some flexibility. It'll also give you flexibility as far as cost efficiencies and potential revenue generation down the road as well. So that was the preferred option. Open to any questions that council has regarding the selected option and what we're recommending.

Questions first? We have one public comment. So maybe we'll hear the public comment and then ask questions? Absolutely. All right. So the one public comment speaker is Margaret Leung.

Hi, Mayor and City Council and City staff. I just want to thank everybody to put the effort into moving the project forward. It was a long haul, and I understand there was a lot of tension. There was a lot of give and take. And I feel that this option B will give us the framework to be in the right space with what is needed for the future of the city. This is really needed.

It's not perfect, and I think there is going to be an opportunity to recap during the pre-construction design phase of the project. with this half a million dollars that is provided to us, it's an opportunity for us to get a perfect design and a facility that the community really deserves. But I do want to summarize where we came from a little bit. Director of Public Works. And I want to say that, you know, I am the chair of these SGV, Power Up Beacon, 501c3 nonprofit organization. And we've been the leading community driven effort to restore Bond Park Pool, including organizing the October 5th SWIM campaign, coordinating community outreach and supporting grant and funding initiative in partnership with city. I want to say that. We are grateful to the many community partners who have stepped forward in support of this effort, including Mark Keppel High School PTSA, the swim team, the volunteers, the Mark Keppel High School Alliance, and the residents. This truly reflects a shared commitment across our community. I would like to clarify that the public record that the SGV pub serve as the coordinating nonprofit for the Barnes Park Pool campaign, working alongside with Citi as community partner to help move this project forward. The Barnes Park Pool project itself is a city-owned public project. There's no denial of that. That is the fact. And our focus remains on supporting the development of a modern aquatic facility that serves students, family, and residents for generations to come. As outlined in the city's master park plan, the Barnes Park Aquatic Center has been identified as a high-priority investment, reflecting strong and consistent community input for a safe modern swim facility. From a planning and funding perspective, we are continuing to support efforts that align with regional recreation goals, community access, and long-term sustainability, all of which are critical to securing future funding and delivering a successful project. At its core, this is about the community and the future of the kids, about providing access to aquatics, supporting youth development, and restoring a historical resource that has served Monterey Park for generations. We remain committed to transparency, collaboration, and responsible stewardship as we continue this work. I just want to make that very clear so there is no confusion what our goal is and mission is for SGVPUB. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Margaret. Comments and questions.

May I? Okay. Thank you, Mayor. First off, DAHLIN Group, thank you for all the hard work you guys did on this. I know it took months and weeks of calibration with the community, And I am pleasantly surprised that we had 1,300-plus surveys, although I'd be curious to see how many of them were the same people. But in any case, I mean, 60% is a clear majority that wanted option B. And I want to congratulate Robert and team for getting the two grants for our city. That speaks volumes for what we're doing from our community standpoint. I think option B is a great option. I only have one reservation, and I'm speaking on behalf of Council Member Sanchez, who's not here. He's got three kids, and they were really, really looking forward to that splash pad, which we will have to figure out. I think you have a response?

So the splash pad that was in option A, we have options as far as, well, two options. One, it could be integrated into that recreation pool if you wanted to do that. there are other places in the park and other places in the city, as we've talked to Robert about, that may be even a better fit, perhaps, for the location of that splash pad.

Well, I don't have young kids anymore, but I think a splash pad is well needed for a lot of the young kids, and I think Council Member Sanchez made it to a point for me to say, pass that message on to the Council Member meetings. So I'm doing my part. So thank you.

Message received.

I would just note for the record Councilmember Ngo that adults can also enjoy splash pads.

But I just add to Councilman Ngo's appreciation for the staff and for the consultant team getting us to this point. I know it's been a long journey particularly for those in the community. I swam at Barnes Park Pool growing up with the manta rays. It's great to see that. I know it's been a long journey. It's been a long one for me too. I would have wanted to see this pool rebuilt. even before decades ago because it needed to work even before we shut it down. But appreciate that we're getting to this point, getting to a point where hopefully tonight with the support of the full council, going to get to a full design in the next few months-ish or this year sometime so that we have a shovel-ready project, which is the furthest we've been we would be have ever gotten with this pool. So appreciate that. Appreciate all the community members, the many, many people that submitted comments, that participated in this process over the years, going back to even the Parks Master Plan process, and even before that when we had the other kind of concept a decade ago, I think, for potential design for this rebuilding Barnes Park Pool. I know the community has been very, very engaged in this, and I'm very much free with the comments not only tonight, but over the last few months and few years about how important Barnes Park Pool and the Aquatic Center is to day life. I know it was important for my own life and a very formative piece of my own life as a Manta Ray swimmer and going through high school here and growing up here. Barnes Park Pool has always been a core asset here, not only at Barnes Park, but for the city and for the region. So I appreciate that we're really prioritizing this and appreciate that we've gotten all these options. We've done robust community engagement through the Parks Master Plan process. Again, I appreciate everyone's patience in getting through that. But I want to emphasize how important it is to have this kind of community process because, well, I think tonight we will anticipate we'll be voting on moving forward with a concept. I want to remind everyone that we don't have the funding for the full funding that's needed to build this project at this point, which is why we need as many community members engaged in supporting this project. I welcome the speakers tonight and over the last few months in particular who have expressed interest in partnering and working closely with the city on making sure we get this project built. Because we're going to need everyone's help and everyone participating, not just more than even the people that engaged in the survey, this survey and the past surveys and in all the community meetings. We need a lot of residents and particularly voters in the city of Monterey Park to really be engaged on making this pool a reality. but on the specific option tonight and the design tonight I'm inclined to support and very much want to support option B I think it provides the most flexibility for our operations for the city and for providing recreational opportunities and swimming opportunities and water use opportunities not just swimming water polo recreation swim lessons everything else we do in water provides the greatest flexibility for the community as expressed through all the community input that we've gathered and make sure that we have operational flexibility in terms of having two pools because pools always have to go down for maintenance so having two pools to be able to kind of shift needs when we need to make repairs or something's going on for someone that had an accident in the pool and we have to shut that down for 24 hours which happens all the time having this kind of flexibility is very very important and I think option be checks most all those boxes for us and then some even some of the cons that are listed here right splash pad to council member goes point it doesn't have to be necessarily connected to this specific build project the splash a splash back came up through the parks master plan process and I would be I think it would be an asset and also obviously clearly through the parks master plan process many of our parks could be great options for a splash pad and not including in this specific design doesn't mean we're excluding it from potentially Barnes Park another part of Barnes Park or some other park that makes sense or multiple parks if we find some money that Robert's gonna work on but also right the multi-purpose room all these other things shaded areas seating we have some of those assets already built into the areas around this pool complex area with the picnic shelter right across the way there and the service clubhouse already serves a multi-purpose room for that area and has served as a multi-purpose room for the pool for many for decades and I anticipate will continue so I'd love to find some money to retrofit service Clubhouse after this to Robert Robert's Robert's gonna find a pot of gold for us but I'm ready to support option B and want to move forward on that and get us as quickly as possible to a full design so that we're as shovel ready as possible so that when there are other grant opportunities available for actual construction potentially for actual construction right the most competitive ones are the ones that are ready to build as soon as possible and those are the ones with full designs so I know I've talked a lot just giving my reasoning appreciate everyone's engagement on this project want to ask and and really just urge everyone who's been engaged through this process to continue engaged to get others engage your neighbors particularly about how important rebuilding Barnes Park pool in the Barnes Park Aquatic Center is for community because we need everyone's help to make sure that we actually get this built in a reasonable time frame but again kudos to the team for the half million dollars 1 million dollars in grants are awarded and announced yesterday very jealous that our mayor got to attend that but appreciate LA County returning some of our local sales tax dollars from measure a to city of Monterey Park and half a million of that will go specifically towards this design but I think we will move forward tonight assuming we'll move forward tonight that will add on add into the million dollars we've already allocated for design and just a reminder that may cover that 1.5 million might cover the cost of actual design for this pool and then we're still gonna have about 30 million dollars it sounds like to actually build this so we've got a long way to go but we're making progress and we're taking some big steps here so appreciate all the work that went into this and look forward to comments from my other council members.

Thank you. You know, I want to say that certainly this is a day of celebration for us. I mean, besides, of course, the checks that were going to be presented, but also it really is a testament to, I think, the incredible work that's been done by staff, especially, Robert, by yourself and those in practice recreation working with the city and the community as well as the city council. I know that this has been a long process, but I will say that probably this is the furthest we have gone in probably 10 years in actually working very hard to get from the community the input to where we are now with a concept and also the funding. I know that the city has tried before and we were turned down, but again, the fact that we were able to get to this point is something that I think we should all be very proud of and also one which I think speaks volumes about the seriousness in which this city council and city has heard the needs of the community and has acted and reacted to those concerns. And I think of the grant money as a down payment, a down payment in what will truly be hopefully a wonderful facility that will be an example of what is possible when everyone comes together in the common go. I also want to thank staff and the consultants for the recommendation for the option before us. I would also just add to the conversation that we want to make sure that this aquatic facility is one that is accessible to everyone, not just those who want to practice competitive swimming, but those who just want the recreational benefits of swimming as well. And so I would also ask staff that moving forward, that in addition to getting this pool project, this aquatic center moving along, that we also continue to explore opportunities to make sure that our aquatic services, like all of our recreational services, and again, kudos to the Parks and Rec staff for just working so diligently at our parks. For example, all the playgrounds, replacements that we've unveiled to the community. We want to make sure that the services we provide for parks and recs is accessible to everyone, not just one group of people.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I also want to echo my colleagues' words of gratitude. Thank you to Robert and the entire team for getting us the $1 million grant money. Even though in the grand scheme of things, the community picked option B, which is the most expensive option out of the three. And that's just a small amount, but at least it gives us the momentum to continue and keep getting more money to finish building the pool.

a lot sooner than the pool because the pool is going to take a while so splash has to

be easier and faster. So that could be a great option. So yeah, we don't have any other questions for you guys. Thank you for the presentation. And would anyone? I'll make the motion to move forward with option B. I just have a quick question for Robert. Can you outline just what the next steps would be so you're going to bring an RFP back for full design or how does that work?

Yeah, I'll be working with Public Works to work on RFPs to go out for construction design, actually looking at what the cost potential is going to be for that so that we can bring that back. So I don't have a time frame on what construction design would look like, but I will definitely keep you appraised to that.

Obviously the faster the better.

Always fast the better and always looking for additional funds for more projects. Absolutely.

If you find some more money, we're happy to celebrate.

Absolutely.

So Council Member Wong makes a motion to select option B and also direct staff to use the select option for all future grant applications. And then Council Member Ngo seconds. So we'll make a vote.

Approved unanimously.

Madam Mayor, members of the Council, we do want to note that we did hear from Council Members. It sounds like there is consensus to continue to look at potentials for the potentials for splash pad, maybe as a standalone project, maybe at a different location, at this location, but it sounded like there was still interest in that as well. Is that correct? Yes.

Yes.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

All right. Thank you, Robert. So let's go back to staff communications, item seven, and we can go with the 7A library. the 7A library.

Good evening, Mayor Yang and City Council members. My name is Leonie Jordan and I'm the Senior Librarian for Adult and Teen Services. First off, a recap of some of our February programs. In February, the library offered 79 programs across the adult, teen, children's and literacy departments, with a total attendance of 2,049.

Attendees enjoyed activities including cooking soul food for Black History Month, an out-of-this-world alien party, Valentine's Day-themed craft, and a romance author panel and book signing. Now some upcoming programs for this month. In honour of Women's History Month, the library is hosting the Her Story 3 exhibition in March and April. The exhibition illuminates the role of Chinese-American women in challenging injustice and shaping the legal system. Join us this Saturday at 11am for the grand opening, which will include speeches by curator Dr Chang-Ci Chen, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Mayor Yang and other inspiring female leaders. Also coming up this Saturday families are invited to join us for Spanish Bilingual Storytime at 4.30pm where they'll hear books, sing songs and learn vocabulary. Teen and adult BTS fans can also stop by for our BTS listening party at 3pm where they'll make K-pop-inspired craft, play games and connect with other fans while enjoying the new BTS album.

On Tuesday, March 24 at 4 o'clock, community partners API-FM will be leading an interactive workshop on smart shopping with CalFresh. Through games and group activities, attendees will learn about nutrition labels and smart shopping tips. as well as how to use fresh produce to prepare affordable, healthy meals for their families.

Chinatown Service Centre's Popular Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or Vita Clinic, continues at the library throughout March. This program offers free tax preparation for low-income taxpayers and runs on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Services are available in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Appointments can be made online or by contacting Chinatown Service Centre.

Registration is now open for our spring semester ESL classes. These 15-week adult literacy classes help improve reading, writing and speaking skills. Classes began last month but registration remains open until the 31st. For more information about these and to view our spring schedule, please visit our webpage. We hope to see you at the library soon and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Yeah, well, thank you. That was very impressive with so many different programs and projects and the number of people served and I just, when I look at the list, I just kind of picked out three things that kind of jumped out. One was just kind of celebrating our cultural diversity in the city with the Spanish bilingual programs. And then on the flip side of that, you got the BTS Listening Party. And of course, you got the Her Story, which is going to exhibit many of our important matriarchs in the city. I'm just so impressed and filled with joy that we provide this program to our city. I think the people who actually benefit from this is not just our city but the surrounding community and that's what we are and that's why I'm so proud of our work in terms of having a library that serves the community. So thank you for all that work.

Thank you.

Just ditto.

Appreciate everything the library is doing to help celebrate in the community and these important events. I look forward to going to as many as I can and seeing the community be able to celebrate.

Thanks. Thank you so much. As always, the library is a valuable resource to the community, not just a place for knowledge and information, but a gathering place for community to celebrate diversity, as well as a place to receive social services. Again, I always appreciate the services like the VITA program that you're providing. And so, again, we're very lucky to have the resources that we have with the library.

Yeah, 79 events is a big number, so it just goes to show how much effort the library is putting to creating programs for our community. I'm looking forward to the Her Story event this Saturday, and also thank you for opening up the library as a cooling center this week in the heat.

Yes, much needed. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next is 7B, Recreation and Community Services.

Is this when the Easter bunny is supposed to come out?

I'm like, I don't know how I top that. So good evening, Mayor and Mayor of Pro Tem, City Councilmembers, Recreation, Director of Recreation, Robert Aguirre, sharing a few updates. So just want to highlight this last Friday, we had 220 Monterey Park residents attend MPK night at Clipper State Intuit Dome. So a great night, had lots of positive feedback. EVERYONE GOT THEIR JAPANESE HERITAGE JARSEYS AND HAD A GREAT TIME. SO 220 RESIDENTS, THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME DOING THAT ACTIVITY AND JUST VERY SUCCESSFUL. SO VERY PROUD OF STAFF FOR ORGANIZING THAT AND THANK YOU TO ALL THE RESIDENTS THAT CAME OUT FOR THAT. THANK YOU. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE. JUST WANT TO HIGHLIGHT A CURRENT PROJECT THAT'S GOING ON. WE'RE GOING TO BE HAVING A RIBBON CUTTING NEXT TUESDAY AT 5 O'CLOCK HERE AT THE BARNES PARK TENNIS AND NOW PICKLEBALL COURTS. We have added six permanent pickleball courts here at Barnes Park. This is a project that is actually resurfacing all of our tennis courts throughout the community, but it also included adding six new pickleball courts at Barnes Park, and we're going to also be adding four permanent pickleball courts at Bella Vista Park. So currently we've completed Barnes Park, George Elder Park tennis courts, the Garvey Ranch Park tennis courts, and Sequoia Park tennis and basketball court have just been completed. those will be opening up in about a few days. And then Sunny Slopes is currently in progress, and then we'll be moving over to Highlands and completing this project at Bella Vista Park. So really excited about this project. It looks amazing. That's an actual drone shot. It's not an AI shot. That's overhead of Barnes Park. It looks beautiful. It plays great. The courts have been absolutely slammed. There's so many people out there. It's been awesome to see. Next slide, please. So I wanted to highlight, I've been very, very proud of the work and the amazing work that our staff has been doing. Recreation and Community Services Department has been recently recognized by a number of awards. Up on this slide, I'm actually highlighting just two of those awards. At our annual conference, which invites all of the recreation departments from throughout California State, we are recognized with two prestigious awards, Awards of Excellence. one for our annual Electric Park event and another for our annual SGV Pride event which we host along with the Alhambra Teachers Association and the Boys and Girls Club. I also want to take this moment just to highlight our mark your calendars our next Pride event is coming up on June the 6th of this year so along with these two awards this next Saturday actually this coming Saturday we're also going to be honored with the Service to Education Government Award by Alhambra's Educational Foundation. At the same conference for the aging section, which is programs for our senior population, we were also recognized with an award for our Love for the Elders program, which is a collaboration with Mark Keppel High School students that come over and do intergenerational activities with our seniors. And then next Thursday after the Spring egghunt I'm going to be shooting over to an awards dinner. We're also being recognized by the CPRS, California Parks and Rec Societies District 13, for the Langley Senior Center's annual Lunar New Year event. So five awards in just a short period of time. I really just want to highlight the amazing work that the recreation team is doing. Our staff puts their heart and soul into everything they do and just cannot speak enough about how amazing and proud I am of the work. Next slide, please. So along with our award-winning event that I just mentioned is actually another award-winning event that was recognized a few years back by the same Award of Excellence, which is our Cherry Blossom Festival. That's coming up on April 11th and 12th. I want to invite everyone to come out. Amazing entertainment, even more delicious food, tons of shopping. There's going to be a maids out. The maids will be out there performing. Our SGV Symphony is going to be performing. Tons of taiko drumming, which is one of my personal favorites. So I just want to invite everyone to come out. That's April the 11th and 12th here in Barnes Park. And then I guess we can cue the bunny now. Oh. Woo! All right. So our bunny, everyone act really shocked. Our bunny was bringing us some early gifts with highlighting our recent grants. So we do want to highlight outside of the grants that next Thursday is our annual spring Egg hunt here in Barnes Park. So from 4 to 7 p.m., you can come out and join us. We have over 20,000 eggs that will be with candy. It's all completely free. Our farmer's market is also going to be reopening on March 26th. So the farmer's market will be available. Come out, get dinner, enjoy free activities. Massive event. There's always a ton of people. We tried our best to keep it as organized and controlled as possible. Every year we learn more and more how to make it even better. and so we're really excited to continue to have just a super successful event. We look forward to seeing everyone out there. Next slide. I think that might be. Thank you. And that is my time off. Council wants to take a quick picture with our Easter bunny.

Thank you.

Thank you. One, two, Easter Bunny. One, two, three. One, two, three. And then if you're going to take a couple steps, just in slightly. Thank you. One, two, three. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you. Yay! Yay!

That was amazing. Just the timing. Yeah, careful, careful with the steps.

I have to open the door, Robert. It's tough to grip that.

Thank you, Robert and the bunny. and 7C Public Works.

I don't have a bunny to come out, so I apologize. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, and City Council. Sean Igoe, Public Works Director. Tonight we have before you just a quick update on our survey. So this is actually not our survey. This is our solid waste haulers survey. so we encourage our residents to participate in this survey with where to provide some feedback on their service they provided so I know it seems like it was just yesterday but they've been with us now for over a year and so they want So I know it seems like it was just yesterday, but they've been with us now for over a year. And so they want to hear feedback from our residents. So again, we encourage our residents to either go in person, they can get printed copies or they can take the survey online and provide feedback on how their services are doing. So hopefully they can make any improvements that may be needed. So with that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you. Encourage everyone to take the survey. I'm not going to pull off consent. So I'll just do it now. Kudos to the public works team. One of the items in consent is to accept a bunch of public works projects that were completed over the last few months. I noticed that most of them were, I think all of them were actually under budget and some of them significantly under budget. So kudos to the team. Really appreciate our being on top of project management and cost. so kudos to the team. We really appreciate our being on top of product management and cost controls there. Every dollar we save on these public works products means we can spend more of that money on other public works products, so appreciate the team and all the work there. Thank you.

Again, I'm very excited that we are doing this survey. I think that especially since this study has undergone the effort with the transition to a new service provider, I think it's important that we continue to make sure that our residents continue to receive the services they expect. And so I think it's important that, and I appreciate that the staff is doing this survey. So thank you very much for doing that.

Yeah, I think this is a much needed survey. Is it going to be on the Cascades and also on the social media?

Yeah, we've done some outreach. So, again, this is WHERE survey, but we've been doing our own push-out to get people to hopefully provide information on this. But we have done outreach in addition to that.

Awesome. Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, and that's it for staff communications. so no old business. Moving on to our consent calendar, item 10. Any items?

Yeah, I have a couple of items. Items like Dr. Poo for discussion, 10C, 10D, just a quick update, and then 10F, just a quick update.

Okay. Any other items?

All right, anyone want to make a motion?

Move for approval. Remaining agenda items.

I'll second.

All right. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. Then let's do a quick presentation on 10C, Amendment No. 1, the Pung Group.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council. Laura Borjon, finance manager. The Poon Group has served as the city's independent auditor for the past three years. Staff is recommending a five-year contract extension. This recommendation aligns with the government finance officers association best practices which suggest multi-year agreements of at least five years to ensure continuity, minimize disruption and reduce long-term costs. Furthermore, the extension complies with California government code which limits lead audit partners to six consecutive years of service. Accordingly, the city will transition from the current partner to a new lead partner after the third year of this extension. At the conclusion of this term, the city will initiate a new request for proposals to ensure ongoing competitiveness and regulatory compliance. This concludes the staff report. Staff is available to answer any questions.

So, again, remind me how many years we had this group in the past, the last three years?

Correct.

Just jotting down notes. So my thought on this is, and I think the continuity is very important, and that's what you mentioned about the state saying you need a five year program overall for continuity and I agree with that. Where I come from is from an accounting perspective. Going way back to my accounting school days, it was always keep the accountants within three years and move on to a new group. You can come back to them but move on to a new group so that you can have new people kind of look at your audit. And I understand where we're coming from. We're looking for a new partner, which starts the year four, right? Correct. Yeah. So my thought on this is I think we're fine with with this group because there's continuity. And I guess the last three years coming out of COVID, they've kind of done the work and everything looks fine. I was thinking maybe here, I was kind of entertaining perhaps a three-year program with a one-year option would be my thought. I mean, it still gives us more than five years, and then at that point, we can kind of figure out where do we go from here from an audit standpoint to keep the continuity, but at the same time move forward with going back to the accounting school days, having a new auditor kind of come and figure out, help us not just audit us in terms of what we did right and wrong, but also provide some guidance on how to move forward so those are just my thoughts

I will just echo what council were go was saying in terms of having making sure we have a fresh set of eyes every few years and appreciate right we have to find that I think sweet spot between right it takes a bit to onboard a new auditor every time so I understand that but also making sure that we do have a fresh set of eyes so that right if there are things that are missing a new auditor and a new person that's looking at these books fresh or fresher will spot some of those things. So just finding that right balance in terms of the years, I'm inclined to kind of agree. I'm actually more partial to two or three years extension. That would give this group up to five to six years, and then really making sure we go out to RFP. I don't know if we have. My other larger question is, is there internal city policy in terms of when we have to refresh or how long a certain auditor can have our contract for auditing?

Right. We did create a policy, and our policy states that five years.

So I'd be more comfortable then if that's the case, doing a two plus one as opposed to, I think, what Councilman was saying, three plus one. That gets them to five years, and then if we need to, we can go out for another year. but I really think we should be refreshing every five years I mean if that's our policy we should I try to keep to that five years five or six years in my mind but not making sure that there is someone else that can come in where our feeding and expectations kind of set up front for for whatever auditor comes back comes to us and wins the bid and then we're refreshing every every five or six years or so going forward but that would be I just add my comments that accounts for go is saying to shortening the extension here

okay we can definitely amend the well the contract hasn't been executed so we can make that change

there's no other comments from mayor mayor pro tem and we need to figure out do you want to go with two and one or three and one mayor and members of the

council so up to council currently we've had the Poon group for three years the as staff mentioned the GFO a best practice and that's that's the policy that we're following the auditing of the audit partner in it could be technically the same firm but the partner the auditor needs to change every four years correct or sorry every six six six years but I understand you're saying we could potentially look at changing those out sooner so we just need direction on if you guys want to extend the contract for two years plus one or three years plus one either is there's not we will make that

I'll make the motion for two plus one up to three years for the extension if there's a second

I'll second that

all right let's vote

approved unanimously

Alright thank you and next item is 10 E. E or D?

D as in dog

D. Okay. Approved the artwork submitted by artist Georgico for a mural celebrating the United States semi-centennial at Barnes Park.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, City Councilmembers. Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services. is getting to present a really exciting opportunity here tonight. And I know that over the past couple of years, we've been able to install some pretty amazing artwork in the city of Monterey Park. And so it's definitely been on council's agenda to try to increase the amount of art throughout the city, and it's definitely been well received by our community. With the 250 anniversary of independence for our country coming up, we started working with local artist Georgico. They previously owned, if you're familiar with Rainbow Art, it was on Garvey Avenue. And they are local artists, Monterey Park residents. Giorgiko is Darren and Trisha Inouye. And they're going to present tonight their design. They're going to speak about some of their inspiration, where their art comes from and the thoughts behind it, and how it integrates into our community and also to the country. So as you'll recall, back on February the 4th, City Council approved Barnes Park Gymnasium for the location of this mural. We did take the designs that are being presented tonight to the Community Participation Commission at their February meeting. And at that meeting, the design was unanimously supported. However, there is a phrase that is on the design, and there was a split decision as to what that phrase would include. So the commission had decided that they would send it to council with an option of either of those two designs for consideration. So they do support the design and they do also support one of the two options for the phrase that's on the mural. So with that, it's my pleasure to introduce you to you, Darren and Tricia Inouye, also known as Giorgiko.

Thank you, Robert. Thank you, Mayor, City Council members, City staff. I have the privilege of just introducing a little bit about Trisha and I, and then Trisha will explain a little bit behind all the thoughts and ideas behind the concept that we're going to be proposing today. Next slide. Trisha and I were residents. We live on the south side of Monterey Park. We've lived there for a long time. There was an art school on Garvey Avenue that had been there since, I think, 2002. And then in 2017, my wife and I, we took over the school. We were able to change all the programs, kind of bring a fresh new take on child's art education. Unfortunately, COVID happened and it shut down the school. But we were able to run a second business, which is Giorgiko, and we used the same building. So we ran our studio out of that location for a number of years. And this is the company that we're currently working out of to create this mural. So if we go to the next slide, these are examples of some of the murals that we've done. The top one there was recently done in San Jose, in the San Jose Japantown area. And then two below that are both in Hawaii on the island of Oahu on two different school locations. So we've done a lot of artwork that's community-driven, but then also a lot of work that's speaking towards the future, the future of what we hope to inspire, which is our children. If we could go to the next slide. A lot of our work has to do with childlike characters. The style is almost childlike-esque, childbook-esque. That comes from my wife, Tricia. She kind of has a background in being inspired by children's books. and then myself as more of a classic painter, we've melded our two styles together to kind of create what Giorgiko is. It's very purposeful in why we've chosen to illustrate children. We feel like that's a unifying factor amongst all of humanity, across culture, across history. We've all had the experience of struggling and being children and having to deal with feeling helpless and uncertain in the world. So that's one of our unifying factors. And then obviously that hopefully inspires There's empathy, just this idea that we've all had this shared experience. It also is one where we're able to focus on childlike innocence and then also childlike hope as well. So with that, I'll turn it over to Tricia, and she'll share a little bit more specifically about the mural project itself.

So thank you so much for having us. As Robert mentioned, we were asked to come up with some ideas for a mural to celebrate the 250th anniversary of United States independence. So you can see on the picture where the mural is going to be located. It's going to be on the left side wall, and it's going to be 30 by 12 feet, and it's going to be unveiled at the fireworks show on June 27th. and we were asked to create something that would focus on patriotism and something that would reflect inclusivity and diversity of our country and remind us of the country's foundation. So in the next slide.

and yet they're smiling with that pride in the past. And behind them is a mountain range that we're inspired by the San Gabriel Mountains. And the characters are also carrying backpacks to show that they are on a journey that will be a challenging one towards a better future. And yet you can see the hope in their eyes, you can see the camaraderie amongst each other as they are linking arms. And they're all walking under the banner of the American flag. Next slide, please. So as Robert mentioned, there are two options for phrasing. This first one is all created equal, and we find this one very special to us as it is a foundational concept from the Declaration of Independence. And you can also see in the corner there's an established 1776. And we also designed the font to look similar to U.S. currency to give it that patriotic feel. And next slide, please. The second phrase is faith in the future. And again, that is from our city motto, which should instill some city pride in viewers. and just as the artists, as the designers of this image, we would just like to throw in our two cents that we think that the first option is the stronger one in that it is not just limited to the city person's experience but it is emphasizing the unity and community amongst all Americans and so it has that feeling of community and emphasizing unity, which is the original prompt that we were given. So we feel like that that is the stronger option. But again, the first option is all created equal, and second is faith in the future. And in the next slide, we just wanted to point out one quick detail, which is that as artists, we tend to work intuitively, meaning that the final product isn't going to look exactly like the original sketch, but it will be similar enough. So we just wanted to show you a quick example from one of our Hawaii murals comparing the original sketch to the final product. So as we work on the image, sometimes we have to make slight adjustments, adjustments in color, adding more detail, whatever is needed at the time. So we just wanted to point that out. And in the next two slides, it's just showing the same two sketches from before, but just showing what they would look like on the wall itself. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.

May I?

Okay.

So I like it. I'll start with that. And thank you for presenting. Good job, Robert. And I want to also thank the CPC team for giving their blessing. And the more you guys talk, the more I realize why they punt it over to us because they both sound attractive. And my heart is going to be what I see here, faith in the future. I get it. I mean, All Created equal is great because that's 1776 at the national platform level. And that picture depicts the national platform. but my heart still says faith in the future because it's sitting in the city of Monterey Park and that's our logo so I'm just gonna end it before I get in trouble

Again, thank you to the team for bringing this to us to the parks for I appreciate that Robert and the team are really hearing us in terms of adding more art there's still a lot more blank space on a bunch of city walls so appreciate that we're building this pipeline and look forward to other products as well but great to see a hometown Monterey Park based team working on this really appreciate that and the community effort on this i'm i honestly both are great i defer the others on the council to see where we land uh i can go either way in terms of the actual phrase um but my question is on um are there any is there any way to integrate uh community participation in in the painting and the putting on the mural like people maybe your kids and others in the community could help paint portions of this or some way to integrate just neighborhood and community participation in the artwork it would go a long way to help help provide some ownership in the community here that would also protect it but also making sure that everyone is part of owning our community and the facilities here and really part of part of this effort to to beautify our community too.

I'm sorry, is that a question? Yeah, I think there's always a possibility to do something like that. By the nature of the characters, for example, there is going to be a lot of work put in when it comes to the rendering out, because again, this is just a sketch, so it's very flat. But I think there would be portions where we could a lot for... I know that there are students that are in this community center, So maybe the students can participate. I have a small portion to play and we can kind of help them out leading them in how to paint certain areas. I mean we have our background in children art education.

Yeah, I'll just jump in and share that that's definitely one of the conversations that when Darren and Trisha first met they were they Visited the site that was one of the things that they gravitated toward they were they were inspired by we have our Barnes Park daycare That is here and so they actually arrived at the park about the same time. I believe either either students were coming out or going in, and so they all saw the parents and the kids. And so I definitely think there's an opportunity for us to get some of the little kiddos involved in some of the early stages before they get into the details. Absolutely.

And then as far as timeline, I'm assuming the timeline is going to get to complete before the bicentennial of the Yanks.

No, you've got to say the real word.

Simi, yes, that word.

250 years.

Thank you.

Yes, that's the goal. The goal is to have it completed for the unveiling at the firework show. Thank you very much.

I will say I do like the option to the faith in the future. I could, again, borrow from our city motto, and I also think that given that the theme is of childlike figures and again oftentimes I say especially those who are in government that we are in the business of the future and I think that just evokes that theme of what we do here in the present for the future as well so I do like that motto and how it ties into the artistic concept of the mural

Yeah I think it's a really great design I like the style you guys use, not just this mural, but all the other murals you've done. And I think both phrases are good. The all created equal, that's more general for the whole country, but faith in the future is more for our city. So I think we're leaning towards the second option.

Well, I'll make the motion then. And I make the motion to go with Faith in the Future, because it's actually sitting in our background there. And I look forward to working together with both Darren and Trisha and incorporating our kids. And I can definitely paint the stars. That's probably the only thing I can paint and the wording. Other than that, I'm going to leave the art to you guys.

So Council Member Ngo makes a motion.

I'll second

alright let's vote

approved unanimously thank you so much we're looking forward to having your art in our city thank you

madam mayor and just for clarification wanted to make sure our independence day celebration is scheduled for Saturday June 27th so want us to make sure that we're putting that out there that's the date that we're looking to unveil the mural I know we didn't go into details. I know we refer to it often as the 4th of July celebration or firework show, but ours is on the Saturday before, so Saturday, June 27th.

Thank you for that. And next we have 10F, notices of completion for various capital improvement projects. Just a very short presentation.

good evening honorable mayor mayor pro-tem city council Sean I go public works director so thank you for the opportunity to come and present some of the projects we've completed so as a staff report indicates we completed about 13 projects recently and those included about 9.5 million dollars worth of projects as you can see here we had various projects including elder pool improvements we did some painting at various facilities including the library and Barnes Jim the Cascades was completed as well so we're excited about some of those amenities on next slide please this is some pictures from our Emerson parallel sewer line that was completed this again another project went extremely well our team was very creative in this project it did some things internally with the design and was able to get this completed under budget next slide please our roadway resurfacing projects so thus far we've completed over over 10 miles of roadway completions this is pretty significant again we continue to try to make improvements to our roadways this is not including what we have currently in the works but again just a significant amount of effort on from the team's perspective so if you'd like I can go into greater details for some of these I can tell you that beyond this currently We have 23 projects that we are either currently actively working on or that are in design. So again, the team here is dedicated to making sure that Monterey Park is Continuing to make improvements whether it's roadways facility improvements No matter what we try to do to make this community a better place. So But that'll take any questions

May I mayor? Sean Excellent presentation and kudos for all those projects. I wrote down 9.5 million, 10 miles of road work. What was the time range on these things? Were they going back for two years, three years?

So the longest project was the Russell Reservoir project. That was about a year it took us to complete that one. We did have some delays on the contractor side, so it probably would have been done in about nine months, but that one was about a year. And the shortest one was probably about a month. so it varies from starting to start and completion dates and those 23 projects

that you're actively working on those timelines are very similar they can be yes some of them a little bit longer than others depends on the size of the

project that you know if you look at some of our 710 projects those take a little bit longer just working either with Metro or working on outreach design partnerships with some of the the businesses things like that that takes a little bit more time just because outreach but again in general we try to keep them facility improvements usually take a couple months about roadways again a couple months it just depends on the size of the project

I just want to echo what councilmember Wong mentioned earlier which was you guys came in on budget so that's actually he said ahead of budget right so kudos to you guys and excellent work and really want to say thank you to you and the team and And we live in a great city. So thanks to our staff and all the work we do, all the work you do.

This is more of the team. I can't emphasize that enough. Just like Robert says about his team, we have a fantastic team here. Even the project numbers that you see, I will tell you, we are very efficient in the numbers that we do to where we can actually even do some additional work here and there, especially on roadway projects. So we get a lot more work done for the same amount of money. So, again, the team that we have is very creative. They're very efficient and we're able to do a lot of great work here

One quick question great great job on all the different projects It's amazing that what your team does. I did have a resident asked me how and How far in advance they get notice of the road work so they can you know go around if it's blocking their way home So when we're actually in construction, usually it's about a week in advance. A week in advance. Is it mailed out to them?

Mail, door hangers, depends on the location, but usually actually door hangers. They'll actually do door hangers on the properties.

Got it.

Yep. And sometimes they might never see them. It could blow away. But typically they're at every single resident.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

All right. Someone's going to make a motion.

Well, I'll make the motion.

I'll second.

All right. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

All right. Thank you so much, Sean. And that's it for our consent agenda. So moving forward to our public hearing. 11A, public hearing pursuant to government code section 3502.3 concerning vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts.

All right, let's open the public hearing and get a presentation from staff.

All right. Good evening, honorable mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. I'm Christine Tomikawa, director of human resources and risk management. I have Julie Dezeal here with me. Human Resources and Risk Management Manager. And I have Kathleen Camacho, our Human Resources Analyst here with us as well. We're here tonight to provide a status update regarding the city's vacancy recruitment and retention efforts per government code section 3502.3. The city is required to, excuse me, hold at least one public hearing per fiscal year prior to the final budget being adopted. As stated in the staff report, we had 38 vacant positions out of 336 budgeted full-time positions which is equivalent to about an 11% vacancy rate since the initial report the city has filled five more vacant positions bringing us to 33 vacant full-time positions taking us to about a 9.8 vacancy rate attached to the staff report we generated a report for each recognized association with the city. These reports were generated at a point in time and do not reflect the current numbers as we continue to recruit for vacant positions. We'll go through each of the reports and provide current information. So go to the next one.

Okay.

Alright. So we have our firefighter association group we don't have vacancies you can see we actually have an over hire oh can you see it make it bigger better okay so you can see that we actually have over hire so we have a negative percentage right now next one

Yeah, there it is.

I think we want it a little bit bigger.

So next is our MIG Management Employees Association. From the original report there has been no change in this section. We will say that we will be, the goal is to hire, under fill the senior civil engineer position with one of our associates and then provide a promotional opportunity to the people that are in that spot at a later time.

We have our police captains. They're both filled, so there's no change there as well. Our police officer association, there is a slight change. We have six openings. we did hire one position which was a lateral who came from Chicago we also have one person who's currently in backgrounds as well for the police officers so we're hoping that number will change as well as we continue police mid-management there are no vacancies there we have our professional chiefs officer Association which are the battalion chiefs and the deputy chief and and there are no vacancies there. The next group is the SCIU, and they usually have the most because they're the largest association we have. In there, we had 27 vacant positions, and over the course of time, we have hired five positions, so bringing it down to 21 vacant positions for the SCIU group since the time that we first produced the report. And then our unrepresented positions, there are two positions that are there. Our building official has been open for a long time. It's a hard-to-fill position, and planning manager is currently in the recruitment stage.

Any questions on any of those reports?

May I, Mayor? So, Christine, help me with this. It looks like we were pretty healthy in terms of vacancy. I saw 1411, and then we had pretty much filled. From a health perspective, the only way to compare this is if I said our neighboring cities, without going through names, our neighboring cities that are north, south, east, west, how are we compared to them in terms of the overall vacancy percentage? Are we comparable, better, worse?

it's hard to tell but I think cities that have police officer openings everyone has police officer openings so when we look at our percentage for our police officers we're doing very well compared to other agencies we were just talking and they're not close to us but like City of Torrance they have something like 60 police officer openings out of like 120 positions that they have So when you look, that's a very drastic difference. But I think in terms of where we're at, we're in a good spot. Really, police officers having only like four open positions is not the norm.

Well, I just want to point out certain facts here which people don't know as they're sitting at home reading this or even for folks who are not familiar with. But when you look at HR, you always have to look from the top down in terms of the leadership. You have vacancies because people want more money or they want a better job. And I think in the world we live in, money is important, maybe key to a lot of people, but not the ultimate thing. So you kind of have to go through the leadership. And I think from my understanding, just looking at the folks in the room here, we've got a very strong continuation of what I call the cabinet or the senior leadership executive level. That's been here for more than a few years. And with that, it shows the continuity. It shows the progression of being able to kind of move up. And that's how you retain and attract new talent. And I just want to just say kudos to the team for the executive team for their leadership. And I think that shows in this file here, which I kind of knew the answer to the neighboring cities. I just didn't want to expose that. So I just want to say it in a friendly way that we're probably the top city in the community here. And I feel really good about that. And I think that's kudos to you guys for making sure we continue to be at the top there and we recruit and retain our folks here. So thank you for that.

Thank you.

I would just echo Councilor Ngo's appreciation and kudos to the HR team and the full staff. These are really impressive numbers. You never have full staff. I don't think anyone ever has full staff, at least not for very long. So appreciate that. We've really significantly addressed our vacancy and our staffing shortages and concerns over the last few years. It's a marked difference from when I first got on this council a few years ago and coming out of the pandemic when not just us, but every city and every government is experiencing a lot of turnover and a lot of challenges in retaining employees and keeping employees and attracting employees as well. It looks like we've gotten to a much better place, and kudos to the leadership team here, city manager, and everyone on down for making sure that not only we're filling those vacancies but we're keeping retaining quality staff and employees because those all of you are critical to delivering their services that the community needs and deserves and so appreciate that we're at this point I think this is a great positive and it was a state requirement to have this hearing once every year but great to have good news and great news to share with the community about our staffing status across the board so appreciate that and let's whatever we can do to continue that and just harp on what councilman was saying as well right we'll never never pay better than some other cities especially bigger cities that have more money to give and more money to play with and we have a certain philosophy in terms of our pay pay ranges and make sure we attract good talent but because we don't pay that it's also critical pay top step or top of the line in terms of comparing to especially larger cities and other cities including in this area it's critical and important I think a critical part of our ability to be able to attract and keep staffing levels here is just the culture that we maintain and appreciate the leadership team here at the city and all all the departments and the teams here for making sure that we make this a safe and a great place and a fun place to work where innovation is encouraged and we're a place where people can grow and learn new skills, build those skills, and really do things, cool things in the city. So we really appreciate that. That's part of, I think, the attraction for our city as well. We want to continue to encourage and build on that success over the last few years and whatever we can do to do that and whatever tools we need to do that, let's make sure we're baking that as we go into the next year's budget as well. knowing that we have to set aside some money for the pool and all these other things we gotta do too but just want to make sure that that is not left unsaid but thank you Christine appreciate the work that goes into this I know this is a report but there's so much work that goes into making sure that we don't have vacancies and they're retracting and if you can just remind us off the top of your head how many vacancies we filled over the last fiscal year and how many and any challenge you think might be coming up in the next couple years around that too?

Yes. So I think over the past year, we've conducted 34 full-time recruitments and 32 part-time recruitments, which is an average of about 5.5 recruitments per month, which is a lot for a small team. But the HR risk management team is a great team and they do a good job. And so we've hired, we've promoted 17 current employees to other full-time positions, which is a great opportunity for current employees. We've hired 36 new employees, so non-people who are working here. We've hired 36 of those. And then we were able to also promote seven part-time employees to full-time positions. So, again, having a good applicant pool of employees here to promote is definitely a great foundation for us and helpful for us. But then we also have to fill behind them. So it just kind of it keeps our cycle going

No, but I wanted to make sure you're Showing get able to show off how much I mean a lot of work goes into each recruitment And we have a very small team in terms of HR and recruiting so appreciate the team effort and particularly HR team for I know the last few years also helping to streamline and modernize some of our hiring practices and our are being able to fill some of these vacancies with some of these adjustments to rules and stuff that allow us to do this in a more effective manner, a more modern manner. So I appreciate that.

Definitely. Thank you.

I just want to also echo the sentiments. I know that it's sometimes, you know, the audience may forget that as a city of large size, we're often competing with larger cities or cities with much substantially larger budgets. and the fact that we continue to make progress, I think is something that we should be proud of and certainly let us as a council know how we can support your efforts as well because even with the progress we've made, it just means that the city is able to be in a better position to provide the services that the residents of this community expect.

Yeah, thank you for Christine and the entire HR team for this presentation and the healthy numbers. It's great that we filled so many positions in the last year, and it seems like everyone enjoys working here on this great culture, so kudos to your team.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, and that's all for 11A. So the next item on our public hearing is 11B, annual wait abatement protest hearing. I have to recuse myself from this one, So Mayor Pro Tem will lead this item.

Okay. Item 11B, Annual Wheat Abatement Protest Hearing. Let me open the hearing, and then, of course, we'll have our staff report. So we'll please have a seat. Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. Okay. Are we ready? Okay. Then let me open the hearing. Oh, sorry.

Good evening.

Staff report, please. Thank you.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council. So, I'm going to talk about the, oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jessica. Hello, Jessica. Fire Marshal, Monterey Park. This is a staff report for the annual weed abatement protest hearing. Summary. So County of Los Angeles Department Agricultural Commission weights and measures submitted to the city the annual weed abatement declaration list and resolution declaring the weeds, brush, rubbish, refuse, and dirt maintained on certain private properties and city and public nuisance. At the regular City Council meeting on February 4th, 2026, City Council adopted the resolution 2026-R3 approving the 2026-R3.

list the county mailed notices on or about January 12th to be recorded each owner of each parcel included on the list declaring that their parcel is existing future or a potential hazard the county advised that the excuse me it considers a parcel of a future excuse me or potential hazard if the parcel is not completely landscaped or irrigated there's a potential for weed growth the The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established an inspection fee of $59.07 for the 2026 cycle. The county advised that the city, March 12th, is the last day that the city can request or the county can authorize removal of a parcel to the declared list. If the council elects to remove a parcel from the declared list, if it becomes a nuisance at the later date, the city will have placed that parcel on an individual declaration list and will have to hold an individual protest for each parcel. The proposed action supports the city's goals to ensure public safety with a modernized and community-oriented approach by reducing wildfire risk through proactive vegetation management and maintaining safe conditions throughout the community. The City of Monterey Park has been contracting with the County of Los Angeles since 1992 for weed abatement services. No fiscal impacts are anticipated to affect actual expenditures or revenues. Furthermore, no redirection of available staff time, supplies, or services will be required.

Okay. Thank you very much for that presentation. And let's see, because this is a hearing, I'd like to invite... Oh, no public comment? Okay. No one from the public wishes to... Okay. Members, do we have any questions?

No comments here.

Okay. Hearing none, then I will close the hearing, and then we'll proceed with the item. So, this close the hearing.

Okay. We have before us a resolution.

I'll make the motion to stop the staff recommendation.

Moved by Council Member Wong.

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Ngo. Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

All right, that's all for our public hearing. Moving on to the last item of our new business, 12B.

Madam Mayor, members of the council, our finance team is making their way down. Just give us one second.

This is consideration of the first reading and introduction of ordinance expanding the lifeline utility rate program and clarifying utility billing and collection procedures, a resolution establishing a wastewater lifeline discount, and a resolution increasing water service deposits.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem and Councilmembers. Martha Garcia, Finance Director. The Monterey Park Municipal Code Chapters 6.08 and 14.12 establish utility service rules, procedures, and criteria, including both the city's and customer's responsibilities. The attached proposed ordinance amends several sections in Chapters 6.08 and 14.12 and adds chapters 14.14 and 14.18 to expand the Lifeline Utility Rate Program and clarify billing collections and other responsibilities for water, wastewater, and other city billed charges. The city is responsible for the production, treatment, and distribution of potable water to its residents and businesses. any resident of utility services from the city is equally responsible for adhering to the rules and regulations set forth in this ordinance, which includes the timely payment for utility service, including potable water and waste water services. In the event that a bill for providing utility services to its residents and businesses becomes delinquent, The city will apply the procedures outlined in the attached ordinance to fairly and efficiently recover these fees due to the city. This ordinance outlines the requirements to establish the utility account, the city's billing process, and options for averting any discontinuation of their utility service for nonpayment. Domestic water customers residing in single family homes who meet the income guidelines established for eligibility are currently eligible to participate in the city's lifeline program. At present, there are 674 utility customers who meet established income guidelines. The city's current lifeline water rate went into effect in July of 2020. water rate discount in July of 2020 and currently provides program participants with a $12.06 monthly discount for water meter charges. Staff analyzed prior year water and wastewater interest, revenue, and late fee actuals for fiscal year 2425 and current year water and wastewater interest, revenue, and late fee budgeted for fiscal year 25 26 and concluded that the wastewater rate discount is more sustainable is a more sustainable discount rate currently the city does not have a wastewater discount rate established for lifeline participants establishing a wastewater discount rate for lifeline participants is a decision that can be have various impacts on both the community and the utility system If council direct staff to move forward with a voice water discount rate while benefiting qualifying community members, it will also It may also reduce revenue for maintaining the city's aging wastewater infrastructure However, based on staff's evaluation analysis of both the water and wastewater funds And taking into consideration the cost for providing the lifeline discount It is staff's recommendation to replace the current $12.06 water discount with a wastewater discount by discounting the fixed wastewater rate currently at $22.46. This would accomplish two important things. It would provide a much-needed discount to qualifying participants, and this rate would allow the program to adequately be funded without putting undue strain on the funds necessary to maintain and repair the city's water and wastewater infrastructure. Moving on to water deposits. Water deposits in the city are currently based on meter size. Although meter sizes have remained unchanged, the cost of providing water service has increased significantly since the deposits were originally established in 1992. Staff conducted research on water deposit requirements in surrounding cities and found that deposits are typically no less than $100 for a single-family dwelling. Based on this analysis staff recommends increasing water deposits by $50 for each meter size. This increase would establish a $100 deposit for a single family dwelling which is approximately equivalent to one month of average utility services. Collecting this amount would help ensure that the deposit is sufficient to cover most if not all of the final month of water service. And this concludes my presentation.

Just one simple question. I think that the comment here says authorizing deposit increase of $50 per meter.

What is the new amount? It's currently $50 and it would go up to $100.

Okay.

Thank you, Martha. Appreciate the presentation. On the lifeline rate part of this, I really appreciate the team coming back with this option. talking about how we can augment and enhance the Lifeline program for residents that are in need so appreciate that we're coming back with this option which looks great and a great opportunity to realign how it's funded right every all residents get their residents and businesses get their water and their sewer bill together because the sewer is based on their water use so it's a creative way to kind of shift that but also to really just make this a more robust lifeline program and discount program in terms of the actual amount that's going to be allocated for people that are income qualified. So thank you for putting this together. I really appreciate it. I very much support this and want to see this approved. It looks like it'll go from, right, the estimate for this is just under $100,000 for the current lifeline program for almost doubling the lifeline amount. The estimate's about $180,000 for the next year, For a full fiscal year and then that would obviously would that escalate or that that's a flat amount going forward

The $22 and 46 cents is is in this fiscal year next year. It'll go up I don't have that number, but it's a bit it will go up slightly slightly in I want to say maybe around 24 dollars And but the resolution will allow us if council approves it tonight Will allow us to increase it next fiscal year to continue to provide a discount for the the flat sewer rate Okay, so it'll be lined up, it'll align with whatever the flat rate is. Yes, as long as we have enough, as long as there's enough interest revenue coming in, we should be fine. If there ever is a decrease, we can come back to council to come up with a different solution for our Lifeline program participants. Great. Matt, you led into my next question in terms of the source of funding for the Lifeline program.

So that's so if if not well currently the Lifeline program that is funded by interest generated by the waterfront right funds that are sitting in the water fund Is that right or is it not general fund not the general fund? And so we just shift that money that's earning interest in the sewer fund. That's correct And that's you know about how much is being generated

Interest was about 200 a little bit over 200,000 last fiscal year And we're estimating the same if not more this fiscal year. Okay, so it would get kind of close to where

Kind of the total amount of interest that's already been that's correct Is there I mean if if God forbid there's a recession in the next few months or next year and we see More people right fall into The qualifications for a lifeline and that exceeds the whatever $200,000 interest that's generated in the the sewer fund What so you staff would have to come back to council to receive on which we're just going to essentially Not allow new lifeline Accounts or how does that work?

Well week what we could do is come back to council and reduce to what we are expecting an interest revenue So instead of providing currently we're asking for a to offset the flat rate And if the interest start to interest rates interest revenue starts to be less than the flat rate Then we will come back to council to ask for a more of a permanent lower rate for our For our participants so you would lower the plan would be to Lower the amount per per participant. Yes, okay, so we would not we would never stop participants from From being in the program.

Okay, and then I I don't know kind of looking at Carl but kind of not but But if we exceed the, right, if there's more qualified for the lifeline rate than we have interest earnings available in that fund, would we be able to dip into, like, the water fund interest earnings or general fund interest earnings? And I know there are constitutional issues with that, but I'm just curious if we are able to tap other potential interest earnings or other potential fundings.

We could, again, we'd have to come back to council because of the way our resolution, but we could definitely move back to the water fund interest revenue.

Okay. Yeah. No, I appreciate that, and I appreciate our thinking through this. I fully support the lifeline part of this. And then for the deposits, just to confirm, so if the council moves forward on approving this new deposit amount, this would only apply going forward. We're not going to go after the increased deposit requirement for existing accounts. That's correct. No, it would just be for new accounts. And then for, oh, sorry, back to the Lifeline program. So the Lifeline, only single-family residences are eligible for Lifeline?

Only single-family residents are.

So I know a lot of renters, their water bill is already baked into their rent, but there are some newer renters in condos or other places. Well, if they have their separate meter, they're getting, they're treated like a single-family residence, right?

If there's a single meter, yes, they would be getting it. They have to be paying for their own water. That individual, that family would have to have an account with the city

I don't know if we do allow submetering, but if we do have submetering, if someone is on a submeter or on a master meter or one meter in an apartment complex and they figured out how to sub meter and have split bills for usage for each of their tenants or whatever. I'm just curious if there's a way to make sure that they are eligible for the lifeline program in some way, shape, or form. I don't know. I don't know if Sean might have something on this.

so I'm not aware of any sub-metering that's going on typically we would not get involved with sub-metering because we can't track that it would be very difficult for us to to maneuver through sub-metering because that's on the private side so yeah

They would have to figure out on there yeah

they would not qualify for the program

so apartment owners HOA's well HOA's I guess wouldn't be eligible for a lifeline program correct that's particularly because we don't we wouldn't know how to administer that kind of discount for them because they don't get their own bill correct if there if you want if you have some extra time Martha you want to figure out a way to do that I'm all ears but understand the logistical constraints to doing that.

I appreciate and understand the need to increase the deposit amount. That amount has not been changed in more than 30 years. They're almost 35 years at this rate. I think long overdue for some amount, and that tends to cover a lot of people's final bills when they move out or move somewhere else or all that kind of stuff. So understand very much the need to have a deposit amount, but also making sure we're balancing not over overdoing it but it sounds like getting to $100 is around the average bill for for most people in terms of water and sewer bill so sounds like the right amount for me

thank you Martha and staff for this presentation you know I am also in support of strengthening the lifeline program I think that as my colleague Councilman Wong said that hopefully we will not be seeing a recession, but nonetheless I know that even in the current situation we are in the United States that many people are struggling and that certainly any opportunity in which we can, as a city, help our fellow residents who are facing challenges, then I am in favor of it as well.

Yeah, same with me as well. if we can help our residents and committee members who need it without adding to the city's budget and also increasing the deposit for new accounts going forward. I think $50 will help the city cover some of these expenses. So anyone want to make a motion?

I'll move staff recommendation.

I'll second.

Okay, let's vote.

approved unanimously.

Thank you, Martha.

Madam Mayor, members of the council just wanted to point out that we do have resources available on our city's webpage that explains if there's individuals that need assistance with other types of bills that the city does not bill for. Electric billing, gas billing, there's programs for qualified residents so that information is also available on our webpage we'll definitely make sure that that information is being updated regularly as well

Great, thank you all right any city communications

I'll start was you know busy two weeks since the last council meeting as mentioned earlier we actually did the celebration of the Laura Scudder Centennial at the Garvey Ranch or Garvey Ranch Park or aka the Historical Society Museum for Monterey Park well attended and it was good to kind of see the history of the Scudder family when they moved into the city how big that plant became and it basically put us on a map nationally so kudos to that family and thank you John Scudder, the grandson of Laura Scudder, who continues to pass on that legacy and share her story. As Robert mentioned, we had Clippers night, 220 people. I don't think I recognize 200 of those, maybe recognize about 100 of the family members who were there. But Clippers won. They were above 500 that night, and now they're slipped below 500. So they've got a shot at the playoffs, NBA playoffs. Then earlier last week we also attended the Monterey Park Fire Welcome. The Monterey Park Fire Department welcomed the fire department from Morelia. We donated some of our uniforms and past fire equipment. I call them oxygen tanks or air apparatus. It was good to meet our sister city in Mexico and to share with the council members as well as the fire chief. Just to put into perspective of how lucky we are, we are a size of, call it five square miles, 60,000 people. We have about 70 firefighters. The city of Morelia has 50 miles. They have 50 firefighters. Yeah, square miles, like 50 square miles. And it's just incredible how lucky we are compared to other parts of the world and the fire department and fire support. So just blessed to have to share the experiences with our sister city on that and how we can help. And then the prior Saturday, everyone here, city council and senior staff, we spent eight hours on our city's strategic planning. We do this once a year. We meet and sit for eight hours to plan out the next year, the next three years, the five-year plan. And so good to see that we continue to meet and just strategize on how to make the city of Monterey Park the best place to live, the best place to work, and the best place to play. So really proud of that. That's all I have.

Just ditto everything he said.

Ditto as well. Also, I do want to acknowledge, as my colleagues mentioned, our strategic planning meeting. It's an event that we do every year, and it is open to the public. And this was, for me, my seventh strategic planning meeting. And as always, it's an opportunity for council and staff to talk about vision and goals for the future, as well as taking assessment of what we've accomplished in the path of what we need to do. And so, again, I just appreciate and I want the public to know that this is an exercise that we do every year because as a city we do take very seriously our ability to assess and to also look ahead into the future and to how we can better serve the residents of this community of Monterey Park. And then also I wanted to also just ask staff as well. For our city website, if we could also, I know we have as resources like mental health services, victim resources, But can we also just take a look and make sure that we also have up-to-date resources for survivors and victims of domestic violence and include state and county resources, you know, such as the State Department of Justice resources page, as well as the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence? And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I think, in fact, I think we even had a brief discussion before the council meeting, is that I think that a lot of people have been reeling and rattled by the news today about allegations concerning longtime labor leader Cesar Chavez and reports, very deeply reports, deeply troubling reports about harm he did to many women, including Dolores Huerta. And I think it's important to acknowledge those experiences and also commit ourselves as a society to accountability for anyone, no matter who they are, who inflict domestic violence on others. And I think that probably collectively what we can all do to also uplift and acknowledge those who have been victimized by domestic violence to make sure that we have resources available to share with the community. And so that's why I would like to ask the staff just to make sure that to take a look at what we list as far as resources for victims of domestic violence and make sure that if they need updating that we can do that as well. And again, just to show how the name of Cesar Chavez impacts all of us, we have a street actually named after Cesar Chavez, not to mention at one point the United Farm Workers had an office not too far on Beverly in East L.A., and not to mention people who work for the UFW at one time or another worked and lived in either Monterey Park or the San Gabriel Valley. So again, this is something that impacts all of us. And so I think it's important as the country and this state, you know, continues to learn more about these allegations and the victims of Cesar Chavez, that we also do our part of the community to make sure that for our residents and for people in the surrounding community that we also provide resources to those who themselves may have been one or another or continue to be victims of domestic violence. So thank you.

Thank you. Additionally, a few more other events that happened. Last week we had a ribbon cutting for a new business in Monterey Park, Rework Me. They're a new gym right on Atlantic Boulevard right next to Shinano Restaurant. So if anyone's looking to get a personal trainer or do fitness, definitely check out Rework Me. The library also hosted a really creative and sold-out event. It was a Bridgerton-themed tea party at El Encanto, which I attended, and it was really fun. I hope the library will do it again because I think a lot of other people wanted to attend, but it was sold out within half a day. And then Kim Lee Horn has been hosting five community walks along different areas of our city, Garfield, Floral, Atlantic, Garvey. I know a resident, Bill Land, back there, has been pretty much attending all of them and giving great feedback. So it's a great way to collect data and information on how we can make our sidewalks and streets more walkable. Let's see. Tomorrow is Monterey Vista's 100-year celebration. I mean, Friday. Yeah, Friday is Monterey Vista's 100-year celebration. And then next Monday is our March meet-up with the mayor. It will be Monday, 5 o'clock at Jumping Lobster. And that's all I have. Anything else? Otherwise, happy birthday to our Fire Chief, Jason Hing, one more time. Anything else? No?

Madam Mayor, just wanted to chime in. We did request that Garvey School District and Monterey Vista School come to a council meeting, upcoming council meeting. Definitely we have that scheduled. They had some conflicts, so I think we have that planned for April 15th as the first date that's available, So we'll ask them to be here so that we can honor their 100 year.

Great.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

And we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 9.13 p.m. Thank you, everyone, and good night. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.