City Council Meeting_ Apr 15_ 2026

Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you. All right, careful. Everyone say hi to Councilman Sessions.

Why aren't you guys losing the novel?

I'm sorry. I'll be going for our factoring while that means we do. Oh, good, good, good.

Yeah, we have nine.

Say hi there. Thank you. No, I don't know. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. We're going to just need a few minutes. We're having technical difficulties with some of our equipment, and we do live stream our meetings. So if we can bear with us while we get that connection resolved, it would just be just a few minutes.

Thank you so much.

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All right, we're going to call this meeting to order. and we'll start with the land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tavangar, the home of the We show our respect to the 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 Gabrile-Neal-Tongva people, invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land. Now everyone please rise for the flag salute which will be done by the Monterey Park Police Explorers.

Thank you.

Please put your right hand over your heart.

Ready, begin.

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

and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Forward, colors.

Upward, face.

Forward. Forward.

Post. Good.

About. Place. Dismissed.

Thank you. You may be seated.

Madam Clerk, may we have a roll call please.

Councilmember Ngo.

Present.

Councilmember Wong.

Councilmember Sanchez.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Lo. Here.

Mayor Yang.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Any agenda revisions or additions?

Madam Mayor, I would like to request to move up presentation items before staff communication because we have guests in the audience tonight. So if we can do that, that would be much appreciated.

All right.

Sounds good. Everyone's good with that? All right. We'll move up presentation after public communications. So we have two public speakers tonight. First one is Dawn Rock.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, and dedicated staff. My name is Dawn Rock, and first of all, I'd like to congratulate the Mark Heppel High School and Garfield High School academic decathlon teams for a successful school year.

On behalf of the Monterey Park Historical Society, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you, the city staff, and the volunteers for a successful Cherry Blossom Festival. and although I don't recall anyone here with a new membership to the Monterey Park Historical Society or Museum, we did receive a few new memberships this weekend. We didn't give away all of our jars of Laura's Gutter peanut butter, however the outreach was fun and enjoyable. And right next door to the Historical Society booth was the Align with Purpose booth, or AWP for short, AWP is a new nonprofit organization committed to strengthening our community's health and well-being, starting with the restoration of the Barnes Park Pool. Thanks to the incredible turnout at the Cherry Blossom Festival, we had the opportunity to share our mission, raise awareness, and connect with so many people who believe in our cause. Align with Purpose is a nonprofit rooted in community, connection, and care. We believe that when people come together with intention and heart, meaningful change is possible. As longtime residents of Monterey Park, many of us, as former Manta Reyes and Mark Keppel swim team competitors, Monterey Park City lifeguards, and some of us current parents and grandparents of swimmers, came together to rebuild the Barnes Park pool. We look forward to working collaboratively with all entities wanting to achieve the same goal. Our officers include Paula Kurlich, who is our president, the longtime resident of Monterey Park, student of Inez and Mark Keppel High School, swim team member of both Manta Reyes and Mark Keppel High School, and great-granddaughter of Mr. Bruggermeyer of Bruggermeyer Library. Jenna Martin who had just passed out the goodies for you she's our treasurer, long-time resident of Monterey Park student at Repetto and Mark Keppel High School graduate member of both Manta Rays and Mark Keppel swim teams and Debbie Yamamoto, secretary, long-term resident of Monterey Park Brightwood and Alhambra High School graduate Monterey Park lifeguard and mom of Markepple High School water polo swim team member and current Monterey Park City lifeguard. Our co-founders are Armando Ng, a long-time resident of Monterey Park. He is also president of the MK Aquatic Boosters and dad of a current Mark Keppel High School swim team member. And I'm also a co-founder, long-time resident of Mark Keppel, er Monterey Park. Hillcrest Garvey, Mark Keppel graduate, swim team member of both Manta Rays and aMark Keppel, and lifeguard for the city of Monterey Park. This was our first event, the first of many, and I'm happy to announce that so far, we raised through in-kind and monetary donations a total of $2,907.60, which is a great start. All monetary donations are tax-deductible. Yay, happy tax day to everybody. and we'll go towards the rebuilding of Barnes Park Aquatic Center. One of our giveaways was a customized bookmark that you were given designed to educate parents about water safety while inspiring children to discover the joy and importance of learning to swim. The QR code directs readers to our website where they can find a link to the Monterey Park and neighboring communities' recreation pages for information on water safety and swim lessons. If you weren't able to attend, you can still be part of the movement. Please visit our website at www.savebarnesparkpool.org to learn more and join us in bringing our pool back to life. As always, thank you for your time, your service, and your continued support. Thank you.

Thank you, Dawn. Next speaker is Jairokemi.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, staff, and community.

we actually allow people to rent out our bikes for months long, months long periods at a time, as opposed to like daily or hourly rentals they may be more familiar with. This means that participants can take the bikes home and use them as they see fit to their needs, whether it's active, you know, commuting, errands, or just for fun. I'm pleased to share that residents of Monterey Park are actually eligible for a discounted rate of $75 for a rental for one year for $75 or just $6.26 per month, along with a refundable deposit. For those looking to actually purchase a bike, we are also actually working with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments to support the distribution of a $2,000 voucher towards the purchase of a cargo bike. the distribution of a $2,000 voucher towards a purchase of a cargo bike again available to residents of Monterey Park both the rental programs discounted rate and the voucher program are largely supported by Metro's Express Lanes net total revenue program and the great support and administration from the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Governments so having shared a little bit about that program and if I just might editorialize a little bit it's a really great program that a lot of people should get in on I'm hoping to have some of your support tonight and getting the word out we've put together a really simple and easy to use toolkit with graphics and blurbs that you can put out on either your personal communication channels or even better on official city newsletters and communications so if you have any questions about the program or are ready to help us get the word out you can reach out to myself or my colleagues by emailing us at info at gosgb.com and for your convenience i've also had my business card shared with you thank you for your time and your attention on this and i hope to be back here delivering bikes soon enough thank you

Thank you, Hiram.

Mayor, just to confirm, I think we have been promoting this program. If we haven't, if we can.

Yes, we have. We've sent it out on social media, and it's also available on our webpage information.

Whatever we can do to continue that, that'd be great.

All right, so now we're going to go into our three presentations, starting with item 8A, Los Angeles Astronomical Society's 100th anniversary recognition.

Madam Mayor and members of the council, tonight we have two members from the Astronomical Society. We have Keith Armstrong and Tim Thompson, if you'd like to join us at the front podium here. For the community's benefit, we do have a partnership with the LA Astronomical Society who runs our Garvey Ranch Observatory. So thank you again for your partnership. And tonight we're honoring the society for their 100th year anniversary. I understand you have a celebration this weekend. If you'd like to share with the community about that.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor and Council members, for sharing your time with us. We do have our actual celebration that we're doing at Griffith Observatory that I understand that you will be attending, which I am grateful for, will be happening on April 25th rather than this weekend. You scared the heck out of me when you said it was this weekend. I'm not ready for that.

So thank you for that. My pulse is slowly settling. Despite the honor of being able to speak in front of you all today, I feel at best to defer this time spent to Tim Thompson, who has been the president of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society for a lot longer than I have been, and he has a deeper connection with the community and the Earth in general, I would say. So with no further ado, Tim Thompson.

Thank you. Thank you for honoring our centennial. We appreciate it very much. The Los Angeles Astronomical Society has been operating the observatory in Garvey Ranch Park since 1987. The observatory itself was opened in 1965. The building is older than that. So we've been serving the community for 60 years. I've been there since 1975. This is my 51st year at the observatory. And I was the last president of the Monterey Park Astronomical Society, which was founded in part by Leonard Norman, who was the city's director of parks and recreation back in the 70s. I've been president of the society several times. I'm technically currently the director of the Garvey Observatory, but there are so many of us who do that it doesn't matter if it's me. But we are open every Wednesday night. So unfortunately, we're open when you're meeting. But we're open until 10 o'clock and the park is open until 10.30. So when you get out of this meeting, you're welcome to come to the observatory and see what we're doing for your community. I appreciate you very much. And with your permission, we're going to go back there now and we will be there waiting for you when you get there. Thank you.

Well, we have a certificate from the city to celebrate your centennial celebration. So council's going to come down, present it to you, and we can take a picture. There's so many students here tonight, so they can all join you after they get their certificates.

That's right. Head over to the observatory.

Also, I've been to the observatory, and actually one night while we got open, I saw Saturn. I mean, a blurry image, but it was Saturn nonetheless. Oh, hey.

I apologize.

Thank you.

if I may. For those of you guys who are in the audience and have not had the privilege of going to the observatory, I highly recommend you visit. It's one of the local treasures here in Monterey Park to have our own observatory that's open every Wednesday. But right next door is also the Historical Society and Museum. And I know there's some people here. And you can double dip there. And we have an amazing park at Garvey Ranch that my daughters love going to as well. We have young ones. So thank you so much for everything that you do

for being there every Wednesday.

I know my daughters really enjoy going and visiting. It's a little late, but we do stop by here and there. But Henry and I will definitely try to make it afterwards.

Actually, we did go one time, and that's when we saw Saturn.

We can arrange a special session. You're important people.

All right, we'll definitely talk. Thank you so much for being here.

Okay, next item is 8B, Mark Keppel High School Academic Decathlon Team.

Does anyone want to, does the coach want to say a few words?

I'm a little shy, but I'll say something. Thank you so much for this recognition, Mayor Yang, Mayor Pro Tem Henry Lo, council members, especially Councilman Jose Sanchez, also known as Alhambra Coach. And especially we have some dignitaries. My boss, the principal of Mark Keppel, a graduate of Mark Keppel. Please stand up, Ms. Perez. Okay. And we also have parents from, they sort of adopted the team, Mr. and Mrs. Mata. And Mr. Mata and I are graduates of another park, Huntington Park High School, LA Unified. We had a very successful year, and it is not just due to one effort of the coach. The team itself is actually a conglomeration of all the efforts of the whole class, the whole school community. We received tremendous support from Mark Keppel PTSA, Alliance, and all the taxpayers. And, yeah, we definitely couldn't do it alone. And the funny thing is I work closely with Jose and helping the new San Gabriel coach along, and our results are always very similar. And I think when we go to state, they always know that we're going to be near the top. And I want to also congratulate Coach Sanchez. He pulled a royal flush on us at county, and I'll never forgive him for those three points. But we did okay at state. But we always consider ourselves, and me especially, privileged to work in this community. I live in Diamond Bar, and I have friends across the country when I tell them I work in Monterey Park. And they ask, oh, is that sort of like near Beverly Hills? Because they think L.A., they think Beverly Hills. I go, well, it's the Beverly Hills for the Chinese. And it's a privilege to work here for 16 years at Inez and then the remaining years at Keppel, and especially with my awesome principal, Mr. Perez. in terms of my team, they kicked butt. They did the best they could, and we didn't win county. We didn't win state, but I always emphasize to them, you're not going to win all the time, but you must conduct yourself as winners. Thank you.

Thank you, Coach.

Madam Mayor, if I could just also add, because I think Coach Tran's being a little modest. his team did exceptionally well, and I do want to share that their high score was extremely high this year. They scored among the top, not just in the county, but throughout the state with an overall score of 49,044. And they had the two highest scores in the county, and I know they're here, so I want to recognize them as well. Ivan Liu, who was the number one score in L.A. County, with 9,190 points. So congratulations, Ivan. And the third highest score in L.A. County, Amber Kuo, with 8,877.

Just wanted to make sure that they were recognized. And, of course, that would not have been possible without an amazing coach that Coach Tran is. And in fact, I take a lot of credit to that because Coach Tran, not to his success, but to my success, because Coach Tran really helped me develop as a coach as well. So that's what great coaches do. So thank you.

Well, thank you to both coaches. And we have certificates to recognize all the students here today. So congratulations on earning second place at the L.A. County Academic Decathlon, and thank you for representing Mark Keppel High School. Congratulations, all.

Line up by score.

I can hear congratulations on the floor.

Thank you. To me, there's three million.

To me, there's three million million million million million million million million million million million million

million million million million million million million

Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you.

You guys welcome to stay, but I'm hungry.

All right, and we have another decathlon team to recognize here.

the guard

the Garfield High School Academic Decathlon Team. Is there a coach from the Garfield High School team who would like to say a few words?

Hello, Mayor, Council Members. I was not expecting to speak, so I'm kind of just a, you know, nervous. But for anyone here who doesn't know what academic decathlon is, pretty much we study 10 different subjects, ranging from math to social science, English to speeches and interviews. And I think one of the big things that goes unheard of for a lot of academic decathlon teams is not just the competition and not just the studying, but I think it's a lot of the family bonds that are formed between the team members as well as the coaches. We've spent months preparing for these exams and preparing for speeches and interviews, and I think that really changes a lot of the perspectives that students have about studying but also about family. I think especially with these students coming from East LA, family means a lot to them. I think the community means a lot to them. And I think not only have they performed exceptionally well, in fact, this is our first time winning first place at our regional competition, but also I think this means a lot to the community as a whole. I think for a bunch of students who have been in a very disadvantageous position, not only because of the community, but also because of the circumstances surrounding them. I think this is their one outlet to show that they can indeed compete with the best of the best. And they have performed exceptionally well, I believe getting 15th out of the entire state competition, which is exceptionally well for a bunch of people who I think throughout their lives were told that they would not amount to much. Sorry. I think they've proven themselves time and time again. I think we've definitely had our struggles over the past several years, and I think they've not only overcome those struggles and those trials and tribulations, but have performed exceptionally well this year. And I want to thank them. They've basically are a second family to me, and I think they've found a second family within the team as well. And so I think there's a lot of emotions and feelings that go through that's beyond just testing and beyond competition that goes unsaid. And I think this is a weird occasion. I feel like a lot of us have never been in a situation to be able to present in front of such esteemed people. And I think for a lot of them, it's the first experience. For me, it's also my first experience just being in front of a chamber like this. And I think it can be overwhelming, but I think it's also a nod to what they are capable of. And I hope that moving forward from here, they can take this experience and continue doing great things in the future. Thank you.

Well madam mayor if i could just also add um uh i'm very proud because in monterey park we have four different school districts that serve our city um lausd is is one of them um and lausd is particularly um in the district that i serve on in monterey park um and i know a lot of My neighbors go to Garfield High School. So I wanted to make sure when I saw the news and saw that you guys had won, it made me extremely proud as a representative of extended to Garfield High School. And I wanted to highlight that Garfield High School, this is your first championship, right? So congratulations on that and for making your community and Monterey Park in extension proud of your accomplishment. But I also want to acknowledge their overall score, high score, was the highest in LAUSD at 44,336 points. So congratulations.

And I also wanted to highlight that they had the third highest score in LAUSD. Joseph Villa, can you stand up? Is Joseph here? It's 8,267 points.

So good job, guys.

And I think we have certificates for them, right?

Yes, we definitely do have certificates. And amazing speech, Coach. It's so heartwarming to hear the struggles you guys have overcome and the successes you guys have accomplished and the family that you guys have created out of this ordeal. So congratulations, and we'll come and pass out certificates. Please come up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One more.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wow. Well, congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations.

All right, now we go back to staff communications. 7A City Manager's Office.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Diana Garcia, Assistant City Manager. This evening I'd like to highlight a few surveys and events that we've got going on across the city. The first will be the monthly compost giveaway that's going to be taking place on the 18th in Garvey Ranch Park. Free compost is available to all of our Monterey Park residents, first come, first served, and limit of two bags per customer during the first hour. That's a monthly event, and the next one is going to be on the 18th. The following will be May 9th. We've also mentioned this, but we wanted to give everybody another opportunity to take the Ware Disposal Customer Satisfaction Survey. This survey is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese using the QR code here, and this survey will be open through the end of the month. So we'd like to please have residents participate so that we can understand what's going well and what needs to be improved. Additionally, residents can vote for the second annual Community Choice Awards. Nominations are already open, and they'll close at the end of May, and the winners will be announced at the State of the City event on June 9th. Residents and non-residents can vote for favorite restaurant, retail, service provider, and non-profit, so please get in and nominate your favorites now. And then finally, this survey ends on the 19th of April. This is our communication survey. The city is conducting this survey to better understand how the public receives city information, what topics they're interested in, and will shape our citywide communications. So this is open to all of our residents, people who work in Monterey Park, business owners in Monterey Park. Please, this is your last chance to get those thoughts in. And it's also available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. and just wanted to give a shout out to Sitlali Tejeda. She is our Civic Spark Fellow who's been working on citywide communications. So please give her your feedback. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Diana. Any questions, comments? No? All right. Thank you for all that information. Lots of surveys for the community to complete and give feedback. Next up, we have Recreation and Community Services.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Councilmembers, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services, here just to share a few updates of upcoming programs and events. So just want to first start off by thanking everyone that came out to our Cherry Blossom Festival this past weekend. Super successful event. Want to give a special shout out to our event committee of volunteers, but also want to highlight the amazing work that our recreation team did, especially our recreation manager, Cristina Alatorre, recreation supervisors Orlando Mudo, Memo Chavez, also our recreation coordinators Alejandra Suaza, Shannon Rodriguez, Scott Imezumi, and also our recreation specialist Chan Lim, and also Michelle Chin and Cristina Garcia. I wanted to name them all just because they did such an exceptional job and did so many countless hours of hard work. And this year's event was so smooth, so successful, massive crowd, lots of booths out there. And just at the end of the day, tons of happy, enjoyable times, and people really had a good time. So I just wanted to make sure I shouted them out. Also wanted to do a special thank you to all the other city departments that helped make this event successful. Because although the rec department is leading that event, it definitely is a whole team effort to make it successful. So thank you. Next slide, please. I also wanted to invite everyone out. We have our annual Happy Birthday Monterey Park Play Days Carnival coming up May 7th through the 10th. That will kick off on May 7th with our Cinco de Mayo celebration, which will have our mariachi with also a band, Sangre Nueva, that will be playing some dancing music right after. So come out to kick off on that. On that Friday, we'll have an 80s band, and then on that Saturday, we'll have a 90s band. And then on Sunday, we'll finalize the event with our AAPI Heritage Month Entertainment on that Sunday. So we're looking forward to that. You can get pre-sale tickets for the carnival currently on the city's website at montereypark.ca.gov backslash playdays. And if you get your pre-sale tickets now, you can save up to $8 on each of those all-you-can-ride wristbands. So I encourage everyone to get those savings now. Next slide, please. I do want to share that our first annual MPK campout actually sold out in the first 30 minutes of release. So this is an exciting event. This is our first one. So we have over 200 participants that will be coming out to that campout event. And, you know, we're starting out. We want to make sure that this event runs well. And in future years, we do expect to expand it. We do want to make sure this first year has a great experience for all that come out, and then we will continue to grow this event. We definitely see that there is an interest, and so we're looking forward to providing a memorable evening for our residents. And then also wanted just to highlight, we are going to be starting registration for our KidVentures summer camp. So if you're a parent that's looking for some activities for this summer, we do have weekly camps. Get to sign-ups now. at montereypark.ca.gov backslash kidventurecamp and get those signups now because we will fill up as well. So just want to encourage people to sign up. Our activities are well-liked and they are staffed as an amazing job. So always pay attention to our social media, city's website for all the upcoming activities, events, and as I mentioned, get in early because things are popular. So thank you. And that completes my presentation. I'm available for any questions.

May I, Mayor? Robert, I want to congrats you guys for Cherry Blossom, not because of the work that was done, but the work behind the scene that wasn't done. Because I remember going up there Thursday, seeing you and Inez preparing for the storm that was coming all of Saturday and Sunday. But luckily, that storm only came in a very small period on Sunday morning, which the event wasn't even open. But just to know that you guys prepped and prepared for the inevitable, that tells me how well prepared we were for the event. And God willing, beautiful sunshine both days. So congrats on a great event.

Thank you.

I'll just echo the council members' kudos on Cherry Blossom Festival. I think every year, at least the years I've been on council. Council. It gets bigger and better every year. So we appreciate the work from the city staff team, but also the Cherry Blossom Committee. I want to make sure they get a shout out or some sort of appreciation as well. Otherwise Travis will get mad at me. But I want to make sure appreciate them and the volunteers. I know there's a whole volunteer team that helps put the programming together and everything as well. So great event, great turnout. On Saturday, a lot of people, I think the rain and the muddy-ish fields may have deterred a few people. on Sunday, but still great turnout when I came by. And people were supporting local businesses and the food vendors and really being able to enjoy Barnes Park and the city of Monterey Park in our celebration of culture. It was great to see and great to see that these events are the campout, obviously, this event, play days, everything has for years been a great draw for the community and great opportunity for the community to come together. So appreciate all the work that Parks and Community Services are doing.

Robert I'm going to echo this the same thing I'm very um I'm always very impressed how well um your team does um with a lot of these really large events uh so and and and like how Council Member Wong said that you know just keeps growing and becomes really great my daughters look forward to it every year in fact on Saturday we came like three times uh just so good but uh we went home and they were like, can we go back? And we did three times. So anyhow, very appreciative of that. I did have questions about the campout. I'm not sure if you can share now just a little bit about what the campout will look like in terms of.

So folks will be expected to bring their own camp equipment. There will be spots laid out throughout Barnes Park. We'll also be showing, there will be a Hawaiian theme to the evening. We'll also be showing a movie that night with Lilo and Stitch. so there will be arts and crafts activities also chick-fil-a will be sponsoring the dinner that evening and then so we have a number of activities our fire department is also going to be doing s'mores with the kids in in the park and so yeah there'll be activities all the way until about 10 o'clock then we'll do lights out and in the morning we'll have a breakfast as well

yeah oh that sounds amazing all right thank you for sharing that

you know I think it's a testament to how famous our Cherry Blossom event is because I think during the weekend I had friends texting me who don't live in Amari Park who asked me like over their hours and also again kudos for just promoting the event so well because I think I was driving in my car and I was at Coast FM radio and they announced the Cherry Blossom Festival on the radio awesome yeah

Awesome. Yeah, we actually had a few cities from out east that actually brought some of their seniors on a senior excursion to the festival. So I thought that was really cool.

Yeah, amazing job. Great performances, tons of vendors, bigger every year, and really grateful that the weather cooperated all weekend. And the camp out, I'm like so excited that it's sold out in 30 minutes. Did you say 200 families will be attending?

200 folks, so about 40 families.

Okay, got it, got it.

And then we'll continue to grow that year after year.

Yeah, yeah. I hope it's a big success.

Absolutely.

Yeah, thanks for the great events.

Thank you.

All right, next is our consent calendar.

We have a speaker on 10F, so we'll pull 10F. any other ones that need to be pulled

just 10G for me for just a quick report or just a report from the staff

10G

I'll move consent the remaining

council member Wong moves

I'll second

council member Sanchez seconds let's vote

Approved unaninmously.

All right. So public speaker on 10F, Maychelle Yee

We didn't expect you to pull it, so I was just going to do a public comment. We'll have to get ready. I just wanted to say, so as I near the end of my term and celebrate my very last Municipal Clerks Week with you, I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize the hard work of our city clerk staff, Cindy, Helen, Michelle, and Gabby. You guys are amazing. We're so lucky to have you. your professionalism your skill, your patience and your support without a doubt has been tested over the last few months and you have rose to the occasion we're so lucky to have you as a city and I just wanted everyone to know and I wanted to thank you on behalf of all the residents in the city of Monterey Park for your service you are the backbone of this show and so you do that effortlessly every two weeks and you represent the very best of this profession. So thank you and we wish you the very happiest of Municipal Clerks Week. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Should we have a motion to approve 10F?

I'll move to motion.

All right.

I'll second.

Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you. Now 10G.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council, Kristin Olivarez, City Librarian. This evening you have in front of you a draft resolution proclaiming April 19th through 25th National Library Week in Monterey Park. The  is celebrating National Library Week, which is celebrated nationwide annually in April to highlight the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities. This year's theme, Find Your Joy, is an invitation for people of all backgrounds to explore and discover what sparks joy in them at the library. To help individuals find their joy at the library, library passports will be available during National Library Week. Visitors can pick up a passport at any service desk, then complete the listed activities to receive a small prize. And so tonight we are asking that you adopt a resolution declaring the week of April 19th through 25th, 2026, to be National Library Week in Monterey Park and taking such additional related action that may be desirable. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Kristen, for that great report. I was just at the library the week during spring break for AUSD, and I still saw kids in there, but more importantly, I saw adults in there. So that library is utilized from a capacity standpoint. Everyone comes, not only our residents, but surrounding communities as well. So you guys have been a great resource, not only for our city, but for surrounding communities. and I want to say thank you for being part of that.

I just also want to add how important libraries are, particularly here in Monterey Park. I always say that we have the best library in the San Gabriel Valley, and I truly mean that. I know that a lot of our students make a lot of use of the libraries, but not just students, community members, and just the wealth of workshops and resources that we offer in the library that has usually not been traditional for libraries. I think growing up in the library, growing up and going to the libraries, I don't remember seeing any of those types of workshops that we currently offer today and just the amount of stuff that we do. Even the toddler program, every time I go, it's just so full of kids. As a matter of fact, a lot of my Alhambra High School kids come to the library and they like coming here too. So I really appreciate that as well. It's a great place to meet and to do. But I also wanted to, I know that every day for National Library Week has a different theme. And I did want to mention that on the Thursday, it's Take Action Day. And I know that throughout the country, and not just libraries, but schools as well, have seen a lot of attack on a lot of our, the literature that, and we're lucky that in Monterey Park that's not happening, or in our community at least. But in other communities, that is happening. So I appreciate every time that I go to the library that you're always highlighting different authors, different ethnic groups, and the importance of highlighting a lot of those voices and amplifying them. I really appreciate it. So whatever we can do to help take action on that Thursday, even if it's just reading a book. Oh, and then one last thing. There's two books that I haven't turned in that I just got a notice about. I promise I'm turning them in this week. Thank you.

Don't worry, we're fine free.

Madam Mayor? So, you know, I think for me, what I like to highlight about, I think, how incredibly important this library is, is the weekend after the mass shooting in 2023. I still remember the library. I know internally there were discussions about do we still continue the free legal clinic given the tragedy that occurred and I think that it was very courageous for the library to continue and what I remember I think all of us who went to the library that weekend was that there was still a long line of community people either from Monterey Park or outside Monterey Park still in line waiting to sign up for pro bono services And I think that, if anything, even in light of tragedy, that the library still continued duty and the community still showed up, not just for service, but also, I think, support. I think in many ways there's also supporting Monterey Park at that dark moment. And so, again, to me, that's something that I will always remember and say often about our library.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's amazing how many events our library has. and also on the hot days, you guys act as cooling centers too. So the community really appreciates that. Anyone?

I'd like to make the motion.

All right. Council Member Ngo moves.

I'll second.

Council Member Sanchez seconds. Let's vote.

Approved unanimously.

And if I may, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of the special edition library card that will be available for the month of May to celebrate the city's birthday. Let me pass that along, Amy. So this limited edition library card includes the greeting tour, greetings tour mural on it. And so we will have that available beginning in May. And you are the first to see it.

And that's for new members only, right?

No. Well, there is a $3 replacement fee for a new library card, so anybody who wishes.

I think I just lost mine.

Wow, the design looks really amazing.

Thank you so much.

All right, that's all for our consent agenda. Moving on to new business. 12A, Amendment to City Council Protocols Pursuant to Senate Bill 707.

Yes, we have one public speaker, Michelle E.

Hello again. Good evening, neighbors. Long time no see or speak. actually it's a perfect time for me to speak because that's actually what I came up here to talk about for those of you who aren't aware this item is discussing whether to limit the speaking time again and so what I'd like to ask as you can see I'm the only one here there is no fear of public speakers it is so rare that we actually have public speakers this should not be a major concern. It takes so much courage and so much commitment to show up here and to speak in front of you and to speak in front of everyone in this room. Why do we want to hinder that, prohibit it, limit it? You just did. Only a few months ago in changing the rules, you limited speaking by limiting people from commenting on each item. And now the speaking time is combined in addition to not allowing people to share time. So that was already one reduction. And now tonight, potentially, there's another reduction. Monterey Park. Director of Public Works. Director of Public Works. if it's absolutely necessary to create some kind of rule in regards to the time. Forgive me, I can't remember what city it was, but there was one city that made the restriction in regards to the number of people in the audience, which I think is fair and that makes sense. In those extreme circumstances, that makes sense, but you already had that ability to do it before, so it's not really something new. But if that's the case, that's what I would recommend, only doing it when there's an extreme circumstance. In all other cases, there's no need to change it. You've already changed it. Why take more time away from the people? Let them be heard, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's proceed with the presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, member of the City Council, My name is Cindy Trang, and I'm the Deputy City Clerk, and I will be presenting an overview of the amendment to the City Council protocols pursuant to Senate Bill 707. Council protocols pursuant to Senate Bill 707 referred to SB 707 so the legislature has made significant amendments to the Ralph M Brown excuse me Brown Act including through SB 707 authored by State Senator Durazo the City council has revised its policies and procedures several times including the latest revision in 2021 with the implement implementation of the mandated SB 707 requirements there is a need to consolidate and modernize meeting rules into a single framework next slide please so SB 707 amends the city's legislative bodies in two folds the first phase affects all legislative bodies including boards and commissions and it takes effective january 1st 2026 the second phase of affect the city council as the legislative the eligible legislation body and it takes effective july 1st 2026. next slide so phase one requirements include the following members may participate via teleconference as an ADA reasonable accommodation. The public may record meetings using any devices. The presiding officers may remove remote participation after a warning of actual disruption of meetings. The optional just cause teleconferencing is allowed but not required. The remote participation for just cause reasons conditioned on full two-way remote public participation. And finally, agenda must explain how to request reasonable ADA accommodations, which we are already doing. Next slide, please. Phase two requirements required. Agenda must be translated and posted in applicable languages. The city have the translated agenda. the city will have the translated agendas in Spanish and Chinese and made available online and physically posted.

The SB 707 also require mandatory remote public access through a two-way audio, audiovisual, and or two-way phonetic telephonic service. So the city is planning on using the Zoom webinar for the two-way audio-visual platform. Disruption policy technology failures. The proposed revised rules of procedures include procedures for addressing remote access disruption where if the remote access was disrupted, the city council must recess for at least an hour to try to restore service. Next slide, please. Oh, sorry, can you back up? And finally, support and outreach. The city is already using Wordly app and will be using Zoom to provide captions and translation to assist the public obtaining interpretation. Next slide. The public comment procedure. Part of the proposed update is seeking guidance for public participation. Many speakers may speak up to five minutes for public comment, a total of five minutes for other items on the agenda and five minutes for public hearing. In surveying surrounding cities, most cities generally allow three minutes or a combination thereof and when communications are recorded but not read into the record. Most efficient means to effectively monitor speakers through different means such as in person virtual and telephonic which is all going to be required by july 1st 2026 providing the public comment on all matters for the agenda at the beginning of the meeting is desirable public hearing items allow the public comments during those agenda items next slide please so it is recommended that the city city council consider adopting the resolution revising the the rules of procedures, providing guidance on public participation guidelines, and authorizing the city manager to execute a Fourth Amendment with Civic Plus LLC. This concludes my report. Staff and city attorney will be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Any questions?

I have a question. When you said you did the survey from the surrounding cities, their average time is approximately, did I hear three minutes?

Almost all the city that I surveyed, I personally did the survey, is three minutes. And then there's a combination of different formula, three minutes for 30 minutes, and then everybody else can be taking at the end, and they've given five minutes. There's three minutes per category. there's three minutes for everything so it's up to the council how you want to approach this.

And I just want to point out that the results from the survey are attached to the staff report and then also available on this slide and it's a little bit small but we're happy to answer any questions on that I'm gonna

let my colleagues have questions first thank you I appreciate all the work that

into this I know SB 707 compliance is extraordinarily complex and I think every city is struggling to figure out how to comply with this in the short timeline that we've all had I know that once we the compliance requirements to come into compliance with this by July 1st which is coming up very fast I know part of our city council chamber remodel is going to be helping to integrate technology to help make that integration of these requirements easier for staff and for people from the public to be able to engage in our council meetings going forward. So I appreciate that. I know that we're trying to line all this up. Obviously, the city council chambers won't be ready for that completely by July 1st. But I know that there will be hiccups for probably at least the first few months of us transitioning to allowing virtual participation right back to the I wasn't on council during the beginning of the pandemic so maybe councilmember Lo or mayor pro tem Lo can share some insight into that in terms of how how that worked and any lessons learned I know the staff were very I'm sure we learned a lot of lessons from having to be able to engage or having the public be able to engage virtually and in a hybrid mode for our city council meetings and I know that not only us but every city had challenges with that, and will probably continue to have challenges, which is why we have gotten rid of virtual participation in a lot of our meetings, because of a lot of those challenges that still exist. So my questions are, one, how ready are we for virtual and hybrid participation in our meetings? What challenges do you anticipate we should be thinking through? I know some of the thought of preparing for that are here in terms of the recommendation, or at least the analysis that's been done, and you're looking for some guidance from the council on how we want to proceed to address these challenges at the outset more proactively. I agree. We need to make these rules clear and the guidance for speakers and participation clear, as clear as possible for the public up front so that we're not changing them during the meeting if these things happen. So it's important to have this discussion now and to make sure that these are in place before July 1st. so that we can be clear once we have to, now that we will have to allow virtual participation in our meetings. I think it's important to appreciate the staff work that has gone into this to get us to a point where we can make these policies and this guidance a lot clearer for those who want to participate in a different way than we've allowed the last few years. With that, just any other additional kind of thoughts that have been given from, or that have been part of the mix in this conversation and discussion on the staff level that we should be wary of and we should just be mindful of on the council end as we're trying to decide where we wanna go with time limits and other things here. If there's any additional color to add.

I can take that question. And thank you for the recognition of the difficulty of implementing SB 707. This has been something that we've been working on for probably about the past six months, and we've been keeping an eye on the legislation as it worked itself through the legislature last year. You're right. A lot of this is very onerous technically to apply to all of our procedures in running the meeting. As you could tell by our technical difficulties earlier in the meeting, we're already sort of keeping a lot of balls up in the air to broadcast the meetings and to make sure that they're able to be seen and participated during by members of the public. A few things that we've, and we've been working on this a lot in the past couple months, we've brought on new technologies. As you can tell, the translation and the captioning part of it definitely takes some time. There are a lot of different kind of platforms operating at the same time in terms of our cable broadcasting, our Zoom, our YouTube streaming, and then allowing people to participate remotely as well is going to be a bit of a challenge. You know, I think one of the things that I wanted to mention about the challenges of hosting in person as well as virtual participation is, as some of you remember, it can be a little bit tricky to having people online, but now we're going to not only have people online, We're going to have people in the room. So handling public comment for that, hence the recommendation to do all public comment at the beginning of the meeting, even public comment on specific items. And we would also recommend a cutoff time for people to register public comment by, because we then have to note who's in the room, who has their hand raised on Zoom, and who wants to comment on each particular item. So we'll have to make a list of that. And then because we're using Zoom webinar to try to minimize Zoom bombing and distractions, we will have to unmute people individually to allow them to call their name, unmute them, and then allow them to talk and then turn off their mic too. So it's going to be a lot of moving parts. We're definitely going to have at least one additional staff member up here at the dais just to make sure that Zoom is running properly. and not only will we have people participating on video on Zoom on their computers, they can also call in. So there are a lot of layers happening. There are a lot of kind of programs that are going to be running at the same time, and there's a lot of different technology that we're making sure that we integrate in a way that works. So I appreciate that and I appreciate the opportunity to kind of share with you some of the practical challenges that we've been facing.

Thanks. I say this half-jokingly, Carl. It sounds like this is a state mandate that is unfunded, so I don't know if that's something to push back.

That's correct, and hence the ask for the additional funding for Civic Plus.

It sounds like it should come from the states.

We are spending a lot of money to implement this, yes.

Just tongue-in-cheek. But also half-serious. And then just to be clear, so we're only required to abide by SB 717 requirements for hybrid virtual participation for council. This doesn't extend to commission meetings or commissioners.

That's correct.

And we'd be good to make sure we work out all the potential challenges before we even think about extending this potentially to other forums. And I believe the requirement here is to, the other part of SB 7 is to translate agendas into languages, so we will, I don't think we do that, we definitely don't translate the entire agenda, is that going forward we're going to have to translate even the staff reports?

So the requirements of SB 707 is just that the agenda is translated, and that threshold depends on the census numbers that we've gotten back for percentages that speak one language and then speak another language less than well. So for us, that includes Chinese in our community, but we will be doing them in both Spanish and Chinese. And I want to note that we actually have already kind of turned this on in complying with some of the ADA requirements under federal law that are due at the end of this month in April. We now have a program called Doc Access that's a plug-in to the website that will automatically translate PDFs. So the next time you go on the website, you take a look at the agenda portal, you will see that you can translate that into probably 200 different languages. So one of the requirements under SB 707 is that it's translated available online, Director S.B. 707 is that it's translated available online, that it's also posted physically, so our staff will have to be printing that and posting it in the locations that we already post it and there's another requirement that we provide space for the community to post any translations that they have also come up with, so there's a lot going on there.

So we're figuring all that out and we'll have that?

Yes, we're ready for that, absolutely.

Okay. And then in the staff report also on this slide, right, in terms of disruption, we experience disruption in terms of our streaming today even. We have to recess up to an hour to try to bring back online access. access. I don't know. I'm just commenting on the challenge of this and how that can very easily elongate our meetings.

Yes. And the requirement is to recess for at least an hour. So if there is a technological interruption, we will have to recess for at least an hour. and then if after an hour we haven't been able to resolve that after we've started then we can continue but it's at least an hour.

I'm trying to think of other potential cleanups to this as I'm sure many cities will experience challenges.

And then we are was one of the questions whether we want to allow council member teleconferencing or virtual participation potentially, or is that something we're recommending already?

So for that item, the Just Cause item, beginning in July, the council would be able to participate remotely for Just Cause reasons.

Okay, we're not getting rid of that. And there's no limit now. With SB 717, the current state laws restrict how many times you can use the council members can use that right

correct and that that loosens some of those requirements

there's for just cause sorry I was checking in with our city attorney for just cause absences it's up to three times a year

and then are we I mean how

Not an absence. For remote participation, it's for three times a year for just cause reasons. Yes.

Remote participation, correct.

Child care emergency, correct.

On the...

I've lost my question. I mean, you noted some of the challenges in terms of managing in-person, virtual, same time. a queue for comments and things like that. How are we going to manage that? I know part of our, I think, I believe we approved moving towards a system that manages digitally comments, comment requests, like LA County and other jurisdictions have. We have not implemented that yet. How will we manage online comment requests and in-person comment requests? Someone's just going to take the yellow slips and online hands raised?

Yeah, we've taken a look at some different platforms that are available. Right now, there's not one platform that allows you to do absolutely everything at the same time, hence it's kind of a mismatch of a lot of different technologies. There is one platform, one product out there that's working on sort of putting all of these things together in one program that would allow you to take online comments easily, allow for translation, closed captions easily, and would go away from a Zoom platform, but would be its own type of Zoom, but built in. And that would allow us to do it really easily. Right now, they're not totally there, but we are keeping an eye on that. So you're right. The procedure in the council chambers is going to be the yellow slips from people that are in person, and then it will be a procedure where the city clerk says, if you're on Zoom and you'd like to make a public comment please raise your hand and so then we will have to get their names and what item they'd like to comment on and we'll have to have probably a cutoff time then for people to do that right because we don't want them necessarily raising their hand throughout the meeting and then having to go back and try to figure out if they've already talked or you know how much time they've views, so hence the recommendation to try to do all the public comment for all the items except for the public hearings up at the front of the meeting.

Great. Sounds like it might be challenging.

So logistically, it will be a little bit challenging because we are monitoring the virtual and the telephone as well, right? And so if we are able to call all the speaker at the beginning, then that would eliminate in between there. Somebody out of the blue would raise their hand and want to speak on an item. And then now we've got to go back and pivot back and, you know, adjust for that and constantly, constantly monitoring it. Whereas if we are able to take all the public comments at the beginning, that would take care of all the public comments. Then we can continue with business. and then that also eliminate the potential of maybe Zoom bombing which is, you know, I'm speaking with other cities, everybody's concerned about Zoom bombing

and we have some we should be as well yes, okay and I generally support making sure we're adjusting all of this to make sure our meetings are workable and I think we have to balance making sure we are accessible and that the public has an opportunity to be able to engage with us, but also that our meetings don't go until 12, 1, 2 a.m., which I would argue is also unaccessible for people who have to work the next day and work at night as well and have to manage all that. And so I want to find that right balance here in terms of some of the recommendations or what's been laid out in the staff report. um i'll stop here and come back to the conversation after the other council members have a chance

sure thank you um i also want to thank you for all of the work that's been going into preparing for this i assume that once we roll this out there's going to be a lot of things we're going to have to work out and so i think we're going to have to manage those as we as we get through them um i serve on the metro service council and and i know the merchant in the metro service council we already take phone communications and they in terms of timing allow two up to two minutes and the process that they use is they allow people in person people to go first and then they check in the zoom rooms to see who's available and then they take those calls as well and so far in my months that i've been there it's worked pretty well actually i do like that this new medium would allow for a lot more participation especially from people that will that cannot come to directly to our council meeting but also for council members who might be sick and have to be at home or or might be at a conference and might allow them to participate in a council meeting, whereas in the past they wouldn't have been able to. So really like that aspect of SB 707. I do want to also talk about the time length. I appreciate the research that went into surveying all of the neighboring cities in terms of how much time is allowed. I do want to reiterate what Council Member Wong said in terms of being able to find a balance so that we understand that we're all human and we have families to go to as well in the evenings and sometimes 1 a.m. I don't mind staying that late, but I know that a lot of people have stayed in the past, especially the last council meetings, very late, and so want to make sure that we find and strike a balance in terms of being able to conduct our business as a city in a timely fashion. So I am very interested in revisiting the time changes in terms of and looking in some of the other cities in terms of what they're doing. And I know it's really hard to kind of see in there, but I believe the second city there is Alhambra. Is that correct? Our neighboring city? And Alhambra allows for, does that say three minutes?

Three minutes for public comment. They do 30 minutes at the beginning. Then the remaining speakers, if they take up more than 30 minutes, if there are remaining speakers left, then that is taken at the end of the meeting.

Okay. I don't know how the council feels about that. Is that something we're trying to decide today, or is it just more of a discussion? Are you looking for guidance on this particular item now?

Yes, we are. Okay.

I actually wrote down some ideas, but I want you guys to kind of share your thoughts first. And then I'll pitch the idea and see where this goes.

Sure. Madam Mayor, thank you. As the council member on this, on the same currency count, Nadeus, who was president when we had to switch to virtual meeting, I actually do want to take this opportunity to thank the staff and, of course, everyone at our clerk's office for dealing with very challenging times. And what I will say, I remember, I think, yeah, like with all systems, you know, there were probably trial and error. And I think one of the things that I remember we learned from, I think, our first few meetings was, for example, to prohibit, I guess, because there were people who, I guess, it's just speaking in. They had an automated, like, auto-robotic voice. It was being a machine. And we prohibited that, right? That if you did speak, you had to be the actual person. right so so and again you know maybe that's whole issue of zoom bombing and and and i suppose since 2020 technology has also advanced and so that now with ai it's actually probably even more harder to distinguish when a person's calling if it's an actual person or if it's just a machine you know and i suppose that's just maybe one of the um unforeseen uh issues but i think that you know certainly the world changed in 2020 with the pandemic and i think that you know prior to pandemic a lot of people were envisioning what we're doing tonight what is now prescribed by law is something that was like in the far future like maybe something in 2030 and yet here we are well we have been doing it for many years now um i just had one question to ask and again maybe it has not been an issue with us when we did do virtual meetings or it's never been brought up, but as more and more government agencies adopted the Zoom platform, and I bring it up because, I guess, our plan for the two-way communication is to use the Zoom webinar, was that it was brought to my attention that sometimes when people do use the Zoom platform to do the two-way communication, there were concerns or complaints about the phone numbers, because some of the phones were not toll-free. And so I just bring it up because especially if we're encouraging – well, I know we're being mandated by law, but at the same time, as my colleagues have all said and we all agree, we want to be able to use the technology to make the people more able to access their city government. So my question is, are we going to make sure that if we're going to use Zoom as a platform for people to call in, that we will be using the toll-free numbers that are offered by Zoom? I know the cost that we would incur, but I imagine that people may question that are we creating an unnecessary barrier if they have to use the toll numbers when they call in.

We will have toll-free numbers. So when you make the Zoom invite, it lists probably 10 different phone numbers that you can use, and one of them is a toll-free number. So if you're just calling in to the Zoom webinar on your telephone, on your home telephone, you can call in or you can access via your cell phone. You can access remotely with your video, with your cell phone, with your computer. There are a lot of different options.

Okay. No, thank you. I just, that's what comes to mind, because it's been brought up, not by, not at our meeting, but by other agencies where residents have complained about having to dial a toll number. So, yeah, thank you.

Yeah.

Well, I also want to thank you for all the hard work you guys put in the last six months, trying to figure out this new process and doing all the research and the preparation behind it. I have one question, which is they're saying that if we have a tech issue, we have to recess for one hour. What is the reasoning behind that?

Do you guys know? To try to restore service so that the remote caller or the remote in may participate, continue to participate.

Yeah, but like earlier today, we had a tech issue. so it was resolved in like 5-10 minutes and then we were able to resume so if it was a tech issue that got resolved in 5-10 minutes we would still have to wait the full 60 minutes to return to the meeting

if service is restored then we continue with the meeting when you cannot restore you have to give it a full hour to try to restore service before you can say we're going to take a roll call and we're going to continue the meeting

got it, that makes sense And in regards to the speaker time, I think I looked at all the different cities that were researched. I heard Maychelle's comments as well.

comment that's very reasonable to 21 to 50 speakers two minutes maximum that's 100 minutes and then 50 plus speakers a minute each i know that with the zoom meetings there's probably going to be a lot more speakers because they don't have to come in they don't have to make They don't have to make the drive. They can just call in wherever they are in the world. So there's a lot more speakers. It makes sense that we're reducing the time and not just having the five minutes that we've been giving. But I think having that step-by-step based on how many speakers makes sense, in my opinion. But I would love to hear everyone else's opinions.

All right. So I actually studied a map, and I came up with kind of a little process procedure. Maybe it will work for you guys. I'd like to pitch the idea. I mean, bottom line is this is trying to be more efficient, allowing for community engagement. So what I wrote down was a couple of rules here. I like the three-minute rule. So what I like to do is maybe pitch three minutes if it's less than 20 speakers, two minutes between 20 and 40 speakers, and then if it's more than 40 speakers to infinity, then it's one minute per speaker. Caption that with all the speakers should be speaking up front, whether they're in person or in Zoom, all the speakers will go up front. That's kind of like addenda one. Addenda two is 60 minutes of public session in the beginning. So if it's going to be 20 speakers at 30 minutes, the first 60 minutes, we're done with that. If there's another five speakers, they can speak at the back end. So 60 minutes of public communications up front, anything will come at the back end. So we'll stay, we'll listen, but you'll speak at the back end so that we can continue the official business with the city. Set a cutoff time so that 15 minutes before the start of council meeting, if you want to speak either in person or on Zoom, get your card, get your email to the queue line so you can speak 15 minutes before the meeting starts so you can fit within the first hour. Anything after that, you can still submit it, but you speak at the back end of the meeting. We talked about the translations. at the back end of the meeting. So, for example, we may have considerably a lot more people after they hear the first 60 minutes, they want to speak more. We will allow them to speak at the back end, and then maybe leave something open where we allow the mayor to have the ability to extend additional speakers based on that one-minute time frame at the back end of the meeting so that if you want to speak, we're here to listen, but you're not holding everyone else hostage here in the beginning of the session so that we're all listening to the same topic, same arguments back and forth, because we all witnessed that. And I think part of my concern here in terms of being efficient is we've had meetings where we had 80 speakers, 90 speakers, but it's the same information from talking points, and that goes on and on. So we're asking people, the speakers in person and online, to be more efficient because really more is less, right? The more you speak, it's the less information to get out. So we're asking you to be more efficient because brevity is wit. The less you say, the more important it is. And that way we can communicate better and understand better.

I know Council Member Sanchez also mentioned Alhambra's which is splitting it up in the beginning and the rest at the end of the meeting but I think there's some issues with that hard to determine who goes first or who goes last was there some kind of complications

surrounding that

Madam Mayor, from my understanding, the city of Alhambra probably registers public comment by order, right? So whoever comes in, they take in their public comment cards, they hear a certain time frame, they allow public comment at the beginning. If they don't get through all the public speakers, then the remaining ones are taken at the end of the agenda is the way my understanding works so I believe those are by registered um like like first come first serve right they receive their comment card and then they're put in the queue so section gets heard up front and then if they're still remaining speakers they um have that at the end of their agenda.

And I'll point out as well um Alhambra does this Monrovia Montebello and I believe South Pasadena all do it that way where they have an allotted time at the beginning of the meeting and if they can't get through all the speakers, then they will do the remaining speakers at the end of the meeting. So it's not unique to Alhambra. It is something that's not uncommonly done.

Okay, so there's no issues with implementing that kind of split up.

Madam Mayor, I believe the guidance that the staff is also seeking is just the registration of public speaking cards. So currently, even when an item is being heard, speakers have been able to continue to fill out those speaker cards and present them during an item. And so those types of guidances would be helpful for us from a staff's perspective if they're trying to put individuals in a queue and then be able to call them. having a cutoff point for when you're receiving comment cards or speaker cards could be helpful just from an organizational standpoint to keep the meeting running smoothly so that you're not confused on speaker items coming in while you're managing the queue on zoom or on the phone and in

person there are several cities that are doing that right before the the item or even before the council meeting they would stop taking you know request to speak and like a city manager say you know we're talking about an item and then there's slips that just keep coming and coming and coming and so where do you draw the line and that's really hard when it comes to also monitoring what's on you know your zoom and you know they're going to keep raising hand too and so where do we stop

So basically setting a time limit for when we stop taking public comment.

It would be very helpful.

And that would be required as well if councils wish to set the time for speakers depending on the number of speakers, right? Because if there's not a cutoff time, we don't know how many total speakers there will be, and we wouldn't know what to set that time at.

That makes sense.

Madam Mayor, sorry.

Oh, that's why I went up with 15 minutes. is 15 minutes sufficient time for you guys to kind of gather and then get the queue line up? Or do you need half an hour? Do you need five minutes? I threw it 15 minutes because I think that's probably a good chunk of time for you to gather and say, got to get that in 15 minutes, and then in 15 minutes you can sort it and figure out, I got 10 here, I got 15 on Zoom, or I got 50 here, I got 50 on Zoom. So you can plan that out.

No, I think 15 minutes is sufficient.

If I can just recap, Council Member Ngo, your recommendation. So it was 20 speakers or less would be three minutes per speaker. Between 21 and 40 speakers would be two minutes per speaker. And then 41 and over would be one minute per speaker. 60 minutes of public comment at the beginning. And then the rest of the public comment at the end of the meeting. and then the cutoff to submit public comment would be 15 minutes before the council meeting started. Was that correct? Or 15 minutes after we started?

15 minutes before we started. Otherwise, you would be running around figuring out how to get the comments in. So that one could be a little bit hard because we could have people showing up right on the dot. So we may have to maybe figure that out, go on a six-month trial to see how that works. I'm looking at the survey of the different cities. A lot of the cities only do 30 minutes. I think we want to hear from our residents and our speakers. So an hour is probably a little bit more than what's up there.

I would just ask the city attorney, is there any issue for cutting off oral communications 15 minutes before the meeting starts?

Madam Mayor, members of the council, there's no legal issue with that. the brown act requires public comment before action is taken and as long as that's provided uh you're in the clear

so if we had 60 minutes prior and 60 minutes after would we be able to take action in between the two 60 minutes because wouldn't we have to hear all the public comment before taking action

it is madam mayor it is not uncommon for cities to have one block of public comment for the entire agenda other than public hearings public hearings are a little bit different because those are quasi-judicial proceedings and so you have a separate set of rules for those types of public hearings but for the regular business items it's quite frequent to have either half an hour or 60 minutes or whatever it is ahead of time where someone can get up and use their a lot of time to speak on every single item on the agenda, which means that there are no speakers for individual agenda items as you move through the agenda. It's all heard at the beginning, or if you run out of time, you hear it at the end.

And if you hear at the end, it would be already after we took action.

That's true, but you've heard the individual and you've heard their particular concerns, interests, whatever it might be. But it's obviously up to the city council how you want to structure your agenda. I'm here to tell you what the law says.

I guess that you bring up a good point. And Mayor Yang, I think what your concern is, we make a decision on stuff that's not heard. But if this is done correctly, and based on my gut instinct and based on our experience here, we know certain items that will go longer. It's probably the same item that will have more than 40, well, let's just say more than an hour, so more than the limited time. It's going to be that same topic. And what we can do is at that point in time, the clerk's office would say, we've got 20 more speakers and they're going to be on this topic. Then what we can do is we can say, well, we're going to vote on everything else other than this topic because that topic or that item will have another 10 or 20 speakers at the end and we can take our time to listen to all those comments before we make a decision on that topic or that item.

And Madam Mayor, members of the council, if I may, there are jurisdictions that have different coded public comment cards. So green or yellow or whatever they might be, and that way you have piles of people who are in favor of or opposition to. and I've seen it also where the presiding, usually the mayor, the president for the meeting will ask the audience how many agree with that particular sentiment. Please raise your hand. And you've fulfilled the obligation because I think to an earlier point, many of these things are talking points that are sent out certainly on social media or email or whatever it might be. And you're hearing the exact same comments. And the idea behind the Brown Act is you're supposed to hear comments in order to help you craft your decision on a particular item. But that doesn't mean that it needs to be repetitive. If it's the same comment, remember these are business meetings, and they're intended to move along the business of the city. So as long as there is public comment and meaningful public comment

Madam Mayor if I may there is some examples of cities that the agendized public speaker cards right that those are the items that are being heard in advance of the of the item so if there isn't time at the beginning of the meeting to hear non agenda items then oftentimes those sometimes are pushed to the back of the agenda or to the end of the meeting if there's not if they're not that speakers not present to speak on a specific item that's on the agenda

so okay so like they're making public comment that we can't take an action on

anyways then save those to the end that's an option again I know this is a lot of discussion and we don't have the technology in place just yet especially when there's going to be remote access to consider so just as a reminder for council any items that are being considered tonight or adjustments that are being considered tonight the city council will be able to make further adjustments if they see fit if something isn't working as we anticipate or we're seeing additional need for an adjustment so even if you give direction tonight the city council may make adjustments to whatever's recommended as we go understanding that we're still testing and we expect the remote participation is going to begin in July and so we understand that by then things can change we're still demoing other types of products to try to make the the meetings flow as smoothly as possible as possible there's not a perfect module out there yet but we have a feeling that things will be designed and are in the works of being designed so hopefully there will be some adjustments that will help queuing a little easier as well.

well madam mayor oh I'm sorry do you have any okay I guess as we're and this is actually thank you all for a very robust conversation about this you know I think at least for me at this moment given all the processes that we will have to be engaged in in order to implement the provisions of this new mandate from of this new mandate from Sacramento. And again, thank you for doing the work and spending resources, even though Sacramento has not given us any resources to do so. So I think that we want to make it as easy as possible for staff in implementing. And therefore, I'm going to say that I think we should be mindful of that, especially as addressing this issue. And I do agree with some of the discussion we've had is that, to me, it is an issue of, I think, fairness above all else. And when I mean fairness, I mean is that, and yes, we've heard people who have come in the past on items of passion and interest that people have stayed very late even though they have worked the next day. or some people have actually gone home because it was so prolonged. And so I think, for me, what I think would be my guiding priority is to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to speak. And in that sense, I mean, again, for example, I do like how, for example, with Arcadia, it depends on how many speakers. So, for example, if it's five speakers or less, it's still five minutes, what we have now, and then it is the time is measured based on how many speakers. I think it is important to hear every person's opinion before we take action on an item. And also, I would also ask a question that I know some studies have a cutoff of turning in speaker cards as an item is being discussed. So my question is this. If we were to, say, adopt that policy, then I also want to make sure then that people had enough time. And so my question then is, are we only going to accept requests to speak, you know, like prior to a council meeting? Or will we have a system where we'll say, let's say, you know, our agenda is posted on Thursday, typically, for the following week. and therefore does that mean we will then give the public advance notice to put in the requests so that they're not cut off? In other words, I can see a situation where maybe someone just finds out the meeting and then they show up, but then we're told, oh, you can't submit a request anymore because the meeting just started. And I want to make sure that whatever system we adopt, we want to make sure that anyone that wants to request to speak is given adequate time to make that request.

I hear what you're saying. I think what we can do, it's definitely up to the council to provide their feedback on what that cutoff is going to be. In order to implement a system like Arcadia, we would need a cutoff. But it doesn't have to be 15 minutes before the meeting starts. It could be possibly 10 minutes after the meeting starts because we will do call to order. We will do flag salute. We will do presentations, staff communications. and then we can do public comment. So it would just depend on council's preference and how we organize the agenda.

And again, I do have some experience with that because when I served on the Garvey School Board, we actually had a policy that, yes, once the meeting starts and the item is being discussed, then we do cut off at that point. So no, and that makes sense because, again, you're trying to also, as I said, give everyone a fair amount of time to speak. And so therefore, at least in that sense, it does make sense that once the item is discussed, then yes, we do stop taking any more cards because then this allows us to calculate time. Having said that, though, I would definitely want us to make sure that then either it's an hour before a council meeting starts or I don't even have long... I'm just saying that if we're going to have a policy where we cut off submissions, then I need to make sure that everyone has enough sufficient time to submit such a request so no one feels that we, you know, cut them off. And, of course, I think it's important to also remind the public about these rules so that people can't say, well, I didn't know.

Yeah, certainly. So all the public comment procedure is always printed on the agenda, and we will do a campaign to let people know that SB 707 is being implemented and there are being changes made. I think, to your point, Council Member Lo, having a cutoff after the council starts after the council meeting starts is probably preferable because that will allow us also if people know that they're going to be joining in person they may know that in advance but if people are joining on zoom and they are not joining early then they may not have an opportunity to submit a request for public comment if we cut that off before the meeting starts so if we wanted to we could you know set that at what the council would like and if we want to give people more time to submit that public comment request we could even move staff communications before if we wanted to sort of give enough time before we have to start taking public communications.

Can we have two time limits one for the folks on zoom and then one for the folks who actually come in in person? I believe that has to be the same that

It has to be the same regardless of the way that they're participating.

Okay. Well, I would want something after the meeting started, like 10, 15 minutes later.

I think 15 minutes.

Madam Mayor, if I may. So as a reminder, so if there's a public hearing on the agenda, for instance, tonight we don't have a public hearing. But if there's a public hearing listed, those comments, those speakers are going to be allowed to speak, right, on that item. So if the council is setting a time frame to say after the 10 or 15 minutes after the council meeting starts, we're going to hear, you know, that's going to be our cutoff for general comments or comments on all the other agenda items. public hearings you can still direct us to accept that up until the public hearing because that item is separate so there's still going to be an allowance for another speaker card if there's a public hearing on the agenda so what we're I know we're discussing kind of a large just overall examples but the public hearings would would be allowed the additional time right so there would be time to register those other comments as well.

Even if it's after 10-15 minutes.

Correct. Because if we're not moving that item up on the agenda, it gives time for people to register their comments for the public hearing.

So logistically, if we're still trying to figure out, if let's say somebody's calling in, I'm not sure how we're going to find out which item they want to speak on.

We're playing around with maybe putting them in the waiting room and then, you know, unmute them, ask them which item they want to talk, I mean, which item they're interested in speaking on. But then if the meeting is going to start, and then we're still taking 15 minutes later, we're still trying to figure out. So we're getting some guidance from the council and see how we can figure things out.

The other item that, as I mentioned, we're evaluating, there is digital cues where people could, you know, type in that they'd like to speak on an item. That works if you're at a computer and at a desk and at home. But if you're calling from a phone, we know that that can be a challenge. So that's why the raise hand feature is still an option to try to coordinate the queue. So definitely we're still evaluating if there's other potential digital queues that systems might be able to have. We just don't have that yet in place.

I have a full question. Did we also double check? I know we look at neighboring municipalities, but did we also double-check how the county's processes? And the reason I bring it up is because the county for a while has had a system where you can do in-person as well as telephonic. And what I'm trying to remember is, because I've called it myself, I'm trying to remember, does the county alternate or do they do in-person first, then switch to telephonic, or do they alternate? because that's probably, and again, you imagine, even on a quote-unquote light day for the county, they will always have a large turn of people, and you can imagine for the county, they also have to be able to give everyone a fair chance to speak as well. And so I am curious if we can just double-check how the county does. Again, do they alternate between in-person and telephonic, or do they just do all in-person and then switch to telephonic? Because that also may help us have an idea of, again, how to manage when we may have a large volume of speakers on an issue.

So on the county level, I am not sure. But on the city level, some of them that are offering Zoom right now, they are taking in person first and then the Zoom after.

Okay. I would just say double check with the county as well. I mean, again, maybe that makes sense. No, no, I guess it makes sense in that someone is calling in, either they're in their office or at home, and so therefore it's a little more convenient for them. I suppose someone who has to drive down and come to our council. So in that sense, if that's how some states are doing it, I would say then we should probably follow, again, out of fairness, that, yeah, if you make the effort to come to the chamber, then perhaps you should be given precedence first, then those who call in either telephonically or through a Zoom webinar.

So I don't know if at this point we have to come up with all these items right now. I'm wondering if maybe it might be more prudent to have maybe a couple of choices to choose from if staff came back with, oh, we heard what you said. And maybe we have option A, B, and C we can choose from or choose from some of the options. Because what I'm thinking is, I think what I'm hearing is everyone wants to hear. If people are showing up, we want to make sure that everyone is heard. But we also want to be mindful of time. and we want to make sure that whatever process we take, that it's also manageable for you guys to be able to process all of these people in a timely fashion, but also so it's not so stressful and convoluted. And for me, at least, if I were a speaker coming here, I'd want the rules to be pretty clear and straightforward and not so confusing. So I think whatever we decide to do, it should be pretty clear and straightforward and manageable for us on our end and also give the opportunity for everyone to speak whether whether in the front or back end

so we would prefer feedback tonight so that we can adopt the resolution and start practicing for implementation because that is going to be coming up very soon there are certain things logistically on the back end that staff will you know have to figure out given council's direction but in terms of what we're looking from looking for from council tonight is how they would like to handle the time for public comment those things are going to be really important to us and then you let staff handle the logistics of how we do that so you know what I heard from Councilmember Ngo is less than 20 speakers, three minutes apiece. I heard from most of the council that they did like Arcadia's system. Councilmember Ngo said less than 20 speakers, three minutes apiece, between 21 and 40, two minutes apiece, more than 41, one minute apiece. It seems like everybody is in agreement with that. In terms of whether we want to do a public comment period at the beginning and one at the end, I'm hearing some different things. I think if we implement Councilmember Ngo's suggestion, even if we take all public comment at the beginning of the meeting, if there are a lot of speakers, we're hopefully not going to get too, too long at the beginning of the meeting. If we have, you know, 60 speakers, it would only be technically one hour of public comment. I think we've had 60 to 80 speakers at some of our really well-attended meetings. So if you want to do that math, that's probably, let's say, about an hour and a half, which I think is manageable for staff. So if we adopt those time limits, if you wanted to do that, we could do all public comment at the beginning with the exception of the public hearing, because those are taken under slightly different rules procedurally. and then I'm hearing the cutoff for registering speakers would be 15 minutes after the council meeting starts and I think that if I can kind of wrap that all together I think that's what I'm hearing

that's a good summary

I think that's a good summary also So I don't mind having five minutes if it's five speakers or less like tonight. Because if we have so few speakers, five minutes each is only 25 minutes of public comment anyways.

I agree with that. But I think if we have more, we need to adapt to how many speakers we have.

And I think you need to set that up now. I mean, I'm fine with five minutes if it's five speakers. You can add that layer and say five speakers or less. Director of Public Affairs 5 Minutes and then three minutes if it's between 5 and 20. Diana can just add that in there. But my point is to make sure we steer within an hour of public comments in the beginning so we can get more efficient. We want people to be heard, but we need to be efficient so we don't go all night hearing the same thing. point is to make sure we steer within an hour of public comments in the beginning so we can get more efficient. We want people to be heard but we need to be efficient so we don't go all night hearing the same thing.

Understood. So we can add five speakers or less, five minutes apiece, six to twenty speakers, three minutes apiece and so on and so forth. And I will also note that the mayor has the opportunity to change

these if we see

circumstances at other meetings that we'd like to sort of adjust for and as City Manager Alvarez noted we can always adapt these as we go on with our meetings and we find out that we may need to make some changes depending on the conditions that we're seeing at those meetings we can always come back and make revisions to this resolution.

sounds good all right so based on Diana's summary.

I'll make that motion

Okay. Councilmember Ngo makes that motion.

I'll second.

Councilmember Sanchez seconds. All in favor, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Alright. Thank you so much for all the answers to our many questions.

Thank you.

Alright. And next item will be 12B.

thank you madam mayor members of the council the responsibility for this item lays with me the council previously appointed me as the negotiator for the city manager's contract the outline of the contract is within the written staff report i am required by the government code to give you an overview of it in addition to the written comments in sum the city council authorized me to negotiate a three-year initial term to extend the city manager's agreement as you recall ms alvarez was appointed as city manager in november 2023 and her her three-year term is coming up the city council asked that the term be adjusted so that instead of it happening on a calendar year it instead occurred on a fiscal year so that the new anniversary date if the the council approves this contract would the term would end on june 30th and then renew on july 1st of each year of each of these three-year terms in addition there are two options for extending the term so there would be a total potentially of five years to this particular contract the city council can exercise those options at the end of the initial three-year term and those options could either be for exercising a one-year extension or a two-year extension whichever the council chose in the event that the council took no action the contract would go to a month-to-month basis the baseline salary that was approved by the city council is 315 731.60 that would begin on july 1st 2026 and over the three-year initial term the total compensation package is approximately 1 million 40 thousand 838 dollars obviously if the the options were exercised that would add on to the total cost the fringe benefits are generally associated with what other executives would be approved for by the city council and any subsequent increases in base salary would also be linked to what the city council were to approve for any executives executives being the department directors there's also a 600 monthly car allowance involved with that i'm happy to answer any questions for any specifics on this other than those major substantive changes the underlying contract remains the same as was approved by the city council back in 2023 happy to answer any questions

thank you Carl appreciate that just to confirm our philosophy in terms of pay in the city has been in with this council would particularly since I can only speak to this council that I've been on has been to pay to the median and just if you can confirm right the this number was not pulled out of nowhere in terms of what the salary is being recommended here this is the median in terms of comparing to our comparable cities list that we utilize for negotiations with our labor unions as well. And so we're aligning our, right, the city council has direct authority in terms of hiring, firing, and employment for only two people in this room at city hall, right, city attorney and the, well not directly city, but city attorney's firm, and the city manager. And we're exercising our negotiation philosophy in terms of pay and compensation with the city managers, just as we have with the bargain units here at City Hall with the city hall workers to pay to the median. And this is our adjustment for the city manager, especially as we are coming up on extending our contract. And I'd also note, before I get too far ahead of myself and forget, that this is in conjunction with a performance valuation, which not to get into closed session since that's performance evaluations are in closed session but i would note clearly i'm happy at least with our city manager's performance and excited didn't want to continue to keep her here as our city manager uh hence this agreement uh employment agreement and the extension of the contract for our city manager i want to give her her due kudos uh for leading the city over the last few years as our city manager look forward to many more years at at least the next three years of continuing to lead the city and the city staff here, the wonderful city staff here, and getting a lot of things done for our community and getting results that our residents expect and businesses here as well and visitors expect here in the city of Monterey Park. There's so much in store, so much work to do still, and look forward to having extraordinarily competent and hands leading our city. I can't ask for anyone else to be doing it. Excited to continue this. I know there's interest on our city manager's part as well to continue this work. So I really appreciate that she's willing and interested to continue to stay here in Monterey Park as well. I appreciate all her work. But back to my point. Just to confirm with a quick response, Carl, that this number is based on the median of our surveyed cities. And that's what we pay too, and that's what our compensation philosophy has been for at least the last few years.

Yes.

Perfect. Thank you. So I support this and look forward to other comments if there are any.

I'm just going to add very briefly that today we passed actually a California Cities Week resolution to honor the staff that worked very diligently and very hard to make our cities run, and particularly our city. And I think today I want to echo what Council Member Wong said, that many of us are extremely satisfied, and I think the word satisfied is not an appropriate word here, but we are very proud not just of the work that you are doing, Inez, but in helping lead our city. and I think how well our departments and our city function is directly connected with how well of a leader you are in terms of leading our city and all of our departments. So I am very eager and I support this, keeping Inez at least for three years, if not more, and making sure that she continues to lead our city. I can't really, I know there's a lot of amazing department heads here and mature, but you've done an amazing job. And I do want to say that everywhere that I go, people always comment not just about our city manager but really about our city and how amazing staff we have here um in fact um maybe i shouldn't say this but uh our superintendent uh alhambra unified said uh she's like you know i'm not sure if you realize this but you have a really special team in in the city of monterey park um and and i see it everywhere um people always comment about how great um the city staff is here and how approachable you guys are so i really thank you for being amazing ambassadors to our city um you guys make our city look great you make all of us look great too but uh really appreciate all the work that you do um and as and so i um i also wish um well i also will um support item 12b and ensure that we keep Inez here um because she's She's doing an amazing job. So thank you, Inez.

Madam Mayor? You know, I just want to also just share in the conversation and praise, really, of our city manager, having worked with her for six years now and, you know, having her as the face of the city administration during our, you know, moments of crisis as well as our moments of triumph. and it's not an easy job. And I know that although, yes, we sit here on a dais, we vote and make policy decisions, and we all try to make ourselves as accessible as possible to our constituents, the public. But really, when a phone rings from the public and it's to the city manager's office, usually the first person is the city manager. And I know that certainly in the past, we've had meetings where people have come up

thinking that they know how to do the job as a city manager and have blasted the city manager and said, you know, you should resign.

And frankly, you know, I would challenge anyone to spend a day in our city manager's shoes, any city manager's shoes, and you will realize how challenging the job is. Because not just the administration of the city and services, but the city manager also has to do with five elected officials,

you know, and

actually, no, I take it, no, seven elected officials Both, you know, including council, clerk, and treasurer. And if you think about it, you know, it doesn't matter. Like, because the city manager, you know, makes a point to meet with each council member to discuss weekly items. And if you assume that she spends an hour with each council member, then that alone is five hours a day. I'm sorry, five hours in one day was spread out during a week, you know. And, again, that's on top of doing everything else. And so I do want to just emphasize how, you know, the job is a hard job and sometimes so thankless, you know. But I would like to hope that certainly in wanting to recognize how hard the work is, that when it does come to the employment agreement that we not only are recognizing the hard work, but I think also empowering you to make sure that you can do the work that you're doing. And that's why I'm also supporting the item as well.

Yeah, and I'm also supporting the item because I've been working with our city manager for about a year and a half now. And she's made the transition so smooth, explaining so many processes. And every week we get dozens of residents coming to us with complaints and issues. And I field them all to the city manager, and they're all resolved and answered. and she's accessible on weekends, on evenings, even when she's out of town, supposedly on vacation, but always making herself accessible. So I can't imagine how she handles my constituents and then times five, and then the staff on top of that, all the managers. So it's a lot of work. So, yeah, I'd love to move to approve item 12B.

I'll make a motion.

You make a motion? Okay. and council member Wong seconds then let's vote

approved unanimously

madam mayor if I may yeah so I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude appreciation to the city council for their continued trust and support I'm honored to serve this in this important capacity I don't take this responsibility lightly. It is a tough job. There's definite days where it's a challenge. I'm very proud of the work that all of our city employees are doing on a day-to-day basis. They keep me motivated and energized to serve alongside with them. They're doing great things in our community. I definitely wouldn't be able to do this job without my colleagues' support and collaboration so I want to take a moment to say thank you to our assistant city manager our city attorney and the executive team for all their continued support without the team I said it before the city manager does not run the city by that by themselves it doesn't matter who it is there's just no way that anybody can be you know doing this job solely so I have a great support system and a team and everybody has been doing amazing work we have plenty of work in front of us but I'm proud of all the work that the staff continues to do for our Monterey Park community I think we've done some good things but we always have more things to do and again I just want to take a moment to say I appreciate being here and I hope to stay for many more years thank you so much

That concludes our meeting. Any city communications?

Well, I'll start first. We really talked about Cherry Blossom, so we already gave half the city, the entire city, the kudos for doing all that great work plus the weather. One thing we didn't mention was we also celebrated for the first time Arbor Day. So Public Works Director Sean, good job on that. That being my park is now a tree city. And we have made the commitment and we will continue to make the commitment that for every tree that goes down in our city, we will replant two more. And we look for a greener city of Monterey Park in the future. The week prior, a few of us attended the Congresswoman Judy Chu's Woman of the Year. This year we have a candidate in Cindy Kuo known as Mrs. Wong. She has been serving our community for 40 plus years. So congratulations Mrs. Wong as well as Mr. or Dr. Wang for being the awardee for Congresswoman's Woman of the Year. That's it for me.

Ditto that. Appreciate all the staff work and the recent community events as well. Just wish everyone a happy Tax Day as well. You've got a couple hours to get that in.

All right. I just wanted to share a couple of Metro items because I just came back from my Metro Service Council meeting this past Monday. I did want to address, because I know Mayor Yang and the city manager forwarded a request or question regarding Metro bikes, which is something that I did ask about at our Metro Service Council meeting. the addition of metro bikes could potentially be added anywhere in our city but it would have to be in conjunction it would have to be like a joint effort I was informed between the city and metro as a shared cost in terms of maintaining and establishing and putting the the bike racks but that's something that we can continue to dialogue about but I know that there was a resident who was interested in potentially seeing Metro bikes at the E-Line station in East LA and Atlantic that could potentially connect our city, particularly probably the ELAC area, I think the email said or something like that. But also wanted to share that next week, April 23rd, It's Earth Day, and all metro will be free. All metro transit, including rail, e-bikes, and what am I missing? Buses, right? If you are interested in riding and making our air cleaner and participating in public transport. And then lastly, I wanted to share that the D-Line extension is finally happening, and it will be in the west side. The D-Line extension ribbon cutting is taking place on Friday, May 8th, at the Peterson Automotive Museum. I don't know how to find out. I hope so. but anyhow and then there is a lot of preparation happening in terms of the World Cup in preparation for the World Cup and the Olympics and then lastly the Metro Service Council is very interested to hear any developments in the last council meeting we discussed the creation of a committee with our neighboring cities regarding the BRT potential lane in conjunction with the SGV COG and their SGV forward plan. So whatever developments happen there, they'd like to be apprised as well because they did approve funding for that project. And that's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. And for me, I also want to extend my congratulations to our Monopark resident, Cindy Kuo, who was being recognized by Congressman Judy Chu and also the work that her husband, Ed Wong, does in our community, long-time resident. I also attended with my colleagues the Chinese American Unity Alliance dinner last week for Lunar New Year. Yes, it still is Lunar New Year, and it's still being celebrated even though it's April. And the Unity Alliance, the head of this organization, are actually two very involved residents of Monterey Park, Derek and Daisy Ma. So again, thank you for the work they do in our community. also again kudos to our staff for a successful trade blossom festival also attended with my colleagues on Sunday the Lunar New Year celebration for the American Chinese Cambodian Friendship Association which has their headquarters based in Monterey Park and again it's wonderful that you know for for us who live in this community we get to celebrate so many cultures and so many holidays throughout the year it just means throughout the year it's always one big celebration

here in Monterey Park yeah lots of celebrations and events I wanted to thank Crystal Palace and also our staff for hosting another wonderful meetup with the mayor last Thursday and a lot of development too we had Deerfield Center they did a community meeting last Thursday on April 2nd. I heard that was well attended. And there's also a community meeting for Celadon on Tuesday, April 28th at 5.30 p.m. And this Friday, April 17th, ELAC is having a ribbon-cutting grand opening for their new Center for Leadership at 10 a.m. in the morning. And with that, we will also be having a special meeting on Monday, April 20th for the Data Center. So we'll see everyone then and anything else no all right meeting adjourned at 9 0 5

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.