City Council Meeting — July 1, 2026

All righty. All righty. Ready?

Okay.

Then let me begin today's regular meeting of the Monterey Park City Council, July 1, 2026, 6.30 p.m.

Okay.

Before we proceed, let's have our light acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tawangar,

the home of the Gabriolino Tongva people.

We show our respect to the Gabriolino Tongva people as well as all indigenous people, past, present, and future, and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabriolino Tongva people, and we invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land.

OK, let's see. Everyone, please rise for the Slack's loop, which

will be presented by the Meyer Park Police Explorers.

Okay, put it right over your heart. Ready to begin.

Okay, put your right hand over your heart.

Ready to 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, liberty, and justice.

Yes. Forward march.

Office of colors. White, blue, palette, face. Forward march.

Thank you. Thank you.

Please be seated.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Yang.

Present.

Council Member Ngo. Present.

Councilmember Wong. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez. Present. Mayor Lo. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Before we proceed, I'd like to announce that pursuant to SB 707 and resolution number 2026R23, Rules for Conducting Legislative Meeting, remote participation via Zoom is available. Public comments for all agenda items will be accepted during the public comment period, item number seven, except for public hearings which you've taken at their own time when

the hearing is being called.

Mr. Public, please complete one yellow speaker card if you wish to make a comment on the non-public hearing items and a separate blue public hearing card for each public hearing item. The time allocated for each speaker will be determined based on the total number of requests to speak, including those submitted by in-person attendees, Zoom participants using the raise hand feature, and callers participating by phone by pressing star 9 to join the speaker queue. Request to speak will be accepted until the beginning of the applicable public comment period to determine the speaker time limit.

I'll say it again.

Request to speak will be accepted until the beginning of the applicable public comment period to determine the speaker time limit. And regarding times, five or fewer speakers, five minutes each, six to 20 speakers, three minutes each, 21 to 40 speakers, 2 minutes each, 41 or more speakers, 1 minute each. Live interpretation is also available through the Wordly app, and closed captioning is available on Zoom. As a reminder, any person addressing the counsel who disrupts, disturbs, impedes, or otherwise renders infeasible the meeting's orderly conduct, who after a request by the presiding officer refuses to cease behavior may be removed from the council chambers or remote participation platform. For more information, procedures, instructions, visit the city's website agenda page. And again, this is an exciting time for us, a new way of increasing public participation. This is our first day trying this new system as mandated by state law. So to my council colleagues, we ask for your indulgence for patients, city staff, as well as the audience. We will do our best to implement this new system.

And with that, let's see. Are there any telecommunications announcements?

Okay, hearing that, okay. Agenda, revisions, and additions.

No, Mayor, no changes.

Okay. Well then, okay, then let us proceed to presentation. And I believe we have presentation item 6A, where customer survey results.

Please come forward.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, residents of the City of Monterey Park. My name is Martin. I'm a contract manager with Word Disposal.

I'm here with Jason Rush, Legislative Director for Word Disposal.

And we're here just to report back on a customer satisfaction survey that we conducted, basically

about two months.

Thank you.

All right. We believe that listening to our customers is one of the best ways to improve our service.

This service was designed to understand resident satisfaction, identify our strengths, and

gather feedback on areas where we can do better.

We received a total of 109 responses with surveys completed in both English and Chinese. Offering multilingual participation remains important to us, and we'll continue looking for ways to reach every resident.

Unfortunately, our participation was less than 1% of the number of customers that we service here in the city of Monterey Park.

We wanted to make sure the survey was accessible as possible.

Survey was live from January 8th to April 30th.

Residents could access the survey via QR codes, our website, the city's social media channels.

We also promoted in person by handing out flyers at our customer care center and during

community events like Earth Day. Our staff also encouraged participation while assisting residents throughout the survey period.

Here are some images of the actual survey where it was accessible on our website and then the flyer that we created so that residents can access the survey via the QR code. The

The survey was available via English, Chinese, and Spanish.

And each QR code was designated for each language.

We're pleased to see several areas where residents feel we're performing well.

88% reported that their collection service happens most or all of the time.

More than 80% are satisfied with our billing and administrative support.

Over 68% rated their interaction with our drivers positively and 91% were aware of our bulky item collection program.

These results show that our core services are meeting the expectations of most of our residents.

Like any survey, we also receive valuable suggestions for improvement.

Residents ask for simpler recycling and composting information,

more communication through digital channels, additional multilingual outreach, and better promotion of programs like e-waste collection.

Some residents also expressed interest in convenience services, such as cart cleaning and assisted cart movement.

When we looked at all of the comments together, a few comments stood out.

Residents appreciate our dependable collection service, responsive customer service, and consistent operations.

At the same time, they will like clearer recycling information, more communication by email,

educational materials in multiple languages, and greater awareness of the services already available.

We've taken this feedback seriously and developed an action plan. We've strained education by creating simpler recycling guides and more visual education materials.

We'll improve communication through more email updates, service reminders, and printed notices.

We'll also continue promoting programs like our e-waste collection and other diversion services

so that residents know what's available to them.

Some of the improvements that are already underway in the short term will expand email communication,

update educational materials, improve billing inserts, increase multilingual outreach,

and continue promoting available programs.

Long term will continue measuring resident satisfaction, evaluate new convenience services, and continue investing in customer service training so that every interaction with our residents is a positive one.

Our commitment doesn't end with the survey.

We'll continue listening to residents' feedback, improving communication and education,

and providing reliable collection and exceptional customer service.

Our goal is to continue building trust with the community while delivering the highest level of service possible.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Thank you so much. Members, questions?

Yeah, thank you for the updates.

I'm glad that the ratings are much higher now than when you first started the contract with the city. I did have a resident reach out to me. If they live on a tight street, like let's say apartments or whatnot, and there's cars parked on their streets where they don't have space to put the trash bins if they put the trash bins on the grass or on the sidewalk will

aware still pick up that trash ideally we want them curbside that's the that's the the outreach that we provide to every resident if it's an issue because

of space or because the streets are a little bit narrow drivers are instructed

to get off the truck and pull those carts to service them.

At times, we have different drivers servicing,

so the message is not widely spread out.

But the idea is that residents should be placing them side by side so that our trucks can easily service them and empty them.

So maybe a reminder to all the drivers that if there's no space on the curb, then come out and empty the trash cans

when they're on the sidewalk. Thank you.

Councilor Gough. Thank you.

Martin, thanks for the update. And question for you guys. Are you planning to do a follow-up survey a year from now annual basis or is there a

step toward that?

Correct. Yeah. The idea is to do this annually so that we can continue to get feedback and then improve

from that feedback.

Thank you.

Councilor Wong.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for this.

Appreciate being able to get some of this feedback. I know you share where sharers are. I would have hoped that more people would have replied. I know it's hard to force people to reply to a survey, but appreciate the feedback

and hope that you'll continue to seek feedback from customers.

I appreciate that you guys are taking the posture of addressing some of the concerns that were expressed through the feedback that was gained through the survey.

I don't know.

Do you know when we plan to do another survey, customer satisfaction survey, or is this the only one

! ! The contract period. !

Councilmember Wong, I believe the contract has language for annual survey. It sounds like WHERE though is interested in continuing to do it at least annually, correct?

Yeah, great. No, I appreciate that and I know the feedback from those that at least returned the survey.

No, I appreciate that, and I know the feedback from those that at least returned the survey or did the survey mostly positive.

Appreciate that.

I don't hear a lot of complaints, just the occasional they miss my trash or bulky item. Sometimes it's their fault, too. So appreciate that you guys are on top of it. Continue to provide excellent service in the city. I hope and we expect that that will continue and look forward to that. are you this is maybe more operational in nature but in terms of the organic waste diversion I'm sure you're still seeing a lot of people put organic waste in the wrong bins how big a problem was that and how much what else can we do to help remind and encourage and educate people about separating

organic waste right that is that is still happening we do have a lot of contamination recycling carts being contaminated with bulky items and just

items that should not be going there we do have a lot of organic materials to be in thrown into the trash cart and so we're revamping our educational material

to try and target these issues in a different way rather than just showing

them what can go in there also showing them what they're actually putting in

those carts so that we can prevent them from from doing it in the future do

Do you anticipate that being, I don't know how the state oversight process works for

organic waste aversion.

Is this going to be an issue, I don't know if this is a question for our staff too, but do we anticipate this being an issue going forward in terms of, and what else do we need to press this harder in the coming year or a few years in terms of getting people to do the organic waste aversion and make sure we're putting it in the right bucket?

Well, just to kind of remind you guys, so last year we did do a contamination audit

where we went around and we selected a few homes and then we actually did a revision of

the materials and we would put like a label, a tag that would remind them what cart is

contaminated and what cannot be in those carts.

And so that's on our site, we're trying different alternatives, different options where we can

educate and show them or how to properly sort their material and where the materials are placed at as far as good evening mayor mayor pro tem and city

council Sean I go public works director so now on the city side we'll continue to work with where on outreach material I know they do offer some additional

I'll call classes in your in your offices where they can have people come

through and and really understand the differences between organic waste recycling and it's trash. So we can continue to partner with them and promote what they're doing and look at other

opportunities where we have.

I know they participate in a lot of our events, so it's a good opportunity for them to promote

that during those events as well.

Yeah, maybe this is something to bring up with the environmental commission to see if there are other ideas on how to get the word out and a lot more education.

I know even for my complex, people are throwing organic waste in the wrong basket all the time.

And I can imagine it's not just a Ware or Barnes Park problem. Across the board, I think, in California, a lot of people, it's only been a few years in terms of the organic waste diversion requirements really starting to kick in. And a lot of people still don't understand what that is, and it's hard. Even I'll look at the long list of what's organic waste, what's not, what should go in the regular trash bin, what should go in recyclable, what should go in the green bin, and still confused. So I get it's hard, and there's a lot of work to do. Just want to make sure we're continuing to partner on educating the community and residents and businesses about doing what we can. because this is a big deal for the state and still a long way to go to get close to, I think, what our organic waste diversion and our trash sorting requirements are for the state or for the city and for the state.

Thank you. Thank you. Pro Tem. Just a few questions.

Thank you, Martin, for the presentation. Looking forward to next year's results as well. But I had some questions regarding the survey and just how WEAR shares information. How do you guys share information with residents?

At this time, we're doing it through billing inserts. So when you get your invoice bimonthly,

there should be a billing insert with information.

Okay, great.

We have been doing it for the past couple of months back to back.

They've been very consistent. So we'll continue to do that.

So for people who get a paper bill in the mail,

they'll get it in the inserts and people who get it digitally will get it? Correct. They can also get it digitally, yeah.

Yeah, we haven't expanded our digital program.

So some of the customers that actually enroll on just email do get it.

But customers that are both paper and digital are not getting it digitally, just paper.

But that's something that we're looking into expanding it to all of our customers. Okay, great.

And do you guys have a social media platform at all?

We do.

We don't post too much. and that's also something that we are looking into improving to try and get more work on those pages.

I think one of the things we've learned as a city is a lot of our residents rely a lot on information and getting a lot of that information also through social media. So sometimes when we try to reach out to residents, we try to explore, I think, social media, our newspaper, Cascades, right, and then sometimes the banners that we have throughout the city, just different forms to get the word out in terms of information. If I'm hearing Councilmember Wong in terms of some concerns with the sorting of trash, that might be a good way to be able to share some of that information. Only because, actually, to Councilmember Wong's point, I haven't received any complaints about where. The only thing I've heard recently was just one person asked me, do you know where's the social media handle or post or what their account is? And I said, I don't know if they have one. So, you know, and I think it's because people are so used to, you know, getting information through social media nowadays.

Yeah. So just a suggestion. Yeah.

And then I did have one other question.

Let me see.

Actually, it was already answered.

Thank you so much. All right. Yes. One more question.

For the record, do you guys charge for bulky item pickup?

We do not. Not even the $1? There's no charge for bulky items. there's no charge for e-waste collection. Residents do get four calls per year for e-waste

and unlimited calls for bulky items. Awesome. Thank you. On top of the cleanup events that we do a year.

Any further questions? Okay. Thank you so very much. Sorry. Can I just add to your point, though?

I think residents are referring to the quantity on the invoice. So some invoices do show bulky item

and they have a quantity of one, it's not a charge.

It's just listed on there because of the work orders that we submit.

Sometimes they generate onto the invoice, but there's no charge on it. It's just the quantity.

Yeah, I think some residents are interpreting that one as $1.

Yeah, no, it's not. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay.

We will now, thank you, gentlemen.

Okay, we will now proceed with public comment. This is the final opportunity to request to speak on agenda items other than public hearing items. If you have not yet submitted a yellow speaker card and wish to comment, please raise your hand, complete a speaker card, and provide it to the City Clerk. For those participating remotely, please use the raise hand feature on Zoom. If you are participating by phone, please press star 9 to join the speaker queue. We will hear comments from in-person speakers first folLod by remote participants. City Clerk, how many in-person speakers and how many remote speakers do we have and what is the speaker time limit will it be?

Mayor Lo, we currently have three in-person speakers.

Okay.

There are no speakers participating remotely via Zoom.

Okay.

For a total of three speakers, so each speaker will have five minutes for their public comment.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Then, thank you, clerk. I will call the in-person speaker request.

All right.

First, Colleen Campbell, please come forward.

Do I have to press the button?

Okay. Bear with us. you know but yeah please please hi so I'm my name is Colin Campbell and I have

to read this there's a bunch in there it's about two and a half minutes and then I'll just talk generally but good evening Honorable Mayor members of the

Monterey Park City Council my name is Colin Campbell I'm a resident of South

Pasadena the Pasadena chapter lead for the Mars Society and founder and CEO of adapts Inc which is veteran-owned small business in South Pasadena I'm here to

propose a regional modernization framework that will bolster the safety and long-term sustainability for Monterey Park. My firm, AdaptSynx, is prepared to lead the deployment of a fusion-powered infrastructure

hub at 720 East Glen Arms site in Pasadena. Fusion.

This is different. We're upgrading the power systems.

While this facility is localized, its purpose is to serve as a critical utility backbone for the entire San Gabriel Valley. The project uses fusion energy, the most efficient power source known to drive two regional imperatives,

robust water security and next-generation emergency management.

By integration of an underground desalination plant and water harvesting strategy, we aim to increase clean water supplies for Los Angeles County, including immediate relief for our surrounding communities.

Furthermore, this hub will host the Stargate AI, an AGI-driven life support system. So AGI is artificial general intelligence. For Monterey Park, this means an upgrade for your police, fire, and EMS departments. This AI provides real-time risk assessments, predictive analytics for emergency responses, and coordinated municipal life support capabilities that far exceed current systems.

This is not a standalone experiment. It's a foundation for regional resilience. We are creating the same life support technologies required for an upcoming lunar base and Mars exploration missions, technologies highlighted as national necessities by the U.S. Congress and international leaders like His Majesty King Charles. He said that to Congress two months ago. I have already introduced this framework to Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Senator Chuck Schumer, I met in Washington, D.C., Senator Sasha Perez, and federal agencies including U.S. Cyber Command, DARPA, ARPA-H, and ARPA-E. My veteran-owned firm, AdaptSinks, has the expertise and capacity to execute this technology locally, provided we receive local consent.

I ask for your support in endorsing this regional modernization project to ensure Monterey Park is at the forefront of a safer, more resilient, and technological advanced future.

Thank you for your leadership and happy fourth and it's 250 years.

I'm very excited about it as well as I'm also a SAR, sons of the American Revolution.

I'm a descendant of Robert Morris. And Robert Morris was the financier of the American Revolution as well as Anthony Morris,

who died in the Battle of Princeton, which is a turning point in the American Revolution. This is going to be a big change and we want to gather consent if you're willing to do it.

and you can follow up with the people I listed and I emailed this to you as well. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, L.S. Thito, please come forward.

Hello, council members. Hello, Council Members.

I'm here today to talk about the Garvey corridor, which you guys have been involved with and

is an ad hoc committee.

I'm here to talk about their documentation. I had a chance to review both of them. The first one was dated October 11, 2021, all 716 pages of the San Gabriel Valley transit

feasibility study.

There were mistakes right off the top. In fact, I realized that that document dated 2021, there's a big bulk of it that was copied from the SCAG, the Southern California Association of Government City Study, and they copied it from the Monterey Park 2019. It was outdated because they missed Cal State LA as a critical infrastructure education facility near Monterey Park. They also, whoever lives in District 3, they forgot about the last mile from Monterey Park. They didn't fund the last mile for Monterey Park. And as you know, the... They didn't fund the last mile for Monterey Park and as you know the E line station has a stop right by East LA college ! Additionally they talked about the feasibility of the bus line 68770 and you know those were eliminated back in August 2019 and their report was dated 2021.

! And so we move on to page 11.

To their February 2024 report that one was only 46 pages and Monterey Park was classified. That one was only 46 pages and Monterey Park was classified as a jumpstart demonstration

site.

So, with that, let me move on to this.

This communication is to provide an urgent risk advisory to the LA 28 organizing committee regarding severe structural legal and civil rights liability currently being advanced by

executive staff at the San Gabriel Valley Council of Government under the explicit branding

of LA20 Olympic mobility readiness timeline and the San Gabriel Valley forward jumpstart transit infrastructure initiative. The advisory is submitted on behalf of a loosely organized coalition of San Gabriel Valley residents possessing professional expertise across civil engineering, statutory law, and

public policy.

Current engineering metrics demonstrate that the project is fundamentally unbuildable and any standard configuration without triggering severe regulatory, legal, and financial liability. Curb running constraint.

Implementing the curb running constraint without parking lanes, without expanding the corridor

five foot sidewalk, this introduces physical impossibility for maintaining the legally mandated five times six foot unobstructed wheelchair boarding and loading zone. It is a violation of the federal public right-of-way accessibility guidelines. Side-running and capital cost realities. Shifting to the side-running alignment would require massive street widening and extensive relocation of major utilities undergrounding. Engineering estimates indicate this configuration would exceed $25 million per one mile, creating

an insurmountable financial liability on a ready constraint corridor.

Because both of these configurations are structurally unbuildable, the ongoing execution of consecutive

redundant report by the San Gabriel Valley COG for this particular project is a depletion of federal transit fund. It appears highly evident that the administration is generating an artificial burn rate. There is no legitimate planning justification, repeatedly fund identical traffic and engineering studies. When each subsequent review years after years, you get the same unbalanced results. This process serves only to exhaust the remaining multi-million dollar contract budget before the project and really fails to meet regulatory oversight. This is too long to read. So basically what I'm trying to tell you is that the city, you guys, Rosemead and Lamonti, you guys are being set up to fail. This project is unbuildable. the money that the San Gabriel Cog that Marisa Crater has received, it is basically to run the studies over and over again and make sure when this project is depleted and it's not billable, the finger is going to be pointing at you guys that you guys create the ACHOC committee to interfere. So with that said, this report has already been forwarded to

the LA 28 Executive Committee for review and subsequently a United States Department of

Transportation and United States Department and a Federal Transportation Authority Civil

Rights.

Thank you very much. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I would also encourage you to attend the Ad Hoc Committee, which is when is the next meeting?

July 20th.

Thank you.

in the city of Rosemey at the Garvey Community Center. And again, as you are aware, they're representatives from the four different participating cities. And so, again, I appreciate sharing your concerns. I encourage you to attend that meeting.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you. 6 p.m. Yeah, thank you.

And we will post that agenda on the city's webpage as well for a reminder for the community. So 6 p.m. Monday, July 20th at the Garvey Community Center.

Thank you. Okay. Next, Bill Lam. Please come forward.

You all can hear me, right? All right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Then. Well, yes. So hi, I'm Bill Lam.

I'm born and raised in this city, and I want to talk about the fireworks show because I just really don't understand why do we have to have a fireworks show that is like several days early before the 4th of July.

because I remember the last time our city had a fireworks show was on the 4th of July was in 2019. That was like right before the next two years of COVID, which ended up canceling that show.

But when it returned back in 2022, I just saw that there are some of the shows that are several days early.

Because when 2022 came back, the show was on July 2nd, which is like two days early before the 4th of July. The 2020 free one was July 1st, which is three days early. 2024 one was on June 29, which is five days early. Last year's one was on June 28, which is six days early. And then the one that we're supposed to have this year was like one week early before July. But unfortunately, because of the bad air quality from the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights,

it was eventually canceled.

But the 2026, which is this year, I mean, at least you shouldn't cancel this year's 2026 firework show. So, I mean, isn't July for Saturday?

Because it would have been better to, you know, put this year's 2026 fireworks show on the 4th of July instead of, you know, June 27, which was already canceled.

So, I mean, it would have been better to just, like, postpone one week to the 4th of July instead of, you know, June 27. I mean, I understand about the health air quality from that far, but at least just, like, not cancel this year's because, I mean, July 4 is on a Saturday, right? I mean, if we put a fire, whether or not you would put a 2026 fireworks show on July 4th, this could, you know, reduce, what I should call it, reduce some confusion on how to properly celebrate, you know, the 4th of July. So even whether or not you would put whether or not. So I'm having some I'm trying to fix some grammar issues but whether or not you put the if the 2026 fireworks show on the on the 4th of July which is this Saturday or not but moving forward in the future it would have been better to put our city's fireworks show on the 4th of July. because the thing is, number one, it's about the most important thing putting the fireworks show on the 4th of July is that we don't want to have too many confusions on how to properly celebrate Independence Day,

which is the 4th of July.

And hopefully in my closing statement,

if the June 26th fire show is cancelled from the June 27th one it would have been nicer to postpone it to July 4th which is this Saturday instead of completely cancelled this year's event so that is all for now

thank you thank you okay and

no further in person

and comments. Okay, and I know there's none online. Okay.

Then we shall proceed to staff communications. First staff communication is from Brighamire Library.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem,

members of the City Council my name is Kristen Oliveras I'm the city librarian at the Monterey Park Burger Mar library and this evening I wanted to begin with

a recap of our June programming in June the library offered 102 programs for 2,696

attendees of all ages these programs included the all abilities activity club a production of East-West Players' Tam Tran Goes to Washington, Woodshop for Children, and a financial wellness workshop and more. Next slide, please. This month, we have something for everyone, beginning with the Duty, Honor, Country, Courage Exhibition opening reception. Join us this Friday, July 3rd at 12 p.m. for opening remarks by dignitaries, folLod by a panel discussion with Asian-American veterans. Attendees are then invited to explore the exhibition and speak to the curator. The exhibition highlights the contributions of Asian Americans in the U.S. military and will be on display in the library lobby throughout the month of July. The summer reading program began on June 13th and runs through July 31st, so there's still plenty of time to register for the program and track your reading. Participants who read on 35 days during the program will receive a free book and be entered

to win a grand prize.

To register, visit MontereyPark.Beanstack.org or scan the QR code shown here. As part of the summer reading program, special performances are being offered throughout the summer at Langley Center. On July 8th, California Joe will present an interactive magic show featuring magic tricks

from around the world.

Then on July 22nd, attendees will have a wild good time at the Doodlebugs Animal Adventures Wild About Animals show. Registration is not required for these performances.

Next slide.

Join us for our Spicy Romance series this summer. Kick it off with a screening of Red, White, and Royal Blue on Saturday, July 11th at 3 p.m. Then on Saturday, July 18th at 3 p.m., test your book and movie knowledge to get a chance at winning a collection of curated romance books and sweet and spicy treats.

Finally, registration for the fall semester of LAMP classes begins on July 22nd. The semester will run August 10th through November 21st. English as a second language classes, conversation groups, and citizenship preparation classes are free, and you can register in the LAMP office or visit the library website to view the current schedule. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Well, thank you.

Colleagues?

Councilman Yang?

No questions on my end. Just thank you for always having so many great events at the library.

Councilman Ngo?

Thank you, Mayor.

Kristen, great number of activities from wellness to workshops to movies and I'll just give another plug to the military installation. You'll be there for the entire month but it is so rare to have two major generals, two star generals retired from the military be in a city to discuss their careers and their pathways and then we also have a one of the surviving Korean War veterans he's 96 years old will also be there in the panel and then of course the more

radical six years old will also be there in the panel and of course the more what they call modern heroes modern !

Lieutenant Colonel Donald Presto who actually flew Marine One for President Bush and Obama here in person on Friday just telling the story. So I want to invite not only those in audience but also those at home to please come and attend and hear their stories. You know we're really celebrating the 250th birthday for the United States but we're listening to the contributions of all the military folks including our post. We're listening to the contributions of all the military folks, including our post and local posts, who are going to attend and support our event, which is about duty, honor, courage, and country.

Thank you.

Mayor Potem.

Thank you, Kristen, for all of the amazing programming. I had some books that were due yesterday, but I was here for the soaring in, so I didn't get a chance to.

This is real, actually. They were due yesterday.

But if you can go back to the slide with the bugs.

Yes, the doodle bugs.

Is this happening at the library?

Both of these programs will be held at Langley.

Oh, at Langley. Okay. Excellent.

I'm just jotting this down because I have a middle kid, my middle child, who loves bugs.

So I want to make sure. July 22nd. Excellent.

And is there a number of people capacity-wise that can attend this event?

Many.

We intentionally have moved these programs to Langley to accommodate a larger crowd.

Okay. Excellent.

These programs are also open.

Sorry. If I may.

These programs are also open to our seniors.

Absolutely.

Yes. Oh, excellent. Thank you, Chris.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Okay.

Next, fire department. Come on down.

Oh, no. It's okay.

I didn't get the bell, so that's good, I guess.

Good evening, honorable mayor, mayor pro tem, council members, city executive team, and guests. My name is Jessica Estrella. I'm the fire marshal, Monterey Park Fire Department, and I am here to present on firework safety.

Fireworks sale locations.

Fireworks must be purchased from an approved permitted stand or vendor. If you're unsure, look at the California State Fire Marshal seal, which you see down at the bottom corner of the slide. They actually state they're safe and sane on the actual product. Sales of fireworks began at noon on Sunday, June 28th, and they will end at 9 p.m. Saturday, July 4th. There's four approved Safe and Sane Firework booth vendors in Monterey Park. We have one Shepherd of the Hills at 1600 Monterey Pass Road, which is in the 7-Eleven parking lot. We have Mark Keppel High School at 2150 South Atlantic in Atlantic Square by Ralph's. St. Stephen's on 320 West Garvey in their parking lot. and St. Thomas Aquinas, 1501 South Atlantic,

also in their parking lot.

Please celebrate responsibly and keep our community safe for everyone.

Next slide, please. Firework safety.

Safe and sane fireworks are only alLod on July 4th from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fireworks are not alLod in any of our city parks at any time. Please follow basic safety practices.

Keep water nearby.

Maintain a safe distance from homes, vehicles, and dry vegetation. Also make sure you keep children at a safe distance as well. Be respectful of your neighbors, veterans, children, seniors, and pets who may be impacted by firework activity. Any illegal fireworks and sales can be reported to Monterey Park Police Department, non-emergency line at 626-573-1311. And just keep in mind, anything that goes in the air is illegal in California. Fines for possessing or using illegal fireworks range from $2,000 to $5,000.

Thank you. Do you have any questions?

Thank you so much. Members?

Yeah, thanks for the reminder to our residents, especially given all the recent fires. and thank you to you and your team for keeping our city safe this week.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

Have a great night and a happy 4th.

Happy 4th.

Next, Recreation Community Services.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor Lo, Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez and council members. My name is Christina Alatorre, and I'm the Recreation Manager for the Recreation and

Community Services Department. Next slide.

First, we'd like to thank everyone for coming out to the San Gabriel Valley Pride Parade

and Festival.

We'd also like to give a special thanks to the Boys and Girls Club of the San Gabriel Valley and Eastside and the Alhambra Teachers Association for collaborating with us with

this successful event.

I'd also like to give a special shout out to Jennifer Langford, who also, who's a teacher with the Alhambra Unified School District, and she helped head, spear this event for everyone to enjoy. We had a ton of participants at the parade and at the festival. We had high school students performing theater acts and singing. We also had a live band. It was an enjoyable day for everyone. We'd also like to thank everyone who attended the MPK Campout. It's our first event. We had approximately 40 families, and if you times that by four, it's about 160 people attended this event here in Barnes Park. With that being said, we'd also like to thank our fire department and our public works for keeping our parks clean and safe, and our fire department for leading the s'mores section of the event. It was very enjoyable. We heard nothing but great and positive feedback from the families that attended this event, who are looking forward to it next year. And next year we're looking to expand our capacity. Now that we've got a feel for this event, we think we can add more families so that more people can enjoy this wonderful opportunity in our parks.

Next slide, please.

So over at the Langley Center, we have programs for adults ages 50 and over. So what we have first is we have a movie showing during the day, and it's on July 21st from 1 to 3. no registration is required, free snacks are offered, and it's just a great space for seniors to come out and enjoy a movie. We're also offering a watch party for seniors on the 13th at 3, on July 14th at noon, and 15th at noon. Again, that's for ages 50 plus at our Senior Center. We're also having an independent state dance on July 23rd from 1 to 3 p.m.

there is a registration for that event. It's $3.

And like most of our dance events at the Langley Center,

it is the most happening place to be

at one o'clock in the afternoon. So we'd like to encourage everyone who is 50 or over to come on out and enjoy the Langley Senior Center.

Next slide, please.

Over in aquatics, we have our George Elder Pool, which offers a variety of programs. lap swims offered Monday through Friday from 6 to 8 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 6 to 10 a.m. so that's open lap swim for anyone that wants to come over exercise and swim laps we also offer swim lessons throughout the summer and our classes are offered Monday through Saturday various days and times and that's for everyone from the little ones for mommy and me classes to adults so we got something for everyone learning to swim is very important especially in the summertime. We are also offering water aerobics that's offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 415 to 605 in the evening and rec swim which is offered Monday through Friday from 12 to 1 30 p.m. and Saturdays from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Again all of our aquatic programs are held at George Elder Pool and it's just a great place to cool off and for anyone in the community come in and experience our aquatic programs.

We also have our Movies in the Park series.

This is typically held at Barnes Park. So the first one in July is going to be Goat,

and that's on the 9th.

Again, that's at Barnes Park. Next one is the 23rd. We're going to be showcasing The Incredibles. These are done in conjunction with our Farmer's Market.

So snacks, come on out, come on out, purchase some items from the Farmer's Market vendors,

and then stay for the movie. Our last movie is actually a dive-in movie. That one is going to be held at George Elder Pool, and the movie that we are showing is Shark Tale. So again, we have a variety of movies being offered, two at Barnes Park and one at George Elder Pool.

Next slide, please.

We have offered a variety of trips to our community.

So the Community Participation Commission

has offered Mama Mia. that's currently sold out, and attendees on the 2nd are going at 2 p.m. to go watch this theatrical performance. In addition, the Community Participation Commission is offering Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight at the Hollywood Bowl, and that will be on the 24th at 5.30. There are still spots available, and we are anticipating on taking approximately 100 people out there for that event. The last event is brought to you by the Recreation and Park Commission, and that is MPK Night at Dodger Stadium. It's going to be Los Angeles Dodgers against the Milwaukee Brewers, and that's going to be on August 15th at 4.15 p.m., and tickets are still available for that event. Also, we'd like to highlight that July is Parks Make Life Better Month. So on the agenda tonight is a proclamation for Parks Make Life Better Month. This is done by the California Parks and Recreation Association and the National Recreation and Parks Association. So this recognizes the importance of equitable access to local parks, recreation, trails, open space, facility for the positive development of all people in their communities. We're promoting physical, emotional, mental health and wellness, supporting economic vitality of communities. We're creating memorable experiences, fostering social cohesiveness, strengthening our community identity, and supporting safe and vibrant, attractive communities. So we invite everyone from all ages

to come visit our parks,

no matter what their abilities, to come and maintain a healthier lifestyle. I'd like to also bring up our director Robert Aguirre.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor of San Francisco, City Councilmembers, Robert Aguirre, Director of Recreation and Community Services.

Just to highlight what Christina was saying tonight on the agenda, there is an item to proclaim July's Parks and Clyde Betterment.

So we highly encourage you to pass that item and celebrate with us as we recognize this as an amazing month.

and the amazing things that our parks can do in our community.

I just wanted to come up and really highlight, thank council for the ongoing support, and then also really thank and shout out to the recreation staff.

They do an amazing, amazing job. They work extremely hard.

They are very passionate, and they care deeply about this community, and I think it shows time after time in all the program, events, and activities that are produced, and I'm just really, really proud to be able to lead this team. And I also want to shout out our Public Works Department.

The Parks Division, they do an incredible job.

So when you see our parks glistening out there looking pretty, the grass being trimmed, all of our trees being trimmed, just being able to enjoy our parks. And if you go out and visit any of our parks, I challenge you to, I know all of you do visit our parks, you see how busy they are day after day. and just think about how difficult that must be to keep those up with that much access and that much usage. And our Parks Division does an incredible job maintaining, keeping them clean and beautiful.

And so I just want to shout out the Public Works Department and the Parks Division for all the incredible work that they do. So thank you.

And Christina is available for any questions.

Thank you. Members?

yeah the Parks and Recreation Commission really does an amazing job and your team I don't know how you upkeep all the parks but I think your community really enjoys it the MPK campout was

a huge success it was sold out in less than a day I believe yes hours so hopefully we can bring that

back and somehow accommodate more families in the future thank you I love the way you guys

present the park and look it parks does make better lives because look at the stuff that's going on here you got the new pickleball course you got the playgrounds now you have art we just went and did the grand opening of the 250 mural right in front of Barnes gym just one question I know you have the watch parties at Langley on the 13th 14th and 15th birdie is telling me that potentially USA versus Belgium Monday July 6th if you can get that if you can somehow manage that watch party at Barnes 6 if you can get that if you can somehow manage that watch party at Barnes that will be an epic win

! So that's something we are looking into with our with our vendor that we had scheduled to see ! if there's any possibility of upcoming dates that they might be available so we can make that happen

! So we are looking into that if it does happen it will move quickly and we'll have to plan very fast

! and get things out to the community quickly so

I know you guys are the best you guys will make it happen thank you!

I'll just add my kudos on all the programs appreciate it and just an additional shout out on the art it and just an additional shout out on the art on the mural unveiling we just came from before this meeting really appreciate the pipeline of artwork that the team is working on and i know there's more in store there's a lot more we're pointing out a lot of other blank walls that could would love to have uh some more art on them i think i just point out my how important art is to helping to make a sense of place for people and really be able to have the community and neighbors really take some ownership of our own community and the public facilities in the city and there's so many spaces and canvases i think that exist in the city for us to be able to have these opportunities and great opportunity here with the george inco uh local right artists family um and that has a business or had had a business here, but still very engaged in the community and really be able to highlight some of our local artists here is great. I appreciate the collaboration a few months ago or a month ago with East LA College and the Mississippi Art Museum.

It really just helped to create a greater sense of a specialness here in Maori Park

by integrating arts into our public spaces. I appreciate the team doing that and look forward to much more to come.

Yeah, I just wanted to add to that and thank you for all of the amazing programming because I know that for people who have kids, families here living here in Monterey Park, it's so great to live in a city that provides so much programming. It gives us a lot to do and a lot less to think about in terms of what we can do. I participated in the MPK campout. So for people who didn't get an opportunity to participate this year, highly encourage you to do that next year. It was very well done. in terms of a lot of the activities that were available for kids to do. There was tons of things where they were not bored at all.

There was tons to do.

As a matter of fact, I think my girls got so exhausted by so much that was happening at the park. They fell asleep actually pretty early, right at the beginning of the movie. And we were watching the World Cup game, the USA game. And appreciated the firefighters who did the s'mores. I think that was definitely a highlight for my girls. So I appreciate all the effort that went to that. I had to go get a new tent for that night because I have a really large tent, but I didn't want to, you know, bring that.

Bring the mansion. Yeah. It was like a huge one.

So I had to get a downgrade or scale it down a little bit. But I do want to encourage people to go out for that. I'm looking forward to – I know I got tickets for the Smokey Robinson at the Hollywood Bowl for my wife and I. So we have sitters for that night. But really bummed I won't be able to go to the Mamma Mia tomorrow, right?

Yes. Is that tomorrow, right? Yeah, tomorrow.

But anyhow, looking forward to NPK night. I've got tickets for that as well already.

So we're keeping us busy.

I appreciate that and very well entertained. Gives me – I don't have to plan for anything. I just got to sign up for them.

That's all I have to do.

Thank you, Robert, and thank you to your team for all the amazing work that you guys do here.

Real quick, anyone that – I know Christina mentioned there's only a few tickets left for Smokey Robbins. I did check 13 tickets left so if you're interested in going at quick because 13 tickets will go fast

So yeah, that's my date night with my wife

So any of you guys want to do date night and couple up and feel free to join me and I heard there's a there's There's hors d'oeuvres or something going on at the language in a rabbit. So there's a pre

Trip reception over at Langley Center and then that that trip to Hollywood Bowl does include transportation So we do take two buses over there. So transportation is included $80 Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight

It's a good deal.

Thank you.

All I want to say is, yes,

park makes life better,

especially in this city because of our incredible

parks and rec staff.

Thank you.

Okay. That concludes staff communications.

On to old business. Item 9A, discussion of updated inclusionary housing, feasibility

study findings. Staff report, please.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, our staff is just switching here. Tim Howell is going to be presented to this item.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor Lo and City Council. Tonight we are providing just the latest update regarding the city's inclusionary housing ordinance and the latest feasibility study. You may recall, staff brought forward a report as recently as February 18th to discuss a Supreme Court ruling and litigation settlement that highlighted some potential legal challenges. If you go back further, in 2024 and 2025, EPS, our consultant assisting with the feasibility analysis, presented findings at those times related to market conditions for the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which was enacted in September of 2023, however, has been on pause since

that time.

Tonight, providing the presentation from EPS, we have Chinmay Damle. Now we'll pass it to Chinmay to provide the updated findings as of 2026.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, and City Council members. members my name is Chinmay Damlay I am with economic and planning systems so just to start with a little just start with a little bit of context I'll go through this pretty quickly because Tim did provide a good background so in In 2023, Monterey Park adopted their inclusionary housing ordinance, and their requirements were for rental projects, 15 percent inclusionary units, and then for for sale projects, the requirement was 15 percent moderate income units.

The city also adopted an in lieu fee formula, but designed a more standardized and transparent

approach which EPS helped with as well EPS conducted this feasibility study in

late 2023 and then again updated its analysis in early 2025 so this will be

the third iteration of this effort next slide please

One more. And one more. Okay, thank you. So I just wanted to now go over some market conditions as well as the methodology of this analysis. For this analysis, we took a look at the development feasibility of residential projects at market rate. What we're looking for is a project financially feasible. A financially feasible project provides sufficient return on investment to incentivize a go return. A sufficient return is defined by 6% yield on cost for market rate rental projects and 15% profit margin for sale projects. And these are industry standard metrics. and just if a project falls below these thresholds, it's deemed unfeasible. And if a project is unfeasible, it is likely not to proceed. Thank you. So we conduct this type of analysis because inclusionary housing programs do impact the financial feasibility of a project. a product for on-site inclusionary units which are affordable units they must they're sold or leased at a less value than a market at a market rate but still cost the same amount and then alternatively if if using in lieu fees it just adds to the cost of the project while the value tends to stay the same so this graphic just shows that a project value is dependent on but the lease or sales price of a unit can demand and then on the other hand a project's cost consists of many items including land acquisition costs direct costs soft costs as well as profit and return that a developer would want so a inclusionary housing is programs are effective only if market rate projects are being built because 15% of zero units is zero affordable units. Thank you. So to understand the market context and types of residential projects that are being built, we reviewed the projects in the city's current development pipeline. We found 1,403 units across 14 projects with varying statuses. And we analyzed prototypes in two categories. In the citywide category as well as the mixed-use category. The citywide category reflects products that would conform to citywide zoning regulations while the mixed-use reflects products that would conform to the city's mixed-use zoning standards. we found that the mixed-use zoning was significant enough because of the high densities alLod as well as it's in that northeast portion of the city which the housing element defines as having a lot of capacity for future housing okay so first looking at these citywide prototypes the citywide prototypes we tested were there are three of them and they were informed by market local market research which included review of the development pipeline as previously mentioned discussion with active developers in the region as well as input from city staff to come up with these development programs okay yes and And so the three we're looking at here are a townhome and condominium, which are both owner-occupied, and then the garden-style apartments, which are rental. Obviously, the townhomes are at the Lost density, while the garden-style and apartments are pretty similar to each other, but at a higher density. Next slide, please. We also looked at the mixed use zone prototypes and we only looked at two here. As you can see, they're significantly higher densities at 70 units per acre for the condos and 77 units per acre for the multifamily apartments. These come with a greater market value, but as well as a greater development cost. Next slide, please. okay so these are this is the first market rate project feasibility results for the citywide prototypes and what we were finding here is that only the citywide prototype exceeded that 15% threshold that we were discussing and meets the development feasibility thresholds at market rate which and the results for this prototype indicate that there is sufficient feasibility support and inclusionary requirement for the townhomes, but perhaps not for the other citywide prototypes, which included the condos and the apartments. Next slide. And these are the market rate project feasibility for the mixed-use prototypes. Unfortunately, we found that the two products that we looked at did not meet feasibility thresholds, and that's primarily due to high cost and now we're going to go into the fee calculation okay so additionally EPS suggested an approach to calculate the fee to reflect the financial impact of providing on-site units the fee is based on financial gap which is founded which is found by the cost of a unit subtracted by the unit value of affordable rates okay this slide shows the calculated financial gap for each model prototype at the citywide level and associated its values associated for low and moderate impact affordability levels the financial gaps then were converted into a fee per market rate square foot of a project which is generally the standard basis for levying these fees next slide so we can see that so this was aligning the cost of the in lieu fees with the cost of providing the on-site units so we're trying to show the equivalent cost of the on-site units with the equivalent cost of providing the market for the fee so we're showing the citywide fee would be fall somewhere in between 30 to 41 dollars per square foot at those for those prototypes and for the mixed-use prototypes somewhere between 35 and 59 dollars per square foot and for the mixed use prototypes somewhere between 35 and 59 dollars per square foot. ! Next slide please. Next slide.

! Okay. And then given these findings, EPS has been finding that

! For both the on site build ! units as well as the calculated in lieu fee, the profit margin and yield on costs are about the same to each other and that they are falling quite short. Costs of Monterey short costs of Monterey parks inclusionary housing requirements will likely be challenging for the average new market rate residential development and to absorb current market conditions and even for the townhomes the for sale townhomes that does not demonstrate sufficient feasibility to support the city's current inclusionary requirements. Next slide, please.

Thank you. So given these findings, EPS outlined some strategies for the city to consider in the short term

as well as the long term regarding the future of the IHO. These strategies can help the city balance its affordable housing objectives with current market and development feasibility conditions. Next slide.

The first approach, or the first strategic consideration is the phase-in approach, which

is the phasing in inclusion requirements over time so that it can take some time for the market to respond to new inclusionary housing requirements. And the phase-in approach has been implemented in several jurisdictions and can take several different forms.

for example in Long Beach the requirements for rental and ownership increased year over year over year till the final at the end of the three years

and then for San Jose they just delayed the adoption from the adoption to the

enforcement of the inclusionary housing this the next strategic consideration is to adjust the inclusionary housing requirements so such that the projects automatically qualify for the state density bonus currently the inclusion requirements qualify the for sale project for state density bonus but not rental so if if the current rental inclusionary housing requirements were

increased increased from 9% low to perhaps 10% low the project would automatically qualify for a 20% density bonus now this may not completely resolve feasibility concerns but it can improve feasibility and another consideration is adopting an in lieu fee that is Lor than the equivalent of

providing the unit on-site and this in so this is different from the fee that

was calculated earlier because the fee that was shown earlier was just to showing the equivalent financial impact to the developer to providing the onsite.

In this, we're suggesting that adopting a really low fee,

which would lessen the cost burden on developers, but still generating enough revenue for the city for affordable housing opportunities and initiatives, and understanding that most developers would decide to choose to pay the fee.

but some might build affordable units which would qualify for the state density bonus.

Right now this approach would only help the townhomes which are feasible at market rate,

but not perhaps the other prototypes right now. Next slide.

And then the next strategic consideration is to reinstate the inclusionary housing requirements

just for the for sale prototypes right now we're finding the for sale prototypes have the greatest financial feasibility compared to the rental prototypes and

the city can consider and reintroducing the IHO for ownership while keeping the rental IHO on pause next slide and then finally the continuation of a temporary pause and reassessing in the next one to two years as market conditions change

this is a point in time analysis trying to reflect current market conditions

which are ever-changing and the city can monitor and track some key market make metrics to reintroduce requirements when trends look more favorable next slide and finally these strategies are not necessarily mutually exclusive they can be used in combination and these strategies will not necessarily change market or economic consider our conditions but can reduce the additional costs associated with inclusionary housing happy to answer any questions thank you very much members yes thank you mayor thank you for the presentation It's really informative.

I just have one question on slide 20.

If you go back a few slides.

So basically, if developers build projects for rent, rental projects, they won't qualify for the state density bonus?

I mean, they can if if they provide rental projects and affordable units as what the current inclusionary housing requires, which is only like 9% of the low income, then they would not.

So what the suggestion is, is that increasing it to 10% to automatically qualify any rental developer who's building units.

Got it. So that's the threshold. Mm-hmm.

Under 9% they don't qualify, above 10% they qualify.

So can you go to the recommendation page, the suggestion?

There was a, I think it was the one before that on, yeah, okay.

Okay, so the look here is we have a couple of options, right? And I think certain cities, they paused it and they, I think Long Beach, right? They paused it for three years or no, Long Beach implemented over three years and then, was it San Jose?

What was the other?

It was San Jose.

San Jose who paused it for three years.

So we don't have to make a decision tonight, but we need to kind of think about what we want to do, where the market trend is. And, I mean, look, you guys are giving the feedback for us to kind of think about. This is just an update report, as I understand it, for us to kind of think about it. I mean, we don't have to make a decision tonight, but we need to kind of think about where we want to go.

How do you want to help?

and based on what I'm hearing the four cell condos make better sense if you implement inclusionary housing today versus the rental apartments because of the percentage and the formula what I like to do is kind of go back and I like the suggestion on switching that from 9% to 10% to make the rental units more flexible so that they get the advantage of the density bonus right so I mean our goal here is we want to provide inclusionary housing for the builders so that they can activate and for them make it more profit for them yes but also allow the ability for them to build more housing for our residents call it affordability index to call it market driven but in any sense in any case it's helps our community provide more housing at more affordable units.

And I would think that we need to go back and tweak these formulas

to maximize inclusionary housing for the better production of the units so that over time we have Lor cost units for the developer and Lor cost housing prices for people who qualify. So I would suggest that maybe we bring this back after you guys go back and tweak it a little bit more to make it adopt to what makes better sense given the market. We know right now that the interest rate still remains relatively high and based on what the Federal Reserve is telling us, potentially there could be another 50 basis points raised in September, October, November, those three months, it may increase, which will create a more damper to the housing market. So my view on this is we still have to kind of wait this out, one. And two, have you guys, have the team go back and maximize the percentage so that whoever is building in our city gets the maximum return,

which helps us helps the city create better create more affordable units so

that those are the two things one take a pause and to figure out what maximizes

the affordable units for us thanks I appreciate this update analysis I know

So we continue to have this update, but it's sobering to me to see this analysis because nothing has really changed.

So we continue to pause. We adopted the inclusionary housing ordinance here in Maori Park in 2023, and we have not implemented because conditions.

We wanted to make sure that our IHO and any policy that we implement here in the city does not disincentivize what we need, which is housing. and we want to get to a point where we're not making it infeasible for housing of any

type to be built in the city. So it's important.

And I continue to appreciate this analysis because we want to be driven by the actual data and conditions in our community that we don't want to get to a point where we're not building and we're completely disincentivizing new housing that's going to happen in the

community.

I just want to point to one line in the report the UPS put together that's in our HUD data, too. According to our data, of the 268 units complete between 2021 and 2024 in the city of Barnes Park, 211 were ADUs, which means only 57, if I'm doing my math right, were actual either single-family homes, townhomes, apartments, non-ADU units that were built in the city over a four-year period. And I think last year, 2025 numbers were about the same. We had most of the vast majority of the new units that came online in the city were all ADUs. So we are not seeing, even with current market conditions, housing of any type other than ADUs come on.

Even ADUs, not very much.

And if someone can remind me what our state-required planning, our RHNA numbers are for the city between the current cycle that we're in between 21 and 29, if I'm not wrong, we're over 5,000, 5,200 or so units across income levels, different income levels. but we're supposed to help facilitate the building of more than 5,000 new units in the city. We are woefully not even close to meeting those annual, if you can divide that number by nine, we're not even close to those annual numbers from the last five or six years.

Last year was no exception.

And so it gives me a lot. I want to see, and I know it was one of the programs that were listed in our housing element that was approved by the state was pursuing the adoption of IHO, but we also, I think, in the spirit and in line with what we all want, I think, both the state and the city here is to produce and make sure we are having units of housing come online and to adopt a program at this point where conditions, the market has not changed much in the last few years and to Council Member Gove's point, look like they may get even tougher in the

coming months and years. I'm wary about adopting a program that might add to making it even

harder to build housing in the city, which we desperately need. And so I agree with what others have said in terms of looking at some of these recommendations out of this analysis. And of course, I absolutely support adjusting the 9% to 10% to align with the state density bonus. I thought we already talked about that, but if I made that up let's absolutely do that and bring that back for staff from staff to council to make that change which makes sense and anything else that might make sense from a administrative perspective to adjust the SIHO or any other of our policies to make it align with any existing state and other incentive programs that exist so that we're not disincentive or we're aligning all these incentives that might exist let's do that and if there are other other opportunities to do that please bring those to the council or let's look at what those opportunities are I do agree with when it does make sense to start to phase in these kind of requirements I think by adopt I don't regret at all adopting the IHO in 2023 because that at least lays out to potential developers in the city where this council in the city is is looking at at least when market conditions improve to add a little bit more certainty in terms of planning on at least near-term horizon I know we have paused the last few years depending on our conditions the IHO the existing IHO but I think even to have our our proposal once we unpause it available for developers to at least be able to work into their plans if they're looking at developing the next few years that this may be something they have to to make sure they're accounting for in their their own development plans

improve but also aligning with some of the recommendations that were provided by EPS and by the staff looking at ways that we can adjust right if we are going to phase this in what would be a phase one that might be workable given market conditions for some of the projects and developments that might that could occur here that wouldn't disincentivize development right it looks like there

are some types of some some segments of development opportunities that could

shoulder an IHO at some level and maybe we start looking at what we can do to start phasing some of those in where it makes sense or even adopt right some of the our neighboring cities that the EPS looked at have Lor IHOs that look like they're not necessarily just incentivizing investment at least in their cities if there's a way to if there's a place to start at that's Lor than what our IHO lays out for development I'd better get something than nothing but of course don't want to disincentivize all types of development so if there are changes that make sense to bring back and propose for the council to consider in terms of a Lor IHO in terms of the the amounts that are going to be required at least in a first phase and adjusting the in lieu fees that make sense that wouldn't incentivize some of these developments right to find a sweet spot that might work given our best right knowing that this analysis is always best guess market conditions change can change rapidly and site conditions land costs all those things are always different and every development is unique.

But if staff can bring back some options for the council to start to play with that are some sort of middle ground or even Lor ground from what the IHO currently, that the council has adopted and put on pause to consider to at least take some action. Because currently we have no, there's no funding at the local level that we have as a city to subsidize or help produce a floral units in the city other than if we go out right through the regionology trust or if there are funds available that maybe we could tap into at the state level. But there's nothing that we control within our own kind of – that we have within our own control from the city in terms of financing of floral units in the city. And I think the IHU has always met as a tool to be able to generate some of those financing tools for us locally. and let's just start to figure out where we can maybe start this, some sort of funding mechanism locally.

I'll leave it at that.

Thank you.

I'm also in favor of putting a pause on the RNR IHO, and I think I'm a little, when we talk about housing, it's always such a hard thing to discuss because I know that when we last discussed the pause on the IHO, we were we were hoping and fearful of our economy we also didn't want to disincentivize developers who are because I know we have a couple projects that are in the pipeline and you know and and possibly the reason why they are is because we did put a pause on our IHO but I know that the biggest the biggest thing that I'm hearing is the need for housing and being able to provide in terms of supply side housing that will help generate potentially and Lor costs of housing and I think right now when I'm reading through when I read through the report one of the things that stood out to me was not just the high cost of housing but also the lack of housing that we have in Monterey Park and the lack that we have been building and we do have you know over 5,000 units that we have to build and so as much as I would love to see more affordable housing and I know we just had a public hearing for the OSIN project just recently and one of the things that we discussed during that project was how they were providing I believe those eight units right for very low income residents here in Monterey Park and when we talk about very low income today those are people who potentially live in our community that are nurses that might be teachers that might be firemen, police officers that are just starting. And that is just the reality of where we are economically, in terms of our society, very low income.

It's not really very low income because I think very low income,

when we looked at the OSIM project, was something like $86,000 or $88,000 a year.

About $83,000. $83,000. For a household of four.

So we still have to – what that told me was that we still have to fight not just to bring more housing but bring affordable housing but that also makes it a challenge if we have if we disincentivize housing inner city and you know that we have a lot and that's another thing we're talking about in terms of land use as well how do we update our land use to promote housing so I know these all these items are interconnected and so we got to find a sweet spot I guess to be able to be able to promote housing and bring housing so to Councilmember Wong's point I am in favor of putting a pause on our IHO for the time being and exploring all venues in terms of finding creative ways to be able to implement some form of IHOs in the next one two three years maybe phasing it in in a creative or clever way to be able to incentivize and find ways to incentivize housing but we do need we desperately do need housing and and we need a lot of it, and we do need affordable housing as well for low-income, very low-income families as well. So anyhow, I did want to mention that because I think that stood out a lot to me when we were talking about the Olsen project as well, that very low-income is what were typically middle-class jobs.

Thank you. I also just want to weigh in as well.

And I think at least in the spirit of an inclusive housing ordinance, I mean, this council, I mean, we support the concept of an inclusive housing ordinance because I think that there is urgency that if it's all market rate, it does lock out some people who could buy into Monterey Park out of it. And my colleague, Mayor Pro Tem, and as I've said, even under the definition of low income, it's still $83,000. I mean, which, in my mind, it's actually not really low income. So I would say this is that, look, if we can tweak and adjust to conform with the state's density bonus or better conform with the state's density bonus. And yes, the projects like the Olsen project in Saturn Park, which we approved, I mean, they are taking advantage of the state density bonus. And if we can tweak our policy to work with our developers to take advantage of already our existing incentives from the state, which is, again, the density bonus, I think we should

do so.

At the same time, I just feel the need to also make a commentary is that, you know, when we've had an IHO come before this council. We've had developers who come, some with projects pending, some who want to, who then say the sky is falling if we do this. And I won't name names, but at the same time, we have put a pause. And because some of these developers asked us to, and yet here we are four, five, six years later, and nothing from these same developers. And I don't want to say just because of market conditions, but frankly I also think it's just those developers themselves who for various reasons have not moved and so I think that's something that we also need to be cognizant of is that at the same time you know our residents they want us to increase housing, they want us to be able to increase mobility and accessibility to housing. At the same time I just think we also be cognizant that you know when a developer makes all these excuses and yet we try to accommodate them and yet they also yield nothing, then that also makes me pause and think, well, these developers are bullshitting us and don't want to just do state density bonus. And I just think that's something we need to also

be cognizant of as well. So that's just my opinion.

Anything else? OK, well, thank you very much. Thank you.

I'm sorry? Okay. Okay. Well, moving on to, let's see.

Okay.

Moving on to consent calendar. Members, any item that we wish to pull?

I'm not pulling any items.

I just, for the consent, just want to note, I believe I need to recuse on the sewer rehab contract.

So note that officially.

and then for some of the minutes, I was not at the Meet the Mayor, a few of the Meet the Mayor events.

I'll just note that I was not there, so you can keep me on approval for those minutes.

I think I need to recuse on the same sewer item also.

All right. Okay. Okay. Noted for the record.

And clerk, any requests?

Okay. Well, in that case...

I'll make the motion to approve the agenda items.

Moved by Council Member Ngo. Second.

Second by Mayor Potem Sanchez.

Hearing no further debate or discussion, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Okay, all righty.

Moving on to, thank you members and everyone, moving on to public hearing.

So before we put what we will pursue with public.

I'm sorry.

We will proceed with our public hearing, which is item 11. And let me just also announce this is the final opportunity to request to speak public hearing items. If you have not yet submitted a blue speaker card in which to comment, please raise your hand, complete a speaker card and provide it to the city clerk. For those participating remotely, please use the raise hand option, feature on Zoom. If you are participating by phone, please press star 9 to join the speaker queue.

Okay.

City Clerk, how many in-speakers and how many remote speakers do we have?

No speakers. And what time limits do we have for item 11, please?

No speakers. Oh my goodness, okay.

Okay, well then I guess when we shall proceed then.

Okay.

First public hearing item, 11A, HUD program, year 2026-2027 annual action plan. Yes, let me open a public hearing. So public hearing open.

And why don't we also have staff report then?

Yes, okay

Thank you honorable mayor low and City Council members I'm back again Tim how director of community development the item here is to Open the public hearing receive public comments and testimony on the program year 2627 housing and urban development annual action plan Giving the presentation tonight is the community development developed The development department's a housing point person, and that is Anais Navarro, who I'd like to introduce.

Thank you, Tim. Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, provides community development block grant, CDBG, and home investment partnerships, home funds to the City of Monterey Park for the purpose of developing viable urban communities

by providing decent housing, suitable living environments, and by expanding economic opportunities specific for low and moderate income people. The first public hearing held on May 20,

2026 informed the public about the CDBG program, obtained citizens' view on CDBG priorities, and today we hold our second public hearing to present the draft annual action plan, including public service and non-public service activities for City Council's review and approval of funding allocations for submission to HUD. For program year 26-27, the City will receive approximately $571,332 in CDBG funds and $302,097.03 in home funds from HUD. The CDBG program will be broken down into four categories with approximate dollar amounts.

$114,266 for CDBG planning and administration. $297,066 to fund public improvements for public works projects. 135,000 will go towards economic development's business grant program and 25,000 towards the Fair Housing Foundation for a grand total of 571,332 dollars for CDBG funds. The home program has three categories all with approximate dollar amounts. 30,209 dollars with 70 cents for home planning and administration, $45,314.55 set aside for CHOTO, also known as Community Housing Development Organization, and $226,572.00.

with 75 cents which will go towards a multi-family rehabilitation program. For a grand total of $302,097 for home funds. It's important to note that a public notice was published on May 21st in which it informed the public of the 30-day public review period on the program year 26-27 annual action plan. The document was available for public review from May 29th to today, July 29th.

July 1st, 2026. At the time of preparing the staff report, city staff did not receive any written communications concerning the documents. This concludes my presentation. Priscilla Davila, our housing consultant, is available via Zoom and city staff, which is myself, Tim, our community development director, and Martha, director of finance, are available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Members?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for that presentation on our HUD 2026-2027 AAP. I am in approval to authorize the city manager to execute and receive that funding and utilize it as necessary

for our HUD final allocation.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Thank you, Mr. Ray. And thank you to the staff. Appreciate putting this together. I know it's an annual.

We have to submit this annual plan to receive the funding from HUD. Do you have just a quick comparison? How much are we receiving this year versus last year or the last few years?

I'm just curious what the trend is. I assume leveling off or going down, but I don't know.

I do have that information, but I will relay that to Priscilla, our housing consultant. Good evening, Mayor, member of the City Council.

Yes, our CEDG allocation for this year actually went up a little bit from last year, and we've got about $4,000 to $5,000 from this program here.

And our home funds went up just a little bit, I want to say about $7,000. Oh, great. That's good to know.

Whatever we can do to keep that up, if there's more money lying around, feel free to grab some. And then just on the, I know we set aside, or this budget sets aside $135,000 for the business, small business loan grant program. I know we're working on that and we're getting, finalizing kind of this first year of the forgivable loan program that we did, that we set aside $200,000 for this last fiscal year. I don't know when we'll be ready, but would love to get a report in the next month or two if possible. on outcomes from this first year of doing the forgivable loan program with businesses, how successful or not that was, any lessons learned before we programmed this next tranche of money that we're setting aside with the CBG home funds or CBG funds for that. We'd love to see what lessons learned and make sure we're exercising the first year lessons from that to make sure we're making this program work even better for our businesses, particularly as some of the money amount is shrinking a little bit. And rewrite my calls from the last couple times on some of these funds

to look at potentially pivoting to a revolving loan fund or a loan

as opposed to a forgivable loan and grant program just so we can continue to – if a business is doing well, we give them a loan through this program, they can repay it. Hopefully they're doing well enough to repay it, and we can continue to utilize that core funding for other businesses to be able to support them in the years ahead too especially as i anticipate these funds very great to hear that we've received a little more funding this year than last year but i think preparing for a future where this funding doesn't grow is important and wanting to make sure that these kind of programs that we're providing to support businesses in the community

are able to continue in the future thank you council member wong i'll just touch on that

briefly and revolving involving the business assistance program and those funds a lot of learnings from the first year of building the program and certainly understanding business interest and then ultimately businesses turning that interest into actually spending those funds and the city expending those funds back to the recipients that's been relatively slow despite the program being essentially a forgivable loan program. So that may play into whether a revolving loan program will garner much interest in the future. But once we know more of how this first program ultimately fared, we'll return to council with that update.

Yeah, no, that'd be great.

And I know that there are challenges, especially since this is a new program, to roll out these kind of things.

My other part of me is, like, this money just sits there otherwise, and it's not helping anyone.

And so whatever we can do to balance that, I know we need to balance that and make sure we're doing it the right way.

But also don't want money sitting here when a lot of businesses need support, and I know they need support. So whatever we can do to start to look at what other cities are doing and what other programs exist out there that we might be able to take lessons from to potentially program this funding, especially it sounds, I'm guessing from what you're saying, we haven't expended the $200,000 from this last fiscal year. And so if there's funding there that we can start to rethink how we program for this fiscal year is coming, now, July 1st, this fiscal year. I think I'm open to it from the council perspective and would love to kind of get into it

with some details too.

Thank you. On the multifamily rehab program,

I know this is replacing the single family rehab program

that we had for a very long time.

I appreciate that we're pivoting to this. And when we're ready to launch this, I assume we're still working on some of the program details

and how this would actually work.

But we'd love to see how we can, right, just to, in my mind, this may not make sense for people. Right, we just, the council had an emergency session a few weeks ago and approved the launch of a program to help people with air purifiers I'd love to see a program like this also if if it makes sense and if possible I don't know if all that funding will be expended or not but look at other ways that we can support community members here they're struggling with other environmental and climate impacts in the community including extreme heat or actually this week has been particularly pleasant weather wise but knowing that we will experience more extreme heat impacts in our communities and that right with

this multifamily rehab program if there are opportunities to look at air

conditioning and other opportunities to provide more tools for climate resilience heat resilience other environmental impacts in our community including smoke damage that right not this smoke was from a nearby warehouse but we regularly get wildfires and in the San Diego mountains and in the area as well and so looking at what other opportunities there might be for us to provide some nominal relatively nominal resources for community members that are in need for these kind of impacts in their community I think would be helpful and if possible work into this multi-family rehab program there are a lot of seniors low-income families your families in need that don't have access to air conditioning I know we open up our our cooling centers when the heat rises but for a lot of people right well we have to close those down at a certain point what many homes don't cool off overnight and being able to provide more of these resources for independent or personal and household resilience I

think would be helpful to to integrate here where it makes sense look forward

to staff coming back and giving us more details on how the multifamily rehab

that program's going to work.

And with that, I also support this item

and look forward to voting as well.

Thank you, Councillor Wong.

Okay, any further comments?

Okay, hearing none, then why don't I close the hearing? Okay, and we do need to adopt submitting the annual action plan, so may I have a motion please?

I'll make a motion.

Moved by Councillor Ngo.

I'll second.

Second by Councillor Yang. No further discussion or debate. Members, please vote. Approved unanimously.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay.

Moving on to the next public hearing. LMB, public hearing to consider adoption of the 2025 urban water management plan, including the water shortage contingency plan.

Let me well as you were selling in I'm also going to open the hearing okay so

There are no speakers registered all right. Okay. Thank you

Staff of the receipt but reports perfect. Thank you. Good evening. I'll mayor mayor pro-tem and city council Sean I go public works director

before you tonight is a city of Monterey parks 2025 urban water management plan including the updated water shortage contingency plan the state requires urban water suppliers to update and adopt this plan every five years more importantly this is the city's long-term roadmap to ensure we continue providing reliable water service during normal conditions droughts emergencies and future growth the plan evaluates our water demands and available water supplies through 2050. in 2025 the city supplied approximately 6,636 acre feet of water or 2.16 billion gallons of water. By 2050 water supply is projected to increase modestly to just under 7,000 acre feet or 2.28 billion gallons of water. The reliability analysis shows the city has identified sufficient supplies to meet projected demands during normal and single dry year conditions through 2050. Our supply continues to be primarily from local groundwater, with purchased water available

as supplemental source.

The City also continues to perform well in water conservation. Our 2025 residential water use was approximately 112 gallons per person per day, well below the established target of 142 gallons per person per day. The updated water shortage contingency plan provides six progressive response levels that can be implemented during droughts or other supply emergencies. Adopting the plan tonight will satisfy state requirements, maintain the City's eligibility for future water grants and loans, and provide a reasonable framework for managing Monterey Park's water resources for the next 25 years. It is recommended the City Council conduct a public hearing to adopt the 2025 River Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan.

With that, I'll take any questions.

No questions on my end.

I favor the adoption of the resolution.

Sean, thank you.

I know a lot of work goes into this five-year plan every five years. And understanding that we're not currently in drought conditions, can you remind us, though, what current restrictions are on water use? I know we have baseline water conservation measures that are required for all residents.

Yeah, so we're currently in stage two, which does have water restrictions. Off the top of my head, I don't know what those are. I can't speak to those exactly, but we are currently in stage two, and we do have those on the website, which will provide the exact hours and times and days that you can water. So that's been in place for some time now. we felt it prudent to make sure that we stayed in some sort of water contingency plan to ensure we had reliable resources in the future yeah I don't remember what

they were either which is why I think it would be good to continue to remind

where we can the Cascades and other avenues remind people about watering restrictions not trying not right best practice even if they're not restrictions

officially with the city but not watering right between whatever 10 a.m. and during the height of the heat of the day

and earlier and later during the day and some of these best practices I think would be helpful to continue to just put out there for residents and for businesses and property owners to.

So I pulled it up real quick.

So the days you can water are Monday and Thursday and there's no outdoor watering between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. no water no watering 48 hours after a measurable rain no runoff from water lawn or landscape no washing down sidewalks sidewalks driveways walkways parkways or paved services and no washing vehicles unless a car unless at a car washer using a hose with a positive shutoff

nozzle those are the current restrictions I think what are we going to do to continue to educate and remind people about these.

I know sprinklers often are going off outside of these hours still.

And what are we going to do to make sure our own facilities are operating by these best practices as well? And if we need to audit some of these, not looking for us to come down hard on anyone, but continue to educate people if some of our crews are out there spotting them and spotting these things happening and the neighbors or property owners happen to be there. I think whatever makes sense. I don't want to get into spicy conversations necessarily. But I think there's still a lot of education to be done about basic water conservation practice that I think a lot of people are not taking seriously still.

Understood. We will look at what we can do for outreach. Thank you. Are we going to pretend? Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

Well, with that, then I will close the public hearing.

Okay.

And we do have before us a resolution

Adopt the approval of the 2025

Urban Water Management Plan Including the Water Storage Contingency Plan And finding consistency with the state's general plan

I'll make a motion to approve

Moved by Councilman Yang Seconded by Councilman Wong Members

Hearing no for

mayor this evening we have rebecca bajorkas principal management analyst in the city manager's

office to present a brief oral report for you thank you diana good evening mayor low mayor pro

tam sanchez and members of the city council as diane mentioned my name is rebecca bajorkas analyst

in the city manager's office before you tonight is an update on the city of monterey park's efforts in response to the local emergency declaration the city of monterey park city council declared a local emergency on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026. In response to the local emergency declaration, the city did multiple things for its residents. First, we had N95 masks available at all fire stations and handed out roughly 5,000 masks to residents. To assist with the compromised air quality, the Langley Center and Brighamire Library remained open until 9 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively and served as temporary relief sites for residents. All outdoor recreation programming was canceled through Sunday, June 28th, which included the Let's Kick It World Cup Watch Party, Farmers Market, and Independence Day fireworks celebration. Lastly, the City Council also approved the appropriation of $50,000 for the air purifier reimbursement program.

The air purifier reimbursement program was created to assist residents in Monterey Park who purchased an air purifier in response to the Los Palos incident.

One reimbursement is alLod per household and those that are income eligible may receive up to $75 or 40% of the purchase price, whichever amount is less.

The air purifier purchase must have been made between June 17 through June 28, 2026. The City began accepting applications on Monday, June 29, and will continue accepting applications

through Friday, July 31, 2026. The completed application can be turned in to the water counter or via email at utilitypayments

at montereypark.ca.gov. The application can be found on the City website and if you scan the QR code on the screen, it will take you to the City's dedicated webpage.

On the left side of the screen is the Air Purifier Reimbursement Program Guidelines. This document lays out the requirements to participate in the program.

Along with completing the application on the right, residents must provide proof of residency

in the form of a recent utility bill or credit card statement, as well as California identification

card or California driver's license. Lastly, households will need to provide proof of income

in order to qualify. The name of the applicant, address, and income documents all must match.

To date, 25 households have applied for the reimbursement, with 20 applications being approved for reimbursement, totaling about $1,000 back to residents.

And that concludes my presentation and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Members.

Thank you for that presentation.

And I think our city did a great job responding in a quick amount of time given the emergency status of what happened last week. I think this reimbursement program is a great idea as well since it allows the residents to pick what kind of air purifier that they wanted to use. I know the county gave out a lot of free air purifiers, but I did see complaints that they wanted different types or design so this allows committee members to choose their own and get reimbursement so thank you for

handling just if there's a if you have an update on how much what the update has

been on the rebate program just curious I know we're closing that as of this weekend or last weekend?

Councilmember Wong, just for clarification, on the air purifier program?

Yes.

So we have had 25 applications.

20 have been approved.

The reimbursement amounts have been at about $1,000. We will continue to accept applications to the end of July. So the receipt, there we go.

Thank you.

So the purchase period was from June 17th through June 28th. But the application period is still ongoing and we will continue to accept applications until the end of the month We'll definitely continue to provide updates regarding this local emergency to council every 60 days. Thank you. I

Also want to commend the city for on city staff for Acting well first the council but also the city staff for acting swiftly in response to the fire. I know that residents of Monterey Park that particularly live in my district and District 3 that were close to East LA, Bo Height's area were severely impacted. I also want to mention for people who live in this area around East LA College that the AQMD is still offering their air filtration program. So you could apply directly through the a QMD website and you gives an option of selecting various models of Air filters for presidents who live in that area as well So just another option in terms of residents in Monterey Park who have been impacted by the fire so thank you so much for acting swiftly and I'm assuming we'll get more continued updates in terms of I'm glad to see that residents are taking advantage of the reimbursement program

Thank you.

And then Mayor Proton Sanchez, if you scan the QR code and it takes you to the website,

there is a link on the website that states the AQMD and so residents are able to click

on the link and verify their eligibility if they live in a certain area based on the address. Thank you.

I also want to echo that appreciation for the city acting swiftly. I personally received a comment from a resident in a neighboring East L.A. who actually said that they were impressed that City of Monterey Park did what we did. And certainly I think they actually was wishing that the county would do something similar or more swifter. So I think that's a credit to us. And again, thank you so much for being responsive to the needs of our residents.

Okay.

And thank you for the update. Okay.

Let's see.

Moving on to item 12B, adopting a resolution certifying the results of the June 2nd, 2026 special municipal election.

Staff report, please. Thank you, Mayor.

Mayor, member of the City Council, Cindy Trang, Deputy City Clerk. Before you is a resolution, before you for consideration, is a resolution certifying the results of the June 2nd, 2026 special municipal election. The City held its special election on June 2, 2026 for consideration of a proposition placed on the ballot by the City Council Measure NDC regarding prohibiting data centers citywide. The election was consolidated with the statewide primary election and voters approved Measure

NDC.

The proposition amends the Monterey Park land use and urban design element adopted by ordinance number 2198 and approved by voters as Measure J.J. on November 3rd, 2020 to add a citywide prohibition on data centers. measure NDC received 10,388 yes votes or equivalent to 83.9% and 1,372 vote no votes which is equivalent to 11.1% as a result the election measure NDC was approved by a majority of the voters following certification of the election measure NDC which is going to be ordinance number 2280 will be adopted by operation of the law. 210,000 was allocated from the general plan for expenditure associated with the special election.

That concludes my report,

and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much for that report.

Hearing no comments, questions, and hearing no further debate or discussion,

May we have a motion please?

I will make the motion.

Moved by Council Member McGill. Second. Second by Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

Members, please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Clerk. Next item, 12C.

Valor proposition to amend the existing

money park trans-occupancy tax.

Okay, ready to run a new R staff report?

Good evening, Mayor Potem and Councilmembers.

We're getting the PowerPoint ready. Here we go.

Okay, this staff report reviews a proposition to amend the existing transient occupancy tax that may be placed onto the November 3rd, 2026 ballot.

Next one.

To understand the potential impact on budget

and assess the support for a TOT update, the city conducted five community meetings on the city's services budget and outline of the potential TOT proposal and how it would be implemented. Meetings were published in the Cascades newspaper on social media and they were offered in English Spanish and Chinese. The currently the presentation can also be found on the city's website under the finance web page.

Residents at these meetings raised some questions,

including can the TOT measure have a sunset for the end of the Olympics? Another question concerned was would an increase in the TOT

discourage visitors from staying in our city?

And another question, concern was the implementation of, they were asking for an implementation for additional restrictions for short-term rentals and increased code compliance monitoring. Those were some of the questions and concerns raised during the meetings. Overall, the residents appeared supportive of the TOT proposal.

Next slide, please.

TOT rates in surrounding cities vary from 10% to 17%. The Pasadena one, which is at 17%, it's for a specific area. 12.11 is for the general TOT, and the remaining 4.89 is for Tourism Business Improvement District, So for a total of 17 percent, and that's the highest one in our area.

Slide. Next slide, please.

The proposed ballot measure is locally controlled general tax with all funds deposited into the city's general fund for unrestricted general revenue purposes.

All revenue would be kept here locally.

The TOT revenue would be paid by lodging facility guests, and staff estimates that this TOT increase will generate approximately $600,000 a year. Now, this ballot measure would show on our ballot as follows.

It would read,

Show the ordinance maintaining city and Monterey Park's services like fire, police, 911 response, keeping public areas safe and clean, helping prevent property crimes and human trafficking in Monterey Park, preparing streets potholes for other cities and other city services by increasing the transient occupancy tax paid by only hotel motel guests from 13% that is currently to 14% and short-term rental guests from 13% to 16% providing approximately $600,000 annually until ended by voters requires audits and spending disclosures, local control over all funds be adopted. I just read that, but that would be on the ballot. Next slide, please. No measure can be implemented without a supermajority vote by council. and by voters it would take 50% plus one for it to pass.

Next slide, please.

So today we're recommending the following. Adopting by at least four affirmative votes a resolution placing a proposition on the November 6, 2026, November 3, 2026 ballot, which, if adopted by a majority of voters, would amend the city's existing transient occupancy tax,

Two, determining whether to designate persons for filing an argument favoring the ballot proposition.

Three, adopting a resolution requesting the city attorney prepare an impartial analysis for the ballot proposition.

Four, adopting a resolution.

like based on feedback that the community is in general very favorable of this proposition. So given that we have a lot of expenses coming up including matching the grants we got for the pool so we have to find different ways to raise money I would be in favor of this

resolution. Thank you. Mayor.

I, too, support this resolution or this ballot proposition. We need the money, and the money doesn't cost our residents. It's really for our guests. And I think, if I remember correctly, in all those, the contact-the-community meetings, this brings us closer to market in terms of what we're charging for the TOT. So we're not more expensive than other markets. We're just comparable to them. So I support this.

I'll echo what the other council members have already said.

I think this is a sound approach to generating additional revenue that I think the city does need. We went through our budget.

We're starting a new fiscal year, although our annual operating budget is perilously balanced, thankfully. I appreciate staff for all the work that went into that. we have a very long list of capital improvement projects that we do not have funding identified for just in the next few years that we need to pay for so appreciate that staff have put a lot of work into getting us to this point on this even this on its own will not pay for everything we need to pay for but will get us it's a step in the right direction I think I am wary always worry about raising taxes, adjusting taxes, particularly on residents and as affordability continues to be a concern for all of us in all communities and

throughout California and everywhere else. Very worried about doing this. I

think though that this strikes this approach, specifically with the TOT, strikes the right balance. No, this would not increase any taxes on current resident or residents here in Monterey Park and the TOT taxes are passed through to visitors to the city I am a little cautious and wary about increasing the cost of visitors that we do want to attract but as Councilman Rago pointed out this really just keeps us in line doesn't make us more expensive than some other cities in the LA County area and some of our neighbors in terms of TOT so appreciate that but always I want to make sure that we are supporting our businesses including our hotels and we have to strike continue to make sure we're striking that right balance in terms of generating revenue that the city needs to make sure that the city is a place that people can visit safely and do want to visit but also not making it so expensive that we distance incentivize

people from actually visiting and businesses being able to do well in the

community I think this does strike the right balance I support it my question to Martha and the team is I know we're bifurcating, right? We're going to have a different tax rate for hotels versus short-term rentals like Airbnb, VRBO, other home sharing agreement or platforms. Do we know of any other cities that have this kind of bifurcated rate for short-term rentals versus hotels, or is everyone pretty much the same rate?

I'm not aware of any other one that has a separation for the short term rentals, but I do have Rob Karinke who is our consultant from Grassroots Lab. He might be able to answer that question.

Rob?

I'm familiar with cities that have varying rates by different locations within the city.

I'm afraid I don't know if there's one that has a varying rate by SRT versus traditional I'm just curious. I don't know of any city. I was just curious if we knew others. So this will be novel in that sense and curious to see if others potentially pursue the same kind of strategy. I know we are looking, our planning team, development team is looking at bringing back some proposed different regular or potential changes to our regulatory structure for short-term rentals. I look forward to seeing that, but just want to make sure that I will be looking at how that fits in potentially with this increased tax if this passes in November as well to make sure we're not also setting up too much to disincentivize short-term rentals as well. But I appreciate this and look forward to voting on it.

Thank you. Mayor Patel.

I also support this TOT. I think that if we go back to the slide that had the comparison with the other cities, just to highlight the point that I think a lot of us are trying to make is that, you know, we're just trying to kind of catch up with the rest of the cities. And in the past, we have not updated our TOT for the longest period of time. So, you know, this was part of the reason why I explored that is because of the increasing rates in terms of not rates, but expenditures that the city has. And then, you know, we do have a lot of projects in the pipeline, including pool, right, where we need to raise money for. But I'm definitely in favor of exploring this and direct stuff to go ahead and look for ways to put this on the ballot in November.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Pro Tem.

And let me also offer my opinion on this.

And, you know, I too am in favor of this TOT proposed ballot proposition.

And I think at least what I want to share in this conversation is that if I were to remember back six years ago,

at the time there was a lot of concern by residents about what perceived to be possibly runaway hotel development in the area

because there were several lots on Atlantic that were acquired with the goal of building hotels.

Those projects didn't come to reality, but I think that the concern I heard back then was that, number one, of course, if you build a hotel, then that just means land that cannot be built for housing. And we just had a conversation tonight about housing and the need for more housing for our residents. Number two, I think that a lot of concerns by residents were also that even with the hotels that have been approved that are now built, on the one hand, you know, we want to welcome visitors and we are in a strategic location. We are not too far, 20 minutes from Los Angeles.

We all talk about preparing for the Olympics.

And again, we want to, you know, welcome visitors to our wonderful city. But at the same time, I think that residents had concerns in the studio probably that with hotels, you bring outsiders who they may lodge the hotel, but will they actually stay and eat at local restaurants? Or will they just, again, just use the hotel as a place to stay, but meanwhile, they come in and out. That means strains to our road infrastructure.

It doesn't mean congestion.

And so, as my colleagues have said, in some ways, this is actually a very, I think, balanced approach to addressing a lot of our service needs, our infrastructure needs, because if we are going to anticipate people coming to visit and lodge at hotels, then we should also, I think, get our fair share of compensation, which would be in the form of a TOT.

And so I think that's when I look at it. And also just keep that in mind too, that should there be any future hotel development, again, to address concerns about traffic, about it displacing housing, that at least with a TOT in place, we would be able to pay and address the wear and tear to our community as well as hopefully raise revenue for much needed vital services for

our residents.

So that's my opinion on this.

Okay.

Let's see.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, just wanted to point out that there is on the dais there is a recommendation for an adjustment to the language. So you'll see the striked language and then you'll see the clean version. So I wanted to point that out that those are on the dais for the council's

consideration.

Thank you.

And just a quick question. Martha, I don't know if you know

off the top of your head. I'm just curious our current last year or whatever TOT

that we generated. Do you know what the split is between hotels

versus short-term rentals?

Well, this for one year, it's $300,000 for hotels and about $90,000 for short-term rentals.

Right.

And that's the breakdown for all of them?

The 1% is $300,000 for hotels and $90,000 for short-term rentals. That's the 1% addition that's added.

But we're adding more than 1% for short-term rentals.

Right.

So the way we came up with the $600,000 was that the annual for the hotels is that like $300,000 and then you add another $100,000 for each 1%.

So it's 3%. So another $300,000. So you have $600,000.

So the vast majority of our TOT is still generated by hotels.

Yes, definitely by our hotels.

Thanks.

Thank you. Any further?

Okay. May I have a motion then?

Adopting the amended language resolution.

I'm sorry.

I can make a motion.

Moved by Calhoun Yang.

Second.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez. Hearing no further debate or discussion, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay.

And that brings us to almost the end of our agenda. Let's see.

Let's go on with communications, council members.

Several things happened the last two weeks.

June 22nd, we wanted to thank Congresswoman Judy Chu who came to our city and presented a 1.75 million dollar check for a fire station 61 and 63 so we had a check presentation I'm in front of the firehouse and we had a series of really successful vacant to vibrant land use workshops lots of community members joined one was on zoom one was at George elder and one was at

the Langley Center and it was interactive and then on June 27th all five council

members went to happy days happy days they've been in our city for 80 years and that was their final closing ceremony so the city made a plaque for to commemorate them and that plaque is going to be installed in a few weeks so that we can forever remember happy days and their contribution to our community and yesterday I toured Alta space in Montebello with Andy Yan from the Garvey school board they're a brand new art space and museum dedicated to providing art to the public so in a few weeks they will be open to the public and thank you to staff for a wonderful ceremony yesterday for myself as outgoing mayor and for our new incoming mayor who just ran a very successful meeting tonight and our incoming mayor pro tem and happy fourth this weekend

happy 250th birthday to our country thank you I want to reiterate that we did

many things that Councilmember Yang mentioned about just added two things which was just earlier we did the unveiling of the 250th Merrill at the gym right on the other side of Barnes Park and then I want to actually say thank you to Mayor Yang for being the mayor just for nine and a half months and making sure our city continues to deliberately do what we need to do which serve the community and I want to congratulate again new mayor mayor low and mayor pro tem Sanchez for your continued engagement in serving our

residents in our city I'll echo appreciation for mayor or former mayor

now Yang councilmember Yang for her leadership and service the community in our city and this council really appreciate your leadership looking Looking forward to your continued service on the council. And then congratulations to Mayor Lo, your second time around. Looking forward to your animated leadership here at the council days. And appreciate all the events that are happening. I just wish everyone a happy 4th of July. And also wanted to note a happy birthday to Mayor Lo, whose birthday is going to be, and our city manager, who share a birthday.

I won't share their age because I actually don't know 51 very young

appreciate both of them and our

assistant city manager Diane whose birthday is

definitely earned your stripes so thank you so much for guiding us through that process and for being so courteous but also listening to all of the residents appreciated that and the way you handle that so thank you so much for your service and to our incoming mayor Henry Lo who forgot had forgotten how much how much strength he has in his right hand with the use of the gavel but thank Thank you so much.

I wish you well in the next nine and a half months.

I'll be sitting right next to you. So I have to keep reminding myself to keep vigilant of that gavel. So I'm not surprised every time. But anyhow, wanted to also take the opportunity to thank Fire Chief Jason Hing, who took me on a drive to the Boyle Heights facility and got an opportunity to visit the site to kind of gain some perspective in terms of how intense this fire was, but also the brevity in terms of how many people were impacted in that community. If you think about how we were impacted in terms of the smoke in Monterey Park, some days I know, or some hours I should say, the air might have cleaned up for a bit and then we were completely pummeled with smoke. That fire was pretty intense, and I think a lot of residents were very scared and very concerned about the fire and the smoke, and they had every right to be. So this was a very serious fire that happened at that one lineage site in Boyle Heights. When I was there, I had never seen a facility like this ever. It was basically like a huge Yeti chest, just a huge building with a lot of food in there, and there were shelves and shelves, stories high of food. And so when I was there, they were still firing water into the building, shooting water into the building, with water cannons that actually we did not have in our own state. Those water cannons, the L.A. Fire Department told us, were brought in from Texas, two of them, because we didn't actually have those here. So it brings to mind in terms of emergency preparedness the type of things that we might desperately need not necessarily us here at Monterfra because we don't have facilities like those but just in general to be prepared for huge Incidences like the incidents like these and I know I understand now as I watch the news that they're cleaning up this process looks like when I was there it looked like there was a lot a lot of meat and I saw a lot of Hawaiian bread as well that were in crates. But I did see a lot of cleanup crews ready to go when we were there. So I wanted to thank Fire Chief Hing for taking me out there and for using his – he was actually a personal hero. I mean, just a very recognized person out there. There was not a LA fire department fireman there who did not know who he was or did not appreciate or work with him. he everywhere we walked people were just stopping him and wanted to talk it was hard for us to complete our tour because because he was catching up with so many different people so I think we're also very blessed to have him here in our city with such a depth of knowledge and experience so I know he's not here but I know I know he will watch this and we'll share that with him so I wanted to take the opportunity to share that all of us were at the happy day 80 year anniversary I do want to mention because I did take my daughters here for many years a lot of happy day celebrated their 80 year anniversary and closure this past Saturday last Friday was their last day and I can't tell you how much my daughters miss going to summer camp there they started as soon as school ended the following day they were there they did they learned how to swim there they They went there for preschool and kindergarten, TK and kindergarten as well. So they have a lot of core memories that were made at the school. For parents who took their kids there, I have not run across any parent or any student that went to that school that did not have a positive experience at that school and was not touched by that family who ran that school. And I think in many ways, I'm glad that we are We are honoring them with a plaque because I think that in many ways we're not also not doing justice to them because so many families were so impacted by them. Every day that I take my daughters to Grandpa Day Camp now this week, now that Happy Day is closed, they keep telling me, you know, asking me about Happy Day in school. And we drive by on Chandler, which is the worst part on our drive to Grandpa's. and they look and they see what's going on and they see just an empty school now so happy day was such a staple in this community a lot of teachers that I work with took their kids there and a lot of them went to school there themselves when they were children so happy day will definitely be missed and I want to thank miss Pam Rasmussen who runs that school and her family's run that school for 80 years her father who started that school was there on Saturday and still very vibrant and sharing stories about creating the slides himself and all of the equipment that's still actually there

and building some of the – actually creating symbols buildings.

So anyhow, I wanted to make sure to share that, and that's it for me. Oh, and I wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th of July as we celebrate our 250-year anniversary. Make sure you guys go and check out the mural, but no fireworks this year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Potem. I also want to extend happy birthday to our city manager and city manager. We're all July people. And also, I attended also the many events that were mentioned by my colleagues. And I too want to also share in the accolades to our former mayor, Elizabeth Yang. Thank you so much for your leadership these past nine-half months. And as I pointed out, now every council member here has served as mayor. And so thank you all for your continued service to this community, as well as to our incredible city staff and to our community who continue to participate in our community meetings and discussions. We hope that you continue to stay engaged. And also, yes, happy 4th of July.

Stay safe. And with that, I will adjourn tonight's meeting. Thank you.

Thank you.