City Council - Special Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. do do

Welcome. Good evening and welcome to Alhambra's September 14, 2026 meeting. We'll be going into closed session. Mr. City Attorney, do you have anything to report?

Yes. We would request a recess in a closed session for the anticipated litigation items listed on the agenda as well as the one existing litigation or the existing litigation matters that are listed. And I would also request that the city clerk note the role.

So we are injured. So sorry. I forgot roll call.

Okay.

Your job.

I'm so sorry. It's okay. No worries. I'm so sorry. Council Member Lee. Not here. Council Member Maloney.

Here.

Council Member Wang.

Here.

Mayor Pro Temp Maza. Not here. Mayor Andrade Stadler.

Here.

Thank you. Clock to order.

Yeah.

I'm sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. We were in closed session. And so city attorney, is there anything to report out of closed session?

There's no announcement out of closed session this evening.

Thank you very much. Welcome to our general counsel chambers, all of you. Roll call, please.

Council Member Lee. Here. Council Member Maloney.

Here.

Council Member Wang. Here. Mayor Potap Mazza.

Here.

Mayor Andrade Stadler.

Here. And next is our flag salute. If anybody can stand, put your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

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

Thank you very much. I'm reminded by looking at the land acknowledgment that we actually had a teacher from Alhambra High help us create this many years ago. So we thank her. I think she's retired now. We acknowledge that the land on which we are gathered is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Gaborlino Tongva peoples. We seek to prioritize respect for their historic culture and contemporary presence of the native peoples throughout California, especially in the greater Los Angeles, Alhambra area. We come with respect and gratitude for the Gaborlino-Tongval people who still consider themselves the caretakers of this land. It is through their examples that we are reminded of our greater responsibility to take care of Mother Earth and to take care of each other. Thank you. At this point, this is our public comment for non-agendized items. Each speaker gets three minutes.

Hello council members thank you for seeing me today.

I wanted to present or bring up the issue of safety in my neighborhood especially in this one street of the photo you see circulating there. I have been personally targeted for vehicle theft three times in the last six weeks. One time, I had an altercation with one of the thieves, and they fractured my wrist. They stole half my tools. The time before that, they broke my windows. And the time before that, they stole my father's van and completely took everything, catalytic converters and everything. We were able to recover the van, but the sheriff did not want to proceed from there. Lately, also in the area, there's been break-ins. Last year, there was several break-ins. And the year before, several break-ins into homes and into cars. It's been less frequent lately, but it seems to be coming back. At the end of that street in Winthrop, there is a freeway entrance with no cameras. So it's very easy and a desired spot to take off from if you are going to steal something. What I am sharing with you is a idea that I have to temporarily put a divider, making that throwaway unavailable to cross. So if a car were to go there, it would be for a specific reason, which would be one of the four properties that share that street. I don't have to repeatedly call the police because I have been calling all the time. And whenever I see a car twice, because I have not been sleeping, those targeted attacks are just when I was able to catch them. But as of two days ago, someone walked by, took pictures of all my locks, took pictures of inside of my van, and walked away. I can't really call the police on that, because they're technically not breaking any laws. And I know the police have their priorities for other things, and I understand that. So I think something like that would give some peace of mind to that street and possibly reduce the amount of cars going through. Because the only reason, like I said, to use that thoroughfare is to cut across. Because the people who live in those four houses that share that thoroughfare don't really drive across it. We just use it to enter our own property. That picture that I'm circulating right there would not impede anyone from accessing their property, because it would split down the street. I've already spoken to the four people who live there. They don't have any problems with it. would like for something like that to maybe, even if it's temporary, that would be a big help. Because like I said, I'm not sleeping. I am constantly watching out the window, constantly calling the police. My neighbors are texting me every day, like suspicious people, suspicious people. It's becoming a little bit of a hindrance on my personal life and my mental health as well. I just have that idea. I don't know where to proceed from here, so that's why I brought it here.

We thank you very much for being here, Mr. Padales. Unfortunately, we can't say too, too much because it's not on the agenda, but we certainly can have you talk to somebody. Maybe, what would your recommendation be?

It's his contact information on his blue card. We could take a look at it, and staff could reach out to him tomorrow. Is it on the card that he provided? Yes, it is. Phone number? Okay, fabulous.

Yeah, we'll reach out to you tomorrow. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next is Richard Burns. Welcome.

Oh Mr. Burns you're on agenda item number three. So this is the first 30 minutes. You look wonderful you guys. The first 30 minutes is non agendized items and your item is on the agenda. So if you could just hold a little bit I think. Do we have any other non agendized. No. OK. OK. Just a second. OK.

I just submitted a card. Well, excuse me.

So the first 30 minutes we give people who have, that is, I'm sorry, we give them the option to come up and speak on items that are not on the agenda. So you have, okay, so let me ask you a question. Do you have a topic on your non-item agenda?

Oh, okay. I'll take his card. All right. Come on up.

on the clock, please. Hold on one second, sir. Hold on one second. We have three minutes on the clock, please. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. City Clerk. The meaning of the word all, that means men, women combined together, meaning adults, kids combined together, black and white combined together, or agenda or non-agenda combined together. Thank you very much. I would absolutely love to talk to your elementary kindergarten teacher tonight if I were you. Now, I want to talk about the flawed camera issues, which is I'm a big supporter of that. I would say that the residents of Alhambra is tired of calling the police department, you know, 911 officer, I lost my bicycle. And then, you know, our amazing... Mr. Mayor, I'm not able to figure that out. Our police chief, we have no idea. Or I lost my e-bike. Or maybe someone, you know, broke my windshield. Or maybe another, my Amazon package was being stolen. I can give you hundreds of examples. I can go on and on and on. But however, many of the incidences, all of those incidences are actually unsolved cases. Even though, you know, maybe our mayor believe those are not important. Maybe our council member believe they are not important. Or maybe our city clerk believe those are not important. But for a lot of those low-income residents, you know, a $100 Amazon package, that means a lot. Or maybe, you know, to replace a windshield, that's like $600 minimum. That's actually a lot. Maybe to you guys, it's not important. But to us, it's very, very important. And then... I think is a very important hot topic is the nationwide flock camera issues. I was wondering that how many flock cameras are placed outside of the city council member's house, or outside of the mayor's house, or outside of a certain resident's house. You know, I actually escaped the prison and then get on the boat, get to Mexico and then jump over the wall to get here to escape a mass surveillance society. But maybe Alhambra is trying to reestablish a mass surveillance society that I just escaped from, but that's okay. And if we decided to establish a police state or mass civilian state, I would advocate to have a one-floor camera outside of every residence house, or maybe get another 5,000-floor camera anywhere in the city So every time I reported a crime, the police can identify where are they. Otherwise, 100-fault camera cannot accomplish anything. So that's my three minutes. Thank you.

Any other non-agenda items? It's number four. You're on item number four, Mr. Ferguson. OK. One of them is non-agendized.

OK. You know, it's up to you. We only have 30 minutes for a non-agendized item. So we're at a couple of minutes here.

It's up to you. Welcome.

I am retired now. When I was lean and mean, I have built a lot of buildings in Alhambra. And Alhambra used to, either has or used to have a policy of no new permits until violations of permitted items or non-permitted items were corrected. Nearly two years ago, I joined myself to a dispute or a code enforcement, which included the 110 South Chapel Avenue property, in which they demolished 10 garages and built a retaining wall without permitting or getting any of the recycling permits. I've gone into code enforcement. They will not comment on this investigation. They say they will not comment on an ongoing investigation. We're coming up on two years. So I'm asking for the policy to be adhered to, that no new permits or violations or approvals be issued for this property until those violations are corrected. A second item I have on this is that They are now applying. They applied and approved through the planning department for a 60 unit apartment. They have now applied for another 12 ADUs to be installed at that apartment complex. That would make it a total of 72 units. I think it violates some of the requirements. I will deal with the planning department directly on this. It violates the passageway requirement, and it also violates some of the code egress and ingress, of course, fire safety, and then having a window to the outside. But with that said, I object to the fact that I think for an ADU to be applied for, that the building needs to be existing. What they're doing now is they're just tweaking the system to work for them. Instead of applying for a 72-unit apartment building, which was way beyond what was approved, they are now approved and received the 60-unit, and now they're adding another 12 units to it. I don't think that's fair to the neighbors. I don't think it's fair to the intent of the rules or the laws. And I guess I'm asking of the city council, how do I get this promoted forward? You can't comment on an agenda item. Can you respond to it at all? The process, I guess. What do I need to do?

Sorry. I think maybe our city manager would be better best to answer that question in terms of what we can talk about.

sure I would just encourage you to work with the planning staff they'll be able to provide you with whatever information they are allowed to provide you and then of course as you know we don't comment on active code enforcement investigations or any investigations for that matter so whatever we can provide we will but yeah you would you would get that information from planning the policy of not issuing additional permits until violations are that as well any policies that they are that they're working off of they would be able to share those with you

So I have responded to the planning department, and they basically just give me the code numbers. We will adhere to this. So how they interpret it is the question I'm asking. And then I've emailed Andrew Ho concerning the code enforcement, and he does not return email. So I have a frustration. Thank you very much.

OK, thank you very much. Are there any people online that wish to speak on items not on the agenda? No. There are none. Thank you. I think we have a couple of minutes left. No one else? Great. Thank you so much, everyone, for being here. The first item on the agenda is a presentation, Animal Care Control Contract Information. Thank you, Esteban.

Sure. This evening's presentation will be given by Esteban Alvarez, Management Analyst.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of City Council. On July 14, 2026, Mayor Andradez-Sadler requested information regarding the City's contract with LA County Department of Animal Care and Control. The City has contracted with the County for Animal Control Services since 1978 under five-year contract renewal terms. Our current agreement was renewed in May 2024 and runs through June 30th of 2029. The county provides the city a range of services including, but not limited to, field patrol, animal sheltering, licensing, veterinary care, removal of deceased animals, and enforcement of animal control laws. Under the current contract terms, the city may terminate the agreement via the following. Number one, with 180 days written notice with or without cause. Number two, 60 days written notice if the county notifies the city of any rate increases for any of the services they perform. And number three, 60 days written notice before July 1st of any year. For reference, the staff report inadvertently only referenced the first two options for termination. In addition, the contract allows for the city to request one in-person meeting with the county each quarter to address concerns from the council or the community. That concludes my presentation, and staff can answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Are there any items on the agenda? I don't think there is anything on this presentation.

Any questions from anyone?

vice mayor thank you mayor yeah I would definitely support looking at the possibility of other services you know particularly the Pasadena Humane Society I can tell you that I myself have received a number of concerns from our residents I think they can probably be addressed by county but you know one of them being the timely pickup of dead animals on the streets And that happened as recent as last week. The other concern that has been communicated to me by a number of members of the community and online as well is an issue with the ability to hold animals that are lost and that are picked up by county animal control. I believe that county is able to hold them for a lot less time than maybe Pasadena Humane Society would be able to hold them. So that would be, or those would be two of the issues that I'd like to see addressed. And I think that if we are able to terminate the contract without any financial burden to the city, then I think it's something that would be worthwhile to look at. I mean, we've been with them for almost, coming up on 50 years, why not look at other possibilities and other options if it doesn't affect us financially? So that really is it as simple as that.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else.

I just like to echo that and say that I think it'd be good for staff to explore the different options that are out there. I know that most people when you tell them that our animal control facilities in Downey they sort of look at you like are you serious. You know they think I don't know that most folks would know how to get to this place. And I think in our area, at least a lot of people know exactly where the Pasadena Humane Society is. But can I just clarify, the Humane Society does, do they do dead animal pickup too? Is that part of their scope of work?

I believe so. We would absolutely look into that. I think if we were to issue an RFP, which we had done previously, it would be for the entire scope of services that's currently being fulfilled by the county. And we would need that and all of those same services moving forward.

Nothing against Downey. It's a fine city. I was just there last weekend. And it's beautiful. But it takes a while to get there. And it's much closer to Pasadena. And I know that some people in Alhambra not myself, but South Pasadena is the top of my block and some people will walk up to South Pasadena and call animal control from there so that they don't have to deal with going to Downey and the services come from Pasadena instead of Downey. So it would be nice to do that. Again, if it's not financially prudent, then maybe we reconsider, but it's something to look into.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman?

Thank you, Mayor. I'm reading here. I'm not seeing staff. Can you confirm there's no financial penalty if we terminate? It's just the timeline, correct?

That is correct. There only could potentially be if we were to go out for an RFP and there was a difference in the cost, then maybe it's.

we would be paying more if but that would be something that the council could consider down the line got it all right I will support that I think that's a hurt for us to explore different options particularly given the concerns that we've been hearing from the community and just when we I think it would be good to make sure that we this it's the same scope of work that we're getting for the different options and also the concerns that councilmember vice mayor Mazza brought up

particular two concerns make sure we get answers clear answers from the options that we're we're looking at councilwoman lee yes thank you mayor i just wanted to mention that in the past i have heard resident just a few of them concerning about the um responding time by the animal control if something was called and because it really has to do with dead animal bodies. So I just want to make sure that after we approve this contract that we are looking at maybe keeping a record of the responding time based on residents' complaint so that we can take a look at the contract again when it's time for renewal. Because I remember that those complaints came to me either through email or verbally. And actually, somebody has suggested that we actually have our own panel control. I'm not sure we have the space, but there's that 710 value that's available space. I'm just brainstorming. So I don't really have an issue with this contract. It's just that I want to make sure that with a new contract that we are going to make sure that the responding time is appropriate and timely.

I appreciate your comments I think that that is exactly what we would be looking at if we were to go have staff come back and talk to us about what options are available and then that would be some of the things that you would be able to respond to I just want to thank my fellow council members I appreciate this I did bring this only because I saw a few times where it's just not it downy is a little far for us and there's even Baldwin Park is closer but somehow we have downy and it's a little far for for our families to to be taken care of so I would support that as well it looks like there's it's all of us would be willing to have staff come back with some options thank you we now it's time for consent agenda so I have I'm sorry

Oh, did you have one? OK, Louis. Mr. McKinnon. Sorry about that. OK.

Thank you, Mr. McKinnon.

Thank you. Lou McCammon, 105 North Cordova Street. Just giving you a little bit of information about what some of the alternatives are and what cities work with these organizations and so forth. One of the other things I noticed that I didn't put in there, Monterey Park actually has its own unit there and it's a part of the park police department in monterey park so if you have a dead animal pick up you just call Monterey Park. Yeah. Now, there are two alternatives. I would suggest that you would want to carefully check out each one, their ability to handle what you need and so forth. They're certainly way closer than Downey. And I have no idea why they make us go to Downey when Baldwin Park is right over there. And it's kind of in the boonies. I've been in the one at Baldwin Park. And you've got to really hunt. It's back behind a bunch of other businesses and so forth. But I think the main thing is, if you've got a response time and you're coming from Downey, how long is it taking to get here from Downey as compared to San Gabriel or Pasadena? And I've given you a list there of the... various organizations. LA County formally contracted with Pasadena to actually serve a number of areas. Somehow they've negotiated the greatest deal in town right now. It's continuing under an MOU, which is saving uh the county of los angeles a lot of money because they don't have to check over all the reports and everything they've been doing an excellent job for them covering areas like altadena la crescenta east pasadena and san pasqual up there and i've given you the dates i've given you links where you can go check out and get a lot more information on these things here. I do want to read you a little bit about what on page two of the one from the Board of Supervisors that I handed out to you about purpose, justification, and recommended action. The County Department of Animal Care and Control Department operates seven animal care centers dedicated to rehabilitating and placing animals into permanent homes. Pasadena Humane is a nonprofit organization with extensive experience providing medical care, behavioral support, and adoption services for dogs and cats. Pasadena Humane has agreed to provide these services at no cost to the county for fiscal year 2026-2027. And for Altadena Humane, and the other unincorporated areas of La Crescenta, East Pasadena, and San Pascual. These services provided by Pasadena Humane include routine and emergency veterinary care, spay and neuter services, behavioral assessments, socialization, enrichment activities, and adoption support, including community outreach, to promote responsible pet ownership and permanent placement of animals. It gives you some idea of what they've got. I don't know that the services are as extensive in the San Gabriel one. Pasadena works with a lot of our neighbors. South Pasadena contracts with them. San Marino contracts with them. And San Gabriel does contract with a number of cities too, though they tend to be out at the far eastern end of the San Gabriel Valley. So look it over, check it out. Downey's a long way to go. And if you've been getting some feedback from the community that they'd like you to look into others, there's a little bit of information you can follow up on there. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. McKinnon. And I apologize again for not seeing that you were number one. So moving along, we have our consent calendar. And the numbers are, I think, one through, what is it?

14, I believe.

And we have these agenda items pulled. Agenda item number three.

Number four, number, let's see, number seven, number eight, number 10, number 11, and number four. So there are two for number four.

Any council members wish to pull? If you want me to repeat those, I can repeat those. Item number three, number four, number seven, number eight, number 10, number 11.

And Mayor, I believe staff would like to pull item four from consideration.

I'll move the remainder of the consent agenda.

Okay, it's been moved.

I'll second.

Roll call.

Council Member Lee? Yes. Council Member Maloney?

Yes.

Council Member Wang? Yes. Sorry. Mayor Puntep Maza? Yes. Mayor Andrade Stadler?

Yes. Thank you. So the first item is item number three and we have Mr. Richard Burns.

Welcome. Good evening.

Mayor. Council. Yes my name is Richard Burns. But approximately five years ago six years ago one of our retired. Representatives, Ted Jimenez, he was here. He was one of our original representatives that worked with everybody where you're sitting now six years ago. And now it's up to date to be brought through for another five years, if I'm correct. So we appreciate your patience. We appreciate the last five years, all your hard work. And we're looking for another five years and how we can be of help. I got a little speech here. I'll go ahead and go through that because it just wouldn't be a council meeting without that. My name is Richard Burns. I'm a representative with the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters. We fully support and approve the amendment to the Community Workforce Agreement, the CWA. The CWA was established approximately five years ago and included area labor standards, local hire, and a project threshold. Our suggestion would be to add a career connection program. From a CWA side, if time permits, we also have an opportunity to add language that prioritize qualified graduates of AUSD CTE programs for apprenticeship and employment opportunities on the AUSD projects covered by the CWA. This would create a much stronger connection between the students that are learning in the classrooms and the actual construction work taking place within their community. We would be happy to set up meetings to discuss a career connections program and add any emails, information that we can pass on. I'll leave my card right here because I don't want to throw it at the clerk. And feel free to reach out. Thank you so much. We appreciate all your hard work.

Thank you, Mr. Burns. Mr. Ron Sohu, number three. Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have four items, so I'll cover them all together. And I think I get ten minutes, right? Okay. Item number three, actually, I'm here up first. I do support the item, and I, in fact, echo Mr. Burns. I have been looking into the CTE program at AUST, and I think that's a fine idea, so that we should support. My only question for transparency is, Yes, that's a great idea, actually. My only question for transparency is, in the staff report, it said that there is going to be no fiscal impact for the next five years in the renewal. And I'm just wondering how the math works. If there is no fiscal impact to the city, then what is the benefit of this agreement to our workforce that is here and, in fact, to the local workforce? If you can clarify that, that would be helpful. The way my head works is if there is no fiscal impact, there is no benefit. But if there is a benefit, there must be an impact. So if we can sort that out. And if, again, for transparency, if you have information in the last five years, what sort of projects have benefited from the CWA, that would be helpful so we all know. the benefits that we have received in the past. And in particular, the local benefits, the Alhambra benefits would be very helpful. So that takes care of item number three. Item number eight, I'm going in the order that I had. Item number eight is Joslyn Center Improvements. This is a suggestion or a request. You have a half a million dollar contract grant, which is great, and the bids apparently have come in less than that, at $385,000. So you have, on paper, savings of hundred and fifteen thousand dollars it says that it is going to go back to the general fund I want to ask if you could consider one more step that it should actually go to the reserves of the city when we have opportunities like this where we have money left over we should actually be beefing up our reserves as you all know our reserves are twenty million dollars but that's not enough When I go to my financial people, they say you need to have three to six months worth of reserves, okay, in your emergency account. So we should aim for that, and this council's supportive of that, so why don't we set up a mechanism where we have extra money left over on contracts. We should try and prioritize beefing up the reserves. It improves the resiliency of our city in dealing with emergency situations, and it's just hopefully a good idea. Let me move to item number 10 in the next order. The item number 10 is about the urban forestry and I think that's a great idea. My only questions are again on transparency. You have if I understand the math correctly you're asking or we're going to write a grant for about seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. And the staff report says that there will be two contractors. One is three people, and the other is active SGV. The way I read it, each is slated for about 8%, which amounts to about $60,000 each for those subcontracts. I am familiar with tree people and there's no question that they are qualified but that they can play a role. I would still like to see the scope of work for tree people as well because neither the staff report or any other documents have what the scope will be for that $60,000 that the tree people will get from that and therefore we can just see for transparency what that is. Same question also for active SGV. My understanding is active SGV is slated for public outreach. So I again want to find out what the scope is that active SGU will do. Now on that second issue, and don't take this in any other way that is inappropriate, who is against trees in the city? So do we really need a public outreach to convince people to have more trees? you know, trees in the urban canopy. Is it necessary? And if it is, I would like to see the qualifications. Since it's a sole source contract, I would like to see some qualifications of both entities, including ActiveSGV, about this type of services they have done in Alhambra. just like you were talking in item number one to going out looking at alternatives to the county, I would urge you to go out to bid on these so we at least have some options other people can bid in for providing the same services. It just is a good practice in my view. That brings me to item number 11. Item number 11 is a third year contract for providing, I believe, services dealing with the housing element to ESA for a fairly hefty sum of money, for $693,000. Again, the public would benefit, I certainly would benefit as a member of the public to seeing what is the scope for this $693,000 for the third year of this contract. I tried to look for that in the originals and I couldn't find it, but that would be nice to have as part of the package. before we, on consent, approve that item to see what exactly they're doing. I'm very curious what exactly is going on with the housing element program implementation on the third year that is going to require that kind of a effort of $700,000 is a lot of money. So to sort of summarize, because I don't want to take more of your time, I would recommend you consider at least item 10 and 11 before you approve them in consent, because that detail would be helpful. As to item number three, you know, I support that. Please proceed, but at maybe a later time, give us, as a member of the public and the city of Alhambra residents, what benefits have accrued to us from item number three in the past five years, and with Jocelyn Center for the Reserves, it's a suggestion. I think I'm happy to hear back the balance of my time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Soho. I'm going to go back to item number four. I think somebody had to speak to item number four. Is that Tom Ferguson? Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's item number three?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Mr. Jose Armador.

Armador, thank you. Good evening, everyone, to staff, Madam Mayor, and council members. My name is Jose Armador, special representative for the Western States Carpenters. I just want to touch a little bit on my experience, but not just my own, but our fellow brothers and sisters. Basically, what Richard Burns touched on, my brother, one thing I want to share with you guys. I remember back in my day, long, long, long, long time ago, in 1999, when I graduated high school, I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do, what I wanted to become. Here I am today, 25 years later, I'm in the trades with the Western States Carpenters Union. You have many brothers and sisters today that are already retired with pride, dignity, and earning good money for all their hard work and dedication, and with every city and different projects they've worked on. I remember being in high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I remember there was this program called ROP classes back in the day, and I had to choose between auto mechanics and wood shop. I said, you know what? I knew the basic auto mechanics stuff because I did a lot of that in the garage with my dad. I figured, you know what? I took a little interest in the wood shop. And with the milling, the wood chopping, the incredible things you were able to do in the school and back in that day, in that time, here I am today in the trades. And all we're trying to provide in the opportunity and not just renew the CWA that we have in place now today, but implement that career connection that we want to provide those opportunities that you could be a part of. Because at the end of the day, we have so many students out there today that really want to be, they have a passion to go to college, but a fortune college is too expensive. We got the tariffs, inflation, the cost of living. It's crazy times right now. And we're all about education. But the career connection also is attached to earning college credits. So we have many members that have a passion to still go to college, whatever that may be, whether it's a, you know, RN, registered nurse, police science, whatever that may be. We have many members that have gone through our apprenticeship program, earning a good, decent living so they can still pay for their college and earning college credits. So manage having that opportunity for those students, that new generation that need help now more than ever because they still don't know what they want to do. But if we can open this pathway those opportunities these careers that we provide and not just us there's different other trades that can join but more important is to provide those opportunities that you can be part of and make a difference. in your community, in your city. I just want to say thank you for everything you guys do, for your time, long nights, and tough decisions. Thank you so much. I left my business card. Anything we can do to provide, do any Zoom meetings to educate you more on how and why we can direct that pathway, we'd be happy to do so. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Before I move on to item number four, is there anyone else here to speak on item number three? And didn't get a chance to bring up their, okay, thank you. So, thank you very much. Item number four is Tom Ferguson. Or did you already speak to it?

Yeah, just, Madam Mayor, staff needs to pull this item. We don't need any action on it tonight. Oh, okay, thank you. There will be no action on this item tonight.

So no action whatsoever?

Yeah.

OK. As I previously mentioned, there is a code enforcement case against this property. And I'm asking that when this item does come up for approval of the approval of the speed widening, that you adhere to the Alhambra policy of not approving or adding additional permits, anything moving forward of this project until the existing violations that are occurring on this property are resolved. It doesn't take two years. The citizens of this community are being ignored. It doesn't take two years to figure out if they demolished 10 garages and built a retaining wall without permit and then to follow up So it sure would get things moving on the developers. And if he had to take care of his violations prior to moving forward with any new approvals or permitting. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item is item number seven.

Lewis McKinnon. That's the HUD Consolidated Annual Performance.

Yeah, there's three items there. Item number seven is the adoption of the paper, the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for HUD. We have to do this every year. They want to know what we did with the money that they sent to us, and they want to see the results and check it out. If you are slow spending it, they get on your case, too. So they're looking at a number of things. And we have some very good projects going in there. There's limits on what we can do with the two types of funds and so forth. This is the first year of the current five-year plan. And the things we're doing there, we have a number of... senior case management is one of the things that's funded out of the CDBG community development block grant portion of the funds there's another fund called home that's strictly used by us aside from the small amount that comes off the top for administration it's used for home rehabilitations for low-income homeowners and that's uh helpful we we use some of the cbdg also for that some goes for code enforcement they keep track of the work that they do in the low and moderate income areas, census tracts, to justify the fact that it's being used that way. We have occasionally had some money left over that we couldn't spend in a timely manner, and some of it was diverted to some sidewalk work, particularly for disabled persons on the ramps and so forth on the sidewalks. This particular document did come before our committee. We looked it over. Not every number that you have before you currently was available at that time, but they have been working, and they have it all together now, so it's ready to go into HUD. There should be no problems with it. It's a lot of good work went into it. of putting together that document. Okay, item 10, the city's application for a three quarter of a million dollar grant from the state's Integrated Climate Adaptation and resiliency program for the creation of an urban forestry management plan and subsequent planning of trees citywide. This is authorizing you to apply for this grant. it's also asking you to take a look and approve two partners who will work with us on that uh one of what i've heard of tree people and active san gabriel valley uh activists uh gv they're both good organizations i've been uh one of the meetings of active svg uh sgv and um it was uh that was about orienting people to getting out and uh hiking and stuff like that so it's their uh fits their um area of expertise too uh and when i look at some of the parts of the city we really need it the big uh condo project that went in Monterey Bay Square that went in at very near Sprouts there. Yeah, they planted a couple little things in front there about that high maybe, but we can use a lot more greenery. We need the oxygen and and so anything we can do to uh get more uh so much is being paved over we we do need the greenery thank you mr mckenna and uh lastly item 11 This is just an internal juggling of where the money is being spent. You've already approved the overall contract. It's nearly $2.5 million to cover several years' worth of work. uh and basically what they're doing is managing the implementation programs which were identified and part of the uh city's housing element the housing element was approved by you it's been approved by the state it does commit us to doing a number of things and they are working on uh keeping us on task there um Particularly, there's a couple of things I would like to see. Ron mentioned a little bit about if we can get a little bit more information on exactly what they're doing and what they're coming up with, that would be really helpful. i'm not sure exactly because there's so many different programs in there which ones are they focused on what are they doing on the ones that they're focused on it'd be good to get some reports back on that it would also be good to get back a report on the numbers and how we're doing on our goal and making progress towards the cycle uh six arena uh regional housing needs allocation that comes down from the state and skag hands out its parts um it's no problem meeting those goals if you're in palmdale or someplace that has massive square mile areas of cactus in the middle of the city that you can easily build on. It's very tight in a built-out city like Alhambra. And so anything we can do to get a little bit more, I'd say... I don't know exactly what's being shifted here. I know their contract only runs through the end of cycle six, which is October 31, 2029, a date that's coming up in the not too distant future. and at that point also we want to be working in the meantime on our applications for submission for the housing element for cycle seven which will be coming up and we need to kind of be taking a look at that hopefully they'll be putting us in a good position to deal with the state on these issues um but if we can get a little more information on that it would be helpful thank you very much and yet two extra minutes back thank you thank you thank you all so much for your comments um how about my council um i'm gonna just bring out number three to start which is the cwa

Anybody want to lead with that or.

Mayor I'll just start off I guess just to say that that it's my understanding that this agreement's been in place for five years has worked pretty well for both the city and the trades and what we're what's in front of us now is just simply extending it under the same exact terms and it seemed like a good deal then and I think it seems like a good deal now. I do understand the There's always a concern of making sure that the finances are working out. In this case, I think that the fiscal impact is compared to baseline as of like now. So there is no fiscal impact because it's exactly the same thing. We're just extending another five years, which seems appropriate to me and I would be supportive.

Have any questions?

OK, no questions. Any other comments or questions or Councilman Mazza?

thank you mayor uh no i just you know just wanted to follow up on um our community members comments and questions i don't know that staff would be prepared to answer this tonight but just um i don't see anybody from community development here tonight but you know just the local benefits of course um and just any for the community and for the community to be aware of the benefits uh any projects that have benefited under the community workforce agreement uh in the past five years

Sure. Mayor, members of the City Council, this agreement, as Councilmember Maloney offered, it is identical and it is an extension of the first five-year agreement. The first five-year agreement operated off of a project list. Largely, the projects listed were a dozen or so projects in the Public Works and Utilities Divisions. Those projects were bid through the regular bid process. And there is a small additional administrative portion of the contract that the city does have to contract for. But because this is a continuation of the existing contract, we anticipated that it was going to be renewed. And so we included all of those same costs for this new project list in the city's budget when it was approved back in May. So all of those, the administrative costs haven't been anticipated. And really, the biggest part of a community workforce agreement and the benefit for Alhambra residents is the local hire provisions. And so, you know, and how that operates all really benefits that they're not having to drive to Riverside if there is work locally here in Alhambra or the greater Los Angeles area.

thank you i appreciate that um just lost my train of thought my apologies i'm gonna ask one more question um i will defer to council member lee and come back

I don't have any questions.

Well, let me just add something. Thank you very much for clarifying and giving a little bit more of a picture of what CWA is and what our basic CWA covers. And I would just recommend that maybe we connect Mr. Amador to the superintendent at Alhambra Unified School District. And I would be happy to do that to help Have you talked to CTE and to her as well to see what kinds of programs they are now offering and may want to in the future? Okay, thank you. With that, I'll make a motion to approve number three.

I'll second.

Roll call.

Councilmember Lee? Yes. Councilmember Maloney? Yes. Councilmember Wang? Yes. Mayor Pro Temp Maza? Yes. Mayor Andrade-Stadler? Yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. Good luck, and we'll see you soon. you goodnight goodnight mr. city attorney I just need some clarification on item number four has it been completely removed off the agenda for the and that off the consent calendar yes that was staff's request so just if the council just you don't need to take any action on number four thank you so much item number five council would anybody like to discuss the bids for city art improvements

Is this pulled?

Was that pulled? OK. I'm sorry. Number seven, which is the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. The housing. This is HUD.

I'll move unless there are any.

Any comments from any council member? I would just like, you're making the move, I'll make the second. I just wanted to, for the sake of transparency, read what the accomplishments program year end strategic plan to reflect. Actual accomplishments for the public facilities and infrastructure activities. Removing reference from 2022 street improvement project. Updating the housing rehabilitation program accomplishments to reflect assistance providing to 10 households rather than eight during the 2025-26 including corresponding updates to chart 20. Updating the final FY2526 and home fund withdrawals. Updating the home match requirements narrative. Updating the report to reflect the remaining permanent local housing allocation and updating the Measure A amount reflected under the additional funding sources in the CRT. I won't go any further. I just wanted to make sure that people understood that the monies here are going to such good programs and they're obviously under the HUD guidelines that we're able to do and it's to continue helping our unhoused and a variety of other other social work. So thank you for that. I appreciate that. With that, I'll second his first.

Sorry, are we voting for this item or all of the remaining consent?

Well, it's up to you guys. I just, you know what, when I let everybody read, I didn't give that allowance for you guys to say anything you wanted to on any of the items that were pulled. So I was just giving you the opportunity if somebody wants to do.

My motion was just for this item.

So, yes, so there's a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Council Member Lee.

Yes. Council member Maloney. Yes. Council member Wang. Yes. Mayor Maza. Yes. Mayor Andrade-Stadler.

Yes.

Motion passes.

And that was item number seven. And we pulled number eight. Does anybody want to have any discussion on item number eight? It was pulled by a member of our community. It is the award the contract for Jocelyn Center Improvement Project.

I do have a follow-up question, Mayor. So it looks like if the bid amount is less than the grant amount, in the event that I know that sometimes it

construction doesn't go as planned but in the event that we have remaining what where does the money go can staff clarify yeah so this grant we applied for a very specific purpose for the Jocelyn Center it's to replace the roof to do some upgrades to the stucco to paint to do the parking lot lighting and then remove those pillars that are on that entranceway on the way into the Jocelyn Center so Yes, the bid has come in slightly less than the original grant amount, but it is a reimbursement grant. And so if and when we spend the 385, and then as you mentioned, hopefully it's right at 385, any additional funds, we would have to write a letter into the granting department, which in this instance is HUD. And so we would ask HUD for authority to do other improvements. I know that the Director of Parks and Recreation has his eye on a couple of other exterior improvements because the title of the grant was for the Jocelyn Center exterior improvements and then we listed out those improvements that I mentioned to you. So there are some other improvements that we would ask HUD that we could undertake with that. this money is approved by congress and so um we would be you know asking hud if they have the jurisdiction to allow us to undertake additional projects with this funds but we would never receive those funds directly to the city without having a project thank you and i certainly appreciate that we're looking at every opportunity to fully utilize the grant thank you

So it's not a situation where we can ask to keep the change. It's not an advance grant, basically.

It's not an advance grant. And we didn't say in our grant request that we want to do exterior improvements to the Jocelyn Center, and then any additional would be returned to us. We didn't ask for that. If there was additional language, as I mentioned, even additional exterior improvement projects that weren't specified still require the approval of the granting agency.

congresswoman Chu is very excited about securing that those funds for us at Jocelyn Center and I would imagine she'd be very supportive if we had other projects that were necessary at that same facility so that's a good idea did we anyone else anyone else want to make a comment on the council otherwise I make an emotion to approve the contractor or item number eight a second OK. Yes, I'll make the motion.

You're on the motion, yes, and the second.

Council Member Lee? Yes. Council Member Maloney? Yes. Council Member Wang? Yes. Mayor Maza? Yes. Mayor Andrade-Stadler?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Very good. Thank you. The next is item number seven. Before we before I ask for council council communications I'd like a little bit more information from you. This is just a grant right. This is not all the items. And everything and the cost and everything that it's really going to cost. We're kind of not shooting in the dark, but we're asking for the grant and then things will move forward with respect to who is involved and all those other kinds of things.

Is that right? So this is the request for submission of a grant for $750,000 to ICARP. ICARP has in their grant requirements, they are very specific. They state that we have to have a co-sponsor. And so in this instance, we have two. The grant also is very specific. that we will be undertaking the creation of the tree management plan, and then also requires a public outreach component. It's very specific of what that outreach component looks like. I think that Lucy might have the more specifics on the grant, but we're not asking the council tonight to contract with tree people or active SGV. If we are awarded the grant, we will come back and ask the council for authorization to enter into contracts with both of those entities once we're able to further refine, A, how much money we have, and B, what that scope of work would look like. Right now, we don't know. We just have the very strict grant requirements. So do you have more info on the grant?

Yeah, if I can just elaborate on that a little bit. Suffice to say that our application is both for a forestry plan as well as a demonstration project. And as city manager mentioned, of course, there's a huge emphasis on the community outreach requirement that specifically from the granting source. In terms of other program requirements, there are other specifics. The demonstration grant, for example, that portion of the work is going to have to equal anywhere between 25% and 60% of the grant funds. So here, if we're asking for $750,000, that's roughly $187,000 to $450,000 for our demonstration effort. Our demonstration effort, of course, being a tree planting exercise. The partnerships do have at least an 8% commitment to the partners. That's $60,000. There is an emphasis on what they're calling belonging activities. That really just speaks to the community outreach. That's a 4% minimum or $30,000. And then there's also a requirement for post-award activities in the amount of $25,000 for much of the measurement and reporting criteria that we're responsible for. And then there's room for indirect costs to the amount of 15% or $112,000. The there's also specific requirements on the CO applicants. And I do want to emphasize that a little bit since it can only be assigned to either a local entity. In this case, we would be the lead applicant application applicant, excuse me. But then as far as the partners, They can only be, it's restricted to California Native American tribes, community-based organizations, nonprofits, coalitions, or public higher academic institutions. So in terms of the window of folks that are available to partner with us, and as you know from the staff report, we have to include a minimum of one co-applicant. As you know, we do have history with these community-based organizations, tree people being experts within the realm of trees, not only throughout the LA County area, but other areas throughout the state. They would be, as identified in the staff report, predominantly assigned to the tree forestry plan. And then the outreach, because we have had outreach experience with active SGV, is a good fit. And it's an extensive fit as far as the outreach is concerned, because those are the expectations from the source. We have had only early conversations, conceptualization, if you will, with these potential partners because we wanted to see that it was a conceivable partnership and part of what we can specify in our application. As far as the program requirements go, Jessica is correct that indeed, we don't have to have these commitments until after the contract is derived. So in other words, that's true for the budgeting. However way we're going to disseminate the $750,000 with those minimum thresholds that I described earlier, but also the partnership agreements, we would have to undertake agreements with each of those entities. So there's still a lot of work to take shape but in order to even qualify for the grant we had to have an early entry and then subsequently the final entry is due by october 13th and of course you know we've had conversations with the environmental commission tree being a big priority of what they wanted us to undertake as far as the environmental sustainability plan is concerned. So I hope that addresses some of your questions.

Thank you. That was pretty extensive. And I'm glad that you guys went to the Sustainability Commission because we want to use our commissions, right? So any other discussion? Or would you like to make a motion?

Yeah. Just real quick on this. In my other I work for an agency that actually administers Prop 4 grants. Not exactly the same program, but similar. And it's always looked favorable to have applicants, like a city, come in with co-applicants, partners, like nonprofits, especially ones that specialize in outreach and subject matter specialists. Active SUV is known to us here. They have a pretty good network and a pre-existing group of contacts in the area, so they're perfect for outreach. There's a couple other that I think are similar, but I think active SUV probably has the most extensive and durable network at this point. So that's a good pick for outreach. As far as specifically on this topic, there's probably no other entity that's better suited for this than tree people, in our area at least. And they are They're well known as sort of the subject matter experts in this area. There's probably other ones out there, but I can't think of it. And they're well known, they are competent, and they've been doing this for a long time. So when this comes in, the state review body probably won't know a lot about active SGV, but they definitely will know about tree people. And it will help us. And this is not exactly the kind of situation we're not bringing in arborists and and tree trimmers as our co-applicants were bringing in subject matter experts that are sort of you know not they're not contractors they're they're non-profits um so i think this is appropriate um i i am curious about the scope of work and i would like to see that when that gets more developed and i did have a question is this the eight percent i know jessica you told me earlier is the eight percent a cap or a floor it's at least it's at least okay so so they're going to each so at least 16 of the overall I would like to see this, and I'm excited to see what comes out of this, because I agree that more trees in our area would be very welcome. And more appropriate trees, as I've harped on many times, I think our natives are well-adapted for our environment and our climate here, and I think that would be great. I'll put another plug in. I've said this a couple times. There's this interesting idea that I've discussed within the context of the sustainability plan, but I don't think it's a good idea. I'm looking at potentially using some of our public space or parkland to do a micro forest. So there's these folks that are studying planting trees almost too close to each other, but they grow up into the cosps of trees in an area. And there's a lot of evidence that shows that they provide greater environmental benefit than just planting trees separate from each other. Just an idea but maybe if we're looking at a master plan that's something to consider.

But anyways with that couple of unsolicited plugs there I will make a motion.

I have a comment, Mayor. Thank you. I'm very excited about this idea that we're going for funding for trees. I think it's very much needed in the city. I also wanted to confirm my understanding because in the staff report says as at least 8% of the total budget will go to the partners of the application. We have two partners. So I think Council Member Maloney already asked about this. So 8% to each partner, total 16. Is that how 16 comes out?

Yes. But as Lucy read off, there are other percentages. So they have to do some portion of it. And then the other sections of the grant dictate how much. that they can charge for those services. So will you give the example like the outreach portion of it? That has a very prescribed plan for the community, and there's a cost cap in there as well as part of the grant application.

Yes, so what they're calling belonging activities, that is at least 4% of the budget, a minimum of $30,000, notwithstanding any other costs that are in relationship to the partnership costs. But on that topic of the belonging criteria, there is a guide that certainly speaks to meaningful community engagement, that it's foundational to this work, requiring facilitators, folks that can reach the community at large in language so that members of the community have had an opportunity to really provide feedback on what's important to them and have robust dialogue on this topic of trees and tree management throughout the city. And again, with the intent that when projects are designed with and by the people, that community members are more likely to see the resulting infrastructure as a trusted and meaningful part of the community. So there's a lot in that that I think as we go through the refined scope of work, with the community-based organization that gives us time to more fully elaborate on what those additional engagement components need to be understood I think you just touched on a very important point I think that given that a percent is the floor I like to see

where the cap is. And I think maybe with the scope of work together with the cost, it will make more sense to look at them together. So I would like to see, in the interest of transparency, if staff can bring this item back with the proposals from the agencies with clear scope, work, and estimated cost for that scope of work, that would be great.

Can I just ask what the deadline is for the application?

October 13.

Do we have time?

For the next meeting?

No additional comments on this. Thank you.

Councilwoman Lee?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. It looks like a very good grant funding and the program that is very going to benefit our community. I just have a question about the co-applicants. So there are Tree People and Active San Gabriel Valley, Active SGV as grant applicants. And based on the agenda description, Tree People is a community base, and they have knowledge of environmental issues, and particularly with forestry, with trees. However, SGV Active, is also very environmentally conscious. But I'm not quite sure. How do we end up with decision of these two applicants? Do we send out a public notice to reach out to all nonprofits who are interested?

No, obviously, it's from, as I mentioned earlier, it's from our previous work, having worked with them for different reasons, treat people specifically on tree matters, and then active SGV, for example, on the bike and pedestrian improvement plan, and their knowledge, of course, and involvement and ability to reach Alhambra community members. Some of the scope of work could include but not be limited to community workshops, community listening sessions, community communication campaigns, outreach to trusted messengers, site visits on similar projects, and site-specific community input sessions. Again, with this interest to really target the community at large and certainly be able to reach people in language so that everyone has an opportunity to participate.

So based on your response, if I hear correctly, that we really did not open up this application to all nonprofits. The reason I'm kind of focusing on the outreach portion, which is a very, to me, is something that many nonprofits can do, So I'm not quite sure why we selected SGBACTIV for this particular task, knowing that SGBACTIV has been involved in quite a few of our previous projects, especially the bike plant. So I'm just wondering, in general, actually, I have a quick question. How much will each nonprofit receive? or their participation? The dollar you mean? That's right.

So as mentioned, those are things we would refine after the grant contract is actually awarded to the city, if awarded. Nice. And, you know, with with those intentions in mind, the different areas of scope that I mentioned, that's how we would approach it as an alternative. Since the grant requirements only require one community based organization, we could choose to leave it as the city and tree people. And then the other group could be a different category of partnership. I think they call it a contributor. And in that role, we would still require an agreement with that party to help facilitate the outreach, if that pleases the council.

Yes, I think what definitely you're going in a direction that I would like to see the council to look at is there are so many nonprofits and there are newer nonprofits who are looking for opportunities to continue to grow. So I think that that's why I question how do we select these two nonprofits. I do want to ask the council to just majors offer to treat people this particular grant and maybe another one for community outreach being the community outreach is a very general task so it doesn't require specific non-profit with their particular vision so hdv active in this case they're known for active you know bike plans and transportation so i think it's a little bit of a I mean, I think they're probably better off being used for other purposes, but I would like the council to consider replacing ASGP active with the other nonprofit who can also take on this very general task of outreach. treat people seem to be a very technical debate, so I have no problem with them being one of the recipient, but SG Active, I think there's another place for them in terms of other projects down the future. I just want to counsel them a little bit more, spread out the opportunities of all nonprofits in the city. I met quite a few nonprofits who are really looking for funding to help them to grow. And they're very talented nonprofits. So I'd like the council to look at just the tree people, tree people for this project, but maybe add another nonprofit who can undertake the outreach portion. Therefore, SDV Active will be, we could probably let them do something else. But I just really think that we need to expand our pool of nonprofits that we use.

yeah sure and I I tend to agree with council member Lee on this however you know in the interest of making our application stronger because obviously you you are the experts in you know trying to get these these grants awarded I would want to make sure that by doing so it doesn't weaken the application or the the possibilities of being awarded this as a you know council member Maloney mentioned you know with his expertise and experience in in grants it's always you know ideal to have those positions or I guess those those those those partners I guess yes thank you pre-identified so I do my understanding is that we are not obligated right this is just an application we are not obligated to using either one of these entities and once at least one we are obligated to using one okay my apologies which then I think it would be tree people, that's a given. But just, I wouldn't want to remove active SGV if you feel that that might weaken our chances of being awarded this application. That would be my concern. Other than that, I'm definitely open to having that RFP.

I guess in response to that the only thing I can share with you that it is a very competitive application and you know as a as a as a grant writer or or or any of that I obviously anything that would make us stronger is always appealing to me personally but sorry then I would say maybe holding on the application as is for now and revisiting that possibility if we are awarded in first quarter of twenty twenty seven

Madam Mayor, sorry, I understand the general concerns. I think in this particular situation, taking out active SGV would hurt our application significantly because we want them to do outreach. And with these state grants, for better or worse, outreach and public engagement is one of the top tasks that the state puts on the grantees. And if we come in there without a local partner, we have kind of the subject matter partner. If we come in without a local partner who's going to do the engagement, they're going to say, you're just going to make this up as you go along. It's not going to look good. I can tell you that. Now, as a general idea, I agree that we shouldn't just go back to the same organization each and every time. So maybe as a separate, as a way to address those concerns separately, could we do... I think we should move forward you know with with possibility coming back with some of the scopes of work and the amounts of money we're fine at the next meeting perhaps but I think we should move forward with this package as is because we don't have a ton of time and I think we're going to look non-competitive if we don't have a defined public outreach partner. But in the future can we do like a call for proposals like can we develop a a list a medium list a short list a binder of similar nonprofits based on an actual public process where we say here's what we need. We anticipate we're going to apply for grants in the future and we need assistance with outreach. So tell us how you're qualified to do this. My bet would be that that active SUV is still going to be the most qualified but obviously that's my that's an opinion at this point. So I think we should maybe open up to a public process because there are a lot of good nonprofits out there. And if I'm wrong, then I'd be happy to be wrong. And we can have different options at different times. But I think for this one, I would be OK amending the motion to, or at least bringing it back next time with some of the numbers refined. But I don't want to potentially risk making our application look worse. Because if we don't have an identified public outreach co-applicant, we're going to, I just don't think it'll reflect well.

Well, thank you, council members. I think we've heard quite a bit from all of you. And I don't have checked. Do we need a motion or do we just direct staff to come back?

You can direct us. Okay. We're clear on what you're looking for when it comes back on the 28th. Thank you so much.

Can I just add, I think, Council Member Maloney's point about creating a short list of nonprofits? Because as I understand, going for grants and community outreach is a critical part of that as a partner. So I would see this as an ongoing need in the city. So why don't we start that process, develop a short list of nonprofits, so that the next time around, we can look at some options.

Great. So I just want to clarify that I think Council Member Mazza and I do feel the SGB active, if I'm correct, that we should look at a replacement. I don't really want to evaluate the qualification of any nonprofit. I'm not going to have the expertise on that, but what I'm looking for is an open process where other nonprofits who can also come in and do the outreach just as well. So I'm not going to be able to say whether SDV Active is going to be better than the other nonprofit in terms of outreach. What I'm cautious about is that the SDV Active involvement Knowing on their website they're involved with certain elected officials already, that, I think, needs to be looked at. They might be much more organized structure or having more funding. So I do not want SDV Act to be part of this or co-applicant this time. I don't think it's going to hurt our application. I believe there's other non-profits who could do the job just as well. I'm also concerned about our current one of our candidates for campaigning for city council. I'm not quite sure her involvement with SGV active. So that is very complicated. So I'm not going to make any statements, but we have to be careful during campaign season that on the outside, the public is looking at the city council approving two applicants. One of them could be related to one of our um uh candidates so it all looks a little bit unclear to me so i do want to advise the council to not use sgb active at this point we don't have to i'm not saying that they don't have that ability but i think that we need to look at other non-profits to be to do the community outreach at this point I don't believe you'll hurt our application process. We just have to avoid perception of involvement with a nonprofit who have close ties with some of the elected officials on their website.

Sorry. I mean, for better or worse,

That is why they'd be so valuable to our application, because they have that connection. They have the network locally. I don't know any formal relationship between any candidates in that group. I do know that they are well-known in this region. And if we're looking for support from our legislators, which I hope that we are trying to get letters of support, that having them on board will help with that greatly. That's how you get these grants. that's just how you do it. I mean, I understand you have feelings about that, thoughts about that, but it will materially make our application less competitive.

Right. Unfortunately, ironically, I completely disagree with that kind of view. I understand what you're saying, that they have connection with elected officials, but that makes it very very unclear to me is actually a very undesirable type of approach where nonprofits are closely connected to elected officials and then in return they get their grant they get their foot in the door the doors are open for them there are a lot of nonprofits who work just as hard or probably just as qualified who are not connected with elected officials who are not giving out awards, who are not giving out donations, what have you. And they should have a chance also to receive grant. And so I'm basically speaking out for, in terms of just government transparency, I don't like that path of nonprofits intentionally working with elected officials whatever capacity helping the campaign whatever it is and to in order to get their grant that's not the right way I do not support that pose that kind of path to me when I first enter the City Council my one of my objectives to make sure that I cleared the way as much as possible to remove all corruptions, to remove all questionable connections. Nonprofits should not have to work, have to connect with elected officials in order to receive jobs and funding. That is a wrong message. for all nonprofits. So I want to remove after SGV, because to me, just looking at their website, there's connection with certain elected officials. It's right there in public.

I'm not sure if we can even make a motion for that, because we're actually asking staff to come back with more information. So I don't think it would be appropriate unless this city attorney says it would be, and then you could make a motion to remove someone, but I think that we're better off having staff come back, do exactly what we've asked them to do, And then if you want to have that conversation later, we can have that conversation in October. However, I think we should not lose sight of what's important here is like the trees, right? I've been walking the sidewalks For the last, my goodness, for the last month, and we have a lot of areas that need trees. And, you know, my relationships with other elected officials like Senator Perez, she is critical. critical to work that we're going to do in the future. Judy Chu, Congresswoman Judy Chu, is adding money to our community center. And is that wrong for them to do that? Actually, Catherine, you have to have those relationships in order to get that. for your cities. Everyone does it. It's critical. It's important. It's just that you don't particularly like the people. So that's okay. But we're going to go forward with what we asked the staff to do, and then we'll come to that at another time. But to remove it at this point is not a good idea. I don't think I would not support that, especially if we need to get the application in as quickly as possible.

Mayor, I just want to correct you. I never said I did not like these people. What I said was that I wanted to be an open process in all nonprofits to receive grant as co-applicant because their outreach is a very general skill. It doesn't have to be SGB active. So Mayor, you basically, you know, basically very honest saying that you believe that by connecting to elected officials is a way to go. I personally disagree. I say they should be open process. We should look at all nonprofits equally based on their qualification, not based on their connection with certain higher level elected official in order to receive grant and in order to get applied application approved. To me, that's absolutely not what I'm for. What I'm for is open, honest applications that they should be all vetted based on a qualification, regardless whether they are connected with anybody. That really is a fair way to help our nonprofits to grow in the city or in the San Gabriel Valley region. That we agree to disagree, I never said I don't like these people. Please do not misquote me.

Thank you for your opinion. We have item number, is it 11?

I think item number 11 is our last our last one. And so council is there anything it's the environmental science associates to provide professional consulting services to assist in managing the implementation programs contained in the 20 21 20 29 housing element. Yes. Anyone want to lead off or we want to come. Yes go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a clarifying question first for this one. I know that there is a total contract amount not to exceed. That's $2.4 million. And then this item is an appropriation of $692,000. And just want to clarify, this amount is within the not to exceed total contract amount, correct? That is correct. OK. So we're still within our total contract amount. We're not exceeding it. And then I think on this one, the public wants to see more information about what programs are tied to this budget amount that we're paying for, and also what kind of progress we're making on the housing element. Is there anywhere that we can direct them for information? Is there any website links where the information is laid out?

So we've had periodic updates given to the City Council earlier this year. You heard about several programs that ESA and Veronica Tam and Associates have been undertaking and the different programs in the housing element that they have been successfully completing. Some of them they will complete. Other ones are going to be ongoing, and they will continue ongoing. longer than the contract term but as they are completing those they're bringing them back and we're providing information to the council so if somebody was interested they could go back to the city's website look at the archive of the videos of the council meetings listen to those presentations the discussion that are associated and then of course always the staff reports are also on our website I understand we do these periodic presentations do we know roughly when the next update might be I could find out and let you know

OK, so that we can just share with the public that they can tune in for the next update.

Thank you.

Councilman Maloney?

I think Councilman Mazza.

No questions.

Councilwoman Lee? OK. So we have a couple of things to, so we need a motion for that, is that correct?

Yes.

To move forward. We need a motion for item number 11.

So moved.

OK, it's been moved. I'll second it.

Roll call, please. Council Member Lee? Yes. Council Member Maloney? Yes. Council Member Wang? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Maza?

Yes.

Mayor Andrade Stadner?

Yes.

And then one more. We didn't make a motion on number 10.

Oh, on number 10. Yes.

I just have moved by Maloney. OK.

Yeah, we're bringing that back. Thank you for remembering. Okay, I appreciate that. All right, so I think all of our work has been done with the exception of, Mr. Macias, I don't have anything on what's happening in September in Alhambra. Do you mind coming up here and making the announcements for me?

Oh, my apologies. That happens out of our office, not Mike's office. So he's looking surprised because he doesn't do this. So I apologize. I believe that we had someone call in sick today that is in charge of the announcements.

And I meant to text you, but it's been kind of a busy night. But, you know, he usually knows. He's usually running them on his department.

We'll let you talk. Fiesta, Amber, is between now and the next meeting.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we've got Madam Mayor. City Council members this Sunday we have Fiesta Alhambra and it's Sunday September 20th and the event is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. we also have Autumn Fest which will be in October I don't have the date offhand but Or September, which next week is the Fiesta Alhambra. It'll be a full day of festival activities, entertainment. It should be a lot of fun. And hopefully the weather will be nice and cool for us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

add to that as well the safety fair is the following Sunday also at the farmers market the fire department's been working very hard on on gathering vendors and other public service entities that would have information for emergencies and that would be helpful for the community at large thank you absolutely thank you

Any other council communications before I gavel it down? Anybody interested in bringing something up?

I do have something. Is this the last portion? Sure. The agendized? OK. I just wanted to, first of all, just mention that I was very excited to see the installation of the new bus stop coverings on Main Street in the last two weeks or so. I'm not quite sure any of you saw that. They're on Valley as well. And I just saw the high school student just got out of their classes and they're enjoying the shade provided when it was really hot while waiting for the buses. This particular covering is very interesting. It provides shades behind the bench It's a huge rectangular shade, and I saw at least a dozen, believe it or not, a dozen high school students all in that shade. They were able to to provide share for at least 10 or 12 high school students. That's really incredible. That's a very new type of covering I've seen. So this is a very good example of public funds being spent to meet the needs of our residents, especially our young high school students. And that's the first thing I want to talk about. And secondly, I want to ask the council to discuss a change to the current noise standards, specifically lowering the current allowable noise level for mixed use. I have a printout of what's in our code for Alhambra. Currently it is at 60 for mixed use. But for commercials at 70 allowable noise level, 60 for mixed use. For residential, the allowable noise level is 55. And if the council remember, we've had a group of residents that live above FM 45 came to speak to the council earlier this year regarding noise level. And it's a mixed use situation. And later on, about a month ago, someone from Casita Zane, who also live in mixed use on Main Street, also talked about the noise level based on the machine. So I like to respond to their needs, ask the council to put on the agenda for the next meeting or future meeting, considering changing, lowering the mixed use allowable noise level from 60.

Councilwoman, I think that's a really good idea, but I think if we see a broader, maybe like not just zero in on mixed use, but actually see a broader report on what the decibels are and what they mean and how long have we had them at the same and if they're attached to anything else like a county, you know, guideline or something. So I think I like your idea. I think it's great, but I would like to see it just be a little broader. So it's not just identifying specific places, you know what I mean? So that we could potentially come up with some ideas on making changes.

I have no problem accepting that as long as it's on the agenda for the next meeting, including the mixed use situation.

So we need to have five of you. And I don't know, I mean, staff will have to speak to how much of a report they could put together between now and the next meeting.

I don't know if it could be done next meeting. Yeah, it's pretty heavy.

It is, especially we're looking at more and more potentially mixed-use situation on Valley as well as East Main. That is just because the arena that we're going to be looking at potentially more housing on major streets, that we need to look at that ahead of time. Whether we're going to have future mixed-use or not, I'm not sure. I just think that we need to address that problem.

I think that's a good point, that I would like to support that. And I think that with that incident from the residents brought up this issue where we are looking to build more housing and we are looking to develop more mixed use in our city. So we should be looking at the appropriate noise levels for mixed use. That's something that's coming out of this project. And I think it will happen more and more in the future. And let's get ahead of the game and try to address it first.

Need all five of us to shake our head yes.

I don't think we should do it at the next meeting. I think it's too big of a topic to deal with that. I mean, as a general concept, looking at noise issues is fine. I understood it. Well, I really don't want it to be about a particular location or incident. That's my concern. We shouldn't create a citywide policy because there's an issue at one location. I still think I have my thoughts about that one location and I hope folks can get some relief because it is concerning but I don't think that should generate a lowering of the noise levels throughout the city and mixed mixed use areas specifically I don't think they should do that sorry I'm pushing a little bit here but we are gonna have more density and They're not libraries. They're not quiet zones. They are mixed use areas where there's going to be a lot of different types of uses. And sometimes they have sound that comes along with it. And we can't be artificially tamping that down just because we have more density.

So I think we should give the staff when you're able to present something, which is broader. So it's not just specific, right? It's a broader. Sure.

I would recommend to you that we bring back the current noise ordinance. It's pretty short. It's simple. We could also bring back the information on when the noise ordinance was created, how much the consultant cost, the undertaking that was part of that process. And we can have that conversation And in looking at my agenda log, it looks like maybe your first meeting of October, we could bring that information back to you. We would figure out what we also paid for that consultant. We would have to be looking at those provisions if that's how the council decides to proceed after that meeting.

Thank you, City Manager.

Thank you.

Any other comments or wishes? All right.

Sorry, Madam Mayor. I did want to just give a plug for the League of California Cities having its annual conference next week. I hope we'll have some good attendance from my colleagues and from staff as well. I'm on the slate to be re-elected as a, or elected as a at-large member of the board of directors. for Cal City. So I should probably do a little boostering. So hope to see you all there in Anaheim.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Anyone else? Okay. Our meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you. So, you