City Council - Regular Meeting

or accept the request on mute.

We did have a 5.30 meeting today.

It was a study session.

Study sessions are always open to the public. It may feel a little bit confusing when you look at the agenda. You see a 5.30 and you see a 7. This is the official council meeting, but you guys, anybody is always welcome to come to study sessions. So we did have a study session at 5.30. It was in relation to discussion on drone use for our city. And we are excited to continue that discussion at a later date. How is the...

There we go. Councilmember Kwan, will you speak so we can test your audio? Try again.

And for those of you that are here to speak, we do need the council, the cards, it's a blue card. If you could please get that, fill it out, drop it into the box. Some of you were asking earlier whether there is a discussion on trees. It is not on the agenda for tonight. It's not before the city council at all. And Other people have asked, well, will it ever come before the City Council? It may, it may not. But it is not on the City Council agenda for tonight. However, if you are here to give your views on it, you would need to provide a public comment blue card that you need to put in the box. And we are fairly strict about that time now. Thank you. Okay.

Council Member Kwan, can we have you test your audio real quick? I see you on camera.

Council Member Kwan, can you say good evening or hello or something if you are able to hear us and speak to us?

Council Member Kwan, can we have you test your audio? You might not have been hearing us earlier.

Yes, I wasn't able to hear you. Now I'm fine.

Perfect, thank you.

All right, let's have a call to order. We're gonna have the invocation done by the incredible Reverend Eva Ty Irwin, Church of the Good Shepherd, who will also lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. All rise.

Graciously loving God, we come before you with gratitude for your love and for your presence in this very room. We know Lord that you have led and guided our leaders so that they may be the servants, our mayor, our city manager, our staff, our council members, and the citizens of this city. We give you thanks for the way they serve and the way they have chosen to act on behalf of all of us here. We know we come to this room this evening as complex human beings, but your grace is with us and has brought us here thus far. We know that you also continue to lead us, continue to guide us as decisions are made for the justice and fairness of our great city. We thank you for making each of us in this room a citizen of this city and also in the image of you, Lord, with dignity and infinite worth. We continue to thank you for calling us to be stewards of this city, the city that we love, that we live in, that we play in, and that we work in. May you continue to guide this meeting and may your wisdom fall upon us as we do all these things in your name. Amen. I invite you now as you're able to face the flag and place your hand over your heart and let us join in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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.

All right, let's have the roll call of city council members.

Council Member Cao.

Here.

Council Member Han.

Present.

Council Member Kwon.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Phu.

Here.

Mayor Chang.

Here. Report from city manager regarding closed or study session items. It'll actually be from me.

City attorney, sir. Thank you, Mayor. We did hold both a study session and a closed session. The closed session items are the two litigation items that are noted on the agenda. There's no reportable action from either one. And then for the study session, as you mentioned as we were getting started, we did discuss some drone policy. There was no action taken. Study sessions, as you noted, are public, but we generally don't take formal action as study session. What happens is it's items that will come back to this council. So the council did appoint an ad hoc committee to look into drone policy, and that committee would be Councilmember Hahn and Mayor Pro Tem Fu. And so that's an item that will come back to the council for further discussion. And then, Mayor, if I may, I did want to just make a note about our policies here for the council meetings. We have had a few disturbances recently. And I say the word disturbance because that's the term used under the Brown Act. But basically, it's important to our procedures that we don't have people in the audience yelling things out or yelling toward the council or toward other members of the audience while we're in the meeting. The Brown Act does allow that the mayor, as the presiding officer over the meeting, can give a warning and then can remove someone if they do create a disturbance after that. So we have had to enforce that policy recently. We would prefer not to have to use it, so I wanted to just make that announcement. But if there is a disturbance, we will provide a warning and then ask you to leave the room for the remainder of the meeting. So thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to say that.

Yeah, so we've had prior meetings where people are cursing, yelling. One meeting, people were pushing each other. So we really do need to understand that we need to maintain a professional setting. I understand recently we had a meeting over at the racetrack and there was a lot of clapping and encouragement, which was great. But here we aren't going to be able to allow that. So the recommendation, if you do want to clap, you just go like this, right? You'll definitely let everybody on city council know that you support it. But we definitely need to move our meetings forward. So thank you so much for your cooperation. Supplemental information from city manager regarding agenda items.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have any supplemental information for you this evening.

We are going to have a wonderful presentation of an adoptable dog by Kevin McManus of the Pasadena Humane Society.

Here he goes, sir. Hey. Good evening, everyone. Well, I'd love to introduce you to Nala. Nala is a six-year-old Rottweiler mix who's available for adoption at Pasadena Humane. Nala, despite her curiosity now, is a very well-behaved and sweet, sweet dog. We just had a big adoption event over the weekend, and Nala did not find her home. So we're really kind of doubling down and hoping that Someone sees this, sees her, and comes down to the shelter to adopt her. She is a certified good dog, in my opinion. She's also eligible for one of our favorite programs. It's called Senior for Senior. As she is older than five years old, her adoption fee would be waived for any adopter over 60. We all know that 60-year-olds are not old, and neither are six-year-old dogs, but that's what we call it. And we hope that someone spots her and comes and falls in love. Well, thank you so much, sir.

I appreciate you. Thank you. All right. All right, if we can have the speaker cards and also to check how many people online would like to speak.

Members of the public participating remotely, if you wish to provide public comment, please click the raise hand button. For those calling the conference line, please press star nine to raise your hand. When it's your turn, I will call your name or the last four digits of your telephone number as it appears on the Zoom and unmute you. Please state your name for the record before beginning your comments.

And Mayor, if I may, while the clerk is checking for the speaker cards, for folks online, we do, the time limit for the comments is based on the number of people requesting to speak. So we do close the requests. And so this is the time to put your hand up. If you don't put your hand up now, you won't have the opportunity to speak.

Okay.

Okay, 11 plus one, and that's 12. So each person will have three minutes to speak. If we could have the person that's online speak first, we have one speaker online.

Caitlin, please proceed with your public comment.

Good evening. My name is Kaitlin Liu and I'm 17 years old. I just wanted to comment because I've spent a lot of my time outside learning about local wildlife and working in conservation, which is why I'm concerned about the proposal to remove 34 protected oak trees and encroach on the root systems of another 45 at the Santa Anita Park. I really understand the importance of bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles and the importance of the Olympics in general, but I don't think we should treat those trees as replaceable. A lot of them are mature coast live oaks, which are important native trees along with one Engelmann oak. And planting 30, 40 trees does not immediately replace the habitat and the ecological value of the trees that have been growing here for decades. I'm 17 and decisions like this will shape the environment that my generation and people like me face and inherit long after these Olympics are over. So I really hope that we can find a way to host the Olympics while preserving as many of these existing oaks as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you. All right, we have Grace Lee. Grace?

Good evening, friends, council members, neighbors here in Arcadia. I'm very pleased to be able to speak. Again, here on the dais. A few weeks ago, I was given permission to address subjects that are near and dear to my heart as a resident and candidate for Arcadia City Council District 3. I was grateful for that opportunity because whether or not I succeed, I believe these subjects long deserve to be brought forward, discussed, and addressed. Okay, so I might bore a little bit of the audience here. But you know, as a minister, I tend, honestly, to be very loquacious in whatever I talk about. As many of you know, most of you know, I send writings, civic writings to you guys and things that I've been thinking about, whether it's education or public relations. And I have been sending them to you. I sometimes write with the length and passion of a sermon. So consequently, I certainly did not mean for these teaching essays or these political essays to be this long. But I believe just because if I weren't such a shy church mouse, I probably would have spoken up on these subjects a long time ago. I think they deserve to be addressed. We talk about economics, road work. you know how we're going to spend our money um other issues but i think you know when it comes down to it you know um i believe these are fundamental core issues that may be a little bit trite but you know worth addressing and worth hearing even though you know we're not at church we're not at school um i think these are values that we should all share and be reminded of moving forward um I think that, so I had a really hard time picking and choosing what I was going to talk about. You know, there's so many sections to this. And beyond that, you know, I have a website, Grace Leaf Arcadia, in which you can read abundance that could fill up a book. In fact, I do have a book coming out called The Power of Us and The Calling to Care. And, you know, it's just stacked with 14 years of public relations writings, 14 years of educational writings. I think it is worth a read. I don't know if it will come out in a couple of months, but all of those are things that are near and dear to my heart. Okay, so I recognize I have less than one minute, but fundamentally I believe that our people are Arcadia's greatest asset. Caring about them is one of our greatest priorities and responsibilities. I want to talk about my hopes, convictions, dreams for bringing no positive change in the heart of our city. I believe at the core of public service, everything ultimately boils down to love and care and support and concern that we provide our neighbors and residents here in Arcadia. It's about giving, giving constructively, given passionately, having open ears and fundamentally caring about each other and caring about our neighbors and supporting each other as Christians as we would care about ourselves. This campaign is about what we contribute from our hearts and souls. It's about how we serve one another, build a harmonious and supportive community of friends and neighbors. As a Christian and a minister, I'm always an eternal optimist. I approach everything with positivity, joy, encouragement, faith, and trust.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your kind attention. Thank you.

I believe it says NEMA or N.MA. Okay. Hi, NEMA. Is it NEMA? Oh, I see. All right. Ms. Ma. All right. Got you.

Good evening, everyone. I grew up here in Arcadia. And while my grandparents did not live in the city, they really enjoyed going to the Santa Anita racetrack. I would very much like to thank the City Council for the opportunity to speak. I'm here today because I firmly oppose the proposal of the removal of the 34 protected oak trees and 45 additional oak trees whose root zones would be affected in order to create the equestrian cross-country course for the 2028 Games. I believe the removal of even a single oak tree is contrary to the spirit and values of the Games, contrary to the spirit and values of Arcadia, contrary to the environment's health and well-being, and contrary to our health and well-being. I care deeply about the health of people and the planet. I work in healthcare, public health, biomedical sciences, and climate change. I've served as a US delegate for United Nations conferences in Egypt and Azerbaijan, and as United Nations North American delegate, where my climate and health policies advance to the 80th United Nations General Assembly. I'm also part of the Harvard Public Health Review, Boston Congress of Public Health as an editorial manager, and Boston Congress of Public Health World Delegate, working on a public health project on the 2028 Games, which includes health and environmental equity, as well as climate change and environmental sustainability. I believe that Arcadia City Council and the LA Planning Committee can make the games equitable from a health and environmental standpoint while combating climate change and ensuring environmental sustainability. And one essential way to do that is to continue to protect our oak trees. Oak trees are a crucial keystone species. They support more life forms than any other tree genus in North America. They provide wildlife and humans shade and help reduce energy needs. Oak trees also play a critical role in carbon sequestration and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. A single oak tree can sequester over one ton of carbon dioxide over the course of its life. Removing these 34 protected oak trees releases over 34 tons of carbon dioxide. We have all experienced the scorching hot temperatures this summer. The Acadia students from elementary school through high school will continue to experience it as they play their sports and other outdoor activities. There were record wildfires in Spain and France earlier this year. After experiencing a destructive earthquake, Columbia is now experiencing blazing fires. There is sadly flooding in the Grand Canyon. In Nepal, part of a giant glacier collapsed and caused a devastating flood with over 4,700 people missing. All of the events in Arcadia and the rest of the world are due to climate change. The removal of the protected oak trees will only worsen climate change, contributing to hotter weather, more frequent intense and longer lasting wildfires, and more destructive floods, among many other natural disasters fueled by climate change. I would also like to mention the LA Planning Committee's Impact and Sustainability Plan, including one of its values, integrity, including doing the right thing even when it's hard. I believe Arcadia and LA Planning Committee can work together and make sure not a single oak tree is removed. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Maha. Thank you. All right. That's so adorable. Phyllis, are you here? Is it Phyllis? Did I get your name right? I just.

It's Phyllis Namath.

Oh, Dillis.

Is that the right one or you have a different, different Phyllis?

Yes. Yes, yes, it's you. Oh, can you come up to the mic, miss?

Oh, sorry.

Yeah. And there's a step if you'd like to use it.

Yeah, that's it. Okay.

All right.

It's probably better.

Looking great. Thank you.

Want me to start again?

Yes, please.

Okay. My name is Phyllis Namath. I've been a resident of Arcadia for over 50 years. I was present at the racetrack last week. I'm not... I'm often motivated to attend these meetings, but I do feel strongly that it would be best if we could move the venue back to Fallbrook where they had the horse venues in 1984. I'm opposed to the trees being removed and the replacements would be hardly 150-year-old trees. I think it's important for the environment, and the city is called the community of homes, and we keep cutting down trees. Look at the corner of Mitchell and Colorado, that project that's going up there and the trees that were removed. So I'm not going to take up any more of your time. I just wanted to register my opposition to removing the trees.

Thank you, Ms. Phyllis. Thank you, everybody. And for those of you that just came in, please, we're just trying to move the meeting forward, so if you can now clap. There's a K. Ford? K. Ford? All right, Ms. Ford.

Good evening, council members, mayor, city manager, city attorneys often forgot, so hello to you too. Who'd I miss? Paul Kramer, Public Works. Hello. I'm before you tonight partially because I'm a longtime resident of Arcadia and have always been exceedingly proud of this city. It's nearly 30 years that I've lived here now in the lower Rancho area. There's really never been a reason for me to have to come to City Council because I've loved the decisions that have been made. They've always been extremely supportive of the residents of Arcadia. Just recently because of the situation of la 28 and the Santa Anita Park situation relative to the trees I decided You know what? I'm gonna watch the City Council meeting so watch the City Council meeting from last year last two weeks ago and went wow, okay now I have a reason to come before the council and There was one of your colleagues at that meeting who asked for two things to be discussed. In my opinion, transparency. Your meetings don't go into 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock in the morning like other city council meetings do. You have a lot on your consent calendar. So why can't we dialogue about some of these things? One would be, in fact, Mayor, I realize you say you may or may not make a decision about the LA-28 in Santa Anita Park plan. However, that rests with the city manager's staff. So it is your staff who's going to make that decision. it would be nice to have said that to this group so they understood it is the city's decision. Yes, the park is going to submit the plan, but the plan is approved by your department and your employees. So, folks, if you want to speak, it is in their hands for the final decision. So that's the first thing. Why in the world would you not want to discuss that unless You just don't want to do your job. Okay, let's put it off until the residents create enough of a ruckus that we have to talk about it. So that's the first thing. Second thing, I was super disappointed when there was, I guess, again, trying to agendize an item that had to do with all of your campaign contributions. And again, that was your colleague tried to agendize it, and there was not enough of a majority vote for that to be agendized. What do you have to hide? Come on, transparency again. It's not as if social media and the news is looking at Arcadia very kindly these days. So, I think, in my opinion, you should agenda is that item and let's be transparent. Let's tell. L. A, let's tell the world because this has ended up being a world discussion that we have nothing to hide. That we are here for the people. 23 seconds left. So I really hope that this council will do its job, be transparent, and support what you're hearing from your residents.

Thank you, Miss. Jessica Richards? Ms. Jessica Richards? All right.

Hello, thank you for the opportunity. My name is Jessica Richards. I am a commissioner on Pasadena's Urban Forestry Advisory Committee, though I'm speaking in my individual capacity. I am not a resident of Arcadia, although because we all live on the same planet, the decisions that are made here related to the environment very much impact me directly, and it is part of my purview in Pasadena to advise on the urban forest, so I'm here. While many points were made that I won't repeat because they don't need repeating and they are solid on their own, I'm gonna add two additional pieces of information. One is the public health benefit. So a resident spoke of this. I wanna cite a specific study that came out August 23rd, 2026, so just about over a week ago. It was a longitudinal study and it found that for each 0.03% increase in tree canopy, it accounts for 105 lives saved in urban environments. Now this study went on to specify not just any old tree will do, it is the mature trees. The trees that have been already growing for decades that truly provide the benefits that are literally life saving. So while these trees are crucial to insects and animals and birds, they are crucial to the humans, the residents of your city. This is a public health decision that frankly I think in the future tree removals should go through public health as well because it is that important. Furthermore, trees are one of the few items of infrastructure that actually increase in value. That's interesting from a city planning standpoint, right? Most things you put in, you spend money, and they just go down in value, and they cost you more and more money. Trees do cost some money to maintain. That is absolutely accurate, to do it well. But the benefits that are reaped from that investment continue to grow. So it is the right thing to do to preserve these trees. It is a realistic thing to do. It takes some creativity. but it can be done, and I implore you to utilize the power and authority that you have within the city and do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Lauren Dowd? Ms. Lauren, are you here?

Good evening again. Again, my name is Lauren Dowd, and I'm speaking on the 34 trees at Santa Anita Park. I've shared the fence line with Santa Anita Park for over 30 years. The loss of the 34 oaks means a loss of my privacy, loss of the value to my family's home, the loss of the peace and tranquility we feel relieved by at the end of the day, and it's a loss to our community. Oak trees are a keystone species. They support thousands of species themselves, are native, and the Engelmann oak itself is endangered and a rare species. They provide cooling to the air around us, mend the soil, provide shade habitat, and add to our native landscape's beauty. I know there are a lot of quotes of studies and their effect, And you don't need to read any to just understand basic thermodynamics. If we were standing at Santa Anita Park, would you rather be standing in that asphalt parking lot or in that stand of oak trees? And the cooling effect does not stay under the shade of those oak trees. That's thermodynamics. Personally, I've watched great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, all nest, hunt, and roost in those trees, as well as handful of year-round and migratory passerine bird species. I've seen coyote dens and cottontail rabbit dens. And I wanna be clear, I don't oppose the track or horse racing or the Olympics. As a matter of fact, I've looked at the racetrack as a childhood memory as well. I've spent my entire professional life in the management of large capacity events, and I understand the excitement behind the Olympics. But this reflects poor management, poor planning, and poor representation of the residents' wishes and LA28's own sustainability initiatives. This is insulting. From someone who works large scale events and helps pull off impressive, creative feats in the same profession, this is insulting. As a resident who sat and waited for evacuation orders and listened to my friends and family, horror stories of the loss in Altadena last year, this is insulting. And as someone who loves the natural world and has heard about public land being sold off and old growth being torn down everywhere, facing this decision in my own city, this is insulting. And I just want to be clear, I also work for a venue that's hosting the Olympics and we're not tearing down any trees. Thanks.

All right, thank you. Suzanne Lukather. Ms. Suzanne, did I say your last name correctly?

I'm shocked, yes.

Great, go ahead.

So Honorable Chang and Honorable Fu and council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. I'd just like to add a little more to what everybody's been saying with regard to TRH 26-11 and TRO 26-09. A venue down in Temecula is already in place for this event. And in 1984, they actually did hold this event at Santa Fe, I mean at Santa Anita Racetrack. And study by Alec LaCour, he did a feasibility study and subsequent design process where he gave two or three alternative designs so that the event could take place here without taking any trees down. And each of those alternatives, I'm asking you why Why? Well, first of all, the Temecula venue, the Temecula was taken out of it with no notice. They just received an indication that, no, we're not going to be holding the event in Temecula, with no understanding of why that took place. But as a community member here, I would be asking Santa Anita and LA-28 to disclose the alternate cross-country configurations that were disclosed by Mr. Licore's feasibility and subsequent design process and to identify why each alternative was rejected and demonstrate on a tree-by-tree basis why removal of each of the 34 healthy protected trees is preferable to a reasonable alternative course design. So the community hasn't been privy to any of this information, and furthermore, this is not coming from the Olympic Committee. This is something local. This is a design decision. This has nothing to do with the health of the trees, anything, except that it impacts our community, of course, And furthermore, the project purportedly seeks to proceed under a category exception from the California Environmental Quality Act, rather than from a full environmental impact report. So all the way down the line, it gets down to one individual in the staff who will make the decision, one individual will make a decision whether or not about this, excuse me, regarding these issues. and TRH26-11 and TRE26-09. There are the 34 trees to be removed and then the 45 trees that will be impacted by this removal and they could, they stand in, they could die from the impact, the root impact on their community. And just from my own understanding about- Ms. Suzanne?

Yeah. I apologize, your time is up.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we have from the racetrack, Mr. Pete Siberell.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City staff. Pete Sabrell from Santa Anita Park. First, I want to say as a longtime member or board member of Pasadena UMaine, I really appreciate you taking the time to allow Kevin and Nella to come out today. Paso Humane is doing amazing work in the community. Arcadia is one of 12 service cities. Now we just added Duarte last month. And they're doing amazing work in the community, not only with regards to animal control and adoptions, but also educating people, residents, about how to live with wildlife, which would include coyotes, bears, peacocks, you name it. So I appreciate that. Secondly, on a whole different subject, we would like to thank the community for attending the meeting at Santa Anita Park last Thursday regarding the Olympic cross-country course. It was an opportunity to share, listen, and understand the community concerns. The feedback will help to inform the FEI, the FEI being the International Equestrian Federation, and their appointed course designer as they continue the course design process. So we look forward to continuing to work with the city, with the community, and sharing updates as they're available.

Thank you. Thank you. Miss Rhonda, and I'm not able to see her last name so I'm just, Thank you. How do you say your last name?

Keislet.

Keislet, okay.

German.

German?

German. How cool. Good evening, I'm here to, hello, nice to see you again. Thank you for having us. I just wanted to bring up something that was, brought up to me, and I also happened to realize what was on, that there are many flock cameras that have been installed in the city of Arcadia. And I feel really that this is a huge invasion of privacy. I don't agree with flock cameras. I don't agree with the type of camera that is being purported to, Send information back that is very private. There's already enough information out there about us, and I just wanted to make that Notification and let you know that I'm really upset that we were not provided any information about flat flat cameras being put up in our city and That's really about it, so I'm hoping that something's going to come of that it that my being up here to say that this is really another invasion of our privacy, given what's already going on in our political environment. I feel really attacked by that situation of seeing these cameras.

Thank you, Ms. Rhonda. We're going to have our Arcadia school board member and former Marine Raymond Chung to come up. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, honorable city council, amazing city staff. My name is Raymond Jung. I am a resident of Arcadia. And tonight I am here to honor the memory of a great man, Gene Glasgow, who passed away recently. And I want to thank Mayor Chang for letting him know about this tremendous loss. When Gene retired in these chambers, I said I was honored to have been able to call him a friend and a mentor. But in recent days, I've noticed how many people felt exactly the same way about him. But that's how Gene was. He cared so much about the people of Arcadia, about the city of Arcadia, that he gave so much of his precious time in making others not only feel welcome, but like family. And I could spend much more of a lot of three minutes sharing stories about Gene and his famous generosity. And I know he's touched so many lives that nearly everyone has their own story. So what I would like to do tonight is just to make a humble suggestion. And that is to consider naming these council chambers after Gene. It's actually a fairly common practice in cities to name council chambers after members, especially city clerks, who have made an outside impact in the city on the dais. And I think many would agree that Gene would qualify for this honor. He's truly lived a life of service, not just to Arcadia, but to the nation as a veteran. He's inspired so many people and touched so many lives with his compassion, his kindness, and his care for others. And so perhaps by honoring him and memorializing his service in these chambers, it will inspire and continue to inspire many more in the years to come. Thank you.

And Raymond, if you could just tell me, because you've told me over the last few years, you're living your dream now. So what are you doing now?

I am a high school English and history teacher.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Former Deputy Sheriff Burton Brink.

Good evening, Mayor, council members and residents of Arcadia. My name's Burton Brink, candidate for Arcadia City Council in District Two. And as you just heard from Raymond, on August 29th at 1 45 PM, we lost Gene Glasgow. I lost a friend and Arcadia lost a hero, Mr. Arcadia. Hearing that name, and he loved that name. Gene and I both grew up in Arcadia. We went to the same schools, Highland Oaks, Woodhills Junior High, and Arcadia High School. Though not at the same time, he was a few years ahead of me. We live just a few blocks away from each other. We spoke often about growing up here and how great it was and all the different changes we have seen throughout the city, through the years throughout the city. He was always humble and he never made it about himself. He served in the Vietnam War. He was a riverboat gunner. He served the US Navy and served our country well. Like so many who came home, he carried the war with him. Agent Orange later brought cancer and Parkinson's to his body. He fought those battles the same way he lived, with quiet courage. When he came home, he kept serving Arcadia. He served 12 years as our elected city clerk. He volunteered many hours as a volunteer and patrol support VIPS member with the Arcadia Police Department. He always put our city first. One of the things he will be remembered most is the Vietnam War monument at Arcadia County Park off of Huntington Drive. One of the things he will be remembered, or Gene sat at the counter at Rod's across the street, looking at the clearing at the park and drew his vision on a napkin. Eight months later, the monument was built. It honors 14 Arcadia boys who went to Vietnam and never came home. Gene made sure we would not forget their names. Gene did all that work. Our Arcadia Elks Lodge, my wife and I, and many others were among the donors for that memorial. Tonight, I'm wearing this Vietnam Memorial shirt in honor of Gene and our boys that never made it home. I was proud to stand with Gene at so many community events. He showed us what love for Arcadia looks like. Please remember his partner, Anu, who stood with him for more than 50 years. Tonight, my heart is broken. Arcadia lost a dear friend, a Vietnam veteran, and one of the finest public servants. Gene, thank you for your friendship. Thank you for everything you did for the city of Arcadia. You will be missed. You will not be forgotten. Rest in peace, my friend.

Thank you, sir.

Well, part of our council decorum is if there is a resident that has made statements that are against a council member, that they are allowed to address those issues. Earlier, there were two statements, well, there was a statement that was made at least directed at me over two issues. One issue is why we did not agendize the tree, the oak tree issue for to be placed on a city council agenda item. And the second one is in regard to campaign contributions. In terms of the agendizing, as many residents and people that have come into chambers have told me, it has been very disorganized with a lot of hearsay online and not that much information. I personally did not agendize the item because I felt it was being politicized, particularly because city council, there is no decision before the city council. There are people that have come into the room asking me, well, it's on the city agenda item tonight. It's not. And frankly, it may never come to city council depending on how the process is going to work out. Now, I can understand that residents do wanna speak on it, but because we already had a meeting that was going to occur, a first step in which all council members were invited to go listen, I felt that the best course of action was to have a unified meeting in which the IOC, LA 28, the racetrack, as well as city council would be there to listen. Whether you agree with that decision or not, I just wanted to give you the path of my mind on how I looked at it. The second issue is in regard to campaign contributions. The issue is that I had taken $2,500 as a campaign contribution in 20, I think it's 20, 2024. 2024. Oh, 2022. I'm the senior on council, so I've been on council when COVID started, so it's been a long time. And so, I really did struggle with that. I actually made a statement on Facebook so that everybody could know. I feel that many things are being politicized. In terms of campaign contributions, it was legally received, it was reported, And that's how people were able to know. Now you have to understand something. We don't know who foreign agents are when campaign contributions are given to council members. And I did not know that James Hsu or EDI had registered as a foreign agent. And so I did want everybody to know that. And frankly, the law is that any money over $500, you're not able to vote on any project related to people that donate to you. So at no time since I've been on council has James Sue or EDI come to me with any issue related to the city of Arcadia. So I did want to address that issue because I think it is important for the residents to know. I do apologize if you feel that I should have put it on the agenda, but I really feel that at least recently, there's been a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt created merely to politicize. For those of you that do not know, I'm a first lieutenant in the California State Guard. I am under the military code of justice, and so it would be very serious of me to associate or be connected with a foreign influence, essentially communist China. And another, although it wasn't directed at my colleague, but my colleague here that serves on my left side, he was an Air Force major for 10 years, serving in combat zones. And I similarly believe that he loves America just as I love America. Not similarly believe, I know 100%. One of the reasons why I serve as a JAG officer in the California State Guard is because of the person on my left. I look up to Major Michael Cow, who is a major in the Air Force. And so I wanted to thank the resident that came. I forgot who spoke, but I really believe that it is important to address issues when they are being addressed. But I felt that at least I felt it was best to address it on social media so everybody could know versus what I've seen in the council chambers, which is yelling and screaming and heckling. One of the things that I try to do at least being the mayor is I try to bring as much peace as possible. And I presume that my decision did not bring peace to the residents that have come to speak. And for that, I have to take personal responsibility for that. Thank you very much. With that being said, let's go to the consent calendar. We have items nine A, alpha through E as an echo. Does anybody want to pull any agenda item, any consent calendar item? All right, may I have a motion to approve the consent calendar from 9A as an alpha to E as an echo?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make the motion to approve the consent calendar for items 9A as an alpha to E as an echo. Okay. Foo seconds.

All right, let's have a roll call please.

Council Member Cao.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Foo.

Yes.

Council Member Han. Yes. Council Member Kwan.

Yes.

Mayor Chang.

Yes, let's go to item number 10, which is the city manager's item.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a resolution to consider, resolution 7701, amending the fiscal year capital improvement plan program budget, which would authorize a supplemental budget appropriation for design and construction of treatment facilities at the Orange Grove Well. The supplemental budget appropriation would be for $1.876 million coming out of the settlement fund we have for those purposes. and to approve a design-build contract with Pacific Hydro Tech Corporation for the design and construction of the Orange Grove Well Treatment System and facility improvements in a total amount of $5.4 million plus a 10% contingency. We would suggest at the completion of this item that you find the project to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act and to adopt and approve the amendments. I will turn it over to Assistant City Manager Cranmer here to give the full staff report. But the short story is we've been having to add water treatment to all of our water wells because there's contamination in the ground. We actually have personally sued some large chemical corporations and received settlements. The state and federal governments have similarly sued responsible parties and settlements have come out of that. All of those settlements are paying for these treatments. We didn't need to have previously and previous generations in Arcadia, but they will guarantee clean and safe drinking water. The design is a little more robust than we originally anticipated, but it'll future-proof all of our operations. So we think it's a good idea to amend the budget now before we get started and do the project right rather than try to do it on the cheap and regret it later. So I'll turn it over to Paul for a detailed report.

Thank you, Mr. Lazzaroto. What we have for you tonight is the PFAS treatment for Orange Grove Wells. Just a little background on where these Orange Grove Wells are. They're on the north end of town, and they are roughly the served water for the northern and central area of Arcadia. They pump well water from the Raymond Basin, not the main basin. We extract roughly 2,300 acre feet of water from those wells annually. That's about 750 million gallons. And that is, from the Raymond Basin, it's essentially 25% of our total water that we produce in the city. The other portion comes from the main basin. So in April of 24, the Environmental Protection Agency established a maximum contaminant levels for PFAS in the drinking system. It's per polyfluoroalkyl. We'll call it PFOS for tonight. And so we have found some of PFAS levels in a few of our wells at Orange Grove. The PFAS levels, those limits that are required by the Act have to be addressed by 2029. So we are getting out in front of things to address that issue now.

And just if I can interrupt you there, Paul, PFAS is hard to say. It's why you hear on the news generally referred to as forever chemicals. It's basically waterproofing treatments and those kind of things that are hard. They don't break down.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to interrupt this conversation. Miss, Miss, Miss.

This is your warning, ma'am.

All right, you've been warned. And I missed the opportunity to speak, but I came here. Miss, we need to... If we don't understand right now in this moment that we are not, if we don't understand in this moment that we can't eat money, then we're never going to understand anything that matters in this world. Not one, not one thing. Not one thing.

All right, let's continue.

Don't wait. When we talk PFAS, we're talking about chemicals that are hard to get out of the water, so we need to make sure, and they're dangerous chemicals. We need to get them out. Right. That's all I was trying to say.

Thank you. So the MCL set is set for 10 parts per trillion. which is, well, there are several different forms of PFAS that are in the water, and the MCLs are set between four and 10 parts per trillion. So the chemicals that we have showing up at Orange Grove will be under the 10 parts per million, and just for an anecdote of what that actually means, it's essentially taking, both the pools at the Rose Bowl, both the Olympic-sized pools, and putting one drop of contaminants shared between those two pools. So that's the level of contaminants that we're talking about. So the Public Works Department monitors all the drinking wells on a regular basis, daily to quarterly to yearly. And we have found some of the PFAS contaminants in Orange Grove and our Peck well, which is on the south end of town. And just a refresher on what it actually is, like Mr. Lazzarota was saying, it's a man-made synthetic chemical known as a forever chemical, which means it doesn't actively leave. The common sources of this chemical would be nonstick pots and pans, grease-resistant wrappers, clothing. It's in carpets. It's in shampoos and some cosmetics. Basically, a lot of it is where you don't want items to stick to or you need it to repel water. So that's where most of these chemicals come from. There are... essentially trying to eliminate the chemical within all of these types of products. And they're starting with water in the drinking systems to address that. So they're setting these limits. So in order to address these levels, the city has proposed to install PFAS treatment using an ion exchange technology, which is one of the approved technologies to eliminate PFAS from the system. And basically we have another treatment system down at Live Oak, down by the golf course, and that's a carbon, exchange unit and that's basically like what you would have in your your home filters or your Brita filters if you will it's just a charcoal comment this one is a ion exchange where it's taking the attracting the negative ions to the positives and removing that so if you think about it the the PFAS is a negative ion and the the resin beads within this or the positive so they attract it and remove it from the from the water So as Mr. Lazarotto mentioned, the city has received approximately $11.3 million in PFAS settlement funds. We have now allocated budget-wise where we want these to be. And for the Orange Grove Wells, we have allocated $5.8 million of funds And the Peck Well, which is down south, we've allocated $5.5 million out of the PFAS funds. We brought back in June, we awarded the Peck Well design and build project. And that project came under budget a little bit. So we're only using the $324,000 out of the PFAS funds. And which, 3.2, no, no, $324,840 out of the PFAS fund for that. We're using the 3.2 out of the water, and that's how it was originally budgeted. So there's a remaining $3.3 million from the Peck Well that's going back into our PFAS treatment and construction account. So as we took site visits and prepared our request for proposals, it was determined that there was extra scope of work that needs to be completed in order to create this whole project. So when we were out looking at the site and our engineers were finding that The electrical panel needed to be upgraded. There's a maintenance building that needs to be removed and replaced. Relocation of some bins and pavement improvements and lighting for the plant as well. So one of the things we have is we have an electrical service panel and it was installed prior to 1951. It's located in a building on the north end that's not in good shape. So part of this electrical is for all the boosters and the pumps and everything at the site for the existing wells. So this area is where the treatment vessels are going to be. So we need to relocate this and replace it per the new standards for SCE. So that's one of them. there's also a materials building that we have that's was built in the 90s it was strictly used for storing material so it's a steel faint building that's has some decay and some not so good standards in it so There's nothing that we can refurbish or replace or utilize. So we need to create a new system We're going to create a new prefabricated office building. There's twofold. There has to be some offices and storage areas up in this location to monitor the system. And so those electronics and data points will be in there. There'll be an office and a conference room that can be utilized for emergency response operations because this property butts up against the 107 Fire Department. So in a lot of our emergencies, we have two locations that we store equipment, which we'll find out next week when we do our presentation on the El Nino. We have two major locations that we store emergency equipment and have staff at, and this is one of them. So this is materials bins that are right in the middle of the property, which need to be moved. The building that's kind of to the left of this is also the materials building that's being replaced. So this area right here needs to be reconfigured lower in the property so trucks can get in to replace the media or any type of maintenance on the equipment. And here's kind of an overview of the facility itself. So there's kind of a red square with the four circles in it and that's up where the old building is with the electrical and that's where the vessels will be, the treatment vessels will be staged and then you can see where on the bottom side where the material bins will be removed, the little squares on the outside of where all four wells are indicated there the big round circles in the square and all that stuff is reservoirs that everything pumps into. So essentially how this process is gonna be is there's gonna be pipes that run to the new facility and then return back to those reservoirs and then it's pumped out to the mains and the residents. So I wanted to break down the cost of the scope so everyone can kind of see exactly where everything's going. So the PFAS treatment system installation is shown there. And then this is a breakdown of each one of those items that we just went through that are critical to complete the project and the total cost. So we did a notice of abiding bids, and we got three proposals. And it was determined that Pacific Hydro Tech Corporation is the most qualified to form the treatment system at Orange Grove. Their design bill contracts was 5.4 with a 10% contingency. And it came to a total of 5.9. And we have roughly 4 million remaining on this after we We used some of the PFAS to buy the equipment and buy the material for the treatment. So again, we're asking for the 1.8 appropriation and just to kind of reiterate that we have the $3.3 million available still in this fund. So I know that Dominic read the recommendation already. So I guess we'll open it up to questions. I have Carmen and Tiffany, our correct staff of engineers, to answer any questions if you want to dive into anything.

Thank you.

Any questions? Yes, sir. Mayor Pro Tem.

I'm sorry. This is a little bit out of curiosity because I'm totally ignorant about this, but this system is where we catch groundwater in our well system, and then we take it out and we purify it here through this water treatment system. So this is part of our general sort of water recycling plan, and we capture groundwater. run off and treat it there. And I just was thinking about the Super El Nino scenario and how much water we're gonna be getting and thinking about all these systems and so forth. How long will this system, so this system will be out of service during this project.

It will not. There will be a moment that, and I don't know the exact timing, maybe Tiffany can say there might be a month or two of it down, probably a two-month span, because they'll come in and do all the logistics, and then the tie-overs will be a certain time. So how this works is we've already purchased all the material for all three of our sites that we're buying treatment for, and they'll be built and actually trucked in simultaneously The construction work will start here and they'll build it to plumb. So when we merge the two, it gets set down and everything's turned on and then back in. So we'll leave it on as much as we can and keep it tight. We have John Corona here who's made his appearance and he will be overseeing this whole conglomerate. So he's very efficient at what he does and we'll be able to make that switch over as quick as we can. But yes, this, all of the Raymond Basin comes from essentially the runoff and any storm water goes into the spreading grounds off of Highland and then that's where this water comes from. So, you know, we have 2,300 acre feet and, You know, this is why it's crucial, because everything that's pumped out of here, you know, you could say it's free water, if you will, right? We're not buying it from the state water project. So if this facility were down, we're probably losing on the... up most of $2.9 million a year. So this is really critical to do, and we're getting it ahead of the time. We're just at the maximum levels, and we're kind of right there, and we have the funding to do it, so we're doing it ahead of time to where we're not rushing or it's in some sort of emergency.

Yeah, it just seems that there's such complex planning that's involved. I mean, obviously, the city always does a great job, and I appreciate that. I'm just thinking about... the Colorado River Cooperative and the federal government reducing water flow to California and then you just have all these different pieces of the puzzle that are so complex and they're all kind of like but who knows sort of planning too because we've seen that before where things are predicted and they don't pan out but certainly I'm thankful that you're all working very hard on this project and how critical it is to our ability to manage our finances, and especially because we're in such a water-sensitive environment today, and it only seems to be getting worse and worse and worse. So thank you very much for that, Paul. I just kind of wanted to ask that question that I never get to ask. And forgive my ignorance, but thank you very much for educating me.

Yeah, and to add on to that a little bit, Paul, so, the importance of the Raymond Basin specifically because it comes out of that canyon and we basically share it with Sierra Madre and all of that. programmatically for twenty thirty years we sort of over pump that basin and we took advantage of a lot of groundwater there and we had a lot of free cheap water polls predecessor and the other water managers in the region about ten years ago made the difficult choice of restricting how much we were using to fill that basin back up so that i will put paul spot but in the last number of years that basin has come up tens or hundreds of feet at this point. So we're ready for things that we don't control, like Colorado River and things beyond our borders, that we have a more resilient water supply locally. So we've been trying to make long-term decisions to be ready for long-term environmental problems. So it reinforces how important this kind of a well and making sure that the water that comes out of it is drinkable and, according to the state, fishable and swimmable as well. So again, kudos to Paul and John and everybody else who works in the water department for a decade of planning and hard work that nobody really sees on a daily basis, but it gets us to a place of security when real emergencies may happen in the future.

All right, any other questions?

Can I make a comment? Yes, sir. Comment section or some questions?

No, we'll close the questions and we'll go to comments. Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. You know, water is not the most exciting of topics, but when I started learning about water four years ago, I really have developed an innate appreciation of how complex this issue is. Our city manager and our public works director have briefly touched on it from a very high level, but the reality is is that If we can be able to utilize our local water resources, it really saves us a lot of headache and heartache because when you have to deal with metropolitan water district, who in itself is dealing with the Colorado River treaties from 100 years ago, as well as dealing with the Delta basin up in Sacramento, you really realize that every city throughout the Western region, not just the state of California, we're all competing for this vital resource. We take it for granted and that our city staff are phenomenal at coming up with solutions that really help us long-term wise, as well as short-term wise. I really wanna say kudos to Paul and his team, his public works team for doing such a great job, putting this very difficult topic. I mean, who would have ever thought water would be this difficult, but this very difficult topic about being able to control our local water. And that's something that a lot of communities, frankly speaking, they don't have the ability to do that. So if we're able to innovate and modernize, follow the law, and most importantly, serve our community, I think that's all we can ask for from our planning, and our city staff. And so I want to say thank you very much, Paul and Dominic, for being able to go ahead and come up with solutions to a very complex problem. And the water world is more complex than people ever realize. And after four years of council, I still only understand 1% of the water world. but I do have a deep appreciation of that. So I just really wanna say thank you so much, Paul. Thank you so much, Dominic, for coming up with solutions to this very challenging problem.

Thank you. Any other comments? All right, hearing none, if we may have a motion to adopt and approve resolution number 7710. This mic, I'll make that motion. Two seconds. All right, roll call, please.

Council Member Cao?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu?

Yes.

Council Member Han? Yes. Council Member Kwan? Yes. Mayor Chang?

Yes. Item number 11, I can say that there are no AB 1234 reports from Mayor and City Council. Request for future items, item 12. Any items for future agenda items?

Yes, I do. I would like to add items.

Okay.

There are posters that have been sent out online by Councilmember David Fu, Shotei, and David Liu discussing my role as the director of an energy company. These claims raise questions about foreign influence, conflict of interest, and whether this has any influence on my work in the city of Arcadia. I request that the City Council place a discussion of my position on a future agenda for a full public discussion. Why? I want the public to know whether I receive any money or financial benefit from the company, whether the company has any ties to the CP, and whether the company has any influence on City Affairs. I welcome these questions, and I'm willing to provide all records and disclosures. Transparency, you know, is my greatest value, and I demand transparency from everyone, and I'm willing to offer it myself. I have nothing to hide.

Few seconds.

Is there a third? All third. Yes, okay, so we have first by Council Member Fu, Mayor Pro Tem Fu, and second by Council Member Han. All right, is there any- Great.

Is there any- Great, ask me any questions at the next meeting. I believe in transparency for everyone.

Thank you. Is there any other requests for future items?

Yes, I do. I have a second request. Mayor Pa Chen made a statement on the dais about a Chinese consulate at my home. He raised doubts about my integrity implying foreign influence in my decision making. I request that the city council place on a future agenda a public discussion and a factual review of this matter on the Chinese consulate at my house. Let's disclose facts about whether I invited the individual to my home, whether I have any prior relationship or communication with that individual, whether there was any coordination with a foreign government or a Chinese Communist Party, whether any foreign interests were involved at all and whether there was any connection whatsoever to my duties in the City Council for the City of Arcadia. I'm requesting that these questions be examined openly and that any records or disclosure made available as part of that discussion.

Okay. Do we have a first and a second? A second and a third?

okay uh last time i said please put it on the agenda so that i can give you my answers i don't know why you know you've heard that and i'm going to offer this one last time i mean it seems like you were very concerned about my connections and if you want to know i think it is important to discuss in public i welcome scrutiny and but it seems like They don't want to follow up on all of these allegations about me. So was that, Carmen, another smear campaign? Another baseless accusations to try to undermine my integrity?

Council Member Kwan, it's not on the agenda. You're more than welcome to publish your thoughts and opinions online or to do it unilaterally. Is there any other agenda item that needs to be placed on a future agenda item? May I make an observation?

Yes, I have a third one.

May I make an observation, Mr. Mayor?

Yes, sir.

Yes. Can I finish my future agenda request?

Hold on. You have just a colleague.

He's making a small comment. Go ahead, sir. I think there's nothing that prevents Member Kwan from producing that information if she wants to, and whether it's agendized or not, she can certainly tender that to the city and file those records.

No, I think it's important to put it on the agenda for open discussions because I really value transparency. So I'm not getting any votes, right? That is correct? Okay, that's fine. I'm going for my third item. So, okay, listen carefully to this new proposal. There are important differences. Last time I proposed the city staff to investigate all our campaign contribution. This time I request that city council placed on a future agenda a proposal to hire an independent third party auditor to review the campaign money of every current council member, including me. The auditor must be independent, have no ties to any council member, and to make the findings public. these financial relationships are important to disclose because council members vote on major city businesses including development projects city contracts sales of land and other important decisions i want the auditor to look and give us and we put any donor who has tied to foreign government or foreign agent. I want the public to see the facts, to know the relationship, so that they can decide for themselves.

Okay.

Okay, Councilmember, you're on mute right now. We have a point of order. Councilmember Kwan, you're on mute. We can't debate topics. You can present your issue. You've already spoken. We do have a comment from another colleague.

Mr. City Attorney, does the City Council have the power to conduct an investigation into campaign contributions? I don't recall anything like that under our charter.

no the the city council doesn't the campaign and i i apologize because it's not a city thing it's not something that i regularly work on but in general the campaign forms are filed the disclosures are filed but the enforcement entity would be the fppc or the that being the fair political practices commission or the district attorney it's not something that the council would review and i would have concerns about the council doing that given that there are first amendment issues involved

Go ahead, sir. Point of order. Yes. Mr. City Attorney, I also would like to get your thoughts. Does the City Council have the authority to direct investigations when it deals with...

Campaigns and campaign finances as well and No, and I want to be cautious not to get into a full discussion of this But no in general that wouldn't be something that the city performs So councilmember Kwan you're more than welcome to pay for your own auditor To do whatever it is that you need to do.

I do not know at this time whether there is a second and a third to agree with Council Member Kwan to have the city pay for an auditor to look into campaign contributions. Is there a second and a third?

I think we have an admonition from the city attorney that such activity would be unlawful since it's not within the scope of our powers under the city charter. Do I understand that correctly, Mr. City Attorney?

Yeah, it's not something that the city engages in.

Okay, so is there, just to confirm, although it would be illegal, is there a second and a third in regard to Council Member Kwon's request? Okay, hearing none, is there another future agenda request?

Yes, there is. Before I get to my future agenda request, I just want to ask really quick for the- Excuse me, I was trying to say something and you guys muted me.

You know, Mayor Paul, You know, you just said in the public comments, you need to let the resident knows have factual information so that they can decide for themselves. I mean, we cannot any 1 of our personal assurance about trust. Okay. So, please, please let the public have all the facts.

Council member please I can't have you. Debate on. I can't have you debate on non-agenda items. So please, I just ask you to be respectful of the process, and no, we cannot hear you, okay? So is there a request for a future agenda item? And Council Member Cao had a question, I believe, and then he had, I presume, a request.

Yes. The question I had was concerning the first motion. Is that also within our city charter, to be able to do that? Because, you know, once again, that deals with city conducting investigations about potential campaigns.

So I'll clarify. My understanding of what would come on a future, so, I don't believe that the city should have discussions about campaigns because the campaigns are separate from what goes on at city council. City council is when you're on the city council. My understanding of this item, and if I'm unclear about this when it comes on the agenda, my understanding of this item to be added to the agenda is that the council member had requested to have a discussion about a position with a company that she's on, which may be relevant to city business, such as conflicts of interest and things like that. I don't know specifically what the relevance is. But I would caution the council, I don't believe we should get into campaign discussions as part of that discussion. Given that there are three votes, it's something we could add to a future agenda item and the council can discuss it, discuss, the council can, excuse me, sorry. the council may initiate a discussion on that but i want to be very cautious especially this time of year that the council meeting is not part of a campaign discussion or campaign positions this is for discussion of city council business so maybe that that item is a very short discussion but i i don't believe it's something i could advise at this point that we could not put on the agenda

understood i just want to put it on the record that there may be some relevance to campaigns and so i want to make sure that the city council understands to steer away from a campaign discussion uh and also that if if that agenda item is discussed in the future that i would uh request or not i'm not requesting that i would just ask that all council members be physically present during that discussion if that is the case so then going on to my request for a future agenda item is that i would like to request that as a afghanistan and iraq veteran I would like to discuss about what is the best way to honor our Vietnam veteran, Gene Glasgow, given the fact that we already had preliminary discussions about how to honor our noteworthy residents in our city. So I just wanted to put that on a future agenda item to honor our Vietnam veteran, Gene Glasgow.

I'll second that. We need a third.

Mr. Major, just to be clear, can the city staff unmute Council Member Kwan to make sure she can participate in this part of the discussion?

I tell you the whole time I was being muted, you guys try to silent me again. I mean, I'm allowed to speak even though I am under Zoom. So I tell you one thing, the public is watching how you guys behave. Now I want to make a fourth proposal, please, okay? I request that city council place.

Council member Kwan, please. There is a request on the table for a future agenda item for Jean Glasgow. I just need you to please be patient.

Okay, make sure I get my chance for my fourth request.

Okay. I had seconded Council Member Cao's request to honor Jean Glasgow and I was- Foo thirds. Okay. Is there any other requests before we head back over to? Yes, yes, I do. Wait, Council Member Kwan, please, can you just wait?

Yeah, and Mayor, if I can just clarify, I just want to make sure this is clear that the city has adopted our rules of decorum and the rules of decorum do indicate that whoever's speaking should be who has the floor. And so it's up to the mayor as the presiding officer to determine who has the floor. So I understand that we don't, In particular, we don't wanna be speaking over each other, have people speaking over each other. So that's why in this particular case, I've recommended using the mute. We certainly want every council member to talk, but we wanna do it within the rules of decorum that we have. So I just wanted to make sure that was clear for everyone. Thank you.

Understood. Before we get back to council member Kwan, is there any requests here for any future agenda items?

Yes, I do have it. I request, is it my turn to speak yet?

No, no, Council Member Kwan, if you could just please listen before you speak, is that I've requested people here, if there are any agenda items before we get back to you, okay? Is there anybody?

Yes, I have an item. I'd like to request that we put an item on the agenda with regard to our protocol that the members of this council be understanding that it is up to the chair to maintain protocol and to be that they may speak when recognized rather than just blurting things out and as well as the limit to the scope of the comments there to what's appropriate in that discussion and I think that that probably is the gist of it. And so I would look for a second there.

I would second that. I'll third that. I think the public needs to understand what the decorum rules are about.

So just so I understand it, this would be an agenda item to review our protocols as it pertained to meetings and to make sure that they are sufficiently detailed to ensure that there's an order of speaking.

And to clarify that the members of the council are educated on those rules and that they must adhere to them and what the consequences of that failure to adhere.

Understood. Is there anybody else here in the room that has a future agenda item?

Yes, I do, I have one.

Okay, Council Member Kwan, yes, I just need you to, I'm getting to you. Is there anybody here in this dais that has any other future agenda items? Okay, hearing none, go ahead, Council Member Kwan.

I request that the City Council place on a future agenda to receive a numbers report of how Arcadia's protected tree ordinance is being applied to both homeowners and development projects. I want the numbers for the past five years. How many requests for oak tree removal came from developers? How many requests came from homeowners? Of those requests, how many were approved or denied? How many were approved on the first request versus after multiple requests? What was the average time it took each group to receive a decision? This numbers report is to ensure that our tree ordinance is being enforced for both homeowners and developers. And it is to make sure that both groups are getting equal treatment. The review shows there's a significant difference between homeowners versus developers in permits approval rates. Processing time.

Can you meter please? Council Member Kwan, please. We can't have you argue Your request all right you're just placing a request.

Yes, I'm just placing a request and my my request is just that the council place on a future agenda to receive a numbers report of how Arcadia's protected tree ordinance is being applied to both homeowners and development projects.

Understood. Is there a second and a third for that?

Am I not getting any votes? There's so many concerns from the residents about the trees. Everybody who cares so much, or you guys don't care? Don't you care about our land? I don't understand.

No votes again? Council Member Kwan, please. If you stop screaming, people would actually be able to hear what you're trying to say. So because you're screaming, and you're screaming here in the dais, nobody can even understand what you want. So with that being said.

Well then let me repeat myself. This time I'm not gonna scream. What I wanna do is I want to request that the council place on a future agenda to receive a numbers report of how Octavia protected tree ordinance.

Council Member Kwan, we have a motion and a second on the floor. What was the issue?

The motion was that the Chair find that Member Kwan is out of order.

So I believe that turns over to me as the parliamentarian. And yes, this is important because this is a legal issue. It's a Brown Act issue. I'll refer to our rules of decorum, which says, the Brown Act specifically allows for council members to request during a meeting that items be added to future agendas. However, this exception must be balanced against the Brown Act's general prohibition of discussing non-agenda items. When making a request, council members shall therefore state plainly the item proposed without providing argument or deliberation on the matter. The other council members shall merely state their concurrence, if any, in order to avoid a premature discussion of the merits. Council members may ask limited clarifying questions to understand the scope of the request. And so I just, I want the council to understand, and for all of you, that It's a, there's a very fine line when we're talking about future agenda items, because it is very difficult to talk about putting an item on a future agenda without crossing into a debate on the item that would be discussing a non-agenda item, and that is considered a Brown Act violation. So we have to be very careful with that line. On the other hand, it does specifically allow for these future requests, and this is a way to transparently identify the items that are coming up on a future agenda. So we do have this balance. But it's important that the council members simply state what their request is. And the other council members can decide whether to agree to add it or not. We use three votes in order to add it. But what we can't have is we can't have arguing positions. And if the vote fails, we really can't have people arguing as to why the vote should have passed. Because at that point, we are having a debate that is in violation of the Brown Act. So this is a point of order. It is out of order to continue arguing something, especially after the vote fails. So thank you, Mayor. I'll turn the meeting back to you. Understood.

Seeing that there is no second and third, is there any other future agenda items that anybody would like to place on the agenda?

Mayor Chen, because I am doing this via Zoom and I don't have very good connection. So a lot of the things that you guys are saying, I can barely hear you. I am very far away and so you guys It's been cut off from what I'm hearing from you. So I just and it's been happening throughout this night. So I don't know what you guys are saying. You guys are being cut off. So some words I. I got it and some words I don't. So anyway, what I just want to say is very simple. I just don't know what you guys just discussed because you guys are being cut off from my internet and then it comes back on and off. So I just want to make something very clear. And I just want to request that the council place on a future agenda to receive a number report of how Arcadia tree ordinance is being applied.

We've heard the request.

What did you say again?

Okay.

So what did you say again? I didn't hear you. You were cut off again.

I know. Hold on. I'm going to explain it. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Hello? Hello? Hello?

Okay.

Hello? Okay, it's... Councilmember Kwan, can you hear me speaking right now?

Hello, Councilmember?

Hello? Hello? Are you there?

Okay, I'll say it for the public, because I think you heard me when I first stepped in, and I don't know why you can't hear me right now. But the request... Now I can hear you.

Now I can hear you. Go ahead. Now I can hear you.

We heard your request. It failed for a lack of a second and a third.

So that... And what is it? I got failed? You said what?

There was not a second and a third to place it on a future agenda item. So the request will not be on a future agenda item. We're moving on to the next one.

Okay.

All right, Council Member Kwan, did you have any other future requests? Okay, hearing none, we're going to...

Excuse me. Hello?

Yes.

Can you say that again?

Yes. Hearing no future agenda items that are being requested by council, I am moving to the next agenda item. That will be the adjournment. Let me come down. it'll come on just all right so one of the things i wanted to do is uh wanted to read a very quick bio of gene glasgow but then after i'm going to surprise a lot of i think people because i was able to pull a lot of gene's life as quickly as i could with community members. So for those of you that don't know Gene Glasgow, he passed around 1.30 on Saturday, the 30th of August, 2026. Our understanding right now is that he just went to sleep, which is, for those of you that read the Bible, it's as biblical as it gets for prophets. And I believe that Gene Glasgow was a prophet. He was a prophet because of the fact that some people are teachers Other people are healers. But there's a small group of people that are called warriors. And warriors know the cost of war. They actually know what happens when things fall apart. And so they beg for peace. They live for peace. And they teach other people how peace is. That is Jean Glasgow. For nearly 70 years, Gene's life was part of Arcadia. He graduated from Arcadia High School where he played football and performed as a trombonist in the school's award-winning marching band. And as a young man, he understood the importance of teamwork, discipline, and being part of something larger than himself. Oh my goodness, this is actually the wrong, this is the other slide where it's not, it's going pretty fast. Can you pull up the other one? Okay. That's okay. Can you? All right. Gene served in... You know what? It's actually okay if you just play it and it'll just rotate fast. All right. Gene... was proud to serve in the United States Navy six years with 14 months in Vietnam as a radio man. He supported Navy riverboat operations in the Mekong Delta, and it required extreme courage because he was in war. After returning home, Gene came back to a country that he explained to me did not love the warriors that went overseas. He remembers coming back to Arcadia and walking to a bar, and as soon as they asked him where he had been, and he said Vietnam, everybody became quiet. They were disgusted by a service member, a young man that went overseas. Although the country did not accept those that went overseas, Gene Glasgow stayed, and he became the city clerk of Arcadia for 12 years. He carried out that responsibility with integrity, professionalism, and deep respect. But apart from that, he served as a commissioner and chair of the Arcadia Senior Citizens Commission, He was president of the Arcadia Historical Society, vice president of the Arcadia Highlands Homeowners Association, and a volunteer in patrol with the Arcadia Police Department. In every role, Gene gave something of himself. He gave his time, he gave his experience, he gave his leadership, and most importantly, he gave his entire heart. His service earned him recognition as Arcadia's Senior of the Year, along with numerous honors for his military and community contributions. Those who knew Gene understood that recognition was not what motivated him. He served because he believed service mattered and he loved his community. Gene's most visible and enduring legacy stands at Arcadia County Park as Deputy Sheriff Burton Brink has explained. As a Vietnam veteran, Gene carried with him the memory, the sad memory of fellow Arcadians who never came home. He became the driving force behind the creation of the Arcadia Vietnam War Monument, ensuring that 14 young men from our community who gave their lives would never be forgotten. Because of that, Today, we are a community that although Gene Glasgow is with us in a different way, we want to honor Gene because he has told us and told me that we must not share his name, but we must share the 14 names of Arcadia's Vietnam War casualties. And therefore, we are going to say their names today. Private First Class Roger Allen Boomsma. First Lieutenant Thomas Edwards Campbell. Private First Class Rodney Willard Castleman. Second Lieutenant Vincent Edward Duffy. Private First Class James Carl Fox. Specialist, fourth class, Eugene Stanley Hicks. Private, first class, Vaughn Maurice Hines. Private, first class, Richard Ray Irwin. Private, first class, William Edward Kennedy. Private, first class, James Andrew Leach. Lieutenant Bruce Philip Rowe. Specialists, fourth class, Craig, Ray, Seanenbaum. Captain, Patrick, Michael, Ward. Second Lieutenant, Edward, Arthur, Zager. So going through the slides very quickly is that, it is going very quickly. Is there a way to pop to the other one really fast? No, there's not? Okay, so we are gonna do the four seconds a slide. This is everybody that came to see Jean. All the people over at city council, as well as all the residents. Jean would say to you, do not worry about me. God needed my smile to brighten heaven. And there's his beautiful smile. John 15, 13 says, greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. This is the monument that Gene erected in less than a year, Bravo Zulu Gene. And just very quickly, oh, where to start? This is Gene Glasgow. This is Gene's father. This is Gene as a young man. This is Gene when he was serving in the military, Gene in uniform. Two individuals he said saved him, Julie Harris His daughter, not a real daughter, but a loved one. A fellow Arcadian deployed to Vietnam. First recognition of veterans to Jean Glasgow done by Michael Cao, who fortunately was able to pass the veteran banner with only a 3-2 vote. Scott Hedrick with Gene Glasgow. Burton Brink, always supporting Gene Glasgow, and I can say Burton Brink has come to many events for veterans. Gene, strong supporter of veteran groups. Raymond Cheung, he was here today. Lael Blocker, who said she couldn't miss Gene. Catherine Barger. Gene saying hi to Sharon Kwan. Gene saying hi to Judy Chu. Gene with friends. Burton Brink again. Gene loved the marriage ceremonies that he was able to conduct as the city clerk. Former mayors. Bob Harbick, wife Patsy. Holiday events. Handsome men. COVID residents coming out. Fred and Pastor Jolene. Again, marriage ceremonies. Gene's caretaker. Presentations. Gene Glasgow's last day on June 7th. We had a Gene Glasgow day. I was fortunate enough and honored to be able to be with him. At the Elks Club, June 7th, 2026. Gail Marshall. former mayor, Chinatown Post 628, where he was a part of, Peter Amundsen, strong supporter, caretaker of Jean, Floretta Lauber, Jean supporting police and fire, Janalee Shimmons, Mary Hansen, two people I miss, also gone too early. former mayor show Tay us together historical society one of his favorite organizations Roger Chandler also former mayor as well all the ladies love Jean I had to put that up because Peter Amundsen was too cute. That's a former mayor in the back. I know he looks just so adorable. Okay. Again, just wonderful pictures. Gene sharing about how we are stronger together. This is a gavel that I had gotten for him because he wanted one. And this is Jean Glasgow sitting in the mayor seat because he told me he didn't know how it felt to be a mayor. We made sure that changed on December 20th, 2022. That's me sitting in his chair. It's very hard to sit in that chair. Your neck is always in pain and nobody knew that. I didn't know that until I sat there. And again, getting to the end, everybody just loving Jean with this smile. You know, I wanted to dedicate a song to Jean. I'm not singing, don't worry. My wife would kill me if I did. And I wanted to just end tonight with a song over to Jean. I was talking to Justine. She's a lot younger than me because she didn't know the song. We're gonna end the evening with Everything I Own by Bread. I don't know if you guys know that, but I know it. And I understand Gene may have other songs that he liked, but this is a song that I felt that I wanted to give to Gene. So, Mr. Glasgow, Gene Glasgow, thank you for loving the residents and thank you for loving people like me. If it wasn't for individuals like you, I wouldn't be here in Arcadia. So we'll end the evening with everything I own by bread.

Thank you.