Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, please stand by. Thank you for that, David. Right. Today is Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. The time is 7:17 p.m. I'm now calling to order the Balden Park regular city council meeting. Uh, Pastor Flores, can we please have an invocation? I'm sorry. If you're able to stand, please stand. Thank you, mayor, uh, city council staff, all those that are with us tonight. Uh, tonight is on the Christian calendar's Ash Wednesday. As we enter the Lenton season, we're reminded that dust we come from and dust we return, we're all human beings, ashes to ashes. And thus we seek God to give us guidance on how to live our life. Let us pray. Gracious God, we are mindful today that you are God. And in the midst, Lord, of suffering and in the midst, Lord of pain, God, you still are God. We thank you for our city. We thank you for our mayor, our city leaders and staff, Lord, that all have a commitment to serve and to honor you by serving your people and your public. Lord, we pray God that you would teach us to number our days in this season, this Lenton season, and remind us God that we are but human beings. We're given the

opportunity to live life, to honor you, to serve each other. Grace our mayor, grace our leadership today with your presence. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Council member Abila, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Of course. 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. Thank you for that. City clerk, can we get roll call, please? Mayor Damian here. Mayor Promayola here.

Council member Aila, Council Member Estrada, Council Member Lozano here. Thank you. Thank you for that. City clerk. Right now, we're going to go to uh report from close session. City attorney, you have anything to report? No, there's nothing to report. We had a couple items on the agenda. Uh each one was discussed uh except for one. We had uh one item of potential litigation that was not discussed. Other than that, there's nothing further to report. Thank you for that, city attorney. And I will now uh make a motion to close the uh city council special meeting.

Second. Um special meeting is now closed. We do have some announcements. The city council are also members of the board of directors of the housing authority and the finance authority which are concurrently committing with the city council this evening and each council member is paid an additional stipen of $30 for attending the housing authority meeting and $50 for attending the finance authority meeting. Right now, we're going to go into first of all, welcome everyone. I know it was cold out there, so we apologize for the late for the late start of the meeting. Um, we're going to go into our proclamations, accommodations, and presentations. First, we do have a presentation by Jose Martinez, the general manager of the Valley County Water District, who will present their 100th anniversary and upcoming community events. Hello, Jose. How are you?

Thank you very much, Mayor, members of the city council. It's always an honor to be here and provide an update to the district. And tonight's a very special one. Do I have control here or do do you guys change a slide? Yeah. Next. Next slide, please. And I have the the great honor uh to announce that the district is actually celebrating our 100th uh year anniversary. So, that's a huge accomplishment. Here [clears throat] tonight, I have President Muse with me as well as Director Pacheco and Director Vargas. and uh a small picture of some of our old our staff members as well as our our current staff. We have 31 full-time staff. Uh we serve a population of just under 70,000 and we serve water through 12,743 or 45 connections. Next slide, please. A little bit of history. These are some great photos. Now, mind you, we started as very humble beginnings. We started as a a small uh ball and park water district as first uh and we served mostly two farms around the local area and as the community continued to grow uh so did the district. Uh we are now in our third house. We're averaging about 50 years per house. As you can see the three uh uh district offices that we had. Uh we just finished construction a few years back in our new facility. And we're going to make this one last at least 100 years. So that's our goal. And this thing it's it's we're making it look nice and we're going to keep it looking nice for quite some time. So anytime anybody wants to come and visit us, we're at 521 uh Lante Street just south of of Arrow Highway and just south of uh the Santa Fe Dam there. So next slide please. Uh one thing I always like to uh report on is how we're doing with local rain conditions. And typically when I show this map, the entire state of California is either red, yellow, orange. But if we

look closely now, there's only a tiny section in the very north uh west part of California that is in somewhat of a drought conditions. And I think that might be an air because I I don't see how that's possible, but that's that's what we're reporting right there on the right. That is the graph. And if that's your bank account that uh you we would think we're doing really good, and we are. That's our groundwater levels of there's actually we call the the Ballen Park key well which is located within the city boundaries and that's where we measure how our groundwater is doing. Uh so the level of that is doing really well. I had to update this this presentation several times because the rainfall totals kept changing on this and it actually changed another inch. So I we're about 15 on this slide and right now we're about 16.9 in. So just a little bit uh I'm sorry that one's what does it say? 13.93 inches. So we're about 15 uh just under 16 inches. So a little bit above uh what our normal averages are for rainfall total. So another great year of of rain. So certainly blessed and thankful for that. And the next slide again highlights exactly how we're doing with with rainfall totals. Our historic high for our ba our basin was at 295 feet and that was in July and I can't really uh 1983 and our historic low uh was back 169 ft back in 2018. So right now our current level is about 261 uh feet. So doing really well uh considering you know not too long ago that we were near historical lows and now we're nearing historical highs. If you drive on the 605 freeway, you can actually see the mining pits out there and you see water in there. That is actually the the groundwater level. So, as you can see that it's starting to come up and it seems a little higher. That's actually what the groundwater

table is at

and it actually is it's pretty marvelous to see how it's come come up the last several years with the amount of local rain that we've had and been able to capture that. And uh the next slide I kind of want to highlight that cuz I we do monitor local social media chatter uh what the community is talking about, what the community is questioning and we get a lot of comments such as you know we're letting so much water go out to the ocean and that is true for the LA River. Unfortunately the their main goal for flood control is to protect life and property. And when it comes to the LA River, because there's so much congestion around the LA River basin, that that is the main goal of just getting that water out to protect life and property. That is not the same true in our area in the San Gabriel Basin. We capture about 95% of the water that hits the San Gabriel Valley, the mount, the waterershed up in the mountains, and it comes down through a series of dams, three dams up in the Isusa Canyon Basin, which retain that water, and we're allowed to release that water. And when I say weed, this is not Valley County. This is a combination of

Army Corps of Engineers is a com combination of LA County public works, flood control. So there is very and a bunch of uh different agencies that all work together to capture this water to regulate it and then to spread it. The picture we see in the middle there those are actually spreading basins which are located right there by the 210 the 605 where we release that water we coordinate those efforts down the San Gro River and then we divert it into these spreading basins and that allows the water to percolate and recharge our basin. So why is our basin so high? Because of these efforts, we do such a great job of capturing, managing that water to recharge and utilize this local resource to recharge our groundwater basin. Also, we have coordinated efforts where we can deliver state water project through the California aqueduct. And when we don't have local water, we're able to spread that water. We used to be able to do that. So, that's going to be come up with some of our challenges are coming up in the next slides. So again, highlight that we do an excellent job of capturing. You do see a little bit of water flowing down the San Gable right now, but we also have an obligation to share that resource. We can't just hold all the water here. We have to allow some water to go down the San Gable River to other parties that have rights to that water as well. So if there is water going down the river, that is typically a coordinated effort to deliver the water that is due to those parties to the south of us. Next slide. And there's gonna be a quiz for the cheerleaders after this. So, I hope everybody's paying attention. We're gonna pass it out, right, Vivian? I also have a staff member. We're gonna pass out a quiz. So, hopefully everybody can pass it afterwards. Um, so one of the great thing people always ask, you know, okay, you got a bunch of water. Shouldn't it be free? I mean, there's so much of it. And unfortunately, the rate because our basin goes up and down, we still have to pay the same cost. We still have to pay the cost to treat it.

We still have to pay the cost to replenish and replace all our infrastructure. We have 120 mi of pipeline that we have to replace. We try to replace at least a couple miles every year. So, if you do the math real quick, it takes us about 60 years to replace every single two every single foot of pipe throughout our system. So, it's a systematic approach. And also, we have different challenges. Those challenges have been we've been hit by inflation. And most recently we've been hit and last time I came and presented I talked a little bit about the golden muscle and this golden muscle has continues to be an issue throughout uh the whole entire state of California and it's actually impacted water that's being delivered through the state water project. If we can go through to the next slide please. So unfortunately this golden muscle was brought into introduced to the uh the San Francisco Bay and has made its way across the state and down the California aqueduct and now it is in local reservoirs and resources that the county has decided that we cannot spread this water because it could be an issue and this is not a water quality issue that these muscles just start having a huge impact on infrastructure. They start surrounding pipelines, gate valves. So it's not a water quality, it's just a huge effort and mitigation and additional cost to remove these muscles. So right now we're looking at active means to mitigate this. There are some treatment components that may be able to install in some larger pipelines to to uh attackively uh disable the reproduction of these of these muscles. But if that's not the case, then there's going to be a cost to actually remove it. So, we're I think it's a great boy scout project. You go out there in some of these lakes and start scraping some of these muscles. It might be a fancy cuisine. So, if somebody has some great ideas of how we can manage this muscle,

we're all ears right now because we're collectively as a state trying to address and figure out how we But as of right now, this muscle has impacted any replenishment water coming down from the California aqueduct, which is essential when we don't have local rain. So thankfully we have enough local rain right now where we're not in we're not in need of California but that could change any year. So we have to address this and we have to uh figure out the solution for this. Next slide please. Another project and uh staff uh we have had a conversation with Mr. Curio about this uh pure water project. This is a regional project in which the metropolitan water district along with the sanitation district is looking to capture and utilize some of some water that is currently right now going out. It goes to a waste a waste treatment system. It goes out to the ocean. So with advanced treatments, we can actually purify this water and pump it back up to different locations throughout Southern California. So this resource could be another 150 million gallons that is not dependent upon the state water project which and I don't want to be doom and gloom but the California aqueduct is actually sinking. So that's a huge issue that the system that we depend so much on to bring water from up north to Southern California is actually being impacted because of overprouction of water in central California called subsidance. So that's another you can throw that other challenge onto our list of issues that we have that continue to multiply when it comes to delivering safe and reliable water. So this is one of the projects. So we're going to continue to work with staff and uh and probably at one point when we get to when Metropolitan they just certified their uh environmental

impact report last week. So that was a huge milestone. But like everything, big projects, big regional project like this have billions of dollars associated with it. So when we get to the funding, there's going to have to be a lot more conversations and a lot more buyins from all the regions that are going to benefit from this project and exactly how it's going to be funded into the future. So I just wanted to mention that project and throw the name out there. So Pure Water Southern California is certainly something that we'll continue to talk about into the future. Next slide, please. Couple things that we have coming up. Very excited. We have a couple gardening workshops. So, if you're looking for ways, one thing we continue to promote is water use efficiency. So, if you're looking for ways to reduce your water use at home, uh replacing grass. Uh we don't this year we have a lot of rain, but there's many of the years we only have five six inches. And typically grass to be healthy needs over 60 inches of water a year. So if we're only we if we only average about 15 16 inches, we need to supplement that with some heavy irrigation. So one great way to reduce outdoor watering is to remove some of your grass. So these uh classes will inform our customers how to go about that process and learn about some California native friendly vegetation that can replace grass. And also we have to celebrate uh although our birthday was technically last month in January, we're going to celebrate our 100th anniversary in uh May 16th. So we'll be sending out official flyers to the community, invitations to this council. uh and we really would like to celebrate this occasion with the community as we celebrate the 100red years of service and look forward for the next 100 years of service uh of providing safe reliable service to the city of Bowen Park. And I believe that's all I have for

presentations. Uh we'll start distributing the quizzes out to the ladies in the audience, but if there's any questions uh from the council, I'd be more than happy to answer them at this time. Thank you for that, uh Jose. We really appreciate you coming out and give us some uh informative uh water water talk. Uh do anyone up here have any questions or comments for Mayor? Go ahead.

I I don't have any questions, Jose. I just want to um thank you for for coming and speaking and presenting to us as mayor said and always being um openminded and and a collaborative partner with us. I really appreciate working with your agency and all of your directors and your staff. So, and thank you directors and president Muse for for coming and joining. So, thank you so much, Jose. Thank you. I try to keep it short, so I apologize. Once I get once I start talking about water, I can't stop. Real quick, I was out running along uh the mining area that you just mentioned. So, that's the water table. It's reached the water table, right? And I did notice that increase. That's that's amazing. Wow. Incredible. And a lot of people think it's just a man-made lake, but that's the actual water table that

So, it's the one across from there, right? That's correct. Okay. Oh, which creates some issues with their mining. So, they don't they're not necessarily too happy when it gets to that level, but Oh, really? I I thought Well, I don't want to I'm not on record. I I retract that statement. All right. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. Does anyone else have any comments or questions? Oh, mayor. Go ahead.

Sorry. Thanks, Jose, for that presentation. I know um interestingly enough we've been talking about the the muscle issue and in vector control and at the at the regional level with the cog but just kind of you can you know what are the how does that affect us? I know we have our own water supply, but some of the things that have been coming up is that, you know, with the high cost, I think they they've estimated like potential like a billion dollar, you know, mitigation statewide, you know, how how can we, you know, what should we be doing with our water? Should we preserving more, you know, what do you think?

So, yeah, I've heard uh some and put me I've heard some wild claims as far as what the mitigation costs will be. I've also heard some realistic costs that Metropolitan this unfortunately this is not the only muscle that has been an issue in the state of California. Uh the quaga muscle is something that the Metropolitan Water District has been dealing with for decades now. So they have some costs associated with their uh mitigation and their cleanup efforts that we feel are a little bit more realistic for some of the costs associated with that. But that is certainly something that we as a region uh especially all the parties of the main san basin we collectively share with 2 million people that water resource in this groundwater basin. So with that the good thing about that is that we also share the cost with two million people. So we are collectively working together to and work with the county, work with the state, work with metropolitan and also look at federal funding to see what is the best way to address this issue and mitigate it and reduce local impacts because this we did not cause this problem. So who exactly do we necessarily go after? And that's the issue with the county as well. They don't want to be responsible when it's them that they may pass it on to somebody. So unfortunately we all have the lawyers. They serve a purpose and uh they try to protect each us from each other sometimes and there's um there's a lot of lawyers and they're you know talking about what is the best mean. We all want the same thing to provide safe reliable water but all the lawyers have to you know get together and then we have to get the engineers and the scientists. So we're still in that process so we're all on the same page and we can proceed to address this issue with the least amount of impact to our our and our rateayers. Mayor, one last. How clean for the audience is the water coming out of the faucet versus one. Obviously, some of us pay a buck, two bucks, three bucks, five

bucks for for Well, a gallon of our water costs. 0.1 cent per gallon delivered from the tap. The tap is more regulated, federally, and state regulated than that tap water. One thing I can say, I don't know how much microlastic is in that bottle water up there. So, I I I wish we would have brought our own source, but microlastics and other uh contaminants is is going to be on the next horizon. And talk about cost. The cost to run some of these samples for things that weren't in the water 5, 10, 3 years ago. The cost to analyze and run these is pretty it's it's really expensive. So, we're seeing our budget skyrocket just to run them through these state and federal testing procedures.

Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you for that, Jose. We really appreciate you and also thank you to uh President David Muse and members Javier Vargas and Lepo for being here. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Moving on. We're going to move on to uh proclamation uh national black history month proclamation presented to David Muse, president of the board of directors for the Valley County Water District. Council member Strada. All right. Thank you, mayor. So, we'll wait for David to make his way up.

All right. All right. So, we have a Ball Park City Council proclamation for National Black History Month, February 2026. Whereas each February, National Black History Month serves as both a celebration and a powerful reminder that black history is American history, black culture is American culture and black stories are essential to the ongoing story of America. And whereas shining a light on black history today is as important to understanding ourselves and growing stronger as a nation as it has ever been. That's why it's essential that we honor the legacies and achievements of all generations. And whereas today, black Americans serve our communities and our nation at every level. build across the board, business and law, health and education, arts and science, and many more. And whereas our nation was founded on the idea that all of us are created equal and deserve to be treated with equal dignity throughout our lives. Therefore, we are encouraged to openly and honestly work together as one to deliver fairness and respectfulness for all. And whereas the city of Ballen Park presents this proclamation to David Elmuse, Baldwin Park resident for 35 years, president of the Valley County Water District Board of Directors, and former planning commissioner from 2010 through 2016. David is a valued member of the ballpark community and has been actively involved in various city events throughout many years now. Therefore, Daniel Damian, mayor of the city of Balm Park along with mayor prom Gene Amayala, council members Alejandra Abila, Emanuel J Estrada, Annaniel Loausano, city clerk Christopher Science and city treasurer Joanna Valenuela who hereby proclaim February 2026 as National Black History

Month in the city of Balden Park and encourage all residents, community members, public officials, and educators to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities. for you. Take a David, do you want to say a few words? Grab the microphone there. Is that on? Not plugged in.

That one right over there. Back up. particularly in the athletic field. Ron Ron Brown

um was an an Olympic sprinter and an NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders. So I am proud to receive this, but I am also proud to be standing on the shoulders of those who came before me and did what they needed to do to make this happen. Thank you very much. Right, David. Been well, Dave. Oh, I see. Thank you so much, David. Thank you.

And then also on that note, don't forget we do have our Black History Cultural Celebration on February 28th, 11:00 a.m. at here at the uh Arts and Recreation Center. So, it'd be really great. This is our fourth year having it. So, it'd be great to see more of our community come out and support. Thank you very much. Thank you, David.

Thank you, David. All right. Now, we're going to be moving on to what I think everyone is here for, which is the uh presentation recognition to the Sierra Vista High School cheer for being the HSSC D1 national champions. Congratulations. So, what I'm what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and uh read one of the certificates. I'm going to call up the coaches and the names and as you hear your names, if you guys just come up here and then your coaches will uh give your certificates afterwards. Okay. Um so, this is for the Sierra Vista High School cheer team. again, NHSCC D1 national champions, large varsity, intermediate, intermediate, non-tumbling. So, I believe this was in Florida, right? That you guys won first place. So, the city of Baldin Park. Yeah. Let's give them a round of applause. The city of Baldin Park is proud to recognize you for your hard work and dedication. We congratulate you for being part of the traditional competitive cheer program and winning nationals in Florida. We appreciate your sportsmanship, outstanding athletic performance, and we thank you for your for the favorable recognition you bring to your school and the entire Baldwin Park community. presented this 18th day of February 2026 by myself Daniel Damian, Mayor Prom Gene Emmaella, Council Member Alejandra Aila, Council Member Emanuel J Estrada, council member Manuel Lozano, our city clerk Christopher SCS, and our city treasurer Joanna Valenuela. So, one more round of applause for our champions. And then if we can get the coaches up

here, we have Gabriella Mendoza and Rosanna Sora. And then we have the uh and then I'm going to call the the the team's name. We have Ari Santiago. Uh, Briana Rosas, Camila Hernandez, Haya Salazar, Selia Revolta, Fernanda Garcia. I hope I don't butcher this one. Itini Santiago, Janelle Reosa, Julieta Padilla, Leilani Tabor, Tabora, Marilyn Caro, Miley Hernandez, Railia Bamante, Scarlett Palomera and Sophia Lopez. I'm sorry. I think we left one out. We have Brooklyn Valdez. Sorry about that, Brooklyn.

That's probably the microphones with it. Cover the microphones. That's what's killing me. I'm trying to go back.

[laughter]

Hello. Thank you. Up and down.

S I E S I E R I N R E I P I C A spell There is the G. There is the S. I got Thank you, sir. Var. Thank you all. Now, have a good night. Have your parents take you guys for dinner real quick. Shop local, right? All right. So, now we're going to be moving on to our public communication. Uh, city clerk, do we have any speakers tonight?

Uh, yes, mayor. At this time, we've only received one speaker card, and that's from Irma Morales with the Baltimore Park Library. Perfect. Thank you for that.

Good evening, Mayor Damian, city council members, uh, um, community members, and the city team. I wanted to talk about some upcoming programs, um, at Bowman Park Library. So, uh, this Saturday, February 21st, from 11 to noon, we're having a play and explore program for ages 2 to 5 with their parent and caregiver. Um, part of the program is um, a family community specialist from the Department of Public Health is going to be there to talk about lead poisoning prevention for children. Um also right after that program we are having a um new parent engagement um at from 1 to two and it's new parents join us at a special program designed for you bring your new baby and learn about all the great programs and services we have for parents at the library. Also, um, on Saturday, February the 28th from 3:00 to 4:00, we're having a program for school age children and it's DIY science. And you can find out more information and um, parents and can register their children on the libraries website. As always, the library's website is laublic library, excuse me, la.org. laount library.org. Um, our next program is for teens. We have a set of teen programs coming up. And if I can get the page this Friday, we're having a teen Friday program and it's um this Friday the 20th from 4:30 to 5:30. Um it's for teens. They can come and be creative, play games, different things, and uh learn um meet other teens. We're also having a Paint and More program for teens on Friday, February 27th from 4:30 to 5:30. All those programs are um signing up. You can find out more information on our libraries website. We are also having an African-American and Black History Month

um craft for adults. Join us. It's this is Tuesday, February 24th from 6:00 to 7:00. Join us in celebrating African-American and Black History Month by learning the places and spaces that existed for African-American families to rest, relax, and be their full human selves. Afterwards, honor these spaces by creating your own Black Beaches bag. Also coming up, we're going to be having a senior cafe on Friday, February 27th from 2 to 3. And it's our first senior cafe. And what we're doing is we're having games, puzzles, and conversations. and we want um our seniors to tell us what other programs they'd like to see at the library. Um thank you for your time,

city clerk. That was the only speaker we had.

Yes. Yes, mayor. That was a one second. So if Mayor We have two more one uh next we call Cindy Rubio. Hello and good evening. I'm sure you remember me because I'm always the one that's here with the problem. Um, I'd just like to know how to get on the agenda for city council to talk about the problem. Three minutes is not enough time to discuss all the issues that we're having with the new dialerite. Um, there's several seniors that want to attend and it's difficult for them to make the time at this time of night because they don't have transportation. I'd like to be able to meet with someone and find out what's the best way we can do this so that you can realize what the input is happening here. Um, I've left messages for several people. I've never received a call back. Every time I come to a meeting, I leave my phone number for a call back and I've not received any information other than negative. I've spoken to several people. They're sitting up here right now. I've been told, "I don't have time for this. If this goes on, we're going to stop Dialeride. We don't have time to discuss this. This has nothing to do with us. When you call Dialer Ride, it says it's on the city. So, we're pretty confused and we could use some help. So, maybe by putting that on the agenda and having enough time to speak about it and have other people here, it would help.

M Rubon, unfortunately, we can't, you know, we can't have a dialogue here, but what we will do is we'll have one of our city staff, Daniel, our director of public works, reach out to you. We can get your phone number if he doesn't have it yet. Um, and then I know we had two uh community meetings at the senior center a couple of weeks ago. So, what we'll probably try to do is have another one um and see if you can have the people that you're saying that are having issues with that attend the meeting. Okay. Um if do we have her phone number? Uh Chris, mayor. Yes, mayor. We have a phone number here, but I'll confirm it. Okay, perfect. So, he's going to confirm your phone number and then he's going to hand it over to our director of public works. Okay. And then he's going to contact you. Okay. Council,

sorry. I just wanted to just wanted to add might be a good idea to host one of those meetings at a different park location just for the whole access. I mean we're talking about transportation access and barrier. So yeah and I think at that time we did it for the at the senior center because the majority of the seniors congregate there. What we want to do is we want to try to have people there. So we we'll discuss internally about community uh meetings and see if maybe we can host one down at the Wall Creek area cuz I know that that's where you're from. Yes. Um if we can get some people out there then you know maybe we can host something there. We'll be in communication with you and I guarantee that we'll we'll make sure that we make it happen. Okay?

And communication is very important because the two meetings that they had at the senior center, I don't for one do not go to the senior center. I was made aware of it the day before for the equipment and never made aware of the second meeting which I was told someone would notify me. So we have very poor communication as far as who can say what. And I've been on the bus with several people that have actually called some of the members on the council direct to complain. I've hear them on the phone. They have direct numbers to a lot of people that are sitting up here and to call and complain and it makes me laugh because it's like well I know it's not only me but nobody wants to come up here and say anything.

Okay. Just so that you're aware of that. Thank you. Thank you for letting us know and and and definitely we'll make sure that we host one of these community meetings um out in the WA Creek area uh for your neighborhood out there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Uh next speaker, city clerk.

Next we call Bino Rodriguez. I don't know. foreign speech. Mayor real quick. Oh. So

okay Park Boulevard. Okay.

Uh hello. Um it's regarding these streets that they're looking very uh ugly out there and uh there's a lot of uh holes, potholes. I almost fell the other day and uh we've been uh saying this for for many years now. Uh there's these apartments, these big apartments. They they look pretty nice, but uh al on Bowwin Park, the street, and um we we've been telling them there's a lot of trash and uh they they leave a lot of trash around there. And uh these apartments are nice, but then there's this trash that's being dumped there by the uh fence over there. And um they repaved this. It looks really nice except for the trash that's being uh dumped there. Um you also installed some uh solar lights, but they're very uh close to the electrical lights right there where I live. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Is there anyone else wishing to speak who did not fill out a a speaker card? Now is your time. All right, we're close for public speaking now, Mr. Rios. Five minutes. We're shrinking yours to two minutes. It's not AO the the uh street he's talking about. It's Amart. Amar,

remember Ao and Amart goes all the way to the apartments at the college all the way down. Those are the apartments she's talking about at the end at uh Amar. Okay. So, don't take Hey, hey, don't don't take I'm I'm explaining, you know. Yes. Good. David, let's let's Okay, hold on. Let's start. Yeah, let's go ahead. We got us time back up. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Rios.

Uh, I was at Walnut Creek on Saturday, you know, everything fine and Danny and everything. The only problem is that the sign and I talked to Daniel this uh tonight before we we came in. I showed him the way the sign was on Saturday. They didn't fix it up. They didn't clean it up and everything. I got a couple of phone calls from the neighborhood. You don't know what sign you're I'm talking about, Manny? No sir. The right the the college.

Okay.

I clean it up before I came today. I showed it to Daniel. Okay. But you know, everything was fine in Danny, but I got a couple phone calls from the neighborhood to let me know. You know, everything was fine in Danny, but you know what? What happened to the sign? How come they didn't clean it up? So, uh, going around the city, we're just trying to get some more trash all over the place again, you know, and I usually call public works who I'll call Carlos. Saturdays and Sundays, we're getting a lot of vendors again. Especially this past weekend, we had a bunch of vendors on Saturday and on uh Sunday. Sunday was the worst one. We had vendors all over the place on Bass and uh Merced and Big Dalton. Uh but you know, it's getting out of control. We need to get some some on Sundays, too. You know, we need to get uh I talked to Carlos. I told him, "You guys have to talk to your bosses and let's get some done on on Sundays, too." You know, we don't want to be looking like uh El Monte or Quente where you have uh vendors all over the place. I go around the cities visiting uh people in Buente, West Coina, El Monte, and everything. Monte is getting worse and worse every day. But uh we don't want that in Bowen Park. We take pride on our city. You know, it's like I've been mentioning, we need to fix uh city hall. We're not fixing city hall is is

starting to look like trash again. We need to straighten up a sidewalk right here in front of the fountain. And then I was up on the second floor. We need to fix up second floor, too. You know, it's something that you guys have to look at. I come from an environment that is very I was very strict on on clean this. That's why that's why I see everything. Okay. Time is up, Mr. Rios. Okay. But thank you very much. We appreciate you bringing these matters to our attention. Okay. Los Angeles. Fasclo forchech.

Um there are these u little homes for the uh the houses of the homeless right there by boatel 6. Uh it's been 6 months now and uh we got to get rid of them otherwise other people are going to keep coming. Uh the homeless are going to keep coming. We don't want it to look like Elmani or Los Angeles right there at 3344 Frasier. I've told Carlos and um you know he's been telling me that for some time now that this case is in process. Uh the the man there at the uh shop, he also complains regarding uh vermin or rats. Uh Carlos doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. Um it looks it looks rather ugly there. There's a lot of cars, a lot of junk cars, just everything. I have a picture or pictures I can uh uh get them to you. Uh it seems like uh the city is buying a lot of expensive things or spending a lot of uh money on stuff for the city, the police, the yard, but uh nothing is being done regarding uh streets, the sidewalks. Uh nothing is being done. Let's not let the um the uh city uh um you know go down. Let's let's keep going forward, moving forward.

Thank you for that. Anyone else? Public communications definitely closed now. I'm just Oh, good evening, Mr. Tut. Long time we haven't seen you. [laughter] You pay off for that one. Oh,

must have been Manny, right? [laughter] Okay. Um, I'm here tonight on the BP measure charade of this city stealing the money from supposed to be for the citizens. Now, so far you've taken $9.6 million out for the general fund. 6 million I know you guys got to pay this lawsuit out. The other 3.6 million was for the um general fund for 2526. This isn't what this is meant for. Also, the 6 million you're not you're paying it no interest. You're costing the BP measure fund $456,000 in interest for the year by taking this money out. I see no plans of how the city's going to pay it back because the city's not making more money. They keep going in deficit every year. Now then the um the thing with the uh 20 22 resolution, the list of what you were supposed to do when you told all the people that to pass this was to do public parks, fa facilities safe and clean, street maintenance, traffic management, police response for schools, gang and prevention. You did all that, but you didn't tell them all this whole list of stuff that you guys have been stealing the money for, which is close to $3 million for the police department. And you know what the citizens got out of this? $71,000 for the three years, but the police got $3 million out of the thing. This committee is put up with they're just puppets of the council. The council says, "We need to vote on this. you need to do this. Why do we have the committee? We should even have this committee. You guys should just vote on

this stuff because you're just taking all this money out. You're not doing it for the citizens to where you should be improving for the citizens. I don't see anything of any business loans that you've helped the businesses out. Create jobs, business retention, business development, business loans, uh neighborhood cleanups, housing support, senior housing, sidewalks. Well, we know all about sidewalks. City's getting sued for sidewalk problems. That money there setting in there the millions of dollars should be used for that. But no, we're paying a lawsuit with no interest and then we're taking 3.6 to make the budget good for 2526. You guys need to understand this is not a honeypot. And since you this committee does nothing but say do whatever the council wants, why don't we just wipe it out? You're wasting staff time to come in there that what maybe once or twice a month to have a meeting. Let's save some money. Let's see a budget. Let's get a budget that's balanced and let's get it cleaned up and let's not let's cut the budget. Let's cut the added cost that this city is doing. Okay, got my time up. Thanks. See you.

Thank you. Good seeing you as well, Mr. Tuttle. Anyone else wishing to speak uh before we close public communications? You see, Mr. Tuttle, no one wants to follow you, right? See, see no interest, I'll now close public communications. All right. So, I will just address a couple of things. So, so I know that there's a lot of uh sidewalks that need repairs. Uh just so that the community is aware, we are currently working on potentially 400 uh sidewalk repairs. Um and if you drive around the city, you'll see some of those sidewalk repairs. I mean, obviously, we're not going to be able to get to every single sidewalk at the same time, but that is our goal. And you know, our public works director's been really busy trying to focus on making sure we get to as many sidewalks as possible. Um, in reference to the um, uh, Amar and Berm Park Boulevard and then Miss Rubio, I've already addressed you. We're going to go ahead and make sure we hold a community uh, meeting out in the Walnut Creek area. Um, that is and then Mr. uh able um obviously you know whatever code enforcement cases are there there's a process for that but we'll make sure that we look into that as well. Anyone else have any questions or comments in regards to public speaking? No. Do you want to address something council?

No, you already did. Perfect. All right. So now we're moving on to our consent calendar. City Council, anyone wishing to pull items from the consent calendar?

No one. Mayor. Yes, sir. Uh, can I pull item number five? Item five. Okay. Anyone else wish you to speak at uh to any items? Also, sorry. Also number number eight. Okay. So, five and eight. Mayor, as a friendly reminder, everything is under consent calendar today. So, you can you can adopt items 1 uh through 15 excluding five and 8. Yes. So, that's right. We changed this. So, okay. So, we're going to um So, does anyone make want to make a motion to approve items 1 through 15 excluding item five and eight? I'll make a motion.

Do I hear a second? And I am going to abstain for the record on item. Is there a housing authority here? Look. Yes. So item 11. I'm going to abstain from item 11. And that's because my commercial landlord is on the warrants, right? It should be item number item 13. 13. Oh, yes. The warrants and demands. I'm sorry about that. So I'm going to obtain from item 13. Housing authority warrants and demands. Sorry. So, we have a point of clarification. Are we pulling item 13? No, I could just abstain for the record, right? Or correct. Yeah. Like you're saying your votes going to be yes, but then abstain on item 13.

Correct. Yes. Cuz it's on consent that you don't need to. Yeah. So, we had a motion by who? Uh, council member Estrada, second by council member Avia. Perfect. Can we get city roll? Yeah. To adopt items 1 through 4, 6, 7, 9 through 15. Uh, council member Avila. Council member Estrada. Yes. Council member Lozano. Yes. Mayor Protoayala. Yes. Mayor Damian. Yes. And uh abstaining from item 13. Noted. Thank you. Motion carries 50 with the exception of item 13 passes with 401. Perfect. Thank you for that, city clerk. Council, uh the floor is yours. Uh

thank you, mayor. [clears throat] So very excited to see item number five finally hit the the the agenda. I know I kind of got ahead on it and you know submitted it right away, but you know I just um it's really really to me it's really important to make sure that we are highlighting people that have come before us. People have kind of set the path for all of us to be up here uh whether we regardless of whether we know them or not. And I know that um you know we've talked about this and I and it's one of the reasons that we worked on Anamonteo Park to make sure that you know parks are not just providing us what we need which is green space but also they could be a way to teach people and create civic pride in our in our community. And as uh you know as women's history month uh you know comes close I think it's important to acknowledge you know women leaders that have set the the the path for the rest of us and one of those women is Adelina Gregory and she was uh Balling Park's first appointed mayor in the city of Ballen Park. first first uh one mayor served over close to 12 years here on the council. Uh but be but beyond that she was a uh really a trailblazer. She was a part of the public transit uh efforts here in Bal Park and also regionally she is the reason she is one of the main uh reasons and and spearheaded a lot of the efforts to get away from county park services and have Balden Park um have their own park service which is our recreation community services department. Um, and so I think it's just fitting to have a park named after her, but also to acknowledge all the great things she's done. Uh, not just the first woman uh, mayor of the city of Bal Park, but also the first chair, the first woman chair of the ICA, Independent Cities Association, and also first woman chair of the uh, rapid transit authority uh, on public transit along with many other uh, accomplishments which I've listed through, you know, some heavy research I did, but uh, I don't want to hold it on further. I just wanted to make sure like highlight that that item and the importance that is beyond it. I know that uh roadside park is you know far from completion. Uh but you know I just

think that the idea that we've kind of set u set with animal park where we name something and we actually incorporate that person's legacy into those projects uh is is really an important one. Often times we walk into a building with a name on it and we have no idea who that person is or why that building was named after them. And you know just wanting to change that and really creating that civic pride and keeping B park history alive here in our city. Thank you for that information. Uh, Council Member Stella, does anyone have any questions or comments regarding item number five? No. Do you want to make a motion? Council, I'll make a motion to approve item number five.

There's a motion by council estrada and a second by council member Aila. Council member Aila. Council member Estrada. Yes. Council Lozano. Yes. Mayor Payala. Yes. Mayor Damian. Yes. Motion carries 5. Thank you for that, city clerk. And council member Stella, I just want to say thank you for the detailed information and the history on uh Mrs. Gregory. So, thank you for that. All right, moving on to item number eight. Council member, you have the floor.

Thank you, mayor. Another uh speaking of parks. So, I know that this is a pretty urgent item. We've heard from Daniel and and city staff, and so I just wanted to reiterate that we uh really, you know, make sure that we take advantage of these funds to make sure that we don't lose them, that we create efficiency. I know that we have lots of lots of needs for the residents in the community, but I also am aware that staff has a lot of needs and I want to make sure that we really encourage you to take advantage of the funds. You know, if you find ways to augment and find ways to get these delegated to make sure that we are keeping on track with everything that we need to, right? Especially because these are grant funding and we don't want to lose these dollars nor kind of a, you know, have a u when we apply for further funds from those agencies, we want to make sure that we're in good standing. Thank you for that. Council Stella, does anyone have any questions or comments on item number eight? Oh. Uh, council, you want to make a motion?

Sure. I'll make a motion to approve item number eight. A second. We have a first and a second. We have a motion to adopt item number eight. Motion made by council member Estrada, second by Mayor Bamayala. Council member Aila. Council member Estrada. Yes. Council member Lozano. Yes. Mayor Bamayala. Yes. Mayor Damian. Yes. Item eight passes. Uh 5-0. Perfect. Thank you for that. City clerk. We are now down to Yeah, we're done. All right. We're down to city clerk, city council, I'm sorry, city council, city clerk, city treasur, staff request and communications. Before I adjourn, does any uh city council members have any um any comments or direction?

I just uh mayor may

Yes, go ahead. I want to request uh for hopefully the first meeting in March, I'll verify with the team for the Sarista High School wrestling team um winning their ninth consecutive year as league champs. So, I would like to invite the team over. I know they have um uh uh one of the wrestlers that placed fourth in CIF, he's going to Masters this weekend. So that's why we have to wait until then to see if he's how he does a masters and hopefully he'll go to state. But yes, I would like to put him on the agenda for the first meeting. Um it's a big group so we could not have a lot of presentations that day and from here please.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea and I think another big group just one big group please. And I think uh as a matter of fact, I think uh I had told Manny, our city manager to um there was a few teams from both Boulder Park High School and Sarah Vista who made CIF. So what we're going to do is we're going to try to kind of get get them scheduled into different council meetings, bring them in. So we'll add the uh wrestling team to that list of CIFs and then we'll just bring them in a staggering meeting so that we don't have them at the same time. That way they don't lose the spotlight, right? Yeah. We want to make sure we recognize all of our all of our youth. they they do work hard enough to uh you know to to place in these CIF championships and counc

thank you mayor [clears throat] um uh so American Legion is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year I know we've been uh recently we've gotten pretty involved with them and helping them overcome the pandemic um I know that right now we are in a tough situation and we aren't able to fully help them have their independent uh events but I was uh hoping that it'd be a reasonable idea to see if we there's a way to incorporate them to one of our relevant events uh so that we can join in the celebration for the American Legion which is the only standing uh veteran or brick and mortar here in the city of B park since we no longer have the BFW. That was that was one. And then uh second uh Assembly Member uh Salace has a bill that he is proposing called the AHAP pathway for cities act which pretty much facilitates uh for smaller cities and medium-sized cities to access or apply for homeless homeless funds uh rather than going through the county or through the regional agencies which you know it it uh really slows us down and it just creates a lot of uh just uh creates a strain on our on our on our ability to provide services. So, I'd like to uh be able to write a letter of support for that bill uh as a city.

What What was your first request, Council Member? Um to see if there's a way to incorporate the celebration of American Legion's 100th anniversary into one of our events if there's a relevant one. Perfect. We'd have to double I'd have to double check, but before I reach out, I just want to make sure before I connect everybody, I want to make sure that that was something that was We have a few opportunities. Fourth of July andor one of the concerts I think are well well attended so we can honor them up on stage at any of those events. So yeah I support both of those requests. Council U council member Lozano do you have any? Yeah.

Yeah. Just want to um address the issue with Metro Village. Obviously project's been there 15 years. So I'll ask um the council proves over to Miss Tam to find out the financial aspect of it. What have they paid? uh what was agreed upon back then and where are we at at this point with them? We could do that. I'd appreciate that. Got that. Okay. All righty. Thank you, M. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. And I think uh Rose, I think that's the same request uh or you know uh update to the request that has been made to where we want to know what what what the finances looks like. So either I think at that time we requested you can send it to us individually by email and if we have further uh further questions then maybe we can agendaize it for a a close session meeting. Um and if not then we can just bring it to a close session meeting just so that we're all aware and updated as to where we're at financially with that project.

Yes, mayor and city council members uh I and my staff have been working with room staff very closely. We are almost there. We have been pressing them. Finally, we got the audited financial statement. We are working to us. We are waiting for their confirmation to uh put the outcome together and we'll email to all of you. Then we can decide it from there. If you have any question or decided to go to discuss further in the close session. Yes, please.

Thank you very much. We are almost there. Good. Because it's been a long time, but I Yes. So, thank you for that, Rose. Uh, thank you, Council Lozano. Uh, Mayor Potm Ayella, do you have any

All right. So, I do have just uh so one I want to say to to staff, you know, thank you very much and a great job for the uh Greenway ribbon cutting uh event that you guys had. You guys did an amazing job out there. It was good to see so many people out there and the excitement from the community, you know, that are now wanting to enjoy that new uh uh pathway. So, I want to thank you guys for the great job that you guys do, all of you guys. And then we do have a know your rights um workshop. The city of Baltimore Park is hosting anformational community workshop led by the immigration resource center of San Gabriel Valley. This session is designated or I'm sorry, designed to provide general information about individual rights and available resources for community members impacted by immigration enforcement actions including ICE activity. This is going to be on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at the Julia McNeel uh Senior Center. So, you know, come out and uh take advantage of these resources if you are in need of this. Um, I am going to read this in Spanish just for any of our Spanish uh listeners if anyone's listening. the control Senior Center, Baldin Park Boulevard and Baldwin Park, California. Um, that's all I have for you tonight. Excuse me, mayor.

Yes. Sorry. I just would like to add to your announcement that I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm so sorry. Yes. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yes. I would like to add that uh they could join virtually if they're not able to attend or feel comfortable to attend in person. Oh, perfect. Thank you for Oh, yes. I missed that QR code. Thank you for that. U Maria and so thank you for that. I didn't even see that. Thank you, Maria. All right. And go ahead, Mary. Go ahead.

Thank you very much. Um I just want to quickly just say thank you to public works um for these last couple of days when it's been raining and it's been storming, especially last night. It was crazy um with all the wind. I I just want to say thank you to public works for being out there in in odd hours of the night cleaning up the washes and and doing their their cleanup um you know as best as they could with the weather that we had. So I just want to say a quick thank you to them for for being out there and being proactive with that. And also thank you to PD for being out and doing the rounds. I have been seeing an increase of uh patrolling in the in the area up and down especially of Merced because it does get pretty dark during the nights. I have a tendency of going out at at we hours of the night to walk my dog because she needs to use the restroom. So, you know, I'm I'm glad that I'm seeing our patrol units going out there and and doing what they need to be doing. So, thank you very much.

Thank you for that. City uh treasure city clerk, do you have any comments?

Yes, Mayor. I just wanted to add some. Um, so I know that one of our residents came to to speak about um like getting better communication and and um I do have to um admit that I'm fortunate and my family is fortunate that we've never had to use dialeride. Um, so I'm not familiar with how the the process of calling, but I'm I'm curious that if I don't even know if there's a wait when you call, but if on the wait line there can be an announcement that references the community meeting when that community meeting is scheduled to ensure that people who are calling to get battle ride services are aware at the point of calling that there's a community meeting scheduled. also hopefully put some flyers within the vehicles that people who are calling Dioride know that there's a meeting going to happen and then um and then probably on the buses as well. But again, I'm not familiar with Dialeride if it's the same vehicles that are used all the time. But um I I would just be a suggestion um after speaking with a resident who who really believes that there's um a lack of communication. Um the lastly um just because it's in my wheelhouse and it's things that I deal with every single day. I know that the last time that Romani came well before he left and presented uh the chamber uh the chamber remodel and he gave the price point we were actually just a point of just a point of knowledge so that you guys can keep in mind is it was in May of 2025. So it was 2 months into the volatility of the supply chain with tariffs on China 100 the tariffs on China were 179%. Which meant the furniture that we would buy for chambers was taxed an additional 179%. So now that the tariff rate has dropped effectively like 130% to about 45% in we should be able to negotiate better rates on furniture from our contractors because we don't have that volatility in tariffs. just something to keep in mind when negotiating and negotiating our future contract and it's just things

that I deal with every single day. So, um just wanted to share that. That's it. Thank you for that. If you need help negotiating, I'm happy to do it.

Thank you for that for that input, that information. Um so, we'll have it if if we're able to get Dialeride um to maybe make that announcement once we have the meeting scheduled, have Dialeride make the announcement on their uh recorded line when they when they call. That is a good idea. And then Daniel again, you know, once we start when you bring back the the chambers project to us, uh, you know, the fact that city clerk just brought that up, uh, makes a lot of sense to, you know, put that in there when we're looking at our cost analysis to bring the cost down of that. So, thank you. Thank you, city clerk. Appreciate your input and your informative information. Right. Seeing that there's no other comments, I will now make a motion to adjurnn. I second. Meeting is adjourned. Good night, everyone.