City Council - Regular Meeting

City staff, the MPT is speaking.

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Roll call, Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council Member Rojas. Present. Council Member Deer.

Present.

Council Member Hilton. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Hicks.

Present.

Mayor Davis-Holmes. Present. Thank you.

We'll have a flag salute by our Councilwoman. To the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, our nation,

Thank you.

I'm not going to even try this. Vocation by an elder from Harbor Community Church of God. And please .

Thank you. It's Elder from Harbor Community Church of God. I'd like to thank you for this, you know, for allowing me to even come forth to even pray. You know, it's an honor and a privilege to come before the council members of the city of Carson and the cabinets also. If you'd like to bow your heads, I'd like to open up in prayer. Thank you, Father, for this day, Father God, as we come before you, Father, this day, Father God, for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, Father. We pray, Father God, that as they come together as one, Father God, that unity will be brought forth. We come against any wickedness and any power which will cause them to hinder away and bring strife and strife. and arguments issues father god but we pray father god that your holy spirit will rest upon each and every council member the mayor and everyone in in this house father god so father we give you all praise and all glory father god that your will will be done in the city of carson we thank you father god for this day in the mighty name of jesus we pray amen thank you elder um

Madam Clerk, are there any comments on closed session items?

No, Madam Mayor.

Announcement of closed session, Mr. City Attorney.

Yes, ma'am. The City Council will move into closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 . TO CONFER WITH LEGAL COUNSEL REGARDING PENDING LITIGATION TO WHICH THE CITY OF CARSON IS A PARTY. THE TITLE OF SUCH LITIGATION IS AS FOLLOWS. ISAIAH POLITO VERSUS CITY OF CARSON CASE NUMBER 24STCV14430. AND ISAIAH POLITO VERSUS CITY OF CARSON WCAB NUMBER ADJ 18022950. City Council will also move into closed session to discuss two anticipated litigation matters pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 or and because there is a significant exposure to litigation in two matters. And City Council, we have one more matter that is a subsequent need that arose after the posting of the agenda that we will need to add to the closed session and that will be held also pursuant to government code section 54956.9D2, D3 and E1 because there's a significant exposure to litigation and we cannot wait till the next session. So moved. Second. Thank you, Your Honor.

It's been moved and probably seconded. Is this the roll call vote?

Yes. Council Member Rojas. Council Member Deer? Yes. Council Member Hilton? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Hicks? Yes. Mayor Davis-Holmes? Yes. Motion carries.

Okay, we're going to recess the closed session. We should be back within an hour by 610. I think our city attorney is supposed to be joining. I'll discuss it in closed session. Okay. We're in recess. We're in recess in the kitchen, but it's... We'll try it this time. Rules of Decorum. No person attending a public meeting shall engage in disorderly or boisterous conduct, including but not limited to applause, whistling, stamping of feet, booing, or making any loud, threatening, profane, abusive, personal, or slanderous utterance that disturbs, disrupts, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting. Shh! All remarks by members of the public shall be addressed to the mayor or the chair and not to any other member of the public or any other single council, board, or commission member unless in response to a question from the member. Signs, placards, banners, or other similar items shall not be permitted in the audience during a public meeting if the presence of such item disturbs, disrupts, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting. All persons attending a public meeting shall remain seated in the seats provided unless addressing the body at the podium or entering or leaving the meeting. All persons attending a public meeting shall obey any lawful order of the proceeding officer to enforce the rules of decorum. Treat everyone courteously. Listen to others respectfully. Exercise self-control. Give open-minded considerations to all viewpoints. focus on issues and avoid personalizing debate embrace respectful disagreement and dissent as democratic rights that are inherent components of an inclusive public process and roles for forging sound decisions we're reconvening to open session um madam mr city attorney report out on full session items please

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The city council met and closed session on existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.91. in the matters titled ICS Pulido versus City of Carson, case number 24STCV14430, and ICS Pulido versus City of Carson WCAV number ADJ18022950. There's no reportable action on that matter. The city council also met on anticipated litigation and held closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D2, D3, and E1. and also on a subsequent need matter pursuant to that section, there's no reportable actions from those matters as well.

Thank you. Thank you. Introductions. Is Captain Norman here?

She's in the back.

She's in the back.

Okay, good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you for inviting us. We wanted to share what's been going on at Carson Station, and in the recent weeks, there's been some questions about the Carson Parks team, and I wanted to take a moment to just introduce the team. First, we have Sergeant Zinniga, who's been at, he's been actually at the Sheriff's Department for 21 years. at the SAL team for six months and four and a half years at Carson Station. Sergeant Zuniga supervises Deputy Sweeney and Deputy Hogan. Deputy Sweeney has five years sworn on the department and two years at Carson. He's been on the Carson Park teams for about four months. Deputy Holguin has eight years sworn and three years at Carson. He's been on the Parks team for four months. Our second SAL Team Sergeant is Sergeant Smith, who has been on the department for about 19 years, with two years at Carson Station and five months at the SAL Team. Sergeant Smith supervises Deputy Lang, who has six years on the department, two years at Carson. He's been on the Parks team about seven months. We also have Deputy Procida, who is currently at our SRT training, who has been sworn for about six years, four years at Carson, and one and a half years at the Parks team deputy. Do you have any questions for the team?

Well, thank you, team. I just wanted to see you. I know we started this program years ago. I was working as superintendent when it came aboard and just hadn't had the opportunity to see who was on our park enforcement team and to also, summer's past approaching and we got a lot of things that's going to be ending up in the parks and I talked to your captain and wanted to make sure that you were meeting with our park directors and all that good stuff and they know you on a first name basis really. I don't know if we have cell phones for them that the park staff can contact but This team is put together to make sure that our parks are safe and that our kids are safe and that everyone knows that we have a park enforcement team here in the city of Carson, which no other city has. So it's funded, and I just wanted to thank you, Captain, for bringing them to introduce to this body. Absolutely, ma'am. Thank you, Councilman Deer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yes. I want to thank you for your excellent report. As as always, we come to expect that from you. Now we're we're spoiled. So the park team is very effective. I'm a public school teacher. I'm retired, but I taught school in Carson and the young people in our community are no longer susceptible to the gang recruiting that took place in the parks previous to the creation of the pet team. So that alone is a tremendous success. And so I'm very happy with the great work that you do under the captain and lieutenant. And your park enforcement team is very dear to my heart because I'm the one that initiated the creation of the park enforcement team. When I was getting that... In order, we were told that that type of team didn't exist in L.A. County Sheriff's Department anywhere in Los Angeles County. Once it came into reality and became operational and the number of hundreds, maybe even after this over 20 years ago, maybe thousands of arrests for warrants and other issues occurred. that gang members and non-gang members may be committing crimes and the park enforcement team is there to prevent crime. And if it takes place, you're able to make the arrests that are necessary so more crime doesn't take place by those individuals. So... I know that you're able to make the park safe. And the people who lived in Carson for a long time, we in the 1980s and the 90s were faced with a dilemma. Pretty much every park in Carson was being claimed by a local gang. They claim the park for themselves. And so one day I was a new council member, I was elected in 2001. I was in what was Scott Park, now it's Paseo Park. And there was a young lady, about 20 years old, Hispanic woman, pushing a baby carriage. And so, you know, I'm a new council person. I'm trying to meet all my constituents. And I introduced myself to her. And she said, oh, you're a council member? I said, yes. And she said, well, I was just told to get out of the park. Now, she's by herself with her baby in her baby carriage. And I said, who told you to get out of the park? She said, those guys. And there were a group of guys hanging out kind of near the swimming pool area, the aquatic center. And they were wearing these long white T-shirts down to their knees. And that was like, it's a style at the moment, I guess. And she said they told her to get out of the park. Now, think about this. She was no threat to them. Zero threat. But they told her to get out of their park. So when that happened, I formed a citizens committee. I wasn't even the mayor yet. And the citizens committee was anyone who wanted to join. At the council meetings like this, I would ask people to come to the meeting. So we formed this citizens committee and we came up with various ideas. Oh, should we have deputies on horseback? Should we do this or that? And all these ideas came up. And we came up with the idea of a park enforcement team. At the time, it was one sergeant and eight deputies. So when it was brought to the city council, the cost of that in 2002 was about $900,000 additional that the city of Carson would have to pay the county for the sheriff's park enforcement team creation. Council members didn't want to spend that amount of money, and sometimes, just like in the education industry, in the law enforcement industry, there are experts, maybe people who tell you how you should do your job, even though they haven't been a deputy or in the front lines for years, or maybe never, because they have a couple PhDs, and they're telling you how you should do your job. So I was told it's an inefficient use of money. But, you know, there's intangibles involved with spending taxpayers money. And one of them was removing the recruiting grounds for gang members. The parks no longer are recruiting grounds because of you. So, gentlemen, I know there's often ladies on the parks enforcement team as well. You do a tremendous service to the city of Carson. The future of the city of Carson is so much better without these gang members laying claim to our parks. Well, I couldn't get the council members to vote for it. And so then a terrible tragedy took place in Scott Park. A gang member from Scottsdale went over to what was Scott Park and there was a t-ball game. There was a league, it was primarily Samoan t-ball league, kind of their own league. The gang member started shooting a handgun I don't know, in the air toward the crowd. Nobody got hit with that first bullet, but it caused a tremendous panic, you can imagine. So one of the coaches, unarmed, chased the gunman out of the park. But the gunman crossed the street, turned around, fired at the coach, hit him in the abdomen, paralyzing him for the rest of his life. When that happened, this room that you're in right now was packed full of people. And my colleagues couldn't wait to create the park enforcement team. So sometimes a tragedy has to take place, but you know, the park enforcement team is a preventative measure. You prevent so much crime from taking place because of the great work you do. So I can't say enough about how important you are to the city of Carson, and I want to thank you for listening. Now you've got a little history lesson. I know one of my colleagues doesn't like to hear the history, but I think it's important that we understand where it came from, how it was created, and how effective it is, because you are a fantastic group. And I believe... Gloria Molina, when she was a supervisor, she copied the Carson Station park team and tried to get it into other stations in her supermatorial district as well. So there may be other park enforcement teams in LA County, Sheriff, I'm not sure. Do you know, Captain?

I'm not aware, sir.

Offhand, yeah. But again, great job, and I really, really respect you, and you're much appreciated by all the people in the city of Carson. Thank you very much for being here tonight.

Thank you. Captain, if memory serves me correctly, you were.

On that team. On that team. And responded on that day.

And you responded on that day. And I just want to really thank Mayor Daryl Sweeney for putting this team together. He was the mayor of the city of Carson at that time. So sometimes we kind of forget. But I want to thank Mayor Daryl Sweeney for putting the team together. And now I want to turn it over. But I used to call her my little quarterback. And now she's the captain because she was the first female that was on. I think you're the first female, right?

We had one before me, but I was second.

You were second. Well, that's close enough. Councilwoman Rojas.

Well, thank you so much, and thank you all for being here. Your ears must be ringing because right before the meeting, I said, you know what? Make sure that we have our parks team show up this Saturday. So aside from doing all that you do to make sure that our parks are and the community are safe, i want to make sure that you show up this saturday i know you're all invited at the philippine independence day celebration at saturday june 6 7 30. we're honored you're always there every year but we would like you to be part of the parade wouldn't that be great you need to be part of the parade get your team there as many uniformed officers as possible that could show up and and you know let's make it a grand day a happy day where the community and law enforcement gather together as one celebrating something special so again once again thank you all for being here and we'll see you this saturday thank you so much thank you you have more to report yes ma'am yes

And without remiss, I'd also like to add that Lieutenant Lumpkin supervises the team of the two sergeants as well as our SAL deputies who are not here and our Parks team and our host deputies. So moving forward, I also wanted to mention on May 21st, Lieutenant Lumpkin attended the Carson Town Hall meeting at FOSIA along with the SAL and Parks team on the 29th. I attended the Youth Summit with Mayor Lula Davis Holmes, as well as Council Member Deer. The theme was Lead to Be Inspired, Impactful, and Limited, and that was actually also Director Michael Whitaker was there as well. I appreciate you guys inviting me to that. On the 30th, we had a LASD Explorer graduation, class 114, and in attendance to that was Sergeant Moranen and Deputy Valdez. We had three Explorers graduate. On the 30th of May, we had a street racing enforcement operation where we conducted an operation. We had a felony arrest. five misdemeanors, a site, three vehicles stored, and eight infraction citations written. There were some traffic concerns regarding violations within the vicinity of Meadbrook and Rainsbury. Our two motors conducted enforcement in that area that resulted in 17 citations for failure to stop, a warning and a citation for operating a motor vehicle with a cell phone without handspring device. I wanted to make two public safety announcements. One is for the e-bikes that's been kind of coming up in the city of Carson and just reminding our residents and our juveniles to be safe as they're riding on the e-bikes. We've had safety reminders on our social media platform. and I'd like to direct you to LASD Carson on Instagram. In addition to that, we've had a series of chain snatches in which I wanted to bring alertness to our elders and families because we've had residents victimized with these chain snatches, and reminding everyone to be aware of your surroundings, walk in well-lit areas, trust your instinct, and avoid displaying large sums of money, jewelry, and cell phones. Most important, if you see something, say something. And please call Carson Sheriff Station at 310-830-1123. And if it's an emergency, please call 911. Last but not least, wanted to give an update as far as our part one crimes. We are continuing to trend down at a negative of 15.2% as far as part one crimes, and that's ending through May 31st of 2026. Are there any questions?

M.P.T. ?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Captain Norman, for that information. I just want to piggyback on the e-bike information, I guess, to the city manager. I think our beach cities have put together some ordinances because I know through the South Bay Cog, we've had some discussion regarding e-bikes and the issue has been on the boardwalk at Redondo Beach and then riding through and also Redondo Beach by the Redondo Beach High School. So there is some language that we probably need to put into place to bring back to this body to address how they can be regulated in our city based upon age. Because I think some of the ages have been younger than should be in riding some of these e-bikes in our community. And that sidewalk is never the case for any of these e-bikes. And I just think that at some point in time, Just wanted to bring that back to this body and how we can actually kind of help in regulating e-bikes because I didn't think it was going to become a bigger issue for our city, but I see it becoming more and more prevalent in our community, as well as electric scooters as well.

Yes, we do have existing law, but anything that you create that's specific for e-bikes that'll kind of meet those voice in the law would be very helpful.

Thanks.

Yes. Yes. Councilman do you.

Regarding the captain, thank you regarding the bikes Is there anything the city can do as far as an ordinance is concerned to assist like Mayor Pro Tem was talking about? Because the e-bikes are very prevalent and these electric scooters seem to be more and more every week it seems like. So is there a different enforcement mechanism for e-bikes as opposed to regular pedaled bikes with human pedaling. Because people with pedaling bikes, they often go through a stop sign because there's no traffic anywhere around, or they do it because they can see everywhere real clearly and they feel safe. They're supposed to follow the vehicle code of the state of California. But the e-bikes, are they approached differently by the deputies?

Well, we do have existing vehicle code law. What happens with the e-bikes, our technology is going beyond what we actually have as far as existing vehicle code violations. So an ordinance would be helpful in kind of honing down on some of the behavior of residents that choose to ride the e-bikes that go beyond what the existing vehicle code says. But that's something that I would work directly with public safety in order to help present, say, an ordinance or something else.

I see. Well, maybe the mayor could bring something forward working with you to make that happen, because we want to want to be on top of this. You know, technology is always changing and government seems to be lagging behind. I'm not just talking about local government, but state and federal government lagging behind. And then one other point, correcting the record, when we voted to create the park enforcement team, I had to convince the then mayor, Darryl Sweeney, to vote with me on that. And I was able to convince him and it helped to get the majority vote that I needed. But he didn't vote for it the first time, but he did the second time. Thank you.

Convenient memory. Dr. Hilton.

Thank you so much. One of the things about history, it's his story. You know, it's your story. So I just want to throw that there to the history teacher. You can always create your story, his story, her story. So I wanted to hone in to the mugging that happened on termite. I know everything is still under investigation, but I want to make our residents feel heard and seen right now to kind of, you know, I've been seeing increased patrols in the neighborhood and I'm grateful for that. Just kind of, would you give us a snippet on what's happening right now of you guys being proactive? I know you can't give me an update on the case, But like what you guys are doing back and forth between the Walmart shopping center and Termine and, you know, because seniors like to walk freely and they should be able to walk freely in their neighborhoods.

I absolutely agree that seniors, families, mothers, children should be able to walk freely. We do have, like I said, several public safety reminders on our social media. What I will say as far as that particular case is concerned, we have been in direct contact with the family as early even as today. We've talked to them as far as that particular situation, the investigation. is continuing, it is ongoing, and we can talk offline as far as where it actually stands.

Councilwoman. Thank you. And as far as that incident, just piggybacking on yours, I want to thank the community for all the ring cameras that everyone has on that street. It really does help when you have those cameras and share it with the Sheriff's Department so that that can help in finding our suspects. So I just want to thank everyone that uses that and surveillance cameras. I know on the last meeting I did ask for a list or like a study for tickets and citations and warnings for the e-bikes, e-scooters, and the, I don't know what the other one's called, that's really loud. They're like mopeds, but anyway. If we could get that, if you can get that work up, a work study on how many citations that we do give out for that, I think that would be helpful for our city in creating better safety measures on those e-bikes.

Okay, I'll definitely speak with Kristen to find out exactly what you're asking for. Thank you. As far as the different vehicles that you're referring to.

Well, thank you, my captain. Yes, ma'am. And we'll see you soon.

Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Yes.

E-bike?

Madam Mayor. Yes, e-bikes. We have been in constant communication in regards to e-bikes. They have been a huge problem for our parks here in the city of Carson. We have been renovating the parks. We have been changing out the basketball courts and the tennis courts and putting in new surfaces in those areas. And unfortunately, they are actually using their bikes to hook slide, break really, really hard. We have black marks on some of our courts that we've just spent an enormous amount of money on. And so I brought it to the Parks and Recreation Commission as an item last week. We did discuss it last week. I have had a meeting with our director, Nora Garcia of Public Safety. We had a meeting and we have created a group that we have included all of our center supervisors with. So anything that's happening on the park is gonna go into that thread. We are meeting with the Sheriff's Department in regards to that. We have pulled other ordinances from other cities that we're looking at right now so that we can currently complete our city ordinance in regards to what some of the other cities have dealt with. And so, Our director Nora Garcia has done an enormous amount of work with myself in regards to working on kind of controlling these e-bikes. One suggestion that she had that was really great is we're going to start an educational campaign first to make sure that we get the community involved so that they understand exactly what's going on because some of the bikes that they have, people think that they're regular electric bikes. but they're actually changing out some of the motors. They're actually motorcycles, and they drive them on our city streets and in our city parks, and it's becoming a nuisance at this particular point. So we are working on that. It has not gone unnoticed, and we are working to come up with some additional ways to curtail this particular problem.

Well, thank you for that information. I'm glad to see you guys are on top of this. Thank you, Madam Nora Garcia and Director Whitaker. Director Garcia, I should say.

So thank you.

The next we'll have a report from Captain Kane of the LA County Fire. Is he here?

Well, he's not here?

Well, I'll take this opportunity to do my own presentation then. since he's not here. First of all, let me personally thank all the residents who came out and voted on this known Measure FW. It passed. There will be no fireworks in the city of Carson. I'm excited about that because we had to campaign. And I want to remind everyone that there's a $500 fine if you're caught firing up any $500 reward. And fines can go up to $1,000 for illegal. But I want to thank everyone for the vote.

It goes to five.

It goes from one, two, three, four, five. Okay, 3,000. Fine. $500 reward for reporting. I don't know how I lost that five. $2,000, I lost $2,000, okay. And just thank you, everyone. This was never about winning or losing. It was about doing what I believe was right for the city of Carson and its people. for those who supported fireworks and carson whether it was for personal reason or political reason i appreciate that you acted according to what you believed in and that's what this was all about was what we believed in while we may disagree we are still one city one people And we're going to continue to work together to make Carson safer, more prosperous, and stronger together. And I just want to thank everyone for coming out, letting your voices be heard. And that's what democracy is all about. The measure did pass. fireworks in the city of Carson. We do want to invite everyone out for the 4th of July celebration. I think there's some flyers that are around right now. It's going to be a free digital fireworks show at Dignity Sports Park, free to all Carson residents. Bring your kids. There are going to be food, booths, entertainment, and the doors open up at 6 o'clock. We are doing something to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this great nation. but i also want to ask staff for next year i would like to see what it would cost to have for us to have something at in each one of the districts um are you already discussing every each one of the districts because we want to see how it works out of dignity but i think it would be great for us to give our residents options. Dignity will be doing the show, but we will be working with Dignity Sports Park on this. But I'm just excited about the fact. And if anyone knows me, I fight for what I believe in. And if it costs money, I put it there. If it costs talent, I put it there also. I am about the safety of the city. And we may not all agree. to my carpenters. We may not all agree, but we're one family. And it's all right to disagree. It's all right. But at the end, we come together as one family, one unit, and doing what we think is best. And the residents of Carson spoke. And they spoke loud and clear. Okay? Mr. City Manager, you have something to add?

No, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Well, I'd like for the, when we're doing our budget for next year, to look at what it costs to work with Dignity and also put these digital displays in each of the districts. We're going to have fireworks this year. We're going to have the digital show, but I can guarantee you somebody's going to be lighting up these fireworks. trying to say see city you can't stop it's not gonna stop overnight but understand if you get caught you're gonna be fined and we did issued 96 citations last year and I expect more to be issued this year because everything is illegal so be mindful and there are other ways to support but we did not want our city to become a Well, it's already a war zone, but Pacific Palisades and what they went through. I know a councilwoman said that one of the fires, if I'm not mistaken, was started by fireworks. So thank you, Carson. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for letting your voice be heard. And that is called the democratic process. My colleagues wanted it to go to the residents. It went to the residents.

Give me a high five.

Thank you. Next, we will have recognitions. Oh, yes. Everybody queued up. What's going on here? Councilman Deer. Is that you? No, not you?

No, I'm not queued up on that.

Okay. Councilwoman?

Oh, just again, thank you to the residents. And did you mention the drone light show that we're having? Yes, that is amazing. If anybody has ever seen those drone light shows, Vegas does it, a lot of big venues does it. Yeah, I hear it is costly. I think your idea of having something at every district, would be amazing to continue in celebrating July 4th. And I think a drone light show is that's the next step in our future. So thank you. Thank you to the residents who came out and voted.

Dr. Hilton.

Yes, Madam Mayor, I wanted to just say the same thing. Thank you for the residents who came out and voted. And just because we disagree on issues is still democracy. Doesn't mean we can't work together or anything like that. Doesn't mean we can't work together. It's an amazing thing. All we wanted at the end of the day was the people to decide. And the people did decide. So we stand on the side of the people wherever the people decide. So it was, it seems like it was a whole vote no. They had a whole lot of resources. And they did what they needed to do. And that's what election is all about. Making sure that your voice is heard. So, you know, hats off to every resident who voted. We appreciate you. And issues we may not always agree on, but one thing I believe that everybody on this council agrees with is moving Carson forward. So thank you. Incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

MPT.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Well, you talked about putting a show in every district. My recommendation, if it's feasible, to do the street fair like we did and shut down Carson Street in front of City Hall and do the drone show over the community center. And I think that will bring the entire community together in one location versus trying to split up the city in four different district pockets. We are one city, one location, one effort should be put into place. I know many of my residents I talked to were very passionate about having fireworks in the city, but I said, at some point in time, you've been lucky enough not to have had any major fires in the community. And I understand the concerns, but one of the things that really kind of made me more concerned was that when they came before this body and were asking about fireworks, not one person talked about family. I didn't hear anyone talk about having family gatherings. Everybody talked about nonprofits. And I said, if that was the case, you should have came and passionately talked about your families and wanted to be together. That never happened. So I'm pushing for us to actually have the street fair to bring families together. And I think the last time we had a street fair, It was very successful. Residents really enjoyed coming together in one location. And I think if you combine the funds that we may find to put that together and have a street fair that represents the city of Carson at 4th of July.

Okay, we'll think about that too. Thank you for that idea. Councilman, are you queued up again? Yes.

Yes.

I want to encourage people to go to the drone show. If you haven't seen a drone show on July 4th, you might be skeptical. But when you get there, you'll really enjoy yourself because the shows can be really spectacular, very beautiful, and they don't pollute the air. So that's the nice thing about it as well. I think that's important. But if we do do district by district, I'd like to have a drone show as opposed to fireworks.

Most definitely.

Yeah. But I like MPT's idea of having a central place, kind of like a unity day, so to speak, that type of thing where we have the street fair and the drone show. Because, you know, for a drone show to be effective, you can't have TREES BLOCKING THE VIEW OF PEOPLE. YOU GOT TO HAVE A BIG OPEN SPACE AND I THINK MAYBE THE CIVIC CENTER WOULD BE APPROPRIATE.

THAT'S IN COUNCIL DISTRICT THREE. I MEAN, FOUR. Council Member says, okay, thank you. So take note of this. We will be at Dignity Sports Park celebrating on July 4th. Doors open up at 6.30, and we're inviting our public out, free parking. Must be a Carson resident. And there are going to be shows all over, but Dignity is working with us, and I know they'll be working with us next year. I want to jumpstart our plans for next year early to the city manager and our director. We need to start early so we can...

Madam Mayor, point of information, you have to be a Carson resident to get free parking, right? Obviously, if you're not a Carson resident, but you come with a Carson resident, you're entitled to enjoy the show. They'll just check probably the driver's ID, maybe something like that. We don't want to tell visitors of Carson they're not welcome.

I don't want to turn away any Carson residents either. How are you handling this, Mr. City Manager, as far as Carson residents?

So children's ID, for instance, you're not going to be doing that. Madam Mayor, yeah, there is no sporting event at the Dignity Health that evening. So the parking lot will be open. So there won't be necessarily checking for residency. There's plenty of parking there, as you all know.

You're using the University also, or is it?

I'm sorry?

Are we gonna use the University parking for the overflow or not?

I don't know that it'd be necessary. There's a lot of space there.

Okay, okay. So thank you to Dignity and thank you for the staff for pulling this together as fast as you did. Okay, next we have is informational update on citywide enterprise permitting and licensing systems implementation.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. This is a report that will be provided from our director of finance, and I believe he's going to have staff to give a quick presentation for the new system that's going to be implemented.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, council members.

You're looking awfully sharp. What's going on?

That's his normal attire. He always looks sharp.

Thank you. On July 1st, 2025, the Revenue Division transitioned from the HDL software platform to the enterprise permitting and license software. The primary purpose of this transition was to provide a more efficient and user-friendly experience for the citizens and businesses of Carson, while also streamlining internal processes and making it easier for city staff to perform their duties. These efforts reflect the city's commitment to improving customer service, increasing operational efficiency, and leveraging technology to better serve our community. Today, we are pleased to provide an overview of the system highlight its key benefits, and discuss how it continues to enhance the customer and staff experience. I now bring up our revenue manager, Mr. Antonio Velasco, that will give an in-depth but brief presentation.

Thank you, Director Jefferson. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Term, members of council. I'm here to present the city's new business license software, Enterprise Permitting and Licensing, or EPNL as we like to call it for short, and its benefits for the citizens and the businesses of the city of Carson. As Director Jefferson mentioned, it did kick off last year on July 1st of 2025. So what are some of these benefits for the citizens of Carson? So it is a new software from Tyler. We're using other products within the city as well. But it creates an easy online platform for the citizens to go in there and pay their invoices, such as their business licenses. Also, it provides tools for streamlining their licenses, so they're able to receive them electronically now as well. And I'll go a little bit further into that detail later. We also mentioned about an improved workflow management. So it utilizes a lot of the new technology that's out there, such as GIS. So we could better get an accurate address for the businesses, from the citizens and everyone who's applying for licenses and permits. It tracks the history. So if you touch any portion of an account, it fingerprints it on there. So we're able to see who touched it and what actually took place. In addition to that, it has the capability to upload documents such as PDFs and we're able to view them, so it makes customer calls a lot easier to handle and quicker and more efficient. Its ability to configure to our agency is actually quite remarkable. We have a very robust city with many different types of businesses in there, which means a lot of different licenses and permits, and the software was able to handle all the different types of businesses that we have within our city. AND IT'S NOT JUST LICENSES AND PERMITS, BUT ALSO TOT AND BINGO ARE ALSO ABLE TO PROCESS WITHIN THERE. AND IT'S ALSO ABLE TO GENERATE CUSTOM REPORTS, MAKES THINGS A LOT EASIER, SUCH AS THE MONTHLY CUSTOM REPORT THAT COUNCIL SEES FOR NEW BUSINESSES THAT SHOW UP HERE IN THE CITY. I was mentioning about the citizens' ability to have the benefits here. So the online portion of this is actually called Civic Access. And so what that actually is, it's a secured website. Planning is currently using it as well. It's open 24-7, so they have access all the time. Citizens are able to go in there and pay their invoices for their business licenses and permits. And in addition to that, they'd actually file their business licenses and the permits electronically on there as well. Also, the improved workflow on our end is also the streamlining. So I mentioned that we have a couple of different title products within the city. Using the P&L software, it actually transitions the product between accounting, between cashiering. I can mention planning has been using it for about a year now as well before we have. So it just moves the information streamlessly across the board. As I mentioned, the benefits are mainly more for the citizens' online filing. They could pay their invoices online. The efficiency that it has that not only can citizens get their licenses here at the counter, we mail them out, but we could also send them out electronically, which saves them time. And that's the important thing. In addition to that, the improved workflow, like I mentioned, we're utilizing the technologies such as GIS and its workflow history. It goes across the other products that we're already currently using within the city. So it makes a beautiful package in here. I would like to thank my revenue team for all the help that they have provided throughout this year, including Director Carter, Andy Pong, and their IT team for all the help that they have provided us throughout this year as well. Thank you very much.

THANK YOU. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS FROM MY COLLEAGUES? THANK YOU FOR THAT REPORT.

I HAVE A QUESTION.

YES, COUNCILMAN.

OKAY. THANK YOU. I OCCUR WITH THE MAYOR THAT IT'S A VERY CLEAR REPORT AND REALLY IMPORTANT, YOU KNOW, ADVANCEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY FOR OUR CITY. SO THAT'S REALLY GOOD. I HAVE A QUESTION, HOWEVER, In the past 10 years, we've received many, many complaints from businesses that they have paid for their license at the beginning of the year and 10, 11, 12 months have gone by. They haven't got their actual physical license to put up on the wall where they're supposed to. And they actually get an invoice for the following year and they haven't got the last year's. So will this system cure that problem because it's an ongoing problem?

Yes, it will. And as long as there's no holds with outside of agencies like, say, fire or health department or anything like that, as long as everything's been cleared and they paid their invoice, then they will be going out.

OK, so these are businesses that have been here for many years. Year after year, they pay their business license permit. No necessary, not necessarily changes to their business. But if they have a new business, then they may have to have a health permit from the county if they're a food service business. or a fire inspection. So that could delay it as well?

Yes, because they have to get approval from them before we could clear the license.

So that way they are clear across the board. Yeah, because, you know, it's bureaucratic. We have a revenue division. We have, you know, code. We have plan checks, building and safety. We have the planning department, and they're all kind of waiting for each other sometimes. Will this system address the efficiency of that?

Yes, it will, because we could actually talk to planning electronically, and we could actually get approvals like that right off the bat. And we're also, such as the custom forms, it helps with our referral process as well to these outside agencies as well.

Excellent. Okay, well, thank you very much. It's good news.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Our city has joined us. How are you, Madam?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Next, the recognition for public information, we're gonna continue that item until the July 1st meeting, staff. Mr. City Manager. And item number eight is recognizing our newly created multimedia divisions for receiving a certificate of excellence from the California Association of Public Information Officials. This media division is brand new. It's headed by my two Lulu girls that were promoted. And you have a presentation? Yeah.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. Just wanted to be able to highlight as a, there's a brief presentation. I don't know, Raven, I don't know why she's back there. She's still wanting to take pictures. This is a division that we created in hopes to kind of stay within the technology aspect of multimedia. And these two individuals have exemplified really what multimedia is about and what it should be. There are efforts that they've actually handled over the last year has not gone unseen. They've touched every area within the city, continuing to increase the visibility of the city, help market the city, promote the city, as well as the city council, our residents, as well as the events that are within the city. just really thankful for all the work that they do they continue to provide the professionalism and the expertise to the city to showcase us the city of carson as the jewel of the south bay and with that without further ado i'll allow them to provide their brief presentation

Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council, all of the staff. Short presentation, we just wanted to come to the- And what's your name, young lady? I'm Aisha Horton. I am the Multimedia Manager for the Multimedia Division, and this is my partner, Raven Stain. She is the producer on the team.

Thank you.

You're welcome. We just wanted to present you guys with the award that we won. It's a certificate of excellence to the city of Carson for the 2025 State of the City video. We want to thank the city manager's office for all of the support. Of course, our talent, all of the wonderful directors here, city clerk, and of course, the star of the show, the mayor. We are a small but mighty team, and this is just the beginning. So thank you all for all of your support. If you have not seen the State of the City for this year, we have a small presentation. It's live on our YouTube channel, which is City of Carson CA. And you can follow us on all social media platforms at City of Carson CA.

Is it a video? Yes. Thank you.

If we could, Madam Mayor, we'd like to provide the presentation. Or is this a video? This is a video. We're going to restart it here.

And after the video, we'll join them down front, because we'll do our... Oh, make it long.

Okay, shoot, here we go.

This is an award for multimedia for the video they created, not for the video that's about to show. Just as a heads up.

Uh-oh. Multimedia.

Ultimate test of knowledge.

I'm your mayor, Lula Davis Holmes.

The game where the answer to winning it all is knowing it all. Papa John's pizza.

I know this. What is TikTok?

The city of Carson's 2026 state of the city, Carsonarity is streaming now on YouTube and Carson TV. Check it out.

So that was just a small snippet of what we've been doing each year. We try to put some excitement to the state of the city, make it more interesting, more engaging, more fun. And this year, 2026, we kind of copied Jeopardy. Our show is called Carsonarity. And again, it's on YouTube, and this is our award. And we'll be down to receive it. Thank you.

You can stay right there, we're gonna do a photo op. I'm gonna move number nine to last because we're gonna do all of our proclamations when we come down. So it'll be Juneteenth, Health Month, Filipino Independence Day, Rojas, and Health Awareness Council, MPT Hicks. Men's Health Month is the Dr. Hilton, and I'll be doing the recognition for Juneteenth. So we're gonna come down and do all our photos at once, then we'll come back and look at the Cinco de Mayo recap.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Four months, we have an award in four months. How awesome is that? Bye.

Thank you. Let me see the ink of that certificate.

You know, multimedia, they can make it up.

Is Keyshawn here? Is it I'm up next? Yeah.

I'm gonna move to Mental Health Awareness Month while I'm trying to find Juneteenth. Who's doing Mental Health Awareness? Yes.

Thank you for being here, Melissa, from Masada Homes. A proclamation recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month, whereas mental health is a vital component of overall health and well-being, encompassing emotional, psychological, and social well-beings, and affecting how individuals think, feel, and act. Whereas according to the National Institute of Mental Health, mental health challenges are common across the United States, with more than one in five adults, over 59 million people, experiencing a mental illness each year. And whereas according to the Center for Disease Control, nearly one in five adults have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives and millions more experience anxiety and other mental health conditions that impact daily functions. Whereas per CDC statistics, youth are also significantly affected with approximately one in three high school students reporting that their mental health was not good most of the time, underscoring the urgent need for awareness, early intervention and support. And whereas education and awareness efforts play a critical role in fostering a compassionate and informative community where mental health is openly discussed and prioritized. And whereas the city of Carson is committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of its residents and promoting resources that strengthen individuals, families, and the community as a whole. and whereas the City of Carson hosted its Mental Health Forum on May the 23rd to provide residents with valuable information, resources, and opportunities to engage in open dialogue about mental health and wellness. Now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Carson, California do hereby proclaim Mental Health Awareness Month in the City of Carson and encourage all residents to take time to learn about mental health, recognize the signs and mental health challenges, support one another, and seek appropriate care when needed. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT THE CITY OF CARSON REAFFIRMS ITS COMMITMENT TO RAISING AWARENESS, REDUCING STIGMA, AND ENSURING THAT MENTAL HEALTH REMAINS A PRIORITY FOR A HEALTHY AND THRIVING COMMUNITY AND IS DATED TODAY, THE THIRD DAY OF JUNE OF 2026, SIGNED BY THE ENTIRE CITY COUNCIL. AND MELISSA? I HAVE A FEW WORDS.

YES.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. REALLY APPRECIATE YOU, ESPECIALLY MAYOR PRO TEMP, FOR NOMINATING US FOR THIS PROCLAMATION AND YOU AS WELL, MADAM. Mayor and all the Council members we've been in the Carson community for 36 years, providing these services and so it's really. special to us to receive this recognition and we thank the city for their commitment, as you said, to de stigmatizing mental health and making it accessible for all. And most recently inviting us in the past few years to be a part of your community events. and help spread the word about our services and the need for mental health services and that it's okay to access mental health services if you need them. So thank you again. It's really an honor to be here today. That's right. We all need some help every now and then. Thank you so much. It's really an honor on behalf of everyone at Masada. Thank you.

Yes. Next, we have a certificate. Dr. Salmi Farha. Where? We're gathered here to celebrate Juneteenth, a day that commemorates freedom, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of justice. It is fitting that we recognize the individuals whose life work has helped illuminate the rich history Hi, Doctor. Culture and Contributions of People of African Descent.

Pronounce your last name.

Dr. Farajee. Dr. Farajee is a distinguished scholar, educator, author, and a leader who serves as Professor and Chair of African American Studies at our own Cal State University, Dominguez Hills. . Throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to advancing African studies and expanding our understanding of African American Nubian history, culture, and civilization. His scholarship has earned international recognition, and his work has helped preserve and elevate stories that have too often been overlooked. One of the nation's leading scholars in Nubian studies and African American history, the doctor has authored influential works, presented research around the world, and inspired counselors and students to embrace knowledge and cultural awareness and academic excellence. We're proud to recognize you tonight for your outstanding contributions to African American studies, and we have a proclamation Whereas Juneteenth is the oldest known national celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States, marking this year as its 161st anniversary, Juneteenth is memorialized June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas that had previously enslaved people in Texas. that were free. And whereas the celebration of Juneteenth dates back to 1866, first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas, it has spread across the South and become more observed in the 1920s and 30s. Juneteenth grew in recognition again in the 1970s with a focus on African American freedom of the arts. and by the 21st century Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities in the United States. Whereas a number of local and national institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Henry Ford Museum, and other sponsored Juneteenth-centered activities, a number of local national Juneteenth organizations have emerged, all with the mission to promote and cultivate knowledge and appreciation of African American history and culture. Whereas on June 17th, 2021, President Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday. It is the 11th American federal holiday and first to gain legal observance since 1983 when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated. Whereas on Saturday, June 13th at 11 a.m., the city of Carson joins the nation in commemorating Juneteenth with a celebration at Anderson Park featuring live music, performances, booths, educational displays, and a teen zone for the community. Now they are poor. The mayor of the City Council of Carson, California do hereby recognize June 19th as the 161st anniversary of Juneteenth and urges all of its residents, government officials, educators, and other institutions to recognize this significant day in American history and to mark this month with special ceremonies, activities, and programs in remembrance of Juneteenth. It's dated today, the 3rd of June, and it's signed by all of us and attested to by our city clerk. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much. I'm honored to accept this award. Madam mayor and the city of Carson city council. Thank you so much. I also accept this on behalf of the department of Africana studies here at California state university, Dominguez Hills. I am chair of the department. And I've been at Cal State Dominguez Hills for 21 years. So 21 years I have served and taught students in the city of Carson. I've even lived in Carson for four years, although I no longer live. And I also want to acknowledge that the city clerk is also an alumna. Of course, you all know Dr. Kalia Bradshaw, Department of Africana Studies. Dr. Jimmy Kirby, who also works for the city of Carson, also teaches in the Department of Africana Studies. Yes, and of course, our mayor is also an alum of Cal State Dominguez Hills as well.

Yes, okay.

So again, thank you so much. Let me acknowledge my two daughters who are here with me, Namiche and Yaa Asantewaa. My colleague who is assistant professor in Africana studies, Dr. Bwesejibwa Mesajiri. and also a student leader, Aleja, who's also the vice president of our organization of Africana Studies at Cal State Dominguez Hills. This is a tremendous honor, not only for me, but also for the work that we do at Cal State Dominguez Hills, as well as in our department of Africana Studies. So we are excited to be acknowledged on this great holiday of Juneteenth. Thank you so much.

We're going to do a photo op with him, and then we're going to bring up the family and members from the university. Come on down. Family and friends. Thank you for coming out. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, beautiful. Next we're gonna have a presentation by Dr. Hilton.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We are honoring National Men's Health Month, and we have Dr. Jimmy Kirby, who's coming to receive this on behalf of National Men's Health Month. Come on, Dr. Kirby. Dr. Kirby is popular today. He's been in several pictures already. And we are incredibly grateful for Dr. Kirby, who's also a part of the staff here at the City of Carson, a proclamation in recognition of June as National Men's Health Month. Whereas National Men's Health Month is a congressional health education program, celebrated across the country in the month of June with screenings, health fairs, and other outreach activities. And whereas, despite advances in medical technology and research, men continue to live an average of five years less than women, with American Indian and African American men having the lowest life expectancy. And whereas educating the public and health care providers about the importance of healthy lifestyles and early detection of male health problems will result in reducing rates of mortality from disease. And whereas men who are educated about the value that preventative health can play in prolonging their life role as a productive family member will be more likely to participate in health screenings. And whereas fathers who maintain a healthy lifestyle are role models for their children and have happier, healthier children, and whereas during the month of June, Men's Health Month will focus on a broad range of men's health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, prostate, testicular, and colon cancer, and whereas the citizens of Carson are encouraged to increase awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, and medical checkups, The month of June is an opportunity to educate men, boys, and their families about the importance of positive health and attitudes and preventative health practices. Now therefore, the Mayor and the City Council of Carson, California do hereby proclaim the month of June as National Men's Health Month. and observed this month with appropriate programs and activities to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease and injury nationwide and worldwide. Dated this third day of June, signed by all of us and attested by our city clerk.

Thank you. I appreciate this. And Madam Mayor, all the council members here, the staff, all of my colleagues and folks, this is just a beautiful thing and very unexpected. I'm happy to be here and happy to receive this honor. I give greetings from the Kirby family and the Harris family. And I also have to say that I would not even be in the city of Carson if it wasn't for the Knowles family that I married into. And so, yeah, yeah, you know. And so it is very important that we honor this. I do expect all of the men in here. I'm looking at every one of us. We can do better. We're doing good, but we can do better. There's always room for improvement. Stress levels, you know, let's lower those stress levels. Let stuff go. Let stuff go. Don't hold on to it. And so just to be brief, because I get a mic and, you know, so we go. So I'll just I will just say this is for everyone who resonates on the God frequency.

And our final presentation will be by Councilwoman Arlene, Filipino Independence Day celebration. This Saturday, the 6th. Are you wearing your attire? Okay.

Thank you, . Yes, we have our Philippine Independence Day, everybody. It's this Saturday, June 6, Veterans Park, 730, all day long, AM, all day long. I'm going to read this really quick, and then I'm going to bring up our recipients this year. So, whereas on June 6th, the community of Carson will celebrate the 128th anniversary of the Philippine Independence Day at Veterans Park, it is appropriate to recognize and commemorate the contributions that the Filipino American citizens have made to our nation. The Philippine Act of Declaration from claim by the Filipino Revolutionary Forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12, 1898, in the town of Cavite, El Viejo, now known as Cavite, located in the Philippines province of Cavite, following the defeat of Spanish forces during the Spanish-American War and amid the Filipino Revolution against the Spanish colonial rule. Whereas, through the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States, officially ending the Spanish-American War, the United States government did not recognize Filipino Independence Day until the signing of the treaty in Manila on July 4th, 1946. For nearly two decades, July 4th was observed as the Philippine Independence Day, and later the law was approved on August 4th and officially restored official recognition of June 12th, 1898, as the date of the Philippine Independence Day. I'm going to Jump forward. And the city of Carson is proud to recognize the following Filipino American organizations in our community. Filipino Community of Carson, Filipino Independence Day Foundation, Southern California Allied Neighborhood, Eraso Batong Malake Foundation, Cayo Mangi Lions Club, Dreamers and Visionaries of South Bay, Fleet Reserve Association of Carson Branch, and Unit 302, the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, South Bay, Los Angeles area, USA Philippines Business Association, Pacific Community Fund, Balita Media, Incorporated, and the Confederation of Filipino American Association, just to name a few. THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON IN HONOR OF THE MULTITUDE OF CONTRIBUTIONS THAT FILIPINO AMERICANS HAVE MADE TO MAKE THIS BETTER COUNTRY AND STATE FOR ALL PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THE 128TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PHILIPINE INDEPENDENCE. day, and it's dated this third day of June 2026. Maraming, maraming salamat. And for this year's recipients, I mentioned a lot of organizations here that have these public events that celebrate the Filipino community, the culture, the food. But you know, there's a group of people They write about the events. They show up. They take pictures. And they publish it in newspapers, magazines, on social media. They put it out and they promote the Filipino community and beyond. And those people... We never really know who they are because we read the articles, and in that little corner, it'll say their name. And today, we have those journalists that we are honoring, and we thank you for the stories that you put out to celebrate and promote our Filipino culture here in the city of Carson and beyond. So thank you so much. And let's give him a round of applause. So... This is the first time we are publicly thanking you for the work that you've done. So when I call you up, make it great, because this is on our City of Carson website. It's on YouTube. It's out and about. So you guys are the ones behind the scene. You're now front and center. So I'm going to call you up. And the first one, let me read this. Let me read this first. In certificate of recognition, in grateful recognition appreciation of your outstanding commitment to community journalism and your continued support of the city of Carson through the annual coverage of the Philippine Independence Day celebration, Through your informative and meaningful coverage, you have played an important role in promoting cultural awareness, fostering community pride, and ensuring that this significant celebration reaches audiences throughout the region and especially around the world and back in our mother country. THE CITY OF CARSON SINCERELY APPRECIATES YOUR PARTNERSHIP AND UNWAVERING SUPPORT IN PRESERVING AND SHARING THE STORIES THAT UNITE AND STRENGTHEN OUR DIVERSE COMMUNITY. IT'S SIGNED BY OUR MAYOR LULA DAVIS-HOLMES, MAYOR PERTEMP CEDRIC HICKS, COUNCILMEMBER JOAN HILTON, COUNCILMEMBER JIM DEAR, AND YOURS TRULY, COUNCILMEMBER ARLENE ROJAS. THANK YOU ALL. AND LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED. Okay, the first one coming up is from the Filipino American Press Club of Southern California, Adrian LaCarros. Real quick picture. It's going to be like a game show. We're going to bring him back up. Okay, and then the next one, maybe we could just stand by, because at the end we can have a group shot. Okay, Chief Correspondent of Southern California Philippine News, Lydia Solis. Come on down. Thank you. All right. Okay, next up, the publisher of Asian Journal Publications Incorporated, Cora Oriel. Thank you so much. Next up is the correspondent from ABS-CBN Corporation. This is worldwide, Stephen Angeles. And welcome back. Always, always around. Thank you so much. Okay, next up, we have the publisher of Philippine Post, Val Abelgas. Okay, he's not here, but thank you, Val Abelgas. Next is from the U.S. Asian Post, Joy Marino.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay, and the publisher of Weekend Balita, Lucci Allen, and I believe, Joy, are you accepting on behalf of her?

Okay, so thank you, thank you again.

This is for Lucci Allen, this is Weekend Balita. Thank you so much. Okay, so for Val Abelgas, step on up. You can accept, on behalf of Val Abelgas. Okay, so we have some, I believe they're not here, but I want to mention them and thank them. We have the Editor and Bureau Chief of Inquiry, NetUSA, Nympha Rueda, thank you so much. Correspondent, InquireUSA, Ruben Nepales. and the correspondent reporter from GMA Network, Janet Nepales. They were not able to be here, but we thank them as well. So let's take the 128th anniversary Philippine Independence Day. So let's have them all come up. Yes, and we'll take a group shot. Thank you. Okay, everybody. And that's amazing. Who's taking the photo on this one? Thank you, Andy Edgerlin, one of the journalists as well and the founder of American Press Club. He's out there.

And here, we could have someone. Oh, here, here we go.

Oh, this is your daughter. Okay, you want to hold this and come in the middle? Yes.

Come here. There you go. And then you can go right next to our mayor.

And there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our journalists that put out all of our stories. So thank you. Maraming maraming salamat. We have some time constraints. Is there one person that wants to say something? Yes.

There we go. Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council of Carson and everyone. I am deeply honored and really grateful for the City of Carson's proclamation and recognition. Thank you, Ted. and as i accept this honor i do it with humility and appreciation knowing that journalism is not a solitary endeavor thank you city of carson i am truly truly grateful i will continue to publish, write about, and cover events for the Filipino-American community. And thank you also for our statue of Dr. Jose Rizal that is the only life-size statue in the U.S. Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for coming out. Next, we're going to have. Item number nine, the Cinco de Mayo video recap.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We'll have the video should be up and ready to go here in just a moment. I hear the music. I think the video will be playing here just. a brief moment, sit back and relax and enjoy.

Well, happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. Wow, this is such an awesome day. Wouldn't you agree?

We've got some wonderful entertainment lined up for you. The park looks beautiful. The weather is nice. And guess what? Most of all, you look beautiful. So give yourself a round of applause for being here this morning. You know, this is what we do here in the city of Carson. We celebrate the various groups that are here. We're such a diverse community, the most diverse in the United States. So I'm just proud to be here today.

The reason why we do this is for our families. We've got to make sure we keep our families in the forefront of our minds and that our young people here understand the cultures and things that go on here in the city of Carson. To the staff, to the volunteers who all put this together, I want to thank them, our volunteers, our park association, our park and recreation commission, all of those who have helped put this together because it does not always take one person. It takes a village, and you guys are the village. And if you didn't make it, you missed a good one.

This is a wonderful event. Let's thank the Parks and Recreation staff for putting this event on year after year. So on behalf of the residents of the mighty District 1, we just wanted to come by and say happy Cinco de Mayo.

This is what Carson is all about and this Cinco de Mayo activity every year is getting larger and larger. More power to the city of Carson. Cinco de Mayo. Have a wonderful day, everyone. Thank you.

So good to see everybody and looking forward to baile, baile, baile. Everybody, we're all here to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. So let's do it together and let's have a great time. Muchas gracias de todas.

Thank you staff. Was that part of our multimedia also? We have all communications for matters listed on the agenda. If you're here to speak on item number 32, we will be getting to that shortly. The next is consent calendar numbers 14 through 29.

Motion to approve. Did we skip approval of the minutes? Oh, I'm sorry.

I'll move approval of the minutes, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

No, no minutes.

There's no minutes.

No minutes. Okay, Mayor Pro Tem, thank you. I can't approve something I don't have.

So we're going to the consent calendar. Yes. It's been moved and properly seconded. Does anyone want to move an item?

No.

No.

Please cast your vote. Oh, I need to vote. You need your medication.

Motion carries.

Item number 30 is to consider a report

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. Item number 30 is a discussion item to consider the update on city projects. Our Community Development Director, Mr. Nathan Freeman, is going to give a brief update and we'll be complete. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and distinguished council members, Nathan Freeman, your Community and Economic Development Director. I have one important update for you this evening, and this is regarding the Phillips 66 Diamond Gateway Redevelopment Project. as the council may recall the project remains in the environmental review phase and proposes the remediation and redevelopment of approximately 223 acres of former refinery property currently staff the city attorney's office and the city's environmental consultant continue to review the draft specific plan and environmental documentation the notice of preparation for public comment period remains open through june 12th So while this project is fundamentally an environmental cleanup and redevelopment effort today, it also represents one of the most significant long-term economic development opportunities in Carson. The successful remediation and redevelopment of the site has the potential to transform a legacy property into a productive economic asset that generates jobs, investment, and future revenue for the community. So what I would like to highlight this evening is that for the public's awareness that the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will be hosting an open house and public workshop this Thursday, June 4th, tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Carson Events Center. The workshop will focus on environmental soil vapor and groundwater assessment and cleanup activities associated with the former Phillips 66 refinery site. The Water Board staff will provide information regarding ongoing environmental investigations and receive public input. Community members interested in learning more about the cleanup process are highly encouraged to attend. ALSO, MADAM MAYOR, AS YOU MAY RECALL, JUST TWO SHORT WEEKS AGO WE WERE UP IN LAS VEGAS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS EXTRAVAGANZA, IF YOU WILL. AND MYSELF, THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM, AND OUR MULTIMEDIA TEAM ARE PUTTING TOGETHER A PRESENTATION AND A VIDEO THAT WE WILL BE SHARING AT THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING. THAT CONCLUDES MY UPDATE.

THANK YOU. THIS IS ITEM NUMBER? 30.

30.

I have a question. I'm looking through this. I've looked through this capital improvement projects and public works projects. I know we had budgeted 32 million for street improvement. I only see one project here. And I also wanted to know, and this body had requested a list of all the like we do phase one, phase two, phase 10, I don't know where we are, nine, 10, and 11 right now. And I don't see that, and I'm just concerned that, where is it?

So thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, so we're gonna provide that to you when we come to do the final budget adoption. So during that week, we'll provide you that list along with, it'll be updated for the rest of the city. That was some organization and reallocations that were being done through CIP. And so that's now been complete. But to answer your question, we are on phase 11.

Is it phase 11?

Phase 11. And so we're anticipating about three to four more phases, and that will complete the residential portion of the all street repairs project, and then moving over to the main arterials. But the aspect of the all repairs project with the listing will be provided for you all.

My concern is we appropriated X number of dollars for street maintenance, and I don't want to I know this body doesn't want it to get lost. I'm not seeing it listed in the CIP for Public Works. Not all the streets in the city, if you're on Phase 10, there should be a list of streets that we're in the process of, because I'm getting questions. Why haven't we taken care of my block when the block next door has been taken care of? I need some answers as to when their street is going to be repaired. We don't want to get these projects lost, muddled, whatever. This body approved 32 million to make sure that our streets were done. I just don't want to lose that. We need to identify it and in addition to that, Mr. City Manager, that the $12,500,000 that we received is for infrastructure.

We want to make sure that it doesn't get lost. You'd think that we went to sleep.

because I keep these little notes. So I think once we make a decision on what should happen, it should happen. This body said we wanted all of our streets completed, not this year, next year, but ASAP, and definitely by the time the Olympics arrive. and our main arteries need to be, they definitely need a facelift. And I was on a back street.

Correct, Madam Mayor. So yeah, there is funding that we're gonna be bringing back to you, specifically the 12 and a half million. We'll need to get your direction as to where you all would like to see that dollar or those dollars split into the districts.

Into the districts?

To finalize for the streets.

Yeah, how much have we spent from the 32 million? 32.5, whatever it was.

Go ahead.

MPT.

My concern is, and I brought this up at the last meeting, to look at what is the true cost for doing all the streets in the city. And I think when a presentation was done before, and it was given information where you had you had grind and overlay or you slurry seal based upon the number rating of the actual street. At the beginning of this process, I think this body's talked about every street in the city should be touched one way or another, whether by a slurry seal or a grind and overlay. And I don't think, for me, that the dollar amount that I think that was presented to this body was a true number because to do all of the streets in this city takes a larger amount of money than the 31 million. So my question to the city manager, to the public works director, put back either some kind of way to give us that true cost that it's gonna be and what streets have been done. As the mayor stated, I have residents too. What you did, this street, but you've done this street the last three times and you keep doing the same street over and over again, but my street has never been touched. So my concern is we need to make sure that we don't even duplicate the same streets over and over again and go to a new street that hasn't been touched. So that's my concern as well.

If I could just shed a little light on that. So prior to this all street citywide repaving program that we implemented, there had been a CIP project where there was some slurry seal going on in the city. Madam Mayor used to text me about that all the time because it wasn't done accurately. So those streets have have been done even though that they weren't to the liking of some of our elected officials, those streets were done. So now moving forward into the citywide paving, remember we have a three year contract with them and the first year was 30. So off the top of my head, we're actually putting together a report that's going to sell every street and every dollar that has been spent. And the team is working on that as we speak right now, we're finalizing that report and it will be available AS SOON AS IT IS, I'LL PASS ON TO THE CITY MANAGER FOR HIS REVIEW. BUT WE HAVE DONE ABOUT 70% OF THE CITY WITH THE FUNDS THAT HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE. I DON'T WANT TO SPEAK SINCE WE ARE LIVE AND ON CAMERA, I DON'T WANT TO SPEAK TO AN EXACT DOLLAR AMOUNT UNTIL WE GET THE REPORT THAT WILL SPELL OUT THE DETAILS OF IT. WE ARE CURRENTLY FINISHING PHASE 10 AND WE HAVE STREETS LISTED FOR PHASE 11. city manager was accurate we're probably about uh one to two more phases of the residential streets were set for slurry seal and then we would we would move on to some of the arterials using the same money per district um so we don't go over the allotted amount that we that we've been given every year

So, and just to add, and I think the Director of Public Works, he can share specifically about it, because I think the idea was, remember there were several residents would say, our block was either slurry sealed or repaved, but the street over wasn't or those neighbors would call and say those neighbors were getting their streets paved but ours isn't what's going on and so to my understanding it was due to the conditions of the road we went and prioritized those were that the highest of need and those were the ones that were touched first. So that's why some streets weren't either slowly sealed and or repaved. So I don't know if Dr. Rogers, you wanna speak to that aspect so that way there's a little bit more clarity as to why some streets were and some were not.

So, yes, Mr. City Manager is accurate in that we did take the ones that we wanted to grind and overlay first to use that treatment to get that taken care of. Slurry is a little simpler application, and that's the next step in the program. So all the streets that did not necessarily get mill and overlaid to date, that doesn't mean that they were left out again. We're looking at another two more phases. But a lot of the streets in Carson are not as bad as we would think. They are only due to the oxidation of the asphalt, and they are appropriately preserved for slurry seal. So some of the streets that have not been will be slurried seal, and that's just another phase of the entire program.

My request is this. We made, this body made a commitment that all the streets would be paved. Service level, whatever you want to call it, they would be touched and they would be taken care of. If there is a need for additional funding, I think you need to bring this back. But this is not something that we want to put off all year. Because I can't explain it. I will not be able to explain why.

Sure.

We're waiting a whole year to get what we promised two years ago. The weather's nice. I haven't seen anyone out working on these streets. Did I miss something?

I don't think you did because we haven't seen it either.

No, we're finishing phase 10 now. So the next step in phase 10, the final piece of phase 10, will be the Artesia 91 to Albertoni. And the only reason that's not done is if we had to wait on Caltrans to get to pull permits. But that's the last phase of phase 10.

And university is coming up when?

University has been on the books for a minute, because that's federal funding. It had nothing to do with this particular program. We finally got through federal funding, then goes through Caltrans. So we finally worked through all those bureaucracy Bureaucracies, and we will be getting construction on that this summer.

This summer?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so I think without me beating this horse to death, the request is if you need some additional funding, bring it back to this council, but it should not be a delay in saying that we are not going to do these streets. These streets need to be completed. We were putting out reports saying this is phase one, this is phase two, I'd like to see phase 11. So we'll have it, I keep it, all of my colleagues keep it so when they're talking about their district and we discuss them at town hall meetings, here it is as a chart. But I just haven't seen a lot of movement and I drive northeast, west, and south in the city. Because I'm looking at streets, and I do call when there's potholes in work that has not been completed to my little eye's satisfaction. So I know we had to change some contractors. But my request is that if you're out of funds, put together your 10, 11, 12, 13 wish list.

Council, are you agreeing with me?

Okay, and bring it to this body, and let us decide what the funding will be, but do not stop the work, because I am getting questions all day long about what about my street? What about my street? Okay?

So we'll be happy to bring back an updated plan before the budget, with budget requests to complete the streets, whether they need to be repaved or not, just so that way they get touched.

Yeah, I think you should.

And so, but it'll be a general fund reserve that will be requested.

Well, you have 12.5 that's coming in also. Has it arrived yet?

No, it will not be here until after the fiscal year.

Really?

That's next week, that's next month.

Okay, Councilman Deer.

Thank you. I agree with the mayor. We need to allocate the funds as necessary because we did give that direction. And by the way, don't forget, it's every street and every alley. We don't want someone going down an alley and running into a giant pothole in the alley and say, Oh, this is Carson. You know, we don't want that. And so let's make sure every street and alley gets taken care of because that was the motion that passed unanimously. I know because I made the motion. So it's important that we do this because the infrastructure, as we know, was neglected for about a five-year period of time. 20. Thankfully, we have a mayor and a city council that is dedicated to maintain our infrastructure, which, as we know, was very impressive compared to other cities in the past. And then it fell by the wayside. So I have four questions here. One of it is a specific location through the city manager to the public works director. At last council meeting, I brought up the location of Figaro and 220th Street, where they had done the street, did a great job on the street, but they left a section undone. and there's a typical type of asphalt bump in the road. Many times when asphalt abuts against a concrete street, just the nature of the physics of it, the trucks and cars going on it, the heat and cold affecting the expansion and contraction of the two different elements, concrete versus asphalt, it causes a big bump. So, I would think that should be fairly straightforward to take care of. And so, on my first question, do we have any, I don't mean to put you on the spot, Mr. Public Works Director, because you do a great job, but I did ask for it at the last council meeting, and I wondered if you had an opportunity. I know you're very busy, but you mentioned you were going to go out in person to take a look at it. Did you get a chance to do that? i personally didn't go out the city engineer went out and he's putting a plan together to uh correct that correct great that's wonderful uh next um we had talked about this some months ago uh we i mean all the council members we see this the streets being repaired uh it's a typical situation with with these contractors it seems that they um They, I don't want to say usually, but sometimes they'll tackle two streets in one day. So they do one street and they do a great job on it. And then it has many hours to cure. or dry. Now, then they'll do the second street the same day. So they do a street in the morning and a street in the afternoon. But the second street, which is maybe right next street over, it doesn't dry, and the contractor's allowing the residents to drive over a wet, slurried street. And when they turn the wheel of the car, it causes a problem. You don't notice it when you're driving on the street so much, but if you walk down the street, you'll see what the residents who live on that street see. And it can really look ugly if there's all kinds of patches where it's too much in one area and it's too thin in another area. You can see where the wheels had turned. And these are just people coming home from work maybe and turning the wheel to go in the driveway. But the point is that we should ask the residents to be patient because once the asphalt is, I don't know if it's cured or dried because I'm not an expert, I'm not an engineer, but once it's ready to be driven on, then it's going to look beautiful for many, many years. So it's worth it to wait a few more hours to have years of attractive, healthy, good infrastructure. So I brought this up several months ago when the contract, I believe, was ending. The first phase was ending. And again, I don't mean to put the public works director on the spot, but. through the city manager, if one of you could address that situation where the contractor needs to come back and fix those streets that don't look very good because the neighbors on the next street have a nice street and then the neighbors on the next street over, it doesn't look good at all. So have we been able to address that? That's my second question.

Thank you for that question. If you could give me an exact location and I'm saying that for a couple of reasons. One, I want to make sure that our contractor is up to par. This is the first I'm hearing of that where it's slurry because there's any slurry going on out there. So I want to get an exact location. And then following that, We also have contractors out there that are currently on our moratorium. So when they're performing some underground work on our infrastructure, they're required to slurry a certain portion of the street. So that could be what we're talking about. So if you could give me an exact location, I can get the team out there to take a look at it and we can narrow it down and kind of in that process.

Okay, what I'll do is I will take a picture of the site and a picture of the street sign, the intersection, and if I could, Dr. Arlington, I'll forward that to you. I'll text that photograph to you and with the address. Next. uh how are we handling our concrete streets some of our streets you know concrete course lasts for many many decades can be very perfectly healthy as far as driving over but sometimes it looks really bad and the appearance you know we with the olympics coming you know we want the appearance of carson to be something people say hey i visited carson and the olympics in 2028 and it's a great looking city That's what we want. I know it's a lot more expensive, but what is the decision among upper management on how we're going to handle concrete streets? 220th Street between Figueroa and Main Street, for example, that has little different elevations and it has lots of cracks.

We haven't put together a current plan to repair the concrete streets just due to the amount of money that would take to do that. Once we get through this citywide paving to get the streets up to par, that is next on the list to take a look at to see what we can do to enhance the aesthetics of the concrete areas. Those are there mostly because of truck routes. They're always going to look a little ratty because the amount of trucks that drive over them, but we're definitely going to take a look at it. And the team is consistent with trying to make sure that Carson is ready for all the international visitors that are going to come. But we do not have an active plan to replace any of the concrete streets just due to the sheer amount of money it will cost. So we're looking at some conservative ways to get the same aesthetics with a little bit of cost.

Yeah, you know, it's often a black tar type substance that's put in the crack. And I'm sure that's to keep the water from getting under it and making the street crack more, which the cold temperature will do that and that hot temperature. But that black tar material on a concrete street really looks bad. And I know that's... An engineering point of view, maybe a good band-aid to put on it, but it doesn't look good. Maybe you could put something in that's not in contrast. Maybe it blends into the gray of the concrete. It's an idea. Again, I'm not in that industry, so I don't know the right answer on that one. Okay, but that is a specific location between Figueroa and Main Street. On the street is 220th Street. Okay. And then the last thing is, I know it's not necessarily part of this report, but people are still asking us about Martin Luther King Street. What's the timetable? Of course, it'll be done, Madam Mayor, before the Olympics, right? So what can we anticipate getting that street fixed? I know it's a major repair. Okay.

So there's a couple of projects that in particular we have as far as there's some funding that we're looking at and without sharing publicly because we're under some negotiations at the time. But I'm hopeful that once we can complete these negotiations that we can see this ESTABLISHED WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR BECAUSE THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE'RE GOING TO NEED TO UTILIZE SPECIFICALLY FOR LA-28 AND SO THAT'S A PRIORITY. ANTICIPATING 10,000 VEHICLES THAT ARE GOING TO BE ON MLK FOR LA-28 SO THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE ARE PRIORITIZING.

Very good. Well, I want to conclude by saying that my comments are not a criticism. They're an observation. And Mr. City Manager, your staff, Public Works and other staff are doing a great job in Carson. You have great leadership. And I think that the team really works to make things happen in Carson. This infrastructure improvements, it's a big, big job, as we know, costing many millions of dollars. And it's not easy to do, but as elected officials, it's our job to keep reminding you that, oh, the constituents are asking us this and asking us that. And we want to relay that to you in a very positive and professional manner. So thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Dr. Hilton.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Certainly, I don't want to add more to your plate, but I got a text at 11 o'clock last night from a resident who was concerned about the pavement on Cheriton Drive and Mettler, which is in Centerview. So if we can make sure we look at that street or whatnot. I told her that I would address it with Mettler. I'll send you pictures, I'll send you the information or whatnot. I shared it that I would speak with you all about it and this was the perfect time to just speak about it. Ms. Dunbar took your complaint right to the source. So I want to say the work that you guys have done has been great. And I know that we were quite behind on maintenance before you got here. And I know they used to ask you that question, how many days on the job? how many days on the job, because you were running so fast. So I still, you know, I still, I know that you attacked a lot of work and a little bit of time. And I know that, you know, some things may fall through the cracks, but ultimately you achieve. So I'm grateful for that. So I wanna let you know that. So that's my say.

That question has gone to our deputy director. How long you been here?

Nine months.

Nine months. Okay, you're off the hook, Dr. Rogers. You have a doobie here. Any more discussion on this item?

This is just a receiving file.

Item number... Madam Mayor, I do have one other question. It was mentioned about a workshop for Phillips 66 in the previous... What workshop's tomorrow, June 4th, at the Carson Events Center for the public? And what time is it? Could you tell me the time again? Maybe Mr. Freeman.

Yeah, thank you, sir. So tomorrow that meeting is for the community that Phillips 66 is putting together at the community center. It's at 6.30. 6.30, thank you very much.

Thank you. Item number 31 is consider local uncontested appointments. I have a few that I would like to make. Does anyone else have any?

Mine are complete, Madam Mayor, thank you.

You're not ready. For me, on... Economic Development Commission, Kevin Ross. Environmental Commission, Cedric Nelms in the alternate one. Kevin Ross is in alternate three. Human relations, youth. Isabel Potter-Anelles, O-N-E-L-E-S. You have it?

Cedric Nelms is alternate one for environmental?

Yes. Isabella is the youth. The youth commission or the youth rep? Rep, the youth rep for the human relations commission. um on the public relations commission i want to remove madeleine k nunley she's been ill can't come to any more meetings madeleine nunley okay we'll post the vacancy um On the, remove Cedric Nelts and put him on the Public Works Commission.

Take him off environmental and put him on Public Works? Yes, that's Cedric's appointee. Cedric Nelts.

Cedric, Cedric.

Cedric Nelts. No, Nelms. Nelms.

Cedric Nelts. Uh-huh.

That's not my appointee. You want to appoint him? For the vacant position that Cedric has. So Cedric's appointing Cedric? Yes. On public works? Well, I'm going to let him do that. That's his guy. Yeah, okay. Women's issues is... Women's issues, vacancy, alternate one, Jennifer Jones-Phillips. Youth Commission vacant for me is Nathaniel, Z-U-L-E-U, I think that's a T-A. Nathaniel, you have an application for him. And that is my motion.

Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve your uncontested appointments.

I think, no, these are not, I don't have any uncontested.

Oh, they're all, they're all?

Vacant, yeah.

I see, okay, so you don't need the motion in that case. Okay, thank you.

I have a question, Madam Mayor. Yes. If you can consider, either tonight or in the future, filling the alternate positions for Measure C and Measure K. Measure C and Measure K, I'll look at that.

So that if they have an issue with quorum, they have backups available. Have they had meetings?

Yes, we're getting ready to address the attendance issues, but having alternates available would help in the interim. I will. I won't make that mistake again. Also, for Mobile Home Review Board, there's some quorum issues there that need to be addressed so that we'll let you know on the movement there.

The mobile home park? I didn't know that was an issue there.

How many vacancies are there? I'm flipping there now. I've got a new copy here. They're not showing up? They're having quorum, yes, I heard from, I don't know what Ben's title is, but I heard from the attorney that they're having some quorum issues, so we need to get that...

mitigated okay madam mayor yes uh through the mayor to the city clerk uh i also like the mayor pro tem and i'm sure the other colleagues uh if you do have that attendance issue um please let us know sooner than later so we can address it on that direct level and then make things go smoothly thank you

Yeah, absolutely, Councilmember. I rely on staff to provide the attendance reports, and so when I get those reports, we send out the letters, removing them.

And then you'll inform us.

Well, I'll give the courtesy email to you first. I see, okay. And then send the removal letter. Very good, thank you. And then we have to post the vacancy, 10 days, and then we fill it. Yes. Yeah.

Because this commission is filled with alternates. The mobile home park rental review board,

Okay, I'll revisit that email, but he did express that there's some attendance issues.

Okay. Thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded. Please pass your vote. No vote. No. These are not uncontested. These are appointees.

For your alternates, when you do do the alternates, you'll need that.

Yeah, these were a lot of alternates. Kevin is an alternate. Isabella is a vacant youth. It's not uncontested. So let's go and vote.

That's why I thought you were doing only. You make them.

Okay, so then the motion that you originally made in Dr. Hilton's second. Yeah. Okay.

So cash or vote?

Motion carries.

Thank you. Item number 32 is a second reading of an ordinance. I have people that want to speak on this item. This item has been approved. We were looking at, well, it was approved, but I'll call you up anyway. I'm early tonight. Tommy Fave.

Madam Mayor, three minutes.

Two is good. Be brief.

Brief. Brief. Council, city staff, and public that's here today, I just wanted to thank the staff for bringing this forward as a second reading, and we look forward to building this project, and just want to give thanks to the council, FOR HAVING THE FAITH ON MOVING THIS PROJECT FORWARD. AND WE URGE YOUR VOTE TONIGHT. AND I JUST WANTED TO RECOGNIZE, YOU KNOW, THE CARPENTERS THAT ARE HERE TONIGHT THAT'S GOING TO BE BUILDING THIS PROJECT ALONGSIDE WITH IVW. AND THEN RECOGNIZING OUR PRESIDENT FROM OUR L.A. COUNTY FEDERATION OF LABOR, YVONNE WILLARD, THAT'S IN THE AUDIENCE. FOR SUPPORTING THIS PROJECT AND KNOWING THAT THESE TYPE OF PROJECTS ARE REALLY GOOD PROJECTS TO BUILD. SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU. LOPEZ.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. MY NAME IS JERSON LOPEZ, REPRESENTATIVE FOR LOCAL 91 CARSON. And Carson has long been a city that embraces innovation and infrastructure that serves the region. This project continues the tradition by delivering economic, environmental, and reliability benefits that can strengthen our community for years to come. Thank you for your time and your support.

Thank you. Ray Lawson.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, city council members. Once again, I'll be brief. Good seeing you all again. We have a long-term relationship with city council and the mayor, but we appreciate your leadership. We appreciate how you... City of Carson has grown and flourished. With saying that, we the carpenters that believe in jobs, wages, and benefits, that this will be a good job for us when it comes to our benefits, when it comes to good wages, and good middle-class income families. and taking care of ourselves and our families. So we appreciate your vote. We appreciate getting this passed and continue to work with you in the future on many projects like this and many more. So thank you.

Thank you. Binyon at Sheridan Drive.

Good evening. I came to speak against this project even though it was passed. I spoke last time. I am speaking for the stakeholders of this city, the residents who are here for the long haul. They live here, they purchased homes, they make families. They build careers, some of them, and if they're lucky, they get to retire here. We're not going to talk about, yes, we do use cell phones and other technology. The thing is, is those small items do not cause the environmental damage that this large cluster of batteries has the potential to do to the city of Carson. These are temporary positions that are, they're jobs, but they're temporary. I think they stated that seven of the members were residents of the city, but where will these people be if there's an environmental fallout because of this project? Sitting in front of televisions and not in council meetings watching us suffer with the heavy metals that will contaminate the groundwater, our canals, our land, our air. As I stated before, we have schools nearby. We have homes nearby in that area. We have the Victoria Park, which is sitting on, shifting constantly because of the methane gas, because of the dump. Was an environmental study done about the surrounding areas before this project was okayed? This is on the council's head. Thank you.

Alex Perez. Alex Perez? He's not here?

Kyle Patterson.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members. My name is Kyle Patterson, representative with the Western States Carpenters. We had a heck of a week this week, and I'm glad the elections is over. On to the next one. I just want to start by saying that we appreciate you all's vision and leadership. Carson is unique. It's one of those things where you don't see many cities like that. Infrastructure already in place. We're talking about fixing roads and stuff that look really good already. It's just really a unique place to be. We also have an apprenticeship program that we offer here. with the carpenters, opportunities. That's what this is about for us. It's about opportunities, paying attention to our neighbors, and we're sensitive to that kind of stuff like that, because we live here too. As far as when I say live here, myself, I'm from another city. but born and raised in Los Angeles. I have family that live here still. I'm here a lot for my work as well, so I consider Carson home as well. Thank you again for your leadership and support for a project like this. It's going to create work opportunities, even if it's just a little bit of jobs for the little meantime. It's a job that somebody can help put some food on their table for their families. Thank you.

Thank you. Clarissa? Clarissa?

Hello. Good evening, Council. I'm a resident in District 2. And at the previous open session, I had voiced my caution and disapproval of the project in its current form, proceeding without a sequent environmental impact report. As a resident of Carson that uses electricity, I understand the demand for more energy storage. But I must emphasize that the location of this facility is questionable. 100 megawatts of battery storage stands to benefit more than just the city of Carson. But why are we asking our neighbors in District 1 to bear the weight of this concern? Literally the day after this project received approval from the council, the world was audience to the chemical crisis that occurred in Garden Grove. This event not only affected the residents and businesses of the city. Residents were forced to evacuate and businesses forced to close. Now, as Council Member Roja said, when something went wrong, 911 responded. But the fallout of this event proved to be beyond the fire department scope. The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services activated the State Operations Center. They sent 71 staff dedicated to coordinating statewide response efforts and three highly specialized hazmat teams and additional personnel, including hazardous materials experts and a disaster logistics team. Another anxiety that compels this council is the concern that by requesting an environmental impact report, the city would lose out on a, and I emphasize, one-time benefit of $500,000. This project stands to make a lot of money. But in its current form, the cost is the peace of mind of your residents for 25 years. So I would implore the council to do their due diligence and reconvene for public comment after their residents have been given access to an environmental impact report completed by a third party group. Thank you.

Thank you. Jesse Camargo.

Hello. My name is Jesus Camargo. I'm also a union carpenter. I've been living here in Carson. I bought a house right here in Carson over 20 years ago. And I just want to say thank you. My street looks beautiful. You guys took care of my street twice already. I hate to say it twice, but you guys did it twice. But I went to school here, Stephen White. Like I said, my whole family lives here. My sisters still live here, my parents, everybody. And I support this job. I worked on four of them already, myself in California, one in Arizona. These things are safe. They got clean air energy, no gases or chemicals being airborne around the city. It helps local communities avoid power outages. It keeps us less reliant on imported power to sustain the needs of the grid. So with all these energy, all these new power, new electrical cars, everything, all these new power stations being built, Who says this grid ain't gonna go out? I know living here in Carson, my lights go off every so often, not too often, but it does go out. And hey, we need this backup. And being a carpenter, a lot of our carpenters work an hour, two hours drive. That's why some of our guys had to leave early. And having this job right here, it'll let us be involved with the community. A lot of us got kids. And to keep the kids doing good, we got to keep them in two sports, sometimes three sports. So we got to be coaches out there. We got to be involved with our kids. This will help us be closer to the house, you know, get home faster. Just buy Gatorade and fill up gas right here just because we're going to work here. It'll help us keep the money here in the community. So my thing, I support this right here 100%. Thank you.

Thank you. Lauren Miles.

Good evening. Carson Planning Department and the Planning Commission denied the applicant because of safety concerns, yet the City Council took the word of the applicant that the facility is safe to operate, even though the applicant has paid millions of dollars in fines for misleading government agencies regarding compliance issues. City Council established their own tax rate for the best facility without consulting experts on the rate from other cities and best facilities. Yet some of these fees have been called egregious. Many have stated the fire department has approved this proposed BEST facility, yet in fact they did not. The fire department only approved the equipment, the wiring, and the position of the equipment as they are not empowered to determine if a BEST system is too close to sensitive receptors. That responsibility is for LA County, which at this moment is rewriting the rules for best systems for all of Los Angeles County. given the new technology involved and the potential safety risks realized since the Moss disaster in 2025. Applicant has stated that their Tesla Megapack 2XL is state of the art. Were you aware that there is a newer battery design with a better safety record available for best projects at scale? The garden grove industrial disaster caused the evacuation of 40,000 within a one mile radius was approved by fire department and other agencies. Are you aware that if the Griffith best facility has an industrial accident, the billion dollar company that owns it will have no direct liability. Were you aware that the residents of Carson were given assurances that the parent company was to be responsible, and now it's not? Sometimes the tragedy has to happen.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Edward Pineda.

Good evening, council. My name is Edgar Pineda. I've been a Carson resident since 1994, and I approve this project. I think it's going to bring a lot of technology to the city of Carson, as well as working with Renewal Energy. And I think it's gonna be able to back up the grid whenever we have power outages, because we occasionally do. And I think it's gonna be beneficial for the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Robert Leslie.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, to the council body staff. You know, I sit back and I listen, once again, people speaking in two factors here. You got the community talking about the reference about the impact of the health and safety aspect that's going to happen in the long term on the condition of the health. You talk about, on the other side, about the job welfare for the welfare, what's going to happen with them being able to provide food for the table. Issue right now is inexcusable that you're going to have a project at this level that's going to be exempt from the CEQA guideline. It's inexcusable. The 2100 and 1500 section of CEQA guarantee the fact that if there's a health and safety issue, it would be independently getting the chance to be studied and reviewed for oversight. None of this is taking place at this time right here. You're constantly going to push an item through right now that's going to have a long term impact and the cost effective of it is not going to be recovered at all through the city or through the community that's going to be affected. Once again, like I said, this item should have an independent study from CEQA knowing that it's not, it's remote at this point, but it's just inexcusable that all the years that I've been around that never had environmental impact of nature of a project that's going to have the adverse effect or impact on the community. Thank you.

Cheryl Tato.

Good evening, my name is Cheryl doctor and I have been a long time resident of the city of Carson I would also like to express my opposition to another best facility in the city of Carson we already have one didn't you just approve one recently. Since there's already one, why do we need another one? Is two best facilities, are two best facilities really necessary? To address comments about the need to approve this project so that Carson does not get left behind, are other cities as eager to have one or two best facilities so that they don't get left behind? Shouldn't other cities also bear the risk for something like this? This project does not just benefit the city of Carson. It also will benefit other cities. Let the other cities take the risk. Why does Carson need to take this unnecessary risk? We have to keep in mind any safety perceptions now are good just for the immediate future, not 30 years from now. Did anyone who approved the Garden Grove Aerospace Facility envision what currently happened? and the danger that it posed to the nearby communities? Second, to address the comments about local control versus state control. Is the city really in control? At this point, foregoing environmental impact report indicates the city is not in control. Why are you rushing? Is it because you're being rushed? What's the rush? Why does the contractor readily say yes to an extra 100,000 so easily? MAYBE BECAUSE FOR THEM THE REWARD IS GREAT, WHILE THE CITY AND ITS RESIDENTS BEAR THE EXTRA RISK. THIRD, THE COMMUNITY BENEFITS THAT ARE BEING HAILED ARE GOOD FOR PURPOSE OF ELECTION CAMPAIGNS, BUT ARE THEY REALLY WORTH THE RISK FOR THE RESIDENTS? PLEASE CONSIDER THAT CARSON IS NOT A LARGE CITY.

MADAM MAYOR, THAT'S TIME. THANK YOU. MARTIN DELGADO. Martin. Martin. Kay Sanchez. Vivian Hatcher.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, city council members and staff. I'm disappointed that this project has been approved with a CEQA exemption. The CEQA environmental evaluation would provide a non-biased professional evaluation of this project that would help to expose potential hazards and help to mitigate risk. The Garden Grove incident is a real-time example of what we expressed concerns about during the last council meeting. I think I brought it up. And the next day I think is when they had the incident in Garden Grove. There was a risk of explosion and leaking of chemicals. And so we said at council meeting that if there is a thermal what is it, runaway, all they can do is put water on it to try to cool it down. And that's similar for different reasons as what happened in Garden Grove. The majority of citizens here in Carson do not approve of this project. at the location on Broadway near Holmes, the Town Elementary School, the Metro Bus Depot, and the Kaiser Permanente Health Facility. Long Beach and other cities are under a moratorium for best projects of this nature. and I agree that it's questionable whether or not the fire department has signed off as been said on this project. So I'm opposed to it and I'm disappointed that the majority of the council people want this to go forward without having a CEQA exemption.

Thank you. Diane Thomas.

Good evening. So minds have been made up. We're standing here talking to people who have already dug their heels in for whatever reason to move forward with this project. The warnings are not being heard. I don't care how many times we get up here, you're not listening anymore because your mind has been made up. Everybody talk about Garden Grove. Let's move to the East Coast where there was an implosion and people died. What will it take for you to understand that this is serious? You can't just go day to day. We have other people lined up with the same type of project to come into the city of Carson. Have you made up your mind to bring those in? Are they gonna show up in numbers and talk about jobs until we no longer have any clean air to breathe? There are so many jobs that are coming to this city that are good projects that they won't be able to work them all. That's what's coming in the pipeline. We don't have to settle for something like this just because they're going to get a few jobs for a short period of time. The jobs that they will have that's in the pipeline that's coming, that's already existing, far outweigh what we're dealing with here tonight. I don't expect that I will change any of your minds. I can only pray that I will. But if you're not listening to me, It won't matter, but I hope we don't have to reap what we sow.

Thank you. That is our last speaker. Jim, are you queued up?

Technical question. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. The proposer of the project, I have a technical question. One of the arguments in favor of having the best project at this location and in Carson in general are is the power outages that people of Carson have to endure. There are scheduled power outages by Edison Company, and then there are unexpected power outages. Of course, if a truck hits a telephone pole and the transformer falls down, there's going to be a power outage. You can't predict that. But this is a technical question on your best facility. how will it affect the power outages that exist today? I mean, it's a technical question. So how does it actually help avoid power outages? Because people in Carson, they don't like these power outages. And there are some companies. There's actually an aerospace engineering firm right up the street, Figueroa at Victoria Street. They have a very sensitive process where they are designing ejector seats for military aircraft for the pilots to be able to eject in an emergency. And when they build these electrical boards, they have to have a certain temperature at a certain time. And if there's a power outage, they have to throw the whole board away and start all over again. So I know that they're interested in stopping power outages, but also the residents that have maybe medical equipment in their home, if they don't have a backup generator at their house, a power outage could be a problem, a serious problem. So tell us technically, how is the best project help avoid power outages?

Thank you for that, and for the record, Edgar Claudian here on behalf of the applicant. Essentially how a best project, a battery storage works is the state produces clean energy, whether through solar farms, windmills, or other sources. Transmission lines move that energy to be used. There are peak times where the lines cannot move the energy anymore. It's night, it's evening time and the electricity is not being generated. So if our power, the traditional fossil fuel power stops operating, take it back, sorry, start a little over again. One of the reasons these best facilities are located adjacent to or close to substations is because they connect to the substation. These substations connect to clean energy sources. These clean energy sources transmit the energy to these batteries. The batteries store them. When we're at a peak time, whether it's 110 degrees, Texas had significant heat issues and the batteries became active. Within seconds, these batteries turn on and put the energy back into the grid. So if there is a power outage in California, whether it's in Carson or not, These batteries can and will, in fact, put the energy back into the lines to make sure the hospitals and the homes with the medical care facilities and the factories have consistent power. One of the governor's goals is for California to run on battery alone. There was at least one day, I believe it was last year, that more than 50% of the state's electricity was reliant on battery storage systems that are placed throughout the state. Essentially, we cannot have clean power and clean energy in California without battery storage. All these batteries do is take the clean energy, store it, and when the grid, the system needs it, puts it back into the system to ensure we all have power every minute of the day.

Thank you. That answers the question. It clarifies it very well. I'm a lifetime member of the Sierra Club, and I consulted with my colleagues in the Sierra Club, and they actually support this best project that's on the agenda tonight. And there are environmentalists that maybe may object, but organizations like the Sierra Club understand that the future for clean air and clean water is through electricity. And so it's a tough decision to make sometimes, but in this case, it's very clear that there are overwhelming advantages to having this best project approved tonight. Thank you.

Before I go into it further, Lawrence Flinton, are you on this item or are you on a different, just oral communication? Where are you? You're on this item or oral communication? Okay. Gabe, after we do this, Gabe Herbert? All communications. And Brandon Levine? Brandy Levine. Brandy. All communications.

Okay. Okay, so we've heard from everyone on this item.

And let me queue up real quick. This item has been approved. I didn't vote for it when it came up because of location and the sensitive receptors. I didn't vote for it because there was no environmental impact report done. The fire department has not approved it. LA County has sitting on their desk right now some stringent guidelines that have not been approved. The garden gold fryer is another reason that I'm reluctant to, because this is about approving the benefits. $550,000 is ludicrous to me, it's ridiculous. This company's gonna be here for 25 years and we're not gonna get a dime other than that $550,000 is startup money. We talk about streets, we just talked about $32 million to improve the streets in the city of Carson. Where's that gonna come from? Okay, your streets look wonderful. But you're not going to get a dime. They're going to laugh all the way to the bank. And we're going to be sitting here holding everything. If this company should file bankruptcy, it's not even in the report, the development agreement, that the parent company would be responsible. All the responsibilities come to the city if we have to evacuate. We just had the Dominguez Channel where we had to absorb the cost of that. The county gave us back the money, but the decision was made by this body that we were going to take care of our residents. And we did whatever we could to take care of them. We commandeered every hotel in Los Angeles, Long Beach to make sure that our residents were taken care of, okay? This project, if something should happen, I can't go to them and say, you know, I have to evacuate my residents. The technology that was here seven years ago It's outdated. What's gonna happen 70 years from now, okay? The project has been approved. I did not approve it for the reasons that I have stated. If we're going to be a city and everyone pays their fair share, then why are we closing our eyes to Beth or Matt? They're gonna laugh at us all the way back to Texas. We're not getting a dime, folks. We're getting $550,000 up front. $35,000 for Town Avenue. I always tell people I'm not a cheap date. If you come to the city of Carson, you need to pay your fair share, and I don't think we're getting it from Bess. I support the jobs that you're talking about, but that's not what it's all about, folks. We need some assurances that we don't have in the current development agreement that says that we're gonna be taken care of as a city. I see the unions here. I see everybody here's talking about jobs. What about the city of Carson and how are we gonna protect our residents if something should happen? My job is to make sure that my residents are taken care of. This project would not even get off the drawing board if it was in Malibu. or Mosa Beach, it wouldn't get off the floor. They wouldn't allow it, and it's not there. So you come to a city whose property value is a little cheaper than Manhattan Beach and other cities, and you want to bring this. And it's approved, folks. I'm not saying it's not. But when you leave here tonight, I want you to think about, would you want to live next to it? Would you want your city that you live in to have a project that doesn't bring any revenue other than first-time monies? for town elementary school, $35,100 for, I have that right now in my general fund. It's not that the project is not good. The other project we approved was further away from the residents. There's no environmental impact report, folks. If you're that sure that this project is that safe, then why not go to an environmental impact report and say, yeah, we've done everything that we can to protect the residents of the city of Carson. I want an environmental impact report. The past community development director kind of bamboozled us. Thank God for Nathan. He came aboard and said, this is ridiculous. Staff, the people that we hire to make recommendations, because we don't have all the knowledge. You ask for residents. I brought you 400. They said they were different. They didn't want it. at a town hall meeting. Then they came 60 strong and said they didn't want it because of these reasons that are outlined here. It's about safety, and if we cannot overlook that, folks, at least get some revenue coming into this city. When I spoke to a representative, they said make sure you get at least $5 million. Irvindale got 13 million. They went to Irvindale.

They got $13 million.

Carson is getting $550,000 one time.

Why couldn't we get $2 to $5 million every year to straighten up our, to pave the streets that we've been talking about, to keep our trees trimmed?

Not getting but $550,000.

And no assurances that if there's evacuation, it will all fall on the city of Carson. And I'm gonna do what I can to protect my residents. We'll have a meeting and to protect them. That's why the project has been approved, but I will not approve this package the way it's presented because it does not give us any protection. as far as who's going to take care of our residents. It does not provide any additional revenue to this city on an ongoing basis for 25 years.

You get nothing. If it was your bank account, would you do that? I don't think so.

So that's my two cent, and I know it's already been approved, and I've said what I had to say. MPT.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. By me sitting up on this dais, I understand that Clean energy is important. You got wind, solar, battery, hydrogen. I sit on the board of the Clean Power Alliance. Been on this since inception. It's the largest clean energy supplier in the nation. And I did speak with the CEO and other people that was a part of this organization, and I'm with 40 plus representatives of cities from Ventura, LA County. It's not the technology that's an issue for me, it's the location and how close in proximity it is to Kaiser Permanente, to Victoria Park, to Town Elementary School and then not having the environmental impact report and requesting this council to exempt them from the CEQA. Because those are reports that would give you all the information that's needed to know how safe it is in your community and how well it can blend in and not cause harm to our residents. In the event of emergency, and there's been emergencies in other locations, there's no cost to the applicant that comes back. That's all on the city's dime that we have to deal with that. And I think I asked a question before, in the event that these batteries catch on fire, that's lithium batteries, can the applicant, what is the process of dealing with any of those batteries that catch on fire? What can you do? What is the procedure? Can anybody ask that question? If the lithium batteries catches on fire, what is the procedure for that process of dealing with that battery that's on fire?

Yeah, so if there is a fire at the facility, the fire department will have an emergency response plan prepared that would have to be approved by them. Their response would be to arrive on scene, assess the situation, conduct air monitoring, and intervene as necessary. Intervention may include the use of water to cool adjacent assets.

So water can be used on a battery, if memory serves me correct, you can't put water on an electrical fire, you have to just let it burn, am I correct?

So yeah, the water is not for extinguishing the fire within the cabinet, it is for adjacent asset protection, such as cooling adjacent units or any other assets.

So the battery that is actually engulfed, we just have to sit there and let it burn with the chemicals coming from those batteries until it burns itself out? Correct. Air monitoring systems are gonna be on this site? Air monitoring?

Air monitoring would be conducted by the fire department.

So there is nothing on the edges or the surrounding area of the facility for any type of air monitoring? Nothing of that nature?

Even if there was, it would not be sufficient. The intent of the air monitoring is that the fire department conduct is they would put the air monitor into the plume area so you'd be guessing where if you're installing fixed air monitors at the site you'd be trying to guess where the potential plume would be so you would essentially have to install it everywhere on the site which all along the perimeter which is not practical and it's not guaranteed that the plume would go there anyways

I can guarantee it'll go over the homes because of the air quality and how the air flows from the ocean. We're in proximity to the Pacific Ocean, and it goes from west to east, so it will go over the housing on Main Street and Victoria Park. But my real concern is at this point, I know it's been approved, and I guess my concern is that we did not really get our due diligence in regards to sitting down and negotiating with this company. I think our residents have been shortchanged. The technology is great, but our residents did not get what was needed to actually make them partially whole to some degree, but at least, to look at how we can maintain services for our community and our residents, and I don't think that's the case. And I know, I think within the first year of operation, this facility can generate upwards of $50 million the first year of operation, and there it goes even higher thereafter. Again, my vote is not to support this, I guess it's this development agreement for what we have, because this doesn't cover the staff or the residents here in the city of Carson. But I just want to say to my residents, just take heed of how this goes out and how this plans itself out here on this dais. And understanding that I have always been an advocate for the residents of the city of Carson. I've been living in this city for almost 40 years. I raised three kids. My grandson is here. I'm not very pleased with this. Not at all. Thank you.

Councilwoman.

Thank you. Sir, the one who just spoke? Thank you so much. Can you just state your name and your position?

My name's Christian Ng. I'm a senior fire protection engineer at Fire and Risk Alliance, and I'm a licensed fire protection engineer in the state of California.

Yes, thank you so much. I know you gave some statements before we've already heard it. I just wanted for the record to say who you were and where you're from. So thank you so much. Thanks. Okay. I want to thank staff for putting this report together. We had or I had a lot of questions that had to do with the safety and I heard location, location, location. SO WE KEPT GOING BACK AND FORTH, ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT LOCATION, ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND THE FIRE MARSHAL AND THEIR SAFETY MEASURES, AS WELL AS EVEN THE STATE. SO I WANT TO THANK STAFF FOR DOING THE RESEARCH AGAIN AND GETTING THE ANSWERS THAT I NEEDED. And I call it a rinse and repeat. We keep going through it, going through it, making sure that we are taking safety measures as a priority. With myself having 35 years in law enforcement, safety measures is key. I honestly, I don't put a price on safety because it's either safe or not. But I do understand, you know, we can't all agree on all that, on everything. However, we can do our research and look into things and realize that some of the things that happened four or five years ago They've already changed a couple of years ago, and they already are upgrading and needs upgrading, and we're going to keep on going, growing, and learning from these experiences. So I want to thank staff for doing that. i'd like to make the motion to conduct a second reading by title only and with further reading waived and adopt ordinance number 26-2608 an uncodified ordinance of the city of carson california finding a sequa exemption with respect to approval of development agreement number 33-23 And number two, approving development agreement number 33-23 between the City of Carson and VESI 27 LLC for a proposed battery storage system project at 18800 Broadway Avenue, APN 7339-014-009. and authorize the mayor to execute development agreement number 33-23 with VESI 27 LLC following approval as to form by the city attorney. And that is my motion.

It's been moved and properly seconded to the city clerk. I'd like copies of these printed and typed so I can keep them on my door. You know, I've done this before. I want to look at it every day. I don't want anyone to have to tell me when this matter came before city council. I'll explain it to you later.

Yes.

Thank you. Cash a vote.

Mayor, we have discussion first.

Oh. Who's, Arlene just spoke, you queued up?

I queued up again.

Okay, well, did you speak three minutes? We didn't get timing, so time, give him two minutes.

It's actually five minutes and it's only once a motion is made. It's been made. And when you're talking to staff, if you remember the law.

You better shut up, I think.

I beg your pardon?

Yes, I said it. You'd better be quiet. Now go and talk.

You said it in a very mean way. Okay, well, I'm going to ask the question. To the city manager, do we receive utility user tax on this project? Thank you for the question. No, we do not. Okay, the second question is... If the city were to not approve this project, based on the state of California's policies and law, the developer of this best project could go through a state process and without any input from the city other than our opinion giving a we give opinion at community meetings and when reports are made is it possible that they could get approval from the state without the city's approval and then the city would get zero community benefits is that true

so councilman dear what you're stating is correct that if this project were not approved by the city council the applicant certainly could pursue that option as i think it's been articulated to the council previously there are state requirements that would be associated with that one of them being the applicant would have to do a full environmental impact report but then on the other hand

the state could then go ahead and approve it after that impact report. Yeah, that's correct.

That is correct. However, I want to note that they would have to engage with the city in that process.

OK, to get our opinion. But as far as local control or community benefits, it's very unlikely we will receive any. There'd be speculation, sir. OK, that answers the question. Thank you very much.

I think, thank you, Nate, because they would have to come to speak to us, but the way it's laid out right now, we'll get nothing anyway, because they're going to be here for 25 years. And so nothing from nothing leaves nothing. So you're talking about $550,000 one time. So the motion has been made and cash a vote.

Motion carries.

Thank you. Next we have, where are we on this agenda?

Oral communications from the public.

Oral communications for Mr. Flint, Mr. Flint. Two minutes, Mr. Flint.

Good evening, Madam Mayor.

How are you?

City Council, city staff. I'll make it really quick.

I was actually at home watching the meeting and the captain's report came up about e-bikes and all that stuff.

I'm speaking as a resident again. I have done this diligently for a year now on e-bikes, speed cameras, red light cameras, the whole nine yards. We don't have to have all these reports and investigations and background. They're already state laws. They can be adapted to ordinance for our city without hesitation. It's already been through the courts, even back and forth on if it's infringing on rights or whatever. I have all the information. I will submit it to whoever as a resident because I believe this can be done ASAP. That's just, the e-bikes, it's so plain and clear. It's already been done.

City Manager and Nora, they will get with you, Mr. Flynn, okay? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that email I received also. Gabe, hi Gabe.

Hello, Evening Council. My name's Gabe Holbert. I'm with Home Run Financing. We're a property-assessed clean energy PACE administrator. We operate in over 360 California communities, including numerous of your neighbors, to include Lynnwood, Santa Fe Springs, Maywood, Commerce, Hawthorne, Santa Monica, Lakewood, and numerous others. Demand for insulation, HVAC, and other improvements brought on by the climate challenges in California create a need for homeowners to adapt their homes despite these improvements being out of reach due to high price tags. PACE is a transformational public policy that enables homeowners to finance them equitably through fixed interest rates through special property tax assessments. Since AB1284 was passed in 2017, PACE has delivered best-in-class consumer protections, including rigorous underwriting standards, financial disclosures, and verifying ability to pay. Carson residents had PACE through the Golden State Finance Authority's YGreen program. However, YGreen left the California market and now leaves your homeowners with no other options. CSCDA, which Carson is already a member of, offers an open-paced program that has access to two residential providers and numerous commercial providers to be able to help your small businesses. Numerous other California cities, including nearby in Hawthorne, Calabasas, Lawndale, and just last week Lakewood, have recently approved it. We've identified 900 Carson properties where homeowners wanted to use PACE but has been unable to because the city hasn't approved the program. I'm happy to leave a map and my card along. We'd love to discuss how together we can work to bring PACE back to Carson and make these vital home improvements more accessible to your community. Thank you and have a great night. Tell me your name one more time.

Excuse me, sir? Your name one more time. Gabe Hulbert. Gabe, the history of Carson is we kicked PACE out of our community. PACE was predatory lending to our seniors. And our seniors, once they were getting their houses upgraded, they were getting their roofs done, their windows done, they would get hit with an assessment on their taxes. So we just wanted to let the residents know we don't support PACE.

No, we understand that. And there were, in the early days before state regulation, there were issues. So I'm happy to discuss that.

I'm just letting you know. I just wanted to let my residents know, those 900 that you identified, that this city council, in particular, we don't support PACE because people have lost their homes. and had been in their homes for years behind pace because maybe not you, someone arrived at their door, and you don't have to speak back because your time is up, but I wanted to let our residents know. I wanted to let our residents know because it had the same name, Pace, and it just put them out of step, put them out of pace, and they couldn't pace with their bills, and they lost their homes. Their homes were in ruins because someone showed up at their door, told them they can get them a new roof, and it wouldn't cost them anything. So I appreciate you greatly for coming to present tonight, but I wanted to speak up on behalf of the residents. Thank you.

And you don't have to come back. Brandy.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. My name is Brandi Lewin. I've been a resident for over 40 years. I rise tonight regarding two matters that I believe are important to public trust, transparency, and civic participation. First, on May 20th, 2026, during the makeup meeting from May 19th, I attempted to speak during a public hearing and was not permitted to do so. This follows a prior occasion in which I was also denied the opportunity to speak during the public comments. Since that time, I have sent correspondence to you, Madam Mayor, City Clerk, and City Attorney, requesting clarification regarding the legal basis for that decision. To date, I have not received a response. For the record, California Government Code Section 54954.3 of the Brown Act provides that members of the public shall have an opportunity to directly address the legislative body before or during its consideration of an agenda item. Therefore, I respectfully request a written explanation regarding why I was denied, the opportunity to speak and clarification of the city's policy so all residents may better understand their rights under the Brown Act. If I do not receive a response within 30 days, my next steps will be filing a Brown Act complaint, contacting the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and requesting assistance in consulting private counsel. Second, I would like clarification regarding the recent fireworks ballot measures and the use of the city's logo and branding and election-related communications. The banner specifically had our city logo. While I certainly respect the resident's stance, my request is that there is adherence to governance. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, I think the meeting she's talking about, I gave just an hour, all communications. I've just received it and we will look at it and we will respond.

Thank you.

Memorial adjournment.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Eva Green, Harry Wilson, Robert Pibo Bryson, Janice Machino, Guadalupe Olivers, and Christopher K. Cimarrago. That's the father-in-law to Joyce Cimarrago.

Okay. Two cards. I thought they were the same.

You can't speak one.

Okay, all communications number 32. Let's pray and then you can speak for two minutes.

I have one to add.

You have one to add?

To memorial adjournment. Me too.

Me too.

Okay, Olga Heidi Baragon. She was the key person at Callas Park that started the classic car show at Callas Park.

Madam Mayor, I have Roger Haynes, brother of Kenny Harris.

Oh. To the staff, make sure we send the appropriate arrangements. You have the funeral ongoing celebration. It's tomorrow. It's tomorrow. On the 11th. So we can send something to them.

Okay. City Clerk, I would like to add Eltonie Savage. She grew up here. I'm 45. She would be 40. She just turned 45. She passed on her birthday. 46. She passed on her birthday. Mrs. Tweets' granddaughter. She just... passed. So everybody knows Mrs. Tweet from the neighborhood and Mrs. Eltony. Her mom, Mrs. Savage, her family. We're praying for them.

Thank you. And while we're praying, today is my grandson's birthday that's in heaven. It was tough for me today. And my daughter. But give us a shout out for her too.

Absolutely. Every about, every guy close. Father, tonight we lift up these families whose name we're called, and we pray that you would hold near and dear to your promise that you would never leave them comfortless. Give them peace. Give them joy that surpasses all understanding. Father, we lift up Keisha tonight. We pray that you would bless her, touch her heart, touch her mind, give her peace. We lift up our mayor tonight. We pray that you would give her peace as she consoles her daughter and grieves her grandson. I pray that you would just bless us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Oral communications from staff. I skipped over that. Anything? I hear none. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. They're looking on their little iPhones. Oh, Robert and Leslie, come on down. Man, please. I keep forgetting. It was here, I just thought it was under the same one. I do apologize.

Stuff happened, Madam Mayor, no problem. Once again, to the Madam Mayor, staff, council body. Again, like I said, I want to recognize the fact of Harry Wilson, who really was a faithful servant for this community for some years. I had the pleasure of being involved with him over the years. And he's been a faithful servant, once again. And thank you again for all the prayers for the other members. you have given a moment of prayer as well. Real quick, you know, I received a disturbing type of statement at the last council meeting from Brandi, Ms. Brandi. She approached me and she said, Mr. Leslie, I was down at the Board of Supervisors meeting, I testified, and I was really disappointed when I look around and nobody wasn't there. But yet, from Councilman Hilton's office, the representative Mr. Tulis, he gave us information or misinformation or saying, they will not let you testify unless that's agenda item. So therefore, if you go down there, you will not be able to testify, which later I found to be false. But yet instead, when you come to me and you say that, This person had opportunity to testify. And then you tell me, and so sad about it, Mr. Toulouse came to me and say, you know, Brandon, she had opportunity to go down and testify. So to me, you arbitrarily giving me misinformation here. That's what I feel. And so once again, the people will have their time to testify. And I employ the council body to truly seek this matter on a legal basis and whatnot. Thank you.

Yes.

Now, no one gave erroneous information. That's the information that we were given. Brandy decided to go on her own. We thought that taking a bus of senior... No, no, you spoke twice. You spoke twice. Well, just wave me off. That's not, I'm telling nobody again, no misinformation.

That's okay, we're not arguing back and forth. What we're going to do is we're coordinating the trip to the L.A. County. We'll be working on that real soon, okay? Any, so here, no comments. I think we can get out of here tonight. Huh? Wait a minute.

I do have a comment. I have residents reaching out to me and they would like to see if Carson would be, if our mayor and our council would be open to making a Muslim, uh, Muslim Heritage Month, like LA County, they sent a resolution to, it's like Muslim Heritage Month. June, on behalf of the Muslim residents throughout the city of Carson, we respectfully request that the city of Carson officially recognize the month of July as Muslim Heritage Month.

So I... Can we meet with them?

We can meet with them. I just wanted to bring it to them because they sent me an overwhelming amount of emails.

And we'll meet with them also. The Councilman and I will meet with the group that's making this request and see what it all entails, okay? Bishop.

Yes, ma'am.

Rojas. Yes. I meant to do this earlier. The mayor and I, we met with the Dominican Republic. Mayor of the Dominican Republic. So I'd like staff to add that as a sister city. Can we get that? To add it to the. My pleasure.

Yeah, I forgot to call you on that. My pleasure.

Keep meaning to do that.

My pleasure.

Okay. And this Saturday, the Philippine Independence Day, and then also there is a homeowner's fair at Carson Community Center that I believe Madam Mayor starts at 9 a.m., 9 to 1?

Yes, 9. We have 1,600 people that have signed up for there. Yes. The councilwoman and I are hosting this event. Come out and learn how to get some money for down payments for homes, up to $230,000. Yes. And with these new town homes coming in, I need to get one.

Yes, that's it, Madam Mayor, thank you.

I have a quick question for staff, Madam Mayor.

Yes.

Short-term rentals in the community and ADUs and have been coming up with issues with parking in the neighborhoods of the ADUs. And I don't know how can we address the parking issue within our neighborhoods because of ADUs and short-term rentals.

I haven't, the city attorney sent me a draft of an ordinance that we were supposed to be working on. I think, so I have it on my desk. I'll let you see it. Yeah. Okay.

We'll take a look and bring it back to you, sir.

Okay.

Okay. I haven't looked at it. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for coming out and being with us this evening. This meeting is adjourned.

Oh, Juneteenth. Is it before I have another council meeting? Yes.

Juneteenth celebration is on the 13th at Anderson Park. You'll be allowed on the park at 10 o'clock, all day in it. You can't get out until 11 o'clock.

10.30. Sorry, Madam Mayor. And tomorrow night for the meeting with Phillips, it's actually 6 p.m., not 6.30. I apologize. 6 p.m. At the 6 o'clock at the community center.

Okay.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow evening.

You guys can go home. I'm beating. I can't get to stay until 11 o'clock again. Thank you, Nathan. How long have you been here, Nathan? Six months. Six months. Oh, wow. I have two on the hook. Robert has been here for five years.