City Council - Regular Meeting

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, if you require a disability-related modification or accommodation to attend or participate in this meeting, including auxiliary aids or services, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 310-952-1720 at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. Government Code Section 54954.2 Public Information. The public may address the members of the City Council on any matters within the jurisdiction of the City Council or on any items on the agenda of the City Council during the designated public comment periods. There will be two oral communication sessions, one for agendized items, comments about items on the agenda, and the other for non-agendized items, comments about items not on the agenda. The oral communication portion of the agenda is limited to a duration of one hour, unless otherwise approved by the City Council. Comment time is normally three minutes, depending on the number of speakers. Public viewing available by live stream on the city's website. The meeting will be streamed live over the internet via www.carsonca.gov. YouTube, www.youtube.com slash at City of Carson, California. Cable TV, Spectrum Channel 35 and AT&T Channel 99. carson tv app you may also download the carson tv app to stream the meeting app availability the carson tv app is available in the apple app store google play store roku and amazon platforms If you're not able to attend the meeting in person, public comment can be submitted before the meeting via email to cityclerk at carsonca.gov. The cutoff time to submit any email communication is 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Written comments can be dropped off at the city clerk's office at City Hall. The cutoff time to submit any written communication is 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting. written comments dropped off at the city clerk's office or any email received will not be read aloud at the city council meeting but will be circulated to the city council and incorporated into the record Public comments can be made live during all communications portion of the agenda. Pursuant to Senate Bill 707 and our commitment to public accessibility, we offer three ways for you to participate in person. If you're with us, please submit a public comment card to the city clerk. virtual two-way audiovisual platform Zoom. You may access the Zoom meeting information at carsonca.gov slash government slash live broadcast. To join us via phone, you may call 1-669-900-6833 and enter the meeting ID 846-366-3031-3POUND. I'd like to introduce you today to our mayor. Our mayor of the day is not on. Oh, sure. I'd like to introduce you today to our mayor of the day, and I'm gonna let him give you his name and what school he is before we call this meeting to order.

Hello, my name is Diego Chiu Castillo, and the school I go to is Carson Street Elementary, and I'm in fifth grade. City of Carson Housing Authority Successor Agency Public Financing Authority City Council Agenda. Today is Tuesday, September 15, 2026. All meetings will order at 5 p.m. Call to order city clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the day. Council Member Rojas? Present. Council Member Deer?

Present.

Council Member Hilton? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Hicks?

Present.

Mayor Davis-Holmes? Present. Thank you.

Next, we're going to do the flag salute. MPT, can you please lead us?

Everyone please stand, face the flag, ready, begin.

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

Do I continue? In invocation, Pastor Christina Benimer from Glory Potent Church.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the day. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the day. My name is Christina Ben Amor, and on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ and Glory Point Church, I thank you for having us here today. This is a prophetic invocation and declaration over our beautiful city of Carson. Let us bow our head in prayer. Father God, we humbly come before your throne of grace in reverence and thanksgiving, declaring that you are the Lord over the city of Carson, that you are the Lord over this community, and the Lord over every generation that is represented here today. Father, your word declares in Psalms 24 and one that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to him. So Lord, today we acknowledge that this beautiful city of Carson belongs to you. Father, we lift up the mayor, every council member and every leader that is serving this community. Your word says in Proverbs 29 too, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. Father, give our leaders wisdom beyond their own understanding. Give them discernment to recognize what is right and the resolve to walk it out. With humility to serve the people entrusted to their care. James 1.5 declares, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask and receive. So Lord, we ask you to release heavenly wisdom in this room. Strategy flow from the throne of God. Father, let every decision made here today be motivated by a genuine desire to serve, protect, and strengthen this community. And Father, we declare the words of Isaiah 9 and 2, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. And we declare that that light will overcome the darkness in our city of Carson. Father, where there has been division, bring unity. Where there has been discouragement, release hope. Where there has been brokenness, bring restoration. And where there has been great injustice, establish righteousness into this city. For your word says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Where there has been lack, open new doors of opportunity and provision to our community. Where families are struggling, strengthen and restore them. Where there has been death, fill their hearts with comfort and hope. Where young people are searching for direction, raise up godly voices and righteous examples to lead them. Lord, let this city become known, not merely for what it builds with its hands, but for the character, the compassion, the courage and integrity of its people, a people of faith. Your word says the name is 5 and 24, but let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Therefore, we declare righteousness and justice be done in our city. According to Jeremiah 29 and seven, we pray for the peace and prosperity of this community because when the city prospers, its people prosper, Father. Father, I ask God that you breathe fresh life into Carson. Let businesses flourish, let families thrive, let neighborhoods become safer, let our children be protected, and let those hurting find help. Let your churches reach the lost that are in darkness and bring the prodigals home as we declare Isaiah 61, arise and shine for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is upon thee. we call the city of carson to arise with wisdom arise in righteousness arise in unity arise in courage and compassion and arise and thrive in purpose but above all these carson arise in faith and in love and let the next generation inherit a city that is stronger and healthier and filled with the hope of jesus christ We pray that every leader represented here would recognize the weight and the privilege of their responsibility. Give them Solomon-like wisdom as Solomon asked for understanding and a heart to govern your people, God. Father, we thank you for this leadership who understands leadership is about serving others. As your word says in Mark 10 and 43, whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. Father, as I close, I remind your leadership here today that they are stewarding legacy for the next generation to stand on. And may the Lord grant us abundant prosperity from generation to generation. As we declare together, Leviticus 26 and 9, I will look upon you, Carson, with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers. And I will keep my covenant with you. We thank you, Lord, and in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus Christ, we all said amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Amen, amen. Thank you for that word. We'll have you back next week. Thank you so much. Now let's give our Mayor of the Day a round of applause. He's such a wonderful mayor and this goes along with my declaration of proclaiming 2026 as the year of the child and we want to make sure that we incorporate them and embrace them and pray for them and let them come see what government is all about here in the great city of Carson. So I want to thank you. I think we've been having a mayor of the city once a month and this young man is one of my

my biggest supporters.

He can't vote yet, but he follows me, and I just want to thank the parents for coming out also, and for instilling in this young man what you have done. You've done a great job, a great job. So thank you, and we're going to go down and present him with a proclamation. We don't want to keep him for the entire council meeting, because we're going to be here until about 9 o'clock. They said, mm. And so I want him to go home to do his homework. So we're going to go down. one by himself and then we'll bring up the family, okay? So come on down, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much, Diego. Come stand in the center. And Diego, one of the reasons I created Mayor of the Day, as I stated earlier, because this 2026 is called the Year of the Child. And it's because I want to recognize young people and let them understand that you don't have to wait until you grow up to have a vision. and I know you young men have a vision already. Diego wants to see Carson that is cleaner, safer, healthy, and full of opportunities. He cares about the mental health, helping people who are struggling, protecting our neighborhoods, and making sure young people have positive opportunities through sports, arts, music, and education. Diego, that is what leadership looks like, seeing what you can make better and caring enough to want to do something about it. And that's what I see in you. So today it is my honor to present you with this certificate and officially recognize you as our mayor of the day. Diego, in recognition of your participation as mayor of the day, and for your enthusiasm, leadership, and commitment to learning about local government and civic engagement. The city of Carson is pleased to honor you for taking part in this special opportunity. to experience firsthand some of the responsibilities of the mayor and to gain a greater understanding of how our city serves its residents and community. Your participation demonstrates the importance of civic involvement, leadership, and community service, and we commend you for your interest in making a positive difference here in the city of Carson. It's dated today, September 15th. It's signed by your mayor, Lilla Davis Holmes. our Mayor Pro Tem Hicks, our Councilman Jim Deere, our Bishop and Dr. Hilton, and our Councilmember Arlene Buctier-Rojas. Thank you, and we're gonna take a quick photo. And I know you have some homework to do, don't you? Yes, you do. Thank you, everyone, for coming out here.

Thank you everyone for coming out here to support and what award I'm gonna be giving. Thank you.

Look at how nice my mayor's dressed. Mayor, step out there. You clean, Mayor. I'm loving this. No, you come and stand over here. Yes, yes, yes, please. Come on, family. These are all his supporters. Oh wow.

Come on grandma.

Grandma. CLOSED SESSION ITEMS TWO THROUGH THREE. MADAM CITY CLERK, IS THERE ANY REQUEST TO SPEAK ON CLOSED SESSION?

NO, MADAM MAYOR.

MADAM CITY ATTORNEY?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A closed session will be held pursuant to government code section 54956.91 in two matters, in the matter of Battle versus City of Carson and Lim versus City of, actually, I just got note that we're not gonna discuss number two. It's taken off, so there's only one matter. Thank you.

There's only one item, so we're gonna be back early. So we should be back in 30 minutes. So we should be back no later than 545. I'm going to recess the closed session.

Thank you.

rules of decorum no person attending a public meeting shall engage in disorderly or bolsterous 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 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 preceding 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 City Attorney, report out on closed session items.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The council met in closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.91 to confer with legal counsel regarding Battle versus City of Carson. No reportable action was taken.

Thank you. Is our captain here?

I don't see her.

So we're gonna go to presentations and we'll come back to the captain when she arrives. So items five through 12. Could you meet me at the podium, everyone? What? Are you being me? We're gonna come back to item number five as soon as we do the presentations, because I'd like more of our audience here. Okay, so we're gonna start off with the clerks. Today is national voter registration, item number six, and we'll go to seven, eight we've already taken care of, nine, 10, 11, and 12, okay? So the first thing on the agenda this evening is National Voter Registration Day, and then we're going to come back to item five after we do the other presentations. All right?

Stay there, stay there, stay there. Yeah, just hang out.

If you want to, come on up if you want to come back.

Good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Happy National Voter Registration Day. Come on, Councilman Deer. I want you down there by yourself. I know it. You know, that's a woman's prerogative.

So thank you for your time this evening, Madam Mayor, members of council. Again, today is National Voter Registration Day, so I just have some information that I am excited to share. The city clerk's office in the city of Carson is committed to promoting broad voter registration, access to accurate election information, and meaningful participation in elections among eligible residents. National Voter Registration Day is a nationwide nonpartisan civic holiday dedicated to ensuring that eligible Americans have the opportunity to register to vote, update their voter registration information, and access trusted information about the registration process. Many eligible voters may be unable to participate in elections because they miss a voter registration deadline. They've not updated their registration after moving or changing their name, or are unfamiliar with the voter registration process. Election officials, or in our case, the city clerk, serves as a trusted source of accurate, timely, and nonpartisan information about voter registration requirements, deadlines, eligibility, and election administration. And collaboration among election officials, nonprofit organizations, libraries, colleges, universities, housing providers, businesses, community organizations, and other local partners can help expand access to reliable voter registration information and reach eligible voters where they live, work, study, and gather. National Voter Registration Day provides an opportunity for election offices and community partners across the country to work together in a coordinated, nonpartisan effort to promote voter registration and civic participation. Providing voters with reliable and trusted public information strengthens confidence in the electoral process and helps ensure that eligible residents are prepared to participate in upcoming elections. I, as your elected city clerk in the city of Carson, encourage eligible residents to verify their voter registration status, register to vote or update their voter registration as needed, and seek election information from my office. National Voter Registration Day is the perfect day to do so. On Saturday, I was invited by KJLH radio station to participate in a panel discussion with Senator Steve Bradford, who previously represented the 35th Senate District, the president of the Pasadena chapter of the NAACP, and rapper and artist and Inglewood legend, D Smoke. I have sat on dozens of panels, but what was so special about that panel was that everyone up there was unified in the message of the power of the vote and fighting against voter apathy. There are so many messages out there and we live in a day and age where there is such a thing as overconsumption of information. But one message is very clear and remains the same. There is nothing more powerful than an individual's right to vote. And if you don't believe me, ask yourself why there are members of the federal administration working super diligently to overturn the Voters Rights Act. If voting didn't matter and voting was not important, then no one would be worried about overturning laws from six years ago. Today, my staff and I hosted an event specifically for City of Carson employees. Many people registered to vote many years ago and haven't checked their status since. With everything that is going on, it's important to check your status and know your status. If you've moved, changed your mailing address, changed your name, changed your political party affiliation, you need to register again. It is important that most up-to-date and accurate information is included in your registration so you do not have any issues at vote centers. The last day to register to vote for the November 3rd election is October 19th. That's for California. I do quickly want to thank our vendors who came out and supported today's events. We had set up in decorations that was facilitated by Mickey Sanchez. Coffee was provided by Brew Life Coffee, which is a black woman-owned coffee company. The cookies were provided by Brown Sugar Bakery, and we had our very own Joe from Public Safety who provided music for our DJ. We had custom signs that were designed, hand painted by a talented woman, and we had complete support from staff in City Hall. I do want to thank staff who came and supported the event. I'm particularly thankful for the support of our exec team. I appreciate their support. Also, it was really nice for many of our employees that I did not know and had a chance to get to know them. The clerk's office mostly stays in our office and we stay in our own little bubble, but it was really special to be outside in our beautiful courtyard at the community center and connect with colleagues and staff over such a meaningful topic. Now I'm going to share some brief but really important facts for you to prepare for election day. It's really small.

Okay, I have my notes here.

Number one is make your voice heard early. Return your ballot by mail as soon as you receive it. It's common that it just sits on the kitchen counter or the coffee table, but make sure that you turn that in as soon as possible. County election officials will begin mailing ballots out on October 5th. Ballots can be dropped off at drop off locations, county elections office, or returned by mail. Secure ballot drop off locations open on October 6th. You can skip the lines on Election Day. The first vote centers open for early in-person voting on October 24th. In-person early voting locations throughout California will be open also on Saturday, October 31st. To ensure your ballot is postmarked by Election Day, make sure to mail it at least seven days in advance. You do not need a stamp for your mail-in ballot. Mailed ballots must be postmarked on or before November 3rd. And if you get close to election day, it's really important that if you don't get it in by then that you just take it to a drop off to ensure that the vote is counted. If mailing a ballot on November 3rd, get a manual postmark from a postal employee inside of the post office. November 3rd is the last day to vote in person or return your ballot by 8 o'clock p.m. Remember that polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. And finally, in the recent elections, since City of Carson has collaborated with Los Angeles County, these are just some numbers from the last elections that we've had. Obviously, we don't know the results for this year, but you can see the dip or the increase based on whether or not it was a midterm election or a presidential election. Carson has a really decent voter turnout at elections, but you can see that there's always room for improvement. As of yesterday, we have 64,673 registered voters in the city of Carson. And you can see what the last turnout was from the November 5th, 2024 election. So hovering somewhere around half for voter turnout. So there's room for improvement. And I just want to say on behalf of the clerk's office, thank you very much. I appreciate your support. If you have any questions about the upcoming election or if there's anything that I can do to support you or your departments, do not hesitate to reach out. My name is Dr. Clea Bradshaw, and I'm your city clerk. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Dr. Bradshaw, for that wonderful presentation. You're welcome. And I hear that it was a great event today. Thank you. So I want to thank you for that. No problem. Dr. Hilton.

I wanna thank you Dr. Bradshaw for a wonderful presentation. I also wanna just echo your sentiments of the importance of voter registration and also the Supreme Court ruled today on mail-in ballots and that was a victory for those people who like to vote by mail. So it was incredible that they sided with the people to continue to allow mail-in ballots. So that's incredible. Thank you so much Dr. B.

Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions? I don't see you queued up. Okay.

It's two threes.

MPT is, MPT.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Dr. Bradshaw, thank you for that information. The only question I have is that for the individuals, and you made a statement that was very important to me, that when you said it, if you registered some time ago, which for myself is, I won't say how many years, and you have not just looked at it again, Where can you go to actually go through that process? Can they come to the city clerk's office?

You can. Literally, in California, we're very fortunate. You can register to vote almost anywhere. You can register to vote on Facebook. You can register to vote on Instagram. All of the agendas for tonight, we put a sticker in there that has a QR code. You can scan that. It'll take you to a website where you can register to vote as well. There are paper applications that exist, but you can also register to vote online with LA County Registered Recording Office or the Secretary of State's office as well. Happy to direct anyone there or send links to make it accessible for people.

And you can check your own?

You can, the same place. So it does not hurt to check. I always tell people... thought that I was good to go and got a really awkward call one time and I needed to go and check my own status because somewhere in my 20s I got a little radical and changed some things and needed to change it back. It's good to check your status and change it. If you moved, if you got married, if you got divorced, you changed your name, you need to check your status. Life happens. That just ensures that you don't have any issues when you get to the vote center if your name doesn't match or anything like that.

Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Deer.

Thank you, Dr. Bradshaw. Very clear and the information you gave is valuable because people in general, they're not paying attention that much. And as you see our voter turnout, as in every city in America, could be better. I wanted to ask you about if people aren't sure if they can vote, they can still go to the polls. If they haven't checked in advance, they should probably side of a caution and go there and try to cast a vote, and they can vote provisionally, and then it would be checked to see if their vote is going to be counted.

Yes. That's correct, that is an option that we have in California, but it's also really good and important to check before you go, because if you go and you vote provisionally, you may not have all of your local matters on your ballot, so you wanna check by October 19th to make sure that you are registered to vote in the city that you intend to vote in so you can vote on the local matters of that city.

Thank you.

Yes, no problem.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Arlene has a... Yes, thank you for all the information. For all the old school out there, when, where can they pick up the actual form for all the people who are not on social media? The post office, my office, DMV.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, sorry, I know, I'm a millennial, so I like QR codes. This is just for everyone out there. But the thing with, here's the tea, though. The thing with the paper application is you have to mail it back in, and that takes some time. So if you scan a QR code, you can register to vote, and then go walk in, because it's electronic. So no shade on the paper, but you do have to mail it back in, and then that takes time. County, state employees have to process that.

Thank you so much.

You said old school, not me. A different school. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Well while we're doing presentations. I'll go back and do the presentation on Avalon Boulevard and Central Avenue wall improvements project

Perfect, thank you very much.

Madam Mayor and Council Members, thank you very much for inviting me here tonight to share with you the results of our study that we conducted along Avalon Boulevard and Central Avenue. We, RGM Design Group, was hired approximately a year ago or so to conduct an analysis on the walls on the feasibility analysis to enhance and beautify the walls of Avalon Boulevard and Central Avenue stretching from East Hermont Street to East University Drive. And what essentially that encompassed is 76 properties with varying wall segments and ownership structures. There were 52 properties along Avalon Boulevard and 24 along Central Avenue. Mayor Mrakas, Between those two streets, and you can see them highlighted here within this map, ultimately, our goal was to find out exactly what was there. Mayor Mrakas, share that information with the stakeholders and then collect feedback from those stakeholders develop some designs on how we may beautify those areas of the communities and then move forward with some potential cost estimates. The scope of the study that we had conducted was very specific, limited to the street to the wall, the back of the wall. It seems like a very narrow portion of the study. It was very critical because there was a lot of confusion and discussion on who owned what wall. So we started very clearly with having a A survey team go out, assess exactly where the parcels are, assess exactly what the street right away is, what any of the utilities, any of the infrastructure that may be in and around this area, and what the ownership structure looked like of this specific strip along the street. So we verified the existing conditions, and then we went out to the stakeholders and conducted workshops with them, and I'll talk about what we heard from them here in just a minute. Then we developed preliminary conceptual designs. Ultimately, we came up with some final conceptual designs and a cost estimate, as well as recommendations for moving forward. To share the conditions of the walls and the wall locations, we created a series of maps and analysis from structural engineers who went out and visually reviewed all of the walls, and civil engineers who surveyed all of the walls and their locations. So we dialed in exactly what information we had, where it was, what the ownership structure was for each of these individual parcels as we went along the street. And you can see we broke it down to three colors. One, green. Green color meant that the wall was in sound condition and it would last around 10 plus years. And then moderate was blue. A blue condition meant that the wall would last around five to 10 years and needed some minor work, but it was generally in good condition. And then there were some red conditions. The red conditions were walls that are in danger of failing or have failed in some cases, and those images were documented as we went through the study. And we shared this information just to give everybody an idea of which walls were in what condition. You can see just from this one map, there's a lot of different conditions all along the street. It's not isolated to one area. It's all throughout the entire element of the scope of our study. What we did as we went through this, I love pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and you can see here, Rather than just going through the engineering plans, we went through the photographs of those. And you can see the severe conditions, the red conditions there, those walls, as well as the moderate conditions. Some of the walls, they may have some minor elements, minor structural damage to it, minor elements that can be fixed or repaired, but generally in good condition. And then the good condition walls. In some cases, some of the walls were new. So a lot of varying conditions all across the entire strip. Also, in addition to the conditions, we also mapped out what materials existed. Now, one of the things we look at when we do streetscapes is we look at what is the consistency of the design. In this particular case, it is an older neighborhood, and we found everything from different tan CMU block to gray CMU block to pink CMU block to new wooden fences, old wooden fences, vinyl fences, as well as other walls with other types of materials, including stucco and stone veneer. So there was a lot of different design elements. We collected all that information and we shared it back with the stakeholders. We had six separate workshops as we went through. The first two workshops were held, you can see here, on the February 26th and March 5th. It were held to present the existing conditions and solicit feedback. Then we went back. took all the information we gathered from the stakeholders, developed some wall designs, came back to the community, shared those in workshop three and four, May 23rd and May 28th, and then again, collected all their feedback information, went back to the design table, made some refinements, prepared some cost estimates, and came back and shared that again with the stakeholders on August 12th and August 15th. The results of that I wanted to just briefly go through. You can see here on the first two workshop results we asked people do they rent or own their own home. We found the majority of people own their own home. We asked how they rated the overall wall conditions. 56%, those top two bars added together, said they were poor to very poor. We also asked, is there a preference? If we were to design new walls and implement new walls and beautify the street, what the preference for materials would be? So as you can see, we went through all those images with them, and the participants of the survey came back with they wanted to see some stacked stone veneer accents, some CMU block wall preferences become the majority elements that we'd heard. We also heard other elements as we went through. And is it preferable to have one or two walls? Now as you go through Avalon and Central, that condition changes as you go through. Sometimes it's one wall, sometimes it's two walls, sometimes it's two walls that are separated by a larger planter element. So we asked them all about their walls and what their preferences were, and we did it visually as well too. We had a visual representation of the walls, and you can see here the preference for a CMU block wall and a stacked stone veneer wall. Then we went back and we collected our our materials, we did a design, we shared the design with the community, and I'll actually have those up here in just a second. We asked the community, the participants of the survey, and the stakeholders what did they like about the walls, what did they dislike about the walls, or the designs that we'd come up with. And by and large, a lot of the participants liked one of the single wall designs that we came up with. We see that at the top. We also see that they had mentioned they liked the single wall writing out specifically, as well as a uniform appearance and consistent design. So based on the participants and the stakeholders within this study section is they were looking for an architecturally consistent design along the community there, along Avalon and Central, and having a uniform appearance with one single wall element. We asked, what are the complications or what do you potentially dislike? We heard elements and concerns of maintenance, making sure that some of the graffiti is taken care of. If there is graffiti down the road, how do we maintain that? We talked about safety and security. We talked about the feasibility of the existing wall concerns. Do some of them stay? Do some of them go? We also talked about different planter elements, as well as the aesthetic preferences between the materials. additional comments were collected from the community as well to. Above and beyond just the questions we asked we had an open ended feedback where people could just give us comments and we heard concerns about. Funding and financial responsibility who's going to pay for it, how can we afford it maintenance responsibility who's going to maintain it after it's built and and into the future. There's also concerns about as decisions are made and communication is brought forward, how will we know when this goes forward? There are also questions about the golf course. The golf course is not a city golf course. Those were discussed at the workshops, but I'm just sharing the information here as we go forward. Also, landscape design aesthetics. preferential for low maintenance landscaping, as well as something that I mentioned already there at the bottom, graffiti and ongoing maintenance of the walls, making sure that they're taken care of over the life of the walls themselves. Now, as I mentioned, we came up with multiple designs based on the community's preferences. And in order to really dive into it, it wasn't enough just to come up with one design. We came up with actually multiple designs and we put a cost to each one of those designs as we went along to make sure we were clear and transparent with everything that we collected. Everything from having two walls with a two foot planter, two walls with a five foot planter, and one wall with no planter The preferred option by the stakeholders was that option number three, one wall with no planter. However, the discussion was having a planter there in the walkway to screen the wall to beautify it and have a nice landscape vegetated edge. as you drive down the street. And coincidentally, that wall that was costed, that was preferred by the community, was one of the cheapest options in here, one of the most economical elements. This is an engineering kind of elevation of it. You can see here the wall, one wall element, which was stacked CMU field in the middle, as well as a stacked home, stacked stone veneer columns between each property element itself, too, and a new, vegetated parkway area there on the edge of the walkway. So we'd have a new walkway, new vegetated plant material along the road edge, and then a new wall. I know these images look very engineering. This is my preferred image because I can actually see it now. I can see it take shape and I can see the community's thoughts put into it. Now I can see the CMU stone there with the split face to have that anti-graffiti coating to deter graffiti on it. and then the stacked stone columns in between each of those residences, as well as that beautified landscape planter there between the road and the walkway itself, turning it into a nice boulevard where we heard people at the workshops, where they run, they exercise, people move up and down through this corridor, not just driving, but also walking. Now in terms of cost, when we went through the preferred design, we looked at the walls in a number of different scenarios. Because the question came up of some of the walls are new, some of the walls are old, some of the walls are failing, some of the walls are in good condition, we looked at each individual condition and if you were to do it individually. If you were to build the walls individually, it would be much more expensive because they would be each individual project. You would have to mobilize a contractor, pull a contractor back, have another house done, mobilize a contractor, pull a contractor back when it's done. And if we looked at that and did each home individually at the cost of that wall option number three, the price would come to around 5.7 million just for Avalon. It would be around 2.8 just for Central. Now, if we put those together and did them all at the same time in a sequential manner, a phased approach, it would drop that by about 30%. And then that would take care of all of the conditions as you go through both Avalon and Central because it wasn't just one clear section that was failing. It was pieces of it all along the way in between good sections, in between other sections that were better, other sections that were worse, and again, all the difference of the materials. What this would do by doing them all at once, it unifies the entire boulevard there. It creates an architectural narrative that shows that consistency across which we heard from the participants. and a desire of having as well as making sure it's easy to maintain going forward into the future. That all said and done, we also looked at the parkway improvements because landscaping did come up a number of times. The parkway improvements along Central would be just about 600,000 and then the parkway improvements, just the landscape area on the sidewalk for Avalon would be around 1.4 million. When I put all those together, Avalon and Central Boulevard, that dollar amount does increase, but looking at the difference between everything, doing them all separately, all 76 homes separately, 76 wall parcel separately, you're looking at 8.4 million versus doing it in a contiguous phased approach at around 5.9 million. So there is a cost savings if you look at doing it in a phased approach rather than individual pieces along the way. That's something to consider as we move forward based on what we looked at in terms of the structural engineering, the civil engineering, the layout, getting in and out of these areas. It is a very tight area between private properties and the road edge. Having a consistent construction element go through makes it a lot easier in terms of just the constructability, which would reduce the cost if it's all done at once. Ultimately, The preferred recommendation that we're offering is having that phased approach going through one street first, Avalon Boulevard in this case, followed by Central Boulevard, so they're not both done separately, but it's one element going through one street and then going through the other. The preferred wall option three, which includes the parkway improvements, removing the existing concrete, sidewalk the vegetation installing a new sidewalk new landscape planters new irrigation trees walls continuing that architectural narrative through the entire entire street on both Avalon and Central you can see here the price tag that we said it would be around Avalon Boulevard about four million dollars for that around Central Boulevard 1.9 million dollars total cost of them both together would be around 5.9 million based on our engineers estimate at this time our understanding of what we see out in the construction industry right now, this specific wall type, we're looking at around an eight to 11 month timeframe. Now that's just for the construction of the walls that doesn't include anything else outside of that. to address some of the other elements that we'd heard from the community. We had looked at potential responsibilities of if the city were to fund the construction of the wall, looking at the long-term maintenance, doing a maintenance easement along the backside of those walls so the city would maintain and take care of any street-facing elements. then the private homeowners would take care of any wall backyard facing elements as we go forward that would allow for a clean maintenance responsibility of both sides of the wall moving forward that includes the landscape as well the property owners would retain ownership of their property you wouldn't have any property transferring across the maintenance easement would just allow for the construction of the wall and then the continued maintenance of the wall as it moves on This is actually the lowest cost impact compared to the other options that we had with multiple walls. It also has a very direct time path for completing that project, having one wall and redoing the parkway planters. It makes it very clean and consistent construction project moving forward. At this point, do you have any questions on kind of the process that we went through or the outcomes of some of the stakeholder engagement that we prepared?

I had one question that has been raised and I don't know, we probably need to address it at some time. There was a brand new wall that was installed on Eddington and the question always came up, my wall is new, it's brand new and I told her the city will not reimburse you for that wall. We can't just give it away. I just wanted to know how we're going to address that because that issue came up at several meetings that I attended. We just repaired our wall because it was falling down. It doesn't match what's going up either. What they installed is totally different from what has been proposed. That's a question I think we need to look at. Also, my concern is probably going to be illegal. How do we get the right to enter these residents' property? I know we did it at Stevenson Village. You're just talking about what it costs right now, but those are some questions that I'm going to want answered. How are we going to get the right to go on this property? I hear what he's saying. The streets would be our responsibility in facing The interior would be the residence, so that needs to be ironed out. So there's some legal things that have to be ironed out. Because when I first looked at the renders, I want the double wall, but then you introduced the planters on the median, which softened it, and so it looks good now. You had some good meetings, I'm glad that you went out, and I know you did some surveys from people that could not attend, so even though there's 10, 15, 20 people, you got input from all the residents in those 79 homes, which was really good, because some people just couldn't come out, but they did complete the surveys. Could you address that?

Yes, just a note on that. Thank you very much for bringing it up, and I do have to give kudos to staff, because staff went out and we heard from total total of 33 of the 76 properties we received 82 overall responses as part of our outreach efforts but staff did go out we did flyers flyers weren't enough we went door to door did door hangers went knocked on doors we looked at we have data from each individual street on central went to 24 homes engaged 12 specific residents we had five surveys completed out of that Some residents that were not home were on seven. We went back and reconnected with those residents, as well as on Avalon, 25 out of 54 residents were engaged. 11 surveys were completed during the door knocking elements as we went through. So we did get, the city and staff went out in a very good effort to really make sure people knew about this project, they were aware of this project. A lot of people just did not decide to take part in the project. as some of the stakeholders went through. We did have a lot of people come back and tell us they spoke to their neighbors. And I think a lot of those participants did share the information because we made sure that it was available on the website so that people could see the information as well, too, beyond just those workshop events.

And then there's a home on the corner of Turmont and Avalon. Is that home going to be included? Is that little round fence that's falling around? It's on Avalon. Is it Turmont? Yeah, Turmont. The wall is falling down. I don't know if that was included in the process, but it's facing. No, this is on Turmont.

I can go back and look at our maps. I don't know if.

Yeah, right behind Walmart.

And in terms of including them in the actual survey, the door knocking, I don't know if they were included in it. But the wall designs that we've done are conceptual at this level and can be extended wherever we're told to. At this phase of the process, we just developed the wall conceptual design and the cost estimate per parcel for that strip.

It's one house. I don't think it was included. And you cannot do it when we move forward. I'm not going to say if. It has to because it's falling down also. Okay, right in the Walmart shopping center, that house, Tremont and Avalon. Tremont and Avalon.

Madam Mayor, will that be on the south side of Tremont? Yes. It doesn't sound like it's in the survey.

Well, we want to make sure it is. We need to add it. Yes.

It's important.

Okay. Councilman Deer.

Thank you. I think that the bishop was queued up before me, but you're good? Okay, so I have a few questions. Was the concept presented to the residents that their property values will go up if you have a consistent beautiful landscape wall around the neighborhood?

I am not a realtor, so I could not... talk about that point specifically, but I would say just my general understanding as a homeowner as well, yes, that I would believe that as well, but I'm not a realtor, so I could not say that specifically.

But the concept, was it presented by anyone, even a neighbor to a neighbor or anything like that?

I did hear it during discussions of the community, of participants at the workshop. There was discussions of having a nicer wall on a beautified street.

Logically, it would be understandable that property values in the entire neighborhood not just the affected owners of the wall the entire their neighbors across the street would benefit as well I think that concept is pretty important okay so question Wendy had the surveyors out there When the track was built, it has a short wall, that's the front wall, adjacent to the sidewalk, and then there's a space, and then the walls of the homes, because they're elevated along Avalon Boulevard. Who owns the property in between the two walls?

So as we went through it, 99% of the homeowners own both walls. And you can see here, the property line in the middle, the dash line in the middle is what we found largely to be the case where the homeowners own both walls, and the property in the middle, there were very There were very small elements that we did find because this was surveyed where that property line came in and came out in a couple areas. So it's not 100%. So two or three property elements, there was where the property line would move in. And that's just a small portion of it. But by and large, the homeowners do own from they own both walls and that planter in between.

Because you can see as their walls collapse the small the short wall collapse many property owners took the opportunity to expand their backyard. To the to the short wall and they put in cinder block and various other things vinyl and so cases, as you showed us so. If, next question, okay, so that's understood. Next question is, did you have any property owners that were adamantly opposed to doing anything or objected to the idea of building a consistent wall?

I have to say out of, and this is not just out of this outreach process, but working with your community over the several years that I have, everybody is extremely polite and forward thinking in terms of collaboration, in terms of communication. I think the community really enjoys the city's efforts in communicating with them, even through this effort specifically with these 76 stakeholders of having a dialogue. Now, there were some people who were obviously concerned if they just finished their wall. And that was just brought up earlier, too. And so that did come up of, is there going to be any compensation for that? Is there going to be any concern or consideration for that? So I did hear some of those elements. But by and large, I think everybody was very happy to have the dialogue and to be at the table in discussion of it. All those participants who did come to the workshop and from what I heard.

Because if you settle on, or we settle on a stacked stone, which is very attractive, the gray cinder block is not going to complement it in some cases. So I'm concerned about liability. Is someone going to sue the city of Carson because we're infringing on their property rights? Has that been brought up?

So I'm not a property attorney, so I can't speak to that. But there was discussion on the next phase of how the next steps would be. The discussion of a maintenance easement was brought up. And that would be the next step is to look at developing that maintenance easement with all of those property owners.

I see. Okay, my next question. I wrote some notes here. You showed us an image of a sidewalk with... One wall, the sidewalk, and then the landscape area, and then Avalon Boulevard, the actual street. I don't know if it was an optical illusion of the photograph, but it looks very narrow. Can you explain that? The image I'm talking about, it was on the screen. Oh, here it is. This one here? Yes. It looks very narrow. I mean, two people walking, opposing each other. It's a little narrow.

So as we went through just our conceptual design, the sidewalk worked out to about four feet and then the planter area worked out to about sidewalks five feet, planters four feet.

I couldn't hear.

So the existing from curb to the wall is approximately nine feet. So the sidewalk in this image, it's kind of hard to tell, is five feet. And then the planter is four feet.

So the planter to the curb, is that part of the street or is that? Oh, here. What is that area?

This is actually street. It looks like a discoloration. We tried to put the photograph in the background, too, so you can see the. the road lines there, but this is street here. So the curb would be just on the other side of this shrub here.

So you're envisioning shrubs that bloom with flowers or not necessarily?

So we haven't picked a specific, there are plans, I believe, for the medians and whatever is designed for this would complement that.

And those trees would be added?

Then the trees would be added, correct, yes. And again, complementary plant material to whatever the median is.

Because, you know, the people of Carson deserve a beautiful project. I know the cost factor is very important that we have to deal with because we have fiscal responsibility as fiduciary responsibility as elected officials. But, you know, when you go to a plan community, they had a big lot of advantages, like like Cerritos, for instance, planned community. Their walls around their neighborhoods are very attractive. I just think that the mayor and I and our colleagues, we want this to be done right the first time. And we want it to be very attractive as well. So that's my point I like to get across. So you're presenting many options and that's appreciated and we need those options. But we want to end up with something that looks really good because that is such a visual, such a impression of the city of Carson thriving on Avalon Boulevard today. And we've been talking about this for a number of years. I'm just glad that your firm has tackled the project to move us forward even further. Okay, I may have more questions, but that's all at the moment.

Thank you. City Manager.

If I may add to this discussion, the shrubbery that you see is conceptual. All that will tie into our median installation, that construction that we're going to be doing on Avalon. So all that will be tied in together. So it will be a beautiful product at the end.

and the medians are beautiful, what we selected. Any more questions from anyone? I think my thing is, and I said it earlier, the legal determination will be brought to our attention also, what it takes, because we had to, Councilman, if you remember, when we did the Wallace-Stevenson, we had to get permission and there were certain forms that had to be assigned allowing us to build that wall so i'm sure we're going to take the same precautionary steps this time but uh this project is private property yeah it's been long long overdue and we're hoping and from what i heard everyone is excited and about the fact that the city is uh and i attended quite a few of the meetings the city is finally doing something to address the concerns and if we are truly gonna be the jewel of the South Bay, our main therapy has to be maintained. And so it's about putting your money where your mouth is. So we are excited about this. Hopefully, I don't know if it'd be ready for the LA 28, but that would be, look at Dr. Rogers.

He'll be very busy on this Public Works project.

Anything can happen. So, Dr. Hilton.

Madam Mayor, when I went to go put my eyedrop in, I was contacted by one of the District 3 residents. They said, Councilman, can you talk to him about the wall on Wilmington in the middle of the discussion? So I don't know if that wall will one day be added to the wall that's falling on Wilmington, but when I walked in for my eyedrop, there was... calling, talking about the wall in Wilmington. One of your favorite residents, Ms. Tommy Williams. Oh, that wall, that wall, yes, yes. She called me, and she said, please make sure you tell my councilman, and I'm telling Ms. Tommy, you're watching. She just called right when I walked right there. Ms. Tommy.

Tell her everything is on the table.

You heard the mayor.

Tell me.

So we're working on it.

Okay. That was Dr. Hilton, Councilwoman.

Thank you for your presentation. I've been to several of your meetings. And I know we talked about if all the resident owners that are affected by them I know we have a you put up the numbers and the percentages of what people wanted were we able to get a majority of the homeowners off of Avalon to respond and choose I know you gave us a number of residents that would be affected by that. I just wanna know what the numbers are on that so that we know we're speaking to a majority of them.

So the responses that we got in based on all of our outreach efforts on Avalon, we heard from, we had engaged 25 of the 54 residents there specifically.

Okay, out of how many?

Out of 54 stakeholder homes, 54 homes, we engaged specifically with 25. Every home did have a door hanger. Every home along that area was walked, and participants or occupants were notified of the workshops. Yes, multiple times.

Thank you so much. Again, great presentations out in the field and up here, so thank you for that. Thank you. MPT?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for that presentation. My concerns are with the design that's based upon the, I guess, the options that were given to all of everyone to get the options what best suited to look at all of the actual CMU walls that are on Dominguez Park or the DA area, one being the Avalon side, the Central Avenue side, the Wilmington side, and also University Drive. so that fencing goes all the way around so it's not just to say avalon cars avalon central and say wilmington but also university drive as well because i know that our public works director is working on having university drive be paved and cleaned up and i know that we have our annual jazz festival on the end of the corner of university drive in wilmington So it's very heavily seen by people outside of the city as well as residents of the city of Carson. So my request to the mayor, and I know that once we get an identification of the funding and the location, that we include those other walls as well in that process.

Thank you. My request is that we take care of Central and Avalon first and come back with phase two because the more we add to this, the longer it's going to take. I think we've been waiting long enough. So phase two is what I would call it. Yeah, you do it in phases. My preference is not to because we could be all over the city. Well, that's true. so phase one phase two phase three like we're doing in all the phases for the uh the streets and trees and everything else so let's let's get this this was our original request and then when we get halfway finished we'll come back with phase two and we'll incorporate tommy williams and whoever else You're going to be hitting calls from everyone.

Oh, you will. I'm just saying for the record that, you know, we have the entire area that we know that fencing needs some touching. But our priority was the ones that we originally decided. And then we bring the other ones on as we do our different phases. Phase two, three, four.

Yeah. We'll have to do community meetings and everything else. Yeah.

And those residents, those who live next to them have not been notified as well.

Okay. I think that was an excellent presentation. Any comments from staff? And where do we go from here? Who's on that subcommittee?

For the central.

I think you are.

Two of you are because it's in your district. Who else is in your district?

You and Cedric, yeah, it was you and Cedric. It was you and Cedric, okay. Okay, thank you, and there'll be other meetings, so to the staff, to the city manager, to the city attorney, we're on our critical path.

Thank you.

And even though she says it's a critical path, that means move with haste. Okay.

Thank you. No, this is critical, Olympics is making it critical. Is our captain here?

Good evening everyone, good evening. Hi, just wanted to share some information about what's going on at Carson Sheriff Station. On the 2nd of September, we held a Carson Field training officer meeting, and that's with our training officers that teach and train our new deputies that come into Carson. to Carson and Sheriffs and just wanted to let them know basically what the expectations are, policies, directives that involved all of our LASD field training program. On September 3rd, on Thursday, The officials, along with Carson Station of Personnel Homicide, held a press conference outside of Carson Station to address the recent death investigations, and that went really well. It was hosted by Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you for inviting me. On the third also, we attended a town hall at Anderson Park, also hosted by Mayor Pro Tem Cedric Hicks. On September 8th, our SAL team served search warrants and recovered a handgun as part of their investigation. On the 11th, one of our station sergeants attended LA Fire Department's 9-1-1 memorial ceremony that was held at Dodger Stadium. On September 11th, I also attended the Carson City 911 Memorial Service that honored several public citizens as well as Carson Sheriff's Station deputies, Deputy Marci Watson and also Detective Shane Douthit as heroes during the 25th anniversary, which was a very somber but very effective event. On the 15th, Carson Community Relations hosted, that's today, Coffee and Conchas at Vallarta Supermarket where we had a pleasure of meeting with residents and the opportunity to speak with community members about the issues and concerns that matter most to them. On the 28th, we're looking forward to the grand opening of the latest Jewel of Carson for Sprouts Supermarket. Sprouts will open and remain an intricate part of Carson's revitalization. plan as and as discussed during our safety meeting hosted by madam mayor lula davis holmes it's our intention to ensure that there's a successful launch of sprouts and a safe shopping experience for all cars and residents want to also share some of the statistical information that we have Right now we are continuing to trend below as far as our part one crimes are concerned. Our part one crimes are down 10.2% in the city of Carson. Do you have any questions?

Any questions from my colleagues? Councilman Deer.

Thank you. Hi, Captain. Good report. We really appreciate the effort you put forward.

Thank you.

And your staff, of course. You don't do it by yourself, right?

Yes, of course.

I was contacted by a business owner on Avalon Boulevard across from Dignity Health Sports Park, R&R, Soul Food Restaurant, and some other shops. They're reporting that their windows were shot out. This is several days ago. Do you have any information on that?

Not aware. Not aware, but I will look into it, sir.

Okay. It was the security training center, the restaurant, and the donut shop.

I'll look into it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the captain?

Hearing none, we're going to move right into our proclamations. The first one will be Cal Water recognize their 100th anniversary. Then we're going to follow with MPT with proclamation recognizing prostate cancer, followed by Bishop Hilton, I'll cancel that one. Then we will have proclamation recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month, followed by a clean festival. So you guys have your in the order because I'm not gonna take my agenda down with me. I'm up first. We have our proclamation. Council was my counselor. Oh, there she is. Recognizing Cal waters 100th anniversary. MPT you have yours. And Councilwoman Ross, you have yours. Tonight I'm proud to recognize and celebrate Cal Water as they celebrate their 100th years of service. 100 years. Give them a round of applause. FOR 100 YEARS, CAROL WATER HAS BEEN INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE PEOPLE THEY SERVE. AND WE ENJOY MEETING WITH YOU GUYS, BY THE WAY. THIS GUY IS ALWAYS ON CALL. HE ALWAYS RESPONDS TO OUR CALLS, AND HE'S JUST BEEN AN ASSET TO THE CITY. AND HERE IN THE CITY OF COURSON, THEY CONTINUE TO BE IMPORTANT PARTNERS AS WE BUILD A CITY THAT IS SAFE, SUSTAINABLE, AND PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE. AND DURING OUR YEAR OF THE CHILD, THAT MATTERS EVEN MORE. because the investments we make and the resources we protect today are what our children will inherit tomorrow. So on behalf of the city of Carson, it is my pleasure to present this certificate to Carol Water in recognition of your 100th anniversary. Congratulations. Stand in the middle. A hundred years old. I'm not going to read all these whereases because I want you to have time to talk.

Because we are celebrating 100 years and that says a lot in itself.

I don't have to do all these whereases. Where is you a hundred years old, okay?

And it's signed by

the mayor, our city council, Mayor Pro Tem Hicks, Councilmember Hilton, Councilmember Jim Deere, Councilwoman Rojas, and attested to by our city clerk, Dr. Khalil Bradshaw. And we are just excited to be able to stand here with you this evening. And I want you to have a few words. I don't need to read all this.

Thank you, Mayor.

You got a speech?

Is it on?

That's okay, take your time.

Okay. Mayor, council members, city staff and members of the Carson community, thank you for this incredible honor and for recognizing Cal Water's 100 year anniversary. On behalf of Cal Water Service, I am proud to accept this proclamation and grateful for the strong partnership we have enjoyed with the City of Carson over the years. Most importantly, I want to thank the residents of Carson. For the past 100 years, you have placed your trust in Cal Water to provide one of life's most essential resources. That trust is something we value deeply and work every day to earn. This milestone reflects not only the dedication of our employees past and present, but also the support of the communities we are privileged to serve. We are honored to be part of the Carson community and proud to be considered part of the Carson family. As we celebrate the centennial year, we remain committed to serving Carson with the same dedication, reliability, and community spirit that have guided us for the last century. THANK YOU AGAIN TO THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, CITY STAFF, AND ESPECIALLY THE RESIDENTS OF CARSON FOR BEING PART OF THE CAL WATER FAMILY FOR THE PAST 100 YEARS. WE ARE HONORED BY THIS RECOGNITION AND LOOK FORWARD TO SERVING THIS COMMUNITY FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY A FEW WORDS?

YOU'RE GOOD. YOU'RE GLAD TO BE HERE?

OKAY.

WELL, WE'RE GOING TO DO A QUICK PHOTO OP.

I'LL SQUEEZE MY LITTLE SELF RIGHT IN HERE. He looks good for 100, huh? Thank you, thank you. Oh, thank you. We appreciate you, know that. Next we have MPG, is it you? You're on deck?

I'm on deck. Mary Luce Baptiste?

What is this?

Mary Luce Baptiste coming up. But I want all the men that are here to actually stand. This is a proclamation recognizing the month of September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. And whereas prostate cancer awareness is one of the most common cancers affecting men, and early detection and timely treatment significantly improve health outcomes and quality of life. And whereas education and awareness are essential in encouraging men to become proactive about their health, recognize the potential warning, and discussion screening options with their healthcare providers and making informed decisions about their health and well-being. And whereas the City of Carson joins communities throughout the nations, recognizing September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and encourages all residents to promote awareness, support those affected by prostate cancer, and take proactive steps towards maintaining good health. Now, therefore, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of California do hereby proclaim the month of September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in the city of Carson and encourage all residents to increase their awareness of prostate cancer, engage in meaningful conversations about prevention and early detection, and support individuals and families impacted by the disease. Dated today, the 15th day of September, 2026, signed by the entire city council and attested by our city clerk, Dr. Clea Bradshaw. We had individuals that come up because one of the key things that we always do when I do a prostate cancer walk, we tell the women to encourage their men because most time we men don't show up, but the women can make us show up when we have to. So that's the reason why we have our women supporting and making sure prostate cancer awareness is known by all. So thank you for that.

And they're called Top Ladies of Distinction Carson Chapter.

Yes, thank you so very much. It is our pleasure to accept this proclamation. I have with me, I'm Mary Louise Batiste, the organizer of the Carson Chapter, Top Ladies of Distinction. We organized... in 2003, and with me tonight, the president of the Carson Chapter, Pamela Fitcher, and top lady, who is a national officer of Top Ladies of Distinction, Babette DeLay. Thank you so much, and this is our goal, to be able to make sure that our men remain healthy and free. As many of you know, my husband passed on March 1st of this year. He too had prostate cancer, but we were able to beat prostate cancer. He died of a stroke. Thank you, and God bless all of you.

Thank you. Men, you may take your seat. So you guys can sit down. The men. Take a photo. Thank you for coming out. My regional, what are your regional what now?

National historic.

Oh, national historic, on a national level. Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Next, we have our Councilwoman Arlene Rojas. She has a presentation. What is yours?

Yes, thank you.

You're welcome.

We are in National Hispanic Heritage Month, and I'm excited this evening. So I'm going to read a little bit of a background on this. Yes. The Mirabal sisters, known as Las Mariposas. The Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva, Maria, Teresa, and then they were Dominican Republic women who became powerful symbols of resistance against the dictatorship. Three sisters actively participated in the resistant movement and then were brutally murdered in 1960 because of their opposition. Known as Las Mariposas, the butterflies, The sisters came to represent courage, freedom, and the fight against political and gender-based violence. Tonight, during our National Hispanic Heritage Month, I have the daughter, Mirabel, please come up, of Minerva. Thank you so much. Mirabel, yes, yes. Okay, and I'm gonna read this.

Thank you so much.

We're so honored to have you here. You are a senator. Josefina Tavares Mirabal, known as Minou. OK. Is a Dominican professor and politician dedicated to public service and democratic value, whom is nationally and internationally recognized for her commitment to democracy, justice, human rights, equality, and the fight against discrimination. the daughter of activists Minerva Mirabal and Manuel Areleo Tavares Justo. After their assassination, she was orphaned at age seven and raised by her aunt, Didi Mirabal. Minerva served as deputy representing the National District of Dominican Republic lower house for three terms, deputy minister of foreign affairs, vice president of the Alenzal País political party. Taveras was elected at the assembly. So many. There is a book in Time of the Butterflies. There's a children's book, and there is a movie on your life in the story. So we are so honored for you to be here in our presence. Thank you, Marisol. I met you in the mighty D1. Yes, this is our Panamanian and Dominican Republic residents here in the city of Carson. We are a very diverse and vibrant community. So I am going to read this one. I think this is it. Madam Mayor, I will... Okay, here we go. Hispanic Heritage Month. Thank you so much. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually from September 15th through October to recognize and honor the rich histories, cultures, traditions, and contributions of the Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States. Whew. in Espanol, okay. And all over Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, Republic of Dominica.

Oh my goodness, okay.

in the city of Carson. Okay, that's pretty much celebrate Hispanic in our month, okay. Therefore, hey, we got it, the mayor and the city of Carson, California do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month in the city of Carson, and we encourage all residents to celebrate the rich heritage, history, culture, and countless contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans, and to join together in honoring the diversity that makes our community of Carson strong. Thank you so much for being here. Please.

Are you going to speak?

No, no, no, no. Okay.

Well, thank you very much. I'm really honored to have come to this city from the Dominican Republic. I am the daughter of Minerva, and this year we are commemorating the century of her birth. And I am really honored and glad and thankful full for all of this. But I am accustomed to be speaking all around the world about this. But today, I am really also so touched, because I'm here with my son, the grandson of Minerva Mirabal, my mother. And he's a LA resident, so I really would like him to say the thing and the words in the name of our family in the Dominican Republic of our heroes and heroines over there that you are recognizing during this month of Hispanic heritage. I'm sorry, Manuel.

That's okay. Sure, I will do that. Really, thank you very much to the city, of course, and for this recognition. This is the first time I attend a council meeting, not only in the Dominican Republic, but also here in the United States, where I've been for about 12 years now. And it was a very rich experience, especially given the fact that we are recognizing the legacy of the Mirabal sisters who made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of democracy in the Dominican Republic. And sometimes we take that for granted. We take that for granted in our everyday life. But to sit here and to see democracy at work And the very small things from deciding how to refurnish a wall to how you run your local elections is definitely reinvigorating. And it reminds us of how much we have been fought to have that privilege to make these decisions peacefully and in open discussion with each other. So the work that you do here every day I do not take it for granted, because a lot has been sacrificed to get to this point. So very grateful for the recognition of something so universal. We live thousands of miles away. This is a sacrifice that was made 60 years ago now, over 60 years, in a different country. So to be seen so far away and across so much time is very humbling.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Major Lula Davis-Holm and the rest of the council member. Minu Tavares Miraval, daughter of Minerva Miraval, represents the legacy of the Miraval sister. to the Dominican community of California. It has been an unforgettable experience to have her. It's our mission to honor this legacy and to pass it on to new generation. For the Minerva sisters, we We have to be passing this and not to remain silent when there is no justice, freedom, and dignity. Their code name, butterfly, Las Mariposas, is a symbol of freedom and we have to keep that. Thank you.

I'd like to give you this. this patria minerva my mother and maria teresa she was 34 my mother was 33 and maria teresa was 25 years old when they were assassinated on on the 25th of november in 1960 so this is an agenda and my mother was also an artist and this is uh an exhibition of her paintings and I would like you to keep it with you and I also would like to thank you because when we get out of the elevator, the first thing we saw was the painting of the three of them in the hall. Thank you very much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I'll keep this. I was gonna share one with our Councilwoman, would that be okay?

If I shared a, okay, let's share.

I'll see which one you want. Thank you so very much. Yeah, that was as long as it could have been. All communications for matters listed on the agenda.

Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. We do not have any comment cards.

Madam Mayor, thank you. Did you want to do the recap or did you want to?

Oh, I'm sorry. You know, you guys told me you wanted to go home. Okay.

We can wait if you like. It's up to you.

Oh, Clean and Green Festival recap, of course. I'm so excited to be here at the Clean and Green Fest here in our great city. We're educating our residents and our students about the importance of clean energy, recycling, and clean water. It's the first one, but it will not be the last. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you. Very nice that our multimedia department put that together. Yes, they did? All right. Let me publicly thank our Director of Parks and Recreation and Community Services for this wonderful event. Mike Whitaker, talk to you. Even though this was our first event that was put on, this was the largest that they've had. Because we don't play here in Carson. They are so excited about this and wanted me to extend their heartfelt thanks to you and your staff. Very well organized. To everyone that was involved, public work, all the staff that was involved in the city in making this event happen. The kids were excited. It was a fun day. Education. Some things that I learned when you went through the wetlands, the marsh area, and I didn't know all that was back there. And about recycling, this is going to be the largest recycling plant in the United States, and it's going to be located right here in the city of Carson. I did talk to them, speak to them about Earth Day. They don't want to go to Earth Day because they have another event, I think. You have some days, okay. So they're excited to come back with us because they just appreciate the partnership. Where is she? Come on up. Genesis, come on up. Genesis worked so hard on this program. I want to say thank you very much, Genesis. Would you like to have a few words?

I'd just like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Director Whitaker and his team, Dara, Adriana, Sean, Jim, Gerard, so many people that we got to work with. And it was an exciting event. As you saw in the video, we had over 800 people show up for an inaugural fest, which exceeded our expectations by far. And we are looking at having an event in the summer, right? Sometime in August, I heard. So we'll be working together very soon. And thank you so much for the opportunity to work together. And we're looking forward to next year.

We're looking forward also, it was a great event and all the council came out and I just wanna thank you because you were around the clock also and you worked well with staff and all the sponsorships and making sure the transportation, it was just awesome. So I just wanna say thank you to both. Teamwork is what makes the dream work. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It was successful thanks to you also.

Thank you very much. Am I back on point? Okay, so we said all communications. We had none, Madam City Clerk. Approval of the minutes?

Motion to approve. Second.

Moved and properly seconded. Please cast your vote.

Motion carries, Madam Mayor.

Consent calendar item 14.

Motion to approve. Second.

Anyone wishing to pull an item?

Yes, Madam Mayor.

Okay, Mr. Councilman Deer.

I'd like to pull items 17, 19, 20, 24, 28, 30, and 31. What?

Go back. First one was 17. 17, 19, 20, 24.

28. 28. 30. And 31. And 31.

OK. Madam Mayor, I'm sorry. 17, 19, 20, 24, 28, 30, and 31?

Yes. You had 30 also, Councilman? Or just 31?

It was 30 and 31. 30 and 31. OK. 31 is a tree planting. 30 and 31.

17 what? 17, 19, 20, 24, 28, 30, and 31. The consent calendar is approved. Does anyone else want to pull one?

Pull them all. The balance.

Okay. With the exception, the consent calendar, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

So moved.

With the exception of those items pulled by the counselor.

Yes.

Okay, please cast your vote.

Madam Mayor.

Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 17. Councilman Deere, our staff, is there a quick and dirty, nothing?

Yeah, I have a question. Could the staff explain the Enterprise Fund?

Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yes, Mr. Jefferson, Director of Finance, will give a brief explanation.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members. The Enterprise Fund was a fund that was set up a few months ago. I don't know exactly the date and time, but it was a fund that was set up to where we would do our broadband through the Enterprise Fund. What we wanted to do was we wanted to have a separate fund, separate from the general fund, to where you are able to accurately account for the expenditures or revenues that possibly come through that account. So if we were ever audited, we would be able to show the auditors that we have a clean slate or a clean account that accounts for the revenues and the expenditures.

So what type of revenues would be coming into the fund? Where would they come from? Is it tax revenue? Is it fees? Could you explain, please? A constituent asked me about this, and I said, well, I'll ask at the council meeting.

So the revenue potential, Council Member, comes from once the fiber is deployed and they'll be offered to businesses and to residents, that revenue that's received will come to the city and to the specific enterprise fund.

And only into that fund? That's correct. Okay. And that would include any type of marketing or advertising that someone would pay for? Why would they be paying into it? Can you explain that, please?

It's for Fiverr. So if you're trying to obtain... internet service at a gig through fiber versus paying AT&T or Verizon, the city would be able to offer this service. The customer, whether it be a business and or resident, would pay for that service to the city.

And when it was brought to us over a year ago, it looked like at that time that it would be very beneficial financially for people to utilize the city program as it would be more economical. Is that still the case? That's absolutely correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Also, to bring some more clarification to it, the enterprise fund would be like what most cities use as a utility fund. So some cities have water. Some cities have other type of utility funds. Billing, this is classified, this fiber optic is classified as a utility. So utilities run through your enterprise fund. Like I said, other cities do that also.

I see, so this is a type of city utility that the city owns. Yes, sir. Will it have a board of directors, or will the council members be the board, or how is that set up? You're not handling that end of it.

Well, that's to be determined. Still to be determined. That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

I'd like to make a statement. This is not the first time we've had an enterprise account. Am I correct?

Since I've been here.

Since you've been here. There have been other enterprise accounts, so thank you.

Madam Mayor, I'll move we wait for the reading and adopt resolution number 26-095, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Carson ratifying claims and demands of the amount of $7,064,448.30. Demand check numbers 186988 through 187057. And through 266044 and 317 and 320 and 322 through 327. The general demand and the amount of $63,925 exactly, check number 1304 for co-op agreement demands. and waive further reading and adopt resolution number 26-10-CHA, a resolution of the Carson Housing Authority ratifying claims and demands in the amount of $53,732.57. Demand check numbers HA-002131 through HA-002137, Housing Authority. And waive further reading and adopt resolution number 26-10-CSA, a resolution of the Carson Successor Agency ratifying claims and demands in the amount of $1,988.50. Demand check numbers SA-002-001 through SA-002-002, successor agency. And waive further reading and adopt resolution number 2602-ENT, a resolution of the Enterprise Fund ratifying claims and demands in the amount of $1,918,241.46. Demand check numbers ENT-000311 through ENT-000312 enterprise. That's my motion. Second. Moved and properly seconded. Any further comments on this item? Hearing none, cash or vote?

Motion carries. Item number 19, Councilman.

Thank you. To the city manager, could you, in a nutshell version, summarize the basic change that's being made in the reimbursable travel expenses?

Thank you, council members. So the basic change is initially council implemented an eight-hour travel allocation for an upgraded seat. However, it was based on and recommended by the committee that it be an actual five-hour recommendation for allowable upgraded seat as most locations and destinations when you're traveling, if you go beyond five hours, you'll leave the continental U.S. And it's highly unlikely that council would be traveling outside of the continental U.S., but if they did, then this would be an allowed opportunity for a council member to have an upgraded seat so they're not sitting in a coach seat for five hours or more.

So my question is, hypothetically, suppose a council member is going to a conference and New York. And they changed planes in Dallas, for instance. It could accumulate more than five hours because of the layover. So how does that affect the new policy and rules of the SMP?

It's the same. It's five hours flight time. So a direct flight is five hours minimum to, say, New York in your example. If someone was flying to Dallas and has a layover and then heading back over from there to New York, they still would be eligible for an upgraded seat due to the flight time.

I see. Flight time, is that considering the change of planes? That's correct. It's not just two-hour flight and three-hour flight. Obviously, if you stop in a city like Dallas or Chicago, it's not a direct flight, so it's going to take longer. That's correct. Okay, that makes sense. I will move we approve the Vovol's SMP 2.11. Second.

It's been moved and properly seconded. Any further comments on this item? Hearing none, cash or vote? Motion carries. Item number 20.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay. This is an item we're considering approving revisions to council policy 1.45, which has been in effect for a couple of years, I think. When it defines limit the use of city staff or council member town hall and community meetings to one meeting per park per calendar year, subject to specified exceptions. Well, all the council districts don't have the same number of parks. I believe council district three has, how many? How many? Six parks. Okay. Well, Council District 2 only has two operating parks. Let me wait, Madam Mayor, for them to confer. I can wait. Sorry.

No, it's okay. Yeah, so I was just confirming, Council Member.

So that count many parks? No. In Council District 2, we have Carson Park and Veterans Park and Carriageways Park and Reflections Park. So Reflections Park counts as a park?

No, these are just for, does not include the small parks. It's just the standard parks that we have in the city.

I think we included the mini parks there. When I read it, it said mini parks because it's in the report. Oh, it is, okay.

And there was backup for it, so it does include the mini parks.

sorry, Council District 3 appears to have five plus mini parks, so that's six parks. So that council member could put on six events a year, while in my district, because Karis Karis Park is shut down temporarily, hopefully it'll be open in a month or so, I would only theoretically be able to do two, plus the mini park, maybe three. But... I would suggest if my colleagues would agree that we have an even number of events per council district and the council member that might have just two or three parks versus six parks could utilize the community center for a town hall meeting.

So yeah, thank you for, if I can just clarify your point, you can have as many town hall meetings as you would like within your district. This is only restricting that staff will be in attendance required for only one per park. So in other words, if your district has three parks, staff will be in attendance three times a year. That's the max for staff. As a council member, you can have 10 meetings if you like, but only one of those would be attended per year with staff.

So that's disproportionate because obviously one council member with six parks could have staff attending six times. And another council member with only, in this case, three parks, could only have staff three times.

So how do you justify that disparity? Well, I think the justification is based upon the number of parks that each district has. If you have, in this particular case, Mayor Pro Tem has six parks, so he's going to try to be able to speak to all his residents within his district at each of those parks versus other districts that have a lesser number of parks, they still have the amount and opportunities to utilize staff at the parks that are in attendance or that you have, but there's not a, obviously an even number of parks amongst each districts. So to eliminate the staff time that's required to be in attendance beyond the number of parks, that's why this was established.

Well, the number of people in the districts is roughly even. I know there's a different amount in each district. So the number of constituents to be serviced would be roughly the same per council district. So I'd like to approve this with an amendment, a friendly amendment, that would allow a council member with fewer parks to utilize the community center for a town hall meeting. So let's see how it goes. I'll make a motion that we can, let's see, adopt and propose updated council policy number 1.45 with the amendment that any council district that has fewer parks, like council district four, for instance, I believe has has one, two, three parks, as the council district three has six parks, that council member in district four would be able to utilize the community center for a town hall meeting. Plus it's even in that district. So that's my motion with that amendment.

I just want to, I'll second for the point of discussion. I think what, I understand what this S&P is trying to do because staff is working literally like overtime.

Yeah, they're overburdened.

Overburdened.

Yeah.

And I think with the respect to staff, and I know that the staff that we have out are exempt employees, and they're required to somewhat be it, but I'm looking at town hall meetings every single night. I've seen four town hall meetings in a week, and if we expect staff to be there at all of these meetings, it's kind of inconsiderate. to be perfectly honest, I think if we want to go to all of these meetings, that's fine. I'm actually, when I read this SMP, I was actually kind of, I won't say glad, but I was kind of like, okay, this makes sense that we can go as much as we want, but to require staff to be there sometimes when we go to these meetings, to be perfectly honest, it's five people there, and we got the whole gamut. I think the idea is to bring City Hall to that park once a year and otherwise we can come. And unless it's an emergency, and I believe an emergency is amenable, that if we have an emergency in our district, we should be able to get everybody out to the park. That's the exception to the rule. I think that would automatically be an exception to the rule. Is this written in there?

I think that's in there, yeah.

Okay, so if that's in there, I think that's the exception to the rule. I think it should go through just like that because I think the staff is overburdened by having to go to town hall meetings every night. I'm sure they make the big bucks, but it's not fair for them to have to go to town hall meetings every single night.

Through the mayor, Councilman, if I may address your point, then why don't we just have the same number of town hall meetings, that doesn't burden the staff. Say three, that staff attends per district instead of tying it to the parks.

I mean, it's based on the, if you're going park by park, if you're going to have your town hall meetings at each park, Then I can only go, I only have three parks in my district. If you count the small park, then I'm good with that. I mean, just so happened, MPT has the larger real estate of parks. It's just, he just, he got district three. He doesn't have $8 billion worth of infrastructure, but he got district three. I mean, you know, he doesn't have all that, but you know, he got district three. He got the parks. I got the infrastructure.

You know, it's kind of interesting. I'm rich in parks. He's rich in parks. In Los Angeles, the council members fight about their boundaries when they reapportion their council district because of assets in their district. So now the parks are going to become an asset. The council members are going to say, well, you know, Calis Park should be in District 4, not District 3, you know, because they have another park. So you wanna prevent that type of disagreement and preventative measures are always good. Anyway, that's what I would suggest that we reduce the burden on the staff by making it so you have the same number in each council member because council member in district three could have six, have the staff come out six times. And in your district, you could only have them come out three times. So why don't we make it the same in every district? Like, actually, if you make it three, that reduces the burden on the staff even more, because then you eliminate excess meetings in council districts that have more parks. So, we have a motion on the floor, but I'd like to amend my own motion by saying that each council member can have three staffed town hall meetings in each district. You don't like that idea, Bishop? I see, okay. Okay, well.

This is giving each community an opportunity to have staff to come out. I've been to just about all of these town hall meetings in each one of your districts. I see the same old bunnies, I'm sorry, I see the same people, if I have one next week, if I have one two weeks from now, I don't care how many times you have them, you have the same people coming out. I'm watching this staff come out. There's more staff there in some instances, except when I go to Hemingway and some in district and the council. Six or ten people and 20 staff. That doesn't make sense. So we decided when we sit down and talk, the best way to do this so you can have equal representation at all the parks would be to have it by park. And so therefore, unfortunately, MPT has the most parks, so MPT is going to be out if he so chooses. But the caveat here is that the recommendation was never to limit council people from having town hall meetings. You can have one every other day. as long as you're out of the parks by nine o'clock, unless you're gonna pay. And I watched this staff and they're just worn out. So I would like to make the motion to approve the recommendation as written, consider and adopt the proposed updated council policy number 145. Let's try it. But when we set this up, we said we would stay within our district. And I think that's the way we should stay. And you can have a town hall meeting every day if you want to, if the space is available. We're not saying that. You just can't have staff to come out, unless there's an emergency. If you have something that happened at your park that's critical, you call the city manager and say, hey, we need to have a town hall meeting. And that'll happen. But these town hall meetings have gotten out of hand. And I know... I've just seen the numbers, the same people that's coming out. And unless we have an emergency, we're talking about the same public safety policies, we're talking about the same budget. And that's something that when I used to do town hall meetings, I took all the literature out and I explained it to my constituents that were at the meeting. If you want to know about public safety, you want to know about this, you want to know about that. The flyers are on the back of the table. And that's not including your field rep, by the way. Your field rep can go with you wherever you want to go.

They're separate.

They're separate. They're separate. These guys are sitting around the table in our sheriff department. It's just gotten out of hand. They were out four nights.

But that's an excellent point, and that's why limiting them to three per district, that would even reduce the burden even further.

But all the cities, all the communities would not be served. So I have a recommendation that we approve the recommendation and adopt the proposed updated council policy number 1.45, Exhibit 1. That's my motion. Yours failed for lack of a second, by the way.

Actually, point of parliamentary procedure. I'm sure the city attorney's ears popped up. We have a motion on the floor already and you have to vote that up or down before you go. I did a substitute.

She can do a substitute motion.

No, we already have one.

Pardon me?

Oh, you wanna do a substitute motion? Yeah, my substitute. Oh, I see, okay. Yeah. Okay, that's fine.

So the motion is to approve the recommendation as written. Oh, Councilman Hicks. Who else wants to speak? MPG?

My statement was going to be to actually what you just did. I was going to actually call for the vote for the original staff recommendation.

Did you? You already?

Yeah, I already talked. Okay. So let's vote on the substitute motion, please.

It was no need for the substitute motion because Jim withdrew his original motion and added to his original motion and I didn't second that. He did a friendly amendment and I didn't. So he changed. I didn't change it.

And the way we do it in Carson is if you make an amendment, it's considered a substitute motion.

But it died because nobody said anything.

We've done amendments in the past. It was never second. What I heard, and I may have misheard, was you made a motion and you seconded the motion.

For the point of discussion. And then he says, I want to withdraw. Yes, for the point of discussion. And he said, I want to make an amendment to my motion.

And you accepted it.

And I did not accept it.

You didn't accept it. Okay, so then there's not even a motion on it.

It wasn't a motion on the floor.

Okay, so I didn't hear the part where you didn't accept the amendment. Thank you for clarifying that.

The main motion. I have the main motion on the floor. It's been moved and properly seconded. Item number 24, council.

Motion carries.

Thank you, item number 24.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Oh, we've got R2D2 here. Councilmember? Yeah, thank you.

Victoria Golf Course Project update on proposed EIFD funding and upcoming EIFD board action, which is coming up in October, I believe. That's the latest. I know it's changed many times, the date. This is a receive and file update, so I will just move that we receive and file it.

No vote is needed on that. Item number, hmm? It's a receive and file. Item number 28, Councilman?

Yes, thank you. This one is consider approval of amendment number four to the Operations and Maintenance Agreement with Los Angeles County Sanitation District number two for project number 1515, Carson Stormwater Capture Facility at Carriagecrest Park. What I was looking for in the staff report was what's our annual cost to the taxpayers of Carson to maintain this? big concrete facility.

Thank you, I'll pass this over to our engineer, city engineer, Mr. Gilbert Marquez.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. At this point, we don't have any estimates for the annual maintenance, but we have an initial contract with the county sanitation district to perform the interim O&M for the first six months once the project is accepted as complete. And then from there, we will hire a contractor to continue with the operation and maintenance. So, a follow-up.

Does that mean that this retention basin, for lack of another terminology for it, it's not functional at this point?

It's not operational yet at this point. Not operational. Yeah, but still missing the agreement. The sanitation district has to demonstrate what they call a facility demonstration. And that piece is still missing or waiting for the rain to get tested. And then from there, now we will move forward and accept the project. That's complete.

So we had a short period of heavy rains. Correct. Did rain go into that facility?

Yes, correct. And then it just... not enough water to perform the testing. Hopefully with the El Nino coming this time, yeah. More testing. We have sufficient amount of rain that we can continue with the testing. I see.

Okay, well, then I will move we approve the proposed amendment number four to the operations that mention the agreement between the City of Carson and the Los Angeles County Sanitation District number two for project number 1515, Carson Stormwater Capture Facility at Carriagecrest Park extending the term of the agreement through June 30th, 2027, and authorize the mayor to execute the proposed amendment for subject to approval as reformed by the city attorney. Second.

And moved and probably second. Any questions? Any comments? Item number 28. Hearing none, cash a vote.

Motion carries.

Item number 30, councilman.

Yes, a little background on this. We had truck parking on Figueroa Street, much further north of this location. It was near Torrance Boulevard, and we eliminated that and created this truck parking on Figueroa Street, south of Sepulveda. That was 15 years ago, approximately. I'm just guessing at the number of years. So was this requested by the sanitation district, or why are we eliminating this truck parking? Because... it looks like people are using this public street to park and we purposely gave them a place to park their trucks because they often live in Carson and You know, they're in business and need a place to park their truck. So what's the motivation for this?

So we do have the, I believe the Sand District's here, if they want to also help to provide an answer.

I'm not necessarily to oppose or in favor. I just want to know why we're doing it.

It says it in the first paragraph.

Representatives from the Los Angeles County Sanitation District requested.

So the question is why? Why was it recommended? There must be a reason. You're not just doing it for fun.

I can introduce the sanitation staff, but just for everyone's reference, good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Portima, members of the City Council. So I'm Jonathan Yee, Traffic Engineer with the Public Works Department. And to answer your question, yes, the request did originally come from members of the L.A. County Sanitation District. In regards to this entire request, the removal of the street parking as well as the 72-hour truck parking, from there I can hand it over to the members of the Sanitation District for additional details.

Okay. And then... after they present i mean maybe there were problems and that's why you want to take it away i understand that but the question would be maybe not to the sand district but to the city is that parking opportunity being replaced somewhere else or just eliminated completely that's really a question for the staff but why don't you answer yours first if you don't mind and then we'll ask

So yeah, good evening. My name is Stan. I'm the real estate manager for the L. A county sanitation districts. And yes, we submitted this request to city staff in an effort to improve the visibility and the safety of of our vehicles. We have a heavy traffic that goes down figaroa. It's the main artery. For our access to what is basically one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the United States, continuous 24 7 traffic. And we feel these large oversized vehicles that are parked along figure. Create safety issues. And we made the request to the city staff to evaluate this.

Have you had any accidents?

Not that I'm aware of, but there's always the potential because we have these large vehicles pulling out, trying to exit our facility, and at times they may not be able to see if there's large vehicles parked there. And we just thought it'd be best for public safety and to also make our operations safer as well if these vehicles are not parked there.

That's very understandable. I know why now. So my question would be to the city manager, is that parking opportunity for truck drivers being, is it going to be replaced anywhere in Carson? Is it somewhere else where they can park their truck? Really, that's a city question.

Yeah, I'll allow our traffic engineer, Mr. Jonathan Yee, to provide an update if that's feasible.

So as proposed, there is no replacement parking that's being considered. So we measured it. There's about 500 feet of space for that existing 72-hour truck parking. So as proposed in the staff report, it would not be replaced. It would just be eliminated.

So what about the consequence to the truck drivers? Has anyone consulted them or got their input or let them know that this is being considered or any input from them?

Not at this time. We haven't had any input or output to any truck drivers at this moment, at this stage of this. When we evaluated the request and did all the studies, we found that this would be an appropriate measure to take upon due to the safety issue that the sanitation district expressed. And that's why staff is recommending this to the council. We have... thoroughly evaluated and we feel that this is in the best interest of not only the city but into the sanitation district's operations.

Okay, I just want to emphasize that The truck drivers that utilize this opportunity to park their vehicle are going to be suddenly given a notice. That they can't park there any longer and there's nowhere else that we are suggesting they park in the city of Carson is that what we're doing.

There are other areas with 72-hour truck parking. Okay. So if they refer to the city's website with the truck route map with the existing parking locations, they could park in those other locations.

Okay. Well, that's a fair opportunity. So what I would suggest as a polite courtesy to those individuals that rely on that location that the city is planning to eliminate tonight, that you notify them, maybe with a map or something, you know, directions of where else can they go. Because otherwise, it's really mean and unfair to those truck drivers. So I would suggest that to the city manager, and then you could just take it into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you.

You know, and staff, thank you, because I'm reading paragraph

Number two, which addressed you guys, the Councilman's concern, that you guys evaluate the request, an existing roadway condition, and determine that removing the on-street parking along this segment would improve sight, distance, provide additional clearance for large vehicles entering and exiting the facility, reduce potential conflicts between parking and moving vehicles, and support safe and reliable access to the AKA Warren Resource Facility at a critical wastewater treatment center. It's included in the report. I have a question.

Is it 72 hours parking right there now?

Or what.

Yes, ma'am so so currently there's about 500 feet of existing 72 hour truck parking and the remaining 1000 reference in the staff report is just. A regular public on street park.

Correctly public, because I'm always calling you guys. I didn't realize there's oversized vehicles, because I always refer to the oversized vehicles parked on public streets. And I'm calling saying, hey, there's vehicles parked over here, trucks parked over here. So I understand about large trucks. Well, they're eyesore in our city when they park all over. And I understand they come through here and they pass through and they go on to the next city. So thank you for bringing this and evaluating it because now I know why some of those trucks were still there. I didn't realize it was 72 hours. So thank you. So I want to move staff's recommendation. It's been moved and properly seconded.

Do I need to read all this? Recommendation, take the following actions.

I just want to move staff's recommendation. Thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded. Any questions?

I have one question for discussion. And it's really to staff as well. I've seen signs that say no truck parking, meaning no oversized vehicle parking in the city of Carson, except for designated areas. So follow-up questions to what I asked earlier. The other areas that you referred to, Jonathan, in Carson, allowing them to park How does that work if there's no truck parking, no oversized vehicle parking in Carson, but they have 72 hours to park somewhere else? Where is the somewhere else?

So on the website, there's a map with the existing truck routes and the existing areas designated for both one-hour truck parking and 72-hour truck parking with the thought that the one hour is for a motorist to take a break, get lunch, things like that.

Right, get something to eat or whatever.

Yes, and 72 hours for more longer term parking so in those specific areas, we do have specific signage designating that that is a one hour or 72 hour limit specifically for oversized vehicles. And generally everywhere else in the city, they are prohibited by ordinance, but we do actually have specific signs reinforcing that ordinance if there's a common occurrence of violations.

So in your professional view, there are other locations for these individual truck drivers that are parking on Figueroa now to park somewhere else safely? Yes, sir. Okay, that being the case, I would support that. Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you. I hear no further comment. Please cast your vote. Motion carries. Item number 31, Council.

Okay, item 31 is consider receiving and filing the City of Carson Urban Forest Master Plan. Recommended action is to receive and file the master plan. I'd like to find out from the city staff where the city stands as far as replacing trees in empty tree wells, which I see all around the city. There's one next to the post office, for instance, has a dead tree. And are we gonna fill those tree wells? Is that what this master plan is intended to do through the city manager or his staff?

Thank you for that question, Council Member. That's kind of two separate things. So the first portion where you ask, are we replacing trees and filling empty tree wells? That's an operational effort that we take on every single day. So the staff is out there filling tree wells, removing dead trees on a systematic basis and on a service request. uh basis as well what this is this is an update to a grant that we received to put more trees into the city and what has happened with this particular grant the organization that secured it on behalf of the city has not only uh removed funding for from the city of carson but other cities as well they had some guidelines that many of our cities weren't able to meet, and so they removed the funding from us, and this is just an update to that report, to that grant item.

So this update is telling us that we aren't gonna get the funds that we had anticipated the possibility of getting.

That is correct. That's exactly what this is.

Okay, I'll move that we receive and file the Urban Forest Master Plan, UFMP.

It's a receiving file. Item number 32 is a public hearing for approval of the 2025-2026 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. This is a public hearing. I'm going to open the public hearing. Is there anyone wishing to speak, Madam? Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I have the notice of the public hearing and the consideration approval

Of the 2025-2026 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for the Community Development Block Grant, the notice of public hearing has been given pursuant to applicable law including but not limited to the proof of timely publication received by me. The agenda posting requirements were met for individuals and organizations. The posting affidavits are on file in my office and we did not receive any written communication for this item. Is there a report from staff?

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. This update for item number 32 will be presented by Duane Cobb from the Housing Department. Thank you.

Thank you. So the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report is just that. It's our annual report card to confirm that we've met the goals that we established for ourselves. And I will quickly go through some of the highlights of the report. So our caper and our Community development block grant our goals are divided up into three categories providing fair housing services delivering Community services and expanding affordable housing options in terms of those three categories. In fair housing services, we hit 146% of our goal. In providing community services, we hit 118% of our goal. And in terms of housing rehabilitation, we hit 110% of our goal. And then there are specifics there in the number of persons and households served in each category. This is what the actual work does. These are before and after pictures of the Neighborhood Pride Program. Some of the renovations that take place, this is what this CDBG money and the Neighborhood Pride Program is for, and this is what it does. This was improvements on a bathroom in one of the residence. Prior was the exterior of another residence. Our programs with the Boys and Girls Club include after-school programs, gang prevention for at-risk youth, academic achievement, college prep, physical examinations from the Venice Family Clinic, family planning, food distribution, and general medicine diagnosis and treatment. I had notes. Can I get to my... In terms of the Housing Rights Center, housing counselors are available to answer tenant and landlord rights and obligations, including security deposits, evictions, repairs, rent increases, and harassments. There's a walk-in clinic held in our event center the first Sunday of every month. There's also a housing rights hotline. Also, affordable veteran and senior housing lists are available through the Housing Rights Center. The next steps after this public hearing and the public comment period completion, which will end midnight tonight, what we're looking for is council approval so that the final CAPER can be submitted to HUD to close out the 25-26 reporting. And lessons from this program year, particularly on rehab pricing, will inform our 26-27 annual action plan.

Thank you. We're gonna close the public hearing. Is there any comments from staff?

I mean, council, my colleague.

Councilman Deer?

Oh, I'm not queued up.

Oh, okay. Where's my queue at? Okay. Any comments? I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move that we go ahead and approve the final version of the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, CAPER, and direct staff to submit the CAPER to HUD by the required deadline of September 28, 2026, and review and file this report.

Thank you, it's been moved and properly seconded. Hearing no further discussion, please cast your vote.

Motion carries.

Item number 33, discussion item, staff.

Very persuasive point you made there.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Item number 33, discussion item to consider approval amendment number three to the Professional Services Agreement with RGM Design Group Incorporated for the Carriagecrest Park Expansion Improvements Project. This will be provided by our Director of Public Works, Dr. Arlington-Rogers.

This is the item that we previewed earlier today, RGM proposal.

Okay.

Oh, you know what? I am so sorry.

This is not a town hall meeting.

Let me restate that. This is considered approval of Amendment No. 3 to RJM Design Group for Carriage Press Expansion. So this is for them to continue the work that they're doing for us at Carriage Press.

And refresh my memory. When is this part going to open again? Last one.

Um, we are in discussion with this park opening. Uh, we were scheduled to open, uh, have an opening on October the 10th. We ran into some drainage issues with the, um. Astro turf. Thank you, director. And so we have to revamp, unfortunately. We have some issues sometimes with our drainage. There's a high water table here in the city of Carson. We have moved forward. There's going to be a third party to come out and retest it to make sure that it's accurate. And so staff is working hard to get this park open. It is moving, there is no, human delays, so to speak, but we are moving as effectively and as efficiently as we possibly can, and sometimes these things just happen and they're beyond staff's control.

Understandable. I have Councilman Mayor Pro Tem Hicks queued up.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had some concerns, and you brought that up, Dr. Rogers. In regards to the water table, and I think the director, most of our parks have that issue with water table rising up because we are at sea level. And I know Del Amo Park is very prone to having salt popping up from the ocean, so that's why you see the white chalkiness on that park. But my other question is, based upon this last amendment, will this be the last amendment that's needed or will there be additional changes? Because I know that we've been chomping at this bit for a while and just making sure that this is the last one.

I think Dr. Lennox is having a good look.

You want this one? To my knowledge, we've had a. We have a weekly meeting with the contractors in regards to their progress, in regards to any issues that they may have at that particular site. They are really moving rather quickly at this point. They are using, for the construction that we're actually doing, they're pushing to make sure that they get out the building. That was one of our major concerns because we want to make sure that we redo the inside of the building as well. They're actually, currently moving out of the building. We will be able to redo the floors. We anticipate that it may be two to three weeks after. We just need to make sure that we check with all of the elective schedules to make sure that it will fit. But the hope is to still do something in the month of October.

Next month.

Yes, ma'am.

It ain't happening. That's 2026, right?

I just passed by there, really?

uh really 24 7. oh jesus okay okay i'm complete uh councilman dear

You know, I had the same questions that the two of you had, so I'll make a motion to approve the proposed amendment number three to the Professional Service Agreement with RJM Design Group Incorporated for project number 1368, Carriage Crest Park Expansion and Improvements Project, increasing the agreement by $66,580 exactly. for a revised total not to exceed the amount of one million one hundred seventy one thousand thirty five dollars exactly extending the agreement term through december 31st 2026 i guess that's in the in the past authorized the mayor to execute amendment number three following approval of the forum second yes that's in the past

Okay, it's been moved and probably seconded. Is there any conversation? Am I a discussion? October. That is a park on Sepulveda, huh, in Figueroa?

Yeah.

Okay, cash your votes. Keep your fingers crossed while you're at it.

Motion carries.

Next is item number 35? 34. 34.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Item 34 is to consider awarding contract service agreements to JAS Landscape LLC, EMTS Incorporated, and Mariposa Landscapes Incorporated for landscape median maintenance and management services. This item will be presented by, again, our Public Works Director, Dr. Arlington-Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council. This is a short presentation of where we are with our median maintenance. As you recall, this is something that we've been working on, we've discussed, and we're finally to the point where we can award some contracts. So just in context, where we were before is we had two median maintenance vendors, and the city was divided into halves and it was just too much for either of them to handle on their own. Though they did try to give the yeoman's effort, it wasn't up to the Carson standard. So staff got together and we divided the city up into four quadrants. And when we did that, we put out an RFP. We put out actually four separate bids and whoever bid was able to bid on each contract. but with the understanding that they would have to perform exceptionally well in whatever contract that they were successful at. So staff received a total of five bids from five organizations. The city has been divided up into four quadrants, and each quadrant was advertised individually. Staff received five bids per individual quadrant and selected the lowest and most responsive bid for each one. The median maintenance work under this new format is estimated to start next month. The city has a total of 35, a little over 35 miles in median length. Quadrant A has 13 miles, which is almost 39% of the total inventory. Quadrant B has 8 miles, which is 23% of the inventory. Quadrant C has 6, almost 7 miles of median length, nearly 19, almost 20% of the inventory. And Quadrant D has 6, almost 6.5 miles of median length, which is about 18%. This is an overview of how we divided the city into fours. Just to see, you can see it covers all the districts. And then we'll go a little bit further and show you how we divide it up. So JAS, they were the lowest and most responsible bidder for median quadrant A. which is 13 miles, their contract is at $155,590 per year for a total of $779,700 for this particular quadrant. And as you can see, Quadrant A actually touches all four districts. Quadrant B, EMTS Incorporated, was the lowest and most responsive bidder for this particular quadrant. It is 8.16 miles of median length. It is five years at $117,206.76 per year for a total of $586,033.80 over the term of the contract. Quadrant B also touches all four districts. Quadrant C, Mariposa, has approximately six, almost seven miles of median length. They are at $78,444 per year for a total of $392,220 over the entire contract. Quadrant C touches four, two, and just, it's under three, so they may hit one median in district three, but they're mostly on the south end. J.A.S. Incorporated was also the lowest and most responsive bidder for Quadrant D as well, which is almost six and a half miles immediately. This particular quadrant is $103,440 a year, or a total of $517,200 over the term of the contract. And they are on the southern eastern side, western eastern side of the city in three and four, districts three and four. Any questions?

This is maintaining once we plant and moving forward from whenever we award because our medians look like they're in another city right now. So is that moving forward from now and continuing on or are we waiting until we get our new plants then?

No, ma'am, this is starting immediately. Once we get a PO, there's contracts being signed tonight, and so they will start immediately. And to address your point of the condition of the medians, staff did, we did our best to make this a seamless approach so that it would transition. The one caveat that I'll own that I was not prepared for was the new law passing that we had to do a meet and confer. And that took a little bit more time. So we missed the window of the prior contracts expiring and to bring these contracts on. So that's why your medians aren't looking as well as they did previously last couple of months. That's the reason right there. We missed that window. But we did try to design it so it was seamless.

Because I know our staff has been going out doing some work just to our city staff.

Yes, ma'am.

That was the supplement? Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. And so our new medians, we're going to start. That has been awarded already? Yes. The contract for putting in the new plants and new median and all that?

For the construction portion, that's going to happen on October the 6th.

Okay.

And so for that, if I can elaborate on that, once we get that particular median installed, the one we're talking about, the first phase, which is on the Avalon from the 91 Freeway South to 220th and on Carson Street from the 405 to Grace Street, that's going to be its own separate, we're going to have that as its own separate contract. And we'll carve that out. We'll make that happen as staff because we want that one to be the premier median because it is the showcase it is on the main thoroughfare. And we just need to get it installed to see where we're at, what we're going to need, and really do an assessment on it to see the level of how we want to design that contract. how often we want it, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a little bit of undertaking to that, but once construction is done and the warranty from the contractor is over, we will be ready and we will not miss the window to transition it into another contractor.

It's pretty bad out there. Councilman, MPT.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you to the staff for bringing this to us for our final consideration. My concerns would be, once they are awarded, they are going to begin service for the next 15, 20, 30 days. How soon will they, based upon the execution of the contracts, I guess, will be the actual process.

MPT, we're signing contracts tonight on two of those companies. So as soon as we can get a PO, we'll issue a notice to proceed, and they'll start immediately thereafter.

I didn't see anything in that shows. Are they doing any hardscape work?

Yes.

So there's hardscape work in there. What about irrigation?

Yes.

Okay, because I talked about it at the last council meeting. The irrigation on Wilmington between Delamo and University Drive, the irrigation does not work at all? The plants are struggling, what's left that's there. Part of the irrigation that's on Wilmington going south towards Carson Street is also struggling in the irrigation as well. I just think all the irrigation needs to be looked at because I think most of them are broken. Most times I would drive through the city at night, I know some of them are still shooting into the streets. So it's just got to really make sure that we look at this irrigation and how it's in place so that we don't have plant material that's dying. The yuccas that we have, we have these yuccas that's in our media that are huge now and they're blooming and they're just actually into the thoroughfare. And cars are actually hitting them. And if you drive down, you see them that they are, they've been hit and they are actually like bushes or stuff like that because they've been hit so many times. For them to remove most of those overgrown yucca should be part of their project as well. I mean, I would rather for it to be clean and dirt versus having the big ugly plants that are there that are actually damaged because they're too big for the area. So that's my request.

To address that point is an excellent point, MPT, Mayor Pro Tem, and then to address that we did our best to incorporate all of that into the RFP, whether they will be doing irrigation, checking the sprinklers, removing dead plants, replacing them as all part of the contract. which is one of the main reasons, if not the main reasons, why we broke the city up into fours. Doing it the way that we do it, as we just pointed out, there's 35 miles of medians to take care of in the city. So that's why we wanted to break it up, get a little more detail on it, and a little more microscopic work to be done on those medians. It's ironic.

The first time we met, what did I say when I first met you?

Yes, sir. I remember it very vividly.

The media, they're high, they're to my waist.

Yes, sir.

You know, that just, that's a pet peeve of mine is the media is being horrible because that sets the tone when you come into a community. And if they're looking at dead shrubberies, and that means the city is not put together quickly, so it doesn't look good, so... thank you for bringing this but thank you for having this i'm just going to be out there looking and i'll be sending photos as i go i look forward to it just for clarification can you just help us with uh what you meant by hardscape and and kind of clarify the location again the hardscape the hardscape was the actual brick fencing that was for the wayfinders that were near the mall area most of them have been uh handled either removed or repaired Then you have some boulders, and you have some, I guess, walkways within the actual meeting themselves that were stamped concrete. They're broken up, and they're just awry in the actual meeting in itself. So it's not...

destroyed, and it just looks horrible under the eyesore. Okay, and then you said, I mean, you mentioned Delamo, what was the other street?

It was actually on Wilmington, between University Drive and Delamo, the medians, if you drive up Wilmington. And if you go all the way down south, when you hit to 220th, all the way down to 220th, right before you get to Watsonland. Got it, thank you. All the way down.

They're all in need of repair, put it like that.

Councilman Deer.

Thank you, yeah, I have a question for the staff about our long-time maintenance company, Swayzer. Did they bid on this or were they in the competition but they were not chosen? Is that what happened to the public works director?

Swayzer did bid, yes.

Okay, so they were underbid by other larger companies? I see.

Essentially, they weren't one of the most responsive bidders.

Well, they were not a responsive bidder. No. Can you explain that, please?

So in our evaluation, we took under consideration a lot of factors. Lowest bid, obviously, is one of them, but in being responsive and having a working relationship with the organization you just spoke of, the city was not, staff was not satisfied with their work, and they were not selected to continue on with the city, and that's why they were not one of the most responsive bidders.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, I'd like to move staff's recommendation. Second.

I think we have to read it, don't we?

Do we have what, honey?

Do we have to read all this one?

No, I don't have to read all that, do I? Okay. Madam City Attorney, I don't need to read all this again. My MPT said, do I need to read this recommendation in its full?

No, you can wait for the reading and move staff's recommendation.

Wait for the reading and move staff's recommendation. Thank you. Please cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 35. Consider contested and uncontested appointees. You have- Mine are complete, Madam Mayor. Yours are complete. Councilwoman. You have one?

Michael Sumaron, S-U-M-A-R-O-N for my mobile home park rental review board. That's it for now. That's it for now.

Madam Mayor.

Yes.

I have one for Women's Issues Commission, Charlotte Benson.

Unless you're uncontested, but you don't need to vote on those. Bishop, you have any? Madam Mayor?

Yes. Can I just get Councilwoman Rojas to repeat the name? It was Michael?

Sumaron, S-U-M-A-R-O-N, as in Nancy.

Thank you. And Mayor Pro Tem, you said?

Charlotte Benson. Women's Issue Commission.

Thank you. Oh, women's issues?

Women's issue.

I take it all of our commissions have been meeting according to their meeting schedule. I haven't heard any complaints.

I do have one to remove. I think it's Cedric Nims. He hasn't come in for his oath or been to any of the meetings, and I don't think he's interested anymore at this time. We want to remove him from

We'll post the vacancy tomorrow. Thank you. And then you'll be able to.

Reappoint.

Yes.

That was for Public Works, right? So the alternate, there is an alternate by the name of Uzoma MG. I'm probably not saying that right. The staff is recommending, if possible, that she be considered to be moved from alternate to a regular.

Is that for which commission?

That's for Public Works. Apparently that individual is a very good an active commissioner, and they'd like to see that person, when time permits or when a space becomes available, be considered for a regular position. So I'm just sharing that on behalf of the staff that was communicated to us.

There's an opening on the public works?

No, there's not, but perhaps. I just created an opening based upon mine. And it's in Jai, just for translation.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

Absolutely. And then for the Youth Commission, all these have been removed?

Yes, so I'm assuming these students have graduated or have moved on. Yes, these students have graduated from high school, therefore they're no longer eligible to be on the Youth Commission due to the vigilant work of PIO and the Parks and Rec's department under Director Whitaker, we've been flooded with youth applicants. interested in serving, which is awesome. So they have already provided a memo, which I love. Thank you, Mike. Okay. Mikayla, they got it going on over there. Okay, so we've already been provided a memo with names, spelling, all of that jazz.

I'm looking at it.

Just a little swap right here. Yes, in the applications. And then we got one more of Madam Mayor, as you know, the young man, Sebastian.

I have one request for Sebastian Flores. Do you know him?

I do not, Madam Mayor.

Okay, could we appoint him and you can have the rest?

Sounds great.

Oh, wait a minute. These are the ones that are recommended by staff. You only get one. What is your one? Cedric Hicks. You don't have any. You removing someone? Cedric Hicks.

Zoe Smith is your appointee.

You don't know her. Zoe Smith has been... She's not being recommended as one to be removed. Evidently, she's been coming to meetings. So... You have to take that person off. You have one. He'll come back. Mr. Director, Sebastian, Flores, and who else would you like? According to your memo, because you have eight. What are these little asterisks for?

Madam Mayor, the original memo actually doesn't have asterisks.

Oh, 7 and 8 has an asterisk by their name. You know them? I know you do because you recommended them.

actually what we did madam mayor we um we work with pio and created a flyer number one for the youth commissioners that we actually were passing around at some of our events and then we also work with the marketing group um with maisha and raven uh and they created a small video that we put on uh social media youtube um and it actually got ray reviews from a lot of the teenagers that we have here in the city of Carson. And so they reached out to us.

Well, good. So you don't have a preference on this list. Okay, well, Sebastian Flores is one. Since I have them all, everybody else says they're one. And do you have the list?

I do.

Select five more, four more.

I will select Alice Perez, number one. Layla Harris, number six. Number three, Gian Matthew Pagie.

One more.

And number eight, Candice Deer.

Okay, that's the recommendation, noted. So I have to get a motion. I'm recommending what the director recommended as appointees.

I'll make a motion, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. I'll second it. It's been moved improperly. Senator, could you cue that? Uh-oh. It's been moved improperly. Second. Please cast your vote.

Motion carries. Madam Mayor, just as a point of information, we received several applications, even more than what's listed. So I shared with Director Whitaker if there ever is an opportunity to get more youth involved. I know the Human Relations Commission has a youth slot. There are several. So just something to keep in mind if you want to see the applications. We scan a copy to Ginger and have her share them with you. I keep them. Know that we have a hefty pool of youth interested at this point.

Awesome. Director Whitaker can start him a subcommittee. That's how you keep them involved and when one drops off, you just move them in. Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'd like to see all those applications also. I keep copies of them. Okay, thank you. Item, oh, did we vote? Okay, item number 36.

Madam Mayor? Yes. I will move we wait for the reading because it's read at the first reading and that we approve item 36.

Second.

Moved and properly seconded. I ask your vote.

Motion carries.

Thank you. All communications for matters not listed on the agenda.

We don't have any public comments. And I just want to say I think this is the first time this has ever happened for me.

All communications for council members.

Happy National Registration Day.

Council members. Oh, Arlene, set MPT.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A couple of items. One is the status on the e-bike ordinance. I know I was talking about the e-bike ordinance. And then I want to do a separate ordinance to bring back in regards to dog walking and waste pickup with a find or something. I've had many of my town hall meetings. The residents are real concerned. They're out walking. and they have to walk around dog waste and stuff. Dog owners need to be responsible for their dogs as they're walking them, and there has to be an ordinance or something that's out there that puts some teeth in it to say when you're walking your dog, you need to have your bag with you to pick up your dog waste so that we're not walking in it

We have an ordinance.

I think we have that ordinance.

Well, we need to revisit that and we need to publicize it. We need to put it in a sign if there's a fine attached to it.

Sure. We actually, MPT, and we may need to run it again. I remember we used to run it in the Carson Magazine. as an update, but we can put it back in there again, just as a highlight. But I do remember we had, at one time, because there was a request the mayor had made, we had put that in there, just to kind of re-educate the public. But we'll throw that back in there again, and then put some stuff on the website and social media as well. But to go back to your first request, about the e-bike ordinance, that's coming on the next council meeting.

The problem with the dog waste came up at Veterans Park. We just sent people out and started taking it and stopped them from walking their dogs and pooping. They were cited, but now they're starting again. So we need to revisit that. And what area is yours?

It's all around Mills Park and around Anderson Park. Because most people take the loop down Wilmington to Delamo, down Delamo to Central, back up Central. So that entire loop around the area there, it just... Even around Broadacres Elementary School. I just recently went there for grandparents today, and me and my wife was walking in the community, and we had to zigzag, get it to the school.

We walked to the school from the aisle. Okay, yeah, we'll definitely start getting those notices out, and we have our code and parking as they're going around. They can remind staff as well, or staff residents if they see them, and make them get collected with their bare hands if need be.

Within that ordinance, does it say anything about if you're walking your dog, you need to have a bag in your hand or something to that effect?

No, that's not specifically what it states.

Because if you don't have a bag in your hand, you know you're not picking it up.

Right. I mean, you assume unless you use your hands, but I mean, that's...

I think we need to send them out in those areas that we're talking about inside them because that's how you clean the Veterans Park. They received tickets.

That's right.

Because they were, I mean, it was all over the sidewalk. It was terrible. And it's the same people that walk at the same time. So it cleared up now since it's been warm there back again.

Sure. Now we'll definitely have our staff patrol. Please. Again, we'll put the notifications out because we did that before in the past and it was effective. So we'll do it again. Thank you for that.

Also, I just wanted to report out that I went to the Council of Dominguez Hills with KJLH, the Men's Summit, along with our bishop. He did the invocation, along with our Dr. Bradshaw in attendance. We were all being represented at the university. Very well attended. I was on KJLH radio with Guy Black and shouted out to everyone in the community. Attended the 9-11. A tribute that was very outstanding here in the City Hall lobby area, which they transformed it. Two of my recipients were very well surprised that they were even selected as heroes. One is a retired Navy man, and the other one is a business owner that was very well involved during the pandemic in allowing people to still get haircuts, one-on-one individuals, and clear it out, let another one come in so that they were still able to get services that way. attended the Mariachi Festival in the new amphitheater. Everyone tries to put it together like the white linen, but it just doesn't get to that point. But it was very well attended. I commend staff on what they did in making the Mariachi Festival outstanding. Just look forward to be bigger and bigger. You guys can actually have more people there if you want to. You can make it more and more because there's just enough space around there. Coming up on the 30th, I'm doing an expungement event here at the Carson Event Center, me along with Assemblyman Mike Gibson. It starts at 9 a.m. Expunging your criminal record for free. If you want to come on out, we're increasing for... Five benefits of the expungement, increase your employment opportunities, help quality for professionals, license opportunity, legal protection in court. There will be some organization there that will be hiring individuals who have a record but are going through the expungement process, so come on out, you may get a job at the same time you're getting your expunged. On the 17th, since we talked about town hall meetings, I'm having a town hall meeting on the 17th at Dominguez Park at 6.30. Come on out, making sure you come out and get more information. We talked about it briefly. You told me about Mills Park. and the construction. I think I brought up, can we put a sign or something that let people know that the construction is going to take place? It's going to begin, may not the day, but say it's going to begin November, it's going to be, I mean, whatever the month is. So as people who live in that neighborhood know what's going on, because right now it just looks the same and like no activities going on, so at least you're notifying the community that there is something that's moving forward on that property.

Yes, Dr. Rogers and I did have a conversation in regards to putting out some information. We're going to actually put out some QR codes, number one, that will show where people will be able to go with their phone, and it will go directly to YouTube where we're going to create a video.

My name is Sally Sue, and I don't do that anymore. Jimbo.

No, no, that was just. Jimbo. We're doing a whole marketing thing so that people know and understand exactly what's happening, whether they have a phone, whether they have a laptop, whether they get a flyer. We just want to make sure that there's an understanding of exactly what's happening. We're going to put a fact sheet out where people will be able to see the timeline that we actually have put together so that they have some expectations of exactly when it's going to happen. So we're definitely trying to get to them before they get to us. And so I will send that information through all of your offices so that when they ask in regards to Mills Park, you'll have backup information that shows exactly what's being done.

You know, have a timeline and even if you put on the marquee, you know, construction beginning November 20, 26, whatever that is. So you drive, you know, something is getting ready to take place at that park.