City Council - Regular Meeting

Order uh the regular city council uh close session. The time is 5:31. City clerk, uh would you please call roll? Yes, mayor prom. Council member Peton, present. Council member Sosa, present. Council member Thrujillo here. Mayor Prom Ortiz here.

And Mayor Fa is excused. Thank you. Now this is time for public comment for items listed under the closed session agenda. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the council unless modified by the mayor. I remind members of the audience that the city meeting rules contained in the D municipal code prohibit any conduct that disrupts, disturbs or interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Members of the audience and speakers who violate these rules and cause a disruption will receive one warning and then may be removed from the meeting. Violations of the rules of decorum for a council meeting may also result in administrative fine under the municipal code or centation for misdemeanor under the penal code section 40 403. City clerk dwarte do we receive any written public comment regarding close session items to be incorporated into the record?

We did not. Mayor city clerk dwarte, how many speakers have taken a number? We have no speakers. Mayor Mayor Prom, thank you. Is there a motion or a second to close public comment? So moved. Second.

So ordered by mayor prom. Uh the city council will now recess to close session under the following authorities. Number one, government code section 54957.6, conference with labor negotiator James McQueen, director of human resources, direction for labor negotiations with the Downey City uh employees association maintenance unit, Downey City Employees Association Miscellaneous Unit, and Downey Public Safety Auxiliary Association. Number two, government code section 54957B1, public employee performance evaluation, title C, Attorney. Number three, government code section 549576A, conference with labor negotiator agency designated representative James McQueen, director of human resources, unre unrepresentative employee, city attorney. We will now recess uh to close session. The time is 5:33.

Good evening. I will now reconvene the regular council meeting close session. Uh, city attorney Funk, will you please report the close session action? Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council and members of the public. In tonight's close session, the city council addressed all items that were agendaized on the close session agenda. There is however no reportable action from tonight's proceedings. Thank you.

Thank you, city attorney. Before we begin the regular city council meeting open session, I would like to remind members of the audience that anyone wishing to speak during public comment must obtain a number card from the city clerk and number cards should be exchanged should not be exchanged with other meeting attendees. If you decide not to speak after taking a number or decide to leave the meeting early, you must return the number card to city staff. If you did not obtain a number card and wish to speak, please proceed to the back of the room and city staff will issue you a number card. Lining up during public comment will not be permitted and each speaker should remain in their seat until their number is called. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. For the city's council meeting rules and for the fire safety regulations, all persons shall remain seated unless addressing the council or entering or leaving the chambers. Standing in the aisles or along the wall is prohibited. There is overflow seat. Well, we don't have overflow seating. No, I will I will skip that part. I will now call to order the regular city council meeting open session. The time is 6:35. City clerk Darte, would you please take role?

Yes, Mayor. Council member Peton, present. Council member Sosa, present. Council member Trujillo, here. Mayor Prom Ortiz, present. And Mayor Froa,

present. Before we officially begin, I want to say good evening to everybody. It is deeply meaningful to be back with you tonight and to resume my role as mayor. Over the past two months, I stepped away after a serious car accident. An experience that quite honestly changes you. It slows you down. It tastes your strength and it rem and reminds us reminds you of what matters most. There have been difficult days and recovery is still ongoing. But I stand here tonight grateful. Grateful for my health, grateful for my family, and grateful for a community that showed up for me in ways I will never forget. I want to sincerely thank our residents, many of them who showed up with home-cooked meals with more than flowers. I want to thank my colleagues and our city staff for your patience, for your support. and for your well wishes. They really have carried me and my family more than you realize.

That experience has only strengthened my commitment to this city. We have important work ahead of us, real opportunities to continue moving our community forward. And I returned focused, determined and ready to lead alongside all of you. Thank you again for your support. And while you may not see me at every community event um in the coming weeks as recovery is still ongoing, do know that just as all of you, just as all the city staff, just as the council on this DAS, we love this community very much and we will continue to serve serve you with everything we've got. So let's get to work. Thank you. Now I have the pleasure of uh welcoming a dear friend and also the chaplain for our Downey Police Department, Greg Welch, to lead us in the evocation. In times such as these, with turmoil throughout the world and yet indeed in our own city, let us remember Psalms 46:10. It's be still and know that I am God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you again uh with the opportunity as likeminded citizens of Downey before you guiding our path

and dealing with the issues that are precious and important to our city. We have so much to be thankful for, Lord. First and foremost, the recovery of our fine mayor, fine human being, fine friend, and your child. You are the one who knows just how serious it is. It was. And you could have called her home, but you chose for our benefit to let her be here and continue to be a part of leading this great city. We thank you for all the tragedies and near tragedies that occur in every family, in every household. We thank you for the police and fire department to deal with those issues again to keep us safe and to maintain the well-being of our citizenry. Thank you again, Lord, for the opportunity to be here and bless each and every citizen of this great city of Downey. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Greg. I will now call on Girl Scouts Troop 2485 to lead us in the invoc, excuse me, the pledge of allegiance.

Please join me in the flag salute. Ready? Begin. I aliance 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.

Okay, looks like we have Thank you, Girl Scout Troop. Give him a great round of applause. And thank you leaders and parents for getting these young ladies uh involved in their civic uh duties. Thank you very much. I will now go downstairs. We've got some great presentations and uh I have a special mayor's legacy award. So I'll see you down there in a minute. going down there.

He's always complaining about I'm a little warrior. I'm a little pushing up.

Good evening again. I have uh the distinct pleasure of selecting an individual uh every month. Certainly the last couple months I haven't had the opportunity to do so. Um, but the mayor's legacy award really um goes to someone that exemplifies what is true and what is honorable and someone that has given so much to this community and I really wish we had more individuals like him. Um, it's a man that embodies a generation of service and dependability and commitment. And these are exceptional qualities that I really hope and wish that our young people today can emulate because it's always um the service above self and I know that is the the motto for Rotary and I know he is a Kwanian his whole life. Um but but I say it because in a culture where where it's always about me and it's always about what you are doing for me and what the government is doing for me and it's all about me me. People like him remind us that it's always better to give than to receive. Ronald Kohler is the founder, president, and owner of the Labris organization. Mr. Kohler entered the field of property management in 1972. He's a certified property manager, a designation bestowed by the Institute of Real Estate Management. And this designation is only given to individuals

who complete extensive course study and adhere to a professional code of ethics. Mr. Kohler has served as president of the Downey family YMCA board of managers a number of times. The YMCA, as perhaps some of you already know, has now been renamed the Coler family YMCA because of his multi-million generous donation. At USC, Mr. Kohler was a member of the Trojan Club board of directors. He is currently the president of the building corporation for his fraternity Capa Sigma. He was also president of the Capa Sigma Southern California Alumni Association. Currently, he is a member of the board of regional directors for Southern California Fellowship of Christian Athletes and on the board of directors of Capitol Ministries. Mr. Kohler and his wife reside in the desert and maintain a home in Downey, California. Can we please give an extensive round of applause to Ron Kohler? I have to I have to definitely read this mayor's legacy award uh Ron Kohler on behalf of the citizens of Downey in recognition of your selfless dedication and always going above and beyond for others. Your heartfelt efforts and accomplishments have been of enormous value to our community and have helped to further the common goal of making our city a better place for all. Thank you for leaving an an amazing

legacy. And here is a pin and certainly the mayor's challenge coin which I will give you the way these are given. Thank you. May I say a few? Of course.

I may have been fairly good for Downey, but Downey has been very very good for me. Not just business-wise, but mainly in friendships. The vast majority of my close friends are in Downey or here all the time even though they don't live here. So I'm very thankful for Downey. Uh few good friends have gone. Bob Brusselton was the one that got me involved in the Y and other things. And you know Bob and there was no better citizen than Bob and Downey and no one who ever did more for Downey than him. So I'm just very thankful that I landed here in 1959 after finishing graduate work. It was kind of an accident. I was with the steel company whose plant was in uh Bell Gardens just a little ways away. So down was the nice community. I almost at one time moved to Palace Veries. I thought about as we're looking to buy a house. So thankful I didn't. And I just appreciate my friends and the people here and the people from the company and the privilege of working and serving in Downey. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, of course.

Thank you so much. Thank you all. We also have a presentation of recognition for utility box artwork for Candace Galvan. Have you have you driven around our city and seen those great utility boxes and the great artwork um done in those boxes? Well, we have uh Candace Galvan. Uh Candace, are you here? Can you please come up? I'm gonna brag a little bit about you. Candice is a local artist who has been adding vibrant, colorful artwork to our utility boxes across Downey, turning everyday boring structures into eyecatching pieces of public art. Candace's work is part of Downy's Art and Public Places project, which encourages artists to reimagine ordinary structures and make them more engaging for the community. Through her creativity and dedication, Candace's talent is helping to bring a sense of pride, beauty, and personality to neighborhoods throughout Downey. Thank you, Candace. Would you please say a few words? All right. Thank you, mayor, city council members. I'm very honored, very lucky to be able to paint for such a great city with very kind and generous people. I would also like to thank all the city employees and past mayors that have helped me along my way. I am blessed. Thank you.

Can we give our round of applause? So Candace, on behalf of the citizens of Downey, in recognition of your artistic contributions in transforming everyday structures into vibrant works of public art, we honor your creative impact on the community. Your work enriches our local culture and brings joy and vibrancy to the city of Downey for years to come. So once again, thank you. And this is um a city pin. Oh, that's great. So, thank you. If we can take a photo together and have the council join,

it's nice to meet you. I've seen you on the ground and everything. Thank you. I didn't want to let Women's History Month pass us by without recognizing women and the work of a very special organization here in Downey. Um, this proclamation is for the Soptimist International of Downey in honor of Women's History Month. Sir Optimus International of Downey is a service club that was created in January of 1952. For those of you that don't know, the name SRO Optimus means best for women. The mission is to improve the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment. The 2024 through 2026 theme is rise, respect, inspire, support, educate. The focus is to support and educate the women and girls in the community of Downey. The signature programs this year include live your dream awards, women of distinction, and scholarships for our local seniors, high school seniors. that is they also work together with other nonprofits to help support our youth. Sir Optimus International of Downey is proud to be a part of Sir Optimus International of the

Americas with over a thousand clubs in countries across North America, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim who work to economically empower women and girls with the following core values. Gender equality, whereas women and girls live free from discrimination. Empowerment, whereas women and girls are free to act in their own best interest. Education, whereas women and girls deserve to lead full and productive lives through access to education. diversity and fellowship whereas women from varied backgrounds and perspectives work together to improve the lives of women and girls. Can we please give uh Sir Optimus International of Downey a big round of applause? Um can I have uh Rebecca Reyes, the president come up along with the rest of the the board? You know, I have to read a little bit of the proclamation, right? Um, try not to read all of it. It says, "Whereas every March, Women's History Month provides an opportunity to honor the generations of trailblazing women and girls who have built our city, shaped our progress, and strengthened our character. And whereas throughout our history, despite hardship, exclusion, and discrimination, women have strived and sacrificed for equity and equality. And whereas we continue to carry forward the mission of ensuring our daughters have the same

opportunities as our sons. And whereas women and girls continue to lead groundbreaking civil rights movements for social justice and freedom so that everyone can realize the full promise of America. And whereas this Women's History Month, as we reflect on the achievement of women and girls across the centuries and pay tribute to the pioneers who paved the way, let us recommmit to the fight and help realize the vision of an equal society where every person has a chance at pursuing the American dream. Now, therefore, I, Claudia Feretta, mayor of the city of Downey, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month. I call upon all residents to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. Thank you, Sir Optimus.

Thank you. Would you like to Thank you, mayor and city council. As Sir Optimus, we are privileged and blessed to be able to serve this community. So, thank you for the opportunity.

This is this is my service, but I'll be right has been a member for 15 years. Thank you. Okay. We have also a proclamation declaring the month of March as bleeding disorders awareness month. The Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California is a nonprofit organization uh founded in 1954 that provides education, advocacy, and support services for individuals and families affected by hemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders. We currently serve more than 4,000 community members across nine counties, including St. and Louis Abyspo. Bleeding disorders are lifelong medical conditions that can lead to serious health complications including internal bleeding, joint damage, chronic pain, and significant financial burden due to the high cost of treatment. Awareness is essential to improving early diagnosis, access to specialized care, and quality of life for those affected. Throughout the year, HFSC provides educational programs, youth and family support services, advocacy initiatives, scholarships, and emergency financial assistance to help individuals navigate the challenges living with this

condition. Can I get the certificate, please? Can I have do we have somebody uh accepting this proclamation? Yes. Garciato Garcia. Hello. Nice to meet you. How are you? Hello. Hi. Hello.

Nice to meet you. Um again this proclamation uh reads whereas the mayor and city council of Downey proud to recognize March 2026 as bleeding disorders awareness month and whereas the hemophilia foundation of Southern California mission is to improve the quality of life and build community for individuals and families living with inherited bleeding disorders in Southern California. And whereas with appropriate treatment, education, and access to comprehensive medical care, individuals living with bleeding disorders can manage their condition and lead healthy, productive lives. And whereas community based education, advocacy, and support services such as those organizations um provided by the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California and other organizations play a critical role in improving quality of life, increasing awareness and ensuring individuals and families have access to essential resources and care. And whereas bleeding disorders awareness month promotes greater understanding of hemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders including von willibbrand disease, platelet function disorders and rare clotting conditions which together affect thousands of individuals and families across the nine counties served by the hemophilia foundation of southern California. Now therefore, I, Claudia froma, mayor of the city of Downey, hereby proclaim March 2026 as bleeding disorder awareness month and encourage all residents to increase their understanding of bleeding disorders and support those affected within our community. Can we give them an applause, please? Say a few words.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. Um, one of the biggest things that we want to do with this is bring awareness to bleeding disorders. Um, one of the big ones is hemophilia. And it's not so much that someone's going to cut themselves and bleed out, but it's all this minor um internal bleeds that can happen um that can have um long-term effects. So, this proclamation is not only for us, but it's for um you know, it's a rare bleeding disorder, but there's 19 families in the city of Downey, which um is a handful of them if you think about it when within nine counties, we have 4,000 community members. Um but I did want to um spend some time and provide Sophia Orta, who is one of our young advocates. um but does have a bleeding disorder to say a few words as well.

Hello. Um I just wanted to say thank you to the council for this recognition. Um not only as a resident and a student at in Downey and a student at Warren High School um but as someone who has a hemophilia and um bleeding disorder. Um a recognition like this is very important because it um helps bring awareness to um hemophilia and other bleeding disorders for the uh future and the present but also to honor the past um for those who have passed from um bleeding disorders such as my Theo. he passed away from hemophilia, but also those who contracted HIV and AIDS during the epidemic. So to all those who have passed, it's um to recognize them and to honor them. Thank you. Do we have Chris Sanchez here? Can I have you come up, please? Hello.

Thank you. We have a proclamation declaring March as Red Cross Month. Chris Sanchez, who is standing right beside me, is a dedicated volunteer with the American Red Cross, having begun her service in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and recently celebrating 20 years of that commitment. She represents the city of Downey as part of territory 5 out of the commerce office. We we we uh we get some some mood lighting. Here we go. Um where was I? Okay. Uh serving one of 29 cities and communities in the region. Through her work, Chris helps advance key initiatives, including recognition of Red Cross Month through proclamations of support, coordination of local blood drives throughout 2025, participation in the S sound the alarm program, providing free smoke alarm installations, and delivering disaster preparedness education to help the community stay safe and informed. So, I will read the proclamation. Whereas the American Red Cross fulfills a unique and vital role in our state, providing help and hope in the face of emergencies and disaster and is a true reflection of the humanitarian and volunteer spirit of the American people. Whereas for 140 years, United States presidents have called upon to support the American Red Cross in its humanitarian mission. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to proclaim March as Red Cross Month in 1943. Whereas across the country and around the world, the American Red Cross has responded to disasters and continues to help those in need. They continue to work with its partners to prevent fires

like the ones that have ravaged our state in the past years. Whereas in every response, volunteers are the key to Red Cross efforts and represent 96% of the Red Cross workforce. Without their giving spirit, without the giving spirit of people like Chris Sanchez here, disaster relief operations would fall short, blot donations would fail, and the Red Cross's mission would go unfulfilled. Volunteers are critical to the success of every Red Cross endeavor. Now therefore, I, Claudia Fetta, mayor of the city of Downey, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Red Cross month. I encourage all residents to support this organization's noble humanitarian mission. Thank you. real fun.

Okay. So, they told me I had a couple of minutes. Kick me off if I go over, but I wanted to let you know what we've done in Downey in the last year and what you have done for uh your fellow citizens. So, last year we had blood drives. We collected 106 pints of blood. And one pint of blood can help three people. So do the math. So 318 lives were serviced by your blood. We have a couple of blood drives coming up. Please consider I am so fortunate to come after the hemophilia association because that's why we collect blood. These are your neighbors. These are your friends. These are your families. How many of you have had relatives or somebody in your family that needed a blood transfusion? Just raise your hand. There you go. So, we need your blood. We are at a critical stage right now because when people on the east coast cannot go to their blood centers to donate, LA County takes care of three4s of the country. The only bigger blood donation centers are the armed forces. So, you can see how important it is for this young lady to get platelets and plasma. And a lot of the people that were burned and cut in the fires this last January or a year ago, January, you didn't see them going into the hospitals because of the uh privacy laws, but they were injured uh burned, cut from all of the damage. Okay. So, um we also save pets and I

want to make sure that you understand that pets are very important to us. They are our friends. They are protectors. They depend on you. So, we make an effort to save pets. And I'm sure all of you have some kind of pet at home. Um, also with our fire department coordination, we put in 56 smoke alarms in at risk homes last year. We go in as volunteers. We educate the resident and we install anywhere from 3 to eight smoke alarms for free in areas wherever anybody is living. So we did 156 installations. We educated 146 residents and we made 44 houses safer. So again, uh, thank you so much for the opportunity of speaking with you. You know, the old Clarall, uh, you kids wouldn't know this, but the old Clarall commercial where only her friends knew for sure. And so spread the word. Go to these blood centers and help us help them. Okay. Thank you so much. Oh, excellent.

Excellent. Excellent.

Thank you so much. Thank you. At this time, we're going to take a three minute recess. Um, those of you that got uh recognitions that way you can say hello to a few people and and make your way out. I know some of you may or may not want to stay for the full council meeting. So, three minute recess, please.

Let's see. We are ready. We are ready to continue with our meeting this evening. Um we are now moving on our agenda. Uh now is the time for public comment regarding agenda consent and non-aggenda items. Hang on for just a second. Looks like we may be having some technical difficulties. You may have to do it the old school.

The oldfashioned way. Of course.

It's okay, Alisia. We can we can go back and uh do the old the oldfashioned way. We can Maybe you can put it on that.

Yeah, just put the slide back. Again, these are the rules of decorum for Downey council meetings. Please refrain refrain from using profanity, name calling, or behaving in a way that disrupts this meeting. This includes yelling, whistling, booing, screaming, and any other outburst that disrupts or disturbs the meeting. Any conduct that interferes with or disrupts persons who are addressing the city council. Any conduct that interferes with or disrupts council members while they are speaking. any other conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. And attacks of a personal nature on city staff or council members that have no connection to agenda items or non-aggenda items. Comments must be addressed to the mayor directly and not to any other council member, city staff,

or the audience. I have this here and I can't really see that. Okay. Uh, city clerk Darte, did we uh receive written correspondence to be incorporated into the record?

We did, mayor. We have um received correspondence from Gabriel Gaspar requesting the city council consider naming a street after the Carpenters. We also received written comments from Mara Torres of the Fair Housing Foundation who provided information regarding a free educational fair housing workshop to be held at the Downey Library on April 1st from 2 to 3:30. We also received public comment from Mario Dominguez Jr. regarding SP707 and implementation of Zoom to allow residents to participate remotely during council meetings. We also received correspondence from Stephanie Pon. She requested that the city review the pedestrian first signal timing at the intersection of Woodruff Avenue and Florence Avenue. And lastly, we received correspondence from Lee Squire who commented regarding the American Civil War, the 15th Amendment as it relates to voting rights for all citizens as well as the Vietnam War and the 26th Amendment. And that is all. Mayor.

Thank you, city clerk. Um, how many speakers have taken a number? We have a total of 11 speakers at this time. Mayor, can we take a motion and a second to receive in? Uh, yes, I will entertain a motion. Can I get a second? Second. So, ordered by the mayor. Okay. Okay. Each speaker uh will have three minutes for you to vote

based on the number of speakers we have. You said we have 11 uh speakers. Okay. Let's go ahead. Thank you. Speaker number one may come up. Hello. Uh, mayor, I wish you and those involved a healthy recovery. And I find it amazing that you preach of women empowerment. And I know that women have been regarded as property of men for most of history. Countless of women sell themselves to the idea of an American dream only to realize that at the end of their lifetime, that very same dream forced upon them was merely a cage. A cage to never break free from, never grow from, never aspiring to be more than what a patriarchal society expects. Even today, women are still fighting for the battle of equality. Fermenta being here should be such a win for Hispanic women everywhere. What a huge accomplishment you have made by sitting in that very seat. And I truly mean that. To see Fermenta in that seat among a majority of men should be empowering for me. So it hurts so much that I can't look at my mirror and say with confidence that I myself am proud to be a woman of color. It hurts especially to see a woman with the same background as me make decisions and have ideologies that are so far from what is humane. You may sit in that seat and tell us that you are in support of women. Although your support of certain politicians says otherwise, you may sit in that seat and tell us you are upholding the pillars in which your campaign depended on. Fora is running on a platform of five pillars. Public safety, integrity and public office, family values, strong community engagement, and a businessfriendly and fiscally responsible city model is what is written about Fermenta in the Downey Patriot. However, immigrants of Downey cannot say with certainty that they feel safe, that they'll for certain be able to go back to their families after work, that they'll be able to strongly engage with their community in our in the state our city is in right now. This is especially disheartening for women of color. Who are we to hold accountable but our mayor? Your words and beliefs

cannot be exempt from meeting basic human standards, which citizens should hold you accountable for. Women's achievements, especially today, are a timeless byproduct of all the hatred from systems set up against us. Intellect should be preserved and encouraged by our mayor. Today I stand you stand here before you with immense disappointment in my heart and I want to believe that so badly our mayor has everyone's best interest in mind. Is it in Downy's best interest to see that innocent people are threatened by a system rooted in racism, prejudice and hate? The people of Downey should not should want nothing to do with hate, nothing to do with you when you were said to help and nurture us. The comm the community needs to keep Downey safe. Downey needs for meds out. Thank you so much council for your time.

Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Speaker number two. Um I just you all know me. I've been here 39 years in Downey and I'm so blessed and humbled of all the volunteer jobs I have, the city has given me, and the bosses that are my bosses, my police chief, uh Michael Calbert from the chamber, Jason, my parks manager, and all my city staff that are my bosses, Hector, for keeping me in my parks and wreck job, which, you know, I love to do to God. I love that job. Anyway, um I want to thank you all for that. But especially tonight, Madame Mayor and I know what you went through because I got in a car accident last February on 3rd in Paramount. Total my car and I'm thank God I survived it. I'm here today. Thank God because of that. I'm thank God that he he didn't take you away from us either, CL, Madame Mayor. So, um I want to officially welcome you back

to the council. Thank you. Thank you, Jeanie. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker number three may come up.

Good evening, Mayor. uh fellow city council members as uh for your car accident. I'm glad you're doing okay. Uh that's always good to hear. Um unfortunately, I come to you in an incident that occurred April 9th of 2025 when I was involved in a car accident and I was vilified by Downey PD. Uh I believe I was profiled by the way I was looked and um there's a few things that happened at that uh incident where the police officers changed the whole dynamics of my statement to just vilify me and I put in a complaint at Downey PD which got disregarded. So I went again and put in another complaint completely different from this complaint that I put in. And uh police captain Clemen number 11503 said to me that the complaint that I filed will never be looked at by anybody that is going to get locked away in our file cabinet, never to be seen by anybody. I let the police chief know about this. He made it perfectly clear that he was uh perfectly happy with what the police captain said to me and he was all for it. I went in on March 5th to ask about the status of my complaint and police captain was very nice enough to cause the scene, get me removed from the premises on the grounds that I looked under the influence and I was uh detained pending investigation because I left the high apparently. and they said that they're going to file a restraining order on me because apparently I was being loud and obnoxious. And I hope you guys take a look at that tape at the Downey Police Department March 5th from 11 till 1:30 p.m. when I was there. I talked to her in the way I talked to you right here in this manner. Police

captain was very loud, disrespectful, unprofessional in my uh experience from that encounter. And I hope that you really look into this because the police captain uh May de Roas, everyone that's helped me in this matter has been less than helpful. As a matter of fact, it's been negative and my like I love this city. I have three children all graduated from Downey. I have a 2019 2020 2024. My 2024 is in the Marines. He's in Missouri. proud to be in Downey. I love this city. I love this community. But my experience from this incident is very sad, I believe. And I know uh police chief uh was very kind enough to hang up on me multiple times when I called him as well as the captain. And I urge you to really look into this matter. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you very much. Speaker number four may come up.

Good evening, council members. Good evening.

I am Zan Shu, the acting co-president of Rally the Youth, a student led human rights and youth advocacy organization, as well as a student of Warren. I like to start with a quick recap. last meeting on the 24th of February, I reported that on the 17th, there was an ICE incident outside the Downey Courthouse to which I received no direct comment from the council. Not even 24 hours after my comments at the meeting, another incident took place outside the courthouse. Just as I said, according to the victim's brother, armed and masked ICE agents surrounded him as he exited the courthouse. ICE is crossing lines and our city continues to redraw them every time. One month later, what has changed? who has taken initiative. The people are fed up with everything. Council members, everyone's tipping point is different. For some, it was the $8 gas prices we woke up to earlier this month, which there isn't much we can do about in this room. And then for others, it is the things that we can't control. Your hands are not as tight as they may look. You and your residents together will be able to do everything legally to protect our neighbors from terror. But the people of our city, me included, have just about had it with the our fears and frustrations being met with tight hands that you nodded yourselves. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Speaker number five may come up.

Um, good evening, Mayor. Good evening

and members of the Downey City Council. My name is Danielle Laras and I'm a resident of Downey. I stand before you not just as a neighbor, but as someone who rejects silence in the face of collective punishment of a nation, state violence, and the ongoing devastation of Palestinian lives. For the last 58 years, Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been under illegal occupation. Men, women, children, grandparents have endured relentless bombardment, mass displacement, starvation conditions, and widespread destruction. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 71,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 171,000 injured only since October 7th of 2023. Mostly civilians, including large numbers of children, women, and elderly people murdered in residential areas, schools, hospitals, and aid areas, which by international law are illegal to strike. In recent weeks alone, renewed Israeli military operations have killed more Palestinians, including families in residential neighborhoods and bystanders seeking food or shelter. This is not a security operation or a distant geopolitical dispute. This is a humanitarian catastroph catastrophe unfolding in real time and is morally indefensible to ignore it. Yet here in Downey, we have a mayor who openly aligns with the United States most hardline supporters of the Israeli government's actions. In 2021, Mayor Fetta publicly embraced the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Apac, calling it the most important bipartisan conference and saying, "We must continue to support and strengthen our alliance with the state of Israel." She even added that I stand with Israel to her social media profile and voice support for military funding that fuels this carnage. When pro Palestine Downey residents protested her stance, rightly pointing out that Palestinians also live here, that children are being killed and that silence equals complicity, the mayor never acknowledge that suffering, nor demonstrated any willingness to to call for a ceasefire or an end to collective punishment. Instead, her

leadership has chosen uncritical allegiance to policies that contribute to war, displacement, and suffering overseas. while in Downey herself failing to recognize the celebrations of our Muslim neighbors. You have shared holidays like Hanukkah and Yam Kapoor, Christmas and plenty of other but one but not once have I seen a public greeting for Ramadan on your social on your official channels. That absence tells Muslim residents in our cities that their in our city that their lives and traditions are invisible even while their families and communities abroad endure devastation. It is immoral to cheer for security while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving, wounded, buried under rubble or fleeing bombardment with nowhere safe to go. It is immoral to invest political capital and overseas militarism while ignoring the basic human rights of families that live right here among us. It is immoral to treat one's group suffering as disposable. Mayor Foretta supporting international law, human rights, and a just peace for all people, Israelis and Palestinians does not mean being anti-Israel or anti-Jewish. It means refusing to support war crimes, collective punishment, and the displacement of entire communities. It means standing up for justice, not only when it's easy, but especially when it is unpopular.

Thank you for that. Speaker number six, I see that no speak. The speaker left. Okay. Uh speaker number seven may come up. Hello. Good evening.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Um, I'm here today due to an ongoing problem that we have with vehicles that park on the north and south side of the on the red zone of our complex um building. I do contact the police department. For the past 10 years, I've called them three to four times a week, which they're grading coming out and sighting the vehicles in the evening time. However, the the problem lies more during the uh afternoon because we are in front of two schools, the middle school and elementary school. At about 2:30, vehicles park on the red zone. There's no visibility as we try to pull out of our driveway whatsoever. There's none at all. Um, to go back 10, 13 years ago, my daughter had two accidents coming out. A car passed the red light. Unfortunately, she could not see. It spun her out and actually threw her through the gate of West of West Middle School.

Oh, wow. And she was cited because you're pulling out of the driveway. You're at fault. So, this is Old River School Road.

I'm on Old River School Road. Yes. It's on West Middle and I believe it's Stford. Yes. Both schools. So, it's it's very busy. It's very busy there. And unfortunately, we are on the east side facing the schools. Um, like I said, the police have been great in coming out in the evening time sighting the vehicles, but the daytime now that I' I've been home these past 3 months and I'm seeing um it's it's it's horrible. And they come at about 2:30 is when you'll see all the vehicles parked there in the red zone. So, they anyway they could I was calling and they said maybe you can come and speak. I didn't know about this public speaking. So, I'm glad that they mentioned that. Um, and just I'm just here to find a way where we can try to resolve it. Um,

thank you. I I appreciate you letting us know. Um, as council members, we try to be out in the community as much as we can. Uh, but we can't be everywhere and it it is very helpful uh when residents reach out to us and and let us know um these these pinpoints um that are uh potential huge problem areas. And so, city manager, can we uh direct staff to look into this? Yeah, I'll have the police chief connect with the resident so we can talk about those issues and see how we can remedy. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. And thank you for your time. Thank you for coming and and speaking with me about that. Um Chief, I'm wondering if we can do cones if we could give the complex cones to put there. Have we ever tried putting cones?

I thought about that myself. China. Uh there might be legal rules on that one, but we understand the concern. We'll definitely Yeah. reach out and talk about it. at 2:30 is when there's all thank you for coming in. Well, chief will will address that. Thank you. Um, speaker number eight may come up.

Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Uh, first of all, I thank God and thank the mayor and all the council here. I my name is San Lee

and uh I've been residents in Donnie since uh 1980 before they have 105 and then I live on Alabida and my brother on Patton Road and the reason I come here today we like to uh raise our voice to request for the uh change the sweep sweeping side to alternate ated odds side and even side different day instead of uh on Friday one day both side and then as right now the city give a permit to ADU and then you know we we need a parking and then people now the day they working they need uh uh parking and then they get the ticket on Friday because they do both side they need to be alternated I just want to raise my voice and also on Alama and Patton road is like a freeway since they have the Donny landing. I lived there before Rockwell, Queen Elizabeth visit the Rockwell and then Boeing and now prominent and then Kaiser and then they have a I went to see uh my neighbor crossing like a crossing freeway because no speed bomb, no nothing. And then especially the more thing is that the street sweeping need to be alternated and I please uh you ask you guys to look at over and they need to be alternated odd side and even side and I don't know I'm nervous but thank god I'm be here to raise my voice.

Mr. Thank you. During public comment, uh if you can pause the the time, Alisia, during public comment, this is the time where members of the public come and talk to us. We really um the rules are we are not supposed to engage in conversation with the speakers. So, we are taking notes. Um and I've signaled to our city manager to get somebody from staff to uh address your concerns. We'll have our public works director speak with you right after this so they can talk. We need we need uh more police or whatever because they speed like a freeway and I cross to see my neighbor. I have to like wait sometime they hunk at me. And I lived there since uh 80 uh used to the mayor Rick Tjo.

Mhm. Before he become a mayor, he is in uh USC pharmacy school. I'm moving there. He's his parent my neighbor. I went to take care my neighbor, you know. Okay, it's a nonsense. But anyway, but I'm thank you that I'm be here to just to raise the my concern and my whatever you say, you know, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lee. We appreciate you. If I'm not mistaken and maybe Mac, he could talk to him. We are going to be adding cross uh walks in that area and Alamita and Patton Road for the schools as well, right? Yeah. To my house. Yes. Yes. There you know.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh, speaker number 10 may come up. Did Did I Did I skip nine? You did. Didn't mean to. Come on. Nine. What did I do?

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everyone.

Um, I'm here. Well, my neighbor Sam actually came over and he's like, "Hey, what do you think?" And you know, he's right. So, I've seen that. So, I'm here to kind of just piggyback on what he said. At the same time, um, another concern, a big concern I have, um, I came here a while ago, um, trying to be a good neighbor while I already witnessed about four accidents on Patton and Boone. And, um, I'm like, you know, that sucks. We should do something before there's, you know, a mort fatality or something. Um, 3 weeks ago, I became victim with my own car. So, I'm here again. Um, the council actually did, you guys did react right away. I think the following week they dropped off a speedometer which was great but as I mentioned to them when they were dropping it off this is the daytime. Um like Sam said at night you just have just going going I mean zooming by. Um some people have gone up the curve where they didn't get in an accident but again right now I'm on a rental on my third week now and it's just it's prone to even the school Alamita got ran into and they replaced the fence. So, I'm just trying to be proactive, whether it's a speed bump or a stop sign. I'm glad there's going to be a crosswalk. Um, but just that long stretch just has a lot of chaos going on lately. And there's a lot of I've even seen my own eyes uh somebody's mirror got taken off and they keep going. But, um, that's really all I wanted to say. Uh, street sweeper one side at a time and a speed bump or stop sign. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um, city manager. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. We'll have Director Bombgardner get the contact information so we can follow. Thank you. We appreciate you taking time to come talk to us and let us know these concerns. Um, speaker number 10 may come up.

Good evening. Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of the city council, Mr. Bradley and staff. A couple of things. First of all, um, want to welcome you back. It's great to have you back, number one. Secondly, uh there was a number of 25 school children within the past week or two left to go on kind of a a little vacation in a different city and they had a problem with getting some housing at the last minute. I understand you were one of the ones that made an effort to help solve the problem. So, I want to thank you for that.

Thank you. The next item has to do with item number eight on your agenda, administrative reports. Has to do with council, excuse me, council compensation and also reimbursement of city business expenses. What I'd like to suggest is that the council decide to possibly publish what you guys do maybe on a quarterly basis or whatever to make the public more aware of where some of the money is going. So that's it. And the last item is I also want to thank the council for publishing the names of 13 of our military men and women whose tour of duty was cut short in the war in Iran and I plead for their families. This ends my comments. Yeah, 12. Thank you for that. Speaker number 11 may come up.

Hello, mayor. Um, I am a uh and fellow council members as well. Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you. Um I am someone that Sam well I'm one of Sam's neighbors as well actually and he came up to me on Friday and came up with the idea of like we should stop by and um Sam has a great point about the street sweeping. Um most other cities have that kind of system set up of alternating uh streets. I'm not sure about the exact logistics of it for these our street sweepers but I think it is a great idea and I want to echo the concerns that we have around the safety on that street. Uh, I have lived on Alama Street now for I want to say since 99 or 98.

Uh, I am a homeowner on that street now. Um, so I have had concerns my entire life on that street. Uh, my brother has had his car total. Um, Sam's neighbor during school bit school hours like right around pickup. I think it was 2017 a truck flipped over. I barely missed that accident by I want to say 30 seconds and I got there before the police even got there to see someone had passed away. Uh we have been woken up by 3:00 ams. Uh it has been turned into like a freeway. It is a small residential street. Uh it's been a quiet neighborhood my entire life. Um but recently and I say even in the last 10 years we have had just people speeding by. There are marks on the on the uh road where people are like burning out. It's just become uh too much of a highway. Uh it is unsafe. Uh it is not befitting of the residents of our town, our city. And I would just like to see some sort of uh safety measure. I something like a speed bomb, something to do to mitigate any of this potential damage or to lessen anything any of this uh problems that we've been having on that street. Um, one fatality is too much. I would not like to see any others going forward.

Thank you. We appreciate your time. And Director Bombgardner will follow up. Okay. Do we have any other speakers? We have one more.

It's It's nice to see you back. And well, mayor, city council, I just want to bring it to attention that I don't want to be that neighbor, but when a barking dog, and I'm talking about 2 3:00 in the morning, howling dogs, dogs that are on my porch at, you know, 3:00 in the morning, and my dog's barking because he's he's a house dog. and the next day you call Siaka and they're like, "Oh, we need your name, your number, your social security number, all everything. You don't need to do that, you know. It it's just take an anonymous call. I don't know if you could talk to Siaka, but they're not helping, you know, and it gets it's getting old. It's getting old, too, where I'm a dog lover. I love dogs. I've had I've had many of I've I've had two of them. And and uh um I I I don't want to be that neighbor to say, "Hey, you know, I I even went to go knock on the door. I don't want to call the police. That's not their job." To go, "Oh, excuse me. Be quiet, dog." You know, they're there to fight crime. They're not there to fight dogs. Another thing is, and I'm just not saying on my street, it's in mo in not most of the city, but there's some of the city is I know Pico Rivera has um a person advocated that goes out and drives around and takes pictures and so does Montabalo because I have family there and so does Monterey Park. junk cars that are not registered. Uh just pretty much junks on their lawn that are you don't need four cars of they're just eyes and it takes away from your property value. Takes away from my property value. You know, I can't show you a piece of paper where you know, oh,

it dropped because this junk car was next door to you. But it takes away from the property value. And I'm pretty sure you heard this more than once, to advocate somebody to go take pictures. Like I said in a couple city council meetings before, I'll volunteer. Look it. Check it out. I'll do it for free. For free. Look it. I promise. I'm retired now. You know, I retired. I'm kind of getting bored at it. And uh I'm I'm tired of honeydews. But hey, I'll do it. I'll do it. You know, we got to we got to get this. We Downey is a place that I wanted to come live in and I'm and I did it and but eyes on the on the stuff jumping gyms in in the front of the house. All this come on. We got to do something about it. Let's keep down let's get Downey back to what it was. You know, it's still a good city, but we could we got to get it back a little bit. You know that that's it. That's it. And thank I'm really happy to see you back. Honestly, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to come speak to us. Yeah, I will say, mayor, we do take volunteers and we're happy to recruit if there is interest in that. Uh we do provide uh that service to the community as well, but uh I think I understand that you're one of the father of one of our officers, so appreciate uh you ling one of your sons to daughters to us. So, thank you. Yeah, that would be great. I'm not sure if um you're familiar with the app. I'm on the app all day long, sir. I'm just like you calling in cars uh recreational vehicles that don't belong. Downey connect. Yeah, the Downey connect app is really good. I I've done I've done it a couple times. Not even a rules. I've done it a couple times. Well, thank you. And

we we can we can continue the conversation offline. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um I will make a motion um to close public comment. Can I get a second? So moved. Please second. Oh, but never mind. So, order by the mayor. Okay. Yes. Um, now is the time for consent calendar items. Uh, are there any council members that would like to remove or abstain from an item?

Yes. Uh, Madame Mayor, I am abstaining from item number three on consent. I have property in the area. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Um, aside from uh, Council Member Peton's abstension. Um, can I get a motion in a second to approve the consent calendar? So, moved. Second.

Okay. Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously with council member Peton abstaining from item number three. Okay, we have two administrative reports. Um, first one up is the discussion regarding city council compensation and monthly reimbursement of city council business related expenses and that the city council receive a report regarding city council compensation monthly reimbursement of city council business related expenses and provide staff with direction. Um, I can see city manager Bradley. Uh, we have, uh, Judy Montenegro, assistant to the city manager. She's going to provide us a report.

That's correct, mayor. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Feretta and members of the city council. I'm here this evening to provide a report regarding city council compensation and monthly reimbursement for council business related expenses. Following my presentation, the council will have an opportunity uh to discuss and provide direction on this item based on the information shared in this report. So to provide greater context of the history of this item, I will start off with a brief background on this topic. So back in 1987, ordinance number 858 was adopted to establish a monthly reimbursement amount of certain expenses for city council members at the following amounts. 430 $430 for the mayor and 365 per council member. Per this ordinance, these amounts were to automatically adjust each year according to the percentage change in the local CPI. These expenses may include gas mileage, phone calls, and other similar expenses incurred in connection with the duties as a member of the city council. In addition, each member of the city council is to be reimbursed for any other costly expenses incurred by him or her in her connection with their duties. Section 502 of the city charter titled compensation specifically states the members of the city council shall not shall not receive compensation for their services but shall receive reimbursement for council authorized travel and other expenses when an official when on official duty. and council members will also receive a set amount to cover any out-of-pocket expenses to their service. In February of 2006, the city council adopted resolution number 06691 to establish uh a travel conference and meeting expense policy in response to AB uh 1234. For background, AB1234 required that California local agencies adopt written policies governing and reimbursement for travel meals and

lodging for legislative body members. This travel policy established guidelines for travel attendance at conferences, trainings, meetings, and other city business for city employees and city council members. Following the adoption of this policy, the city adopted ordinance number uh 061886, which increased the monthly reimbursement amount to 743 uh dollars with 96 cents for the mayor and 631 with 40 cents for each council member per month and maintained the automatic CPI adjustment um per year thereafter. Currently the monthly reimbursement amount for the mayor is,270 with 44 cents and 1,78.22 for each council member. The travel policy was uh updated in April 20 2025 to modernize language and update eligible expenses such as the use of ride share apps. In January of last year, council member Trujill requested staff research city council compensation in other cities, including phone allowance and vehicle mileage. staff gathered the following information based on data received from surrounding cities.

Judy, do you have the Do you have that chart to put up? Do we have that? We do not. Um, we have it in the staff report. Oh, okay. Are we able to I wonder if we can No, we can't put it up. Okay. No, no. I I have it I have it in front of me, but I just thought for purposes of um of of the public and transparency, it would be good to to show u the comparison we're all looking at.

Uh okay. So, yes, council member to hear requested that staff uh look into compensation for other cities. So, city staff reached out to a total of 17 cities and out of the 17, 15 responded with information. As you see in the table provided in the staff report, the monthly stipen salaries vary by city, ranging from zero to approximately 2,000. I do want to note that Whittier and Downey are the only two cities that do not allow salary compensation for their charters. Instead, the city councils receive monthly reimbursements as noted on the table. The table also shows monthly auto and cell phone allowances per city. So based on the information shared, it is up to the council to discuss among itself any desired changes to what is currently in place. This would be under the discretion of the city council. It should be noted that a request related to changing or increasing uh any salary stipen or such compensation uh would need to go before voter voters as it requires a change to the city charter. A request to amend the current monthly reimbursement amount would require adoption by ordinance at a future council meeting. This concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Judy. Um, do we have any comments or questions regarding um the item that was presented?

Yes, Madam Mayor. Um, as was reported, I asked for this item to be brought forth before this council over a year ago. Um, I'm turned out as I look forward to trying to get people to engage and run for city council positions. I think we've always um been concerned about what incentives are there for people to run for this office and what disincentives are there for people to run for this office. I waited until I was retiring from my county career after 25 years um to run for this position. This is a volunteer position. This is a volunteer council. I've always recognized my colleagues and all our council members and former mayors before them um to acknowledge their altruistic sense in giving back to the city. I want to make this clear that I think it's only fair that future council members after I vacate the seat um are reimbursed. I want to be clear as as Miss Montenegro say said we are not compensated. We received zero compensation. What I want us to discuss is merely what's fair. what future council members or this council if we elect to give an increase in the reimbursement category um should receive. Uh while there are different mechanisms of how we're re reimbursed, as we look at the time that it would take for each individual council member to do your logs to figure out, you know, how many minutes on your cell phone you use, the

time and effort that would take, I think would be very difficult to calculate. And then we have Rebecca who would have to deal with all that and chase us down for receipts. Recently, when we went to our travel reimbursement, we chose to limit ourselves in a daily uh expense for breakfast, meals, and reimbursement. Um, we are never reimbursed for liquor. By the way, just to be clear, we're all very careful about how we use city resources, the credit card that we're responsible um for using. But as we look at the 17 cities, the average amount of reimbursement for council members is 1,800 versus as Miss Montenegro reported our current um 1,078. Um for the mayor, it's 2,000 because when you're mayor, you're the official spokesperson. There's just a lot more responsibilities that the position um takes on. So, I wanted us to have this discussion. Um, and again, not necessarily for us. If anyone's uncomfortable with that notion, then we can started in 2028. Obviously, um, we're very fortunate that this city has never been embroiled in any corruption scandals. Um, we have a volunteer council, but I think it's only fair that we revisit this as we have done. We've only done this in 1987 2006 then um I forget when the other increase was. So this is not customary for this council but I wanted to raise this and see if the council will consider adopting the average under the category again not of compensation but merely of reimbursement to deal with the increases in expenses nowadays.

While I realize that there's a concept of time is money. I like to think that we are doing this for the right reasons to give back to the city that's given us so much. But time is money and I worry about people who are on hourly wages that would have to take a couple hours during the day. I remember having to put in a slip for a couple hours during the day if I had personal things to tend to. And I'm sure at the time the DA's office at if I told him, listen, I need to be at this budget workshop is going to say, well, here's your slip. We're going to deduct a couple hours. And those are the situations where I think future council members or even this council should be reimbursed for because there are some of us that may be missing out on monetary compensation elsewhere. And along those lines, I think it's all I think it's fair. I think it's reasonable the members who sit in this council be reimbursed for some of that time and all those expenses that's incurred. So, I'd like to open that up. Um, and then the discussion I I do intend to make a motion, but um want to hear what the council has to say. Right now, my goal is to make a motion that we be reimbursed at the average, which is 1,800 for council based on our comparison with 17 cities and 2,000 for the mayor. So, I'd like to open up for discussion.

Thank you for that, um, Council Member Through. Um and and I want to begin by grounding this conversation in proper context. As it was said by Judy's report in 2006, this council adopted ordinance number 06-1186. That ordinance established a structured reimbursement framework for council members, setting monthly amounts for the mayor and council and importantly incorporating an annual CPI adjustment to ensure those amounts would keep pace over time. That was thoughtful and forward-looking. But nearly 20 years later, it is appropriate and responsible that we revisit that structure. Not because it was flawed 20 years ago, but because the role the role itself has evolved. The expectations placed on council members and mayor, the rotational mayoral chair has changed. Whether it's regional engagement, economic development, community accessibility, or the volume and complexity of issues we manage, these are significantly greater today than they were 20 years ago. At the same time, I want to I want us to understand that the state of California through the passage of Senate Bill 329 in 2024 acknowledged a broader reality that local elected

compensation structures across the state had not kept pace with the modern demands of public service. Even for charter cities like Downey, it would be a mistake to ignore the broader signal the legislature has sent. Now, we're not bound by the statutory caps that Senate Bill 329 addressed, but the significance of Senate Bill 329 and not it's not just legal, it's directional. Now, it reflects a statewide recognition that the framework supporting local governance must evolve alongside the responsibilities of this role. just in the last eight years I've been serving the responsibilities and the duties and and how people see their local governor the local uh government is very different and of course it will continue to evolve. So, Senate Bill 329 reflects a statewide recognition that this structure supporting local governance has fallen out of alignment with the realities of public service today. And while Downey has the independence to set its own framework, that independence also comes with a responsibility. We have a responsibility to also evaluate our policies and continue to reflect the level of leadership our residents expect. And so that brings us to why this discussion is necessary today talking about reimbursements. You know, it's it's not always it's not comfortable. This is not a comfortable conversation

because we have to be clear this council based on the very first passage of uh it was Mayor Diane Bogs at the time in 1987 and then uh Mayor Meredith Perkins um in 2006. This council receives zero dollars in compensation is zero The amount is $0. We receive a monthly reimbursement. And as has been stated, most of us do juggle full-time jobs. While our reimbursement structure has benefited from the CPI adjustments, CPI alone doesn't fully capture the changes in scope, the expectations, or the nature of this work right here, right now. So, this is not about revisiting a number per se. It's about evaluating whether the structure we put in place 20 years ago still align with the realities we we see today. And that with that evaluation also comes accountability. If we are going to ensure that our structure reflects the demands of this role, then we also must ensure that our performance, our accessibility and our delivery for the residents meet the same standard. Right? So this is not just about individuals. This is not about saying, "Oh, they're giving themselves a raise." It's about making sure that the institution of this council and the way we support it remains align with the level of leadership our community expects. Because if we're going to say if we're going to continue to say that Downey is a leading city in the

southeast Los Angeles, then our governance and the structure behind it must reflect that. Again, I I was hoping that we would have the chart of the comparison of those cities because as the listing of those 16 uh 17 cities, it's a combination of general law and then the two charter cities. All of which, by the way, are significantly smaller in population size than Downey. Yet, they have established much higher reimbursement ordinances that also, by the way, include auto and cell phone reimbursements, which Downey has never received. And and we're not about to ask for that, by the way. We're not asking for that. So, this is not a salary. This is a reimbursement for cost incur in the co in the course of our serving. This council once again does not receive a salary for serving. Reimbursement exists to cover the cost associated with serving. If we ignore this distinction, we risk creating a system where serving becomes financially burdensome, which ultimately limits who can participate in public service. Also, reimbursement adjustment alignment ensures that fulfilling these responsibilities doesn't become a barrier to serving. As has been stated, some of us have to take um brief hiatus from our current employers to serve. Some of us have to take extended vacation periods to attend different and and that is for the love of serving and

that's what we choose to do. But I think it's important at this point in time that we carefully look at this and thank you colleagues for your attention for this. And again, I I know I was a little long-winded, but I wanted to make sure I'm on record because I want the residents of our city to understand why we're having this conversation as well. Uh thank you. I just like to get a little bit more technical here. Um all these cities here with respect to um well other than Downey and and the city of Whittier are compensation not reimbursement. Correct.

Correct. Okay. We're under a reimbursement model. I I am curious if we're under a reimbursement model why are we mandated to uh contribute to PAR's retirement through the state of California? I think as I understand it uh because there's not uh individual receipts uh submitted for the reimbursement uh IRS requires a W2 to be issued and then as a result of that by city personnel rules. Therefore, you have a PARS account attached. So that's the reason. Okay.

Well, you know, um I you know there there's a trade-off um that uh we we assume when we sign up for this this role. And uh I got to tell you that u you know we some of us put a lot of time into this role and um I I think there's there's a distinction between reimbursement and salary. Um, I got to tell you, one of the trade-offs that was pretty disappointing to be for me personally is, uh, within my first year of of being on council, I have a couple of teenage boys who applied for a parks and w position and, uh, I was disappointed to hear that uh, they're not allowed to apply for the job even though I think they're they're uh, well qualified. I I may be biased, but

mine too.

They're good boys. There's a nepotism clause here in the city of Downey. And my two sons uh were were denied the opportunity to u um uh go further in that application process to work for parks and wreck. And uh they saw a lot of their buddies get that job and that was pretty disappointing. But that's that's you know that's that's a trade-off and u you know was although it's disappointing I understand the nepotism rule. Um so I I just I I want to clarify because if and I think and I I agree and I think uh uh one of my colleagues alluded to the fact that you know time is time is money and uh this is this is a volunteer position. uh we put in a lot of time into this, some of us more than others and u I'm not sure what type of price tag you can put onto that but in in in being technical about this um yeah I think I I believe that the the role should be compensated more but technically that's a compensation uh discussion if we're talking about reimbursement um what are we coming out of pocket for? Is it above the $1,000? Is it above the travel expenses that we're um and and the PDMs that we're modestly um reimbursed for? Are we coming out of pocket beyond those those amounts? That's the question. Um those are my comments for now. I do have a question because it's similar to what uh my colleague uh Hector Soso was mentioning. Um this the separation between reimbursement and salary or a stipen. Uh I know that we're currently uh about to vote on cleaning up the charter. uh is that not something that we discussed uh in the ad hoc

charter reform to kind of uh suggest uh and open up to our residents to maybe give us a little uh stipen or salary. Was it not a conversation that you guys had or was it necessary uh during that conversation that you guys had? As recall from the uh the meetings, I believe the committee reviewed uh this those sections, but there wasn't a proposal to put anything before the voters uh to change that the charter in any way around this particular topic, but I'll let others that were on the committee make comments on

Yeah, the the issue of compensation. Um we wanted to strictly uh focus on the reimbursement. That's how it's been um since the the f since 1987. Uh the issue of the reimbursement slashstipend. Correct. Um and that is that is what we wanted to focus on. Uh we never wanted to look at as compensation, you know, as receiving a salary because this council, you know, does not receive a salary and I don't believe we're looking forward uh or attempting to receive a salary. that's that's not where the conversation um was going or or was meant to go.

Okay. Uh I'm a little hesitant. I know that my colleague threw out a 1,800 and 2,000 though I do agree that it's it's a it's a lot of work and we do put a lot of time into it. Um my I myself I spend $350 per video that I do personally to, you know, give information to my residents. Um, also I get calls at 11:00 at night or emails and I try my best to be very accessible. Uh, the I'm a little wary of of that gray line of saying what's reimbursed, what is what is that of all the work we do? What is the reimbursement that we actually do? Um and then we also have because there's two types that we have for reimbursement, right? There's a type one reimbursement for the travel expenses that we do. We get a pre predium check that we receive for our travel expenses. Uh as well as if when we go to those trips, we do get uh we turn in receipts and we also get potential reimbursements plus hotel and our plane ride over there. And then this one that we're talking about is a type two reimbursement that we get for local activities that we do here which I do if if I have a second would like to discuss uh type one because I know this is something separate from this type of conversation of our travel policy where we going to uh how we get compensated and what conferences uh we really are uh attending to if that really fees any need uh in in in what we're doing here. Um, and hopefully we can have a conversation because I want to know what we're spending on if we really need that time and everything. And if somebody wants to go to a different conference that's to their own liking, they they can pay for

themselves. But going back to this type of reimbursement, I think jumping 41% for where we're at right now, it's a big ask on my end uh for that type of reimbursement. I do agree. I do personally I I I would wish that uh we remove our phones from our offices because I know we have all second jobs and we we work out and hopefully we can get a a office phone or cell phone. um so that we can separate our personal and and uh work life or sorry our city council phone and and our personal phones because I give my personal phone out so people can see that I'm very accessible. Um but those are my comments for right now.

If I could just quickly, mayor, I think I have a couple questions. One, we do have the uh the chart uh up on the screen for you so you can see the different uh well the survey from the different communities. Uh and then Mayor Pro Tim had asked a couple questions about the charter does call for uh a reimbursement for the council for its cost that it uh incurs as being for being on the council. And yes, there are two types of reimbursement listed in the charter. One is for travel and and while you're on official business. Uh so that thing is generally I think it's travel policy says things that are outside 20 miles. So if you're traveling official official business, you get a direct compensation uh from the city or reimbursement, I'm sorry, reimbursement from the city uh uh for your travel expenses. Then there is I think as uh Judy mentioned a sort of guess type two reimbursement that is meant for your expenses that you incur locally and that is difficult to track those and to provide a good breakdown of what that is. And so council has then gotten a reimbursement uh from the city uh on a monthly basis for those. And that's the item we're talking about tonight. I think I did hear a future agenda item request as part of your comments too, Mayor Proim. Uh so if we go through this, if there's a second on that, we can take that, which I believe was city council travel, revisiting city council travel and the conferences you attend. So if there's a second on that as well, we'll take that today as two. Thank you. If I could, um, council member Sosa raised a good question. What are we being reimbursed for? Um, and the ordinance is clear. It's out of pocket expenditures, and I think, um, the mayor alluded to this. Um, I remember having to take a couple days off to do go on conferences. Um, and the county deducted it from my check. Um, I I don't think that I should be reimbursed fully for those two days, but I can see where council members in my position who

may need that income more than I did um might be deterred from participating extensively as we do. Uh, so it's out of pocket expenditures particularly for loss of income. And again, the distinction is I'm not asking that council members be paid a compensation, but in the spirit of um SB 329, it just seems unfair that Downey is not up to par with the rest of the cities. I mean, you have smaller cities, and I don't want to throw them in the bus. The information is the information is up there.

Yeah. It's just not fair. And again, it's just it shouldn't cost to sit on this council. And I'm afraid that's where we're at by not increasing to adjust this, particularly those individuals whose out- of-pocket expenditures um may affect their monthly income more than us.

Well, I and I and I want to thank you for those comments. I do want to clarify u I believe that that we put a lot of time into this role. again. Um, you know, the we're not in we're not in it for the $1,000 a month. I just uh we're here to serve, but um I I I understand the case and the argument to say that council members should be compensated more than where we're at right now. But my question is and just getting technical about this is how do we justify the increase on since it's technically a reimbursement, how do we justify that? And uh does missing a couple days of work or missing some hours from work, does that justify uh an increase in reimbursement? Is that does that fall into that category? Yeah. I just you know what I mean? What there's a difference between compensation and reimbursement? in reimbursement. Um, if we have the if we have the language and the charter, is it technically uh things we're coming out of pocket for? Cuz I want to stay consistent with that.

It does say in the report, no,

I I broke I broke apart this report and I wanted to dive in. And I know right now in um in our world events in the situation and in the economy it's like this couldn't come in a sense at a better at a worse time because it it's a tough economy for us to say that we are not compensated in compared to other cities. This report that you gave very detailed and I'm glad that you saw it and I went down and I looked at populations which you don't have and many of these cities 80% 90% are smaller than this. Downey is 114,000. The next closest largest largest city is Norwok with 102,000 and as you can see Norwok is uh their total compensation is $1,450 and again we are 178. The highest city in the area and this is you know known fact that we can state because it's on the screen. Commerce is the number one city with a population of 12,000 receiving $3,600 a month for their council. Then we have another neighboring city. We have Southgate number two with a 92,000 population at $2500 monthly. And the third one comes in as Lakewood population of 82,000 at 2,300. So down a thousand being one of the being the highest population is practically the lowest. Lamarada is smaller at a thousand and then we had uh the next smallest city was um a wittier but again we are the largest city and we are receiving the smallest amount a total compensation. So for me, I see that the the um the the chart is is skewed for Downey in a sense that we do need an adjustment. I know personally speaking personally, I'm starting to chart my town uh time here. 25 hours a

week I can spend 15 hours a week in council reviewing, going through my different uh committees that I do as as I'm on Siaka and I'm on the Vector and I'm on different things. We put in the time we drive there. We drive to other cities for mayor transition, for mayoral installations. Um, we do spend a lot of time at ribbon cutings as well. So, we're going we're traveling easily 25 a week. And in being in sales, totally has affected my financial, but I didn't sign up for this. I didn't run for this office based on a compensation. But in comparison with other cities, it it just helps. it helps with everything that we're doing um and that we're attending and representing our city. I think it's a good opportunity to look where we are, but also maybe as my colleague Sosa says as a reimbursement. Um the amount there probably is in line, but as a stipen or a monthly stipen, maybe that's what we need to look at and re-evaluate that we like the rest of the cities should be doing the same. follow suit with them because no other city no other city is in the um the compensation reimbursement amount monthly reimbursement but rather as stipened and there shouldn't be any reason why we shouldn't be able to be there as well. So I it's it's kind of interesting how to look at this right now.

I I want to ask the question again. Uh does thank you Dorothy or I'm sorry Councilwoman Peton. I want to ask the question again. Is uh as part of the trade-off and if we're uh missing time from work or what have you, is that considered a factor in and something that's reimburseable? So that would be from our perspective a compensation item. So that would not be part of reimbursement.

So then that begs the question, how does this council feel about putting amount of compensation on the charter um review for the voters to consider? call it um we keep the same compensation I'm sorry we keep the same reimbursement amount and we add $1,000 compensation and I believe that if it's going to the charter that won't kick in assuming it passes in the charter that would kick in when if we is it is the charter review committee are we putting all that work into the November election that's correct okay so if we included the subject of compensation It would be in that same election. That is correct. And then it would go into effect

uh presumably right then or but you could always make your own. Yeah, we would we would have to amend um a revision. Yes. Amend the charter and this being a a voted item then it wouldn't be cost. It's pro prohibitive because it's inclusive with other items we already have. Uh you could you do it inclusive with all the other charter amendments or you could do it separately. I think but I'm just saying it's not a special election where we're holding just this one. Correct. this is the time to do it if we want to do that. There would presume be like if it's a standalone item presume will be additional cost but it would be you know marginal. Well I would like to make a motion if I is this an appropriate time madam mayor.

Uh does anybody else have any other questions comments? Are we ready to vote on this item? Are we ready for a motion? So, I make a motion that we include in the charter revisions that will go to the voters that the Downey City Council receive a $1,000 compensation and maintain the current reimbursement amounts with the continued CPI increases per that formula. I'll second that one. But with us if we can separate the clean revisions that we did on our charter reform with this one. So it's not that is the direction from council

if we what do you guys agree with that? I'm sorry. I'm not sure I understand that. Council member, I'm sorry. Mayor Protemp, we are discussing we are putting to the voters the clean revisions of our charter. Correct. And I'm I'm willing to uh second that motion with separating the clean revisions as one item for voters to approve and then the salary uh but but the salary is is is lumped into well I think what is being said is can this item be put on as a ballot measure independent of

independent of the other that can be segmented from the the charter amendments that have already been approved by the council in December for the voters. Um, however, I would recommend that item come back before the council so that the language can be examined carefully and the amendments can be parsed out carefully. Um, I understand the direction tonight is possibly to move into that in that direction, but consistent with the charter review committee's work, um, that committee examined each and every provision of the charter and recommended language to the council for their consideration. So, that that was the language that was being approved for the voters. Um what I'm I'm hearing tonight is there may be some interest in amending this provision, but I'd recommend that that come back as a different item um for a separate consideration. And um I would also recommend that it would if approved by the council be put on the ballot as a separate measure as independent from the measures or the ballot uh the charter amendments already approved.

I agree. Um just so as to keep it separate. Um and I think we were going to take that same approach if you recall with term limits. if term had been approved by the council to be put before the voters.

I had a quick question before we vote. Um with given the uh the uh the $1,000 stipen or the $1,200 to the mayor that's uh termed a reimbursement, if we go beyond that, is there anything stopping us from submitting receipts to uh for additional reimbursements for u out of pocket expenses? I think under the way the charter currently writes it that uh in local reimbursements actually do not require receipts and so you should not be submitting receipts for those items is my my interpretation. I know we talked chat about a little bit earlier a different response came out but uh in reviewing that a little further no you do not resubmit receipts for local things. So if you're going outside that then yes you should submit receipts and get reimbured for those. Okay, thank you.

And just for the public, we have a limited amount of conferences we attend. League of League of uh California cities, contract cities, two or three. And those conferences are local. They're in California. We drive there. Like I drove to Santa Barbara or we drove to San Diego. So it's not like we are flying and traveling to different places. We are very mindful of our travel budget and it only is for um conferences that benefit our knowledge and what we can bring back here to Downey and help implement. So um just knowing that we are very frugal about where we travel, what we do, and this just allows us the extra reimbursement of traveling in the local area and things of that nature. And that's why I I do want to I think uh if I'm not mistaken colleague Peton you also mentioned before about discussing uh in a future agenda the travel policies how much how we expend what conferences we're going to so I don't know if if any of my colleagues are interested in seconding that motion in regards to bringing back a discussion about the conferences we attend and the travel policies that we're doing so we can really uh figure out

I I brought that up a couple months ago and I know our city manager brought me that current travel policy which I think that we are um adhering to, but we can take another look again at that with that lens. Is that a second to that request? I'll second that. Sure. Okay. Are we ready to vote? Make that motion again. Are we clear with what we're deciding? Can we repeat that?

Okay. Can we repeat the motion again? I think as I understand it is to have a standalone uh ballot measure for admitting the charter that allows a $1,000 uh compensation stipen to the city council for the November election. Monthly $1,000 monthly uh compensation stipen and we'll bring that back to you for consideration at a future meeting. Okay, please vote. Now, that is going to come back to us for review for the the language review.

Yes. My recommendation would be for um staff to uh prepare the amendment um so that it the council would be able to review it just as it would appear before the voters and then pass upon it. And if the council did approve that to go before the voters, it would be added to the ballot for the November 3rd, 2026 election um as a item separate from the charter amendments that have already been approved to go before the voters.

Okay, please vote. The motion is approved with council member Sosa voting no. Okay, thank you. Um item number nine, our final item this evening is discussion regarding a street light master plan framework and authorization for staff to prepare a citywide streetlight master plan. uh that the city council discuss the proposed framework for preparation of a city city-wide streetlight master plan. Two, direct staff to prepare a city-wide streetlight master plan, including citywide inventory mapping, deficiency analysis, prioritization, scoring, conceptual improvement recommendations, and phase capital implementation strategies, and direct staff to cease using a petition process as a primary basis for the installation of street lights in areas of the city that do not have them. City Manager Bradley,

I see somebody has a staff report. We do, mayor. We have director Bombgardner here from public works that'll provide the presentation. Okay. Thank you. Director Bombgarter.

Thank you, Mayor Fetta and council. I'm just waiting to get the go-ahad from our city clerk. Are we good? Okay. Uh tonight we're before you to discuss uh streetlight master plan framework and I just wanted to mention of course we we've been in front of the council probably four or five times in the last couple years um to discuss uh the pilot project and different ways we can move along the process of adding street lights and in the city including uh our last meeting uh on March 10th uh where the council awarded uh the first contract uh to complete the pilot project and install 20 street lights in the city. And I'll just walk you through kind of you as you recall our original process for adding street lights in town. Uh in addition to having to gather petitions in your neighborhood, there was a $5,000 cost for each of those uh property owners. Um a cost that was spread out over a 5-year period and added to the property owners tax bill. Included with that was an annual cost of $2141 uh added for annual operations and maintenance. Uh staff did receive requests over the year, but the cost was a barrier and none of these were ever successful. We moved on with the pilot project to just looking at adding the operation costs only for everyone each year uh with uh still using the petition process. what we found and staff spent considerable time assisting uh the community with gathering uh petitions, it still took several months and we

failed to meet the twothirds threshold in many of those cases. Um and if you consider kind of the original process and the pro process that it evolved into in the last year, there's been no prioritization. It's just simply been a first come first- serve basis. And I know exactly where that house is in my district. Thank you.

You're welcome. Um, many cities consider adopting a long range CIP approach and this is typically how you go about doing it. This, uh, this plot actually that you see there actually represents the analysis that staff did uh, to show where we have lights missing. So, this is not a plan to put lights in these locations. This actually represents where we have missing lights throughout the entire city. Um so we have already quantified those missing lights. Uh but in terms of determining your your long range CIP, you want to um determine the number of missing lights. You know, then you multiply that by the cost per light and develop an annual budget that you think you could uh handle each year. Uh when using that math, the city has,00 approximately, 1100 missing lights across the town as represented by all those blue spots uh with an average cost of about $9,000 to install these solar lights at each location. And then using a $500,000 annual budget, it would take the city 20 years uh to complete the entire city. And I just wanted to note that the $500,000 that we would propose to do would be using local return funds. So these are the monies that we get each year from the county and the state. Um and we turn around and we use those for paving, for sidewalk repairs. Um anything related to traffic safety and road repairs is we use our general our local return funds. So the $500,000 would not be coming from the general fund. there would be no impact to the general fund with this proposal. So, how do cities go about prior prioritizing the plan? And I use the paving uh management report as an example of how staff goes about developing paving programs. Um, in that

case, you know, you're looking at objective data that's collected. That's our uh pavement condition index. But we don't handle those on a first come first- serve basis. um staff looks at the data, we prioritize based on that PCI number and we establish a budget that we can support each year in order to get our projects done. Similarly, we feel the street light program can be prioritized using safety metrics and these which which we'll discuss tonight which council will discuss and to see if you'd like to make any changes includes proximity to schools and parks. Focuses on collision history in these streets. Uh looks at on street parking levels which in you know thinking about streets that are heavily parked or overparked. We look at the sidewalk condition of these streets. uh whether there are sidewalks on any of these streets. The gaps between the lights and nearby transit stops are several metrics that could be looked at when putting together a street light master plan. We put together a prioritization methodology and again this is just proposed that considers destinations like schools, parks, shopping, transit stops. It considers other safety concerns like the history of collisions, the types of collisions are are these collisions involving pedestrians. Uh again, the overparked streets. Um we kind of think about kind of the triple whammy of having no lights, heavily parked streets, and no sidewalks. In that situation, you have people that are walking out really out in the middle of the street late at night. And so that is kind of how all of these sort of markers come together. And then you can also consider geograph geographic distribution throughout the city and documented interest. So these we these are the next steps

that we're looking at. As I mentioned before, we've already developed the lighting gap map that I showed you and I can go back to um we can also overlay the map that we have of where we have sidewalk gaps in the city. we can quickly produce crash data maps uh through tools that we have overlay all of those together and then consider the prioritization scoring that council will discuss tonight. Um, we can also factor in those proximity to destinations, how far away you are from a school, a park, uh, geographic distribution and demand. Following this discussion and if we are get some direction on the prioritization we'd like to use, staff will return in July with a final master plan. This map would show the 20-year program, the list of street blocks with prioritization scores, and authorization to move forward with the first year of the program. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions the council might have.

Thank you for the presentation. Um, Matt, I'm really looking forward to seizing uh using that petition process as as the primary way of of getting those street lights. Um the the only thing of course uh I'm I'm having even trouble processing is is 20 years to complete this. Um that's a very very long time. And of course that's a cost of half a million a year. If we could only allocate, you know, maybe double that um would reduce the amount in half. But um I certainly like the um I like to see uh reducing again that uh that permitting uh or that petition process. I think that that is going to be uh very good for the community and um I look forward to seeing the the master plan in July. I think prioritizing of course public safety. There are a certain number of streets uh that you know will will have to you know certainly be prioritized but um I'm I'm pleased with this and the only the only thing is of course we wish we could do this uh faster. um is very costly, we understand, and hopefully we can rep prioritize uh some funding and in the coming years to to get more things more more streets done. Um colleagues, questions, comments?

I do. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Mayor. Um if we can, can we pull back uh the image of the map? And just for clarification, Matt, uh, this map was determined based on the matrix that you provided on the next, if you go to the next slide. That matrix provided. No, uh, sorry. This one is just our objective assessment of where basically where it's where streets are dark in town. So, this just represents uh taking inventory of what which street blocks are lacking lights themselves. Mhm.

So that's the only thing that this map represents right here is just the what we call the lighting gap uh map. Okay. So just to clarify if we understand correctly uh the study showed that the southeast portion had the most light. Um I'm sorry. It's the only reason I'm asking that is because I'm looking at this image. Yeah. And I see majority of the cluster going to other portions of the city. And I've been a big advocate for to adding street lights. And when I see that, I'm like, is there more light in my district? And maybe I'm not noticing.

I mean, I think you'll notice that there are a few areas where it's particularly clustered. Um I think that's kind of Yeah, you can see those three or four blocks. I think one of those is being handled by the project Robin Washurn and Denroin.

This is just objective. This is not like a selection of of of places where we'd like to put lights. This is actually based on actual observations. However, uh Mayor Prom Ortiz, as we go through the next couple months and finalize the master plan, we'll obviously be going out and doing more field surveys. If there's any areas we've, you know, could have missed, we could make sure that gets captured in there perfectly. But this represents kind of our best uh observation of conditions right now. I do want to say thank you so much for Don Robin. They they want me to give a shout out for nine street lightss that they're getting added in their street. So, so thank you. Uh I I do have some um opinions on on how we should recategorize if we can go back to the matrix.

Sure. Um I know that we're going to discuss uh we're this whole program is for uh street lights and so I would think that the one of the biggest factors uh should be lighting deficiency and I know that's rated number 10. I think that should be a little more higher as well as uh safety history because this is also equivalent to being a uh safety measure to keep uh our uh aligned to what the council majority of council says that safety is a big issue and having street lights is a big uh prevents crime or helps us prevent crime. Um, so those are my two things. I would also like to see it. Uh, I know that uh the what number five for equality and distribution is only in number five. I wish I could be a little bit bigger for that one and remove public demand now that we're removing the petition aspect of it. Uh there's probably no need for us to really demand uh put that in the matrix now that we're just placing it where based on this matrix that we can um uh go from there. Yeah, and I that's a point well taken. I I I'll give you an idea of why we were considered using public demand and also giving it a very low waiting. The really the the thinking behind that was is it possible that with all things being equal, let's say you have two streets that come up with the same score, but you have a particular block that's not interested in adding lights, um we would maybe give them a zero, right? And uh so those that could be a way in which something like that could help in in that scenario. So however your your point's well taken. I think if council wishes to remove that then we can certainly just remove that alto together. But

they will get notice right. So we're not just we're not going to put street lights everywhere. There will get notice. Hey we're considering putting street lights. So regardless they will still say no if there's an uproar. Well I mean they wouldn't really have the opportunity. I mean, if we come up with a plan and stuff like that, we would work with uh those residents that might say like, "Oh, can you move it over? I don't want it right in front of the house." We will be notifying folks where when we're getting ready to install lights on their street so they're getting they know it's coming. Yeah, certainly there would be notifications and everything. Thank you, Matt. You're welcome.

So, let me I'll I'll have a few comments on here. I I see it. It looks good on paper. school proximity for street lighting, but they're not walking to school in the dark and they're not leaving school in the dark. So, my opinion was that the school proximity doesn't play into this at all. I don't see that as a priority. Um, and you may have some some takes on that, but that to me wouldn't register as top priority. To me, the top priority would be the crime in the area. Do we have significant crime? Do we have breakins? Do we have burglaries? We had uh I had residents from my area come in on Nor Lane behind Gloria's. And it's true there's no lighting. They've had significant crime in the couple years uh living there. Um I think crime should be the number one priority in in putting in street lights because we know lighting deters criminals. And then I would also say that density density of residents in the area heavy trafficked multifamily areas where there is more pe there are more people rather walking out on the streets that is a priority as well but also public demand is right up there. When I was on the uh public works committee, the residents would come in and asking for street lighting and we told them of the process and it was something like what 67% or the threshold you may have had 50%. Some were renters, some didn't want to pay the fee. They all agreed they needed it and wanted they just couldn't contact the residents. I think the public demand we should have a list already of some of the residents that wanted street lights and it just hasn't gone through. Then we have a list of about 40.

We have a list of about 30 35 street blocks. And that was to gather just, you know, the interest in the program. Um but what I would say is um you know, if we just look at, you know, if we're going to if we're going to favor public demand and put that up a lot higher, it's going to start taking it's going to be at the expense of safety measures. So I think it should be uh balanced against against that. But I think public demand is a voice for safety. They're coming because there's a reason. It's either crime or they they see the speeding or they see something going on or maybe even walking at night. And we have come to an area where everyone is walking doing night walking or animal walking. So I think if there are no sidewalks, street lighting is very critical. That's a a safety issue. And then I would also prioritize with transit access. people that are taking public transportation, walking in certain areas or that transportation area should be lit. And and those were kind of my my top areas. You know, I know Rio Flora, they came out and and wanted I want Rio Flora lit. I put a request in for, you know, whatever. And you might not be able to get the majority of this the residents there or maybe summer renters. You'll never catch them. I like the idea that we are determining where the need could be, where it's dark. um focusing with walking routes or crime in the area and not necessarily walking to school because this isn't going to affect students walking to school. There's already light there. So, let's put that element out of out of the uh conversation, but um I I do want to fasttrack this. You know, you know me, I just there was a fast track and a way to do it. Let's get the ones that are asking for it. Let's look at the where the crime stats are that would need it. And um I'm looking forward to more lighting in our city. Uh, thank you, Matt. Um, I had a couple of questions and observations. Um, have we um because that's this this revolves around public safety

and we'll let uh streets are going to help deter crime, but uh at the same time, it's a huge uh capital expenditure over the next two decades. I'm just curious. I I know we we conducted um surveys or petitions uh over the last few years. I'm just curious how successful have those been? Um, it required a lot of staff time to the ones that were successful for this pilot project were the only ones that were successful

and that required quite a bit of time by staff um to put together the maps to work with the champions on those blocks to actually go door todoor themselves. And we took steps to make it easy to respond. Um we just tried it multiple times and it uh in the in the cases where they failed it took four months to get 50% participation and 30% approval. So we were not having much success with that. In the case of the the pilot project, um it still took about three months to go through the petition process and get everybody to enough people to uh participate in this program. And so hence the idea about moving away from petition process and treating this like a CIP project like you would with with paving. Um these are areas if something is missing we use the data to determine the kind of like which what what is the highest priority to tackle those.

Well during this petition pro the petition processes and and uh while we're going through these rounds um I'm just curious on the the feedback we've received from um from uh residents. Is there negative feedback on do do some residents not want street lights? We had a few nos um and for different reasons. Um some of it was like even the $2141 a year they didn't want to even though the city was covering the capital cost of the installation. We had people telling us oh you know I don't want to pay anything um or I shouldn't have to pay anything. We also had people just said I'm not interested. I'm fine with how it is. Um I would say the bigger issue is just getting people to participate. Um we yeah it was just a lot of effort on the part of staff to work with them again and again and and and actually going out and doing doortodoor uh counts themselves to assist to see if they can get those numbers up and that

so I have to ask was so the the door to door the were they sales pitches or were they uh information sess sessions? I can give you an experience. So, sure.

When we went to Donor Robin and and I started with Matt and and our city manager, it was what was it four months ago where I first pitched and then I went door to door and knocked with my neighbors. I had one champion and she appreciates you. She she loves you. But she she we would do uh go to doortodoor and ask them for a signature and then I submitted those signatures came back and then we had to get another form of signatures for actual uh residents not renters and so it was a whole four months process uh just asking hey can you sign can you sign

and I did the same thing with my Guatemala speed humps almost a year ago the letters were sent out and then what's the percentage you got like 10 went out there on two weekends and they like, "Oh, was there a letter that we got, honey, from the city?" You know, they they don't know. We don't know what this is and we didn't think it was a big deal. We they they are not proactive in that respect. It's just too long of a time. I think this way that we determine what's needed, why it's needed, and we just do it. We just do it.

Yeah. I just want to make sure that the uh the need is uh is is there uh that it's warranted is justified and and you know how we come to this conversation this discussion um you know what's the sample size we we have 114,000 residents in the city and who knows we may have a lot of residents who don't really care for street lights and why take on that huge capital expenditure uh you know and again I'm just trying to look at just trying to play devil's advocate here because it's a huge capital expenditure over the next two decades that we're going to take on and what if a lot of the residents don't want it. You know what I mean? It just it's like okay well we we've talked to a few residents so we decided this is the best this is what's best for the whole city and I get it lights deter they help uh deter crime um but can we get uh you know maybe we start with the high density areas the high collision areas the high crime areas uh but can we get some surveys done to make sure everybody's on board for this before we uh commit to this huge expenditure

I think we could try that but My my concern would be it would it would take we wouldn't get the participation to really find out. I mean that's really Yeah. So could we go going back to what has been said a couple of my colleagues have mentioned it. Can we just zoom in into the the crime areas and you know hightra areas first and then expand from there. I think we could beef up those areas on the matrix if that's where the council's uh direction and the ones like he mentioned we have 35 that's 35 areas on a waiting list these are the people that actively got engaged in their community and feel it's necessary

those are the ones that should have the priority they know what's going on in that area the only thing I would say about having those people that are for public demand or they asking for the demand there's some residents on my district that are renters and they're not as active and it does take them a little time to get more information out there. Uh so I'm a little hesitant in just saying public demand, but I do agree that we should concentrate on crime stats and high collision areas 100%. That should be our focus.

Let me let me throw this question out there. Um because it's a huge commitment and if everybody's on board, everybody's on board. Let's make it happen. But would you guys feel comfortable if we just started off with those high crime areas, high collision areas and take it from there and get a feel for what the the community feels once they they see the results of that.

Yeah, I think that would be the intent of the master plan itself, right? It would actually show the data. So then then can we re refocus or reshift because I think with council member Peton um in her earlier comment when we looked at the report uh Matt, we looked at how you know what the report uh first what was the criteria or the category, right? And and again going back to number one was school uh proximity and then two lack of sidewalks. But I think the item number three is safety history and I think this council is is very pro safety. Um and so public safety is is more of an issue. Um if we can maybe re reprioritize some of those uh segments.

I think I hear that you'd like us to take sort of those first four and make that be the priority matrix pretty much or maybe the first five. No, I want number nine up there. I'm a little concerned we give too much weight to that because that really gets back into like a petition process. But if they've came requesting and we're not aware of this is a a heavy crime area or they need it or for whatever reason, maybe we need to reanalyze those 35 residents that are requesting it or put out the petition and and see if we can warrant

because I I think and maybe that's what uh council member Sosa is talking about re kind of reooking at the petition process because otherwise that if we're getting rid of it the public demand part then if you beef it up too much then it gets kind of into petition process again and it's really do you want them to put do you want us to put the lights out there or not? That's sort of the first uh question. and then we can prioritize where it goes and then I think if there's a good sense of some people that are interested in it that gives us some a few points but trying to figure out whether there's overwhelming demand on a street or not was going to be

well not overwhelming demand because if we are now taking that element out and we're just saying we're focusing on where the crime areas are where walking areas are not even looking that maybe this public demand is considering it's a walking area is saying it's a heavy crime area I think we need to kind of put the marriage them together and find out why they want the lights and they may fit into the parameters of why we're going to put them there. So, just to help just a little bit, if the public safety elements are low but public demand is high, should that area be prioritized? Public safety.

So, meaning that there's safety issues there. Um, there are existing or there are not existing safety issues there, but people are actually wanting it very highly there. Should I prioritize that area where there's more want over a place that might be um less safe? So, I guess that would be one of the kind of the concerns. I don't think Yeah, I I I understand what you're saying. So, I don't think that we should prioritize the demand over perhaps public safety and crime and speeding, but I think that the public demand those people will fall into that category. I think they're wanting it because of a reason

because of that reason. And you're going to find that that's and so if they do fall that area falls within the crime or safety or walking and it is a public demand. Absolutely. That's there you go. There's your first group of people that fall into the right categories for the right reasons and they should have them cuz we may find we're going to have uh how many you know 200 crime areas. I don't know. But anyway, let's let's get it to the people that have come out and have done the homework and request it. Like I live on a a one-sided street culde-sac. I don't want any lights. I don't need any lights. Right. So it's that's not a priority. And I understand council member Sosa when you say some people may not want it. I I understand that. So

I think the people that are not going to want it are going to be few. Who would not want street lighting? And even then, if we're true to our stance on public safety, sometimes we have to tell residents, sorry, but for the sake of the neighborhood, this light is going to go here. These are our sidewalks. These are our rightways. I don't know what the rationale was of the city to put lights, street lights, that responsibility on residents. I think that's passing the buck. Street lights should be the responsibility of the city of Downey. We're the experts. We know where the crime is happening. We have the data and we should be supplying those lights. Public opinion sometimes uh while we should be listened to, we need to make tough decisions. So, I do think that the 35 people who've been on the waiting list should be addressed immediately. And then I'm going to leave it up to you all the experts. I think that my colleagues have put forth the fact that we do want the crime rates, the high crime rate areas addressed. Uh, but I think it's a great project. I think it's good that the city of Downey is finally taking responsibility for what it should have been responsible from the get-go. The concept that our residents have to ask you for a street light, that's not what I expect from this city government. We need to be more proactive. We should be looking to provide these things. Street lights is our responsibility. So, I would like to make a motion that we direct staff to prepare our citywide streetlighting master plan, including the city city-wide inventory mapping that will take in account what my colleagues concerns have been, uh the crime rates, um particularly the the people who've been on the waiting list and and so that they take that into consideration in their prioritization scoring, the conceptual improvement recommendations,

and phase capital improvement strategies. and that staff seize using a petition process as the primary basis for the installation of street lights in areas that the city do not have them. So, I would make that motion and I'll second that motion. Please vote. We do need a little clarity if I can because I I I want to make sure I capture any comments on the matrix that we're talking about here. Uh so, I heard I think that the school proximity item number one should be deleted. Is that correct? Say that again. The uh category school proximity should be eliminated. The the only thing concerns I don't think it's necessary is high school kids sometimes they get dropped off at the after the games and stuff the buses come in it's very dark around there and and I think particularly the high schools there's a lot of our kids

say okay so that's my concern I actually agree with my colleague Dorothy Permanent I I think that I that it should be not one of the higher ones but it should be the lower priorities it should still be it should still be on the matrix but I agree with that yeah I agree with I thought we were trying to eliminate it completely. All right. So maybe uh safety number crime in the area could be number one. That could be a What are we actually voting on for uh staff to come back with a plan? That would be correct. But in order to finish the plan, unless we want to come back and talk about the prioritization again, I need to know what how to prioritize the the plan so I can bring it back to you. So I want to make sure we got it right. So

safety was go to number one. So we'll make that 20. Uh we can put school in the number three spot and that would be down to 15. Is that that's adequate? We'll just flip those two. Yes. Okay. And I I like council member Mayor Pro Martis's lighting deficiency. Maybe bump that up. Okay. Uh you want that to be at 15 and then we delete. Sorry, we're going I only got 100 points to allocate. So I got to make sure I So right now we're at Well, public demand should be like number two or number four. It should be up higher. Does that you look at you look at lack of sidewalks. How many how many streets through that are true city? Yes, that to me that is also important.

Yeah, that's that's up there at the top. Yes. So, I think that should stay there. Stay there. Okay, good. Uh, so we have safety history, lack of sidewalk, school proximity. Uh, we got down to I think public demand. Was there a desire to move that up or just keep it where it's at? I think public demand should be eliminated completely. Well, I don't know what my colleagues think. I think the applicants that have already been in there requesting it should be looked at and prioritized. Is there any agreement on we agree with that?

That's what I meant. But what I meant that plan is going forward moving forward. Yes, guys. Correct. Eliminate that. Correct. So that number Okay, number nine would be eliminated. All right. So that gives us extra five extra points and I think I heard somebody wanted to use that for the lighting deficiency. Was that right? Add that there. Lighting. City Manager Bradley, could we rename um applications or applicants or requested lights? Put that as a category. So, it's in here. I don't I don't understand exactly the ones that the 35 people on the waiting list. Well, that's the public demand we just took out, though. So, but it's different after the 35. It's not public demand anymore. Right. Right. But, but that but moving forward, this is the management plan moving forward. This we can

we can deal with. Okay. Okay. That that would not that's not going to be a category for the master as a master. Understood. Yes. Correct. So, uh then I can take those five points and add them to lighting deficiency or was it the sidewalks that we were looking to put it at? I think sidewalks. So, give sidewalks 20 points. Mhm. Okay. But that is our number two. That'll be number two. So, it's tied then with safety history as 20. Uh sidewalks is 20. Then we get into school proximity at 15. And then 10 10 down uh to equity which is five. And then public demand is removed. And I like leaving the transit access there. So people that are waiting for that as uh so that would be then the proposal as I understand unless there's any final amendments to that. That's it.

Okay. So we have safety history as a 20 points number one category. Lack of sidewalks number two at 20 points. Uh school proximity as number three for 15 points. Uh number four civic and commercial destinations 10. Transit access 10. Over park streets 10. Lighting deficiency 10. Equity and distribution five public man is deleted. Okay. All right. So, we're clear and we have a a motion in a second. Let's vote. This is to vote on coming back with the plan. Correct.

The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now is the time for city council member announcements, requests for future agenda items, conference meeting reports. I will start to my far left. Uh Mayor Prom Or Mortis. Thank you, Mayor.

Um so uh this uh this last week I was invited to go to Columbus High School and they invited me to do a Thriving Thursday. It's a great uh event where I met a lot of kids. I talk a little bit about myself, about my upbringing and kind of motivate the the kids and students there uh that you know you know even though life gives you uh bumps uh there's always a a way forward and and there's always motivation in life to keep on climbing. So it was a great uh time to spend with the students. They one student did come and spoke to me privately. She says that she goes to the Downey library every weekend and then one issue that she's facing is that there's not a lot of uh duplicate books. Uh so she asked if we can look into that. She likes to read but she has sometimes issues that when she looks into uh certain books that there's no there's a lot of uh waiting lists so to some books. She asked me to bring that up. I'm I'm happy to speak on her behalf. Um, I also attended with the rest of my colleagues uh the Arkwalk which was a great uh time. Uh, we did a mile. I don't know what my other colleagues did but it was a good time walking and also part of a Gateway CD's uh council of governments and I wanted to provide this uh flyer to our staff so they can take a look into it. Uh this is I know we have an issue with homelessness. Uh and this uh they have this uh they provide uh support for foster youth for ages of 18 to 25 who are experiencing or is at risk of homelessness. Uh they have case management, job training, employment support, education support, transportation assistance for training, mentorship, work attire, paid work experience, uh and tailored workshops, housing rental assistance. So, I think this is a really good uh information to

provide of if any youth is providing some uh situation with homelessness. So, I'm going to provide this to staff so they can have more information. And with that, I conclude my comments for today. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Prom. Uh moving on to Council Member Sosa. Thank you, Mayor. I'll keep my comments short. I I did the three miles uh at the Arkwalk. It's glad to have you. We're glad to have you back, Mayor Fetta. It's good to see you here. Thank you. That concludes my comments. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Council Member Peton.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I wanted to congratulate both LSE Perez and Reggie Donahghue for being named uh, woman of the year by Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco's office and LSE is the director of True Lasting Connections, TLC. And that is a resource center for students and their families of Downey Unified Schools with health s health issues, child abuse concerns, family instability, mental health support, and critical life needs. And she has worked tireslessly for decades serving families and community. It's also her final year as she is retiring. And also Reggie Donahghue was not only nominated as a Downey candidate, but she was named the overall district winner and went to Sacramento. Maybe you saw the video and she went to Sacramento with Assemblywoman Pacheco and Reggie is a former teacher working at Gallatin for decades. Also chaperon for the Miss Downey court for many years as well. So we thank both these ladies giving so much to our community for decades along with the countless hours of volunteering. And this is what makes Downey a strong community and being women's u empowerment and women's uh uh month. This is very fitting. Uh you mentioned the Arkwalk which was great. Um I wanted to mention uh on the consent calendar that we had. We're doing some infrastructure work on Belfflower Boulevard between Lakewood and Foster. And so this is the infrastructure uh water improvement that we're planning before that area can be paved. I know we've had a lot of social media chatter that that street isn't being paved, but it will be. So stay tuned. And right now, we're going to do this $3 million project to make Belfflower Boulevard better. Uh, save the dates. SIAKA is having a food pantry giveaway on Monday, March 30th from 9 to 10:00 a.m. And it's on a first come, first- serve basis, no appointment. And it's made uh available by generous donations from the community

and other partners like the Michaelelsson Foundation. Another offering that SIAKA has uh is free Spain and neutering for cats and dogs with the ASPCA mobile clinic. They have a limited uh they are limited to the services that we um the SIAKA serves and you can email them for an appointment at resources.org org s e aaca and they've received a grant for funding for a limited time and as I've mentioned before I'm a huge advocate I've been pushing to get more free spaying and neutering not only for cats but dogs and these clinics come and the people line up um they're doing a great job uh mark on the calendar May Friday May 8th is the Rancho Los Amigos Amastat Gala it's going to be at the Grand in Long Beach 6 p.m. And uh just I want to have one last comment here and I'd ask city manager or our police chief is here. Um we know there is so much speeding and and vehicle etiquette doesn't exist anymore. It's a constant problem not in our city but in schools and double parking um stop signs and I know like I said my colleagues have it in their area as well. I I feel that having more of a police presence at our schools morning, afternoon, um giving citations for the violators of of the of the caring. Um that's what's going to stop our speeding, our our poor drivers, our double parking. Um a lady came into, you know, just this evening to say that. And I know I've seen officers out the visibility, but I would like to see I see violations for the citations. If people in our city see our officers giving the citations, the word spreads quickly. I you know, thank you for the Firestone officers catching 80 m an hour. It's out there. But I'd like to again see more visibility of our

officers with the citations and go straight to the schools where most of the problems happening. Go along Florence. They're speeding from coming from the west to the east. We have a lot of traffic accidents there at Old River in Florence. Old River, everybody can name a certain street. But again, I'd love we need to see, not I love to see, we need to see this the officers out there with the citations cuz they're occurring. And I want to get that strong perception to the public that if you speed in Downey, you will get a citation. You will be seen. It seems to not have been as our prior years. Nobody would dare go through Downey before over the speed limit. So, I I know we have situations where the officers are needed elsewhere, but again, let's let get them visible, get them in the high areas during 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. in the morning by the schools. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Me Pbertton. Uh, Council Member Druho.

Thank you. I had the opportunity to visit our sister city and Sada. Um the trip was paid for by the council general's office. There was a delegation of uh local electeds that were invited to visit Baja. We met the mayor of Tijuana and the mayor of Ensanala. Um tourism has reduced drastically to Mexico and so the council general is doing these familiarization trips to take uh council members. I want to highlight insanada in particular via dealupe. Vaia de Gualalupe is Mexico's response to Napa if you will. Some of the best wines uh in Mexico are coming out of our sister city and by the walup is a part of Ensanada. And the mayor has asked if we could engage in an exchange of or or communication to see if there's any way they could incorporate vineyards uh wine makers into she had heard of the food festival. I told her we no longer have it. So I wanted to see if staff could engage with Ensanada and see how maybe in the future we could do something to highlight their wines as part of one of our festivals. I'm not asking for a separate event, but I want to see if staff can engage with Insanala to try to promote their one of their big products, which is wine.

Do we need a second for that? I'll second that one. Thought Dorothy would jump into that one. Thank you. I've been contacted by La Kata. They would like to be put on the agenda to request street closures for their annual Downey Pride Festival. Could I have a second? So, we could have staff contact I think we're already working on that Rodriguez, but we're happy to do that. So, we're Yeah, I think we're Yeah, just to add to that, uh, an application process is done for that um event in order to get authority to do that. So, we'll coordinate with her to make sure that's submitted.

Great. Uh, congratulations to Honey and Glow. We um, a couple of us were able to visit that ribbon cutting. And lastly, I would like to see if we could pay some attention, well, more attention to the CVS parking lot at Florence and Paramount behind the Tacos Gavilon. I've gotten a couple of complaints of too much trash. I know before we used to have issues with the trash enclosure. This is just trash in general in the parking lot. So, I don't know if you need a second for that. No, no, we we are aware of that and have been working on that issue for some time. Thank you, Madam Mayor. That concludes my comments. Thank you. And I'm happy to be back. I don't have any comments at this time. Uh, now is the time for city manager comments.

Uh, thank you, mayor. No, just welcome back and I'm glad everything is moving forward on your recovery. Uh, nothing further from staff. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, at this time, the city council meeting is now adjourned in memory of 13 United States service members who have perished in the war with Iran. I will mention each one of them by name. Uh, Chief Warrant Officer three. Robert Marson, 54, of Sacramento, California. Major Jeffrey O'Brien, 45 of Walke, Iowa. Sergeant Benjamin Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky. Captain Cody Cork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida. Sergeant First Class Noah Tigens, 42, of Belleview, Nebraska. Sergeant Firstclass Nicole Ammer, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Sergeant Declan Cody, 20, of De Moine, Iowa. Major John Kleiner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama. Captain Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington. Technical Sergeant Ashley Puit, 34, of Barston, Kentucky. Captain Seth Kobel, 38, of Morsville, Indiana. Captain Curtis Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio. Technical Sergeant Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio. Senior Detective Armando Santana, 52, 24-year veteran of the Elmonte Police Department, who passed away due to complications during surgery. And retired fire captain Bob Thomas, a 28-year veteran of the Downey Fire Department who retired in 1988. A moment of silence, please.

Thank you. The time is 9:18. The meeting is adjourned.