City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. If everybody can take your seats, we're going to go ahead and get started in just a moment. It is always nice to see our Boy Scouts here. Thank you for bringing them. Good evening, everybody. I am your mayor, Claudia Frometa. And before we begin the regular city council meeting open session, I would like to remind members of the audience that anyone wishing to speak this evening during public comment must obtain a number card from the city clerk. Number cards 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 that number card to city staff. And if you didn't obtain a number and wish to speak, please proceed to the back of the room. I see Lisa back there. Lining up during public comment is not permitted and each speaker should remain in their seat until the number is called. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. For the city's council meeting rules and for fire safety regulations, all persons shall remain seated unless addressing the council or entering or leaving the chambers. Standing in the aisles, is not allowed, is prohibited. There is, I don't see we have the need for overflow seating, but we always say that. So once again, I will go ahead and get us started. I will now call to order the regular city council meeting. The time is 6.36. City Clerk Duarte, would you please take the roll?

Yes, Mayor. Council Member Pemberton? Present. Council Member Sosa?

Present.

Council Member Trujillo is excused. Mayor Pro Temortis?

Present.

And Mayor Frometa?

At this time, I would like to welcome our Downey Police Department Chaplain, Greg Welch. He is going to lead us in the invocation tonight. If you can please stand.

Through all the trials that we have in our daily lives, lest we forget, the joy of the Lord is our strength through those trials, to endure those trials. But seeking joy is crucial as human beings to be close to the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for yet another meeting of this fine, fine city and the city council and the residents behind me, Lord. We ask that you bless each and every one here watching through the internet. And just... living their life day to day, going to work, coming home, wondering what's for dinner. Just life, Lord. It gets in the way sometimes, but lest we forget to focus on you and experience the joy that you provide. Bless this meeting now and let the minds and the hearts and the tongues be civil. as we continue to do the business of the city, a fine city it is, and one that you've blessed. In your name we pray, and all God's children said, amen.

Thank you, Chaplain. And at this time, I would like to call on the Cub Scouts Pack, number 805. Would you please come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Thank you, thank you, Cub Scouts. Thank you.

They did a wonderful job. Would you please give them another round of applause to their Boy Scouts leaders and certainly their parents raising young boys, young men, civically minded. So thank you, thank you for coming. Good evening, Downey, and thank you for joining us tonight. Whether you're here in our council chambers or joining us via our YouTube channel, welcome. We are recognizing some very special people this evening, but before we do that, I'd like to recognize some audience members tonight. I would like to recognize Commissioner Jeannie Wood, who is here with us. She is our Miss Volunteer extraordinaire. I would also like to recognize the Executive Director of our Downey Chamber of Commerce, Michael Calvert. Certainly we have some Rotarians in the house as well. Mr. Lacey. And the President of the Rotary this year. Thank you for joining us. I also want to recognize, I will be remiss if I do not recognize my husband. So husband, thank you for being here tonight. I want to inform all of you tonight that our summer concert in the park series begins on Wednesday, June 24th. I cannot believe it's summer already. And so get ready to join us every Wednesday beginning June 24th at Furman Park at 6 p.m. And because many of you have asked, are we doing anything to celebrate our nation's 250th birthday?

Yes, actually, the concert in the park for July 2nd, thank you, will actually be a patriotic-themed 250 recognition-themed event. So abiding folks will come out. We'll have some flags to hand out, some crafts and other things that will be available for the community. So please come out and be a part of that.

Thank you. Thank you, City Manager Bradley. Mark your calendars, please. July 2nd, Wednesday, Concert in the Park at Furman Park at 6 p.m. We are going to have that patriotic theme, and we're going to be recognizing.

July 1st is when I correct the date.

Oh, July 1st. Yes. July 1st, everybody, is that first Wednesday in July. Now, I'm also very happy to share with you that this past weekend, I attended the 94th annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors in Long Beach, where bipartisan leaders from across the country convened to address the challenges facing our communities. We really are city halls across the country, the mayors, your local elected officials, These are the people that set policy and drive communities. And the conference I want to share with you that, again, the conference offered an important opportunity to share ideas and develop solutions to support small businesses. I will be bringing a resolution on America the Entrepreneurial. This is to reaffirm our city's support for entrepreneurs and jobs, innovation, and opportunities they create in our communities. Small businesses are the backbone of our local economies. Also, the conference touched on addressing homelessness and strengthening public safety. We had discussions on initiatives such as expanding access to capital and technical assistance for local entrepreneurs, creating more effective partnerships to move individuals and families from homelessness into stable housing and implementing proven public safety strategies that reduce crime while strengthening community trust. I think Downey, we've been sharing through our social media platforms what we're doing through PATH and in the homelessness initiatives that have been proven to be successful in this city. And we will continue to do that. One of the important things, and I want to share this with you, is that even though these seats are nonpartisan, at the Conference of U.S. Mayors, because we come together in a bipartisan way, It's important to work collaboratively across political lines. We can certainly learn a lot from one another, identify programs that have delivered measurable results in other cities, and bring back to our communities, in this case to the city of Downey, innovative approaches that will help create jobs, improve neighborhood safety, and enhance the quality of life for the residents we serve. Also, a different change this year, as a member city, the city of Downey, I was able to co-sponsor several resolutions in the Criminal and Social Justice Committee, including the Supporting Safe Neighborhoods Policy Agenda, which calls upon Congress to pass and the President to sign comprehensive legislation that provides federal funding to hire, train, and retain 250,000 additional law enforcement officers nationwide, make robust and sustained investments in community violence prevention programs, and expand access to behavioral health services, including community-based mental health treatment, substance use treatment, and crisis response services. I also, on behalf of our city, of course, I co-sponsored a resolution supporting comprehensive FEMA reform to strengthen local disaster response and recovery, as well as a resolution, and I know our fire department is all ears on this, a resolution supporting the Fire Station Act in urging the president to sign the bill into law to help modernize public safety infrastructure across the country. Here, thanks to Measure S, we were able to rebuild our four fire stations. But unfortunately, some of the cities across the country are not that lucky. Additionally, I worked with the mayor of Long Beach on a resolution that received overwhelming support. And this resolution was to condemn acts of political violence and reaffirm a commitment to civil discourse and democratic values, which received overwhelming bipartisan support and was adopted by the conference. This is an opportunity for all of us, once again, to continue to work collaboratively and in a bipartisan manner with cities, not only across Southern California, but certainly across the country. And I wanted to share those with you because I think it's important that we know Downey continues to be on the forefront of signing on resolutions that are benefiting to our community and are reaffirming our support to important issues that we are all experiencing. So with that, and I will share the rest of it at the end of our meeting when we do our council member comments. We have three presentations this evening and I'm going to come down to the podium to present. I've had the pleasure and the honor of representing this beautiful city as mayor. This is my third time and I don't take it lightly, but when I began my first time in 2021, every mayor creates an award and I chose the name Legacy because of what we do in our life, the legacy and the impact that we're having in our communities. This month, or this time, I chose Leroy Thomas Houts, who grew up in Southern California. He is best known as... Who can tell me? He is best known as... Yes, but he has a specific way he calls, well, the students know him by, and that is the fearless leader. And so the fearless leader, would you please come up? I will read some things about you. Tom Houts.

Yes, give him a round, please.

I'm going to say a lot of very nice things about you. Tom grew up in Southern California and graduated from Brea Olinda High School in 1983, where he played linebacker on the Wildcats football team. After high school, he continued his athletic career at Fullerton College, earning First Team Junior College All-American inside linebacker, honors in Indiana University. Following his beloved mother Betty Ann's footsteps, Tom entered the teaching profession in 1989 as a science teacher at Warren High School. Go Bears. Impacting young minds in the classroom and on the football field for five years as a coach. He then left the classroom in 1993 to become a high school administrator, serving at both Downey and Warren high schools before accepting his current position as principal of Downey High, both of his parents' alma mater, class of 1956. And he left that and he began his position there in 2005. As Downey High School's fearless leader, Tom believes that relationships are the foundation to schools. Thus, he spends as much time as possible outside his office visiting teachers and classrooms, interacting with students at snack and lunch, sporting events, school dances, chaperoning field trips for Downey High School's award-winning program all over the United States. And I do have to say, I had the pleasure of seeing Tom and his lovely wife in Florida for Downey Dance Team's Contest of Champions, so he really goes all over the place supporting the students. Tom has worked hard to understand and support the social-emotional issues that both students and teachers go through. Because of Tom's efforts, Downey Unified's flagship campus of over 4,000 people genuinely feels like a family. Tom can frequently be found getting his hands dirty in the school garden or on the school farm. Both were started during his tenure as principal. He even had a pig on the farm, Leroy, fondly named after him. He's moved and refurbished the school's koi pond, which most people don't realize it exists. That pond was moved several times and during COVID, the COVID pandemic, he built an outdoor classroom insistent on maintaining rigorous educational standards in the safest conditions possible. Or maybe he was just bored that students weren't on campus to talk to as much. So he needed to keep himself busy. Mr. Houts has continually been an innovator on campus. He believed in and pushed for the career in technical education, CTE, before it was fashionable to do that. And he's the primary reason the D building exists. Here students can repair cars and huge auto bays, fly in auto simulators, battle robots they've created, program video games, print inventions on 3D printers, run the Viking brew coffee shop and more. Tom's impact will live on long past his retirement due to the connections he's made as Downey High School's longest serving principal. He's proud that Downey High School campus he's helped build is able to offer students experiences that help them figure out the direction they want their lives to go. Tom has been a huge supporter of all school programs with a special emphasis in athletics. Tonight's Downey-Warren-Vuval game will be, well, that's not it. Tom and his wife, Sharon, a fellow Downey Unified School District educator. Hi, Sharon. They live in Whittier. They have three wonderful children, Kelsey, Jake, and Molly, also from Downey High, class of 2020. Both Jake and Molly have entered the family calling and are local educators. Tom spends as much time outdoors as possible and enjoys traveling, hiking, and fishing with his family and friends. In the words of Mr. House, I have a wonderful job and I have wonderful staff, and I couldn't be happier with my position or the career choice. There are people in our community that make a tremendous impact. And Tom, everything you have done over the course of the many years you have led as the fearless leader at Downey High will be remembered for generations to come. I know that my daughter considers you an amazing principal and she, her time at Downey High was very special because of your involvement in the different athletic organizations. And with that, I would like to present Tom with the Mayor's Legacy Award.

Let me put on my glasses.

On behalf of the citizens of Downey, in grateful recognition of your extraordinary dedication, leadership, and service to education for more than 35 years, from your beginnings as a science teacher and coach to your distinguished career as an administrator and principal of Downey High School, Tom, you have inspired generations of students, staff, family, families, and community members through your unwavering commitment to relationships, innovation, and excellence. As Downey High School's longest serving principal, your vision, compassion, and tireless support of students' success have left a lasting legacy that will continue to shape the lives of Vikings for years to come. With sincere appreciation and best wishes for a joyful and fulfilling retirement. Thank you for your remarkable service and enduring impact on the Downey community. Giving this day by Mayor Claudia Frometa. Congratulations. Here is the Mayor's plan form. And I'll give it to you the way the challenge calls for it. Thank you for your legacy. And here is the pin.

Well, thank you. I'm obviously honored. Downey's a great place. My parents graduated from Downey High School in 1956. They came to Downey from a neighboring city for the opportunities that Downey was given. I was fortunate enough to come in 1989, and I have seen nothing but an upward trajectory of not only the city, but the school system itself. It's truly a special place. the way that the police works with the schools and the schools works with the city council, it's just, it's all meshed. It's, it's, it's a very special place. And I know there's issues in communities and all that, but this is a special place. It really has. And if you've been around as long as I have, you just see the type of people that are in this community. I mean, And the students in both Downey and Warren, because I worked at Warren for eight years, so go Bears, Dorothy. It's a special place. But the students are what makes the school. And I think you're going to hear for a couple students here in a minute, we got great kids. The teenagers get a bad rap these days. The kids are going and doing fabulous things. So I... I just, I love this place. I do have to give a shout out to my wife because she's put up with me forever. As a principal, you're typically gone 80 to 100 nights a year. So over 34 years as a school administrator, you know, there's several thousand nights that I wasn't home. So she put up with me on all those nights as she raised three kids when I'm coming home late and tired and cranky and all that. So love you, Sharon.

Family of educators, I know when we have, we across America, we are happy to come to your school and .

I knew that in my office today, and I took my hair. You look good.

My council colleagues, Pemberton and Sosa, we had the opportunity last night to be at the Assistance League annual scholarship dinner, awards dinner. And it was so impressive. I know Down Unified produces very great kids. My husband and I raised our four children through Down. Downey Unified. And yesterday, it seemed like it was an all Bruins type of night, right? It was all, most of the kids that were being awarded are headed to UCLA. So again, that speaks on what a tremendous school district we have, the parents that are involved and engaged, and certainly the students. Moving on to the other Mayor's Legacy Award, I am very happy and pleased and I want all of you to know who Sharon Margaret Lavery is. She is the director of our Downey Symphony, and she's been praised for her passionate and insightful interpretations. Sharon is known for connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Since 2007, she has been the music director of the Downey Symphony Orchestra. an ensemble hailed as one of the best metropolitan orchestras in Southern California. Sharon, would you join me up here as I continue reading about you? Please give her a big round of applause. Well, as I was saying, Sharon has appeared with orchestras in the United States and internationally, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Chamber of Orchestra, San Bernardino Symphony, and La Jolla Symphony. Ms. Lavery has also worked with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Brass Ensemble and has held various conducting roles with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and the Herbert Zipper Orchestra of Los Angeles. Her projects extend to professional recordings and collaborations across performance and media. In conjunction with her professional duties, Ms. Lavery serves as resident conductor of the Thornton Symphony and Thornton Winds at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Fight on. She has led USC's major ensembles in concert on countless occasions and served as music director of the Thornton Concert Orchestra for seven years. Now, in addition to those duties at USC, Sharon teaches instrumental conducting and is chair of the Winds and Percussion Department. Wow, how many hours in the day do you have, Sharon? Sharon's advocacy in music education includes conducting several all-state orchestras and wind ensembles throughout the United States. And she's also served on the faculty of programs such as the Interlochen Arts Camp and the International Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall. Originally from Sinning, New York, Ms. Lavery earned a bachelor of music education from Michigan State University, a master of music in clarinet performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a master of music in orchestral conducting from the USC Thornton School of Music, where she was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Scholarship. This is really fantastic. And again, on behalf of the residents of this great community, since 2007, you have been the music director of our unparalleled Downey Symphony Orchestra. And we want to say thank you because the legacy, the passion, the love that you have for music and this role that you have had for so many years has had an incredible impact in our community. And because of that, Ms. Sharon Lavery, in recognition of your outstanding artistic leadership, dedication to music education, and inspiring service to the residents through your work as music director of the Downey Symphony Orchestra and educator at the USC Thornton School of Music, You, Sharon, have enriched countless lives through excellence in performance, mentorship, and advocacy for the arts. Your lasting impact and contributions to music and education has positively impacted countless students and families throughout the community of Downey. And given this day, June 9th, I, Claudia Frometa, present to you the Mayor's Legacy Award.

Thank you so much Mayor. I am truly honored. I'm really almost speechless how much this means to me. You know, since the day I was hired I fell in love with this city. I knew right away how special it was. I agree with our principal. This is a really unique community. I haven't found a community like this, as special as this, anywhere. It's so nice to see some of our board members of the Downey Symphony with me here, no doubt supporting me always. I want to thank the city for their unwavering support over the years, especially with the park concerts. These are some of my favorite concerts that we give. It's been a joy to work with the Downey Unified School System and the Kiwanis Club, who support our children's concerts. We give a third grade concert and a fifth grade concert, where we bus in every third grader, every fifth grader, and these concerts are so very special. I've always told the orchestra, no matter what happens to our finances, we will always do these children's concerts, because this is You know, some of the only first times that these kids have been exposed to classical music. And then a lot of them go on and choose instruments in middle school and high school because of these concerts. And there's just nothing quite like seeing their faces, especially those third graders, when they've come to the theater for the first time to see a live orchestra. It's truly something special. Once again, I'm just honored and grateful and feel so fortunate. If you had told me that I would be celebrating my 20th season this year with the Downey Symphony when I was first hired and that the orchestra would put up with me for this long, I wouldn't have believed you. So I thank you very much. I'm honored.

Thank you, Sharon. Thank you. And before we take some photos, I don't usually do this, Sharon, but I know that this is so important for our Downey Symphony. And that is, there is a fundraiser. coming up this Sunday, June 14th, from 2 to 5 p.m. And all proceeds will go to our Downey Symphony. And this is, again, not every city. Downey is so fortunate to be able to have our own civic theater and our own symphony. We need to be able to, as a community, those of you that are in attendance, but those of you that are watching via YouTube, we need to support our Downy Symphony, not just buying tickets and going to the concerts, but we need to support them monetarily because the arts and the music and the impact that that has in our community and the younger generations is priceless. And so for more information, They can contact the Downey Symphony for this Sunday, June 14th. It's only three hours, but the symphony needs you.

Thank you.

Let's take a photo.

Okay.

You know, let me say I was fortunate to win a backstage rehearsal dinner with her.

And if you ever want to see, gosh, I'm going to have to describe this. This is amazing.

She is amazing.

You didn't tell them you put on a pirate side when you played Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well, as I was saying, most of our children have been raised here in Downey, and that third grade concert is really one of their favorites. And Sharon, I kept pronouncing your name incorrectly. Sharon Margaret Lavery. Yeah. My apologies. We have... two incredible students with us this evening. And there's also another award that I give out and that's the Mayor's Champion Award. Champion because these individuals that are chosen for this award or nominated are championing everything that is good in our community. Now, If I can have Katie and Kelsey Elias come up. Give them a big round of applause, please. These two young women were named, as I still call it, I'm told is number one and number two, but I call them the valedictorian and salutatorian of Downey High School class of 2026. Katie, number one. Kelsey, number two. These two young ladies. One had a state-weighted GPA of 5.0. I didn't even know you could get a 5.0. And her sister was 4.97. Can you believe that, everybody? Can you give them a round of applause? These phenomenal young women took 14 AP classes. They were, yes, 14. Tennis scholarship athlete medals, 9th and 10th grade. They were on the dean's list, the principal's list. They both achieved the California Scholarship Federation recognition, the Mary Stauffer 4.0 GPA award, the seal of biliteracy, AP scholarship with distinction, And if that's not enough, they also volunteered at PIH Hospital. They were tutors at the writing center, and they co-founded and presidents of A Capella Club, 12th grade. As I said, they played tennis, track they were Kiwanis bulletin editor math club and they both they received the Downey Nissan scholarship and the women's club academic and leadership scholarship they will be attending UCLA this fall and they have lined up some really impressive internships that I know they can't wait to start But this is really the type of the caliber of students that Downey is producing. And we couldn't be prouder because they represent the future of Downey and the commitment that education is the key to greater success. Tonight, I will give them both Kelsey and Katie. in recognition of your outstanding academic achievement as valedictorian and salutatorian that's that's what i keep calling them the downey high school class of 2026 exemplary leadership and dedicated service to your school and community your exceptional accomplishments and i have this, for each one of them, their GPA. Their numerous academic honors and scholarships and commitments to volunteerism serve as an inspiration to the Downey community. Congratulations and best wishes, Kelsey and Katie, for your continued success. Give them a round of applause, please. They're gonna say a few words for us.

Well, hi, everyone. My name is Kelsey. I'm Katie. And we want to start off by thanking the city of Downey for this great honor. And we also want to thank the mayor and the city council and staff for making this possible and recognizing us and our accomplishments. During our high school years, it was not only important, to push ourselves academically, but also involve ourselves in our community. We volunteered at the hospital to help those in the city of Downey who may be going through a tough time, and the staff who work so hard to take care of patients. Through our work, we were able to meet new people and have fun experiences while we're learning new skills. We also joined many activities at our school, like the riding center and sports. And we did many activities, but the point is that we made it our mission to put both academics and activities as a priority. We studied a lot, but we also laughed a lot, made friends, and created memories that we'll never forget. In the fall, like the mayor said, we will be going to UCLA. I will be studying math and econ with the goal of becoming an attorney. And I'll be studying chemical engineering. Lastly, we're also excited to tackle some new adventures this summer before heading off to college. I'm going to do an internship at a law firm. I'll be doing a research internship at Caltech. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Behind every successful student, there's somebody there. There's, this case, the amazing parents. And I think that is it for our three presentations this evening. We are going to move on to public hearings, but before we do that, we're going to take a three minute break to allow the honorees to exit the chambers. I don't know if you wanna stay for the entire meeting, but we wanna say thank you for joining us. We're gonna be three minute recess and we will continue with tonight's meeting, thank you.

I was really scared. Sure, too.

Thank you once again. We are now moving on to conduct the people's business and there is one public hearing this evening is the adoption of a resolution approving and adopting the City of Downey Water System 2025 Public Health Goals Report. That the City Council conduct a public hearing concerning the City of Downey Water System 2025 Public Health Goals Report And number two, adopt resolution number 26-8361, approving and adopting the City of Downey's Water System 2025 Public Health Goals Report. The hour having arrived, the public hearing is now open. The time is 718. City Clerk Duarte, do you have proof of publication? I do, Mayor. Can I have a motion and a second to receive and file the publication?

So moved. Second. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously. City Manager Bradley, is there a staff report?

Yes, Mayor. We have Dan Mueller, Deputy Director of Public Works, Utilities Manager here to do the staff report. Thank you.

Mayor and members of the City Council, the item before you tonight, as mentioned, is approving and adopting the City of Downey's 2025 Public Health Goals Report for the City of Downey's water system. The 2025 report was prepared in accordance with health and safety code standards, which requires all water agencies that serve greater than 10,000 service connections to prepare a report. every three years on the detection of contaminants that are above the public health goals, but below the actual maximum contaminant levels, which are the actual water quality standards. So the item before you tonight was prepared using the data from 2022 through 2024. If the data was not available because analysis was not required during those periods of time, then the next available data was used in preparation of the report. With regard to the 2025 Public Health Goal Report, one thing that is important to point out is the difference between a maximum contaminant level and a public health goal. Maximum contaminant levels are prepared by the U.S. EPA and the California Division of Drinking Water. They are required by health and safety code to be established as close as practical to the PHG for the constituent. Assuming that they actually can be detected down at that level, they also have to consider the actual treatment technology that's available to treat down to that maximum contaminant level, with the primary emphasis being placed on public health. Water quality standards are otherwise referred to as maximum contaminant levels, which are the MCLs that we're referring to in the city of Downey's in compliance with those maximum contaminant levels. As it goes for public health goals, public health goals are established by California EPA. It's the occupation of environmental health and hazard assessment that establishes those public health goals. Those public health goals are established primarily on public health risk. They don't take into consideration the other factors that are used in establishing MCLs. MCLs require the analysis by the Health and Safety Code to look into the ability to treat down to that level and also the costs associated with it and the public benefit associated with it. Public health goals are non-enforceable and are not required to be met by the actual water agencies. That said, the 2025 Public Health Goal Report has been prepared in accordance with the Health and Safety Code. It's been made available on the City of Downey's website as well as in the City Clerk's Office and the Public Works Counter. It includes information on the detections within the city of Downey's water system. It provides information on available technology to treat the quality of the water down to the maximum contaminant level, and it does require an analysis to confirm the actual annualized costs associated with taking water down to the public health code level, which is based on a theoretical basis. It does include information on public health risks associated with both PHGs and MCLs. And again, it has been made available to the public on the city's website. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you for your report, colleagues. Do any of you have any thoughts, comments regarding the report?

This was a very interesting read. A lot of detailed information, and I've underlined the MCLs, maximum contentment, and the HSCs, and all these different acronyms. But the bottom line with the report is that we are well within. You know, the any contaminant levels I turn on my faucet, I refill my water bottle and I drink straight from our faucet and know that we have the competent confidence that our water is clean and safe from the water wells. I also wanted to also share something else that was great for the public that they could know is how to in this report. They could take a look how to detect. different leaks, how to check your water meter, you know, to see if you have a leak or the bill is high, to see if it's spinning. It's a nice visual in here. Same thing with checking for toilet leaks and putting a little food dye in, something of that, you know, nature. So the report is very detailed. And again, I'm very confident with the water that we have and the testing we've done and the numbers that show on the chart. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Pemberton. Anyone else?

No, thank you, Debra.

Okay, then at this time, I will now open this item for public comment. City Clerk Duarte, did we receive any written correspondence to be incorporated into the record?

We did not, Mayor. Okay, do we have anyone wishing to speak on this item? We have none, Mayor.

Okay, I will make a motion to close public comment on the public hearing. Can I get a second? So moved. So ordered by the Mayor. Unless there are any comments from this council, I will entertain a motion in a second to adopt resolution number 26-8361, approving and adopting the water system 2025 public health goals report. Second. You moved?

I moved.

Okay, second. Second. Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously. Okay, moving on to public comment regarding agenda, consent calendar, and non-agenda items. Now is the time for public comment. It is 7.24. City Clerk Duarte, did we receive correspondence to be incorporated into the record regarding tonight's meeting?

We did, Mayor. Can I play the announcement?

Oh, yes. The City Council will now take public comment on agenda, consent calendar, and non-agenda items. If you did not receive a number card and wish to speak, please proceed to the back of the room to be issued a number card by City staff. We will be calling blue number cards for the public comment period. Before we begin the public comment period, we would like to remind members of the audience that the City's meeting rules contained in the Downey Municipal Code prohibit any conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Copies of the meeting rules are located in the back of the chambers. 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 Council meetings may also result in an administrative fine under the Municipal Code or citation for a misdemeanor under Penal Code Section 403. The City Council acknowledges the right of the public to address issues that are within the City's jurisdiction and invites the public to do so during the City Council meeting. However, this right must be balanced with the need of the City Council to conduct the public business in a fair and efficient manner, free from disruption or disturbance. We expect that everyone who participates in today's meeting, from the members of the Council here on the dais, to staff, to the members of the public in attendance, do so with respect and dignity. Please 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 city council members that have no connection to agenda items or non-agenda items. We remind speakers that your comments must be addressed to the mayor and not to any other council member, city staff, or the audience.

Okay. City Clerk, did we receive written correspondence to be incorporated into the record?

Yes, Mayor, we did. We have three written public comments. The first one is from Mr. Garcia, a resident. He had three items that he wanted to comment on. The first one is for item number eight. He is in opposition of approving an agreement with the Downey Patriot. For item number 10, he requested an amendment to the municipal code to permit the use of shade cells for driveways. And then in regards to item number 12, he is in opposition of the use of drones. The other public comment received was from Ms. Fawcett and Ms. Maria Corral, and both both members of the public submitted comments against the banning of, I believe it's Kratom, and that is all, Mayor.

Thank you for that. How many speakers have taken a number?

We have one speaker, Mayor.

Okay, let's go ahead and get that speaker to come forward. Actually, I will make a motion. Can I get a second to receive and file the written public comment? Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

Okay, speaker number one, please come up.

Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, Mr. Bradley and staff.

Good evening.

Good evening. I have two items on my agenda this evening, Madam Mayor. Number one has to do with the fact that there's a new law that will go into effect July 1st of this year in California. Has to do with Senate Bill 7-9. Basically what it does, it provides denser housing developments in cities near transit locations. It could involve with apartment buildings being built many stories higher than what the cities require, condominiums being built higher than what's allowed, and also it could impact some single family residences. I wanted to find out how that would affect the city of Downey, and if it would affect the city, what can be done about it? The second item has to do with putting one's foot in one's mouth. We all know what that basically means. I'll give you examples of two people. One is me. I from time to time have put my foot in my mouth and I will never forget those particular times. Another example is our president who recently challenged a correspondent with regards to inquiring from him, the president, proof of voter mishaps is going on. And the president could not provide the proof. And he picked on the woman correspondent and called her stupid. That was ridiculous. I know the president called her up later on and probably apologized, but that kind of talk from a president should never happen. Madam Mayor, this ends my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lacey. I will make a motion. Is there anybody else that would like to speak tonight? Seeing and hearing none, I will make a motion to close public comment. Can I get a second?

Second.

So ordered by the mayor. Now is the time for consent calendar items. Are there any council members that would like to remove or abstain from an item? Seeing none, is there a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar as presented?

I'll make a motion.

I'll second. Okay, please vote.

The consent calendar is approved unanimously.

Okay, thank you, colleagues. Moving on to administrative reports. There is one administrative report this evening and that is item number 12 on our agenda. The drone enforcement of illegal fireworks violations and discussion of potential ordinance amending the Downey Municipal Code to hold the property owners accountable for unlawful fireworks used or found on their property. That the City Council receive information concerning the proposed deployment of drones by Downey Police Department during the upcoming Independence Day period to more accurately identify locations where illegal fireworks are being discharged and to help detect, record, and document violations from the air. and number two within that administrative report is to discuss whether to amend our downey municipal code to impose liability on property owners if illegal fireworks are used or found at their property even if they did not light or otherwise permit them city manager bradley who's got the staff report i'll ask our police chief to kick off the item please mayor thank you thank you

Good evening. It'll be a two-part tonight. I'll start off with Captain Perino. He'll talk about our proposed enforcement on the 4th of July for the fireworks, and he'll be followed by our city prosecutor, Jim Ecker, who will talk about the amendment to the ordinance.

Excellent. Thank you, Chief. Hello, Captain Perino.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of city council and city staff. Now, back in 2023, I had the pleasure of coming before council and providing an administrative report on the drones for the Downey Police Department back when it was in its infancy. And now fast forward three years, we've had nothing but success story after success story with using our drones out in the field as the police department. And that's led us to now what we believe is the next step in the evolution of our drone program, which is using our drones effectively. for combating illegal fireworks on the 4th of July. And our reason for doing so is twofold. First and foremost, my whole career for 27 years, our model of going out and addressing illegal fireworks has been the same. We bring in a large complement of officers on overtime, which bears a tremendous amount of financial component to fireworks enforcement. And despite having a large fleet of officers out there, what actually ends up happening is an officer's patrolling, sees an illegal fireworks shoot up at the end of the street. By the time they get down there, seeing the silhouette of an individual firing a firework up, the individual's back in the crowd. No one wants to identify who the individual was. And now as they're there, the firework is going off at the street behind them, the street next door. And it's this cat and mouse chase that we're always about 10 seconds behind. And despite a valiant effort by our officers year after year, the end result is the number of violations that we catch and issue citations doesn't meet our community's expectations. And these officers are out there in what a lot of people refer to as what sounds like a war zone, and I think that's an accurate description of being out there myself year after year. That's the first part. And the second part is now, for the last couple years, with the proliferation of drones by the use of police departments, is a lot of cities are now returning to drones to deal with this issue. Local municipalities around us, like Costa Mesa, La Habra, La Mirada, Brea, Riverside, have all been using drones, and I'll specifically focus in on the city of Riverside, because I think they've been most vocal in publicizing their success stories. And two years ago when they first started it by using far fewer resources by transitioning to drones, they found that they doubled the number of violations that they were able to issue for illegal firework use. And they've also now been publicizing that they believe that they have a significant decrease in the use of illegal fireworks because the drones are actually serving, because people know that they're using drones now, as an actual deterrent to going out there and combating or discharging these illegal fireworks. So with that, what our plan is, what we'd like to do is actually deploy drones this 4th of July. Our drone operators would fly our drones around looking for violations. Our drones actually record. So if someone from their property is discharging illegal fireworks, our cameras would record them. Since day one, as I mentioned, in 2023 to now, we are very cognizant of privacy concerns. It's built into our policies. We follow laws that we're not taking them to the point that we're invading people's privacy by flying them in their backyards, looking through the windows, but flying them over the street in an area that's publicly available to fly our drone and catch drones shooting up in the air and identifying from the vantage point of a drone camera where that drone's coming from. And if it is coming from a property, we would record that individual and ultimately issue them a citation by sending a homeowner a citation on that. Now, the catch with that is we have an opportunity to strengthen our local ordinances, our municipal code, in being able to hold the homeowner responsible for someone discharging fireworks from their property. And for that, in just a moment, I will turn it over from the legal side of things to our city prosecutor, Jim Eckert. But before I do so, I will pause for just a moment to see if there's any questions from council regarding our actual drone use or the police department on that night before I turn it over to the legal side of things.

Thank you, Captain Perino, for your report. I certainly agree with you that as communities continue to see this proliferation of the usage of illegal fireworks during holiday periods, and we have a finite number of police officers, and we also have a finite budget for We have to be able to look at the opportunity with these new technologies to help us in that arena. And that is all to increase public safety. I know our residents, we all support the safe and sane usage of fireworks that are sold in the different areas. AREAS THAT ARE SPONSORED BY OUR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, BUT CERTAINLY THE USE OF ILLEGAL FIREWORKS AND UTILIZING, AS YOU INDICATED, THIS TECHNOLOGY. BEING COGNIZANT OF PRIVACY LAWS, BUT TO YOUR POINT, IT IS THIS TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY, AND AS I ATTENDED THE U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS, WE DID DISCUSS THE USE OF DRONES ACROSS OTHER COMMUNITIES FOR THE SAME BENEFITS. COUNCIL COLLEAGUES, DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS ABOUT

Yes, thank you, Captain. I have a question regarding the safety of drones, because I've heard in the past maybe that the drone might get hit by a firework, and they're quite valuable, I believe. But how do you feel the safety component with fireworks being shot, illegals like M80s or things like that, is it not much of a concern or percentage?

No, and for two reasons. A, unfortunately, what you see these individuals firing, when we say illegal, they're basically professional-grade fireworks.

Mm-hmm.

And how they get the hands on them is beyond us, whether they're going out of the country, out of state, but somehow they're making their way into California. And typically, these things, when they launch up, they will explode at a range of about 100 to 400 feet up in the air. What we're going to be doing is, A, first and foremost, flying our drones around the 50 to 100-foot level. So they should, in theory, be below them. But on top of that, the camera, when they're flying the drone around, you can see what's going on below the drone. And of course, if someone's going out and setting up one of these mortar devices to fire up the drone, they're going to be able to see that. And so you're not going to position the drone overhead for where the drone is being discharged. So the fact that we're going to be typically out of the range and the pilot is going to see where people are setting up drones, they're going to make sure they're not setting up directly above that. So if the projectile launches up, it wouldn't hit it. I think that's even though we don't have a firsthand experience ourselves of it, that's the... The information being provided from these other jurisdictions that have been using drones, and there isn't a noted case yet in the brief history of using drones by other cities that a drone has been shot out of the sky because they're taking the same type of safety steps to prevent that from happening.

Okay, good, good. And I think I've heard before it was the policy that no officers have this day off. Is that the case still? That is correct. That all hands on deck, right?

It is actually statistically one of the busiest days of the whole year for us, and we also realize that it is one of the days of greatest concern from our community. You know, we hear more about this than just about any other event throughout the course of the year where people are really seeking strong public safety services addressing this problem, whether it's their own Personal annoyance of the fireworks, people complain about their pets as well. There's just a litany of reasons why people are just fed up with this behavior and they expect a strong response from our police department. And as such, that's why we not only prevent any officer from having the night off, but then we actually also draft, have oftentimes eight to 10 officers come in on top of that on the holiday to supplement our existing patrols. That's how we've historically always done it.

What are, if I believe it's just Bell Gardens that has banned fireworks, which people were surprised to hear, is that the only city around us that have banned them, per se?

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if anyone else can speak of that better. I'm not really well versed on the specific ordinances in the surrounding cities. I apologize. I didn't prepare for that.

You're referring to safe and sane fireworks. There are some communities that have prohibited them as well, but we don't have that list.

Council Member?

Yeah.

uh thank you captain perino i do have a question i mean i will say as a long time downey resident this is a great way to address a problem that's been consistent over the years every year we hear the same thing and actually we hear it literally we hear it uh all day and all night on the fourth of july i do have a question i just like to and i'm not sure if this is a a question for um jim mackard but Just for clarification, whether the owner knew about it, you know, 4th of July, sometimes there's a lot of activities, people hanging out in the front yards or backyards, whatever. But what happens if someone just randomly just ends up on someone else's lawn and does this? I don't know. What's the process there?

but they might reply to apply to the next section of this yes so uh mr ackert will speak on that a little bit more but i think also the onus is on us for responsible policing not just to capture a one second glimpse and record that and base your whole Action based on that so ideally I would expect my drone officers and something we would discuss is that you're watching for long enough to see that the person is actually truly associated with that residence because I would have the same fear that Someone steps onto the neighbor's driver real quick and they have nothing to do with it and you're basing a three-second video on to prosecute a homeowner when that's all the evidence you have. So how I would envision us using that is you see someone setting up the mortar device, they're recording the whole time, and the individual goes back in the backyard, goes back inside the house, and something that clearly shows and establishes that person being associated directly with that residence so we're not accidentally rounding up somebody that just happened to step on their neighbor's driveway and that's all we saw and that's the basis for our entire enforcement action.

Thank you.

I do have one question. Thank you, Captain. I agree with my colleagues. We hear a lot of these issues with our fireworks, especially with all the investment we did in our infrastructure. But my question relies on, are we only going to do this on 4th of July or any other holidays or big events like the Dodgers winning or anything like that?

That's certainly something that we've discussed. I think the first step now would be to try it out and see how it goes. see how successful we are, reevaluate it, and also take into consideration as an after-action report how council and our community feels about that as well, and if that's something that seemed to work out well and we get good feedback on it, then definitely we want to be responsive to community. Because you're absolutely right, sporting events and other things are right around the corner, I think. Many of the World Cup games might produce a July 4th type of event, depending on who wins and things of that nature. And we may want to expand upon that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, colleagues. If we are ready for the next round of presentation.

Yes, we'll bring up our city prosecutor.

Thank you, Captain Perino.

Thank you.

And I will say that between the two Downey students who are going to UCLA and Captain Perino, I'm not sure I can be as eloquent, but I will try my best. So honorable mayor and city council members, we're gonna put up a little presentation for you to kind of discuss potential ordinance changes that we can do that would help strengthen the enforcement of what we're doing with respect to fireworks. Keeping in mind, however, as we go through this, that ultimately this is all about health and safety of our community. This is not about us doing things in order to increase fines or to capture more fines. It is ultimately to deter criminal behavior and protect the health and safety of our community. Alicia, are you putting it up or am I putting it up? So first off, let me just kind of recap a little bit, and I know that we've dealt with this over the last couple years when we've dealt with administrative fines related to fireworks, but just to kind of give a little bit of a brief recap. Primarily, fireworks are regulated by the state of California, and they regulate such things as the importation, exportation, transportation, storage, sale, discharge, and possession of fireworks. And in doing so, they break it down into two different categories, dangerous and safe and sane. Safe and sane fireworks are those that are designated by the state fire marshal. And they are, in essence, the types of fireworks that stay on the ground. For the most part, anything that shoots up in the air is typically classified as a dangerous fireworks. And those are the kinds that typically tend to have a greater explosive power, can cause greater injuries, can cause greater damage to property. The state has also allowed cities to regulate the sale, discharge, and possession of safe and sane fireworks. So to answer your question, Councilmember Pemberton, there are other communities within L.A. County, Orange County, San Bernardino, and Riverside that do ban fireworks completely, safe and sane and dangerous fireworks. Many of those are cities, for example, La Habra Heights, where it's an extreme fire hazard area, and any type of firework could cause problems there. But there are other communities as well that do that. The city of Downey, however, has not done that. What the city of Downey has actually done is we have allowed for safe and sane fireworks, but we've done a regulatory scheme in order to protect our community. So in doing that, we have allowed for safe and sane fireworks to be sold with a permit on certain days of the year, and those days are specifically set up for July 1st through July 4th at the different hours. They're kind of set up here on the board for you. We also regulate the discharge of safe and sane fireworks, allowing them only on the 4th of July between the hours of 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. We prohibit the possession, sale, and discharge of all dangerous fireworks. And again, that's all fireworks that are not otherwise classified by the state fire marshal as safe and sane. So everything else is going to be considered a dangerous fireworks by state law. The only exception to that are displays that are actually put on by state licensed pyrotechnic experts. And those are ones that also have a city permit. And so those would be ones like when we do our fireworks shows here in the city. We also prohibit the discharge of fireworks by anyone under the age of 18. And lastly, we also prohibit the discharge of all types of fireworks, safe and sane and dangerous fireworks, obviously, within our city public rights-of-way and within our city parks. So this is part of our regulatory scheme in the prohibitions that we do. The reason for this primarily is because of some of the facts. And just looking out over the last couple of years alone, the consumption of fireworks from 2023 to 2025 rose from 273.6 million pounds within the United States to 322.4 million pounds. That's an increase of 118%. The injuries have actually risen from approximately 9,000 or so to 13,000 in the year 2025. And again, it's another increase of approximately 132%. So this is something that we're very concerned about. And everything that we're doing is trying to prevent this type of adverse impacts while still trying to allow people to celebrate events like our Independence Day. It should also be noted that within the last year, there were approximately 31,000 fires throughout the United States that were caused as a result of fireworks. Our local enforcement primarily has been done by both the fire department and the police department in different components of it. The fire department typically tends to address the sales aspect of it, where they monitor the locations and the booths and everything to make sure that they're compliant with our laws. Whereas the police department most of the times deals with the educational aspect as well as the enforcement component of it with respect to possession and discharge. A big component of that has been just an increase in education and awareness to our community about the dangers of fireworks, as well as what the consequences are. And we do that both by way of flyers that are passed out. We do it on social media, both on the police department social media and other sites. And we do it with electronic road signs as people enter into the city as we get closer to the 4th of July season. We've also enacted a zero tolerance policy over the last several years, really at least for six or seven years. And a big issue with this, of course, is that our police department is also required to respond to other catastrophes or emergencies within the city. And that zero tolerance policy primarily has been by way of the issuance of administrative citations. But we've also increased the amount of that administrative citation. We started off with $1,000 when the administrative citation was first starting to be applied to fireworks violations. And in 2024, I believe it was, we increased it to $4,000 for the first offense, and then it increases for your second and subsequent offenses. Yet despite all of these efforts by our community to try and prevent these things, unfortunately we're still ending up with lots of fireworks violations. So one thing that a lot of communities are considering now and have actually started enacting over the last four or five years is what's called a social host ordinance. And a social host ordinance is a ordinance that imposes a strict liability on property owners for activities that occur at their property. Cities first started enacting this with respect to parties where juveniles were present, and they were consuming alcohol or doing other intoxicating substances, and they held property owners responsible for that if they didn't take appropriate actions. It has since expanded onto fireworks, where cities have enacted social host ordinances to impose a strict liability on property owners and other social hosts. for allowing fireworks to be illegally discharged or possessed at their property. Now, what constitutes a social host? Typically, it includes property owners. It would also include anybody else who has the right to use that property. So, for example, a tenant, the person who's on the lease would be a social host for events that occur at their property. But it would also include anybody else who's actually organizing or conducting any type of gathering at it. So if I went to a friend's house and I hosted a party at that location, and at that party we discharged illegally fireworks, I would be a social host. Whoever owns that house would be the social host. And the actual renter, my friend, would be the social host. So all of them could be social hosts because they all have the ability to prevent this activity from occurring. Now within these ordinances, we typically try to promote, we don't only look to penalize or punish these socialists, but we also try to promote social host responsibility. That is, we try and get them to promote safety at their property. We want people to be responsible for the activities that are occurring at their property. So in many of these ordinances, what happens is there are exemptions. So as a general rule, a strict liability violation is something where the person would be responsible whether they knew or didn't know what was going on. They're responsible merely because of their position, as in this example, a social host. That being said, what a lot of cities will do is they'll enact exemptions, and some of those exemptions will include where the social host has been the first person to report the violation at their property. So, for example, if I find out that my tenants, where I've told them, do not discharge fireworks, maybe I even include it in the lease, I have house rules, and I say no illegal fireworks to be discharged on my property, but they go ahead and do it anyways. If I'm the first person to report that, I call into the police department and say, hey, my tenant's over here illegally discharging fireworks, that could be an exemption to their responsibility. Another exemption would be where they can affirmatively prove a couple of different things. For example, if they can prove that the property was in fact rented to another individual, that the property owner was not present at the time that the fireworks were being discharged and that they did not know that the fireworks were being discharged and they can provide law enforcement with the identity and contact information for the person who was responsible for that gathering then that would potentially exempt the property owner from a liability for the violation And a third thing that is typically done in these types of ordinances is where we have fireworks that are discharged in common areas of multifamily residential properties. So at an apartment complex, if someone is discharging the fireworks in the common area, the other individuals who are around there would not necessarily be responsible unless they were the person who actually organized it or allowed it or caused it. YOU KNOW, IF IT WAS THEIR FRIEND OR WHATEVER THAT WAS DOING THE DISCHARGE. SO THESE ARE THE TYPICAL SORT OF EXEMPTIONS, BUT AGAIN, THIS IS DONE PRIMARILY TO PROMOTE RESPONSIBLE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP, RIGHT? IT'S NOT ENOUGH JUST TO SIT BACK AND COLLECT THE RENT AND SAY, HEY, WHATEVER YOU DO ON MY PROPERTY IS OKAY. IT IS NO. THIS IS YOUR PROPERTY. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT FIREWORKS WHEN WE KNOW THIS FOR THE MOST PART OTHER THAN THOSE FEW INCISES WHEN THE DODGERS ACTUALLY WIN SOMETHING. Yeah. I'm a Yankee fan. I'm sorry. Not sorry that I'm a Yankee fan. Sorry that I made the comment.

It's been a tough week, yes.

Yes, yes, yes. Tough couple of years. But the idea, again, is to ensure that property owners are not just sitting back and accepting money for and saying, okay, anything you do is now okay. But it's, no, you accept the money. This is your business to rent this property out. Be responsible. Ensure that your tenants are complying with the law. Now, another example of what can be put into a socialist ordinance is a prohibition of people who are spectators at illegal fireworks discharges. And this is very similar to an ordinance that we've actually already enacted in our city with respect to speed contests. So one of the things that we did a couple of years ago is we prohibited speed contests and we prohibited being a spectator at a speed contest. And the reason for that is because we know that when there is a crowd, you're actually enticing people to continue to commit the crime, right? And put people in jeopardy and put property in danger, right? Especially with respect to fireworks. So the idea would be kind of imposing a similar idea to the issue of fireworks. So where in these types of ordinances, what they do is they would prohibit someone from being a spectator at an illegal fireworks discharge, where spectators would then be defined to be somebody who is within a certain distance, for example, 200 feet of the illegal discharge, who is there for the purpose of watching that illegal discharge. And so again, this would be something where we're not trying to get just any passerby who happens to be walking by. But again, it's the idea of you're creating a show. And we know this with fireworks locations. And what ends up happening is, most of the times, it's not done on private property. It's done on cul-de-sacs. It's done in city property. And we end up having streets blocked, making it difficult for emergency service personnel to be able to respond to issues. And again, because we have this large group of spectators that are watching these events, it kind of entices the people who are discharging fireworks illegally to continue to do that for the show. And so that's just another example of something that could be regulated or prohibited within a social host ordinance. Lastly, I just want to point out two additional things. One is penalties. What would be the penalties for these types of things? Generally, it's the same as it would be for the person who's actually doing the illegal discharge. So, it would still be, for example, in our community, an administrative citation. So, if somebody is illegally discharging dangerous fireworks, the first violation is $4,000 for the person who's discharging. It would be the same thing for the social host who's allowing this to happen on their property. And obviously, if it were second offense, third offense, or more, it would go up just as it would for the person who's doing the illegal discharge. The other thing that I just wanted to point out is, and I mentioned this at the beginning with respect to the reason behind these laws. And I want to kind of fold that in with what Captain Perino was talking about with respect to the drone usage. Because the reality is, to some degrees, these go hand in hand. So, when we are talking about utilizing our police services to enforce our fireworks regulations, a big difficulty becomes what Captain Perino talked about, which is actually getting on scene and being able to identify the person who's responsible. With the ability to use drones, especially when we're talking about social host ordinances, it makes it a lot easier for us to find a responsible person. These drones go up, many of them have thermal sensors on them, so we can pinpoint exactly what property something was discharged from. And then we can find out exactly who the property owner is rather than sending our ground forces there to try and get through, you know, the spectators that are all there and get there in time to be able to identify the specific person who discharged it. There is kind of a more easy process to be able to go through this to be able to assess it against the social host. But it's not just about that, right? I mean, again, it's not just about making it easy for our law enforcement. I mean, it does that, but that's not the only thing. There's other reasons for doing it. One is typically we get there after the fact. And the body cam that the law enforcement is using or the dash cams that we have, it records certain things. We take photographs, but typically it is after the fact. With the drones, we're able to actually record the actual incident happening. So even if someone wanted to fight the case, we have evidence that is something that can be reviewed and used by both sides, right? So the ability to actually record and document the violation as it is happening as opposed to after the fact helps everybody out, both the accused as well as law enforcement. Additionally, there would be an increase in our ability to respond to emergencies because as opposed to us driving around the entire city and trying to get everywhere, we're kind of flying as the bird goes, right, as the bird flies in essence. And so we're able to see things at a quicker rate. Many of these drones, and I'm not sure if the ones that we're talking about specifically right now, but many of these drones have live video feeds, so someone can actually monitor what's being recorded as it happens, and we can respond quicker to those particular incidents that require a ground response, meaning if something starts a fire or something of that nature, we don't have to wait for something to be reported. Additionally, This type of use of drones, especially with respect to fireworks, has proven successful in other communities to actually deter violations. And that's a big part of what we're doing. It's not just because we're issuing more citations to people. Yes, that does deter violations, and the increased fines deters violations. But the idea that you can now be held responsible as a property owner with a social host ordinance, or the fact that if you are illegally discharging and you're looking out for the police, but wow, now there's one overhead, you have to be a lot more cautious of doing it. And so many of these perpetrators who do the illegal fireworks discharges will go somewhere else to discharge them. There are plenty of locations where they can go they're going to do it illegally here or somewhere else, but if there's less enforcement somewhere else or there's an ease of being caught here because of the drone usage and because of the social host ordinance, you will have property owners hopefully who are taking more responsibility and you'll have the perpetrators who are more concerned about being caught because there are drones ahead that it will deter that type of behavior. And then lastly, Part of the use of the drones, as well as the social assurances, but more about the use of the drones, will actually preserve our officers' resources to be able to actually respond to those other emergencies that are actually occurring during the same period of time. Because we can fly the drones overhead and the citation that gets issued to the property owner is not issued on the spot. It's issued within the next couple of days. It's mailed out. Our ground forces can actually be responding to other types of emergencies throughout the city, which oftentimes is diverted because of everything that's going on with the fireworks enforcement. So overall, the social host ordinance, like I say, is meant and designed to actually promote responsibility by property owners to ensure that they're caring for what goes on at their properties it goes hand in hand with our ability to use the drones again to preserve officer resources to deter criminal activity but primarily all of this is being done to preserve the health safety and welfare of our community and with that i will answer any questions that you may have thank you jim again i think the

Public safety benefits of this ordinance and amending our city code is really to protect our residents, to reduce injuries that the 132% increase in injuries due to the legal discharge of fireworks. It's just in the last couple of years. Those are pretty sobering numbers. And also seeing that we don't have a fire season anymore. Fire season is year-round these days. In fact, I remember some years ago, one of our facilities here off of Lakewood and Stewart and Gray was caught fire, if I'm not mistaken. And there was an evacuation that took place. And again, thankfully, we didn't have any serious injuries. But I think what I see about this is not us just being punitive and wanting to penalize, but as you've indicated, promote responsible home ownership. We are doing, over the course of the last several years, we have had various conversations How do we manage, how do we make sure that we are enforcing what we have in place? But certainly the reduction in potential injuries and increasing, when we talk about continuing to increase quality of life and public safety in our neighborhoods, This is the type of ordinance that we're amending of our city code, that municipal code that needs to happen. I'm very appreciative of the information that you've provided to us this evening. Council colleagues, do any of you have any thoughts, comments about what we've just discussed?

Yeah, I just wanna add, thank you, Mr. Eckert. That was a great set of additional information there. And the reason why I asked the question to Captain Perino and you helped, it was very eloquent answer, just like you said, very eloquent by Mr. Perino, Captain Perino. Um, no, cause I, I've heard over the years, uh, you know, I've been in this town for a long time. I've heard over the years, uh, residents, just people I know complaining that people have, you know, lit these illegal fireworks in front of their properties and it's just not fair to them. So, uh, both of you did a great job and adding clarification. I'm sure the, uh, the residents appreciate. So thank you. Of course.

Thank you. I just have a question. I know you said that when they receive that citation of the next two days, there will still be a contact with the resident or the homeowner that night? Or they're just not going to get contact from?

Not necessarily. And again, maybe Captain Papernio can speak a little bit more about kind of how it would be done, but not necessarily on that night. And I think that's part of the ability with the drones is to be able to document the stuff and not have to necessarily send someone every single night in order to be able to do that. That being said, once the citation is issued, they have all the rights that are part of that administrative citation, meaning that they have the right to appeal it. They can contact the police department. But I'm not sure if the, I don't believe that the goal is to have the police department send ground forces to every single location where they have found a violation on that specific night.

Yes, that is correct. with one mitigating circumstance on that. But generally, ideally, I think it'd be more advantageous not to. Oftentimes, especially with this time, 4th of July is going to fall on a Saturday night. We anticipate people drinking. They're oftentimes very unfriendly. We get a lot of negative commentary about how we're ruining Independence Day by using the citation, and it becomes a challenge. So if we see a single violation coming up, someone's discharging an illegal firework up in the sky, camera records that come from their backyard, their front yard, ideally it would be allowing a cooling off period. We would issue the citation. We'd issue a cover letter explaining the whole process, why, being informative, giving them a point of contact with the police department. But the one exception would be, was... Is what if they just keep firing off fireworks? Are we just going to sit there and keep recording it all night long and allowing this one specific residence to terrorize that whole neighborhood? At that point in time, if we continue to see violations, then it's going to be using the drone to continue watching it and then direct officers in to make contact and take enforcement action on that point in time. Because we just can't allow a single individual just to be firing off all night long and just send off a ticket a couple days later and allow it to go on. Thank you.

Yes, I have a few comments and questions. I'm a big advocate, of course, to say because of the M80s and the noise, let's ban fireworks. However, we have so many nonprofits here in our city that benefit from the safe and sane, and that's the day I was growing up. But we have to do something to address the M80s. I remember last year, for the last couple years, Um, particular resident in my area, um, kept lighting them off, had that house party. And, um, I was vigilant and made a call and PD did come out and to the house in the morning. There was a case left there in the street because he shot them all off. Once, you know, the, all the party left 238. I don't know, cartridges in this case. It was probably 50 pounds. And not only is that dangerous, but what it does to the pets, to the seniors, to autistic. I mean, I can go on. We all know it just annoys us to no end. My cats are, every room has music on. People are sedating their dogs. We have to do something to the illegal fireworks that are causing the havoc in this city. And last year, the year before, increasing the fines was the way to start because that $1,000 wasn't doing much. $1,000 a pair of Nikes these days. $4,000, now we're talking business. And I also like seeing on one of our major arteries, Firestone, for example, you had a sign. illegal fireworks, what the fine was. That warned people. So I had a note here to say, with this new policy that drones are in effect, is it something that we might want to put on the signage, the use of drones now on that, or not?

Yeah, so we'll continue with those signs for the city coming in and out, you know, announcing the fines.

To kind of warn people.

And there'll be a social media campaign. Captain Perino and I have both talked about it. And we're really trying to educate the public. A lot of the perception is, oh, we're just trying to make money, per se. No, we're trying to enforce the firework violations while we're still freeing up our officers. We average over 100 firework calls a night. And as it was mentioned, it's on a Saturday night this year. It's going to be a busy night. without the fireworks.

And regarding with the number of citations, when I first came into office, I took a look. Well, how many are we citing? We're something like 30, 35 citations that were out there. And then later we go after collecting on the fee. Last year, I think we only came down a little bit because of certain circumstances, maybe only 20 citations. But there's more than 20 M80s being fired around town. So we need a way to address that. I put a note here to say, hotline because residents know where the illegal fireworks are being shot off. It's continually a certain house or a certain block or a certain something. Maybe it might be advantageous for us to know exactly some of these hot areas that we might want to have. If you know of an area that's been consistently a problem, this might be an area to do the drones. Where would you be sending drones out? How many do we have again? Ten?

On that night, our plan is to have two two-man teams deploying the two drones, and they'll be rotating around through the city.

Okay, two? Okay.

But the hotline issue is something that a lot of jurisdictions do, where they create a hotline specifically for reporting illegal fireworks issues.

I'll put a call in for that one. I do like the exemption, the owner calls. Say, for example, you have a tenant or you know of something and that you do call and say that. So I like that recommendation to have those types of exemptions in there. Responsibility, hosting, yes. And How are we citing the spectator fine and how much was that?

Well, so right now the idea would be that the fine for the spectator as well as for the social host would be the same as the person who's discharging. But that is something that the city council could pass a different fine amount if they wanted to via resolution.

Okay. And I quickly took a look at the social media comments on this topic, and I wrote down, the drones are now called the hero of Downey. So we'll see what happens. But I'm definitely for trying again to do something else to stop this proliferation of illegal fireworks. So thank you very much.

I just need a little clarification. You said spectator fine. How would you use drones to dictate the spectators? They're going to get a ticket or...

The drones wouldn't necessarily be used for the spectators, although it could if it could capture who the specific person is as opposed to the property owner, which is easier. But that would be used for something where if the police department does have to respond or the fire department does respond and they confront an entire group of people who are out there watching a fireworks display, they could issue out the citations there on the spot if need be.

I really think this is what an opportunity to use this technology to increase our public safety and continue protecting the quality of life or increase the quality of life of our neighborhoods. When we had the issues of the racing and the donuts and those takeovers, again, unless there is also some type of accountability and consequence, not just to the drivers, but to the spectators that are also bringing in more people. Sometimes we remember the social media and getting these events going. It's not that we're trying to be heavy handed. What we are trying to do is answer to our residents. This is a hot topic that we hear about every 4th of July, but also every time we have a big holiday, whether the Dodgers win or not, having this drone capability and technology. I think it's smart policy and it's also going to allow us to reduce on the overtime costs for our officers and all in all really we are trying to do all we can to increase the quality of life for everybody you know we have people that have been in the military that have PTSD. And Council Member Pemberton, you mentioned our pets. I know I have to sedate my dogs. And every time there's been Fourth of July celebrations and fireworks going off, my pets have had some pretty severe accidents because of that. So again, I think we don't want to be heavy-handed and come across as wanting to put a lid on people's celebrations, but we do need to be responsible, and we need to be able to have good quality of life in our neighborhoods without being subjected to these crazy illegal fireworks that pose a threat to our properties, our people, and I, at this time, In quality of life. In quality of life, absolutely. At this time, I will, if my colleagues don't have any additional questions or comments, I will make a motion. Can I get a second? Second. And this is to number one, Let me read it. Receive this information and the deployment of drones by our Downey PD during the upcoming Independence Day period to more accurately identify locations where legal fireworks are being discharged and to help detect, record, and document violations from the air and also to amend our Downey Municipal Code to impose a liability on property owners. Can we also add... the spectators to this. So.

Go ahead. Yes on the direction of the council and as Jim included as an option is presentation but it could certainly be added if that's the council's preference.

And if my council colleagues to include that.

I just have one clarification is it I know that I mentioned earlier that we're only focusing on 4th of July but it's something that my colleagues are interested maybe expanding this program to not just 4th of July but OTHER MAJOR HOLIDAYS OR EVENTS OTHER MAJOR HOLIDAYS OR EVENTS THAT WE KNOW OR ARE WE JUST THAT WE KNOW OR ARE WE JUST GOING TO USE THIS THE FIRST GOING TO USE THIS THE FIRST TIME, LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

TIME, LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS. I WOULD SAY THAT THE I WOULD SAY THAT THE ORDINANCE ITSELF WILL ALLOW IT ORDINANCE ITSELF WILL ALLOW IT TO BE USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. TO BE USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

SO THAT WON'T BE A CODE ISSUE, SO THAT WON'T BE A CODE ISSUE, THAT'LL JUST BE AN ACTUAL POLICY THAT'LL JUST BE AN ACTUAL POLICY ISSUE ABOUT WHEN YOU ACTUALLY ISSUE ABOUT WHEN YOU ACTUALLY UTILIZE IT. UTILIZE IT. COUNCIL MEMBER

I made a motion, we had a second, and again, to amend our Downey Municipal Code to impose liability on property owners, as well as spectators, if illegal fireworks are used or found at their property, even if they did not light or otherwise permit them. And again, based on the information we received, this technology is so advanced, right, with the infrared, really, and heat, you mentioned some heat element, Thermal sensors. Thermal sensors. They're able to detect exactly when and if that firework was discharged there. So there's a first. I made the first. There's a second.

I just want to make sure we got it. So we're doing the social host ordinance. That includes some of the exemptions we discussed as well as cost recovery in case we have to enforce it. Yes. And then the spectators. We got everything. Okay. Yes.

I don't think that we covered the cost recovery in the presentation. And if that's the council's desire to include that, it might be helpful just to provide some additional detail about that.

So within a social ordinance, one additional thing that is often included is the ability to recover the costs that are associated with responding to any actual incident, the storage, the disposal of the fireworks that are confiscated from that location. Because oftentimes if there is a response to it, We have to actually confiscate whatever additional illegal fireworks remain. So the proposed code would ultimately have a provision, if that's what the council's desire, that would authorize us to utilize administrative remedies to collect the cost associated with responding to illegal fireworks activities.

Yes, colleagues, are we in agreement? Yes. Yes, to include that. Yes, please do. Let's go ahead and vote.

Just really quick. One last question just popped up. Maybe this is for the chief. You mentioned earlier it was just two drones for the whole city of Downey. Is that enough for the whole city? Or is it something that we're just going to start out with just two?

Yeah, that's how it started. So each drone that's been flown has to have an observer as well, so that's why it's the two-man teams. And it'll be rotating out the batteries and different things like that. We believe that with those two drones flying around, it should hopefully give us enough ability there. Our officers on the ground will still be enforcing any fireworks that they see as well. But yeah, this obviously could expand in future years and even you mentioned on different events that could occur. We had a presentation today where drones and technology are just expanding so much and there's gonna be a lot more potential use for drones in the future, but yeah.

If I tag on his question with just two, do you think it would be possible to have a hotline number where residents could ahead of time kind of say this is a hot area and maybe to keep an eye on, something to that nature?

We can maybe put a, I don't know if I have a designated line other than our non-emergency line to dispatch. Your cell phone or something? But we can get creative on our social media posts. Perfect, perfect. And someone for people to be able to report. Yes. Report leading up to 4th of July.

Thank you. And I know our city attorney.

I just wish to point out one final item. If the council elects to move forward with amending the ordinance, the intention would be to bring it back at the next meeting on June 23rd on an urgency basis so that it would take effect before the upcoming Independence Day celebration. As an urgency ordinance under our charter, those are subject to a fourth this vote. And so I just wanted to point that out before the council takes its vote on whether to return with the ordinance or not.

Yes, we need to return with that emergency ordinance the next council meeting. I made the motion. Council Member Sosa seconded. Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Captain Perino. Thank you, Chief. Well, we have reached the end of our council meeting agenda. I would like to let you all know that tonight we will be adjourning our meeting in memory of Judy Shirley. She was a dedicated Downey resident and cherished member of the community. She passed away on May 18th. Judy was a resident of Downey since 1981, and she spent over four decades building a beautiful life here in this city and raising three children, all proud graduates of Downey High School. Shirley recently developed a passion for exploring the world and loved to travel whenever she could. Her greatest joy, however, was taking care of her friends and family, always finding ways to support and lift up the people she loved in any way she could. Shirley's commitment to serving others extended deeply into the fabric of our city. She spent years cooking and serving meals at Trinity Lutheran Church and later brought the same generous spirit to the Assistance League of Downey. Most recently, Judy served as the league's membership chairman and was a familiar welcoming face, volunteering at the assistant league's thrift shop second time around. Judy's decades of dedicated service, leadership, and kindness have left an indelible mark on Downey. And Shirley's legacy will continue to inspire the community she loves so much. At this time,

Mayor, I'm sorry. Can we take the council comments and city manager comments? Oh. My apologies.

My apologies, yes. I am ready to keep moving us forward. We will pause that about Judy Shirley, the dedicated Downey resident, and I will start to my far left with council member comments.

Thank you, Mayor. I don't have much to report. I do want to report to my colleagues and to our city that I was just sworn in to represent Downey as a member of the California Contract Cities Association, which supports local control. More to come on that. I know that you have served or our colleagues have served. So I'm excited to represent our great city. It represents 80 cities with 8 million residents. So I'm excited for that. Also, if anybody doesn't know yet, but we're a fan zone for FIFA, join us June 20th. And tickets are still available for our VIP area. So more to come. And I did join a neighborhood watch meeting on Don Robin. And I do want to say thank you to Matt. I know they're pretty excited for the streetlights that they're getting there soon. So thank you so much, Mayor. That's it.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz. Now, what committee are you going to be on for Contract Cities?

I'm an all member.

The district, the director at large. Very good. I held that position too. Congratulations. Council Member Sosa.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a couple things. I did attend a Southeast Water Coalition meeting. Nothing to report. I just wanted to let you know that I did attend that meeting earlier this week. Also, this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the HFA, which is Home Field Advantage. COMMUNITY CUP CHAMPIONSHIP FOR SOCCER AND WE HAD TEAMS, FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADERS, 26 TEAMS HAVE BEEN PLAYING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR FROM FOUR DIFFERENT DISTRICTS, DOWNY, WOODIER CITY, ALMANI AND COMPTON AND THIS RESONATED WITH ME BECAUSE I SPENT MANY YEARS HERE IN NEW SPORTS WITH D.J. AND ALSO WEST DOWNY LITTLE LEAGUE. But, you know, it was really cool. The kids were really competitive. And, you know, unfortunately, there was only one winner. There was some heartbreak on the field. I saw the final, and it was a great game. I enjoyed it. And I bring this up because I was really impressed with HFA, home field advantage. They're also not only giving these kids an opportunity. When I was involved with DJ for over a dozen years, it's a great rec sports league that allows kids to play basketball, baseball, and flag football from kindergarten through eighth. In fact, I took one of my son's teams from kindergarten through eighth grade. And it's a great concept. But what's different about this is you have You have these fourth and fifth graders that get to play against other cities, which is a great experience for them. And a lot of these kids, you might have like maybe two or three of them that go on to play club soccer. But the rest of them, they're just playing rec ball. And it's an opportunity for them to be part of a team, to get that exercise in and build a lot of confidence. And there's so many opportunities. I'll be here all night if I discuss all the benefits for youth sports. But anyways, it was really neat to see these fourth and fifth graders compete against kids from other cities, not just their own city. And I also noticed that some of the coaches were young teenagers, were teenagers and young adults developing leadership skills. As mentioned, I've been involved with youth sports for a long time in the city. And I know I do have a request of staff. I know field space is tight. I know it's really tight. And what I'd like to do is just at least have a conversation. I'd like the city staff to help facilitate a meeting. I'd like to be involved with that with HFA and the school district to see how we can help support and discuss field access. I know it's pretty tight because we have a lot of competing entities. But at least I just want to have that conversation and see if we can help support and see if we can do anything for HFA.

Council Member Sosa, did we not still have the subcommittee, the task force, the city in Downey Unified?

It's been a little while since we've had a meeting, and so we actually reached out to them today, I believe, to see about setting up our next meeting, and that might be a place where we can have that conversation.

And I think Council Member Sosa and I are the committee members on that task force.

I think that would be great. We're due for a meeting soon? We are long overdue. We are working on setting that up and that item on the agenda we can talk about. Perfect.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

IS THAT ALL? IS THAT ALL? IS THAT ALL? THAT'S IT. THAT'S IT.

THAT'S IT. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER PEMBERTON. COUNCIL MEMBER PEMBERTON. Take your time.

I wanted to also report as a trustee of the SIACA board that we, again, had another no-cost spay or neuter event over the past three days about a week ago with a nonprofit called Animal Balance. Over 1,200 people called to get this free spay and neutering, but only 200 could be accommodated over that three-day period. But 200 animals were spayed and neutered. And so that's why I say it's critical that cities work with helping to reduce the overpopulation of pets, spaying and neutering their own pet. And I'm pleased that my colleagues saw the need and approved a program for Downey residents to reimburse the spaying fee for a cat for $150 or $300 for two in the household. So I want to keep continuing to do that and telling our Downey residents to get your cats spayed and neutered. And then we attended last week Yacht Rock at the Downey Theater. Parks and Rec did a great job in scheduling a whole different genre of artists in there. It was a good turnout and a good array of artists who... Played their popular songs of the 70s and 80s. I know some weren't born, but anyway, they were great songs, and you all know them. Brandy, You're a Fine Girl, you know that one. The Greek Festival, you're going to mention probably going. I attended as well. It's always great to see our different ethnic groups put on their hosting for good food and invigorating music. And you mentioned the Assistance League scholarships last night. They did a great job with all the young people there. um this friday at the downey theater is depeche mode the experience uh they are playing i'll be there again front and center and tickets are still available they're a great band and you mentioned concerts in the park um in our real quick in our consent calendar you know there's a couple ITEMS IN THERE, THANK YOU FOR OUR PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR WITH ALWAYS LOOKING FOR OUR INFRASTRUCTURE. SO IT'S THINGS PEOPLE DON'T SEE. WE HAD A COUPLE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS WE'RE MOVING FORWARD WITH OR GETTING BIDS ON, THE APOLLO PARK STORM WATER CAPTURE, FOSTER ROAD DRAIN IMPROVEMENT AND A WATER WELL. SO WE'RE ALWAYS LOOKING AT OUR INFRASTRUCTURE TO MAKE SURE IT'S FUNCTIONING VERY WELL. I want to give a shout out and thank our police department again from residents in Orange Estates who are seeing drivers and your officers in their area being either pulled over for violations. I was waiting at Fifth Street and I saw a car blow through and your officer made a 90 degree turn and inside is that. And that's what our residents want to see. So I know they're working hard. So I appreciate them working even in the evening when I see the lights on as well. And also for residents, know that we have e-bike rules. I talked with our police chief that they are on the books. E-bikes should not be driven on sidewalks. There's a number of injuries, and residents are concerned about that. But we'll keep watch over everything. And that concludes my comments, and I appreciate us ending for Judy Shirley in memory of Judy Shirley tonight. She was a one in a million.

She was. And Council Member Pemberton, perhaps we may also want to... have on our social media platforms, what is the municipal code and how should people use their e-bikes? Because I know this is something that is an issue that many cities are facing, the increased use of e-bikes, the speed, and also sidewalks. If we can do a little bit of community education. Chief?

Yeah, we are certainly seeing an uptake in that and so a lot of the other communities. So we can put something on our social medias and we'll get something on that soon.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, colleagues. I don't have much else to report. I've said it at the beginning of our meeting. I'm just looking forward to spending time with our community members, with our residents at the summer concert series in the parks coming up in two weeks. And I also want to highlight, and perhaps, City Manager, you can also jump in on this, The City of Downey, City Hall is moving in a bit of a different direction. We'll be able to serve our residents earlier and a little later. But beginning, I will let you say that beginning next month, we will be closing on Friday. So go ahead and...

Yes, that's correct, Mayor. So, yeah, we are expanding the Monday through Thursday hours here at City Hall. So we'll be open now at 7 in the morning and closing at 6 o'clock. So it allows more time for residents to come down and take care of business, engage in services here, extra half an hour. So you get a whole hour now, hopefully before work, if you need to come down and take care, grab a permit or... You're having a yard sale that weekend. Come on down. We'll give you help as well as an hour after work as well through. So hopefully 5 o'clock to 6, you can come down and do some extra work. And as a result, we also will be closed on Friday starting on July 6th. We're doing that for a few months to kind of test things out. We have been working to make sure that we have a lot of... Almost all of our service is available virtually. So if there's some things that you need to take care of, pay a bill, actually get a permit. You can do a lot of these things online and take care of them at home late in the evening when you're eating some ice cream and having a good time and not have to worry about coming down here. But we're always available to the public. If you need us, we'll be available Monday through Thursday, 7 o'clock to 6 at night. So thank you, Mary.

Thank you. And that is starting July 6th. And I know the social media platforms have already started letting our residents know we will continue. And I think this council will continue to share those posts so that it gets greater reach. What I wanted to ask is we've... This council has been really focused on infrastructure improvements. And since 2021, and it's been a five-year process, since 2021, this council, or previous council that I was a part of, we had voted to have that over $30 million in street rehabilitation improvement projects. It hasn't happened overnight. It hasn't happened over the last year. It's been five years in the making. And what I would like to ask is to have social media to put together what this program or project has been over the last five years, almost the before and after and really do an educational and informative campaign for our residents. Our residents sometimes seem to forget and or people that are new to Downey, new over the last couple of years that this infrastructure street rehabilitation project investment in our city has been ongoing since 2021. and all of the great things that have occurred. I think that is really important. So thank you. Thank you, everybody. And once again, we are adjourning this meeting in memory of Judy Shirley, dedicated Downey resident and cherished member of our community. A moment of silence. Thank you. It is 8.35. This meeting is adjourned.