City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. Welcome. It is July 28th. Our regular meeting closed session is at 530. I would like to call to order this regular City Council meeting closed session. The time is 531. City Clerk Duarte, would you please take the roll?

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

Present.

Council Member Trujillo. Here. Mayor Procha-Mortiz.

Here.

And Mayor Frometa. Present. Thank you. So I will go ahead and open it up. But before I begin this meeting, I would like to inform members of the public that I will be taking public comments regarding closed session items also via two-way telephonic service after the conclusion of our in-person public comments. Those wishing to address the City Council remotely may now call 888- 788-0099 or 877-853-5247 to attend and participate in this meeting. I also want to remind speakers that the city's council meeting rules will also apply to members of the audience and speakers participating in person and remotely. I will pause and hand it over to our city attorney Funk for his comments regarding this.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Among other things, to append to the Mayor's comments regarding the applicability of the City's meeting rules to online and in-person public comment, that includes the protocols for disruptive behavior under both the City's meeting rules and the Brown Act. Remote participants who engage in behavior that disrupts the proceedings of the City Council will be subject to the same warning and removal process that in-person participants are subject to. This means that they will first receive a warning and then have the remote comment period ended if they do not cease their disruptive conduct. Thank you.

Thank you City Attorney Funk. Now is the time for public comment for items listed under the closed session agenda. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the council unless modified by me. Once again Again, I remind speakers 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. Members of the audience and speakers who violate these rules and cause a disruption will receive one warning. and then they 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. Speakers participating remotely may now dial star 9 to raise their hand to speak. Speakers will be identified by the last three digits of their phone number. When it is your turn to speak, you will be prompted to unmute your telephone line by dialing star six. So star nine to raise your hand and to unmute star six. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. Your telephone line will be muted when your time has expired. City Clerk Duarte, did we receive any written public comment regarding closed session items? We did not, Mayor. Okay. Do we have members of the public wishing to speak on the closed session item? We do not, Mayor. Okay. Do we have any members of the public waiting to speak on the phone?

We have none, Mayor.

Okay. I will make a motion. Can I get a second to close public comment? Second. OK, so order by the mayor. Regarding our closed session tonight, the city council will now recess to closed session under the following authorities government code section 54956.95. It's a liability claim. Jaime Llamas versus the city of Downey is a workers' compensation. Claim number 22-167123. Workers' compensation appeals board number ADJ16732971. The agency claimed against is the city of Downey. And number two, government code section 54957B1, public employee appointment, and the title is a finance director and IT director. We will now recess to closed session. The time is 536. Good evening, everybody. I will now reconvene the regular council meeting closed session. City Attorney Funk, will you please report the closed session action?

Yes, good evening, Mayor, Council, and members of the public. In tonight's closed session, the City Council addressed and discussed both items that were agendized on the closed session agenda for tonight. There is no reportable action from tonight's proceedings. Thank you.

Thank you, City Attorney Funk. And I will turn it over to our City Manager for a brief announcement.

Thank you, Mayor. After deliberating, Council did ratify my appointment of Mr. Marlon Ramirez as our next Director of Finance. So very pleased with this appointment and having him on our team. So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. We are very happy with that appointment, Marlon. I know you've done a terrific job and you will continue to do that. Well, before we begin the regular city council meeting open session, I would like to inform members of the public that I will be taking public comments regarding the public hearing item and agenda and non-agenda items also via two-way telephonic service. after the conclusion of our in-person public comments. Those wishing to address the City Council remotely may now call 888-788-0099 or 877-853-5247 and enter the meeting ID 842-888-923601 to attend and participate in the meeting. via telephone. I also would like to remind members of the audience that anyone wishing to speak during public comment must obtain a number card from the city clerk. Number cards should not be exchanged with other meeting attendees. If you decide to leave the meeting early, you must return the number card to city staff. If you didn't obtain a number card and wish to speak, please proceed to the back of the room and city staff will issue you a number card. Lining up during public comment will not be permitted and each speaker should remain in their seat until their number is called. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. Per the city's council meeting rules and for fire safety regulations, all persons participating in person shall remain seated unless addressing the council or entering or leaving the chambers. Standing in the aisles or along the walls is prohibited. I remind speakers that the city's council meeting rules will apply to members of the public participating in person and remotely. I will also ask our city attorney, Funk, to address additional comments.

Thank you, Mayor. Just to append to the Mayor's comments regarding the applicability of the city's meeting rules to both in-person attendees and remote attendees. Among other things, that includes the protocols for disruptive behavior under both the city's meeting rules and the Brown Act. REMOTE PARTICIPANTS WHO ENGAGE IN BEHAVIOR THAT DISRUPTS THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL WILL BE SUBJECT TO THE SAME WARNING AND REMOVAL PROCESS THAT IN-PERSON PARTICIPANTS ARE SUBJECT TO. THIS MEANS THAT THEY WILL FIRST RECEIVE A WARNING AND THEN HAVE THE REMOTE COMMENT PERIOD ENDED IF THEY DO NOT CEASE THEIR DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU, SEAT ATTORNEY FUNK. I WILL NOW CALL TO ORDER THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OPEN SESSION. THE TIME IS 6.35. CITY CLERK DUARTE, PLEASE TAKE ROLL.

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

Present.

Council Member Trujillo? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz?

Present.

And Mayor Frometa? Present.

At this time, I would like to call on for the invocation, Pastor Chad Nachtenbogen from Calvary Chapel Downey. And if I mispronounce your name, please, my apologies. Let's stand, please.

Thank you, council members, Madam Mayor. Father, we come before you, Lord, and we thank you that we have this wonderful city. And as we sit here as residents and servants of this city, I pray that, Lord, you would continue to bless it. This place is a wonderful place, Lord. And, Father, I know as I represent the school at Calvary Chapel Downing, Lord, we are praying for our local government. We enjoy the freedoms we have in this city, and we enjoy the fact that we have a great relationship with our city and our city officials. Lord, we pray that you would bless this meeting and that, Lord, you would always be at the center of everything we do because, God, you are the creator of the universe. And so, Father, we give you this night in Jesus' name. Amen.

And at this time, if you may please remain standing, I would like to call on Girl Scout Troop number 275 to conduct the flag salute. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

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

Thank you. Can we please give, you may be seated, can we please give. Girl Scout Troop 275, a big round of applause. I am informed that one of the young ladies, this is her last year with her Girl Scout Troop after many years of service, and I want to thank you, Girl Scouts, for joining us from the littlest the brownies to the older young ladies. Your participation in your city council meeting and your civic pride and civic duty is wonderful to see. Thank you for joining us every Tuesday when you're able. Thank you again. Good evening, everybody, and welcome back to your city council meeting. After a three-week summer recess, we are back, ready to continue to do the work you have elected us to do. And let me tell you that even though this council did not meet in the previous meeting, That doesn't mean staff in this council, we're not attending other important meetings and events for the benefit of our city. And so even though we have now a summer recess, we are still hard at work on your behalf. I want to welcome some of the VIPs we have in the house, certainly the Downey Kiwanis club members that are here part of their board, would you please stand and be recognized? We also have the president of the DDIA. Thank you for joining us, Jorge. We also have the executive director of our Downey Chamber of Commerce, Michael Calvert. Thank you for joining us. and i want to remind members of the public we only have two weeks left believe it or not it seems like summer is still in full swing but we only have two weeks left of our concerts in the park tomorrow wednesday is an 80s band and our final concert will be next wednesday with the Downey Symphony and I want to give a special thank you to Jason and the Parks and Recreation team which many are here this evening because we will have a presentation shortly, but thank you for making the parks the way they are, right? We talk about parks make life better and we certainly are blessed in the city of Downey to have such wonderful parks, but it takes a dedicated team of individuals to be working and providing the different uh the various types of programming for our community residents so thank you and thank you for all the work that goes uh behind the scenes for our concerts in the park we have thousands of people that join us over the the few weeks that we offer these wonderful concerts in the park and it's all about coming together and enjoying music entertainment but also enjoying community this is what makes downey special I will leave my conference reports till the end of our meeting when the council does conference reports. And you may ask, why do council members, why do you have the conference reports? Because any time that we are attending a conference or a training on behalf of the city of Downey as elected representatives, we owe it to our residents, to the people that have elected us, to give you quick overview of what we've learned and what we've done to represent you. So we will do that as we've done before at the end of our meeting tonight. But we have some great presentations this evening. There's five and I will begin with the Mayor's Champion Award and I'm going to go downstairs to get that done. We are rearranging a little bit the order of our presentations. And this is one of the times in our council meeting that I think my council colleagues and I look forward to. And that is recognizing individuals in our community that have contributed in significant ways. And tonight, we have the recognition to state arts artists for the paintings that they created during our FIFA Downey Fan Zone. And I would like to call upon Gabriel Enamorado, the Executive Director of State Arts, to provide the presentation.

How are you?

Hi, everyone. Thank you all for having us. This is a really special project that we got to collaborate with the city of Downey on. For those of you that are or are not familiar with STAY Arts, we are a 501 nonprofit based here in the city of Downey. We have grown a lot over the years. We started as a partnership with the city of Downey, building State Gallery, which some of you may be familiar with. And we've grown as an organization, our team has grown, and we've really expanded our arts education offerings, and also our public art project partnerships with the city and other institutions in the area. This past year, when the FIFA World Cup event was happening, the Fan Zone, We partnered with the city to not only do workshops for the community, but we also partnered to bring in some of our artists to do live paintings during the event. Those paintings are here now, and they are going to be gifted to the city of Downey as part of a commemoration for the Fan Zone event. Unfortunately, Sergio Robledo couldn't join us, but we do have Coco with us tonight. Coco, if you're pleased, more than welcome to come and join me. Coco and Sergio both made these incredible paintings. If you guys were at the FIFA Fan Zone, you might have seen them working on these paintings. And, you know, we're just so, so excited, not only to be able to give work to artists like Coco, but to also partner with the city and then be able to gift these and hopefully see these hung at City Hall. And so shall we unveil?

Yes, let's do that. And again, for those of you, raise your hands for those of you that... took part, that attended the FIFA Fan Zone event on June 20th. It was really a phenomenal event. I know all of our city. Thank you to staff for doing a phenomenal job getting that. But as you've indicated, Gabe, your state arts played a critical role in making sure that our little ones, that families were engaged with activities and painting. And the arts, as we know, arts and music are very important to any and every community. And the fact that STAY Arts has been able to blossom after the partnership we've had for about, what, 10 years, it's really remarkable. You've shared with me the calendar of events and all of the different things that you are doing now, and that is really outstanding. And Coco, I can't wait to see, I've seen some of them, but I can't wait to see them again. So, shall we?

First of all, I want to say thank you so much to the mayor and to Gabe for the opportunity to paint live for the city of Downey. This was a really cool event. It was really fun. I grew up playing soccer, so I really love this sport. And I chose to commemorate Pele because I wanted to bring a figure of someone who represents good sportsmanship, because I know we kind of struggle with that this year. I'm not going to say anything else because you already know the story. But I wanted to bring in just a legend. And what was really cool about it is little kids came up to me and knew who he was. And of course, so I could see that he spans the generations. And then I also brought in some like cosmic kind of imagery. It's more abstract, but that's kind of to bring in just the vibe of the city of Downey for its legacy in space. So that's kind of the story behind my painting.

Thank you, Coco. Can we give her a round of applause? Thank you. Well, this is presented to Corrine Poulsenil, Coconela. On behalf of the citizens of Downey, in recognition of your artistic talent and creative contribution to the FIFA Downey fan zone, your live painting helps celebrate the spirit of the World's Game. while inspiring community pride, creativity, and cultural connection. The city of Downey extends its sincere appreciation for helping make this special event a memorable experience for residents and visitors alike. So thank you for this beautiful painting.

Thank you so much.

We have another one for Sergio, and please make sure he gets this. And if I can have the council join me. Thank you. Thank you. We'll gather around the beautiful paintings. Yes.

And Sergio Robledo, who unfortunately couldn't join us tonight. His partner got him a surprise flight, so he couldn't be here today. But Sergio is an incredible artist who grew up in Downey. He's a teacher, and he's been just an amazing artist all around. He has murals all over LA. And of course, we're honored to have his painting here as part of this gift.

She's feeling a little shy.

That would be great. What we're going to do is I'm going to continue with the presentations and we'll pause for just a moment while we remove these beautiful paintings. Tonight's Mayor's Champion Award is being given to someone very special, certainly this young lady at her young, young age. She is a resident and a student at St. Raymond's Catholic School, and she's a member of the Southland Young Marines. Despite her young age, she has earned the highest rank in her unit. young Marine Lance Corporal through exceptional leadership, dedication, and service. The Mayor's Champion Award goes to Harley Herrera, Southland young Marine and student. Can we please give her a round of applause? Since May 2025, Harley has completed more than 200 hours of community service, supporting veterans, environmental cleanups, Toys for Tots, Honor Flight, the Los Angeles Marathon, and other community events. Harley is also a passionate advocate for drug prevention and has earned numerous awards recognizing her academic achievement, community service, and leadership. Her commitment to serving others makes her a truly deserving recipient of the Mayor's Champion Award at only nine years old from Downey. Can we give her a round of applause? Charlie, would you like to say a few words? Yes, go ahead.

Hello, I'm Yanmarine Lanskoper-Herrer. I'm nine years old from the Southland Yanmarines. The Armed Marines program is a nonprofit youth organization for boys and girls ages 8 through 18 or through the completion of high school. Our core values are teamwork, leadership, and discipline. We focus on helping our veterans and doing community service events. We wear these red paracords to help represent Enrique Giga Camarena who helped fighting the war on, who died fighting the war on drugs. The red on the paracord represents Red Ribbon Week, which is October 23rd through the 31st. We also do other fun things like going to Pearl Harbor, doing encampments, or going to Arizona for Navajo Code Talkers. We draw every first and third Saturday of the month. Thank you for this award and let me speak tonight.

Thank you, Harley. How about this? What a wonderful young lady and really an inspiration for the upcoming generation of leaders. You know, Harley, I was just at Pearl Harbor a few days ago. And what a touching experience. Pay our respects for those that lost their lives during that fateful day of December 7th. And I want to commend Harley and her family, her parents, for your commitment and dedication also to your daughter and allowing her to grow and have this strong character that is much needed in this environment. Strong leaders that are committed, that are willing to serve their country, even as young as nine years old. So thank you, Harley. How many nine-year-olds do you know that have served 200 hours of community service? So Harley, in recognition of your outstanding leadership, service, and dedication to the Downey community, as a young Marine Lance Corporal, you have demonstrated, Harley, exceptional character through more than the 200 hours of community service, support for veterans, community outreach, and drug prevention education. Your commitment to strengthening the community and supporting military families is sincerely appreciated, and you are positively impacting this community. Thank you again. Here is this recognition, and here is a pin for you to wear. Would the family like to join me? What an example. Well done, well done. I will also, at this time, call on my council colleague from District 3, Dorothy Pemberton. She's going to be presenting the certificate of appointment to Jose Gutierrez for the Recreation and Community Service Commission.

Thank you, Mayor. It's always a pleasure when we as the elected officials can ask our residents, the neighbors, people in our community to also get involved. That's how all of us started to get involved at a commission, a committee, a meeting as such. And I met a resident in my district. First thing he said is, well, when you get into office, I'd like to do something. I'd like to get more involved. Keep me in mind. And after year one and two, you bet I kept you in mind. Jose, I'd like you to come up as I talk about you. So give this man a round of applause for wanting to be involved and consistently asking me. That's what makes Downey so great. And good to see you. And I'll read a little bio over here. Jose, is it Gutierrez or Gutierrez? Gutierrez. Yes. Jose Gutierrez was born and raised in the city of Downey, where he proudly calls home, graduated from Warren High School. Now wait, he says in his bio, one, two, three, go Bears. Okay, Councilman. Go Bears. I'm a Viking. For more than 30 years, he has helped operate the family business, Outlet Tile in Bellflower. Community service has always been a priority for Jose. He has volunteered as, we all have done this, head soccer coach with AYSO and the club level for Downey FC for over 15 years in sports. He has also coached a state cup championship team in 2019 that was recognized at a city council meeting. There you go. He is a member of the Downey, Bellflower and Paramount Chamber of Commerce and has proudly served the Lions Club since 2018. In 2024, he was club president. Jose has served on the boards of Downey AYSO, Bellflower Lions Club, and the Bellflower Chamber of Commerce. He's also the proud father of his four-year-old daughter, Luna Luz Gutierrez, with a young child in his family. It is very fitting that he be involved with all our park and rec programs. Jason will really get you involved, and you'll learn everything. I'm a very strong advocate of volunteering, and I have done so for decades with many groups. So I commend you for all that you have done and been involved with. With a little daughter, you're going to be more so, and it's called PTA and things like that. And my motto is get involved in Downey. You certainly have started that. So I'd like to appoint you as my Park and Rec Commissioner. Maybe have a few words about... your community. Would you like to say anything?

I wasn't ready for prayer, but I'll just say thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Dorothy. And thank you, City Council. And I hope to work with Parks and Rec. Sorry, stuttering a little bit. But other than that, just like for any reason, Downey, Downey Community Hospital, I love my city and look forward to working with the commission. So thank you.

Wonderful.

As a council, we always talk about, of course, how much love we have for this city. And as my colleague indicated, we're always looking for individuals that have the same burning passion for serving the city of Downey and its residents. And we have several committees and, of course, our planning commission. And as electeds, we are we select an individual for each one of those commissions. Some of those committees are two people, and we may rotate those individuals so that they serve maybe one, two years, and then we give an opportunity for others to serve as well. So thank you for accepting, and we're always looking for people with good hearts to serve our community. At this time, we have also another presentation for Parks and Recreation. We talk about this proclamation in honor of Parks Make Life Better, and especially during the summer. Have you been enjoying the summer concert series? Raise your hands. Yes. I can have the certificates. We will play a little video and then I'm going to have Jason come up as I extend this proclamation. Take a look what Parks and Rec does.

Parks are more than just places. Parks have the power to hold memories, faces, activities, new experiences, and so much more. Parks are us. The power of parks and recreation lives in every concert at Furman Park, in every senior dance, in every park pop-up, and every family fun night. The power of parks live in each and every one of us. This July, we celebrated Parks Make Life Better Month by showing the power of connection, play, community, nature, belonging, and well-being. The power of connection can grow from many places.

I mean, I can speak for myself, you know, not only just in the city of Downey, but growing up in parks. I often tease and talk about a park that I grew up nearby. That's where I took my first, my swimming lessons. That's where I learned how to play basketball and flag football. That's where I ran track, which was major. impact on my life. Going to community dances and things like that, they're just, you know, they may be buildings, right? But they're more than brick and mortar. It's really the flesh and blood of the community. You know, this isn't just a gym. It's a place where we used to have middle school dances. We had overnight sleepouts or camping trips in the gymnasium. And I know for a lot of kids, like for myself, These parks have been the first introduction to some of these activities or events, and those to me are just the fabric of a community.

and it might be a program like i've mentioned or an event that they're attending but it might be a new friend you know that one of the campers meets and they end up becoming friends and they end up staying friends so i think that's exactly what makes the facilities more than just buildings um it's the experiences that that youth and adults are really remembering from when they come to an event or a certain program it's really those connections that they're building the connections that we do our best to create and then eventually they have their own connection. So I think that's really the biggest thing.

I started taking some lessons here at the age of four, and I had two really great instructors. They were so sweet, so encouraging, and they helped me into becoming the swimmer that I eventually became. I ended up swimming on a competitive team and doing it throughout high school. And when the opportunity came to go ahead and have a job, I said, I want to work there. They created such a great environment for me as a swimmer that I wanted to do it again. As a job, I wanted to provide that same sort of connection for kids, families. I wanted them to trust me. The power of connection, I think, really pulled me together to go ahead and be a part of this program. I'm super grateful.

The power of play can come from something as simple as a pickup game on the court to our playground adventure program, giving every child and every person the chance to play.

Community is everywhere around us. Just look around. The power of community is in your neighbors and your friends and your fellow Downey residents.

You're talking about the community. When we do go out in the community to perform, they sort of know us. Oh, they go to Barber J. Riley.

Through the community that we build, People make friends. There's a community of people who celebrate birthdays, believe it or not. People have made relationships, you know. Dance does everything. You know, when you wake up, people say, oh, I don't have beat. But you know what? Your heart has that beat. Everything has a beat. Everything has timing. And we just forgot it. So I think when you come to dance and you're open to it, you learn what you forgot. I don't...

Belonging is essential, and inclusive programs like Special Olympics and adaptive recreation play a big part in building up that power.

I truly appreciate the program that Downey has, Parks and Recreation, the fact that they started Special Olympics. For my daughter, you know, from when she was a baby, thinking that there was going to be nothing really available for her, where she was really going to feel like she was part of something. to being in this moment where she's so successful. It's taken a village to raise her and you guys are part of that village and this program has been part of that village. It's been a huge part of that village, you know, to take her from when she was young and she's been a pitcher for softball with you guys and people from other cities. know her. They say, hey, Natalia. And it's just been amazing.

When I came here the first time in 2023, my first softball practice, I was a little scared. But when I met my first friend, Oscar, he knew I was a little scared. So he asked me what my name was. And now we're best friends since that year that I started. And you know you're going to love it here. And it feels like family. And it's OK to be scared because I was scared my first time. Didn't know if I was going to be joining. But if you come your first season, you know you're going to come back because you love the coaches and the teammates.

Take a mental reset by sharing a cup of coffee with your community at the Senior Center or attend one of our free Stay Healthy Downey workshops to empower your well-being. So visit a park, attend a concert, sign up for a class, or even jump in our pool this month because the power of Parks and Recreation is all around us. You just have to look.

are those of us that have been in this community for decades you know we've raised our children in parks and taking part of the various dance classes and this is what has made Downey the special community this that the wide offering of activities and services. So thank you. I, Mayor Claudia Frometa from the City of Downey, do everybody announce and proclaim that the citizens recognize the importance of access to local parks, trail, open spaces, and facilities for health and well-being. I invite you, if you haven't gone to Wilderness Park recently, I like to go there on weekends, beautiful trail and just looking at the space, the lakes and seeing the families enjoying themselves some fishing is a very special thing. So Jason, would you say a few words, please?

Yes, please.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council for the recognition. As July was Parks Make Life Better Month, it's definitely an honor to be here and accept this on the behalf of our Parks and Recreation Department. These are the individuals that make it happen. It's really a reflection of the incredible work that our staff does every day, and I sincerely want to thank them. for all of their efforts, which are usually behind the scenes. They're the ones that are working 12 and 15 hour days at events and are sunburned and have walkie talkies on and come out at the end to say thank you and take a picture. But just thank you to all of you guys for all the work that you guys do. Just wanted to show you guys through the video that parks are more than just a place to play. It's really a place for us to connect and be around our neighbors. It's a place that during COVID just showed essential community and what it meant to be together. throughout all the different things going on in our world somehow parks always seem to be a place and none of that matters and we come together to be a part of Downey and what makes us special so thank you to the City Council thank you to the city manager for allowing us to do this as well and to my staff who do a great job so thank you guys

in this great room. Please, here in the middle. Get in the middle, please. Those ones that are a little bit tight challenge us.

Thank you everybody.

Wasn't that a great video? Yes, that was fantastic. We appreciate each and every one of them. They work so hard. And Jason, I'm going to put you on the spot. How many events does your crew put together? On an annual basis? 32. 32, and there's a mighty team that does it. So thank you. Well done. And at this time, we also, we are very happy to have Sharon from the Family the Kohler YMCA family regarding a project update. So thank you for joining us this evening. Let's go ahead. I think we're all very excited about what is coming with the YMCA and the rebuild. And we appreciate Cheryl, you being here.

Thank you.

Go ahead and we're going to go ahead and turn this around.

wonder if I was gonna clicker.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you for having me. My name is Cheryl Vargas. And I am the new YMCA executive director, the Kohler family YMCA has been renamed and it was renamed within the last year or so, formerly known as the Downey YMCA. And since this is a participatory group, if anyone could raise their hands if you have experience in the YMCA within Downey. Any of your kids, your family, your parents? All right, well, we are super excited to share with you our impact, 2026 impact and vision presentation. So as I said, my name is Cheryl Vargas. I have over 20 years in the YMCA and this is my going into my 10th year as an executive director. So I'm super excited to be in and honored to be in this position. So I thought I would start, yes, we have a building being built and I'm going to show you some behind the scene pictures, but I wanted to share with you the impact that the Kohler YMCA has in the community and has had in the community for over 80 years. In 2020, the YMCA closed after COVID, but we continue to provide programming before and after school, childcare, and summer day camp at five elementary schools. So we are in five schools in the Downey Unified, Gallatin, Garcia, Price, Rio Hondo, and Rio San Gabriel. We are recently, in the last year, we were awarded expanded learning opportunities funding from the district and we're serving 125 kids out of Rio Hondo just through that program. On a weekly basis, we're serving about 240 kids in all of those schools and then they roll over into our summer day camp program and our holiday camps. We also have a very unique program that is happening out of Furman Park, and it's called Early Learning Readiness. And what makes this program unique, it is for caregivers and parents, along with their children ages... I couldn't believe they were bringing them in less than six weeks, but they are. Because parents are coming in wondering, how do I take care of this precious child? And who is my community? Who can I share this journey with? And who can I lean on? So our Early Learning Readiness Program held at Furman Park welcomes about 50 people, 50 participants into the program. Half of them are the children and half are their caregivers. And many times we have more than one caregiver attending with their child because they are the daycare provider and the educator for that child while the parents are working. I started my role in April 2026, and since then we have reintroduced our Sleepaway Camp program at Camp Whittle. Years ago, the Downey YMCA would send over 200 kids to Camp Round Meadow that was recently named Camp Marcel. This year, we had a goal of five. and we successfully recruited 13 youth from the downey community to attend sleep away camp they just came back last sunday super exhausted no one had to go home because they were homesick they had there was amazing photos that were taken and if you've ever gone to camp this is a sample picture of the kids all there and our our kiddos are in the front row wearing the tie-dye shirts so We can zoom in and we'll be able to post them on our social media so you get to see them. But this is just a very heartwarming experience. We had VIP day up there last week, so it was really fun. One of the new programs we're looking to reintroduce back into the schools is our model legislative court program for our high school students. I've been in conversation with our superintendent and looking to introduce that program back to Warren High School and Downey High. It's actually open to all students. They don't have to be at one particular school. So we're really looking forward to working with our teens into that. And then in the spring is when we do Model United Nations. That is our middle school program. So once we get a little more staff around to help us, we'll launch into some new programming. Again, early learning readiness at Furman Park. A quote from one of the parents is that circle time allows their child to practice classroom participation skills. They are ready to go to TK when they leave our program. Now on to the big stuff. So our Say Yes to More campaign, our phase one goal was to raise $23.5 million, and we are so grateful, thankful, and blessed to have the city of Downey side by side with us and support with us, not only in the fundraising side of things, front of the house, but back of the house, your team. We are family, and we're going to call them family. Forever, because we can pick up the phone with a question and get the answer very quickly. And they have really helped with expediting the permitting process and all the things associated with that. One of our successful items with regard to our campaign is, of course, we've had 100% board giving. We had 91 individuals give to the campaign, 69 different organizations and businesses around Downey gave, and we have eight city, county, state, and federal grants, primarily sourced by our elected officials that serve Downey, so we're very happy about that. The way the fundraising was set up for the Downey community, the Kohler family YMCA, is that phase one was going to happen. We were gonna raise 23.5 million, and mind you, five years ago, that goal was eight million. So it took us a little while and a lot of hard reflection on what we really needed to build for this community. So we're at 23.5. Phase two is a dream to have a warm water indoor pool to serve our seniors in our community and our toddlers, our infants in the water. Unfortunately, we're not ready to move into phase two because we needed to complete the goal of 2.5 million and have some... traction for that next 3 million. So we're going to hold off on starting phase two. Once that happens, we'll start making plans for how we can make that work for the YMCA and the community. So I'm starting here with some underground work. So this is underground work. You'll see on the left, this is a basement that's being built that will house all of our water heaters, boilers, things of that nature, pool equipment. So it'll all be underground. The building will come in and it gets backfilled at this point and then we'll start building on top. on the right, this is a stormwater chamber system. This is a requirement of the state and I believe of the city that we build these chamber systems under the parking lots. So any storm heavy rain comes in that water is not going out onto the streets. It's not going into the building. It's going into this system and being directed to underground sources. So we've got two of those going on, one in the main lot and one in the new side lot, and that's to the gymnasium. The other two pictures I have here, this is the, so the gymnasium stayed from the original building, and this is the building of the foyer, restrooms, and lobby that lead into the gym. So the gym is being retrofit, and on top of where you see that crane is where the T-Mobile towers will be. So the T-Mobile towers, the signaling things are going to go on top of that piece of the building. And then of course, you can see here on the right if those of you who've grown up in Downey and gone up and down Downey Avenue, this is a signature legacy sign for the YMCA that's has been read rest restored and resurrected into back onto the property. This will be it is located at the entrance of the main driveway off of Downey Avenue. So we're hoping to get that recognized as a legacy sign and a historic sign within the city, but we'll keep you posted on that. But That is our sign. And we couldn't be where we are today without our board of managers. The print would have been too small to list all of our board members, but I have taken the opportunity to identify our officers. So you can see our officers of the board. Jeremy Fitzels, our managing partner of LaBrie Properties. And if you're not familiar about who Kohler is, Ron Kohler is the owner of LaBrie Properties, and he was one of our major donors, hence he had the opportunity to name the Y after him and his family. And then we have our Say Yes to More capital campaign. These are our hardworking volunteers. Every single one of these people are volunteers. They are volunteers who made that commitment to raise that $23.5 million to serve over 10,000 residents in Downey. So you'll recognize many names on that list. And if anyone, you know, I'm going to do this call for volunteers because I'll take volunteers too. If you have a knack for raising money and you love to be of service to your community, we could always looking to expand and strengthen our board. The YMCA is known in the LA Association as the Center for Community Well-Being. This is a new framework for the YMCA. And what it means is that we are ensuring that every Angeleno and anyone that's in the LA Association has a positive Y experience. We are people-focused, place-based, and community-centered. We work hard at addressing our five social determinants of health, including belonging, education equity, civic engagement, economic stability, and health equity. And we will continue to be integrated in our approach and open for community partnerships. That's what makes the Y special and strong. Again, the City of Downey is one of our key partners, and we, like I said, are so blessed and thankful for your support. Healthy living, youth development, and social impact, including economic stability, are our three pillars of our work, both at all ages. We say from cradle to community. We also have our youth development programs and our social impact programming, which serves mostly, well, vulnerable populations, literacy programs, and our seniors. Here are some highlights. I know this is what you're looking for. What's this place gonna look like anyway? Well, we're 24,000 square feet. Every family membership, every family that joins the Y will have free youth sports. In our aquatics program, not only are we giving lessons, water fitness, recreation programming, we're also offering training for some instructors and lifeguards. We've got teen programming, I mentioned a few of those already, our healthy living programs, exercise, there's a weight room, there's a fitness floor, group exercise, which I'm calling the multi-purpose room, because we really want to bring community in for cultural activities, and then again our social impact programs. This is the layout. There are actually four swim lanes. This picture shows five, but there are four. And oh, I forgot the best for last. There's pickleball. Outdoor pickleball and indoor pickleball in the gymnasium. There you go. Thank you so much for your time. Feel free to scan the QR code and get on our newsletter list. And I give regular updates on the progress and where we're at. So thank you all for your time. And I'm open to questions if you want.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here this evening and giving us an update on this important project for our community. Thank you once again. Moving on to, on our agenda, there is one public hearing this evening, and that is the adoption of a resolution adopting the lightning and landscaping assessment levy for fiscal year 26-27. one that the city council conduct a public hearing concerning the confirmation and levy assessments for assessment district 121 for fiscal year 2627 and adopt resolution number 268372 a resolution of the city council of the city of Downey confirming the diagram in assessment and ordering the levy and collection of assessments for the city of Downey lightning and landscaping assessment district for fiscal year 2627 pursuant to the provisions of Part 2 of Division 15 of the California Streets and Highways Code. The hour having arrived, the public hearing is now open. The time is 7.25. City Clerk Duarte, do we have proof of publication? Yes, Mayor, we do. I'll make a motion. Can I have a second to receive and file the publication?

Second.

Thank you. Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously. City Manager Bradley, I'll turn it over to you for the staff report.

Thank you, Mayor. We'll have Mr. Ed Norris, Deputy Director of Public Works, conduct the presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Ed.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. The City has completed the Annual Engineer's Report for the proposed FY26-27 assessment levy of direct assessments on the City's approximately 23,000 parcels, which receive a special benefit through the City's Lighting and Landscaping Assessment District. also known as Assessment District Number 121, in accordance with the provisions of the Lighting and Landscaping Act of 1972 and Part 2 of Division 15 of the California Streets and Highways Code. The total estimated expenditures of $4,043,842 within the district in FY 26-27 were determined through the annual budget process and include the estimated personnel, administrative, materials, equipment, energy, contracting services, repair, rehabilitation and incidental expenses required to fund the cost of maintaining and operating the city's street lights, traffic signals, safety lights and street landscaping as well as provide the improvements and services for each zone. The majority of the aforementioned total estimated cost associated with the assessment district will be offset by various revenue sources totaling $3,276,637, consisting of general property tax, also known as ad valorem property tax, estimated at $944,928, assessment levy estimated at $2,246,709 and approximately $85,000 in miscellaneous revenue including interest. Each parcel will be assessed proportionately for only those improvements, services, and expenditures for which the parcel will receive special benefit. It should also be noted that there are no proposed assessment rate increases for FY26-27. Based on the estimated expenditures and revenues for FY26-27, each of the seven zones comprising the assessment district are projected to have positive fund balances by the end of FY27, with the exception of Zones 3 and L, which are projected to have negative ending balances. A portion of the expenditures in each zone not covered by the aforementioned revenue sources will be drawn from the reserve fund balance in said zones or subsidized by the general fund. For the zones with relatively low maximum assessment rates, particularly zone L, which has historically operated in the negative due to a lack of property tax infusion, as well as the low assessment rates, increasing tree trimming costs, and the assessment revenues being capped at an amount far less than cost in the zone, a rate increase process can be pursued in the future to increase the assessment revenue. This rate increase process would require the support of the property owners for the increased assessment rate in excess of the current maximum allowable rate through a ballot proceeding and conducted under the provisions of Article 13 of the California Constitution. Upon City Council approval tonight, the assessment levy rates is proposed and adoption of resolution number 268372. The assessments will be submitted to the LA County Auditor-Controller to be included on the property tax roll for each parcel. This concludes my presentation and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ed, again, for our public attending tonight's meeting here and for those participating remotely. I want us to, just taking out of our report, why are we doing this? Why are we having this public hearing? Well, the California Streets and Highways Code requires the city council to adopt resolutions and hold a public hearing each year to set the assessment rates for the various zones within the lighting and landscaping assessment district for the ensuing year. And so these rates assessments are calculated and levied against the properties in the district. The city of Downey coordinates with the Los Angeles County auditor controller's office to include applicable assessments and adjustments on property tax bills in order to collect those assessment revenues. It is important for our public to understand there are 6,659 streetlights that provide illumination for vehicular traffic and pedestrian safety in our city. Of that total, 2,148 streetlights are owned by the city. So out of the 6,600, 2,148 are streetlights that are owned by us here at the city of Downey. 57 of those streetlights are owned by Caltrans. Sometimes the public comes, and it's happened before, they want this lighting, or they want, and we say, well, let's Let us get back to you. Why? Because the city does not own those lights. Out of all the thousands of lights that I've mentioned, 57 are owned by Caltrans, 45 are shared with other municipalities, and 4,409 are owned by the Southern California Edison Company. There's also a total of 672 safety lights within the city located at signalized intersections and pedestrian facilities. This is public information, and this report is available for our residents. But sometimes when we have public hearings like this, I think it's important for us to let our residents know why it is we're doing this and have a little bit of a breakdown. Ed, thank you for the information. The report is very thorough. It allows us to see the history of the assessment collection rates by fiscal year. And also, one of the things that I wanted to point out and for the record, is the estimated cost for operating, maintaining, and upgrading the street lighting, traffic signals, and landscaping in all seven zones for fiscal year 26-27 is over $4 million. $4,043,842 to be exact. And that is a $905,441 increase compared to the year before. Certainly, we see that Southern California energy rates are incorporated into that and everything has gotten more costly these days. And so again, it's important to bring those numbers and share with our residents while we're having these conversations in this public hearing. But for those of you that would like to take a look at a do a slightly deeper dive, this report is available. Council colleagues, any thoughts, questions, comments?

I just wanted to mention there's three streets that will receive lighting on their street and I took a look at the Google Maps you know one is going to be your your district councilman Ortiz Dunrobin which needed it we have Blandwood we have Manzanar and that really enhances the safety of the neighborhoods both in in their house safety and walking walkability so we're very much aware where we want to put lights we have something in the works where we can do it progressively over a few years on key areas. So there's a lot of detail in here, but thank you for this report. It's very informative. I've read a lot of the numbers and like Mayor has said, we've gone up exponentially in the last three years with expenses on that. Thank you.

Thank you. And Councilmember Pemberton, I think we will be discussing a little bit further. And that's item number 23 regarding the adoption of the three year street lighting installation plan. I think that's also another great opportunity. But right now, regarding the lighting on certain streets, right now going back to this public hearing, if none of my colleagues have any questions or comments at this time, I will thank you, Ed, I will open this item up for public comment. Have we received any public comment that needs to be incorporated into the record, City Clerk?

We have not, Mayor.

Okay, and do we have any members wishing to speak on this public hearing?

We don't have any in-person speakers, and I don't see any remote speakers.

OK. Well, thank you for that. I will go ahead and entertain a motion. Can I get a second to close the public comment? Second. So ordered by the mayor. And I will also entertain a motion and a second to close the public hearing.

So moved.

Second. OK. We've got a first and a second. So ordered by the mayor. The time is 735. And unless there are any additional comments from the council, I will make a motion. Can I get a second to adopt resolution number 268372? Thank you. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

Thank you. Moving on to our next item on the agenda is the in-person public comment. City Clerk Duarte, how many people are waiting to speak?

Mayor, can I read the announcement regarding the remote participation?

Oh, yes, please.

Now is the time for public comment regarding agenda, consent calendar, and non-agenda items. Speakers participating remotely may now dial star nine to request to speak on items listed on the agenda and non-agenda items. Speakers will be identified by the last three digits of their phone number when it is their turn to speak. You will be prompted to unmute your telephone line by dialing star six. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. Your telephone line will be muted when your time has expired.

Thank you. And if we can play the pre-recorded message.

Yes. 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.

City Clerk, did we receive any written public comment to be incorporated into the record?

Yes, Mayor, we did. We have two written public comments. The first one is from an anonymous person regarding a complaint, who submitted a complaint regarding the conduct of a Public Works Committee member. And the second written public comment is from resident Sandra Avalos regarding the impact of water and trash rate increases to residents.

That is all, Mayor. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second to receive and file the written public comment? So moved.

Second.

OK, please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

OK, thank you. City Clerk Duarte, how many speakers do we have in person?

Mayor, we have seven in-person speakers, and we have one speaker that has raised their hand to participate remotely.

OK, based on the number of speakers, they will have three minutes to address the city council. Let's start with the in-person public comment. Those of you that have blue number cards, speaker number one may come up.

Hello, everyone. Good evening. My name is Luvia Cota. I am not a resident of Downey, but I have worked in Downey for 30 years. 28 of those years, I've worked in the dental office, 8847 Imperial. And for... 25 years, they were great. Three years ago, they opened a smoke shop next to our dental office, and for three years, we have had a lot of issues. I've called the police and the owner several times, back and forth, back and forth, the owner saying it's not their problem, the police saying they can't do anything because it's the owner's. So I've been caught in the middle for three years. Finally, one of our patients, we serve Downey, so we have a lot of Downey patients, residents. They told us to go ahead and send an email to Sergeant Diaz and that maybe they can go ahead and help us. We have about 50 phone calls to the police department. I have a list. And then finally, Sergeant Diaz went ahead and responded to us and told us to go ahead and email or call the code enforcement. And finally, after I would say four months, we finally, today, I had a phone call from Rudy Monroy, who is code enforcement, and they have also now sending I forgot the name of it, but I think it's CityNet. It's also a program for homeless people. And I've had everybody call me today for some reason. I think they knew I was coming. So everybody called me today, and they said that they were all on board to help our dental office. Because we have constant groups of 10 to 15 people in front of our office, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, naked, being in front of our office, urinating. I mean, everything that you can imagine, they do it in front of our office in the name of waiting for to go into the smoke shop. Finally, five days ago, I was able to get the smoke shop owner to get security. They have 24-hour security. I don't know if they have a license to be open 24 hours or something else, court enforcement's gonna check. So I'm just here to let Everybody for the City of Downey and Mayor, which I've never met before, you seem like a wonderful person, and I just wanted to come. I live in the City of Downey, so I've always volunteered for my city, but I just wanted to come and let you all know, because I'm a big believer that we're only as strong as as weak as Link. And I believe that plaza right now is a weak link. So we all need to work hard so that it's also a lot of students walk by there when they get out of school. So my concern is all these people that are there. I know they're selling drugs because I see them every day. So that you can do something and force it and just make sure that that's not, that does not become the weak link of Downey. That's it.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment. And I do want to say, well, the public comment period is for the public to talk to us. We're not supposed to be engaging in a back and forth. But I will say this, because I do want this to be on record. We will not tolerate our businesses to be held hostage by criminal activity. ADJACENT NEAR THEM. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE, THANK YOU FOR LETTING US KNOW AND THANK YOU, CAPTAIN CLEMENTS, I KNOW THAT IS ALREADY ON YOUR RADAR. WE NEED TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF OUR PUBLIC AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE, THIS COUNCIL WILL NOT TOLERATE BUSINESSES BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.

THIS IS WHAT I WAS TOLD BY A LOT OF RESIDENTS FROM DOWNY THAT COME TO OUR OFFICE AS PATIENTS AND THAT'S WHY I'M HERE. Thank you. Thank you.

We're not supposed to enjoy the back and forth. Thank you. Thank you for that. City Manager Bradley.

If I could, Mayor, I'm going to have our homeless solutions managers, Mr. Corius, reach out to the resident here so we can continue to provide support there. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Madam Mayor, if I may ask, do you recall the address that it was?

Yes. 8847 Imperial. Lakewood Imperial. Lakewood Imperial. And that is the dental office. The smoke shop is next door to them.

thank you speaker number two may come up please good evening thank you for coming good evening mayor good evening all the city council members thank you guys for everything that you do it's nice to see your faces too i've actually prayed for everyone in this room like a thousand times so it's good to put a face to it but again thank you for your time and listening to me today i think This is going to be one of the biggest things that I'll bring up in my lifetime, I believe. And it's just this idea that breathing, this idea that we breathe, all of us in this room are breathing right now, but it's probably one of the most overlooked aspects of our existence. Now, if I were to ask, and I went to school here, I grew up Southgate on the border, so Downey, Southgate, but I've always believed I was from Downey. And I went to like Old River West when it was West at the time, Warren, all that. And I'm here now again with this message that no time, and I could probably walk around this whole city, I planned to at some point before I walked into this room, to go to at least 10,000 people just to prove this point. But if I were to ask everyone, hey, in your lifetime as an adult, and I'm saying an adult from K through 12, the schools that we offer, the public school system, the education that we offer to our students and our kids to grow, to help foster that executive functioning skills and these brain states so that they go on to fulfill whatever role or function within society. One thing is that you'll be breathing through every single one of those things. whether it's sadness, whether it's happiness and joy, you'll have to breathe through it. And one of the most important things of that idea to me is there is no perfect breath. That's something that's being kind of pressed. I see that a lot, like through, I worked in treatment, I worked in mental health, all of that, the idea of box breathing, 4-4, for example. But If you listen to speakers like James Nestor, who kind of pioneered that whole breathing field too, just the understanding for the public, there's a lot that we kind of leave out. And we don't actually touch upon enough, I believe, just through my own experience in the public school system. Now, I haven't gone through the story of my own life and just what I've seen in the field or just personally the injuries that I've sustained, that I've recovered from, but it's taken a lot to get here. And, you know, all of it happened through breathing. There was really nothing else that really could have inspired, got me through all that. Again, I'm here to just kind of push this idea and I'm going to walk around and I'm going to gather this if I must. You know, if I must, I will. But this is my first place that I'm attempting to come and speak to anyone about this with. But it's my thing that, hey, one day all these kids will go on and choose and pick and have that best breath for whatever it is life is throwing in front of them. And that there is, again, there's no perfect breath. There's only the best breath for that moment. And I believe it's one of the, you know, it's freedom, the ability to breathe and to know your breath and to, I figure it's one of those, like Dori said, keep on swimming, get your gills, keep on breathing. But yeah, that's my three minutes. Thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you for coming. Speaker number three may come up, please. Do we have our speaker number three? Hello, good evening, and welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council, fellow citizens. My name is Michael Campanelli. I'm vice president of Downey Bocce Club. This is our president, Miguel Tamano. And we are here tonight to request a refurbishing and upgrade of the bocce courts at Apollo Park. the bocce courts at apollo park are approximately 32 years old and over the years through erosion and natural weathering they have degraded considerably to the point of almost being unplayable. We have been interacting with three members of Parks and Recreation. We have done extensive research on the material and work necessities going into REFURBISHING THESE COURTS, WE ARE READY TO INTERACT WITH THE CITY IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE, GIVING OUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE ON COURT RENOVATION, AND WE HUMBLY REQUEST THAT THE CITY HEAR OUR PLEA FOR RENOVATION OF THE COURT, THE DANI BACI COURTS. PRESIDENT MCGILL, YOU WANT ANYTHING TO SAY?

Sorry, my English is not very well, but I'm a play for 26 years in Downey. I got 44 metal, 24 gold, 10 silver, and 9 copper. And now we ask you for, can redo the course.

Thank you. Thank you both. City Manager?

Yeah, I just want to say thank you for the comments. We hear you loud and clear. I do know that our Parks and Rec team has been working with you on that, going through the process of getting that updated. So we will continue to do that, engage with you. Definitely want to see it looking up to shape and in better condition. So thank you.

Thank you, 30 plus years of playing bocce. So thank you for joining us and we pride ourselves in making sure that whatever activity we're providing to our residents is top notch. So thank you city manager for making sure that moves forward. Speaker number four may come up please. Good evening Lee.

Lee Squire, Vietnam Air veteran, US Army, mayor and city council. Subject, it is the soldier. I do this presentation in honor of all the blood shed for our freedom and the 250th birthday of America. It is the soldier. It is the soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion. It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to protest. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. Author, Charles M. Provence. God bless Israel. God bless the nation of America. God bless my military and my veterans. And God bless law enforcement across America. I want to present this picture to the mayor in honor of the 250th birthday of America. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Squire. Speaker number five may come up, please. Hello, Mr. Lacey.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, Mr. Bradley, staff. Mayor, I want to talk to you briefly about Proposition 4-3, 43 coming up in the November election. Basically what it does is that it establishes a voter threshold to approve what's called special taxes. A little bit of background story involved. When Proposition 13 went into effect, besides allocating what the property taxes could increase every year, it also stated that for the legislature to approve new state taxes, Two-thirds would be required for approval or more. Also for local taxes, which also are considered to be special taxes, that also required two-thirds voter approval or more. In 2017, the state Supreme Court decided on a case called the Upland case, where basically they said that if a citizen's initiative, not a local government entity, but a local citizen initiative put forth a request for funds, the threshold for voter approval would be diminished from two-thirds approval down to a simple majority. And what Proposition 43 does if the voters approve indicates that everything including local government or initiatives by individuals, if they are presented for voting, a two-thirds majority or more would be needed. Madam Mayor, this ends my comments.

Thank you, Mr. Lacey. Appreciate your insight. Speaker number six may come up. Good evening. Thank you for coming.

Hi, good evening. Would you mind putting the microphone down so I can hear you? Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Julie Velasquez. I am a homeowner here in Downey. I have my neighbors here. My fellow neighbors are back there. We're here to understand homeowners and residents submit this letter as a formal petition to report an ongoing public safety issue and to demand immediate action regarding the uncontrolled parking conditions in our cul-de-sac. For an extended period of time, our cul-de-sac has been treated as unrestricted public parking by non-residents. Vehicles are routinely left for days and sometimes weeks at a time. This misuse has escalated into a serious safety concern that places residents, emergency responders, and city service workers at a risk. Non-resident vehicles occupying for extended periods of time limiting residents' access, driveways being blocked almost daily preventing residents from entering or exiting their homes, fire hydrants being blocked, creating critical obstruction to emergency fire responses, Narrow access point caused by excessive parking that would significantly delay fire engines, ambulances, or police vehicles in the event of an emergency. Our mail carrier being unable to stop safely to deliver mail due to vehicles blocking the mailbox cluster area. Vehicles parking on a small section of sidewalk that is not legal parking space where the community mailbox clusters and city street lights are installed. Trash being discarded in the street by non-residents creating sanitation and health concerns. Abandoned and stolen vehicles being dumped in our cul-de-sac raising public safety and criminal concerns. Multiple apartment complexes are located on both sides. And across our street, overflow parking from these properties are being redirected into our cul-de-sac. Property owners and managers of these apartment complexes must be held accountable for managing tenant vehicle limits. A resident cul-de-sac should not be responsible for absorbing overflow parking created by insufficient parking controls at neighboring apartment properties. These conditions represent more than inconvenience. These pose a clear and ongoing risk to life, property, and public safety. Emergency response delays caused by blocked hydrants, restricted roadways access, or blocked driveways and result in a catastrophic outcome from which the city may face preventable liability. We are homeowners who pay property taxes and have the right to have safe access to our homes, unobstructed emergency services, and basic municipal functions such as mail delivery. The current situation demonstrates a failure of parking enforcement and zoning balance that must be addressed immediately. we formally request that the city implement a residential parking permit program restricted exclusively to verified residents of our cul-de-sac along with consistent enforcement and would also like to request a dead-end sign to be placed at the entrance of our street this solution will restore safety protect emergency access and ensure that responsibility for tenant parking thank you thank you thank you miss velasquez um i will have our director of public works matt bob garner address the issue of the dead end sign and also can you tell us um what coldest this is it's on susan avenue um i one of our addresses is one zero zero two seven susan avenue and i do have the signatures of all the neighbors that 10 homeowners that live there as well

So we'll have our public works director reach out to them, also have Captain Clements check with them about parking enforcement issues. Thank you.

We appreciate you coming down and bringing awareness to this situation. Again, our director of public works, Matt, will also explain in order to move forward with a residential parking program, there are certain thresholds that need to be met, and he'll be more than happy to address those with you. Thank you again for coming and letting us know. Speaker number seven. Speaker number seven has left already. Do we have any other speakers present? Anybody that would like to speak at this time? If not, go ahead. City Clerk, how many speakers do we have on the line?

I have one speaker that has raised their hand to speak. OK. And that is speaker Colin user underscore three. So I will go ahead and unmute them.

My name is Heidi Dashowitz, and I want to raise concerns about anti-Semitism and bounty. I'm sick and tired of all these kids wearing their goddamn power scarves. Stereotyping Jews is palatable, and it's destroying our community. We need to be a more pro-Israel city, and we need to support the Greater Israel Project, which means getting the sand niggers out of the Middle East.

Is that all?

That's all.

Thank you for calling. City Clerk Duarte, do we have anybody else on the line?

We do not, Mayor.

Okay, I will make a motion. Can I get a second to close public comment?

Second.

So ordered by the mayor. Thank you for those of you that were here to express your concerns on various items. We appreciate you letting us know. Now is the time for consent calendar items. Are there any council members that would like to remove and or abstain from an item?

Yes, Your Honor. I'm sorry. Yes, Mayor. Hi.

It's been a long day. Lots of work at the courthouse, I'm sure.

I would like to abstain from items number 13, 15, 17, 18, and 20. These items are involving the downtown Downey, and I own some real estate. That puts me in conflict, so I'll abstain from those. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Council Member Trujillo. Anyone else? Okay, I will make a motion to approve the consent calendar with the abstentions from Council Member Trujillo. Alicia, did you get those? Yes. Okay, can I get a second, please?

Second.

Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously with council member Trujillo abstaining from items 13, 15, 17, 18, and 20.

Thank you. Now we move on to administrative reports. We have four this evening. Number 21 is the salary range adjustment for the position of city attorney. Number 22 is the discussion regarding a city facility naming policy. And number 23 is the adoption of the three-year streetlight installation plan. Be more than happy to discuss that a little bit more in length. But I understand our Director of Human Resources, James McQueen, is here for item number 21.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. The item before you this evening is a proposed salary range adjustment for the position of City Attorney. As part of Council's approval, Senate Bill 1436 requires local agencies to report a summary of the recommended changes in salary or benefits for executive positions in the open session portion of the meeting prior to voting. On March 24th of 2026, the City Council completed the annual performance review for the City Attorney in accordance with the current employment agreement. Through this process, the City Council then provided direction to staff to prepare a one-time salary range adjustment of 3% for the position to be effective March 16th, 2026. The new range for this position will be $20,120.49 to $24,571.36 per month. Following this adjustment, this position will continue to receive all other cost of living adjustments consistent with those provided to other executive employees. Adjustment approval of this action will result in an increased expenditure of approximately $14,180 to the general fund in the current 26-27 fiscal year budget. And this concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, James. Certainly as for public to know we have the city of Downey has always pride itself being a fiscally prudent fiscally conservative city we do the very best this council as well as prior councils in adopting a balanced budget we just did our 15th balanced budget recently. Certainly we look at the salary ranges of our executives and certainly we want to attract the best and we also compare where our executives are in terms of salary range with surrounding cities. And I am happy to report that Downey continues to be where it needs to be. We are not too high, we're not terribly low, but we certainly want to continue to attract great talent and a good pool of professionals. Having said that, I also want to state for the record that we have had very robust times. And because we have continued to manage our expenditures and our finances in a very prudent manner, we will there may be times in the future and in future councils where certain races are are a little prohibitive where we look at you know potential race freezes we want to always make sure that we have the funds available to attract and retain exceptional talent while at the same time making sure that we stay within line and within range of our operating budget and we don't go above and overspend. Having said that, thank you, James. Colleagues, anybody have any thoughts, questions, comments? But certainly, our city attorney is well deserving of this adjustment. I will go ahead and entertain a motion. Can I get a second to approve this? Second. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

Thank you. Item number 22 is the discussion regarding a city facility naming policy. But the City Council received a report regarding a proposed city facility naming policy and provide direction to staff. Number two discuss the possible naming of a city playground in honor of really dear lifelong Downey resident, Jerry Weinstein. City Manager Bradley, is there a staff report?

Yes, Mayor, we have Assistant to the City Manager, Judy Montenegro, who will provide the report.

Thank you, Judy. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Fremitta, members of the City Council. So I'm here this evening to provide a report on a proposed city facility naming policy, as well as seek further direction on the naming of a city playground in honor of Mr. Jerry Weinstein, a Long Life Downey resident who I will share more information on towards the end of my presentation. So staff is seeking the council's direction on both of these items. So to start off, I first just want to give a little bit of background on this topic. Staff conducted some research and found that actually in 1997, the city council had actually adopted a policy regarding the naming of city facilities. This was referenced in a staff report dated back in 2004, but after an extensive record search and consulting with our city clerk's office, unfortunately we were not able to locate a copy of that referenced policy. staff was able to capture some of the policies, guidelines based on what was cited in that staff report. This included the criteria established for those individuals that had city facilities named after them and the qualities that they should demonstrate, which was noted as follows. Significant length of service, love for the community, impeccable character, positive impact on the community, and politically retired. So throughout the years, some city-owned facilities have been named in honor of former Downey mayors and other elected officials. And here on the screen are those facilities. So the table shows each facility name, the individual that was honored, the year, and who the nomination was made by, if that information was available for reference. I do want to note that we did update this list to include two additional facilities that we recently just found some mention of being named after certain individuals in the community. These are Crawford Park, which is believed to be named after a judge by the name of Mattson Crawford in 1969. He was known as a Downey pioneer who helped establish the community. And then Furman Park, named after Daniel Furman in 1955, a member of the Downey Recreation and Park District back then. So unfortunately, again, we are unable to find city records that state this information. But there is many mention of this online. And we just wanted to make sure to bring this to your attention. We will continue to further research to confirm this information. Okay, so at the request of Councilmember Trujillo, staff looked into a city facility naming policy and he recommended a playground be named in honor of Kiwanis member and longtime Downey resident Mr. Jerry Weinstein. Again, staff is proposing the following policy and is seeking the Council's direction. So the purpose of the policy would be to establish clear guidelines and procedures for the naming of city facilities and that naming request align with the city's mission statement and other relative relevant policies and practices. So a request for the naming of a city facility shall be initiated and approved by the city council. The nominating council member shall submit his or her request in writing with a statement summarizing the justification for the recommended name. The approval shall be purely within the discretion of the city council. All naming of city facilities will be implemented by city council resolution and followed by a commemorative plaque and dedication ceremony. So the criteria for naming selection. The City Council may recommend and approve the naming of city facilities based on the following criteria. Geographical location of the facility, natural or geographical features close to the facility, cultural or historical significance to the city, or the name of an individual where the council finds, A, the individual has significant contributions to the Downey community. Such contributions have contributed to the general well-being of Downey residents. The individual's character reflects and aligns with the city's code of ethics and mission statement. And the individual, whether living or dead, is or was previously a resident of the city of Downey. No facility shall be named after a current elected or appointed official. So the following is a list of eligible city-owned facilities which includes parks and recreation facilities. This would also include areas within facilities such as meeting and conference rooms, park features such as playgrounds, sports fields and community buildings. Facilities ineligible for consideration under this policy shall include those that have already been dedicated, named in honor of former community members, such as those listed here on this slide. I do want to note that the Columbia Memorial Space Center is also ineligible as it is named the official memorial to the Space Shuttle Columbia. Additionally, spaces within the Columbia Memorial Space Center are not eligible as they are tied to fundraising naming campaigns initiated by the center. other facilities and knowledgeable for consideration are those under the jurisdiction of other governing body another governing body other than the city. So the renaming of these facilities shall be discouraged and should not and should only occur under extraordinary circumstances. The city will also maintain an inventory list of city facilities that have been named including any available background of why the name was selected. Any naming proposal will be reviewed against the named the name city facilities list to confirm that it is not duplicative of previously approved proposals. Before I go back, I just wanted to mention also as well that there are some costs associated with this policy. For example, the commemorative plaques and any ceremony expenses that go along with the dedication of these facilities would be about $800 per plaque and then 500 for expenses. That's what we estimated. So this in general summarizes the proposed policy and we're asking for the council's input on that. And then last but not least, so at the meeting on May 12th of this year, Councilmember Trujillo had recommended that a playground be named in honor of Kiwanis member and longtime Downey resident, Mr. Jerry Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein was a dedicated community leader whose impact continues to be felt across the city. Under his leadership as president of the Downey Kiwanis Foundation, the foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million dollars in scholarships and grants benefiting students and the community organizations throughout the city. He was a driving force behind the foundation's investment in playground equipment at some of the city's local parks, including Furman Park and most recently Rio San Gabriel Park. The playground to be considered named in his honor is the new playground that will be installed at Rio San Gabriel Park, which is expected to be complete by December of 2027, so next year. The Downey Kiwanis Foundation is donating about $300,000 for this playground. So attached to the staff report, you'll see Mr. Weinstein's bio for the council's review and consideration. so tonight again we are just asking the council to discuss and provide direction to staff regarding the proposed facility policy and the naming of the playground at rio san gabriel park in honor of mr weinstein so this concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer any questions thank you judy appreciate your presentation and uh certainly appreciate the this

this facility naming policy. We always believe that policies help very much guide our decisions and establish guardrails to things that we want to move forward with. Certainly in relation to Mr. Weinstein, I had the pleasure of serving with him as board members for the Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities. And he was certainly salt of the earth. and a man with a tremendous heart, grace, patience, and always wanting to do better for this community, particularly for students. We both started at the Downey Foundation when that foundation began, and we spent many meetings looking over opportunities to raise funds and certainly naming a playground equipment given his commitment and dedication to the Downey Kiwanis Foundation is not only very fitting, but certainly a reminder that it is people like Jerry that made a lasting impact in the community of Downey. And I know Connie is here, and I just want to extend my warm regards to you and to the legacy of your late husband. He's a respectable and an honorable man, and I was lucky to have met him and have served alongside with him. Thank you, Judy. Council colleagues, any thoughts, questions, comments?

With that said, I will- I wanted to mention two things. We're adopting a naming of a policy. And I know some of our landmarks, we're not looking at, in a sense, renaming Rio San Gabriel Park, just the playground area. Correct. Is that correct? Yes. And this is to put forth a policy. In the naming facility, it might give us the option to actually rename some eligible parks in the future. And that's maybe also a discussion. I know a lot of residents like the historic value of an old name. I know a lot of our schools, uh have changed names um and they're named after an individual so i i prefer to see that we can name areas within a facility a meeting room a conference room uh features playground sports fields i think giving the legacy of someone i knew mr weinstein as well and it you know he was a legacy he was someone that got involved in downey and he and he gives I think on the list here under item B2B, I see Crawford Park and Furman Park, three and 15. And in your presentation slide, I think that was an ineligible park, is that correct?

Yes, I did make mention that we found out after the staff report had been published. So we added those Crawford and Furman Park now to the ineligible just because we found some reference that they were named after certain individuals in the community.

And I'm just opening the discussion of renaming a facility itself, like the Downey Library is now the, I don't know, the Smith Library. To rename an entire facility, I'm not in favor of that on established buildings and parks that we've had here. Anything within it or a new room or something that we build that doesn't have any kind of legacy with it. um i think honors a person that has developed so much within the community the community we have the mccormick room that was you know newly built for certain people and this would be a nice legacy for the family to show what he's done and for futures but maybe perhaps in renaming an entire park i don't see that going forward that we as a council should be able to do it might be the discretion later but You know, how do my colleagues feel on something like that? Areas within, something brand new, but establish places that, you know, the Downey Theater could be something, Independence Park could be something else. Residents know this, and we also are part of the Downey Conservancy, where we have that legacy. They know what things used to be. Downey Unified School District, they are doing their own type of procedure with some of their buildings, per se, and a lot of people go back in time and say, well, it used to be this or that. I just want to keep a little bit of our old culture and our old understanding on some of our long-term buildings and parks here, but still have the flexibility to add certain areas to where that individual has made a difference in the community to keep their legacy going forward. So that's all I wanted to state or clarify. But some of the wording here kind of allows for us to even change a park name, is that right?

Well, thank you, Council Member Pemberton. Looking at the policy under A, facility name request process, the approval shall be purely within the discretion of the City Council. All naming of city facilities will be implemented by City Council resolution. And again, I think it... It doesn't limit and it doesn't narrow. To your point, within the eligible facilities, item number B, this would include areas within facilities such as meetings and conference room and park features such as playgrounds, sports fields, and community buildings. I think this, having a policy because we didn't have one, allows us then to have a broader look what is the purpose and what not just this council, but future councils that find it pertinent to rename, they will have this guidance. I understand what you're saying. And again, it will be at the discretion of city councils.

So we would leave it that they could. They could rename, say, Independence Park to have it, you know... I don't know, Pemberton Park. But what I'm saying is I think some of these names that we've established over the years still need to be there. And it's kind of like keeping with our old heritage of the homes and certain things that people like. Within the area or rooms or such, I'm more for, but I wanted to bring that up that we don't change some of the historical names that people have known Downey for. Okay, so.

I do want to mention that, first and foremost, it's individuals like your late husband are the reason that I decided to run. I just want to say thank you so much for everything he has done, and I'm happy to support this for him. I do just piggyback on what my colleague is talking about, about certain facilities. For me, I don't really mind certain parks being renamed. Maybe things change and everything. Some parks, like Brookshire Children's Park, for example, it's a street name, and I don't mind. naming apart, I'm more in the belief that there's certain facilities that necessarily I don't want to change as well. For example, I don't want to name our Downing City Hall under someone or our fire stations or our police department. maybe those are the things that I want to stick to what there are before we name our fire. And we have great people in our fire department, our police department, and they all do amazing things. So I think for me, I would not, those facilities, at least our fire stations, our city hall, or our police department maybe should not be eligible for renaming, or have a conference room or a room in those offices I don't mind changing it. Sure.

Okay.

Yeah, I just wanted to add, my colleagues have brought up some good points, and I'll just make this simple. With respect to item number two in this, on 22, as far as naming of the city playground at Rio San Gabriel in honor of Jerry Wedstein, it's an easy call. I know we have a lot of facilities named after former electeds, former mayors, but you don't have to be an elected to make a difference in a community. And Jerry Whitestein, along with his lovely wife Connie, they're prime examples of that. So I'm all in favor of this.

Okay. Do we have a motion in a second to approve this? I think we've, I think we've, the consensus is we are opposed to renaming City Hall and City Library as well as our police department and our fire stations.

Well, that could be number 6 through 14.

So you'd like to move 6 through 14? Yes. I see. Okay, we have that.

Perfect. So if I can have a motion in a second, removing this 6th through 14th as far as eligible city facilities. And approving. And approving the naming of the upcoming Rio San Gabriel Park in honor of the late playground. Just the playground. The playground in honor of the late Jerry Weinstein. Second. Okay, please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you.

Very, very well deserved. Congratulations to the Weinstein family. Connie, nice to see you. And the last item on our agenda tonight is an administrative report, and that is the adoption of the three-year street lighting installation plan. I can see that our director of public works, Matt Baumgartner, is here to provide a report on that. And as soon as you provide the report, we can also add additional comments. So thank you, Matt.

Absolutely.

tonight we're here to discuss the adoption of our three-year residential streetlight installation plan. And just some background, obviously I've been up here in front of council over the last couple years discussing streetlights. The map that you see there to the right represents the total streetlight deficiency across the city, approximately 1,100 locations. As we've talked in the past, the reason why we see so many dark areas across the city is that this previous policy was a $5,000 cost to each property owner on that street to be paid out over a five-year period. Over the years, several petitions were brought forward, but they never moved forward because the cost just proved to be a barrier to installation. In 2025, the city council authorized a solar streetlight pilot program. And at about a little over $11,000 per location, 16 streetlights were installed last month. The advantages of moving into that direction of using streetlights, it's considerably cheaper. Roughly $25,000 cost with traditional methods of having to trench and bring wires in. One of the big advantages, it only takes one week to install streetlights on a block using the solar streetlights. They're essentially maintenance free over a 10 to 15 year period. No electricity costs. And this last bullet here highlights that we've had one installed in the city for the last eight years and we have spent zero dollars maintaining it. And it continues to work well today. That solar streetlight installation project that I mentioned, again, 16 streetlights. This is one of the streets where this was installed, installed by our contractor at a little over 11,000 per location. And we wanted to take advantage by having our streets division staff out there while this work was being done. They took video, they watched all the work was being done, and in discussions with my superintendent and supervisor, we determined that our staff can certainly handle that cost going forward, which brings the cost down per location in future projects almost half, a little over $58,000 per location. I've mentioned before that this will be funded annually out of local return money. This year is out of Measure R, $500,000 each year, so no impact to our general fund. And up to 85 streetlights will be installed each year. Over the next three years under this program, we would be installing 246 streetlights over 50 streetblocks. Looking at how we go about prioritizing through this three-year plan, following the direction that we received from Council on the March 24th, 2026 meeting, we landed on the following eight prioritization categories. Crime over a three-year period, vehicle collisions over a three-year period, We look at the following ones that don't change, lack of sidewalks, school proximity, civic and commercial destinations, transit access over parked streets, and whether or not a street is in a disadvantaged community census tract. And just to remind you, crime was added and asked to be added up there with collisions and lack of sidewalk as well as asking us to reduce the priority of school proximity. So these points, adding up to 100 points, reflect the prioritization categories that we used in judging each one of the locations that is lacking any kind of street lighting at this time. Here is the map showing the 50 segments over a three-year period. Again, 246 streetlights, roughly 22% of the total lights that we need will be installed over the next three years. In year one, we're looking at 13 segments and 80 lights. Year two, 16 segments and 85 lights. In year three, 21 segments and 81 lights. And you see a difference in the segments because sometimes we have much longer blocks that we're doing. And so some blocks might only need two or three lights, some might need ten or more. So we're actually going to be, based on the prioritization this coming year, we're doing some longer blocks that were prioritized. Looking at future cycles of the plans, two variables make up 40% of the scoring, and that is crime and collisions. We look at those over a three-year period. If we were looking at that in a short one-year period, things can change from year to year. If we look at it over a five-year period, we might have data that's way too old. So that's the reason why we're not doing a full 15-year outlook, because things can change very quickly. So staff's going to return in three years with a new cycle for council to consider. At our current rate, we anticipate completing the program across the city in five cycles or approximately 15 years. Staff will continue to look for other funding sources as well so that we're not just relying on those local return dollars. and ideally could expedite the program if we can, so we're actively looking for funding for grants, funding through highway safety improvement program, active transportation program run by Caltrans, community development block grants, clean energy funding, taking advantage of the fact that this is solar, through the Department of Energy, AQMD, or the Clean Power Alliance. These are examples of the types of funding that we're going to continue to look for so that we could move the project along even faster. Again, just want to reiterate that this project will not have impact on the general fund. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thanks, Matt. But I think music to our ears is that this is not going to have an impact on the general health plan. I think that's music, really music to the ears. And did I see on social media already some information in regards to this three-year street plan? i think that some information might be out because that is being discussed tonight but until we get a formal approval council yeah nothing's because and again i think this is this is really great for our city and this is really great for our residents the fact that um there is three year prioritization plan um and i think it's important for the residents to know again background uh the scoring the prioritization and the fact that every year we Based on crime and collision, some of these may be reassessed and maybe bump up into the priority category. But overall, this is excellent news for our community. And the fact that you said, Matt, over what is it over the next um 85 street lights will be installed each year over the next three years and so in three years approximately 246 street lights covering 50 linear street blocks or excuse me 50 street blocks that is outstanding and I'm very happy to hear that colleagues comments thoughts

I do and thank you Matt for the presentation and thank you Mayor. I want to go back if we can discuss just a little bit more on the prioritization and category. I know that on the previous meeting we discussed a little bit on certain categories and I want to see if my colleagues are interested in revisiting some of those prioritizations because I think there are at least two of them where i'm where i'm i think we can move some of that and hopefully distribute a little bit more um for example school proximity and civic commercial destinations uh the street lights are normally for uh pedestrian walking at night. I think the schools are, I mean, I'm not saying they're fully lit, but majority of those streets near the schools are lit. And I want to see if we can, and also the civic and commercial destinations, all those areas are very lit and want to see if we can give a little more prioritization or add a little bit more to over park streets. and equity and distribution which is the last one which is for my What I was thinking and and I want to see what my colleagues think school proximity at eight civic and commercial destinations for over parked streets like we had a couple residents come right now at the end of the cul-de-sac with over parking and everything I think that will help with cameras or safety in those areas, I was thinking at 12 and equity at eight, but I'm opening that for conversation with my colleagues and see if that's something you guys are interested or you guys are comfortable with the current scoring.

Colleagues? Well, when this first came out, we were doing our coding of priorities. I agree that, for me, school proximity was not a priority because they're going home and it's lit, and they're going to school and it's lit. And that, to me, was a lower priority. Some of the others felt that. I know that the staff has gone through and used this rubric to kind of judge and gauge which streets are going to get the lighting, which I think i don't know if it's a little too late or we can still change it but i don't have a problem with the changing the school proximity but i think it's the the crux of it is done i'd like to have maybe a flexibility if there's a particular street or two that maybe we're aware of that we're able to kind of integrate it into the system i don't know if that's possible or not um i did have a resident come in

IS IT ALREADY TOO LATE? I WOULD SAY AT THIS POINT WE'VE PUT A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT IN PUTTING THIS TOGETHER FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS. I DO BELIEVE THAT WE DID TALK ABOUT SCHOOL PROGRESS LAST TIME AND IT WAS A HIGHER PRIORITY, BUT COUNCIL DECIDED TO LOWER IT.

IT'S BEEN BROUGHT DOWN. IT WASN'T A 20. Correct. And we brought it down, I believe. Right.

It was at 20 originally? Correct.

Yes, yes. Well, no, and again, the fact that we have crime, history, collision, and lack of sidewalks, I think those were, if I remember correctly, the biggest emphasis we wanted to place in terms of lighting up those areas, right? What are the crime stats? We've had a lot of significant collisions. and then certainly the lack of sidewalks. I hear what you're saying, Mayor Pro Tem. I feel comfortable with this as a starting point. There may be some one ops and maybe flexibility or two to incorporate.

If it's okay with the council, maybe we can do the first year and just come back and do a report next year and let you know how the first year goes. And then if we need to make some adjustments there, that could be awesome.

And then you can give us feedback of how it's going and everything. I'm okay with that.

I think with like you know we have our residents in our certain areas that come in and they're coming vocally to express that they want to change and i have someone in the district that didn't make the three-year at all i'd like that to be addressed and maybe reevaluated maybe it was something that wasn't there um i like the map that we had i don't think we've received that entire mat i've gone through the whole list and uh highlighted my areas but maybe i might miss up i'd like to get a copy of that colored map for all of us that we could take a look at a good visual And then I've had a note here in reviewing that, so this type of lighting, the residents are not part of the lighting assessment district, or will that be a small amount at all?

They will be included in the district once the lights are installed, but I think there's no maintenance costs associated with it. So it's much lower. Yeah, a little lower. Well, actually, no, there'll be no charge because there's no energy cost.

Essentially, no. That's why I think there's nothing. They wouldn't be added for street lighting. They would just continue to receive an assessment for their portion that they pay for traffic signals, safety lights, and landscaping. But at this point, we're not seeing any.

What about the recovery of long-term replacement? We'll take a look at it. I think it should be very low. We can speak to the engineer that does that report for us. Okay.

I JUST WANTED TO ADD THAT, I'M SORRY, WERE YOU DONE?

I HAVE ONE MORE QUICK QUESTION. THESE ARE SOLAR LIGHTS AND THEY ARE LED. THE WATTAGE OR THE LUMENS, AS YOU CALL IT, IN COMPARED TO AN ELECTRIC TYPE OF A LIGHT HOLE VERSUS THE SOLAR, IS IT SIMILAR OR BETTER?

IT PROVIDES ACTUALLY A BETTER PROJECTION OF LIGHT THAN YOU WOULD, YEAH, ABSOLUTELY.

THANK YOU FOR THE REPORT. THANK YOU. YOU'RE WELCOME.

I just wanted to add that I too am comfortable with this current point system because I know that a significant amount of time and research was spent into that, so I'm good with that.

Well, and I think during the report here, we're looking at, what is it, page number four in the report, that two of the three highest categories that have the greatest likelihood of changing is, again, the crime in collisions from one year to the next. So, city manager, if we can just take a look one year after where we are, if we see some significant difference.

We'll come back next year and provide a report on that. How long does it take to add those streetlights? I know that Dunrobin was the picture that you used right there, but to add those streetlights?

I mean, Dunrobin is a little bit longer because it was a long street. I believe we had nine or 10 lights on that street. So that was probably the equivalent of two blocks, essentially, or two regular blocks. So that was a week and a half to two weeks to get those in. So it's pretty fast.

Thank you. If there's no further comments or questions, I will make a motion to approve the adoption of the three-year straight light installation plan with a review of this a year after.

I'll second that.

Okay, please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

Okay, excellent. So now this has brought us to almost the end of our meeting tonight. We have next the city council member announcements, requests for future agenda items, conference and meeting reports, as well as our city manager comments. And I will start with my far left, Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll get my comments short today. I'm super excited. Tomorrow is another Concert of the Park. I've been enjoying myself very much. I appreciate the work that you have done in conducting all the Concerts of the Park. That's a lot of work. So I just want to say thank you for your hard work. It's been a long month. I also attended Father Con. I know my colleague Dorothy and I attended that. I know we had a little hiccups with no electricity, but it was a good event. Also, when I attended the Downey Chamber, I do want to say congrats to Jennifer Dike, who was just sworn in, and all the new members. I also attended two neighborhood watch group meetings in my district. I'm hoping we get the new... neighborhood watch coordinator I know there's a lot of residents asking to partake this last one I also want to say thank you to my colleague Dorothy to attending one of those meetings there was a resident who came into my district from district four and she was really intrigued to starting one in her street and so there's a lot of individuals residents who want a neighborhood watch group in their streets so hopefully somebody gets on board soon I do want to take an opportunity right now to let residents know in our consent calendar there was something that you know just I want to bring to the attention it's the money that we received from LA County I don't know if I can figure out what number it was Oh, there we go. Item number 14. Where last year we received 502 with 502,000. This year, we're only receiving from LA County 438,000, which is less. And city manager, do you how much we normally we give to LA County to help in regards to homelessness?

Was Missouri 1% or half a cent? Six million dollars approximately.

Six million dollars. And out of those six million dollars, we're only receiving 438,000. That's correct. I would really appreciate if we can send a letter to, it doesn't hurt, and hopefully I get a second, to our LA County representatives, and hopefully they can revisit this We also have a lot of homelessness in our cities. We have a couple of residents that, a business owner who came from Imperial that had issues with homelessness. I know I directed some messages to our police chief, our city manager, in regards to that area and we're working on it, but we're all facing a little tight and allocating a lot of resources to tackle this and I don't think it's appropriate or fair that we're only getting out of 6 million that we give 438,000. So hopefully if it's okay with my colleagues that we can all send a letter out.

As the 10th largest city now in Los Angeles County out of 88 cities, Downey is the 10th largest. And just by sheer volume in population, we should be getting a little more than what we're getting now to address that issue.

A letter to LA County advocating for more resources coming to us given the amount of resources that we're sending to them. Correct. Correct.

Thank you, Mayor. And with that, I conclude my comments for today.

Or even what the rubric was that lessened the amount we got. What was the calculation? How did that happen?

Yes. I saw that and I was like, what?

Maybe more people left Downey. No, they're coming to Downey.

If I could just add to that, Council Member Pepperton. So the calculation for the number for Measure A is mainly derived from LAHSA's point in time count. So our point in time count had decreased last year. And so then the associating numbers related for us will then decrease as well. So that's primarily the driver.

And they never gave us our January count yet, have they?

That final number, when it does come out, will then affect next year's numbers for measuring.

Six months to get that count? And I think the interesting part of all of this is I do have reservations in terms of the accuracy of those counts. And the fact that we do it on that one particular day for just a couple of three hours. And yes, we do rely solely on volunteers. How accurately are we capturing those numbers? Because those of us that live in the city, we certainly are not seeing a significant decrease. It's quite the opposite.

I will say, Mayor, that's a great point, and one of the reasons that we do our own count, just to kind of verify for ourselves what the actual range is, and we do them at, you know, a little bit more of an intensive pace so that we can get a good reading of what's going on. So, thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pertamortis. Council Member Sosa.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So a few things. So I did attend the ICA Independent Cities Association seminar, a summer seminar, along with my colleague, Mayor Ferventa. And some of the topics discussed, emerging AI-powered cyberattacks, with technology and ai constantly changing we need to be on top of those things so those are some topics i'd like to discuss with the city staff just to make sure that we're keeping up with the latest technology and that which is always a threat i know municipalities are getting or taking like thousands of hits right every day yeah so also just some of the other topics commercial success strategies and today's housing driven economy housing is an issue that all of us the cities are discussing consistently and also a presentation by a police union for say for LA County I know it's People aren't exactly lining up to be police officers these days. There's several reasons for that, unfortunately. But it's good to have those communications with different police agencies. And so we can collaborate in making sure that not only is our city safe, but the region as well. And let's see here. We also just talked about just simple strategies for communicating, just keeping our communities engaged and aware of what's going on in the county, and I think our staff has done a tremendous job of that, especially with more of an online presence through social media. So those are some of the topics we discussed. Another thing is I do want to thank Matt Bumgarner and Public Works for the stop signs that were installed on Reeves, on Edwin, just north of Brook Mill. That's a big deal and I know we did this, it was about a year ago or sometime last year, on Rundell by Rashawn and Julius between Reeves and Old River School Road. I WANTED TO EMPHASIZE THOSE BECAUSE I'VE KNOWN RESIDENTS IN BOTH THOSE AREAS FOR MANY YEARS AND RECEIVED A LOT OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND JUST IT'S KIND OF FORCING PEOPLE TO GET USED TO SLOWING DOWN IN THOSE AREAS WHICH WE GET A LOT OF TRAFFIC IN. SO THANK YOU FOR THAT. AND IF YOU CAN SEND YOUR REGARDS TO MY REGARDS TO YOUR TEAM. THANK YOU, MATT. One thing, I do have a request from staff. You know, we, in the city of Downey, we have a lot of good momentum going. We got Costco coming up. We have some good revenue sources coming up over the next few years. And we just talked about a lighting plan over the next few years. One thing that I'd like us to focus on, this is a long-term play. and it's a community forestation plan. It's a long-term strategy to plant, protect, and I've been doing my research over the last few weeks, and as a longtime Downey resident and someone who plans on being here for a long time, I'd like for the city for us to look at a community forestation plan to plant protect and manage trees throughout the city and when those things are implemented well it provides economic environmental and quality of life benefits some of the benefits include improved air quality REDUCED URBAN HEAT. I THINK WE'RE REMINDED OF THAT. I THINK WE'RE REMINDED OF THAT. WE'RE KIND OF GOING THROUGH A WE'RE KIND OF GOING THROUGH A LITTLE HEAT PHASE RIGHT NOW. LITTLE HEAT PHASE RIGHT NOW. STORM WATER MANAGEMENT, LOWER STORM WATER MANAGEMENT, LOWER ENERGY COST, ENHANCED PUBLIC ENERGY COST, ENHANCED PUBLIC HEALTH, HELPS WITH ECONOMIC HEALTH, HELPS WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WHEN YOU HAVE ATTRACTIVE DEVELOPMENT WHEN YOU HAVE ATTRACTIVE TREE LINE BUSINESS DISTRICTS AND TREE LINE BUSINESS DISTRICTS AND RESIDENTIAL STREETS. wildlife habitat, noise reduction, just community identity, climate resilience. And specifically, what I'd like to see, and I know we have Arbor Day and we plant trees, but I'd like for the city of Downey to adopt a more comprehensive plan. And specifically, I'd like to incorporate within that plan a tree canopy assessment and measurable canopy goals. And this is a long-term play. species diversity to reduce vulnerability to pests and diseases. And I guess I've become an arbor expert over the last few weeks. A PLANNING STRATEGY FOCUSED ON UNDERSERVED NEIGHBORHOODS AND PUBLIC SPACES WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY, A LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE AND REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE, AND JUST FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR GRANTS AND PERFORMANCE METRICS. I SAY THIS WITH CAUTION BECAUSE I'M BIG ON FISCAL STABILITY AND KEEPING A CLOSE EYE AND A TIGHT PURSE, BUT I KNOW THAT THERE'S There's grants and funding programs available through state and federal programs that I'd like for us to look at. And just to close that out, I think a community, a comprehensive forestation plan can be cost-effective. It can be a cost-effective investment that improves the public health, environmental sustainability, the aesthetics in our neighborhood, and long-term economic vitality in our growing as a greener city in the city of Downey. So that's my request, if I can get a second.

I will second that. But before I do that, I also want to mention we did have an urban forest committee back in 2018, 2019. And they actually met for three, four years. We actually did do just that, Councilmember Sosa. In fact, we partner with the tree people. And as chair of the I-5 JPA, because of Downey's geographic location and precisely surrounded by all the freeways, it was studied. We did need to enhance our tree canopy, but I would like to ask is actually for staff to bring a report back regarding what was accomplished during those few years regarding the urban forest plan that we did have because we planted thousands of trees throughout the city of Downey. One of the things that I think we, lessons learned, right? Hindsight's always 20-20. We could have done better was the implementation. And again, we relied solely on the tree people. They had a significant amount of funding to deliver these trees. And we also worked with arborists to find out the type of species that we needed here in the city of Downey, precisely to mention everything that you've just talked about, Council Member Sosa. And what happened was many people The city looked at area specific. We own a certain piece of land in every property. And we planted those trees in collaboration with the tree people. What ended up happening is many, many, many, many, I can't remember how many residents were unhappy that the city had chosen to plant a tree in what they consider their property, but that's city property. And so many folks ended up taking those trees out, not watering them. And so again, I think we could have done things differently. A, education, information, because all of the things that have been mentioned, they provide not only greater oxygen, the shade, cooler asphalt, but also increase property value. And a lot of our community members Sadly, unfortunately, we're not happy with a lot of those trees that were planted. So we did lose a great deal. Again, we don't have the numbers. But perhaps, Assistant City Manager Vania de Rojas, you were here when that project was carried forward. We can get an update. how it was managed, what was handled, and what were the total number of trees that were planted?

Definitely we can bring back a report. I do want to build off that comment and bring in the discussion regarding the general plan. The general plan has different elements to it. One of them is conservation and discuss sustainability and elements you're discussing right now. there's an implementation component of these different elements of the general plan and it does build upon our urban forestry master plan and along with some of the topics that council member Sosa is bringing up and so as part of that that's one of the kind of the action points for staff is to build off it explored and develop any other plans that we need to and bring that back to the city council for discussion so those would be part of the general plan.

Do we know Bonnie if perhaps you don't have that top of your head, but how many thousands of trees were actually planted during that, I think it was a three, four year period? I would have to go back.

It's my understanding that we have a goal that we annually plant about 750 trees, and I think that's been carried over from a number of years. But the comment is timely in the sense that reforestation is always something that we need to kind of keep in mind. I don't think we have a master plan, if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a management plan. It's a management plan. Which is a different, very different, actually, element. So yeah, it's a timely topic, and we're happy to take that direction to look at it and come back and report on to the council.

Yes.

Did I hear a second? Yes.

Second. Thank you. Council members, was that you? OK. Moving on to Council Member Trujillo.

Thank you. I had an opportunity to attend the NALEL conference. I attended a workshop on AI. That seems to be a common feature. They did focus on local data center management. It seems to be a nationwide issue. I also attended workshops on community protection, on immigration enforcement, and on affordable housing. I have some items I was hoping I could get a second for. Number one, the Wi-Fi in the downtown Downey, I had a couple people inquire if we have Wi-Fi in downtown Downey, and I didn't know what to say.

I don't think we have Wi-Fi in the downtown. No, it's not ours. The businesses that are there might have their own Wi-Fi. The DDI might provide something that I'm not aware of, but no, the city does not have any Wi-Fi assets in the downtown.

I think one time in our planning, I put it on our long term to look into it and-

it was a part of the budget proposal and then it wasn't didn't make its way into the budget if we could consider it again for future um perhaps just keep discussing some sort of wi-fi plan for the downtown can i get a second i'd second yes okay so just remind the council that is like a two hundred thousand dollar to five hundred thousand dollars and i think that's that's why he didn't make it into the plan we we wanted but that it was a little cost prohibitive but okay we can keep it on the back burner if that's something the council thank you roger yes all right continuous sidewalk for Downey High School students to walk from Brookshire from Fifth Street to Florence Avenue. I don't know how possible that is, but if the staff could look into it, can we have a continuous, now I haven't walked it, so I don't know if that's possible or what specifically, what streets that we're looking at, but I was hoping we could look into that.

We can at least take a look and see what might be possible there because we talked about some of those sections before. A lot of times driveways and other things just don't line up properly, but we're happy to at least take a look and give you sort of a rationale why it's that way.

Can I get a second on that? Thank you. Studebaker Road between Cecilia and Florence. Neighbors complaining. And I know we're really backlogged right now and a lot of speed surveys because I was hoping to add that area to the list. Studebaker Road between Cecilia and Florence. Can I get a second on that to add it to the list of speed surveys?

Second.

And my last one is e-bikes. A couple of requests. Are we doing anything about e-bikes? I was wondering if we can have staff look into what other cities are doing. I guess they're becoming most prevalent and the concern is public safety.

Yeah, you know, that's actually been a topic I know a few members on the council have asked us about that. I've been talking with the police department. We are starting to do a lot of outreach. I'll let Captain Clements talk a little bit about that to sort of educate the community about what's going on. We actually have

There's a video.

Collaboration that we're working on with the school district as well to talk about this issue. So it is something that we have on our list to pay attention to and make sure the community kind of is aware of it because it's becoming a problem for a lot of communities to deal with. So we're definitely working on it.

Do I need a second for this to be on some sort of action plan?

We're already working on it, but if you have any you could add to our efforts.

You stated most of it, sir. Yeah, right now we're on the verge of just pushing out as much information as we can. We have spoke with the school about revamping our pamphlet. It seems like a lot of the restrictions and regulations regarding it have been changing recently, so we just want to make sure it's accurate. We just recently got a report back from the DA's office on some of their stance on it, mixed with some of our, you know, our traffic safety partners and then CHP. We have a pamphlet, but we're working on pushing out another one and just going with education for now, and then, you know, we'll see. We'll probably add a few more things.

So we are working on it. No need for any other questions. Thank you.

That concludes my comments, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Pemberton. Thank you, Mayor, for a meta.

July is Disability Pride Month. It was brought to my attention. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H. Bush. It's a civil rights law which prohibits discrimination based on disability, and we've made great strides in decades offering these individuals equal opportunity on many levels such as work, housing, sports, and mobility. As Downey's trustee for the vector mosquito board, unfortunately a case of West Nile virus was reported in Downey. I'm sure you've seen some notices on social media in different cities, but they're now getting in all surrounding cities. And this is carried by the mosquito and we can help stop it. Continue to treat your pools and fountains with chlorine. And they have a logo, tip and toss any standing water. Another tip is not to water your lawns or foliage at night, because at night, you will keep puddles around your area. And this is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. So early morning is best for watering. Set your timers. And call vector control if you see any green pools of water around the city or in a neighbor's pool. 562-944-9656. They will come out. They're right down the road here in Santa Fe Springs. SIACA is extending its low fee adoption days to August 1st. This was just for July. This is a flyer that they have on their site. For America's 250th birthday, you can adopt dogs, cats, and rabbits for just $2.50. So adopt or foster a pet today to help clear the shelters. I want to mention to my residents in D3, we have a four-way light coming. It's been installed. We're just waiting to have it energized. It's at the cross of suva and guatemala going over the bridge to the island and this was to help alleviate backup traffic that was on the bridge coming from bell gardens over to downey so we hope that will help the residents and we'll have it synced equal to the one by foster bridge and bluff so we're waiting on is that correct edison for energizing that the neighbors are looking forward to that two weeks ago The community attended a celebration of life for the untimely passing of Mr. Darrell Jackson. It was held at Sussman School and there were almost 500 friends in attendance. My colleague Councilman Sosa also attended. Darrell was the founder of the 1020 Club, an intervention and mentor group for youth at risk for ages 10 to 20 years old, hence the name. Darrell became a legacy in Downey for his work with thousands of youth at risk in Downey schools and other areas. He was one of a kind. He was a very humble man, even with his famous past history of being a major league pitcher with the Minnesota Twins, always the Minnesota Twins. His family, teammates, and classmates came out to share stories of growing up with Darryl. His brother spoke of funny episodes of Darryl being the tattletale. and how well he threw that rock or that ball at a young age. When the parents couldn't find Darryl in the house, his siblings knew. They went to the ball field in Compton to find him. There he was by himself, sharpening his craft as a lefty pitcher. Kenny Landreau recounted his days of playing baseball and many others led us into Darryl's life. Darryl brought his experience with overcoming substance abuse and challenges to help the most vulnerable, our youth. I will never forget the number of adults that came to him when we worked the gangs out of Downey Booth at a street fair. They thanked him for turning their lives around, showing him their kids or spouse, and some said thanks for saving their life. So rest in peace, Daryl. May you now be strong in heaven. I know you are playing golf up there every day. And until we meet again, maybe in the future, we can dedicate something in Daryl's name here in our community. Concert in the Parks, tomorrow we mentioned it, it's the 80s theme. And then there's one more concert that will be on Wednesday, August 5th, that will be our Downey Owns Symphony. And that's a very popular concert. Conductor Sharon Lavery passes on the baton to each young person. They come up on stage and they lead the musicians. So bring your chair at 6.30, the concert's at 7. And you don't have to be a child to get the baton, you can just be young at heart. I want to thank staff for Dodger Night. That was a week ago or so. It was a fun and truly enjoyable evening. I want to thank the staff for loading us all up on the bus. We had two buses full. We packed it from Barbara Riley Center. And they also put on our wristband the phone number in case we needed breadcrumbs to get back to the bus from the pavilion. Everybody had an enjoyable time. The staff was always very cordial and waited for us. And that pavilion is a whole new area out there. My girls and I, we went into throwing balls in the pitching cage. There's a pitching cage back there with a radar gun. And Whitney is the softball champ from college, and she got 41, and we thought that was great. But we're pitching now at 90. I know Darryl could pitch at 90, right? City Manager, I have a request. Now, there have been many residents asking for a fireworks show in Downey, talking on social media. And I just wanted to say a little past history. In the past, the Downey Jaycees ran the carnival at Warren, and the profit they made funded the fireworks show. Well, then that changed because of a new fire requirement of how they lit the fireworks. It had to be an automated system and not a manual system. And it became too costly, so they had to cancel the show and the carnival. The following year, I think the city did one or two shows, but that was it. So I would like to ask if we could just look in for now, look into the cost of a fireworks show that maybe we could have at one of the high schools, and it might be cost prohibitive, but we might be able to see what it is, what it costs, and let the residents know. I don't think they realize how much it really is per minute, but is that something that we might want to all look into for the city?

I can give you an idea of what that cost is if you're looking for that now, or we can do a more in-depth investigation. I will tell you, it all depends on the length of the show, so obviously the size. I'd say for probably a 20-minute show, I think staff is telling me about $100,000 and $150,000 is probably, $120,000, $150,000 is a normal for kind of a small, normal show. And then it can go up really from there. I know some major cities spend more than a million dollars on those kinds of shows. efforts but it's not a cheap undertaking but if you like us to look at what it might cost for our own show we can do that take a little bit of time to put all that together but it's not a cheap endeavor

I know that the Downey High School for their senior cella their last night for the seniors before graduation for baccalaureate and graduation they've had firework shows certainly not 20 minutes long but certainly I know we are always looking at our funds And at the same time, looking at celebrating the 4th of July.

Well, maybe knowing that we're looking for something that's more long-term, like downtown Downey Wi-Fi, to me, seems a little bit more efficient of use of funds if we have them. I think for right now, we can just kind of, the residents will know what the cost is. And maybe we can revisit that when we feel that we have maybe a little bit of a surplus. It's a lot of money, $150,000 to $200,000 for an hour. No, not even that. That's just for the show. I mean, when you get there, that's true. It's not even a show. So then I'm just going to rescind that investigation. It's good to know that you have this on there. I have a second one. Earlier this year, we approved a spay and neuter program for cats and just for Downey residents. The free mobile clinics that SIACA does quarterly fills up in hours. A couple of months ago, there were 1,200 calls for appointments for only 300 appointments. Since our downing program started in March, there have been 27 applications received. We had allocated 5,000 and 25,000 had been used. However, with our new fiscal budget being approved, this allocation has not rolled over. It has stopped, effective 7-1-26. And I don't want this successful program to stop. The word is getting out and we see responsible pet owners coming forward. With so many residents doing their part in just three short months, we need to continue to fund this newly created program and do our part in stopping cat overpopulation. So I'd like to put as an agenda item for our next meeting to discuss continuing this program we've started and the funding for the spay and noodle for 26-27. And I'd like to look for a second on that. To discuss the item.

Isn't SIACA, isn't SIACA, HAVE WE EVER DETERMINED WHAT HAVE WE EVER DETERMINED WHAT RESOURCES SIACA IS BRINGING TO RESOURCES SIACA IS BRINGING TO RESOURCES SIACA IS BRINGING TO THE TABLE? THE TABLE?

THE TABLE? AS A MATTER OF FACT, SIACA AS A MATTER OF FACT, SIACA And they are going to, they have, we have approved $200,000 for additional mobile clinics. You need to understand that if a person wants to have this done with their pet, they don't perform that on site. They don't have the staff. They have one chief veterinarian. They have two or three assistants. So the animals that they spay and neuter are the ones that are being adopted. So if people need to go out and get that done, there are veterinarians that charge 200, 250. There's others that charge 100, 150. A lot of the nonprofits sometimes are out in Simi Valley or closing. If we think we have a population problem of cats and downy, which we know, How are we stopping it? We have to stop the feral cat population by spaying and neutering the cats that we have. Coyotes are coming in here for what? A feeding source. What's the feeding source? It's the feral cats that are coming out there. They have calls all the time. So for us to sit back and not do anything when we have 25 people coming in here, I'm a little upset that we couldn't consider giving a little bit more to continue. We had allocated five. 2,500 is still remaining, but it got lost in last year's budget. I think we can find something to keep the program going. I don't think that the residents may use it all. Some may stop, but we have to offer something. Other cities are offering it. Siaca can't be the catch-all for 17 cities. We downy have to do something about it now. This is the way to do it. People are taking their cats. They're coming to us for reimbursement because financially it's hard. We're able to do it. We should do it. I've never been so passionate about something like this.

No, I know. I know. And I think... Okay.

And it's not like it's $100,000. We're asking for a small amount. Keep it going at five and we revisit it later in the year.

I will second that. Thank you. I do I do want to this situation is is always concerning. And considering we are one of the founding cities of Siaka, which is a boutique agency that now serves A lot of cities. 800,000 residents. And I wonder, again, Council Member Pemberton, because I've been, I was a board member there before, a couple hundred thousand dollars that we put into the agency, how is it that we're not able to, from those monies, allocate? I'm wondering what it is, and I think we've had this conversation before, What is Downey's ROI, ultimately? Because it seems like every year, I think two years ago, we did a substantial increase. And again, the agency went out and contracted with more cities. But if they're not able to provide service to the cities.

So let me stop you, and I'll just interject that, number one, We are in search for an executive director now. The former executive director left in December. We have an acting director. We have not filled an operations director right now. We're looking for that. We also have an internal audit that we started in December, November, December, auditing the entire facility and the operation. so we are having a lot of hands-on right now we're going to have discussion next month of the findings of that operation so we're not sitting we're not sitting dormant we are in an active engaged how to make this organization better we are not taking on new new clients new cities we have three and four cities coming to us every month they want us rather than a county So we are taking pro steps in how to make the organization better, how to fill the positions. Hiring individuals for that organization are about as hard as PD. We've had a lot of vacancies. We have a 20% vacancy factor, which doesn't help. So we promoted four more ACO. Let's see, that's the animal control officers that drive and go out in the city. So we're doing a lot of changes with our interim acting director right now. So stay tuned.

Yes. No, and I think it's really a very challenging environment.

And we're going to start union negotiations, too. Yeah, that's very challenging. There is a full plate, but again, just for this.

All right. Well, and again, I think with what this city contributes, and we have contributed over the years, you know, sometimes we we ask, what is the ROI for us, ultimately, but thank you for serving that you you're very, you're very good at that. That's correct. Is there anything else? No. Okay, thank you and I will keep my comments short. I started earlier by reminding our residents we have two concerts in the park left. I also want to remind our residents or let them know August 8th, Saturday, we have a busy day in our city. We have rocket fever beginning at 10 a.m. We also have the Gangs Out of Downey backpack giveaway at Golden Park starting at 12 p.m. And then we also have Downey Pride from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in downtown Downey. So mark your calendars, everybody. Once again, thank you Jason and Parks and Rec team for all of the work that you've done over the last several weeks with Concerts in the Park. I want to report on a couple of conferences I attended recently. Continuing to learn is one of the greatest responsibilities of public service And I also, as Councilmember Sosa indicated recently, we had the pleasure of attending the Independent Cities Association ICA Summer Conference. I had the opportunity to gain insights on effective ballot measure outreach and community engagement, crisis communication strategies, also, again, AI, safer LA County, along with voting rights and the implications of the recent US Supreme Court decisions. Just as meaningful is the opportunity to reconnect with colleagues from other independent cities, like Glendale, Santa Monica, San Gabriel, and others, and talk about, you know, share our ideas, our experiences, and best practices, and that strengthens our collective ability to serve our communities better. I also had the honor of attending NALEO's 43rd Annual Conference. as the immediate past president and to celebrate the organization's remarkable 50th anniversary, a milestone that reflected five decades of developing, supporting, and empowering leaders across our nation. And it was, again, meaningful to reconnect with colleagues, friends that share a commitment to public service and civic engagement. I attended sessions on leadership as well as AI and the impact that immigration enforcement is having across our communities. a great time to be back. I'm looking forward to seeing our residents over the next couple of weeks as we say goodbye to summer. And I do have a couple of things that I would like to ask. I think this has been mentioned before we all were in receipt of emails regarding e-bikes and the e-bikes usage. I had a conversation with our city manager about this yesterday and continuing to or increasing and thank you PD for that video increasing education for our communities. We see these young kids excited with these e-bikes that go very fast and unfortunately we can I hope we don't have major accidents with the use of these, so we need to put some guardrails around that. I would like to request speed humps along Pangborn between Firestone and Farm. The only stop sign, I think we have two stop signs there, but as we've been aware that particular street can, many people use to traverse the main, you know, the north and south part of town and they go very, very fast. We've had a lot of, we've had accidents and we've had many residents in that particular stretch reach out to me regarding that. During today's agenda, we did approve the light that will be installed on Firestone and Pangborn. And so that's, you know, that will hopefully alleviate a little bit of the traffic. But as far as speed, and I know that we've all been in receipt of emails from residents in various parts of our city complaining of excess speed through our residential streets. And I've also asked to convene mayors from surrounding cities regarding

building safer, stronger, and more resilient community.

We have not only this railroad that traverses many of our local cities, but during the conferences that I mentioned, I had conversations with other mayors of surrounding neighboring cities that we discussed the importance of coming together and collaborating and engaging in better coordination. I think that's also in the works. One last thing I want to discuss is with budgets shrinking and an unknown economic forecast, we've discussed various projects that will need additional funding sources. And certainly we are this is the midterms and sourcing funding can be a little skewed. But I do want to be able to meet with our federal legislators and discuss funding priorities for Downey. And I'm looking for an advocacy trip sometime late October, beginning November. I think it's important for us to sit face to face with our legislators. Again, we know it is election time, but I also know that there are opportunities to engage with some of the members of Congress.

Just to be clear, that's an advocacy trip to D.C. to talk to our legislators back in D.C.?

Yes.

Okay. I would say probably, so right now we're during elections, so October would not be because nobody's in D.C. They're all going out for elections. So if something were to happen, it would probably have to be the third week of October. of November. First week is elections. Second week is, I think, a holiday, federal holiday, Veterans Day. Then, of course, Thanksgiving's around there. So if there is a desire to do that, it would have to be that third week. But if that's the council's will, we can put that on the agenda.

Thank you. Any other thoughts, comments? If not, I will adjourn.

I do have city manager. Yes.

Oh, city manager comments.

Yes. Just quickly want to make sure, kind of capture a couple things. So I do have that letter to LA County, the community reforestation plan update. It's got a traffic study on Studebaker from Celia to Florence, I think that was. Yes. funding for the spay and neuter program, e-bike education we talked about, the traffic survey for Pangborn. I need a second on that item. That'll be for speed bumps. Really, we look at that. We have an evaluation of what the traffic measures might be, so we can do the speed surveys and see what that yields from Firestone to Farm. Is that what you said?

Yes.

Thank you. And then, as mentioned, the advocacy trip to D.C., we can put that together if there's a second on that one as well.

the dc trip yeah thank you that's all i needed thank you everybody um this meeting is now adjourned in memory of diane dubois 87 years old former council member and mayor of the city of lakewood who served 28 years on the planning and environment commission in 15 years on the city council also laurie guillen former council member and mayor of the city of paramount who served 30 years with the los angeles police department the four military members killed during a missile and drone attack in Jordan, First Lieutenant Tyler Feehan, 25, Sergeant Angel Rampersad, 28, Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, and Private Isabella Gonzalez, 19, and our dear Daryl Jackson, age 70, former Major League Baseball pitcher and founder of the 1020 Club in Downey. A moment of silence, please. Thank you. The time is 925. This meeting is adjourned.