City Council - Regular Meeting

the the council meeting close session time is now 5:34. City clerk, will you please call the role? Yes, mayor. Council member Fetta, present. Council member Ortiz, present. Council member Thrujillo here. Mayor Prom Peton present. And Mayor Sosa, yes. Now's the time for public comment. Do we have a Yes, Mayor. We have one um speaker tonight and we don't have any uh written public comments. Okay, [snorts]

we have one public speaker. Do I need to read this this whole thing here? I think that's No, you don't. Thank you.

Good evening. Nothing like expediting government. Avoid the unnecessary verbiage. Um, seeking conference with labor negotiator Mr. James McQueen is the Downey Firemen's Association, the Downey Fire Management Association, and the Downey Police Officers Association. I would like to encourage those groups along with Mr. McQueen to settle on a legitimate contract for these groups and these men and women. That they be compensated justly for the work that they do in spite of the ridiculous antics of the city council and the other silly things that you have them participate in. instead of doing what their prime function is, especially providing public safety. If you ask chat GPT what the main concern is of uh public safety and that what the biggest lie is from local, county, state, and federal government representatives is chat GPT responds public safety is the biggest lie that you purport to support. So, we know whenever you say public safety, we know you're not serious. We still don't know anything about chemtrails. We don't know the number of people that were disappeared from the ICE Nazis on the Downey sidewalks. We were supposed to have a number of

that two months ago. No number. Matter of fact, I don't think it was any. But these uh folks in these associations, the residents want them to have a 5% raise in three subsequent years. No ifs, ends, or buts. They should be funded and supported. The police number should be brought up to 129 130 actual officers boots on the ground, not some friend of ours running some um RMI type of uh safety features which absolutely do nothing. Uh it's just a payoff for friends. We're tired of that. We want actual boots on the ground and we actually want genuine public safety. And we want to stop with the word games and listen to the the um the gaslighting that goes on around these issues. 5% three subsequent years. No ifs, ends, or buts. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a motion and second to close public comment? Some moved. Second. Sorted by the mayor. The city council will now recess to close session of the following authorities. One, government code section 54957.6. Six conference with labor negotiator James McQueen, director of human resources regarding direction for labor negotiations with Downey Fireman's Association, Downey Fire Management Association, and Downey Police Officers Association. We will now recess to close session. The time is now 5:39.

Good evening. I will now reconvene the regular city council meeting. In close session, City Attorney Funk, well, the time is now 6:32. City City Attorney Funk, will you please report the close session action? Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council and members of the public. The city council in tonight's close session took up all matters on the close session agenda. There is no reportable action from tonight's proceedings. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Before we begin the regular city council meeting open session, I would like to remind members of the audience that anyone wishing to speak during public comment must obtain a number card from the city clerk. Number cards should not be exchanged with other meeting attendees. If you decide not to speak after taking a number or decide to leave the meeting early, you must return the number card to city staff. If you did not obtain a number and wish to speak, please proceed to the back of the room and city staff will issue 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 shall remain seated unless addressing the council or entering or leaving the chambers. Standing in the aisles or along the walls is prohibited. There is overflow seating available in the lobby. If there are no available seats in the chambers, please proceed to sit in the lobby. I will now call to order the regular city council meeting open session. Time is now 6:33. City clerk, will you please call the role?

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

present. Thank you. And now, please uh join us in welcoming Pastor Michael Gutierrez from Redeemer Covenant Church for tonight's invocation. Good evening. Good evening. Would you pray with me? Dear God, I start off tonight thanking you for this great city of Downey. God, thanking you for all the roles and positions that make it up. I thank you for the city council that you have allowed to be in their positions. God, for such a time as this, you have gifted each one with knowledge and skills and wisdom to make decisions for the betterment of our community. I also thank you for the first responders that are here tonight. I thank you for the bravery that they display each day, God, keeping us safe and keeping us um living to our best potential. God, I pray tonight as a city council makes decisions, I pray that you would bless them with a spirit of unity, God, that you would make them one, and you would make their hearts in common, God. That you would allow them to seek to understand one another, seek to ask good questions of one another, seek to love one another ultimately so that our city could be bettered by their faithful work that they continue to do. God, I pray that you bless them with your discernment on how things should go in our city. God, I pray that you would bless each of them, bless their families, bless the work that they do, and bless the communities that they represent, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Gutierrez. Uh, and now for the flag salute, let's welcome Girl Scout Troop 7272. Good evening. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance.

Everyone in uniform, salute. Everyone else, place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Let's hear for troop 7272. [applause]

Great job, kids. You may be seated. Good evening. Now is the time for city council member announcements, requests for future agenda items, and conference and meeting reports. I will start to my far left with council member Odash Ortiz. Thank you, mayor. Hello, everybody. Go Dodgers.

Right. What do we have? The score is 2-1, but it'll be better. Don't worry. Um, mayor, I don't have much to report. Um, I did attend two events. Um, I went with my colleagues to the state of the city of Montabelloo. And afterwards, I got an opportunity to support a PD at the Lazy Dog for their pink patch fundraiser as a restaurant tour. I'm sure now you know the struggles of working in a restaurant, right? [laughter] Um, I do I do have a couple events I do want to mention. On Friday, we have the pump pumpkin patch at Downey Adult School from 5 to 8:30, which is a great event. Um, and Sunday we have a diia loss muertos from 11 to 8 at the civic center which is another great event uh for our community. And I just want to wish everybody a happy Halloween. I know it's going to be a good time. Um, just be please be safe if you're walking your kids um in the streets and just have some fun. Thank you everybody.

Thank you Council Member Ortiz Council Member Mario Trillo. Thank you mayor. I had the opportunity to attend the Downey Conservancy 15th anniversary. Congratulations to them. Um, as you know, uh, Downey has or you may not know, Downey is very rich in history. Uh, I encourage everyone to Google the city of Downey and learn a lot more about us. But I want to thank the conservancy for doing the work of keeping our history alive. Um, apart from that, I have no items to uh request. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Trill, Mayor Proam, Dorothy Peton.

Thank you, Mayor Sosa. Welcome everyone. Um, I have a few comments that I have. Now, October, as we know, um, has a number of events in there. October is breast cancer awareness month, and this is the most common cancer in women in the US next to skin cancer. Breast cancer deaths have dropped by 44% since 1989 due to awareness and preventative measures like screenings and mammogs. One in eight women will get invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. So healthy living and early detection saves lives. And don't forget to do all your monogamies and selfch check. And thank you as our colleague Ortiz had said the pink patch we had at the Downey lazy dog. And thank you to the officers who were serving and our chief. October is also uh October Fest and it's a great German celebration of music, dancing food and of course pretzels and beer. So I hope you can attend in October Fest. We still have about one more week to go and if you don't know where, try Old World in Huntington Beach. Yavo. Um I attended Famous Dave's Barbecue ribbon cutting in the landing. Um it's located next to Johnny Corinos and the food is amazing. So if you don't have time to barbecue yourself, go there and please support our local restaurants. As uh my colleague here mentioned on the Downey Conservancy I too attended uh at their 15th anniversary at a beautiful home in Orange Estates. It's called the Sherwood home and it was built in the 1930s and exudes all its original charm. It was home to the two good family. Who are they? They partnered with Glenn Bell to start El Taco and then Mr. Bell should sold sold his shares to start Taco Bell. Yep. The Taco Bell building that was on Firestone across from the Home Depot that's there today. So, we thank the conservancy like um Councilman Tree Ho has said for enriching our history, especially Kathy uh Perez and George Red Fox and uh they bring all the

Old Downey charm to residents so we never forget their history. I attended also the Indian Diwali festival of lights and this is the Baps Shwami Arian Mandar and it's a Hindu temple complex located in Chino Hills. You may have seen it from the free voids right off the 71. So they invited all our elected officials to attend. The exterior is sandstone towers 78t tall and the interior is beautiful with handcarved marble. And this 20 this former 20 acre farmland became a lavish and ornate temple in 2012 for which worship by the Hindus. And they have a visitor center and if it's open to the public and it's entirely made of Burmese teakwood. It's really a mustsee and if you ever have a chance you have an opportunity to visit the mandar please do. Located off the 71 and the 60 freeway. uh also attended kids kids and cops day hosted by good gangs out of Downey at Dodie Middle School. Over 20 officers engaged with the students, middle school students playing sports, craft, and just even one- on-one. Uh they started with morning uh breakfast burritos. I think you provided them, Councilman Ortiz. Thank you. And until then till lunch. Um our chief was there. Um did you win any games with the middle schoolers or

he has an injury to show?

Won a couple games, but we're pretty sore afterwards. Yeah, the the kids really relished it to see officers in in shorts and a t-shirt. That's what we need. We to build that relationship of our youth. And thank you to good and led by Julie Garcia, the good president. Um on the consent calendar, I'd like to bring two items um up to your awareness. Number three and five that we will approve are exciting items that deal with our new inspiration inspiration shuttle exhibit in the educational and educational building. Item three is approving soliciting bids for construction of the new building to house the shuttle. And item five is approving a fundraiser consulting service for the Colombia Memorial Space Center as additional funds are needed. I see Ben is watching me now. Um, as you know, we will create two new buildings behind the Colombia Memorial Space Center, which is at Discovery Park. The larger building will house the actual wooden mockup of the space shutter, our first space shuttle shuttle. Its home is going to be 40,000 square ft. And an educational center will also be built next to it for 15,000 square feet. The center will also allow for two youth STEM classrooms and an outdoor gathering space. So far so good. And then events can also be held inside the space shuttle um exhibit. And so we can have meeting rooms, we can have uh banquetss. This will become a premier destination for events and dinners. The project is estimated to cost around 29 million and most of that has been funded through grants and/or our capital project fund. However, the consultant is needed to raise the additional 6 million. And item eight, I'll save for someone else. Um I'd like to save the date. Kicking off Downey Theater 2025 season, we have Expose and the Jets on Friday, November 7th. Tickets are selling fast and may

almost be sold on sold out, but please go online to purchase. I know there's limited seating. And let's see, the Downey Symphony had all pretty much sold out conference uh symphony two weeks ago at the theater. And while I was there, we had a couple comments from people that needed the elevator. City manager, I have a request, please. if we could have some signs placed in the theater showing the location of where the elevator is at. Uh many attendees were kind of lost in looking for it, didn't know that we had one because we added it on the Measure S um uh the Measure S funds to put it on the exterior. Um and then finally, happy birthday to my good friend and colleague, Councilwoman Frometa. That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Prom Peton. Council member Claudia Feretta. Thank you, mayor. I'm going to keep my comments short. I promise I promise my daughter uh Jessica who is turning 18 tonight or today rather that I would keep my comments short. Uh welcome everybody. Um and I do want to wish her a happy birthday too. We we are birthday buddies. Um it is a pleasure to be here with all of you tonight. Uh it is always a pleasure to see our first responders in the audience. Uh thank you uh to our men and women in uniform for keeping our city safe. uh whether it you're fighting fires uh or fighting bad guys. Uh thank you. Thank you for keeping Downey safe. Um I wanted to uh again I don't want to repeat everything that that has been um said by some of my colleagues. Uh I did also uh attend the uh 15th anniversary of the conservancy and how critical is it for us to continue to support uh the efforts of the conservancy and uh I know that we will continue to look at the um that ordinance and look at uh various buildings that we need to continue to protect. Uh I know that that information will be forthcoming um in in future meetings, but I I do want to wish them um a happy 15th anniversary as well as acknowledge uh George Red Fox uh and Kathy uh for their work uh with the conservancy. I want to um speak a little bit about um religious land use and institutionalized persons act uh RLUIPA. Um in Downey we have been blessed to be home of dozens of churches uh of various denominations

and over the course of many years uh our churches have uh conducted large events and we are always happy to partner with our churches. Um, I do want to make sure that our community knows and understands that as a city, we will not stand in the way uh of our LUIPA. However, we want to ensure for your protection and the protection of our city that if you are having events that draw special events that draw thousands of people that we do have a permitting process uh for special events and uh I will let our city manager uh speak a little bit more about that uh later. Uh I think it's important that our community members realize we are here in the business of partnering. Um but it is important to understand that anytime churches have large events uh outside of their normal worship services, any type of large event that draws thousands of people from the community does require a special permit. Um and this is to protect you from liability and to protect the city from liability. and we are happy to to partner with you so that the process is seamless and it's smooth. But again, this is aside from any land use infringement. Uh the city of Downey has always had a very

productive, respectful, collaborative relationship with all of our churches. um the last few years we've had probably about 30 of them. So I I just want to make sure that our community knows and understands that we are here to partner with you. Uh we don't want to make things difficult, but we do want to make sure that for your protection, any liability and any liability of the city uh is taken care of through a a permitting process that everybody has to go through. Okay. Um, I have a couple of things that I would like to ask um, staff to look into, especially as we have Halloween around the corner and there will be a lot of trick-or-treaters out there. I would like to make sure that uh particularly and um I know you have the uh pumpkin patch uh that is so well attended uh in Columbus High. Please exercise caution uh in the Imperial Highway and Woodruff uh avenues, but also in the northeast uh segment of the city uh on Gallatin between Lakewood uh and Downey Sanford Bridge. that area gets particularly um heavy with trick-or-treaters. Um and in the past, unfortunately, we've had uh a trick-or-treater or two that have been run over. And so, I want to make sure that our community exercises caution when you're driving, especially as um our trick-or-treaters will be out in force. And I would like to ask and request our police department of course to continue to do um vigilance uh in patrols particularly on on Halloween night. Um but also between on Florence Avenue between Lakewood and the 605 that over the last couple of weeks uh

once again we're seeing drivers uh speed through there. uh looks like there it's a speedway and we want to make sure that we keep our families safe. Um I know there's been a lot of residents that have commented and and have not been too happy about the construction going on on Lakewood in Firestone and uh we're doing everything we can to minimize the pains. Uh please, we ask for your grace as we continue to do improvements to our streets. Um, and with that, uh, that will conclude my comments. Mayor, uh, go Dodgers.

Thank you, Council Member Foretta. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here. Um, we have a goodsized crowd. I know we're competing with the Dodgers game, and um, it's good to see all our first responders here. Welcome. Uh, I'll keep my comments short. I did attend the Spooky Science Festival held by the um uh by Ben Dickau and the uh the staff over at the Columbia Memorial Space Center. What an amazing event. It was a huge turnout. Uh I would say uh several hundred people were there, if not thousands, 1500. Um and it was just a fun event for families and for kids. And they had a corresponding uh car show there, classic car show. And uh that was that was awesome. Great job, Ben and and staff uh over there. Um also, um just u couple of committee uh meetings that I attended. I attended the uh the bi-weekly uh county sanitation meeting in Whittier. Uh that's uh nothing really to report. That was as exciting as sanitation gets. And uh also I attend the Celico Workforce Development Board which I uh proudly represent Downey on and uh one of the things that they talked about Celico Workforce Development uh board is uh is a tremendous uh workforce uh organization. Uh they do a lot of amazing work in uh supplying job training and uh job opportunities and connections for u our local workforce. And uh one of the things that they're emphasizing right now is um internship opportunities and entry level job opportunities for our young adults and uh graduating seniors. So stay tuned for more on that. Um I do have one request uh for staff. I would like um and I know that we're looking at several areas in City of Downey, but uh specifically um

off of Fontana uh just north of Stewart and Gray between around the Brookshshire and Passins uh cross street area. Uh if we can look at um a speed survey uh around that area. I know it's kind of tight uh but apparently a lot of people uh go down that street for a shortcut. if we can get a speed survey around that area. Uh you said Steuart and Gray and Brookshire area. It's going to be uh Fontana, which is just north of Stewart and Gray around the um Brookshshire Passins uh cross streets. Got it. Okay. And uh that concludes my comments. Again, thank you all for being here. City Manager Roger Bradley.

Uh thank you, Mayor. Just a couple uh really not too much. Uh we'll take a look at putting a sign over in the theater for the elevator. Um definitely it will look at putting some extra patrols out Halloween in those areas that were indicated over on Gallatin [snorts] uh Lakewood and the 605 area as well as to look at that speed survey. Uh was request uh to make some comments about our special event permit which I would say primarily this is not a novel thing. Many cities actually or most cities actually have a special event uh permitting process which really is designed I guess I would point out kind of three things that we really look at and really it's one to make sure that we don't you have the proper traffic control measures in place particular if you're looking to do an event and you have to close down a street or something of that nature. We want to make sure that that's signed properly that you have barricades and other traffic control measures in place to make sure that nobody gets hurt. And really the whole process is about making sure that we maintain safety. And honestly has nothing to do with churches in particular. It's really about any type of uh event whether it be a business or otherwise. Uh we want to make sure that you're a good neighbor for those that are around you. Um it's not that we say people are bad neighbors, but we want to make sure that there are good control measures in place to make sure that there are there's through traffic, people can still get to a business, for example, if they want to shop that you didn't close down their access. Uh also want to make sure I mean this is a dangerous world out there. There are people that'll come out and active shooter events are an issue. We want to make sure that the proper safety measures are in place so that you can enjoy your event. Uh we love events in our community. We have lots of them. We want to make sure people can come and have a good time. Uh but the last thing we ever would want to see is that somebody gets hurt at one of them. Uh and so we have our police officers, our police department look at your safety plan to make sure that the proper measures are in place. uh if you need security potentially that that's employed or other things to make sure that you're safe. As well as our our fire folks, you know, that they can respond to your event if somebody was

injured or otherwise, but they can get there adequately and get access to people and they're not cut off uh from being able to help you and your your attendees at those events. So, that's really what it's for is to make sure that you're safe, that your event is safe, that there's no nuisance issues for those that might be around you, uh and that everybody has a good time and and a good controlled measure. I know it's not necessarily the most convenient thing necessarily to go through, but our job is just to make sure as the protectors of this community, as our public safety team, that your event is effectively uh maintained and has good security and control measures to uh take care of your people. Yes. And that's all I have. Mayor,

thank you, city manager. And uh one more thing, uh quick note, uh please join us at our annual Veterans Day event. That's going to be on Tuesday, November 11th at the Columbia Memorial Space Center. And um that um that would be a normal uh day for our city council meeting, but uh since it is Veterans Day, we will have it the week after. So, Tuesday, November 11th, uh please um join us. Uh it's a real uh festive and it's always a good turnout for uh Veterans Day. So, thank you. I will now So, the council meeting will be moved from the 11th to the 18th. Yes.

The council meeting. Um the council meeting as opposed to being on the 11th is uh will now be on the 18th for a special count for a special date for November. Okay. All right. I will now make my way down for presentations. [snorts] [clears throat] Yeah.

So, as you can see, we have several uh presentations uh tonight. The first one is the mayor's outstanding citizen award. And um just so you know, I I have a couple more months or maybe a couple more meetings for my mayoral year. And um uh each each mayor does have a way to recognize uh citizens and uh um uh throughout the community. And uh I decided to put it out there to the residents and uh not only just people that I've been in in touch with uh but um if you know of anybody who's making a difference in the community that uh we may not know of, I I want to hear about them. Again, I only have two meetings left as uh during my mayoral year, but uh if you know of somebody who's making a difference, we want to hear about them. We want to acknowledge them. Okay. So, this this month's mayor's outstanding citizen award uh recipient is Bianca Fina, who was nom nominated by my council colleague uh Arasio Ortiz. And uh we were just at the um state of the schools where Bianca was recognized as teacher of the year. So Bianca Columb from Columbus High School, educator, advocate, and community leader with over 15 years of service in the Downey Unified School District. Bianca has made a lasting impact as a dedicated special education teacher at Columbus High School. her leadership far beyond the classroom through key roles including ASB adviser, W or WASK coordinator, not sure what that stands for, but instructional leadership team member, teacher, technology leader, community schools liaison, and mentor for aspiring educators through partnerships with Certo's College and the LA County Office of Education. A champion of equity,

inclusion, and student well-being. She has led impactful initiatives such as the Columbus Cares Closet, which provides essential resources to students and families and thriving Thursdays, promoting staff wellness and connection. Her contributions have been recognized at the highest levels. As mentioned, being named both Downey and LA County Teacher of the Year, representing the district with professionalism, purpose, and pride. Her unwavering commitment to students, colleagues, and the broader educational community reflects the values that define excellence in education. Please join me in welcoming Bianca Fina.

[applause]

Bianca, I present to you this city pin and this mayor's outstanding citizen award in recognition of 15 years of outstanding dedicated service to students and teachers throughout Downey Unified School District. You have championed equity, inclusion, student and teacher well-being through uh key roles that uplift and empower others. Your unwavering commitment and innovative leadership continue to inspire excellence for students in our Downey community. Given this 28th day of October 2025, congratulations. Thank you. [applause]

I got a little teareyed over there. Thank you [clears throat] so much, mayor. I appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. How are you all doing tonight? I'm truly humbled to stand here tonight receiving the mayor's outstanding citizens award as this year's Downey Unified Teacher of the Year. To be recognized by both our city and district, the very community that raised me is an honor beyond words. For the past 15 years, I've had the privilege of serving the students of Down Unified, and most recently, the incredible young people at Columbus High School. A continuation school that is more than what the name implies. Columbus is a place of second chances and new beginnings where students rediscover their confidence, rebuild their stories, and realize they are more than the challenges that they face. It's a place rooted in belonging, compassion, and purpose where we remind every student that they matter. I wanted to thank our Downey Unified leadership, our board of education, our mayor, and the city council for continuously believing in the power of education and partnership. The work we do in schools is only possible because of the community that surrounds us and because of the incredible support of my administrators at Columbus, Dr. Ortiz and Mr. Alvarez, who lead with heart and empower our staff and students to shine every day. And to my family, thank you for being my biggest cheerleaders and my reason why. You remind me daily of the joy and purpose behind this work. Finally, to our city leaders, I'd like to extend a personal invitation. Please come visit Columbus, walk our halls, meet our students, and see the heart that beats there. You'll witness resilience, creativity, and hope in action. The very essence of what makes Downey shine. Thank you for this honor, everyone, and for believing in teachers and continuing to invest in the lives of our students

and families. Together, we're shaping a brighter future. One student, one story, one heart at a time. Thank you. [applause] Congratulations. Come up here. This is mybody. Come on down. Congratulations. Congratulations.

[clears throat]

Okay, at this time uh we will recognize the um police and fire employees. employees of the quarter. And at this time, I'd like to call up police chief Scott Lochner to um introduce the recipient this quarter, Travis Travis O'Gorman. Let's hear for our chief. Good evening. Uh if I could have officer Travis Gorman come up here. I'm going to put you on the spot right up here. Come on up. So, our employee of the quarter for the third quarter for this year is officer Travis Ogorman. [clears throat] Just tell you a little bit about uh Officer Gorman. He was born in Plane View, New York and grew up in Northport, New York, where he attended Northport High School. After high school, Officer Gorman attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he also played on the volleyball team.

[clears throat]

And if if you've seen some of our recent u social media videos, you see him. I I don't know how he jumps that high, but uh he definitely uh excelled in in college playing volleyball, but he ended up graduating from George Mason in 2020 with a degree in criminal justice, law, and integrity. Officer Gorman attended the Long Beach Police Academy, and in on February 19th of 2024, he sworn in as a Downey Police Officer. It was an honor for me. He was as a chief. He was the first person I had the honor and privilege to swear in. Since joining our department, Officer Gorman has demonstrated a strong work work ethic and a positive attitude towards learning and professional growth. Officer Gorman is currently assigned to our field operations division, working patrol, and works the weekend graveyard shift. His goals include becoming a field training officer, joining the K-9 unit, and working as a detective in our detective bureau. Officer or Gorman has also made it a goal of his this year to receive the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers Award, which addresses issues with people driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Outside of outside of work, Officer Gorman maintains a healthy work life balance. He volunteers his time coaching volleyball for Long Beach City College and enjoys playing volleyball volleyball at the beach. His involvement in sports and community showcases his commitment to mentorship and teamwork. He also values spending time with his family. Officer Gorman has shown himself to be a very dependable and goal-driven officer with a promising future of the Downey Police Department. His professionalism, motivation, and community involvement make him a strong asset to our department. It's my pleasure to welcome our third quarter employee of the year or excuse me, third quarter officer of the quarter. Excuse me. [laughter] It's easy for me to say, right? Officer Travis Gorman. [applause]

Thank you. Sorry, Officer Gorman. I present to you this uh city pin as well as this certificate of recognition. And I know you have you had a few words you wanted to say, right? Here you go. Thank you.

Good afternoon everyone. I just wanted to say thank you everyone for coming out. I'm really honored and humbled to receive this award and I just want to thank everyone for their recommendations. For those that don't know, I work patrol uh weekend nights and the work we do really is a team effort. This award wouldn't be possible without the men and the women to the left and the right of me every night. So for that, I want to thank my co-workers, uh chief, my captains, my lieutenants, and everyone who uh stands for our department. I'm really humbled and honored for their recommendations and their I'm sorry on this award and for their support. Lastly, I want to thank my amazing girlfriend who's here with me uh my coworker Saul um who has been through it all. The long days, the hard days, the late hours, and all the meal prep that comes with it. Um I couldn't ask for a better city, a better team, and a better community to be a part of and serve. And lastly, I want to thank council members and everyone here for their recommendations and for this award. Thank you. [applause]

Thanks. So, You're good. And just a reminder, the um first responder, the police and ire employee of the quarter are uh voted on by their peers. U my understanding is no management takes place in these votes. Correct. Is that right? So voted on by the peers. So that's a that's a high honor. Um and it's all about respect and recognition. So, at this time, uh, we are going to, um, I'm going to call upon the fire chief, Anthony Hilderbrand, to, uh, recognize and introduce fire captain

Ted Matsumoto. [applause] Come [snorts] on down, Ted. He He's not happy with me. So wise [laughter]

fire captain Ted Matsumoto has embodied quiet leadership and dedicated service throughout his career in Downey Fire Department which began in 1995 when he became a firefighter. Ted's work ethic, his competence, and his professionalism, along with a strong construction background and a passion for firefighting quickly established him as an exemplary public servant. In 2001, Ted promoted a fire engineer, a role that he's that he held for over two decades. As an engineer, he drove and operated all the fire department apparatus, including fire engines, the fire truck, and our heavy rescue. Out of that, he became a key member of the apparatus committee where he's had a direct influence on the design of the of our department's response units. Most [snorts] recently, he played a a pivotal role in the design of our new 100 foot ladder truck that we saw a couple of weeks ago here at city council, and it's going to serve our community for the next 20 plus years. Beyond his core duties, Ted's construction skills have been instrumental in developing the department's infrastructure, aiding in DFD facilities development. Everywhere at Downey Fire Department, you can see Ted's fingerprints. Some of the projects that he's worked on has been the Brian Wolf Memorial Training Center, vehicle storage at Fire Station number three, and pretty much every building that Downey has that Downey Fire has, Ted's had something to do with it. His most significant contribution is his dedication to developing DFD personnel. Every engineer currently working on Downey Fire has been trained and mentored by Kath Matsumoto. He ensures that they're not just ready to take a test, that they don't just know the mechanics of the job, but that they're that they're truly prepared for the pres for the position. The impact that he's had on Downey Fire Department personnel can't be overstated. In 2023, Ted promoted to fire captain and he's currently stationed in Northeast Downey and leads the firefighters of Engine 64. He continues

to set the standard for excellent service and maintains a positive attitude and an infectious drive. Captain Matsumoto carries himself with a humble, quiet confidence, letting his work ethic and his impact on DFD speak for itself. So, please join me in congratulating Fire Captain Ted Matsumoto, Downey Fire Department Firefighter of the Quarter. [applause] Fire Captain Matsumoto, I present to you the city pin and this recognition for your dedication, outstanding performance of the Downey Fire Department. Here you go. Thank you. Sir, you like to say a few words? Of course.

I'd like to say thanks to the city manager, the mayor, all the city council members, um my fire chief. Uh I'm very humbled by this award, but as uh the other speakers were saying that I'm just one piece of the puzzle. I I'm one member of the team and the team is what gets the job done. So my gratitude goes out to all those that I work with on a daily basis. They are the real heroes. Um I'd love to take credit for this just by myself, but this goes to all of us. I appreciate the acknowledgement. Um, thank you for uh the command staff, the battalion chiefs, everybody that's involved with with this award. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. [applause] I got my whole family here. My beautiful wife is here. [applause] I don't know if we can fit 30 as many of you guys can uh can be here. Let's go. All

right, Arasio, come in. Let's [clears throat] assume the the back row here. Yeah,

you have the ladder. Yeah.

All right. It's all right.

At this time, I'd like to call Fire Chief Anthony Hildebrand back up in recognition of regional fire communications operator in uh her retirement, Eugenia Brunette, fire chief. Another one that doesn't want to stand up here with me. [laughter] Regional fire communications operator Eugeneia Bernett. Bernett began her career in the fire service in 1997 at the South Bay Regional Dispatch Center. In October 2000, she joined Downey Fire Department as a full-time dispatcher, and she's been here ever since. Throughout her 24 years in Downey, she's played an integral role in our Downey fire communication center, serving as the critical link between members of the public and firefighters on emergency incidents. Her calm demeanor and experience make her an asset and a true partner to units in the field. And on a personal note, for my entire career, she has been a lot more than a voice on the radio. [snorts] She's been a sense of calm. She's been an experienced professional and I can't overstate how important she's been in resolving all of the calls that we've been on. So, in her well-deserved retirement, Eugenia plans on traveling and spending time with her grandchildren. And while your prof professionalism and dedication will be missed at Downey Fire, we wish you the very best in your retirement. So, please join me in congratulating regional fire communications operator Eugeneia Brunette.

Congratulations, Eugenia. Seems like you have the same family as Captain Matsumoto here. [laughter] All right, we're all family. That's awesome. At this time, I'd like to call up city manager Roger Bradley for a special note.

Thank you, mayor. Um, on behalf of the organization, on behalf of the city, I want to congratulate you, Genie, on your 23 years of service uh to the community. It's impressive. Thank you for all the things that you've done, for all the hard nights and tough phone calls that you've taken. Uh, thank you for, you know, the blood, sweat, and tears you put in this community. Uh, the city is very thankful for all your service. So, congratulations and have fun in your retirement. [applause] But wait, there's more. [laughter] And I'll also like to present this uh city pin, Eugenia. And also this certificate of recognition uh for your 25 years of uh dedicated service to the city of Downey, your selfless service. We appreciate you and I know uh your family here appreciates you. Congratulations, Eugenia. Thank you. [applause] being short. Yes, I'm short. Um, I want to thank everybody. Um, city council, HR, human resources, and my whole family. Not only my personal family I love, but these brothers, everybody that I woke up, everybody um during my hardest time, they were there for me. You guys were all there for me. Um Chief, we've been through a lot. And you're all of you, all of you. Ras Ras, everybody. Zelda, our wonderful secretary. Patrick, my supervisor. Thank you. It it is a team. As Matsoto did say, we are a team all apart and it it

moves together and I'm honored to have of served the city this way and uh it's going to be hard to step back, but I'm going to do it. [laughter] I'm going to step back. It's going to be hard. I still live in the city, so I won't be far. But thank you again. It was my pleasure. What's that? Take a piece. [laughter] Enjoy your time. [crying]

Can any of your family holding up the wall? Any of you guys want to come down? It's all good. There we go. Oh. Uh, hold something in there.

That's all right. Oh, that's your Yeah. [laughter]

I'm gonna call you guys. Congratulations once again, Eugenia. Since you're still in the city, you going to change a number? Uh, you're retired now. [laughter]

No, I'm not going to change my number. They're all my brothers. Awesome. Awesome. At this time, uh final presentation of the night, uh it in regards to um correspondence with National Red Ribbon Week, October 23rd through the 31st, 2025. Um we are going to honor Southline Young Marines. This evening we would like to recognize the Southland Young Marines on the occasion uh as mentioned of National Red Ri Ribbon Week, the annual drug and violence prevention campaign in the United States. A remarkable group dedicated to shaping the future of our youth. The positive impact the Young Marines uh program is clear. Um it is helping build responsible civic-minded youth who are making a real difference in the Downey community. that through their commitment and example, they are shaping a brighter, safer future for the city of Downey. And um I believe we have a uh a member of the Southland Young Marines and uh what is I I see Herrera. What is your rank? What's the proper way to introduce you?

Uh a young Marine N Corporal Herrera. Young Marine Lance Corporal Herrera. Would you like to say a few words? Yes. Okay. Here, let's help me welcome her. Okay. [applause]

Hello. My name is Harley Herrera. I'm 9 years old and I'm a young Marine Lance Corporal with the Southland Young Marines. The Young Marines is a nonprofit youth organization for boys and girls ages 8 through 18. Our core values are teamwork, leadership, and discipline. We give back to our community and our veterans with community service events. We believe it's important to share information about drug use and prevention with everyone, mostly to educate others about the dangers of drugs. To help spread our drug-free message, we participate in Red Ribbon Week. Red Ribbon Week is every year during the week of October 203rd through the 31st. It started after DEA drug enforcement agency Asia Enuka Cameana was killed while fighting the war on drugs. Beware these red ribbons to pledge to lead drug-free lives to honor his memory and sacrifice. In August and September, we send letters to our city council mayors and board of supervisors requesting a proclaim proclaim to declare red ribbon week October 23rd through the 31st. I'm here today because I sent a letter to our city mayor [sighs] and it is the 250th birthday for um our Marine Marine Corps. Thank you. [applause] [laughter]

That's awesome. I She just gave me a challenge coin [laughter] for the Southland Young Marines. That means next time I see I got to buy you a lemonade, right? Is that is that how that works? And I will present this uh let's hear for Lance Corporal Herrera. Isn't that [applause] really impressive? Really amazing. I present to you this city pin. Okay. And I'm going to read a few of these. There's a few items on here in in proclamation. I want to thank you uh and my colleagues feel the same and uh representing such a fine organization and I think you're well on your way. Um this is in recognition whereas communities across America and I want to emphasize this because it's really important the work that you're doing Herrera Lance Corporal Herrera. uh communities across America have been plagued by the numerous problems associated with illicit drug use and those that traffic in them and that there is hope in winning the war on drugs and that the hope lies in education and um drug demand reduction coupled with the hard work and determination of organ organizations such as the young Marines led by uh folks like yourself, Lance Corporal um of the Marine Corps League to foster a healthy drug-free lifestyle. And governments and community leaders know that citizen support is one of the most effective tools in in the effort to reduce the use of elicit drugs in our communities. And the red ribbon has been chosen as a symbol uh commemorating the work of Enrique Kikamarena, a DEA uh drug enforcement administration agent who was murdered in the line of duty and represents the belief that one person can make a difference. And the Red Ribbon Campaign was established by Congress in 1988 to encourage a

drug-free lifestyle and involvement in drug prevention and reduction efforts. And October 23rd 31st has been designated National Ribbon Week, which encourages Americans to wear a red ribbon to show their support for a drug-free environment. I, Hector Sosa, the mayor of city that of Downey, do hereby recognize the week of October 23rd, 2025 through October 31st, 2025 as National Red Ribbon Week on behalf of the people of Downey and urge all citizens to join me and Lance Corper Herrera in this special observance. And I want to thank you uh personally thank you when you when you sent me this email. Uh to me it was a no-brainer uh to get you up here and to recognize you and for all the amazing work that you're doing. We're all very proud of you. Congratulations and receiving this uh proclamation on on behalf of the National Red Ribbon Week and keep up the good work. Lance Corporal Herrera. Thank you. [applause] We are

Thank you. [applause] Oh, that was amazing. Uh, and that concludes our presentations for the evening. Thank you. Okay, now is the time for public comment regarding agenda, consent calendar, and non-aggenda items. The city council will now take public comment on agenda, consent calendar, and non-aggenda 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 deis 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-aggenda 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 Cler Darte, did we receive any written public comment to be incorporated into the record? Yes, mayor. We received one written public comment from an employee of the Central Basin Municipal Water District regarding former Central Basin Municipal Water Board member Marta Kamacho Rodriguez. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second to receive and file written public comment? So moved. Second. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you, city clerk Darte, do we have uh public speakers tonight? Yes, mayor. We do we have a total of eight.

Okay. Thank you. Based on the number of speakers, each speaker will have three minutes to address the city council. I remind all speakers that you must remain seated until your number is called. Speaker number one, please come forward. [snorts] Good evening. Hello. [snorts] Give me a little time. Why are you counting my time? I haven't officially begun speaking yet. The ancient man Hypocrates is known to this present day as the Greek daddy of medicine. I also know the name of this Greek man is the root word for the present descriptive word hypocrite. This is documented in ancient and modern historical, medical and scientific writings. This is what Hypocatres Hypocrates taught to his medical students by way of example. I will not give to a woman a pesery to induce abortion. A peserie is a concoction of poisonous herbs used in ancient times to induce a miscarriage. There exists to this present day

RU 486 which is a modern pesery. R U486 is mailed illegally across state lines from prolife states such as Texas into pro-abortion states such as Oz California. This is wrong and needs to come to an end. Young females who are easily deceived eagerly receive these death dealing packages without consultation with any licensed medical doctor. This is evil and needs to stop. I request every Christian believer within the sound of my voice to fervently pray unto the true God who is the emperor of the universe and the name of Jesus his only begotten son. words to this effect that God will forgive our governor Gavin Nuome for his donkey like stubbornness in promoting abortion. This is not

speaker number two. Please come forward. Good evening. Good evening. How are you doing? Me, I'm as happy as a koala and a gum tree. Couldn't wait to get here. I was so happy. I want to uh ask for unanimous cons consent to revise and extend my remarks from earlier especially to Mr. McQueen and the labor negotiations with the firemen's association, the fire management association and the police officers association. I did propose that it was a five and 5% for three subsequent years as far as an increase in their compensation of of pay. However, having rethought the situation, uh I now would like to amend that proposal to you to be a 10 2.5 2.5. That way you can frontload the pay raise to those that are going to retire and the new people that want a boost in their economic prowess that they can be retained. and it will help with the retention of uh people in our police department and fire departments. Um I think that would be a good deal. Uh I think you should really consider that. Uh, it would also be asked of you to also cooperate with DHS, Department of Homeland Security's in speeding up the deportation process of illegal aliens in

this country, working with President Trump uh, and getting those uh, people that shouldn't be here out of here and we could have a level playing field and be following the rule of law. Although some of you really disagree with that. I mean, you've made fools of yourselves on Firestone Boulevard holding up half American and Mexican flags and things like that. Absolutely disgusting. Uh, Red Ribbon Week, drugs. Thank God we have a president like Donald Trump who is blowing up drug boats from Venezuela. That's how you take care of the situation. If it wasn't for him, they'd be flowing in here instead of all this phony feel-good happy talk about how we hate drugs. That's how [clears throat] you do it. They're going to bring drugs in here. We don't need a declaration of war. We just want to kill them. That's all. Okay. Very simple. Um and also red ribbon ribbon week. No pot shops in Downey. They're trying to bring them in. People even on this council want their friends to bring in pot shops here and then they try to convince you that there are educational opportunities that it'll bring in tax revenue. You're going to tell kids that to go to the pot shop to buy pot so we can improve the reading scores? I don't think so. Thank you.

Thank you. Speaker number three, please come forward.

[snorts] Good evening.

Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Brenda and I'm president of Windwood of Downey. For your ref for your reference is the 44 unit complex located at Cleleta and Lakewood Boulevard. Uh we've been living through a nightmare throughout the years especially after the prominade was built and lately with the construction of Lakewood and Firestone is just worst. On October the 6th around 5:30 I had a medical emergency with my mom and it took me five lights 17 minutes to get just to cross the street and take her to the emergency room that is just a minute away. This is completely unacceptable, especially because like I said, we've been dealing with this for years. Um, I'm glad fire chief is here because I'm wondering if you have a plan to move 18-wheeler trucks blocking the only exit we have in that residential building. I understand city of Downey needs to grow. I agree with this type of improvements in our in our intersections, but it has to come with a comprehensive traffic plan. We cannot live like this. Our intersection is completely blocked at the peak. We've been trying to reach out to public works with Edward Torres to get a meeting. We have a light with only 5 seconds. By the time that we get the green light for us, it's already blocked again. Oasio, we've been trying to reach out to your office. We are your district. You are not getting back to us.

Police, please. Ma'am, please direct your your comments towards me, please.

Oh, okay. So, there's no enforcement. I know signs have been put up there, but there's no enforcement. People keeps blocking the intersection at the peak. It's horrible. So we need to bring this out to your attention because something needs to be done for us. We our safety, we have elder people, disabled people living in there. What is going to happen if we have a fire? If we have again another medical emergency and our property it's blocked. Was this ever considered when you develop that plan? We have also two houses by the tracks that they have the same problem and they've been trying to reach out to you to come up with a solution. We are not asking to stop the construction but something needs to be done because after the daylight savings the problem it will just get worse. So for us it's just a matter of time to have this problem really bad again. Any comments? Any feedback? Well, thank you. Uh, thank you, Brenda. Uh, city manager Bradley, can we have uh staff follow up with her right now?

Absolutely. We'll ask our public works team to uh speak with the speaker so that we can start talking about some issues there. And ju just so you know, we this is public comment. We're not allowed to engage in conversation. We're here. We're here to listen. Thank you. Thank you for being here. We'll have someone follow up with you right now. Okay. Speaker number four, please come forward. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, city council.

Good evening. Uh my name is Michael Chicone. I'm a longtime Downey resident and a board member also of the Windwood Downey town homes. As Brenda spoke, we are a tight uh tight-knit 44 unit community located on Lakewood and Clea Avenue right across from the Coca-Cola facility in District 1. And I'll be honest, tonight I'd rather be watching Show Otani at the World Series with our Dodgers. Uh, but I'm here because traffic conditions are so bad that we need immediate action from the city to prevent a dangerous situation and to restore safety for our residents. Our community has only one gate to enter and exit at Lakewood and Cleleta. And there's a single short light that allows us to get out. Because of the ongoing construction on Lakewood and the way the intersection functions, cars heading north on Lakewood routinely block the intersection. Drivers enter when the light is green, thinking that it's going to change, but then it changes to red and they're stuck because they cannot move forward with that traffic. This creates daily gridlock that blocks us from exiting our facility. The light at Cleo lasts less than 30 seconds and that's if someone presses the button to cross out uh which isn't enough time for traffic to clear between uh before our residents can exit. As a result, we're seeing cars that are squeezed between other cars, stuck in this intersection, people walking across as trucks are in the middle of the intersection, and people are getting stuck leaving just to go to to take up their kids or pick them up. Uh this is getting happening multiple times a day during rush hour, after school, and on the weekends. Now, after the first days of gridlock, we did see the city place a flashing do not block intersection sign, but unfortunately, this hasn't solved the problem, and this is a serious safety issue. We cannot have our only entrance and exit blocked uh especially with holiday traffic increasing as people are going to be heading toward Downey Landing and Stonewood Mall. If someone parked in front of your driveway, you'd ask them to move or you'd call for enforcement. But when hundreds of cars block our access every single week, we have no options. We need the city to do more. Now, I'm not a traffic expert, but

a good first step would be extending the clea light to at least two to three times longer to allow for the traffic to clear. It's clear additional enforcement, signal adjustments are needed to prevent an accident and uh any emergency delays. Please act now before someone gets hurt. Uh we thank you for your time and go Dodgers.

Thank you. Mayor, just real quick, we'll have our public works team follow up with the resident as well, but uh we do understand the concerns there. Um I understand we'll take a look at some of these issues and see what we can do. I know that we've been trying to find some solutions for that uh for the problems that are occurring there, but uh our team will follow up and we'll continue to search for solutions to those problems. Thank you. Speaker number five, please come forward. [snorts] Good evening, Mr. Squire. Thank you for your service.

Thank you. Lee Square Vietname era veteran US Army death before dishonor exercising first amendment freedoms mayor and city council subject veterans day event November 11th 2025 requesting uh participation in the invocation by a Jewish rabbi and by the chaplain of the police department you are the son of a US Army Vietnam veteran with that right it comes certain rights defending those who also served in the army during the b administration Jews were subjected to hate and anti-semitism. It was the US Army from World War II who liberated the Jews from the Nazi concentration camps. My US Army family. During the V administration, police across America were subjected to hate. The thin blue line flag was called racism. Defund the police, reinvent the police, hate the police. Serving in police across America are military veterans, military the reser military reserves and the national guard. positions of captain, lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, and chaplain are the similar positions to both the US Army and the Marine Corps. Again, requesting that the Jewish rabbi and a chaplain for the nanny police department participate in the invocation at Veterans Day event. God bless America. God bless Israel. God bless my military, the veterans, and their families. And God bless police and their families across America. Thank you.

Thank you. Speaker number six, please come forward. Good evening, pastor.

Hello, mayor and council members. Thank you for your comments and clarification on the permitting process for special events earlier. As was brought to your attention, I've had a lot to say about this process over the last week. While we have different opinions about the impacts of these permits, I've come to realize that in my efforts to work with the city council by uniting the nonprofits and churches of Downey that my words have been unintentionally inflammatory and I was wrong in my approach. I've clarified to legacy and anybody who might have misunderstood that the only enemies we have are spiritual, not people, and our problems are problems, not people. And we work with people to fix our problems. So, I would like to formally apologize to the city of Downey, our mayor, and each city council member. Please forgive me. Simultaneously, I am also requesting the opportunity for legacy, some of our leaders to share how some of the permitting process has made us reconsider if we will be able to have these events in the future and some ideas we have on how to make it easier for everybody. As the pastor of Legacy Church of Downey, I want everyone to know that we stand in unity and support of our mayor and city council, and we will more effectively honor you in the future while working together to better our community. And once again, I do sincerely apologize. I don't totally understand how to work together to bring about change. And um I wrongly believe that getting a lot of people together was the right way to go about that. So, um, please accept my apology and thank you for all that you do and for allowing me to offer it.

Thank you, Pastor Hicks. Um, our city staff will be reaching out to you to to set up a meeting. Thank you for your words. Speaker number seven, please come forward.

[clears throat] Good evening, mayor and good evening, council members.

My name is Eduardo Sandoval and uh a little bit a little about myself is I'm a single parent with three children. Uh all graduated from Downey 2019, 2020, 2024. I love the city. I was [clears throat] uh recently pulled over or I was in a car accident where I was racially profiled and discriminated upon. I have this police report right here and it's a web of lies. And I just can't believe in this day and age that this still exists even with the body cam footage. Uh, I'm not here to create waves, but I'll just I seriously can't believe that this happens still in this day and age. And like I'm at a loss of words right here. Uh, I just hope we can address this situation and thank you for your time.

Uh, thank you, city manager Bradley. City manager, get his contact information and we can follow up from there. Okay. Speaker number eight, please come forward.

Good evening, George.

Hi. Hi, I'm George, a longtime resident of Downey. Thank you for the service you you provided the community here. I'm here to address the water agenda item and and I appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and share comments. Obviously, I won't get any questions answered today, but I want to tee them up. Does the city have an assessment of the existing water system, including its condition, usefulness, useful life, and performance? Has a multi-year capital replacement in addition plan uh for the water system been presented to the public? What capital projects would be deferred or abandoned due to the reduction of future ongoing capital expenditures from 5 million to 3 million? What alternatives have been evaluated to meet state PABS requirements? For example, maybe the use of more MWD water, blending of water, centraliz centralizing or individual filtration sites. Uh, does the city have a minimum and maximum cash reserve requirement? And if not, why not? Does the city annually produce at least a five-year outlook for future budget needs and estimated revenues for the water fund? As a community, we have consistently prioritized our own fire department, police department, uh maint voting for bonds for the school to be, you know, um well-maintained. And likewise, we should be doing the same for the water system. So, we should fully fund necessary capital improvements and operations and avoid deferred maintenance. If $5 million per year is a prudent amount, then present the plan transparently. Let's plan the work, work the plan, and ensure we are pro proactive in addressing our community needs. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a motion and a second to close public comment? Some moved. Second. Sorted by the mayor. Now is the time for consent calendar items. Are there any council members that would like to remove or abstain from an item? [cough and clears throat] I'm sorry. Is there any abstensions? No. Okay. Thank you. No. Okay. Is there a motion and second to approve the consent calendar? I move to approve. Oh. Um. Yeah. Oh,

Council Member Ortiz, we're about to vote on consent calendar. Council member tease, do you have any abstensions? I don't. Okay. Is there a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar? I move to approve. So move.

Please vote. The consent calendar is approved unanimously. Now is the time for administrative reports. There are three reports this evening. Item number seven, discussion regarding a dog park at Golden Park. Uh that city council discuss provide staff with direction regarding options for the installation of a second dog park at Golden Park. City manager Bradley. Is there staff report item number seven? Uh yes there is Mayor. We have uh Director Shaone here to provide the presentation. Thank you. Good evening, Director Shicone.

Good evening, Mayor. Uh members of the council. Tonight before you are staff seeking direction regarding the dog park at Golden Park. As a background, at the June uh 2023 city council meeting, staff was directed to research possible locations for an installation of a second dog park. Subsequently, at the March 2024 city council meeting, staff presented council with options for possible dog park locations, taking into account uh some factors that we presented to uh the council, including land ownership and lease restrictions, uh community access to current sites and parks, availability of parking, existing park programming, available water sources, and potential impact to residential neighborhoods. Ultimately, staff was directed to proceed with Golden Park and be begin preliminary design concepts and community outreach. The estimated $500,000 funding for this project was available through the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District annual allocation funding, which dedicates Measure A funding for parks and recreation and open space development and maintenance. Staff began community outreach during our summer concerts in the park series where the community had an opportunity to view the design concepts as well as provide feedback and recommend preferred apparatus features that might be included in the dog park. Overall feedback during the summer concerts were positive about the new dog park. However, the majority of feedback received centered around centered around the current conditions of our dog park at Rio San Gabriel and how those needed to be upgraded uh if we were going to be building a second dog park. We also held two community meetings at Golden Park in late September and early October. Uh in these meetings, staff presented detailed information about the project design, uh funding, proposed timeline, and the next steps should the project move forward. At these meetings, staff received feedback from mostly local neighbors who

were in attendance who were not in favor of this location being used for the dog park. Some concerns of the neighbors were majority a fear of the lack of ongoing maintenance that would take place there, including excessive odors of of dogs uh as well as landscaping. Um neighborhood uh parking congestion on the residential streets on the back side of Pritchard were also a concern for the community. increased traffic and pedestrian activity. Uh the community did let us know that there were a couple issues with some lack of crosswalks in the area and they were afraid that the um the activity would draw people to be walking to the dog park more with a lack of some of the pedestrian needs that were there as well as a loss of the open space that that we were proposing for that location. Uh they would like to have seen some alternative location or alternative uses of that location. Tonight before you, we are presenting options to move forward um for the council to consider. Option number one would be proceeding with the project as designed with the current construction at Golden Park. That would be option number one. Uh if we were to do that, the next steps for option number one would be staff moving forward uh with the development and the design taking into account the feedback that we got for some design features and some apparatuses. We would go back to the designer, redesign those and get those ready uh to include. The estimated time frame of that would be uh 30 days for demolition and uh construction. Potential start date would be towards the mid or end of November of 2025, the end of this year. Uh estimated completion and closeout would be December the end of this year 2025 with ultimate completion in early January of 26 with a proposed ribbon cutting as well. Option number two would be to defer the dog park project at this time pending the completion of the park's master plan update. Under option number two, the city would pause the plans currently for the second dog park at this time and revisit uh this option

with the completion of the parks master plan that is scheduled for the 2026 2007 fiscal year. The current parks master plan was done in 2016 and is a 10-year living document that we've been going by uh and will expire in 2026. This document has guided our park priorities and programming over the last decade. The update will provide comprehensive data and analysis of community needs, park usage and trends, and available open space. The park's master plan would incorporate extensive community outreach and engagement as well as city council feedback to ensure that future park investments reflect uh the shared priorities and equitable access for all residents. For Golden Park specifically, the plan will allow us more detailed analysis of the current use that the community has of the space and the current needs and future needs and opportunities to enhance park amenities in a way that aligns better with our citywide goals. The updated master plan will also align with our current planning efforts of the Downey forward strategic plan and also ensure equitable division of projects throughout the city where it is most needed. It'll assist with feedback and data for dra uh driven decision making and provide opportunities for city-wide community engagement and consensus building. The current master plan that took place in 2016 uh saw a lot of community engagement events over different populations of the city including school-aged children, seniors, families, sports groups, and that's what drove our current guiding document that we have right now. At the time in 2016, the document that we have now called for more walking trails that were lighted at night. They called for more uh soccer fields to be built because that was a sport that was growing and work to be done on baseball and softball fields. So you can see over the last 10 years we installed walking trails at Ferman and at Golden that were lit. We've installed light lighting and walking trails at as well as Apollo Park. Uh we've inst Rancho complex over at the county which we built a brand new 5 acre uh soccer

complex. So that really has been our guiding document over the decisions that we make with funds that are available as well as our department uh priorities as we move forward. So, we look forward to the the next version of that coming next year, and we would incorporate this into that. Uh, if we were to uh move forward with option number one, there would be an appropriation of roughly $485,000, which would come from the Los Angeles County Parks and Open Space District. This is a pot of money for our annual allocation that is allotted to Downey. The money would be used from that account in order to do that. There are no city general fund dollars that would be spent for that, and there's no city match that would be required for that as well. If we went with option number two, there would be no fiscal impact at this time. We would not lose that money. That money would go back into the city of Downy's annual allocation fund that we can use for other projects that are on our priority list as a department moving forward, which is the next projects are uh a playground at Treasure Island, which we are currently in design. Uh upgrading amenities and playground at Brookshshire Park as well. Those are the next projects that are in the queue for us. And then over the next few years as a part of our strategic plan, we have other developments including the back of wilderness park, designs for a splash pad in the city and other amenities at other parks that still need to be upgraded that were not a part of the measure S project. These are the options that staff has in front of you. Um I'm here to answer questions as as the council discusses those option and I can answer anything you guys might have.

Thank you. Uh Director Chone, uh council colleagues, any comments or questions?

I do actually, mayor. Um I just first I want to thank Jason all the team um my commissioner uh I had all my commissioners show up uh during these uh meetings. So I want to say thank you and my colleague Dorothy uh and Roger who also attended uh these uh community event uh feedback. Um I just want to give a little bit of feedback of what what we've heard. Um during that time there was a lot of uh concerns of this uh adding uh a dog park. Something that resonated that a resident mentioned she said I I have two dogs uh but I don't love my dogs more than I love my children. And so um there were a lot of concerns about safety about cleanliness and other things. And I appreciate uh Jason and and my colleague. We were really reassuring the residents of a lot of the new upgrades that we're doing in Golden Park. Uh last meeting I requested a crosswalk and I know my commissioner also requested that. We heard all the concerns. We're bringing that up. Um and I think uh I'm here to be uh the voice for uh my constituents and they majority of the neighbors uh said that we should focus on other uh activities. I think the consensus is I think it's important that we do bring in something at the park focused on our kids. Um uh I do think I would say that Golden Park has been uh a big draw for uh unwanted activity and I really am working hard uh with staff and and with my colleagues to really uplift that park. Uh security cameras are just finished being installed at a Golden Park. Uh there's a

uh late night uh voice activation uh saying for uh unwanted trash coming into our park, the crosswalk. Hopefully we'll get that soon, that study coming up soon. Uh but I do believe uh that in order for us to deter uh unwanted activity, I think there needs to be more uh familyfriendly activities in the park because that will deter that type of other activities. And so, uh, right now, maybe this is something that my, uh, neighbors don't think that we need to have, and I think it's something that maybe we can, uh, push to, uh, to decide for another park at a different time. Um, and so with that, that's basically the feedback that I received. Uh the first meeting we had was pretty uh was we had about 50 residents show up and I I I didn't expect I was thinking like 15 20 but there was a big draw of crowds and then the next crowd uh some of the same residents still came to really uh emphasize what uh they did not agree about the dog park. Uh but we I heard them. My commissioners heard them. Uh I know my colleague Dorothy and I appreciate uh her support uh in going and hearing the con uh the concerns and also Roger it was a good opportunity for my residents to really say hey this is not it maybe focus on something else let's focus on uh the essentials making sure we upgrade our parks uh make it your go park safer which uh I know when we were discussing our strategic plan I mentioned that we need to make sure our parks and schools uh we upgrade our technology our safety for our kids around the area. So, uh, my goal is still the same and but I think that we need to maybe push this at a later time.

Thank you, Council Member Ortiz. Any other um questions or comments, colleagues?

Yes, Mayor Sosa. Um, I'd like to comment on this because a dog park is something that I really wanted to and second one bring into the city years ago and um I was happy to see that we were moving forward with that and the community garden. um so many locations that I thought would be more ideal more um more better better would be are not able to because of Edison and different things. So when I came to the community meeting I thought this is going to be great. it's going to put eyes on the park like councilman Ortiz said more eyes more people watching and um it was just the opposite and so I was surprised to hear a lot of the negative feedback their reasoning you know it it makes sense but again we are here for the voice of the people who elected us and I had a tough decision to make last year on a development but that's what the people wanted so in hearing some of their arguments um understanding what they are saying seeing that we won't lose the money, we can put it into our pot and we are so close to the new master plan 2026. I know um you know I attended the ribbon coveting of the Dave Gaffin dog park and it it does need you know some CPR on that what it's going to get. I want to commend you on what you did to present the plans. It was a small dog park in the shape of a dog bone. It had a little uh area for dogs to run. It can be it can be very beautiful what they can offer right now. But I think the neighbors have just spoke to us. We did the outreach. We listen to them. I'm sure there's many that said, "Yeah, we're looking forward to it." But at the same time, do we want to push anything on them they don't want? I mean, this is half a million dollar dog park. Let's use the bunny a little more wisely where people will all agree this is a best use. They want whatever it is. So, I would be inclined to pause it because of the what the residents have told us so far.

If I may, uh, mayor, I do have a a comment. Uh, Jason, thank you for the presentation. Um while I wasn't there uh at these last uh two neighborhood meetings, I was out of town. Um I do want for the community to understand that we have been meditating and we have been thinking about a a secondary dog park for a number of years. And I also have to remind our community members too that as as we look at the various the quadrants in our city um it is important for us to yes look at the size of a meeting you know whether it's 50 people or 40 people and see you know the community that is engaged but at the same time um I always look at it in in terms of the percentage am I going to make a decision [clears throat] based on you know points 01% uh of the population in that area. Um, and again, I I want us to be mindful of what we are hearing while at the same time realizing that we represent 114,000 people and that over the last several years, as my council colleague, um, Mayor Prom Peton indicated, we had heard a lot of residents tell us, why is it that we only have one dog park? and and that dog park at Wilderness um has for large dogs and small dogs is inadequate um for for the furry uh family members of our residents. And so shy of, you know, pushing for something that perhaps residents do not want, I also want to

offer the alternative uh viewpoint that decisions that we make have to be in the benefit of the majority of the residents. and knowing that and and I'm saying this hopefully uh I know there's a lot of people watching the Dodger game tonight, but hopefully um when people come back to this conversation can listen to this discussion. I'm I'm sometimes reluctant to make decisions based on 0001% uh of the population uh based on our districts and based on our neighborhoods. If if Golden Park has a neighborhood of several thousand people, um that park has attracted a number of issues uh illicit activity, criminal activity. And so in in us listening to our community members and wanting to provide a secondary option for a dog park and bring about, you know, more lighting, more uh community involvement so that people don't have to travel all the way to northeast for a dog park. That park has enough space to allow for that. But again, hearing some of the concerns about lack of parking and uh the desire to have additional equipment for the children, um I I certainly am able uh agreeable to that. But um I I will I will also pause and think about adding this as we look at our master plan that uh expires in 2026. But I also want to let the community know that uh

this may be a loss opportunity for our community and this council may be considering a lot of other options, but an additional dock park where the the money is here may not come again for for some time. And so I um I guess I'm a little hesitant. Uh, I I I don't want to give the residents what they don't want, but I struggle to make a decision based on a couple of dozen people that may or may not have pets themselves.

I I I agree with you wholeheartedly because I think many people who are in favor of it might not come out. Maybe they think the community meeting is for um the people that don't want it. So, at the same time, we were thinking maybe the ones that do want it and aren't there. I have one question. Um, Jason, had Wilderness Park ever been looked into as a location for a dog park or is it uh it's much larger? It was mentioned by some of the residents as well. I know it's all on the east end. I'm trying to get something on the west end, but what was the outcome of Wilderness Park as a potential site? Edison lines again.

Correct. Thank you for your question. It's actually split into three parts. So the front part is owned by CALR over on the frontage of Little Lake Road. The middle sliver section is owned by the city and then the side that it butts up to the wash is owned by Edison. So the space that we had available in our location where we own the property was not big enough for us to be able to put uh the dog park that we wanted to put there.

Yeah. And I and to the to the neighbors that did not want it at Golden, um you know, I mentioned that that's a park that's in the south end of town. It's a community park. It's hidden. I wouldn't anticipate a lot of people from the city really using it. So, the utilization of that park might just be for the neighbors versus the entire city. So, again, I I think I just might seem not to say no, but maybe pause it that we can still save the funds. And that's my kind of position.

I I I do hear my colleagues uh comments and and I I understand that sometimes we have to make decisions for the benefit of the whole community. Um but I also I also like my question to you Jason is from this master plan where does a second dog park lie? Uh it would be a little lower on our list. Originally when this topic came up alto together um this was a a item that was brought to staff to research for the location not necessarily a recommendation where it fell in the priorities of the other park projects that we had. Uh so it was a little lower on our list. Uh we do have some data from the current dog park that shows some attendance figures. Um I would say in the uh precoid we were above 7,000 people annually. Uh this past year we were closer to 5,000 people. It keeps kind of going down and I do understand that it's in relation to some of the conditions that are currently there. Um but yeah, I would say overall as a department it's a little lower on our list than some of the other projects and amenities that we need to uh give our attention to first.

Are you asking about the current one or the one the new one we're going to be doing? No, the new one hasn't even correct. So the the current one also is 10 years old. So things could change in 10 years. Just to point that out. I mean we've completed a lot of projects over that time frame. So the priorities that's why we do it again next year to figure out where where does this actually lie.

And maybe that's something that we can also discuss at a future I mean um moment to discuss the 10-year plan for uh such a important I think uh part of our community which is the structure of our parks. If we're doing it 10 years, I mean, if whoever goes in council in the next year, they won't have an opportunity or say what they feel a park should uh be or what's their master plan of communication of what the residents say. I I just I I do want to allocate some if at a later time I they want to focus more on kids. So, pickle ball, uh, uh, some, uh, upgrading our basketball courts, uh, upgrading our people. Residents want the basics. Sometimes the essentials is that's what they want. And, and I think that's what my I mean, when I was doornocking, that's what a lot of my residents were asking for. And I to know that a dog park is maybe case. I haven't heard from my district that they want a second dog park. They were I have some people are like, "Oh, great. we have another dog parker, but I I just didn't hear a lot of community members asking for a second dog park. Maybe we can focus on upgrading the current state of our current dog park because I saw some I went and I and I saw the state of it. I think maybe we can focus on that too before we add another one.

Definitely. Yeah. I I would like to then make that recommendation. uh because that dog park is is significantly um old and the space um I I've taken my German shepherds there and those are big puppies. Uh the even the dog the the big the large dog area is not large enough. If there's three dogs there um forget about it. Uh perhaps we can I I would like to make a recommendation to enhance uh enlarge that area and and make it uh make it better.

Apologies, Council Ortiz. I think I misunderstood your question. So the current dog park at Rio San Gabriel, it's a part of the renovation plan that we currently have submitted to the county for review. So we're redoing the playground there, the parking lots on both sides. We're including a walking trail, and we're redoing the current dog park that we have at Rio San Gabriel. So, we'll actually be knocking the north fence down and extending that all the way down to like where the light pole is now. We'll actually be flipping the small dog park and large dog park to have different sides. Uh the flooring will be redone. Some of the trees will be removed. So, it'll be basically a whole new dog park. It will be done where we currently have the datar and the flooring will be correct. It'll still be the DG with a combination of the turf. So, apologies that I misunderstood that question.

You the presentation that you gave to the resident was amazing. Jason, you did a lot of hard work and I and I applaud you and everything and I'm glad that at least we can bring whatever we have learned from this one to the current dog park that we have.

And for the master plan, just when we get into that, the meetings that we have are extensive. We will have over 20 community meetings as well as phone surveys and online surveys that will focus on different things. So, a lot of our we'll have a neighborhood park section where just different residents who live around our neighborhood parks will have feedback on what they want there and what they want to see. We'll have sports groups give us their feedback on what they see for soccer, softball, baseball. Uh we'll have just regular park users give us feedback on walking trails. There's some pretty extensive outreach that'll be done for that. So, I think we'll have an opportunity to capture some of those voices and and what they want to see. Great. Outstanding. Okay. Any other comments or questions? Colleagues,

do you have a projected um date [clears throat] when we could expect the enhancements to the current dog park?

That's a rough. So, we are currently in about an 8-month to a year waiting pattern with the county. So, it being a former landfill, LA County Public Health has some new requirements that didn't uh get put onto us from before. So, public works is assisting right now and that we've submitted plans uh usually testing for uh uh gases and emissions maybe is a couple weeks. They've asked us for I believe an eight-month testing period. So, even once the plan is approved, they want us to test for up to eight months and then report back to them. Uh we currently have some grant funding that's tied up in that. We have money from CALR and from the county in some grants that we've got and we're reaching the life of those. So we're trying really hard to work with our partners in the county uh to see some other options that are available for us right now. So the short answer, I don't have a date for you right this second, but we're we're pushing the county to try to help us with that.

Thank you. Okay. Um I'm actually okay with waiting on the completion of the parks master plan update. So is there a motion with respect to the two options we have colleagues? U move to uh go to option sorry two two I second that. Okay, there's an option. There's a motion and a second. Please vote

and and with this vote and decision, will then a letter be sent to residents in the area informing them it's on a pause? That isn't something we had direction on, but we can make some out do some outreach and put something out to folks, let them know what's going on. Yeah, I think it's appropriate for now. Definitely not. The motion is approved. Okay. The go ahead. The motion is approved unanimously.

Thank you. So move on to item number eight. Discuss the LA Phil Armonic neighborhood concert at the Downey Theater. That city council approved fee wavers for facility rental and labor costs for the LA Phil neighborhood concert to be hosted at the Downey Civic Center. City Manager Bradley. Is there a staff report? I'm assuming it's director Jason. Come up here one more time.

All right. Wow. Very excited about this item to bring to the council. Um, tonight we're uh before you for consideration of the approval of waving facility rental and labor costs of up to $10,000 to support the Los Angeles Phil Harmonics LA Phil Neighborhood Concert Series uh that is looking to be held and proposed at the Downey Theater on December 4th, 2025. The LA Phil neighborhood concert series uh is is a series of free performances that are held in various Los Angeles communities designed to increase access to arts and foster community connections. Um the Philarmonic has over 300 events per year that harnesses transforming the power of live music and building community together. Um they have been doing this since the civil rights movement that the LA Phil goes into different regions of LA County to try to bring LA Phil performances to communities and neighborhoods who might not normally attend something at uh the Ford Theater or the Disney Concert Hall or some of the other venues that they have recently. They have been searching um to do something in the Southeast LA area. And so they reached out to city staff and the mayor uh to look at using the Downey Theater as a possible location. They had a couple other locations that they were considering as well. Uh initially staff met with them via Zoom uh just to get some initial feedback on the logistics and requirements that they might ask for. They're also partnering with a couple other entities including Supervisor Hans's office uh and some other entities in the county. Uh subsequently um on our on-site visit at the theater, they were very impressed with the size of our theater. They were very impressed with the logistical uh ability of our theater and the community that we already have here with our own um symphony and the Downey Unified School District that uses our facility and all the arts that we have here. Um so they came back to us and based on that they would like to use the Downey Theater. Um and so tonight we're coming before you. The proposed waiver would include $5,000, which right now is an estimate based on the show that they've given us on what time that they would be there, what time that they

would load in, the staff time that it would take, and the equipment we would need to rent. So, it would be $5,000 would be the estimated facility rental fee that includes uh equipment and miscellaneous other items. And then $5,000 would be the labor fees that that would be waved and the city would cover approval of this action. Uh the city would result in a revenue that we would just lose. There's no money being paid to the LI the LA Phil Harmonic for this. It's just simply we're waving the revenue that we would have normally got from this rental. Um the show is being built out as we speak. Um and then the press release right now is scheduled for November 5th. Um which will be coming out and including um our venue and promoted throughout the county and the region. So something we're very excited to bring before you for your consideration. I can answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Director Chong. Do any council members any questions or comments? Um, I know our Downey Symphony, I think the stage host about what 50 to 65 musicians. What would how many would they be bringing? You say they were impressed and it was I'm thinking we're too small for them or are they bringing a portion or they're bring the show is built out differently depending on the type of show. So, right now they're somewhere between 25 and 35 musicians is what they'll bring along with the stage setup that they'll have. Okay. Oh, and that would be like an hour and a half performance or hour. Right now they're looking at a it'll be not just on the theater. There'll actually be some other uh elements on the plaza deck in the front with some vendors and some arts and craft area, but the show itself will be roughly about an hour and a half, two hours.

Have you ever gone to one of their shows that's already occurred in another city that they've gone? I have not attended. I know that we've had some uh other people who attended the show that was in Whittier. Yes, there was one that was held two years ago in Whittier that was held at the high school. Um so that was the most recent one near us. Okay. Well, it sounds great. Really great. I am looking forward to it. It sounds phenomenal and what a great opportunity for our city to um showcase um the LA Filermonic. So yes, I'm I'm very um look very much looking forward to it. Did you mention when they might be wanting to do this spring or December 4th show? Yeah, the show will be in about about a month and a half.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Director Chone. Um I'm really excited about this. [laughter] We've been working on this for uh since the beginning of the year and uh I'm glad it's coming into fruition. Best kept secret.

Yeah, [laughter] I know. It's one of those things where you want to say something, but you know, um I understand that the uh you know, respect the LA Phil's privacy and uh you know, city staff city staff worked really hard on this. Um, you there's more to come out, but uh, city staff worked really hard on this and uh, we had some great meetings with the team at the LA Phil and also the the team at Janice Han's office uh, to put it all together. So, I'm really happy to see this come to Downey. I'm looking forward to it. That's why I left it for you to announce. I didn't [laughter] get that date. You didn't mention it or did you? Well, still, you know, not yet. It was still It was still

We still had to vote on it. [laughter] So, uh, with that said, I'll entertain a motion in a second to approve, uh, staff's recommendation. Move to approve. Second. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you. All right. Um, final item of the night, discussion regarding city of Downey water rates. that city council receive an update on the proposed city of Downey water rates and direct staff to move forward with A holding communityformational sessions to discuss a proposed water rate increase. B, finalizing the water rate analysis, and C, returning to the city council at its November 18th, 2025 meeting to consider initiating Proposition 218 proceedings which have required for the adoption of new water rates. City Manager Bradley staff report for item number nine.

Uh, yes, Mayor, we have director Bombgardner here for the presentation. Good evening, Director Bgard.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council members. Uh tonight we're presenting our first discussion on uh regarding the city of Downey water rates. Uh and just to give you a little bit of background on our water system, uh we serve approximately 20,000 customers. Uh about an 8020 split uh between residential and commercial. Our water is pumped from 20 groundwater wells and distributed to our customers through 258 miles of pipes. Average demand can be met by pumping from nine wells at a rate of 13,000 gallons per minute. But typically we use 15 wells uh to so that we don't overburden one any one well. So we like to spread that workload across all the wells. Our water system is managed by 28 full-time employees at a high level. We have 19 field staff that are certified and operate and maintain the wells distribution system. Check on our meters, fire hydrants and valves. We have nine engineering and admin staff focused on planning, engineering, compliance, and customer service. Our water system is operated as an enterprise fund. Taxes are not used to support its operation. Services are provided to residents and businesses for a fee based on usage. These fees provide the revenues to maintain the operation. A quick uh financial overview of our system for the last 10 years. back in 2015 2016 was the last time that we had a rate increase. Um, and at that time we had roughly a $5 million uh difference between our our revenues and our expenses. And it's that difference that we had each year that we contributed toward our capital improvement program. Over the last 10 years, it's slowly as uh the revenues have come down slightly due to reduced usage from uh conservation as well as some wet rainy seasons that we've had the last couple

of years. Uh costs for labor, materials, equipment, electricity, and the water pump tax that we paid to WD WRD has gone up considerably. In 10 years, where we were originally uh at $5 million difference between revenues, expenditures, we've slowly got to the point where we're nearing zero in the last fiscal year. It's this annual remainder, as I was saying, that we have been using to fund our CIP projects. Just to give you a look at what our customers paid com pay compared to other agencies. Looking at a single family residents average water bill for water usage. Uh Downy's current rate is uh would be $29.95. And you can see how that compares to the rest of the region. U Downey has long enjoyed uh the lowest rates in the in the in the region. Looking at our next five years, we have uh we need to consider annual inflation at a minimum of 3% a year. Uh five $5 million annual CIP focusing on ongoing repairs to our upgrades and upgrades to our mains, rehabilitating our water wells, and focusing on our backup generation, which was a key uh item that came up during the December 24th uh power outage last year. And finally, we are focused on a PA treatment system that must be completed by April 2031. Why do we do water rate studies? Well, our rates have to keep up with the city's cost to provide service. Utility services are not funded by the general fund, as I was stating before, and primarily funded by customer rate revenue. By law, the utility is simply recovering its costs. Why are the rate increases needed? City

has not raised the rates in 10 years. Our inflation has gone up 45% in the region since 2015. As I was saying before, our um our revenues have come down slightly due to the wetter uh seasons we've had the last couple of years as well as conservation efforts. [gasps and sighs] One of the big contributors is the pump tax that we pay to the water replenishment district. uh this tax uh it was $3.7 million a year in 2015 2016. This is growing to approximately $6.1 million in this year. That is a 65% increase over the last 10 years and we expect that to go up roughly 4% each year. The PAS treatment system we estimate at $125 million to complete this project. and the $5 million that we spend typically on annual capital projects focus on water main upgrades, well rehabilitations, and now we're focused on backup power generation. Looking again at the the the newer item is that water water well backup generation and staff since uh the beginning of the year, staff has purchased portable backup generators for powering up the nine wells that can can meet the average demand. At the same time, staff has been focused on planning for permanent generators to be installed at these sites that will automatically turn on. Staff has applied for a hazard hazardous mitigation grant from Caloes and FEMA. Uh at roughly $8 million grant would provide that sustainable backup power at provide uh normal pressure citywide. So not just uh providing water to our our customers but maintaining good pressure so that our fire efforts fire suppression can be met. This process will take 18 to 24 months but we feel pretty good about uh we we've had good conversations with both Calas and FEMA

and we've been working very hard on that. With this just the purchase of the portable backup generators, staff currently has sufficient resources in place to maintain the water pressure in an emergency and provide water to our community. For how long?

Looking at the city of Downey water rate study, our council directed staff to move forward with the study at the February 25th uh 20 2025 meeting. staff has worked with Raf Telus who's a consultant uh that is very experienced in producing these types of utility rate studies [sighs] in an iterative process to ensure that what we come up with is a rate that is can provide everything that we need at the most affordable cost. We've looked at a number of ways to do that. We've prioritized the most critical capital projects and believe that we are able to sustain everything that we need to do at a six 60% of our annual CIP, which would save us roughly $2 million a year. Other things that staff has focused on is researching and finding available grant funding. We've received a $1 million EPA grant and recently we were able to secure a $25 million what's called a principal loan forgiveness uh principal forgiveness loan that is essentially a grant. We do not have to pay that back. And we also, as I mentioned before, we have the $8 million FEMA grant uh that should be coming in the next year or two. On top of that, we have $15 million in PIFA settlement funds. Altogether, we have about $40 million that we can put towards bringing the cost of the PAS system down closer to $85 million. And on top of that, with the remaining amount that we're trying to cover, we were originally looking at uh typical municipal bond rates at 5% over a 30-year period. However, in talking with the state water board and looking at the state revolving fund, they offer financing at 2% over the same 30-year period. The other benefit of that SRF loan is that um payment principal payments are not required during construction where with a bond we would have to start paying back principal in

the same year we received the funds. This is enabling us to also um keep those costs down. So with that, this is what our customers would pay. Uh adding an additional $14880 per month. Um we still remain the lowest cost in the region. And I'll just note that Paramount, which is uh the next uh agency to us, is in the process of doing their studies. So their rates will be going up as well. All of these cities will continue to do rate studies and increase their rates. So we anticipate that we would stay among the lowest if not the lowest going into the future and still being able to maintain everything we need to do to ensure that our system is running at the highest efficiency safe and that um we are able to meet compliance with the PAS system. Our next steps include preparing a a preliminary community outreach events that we have scheduled for we will be scheduling for November 6th and November 10th and beginning tomorrow we'll be advertising this on city social media. Um this will be held at BJR on the 6th, November 6th, Thursday. uh next week uh BJR at 6:30m and the following Monday, November 10th at 7 pm. We'll be uh myself will be there. I will also have uh Dan Mueller, our deputy director of our utilities group as well as Raph Talis to discuss the report that was done and answer any questions from the community. Basically giving it as a kind of an early educational opportunity to our to our residents and customers. This is not a typical step. We don't usually do these types of community outreach events before you initiate the proceedings, but we really want to do everything that we can to start uh getting the word out there and answering questions.

Staff's plans to return to city council on November 18th to initiate the Prop 218 process. Notices will be sent to all property owners postmarked by November 27th. And after a 45day period, that gets us to the public hearing that would be held on the January 12th uh city council meeting. These prop 218 notices provide information on the new rate, why the rate is needed, and explains the properties owner property owner's right to register their opposition. It also informs them on p on the public hearing to be held on the on the 12th to provide input. looking at a at a more focused outreach plan that's going to take place after the November 18th meeting and before the public hearing on January 16th. We'll be coming back on the 18th to discuss uh the the outreach plan, but right now options for communicating to the community include a dedicated page on the city's website to act as a central hub of information, bill inserts to the customers, city social media outlets, preparing an FAQ document, holding community open houses where we can present and answer community uh questions from the community, hold a live webinar featuring a presentation and moderated Q&A that can be recorded. ed and placed on the dedicated web page for anybody to uh refer back to and various educational materials, posters, handouts, and counter cards that we can have here at our at our at our counters. The public hearing to be held on January 12th, 2026. At this meeting, we'll be presenting the findings from the committee outreach effort, providing a recap on the water rate study, account of the written protests that were submitted will be provided, and a simple majority of property owners will need to register opposition, which is 50% plus one. The city will council will

discuss and consider adopting a resolution setting the new water rates. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, uh, Director Bombgunner. I I do notice that our water expert, Dan Mueller, has joined the conversation as well. Hey, Dan. Um, I do want to emphasize, I'll go ahead and start off. I do want to emphasize that um that even with the proposed increase in rates, we're still lower than the next uh city, which is Paramount, which is currently on top of what they have right now, which are still reasonable rates. They're currently uh reviewing their rate a rate possible rate increase as well. That's correct.

Okay. So, I I say I find that amazing because um I do have a few questions and comments, but prior to the two the fiscal year 2015 2016, what was do you do you know when the previous last increase was? Any idea? I I think it was probably more than 10 years prior to that. Is that correct, Dan? 16. 16 or 17 years prior to that.

Okay. Um I I just find it amazing that we're uh we're we're we're viewing a a much uh needed um look at the possible rate increase and we're still lower than um the um cities around us. Um how do you see the condition of current condition of our water system right now?

I at at this point our our system is in good shape. I think the the important thing is instituting these rates so that we can maintain stay on top of our CIP program and obviously uh start working on uh the project to complete the PIFA project in 2031 but as it stands right now we're in good shape. Okay. Um and also u I mean this may be part of that but what are we currently doing to prevent sinkholes which is a result of water leakage over time? What are we doing to prevent sink holes from happening?

Yeah, I mean sink holes kind of catch us catch us by surprise. I think there's a lot of different things you have to do to prevent sink holes. Really, one of the things is, you know, maintaining the the surface to make sure water is not able to get into or under to undermine the road. Um, but typically what happens with the sink hole is is water is introduced usually from like a leaking pipe of some sort. um that is what causes the ground underneath. So what we do is we just try to make sure that we have a really good inspection program to capture that. But uh the ones that have developed over time, they happen in other agencies is usually a pipe will get nicked and sometimes it you won't really have anything developed for 10, 15, 20 years later. It's something that is not even really easily seen. So, um you just have to have a really solid inspection program to make sure that uh the pipes are in good condition uh before you do your back fill and that's what we do here in the city. And then also just making sure that surface drainage is not able to get under underneath to undermine the road.

Remember too right now, you know, we've had the benefit of uh uh doing a lot of paving in our residential areas in the city and during that process or before that process, we actually began to replace a lot of pipe. So, we've actually been out in front making sure that we are, you know, trying to maintain our system, keeping it new, fresh, and uh uh in in good shape. So, we're out there working hard. I want to, you know, also, if I can, commend staff uh work hard for many years to maintain low cost for the community. Uh that's a tough thing. One of the things we benefit from here, I think, is uh that we're able to pump from the ground and send it directly to the home. And there's not been a lot of treatment done over the years. We haven't needed to because our water is pretty clean and fresh. Uh this is our first time that we're going to have to do treatment and that's where a lot of costs are coming from. Uh but really staff has been working hard to keep the costs controlled and keep them down as much as we can, but we kind of got to the end of the ability to do that at this point.

Yeah. You know, anytime you uh a municipality um or a council has to entertain possible, you know, potential rate increases anywhere. Um, you know, it's it's not it's it's not an easy subject to discuss, but um I'm really pleasantly surprised to see that the proposed rates are are uh still lower than our um our neighboring cities. Um I would say that um you know um given inflation, recent inflation and the cost of goods and services obviously going up um that uh this is something that we should be reviewing on at least on an annual basis. Yeah. um you know going forward

it's it's it's best practice to be doing this every five years and and going forward that would that would be the plan.

Yeah. And then you know in Downey you know we we take a lot of pride and uh enjoy our our high property values here. Um and uh I I think it's just as important to to make sure that uh our high property values have a solid foundation underneath them as well which includes water and uh you know everything associated with water. Yeah. So, I think it's important to uh to emphasize that and um you know, and with that said, I I think I think my council colleagues would agree that in area in every area of service provided in the quality of life u including water, we need to make sure that u our residents um do receive the highest levels of service and I think uh potential water rates to to make sure that we're properly funded uh that we're um adequately funded to um to deal with um uh contingencies for such as the blackout we had on Christmas Eve last year or any power outages uh for that for that matter. Uh but I think it's really uh important to make make sure that we have proper funding uh to adequately respond. So that concludes my comments. Uh colleagues, any questions or comments?

I have a comment. U mayor, thank you Matt. Um to your point, it is best practice to review these every five years. Um and as uh the mayor indicated, it is not um we may not be the most popular when we have to talk about a rate increase. Um that's not something our residents want to hear. However, um because of uh the the needs that have been presented uh and the importance of uh continuing our our infrastructure and making sure that we have um the water and the supply and and those things that are important for our community. Um a we want to make sure that we don't uh kick this can down the road again and again uh in the future. And so implementing that uh five-year review plan as a best practice will will have to be it. Um but certainly um I am encouraged to see that and if you can I don't know if we can look at uh put that graphic back again

for our residents to see this is the cities

the cities yes the graphic that shows um where Downy's current rate is and the proposed um the additional 1480 per month and where all of the other cities around us um are. And so I think that if we can uh make sure that this graphic uh goes out to the community residents, uh I think uh pictures speak louder than words. Um and again, we have always been proud of the services that Downey provides and certainly we've been proud of our water and the high quality of it. Um and um there's no way around this. uh we have to increase the water rates and this is you know this is something that will be good for for a community in the long term so that we we establish um this best practice review the rates again in a few years.

Yes, thank you for your input council member Fmenta. Yeah, we'll make sure that we highlight this uh this graph in any of our educational materials and as we present things in those workshops. I think it is important. It really does kind of make it pretty clear um that this is a this is a good situation, you know, as as best as it can be when you're raising rates to still remain the lowest in the region.

I will also add that u you know, I'm I'm sorry. I I just think it's important to emphasize the fact that u you know this is an investment and um if if we don't move forward with with this proposed rate um I think you know god forbid an emergency or natural disaster this could cost us a lot more in the long run. So anyways, council member Ortiz and and I just same to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. I think it's important I think I do agree with my colleague uh Claudia where we should pictures speak louder than words and the fact that we have not raised rates in the last 10 years 10 years I think it just [snorts]

it's unfortunate that the burden passes on to us and then the residents will see that we're increasing it but still being the lowest of our surrounding cities which is great. Um, so I I'm also agreeance with my colleagues on this issue. Thank you for all the hard work. I had a a question in that background statement. It kind of caught my eye. Just a clarification that the system serves approximately 20,000 residential and commercial customers. We know our city is 114,000 residents, but so the 20,000 is a like a unit like 16 unit apartment building is considered one. It's a service. It's the number of services that meters correct. Exactly.

So it can serve a multitude. So it is the entire city. That's correct. But all of that. Yeah. That's correct. So um no, I I agree as well that we were long overdue and we still will be very competitive. Um our our wellwater is is I I do the PSA for Coke. Is that Dani that you're drinking? Well, we don't have [snorts] that one, but that is well water that they are using. And I refill my bottles. I use our our water from our tap. Um I'm very confident tastes well and so I um definitely we have to move forward and do this increase and of course here we go with the required down the road um treatment system. You know we have to prepare for that as well. I do. So

I have one last question. You said that there's a project a capital project that we have to complete by 2036. the the plus treatment system has to be completed by April of 2031. So that's when we it needs to be operational by that point. How much is that estimated to be? Uh that was the 125 million which we have about 40 million that we were able to get some grant funding for. Yes. Okay. Any other um questions or comments, colleagues? No, mayor. Okay. I'll now entertain a motion and a second to approve staff's recommendation recommended action. Move to approve. Mayor, I'll second that. Please vote.

The motion is approved unanimously.

Thank you. Uh the city council uh this city council meeting will now adjourn in the memory of cadet Peter Lopez Ble 24 member of the cadet training class 9 four 25 of the California Highway Patrol who died in a traffic accident in Stockton. police police officer Lauren Craraven, 25, two-year veteran of the uh La Mesa Police Department, who died in the line of duty after being struck by a vehicle while stopping to assist two motorists involved in a collision. Ser Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Nunes, 28, six-year veteran of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department who died in the line of duty after being shot while responding to a domestic violence call in Rancho Cukamonga. [snorts] and also Frank Karns, 77, longtime Downey resident, founding member of the Downey Arts Coalition and strong supporter of the Downey Symphony Orchestra. And Adele Luis Alexander, 87, long longtime Downey resident, an active member of the Assistance League of Downey. A moment of silence. This meeting is now adjourned. The time is 8:54.