City Council - Regular Meeting

Very nice lighting. It's very warm. Are the lights down? You So when they're dim,

good afternoon, everybody. and happy new year. I would like to call to order the regular city council meeting close session. The time is now 5:34. City clerk Dwarte, would you please take role? Yes, mayor. Council member Peton, present. Council member Sosa, present. Council member Trujillo is excused. Mayor Promport, present. And Mayor Fa, present. And now is the time for public comment. Do we have uh if you can please put that recording?

Uh mayor, we actually don't have any um public speakers or any written public comment. I'm sorry. [clears throat] It's okay. Yes,

mayor. I want to congratulate you on your historic third term as our mayor and I want to assure you that you have the support of the veteran community in the city of Downey and uh all of the residents of the city of Downey, not just those in the fantastic third district, Orange Estates who is capably represented by our council of Dorothy Peton as well. And congratulations to you Harasio as our mayor prom. You can learn a lot from this lady. So [laughter] shadow her every move and you will make a very good mayor when it's your turn to step up. So again, congratulations. You have my my uh my uh loyal loyalty and support. And don't be intimidated about what's happening in our streets here regarding uh protests about the ICE enforcement action. was your comment about

Oh, gee, I guess I didn't really follow the rules, did I? I'm sorry. But anyway, uh I'll I'll move on from from there and uh uh I'll conclude with my comments. As stated, it was primarily to congratulate you again. All right. Thanks. Oh, sorry. Well, I just wanted to speak. Uh I didn't see anyone giving up numbers. Um if it's related to close session items, they can help you with the number in the back. Otherwise, regular close session will be comments will be a little bit later. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay. Is there a motion and a second to uh close public comment session? Second. So ordered by the mayor, the city council will now recess to close session under the following authorities. Government code section 54957B1, public employee performance evaluation of our city clerk. [snorts] And item number two, government code section 54957.6A, conference with labor negotiator agency, designated representative James McQueen, director of human resources and unrepresented employee, city clerk. We will now uh recess to close session. The time is 5:37.

You ready? Okay. Good evening everybody. Welcome to your city council meeting. We will now um reconvene the regular city council meeting close session. City Attorney Funk, will you please report any close session item? Uh yes. Good evening, Mayor, members of the council, and members of the public. In tonight's close session, the city council addressed all items on the close session agenda. There was no reportable action uh from tonight's proceedings. Thank you.

Thank you, city attorney Funk. 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 in which to speak, please proceed to the back of the room and city staff will issue you a number card. Lining up during public comment will not be permitted and each speaker should remain in their seat until their number is called. The time clock will begin when you begin your comments. Per the city's council meeting rules and for the fire safety regulations, all persons shall remain seated unless addressing the council or entering or leaving the chambers. Standing in the aisles or along the walls is prohibited. There is overflow seating outside 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. The time is 6:36. City clerk Dwarte, would you please take role?

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

present. Uh, at this time I would like to call on our Downey Police Department Chaplain, Greg Welch, to lead us in the invocation. In the 46th book of Psalms, verse 10, it simply says, "Be still and know that I am God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you with just gratitude, Lord, that you are right here in this room joining us tonight. For when two or more are gathered in your name, there you will also be. Lord, we are just in such awe of your power and your wisdom. We trust that the Holy Spirit will go before each and every one of us in that wisdom. We thank you for the elected officials before me, all the staff that work so hard to make this glorious city of Downey function. Thank you for our police and fire to keep us protected. And Lord, thank you for our citizens of Downey, the caring, hardworking people that they are, those here tonight, those in their home watching on computers. Bless them, Lord. bless them and keep them safe. We thank you for this new year as we step into this first council meeting of the new year. Again, asking for your guidance that everything that we say and do will be honoring you and a blessing from you. We go before you, Lord, and thank you again. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Greg. And at this time, I would like to call on Boy Scout number uh troop two to lead us in the flag salute. [clears throat] Um, everyone's already risen, so place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, troop number two. We appreciate you.

Good evening once again, Was Noes. Thank you for joining us tonight. Uh, I would like to say a few words before we start our city council meeting. Uh, I want to acknowledge the various individuals that are here uh, wanting this body to hear their concerns. And as the mayor of the city, I would like to urge our state officials to demand the federal government take immediate action in supporting immigration reform to help stop what we are witnessing in our communities.

The terror that ICE is instilling in our neighborhoods by racially profiling members of our community should not be happening. Our Downey Police Department is being placed in a very difficult position as are we local elected officials because our police departments locally, they do not have jurisdiction over federal enforcement. Our residents are in fear and they're angry and we see you and we hear you. This should not be occurring in communities across California and in communities across the country. I think we can all agree we do not want criminals in our communities. But targeting members of our community because they look a certain way without warrants is not okay. We cannot and we will not stay silent. This is not a partisan issue. This is a human issue. And I want to thank you, those of you that marched from um a place nearby to here. Thank you for being here. It takes all of us collectively to engage our state representatives, our state, our legislators have the power to change state law as much as we would like to interfere. And I see an individual that was very brave

earlier this week when he videotaped the situation with the landscapers. Thank you. Thank you. For too long, minority communities have been scapegoed for different things. We see that in our history. with Japanese camps, with the Brasto program. And again, as communities, we agree. We are against criminals. We stand together protecting one another, our public safety. That is paramount. But I think what we all regardless of party affiliation, what we are all feeling is this intense intense fear and anger because we can do better. This country was built by immigrants. All of us are immigrants and there is richness in that. And when we see individuals being targeted unfairly, we can't turn a blind eye. That would not be human of us. And what is happening is those of us in local office and and I want to thank you for coming because we are the closest government body that you have to express your anger. We are the closest elected

body you have to tell us enough. I hear you. We in this dis hear you. I think together we can call on our state legislators and the state legislature [clears throat] and the governor to amend laws so that there is communication between local law enforcement agencies and federal enforcement agencies. Only they can make that happen. And I know we have a room full of cameras and sometimes cameras uh sometimes clips are taken without much context. But all in all, I want you to know that we are with you. That as a city, just like many other cities in Southern California, we are not being contacted by federal immigration enforcement agencies. We don't get that communication in advance. And we urge you to not interfere in the way that could yield negative consequences for you and you would we wouldn't want you to violate federal law. I did say a couple I did prepare a couple of things in Spanish and so if you would please bear with me.

[sighs]

Give me a minute, please. Federal Jose. Gracias. We will be moving um public comment to the end of tonight's meeting. Uh we have I Yes, I know. uh we have a short meeting and we want to get through the business of our meeting before we move in that direction. Um I want to make that announcement and I also would like to take this opportunity to have my council colleague member announcements requests for future agenda items

conference and meeting reports. I will start to my far left uh my colleague mayor promasortis.

Thank you mayor and thank you for your words. Um, I too am deeply disheartened by the actions involving ICE in our community. I stand firmly with my community and oppose any actions that threaten the peace and safety of our neighbors. I urge everyone to be informed about their rights and to review information we have shared in all our platforms and also in our city platforms. The current practices we are witnessing contradict the administration's promise to focus on criminals. Instead, we see individuals being detained while working or simply walking in the streets. And that is simply not right. I too agree with you, mayor. I am requesting that we send a formal letter detailing the events of this weekend to our representatives so they can see what is happening in our own backyards. They do not know what's happening in our streets. Only we do. And to advocate for meaningful immigration reform and I request that be signed by all our council colleagues. I am so disheartened and sad and I'm here to fight with all of you and I want to say thank you for everyone being here today and expressing your fears and telling us what you guys are experiencing in your own streets in our own home. And I do agree that this council will fight for you and we're going to do whatever we can to support and help everybody in this community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Proteis. Uh moving on to Council Member uh colleague Sosa.

Thank you, Mayor Foretta. Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for being here and uh taking part of this civic process. Um and thank you for uh peacefully protesting on your way over here. Um, I'll keep my comments short, but I do want to I do want to state that um our Downey police officers are trained in verbal deescalation techniques, including tolerating verbal attacks to manage volatile situations, avoid force, build rapport, and maintain control by using tactical communication, active listening, and empathy. often drawing from methods to deflect abuse rather than engaging with it. This training helps officers stay calm, understanding underlying issues and [clears throat] redirect negative interactions into productive dialogue, reducing the chance of physical physical escalation. With that said, um you know, I did watch the video of the unfortunate incident that happened on Bonaris and Ryerson a few times. And I got to tell you, with respect to the two ICE agents uh that were there, they they really didn't they really looked like they they didn't know what they were doing. It was like amateur hour. It's unfortunate that those two men, the landscapers, had to experience that. And we feel that uh the whole thing just it it just looked awkward as the two men the two gentlemen were just minding their own business working making a living for themselves and contributing to society. I want to be clear that I do support law and order and the rule of law, but these two residents, these two

citizens pose no threat to the neighborhood. What that would happen to them is simply not right and completely unacceptable. That concludes my comments, Madame Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Sosa. Um to my right uh Council Member Peton.

Thank you, Mayor um Romea. Um good evening everyone. Um it's at times that these that we we do come together. We hear from our community and like the mayor has said, we respect your right to protest, your right to come here and voice your concerns. And that's what we need to see. That's what the federals need to see. That's what DC and the administration needs to see. Um I had prepared a a statement for the beginning of this before this incident took place and I just want to send that uh also in part of our business that we had gone to Sacramento earlier in the week and we had conducted some business and looked to our representatives and advocating for our city uh both uh my council member Mayor Prom Hortiz and Hector mayor um former mayor Sosa. We we network with our legislators. we have a good relation so that when we want to contact contact them and get to them, we know who they are, they know who we are. So, we had a a good two days out there working with the legislation, looking at our lobbyists, and uh we value all the the time that they work for us, and now is the time that we will be calling on them. Um, I also had a list of accomplishments to start the year off for 2025. And, you know, it's not appropriate now to go through it. things for safety and stop signs um and and many things that we all do. 100 calls uh in our city for trash or dumping or pickup. But I do want to take the opportunity to thank our public works. These things that were requested by me and of course all of us times 5. They were requested by us, but they were implemented by the staff in the public works and our entire city staff. We say thank you our first responders, public works, uh park and wreck. So, this is what's keeping our city uh running and keeping it going. And we appreciate you and wanted to say that for last year. We're going to get ready to roll again for 2026. So, I say welcome 2026 to Downey and let's keep Downey beautiful, clean, and

safe. But what I was just saying in reading of what we are able to accomplish um what we have done for the city, there are things that you've heard that we cannot do within our power to control and namely ICE. Personally, I feel these immigration enforcement activities are not being conducted fairly or correctly. Um, how they conducted a raid in my district Saturday with the gardeners is shocking and unacceptable. This administration needs to pause and re-evaluate how they are doing their immigration enforcement because it is not equitable. Every administration has lawfully enforced illegal immigration and every immigration has deported them. But not this way. Not this way. We were told the worst of the worst criminals would be targeted. Yes, we all want that. We want them to be deported. The worst of the worst. That yet that's not what's happening. We can collectively voice our disapproval with this system and our first amendment rights with peaceful protesting, but more effectively by writing writing to our federal representatives. And as Mayor Prom Ortiz says, it's exactly what I was going to say. We're going to send more. Writing legislation, signing it, letting them know that how this process is being done is not the right way. It is not acceptable. And we also need immigration inform now. We needed it 10 years ago. We can affect change with our voices just like Martin Luther King did back in the 60s. As we as council will do everything within our power and within the law. And you've already heard what we can and can't do. I won't reiterate on that. Let's continue our voices, our concerns with disapproval to Washington. We will send letters to our representatives. Let's continue to educate our represent our residents with our continued Zoom meetings that we started last year of the rights and what they can do um and legal advice we had approved last year and hold them more often. So, if there is something we

effectively can do on council, we will. but know that we are here for you as your Downey representatives to keep our city safe for all of you. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Council Member Peton. Um, last but not least, uh, Council Member Trujillo.

Thank you, Mayor. I want [applause] I want to continue to denounce the actions of our current federal government and specifically the ICE and Bureau of Border Patrol divisions. You have individuals that have gone rogue and are violating the Constitution. These are not legal detentions. These are tantamount to kidnappings. Legal detentions is when an officer arrives in a marked vehicle unmasked, clearly identifies himself as an officer and ask individuals for identifications. So if you hear us calling these kidnappings, it's because that is exactly what THEY ARE. [applause] WHILE I agree that there is not much more that we can do at the city level, I disagree with the mayor in her course of action. It would be naive for us to think that Sacramento is going to do anything that would be able to protect us. We know we know what this federal administration thinks of our governor. So if anyone on this day is thinks that writing laws at the state level is going to do something, I have bad news for you. It's not. What we need our mayor to do is to use her platform,

to use her voice, and not to simply give us lip service because the cameras are on. What what we need what we need if we if we are going to continue with this we're going to have to go into a recess I I would like to ask for decorum or we will have to go into a recess and I will have to stop the meeting the horn. Sorry.

What we need to do No, please. What we need to do is we need to hold our mayor accountable as the president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials so she can go to DC and talk to her president that she supported.

You need to do you need to hold your politicians accountable. Okay? You need to use your voice. Please continue to use your voice. We are not defeated. Our strongest power is our voice. So, I want to thank you for protesting and coming here to hold this council accountable because let's face it, city attorney, would you please uh

members of the public, I just wish to interject that um tonight's meeting has to be conducted in accordance with the rules of the city's rules of decorum. Um, any behavior that disrupts the meeting as we've seen in the last couple minutes with the use of sound devices and raised voices will be subject to a warning and those individuals given a warning will then be subject to removal if they continue that disruptive conduct. Please be advised as a general matter um before we proceed um and know that that type of conduct will be subject to warning and removal. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Please continue to use your voice and protest and please vote. You need to hold your elected officials accountable. What does it mean to hold somebody accountable? To make them responsible for their actions and decisions. And we have a mayor who we all know supported this president because we've all seen the video of her wrapped in the flag. And so now, Madame Mayor, it's time for you to go to DC. We need to We need to take a recess. No, I think we I'm allowed to speak. We're going to take a recess. We're going to take I'm being I'm being sanctuary. We're going to take a recess. I get an opportunity for I'm going to stay here and continue to speak.

would you please make an announcement? Uh just to to reiterate for members of the public um the type of disruptive behavior that has gone on in the last five or 10 minutes is in violation of the council rules of decorum. I would just want to underline and reiterate that any continued behavior of that nature um individuals will be subject to a warning and then prompt removal from the meetings if they don't um they don't uh cease engaging in that type of behavior. Thank you in advance for for heeding um this warning and for respecting the rules of the city council so that it may conduct its business in an orderly manner.

Thank you John. Uh there are two public here actually. Um city manager comments. Do you have any? I'm not done with my statement. May I continue? So I will continue now. I do have comments, mayor, if that's the case. If you can go ahead. I have to finish my statement. Madam Mayor, we will continue the council member comments uh for the end. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh only comment we have from staff is that we did get the GFOA budget award for excellence for the 13th year in a row. So we're very proud of that. We continue to maintain excellency in budget reporting for the uh for the city and that's all from staff.

Thank you. Um tonight we have two public hearings and one is the adoption of a resolution to adjust the city of Downey water rates. Um I did make an announcement a short while ago and that is any public comment that is not pertaining to the agenda. Any other public comment not pertaining to the agenda tonight will be moved to the end uh of our meeting so that we can get through this business. Um, two public hearings. The adoption of a resolution to adjust the city of Downey water rates that the city council adopt resolution number 26-833 uh 29 approving the adjustments to the city of Downey water rates and making them effective January 14th, 2026. The hour having arrived, the public hearing is now open. City manager Bradley. Is there a staff report?

Uh, yes, Mayor. We have uh Matt Bombgardner, our director of public works, who will introduce the item. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Petta and council members. Tonight, the item for your consideration is resolution number 26-8329 to adopt new water rates for the city of Downey. Should the council decide to adopt this resolution, the new rates will take effect tomorrow, January 14th, 2026, and we'll be showing up on customer bills over the next couple of months. In a few minutes, I'll be turning it over to Steve Gon from Rafelis to provide presentation on the water rate analysis, which is the same one that he provided back on November 18th when council adopted resolution number 258326 to initiate the proposition 218 proceedings that culminate with tonight's public hearing. Steve also has included a couple of slides that summarize summarize the legal objections that the city received and our responses. These are included as a part of tonight's agenda report for the public hearing. Before turning it over to Steve for his presentation, I want to provide to you and the community an overview of the timeline that brought us here tonight. Back in 2015, when the city last adjusted its water rates, the water enterprise fund had approximately $5 million left over each year. These remaining funds were used to fund the water capital improvement program focusing on upgrading of aging water manes, service lines, valves, meters, and fire hydrants, as well as the rehabilitation of the city's groundwater wells, which provide 100% of the city's water supply. Over the last 10 years, revenues have not grown, but costs have. With inflation and the rising cost of equipment, labor, and materials, the city currently has enough funds to keep up with our regular operations, but no longer has any leftover funds to cover the upgrade of the aging water infrastructure, the rehabilitation of our wells, nor the efforts needed to pro provide seamless, permanent backup power generation at the city's wells to stay

operational for the community and our fire department during disasters and emergencies. In short, the annual leftover amount has gone from approximately $5 million in 2015 down to zero today. The city is also faced with needing to build a PAS treatment system to be compliant with federal drinking water standards that are set to take effect in 2031. The city must start setting aside funds now ahead of construction for a system that would begin in [singing] 2028. As part of the treatment system analysis, the alternative of not building a treatment plant and simply importing water from M MWD was examined. What was found was that the cost of importing water in 2030 added to our operational costs would be on the order of 60% higher. Considering the rising cost of water operations and the need to continue the city's capital improvement program, the city hired Rafelis to provide us with a thorough analysis and water financial plan to address all of these needs. A draft of this water study was completed in October 2025. It's important to note that the proposed water rates reflect significant effort on the part of city staff and Rafelis to search for multiple ways to keep overall costs down. These efforts include working with the state revolving fund on qualification for multiple lowinterest loans that do not require annual payments until after the project is completed. These rates are fixed at the time of issuance and historically have been around 2%. This compares to 5% and above for municipal bond issuances. Staff has also been successful in qualifying for an additional forgivable loan amount of $25 to $30 million. Staff has been responsive to litigation efforts by our attorneys to secure an

additional 15 million in settlements in national PAS litigation cases. Staff has also trimmed back capital improvement efforts to what is essential over the next 5 years. In total, city staff and Rafelis are presenting proposed rates that keep Downey as the lowest priced water provider in the region. I'd like to highlight the outreach efforts that the city has taken over the last few months. Staff introduced the proposed rates from this study to city council at its meeting of October 2025. Following that meeting, staff conducted two out two outreach meetings with the community at the Barbara J. Riley Senior Center on November 5th and November 10th, 2025. Staff returned to the city council on November 18th to present the final water study and adopt resolution number 258326 to initiate the Proposition 218 proceedings. Notices were were mailed out to all customers on November 24th, 2025. These notices contained information that explained the need for the proposed water rate changes, directed everyone to a dedicated website located at downywater rates.org with information on the water rates, including a copy of the water rate study and information on future community meetings. It also provided information on how to protest the proposed rate changes in com including submitting a written legal objection challenging the proposed rates by January 8th, 2026 pursuant to provisions of Assembly Bill 2257. It also provided information on the date and time of tonight's public hearing. [clears throat] The city was required to notice all customers a minimum of 45 days before the date of the legal objection deadline as well as this public hearing. both of m both of which were met by mailing the notices out on November 24th, 2025.

Following the initiation of the Prop 218 proceedings, the dedicated website was made available to the public has been a pub a hub for sharing all the information about the water rate study, tables with proposed rate changes, dates of community meetings, videos explaining the rate change, a video recording of the webinar held on December 8th, and a list of frequently asked questions. The city held a total of four community meetings, the two previously mentioned in early November, the online webinar on December 8th, 2025, and a meeting last week on January 7th, 2026. Tonight marks the third time the discussion of water rates has been before the city council. Finally, I wanted to provide a count of the objections and protests that were submitted in writing to the city clerk. A total of 10 legal objections were submitted by January 8th and a total of 50 additional written protests have been submitted to the city clerk by the start of this public hearing. A total of 60 protests in all have been submitted to this point, including the objections. Written protests can be submitted through the end of the public comment period of this public hearing. And with that summary, I'd like to turn it over to Steve Ganyon with Rapellis to go over the report.

Thank you. Thank you, Matt. [clears throat] Hello, Steve. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members. Again, my name is Steve Gangan with a firm called Raftelis. I've been helping water agencies and cities and special districts set rates for 17 years in in California. This evening I have a summary of the water rate study. It's the same presentation that we presented to you about 50 days ago, but I'm going to go through it again for the sake of the public. So, first let me define what a water rate study is. A rate study is a financial planning and rate setting process that first and foremost wants to promote a financially viable water utility. So that means when we do a rate study, we want to make sure that the water utility is recovering all of its costs on and m capital reserves and debt service. It can achieve community objectives such as send a conservation signal uh affordability uh revenue stability and lastly we want to make sure that the rates are legally defensible and that means that they meet something called Proposition 218. There are five steps in a rate study and we've gone through all steps. We're here at step number five for the rate adoption. As Matt mentioned, you've noticed your customers. Tonight is the public hearing where the city council decides whether or not to implement the rates. Why would the city do a water rate study? Essentially, it's because your rates have to keep up with the cost to provide water service. It's important to note that utility water service is not a ser is not a a government service such as police, fire, libraries, and parks. Those are funded by tax dollars. A water enterprise or a sewer enterprise has to stand on its own two feet and collect the revenue it needs to operate. [snorts] This slide and the next slide is probably the two most important slides.

Everybody would like to know why are these rate increases needed? First, I want to point out that the city hasn't raised rates in 10 years. The last increase was on July 1st, 2015. And so, I asked everyone, can you think of any products or services that have not increased over the last 10 years? Because I knew I was going to ask that. I Googled it and I TVs and computers have actually gone down, but pretty much everything else has gone up. Inflation has been 45% over that period. We've had two years of record wet weather [snorts] and when it rains a lot, people don't water their lawns. That means your revenue goes down. Downey gets its water from groundwater. That groundwater is there because of an agency called the water replenishment district. It puts the groundwater there so that you can pump it up and serve it to your customers.

[gasps]

They charge the city and their rates to serve water to give to put the water there for you go up every year. Historically, it's been around 4%, but your rates need to at least keep up with those costs. It's important to note that electricity, the cost from the water replenishment district and recycled water, wholesale costs are roughly half of the city's expenses and the city has no control over those and they go up every year. So, for the last 10 years, they've been going up and your revenue has been stagnant. As Matt mentioned, there's something in your groundwater called PAS. It's short for per and poly floral alkal substances. I won't go into where it's from, but you have a plan to have a water treatment plant that is going to cost somewhere around $127 million and the city needs to plan for that. Now, [sighs] there are also a handful of other capital projects that the city would like to execute, but the city can only execute some of them. It would like to execute about $36 million of those projects, but it would like to do more. This slide is also very important. It shows what the current Downey customer using an average amount of water is paying for their water bill. And Downey, by the way, is those blue bars all the way on the left. and it compares it to a number of agencies on the right, other cities. So, right now, Downey pays the least and if you were to accept this proposal this evening, Downey would still be the least. I think that says a lot about your water rates. This slide simply shows a graph of costs. This is a national slide and you can see the blue line there is the cost for water and sewer across the nation. And you can see it's outpacing pretty much everything else. All those other lines are garbage, electricity, natural gas, and telephone. Water and sewer is outpacing those. And the explanation

that is provided is that as a country, our buried water and sewer pipes are old and they need to be replaced. So, it's more costly than some of these other services. [snorts] This is Prop 218. I won't read every box, but basically I'll say that the revenue that you get from your customers needs to stay in the water fund. And I only bring that one up because it's one of the objections that you received. By law, your rate revenue for the water system needs to stay in the water system. Now, I'm going to talk about the water financial plan. A financial plan is nothing more where we com project the revenue for your utility and compare it with your expenses. Part of your expenses includes your capital projects. This is a list of all the large capital projects the city would like to do. And I'll simply point out the bold one, which is the the water treatment plant for PAS. If you add those numbers up, it's about $127 million. But you can see there are a handful of other things the city would like to do. these or well the PAS and a portion of these projects are funded by your water rates water rate revenue. So as Matt mentioned uh to partially pay for that PAS treatment plant the city plans on taking a a loan from the state through something called the state revolving fund. The state when the city borrows from the state the state wants to make sure it gets paid back. So, one of the things it requires is to have a certain amount of reserves. And the reserves that I'm talking about is the bottom line of this table here. The state revolving fund debt reserve. The state wants to make sure you have about a year's worth of debt payback, debt service in reserve to make sure that they feel as though they're going to be paid. So, that's about $4 million. If you add that to the operating reserve and the capital reserve, you get about $10 million. And that equals a line that

I'm going to show you in a graph coming up. This is useful to know. Uh this is what would happen to your reserves if you spent your budget for your water system and you executed all your capital projects. Your reserves would go to zero within two years and then they would go negative. However, we are prop we are proposing the rate increases that are in front of you this evening. And I come back to the graph on the right where you see that yellow line. That yellow line includes your operating reserve and the state revolving fund reserve. So, you're trying to hit that yellow line. And what we're doing here is we're setting rates such that your reserves slowly go up to that yellow line in the year where you plan on taking on the loan. On the left, there's something called a a graph of a debt service coverage ratio. This is something that the state also keeps an eye on to make sure that they're going to get paid back. Basically, you want the aqua line to be above the dash line. and indeed you are if you implement the rates that are in front of you this evening. So this is a slide that shows the monthly bill increases and I'll just point out the top line which is for single family residential which is the majority of your customers and it assumes that that customer uses an average of 1,200 cubic feet of water and each 100 cubic feet is 748 gallons. So, your current bill is about $30 and it would go to, if you'll allow me to round here, $45. So, an increase of just under $15 in the first year. Then after that, you could you could see it would go up a little less every year following that. Now, the bill the city does bill by monthly. So, this is what customers are actually going to see. They're going to see a $29 almost a $30 increase on their bill on a bimonthly basis.

The next few slides show the proposed rates and charges, but these rates and charges that I'm showing you are already accounted for in the bill impacts that I just showed you. So, here you have the meter size char the fixed meter charge by meter size. Most of your accounts are the 5/8 inch meter. You have about 15,000 of those. You can see that charge is going to go from $22 to $29. This is the volutric rate for each class. You can see you have four classes. Again, the majority of your customers are in single family residential. You can see that the tiered rates are going in the third column there going from about $139 to$ 250. I just want to point out that these are based on the cost to serve water in each tier. And um and that's why we do something called a cost of service analysis. And these rates reflect the cost to serve water in each tier. These are private fire charges. These are mostly charged to businesses and maybe multif family complexes. The most single family homes will not pay this private fire charge. These are the volutric rates for recycled customers, which is mostly city accounts. Uh most single family homes don't have recycled water. Um, but this shows the volumetric rate for each tier for recycled customers. Now, Assembly Bill 2257 requires a summary of the objections that you received and responses. This slide shows a summary of the object of the objections. I'll try to go through each one as quickly as I can. The first one says that the city has not demonstrated the increases are proportional to the cost of service. The city prepared a cost of service and water rate study. It's posted on the city's website. Sections 2, three, and

four fully describe the cost of service, how the rates were derived, all the way from how much money is needed to how each customer class is going to pay. The public the second objection was that the public notice does not adequately explain the methodology used to calculate the new charges. The notice is usually just a couple pages. The report is 70 pages. We can't go through it all, but the notice refers to your report. So again to to uh clarify uh Steve, this is the summary of the objections uh we received. How many responses did we receive? Responses. We we responded to all your objections. Okay.

Um the third one was the fixed meter charge incre appears disproportionate and violates Prop 218. I want to mention that report section 4 describes how the fixed charges were derived. Your meter charges are based and calculated based on the hydraulic capacity of each meter. And the hydraulic capacity of each meter is put forth by the American Waterworks Association for either displacement and turbine meters. Now the city has both displacement and turbine meters, but your most you have more turbine the displacement and your future meters are going to be turbine meters. So the hydraulic capacity for turbine meters is used to calculate the fixed charge. The city has not shown that the revenue increases will be used exclusively for service for the services provided. Again I mentioned that prop 218 says your revenue needs to stay in the water utility. So that's that is a must by law. The volume charge for tier one increases a lot and I just want to point out that all of that is fully derived in section four. The cost to serve water in each tier is based on the on your cost of water and how the customer uses water and the cost to deliver water through the pipes. [sighs] And the last one here is another comment about the fixed monthly service charge and I believe that's answered by the prior fixed uh meter charge um answer. So to summarize the report essentially answers all those questions. [sighs] How much revenue is needed to operate the utility is described in section two of the report. The cost of service by cost component is in section three and section 4 deres the rates by tier and class. It is a bit of a long and boring read, but it's all in there. For these reasons, the staff recommends to move forward with the rates as proposed in the water rate study.

So, I just want to summarize and this is the last slide. Again, the city has not raised rates for 10 years. It's long overdue. The city has the lowest rates around and it will still continue to have the lowest rates around. The city has a large capital program to fund which includes a $127 million PAS treatment plant. Thosed rates that customers will pay will fund that PAS plant. And I also want to mention that um there is an anticipated $30 million grant from the state to help fund that plant. And again, the average single family home in the first year, the bill increase will be just under $15 a month. That concludes my presentation and I am here with staff to answer questions.

Thank you. Would you please would you please uh go back to the slide that shows um Downy's uh where Downey is in in comparison to the rest of the cities around us? Just want to make sure we that um [clears throat] council colleagues, any of you have any questions or comments about this presentation?

Um yes, I'll start. I It It took me about three reads. nice and quiet on a Saturday, but it came through with the conservation that we have done over the years so that the water fund um is is not a a a negative factor or positive. It just balances out for the infrastructure. So reason that we are being depleted slowly now is because of conservation factors, increased costs. I've seen on some social media where why didn't we look 10 years ago? It wasn't needed 10 years ago. it was still working orderly in the way it was designed. Um I've seen how the funding is coming through with the low 2% rate which is is good. Um we also have like you mentioned here one of the will be one of the lowest cities around another mandated statemandated PAS treatment plant. We have water that percolates down to the ground that is very clean. You know we have a one of a big manufacturer in town that uses our water. Our water is very good, but it's something that we need to do because we supply our own water. Are there any other water well cities that have water wells in their city versus bringing in the W water from the Metropolitan Water District?

It's pretty common to have water wells. But here's the uniqueness about Downey. You're all water wells. So, I think that's one reason why you have such lower rates because it's very costly to import water through the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Mhm. So, I think that's one big reason why you're lower than a lot of surrounding agencies.

And the mail out that we did, I had a couple residents attend and they really appreciated the presentation. I mean, there were only like 10 or so. People don't really go down to get involved. They just hear what they see on social media sometimes. I wish they would have. We you show here the 5/8 meter size. I think we all receive this informative letter. I had a question on what who uses an 8 10 or 12 in meter size because that um increase is quite substantial. It's usually a corporation or a company. Yeah, I don't have any names but it would be large corporations. Coca-Cola I know is in there and just big uh either large offices and large industrial [snorts] customers

and it does show I want the residents to know that the increase to residents houses individuals is going to be the lowest. So we are not bearing the brunt of what that what we need to do here. Um and I think lastly um just that we have oh that we also had that we read that it was mentioned the the perpetrators of our some of the poor water system. We are part of a um a class action suit where we are getting 15 million back through time with these settlements. So that's good that we are able to capture that revenue as well. So thank you very much for your report. Very detailed. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Pbertton. Um, anyone else have any comments?

I do. I just have one question and maybe I missed it during the presentation. Once we approve this today, the uh the cost will go in effect starting I believe it's tomorrow, January 1. And that was mentioned during our presentations with the rest of the community members, right? Sorry, that is correct. [clears throat] Uh, Mayor Prom. Uh, yes, that was mentioned. And as I was saying before, uh, those would take effect starting tomorrow, but probably start seeing it in the about two months from now as the cuz our building rotates throughout the community. Um, so it probably about 2 months before people start seeing those on their build.

Okay. And then during those uh uh meetings that we had with our community, uh how many people what roughly were at those meetings? They were they were fairly lightly attended, but um we had good a lot of really engaged people at each one of the meetings that asked great questions. Our last meeting in particular, uh I think we had about 10 residents there, but uh we stayed, you know, I think the meeting was scheduled for an hour. I think it went about an hour and a half. We had a really good conversation and a lot of great questions came out of there. So, it's allowed us to continue to try to hold several meetings so they'll give plenty of opportunities for folks to come. So, we've been going uh through the outreach process since November. So, we've held I think about five six workshops somewhere there.

Uh four four all together. Four all together. Yeah. Well, and a virtual one I think as well too. Yes. All right. Thank you, Council Member Sil. [clears throat]

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I do have a couple comments and I'm actually ready to make a motion, but um just want to share a few comments. I I know it's been mentioned that rates not have been adjusted in 10 years and in going and doing the research on this item um I do want to reiterate that um uh any thought of rate increases um were put to pause during the pandemic due to financial concerns of many families in the neighborhood. Uh we talked about inflation. It has been high. cost of materials have gone up and you know just just thinking god forbid we have a natural disaster and emergency uh with no action this can cost us uh significantly more in the long run. If you look at the palisades they weren't prepared they ran out of water which was a disaster for them. Here in Downey, we do enjoy high high property values. We need to make sure that the uh real estate we have underneath uh our infrastructure is solid. It matches that value. And our focus always needs to be on making that making sure that our residents receive the highest levels of service. And uh with no rate increases, uh we could um position ourselves for a big disaster failure uh eventually. So with that said, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve staff's recommendations. Council

members, we first need to take public comment on this item. Hold that thought. Sorry. [laughter] Okay. Thank you. I don't have any additional comments. I think my council colleagues have uh have mentioned what I what I would have mentioned as well. Um I will now open this item for public comment. City clerk Dwarte, did we receive any written correspondence uh to be incorporated into the record? Mayor, as mentioned by our public works director, we did receive 10 legal objections and 50 written protests as of today in the city clerk's office regarding this matter. Um, we would like to Is there a motion in a second to receive and file the written correspondence? So moved. Second. Second.

Okay. Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously.

Okay. Thank you. Now, members of the audience wishing to address the city council regarding this public hearing uh item may come up when your number is called. Uh I will be calling yellow cards for this item and I remind speakers that you have three minutes to address the council on your comments. Uh and this uh must be regarding this specific um public hearing item only. How many speakers do we have? Mayor, we have a total of five speakers for this item.

Okay. Thank you. Um, let's go ahead and call up speaker number one come up. And these are the yellow cards uh related to the public hearing. Thank you.

Dear madame mayor and city councils and a respectable public, I wanted to bring to your attention in our block. I live in Eastbrook between Angel Street and Foster Road. Most of the residents were fixed income. If you increase the price for us, it will be very difficult to come up with more money because the economy as you know is very bad and we count every dollar. I propose you if you give us like a break or percentage discount it will be acceptable. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for that. [applause] Speaker number two may come up.

[snorts] Good evening. Hello. Good evening. Hi. Good evening, council. It's a privilege to be here. Excuse me. If you could pull the microphone down, ma'am, if we can hear you. There you go. Is that better? Yes. Much better. [laughter]

Okay. Uh it's a privilege to be here to have you uh represent the seniors. Uh I also uh live in Downey on East Brook Avenue. Most of the people on my block are on social security and I too would like uh council to send a letter that perhaps we could get a 10% uh break because I'm sure everybody here knows someone has a family member that's on social security. They give us a $20 raise a year. They take 17 of it back for Medicare. So, we're basically getting nothing. Couple of dollars every year. And, uh, I'm speaking for myself personally, uh, with all my utilities, uh, that I pay monthly runs about $5 to $600. And when you only get say 1,200, that doesn't leave much at all for us to live on for gas for our cars, insurance on our cars, groceries, haircuts. So, it would really help the seniors a lot uh if you could send us letter requesting some type of a break for our seniors. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. [applause] U members of the public, if you would refrain from please refrain from any um displays or disruptions in between speakers so again the council can conduct this public hearing and the business items tonight in orderly manner. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker number three may come up please. Hello. I'm not educated enough to be up here. Would you lower the microphone so we can hear you?

I'm not educated on this too much to be up here, but I did want to know like when will it stop the increase because that one just went up to 2030, I believe. So, is is there someone that could answer that question? Uh, the increase would be permanent but grow with time because it is inflationary. we have to keep up with the cost of services. So, it's not likely, but during the rate analyses, we do look at what the rate should be at. Could go down at some point if if costs were to go down, but it's likely to be held in place. And at any point, is there going to be like another meeting where it could the public can ask for it to stop going up if it becomes

the city? The recommendation from staff was that it would be uh reviewed every five years to make sure the cost of services is is appropriate and we come back just like this today and make sure that you get a presentation what that cost should be. So we do review that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Speaker number four may come up please. [snorts] Hello everybody. Hi public. Good evening. Um, I have a couple of questions for for all of you.

If I if I may interrupt you for a second, hold the time, Alicia. Let me just tell you that public comment is an opportunity for our residents to tell us, but we can't engage in in uh Q&A is is part of uh our our our Brown Act rules. What I would like to ask is uh if you have specific questions um city manager which member of our team can u answer that we can have our public works director provide uh opportunity to talk and answer questions. Thank you. Thank you. So you can you can tell me your questions and then I will direct you to our public works uh for uh

first question. Did you already approve the rate? That this is uh the reason we're having this public hearing um to hear the presentation, hear from our community, and vote on it. Did you already vote on it? We we have not voted. We are conducting the public hearing here tonight. Okay. Um I see that the the biggest uh charge is for PFS. Okay. That's 127 million. What is the current P FAS for the water in Downey right now? If you have specific questions, um that is a specific question.

Matthew, Matthew, could I have you um talk to the gentleman? Thank you.

Thank you. We we can engage in this Q&A.

Just one more. Just one more. Um, Steve mentioned that we would get uh uh a 30 $30 per every two every two months. He mentioned $15 per month, but since we our bill um is every two months, he mentioned $30, but that's only for the first year. For the other consecutive years, um for 2027, it will be $31. for th 2028 will be $40. For 2029 will be $49 and for 2030 would be $60 that we every two months uh we will have to add to our current bills. That's all.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Um and one more thing before I forget. I tried to get a study the study that the the company did and I was unable to get it. Happy to make sure you get a copy of that. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number five with yellow cards.

Good evening, city council. Madame Mayor Mars Rio, um 15 million is not enough. Uh the only thing stopping you from offsetting the costs for this would be laziness. If uh city attorney Funk were to attend all the class auction class action suits and ask for more money from three companies I believe you're suing, you would be able to offset the cost for this and and lower everyone's payment. Um and it's not too late for that. I've looked it up. Um what's so funny about this, this is 2026. One thing I did before I I re I moved to the city of Downey is I researched different cities and I wanted to see uh how involved people were especially the city councils and one person I want to vindicate on this partic particular issue is a guy I believe you know him madame mayor his name was uh Juan Martinez he would come every session and hammer on Poss hammer hammer hammer and now you're playing catchup which is interesting you could have done something about this when was he sounding the alarm 20 2018 2019 I believe. I just wanted to vindicate him real quick because you made him look like he was foolish. You Alex Sab Rick Rodriguez, you made him look like he was foolish and now look what's happening. Also, um, before I close out, I'm glad you acknowledged that this is a podium where the people get to speak because I think it was a particularly cowardly move for you to move all that anger and frustration that you could have received and taken in so that they know you're serious to the end of the meeting. And now you see it's kind of quelled and quieted down. I'm sure you know that was the purpose. That was that was a

particularly cowardly move. Just letting you know that. Alisia, do we have any more speakers? Okay. Can I get a motion to move close public comment? Thank you. Uh and with that, unless there are any additional comments from the council, I will entertain a motion in a second to adopt the resolution. I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution. I'll [clears throat] second.

Please vote. The motion is approved unanimously. Thank you. Um, now this is uh moving on to item number two, the adoption of urgency ordinances adopting the 2025 edition of the California building standards code and local amendments based on upon climatic, topographical, and geological conditions and introduction of ordinances adopting the 2025 edition of the California Building Standards Code and local amendments based upon Yes, He said that um that the city council adopt the following urgency ordinances by at least four affirmative votes of the members of the city council. Urgency ordinance number 26-1531 repealing and recasting chapter 1 Downey building code of article 8 building regulations of the Downey Municipal Code adopting by reference the 2025 California Building Standards Code. Title 24, incorporating and amending the 2024 International Building Code, including Appendix H, and making certain local additions and amendments there too. Urgency Ordinance Number 26-1532, repealing and recasting section 8730, grading regulations of chapter 8, flop plan management, grading and paving of the Downey Municipal Code, and adding a new section 8730, the Downey grading regulations to chapter 8, flood plan management, grading, and paving of the Downey Municipal Code by adopting by reference appendix J of the 2025

California Building Code, California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Part Two, and making certain local amendments there too. Urgency Ordinance Number 26-1533, repealing and recasting chapter 13, Downey [clears throat] Residential Code of Article 8, Building Regulations of the Downey Municipal Code, adopting by reference the 2025 California Residential Code, California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Part 2.5, and appendices BB, BF, BG, and C1, and making certain local additions and amendments thereto 2 and urgency ordinance number 26-1534 amending chapters 345 and 6 of article 8 of the Downey Municipal Code and adopting by reference the 2025 California fire code California [clears throat] code of regulations title 24 part 9 including appendices A through O together with certain additions insertions deletions and changes thereto for the purpose of prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property from fire or explosion and adopting chapter 6.95 of division 20 of the California Health and Safety Code for the purpose of prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property from the handling, use, storage or release of hazardous materials or hazardous waste and introduce the five ordinances as described in the agenda memo and schedule a public hearing on January 27, 2026. The hour having arrived, the public hearing is now open. The time is 7:52. City clerk Darte, do we have any proof of publication?

We do. Mayor, can I have a motion and a second to receive and file? So moved. Second. Okay. So, order by the mayor. City Manager Bradley, is there a staff report? Sorry to make you read all that, Mayor, but yes, we do have a staff report. We have uh our assistant fire chief, Dan Rasmmanson, who will provide the report.

Thank you, Dan. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of the city council, city manager Bradley, city staff, and members of our community. My name is Dan Rasmmanson, assistant fire chief and fire marshall. Thank you for the opportunity to to present this item this evening. Tonight, the fire and community development departments are requesting that the city council conduct a public hearing considering the adoption of four urgency ordinances related to the 2025 building California building standards code. Additionally, we request the introduction of five companion ordinances for regular adoption to be heard at your next city council meeting on January 27th, 2026. These actions will keep Downey current with the 2025 edition of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, which sets the minimum statewide standards for building design and construction, including structural integrity, fire and life safety, energy efficiency, and accessibility. The state updates the California Building Standards Code, including the building code, and fire code on a three-year cycle. This trienal update ensures that local jurisdictions remain aligned with the most current model codes and state agency regulations and that our standards reflect current construction practices and life safety technology in 2025 in excuse me the 2025 edition represents the latest cycle and became effective statewide on January 1st, 2026. So local adoption now is necessary to maintain consistency and clear enforcement authority. This explains why the urgency ordinances are part of tonight's recommended action so that local adoption will occur immediately upon passage of the ordinances ensuring no gaps between the 2025 state codes and Downy's local

enforcement framework. The four urgency ordinances are attachments A, B, C, and D included with the city council agenda memo for tonight's meeting. The five regular ordinances you're being asked to introduce tonight mirror the four urgency ordinances with one additional regular ordinance. The additional ordinance does not have any local amendments. The five regular ordinances are attachments EFG, H, and I included with the city council agenda memo for tonight's meeting. To finalize the code adoption process, we would return for a noticed subsequent public hearing and consideration of adoption at your January 27, 2026 meeting following the standard ordinance process, providing additional transparency and offering another opportunity for community input. Compared to California's 2022 codes, the 2025 building and fire codes include several notable statewide updates for building and structural provisions. The 2025 California Building Code incorporates newer national standards for wind, seismic, and other loads, updates definitions and provisions for occupiable roofs and high-rise classifications, and refineses requirements for the fire resistance of exterior walls and construction penetrations, as well as certain care and institutional occupancies. On the fire and life saf on the fire and life safety side, the 2025 California fire code is based on the 2024 international fire code with California's amendments and places greater emphasis on wildfire resistant construction, defensible space, modern detection and suppression systems and clearer evacuation and emergency planning requirements, especially in the wildland urban interface and higher risk occupancies in the energy arena. The 2025 energy code tightens performance baselines, expands electric ready requirements, and

increases EV ready and EV charger requirements in new construction and major renovations, all intended to improve efficiency and support state climate and electrification goals. In both the urgency and regular sets of ordinances as permitted by law, certain amendments have been made to the state standards as supported by required findings within the ordinances. With respect to the local amendments, these ordinances continue Downy's long-standing approach of tailoring certain provisions of the building code, residential code, and fire code to address the city's specific climatic, topographic, and geologic conditions. Downy's amendments establish the duties of the fire prevention bureau, grant the city of Downey enforcement authority, provide permitting guidance, set fees, and maintain public safety standards. These amendments are substantively equivalent to the modifications previously approved by this council and remain focused on protecting life, safety, and property in our community. In light of recent state legislation, including Assembly Bill 130, staff has been careful to ensure that the local amendments remain consistent with the new limitations on local modifications, particularly for residential construction. Other than administrative cleanup, there are no new local regulations beyond what the council has adopted in previous years. What has changed changed and what staff wishes to emphasize this evening is the organization and usability of Downeyy's local amendments over multiple co code cycles. The accumulation of local provisions can make the code difficult to navigate for residents, contractors, and design professionals. In preparing this adoption package, staff has cleaned up, clarified, and reorganize the local amendment section to more closely align with the structure of the 2025 state codes and to make them more userfriendly for our residents and development partners. The resulting reorganization and refinement will enhance usability,

transparency, and long-term maintainability of the municipal code. The goal is a clearer, more accessible code that supports efficient plan review, permitting, and inspection without altering the core policy decisions previously made by the council. In summary, the actions before you tonight will align Downey with the 2025 state building and fire codes, maintain and reaffirm local amendments that are reasonably necessary due to Downy's climatic, topographic, and geologic conditions, comply with state recent state legislation such as Assembly Bill 130, and present the amendments in a more organized and accessible format. Staff [clears throat] respectfully recommends that the city council adopt the four urgency ordinances this evening and introduce the five regular ordinances for a public hearing on January 27th, 2026. This concludes my presentation and our team is available to answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Assistant Fire Chief Dan. Um, we certainly want to be in compliance with the California Building Code and standards. Um, I will open it up for my colleagues if you have any questions or comments. If not, we're going to go ahead and uh open it up for public comment. Um Alysia, do we have um any written correspondence regarding this item? We do not, mayor. And how many people have taken a number for this public hearing? We have no speakers for this. No speakers. Okay, then I will um move on to uh I will make a motion to adopt um the report as presented. Can I get a second? Second.

Okay, please vote. My mine fell all the way back there. Okay, here we go. The motion [clears throat] is approved unanimously. Thank you. Uh members of the audience uh wishing to speak, uh now is your time. Um, city clerk, can you uh tell me written correspondence uh regarding the uh agenda items for tonight?

Yes, mayor. We do have a couple of written public comments that we received. The first item is from Hightemp Aloy Aerospace which uh who submitted comments regarding the conditions and treatment of animals at the Downey um animal shelter. And the second public uh written public comment was sub sub was anonymous and it was a comment regarding terrorism in the US and the safety of minor children. The attachments to that to that email uh correspondence were removed for privacy purposes. And that is all mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Now, uh, members of the audience wishing to address the city council regarding, [clears throat] uh, open agenda items, uh, may come forward. And Alicia, if you can please, um, tell me how many speakers we have. Uh, yes, Mayor. We have, uh, 20 speakers. And can I just ask you a motion to receive? Oh, yes. I make a motion to receive and file. Can I get a second? Second. Okay, great. Order by the mayor. Um, based on the number of speakers, we will have two minutes per speaker. And could you please play the recording? Yes, mayor.

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. Thank you. And um city attorney Funk uh you you're going to address uh our audience. Uh I want to make sure uh the public knows this public comment uh period is for agenda and consent calendar items at this time. Um and once we have approved the business of the city, we will continue with non-aggenda public comment.

Thank you. Um those that wish to come forward and give us your public comment for consent and uh agenda items only. Speaker number one may come forward. Speaker number two. Speaker [clears throat] number three. Speaker number four. My name [clears throat] My name is Eduardo Sandoval. Uh good evening, mayor, fellow city council members. I hope you had a merry Christmas as well as a happy new year. Regrettably, I've I wanted to tell you about the incident that happened last year, how I was racially profiled by two of your officers,

and I would [clears throat] like to thank uh Vana de Rosa uh police chief and the previous I I apologize for interrupting. This particular public comment is for agenda items. We will come back for non-aggenda items after we conduct the business uh of the city. Perfectly fine. Thank you. Uh thank you. Thank you. Um those of you that uh wish to speak and have a purple uh number card and would like to speak on agenda and consent calendar items right now.

The blue. Thank you. If if any of you is here to speak on agenda and consent calendar items, you may come forward. Okay, seeing none, seeing none, we will I will entertain a motion in a second to clo close the public comment on agenda and consent. So moved. Second.

Okay. So, ordered by the mayor. Now, are there any um any colleagues uh wishing to abstain from any item on the agenda? No. Okay. I do want um to uh have an amendment, Alysia, and that is um Oh, actually that's the administrative report. Um never mind. We will hold that. Um I will make a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented. Second.

Please vote. The consent calendar is approved unanimously. Thank you. Now it's time for administrative report. Uh number eight is the appointments of city council members to intergovernmental agencies and council subcommittees for 2026. that the city council approve the city council appointments to the intergovernmental agencies and council subcommittees for 2026 and two ratify the appointment of mayor prom oris to act as alternate member of the boards of board of directors for county sanitation number two districts number two and 18 uh I do have an amendment on that um let's See, and also um to for MPT Ortiz to be the presiding officer's uh in the pres preciding officer's absence effective December 15, 2025. And number three, to terminate the affordable housing and tenants rights subcommittee, the homelessness subcommittee, and the charter review ad hoc committee um as that committee uh presented its uh report. City Manager Bradley, is there a staff report for item number eight?

Mayor, this item is uh for the council to discuss and approve the appointments of the council members to the intergovernmental agencies and council subcommittees for 2026. Uh as mentioned, we're recommending that you ratify the appointment of Mayor Prom uh to the uh sanitation district effective December 15, 2025. And then there are some committees that have reached the end of their ter of their their uh um mandate and are ready to be extinguished. And so we're recommending those uh items be terminated. That concludes staff's report.

Thank you. Thank you. And um Alysia uh as I said, I will do an amendment to the uh appointment of city council members and that was for the veteran subcommittee. Um I will not be serving on that. It'll be uh my council colleague Hector Sosa if that's all right. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Uh are there any questions, comments? If not, um, can I get a motion in a second to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Okay, please vote.

The motion is approve unanimously. Thank you. Now, coming back to um public comment, uh, I will go ahead and, um, have our members of the public that are here. Uh, the time will be two minutes and the cards I will be calling Alisia are purple cards. Madame Mayor, okay, I still have to uh finish my statement. Um, I will proceed with public comment. Um,

I would like to make my statement now as is customary that we speak before the public and I understand while I'm being censured and you keep moving items around and hope that the people will go home. So, I'm requesting to speak now and I'm going to speak. So, what I was saying was What I will say is before you you continue is we if there's any disruptions during this meeting as we have seen over the course of the last two hours I am going to have to ask the city attorney um to pause and we were going to have to take recess uh or we are going to have to call individually one by one uh the speakers um and I will have to clear the chambers. if this meeting is uh interrupted and if the public uh is also disruptive uh based on whatever comments you make.

Um yes, can you please clarify uh city attorney? And and just to provide um the legal authority for the mayor's comment um if a meeting of a city council is willfully interrupted by a group or a group of persons so as to render the orderly conduct of the meeting not possible or infeasible. Um an order can't be restored by individual removal. The legislative body or here the city council under these circumstances may order the room cleared except for the media present tonight. um and under those circumstances would then permit each member of the public seeking make a public comment to return to the chambers individually to make that comment. Now, this is a scenario that's allowed by the Brown Act when group or groups of persons disrupt city council meetings. Um it is permissible under the Brown Act with the approval of the legislative body. Again, the room can be cleared except for the media present tonight and individuals will then be permitted to return to chambers to make those comments on an individual basis. Um that the statutory authority um for this procedure is Brown Act section 54957.9. I just wanted to clarify that for the record. Hey, thank you uh city attorney Funk and also to clarify as the mayor of this city um any attack of a personal nature uh including on this DAS will not be tolerated and uh everybody is welcome to make a comment but any attack of a personal nature uh or inciting any type of attack will not be tolerated. Thank you. You may proceed.

I will not be censored. I will speak what I need to say because this mayor needs to be held accountable. You must continue to persist as a community and use your voice. We cannot normalize the terror that is being caused on our community. You must continue to vote and you must continue to hold politicians, elected officials like this mayor accountable. While we normally would never speak about our party affiliations because it's a nonpartisan body, I would take the time to speak the facts. Under the law, the truth is a defense to the facts. is a defense to any accusation about someone. And while the mayor believes that this may be personal attack, the facts are that a city council member, as a sitting council member for a city that's made up of 70% plus Latinos, she openly, and we've all seen the video, supported an individual who told us there would be mass deportations. But now she conveniently remembers that she's an immigrant. Let's hold her accountable. And this is why I want you to hold her accountable. She is the president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, a nonpartisan body that has access to Washington DC. So while we as a council may not be able to do much, I'm calling on our mayor to use her platform to not just simply give us law lip service, but to do something. Perhaps she could organize internally within her party that supported this individual that told us that they were going to come and deport mass people from our communities. Perhaps she can

access and ask for a meeting with the president who she supported. By the way, the flag that we all saw her draped then said, "Don't blame me. I voted for Trump." Well, with all due respect, you should be held accountable for supporting an individual who told you he was going to come into these communities and tear families apart. So, now that the camera is on, she conveniently gives you these little tidbits about how this is wrong. Well, let's see what she's going to do. Let's follow Nalle, a board that has been paralyzed because of the president that is our mayor today. Let's follow and see what she really does because she has the power that none of the rest of us have in this council to do something about it, to use her voice. Let's see if she really means the fact that she seems to be angry now when unmasked individuals are terrorizing our community. So, please continue to hold her accountable and she should take responsibility for the wrath of terror that come on this community. And I'm glad to see her finally speak up because we know the last mayor didn't do anything. So, it's so refreshing to finally get at least a mayor who's going on camera to talk about her experiences and agreeing with us that this is terrorizing our communities, that the actions by this federal administration through the department are unacceptable. So, let's continue to hold our politicians accountable. Use your voice and let's hope she uses her voice. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um, thank you for that. Um, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials as a nonpartisan body made up of partisan elected officials. Um, at the city level, I have always said our our streets, our sewers, and our lights are nonpartisan. Uh, we

are elected to these positions uh as nonpartisan. And I think um with any democracy there will be differences of view, differences of opinion. Um I do want to um highlight and underscore that under my presidency we have uh an executive board that is bipartisan. And in fact, um, just last week, we released a bipartisan statement also, um, calling on the administration to seize the these, uh, raids that are racially profiling individuals. And so the voice of the organization that represents 7,000 uh elected officials across the country, elected and appointed across the country, uh we are bipartisan. And I think what was just um what was just shown is precisely the ugliness that we are seeing across the country. Um we cannot uh utilize our platforms to point and condemn and vilify individuals. Uh what we can do is agree, agree to disagree and call wrongdoing that regardless of party affiliation. Um the statement, the bipartisan statement that we released in regards to the ICE raids, Council Member Trujillo, that was released last week. Um and we continue with our strategic planning and precisely this country and communities are being torn apart by statements such

as this. Um we are not here to hate on each other. We will always disagree and whichever party you sit in, we can debate all day long, but if we don't come together and look for the middle ground and agreement, this country is going to delve into civil war. And there are people such as myself that believe that while we may have voted for an individual, we do not support racial profiling of any kind. And I don't say this because the cameras are rolling. This is if you know me, if you know who I am, if you know my family, you know h where and how we stand. This is not about bringing division and pointing fingers uh in a local dis. This doesn't serve our community well and we can continue to fight and those of you that are critics um certainly I have one right here on the dis. Um whatever I say or not say will continue to be scrutinized and for that I can't do anything about it. I can't change your mind. Um, I believe the actions that municipalities take such as Downey and that is allocating funds for food banks, advocating and changing our legislative platform to say we do need immigration reform. The last time that was done was during the Reagan years. And there are people here uh they're DACA recipients that came here when they were children and it's not their fault. They were brought into this country and so it's we are human and we stand on the

side of humanity and again I can say many things and you may disagree with every single one of them and that's okay. I respect that. Um but do know that whatever platform I sit on, I am being a vocal advocate for our immigrant community. Um and I do it not by fingerpointing and um calling on for anger and violence against someone. I do it with um conversation. In the same way we released a very strong bipartisan statement, uh I will continue to do that. And with that, I will um I wanted to share uh earlier and I got distracted with everything that was happening. I am very happy to say and over the last um few years I've had the pleasure of working with my colleague um Hector Sosa on uh a very important uh ad hoc committee and that is the development of the Rancho South Campus and as you might have heard and maybe through our social media platforms [clears throat] uh the board of supervisors um in Los Angeles approved unanimously um that we enter into an agreement and that we develop a portion of the south uh branch of Los Amigos and it we don't do things single-handedly. Uh we don't do things by fighting with each other. We do things where by working together and um council member Sosa, thank [clears throat] you. Thank you for uh working uh together on this very great project. And um South Downey will be developed a portion of it and it will be it will change the face of South Downey for generations to come and that is something we've been working on for

several years and it's finally come to fruition and uh we're going to be moving forward with that. Um I will stop now. Thank you. Um I will stop now and uh resume to public comment and I will take speaker number one. I think he left already. Speaker 11, you said number two. Number one. Oh, number two. Excuse me. Oh, boy.

And again, thank you for your patience. I don't mean to make you wait. I just wanted to I I just wanted to get the business of the community ahead. So, now that we've done that, we can take the public comments. Speaker number two may come up. You have two minutes.

Hello, Madame Mayor. Um, the video we saw on those two landscapers from Saturday is horrifying. They were almost kidnapped even though they have legal status and documentation. The ICE agents still tried to force them into their car until the landscaper started protecting themselves and the neighbors came out. This isn't about immigration or even about carrying documentation. That's what we tried to tell you back in June when these raids first started. I spoke during that council meeting about my fear that my son, who is a minor without an ID, would get kidnapped by ICE. And there were two members of this council, including our new mayor, who told me to just take my son to the DMV to get him an ID. Problem solved, right? But an ID didn't save those landscapers. The only thing that's going to save us is community. I also want to be fair because I know you can't control the federal government. But the things you can't do, it's not going to be for the federal government. It's going to be for us, for the people. So, here's what I'm asking for. I appreciate the statement that was made on Saturday by the council. When the raids first started in June, it took days to hear from y'all. And that wasn't until after we protested. So, I'm glad there was a protest today to show that the public pressure is not going anywhere. But what I did like from that June statement was that it came with with the video. Um, and as we've heard about videos of yourself, not sure if you support the Brown community, why not make a video yourself to show yourself in a different light? I'd also like to hear from our Downey PD. We haven't heard a statement from them. And when we don't hear from them, then people create their own narratives. Are they with us or not? My last idea is to create a temporary coalition or group of representatives or something where the council and community volunteers can work to keep this community safe during an ice raid, after, and even if we know there's going

to be one. Um, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Vana, would you please uh give my card so we can connect after? Thank you. Speaker number two may come up. Speaker number three. Oh boy. Good evening, city council. Good evening, mayor. My name is Reverend Tanya Lopez, and I'm glad I could come before our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came back so that I could share some comments. [sighs and gasps]

I'm here because there was an ice raid that happened on our church property and the only person who came to see if we were okay was council member Mario Trujillo. Later I was able to meet with council member Oreos Ortiz and I have not been able to connect with any other members that was on national news. And so now when we are seeing ICE come back into this community I'm here. I'm saddened that there are not more faith leaders that choose to take a stand to stand for what our values truly are which is to be with the vulnerable and those that are being persecuted. You are right that you cannot hold the federal government accountable. But unfortunately, we do live in a world where we could see what other big cities are doing. And mayor Zoran Mandani in New York has shown us that it is possible for mayors of cities to listen to their constituents and make things happen. They are making child care affordable. You can choose to work with your community members to make this city safer. I think it would be good if we see agenda items on your agenda that show that you will start to discuss these things seriously that you will meet with members of the committee and not community not just business owners. You take a lot of pride in businesses and infrastructure take pride in the people protect them. We'd like to have the chief of police conduct independent investigations when we are seeing still mass masked vigilantes going out and harassing our community members. And we would also like to see that you would allow us to continue to develop trust. We do need a united front from the entire city council more than just words. I am here. I pray with [clears throat] you. I have come to lead invocations and I am asking you to actually show us that you care without just statements. So, we would also like to know that you will meet with cities uh with the businesses of our city and with other um areas that are being used for staging and ask them to not allow them to stage on properties like embassy suites and the local mall where we are hearing that they stage to conduct this ICE enforcement. You can do more. We

have seen that it is possible. Please do so. Thank you and God bless. Thank you. Um here is my card. Um, Alisia, if you can give that to them and you can call my office, I'll be happy to meet with you. Represent my district. I will. Thank you. Uh, speaker number four may come up, please.

Good evening. My name is Andrea and I have lived in Downey for 30 years and I have never been as scared as I am now. I have adult children which I am scared for them to leave the house, okay? Because what is happening right now is racial profiling and I mean we're Latino, right? So if they see my kids, who knows, driving down the street, jogging down the street, they could pull them over if they want to. And I want to tell you something that happened which is very disappointing to me last year when um this all started when we had all these unmarked cars un and masked ununiformed so-called ICE people you know harassing people on the street um which is we're really kidnapping people and I told my kids you know if somebody tries to do that you need to call 911 call the police because what do you do if somebody's trying to kidnap you that's what you do and these were not ICE people they were not dressed in uniform so one day me and my daughter were at Movita and I saw a police officer there and I said, "Hey, you know what? Why don't I ask him? What should I do? What can I advice can I give my adult children?" And I told him, "What would I what should I tell my kids if they get pulled over by an unmarked car or unmasked person, right?" And he said, "We need to cooperate with them." I said, "I'm sorry, but we do not cooperate with kidnappers. If there's somebody trying to kidnap me, I'm not going to cooperate with them. I don't know who they are." Well, we have unmar we have um ununiformed police officers is what he told me. That was so disappointing because I would have liked to hear something like, "Oh, it's going to be okay or maybe you could do this. Some advice of some sort." And that's what he told me. And my daughter was with me and I told her, I looked at her and I told her, "You know what? We're screwed." Because that's the answer he gave me. And he said, "Have a nice day." That was the answer I got from him. So, you know, we would like a little bit more support from our police department because right now I do not feel safe. I don't feel safe for my children and it's scary out there and we would like for you to please do something to keep this community safe. You were elected by the

people of the city and we expect you to do more for the city. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number five.

Uh yeah, good evening. My name is Julio Asabo. I'm a product of DUSD. I came here in uh I came to this country in 1991. I came in the trunk of a car and um not by choice obviously. My dad wanted to give us a better life. [clears throat]

A single dad with two small kids, my little sister in the trunk with me. We made it and we're here. So, I'm a product of this uh city. Not to brag, but um I'm a I'm a multi- I'm an entrepreneur. I've got se several businesses. I employ a lot of people, people that don't have documents. I'll admit that because we are short staffed and now you're trying to get rid of our people. Um so where I'm going with this is that uh I'm here because I'm supporting everybody who who did what my dad had to do to survive, to raise his kids. I'm a US citizen now. I'm an American. I've I've always loved this country. But when I see people who support our current president, it just tells me they're supporting the kidnappings. It tells me that they're supporting every little kid that gets snatched up and sent to Mexico. Even if they were American citizens, they go they go because they're they're they give them an ultimatum. you're going to go with your mom or your dad or you'll be in a foster home if you don't. You know, it's it's sad to see those kids. I could have been one of those kids. Instead, I'm here making our economy better. I made my own economy. I couldn't even go to college without a social security number. So, class of 99, Warren High School, no college degree, and I have several people under my payroll. I I love this city, so I want to see it grow. Thank you for standing up, man. Thank you for that.

Speaker number six may come up please.

Good evening. Good evening.

Uh my name is Doug Hammond. Uh I'm a senior at Downey High School and a resident of Downey. Uh, as a member of our community and a member of our youth, uh, one that you so adamantly emphasize as the future of our community, uh, I cannot continue to sit and watch as our city council fails. Uh, Mayor Fetta, we are tired of hearing about your efforts to send strongly worded letters to our state legislators. We are tired of you stating that there is simply nothing to be done to stop this violation of federal law and order. We are tired of your hypocrisy. The fact that you sit before us today in front of families who each have experienced the loss of an individual in our community to ICE is frankly unacceptable. Uh the fact that you were so quick to call a recess after council member Thrujill's words speaks to how brittle your defenses against responsibility. Like you said, this is no longer a partisan issue, but a human issue. But when will your actions reflect an effort to protect individuals in our community? We don't need your sympathy. We don't need to know that you hear us. We want our words and our tax dollars to reflect in the actions of this city council. How many more people must be taken before you feel a threat to your authority? How many more disruptions must be made to the council meetings before you realize that is not your political career at risk, but the lives of our community as a whole? I ask you may fora for the future of the minorities in our community for the future of the immigrants which are the foundation of our community for the future of the youth in this community and for the life of our city you must do more. Thank you.

Thank you. Speaker number seven may come up please. [clears throat]

Uh good evening everyone. Um, so [clears throat] throughout this meeting I heard that there's nothing that could be done that you can't protect the public. But, um, the sheriff of Philadelphia was, you know, telling them like, "Hey, ICE isn't welcome here. If you're breaking the law, we're going to get you." Couldn't our cops do that? Like, couldn't they protect us? I mean, what are they here for? They're here to stop criminals. They're breaking the laws. They're taking people without warrants. I mean, what good are they then if they're just not going to stop people actually hurting the community? That's their whole job is to serve and protect, but they're not doing that, man. I even see people run red lights and the cop is just there. It's like something needs to be done, you know? And there's a lack of community here, too. And and empty promises from from you guys. I I remember years ago The reason why I first started speaking at these meetings is cuz I was excited for a community garden. You remember where is it? [laughter] There's like there's a lack of clubs for all ages. I feel like it's mostly focusing on seniors and youth, which is great, but like something to bring us all together more often. I would like that. And I don't want any more empty promises. Things need to be done. we can create like community groups that can help maybe patrol our you know neighborhoods cuz the cops are obviously aren't doing it and I would like to work with the community because clearly you guys haven't and I'm tired of it. We're all tired of it. Okay. Gosh, I'm so mad. I want to cry and it's like please do something. You guys have the power to help the city. Do something with it. Is that not why you guys were elected? I

don't know how you got elected again to be honest. I don't remember a ballot, but you know, I'm all like, there's nothing I could do about it. Thank you for that. Um, City Manager Bradley, would you please address um I think this is this is a question that we will continue to hear and and we've heard it um perhaps you and then city attorney uh federally [clears throat] and regarding these uh raids. Can you tell the audience and on the record uh the reason why our police chief and department do not get involved? So we cannot uh legally help uh or hinder uh the enforcement actions that are going on and being conducted by us within our city. It's an obstruction of justice. It's something that we legally cannot uh be involved in. So

what happens if we do what happens if our police department um interferes? Well, it's obstruction of justice and our people could be charged with a crime. Thank you. Um city attorney. Oh, I would just echo that the city manager is correct. Um, as a matter of law, um, what he describes is prohibited by both state and federal law. Thank you. Um, looks did I call speaker number seven? Yes. Okay. Um, it looks like uh speaker number eight left the meeting. Speaker number nine.

[clears throat] Speaker number nine. Okay. Speaker number 10. I'm sorry. I'm nine. I'm 10. Okay.

Um, good evening everyone. I'm Joanna Fernandez and I live here and I'm just really sad and disgusted. I am glad to hear this 180 because I feel like this is a different response than the last time because last time we had to have a meeting to have a meeting to have a vote of if we're going to do a letter and now at least everybody nodded their head when we talked about a letter. So, I'm happy to hear that. Um, and I just really want you all to understand that it's weird hearing that now. It sounds like maybe we want to do something. I don't know what changed. I don't know if it's oh well these guys had a green card so maybe now we need a care. I I don't know what's different. I don't know if Thank God Victor recorded it in a way that okay now we have to look at I don't know what it is. But whatever that is keep that please. Please keep that so that when you go back and you talk to other people in the community or your friends who are going to get mad at you for god forbid saying you're going to write a letter. I really, really, really hope that you can remind them that these are people and that if if they could just look at it from a perspective of th if those two men were white, how much differently would you all have reacted? If they were two women shirts being torn and thrown in the car, how would y'all have reacted if it was your adult son, your husband? Cuz nobody cares that they had any paperwork. Nobody cares that they had a card. Nobody cared. That's what we want you to do. When you say our hands are tied and we don't know what to do, I can believe that it was somebody in in your Christmas list. We'd know what to do. We'd react differently. That's what we want. That's what we want. That's what we are asking for to

care like it was one of your people because when you run it is your people. We are scared. To me, it reminded me I've witnessed a gang murder and seeing that that's what that reminded me of that you don't know what's going on. Kidnappers, bounty hunters, we don't know. Speaker number 10. My name is Ricardo Kinones. Uh I'm not a resident of this city. I just work here. I found it. Um Mr. Ortiz, thank you. Your family gave me an employment for a long time. Not currently. But um moving on, a lot of my peers in this audience uh touched on some points that I was going to say. So you already know why I'm here. Um it was a little disturbing coming out of a you know a 10-hour shift of feeding the fine people of this city to see that video and you know luckily some people upstanding citizens of this uh city did something and I think that's really what it comes down to. I know um what uh the city manager and city attorney just said. Uh I would like to remind you that you all took oaths, I assume, to uphold the constitution, which is actually the supreme law of the land. If in case you needed to be reminded, uh the fourth amendment, you know, it's clearly stated, you know, not just anybody can walk up to somebody and, you know, be like, "Hey, stop." without probable cause. Um, police chief, uh, you swore an oath, too. You may say your hands are tied, but, um, first amendment, you know, you got the right to say whatever you want. It's not necessarily obstruction of justice. Um, like I said, I don't live here and I've been moved by the words of some of

the people in this uh, audience that, um, they just want you to do something. you know, words can only go so far, but you know, a bit of stronger words, you know, like other, you know, police agencies in this uh country and across other cities of this nation have done. So, it' be a little nice. I don't think it's that much to ask. I mean, we're not asking you to like put yourself in between an ice age agent cuz clearly you won't. I would, but um please just do something. Serve your people. they elected you. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Um speaker number 11 may come up.

Before the next speaker speaks, I just want to recognize Victor Koreah. Victor Koreah is a Downey guy. Um and today he's a local hometown hero. So, let's give a a round of applause for Victor Cor. [applause] Thank you, Victor. Go Vikings. Thank you, Mario.

I um as you may have seen the video, I apologize for all the cursing. Um [laughter] I was pointed a a weapon at me on Saturday by federal agents. [sighs] It's something that's going to stick with me for a long time. Um, and Mario Trillo was one of the first ones to really reach out to me. So, thank you. And, um, the one thing that I want to say is that Trump and his thug ICE members, they're bullies. And what do bullies do? Bullies pick on the weak. I'm not weak. and neither is most of the city of Downey. So, what you should do, I'm not going to tell you you guys should do something. This is what you should do is you should teach your constituents how to be strong. You should teach them to do what I did. Teach them to be active witnesses. Teach them to record. Teach them to ask questions. And the police, you guys should show up and watch. you guys can't do anything either, but you should be active witnesses. Now, a police officer came to my house and took a report. He was wonderful. Um, first initial M, last name Lee. Wonderful. He did a great job in taking my report. And I love the city of Downey and I love the police. I love this city. I've lived here my whole life. I need more time. I'm not going to I'm not going to get off this mic until I'm done.

[sighs]

So, what you guys need to do as a city is teach us how to be strong legally. And then that way thugs don't pick on the weak. Now, I've done more in one day than most of you council members will have done in your whole term. You have the choice to change that. 30 years from now, what side of history do you want to be on? Thank you. Thank you, VICTOR. [applause] [clears throat]

Good evening, council members. My name is Jennifer Alvarez, and I am a 26-year veteran educator here in Downey. and I see firsthand the damage that these ICE raids have done to our community, especially to our young children who live in constant fear that their parents will be taken from them. I want to thank Councilman Trujillo for being the only council member tonight who stood with us and protested for those whose voices have been silenced by fear. Silence is compliance and your actions show where you stand. I'm here because once again, ICE raided our streets. Once again, families in Downey were terrified. Parents feared going to work. Children feared coming home to empty houses. And once again, we were told by the mayor there is nothing the city can do. That is not true. Mayor Foretta, your record shows not an inability to act, but a refusal. Last July, when this council discussed increasing f funding for food bank resources relied on by immigrant and mixed status families, you refused meaningful funding and reduced it to just $15,000 split among three organizations. Since then, there has been no follow-up, no outreach, no report back to this council. Months passed and now here we are again, another ICE raid and more families [snorts] in crisis. This is why the comm community this is why the community sees this leadership as anti-immigrant. When you underfund food banks and refuse to support continued legal aid or outreach, you deny families the tools they need to survive. Let's be clear, Downey can act. Downey can fund food banks and emergency assistance now. Downey can invest in immigration legal defense. Downey can provide know your rights continuing education. Downey can limit cooperation with ICE to what the law requires. And Downey can speak up instead of staying silent. A city of families cannot abandon families. This community cannot afford more delay. You so power grabbed that third round of mayorship when it

wasn't your turn. Now do something with it. We don't need a photo op mayor. Thank you. Thank you for that. Can I get speaker number 15? Looks like uh speaker number 14 left the meeting. Can I get speaker number 15? [snorts]

Good evening. Good evening everybody. It's now almost 9:00, so maybe it's good night. Um, I hear a lot of people barking and pointing and saying to our um, distinguished people in front of us, you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that, you need to do this. And I think that it's kind of a hard pill to swallow is that every person needs to take self- responsibility for ourselves. Um it's not up to you to to do something for somebody that isn't willing to do it for themselves. Um I if I or somebody that I cared about that I loved was an illegal alien which I haven't or illegal cit um let's say um no let's say okay do undocumented that's fine okay uh uh sorry well I'll give I'll say undocumented um [gasps] um person I think it's important no one has really made a difference between being an immigrant does the word immigrants been used and for us to really make a change we need to understand that that there there is a difference um if I was somebody who if I was undocumented or somebody in my family was and I know that the city of Downey says you know come look at our look at what we have to offer come look at what the city of Downey would know your rights so I look at the the what it says and a lot This stuff is for afterwards. After where can I find my person? How do I know? And I think something that is a tool that really should be expressed for everybody is the CBP home app because there are some incentives for somebody that can

really be helpful if you were to be stopped by an ICE agent and if you've already registered on the CBP home app, you would pretty much be protected. And I encourage everyone to look to see what it is and what how there's a lot of incentives for people and you can really be helped if you use the CBP home app. Thank you for that. Speaker number 15 16. Now good evening council members. Good evening.

I came here tonight to offer some unsolicited advice to Mayor Claudia Foretta. I urge you, Mayor Promeda, to follow the lead of Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey, who said the six words to ICE, get the f out of Minneapolis. Of course, you'd say, get the f out of Dowy. It will gain you instant notoriety. Especially if you say it from the DAS. I have to admit, I've never heard of Jacob Frey until he said that. and he's been mayor of Minneapolis for six years. So if you say that, that would that would certainly get you notoriety and should I say much more notoriety than Jacob Frey. Jacob Frey is a Democrat. So of course he'd be expected to say that. If you said that as a MAGA Republican, you would definitely make headlines all over the world. Donald Trump would pay attention. That's my advice to you.

Thank you. Looks like uh speaker 17 has left the meeting. We've got speaker number 18. Good evening.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, council members, Mr. Bradley, and staff. And I'm going to add another group that the gentleman said earlier, the respectful public. I want to talk a little bit about the situation. I'm going to repeat some things. So, I'll be very, very brief. We are governed in this country by laws. Whether or not we like the laws or not, we are subject to that. If I violate a law and I get caught, there's consequences I have to pay for. Now, with regards to what's happening here, two things I want to talk about. Number one is the fact that people talk about things, they use their rhetoric. They can use it in a respectful manner or they can use their rhetoric to increase the problems of what's happening. The rhetoric to to meet or to come together and meet something has to be toned down if at all possible. The other point I want to make is the fact that we we are governed because of our actions. people that are, pardon me, if there's an incident that happens, basically what we should do is look for an investigation of the facts and then [clears throat] at that time make a decision as to what happened. to [clears throat] make decisions. I hear a lot of things on TV and respectfully some of the things that are said here tonight are said without some facts and therefore they create to a problem. Madame Mayor, this ends my comments.

Thank you.

Speaker number 19 may come up. [clears throat] Good evening. I have some notes here. Good evening. No, I'm kidding. Um, sorry, my failed attempt to break the ice. Pun intended. Um, but there's a couple of things that stood out here um to me. Um, number one, the statement you continuously keep on mentioning and seems to be the phrase there is nothing that you can do. [snorts] I'm sure that there is a lot more that you can do. Uh, you majored in communication, right? You have um experience in disaster relief which you and emergencies which you displays today by trying to silence Mario and that was a failed attempt. Um, and not only that, but your statements, we're tired of them. They had to beg you basically to write a statement. This time the statement again was fluff. That's sad. Um, Hector mentioned that the agents, if we could call them agents, have gone rogue. That to me is an emergency. When somebody is coming into your city, violating the rights of your community members, your residents, your citizens, and is kidnapping them off of the streets, but it's not an emergency. I'm sure you have an emergency broadcast system. Why not share that news with the city of Downey? Hey, there's ice raids. Why could there be panic amongst the citizens? Absolutely. But is there not already panic and fear like you yourself mentioned already because of what is happening? And yes, I look over at the clock cuz I have so much more to say, but I know I will not be allowed to say it. And that is okay cuz the rest of the

community is speaking up. The only thing I disagree with, Victor, is they didn't pray on the weak because you were strong and you are part of the community. So, thank you, Victor, for what you did. And to you, Mario, thank you for stepping up and stepping in when you had to. For you, Claudia, I suggest you step down and step out. Enjoy your term BECAUSE THIS WILL REFLECT in the polls the next time. Thank you for that.

Uh, speaker number 20 may come up. [clears throat] Hello. Um I'm I come here as a teacher over 20 years. Um and I know many of you are sitting up there excluding um Mario um expressionless and that should really break the city of Downy's hearts because I work with children every day including immigrants and non-immigrants and even children that are non-immigrants. I mean children that are yeah friends with non with children that are immigrants they are also losing out and the whole meeting most of you our councils from Downey has been sitting here like expressionless and so it's not going to even it doesn't even seem like it matters what everybody here has to say and yes there is a video you made a comment but that's still not enough a comment is not enough and to piggyback off of what Victor said you are standing on the wrong side of history. And you know what? Your future generations from your families that are standing on the wrong side of history will be ashamed once history is being written in the future. And the only one and I appreciate Mario for facing these people expressionless like it seems like no feelings when people are getting hurt. Families are being torn apart and you can hide behind the Bible and have somebody come and pray. That is not what God wants because God does want families to be together. He doesn't want people to suffer and he w Jesus was an immigrant and I thank you Mario for facing these people every day and speaking up for us.

Thank you for that. Speaker number 20

speaker number 21. [clears throat] Hello. Uh, my name is Michelle Fina. I'm a resident of Downey and I work here in the city of Downey. Um, I [clears throat] just want to say to everyone in the community who's listening that the world has been watching a genocide unfolding on the other side of the world for over two years. And though people in this council and many others in the community probably think that has nothing to do with us, the fact that our tax dollars are paying for the weapons that are used to kill families every single day, um not just for the last two years, but for decades at the hands of the Israeli military. Um you probably didn't realize how connected that is to what's going on now. Many of us are not surprised by what's going on right now. Um, we've been trying to warn the world that if you don't do anything to stop what's happening, if you continue to allow it to happen, which is what we're doing by doing nothing, that it's going to reach us. The same behavior where they think they can just come up to somebody and um, if they don't get complete compliance, that means that they have the right to execute that person. That is what's done every single day in Israel/Palestine. And we saw it happen um, you know, a few days ago or last week. And not only are we disgusted by what happened in Minneapolis, but even more so by the reaction to what our president said, what the Homeland Security director said, um, and what many people are, you know, in social media defending, trying to blame the person who was executed just because she was not 100% compliant in that moment. It was very obvious that that officer was enraged by someone not listening to him. and that's what happened. And don't tell us not to believe our eyes and just see the connection here between what's going on

now in our community. And um I'm glad people are waking up and I hope to see this council do something about it. Thank you. Thank you for that. Speaker number 212.

You're 20. 22, please. Good evening. My name is Jessica Korea. I am the wife of Victor Korea. And I will be honest with you, it is a privilege to turn your eye away from what is happening until it falls in your doorstep. And that is exactly what happened to me. And honestly, that is what you should be thinking because this has fallen on your doorstep. History repeats itself. We don't want to wait 20 years to see what happens. What is happening now can escalate. We could be the next Minneapolis. If my husband can go viral in 48 hours, the faces of all of you can do so much more. What we teach our children, whatever you're going to do, study, use your resources. You all have much more resources than we do. So I am standing here calling you that this threat has fallen on our doorstep and we can no longer turn away. Use your resources, use your platforms. Social media can be used to divide like you said, but it could also be used to unite. I do not want to hear anymore about what you cannot do and for you to call on people who are sitting behind behind you to support you. Yes, we cannot do anything. I want to hear more about what you can do. I do want to commend your officer, M. Lee. He was a fountain of education as to what the police can and cannot do. Why can't we get more of that? Why can't we get faces from our community to tell us what we can do and what we can do to keep this city beautiful? I am not from here. But what drew me to this place is how everybody is such a community and loves each other and that is being

destroyed. So please, I want to hear more about what you can do because my daughter was in the car when my husband was facing ICE. She is 19 months. That should not happen in a place like Downey. It truly shouldn't happen anywhere, but definitely not here. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker [clears throat] number 23.

Hi, good evening. Good evening.

I'm a little bit nervous. I wasn't really um planning to speak. My name is Elizabeth. Um I have met a few council members um in the last few years that I've lived here in Downey and I do want to recognize uh council member Thrujillo and council member Ortiz. I genuinely think that they do have in their hearts um the love for this city and for the greater good of the Latino community. Um, I have had the chance to take pictures with them at our summer concerts and my daughter has also taken pictures with them. Um, but I am very disappointed with some of the council members, especially from my district. I have welcomed Fmenta to my house at one of our um, neighborhood watch meetings. I wasn't expecting for you to be there and I am a little bit disappointed of how you have not handled this whole situation with the raids activities. I have been here at our city council meetings and I have brought my daughter so she can hear it for herself. She's only seven and she's already drawing her conclusions of what it means to be a a leader. Um, I just wish we can do more. I know there's neighboring cities that have done way more than what we have done. Um, I'm not going to repeat everything that people have said here today and other, you know, other um, meetings. I do want to request that when we email you, please respond. There's emails that we have I have sent to you personally and I have not received any feedback. I have left messages with the city regarding the raids and I haven't heard anything. I feel like this is your way of only

listening to a few people and not the greater community of Downey. Um I do request that maybe on days where we do see ICE activity, we should probably have more police activity on our streets. Um maybe that's the least that we can do. Thank you. Um and Alisia, do you have uh my card and you may want to give I don't need your card. Thank you. I just need you to do something.

I I don't recall uh a neighborhood watch meeting that I was invited. I think we we try to attend uh as many as we can. Um and thank you for that. Uh speaker number 25. Oh, 24. Hello neighbors. Hello city council. Um, a few things. Um, I we've all heard that you keep saying you can't do anything. You legally cannot do anything. I hear it. Um, but I think I I agree with one of our speakers tonight where he said, "Hey, a simple get the f out of Downey would suffice for a lot of us. I know it would for me hearing it from you, mayor." Uh, two, um, thank you, Council Member Thrujillo. you're the only seems to be the only one that has some balls around here. So, thank you again. Um three, uh it's pretty obvious that our neighbors have a lot to say on this subject. Um so, I am respectfully asking for my council to agendaize a town hall meeting to um only [clears throat] to dedicate to this um to this subject. Um one of the parks would be great. Um, so I I I hope to hear more about that. [snorts] Um, four, I would also like to respectfully ask that our council use our tax money to recognize Mr. Victor Korea with some sort of plaque, certificate, some sort of ceremony. Um, and five, if I can please direct this to my neighbors. Um, some of some of us saw all of this coming back in 2016. Um, nobody is going to come to save you if you voted for this or if you did not vote or if you didn't call out your

primo at the car. This is your time to redeem yourself. Don't stop. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Speaker number 25. Thank you folks for having us. Um I just want to for the record point that the last time ICE attacked Downey comments were also limited to two minutes. They've been limited to two minutes today. And when there was a meeting related to censuring council member Thujillo, those there was way more people and it was still kept at three minutes. I think it's important to look at your actions, not the rhetoric as folks have pointed out. This is also um important because we've heard a lot of rhetoric. I want to encourage us not to be swayed by rhetoric by but by actions. Today alone, the mayor has um tried to make the case that the audience has been unruly to eventually shut shut it down. has attempted to censor a city council member who happened to disagree with her, has threatened to clear the room, and moved items around to discourage public comment. So, Miss Frometa, your behavior today is consistent with your prior behavior, which is poor in opposition to your constituents, defensive, and very Trumpian. Um, while I appreciate the list of what you can't do, as other folks had mentioned, I would have appreciated a list of what you can and will do. Similarly, you claim to be nonpartisan, but your decisions, in this case, your strong support of the current president, gives us, as your constituents, insight into your judgment. So, you can't say that you're against racial profiling and then elected support a president who loves racial profiling. You can't say you're about comprehensive immigration reform when you select and support a president who openly blocked comprehensive immigration um reform that was bipartisan. Not looking at words, I'm looking at actions. So now that all that being said, I am here to support if you all are interested in actually doing something. Some folks have mentioned these in the past. You could open a commission on immigrant affairs here in Downey, right?

You can you can make sure that there's no staging on city property. You can use your prominent position in NALO, which is supposed to advocate for the best interest of Latino constituents. It's that's the point. That's the job. And you could use that platform responsibly. And finally, you, Miss Frometa, you in particular like to mention that we're a country and a nation and a city of laws. One of those laws requires you to open up your social media to comment from your constituents, and you don't for several months. Thank you. Thank you for that. Speaker number 26. Good evening. Good evening.

I wasn't going to speak, but I ask that you give me grace. I am a product of a dictatorship. I come from Cuba. I've been in this country legally for 55 years. So, this is my country. [clears throat] This is my city. It shames me that you are supporting a dictatorship that they're taking away our civil rights and you're just letting it happen. Have some compassion for your people that voted you in and do something. Speak your voice. We gave you that access for you to do it and you're not doing anything. Why are you letting us be hurt? I've never ever been afraid in the United States and I'm afraid to go out because of the way that I look. What are you doing about it? You're not doing anything. You're just pacifying me with words. That's not how we function in the United States. I have civil rights. We have a constitution. You can say please don't come here. You're not welcome. So please, I ask on behalf of me and your immigrant family and all our immigrants, do something, say something with actions, not with words. Thank you.

Thank you. Speaker number 27.

Hi guys. I was not going to speak so I'm like super shaky and I'm nervous. But first of all guys, we are not the immigrants. Okay, our term is indigenous. We are Native Americans. Okay, we are Native Americans. We never left. We've been here. The ones who came across here, they came in boats. They came in airplanes. We've been here. So, this is our land. Okay? They took it away from us. We know how it is. We've read our history books. They taught it to us 1492. Who were the really illegal immigrants? Okay. Genocide happened in 1492 and it happened with Arasa, our Mexicans. Okay? And now we are seeing it with our own eyes. By the way, Jesus was born in Palestine and he also had to leave is they had to leave because they were getting persecuted. So right now we all got to pay attention because it involves all of us. It's not about who's right or who's wrong. It's about what is evil and what is what is evil and what is good. And us as a community, Mexicans and I don't know maybe 2023 97 billion. Okay? We contributed to this country. We make we make America running. We keep America running. So listen you guys please. We are we can boycott. We can crash the market. It just takes 5 days, y'all. Do not stay stagnant. Don't go to the gas station. Don't buy nothing. Stay stagnant for five solid days. I promise you the book the market will crash out. If you do not touch one the $1 for five days, guys, we could do that. We have food at our homes. Stop spending outside. Support small businesses. Stop supporting this corporate cuz they're funding Israel. Guess what? Israel now we Trump I don't know what connection he has to Israel. All the pedophiles obviously they're connected to the Epson files. That's the reason why they're doing all this to distract us. We got to start think our teachers. By the way, Downey, I'm resident here. I was born here. I wrote school record in 2009 for track and field. I was very intelligent. And honestly, I had the

best teachers and coaches we have. And they they underpaid, man. We're we're paying only fans, whatever weirdos out there. And guess what is Guess who's running it? Corporates. Support small businesses. Come together, y'all. Thank you for that. Outside the box. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Speaker number 28.

Good evening. Good evening.

Um my respect to the police department. I commend you guys. You guys have been great here in Downey. I've been here 30 years and I want to thank you guys. You've done a great job. My hand goes up to you guys because you haven't let anybody really take advantage of us in the year 30 years that I've been here. But now we see our city down California that we live in, American citizens seeing people being mistreated because they don't have legalization. The law was that if you don't break the law, you're not going to have any problems. But now we have immigrants who don't have papers and we're not judging people and we're not prejudice and we're American citizens, Mexican-American citizens that stand up for our rights and believe that we should have justice for all people and not just the Anglo, not just the blacks, but for all Americans. And it's sad when we have prejudice people still not doing anything about what's taking place. still looking at it like it's I didn't see it happen. And we know it's happening. We know it's happening. So, we need to stand up. Our Anglo brothers, our Anglo brothers, police officers, the majority of Downey needs to stand up and say, "Hey, we don't win at this anymore. We don't want to tolerate civil rights being broken, people being beaten up, people even being killed." But it's okay because the justice, you say there's justice, where is our justice? Where is the justice today? A Supreme Court backs up Trump. We got to because he voted them in. I mean, we voted you guys in. So, we wanted to ask you guys, please stand up and do something for us. Speak

up and speak the truth, not lies and deceit, but stand up for the truth. That's what America stands up for. and they're willing to fight the brave to even die for our country. God bless [clears throat] you. Thank you. Speaker number 29. [clears throat and cough] I just wanted to come up here and say that everyone here behind me is here because we're scared. [clears throat] And I'm scared because I wouldn't know where to go to Mexico. My parents come from Mexico, but we don't have any.

Can you put the microphone a little low so we can hear you? I think it's off. Can we just give a minute and pause the time? The battery died. Okay. [snorts]

[clears throat]

Like I was saying, I think we're all just scared people behind me as I cuz I wouldn't know where to go if I was sent to Mexico. Like my family doesn't have ties over there anymore. And I know like you guys are scared too of all the immigrants coming because you guys wouldn't know where to go if you were sent to Germany, Russia, wherever your ties long, long ago came from. So, I just want you guys to understand it's all fear and maybe some of us are annoying because we're not educated, but I I'm not afraid because I know when I die, I'm going to heaven. And I just want to remind everybody that and also remind you that you guys aren't part of the 1%. So, that's scary, too. Thank you. Thank you for that. Uh, speaker number 30 may come up. [snorts]

Hi, my name is Janette Duran, a resident of 26 years. I know sometimes in your positions it's not always very easy, but you chose a career. You swore to the Bible, to the Constitution, to do your job, diligent, and to help everyone. You're here to help protect us. I have a brother who's an officer, too. But you swore to do your job, abide by the Constitution and every law. What bothers me is what happened to me. What I witnessed on Saturday shortly before what happened to this gentleman. I was walking on Wyberg. I was walking my dog on Wyber Burke and Cherokee on the entrance of Ferman Park where I was allowing this vehicle to cross by. But what was it? It was ICE agents running and chasing a gentleman. I was shocked to my core. I couldn't believe it. So I went to see the neighbors because we were all shocked. And next thing you know, they get off and they're trying to go into this empty house because they're doing they're fixing it inside. And I'm thinking, wow. The guy gets off and tries to go into the house and I'm recording him and I'm saying, "Hey, that's private property." So, of course, he starts walking on the sidewalk to avoid going in. And I was appalled. I'm like, "How is this happening in front of me?" I was shaking. And I was like, "How is this happening in Downey?" And shortly after I see the video of this gentleman being recorded, I was like, "Wow, this is happening everywhere in Downey." And then I saw that council member Trill posted something and then the city of Downey. I was like, "Wow, this is happening within the city." And I'm just saddened to know that this is happening in our city. We're here to protect each other, serve and protect. And I get it. Sometimes it's always hard

to be criticized and to do a job, but you chose your job. You swore to the Constitution onto a Bible held probably by your spouse. Thank you. Thank you for that. Speaker number 31. [clears throat] [cough]

Good evening everyone. Good evening. I'm also a little bit nervous. This is the first time I speak in quite a while. Um but I come as a mother who is scared. I'm scared for my family. I'm scared for my children. Scared for my spouse. Um because as we've seen in in in the um in the social media on TV, you know, these individuals that are coming into our community, they are we do not know if they're official. We do not know if they're just bounty hunters, if they're just individuals who are just

do not like immigrants. They're masked and they have no credentials and we don't. So I think for me I do think that the the police has a responsibility to protect and serve their community and I want them there to to do that in the way that um allows us to to not have that fear but also I want to say you know I think there's something unique about our city that we have our own fire state you know we have our own fire department we have our own police department and so how can we not be able to use that to our advantage to really protect the way that potentially some other cities cannot. And so I I also say that as a as an employee of the UC system and as an employee of the UC system, as soon as this began to occur, the UC system started having a website. They have tons of lawyers, tons of lawyers. So I know that there is more that we can do. And you know, we have been given guides on on what to do if ICE comes. We have been told specifically that they will not work with immigration um with immigration officers. Um and again they have lawyers so they must be doing something right. Um they're also uh able to um to share that uh will the university notify the campus community if immigration enforcement occurs on campus? Um yes yes they will. So you can too. If the UC system can do it, you can too. and the UC system. You know, some of our universities are very they're very small. They're a lot smaller than Downey. So, I do encourage you to please look at like there's resources out there. If I did it by just checking on the internet and by having my employee provide me with that. Your time is up.

You can. Thank you. Thank you. Um do we have any more speakers? That was speaker number 31. Uh with that, I will entertain a motion to close public comment. So, moved. Second.

Okay. So, ordered by the mayor. Um, I I do want to um and and I don't want to put uh our our chief of police on the spot. Um, but a couple of things uh well before I get to that, there was two uh workshops. There was we allocated funding for four workshops uh for legal um information and two workshops have taken place. Two more are underway. Uh what I would like to do is allocate additional funding for more workshops uh to take place and uh to inform and educate our community. Um know your rights. I'll second that motion.

Thank Thank you. Um

thank you. You can bring back uh we'll have to agendaize that. Um but also going back to um with with our police department, I think the the fear as we know is how do we know these individuals are actually ICE and and without without interfering without getting involved? Is there any any thing our police department can do to verify that these individuals are are actually enforcing uh federal law or or are copycats because I think it's I hate for my community for this community to continue to feel um terrorized and and feel that they can't do anything about it. And again, uh we're not asking you to interfere. Uh I think video recording um and being active in that way is the best way to to do. Um I said that during my interview with uh CBS2 on Saturday um after we were alerted through the social media platforms that that had occurred. Um, so I again I I don't want to put you on the spot, Chief, but what what can be done to at least provide some uh reassurance to the community that in in any case, we know our police department is there to defend um any defend us and protect us from any illegal activity. But how do we know these individuals are actually carrying out what they're supposed to be carrying out and not copycats? Yeah, I just say everything's a it's extremely difficult situation kind of I think the city manager had mentioned it's putting law enforcement in a bad position for whether it's local, state, federal. Uh I'll just give you an example though. We will respond out there if we're getting called out there. We got called out first on Saturday was over to Home Depot uh on an alleged kidnapping on that situation. So when we responded out

there, we got out there, there was nobody on scene. um officers contacted security kind of verified kind of what we expected that you know ICE had pulled up in some vehicles and had left the location. Then the second location they're indicating we started seeing some of the social media things like that. Uh the videos on that we I don't and I shouldn't say cuz I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure we didn't receive any kind of phone call for assist at that point. We did respond out there later when we got a call from Mr. Koreah. Um but it is a difficult situation. And if we are called out there, we're do everything we can to assure the the people that uh who's out there is actually who they say they are. Um but I think it is very important for us to say that, you know, when we're talking about following the laws, we also have to follow the federal laws as well. It's a difficult situation for us. No, no law enforcement uh agency and, you know, immediately talking to my my other chiefs from surrounding cities, we're all dealing with the same type of thing. And it's difficult because I don't agree with the tactics that they're using. Um, and I think that's what's been shared by a lot of people and it's tough for us because they're following federal laws and they have they they go by different set of laws and rules that I can't enforce on them. Uh, you know, I've been asked about the masks and everything like that. Um, I've responded some people on that and emails and that's all being legislated right now and I believe tomorrow is the next time they're going to be talking about that. So we as police officers, we hope something gets resolved to where we know exactly where we stand and if what whatever actions we're taking falls within law so we don't get ourselves or the city in trouble for that matter by taking any kind of actions. Th

Thank you, Chief. Um any any colleagues? Again, I I know this item is not on the agenda, but given the amount of public comment we had tonight, uh I I wanted to make sure that we addressed those issues. Um Council Member uh Mayor Proa Mortis.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I I do want to mention that uh what we heard uh I just do want to do take this opportunity uh and I'm sure I won't be the first nor the last to say that uh with great confidence I do support our police department. Uh you're doing amazing job. I know you guys are put in a very very difficult position. Uh but I will say that we have the most professional and officers that really care for our community. Uh if you go to any single event that we have in our city, they're the first ones there. They're ones carrying uh the kids to the the motorcades and showing them the SWAT cards and doing it very community- based officers and they will always be there to answer any questions and act when they'll be there. Um I do want to take this time also uh to emphasize um what I've always emphasized here in the dis that um I think it's very important that we all have unity and mutual respect amongst each other. I think I think this council has done amazing things and if we are united we can continue to deliver for our community and that's with understanding of lowering tensions, seeking understanding and finding common ground. So I I I just want to take this time. We hear you. We understand the the fear and frustrations. My my dad has 11 brothers. My grandma gave up after the 11th one and said she's not going to get a daughter. Uh but um we are all fearful of what's going on in our communities and so um I I just want to say that we hear you uh and and this council is uh going to take major steps forward to really ensure that the safety of our community is first and the priority of our uh of this council. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Um the city meeting is now adjourned. uh in memory. May I I know we have um three people that we're journeying in the memory of. Can I add that we adjourn in memory of Renee Good who was shot by US immigration enforcement officers fatally shot on January tw January 7, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota police.

This city council meeting is now adjourned. Uh the time is 9:31 and it's in memory of William Alaron 78, former council member of the city of Rosemade. James Helms, uh, 100, former mayor for the city of Arcadia. Mity Ortiz, 45, Alisio Vjo, city manager, who also served as Alicia Vjo city clerk between 2014 and 2024. And Judy McDonald, 86, who worked for the city of Downey for 30 years and retired in 2001 as a Downey city clerk. A moment of silence, please. and and Renee Good uh who lost her life. This meeting is adjourned. It is now 9:32.

Thank you everyone.