City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the regular city council meeting for the city of Temple City on June 16th, 2026 to order. Time is 7.06. May we have a roll call, please?

Council Member Chavez? Here. Council Member Sternquist? Here. Council Member Yu?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Here. Mayor Mann?

Here. First, for our invocation, we are pleased to have our dear friend, Pastor Kelty of Community of Christ Church, who will be providing the invocation. They are located at 5851 Temple City Boulevard. Services are on Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. and all are welcome. So please rise for the invocation and please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance afterwards, which will be led by Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

Pastor. Our divine creator, we thank you for this world that you have created. We thank you for this beautiful but hot day and for the light it provides to all of us. We thank you that we're able to live in this community and enjoy the benefits that come with it, that it has to offer us. We come into your presence in prayer this evening to ask your blessings upon all that we do and about all we do share. this evening so that we might continue to share the blessings that you have provided to us day in and day out. We remember especially the city's council and their staff. They may have your wisdom be with them as they seek to do those things that would make this an even better community. We know not what the future may bring, but would ask, dear Creator, that in all we do and all we say and all we are, that indeed we might make this a better community for the future generations, so that the generations may look back upon us and say, we are proud. That when we look to the future, when we do something more hopeful, anticipation, that indeed we'll make this city a better city than we found it, to be better for all those who gathered. We give you thanks and amen. Amen.

Please face the flag of our nation. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

Tonight, for our ceremonial matters, we have a very special event. And first, I would like to welcome and introduce our Sister City students who are going to Hawkesbury, Australia. And I'd like to invite Nancy Terry with our Temple City Sister City, who will be introducing our high school students that will be making this amazing trip.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It's been my pleasure for the last 25 years to work with our great Temple City students and it's time for me to step down. Judy and I will be no longer working with the kids but we are leaving them in good hands with Janet Smith. We're really excited about her taking over. We will let the kids introduce themselves.

Hello, my name is Diana Salinas. I am in junior year of high school, and I want to have this time to thank everyone at the City Council for giving us this opportunity for a great journey and one that will be memorable. I am looking forward to the cultural experience and the food that they'll be serving.

My name is and I'm going to be a junior in Temple city high school. I want to thank the city council too, and how incredibly thankful all of us are that you give us the opportunity to experience such a wonderful trip. Um, the thing I'm most excited about in Australia is the diverse, like the diverse wildlife and how different the culture and like the environment is too.

Good evening, Mayor Mann, Mayor Pro Tem Chen, and City Council. My name is Jessica Guo, and I will be a junior this upcoming year at Temple City High School. I am extremely excited to represent the city of Temple City. I'm doing my stay in Australia, and I just want to take the time to thank all of you for your utmost support. and in sponsoring this program. So your hard work does not go unnoticed. And since this will be my first time in Australia, one of the things I look forward to the most is visiting the schools and experiencing what it is like to go to the classes like a typical Australian would.

Good evening, Mayor Mann, Mayor Pro Tem Chen, and city council members. My name is Sophia Guo, and I will be an incoming junior at Temple City High School. I would like to thank you all for your generous support in this program, otherwise we wouldn't have this wonderful opportunity. One thing I am looking forward to is trying new and really unique activities in Australia.

Hello, my name is Marilyn Trejo. I'm an incoming senior at temple city high school, and I would like to thank the city council for all of your support, um, and all the opportunities we have due to your generosity. Um, I have been talking to my host family and I'm most excited to join them in climbing the Sydney Harbor bridge and in bonding with them and their dogs.

Okay.

We are sending six students, but her family thought it was very important to take a family vacation before the outing. So I'm sorry. We're missing Charlene tonight.

Great, great. Wonderful.

She's here in spirit. She's here in spirit. That's right.

Yes, absolutely.

Janet, do you want to say anything since you're taking over?

It's actually been my pleasure to join this, the Sister City Association, and I've been enjoying working with the girls, getting them ready for the types of things they're going to do in Australia and encouraging them to reach out to their host families, which is wonderful because they're doing video calls, they're texting, so they already know the students they're going to be staying with, and some of the families have even met each other. So, you know, thank you for this great opportunity for them to learn a lot about another a place across the world. Thank you.

Any questions from council for the students?

Not for the students. I'm very excited for all of you, but I just wanted to thank Steve and Nancy. I mean, you've just done an incredible job, and congratulations, Janet. You're going to be wonderful also. So I think it's just nice to see the program continuing to move forward. So thank you.

Great.

Council Member Chavez.

Just a reminder also to everyone that to visit their booth during the summer concerts, they use it as a fundraiser as well. So make sure you go there and still have the popcorn, right? Yes. Popcorn and sodas. Popcorn and sodas. You can always use those during the concert. And the students work there. Yeah, they'll be there working until they have to leave, I think, actually. Good job. Looking forward to hearing your stories when you get back. But remember, what happens in Australia stays in Australia.

Oh, wait, the parents are here. I'm sorry.

They're going to have a good time.

We'll hear about it eventually, yes. Council Member Yu?

I just want to wish everybody a great trip, and thank you so much, Steve and Nancy.

I just want to wish everybody a great trip and your ambassadors of Temple City. So have a great trip.

And I, too, want to extend my appreciation to the Sister City Association. I know Steve and Nancy, you've been at this for so many years. It's actually incredible to hear you step aside, because I kind of equate you guys to Sister City as part of your core identity. But I know that it's going to be in good hands with Janet. And you always come up with the most amazing group representatives to represent Temple City in your trip to Australia. And the fact that this has been going on for so many years and has such great support, and really, it's the generosity of not just the people who support the organization, but I know how much the host families themselves put into this. And so the fact that you're able to do this for such a long time is an incredible testament to how great the program itself actually is. And we hear all the great stories that come back. So really looking forward to that. Enjoy your trip and just have a great time. Okay, next we move to public comments on items not listed on the agenda. First, I would like to turn it over to our city clerk to share some information.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to announce to the audience that the city council received a written public comment and a copy has been distributed to council, the city manager, and city attorney. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And so at this point, I would like to see if there's anyone who wants to address the city council at this time on items not on the agenda. Okay, seeing none, I will close public comment. We move on to item seven, consent calendar. All items may be approved in a single motion unless council wishes to pull any item at this time.

Motion to approve consent. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Unless there's any objections, let's have a roll call vote, please.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Yes. Mayor Mann?

Yes. Next, we move to item 8A, our public hearing on the adoption of resolution number 26-5881, approving the master fees and fines schedule for fiscal year 26-27. We will start with our city manager, Brian Cook.

And if you can excuse me for just one moment, Mayor Mann, I'd like to just, on your consent calendar tonight, you had the passage of the Inland Empire and Inland Valley Humane Society. In the back is Nicole Bresciani. She is the CEO of Inland Empire and Inland Valley Humane Society. She'll be back in the future for a full presentation. but her and all team are in the back there. I just want to thank them and thank them for a great transition that we've had when they took over San Gabriel Valley Humane Society.

Okay, and thank you for being here tonight. We appreciate the work that you do for our community.

And they'll be back with a full presentation of all the great things they're doing, vaccine clinics coming up soon and everything else.

Oh, we're going to do it in person again?

They have a mobile clinic. Oh nice.

Yeah, okay our community will love that.

Yeah, they're excited Thank you for thank you for indulging me man. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so Getting on to more exciting things Schedule fees and fines Before you tonight is the is the overall schedule for fees and fines in the city, which are adjusted by the cost of living adjustment. This is, again, not included in what will be your subsequent item after this, the 26-27 proposed budget, but that would bring in $117,000. The planning fees go into effect afterwards, after 60 days afterwards. And if you have any questions, we are here for any questions you may have.

Okay, so there's no, are we having a presentation? I just took care of it. Okay, all right. So, okay, at this time, does council have any questions for staff?

So it goes, Mr. Mayor, this goes into effect for the next fiscal year. So is the urgency to pass before July 1st? Is that the...

That, yes, that can be, that is what we try to do. The planning fees don't go into effect 60 days, so it blends into the next fiscal year just a bit, but that's usually what our goal is. Okay.

Any other questions at this time? Okay, then I will first open the public hearing for this item. Does anyone wish to address City Council on item 8A? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing, and we will go to final council comments on this item. I'll start over on my right. Council Member Sternquist?

I have.

Council Member Chavez? No. Council Member Yu?

I just want to make a brief comment. In the fine prints of the slide, you can see the fees increase as per the cost of the consumer price index. So it's a reasonable increase in milk price. Just one head back.

Mayor Potemkin.

I have some concerns regarding our very popular Parks and Recreation programs. I think it's come to my attention that there were a lot of Temple City families that could not participate because of capacity issues and I don't know if addressing it through kind of a The fee for that service is a route to go. I understand that those are, of course, I know Councilmember Sternquist and Chavez have had many years of service on the Parks and Recreation Commission and know that we make available these very popular programs, but when A lot of Temple City families are turned away. More that are turned away than there are those that are participating in the program. I just find it that maybe we're a little, we need to look at it, whether it's the fees that we're charging or figuring out a way that Temple City residents get to have a first round of registration so that we're serving more of our Temple City families rather than turning more away than we are serving. So this may not be probably the time to look at it because the program is ongoing, but I think the number of programs I'd like to look at. But in the interest of the urgency of this fines and fee schedule, I'll vote in favor.

Do you mind being a bit more specific about the ones you want to talk about in the future?

Yeah. STARS program, summer camps, any parks and recreation fee for service that In any situation where we have more Temple City families that wish to participate but cannot because of capacity issues, I think one of the arguments is that we don't have enough capacity because of facilities issue or the cost of running these programs because we don't have enough recreation staff. And they do a great job, obviously. And this is the problem that we have when we're doing such a great job that more Temple City families want to participate. But if the fees are not recovering our cost of providing that service, then I think we are not providing a community service when we're turning people away. If we're turning more people away than we are actually serving those families that participate, then I see an issue with that being a public service, especially one that we're subsidizing.

Can I have a follow-up question? I wasn't aware that we are turning people away. Is that an issue?

So we do have, for several, to Council Member Pro Tempchen's point, in the weekly that I've been providing in the last couple weeks, we are adding how many families or individuals are on a wait list as well. So there are individuals on wait lists once a program is... is offered.

Well, this seems to be a bigger problem than what we're talking about tonight. I think maybe we need to have a follow-up on this at some point and find out the reasons we're turning people away. And also, I would like to know, too, are we giving priority to those who live in Temple City rather than those who do not live in Temple City for these various programs? So that would be another issue that could possibly be discussed at a future meeting.

If I missed anything, Adam, Mr. Matsumoto, just let me know. Go ahead.

Just to briefly review so we don't violate any of our Brown Act requirements. There are a few select programs where we have a high demand, greater demand than our capacity for that program. Summer camp is one of those programs where we have 80 spots per session. We fill up within a couple of minutes and then we start a wait list after we hit that 80 participant capacity. So based off of our understanding of our funding sources for the park location as well as um you know our services it's not strictly general fund dollars that went into the areas that we use for that program so it doesn't allow us to allocate out resident versus non-resident priority registration so we're bound by um you know those monies that we receive at the county state or federal level that it provides open access But we can come back with a further review, take a look at maybe other ways we can try to explore to see how we can either open up more registration availability or, you know, other ways to mitigate some of the concerns that may exist with the current programming.

And I was just going to say, Mr. Mayor, I think it's wise to, at this point, have any final limited comments from council but then bring this back as an agenda item because this certainly is broader and goes as much into staffing facility space as it does the fees so if anyone else has any brief things to say fine but then this really should be an agenda item

So, Mayor, just knowing that we probably wouldn't have discussion, but maybe when the item comes back, we can address a couple of things, and specifically addressing Mayor Pro Tem Chan's concern. I believe previously we subsidized some of these programs, so maybe that's one thing they can bring back. And secondly, I think previously we also talked about scholarships and all that. So maybe when this item comes, we can discuss all that.

OK. I concur. And thank you, Adam, for that context. So I will ask our city manager to bring back, or at least report back at our next meeting to determine when you expect to complete that analysis so that it can be agendized for council discussion. That way we have a follow through. No problem. And Mayor Pro Tem, thank you for the comments. Okay, as for me, I don't have any further comments on this item. May we have a motion for item 8A?

Make a motion to approve item 8A.

Second. I just want to verify with our city attorney, is that adequate or should the resolution number be included in the motion?

Let's, yeah, let's amend that to say item 8A resolution number 26-5881. Thank you.

Okay. So it's amended? Yeah. And so we'll have a roll call vote on the amended motion.

Council Member Chavez. Yes. Council Member Sternquist. Yes. Council Member Yu. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Chen. Yes. Mayor Mann.

Yes. Next, we move to item 8B, adoption of resolution number 26-5882, adopting the proposed city budget for fiscal year 26-27. And we will again start with our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Mann. I will not monopolize the entire time on this presentation, but just a couple things I wanted to note. Based on our budget study session as well, we took a look at several items, including Measure W for street sweeping, the Rosemead Bridge, identifying the Measure TC projects and signage. Two things I want to add, and this is my fault, not staff's fault. One was just adding leadership training that I think is important for staff as we, I will not be in this position forever, and I think thinking about leadership training for our management team and others, assisting them in thinking about future positions and the transitions and succession planning when the city is important. And the second one that I neglected to put into, we had discussed doing advocacy for grant work and federal and state funding as well. This would be a placeholder for right now, and it's not included in the budget, so I would ask for that to be as an amended part of the budget, but that would be, we would come back at a later date after we've done an RFP. and give you the full number for that and the scope. But understanding the idea that that advocacy is specifically for targeting funding. We do not need any advocacy for bill tracking, legislative tracking. We have plenty of organizations from the League of California Cities to contract cities to others that do that successfully for us. So this would just be a placeholder for now. And so that's my fault. I apologize for those two. Overall though, and the other item too, and I promised I was gonna monopolize Mr. Kung's time. The standing committee of Mayor Mann and Mayor Yu have been meeting diligently with staff and I to come with a model and some policy decisions and some policy options for you as the entire council to think. I think we are close to being there and we should be coming to you definitely this summer And what we'll do at that point is amend the 26-27 budget to reflect that. But right now, because we wanted to provide as many options to both for the standing committee to look at and then for that to be vetted and for you to consider and have multiple policy options in front of you, that's why all the transportation road projects are at zero right now, but they will not stay zero for long. So that's why that is still forthcoming. So if the council approves the budget tonight, we will be coming back sometime likely in the summer with an amendment to the fiscal year 26, 27 budget, almost exclusively dealing with the road projects and the overall multi-year, in fact, multi-decade maintenance program. So with that, I promise not monopolizing, I'll turn it over to Mr. Kung.

Thank you, Mr. Cook. Before I let you begin, since you brought one item up, I have a quick question for you to clarify. So the amount for, you call it targeted advocacy, does, I guess in plain language, that just means you're going to employ them on an as-needed basis. depending on future needs?

We're not sure about that. We're going to see what the RFP does, so that's just... It will likely require more of an ongoing effort going forward, but once we get the RFP out and see what the market looks like with qualified firms and see how creative they are in looking at our needs and our requests, then we'll be coming back. So I'll answer your questions. I'm not sure yet.

Okay. But it will be brought back to council when we get to that stage. Okay. Got it. Thank you. All right. Director Cohn.

Thank you, Mayor and council members. Good evening. As noted tonight, I'll be recommending the adoption of the city's budget for fiscal year 2026 through 2027, which will cover January 1st, 2026 through June 30th of 2027. Here's a quick recap. We held a step study session on April 28th, where council set priorities and based on those priorities and the city's available resources, staff went to work to develop a proposed budget that was presented to you on June 3rd. At that meeting, you gave us direction on several items. And tonight we'd like to follow up on those items and, um, our recommendations and how we incorporated some of those items into the budget. And as Mr. Cook, some additional items that we'll be talking about. As we've discussed, the focal point of this year's budget and going into the future was the passage of Measure TC, the voter-approved three-quarter cent sales tax increase, and how we use those funds. And based upon all our conversations these last couple of months, Council's priorities, this budget centers around roads and infrastructure, parks, public safety, economic development, and energy and sustainability. So at the June 3rd meeting, you asked staff to come back and provide some additional information on five of these items, and we added a six, as Mr. Cook mentioned. The five council items were economic development, and I believe Mr. Cook will cover that briefly. The additional use of measure, for street sweeping, the Rosemead Gateway improvement, identifying Measure TEC projects, and Measure TEC signage for those projects that we are using the funds for. And the sixth item is the leadership training and SUCCESSION PLANNING. AND I'LL LET MR. COOK TALK ABOUT THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

SURE. SO AS WE DISCUSSED PRIOR, WE WILL BE DOING A REVIEW OF THE LAS TUNAS AREA. One of the things that will help us drive is to define what the task and what the major issues are. Are they high level? Do they need a certain level of expertise that's needed for economic development? Or are they really, truly task oriented that we can actually hire somebody at a at a lower level to do that so i i appreciate and i ask for your flexibility in providing that so that um maybe when i come back after the first task is done of the consultant doing a review of las tunas our analysis of our our strengths, our weaknesses, and also to some of the constraints and challenges that we have, that will really then drive what that economic development function will do in either a full-time staff person or a consultant or possibly both. That will drive what we're doing. So I appreciate that flexibility going forward.

Since I know this point or this item was brought out by several council members, before we move away from this, I do want to see if council has any questions for Brian on economic development.

No.

Well, if I may just ask a clarification question. So Mr. Cook, so what you're asking is more of a budget line item right now and allowing you the flexibility to go full-time staff, consultant staff, part-time staff.

And I would come back to the council with that.

All right.

And I presume that part of this effort, you will also better define what economic development means. Because I think that's one of the points that each person comes to the table with a different understanding of what economic development is. Absolutely. So in order for you to have council support in that matter, you'd have to clarify to us what exactly you're doing.

Thank you, Mayor Mann. And I think help drive that so then you as the council have some reasonable expectations of what those tasks are and what maybe are some higher level things that can be done more. For lack of a better term, it is difficult to find expertise in some areas and easier to find it in others. And so that will help define. the consultant firm helps us define that. We'll come with that and we'll see what one of the items we're gonna ask them is kind of like, for lack of a term, a work plan with that so that we understand what our needs are and how they can be defined from a workflow standpoint.

I was wondering if possible if we could have the newer council members who weren't familiar with when we were looking at redoing the downtown and we had specific options available for the public at least that study so you can see what the response was from the community. I don't think that sentiment has changed very much with What did you call it? We called it reducing the streets, the width of the street.

The road diet. The road diet.

The road diet. I don't think that has changed any with traffic that has increased. But at least you could get familiar with what we looked at since we and Tom and I at least had that opportunity to go through that exercise with the community.

We'll do. Thank you. Turn it back over.

Thank you. So the remaining items in regards to Measure W, we spoke to our consultant and the allowable amount of Measure W funds we're using has already been fully committed to street sweeping. So no adjustment has been recommended. In regards to the Rosemead Gateway, the bridge, I believe there was an estimate that was done and it was about $350,000, and so we've appropriated $350,000 for that in the administration and engineering budget.

Can you briefly maybe summarize what that entails?

Sure. It's not simply just stripping down and repainting. I would hope so for $350,000. Well, so there would be some design elements, so we would come back to you with some design. But also, one of the things we want to do is anti-graffiti coating as well on it, which is extremely expensive based on what we saw with the utility box art. Utility box art... each one to do the graffiti coating was about $200. So it's really quite expensive. And this also, too, this is probably a combination of nighttime work as well to do. So that's, again, placeholder number that we have for now. We'll come back to you with the overall price. But this was kind of on the safer end of the estimates. And just a real quick follow-up question.

So would this cover both sides of that deal? Yes. Okay, because I know sometimes it's like we only have our side, not the... Yeah. But it seems like we want it to look nice coming into the city and then leaving the city. Absolutely. And was there any way of getting any type of... chip in from the city of Rosemead or something like this? I can always ask. Isn't there half of the bridge in their city? No, it's actually not.

The border is just slightly, if you're going southbound on Rosemead, it's just slightly past the railroad tracks. By about how many feet, I don't know exactly.

In that case, I can't see them throwing anything in.

Not as long as Maggie's on that council.

They have more of a fun balance than we do. We can always ask.

Well, it doesn't hurt to ask. It would be nice for them to have something that people going into their city looks nice for them.

Yeah, no problem.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think to that point, the 10 freeway between Alhambra and Monterey Park has something similar, right? When you're entering Monterey Park, it has that signage. And then when you're entering Alhambra, it has that, too. But I guess just to expand on this, so the plan is there's going to be more details fleshed out. And this will be brought back to council. Because I think one element of this, and I'm paying some deference to our council members who were part of the Rosemey Boulevard project, was my understanding was there was a lot of, I'm going to call it ad hoc committee type of work related to design elements. So while I'm not saying we need to do that now, there is maybe some consideration for when this gets fleshed out more to maybe perhaps look at it from that vantage point. Because a design element, I think, we've had experience with council where there is going to be some diverse opinions on what looks good and what doesn't. Understood.

So in regards to Measure TC transparency, what you'll see in our capital portion of the budget, we designated 555,000 in capital projects. And you'll see that actually that says Measure TC funded, so that's clearly noted for people. And this includes the charging station, the Live Oak Park, restrooms, renovations, the community center, HVAC and flooring, and the community center study assessment.

And when we come back with the road project, that will also have that designation as well. But again, we'll be coming back with that later this summer.

And in regards to signage, I would definitely we'll be working on some signage so that residents see where the Measure TC monies are going. And then as Mr. Cook mentioned, we've budgeted an additional $35,000 for leadership training, which is in this budget. And then lastly, the $40,000 for grant advocacy, this will be an amendment to the budget that we're presenting tonight to add an additional $40,000.

What do you mean by grant advocacy?

So hiring a lobbyist, essentially, to assist us in seeking federal and state funding.

That's not handled in house, I'm assuming.

What we found recently, especially For some legislators, they've ignored us on some of the budget requests. And for others, it's taken a really long time. And we found for several cities to actually have professional advocacy helps facilitate that process in ways that we as staff alone, and even for just you as the elected officials, It's a process that helps facilitate that, so we'd like to try that.

To me, that's a little disappointing that we would have to spend money to hire people if our elected officials are actually ignoring the same request from staff in the city itself. That doesn't... It is not an uncommon practice for... No, I'm not saying it's not an uncommon... I'm sure it is a common practice, but it's just a sad note on the system itself that cities have to do that to get the attention of our elected officials who were elected in the first place to respond to their constituents rather than to paid lobbyists. But I guess that's the world we live in today.

Have we heard back from Mike Fong?

not officially yet but it's not included in any of the budget trailer bills right now you're waiting to hear from our lobbyists so now i'm just going to move on to some highlights of the overall budget

On the left, the general fund, our largest fund and primarily our operating budget, you'll see 20.8 million is projected for total expenditures and 28.8 million for our general fund balance as of June 30th, 2027.

One thing I'll note about the general fund fund balance is one of the options that the standing committee is looking at, one of the options we have presented as staff, is to do either a one-time drawdown or a scheduled drawdown of fund balance to get several of our categories of roads in different conditions fixed sooner rather than later. So that's one of the options. But that $28.8 million, we're probably looking towards some of that as potentially used for our road projects going forward.

Go ahead. Because one of the things that the residents commented a lot on when they were against for or against the measure, they asked about the accountability. So would this be under, is it Don's purview to take a look at how we're gonna get this message out to the public, this is what we plan, this is when we plan to implement it so that there is even a monthly update that we can have on our city website.

May I try to answer that? It's one of those things that we discuss as a standing committee. You just set up a dashboard of some sort that giving real-time information and showing our residents how their money is being spent. And that also going along with some of the branding work that needs to be done with Measure TC. Showing our residents, because we understand a lot of residents perhaps didn't quite agree with the whole notion of need to do pavements. So we want to make sure everything that we do is totally transparent. And then also as a tool to communicate with the community which section of town we'll be doing work with. And then we can all show them the investment and how many streets, square feet, mile, river, basically, sort of our key performance indicator to show them. So that's some of the things that we have discussed. We don't have something to show yet, but that's what we have discussed.

Quick question. So those communications I'm assuming you're talking about are something that would be on our website or online available? I would say that in addition to that, I would suggest that we also look at other ways of communicating rather than just social media. Because some of our older community don't exactly always go online. I would say even if we maybe were due to highlight every once in a while at one of our meetings or at some of our park events, maybe have a booth set up. I know we usually have Temple City booths. Maybe we could highlight all those things in those booths as well. sort of just everyday kind of hands-on type of communications i think would help as well maybe engaging our youth commission also we could do that too i mean whatever way we can get the word out i'm sure you guys have discussed that but i wouldn't just focus social media and online they're great but i think a lot of a large part of our community doesn't get their news that way and maybe there's other ways we can do that

Yeah, I mean, so we discussed and Mr. Cook alluded to it. So the ad hoc committee is going to meet at least one more time, if not multiple more times. And our goal is to bring back everything that we discussed back to this council for comments and input and approval.

Thank you.

So just to wrap up then on the citywide budget side here on the right side, across you'll see that 29.1 million is new appropriations. And then we have 11.8 million of carryover for capital projects. And obviously this includes all general fund and special funds. And we get a total of 40.9 million for the total budget. All this includes the $350,000 for the bridge, the $35,000 for training. It does not include, as we previously mentioned, the $40,000 for the grant advocacy. But all in all, the outlook is stable. Our reserves are healthy. Even after the increase, we still have a general fund fund balance that's a little over $28 million, which is primarily supported by Measure TC. And the five-year forecast from our June 3rd meeting is materially unchanged. In the coming months, as we've been mentioning, staff will bring forward the multi-year pavement rehabilitation program with a detailed appropriation plan.

May I get a quick question? Just for clarification, so the $40,000 that is not included in the budget, Correct. Are we being asked to approve that tonight, to amend the budget to include that tonight? Or is that going to come back later?

No, I'd rather have it in the budget so that we can have it and then we'll come back to you after the RFP.

I don't see that on the recommendations, though. I would ask you to... Is it just saying adopt resolution approving the budget, but that's not in the budget, or will it be?

I would add if you could adopt the resolution with the amendment with the amendments with the amendment of the $40,000 for lobbying services, please.

And with that, uh, I have, I do have one small clerical error that we made as far as the title for the, uh, recreation supervisor position. It's actually tied. The actual title is parks and recreation supervisor. So I would like to put that for the record for clarification, and we'll make those change in the budget book. And then finally, the last item is to reaffirm the fund balance designation and the adoption of our fund balance policy that we do every year. And that concludes my presentation. Are there any additional questions?

Council questions, any from Council Member Sternquist?

No, thank you.

Council Member Chavez?

Nothing else, thank you. Council Member Yu? Nothing at this point, no.

Mayor Pro Tempest?

Okay.

And I think I asked all my questions during the presentation, so I don't have any. I would like to open the public comment for this item at this time. Is there anyone who would wish to? Yes, Ms. Jerry.

Thank you, Mayor Mann. Regarding the Measure TC transparency, I have a suggestion for the Council, and that's to create a Citizens Oversight Committee that would monitor and report out on a regular basis Well, maybe semi-annually of the progress and how it was spent. So that would be my suggestion as a citizen's oversight committee. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council on this item? Okay. Seeing none, I will close public comment, and we go to final council discussion or comments. Council Member Sternquist?

No.

Council Member Chavez.

Nothing further. Just thank staff for all their work. I know it's not easy to put all this together, but I think as a team we've done a pretty good job and shows you what working together can do. So thank you. Thank you to all that were involved.

Council Member Yu.

Um, no more comments. I think we asked our questions, but again, I agree with council member Chavez that, uh, we appreciate staff, Mr. Khan and staff, uh, and Mr. Cook and all department heads working together. Uh, I know it's not easy, but, but, uh, you make this process low, very painless for the council. So thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

Yes. Um, I had emailed some questions early on and, um, I, again, I think echoing what council member Chavez and you said, um, some of the questions I had made balloon into something bigger, but I always appreciate, um, city manager cook as well as, um, uh, all of our department heads that are in this room, um, that really done a great job answering, um, a lot of the question from a first term council member. So, um, thank you again.

OK. And I, too, don't really have any questions. I think my only ask is, at least in response to Jerry's suggestion, if you can brief the council at a future date as to what would that look like if the council were to consider some type of oversight committee, just conceptually. We'll do that. And also by thanking everyone for your hard work on putting this budget together. We always talk about the budget represents the council's priorities for this fiscal year and our commitment and investment back to our communities. The number that jumps out at me is kind of like the total operating budget that you talked about. I don't recall the last time we've seen that number that high. So I think that represents the amount of money and investments we really want to put back now that we are well-positioned, I would say, to tackle some of these issues that we've talked about for a number of years. And I know later on in the Standing Committee report, Councilmember, you and I can maybe add a little bit more context to our last meeting. I know that's been brought up, the pavement management plan and the work from Transtech. So thank you for putting us in a good spot. With that, I would like to entertain a motion for this, but we would like to note the amendments made by both City Manager Cook as well as Director Kung on the clerical error.

Mayor Mann, I would make a motion that we adopt Resolution No. 26-582, approving the budget and appropriations for the City of Temple City for the fiscal year. commencing July 1st, 2026, and ending June 30th, 2027, with the amendment of $40,000 for lobbyist services. I believe that was the only amendment that we had to make. And sorry, one more. Sorry. Oh, what was the other one?

And the clerical change to the title. Oh, the clerical change to the title.

That doesn't cost any money, though. No, sir. Oh, okay.

I forget. Was it for a federal lobbyist?

It can be for both. Any level.

Best suited. Money is great. Okay. That's my motion. Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Are there any objections? Okay. Seeing none, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Chavez?

Yes.

Council Member Sternquist? No.

Okay, next we move to item 8C, adoption of resolution number 26-5883, adopting the annual appropriations limit for fiscal year 26-27. City Manager Cook.

Thank you, Mayor Mann. Members of the council, as I'll use Council Member Chavez's favorite word, perfunctory action. There's only one city in the area that I actually know who is challenged by the GAN limit, and it's actually Sierra Madre, the only city I know in LA that actually has to make an adjustment and go to their voters for an adjustment to the GAN limit. This is based on the Prop 13 era of the max amount of the appropriation and revenue that a city can achieve. The calculation is done by Mr. Kung. Back in the days when I used to do finance, I actually had to hire somebody to help me with that. But thank you to Alex for putting that together for us. And our appropriations limit is well below what the GAN limit would require, or the maximum GAN limit there is. So this is for you for approval.

OK. Any council questions? Council Member Sternquist? Council Member Chavez? Council Member . OK. No questions from me either. As you heard the city manager say, it's perfunctory. But nevertheless, it is a public hearing, and we will open the public hearing. Does anyone wish to address council on item 8C? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Any final council comments or questions?

Just wanted to make a comment. I was trying to follow it. I had a hard time following all the calculations. But anyway, I think it's quite okay that we're way below the limit. I trust Mr. Cunn. He does a great job. Okay.

Yeah, I like how the dollar amount is calculated down to the dollar.

Have we ever been over? I don't think we've ever been over. No, and we're never going, and we never will, probably.

Highly unlikely. Yeah, it's at 30.8 million is our appropriation limit.

I was going to ask a question, and I don't need the answer right now, but if and when the ad hoc comes back from the infrastructure and then recommend a certain amount of expenditure, but I don't think we'll because the gap is so big. But assume for a minute, I think we may have some issue with that, if we're proposing a lot of expenditure. But since the gap is so big, I don't think that's an issue.

No, that's a good observation, sir. I think we're even within what we've been discussing. In the highest thresholds that we've been discussing, we're still within that range.

All right, with that, can I have a motion for this item?

Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt resolution number 26-5883, adopting the annual appropriations limit for fiscal year 2026-2027. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Unless there's any objections, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Yes. Mayor Mann?

Yes. We move on to item nine, unfinished business. We have none. Item 10, new business. We have none. We move to item 11, an update from our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Mann. I'll be brief. This coming Thursday at 5.30, right here at the Civic Center, sorry, at the Community Room, we will have our Neighborhood Watch meeting where individual members of the public can talk to our dedicated deputy team, one of whom is here as our Sergeant-at-Arms right now, Francis Bowie, and free dinner, tacos, chips, and salsa. So come one, come all, and we'll be happy to see you there. Concerts in the park are going. We had our first successful concert this last Wednesday. Ten concerts throughout the summer every Wednesday, 7 p.m. So looking forward to seeing the community out and about. One other thing is too is the Measure G committee that the county has initiated is going through public hearings right now. They're asking for input from city managers throughout the San Gabriel Valley. I've provided some of my input as well. I will, once the Roest Institute from Claremont McKenna College finishes their draft report that will be presented to that body, I will present it to you as well and give you an update. Suffice to say, it is the most substantial change in the governance structure in LA County in quite a long time. I don't want to be hyperbolic about it, but it is a really significant change. And as a contract city, we are going to be impacted I think there's a lot of unknowns that are out there with it as well. But it is a voter approved initiative that is being implemented that will be coming forward and we will try to give our input as constructively and candidly and thoughtfully as we can going forward. Actually, the election of the county CEO is in 2028. The expansion of the board is 20... No, 32. 32. From five to nine. Yeah, after the 2030 census.

But the question really is, and I think that's what the committee's doing is, what authority and power and governance structure would the elected county CEO bring and whether or not it is a true executive position and the relationship with the nine-member board in 2032 and being elected CEO or mayor, the relationship with the contract city, I think that's something we need to think about. because that person's gonna be elected by 10 million people, not just a district. I mean, right now, Supervisor Barker is very receptive to our requests, and whether or not the elected CEO would do the same thing, we have to see.

More to come.

More to come, yes.

I just want to say also that

It would be wise for us to start thinking about an ask for Catherine Barger as she turns out. So maybe put your thinking caps on and let's see what we can come up with.

That's it for me, Mayor. Okay. Thank you. Next, any updates from our city attorney?

Not tonight. In light of closed session, I think I'll save my voice for then. Thank you. Okay.

All right, next we go to council reports regarding ad hoc or standing committee meetings. I know council member, you and I, we've kind of mentioned this during the budget discussion, had a recent meeting on the pavement management plan as part of our facilities, public works and infrastructure standing committee. I don't know, Councilmember Yu, if you wanted to add anything in addition to what you brought up.

Yeah, I certainly would want to update the Council on what we've been doing, and thank you to Transtech and Mr. Cook. We're looking at multiple things right now. We look at the funding sources, available funding sources. We look at different strategies. We look at the current pavement conditions. One of the things I think is worth the council to be thinking about was that our discussion that for many, many years we've been, we have not been, we've been doing the low hanging fruit. We've been doing the Slurry Seals, the EZ. We've been doing a very good job in increasing our pavement condition index. However, there are about roughly 23%, 24% of the city streets at a fair, I'm sorry, a poor, sort of poor condition. So one of the things the ad hoc had discussed was that maybe within the first three, four years, we will focus on getting those streets up to par, and then the maintenance program can continue. We're looking at perhaps repaving, reconditioning the streets every six to seven years. We have yet to come back, of course, with the targeted payment condition index for the council to consider. And there are multiple strategies, funding strategies, one of which is to borrow from general funds. And one is just, and we also consider what would be the appropriate amount and whether or not it is direct funded and not returned back. So there are a lot of strategies. And then we've also asked the staff to extend out the projection, funding projections, because we're hoping that perhaps some day, some years, we don't, the Measure TC would support not just the pavement. We're hoping that if we get it done right, the emergency will support other things that public safety, city facilities and so forth. So Mayor, do you have anything to add?

Yeah, that was a pretty great summary of the key points of our discussion. I think the only thing I will add or re-emphasize is this goal that we want to be able to say that we've touched and done some work on every single street in the city. Because that's been the major friction point. prior to us having the information and the funding was we kept saying, well, we're not sure when we're going to get to your street because we don't have the money to do so. But now, I think what we can report out is that there appears to be a very feasible way for us to actually achieve that. And not only achieve that, but get us to a condition where the long-term costs of maintaining streets in the foreseeable future would be a lot cheaper than us having to do this really expensive initial work, so to speak. So there's different levels of work and costs associated with it. So if we could get the citywide network onto a certain cycle, then the long-term costs moving forward start coming down. And that's why, like Councilmember, you said, if we get there, then the Measure TC dollars start hopefully going less towards roads and start going more into other things that also need our attention on. So overall, I would say I'm very happy with the work that our team has done. I know our city manager and trans-tech team has put a lot of thought into it. They've received the feedback well. It was an iterative process. So this was not something that just kind of magically came about. This was taking the last 10 years of work that we've done here and then actually applying it towards a longer term plan. that is ultimately not just hopefully financially sustainable for the city, but also just makes kind of the, what was the word you used, council member, you at the standing committee, kind of the general state of how people perceive our community? You had a good term for it, I can't remember. But curb appeal, I think you were saying. But it's something that sounds really simple, but the idea of you know, driving in somewhere.

Yeah, I think I was saying that, referring to the experience of traveling in Danbu City. And to that point, speak of the network of roads, actually the ad hoc and stamp, we actually did touch on, even though Measure TC doesn't cover that cost, of at least exploring what we're gonna do with the many, many private streets we have in Tambo City. And whether or not we could leverage our big pavement program to assist homeowners with their private streets. I mean, so we don't have a solution. But we at least that had come to the attention of the ad hoc and hopefully we'll bring back a recommendation again for the for the council. Again, it's the experience of driving through temple city from the from the door all the way outside the city boundary. We consider that whether it's private street or public street, that is a true experience we want to maintain and enhance.

Are there any other Standing Committee reports?

I don't have a report, but I just have a question. The City-Based Homeless Plan Standing Committee that Councilmember Sternquist and I sit on, I think I've brought this up before. I don't think I've ever met since I've been on this standing committee. Have we? No. No, we have not. Who is the staff assigned to this, and are we going to be getting something on this, or where do we go from here? It's me.

I'm the staffing, so I will work with staff.

I don't know if there's something that we need to discuss.

Yeah, I think just generally, and I think us as staff too, with the changes that have happened on the county level as well, it's something we need to get. I think it's status quo for the next fiscal year, but I think it warrants us to have a meeting with you as well.

Well, and just to get an update maybe on what's going on, because it seems like they're always changing their mind on something. Yeah, for sure. And maybe just have a meeting to kind of regroup and see what we can do, if anything, and if we still need this standing committee meeting. Yeah, that's a good question. I'll schedule it with staff. I mean, you know, maybe in the next few weeks. Sure. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. That's all. Thank you. Okay.

All right, with that, we move on to items separate from the regular agenda. We'll start with Council Member Chavez.

No, I don't think I have anything else. Nice to see the concerts back in the park, and I know Jerry was well attended, and people I talked to loved the music, and so it was a good start. That's it. Thank you. Council Member Sternquist.

Just one item. The mosquito district received $500,000 back from the county for monies that they expended during the Eaton fire. There were so many pools that had standing water that the mosquito district had to hire a lot of extra employees to go out to test the pools and just make sure that they were you know, well taken care of while the properties laid vacant. So they were, that was approved recently and so it went back into the general fund. So that was a nice surprise. And that's pretty much it.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Yu.

Nothing to add, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

Nothing to add. Okay.

For me, just in addition to Neighborhood Watch, we have our next Wednesday, we have our monthly law enforcement meeting on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. So for those who are interested, please join us. I know the Chamber is actually hosting their, I think their first Summer Night Bites is next Thursday, right? Thank you for mentioning that as well. June 25th.

Next Thursday? We haven't got anything on that. Well, we could double check with Liz. I think she put in. Have you got anything? Has anybody got anything yet? No.

There was one, a feed today, but I didn't see it.

It's the 25th. The 25th.

Well, you guys are on the calendar, so you might want to check June 25th. But anyway, my understanding is, actually, I don't know.

I think it's the Las Tunas. Is it the Las Tunas one? The Las Tunas tour. Okay.

William, do you know who's at concerts in the park tomorrow?

What is it? C band.

Latin. Unfortunately, Tom and I will be at JPIA, but I heard that the band that's coming soon, my daughter actually called me past action heroes. She had seen them at a concert and she said that they are phenomenal and that her friends called her up and said, oh my goodness, you're having them in Temple City Park. So I think a lot of people think the lineup this year is really super.

Okay, and just one more thing, speaking of the chamber, apparently, well, not apparently, I know, but I'm gonna be the speaker at the next chamber legislative luncheon on June 26th, so that'll be Friday. Friday afternoon and I'm pretty excited about that because actually I purposely asked for this particular month knowing that we would have our budget set and approved and then that way I can actually speak more confidently about the council's priorities for this coming year. So please join if you can. Okay, next, before we move to closed session, we have additional public comments on items not listed on the agenda. Does anyone wish to address council at this time? All right, thank you. I will close public comments and we will now go to closed session. We have one item which I will ask our city attorney, Mr. Murphy, to announce.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is one item where the council is considering the initiation of litigation. The Brown Act allows for closed session under government code section 54956.94. Thank you.

Okay. At this point, the council will adjourn to closed session. Okay, good evening. City Council has returned from closed session. At this point, I'd like to ask our City Attorney to report out.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The City Council was briefed on the potential initiation of litigation matter. The briefing began at approximately 818. Prior to that at approximately 817 Councilmember Chen departed recusing himself because of a potential conflict of interest. Following the briefing no reportable action under the Brown Act was taken. That is the end of our report.

Okay, thank you. With that we are adjourned for the evening. Have a good night.

Thank you.