City Council - Regular Meeting

Council member Mora. Here. Council member Martin. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. Here. And mayor Zamora.

Public comments are now open. The public may address the city council on closed session items only. For those that are here to make a public comment, you will have an opportunity once the city clerk announces your name. You will have three minutes to speak. City clerk, do we have any speakers?

Mayor, we do not.

I will now close public comments. Closed session. I would like to call the city attorney, please.

Thank you, mayor and members of the city council. The records reflect that the city council will recess into closed session to discuss the sole item on today's closed session agenda, conference with real property negotiators. This concludes my report. Thank you.

We will now recess to closed session. We reconvene the meeting after the closed session discussion to hear a a report from the city attorney and to continue with the rest of the meeting. Five zero three. You ready? How cute.

Hey. Now now All right. We will now reconvene our closed session item. City attorney, anything to report, please?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. The records reflect that the city council recess into closed session to discuss the item posted on today's closed session agenda. With respect to this item, the City Council received a briefing from the agency negotiator. Feedback was provided, but no final action was taken in closed session. Thank you.

Okay. Now we will we will now continue the rest of the meeting. I would like to call upon Cindy Jarvis to lead today's invocation, Please stand. Bow your heads.

To everything, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes three verse one. Change in today's world emphasizes God's sovereignty, purpose in transition, and steadfastness amid changes. This is an encouragement from God through the scriptures about trusting God through shifts and seasons of life. Let's hold together the concept that God is truly in control, and for that, we're grateful for all his blessings on our city.

With change comes blessings. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for the blessings you've poured out on our city. May you continue to have your hand of protection on Santa Fe Springs and those in leadership. Bless those who draw near to you as you reward and protect those who seek your presence. Amen.

Amen. I would like to call upon youth leadership committee members, Valerie Corona and Melana.

Please 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. Just you guys can all sit down except the two that are up here, of course. If you wanna tell people your names, and then what school do you go to, and the activities or different things you guys are involved in, or what are the different volunteer work you guys do for our city?

Hi. My name is Valeria Corona. I attend Santa Fe High School. I'm a senior. I'm involved in tennis, swimming achieving greatness, and I'm in the youth leadership committee for the city of Santa Fe Springs.

Hi. My name is Melona Ruiz. I go

to Santa

Fe High School. I'm a sophomore. I'm involved in soccer, volleyball, and the youth leadership committee for the city.

Thank you, guys. For our presentations, we're gonna take Mariachi Juvenil of Santa Fe Springs. Would like to call upon director of parks and recreation, Gustavo Rafael Hernandez. Tell me to practice my hours.

Thank you very much. Good evening, mister mayor, members of the city council. It's my pleasure to introduce the Mariachi Juvenilo of Santa Fe Springs. If we can have the Mariachi begin to line up here. This Mariachi is the pilot Mariachi that began in our city here six months ago under the direction of Juan Mendoza El Taria Curi.

Their instructors are Jorge Cardenas, who is their coordinator, and their teachers are Oscar Cardenas, Julio Arellano, and Juan Mendoza, again, El Taria Curi. They have 17 members in this inaugural class, and they are here to perform three songs for you. We have their first performance at the ArtFest this past Saturday. Excuse me. Two Saturdays ago, and they played absolutely phenomenal.

You couldn't even tell it was their very first performance. We wanna congratulate all of the students, these young musicians. We wanna congratulate the parents for supporting them on this young journey, and I will let Juan Mendoza take it away here.

And Gus, if I may, mayor, members of the council, a lot of these kids, if not all of them, have never played an instrument before. This is the first time that they've got an instrument in their hands. So in the in the six months, they they now have enough material to perform for about thirty minutes, and they're working on more material. But it's very impressive what they've been able to do in such a short period of time. So we're really excited and proud of our kids.

Just to add on to that, they started in December. Well, actually, the group formed in November. We talked about it. And then in December, it took it took flight. And so we just wanna thank not only the instructors, but And so we give you Mariachi Juvinil, the Santa Fe Springs.

One, two, three, one. So students, congratulations. We do have a certificate of recognition for you here in recognition of your dedication as you begin your journey in the art of music and in celebration of the progress and accomplishments achieved during your first six months. You should all be very, very proud of yourselves. Parents, you should be so proud of these young kids.

Let's have another round of applause for them. So as I call your name, if you if you can raise your hand, please. And mister Ed Ramirez is going to provide you a certificate. First up, have Ugo Sosa.

Julian Santana.

Julian. Emmanuel Hernandez. Yareci Hernandez. Sebastian Ramirez. Sofia Hernandez.

Emily Hernandez. Anisa Salcedo. Sarajee Salcedo. Salcedo, Diego Ramirez, Luke Hesper, Eda Gonzales, Ivan Gonzales. Now if we can have a picture with our council.

Hello, Alright.

Ready. And, mister mayor, there we go. Alright. Three two one.

You guys go ahead and have more tacos. Imagine that's five months. Five months of practice, but I also wanna give the parents, you know, it's you guys. You guys are the ones who take time. I mean, you had one of the instructors.

He had to leave to go to work. So imagine the dedication they have and as as parents also, the dedication you have bringing your kids every day, you know, to practice because that's part of it. And also learning what they're learning because as says, he also makes you roll your what? Rs. Wow. Hey. You see how much practice that is? Because if you're not rolling your rs and you're not practicing with them, how do you expect your kids to get better at life? Though being a role model, it starts at home. It starts with you guys.

It doesn't it doesn't start anywhere else. And as long as you do your part, your kids are always gonna be amazing. And they're always gonna be productive, not only in our communities, but the communities they decide to leave to. So thank you all for coming out, and God bless you all. And there's also tacos for you guys.

Mister mayor mister mayor, if I if I may, I just wanna clarify that the city is abiding by California a b five zero six. We do comply with state law. We do have two contracted instructors that have been life scanned, and then our our other instructors will volunteer. And I wanna thank the parents for your time and your effort. And I also wanna thank the council for allowing this program to continue. It's incredible what our kids are able to do when they put their bites to it. So so, again, thank you for for allowing us to do this, and thank you to the instructors, and thank you to the staff and everybody that's helped. Thank you.

And next, we're gonna do a class for the parents too. Right? Maybe we'll do something for the parents. So thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Oh, we're gonna if you don't mind, we're gonna have our council say something before you guys leave, you know, so you guys can hear them out. Don't worry. Your kids are they're gonna go eat, so they're good.

I just wanted to say music is the best that you can do for your kids, letting them learn music. I was play I was watching the ones play the trumpet because I played the trumpet for seven years, and learning the music is the hardest part. You see their music when when you go home, take a look at those papers because you won't understand it. You won't understand it until you learn it and it's not easy to learn. And so I'm just amazed because being a trumpet player, I know how long it takes to learn how to play that trumpet because you have to have some mean lips.

You have to have some strong lips. And you could go home and your lips would really be raw because it takes a lot out of you. It takes a lot of practice and it takes a lot of learning. And these kids, if they've only been doing this for six months, I'm just amazed. They were wonderful and just kudos to you. Keep letting them learn music. It's the greatest gift that you can give to them. Thank you.

And they are for hire, just in case. If you need to ask your coaches, you know, they are for hire.

Thank you. Just again, thank you parents. Thank you grandparents. What I said in Spanish was, thank you for the parents and the grandparents, aunts, uncles, whoever allowed their kids to be part of this project, whether they wanted to willingly or forcefully or they but thank you so much. We saw them at the art fest, and they were so nervous.

I was talking to the little girls, and they were so nervous about it, and they did wonderful. And just to see the reaction when you guys are clapping and to see how happy they were, You see that they wanna do it more and they wanna practice more. Our doors will always be open for mariachas anytime during a council meeting. So, yeah, anytime you guys want. I'll listen to mariachas any day. So thank you so much for allowing your kids to do this for for our city. Thank you.

Yeah. They were amazing at the Art Fest. Everybody totally enjoyed it. I couldn't believe how many people were there watching them, supporting them. Great job after six months. All I have to say is what a great way to start off a council meeting. You set the mood for the whole night. Thank you.

I won't repeat what my colleague said, but one thing for sure is there's a great talent in there. And like our mayor said, it does start at home. And I got a confession to make. I was never a fan of mariachi music growing up. I could not stand it at all. But hold on. Hold on. It gets better. Yeah. You know, being yeah. I like them a lot.

A lot

of people don't like them. Yeah. But but, you know, we're able to, you know, see them at one of our our fests a couple years ago. But, you know, seeing and being exposed not force being forced, but, you know, some of the talent that we've had over over the years, it taught me to really appreciate it. And there really is a definite it's a different type of music, of course. I'm a big metalhead, but this was, you know, welcomed. And now more than ever, watching these young kids, their talent, their vocals, their musical abilities, it's incredible. So I'm sold. So I'll pay big money to go see these guys anytime. So thank you parents, and thank you, And also what we've learned too,

I mean, from the mariachi and seeing how many people were at the stage is that next year, we're gonna bring the mariachi to the main stage. Right? And so they can be the main you know? So I hope you guys are there with us. Also, when we have concerts in the park, if we have a mariachi, maybe we can have them bring them up beforehand so they can warm warm up the crowd or maybe be the show for the crowd. You know what I mean? You know? So, you know, whatever we can do to showcase, we have a Hua also, so maybe we could talk to them and throw them there at our, you know, our main concert. So, you know, thank you guys. So, you know, the world to all of them, you know.

And for those of you, Cinco de Mayo, you know, it's a celebration. Why? Because Mexico beat the French. Get it? It's not Independence Day, but Mexico beat the French that day. And anytime you can win a battle, whether it be at home, you know, with your kids to wear something that you need them to wear, their room, it's always a battle, right, wherever you go in life. And honestly, you guys are just amazing. It's great to see how many people showed up for their kids. So thank you guys. God bless you all.

Those of you who wanna step back, go get your tacos. Go ahead. I know those so we're gonna continue with our meeting just just so you know. We won't be, you know, we won't take it wrong if you guys are just walking out on us. Don't worry. Mister mayor,

the next presentation is about water safety. I don't if the parents wanna stay and listen to

Oh, wow. Alright. Well, water safety is important just to listen to. So so we can Water Safety Month. I would like to call upon Parks and Recreation Manager, Leanne Aiza. Yeiza. Close. My I'm sorry. Was saying it in Spanish, I think, a little

bit. R's. Good evening, mister mayor and members of the city council. Thank you tonight for recognizing May as water safety month. Water safety month is something that's very special to me starting back when I began my employment here with the city of Santa Fe Springs.

I started as a lifeguard in well, we won't go there, but it was a while ago. And today, parks and recreation as parks and recreation manager overseeing the aquatics program, it's incredibly meaningful to me to see the continued commitment that our city has towards water safety, drowning prevention, and aquatic education. Some of the key facts here are water safety month is an important reminder that water safety education and awareness helped protect the lives in our community. Drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental injury related deaths, making swimming skills, supervision, and emergency response training critical. Our lifeguards and aquatic staff play a vital role in preventing accidents, responding to emergencies, and creating safe and welcoming environments for our community.

As we prepare to open the Paul T. Nakamura Regional Aquatic Center this summer, we are proud to continue promoting water safety, aquatic education, and drowning prevention throughout our community. Tonight, we are joined by our aquatic supervisor, Elise Mesias, our aquatics coordinator, Haido Orozco, and several members of our aquatic staff who are here proudly to accept this proclamation on behalf of our department recognizing May as water safety month. Do I have a proclamation back there? Me back this up for photo.

Whereas swimming and aquatic activities play a vital role in maintaining physical and mental health, fostering social connections and enhancing the overall quality of life for residents of all ages. So this is a proper proclamation that's pretty long. So I'm pretty much thank you to our lifeguard, water safety. So who's gonna hold it somewhere in the middle? Yeah. Then we got John Mora, who is our honorary lifeguard, who was here from the beginning. Years back. Yeah. One of our first water safety instructors. Instructor trainer. Oh, my bad. Instructor trainer. He still has his badge. You know?

Alright. Ready? And 321. One more. 321.

Thank you, guys. Life cards, do have anything to say? You guys wanna look at all of you guys off. Don't worry. I'm just kidding, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Go get tacos, you guys. Alright.

Thank you. Thank you.

Take care. Thank

Thank Thank

you. You. You. Good job, sweetheart.

Get to look at the new pool.

Yeah. The new pool, the new splash pad. I mean, they're gonna have everything brand new over there. Alright. Changes to the agenda. I think we already did that. Right, mister Robodea?

There. We have no changes.

Alright. Public comments. So we have public public comments are now open. The public may address the city council on any item on the agenda or any or any other matter within the council's jurisdiction. You will have an opportunity to speak for three minutes once the city clerk announces your name. City clerk, do we have any members of the public that wish to speak?

Mayor, yes, we do. We received an email from Julian Jackson. A copy has been provided to all councils in your folder for today. A copy is available in the city clerk's office for the public to view.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Monica Martinez Johnson, interim superintendent.

Good evening, mayor, distinguished council members, city staff, and community members. I'm here to introduce myself to you all today. Although I'm not new to the community. It's an honor truly to be standing here in front of you. My name is Monica Martinez Johnson and I'm the proud newly appointed acting superintendent of the Little Lake City School District.

I think our board who's here today. So I'm gonna take a quick opportunity to introduce them, our board vice president, Mrs. Hilda Zamora, and our board member Lisa Chavarria for entrusting me with our children from the community, which by the way, I'm sure many of them here in the Mariachi were part of our students and they did amazing. For me, this is really not just a job, it's my community. This is my home.

I've been here for more than half of my life. I am beginning my or ending my twenty ninth year in the school district and in many ways my entire life has been shaped by it. Just as teacher at Jersey, principal at Jersey, then Studebaker and kind of worked my way up to the district office administration and now I have the privilege of serving the community in a new role. I truly have given my heart to this district and I wouldn't have in it any other way. Our schools truly do share the same streets, the same families, the same commitments.

I'm really looking forward to building even a stronger partnership with the city of Santa Fe Springs. Lastly, I kind of want to acknowledge the elephant in the room. I wanna acknowledge that we had a very, very difficult ten days with the teacher strike. Difficult for teachers, for families, for students, and for our community as a whole. However, I'm proud to say that we've begun the healing process and the rebuilding process and we're gonna come out even stronger than ever. I truly believe that. Just gonna take us some time. Challenges like this when navigated with honesty and mutual respect have

a way of

bringing people closer together and we've already seen signs of that. I have no doubt, like I said, that we're gonna come out even stronger. So thank you for welcoming me and thank you for your continued support of our schools and our students and I'm excited about what we're gonna accomplish together. Thank you.

City clerk, do we have any other speakers?

Yes, mayor. We have Isabel Cervantes.

Are you are you coming as a volunteer or as a resident?

I'm here as myself. Okay. We're here with as the comadres. We're here to wish, mayor pro tem Annette Rodriguez a happy birthday. We won't say her age. And we're wishing her well and you have a your annual strawberry cheesecake in your office. She's 25 and she's not getting any older. She's a young 25. So happy birthday, Annette.

No wheelchair, no

walker. I mean,

at least put a crown on her. I mean, I guess that only happened to me. Right? Yeah. Yeah. They were real brutal with me. Right? Any other speakers?

Yes, mayor. We have Julian Jay.

Hello there. Hello there. Honorable council, mister mayor. Mayor Pearl Sam, happy birthday. You as well. I wanna actually just come over here to take a moment to, spirit of national teacher appreciation week. I just really wanna take a public moment to highlight some of the teachers that have had an impact in my life growing up. I I know that this shouldn't just be limited to just one week of appreciation to our teachers, but every single day. So I wanted to take this moment to at least appreciate and show that appreciation to all of them. I'm starting really early from my Santa Fe high school teachers.

It's a bit of a list there because every single time you move up that age, you get some more teachers afterwards. Miss Smith, coach Costa, mister Dawson, miss Pandela, mister Quan, senora Aruedas, y senora Sanchez, coach Pearson, coach Crummins, miss Jones, mister O'Brien, mister Stratton, mister Blake, miss Malstead, miss Kawahara, miss Garcia, mister Diaz, miss Dixon, miss Martha, miss Menick, miss Irving, and every other teacher that has crossed paths with me that has believed in me and pushed me along my way, thank you. To my Lake Center teachers, miss Willard, miss Valencia, miss Rodriguez mister Rodriguez, mister Otero, mister Nguyen, miss Manzer, miss Lopez, miss Jordan, mister Jaime, mister Haynes, miss Dunro, and miss Conforti, and every other teacher staff, my my my librarian, miss Chavarria in here as well. Thank you. Actually, that was for Lakeview days, not just yet.

And then finally, to my Lakeview teachers, miss Lopez, miss Reese, mister Gomez, mister Zofre, miss Erickson, miss Pink, miss Frank, miss Dearborn, thank you for my early upbringing. Before I end my time, I just wanna leave you with this one quote by, doctor Brad Johnson, because I know with comes to teachers, this job is more than people realize. It's every day. It's patients when they're exhausted. It's them showing up when it would be easier not to.

It's them believing in kids when they don't believe in themselves. It's the quiet kid they don't give up on and the strong kid they keep pushing and showing up for. It's creating the moment a student finally thinks, maybe I can. That's the work they do, and it matters more than people think. So thank you, teachers, staff. I know my preschool teachers as well. Miss Nancy is out there.

Miss

Angie, miss so many. Thank you for caring the way you do. Thank you for showing up the way you do, and thank you for the difference that you make in your students' lives each and every day, even to myself. Missus Zamora, thank you. Thank you for your time, and, you know, shout out to teachers. Have a great one.

City Clerk, do we have any other speakers?

Mayor, we do not.

Okay. Thank you to all speakers for showing up. I will now close public comments and move on to the next item. Staff communications. Mr. Robodea, any staff communications?

We do have one item of communication.

Isn't there the five k's in the eighty's vest?

Yes.

Parks rec director. El Charro. Charro. El

El Charro

De Santa Fe Springs.

Good evening again, mister mayor and members of the city council. I'm here to invite our community to our five k this Saturday, May 9 over at Heritage Park. We do have just over 1,800 runners already signed up, which is a record for our five k.

1,800?

Over 1,800. Yeah. We we do have some some space available. So if you're interested, go to santafesprings.gov/5k.

What's our limit?

We have up to 2,500 that we can take.

Oh, wow. Okay.

And then next slide, please. And later that evening, we invite you to put on your big hair, wear your neon, and come out to the first ever eighties fest over at Heritage Park as well. We have different areas. We have the Safari bar. We have Florentine Gardens, and we're gonna be featuring DJ Swedish Eagle out there. So it's a night guarantee for a lot of fun. Thank you very much.

So that one, we probably expect a lot more people then.

Yeah. There's gonna be a lot of reminiscing

Saturday night. Thank you very much. Alright. Thank you. Mr. Bovidia, do you have any other communications?

We we have one, mister mayor, and I'll leave that one to you.

Alright. So with that being said, the only communication is that I would like to share is that it's a special birthday for a 25 year old young lady. Birthday cake for mayor pro tem Rodriguez.

So I don't

know if somebody's bringing out a cake. Oh, wow. On the count of three, can we sing happy birthday? One, hold on. Two, three.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear. And happy birthday to you.

Thank you.

Alright. With that being said, where we at now? Consent calendar. So housing successor successor agency and city council consent calendar. We have a total of 12 consent items, numbers four through 15. Is there a motion for the approval of the consent calendar?

I'll move.

I'll second. Okay. Moved by Rodriguez, seconded by Rounds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? So ordered. Appointments to boards, committees, commissions.

Council member Rounds. None tonight, mayor.

Council member Mora. None tonight. Council member Martin. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.

None tonight. Thank you.

And I also have none. Council comments AB one, two, three, four. Council Conference reporting. Council Member Rounds.

Thank you, Mayor. No AB twelve thirty four conferences to announce at this meeting. But just a recap of tonight, the Mariachis were amazing. Again, I saw them for the first time at the Art Fest, which was amazing in itself. The drone show, everything. What a great way to start off a meeting, like I said earlier. I do want to recognize the teachers and the board of Little Lake School District. It was a tough time, but we got through that. And it's teacher appreciation week, just in time to settle all that so that the teachers could enjoy. Well deserved and thankless job sometimes being a teacher.

But you know what, we need them. Therefore, future, the children and stuff. So thank you to every teacher, anybody that's ever been a teacher or thinking about being a teacher. Happy birthday, Annette. Hopefully, you're doing something fun on your birthday, and I believe you are. So enjoy that. Five k. Yeah. Yeah. The five k, and then you go enjoy your vacation. Right? We'll see everybody. Who's coming to the five k? Alright. Who's gonna be at the eighties fest?

Alright. It's gonna be a great time. Congratulations, Monica. I know you're gonna do a fantastic job. You got a a good board behind you. So it's a win win situation for everybody in the city and the nine schools that you guys operate. And most of all, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers. Enjoy Sunday and just enjoy kickback. I'd say watch football, but watch baseball. Okay? Enjoy. Thank you.

Councilman Amora.

A 1234, nothing yet. Wait for a couple of weeks. There'll be a whole again, an earful. But yeah. Yeah. ARFIS was great from the performers, the staff. Where's Gus? He's gone. And Ed. Oh, you're it was incredible. Year two of staff running and putting it together, it went you know, it it was great. That drone show was also incredible. And, yeah, the mariachi. I can't get over it. I think I like mariachi music now.

So that was good. You know, we did have our big four inaugural summit with all four of our cities coming together, you know, as a force of behind population of 20,000 or less. And this is kind of spearheaded by our very own city manager, Rene Bovadilla. So thank you, Rene, for putting the whole thing together. And we're just going be stronger together with the other three cities.

Annette, happy birthday. And Tom, make sure everything goes good. But and then happy Mother's Day to everybody who is either mom or a mother figure. Have a great weekend. And, Monica, welcome board. And I'm glad teachers and board guys, you guys do this for the kids. And it's done, and I know it was tough, but we have survived this. So have a good evening.

Council mayor Martin.

Thank you. The big four summit, that was great. There's so many people there. It's I didn't really know what to expect. And when we got there and saw so many investors and so many people that were so surprised because they've never been to the Clark Estate, I felt so proud of this is our city, our little gem here.

And they're so so like, besides themselves that our Clark Estate was here and how beautiful it was that they never even realized what they what the city had, and it was great to bring all those people in, and what's gonna come out of it's been great, and our little city is so powerful that we'll be able to do it. Thank you to Renee and for spearheading this, and thank you so much. We had budget meeting a couple weeks ago, and budget meetings aren't always good, but I wanna say ours is good. Julio, thank you for coming in and doing what you're doing, and it has a bit of a long meeting. But you know what? It was great to know that we're positive, and we have a a you know, we have a reserve and everything, and thank you. Because you and your staff

Look at how happy you made them.

No. But thank you. Numbers are always a scary thing to look at, especially nowadays, and our numbers are really good. So thank you to everyone that's been doing their job and making us look so good up here. And like I said, you guys are the ones that make that happen, so thank you so much. Fire. Saw. Thank you so much. The pancake breakfast was good. Excellent. I love always buying some of the t shirts there. It's you guys always have cool shirts and stuff. But thank you for that for providing for the for the community. Real quick, next week, I mean, we're gonna have our meeting on the twelfth. But before that, next week is police week, and that's very dear to me.

Just remember anybody everybody knows some type of police officer out there, police officer, sheriff, anybody out there, just thank them for what they do because we never know if they're ever gonna come home that night. They do things that none of us would ever do, and I know it's a week long thing that we do to remember those that have, you know, fallen officers, but we need to thank them every day. So please, anybody out there that has a police officer friend, family member, thank them for what they're doing. Or even some of that you guys don't know, just thank them. They're the least people that get thanked. So thank you. Also with you, all you guys in uniform, thank you so much. Whittier PD, thank you for what you do. Thank you. Thank you. On that, happy birthday, Annette.

Thank you.

Can't wait. And you're gonna be partying all weekend long. We had this party just for you on Saturday. Just for you. Just for you. So thank you so much.

Well, technically, she wouldn't be the eighties. Right? Because she's 25.

But I wanna be the

Oh, you wanna be the eighties. Okay.

With the high hair.

Yes. Yeah. There you go.

Alright. So mayor pro tem Rodriguez?

Yeah. The eighties and the high hair aqua net. It's what it's about. Just don't smoke a cigarette around me. Don't light a match.

We're sponsored by aqua net.

I want to say this night has been great, starting off with the mariachis. I love them. They're so cute. And, again, you know, the trumpet players and all everybody that played those instruments, are just amazing kids. It is a lot to learn and they did it in six months. So, I am very proud of them. The Big Four Summit was amazing. Just like Juanita said, it was very nice to be at. And thank you, Renee. It was it was you know, we had our four cities.

One of them is Commerce. And I work in Commerce and I work in Santa Fe Springs. We have two different facilities at my day job, my other job. And I wanted to talk to the mayor in commerce, too, because I I did call them about some homeless people, and I talked to some of the council members over there. So I wanted to get to know them a little better, and I was able to. So it was nice to meet other council members and other mayors and find out that the mayor pro tem of one of them is a woman. So I said, Good, I want to go talk to her. I think her name was Melissa. So we got to talk to her, so that was great. And Art Fest was just amazing.

It is getting better and better every year. We are just so proud to live in this city, this great city of Santa Fe Springs. And James Entrique, where is he? Oh, I wanted to tell you that two of your guys helped somebody on Maidstone, not Isabelle, somebody else. They went and helped the guy. The guy gave me a picture of two of your people and he said, Thank you, thank you, thank you, what great people we have in Santa Fe Springs. They didn't have to. They went and dropped off their their stuff and they came back and helped him because he couldn't do whatever it is he was doing alone. So, I am going show you the pictures later. I want you to thank them.

Yes. Monica, welcome. And you are amongst great people. The Board, I want to thank you for everything that you have been through and persevered. I know it couldn't have been easy. And teachers as well, and you have made it happen. You know, you didn't give up and you did what you had to do to stay on top of things because you knew how important it was. The kids are the most important people because they are going to be our future. So, thank you. And moms out there, we know what we are.

We are moms to our children, to our pets, to our fur pets. And we are great mothers, we are strong, we are powerful And we can do anything we set our minds to. Right, ladies? Come on. Right, ladies? Okay. There we go. Thank you. Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope to see you soon. Thank you.

Alright. Mister Rick Olivarez, do you have anything to say? Go

ahead. I'm just over here practicing my r's. Yeah. Trying to you know, I'm kinda stuck with me. So other than that, I have nothing else to report. But thank you for the opportunity, mayor.

I'm sorry. We just have a really good relationship with mister Olivarez. So where do I start? Where do I end? I mean, you've already heard everybody. Yes, our conferences are going be starting up soon, you're going to see us reporting out on a lot of our conferences. All this month alone, I think we have three conferences around there, two two right? Two to three, depending on what boards you're on. Other than that, I just want to start off by the Artfest. Artfest was amazing.

A lot of people just enjoyed themselves, and that's what we want to do. And, you know, like you heard today with the mariachi, music just does something. It creates a different balance in your life. It allows you to be joyful. You know, of course, when you go to church, God just asks just to make a joyful sound. That's what music is. You know, the interpretation, you don't have to understand the words, but you you can just see the joy in these kids. And, you know, when you fight or when you do things and you wanna advocate for kids, I mean, sometimes people just may lose their way. But in the end, everything gets done for these kids. So with teacher appreciation, I mean, we always have to recognize our teachers.

I mean, they're just amazing, and and they and like council member Rounds said, it is a thankless job. You know? It's a thankless job not only for teachers, a thankless job. For board members, it's a thankless job for principals, superintendents. I mean, we have Cindy Jarvis, and I know sometimes being a principal, having many different hats, it's difficult.

Monica, I would highly suggest you get Cindy Jarvis' number if you don't have it already and communicate with each other. You know, communicate with each other because then at least you have another individual that you can confide in and talk to, and it just makes it a lot better. Just not only for you, but congratulations. It's well deserved. And, you know, happy Mother's Day to Monica. All the other mothers out here, Lisa, Mary, Diana, Juanita. Oh, I god. She's last. Juanita, Annette, Maribel. Think that's it.

No. Liz. Oh, I didn't see you. I'm sorry. Liz, Cindy. Alright. And I believe that's that's who we have as moms. Oh, moms, Isabelle. Okay. So some of you guys have play a you have a different role, whether it be aunts, you know, or you you like like John said, you have a different guidance or whatever you do in a child's life.

I mean, without moms, I mean, it is it is a truly a true blessing to all of us. So I personally want to thank my mom. You know, I know things sometimes can be difficult, but, you know, it's just you know, this is the son of the this is the son that I am. So I know sometimes in life, people know that I'm very direct. So it's just you know, but happy Mother's Day, mom.

I do love you. You know? Feliz Dia de las Madres. The Big Four Summit. For those of you don't who don't understand the capacity of the the Big Four, you're gonna always see people put stuff down, and they're gonna always, you know, try to create, you know, a different narrative in the background. So just to give you the short firm short form version of the big four. We have Vernon, the city of Vernon, city of commerce, city of industry, and the city of Santa Fe Springs. We're gonna deal with is it LA County or LA City, Renee? LA County, that's the twentieth?

So if the if this if LA County was a nation A nation. They would be the twentieth in the world as a gross domestic product GDP. Nation, GDP. If the big four, just the four cities were a nation, we'd be sixtieth in the world in GDP. That's the power of the four cities and the amount of dollars that move through these cities. It is massive and the summit or this big four really is bringing these four cities together like industrial cities to really figure how to work together, work with the state of California and ensuring that these businesses stay and don't leave the state of California that they stay here. It's a it's a big powerful engine that we have and we need to preserve it and let the state know how important that is.

So when you look at it, our four cities consist of a 100,000,000,000. A 100,000,000,000. So when people want to say things, they want to dictate their own narrative. You know, you're not gonna hear us say anything and try to defend ourselves because our actions, the things that we're bringing to the table, it it it speaks for itself. I mean, God's gonna bless you.

And, you know, he's blessed us with an amazing city manager, an amazing city attorney, amazing assistant city attorney, I mean, assistant city manager, I'm sorry, and Nick. But those three he got a promotion. Just having those three, these are the things that when it comes to leadership, people lead by showing the value of their worth. In these four cities, the value of our worth is a $100,000,000,000. So imagine if we were a nation, we were our own country, we would be sixtieth in the world.

Haters will always hate. Doesn't matter where we're at, what they say, what they do. But when it comes to production, mister Bobadilla, he spearheaded this, and he's the one who got us in the situation and put us in the forefront to evolve and to have a vision where most people are not having that vision. So I do want to thank not only mister Bobadilla here, but I do want to I also want to thank Brian Syke from the city of Vernon, their city administration, which slashes city manager. Josh what's Josh? Nelson. Josh Nelson from the city of Industry, and Ernie Hernandez from the city of Commerce.

Mayor, if you would have said five years ago, the city of industry, the city of Santa Fe Springs and commerce in Vernon were even gonna have a conversation, I would say, would never have happened. No. And and now forward, all four of us working together and the councils working together is a testament to what you can do when you really you know, like Morris said, you know, stronger together. Yeah. We're really it really embodies that.

And and my four colleagues, my three colleagues are great and amazing, and and we're all we're all this for the right reasons and I thank you, the council, for allowing us the opportunity to do this and hopefully this will bear good fruit and you'll see a big difference in how business and how we can advocate with state.

Thank you. Thank you. So when you look at that, now when you look at our budget, it's like Juanita said up here, the budget just having that foresight and you see the numbers and wherever Julio's at. We give Julio a hard time. He's our finance director.

I mean but he just wants to talk about numbers all the time, you know? And I don't know about you, but I mean, I don't know. Numbers are just not that thrilling to for a lot of individuals. If numbers were so you know, if numbers had such a great safeguard, I mean, it would be like we'd be able to talk about it all, you know, every day. So it is a math word problem, so I do wanna thank Julio.

I mean, besides everybody else, thank you, guys. Also, we wanna bring up Police Week. Of course, without our law enforcement, WPD, CHP, whatever is our sheriff's LAPD, whatever it may be, anybody who puts their harms their selves in harm's way and runs into the thick of it fire, I mean, it's just a great, you know, it's a great thing and that we have somebody some individuals that are there to protect us. Even though sometimes people won't ask for the protection, you know, and we'll ask to defund the police. In the city of Santa Fe Springs, we like to say that we're always gonna defend the police.

So thank you with that. Other than that, I think that is it. Mister mayor, May

we just finished up the best month of the year, which is April, and our assistant city manager, Nick Roswell, celebrated her birthday last Sunday. And then we move into May, and our finance director had a birthday as well. So

so Nick looks about 15. Julio, you looks wait. I wasn't gonna say your real age. You see how direct he is even when it comes to his age? He's still gonna tell you his actual age. So once again, thank you. Once again, Monica, thank you. Well deserved. Other than that, meeting adjourned at 07:03PM. Thank you, everyone. God bless, and have a great night.