City Council - Regular Meeting

Have our invocation by Gina Milligan Santa Anita Church as well as to have her do the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. I

That works better. Let us pray. Infinite, all-encompassing force of fathomless love, tonight we hear our calling for this community, the place of families and industry, schools and commerce, community and activity where all are cared for and provided for in every way. We who have eyes and ears attuned to fear believe that there is so much to be afraid of. And we who have hearts attuned to love know that only love can conquer fear. Where there is anger, we choose to meet it with a loving kindness. Where there is want, we choose to meet it with a loving generosity. Where there is heartbreak or confusion, struggle or enmity, we here on this day choose to meet it with love. Just as darkness cannot exist where there is light, fear cannot exist where there is love. Rest within us fully as we allow our hands to deliver love, our footsteps to forge the path of love, our heartbeats to awaken hearts to love, and our minds to see your perfect vision clearly until all eyes can see it with us. The harmony, abundance, and peace of this community are ours to ensure. And we know that loving compassion is what makes it all possible. We are deeply and reverently grateful to be instruments in divine hands. So let it be. Amen. And if you will please place your right hand over your heart and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Beginning, 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.

All right. Do we have a report from the city attorney regarding any closed study session items?

Thank you, Mayor. There was no closed session today, but there was a study session. I will note that we did take public comment on item B, which relates to regulations for electric bicycles, motorized scooters, and group cyclists, but we didn't end up engaging in a discussion on that. We'll continue that to a future meeting. As far as part A... The council did provide some direction to staff to bring back a policy and engage a third-party legal review for some of our existing policies, as well as a state controller review related to city funds. And so there were some items that will come back to the council. Those are, of course, not final items at study session, but items that we'll hear again in the future. With that, Mayor, that concludes my report. Thank you.

Supplemental information from city manager recording agenda items.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Good evening members of the city council just for the general public's benefit tonight. We're under new rules. Uh, Senate bill went into effect on July 1st and that requires, um. remote participation of our city council meetings. That remote participation is a fantastic thing, but it might slow down our public comment process a little bit. So it's gonna be even more important when we call for public comments, please make sure those of you in the room that wanna participate in public comment, please get your card into that box in the front of the room. at the beginning of the meeting, if at all possible, because we're not going to be able to be going back and forth like we used to. And welcome to all the people on Zoom who are participating remotely, and hopefully it will increase public participation over the months and years, which is what the state legislature is looking for. So with that, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Mayor, for our presentations.

Well, I'm gonna have Justin come up and let me tell you why there are so many outgoing board and commission members that are here. So I would like just need to be able to come up and actually, Dominic. Um, I want Dominic to share just about the number of hours man hours that these commission members and board members do. Um, a lot of us actually don't really. We know Dominic as the handsome man in the back, but the reality is you never heard him speak off the cuff, which I've. DIDN'T TELL HIM HE WAS GOING TO DO. JUST TO HAVE HIM SHARE ABOUT WHAT OUR COMMISSIONS AND OUR BOARDS DO AND JUST ABOUT HIS THOUGHTS AND JUST BE ABLE TO LEAD IN TERMS OF THE NOT ONLY THE SPEECH BUT ALSO THE PRESENTATION THE ALCOHOL BOARD MEMBERS.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, every year when we celebrate our volunteers in the city, we give a number that basically all our various boards, commissioners, and volunteers in the community give something on the order of about a half a million dollars of service to the city. That ends up being, you know, multiple city employees worth of, many multiple city employees worth of valuable service to the community. And depending on what board or commission you get on, it could be a pretty nominal monthly requirement. And other boards and commissions, they're working almost as much as full-time employees. So from a staff level, we very much appreciate every one of the hours you put in, whether it's one hour a month or 30 hours a month. So thank you to all of you who have given four, eight or in some cases, two or four years to the city. We appreciate it. The city's better because of the time you put in and we look forward to the new members coming in and all the great value you're gonna bring in the various key areas of the city over the next number of years. So thank you.

All right, so at this time, We're going to need to recognize the outgoing members that are going to be recognized first. First person is the incredible Marilyn Weilander, who is with the Planning Commission for eight years. Can you be able to come on up? Chair Weilander is one of the kindest people and during COVID, she was one of the few residents that would meet with me by Zoom to be able to tell me what her thoughts were in the city of Arcadia. So I wanted to say thank you. Next person, Virginia Blitz from the Arcadia Museum Commission serving for eight years. Are you here? The Arcadia Museum Commission is an incredible place, so come on up. You look great.

Here you go.

And then we also have Miriam Carter. Miriam. With the Library Board of Trustees, an incredible organization. So if you can be in the middle. I'd like all three of you just to share a little bit about your time and just about what you think about service and hopefully telling people to come and serve.

Actually, I had 11 years because I had two four-year terms and then finishing three years of a previous commission. So it was very nice being on the museum commission. I have been on the board of the Friends of the Museum, too. I'm very happy to be honored this way. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this honor. It has been a privilege, absolutely a privilege, to serve for the Library Commission. Love reading, love books, love the director, all the people that were on our committee, our commission. It was wonderful, and I'll remember it forever. Thank you.

Thank you. It's really been an honor to serve on the Planning Commission. I was sworn in eight years ago, and I learned so much being on the Planning Commission. I was involved in different experiences, so I had some experience, but I just—a wonderful team. As a planning commissioner, I chose to go to a conference and talk with a lot of other people from other cities. And I came to realize that Arcadia is really fortunate to have such an excellent planning commission. And I've met with all of the members of the city council who took turns being our liaison and keeping us connected with city council. So I look forward to continuing to be an active part of Arcadia and appreciate the opportunity.

May we have City Council come and take a picture with you? Yeah? Okay. Can we have City Council come down? And there's a lot of presentations, so if City Council even can just stay down here, you won't have to go back. So if you could just move up. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. All right, another round of applause. All right, well, we have a lot of new commissioners and reappointed commissioners. So if I could have you come up. Ethel Lasko, Arcadia Museum Commission, appointed to another four-year term. Dale Carter, Arcadia Museum Commission, appointed to another four-year term. William Hsu, Human Resources Commission, appointed to a four-year term. Elizabeth Renfrew, Library Board of Trustees, an incredible, incredible Arcadian. Jeff Chang, Library Board of Trustees, appointed to another four-year term. Angela Hui, Planning Commission, appointed to another four-year term. Chang Li, Planning Commission, appointed to a four-year term. Ricky Lau, Planning Commission, appointed to a four-year term. Chris Arzate. recreation and parks commission douglas meyer seniors commission at large position appointed to a two-year term connie leo senior citizens commission at large position appointed to a two-year term derek young senior citizens commission an incredible commission you're going to love it at large position appointed to serve unexpired term ending june 30th 2027 Donna Salter, another great Arcadian, Senior Citizens Commission, Assistance League, appointed to a two-year term. And Doris Arbor, Senior Citizens Commission, Golden Senior Club, reappointed to a two-year term. If you guys can all come up. Squeeze in together so we can take a picture with you. Hey, Ricky. Oh, it's okay. It's okay. You don't have to worry about me.

No, don't worry, don't worry.

There is one person that was unable to attend tonight, an incredible resident, Marilyn DeLeo, Arcadia Museum Commission, also reappointed to a four-year term. So if we can have everybody squeeze in. Doug Meyer, he's my mom's neighbor on Wisteria. Good. We have everybody just squeeze in and we'll take a quick picture. All right, great. Thank you so much. Let's give a round of applause to everybody. Thank you.

So I do want to say we are going to swear you in. Welcome, new board members and commissioners. Okay, so if I could please have you all raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I state your name. Do solemnly swear or affirm. Do solemnly swear or affirm. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Against all enemies foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States.

To the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

That I take this obligation freely.

without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations. Okay, you all may step down. Thank you very much and congratulations.

I'd like to call the family of Austin Bowen to the dais. Are you here? I understand that Austin can't be here tonight. He's competing in an international tournament. You know, when this family contacted us, it was so important. Their son was actually in a photograph and it was allocated to an event that had nothing to do with him. And why do we want to recognize this family today? Because this publication was spread around the world. And what this family said is, if it happens to my child, It could happen to other people's children. And the inclusion of the photograph caused distress to Austin and his family. Why is this proclamation necessary? Because it encourages ethical responsibility in reporting, particularly when it comes to children and unrelated individuals that may be affected. Let me read a few portions of the proclamation. Photographs, videos, and images have a powerful influence on public perception and may shape opinions indefinitely. The use of images depicting children that are unrelated to the subject matter of a news report may create misleading impression or expose young people to unwanted public scrutiny. Arcadia supports careful consideration of whether publication of a child's image serves a legitimate journalistic purpose. Therefore, what we want to do is in the city of Arcadia, we want to urge all news organizations to follow editorial standards governing the ethical selection labeling and contextual use of photographs involving minors. And so what we want to do is be one of the first cities in California to take a stand with Austin's family, leading the way that when you include minors in your news stories, that you do not do so because it impacts people's lives. So let's give a round of applause to Austin's family for coming to the city. Here's the proclamation from the city of Arcadia. Let's have city council come on down again and let's have Austin's parents just share a little bit about what their thoughts are because you're the leaders behind this movement.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Jen Bauman Chen. People usually call me Dr. Chen at City of Hope, where I serve as a professor for our graduate school. And my mission has been conducting research in diabetes and complications, as well as training next-generation scientists. This story is not about my student, but it's... about our next young generation. My son, I wouldn't say I would encourage you, but if you take the courage to Google Austin Bauman and Kung Fu, These two keywords link a child or a student with passion in Chinese martial art that he grew up with and became actually excellent at. And as Mayor Cheng mentioned, he represented the United States to compete in an invitational tournament in Beijing in the past month. He looked up himself because he was awarded a grand championship for all around Wushu just a month back. And he was taken, thank you, at a practice on Baldwin Avenue. A journalist walked in, asked if I could take a photo of you. What's your name? We weren't there as parents. Austin kindly said, okay. He didn't know what he said okay to. When he looked himself up on Google for his grand championship, he's a proud athlete and student at Arcadia High. What he found wasn't something he expected. I don't have to repeat here. You can still find it online with numerous and immense efforts by our city council. They eliminated almost all the traces, but something is hardly eradicated. And this is the obligation as parents, as adults, that we have to protect our younger generation. And for the younger ones here, including the ones standing next to me and the other ones here, you have the obligation and right to protect yourself. And this is a world not only with people, but also digital content. And that's something that we want to protect ourselves, our next generation. And always keep in mind, this is for our own children or our nephews or our niece. Before we take action, think about if this is something we want to do to our beloved ones. Thank you.

I don't have much to add to that, but in this modern world, we have to remember that once something goes online, you can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. It's out there, and it's out of your control. We really do want to thank the city, the council for their quick and decisive action. That's really heartwarming to see the effort you put in in assisting us with the matter. And it gives us confidence that something can be done about it. So we really do appreciate that. Thank you.

Did you have anything to say at all?

Hi, I'm Austin Bauman's little brother, Archer. And especially on the thing where he got put on it, it was very embarrassing. So I think your choice was very correct. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, let's take a picture. Thank you. All right, I'm going to switch it up a little bit. The reason why is because we have in our midst, now I know a lot of people were watching the World Cup and I know none of us could afford to go. However, there was a 13-year-old student that was selected as an official FIFA flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on July 18th, 2026. Atticus, are you here? Yeah, come on up. So Atticus, joined a group of participants that carried the FIFA flag. Now, I could actually go through all the incredible things that are written here. Your achievements in robotics, computer science and youth leadership, four-time California state champion, three-time US Open national champion in VEX robotics, USACO gold competitor, The list is so long that I'm afraid I can't get through it. What I'd like you to do, though, is just tell us a little bit about what happened, what you did, and just a little bit about yourself and what motivates you to be such an incredible individual. And so tall, by the way, for 13 years old, yeah?

OK, thank you everybody for being here. And I feel honored for this recognition. This time at the FIFA World Cup, I've experienced bringing the flag up to the pitch and meeting a lot of new people, it was a really, really nice experience. And as for myself, the motivation for me to have this many achievements is that I want to make this world a better place and impact in a great way and help a lot of people. I created an organization called National Youth National Youth Innovation Foundation to help children with autism experience robotics because one of my friends has an autistic brother who really really likes robotics But unfortunately, he could not keep up with the pace of other people kids learning Due to that, he usually always got excluded from classes, events, and fun activities. So I thought it was really not fair for somebody that was born with a disability to get excluded. So I created this foundation to help them experience robotics and learn about them.

Well, let's have everybody come on down again. Here is the mayor's commendation presented to you, sir. The future of Arcadia. And what school do you go to? Claiborne. I'm going to Barnhart for eighth. Wow. Incredible. Here you go. There you go, sir. Thank you so much. Are those your parents? Yes. Well, have your parents come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. So introduce who's coming up.

This is my mom. And I am really grateful for her because she has supported me all the way to become the person that I am right now. All right.

You know, they say that fathers are the road back home, but mothers are the light at the home. And so, Atticus, I really hope that you will continue to bless your mom as she is the light of the home. And so, always remember that. Now, I have a distinct honor of taking my time to be able to introduce our A hero in our mess. A person that is part of my chain of command in the State Guard. As a Colonel. A distinguished leader for over 50 years. Dedicated public servant. in military, law enforcement, and academia. I'm so sorry, Colonel. I'm so nervous being in front of you. It is one of the things that I've realized, being in the State Guard and being in service, is that the higher you go, we have Major Cal, we have colonels that are in the room. how intelligent people in the military are. And it's very nerve-wracking being a first lieutenant because being in front of them, I'm even nervous about the words that I'm saying. So I apologize, sir. But of course, it doesn't matter. You always say to me, don't say sorry, just don't do it again. Colonel Charles Buck Stapleton is retiring from the California Military Department on August 29, 2026, after more than 36 years of excellent state service. Currently, Colonel Stapleton is serving as Colonel and Commander of the 49th Military Police Support Detachment of the California State Guard. Colonel Stapleton served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 until 1970, including a combat tour in Vietnam. Serving in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1986 until 1990, and a U.S. Army certified military police instructor in the 6,000, is it 622 or 6222, sir? 6222nd USAR School. Colonel Stapleton began working for the Los Angeles Police Department in 1971 and later served as a Glendale Police Reserve Officer. He currently serves as a Senior Reserve Deputy Probation Office for LA County. Colonel Stapleton co-founded the LAPD LACCD police orientation, preparation program, and helped establish the Probation Academy for Juvenile Corrections Probation Office core and key training courses in firearm, riot control, and forensics. He earned his bachelor's degree from UCLA, master's from Cal State University Los Angeles, and completed his graduate coursework at Southwestern University School of Law. Colonel Stapleton is retired from the Los Angeles Community College District as division chair and ombudsman, and he also taught at California State University Los Angeles. He is a real estate educator. Many of us that do real estate law know him. Training broker and co-author of California Real Estate Principles, 14th edition that all of us read. Colonel Stapleton, your legacy of honor, integrity, and selfless service will continue to inspire future generations. We as a city, a community, and a country extend our sincere and humble gratitude and best wishes for a rewarding retirement. Can you come on up, sir? So I'm gonna have City Council come down and I'm also gonna have people that you have invited to also come up as well to be part of a picture with City Council. Would that be okay, sir? All right, thank you. Let's have City Council come on down. Yes, sir. And the floor is yours as you share and as we take a picture. Here you go, sir.

Well, thank you. It's an honor to have served not only the state of California, the federal government, but also the local community. My wife and I, I'm a U.S. citizen born, but she's a citizen by choice. And we selected the San Gabriel Valley mainly for its culture. The restaurants, right, are cool. And also... I teach at a local community college and a local state college. Probably the best experience I've ever had is seeing one of my former students, either a police candidate, a political science candidate, or someone that has gone through the military and watched them succeed. So it's an honor to be recognized. And Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you very much, and honorable council members, and for my support group here. Thank you very much.

We also have other veterans that are in the room. I'd just like to have them introduce themselves and say a little bit, please. Yes.

Good evening. My name is Captain Arthur Fong, U.S. Navy, retired. I want to say thank you for the whole Acadia City Hall, Mayor Chen, and all the city council members. You guys are great, you know, taking care of the veterans. To our retiree, I have to say one thing. When I grow up, I just want to be like you, okay?

Well, I'm Major Chan, Army. I want everybody to say, give me a hooah. Hooah. Hooah. Ah, there we go. I'm a combat arm person. I'm an Army engineer. So I'm very happy to be here. Here you go. Colonel, congratulations.

Yes, congratulations buck. And, uh, also, uh, thank the council for, uh, recognizing buck and, and the rest of us that are here to just, uh, be here for us. Um, uh, earn a slow United States Navy, Vietnam, three year combat.

I just want to introduce her. I want her to introduce herself because of the fact that she retired from the FBI and someone that is in our community that serves the community and serves our country. So let's have her introduce herself.

Thank you for inviting me. I don't want to be on the spot. Tonight is for this gentleman right here. So I've known Buck since I was 24. So you could do the math. I'm 51. So we've been really good friends. Buck is his, how do you describe this gentleman? Just full integrity with a military background, honor, integrity, you know, all the good things about the military. So I just want to say, In the military, they just take orders. They don't file any political affiliation. They don't do gossip. They don't do Facebook. They take orders. So whatever the order is, they just follow the order. And every branch serve with honor. I had the opportunity to serve in Afghanistan as a FBI agent, and I worked with all branches of the military. It was a humbling experience for me. It was an eye-opener for me, all the sacrifices that every military member has made. Just really very humbling. Again, tonight is for Buck. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your service. And this country and this state is much safer because of your dedication in protecting this country, this state, and also the communities that you live in. Thank you so much.

And lastly, let's just have Buck's wife, Colonel's wife, just to be able to share her thoughts. She's just been such a rock for him, so I'd like her an opportunity to speak.

Well, I'm always here to support him, so that's all I do. Whatever it is that he wants to do, I'm willing to support what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. So we're here all to honor him, and I'm very proud of him. I'm so proud of him. So I don't know, you know, I'm just so proud of him. Thank you.

She's quite humble. She's an actor and a model. And I always get the last words in, yes, dear. Thank you, sir. We don't salute indoors, but we can have one now.

All right.

It's so incredible just to have veterans in the room, people that have gone overseas from different backgrounds, different colors. That's what America's about. So really wanted to thank Colonel Stapleton and family for coming today. Where are we? Yes, thank you. You know, the four pillars of a good community are first responders, great city staff, great school district, and great residents. And Arcadia remains a destination city for one specific reason. Over 39 years, we have had a person in our community that has kept our community together, that has kept our community whole. So Chief, I don't see you. Where'd you go? That's one of the things that I say. Don't get old. Because one of the things that happened to me is I can't see far and I can't see near. So I have glasses for everything. People say when you get older you have glasses for everything. It's everywhere. I have reading glasses. I have ten reading glasses. One in my pocket, one in my car. And I'm looking for Chief Roy. Well, Chief Roy, come on up. Come on up. Let's give a round of applause to a person that keeps our community safe and allows you to rest so he stays up at night. So Chief Roy, you are going to be retiring at the end of the month. I'd like you to just share to the community what your thoughts are. And we just want to say thank you, sir.

Very simple. I'm very grateful for the city of Arcadia. 34 years ago, they took a chance on me. And when they talk about living the dream, I have the opportunity of living the dream. And I have nothing but gratitude. And it's been a fantastic city to work for, fantastic organization, second to none. So thank you very much, and I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Chief. Come on, come on, guys.

Chief Roy, stay up here. We as city council want to take a picture with you. Can we also have city manager, city staff, city attorney just come on up? It's one of the few pictures that we actually have together. So come on in. Let's give another round of applause. Was this part of the?

All right, okay.

Josh, are you here? I didn't see you. Okay, all right. So this person, Josh Goldman, is so incredible because any time you have any issues in the state of Arcadia, trash related, he answers his phone 24-7. And so we want to recognize them. Last month, Waste Management in the City of Arcadia partnered to launch the first environmental scholarship program. Scholarships were available to graduating high school seniors who are residents of Arcadia are in good standing and are attending a four year university, community college or trade school in the fall. Before we recognize the recipients tonight, I want to invite Josh and Bridget to the stage to talk more about the program and the winners, if you can introduce your team here.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd also want to introduce Don. He's a colleague of mine, works with us at Waste Management. The incredible service we provide the city wouldn't be possible without the support of him, as well as Bridget and the rest of the Public Works staff. It's really a collaborative effort.

You know, since Josh has been on, there have been more recycling events. And he, well, Josh and waste management, for those of you that are seniors, or if you have any type of physical handicap, you call up waste management and they will pull out the trash cans for you, bring it to the curb, and put it back. All of that for free. So these are things that waste management and Josh has done in an incredible manner. So let me hand the mic back. Sorry about that.

Yeah, I'm just going to say, I'm going to say a couple words about it and then Bridget's going to introduce the, the recipients. Good evening everybody. So, as, as the mayor said, this was the 1st year that we, we launched the scholarship and this year's scholarship election process. What's exceptionally competitive every applicant demonstrated remarkable academic achievements, leadership and service, making the committee's decision incredibly difficult. We were continually amazed by how much one high school student could accomplish through a single extracurricular activity, and we were especially amazed by the number of extracurricular activities that high school students in Arcadia participate in. Who would have known? What stood out most, however, was the students' deep commitment to giving back to the city of Arcadia. Many shared inspiring visions of how they plan to use their college education to address challenges facing their communities here at home, from advancing renewable energy solutions, improving water filtration systems, and long-term environmental sustainability. Their passion, purpose, and desire to create meaningful change gives us great confidence in the future and makes us proud to recognize these outstanding scholars from Arcadia.

Hello, my name's Bridget Arndell. I'm the Environmental Services Manager here in the city of Arcadia. I'm really proud to announce these three winners. First, we'll start off with LaSalle College Prep student, Olivia Ferrari, who is attending UC San Diego this fall. You can stay up here. We're going to take a photo right after. The next student I'd like to announce is Arcadia High School student Pooja Rajesh, who will be attending the University of California, Los Angeles this fall. And the third student is from Arcadia High School as well, Theo Truong, who will be attending University of California, Riverside this fall.

Well, let's just have each one of you introduce yourself, and then we'll take pictures. Also have family that is here to support to come on up. Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Pooja. I'm very incredibly grateful to receive the scholarship today. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Olivia. I just want to say I'm really grateful for this amazing opportunity and using it to help with my education.

Hi, my name is Theo Chong, and I'm also incredibly grateful for this opportunity to help my education.

All right, we're going to have city council as well. I saw someone's family member come on up so we could take a picture with you. Anybody else that's here to support, come on up.

Squeeze a little bit.

Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, another round of applause. All right, we're going to go to item number eight, appointments to the Arcadia Museum Commission, the Human Resources Commission. We'll have the city manager be able to introduce the item.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As the title indicates, you saw the appointments that we made at the beginning of the meeting. But when we finished that process on June 16th, we still had a vacancy on the Museum Commission and one on the Human Resources Commission. So we extended the nomination period. We checked with those that applied with other boards and commissions to see if they'd be interested in serving on one of these two commissions. And you have before you a list of candidates for both commissions. So it would be appropriate for the city council to make nominations to one or both of those commissions at this time.

All right, great. We do have a long agenda item tonight. So let's go around the room. Council Member Kwan, did you have anybody that you wanted to appoint for the Arcadia Museum Commission?

Yes, Domenico Talarico from District 1. And then for the Human Resources Commission, Johnny Sang.

Okay. Council Member Cao.

Yes, I'd like to nominate Roberto Marquez for the Museum Commission and Azar Dabari for the Human Resource Commission.

Okay, Council Member Hahn.

For the Museum Commission, Roberta Marquez. And for Human Resources, Kenneth Pru.

Okay, Roberta Marquez. Yes. And then for Human Resources?

Kenneth Pru.

Kenneth Pru, okay. And Mayor Pro Temfu?

For the Museum Commission, Roberta Marquez. And for the Human Resources Commission, Azar Dabiri.

Okay. So it looks like for the Arcadia Museum Commission, Roberto Marquez has three votes. We're good on that. And for the Human Resources Commission, we'll have, I'll vote for Azhar Dabiri in District 4, my district. So thank you so much for supporting that. So we have appointments, Roberto Marquez for the Arcadia Museum Commission and Azhar Dabiri for the Human Resources Commission. Any questions? You guys good? All right. Now we're going to have a public hearing. Item number nine for the public hearing. Now... I ripped out my paper, so they're all disorganized. But in terms of item number nine, the item that we have is to confirm the County of Los Angeles Department, the weed abatement that we have to do every year. So council members, in terms of the weed abatement, it's a public hearing. It's basically procedural. It's basically LA County charging the properties on a yearly basis for the weed abatement. So let's go to the staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As you indicated, this is the final opportunity for property owners to protest the proposed charges. This year's charge for the 18 subject properties will be $59.07. This process started in February where property owners were notified that they either needed to clean up their own vacant properties or to allow the county to do it. The county has done that work and now this is the final opportunity to protest those charges before it gets placed on their property tax bills. Traditionally, we do not get any protests for this, but again, these 18 properties would be charged $59.07 on their property taxes for this service. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and we also have somebody from the county available to answer questions if needed. It would be appropriate to check for public comments, if any, and open the public hearing.

Are there any public comments?

Members of the public participating remotely, if you wish to provide public comment on this specific item, please raise your hand. Those calling the conference line, please raise your hand by pressing star nine.

All right, without any public comments, do we have any questions?

I'm sorry. Mayor, let me check online. Remotely, we have a caller with the phone number in the last four digits, 1474. I'm going to unmute. This is for the weed abatement. Go ahead and speak.

Caller, this is for item. Oh, go ahead.

No, I'm waiting for general public comment, please.

Understood. Thank you very much. So there's no public comment for item 9A as an alpha. Does council have any questions or comments?

Be appropriate to close the public comment.

We're gonna close the public hearing. Does council have any comments or questions? Okay, seeing none, may I have a motion for item 9A?

This is Mike, I'll make the motion for 9A.

All right, do I have a second? Second. All right, we have Council Member Raquel, Council Member Rahan for item 9A, let's call the question.

Council Member Cao.

Yes.

Council Member Han.

Yes.

Council Member Kwan.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempfu.

Yes.

Mayor Chang.

Yes. All right, let's go to item 9B, resolution 7960, confirming the engineer's report for the levy and collection of the Arcadia Citywide Lighting District number one in the associated assessment diagram, ordering the levy and collection of assessments for fiscal year 2026 through 2027. Let's open up the public comment.

Would you like a staff presentation first? Sure. Is there a staff presentation? We do. We have Anastasia Kim presenting tonight. It's actually her first night presenting for the city council. So good luck, Anastasia. I won't interrupt your flow. I'll just turn it over to you at this point.

All right, good evening, Mayor Chang, members of the City Council. As Dominic, Mr. Lazzaretto introduced, my name is Anastasia, and I am here on behalf of the Public Works Services Department to present the fiscal year 26-27 Citywide Lighting District and tonight's required public hearing. As a brief refresher for the council members and for any residents tuning in who may not be too familiar, the citywide lighting district was formed pursuant to the Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 to help fund the ongoing maintenance, operation, and servicing of Arcadia's street lighting system. The district uses a shared cost model in which the city funds about 60% of the costs and property owners contribute the remaining 40% through annual assessments collected on the property tax roll. At the June 2nd city council meeting, council adopted resolutions 7690 through 7692. which initiated the annual assessment proceedings, approved the preliminary engineer's report, and originally set the public hearing date for June 16th, 2026. I say originally because at the previous council meeting, the public hearing was rescheduled for today, July 21st, 2026. As part of the annual levy collection process, state law requires the city to hold a public hearing before the city can continue collecting assessments for the district. In accordance with those requirements, the city of Arcadia did post a notice of public hearing and the related resolutions on the Arcadia Weekly on June 20th, 2026. Now, budget. For the fiscal year 26-27, the city-wide lighting district operating budget is $1,538,400. This is an approximately $53,000 or 3.57% increase compared to the last fiscal year. The factors contributing to the increase are pretty typical. The main factors would be higher electricity costs, vehicle maintenance costs, salaries and wages, and city liability insurance costs. Despite these increased operating costs, staff is recommending no increase to the assessment rates for this fiscal year. We are not proposing an increased annual rate because the lighting district has sufficient balance to cover emergency street lighting repairs. Because not every property receives the same type or level of benefit from street lighting, the city-wide lighting district is separated into two zones. We have zone one, which includes properties along what we call arterial streets. They are kind of what they sound like. They are major roadways. So we could think of Baldwin Avenue, Huntington Drive, Las Tunas. These properties located along these streets primarily perceive general benefit from arterial street lighting. On the other hand, properties in Zone 2 consist of residential neighborhoods throughout the city that receive specific benefit from local street lighting servicing neighborhoods, streets, and homes. Because the level of benefit differs between these areas, assessment rates also differ. For this fiscal year 26-27, a single family residential property in Zone 1 will pay an annual assessment of $23.69. For the same type of property in Zone 2, they will be paying an annual assessment of $40.33. Once again, I want to reiterate that these rates remain unchanged from the last fiscal year. So how are these assessments calculated? Assessments are based on a special benefit each property receives from the streetlights. So to determine this benefit, we contracted Wildan Financial Services, who we have contracted before, to create an engineer's report. And the engineer's report uses a methodology known as the equivalent benefit unit, or EBUs. Essentially, the assessments are calculated based on factors like the property's use, size, and level of street lighting benefit it receives. So a commercial property, a hotel, a parking lot, a single family residential property, they would all have different levels of benefit that they receive. Included in this EBU methodology is also a benefit multiplier, which accounts for the varying density levels of street lighting. So properties located in areas with reduced street lighting will pay a reduced assessment of approximately 20% the standard, and properties located in areas without street lighting won't be assessed. Now, this is a lot of technical information and a very condensed presentation. So I would like the residents to know that if they are interested, they could request the full engineer's report. and the assessment roll via the city clerk's office. Having said all this, staff recommends that the city council conduct tonight's public hearing, receive any public comments, and upon closing the public hearing, adopt resolution number 7693, which would confirm the engineer's report and order the levy and collection of assessments for the fiscal year 26-27 lighting district. If approved, the assessments will be collected through the 2026 property tax roll. Will Dan, our consultant, is tuned in online to answer any questions. But of course, Deputy Director Carmen Masuda and I would be happy to answer any questions as well.

All right, great. Do we have any public comment for item nine, B as in Bravo?

Mayor, we do not.

Okay, we can close the public comment. Does City Council have any questions or comments for City staff or comments in general? No, it's great. Just let the public know the reason why we're just talking back and forth is because tonight's the first night that we are using Zoom pursuant to a new code. And so we're just confirming, want to make sure everybody is available and feels included. There does not seem to be any public comment, either in person or online.

Mayor, I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm going to ask if anyone would like to participate. This is for item, sorry, 9B. If there is anyone participating remotely that would like to provide a public comment, please raise your hand. Those calling in, please raise your hand pressing star nine.

All right. No public comments online as well. So we're going to close the public comment. Any questions or comments from City Council? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve Resolution 7963?

Who moves to approve?

Michael will second that motion. Okay, we have Mayor Pro Tem Fu, Council Member Cao for resolution 7693. Let's call the question.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu?

Yes.

Council Member Cao?

Yes.

Council Member Han?

Yes.

Council Member Kwan? Yes. Mayor Chang?

Yes. All right, let's open the public hearing for item nine, C is in Charlie. regarding resolution 7705, approving architectural design review ADR 25-11 with the density bonus and height waiver and tentative track map TTM 25-07-84740 for the North Village Mixed Use Development Project consisting of 130 residential units, including 12 low-income affordable units and ground floor commercial space at 225 North 2nd Avenue.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As you said, this is a public hearing. At the conclusion of the public hearing, we would recommend that you find that this item is statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act and then adopt Resolution 7705. This is for a residential development at the current brewery site. Over on St. Joseph and Second, this is subject to the state's housing laws, and this is another one of those projects where if the city council is looking to deny, you would need to have very specific findings on health and safety reasons for doing so. I'll turn it over to Edwin Adeola, Senior Planner.

Thank you, Mr. Lazaretto, and good evening, City Council. The item being presented is for a new mixed-use development at 225 North 2nd Avenue, titled the North Village. The project is in the downtown mixed-use zone on the southwest corner of North 2nd Avenue and East St. Joseph Street. As Dominic mentioned, it's the current location of Mount Lowe Brewing Company within the large industrial building that's currently there. The project proposes to merge the two existing lots that this site is composed of and subdivide the airspace for the residential units for condominium purposes. It'll consist of a six-story building with parking on the ground and basement level. It'll include 130 residential units and 3,932 square feet of commercial space spread across three separate units. And the residential units that will comprise this project will range from studios to three bedroom units. The project will include 20 deed-restricted affordable units at the low income level, which entitles the project to a density bonus and waivers against the development standards to meet the allotted density bonus. The applicant is requesting one waiver, and that's for the height to exceed the required height of 60 feet and be built at a height of 69 feet. Strict application of the height limit under the state law would basically preclude development of the project at the density that's otherwise permitted. And staff found that no adverse impacts have been identified to preclude this waiver from being granted. So additionally, by providing the affordable units, the project satisfies the inclusionary housing ordinance, which requires that the new multifamily projects provide at least 5% moderately affordable units when it's for sale. And it also meets the threshold of not requiring discretionary design review by providing 20% affordability. As for the density bonus, the project site has a maximum base density of 96 units, but pursuant to California government code, by providing the 20% low-income units, the project qualifies for a 35% density bonus, and that is why they're allowed to do 130. The affordable units will be distributed through the project and will be comparable to the market rate units in terms of size, bedroom counts, and design. and there's going to be a affordability restriction of up to 45 years, and that's gonna be consistent with state and city requirements. Here you see a site plan showing the ground level, which is consistent mostly of parking. There's going to be 187 parking spaces included within the development. You can see that the retail component is going to be closer to the corner. And the access for residents is going to be off of East St. Joseph with another vehicular entrance off the alley from Second Avenue that will provide access also to residential and will provide access to the commercial spaces. Here's a rendering of the project from the corner here. There will also be a parking available street side for some of those commercial units. And as you see, the project is well designed and includes significant articulation, step backs. There's this podium level, and then as it goes up, the residential floors are pushed back. So it's pretty well designed. And here's a floor plan of some of the residential layout on the second floor. As you see on the corner here, there is a big common open space that you can notice here from this rendering. Basically, the common open space is being met for this project. There's going to be amenities throughout the project that includes lounges, office space, gym. Going to the environmental determination, it was determined that the project was statutorily exempt from CEQA under AB 130, which is a CEQA streamlining exemption for new housing projects. It was ultimately determined that the project met all of these minimum requirements listed here, including other requirements with air quality, such as not having any balconies facing the freeway, the 210, which runs diagonally north and east from this project and also doesn't have air filters that face the freeway and will include other things that meet air quality demands. So therefore, the project was deemed to be statutorily exempt and no further environmental review was required for purposes of the City Council's consideration tonight. At Planning Commission, which was held on June 23rd, There were no public comments heard and the Planning Commission voted 4-0 to approve the projects as they found that it was well-designed and well-suited for its location. And after making all the findings for the proposed project, staff recommends that the city council adopt resolution number 7705, finding the project statutorily exempt per CEQA and approving the project subject to the conditions in the report. So that concludes my presentation and I can answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Does City Council have any questions in regard to staff? Council Member Kwan?

Yes. I want to know, so far, how many units have we approved within this five-year period?

In terms of all projects?

Yes, all projects.

Well, I think we can answer to, is my mic on? I think we can answer the question for mixed use developments. We are close to about 1,200.

1,200. And for this project specifically, there's 130 units. How many residents are you expecting to have in addition?

Well, that can vary, obviously, but- Maybe approximation?

Well, we typically do 2.8 per unit, so there's 130. Let me do the math real quick. 130 times 2.8, so about 364 people.

Yeah, I mean, I know, you know, this project is great, I'm looking at it, but as in planning, I think it's very important to convey the message to city manager and city council as of with the increase of populations, the additional police officers and the firemen that we should have. so that we can, you know, in emergency, we can service them. And so, I mean, I've been sitting here hearing and approving projects, and I'm looking at the staff with the police officers and the firemen. The five-year number, it hasn't increased, but actually decreased. So I think it's actually a big safety concern here. We want to make sure that... we have the manpower to take in that many residents. So in case of an emergency, it doesn't turn into chaos. As you know, living in the San Gabriel Valley area, and especially we're so close to the mountain, there's just keep on increasing density. And so that should be studied as of, any increase of how many staffing that we should've improved or increased. So that is really my biggest concern, and I have not heard anyone address this issue.

Madam Councilmember, so on the fire side of things, we did a study four or five years ago at this point, and we added actually a new development impact fee because the study identified that we probably will need an additional, at least an additional piece of equipment operating in the community once it gets fully built out with all the expansion we're expecting. We're similarly monitoring things with the police department on calls for service in different parts of town and we'll look into expanding services as needed. But those are both things that we're actively looking at and having conversations about to ensure that we're able to meet the community standards we have of response times and levels of service and all of that. It's something that I think I even said it at the budget hearing, that we absolutely one day will need more firefighters and more police officers when we have thousands more people living in town. But I can't tell you exactly when that moment is right now because the pace of development, even though you've approved 1,200 units, only a few hundred are under construction at this time and nobody's living in them yet. So we have to kind of, the increased demand for service will trail the developments themselves, but we are paying attention to it actively.

That is very good because as I was aware, we have seven vacancy in just the police department. So I'm just concerned, as you know, I see that these structures are being built and they're being finished. And so it's important that we should, our implementation, it's aligned with also these additional structures. I think that's very crucial just to protect the residents here. So that's my concern, and I'm glad. Thank you so much, City Manager, for keeping us ahead and increasing the size of our police officers and firemen, and I think that's crucial. And I want to ask about the physical impact since this is a commercial project Before I mean so now we're tearing it down and we're making a mixed use and I see that for the commercial we have about 3,900 plus square feet What is how many are we? foregoing for the commercial site and What is the existing commercial site square footage?

The existing is about 10,000 square feet. Let me verify, one second. Yes. I believe it's approximately 10,000 square feet for the existing space. However, some of those units are vacant. Uh, the only current tenant is Mount low. Uh, but that would be so obviously like about 6,000 square feet being, uh, lost in commercial space.

Okay. Yeah. Because it's vacant is because there's the intentions to bill. So they will not renew tenants. You know, I understand that that's no problem. Have you guys made a project of the annual benefits that's coming in and the cost to the city to run a city like that? I mean, is that something that we do? Because I'm seeing a lot of projects coming in, and I know that we're going to have amazing property tax. But then we also have the commercial revenue that's being lost. Do we make those calculations, those studies?

We sometimes study the commercial validity of a site. This one, when it was preliminarily going through the process, we had pushed them for providing more commercial. Overall, the applicant, when they submitted, they said that this amount of square footage was going to be the viable commercial space for this kind of site. And overall, we expect them to fill that in and provide us with some tax, but ultimately the bulk of the revenue made here is going to be from property tax in terms of the units sold.

Yeah, because we get very small amount for the property tax. So I think it would be really good to understand that fiscal impact to the city in the long term, because we're not talking about just a year, but we're talking about many, many years to come. And so I think, I don't know why we are approving these projects, but we never talk about the financial impact.

We don't usually get the benefit of being able to ask that question. And the reason I say that is there's a little bit of law that says you can't make planning based decisions. It's called fiscalization of land use. You can't approve or deny a project because it's going to make you money, specifically or not. We do need to pay attention to our ongoing costs and our ongoing service levels and all of those types of things. In the olden days when we had local control over our zoning, full local control over our zoning, we could identify a commercial area that generally would provide public benefits on a financial basis to the residential area and knowing on the aggregate what level of service demand based on the type of land use. The current state of the state law is we can't deny this project because it's going to cost us more to provide community services even if it does. We have to approve it or deny it on its merits of does it meet the zoning code and the state's goals for new housing starts and all of that stuff. So while it's something we absolutely have to deal with, the level of service with police officers, the traffic impacts, all of that, and we do have studies that identify, based on new developments, what the traffic might be. And if there's a negative impact, the development has to pay a portion of that. We have fees related to recreation demands, and the developer has to pay those. If it's going to impact signals nearby, they have to pay for the new signals, the new water services, the new sewer services. Those types of things, but we don't have the luxury of saying this is a commercial property today. And if the commercial use goes away, we're going to lose that revenue. So, therefore, we're going to deny this project. So it's not something that while it's something we'd love to ask and we used to ask. In this instance, if it's in the downtown near the. The transit line and all of those things we don't get to sort of do the deep level. Analysis on an individual project, but it is something as Edwin says, we know we'll get more property tax because you're replacing a 1 story, even though we only get a small portion of property tax. You are correct. We only get about 9 cents or 9 and a half cents on a property tax dollar. Um, but the, um. The 6 story. you know, 130 brand new for sale units, even with a level of affordability will bring in significantly more property taxes than the 1950s era industrial building. Like we were fortunate that there was a commercial use in that, but it could have been just a warehouse or it could have just been an office space that didn't provide us any revenue benefits.

Yes, I totally understand, but I really hope that these builders that are coming in are not just doing the minimum requirement because we are a community of homes and we do care about our residents here and that we want to maintain the quality of safety and the quality of services with all these recreational centers as well. So these incoming of residents You know, residents, we want to make sure we're capable of servicing them and that we also need to have a mindset of understanding the financial impact. So, I mean, it's not a required by state, but I think in planning, I think it's very important to ask these questions because these going to be long term impact. And so I know that the applicants that are here, I think they also want us to thrive as a city. That's why they picked this city as their project and because there's huge demand. And so we do want to continue to maintain that class A city. And we don't want these buildings to go up and these Increase of populations costing all these, you know, traffic concerns, safety concerns, and then the whole quality of living in Arcadia is going to be impacted. So I think in city council with leadership, we're looking for a longer horizon. And that is so important when we're doing these urban planning projects. I mean, not just something that we just meet the state requirement because there is a state mandate that we just approve anything and everybody can just come in and just tell us, you know, we have protection. This is not in Arcadia. And I hope that this is not the message that we're giving out to these developers. You know, you coming in to our community, you need to adapt. You need to adapt and you need to adapt in a way that it will be beneficial to our community. And I think that is so crucial. But I don't want them to get the message is like, oh, no, we can do whatever we like because we're entitled. And it shouldn't be that way because every city is very different, you know, and I've been sitting here telling, you know, over and over again, you know, right now we have a shortage of home. Yes, there's housing issue, but you have to understand that global population is dropping. So we're not looking at recently to achieve what we have to achieve, but this is a very long-term effect. And what if we're bringing right now these housings that are needed in demand, supply is over demand, so there's increase with these pricing. But what if supplies becomes available and then demand is low, and then we start to get more residents that maybe that does not fit the residents that we want for this community. We have a cultural here, so we want to make sure that it's fitting to us. And so when we plan, we really need to ask questions, more profound questions. What kind of impact we're going to have, not just one year, 10 year, 20 year, 30 year. So these are the things that we have to look ahead. And I think what I study is that when you deal with urban you know, planning, these are the things that's going to have drastic long-term effect. And right now, I'm seeing, I'm looking at these plans. There's a lot of questions that it does not address. And so I'm just hearing from our city manager these are the minimum requirement. The state is not requiring us. Yes, the state is one thing. They do not know our city. We know our city. We know what kind of community we have and we are trying to preserve here. So that is very crucial. And I hope that in whatever the staffing of Arcata, when these developers are approaching you, they're coming to you, but let them know. You know, we want them to stay. Yes, we want them to do well. But if they're going to come and profit and maximize their profit, they have to do it the right way. And there are certain benefits that needs to give to our community so that we're protected. We're not here to, you know, give out all the resources we have, because developers, they just come in, they develop, they make a profit, they walk away. This is the city that's going to be stuck with the project, and it's something that you cannot turn around. It's something that you cannot recall. So I'm just telling you, I just want to have a long-term mentality, and I hope that everyone, especially in planning, do that as well. The third question that I have, can you show me that rendering with the picture, please? I mean, I don't know too much about architectures, but I can tell you I'm looking at that picture. It's very nice. I think the planning is amazing. But I don't understand that those boxes, the yellow and white, the projected, what is the purpose of those? Is it to have additional space inside? Because it does look massive with that kind of design.

Are you referring to the panels within the windows?

What they call it, is it the pop-out?

I mean, I don't know what is the legal term to it, but... Yeah, well, those are just walls within, but the architect provided different... colors and material to kind of divvy it up.

I'm talking about the pop-out. I mean, because I think I know the developers, you guys have done an amazing job on, I think it's at the Santa Anita? you've got a project there, it's really, really nice. And so I'm just hoping like this, you know, the aesthetic of this is also very much in line to the overall community. I just think that this pop out, it could be, you know, changed a little bit to make it not look so massive. I don't know, has there been a discussion about it?

yeah so we basically how this project uh went about was when they submitted they went through preliminary reviews originally they uh at that time there was no 20 affordable units so we were working with them in terms of design uh obviously now the 20 affordable units were provided which basically took away discretion. But at that time, they were working with us in designing the project. We got it basically so that they provided articulation in terms of as it goes up, the walls get pushed in and it's not just one big box. We provided so that if there's wings that come out of this building, because there was different iterations where it was a rectangle with an interior courtyard, flat walls across. And they went ahead and listened to our comments. They pushed back the building. As it goes up, as you can see in this rendering, it ladders in, provided different materials to break it up. And then at an official submittal, they provided the affordable housing, but ended up sticking with all of our recommendations. So ultimately, this project, although it's not subject to design review, basically meets our design guidelines.

Edwin, at the corners where you see the yellows, There's a different color or material, and then there's vertical relief on the second and third floors. Do we know if there's a new material there, or is it just a paint job?

It's just a paint job. Yeah, there are walls with yellow stucco.

I think that's what she's asking about.

Yeah.

So I see that we waive the height. They're getting another nine feet?

Correct, as part of the density bonus.

The density bonus, you know, I think they were supposed to build only 96 units, and now they get about 34 units extra?

Yeah, so for providing 20% affordable, they get this bonus to go over what's maximum allowed per our code. And that's what also allows them to go over the height in order to accommodate all the units that they're allowed to provide.

So if we do not waive the height, they're not able to fit in everything in that height size?

Correct, yes.

And you've had... discussions and talk about other alternatives?

Correct.

Maxed out?

Actually, when they initially submitted it was taller, it was closer to 80 feet, and they managed to reduce the floor heights, bring it down, and then reduce the unit sizes so that it basically looks the way it does now.

Okay. Well, I just want the building to look nice and very compatible to the adjacent buildings that surround the surrounding area. So that's the questions that I have. Thank you so much.

All right. It looks like Council Member Kwan has merged questions and comments together. So are there any questions or comments in relation to staff? Council Member Cao.

I have questions for our city manager. So I remember in the last few years, we had to work with the state for the housing element. And one of the criteria that we had to work on is more for the public to remember, because we had multiple discussions about this, is called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. Could you refresh our public about what Regional Housing Needs Assessment is?

Sure. So the state has identified that there's about a million dollar deficit, excuse me, a million unit deficit statewide in the housing crisis is creating a upward price crunch. It's pricing everybody out of California as a whole. so for generations this has been a problem and there every city has for a long time been required to create a housing element and the housing element has to identify how each community is going to take and improve their community with their fair share of new units of that million unit kind of deficit So the regional housing needs assessment, what we refer to as RHNA, is it's first taken as a state number and then broken down on a regional basis, and then regionally it's assigned to each city on a local basis. And we all have a number that we all have to live with, and we have seven years to try to meet. So our current cycle, I think it's cycle seven is what we're in now. They have given us 2,300 units, 32, excuse me, dyslexia. So 3,200 units that we are supposed to develop or make available for development opportunities. We have to rezone the city to make 3,200 units possible. The state requires that not only do you have to plan for 3,200 units, you actually have to zone for closer to 4,000 or 5,000 units because not every development site is going to be developed. So they used to be able to say if you had one unit, if somebody could physically build the one unit, that's a plan for it. The state now makes us have a very specific plan. They make us identify that not all plans come to reality, so we have to overestimate to get back to the number. In addition to all of that, so we have to live with this 3,200 units, some of them at high levels market rate housing, some of them at high levels of affordability, some of them all the way down to emergency housing and formerly homeless housing and all of that. And you have a specific number in each category that you have to make accommodation for and you have to make room for and you have to approve eventually. So this, like I said, has been 25 years or so cities have been subject to the rena number. But what has happened in the last 5 years. Is the state has said cities you're part of the problem. You're not approving the projects because of very good questions about parking and services and value of development. And we have a low. development kind of community pattern here in Arcadia. We want this to be a low impact place. We designed the community that way. And the state says, no, you're blocking housing. You're part of the problem. So the state legislature has adopted hundreds of laws every year in the last five years. to take away local control to say if a certain size of project comes to your downtown, if a certain style of project comes, if accessory dwelling units are proposed in your single family residential neighborhoods, you must, not can approve, you must approve them. It's taken all approval authority away from this city council body and determining its future and has put it towards kind of statewide standards. If it meets the box the state wants, you have to allow it to be built. If it's right near the transit station, the current state of the law is certain standard transit stations automatically can go up to 100 feet in height. In Arcadia, that kind of maxes out about 80 feet in height because we have a different kind of transit stop, but that's how it's been, right? When I first got here, the downtown, the community, the city council was okay with about 40 or 50 feet. When we worked with developers, developer says that doesn't really work for this economically, so can we get up to like 50 or 60 feet? And that's when the other giant tech project got approved, the one that Council Member Kwan alluded to over by the transit station. The stuff that's coming in now, by right, can go 70 and 80 feet. 80 feet high and it all is in service of the regional housing needs assessment number of we all have an obligation to churn this new housing and there's not much you can do to stop it unless there's an identifiable health and safety impact related to the development and that isn't just there's going to be parking and traffic and extra smog it has to be the building's going to fall down it's going to somebody's going to get hurt that kind of thing

So just to clarify then, Mr. City Manager, we have the RHNA number that we have to work on. Yes. And that's mandatory in every city throughout the state of California. Is there a single city that's exempt from RHNA numbers? No. Every city has their own number. Exactly. And then the second issue is that you have state legislators who, like you said, have hundreds of laws that they pass yearly that basically try to improve affordability is the premise, at least my understanding. That's the goal. And so because of that, All over 470 cities in the state basically have the same law applied to them. So I just want to make sure that it's on the record and that the public is aware of the constraints that all 470 cities have throughout the state of California. Thank you.

Council Member Hahn, did you have any questions or comments? Mayor Pro Tem Fu, did you have any questions or comments?

Just briefly, I wanted to thank Member Kwan for noting some things in relationship to this project that I think are really important and need to be stressed. And that is, first of all, her support for our police and fire agencies. I really commend her acknowledgement that how important they are to this community. And I'm heartened by it. her conversation indicating that she supports these agencies and and i'm really looking forward to working with her on that to make sure that the city has adequate police and fire protection especially in a growth mode which we are experiencing the other thing i wanted to mention was because i know again member kwan is very passionate about this about the concerns of homelessness in our state and that um that social scientists acknowledge that that one of the main drivers of homelessness is, in fact, the cost of housing and that these projects are intended to overall bring down the cost of housing in our state. And so I appreciate Member Kwan's acknowledgement of this because I know she's very passionate about serving the homeless. And I recall that she supported the tiny homes initiative in our city. And I know she feels very strongly about supporting homeless initiatives. So I think that this project with its low income housing component, I think will help to advance that. And I think that overall that This project is replacing an industrial section of our city, which is actually very underutilized. It's just sort of the nature of Arcadia and the evolution of industrial space that it's really hard to service very small industrial spaces. They're either very large or very tiny. And if you're anywhere in between, it's very difficult to maintain occupancy there. So, I think that this actually, this project overall will substantially benefit driving our tax revenues through our property tax collections and. going to miss mountain low brewery but maybe they could stay at that 3900 square feet uh and uh but if not then i understand i think that this is a welcome addition to our city in what's really kind of a um an underutilized uh section uh of our city so i i don't have any questions for the developer or regarding the project i thank the staff for doing excellent job again and um and recognizing that regardless of how some people might feel about this kind of development, that it's the kind of thing that we have no choice but to approve. I like to think that in the long run, that it is better for our city, but greater minds than mine have decided that this is what we have to do anyway. So thank you very much again.

Sorry, Mayor. I just want to thank you so much, Council Member David Fu. Yes, I think housing is a concern, but I did not support tiny shelter home. So I'm so sorry. I just need to clarify that because I don't want to get the credit for that. Thank you so much. I apologize.

Yes, thank you. All right. Do we have any public comments? I don't believe we have any blue cards. Do we have any public comments online?

Mayor, we have one speaker card for item 9C. Okay. Members of the public participating remotely, if you would like to provide a public comment for item 9C, North Village Mixed Use Development, please raise your hand. Those callers can please press star 9 to raise your hand. Okay, it looks like we have one speaker card and one individual participating remotely, so that would be a total of five minutes.

Okay, let's have the person that is here to speak.

We have Daniel Wu and Zingling Sun.

And just for the benefit of the public, this is, I believe, representatives of the development team, so generally we give them enough time to speak as they'd like.

Oh, well, why don't we do this? Since you're the person that's presenting the project. Yeah, yeah, let's have the person online speak and then maybe you can also address maybe questions they have too. Great, great, thank you, thank you, sir.

Diego, please unmute yourself and go ahead and proceed with your public comment.

yes thank you my name is diego rubalcava alvarez i am one of the volunteer members of choa creative housing options arcadia i would like to support this project and thank you for all the city council's questions and comments i do think it is correct that new housing units will Increase the night time population in Arcadia, but we should all also remember that a lot of the folks are already here during the daytime either working or shopping or staying with other friends and family members. So by introducing housing units, we're really just making it easier for people who already come to Arcadia on a regular basis to work or to shop or to visit. They can also live here, which will decrease traffic in the long run as more people can live where they work and play. So, yeah, I just wanted to support this project. Also, I did have a chance to enjoy Mount Low Brewing products when they came to an event at the Arboretum earlier this year and were selling some of their drinks there. so just encourage everyone to uh if you're going to drink alcoholic beverages uh consider supporting mount lowe brewing which is going to be where the site is constructed i don't know if they're going to be there after it's constructed but in the meantime please consider your shopping there if you choose to shop for alcohol thank you thank you diego let's have the applicant come on up

While the applicant team's coming up, this has come up twice now, just to let the public know, our economic development team has reached out to Mount Lowe to see if we can find an alternative location for them. We hope they'll stay as well, but business is business and you never know.

All right, could you introduce yourself? Hi councillors, hi mayor. So my name is Jilin Song and here is Mr. Daniel Wu. We are on behalf of HPU Design and Mr. Daniel Wu is also the founder of Giant Tech Construction, so which on the applicant's sheet there's a Giant Tech Construction. So we are here, we are open to any design related questions to this project. And for some of the questions Councilor Quinn have asked, I think I can partially answer that a little bit because I think in our community there's not only like people, population growth from outside of our community, there is also population growth inside of our community. Like our generations, we, some of us are not, like we cannot afford a house. But we can do condominium as our choice. So that's kind of a thing for us. And I think in the near future, with more population growth, there will be more houses needed in our community. So that's one of my answer to that question. And like I said, we are here, and we are open to any other desire related question to this project. Thank you.

Thank you. And I just want to be respectful for your name is Jamie Zhang and Danny Wu, is that correct?

Yeah, my name is Jilin Zhang. Oh, James? Jilin. It's hard to pronounce, so it's okay.

No, no, no, no, no. It's not hard to pronounce. It's more like a letter G. Oh, okay. Jilin. Okay. Jilin Zhang and Danny Wu?

Yeah, Danny Wu.

All right. Well, great. Does council have any questions for Mr. Zhang or Mr. Wu?

I mean, it's not a question, but it's just suggestions. I mean, like, I encourage you to remove the projecting base, you know, and they'll make the building, you know, now it's looking too boxy and busy. So I think if it's a simple, more simple, cleaner design, I think it'll look more elegant and modern and timeless, like the other project that you finished. So this is a suggestion for you to, you know, it's, you know, that's how I look at it. I wanted something more clean and timeless, and I think that would be something that we can, you know, enjoy and more, you know, compatible to the adjacent buildings. Yeah, that's all I have to say.

Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Are there any questions for Mr. Zhang or Mr. Wu? Okay, great. And I presume there's no other comments. Can we call the question in relation to resolution 7705, please?

Closing the public hearing.

Closing the public hearing. And Fu moves to approve resolution number 7705. Is there a second? This is Mike.

I'll second that.

All right.

And that's including the conditions of approval and findings.

Correct. I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tempfu?

Yes.

Council Member Kao?

Yes.

Council Member Han?

Yes.

Council Member Kwan? Yes. Mayor Ching?

Yes. All right. Passes 5-0. Let's go to public comments. Item number 10. How many people do we have... in total for public comment cards, which we have none. And people that are online that would like to speak, if you could please press star nine to raise your hand so we can get the number of people, please.

Mayor, we have three speaker cards for general public comment, and it looks like we have Two remote comments.

Total of five speakers? Total of five speakers. Okay. Each person will have five minutes each?

Correct.

Let's go with the in-person speakers, please.

April Verlato.

Yeah.

And Mayor, while Ms. Ferlato comes up, I will note that we are going to limit it to those five. So it'll be those five speakers and then we'll move on to the next item. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. So we had this study session earlier and about the policies and protocols of influence of foreign governments in our city government. And I believe our city manager did our city council a great disservice. This is all a fairly new council, meaning new to the city of Arcadia. Many of you did not live here in 2015. when we had the incident regarding developers trying to put together a contingency of city council members to go to China. There was a big controversy about it. It was in local newspapers and the city manager should have provided that information to you about what was the problem with going to China and the city attorney's written opinion regarding it, how they wrote to the attorney general about it. So there was a lot of information that was left out. In addition, the city manager did not report to city council that Eileen Wang did present a certificate to a Chinese official. And that should have been disclosed to all of you when you're considering your policies. It's important information to know. I was at the event with Eileen, so I know what she did and where we were when she presented that certificate. So these are important things that should have been disclosed. It should have been known to you. And each of you should have also done your own investigation for Mayor Chang to sit there and say he believes that there hasn't been any certificates issued to a foreign government entity or official, you should have looked into it. You should have asked, you should have made sure before that meeting instead of making assumptions. And you made assumptions and that was incorrect. You shouldn't be doing that. You are entrusted by the residents of the city of Arcadia to do your job in representing them. There is a lot of concern about what happened with Eileen and it is all imperative that you guys take it seriously. And I know we had an incident with Mayor Pro Tem Fu who chose to smirk at me as a public commenter. I find that inappropriate. It's also, you know, you guys are the ones who adopted those rules of decorum. I can tell you this, that prior to rules of decorum, I certainly didn't need them when our current mayor, Paul Chang, started to attack a member of the public. I cut him off because it's inappropriate. and pretty much saved him because that member, that resident of Arcadia did not appreciate being attacked when he came here to city council by a council member. We don't need rules of decorum for our council members to act appropriately towards our public. We are voters, we come here, we can challenge you, we can attack you. We do not get attacked back. That is not your role as a council member. You still represent us even when we're attacking you. And you may choose to try to defend yourself, which is appropriate, but I can tell you that Mayor Pro Tempfu, you in particular with me, lack a lot of credibility. You When you choose to have an affair with your wife's sister, and that's also somebody who works for you, that's an ultimate betrayal and you lied. And that I find inexcusable. And yes, I will always doubt your credibility because you chose to do that. That's just gonna be me. So I think there's a lot of people also in the public who feel the same way. It's an ultimate betrayal. So, you know, for me, I don't believe what you say. It doesn't matter to me. So go ahead, defend yourself. But to me, you will be a liar. Thank you.

Right. Next public comment.

Angela Wee, followed by Grace Lee.

Okay, good evening, Mayor Chang, members of the City Council, City Manager Lacerato, and City Attorney Mauer. My name is Angela Hui. This is the second time I came back for the e-bike enforcement. I know we didn't talk earlier, but I want to make my speech today that I'm standing before you tonight to address this rapidly growing public safety issue that affects everyone who drives, walks, or shops in our community. The unchecked operation of high-speed electric bicycles on the streets and crowded pedestrian walkways. Every day, near our local schools and commercial districts, we see young riders operating heavy motorized machines at speeds exceeding 20 or 25 miles per hour. While e-bikes are a fantastic technology that promotes clean transit, the reality on the ground has shifted from innocent neighborhood recreation to an unregulated public safety hazard. We are at a critical point to me. We don't need to wait to write new rules because we already have an ordinance in place. What we need right now is active, visible police enforcement before we end up saying sorry to whoever gets into Nick's devastating accident. So the urgent need for action is pedestrian safety. This is not about over-regulating childhood funds or banning e-bikes entirely. It is a matter of common sense safety and enforcement. Across Southern California, injuries related to e-bikes have spiked dramatically. More alarming is the danger these heavy machines pose to innocent pedestrians, particularly our seniors and young children. We don't have to look far for tragic examples. Just recently in Southern California, An elderly pedestrian, a Vietnam veteran, was struck and killed while out for a walk by a 14-year-old operating a high-powered electric vehicle. Another recent incident is a 13-year-old boy lost his life after losing control of an e-bike traveling at 35 miles per hour. Acadia sidewalks are meant to be safe spaces for walkers. When a 100-pound motorized bike traveling at high-speed shares a crowded pedestrian walkway, it ceases to be a bicycle and effectively becomes a motor vehicle operating without a lane. So we need to clarify the law and partnering with parents. Part of the issues come from a massive gap in communication, community education, but the laws themselves are already on the books. Many well-meaning parents buy these e-bikes online completely unaware of California vehicle code restrictions. Under California law, class three e-bikes I think we know about that, but they require M1 or M2 driver license and are strictly illegal for minors to ride on any public road or safety. Yet, kids still ride them to school every day, for most kids. Acadia City should partner with Acadia Unified School District to issue clear notice directly to parents, clarifying local rules, legal liability, and the fact that active enforcement is underway. We should also urge our schools to implement the campus parking policy. If a student walks to park an e-bike on campus, both the student and parent must complete a certified safety orientation and obtain a school issue permit. The need for immediate enforcement. So like other Southern California cities are actively tackling this issue by backing up their rules with real enforcement. Cities like Manhattan Beach, Pomoza Beach, and San Dimas enforce strict local standards. So I think we need to give the police the explicit authority to impound bikes being operated recklessly by minors, ensuring that safety rules have actual teeth. In Acadia, Section 3320 of a municipal already restrict bicycle on sidewalk in business district and near places of public assembly, the framework is already there, but rules on paper mean nothing if riders know there are no consequence for breaking them. So it's an actionable request for directing police enforcement. Our Katy Police Department work already very tirelessly to keep us safe, but we also need to empower and direct our officer to strictly enforce our existing ordinance and also city guidelines. So we need our police department to actively do three things. sidewalk and school zone restriction, nighttime restriction and safety regulations, and impoundment policy for reckless riding. Public safety is the baseline covenant between our city and our residents. We cannot wait around until after catastrophic collision. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. City Manager, first I thank Ms. Huy for bringing this issue up, but maybe it's timely to inform the public that we attempted to address this issue tonight.

get we did have an agenda item and uh... i think uh... that presentation was very similar to what we were planning on presenting you tonight uh... so angela's opinions are very similar to what staff's opinions are of this issue we just ran out of time because of that the first agenda item we had which was more timely so we agree this is an important issue at the next city council meeting we will bring it back for discussion and we hope we will Her comments are in the record, and like I said, there's a lot of overlap between what we were planning to present and what she did just present. So look forward to that happening. Thank you. We have another public comment in-house.

Grace? All right.

Okay, friends, I'm honored to stand here before you. So nice to see all of you again, and this is going to be really embarrassing because I'm not prepared, okay? But I'm hoping none of you are going to boo me out of here laughing in my face. You know what? Okay. I came here with this thing. And guess what this is? This is a political, ambitious speech. But then I got really, really nervous the last two minutes delivering it. And then I didn't want to be accused of using this form to motivate political campaigns because it wouldn't be fair to other candidates. But guys, I have to say my piece. And I am dealing with a crisis of conscience. And those of you who know me know that it's Bible what I'm about to say. So as embarrassing as this is, I'm going to pretend like we are all one family roommates. And you are watching me wake up without any kind of caffeine eyes, with caffeine without makeup. And I'm stumbling and snoring and just letting whatever is in my mind fly on my head. OK, so I'm going to be really raw. unfilled or transparent with all you friends who I value. And you know what? I'm not trying to convert anyone to Christianity because neighbor next to me said I'm Buddhist. So I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but I do want to be raw and transparent just because by any chance, if I have the honor of working with you guys, I need you guys in this city to know what I'm about. You know, I feel like if I gave the speech, it's very polished, but you know, you know, police department wouldn't have my fingerprints on file, my mug shots on file, like a little x-ray that the doctor does. And if I did that, you know, it's nice to make speeches, but, you know, I really need to bring my heart and soul in this. Okay, so my crisis of conscience is... You know, when I look at all of you, you know, I'm cheesy, sentimental. My dad is a real estate millionaire. He said, Grace, one day you are going to realize the power of money. But you know what? I admire all of you. That is just the plain, honest truth. You guys are doctors, lawyers, ambitious go-getters. And you guys have really made something of yourself, something that I really wanted to be. And you know what? You know, I know this sounds a little bit cheesy, but I live and care about all of you right now. I've known Paul for four years on Facebook. Sharon, I'm having our conversation when we first met two years ago. All these things mean something to me. David, you were so helpful when I asked, how do I start running? Okay, so here's my fingerprints on file. I felt like it was unfair to read this political speech, but at the same time, as a minister, I've been a devout Christian since I was in the fourth grade. Oh yeah, what was I saying? I was saying my dad. But I really wanted to go my own way. I didn't care that I ended up broke. And I'm going to be very honest with you guys. I don't care if I lose this election, but it's very important to me to be transparent with the voters. This is why I have no makeup on. You know what? This is really polished, but for those of you who know me, I'm constantly writing things and sending them to you. like a teaching dissertation that turned out to be 34 pages. This speech turned out to be six pages. I know I would never go through it. You know, I just think, you know, I got really nervous last half an hour. I don't think, you know, I could read it because it would be a pitch. You know, we don't deserve a pitch. You guys need to know how horrible and ugly I am with my makeup on. But the thing is, you know, you guys, I care about you, Sharon and David. And, you know, I'm not here to judge anyone. I think you guys are all great people. And, you know, we should be a family. And those of you like Dominic and Michael, who I don't know so well, but even if I don't get voted on, that's okay, Paul. But, you know, we should be able to love one another wholeheartedly. hold hands and come, yeah, I'm gonna say a bunch of cheesy things that are just off the cuff of my head, but they are true. I'm looking at this, and this is dated August 17th. I'm like, hi, April, so wonderful to see you being active and genuinely kind and involved in our beautiful city of Arcadia. And even on Instagram, you seem to be everywhere. I'm so honored to have you as a friend. So, you know, I really admire the people I've met here. You know, you guys have really opened my eyes and everything. But in terms of, OK, I'm down to one minute. I don't think I'm going to clear everything. And then, you know, I'm talking to share. I just became friends with April. I'm so honored and happy to get to know you as our current mayor of Arcadia. Right now, we have something in common because we're all active civically. um yada yada i've been a pro bono public relations ambassador when when my organization came into question thank god i i was um verified by the county sheriff's department what i want to do in the next few city hall meetings is you know because this is polished but because it does come from my heart you know i do have a crisis of conscience i've attended so many meetings without saying a word i've given like three speeches over the years but i should be doing more and these speeches I promise we're not to get elected, but since I already wrote this, this is the academic side of me, okay? Forget the academic side of me, but I really do want to share where I'm coming from, and it is quite a long story, so I hope and pray that you guys will indulge me and give me some time to share with you in the next future, upcoming weeks, because I feel like

Thank you. Thank you. It's so riveting. I appreciate it. Um, uh, in terms of the, uh, online, uh, speakers, thank you very much. You can share our next council meeting.

Thank you so much. So I will share this. It's going to, you know, it's going to sound political, but you know, I believe that, I believe that this is so important that this community needs to hear that heart and soul, but I have to say, thank you so much.

Thank you. Um, uh, we, we do have online speakers.

Yes, ma'am, we have two speakers. Thank you. At this time, I'm going to ask caller with the last four digits, 1474, to identify yourself for the record and proceed with your public comment, please. Caller, are you there?

Hello. hi um i tuned into the 5 30 meeting and sharon kwan made an excellent point the three of you men on council cal foo and chang you are the ones who ignored all the red flags about arlene wang you are the majority and now you want to be the ones to vote and come up with city foreign influence policy nobody trusts your judgment because you let this happen the three of you allowed our city to be compromised We all saw the red flags and begged you to address it, but you called us racist for doing so. Instead, you protected Eileen. You called her honest and gave her standing ovations. My opinion is that you all wait until after the election in November to get new people on council and then address this foreign influence issue. The three of you men are not qualified. I do not agree that city council should background check candidates It is up to the people, the voters of Arcadia, to be informed. We are the ones who decide, and we have to be unafraid to ask those questions of candidates. The rumor that Eileen with CCP was out there circulating in WeChat by the Chinese community, that is a fact. you failed to act um once eileen's home was raided by fbi you protected her at the expense of our city's reputation and we all are wondering why nobody buys that you men had no power to do anything you had the power to speak we all saw how you used that power to drag sharon kwan's name through the mud accusing her of child abuse In stark contrast on how you spoke about Arlene, a CCP spy who you wanted to appoint as mayor to replace Sharon. If this body is going to take on this topic and really have honest conversations about it, I hope it does not resort to calling residents and former mayors racist for being very upset that this council failed to save our city from embarrassing headlines. You failed to protect our city and our residents, and now you are seeing just how bad that decision was. One example is that family who came earlier, who had concerns of their minor son, who was named in one of those embarrassing news articles about Eileen. This family reached out to Michael Cowan with the concern that a child's full name and photo published online news article about our city scandal. Michael Powell, that family is now forever associated online with CCP Mayor Eileen headlines every time someone Googles that boy's name. You told his family that as a father, you too would be concerned. Where was your concern when minors were being photographed in the chamber alongside the Mayor Eileen Wang while you all clapped? This collateral damage to innocent Arcadia families could have been prevented if you listened to residents enacted earlier. Had you all asked her to resign, this child who will probably be applying for colleges will not have to worry about, now have to worry that his Google search history will contain. All this because you absolutely failed to see the seriousness of promoting Eileen Wang and the long-term effects it would have on our city and residents. I think this conversation earlier today was nothing but political BS because mayor cows up a reelection and you want to make it look like you're actually care about foreign influence. um you only care to talk about it now because of how bad you look to the public let's turn this decision into real policy here is a couple of ideas uh mandatory vetting and disclosure rules for all foreign engagements strict guidelines on accepting or handling foreign donations verification protocols before issuing any official certificates using the city logo um and i got a few of uh about 40 of eileen's uh certificates and 99 of them all went to chinese people and chinese organizations there was absolutely no diversity in her request residents deserve accountability not more excuses thank you all right next caller

MJ Finstrom, please proceed with your public comment.

Thank you. I listened closely to the special study session this afternoon regarding the foreign influence policies and I'm a bit confused and I hope maybe you will explain further in your comments later. It sounded to me like you are focusing on policies that seem to already be in place. You discussed tracking city funds and regulating official events, but you didn't really address what actually happened with Eileen. What you're not addressing and what so many people are complaining about and talking about in our community is that a communist government cultivated Eileen and seemed to go out of their way to get her elected to our city council, and then she rose to mayor. Take a minute and let that sink in. For me, I'm thoroughly creeped out and disturbed and just feel totally lied to. As I mentioned before, I'm in her district. Now, I understand reviewing what other cities do, but Arcadia has a specific, unique crisis on its hand. We need tailored solutions that fit our situation, not boilerplate template policies. The policy should not be about managing officials once they are elected. They should be about preventing foreign governments from planting or backing candidates to infiltrate our city council in the first place. Maybe we should all be trained by the FBI how to identify foreign influence and how to report it. Bring them into the loop. Let them help us everyone, regardless of your political party, or your local alignments should be deeply concerned that our leaders are vulnerable to outside manipulation. It is the 1 thing we should all be united on. Mayor, please don't tell me you're sad about this. Tell me you are fighting mad about this and that you are going to do everything in your power and work hard to put policies in place to make sure we never, ever have an agent of influence sitting on that dais again. This should be a top priority for all of you and for all of our voters. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other? That was five, right? That's it. All right, great. Consent calendar. Does anybody have any issues on any of the consent calendar items they would like to pull?

Mayor, I would like to pull item 11G.

Item 11G is pulled. Can we... Okay, can we have a... Well, okay. What is it on 11G that you would like to discuss?

Well, I put this item because I don't believe the city's independent auditor is something we should approve on the consent calendar. This one is of the most important contracts that we approve. The auditor is the public's eyes and ears, and their job is to independently examine how taxpayer dollars are managed. So, before I vote, I have several questions. So my first question to the staff, I don't know who can answer for me, is can you please confirm that Maaz, Levy, and Hazem has served as Arcadia's independent auditor for the past 11 years?

That's correct, they have.

Thank you. So they have served 11 years. Yes. Now, can you please also confirm that if this contract is approved, including the optional extensions, the same firm could remain our auditor for approximately 16 consecutive years?

That would be correct, yes.

Okay. Now, I want everyone listening tonight to think about that. 16 years. That is a very long time for the same outside auditor to examine the same organization. My next question is to the staff. I noticed that the staff report says the engagement partner we will take. Can staff explain why rotating one partner inside the same accounting firm provides the same level of independence as bringing in an entirely different auditing firm?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The partner rotation is a standard practice law the firms have sometimes because the partner is actually in charge of the engagement. They run the engagement, they do the review of the work papers, they supervise staff. So each partner has different areas of focus, different styles, different experiences. So typically the rotation of the partner ensures that there's a new perspective and a new audit approach to the job. So, but that also maintains, sorry. So maintaining the part of the benefit of maintaining the same firms that they don't need to get familiarized with the city. Again, they have the history, they have the historical knowledge. And so that helps as well because they know the history of what's going on and they know, understand, the sort of the financial fluctuations that go from year to year or that historically have happened. So there is a benefit to having the same firm that do that, coupled with the partner rotation with the new approach is generally agreed to be, or is accepted as an appropriate way to change the auditors, but without changing the firm.

And Henry, I can also add that this is actually a state guideline and part of state law that it includes audits that are submitted to the state controller for agencies that have to do this. And the rule is the audit partner has to rotate every six years, but the audit firm doesn't. So it's something that is also coming down from state regulations and state law that we're complying with as part of this.

Because from my perspective, a different person working for the same company is still the same company. It's still the same institutional knowledge. It's still the same cultural. And it's still the same long-term relationship. And I understand the familiarities can make audits more efficient. But independence is more important than efficiency. So I see the report states that the firm may assist in preparing parts of the city's annual comprehensive financial report. Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Can you please explain exactly what portions the auditors assist with?

So what the auditors do is they prepare the... they have a program that prepares the financial statements. And what they do is they do the, as part of GASB 34, there's a conversion entry that converts our books from, generally cities keep books in the modified accrual basis, which is sort of like a cash basis. And what the accounting standards requires that the, the financial statements be prepared in a full accrual basis. So what the firm does is they take our trial balance, they download it into their system, and they help us by preparing what's called a conversion statement that converts the books from a modified accrual basis to a full accrual basis. So that's the part they assist us with. And then we give them, they help us with some of the typographical stuff as well, but that's generally the main thing that they help us with.

So what I'm hearing you, I don't see what safeguards exist to make sure that they're not later reviewing the work that they really participate in preparing.

That is against accounting standards. They are not allowed to review the books of, they're not allowed to audit the books that they prepare. So that staff is the one that provides the numbers for them and then they do the conversion entries and they sort of help us put it together and print it and make it all nice and stuff.

Well, I want to be very clear. I'm not like suggesting anything improper has occurred, but I simply believe that the public deserves a clear explanation. This brings me my biggest concern. I mean, after everything our city has experienced with our former council member, Eileen Wang, former mayor, I don't think the public is asking us to simply complete another annual audit. Residents are asking something bigger. They're asking whether we have done everything possible to restore public confidence. And I don't believe a standard financial audit answers that question. And can staff explain whether this agreement includes a forensic accounting investigation?

No, it does not. This only covers the standard annual financial audit that we're required to go under for those additional services that would be covered under a different contract, because under a forensic audit, there should be there. We would need to tell them sort of what we want them to do, and those would be additional services that would be covered under a separate contract.

So would this audit review donations, sponsorships, city events expenses, travel reimbursements, use of city facilities, payments connected to special events, potential conflicts of interest, or this is simply a standard financial statement audit?

It is a standard financial statement audit, but as part of that, they have procedures to review expenses. They have procedures to review conflict of interest. They have procedures to review fraud. They ask, I don't know if you're a mayor at that time, the audit partner generally meets with the mayor to discuss their concerns, if they have any on any... if they're aware of any frauds or any potential for fraud. So the audit procedures cover a lot of those things. Expenditures, they'll review, as part of their audit procedure, they will look at a lot of the checks, the payments are issued. They'll look at the documentation, the backup for those, to make sure that those are properly authorized, that they're for the purposes that were how they're recorded. So those are all, they may not specifically look at um travel expenditures but they look at expenditures as a whole they don't specifically look at revenues like donations but they will review all our donations to make sure that it's properly recorded the amounts are correct where the sources are coming from so there's not specific to maybe the purposes that to you're referring to but they will look at a lot of those transactions and make sure they're proper documentations and that they have um proper authorization and that can be supported, that they're properly recorded in the financial statements.

Yeah, so when I'm hearing the answer is no, then I think we have a problem because those are exactly the kind of question many residents are asking.

We want everyone watching tonight to understand something that the financial audit... We're getting off topic a bit here. This is about awarding the contract for our auditor, not a... This isn't a discussion around other potential audits. This is about awarding a contract for annual auditors. We've got to stay on point here, Brown Act-wise.

Yes, so my point is... Getting to the issue before us. So the City Council does have the ability. We did do an RFP. There are three bidders, Moss Levy and Hartzheim, who we've done business with for the last 11 years. And there's two other bidders that are similarly... Their bids are very similar to each other, but they're about $65,000 more expensive than Moss Levy and Hartzine. So certainly if the city council chooses to go a different way, you have two other options for you. But getting back to the question that the councilwoman was asking a moment ago, any one of those bidders would provide a traditional standard accounting audit and would follow statewide procedures and all of that would be held to the highest standards of accountability and and all of that so it really kind of the real question for the council as far as the contract goes is do you want to Enjoy the benefits of working with the same company, which reduces costs a little bit, or do you think it's a good year to switch companies? Any one of these three companies is a highly qualified company. We think there are kind of economies of scale by staying with the company and setting up the sort of wall, separating the partners and making sure that there isn't a crossover. But if the community or the council isn't comfortable with it, you do have two other viable options ahead of you.

Mr. Mayor, I call the question.

I mean, I'm not finished yet. So, I mean, I understand it's costing a little bit more, but I really think that it's so important, especially at this time we want to restore public trust. We want an auditor that just will be efficient. but not to be independent. I mean, as you guys all agree, 16 years is a long time to be with the same auditor.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Let's call the question.

And just to clarify, by call the question, you mean approve staff's recommendation?

I just want to make sure that we're approving the recommendation for consent calendars, items 11A to S. The entirety of the consent calendar, yes.

Understood.

Mayor Pro Temfu?

Yes.

Council Member Cao?

Yes.

Council Member Han?

Yes.

Council Member Kwan? Yes.

No. No.

Mayor Chang?

Yes. All right. Item number 12, AB 1234 reports. I can be able to say on behalf of the city council that there are no legally required reports for AB 1234. Item 13, request for future items. Hearing none. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor.

No, no, I'm sorry. Yeah, I would, I've been noticing in the news a great deal that there's a discussion about the likelihood of a super El Nino this winter. And, you know, and fortunately in southern california it rains so infrequently and then when it does we get all the water in the world all at the same time but you know they're kind of freaking me out by saying that somewhere like 95 of meteorologists agree that we'll have a very heavy winter and and i think that might be prudent and i know the city's always ready but just for us to have a report from the city to talk about winter preparations and whether or not we've just taken a look around that we can batten down the hatches and make sure that uh that we're ready if we really do get um a heavy rain event this winter so um i hope that's not a heavy lift but perhaps the city can address that in a future meeting just to let us know that everything looks good proton throughout second that yeah i'll second as well okay any other requests for future items from anybody okay

So it's with a heavy heart that we are adjourning tonight's meeting in memory of an incredible Arcadia resident, Gene Platt. Gene was born in Los Angeles on September 22nd, 1935. He grew up in Southern California, graduating from Rosemead High School. Gene proudly served his country in the United States Army, where he was stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Gene and his beautiful wife, Joyce Platt, made Arcadia their home in 1976 and became active members of the community. For those of you that go to the community center, for those of you that go to the women's club, for those of you that have been students in the city of Arcadia, you know Joyce Platt, Gene Platt, and the family. Gene earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and enjoyed a distinguished engineering career with McDonnell Douglas before continuing his work at Boeing. He was especially proud of his involvement with the development of the Apache helicopter program. Gene served as a neighborhood watch captain and was an enthusiastic member of the Arcadia Travelers Club, where he shared his love of exploring the world with others. He also had a passion for photography, capturing beautiful images from destinations around the world and generously sharing them with family and friends. Gene will be remembered for his warm smile, positive attitude, and the joy he brought to others through his humor and the many jokes he shared with everyone he met. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Gene's wife Joyce and their family. gene will be greatly missed and his memory will remain a lasting part of our community but there is one hope although gene has gone to heaven he leaves an angel with us and that is joyce platt Joyce Platt is a foundation of our community, and she welcomes you tomorrow at the Arcadia Women's Club at noon for a celebration of her husband. The Arcadia Women's Club is located at 324 South First Avenue, Arcadia, California. The start time is at noon and it will end at three o'clock. You are welcome to come at any time and hug the angel that remains with us today, Joyce Platt. Thank you, Jean, for choosing Arcadia and thank you for allowing us to have Joyce to be with us. Until we meet again, thank you very much. We will adjourn this meeting in memory of Jean Platt, longtime Arcadia resident, to Tuesday, August 18th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the City Council conference room. Thank you.