City Council - Regular Meeting

Please. Yes, mayor. Council member Chavez here. Council member Chen is absent. Council member Yu here. Mayor Prom man here. Mayor Sternquist here. Wait for it to come. Okay. Thank you. We move to item three, the invocation. We have Jerry Jambasian, owner of Wonder Cleaners and Draperies, located at 9136 Lost Tunis Drive, and he will be providing the invocation.

Thank you, Mayor. Father, as we come before you tonight, Father, we look to you for guidance, for direction. Father, I pray for each member of this council, especially our mayor and a mayor prom staff that carry us through each day. And Lord, our hearts are heavy tonight because our nation is in trouble. And Father, it needs a touch from you. So, Father, we pray for those that uh are in harm's way, especially our military. And Father, we grieve for the four people who lost uh service members who lost their lives today in defense of our freedom. So, Father, I just mourn and pray for their families and God that you would just comfort them at this time. know that their service was not in vain. So, Father, we thank you and we love you and we just uh want to give you praise for everything. And God, thank you for the United States of America. Thank you for a free country that we can live in and thrive in. And thank you for democracy that showed its face last night right here in this room as we voted. Father, not many countries can do that. So God, we thank you for that. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jerry. William, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Uh, please put your right hand over your heart. Pledge of allegiance. Ready? Begin.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, we don't have any ceremonial items this evening. Do we have any public comments on items not listed on the agenda, Jerry? Okay, we'll close public comments. We move to item seven, the consent calendar. All consent calendar items may be approved in a single motion as recommended unless removed for further discussion. And is there anyone who wants to speak on an item on the agenda? Seeing none, may we have a motion?

Motion to What are we doing? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. May we have a roll call, please? Council member Chavez, yes. Council member Chen, yes. Council member Yu, yes. Mayor Pro Man, yes. Mayor Sternquist, yes. Thank you. We move to item eight, public hearing, none. Item nine, unfinished business. None. Item 10, new business. None. Update from our city manager, Brian Cook.

Thank you, Mayor Sternist, and members of the council. Just a quick couple quick thank yous. Uh, thank you to the Chameleia Festival and thank you for all the volunteers who put on the Chameleia Festival. We could not do that event on our own without the countless hours of the so many many volunteers who put together such a successful weekend and keep a tradition alive. Um so thank you to all of them uh throughout not only within Temple City but even without outside of Temple City as well. So thank you to them. Uh and thank you to the city clerk's office, the contractors, and all those who ensured a and are still in the process of completing a safe, fair, and secure election process. So, thank you to them. Uh we'll have a little break on events for a while until Easter so everybody parks and recather for a couple weeks and then we'll starting to get in the spring into the summer season of all of our parks and recreation and community events soon. So thank you Mercquist

and congratulations to Tom and Vince who were clearly even though it's not formalized yet um unofficial the front runners. So congratulations to them. Thank you. Um, we move to item 12, update from our city attorney.

Thank you. Yes, last week I or last meeting I said I'd have a couple items for this meeting, so I wanted to make sure we we hit a few. Uh, first off, um, uh, this is as much for the public as the council. Uh, the city of Temple City does not have retail cannabis sales in the city, but you often hear pressure to start retail cannabis because the tax uh, income will be so great for a city. There's a report today in the LA Times that the city of Los Angeles is owed over $400 million in uh cannabis related taxes, but is starting a program to see under which it hopes to see 30 million of that 400 million or about 7 cents on the dollar. Um

so is that unpaid taxes? Unpaid taxes to the city by the cannabis retailers and and wholesalers. Gee, what a surprise, right? Should everybody

and and related uh there was a report in Santa Barbara County of growers leaving half or more of their crops to die on the vine because in Santa Barbara County uh the wholesale tax comes due when the crops are picked uh and they can't make enough money on it to make it worthwhile. So again, uh the county has set up a program and is not seeing anywhere near the tax uh windfall that they thought they would. Uh second item, uh there will be some general plan updates that are going to be due in 2028. Um we'll start working with staff on them to to make sure that they get done in time, but it probably won't come to you until 2027. They're interesting, though. They're kind of all across the board. one is uh a a plan for logistics and truck routes in your circulation element. Um basically if if it's possible for warehouses to exist in the city, you need to start planning for the truck routes and logistics in a way that we haven't had to focus on before. Uh the second is Assembly Bill 1889 which is called the room to roam bill. Uh which says that your conservation element has to take into account wildlife connectivity.

Um little bit different for a builtout city than it is for um you know a uh an ohhigh or a Santa Clarita but we will have to take that into account. And the final Assembly Bill 2684 uh says that your safety element has to include um a plan to deal with extreme heat hazards. And I think with you know an aging population that's a really important thing to have. So all of those will be worked on by staff and will come to you as I say probably sometime in 2027. Thank you very much.

Mayor may ask just a quick question to the Mr. City attorney. So I think that this the general plan update will be worked on by step but go before the planning commission before coming to us if it includes the land use element. Yes it will. Yes it will. Okay. Can I a followup question related to council member you? So the we anticipate the general plan update to include an update of the crossroads specific plan. So so to the extent that a larger general plan update is coming then yes it will include that

but it won't be perhaps the same intensity as the exercise we had to go through back in 20 Absolutely correct 15. Yes to 17. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We move to item Oh, Greg, I'm sorry. Is that it? That is it. Okay. Item 13, council reports regarding ad hoc or standing committee meetings. Anyone have anything to report on? No. Mayor, yes, we did have a ad hoc for the Go ahead.

Yeah. Yeah. So, the mayor Sternquist and I had a quick um meeting with our parks and recck director Adam Matsumoto and SWA architects on their latest update and renderings of the Sereno Park. And so, there were some uh minor conceptual changes, but overall, I think we we left the meeting with some good direction. And uh Brian, correct me if I'm wrong, but we anticipate that the next step is they're going to bring it back to council, correct? For discussion. Yes, sir. Yeah. And and we're confident that council would right

find the uh the conceptual plans as well as the elements included to be uh very good. And I think the the major thing we focused on was looking at the amount of green space. Yeah. and and that was a challenge considering how small the parcel was and you know we we had a lot of input from the community and of course we can't stuff so much into a small space but regardless I think S swa did a great job in trying to incorporate a lot of the feedback that the mayor and I provided

right and they weren't aware of the CPRS award so that was exciting for them all right Anything else? Okay, we move to item 14, council items separate from the city manager's regular agenda, Council Member Chavis.

Thank you. Uh well, it was a very busy February. It' be an understatement to say, I think. Uh probably could sit here and talk about a bunch of things, but I'll be brief. Um, first of all, of course, as uh Mayor Sternquist mentioned, uh we just had our election. And thank you, Jerry, for acknowledging that as well. And uh you're right, it's a true source, a true uh you know, signifying our our the way we do things, not only in our country, but the city of Temple City as well, and having a good fair election. So, I I just want to thank my colleagues for all your support and get us through this period. And you know, elections are not always most fun for a lot of people, but uh it uh we've made it through. So, thank you so much. And of course to our staff, Peggy, Roxanna, for all you've done. Uh I don't even I didn't expect you to see you here today, but uh you're still working. So, I know you're doing a lot of stuff. And uh and of course to our residents as well uh for coming out and voting. That's uh what it's all about. So, thank you. Thank you so much. Um let's see. I just I I don't know if anybody's noticed the um I want to call it the beautifification of our historical society front lawn and uh and the women's club. It's it's starting to come together really nice. I noticed it the other day when I was coming over and

that is from um that's from the St. Gabriel Water District. Yeah, they they and I think someone else I forget what Don was telling me. Someone else Oh, a private resident I think contributed to like $10,000. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. I think she said that. We'll have to find out more about that and maybe have him come and acknowledge them at the future council meeting.

Uh, a lot of read across Americas. Uh, I know Mayor Sternquist has been busy with that. I I actually uh did a school outside of Temple City. Um, I know one of the teachers there. She asked to come and speak and that was at Granite Elementary in St. Alhamra. Tomorrow is Clemenson and then Friday is Lar Rosa. So looking forward to that. Uh, city manager Cook mentioned the Cameo Festival was quite a an event. Always is. We got lucky on the weather. And you know, you can always tell it's springtime or springtime's coming up because we had opening days for Temple City National, Temple City American, and our Temple City ASA softball program all in the last two weeks. And so, uh, wish them all the best of luck and have great seasons. And, uh, so far good weather for them as well. Um, I'm going to let uh Mayor Sternquist talk about the pickle ball tournament because I know she has some nice interesting things to tell us about that. That was from what I hear went off without a hitch and a lot of people were there. And last thing, first neighborhood watch at Emperor. What do you think? 40 to 45 people there.

Don't wear that ring. It was a good good turnout. Very good turnout. Um, a lot of new faces and so uh yeah, good start to the year for the neighborhood watch. So, and uh that's it. Thank you. Okay, council member Yu. Oh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um I echo a lot of things uh council member Chavis said. Uh but first of all, I want to congratulate the mayor on a very successful and wonderful state of the city address. It was very refreshing to hear and especially I understand that you actually wrote all of it. So that was a lot of it.

A lot of it. And uh but but still I think it's reflective is uh how well the city's been running and u of course thanks to city staff uh the city attorney and everybody um our constituents supported us and I think um just alluded a little bit to the election last night. I think it's also a I guess it's a confirmation of how well the city's been running cuz u apparently um uh council member Chavez and I apparently it's doing rather well. But um I I I do want to take this opportunity to to thank everyone who supported us. Um and uh and and and actually in this election I really reflected on I think I I I trusted council member Chavez and I I both reflected on the years that we have served and um and u and and like the mayor is saying the stage is set for some big things to come. So very appreciative of the opportunity and I want to say a couple more things because I won't be here at the next council meeting. So I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the support and uh and one final note that u we actually the most of us attended the safety public safety um meeting organized by the uh by the chamber and thank you um Sheriff Luna for coming out to to talk to all of us and and we want to take this opportunity obviously to thank our sheriff department for you know um for addressing and paying so much attention to our public safety. So, thank you.

Okay, council members. Yes. I just want to um I when council member Chavez was going through all the events, I can't believe they all happened in the last two weeks. It's uh so hats off to city staff and everyone involved in all aspects of um this community. It was really quite

um busy uh February and um that was a wonderful, beautiful invocation. Uh Jerry, I I thought um yes uh democracy did occur here last night and as the outcome of measure TC hangs in the balance. I think um some in the community I've seen um some of the advocacy work we've done. Uh of course we accept the outcome of uh I think voters are always right. Um and uh it just shows how important every mo vote is and that participation uh and how closely uh the outcome may hit may depend on uh just a handful of people uh may be uh uh just a sign of that. So participation definitely matters.

A quick question because it's so close. I know we have votes to come in. Reminds me of a very similar event we had here when we had a tie. What would happen if it would be a tie? Could we go do a coin flip like we did with the council member? Actually, no. Um on a measure, the measure requires 50% plus one. Uh when you have a candidate situation, um you have to have somebody be elected. And so that's the difference. It would it would fail if it's even failure. I want to say a failure, but it wouldn't pass.

Okay, good to know. All right, Mayor Prom. Yeah, I I won't Yes.

Yeah, I won't rehash a lot of what has been covered, but I I do acknowledge it's it's been a very busy busy two weeks. I one thing I've always appreciated about the state of the city and and I know Mayor Sternquist does this every time she delivers as well as uh I think every one of us is our state of city really focuses on the collective effort of everyone involved right and and I say this because there are other state of cities that I'm aware of that is not focused on that to kind of my surprise And and I and I cherish that here because it it shows that we we recognize that none of us do this alone. Uh without city staff, we can't do it. Without each other, we can't make decisions. Without the community being involved and volunteers, none of the great things that happen in Temple City are possible. And so I appreciated the state of city for really making that acknowledgement very clear to to everyone because it's I I think it's so dear to us in in Temple City. So thank thank you mayor for for doing that. Uh I I also appreciated the um the state of the public safety from Sheriff Luna. Um, my main takeaway from that when he reported out on the continuing challenges of recruiting for law enforcement nationwide really, right? It's not just limited to the county sheriff. Um, makes me appreciative of the action we've already taken through the conversion of positions for the community service officer. So, we're kind of I think we kind of ant had anticipated that this was happening and we asked our partners over at the sheriff station, what what can we help? How how can we help you guys? And and

this was one of the ideas that came up. So, um I'm I'm hopeful that uh as we implement this new I'm going to call like a program for lack of better word, but I know that might not be the best way to describe it. But I I know um our our city manager will will bring back some data metrics to help us better understand um how that's helping us as we kind of explore this new path down for how we can make our cities city safer. And uh lastly, um I know the final vote isn't finished for our election. Um but I think just mathematically speaking, I'm I'm very confident in congratulating both Council Member Chavez and Council Member Yu uh on on the the most recent election. I brought my son to kind of look at what was going on yesterday. Uh, and he was he didn't fully grasp it until he saw the numbers.

Yeah. Because I think in in school they have some context where they elect, you know, the the student body president and he says, "Oh, they have a treasurer and a vice president and they had to get on the principal's PA system and make announcements to the whole school." And so he that's his view of like what an elected body does. Um, and then I I I I showed him like here's every time we got an update, the numbers changed. And then when we finally got to the 100% for the night, I said, look, that's why that's why they're announcing it. There's this whole process behind it. And I told him, look, there's people inspecting it, checking it. There's levels of quality control to ensure that the election process is is fair and and done in in a right and just just manner and that every vote is counted. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm I know and and I joke that the last time we had an election for um at least the council was before he was born. So it's

he's in fifth grade. Fifth grade. Wow. Yeah. And and so to me that that was a moment for me personally to uh I I know council member, you mentioned reflection. I know we weren't in this election cycle, but it made me reflect a lot as well over what um what we have been uh accomp what what we have accomplished as well as what we are looking forward to. So I I very much look forward to uh being able to continue to work with our council in the coming year.

Okay. Well, I would just like to thank all of you. um state of the city comes together once a year, but it's a collective teamwork that gets us to that point. So, um I can't say enough about the colleagues that I work with and the staff was absolutely phenomenal. Um John helped put the slides together. Um Liz helped me with some thoughts, running things by her and editing. So, it was a teamwork. Brian, thank you too for um your help coming in and being part of the meeting. So, I'm grateful that is behind because I worry about that and spent hours rewriting it, looking at the slides and sending things to Brian saying, "Can we change this?" And he was always very gracious about, you know, letting me do so. But he reminds me sometimes that we're his boss,

right? and not to hesitate to ask him when we need help. But anyway, that was great. And um it was a nice crowd. The food was great. I mean, the singers were from the Good News Church and they are Temple City residents, so everybody was really appreciative of them and they were incredible. And this sixth grader that sang, oh my gosh, she was great, too. So, there's a lot of talent in our city. Um, Read Across America has been so much fun and I have a message to the council from all the sixth graders at Emperor is if you do anything us collectively that we put an In-N-Out where Carl's Junior is.

Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. Could you repeat that? Sorry, my new phone does these things. So, they would like an in-n-out where Carl's Jr. is. And um do they know there's one on lower? They said it's too far for or a lot of them to go to emperor

from emperor. So um I kind of tied it in because the next person said, "Well, what do you do?" And I said, "Oh, well you we make decisions about these things and maybe an In-N-Out one work there and they wanted to know why." and I said because you know all the traffic that's there on Laura Zusa and Rosemead Boulevard, our residents, meaning your parents might not like that. But they were so cute. Um and then I went to a third grade class. They were studying community. And I'll tell you this, it reminded me why I went into teaching and it reminded me why I retired. So, um, yeah, teaching is challenging and, um, it that hasn't changed, but really appreciate the welcome from the schools. And Friday, I'll see Tom at Lar Roa. I think we'll be at the same time, but different classrooms. So, thank you for going to that, too, Tom. So, if there's anything, Chameleia Festival, um, they were wonderful. Um, just the people, the volunteers, everything at the park, the sheriff's department that helped keep everything in order. Um, Jerry taking pictures. Uh, just one last thing, the pickle ball tournament. Jerry was out in the sun without a hat, so I was worried about that.

And that was a day after he spent uh the whole morning out in the sun at the little league openings.

Yes. So, we made sure he had Gatorade and water. But it was a really good it was fun and um it was exciting. And I have to say I watched the final game and the 73year-old woman won with her 45 to 50year-old partner. So, it was pretty impressive and shows you that anybody of pretty much any age can participate. So, that was really fun. And um thank you to the staff and Ruby especially for doing such a great job with that. And I think that's it. So, um

also just to follow up on that, u shout out to the uh staff, parks and recck staff uh for the improvements they made at the pickle ball. Uh if you haven't seen it, they put artificial turf and new turf, real grass and oh in an area that was kind of muddy and dirty and and it just looks great. And they put uh benches in. Well used. I think everybody there, at least who I talked to, is very appreciative of it. Of course, they want more, but yeah. Lights and lights. So that's for another day. Yes. Yes. Okay. So we move to public comment. Jerry and come on up.

Thank you, mayor. Just a shameless plug. If anybody would like to see photos of any of the events, visit templecityphos.com. The pickle ball video and photos are already up, so it's a fun event. And uh I was pleased to be there, especially even the uh uh little league and softball openings on Saturday morning and and it was a wonderful thing. So, thank you. Uh I was really impressed by the camaraderie and the teamwork last night at the front row when they were counting the ballots. And I kiddingly told Adam Gulick that I took a picture of him maybe 15 years ago. Yeah.

Uh looking at a ballot and looking for the Chad because those were the ballots in those days where you punched it I think and it was like the hanging Chad. Remember those days when it was like the joke? And here's this picture of Adam, you know, just kind of like really studying it and looking for it. And my last thing is don't forget daylight savings time this weekend. Okay. Okay. Great. Mayor, I do have one thing I forgot just and Jerry knows about this probably as well, which I'm sure he'll be there. The uh first baseball game on the new field at Temple City High is Saturday evening at 6 o'clock. Yes. So,

no, five o'clock. I I've got six o'clock on my calendar. Mr. Mr. Chen will will tell us exactly what time that is, but 6 o'clock. Yeah, I think it's 6 o'clock. Um, so if anybody has opportunity to come out and see it, you know, we those who went to the um uh our No, what was it? U what day was it? What when do we we have that event at the high school? Uh founders day. Yeah, we got a little private tour of the baseball field and the softball field. Beautiful. Beautiful. But the first official game is this Saturday night at uh at the high school. So see, that's what I'm anxious to see how they're going to slide on that plastic, but we'll see.

Yes. Okay. Um just one last thing also before we adjourn the meeting. The next meeting we will have our rotation as mayor. It It's gone by quickly. And um and we will have the swearing in also. Will we have we'll have that information by then, Ryan? Yes. Correct. We'll have the swearing in of the two council members. So, come on in. Mayor, I unfortunately I will not be there. I have my knee replacement surgery next morning. So, will you Well, sorry. You won't be sworn in then. Probably not.

I think you could take care of that on your own. Probably. All right. Well, with that, we're journ to I think believe it's March 17th. Okay. I don't know.