City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. I know the time is 5 p.m. I appreciate everybody that is here and on time. We're still waiting for one more council member to come. So if we could just have a little bit of patience. All right, let's have roll call, please.

Council Member Cao?

Here.

Council Member Kwan? Here. Mayor Pro Tempfu?

Here.

Mayor Chang?

Here. All right, we wanted to thank everybody that is here today, as well as everybody that is just online watching. I don't know if there's any supplemental information that needs to be provided.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have a couple pieces of information. Since we published the agenda, we had a total of five of the applicants voluntarily resign. So just for the public's benefit and the council to make sure we're all on the same page, the following people have resigned or withdrew their application. Ruby Chang, Gail Littlejohn, Eduardo Magalanis, William Wu, and Peter Yu. Those names have all been withdrawn from consideration, so the city council will have six people remaining to be interviewed this evening.

Okay, so just some protocol, just so everybody knows how things are gonna be. We're gonna be giving 12 minutes per candidate. Each candidate is gonna have a two-minute introduction. We're gonna do two round robins of questions, and what that means is we're gonna go through each council member giving one question. We're gonna request for the... RESIDENT TO RESPOND WITHIN ONE MINUTE. AND BECAUSE WE DO HAVE QUITE A NUMBER OF CANDIDATES WE HAVE TO GO TO, WE DO WANT TO FINISH UP BY 7 O'CLOCK. WE HAVE A LOT OF CHILDREN THAT ARE GOING TO BE IN THE AUDIENCE HERE AT 7 O'CLOCK. AFTER, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE COUNCIL DISCUSSION AND THE QUESTION IS GOING TO BECOME, I THINK FOR MOST RESIDENTS, HOW ARE THE POINTS GOING TO WORK? So instead of every council member picking one specific candidate, the way it's going to be is your favorite candidate is going to get three points, your second favorite candidate is going to get two points, and your third favorite candidate is going to get one point. Now, how are the points going to be done? They're not going to be done in a way that I think people typically would understand. We would all submit our points at the same time. And what that would mean is that the net person at the end that gets the most points will be on council. Okay? So with that being said, just very quickly, it's going to be Walter first, then John, Cynthia, Beth, Paul, and then Lisa. Is there anything I'm missing?

A public comment?

We are gonna have public comments, if there are any.

And Mayor, I'll clarify that we will have a general public comment session later at the seven o'clock meeting. This would just be public comments that are specific to the interview process, the special meeting.

Great, we have one public comment from April Verlato.

And how much time?

Five minutes, thank you.

Hi, good evening Council. I see you guys won't even look me in the face. So apparently you, thank you Paul, you'll look me in the face. Apparently you got my email, you saw, and you had William Wu withdraw his application. So I'm grateful for that because he was not a good candidate for Arcadia City Council. i just want to say i still think you should not be appointing somebody to represent district three you're subverting the will of the voters of district three they should be able to choose who they want they can do it in november there is nothing critical god michael just look at me just look at me what is wrong with you i mean is it that hard to look at me I still think that you should have the voters choose, and you should not choose for them. There's no critical votes coming up in the next couple of months that is going to make or break council. You have three votes. The three men will vote in alignment all the next six months. You have the majority. You don't need a fifth person at this time. That's my personal recommendation. I think you guys have made a mockery enough of city council. I think the whole world is watching and we should do better. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. We have another card. If anybody wants to speak about this specific item, if you could please submit as soon as possible because Ms. Judy Herman, Ms. Judy, if you could be able to come up. Thank you. You have five minutes.

Thank you. Thank you for having this meeting. There's a lot of concern in the community, but a lot of people are voting right now. So they're not able to make this meeting. I know my neighbors are voting and they're working on as poll workers. I would like to know if there is a residency requirement. for city council person. Three months seems entirely too short to know the ins and outs of this government. And I just would like to know if that's in the charter or if it's in some memorandum or something, is it?

Yeah, so just very quickly, if you could stop the clock. First of all, in terms of your comment regarding the poll workers, we were not able to consolidate on a specific date that was available. So we accommodated one of our council members. We previously had agreed to have this discussion a week ago. But unfortunately, one of our council members is not available. And so it was not in any way to have it be done on today and make it inconvenient for people. But I am going to turn it over to both the city manager and the city attorney regarding residency requirements, because I think that's a valid question.

Thank you.

And so thank you for that question. There is a residency requirement under the charter. And so for an appointed position like this, you have to be a resident at the time of appointment. If you are running for a city council office, you have to be a resident at the time you pull your papers. And that's under our charter. It's a rule under Arcadia City Charter. You also have to be a resident of the district where you're running or where you might be appointed. So tonight we're talking about District 3. But there are five districts within the city, so depending on which district you live in, that's the one that you would have to run for a council seat in.

So it's just for when you file your papers, you have to be a resident at that time?

Correct. I believe it's when you, the way we phrase it is when you pull your papers, when you go to take the nomination papers from the city clerk. So I realize that's kind of technical, but basically when you decide to run for office.

That seems entirely too short for a city this size. Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you. All right, we have one additional card. If there's anybody that would like to make a public comment on this specific agenda item, if you could please submit your card as soon as possible. This will be Beth Costanza. Thank you, Ms. Beth, for coming, and you will have five minutes to speak.

Hi, I'm Beth Costanza. I was the former executive director of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. I am retired and I don't live in Arcadia. However, I just was a bit astounded as to what's going on because I'm getting phone calls from all over the United States and farther about what's happening. I do hope that you give yourself some time to think about this to really vet the people that you're bringing forward. And don't rush it. I think that if you rush, you're going to regret it. The rushing will bring in someone that maybe isn't quite as qualified. So keep that in mind when you're when you're vetting these people and make sure that they've been around for a while and ask them some questions about what they know about Arcadia. If they're fairly new, even three years. I've only lived in Glendora four years. I don't know a lot about Glendora. And I'm just thinking that if somebody's only lived here for a month, A year? Two years? They don't really know a lot of the background and they need to know a lot about the town. They need to know the history. They need to know some people. They need to know being in some sort of an organization. They just need to be here. And if they haven't been, they don't know what's going on in town. So I just am hoping that you will vet them thoroughly and that you will be very cautious as to who you do end up with this time, because I think you can start a bit of a beehive going. So that's, as I said, I don't live here anymore, but I do work in town all the time. So good luck.

Thank you very much, MJ. You are our last card for the afternoon. Our famous MJ is going to be coming up. If there's anybody that wants to speak over the item, we are closing it. So once MJ is done talking, because we need to get through our council candidates and MJ, Ms. MJ, thank you very much.

Thank you. I'm sorry.

You have five minutes.

Okay. Oh, wonderful. So today I posted something on the Arcadia News Group page, which is a public news group for Arcadia. I asked a question, what qualifications and questions do you think the city council members should prioritize when interviewing D3 applicants? And I prefaced it by saying that D3 taxpayers deserve meaningful representation. And as a D3 resident and someone who is very troubled by this whole situation, I'm hoping that the council will select somebody who has deep roots in Arcadia, knows the community and the people, talks to their neighbors, and understand the unique needs of our district And there might be, you know, needs throughout, but we deal with jaywalking, bike-related dangers, traffic congestion during school hours. We have the busiest schools in that area, including the high school. And that confusing and controversial no turn on Red Arrow. situation at Baldwin and mail and carport thefts and the homeless situation in our area is a little bit unique as we came over here today a man was peeing in our bushes and sometimes there's human poop on our sidewalks so that's just what we deal with in D3 but some of the comments I thought would be helpful because a lot of people were saying they can't get here because they're at work and they're commuting back. But these are the type of things that they were saying. Mostly they wanna know somebody who's lived in Arcadia for at least three years. That was sort of the litmus test. And one gentleman, let me see if I can find it. Let me know how I am on time. He mentioned... I thought this was good. Verified D3 Arcadia residents minimum two years from deed, lease, and utilities, all in their name, not a relative. Verified legal U.S. residency minimum, signed pledge agreement to submit to background investigations if elected and appointed criminal and financial. And these are the type of requests for government employees and they should be okay for Arcadia public servants given the serious issues past and most recently that have broken public trust and honor in the system. So I encourage people to read those comments, especially our council, because that's sort of a good, test from our city. So thank you all. And I'll just say one last thing. A lot of people ask me why I didn't apply for this. And I will say that I get more done on this side of the podium than playing in a toxic sandbox. So I hope we get this straightened out.

Thank you. Thank you. MJ, if I may really quick, you talked about confusing light. Can you just elaborate on that? Because it sounds like that's around where I would be.

So there's a light, well it's kind of all over, it's the no turn on red. And so it happens, and when you come up to Baldwin, and my daughter's a new driver, and what happened up on Baldwin one time is, you come up there, and if a pedestrian's crossing, a red arrow comes up, but underneath that comes a green bulb too. your brain kind of goes hmm a lot of people have complained about it you can kind of look at the reviews here and what happened to my daughter she's a new driver and people were just like laying on the horn like go and she goes I can't go mom it's a red arrow and a car went right around her and almost hit the pedestrian and a lot of people are complaining about that situation and I hope that it's something you look into thank you thank you thank you very much

I wonder if I jump in on that subject for a second. Yeah, yeah. So what it is is that the sign says no turn on red arrow with a circle and a slash through it. And so you actually can turn on the red arrow, but the signal is formatted so that it has a separate setting where it shows like a slash through it and you're not allowed to turn on that. So people always get confused that they think, well, this is no turn on red. But actually, it's no turn on red arrow. I'm sorry, it's the other way around. When there's a red arrow, then you can't turn. But if it's a red light, then you can turn. And that's what confuses people. sit patiently behind people who aren't turning because I don't want to get caught honking at anybody. But I think that's the problem. And I wonder, too, about is there anything we can do with that sign to kind of explain to people what it means? But unfortunately, I think it's just kind of confusing, and I don't know if there's a better way out of it.

Yeah, I don't want to, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, we need to get to the actual interviews, but I know that the city engineer is looking into that because we're trying to balance the moving traffic through, pedestrian safety, confusion, all of that, but I know he's looking at that specific situation. How do we make it clearer for everybody?

All right, so let's get to the interviews. One thing that I did wanted to tell the council members, obviously you guys know my style, I'm pretty flexible, but I'm gonna be pretty strict. We wanna make sure that when it gets time to our council questions, that they are council questions and they are not council opinions. And I will cut you off if they are council opinions. We have time for our own opinion at the end of the interviews. It is already difficult enough to be sitting here on council with a lot of bright lights. It's equally difficult, if not more difficult, to have residents that come up to the podium when they're trying to figure out a question, but you give a five minute opinion. So with that being said, I wanted to thank Mr. Walter If you can be able to come up, please. It would be a total of 12 minutes. So it's total of 12 minutes, two minute intro. But if you could just look at the clock, my recommendation has been about a minute response per question. But again, if you could just look at the clock for 12 minutes, okay?

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening, honorable council members. My name is Walter Bersaghi and I would like to tell you about a little bit about myself and why I'm qualified for the open council seat in District 3. I'm a 49-year Arcadia resident and 24-year resident in District 3. I attended Arcadia schools from K through 12, participated in youth sports, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. While at Arcadia High, I was part of the music program where I was lucky enough to visit our sister city in Newcastle, Australia. After graduating Arcadia High School, I attended Pasadena City College, earning an AA in English and in foreign language, and transferred to the University of Arizona where I earned a degree in finance. When I completed my studies, I worked in the family business in the Bay Area. While working there, I realized that home was Southern California, and more specifically, Arcadia. Upon returning to Arcadia, I got a job at Ford Motor Credit, where I worked various positions including collections for planned audits and buying paper. After the closure of the branch, I transferred to a position as an in-house adjuster assessing damage to company and dealership vehicles. I traveled extensively across the western United States. My current position is the product and claim support manager where I help administer the U.S. and Canadian policies. As an adult, I wanted to give back to the community and be part of something larger than life. In 2011, I joined the Tournament of Roses. As a member of the Tournament of Roses, I have served on seven different committees and I'm currently a vice chair on the Parade Operations Committee. Here I've worked with public agencies and community groups. As a former HOA president, I learned to listen to my neighbors and to try to find common ground. If I am chosen to fill the empty city council seat, I will be guided by three issues, public safety, responsible development, and transparency. Public safety, I will ensure that the police and fire departments are fully funded and have access to the best training and equipment. Responsible development, while working within the state laws and mandates, I will ensure development within the city meets our local standards and fits within our community. And transparency, I'll make sure to listen to the citizens of Arcadia and make my decisions clear. Arcadia has provided me so much for me, and I believe it is time for me to give back to the community. I appreciate the opportunity, and I look forward to your questions.

All right. Council Member Kwan?

yes hello thank you so much for um applying for this position because this is a very critical moment of our city um so i'm going to ask you a question and i want to let you know that you are being televised and it's going to be a public record so i want everything to be answered truthfully do you have any personal business, political, close relationships with any Curtin City Council members, commissioners, city staff, consultants, or major donors?

No, I do not.

Okay. That's good. That's my first question. Council Member Cal.

Thank you so much, Mr. Walter, for taking the time out to come here and speak with us. My question is actually a little bit simpler. What do you think is the role of city council in general?

It's to guide the city, make sure we're going in the right direction, stay within budget, and make sure we have a safe and clean environment to raise our families and to enjoy life.

Council Member Fu, Mayor Pro Temfu.

How do you intend to preserve the character of our neighborhoods?

Just to make sure that when development comes up, we make sure that things fit in with our neighborhoods. Once again, there's going to be modernization, but we want to make sure it fits in with the character and nothing out of the ordinary. We want to make sure things, once again, just fit in.

My question is, what are two things in the city you'd like to improve?

Well, first off, the congestion on Baldwin, I live in District 3, and if you are trying to drive down Baldwin at about five o'clock, it's a madhouse. And the second one would just be public safety. Just over the past few years, I go for walks around the neighborhood. I've seen some interesting things, and I just would like to see more of a police presence and make sure that people are safe.

All right, Council Member Kwan.

So I want to ask you, what is more important, getting along with fellow council members or asking tough questions on behalf of the residents?

We need to ask the tough questions to ensure that the city is going in the right direction. I'm not here for political gain. I love to make friends, but once again, this is for the city, and we have to be dedicated to the city.

Thank you. All right, Council Member Cal.

Mr. Walter, I'd like to know, I mean, there's a lot of great candidates today. What special quality or skill set you feel are valuable to the Council?

I bring a unique skillset. You know, I've been, you know, in my work experience, I've been under a lot of high pressure situations, you know, when a dealership would get hit by hail, I've got to go out, look at a thousand cars, make sure the dealership gets back up and running, settle claims, things like that. And also just being, let's say like a calm force, you know, you don't want to get, you know, get too emotional. You want to get the emotions out. You want to make sure you can make a sound decision based on facts.

Mayor Pro Tempfu.

So in your statement, you refer to working to achieve financial stability and to protect safety. But if financial stability means cutting costs and safety means hiring cops and firemen, and those are therefore inconsistent goals, how do you reconcile those two things? Well, we're going to have to prioritize.

You know, I don't have all the information, but once again, give me the information, we'll sit down, we'll prioritize and make those tough decisions.

So if you had one specific goal over the next five months, it's a very short interim period, what would that goal be? And if you could elaborate for us.

Just ensure the safety of our community, just make sure that we live in a clean environment and that everybody feels safe walking down the street.

Well, we've been very efficient, and you have about five minutes. So I'm wondering if you had anything to supplement, if you had any thoughts?

No, no, nothing else. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, sir.

We appreciate you. Have a good evening. All right. So we've scheduled everybody based on specific times. Is Mr. John Hahn here? Hi, John. Come on up. Right, so there's gonna be, again, a total of 12 minutes, recommended two minutes introduction, two round robin questions, each council member. Recommended time is about a minute to respond, but it seems like you have more than enough time. So go ahead, sir, thank you.

Let me, give me a minute. Mayor Zhen, Council Pro Tem Fu, excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Fu, Council Member Cao, Council Member Quang, my name is John Han, and I'm honored to be here tonight. I have lived in Arcadia for over 10 years. Every day, my dog and I, we walk the streets of Arcadia. We've seen families move in and move out. Business is open and close. Recent challenges have tested us, but we are united by our shared values, integrity, accountability, empathy, and fairness. We are a resilient committee that requires a balance between preserving what we love and embracing what we need. My professional experience and credentials have prepared me to add value from day one. preserving continuity and stability. My volunteer work and perspective have equipped me to lead by doing, embracing change and opportunity. I am seeking this appointment because my skills and commitment will yield positive results. I humbly ask for your consideration. Let us keep Arcadia a place where family sets roots. Businesses prosper, and my daily walk with my dog still feels like home. And to my fellow candidates, thank you for stepping up and representing District 3. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Kwan?

Same thing, I just want you to know that you've been televised, and so everything will be spoken here, will be for public record.

Absolutely.

Who on the Curtin City Council encouraged you to apply for this position? And have you discussed how you would vote on city issues if appointed?

No one on the current committee on the podium right now has. I don't know anybody here, to be frank. So no one really asked me to apply, or anyone had advocated me to apply. I saw what's going on in the news, because the world's spotlight is pretty much on Arcadia at the moment. So I noticed that from the last meeting, there was a discussion about appointing someone in the application process. And I wanted, because I've lived here for so long, I wanted to show my gratitude and make contributions to the city. That's why I've submitted my application. So otherwise, I have no connections with anyone up here or even down there.

Thank you. Council Member Kal.

Mr. Han, similar to what I said as Mr. Walter, thank you for applying and taking your time out to come here tonight. Similar question that I asked Mr. Walters, what do you think is the role of the city council?

I think the role of the city council is to, as I stated in my statement, to be fair, to preserve what we preserve on continuity and stability. I think that's one of the most important things right now. And also really be the voice of all the residents in District 3. I've lived there for 10 years. I walk my dog really on a daily basis. And so I've talked to people around, see what's going on in the community. what's going well, what's not going well, what could be changed. And that's one of the reasons that prompted me to come out here and submit my application for this position, for this appointment, excuse me.

Mayor Pro Tempfu.

Thank you. Mr. Hahn, in your personal statement, you talk a little bit about building consensus. in your professional life, can you give us some examples of where you were working with groups or differing perspectives and how you managed to achieve building consensus?

Absolutely. So I was on the HOA board where I live. So a lot of times there are different agendas from either members or board members because each member has their own opinion and their own wish, how they want the HOA to be. So it is important to identify common denominators, to find what that is, and to go through the negotiation process to make sure that everybody wins in most situations. Unfortunately, obviously, there are people that are just intolerable. So therefore, you have to go back to the law, to CCNR, and let that person know that here's what the law says, and here's what we have to do. So obviously, in any position, like HOA board members, or even on the council member, It's important to listen and follow the rules.

Thank you. My question are, what are the two things you'd like to improve in Arcadia?

I think one thing is there are a lot of buildings that are dilapidated on Baldwin. Baldwin is supposed to be a historic avenue. You have tons of traffic going back and forth. I think that's a very negative perspective to kind of show people driving on Baldwin. Arcadia is more than that. So I think that's one area of improvement. The other one is I think a lot of the HOAs, a lot of HOAs in District 3, they are not really enforcing the rules that are in the CCNR. And that's putting a lot of, it's taxing a lot of city resources. So for example, cars are being parked on fire links. So if anything goes wrong, it's going to hinder all the emergency service providers. So things like that, and also beautification, the front areas, the lawns, those are all responsibilities of HLA. But yet, they are not doing the work. And so if they're not doing the work, it's a poor representation of the city of Acadia. And that's one thing we can definitely improve.

Council Member Kwan.

Do you believe Arcadia has a spending problem, a revenue problem, or both?

I don't believe there's a problem at the moment. Because through last meeting, there's been a surplus. There's also money being contributed to the stabilization fund for the retirement plan. So at the moment, no. But I would love to have, I guess, if I'm privy to... reviewing the budgets, doing the forecast, and find out exactly how future contribution rates for CalPERS, for example, and future revenues, tax revenues coming into the city, how that would affect the spending for the city. So at the moment, I'm not privy to that information.

Council Member Kal? Similar to Mr. Walter, Mr. Hahn, I'd like to ask you, what do you think your skill set is or the values that you bring to the council?

Absolutely. So, dedication. A real desire to serve. and show my appreciation for the city. And also, I'm very data-driven. Being in investment management, we look at numbers. We look at financial statements. We look at charts. I think those are some of the qualities that I have and that I can bring to the city council.

Mayor Pro Temfu?

You talked about this a little bit, but I'd like to know a little bit more about your interest in serving and what you feel it is that animates this application in light of the fact that you, I guess you didn't talk to us or anybody else about applying, right?

I did not. I applied on my own. So like I said before, it's really a desire to serve. This city has given me so much. I walk my dog every day. I love the neighbors. And I love the Arboretum. My wife and I, we have a membership. So we walk there usually every Saturday. And obviously the Westfield Arcadia is awesome as well. So all that has really prompted me to want to contribute. And also, I think one of the biggest motivation is how disappointed I am to what's going on with the resignation and so forth. The spotlight is on us. We gotta show the world what Arcata really is about. It's not about infighting. It's about coming together, providing continuity and stability. And then the voters will decide on November 3rd who shall represent District 3. So at the moment, The priority should be continuity, stability, and show the world who we are.

Earlier, sir, you talked about being data-driven, charts and things like that. Can you explain what that means, how you would bring that to council?

Absolutely. So it's part of the investment process we look at. It's called systematic. So we look at a lot of data, and we push that data through programs such as Python for machine learning, data analysis, looking at patterns, right? So when we look at, let's say, for example, we evaluate a company. We look at the balance sheet. We look at its income statement. We look at the margin, whether or not there's a moat or not. We look at return on capital, return on assets. Those are all the numbers that we look at. And obviously, we look at technical analysis as well. We look at the charts. So if you go to look at the price movements, Is there a pattern I'm seeing? Is it going up? Is it going down? Is it a trend or is there not? So these are all the information that I will gather to make any sort of decision, either buy, sell, or hold. So I can apply all of that to the city of Cadia, looking at the budgets, looking at the forecast to make sure that ROI really is is what it should be or what it could be. Because data could be very sensitive, right? So if you do an analysis on a company, it's based on interest rates. If you change the interest rates, the value will change significantly based on the interest rate. So therefore, there are kind of things. A lot of building models really enjoy looking at numbers and data.

Well, thank you very much. Appreciate the 12 minutes that we've had. Thank you, sir. The next individual, Cynthia Inmanji, are you, thank you very much. Miss Cynthia, you're gonna have, again, 12 minutes, recommended two minute introduction, two round robin questions, recommended one minute response time, but again, just the total amount of 12 minutes total. Thank you very much.

Good evening. The Arcadia City Council plays a vital role in shaping the community's future through responsible governance and dedicated service. It is unfortunate that the recent resignation of Eileen Wang has fractured this council, and it is important to elect an individual that has a true long-term residency in Arcadia to ensure they have a full understanding and commitment to the community. I personally have lived in Arcadia since 1999, and specifically in District 3 for 14 years. My professional experience at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has equipped me with the leadership, problem solving, and communication skills necessary to serve effectively on the Arcadia City Council. I have successfully managed projects and teams balancing diverse viewpoints to reach common goals and work with laboratory directorates, project managers, and staff to understand their needs and deliver solutions that make a positive impact. Additionally, managing budgets and resources has taught me the importance of fiscal responsibility, ensuring that funds are used wisely to benefit the organization. I'm confident that these experiences have prepared me to serve Arcadia with dedication and integrity. At this juncture, the city of Arcadia needs healing. City leadership needs to restore faith and trust with the community and the best course of action is to be transparent and honest. The city council is to serve the people. The focus should be maintaining the city's unique charm and high quality of life while promoting sustainable growth and development. If appointed, I would bring a fresh perspective rooted in my deep roots to our diverse community. Arcadia is a home to residents from many backgrounds. And I am proud that my appointment would mark a historic milestone as the first Hispanic member of city council. I'm committed to enhancing public safety, supporting responsible growth that respects our city's heritage and improves our infrastructure and city services. Together we can build a vibrant, inclusive community where families, businesses, and neighbors flourish. Thank you for your time and attention, and I would be honored to serve the city of Arcadia.

Thank you. Council Member Kwan.

So same thing, just want to let you know that you've been televised and that your answers will be publicly recorded. I have a question for you. Have you ever changed your position on an important issue after hearing new facts? Give an example.

I think everyone has the right to change their mind after listening to all the facts. I think we're human. I think sometimes even in our personal relationships, we may decide we have our minds made up on one thing without hearing the full story. I'm open, I'm always flexible. And sure, I think that we have an opportunity to do the right thing. And the right thing is to listen to both sides and make our determination after hearing all the facts. That makes sense to me.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Council Member Kal. Ms. Cynthia, similar to Mr. Walter, Mr. John, thank you for taking the time out coming here tonight and applying. I'm gonna ask the same question. What do you think is the role of the city council?

The role of the city council is to serve the people. That I think is what has become estranged from the city. I really think that the focus should really be on listening to our residents and our people. They're speaking loudly, very loudly right now. And I wanna be able to bridge that gap and mend the relationship between the council, the leadership of our city and our residents.

Mayor Pro Temfu.

You said the people are speaking very loudly. What are you referring to when you talk about that?

I'm talking about the recent incident within the city council. I hear a lot of frustration from them on how this occurred. And I really do think it's taken away from the regular every day to day business of the city. And there are, whether you think that they are small or big, you know, the lights, having issues with the homeless people in the city, these are real issues that people want us to address, wants the city council to address, but unfortunately, it's been sidelined because of what has been happening thus far.

Earlier you had said that city council needs to be transparent and honest. What do you mean by that?

What I mean is when this all happened with Eileen, I just feel that there were a lot of people whispering in the background and no one really paying attention or maybe glossing over what actually was going on. And I think it's a huge disservice to our community when our leadership doesn't stand up and say, hang on a minute, let's really take a look at what's going on. It's the leadership's responsibility just to make sure that we're acting with integrity and honesty.

Council Member Kwan.

If appointed, will you vote independently, even if it means disagreeing with the council members who support your appointments?

I'm going to vote for what I feel is right, regardless of who's influencing or who's on which side. I'm an individual. I'm an independent person. I'm a strong woman, and I've raised my two children all by myself for several years. It was very difficult for me. I never let anyone take advantage of me. And I really do think that it's important to be able to stand my own ground and make my own decisions.

Thank you. Council Member Kal.

Ms. Cynthia, what skill set or values do you feel that you bring to the city council?

I think that good listening skills, really listening to the people and also leadership and finding a common ground, finding a way to again, bridge that gap, begin the healing and get back to regular city business.

Mayor Pro Temfu.

Borrowing a page from Member Kwan's book, have you spoken with any past or present members of the council about your application?

Absolutely not.

Earlier you had said that the city council doesn't stand up and we need to act with integrity and honesty. Can you elaborate on that?

Like I said, I feel that some of this information about the previous mayor was already suggested or was known. And I just feel that And maybe you guys were waiting to do your due diligence, perhaps, but maybe there's something in the bylaws that has to be amended or set in place. Clearly, if there's somebody that is representing another country and it's not in the interest of our city, we really need to stop and think about why that person is sitting in that seat and what do we need to do to stop that and make it better.

Well, thank you. You have another three minutes. Do we do two rounds of questions? All right, you have about three minutes. Is there anything else that you wanted to say?

No, but I thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Thank you so much. Yes. Beth, are you here? All right, Beth, first thing you gotta do is you gotta pronounce your last name for us.

Simkowski.

Simkowski.

Simkowski, he is basically silent.

Simkowski, okay. I think I don't need this. All right, Ms. Beth, there's going to be, again, just going to repeat, 12 minutes total, recommended two-minute intro, recommended but not required to have a one-minute response time just so you can track.

Okay.

And it'll be 12 minutes in front of you. So go ahead. Thank you.

First, I want to thank you for this opportunity and to say to the people who are here, I know you don't know me. But I encourage you to do a deep dive on my background and you will see that I am somebody who stands up for what I believe in and don't know anyone on this council. And I want to say that I believe apparently there's a lot of division in the city. And I'll go into what I believe is my advantage as a newcomer, relative newcomer. But I think it's partly that I am not aligned with any of the groups in the city right now. I am here to serve the people in my district, District 3, and the city as a whole. But I don't bring a lot of the baggage that I think some people might. And I realize from looking at the list of applicants, I am one of the newer members of this community. And I do wanna talk about that upfront. I very much value the historical knowledge of the council, of the other people who have applied and the people who have lived in this community for a really long time. But I believe that my perspective as a relative newcomer, I've lived here for three years, is actually an asset in this situation. I'm gonna give you some more about my background that's not in the application and then talk about what I mean by that. So I got my bachelor's and my master's from Duke and then I moved to California and built a career as a screenwriter. I still do some of that. I do some corporate writing. I teach at the high school and college levels And I think that my most relevant work experience has been an executive producer in television. That job requires dealing with many different departments that have very opposing needs, having to make tough choices that balance what people want, what the budget allows with the goal, very goal oriented of, we have to get a product out to create the best product possible given the constraints we have. I think it's very similar to what you guys do. I have two young adult sons. The oldest is about to start grad school locally in the fall. The younger one has been a lifeguard at Arcadia's County Pool for the past two summers, and he will be again this summer when he gets home from college. He's in the UC system, so he's coming back a little bit late. The three of us absolutely love it here. We, you know, we... eat at all the restaurants on Baldwin. We go to the parks. My one son and I did the Derby Day a couple times. We love the Arboretum. And interestingly enough, I feel, and I'll talk about where I came from, I go jogging sometimes before it's light outside, and I love that I feel very safe when I'm doing that. And that brings me back to what perspective I bring. I came to this city with fresh eyes. I chose this city recently because I can see what a great place it is. And before this, I lived in a very nice place where the quality of life had eroded due to things like homelessness and property crime and traffic, all things that people talk about that they have the hints of it here. So we're in a position to do something about it and make sure the city stays on track and maintains and improves in those areas. I understand that Arcadia has made major changes in their zoning laws recently to meet the state mandates. It's going to bring more people. It's going to bring much denser housing. I can already see the buildings going up in District 3. How the council moves forward with things like parking, traffic, infrastructure, public safety, it's going to have a huge impact on maintaining the quality of life here and the character of the city. I want to help ensure that all the new residents that those changes are going to bring in will be absorbed into the city and have the same quality of life that we already enjoy. But I also want to make sure that the people who are here already are not going to be negatively impacted by that. And in an ideal world, I would strive to be as close to this as possible, There's gonna be growth. The changes have already happened. But in an ideal world, if the growth is done well, it's an opportunity for the city. So again, I just wanna thank you for this opportunity and please ask me anything.

Council Member Kwan.

Thank you. That was a story that really covered a lot of the things that I want to ask you. But one simple question. What would cause you to vote against proposals supported by the mayor, city manager, city attorney, and the majority of the council?

If it's not in the best interest of my district, the people I represent.

Okay.

Can you give it an example?

I'm sorry, what would?

Can you give an example, like just hypothetically?

Cutting police or changing the trash pickup in my neighborhood. I would not be in favor of that.

Council Member Cowell.

Thank you, Miss Beth. Once again, I'm over here. Thank you, Miss Beth, for taking the time out, coming and applying. And I wanted to ask you a similar question to what I've asked all the other candidates. I want to make it a level playing field so that the questions are consistent. What do you think is the role of the City Council?

I believe the role of the City Council is to guide the city and keep it safe, clean, and have it be a nice place to live.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu.

Thank you, Ms. Simkowski. Over here. Tell us, well, let's ask this question first. You have a creative background. Yes, I do. Is there any action that you have in mind that you think reflects how that creative background is going to inform your goals as a council member? That's a good question. I thought so.

It's hard to compartmentalize creative thinking. I think when you are somebody who has made a career out of having to come up with different solutions to things and come up with ideas, it means that every single way you approach something, somebody had asked about the police, and my first reaction was, well, if you had to cut the police or the budget, Maybe there's a third thing. Maybe there's a way of having someone who might not be a sworn police officer who can still do patrols in the area. I'm automatically not saying there's only A or B. There might be a C that a creative thinker could come up with to achieve the goals. And I think that's the biggest advantage of my background.

What are two things, since being in Arcadia, and thank you for choosing Arcadia, that you think you would want to improve in this city?

Well, I can definitely see the things people were talking about in that when I jog in the morning, there's sometimes a homeless guy on Baldwin. I think Baldwin could use some beautification. I was very upset when the trees were cut down. actually called the city and to the to i wish i remembered the name of the person i spoke to i got through to someone pretty quickly very different from where i used to live and he explained to me what was happening and he said that they're going to be the trees were going to be replaced in a certain amount of time and i honestly thought yeah right and then they were actually replaced in a certain amount of time and i was very impressed with that um so in terms of i think baldwin beautification and i am very concerned about the the increased in population and that's gonna require, I think, allotting some of the public safety, some of the things in a different way because it's gonna be more dense and there's gonna be different needs. And then a pipe dream would be to have, you know, first street card or beautified as well and have more businesses that are active.

I'm sorry, what card?

Around First Street.

I didn't hear you. A corridor?

The corridor, like the businesses on First Street.

Oh, got it. Yeah. On First Avenue?

Yeah, on First Avenue. Sorry. There you go. I'm new.

No, no. It's a great area. It's got a great hot pot there.

Yeah, I know. I mean, it's funny, because when I go there, I see there's one restaurant that has a giant line, and then there are several businesses. Oh, that's in District 1. OK. My kid's dentist is there, and then there's a lot of businesses that are kind of empty.

Yeah, okay. Council Member Kwan?

What is more important, being an advocate for a cause or being a steward of taxpayer dollars?

Ooh. I think being a steward of good spending is very important. I feel like that might be a loaded question because I'm not sure which cause you're referring to. I think it's always going to be a balance of, you know, if public safety, what's more important, public safety or spending money on public safety? I mean, it could go either way.

Council Member Kal.

So Ms. Beth, what skill set or values do you bring to the council?

I am a good communicator. I am a very good listener. I am very pragmatic in my approach. I was interested in listening to the previous candidate saying he was data-driven, and I can be accused of being that, too, and insisting on seeing a study or understanding why a decision is being made, not just on emotional reactions, but actual numbers, if at all humanly possible. So I think being a practical person and an advocate and somebody who is very willing to stand up for what I believe in would serve this city well.

Mayor Pro Temfu.

I appreciated your comments about loving the city and living here with your two boys. Can you expand a little bit more on your desire to serve and sort of what animates that interest in serving on the council?

It is very much, you know, it definitely started with the scandal that's happened. I mean, I live in a place where I had people, you know, my family from back east was calling me saying, wait, you live in Arcadia. It's on the news in the worst possible way. And they were commenting on the fact I would say how much I love it here. And it became a discussion with my kids, with my friends, about, you know, do something then. Don't just talk about, don't talk about what the city can do. Take action. I'm also at a point in my life where my youngest son is in college now, so I've been empty nesting. You know, the older one graduated and moved home, so there's that. But I'm empty nesting, so I feel like I have the mental capacity to serve and the interest in it.

Well, we're running out of time. If you could just quickly tell us, do you have one main goal that you have over the interim period for the next five months?

My main goal would be to keep the residents of District 3, to listen to the residents of District 3 and represent them here.

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. The next individual is Mr. Paul Vanfleet. Now, is it Vanfleet or just last name?

Vanfleet.

Oh, Vanfleet. Mr. Vanfleet, you're gonna have total of 12 minutes, a two-minute introduction, along with two round robin questions, and recommended, not required, but if you're about a minute, around a minute per response, you'll get to the 12 minutes pretty quickly. Thank you, sir, go ahead.

First of all, thank you guys, the whole City Council, for giving me the opportunity to speak to you and to apply. In transparency, I met the Mayor about 45 to 50 minutes ago, and Dominic, I believe I spoke to him quite a few times back about 8 to 10 years ago when I was running for City Council myself. I ran twice where I took no donations and I did not know I did not have anybody else working on my campaign. So as far as verifying residency, I've lived at the same exact address in District 3 for 28 years in July. I believe it's July 15th of 1998 I moved in. That's pretty much, so I'm not moving around. My education, I graduated Rutgers University with a degree in urban studies and also in economics. I moved out here after I lived, I grew up in New Jersey. I moved out here after I lived in Dallas, Fort Worth, Midland, Texas, and Taichung, Taiwan. And I chose this. Some of these people have been here much longer than me. I wasn't born here. I made a choice as an adult to move out here 28 years ago. I do not know anybody else on the city council. I do not have any business or personal relationships with any business owner or any politician in the city of Arcadia. What I do for a living is I work for the state of California. I work for State Compensation Insurance Fund as a senior claims adjuster. What I do in that position is I meet people or deal with people in their worst times when they've gotten seriously injured. I get doctors for them. I make sure they get treated properly. They get the benefits that they're due. I deal with our attorneys. I deal with medical staff. And the other thing that I deal with is I make sure that I when I do stipulations or settle their claims that I get them a fair settlement that they will be able to go back to their normal lives. And that's pretty much it. The reason I want to serve on the City Council is I actually Way, way back, I used to go to meetings all the time and I really appreciate the work that you guys do. I know it's very difficult. I know that there's varying opinions that people have. And my philosophy is that we're ombudsman for the citizens of our districts and of the city a whole. And that's pretty much it. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

All right, Council Member Kwan.

If I'm not mistaken, you ran for city council the past two times?

No. The past two times I did not run for city council. I ran two times previous to that. The first time, I believe, it was a general election. They didn't have districts. And I believe the second time, I'm not quite sure. I think it was district three, but I can't swear to that. But I didn't run the last two times, no.

Okay, but you did previously?

Yes.

Okay, okay. And...

Sorry, I thought that was your question. Go ahead.

So what do you believe voters were telling you and what have you changed since then? I apologize. I said, what do you believe voters were telling you and what have you changed since then?

What voters would tell me about Arcadia?

Yes. I mean, since you voted last, you were in the election, but you didn't get elected, right?

Right. The first time I ran, I got 498 votes. The second time I ran, I got 98 votes. And then I decided to sit out for a while.

Okay, and did you learn anything, or maybe now time has passed, have you learned something that you think you can better serve your district?

Oh yes, living in Arcadia for all those extra years, I've seen, as these other individuals have said, as far as Issues that need to be corrected. For example, I think we're losing a lot of tax revenue with that Burlington being closed. I think that we should be doing something to get somebody in there, either a department store or something of that nature. I've seen the growth of the community. One thing I'm a little concerned about is sometimes when there is new buildings that they cut back on the amount of parking that's required. I think that's not a good idea. I think what I'm speaking about is the one by the train station where they kind of cut back the requirements on the parking. I think our streets are crowded enough without that, that we should, if we have large multi-level condos or townhouses or apartments, that they should have enough parking.

Thank you. Council Member Cao.

Mr. Powell, once again, similar to all other applicants, thank you for coming, thank you for applying, taking your time out. Similarly, I'd like to keep it a level playing field. What do you think is the role of the city council?

Role of the city council is to be ombudsman to all the citizens. We should have our ears open to their concerns and to address them.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu.

It seems from your personal statement that you're proud of the fact that you didn't raise any funds from your former runs for the city council. What do you think that fact reflects in terms of your support from your community?

The reason I didn't raise it is because if someone knocks on our door, I don't want anybody to be a priority because they gave me X amount of dollars to do something. I want every citizen to be treated equally. I don't want any favoritism. And I feel that if you do get donations, sometimes people have a feeling that they can Prioritize, you prioritize them. I feel that I wanted everybody to be on an equal level and that no favors were owed to anybody. That's why I did not take any donations of any kind because I wanted citizen A, citizen B, whoever it was, they would get the same amount of my attention. No conflicts of interest.

Thank you. Mr. Van Vliet, what are two things that you would love to improve in the city?

One is I'd sure like to have that library open on Sundays. I'm sure the library staff might not be super happy on it, but I think that would be an excellent thing. I believe Pasadena has theirs open, and it would be nice if we had ours open. The second thing would be, like I said, the Burlington, and there's quite a few open commercial facilities that we should be getting tax dollars from, that I think there should be some kind of committee at least looking into getting something in there. I believe the savers that was down, it used to be a Ralph's down at Baldwin in Las Tunas. They got a savers in there when Ralph's closed. So I hate to see open commercial where that money could be, the tax dollars could be used for either police or landscaping or whatever we need. One thing I'd like to add is I don't even know if you still have this. There used to be a thing where you guys would have a training session where citizens could sign up and they could go to all the different departments, like the Department of Recreation's department, the police department, and they had, they'd explain what they did. And I feel that that, I did it in 2017, I still remember it. I think that, if you don't have that program, I think you should re-institute that.

We'll have city staff explain it after Council Member Kwan.

Let me ask you if, you know, you get appointed, you know, if a city staff, you know, a trusted city staff, you know, provides recommendation, should they be independently verified the information before voting?

Of course.

Okay.

You verify everything. You're going to vote on something. You better know if it's correct or not.

Council Member Cowell? Mr. Powell, what skill set or values do you bring to the council?

I have the ability to talk to various levels or they used to call it leveling from the... I want to say it the right way. From executives on down to like workers like myself, I'm able to level my conversation to them so that I can understand what they're trying to present me. I'm not explaining that very well. And I apologize. I have the ability to talk to a wide variety of people and a wide variety of expertise. I consider myself pretty well educated and I've dealt with attorneys, I've dealt with doctors, I've dealt with insurance companies. I deal with a lot of various people. My specific skillset is not one pigeon-holed thing. I deal with all kinds of people, all kinds of professions. And I think that I've worked in the oil industry. I've worked in a restaurant industry. I've had a business in Tucson. I had a coffee house. I've had all kinds of stuff. So I think that I can identify with various people. I kind of lost it at the end. I apologize.

You're doing great. Mayor Pro Tempfu.

Yeah, I kind of feel like my question sort of builds on that a little bit. So your statement is fairly brief, and I'm trying to interpret from your experience at State Fund What experiences there provide you with a good foundation to serve on the city council? So can you enlarge that for us, please?

Sure. I'm able to research and read documents as far as legal documents. I'm able to write legal documents, which I obviously have our attorneys review. I'm able to negotiate. I negotiate settlements. I'm able to organize and get appointments for injured workers and get the items that they need to prioritize how cases move along, settle cases, things of that nature is what I do.

And lastly, just wanted to ask you, you know, two-time candidate running. Thank you for running. What was, you know, a few things, well, you don't have that much time, maybe like one or two things that you learned when you ran just in terms of running that you wanted to share?

I think that it's very important to get out to talk to the people. you'll get a lot of various opinions and very different opinions on what people think are as important. For example, her first street promenade, I think was extremely important. Somebody else may not think that's important. The racetrack, people think that's important. Other people think that we should get rid of it. All that stuff, you have to talk to the people and you have to listen. And pretty much your ears have to be open, listen more than you talk. But I think that's what you have to get out on the street and actually get people's opinions and try to work with them and try to get what's done to do the right thing. Just be a good person and do the right thing. Well, that's great.

Thank you so much, Mr. Van Fleet. I appreciate you for coming to city council.

And thank you guys so much. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you.

Next person we're gonna have is Lisa Walton. All right, Lisa, you're our last candidate for today. You have a total of 12 minutes. You have recommended two-minute introduction time. Each council member will be asking you one question twice. And recommended time, a minute to a minute and a half to respond.

All right, great. Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity to let me speak tonight. Arcadia is just not the city where I live. It is the city that shaped who I am. I was born and raised here, and for the past 47 years, I have been proud to call Arcadia home. The values I learned growing up in this community, service, kindness, and pride in where we live are the same values that inspire me to run for Arcadia City Council. My commitment to Arcadia began long before I considered public service. I watched my parents, Jan and Lee Shimon, dedicate themselves to our community, always willing to volunteer, support local, causes, and lend a helping hand wherever it was needed. They taught me that being a part of this community means showing up, giving back, and working to make things better for future generations. Their example continues to guide me and my daughter. As a member of the Arcadia Beautiful Commission, I have had the privilege of serving the city I love in helping preserve the charm, character, and sense of pride that make Arcadia such a special pride. Through this work, I have come to appreciate even the more importance of listening to residents, building connections, and making thoughtful decisions that benefit our entire community. I'm running for Arcadia City Council because I want to give back to the city that was given so much to me and my family. I want to help ensure that Arcadia remains safe, beautiful, and welcoming place where families can thrive, businesses can succeed, and neighbors continue to look out for one another. By honoring our history, embracing community involvement, and planning responsibility for the future, we can preserve the Arcadia we cherish while creating new opportunities for generations to come. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, Council Member Kwon.

Who on the Curtin City Council encouraged you to apply for this position?

No one on council. Okay.

Council member Cal.

Ms. Lisa, similar to all other applicants, thank you so much for applying. Thank you for taking your time out to come here. Once again, for a level playing field, what do you think is the role of the city council?

It's to guide our community and also listen to our residents and take action upon that.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu.

In your personal statement, you refer to understanding the needs, values, and concerns of residents. What are the needs, values, and concerns of residents in District 3, and upon what are you basing that conclusion?

One, I mean, for example, safety. I think you've all heard from the other applicants, Baldwin, with the traffic. Also, the the traffic around the school districts, Arcadia and all the elementary schools, junior highs.

So Lisa, what are two things that you would improve in the city?

Again, the public safety, and then also with the traffic along the high schools, middle schools and elementary schools.

The age-old issue.

Yes.

Council Member Kwan.

Because you're a commissioner, so I'm going to ask you a little tough question here. If three council members want to approve something quickly and you still have unanswered questions, what would you do?

I would ask more questions. I mean, I'm not going to base it off of their decision. Okay.

Council Member Kall. Ms. Lisa, similarly, what skill set or values do you think you bring to the city council?

Well, being in the banking industry for 25 years, I work with a lot of cohorts. So I work closely with teams globally. So, you know, I have great time management skills. I'm a great listener, listening to our community.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu.

Again, in your personal statement, you talk about preserving and enhancing the pride and character of our city. what would you do to enhance the pride and character of our city?

Well, I would like to, you know, see some of Arcadia, you know, remain as is, as opposed to, you know, I understand that business, you know, is always growing, but just to preserve, you know, maybe some of the homes, you know, we have the Arboretum that has been preserved, you know, and I know that there's been rumors with the racetrack possibly selling. I, would like for that to stay around just so that we have a little bit of history still left in Arcadia.

So what would be, is this my first question or second question? Second question. Okay. What would be your main goal over the next five months?

traffic around the school districts. Awesome.

Awesome. Well, with that being said, you still have a few minutes. I'd love for you to just share a little bit more. You know, thank you for being efficient on your time. But, you know, do you have anything to just share with us?

No, I just appreciate the opportunity and thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Well, with that being said, we will go to, because we do have the time, I believe, to be able to deliberate over the issue. Council Member Kwon, what are your thoughts? So, am I going to, do I have to say my choices?

Yes.

No, so it's just if you have any council comments in relation to the candidates. I understand that they're still here, which may be a little bit hard, but just if you have any thoughts, what we're gonna do is after we provide our thoughts, then we're gonna take five minutes. We're collectively, unilaterally gonna submit all of our points at the same time.

AND I'M HEARING FROM THE RESIDENTS, YOU KNOW, JUST THIS IS A BIG DECISION BECAUSE WE'RE REPRESENTING DISTRICT THREE TO REPLACE SOMEONE THAT THEY'RE NOT A PART OF THE PROCESS. AND IT'S ONLY DETERMINED BY FOUR OF US IN CITY COUNCIL. I DON'T THINK IT'S FAIR. I definitely preferred to postpone this and allowed District 3 residents to have the vote on their own, because I think that's a legitimate way to do it. And just hearing just briefly 12 minutes from the candidates and making such a quick decisions, I just don't think it's really enough to justify the person that we vote for. So I really hope, because it's only just five months away, and as former Mayor, former April Velardo, Mayor April Velardo said, you know, you guys have the three votes and that we should really definitely let the residents take charge of this. And I think previously when we had a missing person WE WAITED FOR OVER SIX MONTHS. AND NOW THIS IS A MUCH SHORTER TIME FRAME. IT'S ONLY FIVE MONTHS. AND IT'S NOT COSTING ANYTHING BECAUSE DISTRICT THREE IS IN A SITUATION WHERE THERE'S GOING TO BE OPEN FOR ELECTIONS. SO I MEAN, I DEFINITELY THINK THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO DO IT. I think my fellow council members should consider that to really maybe, you know, but it's good to bring these applicants to come and allow the residents to hear them out and give them an opportunity to introduce themselves. But I think putting the names on the ballot for November, it's a more proper way to do it. And I think that decision definitely not just determined by the four of us. I think it should be determined by the residents of District 3.

Thank you very much. Council Member Brickell.

First of all, I want to say to all the applicants, thank you so much for taking the willingness to come out and show who you are, also your vulnerability, also the fact that you want to be a part of the community. So I want to say thank you so much for that, because it's not easy, not easy at all. Second is that I just want to reaffirm to the public that in November of 2026, District 3 residents will be able to vote for their elected official. So this is a temporary position, and it does not mean that District 3 will not be represented in November through standard elections. For me, I actually thought that all the applicants were pretty phenomenal. And maybe because I asked the same question to everyone. And so maybe the first applicant had a little harder time than maybe the last applicant. But like I said, I wanted to make it a level playing field. And so because of that, I am still kind of digesting the words, the heart, and what the potential is of the applicants. So for me, I actually, and I'm just speaking for myself, I actually would like a little bit more time to think about this. I think that it's important that District 3 gets representation, albeit just from now to November. But at the same time, I want a little bit more time to think about it. So I'm actually gonna, I think, throw a wrench in everything because I'd like to see can we get some more time to think about this and come back to this in two weeks so we can make a decision. So that's me, but I do want to say on the record that I think it's important that District 3 gets fair representation. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Temfu.

Yeah, you know, this is a really interesting process and it's not something that obviously we do very often. And I want to make a couple observations to you because all you candidates are in the room right now and you haven't served on city council before and there's a lot of stuff to absorb and things to learn about how we do things. And not us. I mean, we're not unique, really, because we operate under the same laws. We do have our own charter. But honestly, they're not that different from city to city. Some cities might have seven members. Others have five. They might take three weeks to do this or allow 30 days to do that. And in that respect, there are some differences. But I think that generally speaking, we kind of operate under the same models. So first, regarding this idea about let's not appoint anybody, well, we already had this discussion like a month ago and moved this meeting to allow for a member to be able to be present today. So we are not in the place where we're going to vote on deciding not to appoint anybody, that's not before us, and we have rules that we operate under, which you will learn about when you're appointed, okay? specifically something called the brown act it's called the open meetings law and what it requires is that we give notice to the public of any intended action or contemplated action before that action is discussed we may not discuss that in private we may not reach any conclusions before we reach this meeting because it's an open meeting and those deliberations are open So that's the first thing I want to point out, because there are things that sometimes people say, why don't we do this? And the answer is, because we can't. And so I just want to make that clear, because you will operate under the same types of constraints. And there might be times when you think, well, that's kind of frustrating. How come we can't do that? And the answer is, because it's the law. And I hope that's a good enough answer for any of you. What I'm always surprised by in a process like this is that, you know, we get the same applications that are circulated to all of us, and you read them and you kind of make some thoughts about who you think is the best candidate, and then you actually hear from people and it completely jumbles what your thinking is. And there are people who are sleepers. You think, you know, this application is kind of meh, you know, and then they get up in front of you. You think, no, I like this person. I like the way she thinks. I like her thought process. I think she is smart. She's intuitive. She gets it. And I would be proud to serve with that person on council. So, you know. Honestly, I hate making decisions anyway, but I'm with Mike on this. I really want to think about it more. It's an important decision. It's an interim appointment, so it's not the end of the world. But it's an important thing. And I think that I'd like to think about it more and think about the the responses. We have the interview recorded so we can play that back and review that and think a little bit more about those responses. And I think it's a good idea to mull that over a little bit. We are concerned about reconvening in order to approve our budget, but we still have time to do that. And so I would agree with Michael that I don't have a problem with doing that at the next meeting and really taking this and drilling down on it because I'm, quite frankly, I'm confused now. I came into this with some thoughts and now I'm coming out of it with others and I'd really like to mull it over.

Mayor Paul Chen?

Yes, go ahead.

Can I say something? Yes. I think if we're not gonna vote, then we should put the candidates on the ballot. But if we're gonna vote, if we're gonna decide next week or two weeks, I think we should decide today. Because I really think it's fair for the speakers today. They came out and we did make decisions that we're gonna decide today. So my take is that If we don't make a decision today, then we just wait until November. But if we're gonna elect someone, if we're gonna definitely elect someone, I think today is a good day to do it because I think all the candidates are here as speakers and that it's now, and everything is transparent, how we vote. So I don't have any problem if my council member can't decide to have it on the ballot in November. I prefer just to vote someone today. And I think I spoke with a city attorney, and I mean, our city manager. What is your advice on that? Can you tell us how we should navigate this?

Well, what we discussed was the budget. And I think as Council Member Fuse said, the city charter says that we need to adopt the budget by July 1st every year. So you still have a meeting on June 16th if you're not ready to adopt the budget tonight. I think that was the question you and I had talked about. As far as the question at hand, should you appoint, should you call for an election, those sorts of things, at the last council meeting I gave you your various options, and the one that I said is the only option I wouldn't recommend is to call a special election because that's a $200,000 cost for basically a four-week appointment at this point. So I wouldn't do that, but if you want to appoint tonight, great. If you want to appoint in two weeks, great. If you want to leave it open until November, that's also a choice for the city council.

So, I mean, I wanna make a motion just to move it where we will put the candidates on the ballot, November ballot. So if we don't get that, and if I don't get any support, then my next motion is to vote tonight so that we're ready for the budget session.

Yeah, respectfully, Council Member Kwon, you're not gonna get any support for it because you can't force people to be on the ballot. So with that being said, I appreciate what our council members are saying. I agree. that we can be able to move it two weeks. I disagree that it would be advisable to do so. I believe that we have a budget that we were planning to pass tonight. If we voted the person in, likely we would have to accommodate the person to move the budget for two weeks. If we vote in two weeks, then the council member that is going to be appointed would face significant pressure to vote on the budget that they he or she is not aware of and so if we need to we can we can continue this meeting and finish it up at the end of our city council meeting and all of the candidates are here we can be able to speak to the candidates one-on-one we have half an hour to do so So I would appreciate our council members, I mean, if we're stuck and people just aren't voting, that's not a good thing either. But at the same time, if we take the next half hour, all the candidates are here. We could speak to them personally, one-on-one. We could be able to move our discussion to the end of our council meeting. We have to start at seven o'clock because we're gonna have children here. But I just don't think that moving our vote for two weeks is beneficial for our city only because, you know, I was planning to suggest that we move the budget, but I don't think we can be able to do the budget after two weeks unless we did a special meeting, which costs more money, all the departments have to be there, it's gonna cost overtime. So I would just ask everybody to please consider making that vote today. So why don't we do this, okay? It looks like we have differing views, all of which are valid, all of which are good. we can be able to move our discussion and our vote until after our council meeting, we can finish up, we can send our candidates home, the person that we select tonight, they can get voted in, they could be sworn in tomorrow. I do wanna let all the members know, the candidates know, Being on council for the next five months, I understand that you may hear in the rumor mill that some council members don't go to events. I can tell you I go to events. You need to spend between 10 to 30 hours a week, a week, going to events. because it's not just being here on council and looking down at people. That is, I wish that I could be sitting where you are and all of you should be up here because we're here to serve you. So it is gonna be a hard commitment because you have to onboard on to city council. You have to learn the budget. You have to go to a bunch of different community events because you're the new face on council. And it's going to be very difficult. And I want to say thank you for applying. For those that even withdrew their application, I respect you because the people that withdrew their application said that they didn't have enough time. They honored the process and they honored the city and the city council. So with that being said, I'm going to, what's the right word?

May I offer a question? Yes. Yes, go ahead. So as I understand it, our proposed budget is already posted on the city's website.

Yes.

Correct. Okay. And if we vote right now and we appoint Mr. X or Mrs. X to be a city council member and we vote on the budget today, then we are voting on the budget with that person participating with no notice except for the scope of this meeting in terms of learning about the budget. If, on the other hand, we were to defer that two weeks, then the applicants are here now. They have the benefit of sitting through the budget meeting today. If we were to vote on that on the 16th, they would also have the opportunity to study the budget over the next two weeks and actually have a far more in-depth understanding what the budget is about after having sat through the presentation by the the city staff and having the opportunity to go back and review the budget so I'm maybe I'm confused but I think actually that deferring that vote would in fact give that prospective candidate a greater opportunity to absorb the information and prepare for that vote am i is there something I'm mistaken about

No, no, you're not. You're actually not mistaken. It's a great way to think about it. Very smart council. You're very good. But at the same time, nobody on council has gone through what I've gone through. This is my second time I've had to appoint somebody on council. Roger Chandler had passed away during that time and it was difficult, okay? And so I wanna share with you and maybe I should have shared it in advance that leaving a seat open IS DIFFICULT. IT MAKES THE RESIDENTS, ALTHOUGH THEY'RE NOT, BECAUSE EVERY COUNCIL MEMBER ON THIS COUNCIL, ON ANY TIME ANYBODY WRITES FROM DISTRICT 3, WE ARE GOING TO SERVE THEM. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER YOU CAN VOTE FOR US OR NOT. IT DOESN'T MATTER EVEN IF YOU CAN VOTE. We are here to serve you. We are your servants, period. However, with that being said, when there is an open seat, it creates a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt of the average resident. They feel that they're not taken care of. They feel sad. And right now, District 3 residents are very hurt. The entire city of Arcadia is hurt, rightfully so. And so what we need to do is we need to make a decision, we need to move on. We need to make the decision, pray before you make that decision. And I believe that everything is gonna work out. And the faster we can be able to get somebody on council, the more we can be able to treat them like they are, give them the respect they deserve as a colleague. I appreciate uh mayor pro tempu your timeline it's absolutely valid i'm not saying what anybody is saying is invalid every what everybody is saying is 100 valid but just because what everybody is saying is true doesn't mean that i don't have an opinion which is fill the seat get them onboarded and move on because we have many big decisions that we need support on We have the July 4th, 250th, even our meetings. It's good to have all council together. And doing that will allow us to heal, will allow us to move forward, because we are a group of five. Being a group of four, even two weeks, I'm just uncomfortable with that. Mayor Kwan, Mayor Chen, can I have a question? Yes, what's your question?

I mean, like, if, you know, William Wu was one of the applicants, do you think you still need more time to decide?

I don't understand what that question is trying to imply.

I'm just saying that it's so important that we have transparency here and accountability. I think we should definitely, we all went through and heard what they said. I think we should not take the time to leave and have discussion behind closed door who's going to get voted in, I think we should just do it immediately if we would have to vote for someone right now. Because the public is watching us. Now it's televised. So I just don't I there's a lot of distrust in city council right now. And I really hope that if we're gonna go forward with it, I'm okay to make the decision right now and that we can make the announcement immediately because then that allows transparency how we engage. publicly, everything is transparent. And so I think that we should not take a break and have behind doors discussions or talk to anybody. I think that would cost a lot of questioning and scrutiny at this time. So since you really gave us the paper to who to vote and I really finished my selection and I think it's why don't we just count the votes and make a decision right now.

Councilmember Kwan, your statement of transparency and the use of closed doors and your one-liners, I'm getting tired of them. I don't think it's appropriate to be making these statements. I believe that all of us, all of us on Council are good people. And I'm getting to a point now where I understand that I'm the peacemaker, I still am. And the reason why I'm drawing a fine line, the reason why I'm drawing a fine line is because while I can understand your position, if you have a problem with issues, what you consider to be closed doors, whatever that means, then wait, I'm not done, is that you can do what you need to do, to enforce what you believe is correct. But when you make these statements to the public and you are behind those closed doors, whatever these closed doors are, I'm very...

Therefore, I wanted to make the decisions right now because so that four of us do not have any chance of walking anywhere and have private discussion. I think this is transparency.

Council Member, the Mayor has the floor. Yeah, Council Member Kwon, please, is that I believe that one-liner statements create a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And it's unfortunate because I believe all Council Members, you included, have the best interests of the city at heart. And with that being said, you have two council members that have said that they wanted two weeks. I disagree with that. You disagree with that. And we can all disagree. And you have very, very valid thoughts. Your thoughts are let's just get this done, right? And I would like that too. But you have two council members that want two weeks, therefore I've said, right, that we can be able to move, finalize our discussion, because I didn't even have time to talk yet. None of you actually heard what I was thinking about the candidates. And so with that being said, is that we can be able to move, because we only have 20 minutes left, we can be able to move our discussion time period of the candidates to the back end after the seven o'clock meeting is complete. The candidates are still here. If you have any questions of any candidate, any one of you can feel free to speak with any of our council members. At least we have two. I'm sure we have three. I... think you guys are great candidates, each and every one of you. And so I don't have any questions left, and I'm hoping that I could be able to get consensus around that, because I believe that that is a good middle ground, which is that we make our decision tonight, we move forward, we fill the seat, and I'm hoping that I can get consensus to have this portion of the meeting completed at the end of our 7 o'clock meeting and we could be able to vote and we could be able to move on. Is that something that I can be able to get consensus on with all of our council members?

Mr. City Attorney, if we're deadlocked on this issue, how do we proceed?

So if there has to be, in order to make an appointment, there would have to be an action, which would be a majority of the council. So if you're deadlocked on anything, if it's two to two, that means there wouldn't be any action. There would have to be a third vote in order to appoint someone. We are able to, this is noticed as a special meeting, but we are able to take a recess and reconvene during the regular meeting tonight. So it is an option to come back as the mayor's laid out. I think procedurally the mayor could declare a recess subject to overrule so the mayor could declare a recess But ultimately for there to be action there would have to be a third vote Thank you.

Okay. So with that being said what the city attorney has done is provided that we need at least And in council member Kwan, are you okay with having our this meeting? To be recessed to the end of the seven o'clock meeting so we could discuss and vote. Are you okay with that? I

So how long is the break? We don't have any break. We just continue with the meeting and then decide at the end after the seven o'clock meeting?

Yeah, I mean, maybe we need to go to the restroom, but apart from that, you know, we just need to finish it. We don't want to be here till midnight.

Yeah, I really hope that all the city council members can be seated. and not engage in any conversations, private conversations, so that the public can watch that we're doing this independently based on the qualifications. So, I mean, I just think it's very important that we regain our public trust. This is mandatory, and especially right now, I think a lot of people are watching us, how we conduct this meeting and how we paid our candidate. So I definitely think that if, you know, we're just gonna do it very quickly, I mean, I don't have any problem with that, but I think decisions should be made tonight.

Mr. Mayor, may I?

Yes, go ahead.

Interject. I'm confused. Council Member Kwan, you had stated that District 3 should have no representation until November. That's what you had said.

Are you agreeing with that?

If you agree with that, I'm okay.

We can have an opportunity for the candidates to come forward in November. And I think that would be good because that would be my number one choice. And if I don't have that choice, then I think we should just go ahead and decide on a candidate. Point of order.

So let's just take a deep breath, everybody. We have a lot of opinions and it's because we care about Arcadia. And so the thing is, let's just, Council Member Cao has the floor. And after Council Member Cao speaks, we're gonna have someone else speak, but we're getting really close and we're gonna have kids come in very soon. So I would just ask us to just be patient, take a deep breath. This is a very important meeting. is very important for all of our residents. So with that being said, Council Member Cao, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the floor. So there was a statement said from Council Member Kwan that she did not want District 3 to have representation to November. All along, I think the majority of us said District 3 needs representation into the election. She goes completely 180 and says we need to make a vote now. So I just wanna put it on the record so that the public is aware. We've always wanted district three representation. At the same time, what I had heard was we should make a decision take our time and make the decision to make the best possible decision. So because of that, that's why I had stated that all the candidates I thought were great. We need time to digest, to make sure that we pick who we think is gonna serve the community, the district the best. And that is just something I wanna make sure that that is on the record, thank you.

I wanna remind all the council members, thank you guys for coming. We have children in the room, which is great to have you here. If it's possible, Council Member Kwan, if I could just ask two of the council members, because we need, three council members to actually have a vote. Is it okay? Because I know you wanted to say something. Okay, thank you. I just need a yes or no from our two council members. If you say no, you're not ready, then obviously we can't proceed tonight. Then one of you would then make the motion to move it for two weeks. so that we can be able to move on.

There's a correction I need to make because of the statement that Council Member Cao just said. I feel like he's putting words in my mouth again. I didn't say that I do not want District 3 representation. I always want District 3 representation. That's very important, especially at this critical time. What I want is that is transparency. If we are going to, I made two motions. The first one is that I do prefer to have this vacancy decided by the residents of District 3. I think that is the legitimate way to do it because they are the voters and I have to reiterate, four city council members making decision for them is not good enough because of the trust that is taking away from them. And so I think allowing them to decide for their own district candidate is super important because we're trying to restore public trust here. But if I'm not getting my first motion, If something that we have to decide that one week, two weeks, I just don't want the public to say or to add an additional distrust to us to saying or making the assumptions that city council members are now trying to go out and talk to these candidates and find out or try to influence who they can befriend with. And that has been an issue here in city council because as I'm saying, I'm the individual voiced and it's not easy to be that individual voice. I mean, I understand how tough it is. And I know that right now, because these candidates, the good candidates, they're independent, and I really don't want to have any influence on how they think or who they have to team up with in order to get appointed so i think uh doing it tonight is the right thing to do it if i don't get my first choice because i think then we can allow the public to know that this whole process of getting someone appointed is in full disclosure and it's transparent so that's what i want to do because i don't want us to be viewed by residents that we are going out to engage in conversations and then trying to find or trying to team up, have political coalition again. So I just want to make sure that we restore that public trust. So this kind of transparency is so vital tonight because everyone is watching us. And so that is what I want. It's not something that I do not want district three representation. So I think that is definitely a wrong statement about me.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I move that we adjourn this discussion to the end of the regular business in our following meeting.

Okay, sure. Okay, I just need to know, right, because... Council Member Kwan, your statement that you want transparency I think is very critical. I don't think that anybody has any assumptions until you make them. The reality of the situation is that we've had two council members that have said that they want to become more competent over the candidates that are available. I just need a yes or no, is that are the two council members, Mayor Pro Tempfu and Council Member Cal, are you ready to proceed? If you are, just say yes. If you are not, then make your motion for your two weeks because we just need to move on. It's seven o'clock. So Council Member Cal, are you able to make a decision tonight? The reason why I need a yes or no is because the city attorney has said, if both of you are not able to make a decision because you want more time to study the candidates, we cannot proceed on the vote. And so we just need to close out our meeting so that we can be able to start the seven o'clock. Is that, are you able to make your decision tonight or do you need more time?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make my decision tonight after we go through our regular meeting then.

Okay, so with that being said, what we'll do is we will continue the meeting. You can think about whatever it is that you wanna think about. The candidates, thank you for coming. It's going to be a fairly long meeting. If we are able to make a decision tonight after our council meeting, you will be notified and we ask you to come to the, the city manager's office to get sworn in tomorrow, okay? With that being said, we're gonna continue the five o'clock meeting. Thank all of you for coming in. Welcome to all the kids that are here. We're gonna start our seven o'clock meeting shortly. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm just going to stay down here because we have a lot of presentations tonight. We are waiting for another council member to come in. Mayor Pro Tem Fu, thank you very much. Let's have a call to order, please.

Council Member Cal?

Here.

Council Member Kwan?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Phu.

Here.

Mayor Chang.

Here. Well, thank you so much. We're gonna have our invocation from our pastor and our Arcadia Police Department chaplain, Taryn Shea. Yes, let's give him a round of applause.

Incredible, he's incredible. Council and staff, it has been an emotionally taxing season for you and many of us who are Acadia residents. For those in this room who have been here since 5 p.m., it has been a long day, and I'm sure everyone is very exhausted. We are here tonight because we care about this city, so let's take a moment before the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance to simply take a deep breath, stretch, maybe give a fist bump to your neighbor, and be reminded of our need for God and one another during this critical crossroad. Thank you, let's pray together. Dear God of wisdom and might, we come before you tonight as residents in need of clarity and direction. We're also an exhausted and depleted people who long for your presence and encouragement to anchor us in the midst of contentious media coverage and rhetoric everywhere we turn. Please be with us tonight as we prepare for the city council meeting, knowing that apart from you, we can do nothing lasting or bear any fruit. We pray for our city tonight and the whirlwind of council member appointments and budget approval on top of an already packed agenda for your power to be with our city council members, manager, attorney, and staff. Please help them to listen well, communicate clearly, and prioritize the needs, the good, and the unity of our residents, our community of homes above and beyond partisanship and personal agendas. We are exhorted in the scriptures, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. May that begin with every person on the dais and in the audience as we receive and process every topic that will be presented tonight. We're excited to celebrate the accomplishments of the class of 2026 this week and everyone that is in this room as well, who will be recognized. We look forward to the high school graduation this Thursday at the racetrack. It has been a joy to see photos and coverage of wonderful events like the grad run, senior awards night, senior sunset, and all the concerts and recognitions to finish out the year. Please be with our students, families, teachers, and administrators as we go into the summer so that they may receive much needed rest and relaxation to be ready for the next season. Help us, God, to find life-giving joy in you. In your mighty name I pray, amen. Amen. Everyone please stand, face the flag, and place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And I apologize, Linda. Did I ask you to do the roll call too early? Yes, yes. That's my fault. So everybody, we're following the agenda. We've started at 5 o'clock. It's been a good, colorful meeting. And now I need a report from the CD attorney regarding any closed or study session items.

Thank you, Mayor. So there was no closed session before this. We're actually going to do a closed session at the end tonight, which is a little unusual. And that's because we had our special meeting to interview potential candidates to fill the District 3 vacancy. We've actually continued that meeting. We're going to resume that discussion during the 7 o'clock meeting after we address some other business items. Thank you, Mayor.

And for the residents, just to let you know, he's our city attorney. I know he looks very young. He looks like he just graduated high school, but the reality is he's an excellent attorney. He helps our city. And just residents that come, I just want you to get to know more of our staff members because they're an incredible group of people that keep everything together. With that being said, is there any supplemental information from the city manager regarding agenda items?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. The only supplemental information is actually related to the study session getting continued. So obviously, city clerk item 7A, the administration of oath, we would skip that at this time and just move through the agenda without that.

And also on item 7A, we've decided, well, I've decided that I'm going to be moving that really toward the back of the calendar, assuming that we can be able to have someone that is appointed tonight. Do I need a vote for the 7A? Okay. Thank you very much for that. I'm sorry, sir? You can just table that until it's appropriate. Great. The first presentation I want to make is a certificate of commendation to the Junior Teams Tennis, USTA Southern California Barbecue Ninjas, placing first. Come on up. Come on up. So thank you so much for being here. Are you one of the coaches, parents, or? I'm the program director, Anthony Lin.

Okay.

Well, Anthony, tonight it's going to be a little bit different, is that, you know, obviously we're given something to read, but more importantly, we want to hear from you. Tell us a little bit about the Barbecue Ninjas tennis team and what you've done and just how you've been able to place number one.

The name may sound kind of funny, Barbecue Ninja, how they're connected together. It's just the name we have when my kids, my own kids were at this age 16 years ago. And then I tried to form a tennis program that helped the community in this neighborhood, like Arcadia, Temple City. And then after that, that was the first team I created. Now we inherit this legacy, and now we still keep this name, which doesn't make sense, but we keep winning. But I want to appreciate the city of Arcadia, and the neighborhood city to allow us to use the court and to help the community. Tennis is a lonely sport. Tennis, usually people think about it as one versus one or two versus two, but indeed, we can make it a team tennis that you could make lots of friends around this tennis program. This tennis program is not just for the kids. the players, also for parents to enjoy the journey of tennis, to spend quality time with their kids before they go to the college. So I appreciate that. And I also appreciate City of Arcadia to allow us to be here and to celebrate our fun time in tennis. Thank you so much, Mayor. All right.

Let's have the city council come on down. and I'm gonna have Council Member Kwan, if you could just be able to say the names on the certificate, and after she says the names, let's give all of the awardees a round of applause, okay?

Anthony. Lynn. Aria. Kaitlyn. We have Aria. Oh, she's not here. Kaitlyn. Avelia. Camellia.

Camellia, no? No, okay, Camellia.

Pythagoras.

Pythagoras, Pythagoras. Luke.

And Lucas.

All right, why don't we move toward the middle, move toward the middle, move toward the middle so they can take a picture of you. All right, here we go. Okay. So who is Pythagoras? Is that the coolest name in the world? Let's give a round of applause. That is so cool. Well, thank you so much for coming. Thank you. All right. The next is going to be the certificates of commendation to the Arcadia High School color guard for winning the national championship title. So can we have you come up please? Oh wow, look at that. All right, so we have the coach, and who's the team captain? You? All right, so come on over, team captain. Come on over, and where's your coach? Is your coach here? Band director, band director's coming. Yeah, yeah, right here. Four captains, okay. So the four captains, if you could just stand right behind the statue, it's so big. So why don't you guys introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what's occurred.

Hi everyone, my name is Iris Leung and I'm one of the junior captains of Arcadia World Guard. Hi, my name is Jennifer Nee. I am also a junior captain in the Arcadia Color Guard.

Hi everyone, I'm Angelique Dizon. I'm a senior captain of the Arcadia Color Guard.

Hi, I'm Julia Colbert. I'm one of the senior captains and this is our award from Ohio where we just competed at and yeah, we won the national title. We're so lucky to have won gold and just to celebrate and share this time with our team and we're just so grateful for the city of Arcadia.

We're going to have the band director share a little bit just about what this means and just to share a little bit more just about what all this means for the city of Arcadia.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, City Council, for recognizing the team. This group of fantastic young ladies has worked tirelessly throughout the whole year. Just to get a sense of their accomplishment, they were undefeated in the Southern California area and then went to Dayton, Ohio for the Winter Guard International Championships in April. We go every single year. And this year, there were about 200 high school groups in competition. They're all ranked in different divisions based on skill and experience. And our group is in what's called the world class, which is literally world class. They're the best of the best and came out on top of the entire... 200 group field and won the gold medal. And just so that you know their consistency, last year they were also the bronze medalist. And two years ago they were the silver medalist. So they have been up on the medal platform for three straight years and won the gold this year. So we're super proud of them. Lots and lots of hard work. So let's give them a huge round of applause.

Now, it's going to be a little bit long because we do have a lot of awardees. But I want to say each and every one of your names because your names matter. And this is always going to be recorded forever. So I'm going to have our Air Force veteran Michael Cow to come on down. David Fu, Ameripro Tem to come on down so that they can be able to say the names. Council Member Kwan, if you could be able to come down as well. It is going to be a stack of names. So I'm going to split it up. But I want you to know all of your names mean something to us. So hold on really quick. Let me pass the mic over.

This has not been rehearsed. Okay. I'm going to go first. I'll go with Anthony Garcia, the director. Coach. Okay. Karen Appel. Attendance was mandatory. Malia Gomez. Thank you. Israel Gutierrez, instructor also. Rosie Queen. Hi. We have a pattern here, I see. Okay, great. And you're wrong, Sierra Rodriguez, instructor, right? So another one, not here. Valeria Alvarez, student, finally, yay. Gabriela Arroyo, student, yay. Alexis Chen, student, yay. Here we go, thank you. Isabel Chen, student. Emma Chang, student. Thank you. Brianna Chu. Not here. Julia Colbert. Yay. And Olivia Colbert, the Colbert twins. Olivia Colbert? Okay, thank you very much. Hannah Desiderio. Yay. And Amelia Dixon. Thank you. Okay, all right.

Angelique Dizon. Irina Fang. Jaylin Fergoso. McKenzie French. Tiffany Fu. Penelope Garcia. Coda Enriquez. Emily Jonada. Michelle Lee. Iris Long. Elizabeth Madrid. Jillian McCloskey. Emily Min. Celeste Mock. Katrina Nguyen. Jennifer Nhi. Leanne Ramos. Samadi Rodriguez-Over. Catherine Tandock. Elsie So. Sarah Valdez. Esther Valenzuela. Hailey Wang. Destiny Westbrook. Sydney Wong. Aurora Hsieh. Angel Yang. And last but not least, Isabelle Yeh.

Let's give a round of applause. All right, if we could. Just have everybody squeeze in a little bit and Citi's gonna take a picture so they can put it on the Citi website. We're so proud of you. Thank you. Thanks. Good job. We'll just have a moment as these medals walk around, and some stay, some leave.

Are you ready to sing next? She's behind you.

Well, thank you so much. Thank you for just all the students that are here. When I first joined the city of Arcadia in 2020 as a council member, and I eventually got put onto ABC. I didn't know what that was. Whatever the mayor says, I go to. I'm one of the council members. If you assign me to something, I'm going to go, right? And I realized that there are commissions in the city. Some of them are real policy. And there are other commissions. Everything is about action. And so the Arcadia Beautiful Commission is a commission where they're constantly doing things. So you'll see them at so many different community events. You know, Christmas, right? They'll go out with Santa Claus. you know, 4th of July during our summer concerts that are there. And so this is a commission of action. These are people of action. They serve on a daily basis. They do just as many things as council members. So I just wanted to introduce them really quick. I'd like them to share a little bit about the Arcadia Beautiful Commission, as well as to share one of the many things, but on this one, it's gonna be the Spring Home Awards presentation.

My name is Gary Brewer, I'm the chair of this, and these are the commissioners that make me look very good.

I am Lisa Walton.

Hello, my name is Ashish Guha. Hello, my name's Michael Cham.

So chair Brewer can you tell us a little bit about what the spring home awards presentation you know what is it about. You know just let us know a little bit about what this is and one of your many events I wish I can go through all of them but just what is this about today.

Well this is my 16th year doing this and I've enjoyed every minute of it. And it's a pleasure to see the really nice homes in this city and I want to thank each one of you winners who have put the effort out to make that winners the list tonight?

Well, I was asking the city manager, I don't have a list tonight of the awardees. Do you have that list on you? It's on the certificates. Oh, gotcha. All right. So... Yes, yes, yes, I moved it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have Chair Brewer as well as the commissioners name off the people as well as their address so that you can, oh, okay, yes, sir. This guy here, okay, no, no. What is your blood type? What's that? What's your blood type? Type O. Type O, was it like the? O positive, so let me tell you. During COVID, a lot of things occurred during COVID. And one of the things that occurred was we needed blood. Not the city, not the city, but there were many hospitals, there were many places that needed blood. So what did they do? They reached out to council members. And this guy here, right, has a special type of blood that's very difficult to get. And one of the things that happened was somebody posted online, they said, we need a specific type of blood, we can't find it. And it wasn't the hospital, it was just a regular person that posted online. So I began hunting and looking and posting and asking, we couldn't find it. This guy, because of him, there are people that are alive because of him during COVID. So let's give a round to Chair Brewer. He's given 150 pints of blood, 150. So why don't we have Lisa, for those of you that don't know her, you know her parents. Jan and Lee Simmons and they are one of the best people in the city of Arcadia and I was telling somebody you know all the words that you hear when you're young come from good stock you know you don't even know what that means I know what that means after I met Lisa and her parents so she's a great individual and we are going to have her name off the people so that we can be able to make the presentations Richard and Sharami

Bihamini, I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong. Next we have the Llano family.

We have a Siu Fung Lam.

Carol Keeley.

Congratulations.

Thank you. The Shin family.

Congratulations.

The Lee family. Julie Shakarian.

This is a long road here. Thank you.

And Bernard and Margie Zwick. All right, let's have all city council come on down.

Let's have our ABC commissioners. You guys are in the middle. You guys are... You guys, you know, people talk about you're either a maker or a taker. And the ABC Commission, they are makers. They are awesome. So...

Good job.

They say that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are so few. There are a few people that say, send me out to the harvest so that I may be able to serve you. And you know, many immigrants when we come to America, that's a question that we have. The question that we have is, My God, this is the best country in the world. It's such a beautiful harvest. But the question is, where are the people to serve? I am so proud because there are, as I've gotten older, I've realized that it's not just generations of people. that have come before me that have decided to serve, but there are many, many new people that have come to America with their families and their parents, and they have been told, serve, and they've gone to serve. Now, why do I share that with you? I share that with you because in our midst is a Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army, and I'd like Victor Shen to be able to come up to be able to share about the 250th anniversary of the founding of America and also about serving your country because this is the best place in the world. Lieutenant Colonel.

Good evening. Mayor Chang and members of the council and staff and community of Arcadia, thank you for having me and celebrating the Army's birthday, the first city in Southern California to issue the proclamation. Over the next few weeks, we'll have a few more. But I really wanted to kind of just talk about, especially today, voting day, election day, that this idea of our country and America being a democracy, sometimes it's messy, sometimes there's ups and downs, but at the end of the day it's for the communities. And I'm so grateful that the city of Arcadia will celebrate. I would like to just kind of say that, you know, Over the 250-year history of America, there's actually 251 years because the Continental Congress established the army before the country. And so we're actually 251 years this year on Flag Day, June 14. But there have been volunteers from the beginning. There was a draft. And now, since post-Vietnam, we've also been all volunteer. And what I would like to say is that they come from every background. Every race, every religion, both genders, every community. And I'm reminded that two and a half years ago, I met a young lady. Actually, I was reminded when I walked in and you guys were celebrating Arcadia High School. A young lady named Patience Choi from Arcadia High School, who's now a cadet at my alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point. And she is rising, and she's going through advanced summer training right now. I think she's supposed to jump out of some airplanes. And she's actually on her way. She's the vice president of the Pre-Med Society, following in the footsteps of my good friend Dr. Cao over here, who is an Air Force doctor, for those of you who don't know. But every role and every place, we all have a role to play. And I'm so grateful on behalf of the Army have a moment like this. I would also like to say, you know, not every city, not every, you know, government office flies a POW MIA flag, and the city of Arcadia does, and that means a lot. And I would tell you, young cadet Patience Choi, she probably wouldn't go to West Point if she didn't come from a community that supported the military, and we need that. Whether you agree with what's going on at local, state, or national levels, what I would tell you is that we're all apolitical and that we will follow legal orders, but at the same time, we want and need the support of the communities that we come from. So again, I'm just so grateful on behalf of the United States Army to be here. I'd also like to do a quick shout out to Dr. Cal. One of the things that that Arcadia is actually leading in through Dr. Cao is the California League of Cities has now recently established the California Military and Veterans Caucus. And that's a huge step because what people don't realize is California is the largest state in the union and the most populous state in the union also is home to the most military and veterans in America. And so we need to recognize that. And I would tell you another quick tidbit. For those of you who know a little bit about history, all of our communities were really impacted from different conflicts, but from the military and veterans that came from those conflicts. For example, did you know that about a third of the Cal State universities were born in the 50s and 60s as a response to returning veterans who did not have a place to go to use their GI Bill? Did you know that the VA home loan was really the catalyst for the middle class in America and home ownership in America because those zero down home loans guaranteed by the Veterans Administration really propelled home ownership in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And so again, Arcadia is just one of many communities, but I'm so grateful that Arcadia, through your mayor, through your council members, and just the city and the city staff are able to recognize in big and small ways. So again, I'm so grateful to be here. And again, on this election day, be a part of society and be part of this American experiment called democracy. And again, thank you again to the city of Arcadia.

Let's have our council members come down. We have a proclamation from the City of Arcadia. Here you go, sir. I've always said that it's so important to have service members, veterans, first responders, to be able to run for office and serve. We're so proud that Victor Shen, Lieutenant Colonel, is here. I also wanted to share that the POW flag that's actually flown in the city of Arcadia, it was actually put up or suggested, ordered to be put up by our former mayor, Gail Marshall. And why is that important? Because I've also said that it's so important for women to run for office. They're able to see things holistically. sometimes not in a narrow fashion. And so I know a lot of you are just thinking, wow, it's always been up there. No, it wasn't always up there. It was put up by a female council member who we all love so much. So for all you women that are out there, it is time. It is time for you to get up. And for all of you that are service members that are asking, what is my next service? I ask you to come out and serve. With that being said, we're going to have public hearing I DON'T KNOW THE NUMBER OF CARDS. IF WE COULD BE ABLE TO CHECK IF THERE ARE ANY ADDITIONAL CARDS. OH, I APOLOGIZE. SO TODAY WE HAVE TWO PUBLIC HEARING, PUBLIC COMMENT TIMES. SO I GOT A LITTLE BIT CONFUSED. The first one is going to be a public hearing, and that public hearing relates to our budget. Now, I've said earlier, we have one person for the public comment for the public hearing. You'll have five minutes. Dom Tallarico, if you can be able to come up.

I was.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I definitely won't take five minutes. You guys definitely have had your challenges tonight. I thought everybody, especially Mayor Chang, handled things pretty well. And some very important points were brought up that I think reflect where the community stands in terms of how they view the city government. And my only comment tonight at this point It's related to your budget. I don't think you're going to be able to do much about it, but longer term, I'd like to suggest something I've suggested before, that we reconstitute the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee, which has been around in the past, to really look at Arcadia's finances. I think that will put you in a better position in terms of the issues that were discussed earlier and have been discussed for a while in terms of transparency and serving the community in a way that they feel comfortable. And in my view, hopefully turn down the temperature a little bit. So I just wanted to make that suggestion. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. So earlier I'd made a recommendation, since we have not been able to appoint a council member, that we continue the public hearing item nine, as an alpha to the 16th, just so that we can be able to onboard our new council member. Many of the candidates have already left. And if we were to do it twice, it would be two one-hour blocks. So the budget usually takes about an hour to get through, if not longer. And so I'm hoping that I can get, I would make a motion to continue the item 9A as an alpha to June 16th. I'm hoping for a second.

This is Mike. I'll make that second. Thank you, sir.

Take roll call.

Mayor Chang?

Yes.

Council Member Cowell?

Yes.

Council Member Kwan? I'm confused. What are we doing now?

What we're doing is we are moving this item to June 16th.

What item is that?

Oh, it would be nine A's and alpha. It would be the discussion of the budget.

Oh, so you want to not have the budget discussion. Okay, just, okay.

Yeah, so we don't have to do it twice, basically.

Okay, I'm okay with that.

All right, thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Fu.

Yes. Okay, with that being said, we're gonna move over to the regular public comments. This is, okay. How many do you know?

Three minutes, about 14.

So we have about 14 comments. With 14 comments, we have three minutes each. The first person is going to be Mr. Sean Lee. Mr. Lee, thank you very much. I have three minutes, sir.

Good evening, everybody. Thank you, Mayor Chang and council members for allowing me to speak. I just want to come here and say that, you know, the news about the whole controversy really kind of affected me. Right. I grew up in Arcadia. My family sacrificed everything they had. In Taiwan, my mom had a pharmacy. She closed it down to bring me and my brother here to have a better upbringing and to live the American dream, so to speak. And for something like that to be on the news, it also affected my business and it was just very, unfortunate. But you know, I understand things happen. You know, I already kind of expressed myself in the Arcadia Facebook group and got kicked out. But you know, at the end of the day, I'm here to say that I want to be a part of the solution. And I want to come, you know, basically, be more involved in community. So I guess one thing that it did affect me was that it made me want to get more involved in the community. I definitely, you know, don't feel that I'm going to be in a position to be one of you guys, right? I just don't have the time. But I do want to volunteer my time or money to help the community. And for anybody who's in the city of Arcadia, me and my friend just opened up an auto body shop next to an auto body, which is on Light Oak Avenue, 4100 Light Oak Avenue. If anybody wants to get body work done, we can extend a $500 discount to anybody any Arcadia residents. So thank you so much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. So typically I try to put things in alphabetical order so everybody knows when to speak. So it's a little bit mixed up because I was down there. But with that being said, so it will not be in alphabetical order tonight. Next person will be Jennifer Liu and after it will be Steve Reed. Jennifer Liu.

I'm trying to squeeze in five minutes.

Yeah. Oh, it's gonna be a total of three minutes, Miss, go ahead.

Oh, really?

Oh, I'm trying to. Yes, Miss.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and the council members. My name is Jennifer Liu, residing in 1725 Holly Avenue, Acadia for 15 years. I'm here tonight regarding a code enforcement matter involving the hedge on my corner lot property. First, I want to make it clear that I fully support the city's commitment to public safety. And in fact, my gardener is scheduled to trim the corner visibility area this weekend, and I fully intend to maintain the corner area in compliance with the city requirements. My concern tonight is not about the corner. My concern is the requirement that the entire hedge line along Sharon Road to reduce three feet in height. I would like to provide some background before these hedges were established. Our bedroom windows were directly exposed to share a road. Anyone walking on the sidewalk, parking along the street, or waiting during the school pickup and the drop off hours could see directly into my bedrooms. As many of you know, this area experiences significant school-related traffic. Vehicles frequently line both Sharon Road and Holly Avenue during dismissal times. As a corner lot, we had very little privacy. Several years ago, our home was also broken in. Since that incident, privacy and security have become very important concerns for my family. The hedges were not planted to block traffic visibility. They were planted and maintained to provide a reasonable level of privacy and security for our home. I would also like to point out that actual driveway used to vehicle access is located at the far end of Sherwin Road. The majority of the hedge line being sited is not located at the primary access point. My family take driving safety very seriously. We would never intentionally create a visibility hazard that could endanger ourselves, our neighbors, or someone else. What I respectfully struggle to understand is why the entire Chevrolet Road Hedge Line must be reduced to three feet, regardless of its actual impact on visibility. This hedge configuration has existed for many years. There have been no accidents, no reported traffic incidents, and no demonstrated safety problems associated with it. I would also like to share a concern regarding the process. Earlier this year, I received bad news that my father had been diagnosed with late stage cancer. So that's why I have to leave California for two months to be with my family during this very difficult time. When I returned home, I discovered that I have received two notices. regarding this matter. I immediately contacted the inspector to explain why I had not responded sooner. In addition, my governor, who works on Mondays, the first Monday after my return happened to fall on the holiday, which further delayed our business schedule.

Ms. Jennifer, I apologize because we do have three minute requirement for everybody. Okay. However, we do have your information and somebody from the city is going to reach out to you.

Okay, let me conclude, you know. So, Residents should feel the city staff were working with them to solve problems.

Miss, I apologize because we have a three minute requirement for all people. Thank you very much, Miss Jennifer, and somebody will reach out to you.

Actually, I reached them. They promised me to contact with me on Monday. Now, no one contact me yet.

Understood. Ms. Liu, if you look over your right shoulder, there's a woman with her hand up. That's Lisa Flores. She'll get the rest of your information and talk to you about your issue.

That would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

Steve Rhee and the next person after will be Scott Davis.

good evening stevie i had nothing prepared tonight didn't want to pull the card until i saw what happened earlier i believe two weeks ago this was forced upon us by david i believe he made the motion to rush applicants to fill in district three and you guys would pick somebody tonight then there is a second thought about wait a second i think we're rushing this I just wish that was thought out thoroughly when this was brought up, because you had city staff jump through hoops, probably accept the website, reach out to people, social media posting. Then you had 11 candidates fill in their applications, submit it. Six drop, five drop for whatever reasons. I thought we had five very good candidates speak tonight. I hope you guys would finish and follow through and get it done and not delay by two weeks. If that was the case, I wish you guys had made that decision two weeks ago and said, hey, maybe we should delay things, give people time, give us time to vet people and make that decision in two weeks and give four weeks out. So now that we're backpedaling saying we need more time, it just feels like it was rushed and it's not just the way civic leaders should act, so. That was my comment.

Thank you very much, sir. Dom Tallarico, and then after will be Ophelia Chan. Oh, I apologize. It was Scott, I apologize. It's been a long day for me. So it's gonna be Mr. Scott Davies, then Dom Tallarico, and then after will be Ophelia Chan. Sorry, Dom, thank you.

Sorry, I'm the youngest of five. Sometimes I get passed over as well. It happens. My name is Scott Daves. I was born and raised in this town as long as, as well as my mother, Mary Lois Lee. I'm here to represent her. She is a hundred and a half years old. I'm also here to represent my aunt.

Thank you.

My aunt, Eleanor, who is 102 years old. Wow. Both born and raised in the city of Arcadia. My grandfather came here 125 years ago. We settled here in Arcadia. Our property was given to us by Anita Baldwin. My grandfather was the official engineer of the city of Arcadia. He has a street named after him. It's called Lee Avenue. So I represent a long history of the city. And... In the last two weeks, I was lucky enough to be traveling with my family. We went to Amsterdam, we went to Brussels, and we went to Paris. And shockingly enough, across the news was the city of Arcadia. And this wasn't just CNN, this was also the local channels talking about a Chinese spy in the city of Arcadia. This had me quite concerned. My mother, God rest her soul, calls me from here and says, do you know what's happening to our lovely town? So I got home two days ago and I wanted to come here to speak because reading what has been going on was quite concerning. including a candidate that I believe that is running to fill Ms. Wang's seat, Mr. William Wu, who basically has moved in to fill her seat into this community within about three months, four months ago, and is not really a part of our community. So what I'm here to say and to ask of each of you is, When this scandal had broken out, it's easy for all of us to pick up the phones and start Googling people and finding out their back information. There was quite a bit of information about Ms. Wang, as well as Mr. Wu. And I ask that you guys just really scrutinize the candidates Going forward, this is a great love to not just myself, but the people standing here behind me and the hundreds of people, thousands of people who are not here tonight that you guys all represent. So I really appreciate the time. I know my time is running out to say thank you. Thank you for a wonderful life in this town. And I just hope it continues. And thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Dom, Dom Telerico. Next one after will be Ophelia Chan.

At the last meeting, I mentioned the notion of doing a forensic audit, and I just wanted to give you a little more detail on what's involved in that. For the first time in quite a few years, you may remember I've been a CPA since the mid-1980s. I went to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA, to give you the actual professional definition of a forensic audit. Which much to my surprise is really called a forensic investigation. And I think that's a little bit more descriptive. So the actual definition from the AICPA is an investigation performed in response to suspected wrongdoing conducted using methods suitable for legal proceedings and documented in a way that can withstand scrutiny in court, unquote. Just to remind everybody, I think a forensic audit would go a long way to helping turn down the temperature that I mentioned earlier when I spoke. I think Council Member Kwan brought up certain issues earlier tonight that I think are very reflective of the residents of Arcadia. And I don't like to see that. I think it's something that needs to be addressed. I would hope that a forensic audit If you choose to do it, and I'll acknowledge right now, they're not cheap. I've been involved in them before. They are expensive. I think a forensic audit hopefully will corroborate what the city has done to say that there is no inappropriate behavior by the former mayor. That would make me happy because I think that's good for Arcadia. If, on the other hand, it comes up with something, I think it's better for all of you to know about it now and deal with it now before the election in November. Thank you very much. Appreciate the time.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Ophelia Chan, next person after her would be Diego.

Good morning, everyone. I somehow agree with Mayor Potem, Mr. Fu's comment, his comment, innocence until proven guilty at last council meeting. Yes, innocent until proven guilty, especially after watching Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard trial in 2022. 2022, sorry. But should all reflects be ignored? You never wonder the community will raise concerns about a disturbing news like one Acadia Councilwoman's fiancee pled guilty and her house got raided by FBI? Never? The community did raise concerns. So isn't it quite reasonable and predictable someone would want to discuss it at council meeting? Council Member Kwon tried to bring up the motion discussing Eileen Wang stepping down. She was just doing her duty, voicing out the concerns from Acadia residents. Yet you chose to be a bully to her. It's not a high side will. I don't know you. I don't know Council Member Kwon. I have absolutely no clue what beef you two have between each other when I watched the March 3rd meeting video. The way you responded to her motion, the way you challenged her on that meeting, I just don't understand why you were that unprofessional and offensive towards Council Member Kwan. Fast forward to your recent response to media, hey SoCal, I sincerely don't get what you're trying to prove by a group photo of council member Kwon and Irene Wang taking along with two former council members. Let alone, it's a photo without a date and out of context. Mayor Chang and council member Kwon, were cropped out in the photo when you got busted? Your response, quote, I don't know why they were cropped, and don't record the source of the photo, end quote. That sounds dishonest, not credible at all. It is despicable you even pulled a race car against Mr. Beck. It's so damn lame. It's not about race. Please stop manipulating the public. On the other hand, you did ask a few real good questions in the interview just now to the candidates. I have to give you credit for that. I have like 10 seconds left. So I'm just asking, I didn't find a baby changing station in any of the restroom ladies' room. So you guys consider having one in store in the ladies' room or the like all gender restroom, I would appreciate. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms. Ophelia Chan. Diego, sir. And then after will be Mr. Duran Street.

Hello, my name is Diego. I do live in District 3, and I want to thank all council members, all of you really, and all the city staff who have been working to fill the vacancy. I do understand there's two sides, maybe keep it empty, maybe fill it. But since you have chosen at least at the May 19th meeting to fill it temporarily until the election, I do appreciate Mayor Chang's suggestion of doing a point system. I think hopefully you'll find that with the point system, maybe nobody gets their preferred candidate, but everyone at least can get a candidate who they gave at least one point to hopefully. And I wish, we as voters had the opportunity to do ranked choice voting in statewide elections, but maybe in a few years we'll have that opportunity. I did also appreciate that the interviews today were open to the public, which is obviously because, as you all know, because of the Brown Act, three of you can't meet in the same place at the same time unless it's in public. And I think it was a good opportunity for us all to hear the questions. I do understand that Mr. Fu and Mr. Cao, you have more questions you would like to ask of the applicants. And what I was gonna suggest was if you could call them back here, maybe when this meeting's over, you could give them each five or even 10 more minutes. And hopefully those additional minutes in this room would give you the opportunity to, ask the questions that you have. I sympathize with you. There's probably more questions you wanna ask to pick the best person to represent me and my neighbors in District 3, even if it is just for the few months between now and November. But yeah, I think, and of course, I'm not saying that there would be anything improper if you talk with them privately, which you're allowed to do, as long as it's less than three of you. I just think the public, at least me being a resident from District 3, I'd like to hear what those conversations are. Again, not accusing anybody of anything. I just think it'd be a solution if you can get them all back here. If you can't get them all back here before you have to make that decision, I hope that you've got enough information from the questions you were able to ask them and the statements they were able to make. If you don't appoint someone for District 3, there are some issues I'm having in District 3. It's a great district, but I'm gonna have to call one of you who doesn't live in District 3 to answer my questions if no one's appointed soon.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Is it Darren or Duran? Darren. Darren. Mr. Darren Street?

Darren Street.

And after will be Mike. Mike. Yeah, I don't want to mispronounce the name. So Mr. Street, go ahead, sir.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Darren Street. My family has proudly called Arcadia home since 1965. My parents, Ron and Bev Street have been long time volunteers with the city through various community organizations. And I have always valued the strong sense of civic pride that defines Arcadia. It's been disheartening to see recent issues involving the city of Arcadia highlighted in national news along with growing concerns among residents about the direction and the transparency of the current city council. This situation has understandably shaken confidence in local leadership. I believe an important step towards rebuilding trust would be for the council to extend an olive branch to the residents of Arcadia. A public acknowledgement and apology to both the community and to council member Sharon Kwan regarding the handling of her opposition to the appointment of Eileen Wang as mayor, as well as concerns about transparency and accountability could go a long way in restoring faith and unity in the community. More broadly, I would hope to see a return to city council meetings that focus less on internal conflict and more on the issues that truly matter. Those that affect and benefit the residents of Arcadia. Our community deserves leadership that is united, transparent, and focused on the public good. Thank you for your time in providing the residents the opportunity to be heard.

Thank you, sir. And thank you for your family service to the city of Arcadia. Mike, you're gonna need to say your last name again, because I don't want to mess it up.

No problem, everybody gets it wrong. It's Durgarian.

Durgarian, okay.

My mom was pretty well known here.

All right. Go ahead, sir.

So our family would like to begin by expressing our respect to Ron Street and the Street family. Ron and Beverly were deeply involved in this community through Arcadia Historical Society. through Arcadia Methodist Hospital, coordinating council. They built long-lasting relationships, including with my parents. Ron and Beverly were each selected as Citizen of the Year in the past. My dad sends his regards, and personally, I really enjoy being with them at Arcadia Historical Society meetings, learning a lot. to echo what Darren said. There's still an unresolved issue in this council and censure of council member Sharon Kwan last August. I think that the common sense and decent Arcadian thing to do is to apologize to Arcadia and Arcadians and everyone who grew up here and to Sharon Kwan. Not addressing this last meeting was so bizarre to everyone in your audience. I don't know if you guys read the room And the photos that you posted doctored are totally below the Arcadian spirit. I think an apology might show good faith. And in the same spirit, questions have been raised about the appointments and representation. For example, when considering candidates for district positions, residents want to feel confident those individuals have a strong and established connection to Arcadia. There's a lot of Arcadians that really love Arcadian. We need someone who truly loves Arcadia, someone who has longevity in this community, familiar with its history, has demonstrated an investment in its future, and all matter to the people who live here. We all know some of you don't live in your districts. You might have a house in El Lovato, but I think if you cared, you'd be working on Wilderness Park. And Arcadia really needs someone who just genuinely cares, Preferably someone who went to Arcadia schools and has roots in our community. And about fiscal responsibility, it's not just about balancing numbers, it's about aligning spending with what residents value most. Again, I'm talking about Wilderness Park, and if you really cared about it, I'd be working on that instead of a drug rehab that we got handed. It didn't really seem too clear to everyone that it was gonna happen. Our wilderness park has been enjoyed by Arcadian since I grew up here in the 70s. And you should think about that. And with the budget meeting coming up, I'd really think about the 20% increase in employee costs in one year of the contract. That was $10 million of a $90 million budget in one year. There are additional increases each of about 8% in one year and year two and 6% in year three. How will this affect our pension liability costs going forward is unknown. I'm going to leave it there. I have more to say, but I think that the apologies in order.

Thank you very much, Mr. DeGarian. I appreciate you. Next person will be Burton Brink and after will be Vanessa Schultz.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, and fellow Arcadia residents. My name is Burton Brink. I've lived in Arcadia since 1967, served as a former commissioner here, and a retired sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. I've dedicated my life to public service in this community since 1977. At the May 19th council meeting, I spoke about the urgent need for accountability, transparency regarding a serious federal investigation involving former Mayor Eileen Wang. In response, some individuals immediately labeled me a racist, simply because I raised legitimate concerns about leadership decisions made by an all Asian council. Let me be perfectly clear, that accusation is false and deeply offensive. I am the last person who would ever judge anyone by race. For those of you who do not know, my oldest son is one quarter Chinese. My other son's wife is also Chinese. My family reflects the beauty, the beautiful diversity of communities I have served and loved for decades. My comments were never about race, they were to and remain solely about ethics, public trust, and protecting the reputation of Arcadia. We now know that Wang herself has pleaded guilty in acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China. These are serious national security and integrity issues, not mere political attacks. Council members knew or should have known about an ongoing federal investigation long before February when you elevated her to mayor. While the council may not have possessed the legal power to remove her, you had the clear moral authority and responsibility to ask her to resign, to safeguard the reputation of our city and the trust of its residents. In 2015, we asked council member John Wu to resign amid controversy involving his promotion of GemCoin and related illegal investment opportunities. That same standard of accountability should have applied here with Huang. Instead, community concerns were too often dismissed, minimized, or ignored. Again, this is not about race. It's about leadership, ethics, and putting Arcadia first. We are watching you. The residents deserve better than politics as usual. I urge this council to commit to real transparency and integrity. And future council members, you must be chosen based on character, deep community ties, and a dedication to our city, not connections or political convenience. Thank you.

Ms. Vanessa Schultz and then MJ. And then last person will be Jonathan Rodriguez.

We, okay.

All right, so if you have something to say, we need to be really uniform. I know I'm Mr. Flexible, but please, because we have a lot of issues we need to go through. So if anybody needs to speak, these are our last two cards after the next three cards. Ms. Vanessa Schultz, and then MJ. Ms. Vanessa, are you here? Okay, I'm gonna put you at the back of the line, okay? MJ, can you be able to come up, please? And then Jonathan Rodriguez of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. MJ, are you still here? Okay, you're back of the line. Jonathan Rodriguez of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. And there's another individual with you, sir.

Yes, yes, board colleagues. So thank you. My name is Jonathan Rodriguez, operator of real estate brokerage over on Foothill and Northview, and I'm privileged to serve on the Board of Directors for the Arcadia Chamber. Just wanted to get up here and say thank you to the current mayor, Mr. Chang, for your time as liaison, the many years, the faithful years you served with us, and a welcome to Council Member Fu as well. Welcome to the liaison side, and thank you to the city manager for just your faithfulness and your support throughout. And I'm gonna introduce my board member colleague, James, and he's gonna give an update on just Taste of Arcadia.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. James Elwin III, local financial advisor. I just want to give you guys an update on the Arcadia Chamber events that are coming up. We have a lunch open to everyone on June 9th. Come out, get to know your local small business owners, as well as our Taste of Arcadia, which is going to be Saturday, September 19th. Come on out, have a drink, have some good food, and enjoy the weekend. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Angelo Hui and then Ellie or Eli So. Angelo Hui. You just came in, it's three minutes per person, thank you.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor Chang, members of the City Council, City Manager Lazzarato, City Attorney Maurer. My name is Angela Hui, and I live in District 5. I am standing before you tonight to address this rapidly growing public safety issue that affects everyone who drivers, walks, or shops in our community, the unchecked operation of high-speed electrical bicycle on our street and crowded pedestrian walkways. Every day near our local schools and commercial district, we see young riders operating heavy motorized machines at speeds exceeding 20 or 25 miles per hour. When 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 in my opinion. Our city must first step in to close the regulation gaps, number two, update our local municipal codes, number three, empower our police department, and number four, mandate parental accountability before a preventable tragedy occurs. Now let's talk about the urgent need for action, pedestrian safety. This is not about over-regulating childhood funds or banning e-bikes entirely. It is a matter of common sense safety. 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. 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. The gaps in education, next I'm talking about gaps in education partnering with parents and schools that I think is needed. The root of the problem is the massive gap in communication, community education. Many well-meaning parents buy this e-bike online, completely unaware of California vehicle code restriction. Under California law, Class III e-bikes, which can reach 28 miles per hour, require a rider to be at least 16 years old and wear a helmet. Furthermore, an unpedaled electric dirt bike classified as motor-driven cycles, they require a M1 and M2 driver license and are strictly illegal for minors to ride on in any public road or sidewalk. Yet, kids ride them to school every day. We need a unified educational push. Arcadia City should partner with the Arcadia Unified School District to issue mandatory e-bike safety disclosure directly to parents, clarifying local rules and legal liability. We should urge our school to implement a campus parking policy. If a student wants to park an e-bike on campus, both the student and parent must complete a certified safety orientation and obtain a school issue permit.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. You know, one of the things I didn't address is I understand as new mayor, everybody knows I try to be as flexible as possible, but please, if we could not clap only because we need to move our meeting forward. I totally understand that residents are passionate. They should be. but just we need to have a business meeting, and particularly for those that don't get a clap. They are so brave to come up and give their opinion, so it does make it very difficult for them. So thank you so much for understanding. There is Ellie or Eli So, is that? Is it Eli? Eli, all right. And how do you say your last name? I've always gotten confused on that. Zo. Zo? Thank you, sir. Thank you, Eli. Okay.

So good evening. My name is Eli Zhou and I'm a father of three in our public schools and a proud resident of Arcadia. Tonight, this council will recognize young people from the city who competed at the national level and made Arcadia something to be proud of. My daughter is one of them. Their efforts and the support of their families, teachers and coaches and this community represent the best of what Arcadia is. So I'm wearing their shirt. They did their performances and got their gold medal for it for being rewired. So go Arcadia.

Anyway,

I had other things prepared, I know, but right now I'm just kind of, I'll respect the time, but I just wanted to share a few observations. The health of our city needs leadership, not just to recognize and celebrate the efforts of our citizens, but to model and power these values. What I'm witnessing is concerns in the city's leadership through the years, not just recently with the scandals, but is what I consider a social cancer. As a physician, I'm able to recognize patterns and identify things that will detract from the health of this community, not just individuals, but just... What I'm concerned about is a hidden outside interest causing harm to our community. Political corruption is not unique to our city or our nation, but it is imperative that we name it and address it when we see it. We've had a lot of incidents which a lot of the other citizens came back and it encourages me that at the last council meeting, former elected officials, retired public servants, teachers, business owners, parents and neighbors all stood up and spoke these concerns. is discouraging to see the three city councilmen largely ignore, dismiss, or represent their concerns. It poisons the spirit of civic engagement we need for a healthy community. Today is our state's primary election day, and this November, districts two, three, and five are on the ballot. I do encourage and this continued civic engagement. I do appreciate this chance as a part of our democracy, you know, to have these hard conversations. And I'm glad that people did have the courage to come speak. It is a difficult thing, and I'm glad that is acknowledged. But all citizens listening, please keep on talking to your neighbors, bring people with you. We need this engagement for a healthy community. The five other Arcadia residents who came to put in their applicants in this public process, I know there's others that withdrew for some unclear reasons, but they deserve a fair and transparent evaluation of their own merits. As other mentioned before, we need to be clear about the process We want to make sure that our citizens will be representing our interests rather than outside interests or self-interest.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time. We have two more speakers. MJ, I do not see you. No. How about Vanessa Schultz, are you here? Vanessa? Okay. With that being said, then we're gonna close the public comment. We're going to be going to our consent calendar. Consent calendar. Mr. Mayor?

Yes, sir. May I take a moment for, as a matter of personal privilege, to respond to some things?

Yes. So I wanted our city attorney, if there was a request for personal privilege, to explain what that is. It's not necessarily the mayor allowing one person to speak versus another person because we do have a code of conduct. So let's have a definition of what personal privilege is in relation to our code of conduct. Thank you.

So thank you, Mayor. The Brown Act contains a provision that states that The members of the city council, while we can't get into a discussion on items that are off the agenda, the members may respond to may briefly respond to items that come up during public comment. And so what's included within our. Our policies. is the option for what's referred to as personal privilege, which just means there's a statement that affects an individual. It could be a personal statement made about the individual, and that way the individual has an opportunity to respond to it. It's not an opportunity to engage in policy discussions. It's just a chance for one of the council members to give their response to something that was said during public comment that impacts them personally as an individual. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Mayor Pro Tempfu, go ahead.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. It really distresses me to take this in. You know, I'm fiercely proud of this city, and people hear me talk about it all the time, about the virtuous circle, that we have great schools and we have great homes. We have great neighborhoods and great services and great people who live here, and that those things all work together. But there's a part of Arcadia's past that I'm not proud of, and I feel the need to address it because I could see it raise its head through the statements that somebody had referenced, the Tom Beck statement. You know, Tom Beck made a statement. I'm gonna read it for you now. He said, the Eileen Wang story has tainted all Asian elected officials, in capital letters. Well, why is that? Tom, why is that? According to who? According to you? You know, between Tom and April Verlata, who frequently engages in this kind of racist dog whistle, What I see about this is there's a dark history in Arcadia that we want to move past. This goes back to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Acts. Where Chinese were excluded after having come here to build the railroads. Our own Huntington Drive is named after Samuel Huntington, who was a railroad baron, but did nothing to try to protect those Asian workers. Our beautiful Santa Anita Park that I'm fiercely proud of is a beautiful gem on the National Registry of Historic Places, but it's a place where Japanese Americans were interned wrongfully during the Second World War. Thousands were held there and deprived of their land in many cases, even though they were American-born citizens because of their race. Our property deeds had restrictive covenants which banned ownership by blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Jews. And even as recently as last year, there was legislation to address this to try to remove these hateful provisions from the deeds which are still recorded on our properties. Some may recall that Arcadia was a sundown town where people of color were not allowed to walk on the streets unescorted after dark. The Saving Arcadia issue was a dog whistle to say that we don't want these kinds of homes here, but that's not what it was really about. We didn't want the people who live in those homes. This doesn't surprise me, and it doesn't say it's OK. Here's the issue, OK, that these ancient tropes and discriminatory nonsense And a lot of it's used to discredit me and the lies some gentleman, Mr. Derdarian, referenced the drug rehab center. I don't have anything to do with the drug rehab center, even though April claims that I did on her email blast. You know, here's the thing, okay? Here's the thing.

Please, wait, please. Mayor Pro Tem Fu has the floor, thank you very much.

These people do not represent the values of the city and they do not represent the vast majority of Arcadians. You don't see anybody else jumping on that bandwagon. Tom, I have a question for you. There's a list I have for you. The names on that list are Richard Nixon, Spiro, Agnew, Rod Blagojevich, Mark Meadows, Troy Neals, Tom DeLay, James Traficant, and Buddy Cianci. Who were they? They were all white men committing wrongdoing in public office. Do I say that... Excuse me, I have the floor. Do I say that you have responsibility for their actions? Of course not. You're not responsible for them. Here's another list. Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanson, Chelsea Manning, Jonathan Pollard, John Walker, these were all American spies who betrayed America. All caught, all white, all men. Are you responsible for them? Of course not. That statement by Tom is just bigotry. And it's not something that we should accept in this community. These are attempts to portray Asians as strange, weird, foreign, and disloyal. We are not. We are American. We're just as American as you are. And we're not just Asian, we're black, we're white, we're Latino, we're red, we're blue, we're Dodgers, we're Angels, we're Red Sox and Yankees. Our city staff, our cops, our firemen, They're all diverse and multicultural. We get along, we love each other, we respect each other for our differences as well as for our similarities. This is a multicultural city. Deal with it. We are all God's children, no more and certainly no less. And we are one and we are united. I could not care less what you have to say about me or what Tom has to say about me. But your attack is not really against me. It's really against all of us. Bigotry is like that. Today, the justification is this lie. But tomorrow, it's another.

All right, please wait. It's okay. Wait, sir, sir. Wait, sir, sir, sir, please. We're gonna have the Sergeant at Arms Restore. I'm very sorry to do it, right? Please, I understand that there may be fresh, I understand that there may be frustration in the room and all voices are valid, but we do have to do it in an orderly process. So Mayor Pro Tempfu has the floor. If you have any issues, you can always come to a council meeting and be on public comment as well, okay? So thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor, to be clear, you have issued a warning to the room that the room needs to be in order?

Unfortunately, I have issued a warning to the room, and if there's further disturbance, we need the people to leave. And I apologize for doing it, but we have to be orderly, okay? So we can all have different thoughts and different views. All of them are valid, but we need to do it in an orderly process. So Mayor Pro Tempfu has the floor. Thank you.

We need to tell people to take their bigotry elsewhere. We have no room for racism in Arcadia. And we all have to agree with this. I know we all do. I will not apologize to Tom. I will not apologize for my actions on this board. He is not my superior. I do not take orders from him. He does not say or judge me or Mike or Paul. The voters of Arcadia put us here and here we will stay until they say otherwise. And the last thing I want to say about Tom's attack on Mike is that Tom and I didn't serve in our military. But we don't actually owe anybody an apology for that. We do, however, owe our thanks and our respect to those who did. It's really miserable to attack Mike for his military service. Our VA cemeteries are where Tom and I will never rest. Those cemeteries are filled with people who fought for the ideals that made this country great. And those ideals are, of course, the values of acceptance, of unity, of diversity and respect, equality and liberty. So I hope that in the future that Mr. Beck will not denigrate Dr. Cow for his military record, because I think that that's misplaced. And I think it would be much better to just thank him for his service and then move on. Mr. Derdarian, I apologize. I know you're still here. You have my email address. Please reach out to me. Let's talk. Let's talk about the drug rehab center. Because I don't know nothing about it. I had nothing to do with it. But you raised it. And so I want to answer questions for you for it. But please, let's just talk about it. I don't hide. I'm right here. I know that you've been here a few times, and I respect you. You're entitled to your opinions. But if you have concerns about me or anybody else here, then please, let us answer. Let us talk about it. I'll tell you what I do or what I don't do. And I do live on elevado, okay? And I care about Wilderness Park. You know, we're waiting for more money to get that done, because it's super expensive. And every year, unfortunately, the cost of it goes up. But it's not because we're just ignoring it. So I thank you for the opportunity to address these issues. My issue here is not to try to quelch public statement. That's not it. Let's talk about it. Let's have a civil conversation. That's how we get things accomplished here.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tempfu. We're gonna go to the consent now.

Mayor Pao Chen, I have a personal privilege statement to make as well.

Okay, this is in regard to?

About me.

Okay. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Earlier, everybody, we heard the definition of personal privilege. It affects an individual here on the dais based upon a statement that was made by the residents.

Yes.

Okay, go ahead.

So I am Chinese, so when I say something that wrong, something is wrong with that kind of statement, I'm not racist. So I'm gonna speak from my heart, I don't have any notes. Former Mayor Tom Beck is the most honorable and credible person I can tell you coming out and speaking to the public was about leadership accountability. And what I'm hearing right now, you're using the word racism, he's a racist, to divide our community. And I've seen this over and over again. I've lived in Arcata for over 20 years. I've had so many American friends. They are not racist. They care about this community, and they came here to speak. And saying something about our predecessors that made Arcadia so great, it's so disheartening. He did so much for our community. And I see that this city council is recognizing this thing. Because you Asian, you can just call any American people as racist. That is wrong. That is very wrong. But I tell you what I see. These speakers came out and spoke last meeting. They spoke the truth.

Mr. City Attorney, point of order.

Please, please allow, I have the floor, please.

I don't see.

Yes, I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there. It applies to me.

I don't see this as a matter of personal privilege.

Yes, it applies to me. Let me finish, please. Let me finish.

Thank you.

Last meeting, all these residents came and very discontent with how the city council is. And they came to address it. This attack for Tom Beck is the same attack on me. There was this Arcadia Best article that was printed, showed me with Judy Chu and some Asian people and said, I'm connected to CCP. This was back, the picture was 2017, nine years ago. What happened is that if you're gonna lie and you're gonna have to make, and then people find out that you lied, and then you have to make them another story and lie again, you're creating your own narrative. You invented those stories. How can someone call me as a CCP agent when... Are you addressing me directly? Yes. I never said that about you. Because your comment at first is such a disgrace to the Asian community. And you are trying to divide our community.

Guys, wait, stop. Let me finish, please. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me finish. Wait, guys, wait. Let me finish. Yes, wait, hold on. You're going to be able to finish. Look... First of all, earlier our definition of personal privilege, personal privilege is to respond to a comment made by the, residents that relate to the council member.

Yes, I'm going to continue that, please.

I'm not done. I wanted to apologize because I did not know that we would be speaking about non-comments, comments from people that did not come up to the dais. That's my fault. Now I understand Council Member Kwan, that you are also addressing the issue of a former council member. I understand that, but could you please, one, we have decorum where the rules of decorum say that we're not going to attack each other. That is part of the rules of decorum. And two, if you could please get to the point where it relates to a resident and their personal statements against you for purposes of personal privilege, I would appreciate it. I do apologize to my council colleagues as well as the audience that I did not enforce the rules of decorum, and that is my fault. I will do better, but Council Member Kwan, if you could please get to the point as it relates to the resident and their attack on you, or their statement toward you for purposes of personal privilege. Mayor Pro Tem Fu, if you could allow Council Member Kwan to finish. It will not be an attack on you from another council member as required by rules of decorum.

Thank you very much. But Mr. Mayor, a defense of Tom Beck is also not a matter of personal privilege.

Let me continue. I'll get it to my point, please.

I would like to make that clear. So I want to finish.

I am the most... patriotic person to this country. I love this country. This country gives me the freedom, the opportunity to be where I am today. How can someone accuse me of having connection with the CCP? I am the whistleblower on Eileen Wang because the residents, they were all alert when the fiance got prosecuted and convicted. The legal, the court documents, they all named her as individual one. Anyone with no common sense knows that those court papers addressed her and her fiance. I don't understand, we have attorneys here. And the documents were spelled out, it doesn't take a genius to figure out. Residents were crazy, they saw that. and we still elevate her to mayor.

I brought it up, so I'm the whistleblower. I'm the one. who wanted to bring this up.

And how can I be berated by that? And now inventing these stories and bringing these pictures up with me and Judy Chu and some Asian people, I mean, it just blows my mind how these stories are being fabricated because it's very hurtful. And I think the community needs to be clear on this.

We're going to be taking a five minute recess. Thank you very much. Please cut off the mic. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so we're back on the record. We are starting our council meeting again. We've just taken a prior recess for those that were at home. Council Member Kwan, you do have personal privilege time. If you can continue, please, thank you.

Yes, so why this is personal privilege? It's because I received an email from a resident called Arcadia Blast. So it's a big concern. posting pictures with me and council member, no, with our congresswoman, Judy Chu, and the husband, Mike Ng, and also another lady. But anyway, it was shocking. That was back in 2017. And then try to create a narrative to make People believe, looking at the article, you know, saying that, how do I explain it? Like, I'm connected with these Asian people, and they're all CCP. So I'm just assuming, so I'm with Judy Chu, and they're making a public statement saying Judy Chu is also part of CCP. That's really scary. I mean, it's like... And I'm shocked, I'm shocked someone can create that kind of story. And it's just, it's so scary how these kind of story can be fabricated and circulated and try to discredit me, discredit my reputation because I try to call out Eileen Wang. and try to justify that what I did was wrong, or at least to distract the public. It's like, no, she's not a good person here. But my goodness, you guys watched the video on March the 3rd. I wanted a public discussion. I wanted her to step down. Because I told city manager it's gonna happen because the court documents said she's in trouble. She's gonna be prosecuted. I mean, I'm not an attorney, but those are very plain language. She's that individual one. And I mean, waiting for so long, and I told city manager that they're waiting for her to be mayor, so that they can convict her. All the things that I predicted, all came true.

And I try to avoid, I try to avoid that. I don't see any response to anything.

Okay, my apology, I'm gonna get back to you. Thank you. It's making me feel terrible how I'm trying to do the right thing. And the email, it was definitely coming from someone that's Asian. And that person, with the intention of writing an article like that, and pulling these pictures back in 2017, and fabricated that I'm connected with CCP people, it's just so bizarre. I mean, I'm looking at it, it's just like, it's disgusting how lies after lies, and they try to distract the public not to trust me. It's, I'm upset. I'm so upset when I saw that. Okay. And to try to make me like, on that article, it shows, it's telling the public, like, I have, I'm like a part of, You know, the white community, I don't understand what it was trying to say, but these fabrication is just so bizarre. So, anyway, um, also today, um, city manager call me and said, you know, this person probably, uh, asked for investigation, but I think according to, uh, council member fool, uh. We don't do criminal investigation here. I mean, please, submit all of our information to the FBI. I think that would be wonderful. I mean, that's the right thing to do, right? And then also, I think we should have a forensic accounting because now I'm concerned how far it can go.

We're getting off topic.

Okay, thank you so much. That's all I have to say.

All right, thank you very much, Council Member Kwan.

Thank you.

I appreciate your comments. We are going to go over the consent calendar. Consent calendar has 11A as an alpha to 11A through 11J. Are there any items that any council member wanted to discuss?

Yes, I would like to pull item 11H.

Okay, H is in Hilo, go ahead. What would you like to say?

It is a concern. We are authorizing 360,000 outside legal services. And to me, I really think why is it in, like it's on the consent calendar, it should be in a agenda item where the public needs to know why. I mean, why are these costs so high? We have, our human resource department, we have our legal council here, but spending over $360,000 outside legal services, and compared to previous year, how much did we spend? And these pending employment disputes are driving the cost So do we feel like the city internally we have problems as well? So I'm just wondering like why so much? I remember last time we had a consent calendar item as well and asked for an increase for those costs. And now I see another increase. I think this required the public to pay attention to know what's going on. These are a lot of legal fees, and it's not just legal fees. These are outside fees, but what about settlement fees? I mean, I don't understand why it's that we need to let the public know what's going on. Why are we spending so much money on outside counsel? It's a high cost, and I think it's not stopping. So I think the public deserve to have this as a like a general item where the public can come in and question us, they should be engaged to find out, you know, what are these lawsuits? They deserve transparency. Remember, we're trying to restore public trust here. And public trust is to know how we spend the taxpayer's dollar. So this is my concern for this 11H.

Did you? Thank you, Madam Councilmember. So for the benefit of the public, this is a professional services agreement with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore in an amount not to exceed $75,000 in fiscal year 26-27 to finalize the currently in process legal services and a professional services agreement with Atkinson, Adelson, Loya, Rudd, and Romo for professional services in the full scope of specialized labor and employment matters in an amount not to exceed $285,000 over a two-year period. So what this is, and it's on the consent calendar because it's a fairly routine matter in terms of the city needs to have professional legal services, and the city has a long-standing relationship with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, and the firm is changing, but the dollar amount isn't changing significantly here. To get to a couple points that you made, and I'll let Anneli kind of expand a little bit more on the specifics of the changes during the year. Best Best and Krieger represents the city on a wide variety of matters, but it's general legal counsel sort of things, tort claims, coming to city council meetings, those kind of things. Best Best and Krieger does not assist the city in any way with personnel matters, sometimes as sort of a secondary information source, but not primary human resources, personnel type matters. We have traditionally used Liebert Cassidy Whitmore for those services over the last 15 or 20 years. We have decided to change companies in order to get a better quality of service. Liebert Cassidy Whitmore is a fantastic agency, but they're so popular it's hard to get the attention you need from their attorneys all the time. So when we need a response in an immediate kind of situation, we're just not getting it to the level we used to now that they're much more popular. AALRR is a very well-respected firm. It's a well-known firm in the public sphere of personnel matters. One of their partners happens to be a resident, a long-term resident of the city of Arcadia. That's not why we're picking him, but it's just something we know. So the request is to switch our basic human resources personnel matters. That includes things like labor and employment contracts, negotiations, those types of things, which we'll be starting next year, which is the end of this coming fiscal year, 26-27. That will most likely start in the January-February timeframe of 27. It also deals with any time there's a labor dispute, any time there's a workers' compensation matter, any of those things, we get help from these companies. And with 300-plus active employees and hundreds of retirees that all have different medical issues from time to time and need of legal services, the costs can add up. But, Nelly, can you talk about the contract and maybe how this year's contract with AALRR would compare to last year's with Liebert Cassidy?

Sure, I can definitely talk about that. And to just add to what Mr. Lazzaretto mentioned, the amount before the council this evening is not to address specific lawsuits or anything like that. It's for day-to-day operations of the city. So there isn't a specific matter that's tied related to lawsuits or anything like that. I want to make that clear. One thing I do want to note that is important in the upcoming fiscal year is, as Mr. Lazzaretto mentioned, we will be beginning labor negotiations, which is going to be a likely a significant cost as far as review, legal advice, and anything that goes into that process with our five bargaining units across the city. So that is a significant difference in the upcoming fiscal year with this new contract. But the shift really is from one contract with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore to the next contract with AALRR. I just want to point out that a big difference is upcoming negotiations.

So can you give me the cost for year 2022, 2023, 2024? I want to see the comparison between the years for those costs.

I can get you those costs, but I can also say that the last time we were at the table with all of our five groups, the cost was elevated as well to address that cost. On average, without those contract years that were at the table actively with our five groups, without that, being the case, on average we see about 70,000 per year, on average.

Yeah, so 70,000 and now we are asking to have the amendment up to 360,000. That's a drastic increase. Not per year. I mean, this is for two year, right? Correct. You say $75,000, even for two years, if you divide that, that's $180,000. That's more than two-folds of increase.

But again, it also includes labor negotiations, which hasn't happened for two years.

Yeah, but I was here for labor negotiation three years ago, and I don't see that kind of cost we're asking for.

It was that kind of cost.

Okay, so if you can show it to me, that would be good. I can get that number for you. I mean, and I really think that because a lot of the lawsuits that we get, the public doesn't get to know it. I mean, everything is behind closed doors, so I think it's important to have that transparent as well so that they know, like, how much we're settling it for. Yeah, they don't get to... have the details of it. I understand the legal issue, but at least how much we spend and how much we settle those costs, they belong to the taxpayers. So I think that kind of transparency is required if we're going to restore public trust.

Again, this is not for a lawsuit or settlement. This is for regular day-to-day legal services across 365 days in a year. It's not for a specific lawsuit or settlement.

Okay, well, when I was asking, it was saying that because there was a lot of lawsuits that we have, that's why we have to have legal counsel outside. So, I mean, now you're telling me this has nothing to address with our legal, with our lawsuits right now?

No, I think we have other dollars that are for personnel situations that require lawsuits. The item that you and I were talking about previously today deals with a closed session item later tonight, so we need to be very careful about what we're talking about that. But we have, I will tell you to respond to your question and the $300,000 that you mentioned at the beginning of your speech that the city has had more litigation in the last 24 months than traditional. We took an item to the city council 90 days ago to increase our legal services budget related to various lawsuits, public records requests, those types of things. So we have absolutely had an increase in our legal services fees related to lawsuits, but this item on this consent calendar doesn't relate to those situations.

Okay, so we do have an increase of lawsuits, an increase of costs, so that's fine. I just want to know what's going on because I'm getting conflicting answers and I think the public deserves transparency regarding to those spending. I mean, that's a significant amount. You know, we're talking about $360,000, so it's very appropriate for us to ask that question and so that the public can also understand where we're coming from. Thank you so much. That's all I want to say.

Mr. City Manager, may I ask a couple questions? So, you know, in regards to cost, cost for outside legal services, What is our cost for public records requests?

So I'd have to get, yeah, I'm gonna get cut off by the city attorney, because it's not quite on target. But what I can tell you is, again, the public records requests, the legal services, earlier this year, we asked for $300,000 of additional budget to be able to handle the ones we've received recently.

Okay, so please, the documents that are being requested are available to our council members if you ask. You don't need to wait until a council meeting to ask these questions. In preparation for any council meeting, you are given an agenda. You need to review the agenda, You can ask your questions before the meeting. I don't understand why there's a statement of conflicting messages. City staff does not give us conflicting messages. I think the issue is we just don't ask our city staff until we decide to come to our council meeting. That is a lack of preparation on our council members and we need to stop that. We need to stop that.

Sergeant of Arms, please remove the member from the audience. Thank you. Mayor, I'd recommend that we issue a warning, and if there's a second warning, then the, if there's a second disruption, then she should be removed. Okay.

So I've issued a warning. The second issue is this, is that the statement of closed doors, litigation matters are always behind closed doors. Can you imagine that there's a car accident, someone sues the city and we decide how much we're gonna settle the case and we give authority to our attorney and we do it in public. That doesn't happen. It would make no sense. So the statements of closed doors, I do not think is appropriate. Our council members go behind closed doors because we are required to by law on certain items. I understand that a one-liner sounds very good, but I want you to know that being on council for six years, all litigation matters have to be behind closed doors. Union negotiations have to be behind closed doors. purchases and selling of property have to be by law behind closed doors. So every time that statement is made that things are done behind closed doors, they must be by law. We have no choice. So further, this is concerning that we have increased fees. I can be able to tell you, we spent a lot of money when there was an accusation against one of our council members by another council member and against our city manager as well by a council member that there was harassment. We had to pay money for that. So I just want you to know that there has been increased fees overall, obviously because of the tension that we have on council. My job though as mayor is to bring everybody together. And even when I disagree to make them look as good as possible to translate what they're saying, because sometimes I don't even understand what people are saying, but I have to make it so that at least their point gets across. And that may frustrate people, I understand, but it is my job. My job is to not only edify the residents and to the extent that you feel I don't do it, I apologize, it's my fault. To the extent that I also need to make my council members the best council members that they can, that is also my job as well. But with that being said, are there any other comments related to this item? Earlier, Council Member Kwan, you said that you wanted to have, did you want a study session or what did you want on this item?

You know, I just feel like every time there's such a large increase, it should not be just like on the consent calendar, and then we just have one vote and approved everything. This is a big amount of money. And finally, it's not that I don't know the numbers. I do. But I have to ask in a way where you guys can be truthfully answer my question. So I just hear that we have $300,000 increase of attorney's fee. And what I'm hearing also from our mayor, there's so many lawsuits, but I just heard the word harassment. So why are you being so selective when you talk about these lawsuits? What about lawsuits that's with... David Liu, that's in the fire, the police department. So I just don't understand, I just like transparency. So I understand, but I'm trying to say that please do not, underestimate my intelligence, saying that the information is public and I should not be asking question. This is a time for me to ask question on behalf of the residents so they understand what's going on with their money. We are the watchdog. And I am just trying to do my job again. And every time I'm trying to be transparent, i'm getting someone and said you should have it you sh why are you asking these questions of course i know i have these answers but i want the public to hear it this is public engagement why do we have these city council meetings it's because they have to hear how we spend the money And it's just, so it's again and again, and I'm not trying to get, like I'm not trying to ask question. It seems like you always say I ask gotcha question. These are not gotcha questions. There's a lot of problems with every city with accountability here. And then this is my job. I'm trying to do my job for the residents here. And that's a large amount of money. And it's always put into consent calendar and one vote, it covers everything. And I am now trying to restore public trust. So I have to, even though I look like I'm redundant, I'm reiterating, but I have to. I have to do the job to restore public trust here. And so I really hope you can let me do my job.

Mr. Mayor, may I ask a question? Thank you. Just to clarify what we're doing.

Well, I just pulled the item for discussion.

Yeah, we were just talking about the item.

As I understand it, though, the payment made to Atkinson is actually sort of a retainer. We haven't incurred those fees. It's a budget over the next two years for potential engagement on different things. So we haven't actually spent this money. We're just earmarking it for payment to that firm for what we anticipate to be future services. Is that right?

That is accurate. It's already budgeted dollars. It's already in the budget. We would say that $140,000 a year out of $100 million budget is something that normally would be on a consent calendar item. If it exceeds those and you need significant work from a law firm, you would have a separate contract for that sort of thing.

And in that sense, it's not an increase. It's already been budgeted. We anticipate this cost. And it might be less because if we're lucky and we have nothing that happens, then we won't spend it. Correct.

And I will tell you that when you look at the budgets for the last labor negotiations, we budgeted far more than it actually came in at.

And on the Liebert firm, we are winding down our engagement there. This is just to close out work, which is...

They have work already assigned to them, and we want to have a continuity. We don't want to pay a second attorney to get up to speed on the original work.

Exactly. So thank you very much. Just wanted to...

So, and again, that goes with, it's kind of the same budget, but we don't know where the tail ends and the beginning starts. So we ask for the wide latitude, but it'll come in less than that.

I think, you know, it's fair... to make the point, sometimes when we look at numbers for the city, if you're not accustomed to dealing with those numbers, then they look like a lot of money, and they are a lot of money, but it's kind of a big city, and so we unfortunately have to incur these kinds of costs, but I think that what we're looking at is that it's not out of the ordinary. And I know, you know, in other systems that are bigger, they spend more money, and other systems that are smaller, they spend less. I certainly appreciate the fact that the public has the right to know, but we have to put that in perspective to say we didn't actually spend this yet. It's just what we normally would do, and so we, as a matter of good management, have provided for that.

yeah and if if i can add on to something that i think both of you have touched on any member of the public can come in and ask an agenda item to be pulled from the consent calendar for further discussion and investigation any member of the city council can pull an item to ask it for further investigation to just because it's on the consent calendar doesn't mean it's not for public discussion. If the public has an interest in those items, please come out, talk about it, ask questions. From a staff standpoint, we love transparency. We're happy to talk about where we get to numbers and how we get to numbers. I love talking to all of you about what's in the agenda and what's in the budget. So please feel free to do that. But again, the council can always talk about any single item that's on the agenda, regardless of where it is on the agenda.

So earlier a statement was made where the statement of restoring public trust, accountability, and watchdog. And I applaud Council Member Kwan for you saying those words. But when you say those words, you inherently are suggesting that your other colleagues are not here to restore public trust they are not looking for accountability and they don't want to be a watchdog and that's unfortunate because of the fact that i think that all council members even though i may disagree with them on the path that they take i believe all of us have a common goal and that is to keep arcadia the best city in california And in terms of underestimating intelligence, if you feel that I've made a statement that where I am underestimating your intelligence, that's my fault, because I do not underestimate your intelligence. You are wealthy for a reason. You're the wealthiest person on our council for a reason, right? And you know what? You should be proud of that. You should be proud of that. And there's nothing wrong with being wealthy, right? Your intelligence got you to where you are, and I'm proud of you for that. And in terms of what I said earlier, I do believe it is my job. My job is that when I don't understand any council members desire, and it's not just you, I've had that with my other council colleagues. My job is to help be a bridge between their idea and what is coming out of their mouth, because it's not always the same. And if you feel in any way that that undermines your intelligence, again, I will do better because I'm here to serve you. And so I'm very proud of you for bringing up this agenda item. I think that's excellent. I think it's excellent that you bring up agenda items. I just wanna remind all council members that we do have an opportunity to meet with our city staff prior to the meeting particularly where we have a concern, because it is very important if we're here to restore public trust, accountability, and to be a watchdog, that we give them an opportunity to settle their mind. Why do I say gotcha questions is because sometimes we do ask questions that we could have asked earlier. And frankly, when it comes out, it's not really the question that we plan to ask. And then the city staff has left their fumbling. They are people too, right? And putting them off guard sometimes is a little bit difficult. And I would ask that we just all be courteous about it. And everybody is courteous on council about it. But I just want to remind all of our council members how important it is that they're here to serve. They are public servants. We are lucky to be voted in as servants of the people, but they truly are public servants. They leave their families, their best days, their best minutes are here in the city of Arcadia. So it is important that if we do have a concern, we let them know. That is my recommendation. You guys don't have to do it. None of you have to do it, but I think that if we are gonna put them on the spot, it is better to allow them to prepare, because frankly, earlier, Council Member Kwan, you said that you wanted truthful answers, and the most truthful answer is when you give an individual time to prepare, right, so that they can be able to provide the accountability that is necessary, which is a full and complete response.

right with that being said are you okay councilmember kwan with moving forward on item 11 h is in hilo well thank you so much mayor number one is that um like these questions these items are on our agenda so it's not that i'm being critical but i think when you put in an item there the staff should be able to answer my questions because these numbers are already on the books. So it's not something where it needs a lot of time to prepare, because I'm just asking something that has been spent and how much it is budgeted. So I don't think it's fair to ask a question and then say, OK, I need to ask you in advance so you can prepare this answer. And that really actually makes the public think they have to scrutinize again, because everything needs to be in preparation to answer these just very simple questions. So, I mean, like, I myself, I mean, like, I know my numbers, and the person that's handling accounting should know the numbers as well. So if you ask me, like, how much I spend for my water bill, I can tell you right away because I handle the water bill. If you can tell me how much, ask me how much I have in my bank account, I can immediately tell you. So, I mean, like, I don't think it requires preparation, but the preparation part makes people, again, not trusting us because we need to prepare an answer. We have to maybe come up with an answer that is fitting to make our city look good. So I mean, I disagree with that, but I really appreciate you. It's not that I don't trust our staff, I do, but I think they're getting paid. They're getting paid to do their job. So these questions I'm asking, they're not surprising. They're just It's on it. They should be prepared to give me an answer. And I don't find like I have to give them like a week or two weekend events. Well, Council Member Kwan, if you... That's how I feel.

Yeah. A good example of how it would be helpful. Yes. Is you asked tonight what the budget was, 22, 23, 24, 25.

Yes.

I might be able to tell you what my monthly water bill is. I might be able to multiply my water bill by 12. I couldn't tell you what it was two, three, four, five years ago without doing 10 minutes of looking up the research. If that's something that you need to, that you would find helpful to come to a decision on this particular agenda item, you shoot me an email, you ask me a question like that, we can have that ready for you in advance of the meeting to get that to you. And if you want to ask it to the public, if you think the public would benefit from knowing all of that, We're happy to share it with whoever's interested.

Yes, and I do meet with you before the meeting every two weeks.

So again, I think when the mayor says it'd be helpful to know the questions in advance, of course you can ask whatever question you want to on the fly. It's just if you're going to ask a second-level or third-level question, we can help you prepare to have an answer tonight. versus having to say, we'll get it to you, we'll have it first thing in the morning, we'll have the historical data for you. But it's not gonna help you right now. So if you want me to be able to help you right now.

Thank you for that advice. I will take that and implement it into the question that I'll be asking. So for this item, I really hope to have the amount of money that was spent for attorney's fee, and then for the past three years, so I can make a comparison. And then, yeah, and send it to me. And I think that will be good. But as far as that's concerned, yeah, I just hope we should let the public know that we did spend $300,000 for attorney fees regarding to our lawsuits. So I think that's important for the public to know. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. I think the clarification earlier that was made was that this is the retainer. Are you looking for the retainer amounts for the lawsuit?

No, I'm looking for the extra amount spent for lawsuit settlements for the past three years.

Understood. And, you know, just... Actually, Mr. Baker, if I can interrupt that. Are we just talking about human resources-related lawsuits?

With all the lawsuits that's going on, because I really feel like there's a lot of... A LOT OF LAWSUITS COMING IN AND I THINK WE SHOULD DEFINITELY DO A BETTER JOB MAYBE INTERNALLY TO IMPROVE ON THAT.

Understood. And just for members of the public, this is actually great discussion. I applaud our council members that have differing views and thoughts. My view typically is if I have an issue, I email several months in advance so I can get answers to it. And then once I get an answer to it, I think about it, then I ask more questions. And so by the time I get to a council meeting, I'm able to have either my question answered or if I don't have my question answered I at that time can be able to have a very thorough understanding of the item and every council member approaches council meetings differently that's what makes our council so healthy with different views and their approaches and I applaud each and every one of our council members with their different thoughts and their different views. And this is great. Anneli, thank you so much for coming up. I don't know if there are any other questions that we have for our staff.

I have a question for our staff. Maybe our city manager or city attorney could help answer the question for the public. In public entities, whether that be state entities, local entities, is it uncommon to have a consent calendar?

No, it's very common.

And the point of the consent calendar is to really just have issues or agreements so that if particular board members, council members want to pull it, they have the ability to pull that, correct?

Yes, items get on the consent calendar normally because they're perceived as routine matters. So the definition of routine can fluctuate, and different councils have different thresholds. As Mayor Pro Tem Fu indicated, some cities are spending more money on the consent calendar, some cities are spending less. But generally, my job as the city manager is to guess what this community generally will think of, and this council will think of as a routine matter, and what will be something that will engender specific conversations. So as a for instance, and I know you want to get to your question, but I want to make sure we get to this. So when we put something on the consent calendar, it's because we perceive it's not going to be something. It's already budgeted. It's within a low enough amount that it's not going to move the city budget significantly. It's something to be expected. Like we just need to renew a contract sort of thing. earlier this year when we've got three hundred thousand dollars we're talking about we knew that was it's three hundred thousand dollars is not a huge number but it's out of the norm it was not budgeted and we put that on as a city manager item to raise it to everybody that Our budget numbers are running hot. You better pay attention to this. We're going to need more dollars. We want to make sure the community has an opportunity here at the council doesn't get caught surprised that they have mid year budget those kinds of things. So, it is a guess, but if it's on the consent calendar, it's generally expected to be it's there. If you have any questions. Great. We'll talk about it, but probably nobody's going to have questions. So it's a, it's a request to or it's a. effort to make the meeting more efficient so you're not talking about 100 items when all you really care about is three items.

Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you for answering my questions. In terms of the comment that a lot of times different council members are shut down, that is also my job as well because the law does say that we can only discuss items that are on the agenda. And specifically, even when we are on an agenda item, for example, we are on the Hilo 11H item, if a council member goes off of that item, then that technically is illegal as a matter of law. Now, I understand that for the public, it does raise a lot of concern when there are a lot of one-liners made such as accountability, transparency, being a watchdog, but by law, we cannot go outside of that agenda item. There are obviously liberty that we take if it's on the agenda generally, but I do want to know that when that ends up happening, if it's not agendized, we can't speak on it. Why? Because of the fact that agendized items allow the public to come. If we speak outside of the agenda, then the public weren't invited. and there would be a violation of the law. So sometimes when there's a shutdown, it's not because we want people to stop talking, it's because they can't speak as a matter of law. Now, there is frequent debate among council members. We would love for the city attorney and the city manager to basically sit there with a hammer and just hammer us. The reality is that City Council, we need to police ourselves. So what that means is that we need to keep each other in line. Sometimes I come across very harsh, sometimes it's very light, today I'm very harsh. And I'm sorry if I've offended anybody on Council, but it's under the law so that we could have efficient legal meetings. Now, if you have any questions of anything outside of the agenda, I invite people to break bread with our council members, right? There are residents that are in the room that have had comments and those are all valid comments, but none of you have ever reached out to me. So basically, a lot of the information that you have is really just based upon what you see online. And if you were to tell somebody that you believe something online, they would think you're kind of you know, not fully informed. And so if you have any questions, you know, please break bread with me. And frankly, I'm gonna be at the Jean Glasgow event on Sunday. I would love for you to meet our council members. I'm sure all of our council members are gonna be there for our former city clerk. Come talk to us. You know, get to know us. That's what I would recommend. And after I've said that we shouldn't be talking outside the agenda, I talked about Jean Glasgow, and I could feel the city attorney getting close to me, so I apologize for that. We'll get back on the agenda item. I wanted to ask about item 11H. Are we able to close that item, Councilmember Kwan?

Yes.

Thank you so much for the robust discussion. May we have a motion on our consent calendar?

This is Mike. I'm going to make the motion to approve consent calendar. 11A is in Apple. J is in Jack. Do I have a second? Who seconds?