City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Good evening. I'm calling this meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. Can uh Mr. Clerk, city clerk, can you please take a role? Council member Pala present. Council member Melendez here. Council member Alonzo. Mayor Port Romero present. Mayor Tomayo here.

And madame mayor, before we go and announce public comments or close session items, um it should be reflected in into the minutes tonight that council member Rick Alonzo will be participating from a remote location as permitted under the just cause provisions of the government code in as much as he has a physical emergency that prevents his attendance in person. Tonight, all votes must be by roll call. And with that, the mayor would be appropriate to see if there's any objection from the city council to that taking place tonight.

Any objection? And Mr. Council Member Alonzo, you will be participating um remotely. Uh with that, uh it's appropriate to go into the public comment portion of tonight's close session. Mr. City Clerk, do we have any close session public comment? We have no speaker cards.

Thank you. [clears throat] And with your permission, Madame Mayor, I'll announce the close session. Uh at this time we have two items for close session. Conference of legal council existing litigation the rob I'm sorry the kintanar um versus city of Montabella workers compensation matter and also one matter of real property negotiations with prime store as listed on the agenda. It's appropriate for the city council to recess into close session. It should also be noted that council member Alonzo will also be participating in close session via uh telecommunication. Thank you. [snorts]

Good evening everybody and thank you for joining us. We are coming out of close session and we'll start our uh regular business. But before that um Mr. City Attorney, can you please report out close session?

Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the council. The record should reflect the city council with all five members being present. Council member Alonzo participating remotely participated in close session prior to recessing the close session. The two items that were listed on the agenda were announced for discussion that the city council received a briefing on conference with legal counsel existing litigation as listed on the agenda. The city council received a briefing from special counsel. Direction was provided but no action is required to be reported at this time. On item number two, conference with real property negotiators. The city council had a briefing from the city's negotiators. No action was taken on that matter and nothing is required to be reported at this time. Madame Mayor, that concludes my report from close session. It is appropriate to continue with the open portion of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. We will continue with our invocation. Mr. Matanga, please. Lord, we are here meeting here today to conduct matters of business. Guide our hearts and our minds in a spirit of fairness. Bright thought and speech. Impart your supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our affairs may reach a successful conclusion. Thank you for being our source of guidance today. Amen.

[clears throat]

Thank you, Mr. Matanga. So, we're going to continue with having our special guest do a pledge of allegiance. So, before I bring him up, let me read something about Kyle Roachcha. It's with sincere pleasure that the mayor and the city council present this certificate of recognition, which he'll get shortly, to Kya Roachcha for his participation in the future leaders of Montabelloo's program and for leading the pledge of allegiance at the January 28th, 2026 city council meeting. Kyle is a proud fourth grader student at Washington Elementary and has been an active member of the Montabelloo school community since kindergarten. He's enthusiastic about learning with a special interest in math and demonstrates a strong commitment to personal growth both and in and out of the classroom. Kyle enjoys active is stays active through boxing and to through Muai demonstrating dedication, discipline and perseverance with big dreams of becoming an actor or a YouTuber. So get his autograph now. Kyle is recognized as a hardworking and motivated student who consistently gives his best efforts in school and in the gym and in everything he does. The city of Montabelloo proudly recognizes Kyle Roachcha as one of the future leaders of Montabelloo and encourages him to stay to continue striving for excellence and dreaming boldly and learning by example. So come on up Kyle please. The pledge of allegiance [applause] you can come on up.

Say your heart. Everybody, please put the 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. [applause] Thank you, Kyle. So, if you want to state

Yes. We're going to take some pictures and present Kyle with the certificate. Count of three. Two. One more. Here we go.

[cough] Perfect. This looks great. On the count of three. One, two, three. And we got it.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you so much, Kyle, again for coming out this evening and and doing the pledge. Um our next on the agenda we have um any corrections Mr. City Manager to the agenda?

Good evening mayor, council members. There aren't any corrections to the agenda today. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll proceed with our ceremonial uh presentations. So if council can join me up front for that, please. Okay, great. Um, let's see. We have We have the text. All right. So, this evening we're going to continue uh doing check presentations and we're going to um do it with the sports organizations this evening. So, we will have the Montabelloo Indians come on up, please. That's all Kevinulations. [applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Come on [clears throat] up.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

So there you go, Kevin. I'll read a little bit about the Monabello Indians. the Monabello Indians who have proudly served the community for more than six years. They pro maybe I'll turn it this way. They provide provide youth with opportunities to participate in organized sports while learning the values of teamwork, discipline, and perseverance through athletic programs and mentorships. The organization supports healthy activity and positive youth development. Their work helps build confidence, character, and strong community connections for the youth participants and their family. Please give it up for the Montabelloo Indians. [applause]

Can I have um if you want to please share some words? Well, on behalf of the Montabella Indians youth football and tour organization, I just want to say thank you to the city council for presenting us with this check. The Montabella Indians has been around since 1958, way longer than I've been around. And um because of the city of Montabelloo and all the volunteers that I see here today and all the families that have come through, um this organization cannot exist without that. So, it's a strong community-based program, family orientated, and we're very, very appreciative all that the city of Montabella does from providing us uh fields and lighting and everything else and all the support that we need in order for us to uh run the program and serve the youth of of Montabella. So, thank you [applause] Thank you. Okay, up next, Montabella Golden State Basketball Association. Come on up. [applause] Hello. Thank you.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Feel like [clears throat] my kids. Come on. I know. [laughter] The light. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right, here you go. [laughter]

Monabello Montabella Golden State Basketball Association has been serving the Montabelloo community since 1955 by providing youth and access to organized basketball programs that emphasize skill development and teamwork. Through league play, coaching, and mentorship, the organization helps young athletes build confidence, discipline, and leadership skills. Their work contributes to positive youth engagement and strengthens ties throughout Montabelloo. Thank you, Golden State. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Thank you.

On behalf of the uh Montabella Golden State Association, I want to thank the city council for supporting the program. uh we have over 130 kids at times maybe close to 300. So this is really going to be put to use in supporting some of our youth kids. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [laughter] looking right.

Thank you. Thank you, Golden State. Thank you so much. But [applause] You might want to wait. Yeah, because our next one. Yes. Also basketball. Oh, [laughter] right. I did them. I did them back to back. Yes.

So, this is the Montabelloo Police uh Athletic and Activities League known as PAL. The Montabella Police at Athletic and Activities League has been a vital community partner, strengthening relationships between local youth and law enforcement through positive programs and activities by offering sports enrichment and mentorship opportunities. PAL promotes trust, teamwork, and personal development. Their work provides safe, constructive outlets for youth while fostering stronger community connections and mutual respect. Congratulations, Pel. [applause] Ditto. Everything she said. Uh, as you can see, we're back to back. Um, Montabella Golden State is the winter league and PAL is the summer league. And it's the same volunteers that have been with us over 10 years, some are longer. I've been with Golden State 18 years. And PAL started in 2013. [gasps] And so it's like uh President Mando said for Golden State, we do serve a lot of kids. I mean 160 to 300 and everybody volunteers that helps. So it's it's a lot of work and dedication with our coaches. I see a coach here. George was part of our program for a while. And the cool thing now is that our volunteers that had their kids when they started, they are now coming back and coaching. So they're coming back and giving back to the community, too, which is also cool. So, this money is going to help us to continue to help those families that want to keep their kids busy. So, if they're going to want to play, they're going to play with either league. Thank you. [applause] Thank you to the PAL program. [laughter]

two. Thank you everybody. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you all very All right, let's have AYSO come on up. Monabello AYso, region 1065. [applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations, coach. How are you? Good to see you.

[laughter]

Okay. A Montabelloo AYSO region 1065 has proudly been serving the community for many years by providing a positive, inclusive, and development focused youth soccer experience through volunteer-led programs and emphasize that emphasizes teamwork, sportsmanship, and fun. Ayso helps young athletes build confidence, character, and lifelong skills both on and off the field. Their work supports healthy activity, youth development, and strong family involvement throughout Monabello's AYSO region 1065 program. And their continued dedication plays an important role in strengthening our community. So, congratulations, AYso. [applause] Hi, my name is Elizabeth Bayas. I want to thank the mayor, city council. I am proud to say that I was one of the founders of American youth soccer organization 31 years ago. So, I am proud. Gus is one of my old folks, Jorge um and some of our new ones. We wouldn't be able to do it without the city council and a lot of the parents. It's positive coaching and we bring all of our kids that of course they're older. My kids are we're not going to say their age. I'm not going to say my age, but um all of the children, our children are now coaching. My grandchildren are now playing. So, they brought me back with my grandchildren. So, we're very proud. This money is going to keep all of our families coming back. So, this is how we keep the children off the street and we are becoming friends and family because we're all sports family. So we all become families because I know

Montabelloo's um Indians we become compadres and you know we all become family. It doesn't matter the sport. We rotate coaches. Coach Jorge, like he said, he was with Pal. So, we rotate. Volunteer runs in our blood. It doesn't matter what sport it is. We all share each other. So, thank you so much. Um, we love our community. We keep going strong and we continue with Oliver. You just call on us. Don't call me though. Call him [laughter] everybody. We're always here. I mean, she used to be a soccer mom and I I'm sure all the other sports, but we thank everybody for welcoming us. And remember, if you don't want to stay home, go to soccer. Don't go to the other sports. I'm just kidding. As long as you stay out of the house and go and get involved in your community, find something to do. It's always amazing to get the kids out of the house and get them busy [clears throat] off the tables and off the TV. Thank you.

Yeah, talk to Thank you, Ayso. Oh, [applause]

thank you very much. All right. Next we have MBA Monabella Baseball Association. Come on up NBA. [applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right. You got softball. All right, Tony.

Congratulations. Long.

Yeah. You want to?

I know. [laughter]

Okay. Montabelloo Baseball Association was founded in 1952. The NBA has long played an important role in the community by offering youth a structured and supportive environment to learn and enjoy the game of baseball and now softball. Through volunteer leaderships and organized league play, the association promotes sportsmanship, teamwork, and personal growth. Their programs encourage healthy lifestyles and create longlasting memories for Montabella's youth and families. Please, let's give it up to MBA. [applause] Can I say something?

Sure.

Um, good evening. Uh, my name is Tony and I'm the commissioner. Uh, been there 20 years. Um, uh, Flavio was actually the one that br and and I started as a just a dad and nothing more. Just wanted to be a coach and next thing you know, now I'm commissioner 20 years later. [laughter] But uh I want to thank the city of Montabelloo for giving us this check and it's going to help buy equipment for the kids uh to help them keep playing and u and maintaining the fields also. I mean I know they're working hard on them right now and I really appreciate that. And it's just not us. I mean, there's about 20 of us that are missing, and I'd like to thank them for all their support and just try to keep these kids playing and get them off the streets. And I want to thank all of you guys and all the city council here for their support and we'll see you guys on opening day.

All right. Thank you.

Congratulations, NBA. [applause] Thank you. Let's give a round of applause to all of our sports teams here in Montabelloo. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes this portion. We'll head back up. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Next on our agenda is the state of the fire department. Do we have any speakers for this item?

Chief Pai, sorry. Chief Eli will be giving the presentation. The presentation. Okay, I'll hand it off to Chief. Yeah, I'll go up there. [clears throat] [snorts]

Hope you can hear me here. Get this up here. Uh, good evening, mayor, members of city council. Um, thank you. Uh what I'm going to be presenting to you is the uh state of the fire department. We do it uh I present every year to all line staff, all the men and women of the Montabella Fire Department. Uh usually do it in November. So um we're a couple months uh ahead of it now. But anyways, I I find it very interesting. So, um, last year we collaborated with a leadership team and to, uh, as part of our leadership training, we, uh, we brought to the front our, uh, our desire to build a new mission statement. Our mission statement had been around, um, as long as I can remember, and we wanted something that aligned us and refocused us a little bit. So, that's our new mission statement there. Uh committed to excellence, united in purpose, driven by duty, and ready to serve. We proudly protect the citizens of Montabelloo with professionalism, integrity, and honor. Uh as always, I like to start with our core values in everything we do. All ourmies, uh it's everywhere in our stations. Uh these are our um core values. Uh they are our guiding light. And I always tell the guys, especially our new recruits, if you live by that, you will have a very successful journey and a great career. Uh, and there they are. That's [snorts] me. Um, so there's our uh organizational chart. Um, I I'll break it down and I'll it'll it'll start to um explain itself as we go. Um, obviously I'm at the top there as your fire chief. uh we have our deputy chief that oversees those uh five divisions and then we have our assistant chief

that oversees the three divisions and it breaks down. You can see it admin um the the amount of staff that we have. Uh so it's it's uh as we go it'll explain itself. Uh staffing levels. Here's what we're authorized to hire. Uh you can see back in 1920 I became chief in 1918. Uh so we didn't put those in. Uh but anyways, 1920 uh is what we were uh allowed to staff and every year as you can see the growth um as the city expanded as the demands grew uh we grew our department and obviously uh with the support and the uh trust of the city council, city manager, and the rest of staff. Uh we're now at 2025. Uh we're right at 100 FTEES. Recruitment uh 19 uh 2019 you can see that we hired uh right under 15 employees uh right about 12. Uh 2020 uh our our hiring uh got a little better. 21 we dipped and that's according to staffing levels. We uh in 2018 we were severely underst staffed. So we had a uh quite a uh issues as far as recruiting and retention. Uh now in as you can see in 24 it was our biggest 40 employees were hired. Uh, one of the things that we do, uh, in the fire department, we have a very robust, um, miniature, uh, HR team that works closely with, uh, uh, Ramon Figurero's, uh, HR team, and we're able to, uh, kind of move them along and expedite them because, as you know, the region is suffering from, uh, staffing. There's a staffing crisis. So, we don't want to wait too long uh, with somebody and, you know, 6 months, 7 months, somebody else can take them. So, uh, we like to get them through within 6 to 8 weeks. That's very reasonable.

Uh, I'll speak a little bit about our budget. Uh, this is a a slide that uh, uh, Director Solar provided to us. It's very telling. Uh, thank you, Michael, for it. Uh, it's it's amazing. It really paints the picture where we were in 201920. You can see the the budget of $11 million. You can uh see the actual and then you can see the adopted budget there. Uh you can see where we're at now. Uh obviously 62% increase in budget. Uh 51% in uh increase in acrruels there. [clears throat] There's some stats in fire admin. So um as you saw the graphs go up with staffing and things. Uh I could tell you when I in 2018 I had one uh person assigned to me as far as my secretary. We were really my hands were really tied as far as trying to get things done. Uh here's what we did last year uh in 12 months. Uh we completed 30 staff reports. Uh we opened approximately 120 POS. Uh payroll checks that we process were 2500. Obviously in in in collaboration with um Michael's team uh we managed 14 grants successfully and uh we submitted for seven grants. That's a lot of work uh for any staff uh for any for any department. Uh we also regained control of our social media. Uh in 90 days we had 300 over 370,000 views. As you can see that's our story. Uh it's we use that for recruitment. Uh it's I get calls all the time on on uh people asking me, "Hey, uh who's running your social media?" That's an awesome story. Um our celebrity right now is Nacho on social media. Just in I think you guys know who he is. Our our K9 and Delta.

Um grant management right there. Um those are the grants that we successfully are managing right now. Uh the safer grant uh 15 positions that was uh around $6.2 $2 million uh our PLO vents. What those are, they're diesel exhaust um of system that uh our engines uh connect to the exhaust uh so that no diesel um is left in the station when they're backing in or pulling out or start the engines. As you know, um diesel is a carcinogen and um it's something that we take very serious, our firefighters health and safety. So, uh we got a grant for that one. Uh so all our stations have the PLO events. Uh Starlink uh program uh also a grant that we got for $450,000. I'll explain it here in a bit. Our SCBAs are our gear that we wear in the back when we go into uh fires. Uh we got a half million dollar grant to purchase those. Uh cannabis educa education. Uh it was about a $2 million grant. our uh CBDG uh thanks in working with Director Palumby's um team, we were able to uh secure a squad uh for about $350,000. Uh our ELC grant uh that was huge. Uh that was about 2.2. Uh we went back to Washington and did some um um uh a lot of uh how would I say it with our um uh our lobbyist back there uh and also the Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. We were able to secure a little over $2 million uh encampment grant uh through homeless services. Uh and a lot of these um grants uh we use our consultant and also our assistant city manager was heavily involved in writing a lot of these grants with our staff. Uh our per our permanent local housing, our PHLA homeless service. All all these grants

here that I'm talking about, they're about $15 million that we're managing right now. Uh there's our squad that we were able to get uh for $320,000. Uh that's projected. Uh it was projected for June and October. Uh we just got notice that the vehicle came in. Uh the box is now being installed here locally in Pomona. So we should probably have that squad here in two months. Uh that'll be our third paramedic squad that you guys approved. Uh project update on station 4. Uh there's a there's the land there up in the hills. Um uh we uh started uh looking and soliciting funds from our our representatives and our state and federal uh Linda Sanchez, our congresswoman uh committed to a million dollars. Our senator Bob Archeletta, I get big supporters here. Uh a million and a half. And then uh the hills approximately about a million dollars right now. So um it's work in progress, but it we're heading in the right direction. Uh that was our local hazard mitigation plan that we accomplished last year. That's a city-wide plan. Uh the old one had expired. They're good for 5 years. Uh what this does is allow it allows us to put in for grants. Uh and and it's it's an amazing document. If you haven't read it, uh I I encourage everybody to read it. I encourage all our firefighters to read it. Uh it's just a lot of work went into it. and thank all the directors, all the departments, everybody participated. Um, and this was a joint effort and this was done through uh obviously Jacob Green and Associates. Uh, also this was through a grant so we tried not to impact the general budget as much as we can. Uh, that's an employee uh wellness program that we have. It's been a couple years since we started it. It's through the counseling team international. uh what they are is services are

available to all our firefighters, men and women. Uh it's free to them. Uh we pay a monthly uh rate every month. Uh and it's anonymous. Uh and it's also on their phone. They can allow to download the app. It's it's called a cortical wellness app. [snorts] Amazing tool. Uh I don't get to know who's um reaching out to them. The only thing I get is uh this month we had a three contacts, four contacts, five contacts. Uh it's all I get. So it's it's protected and they're um uh they get to seek the help they need. Uh I I think some of the calls that they're seeing now uh are very horrific and if we can get ahead of it and help these kids and these and these firefighters uh give them the support they need, uh not only that, it's also for their personal life. So, uh, anything we can do to support, uh, the wellness of our individuals, uh, it definitely pays dividends. Uh, there's the Starlink, uh, the $450,000 grant. I was just informed today that the vehicles are in and we're going to be, uh, picking them up on Monday. It's not that vehicle. I wish it was, but, um, they're trucks. Uh, so we got five vehicles through a grant. That was a lot of work, and we worked on it for the last year and a half. And with that is obviously they're all going to have that Starlink uh um Wi-Fi uh so in case there's an earthquake, in case we have any kind of disaster, we'll be able to communicate in the city. So uh it's an amazing uh tool obviously for us uh for emergency. That's that's what it looks like there. Uh project update strategic plan. So we started this already this year. Uh it's definitely uh we're meeting with the consultants. Jacob Green is uh help assisting us. Uh I've had multiple uh

meetings already and we're on schedule for uh finishing it in March. Uh that's something that I've wanted to to accomplish. Uh it's definitely a roadmap. It is a secession plan also and it identifies all our strength. I can tell you this uh in meeting with the consultant um she updated me uh last week. She says that she was really impressed with the response from the guys. They did an anonymous survey to all the members and she said uh the morale was one of the highest we've ever seen in any agency. So you guys are doing the right thing. Continue with what you're doing. Uh so and that was anonymous. Uh I didn't have anything to do with it. That was just um so I thought that was kind of nice. But uh we should have it done this year uh hopefully by March and that'll be available for everybody to read and we'll come here and formally uh present it to council. Uh project update uh so our EOC um our EOC consisted for a long time of a white uh picnic table and some and some folding chairs. Uh to me that was unacceptable. Uh a city of our caliber and who we are we're better than that. So, we secured some funding and uh most of the work was done by the firefighters, uh the flooring, uh the a lot of the work that you see there and we'll we'll um we'll uh arrange a tour for council. Uh so, we're ready to do a grand opening on it. But that's we in 23 we secured the funding. 2425 we spent a whole year working there. Uh and again, we got a lot of support from public works. I I got to thank all the directors, uh, finance, uh, everybody really really came together because this is again, uh, the city's ELC. It's not the fire department's ELC, but, um, like I says, when if and when, uh, it's needed, uh, there it is, uh, ready to go and it's not completed. So, very proud of that one.

Operations, that's where the bulk of our of our staff is in operations. Uh that's where a lot of the hard work is be well a lot of hard work is getting done there. Uh that's the boots on the ground. Those are the guys you see at the end of your 911 uh when you call 911. Uh incidents medicals it doesn't surprise me continue to rise in nature. Uh they're rising every year. We're at approximately 84.5% in medical calls. We were at 80% last year a year ago from this from that last year. So uh there you go. That's the blue, the red are fires, and the white uh the yellow are services um uh public assist and the those nature. Uh we're on track for 6,500 calls. Uh we actually uh exceeded that last year. This was presented in November to all the members of the fire department. Uh hazmat program. I'm proud to say uh I want to thank Director Sorel for this. Uh he was instrumental in uh in helping us fund this. uh we we took uh uh 30 individuals and uh we created a hazmat program. Uh the city funded $150,000 uh for technician training. Uh so 30 personnel now are certified specialists. Uh this was secured through a grant. Um also and a lot of the uh the resources came from uh transit too. Uh thank you John for that. Appreciate it. Uh so if we have and we do move a lot of hazmat through our city just know the trains are moving hazmats every day uh the freeways uh the south. So having our first responders ready to go and understanding what we're facing before we get a type one hazmat unit in the city which could be up to an hour. Um this is valuable very valuable right here. So these are all now uh technician hazmat technicians 30 individuals

uh wildland uh I mean a year ago uh California was burning uh after several years of being dormant we're back uh uh we're providing a mutual aid uh I could tell you we're very involved we were involved in the airport fire the Nixon the pelisades the mountain the eaten mo wolves uh we send out uh different staff uh also single resources throughout the state. Um [clears throat] we do uh recoup quite a bit of um uh resources from this as far as monetary. So uh it's it's uh we're also providing help to our partners but we're also providing training and uh building relationships in the state which is super important when we apply for grants and things like that. Uh that's one of the things that for years I heard as we applied as we were trying to engage uh they kept saying well chief when are you going to engage uh in the state and when are you going to uh reciprocate? Uh so I can honestly say that uh right now Montabelloo is very heavily involved in uh proud of the guys going out there. Uh dangerous work, hard work uh but they bring back uh valuable training for us here. Uh I I do like bling. Uh since I've been here, we've had uh this badge that I'm wearing. Uh so we decided uh as something we worked on it for the last couple years. This is the design that the guys came up with. So they've been ordered. They're highly polished. Uh what I like about it the most is that our vision statement is in the badge. It's our vision statement. I no longer have to buy a generic badge. Uh this is made from Montabelloo. So the guys now can identify with who we are. So I felt that was really important. USAR, we're back. I was a USAR team member uh early in my career. I spent 10 years uh as part of a FEMA team. I was a K9 handler. Uh but it's been dormant for

over 20 years. So I'm proud to bring it back. Uh those are the guys working the eating and the palisates fire uh searching obviously for uh recovery work hard work and um so those are our guys that's our team there. Uh obviously Nachu gets all the attention now. There he is in one of the pictures. Um yeah, everybody loves them. Um, so for the first time in two decades, like I said, we have a K9 and we're part of a RTF, regional task force 2, which is made up of Downey, Santa Fe Springs, Montabelloo, Compton, uh, and there's West Coina, and Torrance. Um, we make up regional task force, too. Uh, emergency medical services. There's our squad, uh, that we brought back. Thanks to the council, uh, we voted, you guys approved it, we brought it to you, and, uh, it's been amazing. they they they've taken a lot of uh the calls from the engine. Uh we were running the engines to the ground. So um here we are. Um the other thing we're looking at uh we're wrapping up an EMS transportation optimization study. Um and we're looking uh also we're establishing uh internship uh partnerships with El Camino College, Glendale Community College in Mount Sack. And that is to develop our firefighters and send them to paramedic schools. something we've never done. We've been using uh PTI, Paramedic Training Institute for for so many years, but again, we we're only limited to the amount of sponsorships we can have, one to two a year. So, as [clears throat] we grow our department, as we bring on firefighters, um we we're now building um relationships with those colleges and uh able to use their paramedic program. Uh obviously with the transition to squads, uh these are the amounts of paramedics that we have in EMTs. So there's definitely uh I call it the farm league. Uh we bring them on and then we send them and uh we

get them through paramedics go and we bring them back and they're they're now firefighter medics. Uh but I love working with the community with our local talent and bringing them and having opportunity to hire them as firefighters and send them to medic school. uh training. Uh we've hired over 30 new probationary firefighters. We've trained them. Uh it's ongoing obviously in the region. Uh it's it's it's just uh it's never going to end here. Uh training is the first thing a firefighter sees when they walk in the fire station. They're handed their helmet, their gear, their turnouts, their boots. Um and they're trained and and that's the memory they walk away with. And that's I can still remember my first training officer, my first captain. Uh it's impactful. So to me, training, we've done a complete overhaul and revamp of training. We've taken outdated manuals, lined them up with state fire training. We've uh so make sure we're com we're we're not only taking minimizing our risk, but if something should happen, uh we're we're uh we're following all the guidelines that the state and the federal government has set. So um it's been an overhaul of training. It's been a heavy lift, but uh with that is where the staff that you saw in those graphs were able to help me achieve this. I couldn't have done this by myself. Uh, Explorer program, I mean, probably the one of my best programs. I I love those kids. Um, they're they really are the backbone. Uh, at every event, they're there. Uh, positive energy. Uh, that's our future right there. That's how I see it. Those are the kids. Um, why I create the firefighters, but we created the firefighter positions. why we did the partnerships with um these different colleges because they want to work. That is our future right there. Um and they show up every time at every event with a smile and they're the first ones to go to work and the last ones to leave. So um yeah, so we're very proud. Montabelloo. Um, and we're full right now and we're always taking uh

applications and like I said that I can't talk enough about the pro the explorer program uh sponsorship program. Uh, so we're using Verdugo Real Hondo for Fire Academy. Um, so when we bring it on a explorer uh he does not have an academy so we have to sponsor him. So those are relationships that we built. As you can see in for Verdugo, we sponsored uh two uh in August of 25. In May, uh we sponsored two. This Verdugo, we got an upcoming class and we have six individuals. They have submitted packets for real Hondo. Uh we in 25 we um we sponsored one 25 also in May we sponsored three. Um so we're continuing continuing to sponsor these kids through uh through a real Hondao and paramedic school. uh we can't stop. And this is thinking out of the box because I could just say I'm not going to do any of this. I'm just going to hire people that are ready uh that apply. But there's a lot of buyin when you take uh homegrown uh talent and you develop them and and this is what we're doing. Uh can't speak enough about this division. Oh my gosh, what do you say about Sandra? You know, um always out there. Um I see her here at 9:00. Uh she gets here sometimes early in the morning. I just ran into her in the hallway. she was with the client. Um it is an amazing MCAP. It does amazing work. Um uh that's the division. Uh they have oper we have operation stay safe. You are home initiative. Um so here's what they've done. Um here are the the numbers for last year. They've done 200 uh outreach engagements. Uh they uh and new they have 87 new participants. Uh they're managing 584 cases. That is a lot of work to manage. You're talking a lot of time on the phone checking up on them, taking them to their appointments, uh making sure that uh their needs are

met as best as we can. Uh we are limited to uh the staff. We have uh permanent housing, 35 clients were permanently housed. We've done 27 well checks and we have 51 new clients and we house 22 people. Um and there's operation stay safe at the bottom. communications. Uh we are a regional player in communications as I stated earlier. Um that's our tower there. Uh uh we moved into a new communication shop. Uh TDMA. Uh we completed all our radio upgrades for PD and fire. We oversee police, fire, and transit. And we also have um other agencies that are on our system. Uh 10 local cities, public services utilize our system. So, it is a 24/7 full-time operation. Uh, obviously communications go down. Uh, it's it's serious. So, uh, I was just down there today meeting with the, um, with Mark, which is our communications supervisor, and just I try to meet with them, uh, as much as I can because there's always something happening in communications. Uh, we are going to be going back to Washington in April. Uh, there is some money that's freeing up for communications. So, as always, we're we're chasing it as much as we can. We try not to impact the general fund. That's Evette Community Risk Reduction. You got to love that smile, right? Um they're amazing. Uh that's our former fire prevention bureau. Now the name has changed to community risk reduction. Um so community risk reduction in 24 uh they uh we obtained 100% compliancy with the state man that mandated inspections. That's the second year we have. uh there was no way I could achieve that in in the past, not till we hired staff. Uh what that means is that 871 residential occupancies were inspected, 28 uh

educational groups e those are huge uh and they completed multiple inspections uh including uh final construction of the following projects uh Caesar Chavez, Sixth Street, Top Golf, Metro Heights, Phase A, and Tesla dealership. Uh so there's a lot of work at their desk, a lot of plan checks, uh and licensing. Uh community risk reduction division also uh um they're working in multiple buildings with non- workinging and fire protection systems and brought it to compliance. So we do a lot of that too. Um [clears throat] this is our uh LH obviously um that is creating a lot of uh throughout the state. um because of the with the state declaring that area a severity zone. But um with the forestation uh going up there, it's going to and also just so you guys know, our ISO is being looked at right now. We reapplied. We were at a three, we went to a two and hopefully we'll get to a one and that would be huge as far as helping with insurance rates. There's our SER program. That's Captain Robinson. Uh we have a community risk reduction coordinator now that is uh Veronica Galada. She oversees the SER program. Uh we've run uh obviously they meet uh the third Wednesday of every month. I had them move it to Thursday so I can attend cuz sometimes the council meetings get in the way. So they're going to move them to Thursday. But um amazing program, amazing volunteers. Uh I can't say enough about um where we want to go with this program. We just started. Uh it's just groundbreaking right now. Uh next projects uh one of the things that we're looking at is to launch a women's fire and medical emergency prep academy uh one of the first in the region uh to develop women uh and equip them to become uh firefighters. Uh we did the South Christmas tree uh tree lighting. I thought that was amazing. It

was a great event. I'm very honored to host that in the south. We'll continue to do it. Uh we established a wellness and peer support program. Um, [clears throat] one of the things that we're going to be working on for this year, uh, and speaking to the chief, uh, our SWAT medic program, uh, we're going to seek funding for a public safety training facility and hopefully, uh, look at, uh, finding a grant for a joint command center mobile vehicle. And we'll continue with wellness and mental health uh, safety training for our staff. That concludes uh, my presentation. I hope I didn't take too long. I'd be honored um, to take any questions. But first foremost, I want to thank uh the city council for your support because uh you entrusted me with this department and I take it very serious and this is your department and uh I hope I'm making you proud.

That's all. Thank you, Chief Playas. You are making us proud and thank you for this presentation. I'll take any questions.

Council member Melendez. Thank you, Mayor. Uh first just want to thank you chief uh for your leadership. I also want to thank all the firefighters and everybody who's part of the fire department for your hard work and as we saw here in this presentation. There's so many different components. Yeah.

That that go into um our fire department. Uh I also want to commend all the hard work when it comes to grants. Um I think you you mentioned 15 million uh that we're currently managing. That's that's amazing. I mean that's a testament to everybody's hard work in the department. So, I think that needs to be highlighted. Uh, you mentioned um the new station, station 4. Um, and if you covered this, I apologize, but is there a timeline of uh when this I know there's still many layers and there might be more funding that possibly will be needed. Uh, and as a follow-up question, how many firefighters are are we expecting for that new station to to be there? I know it might be too early, but just wanted to see.

No, no. Uh, good questions, uh, council member. Um, of course, fire chief would always want to see a station built in a year. Is that realistic? I don't know. But, you know, I I I believe in miracles. So, I think we can get it done once the funding is there. Funding is starting to roll in. We have momentum. Uh, I think we have to strike right now while the iron is hot. So, I feel that uh within two years, but hopefully within the year as far as staffing goes. Um, and this is all again depending on funds that as they become available uh and the grants come in. And uh as far as staffing, we want to put an engine up there and a squad uh the third paramedic squad. So um you're talking six individuals up there. Uh that is a very very busy area to the north uh on the other side of the 60 freeway. Uh the response on the 60 freeway were always there and the delay from uh 55 uh there's quite a delay to get up there. So, six personnel would be ideal at that.

Got it. Thank you, Chief. Any other questions?

Um, just wanted to uh uh just thank you for such a comprehensive review of our fire department. Um, Montabella is a very small city, but we are a fullervice city. So, unlike most of our cities in the region, we have our own fire and police department. Other uh cities contract out. And so to have our own fire and police department is something that we're very proud of. But it also means that we need to really invest in the tools, personnel, and resources to ensure that we have strong departments that meet the needs and services that our residents deserve. And so I want to thank your leadership. I want to thank our firefighters, administration, and all those that are working every day uh to ensure that we are able to provide these services to our residents. I mean to hear that we have over um 100 employee uh FTEES uh to have brought on new um certifications like hazmat usar to have canines back after 20 years um and the overhaul in training um you know this is a lot of work. We are not only fighting fighter fighting uh fires, we're providing homeless services. We're prov uh we're providing communication. Um we're providing support. And so um I just want to thank you for uh truly bringing this presentation forward and really keeping us as well as our community informed on all that you do. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Any other comments? Mayor, council member, if I may unless you go. No, I just wanted to add a little bit um well, first I did want to commend the fire chief for his stewardship and his leadership of of his department. Uh as he's giving this presentation, I just want to highlight because you mentioned right now theund 100 full-time employees that he has currently um in 2019 and it was noted as a graph, but just to highlight he had 59 employees in 2019 and he was still providing the same level of service to our community. Um it it was concerning that that's that's the level of ser of the how many employees he had and he was able to still provide emergency response to um all our residents of our city. Also budget I did want to commend uh the council uh for for their leadership and their commitment to our fire department. Uh the investment same thing if you look at just the financially where the department was five six years ago I mean you're talking about tens of millions of dollars that had been invested to the fire department for their operations. I dug a little bit more asked finance to kind of just hey just you know just more context right in terms of how much uh investment we've done with the fire department since 2020 uh in terms of equipment and and training uh apparatuses uh we've invested almost $6.6 $6 million in the fire department. That includes fire trucks, rescue vehicles, um train training uh materials that they need. Uh that's a significant investment that the Mon the city of Montabelloo has made. What wasn't captured is actually something that we talked about in the last meeting. Uh $800,000 plus uh improvements to station 56. The roof project was something that was and uh talked about for many many years. It was always a concern. we were able to shift some money around, get some additional monies, but this is a project that just got completed and we'll be doing a grand opening uh pretty soon. Um, also the the commend the city council for their commitment to the actual

employees in terms of salaries and benefits. This past year, we did approve a new a newou for our fire department personnel and fire department personnel. Just a reminder, council did approve a three-year agreement with 15% raises um for them over a three-year period. This is significant when um we are very fiscally conservative in our city. Uh but as if you're if you're just looking generally regionally, many municipalities are actually downsizing and not only giving salaries, they're actually eliminating positions and and we have the benefit of of being very fiscally responsible, making tough decisions and and able to maintain the same level of service and actually increase the salaries and the benefits that our employees have done, including paramedic pay, additional in education incent incentives, longevity, and then one that actually captures all the employees but also the fire department. Last year, for the first time in 16 years, the city council approved um an increase in the health benefits for all our employees. 500 plus employees received a health benefit increase um across the board, which obviously applied to our fire department. So, thank you, Chief, again, for your leadership. You went through some hard times. We're in a good place. The department is in in a really good place. for providing quality service, but also want to commend the city council for their their commitment and their investment in our fire department. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, chief. So, you've been our our chief for how long? Eight years now. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for highlighting all the the great things that are happening with our fire department and um and also like uh the women's fire academy. That's exciting to come. So, um again, we appreciate all of your efforts. Yeah. And thank you again for all your support. really appreciate [clears throat] it. [applause]

Okay. Next, um we have uh public comment. Mr. City Manager. Yes. The Thank you very much, Madame Mayor, members of the city council. This is the time for public comment uh from the audience on non-aggenda items. Anyone who wished to address the city council should have filled out a card card by this point in time. I have been informed by the city clerk we have seven speaker cards. Is that correct? And so madame mayor be appropriate to call on the city clerk to start reading the names. First speaker is Randy K followed by Dula Garcia.

[sighs]

Good evening. I'm here with an update regarding the proposed data center in Mterrey Park. I'm not an outsider. I live 85 ft from the border. Residents of Montabelloo and Alhhamra are besiders, not outsiders. At the last meeting, a 45day ban on data centers was passed. I think they want to tire us out by making us come out meeting after meeting. But this delay is giving us the opportunity to get more information out to the public. To date, no significant outreach has been done by the city nor the applicant. We owe thanks to our wonderful local news stations, magazines, and local independent reporters for the time they have taken and the work they have done to cover this very important story. The next Mterrey Park meeting is February the 4th, and we need as many people as possible to come out to oppose the project. The city council said they were prepared to consider a permanent moratorium on data centers. We want that. In future, we need to elect local politicians not based on what they say they will do for us, but instead get agreements from them before the election to ensure they won't do to us what we do not want them to do to us, like build an AI data center. And if they cannot agree, we need to put up our own candidates whom we know we can trust to represent our interests. Meanwhile, what we are seeing around the neighborhood is extensive water man replacement, power poles being replaced, blocks and blocks of power line work being done, and from what I understand, water meter replacement in the entire city of Montterrey Park. Hopefully, Garvey reservoir is not for sale. Why so much infrastructure repair and replacement? Is all this work in preparation for a data center? The proposal has not been passed. No work should be done before a proposal is passed. I'm hoping this is regular maintenance and not what I think it's really for. Are businesses close to the proposed site aware of the proposal? Costco, Petco, Kaiser, Montabelloo

medical offices, the new hobby lobby, and the Monttoello town center will all suffer should this data center be built. I visited a small flower shop near Resurre Resurrection Cemetery. They had no idea data center was proposed. If you thought that your loved ones laid to rest there would finally be at peace, think again. Because the hum and vibration from a data center can travel farther than.9 miles. What a shame that would be for their families. If the city council refuses to pass a moratorum and tries to pass this horrific project by doing a full environmental impact study, the firm chosen to do it should be one that is independent and unbiased, not one with a track record of getting data centers built. After completion, there should be a second independent review by a different engineering firm hired to carefully review the entire report to ensure that it is correct and complete. Thank you very much from your for your time. We consider Montabelloo family, Alhamra family and Montterrey Park family. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker is Dula Garcia followed by Rosa Tamayo.

Hello, my name is Dula Garcia. I'm a California climate action fellow and I am here on behalf of Heart of Compassion and Pastor Eric. We wanted to share our 2025 community impact. Because of your partnership with us, families had food on their tables. Kids had gifts to open and people felt cared for when they most needed it. Here's what you helped do during the holidays. 155,000 lbs of food was shared. Over 3,000 people were served, 15,000 lbs of turkeys were given away, and 4,000 toys were delivered. Throughout 2025, your support made an even bigger difference and we had a 40% increase in food shared compared to the previous year. For the whole year, 17 million pounds of food were distributed. $34 million of estimated food value of food was distributed. There were over 1,800 total volunteers and over 34,000 volunteer hours were completed. We are 95% volunteer based. So, we really appreciate all of our volunteers and over 500,000 individuals were assisted through our distributions. We want to thank you for your partnership and working with us to help residents with food and security. The numbers of residents we help is much higher than our CDPG numbers show since individuals are hesitant to complete the forms and we serve everyone regardless of whether or not they choose to share that information with us. We currently don't have our 2026 events planned out yet, but once we do, we'll go ahead and share it with you guys so you can share with your constituents. Thank you so much once again and God bless.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Rosa Tamayo followed by Raul Ortes. Um, mayor uh in city council. Um, No, no. Federal Jose, city manager. L Supremacia tax.

Federal Jose. Mayor, that concludes the three minutes. Gracias. Gracias.

Next speaker is Raort followed by Levon Pero. [applause]

Yeah. Good evening. Public communication on items of community interest. I want to re-emphasize the word integrity. And I want to reemphasize uh the many procedures that a police officer has to go to to be to be a police officer. You don't go into an office, fill out an application, and a week later they call you, here's your badge, and here's your gun. You're a police officer. [snorts] Uh there's many, many things that a police officer has to do. That's why I respect them, admire them and you know I I just uh respect them for what they have to do. Uh they have to uh go through training, interviews, background check, so many many things that go before they they are actually hired. And then even after they're hired, they have to go out for training on the streets with another officer. It's a lot of a lot of a lot of uh pro a big process to go through to be a police officer. That's why like I say I respect them. Uh [clears throat] and it's good that we do that because naturally we want the best out on the streets to help us to protect us all the many things that they do. But unfortunately, uh, the word integrity starts with a city manager that was that has no integrity. He brought the police chief back that has no integrity. And now he's hiring, promoting people that have no integrity.

an officer that shot at another officer. An officer, the same officer cheated, ripped off the city. Nothing was ever done, covered it up. So now he's promoted. [snorts] I don't agree with that. But I'm getting getting cut short here. I want to uh make sure that you remember this word command oral part of the procedure that they have to go through. Please remember that because when I come back here we're going to talk about that command. I'm going to talk about command oral and to show to discover the corruption that's going on in the police department that thanks to our city manager has uh promoted that atmosphere. We have a divided police officer. So, uh, police officers now. They're divided. Thanks to that guy over there. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker is Leavon Pthero, followed by Linda Nicholas.

This damn thing's heavy. Too too many padlocks to try to keep the damn drug dealers out of my house. Uh, last time I was here, I gave the address 848, uh, 849. That's South Forest Street. I didn't say South for anybody that wants fentinel. And, uh, the house the house north of me is 841. They just watch the cameras in my house for 12 hours, then they're off duty, and then the house on the south takes over. Or the one across the street. Anyway, uh yeah, about a month ago, I laid down on my couch. Boom. Two hours went by. Well, what they do is they chloroform you. And I know damn well I had a needle put in me. And ever since then, I've lost weight. I couldn't eat. Got back pain. That's the way they murder you in Montabelloo. Thanks to the damn police department. I don't think I don't think I'm the only one that thinks of cities corrupt. Anyway, uh yeah, I could talk for three hours. I've had enough. I hope I see you next two weeks. I'm going to try to bug the hell out of it before they kill me off.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Linda Nicholas, followed by James Santana. Good evening. My name is Lyndon Nicholas. I'm the co-founder of Match 96. This evening, I would like to address a huge problem with the police department dispatcher that thinks it's appropriate for to tell a 911 caller to open their doors to somebody that's banging in their on their door trying to get into their home. On Tuesday, January the 20th, at 8:00 p.m., a neighbor called my daughter, scared a man was looking into her windows, trying to get into her home. She called 911. No response. The man proceeded across the street, banged on my daughter's door. She has Doberman's inside with her for her protection. Again, dispatcher told her, "Open the door and see what he wants." After waiting an hour and 20 minutes for police to show up, my daughter called and told the dispatcher to forget the police call to call the coroners and send them instead. Within 2 minutes, three police cars showed up. That is not acceptable. I have always felt safe here in our city with our police officers to protect us. I do not blame the police department. I blame the dispatcher for her ridiculous answer. My niece is the dispatcher for the Roseville Police Department and told me the dispatcher's response was very inappropriate and she needs to be retrained in the 911 call responses. Next, on the same day, earlier in the day on the 20th of January, a huge dog attack happened at the dog park. Five dogs were fighting and a man tried to separate the dogs from attacking his dogs. He was injured. His hand was severely mauled to the point where he lost fingers. It took 7 minutes for the paramedics to respond. It was across the street from the police department and not one police officer

showed up. Why? To the speaker that thinks everything is sunshine and roses, please see the video of the three restrooms posted by the gentleman that's going around to different locations raiding the restrooms. All three were given an S. F. Blood on the walls, needles on the floor, extra bed on the floors and walls, toilet seats. Terrible conditions for our children to experience. Sorry, Scarlet. There's no money now that you wasted $700,000 on that damn dog park. That's going to cost us a lot of lawsuits. There's a sign at the dog park that was closed for repairs. What the hell? The dog park was just open June of last year and it's in for repairs. Try to fix the restroom for the children. That's far more urgent. At the meet and greet, I spoke to Supervisor Solis's representative Pon in front of you, Mayor Tomayo, and she agreed with me when I stated, "The state is in a deficit. The county is in a deficit. We are not getting any federal funding at all." Miss Pon even said, "President Trump is taking back money from us." She told Mayor Tomo, "Be very careful how money is spent because there will not be any funding or grant money available this year. Please listen and educate yourselves with how money is spent." an error on the side of caution. Our city survival depends on it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker is James Santana.

Good evening, mayor, uh council members, and fellow residents. My name is James Santana, and I'm here in my own personal capacity this evening. I've stayed quiet on the incident for the last two council meetings. Uh but tonight, I want to speak up for our neighbor, uh Bill Piso. Uh he couldn't be here this evening. And while we haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, he doesn't deserve what happened to him this last year, uh, no one does, especially not a resident that's trying to make his voice heard in our community. Um, I was at an event on July 20th, 2025, a city cleanup right alongside Mr. Piso, and I witnessed a whole incident take place um, firsthand. Everybody in the city was invited. There was city vehicles. There was a staff member there. And yet a police report was filed after case 25-4138. And both alleged victims, council member Rick Alonzo and Councilwoman Scarlett Peralta, also named me in their statements. They described me as someone who comes to these council meetings. And I've had arguments with Alonzo. That's a lie. I've never talked to him. Also, that I've been disrespectful and inappropriate towards Miss Peralta. And if she means that I call her out and keep her accountable, then she's telling the truth. These accusations raised serious questions about judgment and character. And this was a battery report, penal code 242, but there was no injuries. There was no medical help as the report clearly states. Council member Alonzo actually welcomed the interaction with Bill um by being and Bill had the right to be upset. He is not getting a representative. We don't even have him here tonight. Um, also he's upset with his former friend who also made this accusation against him. Um, m Mr. Alonzo did say what Bill said la this last meeting that he would never engage Mr. Piso that he's done nothing productive for our community. And so we still volunteered at that event and we did we just didn't stay for the group photo. So, what I'm concerned

about is that if residents like me weren't present, there would have been three council members and their friends that would have tried to weaponize the police department against a former supporter and now turned critic. Did they think about what could happen? Did they think about an arrest, a criminal record, his family, the stress, the job, all because of a welcome conversation at a public event? So, I don't think that the majority here is taking into consideration the real people and how they're being affected. Um, residents should also be concerned that at this event there was no PPE required. There was young adults there and we were taken into the riverbed to clean, which is not city property. Mayor Tomo, I want to remind you that you appointed Rick Alonzo to that seat that he's not sitting in today and instead he wants to paint people that disagree with him as an enemy. These choices are going to have consequences. Why does District 5 have to suffer because of a decision that you made? Thank you. Thank you for your comment,

Madame Mayor. That concludes all speaker cards for non-aggenda items. Um,

madame mayor, if I may take just a point of privilege because I think it's extremely important and this is a comment that I'll share directly with my colleagues um not to the audience but to my colleagues and I think the state of how interactions play out among council and our residents. Um, I think as an election elected official, I fully understand and respect and uphold the right to freedom of speech. Healthy dialogue is extremely essential in the work that we do. That's how we operate in this democracy and how we operate here in the city of Montabelloo. Um, over the past 5 years, myself, my family, supporters, many on this council have been verbally harassed, have been mistreated. Many of us still despite that continue to engage, continue to welcome everyone to our events and continue to do our best in terms of representing our constituents. When we are in this political climate where we don't know what how folks might engage with us, I think that that is where there is a lot of concern. Previously in the past when situations have happened, I have never spoken out, have never seek help, have never filed a police report. And I was I was always told, well, if you didn't do that, then it didn't happen. There was an incident that did take place earlier last year at a community event where individuals came to an event that we hosted with what I believe is an attempt to agitate. When you cross a personal space to the point where I feel unsafe or to the point where you are making physical contact with me, that is a line that is crossed. And for me, it was extremely important to speak up and to actually take action because I don't know the next time around whether that

individual who has that anger or who has whatever issues that they may be dealing with to comeals or I'm I'm taking a point of privilege that my colleagues have given me.

I'm taking a point of privilege that my colleagues have given me. It's important for me to make these comments because as council we never speak up. We come to these meetings, we listen, we engage, but it's extremely important for me to speak up especially as words are twisted or situations are twisted. As a council member, I am always happy to engage with my community. And so I ask that those engagement opportunities remain healthy. But it's also about not crossing those personal lines where you make people feel unsafe, especially when you cross that line of making physical contact with someone. And so you may feel how how you feel, but there were witnesses there. There were students there that felt very unsafe. And for me, it's important to speak up because I'm not going to allow people to twist a situation that wasn't the way that they are speaking it was. There's a side to every story, Madame Mayor, but it was important for myself.

I'm going to call Miss Nicholas out of order, Madame Mayor. And if she continues that way, we'll have to have her removed from the audience. Comments.

It's important for myself to speak up in these situations because those lines were crossed and that is not appropriate because as council, we don't go up and make physical contact with people. We don't do those things. And so for me it was important to speak up because for a long time I've always stayed quiet, never filed reports. I do my job. But that's not right. Especially in the political climate that we are now. We see where whether it's among neighbors or even elected officials getting harassed, getting things thrown at them. That's not right. I think we can engage in a healthy way. And I ask that, you know, let's do it, but don't cross those personal boundaries where you actually make physical contact with someone. And so for me, it was important to say these words because it's not fair when sometimes people come up here and make these comments and try to twist the story. And so I appreciate the privilege that you've given me to express that. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Get out of the kitchen. Why did it get dropped?

That was longer than three minutes. This will be the final warning if I may. Madame Mayor, there are certain members in the audience. You do not have the right to to speak out or yell out from the audience. You have had your three minutes at the microphone. No one has interrupted you during any of your comments. The provisions of the Brown Act allow for individuals who disrupt a meeting to be removed. We have a officer in the back of the room that will help assist in that. So I would strongly urge members of the audience to respect these chambers. You may not agree with the what's being said. Maybe we don't agree with what's being said when you come to the microphone, but there is a common courtesy and a requirement under the law that everyone who sits in that audience must demonstrate decorum and respect in these chambers. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Okay, we'll continue on with um a regular business. Thank you very much, Madame Mayor. We move on to regular business. We have items uh five, six, and seven for regular business. We have one speaker card on item number five, and we may move on to the consideration of adoption and specification of plans for construction of the Chad Holoffield Community Garden. That's item number five. So, please call the speaker, Mr. City Clerk. Do we want to take public comment before we go into staff report? Why don't we do that just so we get that resolved? Speaker, we have uh Fiona Reamers for agenda item number five.

Mayor, seems like she's not in the audience here with us. Okay, thank you. Then we move on to the item. Yes. And item number five, presentations be given by uh director of public works. He's roll.

Oh, there you go. Uh thank you Mr. City Manager, mayor, council members, members of the audience, and fellow staff members. Um this presentation is a short presentation. Uh we are looking to um get authorization from city council uh to adopt the specifications and plans associated with the chat holoffield uh community garden which is capital project 945. Uh so the bid process timeline um if approved tonight uh we will be placing this on planet bids which is officially how the city goes about bidding projects. Um and this will be from January 29th to February 25th of 2026. uh where we allow a contractor to ask questions and that those questions must be posed on or before February 16th of 2026. Uh we go ahead and provide responses to those RFIs by uh the 19th of February. Uh bid opening like I stated before is February 25th, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. All submit all bids are submitted electronically. Uh and the city clerk receives them and so does the finance department. Uh tenatively um if the contract is within the proposed budget, uh we would be taking this to city council on March 25th of 2026. Uh benefits of a community garden. Uh so we have access to fresh affordable produce. Uh this is an opportunity for our community to have healthy uh opportunities with lifestyles. Um they

engage in community connection. Uh supports pollinate and air quality. Uh many of our bees and a lot of the areas are dying just because they don't have the proper vegetation out there to um pollinate. and it also activates underutilized public spaces on the project scope of of work. Um, so we're looking to put in brand new planters and fencing. Uh, we're developing a path and curb and sidewalk improvements and enhancements. Uh, we're also cleaning up the parking lot which is right next to the site. Um, we also have to comply with uh ADA and to ensure that it's accessible to all our residents, community members. Uh, related site infrastructure to support long-term and maintenance and public use. Um, so that's something that we're really uh looking forward to uh working besides our parks and recreation department to ensure that it is utilized in in its proper way and that we monitor the site as best as possible. Uh, and with that, um, I will take any questions from the city council. Thank you so much.

Any questions for Mr. Raldon? Council member Melendez. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you. Questions comment here.

Yes, council member. Oh, great. Yeah. Well, first and foremost, Mr. Brown, I appreciate all the hard work uh for putting another project together that benefits the south. You know, this council since I joined has done a tremendous amount of work to improve the south. This is just one more one of those projects, community garden, the police community resource center, the bluff road project, the community cleanup event. We are doing absolutely everything and everything that we were going to do to make improvements in the south and this is one more project and I appreciate all the hard work that you and your staff have done to put this together.

Thank you, Council Member Alonzo. We also had um Council Member Melendez.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you for the presentation. Um just um I know this is more of um kind of like the public works portion of it. Um so I know this question is more directed to um director Susnowski, but in regards to once uh the completion of this um community garden, is there a group or an association that's going to maintain um this community garden? Just wanted to see if I can get some clarification on that. And then uh before that question, just also want to acknowledge uh a resident D who's been advocating for um this type of uh community garden in our community. So she's been she's met with staff and several of my colleagues and she's been very involved. So just do want to give her credit as well.

Council Melendez, Director Susnowski, uh can address that. Programming and maintenance is something that we've been talking about in terms of this project.

Thank you, city manager. Uh thank you council member for the question. Um so to answer your your question specifically there the city contracted with the Los Angeles Community Garden Council uh many years ago when this project was um starting to be put together um using measure A. So Measure A uh funds will be used to help build the project but also help maintain the project and we'll be um using the or using the services of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council who has um vast experience more than city staff have as well. So, we're excited to bring this project to Hollyfield Park and thank Caesar Raldon and his team for helping us get to the finish line. So, the community garden council used the public input as well as the city's park master plan to design it um at the landscape architect level and the public works department took it to the professional level to get out to to bid here finally. So, yes, to answer your question, the Los Angeles Community Garden Council will help operate the uh the garden. There will be fees associated with that, but city staff will put bring that back together when we're ready to open the garden. Thank you.

Um my question was very similar uh mayor. Um it was just in terms of types of programming that we can have. I think um working with organizations as we know tree people a lot of them a lot of the programming that they center around is teaching people how to nurture and care for plants and instill the green thumb in in residents. And so that would be a neat opportunity in terms of in terms of any workshops or classes um that we can have there um at the community uh garden would be great and even getting our local schools um or even you know girl scouts, boy scouts involved in that would be uh something very neat. Thank you for that consideration.

Any other comments, questions? So thank you Mr. Raldon for your u presentation. It looks like we will be having a community garden in the very near future at shed Hollandfield and it's going to complement all the other amenities that we have going on um on the south side. Thank you. Can we get a motion and a second to approve? A motion to approve. I second. It's a motion. Motion by uh Council Member Peralta, second by Mayor Prom. Can you please call the role? Council member Pala, I. Council member Melendez, I. Council member Alonzo,

I. Mayor Romero, I. Mayor Tomo, I item passes. On to item number six. uh the adopt the resolution approving Montabelloo's bus line fiscal years 2027 through 29 the short range uh transit plan. We have a presentation.

Good evening Mayor Tomayo and honorable members of the city council. John Sorya, director of transportation. The item that we have before you this evening is a short-range transit plan that identifies and highlights the achievements and goals and priorities that we've outlined uh for the next three years covering 27, 28, and 29. One of the one of the goals that isn't in this short-range transit plan is one of our department non non-transit department goals that we've established internally um but we will be highlighting this evening through our presentation and our presenters. One of the things that we've been very intentional about intentional about is uh establishing an active learning environment that prioritizes training and development. Um so we believe it's uh it's an environment that we've created that helps create a path that connects our employees to the department's goals and priorities and allows these employees to see how their work contributes to the city's overall success. So this evening uh to present our short-range transit plan are two of our analysts. We have uh senior management analyst Leslie Peralta and senior management analyst Robert Pharaoh Jr. who will be presenting this uh item to you this evening. A little bit of an overview of the department. Um, the city began offering municipal bus service in 1922. Uh this later transitioned to what we know as today Montabella bus lines in 1931. Uh

this means that we have completed 95 uh years of uninterrupted municipal bus service. Uh a little bit of an overview of the service we provide. We provide service in nearly 15 different cities uh and uh greater portions of Los Angeles County area. Uh this spans up north to South Pasadena, down south to the city of Southgate, uh to the west of downtown Los Angeles, and far east to the city of Lam Marada. Uh we operate we operates a total of 49 revenue vehicles or buses across seven local routes and one uh express route. Uh we also offer specialized services such as a dial taxi which is provided to our senior citizens and disabled residents of Montabelloo. And as a part of our first mile and last mile plan uh we do offer shuttle services uh to and from our Montabelloo Metro link. A bit of the background of the SRTP. The SRTP is essentially a document that will outline or give a brief in-depth overview of current projects and programs uh that Montabell bus line is currently um pursuing. Uh it also gives a a brief outline of future deployments and initiatives uh that we will be pursuing in the next uh three years specifically from fiscal year 27 through 29. Uh this plan is structured in four different uh sections. uh three of them being narrative uh explaining uh our service, our operation and planning initiatives uh with the last being uh required data tables uh which is used for our funding compliance um and reporting service uh purposes. Uh lastly, this is a trienal submission uh meaning we submit this every 3 years uh to LA Metro. It's required uh to receive local, state, and federal funding. Uh it also allow allows Montabell bus lines to align itself regionally with other partners in the area. Um, and it's uh required for funding and compliance. Um, I will now be passing this off to my colleague, Miss Baralta.

Good evening. I'll be going over our budget funding and regulatory requirements that are included in the SRTP. Um, as you're aware, MBL is a municipal transit agency supported through an independent enterprise fund, meaning we don't operate off of the general fund. We receive formula funds determined by LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority under the formula allocation procedure. We're also funded through state programs, fair revenue, and federal grants. A few of our funding sources include LA County uh sales tax measures such as propositions A and C and measures R&M, state programs including the transportation development act, state transit assistance and lowcarbon transit operations program and federal FTA formula and discretionary grants such as 5307 and 5339. In addition, MBL is consistently searching and applying for competitive grant opportunities to help fund our projects. MBL follows all requirements to remain compliant with all federal and state regulations. This includes annual financial audits, trial, state TDA performance audits, and Federal Transit Administration triangular reviews. These reviews cover key areas such as financial management, operations, maintenance, procurement, and civil rights compliance. MBL remains ADA compliant, having a fully accessible fleet. Our operators received ADA training and ADA policies were last updated in 2024. Our agency um our agency operates under a federally approved title six program last updated in June 2025. And this program includes language assistance services, clear complaint procedures, and public participation opportunities. Uh moving along, a couple of our accomplishments here in Monavelines that we're proud to share with the council um are listed here. A few that we'd like to point out uh is the purchase of uh three hydrogen fuel cell electric buses. Uh this assists the department in transitioning to a fully zero emission

fleet by the year 2040 as mandated by the state of California. Uh another we'd like to point out is the line 10 extension to Cal State University Los Angeles. Go Eagles. Um this uh offers access to Montabella residents and community members in surrounding areas to a public higher education institution. Uh lastly, Montabell bus line bus lines has hired nearly 100 new staff since fiscal year 23 and that also includes uh 20 employee promotions. Uh to the right on the bottom right you will see our wonderful staff on line 10 extension at Cal State University Los Angeles. Uh towards the middle is one of our newly purchased uh hydrogen fuel cell electric buses. Uh there's a fun fact uh the only vapor that's going to be coming out of those buses is water. Um, and to the left, uh, you will see our dispatch support vehicles. Uh, this allows our dispatch supervisors to, uh, get on the road and hit the field when, uh, our operators, uh, need the assistance. Um, moving on, uh, to our goals and strategic planning. Um, our goals listed here, um, are pretty, um, are pretty, um, would you say strategic? Um, specifically with our temporary hydro fueling solution. Uh this is a a project that started a few years back uh which will assist us to fully transition to to zero emission. Uh we have already procured uh and awarded a vendor or a consultant that would uh assist us in planning and implementing these services. Uh another goal that we would like to point out is the bus stop improvement project. Uh this project has been uh going on for the last couple years and we're actually towards the tail end. Uh we're proud to share that this is going to be affecting uh all uh bus stops in this in city limits. Uh this will be offering new materials uh designs um and such. Um looking ahead our strategic planning uh Montaval bus lines uh is in the middle of a procurement process to con uh to uh find a consultant to conduct uh an assessment uh to see if mobility hubs on key commercial corridors uh throughout

Montabelloo uh is feasible specifically on Monabella Boulevard. Um and lastly uh service standards is always a priority to Montabella bus lines. We're always looking to cut headways uh essentially cutting the time from one bus stop leaving a stop to the next arriving uh and also improving rider and operator experience. Uh this is going to conclude the presentation and we're happy to take questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from council?

I have comments. Yes. Um, first of all, just thank you for uh the overview and uh for all your colleagues today who have presented specifically on um our transit department. I do want to say I'm extremely excited about our hydrogen buses. Um having the third largest municipal transit system in the county of LA. I one of the best parts of my morning is driving to work downtown and I see a a Monavello bus line bus. um to know that we are out there servicing not only our residents but residents beyond um Montabelloo and taking you know mothers to work uh kids to Cal State LA um it's just an immense service that we provide and to now uh really take the route in terms of sustainability and going towards hydrogen is something very exciting um so I commend you all it's not easy and I know we're working in terms of trying to uh build out a permanent hydrogen refueling station which is also uh a way for us to make money, right, for uh we know hydrogen infrastructure is not very strong. So, that's another way uh another service we could provide uh to folks with hydrogen automobiles. And I also want to state that I'm extremely excited more specifically about our um bus stop improvement uh project that's going to be a complete overhaul of our bus stops here in the city of Montabelloo. We know a lot of them um are obviously outdated um don't have shading, don't have signage, um are not necessarily amenities that I would say at this moment I'm proud of. And so to be able to actually invest and overhaul um and bring in uh bus stop improvements throughout uh the different bus stops here in the city is something that I'm really excited. And I know internally we've talked about what those designs look like, what those amenities can look like, what does the branding look like, uh, to really have pride in our bus stops here in the city. Um, so I'm very excited about all that and I thank you as well as your colleagues for all the incredible work that you're doing on that front end. Thank you,

Council Member Melendez. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Uh, Mr. Sora, you brought the the whole team here for holding deep. Uh just wanted to um kind of learn a little bit more about the Monabella mobility hub connectivity um feasibility study kind of just what's what's uh what are you all thinking about that?

Yeah. Um so the the mobility hub uh feasibility study essentially we're going to be hiring consultants uh to conduct uh on key commercial door commercial corridors um specifically on Beverly Whittier uh and Washington to uh see if it's even feasible to put mobility hubs. A mobility hub essentially is um where community members who ride transit are able to get off on a specific stop uh to maybe transition to another bus or maybe transition to another form of transportation. Um it kind of allows them to be centralized um and offer easy and available access for them to be making these transitions. Great. Thank you. Any other questions, comments,

Mayor Tomo, if I may real real briefly here, Council Member Alonso.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate the presentation. Uh I'm also very excited about this. I showed the captain I used the pen the pen uh when I was in high school a very long time ago and um as a former Golden Eagle I I was very excited to find out that that bus is now you know potentially going to continue taking kids to high school as well but now all the way up to college. I think that's incredible. It's phenomenal. makes me really proud uh to be part of this and and to you know help people achieve an opinion on higher education and uh you know I just get excited about you know some college kid uh going to cast on on it and I think that's that's incredible. So I appreciate the hard work. Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you. So, as a a proud bus rider, I um thank you also for all your hard work and um the it's definitely did the expansions you talked about um being safe and compliant and making it um a pleasure uh to ride those buses. Um and also looking forward to to what's to come with the hydrogen fuel buses and the zero emissions and um and working through that. So, thank you for your efforts. I appreciate it.

Mayor Tamaya, if I may just add one last thing. Uh, speaking about the hydrogen buses as well as the bus stop improvement project, uh, both Robert and Leslie have been instrumental. Um, they've had some intimate knowledge and and hands-on experience. Uh, just Mar in March of 2025, they both presented uh, before the Ali Metro Board uh, assisting Montabella bus lines and seeking additional funding. They both provided presentations that were scored number one in their respective categories. Uh so they were both able to secure additional funding for us to help fund the BSIP as well as the additional purchase of fuel cell electric buses. So they have a lot of hands-on experience with their projects. Um and and they've been doing a lot of great work for Montabella bus lines and for the city of Montabella.

Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations. We're happy to have you on the team. Yes. [applause] So, for this item, can I get a motion and a second? A motion to approve. I'll second. I have a motion by uh Council Member Peralta, second by Mayor Prom Romero. Can you please call the role? Council member Pala, [clears throat] I. Council member Mendes, I. Council member Alonzo, I. Mayor Present Romero, I. Mayor Tomayo

and I vote I. Item passes. Item number seven, approve professional services agreement with uh White Memorial Hospital to provide in custody medical services. We have a presentation. Yes. Presentation. Uh Director Michael Solarsa and Chief Lopez as well. [clears throat]

Yes. Thank you. Uh mayor, city council. So before you uh this evening is approval of uh an professional service agreement between the city and White Memorial Hospital for the provision of incustody medical services. Uh so just a brief history here. The city had a long-standing arrangement with Beverly Hospital for provision of incustody medical care and um I'll turn over to the chief in a few seconds here to kind of explain the background there on in custody medical care. The arrangement was never formalized. We had a memorandum and past practice as guides, but there was never any formal agreement establishing the services or the rates between the city and Beverly. Um, this agreement now in in front of you will formalize that agreement sets [clears throat] prices and and the types of services that White Memorial will provide uh uh for those individuals who are in custody needing medical care. Um, so I want to kind of turn it over to our police chief to kind of explain what brought us to this decision tonight and and all of the work that he and his staff did to to to help get us here. [clears throat]

Uh, thank you, Mike, Madame Mayor, City Council, and community. So, with this project uh beginning in the summer of 2023 and coming forward, the city was faced with several outstanding invoices for care for uh people that are arrested. And so historically, if someone's arrested and they have any injury or any illness, we need to get what's called an okay to book, which is an okay by a medical professional at a hospital or a medical facility to be booked once their injuries are taken care of. If uh the suspect or subject is injured during a police contact, the city is required to not only give them the treatment, but then pay for the treatment. But if the suspect has a precondition, a medical condition that they have that needs treatment before they can go into a jail, we also have to take them into a hospital. And that's where this agreement became problematic for the city because we were being build for someone's medical conditions that had nothing to do with the arrest. So, beginning uh in the summer of 23, but really diving deep into it last February, we realized that we were presented with bills in excess of $900,000. So what we did is we developed a strategy at the police department working with our finance partners to go through every single invoice, go back through every single arrest and every police contact and use [clears throat] the penal code section which specifies how much the city has to pay. and with working together uh we put several people on it uh exclusively on it and knowing that we were facing almost a million dollars in expense to the city. Uh I'm proud to say that uh with the

diligent work of our staff as well as our finance partners, we got that down to $28,000. So a savings to the city of over $900,000. And thi this this this agreement that finance has worked on will further solidify the prices when we can be charged what we should be charged for and by having an agreement we won't have to deal with invoices coming in that we don't know what the charges are and then we're presented with having to pay for them. So uh luckily with both departments just putting our heads together we really dove really deep and went through everything rather than just pay for it. And it was really important to us being good stewards with the with the city finances, with the community's money to make sure that we didn't pay anything that wasn't owed by the city. And luckily, we got that price down to $28,000.

Yeah. And and you know, again, I I I do want to I don't want to I want to emphasize the effort on the the chief's behalf and his staff. um just you know prior administration okay prior to him sitting there prior to rule sitting there was was pretty close to just saying oh okay is that what we owe that's what we're going to pay it took a lot of work but through that due diligence and we were finding bills that weren't even ours that just somehow ended up in the system and again not causing not not casting blame that's what happens when you have a bankruptcy right I mean white memorial is trying to pick up the paperwork from Beverly and and there there's all this trying to who pays for what So really hats off to the the Chief Lopez and his staff's work and diligence and really I mean literally going bill by bill and figuring out what what is legit and what isn't. So and and again you know kudos to Ro and and the White Memorial staff getting working together and getting us to this agreement. Um so again what what what what governs this is is there's a a California court of appeals ruling. There's penal code, health and hate health and safety code sections that dictate what the city's on the hook for versus what the uh arrestee or the hospital has to pay for. So all of that is now memorialized in this agreement and and I you know hopefully moving forward we won't have these kinds of situations again and this is an agreement that can be updated and as as prices increase right this will uh come again in three years and you know through negotiations we can come up with new services or new prices but it's very transparent we're not going to be hopefully hit with some surprise million dollar bill in the future. So again this is that's that's what's in in front of council today. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, mayor, council, I just want to commend staff, chief Michael, um manager. There was many, many people that worked on this over two years. Um Chief and his staff personally, um spent eight, nine months just literally auditing all our records and ensuring that everything was correct and and uh not not casting blame on the hospital. This is, you know, transitions especially in acquisitions. Hospitals are very very complex. This was one of those issues that was never addressed when the transition happened. Um, and you know, we were we were settled with this large bill and it took a long time, a lot of negotiations, but like like staff mentioned, almost $900,000 savings. So, twofold, this is a win for the city financially, saving those cost savings, but also finally having a wellestablished formal agreement between us and a hospital. It's it's one of our cornerstones of our city where we're able to communicate effectively, get built for what we're supposed to be built for, and then have an ongoing partnership with them. So, thank you. Thank you, staff.

Any questions or comments from council? Council member Melendez. Thank you, Mayor. And uh thank you for uh the whole team that worked on this. Uh just for a uh it is huge. This is such a big difference from the original um amount that was owed to what we have to pay. But this was uh this took place just because of the transition, right? It's not something that we were paying before with Beverly Hospital. It was just when that transition happened that we just kind of didn't really have an agreement.

Yes. Yeah, that that's correct, Council Member. So it as part of the research we looked back and going back six seven years the annual cost for this services under $15,000. So historically and that's about what we pay for you know services that we have to pay for about $15,000. So this this 900 plus was again that's what happens when you go through a bankruptcy. It's messy and I think they were just trying to pick up paperwork and figuring out who owes what. Got it. Thank you for that.

Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Thank you for your diligence on this. This was a a huge task, but it was a big uh money saver for the city. So, thank you. With that, can I get a motion and a second for this item? I'll make the motion. I'll second. It's a motion by Council Member Melendez, second by Council Member Peralta. If we can call roll. [snorts] Council member Peralta. I council member Melendez. I councelor Malonzo I. Mayor Present Romero I. Mayor Tamayo

I. Item passes. So on to our consent calendar. Mr. City Attorney. Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the city council. We have consent agenda items tonight. Items number 8 through 15. All of these items are considered to be routine. Uh all these items will be approved in a single motion unless a council member wishes to pull any of the items. We have no speaker cards for consent agenda tonight. And with that, mayor, if I may pull the city council. Yes, please. Starting with Starting with Council Member Peralta. Any items? No items.

Thank you. Council member Melendez. No items. Thank you. Council member Alonzo, do you have any items? No items. Thank you. Mayor Prom Romero, no items. And Mayor Tomo, do you have any items? No items. It'd be appropriate to entertain a motion to approve items 8 through 15. I'll make the motion. I'll second. So, we have a motion by Council Member Melenda, second by uh Council Member Palta. Please take a role. Council member Pala. I. Council member Melendez. Hi. Council member Alonzo. I. Mayor Peter Romero. I. Mayor Tomo.

I. That takes care of our consent uh items. On to AB 1234 travel reports. Anybody? [snorts] Okay. Um, council orals, we'll start with uh, council member um, Peralta.

Uh, yes. My first uh, orals in regards to our park restroom facility renov uh, vations. And so um, you know, this isn't this isn't something new. Um, I think for decades long, many of our restroom facilities have um, or you know, currently deserves some uh, I think love. There's a lot of issues in terms of just um renovations that need to happen. Um I think there has you know at times been band-aid solutions but that's not enough. I know last year um a lot of us actually have actually um visited a lot of our facilities have gone down have talked to our sports club sports clubs in terms of the issues that they have raised and through that level of advocacy last year we were able to I believe allocate 200 or $300,000 for restroom renovations. Um but I'll be very honest that's not enough to tackle decadel long issues that we've had with these facilities. Um, you know, as as someone that has lived here for many years, who grew up going to our parks, um, it's important that as a city, we we do take pride in terms of the facilities that we provide to our youth and to our families. Many of our families use our parks as a safe space. Um, and to be able to provide those amenities and basic necessities is something that we do need to prioritize. Um and so what I'm asking of my colleagues is uh consensus to prioritize uh restroom um restroom renovations to direct staff to evaluate the different options that we have um whether it's pre-fabricated uh modular restrooms. I know some cities have um used that concept which is a third of of actually investing in fully renovating a bathroom. Um and those modular restrooms are actually really nice. many of them come with um anti vandalism um mechanisms or uh figuring

out which existing facilities can use a little bit more funding to just at least bring them up to code and up to date. Um, I think that there's different types of funding strategies that we can leverage, whether it's CDBG grants or really prioritizing the funding that we do have um within our budget uh to ensure that we are uh really ripping off the band-aid and beginning to actively um address these issues because for a long time now, I think, you know, it hasn't necessarily been prioritized. We we've tried to put band-aid solutions, but I think we really need an actionable plan uh to begin tackling um those facilities. And so what I'm asking from my colleagues colleagues is consensus so that um staff can come back to us with an actionable plan to begin uh investing and upgrading uh these facilities uh within our different parks. Um just if I can speak additionally to uh the council members um councelor I think it's something that um it's extremely important to all of us uh regards to the rest to rest to the upkeep of our facilities. Um, last year we did have a I believe we were uh Congresswoman Sanchez did provide a community funding request um to provide some heavy funding for that. And you know, every administration chooses whether to um continue with the community funding request or not. And unfortunately, we did not, you know, this administration came in and and did not grant that money. But that was going to be a heavy investment that that was going to be done to our restrooms. Um, aside from everything that you stated here, uh, council, I think it's also important, um, if if I can add, uh, you know, as we adopt the the budget, you know, for opportunities there, but maybe we also need to look whether we need to bond for, um, to fix our, uh, the majority of our of our our restaurants, right? I

know in the past we've, um, we've prioritized bonding for some streets and and we've done different things, but maybe that's something too that that we can start looking at. and and I know there's been conversations and that's something that um um you're looking to as well, city manager, cuz I think there there definitely has to be a heavy investment um into into a lot of our facilities. So, just wanted to add that as well. Thank you. Roll call. [clears throat] Oh, can we do roll call or do we need to do roll? Not yet.

Yes, we Yeah, we have a motion, a second on consent. Correct. Yeah. I'm sorry. We're at council orals, but we didn't do right. So, okay. She's so correcting the previous item. We're back. Yeah, we're on council orals. Great. But I asked I think no, council Peralta is seeking for council consensus. So, would you like me to do a roll call for that? Ensus. I'm sorry. Consensus. Yes. Sorry. Yes, we do need a roll call on that because everything has to be So, we need a a motion in a second. Correct. Um, no, just roll. Consensus. Okay. You just go down the line and ask if that's in agreement with your colleagues. Okay. Uh, let's see. We'll go down the row. Oh, please call the roll.

Council, I. Council member Melendez, I. Council member Alonzo. I, Mayor Pomero, I. Mayor Deayo,

I um and I did want to just take um it it's not on the agenda, but just really wanted to quickly speak on an item that I think is really important for our city, and I know earlier one of the residents did touch upon it in terms of uh data centers. We've all seen what's unfolded and unraveled in the city of Monterey Park in terms of data centers and really, you know, all of us, I think, in this moment understanding the um issues that they bring to our local communities as well as just the issues they bring to the health of um our residents. And so I think for us um as a city being next to Monterey Park and I know other cities are also dealing with uh data center projects potentially, you know, applications coming. I think it is important for us to um really be preventative and take action prior to um a project coming forth and kind of catching everyone um offguard and you know uh causing I would say uh fear among our community. And so, uh, generally speaking, you know, I think, um, uh, I hope our city manager and city can just really consider, uh, what actions can be taken in the near future in terms of, um, uh, of banning and prohibiting data centers. Um, and obviously that will be a discussion that council can have in terms of how we all feel about that. But just wanted to to have those comments.

Thank you. Okay. Um, council or uh we'll continue with council member Alonzo.

Yeah. Thank you, madam mayor. Uh, can I ask for council on something extremely important to me and the youth and signs in the city? John had to name a few of them off the top of my head. A matter of fact, we met one at the last council meeting. What I'd like for us to do is I'd like for us to host an engineers day here in Monte during National Engineers Week. Hands-on activities, kids, building things, asking questions, and seeing what actual engineering really looks like. This is about inspiring the next generation and, you know, really showing them what these careers are real and that they're accessible and uh what being an engineer is like. And so I'm asking for council consensus to move this forward and have staff look at how we can make this happen. May I have a vote on this?

Thank you uh council member Alonzo. So this is to establish an engineer state. Do we get consensus for that? If we could get call the role, please. Council member, this is just for consensus. So if you agree with the request, all you have to say is yes. It's not a formal motion, but yes. Okay. Yes. [sighs] Council Melendez. Hi. Councelor Alonzo. Hi. Mayor Peter Romero. Hi. Mayoro. Hi. Okay, that's um takes us to your second uh oral council member.

I appreciate it. Absolutely. Uh I want to ask again for council and countries this time to establish key signature as we know this area has been historically lacking in some of the programming activities. uh this topic since we had a beautiful tree lighting ceremony that was great and it was a great start that showed what we you know like we're definitely putting an effort and making sure that the city that the council is is making an effort uh but you know it shouldn't just be a one time thing. We should be establishing more year-round events uh including the engine and uh we really want to bring people together and inspire the next generation of not just engineers but people in the city. Um so I'm asking for council consensus to move forward with identifying and building out additional signature event. May I please have one roll call?

Council member Pala I. Council member Melendez. Hi. Council member Alonzo. Mayor Proton Romero. I. Mayor Tomo. I. Thank you council member for your orals. Uh we'll move on to Mayor Prom Romero.

Yes. Thank you. Um, on February 28th, 1991, major combat operations of Operation Desert Storm ended. Um, this year marks the 35th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, and I'm requesting a resolution to be passed uh to honor the actions of our soldiers. As a Vietnam veteran and also somebody who works at the VA, I know all too well how the effects of wars uh leave our veterans. Um we saw it with Vietnam. Our veterans were not welcomed home. They weren't acknowledged. And it's definitely um it's impacted our soldiers. I recently lost a friend this past week who was a Vietnam veteran and um he struggled with uh the results of what uh war left for him and uh as a result he um he passed away. I'll just say that. And um so I'd really like to just acknowledge the sacrifice that our veterans have made. And um I'm asking for my uh uh fellow council members to uh pass a resolution uh honoring our Operation Desert Storm veterans.

So we'll get consensus for that as well. Please. Councelor Alberto. Hi. Councelor Melendez. I councelor Malonzo I mayor Romero I mayoro I thank you. Um do you have a second? Yes. Yes. Thank you.

I have two more. Um yes. I would like to um request for additional lighting on the corner of Howard and Beverly. I uh recently went to that intersection. and it's a it's a very busy intersection and um there is a residence it's called Golden Manor. We have seniors that live there and also uh a number of veterans that live there as well and they cross that intersection all day long. They go to 7-Eleven and that's basically their outlet. And I did time the um the light and it seemed like that it was um definitely um enough time. I know that the um timing had been been increased a couple years ago, I believe. So, I just wanted to ensure I even timed how long it took for our residents to cross the street. I wanted to see like on average, and I think it was like 20 seconds or so for people to kind of get across that street, but I'm just requesting for additional lighting. I know we can't do it at every intersection in our city. Um, but these are these are seniors and I just want to ensure that we're taking every possible precaution to ensure that um incidents don't occur and uh just to keep them safe and see if we can look into getting some additional lighting there. C council member on this item if I if I may um just suggest a friendly amendment on on the wording and it's probably semantics but uh as written requesting it's it's it's more it reads more as an actual item like that we would do it if you don't mind asking staff to evaluate the lighting on this intersection and the the only reason I mentioned just cuz um lighting standards uh utilities there's a lot of factors that go into what we're able to put or not put u without knowing all those exact details. That's the only reason that I would say asking staff to evaluate it and obviously if it is warranted, that's something that we'll definitely bring back to council. But we definitely want to take a look at that lighting as you as you mentioned.

Yes, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And then I have one more um oral. I'd like to read one more. You want to just take a really quick consensus? I think it's fine. We'll call roll for that. Council Praa. Hi. Council member Mendes. Hi. Council member Alonzo. Hi. Mayor Pat Romero. I. Mayor Tomo. Hi. Okay. Our third one. Thank you.

And then for my third and last, thank you for being patient. I am proposing an expansion of our military banner program to better reflect the full Monabello community and all of who serve it. The goal is to honor more of the brave men and women connected to Montabelloo while keeping the integrity and spirit of the program intact. I believe this expansion is needed because Montabelloo is more than its residents. Our city employees, volunteers, and nonprofit service clubs are essential to our community's identity. Many of these individuals have family members who have served or are currently serving in the military, and they deserve the same opportunity to honor them. This expansion strengthens our connection to those who protect our freedoms while recognizing those who serve our city every day. I propose the um expansion include the eligibility of Montabella city employees, full-time, part-time, and retired. It would also include our registered city volunteers who give countless hours to support programs, events, and public safety efforts. And importantly, it includes members of Montabelloo based nonprofit service clubs. Organizations like the American Legion, Elks, Lions, Montabella Women's Club, Rotary, Soptimus, and other local service groups that contribute so much to our community. The honorary the I suggest the honorary must still be an active duty service member or veteran. Proof of military service, DD214, military ID or official documentation. Employees can show an ID badge, payub or letter from their department. Volunteers can provide a registration confirmation of a verification from their supervising department. Service club members can provide a membership card or a letter from their club leadership. This expan this expansion strengthens our sense of unity and belonging to our city. It acknowledges the many ways people serve Montabelloo through public

service, volunteer volunteerism, or nonprofit leadership. It allows more families to proudly honor their loved ones who have served our country. This is a meaningful, inclusive, and communitydriven update to the program that already brings pride in our city. I respectfully ask my colleagues to support this expansion as we honor more of the heroes connected to Montabella. Thank you, Council Member Pala. I, Council Member Melendez, I. Council member Alonzo I mayor Romero I mayoro hi

May mayor before uh we conclude the meeting and or go towards the end if I may just on the areas of community interest u I didn't get opportunity I did want to mention one thing that's very very important that I want the residents um to be aware uh this year this year around this time we started beginning our budget process starting in 2024 we began to do community budget meetings um in various areas throughout the the city. And the goal of these community budget meetings, it it's really simple for us to go out there and just educate people about the budget and then get their direct feedback. Uh the two years that we've done it, these have been really really fruitful in many ways. I I would even say that there's been uh quite a few things that actually been recommended during these meetings that have been brought up to the budget that have become actual tangible projects and initiatives that have been implemented in our city. uh most notably um you know having uh community service officers in our parks that that actually came up in our budget meeting. So we do uh really take your feedback seriously. We invite you to our budget meetings. Uh the first one's actually going to be next Tuesday at 6 p.m. Uh it's a new location for us. We're actually going to be doing it at the Metro Heights uh uh project. So we're going to we invite all the members to attend uh again next Tuesday at 6 p.m. is the first one and then we're going to have uh two more after that. one at City Park at the senior center and then one in South Montabelloo. All this information is going to be posted on social media. It's going to be distributed through through all our channels, but the first one is next next Tuesday at 6 p.m. And we want to invite everybody from the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Yes, please join us at the community uh budget meetings. It's it's very important to get um input. Okay, with that um we with that we could adjourn the meeting at 9:17. Thank you for attending.