City Council - Regular Meeting

We're live, please.

Oh.

Mayor Pro Temerio?

Present.

Councilmember Peralta?

Present.

Councilmember Melendez? Here. Councilmember Alonso? Here. Mayor Tamayo?

Here.

Mister city attorney, will you please announce the closed session items?

Thank you very much, madam mayor. And before we do that, the public comments on closed session, anyone who wishes to address the city council on closed session items only would have had to fill out a card. Do we have any cards for closed session? We have one card.

Yes. We have two speakers for closed session.

Please step forward.

First speaker is Will Severo followed by Maria Garcia.

Good evening, counsel. My name is Will Severo, and I'm speaking tonight as a concerned resident about of Montebello who cares deeply about our community safety of the firefighters who risk their lives to protect us every day. I'm honestly tired and disappointed of what's happening inside the Montebello fire department. The culture has deteriorated to the point where there's no longer just an internal problem. It's fueling lawsuits, complaints at a level of dysfunction that affects the entire community we all share.

In a recent article, complaint outlined serious allegations, retaliation, unsafe practices, abuse of authority, and a toxic environment where people are afraid to speak up about problems. These aren't minor issues. These are the men and women who rush into burning buildings to respond to medical emergencies and make split second decisions when every second counts. If they are facing fear, intimidation, or retaliation from within their own ranks, it directly undermines the quality of service our community receives. Adding to this, during the current chief's tenure, roughly 70 members have left the department with more than a dozen others in the process of leaving.

That kind of turnover is alarming. It drains experienced firefighters, erodes institutional knowledge, and signals deep issues with morale and leadership and training standards. The lawsuits don't usually happen unless people have already exhausted every other option, and with multiple firefighters named in the article 15 already involved in ongoing or past litigation against the city, including costly settlements in prior cases. To have to ask how many more careers damaged, how many good people pushed out, and how many taxpayer money how much taxpayer money will be spent before we address address the root of the causes. There is also alleged comments attributed to the city manager that cast the fire staff in a negative light.

I hope those aren't accurate because our firefighters deserve respect and support, not disparagement from the city leadership. Montebello deserves better. Our firefighters deserve leadership that listens, fosters the safe environment, and prioritizes safety, accountability, and our community deserves an accountability. And our community deserves a fire department that's stable, strong, and trusted, not one being torn apart from inside. I respectfully urge the council to take these concerns seriously, investigate thoroughly, demand transparency, and take meaningful steps what's broken before before more trust, and more firefighters are lost.

Thank you. I also wanna say, you know, speaking to previous council members, the typical Glassman standard when you guys are dealing with a lawsuit is you're gonna get a four minute time, and it doesn't really give you a good idea of what a lawsuit is, especially with the complaints and the problems that were going on here. One person out, equivalates to about $400,000 when you're gonna have to backfill them just due to the fact that you have roughly four cases, you're already looking over a million dollars just in backfilling alone. So when you add all these things up together, it is gonna be on your fiduciary duty. He's gonna say legally you can't, but you guys control those purse strings. We need to fix this. We've already paid out a lot of money. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Maria Garcia.

Don't think she's here yet.

Then now we'll conclude all speakers for the closed session items.

Okay. With that, we'll move on to closed session. Items went too far are gonna be discussed in closed session. It'd be appropriate to resist in the closed session, mayor. Thank you.

Thank you for your patience. We're back from, closed session. Mister City Attorney, if you can report out closed session.

Yes. Thank you very much, madam mayor and members of the city council. The record should reflect with we recess into closed session. Prior to recessing the closed session, the four items that were listed on the agenda were announced for discussion. All five members were present in closed session. All of those four matters were presented to the City Council. There was no reportable action taken in closed session that must be presented at this time. Madam mayor, that completes my closed session report. It's appropriate to continue with the open portion of the meeting.

Thank you, mister city attorney. We will continue with our invocation. Please please stand.

Lord, we are meeting here today to conduct matters of business. Guard our hearts and our minds in the 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. And

for our pledge of allegiance, I'm going to read a little bit about, Bay Area Haley Hernandez, who's here to do the pledge of allegiance today. She is our future leaders of Montebello. Baya Ray is a fourth grader student. She's a fourth grade student at Washington Elementary who enjoys writing and math. She is known for being motivated, intelligent, and creative.

And she has a special passion for art. Baya Ray dreams of one day becoming either an actress or a scientist. And her enthusiasm for learning and self expression reflects the bright future ahead of her. Please come up, Aya Ray, and do the pledge. You can come up.

Can you guys please put your right hand hand over your heart and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all.

Moving on, mister city manager, do we have any corrections to the agenda?

Good evening, mayor, council members. We don't have any corrections to the agenda. Thank you.

Our next item is the proclamation for Women's History Month. One second. We can move that for the for the next

Yeah. Yeah, mayor. If if you can, we we'll hold it to the next meeting.

Yes. Okay. My apologies. We'll hold that for the next meeting. Yeah. Don't I might miss. Yes. Yep. So we'll move on to public comments.

Yes. Madam Mayor, members of the council, we have our time at this moment for public comments on non agenda items. For a thirty minute period, each speaker will have three minutes. Anyone who wishes to address the city council should have turned into card to the city clerk prior to this moment. And with that, as I understand, we have eight speaker cards. Is that correct? That is correct. That should take us to under thirty minutes, so we're fine. Madam Mayor, if I can ask the city clerk to read the first name.

Yes, please. Mr. City Clerk, if you can call up our public speakers.

Yes. Our first speaker is Randy Baez, followed by Shahan Savoyant.

Hello. Good evening, council. My name is Randy Beyes. I'm founder, curator, and president of keeping a culture alive. We are the local Montebello art group. We've been here since the we've been here in the city since 2012, and I'm here tonight to invite everybody, including city council, to come on out to our tenth annual Montebello Art Fest. We're finally back in the city after many, many years. I see a lot of faces today that have been to our show, supported us, and everything that we do, and I thank everybody for coming out. I brought some flyers just to give out. We're featuring plenty of lots of local talent, a lot of amazing artists, amazing musical acts.

We got so much going on within the coming down to the city and joining us, and it's gonna be a joyous event. And I hope everybody can come out. It's gonna be taking place at Saint Benedict's Church. So it'll be from twelve to five this Saturday again. Previous years, like I said, we've we've had plenty of success within our events.

We brought up plenty of the community out, and this whole event is just built on what our vision is, which is empowering the artists of tomorrow. So if any artists who wanna join, come out and join us. By all means, you know, this is one of those events that brings our city together, and I believe art is something that's very power powerful, and it's something that goes across the whole board that can be used. You know? And I love the unity and everything about the art, so I definitely hope to see everybody there. And I brought some flyers, so definitely I'll give them to you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Shahan followed by Michael Carlos Reyes.

Honorable mayor, city council members, citizens of Montebello. I am representing my company, my car broker. We've been in business in Montebello for eight years now. We have five employees. Montebello Boulevard is a major boulevard and the only entrance to my business.

For the last three months, it's been a logistical nightmare for my business and my customers. Construction project, which was labeled as resurfacing, blocked all access to my offices, coming from the freeway, going northbound on Montebello Boulevard, impossible to get there. There's no U turns anywhere. There's no way to get into my company. You have to go I mean, somebody who's not from the city does not know that they can turn on Victoria, go through the residential, go down, buy Jack in a Box, make a right.

It's they have no clue, so they just keep going down. There's no U turns anywhere. So my sales are down by 50% since the construction started. It's just gonna get worse since there's no access to my parking lot. Nobody ever informed us of this project.

It takes me an extra ten to fifteen minutes just to get into my business. If I have customers, they're not familiar, they're not going to be able to enter my business. Impact is very bad. I mean, they've taken all the parking spots off of Montebello Boulevard. There's already limited parking. It's just a it's just a nightmare. So just trying to figure out how we can fix this problem. We have to put a u-turn somewhere on that street. I mean, I don't know what the reasoning for trees are. I mean, trees don't help my business.

I mean, we paid plenty of money in taxes for our business licenses, and now half my company half my business is thrashed. I have cars that come in and out from dealerships so I can deliver them. Customers coming, they can't get in. They don't know what to do. I'm getting phone calls. I've had two customers get, you know, $500 U-turn tickets because they have to do it illegally because they don't know. They're nervous. There's people honking behind them. I've seen people getting into accidents. You got the fire station there coming.

They're driving down the wrong lane. It's just a nightmare. I don't know, but something needs to really be done because, you know, it's bad enough. Everything's already difficult. So thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Michael Carlos Reyes followed by Mary Mary Garcia.

Good evening, madam mayor and city council. I I also have a business next to this gentleman here, One Stop Graphics, which is next to Heavily Choice and Honey's Chicken. And, yeah, the construction, I didn't realize that coming down, it was not it was gonna block people from turning to the businesses all in the I guess, it's at the East Side Of Montebello Boulevard. So business is down, and people that want to come in, they don't realize you can't make a u-turn on was it Beverly? You have to go all the way down to Madison, turn around, or make a left turn, go to Jack in the Box somehow.

There's a lot of traffic on Beverly. And so, you know, somebody driving down, they see, like, the Betty Boop store, they wanna check it out. By the time they get frustrated how, you know, how to get there, the more likely, they're just gonna keep on moving on. So It's been a problem. It's been a problem.

I was wish that they should have advised the property owners or the business owners of how we could have worked it out better where they felt there could be more left turns to get into the businesses. Also, I don't know if they could have more parking on the boulevard. There's only three parkings available on Montebello Boulevard. Everything else just got painted red. It's it's been red, but that would help out if you could park on the boulevard right there.

So just when it comes to parts our our business owners on this side of the Montebello Board Boulevard that have been affected, I don't I don't I mean, hopefully, we could figure this out, but, you know, it's been a problem. Let's see. I wanna see something else here. Yeah. There was an accident the other day too right there making a left.

So, yeah, I just wanted to bring that to your attention. I mean, if business is down, can I make a left? Traffic's down. I mean, it's yeah. I have to drive around, or some people just park by the dairy and walk down now because it's it's a hassle. So maybe see what you guys could do. I don't know if you can or not, but maybe add some parking spaces on Montebello Boulevard. That would help out us. So thank you for your attention, and that's all.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Mary Garcia followed by Raul Hurtado.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Mary Garcia, and I'm speaking tonight as a concerned resident who's deeply worried about what is happening inside of our fire department and what it means to the safety of our community. Our firefighters respond to the most critical moments in people's lives, house fires, medical emergencies, accidents, and disasters. When residents call 911, they trust that the fire department arriving at their door is well trained, well led, and operating at the highest professional standards. Right now, many people in this community are questioning whether that is truly the case.

Currently, the city is facing five active lawsuits involving the fire department, and it's widely known that additional lawsuits are likely to follow. Situations like this do not happen in a stable, well run organization. When multiple lawsuits begin to stack up, it usually points to deeper leadership and workplace issues that have not been properly addressed. And these lawsuits are not just internal disagreements. They come with very real financial consequences for the city and its taxpayers.

Defending multiple lawsuits, conducting investigations, and potentially paying settlements or judgments that can cost millions of dollars, That is money that could and should be going towards strengthening public safety, improving firefighter training, ensuring proper staffing, and providing the equipment and resources needed to protect this community. Instead, taxpayers may now be forced to pay the price for ongoing leadership failures and internal conflict, but the financial cost is only part of the problem. There's also a serious public safety concern. In just the past two years alone, seven firefighters have been placed on administrative leave. For a department of this size, the number is extremely unusual and should raise serious questions about the culture and leadership within the department.

When experienced firefighters are repeatedly removed from service, it impacts staffing, morale, training, continuity, and operational readiness. These issues do not stay inside the walls of a fire station. They directly affect the level of protection the community receives when an emergency happens. At the same time, there are increasing concerns about training standards and firefighters getting injured more frequently. Firefighting is already one of the most dangerous professions in the world.

The only way firefighters stay safe and the only way the public stay safe is through strong leadership, consistent training, and culture where firefighters can raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation. When those systems break down, the risk to firefighters and the public increases dramatically. The residents of the city

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Raul Hurtado, followed by Sarkis.

Good evening. I feel I really feel like I'm becoming a prosecuting attorney here. I wanna say that the investigation that was leaked out proved that chief Lopez was a liar. I like I said before, he was forced to retire, he or he would have been fired. And now he comes back as the police chief.

So that just proves to me that the city manager was in on this, setting him up, setting up chief Espinosa up. In my opinion, you just don't do that to somebody. You just don't do that to somebody. After so many residents came up and asked you not to fire the police chief and you went ahead and did it, it didn't matter what the Montebello residents wanted. It was gonna be your way or the highway.

I don't approve of that, and neither of any of you should approve of that either. The man was a fair man. He did his job in a professional manner, and what you did to him was totally wrong. But you did it anyway. I understand that you you created another investigation to make him look like a saint so you could bring him back. I'd like to see that investigation. Leak that one out. You know, there's no other way to say this, and I'm gonna say it. In my time, when you do something that to another man like that, you're a backstabber, a backstabbing liar. There's no other way to say it.

But you know what? I think Espinosa is gonna come out great in the long run because he's probably gonna be a multimillionaire after this because this is really a bad move on all your parts. You had a mole, I'm gonna call the mole without making any names, that he stole from the city. It's well known he stole from the city. That should have been fiery.

He should have been fired. And then but besides that, chief Lopez now promotes him to lieutenant, rewards him for stealing from the city. You know, there there's there's just no other way to say it. People that do stuff like that to me, they're cowards. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Sargis, followed by Denise Egopian.

Dear mayor and city council, I'm representing Anish Chicken in Marbella. I've been there for thirty one years. To me, all these thirty one years, City Of Marbella was very business friendly city. But last few months, I'm having the issue with access to my business. Few years back, we had four parking spaces on the four five parking spaces on the street.

So employees and staff, could park on the street and use our businesses and leave the parking for the customers. Now a few years back, they took away two of two from us. Now they're taking the access to the business. They from when you come from north to south on Mount Abila Boulevard, you cannot make a left turn anymore. They extend the island.

But when you go from south to north, to the biggest shopping center, they gave them trip three accesses to the businesses. How come they can get it and we cannot? This is the main reason that I'm here for. I heard there is a someone told me there is a few accidents and I don't remember any accidents during this 31. There was lot of accidents at the intersection where Beverly And Montebello Boulevard is, but not in front of our stores.

Recently that I heard from my neighbors, there was an accident right in front of my store because of the extension of that island and no left turn to our businesses. It takes right now, as we speak right now, I have nobody in my store. People are tired, don't want to go to they don't want to make extra circle coming to the area, probably part of it is the gas prices. I'm not sure. But I need help, please. Please, I need help. That's all what I want to say. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Denise Egopian followed by Anto.

Good evening, mayor, council members, and Montebello citizens. Today, I'm speaking oh, I'm sorry. Denise Hagopian from Heavenly Choice. But tonight, I am speaking not only for my store, but the 25 businesses that are on that one block stretch of Montebello Boulevard. There are over 68 owners and employees that go there every single day.

They now have to drive an extra mile around the corner, swayed at two signals to get to their place of employment, but there's no parking. So they have to park around the corner on 7th Street, 6th Street, and by the fire station. This disruption and driving the extra mile has added fifteen minutes to their drive time. Fifteen minutes times 20 in a year in a month, sorry, is 1,368 miles. So anybody wants to calculate the gas on that?

In time, each person is spending over nine extra extra hours just to get to work. The city has created a monster, has created a disaster. The customers, when they go on Google, it doesn't tell them how to get to it because they're not informed of this massive island that's been added into the middle of the street. I feel this project is completely illegal. I don't think the property owners were addressed properly, and, I hope that the city attorney will look into this for me because we're supposed to be notified of any major changes on a street.

It was never at a council meeting. I tried reading every single council meeting from when this city manager came to Montebello, which was September 2023. So in three years' time, this major development, which is probably one of the biggest that has happened, I'm gonna guess maybe $4,000,000 or more, just sat. There was no public discord on it. There was no opportunity to go to a traffic and safety meeting.

He did bring the traffic and safety meetings back at January 2024, but they didn't review everything that had been contracted in between that time. How could you come to a city that you know has problems and not review all of the contracts that are outstanding? Everybody sitting up here cannot say, I'm not responsible for what happened in the past. Because you may not have created the problem, but you are responsible to try and help resolve it and not make it work.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

You

Next very speaker is Anto Begdesarian. Is Anto here? Mayor, we don't have Anto, so that concludes all speaker cards for non agenda items.

Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. Okay. We'll move on to number six, the fiscal year twenty five-twenty six second quarter budget report.

May I before we get into the item of staff communications, if you don't mind yet? I have a couple of items that I want to although we're eager to hear about the budget. Just wanted to update the committee on a couple of items. One that's already been publicly listed. The City of Montebello, in partnership with Athens Services, is proud to offer the twenty twenty six Local Environmental Program scholarship.

$101,000 dollars scholarships will be awarded to eligible graduating seniors who live in the city of Montebello and attend a local high school. Students must submit an original essay on recycling organics, sustainability conception, or related environmental topics by March 26 at 5PM. Recipients will be recognized at the City Council meeting of May 2026. For more information, please visit our city's website to get more information. This is also one of the items that when we transitioned over to a new contract that we were able to get as part of the contract.

Dollars 10,000 thousand scholarships for our local students is a great thing. Also, wanna invite the community this Saturday at 08:30 in the morning at City Park, we will unveiling our new outdoor playground equipment. City Park actually had the oldest playground equipment of all the parks in our in our city, so we're very happy YELLEN. That this has come to fruition. So we invite the community to join us on Saturday at 08:30 in the morning.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So that will move us then to number six, fiscal year, second quarter budget report.

And Michael Salarza will be giving a presentation.

Excellent. Thank you, Mayor, Council members. Tonight is the mid year report for fiscal year 'twenty five-'twenty six. So the next few slides will be discussing updates to the 'twenty five-'twenty six budget, revenue highlights, some expenditure updates, an overview of our hotel operations, and then an overview of 'twenty six-'twenty seven budget planning. So just a quick overview, and I want to thank thank the the mayor for actually giving me an actual bucket from one of our local vendors.

So thank you, mayor. For those who've been to our community budget forums, this is a slide that I use to kind of help represent public sector budgeting. And what we're going to be talking to you about tonight is one of the many buckets in our budget, which is the general fund bucket, which supplies the resources that most of our that residents see on a day to day basis, fire, police, public works. But just to understand, we also have other funding sources from Metro, gas tax for the state, our transit fund is a large bucket. But again, looking at public sector budgeting, this is how it flows.

So just to kind of cut to the chase here, what we're looking at ending twenty five-twenty six General Fund budget, about $260,000 surplus, so still in the black. As a reminder, when the budget was adopted last June, it was adopted with almost $895,000 surplus. Lots of changes in the last six, seven, eight months that have increased expenditure projections, but also revenue projections as well. So still projecting a surplus, a little smaller than what we started with, and I'll get into the details of where those changes are coming from. So this is some general fund expenditure trends going back to the twenty nineteen-twenty twenty budget.

And you'll see this is a combination of adopted budgets for those years and actual expenditures. So going back six years, we had a $54,190,000 adopted budget in the General Fund. Fast forward to the current fiscal year, it's $83,550,000 So a lot more services we're providing, a lot more programming, improved services. I mean, in the six years that I've been here, just seeing a wealth of new resources come to the city, but also just an improvement in the services we're providing, the breadth of services we're providing to our residents and the community. Hence, you see that growth in expenditures.

We've added staff, we've added program, we've added vehicles. So a lot of different expenses over the last six years to grow that general fund budget, projecting to $92,200,000,000 for the current fiscal year. And then on the flip side of the ledger here, you'll see our general fund revenue, 'twenty one-'twenty two, about $73,000,000 You'll see a couple of years there, 'twenty two-'twenty three and 'twenty three-'twenty four, where we got some onetime revenues. We sold our water system. We sold a property in Pico Rivera.

We received some revenue from the federal government for related to COVID was the ARPA funding. But you kind of take away that one time revenue, you still see a growth in revenue going back to the last five or six years. Adopted budget this year of $84,450,000 projecting $92,500,000 in general fund revenue for the current fiscal year. So looking at revenue, this is where we get our general fund revenue from. Sales tax and property tax are the largest two sources.

But we also get a large portion of our revenue, over 20% from charges for services and license and permits. So all of these sources of revenue are what fund the services that most of our residents enjoy on a daily basis, public safety, public works, co enforcement, those kinds of activities. So general fund revenue highlights. So again, we adopted the budget back in June, but since then I've been able to review projections and trends, and we're looking to end just a little over $8,000,000 higher than the adopted budget of the General Fund. So our sales tax is up, projections $120,000 We welcome some new retailers in, in the last year: Tesla, Ace Hardware, Hobby Lobby, Southside BBQ.

Coming soon, Dutch Brothers Coffee, Round one, Yard House. And again, the tip of the cap to Joe Pullumby in Community Development and his economic development manager there for really focusing on retail sales and making sure our retail pace is strong. Our sales retail sales in the city are up 24.7% when we compare third quarter last year to the previous third quarter, so some good trends there. Our property tax is up $658,000 For example, our single family residential assessed value has increased 6.1% in the last nine years. And we're now starting to see regular revenue from Metro Heights.

So as more properties are constructed, more properties are sold, we're actually starting to see that revenue noticeably flow into the general fund, as well as the assessed value overall in city being up that contributes to additional property tax.

So this is something I'd like

to point out, the composition of our sales tax, since sales tax is the largest source of revenue to the General Fund. We have a very diverse sales tax base here in Montebello. We're fortunate. I've been in other cities where you'll see maybe one or two of those retail sectors dominate. So not that Montebello is immune to recessions or economic hits, but this helps us weather some of those economic storms.

About onethree of our sales tax comes from autos or transportation. But we also get a large portion from state and county pools, which is essentially online sales. So don't feel bad shopping at Amazon or Timo or Shine like we get our share of sales tax from those online sales. But this is good. This is good to have this diversity in our retail sales tax base.

And then property tax, again, something that's important to remember is Montebello gets less than $0.10 of every property tax dollar that our property owners pay. So a very large chunk, okay, nothing to sniff at. But the majority of property tax goes to LA County, to our school district, to other districts. So just a reminder, though property tax is the second largest source of general fund revenue, Motibel only gets about $00 of every dollar. Then some other general fund revenue highlights.

License and permit revenue is about almost $2,600,000 higher than budget. Building revenue is up almost $1,000,000 Electrical permit revenue is up $475,000 Our plan check fees are up $950,000 Charges for services, looking to realize about almost $1,400,000 more than the adopted budget. Engineering fees, fire plan check fees up $05,000,000 development tax up $190,000 So what we're seeing in those categories is one time revenue from Metro Heights as they come in for plan checks, building permits. But also, to City Council leadership on this, updating our fee study, first time that was done in seven years, to actually stop to lower the subsidy on a lot of services the General Fund was providing. So higher increased cost recovery means higher fees, which translates into additional revenue.

So a combination of factors are bringing in revenue in those two categories. And again, these two categories account for over 20% of our general fund revenue. So those changes are really helping current budget forecasts. And then looking at expenditures, again, we're a full sized city, so or excuse me, full service city. For full service cities, police and fire, over 50%, very common in full service cities.

Public safety taking up more than half our general fund budget, again, very common for cities with their own fire and police departments. But you see public works, that's all non infrastructure, non CIP. So that's building maintenance, street maintenance, that kind of ongoing maintenance that we see to our infrastructure. Parks and Recreation, all the programming they do and other things they provide, community development or planning and code enforcement. So again, majority is public safety, but again to be expected.

Now our general fund projected about $6,360,000 more over the amended budget, and there's increases across all of the departments. Some of the bigger increases are additional salary and benefit expenses related to recent MOUs. So we approved seven MOUs in 2025, and we're starting to we're seeing additional salary and benefit expenses. And again, that flows into PERS costs and overtime and things like that. Again, not unexpected, just a little difficult to judge early in the fiscal year.

So we've a better read on those expenses now later in the fiscal year. The additional expenses do include funding for the citywide restroom repair, which I believe you'll get a report on later today. Increased plan check service costs, but again, we are receiving more revenue from plan check services. So yes, we're spending more, but we're also getting more revenue from plan check services. We are seeing increased vehicle maintenance and our contracted services.

Again, as our infrastructure ages, right, we are a 100 year old city. We have thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy year old buildings and systems. We are seeing an increase in repairs to our elevators or HVAC systems. Other things like graffiti removal and park maintenance are seeing increases. And then our hotel operations, just going back a few years, there's a second quarter snapshot and then a full fiscal year snapshot.

So looking at the Hilton Garden Inn second quarter running about $1,000,000 a little bit over $1,000,000 surplus through second quarter. Home2 Suites more than a $2,000,000 surplus through the second quarter. So both hotels continue to do very well. Their occupancy is steady. And again, I think we're finally far enough post pandemic that a lot of the travel is returning, whether it's business or leisure.

So home two suites, give or

take 94% occupancy. Hilton Garden Inn, 83% occupancy. So some really good occupancy for both hotels. Now part of the hotel indentures is any leftover revenue after all the expenditures have been paid. We can sweep that to the General Fund.

We've done that for a couple of years now from Home two suites, where we've been able to excess revenue from Home two suites to the benefit of the General Fund. So again, their positive operations actually benefit the General Fund, which is the way that indenture was originally constructed. Now there's a lot obviously going on in the world right now, so I think it's important that we look at some of the external factors impacting the city's budget. Obviously, conflict, I mean, it's going have an impact it has an impact on fuel already. Right?

We're hearing it. We're feeling it. We're seeing it. And our services, right, depend on driving vehicles. Right? I'm not going to ask the police chief or the fire chief to have their folks walk to emergencies. So increased cost for gas, we're going to see that next year's budget. Tariffs, still unclear even after the Supreme Court ruling on how those tariffs are going to play out and the impacts on the price of goods, not just for what our residents pay, but for what we pay as well as a city. Inflation in general is an impact across the board for residents and the city alike. Immigration enforcement, okay?

I mean, access to cheap labor is what capitalism thrives on, unfortunately. And when you reduce that labor force, things are become more expensive. So, I mean, it's important to realize that these external factors impact us and our residents in a very direct way, socially and economically. So these global and national impacts have local impacts. So when the local economy is impacted, that may reduce consumer spending.

And again, remember, our largest source of general fund revenue is sales tax. So if our residents of the community is spending less because they're constrained by the economy and other factors, our sales tax is going to shrink. So these are events out of our immediate control, but nonetheless, we have to keep them in the back of our mind as we move into planning next year's budget. So speaking of next year's budget, there's a budget community budget forums held in February. The survey, which ends this Friday, is ongoing.

So the results from the budget form and the survey will be presented to Council at the next meeting, an overview of basically what residents were looking for. Draft budget prepared in May and presenting a draft budget to Council, that second meeting in May, with budget adoption planning for that first meeting in June. And with that, that's the report. And I thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Director Salorza. Any questions for him? Council Member Melendez.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, director Salorza, for the presentation. About a month ago, the Board of Supervisors approved a half half a sales half a cent sales tax measure to go to the voters in the June primary. Sales tax is our largest source of revenue. And the sales tax is to address the federal cuts to health care.

My question is how how does that if voted and approved by the voters, how does that measure, impact our sales tax and what needs to go to the county? And simultaneously, I know I've discussed this concern with the city manager is that there is an assembly bill a b seventeen sixty eight by a member Brian that's trying to lift the cap that of cities to go over the what our current cap and sales tax is. So just kinda seeing both things in order for the the ballot measure to not be nullified, AB seventeen sixty eight has to be signed by the governor, has to pass and sign by the governor. So I'm wondering, I don't know if city manager don't know probably a question that it's hard to answer now, but just wanted to see how much it can potentially impact our community.

Yeah, happy to touch on the legislation. But first, Michael, do want to kind of tell in terms of where we're at as our standing in the sales tax, whether or not it would impact our current sales tax?

Yes, absolutely. So currently, out of the 10.25 sales tax rate here in Montebello, the city gets 1.75% of that, 1% Bradley Burns, 0.75% Measure H. Thankfully, that 1% Bradley Burns is enshrined in government code, so we'll continue to get that regardless of what the county does. The Measure H, again, is a transaction use tax. Voters approved it. We'll continue to get that. So we will continue to receive 1.75%. So it won't impact us in that way. It won't reduce or increase what we get.

Yeah, Councilor, I mean, is a very complicated issue that, unfortunately, is impacting a lot of local cities, and it will the state will have to play a role. So in essence, LA County has been significantly impacted by the federal cuts that have been done to health care. You may be maybe in the last month or so, you've been hearing that the county has been closing a lot of local local clinics. And so that's a direct impact of the lack of federal funding that they've have not received. In turn, what the county has proposed and they did vote to approve to add to the June election is is basically creating a half cent sales tax that will come back to the county to try to recoup those or backfill that funding for health care services for the county.

What in turn is that's doing, it's it's it's impacting cities. Thankfully, we the city our city took the steps a few years ago of, you know, maximizing our sales tax capacity, but other cities that were looking at increasing their sales tax, they're basically been put in a very tough situation. If they haven't taken that action as of now, I think they are still gonna try to take that action, but that may not be available to them if this gets approved by the voters in June. In turn, per state law, Bradley Burns, you can increase the the the the sales tax as is currently, structured. The county is working with our state legislators.

The state would need to approve that. How that plays out, Sacramento legislation, you know, whatever the draft form is, is not what the end result is of any legislation. So it's hard to say exactly that what is written right now is the end result. But the goal is for, the county to ask our state, to basically increase the cap so they're able to recoup more sales tax for them. But thankfully and we'll keep you updated if anything changes. It won't impact us as our current sales tax standing.

And just as a quick follow-up, it doesn't impact us unless AB seventeen sixty eight passes?

So so that that's that's the unknown because it I mean, I've different folk different organizations, different things, but, basically, it seems like they're gonna increase it. So it won't impact us. It'll just add additional sales tax that they will recoup, but it won't allow new sales taxes for different municipalities. So that's what I mean. It'd a concern if they were going to pull back what we were increasing. I think that I think every city in the State of California would go to Sacramento and, you know, with pitchforks at that point. But, yeah, so we will keep you updated. It's our understanding is it will increase it so they are able to recoup that funding, but it won't impact us, or the cities that have already increased their sales tax.

Okay. Yeah. Got

it. Thank you.

Omer? I do have just one quick question. I know it's handled separately, but in terms of our capital improvement budget, which spells out the capital improvement projects that we'd be focusing on this upcoming year. Where does that fall in terms of the timeline?

We're going to fold it in as normal as part of the regular presentation. The schedule you brought up there will include our capital budget update as well. Yeah. We do it concurrently and we ask for the council to approve it concurrently.

Okay. Thank

you. Any other questions?

Right.

Does this call

Yeah. Do you have motion to resume the file? Yeah. No, no, motion to approve?

Yes. Yeah, motion to approve.

Motion to approve. Let's meet your budget. Yeah.

So if I can get a motion to approve in a second. A motion. I'll second. So motion by council member Peralta and a second by mayor Pro Tem Romero. If we could take a vote.

Mayor Pro Tem Romero. Aye. Council member Palalta. Aye. Council member Melendez. Aye. Council member Alonso. Aye. Mayor Tamayo.

Aye. Item passes five zero. So on to our next item, number seven, approve amendments to agreements with Editas coding restoration. The we have a presentation?

Yes. By our our public works director, Cesar Rodan.

Thank you very much, mister city manager, mayor, vice mayor, council members, members of the audience, the city staff. Today, we're going to be presenting the citywide Park West room restoration project. Purpose and background. So our main purpose is to restore and refurbish public restrooms in eight of the city parks for various reasons. You know, we are focused this year on improving our capital budget and prioritizing park restaurant restorations.

The, you know, staff is dedicated to funding and allocating time and effort into making sure that our restrooms are clean for our community's sake. Project needs. So the restrooms impacted by vandalism, misuse, and just normal wear and tear. You know, several weeks ago, we did get community outpour about one of our restrooms. So our what we wanted to do here is present to not just yourselves but the community the fact that, you know, city staff is working diligently to ensure that the restrooms are clean.

You know, we're promoting public health, safety, and, you know, enhancing park experience for our patrons. See, these are our existing vendors and services. So Herrera's coast coasting restoration, they're doing the epoxy of the flooring and then the protective coating around the walls. We're also using AstroPlumbing to assist with removing or replacing the fixtures, like the toilets and so forth. We also have a company coming in doing the restroom partitions and then other contractors that are assisting with the removal and replacement of some of the parts in inside the restrooms.

So this is a cost overview. So city council did dedicate certain funding for this purpose back in our fiscal year budget 2526. However, we do feel the need to make these enhancements throughout other parks throughout the city. And then we're gonna show you just some pictures of the restoration prep restoration at Grand Rio Park. Specifically, here, you see the existing amenities.

So the block walls, the partitions, a lot of times our graffiti enforcement through NES and public works staff. With the assistance of parks and recreation, we would go in there and just paint over the walls and so forth. And you could see that, you know, a lot of the parts were just scoffed up. The the walls. There's a lot of graffiti taking place, a lot of vandalism.

So we went ahead and took took off some of the restroom toilets and sinks so that we can kinda bring them back to life. Here, you see a picture of our updated epoxy that we put up there. So what's good about the epoxy is that it's on the floor, and it's easier to clean. It's easier easier to maintain. So this is gonna be a huge enhancement to our restrooms throughout the parks.

Here's pictures of our enhanced restrooms. We have new toilets, new sinks, the epoxy. And then to your pictures there as well, we have the new doors for privacy. What makes these doors good too is they're easier to clean and maintain, graffiti free. Operational changes. So based on this, I'm gonna have mister David Susnowski, recreation department head, provide you with the information.

Thank you, Cesar, mayor, members of the council. Just some quick information. I wanna thank Cesar and his public works team for all the work they've done. They've done an amazing job of setting the new standard for the park restaurants as you saw in the previous slides and we're taking that same template and taking it to all the rest of the parks. So I'm excited to see that through because as you know we deal with the parks and all the facilities on a day to day basis and work with the public and I want to make sure we have a nice facility.

So again, thank you to Public Works for that. I'm just going show you briefly some of the operational changes on what the city is doing as a team between parks and Public Works, some plans on how we're going to maintain these restrooms a little bit better and then talk about the investment, beyond that was already made and some funding opportunities, to help the city maintain these restrooms. So, as it says there, City Council authorized a new custodial contract with Lincoln Training Center, a company that we had prior experience with. So we appreciate the City Council's support on that contract and Public Works bringing that forward for your consideration. Now that includes, since October, two full service restroom cleaning.

So again, the facilities team under Public Works has done a good job of overseeing that crew, but they're going in there and cleaning from top to bottom restocking twice per day. Additionally, we'll thank the City Manager and Assistant City Manager for their support on this transition. The Park Maintenance Division is working back under the Recreation Department. What that gets the community and our focus there is three additional inspections of park facilities, some general cleaning and some routine restroom duties for the Park Maintenance crew as well on top of the two services that Lincoln is doing. Next one, I want to thank the PD department Chief Lopez Parks Bureau began patrol of the parks in July '25 and we've seen a huge decrease in vandalism and further upholding a park municipal code beyond the restrooms.

They've done a good job of helping us make sure things are safe out there at the parks, but specifically the restrooms have had less vandals because there's more eyes out there with the cadets and the two staff, full time sworn police that are assigned to the park. That's been a

great

help. Additionally, we're assigning recreation staff to parks at Active Parks at Grant Ray, Reggie, Hollyfield City Parks. So they have their daily inspections to do the minor cleaning as well and reporting things on a quicker basis. So if there are damages or vandalism, repairs are made at a quicker response time. Operational plans going forward.

So under the municipal code, the staff has the opportunity to change some of the access hours and we don't want to stop folks and having access to park restrooms. So what you'll see is in the current setup, Lincoln Training Center would go in there and clean real early in the morning and leave the park restrooms open. And so we want to remove the idle hours where basically there's no park staff, no maintenance staff, no rec staff, no public work staff on-site. So probably won't even notice it, the public, the change, but restrooms would be open between 06:30 and 7AM when staff are on-site. Again, just another set of eyes in addition to the police cadets, in addition to the park maintenance workers, which have more staff on-site when the restrooms are open.

Recreation staff will now monitor and close restrooms at passive parks without permits or lights on a earlier basis. So if there's no activity at, for example, at Ashia Park, no lights at that park because of the Edison property, you'll see the restrooms closed between 06:30 and 7PM, just to not allow for that idle time for folks to potentially misuse those parks. Sanchez Adobe as well, Acuna Park is another example when the dog park's closed and lights are off and everybody's home for the day, we'll go ahead and close those restrooms a little bit earlier. So that'll be an announcement coming on that with the actual hours, but just want to give the community and the council a heads up on that. Some part funding opportunities.

So over the last two years specifically, we just want to show some of the efforts that were made, obviously not all successful grant applications, but we're going to continue to monitor grants to improve and beautify parks, consistent with the park master plans. Oftentimes we get asked about the choice of location. So the city had the master plan adopted in 2021, which included a pretty comprehensive facility assessment. So when we go out and look for funding, we have a good idea on what was already approved by the City Council at the time, but also the public input that led us to those conclusions. So some things that we have applied for and we'll continue to apply for more outdoor recreation legacy grant for Reggie Park in 2025, land and water conservation fund for City Park Picnic Area, the game time playground grant the city manager mentioned we're opening up that playground.

So obviously that was awarded, and we'll be opening that playground this Saturday at 08:30AM at City Park. RPUSD Regional Recreational Multi Use Trails grant, again, a Reggie Park project for walking trails and multi use fields. And we'll be submitting and have submitted for congressional funding to redo the Grant Wright Park snack bar and community center. That will be in March. Future funding opportunities, and I'll defer to City Manager on the last one there.

Current grant applications that are actually on the agenda tonight. So San Gabriel and LA Rivers Mountain Conservancy grant, it's up to $2,000,000 as a focus specifically on water conservation. So the tie in for us for that application is improvements to Hollyfield Park, a little bit more on the restrooms, roofing perhaps, irrigation that's more conserving and parking lot improvements because some of the grant requirements are water and accessibility. So a safer and more accessible parking lot would do. Also on the agenda tonight is the Lowe's Community Impact Program, a small grant that we we found online that allow to redo the city park picnic shelters if we're awarded.

And then the last option there is a section one zero eight loan, which essentially will allow us for up to $3,000,000 for park improvements. And like I mentioned, defer to the city manager if you have anything else to add on that one. It's for the section one zero eight. Want yeah.

Section one zero eight loan I mean, we're looking at CDBG funding, which is our federal funding to to add our hope is to try to get secure the other funding resources, asking counsel to approve funding today. But the Section 108 loan will allow us a significant amount of money to add in addition to the improvements that we've already made.

Thank you.

And that will be coming well, it's a process, but the process will begin in April when we were bringing up all the CDBG recommendations to the City Council.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. And that will leave for any questions for Director Rolodan or myself. Thank you.

Before we get questions, if I just may add, I just really, really want to thank our staff, public works, parks and rec, NPD, and just it really is a team effort to try to provide the best amenities possible. But I I do want to commend them in particular coming together with a plan to try to address these immediate needs, in particular, Grant Ray Park. We finished these improvements this week. I welcome folks to kind of check that out, like just to see the improvements. I will say, though, this is not something the facilities, the maintenance is not something that we've ignored.

During my tenure, the city has made significant investments. Now, we're responsive to the community. I will tell you when I started in November 2023, going into that budget cycle for 2024, the main issue that and we heard it directly when we started our community budget meetings. The number one thing that I would hear from the communities is park safety. Public safety, the issues that are happening, there's nothing worse that we want to hear than families and kids saying that they go to the parks and they feel unsafe.

So at that time, we went to the City Council, developed a plan, asked a council to to approve funding to create what is our Parks Bureau. So, now, and it took it took like at least a year a year or so. It's not as easy as as as I would want to kind of just create a whole new division, but there's a lot of things and and that entail creating a new division, having personnel, assigning them, and and that's, in essence, what we had to do. So, since 2024, we began the process. It rolled out early last year.

Now there are community service officers at every single park that that do provide safety to the parks. I will tell you what is good to hear now is that I don't get as many complaints in terms of the public safety. But we evolve, right? Like, it's it's never perfect, issues arise. Last year, we we we unfortunately, there's never enough money in the world to try to fix all these issues, and and we do have 10 parks and many, many restrooms, so we try to, you know, work our way towards the ones that are most need.

The Council last year, we did ask to approve $200,000 to do improvements at Hollowfield and Reggie Rodriguez Park, which are, believe it or not, in worse conditions than Reggie Rodriguez Park, and worse than the park that we just mentioned, at Grande Ray Park. But those improvements that are ongoing right now. We're hoping to come back to Council and let you know how those improvements have gone. Now, we're asking for this funding now to with the goal of making these types of improvements to all the parks facilities. Now, you know, we're talking about the budget and it's unknown.

One of the items that staff just mentioned is us asking for federal funding, in particular for Grant Ray Park. Two years ago, we actually did get $700,000 or so, to do improvements at Grand Ray Park, the the main restrooms there, the the snack bar, the community room, and and the roof. And we got this great news that this funding got approved, and then there was a change in administration, there yes, it got approved, but there was no money tied to it. So in essence, we didn't get nothing. So so this year, we're once again circling the wagons.

It's it's my job, our assistant city manager, our staff to now, you know, once again go go go to Washington DC and try to get this money back. It's it's priority number one to try to get this funding. We're looking for these loans, we're looking for grants. We are committed to try and provide the best amenities possible. We work within the limitations that we have. You know, we just ask for the patience of the community. We're not ignoring you. I don't think Council ignores you. It takes time to make not only get this approved, but actually make the actual improvements. And so in that, I do want to commend because, you know, those type of level improvements at Grand Rapids Park are really to be commended by our staff doing them in such a quick order. So thank you. Happy to address any questions. Our staff is happy to address any questions from Council as well.

Thank you. Any questions? Council member?

Just a question and just a comment. So I know and this is speaking more so with my experience with Ashia Park being in my district. There is now a decrease in terms of the crime that we see in the area because of the park safety group. But I know one of the main issues that I constantly have received in the past is just the fact that our restrooms were constantly getting damaged or literally, you know, people would come with a hammer and break a toilet, come with a hammer and break, you know, a a sink. We would replace it, and then a week later, they'd come back and kind of continue to just damage the reparations and the maintenance that we were trying to continuously keep up with.

And I know that's an issue that is hard to solve. Right? And I know we're we're figuring out figuring it out in terms of just the houring when it comes to how we make our bathrooms accessible as well as just having CSO officers there in in in our parts to deter crime, which I just wanna thank our chief here for really getting that program going. Our residents have always wanted to have our park ranger come back, and that is the effort in terms of the intention behind that specific park brew division. In terms of just the materials that are being used, maybe Cesar, do you mind speaking a little bit towards the type of materials that are being used that could potentially help mitigate folks coming in and continuously damaging the properties?

Councilmember, that's a really good question. So what we are going to do and what we have been doing is we've been replacing all our porcelain sinks and toilets with penal style code metallic just because of its durability. I know that the cost is a little bit more, but like you stated, that's happened time and time again, not just at Shia Park, but at other parks where our plumber our in house plumber goes and replaces a sink or a toilet, and one week later, it's already broken again. You know, these these things take effort and time. The graffiti that's placed on there, and we go in, and we have our staff paint it.

It looks good. And then another week later, there's just graffiti everywhere. So it's a constant struggle and fight, not just for our staff, and we're happy to do it. We do it with a lot of love and care for our community. You know? But it does get tiresome because we would like to also focus on other issues that we do have at hand. But the the strongest material we are purchasing, and we're going to be installing them in all the restrooms. And what's good about the metallic ones too is we could also take them out, clean them really good, and then put them back in there. So from that perspective, I hope that it lasts way longer than, obviously, the porcelain ones.

And councilmember, material you saw in that picture, it's it's easier to maintain. So believe it or not, even before this grant rate, we clean it twice a day. And it's just the material is so old. Even if we clean it, it looked like that. So the material is there. It's easier to pressure wash. It'll come off a lot quicker. It's also more durable. It's harder to put graffiti on there. Caesar's bringing something up. We we have made the shift in terms of we had to move away from porcelain. We put them out, they would get broken, and, you know, it'll cost money to replace it. So, yes, we are being very methodical and mindful

of providing

nice amenities, but also amenities that will be durable in the long term.

Thank you. And just lastly, a comment. I do just want to recognize the efforts. You know, I know a lot of this came after just council really trying to push for changes when it came to the issues that we're having at our parks. These are investments that haven't made for, I would say, decades in terms of the infrastructure of our facilities.

And so for for city staff to really come up with a plan in terms of not only addressing the restrooms that are most in need, but also to come forward tonight with an additional opportunity to now begin addressing restrooms on a citywide basis. When we talk about equity, I really wanna I really wanna emphasize the fact that that is the goal here. The goal is to ensure that we as a whole, as a city of Montebello, are working towards taking care of the city and not, you know, ignoring one side or or putting more attention to the other. And so I really do appreciate the effort here in terms of addressing these facilities on a citywide scope and the work that it really takes to to do that and then also to be innovative in terms of the types of funding opportunities that we can go after. On tonight's agenda, we have multiple items that are applications that the city will be submitting for park facility renovations.

To be able to have that I think is incredible. We haven't necessarily seen the city go after these types of funding opportunities and so I do want to commend the work because it does take a lot to do grant writing and to apply. And just very excited to to really bring attention and really investment into, I think, this area that for, again, many decades has has really got ignored. So with that, just thankful for for all the work that city council and and staff has done to to get us here.

Thank you. Councilmember Melendez.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you for the presentation, also for the city team for working on this issue and, you know, also my colleagues, some residents that had this concern, and we've been working hard at it. You know, looking at specifically for for parks that are close to the riverbed, and I just wanna talk a little bit about Grand Ray as well. The usage of this of these facilities is is pretty intense. I mean, it's it's you know, if you're on the weekend there, it's usually from it could be anywhere from, like, 06:30, seven in the morning all the way to nine at night.

So when we're looking at this issue, there's just so different there's different layers, different factors of what's what's the underlying issue. And I think there's different parts. Right? Because I think, one, usage is huge. And not to say that we hadn't you know, we we needed to have you know, we could have done a better job in investing in this, and that's, you know, on the policy side for us as well.

But I also think we have to look at ourselves and see if there's what other issues are going on in the community. And one of them could be, you know, we see what the city of LA is doing, and it's pushing a lot of folks over here that are unhoused. And there might be a substance abuse issue as well in in this community. We we've seen some needles. And sometimes it's hard to control that, right, because somebody can go and shoot up in the restroom, throw their stuff in there.

If we're cleaning grant rate two, three, or four times, you can honestly miss that. Right? So a lot of it is is looking at ourselves as we allocate and when the budget season comes in to see what other what other factors are going on in our communities to that that are impacting, quality of life of our residents. Right? And there's been situations where I've been at Grant Ray, and there's a dude that's passed out.

And it's a tough thing to see because there's kids going into the restrooms. And you know, it's it's it's uncomfortable to watch. I know we contact our city. We address it, but that's a honest realization of of what's you know, some things that are going on. And it's not to say anything about any department.

It's just there's a lot of stuff going on that's impacting, and there's a lot of movement in the city of LA. We're next to the riverbed, and there's there's some other factors that contribute to this. So, again, just wanna wanna thank the team for the city team for working on this, but there's a lot of things that we, as as policymakers up here, have to look at at ourselves and see what can we do and what policies can we implement and what funding can we give to different departments to assure that we can tackle the issue overall. So but again, I do want to highlight this win. I've never been so excited to see some new restaurants, but, you know, it's something that I'm glad it was taken care of. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Alright. So, yes, I'll call for a motion and a second. A motion?

A second.

It's a motion by a council member Peralta, second by councilman, council member, Alonso. We'll take the roll, please.

Mayor Petar Romero? Aye. Council Member Peralta?

Aye.

Council Member Melendez? Aye. Council Member Alonzo? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye. That item passes. So we'll move on to, number eight.

Yeah. And giving presentation is, Samantha Labo with our public works department on this item.

Good evening, honorable honorable mayor, members of the city council and staff and members of the public. Tonight, I'll just give brief presentation on one of the on a grant award that the city received from the Community Cleanup and Employment Pathway, otherwise known as the CCEP. So just to kind of give a little bit background information on what is a CCEP. So the Community Cleanup and Employment Pathway is a Caltrans grant under the Clean California initiative that funds public space cleanup while creating job opportunities. So earlier this year, Caltrans did announce that they are gonna give up $25,000,000 to 90 jurisdictions making this a competitive grant.

And this this what this grant will essentially do is it's gonna provide cities with the opportunity to perform litter abatement, graffiti removal, bulky bulky item pickup, as well as weed abatement. So just kinda giving a little bit back background on how we kinda got here today. So back in October 22, city council had authorized staff to essentially apply for this grant. And then last month in February 19, that's when the city received notice that we actually received up to $200,000, for a project location that's, that's gonna be for a street segment along Lincoln Lincoln Avenue, specifically between Avenue De La Merced and San Gabriel Boulevard. As you can see, I provided, like, a little snippet there just to kinda show where this project is gonna be performed.

And also something cool to announce is that if you guys go on the CCEP website, it would actually show the city of Montebello as an awardee. So I think that's pretty awesome. So some career development opportunities that what what this grant is gonna be able to provide. So the city is actually gonna be partnering up with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, to provide the workforce. So the workforce, they're gonna be responsible for, doing all the necessary the necessary cleanup, along Lincoln Avenue, specifically between Avenida De La Merced and Saint Gabriel Boulevard.

Participants in the workforce will have opportunities to have hands on training with the supervisors, they'll be able to essentially utilize some of the equipment that Public Works uses on a day to day basis as well as they'll also have opportunities to have industry recognized certificates such as OSHA-ten as well as first aid and CPR certifications as well. And just kind of providing a little bit of background on how this $200,000 grant is gonna be spent. So as you can see in the chart itself, you'll notice the majority of the grant itself is gonna be spent on personnel. This is gonna go for city staff who will be assisting and overseeing this project as well as the workforce who's gonna be who will be provided to us by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, and then and any other subsequent costs thereafter. And at this time, I'll be happy to answer any questions that the city council may have.

Thank you. Any questions? A quick

question in terms of the opportunities when it comes to the participants. I do understand that we're partnering with an organization that would be providing the the labor, the participants for the program. Is there an opportunity to make that accessible to residents of Montebello? I'm not sure if there's a sign up process, if they sign up directly with that organization, or just how this could potentially just create a pipeline for Montebello residents that are interested.

Thank you for the question, council member. I'll defer over to Cesar.

Thank you, Samantha. Yeah. That's an excellent question. Yeah. Always the goal you know, we do have a PLA in that we've executed with the city and the unions.

And, you know, one of the main goals is that is working with local talent, right, individuals that live in Montebello. And so as part of this grant, obviously, we would be working with the conservation corps to ensure that, you know, Montebello residents are given a fair opportunity to work with this grant as well. Another thing that we have talked about between the city manager and just our executive team is also the potential to add cameras as well. There were existing cameras in the past that would, you know, look at illegal activity, illegal dumping, and so forth. So working with the police chief as well and trying to kind of revive that program as well, hoping that that deters, you know, illegal dumping in that specific area.

And then we're also, you know, trying to work with volunteers as well so that we could have community cleanup days. So it's it's a big opportunity for the city to really clean up Lincoln and then go after future funding as well.

I appreciate that. And just wanna say that the more we can continue to partner or go after funding opportunities that create workforce opportunities, I think that that's something that, you know, the council should really prioritize to be able to not only do earn and pay type of programs where residents can learn a new skill and can get paid for this or get certifications to go into a specific industry or even into, for example, something like this working within a public works department. How do we provide those opportunities for our youth as well as our residents that are looking into just talent development opportunities? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. With that,

is there a motion and a second for this item? A motion.

I'll second.

A motion by council member Peralta, a second by council member Melendez, if we can call roll.

Mayor Pro Temer Romero?

Aye.

Council member Peralta?

Aye.

Council member Melendez? Aye. Council member Alonzo? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye. That item passes. Then we are on to our consent calendar, Mr. City Attorney.

Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the council. We have consent at this point in time. These would include items number Nine through 24. And with your permission, I will pull the council regarding any items they wish to pull. And we do have one item from a member of the audience, which is item number 17. And tonight, the rotation is mayor pro tem Romero. Any items?

I'd like to pull item number 22, please.

22. 22. Okay. Council Member Peralta? Council Member Melendez? No items. Council Member Alonzo?

No items.

Thank you. Mayor Tamayo?

No items.

So we have items number 17, which is a request from speaker, and item number 22 from Mayor Pro Tem Romero. That would mean that at this time, it's appropriate to approve items nine through 24 with the exception of seventeen and twenty two. I'll make the motion.

I'll second. Motion by council member Melendez, second by council member Peralta. Can we call the roll?

Mayor Patan Romero? Aye. Council Member Peralta? Aye. Council Member Melendez? Aye. Council Member Alonzo? Aye. Mayor Tomayo?

Aye. That passes.

Move to item 17 then. And this is the second reading of the ordinance this is on the agenda relating to mixed use development standards, objective design standards for the residential mixed use development site plan, review standards and rezoning of certain properties consistent with Montebello 2040 general plan and the city's housing element. Do we have a speaker card?

Yes, we have three speakers. Would you like me to call them operating? First speaker is Will Savaro, followed by Joseph Sanchez.

Good evening, counsel. I know Rick and Danielle, you weren't here for a lot of these conversations. Even Raul, the city manager, wasn't here for some of these conversations. However, when the housing element did come into the city of Montebello because of the governor, we need those arena numbers, and we're changing so we could be in compliance. Right?

And the problem I'm seeing with what we're doing is in 2024, David Torres as well as Angie Jimenez were discussing that we were supposed to have adjusted having any of the properties on the Quiet Cannon site removed. I believe Raul, you were here. If not, it was right before you got here. The residents agreed because of the purchasing as well as the deed to the land. We were supposed to keep it open space. Now, Ms. Peralta brought up something really cool. She said equity. Last time I've ever checked, we ain't getting any new parks. There's no open land.

You guys don't got the money to buy a new open space to create a park, so you're going to take away green space from an area that we don't have many trees. You could turn it into like a workout park, you could turn it into a walking track, you have many opportunities. Now, while I say this, you guys

are going be, well, how

do we meet our arena numbers? Will, you're talking out of your butt. Reality is, SB 79 passed. It's gonna be effective July 1, so you guys are gonna have to go back to the wheelhouse again and change a lot of the major streets. Why do I say that?

38 bus passes is passages on Garfield, Beverly, Whittier, and Telegraph are all areas that are gonna be affected, including Garfield. However, for those that are not aware of it, because they haven't been coming to council meetings before, I think, Sal, you might have that general area by the golf course has a horrible time for parking and SB 79 doesn't require the same amount of parking. So what I'm asking for is not to pass it tonight, please bring it back, your actual director for this project to even give us arena numbers to see even how to change anything isn't even here to answer those questions. So I understand it's an election year. I understand Cortez and Brad Perrin need to see who's gonna vote for this.

What I'm just requesting is to push this over, have a city meeting city manager. We can talk about this and just come out with an actual equitable plan with leaving our green space alone. You know, you guys had a bunch of videos and comments for the parks. Now you're gonna take away another green space. I didn't come last week because you guys bullshitted, and you said this has nothing to do with anything but the downtown. But when you look at the map, it's because the lady came up here and spoke and was telling you between 4th Street and 5th Street on Whittier Boulevard, there's a development. City manager, you told her this wasn't about that, and you pushed her off. That was bullshit. I'm sorry. I'm calling it for what it is.

I've done it to every city manager that's been here before when that's one thing I hate. Politicians and bullshitters. Never been a fan of them. You know? Even your staff knows I know what I'm talking about. We had a city budget and time's up, I guess. So but please

Thank you.

Just Thank you for time.

It. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Joseph Sanchez followed by Denise Egopian.

Good evening, counsel. I know last meeting, those three young ladies came up here and presented this to you. I know you guys all have day jobs, and it might be kinda hard for you to review everything. What I want is for you guys to put on a hold for the purpose of the Greenwood apartments. I know none of you go to the South. Our chief does. He's been there. A couple of officers have been on to the South. The Greenwood Apartments are not high density, and they need to be because September, the California high speed rail, I'm pretty sure our managers knows about city manager might know about this, who might not, they're going to put a stop on those tracks right there in South Montebello from Anaheim to Downtown LA. Here it is right here.

They're gonna it says right here they're taking away the stop that we have currently, and they're moving it to the South based on their their paper, not what I say. All I'm saying is is if you could put a hold on this just so we can add more stuff or maybe make an amendment or something that go ahead, pass it because I don't know if you guys are gonna pass it or not, but give us the ability to add stuff to it. The Greenwood apartments need to be high density. I would love to buy one of those Greenwood apartment tracks. I could buy one of those tracks, tear it all down, and go six stories because they're gonna put a train stop right there based on their map.

And we could use some of those old Penske warehouses to make a food food place, you know, where we could have some people go eat there. That needs to be rezoned as well since we're going to have a train stop right there. So if you could maybe hold off tonight, I'll show you this map afterwards because I know you guys don't like to interact with us, talk to us. That's another thing. I got a minute left. I don't know why we don't talk with one another. I understand our city manager doesn't have to talk to us because he's here, and he can tell us all to go pound sand. I respect that from our city I mean, our city manager or city attorney because he's here because he's working. But the rest of you chose to interact to be a public servant. I'm not gonna hurt you, but talk.

I I I talk to everybody. I drive my golf cart around. I talk to everybody. For some reason, we don't talk, but that's a key element of public service is interacting. I I I'm afraid to go up to you because I'm afraid you're gonna accuse me of something, so I just just wave at a distance, you know, and say hi. But I would love for you guys to come to the South and interact. And and I tell a chief, we'll drive on my golf cart. He assigned me a lieutenant. I I went in for my I already emailed our lieutenant twice, so I'm gonna give him time before I start showing the chief. Hey, chief. I already emailed him. He hasn't responded. You know? But we need to interact, and we need to have this stuff. I got twenty two seconds.

Don't pass it tonight because those three young ladies who did an awesome job last week, they really don't they're not gonna die here in Montebello, so they don't see the fifty year vision. They're gonna get married. Their husbands are gonna take them to a fancier city probably, but I'm dying here. And I'm willing to spend millions here. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Denise Agopian.

This the presentation last week, I'm not gonna go over the same things that the previous speaker just said. But I don't think that the women making the presentation took into account the effect of the train. The effect of what's gonna happen on Washington, the changes in the street, the changes in the businesses that are there. The zoning changes that you're talking about are, again, not notifying businesses or property owners before you vote on it. Though that's gonna create future problems, future liabilities for the city.

When you make a change to a zone, there's she mentioned that there was a 120 some businesses that were there. So what happens to a business when they change the zones and that business sells, and the new person doesn't know that the zones changed, or they didn't present it in their real estate? The specific addresses were not given in the presentation. They said of this area or that area. They showed a map with squiggly green lines.

Not once did they say what street, what addresses, who they were affecting. The businesses need to have a fair warning to be able to come here and discuss what the impact is. So I wanna talk about traffic changes and then how it impacts a business. Six months I'm sorry. Sal, mister Melendez, he asked a question about what are the impacts to a business and somebody replied, they have six months to reapply and to rechange things.

Six months is not enough time for a business even to figure out the traffic patterns of where they're at. This city thinks they're business friendly, but when you pass something, you're not looking at five or ten years ahead what that vote is really going to mean to a business. So I'm gonna just use one business as an example. It was the ranch market on Whittier Boulevard, been there over fifty years. The owner decided to retire and he sold it to a gentleman from Hollywood.

He sold I'm not gonna say numbers out here, but he sold it. The guy comes to Montebello and decides he's gonna change the name slightly. By changing the name, he's not grandfathered in anymore. The city put over a $100,000 worth of improvements that they required for him to get a business license. Now, you all seen the ranch market, you probably all went there. It's been boarded up for five years now. Boarded up because the guy spent a $100,000 and still didn't satisfy all the new requirements 100 and things for that business. So what did we lose? We lost a great store, meat market, bakery. We have a horrible

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

Madam mayor, that concludes all speakers for agenda item 17. Okay.

Council member Melendez.

Thank you, mayor. Just to provide an opportunity to wait for Saf to clarify on some of the just concerns and questions from some of the folks from the audience. In regards to specifically the golf course, I believe there is some changes there where it will allow for some mixed use or residential. Correct. Does it also allow the opportunity to leave it as is? Or, I mean, if you can just kind of talk a little bit about, you know

Viviana, I don't know if you wanna as she walks up, she can talk to you in specifics, but I do wanna address some of the concerns that were mentioned. And well, first, let me start with with the timing and why we're bringing this item to your attention and asking for the approval as some of the audience members mentioned. Yes, I have not been here to some of the things, the decisions that we made in the past, but I am the administrator and do have context. For example, just a little what we're doing here is really just aligning and conforming to what was approved as part of the general plan in our housing element that we had to submit to the State of California. For those of you that may remember, we were actually one of the four cities that was named by the governor that we were in serious trouble by not passing our housing element.

Previous administration, previous staff before went ahead and actually did a lot of great work to be the second city in LA County to pass our housing element. So, a lot of those commitments, lot of the things that we presented to the State of California are things that we have to comply with per state law. We also have to comply with our general plan, which is something that was a three plus year effort that was done. Now, as folks are mentioning, you know, this process, every single thing that was in this item were things that were presented as part of the community process for the general front. There was 38 meetings.

So there was nothing that has changed that was not presented then that is not presented now. So this is not new information to the community. So I'm being clear on that part. Now, in terms of the timing for, I think, the mayor, you you joined us in our meetings in January where we actually met with HCD. And if you may remember, they gave us up until the end of this month to actually adopt this this these zoning amendments.

Now we're not the only city that got this notice, but, basically, every city needs to be in compliance. This is something that's being required from us for the state of California. We've actually many, many years of efforts to be in good standing with the city, again, not only through our housing element, our general plan. If the city council were not to approve this item today and we don't fulfill our requirements by the end of this month, it's really going to put us in a bad situation with the state of California. Talking about the golf course and what we can and can't do, we're at the beck and call the State of California.

We have the Surplus Land Act, it's excess property. We have constraints. We have limitations. We are required to designate certain property to allow certain uses and that's what we're doing. This is, as much as, we do set the tone and we try to guide the process and we try to bring in certain developments, housing, create open spaces, we also are at the, at the mercy of the State of California, state laws. We have to be in compliance. I'm the administrator. I'm not a politician. So, you know, when comments are made like this, don't have a horse in the race other than making sure that our city is doing the right thing. So, as you consider this, I would strongly advise, you know, that that you take action tonight.

In terms of the actual specifics of what what we're we were doing at the golf course, Viviana, I don't know if you wanna touch a little bit in terms of what what we aim to it, what we're asking city council to do there in terms of use.

Yes. Of course. So along the city the city's plan is part of the general plan and housing element. What the city city's ultimate goal was to allow for the corridors to provide for more density. That includes Garfield. It'll include Washington, Beverly, Whittier, the larger corridors throughout the city. Doesn't mean that we have to necessarily build high density there, but it has that potential. So it's not something that that's written where they have to build something like that, but it is at potential. If the city opts to do something different on its land, then they are able to do that as well. But it just allows more opportunity for high density on areas where we currently don't allow for it. Thank you

for that. Just and thank you for the clarification. Just as a as a follow-up, I know with a lot of residents, there is some sensitivity to more building in in the golf course. And and in that area, there's been a lot of movement on our end. My question to the city manager, I think you kind of asked it, was, you know, what the deadline for this is, noting that there are some concerns and questions from some of the members from the audience, whether this can be, you know, continued for the next council meeting or if it has this today's, like, the final deadline just to give folks opportunity to get some clarification. And

The the the city council is able to push this off as as far as they they they want to. I would strongly recommend that the council take action tonight. It'd be really difficult for us to notify the the state of California, which we would do in the next day that the council didn't take action today, and then at that point, we would have to live with the consequences of us not fulfilling our requirements.

I have a question

in terms of I know that there's a lot of comments in terms of just transportation and future transportation projects coming to the city. Can staff comment in terms of the consideration that the general plan did along the Washington Corridor and the transportation district or t o t transit oriented district kinda the considerations that we did take or the city took in terms of looking and projecting ahead with that?

Yes. Of course. So the city is working on a transit oriented development on along the Washington Corridor where the light rail will be stationed. And we do have the surrounding areas that would incorporate again higher density along those areas and just the future vision now that we have the light rail coming in and we know that's for certain. We have established a TOD and we're currently working with the consultant to allow us to develop a specific plan that would allow for a streamlined process for high density developments as well as new businesses and the types of businesses that we would like to see along that corridor.

MR. And just to add on

the SB79, I will say that I share the concerns of the community. This is a law, and for you council members that have also spent time with us in Sacramento, that I think every local municipality has pushed hard against it. We it's not something that we support. I think for us, the impacts are still unknown. I know it takes an effect in July 1, but even then, Sacramento's still talking about cleaning it up.

And we went to a conference where there was a panel of people that actually worked on the law, they said that it was a flawed legislation that they're looking to fix now. So, yeah, it's I would echo those sentiments. We are still tracking it. We're going to again, we have to comply with state law, but we're also planning and ensuring that whatever that ends up being, we're going to make sure that we protect the city as much as possible. But yes, it is a concern for us that we're dealing with right now.

Okay. Any more questions, comments? All right. So I'll call for a motion on number 17 and a second. I motion to table it. The motion I'm sorry. I make a motion to table the item. To table it. Okay. Is there till

when you see the table, you have to have it would next

council meeting. So the next council meeting. Okay. Is there a second on that?

I'll second that.

We'll need a roll call on that on that motion. Mayor Barton Romero? This is to table the item to the next meeting.

Alright. Councilor Peralta?

Aye.

Councilor Melendez? Aye. Councilor Alonso? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye.

This matter will be then brought back at your next council meeting.

At the Thank you all.

Appreciate it. The August 25 council meeting. Move to then. Can see that. I'm sorry. March.

Okay. March. Sorry.

March. So sorry. That's what was looking at the date. March 25. Okay. The other item

'22.

'22.

Yes. Just oh, wanted to

go ahead. No. Go ahead. Okay. Yes.

I just wanted to briefly touch on item number two and thank thank everybody who was involved in finding this grant and applying for it. I know a lot of people have advocated for things that are happening in our parks right now, and there's so many things that that require maintenance or or renovation. And so I just I'm appreciative of you guys finding these grants and making these things be able to happen. I myself have had birthday parties at the picnic shelter with my kids. And even though these facilities, they're clean, the bathrooms are clean, when they're older, they seem unsafe.

It just gives an unsafe feeling. And so when you're able to to renovate and create a safer environment, it makes people want to be out in the, parks and enjoying and getting our kids unplugged and away from, their devices. So I'm thankful for that, and I just wanted to say thank you. I'm appreciative of everything that is happening at the city park, the, senior center, the new playground. I'm excited to be there. So, hopefully, everybody could make it out on Saturday morning at 08:30. And once again, thank you for finding this grant and applying for it. I appreciate.

Okay. With that, is there a motion and a second for this item? A motion.

I'll second.

Okay. A motion by council member Peralta, second by council member Melendez. Can we call the roll?

Mayor Peralta?

Aye.

Council Member Melendez? Aye. Council Member Alonzo? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye. This item passes. And we'll move on to our AB twelve thirty four travel reports. Anybody have something to report? And we have no council orals for today. So I believe that should conclude. Adjourn the meeting.