City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening it is 601 and i am calling this meeting to order can you please call the roll council member peralta president council member melendez here council member alonzo mayor protein romero president mayor tamayo here

Mr. City Attorney, can you please announce closed session items?

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. I should first ask if there's any request to speak on any closed session item. There is no request to speak in closed session, so we can go into the announcement of closed session. There's items one through four as listed on the agenda. It's appropriate for the City Council to recess in the closed session to discuss those items at this time. Be appropriate to recess. All right.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. We'll take a recess. We'll be back at seven. Thank you for your patience. We're a little late. It's 7.10, and we'll continue with the rest of our regular meeting. Mr. City Attorney, can you please report on the closed session?

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. The record should reflect the City Council recess in the closed session for discussion of the items one through four. We will be needing to go back into closed session. All five members of the Council were present for discussion of the items. The City Council was able to resolve items well, let's see, item three at this point. Items one, two, and four will be brought back into closed session at the conclusion of this meeting. There is no reportable action on item number three, and that concludes my report from closed session at this time. It's appropriate to continue with the other portion of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. We will continue with the invocation. Please, Mr. Matunga.

Lord, we are meeting here today to conduct the matters of business, guide our hearts and our minds in a spirit of fairness, write our thoughts 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.

Please stay standing. We are going to continue with our future leaders of Montebello and we have a special guest. I'll read a little bit about something about our future leader, Miguel Moreno Venegas. Miguel is a fifth grader at Macy Intermediate who enjoys history and math and participates in CHEST, the DJ Club and the Art Club. He also volunteers in his school library, assisting the librarian during the school day. He is a member of the Boy Scouts of American Troop 33, where he has earned the rank of tenderfoot and serves as assistant chaplain while working toward becoming an Eagle Scout. He has also participated in roller hockey and practices jujitsu four nights a week. Miguel hopes to pursue a career with the United States Postal Service in the future. Please help me in welcoming Miguel so he can do the Pledge of Allegiance, if you can come on up.

May the audience please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I for the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, and liberty for justice for all. Thank you.

You did great.

laughter laughter

Thank you. Good job.

All right, we will move on. Any corrections to the agenda, Mr. City Manager?

Mayor, council member, we don't have any corrections tonight. Thank you.

All right. We will move on to our ceremonial presentations. If you can please join me up at the front, we'll do the citizens of the month and the certificates of recognition for our Montebello bus line employees.

All right.

Okay, we will start with our citizens, citizen of the month, Lorraine. Lorraine Richards, come on up. Back up. right is this better yeah okay larry i wanted to have lorraine up here while i read something about her lorraine lorraine richards tonight we are honored to recognize a lifelong montebello resident educator mentor and community advocate whose dedication to civic engagement and public service continues to inspire generations of students and families Lorraine Richards has proudly called Montebello home her entire life. Although she briefly left to attend college and begin her career, she soon returned to the community that helped shaped her and has dedicated herself to serving and strengthening the city she loves. A proud alumni of Montebello High School, Lorraine has spent the past 30 years serving Montebello Unified School District as a social studies teacher currently teaching economics and American government. Through her classwork, she has empowered thousands of students with the knowledge and confidence to become informed and engaged citizens. Her commitment to civic participation extends far beyond the classroom. Lorraine advises the My School Votes Club at Montebello High School, where students lead grassroots efforts to educate their peers about their voter registration and democratic participation. She also volunteers with the Montebello Commerce YMCA as lead advisor. FOR THE MODEL LEGISLATIVE AND COURT PROGRAM, MENTORING LOCAL TEENS IN LEADERSHIP, ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC SPEAKING THROUGH CONFERENCES AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS CALIFORNIA.

THERE'S MORE.

Lorraine is also active with the Montebello-Ashia Sister Cities Association, where she and her family have welcomed student ambassadors from Ashia, Japan, into their home, helping fostering meaningful cultural connections and international friendships between Ashia and Montebello. Her impact reaches well beyond the local community. Lorraine previously served as president of the Montebello Teachers Association, representing more than 1,300 educators and continues to advocate for the public education through leadership roles. with the California Teachers Association and the National Educational Association. She currently serves as the CTA liaison to the California State Board of Education and as a National Education Associate Director representing educators nationwide. Despite this impressive accomplishments, Lorraine remains deeply committed to Montebello and believes that community involvement, whether through schools, civic participation, or volunteerism helps create a strong future for everyone. Among her proudest accomplishments is seeing former students and YMCA participants grow into successful adults, knowing the leadership skills and confidence they developed helped shape their future. Lorraine's lifelong dedication to education, to leadership, to civic engagement, and to the Montebello community make her a truly deserving honoree. It's with great pride that we recognize Lorraine Richards as Montebello's May 2026 Citizen of the Month.

I know everybody's taken a very long day of work and I really appreciate everybody that's here. Montebello. Montebello is here. Mom and dad are no longer with us. but if it wasn't for their decision to adopt me, I would have never been in Montebello. So it truly is something of destination, I would kind of call it because it wasn't as though I was born here, but I've been raised here and I've grown up here and mom and dad have been something that have given a foundation of giving back to the community and i tried the private sector for two years and i hated it so i went back to school and became a teacher and 30 years have flown by i started when i was 10 years old but um but it's really flown by and all the different parts of the things that she's read i have my i call my different families so i have my ymca family here i have my ashiya family here i have my mta family here they're part of cta and nea also but my biggest thing is public education support public education and we have a thriving community and we really need to foster that and also give them the ability to understand civic engagement and to protect democracy thank you

We're grateful Lorraine landed here in Montebello. So we'll do some pictures. We'll do with the council and then we'll invite your family and different families up.

Yeah.

And if it wasn't for the support of my family, I would never be fed or clothed or housed.

My son and my daughter

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Right here.

Yes. Thank you. I tell you.

All right. Our next awards are for the Transit Rodeo Recognition. I'm incredibly proud proud to be here today to recognize a truly exceptional group of public servants, our bus operators and equipment mechanics. Their hard work, dedication and commitment to superior service make a profound difference in our community. First, I want to extend a huge congratulations to all the participants of the local five-star rodeo, as well as those who moved on to represent us at the regional and international rodeos. Competing at these higher levels is no small feat. It requires immense skill and sharp focus. To our bus operators, Thank you for the safe, reliable, and friendly service you provide every single day. As a regular rider of the Montebello bus line myself, I see firsthand the care and professionalism you bring to the driver's seat. You are the face of our transit system and the driving force that keeps our community moving. and to our equipment mechanics. Your work behind the scenes is absolutely crucial. You ensure that our fleets run smoothly, efficiently, and above all, safely. Without your expertise, our city simply stops. So we'll go ahead and present these certificates to each of you of the participants. Francisco Lopez.

Congratulations.

Jose Escamilla. You can stay up here for our picture.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Saul Zepeda. No, he did, okay. We'll save Saul's. Martin Solano. Larry Valenzuela. Congratulations, Larry. Congratulations. Yeah. Martine Mendoza. Martine, congratulations. Irma Landeros. Rosanna Barrera. Thank you so much.

Jorge Villalobos.

Congratulations.

And Jorge Echeverria. and Michael Barrios.

Thank you.

Okay, so who's gonna say a few words from the group? Nobody?

it's the winner the champion right there martin martin oh martin's a champion here you go martin okay if it wasn't for him i don't think it would have happened

So John, thank you very much for allowing us to have this beautiful event. Thank you.

Thank you. So we'll gather for the picture.

Okay.

Our next item on the agenda is the East Side Light Braille Extension presentation.

And Mayor giving this presentation is Jill Liu with Countywide Planning and Lorena Sanchez with Community Relations.

Good evening. Can everybody hear me? Good evening, Mayor, City Council, residents, stakeholders of the City of Montebello. Thank you for inviting us to be here today. Lorena Sanchez, Community Relations Manager, here with Jill Liu, Project Manager for the Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 project that Metro has been working for a while and engaging with the City. I want to thank the City Manager and your staff for being very responsive and working very closely with our project team and we will continue to do so throughout every project phase of this project. And so today we want to provide a overview of the project and status and we also want to invite your residents and the council to participate in upcoming public hearings that are taking place in June and we will talk about that shortly. Thank you very much.

morning mayor turmoil and um and the city council member city staff it's good to see you and thank you for having us i'm jill lee senior director countywide planning project manager um as lauren mentioned we're going to give a brief presentation today and the east side phase two project is part of metro's uh short range and long range goal to connect city of Montebello to our regional transportation connected to the whole LA county as you can see this is all the project we have just opened in the last 10 years and the east side phase 2 project would be the next one to come And so a little bit history about the Eastside Phase II project. We were in the CEQA environmental analysis for the last 15 years. The Metro Board has approved this project in May 2024. So what we have been doing in the last year or so was preparing a federal environmental assessment NEPA document to get federal funding for this project. This project will bring economic benefit to the city, connecting the families, connecting the students, connecting those who need to travel to work to destination like the Commerce Citadel downtown and the PIH Hospital in Whittier. This is a nine-mile extension from East Alley all the way to Whittier and City of Montebello is in the middle of this rail alignment. City of Montebello will be connected to the first extension from East LA to Montebello, 4.7 mile. The Montebello station will be at Greenwood at Washington. That will be one of the four stations that will be built as part of this project, the first phase. And then pending funding availability will continue to extend this line all the way to Whittier. And so why we're here today, as Sorina mentioned, is we just published a federal environmental assessment document today, this morning. It's been posting on our website. So we would like to welcome the city and the public members here to view the document and also join us for public hearing on June 13, Saturday. A little bit more information about this project. The first four stations will be located connecting East L.A. and Montebello. As I mentioned, there will be four stations. Atlantic Pomona Station will be relocated to East L.A. We have two stations in East L.A. Another one is Atlantic and Whittier Station, and then Commerce Citadel. And then the terminus of the initial phase would be Montebello at Greenwood. IN THE PRIOR ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT THAT WAS APPROVED BY THE METRO BOARD IN 2014, THERE WAS A 39-ACRE MAINTENANCE STORAGE FACILITY ASSUMED FOR THE ENTIRE NINE-MILE ALIGNMENT. AND WE HAVE HEARD THE CITY'S CONCERN THAT WAS A REALLY MAJOR IMPACT TO THE CITY OF MONTABELLO AND THE PROPERTY OWNERS. and then reduction of sales tax revenue, we heard you. And so since last year, we had been exploring three options that are much smaller than that was presented in the original EIR. And then we are publishing those three options in the EA for public review, which I'll talk a little bit more about that in the upcoming slide. A little bit more information about the cost for this project. The cost is about $7.9 to $8 billion. That was based on an early design and we'll continue provide information as we have more information this year. And we have committed $3 billion, including the Measure M funding that was voted by the voters in 2016 for this project. So right now we're seeking a $4 billion funding through state and federal grants. The construction timeline is upon the completion of the NEPA phase, which is sometime in October this year. After the NEPA phase is completed, we will then start real estate acquisition and construction such as utility adjustments next year and have groundbreaking for stations and then for the guideway in 2029, opening for rail services anytime 2035, 2037.

Here's a map that shows the location of the station.

As I mentioned, the light rail in the city of Montebello would be center running light rail in the middle of Washington. The station location, the platform, which is right west of the Greenwood and Washington intersection. And in terms of our overall schedule for the NEPA, I mentioned we just published a document today. This would be a 30-day review for the public to provide comment. And upon comments received, we will be going to the Metro Board to provide update this summer. And then we'll work with the Federal Transit Administration to finalize the NEPA document in fall this year. And during the NEPA phase, I want to thank especially Cesar Rodin, the public works director, working with us to provide the permit for us to go out and conduct field surveys. We were able to identify the existing utilities throughout the area through borings and confirm the soils are good for our construction. And then so this really help us to minimize our construction risk for the future. And I mentioned we are looking at maintenance storage facility. And we heard you, 39 acres, way too big. So we're looking at smaller size. And we're trying to look at our existing capacity, existing rail division, and just to reduce the size of the maintenance storage. And here's the map that kind of shows the options. On the left side, where you can kind of see the orange color, that was 39 acres that was identified in the final UIR. On the right hand side, I'm showing three options. There are two options in Montebello ranging between 25 to 28 acres. And then there's one option outside of Montebello in the City of Commerce, about nine acres. The differences among these options is that option one and two in Montebello provides more storage space for rail that include not just for the initial phase, but also the extension to Whittier. And then option three in commerce covers really all we need for extension to Montebello plus a little bit for the future E line. And so that the differences is that the options three are utilizing parcels that have been identified in a final year for construction staging, because that's where we're going to be providing the tunnel boring machine to build the project from here all the way to the north. And so basically, options three will require the minimum right of way take for this project. And where our project is still in an early design phase, we've been working with very closely with public works director, the planning department, Joseph, on this project, which touched on various issues like utility, parking, construction survey, active transportation, and bike lane. We understand the city is working on downtown specific plan and has a desire for bike lane. So we'll be working with the city to see what we can do as we evolve the project. and we'll also be looking at joint development knowing that the city is in the process of creating an eifd for the city i'll have lorena talk a little bit more about outreach efforts

It's really important. Metro has been very intentional to ensure that we reach community early on through every phase. And so prior to entering the current federal phase, as we know as NEPA, we did come to the city and we had community meetings. So early in February last year, 2025, we held a meeting here in Montebello. in addition to the other communities east la and commerce and also a virtual meeting so at those meetings we heard from the public we took that information and this is where we're at in providing the latest updates so The way that we reach community, we have a very robust outreach program to reach community digitally and on the ground. We have partnerships with community-based organizations that are boots on the ground, attending local events, pop-ups, talking to folks, providing updates, and inviting folks to meetings. And so we have a full set of methods and ways to reach us, including a website. And so now that we have the environmental assessment document out and released, It's really important that we find different ways for folks in the community to provide input. And we're going to continue to engage community through rail tours, through pop-up events, digitally. We've held various stakeholder outreach opportunities and briefings, and we will continue to do so throughout every phase of the project. And again, just want to stress, 30-day comment period. We released the document today, May 27th, and it'll be available for public and city input through June 26th. And there are various methods and ways that folks can provide the input. You can visit the project website, metro.net forward slash eastside. uh uh lower slash space two as you see on the screen uh and we have made it very easy to ensure that the document is placed and folks can easily provide their comment for the record the you know you can also email us call us provide your comment or also mail your comment very important the public hearings are coming up in june and it's it's it's an opportunity for folks to provide input for the record We already have a draft environmental document available at different sites. As you can see here in the City of Montebello, you'll find the document at the Chet Holleyfield County Library. And this last slide is information regarding all the public hearings, East LA Commerce and the city of Montebello will be here Saturday, June 13th, 10 a.m. to 12. We welcome everybody to attend at the Chet Holyfield Park Community Center. And those who cannot make it, we will also have a virtual option. We have translations, ADA accessible, a children's corner, and welcome everybody to be here. we will be sharing the same project information at each meeting but really look forward to engaging the community for input and this concludes our presentation we did bring some fact sheets that we laid out in the front ways to contact us if you or the audience have questions in the pub in the future so thank you in advance we're happy to take any questions thank you are there any questions council member melendez

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation and again, for all the outreach efforts and for all the public hearings. It has been, I think in Montebello, they've been well attended. I have a question in regards to, I think it's slide number eight, and there's a line there where it says a 3% local match. As far as dollar amount, what is that? Is there is there a projected amount that that's out there that we would have to?

So typically the 3%, which is for those who are listening, 3% local match is part of the measure and expenditure plan guideline that each city needs to provide 3%. However, we have a lot of lessons learned, you know, from the Southeast Gateway Line project, also in gateway cities, that we will be considering some in-kind categories for the city to consider. So that is something we will decide. In terms of the amount, typically the 3% amount is decided at the end of 30%. design and we're uh have not completed that yet we're in uh we're just uh in the process of finalizing that so we're hoping by the end of this year or early next year we'll be able to share that information with the city it's over three million it's three million and over yeah we'll provide that our information once we have the design uh approved by the city thank you okay any further questions from my colleagues yes council member pearl job

Yeah, you know, some of the some of the I think just the comments that have been made that I want to uplift and just try to understand Metro's vision is along the lines of safety, accessibility and streetscape along the Washington corridor. You know, we hope that our goal is to create an area there that feeds into the ecosystem that we have in terms of businesses, neighbors, and overall folks that come into Montebello. So just wanted to see if there is an opportunity. I know that things are still in design and a lot of things are up in the air, but in terms of just the vision that Metro has for things like safety, accessibility, and landscape, streetscape enhancements for the area.

speak to the safety issue uh you know safety is the number one concern and issue that mitchell's working on to address we've developed our own in-house police safety department it's a comprehensive approach multi-layered and we continue to have our partnerships with local police departments and also have working with ambassadors to support uh folks with the way finding we also have an outreach homeless team that helps support provide access to um residential housing and other services and also have our transit authority so it's a multi-layered approach that we continue to improve and work on because we know that we're dealing with the you know issues at the society level that uh you know we're facing in our system and it's it's important for us to continue to address it

Thank you, and then just lastly, how can Metro and the city just better collaborate in terms of the long-term planning and investment for economic development opportunities and revitalization of our corridor?

yeah so metro has a joint development and toc or transit oriented community program that we can provide city grant to go after toc planning efforts and i believe we actually help the city's specific planning effort as well and then we also work with the city to identify development opportunity along the corridor especially for construction stagings on the other area and then going back to your original questions about beyond safety about landscaping or access that is something we definitely would talk about and we submit the landscaping plan to public works and planning for review metro does have tree policy that we will that will provide during construction every tree we're taking out we're providing two trees so it's one to two ratio What we're saying is we're also providing really high standards and really the best practices in terms of station access and design. We're using the most sustainable materials that are durable, that are producing less environmental waste for our project. And we also consider ADA in all of our design to make sure we provide appropriate access to our ADA users and everyone.

Thank you very much for your response and presentation. Any other questions?

Yep. Thank you for the presentation.

Sorry, I can't see. I was at your community event last year in district number five. And one of the things that concerns me the most as a resident that is in that district and is primarily affected by this construction is the distribution notices of only 500 feet. That's great, I appreciate that. But so many of us live in that part of the city that 500 feet just is insufficient. I may not live within 500 feet of where the construction is happening, but I will be affected by it severely. My daily commute will be affected. Going to the supermarket will be affected. And I think the last thing the residents in any community want is to feel like they're not being informed. And so I think we would appreciate it if that radius was expanded beyond 500 feet. That's number one. And then number two, looking at the same slide that's on the screen right now in terms of how we can actually work together to potentially provide some sort of financial benefit, I don't know, jobs that are located at this facility for members of the community to make them feel like the real project isn't just being thrown at them without them actually getting any benefit. I'll cite previous metro constructions in the east side. Many folks look at that project and don't feel like it was beneficial to that community. And so most folks where we live feel that way. And the last thing, I appreciate again the information session that we had last year. I don't know if you know this, but the majority of the community there in District Number 5, my district, is primarily a Spanish-speaking community. And I think that having one in English is great, and I know that you have translators, but I do think that a Spanish-oriented one would be far more beneficial for the folks that live in that particular district.

Thank you for your question and your comments. I can address the first question. We did do mailers within a half mile of the station radius. Yes. And then we augment that with additional outreach canvassing as well with our CBOs and attending events and briefing local stakeholders as well.

to that in terms of um in benefiting the the business owner around the area during construction we have a lot of lessons learned from regional connector project the purple line at the k line that was open several years ago that now we have a lot more comprehensive program to support small business and the community members during construction to ensure we provide access to their businesses supporting them during construction

and also there's a construction relation mitigation program that will provide funding to support small businesses thank you i appreciate that and i look forward to communicating with you guys in regards to these things that are you know clearly very important to the entire city but particularly my district which is where this is happening thank you

Thank you. I do have a question, actually two questions. On the maintenance and storage facilities, there are three options. Does that include a relocation of businesses or what are their businesses that are affected in those three options?

yes so for I'll just talk about maybe the one in Montebello because that's probably the one of concern option one and two will require relocation of businesses I know for option two one of the buildings currently vacant but when we go out and and talk to them if that's what is I guess interested And now we will have to talk to them to see what their business plan is for any of the business owner that will be impacted by any of the option. We will have to talk to them depending on to understand their need and make sure we have fair providing fair market price before the acquisition. And we don't do eminent domain. I just want to clarify that because We always start with understanding their need during construction, during the relocation, and then make sure that business are stay integrated and in whole, not impacted as much as possible. But what we really like to know is what is the city's comment in terms of these three options and then the public's comments of these three options. So we could report back to the Metro Board to make that recommendation.

okay and then my second question is if this ends up being in Montebello does Montebello get credit toward that three percent for having this facility in Montebello this is something we will have to hear from the city if that is the proposal from the city for the three percent conversation OKAY.

THANK YOU. THAT ANSWERS MY QUESTIONS.

MAYOR, COUNCIL, IF I MAY JUST ADD A LITTLE BIT FIRST, THANK YOU, METRO, FOR BEING HERE. THIS IS A REALLY GREAT REGIONAL PROJECT FOR OUR CITY. IT'S REALLY GOING TO CONNECT US TO THE METRO NETWORK. I WANTED TO JUST THANK THE METRO STAFF FOR BEING OPEN AND LISTENING TO US, I WANTED TO KNOW, FOR EXAMPLE, THIS COMMUNITY MEETING AT HOLLYFIELD PARK, IT'S A SUBTLE CHANGE, BUT PREVIOUSLY THE MEETINGS WERE HELD AT CITY PARK. WE HAD AN HONEST CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS NEEDED TO BE IN THE IMPACTED AREA WHERE RESIDENTS CAN COME, THAT'S ACCESSIBLE, EVEN MADE THE CHANGE TO EVEN make the meetings on a Saturday during when residents are home are able to attend. So thank you for that. I mean, they heard us loud and clear. The MSF facilities, it's another conversation I would say to the community, it's a big step for Metro to be presenting or exploring other options on our behalf. This is something that was brought up to them, I mean, three years ago when I started and we've had ongoing conversations and explaining the circumstances of the significant impacts that this would have for OUR MOST DENSE COMMUNITY, TO BUSINESSES, AND I WILL SAY I'M HOPEFUL THAT, YOU KNOW, THEY'RE GOING THROUGH THE ENVIRONMENTAL PHASE RIGHT NOW, BUT HOPEFULLY WE'RE ABLE TO LAND IN ONE OF THE OTHER OPTIONS THAT WILL HAVE LESS IMPACT TO THE COMMUNITY. WANT TO ELABORATE A LITTLE FURTHER IN TERMS OF, YOU KNOW, I SHARE THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY, I THINK COUNCIL, IN TERMS OF THE BIG ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, THE 3% CONTRIBUTION, TO BEFRIEND OF METRO, THEIR STAFF AND THEY'RE INHERITING, YOU KNOW, countywide measure that was approved measure our measure and these are things that were approved and the structure that was approved by the voters and so as part of these multi-billion dollar projects uh you know we we are responsible for a three percent contribution um towards that um in terms of engineering it's important to note she mentioned 30 design i want to know i want to know a number because i want to be able to plan ahead for it i want to have these conversations with michael i want to have these conversations with caesar and talk to staff and council because we got to plan ahead we got to figure out how do we pay for this but we don't know that number now there's a really good reason why we don't have that number because in terms of engineering standards you truly for any project you truly cannot get a an accurate number until you hit a 30 design so we're almost there we're almost there it's taken many many many years to get there um we've been pushing them and you know but they not only do they have to be accountable to us they have to be accountable to other cities and WE'VE ALL BEEN ASKING THE SAME THING. SO I PROMISE YOU, THE COMMUNITY, AS SOON AS WE HIT THAT 30% MILESTONE, WE GET OUR NUMBER, WE WILL BE COMING TO CITY COUNCIL. THERE'S A REALLY GOOD REASON FOR THAT. I THINK THERE'S A BENEFIT THAT CAESAR AND I HAD THE PLEASURE OF WE OVERSAW TWO LIGHT RAIL STATIONS IN THE WEST SIDE AND THE BRANCH. I'M DATING MYSELF. IT'S NOT EVEN CALLED THAT ANYMORE. SOUTHEAST GATEWAY LINE. IS THAT WHAT THEY NAMED IT? THAT'S WHAT THEY LANDED ON. WE OVERSAW TWO LIGHT RAIL STATIONS. WE'VE BEEN WORKING WITH METRO. WE KNOW THE PROCESS. So we know what we're in for. We know how to approach it. And frankly, this is still in the infancy stages, right? But we're in a very, very important phase, which is the environmental phase. They're coming here to tell us that we have 30 days. So I'm asking the residents, council, myself, staff, we actually provide feedback, environmental responses. You have concerns, you have positive feedback, negative feedback, what have you. This is the time to let Metro know, because they have to report back. but we will be working with them as part of the process uh there's going to be multiple agreements that we have to come back to that we have to reach with metro the most significant one is the three percent contribution agreement so at that point once we have our numbers once we you know develop um you know the the approach that we're going to have as a city we will have to come back to council we will have to have honest conversations in a public setting with residents with the council explain to you the cost how we're going to pay for that cost how we landed on that cost and then just walk you through the whole negotiations they mentioned in kind trust contributions i know caesar's working his butt off to truly try to figure out how do we How do we accommodate some of the requests, some of the projects, align them to this project so we minimize our costs? So a lot of moving pieces. I do want to say it is a great project. It's complex. We will be responsible to pay for it. We will we will get through it. And ultimately, I'm hoping 2035, right? That's the date that 2035 to 2037, and we're on track for that schedule. Hopefully by that time, not only will you see a new light rail station, you'll see some very conscientious transit-oriented development, which is another component that we're working on. Jill's not here, but our planning department, we actually received a grant. We're going through a feasibility study uh same thing we asked for the community to give us your feedback we hear you i think we're on the same page um we're all think this is a positive project but we all got a line ultimately so just want to provide a little clarification um just because you haven't heard from us in a while on this project has been because there there hasn't been a reason to report back but this is a pretty significant one to update you to let you know the environmental phase is ongoing right now we need your feedback And then you should be expecting, as we hit the 30% design phase, that we'll be coming back with more updates and information for the council and community. And then the last note, just please join us June 12th, right?

June 13th, Saturday.

Saturday, Holyfield Park in the morning. Please join us for that community meeting. It's important. You'll get a similar update, but then you also have the opportunity to engage more in depth with Metro and our staff. Thank you.

Thank you, we welcome your input, your comments, questions. Thank you for your collaboration. Thank you, thank you for coming out.

Okay, next we have the proposed budget overview for 26-27.

mayor city council uh thank you so uh tonight will be a first look uh overview of the 2026-27 uh budget focusing on the general fund but also provide some highlights for our transit fund and the um uh hotel operations and then following this presentation caesar will provide an overview of the cip a little more in-depth than than what i'm going to present here So just to start off the proposed budget expenditures, looking at 237.9 million across all funds, it's about $92,686,000 in the general fund. But as you see, we also have appropriations for grants and special revenue funds, about 19 million for our capital projects, various streets and infrastructure funds. Enterprise funds, that's both hotels, the golf course, and the transit fund. And then there's $220 million in revenue proposed, again, across all the different fund types, enterprise funds, the grants and special revenue funds, CDBG home, all of the various grants that our departments get. So right now, what is proposed, and as I still do some work on refining expenditures and revenue projections, our 26-27 budget is showing just under a $200,000 surplus. very positive, smaller surplus than what was adopted for this year. This year was $894,000 surplus, but as you'll see in some later slides, our revenue has gone up, so has our expenditures for various reasons. But as of right now, we're looking at a surplus for next fiscal year. Now, there are some external impacts which are gonna impact our budget, general fund, special fund, across the board. Obviously, international conflict, anybody who's paying half attention to what's going on around the world, prices are up, fertilizer prices are up. Everything that's going on outside the United States has one impact or another on the larger economy and the prices that we inevitably pay for our consumer goods. uh tariffs even though supreme court did strike down a number of them there i mean there's the back and forth between the different rates the the overall impact is still unclear on what the consumer is going to be spending based on the tariffs imposed and then just overall inflation inflation has proven to be uh sticky as the federal reserve calls it um and that obviously will have impacts on on the prices that not only we pay as consumers but what the city pays for goods and services And then obviously immigration enforcement and its impact on the community, on the labor force, and what that's doing to drive up prices, especially in large urban settings such as Southern California. So it may be easy to dismiss some of these international events, but what's happening around the world does have an impact locally. If prices do go up and consumers cut back on spending, that means they're spending less here in Montebello, which that impacts our sales tax. And sales tax is the largest source of revenue in the general fund. So it's important to keep in mind that those external factors do impact us in one way or another. Unfortunately, a lot of this stuff is absolutely completely out of our hands, but just understand that those do have a trickle down effect and will impact our budget one way or another. SOMETHING ELSE TO POINT OUT, I'VE BEEN PRESENTING THIS THE LAST FEW YEARS, IS WHAT I'VE COME TO CALL FIXED COSTS IN THE GENERAL FUND. AND THE CITY HAS LOTS OF COMMITMENTS. WE HAVE TO PAY OUR UTILITIES TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON. WE HAVE TO PAY FOR FUEL AND VEHICLE MAINTENANCE. WE HAVE FINANCING AND DEBT SERVICE COSTS. OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE TO PAY OUR EMPLOYEES. THERE'S LOTS OF FIXED COSTS IN OUR GENERAL FUND. um of the 92.6 million dollar budget about 88.2 million of it is what uh you can consider fixed costs in other words in order to provide the services that our residents expect that that you as council members uh expect to us to provide to our residents about 95.2 percent of the services are of those costs are fixed towards those services whether it's paying the personnel to provide them or again like i said You know, electric bills to keep the lights on so it's it's a way of basically saying there's not a lot of room outside these fixed costs for. A lot of extras in the budget, we have to pay salaries and benefits obviously utilities vehicle maintenance debt service and financing costs. So what that leaves in the proposed budget is about $4.48 million in kind of discretionary spending. But again, there's increases in costs, increases in labor expenses that are going towards these discretionary spending areas. It leaves, there's still some room for increasing programs and increasing staff where we have to, but again, when 95% of your budget is going towards fixed costs, there's a lot less room to kind of do extra things. So again, and as prices go up, this discretionary spending goes down. so another way to look at the general fund budget is by category and about 64 percent of our budget is the general budget is salary and benefits again this is typical we are a full-service city um other full-service cities have a typical you know two-thirds salary and benefits uh about a third for maintenance and operations so this is not unusual this isn't you know spending is out of whack i like to point this out that when you have a full-service city um It costs a lot to provide the excellent services that we do, and this is usually typically for a full-service city how it breaks down. Salary and benefits, about 64%, maintenance operations, 33%, and then our debt and lease payments is that other 3%. um some recent trends over the last 10 years as you've seen our general fund budget and expenditures have gone up and again for those who've been following us for the last five or six or seven years i mean there's a lot of great expansion of programs and services and staffing and equipment um i've been here for six years as finance director and i can probably say this city looks nothing like when i started and i mean that in a good way right our firefighters our police officer public works folks all have new equipment there's more staff across the board to provide services parks and rec is able to provide a number of programs to our residents and we've expanded services across the board so and you can see that where 10 years ago we spent 54 million dollars in the general fund projecting to spend almost 93 million next year in the general fund and then on the flip side obviously our revenue has increased as well We've expanded our retail base. Measure H sales taxes is providing additional revenue. You see some spikes in previous years where we sold our water system, sold some property, got some one-time revenue, which obviously helps with general fund reserves. But you're projecting about $92.9 million in revenue for next year. so um proposed revenue in the general fund um looking about an 8.4 million dollar increase from last year's adopted budget um i'll get into the details in a little bit but um you'll see last year's adopted budget was 84.4 million projecting about 92.9 million in revenue so about 8.4 million dollars more in revenue and you'll see property tax license and permits and charges for services those are the big year-over-year increases in revenue categories And as stated previously, sales tax is our largest single source of revenue for the general fund, followed by property tax. Almost 53% of our general fund revenue comes from those two sources. So obviously anything we can do to help expand our, excuse me, our retail base economic development efforts are very important. increase and assess value that helps with property tax, but also things like the recent update of the master fee schedule that council approved in August that helps drive revenue, as well as some recent changes to our municipal code dealing with business license. So there's ways to increase the resources that we're able to use towards funding important services. And something to point out here, this is where our sales tax comes from. About 32%, and this pie represents the 2025 calendar year, but 32% of our sales tax comes from autos and transportations. Our various auto dealers in town and use car sales and leases. State and county pool, that's 19%. That's the share of revenue we get from online sales. Restaurants and hotels, about 10%. So this is a very diverse sales tax base. We don't necessarily, we're not overrepresented in any one area. I've worked for agencies before where More than half of the revenue came from autos, which is great when people are buying cars, not so great during a recession. So this diversity helps us in terms of economic downturns. And then again, just sales tax, projecting about 29.1 million. The largest shares, the 1% Bradley Burns, looking about a $550,000 increase year over year. the sharing agreement we have with Monterey Park Marketplace, bringing in about 1.25 million, up about 150,000. And then Measure H, 10.3 million. You'll see that there is an adjustment of $200,000. I was a little overzealous in 25-26 of the 10.5. And looking at the ratio between Measure H and Bradley Burns, that 10.3 is much more realistic. So it's not that we're getting less, it's just, I was a little optimistic last year. So trying to adjust that down to be a little more realistic and in line with how our Measure H comes in in relation to Bradley Burns. And then the property tax, our second largest source of general fund revenue. As a reminder, for every dollar that is paid in property tax, Montebello gets less than 10 cents of our dollars. So now again, it goes fund very important things, Montebello Unified School Districts, the county, education, very important, but just again, not all of our property, the majority of our property tax dollars do not stay in Montebello. And then again, look at $8.4 million more in total general fund revenue Sales tax benefiting from Tesla, Ace Hardware, Hobby Lobby, Southside Barbecue, all of those new retail shops that have opened. And then on the horizon, Dutch Brothers, Yardhouse, Round One, and some other potential retailers coming in the next year, year and a half, which will bolster sales tax. property tax is up 1.44 million. Our assessed value is up about 6.1% in almost 10 years. So assessed value continues to grow. And again, Metro Heights, as more properties are sold, that's producing more sale, excuse me, property tax. Our license and permit revenue is up 3 million. And again, as I mentioned earlier, council updated our master fee schedule, our cost recovery, that's helping with fees. The update to the business license municipal code, that's helping quite a bit. And that's driving the additional $3 million in license and permit revenue. And charges for service is also another category that's benefiting from the update to the cost recovery, the master fee schedule. We're seeing about almost $1.9 million in additional revenue there. And then the good news with our property tax override, as our retirement costs increase, the general fund is reimbursed directly from the property tax assessed for that purpose for those first approved by voters back in 1946. So on the expenditure side, again, we're seeing about $9.1 million more in revenue, or excuse me, expenditures proposed for next year for all departments, all operations. And again, with a full service city, fire and police, public safety, very important. Fire and police make up the majority of general fund expenditures. So again, $9.134 million increase year over year. Of that, about $6.5 million is from salary, benefits, special pays. Another $2.6 million is an increase in utilities, fuel, contract services, equipment, vehicle maintenance, things like that. Now, again, what's driving the majority of that year over year increase in the general fund are increases in salaries, benefits, and special pays. But as a reminder, we have seven new MOUs approved last year at this time in 2025, had a couple more previous, so nine of our 10 associations. We're seeing those MOUs, the improvements in base salary and special pays, that's what you're seeing that increase in regular salaries, about $3 million year over year increase. Part-time wages, again, we're adding people, but also, we adjust the part-time wages and the state obviously the minimum wage keeps going up every year so obviously we have to increase our our part-time wages whether we wanted to or not special pays and and purse so again you know i i i highlight this just because again when 64 of our general fund expenditures are the people that we employ to provide these services that our residents depend on you know it's important to see that this is where those increases are coming from And again, we have human capital, we invest in it, these new MOUs are a way of retaining people, of attracting and keeping the best and the brightest here in Montebello. Now, moving away from the general fund, the hotel operations, we have our two enterprise funds. Hilton Garden Inn, almost a $400,000 surplus for next year. Home 2 Suites, about $276,000 surplus. So again, the hotels continue to do really well. They continue to... pay for themselves, pay for the debt service, pay for operations. And then in the case of Home 2 Suites, the last few years, there's been an extra income after all expenses are paid that per the bond indentures, the city is able to sweep as revenue into the general fund. We've taken advantage of that the last two fiscal years, most likely we'll be able to do it again before the end of this fiscal year is take some of that surplus income from the Home 2 Suites and use it for the general fund. and then uh transit fund montebello bus lines this 41.86 million dollars represents just the main operating fund transit also has grant funds and state um sp1 revenue so this is 41.86 million dollars they have tens of millions of dollars in additional FTA and state funding that they use for usually capital and infrastructure. But this is where operations come from. It's a $41.8 million budget, but a $4 million increase from last year. And you'll see transit operations makes up almost 50% of the transit budget with corporate shops, 15%, transit administration, 33%. And some of those year-over-year increases, again, just to reiterate, the agreement with Smart TD and some of the other associations where the employees who work for transit, that's where we're seeing some of those year-over-year increases is increased to base pay. And also, John and his team have done a great job of filling vacancies. So we're definitely filling vacancies. And with the higher base pays, we're seeing increases in salary and benefits. We're brave. Cesar's going to give you the detail, but right now we're looking at a proposed CIP budget, $4.3 million in new operations, about $12 million in carryover, and about $6.6 million in maintenance funded by our capital program. So at this point, next steps is draft budget presentation with the CIP presentation to follow. And then in two weeks, coming back to council with an agenda report for budget adoption. So with that, I thank you for the time and the attention. And if there are questions, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Director. I'll look to my left if there's any questions. Council Member Peralta.

um yes thank you um i know we're going to be receiving a draft of the budget may 20 uh may 27th uh just to give us a more more of a deep dive overview of each department in terms of just um expenses and programming i think i saw on the presentation that parks and rec is receiving i think one of the largest increases which is I think really great in terms of just it has always been a department that has been underfunded and there's a lot of need in terms of just programming, maintenance. I know we've this past year did a really great investment in terms of enhancing our restrooms across eight parks. I believe, I'm not sure if it's fully completed yet, but I know most of the parks on that list, I've had an opportunity to check out and have seen the improvements that have been made, which has been something that residents have have really wanted. In terms of just that increase in that specific department, can you or Director Cisnowski just please share a little bit more in terms of just, I think it's 3.2 million of an increase. If that's towards capital investments or programming or just a little bit more behind that increase would be good to know.

Yes, let me, let me, um, let me take a shot at it and then I'll, I'll, I'll turn it over to director Susanowski. The majority of that increase is the movement of the park maintenance division from public works to parks. And in addition to that, not only has the park maintenance division been moved, but it's actually funded at a higher level than it was last year. So the majority of that increase is moving park maintenance underneath parks and recreation, and also funding it at a greater level than it had been in prior years. That's part of it, along with part-time wages and increased staffing and part-time wages there. And if I missed anything, David.

Thank you, Michael. Mayor, members of the council, just to reiterate that the majority is the park maintenance division moving over. And just to double down on what Michael said there, added part-time staffing as well to the maintenance, kind of expanded hours and some other scope of work. So we want to maintain and protect that investment that was done in the parks and the park restrooms. So that is the majority of it. I know it's parks and recreation. So on the recreation side, we remain Fully staffed with our six coordinators and then leaving some money in there to expand our class programs and some other initiatives that are still kind of getting off the ground here. But a majority is on the maintenance side to protect our parks and keep them beautiful for the community.

Thank you. I think that that was a very strategic move in terms of moving that park maintenance, I believe, from Public Works into actually parks and recs because you have your staff on the ground being able to coordinate within a department versus cross-departmental coordination. I know there's been a difference in terms of just actually being able to get quicker response and quicker resolutions to issues in terms of landscaping, restroom vandalism, and general maintenance issues that we've had across our facilities. So I do appreciate that switch and understand in terms of just that increase there. At this time, that does conclude my comment. Thank you.

Council Member, if I just may add, you hit the nail right on the head. This is, I'll thank David and staff just kind of really thinking through how do we improve our park facilities? How do we make them safer? How do we make sure that they're clean? And that was really the onus for shifting maintenance back to the Parks and Rec Department and ensuring that I guess there's accountability for us internally as staff right with this shift we actually clean each restroom every day twice a day we ensure that we provide if they need amenities if if there's damages anything to that effect that gets taken care of immediately this isn't part of the larger vision that has really been driven at the council level of Making sure our parks are nice, right? Maintenance is one component. Within the last year and a half, we've also introduced the... I don't want to call them park rangers because that's not our official title, but community service officers. There are actually community service officers at every park that help address a lot of the nuisance issues that make people feel unsafe. That's been very, very successful. I will tell you, when I started three years ago, complaints about public safety... at parks was probably the most prominent thing that i would get on a regular basis it was brought to me by council by residents um it's never perfect but i will say there's been i i don't get a lot of those complaints and that's a testament to to david his staff the police department who oversees the community services department uh community service officers the other component again council driven the restrooms right uh the investment that's in may just within the last year we we i i don't want to over promise but we're we're getting pretty close to completing improvements in all the park restrooms um and in addition our focus is really making our parks more uh accessible nicer um one of the things that we're looking at last at the last meeting we did approve our cdbg funding but we are going to be looking at a cdbg a section 8 section 108 loan approximately 3 million dollars to make more parking improvements over the next couple years or so so um WE ARE INVESTING A LOT IN OUR PARKS. AGAIN, COUNCIL HAS BEEN BRINGING THIS FOR MANY, MANY YEARS. I'M HOPEFUL THAT THE RESIDENTS ENJOY IT AND IF YOU'RE SEEING ANY ISSUES, WE WELCOME THEM BECAUSE IF WE DON'T KNOW, WE CAN ADDRESS THEM.

THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. ANY QUESTIONS? COUNCIL MEMBER MELENDEZ.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, MAYOR. know i know it probably can be like a line item here but uh i think it would be uh useful for us to kind of see a little bit of like how top golf is doing the golf course and um there's been heavy investments in that in that uh in that arena and i just wanted to see if if um how everything's looking for us you know in there and uh and then i guess you know maybe clarity too on the on the hotels as well um you know the hilton's garden in for example um expenditures we're looking at around six mil um home two suites 13 million just trying to see if if what are the expenses there right whether it's staff whether it's maintenance and um is it a big you know variation of um upkeep in the difference that we're seeing in both of the hotels uh maybe some clarity on that would would be helpful as well because it is a I think I see like a $7 million difference. So just if, you know, if we can get a little more information on that.

Absolutely. That's something I can provide as part of the presentation for budget adoption. Absolutely.

Thank you, Councilman.

We'll come back to that with more detail, particularly Topgolf and then on the hotels.

Any other questions, comments? So I think in general, though, what we're seeing in the budget is, yes, an increase in expenses, but it also is an increase in revenue. And increase in expenses is because we are spending money on our city, doing the street improvements, helping improve our parks, and just making our community safer, nicer, and more beautiful. We're also spending money on salary increases and benefits that's also in here as well. But I think another important piece I just would like to plug is we saw what the revenue is, the sales tax revenue. So again, encourage you to shop in Montebello, spend your money here because that in turn helps us get more revenue that we can then spend on making our community better. So thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Our next presentation is the capital improvements presentation.

Good evening, honorable mayor, council members, city staff, and members of the audience. I am here to present to you the City of Montebello's Capital Improvement Program projects update for the current fiscal year, as well as the proposed CIP projects for fiscal year 26-27. I would like to begin with the list of completed projects for the current fiscal year. This list includes projects that have either been completed up to date or are scheduled to be completed as of June 30th, 2026. In total, there are 10 completed projects, and those projects are the Rio Hondo Coastal Spreading Gowns Fence Replacement Project, Paving the Way Monobello Project, Plaza Drive Pavement Rehabilitation Project, Fire Station 56 Roof Remodel, Rio Hondo Access Improvement Project, the sign, um the citywide catch basin cps insert installation project the led sign at city hall montebello charge ready project fiscal year 2526 sb1 street rehabilitation project as well as a chet hollyfield pd substation This next group of capital improvement projects began construction during the current fiscal year, but will not be completed as of June 30th 2026. These projects will therefore be carried over to fiscal year 2026 2027 with construction anticipated to be completed within the first three months of the new fiscal year. For each of these projects, the budget that was established during the fiscal year 2025-2026 year will also be carried over to the new fiscal year and will therefore not impact the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. There are seven projects that will be carried over into the new fiscal year. And those projects are listed. Those projects are the Montebello downtown sewer project, the traffic signal at Whittier Boulevard and Sixth Street, the mat cycle one project fiscal year 2425 SB one street construction project, ADA enhancements, sidewalk improvements, and the Holyfield community garden project. Looking ahead to the fiscal year 2026-2027, the city has scheduled seven new capital improvement projects. All proposed projects are expected to be funded through local return funds, grants, or specialized funds, therefore not impacting the general fund. I will now provide additional details on each project, beginning with CP-889. I'm so sorry. This project will provide, I'm so sorry, CP889 Whittier Boulevard Paving the Way is a project that will provide asphalt concrete pavement resurfacing and ADA accessibility improvements along Whittier Boulevard from Van Norman Road to Garfield Avenue. Funding for this project will be provided through Proposition C Paving the Way Bond Funds. Project solicitation is tentatively scheduled to begin in August, 2026 with construction anticipated to commence in October of 2026. Capital Project 901, Bluff Road Slope Stabilization is a critical infrastructure project prompted by the slope damage identified by the County of Los Angeles near Beach Street and Bluff Road following significant storm events and flooding. The city is currently working alongside Western Associates and the County of Los Angeles to secure the necessary permits for the installation of the new storm drain conveyance system. Construction for this project is estimated at approximately $2.485 million and will be funded through gas tax funds, as well as Proposition C paving the way bond funds. CP925, the senior center basement remodel will provide essential improvements to the senior center basement area, creating a multifunctional space to support not only the Parks and Recreation Department, but also transit bus operators. Transit and Measure A funds will be utilized to support the construction of this project. The tentative notice inviting bids is scheduled for September of 2026 with construction anticipated to begin in December of 2026. CP930 is a grant funded project supported by the Southern California Council of Governments, also known as SCAG through its sustainable communities program, active transportation and safety quick builds project category. The project will include wayfinding signage and bicycle amenities along the Los Angeles County Flood Control Recreational Bicycle and Pedestrian Trail with access located near the Whittier Boulevard Bridge. Funding includes a SCAD grant in the amount of $362,500, along with an additional $52,743 in TDA Article III funds. SCAG is currently leading public outreach and project design efforts in coordination with the public works director and city staff. CP946 is the Lincoln Street Rehabilitation Project, and this became possible through the availability of Metro SCPL unprogrammed funds, which will be exchanged for Proposition C funds due to the upcoming expiration of SCPL funding source. The exchange proposition C funds totaling approximately $188,392 will be utilized to rehabilitate Lincoln Avenue between Wilcox Avenue and 18th Street. The city will execute the memorandum of understanding with Metro and anticipates receiving the exchange funds by July of 2026, after which program solicitation will be scheduled. cp949 is a project for the installation of a new traffic signal at the intersection of wilcox and via paseo the purpose of this project is to improve pedestrian safety and enhance traffic control measures at this intersection the city is currently in the design phase with design completion anticipated by december of 2026 construction solicitation is expected to follow shortly thereafter The last project we have for fiscal year 2627 is CP951, fiscal year 2627 SB1 Street Improvement Project. Each fiscal year, the city receives Senate Bill 1 funding to support roadway maintenance and rehabilitation projects. For the upcoming fiscal year, the city anticipates receiving approximately $1.76 million in RMRA funding, which will partly fund the street rehabilitation projects across all five districts. An additional 1.49 million in Proposition C paving the way funds will supplement the project to fully support construction needs. Project bidding is tentatively scheduled to begin in September of 2026 with construction anticipated to commence in January of 2027. Displayed here are the map and corresponding lists of streets proposed under CP951, which will be presented to city council at the next city council meeting for approval. The selection of streets was determined using the city's payment management system while also ensuring equitable distribution of improvements throughout the community. This concludes the presentation on the capital improvement program updates for the current fiscal year and upcoming fiscal year. The public works director, Cesar Roldan and I are available for any questions the council may have.

Great, thank you. Any questions from council? Council Member Peralta.

There we go. Just briefly on the Whittier Boulevard Bridge, really excited for this one in terms of just major infrastructure assets that we have. Oftentimes, local bridges tend to go, I think, unseen when it comes to investment. And I know it's a passage throwaway for many folks that either walk, bike ride, or drive from Pico into Montebello. Lighting has always been a big issue and I know that one of the reasons behind us not having current lighting is due to copper wire theft. I believe the City of LA has been experimenting with just other forms of lighting to not have to deal with the continuous vandalism around copper wire and having not having these lights work so I think something to just look into in terms of some of the technology that they're using that could potentially be implemented so we don't have to keep dealing with copper wire theft and then also in terms of just it being a entryway into our corridor for the city if possible I have to kind of remember drive through there again if there's any opportunity for just landscaping tree planting again creating just a more visually beautiful entryway into Montebello. I think it's something that should be prioritized. So if there is an opportunity for any type of landscaping or tree planting into that entry point is something that is a suggestion. And then lastly, just if possible, oftentimes we get a lot of questions in regards to what streets have been paved which ones are upcoming in terms of pavement in terms of being repaved if possible if on the city website if we can somehow have like the past three years of streets that have been paved and then the incoming ones that are approved to be uh paved um i think that that would be great in terms of being able to just redirect residents and as a form of transparency in terms of what has been worked on and what will be worked on, having that information more accessible would be really helpful as we answer questions or walk through any type of street repayment. I do know we have our payment management plan, which has been really great. It scores all our streets per district. Folks can see which ones are in the most need, which are the ones that we've been tackling. But I think in terms of just showcasing what has been worked on and then what will be incoming is another layer of information that would be good to provide.

Yeah, Councilmember, your note or duly noted will work towards that. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Any other questions? I would just like to note though, that we do have in here, we did see the SB1 Street Improvement Street. So again, this is money that's coming from the state. It's because we are in compliance with our housing element plan. So these are the type of funds that were in jeopardy if we were not to do that. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

No further questions.

Okay, that takes us into public comment, Mr. City Attorney.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. Anyone who wishes to address the City Council at this time should have filled out a card and turned it into the the city clerk's table. We do have public speaker cards, is that correct? I just wanna make one note that public comment period is for the opportunity for members of the public to address the city council. It is not a opportunity for debate or discussion. It's the public's opportunity and time. And so with that in mind, we will call forward the first public speaker card.

Our first speaker is Zachary Humber followed by Nicholas Swaybe.

good evening mayors council members city manager and members of the public my name is zachary humber i'm a fire captain with the montebello fire department and former president of local 3821. over the last year my name and reputation were publicly attacked and tied to serious allegations regarding my conduct and integrity while serving in a labor leadership role those allegations were publicly posted online circulated throughout the community via text messages and attempted to cause damage to my personal and professional reputation. Even an AI generated song was posted and used to amplify it. The claims and charges brought against me were reviewed by the International Association of Firefighters or IFF. They represent over 360,000 firefighters nationwide. Three IFF district vice presidents serving as the official pre-trial review board committee were responsible for investigating and reviewing the charges filed against me. After the committee reviewed the evidence submitted by the charging party and myself, the pre-trial review board unanimously concluded that charges were retaliatory, frivolous, and de minimis, and de miss all the charges filed against me. The board further stated that the filing and distribution of charges during an active union presidential runoff election had all the hallmark signs of retaliation and found there was no evidence presented that had influence over employee promotions or discipline. Unfortunately, the public discussion surrounding these allegations has also contributed to criticism of the department itself, including comments suggesting that Montebello Fire Department lacks professionalism, experience, or operational capabilities due to the recent departure from the department members. I respectfully disagree with that characterization. This department is continued to be staffed by hardworking firefighters, paramedic engineers, captains, and especially team members who continue to show up every day to proudly serve this community. I especially want to recognize the members helping build and develop programs like HAZMAT, USAR, who continue to invest their time, training, and experience into strengthening this department for the future. I personally worked on a Type 1 HAZMAT unit And I understand that specialty programs, they're not built overnight. It takes time and commitment. Programs like Hazmat at USAR also creates value opportunities for firefighter EMTs to grow professionally within the fire service, just as paramedicine itself is a specialty in its own profession. In closing, I would like to share that I grew up in Montebello, and the Montebello Fire Explorer Program gave me the direction to pursue this as a career. This department means something to me personally, which is why I remain committed to seeing it continue to move forward and excel. I remain committed to working professionally and collaboratively with the department's leadership, city administration, members of the department. I also have this for public record, which is the. Thank you for your comment.

Yep.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.

Our next speaker is Nicholas waving followed by Marcos Miranda.

Good evening, Mayor Tamero, Mayor Partem, Romero, City Council members, City Manager Raul Alvarez, and Chief Pelias. My name is Nick Suaving, and I'm a firefighter paramedic with the Montebello Fire Department. I would like to comment on the recent council meeting presentation regarding retention within our department. While our elected local union president spoke on behalf of the membership, I believe it is important to note that many of us uh were not consulted prior to that presentation being made there is no question that retention is a challenge in the fire service including here in montebello however i believe the solution is not to place blame but to continue to work collaboratively with the fire administration city council and the city manager raul alvarez Over the past three years, we have made some significant progress together. We have improved staffing by implementing four-person engine and truck companies, added two squad units, remodeled and improved our fire stations, increased the city's contributions towards employee health insurance, expanded tuition reimbursement program, and successfully reached an agreement in our most recent MOU. We've also had our ISO classification go from ISO class three to an ISO class two. We also have plans on going to an ISO class one department. We also have station four in the works. Squad 57 is soon to be rolled out and plans for a training facility. Those are meaningful accomplishments and they reflect a city and department that are investing in their firefighters. What I have also witnessed over the last three years is a positive cultural shift within the department. When I was sworn in as a firefighter for the city of Montebello and these very chambers, the department operated very differently than it does today. I have seen personnel leave because they did not want to move in the direction this department was heading, but where we are today is something we should be proud of. MORAL AMONGST THE CREWS IS HIGHER THAN I'VE EVER SEEN IT. THE BOND OF BROTHERHOOD WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT IS STRONGER THAN IT'S EVER BEEN BEFORE. I BELIEVE IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE RECOGNIZE AND PRESERVE THE PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE THROUGH THE HARD WORK OF EVERYONE INVOLVED. For myself, I was able to attend the Rio Hondo Truck Academy, become certified as a line medic and deployed as a line medic. I became a paramedic preceptor. I'm state certified as instructor one and two. I am a cadre member on the recruit class 26 that is graduating this Friday. I am proud to be a firefighter and I'm proud to serve the city of Montebello. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment.

The next speaker is Marcus Miranda, followed by Erica Rodriguez.

Good evening to everyone. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight, along with my coworkers. I'm sorry, let me introduce myself first. My name is Marcus Miranda. I am a current firefighter paramedic for the city of Montebello, stationed at Station 55. Like I said, I've been here for four years, and I have seen this department change in many ways for the good. First off, I want to start off by addressing some comments that were made in the last city council meeting by certain individuals. One of them was the requirements to be on the truck, which is a specialty unit, right? It was said that the minimum requirement for weight was 180 pounds and that many of our members cannot even throw ladders. I'm here to say that that is not true. There is no minimum requirements to become certified to work on the truck. We do not step on a scale and get weighed in in order to work on the truck. It is earned through hard work. We are handed a task book. We train hard every day to earn the right to work on the truck. Also, I can guarantee you that every single member of our department has gone through academies, not just one, but multiple. And they are very capable of throwing ladders and completing any task within the truck. I want to just highlight another thing that Nick highlighted. It's just the culture change, the morale. I agree. In the past year and a half, the culture has changed significantly. The environment for learning is way different. Our methods of teaching are way different. The morale is high. People are happy to come to work. I'm happy to come to work. I'm happy to come in and learn something new every day. As far as experience goes, yeah, I've only been here for four years. That is true, right? But I come from other experiences in life. I'm 43 years old and I've done a lot. And I bring all those experiences into the city, into the department. And I'm happy to use all of them to better the department, to better serve my community here in Montebello and my fellow coworkers. Just to highlight some of those experiences, I'm part of the USAR team. I've been deployed on many wildland deployments, including the Palisades. Currently, I work with the Explorer program. The Explorer program is thriving. It's huge. We have no room for so many because they come in and train with us. And I am blessed to be able to work along with the youth and help them out. um facilities when i started here four years ago our facilities were garbage the paint was filling up the walls the floors were coming up it was just the the toilets were leaking all everywhere we've taken steps to use our skills outside of fire and improve our facilities um and again i just want to highlight that the community of montebello is in good hands um with with with thank you for your comment

The next speaker is Erica Rodriguez, followed by Isabel Carbajal.

my name is erica rodriguez um i'm here to bring to light of what's really going on here those three speeches sound very scripted from one person that's telling him what to say i'm the wife of engineer anthony rodriguez we were part of the montebello fire department family for over seven years and each year became more challenging than the last in late april of this year my husband made the difficult decision to leave a position he had worked incredibly hard to earn when anthony left montebello he took with him 16 years of paramedic experience nearly nine years as a firefighter and five years as an engineer and invaluable working knowledge of this city that allowed him to provide the highest level of service possible Over the years, he earned the respect of his coworkers. He mentored explorers and impacted many members of this community. He trained and mentored reserve firefighters, many of whom are now full-time firefighters here. He acted in good faith as a leader, a pillar in this community, and an advocate for the people he served. Anthony tried to ignore the failed leadership. He tried to look past the discrimination and unfair treatment. But ultimately, he lost faith in Chief Pelias' leadership. Concerns about unsafe practices and compromised training standards were met with retaliation instead of accountability. Because Anthony refused to normalize doing the wrong thing, Chief Pelias placed a target on my husband's back. Unfortunately, this has become an ongoing pattern of retaliation for many members of Montebello. As a family, we no longer felt safe with Anthony working for an organization that accepted mediocrity as a standard. My husband did not resign for an easier position elsewhere. He left because he was feared for his safety and could no longer tolerate the hostile work environment. Let me give you an example. A former member of the chief's command staff and personal friend faced allegations of sexual harassment that were never investigated because Fernando claimed he was unaware of them. Yet everyone in the department knew about it. Ironically, my husband was investigated for using his air horn during a 911 response. How is that acceptable? Anthony accepted a demotion, a pay cut, and the loss of rank and seniority in the hope that he could regain the passion for the job that he lost here. City Council, I cannot stress enough how deeply the failed leadership of Chief Pelias has negatively impacted this department. What will it take for you to say enough is enough? The community are the stakeholders who stand to lose the most, and they deserve better.

Thank you for your comment.

The next speaker is Isabel Carbajal, followed by Rosa Tamayo.

Good evening, City Council. Chief Pelias, I'm glad you decided to stay tonight. Because two weeks ago, while firefighters and families stood here raising concerns about your leadership, you chose not to return after closed session.

Do you have to address the City Council, please?

I absolutely will.

Thank you.

People noticed that. And before last meeting even began, on-duty firefighters were suddenly told they could not, they could no longer attend these meetings after years of that being loud. That decision did not calm concerns, it validated them. Because transparency could not disappear the moment accountability arrives. And since the last meeting, it has become clear that firefighters who publicly raise concerns or publicly raise those supporting them believe there may be consequences for doing so. Some firefighters who attended the last meeting are now concerned about retaliation themselves. Some never even spoke. That alone says everything because it's easier to stay quiet. It's easier to protect yourself. What takes courage is standing up when you believe something is wrong. City Manager Alvarez, despite what some may think, we actually want the same thing. We want growth, stability, the strong fire department that this community deserves. Where we differ is how we get there. because the department chasing class one recognition while firefighters are burning out, leaving and becoming increasingly hesitant to speak publicly is not progress, it's optics. As an HR professional, I understand the difference between accountability and retaliation, between healthy leadership and organizational dysfunction. At this point, the damage inside this department is impossible to ignore. There was a time my husband deeply believed in this leadership. A prior union leadership was preparing to vote of no confidence against Chief Polias. My husband was one of the people who helped stand up to stop it. He fought to preserve trust in this administration until what was happening inside this department no longer aligned with the values leadership publicly claims to represent. My husband cannot speak publicly because of ongoing litigation. but he's still here supporting the firefighters he spent years calling his brothers and sisters. And city council, I understand not everyone shares these same concerns, but when the same concerns continue surfacing under different union leadership, different firefighters and different families, eventually the common denominator becomes difficult to ignore. City Manager Alvarez, I recognize you oversee over 5,000 city employees. I understand how problems like this can grow beyond the scope of one person. City Council, that's where your responsibility begins. Because over the last three years, ask yourselves how many firefighters have been placed on admin leave, personnel leaving this department and candidates declining to work here. at some point the damage becomes impossible to explain away and despite all of this i urge you to engage in honest dialogue and address these concerns before more damage is done thank you for your comment the next speaker is rosa tamayo followed by linda nicholas buenas noches mayor georgina tamayo and members del concilio yo soy rosa tamayo

Me apena mucho escuchar todo este problema que tenemos con el fire department, pero yo tengo un aprecio muy grande por cada uno de los fires, porque yo sobreviví y estoy aquí con vida porque me salvaron la vida. and well, I'm in the fight too. Well, but I also want to tell you that what happened in Garden Grove, I hope it doesn't happen here, because we have, sometimes there are bribes with a lot of money, y por eso siempre les digo analicen bien cuando ustedes vayan a probar algún negocio por ejemplo tenemos a tesla se vienen calores se vienen incendios y yo quisiera saber si el fire department el chip tiene specialized personnel to pay for all those Tesla batteries. I want to know if we are sure of not having a fire problem here in the north. y en el sur también. Cuando ustedes hagan un contrato, un negocio, por favor analicen y háblenlo bien porque mira lo que pasó allá en Garden Grove. Ahorita está todo damage allá. I also want to ask one thing, if you want to answer it, that's fine, and if not, that's fine as well. Traditionally, the chairs of Councilor Peralta, to the left, The next speaker is Linda Nicholas followed by Will Severa.

Good evening. My name is Linda Nicholas. You know, it's very heartfelt to see people come up here. You see me every meeting. I would rather stay home, but I love my city. And I know a lot of times I'm up here and I see you on your phones ignoring us. The reason we come up here is we put it on the record. So when it comes time and you're going to have to face the music, you can't play dumb because guess what? It's on the record. I would recommend right now, you five think carefully. I would think that if you wanna resolve this problem, get a third party to analyze what's going on. We have a big problem and there's two sides to every story, but I think you need a party that's totally outside and investigate what's going on. There's two lawsuits in closed session. That doesn't bother you guys. It's not your money. It's us the taxpayers that are paid out these settlements. And these don't have to happen. We need a mediation. We need something to be done. Ms. Tamayo, after the last meeting, your husband went and confronted Mr. Hurtado, an 83 year old senior And he called on him, and I saw it. Then he came inside and he cried to the chief that Raul was threatening him. No, your husband went and threatened him. There was a lot of witnesses. Now, Mr. Severo came up and said something to you, but your husband wouldn't dare face him because he's a young buck and he could look him right in the eye. Your husband's not dumb, but to fight an 83-year-old man and then cry to the chief? That's disgusting. That's no respect whatsoever. And that's not, if you can't be in here and listen to what's going on, then don't come to the meeting. Because when my daughter sat there and she got hit, I never went to cry to any chief because maybe I have more than your husband does. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

The next speaker is Will Severo, followed by Raul Hurtado.

Just to remind the city attorney, and this was in his law school, Marbury versus Madison, Supreme Court. It doesn't matter what you guys like. If I want to talk to Pelias, if I want to turn around, talk to the audience, if you guys want to take me out, I'll win a lawsuit, easy peasy, and he knows it. It's nice, but you run the meeting. And this is our time to speak. Now, when, ooh, there's so much to go on. So the guys that they were talking about, the firefighters that came in, yeah, I wrote the song. I'm the one that distributed it. And second, the last time I checked in chief, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe in the academy, a dummy is 180 pounds and you have to be able to drag it and so does the CPAT. I also want to clarify something. Last week, I would like to apologize to the chief for name calling him. I should have held my words better. It was an emotional moment for me. I've been on the fire department, and when my mother was going through surgery and I had to file FMLA, I was having issues with my superiors. So this hits home to me. People are asking, why didn't the other firefighters show up? Well, at 4.30, according to this email, Fred Astrada, assistant fire chief to the union matters to promote more harmonious, cooperative, and productive working relationship between the labor and the management moving forward members bringing up any union matters to the battalion chief's attention should be redirected to the union e-board. In this manner, they can properly, I'm just going to drop down because of time, but basically it says that they would have to, however, if they must send a request via email to their battalion chief or the CC or the assistant chief and not aversely affect apparatus. Now, why does that matter? When they were talking about Chief Luis Lopez, we saw the police come up here. When we see pinnings, they've come up here. Now we see three firefighters come up here so they could defend themselves. They're all connected to Palais. Now, Pelias will let you guys know and the other complaints from the other side, because I've been talking to both sides. It's called the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack has been gone for three years, and we're still going to keep calling all these new guys. Now, Macias and Carver Hall were close with the chief. They were also close with Zach. You guys got to ask yourself what's really going on here. When you guys just did the budget right now, there's nothing for administrative leave, what we're paying for, how many in the lawsuits and medical leave we've asked multiple times that can be done. It doesn't violate anything to do with HR because we're not requesting names. We're asking for funds only on how much was spent each year. Now, they say that the requirements haven't changed the the tiller truck used to be 100 pages now it's four pages you know we've had a lot of people leaving yes we've had a lot more increase in the fire department we spent a lot more money but it's because we hired administrative staff not actual fire staff you guys have my number i would love to talk to you more raul as well please reach out so we can discuss more of this i could fill you in a little bit more doesn't mean you have to listen but i'd be like i appreciate it

Mayor, we've hit the 30-minute limit. Would you like to continue? We have three more speakers.

Sure, we can continue.

The next speaker is Raul Hurtado, followed by Corey Chappelle. Fact.

I have never spoken. Restart the clock so you can pay attention. Will you restart the clock so you can pay attention? You will not start the clock. Okay, another mark against you. I have never spoken to your husband a hello or a goodbye. Never. I've never even nodded my head to acknowledge him. When he came up to me at the last meeting, he came up to me and told me, everybody knows that I'm the town idiot. I told him, did you take a survey? He said, yes. I'd like people to stand up who were surveyed, please, out there in the back of me. uh if he does not like what i have to say up here about you or anybody else up here i suggest you don't attend the meetings better yet why don't he get you to resign and i think everybody will be happy now i don't know what's happening with the fire department i know there's a lot of problems and i know it's been going on for a long time the city manager should have been involved in this to try to straighten this thing out and not let it get to a head like it has gotten to instead he chose to go to the fire to the police department where there was nothing broken there chief espinoza was taking care of everything the problem had gone away but chief espinoza got fired for doing his job the city manager brings back the problem with a promotion. Does he like chaos? What is going on in this city? I can't understand it.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Corey Chappell, followed by Marie Ledesma.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm up here tonight to address two main issues. Last week, I expressed that meaningful public participation requires meaningful public access to information. Tonight's agenda packet is nearly 1100 pages long. For residents with jobs, families and other responsibilities, it's simply not realistic to thoroughly review that amount of material in the limited time provided before this meeting. Raul, you pat yourself on the back as you advertise the increased transparency that you've brought to your role. However, transparency is not just posting documents online. It's ensuring that the community has a fair and reasonable opportunity to read, understand, and respond what is being presented. When agendas become this large and posted without sufficient review time, the public is effectively shut out of the process before decisions are made. These are important matters that deserve careful scrutiny, not rushed approvals. If residents can't reasonably review 1100 pages in a given time, how can the council realistically conduct a thorough and thoughtful review before making decisions that impact all of us? I respectfully ask the Council to consider postponing major agenda items when packet sizes become unmanageable and to adopt policies that provide additional review time for unusually large agendas to ensure meaningful public participation. I also want to address the serious allegations raised publicly by our firefighters and their families. These concerns deserve more than silence and an internal review. To maintain public trust there must be a truly impartial and independent investigation. Our firefighters, city staff, and the community all deserve a process that is transparent, credible, and free from conflicts of interest. Confidence in the outcome depends entirely on the integrity and independence of that process. That means selecting an outside firm with absolutely no prior ties to city leadership, administration, or legal counsel. Anything less will undermine public confidence before the investigation even begins. Tonight, I'm asking the council to direct staff to retain a truly independent outside investigator and commit to a transparent process that follows the facts wherever they may lead. Our community, our firefighters, we deserve accountability that is credible, impartial, and beyond reproach. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

The last speaker is Marie Ledesma.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, staff. I wasn't gonna speak, so I have nothing ready, but I just wanted to share with you, Mayor and Council, that I'm very perturbed with what's going on with the Fire Department. It's beyond alarming. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend that nothing's going on. It's clearly that brotherhood is fractured, it's broken, and we need to address it. I've always been in favor for giving the fire department everything that they need right because they protect us but we can't ignore the environment how can they be at their best when it's broken and it's clear and you hear one side the other side and contradictions so i just ask you to just really seriously consider investigating in an impartial investigation, not somebody that somebody else picks, but to determine whether or not some serious actions need to be taking place to bring back that brotherhood that is desperately needed, and it should be. um so that's all i have to say but please take it serious because i mean as you can hear their families are broken some have been significantly impacted and it's very heartbreaking and we can't ignore that because they essentially protect us thank you thank you for your comment that concludes all speakers

Okay, that concludes our public comment. We'll move on to item number 10, public hearing.

yeah sorry i skipped the yeah the staff communication yes if you don't mind just a couple items of community interest um this friday in partnership with supervisor hilda solis we're going to be having a full distribution from 9 to 12 in the morning on friday at the montebello golf course it's a it's a very important thing that we're trying to do for the community so if you know of needy families please press the word and um come on friday and saturday in the morning from 9 to 11 we're doing the ribbon cutting ceremony for the bluff road fence uh project this is a long time coming project if uh you know the community has been asking for a long time so we're inviting the community hopefully you can join us thank you thank you

Okay, yeah, on to item number 10, the public hearing. So we will open up the public hearing at 9.18. Any comments on this item? This is item number 10, residential solid waste collection and recycling charges, annual rate adjustment.

We didn't receive any speaker cards.

No speaker cards. Sure, come on up.

And Linda Nicholas. I've always been happy with our services that Athens has given our city. If it's bulk issues, if, you know, I've been able to call when I've seen things out, Athens has always been very good to our city, done a very good job servicing our city. And I think if this is due, this raise is due, I think it's across the board. Other cities are doing the same thing. So I have no problem with it because I'm very happy with the service they provide our city. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Any other comments, public comments on this item? Yes, come on up.

Soy Rosa Tamayo y yo tengo el servicio de Atenas en mi facilidad de vivienda y nos da muy buen servicio Atenas y son muchos departamentos y a tiempo y siempre los trabajadores están dispuestos a ayudarnos y a recoger lo que tengan que recoger y también hay otras facilidades donde nosotros tenemos amistades y ellas también tienen el servicio de Atenas y también están, dan buena facilidad para la basura. Así que muchas gracias. Gracias por su comentario.

Any other comments? Okay, great. I'll close the public hearing at 9 21 and it's up to council for discussion.

Council member. Yes. Can staff please clarify, we are not raising or increasing this year the charges for the annual rate adjustment.

Council, that's accurate. We're adopting the rates that were approved two years ago when the city entered a new agreement with that. By law, we're required to add it to the property rules. Council needs to take that formal action. So that's a rate that was approved two years ago as part of the contract. So it's more procedural for us to be able to add it to the property tax rules.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? And Mr. City Manager, if you can also talk about the fee that the city is collecting the franchise.

Yeah, I think what you're, we're dating ourselves a little bit, but two years ago, the city did go through an RFP process to procure waste hauler services. As part of that process, you know, we went through the THE ENGAGEMENT OF ENSURING WE HEARD THE COUNCIL COMMUNITY AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE IDENTIFIED AS A DEFICIENCY WITH THE PREVIOUS CONTRACT WAS THAT THERE WASN'T A FRANCHISE FEE INCORPORATED. SO AS PART OF THE RFP PROCESS WE DID INCLUDE A 16% FRANCHISE FEE WHICH IS FEES THAT ARE COLLECTED THAT COME BACK TO THE CITY'S COFFERS THAT WE IN TURN

use for city services so there is a 16 franchise fee that is paid by athens to the city as part of the service that they provide to the city yes thank you just to clarify as well is that a fee that other cities receive and is that a fee that we we didn't receive until pre until this new contract

That is accurate. Franchise fees are actually pretty standard in waste hauler agreements. I can't speak to why we didn't have it in our city, but that's something that we negotiated as part of the contract that was adopted two years. Yes, it is a new fee. Again, it's a fee that benefits the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further comments, questions? Okay, I'll call for a motion and a second on this item. I make a motion to approve. Motion by Mayor Pro Tem. I'll second. Second by Council Member Peralta. Can we please call the roll?

Council Member Peralta. Aye. Council Member Melendez.

Aye.

Council Member Alonso.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Romero. Aye. Mayor Tamayo. Aye. Thank you.

That carries us to our regular business. Item number 11.

Mayor, for this item, if we may, John Soria wanted to speak a little bit and introduce the folks that are gonna be making the presentation.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Tamayo and honorable members of the City Council. As we introduce our partners this morning, I just wanted to provide a brief background on how we got to where we are this evening. In 2024, the City Manager placed me in this leadership role with a clear set of expectations. The expectations were, one, to be a fair broker, to be an active listener, and to maintain an open door policy with our workforce. Under his guidance, we've successfully navigated past operational chaos, negotiated two critical MOUs, and are currently transforming our workplace culture. Today, after two years of steady progress, we're at a pivotal moment with an open and promising future. To build on this momentum, we recently partnered with Insight Strategies to take our leadership approach a step further. what we wanted to do was to move past an open door policy and move to what we call an open walls approach, giving our workforce the platform and the opportunity to provide a 360 degree assessment of our management and leadership team. And so tonight, Insight Strategies is here to present the findings of that independent high performance and organizational health assessment and discuss next steps for a phase two that will be before you this evening for consideration. And that phase two is the strategic plan development and activation. And so this evening, I'd like to introduce our partners from Insight Strategies, Terry Fisher and Kevin Katelyn.

Thank you, John. Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like taking a cleansing breath. How about that?

A little cleansing breath?

Okay, I can't help but try to facilitate when I see conflict in a room, so I apologize for that. So here I am. All right, so Mayor, Mr. City Manager, and also the honorable council members, thank you. Why am I thanking you? Well, first of all, we got to work with this guy right here. And I really appreciate the support. There's nothing better than being asked to come in and do what we do for a living and be able to support a leader like Mr. Soria. I said Soria, Soria, sorry. Sorry, Soria. Okay. So, because he's been great because culture starts at the top. And we've known John for some time. And when he got this role, he saw me speaking at a conference and it was kind of, he said, I think we knew what you talked about. So what I want to talk about is a comeback story. Montebello bus lines is a comeback story. It's good news. Our agenda tonight, I wanna talk with you briefly, who are we? Why am I standing here? Why are we here? I wanna talk about the assessment process, some executive headlines, recommendations and quick wins, and then some next steps, okay? You've had a really long night, so I'll try to keep it pretty brief and get to the highlights. So insight strategies, we've been in business since 1994. We have worked with 70 plus transit agencies in that time. And so we're proud to say that. And now we get to add Montebello bus lines to that list. There aren't many companies out there. I don't know if there's any company out there who can say that they've worked with 70 plus transit agencies. I really don't. We've also worked with other entities. We have a long list of private sector, but we also have, what's happening with this clicker? It's going a little nutty. I think I'm getting a little crazy with it. You can see that we work with other cities, nonprofit. You can see the CIA on there, City of Santa Monica. You can see other similar entities. so when we come in we get asked to work with an organization of any kind we our jumping off point is our organizational health and high performance framework let me just start with the middle you see that heart in the middle the mission that is the mission and purpose and why you exist an organization unless we know why what our purpose is it's very hard to inspire employees to do what they do every single day. When I heard Lorraine speaking earlier, the one who got the award, she represents the heart of your city. And I got to thinking about your mission and purpose when she got up there and spoke. And how do you get employees, I feel like I'm taller than the microphone, how do you get employees to come around like how she feels about this city? so the next thing is strategies and goals okay i don't know what's happening with my clicker hold on a second there we go um i do this for a living can you tell hold on all right so who cares if you have your mission and purpose if you don't have measurable goals to support that that's that green bubble right there the strategies and goals Who cares if you have your mission and your purpose, why you exist, measurable goals to support it, if you don't have processes in place to support that? Processes like, how are we going to evaluate our employees? What are we going to evaluate them on? What kind of process do we use to communicate? What kind of process do we use to reward and recognize? And who cares if you have your mission, your purpose, your strategies and goals, your processes to support, if you don't have that all-important blue bubble, which is the people? I call the five rights. If you don't have the right people in the right places doing the right things with the right skill sets and the right mindset, who really cares? Who cares if you have all those things in place? See that circle around there, right? If we don't have a culture that supports and propagates the success of the employees that come to work every single day, who really cares? What's the number one thing that impacts an organization's culture?

What do you think?

Ooh, it will impact morale. Thank you for participating. It is actually the person at the top. And next to that, it's the people that report to that person. Culture starts with leadership. And then there's some other things that cascade off of that, which is why, again, why we were so pleased when John asked us to come in and help him out. Let me tell you a little bit about the process we used. We interviewed eight people between the city, the leadership team managers, we also interviewed the unions, two of the unions, and then we also talked to 73 employees in the employee population. John insisted that we talk to as many people as possible. No, not talk, listen. We didn't conduct an audit. We did not conduct an investigation. We conducted an assessment that required listening to people first and to understand the needs and then make recommendations based on that. So positive highlights from what we found in this assessment Culture themes, inclusion, open door, professional, family dynamic, voices, matter, community focus. Now, Mr. City Manager, John shared the three things that were important to you when you put him in that position. I think this thriving, evolving culture reflects that. Employees care deeply about Montebello and the customer, the community it serves. All levels expressed a desire to contribute positively. All levels, including the unions, expressed a desire to at a minimum have a positive contribution to the further evolution of Montebello Bus Lines. Another highlight we noted was the appreciation and direction and the openness of the current leadership. They see it happening. Employees recognize and appreciate recent efforts to rebuild the culture. Employees consistently highlighted that the agency continues to provide service, maintain safety, and to just get the job done. And employees have faith in John's leadership. Look at some of the things that they said. I mean, I don't know about you, but this is pretty awesome. As a leader of my own organization, man, I hope I would get as much love as he did. I don't know if I would, but he did. Available and transparent, supports staff development, trusts and empowers us, right? Stability and community and cares about people. Those are hallmarks of a great leader. So John's probably blushing over there. He's not looking at me, so I can't tell whether he's blushing or not. Okay. Speaking of red faces, I'm going to skip over neutral and we're going to go to the constructive. Okay. Culture themes around the constructive. The red represents areas of opportunity. Culture themes that are more on the constructive side. There's some inconsistency with discipline, inconsistency with workloads. There's a lack of follow-through, more appreciation and recognition is desired. Let me just say before I, you can read these and I'm just going to, you know, glaze over it. This is What we found here is very similar to what we find in the other assessments that we conduct with other transit agencies. It's very much in line. There were zero red flags, and we do hear red flags when we conduct our assessments. It's a confidential conversation. So these are all very normal. Communication, it's always something that is a struggle. We hear tonight, right, how hard it is to communicate and to have that transparency. You think you're doing all the right things, and when it comes right down to it, sometimes the perception is that that's not the case. We have opportunity here at Montebello Bus Lines. Key processes need development and improvement. Again, a very common theme we find out there. There's a lot of manual processes in this industry. It's time to get up to the times and it improves efficiencies. Common concerns around favoritism, inequity and inconsistent accountability. And again, some of this is kind of lingering baggage from the past. Part of what we did find is that it's a culture that's in transition. it's transitioning out of the dark and into the light and with that you're going to find some of these this kind of hanging on to some of those things some resentments from the past but again i think jonah's leadership team are doing a very good job of listening to people and and honoring and acting upon what they hear um so we've got um vertical alignment like some vertical alignment from all levels right a little bit more alignment there and you got to be super intentional so the thing is is some of this stuff is already in motion and happening And our recommendations have to do with putting a supercharger behind the things that are in motion and make some steps with increased intentionality to take Montebello bus lines to the next level. So speaking of recommendations and what we want to do next, I'm understanding how this clicker is working. There's a big delay. Okay, I get it now. I'm like, you know, super anxious. I always have a lot of energy. So I like to click along, like at the TV, I'm clicking through things. So there's a delay. So all of our assessment was jumping off of this organizational health and high performance framework. And our recommendations fit into this as well. So starting with the strategies piece, oops, it's gonna, gotta go back, hold on, hold on. Top, top, top is to develop a three to five year strategic plan that includes defining what the mission is for Montebello Bus Lines. So Montebello Bus Lines doesn't have a mission. that's been defined. So a mission statement, a vision statement, and what are the values? Values, by the way, the demonstration of values is the third most important thing to a company's, an organization, an agency, a city's culture. What are the values? How do we activate them and demonstrate them every single day? So that's a number one. Next recommendations, communication. Create a communication plan that standardizes how information is shared across all shifts, departments and levels. But guess what? Communication is beyond dissemination. We like to use the term shared meaning. How do we make sure that there's an understanding between you and me, between the leader and their subordinates, right? Between managers and the frontline employees. It requires listening also. So this communication plan isn't just about dissemination. It's about engagement, employee engagement. And there, there's some recommendations that are for citywide implementation, okay? Citywide because, you know, this Mont Blanc signs is part of the city. There's a few processes that I dug into. Performance management, renovate it. It's way behind the times. Also further assess the performance management adjacent processes. And that is onboarding, administrative leave, how promotions are determined, employee retention, training and development, reward and recognition and discipline. These are all parts of performance management. It's not just a once a year performance evaluation. This is the most important people process out there is performance management. and this helps us standardize the way we approach employee engagement retention which is a very important key performance indicator to ongoing performance in any organization coming up on the end here everyone fill vacancies and there has been improvement filling vacancies and retaining employees is the a number one priority period under story because the correlating impacts that occur hard and soft impacts, qualitative and quantitative impacts by not having people, the right people in the right places doing the right things with the right skillsets and the right mindset. That's what this one's about right here. Embark upon a vertical teaming process that ensures all levels are working collaboratively. By the way, by embarking on a three to five year strategic plan, a byproduct of that is this right here. is vertical alignment, people feeling like they matter, feeling like they're contributing and shaping the future of Montebello Bus Lines. And then you got to equip employees, right? You got to equip them with the right skills that activate the strategic plan and activate the desired culture, the one that Montebello Bus Lines is in the process of working on and moving towards. I already talked about this. What's the desired culture? It trumps everything. right involve the employee the voice of the employee what they think what matters to them and also integrate generational value shifts that we all know are out there integrated into that desired culture then make sure you got leadership competencies that support that make sure that the values represent that then you got to make sure that all your policies align to all of that i don't know but a lot of government public sector clients that we work with, they'll say, we need to blow the dust off some of those policies, dress codes that are 20 years old, right? That's just one example. So what's already in motion? It's like I want to look at John when, can you turn around so I can talk to you? Because it's all such good stuff. Thank you. Do you mind? All right. So look at this. I mean, he's already, he starts this. We'll talk with John. All right. It's part of the improved communication. We'll talk with John once a month, right? Bringing employees in. They get to ask anything. Or they can submit it on a card like they do here, but maybe something on a card that someone wants to remain anonymous. The transparency of that is so key and so critical. Next one. Some people are like, we don't know who's who. People get hired, where are they? What are their names? How come we don't know about them? So org chart as a starter, right? And we're going to do, there's another recommendation there. There's other recommendations. I'm just hitting the high points. Okay. um so because the mmma found out that the smart td was meeting so frequently with management like we want to do that too isn't that i mean that's great they want to have those meetings too by the way when i met with smart td and mmma very respectful conversations very respectful yeah they had improvement areas like everybody did very respectful um some things that uh john has gone to work on have you did you all pay attention to belt buckles with bus operators right John's like, I'm going to get these guys a big old belt buckle. And you cannot believe what pride that started to instill. Not started, they were all very, very prideful. But that symbolism of we're all going to wear this belt buckle, it's like a badge of their job. It was the coolest and smartest and smallest little thing, but it was great. OK, so things like he brought back the rodeo. See the pride of all those? The rodeo gone. The rodeo wasn't happening for years. They go participate at a rodeo and they stand up and then you all acknowledge them here, fantastic, excellent, love that, right? Safety awards, the December gala. These are the things that really, really matter to bring employees to a point of feeling like they belong to something that's important to this community. And that's it. Thank you again for giving us the opportunity.

Thank you. Are there any questions, council member? Mayor Pro Tem.

Oh, not necessarily any questions. I would just like to add to that. I was in Indian Walls with director here and his transportation crew, and I saw firsthand what it was like. And really, they're a family. And I wanted to be a part of that family. Everybody felt so good. You can feel it. Everybody was all on the same team. I mean, just the unity. I really appreciated seeing that and being included in that. And so really, that is part of leadership. That is where it starts. IF IT FEELS GOOD TO GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING, YOU'RE GOING TO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND WHAT YOU'RE EXPECTED TO DO. AND IT SPREADS, RIGHT? AND SO IT'S CONTAGIOUS WHEN YOU'RE IN A GOOD MOOD AND YOU SPREAD IT TO OTHER COWORKERS. AND THE OPPOSITE, RIGHT? AND WE SEE THAT AS WELL WHEN THINGS AREN'T GOING WELL WITH MORALE, THEN IT SPREADS ALSO AND IT DOESN'T FEEL GOOD TO BE A PART OF THAT EITHER. i just i really congratulate our director on doing such an amazing job and um being available to his team he's also been available to me as a council member um just helping to advise because he himself was a previous council member and so i really look up to his leadership as well and i appreciate him and i appreciate everybody on the team who welcomes me also on indian wall so i just i congratulate him and his team on just how amazing they are and all the great changes that they're doing

that's really that's wonderful you said something that was so important um council member council member romero is i'm sorry brain fog had been you know out and about since six o'clock this morning um behavior is contagious and there is research to prove that it's dangerous it's dangerous when there's negative behavior contagion and the negative voice is always louder than the positive so part of what what we always talk about when we consult in the area of culture is you've got to be so intentional you got to get a megaphone about the positive things because it will get it just overshadowed by the negative just like with customers right any customer one bad thing you got to have 25 nice things happen to outweigh the one bad thing so behavior is contagious and there's a ton of research around it thank you for bringing that up

any other questions comments on this item okay i'll call for mayor if i if i just may just because i i have to i know we're all clapping for john and he's getting he's turning around i think he's trying to sneak out yeah right it's like let's go under that table right there i'll be brief because i've been talking and i always talk a lot but it's worth commending john because where this department was three years ago toward us now it's It's night and day. You know, it's interesting. So just for the benefit of residents, right, we're talking about Montebello. Yeah, Montebello. We have a lot of moving pieces, but the biggest piece we have is actually Montebello Transit. It is the third largest transit in LA County. Third largest transit system in LA County. We service 14 cities, almost 2.9 million resident riders annually. We have a lot of people that depend on us on a daily basis. And I'm going to tell a really brief story of why change happened, why John. You know, it's interesting about the city manager. I try to be as successful as possible. Sometimes I can be, sometimes I can't. But when I started, the first year is always crazy when you're the city manager. I would always be working late. And what I realized is if you call City Hall, eventually if you stay on the line long enough, it gets routed to the city manager's office. and then when nobody else is there it's me and eventually it rings on my on my uh my line my direct line so believe it or not you stay long enough i will pick up the line if i'm here good tip yeah there you go but it was like i remember it was like at 8 p.m and i had this gentleman and he was calm but frustrated and he was frustrated because the bus that he was waiting for was 45 minutes late So I called operations. They didn't know where the bus was at. And the guy was just like, hey, man, look, I'm not mad. I'm just telling you that I depend on this bus being on time. I have two jobs. If I'm late to this job, I'm going to get fired for that one. And he was as calm as possible. I'm like, okay. Okay, hold on there. I talked them through it. We figured it out. But the point was a bus being 45 minutes late is unacceptable on many, many levels, right? And so change had to happen. There's a lot of stuff that can go in it and you spoke to staff, so you understand how that change happened. But I think for us, and when John, I made the appointment with John, it started at a most fundamental level. Let's provide the best quality service to residents. Let's be on time. Let's be responsive. Let's be respectful. from bus driver to employees to folks on our maintenance yards. And John and I are on the same page of that. And when you're talking about leadership, that's how you change culture, right? And John is not sending memos or giving directives. He's leading by example, right? And so I think that's what you're seeing. Your presentation was great. You validated a lot of the things that I've seen through John. um this department is is pretty integral this year we're celebrating 95 years we're doing everything possible i apologize for everybody because i won't stop saying it we're celebrating 95 years of service to la county it's a very very big deal you're going to be seeing events you're going to be seeing the gala you're going to be seeing safety awards the belt buckle is so cool he came in and he showed me and you know so um but but you know Putting John aside, the most important thing is I hear directly from the employees. I hear directly from the writers. And ultimately, again, I'll wrap it up by saying thank you, John. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for, I think the one thing I love about John, he's really great about listening. And I think that's what his employees appreciate the most. And that's where it starts. Yes. Thank you, John.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, Director. Okay. This is on the floor for a motion and a second.

I'll motion to approve. I'll second.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Peralta, second by Councilmember Melendez. If we can call the roll, please.

Councilmember Peralta? Aye. Councilmember Melendez?

Aye.

Councilmember Alonzo? Aye. Mayor Pro Temeramera? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye. And that moves us to item number 12.

Do we have a presentation? No.

So we have a presentation for this item.

Yeah. Item number 12 is what professional services agreement for West coast arbor is for the urban forest management plan. Cesar, you want to talk about it?

Thank you very much Mister city manager council members mayor members of the audience this item is brought to you in front for consideration roughly about a year or so ago the city received a grant from our Cal fire the urban force management plan we were working with 3 people at some point in time roughly 4 or 5 months ago we received a letter from 3 people stating that they were not capable of providing the services that we needed for this to support this grant. So staff really diligently worked really hard over that timeline with Cal Fire to have West Coast Arborists who happens to also be the city's tree pruners and they take care of our trees to have them perform that responsibility and really technically take over the responsibilities that tree people had promised to perform. So at this point, we are bringing this in front of city council for consideration. We've been working really diligently. We actually have a meeting with CAL FIRE next week. They want to ensure that everything's going to go according to plan. And our staff is ready to answer any questions that you may have with respect to this grant.

Any questions? Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

Yeah, I just wanted clarity on item number 12. And then item number 19. The difference I was just wondering if it had if it was going to go up for RFP, or this was just a transfer over and just kind of some clarity on that.

Thank you very much for that question. So item number 12, uh, this was actually a competitive bid process that went in front of city council, uh, most likely just prior to when you started. Um, and it was, we, the city received three bids back then, uh, and West coast Arborist was the second bidder. Um, Cal fire obviously has a, is a state agency. Uh, they ensure that the public contract code is followed through and through. Um, and if you want to even go a little bit more back, At some point in time, this project was delayed, this grant was delayed because the federal government took it away from the state. So we've been fighting diligently week by week by week by week, trying to ensure that CAL FIRE gets us these funds. Item number 19, that's going to be as part of the consent calendar, like I stated earlier, treat, I'm sorry, West Coast Arborist is the city's arborist. So that's a separate contract. But West Coast Harbors has the capability of mapping GIS using coordinates. They know all our trees back and forth. They know all that information. And so, like I stated, next week when we do meet with CAL FIRE staff, we're going to ensure that everything is properly performed per the agreement. And this only gets us closer to our goal of purchasing trees, planting more trees in the city, which is extremely important for our urban forest.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Peralta.

Thank you. I know that as someone that has just kind of sounded like a broken record about the importance of urban forestry and tree planting, with this almost $700,000 at one point being in jeopardy due to the freezing federal funds being frozen by our federal administration and now actually being able to access these funds. This is something that has long been awaited and obviously with the hiccups of the first Bitter Tree people no longer having the capacity to execute the contract and having to go through this process of re-awarding it. Happy that we're now at this point of finally moving forward with this. I think this is a very critical component in that not only are we going to be planting, I believe a little bit over 500 trees, but we have to develop an urban forestry management plan that essentially assesses where we're at in terms of our canopy across Montebello. conducting community outreach, developing a plan to then strategically plant the trees versus arbitrarily just planting them anywhere and that's not equitable. So this is a very critical component prior to planting the trees. are we able to i know we're obviously working towards awarding the contract but can the community outreach component come back in terms of just an update to council on what that looks like i know that there's supposed to be a series of community meetings to get feedback and just have that buy-in from our community in terms of where the need is, and obviously through this larger data-driven assessment, that's also part of this quantitative, qualitative approach that we're taking to this urban forestry plan. Can we have an update on that community outreach component, what that's gonna look like, so that we can make sure that our community is properly informed about that specific process.

Yeah. Cesar, you wanna take that?

Yes, council member, we could come back with that component. But we're probably looking at some time between four and six months. Because if they're just going to be starting with some of the narratives that require us to start this urban forest management plan, we need to present the community with something. So we have to do our homework as well. This is a multi-year contract. This is taking us to, I believe, 2028, because that's how long it actually takes for us to do a lot of these items. And then there has to be multiple outreach components through the various districts. So, you know, if you're okay and patient, we could come back in the next four to six months.

yeah i know urban forestry management plans i've seen other cities do them and it's it's a heavy lift it's a long process and that's where i i understand the patients i think just more so of having these updates and making sure that we're involved in in helping to shape that process the community outreach process is important as in the interim i know they're they're developing and assessing the canopy across the city for for the data component Second, and I don't know if it's this part, I believe from what I recall, it was two contracts. One was the developing the urban forestry management plan. And then the second part was actually the contract to do the tree planting service part. I'm not sure if it was this one or the next one, but I know that tree people had in their proposal committed to providing, I believe 200 additional trees beyond just what we would be paying for with the grant. Obviously, they're not going to be working on this contract anymore due to their own limited capacities in the organization. If there is an opportunity to advocate in terms of West Coast Arborists or even beyond other organizations or the county in terms of the need to augment the number of trees, that's something that I would appreciate staff kind of taking charge in.

Yes, council member. I mean, in essence, we're reassigning this contract that was previously awarded, trying to stay within that scope of work. So we stay within budget. But yes, definitely, it's something that we could try to engage them to see if that's something we can work out. Obviously, we also have other partners. The county itself has been very supportive recently. We will definitely see if we can parlay the trees that we're going to plan to try to get some more through other organizations as well.

Yes, Council Member Melendez.

You know, I don't know if this would be appropriate for item number 12 or 19. But, you know, sometimes we get, you know, questions about the trees that get removed and, you know, there's a tree that's being taken out or whatever the situation is. um if awarded i you know i've personally taken a tour of west coast arborist and like their facility i think it would be pretty neat to have them if possible do a presentation of how they're able to determine what tree gets removed and the technology that they utilize because i mean just this week i got What's it this week? Yeah, this week I got a message from a resident that, you know, they're like, why are they removing the tree? You know, and then we're trying to come up with answers that we don't know or I'll message you and, you know, try to figure that out. But I think it would be pretty good for West Coast Arbors to come in, do a presentation if possible, just about the technology that they utilize and how that's determined. So the residents can know why certain trees getting removed and, you know, just give more information for folks.

Councilor, I think that's a great idea. You're living what we get every day, right? And you get as council members, trees are pretty a sensitive subject. Let me talk to Cesar how we can figure out, I don't know if we can fold it in as part of this community engagement process. But aside from that, I mean, we do presentations. It'd be really good to come in. educate the community. I mean, just as most infrastructure, just know we, we, the, the last option we ever do is remove a tree. That is absolutely the last thing we do. And there's only two reasons that we remove trees. Number one, if it's a threat to public safety, if it's imminently going to fall and we have to immediately remove it, or if unfortunately the tree is so deceased that eventually it's going to die and fall and cause danger so those two reasons but it's a lot of obviously a lot of a lot more uh details that go into that so i think it'd be really really helpful for the community to understand how do we make decisions because yes we do have to explain ourselves we don't like removing trees we only do it absolutely if we have to um and then and in addition we try to replace them as much as possible we'll double up or at least do 101 on the tree ratio but yeah i think that's duly noted it's an important subject and we'll do our best to come back in the future okay

And one more thing, Mr. City Manager, item number 18 is a grant that I'm applying for is also for the purchasing of at least 500 or 700 trees. Just if anybody's interested in reading that.

Okay, any further questions, comments on this item? All right, it's on the floor for a motion and a second. I'll motion to approve.

I'll second.

A motion by Councilmember Peralta, second by Councilmember Melendez. Call the roll, please.

Councilmember Peralta? Aye. Councilmember Melendez?

Aye.

Councilmember Alonso.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Romero. Aye. Mayor Tamayo.

Aye. And with that, we are now at the consent calendar. Mr. City Attorney.

Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Consent calendar includes all items from items 13. through 27. These are considered routine matters. And do we have any speaker cards in any of those items?

We do not.

Thank you. At this time, I'll pull the council to see if there's any requests to address any of the items 13 through 27, starting with Council Member Peralta.

None. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Melendez.

No items.

Thank you. Council Member Alonzo.

No items.

Thank you. Mayor Procter-Romero.

I'd like to pull item 19.

Which one?

19.

19. This one. And Mayor Tamayo.

No items.

So that would be appropriate to entertain a motion to approve items 13 through 27 with the exception of number 19. I'll make a motion.

Oh, motion? Did you motion? Yeah, I can second.

Motion by... Yes. Motion by Council Member Melendez and a second by Council Member Peralta. We'll call the roll, please.

Council Member Peralta? Aye. Council Member Melendez?

Aye.

Council Member Alonso? Aye. Mayor Potem Romero? Aye. Mayor Tamayo?

Aye.

That then takes us to item number 19, which was pulled by the Mayor Potem.

Yes, I'd like to approve this item, but I'd just like to release an RFP on this item as soon as possible.

So the contract is not up? Can we come back?

So I'm sorry, am I not reading it correctly?

So let me explain a little bit. So we have a current existing contract with Whisker Arbor as a provider, our tree services. We went over budget on the existing contract. So this item is basically to just put more funding in the current existing contract. There is no contract that is currently okay is it I'm sorry is it up in October though correct or no um I would need which I think that we're in the third year of a five-year contract so we um I think the I would need to look in the details but I think we're allowed to make a one-year extension that's what we're doing yeah so if you don't yes sir October is correct they will be on their third year and they have two one-year extensions Yeah, just to cover the, there is no, the contract is not up as of now.

Okay. Okay.

Any questions, comments, anything further? If not, I'll call for a motion and a second.

I'll make the motion.

I'll second. Motion by Council Member Melendez and second by Council Member Peralta. We can call the roll.

Council Member Peralta. Aye. Council Member Melendez. Aye. Council Member Alonso. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Romero.

Aye.

And Mayor Tamayo.

Aye. And that takes us to Council Orals. We have none of, but before that the AB 1234 travel reports. So we'll start Council Member Peralta.

uh yes i was able to attend uh icsc um and uh just to kind of give a quick overview here um this is the opportunity where montebello has um the chance to essentially essentially get in front of businesses as well as just property owners mostly across major plazas within our city And so we were able to meet with Montebello Mix, which is right here on Montebello Boulevard, and had a discussion around their Rite Aid current vacancy. They are in the process of looking at bringing in Ali Fitness, which would be really great in terms of just an additional competitor to LA Fitness and just giving options more options to residents we talked about place making opportunities there they had mentioned last year that they value place making and so something that I hope we can encourage as a city is really pushing them to invest in that so what would it look like to use their Plaza or create opportunities for for more community gathering some cities some plazas in other cities have really cool initiatives in terms of just gathering spaces. So if that is something that we can really encourage them to invest in would be great. And then one thing that I continuously do like to bring up in these conversations with this property owner is landscaping and loitering issues, because you have a goodwill and you have that really interesting kind of, access point to the back end of that shopping plaza. There's a lot of issues in terms of just landscaping, loitering, things have improved, but just kind of continuing to advocate and keep them accountable in terms of just that. They have increased security, which is good, but we know that there's a lot, I would say, crime in that area in terms of just theft. So just being aware of these issues is something that we really push to keep them aware. I'll let my colleagues speak on some other exciting opportunities in terms of the shops of Montebello, which we got an opportunity to meet with them. We got an opportunity to also meet with the Wilcox Shopping Center Plaza where Best Buy is. I'll let my colleagues speak to that. And then also had an opportunity to attend Contract Cities where we, We're able to be featured on a panel. I'll speak to the economic development panel, but have a conversation around the importance of investment in our city, how to make sure that we're providing entry point opportunities for local mom and pop shops. At the same time, how do we anchor in larger retail spaces to drive opportunity? drive revenue within our city. We talked about our clean task force and the opportunities that we're trying to bring in terms of vacancies and working with property owners to bring in local entrepreneurs that are not ready to have their own brick and mortars but can serve as pop-ups so that these storefronts don't remain vacant. and the interdepartmental coordination that we do to work on blighted properties. There was a lot of panels regarding partnerships within our school districts, LACO. There's issues around certain schools having extra property. How do they work with cities to ensure that the city also has a buy-in in terms of these properties that are are underutilized and will be used for different purposes, coordination for crisis, which is important based on the Garden Grove issue that we currently saw in the region, as well as housing homelessness and the work that they're doing in West Hollywood. That concludes my report.

Thank you. Council Member Melendez.

Thank you. Attended the Contract Cities Conference. I was also a panelist for a session there, Water Education for Latino Leaders. So I've done the program in the past and I was able to speak on my experience and some of the issues that we've had here in the city. Attended ICSC as well. As my colleague mentioned, we had a lot of, we had a full day of meetings and there's a lot of exciting uh businesses and opportunities are coming in i'm not really sure of what i can share i cannot share so i won't say too much but there's some exciting stuff coming in thank you thank you council member um council member alonzo about the report

Nothing to report.

Mayor Pro Tem Romero. Yes, I also attended ICSC where we were able to network and pitch our community face to face. We had meetings with developers, retailers and restaurants to discuss filling vacant properties. um this promotes job creation economic stability build partnerships and generate public tax revenue um as um council member peralta uh said yes we're excited we uh we're hopeful that um the planet fitness will be coming to our city soon and then we also did meet with the um partners for the um Montebello Mall and Yard House and Round 1 will be coming to our city. So there's lots of great things coming to our city. I know everyone's always putting out different businesses that they would like to have. You always hear Trader Joe's. And as much as we want them to come to our city, it's not always that easy, right? So we discuss with businesses what exactly they require for us to meet those needs. to meet those requirements and to have them come to our city so it's a lot of back and forth conversations looking at new properties potential properties um properties that their leases will be up soon um and if we meet the requirements for for their type of business um so lots of lots of potential things coming to montebello and i was excited to be able to advocate on behalf of our city for that I also attended California, our CCCA. And then yes, Councilmember Peralta and Melendez, they were on the panel. So that was pretty exciting that our city was such a big part of this conference, as well as our transportation. They took a bus down all the way to Indian Wells and that was pretty exciting to represent in such a big way. And I was pretty proud to be a part of that and to see that. I also, one of the big takeaways, one of the seminars that they had was discussing homelessness and how they're handling the homeless crisis in their community. And I see that it's going to be an influx, especially with the Olympics coming. We see it now that slowly we're seeing an influx in our own city and how we're going to potentially handle that in the future. So I really, I was appreciative of that course and just what things we can begin to plan for. I talked with a city assistant manager about possibilities for family homelessness and really with the economy right now and where it's at, we're seeing that. It's hitting hard and that's something that we need to really look into as a city and how we can support our community.

so that's it that's all i have thank you on my end i also attended the annual icsc convention in partnership with the city staff the main reason for attending again this conference is to attract new retail restaurants commercial tenants to the available sites that we have here in the city so we talked a little bit about some of the the um the the businesses or the retail the the businesses that we'll have building in those retail spaces so planet fitness we talked about the shops at montebello um we met with with the owners and they talked about uh looking uh into investing and improving the landscaping uh in and around the mall area as well as the security and the bathrooms those are the three things they're going to focus on And in the food court, they're looking at bringing in a, it was a dumpling restaurant, ding tai fung like, not the ding tai fung, but they talked about a Molly's tea and a Coddy's coffee place. So these are like Asian inspired food hall and beverages places. And then we also touched on the vacant Forever 21 site that's there. Again, Round One and Yard House is what's looking to fill those spaces. But they did also talk about new stores coming to the mall, which would be a Sephora and a Pop Mart. And then over at the Montebello Plaza, which is the corner of Wilcox and Via Campo, the Albertson Shopping Center, we talked to the owners there and they are looking to bring in a Dutch Bros at the former bank site and an In-N-Out at the former Optum office. So the city's participation in this ICSC conference, it's validated by a placer. The foot traffic, it's a key tool that we use here in the city to track the shopper's behaviors and visit patterns. And it gives Montebello a compelling data-driven story to tell these prospective businesses. It's moving beyond the assumptions and demonstrating that there is a consumer demand here in Montebello. so when we go there we do it we have um we do it intentionally to try to to prove uh with our data that we do uh support new retail and dining investments here in our city so that concludes my report um no we're gonna oh yes right yeah so we're back at closed session we didn't finish

Madam Mayor, member of the council, we should then recess back into closed session for items one, two, and four.

Okay. Back to closed session.

Yeah, that's it. Okay. Okay.

All right. We're back from closed session. Mr. City Attorney, if you can report out.

Yes. Madam Mayor, members of the council, the record should reflect that all five members were in closed session discussion on items one and three. I'm sorry, one and two. no action was taken nothing required to be reported it's appropriate to entertain an adjournment and turn back to the mayor yes so i uh tonight i would like to adjourn this meeting um

In memory of Rosie Borges and her son Atiel, the beloved members of the Montebello community who were tragically and violently taken in a senseless incident that happened in our community. That's the fire that occurred on Fifth Street, just south of Whittier. So I would like to ask for a moment of silence in their honor for Rosie and Atiel Borges, please. So Rosie was a mother, a neighbor, a member of this community. Atiel was a child, a student at Lomersed who was taken right before his 14th birthday. Neighbors and loved ones gathered in the streets of Montebello to mourn their loss and come together, united in grief and in love of a mother and a son taken too soon. I was able to attend the last rosary and talk to many of the affected families. What happened to Rosie and Atiel was not an accident, it was an act of violence. A devastating reminder that domestic violence is not a private matter. It claims lives in our community, in our streets and in our homes. Domestic violence is a crisis and help is available right now, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE. It's 1-800-799-7233. And also in support of the Borges family, there is a GoFundMe page with the title of Bringing Rosie and Atiel Home for Peaceful Rest. And I also just got a message and wanted to close to adjourn this meeting also in memory of Vivian Romero, our previous council member, her mom just passed away last night. So if I could ask for a moment of silence for Yolanda Romero. Thank you. Yolanda was a resident of many decades. So may she rest in peace. And with that, we will adjourn the meeting for tonight at 1115. Thank you.