City Council - Regular Meeting

CALLING THIS MEETING TO ORDER TODAY WEDNESDAY JUNE 10TH AT 6 0 1 Can you take the roll please? Of course.

Council Member Melendez?

Here.

Council Member Alonso? Mayor Pro Tem Romero? Present. Council Member Peralta? Present. Mayor Tamayo?

Here. And with that, we'll have the city attorney announce the closed session items, please.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor and members of the council. Let me first inquire, do we have any, no speaker cards for closed session items? For closed session, we'd ask the city council to recess for closed session for items one, two, and three as listed on the agenda. It's appropriate to recess into closed session.

Okay, we'll recess and be back at 7 p.m.

All right, we're ready to start.

Thank you for joining us this evening. We are back from closed session. So if we could have Mr. City Attorney report back from closed session, please.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. The record should reflect the City Council convened into closed session after announcing the three items that were on the agenda for tonight for closed session. The record should further reflect that the four members that are present this evening were present in closed session, and the following is my report. On item number one, the City Council provided direction to the City Manager regarding this one item, but there's nothing required to be reported at this time. Item number two, again, direction was provided to special counsel on that matter, but nothing is required to be reported. And also on item number three, direction was provided to special counsel on that litigation matter, but nothing is required to be reported this evening. That concludes my report from closed session. It's appropriate to continue with the open portion of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. We will continue with our invocation. Please, our treasurer, Mr. Matango.

Please stand.

Lord, we are meeting here today to conduct matters of business. Guide our hearts and our minds in the spirit of fairness, bright and thought and speech. Impart your supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our affairs may reach a successful conclusion. Thank you for being our source of guidance today. Amen.

So to continue with our future leaders of Montebello, today we have not one but two special guests with us today. They're two sisters. I'm going to read a little bit about them, and then they're going to come up and do the Pledge of Allegiance. So let me start with Catalina, Catalina Patrick. Catalina is a third grade student at Meher Montessori School. Her favorite subject is math. She enjoys learning and caring for animals. When she grows up, Catalina hopes to be a teacher and inspire future generations through education. And her sister, her sister is Mary Patrick. Mary is a first grader at Meher Montessori School. Her favorite subject is science, and she loves dogs. When she grows up, Mary hopes to be a Girl Scout leader and an artist, combining her creativity with her passion for helping others. If we can please have Catalina and Mary come on up to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

So you can come on up.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, yes. All right, our next item is corrections to the agenda, Mr. City Manager.

Yes, Mayor, Council Members, we only have one change to the presentations. The presentation for certificates of recognition for Scher High School will be moved to the June 24th City Council meeting. Thank you.

All right, we will start with Adventist White Memorial, if that's okay, for our presentations.

Yes, mayors, council members, we have a presentation for Adventist White Memorial. We welcome their new president, Mr. Daniel Fontura, thank you.

Mayor Tamayo, members of the City Council, it's a pleasure and honor to be here. Again, I am Daniel Fontoda. I've been out on the job for about three and a half months at Adventist Health White Memorial, which encompasses both the LA campus as well as Montebello. We're here really to discuss the investments that have been made, are being made, and will be made as we look to work with your offices and co-create the rebirthing of the hospital in the years to come. Because as I talk with physicians and employees who have been there for 20, 30, 40 years, they love that hospital. And so we're blessed and privileged to be leading that hospital effort to get back to where it once was before it began to decline over the years leading up to the bankruptcy and our purchase in 2023. There it is. Great. Thank you so much. So we're gonna talk about the investments that have been made here initially. And what you can see this slide shows is about a million dollars made into improving access and growth so people in the community don't have to leave the community for their care. So you see urology equipment that aids urology services provided to Montebello in the hospital. Also over half a million dollar in GI scopes GI scopes are pretty pricey instruments. So again, these were tools that allow diagnosticians and therapeutic gastroenterologists to be able to detect and treat gastrointestinal disorders. And then $350,000 for a portable x-ray system to bring images directly to patients in the ICU, the ED, and the OR, improving access and the speed of care. These investments here that we've made result in safer and higher quality care. So about a quarter million here in totality encompassing new OR tables, surgical helmets and limb positioners that are required and essential in an OR setting and about $46,000 in patient monitoring equipment and vein finders to find veins a little more easily than they would unaided and without that ultrasound technology. Here is just shy of $100,000 in modernizing core capabilities. So basic things, sonocyte ultrasound, a cautery unit, blood analyzers to build out and prepare for a modern cath platform that we'll hear about more shortly to provide advanced cardiac care. and then the imaging media system to streamline imaging diagnostics and improve care coordination for our radiologists as this improves their workflow and allows them to actually work through faster the images coming across, whether it's x-ray diagnostics, CT, MR, mammograms, or what have you, as those images are taken at the hospital. So now we're going to move to the investments that are being made as we speak. So I've categorized this investment horizon as summer 26 that we're about to embark on in a few weeks. So you see here about a half million dollars in equipment. So this includes things as mundane as again, anesthesia monitoring equipment, And then here, the middle item has to do with the cath lab opening. So we're actually looking to have a CDPH visit next month that hopefully will allow us to get that certified and open up the cath lab there to provide services in terms of diagnostic catheterizations, as well as PCIs. You see here cath lab stents, monitoring and cleaning systems necessary for that interventional cath lab work. and then some ultrasound upgrades here as well. So now I'll get to the fun and exciting stuff. Here's what we're thinking, and we look forward to interfacing and collaborating with Raul and Joe and others in the city council in terms of what do we, we the collective we here, want Montebello to look like. So thanks to Supervisor Solis, we have funds available and we're gonna use those funds to do several things, including painting the entire edifice, including the ER entrance. That'll happen this summer. Also, we're gonna look at what it might mean to differentiate The wayfinding at entrance points into the campus is a bit confusing right now. I'll be honest with you, I was confused when I first got there. Not the most intuitive entry points into the campus. So we're gonna try to improve that. And then also improve resurfacing, restriping, and solarizing the parking lot where it is now. So those kind of improvements we look to have happen this summer. We also eventually want to expand the emergency department. And we also have completed the expansion of the community well-being center. But the middle bullet there is of interest where I see us, again, really coming together. And we're talking about meeting on a regular cadence with the city manager and Joe, planning and development here to where we can, again, have that conversation. bi-directional communication and input from the city in terms of what we're building together for the residents of Montebello that meets your expectations and their expectations. To that end, that campus master plan will be linked to a overall strategic plan that should be crafted by October-ish. And then of course we'll have supporting capital plans and marketing plans and a campus master plan. And again, crafting that with you will be incredibly essential to making sure the needs of the Montebello residents in terms of their health and wellbeing and healthcare are met in the future. And these are the services that will be coming soon. So in terms of actual programmatic service lines that we've talked about on several occasions, EDAP, so we get certification for providing certified pediatric care in our ER. That'll happen towards the end of the year. But the primary stroke care, our accrediting body, DNV, just today certified us as a primary stroke center. So your trucks, your first responders can now include us in the tableau of options to where they can drop off patients that might be having a stroke. And then the cardiac cath lab. That's what I mentioned earlier. We're actually looking to open up the brand new lab next month. Once CDPH comes out and gets that certified because every other box has been checked and we're ready to open to EMS traffic as well as walk-up traffic with folks who are having heart issues of one sort or another. And these are the community programs that are already in place. We're looking to continue to make sure that people in the community know about them, or we're in the process of expanding or amplifying them. So the Vive Bien program for seniors, homeless health navigation, food as medicine, so the pantry and food distribution program, for example. The FHNA, which is a process that occurs every three years to make sure that we understand and are researching and linking to the actual needs in the community from a health and welfare perspective, and making sure we're providing programming that meets those needs. healthcare pathways workforce development program for youth. So making sure that we've got ways to expose high school youth to the opportunities in healthcare, including entry-level jobs that might make for a great career path. And then also expanding again, senior services as those examples listed there. I believe that concludes my presentation. Mayor Tamayo, any questions for me?

Well, entertain any questions. Yes. Council member Melendez.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for the presentation. You know, I just want to thank you, Juan and the team and yourself. Welcome here. And I just want to really be just express my gratitude for the way you all have integrated into our community and the commitment that you all have shown to be a great partner to us. We've seen with HR1 massive cuts to our healthcare system. We've also seen the state budget version currently, both at the Senate and the Assembly. They're not too favorable for healthcare and some good news. Measure ER is passing right now, and that's going to be an influx of funding that might come into the healthcare system. But I really just want to, you know, highlight the amazing work that you're all doing to continue to provide support and, you know, access to healthcare to our most vulnerable population. So I just want to thank you. Thank you all for being a great partner.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Council Member Peralta?

Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation. And as well, just really appreciate the leadership in terms of the level of engagement that you all at different times have played within the city of Montebello in terms of just allowing for, I think, active feedback and collaboration when it comes to what we see at this site. And very excited for a lot of these, I think, programs such as the youth workforce program, as well as just some of the additional programming for seniors and community members. This is more on, I would say, city staff opportunities to really try to amplify, working with you all in amplifying, right, and making this information accessible to the community, whether through our social media platforms or even at events is, I think, something that I would love to see more of that partnership in. And generally, just very excited as well in terms of the master plan. We know that it is a site that I think needs a lot of attention and a lot of investment and a lot of, I think, co-collaboration in terms of what the vision is there that not only meets the needs for healthcare and the work that you all are doing, but also how it benefits back to the community that actively lives there and is part of that area. And so looking forward to just those partnership conversations in how we can kind of work through this together and really appreciate you being here today. Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for coming out. I echo those sentiments. I think it's important for you to be a partner with us here in our community. You know, that, as I mentioned, is flat land that's in the heart of our community. So the potential, just think of the potential of what can happen there. So thank you for coming out and asking us what we think, what we want to see, but also enhancing the services, what you have now, and having that vision, having that vision of what it can be, what we can do with the place there. So my gratitude as well.

Thank you. Look forward to it. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay, let's see. We'll do the Athens Scholarship next. And we have our Athens representative here, Vicky Martinez.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Staff, and Montebello community. It's an honor to be here tonight to be a part of the end of the school year and present the Athens Scholarship. It is an honor that we contribute $5,000 annually to scholarships here for Montebelloans, young adults that are preparing their way into the college or career path.

Yeah.

Through this scholarship program, we ask for essays that are then evaluated, and the essays are specifically about sustainability. So it's an environmental awareness essay judged and then chosen by your staff. I'm here tonight to help to present these scholarships. So with that, I would love to present the big checks.

Maybe Mayor, do you want to... Yes.

No, we can go down there and present the checks.

I would love that.

That would be amazing. Thank you so much. So first of all, Athens Services does do $5,000 annually, but tonight we've got two students that will be receiving their individual scholarship awards. So Mayor and Council, come on down. Great to see all of you. Thank you.

Hello. Great to see you.

Thank you.

Hi. Great to see you. My honor.

Hello, Mayor.

Great to see you.

Thanks for investing in our community.

It is an honor.

All right, everyone.

Come on in. We'll just take a quick picture. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I'm sure staff will take care of delivering everything that needs to happen.

Do we have the recipients or? Okay, we have some of the recipients here. Yes.

Sure. Well, we're going to let me see if we have the individuals.

Yeah. Wonderful. Oops. Did I have them up there? Oh.

Let me put this one away because I believe Kimberly's got a couple of others. Yeah.

Thank you. All right. So it's my pleasure to recognize, let me, I don't want to give you my back.

Genesis, Genesis Guzman, coming up, please. A graduating senior from Montebello High School. And a recipient.

Congratulations. I'll read a little bit. Yeah, just...

Genesis has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, maintaining a 4.15 GPA while earning recognition as a top scholar, AP scholar, principal's honor roll, and GATE participant. She has also been actively involved in medical alliance, youth government, community service programs throughout the YMCA, and volunteering through Hearts of Compassion. This fall Genesis will attend California State University Los Angeles to study nursing. We just talked, where's our Adventist folks? Here we have a nurse. With the goal of becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner serving children and individuals with disabilities. Please join me in congratulating Genesis on her accomplishment and wishing her much success in her future endeavors.

Congratulations.

Did you want to say something?

Did you want to say something? Sure.

I want to thank the Montebello City Council for inviting me here to be a recipient for this scholarship. It means a lot to me and my family to receive this amount of money for my future career. That's it. Thank you so much.

And our second recipient is Selena Ruiz. Come on up, Selena. She's graduating from Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary and is a recipient of the 2026 Local Environmental Programs. Congratulations.

You can stand right here and you will get to meet Selena.

Throughout her four years of high school, Selena has been actively involved in cross country, in soccer, track and field, campus ministry, the newspaper club, ASB. She has also excelled academically, earning her distinction of summa cum laude, the highest academic honor awarded by her school. In addition to her academic and extracurricular achievements, Celina enjoys reading and writing. This fall, she will attend John Paul, the Great Catholic University, where she plans to major in creative writing. Please join me in congratulating Celina on her accomplishments and wishing her well in her future endeavors.

Thank you to the city of Montebello for giving me this scholarship. And it means a lot to me. I'm very grateful. And thank you for my parents because they're the ones that encouraged me to apply for the scholarship. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Shalina. Thank you.

All right, congratulations. Thank you.

So our next is Cal Water since we're up here, but we have Jim Crawford from Cal Water. I don't know if you want to say a couple of words and then we'll read the proclamation.

Great. Well, once again, thank you so much for having us here. As you know, we provide water to a portion of the city of Montebello and we're on our 100th year this year and we're honored to provide a quality, reliable water to the city and also to be a part of the community. So it's an honor to be here with the city council. Thank you so much. And yeah, it's an honor for you to recognize us. So thank you very much. Yes.

So that's what we're celebrating today. The 100th anniversary, 100 years for the California Water Service. So please, a round of applause. So I'll read a little bit of the proclamation. Cal Water Service, Cal Water as they're called, was founded in 1926 and is celebrating its 100 year anniversary of providing safe, clean, and reliable water service in communities throughout California. Throughout its history, Cal Water has demonstrated environmental stewardship through water conservation programs, customer education efforts, and rebate initiatives that have helped customers reduce water use and promote the responsible management of natural resources. Kellwater has earned national recognition for its commitment to corporate responsibility, sustainability, workplace excellence, and ethical businesses, reflecting its dedication to both customers and employees. And it is my pleasure to congratulate and have Kellwater here with us today to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

Yes.

Yes.

All right, we'll continue the rest of our proclamations.

Yes.

Want me to read out the next one?

Army Corps of Engineers. I'll read it, is that okay? Yeah, Mayor, council members. Next, we have a presentation from the Army Corps of Engineers. Presentation being given by Mr. George Senne, project manager for the Whittier Narrows Dam Safety and Modification Project.

Hey, thanks.

Hey, I'm subbing in for George. My name is Aaron Smith. I work for the Army Corps of Engineers. I work for its dam safety program. As you guys probably know, the Army Corps of Engineers has a sacred duty to support our men and women in uniform, both here and abroad. But we have another sacred duty. We've been charged with caring for 700 dams across our nation. And those dams do many things, but principally they help reduce flood risk to communities just like Montebello. Put that in context, there's about 90,000 dams across the United States, so 700 sounds like a small inventory, but ours tend to be the largest and most impactful dams. And so they provide a tremendous amount of benefit to the taxpayer across the United States, but we have a sacred duty to make sure that our dams continue to operate and provide that flood risk into future generations. So I don't have a big check to hand out here today, but I do have some good news. You're gonna see us working diligently over the next few years, investing several hundreds of millions of dollars in making sure that the dam that helps protect Montebello and 25 other municipalities between here and the Pacific Ocean Is going to stay in place for another 70 years. So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about that today Introduce the construction that's coming your way and then talk about other opportunities the community will have to learn about this project So I'm talking about dams I'm talking about large impactful dams and I'm talking about the potential of a dam failing and That's a scary topic And I want you guys to be a little bit scared of that. I'm investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this dam because we're scared of that. We do not want this dam ever to fail. The consequences would be catastrophic. If this dam were to fail, it would inundate an area four times larger than the Palisades and Eaton fires affected together. It would not just be a Montebello problem. It would not just be a lower Los Angeles County problem. It'd be a national issue. But I wanna put that in context. The concerns we have with Whittier Narrows dams are not a daily risk. Those who live down below this dam, lay their heads to sleep below this dam, do not need to worry on a daily basis that this dam's gonna fail. This dam was built over 70 years ago, but this dam was not built to handle 70 years worth of storms. This dam was built to handle thousands of years worth of storms. And there are large, improbable storms unlikely to occur on an annual basis in which this dam will one day have to encounter that pose a risk to this dam if those storms were to happen. Talking about large atmospheric rivers sometimes referred to as pineapple expresses. We have not seen a storm of that magnitude in Southern California for several hundred years. Are they going to happen one day? Yes. Do I want to make sure this dam is ready for them? Yes. Are they likely to happen every single day? No. Are they very likely to happen every single year? Very, very unlikely. But this investment is here not because of the likelihood of these storms, but because of the magnitude of the consequences that would occur if these storms came and the dam wasn't prepared for them. Okay, what are we going to talk about here today? I want to talk about what we're doing, what to expect during construction, and then drive home again sort of those long-term benefits, and then let the community know how they can stay informed and engaged with us during this construction process. Okay, so what am I worried about with this dam? This dam, whether people realize it or not, I know that we live in a dry climate, a Mediterranean climate, but this dam has kept water out of communities' streets and allowed communities to develop every single year since it's been in a place. This dam and several other dams that were built by Los Angeles County and the Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles County, and then all the improved channels and levees together have made a huge difference in reducing flood risk in Los Angeles County. But there are storms yet not to occur that we now know. We've got a couple issues with the dam. One, the dam itself is extremely strong and competent, but its foundation is made up of erodible sands. And when the dam is holding a large volume of water from a very large storm, that dam does a really good job of keeping that water from entering in the communities downstream. but those sands allow that water to move underneath the dam and percolate and come out on the downstream side. That on itself is an extremely innocuous condition, doesn't pose any immediate threat to life or property. Unfortunately though, those sands are so cohesive that they can start to erode or create a tunnel or a large cavity underneath that dam. And just like you wouldn't want a large tunnel or cavity to form underneath the foundation of your house, We don't want a large tunnel or cavity to form underneath our dam and threaten the integrity of that dam and release that water downstream. Fortunately, we have some very tried and true solutions to that problem. For lack of a better term, we're gonna install a large French drain at the downstream end of the dam that will leave the pressure of that and block those sands from eroding. And then we'll put a berm, another small damming structure on top of that French drain. And that's a solution that we've implemented at hundreds of our dams across the nation and it's tried and true and it will solve that problem.

The other issue we have is from storms that are much less likely to occur.

Storms that are so severe that they would bring more water in than the dam could release safely into the Rio Hondo or San Gabriel rivers downstream. And ultimately we'd have more water coming in than we could release safely downstream and ultimately the dam would overtop. Now these are extremely unlikely storms. but that dam is not designed to receive those overtopping flows. And if that were to ever to happen, it wouldn't take very much water to start eroding that dams backwards and send a catastrophic wave of water downstream, which would be devastating to folks downstream. That's extremely, extremely unlikely, but the consequences are so severe, we don't wanna take a chance of that ever happening. So what are we gonna do to solve that? We're basically going to put a shield, an armor, on the downstream face of the dam. You can kind of see that in the lower right-hand corner there. It will look a lot like concrete steps, and those steps are meant to dissipate the energy of that water and allow it to pass safely over the dam and keep it in place for future storms. Now you might ask, why are we not raising the dam to make sure that it never overtops? Unfortunately, a dam built like Whittier can't just be raised vertically. To be able to raise it vertically, we have to raise it horizontally. And to raise it horizontally, we'd have to buy some real estate. So we're talking about taking people's houses downstream. In addition, when you raise a dam, you increase the amount of water it can impound, and you're gonna send a lot more water upstream, which means I'm gonna have to purchase a lot of homes and communities upstream. The likelihood of this overtopping is so extreme that taking that much property away from people up and downstream didn't seem like a reasonable investment and protecting it from these overtopping flows and making sure that that water, which will be fairly innocuous compared to what's happening in the rest of the world, doesn't cause this dam to fail. Okay, so we were funded this year, fully funded to be able to execute a large contract. We awarded that contract in March and we anticipate construction to start this fall, as early as October, as late as December. But this is gonna be a large investment. It's a three mile long dam We've got to put that French drain in along the toe of almost the entire dam. And then we've got to put that concrete armor on the downstream face of the dam. And so what you're looking at here is an overview of the dam. Montebello's on the left side, Pico Rivera square in the middle, the city of Whittier to my left. And everything you see hatched there will be turned over to our contractor for construction. which means that everything that you see hatched there will be closed to the public because they're gonna be actively working to add that armor and put that trench drain in. Now, most of the permanent modifications will be on the dam or just downstream of the dam, but they need areas to come and go and they need staging areas, which is where a lot of this hatched area comes and goes. So what does that mean? What are you gonna see in and around the dam during this period of construction. You're gonna see a lot of construction equipment and traffic. We're gonna be mining a lot of the material that we batched to turn into that concrete from Santa Fe Dam up in Irwindale near the City of Hope, taking it down the 605 to bring it down here to batch it. So you're gonna see large batching facilities upstream of the dam. You're gonna see us cutting into the face of the dam, facing Montebello and Pico Rivera. That's okay, we've designed that to be safe. We're not gonna degrade the protection the dam gives you during construction. But then you're gonna be seeing us install large batches of sand and gravel, and then ultimately putting that Concrete armor on top of it and you're also going to see us excavating that large French drain at the toe of the dam Again, we've sequenced and designed this To be safe the dam will not be any less safe during construction than it is right now and ultimately much safer when we're said and done You're gonna see most of that construction during business hours Monday through Friday Whittier's the most urban dam that we own in our portfolio And we recognize that a lot of people like to sleep at night. And while it would be a lot more efficient for us to work 24 seven, that wouldn't be fair to the residents that directly above the dam. So we've largely restricted our construction during business hours, Monday through Friday. And then the entire site will be secured, both with physical barriers and then armed guards as well. Some of the key features that will change during construction, there are two locations that I cannot put that armor in and maintain serviceable roads. And one of them is a municipal road owned by the city of Montebello and that's Lincoln. The other one is California 19 or Rosemead Boulevard. Where those cross up and over the dam, I'll actually be raising those two roads so that those portions will never be overtopped. I just can't put those concrete steps in and still have traffic for obvious reasons traveling over those. So you will see us shifting traffic alignments. There'll be small closures of those roads and some night work on those roads for obvious reasons, because that's the best time to make major alignment shifts on roads when there's not traffic. but you will see increased traffic on those roads. Our goal is to keep all lanes open at all time, but those lanes will be smaller, narrower, and you're gonna have slower speed restrictions there as well. Anybody who's familiar with the sports arena that Pico Rivera has there along the 605, just inside the basin, there is a small municipal road called Rooks Road that crosses up over the dam. That road will be permanently closed. The sports arena itself is not being closed, but that road is just not compatible with the modifications we have to make. So there may be some of you that use that as a cut-through. Enjoy it up until this fall. After that, that road is gonna be closed permanently. Obviously there'll be some other impacts as well. There are several trails, equestrian, bike, pedestrian trails that come through the basin and cross up over the dam. Those trails will have to be closed during construction for obvious reasons. I can't have folks riding their horses, bikes, and jogging through my construction site and keep the site safe and keep those people safe. So where you see those red dashed lines, where those red dashed lines intercept with the green lines is where we're gonna be closing those trails during construction. The county's working on plans to restore those trails once we're said and done. And then two parks, two active parks in the city of Pico Rivera, Streamland Park, portions of Streamland Park, and then their golf course will be closed during construction as well. Those are some key areas where I've got to install that French Drain. They'll be available for recreational use once we're said and done as well. There's the sweet spot, thanks. So I don't wanna take up too much more of the city council's time. I appreciate you hosting us here today. The reality is those of you who live in and around the dam will experience some changes during construction. Like I said, you're gonna see some large construction equipment. You're gonna see some increased traffic in and around the dam. But I want to remind you that we're doing all of that for you and your citizens. This is a major investment to make sure that this dam provides the same benefits it has to you all over the past 70 years for your future generations, your children and grandchildren. It's protecting a million people and $200 billion worth of infrastructure. So this is an investment well worth it. And we recognize that the community is directly adjacent to the dam. We'll suffer some of the impacts associated with it during it. We're gonna do our best to avoid and minimize as many of those impacts as possible, but there's no way that we can't make them all go away and still make this work. So how can you stay engaged? We've got a dedicated project website which we keep up to date, and then you can always email us this. We're gonna host a town hall at the Senior Center on the 30th of June for citizens to be able to come and learn a little bit more about the project and talk with us directly. but then we're gonna be engaged in the community throughout construction as well, have a regular office hours and stay engaged with the community and keep them up to speed on everything we're doing. So subject to questions, I appreciate your guys' time tonight.

Thank you. We'll have questions. Yes, Council Member Melendez.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I guess this question is just more directed towards staff. What specific coordination is our city having with the Army Corps, if any? I guess with the street closure or anything else that might be of impact to our residents. Cesar, you want to take this one?

Yes, sir. That's a good question, Councilmember. So we've been engaged for the last year or so. The first opportunity at the Army Corps of Engineers came in and they provided us with plans. And actually, a year before that, there were several plans going back and forth between previous staff, previous city manager, and working with Mark Thomas, who was reviewing and plan checking their plans. So we've been engaged with Southern California Edison, the gas company, and also the city of Pico Rivera as well. They've invited us that we've had joint meetings with them. And then the Army Corps of Engineers has also presented this to the fire department because it's important to engage with the fire department and ensure safety, obviously, during the project. And like he stated, we will not be closing down streets. Lincoln will still be open 24-7. It'll just be, you know, one lane in both directions. But for the most part, there should be no closures whatsoever. Thank you.

Council Member Peralta.

Yeah, question for either staff or as well as just our representative here. So I do know that we did receive a grant to essentially do a project for enhancement along Lincoln. And I know there was kind of various components, whether it was like fire hydrogens as well as just I believe some sort of streetscaping, I may be wrong. So just understanding kind of how that project might be affected by future work here in terms of just the investment that is being made, how the city would essentially be made whole if if that was to be, if like whatever we invest in terms of just equipment or fire hydrants become affected by future construction, just understanding maybe the, if those two projects kind of would be affected or along the same timeline and just kind of how that works, I guess, the intersection.

Yeah, council members, yeah, you're right. That is in the queue. We recently received a grant to make some improvements on Lincoln Boulevard. I mean, we're still planning on going forward with that. It's my understanding we've relayed that information to the Army Corps, but Cesar, I don't know. I mean, we're still evaluating how we approach it and making sure that we're still able to do the project, but we'll coordinate with the Army Corps to kind of, you know, make sure or advocate to make sure that we're made whole if it does impact the improvements we're making on Lincoln Boulevard.

And yes, that's a good one. So the Clean California grant that the city received, this does give us several years to not have to spend the money in the next current fiscal year. We will commence the plan with the Conservation Corps and obviously several ideas and suggestions and recommendations that the city council said last time when we did submit that grant and we're going to receive $200,000 for that purpose. Regarding the fire hydrants and everything like that, What we've done is we've stopped before the area in question. So they're taking them about 2,500 feet, give or take, of Lincoln from Avenida de la Merced as you move towards the San Gabriel. But for the most part, the rest of the roadway is going to be intact. So those two projects will proceed. And obviously with understanding that there's work that's going to be taking place by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Thank you very much. That concludes my. Oh, great.

Mayor Pro Tem Romero, please.

Yes, I'd just like to say thank you for the presentation. I myself am also an Army veteran. Completely separate, I appreciate that you're having the community meeting so that way the community is able to ask questions. But also, is there a potential possibility of having the youth involved as well? I know when I was a kid, I lived near the Santa Fe Dam, and my dad took me out in the pouring rain and took me to the dam, and we saw it flooding into me. That's like an awesome memory that I have that I saw that happen. And this is something that's going to affect our community for years to come, right? The previous one is 70-plus years old. And for our youth to say, like, I was a part of this, I saw this being built and I understood what happened. I just want to know if there's any possibility that they could maybe it be brought down to their level and they could maybe have a, like a hands-on tour or even just a presentation for the youth to be able to be a part of that as well.

Well, first of all, there's no one better to bring it down to their level than me, I promise you. But yeah, we'd love to engage in that. We talked to the El Rancho Unified School District, actually, and they were interested. And I know that there's some budding engineers here in the city of Montebello. And there's nothing cooler than a big civil construction site, personally, I think. So if we can find ways, if you guys got folks that might be interested in that, school tours, those sorts of things, obviously, we've got to do it safety. We've got to keep everybody safe. We'd love to engage and find those future construction professionals or engineers and give them an opportunity to make this a part of their history as well. Great, thank you.

Mayor Point-Trim, yeah, if it's okay with you, we'll circle back with the Army Corps. I mean, we've been able to find other opportunities to bring in our youth, in particular, I'm coming to my rant, thinking about our transit department. We've worked with the engineering club at Schur High School to kind of be part of our, some of the planning that we've been doing. So I think we can find a nexus. There's a lot of budding engineers. He's right. Learning about civil engineering is pretty cool. And just, this is going to be a once in a lifetime project. So we can figure out a way to not only do outreach, but incorporate the youths. We'll try to figure that out. So thank you for bringing that up. Great question.

Yeah, thank you. So I think some of the questions that I had were covered, whether the street was going to be closed. It's not. Whether the community was going to be involved. So we have the June 30th town hall meeting. And then the improvements that we had talked about, or the issues that we had talked about on Lincoln. And so hopefully these improvements will help. So typically when it rains, that area floods. So it's going to be lifted. Is that part of what's going to happen or what the improvements on Lincoln?

Yeah. So to clarify, yes, the goal is to keep Lincoln open 90 plus percent of the time. There will have to be some times when we're closing just to make lane shifts. We're going to try to keep those to night hours. But just to set expectations, there'll be some small closures associated with this. Now to talk a little bit about more the scope of Lincoln. So what we're doing is raising it as it crossed over the crest of the dam. So we're raising it about six feet. We're also shifting its alignment horizontally about 60 feet closer to the Rio Hondo, so to the west, excuse me, to the east. The reason we're doing that, he mentioned SoCalGas and Southern Cal Edison, There are other utilities that use the current alignment of Lincoln. We're trying to preserve as much of that as possible for utility corridor. A few of the utilities have to be relocated. But the raising is really to prevent that part of the dam from ever being overtopped from extreme storms that none of us ever want to experience in our lifetimes. The area behind the dam is still going to impound waters like it's supposed to to keep water out of the city of Montebello. So I think the area where you're talking about where it floods is, you know, the area that we're designed to impound waters to keep them in bank downstream. But you will see the alignment as it crosses over the dam, come 60 feet to the east, and you'll see it a little bit higher. But I think when everything's said and done, it's going to look pretty similar to what you have today, only you're going to have some better lighting. So we're going to bring the lighting up to code.

Yeah. And the other issue, too, is we have a lot of dumping in that area because it's our back area. So we have a lot of dumping. So maybe putting some railing or something that can help prevent that issue, that would be helpful as well. And since we're going to be doing some improvements, I don't know if that's part of it.

There won't be any betterments that don't require code. We've actually, as Cesar mentioned, we went through a design review program with you guys and we entered into what's called a relocation agreement, which allows us to touch and modify your road. So we'll be bringing things up to code, like better lighting and stuff like that, but there won't be any betterments beyond that.

Okay.

Yep.

That answers my questions. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out.

Appreciate your time.

we will continue with our ceremonial presentations. Our first one is the LGBT Pride Month. This June, we once again are proud to honor, support, and recognize LGBTQ Pride Month. Pride Month was first celebrated in October of 1994. It was founded by a Missouri high school history teacher named Rodney Wilson. Wilson was the first openly gay public school teacher in Missouri, originated the idea, served as a founder of the first coordinated committee, and chose October as a month of this recognition. Today, it is nationally observed throughout the month of June. Pride Month is also a civil rights statement representing the contributions and sacrifices of the LGBTQ community. Throughout this month, the city's Pride banner is once again displayed at City Hall to show our solidarity and support for the LGBTQ community. Juneteenth. We also recognize the more recent historical acknowledgement of Juneteenth, an annual remembrance that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The actual date, June 19th, marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensured all enslaved people be free. Juneteenth is a day for historic reflection, rejoicing, and educating one another about the significance and meaning of this day in order to make lasting improvements and enhancements and build equity in our society. Juneteenth also celebrates the strength of the American spirit. recognizing wrong and settling about to make things right. In the same spirit, we as Americans strive to advance the leveling playing fields and achieve ever greater social equity. To learn more about the significance of this holiday, you can visit juneteenth.com. National PTSD Awareness Month. June is National PTSD Awareness Month, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About six of every 100 adults in the U.S. will experience post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, at some point in their lives. Among U.S. veterans, the number is slightly higher, approximately approximately seven out of every hundred veterans will have PTSD in their lifetime. PTSD is a serious but treatable mental health condition. Without proper care and support, PTSD can have life-threatening consequences, including at risk of suicide. That's why raising awareness about the signs, symptoms, and available treatments is essential for prevention. With the right intervention and support, people living with PTSD can heal and regain a sense of safety and lead healthy, fulfilling lives. National Scloderma Month. National Scloderma Awareness Month is observed in June every year. Scloderma is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease in which the body produces excess collagen. This causes hardening and thickening of the skin and internal organs. Scloderma borrows from the Greek words sclerosis and derma, which mean hard skin. It wasn't until the 1700s that doctors began seriously examining this condition. And while the scleroderma has been around for a very long time, it is not knowing the cause or cure or diagnosis is difficult because its symptoms are similar to other diseases. Since 1998, the National Scleroderma Foundation has dedicated itself to educating the public and spreading awareness of this rare autoimmune disease. National Scleroderma Awareness Month seeks to spark conversation and encourage advocacy, fundraising, research, support groups, and public awareness programs for this cause. National Gun Violence Awareness Month. As we observe National Gun Violence Awareness Month this June, we'd like to take a moment to recognize the importance of raising awareness about the devastating impact of gun violence on our communities. National Gun Violence Awareness Month honors the memory of Hadiyah Pendleton, a 15-year-old honor student from Chicago who was tragically shot and killed on a playground in 2013, just one week after performing at Barack Obama's second inauguration. In her honor, the first National Gun Violence Awareness Day was held June 2, 2015, what would have been her 18th birthday. Today, her legacy continues through a nationwide movement dedicated to preventing gun violence and supporting safer neighborhood communities. Her story is far too many. Each year in the United States, more than 43,000 people lose their lives to gun violence. Gun violence remains one of the leading causes of death among children and teens affecting families and communities across our nation. Gun Violence Awareness Month serves as a reminder that gun violence is not inevitable. It's preventable. Here in our region and throughout the country, many organizations, public agencies, and community members are working together to address gun violence as a public health and public safety issue. By raising awareness, supporting prevention efforts, promoting responsible firearm storage, and honoring those impacted by gun violence, we can all play a role in creating safer communities. Okay, that concludes our ceremonial presentations, and we'll move on to public comments, Mr. City Attorney.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. This is the time for public comments. Anybody who wishes to address the city council on items that are not on the agenda would be provided the opportunity at this time. And I'll inquire whether or not we have any public speaker cards.

Yes, we have a total of nine speaker cards.

Nine speaker cards, okay. And with that, and that's for non-agenda items? Yes, that's correct. At this point, Madam Mayor, it would be appropriate to start the public comment.

Yes, please.

And note that it's starting at 8.07.

First speaker is Jonathan Horton, followed by Ruben Baez. Yes.

Good evening, everybody. I'm actually Marissa Castro-Salvati, and I am here to introduce Jonathan Horton. I am your government relations manager on the interim from the time that my predecessor here was Sal Salvatore. Ramirez at that time. So I have been covering and have been working closely with staff as well as with Cesar. And I know our Councilman Melendez, we've been working on that streetlight issues that we have in the city. But at this time, we are so honored to actually have a former staffer of San Gabriel Valley COG. to join us here at Edison with local public affairs. He will be representing this area along with other Western San Gabriel cities for Southern California Edison. So I wanted to make sure and introduce him tonight and have been working already with Cesar in doing some meetings. And so at this time, I will ask Jonathan Horton to say a few words and introduce himself as our new government relations manager.

Hello, everyone. My name is Jonathan Horton. It is really great to see a lot of familiar faces here. It's exciting. As Marissa mentioned, I previously came from the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments as their government relations analyst I have now joined Edison as the government relations manager covering the city of Montebello, along with nine other cities in the Western San Gabriel Valley. I've worked in the San Gabriel Valley for my entire career. I live in the San Gabriel Valley. I'm very excited to not have a two-hour commute. I did that at one point, wasn't a fan. And so it's nice to still be able to be in the region. As she also mentioned, I've already been working with Cesar earlier this morning to try and get a delay resolved for one of the electrification projects for a sign here. I'm just really excited to be working here. And so thank you all for having me today. I put my phone number on the speaker card. That's my cell phone number. anything you all need, any questions you might have, I might not have the answers immediately. I've been here a month, but I will find them for you, and I'll get them to you as quickly as I can. So thank you again for having me, and I hope you all have a great rest of your evening.

Thank you for your comment.

Ruben Baez is not present, so we're going to move over to next speaker, Rosa Tamayo, followed by Denise Agopian.

Buenas noches. Yo soy Rosa Tamayo y Mayor Georgina Tamayo en, se me olvidó, discúlpeme, pero es parte de mi discapacidad. Los miembros del concilio Tengo tantas ideas. Quiero decirles que miré la calle Olympic. Desde Maple a Concourse está muy mal ese tramo de esa calle. Por favor, tomen atención. No sé quién es... de que distrito es ese tramo. Pongan atención cuando tengan su distrito, vayan y visiten calles porque hay problemas en las calles. Hay mucho... bache, muy mal para los carros. El otro problema es que estoy mirando que necesitamos más seguridad porque yo estoy mirando que están saliendo delincuentes de las cárceles y están entrando más bien a personas sin documentos y entonces ahora con este El problema del juego de fútbol mundial, lo que va a pasar es que los homeless los están retirando de diferentes ciudades y ya los estamos mirando en nuestras ciudades. Y la cosa es que... Ya estamos mirando que hay robos y diferentes problemas. Y yo no sé si están ya entrenándose para los disturbios que se van a dar o ojalá que no. Pero por favor pongan atención porque para mí, como es una distracción que hacen Gracias por su comentario.

Next speaker is Denise Hagopian, followed by Michelle Marquez.

Denise Hagopian, oops, sorry, from Heavenly Choice, a business owner. property owner and hardworking community citizen. Good evening, mayor, council, and community members. I'm here tonight to discuss the continuing problems on Montebello Boulevard. I'm sure you're tired of hearing from me, but the problems need to be fixed. We need the center divider removed. We need access restored to our businesses. This illegal construction is not going away. There's no way around it. The problems and danger presented to fire vehicles driving on the opposite side of the street. In the past three weeks, they've had to drive nine times on the wrong side of the road. The emergency vehicles are forced on that side because the traffic and cars are at a standstill on the west side. Complete gridlock, delays to emergency services, and those are life threatening problems. Now the auto accidents. At the March exit by Rio's Pizza, two trucks collided with cars. This is just in the last three or four weeks. Eight cars involved with other cars. Are you waiting for lawsuits? They're coming. You created this mess. And the mess is man-made created by lack of looking to the future. The upcoming U-turn signs on Montebello Boulevard are a band-aid. The much larger issue is we have to uncreate this problem, and I hope that you will look at it in that manner, okay? Yes, we may lose a couple of trees, but that 20 feet of center divider has to go. Please stop delaying the obvious. It's been seven months since that construction started mid-November. Remove this section of Montebello Boulevard. My business is down over 50% and I'm not going away. I'm going to be here every week reminding you of what has been created by the council that's sitting on this dais. So I respectfully ask you to seriously consider removing a small section, 20, 25 feet of that center divider. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Michelle Marquez, followed by Corey Chappell.

Good evening, Mayor, council members and city manager. My name is Michelle. It was great to see Cal Water recognized this evening. I applied for a donation for funding for training mannequins and Montebello Fire received it. It was also great to hear the presentation about the dam. I was in fifth grade when we used to worry that it was gonna flood. Sharing those two things may cost me a little time this evening, but I will have other opportunities. I grew up in Montebello and still have family and friends who call this community home. As a future homeowner here, I want to remain engaged. I left Montebello Fire in September despite I really did not want to leave my hometown. I hope to retire from here. I also served as Montebello Supervisor Union's Vice President. While working here, I developed a sense of trust and what I believed was a friendship with the Assistant City Manager, which made deciding to leave particularly painful. I was hesitant to speak publicly tonight. Like many public employees, I worried about the professional consequences that could come with raising concerns, but I believe this community deserves a healthy, professional, and well-supported fire department. It is time to allow the talented people who have been hired to do their jobs. They were brought here to do without unnecessary micromanagement. This department has the benefit of experienced leadership, including three former chiefs, as well as an HR department that has made a positive impact. City council meetings should be focused on the positive work the fire department is doing for the community and how you can continue moving this organization forward. The department has hired exceptional lateral staff who are more than capable of taking it to the next level, which Montebello deserves. My hope is that these employees do not learn, like many others have, that speaking up, even when done with the best intentions, have... in this interest of the organization come with consequences. Today, I felt the obligation to speak. When experienced employees leave, you lose institutional knowledge, leadership, training, investment, morale, and stability. This cost extends beyond Montebello. It affects your regional partners and neighboring agencies that rely on the fire department during mutual aid responses where preparedness can truly be life or death. I want the employees here to continue to thrive and not have to tolerate people coming to speak natively about their department every meeting. City Manager Alvarez, I would like to leave you with this thought. If you truly want to continue making a difference here, which I believe you do, look at the people beside you. I want to share some numbers with you. In fiscal year 25... Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is Corey Chappell, followed by Raul Hurtado.

Hi, good evening. I'm Corey Chappell from District 5. Tonight I want to talk about transparency, public trust, and how residents experience different parts of our city. Over the weekend, I had a conversation with a woman who has lived in Montebello her entire life. She told me about an ongoing roach and rodent infestation at her apartment across from the golf course that remains unresolved despite reported complaints. Yet when I told her where I live, she immediately responded, oh, that's such a bad area. She was the second person to say something similar in recent days. At the Bluff Road ribbon cutting, a former realtor who grew up on my side of town told me that many prospective buyers won't even consider homes on the south side because of its reputation. So that got me thinking. I love where I live. I have wonderful neighbors, a quiet street, and a backyard that is the envy of family and friends. So why do many people who have lived here for decades believe the south side is undesirable? Is that perception based on reality? Or is it something our city has allowed to persist based on where investments have been made and where they have not? I've also heard stories about a number of city managers we've gone through, lawsuits and settlements that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, campaign contributions from those receiving city business, and a general perception that city hall does not always put community interests first. Now, whether those perceptions are fair or not, they exist, and perceptions shape public trust. This is why transparency is so important. As we discuss both the EIFD and the proposed train project, two decisions that could impact Montebello for generations. I want to first thank our city manager and Joe Palumby for responding to my email and ensuring that remote access for tomorrow's EIFD meeting is going to be there for us. That decision demonstrates a commitment to transparency and public participation. In the same spirit, I would like to understand how Cosmin Companies was selected to conduct the EIFD feasibility study. Was there a competitive process? How many firms were considered? Given that Larry Cosman previously served as Montebello's interim city administrator, what steps were taken to ensure a transparent selection process? I also respectfully ask the city to provide remote access for Saturday's train meeting. These decisions will shape Montebello's future for decades and should include as many community voices as possible. As someone who frequently drives Washington Boulevard, I would like to understand your vision. What will attract people to get off the train and spend money in Montebello? If we become primarily a pass-through community, how will Montebello be compensated for the traffic, construction, noise, air pollution, and other impacts our residents will bear? Has every option been fully explored to take that train underground to reduce these impacts? I appreciate the need to connect people with resources. We shop at Pico, too, because it's the closest to my house. But neighboring communities receiving the economic benefit should absorb more for that disruption.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Raul Hurtado, followed by James Santana.

I went into my library for this one. city manager's message continued from page one. I'm also thrilled to welcome Montebello's new police chief, Luis Lopez. Chief Lopez is a proven leader with an exceptional service and dedication track record. His leadership experience and commitment to fostering strong relationships between law enforcement and the community will serve Montebello well. Unfortunately, the city manager forgot to put how he and Chief Lopez made that position available, got the opening. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because of the fact that last year I put in a complaint to the police department, and I just recently got the results. I cannot believe this. I cannot believe the investigation that they did on my complaint and the answer that I got back. It's a joke. It is a joke. And I'm going to bring that up at the next meeting because I realized I only have three minutes and I don't belong to the American Legion where I could have more time. So I'll leave it at that and I'll bring up the subject at the next meeting. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker is James Santana.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is James Santana, and I'm a resident from District 5. I'm also from Montebello United. You all know that. Tonight at this council meeting, item number 14 is a big one. The lawsuits that were talked about in closed session, they're big. And one of the most single important votes today on our city budget is happening, and my District 5 representative is not here. This is the same representative that the mayor chose. and Scarlett Peralta chose to represent me and District 5 and they're not here. I want to have sympathy I know people have lives, but today on this big vote, I really wanted my council member to sit there to ask questions. So I have a speaker card in to ask those questions for my district, for myself. But honestly, this is just a confirmation of kind of the pattern that happens even when he is here. It's always a yes vote. It's always quiet. There's never any questions. There's never any pushback. There's really no voice. And so that's what really worries me in this whole instance with the seat empty tonight How can I trust that our questions are going to be asked that we're gonna have some a representative that actually is participating in the the EIFD The train meeting this Saturday didn't see him at the ribbon-cutting. I understand what the announcement was why he wasn't there but I really need a representative. We really need a representative to speak for our area. We have a new supervisor. We're going to have a new congressperson. We just heard from a speaker talking about the perceptions of District 5. It needs to change. So... I think it's really important to note who's here. Three of the other people that went up for this District 5 appointment are sitting out here today. They're here more than the council member. So that's very alarming. And I hope people remember this come election time. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Madam Mayor, that concludes all speaker cards for non-agenda items.

Great. Thank you.

okay that moves us on to regular business um adoption of the fiscal year operating and capital budget yes mayor council member presentations being given by michael salarza director of finance thank you mayor city council and staff uh tonight this is uh the item that will be adopting the clear 2627 operating capital budget. So very few changes from two weeks ago when I made a preliminary presentation. So just again, going over some of the highlights for next year. I would be remiss if I didn't provide a thanks to council for direction, much thanks to Roll for support and direction during this budget season, and obviously to my colleagues in all the departments, all our fire and police chief and fellow directors. This is a team effort, so I want to thank everybody for their help in putting this budget document together. So just a big overview here. We're looking at a $237.62 million budget. About 39% of that is from the general fund. But as you see, we have 20% for grants and special revenue funds, all kinds of grants, whether it's police or public works or fire. And then capital projects, there's 8%. That's most of our local return funds from Metro. Our enterprise funds are transit department, two hotels, and the golf course. And for tonight, the general fund being presented with a $155,100 surplus. Down slightly from the presentation a couple weeks ago, there were some adjustments made. There is funding in here, continuing funding for our service clubs. That was the big addition from the last time. But again, a surplus of $155,100 in the general fund. And as a reminder, as a full-service city, the majority of our expenses are dedicated to our employees. And fire and police take up the large share of that. And then, so 64%, just under a third goes to maintenance and operations, supplies, contracts, equipment, training, things like that. And then we have our debt and lease payments for bond and leased vehicles and things like that. So here's a chart that shows expenditures going back to 21-22 in the general fund. You'll see a few years ago we had $66.3 million in expenditures growing to approximately $92.75 million for the proposed budget in front of you today. So our expenditures are increasing each year as... do projects in in the city we we do events uh mou changes one-time expenditures for equipment and infrastructure items like that and then on the flip side uh revenue the general fund you'll see at one point 73.4 million in front of you today is a general fund budget with 92.9 million those uh uh 22 23 23 24 you'll see some spikes in general fund revenue we sold our water system we sold some property that the transit department owned in pico rivera uh some one-time revenues that basically added to our fund balance but ongoing revenue what we're looking at now is 92.1 million excuse me 92.9 million for next fiscal year so proposed uh revenue the general fund about an $8.5 million increase from the adopted budget, so from this time last year. We'll see large increases in property tax, licenses and permits, and charges for services. So a good increase in revenue year over year when looking at last year's budget. Now, the majority of our revenue comes from two sources, sales tax and property tax. So almost 53% of our revenue comes from those two areas. But we also get a sizable amount of revenue from charges for services. There's permits, facility rentals, recreation classes, those kinds of things. License and permits, building permits, electrical permits, plumbing permits. So we have a pretty diverse source of revenue in the general fund, but again, the majority of it is sales and property tax. Um, we, we've welcomed some new retailers in the, in the last year that are, uh, helping increase our sales tax. Tesla obviously is, is the large one, Ace Hardware, Hobby Lobby, Southside Barbecue, and on the horizon, uh, Dutch Brothers, Yardhouse, and Round One. So again, those new retail operations will continue to build, uh, the sales tax, uh, base for Montebello. Property tax is up by 1.18 million. Um, As more properties sell in Metro Heights, we're starting to see that revenue flow in. So secured property tax, $325,000 additional. Residual property tax, that's what we get from former redevelopment agencies, another $228,000. And then we get money, this goes back 20 plus years to some swaps of revenue that state did. Property tax in lieu of VLF is up $425,000. So some good increases in property tax. And as I mentioned, license and permits and charges for services, a couple of different reasons for those increases. Continued development activity in Metro Heights is leading to that. There's the city council approved update to our master fee schedule from August. So we're starting to see the benefits of that. Also that continues to reap benefits, the updated contract we have with our plan check firm that is a much more favorable sharing agreement with the city and much more common in terms of that kind of 50-50 share for plan check services. And then we are fortunate that we get property tax override revenue to cover our pension costs. So you'll see an additional $941,000 in transfer revenues. We recognize that to offset our pension expenses. So now looking at expenditures, about a $9.2 million increase, increases across the board. Fire and police, you'll see some large increases as those departments become fully staffed and with, you know, we're now in the second year of MOUs for these departments, we are seeing some increases there. But There's also equipment and supplies, price increases that are driving some year over year increases in expenditures in those departments. You'll see a drop of a 528,000 in Public Works and an increase of about 3 million in Parks and Rec. When we moved the Park Maintenance Division from Public Works to Parks and Rec, that's the swap and that's why you see a drop in Public Works and an increase in Parks and Rec. And then as a full-service city, Public safety is our largest area of expenditure in the general fund. Fire at about 24%, police at about 29%. To reiterate, we have about $9.19 million of year-over-year increase in the proposed budget in the general fund. About 6.5 million of that increase is from salary, benefits, special pays, our pension costs. About 2.68 million is from supplies, utilities, fuel, equipment. Fuel obviously has gone up. Utilities keep increasing, but so do our contract services. And as inflation increases, so do the prices we pay for supplies. As described earlier, the majority of the increase you see in salaries is from MOU adjustments approved in 24 and 25. Nine out of ten associations had new MOUs between 24 and 25, with seven of those being approved last year. So we're seeing the second year of those MOUs as we progress. increase base pays, special pays, items like that. But also you'll see an increase in part-time wages and that's with the state increasing the hourly minimum wage, there's gonna be a natural increase there. But also as we provide special events and other services, the majority of those part-time wages are parks and rec for the part-time recreational leaders and those folks who we see at all of our special events. Now, there is an increase in PERS cost by 1.16 million, but that is fully offset from property tax override revenue that we collect specifically for that reason. And then looking at the hotels, Council Member Melendez had a question a couple weeks ago about providing some more detail. So here's a little bit more detail on each of our hotels, kind of breaking down the expenditures by category. Again, for the Hilton Garden Inn, the older of the two hotels, $399,000 surplus. You'll see, you know, it's a combination. There's salary and benefits that the, you know, from the hotel staff that are employed. supplies and contract services such as food and beverage and things like that, janitorial services. We pay Hilton directly for flying that flag. There's still debt service for the Hilton Garden. But at the end of the day, all of those operational expenses are fully paid for with the ongoing hotel revenue. So $399,000 surplus. And then the newer hotel, the Home 2 Suites, about a $276,000 surplus. It's a larger operation, so expenses are going to be greater. So more staff, salary and benefits are going to be higher. Their food and beverage is going to be a higher expense and also their debt service. Whereas Hilton Garden is kind of towards the end of their debt service, Home 2 Suites is still just over 10 years. So the debt service is still on a higher side there. But again, even with all of those expenses, we're still seeing a surplus. And home two suites continues to do well in the occupancy area as long as Hilton Garden Inn, plus or minus 94% for home two suites, 83% for Hilton Garden Inn. And then the transit fund, our largest operation by dollars, $41.8 million budget for next year, about a $4 million increase. And one of the recent MOUs approved, smart TDs, MOU increased base salaries, introduced some new special pays. And also, at least since I've been here, the most fully staffed transit's been in a number of years. So, you know, contributing to some of those year-over-year increases. And then there was a more detailed presentation that Cesar gave a couple weeks ago on our capital improvement program, but just, again, to kind of reiterate, it's a $31 million program, about $12.3 million in new appropriations for next year, $12.1 million in carryovers. Those are projects that were started in previous years or... or haven't finished, so we're going to be carrying over those funds to next year so they can complete them. And then about $6.6 million in maintenance, ongoing maintenance, striping and signal maintenance and things like that. And you'll see the $31 million in CIP projects, a host of funds, majority of that coming from our local return funds, but also as we use the Paving the Way debt service. You'll see kind of towards the bottom there, Prop C, Measure R, Measure R, where it says Paving the Way. That's the bond issue we did in 2019, using those funds for various road improvement projects. and as you drive around the city there's been some recent recent paving projects um all around all around the city so that that's the overview again i want to thank council for your attention and uh available for questions thank you thank you director salarza we'll take questions

Mayor, I do have one spirit card for this item. Would you like me to call them up?

Okay, yes, please.

We have James Santana for agenda item 14.

Mayor, thank you. Council, I told you I'll be back. So I don't think that these will be answered. Maybe somebody will ask them for me. So first, I wanted to ask about the changes in this year's budget on recommendation four. why this is kind of lumped into this, and I'm learning, so I'd like to know just why this year's resolution is kind of recommended into the next one. What is being changed and why is it being added now instead of being brought up on its own? That's my first question. The second one is actually one that was explained, so I just want to thank you so much. The question was going to be about the pay and jobs and how in this resolution there, if there's a pay plan, a list of jobs. Is this changing because of raises? And which departments? But that was well explained, so I want to thank you for that one. Third question, around the golf course. It looks like there's 1.8 million that is paid to manager, to salary, and over 1.2 in loans. So the budget even indicates that the course has lost money. And so my question is, is what is the plan for, or what is the plan going to be implemented for them to stop leaning on other money and be able to kind of be able to pay themselves. Lastly, item number three, this might be small, but I think it's important. I think the resolution lists state law 7190, and I think that that number is wrong. So I think that somebody should look into it before it's voted on. I think it's 7910. So thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Mayor, that concludes all the speaker cards we had for this item.

Okay.

We'll move on to any questions or comments from Council. Council Member Melendez.

Thank you, Mr. Solorza. Thank you for the presentation and every year you do a great job in explaining and breaking down the budget. I appreciate the breakdown of the hotel operations. I think it's something I'd asked last time. In regards to the payment of our debt service, why was there an increase for both of the hotels, kind of like doubling? Are we paying more every year?

Let me take a real quick look just so I have the...

I was thinking more at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Oh, yes, yes, okay. So with Hilton Garden Inn, I see what you're referring to. So with the Hilton Garden Inn, yes, you absolutely see a doubling of the debt service payment from 23, 24, 24, 25, 26. So in 2019, we refinanced the Hilton Garden Inn bonds. And for the first four years, the first four years of that refinance we're paying interest only so it was a way to save the hilton garden in some some money to um basically lower the ongoing expenses by paying interest only and and pushing off some of the principal uh reduction to later years so that's why you see the increase starting at 25 26 where now we're paying principal and interest on that now In hindsight, that ended up working to our advantage because the first year that refinance happened to be the pandemic year when occupancy basically went to zero. So the reduced expenses there actually was kind of a blind luck, quite frankly, with the pandemic, but it actually helped with operations so that Hilton Garden Inn even with reduced revenue, was still able to make payments.

So just following up on that, so for, just remind me, the home two suites, we also refinanced at the same time? It was both hotels?

No, that was just the... We just did Hilton Garden and Home 2 Suites. That was much, it's much newer debt. And so the way that was structured was the payments start to increase in additional years. We're now approaching the 10th year of debt service for Home 2 Suites. So the way that debt structure was constructed was the payments were lower in the early years. in an effort to let it kind of get off the ground and have some operations. It didn't open until September 2018. So those first few years were reduced to let it finally come up to full operation.

Got it. Thank you for that. So pretty much moving forward, the debt service is going to be around what we're seeing here because of the principal. Correct.

Correct. Yeah. Going subsequent years, that's pretty much a standard static amount.

Got it. Okay. Thank you for that. And then just something completely different. When it comes to the cannabis operators that are still here in the city, where is that located? Is that the funding that we're getting predominantly like the sales tax or is that like the one-time fee? Where do I see it here?

So for cannabis operators, we classify that in license and permits. So the license and permits revenue category contains what we receive from our cannabis operators, the Montebello benefit fee on an annual basis plus quarterly charges that we bill them for.

Got it, and I think this one too, I think we saw it on the presentation, the big difference in the business license change that we had, that already took place, so we already saw the big variance on that, or are there still kind of trickling in?

SO YES, WHAT YOU'RE REFERRING TO IS WHEN CITY COUNCIL UPDATED THE MUNICIPAL CODE DEALING WITH THE BUSINESS LICENSE, FEBRUARY 1ST WAS WHEN THAT TOOK EFFECT. SO WE'VE SEEN SOME INCREASES, BUT WE'RE ANTICIPATING 26-27 TO REALLY START TO SEE A FULL YEAR OF WHAT IT MEANS WITH THAT MUNICIPAL CODE CHANGE.

Thank you. And again, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for everybody working on this budget and providing a healthy budget. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions, comments? Council Member Imparolata.

Yeah, thank you so much. This is my thing on, okay. Just a few questions and then comments. So please, please bear with me here. Just did wanna, I did wanna specifically ask around more so the capital improvement project funds. So maybe this might be better suited for CSER. So I know that we have uncommitted fund balance in certain CIP funds that can be used for new capital improvement projects that are not currently on the list to be approved or expanding approved projects. I think one, an opportunity for council to have a better understanding, and it's probably not tonight, I know it could come back, but in terms of just how much funding there is uncommitted, And I know that obviously some CIP funds are very restrictive. So certain measures, funding for certain measures can only be used for like street paving or for transit related infrastructure. So understanding the restrictions behind those uncommitted funds and the types of projects that can be, they can be used towards. I think is something that I would love council to have a better understanding so that we can have just a discussion around the types of projects that we want to prioritize in terms of future projects that we can use that uncommitted funding that we currently have. Just as a note, if that's something that could be brought back.

Yes, definitely. We'll talk to staff. Something we can definitely come back to have a full discussion with the council about it.

And I think similar to that, a few years ago, I believe maybe three or four, we did adopt the art in public places fee. So essentially that's a 1% fee that is placed on future developments of a certain, within a certain threshold. And that 1% goes back to us to essentially fund any type of public arts, cultural programming initiatives. So it's been a while now that we've adopted it. And I know we've already had some projects that have met that threshold. Is there a figure that could be shared in terms of how much funding there is in that art fund? And then obviously similar to the previous item, if there's an opportunity for council to just also have a discussion in terms of how we wish to commit those funds for any type of future projects. ART INSTALLATIONS, INITIATIVES, AESTHETIC ENHANCEMENTS FOR THE CITY.

NEW SPEAKER I BELIEVE AS OF 6-30-2025, THE LAST TIME WE CLOSED THEIR BOOKS, WE HAD ABOUT $100,000 IN THAT FUND THAT COLLECTED. I KNOW WE USED IT RECENTLY FOR EXAMPLE FOR REHABBING THE HENRY ACUNA MEMORIAL, HENRY ACUNA PARKS. WE HAVE USED IT FOR THAT. I'm not sure what the current balance is now. I can follow up with that. But it's a fairly healthy balance now. And it's growing just because we have yet to kind of really figure out how to spend it. So there is a healthy balance in there.

Yeah, that's a little small, but I think an opportunity to even leverage that funding. So I know that with Altamed coming and opening up their art space, I know that there's opportunities to partner with them in terms of funding programming or even art in the city so what would it look like to come in into a partnership where we leverage that funding maybe they can match it right make it a little bit more in terms of just what we can um we can put back into the community as an as an option to pursue i believe joe you wanted to mention a little bit on this aspect yes thank you mr city manager and uh uh good evening mayor members of the council so for the art in public places we do track that because it does come from our permitting at the

at the building and safety division. The last we checked, we had approximately $280,000 in that account. So it is growing and we do anticipate that to continue to grow as we see more activity in the building and safety division. So just want to provide that update.

Nice, that's good news. Definitely excited to see maybe a discussion among council about how we can prioritize potential projects in the future that relate back to art and cultural programming. As we look ahead, in terms of just the stability of the city, I know that there is, I would say, built-in relief coming in the incoming years. If Director Salazar, if you can maybe talk a little bit about the 2014 B bonds in terms of the final payment that we're about to make and that kind of relieves us. The solar savings that we hope to materialize with the projects and I believe also just around the home to suites refinancing. Do you mind speaking a little bit more about some of those items in terms of just being a relief in future budgets that we can hopefully ensure we have a healthier surplus?

Yes, absolutely, Councilmember. So to reference the 2014 lease revenue bonds, obviously some older bonds, we refinanced them in 2026-27. They'll be fully paid off. So the subsequent year, we should see in the general fund about a million dollars in relief. So right now it's about a million dollars in debt service. So that falls off. That's... That's an expense that we know we're going to have to worry about come 27, 28. So it's kind of like paying off your credit card or paying off your home, right? It's like, wee, you guys have a little extra, some extra money. Don't spend it all in one place. And then with the solar savings, as more of the solar panels come online, right, the goal of that program was there would be sufficient energy SAVINGS IN OUR ELECTRIC BILL THAT IT WOULD OFFSET THE DEBT SERVICE THAT WE'RE PAYING THAT FINANCED THAT $15.2 MILLION PROJECT. THE MAJORITY OF SOLAR PANELS HAVE NOT YET COME ONLINE, SO OBVIOUSLY THERE'S NO SAVINGS, BUT THE PROJECTIONS WHEN THIS WAS APPROVED THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO WAS $800,000 TO $900,000 A YEAR IN SAVINGS. THAT WAS THE SAME AS THE DEBT SERVICE. We would see some savings because we have been paying the financing charges the last couple of years on that. So when the benefit of those solar panels, when they're fully functioning, they're contributing back to the grid, we will see a reduction in general fund expenses, ideally, from reduced electrical bills. So we will see that. And I'm sorry, there was one other item.

The refinancing for home two suites?

Yes. So I've been working with Cabrera Underwriting and Urban Futures Incorporated to refinance the Home 2 Suite bonds. We're at that window where we've had them for 10 years. Currently, projections are about $400,000 a year savings. Now, that's not a direct benefit to the general fund, but it is a direct benefit to the Home 2 Suites Fund, which means lower operating expenses, because lower debt service payment. which means we might be able to take advantage of more of the kind of sweeps of revenue that we've been able to do the last couple of years where once all is said and done, Home 2 Suites has additional revenue, the bond indentures allow us to sweep that additional revenue into the general fund. So that extra 400,000 could be a kind of a roundabout way to provide more revenue to the general fund.

Yeah, I appreciate that and how you walked us through that in the staff report in terms of just kind of projecting out how some of these future investments and savings are going to just provide, I think, a relief in the next budgets that we see coming forward. Lastly, there was a question that was brought up by a resident and it was a question I also had similarly in terms of just one amendments being brought forth in terms of timing. I think to take it a next step further, just requesting in the future that for amendments listed to please just provide descriptions, basic descriptions in terms of just for us to understand the different items. So for example, I know that in the list and I don't have it in front of me, there was like a 420 something community development fee. Being able to just have a better understanding of like what that entails is something that we'd love to have as we move forward with these types of amendments. Staff can touch on that.

I mean, I'll let Michael touch on it, but first I did want to just mention in terms of the amendments and the budget process and just day-to-day city functions, amendments are part of a regular part of a city and the budgetary process. Really the budget is a projection based on expenditures, revenues, and a million moving pieces that get combined as a city, a staff on any given project. We budget a certain amount with the expectation that we stay within that amount, but sometimes there's extending factors. And then there's also things that we can project, right? You mentioned the $400,000 in community development fee, I'll let you address that, but for example, we shouldn't ignore it. There's a fee in public works that says $1.5 million, which is the largest amendment that we have, and that's really tied to the refuse fee for our trash contract, which was adopted a couple years ago. It takes well over a year for us to do implementation based on the new rate. We try to capture those numbers and those rates, but when you transition over to a new contract, there's a lot of things that need to be done, including For example, auditing, auditing to ensuring that, you know, we have all the accurate addresses that they're either accurate in the sense of whether they're residential, commercial. We also have ADUs, commercial business. There's a lot of factors that go into calculating what a refuse charge would be for a given city. So for example, that is based on an original project and that we have, it changes based on new information as part of a transition. So for example, that's why that's there, right? Other fees like community development, I don't know if you want to touch a little bit on that, Michael, but I did want to put community at ease. It is a normal process to have amendments as part of the budget process. And again, it's based on projections and you need to make adjustments to ensure that everything is fully compensated at the end of the day when we're reconciling what we take in and what we pay ultimately as a city.

Yes, thank you for that role. So let me address a couple of things. So again, just kind of reiterate, the budget is a plan, right? What you're considering for 26-27, I like to joke, it will be out of date on July 2nd. And this is very similar where we get to the end of the fiscal year. I had the benefit of 11 months of data and now I can present amendments to the budget. one of the things that our auditors do on an annual basis, this is a new requirement from about five or six years ago, is they will actually make a note in the ACFER of when you exceed your budget appropriations. So this list of budget amendments is an attempt to square budget with projected expenses. And so for example, the 400 plus thousand dollars you see in the community development department is for our plan check fees. That is a difficult expense to project because we never know how many people are going to come in and the value of the plans that are going to be checked. So at this point in time, it's like, oh, we had a million dollars for plan check services. Now it needs to be 1.4. Good news is our revenue also increases. So as we get a million and a half in expenses. We're seeing a concomitant increase in revenue. But in general, that's what those amendments are for. And thank you for the suggestion, Councilmember. Yes, I should have put some brief descriptions on each one, because it is just kind of glaring when you see especially the larger numbers, the 1.5, the $400,000 numbers. But again, to reiterate what the city manager said, this is all in due course is doing these amendments. Typically with the quarterly budget updates, I'll do one first quarter, I'll do one mid-year. This is the opportunity to one last time, write the budget with expenses.

Yeah, thank you so much, director and city manager for kind of walking us through that. Just lastly, as a comment, I'm just saying in terms of really, really great to see our revenue based diversifying, especially for a small city, that's something really difficult for us to do. If you looked at this five years ago, we were heavily leaning on just very limited type of revenue sources. So to diversify that in our budget speaks to just the modernization of our licensing and permitting systems, the updating of our uh different fees um you know investing in community development to attract businesses anchor in larger businesses that contribute back to to that revenue and i think all of that um is um really great to see in terms of just not being those small cities that kind of really depend and if something goes wrong right um it's it's harder to to be able to i would say uh fix the situation so to diversify that and be able to lean on other sources is i think a really big win Generally, just thank you so much for the presentation and walking us through this. And also just do want to take a moment to commend also the community outreach. Six years ago, when me and Councilmember Melendez were here, there was no community outreach meetings. It was only budget presentations to Council, no opportunity to hear directly back from the community. no opportunity for the community to be educated about how the budget works, the process. You know, I think about maybe three years ago now, we went forward and actually pushed for not only a budget survey for residents to be able to submit online their thoughts. And it's really interactive. It gives you 100 coins and you get to choose where you spend your 100 coins based on all the topics and the different departments. And it gets really tough because And I think that puts it at a very digestible level for residents to realize, right, this is how much funding you have. This is how you have to make it work and plug and play. And I hope that that helps them also understand, right, sometimes the decisions that we have to make in terms of what we fund, what we need to prioritize. And then taking it a next level step of actually having community outreach meetings in most, if not all districts where we go in, we provide that open forum, you provide that educational awareness of walking people through the budget. Those are not easy conversations. And then doing that workshopping of actually having residents write down what their priorities are. You've given us those survey results. You've given us all those papers, right, that people fill out. And ultimately, that's how we've seen a lot of projects recently be realized, right? We had issues of crime at our parks. And luckily, under our city manager and our chief, being able to fund our new public parks division, right, now we have specific dedicated personnel that monitor the parks. We've seen a reduction in terms of issues. especially in Ashiya Park, the park that's in my district, was having a lot of issues there. Being able to have folks on the ground not taking away from operations that we have with the police department and being dedicated solely to our parks has been a really big relief for a lot of our sports leads, a lot of our families. Another big one, which I think most recently has been a very great success for this council, is years of lack of maintenance when it came to our public restroom facilities. I mean, just astounding to see the level of just an investment unfortunately right that we had for so long and kind of the band-aid solutions that our staff had to make at the time um to take that step of investing i believe four hundred six hundred thousand dollars i mean i welcome our residents i believe maybe each restroom has been fixed at this point i've i've gone to the ones that all the ones at grant ray park because i know we have multiple facilities there I went to the one in Shea Park, Reggie Rodriguez Park, I think Chet Holyfield. It was a total of eight total park facility, restroom facilities that have been completely renovated. To be able to go in and just see the actual renovations and see that now we have cleaner, safer facilities, I think is a huge win, especially because this has been an issue that has been ongoing for, I would say, decades. So I wanna thank you all for really the steps you guys have taken to outreach to our community, to make sure that council's informed, to make sure that there's opportunities for that feedback so that when we make these decisions, we're making it in a way that also is informed by the needs of our residents. So with that, thank you so much for the presentation and the work.

Thank you. So yeah, I was gonna also mention and start with the community participation because that's how this budget process starts. We started with having community meetings out in the different districts and having the community tell us what they wanted to see in their neighborhoods, what they saw as what could be improved. And then from there we moved on. We've had several presentations here with the council on the budget. So there's an opportunity to look deeper into these numbers and ask questions. But it's great to see that we have an increase in in revenues year after year, which allows us to increase our expenditures, which that's good, right? We can have our capital improvements and the work done here. We've updated our fees. That helps. We have... really enhance the benefits for our employees here, our fire, our police, transit. So that's been a big plus, but with the increasing revenue, it allows us to do that type of work. But also, we are able to share this revenue with our communities. So again, I just want to point out how we are including our community service organizations and giving them some of the money as well. So this includes the Montebello Chamber of Commerce, the Montebello Lions Club, the Montebello Sir Optimist, the Montebello Rotary. American Legion, American Baseball Association, the AYSO, Montebello Golden State, Montebello Police Activity League, Sister Cities of Ashiya, the Sister Cities of Septa... Yes, I always mispronounce it, I'm sorry. and the Montebello YMCA, along with the Indians Football and Cheer. So again, it's having these, making these decisions that allow us to have resources that we can then, you know, put back out into the community. I think that's the importance. So thank you. Yes, Mr. Seidemann.

Just before you consider, did you have any more comments?

No, just the correction.

I wanted to mention this, but also, well, I did want to mention that the resident did point that out. Thank you for letting us know. The Gantt Act, we did have a typo. The correct number is 7910, so that change will be made in the final document. if council approves it as is. And then just, you know, before you consider adopting the budget, the budget, I do want to thank Michael staff, staff across the board. It's, it's like a, it's a year, it's a year round effort, you know, to, to formulate the budget, to stay on budget, to, you know, you're only hearing bits and pieces of, you know, quarterly updates and amendments. And then we have staff reports and projects and just, it literally is a day-to-day thing that we have to do in terms of our budget. But yeah, I just want to thank the staff just for being so open to the new direction that we've had over the last few years and being open to communicating and going out there and speaking to residents, having surveys and just being willing to talk to anybody who wants to just tell us what do they want to see other community. I want to thank council just for their leadership and specifically like the community engagement component. That's something that was brought up immediately when I came in or just being out there, going to talk to folks, educating them, telling them what the budget's about and how do they provide their information? And I've said it numerous times that there's been pretty significant changes that have happened in our city that have been approved by the city council, but they came directly from residents from these community meetings. So that's been a welcome change that I appreciate. I also want to thank council for for willing to make tough decisions on recommendations that we make as a city, business license fee, most notably that we just mentioned, updating our fee schedule. Sometimes folks aren't entirely happy with this, but we need to make adjustments to ensure that we keep up with the times. The budget, it's a positive budget. It's a... it's a it's a snapshot of where we are as a city and it's a good snapshot right because even if you see the projections from where we are a few years ago it's 68 million dollars budget we were running a spare bones and now you see even from this year last year there was actually an increase on almost nine million dollars eight million almost nine million dollars uh in revenue so so one of the things that we do as a city we invest we we do our thing in terms of making sure that we bring in businesses we make adjustments we make tough decisions and that's being reflected in an increase in revenue now the reality is with an increase we live in times where you know costs increase right projects are more expensive but also we are very unique and i know i've said this before you know where we're We're not the city of LA, we're not the city of San Jose, but we are a city with big city amenities. Not many cities have their own police department, their own fire department, but not many cities at all have their own transit department. And that we have the third largest transit system in LA County. With that, we have 10 bargaining units. And so it was mentioned in the presentation, I mean, Last year, we had seven MOUs that were up, and we were able to give raises across the board for all our bargaining units. This year, we have another one. So our city has been able to not only be fiscally prudent, increase our revenue, and at the same time, make significant capital investments while also taking care of our workforce at every level. And that's really a testament to the city council, your leadership, your vision. And again, I want to thank our staff for just kind of getting us to this point. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. So with the correction for the code section being 7910 on the agenda item, but it is correct on the resolution. The resolution is correct. So with that, I will take a motion and a second for item number 14.

I'll motion to approve.

I'll second. It's a motion by Council Member Peralta, a second by Mayor Pro Tem Romero. Please call the roll.

Councillor Melendez. Aye. Mayor Bertrand Romero.

Aye.

Councillor Peralta.

Aye.

Mayor Tamayo.

Aye. The item passes. And on to the consent calendar, Mr. City Attorney, please.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Next item is the consent agenda. These matters are considered to be routine. Tonight we have items on the consent from items number 15 through 26, 15 through 26, and I'll poll the council. Council Member Melendez, do you wish to poll any consent agenda items?

No items.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Romero.

No items.

Council Member Peralta.

None.

And Mayor Tamayo.

No items.

Be appropriate to entertain a motion to approve all items on the consent, items 15 through 26. I'll make the motion.

I'll second.

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

Council Member Melendez. Aye. Mayor Patan Romero.

Aye.

Council Member Peralta. Aye. Mayor Tamayo.

Aye. And we'll move on to the AB 1234 travel reports. Anybody has anything to report? So we have no travel reports and no council orals. So with that, we will adjourn today's meeting 9-13. Thank you for coming.