City Council - Regular Meeting

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I can't share. All right. Good evening everyone. Let's call tonight's meeting to order. We'll start with our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tovengar, the home of the Gabalin Tomba people. We show our respect to the Gabalinino Tomba people as well as all indigenous people past, present, and future and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabalin Yoamba people, invite you to acknowledge the history, and join us in caring for this land. Now, we would like to welcome the Monterey Park Police Explorers to do our flag salute. Please rise. face.

Please put your right hand over your heart and repeat after me. 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. Harder colors. Outward face. Over. Thank you. You may be seated. Madame clerk, may we get a roll call, please?

Council member Go, present. Council member Wong, present. Council member Sanchez. Mayor Promlo, here. Mayor Yang, present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Any agenda revisions and or additions? Yes, Madame Mayor. We'd like to add a presentation item to the agenda tonight. Uh item uh 8A and this is for recognition of youth of the year from the Boys and Girls Club of San Gabriel West San Gabriel ALI um for Nathaniel Hern Hernandez.

Thank you. All right. Any public communications? and madame mayor, if I could request the youth of the year presentation maybe before staff communication and after public communication. Oh, okay. So, we'll move item eight after public communications. No problem. a request to move up 12A.

Okay. Yeah, we can move up 12A. So, we'll do public communications 8 uh presentation for Nathaniel Hernandez uh 12A and then seven staff communications and then moving forward. All right. So, uh first public speaker tonight is Robert Ogawa Monroe. Good evening, honorable mayor, uh, city council, city manager, and city clerk. Um, my name is Robert Ugal Monroe and I'm u uh speaking on u representing u SGV pub. Um, first I'd like to begin by expressing gratitude to Cindy Yei for more than 40 years. She's been a beacon of concern and hope on numerous community issues. She was instrumental in quickly raising awareness of the fate of the Barnes Park pool. And as she has many times before, she raised her voice alongside others, planting the seeds that became the San Gabriel Valley PowerUp beacon, SGV pub, as a 501c3 nonprofit. At the onset, SUV Pub consisted of leaders and volunteers with backgrounds in booster clubs and PTSAs. However, like many startup organizations, roles and responsibilities were unclear, creating tension when real work needed to get be done. In the leadup to the October swim event, the Rose Bowl, there

were difficulties securing commitments. Margaret Long brought corporate project management experience from Fortune 500 level firms and recognized the early signs of failure as some approached the event with a parent club mindset rather than a resultsdriven approach. I've read the emails. They were inappropriate remarks between members and not all directed at Margaret that created unnecessary discord including from the very founder who updated excitement for our upcoming March 28th award event featuring five-time Olympic medalist John Neighbor. And we're welcoming everyone to attend. It's going to be a fantastic event. However, I must say behind the scenes, organizational issues persisted. Records collected by the parents club lack proper age categories grouping 5-year-olds with 17y olds. Again, Margaret sent a professional request for assistance. I've read those emails as well. Unfortunately, the same individual responded inappropriately, withdrew themselves from SGV pub leadership communication, and the resulting discord caused key swim community members, those who could have helped resolve these issues, to step back. This is unfortunate. Um, however, as one of our wellrespected youth coaches has noted, with those dispar departures, there's renewed optimism. Moving on to city transparency. Congratulations on the RPSOSD awards. That's fantastic news and we have an

account to put it in, right? Um, the public should also know that SG STV pub had identified and prepared for the same grant. LA County encouraged SGV pub to proceed with submission for the same program with the understanding that the city can build the house and SGV pub can build the garage. However, the city did not complete the paperwork, a memo of understanding with SGV pub. Without a formalou from the city, we were disqualified. Our community and especially our children are being shortchanged by this lack of action. We recognize that the city owns the project and there is also no reason that anou must be exclusive to a single organization. If multiple multiple community groups organize and form legitimate 501c3 entities, the city should welcome that support without divisive politics. City council and staff actions should not be obstructive or favor certain groups. It should also discourage defamatory comments and petty politics. Recently, we've witnessed defamatory statements directing at Margaret and SGV pub on Facebook by a Monterey Park planning commissioner while promoting their own nonprofit support supporting the pool. I was shocked. I was even more even more shocked when the city seemed to do nothing when it was brought to their attention. This is wrong. City representatives, even when acting as individuals, should stop being this divisive. The city and the community do not benefit from favoritism or petty politics. We all lose, including the next generation. Thank you for your time and save the pool by voting for option B.

Thank you, Robert. Next speaker is Sharon Woo. Good evening everybody. My name is Sharon Woo. I am the president of the Marquo High School Alliance. The Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Markeo High School through teacher grants, student scholarships, and campus improvements that enhance educational and developmental opportunities for our students. We strongly support the rebuilding of the Olympic size swimming pool at Barnes Park. For decades, Barnes Park Pool has been an essential training and competition site for Mark Keepo High School's aquatics programs. Its Olympic dimensions provided our student athletes the ability to train competitively and safely, a resource that no longer exists within our city. Markeo High School has one of the most accomplished aquatics programs in the region with 81 Almont league titles and nine CIF championships. A total of 90 competitive championships earned by our swimmers and divers over the years. These achievements reflect a level of commitment and excellence that requires proper facilities, including access to a regulationized 50meter pool. Restoring an Olympic size pool at Barnes Park will also support our students college pathways. Swimming and diving provide measurable timebased performance metrics that significantly strengthen college applications. Recruited student athletes, especially in aquatics, consistently receive higher acceptance rates at competitive universities, including the UC system,

private institutions, and even Ivy League schools. Ensuring that our students have a regulation training environment directly contributes to their academic and athletic success beyond high school. Most Markeeppo students and their families reside in Mterrey Park. Our swimmers, divers, water polar players, and the broader Keo community care deeply about the well-being and opportunities available to both current and future generations. Rebuilding the Olympic size pool at Barnes Park is not only a restoration of a historic community resource. It is an investment in youth development, college access, and the long-term success of our students. For these reason, the Markepo High School Alliance strongly supports the rebuilding of the Barnes Park Olympic size swimming pool and urges all decision makers and funding agency to prioritize this critical project. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. Next speaker is Don Rock. Good evening, mayor, council members, dedicated staff. My name is Don Rock and on behalf of the Monterey Park Historical Society, I would like to extend an heartfelt thanks to Mayor Yang, Councilman, Council Member Go, and Assistant City Manager Diana Garcia for joining us at the Laura Scutter 100th anniversary celebration. Your presence

truly meant a great deal to us and to the community. We would also like to express our s sincere appreciation to our city manager Inz Alvarez for her care and thoughtfulness in restoring the beautiful Laura Scutter plaque and making it available for presentation to her grandson John Scutter. He was truly touched by the outpouring of warmth, admiration, and community spirit. As part of the celebration and a token of appreciation from John, each attendee received a jar of Laura Scutter peanut butter. A small but meaningful way to honor her legacy. If you missed the event, there will be another opportunity to receive one of these special treats. We will be hosting a booth at the Cherry Blossom Festival on April 11th and 12th. And we'd love for you to stop by. For every new or renewed museum membership, we'll be giving away a complimentary jar of Laura Scutter peanut butter. Thank you again for your continued support and we hope to see you at the festival. Now, congratulations are in order for Robert Agiri and his recreation and comm community service team for being awarded a million dollars from the regional park and open spaces grant. And now, Robert, let me share with you how to spend it. With the pool design on the agenda, as the Mark He PTASA president, the parents, staff, and students wanted me to share a letter that I had written, which I will send to all of you electronically, to whom it may concern. The Mon the Markell High School PTSA strongly and wholeheartedly support the rebuilding of the Barnes Park pool as a regulation Olympic size facility. Markle High School's swim program is among the most respected in the region. This level of

commitment is not accidental. It is built on consistency, dedication, and most importantly, access to a regulation Olympic size pool. Without it, sustaining this legacy of excellence becomes increasingly difficult. Rebuilding Barnes Park Pool as an Olympic size facility is not simply a preference, it's a necessity. There are three key reasons why a 50 meter pool better serves our students and the broader community than a standard 25-yard pool. First, an Olympic size pool allows high school and club athletes to train and compete under regulation conditions. Consistent access to a 50- meter pool strengthens performance. Prepares students for elite competition and expands collegiate recruitment and scholarship opportunities. Advan advantages a 25-yard pool cannot fully provide. Second, an Olympic size pool serves more people more efficiently through flexible lane configurations. The pool can support multiple activities at the same time. lap swimming, swim lessons, team practices, and recreational use. Welcoming beginners, seniors, competitive athletes, and families simultaneously. This makes it a truly inclusive, multi-generational community resource. Finally, a 50 meter pool is a smart long-term investment for the city. It positions Monterey Park to host long course as well as shortc course swim meets, water polar tournaments, and regional events that bring families and economic activity into the community year round. With the 2028 Summer Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles, our community stands at a defining moment. While the rebuilding of the pool will not be completed, young residents will be inspired by what is possible. While long-term residents will

feel that same pride and renewed excitement from the 1984 summer games of the past. Long after the Olympic flame is extinguished, Monterey Park will stand proud knowing it invested in a lasting legacy of opportunity, excellence, and shared civic pride for generations to come. We the Monor We the Mark Heel High School PTSA respectfully urge all decision makers and funding agencies to prioritize the essential asset and move forward to rebuilding an Olympiciz pool at Barnes Park. A true investment in our youth, our families, and the long-term well-being of the Monterey Park community. With gratitude and sincerity, Don Rock, Mark Hebell High School, president of PTSA 202526. Thank you. Thank you, Don. Next speaker is Margaret Leang. Hi, good evening um mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Margaret Le Young, and I am a board member of the Friends of the Senior Foundation. I'm honored to be briefly introduce myself and share an update on the work we are doing to strengthen long-term support for our senior community. Our past several months, over the s uh past several months, our board has taken important steps to build a more sustainable financial foundation for the organization. We have engaged with an

investment manager to help optimize our investment strategy and have established an endowment account. Um this is significant milestone for the um friends of uh seniors. It allows us to responsibly grow our resource and generate a steady annual funding stream that can be reinvested into the program and service for seniors. In parallel, the board has worked closely with the landing center manager to establish a formal grant application and review process. And this allows us to prioritize uh requests, allocate resources thoughtfully, and ensure the alignment with community needs. Together, these efforts reflect our commitment to accountability, transparency, and long-term impact. So um that would be the uh friends of senior foundation. Um I'm sure that we're going to have more discussion on that with uh city manager and Robert Aur. And uh also I would like to take this opportunity to invite um the community to a special upcoming event. Um on Saturday, March 28th, we will be hosting the Save Barnes Park Pool Community Award event. This event will recognize the swimmers and volunteers and community members who supported the effort to restore Barnes Park Pool. We are especially honored to have Olympian John Neber joining us as our keynote speaker. This is truly a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from one of America's greatest Olympic champions. We are also grateful that Mayor Elizabeth Yang uh will be attending along with former mayor um

Lily Chan um who were the former mayor that uh hosted the Olympic and were able to get the Olympic destination for Montterrey Park. That's very important to us. As part of the event, we also offer a special auction opportunity for lunch experience with Mayor Elizabeth Yang and former mayor Ivon Yu. That's very exciting because this will provide a unique opportunity for community engagement. So, if you would like lunch with Mayor Elizabeth Yang and former mayor um Ivan Yu, um give me a call. Um the event will feature light refreshments and great um door prices generously provided by the Chamber of Commerce and the law office of Jolene 2 along with holiday in gift certificates. We got some surprises uh door surprises for um for the attendees and um event detail and RSVP sign up will be posted on the Facebook uh Montterrey Park Life page and we encourage everybody to join. This is more than an event. It's a reflection of what we can achieve together as a community. Thank you for your time, your support, and your continued commitment to the community. Thank you. So, thank you. You guys who want to sign up, let me know. Thank you, Margaret. That's all we have for public communications. So, now we'll go to item eight, uh, AA Nathaniel Hernandez presentation. All right, Nathaniel Hernandez, we have a certificate of recognition uh to recognize you as youth of the year, Boys and Girls Club of West Gabriel Valley

and East Side. Congratulations. We commend your outstanding leadership and community involvement. Thank you for making a positive difference in our community. Oh yeah.

Hello. My name is Nathaniel Hernandez. To anybody who doesn't know me, as the youth of the year of the Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley and East Side, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the city council, the staff who make it run, as well as my Boys and Girls Club for making this opportunity possible. Thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to be a youth advocate and leader. And I would like to take this time to specifically shout out Council Member Thomas Wong for being a judge at the youth of the year event. And thanks to you, you've been able to bring me up to be the person I am today. But above all, I would like to thank all of you guys for ultimately giving me this platform to speak and to make change within my community. So, thank you. You might want Guys,

one big smile. Okay. Why don't we do um item 7D because we have certificates for the Boys and Girls Club.

All right. We'll do that 7D and then we'll do uh 12A. All right. So 7D, fire department. We also have certificates of recognition for uh kindness and kindness is free. Oh yes. Presentation please.

All right. Good evening uh madame mayor, city council, elected official, city staff. Uh battalian chief John Jin here. Uh wanted to talk some of the events uh for the fire department. So the random acts of kindness on February 6, we had the Boys and Girls Club. We collaborated with them to bring up a uh their little popup and they serve coffee and donuts to the fire department. We had it here at station 61. It was a huge success. Um it actually went over the time limit we had allotted with a lot of uh city people that were trying to get their exercise in. Got a little bit detourred and got some donuts along the way. So it was a really good event. Uh very happy to do that for the first time here. Um and very successful and thank you. So we wanted to present some uh certificates to the Boys and Girls Club. And we have uh Senator Perez's office, Amber, who's going to be handing out those certificates to the members.

Good evening, everyone. You guys want to come up? Um yeah, I'm just going to start this real quick. So, my name is Amber Jang and on behalf of the California State Senate and Senator Sasha Perez, I'm honored to join you um in recognition of the random acts of kindness day hosted by the Boys and Girls Club of the West. Gabriel Valley and East Side. The kindness is free campaign is a testament to your dedication to the community as you honored our first responders at the Monterey Park Fire Department. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to serving the residents of Monterey Park and neighbors across the SGB as you continue to invest in the greater community through love and kindness. Best wishes in our future endeavors. Now, I have names on these. I'm so sorry. Um, we got Andy Quan. Thank you.

And then I'm so sorry, city council for stepping on your toes. Mia Morales, Sophia Young,

Alan Aba. Yeah. Nice. And then Nicole Balo. And then Scott Ellers. Hello. Yeah. And uh on behalf of the city of Monterey Park, we also have certificates of recognition for all the volunteers, too. Here we go.

Oh, I also forgot to mention too, it was also advertised on channel 7 too. So, we can find it on YouTube and it's on the social medias. So, it was on there. So, got some uh media coverage. Thank you guys.

Before the Boys and Girls Club leaves, maybe we could offer I don't know if others want to make comment. I just want to add some comment. I don't know if Vinn wants to go first, but uh just want to appreciate the Boys and Girls Club for being amazing neighbors to city hall right across the street. For those who don't know, uh, the Boys and Girls Club, we've long been neighbors and really appreciate, uh, really the the show of neighborliness and the the kindness, uh, is free campaign that has been years long and helping to to really help promote um, good behavior and neighborliness among residents and and uh, right, businesses and other people. And I think I speak on behalf of not only the fire department, but all city staff. You're welcome to do these pop-up events any day. Uh and to bring donuts and snacks uh to our council meetings if you want. They're every first first and third Wednesday of the month. Uh we can set up some space for you if you'd like. Uh but really appreciate all that the Boys and Girls Club does to help raise uh boys and girls uh in our community to really be men and women uh that really care about each other and about the community. So really appreciate that and all that you do uh to make Monterey Park and our surrounding communities in the wider region because you guys aren't just Monterey Park uh but operate a number of other clubs as well uh do so much to help build stronger communities and more resilient communities. So thank you so much for all that you do and congratulations to Nathaniel are the two-time youth of the year out of this club. Uh so congratulations as you uh finish up your senior year uh in the area. Thanks so much for coming by and thanks to the fire horn for hosting.

All right, thank you. Um, any All right, thank you all so much. My my kids were also uh students at Boys and Girls Club when they were younger and they really enjoyed their time there. So, keep up the great work. Congratulations all. Thank you guys. Congratulations. And then also I'd like to take this time to advertise our next upcoming disaster preparedness clinic which is going to be this Saturday at the bar and service club and that'll be from 9 to 12 um over there and we'll cover things from disaster preparedness um utility shut offs um basic uh emergency exit drills those type of things too and advertise of course our search program as well too to uh help and support the public any way we can and educate.

Thank you very much. That's it. Any questions? Thank you. Happy birthday to your chief. Yeah. Happy birthday, chief. Should I sing? Should I sing for him right now?

All right. Uh, now we're going to bring up 12A uh the Barnes Park pool design selection. So, jump to new business and then we'll go back. So, presentation please on 12A. Yeah.

Good evening, Mayor Prom, Mayor, Mayor Prom, city council members. Robert Giri, director of recreation and community services, uh, here to speak about the Barnes Park Revitalization Project. Uh, so as you all know, back in August of 2025, uh, council adopted our first ever park system master plan. So kudos to us for that. um as part of that plan, that's a guide for the next 10 years uh for really how the community is going to move forward with all of our parks and uh future investments in our parks. And so one of the priority projects that came out of that plan uh was the Barnes Park pool revitalization. Uh it's definitely a been a staple in this community and we heard a lot of of great feedback from the community with a robust amount of community engagement. Um so at that time council allocated $250,000 towards future uh park system master plan items that were identified with that plan and then we um took a portion of that uh those funds and utilized it to hire the Dalin group and also the aquatic design group um to help us with community engagement, facilitating surveys, understanding what type of pool and what kind of future uh the Barnes Park pool would look like. And so we've had a robust amount of community engagement, uh number of surveys, um met with stakeholders and um and so from that um so now we're currently in the design uh conceptual design phase. So if you look at the the diagram there, we went from the parks master plan over the to the conceptual design phases, which is where we're at. During this entire time, we've also been uh going after funding opportunities. Um, so just recently at our mid-year budget, council also allocated an additional million dollars. So, thank you for that. And then, as people have already started to announce before I got the opportunity to announce, um, we, uh, just got a Measure A competitive grant. It was the maximum amount for the

planning grant, $500,000, which will go directly towards um, a So great job, Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, a little premature. Wrong item. So, we'll take this quick moment just to to highlight that we actually got two grants from uh the measure A. One is for a Garvey Ranch uh trail system and the other is for the Barnes Park revitalization planning grant. Um so, Easter Bunny, if you could please return back to your bunny hole. Uh we'll have you come out during our staff communic staff communications. That was awesome. So definitely a moment I'll never forget.

So with all of this funding, we definitely are are hoping to get to uh conceptual design. That's what's on the agenda for tonight with city council. We had a number of options that were available to the community and they all voted on those. Um the now with funding available for construction design, we'll be able to move into that next phase uh following uh a vote. Um so tonight I have with us uh the Dalan group as well as the aquatic design group uh Daniel, Nick, and Stephanie. They're going to give a short presentation on some of the findings from our community engagement and from those surveys and how that led to our recommendation uh tonight which was ultimately option B uh from those and they'll kind of go into uh those those designs. I'll turn it over to Daniel from

Thank you, Robert.

A little bit of the spoilers on option B there. We have no surprise bunny either, so it'll be nice and quiet. Um, Mayor Yang, council members, it's an honor to be here to represent the project of the Barnes Park revisioning. We've been working with city manager Alvarez, director Agiri, and many other city staff on this effort. Uh, it's been a pleasure working with the city staff to give a voice to the community for this process. They've really actively engaged and let them participate in what this facility could be. Uh there were many opportunities throughout this that Robert just outlined and we'll cover in more detail, but it's been a very transparent and engaging to let the count the community decide what this park will be. A quick introduction of our team Robert quickly went through. My name is Daniel Berghauser, principal architect for Dalan Architecture, Interiors and Planning. I also have Nick McGuire who is the lead designer on this effort. John Canedo who is the project manager and then additionally from aquatic design group I have Stephanie Fujimara who led the pool design in effort. Robert did a great job stole my thunder and went a quick timeline through but just a quick summary on what we've done up to today so you can understand the engagement that's led to the results that we'll present later. The first effort was a survey that was released about 25 questions roughly 15 minutes. Uh that was released for six weeks and while that was active we held three community meetings. Two open to the public and one a more focused topic with the stakeholders, the local swim teams, the high schools so they could participate at a more granular level. With the with that data, combining both the survey results and the community engagement with the many activities that were involved, we were able to compile the findings and develop three

conceptual design ideas. Working with city staff to continue to refine those ideas. Um, working to refine those three ideas, uh, we then went back to the community to present for input and feedback. At that same time, a survey was open for those who couldn't attend the event and to provide their input as well. And all of that effort has led us to here today to present what we have done for this effort in this project. Uh going back one more slide, these are just a couple of examples of the activities at those community engagement events. There was a visioning board that had a a range of activities and amenities that could be at this pool facility and the community got to voice their priorities. Additionally, there was individual priority matrix uh that had another range of activities and opportunities at this facility. Uh and then lastly, we had a build your own pool that allowed people a hands-on opportunity at scale to understand this facility, the size and different amenities that could go within that area. I'm gonna pass the mic over to Nick and he'll relay a little bit on some of the survey findings from that engagement as well as online survey.

Thanks Dan. Um so for the first survey was the one that we sent out kind of concurrently with the the the outreach pro the meetings. Um this one again it ran for six weeks like Dan mentioned. Uh we had 410 survey respondents which is pretty high for a survey like this. you don't really see that much feedback or um community input. Uh we really touched looked at the demographics of who took the survey and it was a pretty good cross-section of residents of the community. So it was not just one group, it was the entire city either from young um high schoolers up until your your elderly community. Um we kind of focused on what the the high points of the facility needed u and I pulled that information here. So the facility features being you know shade, comfortable seating, places like that. um you know re year- round access to the programming because you know Monterey Park or Barnes Park was pretty compacted for us programming. So having year- round access was very important um for for swim lessons and and things that people couldn't actually get your access to all around. Um and again shade was a of big importance as well. Um so what we did we took that information we broke that down and we started compiling data. Um this kind of led us to the the compiled data of the outreach meetings and we developed the three the three options like you have we all saw. Um, and then we kind of developed those based on the feedback from the community and the survey and uh, city staff input. And then, um, turn it over to Stephanie. She's gonna touch on the three options again so we kind of get where we are and then we can kind of look again to the the surprise answer at this point.

Good evening. So, based on all the feedback we got back from the survey, in addition to the feedback that we got back from the community outreach meetings, we landed on three very distinct options. So option A on the left is you'll notice is the only option with three bodies of water. So it is a 40 meter competitive pool. So with depths from 3'6 down to 12 ft. That'll allow for 1 m and 3 m diving as well. In addition to that, you have a 25 yard shallower pool recreation pool. And then in the bottom right corner there, you'll see a splash pad. It's the only one with the three bodies of water. Option B has a full-size Olympic pool which you've heard um the community talking about. So it's a full 50 meter pool. Um in addition to the 50 meter pool, you have that rec what we're calling a recreation pool. So the 25 yard six land recreation pool that would be at shallow or water and that would be used for therapy uses, learn to swim, more community centric for the smaller children as well and recreation. I'm sorry. And then um option C on the right is a 52 meter pool. So it gives you all the benefits of a 50 meter pool. Um but what it has with it is also a movable bulkhead which is about 2 m long which is why the pool needs to stretch. Um this allows you to separate the pool as needed. So this option while it's the least expensive, it's also the only one with a single bottle of body of water. So it gives you the least amount of flexibility as far as programming. So one body of water means that you have to share both time and water space um between the high school and the community. Uh next slide please. So these three options were per presented to the community on the second. Um and we also had another survey up for them that was out for two weeks to let them choose

which of the three were their preferred. And of the over,300 respondents, which is fantastic by the way, um six over 60% chose option B, which was the 50 m Olympic pool with the recreation pool. So the one in the middle that we were looking at earlier. So in addition to just the what was your favorite question, there was an opportunity for people to add comments about what they felt was most important to them, why they like certain things, why they didn't. So up on the screen you can see that the true 50 meter competitive pool was a huge push. Um but at the same time familyoriented amenities were extremely important. As part of that there were definitely responses of well why can't we add a splash pad? Maybe here maybe in another park. So there's some flexibility in that but at the end of the day option B was by far the winner. So this is just a little bit of a closer look for you into option B. So as a 50 meter pool, we'd go from approximately 3'6 down to 12 ft. This will support 1 meter and 3 m springboard diving. It'll also give you a total of 21 swim lanes um anywhere from 11 lanes to 19 lanes of deep water. So it'll allow you to do three water polar practices at once. It'll also allow you to do both short course and long course swim. So 25 meter is short course swim. Um that is what I'm gonna say 95% of high school swimming is. Uh this also gives you the option to run long course swim. So the long length of the pool of 50 meters which one of the community me uh members mentioned there. South of that you will see our recreation pool. So that is pretty flexible. Um, we right now have it as a six lane recreation pool. As far as

depths, we can go from zero depth all the way down to five feet. We can go from three feet to 5t. Really, the intent is to program it for recreational needs. The beauty of a plan like this is also that because it is two separate bodies of water and it can be divided by a fence, that helps to lower operational costs for the city. So, for example, in the winter when you're going to have fewer people willing to go out there in the cold and only the diehard swimmers are out there swimming, um, or the high schoolers are out there practicing, you're able to shut down one pool completely without having to lifeguard it. So, it'll give you some flexibility. It'll also give you flexibility as far as um cost efficiencies and potential revenue generation down the road as well. So that that was the preferred option. Open to any questions that council has regarding the selected option and what we're recommending.

Uh do we questions first? We we have a one public comment. So maybe we'll we'll hear the public comment and then ask questions. Absolutely.

All right. So uh the one public comment speaker is Margaret Leang. Yeah. Hi, mayor and um city council and city staff. Um I just want to thank everybody to put the effort into moving the project forward. Um it was a a long haul and I understand there was a lot of tension. there was a lot of uh give and take and I think I feel that this option B will give us the framework to be in the right space with what is what is needed for the future of the city. This is really needed. Um it it's not perfect and I think there is going to be an opportunity to recap uh during the uh preconstruction design phase of the project. Um with this um half a million dollars that is provided to us. It's an opportunity for us to get a perfect design and in a facility that the community really deserve. But I do want to summarize where we came from a little bit. And I want to say that, you know, um I am the chair of these SGV powerup beacon 501c3 nonprofit organization and we've been the leading communitydriven effort to restore bond park pool including organizing the October 5th swim campaign, coordinating community outreach and supporting grant and funding initiative in partnership with city. I want to say that uh with we are grateful to the many community partners who have stepped forward in

support of this effort including Markeo High School PTSA, the swim team, the volunteers, the Markeo High School Alliance and the residents. This truly reflects a share commitment across our community. I would like to clarify that the public record that the SGV pub serve as the coordinating nonprofit for the Barnes Park Pool campaign working alongside with city as community partner to help move this project forward. The Barnes Park Pool project itself is a city-owned public project. Um there's no denying that. That is the fact. And our focus remain on supporting the development of a modern aquatic facility that serves students, family, and residents for generations to come. As outlined in the city's park uh master park plan, the Barnes Park Aquatic Center has been identified as a high priority investment reflecting strong and consistent community input for a safe, modern swim facility. From a planning and funding perspective, we are continuing to support effort that align with regional recreation goals, community access, and long-term sustainability. All of which are critical to securing future funding and delivering a successful project. At its core, this is about the community and and the future of the kids, about providing access to aquatics, supporting youth development, and restoring a historical resource that has served Montterrey Park for generations. We remain committed to transparency, cooper collaboration, and responsible stewardship as we continue this work. I just want to make that very clear so there is no confusion. what our

goal is and mission is for SGV pub. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Margaret. And uh comments and questions.

May I? Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh first off, uh Darling Group, thank you for all the hard work you guys did on this. I know it took months and weeks of calibration with the community. And I and and I I am pleasantly surprised that we had 1300 plus surveys. Although I'd be curious to see how many of them were the same people. But in any case, I mean 60% is a clear majority that wanted option B. And I want to congratulate Robert and and team for getting the the two grants for our city. That speaks volumes for what we're doing from our community standpoint. Uh I think option B is a great option. I only have one reservation and I'm speaking on behalf of Council Member Sanchez who's not here. He's got three kids and they were really really looking forward to that splash pad which we will have to figure out. I think there's a you have a response.

So the splash pad um that was an option A. We have options as far as well two options. One it could be integrated into that recreation pool if you wanted to do that. There are other places in the park and other places in the city as we've talked to Robert about that may be even a better fit perhaps for the location of that splash pad. Well, I don't have young kids anymore, but I think a splash cat splash pad is well needed for a lot of the young kids and I think council member Sanchez made it to a point for me to say pass that message on to the council member meetings. So, I'm doing my part. So, thank you.

Message received. I would just note uh for the record, council go, that adults can also enjoy splash pads. Uh but I just uh add to council go's appreciation for the staff and for the consultant team uh getting us to this point. I know it's been a long journey particularly for those in the community. Uh I swam at Barnes Park Pool growing up the Manor Rays. Uh it's great to see that. I know it's been a long journey. It's been long one for me too. I' wanted I would have wanted to see this pool rebuilt even be decades ago because it needed to work even before we shut it down. Um but appreciate that we're getting to this point getting to a point where hopefully tonight with the support of the full council uh going to get to a full design in the next few monthsish uh or this year sometime so that we have a shovel ready project uh which is the furthest we've bit we would be have ever gotten with this pool. Um so appreciate that. I appreciate all the committee members, the the many many people that uh submitted comments, participate in this process over the years, going back to even the parks master plan process uh and even before that when we had the other kind of concept uh a decade ago, I think uh for potential design for this rebuilding Barnes Park Pool. I know the community has been very very engaged in this and this uh I'm very much agree with the comments not only tonight but over the last few months and few years about how important Barnes Park Pool and the aquatic center is to daily life. I know it was important for my own life and my own a very formative uh piece of my own life as a Manor Ray swimmer and going through high school here and growing up here. Uh it's always Barnes Park has always been a core asset here, not only Barnes Park but for the city and for the region. Uh so appreciate that we're really prioritizing this. Uh and appreciate that we've gotten all these options. We've done robust community engagement through the parks master plan process. again appreciate everyone's patience in getting through that. Uh but I want to emphasize how

important uh it is to have this kind of community process because while I think tonight we will I anticipate we'll be voting on uh moving forward with a concept. I remind everyone that we don't have the funding for the full the full funding that's needed to build this project at this point which is why we need as many community members engaged in supporting this project. And I welcome the speakers tonight and over the last few months particular who have expressed interest in partnering and working closely with the city on making sure we get this project built. Uh because we're going to need everyone's help and everyone participating not not just more than even the people that uh engaged in the survey this survey and the past surveys and in all the community meetings. We need a lot of residents uh and particularly voters in the city of Mari Park to really be engaged on making this pool a reality. Uh but on the specific option tonight and the the design tonight, I'm inclined to support and very much want to support option B. I think it provides the most flexibility for our operations for the city and for providing uh recreational opportunities and swimming opportunities and water use opportunities, not just swimming, water polo, recreation, swim lessons, everything else we do in water. Uh provides the greatest flexibility for the community as expressed through all the community input that we've gathered. um and uh make sure that we have operational flexibility in terms of right having two pools because pools always have to go down for maintenance. Um so having two pools to be able to kind of shift uh needs when we need to make repairs or something's going off or someone did had an accident in the pool and we have to shut that down for 24 hours which happens all the time. Uh having this kind of flexibility is very very important and I think option B checks most all those boxes for us. Um, and then some even some of the cons that are listed here, right? Uh, splash pad to council me go's point uh doesn't have to be necessarily connected to this

specific build project. Uh, the splash uh a splash pad came up through the parks master plan process and I would be I think it would be an asset and al obviously clearly through the parks master plan process. Many of our parks could be great options for a splash pad. And not including in this specific design doesn't mean we're excluding it uh from potentially Barnes Park, another part of Barnes Park or some other park that makes sense or multiple parks if we find some money that Robert's going to work on. Uh but also right the multi-purpose room, all these other things, shaded areas, seating. We have some of those assets already built into the areas around this the pool complex area uh with the the the picnic shelter right across the way there and the service clubhouse already serves as a multi-purpose room for that area and has served as a multi-purpose room for the pool for many for decades. Um and I anticipate we'll continue to do so. We'd love to find some money to to retrofit Service Clubhouse after this too. Robert, Robert's Robert's gonna find a pot of gold for us, but uh I'm ready to support option B and want to move forward on that uh and get us as quickly as possible to a full design so that we're as shovel ready as possible. Uh so that when there are other grant opportunities available for actual construction, potentially for actual construction, uh right, the most competitive ones are the ones that are ready to build as soon as possible and those are the ones with full designs. So, uh, I know I've talked a lot. Just giving my reasoning. Appreciate everyone's engagement on this project. Want to ask and and really just urge everyone who's been engaged through this process, uh, to continue engaged, to get others engaged, your neighbors particularly about how important rebuilding Barnes Park and the Barnes Park Aquatic Center is for the community because we're need everyone's help to make sure that we actually get this built um, in a reasonable time frame. Uh but again, kudos to the team uh for the half million $1 million in grants that awarded and announced yesterday. Very

jealous that our mayor got to attend that. Uh but appreciate LA County uh returning some of our lowhole sales tax dollars from Measure A uh to City of Moni Park and half a million of that will go specifically towards this design. Um that I think we will move forward tonight, assuming we'll move forward tonight. Uh that will add on add in to the million dollars we've already allocated for design. And just a reminder, that may cover that 1.5 million might cover the cost of actual design for this pool. And then we're still going to have about $30 million it sounds like to actually build this. So, we've got a long way to go, but we're making progress. Um, you know, we're taking some big steps here. So, appreciate all the work that went into this and look forward to comments from my other council members.

Thank you. Uh, you know, I um want to say that certainly this is a day of celebration for us. I mean besides of course the checks that were would be presented but but also it it really is a testament to I think the incredible work that's been done by staff um especially Robert by uh yourself and those in parks recreation working with the city and the community as well as this city council. Um I know that this has been a long process but I will say that probably this is the furthest we have gone in probably by probably 10 years in actually uh working very hard to uh you know get from the community um the input to where we are now with a concept and also the funding. I know that the city has tried before and um we were turned down but again the fact that we were able to uh get to this point is something that I think we should all be very proud of and also one which um I think uh speaks to volumes about the seriousness in which this city council and city um has heard the needs of the community and has acted and re and reacted to those concerns. And um I think of you know the uh grant money as you know put a down payment a down payment in what will truly uh be hopefully a wonderful uh facility um that will uh you know be an example of what is possible when uh everyone comes together um um in common go um I also want to thank staff um and and the consultants for the recommendation uh for the option before us. Um, you know, I I would also just add to the conversation that um, you know, we want to make sure that this aquatic facility is one that is accessible to everyone, not just those who um, want to practice competitive swimming, but those who just want the recreational benefits of swimming as well. And so I would also add uh ask staff that moving forward that in addition to um you know getting this pool project, this aquatic center

um um moving along that we also continue to explore opportunities to make sure that our aquatic services like all of our recreational services. And again, kudos to the um parks and rec staff for just working so diligently at our parks. Um you know, for example, um all the playgrounds um replacements um that we've unveiled to the community. Um um but we want to I mean we want to make sure that um the services we provide for parks and reccks is is accessible to everyone not just one group of people. So

thank you Mayor Prom. Um I also want to echo my colleagues words of gratitude. Thank you to Robert and the entire team for getting us the $1 million grant money, even though in the grand scheme of things, you know, the community picked option B, which is the most expensive option out of the three. Um, and that's just a, you know, small um, amount, but at least it gives us the momentum to continue and uh, keep getting more money to finish building the pool. And thank you to the Dalan group for coming in with these great designs, hosting the community meeting and addressing all the community members concerns. Um I think option B is a great option. I think the splash pad. Um since there's a lot of families with kids in the city, um if we can explore other um areas in the city to build a splash splash pad, maybe the splash pad can be built um a lot sooner than than the than the um the pool because the pool's going to take a while. So splash hack could be easier and faster. So that that could be a a great option. Um so yeah, that's we don't have any other questions for you guys. Thank you for the presentation and uh would anyone

I'll make the motion for to move forward with option B. I just have a quick question for Robert. What would be Can you outline just what the next steps would be? So you're going to bring an RFP back for full design or how does that work? Yeah, I'll be I'll be working with public works to work on RFPs to go out for construction design. Actually looking at what the cost potential is going to be for that so that we can bring that back. So, I don't have a time frame on what construction design would look like, but uh we'll definitely keep you uh appraised to that. Obviously, the faster the better, but always faster the better and always looking for additional funds for more projects. Absolutely. If you find some more money, we're happy to celebrate. Absolutely.

So, council member second makes a motion to uh select option B and also direct staff to use um the select option for all future grant applications. And then council member go seconds. So we'll make a vote. Approved unanimously. U. Madame Mayor, members of the council, we do want to note that we did hear from council members, it sounds like there is consensus to continue to look at potentials for a splash pad, maybe as a standalone project, maybe at a different location, at this location, but it sounded like there was still interest in that as well. Is that correct? Yes.

Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes. All right. Thank you, Robert. Um, so let's go back to staff communications item seven. Uh, and we can go with the 7A library. Good evening, Mayor Yang and city council members. My name is Leon Jordan and I'm the senior librarian for adult and teen services. First off, a recap of some of our February programs. In February, the library offered 79 programs across the adult, teen, children's, and literacy departments with a total attendance of 249. Attendees enjoyed activities including cooking soul food for Black History Month, an out of this world alien party, Valentine's Day themed craft, and a romance author panel and book signing. Now, some upcoming programs for this month. In honor of Women's History Month, the library is hosting the Her Story 3 exhibition in March and April. The exhibition illuminates the role of Chinese American women in challenging injustice and shaping the legal system. Join us this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. for the grand opening, which will include speeches by curator Dr. Chang Chen, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Mayang, and other inspiring female leaders. Also coming up this Saturday, families

are invited to join us for Spanish bilingual story time at 4:30 p.m. where they'll hear books, sing songs, and learn vocabulary. Teen and adult BTS fans can also stop by for our BTS listening party at 3 p.m. where they'll make K-pop inspired craft, play games, and connect with other fans while enjoying the new BTS album. On Tuesday, March 24 at 4:00, community partners API FM will be leading an interactive workshop on smart shopping with Calresh. Through games and group activities, attendees will learn about nutrition labels and smart shopping tips, as well as how to use fresh produce to prepare affordable, healthy meals for their families. Chinatown Service C Center's popular volunteer income tax assistance or VITA clinic continues at the library throughout March. This program offers free tax preparation for lowincome taxpayers and runs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Services are available in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Appointments can be made online or by contacting Chinatown Service Center. Registration is now open for our spring semester ESL classes. These 15week adult literacy classes help improve reading, writing, and speaking skills. Classes began last month, but registration remains open until the 31st. For more information about these and to view our spring schedule, please visit our web page. We hope to see you at the library soon and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Yeah. Well, thank you. That was very impressive with so many different programs and projects and the the number of people serve and I I just when I look at the list, I just kind of picked out three things or that kind of jumped out. One was just kind of celebrating our cultural diversity in this city with the Spanish bilingual programs. And then on the flip side of that, you got the BTS listening party and of course you got the her story which is going to exhibit uh many of our our important matriarchs in the city. Uh I'm just so impressed and feel with joy that we provide this program to our city and I think it's the the people who actually benefit from this is not just our city but the surrounding community and that's what we are and that's why I'm so proud of our our work in terms of having a library that serves the community. So thank you for all that good work.

Thank you. just did appreciate everything the library is doing to help celebrate in the community and these important events. I look forward to going to as many as I can uh and seeing the community be able to celebrate. But thanks. Thank you so much though. As always um the library is a valuable resource to the community, not just a place for knowledge, information, but the gathering place for community to celebrate diversity as well as a place to receive social services. Again, I always appreciate the services like the Vita program um that you're providing and so again, you know, we're very lucky to have the resources that we have with the library. So,

yeah, 79 events is a is a big number. So, it just goes to show how much effort the library is putting to creating programs for our community. I'm looking forward to the Her story event this Saturday. And uh also, thank you for opening up the library as a cooling center this week in the heat. much needed. Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, next is 7B, Recreation and Community Services.

Is this is this when the Easter Bunny is supposed to come out? I'm like, I don't know how I top. So, good evening, mayor, mayor PM, city council members, recreation, director of recreation, Robert Deiri, uh, sharing a few updates. So just want to highlight this uh last Friday uh we had 220 Monterey Park residents attend MPK night at Clipper St uh in it dome. So a great night uh had lots of positive feedback. Uh everyone got their Japanese heritage jerseys and had a great time. So 220 uh residents. This is our first time doing uh that activity and uh just very successful. So very proud of staff uh for organizing that and all thank you to all the residents that came out for that. So thank you. Next slide please. Uh just want to highlight a current project that's going on. Uh we're going to be having a ribbon cutting uh next Tuesday at 5:00 here at the Barnes Park tennis and now pickle ball courts. Uh we have added six permanent pickle ball courts here at Barnes Park. Uh this is a project that is actually resurfacing all of our tennis courts throughout the uh community, but it also in included adding uh six new pickleball courts at Barnes Park and we're going to also be adding four uh permanent pickle ball courts at Bella Vista Park. So currently we've completed Barnes Park, George Elder Park tennis courts, the Garvey Ranch Park tennis courts, and Sequoia Park tennis and basketball court have just been completed. Those will be opening up in about few days. Um and then Sunny Slopes is currently in progress and then we will be moving over to Highlands and completing this project at Bella Vista Park. So really excited about this project. It looks amazing. That's an actual drone shot. It's not an AI shot. That's overhead of Barnes Park. Um it's looks beautiful. plays great. The courts have been absolutely slammed. There's so many people out there. It's been awesome to see. Uh, next slide, please. So, I wanted to highlight um been very very proud of the work and the amazing work that our staff has been

doing. Uh, recreation recreation and community services department has been recently uh recognized by a number of awards. Uh up on this slide, I'm actually highlighting just two of those awards. Uh at our annual uh conference, which uh invites all of the recreation departments from throughout California State, uh we are recognized with two uh prestigious awards, awards of excellence. Uh one for our annual electric park um event and another for our annual SGV pride event which we host um along with the Alhhamra Teachers Association and the Boys and Girls Club. Uh I also want to take this moment just to highlight our mark your calendars. Our next uh pride event is coming up on June the 6th of this year. So along with these uh two awards uh this next Saturday, actually this coming Saturday, we're also going to be honored uh with the service to education government award by Alhamra's Educational Foundation. uh at the same conference for the aging section which is uh programs for our senior population. We were also um recognized with an award for our love for the elders uh program which is a collaboration with Mark Keell High School students that come over and do inter intergenerational activities uh with our seniors. And then next Thursday after the spring a hunt I'm going to be shooting over to uh an awards dinner. We're also being recognized by the CPRS California Parks and Rec Society's District 13 for the senior uh Langley Sen Langley Senior C Center's uh annual Lunar New Year uh event. So, uh five awards in just a short period of time. I really just want to highlight the amazing work that the RA recreation team is doing. Our staff puts their heart and soul into everything they do and am just cannot speak uh enough about how amazing and and proud I am of of their work. Um next slide, please. So along with our award-winning uh event that I just mentioned is actually

another award-winning event that was recognized a few years back uh by the same award of excellence which is our cherry blossom festival that's coming up on April 11th and 12th. Want to invite everyone to come out. Amazing entertainment, even more delicious food, tons of shopping. There's going to be a a maids maids out the maids uh will be out there performing. Uh, our SGV symphony is going to be performing. Uh, tons of Tao drumming, which is one of my personal favorites. Um, so just want to invite everyone to come out. That's April the 11th and 12th here in Barnes Park. And then I guess we can cue the bunny now. So our bunny Yeah. Everyone act really shocked. our our bunny was bring us bringing us some early uh gifts with highlighting our recent um grants. But we do we so we do want to highlight um outside of the grants that next uh Thursday uh is our annual spring egg hunt here in Barnes Park. So from 4 to 7 p.m. you can uh come out join us. We have over 20,000 eggs that will be with with candy t it's all completely free. Uh, our farmers market is also going to be reopening on March 26. So, the farmers market will be available. Come out, get dinner, enjoy free activities. Massive event. There's always a ton of people. We tried our best to do it, keep it as organized and controlled as possible. Every year we learn more and more how to how to make it even better. And so, we're really excited to continue to have just a super successful event. We look forward to seeing everyone out there. Uh, next slide. I think that might be. Thank you. And that is my time off. If not, council wants to take a quick picture with our Easter bunny.

It wasn't amazing. Get in there. Yeah, Robert will get in there.

Easter Bunny, have you two couple steps back? There we go. Thank you.

Good job. Yes. Thank you, Robert. And the bunny and 7C public works.

I I don't have a bunny to come out. So I I apologize. Um good evening mayor, mayor prom and city council. Sean Igo, public works director. Um tonight we have before you just a quick update uh on our survey. So this is actually not our survey. This is uh our solid waste haulers um survey. So we encourage our residents to participate in this survey with wear to provide u some feedback on their um service they provided. So I know it seems like it was just yesterday, but they've been with us now for over a year and so they want to hear feedback from our residents. So again, we encourage our residents to uh either go in person, they can get p uh printed copies, or they can take the survey online and provide feedback on how their services are doing so that hopefully they can make any improvements that may be needed. So with that, I'll take any questions. Thank you. Encourage everyone to take the survey. Uh I'm not going to pull off consent, so I'll just do it now. Kudos to the uh public works team. One of the items in consent is to accept a bunch of public works projects that were completed over the last few months. Uh I noticed that most of them were I think all of them were actually under budget and some of them significantly under budget. So kudos to the team. Really appreciate our our being on top of project management and cost controls there. And every dollar we save on uh these public works products means we can spend more of that that money on other public works products. So appreciate the team and all the work there. Thank you. Uh again I'm I'm very excited um that we are doing this survey. I think that um especially um you know since um this city has undergone uh the you know effort with the transition to a nur new service provider. I think it's important that we continue to make sure that um our residents continue to receive the um services they expect. And so I think um it's important um that and I appreciate that the staff is doing this survey. So, thank you very much for doing that. You

Yeah, I think this is a much needed survey. Is it going to be on the cascades and also uh on the social media? Yeah, we've we've done some outreach. So, again, this is where's survey, but we have, you know, been doing our own push out to get people to hopefully um provide information on this, but we have that outreach in addition to them. Awesome. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Okay. And that's it for staff communications. So, no old business. Moving on to our consent calendar. Item 10. Any items?

Yeah, I have a couple of items. Uh items I take the pool for discussion. 10 C. Uh 10 D just a quick update. And then 10 F just a quick update. Okay. Any other items? Right. Anyone want to make a motion? Move for approval. Remaining on agenda items. I'll second.

All right. Let's vote. Approved unanimously. Thank you. Then let's do a quick presentation on 10 C amendment number one, the pong group. Good evening, Mayor Mayor Prom Council. Laura Bourjon, finance manager. The Pune Group has served the city as the city's independent auditor for the past three years. Staff is recommending a five-year contract extension. This recommendation aligns with the government finance officers association's best practices which suggest multi-year agreements of at least 5 years to ensure continuity, minimize disruption, and reduce long-term costs. Furthermore, the extension complies with California government code, which limits lead audit partners to six consecutive years of service. Accordingly, the city will transition from the current partner to a new lead partner after the third year of this extension. At the conclusion of this term, the city will initiate a new request for proposals to ensure ongoing competitiveness and regulatory compliance. This concludes the staff report. Staff will is available to answer any questions.

So again, remind me how many years we had the this group in the past. the last three years. Correct. Just jotting down notes.

So my thought on this is I I and I think the continuity is very important. Um and that's what you mentioned about the state saying, you know, you need like a five-year program overall for continuity. And I agree with that. Where I come from is from a accounting perspective going back way back to my accounting school days. It was always keep the accountants within three years and move on to a new group. You can come back to them but move on to a new group so that you can have new people kind of look at your audit. Uh and I understand where we're coming from. We're looking for a new partner which starts the year four. Right. Correct.

Yeah. So my thought on this is I I I think we're fine with the screw because there's continuity and I guess the last three years uh coming out of COVID they've kind of done the work and everything looks looks fine. I was thinking maybe here I was kind of entertaining perhaps a three-year program with the one-year option would be my thought. I mean it still gives us more than five years and then at that point we can kind of figure out where do we go from here from an audit standpoint to keep the continuity but at the same time move forward with going back to the accounting school days having a new auditor kind of come and figure out help us not just audit us in terms of what we did right and wrong but also provide us some guidance on how to move forward. So those are just my thoughts. I I will just echo what council go was saying in terms of having making sure we have a fresh set of eyes every few years uh and appreciate right we have to find that I think sweet spot between right it takes a bit to onboard a new auditor every time so I understand that but also making sure that we do have a fresh set of eyes uh so that right if there are things that are missing a new auditor and a new person that's looking at these books fresh or fresher will spot thought some of those things and so just finding that right balance in terms of the years I'm inclined to kind of agree I'm actually more partial to two or three years extension right that gives that would give this group up to five five to six years um and then really making sure we go out to RFP I don't know if we have my other larger question is um do we is there internal city policy in terms of when we have to refresh or how long a certain auditor can have uh our contraction for auditing

right uh we could create a policy um and our policy states that five years.

So I I I'd be more comfortable then if that's the case uh doing a two plus one as opposed to I think what council go was saying three plus one. Um that gets them to five years and then if we need to we can go out for another year. But I really think we should be refreshing every five year. I mean if that's our policy we should I try to keep to that five years five or six years in my mind but uh not have making sure that there is someone else that can come in where our feeing and that expectation is kind of set up front for for whatever auditor comes back comes to us and wins the bid. Um and then we're refreshing every every five or six years or so going forward. But that would be I just add my comments to what council me was saying in terms of shortening the extension here.

Okay. We can definitely amend uh the well the contract hasn't been executed so we can make that change.

Right. I make a motion. There's no other comments from mayor mayor prom. Then we need to figure out do you want to go with two and one or three and one. Uh, mayor and members of the council. So, up to council. Uh, currently we've had the poon group for three years. Um, the as staff mentioned the J GFOA best practice and that's that's the policy that we're following. The auditoring uh the audit partner in it. It could be technically the same firm, but the partner the auditor needs to change every four years. Correct. Or sorry, every six years.

Six. Six years. But I understand you're saying we could potentially look at um changing those out sooner. So we just need direction on if you guys want to extend the contract for two years plus one or three years plus one. Either is there's not we will make that adjustment. Yes. I'll I'll make the motion for two plus one up to three years for the extension if there's a second. I I'll second that. All right. Let's vote. approved unanimously. All right. Thank you. And next item is 10 E. E or D.

Uh D as in dog.

D. Okay. Approve the artwork submitted by artist Georgico for a mural celebrating the United States semicentennial at Barnes Park. Uh good evening, mayor, mayor prom, city council members. Robert Gary, director of recreation and community services. Uh getting to present a really exciting opportunity here tonight. And I know that uh over the past couple years, we've been able to install some pretty amazing uh artwork in the city of Monterey Park. Um, and so, uh, it's definitely been on council's agenda to try to increase the amount of art throughout the, uh, the city, and it's definitely been wellreceived by our community. With the 250, uh, anniversary of independence for our our our country uh, coming up, uh, we started working with local artist Georgieo. Uh, they previously owned uh, if you're familiar with Rainbow Art, it was on Garvey Avenue. Um and they are local artists, Mario Park residents. Georgie Co is uh Darren and Trisha uh Inaway and um they're going to present tonight uh their design. They're they're going to speak about some of their inspiration, where their art uh comes from and and the thoughts behind it and how it integrates into our community and also to uh the the country. Uh so uh as you'll recall back on February the 4th uh city council approved uh Barnes Park uh gymnasium for the location of this mural. Uh we did take the designs that are being presented tonight uh to the community participation commission uh at their their February meeting and at that meeting uh the design was uh unanimously uh supported. However, there there is a phrase that is on the design. Um, and

there was a split decision as to what that phrase would include. So, the commission had decided that they would uh send it to council with an option of either of those two designs uh for consideration. So, they do support the design and they do also support one of the two options uh for the phrase that's on the mural. Um, so with that, it's my pleasure uh to introduce you to you uh Darren and Trisha. InoA also known as Georgico.

Thank you, Robert. Thank you, mayor, city council members, uh, city staff. So, I have the privilege of just introducing a little bit about, uh, Trisha and I, and then Trisha will explain a little bit behind, you know, all the thoughts and ideas behind the concept that we're going to be proposing today. Um, so next slide. Uh Trish and I were residents. We live on the south side of Monterey Park. We've lived there for a long time. And uh there was a art school on Garvey Avenue that had been there for since I think 2002. And then 2017, my wife and I, we took over the school, were able to change all the programs, kind of bring a fresh new take on uh child's art education. Um unfortunately, COVID happened and it it shut down the school, but we were able to run a second business, which is Georgie Co. and we use the same uh building. So, we ran our studio out of that location for a number of years. And um this is the uh company that we're currently working out of to create this mural. So, if we go to the next slide, uh these are examples of some of the murals that we've done. The top one there was recently done in San Jose in the San Jose Japan town area. And then two below that are both in Hawaii on the island of Aahu on two different school locations. So we've done a lot of artwork um that's communitydriven but then also uh a lot of work that's speaking towards the future the future of what we hope um to inspire which is our children. Um if we could go to the next slide. A lot of our work has to do with uh childlike characters. The style is almost childlikeesque child bookesque. that comes from my wife Trisha. Uh she kind of has like a background in being inspired by children's books and then myself as more of a classic painter, we've melded our two styles together to kind of create what Georgie Co is. Um it's very purposeful and why we've chosen to illustrate children. We feel like that's

a unifying factor amongst all of humanity, across culture, across history. Um, we've all had the experience of struggling and being children and having to deal with feeling helpless and and uncertain in the world. So, that's uh one of our unifying factors. And then obviously that hopefully inspires empathy. Uh, just this idea that we've all had this shared experience. Um, it also is one where we're able to focus on childlike innocence and then also childlike hope as well. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Trisha, and she'll share a little bit more specifically about the mural project itself.

So, thank you so much for having us. Um, as Robert mentioned, we are asked to come up with some ideas for a mural to celebrate the 250th anniversary of United States independence. Um, so you can see on the picture where the mural is going to be located. It's going to be on the left side um wall and it's going to be 30 by 12 feet and it's going to be unveiled at the fireworks show on June 27th. And we were asked to create something that would focus on uh patriotism and something that would reflect inclusivity and diversity of our country and remind us of the country's foundation. So uh in the next slide we'll show you the final uh sketch that we've landed on. So this image represents the idea of unity in community. Um you can see a diverse group of childlike characters. They are walking together out of shadows and towards a sunrise. And we were inspired by Monterey Park city motto, pride in the past, faith in the future. And you can see that um in the direction of the children, they're all walking forward, but some are looking backwards and yet they're smiling um with that pride in the past. Um and behind them is a mountain range that uh we're inspired by the San Gabriel Mountains. And the ch the characters are also carrying backpacks to show that they are on a journey that will be a challenging one towards a better future. And yet you can see the hope in their eyes. You can see the camaraderie amongst each other as they are linking arms and um they're all walking under the banner of the American flag. Um next slide please. So as Robert mentioned there are two options for uh phrasing. Uh this first one is all created equal and we find this one um very special to us as it is

a foundational concept from the Declaration of Independence. And you can also see in the corner there's an established 1776. Um, and we also designed the font to look similar to US currency to give it that patriotic feel. And next slide please. The second phrase is faith in the future. And again, that is from our city motto which uh should instill some city pride in viewers. Um and just as the artists, as the designers of this image, we would just like to throw in our two cents that uh we think that the first option is the stronger one in that it is not just limited to the city person's experience, but it is emphasizing the unity and community amongst all Americans. Um and so it has that um you know like feeling of community and emphasizing unity which is the original prompt that we were given. So we feel like that that is the stronger option. But again the first option is all created equal and second is faith in the future. And in the next slide, we just wanted to point out one quick detail, which is that as artists, we tend to work intuitively, meaning that the final product product isn't going to look exactly like the original sketch, but it will be similar enough. Um, so we just wanted to show you a quick example from one of our Hawaii murals um, comparing the original sketch to the final product. So as we work on the image, sometimes we have to make slight adjustments, adjustments in color, adding more detail, whatever is needed at the time. So we just wanted to point that out. And in the next two slides, uh it's just showing the same two sketches from before, but just showing what they would look like on the wall itself.

And that concludes our presentation. Thank you. May I? Okay. So, I like it. I'll start with that. And thank you for presenting. Uh, good job, Robert. And I want to also thank the CPC team for giving their blessing. And I the more you guys talk, the more I realize why they punted over to us because they both sound attractive. And my heart is going to be what I see here. Faith in the future. I I get it. I mean, all created eagle is great cuz that's 1776 at the national platform level and that picture depicts the national platform, but my heart still says faith in the future because it's sitting in the city of Mari Park and that's our logo. So, I'm just going to end there before I get in trouble. Again, thank you to the team for bringing this to us and the parks department. I appreciate that Robert and the team are really hearing us in terms of adding more art. There's still a lot more blank space on a bunch of city walls. So, appreciate that we're building this pipeline uh and look forward to other projects as well. Uh but great to see a hometown Mari Parkbased uh team working on this. Really appreciate that and the community uh effort on this. I'm I've honestly both are great. I've defer the others on the council to see where we land. Uh I can go either way in terms of the actual phrase. Um but my question is on um are there any is there any way to integrate uh community participation in in the painting and the putting on the mural of like people maybe your kids and others in the community could help paint portions of this um or some way to integrate uh just neighborhood and community participation uh in the artwork. I think it would be it would go a long way to help help provide some

ownership in the community here that would also protect it. Uh but also making sure that everyone is part of owning uh our community and the facilities here uh and really part of part of this effort to beautify our community too. Oh, I'm sorry. Is that a question?

Yeah. Uh I think there's always a possibility to do something like that. um by the nature of the like the characters for example there is going to be a lot of work put in uh when it comes to the rendering out because again this is just a sketch so it's very flat um but I think there would be portions where we could a lot for um I know that there are students that right in this community center so maybe the students can participate have a small portion to play and we can kind of help them out leading them in in how to paint certain areas we I mean we have our background and children art education. So

yeah, I'll just jump in and share that that's definitely one of the conversations that when Darren and and Trisha first met, they were they visited the site. That was one of the things that they gravitated toward. They were they were inspired by we have our Barnes Park daycare that is here. And so they actually arrived at the park about the same time I believe either students were coming out or or going in. And so they all saw the parents and the kids. And so I definitely think there's there's an opportunity for us to get some of the the little kiddos uh involved in some of the early stages before they get into, you know, the details. Absolutely. So

uh and then as far as timeline, I'm assuming the timeline gets completed before the centennial the bsentennial of of the United No, you got to say the real word which s Yes, that word. Smi. Yes, that word. 150 years. Thank you. Yes, that that's the goal. The goal is to have it uh completed for the unveiling for at at the uh firework show.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um I will say um I do like um the uh option two, the faith in the future because again it borrows from our um city model. Um and I also think that given that the the theme is is of um childlike figures, you know, and and then again, you know, often times I I say especially those who are in government that we are in the business of future and I think that this evokes that theme of what we do here um um in the present for the future as well. So I do like um that model and how it ties into the artistic concept of the mural.

Yeah, I think it's a really great design. I like the style you guys use on not just this mural, but all the other murals you've done. Um, and I think both phrases are good. Um, the all created equal, that's more general for the whole country, but um, faith in the future is more for our city. So, I think we're leaning towards option the second option.

Well, I'll make I'll make the motion then. I make the motion to go with faith in the future because it's actually sitting in our background there. And I look forward to uh working together with both uh Darren and Trisha and incorporating our kids. I I you know what I can definitely paint the stars. That's probably the only thing I can paint. Other and the wording. Other than that, I'm going to leave the art to you guys. So, uh Council Member Go makes a motion. I'll second. All right, let's vote. Approved unanimously. Thank you so much. We're looking forward to having your art in our city. Thank you. Thank you so much,

Madame Mayor. And just for clarification, wanted to make sure uh our Independence Day celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 27th. So, wanted to make sure that we're putting that out there. That's the date that we're looking to unveil the mural. I know we didn't go into details. I know we uh refer to it often as Fourth of July celebration or fireworks show, but ours is on the Saturday before. So, Saturday, June 27th. Thank you for that. And next we have 10F, notices of completion for various capital improvement projects. Just a very short presentation. All right. Good evening, honorable mayor, mayor promis city council. Sean go public works director. Um so uh thank you for the opportunity to come and present some of the projects we've completed. Um so as the staff report indicates, we completed about 13 projects um recently and those included about $9.5 million worth of projects. As you can see here, we had various projects including um elder uh pool improvements. We did some u painting at various facilities including the library and um Barnes uh gym. Uh the Cascades was completed as well. So we're excited about some of those amenities. Uh next slide please. Uh this is some pictures from our Emerson parallel sewer line that was completed. Uh this again another project that went extremely well. Um our team was very creative in in this project. Did some things internally with the design and was able to get this completed under budget. Next slide please. Uh our roadway resurfacing projects. So, thus far we've completed over over 10 miles of of roadway um completions. This is pretty significant. Um again, we continue to try to make improvements to our roadways. This is not including what we have currently um in the works, but again, uh just a significant amount of effort uh from the

team's perspective. So, if you'd like, I can go into greater details for some of these. I can tell you that beyond this, uh currently we have 23 projects that we are either currently actively working on or that are in design. So, uh, again, the the team here is is dedicated to making sure that Monterey Park is, um, continuing to make improvements, whether it's roadways, facility improvements, um, no matter what we try to do to to make this community a better place. So, with that, I'll take any questions. Madame Mayor, may I Sean, excellent presentation and kudos for all those projects. I wrote down 9 and a half million, 10 miles of road work. What was the time range on these things? Like were they going back for two years, three years?

So the longest uh project was the Russell Reservoir project. That was about a year. It took us to complete that one. Uh we did have some delays on the contractor's side. So probably would have been done in about nine months, but that one was about a year and the shortest one uh was probably about a month. Wow. So it varies from uh starting to start and completion dates.

And those 23 projects that you're actively working on, those timelines are very similar. They can be. Yes, some of them a little bit longer than others. Depends on the size of the project. You know, if you look at some of our 710 projects, um those take a little bit longer just working either with Metro or working on outreach, uh design, uh partnerships with some of the the businesses, things like that. That takes a little bit more time just because outreach. Um but again, in general, we try to keep them facility improvements usually take a couple months, but roadways again couple months. It just depends on the size of the project. I just want to echo what council member Wong mentioned earlier which was you guys came in on budget. So that's actually he said uh ahead of budget right so kudos to you guys and excellent work and uh really want to say thank you to you and the team and we live in a great city so thanks to our staff and all the work we do all the work you do. Uh this that this is more of the team that I I can't emphasize that enough. Just like Robert says about his team, we have a fantastic team here. Even the project numbers that you see, I will tell you we are very efficient in the numbers that we do to where we can actually even do some additional work here and there, especially on roadway projects. So we get a lot more work done for the same amount of money. So um again, the team that we have is very creative. They're very efficient and we're able to do a lot of great work here. Yeah, I'll make the motion.

Um, one quick question. Great great job on all the different projects. It's it's amazing that what your team does. Um, I did have a resident ask me how and um how far in advance they get notice of the road work so they can, you know, go around if it's blocking their way home. So, when when we're actually in construction, yeah, usually it's about a week in advance. A week in advance. Is it mailed out to them? male door hangers. Depends on the location, but usually extra door hangers, they will actually do door hangers on the on the properties. Got it. Yep. And it sometimes they might never see them. It could blow away. Um but typically they're at every single resident. Thank you. All right. Someone's going to make a motion.

Well, I'll make the motion. I'll second.

All right. Let's vote. Approved unanimously. All right. Thank you so much, Sean. And that's it for our consent agenda. So, moving forward to our public hearing 11A, public hearing pursuant to government code section 3502.3 concerning vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts. All right, let's open the public hearing and get a presentation from staff. All right. Good evening, honorable mayor, mayor prom, and council members. I'm Christine Tommyawa, director of human resources and risk management. I have Julie Dazil here with me, uh, human resources and risk management manager, and I have Kathleen Kamacho, our human resources analyst, here with us as well. Uh, we're here tonight to provide a status update regarding the city's vacancy, recruitment, and retention efforts per government code section 3502.3. The city is required to, excuse me, hold at least one public hearing per fiscal year prior to the final budget being adopted. Um, as stated in the staff report, we had 38 vacant positions out of 336 budgeted full-time positions, which is equivalent to about an 11% vacancy rate. Um, since the initial report, the city has filled five more vacant positions, um, bringing us to 33 vacant full-time positions, taking us to about a 9.8 vacancy rate. Um, attached to the staff report, we generated a

report for each recognized association with the city. These reports were generated at a point in time and do not reflect the current numbers um, as we continue to recruit for vacant positions. We'll go through each of the reports and provide current information. So, go to the next one. All right. So, we have our firefighter association group. Uh, we don't have vacancies. You can see we actually have an overhire. Oh, can you see it? Make it bigger. Is that better? Okay. Uh, so you can see that we actually have overhire. So, we have a negative percentage right now. Next one. Yeah, there it is. I think we want it a little bit bigger. Okay. Uh so next is our MIJ management employees association. From the original report, there has been no change in this section. Um we will say that we will be the goal is to hire um underfill the

senior civil engineer position with one of our associates and then provide a promotional opportunity to the position the people that are in that spot at a later time. We have our police captains. They're both filled, so there's no change there. As well, our police officer association, there is a slight change. We have six openings. Uh we did hire one position which was a lateral who came from Chicago. We also have one person who's currently in backgrounds as well for the police officers. So, uh we're hoping that number will change as well as we continue. police mid management. There are no vacancies there. We have our professional chiefs officer association which are the battalion chiefs and the de deputy chief and there are no vacancies there. The next group is the SEIU and they usually have the most because they're the largest association we have. Um, in there we had 27 vacant positions and over the course of time we have hired five positions. So bringing it down to 21 vacant positions for the SEIU group uh since the time that we first produced the report. And then our unrepresented positions, there are two positions that are there. Our building official has been open for a long time. It's a hard to fill position and planning manager is currently in the recruitment stage. Any questions on any of those reports?

May I Mayor? So Christine, help me with this. It looks like we were pretty healthy in terms of vacancy. I saw 1411 and and then we had pretty much filled. Uh from a health perspective, the only way to compare this is if I said our neighboring cities without going through names, our neighboring cities are the north, south, east, west, how are we compared to them in terms of the overall vacancy percentage. Are we comparable, better, worse? I it's hard to tell, but I think um cities that have police officer openings, everyone has police officer openings. So when we look at our percentage for our police officers, we're doing very well compared to other agencies. Uh we were just talking and they're not close to us, but like city of Torrance, they have something like 60 police officer openings out of like 20 positions that they have. So when you look, that's a very drastic difference, but I think in terms of where we're at, we're in a good spot. Um really police officers having only like four open positions is not the norm. Well, I just want to point out, you know, certain facts here which people don't know as they're sitting at home reading this or even for folks who are not familiar with in terms of when you look at HR. You always have to look from the top down in terms of the leadership, you have vacancies because people one want more money or they want a better job. And I think in the world we live in, money is important, maybe key to a lot of people, but not the ultimate thing. So you you kind of have to go through the leadership. And I think from my understanding, just looking at the folks in the room here, we've got a very strong continuation of

what I call the cabinet or the senior leadership executive level that's been here for more than a few years. And with that, it it it shows the continuity. It shows the progression of being able to kind of move up and that's how you retain and attract new talent. And I just want to just say kudos to the team for the executive team for their leadership. And I think that shows in this file here, which I kind of knew the answer to the neighboring cities. I just didn't want to expose that. So, I just want to say it in a friendly way that we're probably the top city in the community here and I feel really good about that and I think that's kudos to you guys for making sure we continue to be at the top there and we recruit and retain our folks here. So, thank you for that.

Thank you.

I would just echo council go's uh appreciation and kudos uh to the HR team and the full staff. Uh I these are really impressive numbers. you never have full sta I don't think anyone ever has full staffing or at least not for very long. Uh so appreciate that we've really significantly addressed uh our vacancy and our staffing um right shortages and concerns over the last few years of marked difference from when I first gone on this council a few years ago uh and coming out of the pandemic when not just us but every city and every uh government agency was experiencing a lot of turnover and a lot of challenges in retaining employees and keeping employees and attracting employees as well. Looks like we've gotten to a much better place. And kudos to the leadership team here, city manager, and everyone on down for making sure that not only we're filling those vacancies, but we're keeping and retaining uh quality staff and and employees. Uh because those all of you are critical to delivering the services that the community needs and deserves. And so appreciate uh that we're at this point. I think this is a great positive. I know this is a state requirement to have this hearing uh once every year. Uh but great to have good news and great news to share with the community um about our staffing u status uh across the board. So appreciate that and let's whatever we can do to continue that and I'll just harp on what council go is saying as well. We'll never never pay better than some other cities especially bigger cities that have more money to give and more money um to to play with. Uh and we have a certain philosophy in terms of our pay uh pay ranges and and making sure we attract good talent. Uh but because we don't pay that, it's also critical pay pay top step or top uh of the line in terms of comparing to especially larger cities and other cities including in this area. Um uh it's critical and important and I think a critical part of our ability to be able to attract and keep staffing levels here is is just the culture that we

maintain and appreciate uh the leadership team here at the city uh and all all the departments and the teams here for making sure that we make this a a safe and a great place and a fun place to work uh where people innovation is encouraged and we're we're a place where people can grow and learn new skills, build those skills uh and really do things cool things in the city. So really appreciate that. That's part of I think the attraction for for our city as well. We want to continue to encourage and build on that uh success over the last few years. Uh and whatever we can do to to do that and whatever tools we need to do that uh let's make sure we're baking that as we go into the next year's budget as well. Knowing that we have to set aside some money for the pool and all these other things we got to do too. But uh just want to make sure that that is not left unsaid. But thank you Christine. Appreciate the work that goes into this. Uh, I know this is a a report, but there's so much work that goes into making sure that we don't have vacancies and that we're tracking. And can if you can just remind us off the top of your head how many vacancies we filled over the last fiscal year? Um, and how many and any challenges you think might be coming up in the next couple years around that, too?

I can't even add that.

Uh, yes. So, I think over the past year, we've conducted 34 full-time recruitments and 32 part-time recruitments, which is an average of about 5.5 recruitments per month, which is a lot for a small team, but the HR risk management team is a great team and they do a good job. Um, and so we've hired we've promoted 17 current employees to other full-time positions, which is a great opportunity for current employees. uh we've hired 36 new employees. So non employee non people who are working here we've hired 36 of those and then we were able to also promote that 17 uh seven part-time employees to full-time positions. So again having a good applicant pool of employees here to promote has is is definitely a great uh foundation for us and helpful for us but then we also have to fill behind them. So it just kind of keeps our cycle going.

No, but I wanted to make sure you're showing get able to show off how much I mean a lot of work goes into each recruitment and we have a very small team in terms of HR and recruiting. So appreciate the team effort and particularly HR team uh for I know the last few years also helping to streamline and modernize some of our hiring practices and our our being able to fill some of these vacancies with some of these adjustments to rules and stuff to allow us to to do this in a more effective manner, more modern manner. So appreciate that. Definitely. Thank you.

I al want to also echo sentiments. I know that um it's it's sometimes uh you know audience may forget that um as a city of large size we're often competing with larger cities um or cities with much substantially larger budgets and the fact that we continue to make progress I think is something that we should be proud of um and certainly let us as a council know how we can support your efforts as well because you know even with the progress we've made it just means that um the state is able to uh better be in a better position to provide the services that the residents of this community expect.

Yeah. Thank you for um Christine and the entire HR team for um this presentation and um the healthy numbers. It's great that we've filled so many positions in the last year. Um and it seems like everyone enjoys working here and this great culture. So kudos to your team. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. And that's all for 11A. Okay. So, um the next item on our public hearing is 11B, annual weed abatement protest hearing. Um I have to recuse myself from this one. So, Mayor Prom will lead this item. Okay. Um item 11B, annual wheat abatement protest hearing. Uh let me open the hearing and then of course we'll have our staff report. So both please have a seat. Oh, have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. Okay. Are we ready? Okay, then let me open the hearing. Oh,

sorry. the table. Good evening. Please. Thank you.

Good evening. Uh, mayor, mayor prom city council. Um, so going to talk about the um Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jessica, fire marshall, Monterey Park. Um, this is a staff report for the um annual weed abatement protest hearing. uh summary. So, county of uh Los Angeles Department agricultural commission weights and measures submitted to the city the annual weed abatement declaration list and resolution declaring the weeds, brush, rubbish, refues, and dirt maintained on certain private properties and city and public nuisance. At the regular city council meeting on February 4th, 2026, city council adopted the resolution 2026-R3 appro approving the 2026 weed abatement declaration list as posted by the county. By adopting the resolution, the council declared the intention to provide the weed abatement of said nuisances. To complete the process, the council must hold a protest hearing to allow parcel owner identified on the declaration list an opportunity to object to their inclusion thereof. The county identified 1,614 improved and unimproved parcels requiring abatement in the 2026 declared list. The county mailed notices on or about January 12th to be recorded. uh each owner of each parcel included on the list declaring that their parcel is existing, future or a potential hazard. The county advised that the excuse me, it considers a parcel of a future excuse me or potential hazard. Um if the parcel is not completely landscaped or irrigated, there's a potential for weed growth. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established an inspection

fee of $59.7 for the 2026 cycle. The county advised that the city March 12th is the last day that the city can request or the county can authorize removal of a parcel to the declared list. If the council elects to remove a parcel from the declared list, the uh becomes if it becomes a nuisance at the later date, the city will have placed that parcel on an individual declaration list and will have to hold an individual protest uh for each parcel. The proposed action supports the city's goals to ensure public safety with a modernized and community oriented approach by reducing wildfire risk through proactive vegetation management and maintaining safe conditions throughout the community. The city of Monterey Park has been contracting with the county of Los Angeles since 1992 for weed abatement services. No fiscal impacts are anticipated to affect actual expenditures or revenues. Furthermore, no redirection of available staff time, supplies or services will be required.

Okay. Thank you very much for that presentation. Um, and let's see. Because this is a hearing, I'd like to invite Oh, I'm sorry. Any Oh, no public comment. Okay. No one from the public wishes to Okay, seeing none. Okay, council members, do we have questions, comments? No comments here. Okay, hearing none, then I will close the hearing. Um, and then we'll proceed with the item. So, um, this closes the hearing. So, okay. Okay. We have before us a resolution. I'll make the motion to stop staff recommendation. Moved by council member Wong. A second.

Seconded by Council Go. Members, please vote. approved unanimously. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, that's all for our public hearing. Moving on to the last item of our new business, 12B. Madame Mayor, members of the council, our finance team is making their way down. Just give us one second.

All right. This is consideration of the first reading and introduction of ordinance expanding the lifeline utility rate program and clarifying utility billing and collection procedures. A resolution establishing a wastewater lifeline discount and a resolution increasing water service deposits. Good evening. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom and council members. Martha Garcia, finance director. The Monterey Park Municipal Code Chapters 6.08 and 14.12 establish utility service service rules, procedures, and criteria including both the cities and customers responsibilities. The attached proposed ordinance amends several sections in chapters 6.08 08 and 12.12, sorry, 14.12 and adds chapters 14.14 and 14.18 to expand the lifeline utility rate program and clarify billing collections and other responsibilities for water, wastewater, and other city build charges. The city is responsible for the production, treatment, and distribution of potable water to its residents and businesses. Any resident of utility services from the city is equally responsible for adhering to the rules and regulations set forth in this ordinance which includes the timely payment for utility service including potable water and waste water services. In the event that a bill for providing utility services to its residents and witnesses becomes delinquent, the city will apply the procedures outlined in the attached ordinance to fairly and efficiently recover these fees due to the city. This ordinance outlines the requirements to establish the utility account, the city's billing process and opt and options for adverting any uh disc continuation of

the utility service for non-payment. Domestic water customers residing in single family homes who meet the income guidelines established for eligibility are currently eligible to participate in the city's lifeline program. At present, there are 674 utility customers who meet established income guidelines. The city's current lifeline water rate went into effect in July of 2020, uh, a water rate discount in July of 2020 and currently provides a program participants with a $126 monthly discount for water meter charges. Staff analyzed prior year water and wastewater interest revenue and late fee actuals for fiscal year 2425. Fiscal year 2425 and current year water and wastewater interest revenue and late fee budgeted for fiscal year 2526 and concluded that the wastewater rate discount is more sustainable is a more sustainable uh discount rate. Currently, the city does not have a wastewater discount rate established for lifeline participants. Establishing a wastewater discount rate for lifeline participants is a decision that can be have various impacts on both the community and the utility system. If council directs staff to move forward with a wastewater discount rate while benefiting qualifying community members, it will also uh it may also reduce revenue for maintaining the city's aging wastewater infrastructure. However, based on staff's evaluation analysis of both the water and wastewater funds and taking into consideration the cost for providing the lifeline discount, it is staff's recommendation to replace the current $126 in water discount with a

wastewater discount by disc by discounting the fixed wastewater rate currently at $2246. This would accomplish two uh important things. It would provide a much needed discount to qualifying participants and this rate would all would allow the program to adequately fund adequately be funded without putting undue strain on the funds necessary to maintain and repair the city's water and wastewater infrastructure. Moving on to water deposits. Water deposits in the city are currently based on meter size. Although meter sizes have remained unchanged, the cost of providing water service has increased significantly since the deposits were originally established in 1992. Staff conducted research on water deposit requirements in surrounding cities and found that deposits are typically no less than $100 for a single family dwelling. Based on this analysis, staff recommends increasing water deposits by $50 for each meter size. This increase would establish a $100 deposit for a single family dwelling, which is approximately equivalent to one month of average utility services. Collecting this amount would help ensure that the deposit is sufficient to cover most, if not all, of the final month of water service. And this concludes my presentation. Uh just one simple question. I think the the the comment here says authorizing deposit increase of $50 per meter. What is the new amount?

It's currently $50 and it would go up to 100.

100. Okay. Uh thank you Martha. Appreciate the presentation. Uh on the lifeline rate part of this, uh really appreciate the team coming back with this option. I know we've been talking about um how we can augment and enhance the lifeline program for residents that are in need. Uh so appreciate that we're coming back with this option which looks great and a great opportunity to realign how it's funded. Right. Every all residents get their residents and businesses get their wa water and their sewer bill together because the sewer is based on their water use. Uh, so just a creative way to kind of shift that, but also to to really just make this a more robust um lifeline program and discount program in terms of the actual amount of that's going to be allocated for people that are income qualified. Um, so thank you for putting this together. I really appreciate very very much support this and want to see this uh approved. It looks like um it'll go from right the estimate for this is just $700,000 for the current lifeline program for d almost doubling the lifeline amount. The estimates about $180,000 for the next year for a full fiscal year and then that would obviously would that escalate or is that that's a flat amount going forward?

The $2246 is is in this fiscal year. Next year it'll go up. I don't have that number, but it's but it will go up slightly slightly in it's I I want to say maybe around $24 and but the resolution will allow us if council approves it tonight will allow us to increase it next fiscal year to continue to provide a discount for the the flat uh sewer rate. Okay. So, it'll be lined up. It'll align with whatever the correct flat rate is. Yes. As long as we have enough, as long as there's enough um interest revenue coming in, we should be uh fine. If there if there ever is a decrease, we can come back to council to to come up with a different solution for our lifeline program participants.

Great. That you led into my next question in terms of the fund the source of funding for the lifeline program. So that's so if if not well currently the lifeline program then is funded by interest generated by the water fund by funds that are sitting in the water fund. Is that right? Correct. Or is it correct? Not general fund. Not the general fund. And so we just shift that to money that's earning interest in the sewer fund. That's correct. And that's do you know about how much is being generated? uh interest was about 200 a little bit over 200,000 last fiscal year and we're estimating uh the same if not more this fiscal year.

Okay. So it it would get kind of close to where kind of the total amount of interest that's already being generated. That's correct. Um, is there I mean if if god forbid there's a recession in the next few months or next year uh and we see more people right fall into uh the qualifications for lifeline that exceeds the whatever $200,000 interest that's generated in the the sewer fund. What so you staff would have to come back to council to receive. We're just going to essentially not allow new lifeline accounts or how does that work?

Well, we what we could do is come back to council and reduce to what we are expecting in interest revenue. So instead of providing currently we are asking for a to offset the the flat rate and if the interest start to interest rates interest revenue starts to uh be less than the flat rate then we will come back to council to ask for a more a permanent lower rate for our for our participants. So you would lower the plan would be to lower the amount per per participant. Yes. Okay. We would not we would never stop participants from uh from uh being in the program.

Okay. And then I I don't know kind of looking at Carl but kind of not. But uh if if we exceed the right if there's more qualified for the lifeline rate than we have interest earnings available in that fund would we be able to dip into like the water fund interest earnings or general fund interest earnings? And I know there's a con there are constitutional issues with that but I don't I'm just curious if there if we are able to tap other potential interest earnings or other potential funding. could we could um again I we'd have to come back to council because of the way our resolution but we could definitely move back to if our move back to uh the water fund uh in um interest revenue.

Okay. Yeah. No, I appreciate that uh and appreciate our thinking through this. Um I fully support the lifeline uh part of this and then for the deposits just to confirm uh so this the if the council moves forward on approving this new deposit amount uh this would only apply like going forward we're not going to go after the increased deposit requirement for existing accounts. That's correct. No, it would just be for uh new um accounts

and then for Oh, sorry. Back to the lifeline program. So, the lifeline only single family residences are eligible for lifeline. Only single family residents are. So, I know right a lot of renters their water bill is already baked in their rent. But there are some newer renters in condos or other places. Well, if they already have if they have their separate meter, they're getting they're treated like a single family res.

There's a single meter that's that yes, they would be getting it. It has to be they have to be paying for their own water with they have to be they have to have an account with the city. That per that individual that family would have to have an account with the city. Do we if someone has um the I can't remember what the word is now, but the if they have we allow for um submetering, right, for for some customers. Is that right? I'm kind of looking at Sean now, but no.

Uh subter. I don't know if if if we I don't know if we do allow submetering, but if we do have submetering, do we if someone is on a submeter on a master meter or one meter right in their an apartment complex and they've figured out how to submeter and have split bills for usage for each of their tenants or whatever. I'm just curious if there's a way to make sure that they are eligible for the lifeline program in some way, shape, or form. I don't know. I don't know if Sean might have something on this, but So I'm not aware of any submetering that's going on. Um typically we would not get involved with submetering because we can't track that. So it' be very difficult for us to to maneuver through submetering because that's on the private side. So yeah, they would have to figure out on there. Yes,

they would not qualify for the program. So, apartment owners, HOAs, well, HOAs, I guess, wouldn't be eligible for lifeline program. Correct. And that's particularly because we don't we wouldn't know how to administer that kind of discount for them because they don't get their own bill. Correct.

Okay. If there if you want if you have some extra time, Martha, and you want to figure out a way to do that, I'm I'm all ears, but understand the the logistical constraints to doing that. Um, and yeah, no, I I appreciate and understand the the need to increase the deposit amount, right? That amount has not been changed in more than 30 years, almost 35 years at this rate. Uh, I think long overdue for for some amount and that tends to cover a lot of people's final bills when they move out or move somewhere else or all that kind of stuff. Um, so understand very much the need to have a deposit amount, but also making sure we're balancing not over overdoing it, but it sounds like getting to $100 is around the average bill for for most people in terms of the water and sewer bill. So, sounds like the right amount for me.

Um, thank you Martha and staff for this presentation. Um, you know, I am also in support of strengthening the lifeline program. I think that um as my colleague council Wong said that uh you know hopefully we will not be seeing a recession but nonetheless I know that even in the current situation uh we are in the United States that uh many people are struggling and that um certainly any opportunity which we can as a city help our fellow residents who are facing challenges um then I'm in favor of it as well.

Yeah, same with me as well. if we can help our residents and community members who need it without adding to the city's uh budget um and also increasing the deposit for new accounts going forward. I think $50 will help city cover some of these expenses. So um anyone want to make a motion? I'll move staff recommendation. I'll second. Okay, let's vote. approve it unanimously. All right. Thank you, Martha.

Madame Mayor, members of the council, just wanted to point out that we do have uh resources available on our city's web page that is um that explains um if there's individuals that need assistance with other types of bills that the city that the city does not bill for. Uh electric billing, gas billing, there's programs uh for qualified residents. So, that information is also available on our web page. We'll definitely make sure that uh that information is being updated regularly as well. Great. Thank you. All right. Any uh city communications?

Well, I'll start. Uh it was, you know, busy two weeks since the last council meeting. Uh as mentioned earlier, we actually did the celebration of the Laura Scutter Centennial at the Garvey Ranch or Garvey Ranch Park or aka the uh historical society museum park. uh well attended and it was good to kind of see the history of the Scutter family when they moved into the city, how big that plant became and and it it basically put us on a map nationally. So kudos to that family and and uh thank you John Scutter, the grandson of Laura Scutter, who continues to pass on that legacy and share her story. Uh, as Robert mentioned, we had Clippers night, 220 people. I don't think I recognized 200 of those. Maybe recognize about a hundred of the the family members who were there, but Clippers won. Uh, they were above 500 that night and now they're slipped below 500. So, they've got a shot at the playoffs, NBA playoffs. Then earlier last week, we also attended the um, uh, Mar Park Fire welcome. The M Park Fire Department welcomed the fire department from Morelia. Uh we donated some of our our uh uh uniforms and past uh fire equipment. Uh I call them oxygen tanks or air apparatus. It was good to to meet our our sister city in Mexico and to share with the council members as well as the fire chief. Uh just to put into perspect perspective of how lucky we are. We are a size of call it five square miles 60,000 people. We have about 70 fire fighters. The city of Morelia has

50 50 miles. They have 50 firefighters. Yeah. square miles like 50 square miles and it's just incredible how lucky we are in compared to other parts of the world and the fire department and fire and fire support. So just blessed to have to share the experiences with our sister city on that and how we can help. And then uh the prior Saturday uh everyone here uh city council and and senior staff we spent eight hours on our city strategic planning. We do this once a year. We meet and and sit for eight hours to plan out the next year, the next three years, the fiveyear plan. So good to see that we uh continue to meet and just strategize on how to make the city of Marbark the best place to to live, the best place to work, and the best place to play. So really proud of that. That's all I have. Just ditto everything he said.

Uh ditto as well. Also I I do want to uh acknowledge um as my colleagues mentioned our strategic planning. It's it's it's a event that we do every year. It is open to the public. Um and I really this was for me my seventh strategic planning meeting and as always it's an opportunity um for council and staff um to you know talk about uh vision and goals for the future as well as taking assessment of what we've accomplished um in the path of what we need to do. And so again, I I just appreciate and you know, I want the public to know that um this is something that that this is an exercise that we do every year because as a city, we do take very seriously um our ability to assess and to also look ahead into the future into how we can better serve um the residents of of this community of Monterey Park. Um, and then, uh, also I wanted to also just ask staff as well, um, for our city website if we could also, um, I know we we have as resources like mental health services, victim resources, but can we also just take a look and make sure that we also have up-to-date uh, resources uh, for survivors and victims of do domestic violence um, and include um, state uh, and county resources you know, such as the State Department of Justice Resources page as well as the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. Um, and the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I think in fact I think we even had a brief discussion before the council meeting is that I think that a lot of people were have been um reeling and rattled by the news today about allegations concerning um uh longtime labor leader Cesar Chavez and reports very deeply reports deeply troubling reports about um harm he did to uh many women including Dolores Huerta and I think it's

important um to acknowledge those experiences and also commit ourselves as a society to accountability for anyone who no matter who they are um who inflict um domestic violence on on others. And I think that probably collectively what we can what we can all do to also uplift and acknowledge those who have been victimized um by domestic violence to make sure that we have resources available to share with the community. Um and so that's why I would like to ask staff just to make sure that to take a look at our um what we list as far as um resources uh for victims of domestic violence and make sure that if they need updating that we can do that as well. Um and and and and again um you know just to show how uh you know the name of Cesar Chavez impacts all of us. You know we have a street actually named after Cesar Chavez. Not to mention at one point the United Farm Workers had an office not too far on Beverly and in East LA and not to mention people who worked for the uh UFW at one time or another worked and lived in either Monarch Park and the thing Valley. So, so again, this is something that impacts all of us. And so I think um it's important um as the country and and and and this state you know continues to um learn more about these allegations and the victims um of censor tra that we also do our part of the community to make sure that um uh for our residents and and for people in the surrounding community that we also provide resources for those who themselves may have been one time or another or continue to be victims of domestic violence. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um, additionally, a few more other events that happened. Uh, last week we had a ribbon cutting for a new business in Monterey Park, Rework Me. They're a new gym right on Atlantic Boulevard right next to Shano Restaurant. Uh, so if anyone's looking to get a personal trainer or do fitness, definitely check out Rework Me. Um the library also um hosted a really creative and soldout event. It was a uh Bridgetton themed tea party at Elen Konto um which I attended and uh it was really fun. I hope the library will do it again because I think a lot of other people wanted to attend but it was it was sold out within half a day. Um and then uh Kimley Horn has been hosting five community walks along different areas of our city. Garfield, Floral, Atlantic, Garvey. Um I know our resident Bill back there has been pretty much attending all of them, giving great feedback. So um it's a great way to collect data and information on how we can make our sidewalks and streets more walkable. Um let's see. Tomorrow is Monterey Vista's 100year celebration.

It's Friday, isn't it? I mean, Friday. Yeah, Friday is Monterey Vista's 100year celebration. And then next Monday is uh our March meetup with the mayor. It'll be Monday 5:00 at Jumping Lobster. And that's all I have. Um, anything else? Otherwise, happy birthday to our fire chief, Jason Hing. One more time. Anything else? No.

Um, madame mayor, just wanted to chime in. We did um request that Garvey School District and Monterey Vista School come to a coun council meeting, upcoming council meeting. Um, definitely we have that scheduled. They had some um conflicts. So, I think we have that planned for April 15th um as the first date that available. So, we'll um ask them to be here so that we could honor their hundred year. Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 9:13 p.m. Thank you everyone and good night.