City Council - Regular Meeting

We commit to uplifting the Gabberino Tomba people. Invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land. Madame uh actually let's do the flag salute. We have our Mon Park Fire Explorers. Uh everyone please stand. To the flag of the United States of America to the stands nationy and justice for all Right face forward. pump. Pull it.

Thank you. You may be seated.

Madame clerk, may we get a roll call, please? Thank you. Council member Go, present. Uh, council member Wong is absent. Council member Sanchez present. Mayor Pomplo here. And Mayor Yang present. Thank you. We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh, any agenda revisions or additions? No, Madame Mayor.

Thank you. All right, then let's uh move forward. We have a few presentations this evening. Starting with uh item 6A, presentation for the Monterey Vista Centennial Recognition. Could we invite the superintendent and the uh representatives up, please? [applause] So, Monterey Vista Elementary School just celebrated their 100year centennial celebration, and we understand there was a centennial uh uh event. So, if you guys want to say a few words about it.

Okay. Good evening, uh, Mayor Yang and the Mon Park City Council and and our guests here. Uh, thank you so much for recognizing, uh, this for our school. It was a real, you know, very special moment. I mean, a lot not a lot of school is able to have a 100 year celebration. So, we really we really it was a really fun time for us. And as you can see, I just want to say there was a lot of planning involved. in order to make this happen. We all hear the cliche it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to plan an event like this. Everyone here from our superintendent, our school board, um our teachers really made this happen. And I just want to say also to uh one of our teacher who's here, Mrs. Fongwin. She really was the mastermind behind this. We planned this over a year ago. Just a lot of, you know, events we had. We had students performances. We also made it a writing uh activity you know through the ages with music through the ages as well as through the decades special moments in every decade starting from 1926 to 2026. And also it was as support we got from the school district because when we had the event on March 20th we had we had a we had lights, canopies, chairs. it was a full production and it really could not have happened without everyone that's up here. So, and then of course, you know, the city, they've all been so supportive and I can see two familiar faces here. Feels like we're I'm almost at a Garvey School Board meeting with Mayor Pro Tim Henry Lo and council member Veno who is former Garvey Schoolboard members. So, it's really nice to be here to see familiar faces and also uh our the our city council as well. So, thank you so much for this a award for our school. Uh

we all everyone here is much more deserving than you know than myself or or the school. But we truly appreciative of all that for you. And also want to thank my wife. She's here taking pictures, but she's also always there to support our my professional career. Thank you. [applause]

So, I will just share some remarks really quickly. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Andy. I am currently the Garvey School board president and I'm here together with my board colleagues, board member Nunes, John Nunees, board member Marine Chin, and board member Paul Duran. And so I just want to say thank you so much for the partnership that you all give as the city, right? We have two schools um within the boundaries of the city of Monterey Park. We are a school district that covers across three cities. Um but again, I would say a special relationship at least in my heart representing the Monterey Park side of the Garvey School District. And so incredibly grateful for your partnership. And I just want to also shout out again two alumni of the Garvey School Board, uh, Vin and and Henry, who actually, uh, donated and supported, I don't know if you asked your council colleagues as well to donate and support, but donated and supported, uh, to our mural that we installed at Monterey Vista and also showed up to our, uh, centennial celebration. So, um, you know, really grateful for that level of partnership, that level of dedication, and remembering that schools are an institution, are a sacred part of our community, and something that we hold and treasure dearly. So, thank you all so much.

A 100red years is certainly not a short time. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve a beautiful community like Montre Vista for the last hundred years. We are very very proud of our services in developing many generations probably four or five generations of very strong and impactful leaders including a couple sitting on the board right now. So with that said you know we are of course this would not have happened without a very strong dedication from an amazing team of our staff. We have a couple of teachers here from Montre Vista. Thank you so much. uh we have no idea how hard they work every day, every second in making an impact. We are very blessed also because of your support, your passion, your shared passion and your strong leadership. It does take a village, a strong community to nurture our leaders and thank you so much. So we do look forward, we stay committed to the next 100 years. We believe or at least I believe that the next 100 year celebration our by by centennial right did I say it right bsentennial celebration even will be more amazing even though I probably will not be celebrating in physical terms I probably will be yelling and shout shouting and cheering in heaven you know sharing the joy I know that Montto Vista has created a strong history and it will continue to thrive as a community thank you so much for your support and recogn Thank you.

I apologize. Sorry. I just have actually one more thing to add. I I completely forgot. Um but you know, we gave our flowers to superintendent, the board, the staff, but thank you so much, Principal Hingchow, for your service to the school. How long have you been principal again? Almost a quarter. Almost a quarter of a century. I was about to make a comment about it's longer than I've been alive, but um right. So, thank you so much, Principal Hingcha, for your dedicated service to Monterey Vista. We love you. the community loves you. Thank you for giving so much of your heart to the community. So, thank you. [applause] Thank you so much. Congratulations. Yeah, I'm sure my colleagues have some words to say.

Sure. Well, I just wanted to say actually, H, when I was elected to the board of education two on three, I think you had just been promoted to be principal or if not already and and so I think you know a lot of of um the school district the schools achievements are attributed not just to your leadership but that of the PTA I I I if I recall Anita if it's true that um Monst has always had almost near 100% membership in this PTA by its parents right and and and that's very important because when we talk about school achievement and having a strong school community. Parental involvement is very key and I think it's always been a source of pride that Mon Vista has of 100% involvement of his parents in the PTA. And I think that speaks volume to the um love that people have for their community school. And so again it um congratulations and again it's no secret that that this is also one of the highest scoring schools in Monterey Park and probably because of the dedication of its parents, students and the um uh teachers you know many of whom have been teaching at that school site for what 40 years now if not longer.

Yes. Yeah. And you want to add any words?

I will I will just add a couple of things. I mean I was in my Vista 40ome years ago. So, I know now why it's now a top tier school, cuz you guys grew and you guys are a powerhouse in the St. Gabriel Valley, not just in the city. And kudos to the board and staff for making that happen. And I'm going to correct uh Councilman Low here. It's still 100%, but you got people like us who are actually on the PTA when we don't have kids there. We're just involved. So they have not only the parents but also the community involved in the PTA being members. So kudos to that. And I was at the celebration. It brought a lot of joy, a lot of memories. We had alumni classmates, alumni, people from every each year. And we had the teachers retired and people who actually left the district came back and celebrated. That tells you a lot a lot because it's people who are vested who are part of the community who's either left the community but they've come back to celebrate. So it tells you the legacy that the school and the administration and everyone here kind of just brought everyone back together to celebrate. Uh I know I won't be here for the next hundred years, but I'm thinking Henry's going to be here. [laughter] Again, [laughter] congratulations on that.

Yes. And on behalf of the city, we have a certificate of recognition to push you guys forward to the next centennial celebration in a 100red years. Congratulations. [applause] Oh, okay. Okay. [laughter] Someone someone.

Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe two. Okay. I say one, two, three. Okay. One. Okay. Are you I didn't All right. And we have another exciting presentation. 6B Alhamra Education Foundation. They had the service to education event recently. And so we have certificates to recognize all of the award winners. Could everyone who is part of the um AEF service to education Gayla come up? Okay. And uh Don is representing the AEF board.

I was just told a few minutes ago, so my apologies. Um good evening, mayor, city council members, and dedicated staff. On March 21st, the Alhhamra Educational Foundation had our service award dinner and gayla. And because a few of you were not able to join us, we are bringing the gala to you. We had seven honores. Craig Reality Group is our business honore for their partnership with AEF and continued support. Our community organization honore is a Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley and East Side for their dedication to empowering the youth in our community to reach their full potential. Teresa Abara Alla, vice president and Alhamra Council PTA VP is our community volunteer honore for her decades of service and passion in community activism. Our education honore is Jose Sanchez,

Alhamra High School social science teacher and for you. Yeah.

And championship academic decathlon coach for his tireless dedication to his students, our families, and our community. Our government honores are the city of Monterey Park Recreation and Community Services for their continued partnership with AEF and their dedication to enriching the lives of all residents citywide. And I know this firsthand because I observed director Robert Agiri give a civic engagement lesson to Debbie Yamamoto's second grade classroom at Monterey Highlands Elementary School. Robert is a natural teacher. So engaging. And now there are a group of second graders ready to become civic leaders. So thank you so much Robert for that. [applause] And last but not least, AEF's lifetime achievement honore was presented to the Honorable Bob Jinn who is here also [applause]

with his wife Diane who has a long list of accomplishments. I'm not even going to start to to try to list them all. But one of the most notable is his 24 years serving as an elected member of the board of education for the Alhambor Unified School District. So congratulations Bob. Thank you so much. A sincere and heartful heartfelt thank you and congratulations to all of our honores. And then we also uh I think all of you did you all receive? Yes. One of our booklets that we and Jose you should have one because Yeah. Natalie. No, I know Natalie was there. Okay. [laughter] She was there to to Yeah. accept the award on your behalf. And we were so happy to see the video of you and your students. That was a highlight of the evening. Next to Bob's family and all of his little heads bobbing up and down. You should have seen that. That was wonderful. So, thank you so much to all of our honores and and thank you, Don. And yes, we have certificates of recognition for all seven honores. So, Jose is here, Bob is here, and uh if all the rest of the honores uh including Robert can come up to get your certificates. Congratulations. Thank you.

I'll take a picture and send it to you. Yeah,

you guys need to get a little closer together. Okay, two. Perfect. All right, moving forward to item 6 C. We have an update from our SGV forward ad hoc subcommittee.

Sure. Um I'll be pretty brief. Um so both um myself and council member Jose Sanchez, we represent Monterey Park on this ad hoc advisor committee um that is comprised of two council members from Monterey Park, two council members from city of Rosemate, uh two council members from city of Elmonte and two council members from the city of Elmont, South Alante, sorry about South Elante and the purpose is to um give feedback and input to the San Sango Valley Council of Governments and to Metro because there is money that's set aside to essentially improve mobility in the Sango Valley specifically to uh transit dependent communities. Um because for those of you who who know or may not know, um Garvey Avenue is actually one of the most busiest and uh transit dependent uh corridors in the LA region. Um busy runs every seven minutes in the morning and so it's very heavily um used. And so the focus because there's money is to see how we can make it more efficient also encourage more commuters um uh this first meeting was just to um for I think COG and for metro just hear input from the represent cities about what they envision because I think part of the opportunity and challenge is that this involves four cities and so uh we all have to agree on a configuration of design um you know for uh and and for um a bus uh system that uh gets more people out of their cars as well as um gets people faster from point A to point B. And so it's a um it's a tall order and um I look forward uh with my colleagues to the next few months to work with our neighboring cities um Roseme Almani and Safmani to again come up with um a policy solution that hopefully will be a benefit to the entire region. And um Jose want to add anything else? Yes, I I wanted to share thank you u to uh Mayor

Promlo for um sharing that. I also wanted to add that um along with it with uh line 70 in particular this corridor uh being one of the most transited um regions or uh lines in in the San Gabriel Valley. Uh what is presented before us is an opportunity to be able to connect um a lot of the San Gabriel Valley including the city of Monterey Park, Roseme, Omani and South Omani. Um, and the Line 70, if you've ever taken it, I had an opportunity to take it uh the last two weeks a couple of times. It is very heavily transited. Um, every time that I boarded the bus, there was a lot of people that were boarding that bus. Uh, Metro there there's about 15,000 people that ride uh Line 70 daily. Uh, so it is a very um heavily transited line. Um and so what we've been tasked is uh find ways to be able to connect this corridor and make it a lot more efficient. Um we also want to keep in mind that a lot of the people who um ride line 70 particularly in this region are heavily dependent on public transit uh for many different reasons. As you know uh owning a car and uh is an expensive venture which a lot of people cannot afford. Um, I also want to mention that younger writers or younger people um have a higher dependency on public transport um and they use this line as well. So, uh, I'm looking forward to working on this, uh, committee, uh, to try to find ways that we can help support this transit line and be able to connect this, uh, San Gabriel Valley, but also, uh, find ways that we can make transport in this area a lot more efficient for daily commuters who heavily rely on this particular, um, line to get from point A to point B. Um, and when I was on when I rode the last two weeks, uh, Line 70, um, I saw a lot of young people who are using this to get back and forth because remember Line 70 goes from downtown LA at LA all the way to the Elmani station. Um, and they

use this to, uh, I see a lot of elderly people who use this on a day-to-day basis to get from uh, different parts of the San Gabriel Valley uh, and to connect to other parts as well. So, and I also want to remind that we have a community college in our city uh, that uh, heavily rely on a lot of these lines. So when I was waiting for line 70, I mean there was probably a bus coming every 5 to 7 minutes. Uh so it's a very and every like I said every bus seemed pretty pretty full. So anyhow um I wanted to share also that our next committee meeting meeting is open to the public. You're more than welcome to join. Um it will be on June 8th uh from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Garvey um community center in the city of Rosem. I'll repeat it one more time. It's on June 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. um in the Garvey Community Center. We [clears throat] welcome feedback. Um you're more than welcome to uh uh join us uh and listen and also chime in as well. Uh but hopefully we can come up with uh a way to be able to improve this transit. But also I want to share that remember we do have FIFA World Cup coming this summer and the Olympics coming in 2028. Uh so this corridor is also going to help us connect a lot of people who might potentially within our region be trying to connect to a lot of the sporting events uh throughout LA. So thank you.

Thank you Mayor Promlo and Council Member Sanchez for representing us at this subcommittee and for the updates. Uh we look forward to future updates after the June 8th meeting. Uh, moving on. This is a topic everyone's been looking forward to hearing. Updates to our Atlantic Square. Honorable mayor and city council. I'm Tim How, director of community development. I'll provide a brief introduction um before we get to our our speaker. Um, in December 2024, uh, the city of Monterey Park entered into a development agreement with the, uh, shopping center owner and operator, TRC, of the Atlantic Square, uh, shopping center. Uh, that development agreement incorporated a number of obligations including improvements and modernization efforts. Um the development agreement stipulates a uh compliance review uh on an annual basis and as part of that uh review uh staff uh reached out to TRC um for a response. They provided a response. We subsequently followed up um with the council subcommittee for a site visit to um review the various improvements that have occurred over the past year or so. And uh followed up uh today with this update. Um uh here with us tonight is a representative from TRC uh Byron de Araal uh with a presentation providing that update. Byron,

thank you Mr. I appreciate it very much. Mayor Yang, Mayor Promlo, and council members, it's good to uh be able to visit with you tonight and share with you some important updates on the progress we've made at Atlantic Square under the opices of the business recovery development zone, which governs uh the property, the development agreement that uh we entered into with you that implements many of the provisions in that development zone, and how that's um how that's helped the center immeasurably over the past 18 months. [snorts]

If I could have the next slide, please. So, really the the development agreement that we're we're kind of looking at tonight and and um evaluating how we performed thus far is is kind of a um an agreement to work together on really three critical issues as we saw it uh for the center. One was to establish the business recovery development zone which um is in many ways uh pretty unique um in Southern California. We think that it's uh was pretty smart to put something like this in place particularly coming out of the COVID pandemic and it gives property owners the ability to kind of write a prescriptive zone for their property in exchange for entering into a development agreement with the city. So certain public benefits are realized in providing that zoning. Um and so the BIS business recovery development zone putting in place prescriptive zoning for the center and then entering into the development agreement to achieve certain improve improvements and those were kind of the objectives of the overall development agreement. Next slide please. So the DA really created a roadmap for progress. It set pathways for shopping center a pathway for shopping center modernization. It established process and milestones for prospective redevelopment. And I'll touch on that a little bit later in my presentation. Hopefully I won't take too long because I know there's a lot of people want to talk about other important issues and adopt some zoning rules tailored to market demand. Um, just to touch on that a little bit, this business recovery development zone, what and the development agreement, what it allowed us to do, Atlantic Square, prior to this agreement and the bird zone overlay was governed by a a cup that stretched back to 1989. It was pretty

restrictive. It limited us to five restaurants in the center, limited personal service uses. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing nec back in 1989 when the center was redeveloped, but over the subsequent gez 20 some odd years, it became obsolete given everything that's going on in the retail sector. So the the development agreement and the bird zone allowed us to kind of write our own code so to speak relative to land uses and that has been really really beneficial uh because it's prospective tenants now have certainty about what's permitted on the property. They feel good about knowing the process they may or may not have to go to to get through to get their permits whether it's a use permit or a minor use permit or administrative use permit. It's provided the clarity that's very important for tenants and uh and for us as well in in cultivating a tenant mix. So those were kind of our roadmap for progress and I'll have you go to the next slide please. Really the bulk of the work over the last 18 months has focused on building C, which is the building just south of the northernmost building that's across from Boston Market. We saw that that it had some prolonged vacancy there. We the infrastructure was very old. Uh and we realized that if we wanted to curate a a heavier food and beverage tenency in that particular building, we were going to need to upgrade the infrastructure. So, in in one particular section of the development agreement, we were tasked with um submitting certain number of building permits for all the work that we were going to do. Um the city did a great job in reviewing plans and getting permits turned around quickly and we were able to um commence our work within

the 180 days we were required to do uh after the approval of the development agreement. And then this we we completed our work at the end of 2025. So it took us less than a year. Uh and the city signed off on permits and closed the file. Um um in 2020 well when then when they were supposed to we were good. So building C is done. Um, I will go through some real quick some improvements, some pictures so you can see actually what we've done. We have our first tenant in that end of the building that was renovated uh the Latina Medical Center and I will touch on some leasing issue aspects. Good news on the leasing front uh when I get towards the uh last half of the presentation. But in terms of the shopping center modernization improvements, our requirements under the development agreement for building C have been fulfilled. So I've got the next slide, please. Thank you. So likely the very largest capital expenditure in building C, which by the way was several million dollars of capex just for this one building, was the upgrading of switch gear. And the equipment you see there is basically to modernize the building from an electrical service standpoint. Um it is is quite an effort to get that kind of electrical equipment uh when everybody else wants it and the lead times are long, but we were able to get it done. Next slide, please. Uh building C needed a new roof. We put a new PVC roof on it and we added new um HVAC equipment to the top. Um several of the HVAC units on top were pretty old. We have new tenants coming in. We needed upgraded tonnage on HVAC equipment. Next

slide, please. Because we want to curate um more food and beverage tenants in this particular building, we added two 1500gallon grease interceptors right out in front of the building in the parking lot. There's subterranean. Uh those are installed and ready to go. Next slide. And then um we added and rerouted fire and domestic water lines because we had to because of path of travel work we did next to the switch gear which you'll see in a moment. We had and and the grease interceptors we had to move some water and domestic water lines around. And so those are some of the images you see there. Next next slide. Um one of the requirements is that we add some EV charging stations. We've added four stations in the parking lot. Those are all operational now. And the path of travel that I just mentioned on the north end of building C next to that switch gear, you can see in the photo on the right. So um one of the other elements that really wasn't identified, I don't believe in the um development agreement, but we what we wanted to do is uh conduct a centerwide paint program. So that was about a uh $300,000 project. Um and we have just about wrapped up the paint program, say for the IHOP building, uh which is um u coming. Uh but you'll see in the next several slides some before and after photos. This being the south end of the building where Silver Lake Ramen is. Next slide. And this is where the new Einstein bagels uh uh is located. I hope you like the paint scheme. We like it a lot better than kind of those moorish colors that were in place for a long time.

Next slide. This is the Elpoo. I think this should be the Aloo Loco building down at uh the south end of the center. And then one more slide I think on the paint program um again at the south end of the center. Next slide please. So shopping center modernization phase two. So, as we all realize, one of the other major components of the development agreement at the time we entered into it was the city and TRC and a prospective drive-through tenant working to figure out a way to put a drive-through restaurant at the north end of the center, take down building D. Uh the city was very um worked very hard to to work with us on developing a signalized intersection design that was necessary that the tenant needed to ensure that traffic control in and out of the center was um effective enough that would support a drive-through restaurant that was not located on the street was interior to the center. And so we didn't want vehicles passing by and missing it. So ultimately um despite our best efforts, we weren't able to come to terms with that drive-thru tenant. We weren't really able to button up final designs elements on the intersection. So, uh, we decided that we would, uh, not proceed with that and are we're pivoting now to understanding that probably a drive-through is not going to work in that location, that we need to upgrade building D, which is the building that's uh, there now, same way we did with building C, and begin making efforts to reten that. So, a lot of the work that you see in building C that has been completed will be uh, shifting over to building D. We're going to be focusing there now. uh be another

multi-million dollar capital investment. We will begin submitting applications for building permits next month because we want to get it going. We do have uh tenant interest from a national retail chain on the end cap on the southern part of the building. Uh so we need to move and we plan on doing that. Um and so um some of the other things that um I think were important that we appreciated the subcommittee um council member um Sanchez and C council member Wong, the city manager, Mr. How came out, we toured the site and were able to um kind of give them a firsthand look at the infrastructure improvements we've made. We received a lot of good input from them relative to uh potential ways to activate open space at the center. Uh we're surveying those areas now. We want to kind of work with our tenants to see where we can possibly use open space and seating areas. Uh we'll be staying in touch with Mr. How on how we're proceeding with that. Um and I I I appreciated the input we received. Um, also we're trying to engage the community um in the economic development sense outside of the center uh outside of just the operation of the center. Uh I had a good meeting with Mr. how and Joseph Torres regarding ways we might be able to provide resources, expertise uh to assist the um Susan Rubio Entrepreneur Center that's just opened at ELAC. So, we had a really good meeting. Um we're going to have a meeting with Dr. Trujillo in a couple of weeks to kind of get some more detail about what they're looking for. We think we have the ability to offer some good information tech information to prospective tenants or or businesses in

the community that are taking advantage of the center to help them understand how leases work uh how to select a space um what CAMs are um so that they all have an understanding before they go in and make business decisions. Those we think that's an important area where we think we can help. So we'll have a discussion with Dr. Trujillo in a couple of weeks. But uh as you'll see in this building D, um those are all the infrastructure improvements we plan to make uh in building D. And again, we have some pretty hot interest in that uh large endcap to the if you look at the picture on the right where the three arches are uh we have a national retail chain that uh would really like that space. We got to do some building work first. So let me move to the last slide. So, we're welcoming to Atlantic Square and kind of a new welcome on one of them. Uh, but new tenants and those are coming. Uh, Einstein Bagels has been there since last year. They're doing they're killing it. Uh, they're doing really well. Uh, the Latina Medical Center I mentioned in building C, uh, is open for business. Tai House is has expanded to the space uh, immediately north of it. They're doing very well. Uh the Green Olive is going to be at the southern end, very southern end, southwest corner of the center where the barbecue uh restaurant was. And they're uh beginning, I believe they're beginning their TI work or they put in for permits. 10,000 coffee just opened. Uh to Council Member Sanchez's credit, he brought in a cup. Thanks for the props. Um, and then the Melt, which is a critical tenant, we think, is going into the Boston market space. They're doing their tenant improvements now. They should be open

early July is what it looks like. Um, the other good news, and it goes back to activating the open space that you mentioned, Council Member Sanchez, during a tour, they're going to use that patio out next to where the where the covers are. So, I think That'll be really important because it'll activate that space. There'll be activity out there. You'll see it from the street. So, I think that'll be a good driver into the center. Um the good really good news is and I some of you know more detail than I can share here. Um we have we're in we're in late stage negotiations with a very large national fitness chain for the right aid space. um that is um pretty close. Um hopefully by mid to end summer, we'll see. But that will be that personal service, that fitness use if uh will will drive so much activity in the center of the property uh and really give us an ability to market the rest of the center to other personal service uses and food and beverage uses. and it'll create what we're trying to stri we're striving to create here is kind of a longer duration stay at the Senate. Um so we're very excited about that. Um and I will just say just generally numerically speaking we're in we're in late stage negotiations on five leases for vacant spaces and we're in letter of intent stages with six other tenants prospective tenants. So we feel like we've made good progress. I hope you agree. Um, we really appreciate all the staff's engagement with us. It's been very productive. Um, council members, thank you for your visit uh to the site. Um, city manager,

thank you. Mr. H, thank you. Mr. Torres, thank you very much. Continue to feed us tenant ideas. I know Mr. Torres has. If if they pop up, we'll evaluate them, but we'll, you know, leads are leads. So, we appreciate appreciate your engagement. Well, Ralph's might have a problem with that. Uh, but anyway, um, thanks very much. I'm uh, open for questions if you have a few. I'll do the best I can to answer.

Yeah, Ryan, thanks for giving us that great update. Uh it's good to know that uh we're that you guys, not we, but you guys have now completed all the TI and capex and the center looks fully ready and activated. And I think when you mentioned the five leases and the six eyes, that's 11 new potential new spaces. Now, let's just make the assumption that those things sign, where would occupancy be in that center? Oh boy. Um, you mean percentage- wise? Percentage wise, whatever you want to rent a percent, but probably square feet wise is easier for everyone to understand.

Yeah. Well, it probably be easier for percentage. I mean, we'll be we'll be 85% leased, 90% leased. Okay. So, that means you're about 75 right now, and that takes you to 85? Yeah. But I'm not the I'm not the SVP of leasing. So, I'm going to go back to the office in Monday. All right, let's give him some Let's give him some hand here. And I think the council members will continue to feed uh the right uh we're better off than we were 18 months ago. Let's put it that way. Oh, you're a lot better off with five five in negotiation and and and seeing the the shop being activated and being reopened. So, congratulations ahead of time for that. But we'd like to see this get back to 90%ish. I think that would be you and I we're on the same page.

All right. Thank you. Yep. Uh thank you. Uh Brian, just uh echoing what council member Go already said. Appreciate all the effort that's gone into making sure we're filling some of these vacancies. I know it's been a long time coming, especially that neighborhood, but throughout the city and even our neighbors have long been wondering what's going to happen here and how how are we going to uh revitalize the the shopping center here. So, really appreciate uh all the effort that's gone in this. I know it's a tough retail environment still uh and appreciate that we are still a destination for some of these shops and look forward to hearing uh once these leases are signed the announcement of some of the the hopefully the the new tenants too.

Indeed, Council Member Wong. In fact, Joseph has been really good and we've got some new tenants open. So, I know you guys came out for the Jump and Lobster open. we should do something for 10,000 coffee and so we'll be happy to participate in that gladly. Absolutely. And I'm sure the community would be very happy to shop at some of these new places, too. Thanks.

Thank you, Byron, for being here tonight. I I I'm thinking back to um when uh I first became a council member and I was knocking on doors and I think one of the very common uh comments I would get from people was what am I going to do about this shopping center? Um and I think a lot of it had to do with a lot of the vacancies. Um it was hard recovering after the pandemic. um you weren't the only shopping center, but I I do want to uh commend you and TRC for the work you guys have done in the last uh year and a half, two years uh to really update the shopping center uh to bring in a lot more tenants. Uh we are seeing the reduction of the vacancies. Uh so I'm really really um excited to see that. Um I'm excited to hear that there's more tenants coming. Um, so, um, I mean, every time I not that I go to Einstein Bagel every day, but, um, but Einstein Bagel is like is is really popping every day. Um, it looks like it's a grand opening every day. Uh, so um, that was a really good choice. Same thing with Tai House. I always have to get takeout because they never have se open seating. Uh so uh but I mean I'm glad to see that there's a lot of um I mean within the last year is Einstein Bagels um you know the coffee shop that just opened this uh this week um and then the other ones that are coming um but also you know the Silver Lake Ramen still very popular I see. Uh so great to see a lot of activity happening. Um, I'd like to see a lot more and I know that we're still uh conversing about how to make uh the shopping center um not just a place where people go and buy something and then leave, but also be able as a place to congregate. I hear that a lot from ELAC students who want a place where they can sit down, eat, do homework, uh work, and do all those things. I saw that at this coffee shop that I just uh went to, the 10,000 coffee shop. Um, but I see them throughout the but a lot of the open spaces that we have, the more we can make it into uh little community spots where where people can gather and

eat their foods uh so they don't feel like they have to rush out uh would be amazing, especially for a lot of our ELAC students. So, uh looking forward to continue to work with you. I encourage you to come back uh and give us more updates as we get more tenants coming in um in that area. Um, also appreciate the beautifification uh aspect in terms of the painting that uh went into the the shopping center. Um, my wife was talking uh about me uh about the shopping center this past weekend and telling me about how updated it looks now compared to where we were at a couple of years ago. Um, you know, she remembers going to the Miller's Outpost, I think I shared with you, uh, and hanging out there after school all the time. So, uh, very appreciative of that and, uh, let's continue to the dialogue and continue to work together. uh you know making your shopping center work great work uh is also great for Monterey Park. Okay. So, thank you.

And council member, I I and I know you know our our focus now is totally on building D. We've got to get that fixed up and filled up and uh that's that's our total focus right now. So, I do have one recommendation. Yes, sir. Um my daughters really want ice cream in that shopping center. Yes, you've mentioned that [laughter] and I'm not sure and I told him I I would mention it to you again tonight, especially after Baskin Robbins left. So, uh, you know, we need to find a new tenant for that section and I'm sure everyone here has a recommendation and I'm sure there's tons of people out here. Make sure you touch base with Byron before he leaves. Thank you, Byron. Thank you. Are are you sure it's just your daughters? Yeah. [laughter]

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. Um, you know, I just want to thank you very much for working with the city and trying to find common ground on ways in which we could um update the shopping center. You know, I know for many of us, especially um uh you know, pre- pandemic, it was a very thriving and it still is, but certainly has it challenges because of pandemic. I know for myself, the section you're referring to was where my dry cleaner was. It was a Korean barbecue place. Um and um uh you know it was a space that had um some important uh retailers and um I know that the pandemic has been uh challenging uh for many communities. It's accelerated many trends and so um uh I my colleague you know we look forward to just working with you to see how we can uh revitalize and move the shopping center forward.

Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. you know, we've all been looking forward to this cuz so many community members have been saying, "Why is Atlantic Square vacant? You know, what's going to happen there?" So, this this really gives us uh perspective on all the updates you guys have been working on and we're really excited about the new tenants that are coming in. Um, and I know we all want to Trader Joe's, but I I wanted a Japanese supermarket in there like Tokyo Central, you know, or something like that, but I know Ralph's has the non-compete. So, like just like how the fitness center that if this if it goes in, they'll probably want something in the contract that says no other fitness center in the whole plaza. So, that's understandable. Um, but what if um I I I probably have some like potential tenants that I could think of and and send over to you and I'm sure some of our community members have ideas too. Is there a good contact that um folks can reach out to?

So, probably just for ease of comm you can contact me anytime. I just for ease of communication that so your economic development department knows is either funnel them through Joseph and it'll come to me. I don't want to tell you how to run your city but that seems like it'd be a natural way to do it. Uh but you have my email mayor you can always send them to me if you want. Um but yeah I have your contact but if community members want have any ideas proposals contact I would u well the city manager has a good idea

madame mayor. Uh yes, if the community members have um suggestions or contacts, we have received uh messages, emails um in our community development department for leads. So definitely you can send them our way. Uh there is we can't guarantee promises, but we'll definitely take a look and see what we can do to make contacts. Very good. Great. Thank you very much for the updates. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. Have a good evening.

All right. [applause] Well, that's an abundance of presentations tonight. So, moving on, we have a few public comments and we will open it up for public comments. Starting with Margaret Leang. They are all the right size. And also I want to put my vote in. I vote TJ Maxx.

Yes. Love your wife. Um, so tonight I'm just um I think it's a it's a great night. It seems like we have a lot of uh positive momentum going forward. So I would like to continue that. Um I would like to say good evening Mayor Elizabeth uh a member of the council. As president of St. Gabriel Valley um power up beacon uh it gives me great pre pleasure to present certificate of appreciation to each of you. INesses Alvarez Robert and the city staff member for your valuable contri contribution in making the save Barnes Park pool 2026 swim award and appreciating event on March 28, 2026 a great success. And um one of my old uh director used to tell me making sure that you celebrate every milestone you have and this is a great milestone. And before we turn the page um to the next step, I just want to make sure that we capture that tonight because things are going really fast. So with that said, um the SGV pub would like to thank you for your park in making a positive difference in uniting and inspiring the community to be champions in the mission to build Barnes Park Aquatic Center. your R in your allin positive attitude and collaboration alongside with the SGV without a doubt contributed to the success of this grand event. Uh appreciation for your support comes from the SGV pub's heart as well as from higher places. Um, I noticed that um, Senator um, uh, Sasha Perez um,

she did graciously wanted to recognize the city council in Barbara Aira for their support of the event. However, I believe that maybe of the amount of event you guys have today, the pub received word from Senator Perez's office that the city manager's office stated it was not necessary and would not um need to um send the certificates. But regardless, the city manager's office uh not accepting the the certificate, Senator Perez recognizes their support. So I have tonight a certificate of appreciation to each of you. The award event recognized shined a beacon of light on the participating swimmer who pour their hearts into and gave it all swimming laps at this St. Barnes Park pool swim event. Their commitment to the cause, community spirit and enthusiasm as commend are commendable. Through continued collaboration and steadfast commitment, unwravening support and shared vision, we can together move closer to build the Barnes Park Aquatic Center and making the Mterrey Parks vision a reality. With that said, um I want to show you the um certificate that we have put together for all of you tonight. And um and also I wanted to congratulate um the city staff and and everybody that is um contributed to this uh process and it's an enormous congratulation to the city monitor park for being awarded the 6 million in grant funding through the California State Park Land Water Conservation Fund. Indeed, this is a spectacular uh milestone reached through the leadership

of the city council as well as Inesse, our city manager, Robert Gira, who is the director of our parks and wreck, and the staff's hard work, resolve, and commitment. Obtaining a six million grant in a highly competitive pool of applicants throughout the state of California is tremendous achievement of high praise and and applause. These grant monies will support the revitalization revitalization of the Barnespar Aquatic Center. Great things happen when you dream hard, work hard, and work together. Certainly, Barnes Park Aquatic Center will soon be a dream come true for Montterrey Park and surrounding community. The SGV pub would like to present a certificate of congratulations to the mayor and city council member and I and city manager in Robert Gear. I just want to show you what it looks like. So, we going to um because I only have one pair of hands, but I did give it to everybody else to come up and give it to you folks. So to make this to facilitate this is that okay? Okay. So I'm gonna put that apart. So [applause] I I just want to say there are people that's behind the scene that we need to also recognize. We the first one I have here is for call. Um he's quiet but he's really behind the scene. So, uh, I would like to give the first one to, uh, Kyle Burgerer. Is he going to take his time walking here? Amy, [applause]

he's smiling.

[applause] I'm gonna go down. I'm gonna go down the line. So you guys, whoever has that will come up. You guys want to do that? Oh, shucks. All right. Well, go right ahead. So, you guys know who you are talking to.

Do you like I I was worried about the color. What color is your office? Yeah. So, can everybody Who do you have?

Oh, that's yours. You got a shirt. I can take it after.

You sure?

Okay. Build your cut No, that's an idea. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

No, no. I I I picked that color for everybody for you. Um, I just want to um thank um all the water a ropic folks that came out tonight. I know it's late, but uh really appreciate it.

All right. Thank you, SGV Pub. That was so kind. Um, and we hope to continue working and getting more grants for the Barnes Park Aquatic Center. Next up, Dave Jones. Good evening, honorable mayor Yang, Mayor Pro Timllo, distinguished council members, and dedicated staff. My name is Dave Jones, and I live in District 5. Um, before I continue with my planned remarks, I would just like to acknowledge uh the Garvey School District and Monterey Vista School and congratulate them on their 100th anniversary. Uh my children did not go to Monterey Vista, but they did go to Hillrest and that school, the teachers and staff there did a great job in preparing them for their academic career and for life beyond school. They've all been very successful and I won't go into it further than that. Um but congratulations to them. Great honor to them and to the city of Monterey Park. This past weekend, mail and ballots for the June election were delivered. And this Monday, May the 4th, was Star Wars Day. So, in honor of these events, I'd like to do something a little different and share these lines from Nimik's manifesto from the Star Wars TV series Andor. There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the rebellion is everywhere and even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this, the imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks. It leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this. The day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the empire's authority. And then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. Well, the good citizens of Monterey Park did not just try. We succeeded. We took on a billiondoll company and we won. But the fight isn't over yet. Star Wars fans know the First Order emerged from the residue of the Galactic Empire. It's critical that we ensure the same fate does not befall our fair city. We must all of us vote yes on NDC to ban data centers in Monterey Park. So tonight, let's pass the ordinance on its second

reading. Let's pass Measure NDC in June and then let's rebuild Barnes Park Pool. Thank you very much. [applause] [cheering] Just water, no ice. Thank you, Dave. Next speaker is Barbara Shira.

Good evening, Mayor Yang and council members and staff. U my name is Barbara Chiraa and I live at um across the street from Macy Intermediate and right in front of the tennis courts at Elder. Um as a third generation Monterey Park resident, mother of three fourth generation residents and the grandmother of a future fifth generation resident, I take pride in stating that I have lived in Monterey Park for almost 50 years. And I too am renovating my house just as we are here in Atlantic Square. Um, I take pride in the past. My great aunt and her husband Ray and Bill Eigel bought one of the first homes on Deluente and raised their son and nephew there. And it was where my dad, a street kid, uh, who was abandoned as a child from Oakland, enjoyed the freedom of riding a horses on the Monterey Park Trail Hills. My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary at St. Thomas Aquinus and their reception was held at Elen Ellen Kanto to place the Elento my dad used to see on his travels up the hills. All three of my children attended Bella Vista Macy and Shure and to went to East Los Angeles as did my husband and I where we met and where he later taught as in the architecture department. Uh we decided to move to Monterey Park partly because of the location next to Elder Park as my memories of growing up right by Salt Lake Park and Huntington Park brought back fond memories. Richard and I had strong ad have been strong advocates for the parks not only for elder where my sons learned to swim and my late mother took her daily walks um but also Barn Park Barnes Park where my sons took their advanced swim classes and we went to all the different festivities and also Laloma where um our children played on the Monterey Park uh sports club and where my husband donated time to design the new bathrooms and

snack shack and meeting room with other Mon and with other Monterey Park residents. They tore down the old facilities. It was terrible. It is now 25 years later and it is need of repairs and my husband was hoping that at some point some group would like to put a more mural of different sports that was going on there. So, it's kind of a dream um and he was an artist too, not just an architecture architect. as a board member, a former board member of the Monabel Unified School District, I was appointed leazison to work with the Monterey Parks and Recreation to maintain Elder Park through our joint use agreements. Um, and later when I lost my election, I was asked to work as a teacher at Macy and I've been working there full-time um till 2014 and now as a substitute teacher since then. Now I continue to be an advocate for elder and I'm currently swimming again with the water aerobics group on Tuesday and Thursday. Walking out of the locker room yesterday seeing the young manoray swimmers and numerous volleyball groups playing brought joy to our hearts our hearts to see them. I have faith in the future. Thus, I want to thank you for one, trying to limit ISIS's efforts in Monterey Park, supporting the citizens of Monterey Park to express their votes this June regarding the data center, continuing a a city council tradition that included votes to determine whether or not to have huge billboard signs on the surrounding freeways, which was voted down, and working to get the Barnes Park pool renovated. I fully support this effort, but also want to remind you that as we are painfully aware, when one pull breaks down, it impacts all of the programs there, but also at another like Elder, which has been severely affected. I must urge you to not only continue your efforts on Barnes Park Pool, but also to not

neglect or consider closing down Elder, as the children and citizens in my end [clears throat] of the city will attest to its that it is greatly valued there as well. our eighth graders go there every year for their eighth grade um celebration uh where they celebrate being uh leaving Macy Intermediate. So once again, thank you. Appreciate your support. [applause] Thank you, Barbara. Um that concludes our public comments for this evening. So we'll move on to staff communications, starting with our city manager's office. Thank you. Good evening, uh, Madame Mayor and members of the city council. Diana Garcia. I'm the assistant city manager. Uh, this evening, we wanted to share a little bit of information with you about some additional services that we'll be offering. Uh, in 2025, council appropriated funds to help communities uh, in need, in particular, immigrant communities in Monterey Park. And so, uh, our staff has put together a program along with Chinatown service center, uh, that is three layered. And so, we'll talk a little bit about that this evening. Um, the first part of this program is a community resource and referral center. This is really a hotline uh that people can call to be connected with the resource and referral center. So, we've got the phone number up there, 6262938733. Folks can also scan the QR code and be taken to a referral page where they can type in their information and have staff reach out to them. Um, the Chinatown Service Center provides uh many, many different services, truly wraparound services for the community. Case management, legal aid referrals, healthcare referrals, family support, uh, and know your rights information. Uh I always say that there's probably not a service that Chinatown there's probably

not any service that they don't provide. So if it even if it's it isn't listed, it is probably something that a case worker can connect folks with. So, we want to publicize that phone number as well as the QR code. Uh, if there is anyone in need, anyone in the community, anyone outside of Monterey Park, uh, they can call that number or scan the QR code and someone will be in contact with them to direct them to services. The second part of this program is going to be a series of community workshops. Uh, right now we have the May workshops planned. These are both going to be at the Langley Center. The first one is mental health awareness. May 8th, uh we will have a session in Chinese at 1:30 p.m. and then a session in English and Spanish at 2:15 p.m. The other topic in May will be know your rights related to immigration. So this is uh designed to help people understand their rights and protect themselves. This is May 21st at Langley Center. English and Spanish at 1:00 p.m. and Chinese at 2:00 p.m. Um, this is these May workshops are the first in a series of workshops that will be provided uh in multiple languages from Chinatown Service Center and their partners. Other topics will include employment law, uh, workers rights, housing rights, avoiding fra fraud and scams, uh, and accessing benefits. The third part of this assistance program is education and events. So we will have folks from the Chinatown Service Center tableabling at events throughout our city to help spread the word about the resources that are available. So just this weekend they will be at the Playds Festival right behind us in Barnes Park here. Uh in August they'll be attending National Night Out and in October they will be attending the health fair at Langley Center. Um with me this evening is Jessica Tran. She's been my partner in creating all of these programs. She's the manager of the social services

department uh here at the Monterey Park office on Chandler of Chinatown Service Center. Um I if I could have her come down to the podium and just introduce herself uh and we're available for any questions you may have.

Hi, good evening Mayor Yang and Council Member. Um, thank you for this opportunity for us to collaborate with the city. Um, on behalf of Chinatown Service Center, it is truly an honor for us to serve the community and also to be a part of this meaningful partnership. Um we are especially grateful for council member um for your support and also um your commitment to make a difference especially for the immigrants community who often face barrier in accessing resources and support. At Chinatown Service Center, we are dedicated in providing the best service we can with compassion, respect, and cultural understanding. Through this collaboration, we would like to provide resources, referral, and offer workshop that are informative and empowering to the community. And once again, we would like to say thank you so much for this opportunity and um for your continued support. And if you have any question, please feel free um to ask.

Thank you, mayor. And thank thank you to our assistant city manager, staff, and child service. I really appreciate um that we've been standing up these programs and services. Uh I know it's been at least months if not over a year for some of these at least. Uh and I know we're working on expanding some of these services particularly. Um and I know these include some services uh around immigration uh and those that are seeking services around the immigration and legal help. Uh particularly with the uptick in in immigration enforcement actions uh and some of the rhetoric coming out of Washington DC. Uh we've been working diligently with community partners like CSC and and others uh to help connect people that are in need and looking for additional services to these services. So appreciate that we're helping to stand these up. Um and would just note to staff as we start to get into budget season uh if there are to give some thought to what we might need to set aside. I know we the council had set aside uh $50,000 to support some of these services for this budget year. If that's an appropriate amount to reup for next year or if we want to look at potentially augmenting that uh knowing that there's probably more need in the community than there and will continue to be more need in the community if we want to adjust that based off of some of these services now being ramped up.

Yeah, I think we can uh include that maybe in our midyear presentation. and these programs will take us at least through that time. Thank you.

I also wanted to thank the Chinatown Service Center and thank you for being here tonight. I think um Monterey Park [clears throat] has no better partner than the Chinatown Service Center. I really appreciate um that that the Chinatown Service Center always steps up and um provides a lot of the services that we need um including in this um in this regard. I know that after um ICE started to become or Ice Ray started to become a real deal here in Los Angeles, uh maybe not so much here in Monterey Park, um we um c the council decided to all lot $50,000 for the purpose of supporting the immigrant community in the city of Monterey Park. And I hope that a lot of the the funds that are being used uh in terms of services um will will be useful for a lot of our immigrant community. But I think to council member Wong's point um as we do start looking at the budget budget year and uh seeing if if 50,000 is enough if not more um is needed uh to be able to support a lot of these services but also um we appreciate the child service center but also looking at maybe perhaps other organizations that might be able to provide other services. I know that for example Mark Temple High School has a dream center um that supports a lot of their immigrant students and families. uh so be able to connect with them as well and other groups as well. But thank you so much for being here tonight and um and looking forward to the next step here and also as we start getting more workshops if we can advertise them uh on social media. Thank you.

Thank you. Um yeah, thank you for the presentation. Uh just a question uh I know May 8th and May 21st there's the um seminars in Chinese and Spanish. Are they going to be in Oh, okay. The ones Okay. The English is mixed in with the Chinese and Spanish. Got it. Great. Well, looking forward to all the these community events. Thank you so much for the Thank you very much.

All right. And next is city clerk's office. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, council, committee members, and staff. My name is Helena Cho. I am the assistant deputy city clerk. I am here to provide information on the city's upcoming special election on June 2nd. Next slide, please. These are some key dates for the community members to be aware of. Um, as of now, everyone should have received their vote by mail ballots. They started going out from the county on April 30th all the way up to May 4th, so everyone should have already received their ballots. Um, voter information guide, your sample ballot booklet will be arriving um May 12th. people. Everyone should have received their state book by now, but your local election book will be coming by May 12th. The last day to register for this election will be May 18th. Um there are chances to register at vote centers should the need come. Um vote centers are going to start opening starting May 23rd. All vote centers will be open by May 30th. In Monterey Park, we have four vote four vote centers. Uh, we do have a 10-day center that will open on the 23rd. That will be at Union Church. Their address is 2011 South New Avenue. Vote centers open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. On election day, vote centers will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Um, just another friendly reminder, vote uh voting is on June 2nd. Um, next slide, please. The these are official ballot boxes that are located in our city. We have one outside city hall and one at Sierra Vista Park. These send uh these boxes are already open should everyone want to go ahead and vote and drop off their ballots here. Everyone has the opportunity to vote by mail. So if you receive your ballot, you can go ahead and use the envelope that's provided in

your vote by mail and no postage is necessary. Next slide, please. Should you need more information about the upcoming election, here's our page on our city's website. The public can also go to lava vote.gov for more information as well. The city clerk's office will be at play days tomorrow. So, if you want to stop by and say hi or ask questions, please do so. We'll be at play days from 5:00 to 8:00 tomorrow evening. I'm available for any questions should you have any. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next up is public works. Hi, good evening, mayor, council, committees, and staff. My name is Beverly Garcia. I'm an management analyst for the public works department. I'm here to invite everyone to our upcoming openhouse event. Um the event is in recognition of National Public Works Week, uh celebrated annually during the third week of May, which honors public works staff. U this year's theme is rooted in service powered by community and acknowledges that the roots of service run deep in public works. Uh the event will be held at the city yard located at 751 South Alhamra Avenue on Monday, May 18th uh between 400 p.m. and 7 p.m. Vendors withformational booths and exhibits um will be there to educate visitors on what public works does and to highlight the impact public works has on our community. Uh this year's event includes a trucks e a truck expo and a children's activity area. We hope that these additions will encourage Monterey Park families to attend. Uh we will have food courtesy of wear disposal and giveaways thanks to sponsors from uh sponsorships from vendors like WCARBON and many more. Um food and giveaways will be available while supplies last. There will be parking at the event, but we do encourage visitors to use MPK Transit Express, which will run through 7:30 p.m. Uh, next slide, please. I'd like also like to let the community know about our compost giveaway. Uh, we will be having a free compost giveaway event on Saturday, May 9th from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Garvey Ranch Parks West Entrance near 751 South Hamburg Avenue. Uh bag comp bag compost will be available on a first come first- serve basis. There will be a limit of two bags

per resident. For residents needing more compost, loose material will be available for self-service at the event. Uh thank you. And that concludes my presentation. Apologies, uh madame mayor, members of the council, we're having a little technical difficulty. The information that Beverly shared tonight is on the city's web page on and our calendar section. you can find the public works uh flyer, openhouse flyer there and also the compost event um for more information. So, we apologize for not having that uh we apologize for not having that available tonight uh on the screen. Yeah. And I believe it's also on the city's uh social media Instagram account, too.

That's correct. Thank you.

All right. Next up is recreation and community services department. Good evening, mayor and member of city council. My name is Chan Lim, recreation specialist with the recreation department. Um, I would like to provide a quick update on upcoming community events. The city of Mar Park will be hosting our annual playdays carnival beginning tomorrow, May 7 to Sunday, May 10. This fun event will feature games, food, and live entertainment for all ages. We look forward to welcoming our community. To kick off the event, we will be celebrating Cigot Deo uh tomorrow evening with a live mariachi performance starting at 5:30 p.m. Join our swim program. Registration for youth and adult swim lessons will open on Tuesday, May 12th. For additional information, uh please contact the recreation department. Next slide, please. Langley Center is offering a Mother's Day nail polish service uh from May 4th to May 8th for participants 50s and over. Cost is $5 and registration is required. If interested, please call Langley Center. Also at Langley Center, a monthly dance social themed single de mile celebration will take place May 21st from 1 to 3 p.m. featuring live entertainment, snacks, and refreshment. The cost is $3 and registration is currently open. On Saturday, May 30th, the Asian Pacific Health Corps in partnership with the city of Mar Park will be hosting a health fair at Langley Center from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. offering a variety of screening. Insurance is not required. For more information, please contact the Langley Center. The monthly uh intergenerational module

series will continue at Langy Center on Sunday uh May 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. All ages are welcome to attend and learn how to play. Our daycare will offer its summer kids venture camp from June 8th through July 31st for children aed 5 to 12, providing a variety of engaging summer activities and weekly field trips. For more information, please contact daycare. Our annual Memorial Day event will be held on May 25th at 10:00 a.m. at the American Legion Post 397 honoring our our following heroes who served our community. Also, lunch is provided at the end of the event. Looking ahead to June, the 6th annual SGV Pride Festival will take place on Saturday, June 6th at Barnes Park, beginning with a parade at 9:00 a.m. at Maro High School and ending at Barnes Park. This event will include live music, arts giveaway, and resources. Also in June, the city independence day celebration will be held on Saturday, June 27th at Barnes Park, featuring food truck, live entertainments by the band Pop Vision, and a fireworks show at 9:00 p.m.

And then I'm going to jump in here. We added a slide at the end here. Uh, Robert Gary, director of recreation and community services. Good evening, Mayor, mayor, uh, members of city council. Just wanted to share some exciting news. So, we recently found out that our uh city of Monterey Park is going to be recognized by the American Planning Association for our grow Monterey Park uh park system master plan. So, both the city and our consultant city fabric submitted u a nomination for the um park system master plan and we're going to be recognized in June uh with an award from the American uh planning association. So, that's big news. And then uh also uh I know everyone's very excited as as of my uh we recently got word that we've received and be awarded the $6 million from the uh California State Parks Land Water Conservation uh fund grant. Um so very exciting. I know it's a step in. This is continuing to build momentum off of we just received a grant from through measure A and so now we're getting this grant and we're going to continue to apply for additional grants coming up and slowly chipping away and and trying to reach our goal towards building a future Barnes Park Aquatic Center. So very exciting news and glad to share that with you. Um that completes our presentation. We're available for any questions.

May Mayor May I? So first Robert, congratulations to you and your staff. I know it was a good 10 years. We got the grant. That's the key. I know it it it was a hard process, but we we earned it. We stuck to it. We got the grant. And then that second bit of news you mentioned about the Gromar Park getting the award. That's double kudos to you guys. So, good work for you guys. I just want you guys to go celebrate. I know you put on the calendar already because Sing of the Ma was yesterday. We're celebrating it again tomorrow

and then we're celebrating it again on the 21st at Langley Center. So, let's take the full 16 days to fully celebrate this accomplishment that's been hard earned by staff in getting this pool money. Now, the rest of the council folks here, we've got a work cut out because we got to match a portion of that and we got another 15 million plus to fund raise to get that pool. But it's an opportunity that we are looking forward to because this is why this is a great city because if we work together and collaborate, it does take a little time but we can get there and that's why we're here. So kudos to you guys for getting that work done. I'll just add my kudos. I think huge deal for those who I know some of the people had to leave, but uh huge deal for us to get the this this land water conservation grant. uh very competitive for the state and we got a pretty big chunk of this the full allocation that went out statewide. So kudos again to to you the team um and to the community frankly for all the work that went into getting us to this point. It's a significant it's a big step. We still have as council go pointed out and I as we all point out to each other uh still a long ways to go but uh we're really making significant progress there. Um on this note I know as we tee up the budget uh for next year there's a a match requirement for the $6 million grant. So, let's make sure we're working that into uh our budget uh and make sure we're listing the pool and the the capital improvement plan going forward if it's not already there uh and identifying some of this funding there. And I know there may be a time uh requirement in terms of spending down the grant award. So, we're going to be on the clock as soon as the formal kind of grant agreement uh comes through and

the money uh is available to us. So, uh, just putting everyone on notice in the community particularly, uh, huge step, but also, uh, comes with some restraints in terms of how much we've got we got to get going, uh, to make sure we can take advantage of this money, uh, and make sure that we can have a pool, this project actually moves forward with this grant money in hand. So, but appreciate, and as council go saying, let's it's definitely worth celebrating. We're a signant way there, still a ways to go. Uh, and we're going to need all hands on deck. uh and encourage the community members, particularly the pub and others who are engaged in the community to continue to pay attention to this, continue to advocate, continue to uh engage your neighbors and friends and others here in the city of Mari Park about how important this pool is and how much we're all going to have to pitch in to get over the finish line on this.

Um I'm just thinking back to um when we um maybe a year ago started kind kind of this venture on the pool and um just in a short amount of time um how we've uh progressed so much and um you know the $6 million the matching funds that the city will have to provide um we're kind of I think at 9 million plus here um with the matching funds right so um I think we are in a much better position I think um and I think it it's it's very promising and very and I'm I'm very hopeful that the pool is going to happen. And I think to um you know to echo what council member Wongs, that's going to take a lot of work as a city um by city I mean council and staff and the community uh to make sure that the rest of the money comes in. But also um I'm really glad to see that the effort and work that went into the parks master plan um is being recognized because I think this was an amazing blueprint for um seeing our parks um being updated uh for the future and part of that was the Barnes Park pool. So I'm glad that that's working that people are recognizing that and that that's going to be continue to be our blueprint for updating all of our parks. Uh so very thankful for all the work, Robert, that you and your team and the community um everyone that was involved in that in that process um you know that you know we have a a plan uh in terms of how updated our parks. I know that as a parent I'm very excited and I know a lot of community members are very excited about that. So, I'm looking forward to the next step and all the work that's coming uh to uh help facilitate and also update our not just our parks, but our pools and and not just, you know, Barnes Park, but George Elder as well. And I know that's going to take a lot of work, including Sean from public works. Um to it's going to take a village to make all of this happen. So, uh very appreciative

of all the work. And then as I was driving in, I saw all of the carnival rides being set up. So, um, it's also a very exciting time period right now in terms of celebrating our city's birthday. Uh, I know I'm already it just crept up on me. I I I kne I knew it's in my calendar, but um, this is a very exciting time because it also kind of marks almost the beginning of the summer. So, uh, very exciting. I texted a picture to my daughter come in tomorrow. So, uh, she's they're all very excited. So, anyhow, thank you, Robert, for all of the effort, all of the work that your team does. Uh, and I know that it takes a village. So, I just want to acknowledge all of our city staff for everything that we do to make our city great. So,

and I do just want to highlight because I I know I thanked our consultant for their work that they did on on this uh park system master plan, but one of the reasons we did get this award is because of the outreach and the initiative and all of the community involvement that that went into the park system master plan. So, I think it's only fitting to also thank uh the community for their involvement. Um both our consultant through the park system master plan and also Dolan through the park uh through the pool design uh commented on just how much how engaged our community is and how much involvement uh they've seen which they don't see in a lot of other communities. So that just really speaks to uh what a great community we have here, how much they care about their community and their parks and uh how much they want to get involved. So just want to thank the community for that.

Yeah. students out there as well. Thank m again I want to echo the sentiments my colleagues but also emphasize that u this really is a big deal for us because a few years ago we had also applied for a grant and unfortunately we were rejected um and so these are very competitive grants and certainly um uh this is something that we should be very proud be very proud of ourselves um and I really want to thank um the staff um for your efforts u not just in preparing um the application in a very competitive process, but also um the many um hours in community output meeting, input meetings, I'm sorry, community input meetings um not just for the pool, but for also for parkm plan and and and I think that this um recognition, the award we're getting is acknowledgement of why it's important. I I know that for the community sometimes they can grow impatient and ask why are you doing this and and ask just do it you know but again it's by having thoughtful thorough plans laid in place that it allows us as a tool to apply for grants and I think that uh the fact that I think that probably is why we got the $6 million because we showed um the state that uh we were thorough and comprehensive in preparing um um our application and also the parks master plan which hopefully will be a guide not just for our aquatic services but for all of our uh recreational services um for all 13 parks for all the 13 recreational uh areas for the observatory that is um at Garvey Ranch Park and I think um it is something that um I just want to express along with my colleagues congratulations to all the staff at Parks and Rex for your hard work. Yeah, it's amazing how much how far we've come in, you know, just a year or

so. And uh from the $500,000 measure a gr measure a funds to now the $6 million. And I think there's other grants that you're going to be applying for in the very near future because we still have a long ways to go. But um and then all the, you know, programs that are coming up in the summer, too, with PlayDay setting up right behind us. So, congratulations and keep up the momentum. We'll celebrate, but like Kobe says, jobs's not done yet. So, we'll get there. Thank you. Thank you to you and your team and all the staff.

Madame Mayor, uh before we move on, I'd like to um emphasize for the community members, we did put out a press release about that grant that we received. Um that the Barnes Park Pool project was one of 18 projects statewide that was awarded funds. So very very um proud of of that uh grant application. Um in addition as hearing from our council members tonight, the job is not done. Uh we we have work to do. Uh we definitely have a a funding gap. So, I would like to see if the council would be interested in potentially bringing back an item at a future council meeting, maybe next council meeting to have just some discussions and dialogue about potential strategies and maybe even forming um a subcommittee from council members to start really focusing on um campaign efforts uh around the pool. So, if that's of interest, we can definitely put an item for discussion for the council if that's something that the council would like to consider as we move forward. There are some grant opportunities on the horizon that we're looking forward to in uh fall of of this next year. So, we want to make sure that we're um strengthening our applications to the best of our ability, but that's going to take some coordination and efforts um on on the city's part. So, uh, it could be helpful for us to have maybe a few council members that are working side by side, uh, with with staff as we are moving this this forward. So, if that council is interested, we can bring something back for discussion.

Madame Mayor, I I would be interested. I think we we need to have that discussion to start so we can strategize. And I think I know who the right chairperson from the group to kind of lead this process. But I'll I'll let him volunteer given his uh commitment and and his uh connection with the with the swim. He didn't name me, so I don't know who it is. Uh but I I would appreciate that and would be happy to I really appreciate the staff thinking about that. Um, and I think it's an appropriate next step for us to have, especially in light of this this major grant award. I think it's time, not that we weren't serious, but it's really time to get serious because we're going to be on a shot clock now, uh, to make sure we can make use of that grant. Um, otherwise, we lose it. Uh so whatever we can do to to move more quickly and effect effectively and efficiently uh to make sure we're going after other other additional grant opportunities really closing the financing gap on this identifying ways to do that. Uh potentially looking at other options to to do that that require potentially city residents to vote um and approval for for those potential measures. I think we got to be able to move quickly uh particularly if we want to take advantage of some of those opportunities since those windows are limited for us uh this year. U so would be happy to volunteer to to be on some sort of committee or subcommittee uh and really move the the pool project along.

I second that. And I would like to nominate Council Member Wong to help lead this effort due to his extensive swimming experience. Thank you, Council Member one. Yeah, seems like everyone's pretty much aligned with moving forward with that. Thank you. All right, Chief and Fire Department. All

right. Good evening, Madame Mayor, Mayor Prom, honorable council members, city executives, staff, and yes, Jason Hing, uh, fire chief for the Monterey Park Fire Department. I am pleased to share a brief overview of our upcoming fire service day uh scheduled for May 16th, Saturday, from 8:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. Uh this event is an outstanding opportunity for our community to directly engage with members who serve them every day. Fire service day is designed to be both educational and engaging. Uh residents will get a behind-the-scenes look at our operations, equipment, and the level of training that our members maintain to keep the city safe. The event starts in the morning with our partners from the Lions Club uh for our annual pancake breakfast. We then transition and invite the general public for free activities like station tours and live demonstrations um for all families and children. More importantly, it's an opportunity for us to reinforce critical public safety messaging uh in the areas of fire prevention and emergency preparedness. Uh we are very honored to host this event. We look forward to the public uh welcoming the public to our house and we also appreciate the continued support from the council uh that allows us to provide that high quality of service and community outreach. Thank you. And I'm available for any questions.

Mayor, uh, Chief Ding, I I've been to a number of these events. They are great showcases because we have the full experience other than the pancake breakfast that starts everything. But I think this year it also aligns and I think last year as well, it aligns with Taiwan week. So I would say come for the breakfast, get the open house, talk to our fire staff, and then stay for lunch. All happening at the city, all around Barnes Park. So looking forward to it.

Thank you. I just did of that and really I I would echo the community's appreciation for fire service day and public works day and every a lot of the communication that all of our departments are doing but particularly the fire service day brings out a lot of families and kids uh who really want to see the fire trucks. Not just kids but adults too uh that want to see the fire trucks uh and all our equipment and really great opportunity to help educate the community about all the services the fire uh fire department provides. uh and uh all the the things that taxpayers, our residents are paying for to make sure that we're safe from from fires and uh what we're what investments we're making in public safety. So, appreciate uh the opportunity to do this and really opened up our our doors for this opportunity to to have the community engaged.

Chief, I also want to thank you for um having this community event. I mean, and you know, it it's so interesting because this is not the only time that I know the fire station opens up its doors. There's events happening there all the time. As a matter of fact, last week we had our um a lot of our students from Markeel and Shure High School there for their um for the annual um uh student leadership day. And I wanted to thank you for hosting uh that event and having the students there. I think a lot of students uh probably haven't had an opportunity to be inside the fire station and be able to talk one-on-one with uh with firemen um and potentially explore careers, not just in fire service, but I know PD was there and many other departments were there as well. But I just wanted to make a point of how important uh our fire station is here uh at Barnes Park, but and we have two other fire stations as well. So very appreciative of opening of uh of you opening the doors for the community. Um, I go every year as well. I know my daughters always look forward to the to the pancakes, but also a lot of the activities. I see a lot of families uh bring their kids out and um and uh so it's great to see people out there and and also the educational aspect of this as well. So very appreciative of all the work and effort that goes into doing this. Um looking forward to it. I just added to my

Thank you, council member. And it's it's it's a high priority for us to give back to the community that supports us so well. You know, the only thing I'll add is that um um this is a very popular event. So, hope to see the community out um next weekend, the pancake breakfast and to thank our fire service personnel, but also to remind ourselves that um we're very fortunate as a city that we have our own in-house fire along with police public safety services. Not every community can afford that and we should be very uh proud of ourselves that we have our we have always had um um inhouse services for public safety. Yes, very excited for the fire service day and I'll be there volunteering with the Lions Club. So, I don't know what they're going to have me doing, cooking pancakes or eggs or something, [laughter] but thank you for the updates.

Good. Thank you very much.

And last but not least, our Bugen Meyer Library. Good evening, madame mayor, mayor prom, members of city council. My name is Victor Gastanos and I'm the adult literacy coordinator. Uh so first we have some fantastic programs coming up in May. But I do want to highlight uh events that we had in April. So first of all, uh across our entire library, we had 166 different programs uh with almost 4,000 attendees, 3,976. Um, I also want to give a huge uh thank you and shout out to uh Chinatown Service Center and their VITA clinic uh volunteers. Uh for the past three months, they've been helping every week upstairs in the library and they've helped 1,524 clients uh process 567 returns. So, uh again, I want to give a huge thank you to um the volunteers from um from the VITA tax clinic team. And then uh just to recap some events in April, uh we first had our spring gardening workshop uh with the University of California Master Gardener Program. Uh we also had the bird walk and talk with the Pasadena Ottabbon Society where uh patrons got to take a stroll in Barnes Park and uh search for search for birds. We also celebrated National Library Week in the library where library patrons were uh uh had a library passport and they were exploring the library finding uh what brings them joy at the library. Uh and then we also had we hosted the digital skills for everyday life, everyday living with the Asian Youth Center and they taught participants how to use a smartphone in this interactive workshop series. So, now coming up in May, uh please visit us on the first floor at the

library. We have a collection of uh recommended reads celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Also, with your library card, uh you can explore films and documentaries on Canopy that also provide a deeper appreciation for Asian and Pacific Islander culture. Also, an event that extends beyond just our library is one book, one coast. So, this is a shared community reading program across more than 140 libraries stretching from California to Oregon to Washington. Uh, and on Saturday, May 31st, join us for a discussion on They Called Us Enemy by George Teay. If you're looking for a copy of the book with your library card, you can go on Libby and we have unlimited uh copies of of this book of this title. And then last, speaking about library cards, if you don't have one yet, please sign up and get one at the library. For the month of May, we have limited edition library cards, the Greetings from Monterey Park uh mural uh on a library card. So, uh, to celebrate Monterey Park's birthday, uh, so please act now. Supplies are limited. It's only for May only. Um, well, and, uh, thank you. As always, please check our library web page, social media, all of our newsletters for even more upcoming events for the whole family. Thank you everyone. I can answer any questions here. Thank you. Victor, just want to confirm if I lost my library card and I wanted the new library card edition, the cost is

$3. $3. Okay. Okay. So, I will do that. I I'll do the request to see if we can get an unactivated uh card just as a a giveaway or some sort of souvenir. I think there would be interest among the council for to inspect that and have it to display maybe. But thank you so much. Appreciate all the program.

Thank you, Victor. I did wanted to do a shout out because Victor helped me uh with uh my passports, getting my passports and I'm not sure if a lot of people know that uh you can get passports at the library and he did such a phenomenal job and even when I messed up uh he helped me fix the problem and uh it was very immediate. So very appreciative. Just wanted to do a shout out for I know uh the library provides a lot of different services. So thank you Victor for your help always. Thank you for the great products and services you provide to the community. Yeah, thank you for the update, Victor. Um, I had the George Tai event on my calendar, so I'm pretty sure Saturday is May 30th. Oh, I'm sorry. May [laughter]

I like am I Did I get it wrong? But I didn't know you have to call to register. So, I'm going to call first thing tomorrow morning to register for the event. Thank you. I don't know how you guys got George Teai, but that's pretty cool. Just the book. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, that's it for staff communications and we don't have any old business. So, moving on to the consent calendar. We have a very lengthy consent calendar today with lots of resolutions. So, anyone to pull any items? No, you're good. Everyone's good. I'll I'll move consent with just a note for item 10F or rule or if we adopt the rules just make sure for staff that we're figuring out how we're going to display and educate members of the public about these rules once they are adopted.

Otherwise happy to move make a motion for consent calendar. I will second. All right. Uh let's vote. Did it go down? So, please uh revote approve unanimously.

Oh, yay. And then ju just a quick question, Madam Mayor, if we could uh we just approved Garvey Ranch Park shade structure. If we can announce maybe what the timeline is for the construction on that. Yes, madame mayor, members of the council for Garvey Ranch uh parks shade structure. We definitely understand this is a priority. Uh we are moving quickly to get that um replaced as soon as possible. we ran into some snags with this um project as we were trying to reutilize some of the columns that were out there but unfortunately we weren't able to to do that. So we'll be replacing those uh structures. Um the timeline for that is July August. Oh here's Sean. Sorry I didn't realize you came down.

Yep. Good evening Mayor Mayor Proman city council Sean I go public works director. Um yeah actually the goal has been moved up. We're hoping to have it completed by the end of June beginning July. So, we've already started working through our processes to get the agreement lined up. So, when now the council has moved forward, we can start expediting things as quickly as possible. Thank you. Very cool. Thank you.

And I I think I think there's some folks here for item 10 C. I heard that people are taking bets on the percentage for the ballot measure, like 60%, 65, 70% or whatnot. So, we'll see what comes out from that. Um, all right. So public hearing 11A, let's get a presentation on the consideration and possible action to adopt resolution number 26. Uh resolution authorizing the recording of a notice of special assessment for nuisance abatement. Yes. Open up the public hearing. Madame Mayor, Deputy City Attorney Solange Bordinbach will be making the presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and honorable council members. I'm here with code compliance supervisor Raundo Lozano, and together we're going to be presenting on this resolution. The property we're talking about is at 509 West Andrich Street. The registered owners of the property are Wayne Ma and Hawk Ma. The history of enforcement starts in August of 2023. Code Compliance had received a complaint from a neighbor regarding the condition of the property. Uh between August of 2023 and January of 2024, code compliance officers were going to the property and inspecting it from the public right of way and engaging with the property owners to see if they could come to um just compliance, reasonable compliance with the property ownership. But by January of 2024, um, things weren't moving in terms of bringing the property into compliance with the Monterey Park Municipal Code. And as such, a notice of violation was issued for two nuisances, including overgrown vegetation and the accumulation of trash, litter, and debris. the uh the presence of these nuisances continued and by April of that year another notice of violation was issued with an additional nuisance that being improper use of extension cords. As you can see in the images, that is an image from the driveway uh with the accumulation of trash, junk, and debris. These again were photos that were taken from the public right ofway.

By July 17th, 2024, code compliance officer Liz Elizabeth Rodriguez went for a reinspection at the property and saw progress. Some of the trash, litter, and debris had been removed and overgrown vegetation had been trimmed. Um, therefore, code of compliance stopped visiting the property. By February 20th, 2025, Code Compliance again started to receive complaints from neighbors. Soon after, in March, Code Compliance reinspected the property and saw that conditions had further deteriorated. By March 19th, 2025, a final notice of violation was issued again for those same nuisances previously listed. overgrown vegetation, trash, litter, debris, and then the improper use of extension cords. By October of 2025, a notice of public nuisance hearing was conducted. Um, and on the 13th, the hearing officer determined that and upheld the public nuisances, those being overgrown vegetation, trash, litter, and debris, and then the improper use of extension cords. The property was thus deemed a public nuisance. By January 8th of 2026, there was a notice sent to the property owners uh indicating the city was going to go in and abate the nuisances themselves. Uh plenty of communication was had between property ownership and code compliance, including between myself and the property owner. We afforded plenty of time for property ownership to bring the property into compliance and it just wasn't happening. So by January 13th, the city obtained an inspection warrant to inspect the

interior of the residence and an abatement warrant to address the nuisances existing on the exterior of the property. On that same day, we sent a second notice of an intent to abate to the property owners, letting them know that on January 20th, the city would be prepared to show at the property to abate all existing nuisances and execute as well the inspection warrant to go onto the inside of the property. On January 20th, city personnel showed up. The building was yellow tagged and this was the condition of the property prior to abatement. These are drone images that were taken on top of the property. As you can see, the rear yard and had a significant amount of trash, junk, and debris present. There was stagnant water in the pool. Um, and just significant amounts of trash, junk, and debris. The interior of the residence was also filled with trash, junk, and debris. The building official ended up yellow tagging the property and listing it as uninhabitable. These are photos from after the abatement. As you can see, there was uh junk and trash removal conducted to bring the property into compliance and the overgrown vegetation was trimmed. As you can see, also there was a significant amount of leaves and foliage falling into the pool, which we had communicated with the county on. uh vector control specifically, the stagnant water can pose a significant public health risk. And so we worked with vector control to better understand how we could mitigate those health and

safety risks. They suggested trimming back that overgrown vegetation in the rear yard so as to prevent additional foliage from falling into the pool. enforcement postabatement. Uh on January 28th, 2026, we had invited the property owners to an office conference to talk about the condition of the interior of the property. At that point, we had abated all existing nuisances on the exterior. However, we understood that the property needed to be fully brought into compliance and the interior of the property demonstrated significant problems uh just like the exterior ones had. The same notice listed several violations of the health and safety code, all listed there, as well as the Monterey Park Municipal Code. On February 5th of 2026, an office conference was held, but property ownership did not appear. A demand letter was sent on April 23rd to property owners for the total abatement costs. These were all costs associated with that January 20th abatement and we haven't received any communication from property owners since. I'm going to pass the mic to Ry so he can speak on uh code complianc's engagement with Chinatown service center who has been engaging with the property owners.

Good evening honorable mayor, mayor bro and members of the city council. Ray Lozano, CO enforcement supervisor. Um through an established memorandum of understanding with Chinatown Services Center, um they have been able to provide behavioral and mental health um services to both of the owners. Um, we have a scheduled meeting for next Monday to have an in-person um, discussion with Chinatown Services Center and the ownership to um, explore longevity options to maintain compliance at the property in addition to providing additional resources that Chinatown Services Center um, is most equipped to provide to both of the owners at this time.

And that concludes our presentation. Do we any speakers have or do we take speakers before questions? No speakers. U so obviously the owners did not come into compliance before otherwise or they're not here, right?

Uh any have we heard anything otherwise from the owners in terms of wanting to come into compliance or anything like that along the way? There hasn't been any communication from the owners. Um we have called them, sent emails, posted notices and worked through um the partnership with Chinatown Services Center and there hasn't been any communication from them until yesterday. Interesting. Okay. And then we haven't so we haven't heard a word. Uh we've given them several months, right? It's now May. Uh, I don't know that there's anything else to do here. So, uh, appreciate the team. Was this first reported by neighbors or how did how did the complaint first come?

The complaint came from the neighboring properties in the area. Good. Appreciate that. Uh, yeah, I don't have anything else. It's pretty clear to me. Well, if and if no one else has it, I'm happy to make the motion to adopt staff recommendation. Okay. Council member one moves. Council member Sa seconds. Let's vote. Move unanimous.

Madame Mayor, before you go to the next item, I just want to congratulate Solange Forbach. We put her as lead chair with regard to code enforcement uh for the city. So this is her first fora in front of the city council and I know she and Ray will make a great team for bringing other things to you. Thank you for all your hard work and efforts. A lot of steps. Thank you. All right. Uh no new business then. Uh any communications?

I just have a couple of to report. I think many of us were there at the uh on April 17th at the ELAC uh new Susan Rubio facility for entrepreneurship program. I'm really proud that our city is partners partnering with ELAC and that program to help with the local business owners there. Uh on a shout out on April 19th uh Dr. and Mrs. Wong who many of us know in this community they celebrated their their golden 50 year anniversary. I think many of us was there to celebrate with them as well at Capitol Seafood. Uh on April 21st, I attended the uh new mayor installation for the city of St. Gabriel. So congratulations to new mayor Eric Chan and vice mayor or mayor prom Tony Ding in the city of St. Gabriel. And then on May 5th uh just yesterday we we were at a few of us was at the Hillrest school which is part of the Garvey School District. They celebrate celebrate their student leadership day. uh just showcasing the work of the students, their involvement outside the school curriculum and uh hosting a number of events and activities for guests not only from the city of Mari Park but surrounding communities in terms of what their student uh leadership program has impacted and what they've continued to contribute to to improving the students at Hillrest. That's all I have. Um, I just want to mention two uh items. Uh, on April 30th, um, I know uh, Council Member Wong and I uh, were able to participate in the student leadership day um, here in the city. I wanted to thank uh, staff for helping organize that. Uh civic engagement is so

important in our communities, but it's also very important that we start at a very young age with a lot of our students uh to be able to uh teach them how not just how to be civically engaged, but also uh prepare them to how to interact with the city. I know this year's topic was on emergency preparedness, right? So I know a lot of the students, in fact, I I went to and spoke to them today at Marappella High School. Uh got to have lunch with them. So great to see a lot of them uh as well. But thank you for the staff, uh, fire, police, and all city staff who were there. Um, and thank you, uh, fire chief for hosting at at the, um, fire station 61. Uh, very appreciative of that. Uh, and then also on May 2nd, I attended the Alhambor Latino Association dinner. Uh, was there because also a lot of um, students who received scholarships from the Alhamra Latino Association were residents of uh, Monterey Park, but students from Markeel as well. So, uh, wanted to share that and congratulate the students who received, uh, scholarship money, um, for, uh, to attend, uh, four-year colleges and universities. And then lastly, I just wanted to, uh, mention because I know we passed item 10R, uh, this is teacher appreciation week. Um, so for those of you guys who um have children that are in school, make sure that you uh send a note to teachers and uh and uh share the love and appreciation uh for all the work that they do. Um I I can I can speak uh and say that teachers love Starbucks gift cards and stuff like that. [laughter] If you're anyhow uh I'll let you figure that part out, but anyhow, wanted to thank a lot of the teachers uh especially in our community, Monterey Park. Our city serves four different school districts including Garvey, Ombra, uh Montabelloo, and LUSD. So very appreciative of all the teachers uh that teach uh in our community and help prepare our students for uh the future and uh very appreciative of all the hard

work that they do. So I will hand this over now to my colleague, the um my friend, the mayor protect.

Oh, thank you neighbor friend. Um uh yes I attend a lot of the um events that my colleagues mentioned. I just do want to also to shout out as mentioned by uh uh earlier that um two very involved members of our community. Ed Wong and his wife uh Cindy Chun Qua had a dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of marriage but also um Mrs. Wong was recognized as one of Congresswoman Judy Chu's outstanding women um for women's history month and and that's because of her many decades of community service to uh not just here in Mon Park but really around the world and so uh uh I think it's always nice to recognize people who give a lot of themselves their time and energy uh to this community and uh that's it for me.

Uh I just have a few. So last Saturday, Monterey Park women's club had their fashion show and a lot of our council members and um u city manager were all in attendance. That was a really great annual event. Um next Tuesday, May 12th, is going to be my very final meetup with the mayor at Marie Calendars. Tuesday at 5:00 pm and uh Wednesday, May 13th will be the new Starbucks ribbon cutting ceremony. Um, so Starbucks is already open, but the ribbon cutting ceremony will be next Wednesday and McDonald's after the renovation has also reopened too. So, two uh new franchises open in our city. Um, anything else? Oh, yes. And play days tomorrow. Get your unlimited wristbands. Go on those rides. All right. Anything else? Nothing. We will adjourn at 8:47 p.m.