City Council - Regular Meeting

4 p.m. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to today's council meeting for City of Monterey Park City Council, Monday, September 2nd. Let's do our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as Tawangar, the home of the Gabula Tongva people. We show our respect to the Gabula Tongva people, as well as all indigenous people, past, present, future, and honor their labor as original characters of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gavilanotongva people and invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land. Please stand for flag salute.

Present colors.

Put your right hand over your heart. Ready to begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Prepare to post colors. Right face. Forward face.

Thank you to our public safety explorers. Please be seated.

Clerk, call the roll. Council Member Yang. Present. Council Member Goh. Present. Council Member Wong. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez.

Present.

Mayor Liu. Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Pursuant to SB 707 and resolution number 26-R23, rules for conducting legislative meeting, remote participation via Zoom is available. Public comments for all agenda items will be accepted during the public comment period item number seven, except for public hearing, which will be taken at the time each hearing is called. Please complete one yellow card only if you wish to make a comment on the non-public hearing item and a separate blue public hearing speaker card for each public hearing item. The time allotted for each speaker will be determined based on the total number of requests to speak, including those submitted by in-person attendees, Zoom participants using the raise hand feature and callers. participating by phone by pressing star nine to join the speaker queue. Request to speak will be accepted until the beginning of the applicable public comment period to determine the speaker time card. And those allotted times are five or four fewer speakers, five minutes each, six to 20 speakers, three minutes each, 21 to 40 speakers, two minutes each, 41 or more speakers, one minute each. Live interpretation is available through the Wordly app, and closed captioning is available on Zoom. Reminder, any person addressing the council who disrupts, disturbs, impedes, or otherwise renders infeasible the meeting's orderly conduct, who, after a request by the presiding officer, refuses to cease such behavior, may be removed from the city council chambers or remote participation platform. For more information, procedures, instructions, visit the city's website agenda page. Okay, any telecommunication announcements? Okay. Agenda revisions and additions.

Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, just I wanted to note for item 10A, there's a redline version that's been provided to the City Council, and there's a copy in the back of the Chamber. And that version, the redline version was just so that the changes to the investment policy was easily identifiable. Just wanted to make that note.

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, moving on to presentation. We have a presentation, Boys and Girls Club of the West Sangamon Valley, Strive for Peace, Race Against Gun Violence. And I believe we have folks from the West Sangamon Valley. And let's see, if we want, actually, let's invite, I believe, Crystal from, or whoever wishes to come and come and say a few words, and we will make the presentation. Hello.

Hi. I'm Crystal. Thank you for the opportunity for letting us go. I had a lot of fun for the run.

You know, my name is Austin. I work with the Boys and Girls Club. Unfortunately, Dr. Ngo wasn't able to attend today, nor was Enrique Moreno, but they were really excited to be able to participate and really excited about the opportunity to be able to get fundraising for the club that they love. So we want to thank you guys as well for giving us that opportunity.

Thank you. Members, any comments, questions?

I'll just add my appreciation to the Boys and Girls Club for highlighting gun violence prevention and really making this a focus of the effort here. Congratulations, Crystal. You were the top finisher, one of the top finishers in terms of the fundraising and really just helping to, especially given Morning Park's own history with gun violence here and the mass shooting a few years ago. And all the the love that the club poured out into the community during that time and since Really appreciate the efforts that the club is doing to help highlight This is an issue and to help get youth and others in the community involved in helping to prevent a good amounts and helping to highlight the Challenges of doing that so appreciate all the efforts here and just wanted to highlight that as a from the City Council's

Thank you, Thomas. And just to add on that, we also want to thank you guys for making sure that we have a safe community around us and pushing the agenda and not have any gun violence here in the city. So thank you so much.

Thank you. And we have certificate, oh, did you ask? Okay. We have certificates to present to the Boys and Girls Club of West Sangamon Valley and Eastside, as well as to Dr. Huy Ngo, to Enrique Moreno, and to Crystal Cortez, who is here with us tonight. Congratulations. No, go ahead. Okay. Thank you so much. Let's see. Okay. Moving on to public comment. Again, this is a final opportunity to request to speak on agenda items other than public hearing items. If you have not yet submitted a yellow speaker card and wish to comment, please raise your hand, complete a speaker card, and provide it to the city clerk. For those participating remotely, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom. If you're participating by phone, press star nine to join the speaker queue. Okay, we will hear comments from in-person speakers first followed by, I'm sorry, in-person then followed by remote participants. City Clerk, how many in-person speakers and how many remote speakers do we have? And what is the time limit?

There are five in-person speakers and zero speakers participating remotely by phone or Zoom. Okay. For a total of five speakers. Okay. Each speaker is limited to five minutes each.

Very good. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay. Then let me go ahead and call them. Oops, let me put my glasses again. Okay. First, David Hu, please come forward.

Hi, my name's David Hu. I lived in Monterey Park all my life. To keep the long story short is I received a water bill on June 18th for $1,700. I called the city, like, hey, there must be some kind of issue because my water bill is usually between maybe $100, $150 at most. They told me it was not a mistake and there is a leak somewhere on my line. So we call Plummer. Plummer comes out, cannot find the leak anywhere. He says the only way that we can really figure out where it is is to replace the entire line. So I did that at the cost of $8,500. We dig. the main line out and we finally find a leak which is under the city sidewalk. I understand that anything past the meter is my responsibility but there is no obvious way to figure out this leak since it was under, I mean I wouldn't be able to take a pickaxe to a sidewalk, right? I'm assuming I'd get arrested for that. So we replace the line and I call the city And I ask if there's anything that can be done for this large water bill. Granted, that $1,700 was only half because that leak had been going on for close to a month at, I think, a rate of five gallons per minute. They say the current ordinance doesn't allow for them to do anything for me at this point. I understand right now there are three tiers for water bill. I'm giving approximations, but I think the first tier is about $3 per unit, and each unit is about 528 gallons of water. You're allowed, I think, up to 10 units, and then you go to the second tier. Second tier is about twice that, approximately $6 per unit. Once you use, I believe, 20 units, From there on, you're at the third tier, which is triple the first tier. So roughly $9 to $10 per unit. I understand that this is here to prevent you, not prevent, I guess, kind of prevent you from overusing water, wasting water, leaving a hose on, or overwatering your plants, or whatnot. But in my case, I wasn't using the water. I had no idea and there was no way for me to figure out that had lost 400,000 gallons of water in that situation because it was leaking under the city sidewalk into the street, underneath the street. So when the plumber came, he was like, there's no way that you're losing this much water. Your entire house would be drenched. You'd be in a pool. I mean, I think a pool is about 30,000 gallons of water. So I've lost over 10 full-sized pools of water in about the span of a month. I've been working with the water utility company, and they've been great. They're telling me their limitations. So I guess the point of this today is, There's nothing else that they can do to help me, right? I've spoken to Martha Garcia, and I believe she's spoken to you about my issue as well. I guess my request would be to allow some type of emergency power in a situation like mine to where I understand that the water went through my water meter. I'm not asking for free water. I'm asking that you charge me at the first tier, so you're not penalizing me for water that I wasn't aware that I was using. I think that's it.

No, you still have some time.

What's that? You still have some time.

Again, thank you for coming, and again, my sincere apologies that you had to experience this. I know you said you've been speaking to staff. City Manager Martha, do you want to comment on this?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, correct, our finance department who manages our water billing division has tried to work back with the customer. Correct, our municipal code does not provide for emergencies such as this for staff to change the billing. The billing is based on usage or consumption. And so there's not a mechanism within the current municipal code to allow staff to make that determination to reduce the bill from a tier three to a tier one use. And this is what this resident is requesting. So if the council is interested, the staff could evaluate and bring back an item for city council's consideration for instances like this so that there is some type of ramification that can be offered. But at this time, there's not something that exists in the code. We make small adjustments if there's justification to bills. If there's some kind of error that is identified in those circumstances, there is that allowance. But in this circumstance, there's not an allowance in the code to reduce the bill from a tier three to a tier one rate. If the council is interested, then city staff could evaluate and bring back an item for your consideration.

So again, it's not right now in our product, but it would require council action, something agenda as well, correct?

Correct. There's something on the agenda for tonight, correct?

Yeah, thank you for that explanation. I feel terrible about what you went through David I'd love to direct staff to further evaluate or a minute municipal code and You know research what we can do in these extreme circumstances that rarely happen in a city But when it does happen, you know, it's from my understanding it happens once or twice every year and and

I'm sorry if I'm using more time, but I mean, the city of Monterey Park is not extreme, you don't have extremely wealthy residents. We're either low or middle class people, right? Right now, with that, my current water bill is, withstanding, or the holding is $3,300 at tier three, right? So with that, on top of my $8,500 water bill, water replacement, I'm close to $12,000 out of pocket, right? I'm just asking for a little bit of leeway from you guys. Like I said, I'm not asking for free water. I'll pay it, but don't penalize.

So if my colleagues are okay with it, we'll direct staff to look into it more and then come back with some kind of proposal.

I also think we should look at it. I mean, look, our city is 110 years old. I'm sure we've got water lines throughout the city that potentially has similar issues, which we don't know about. I mean, you only find out when it happens, right?

I only found out because they gave me a water bill.

I'll just add, I know we don't have an agenda item tonight, but I'll echo and join the other council members. I think we should look at a policy so that staff at least have options. Maybe we can look at what other cities do in cases like these, knowing that they're not They hopefully continue to be rare occurrences, but also knowing that we need to balance, someone pays for this water, and if it's not the customer, it's everyone else. And so how do we find kind of a middle ground here, knowing that this is an extraordinary situation? And we've got to figure out a middle ground here that makes sense, that doesn't overly burden other rate payers as well. But happy to look at options with direct staff to just do some research and bring back something. In the meantime, maybe we can... since as we are researching options, maybe we can put this on hold, the bill on hold, until we figure out what those are so that we can make sure we're not forcing someone to pay before we finalize a policy.

Okay. Okay. I think, again, I think you have consensus from the City Council. Again, my apologies that you had to experience this, but thank you for coming and bringing this to our attention, and we will certainly take action on it. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. OK, next speaker, Dave Jones.

Good evening. I'll dispense with the niceties in the interest of time and the First Amendment. My name is Dave Jones. I live in District 5, but I have friends everywhere. Apparently, even in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis announced flock cameras will be removed from all state right-of-ways, Speaking further about flock, the governor said, they can make some money producing cameras. The real money they make is by selling your data and making a fortune off that. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. Just since the beginning of August, 23 jurisdictions publicly reported taking actions to terminate flock contracts or remove cameras. Secure Justice reported 93 jurisdictions ending flock relationships last month. Monterey Park should do the same. I appreciate the community meeting the city held on my birthday, but we really didn't have enough time to fully explore both sides of the issue. Significantly, Chief Weiss did note the city and MPPD are powerless to prevent the abuse and misuse of flock data by other agencies. except by ending sharing agreements with them, which the Chief did in relation to El Cajon PD after I shared with him their refusal to abide by SB 34. Thank you again, Chief. I also spoke with the flock representative at the meeting who told me there are no audit records they can provide that would prove data from flock cameras in Monterey Park is deleted after 30 days. There is a lot more to discuss and learn about flock cameras and ALPRs. Therefore, I urge the City Council staff and residents of Monterey Park to attend the flock community teach-in on Saturday, September 12th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the George Elder Community Room on Wilcox. Confirmed speakers include Carlina Orozco, PhD, Professor of Criminology at Cal State LA, a specialist in crime analysis and police decision making who worked nine years in law enforcement. And Melody Dinser, JD, UCLA lecturer in law and senior staff attorney at Tech Justice Law, who specializes in data privacy, AI, and biometric surveillance. I hope to see you there. Thank you. Just water, no ice.

Next, Bill Zeiger, please come forward.

Mayor, members of city council and staff. I come here in asking something. I've been the victim of several near misses. When I say near misses, I want to speak directly of the area near the fire department, right outside. That intersection, I've had situations where I've been trying to cross the intersection, and cars come right through that intersection, not stopping. They go straight through the intersection, and I'm in that intersection. I hate to say this. That's a safety issue. That's a big safety issue. I get to the point where I don't want to have to, but I want to take a baseball bat with me. and just carry that thing with me to cross that intersection. That's sad. I shouldn't have to feel that way in this town of mine. I've lived here all my life. I was born here on September 11th, 1959. I've never left. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zieker. And can we make sure to have information and follow up regarding his concern again? Thank you for sharing this issue with us.

It sounds like we could do some extra traffic enforcement on that intersection, particularly since it's our fire department entry exit.

Noted. We'll have staff follow up as well. Thank you.

Next, Raymond Yu. How many minutes will I get? Five minutes.

Good evening, everybody. My name is . Recently, I have passed you the rendering sample presentation of the Panera Bread is coming to the Monterey Park Marketplace in the city of Monterey Park, California, 91755. But the rendering of the Panera Bread will fill up 4400 Marketplace Drive in the City of Monterey Park, California. The picture that I gave you, it is still a vacant land, but this City's Council District 3, Jose Sanchez, will have to deal with the Panera Bread in the city's south side. The Panera Bread corporate headquarters from Missouri will have to come to Monterey Park Marketplace in this city's south side district on the 63-way exit 8 Paramount Boulevard all the way to the Monterey Park Marketplace East area. It is, it will be built up, it is gap between Buffalo Wild Wings and Arnold Hawaiian Barbecue since the vacant then has been stood there, held there vacantly for eight years following the In-N-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A, Arno, and Buffalo Wild Wings built inside the Monterey Park Marketplace since 2018 with Costco and Home Depot. Everything fill up except Panera Bread. This is why we need Panera Bread rise up in the city of Monterey Park, South District, District 3, Sanchez representing this city's South Side. It is on marketplace drive 60 freeway paramount boulevard costco and portrayal one day drive the reason why is montebello and monterey park residents want the panel bread drive through and the unlimited subscription should be take place situated inside the Monterey Park Marketplace next to Arnold Hawaiian BBQ and the Buffalo Wild Wings and it should have drive-thru everything or amenities. The unlimited sip club is $14.99 a month and also annual drink subscription is $120 a year. This paper has a detail to look up at PaneraBread.com and the customer support center for Panera Bread is 855-672-6372. It is listed on the paper. The reason why is people want the unlimited drink subscription in this city so they don't want to drive up far away between Alhambra and Piccadilly and the South Gate further far away. This is why this city's south side need to have Panera Bread in the Monterey Park Marketplace south in this city next to Home Depot and the Chick-fil-A and people like using Panera Bread For consuming anything and also Wi-Fi, Panera Bread is the best drink subscription we ever have. Since I am a Panera Bread unlimited zip subscriber at all times since 2022 when I signed up in Alhambra, this is why we need to bring it down here. Followed by, this is why we may need the Panera Bread Express takeaway in the Atlantic Place Shopping Center. And also that we need planet fitness built in Atlantic Place Shopping Center location at Atlantic Boulevard and Floral Drive. 2100 South Atlantic Boulevard in this city of Monterey Park, Southside District, next to East LA College. When Y8 was closed, this is why we need to have Planet Fitness is coming to Monterey Park, California, East LA College since I am a member subscriber of the planet fitness when i signed up since 2017 now i'm a continuing panera bread animated zip club member in the monterey park marketplace 60 freeway exit 8 paramount boulevard marketplace drive and also the future planet fitness open in the monterey park Atlantic Place Shopping Center, East L.A. College, 60 Pomona Freeway, Exit 4, Atlantic Boulevard. When I pass you the rendering sample presentation to all of you, including this City Council District 3, Jose Sanchez. Thank you. Thank you very much. And perhaps someone from our Economic Development Department can speak to the constituent.

Thank you. Next, Paulie Zozaki.

Last week, the City Council voted on the zoning of the property on Garvey and Abajo. What basically happened is that you just went back to the original zoning to R3. That's my understanding. Well, I have some ideas that our idea that I think we need to form a committee. to see about this R3 zoning. Because if you look at the property, it's not really R3. I was gonna make a suggestion that obviously Thomas Wong should be on this committee because he lives in the Highlands, so he knows this area well. Other city council members, definitely neighborhood members of the Highlands. Now why? Why do we wanna change it from R3? Well, we already know the land's unstable. or we want to spend those millions of dollars. I hear the number 16 million because we needed to stabilize the hill. So to put any big structure up there, that may not be the wisest idea. Now, Okay, why don't we just leave it R3 and we could build a R1 on it because that's perfectly legal because I don't trust the future of our city council. What do you mean by that? Well, I was a city planner and as a city commissioner and a planning commission, let me tell you about two properties that happened. One real close to here. The address 128 Chandler. There's two open properties right next to each other. When I was there, the contractor came up there to get approval so they can bring it up to the next step to the city council. And I told the developer clearly, no way are we gonna pass this. And I asked him several questions. I don't have the time to tell you the questions. I asked him several questions and he couldn't answer them. And for us to put a big four-story condominium right there in a residential area, I felt was not right. Well, you know what? That was before COVID, and then after COVID, the next thing I know, they got approval to build, and there was a sign up there. So you know what the game is? The game is if the city council does not pass a plan, they just wait till the city council changes, and then they bring in someone that is favorable to the project, and they gotta pass. This is a project that should not have passed, but they waited. The real crime is 1500 Sombrero. If you know Sombrero, it's in the highlands. And it also tells you about the unstable condition of that hill. If you're driving down Garvey, you make a left on Kasuta Canyon, you make a left on the first street, Sombrero, and you start going up. They came in with plans to build on that property. I said, don't be ridiculous. I said, you can't build on that property. And then what I told the other planning commissioners, we'll vote on this next week. I'm just asking you one favor. Go to the property and look at it. Simple favor. Just go look at the property. It's too steep. I'm a skier. I understand the concept of slope. Also, you know, I'm a math teacher, so M equals Y minus Y over X minus X, you know? The slope is just too steep to be building on. We rejected it after COVID. They got approved and they're building on it. And boy, I know we're gonna get sued, Inez. We're gonna get sued probably this summer, one year from now, because if it's a super El Nino, you guys, if it's a super El Nino, man, that thing's coming down. So all I'm asking is, oh by the way, so the bottom line is they waited again for a new city council, they voted for it, and you know, let's face it, it's an inside job. There's people who were ex-city councilmen, businessmen, who knows who's motivated to pass a project. A project that's not best interest for the city or not best interest for the citizens and homeowners of Monterey Park. And that's all I care about. So let's form a committee and I'll go to each council member. I will talk to you until we get three people to vote and set up a committee. We're not asking anything to see what's in the best interest of the city, R1, R2, or keep it R3. I'm not pushing anything. I don't have no agenda. I just want to do things right. And then with this committee, when they make the recommendations, you can look at it and then decide to vote. Let's change the zoning or let's not. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Okay.

And that concludes public comment. Let's continue on to staff communications. Montgomery Library, please come forward.

all are waiting just to confirm prior direction from Council on that particular the Garvey projects in terms of staff starting to work on aligning the land use element and the zoning we're gonna start looking at that right yes we're starting to look at that correct thank you much okay let's continue library

Good evening, Merlo and City Council members. My name is Leonie Jordan and I'm the Senior Librarian for Adult and Teen Services. First off, a recap from last month. In August, the library offered 120 programs, which were attended by 2,139 people. In celebration of National Library Card Sign-Up Month, throughout September, The library is partnering with local businesses to offer the Reader Awards program. Just show your Monterey Park library card at participating businesses and receive special perks. If you don't have a library card, just visit the library to register for one, then start saving. This Friday at 11 a.m., join us for the opening reception of the Cantonese Pioneers Building North America exhibition. This pictorial exhibition will be on display in the library throughout September and is presented by the Chinese American Citizen Alliance, Greater San Gabriel Valley Lodge, and the Cantonese Society of Southern California. Calling all aspiring authors. On Saturday, September 12th at 2 p.m., hear from a panel of independent authors at The Secret Life of Indie Book Publishing. You'll learn insider secrets on the writing process, what mistakes to avoid, and how to turn your passion for writing into a career. Books by the authors will be available for purchase and signing. The library is the place to go for Hispanic Heritage Month. On Saturday, September 19th at 3 p.m., teens can learn how to make delicious Puerto Rican casitos, at our popular Teens Cook program. Also on the 19th, families are invited to join us for a special Spanish bilingual craft story time. They'll hear stories and create a paper . Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with an all ages moon party. at the Garvey Ranch Park Observatory on Wednesday, September 23rd from 7 till 8.30. Join astronomers from the LA Astronomical Society for some moon viewing on the lawn or a tour of the observatory. Asian Youth Center will also lead a mindful lantern making activity that supports mental wellness while celebrating cultural traditions. Lastly, there's also a special Mid-Autumn Festival family story time. on Tuesday, September 22nd at 6.30. Hop on over to the library to enjoy moon-themed stories and a mooncake Play-Doh activity. We hope to see you at the library soon, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Any questions, members?

I just want to say it's amazing you guys do 120 events in a month. That's unbelievable. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation and update. Our library is amazing. I'm looking forward to two new things coming up. That's this Friday, the Cantonese Pioneer. I'll be happy to join that. And also, quick question on September 23rd, the Moon Party. Thank you, AYC. Liz, you're on that chair. You're on that board. Will they be providing mooncakes, or can we get someone to sponsor mooncakes for that event?

We are looking into that at the moment.

Awesome. Thank you.

yeah i'm also very amazed by the amount of events that the library hosted I just think it's fabulous how libraries are just not the way they used to be and. are offering so much programming today to be able to appease a lot of the different residents and their likes. So also very appreciative of the celebration for connection with Hispanic Heritage Month is coming up pretty soon. And I know the council is considering a resolution a little bit later to commemorate and celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month here in the city. So thank you for that. I know we have quesitos and I think there was a Spanish bilingual craft story time. So I'm going to try to make both of those something. I'm going to be camping out at the library on the 19th. But thank you so much.

Thank you as always. I'm looking forward to participating in all these activities as well as members of our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Recreation Community Services.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Recreation Supervisor Memo Chavez, and I'm here to provide a few brief updates from the Recreation and Community Services Department. First, we had a couple of recent activities take place in August. We had the MPK night at Dodger Stadium on August 15th. We had 275 people attend this game, which is the most ever attended for an MPK Dodger night. Also in August, Langley Center held its A Night Out event on August 25th, which featured dinner, dancing, and live entertainment for adults 50 and over. The event was also sold out and received a tremendous amount of positive reviews from the people that attended the event. Looking ahead at Langley Center, beginning on September 3rd, Langley Center will offer a free ballroom dance event on the first Thursday of each month from 1230 to 430 with live entertainment and registration is not required for this activity. Langley Center is also looking forward to our September Summer Luau Dance on Thursday, September 24th from 1 to 3. The event is for ages 50 and over. Event cost is $3 and will include a spam musubi and macaroni salad lunch and live entertainment. upcoming events in September, upcoming community events. The Patriot Day ceremony will take place on September 11th at 8.30 in front of City Hall as we come together to remember and honor those affected by 9-11. Also on September 24th, we will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month at the Farmer's Market from six to seven, featuring live entertainment by Mariachi Orgullo Jalisciense, And in October, a couple of events coming up. Electric Park returns for its sixth annual event at Barnes Park on Saturday, October 3rd from 4 to 10, featuring Morgan Page. The event, in collaboration with Monterey Park Arts Collective, will offer food trucks, art vendors, and free family games. Later on in the month, on Thursday, October 5th, the city will host the annual Monster Mash event at Barnes Park from 4 to 7. This family Halloween event will include carnival games, giveaways, activities, live entertainment, food trucks, and free candy. And then looking ahead to saving the date, in November, the Monterey Park Pickleball Tournament is scheduled for Saturday, November 7th at Barnes Park. registration runs from September 21st through August 26th also the city's Veterans Day of ceremony will be held November 11th at 11 a.m. at the American Legion post 397 that concludes my updates and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you so much thank you lots of great events coming up and I can't believe already in the last few months of the year and it's now like Halloween events

Yeah, I think I saw Langley Center. There were three different dancing, so I better learn how to dance to get in there. And then I love Monster Mash. I think all the dentists love them, too. But I know every year we make it the best show for the kids to be out here. So thanks for doing that. Thank you.

I think it's definitely starting to feel like fall because a lot of my favorite events are starting to pop up and my daughter's favorite events are my favorite events. Anyhow, I wanted to thank you for the September 24th Hispanic Heritage Month celebration happening at the farmer's market. I love that we do it in conjunction with the farmer's market, which is tomorrow. I want to do a plug for it. Those of you guys who don't have vegetables or want to get some fresh vegetables and fruit should go out and get it. Or if you don't have any dinner plans, great place to go grab some dinner and hang out. I will be there. So if you want to share a taco with me or talk a little bit about any city stuff, I'll see you there informally.

Thank you. I'll say again, as I said before, we're very fortunate that in our city we have such wonderful programming for the community, and that's a credit to our incredible staff, like those at the Parks and Rec Department. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, Public Works.

Good evening, I'm Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council, Shawn Igoe, Public Works Director. Tonight I have an overview of a bulky items collection and how residents, businesses, and others can help address illegal dumping and facilitate bulky item pickups. Residents and multifamily customers have access to free, unlimited, bulky item pickups through Ware Disposal. Residents can schedule a pickup by calling 626-225-2400 or emailing mpinfo at waredisposal.com. One important reminder is that items should be placed out before 7 a.m. on the scheduled pickup day. Placing items out before the scheduled date can result in items being reported as abandoned items. Residents also have opportunities four times per year to dispose of bulky items at city quarterly cleanup events. Business customers should coordinate directly with their appropriate waste hauler, either wear disposal at 626 225-2400, or Athens Services at 626-336-6100. Wear Disposal currently charges $38.74 per item, while Athens Services charges $49.33 per item for business bulky item pickups. Next slide, please. In coordination with Code Compliance Team, we are developing a new outreach campaign to better educate residents, property owners, and businesses about bulky item disposal and illegal dumping. This is a portion of the new flyer which provides information on proper disposal, procedures, and potential penalties associated with illegal dumping. It also addresses hazardous waste, which should never be placed outside with bulky item pickups. Next slide, please. Finally, we encourage residents to use the GoMPK app to report abandoned items. The city uses this platform to identify and schedule to the removal of these items. As we continue working with Code Compliance and Ware Disposal to address illegal dumping and bulky items, we appreciate the community's patience as these items are scheduled and prioritized for removal. To put the volume into perspective, Ware collects about 8,000 items per year and city staff collects about 2,000 items per year. With that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you so much, Council.

Yeah, thanks for summarizing this again. I just, you know, wanted to reiterate that a lot of residents don't know it's free. So all the bulky items are free and it's really easy to just call the number and they come out. So I know there's been a lot of dumping in various parts of our city right now, but if everyone can just do their part and keep our city clean, that'd be great.

Thank you. Along the lines of what Council Member Yang was saying, if we can maybe increase the amount of reminders to customers and residents about the free bulky item pickup. I think that'd be very helpful. I know just on my street, people are constantly leaving bulky items. And I'm pretty sure they have not called in because they sit there for a few days. And then someone probably reports it and comes to pick it up. But maybe we can increase the number of reminders for people to call bulky item pickup so that it does get picked up in the next day. And we don't leave things on our sidewalks.

Yeah, we can work on cascades. We can do additional outreach. Like I said, we're working with co-compliance on additional outreach material. Again, to the point of having residents schedule and then put it out the day that they're supposed to, at 7 a.m., that's part of the challenge is they put it out the day they call, and it could be a week or even a couple of days later. So that's why we're asking that they put it out the day of.

Yeah. I think more reminders because people forget until they actually need to have a bulky item to put out.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Sean.

And I can't stress enough how important reporting stuff on the GoMPK app is. I do it all the time. And you guys are really quick about answering and fixing the problem within a day or two. So I really appreciate that. I also wanted to highlight, because I saw on the city's Instagram, actually, your monthly metrics, which are very impressive. And I want to share these so the public knows in case you haven't seen it. You had over 3,500 potholes filled throughout the city, 370 water service orders completed, 190 illegally dumped bulky items picked up, 134 graffiti removals throughout the city, probably most of them in my district, and then 400, because I call all those, and over 490 go MPK service orders that were closed. That's impressive. That's how you know public work is working. So really appreciative of that. Thank you.

We have a great team. Thank you.

And I also want to share those sentiments. I know, like all my colleagues, I received reports of illegal dumping, and again, I want to appreciate our staff being attentive. I do have a question, though. I mean, especially dumping in some of our empty lots, I don't know if there's a way that we can, we don't already impose fines for these owners of allowing their lands to become dumping grounds. I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about that, so.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we definitely want to work with all of our property owners for responsible cleaning of their properties. I think the challenge definitely property owners that have vacant parcels, I think oftentimes immediately are gonna share that they're illegally dumped there. And so definitely the property owner at times might, They don't want to have to pay for service, but that's why we want to make sure that we're providing residents with the information. Our goal with our outreach campaign is to make sure that we're educating our community members on how to properly dispose so that we see less and less illegal dumping. Definitely we want residents to know that it is free for them, and so we want them to help us coordinate so that our city looks nice as well. The other thing too is when you're reporting it and I think oftentimes maybe if an item is dumped and it's picked up and that person who dumped it didn't call it in or schedule it and it gets removed, I think that's the other challenge too is sometimes residents then think, oh, well, last time it was removed and I just brought it out here and It just happened. So we want to make sure that we're educating our residents. So the campaign is we're definitely trying to push the information out, agree that people might forget how to report these items and how to schedule them. We're working back with our code compliance division as well. We have areas of the city that I would describe as more like high areas where people are dumping more often. So we're gonna work on signage, we're gonna work on a flyer campaign for those specific areas, but definitely we're just gonna do our best to try to see if we can get more people to schedule their bulky items responsibly. We will work always back with the vacant owners to try to get those items removed as well.

um it's a challenge though because like i said oftentimes it's illegally dumped and you know they i'm sure that they're just as frustrated as we are with that thank you thank you don if i can just do a follow-up question with uh in regards to what the mayor just said i know that there's uh specific places within the city that are kind of like targets for illegal dumping that are just kind of usual i know there's one in my district um near the motel 6 and 7-eleven and i see it all the time because I drive down Monterey Pass all the time. Is there a particular, I'm not sure if we have in that area like signage that says like no dumping, especially in areas that are habitual where people will drop off?

So if we don't have signage, we can definitely place signage. We're working on updating our signage so that we can have it in all three languages. And so as soon as we receive those, we'll be putting them out in our high traffic areas.

Yeah, I think because I think just that specifically that area, I get a lot of, you know, messages from residents that people keep dumping stuff there. And I and you know, I'm not sure if there's signage available there that we could potentially put to kind of prevent some of that from Yeah, we can look at adding signage. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, fire department.

Good evening Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. Ray Lozano, Code Compliance Supervisor. Before you this evening is a presentation dedicated to providing information on the Fire Department's National Preparedness Resource Fair that we are having on September 23rd. It's gonna be located at Barnes Park under the tree area directly behind City Hall. The time for the resource fair is between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. The focus of this event is going to be on Providing information and resources to the community members on community preparedness some of the Activities that will be happening will include The community emergency response team providing demonstrations resources in addition to recruitment the fire department will have emergency planning Notifications earthquake preparedness and other related resources available as well. We will have a dedicated Everbridge so we can have residents sign up if they are not already signed up. Additionally, the Code Compliance Division will have a property readiness and preparedness presentation. Additionally, we will have community partners such as Home Depot and Costco and other businesses alike attending as well. And we are grateful for Einstein Bros to also be providing coffee for this event. So we look forward to it and encourage all community members that are available to come out, meet the fire department, and see what resources are available to them. Welcome, any questions?

Thank you.

I just want to congratulate you. I think I just saw you graduated. So congratulations, Ray. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for this work.

Yes. Congratulations.

I just wanted to thank you for hosting this. I go every year, and it's always well attended. So very appreciative of that.

Thank you. Same as exactly. Thank you so much for sharing this information to our community. Valuable information. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's see, no old business, consent calendar item 10, any items members wish to pull?

Mayor, I would just like just for a brief mention of item 10H, that's it.

10H, okay.

I'll move the remaining consent items.

Moved by Councillor Wong. May I have a second, please? I'll second. Councillor Goh. Okay. Hearing no further discussion, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item 10H. National Hispanic Heritage Month Resolution as requested by Mayor Pro Tem Sanchez. Mayor Pro Tem.

yes uh thank you mayor for um allowing me to speak on this item briefly i want to encourage our city council to adopt a resolution declaring uh september 15th through october 15th national as national hispanic heritage month uh in the city of monterey park and i wanted to share uh just with people who are listening and who are here uh some uh just some of the facts from the resolution uh so that you are aware um Hispanics and Latinos account for about 26.5% of the city of Monterey Park's population, approximately 15,656 individuals, and Hispanic Latino Americans represent a vibrant and thriving part of our diverse community here in Monterey Park. It's what makes us really strong, is our diversity within our city, and want to also encourage I know our city is planning to do a lot of events as you saw earlier to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month want to encourage residents to come out to the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration on September September 24th at our on Thursday September 24th and at the same time you know be at the farmers market and then on September 19th you heard from the library we'll be hosting our in the friends room the two separate events one cooking and the other one is Spanish bilingual event as well so I want to encourage our City Council to help support this item so I'll go ahead and move to move this item forward thank you

And I will second.

Second by Council Member Goh.

Hearing no further debate or discussion, members please vote.

Approved unanimously.

Thank you Madam Clerk, thank you. Okay, public hearing items, none. New business, none. City Council Communications.

Just yesterday we had a great ribbon cutting for the melt so all the council members were there and super excited to welcome the melt into our city finally.

Well said. Next. Again, it was a great showing of community members at the ribbon cutting yesterday. Just also want to report on the August 29th, CSC opened up a All Cove, which is a mental health facility in San Gabriel that supports the entire San Gabriel Valley youth. So it's the first of its kind in Southern California, and it will be serving all the youth, the local high schools in San Gabriel Valley. Also, I attended on the 25th, the Meet the Mayor event by our Mayor Henry Lo at Hong Kong Cafe, Atlantic Times Squares, and just proud to say that the units along the Atlantic Times Square's plaza are coming along really well. I mean, there's a lot of new stories in there. And that's the same as Atlantic Square as well, which we went yesterday. So the tenants are moving into those locations. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll just share and echo some of my appreciation for the recent new grand opening of the melt here in Monterey Park. If you haven't had a chance, if you are a burger fan like I am, I felt like actually like I was cheating on the hat for a second. So anyhow, please don't let them know that I've gone there a couple times already. But I highly want to recommend you check out the MELT on Atlantic Square. It's a new addition to Atlantic Square. Atlantic Square has been doing a great job of adding new businesses and fill up, as Councilmember mentioned on the North Atlantic Square but South Atlantic Square has quite a bit of new businesses as well so our city is thriving so I want to make sure that you guys go out and support a lot of our local businesses as well so do you want to do a shout out for that and then I had opportunity to also go to the meet up with the mayor at the Hong Kong cafe one of my daughter's actually favorite restaurants to go to is the Hong Kong cafe so if you haven't been go check it out their favorite is the the shrimp that's there. What am I thinking about? Sorry, I'm drawing a blank right now. But anyhow, the honey walnut shrimp, thank you. And anyhow, so wanted to thank the mayor for hosting that and for doing a great job in highlighting also one of our businesses that has been in the city for quite a bit of time, as the chief will tell you, and well liked. And then lastly, this past week, I had an opportunity to attend the California Contract Cities Conference. And I wanted to mention there was three bills that probably are now at the governor's desk that they have highlighted and are encouraging cities to take a look at. One is AB 1546, we were encouraged to share these out, which heightens criminal penalties for driving under the influence, particularly for repeat offenders. SB 1361, which undermines local land use authority by restricting cities' ability to effectively evaluate and provide input on transit projects in their communities. And SB 1117, which limits cities' abilities to collect revenue that funds essential local services by changing how impact fees are calculated for accessory dwellings uh or adus as we commonly refer to them uh just wanted to mention those items other than that um i think most people had a great start to the school year i hope i know things are in full swing now by this point right chief so um that's it for me thank you

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And actually, to piggyback what you just said, so yesterday, I'm sorry, no, yesterday was the final day of the legislative session for our state legislature, and so a lot of bills, passed out and are awaiting the governor's veto or signature. And as always, as cities, we wait with bated breath to see what becomes law, what doesn't, and how it impacts our cities in general. And I also wanted to thank our staff for also being diligent and paying attention to legislation that has been impactful to our community and will continue to do so. Also, I just want to thank everyone who attended our last meetup. We had about 25 people show up, and it's a great opportunity for residents to share their concerns, ask questions, ideas with not just myself as mayor, but also our city staff. And so I encourage everyone to show up. We also use this opportunity to promote and celebrate our many businesses in the city of Monterey Park. Our next mayor's meal will be at September 30th, 5 p.m. at the Asayaru made cafe. And yeah, again, September 30th, Asayaru made cafe. I hope they're going to give me an apron or something to wear.

We may need to notice that meeting because I think there's a lot of interest from the council.

Okay.

And with that, oh, yes, yes. If I could just do a plug for two more items. Actually, one of the, we have a lot of treasures in Monterey Park, but one of the treasures that we have in Monterey Park is the observatory, which you had mentioned earlier. Oh, that's right. Tonight they have, the observatory is open tonight until 10 p.m. So since our council meeting ended early, highly recommend... It's not over yet. Well, it's ending early, earlier than usual. I want to recommend that you go and check out the observatory. Tonight's open until 10 p.m. I'm going to go pick up my daughters and take them there. And then tomorrow is the farmer's market, so make sure that you check that out. That's it.

Thank you so much. Okay. Closed session items, nothing to announce. And with that, if there's no objection, we will adjourn tonight's meeting at 7.39 p.m. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay.