City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Norwalk City Council meeting for May 26, 2026. We are grateful you're all with us today. Tonight, we are honored to welcome Pastor Joy Daniel of Rock of the Nations Church here in the city of Norwalk. Pastor Daniel has faithfully served in ministry for over 11 years and is dedicated to sharing love through faith and community, outreach, and the sense of pride. The church was originally founded in 1993, serving people of all nations and backgrounds here in the city of Norwalk. We are also pleased tonight to welcome Young Marine Sergeant Aiden Vaca for tonight's flag salute. Young Marine Sergeant Vaca is an eighth grade student and is proud to join the Young Marine program to develop his leadership skills, strengthen his public speaking and self-confidence through community service. He is also an accomplished student musician and a member of the National Junior Honor Society. Pastor Daniel and young Marine Sergeant Vaca, please come to the front and lead us. Afterwards, please, we invite you both to join us for a photo with council. And if everybody could please stand.

Let's bow our heads and lift our hearts to look to the Lord as we pray together. Dear Almighty God, we come before you today with the gratitude for the opportunity to serve this city. We recognize that leadership is a sacred trust and we seek your wisdom is toward it well, oh God. As we begin this council meeting, we especially lift up our mayor, our council members, and the city officials, those who entrusted with the weight of governance and the vision for the community's future. Grant them clarity, courage, and compassion, O God. May they lead not with fear or favor, but with justice, humility, and a heart to serve all people. Bless this council with unity in purpose. Let our discussions be marked by respect, our decisions by righteousness, and our actions by law. We pray for every resident of this city, from the youngest child to the eldest neighbor. May our work today reflect your heart for mercy, equity, and peace. Guide us, O Lord. that this meeting may be fruitful, and that your presence may dwell among us. In Jesus' precious name, we offer this prayer, and everybody say, Amen. God bless you.

Please remove all caps and covers. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sir, how are you? Yeah, I'm in good handshake. I got this really, really cool medal for you. Are you ready? Yes. Three, two, one.

Let's give him a round of applause.

That's a good sign.

Again, thank you for being with us tonight. We have a lot of information to share with you and some great events and items to go over tonight. With that, we're gonna go ahead and start our meeting. Teresa, can we have a roll call, please?

Yes, Council Member Zayala?

Here.

Valencia?

Here.

Vice Mayor Rios? Here. And Mayor Perez?

Here. And Arnold, can we have a closed session report, please?

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. The record should reflect that the City Council convened for closed session, that prior to recessing the closed session, the items listed as items one through four were announced for discussion. The record should further reflect that the Council recessed and all four members that are present tonight were present in closed session. And the following is my report on items one, two, three, and four. All those items were presented to the city council. There was no action taken that is required to be reported at this time. That concludes my report from closed session. It is appropriate to continue with the open portion of the meeting.

Thank you, Arnold. Moving on to council comments. And we'll start this evening with council member Ayala.

Very good, thank you. Just wanna congratulate Mayor Perez, the American Legion, and thank all the staff that made our Memorial Day ceremony so special. And I've seen how many veterans we have out there, and we had some excellent speakers. And for as long as I've known, Norwalk's been a really patriotic city. Historical fact is, because I know everybody loves these, Most of the housing in Norwalk was built in the early 50s, from about 49 to 51, and just about everybody that bought a house in Norwalk bought it on the GI Bill. So consequently, there was lots of veterans. So that's the way Norwalk's always been, and I'm glad to report it still is. So congratulations again, Mayor.

Thank you, Tony. Next, Council Member Valencia. Anna?

Thank you, I wanted to report on the community family guidance Center their fundraiser their annual event beautiful as always lots of Things to bid on with their auctions a little bit different. They did it electronically so it's hard to kind of get into but I know that The former First Lady, Karen Ayala, had a great time bidding on some really cool prizes, and I as well, and I know Jennifer always contributes as well. So it was a really nice event, and they raised quite a bit of money too. Then of course we had our study session this past Saturday and that was very informative and it was good and flowed really well. I also attended the Bajan Health Fair with our very own our very own Commissioner, Marcel Greenwich. And she put together a very nice health fair, great panelists. And Margarita, you were at the tea, right, the Norwalk tea? The doctor was there, Dr. Gonzalez. She had various doctors and attorneys talking about some really good topics, so very informative. Yeah. And I told her I'd help her with next year's because it's going to be bigger and better.

And then, of course, the Memorial Day event was just beautiful.

Always such a very... such a great event that we do here at norwalk we honor our veterans we honor our service people because of everything they do and it's it's all for us um so that was a wonderful event and so thank you to all i echo um councilmember ayala sentiments i also was able to go and help out with the lions club carnival and you know it wasn't as as it normally is, it wasn't as well attended for most of the weekend. But yesterday afternoon, people just started kind of trickling in, and I wanted to say Mila was there, your mom was there, so I wanted to thank them personally and for supporting such a great cause and they had a great time a lot of them wore their bracelets because it was a great you know it was it was a good a good thing to do instead of buying each and every ticket you know paying money for that but it was a really nice event and my some of my colleagues from the Lions Club were saying that even though it wasn't as well attended there was still people that were trickling in so i think we're going to do okay it was it's a really nice fundraiser and um and then we're going to start planning for next year's uh early on so that we can get you know um maybe the the same place but maybe more publicity and you know see what we can do but um as always thank you to the city for helping um the non-profits out and especially the norwalk line and that's all i have for now thank you

Thank you, Anna. Vice Mayor Rios. Margarita?

Yes, thank you, Mayor, and welcome everyone to our council meeting this evening. I just have a couple of items I'd like to share with you. The first one, I also want to thank our city leadership team, everyone involved in coordinating and putting together the Memorial Day ceremony that was held It's a very nice event. It's a heartfelt event. And it's always really nice when the community comes together to honor our veterans. The last Saturday, as was already mentioned, the City Council did hold a budget session where we are talking all things budget for the City of Norwalk. Not uncommon, this is happening right now, and it is budget season for all of the municipalities, so the City of Norwalk is also doing their due diligence to really ensure that we're looking at how we're spending our dollars are we looking at everything um dollar wise you know the tax revenue everything everything was on the table that we discussed i think there was definitely a consensus that as we looked at our budget the consensus was our essential services that's a priority for the city of norwalk so we don't want to make any cuts to our essential services because that's really where The services directly impact our community, and so we were very, very united on that one. And so, again, more work to be done, but I think we are on the right track. Also in the last couple of weeks, there's been different opportunities where the city council, some of us, the mayor, we've had opportunities to meet with individuals, developers, brokers, businesses, who we want to court to come to the city of Norwalk. We want them to look at the city of Norwalk as a viable community to come and establish their business. small or large. We really need to grow our business community and so thank you mayor for being committed to that year after year during ICSC. We're still on target to grow our businesses, our city, and there is a lot of exciting things happening and are going to happen in the City of Norwalk. So definitely stay tuned, stay tuned for that and let's keep it positive. Also, next week is graduations for our youth in the area, so I just want to congratulate all of the seniors at our local high schools, Norwalk, John Glenn, Santa Fe, Whittier, La Mirada, and any others that maybe I apologize for not mentioning, but the significance is the same. We are looking at 17 and 18 year olds, I mean, at the prime of their their youth you know taking getting ready to to finish their k-12 education and graduate high school and so i'm very proud of all of them and i wish them the absolute best also want to take this moment to last week was public works week and i want to take this moment to really thank our men and women employees who are out there taking care of our city i see a few of them here in the audience you know some are wearing blue shirts some are not you know i see a couple of our ladies over here our lady bosses and so um thank you Thank you for everything that you do to keep the city of Norwalk running and running well. Really, really appreciate that. On Wednesday, tomorrow, I actually got an invite and accepted Moffett Elementary here in Norwalk-Lamarie Unified School District is having a career day. So I gladly accepted to be one of their speakers. um also want to mention and i see priscilla in the audience here today sorry i don't mean to embarrass you but i saw you um we had event a collaborative event that priscilla led fresh cuts at john glenn high school And we did have representation there. Some of our public safety personnel were there, thank you, as a resource, providing resources. But this event offered free haircuts to our community. They also had free facials that were offered. And I believe there was over 100, you know, served completely free. And we all know how expensive a haircut can be, right? This was completely complimentary to the community. So I want to thank Priscilla. I want to thank the district. I want to thank the city of Norwalk for coming together, because this is really what it's all about. How do we unify our resources to truly make an impact in our city? So thank you, Priscilla, and to your team, and to the district. Finally, I want to just give a shout out to La Carniceria Meat Market. They are located at 11405 Firestone Boulevard. They invited me to meet and greet last Saturday, but as I mentioned, we were busy getting our budget numbers together, so I told them that I would at least give them a shout out, and I'm gonna keep my promise here. So La Carniceria Meat Market. is a premium butcher shop offering high-quality meats including premium cuts, wagyu, thank you, selections, I always get kind of stuck on that word, and traditional carne asada products while continuing to serve families throughout Southern California with quality and hospitality. Under the leadership of our CEO, Jose Luis Ruiz, La Carniceria Meat Market remains committed to philanthropy and community outreach. Last year alone, the company catered appreciation lunches serving more than 5,000 police officers while also supporting local schools and families in need through ongoing donations. So I definitely, we're going to reschedule this one because I'm going to go down there and we're going to meet and we're going to talk about how they can be a great partner in the city of Norwalk. So kept my promise, shout out to La Carniceria Meat Market. Thank you.

Thank you, Margarita. I actually went. I did. They invited me as well. We went. We shopped. We supported. We barbecued. It was amazing. But they are truly a great partner for our city. And we have some great ideas that are coming up. And they were extremely busy, which was great for the holiday weekend. So just a few of the events that I've attended recently. McKenna Auto Dealerships, our Audi, BMW, they had a ribbon cutting for their renovations and the projects that they completely redid their dealerships here in the City of Norwalk. So I just want to again congratulate Danny McKenna, his entire family. His grandson was there riding around on a little tiny Excuse me, a little tiny Volkswagen. It was super cute, but we are grateful that they are a huge business here in the city of Norwalk and always partnering with us. We also attended the Cerritos College State of the College event a couple weeks ago. The college is doing amazing things. They currently are offering a bachelor's degree at Cerritos College. in the field of dental hygiene. They are working on adding three additional bachelor's degrees at the college and they are up in Sacramento fighting legislation to make sure that they can do that for our students. There is a price difference between $14,000 for a bachelor's degree in the city of Norwalk and your community colleges compared to over $200,000 for a bachelor's degree. So the value is there and we all know how wonderful Cerritos College is. So we will continue to support them and share the information as it comes across. And we also attended the California Contract Cities Annual Municipal Seminar. We had sessions on economic development, homelessness, water education. We met with three of our supervisors. We had a great session on Google AI. And we actually had a representative from Google there that was talking to us, which It's here. We need to embrace it and really see how technology can take us to the next level. I'm getting there. We also talked about the importance of an EOC. And some cities in the surrounding areas are establishing their EOCs. And I am very proud to say that we have a strong and active EOC here in the City of Norwalk. And we have for many, many years, which is amazing. And as Vice Mayor mentioned, we had a public safety panel where we had Sheriff Luna and Chief Moroney from L.A. County Sheriff and L.A. County Fire there. I got to be the moderator on that panel. And if you know me, you know I do not ask questions lightly. So we definitely grilled them on some of the things that are going on within our contracts for our sheriff and for the fire department. As Margarita mentioned, we did turn around and go to ICSC where we had over 20 meetings. We were walking at least 20,000 steps back and forth, South Hall, Central Hall, North Hall, you name it. But the great news is with dirt being turned on major developments here in the City of Norwalk, Developers, retailers, restaurateurs are wanting to talk to us. The conversations were different this year. And I'm very glad that we have built those continuing relationships to now change the conversation. We talked about the budget meeting. And finally, our Memorial Day. I just want to give a huge thanks to our team for really coming together, as you always do, to put on a top-notch, classy event. It's something that we do always in the City of Norwalk, but it comes across a little bit a little bit different when we're talking about our veterans. And we are remembering the families and the veterans that are no longer with us. So to the entire team, thank you. And also thank you to the American Legion for partnering with us. And our keynote speaker, who is actually a recruiter right across the street, Staff Sergeant Estrada, who was just amazing and his words were so, so powerful. So thank you so much for all of that. If you were not able to attend, you can watch it online on our YouTube channel, on our social media channels. And I hope the sentiments come across as well as they did in person. So thank you for all of that. Moving on to special presentations. At this time, we are proud to recognize and proclaim May 17th through May 23rd as Public Works Week in the City of Norwalk. This week recognizes the dedicated professionals who help keep our city safe and clean in order to run smoothly each and every day. from maintaining our streets, parks, and facilities to supporting water systems and many more. The Public Services Department staff play an essential role in serving our community and improving the quality of life for Norwalk residents. On behalf of the Norwalk City Council, we extend our sincere appreciation to the members of our Public Services Department. Thank you for your hard work and service and dedication to the City of Norwalk. If the Public Services team can please come forward and join myself and Council for a photo. And let's give them a round of applause.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's figure out how they want us to. I think we're gonna have to shift that way a little. Oh, he's not actually.

On three. One, two, three. We'll do one more. One, two, three.

Next, we are proud to recognize the recipients of the Environmental Awareness Scholarships presented through a partnership with Athens Services. These scholarships honor students who have demonstrated a commitment to environmental awareness, academic achievement, plus community involvement. Through their hard work, these students help inspire a cleaner and more sustainable future in our community. At this time, we would like to invite Athens Services to present the scholarship recipients. Council colleagues, can you please join me in front as we congratulate the students? Vicki?

See you, come on down. We're going to bring out these amazing young adults. And I do have to say hello to our city manager, city attorney over here, deputy city manager. There's a lot of friends here, and if you don't know me yet, my name is Vicky Martinez-Muela. I represent Athens Services, but I had a job previously representing the city of Almani years ago. So to me, this is one of the highlights of our year, is recognizing the graduating seniors. Council, thank you so much for the opportunity and the time to celebrate these young adults. Just so you know, this Athens Environmental Awareness Scholarship is five $1,000 scholarships that are for graduating high school seniors here in the city of Norwalk, and it's sponsored by Athens Services and the Norwalk Education Alliance. So with that, let's get started highlighting some of our graduating seniors. Over here, it's on our PowerPoint. Let's kick it off with Emmanuel Salazar. Emmanuel, come on down. I'm gonna talk a little bit about you. You wouldn't mind keeping that up. Emmanuel is on his way to Loyola Marymount University. He plans to major in business administration with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. He hopes to continue his education and receive an MBA and DBA with the goal of becoming a successful multi-business owner. I can see it in that suit. I can see it in your vision. Good luck, Emmanuel. A round of applause. On to our next recipient, Marisol De La Rosa. Marisol, come on down. Marisol will be attending Cal State Long Beach, where she, go beach, go beach, where she plans on majoring in interior design. She hopes that after gaining experience through internships, she can have her own company and design buildings all over the world. Well, you've got a fashion sense about you, young lady. Enjoy your schooling. I can't wait to see what you do. Up next, Emily Vigil, Emily. Emily will also be attending Cal State Long Beach. and she'll be majoring in psychology. She plans on going pre-med and will hopefully get into med school to become a forensic psychiatrist. I'm gonna eliminate the word hopefully and I'm going to be thinking proactively. You will be getting into med school and you will become a forensic psychologist, excuse me, psychiatrist. Congratulations. Up next, Armando Covarrubias, Armando. Armando will be soon attending Cerritos College. I love it. He will be majoring in Veterinarian Sciences and plans to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona. He plans on becoming a mixed practice veterinarian. Congratulations Armando. Finally, last but certainly not least, let's introduce Vanessa Antonio Mendez. Vanessa. Go Eagles. Vanessa will be attending Cal State Los Angeles. Go Eagles. She'll be majoring in pre-nursing. Her plan is to start as a registered nurse and work her way to becoming a nurse practitioner. Congratulations. Friends and family, on behalf of Athens Services and the Aracalian family, it's an honor to be here tonight and to celebrate all of you and your upcoming schooling. We do congratulate you and we wish that you continue to keep an environmental awareness with you as you go. Can I count on that? All right, families, you heard it here. Let's take a quick picture. oh council hello hi hi hi great to see you sir great to see you madam great to see you

On three. One, two, three.

Have fun in graduation, okay? Enjoy the time. Have fun. Have fun.

So, graduation's coming up. Ready?

Good.

Good, good, good.

All right, let's give them another round of applause.

All right. Thank you so much. And students, congratulations again. And thank you for being here and allowing us to celebrate you tonight. So we are now going to move to our city manager comments. Mr. Gomez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, members of the city council. As we celebrate seniors today with these scholarships, I want to congratulate all the graduates. I have some in my family that are graduating from Cal State San Diego and schools in Rancho Cucamonga. And so I want to congratulate all the graduates. And bright future ahead of us, and we want to support them. And we want to make sure that they get to where they need to be. Next, I want to thank the council and our staff for the Memorial Day ceremony. I think it's one that I always am grateful to be part of. remember in remembrance of those who have served and want to just thank everyone for attending for the the priority that the council provides to to that ceremony Next, we have the Teen Alliance Program graduation recap video. These are our teens who have given us a great part of their life throughout high school and are graduating and are moving on like these young individuals tonight. And so we wanna highlight them tonight and wish them the best in their future endeavors.

With that, we can play the video.

On Friday, May 1st, the City of Norwalk's Recreation and Park Services Department hosted the 2026 Teen Alliance Scholarship and Recognition Dinner at the Norwalk Arts and Sports Complex. This annual event celebrated graduating seniors from the Teen Alliance Program, also known as TAP,

Every year, right before the end of the school year, we gather, we celebrate all of our TAP volunteers, we acknowledge the amount of service hours that they've put in this year, and then we really honor our seniors.

Guests also heard from seniors Judith Peralta and Jasmine Perez, who shared reflections on their TAP journey and the impact the program has had on their lives.

Take advantage of this program. This program has so much things that can help you in the future. For me, it helped me with my resume and adding this program, it helped so much. And also meeting new people in the city and learning connections.

I would also like to add as well to taking advantage it makes great opportunities for future TAP kids as well it helps you develop your self-confidence and make sure to always be nice to everybody you never know who's watching and have fun.

The event included recognition of underclassmen, graduating seniors, scholarship recipients and a special raffle to close out the evening. As these students take their next steps, the City of Norwalk is proud to celebrate their achievements and the positive impact they continue to make in our community. Their leadership, service, and dedication represent the bright future of Norwalk.

And so our next video is also celebrating our youth, and that is the Youth Athlete Award Ceremony. And some of them are seniors, some are moving on to college, and some will be probably playing college. And so we want to make sure that our community knows that we have some great athletes here in our city. And with that, we'll play our video.

Norwalk's young athletes took center stage as the city celebrated their hard work and accomplishments. For the first time, the City of Norwalk hosted a Youth Athlete Awards ceremony, honoring standout athletes and teams whose dedication and discipline continue to make our community proud. As Mayor Jennifer Perez shared during the ceremony, Norwalk's youth athletes represent a bright future for our city, and the entire community stands behind them.

We wanna congratulate all of our outstanding athletes and really recognize you all tonight for all of your hard work and dedication. We want you to know that the city of Norwalk, we are all very proud of you for everything that you have done and accomplished.

The evening also recognized the families, coaches, and supporters who help make youth sports possible. Guests also enjoyed refreshments, including a crowd favorite, sparkling apple cider as families, coaches, and community members came together to recognize this year's honorees. Norwalk's youth athletes represent a bright future for our city, and the entire community stands behind them.

It was a great event. All ages were celebrated, so it was a great celebration. Next, we have all of our activities that we've had in the past couple of weeks. And so with that, great events that we've had, we want to showcase.

In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, the Social Services Center held a Snack and Play Fiesta event. Family and friends created paper-crafted tacos, enjoyed snacks, and played Lotteria. On May 7th, the Senior Center welcomed guests for a Mother's Day tea and fashion show, complete with music, dancing, and a runway full of fun.

Happy Mother's Day!

Then on May 16th, Tea Time at the Hargett House brought residents together for tea, crafts, games and tours inside one of Norwalk's historic homes. And on May 19th, the Social Services Centre hosted Mom Ents of Art and Sips, where families created artwork, enjoyed refreshments and shared quality time together. On May 13th, the Norwalk Sheriff's Department and Norwalk Public Safety Department held a Coffee with a Cop event. The gathering provided residents with the opportunity to discuss safety concerns in the community with sheriff deputies and public safety officers. Norwalk families got ready for summer the smart way with Water Safety Day on May 16th. Hosted by the Norwalk Aquatic Pavilion, this hands-on event brought residents together for interactive activities, family fun, and important life-saving tips from first responders. The Public Services Department hosted a Public Works Week Expo on May 19th at Lakeland Elementary, giving students an up-close look at the tools, equipment, and hands-on work our crews use to serve the community. From demonstrations to real-life tools used out in the field, it was a fun and interactive way to celebrate the hardworking Public Services employees who help maintain, improve, and care for our city.

Lots of activities, as you can see. We continue to have those activities during the summer, so please join us. I also want to provide an update on immigration, and at this time, no significant immigration-related inquiries or concerns have been reported through the city's community preparedness resource hotline. the emergency resource line or during in-person interactions since the last city council meeting additionally no appointments related to immigration matters were scheduled with the community legal aid south cal socal during the month of may Community Legal Aid SoCal continues to remain available to assist residents interested in beginning the naturalization process by providing guidance and support throughout the process. Mayor and members of the City Council, that concludes my City Manager comments.

Thank you he sees moving next to our consent calendar. We have 8 items can I get a motion please some only me and.

Yes, mayor number 8. We'd like to move to reports that's required by state law. OK so if you could just take was that 7.

1 through 7 or maybe number 8 under reports. And I get a motion. We have a motion by Margarita. Second. Second by Anna. Can I have staff roll call, please?

Council Member Zayala. Aye. And Valencia.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Rios.

Aye.

And Mayor Perez.

Aye. And I will give the city clerk a list of items for commercial demand. All right. Moving on to appointments. Any appointments this evening? All right seen none will go ahead and go to item number 8 as a report and that's on assembly bill 2, 5, 6, 1 issues.

Yes, in this issue, you will report.

Good evening, Honorable Bay County Council. Today we will be presenting our annual report on AB 2561. This is the second time that I will be presenting this report. Just a little background on this. On September 22, 2024, Governor Newsom signed this new law, Assembly Bill 2561, which came into effect January 1st of 2025. adding Government Code Section 3502 to the Myers-Millis-Brown Act. The bill requires public agencies to present the status of their vacancies in a public meeting like today at least once a year. The presentation must be made prior to the adoption of the final budget for that fiscal year. Two, that we need to provide information on vacancies, recruitments, retention efforts, and challenges in the hiring process, which we'll be presenting today. Present additional information, present additional information regarding vacancies as the vacancy rate in the bargaining unit is more than 20%, then additional information is required. We are required also to notify our unions. We have done that already and there's a presentation if the union would like to present. At this time, we didn't receive any notification. City Clerk, did we receive anything from the union? Some of the information on the workforce. The city had a total of 304 budgeted full-time positions at the end of calendar year 2025. Throughout the year, multiple vacancies were created due to resignations, retirements, new positions and promotion. This chart depicts the average vacancies that we had throughout the year. In January, there were five vacancies that were created. Four of those were filled. An average of the total vacancies was 7.6 and so on and so forth throughout the year. The slide here represents a recruitment cycle. An average recruitment takes approximately between six to eight weeks from beginning to end. When the vacancy is created, the recruitment request is then approved by city management. The job posted The job is posted on our website, HR screens applications for minimum qualifications. Additionally after that, there's a subject matter review, panel interview, the department interviews the candidates at that time, a conditional job offer is then presented, pre-employment screening, and then finally a job offer is offered to the candidates. Our recruitment effort this year, we organized an on-spot hiring event in conjunction with our recreation department. We conducted workshops, resume writing, and interview preparation, expanded our social media presence, and advertised job openings through our professional associations. Some of those include the Management Association of Southern California, California Clerks Association, the Western City website, and other relevant sources based on the job qualifications. Our retention efforts are, the city offers a competitive benefits package that includes health coverage, retirement planning, and support for maintaining work-life balance, opportunities for continuing and professional development, including a tuition and reimbursement program of $80,000 across both unions. We have professional development opportunities that are available through our JPIA and other academies such as California League of Cities and other professional organizations At this time this report is only for informational only We recommend that the city receive and file this report and they open it for any public comments Thank you Thank You council any questions

All right, we will go ahead and receive and file this item. You don't need to vote, correct? All right, moving next to item number 10, and that is Barnwell Street and Paiuma Avenue Speed Hump Request. Jesus?

Yes, Mr. Renton will present.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. The items you have before you tonight is the consideration and approval of speed hump requests for Barnwall Street between Albertus Avenue to Ralston Avenue, and the consideration and approval of speed humps for Paiuma Avenue between Barnwall Street to Fairtown Street. You may recall back in March 17, 2021, the City Council approved a citywide speedhunt policy to improve the local street roadway safety. This policy was developed in consultation with best practices from the Institute of Transportation Engineers, ITE, with input from our local frontline responders, the LA County Sheriff's and Fire Department. With the development of this policy, the city instituted the Norwalk Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, NTMP. It prescribed a approach for the intake, review, analysis, or request for speed homes on a local street, and ultimately the scheduling for consideration by the Public Safety Commission and recommendation to city council for approval. And that's kind of small, but that is the comprehensive process that we've implemented from intake of the request down to where we are tonight for council approval. As you can see, at various stages throughout the process, there is input from city engineering staff, the city traffic engineer. If any criteria are not met at any stage, the request can be denied. But the request makes through all qualifying requirements to go to public safety commission and with public safety commission recommendation we take the item to council for approval i will refrain from reading through this verbatim but i will walk you through some uh highlights of this process upon intake of the request city engineering staff reviews this particular street before you continue can you move the microphone up a little bit so it's a little All right. Is that better?

There we go. Thank you.

So first step of the process is city engineering staff reviews the requested street for what we consider the six initial qualifying criteria. If any of these six are not met, then that street is deemed ineligible for speed bump. Assuming all six criteria are met, then the requester is given an application to fill out to provide the permanent information and also to collect a petition of their neighborhood street as well as the street to both sides of their street. This is what we have instituted to ensure that there's an equitable process, that all of the neighborhoods are in a majority agreement to have a speed bump. So this is one particular street. This is the exhibit that our traffic engineer develops to hand out to the requester applicant so that they know which homes to canvass their neighborhood to collect their petition signatures. One of the streets being requested for approval tonight is Barnwell Street. Following the submission of the applications and the successful completion of the neighborhood petitions, our traffic engineer developed an exhibit for a proposed locations for installing the speed bumps. This is Barnwell Street between Albertus and Ralston. So this street in particular, the request from Ms. Sanchez, submitted the petition signatures. There are a total of 20 addresses in the collection area. She has collected at the threshold of 65% of signatures. Upon the successful collection of petition signatures, the city traffic engineer conducts a data collection as well as a traffic study to analyze the preventing speed on the street as well as past traffic incidents, collisions, or fatalities on the street. This research for Barnwall Street, the city traffic engineer yielded no incidents in the past five years. He conducted a speed survey and we came up with there is an adequate number of cars exceeding the local street speed limit of 25 miles per hour to qualify this street to be on the list for recommendation to Public Safety Commission. And so for the next street, Paiuma, from Barnwell to Fulton, we went through a similar process, went through a similar application, petition gathering, and analysis and traffic study. There you see the numbers. This resident gathered over 66% of the residents moving or requesting for speed bumps. So, with the satisfaction of all the application criteria, we place the street on the agenda for Public Safety Commission. With the Public Safety Commission's consideration and recommendation of City Council, we stand before you tonight for the City Council's approval of the installation of speed bumps for Paiuma and for Barnwall. So with that, I will read the recommendation tonight. The staff recommends City Council approve the installation of speed humps on Barnwall Street between Albertus Avenue and Ralston Avenue and Paiuma Avenue between Barnwall Street and Fairtown Street. This concludes my report, and with that, I'd be happy to address any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ron. Any questions for my colleagues?

Yeah, I have a question.

Tony?

Obviously if this went through the process to the degree that people were putting together petitions and everything else I guess what my question to you Rita would be is As this process began, like I said, people were obviously aware that they were having speeding issues. Did we set up any kind of motorcycle officers or directed patrols or anything like that? Because I can see what the recommendation was made to the Public Safety Commission, but I'm not sure where that data came from or how it was collected.

Yes, thank you, Council Member Ayala. So we work with the deputies and we assign, depending on the location, and we assign a motor deputy there to monitor. In addition to that, we also have our radar trailer that collects data for two to three weeks at a time on a rotating basis. So with that determination, it goes over to engineering and they make that decision after it passes through the commission.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Margarita? Yes.

okay give me a second here just want to make sure i didn't miss anything okay so i i would have at least just personally it would have been helpful to have that information beforehand because i know the staff the information in our agenda included the staff report and then the attachments just one and two would show the maps um and even with with the presentation that went by pretty quickly so i i actually i would need more information because there was some information there that just didn't quite make sense to me and i don't want to just um approve starting to you know approve speed bumps unless i'm comfortable with and i have all the information uh to me available one of them was I know on the criteria, one of the slides mentioned the criteria, and number five was that the area is not considered thoroughfare through traffic.

Correct.

Which, correct me if I'm wrong, but that means that the residents or those generally in that area are the ones not obeying traffic rules, safety? I mean, what does that translate to? If it's not a major thoroughfare, what are you telling me?

So the street is not a major thoroughfare, meaning it's not an arterial or an urban arterial, usually multiple lanes of traffic.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you, Brent.

So it's either not an urban arterial with multiple divided lanes of traffic, or it's not a major collector street for the neighborhood. What I mean by collector is that most neighborhoods either have one or a couple entrances to get to those neighborhood streets that aren't thoroughfares, Those is what we consider a collector street. So if you imagine the street as a hierarchy street, the street right in front of your driveway, if you happen to live in a typical neighborhood, you would go onto your neighborhood street and then you would make a turn onto a neighborhood collector street that feed you to an urban arterial like Imperial or Firestone. So what this policy is crafted is just for the local streets, meaning it does not serve as a major access path to and from the neighborhood. And the thinking behind that is if in an emergency the frontline responders needed to get to your house quickly, then the major arterios are the ones that you don't want to have be impeded for their fast response time.

Okay, and then as far as the incidents that were reported or tracked, can you go back to that presentation again? For both streets?

So.

Let's take it one at a time.

No problem. So for Barnwall Street, what you looked at there in the table is after review of the sweater's data for that street over the past five years, we came up with zero incidents.

Okay.

And.

So zero incidents in five years.

In five years.

On Barnwall.

On Barnwall and that stretch of Barnwall.

Okay, what is the stretch of Barnwall? How many feet?

It's typically, I would say usually around 1,000 feet. But on this exhibit here, it shows barn wall between Albertus and Ralston Avenue. I mean, my eye's not a measuring stick, but I would think typically about 1,000 feet.

Okay, well, let me ask you this. So the proposed, the red lines there are the proposed speed bumps?

That's correct.

So those are based on the engineer's review of, I'm guessing, the length of the street?

Yes, that is based on the traffic engineer's review of the petition.

OK. And so I guess I'm now wondering, what are the major streets around this square? What are the major?

You have Alondra to the north, correct?

Correct.

And then Excelsior to, I'm sorry, Alondra to the south and Excelsior to the north.

So that's the high school right there. That's Excelsior. Yeah, that's normal high school. That's Excelsior High School. Excelsior. Okay, that's what I thought, okay. So as far as the three speed bumps there, is there any reason why it didn't extend past Maidstone? No, I mean the application was specific to just between Maidstone and Albertus, that's it.

The application is specific just to Albertus to Ralston.

To?

To Ralston.

All right, okay, and the next one, Puyuma?

Puyuma.

Okay, so let's start with the incidents there. What do we have as far as on record?

So the incident for Paiuma on record shows one incident.

Is that what's on the slide right now?

Sorry.

Okay, so there's been six incidents, traffic-related incidents, since 2021 to 2023? Correct. And nothing since? Nothing since. Okay.

Now, I did talk to our traffic engineer about this, so they're saying this is what's shown in the SWIRS database that the California Highway Patrol maintains. These input data points are input into the database if there was an officer that responded to a call out.

Right, yeah, I mean, we're only gonna know unless it was reported, I get it. Correct. Okay, now go back to the street, or the zone for this area? Yeah. Okay, and where are the speed bumps? Okay. And any feedback on, I know there was a slide on the petitions that were supported and signed. Any feedback on why there was potentially more signatures or residents approving than the other?

The number of residents in a collection area can also vary based on the petition and the length of streets that they're requesting to have speed bumps installed at. So with more in a certain block, then you either have more legwork, so to speak, for that petitioner to go and canvass the neighborhood to collect the signatures.

And one of the items I was looking for was, I know it was mentioned that it's in the budget, what is the budgeted amount?

That would be either city street renovation fund or city street general fund.

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.

Street renovation fund.

No, I know, but what is the amount?

That I don't have, I have to check with a traffic engineer, but given that three.

Okay, yeah. That is a very important part of this presentation. We have to have complete information. I need to make a very informed decision. I want to be supportive of what the staff presents and what the community is asking for, but I can't do that if I don't have complete information. I would suggest we table this to a future meeting.

I do have one question and that is in regards to the budget. Does that dollar amount get calculated? And Albert, maybe you might be able to chime in here. after it's approved from council to even go back and say, now this is something we can come up with a budget amount. Because I remember in the past when we, I think we've approved one or two speed humps in the city with the process. And I understand that the chart was very small and hard to read, but we created that process. And so with all the yeses are there, the processes for it to once it's approved by public safety, it come here. So once it gets approved here, do we then create the dollar amount, like open it up to say yes, figure out how much it's gonna cost, and then it comes back as a project and approved for the budget?

If I may, Madam Mayor, yes. So the action today is that staff went through the process, there was a request, certain limits of where all of these petitioners wants to go and look at an entire corridor. Just to clarify, we don't install speed bumps or major , which are arterials or major arterials, very limited to 40 feet. Anything above that, we don't consider, and that's part of our policy. Once we go out, once this is approved, we go out for bids, and we'll find out a dollar amount. At this point, we can't estimate a number, but I think it's not a real number that we can provide. Typically, these run between $5,000 and $10,000 each. If we have three, I mean, we're looking at perhaps up to $30,000, $40,000. That we don't know, but we're not asking for approval of the actual installation. That will be a second phase. First phase is the approval. There, the staff will come at a later date with a number and with a budget that we can ask for your approval.

Thank you for that. And I do believe that in the process when we approved the policy, we were given an estimate of the cost to do a speed bump, speed hump in a particular neighborhood would average between 5,000 to 8,000 per hump, depending upon the width of the street and the condition of the street. It's pretty sad how much I remember about street maintenance. But I believe that's, Margarita, just to piggyback on what you're saying, I think that we have to agree to approve that, yes, we approve them to now go to RFP. They've hit all of the approvals in the process. Now they can go to get the RFP and actually find out how much everything costs. And then it comes back for use with that particular dollar amount from the budget.

I would, I understand that. However, I think that we have a very skilled engineering team, and we also have consultants that we pay for. And so I don't think that my ask of having at least an estimate, again, because we on a council, I mean, it's an estimate. We do this frequently. There's an estimate, but we know that there's always like a little push that we give a certain percentage. you know maybe 20 000 uh up to maybe 25 we're talking you know so i don't think it's unreasonable to have presented at least an estimate um because i'm very confident in our engineering team in our department i believe that you could have done that and it would have helped it would have been helpful in my opinion i i think what my question is here is a

It says adequate funding is available as part of the fiscal year 2025-26 adopted budget. I don't personally recall what that dollar figure is, but I could see potentially it would send a strange message to the neighborhood if we approved it on paper without knowing at least what the total budget amount was for that fiscal year, what the balance was for what was left, and then have another item on the agenda regarding how it was going to be paid for. And those two things might not line up. So this approval and then this other second part of bringing it back here to authorize what was going on, what we're doing next. I agree with my colleague. We need some kind of ballpark about what this actually caused. Because like I said, we don't even know, you know, But that, shame on me, but I don't know how much was even adopted for 26 for speed bumps. So it's like there's, I don't think, I or my colleague are saying that we need a specific number, but it would have been helpful because I don't have, I'm a little bit older than Jennifer and I don't really have that kind of memory. So it would have helped me to ballpark what some of the costs were on some of these things. And I would just ask that in the future that you helped us out a little bit about what those things are. And the other thing is too, could you go back for a minute on the presentation? One more. Okay, you see this? This page here would have been very helpful to actually have it in the agenda report. You gotta be very cautious when you present these reports, what you plan to put in a PowerPoint and what you put in the agenda report. But to spring this on us at the meeting without it having been in the report, then we're trying to catch up on what's going on here. So I'm just saying that there's, my opinion is there's a little bit more completeness that needs to happen on these so that we can give it full consideration and feel comfortable about it. That's my only point.

So would it be possible to table this item and bring it back on Tuesday, June 2nd? Can you guys get the specific information with cost and the budget, et cetera, by June 2nd and bring it back to us then?

Yes.

Yeah? Okay. And we do have one speaker card.

Okay. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge that it is a lengthy process to begin with. And I want to thank you for this information that you've brought forward. But I also want to thank the residents that have taken the time to put all the signatures and gather everything. It is a lot of work. And I know that we've had something like this in North Norwalk. And the reason I think why some of us can't remember is because there was a certain amount, and then because it is on the border of Downey and Norwalk, Downey was able to get the pitch in for half of those speed bumps, if I'm not mistaken. Am I correct?

You are correct.

So I don't remember exactly. I know that there was... Yes, right. Okay, so. So I think that's why but I do want to acknowledge and thank the residents who are probably watching us or waiting upon this because it is a process but but to also hopefully gain their understanding that because it is a process because it is a little bit incomplete, you know, that we want to make sure that everything is aligned and that we do things the right way.

Thank you. Thanks, Anna. We do have one speaker card, Miss Yvonne Zarate. Since we are going to table it, do you want to speak today or would you like to come back? Okay, come on down. Yes, step to the podium and you'll have three minutes to speak.

My name is Yvonne Zarate, and I live at 15329 Paiuma Avenue. I'm the one that got the signatures for Paiuma and Fairton right in back of me. I was only told to get those. I didn't know that the people on Barnwall close to the edge, that they had already submitted paperwork south of my house the neighbors there have also put in a request it's taken me five years to get this to get it here okay i understand the budget you know i'm not i'm not greedy i'm not greedy at all but if we the neighbors can help would you guys consider that 30, you said 30,000, an estimate, 30,000 each speed bump. If I can get my neighbors to help, would you guys speed the process? It's frustrating, okay? I live right on the corner of, I remember, three houses north of me, a kid by the name of David Garcia. He's the one that, the reason why we signed the petition. Because he has his friends come over in the middle of the night, and they speed up and down, and they hit cars. And the neighbors already know who they are. And we don't care to report them anymore. We're done. You know, I called today. I stopped at Public Safety. And I showed them a video. David and his father parked a boat attached to a vehicle. And I told the girl that I just wanted them to know that the vehicle was parked there. I looked on the website to see if boats were allowed to be parked right there on the street, and it said no. He's telling me that if he gets a permit, he can leave it there for three days. My garage, I can't see people coming because of the boat, it's so wide. I park my car in the garage, so I just kind of have to wait. And that's frustrating. Like I said, we're tired, we don't care anymore. This kid, David, has, he's selling vehicles. He buys them, fixes them, and sells them. He's been cited once already by Code Compliance.

That's it, Ms. Rote, what I'll do is I'll, I think you've already spoke to our director of public safety and the team in the past, but we will, we're gonna table the item for one week, the next Tuesday, we're gonna have our team gather some more information and then we'll be able to make a decision and take action on Tuesday. Okay. That's fine. We'll have Ms. Rita Ruiz will touch base with you right after the meeting. Thank you. And we'll go ahead and table item number 10 until June 2nd for additional information on this report. Moving on to item number 11, and that's contract amendment number four for design support services and construction management and inspection support services for Firestone Boulevard widening project number 7196 phase two. Jesus.

And Mario Mera's gonna present. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council. Always happy to be here. Always proud of this project. Just glad to see where it's going and we're at a point of completion almost. We added a phase two and just to give a little background, back in December we requested approval to add budget for phase two of this project. Phase one is the bridge widening project mainly. Okay, so on the map, just to make it a little easier, the project itself, phase one, it's from Imperial to Studebaker. Is that better? Okay, I'm trying to talk even louder. Either from Studebaker to Hoxie is phase two. Phase one is already under beneficial occupancy, already open to the public, and it's working out really well. Phase two is the one we're widening now to maintain the same three lanes all the way through. And what this particular project, what we did back in December, let's go ahead and change it, is we requested approval of a budget to complete phase two, take care of construction costs, soft costs, which are your design, support services, things of that nature. And we're here to complete the amendments of the original contract to address the completion of phase two. As a little reminder, this was approved in December. We're still within our budget. We're still proceeding accordingly. And at the moment, where we are is the recommendations. So let me read those completely. So we recommend A, City Council, staff recommend City Council A approve amendment number four with Mark Thomas in the amount of $198,876 to provide additional necessary design support services during construction of the Firestone Boulevard widening project project number 7196, phase two, and authorize the city manager to execute such amendment on behalf of the city in the form approved by the city attorney. And B. approve amendment number four to TY Lynn International in the amount of 370,000 to provide additional support management and inspection services during the construction of the Firestone Boulevard widening project, project number 7196, phase two, and authorize the city manager to execute such amendments on behalf of the city in a form approved by the city manager. I'm sure you've seen the project. I know you know what it is, but if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.

Thank you. Any questions for this item? I will have to say I love the widening of the bridge and looking forward to it continuing all the way to .

Engineering Division is proud to deliver this.

Yes, it looks really good. I'll go ahead and move this item. Do I have a roll call, please?

Council members Ayala.

Aye.

Valencia. Aye. Vice Mayor Rios. Aye. And Mayor Perez. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to oral communications. Ms. Alicia Gamble.

My name is Alicia Gamble. I've lived in Norwalk since 1997, 28 years, in the same apartment complex. 10904 Leffingwell Road, 10906 Leffingwell Road, 10908 Leffingwell Road. It's the old L.A. type from the 1960s. It's U-shaped. It's got five units upstairs and down here. Got one unit in the center. It's got seven units on top with garages on the bottom. Old time garage, 1950 garages. No pool in the middle like Hollywood. We have grass and a courtyard. The parking that has been available there since when I first got it was, there's three garages on the front in Leffingwell that have driveways. In the alley, there's 10 garages, double garages that we share, but there's 10 garages, again, double, open up, on the ground, not underground parking. That building, again, like someone mentioned earlier, was built in the 1950s. When Daddy worked, Mama stayed home, we had one car. If you had one garage and you lived in an apartment, you were fine. The number of parking spaces on that property, if you count up the 10 garages in the alley, the three in front, and the two driveways. There's actually 13 parking spaces, and there's 13 apartments. There's also three public parking spaces in front of the property, which we have to share because it's public parking. But we have 13, 13 sounds good, right? But it's 2026, most people have two cars now. We have one lady who has no car. We have one unit where they have three cars. Most other people have two cars. So we've got 16 parking spaces and 17 cars right now on that property. Okay? I was notified by my property manager on May 1st that I had to remove all my possessions from my garage, because it isn't just the car, there's also storage in the back, on the top and the bottom. I had to remove all my possessions by June 1st. Well, this property was changed hands two years ago. And they're remodeling, it's great. They're gutting everything else, remodeling. So I figured, oh, they want us to get everything out temporarily. They're gonna remodel and then I can put my stuff back in.

Ms. Gamble, your time is up for this moment. But what I would like to do is have our Deputy City Manager, Mr. Alex Hamilton, this gentleman right here, he'll speak to you in just a few moments. thank you thank you all right with that this meeting is adjourned at 7 33. thank you