City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the successor agency to the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency regular meeting of June 2nd, 2026. Theresa, can we have a roll call, please?

Agency Member Zayala.

Here.

Ramirez. Here. Valencia. Here. Vice Chair Rios. Here.

And Chair Perez. Here. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the consent calendar? So moved. Second. We have a first and a second. Roll call. I'm sorry, who was the first? Rick. Thank you.

She's taking over the whole show.

It was in stereo.

Agency Member Zayala. Ramirez?

Aye.

Valencia? Aye. Vice Chair Rios?

Aye. And Chair Perez? Aye. Thank you. And do we have an executive director's report tonight?

Not tonight.

Thank you. And anybody wishing to speak in oral communications for this accessory? I do not have any speaker cards. All right. Thank you. With that, we'll go ahead and adjourn that meeting. And now we will officially open the regular city council meeting for the city of Norwalk on June 2nd, 2026. And we have, no, we cannot. We're gonna start with our invocation and flag salute as we usually do. This evening, we are honored to welcome Pastor Jeff Johnston of Faith Church here in Norwalk. In addition to spending quality time with his wife and three daughters, Pastor Johnson is actively giving back to our community. We're also pleased tonight to welcome Leonardo Perez for tonight's flag salute. Leo is a graduating eighth grade student from St. John Agad Elementary School. He enjoys being active in student government, and he recently served as his school's student council president. Pastor Jeff Johnston Leo, please begin, and if I can have everybody please stand.

Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy. We invite you into this meeting tonight We pray, Father, for a spirit of peace to be upon this meeting, that by your providence that you would grant us wisdom to make good decisions, that you would help us to assume the best of one another. There would just be a real spirit of cooperation tonight, Father. We thank you for your love and for your mercy, and we thank you, Lord, that your will will be done in the name of your Son. Amen.

of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Hello, how are you? All right, you're going to get this really, really cool medal. Are you ready? It's all good. Come on, man.

You're going to go to St. Paul.

That's where we went.

All three, one, two, three. Perfect, thank you. All right, let's give them a round of applause.

Now, Teresa, can we have a roll call, please?

Council Member Zayala?

Here.

Ramirez? Here. Valencia? Here. Vice Mayor Rios? Here. And Mayor Perez? Here.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our council meeting. Happy Election Day. Thank you all for joining us. I know it's a hard week, very, very busy, lots of celebrations, election day, graduation day, promotion days for all of our students. So congratulations to everyone. We do have a pretty big meeting tonight, so we're gonna go ahead and get right into it. 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 this evening for closed session, that all five members were present, that prior to recessing into closed session, the three items that are listed on the agenda were announced for discussion, that those three items were presented to the City Council, and that there was no action taken from closed session that is required to be reported at this time. That's my closed session report. However, before going into the agenda, there are a couple of items I wish to note. One, Madam Mayor and Council, is that item number 22, under reports, that matter will be not heard this evening. It will be continued to a date in the future that we will provide. However, tonight, item number 22 will not be discussed or heard. Secondly, is there is a revised policy that is being presented as been distributed to the city council on item number 21. And those are the only items on the agenda and my closed session report. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Arnold. Moving now to our council comments. We'll go ahead and start this evening with Council Member Ayala. Tony.

Good evening. I just have a couple things, Mayor. American Legion every year hosts a dinner where they recognize some various outstanding people in the community. And I wanted to congratulate American Legion's Law Enforcement Officer of the Year is Lieutenant Rudy Garcia with Public Safety Department. Deputy Anna Cadman, Norwalk Sheriff's Station. Firefighter of the Year, Owen Yoshimoto. Paramedic of the Year, Jamal Ellis. these these individuals are you know most council knows these people by sight and uh they really do a great job and everybody else in these departments really do too but it was really warranted you know that they get this special recognition from the american legion this year uh the other thing i'd like to do is i'd like to wish all the dads out there a happy father's day and uh you know relax and do what you do on Father's Day, whether it's cutting the lawn or watching sports or whatever. But I wish everybody a very happy Father's Day. That's it, Mayor.

Thank you, Tony. Moving next to Councilwoman Anna Valencia. Anna.

Thank you, Mayor. We had a great Memorial Day event. And I'm sure that we're going to see the wonderful things that happened that day. But I just wanted to, again, thank staff. It was a beautiful event. It was well done. And it just gets better and better each year. So thank you so much. And also, I just wanted to say that we have a Southeastern Water Coalition meeting this Thursday, and it'll be the last day that Norwalk is the lead. So I wanted to thank our public services director for doing a great job as being the lead person. And just very informative. And I think that, have you been to some of these meetings in your other jobs? Mr. Mendoza?

No, Council Member. OK. My first.

But you know what? We have had very full and very vivid conversations and lively with some of the other agencies, water replenishment districts. So they've been great. And conversations that need to be had. Some of them really tough. But we went through and very professional, I might add. So that was great. And so thank you for doing that. And so looking forward to this Thursday. And then after that, I think it's Cerritos who are going to be the lead agency. So looking forward to that. Also, very much looking forward to this Sunday, the Norwalk 5K. And I hope to see many of you there. I've been wanting to walk it because I'm not big of a jogger. But then by the time that I'd be back, you know, it'd be over, basically. So we get to give out the awards, the medals to the kids, to the people doing it. And that's actually become one of my favorite things. So I hope to see you there. And if not, I'm sure you're going to be seeing tidbits of it. But it's going to be a great event. And I'm really looking forward to it. And last but not least, I want to wish all the graduates, preschool, kinder, Well, I'm a teacher, so I've got to give the props to all of the graduates, children, middle-aged students, adults, and then those that are just going out there and graduating high school. The future is bright. what you want out of it but always remember that here at our city council and especially with me you have a friend in me and definitely i've written a lot of recommendation letters i've given a lot of advice i've even helped with um mock interviews uh one-on-ones and and you know i keep doing that because i truly believe in our city and our residents and uh in helping one another so congratulations class of 2026. and that's it mayor thank you anna next council member rick ramirez rick

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to give, on behalf of the Norwalk Lions Club, give thanks to our council and the administration as well as Department of Parks and Rec's public safety and all the departments involved for allowing us to host our annual Memorial Week Carnival at Norwalk Park. As you guys know, we moved the location from City Hall lawn to Norwalk Park because of the redevelopment that we're doing here. It was a great event, although it wasn't as busy as previous years in attendance, but I think the community came out to support. We also like to thank our sponsors and all those assisted in making this a successful event. Overall, we raised, I don't know, can we disclose how much I raised, Anthony? Well, we raised enough to give 100% right back to the community. How's that sound, right? So the numbers were down from last year, obviously, because it's a new venue. A lot of people don't know where it was. And those that did attend supported it. But we did raise enough money to give back to all the service organizations, students, and different causes within Norwalk and the surrounding areas. So we're looking forward to the continued partnership as we seek. Hopefully we could utilize the park again, but I know that's probably up in there because of the park renovations or what have you, but we will continue to push forward and find a location. If not, we would love to continue at Norwalk Park to build it once again. So on behalf of all the membership, including my colleague Anna Valencia, we want to thank you guys for your support. That's all I have.

Thank you, Rick. And now to Vice Mayor Rios. Margarita?

yes thank you mayor i just want to welcome everyone to our city council meeting this evening um just a couple of things i do want to mention that the norwalk lamarada unified school district actually had a leadership academy they began this academy to give their employees the opportunity to for professional development and really learn about leadership, learn more about leadership. So I was asked to be one of the mentors, which I was very honored to have done. I know there was another group of leaders who actually put the curriculum together, including our mayor, and so just yesterday they had the culmination of this six-month leadership Academy first cohort and the individuals employees from the district that participated had some time to you know share their reflections the mentors you know I had an opportunity to share my reflections on my experience and And so I just wanna say thank you to the district, thank you to the mayor and everyone who, I know Karen, our Norwalk Chamber, I believe she was also part of that, the individuals who put the curriculum together as well as did some instructional time with the participants as well. So it was just a really neat example of collaboration between the city leadership team on the district and I really applaud their initiative to offer their employees a mentor to get them aligned with their goals their vision for their future with the district or whoever their career and life may take them I know that sometimes We are a bit hesitant to ask for mentors, to have someone mentor us, I think not for a lack of availability, but I think that sometimes we're just a little timid about it because were afraid of being maybe judged by someone else or for whatever the reason may be. So the fact that they partnered us with individuals willing to go through that process was definitely a win-win and I really enjoyed that very, very much. I also want to congratulate the graduating class of 2026. I know graduation's kicked off at least here for Southeast Academy Norwalk High. And I'm just really excited about the idea of our youth you know, culminating their K through 12 education at graduation. And it just means such a memorable event for their families, for their friends to see them achieve this milestone. I wish them the absolute best. And I hope that they know that as a leadership team here in the city of Norwalk and the city council that we are available and willing to support and encourage all of those youth i think city of norwalk we definitely we build leaders here in the city i'm very proud of that so i know that when anna and i were on the school board we would go to every single graduation we'd be running running all over the place, all over the city. Missed that very, very much. But Anna knows what I'm talking about. It was a great time. And so I just want to, again, congratulations, class of 2026. That's all.

Thank you, Margarita. I just have a few items to add. We had a tour, a field trip from Lakeland Elementary School here last week. I want to thank our team that provided some great exercises and learning opportunities for, there's about 40 elementary school students that came through City Hall. had different activities to do we had some time together with the mayor it really was a fun afternoon with them and we attended pray norwalk on saturday just a great opportunity to stop and pause for a moment and really be grateful for everything that we have here in the city of norwalk i might want to give a huge shout out to april reuter who gathers us year after year to do this on a Saturday morning. Also to Gabby Regalado and to Rita Ruiz, to Miguel and to our TAP program. Our TAP program is featured and Judith Peralta, one of our graduating TAP volunteers came and gave testimony on what it's like to be a servant leader. It's really a proud day to be in the city of Norwalk when we have a team that can come and celebrate and just be for one moment together. So it was really nice. I also attended the AAPI celebration at our Norwalk Cultural Arts Center. There was food, there was activities, there was face painting, there was dancing, of course, there was music. But one group that I would really, really like to highlight is our CAC team our cultural arts team and the teachers of our creative little hands and these this is our preschool program that is run through our cultural arts center and those little kids three to five and five to seven got up and performed little songs one of them was a song from Moana and it was the cutest little thing but what made it even better was the parents that came up afterwards and it really wanted to thank the city for the amazing team and the teachers that are with their children with creative little hands. It was a great moment. I know they are extremely happy with the program. And when you can really influence kids so much so that their parents are ecstatic through a park program, that's something pretty special. And I know that we have that here. I do want to share that the bulletins are out for the Senior Center and our Social Services Center. The Norwalk now hit our homes, all of the mailboxes this past weekend. And as the Vice Mayor touched on the Norwalk La Mirada Unified School District did have their leadership academy. Myself and a few others, including Karen Spilsbury, who's in the audience tonight, were part of the design team. And I think just really putting that together from go was something that I will never forget. It was a way to really bring community together. And look how we can all build within ourselves as leaders. I want to give a huge thanks to Dr. Gatto from the school district. This was his incentive project to really build within the district. And I think together we did an amazing thing and I'm very excited to see it grow. and to continue. And I had the opportunity to really take off the title, take off the name, the title, and be a module leader and go in and have a conversation over three evenings about leadership. And not as the mayor, but as me and how I see what leadership is. And I think that's one of the things that a majority of the leaders came away from and took back. It's not about the title that you have on your business card, but it's the person who's within. And that's something that I will never forget. thank you karen thank you to our team at the school district um to the design team to our mentors and congratulations to all of the leaders that went through cohort one All right, with that, we're gonna jump right into our special presentations. And tonight, we are going to be recognizing our student artists. At this time, we are proud to recognize four Norwalk High School students for adding beauty and creativity to our city. These artists painted the utility box at Civic Center Drive and Volunteer Avenue. And I believe they did this on a Saturday morning, if I recall. And Sunday. So they took up their weekend. This helped turn an everyday public space into a piece of art for everyone to enjoy. Their work reminds us that public art can brighten a street corner, showcase the talent of our students, and strengthen community pride. At this time, I'm going to ask Theresa Devoy to introduce our high school artists. And students, when your names are called, please come forward for a group photo. At this time, council, would you join me in the front?

Okay. I'd like to call up first Abigail Alvarado. And this is her artwork. You can all see what a beautiful job she did. The theme was promoting readings. We wanted to paint a box near the library and these students are from Norwalk High School. They all designed bookmarks and entered the library bookmark contest and these are some of the winners that we chose to place on the box. Next we have Next we have Giselle Garcia, where she says, books fuel imagination. I'm not sure if Giselle made it, but we can get her her certificate. Jesus Hernandez. Also wanted to mention that all of these students are freshmen. So they have a lot of talent at a very young age. And our last is Amelia Juanico. Thank you very much.

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

All right, thank you again. Moving now to our city manager comments, Jesus.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, members of the city council and our community. The first thing is congratulations to all the graduates. They're just getting their wings and hopefully they will fly far, but not too far so they can come back and be part of our community. The other is Happy Father's Day to all the fathers here in our city. And yes, barbecues are probably going to be the thing to do. Next, we have an announcement where the senior center is going to get upgrades. And so we are going to have to close the senior center for a week to be able to get new restrooms and they're gonna be upgraded from flooring to a whole lot of different items. It is 25 years and so we just celebrated the 25th anniversary Last year it got a roof, now it's the restrooms. So the closure is from, it's June 15th? Yes, June 15th. June 15th through the 20th. So that's an entire week. However, we will still be serving the meals and they will be drive-through. They will be able to drive through the senior center and pick up their meals. So that's another update. Next, we have our street projects update. These are, I'm sorry, we will start with the Memorial Day recap. We want to be able to show our community, those that were not able to attend, how I think very ceremonial our Memorial Day was. So with that, we can play the video.

Each year, Norwalk residents gather on Memorial Day with solemn hearts to honor the service members who gave their lives in defense of our country. This year, a few thoughtful adjustments to the program were made to better reflect the solemn meaning of Memorial Day, and to include more members of our Norwalk community during this day of remembrance. Mayor Jennifer Perez spoke on Memorial Day, honoring fallen service members, recognizing the families and veterans who carry their memory, and reaffirming Norwalk's commitment to keeping that remembrance alive in the community.

Today, as I mentioned, we gather in solemn remembrance. We have seen our colors presented. We have placed our hands over our hearts. And we have reflected on the battlefield cross and the symbolization of the poppies. Two very powerful symbols of sacrifice, service, and memory. May God bless the fallen. May God comfort the families. And may God bless our veterans and service members. And may God bless the city of Norwalk and this great United States of America.

Staff Sergeant Robert Estrada of the United States Army was the event's guest speaker. He is a local Norwalk Army recruiter who spoke on honoring fallen service members and reminding the community to never take freedom for granted.

For many of us, a lot of these names you see on these memorials aren't just names. They were friends, people we laughed with, people we worked with, people we stood besides during long days and difficult times. And this is why Memorial Day hits differently. for us veterans and service members because remembrance matters. A nation that forgets the cost of freedom risk taking that freedom for granted.

Staff Sergeant Robert Estrada was presented with a challenge coin as a token of appreciation from the city of Norwalk for serving our country and sharing his experience. The event also included a roll call of deceased veterans featuring American Legion Post 359 members and names submitted by the community

United States Supreme Court. No response.

Followed by a 21-gun salute and a playing of taps. Thank you to everyone who joined us in honoring the service members who gave their lives for our country. May their sacrifice never be forgotten.

A GREAT CEREMONY FOR OUR CITY. NEXT, WE HAVE A VIDEO OF THREE PROJECTS THAT ARE LISTED ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR, BUT WE WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THOSE ON VIDEO. THESE ARE MAJOR PROJECTS AND WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE COMMUNITY KNOWS THAT THE COUNCIL IS APPROVING PROJECTS TO BETTER THE COMMUNITY, BUT TONIGHT WE'RE ACCEPTING THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN COMPLETED. So we were able to get that on film and wanted to show the community. These are items 15 through 17. With that, we can play the video.

The City of Norwalk proactively maintains and improves public infrastructures accordingly. These are the three projects on the agenda for consideration. Project 7241 included traffic signal improvements at Studebaker Road and Halcourt Avenue. Work included new traffic signals, a new signal pole and controller, curb ramps, median improvements, driveway improvements, and a new crosswalk. This improves safety for pedestrians and Studebaker Elementary students. For Project 7876, to prepare the site for future use, the City directed the demolition of the former bank building located at 13400 San Antonio Drive. Project 7938 included local street rehabilitation work in Zones 4 and 31. in Zone 4, area west of Pioneer and east of Milano. Improvements included pavement rehabilitation, curb and gutter improvements, ADA curb ramps, and sidewalk enhancements. In Zone 31, areas south of Alondra and west of Pioneer, work focused on concrete improvements, including curb and gutter repairs, ADA curb ramps, and sidewalk improvements. The city will continue to invest in maintaining and improving public infrastructure throughout Norwalk.

Just a few of the projects going on in our city and more to come. Next, we will have the biweekly review video.

On May 23, Mayor Jennifer Perez welcomed La Carnicería Meat Market to Norwalk. During her visit, she was greeted by Development Director David Valadez, who gave her a tour of the new facility and shared a closer look at what the market will bring to the community On May 27th, students from Lakeland Elementary took a field trip to Norwalk City Hall for a closer look at how their local government works. During their visit, students met with Mayor Jennifer Perez, toured different City Hall departments, and learned from Athens Services staff, who shared the importance of recycling. On May 30th, the City of Norwalk came together to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with an Asian American Pacific Islander Cultural Celebration at the Cultural Arts Center. The event showcased culture, community, and connection through live performances, food from local vendors, artisan booths, as well as crafts and activities for kids.

So lots of activities here in the city and we continue with more, including on June 18th, a FIFA fan zone that will be hosted here in Norwalk. Three games will be shown and you could look at our website and find those times to come and start the FIFA season. Next, just a quick update on immigration. There have been no significant immigration-related inquiries or concerns that have been reported through the city's community preparedness resource hotline or during in-person interactions since the last city council meeting with one call today related to ICE. And then Community Aid SoCal continues to provide immigration-related assistance TO RESIDENTS AND CURRENTLY HAS AT LEAST SEVEN RESIDENTS SCHEDULED FOR APPOINTMENTS TO RECEIVE SUPPORT WITH NATURALIZATION AND OTHER IMMIGRATION PROCESSES. ADDITIONALLY, THE COALITION OF HUMANE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS IS SCHEDULED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION RESOURCES AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES ON JUNE 16. at the Social Services Center and on June 24th at the Norwalk Senior Center. These outreach efforts will help residents access reliable immigration-related information and available support services. Mayor and members of the City Council, that concludes my comments.

Thank you, Jesus. I'm moving now to the consent calendar. I do have one. I have a question on item number 10 before we go to a motion. My question, this is in regards to going to a month-to-month services with West Coast Arborist. Albert, my question is, and I think the Vice Mayor brought it up during our budget study session, that we're in the process of an RFP for these services. Do we have an idea of what the timeline is and when that RFP is going to be awarded?

Yes, I do. It received bids past Thursday the 28th. Six bids were received. They're under evaluation now. Our goal is to bring a staff report for a contract award July 21st.

Okay, so if we're doing July 24, I know it's it says month to month. But is it something that could be as needed and not month to month? Or is it something that these services are doing that maybe our department within public services can actually handle? I just want to make sure that we're not putting something out there if if it's not needed. And especially if you're telling me that we're going to come back with potential award in July. That's not three months. So I'm trying to get an idea of how we might be able to look at this a little differently Right there.

There are some services that we can do in-house However, there was we don't have the capability of some equipment to target the bigger trees of bigger diameter trees obviously emergencies now awarding the contract is the 21st it does take two to three months to get an agreement implemented and scheduling and going all through the districts and the cycles, especially preparing a scope of plan for either a new contractor or an existing, whoever may be the lowest responsive bidder. So we're actually looking more like a three month or so.

Okay, I just wanna make sure that we're not going to a month-to-month, and then because it's automatic month-to-month, that it's out of sight, out of mind, and we're not taking a look at what the possibility is for whichever awarded contract it may be. I just don't want to be continuing to pay for something that we may not need if we're looking at the services through the RFP.

No, we're conscientious about that, and we're monitoring the contract.

All right. Thank you. Margarita?

So because that's under consideration for this evening, I want to ask if that's going to have an impact on the work we're currently doing with West Coast Arborist in regards to our urban forest management plan that I'm very eager to complete and get rolled out. Does that affect that process in any way?

I don't anticipate that. In fact, we are targeting to complete our urban forestry management plan by the end of the fifth.

Okay. Thank you. That's all there.

All right. Any other questions on the consent calendar? I'll second. Margarita with the first. Anna with the second. Yeah, she said it.

And we have a roll call, please. Council Member Zayala. Aye. Ramirez. Valencia. Aye. Vice Mayor Rios. Aye. Mayor Perez.

Aye. And I will provide a list of items in item number three to the city clerk that I will be abstaining from. All right next we're going to appointments and I do have one appointment this evening, unfortunately, she is not here with us, but I'll be appointing Esther Moreno to our Public Safety Commission. And I'll need a second. Thank you and we have a roll call, please.

Council Members Ayala?

Aye.

Ramirez? Aye. Valencia? Aye. Vice Mayor Rios? Aye. And Mayor Perez? Aye.

Thank you. And next we're going to item number 19. And that is going to be a public hearing resolution number 26 dash 28 approving a joint exercise of powers agreement relating to the California municipal finance authority and resolution number 26 dash 29 authorizing the use of bond opportunities for land development program and authorizing California municipal finance authority. To accept applications from property owners at this time. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing Teresa Can we have a public notice report?

Thank You mayor notice of the public hearing was published in the Norwalk Patriot and posted in the city's three official sites and on the website We've received no communications Thank you, and he sees can we have a staff report?

Yes, remember so City Council tonight's report will include the city becoming the Cal a member of the California municipal finance authority and that is to assist developers to do a Melrose type of financing. What that is is it's a way to finance infrastructure for developments. And so the Meritage Development Project is requesting to have us become part of the California Financing Authority for them to be able to issue those types of bonds. then there's specifically called Community Facilities District and they're independent of the city they're paid by the homeowners and debt service is paid by the homeowners as well so with that I'm going to have Mr Alex Hamilton provide a little more information on the the process

Yes honorable mayor and City Council and Thank You mr. City Manager we do have the team here tonight should there be any technical questions specifically as it relates to this program there is a complete deck of slides with information on the program but I will kick off the discussion in terms of what the program is about The California Municipal Finance Authority recently shared information with staff regarding the bond opportunities for land development program known as the BOLD program that is available to help finance public infrastructure projects for new developments within the city. As a note, Cosmont Financial Services will serve as the city's financial advisor on all transactions related to this matter as needed at no additional cost to the city. The BOLD program is under the California Municipal Financing Authority, CMFA, which is a joint powers authority with many member cities and counties in California. With adoption of this enabling resolution, the city would be a member of the CMFA and the Bond Opportunities for Land Development program. The BOLD program is a financing tool to encourage and promote development where development costs or other obstacles to development exist. It's a very, very important tool that's been used to great success throughout the state. As was mentioned, this resolution tonight is simply an enabling document. Projects would be subject to review by the CMFA, BOLD, and the city on a case-by-case basis. Tonight, the first project being subject to this would be the Meritage project, as Mr. City Manager mentioned. And I also want to emphasize that no liabilities accrue to the city by joining this program. This is strictly voluntary, and it's a mechanism to promote development in the city. So if there's no specific questions of the team, I can go to the recommendation if that is a desire of the council. Let me through the slide deck. This is information about the program and how successful it's been throughout the state of California and various cities and counties throughout the state. So, at this point, the staff does recommend that City Council find that the proposed action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, for CEQA Dissuant Guidelines Section 15061 , the common sense exemption, because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the resolution may have a significant effect on the environment. and staff recommends the council adopt resolution number 2628 which is a resolution of the city council of the city of norwalk approving authorizing and directing execution of a joint exercise of powers agreement relating to the california municipal finance authority and adopt resolution number 2629, which is a resolution of the City Council of the City of Norwalk authorizing use of the bond opportunities for land development program and authorizing the California Municipal Finance Authority, the CMFA, to accept applications from property owners, conduct proceedings, and levy special taxes within the territory of the City of Norwalk pursuant to the Melrose Community Facilities Act of 1982 as amended and authorizing related action. And lastly, authorize the city manager to execute the agreement and any documents necessary to effectuate the intent of resolution number 2628 and 2629 on behalf of the city in a form approved by the city attorney. And as was said before, this is on a project by project basis subject to city and program review in the future.

Thank you, Alex. Teresa, since this is a public hearing, do we have anybody wishing to speak for or against this item? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. I'll bring it back to council. Any questions, comments? We'll all entertain a motion. I'll second. Can we have a roll call, please?

Council members Ayala.

Aye.

Ramirez. Valencia. Aye. Vice Mayor Rios. Aye. And Mayor Perez.

Aye. Thank you. I'm moving on to our next public hearing. That's resolution number 26-25, setting sewer service charge for fiscal year 26-27 and ordering that such charge be collected on the tax roll. Teresa, can we have the public notice report, please?

Thank thank you notice of the public hearing was published at the city's 3 designated posting places. It was also a wish on the website and in the New York Patriot on May 15th and May 22nd we've received no communication. Thank you and he sees can we have the staff report please.

Yes, mirrors mirror in the members of City Council. Mister Albert Mendoza will present.

Good evening Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor Rios and City Council members. Item number 20 on the agenda is the public hearing and addressing resolution 26-24. I set the service charge for fiscal year 26-27 in order that charge be collected on the tax roll through the ALA County. Tonight as well we have Maxwell Goyne who can provide support or answer any questions you have and also our staff is here to answer any questions should there be any. To start with a brief background, in June 2013, the City Council adopted ordinance number 13-1642, establishing sewer services charges to cover expenses for the operation and maintenance and capital projects for the city's sewer system. For Norwalk's municipal code, City Council is authorized to levy an annual sewer service charge that will be collected on the property tax roll. In November 2017, city council approved that the city continue to levy and collect this service charge. That is provided that there will not be an increase in the sewer service charge until the city completes and provide updates like the sanitary sewer system master plan, the sewer system management plan, and also conducting a new sewer service fee study. Currently, the sewer master plan is at 90% and nearly completion. The sewer system management plan update was approved under the consent calendar tonight and will be completed in the summer of this coming fiscal year. A sewer service fee study will be addressed after the plans are complete. This slide shows the current monthly service charge per meter size. This sewer service charge have been the same since 2019 and have not been changed since this fiscal year. And these are based on the size of the sewer service connection meter size. This table shows our recent and current sewer projects along with their statuses. For fiscal impacts, it is estimated that the revenues from the annual sewer fees for the upcoming fiscal year will generate approximately $2.5 million. The actual amount collected will not be known until receiving the first payment. The city is required to advise the citizens about this public hearing. The public hearing was posted at three designated posting places, the city's website, and also it was published in the Norwalk Patriot on May 15th, 2026 and May 22nd, 2026. In the posting, the city provided information about the preliminary charge rule report prepared by Francisco and Associates. The preliminary charge rule report has been available for public inspection in the city clerk's department or can be viewed online at the city's webpage. With that, the recommendation action for tonight is that staff is recommending City Council consider adopting resolution number 26-25, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Norwalk approving the annual sewer report and living and annual sewer service charge for fiscal year 26-27 pursuant to chapter 13-014, I'm sorry, of the Norwalk Municipal Code and ordering the annual sewer service charge to be collected on the counties of Los Angeles tax roll. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions, should there be any.

Thank you, Albert. Theresa, do we have anybody wishing to speak on this item for the public hearing?

No, we don't.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to council. Questions, comments, or motion? I'll second. First by Rick, second by me. Roll call, please.

Council Members Aiello.

Aye.

Ramirez? Valencia? Aye. Vice Mayor Rios? Aye.

Mayor Perez? Aye. Thank you. Moving now to item number 21, Brown Act updates pursuant to Senate Bill 707, resolution number 26-30, disruption policy, and resolution number 26-31, public posting board policy, meeting outreach. Jesus, can we have the staff report?

Yes, Mayor, members of the city council. This is what we call an unfunded mandate that the legislature adopts and then we have to implement at the local level. These are changes to our city council meetings and wanted to brief you and the community of those changes and would like to have your approval to move on these items.

they are to be implemented by july 1st and so we are here tonight for your approval with that teresa devoy will present thank you jesus um good evening so this evening we're going to just cover the highlights um the brown act as you all know um and just to inform the public are the is the government code that establishes the rules for our public meetings and how they must be managed SB 707 was adopted last year, became effective January 1st. And as mentioned by our city manager, some of those changes go into effect July 1st. So we are preparing for that now. So some of the items that are covered as a mandate for the city to implement are, first of all, two-way remote participation for public meetings. And that will apply to our city council meetings only. And we will be using Zoom as we did during COVID. In relation to that participation, the state has mandated that we adopt a disruption policy for technology disruptions that might take place during the meeting. We also have to translate all of the agendas into foreign languages depending upon our population and how the census works out. We will be translating in Norwalk in Spanish. We have to provide a posting board for our city council agendas to be translated by members of the community if they choose to in other languages. And that board needs to be available 24-7 for the public. So we will be moving forward with purchasing a board for that purpose. It also requires closed captioning. If the platform that we'll be using has that feature available, which it does, we'll be offering closed captioning through our Zoom feature. We're also looking at a translation service that we may implement as well. Another mandate is registration for agenda posting notifications. So people, residents or anyone else will be able to sign up for registration of when the agenda is posted, they'll receive notifications so that they can go and then read our agendas. And then the last item is public outreach, which is undefined through the code, but they've indicated they need city council to provide direction to staff. So we'll start first with our disruption policy. And that policy that you have before you this evening to consider will cover what happens in the event of a technology disruption. The policy covers what our response will be and how we will go ahead and try to address that and restore service. But ultimately what it means is we must pause the meeting at that point. for up to 60 minutes if we are able to resolve that issue prior to the 60 minutes we may then reconvene and continue the meeting if we are unable to resolve that issue then it would need to come back to city council and city council would need to make a determination at that point as to whether or not we continue the meeting or if we adjourn the meeting to another date and time We're moving on to our translations and our public posting board. So the city's responsibilities are that we translate the agenda and we post that on our website, which we will be doing. We will also be posting instructions as required for people to inform them on how to access those agendas. As I mentioned, we'll have closed captioning in the audiovisual platform. And though like I said, it's not a requirement, we are evaluating software that may translate voice into text for the meetings so that anyone who doesn't speak Spanish would also be able to understand anybody speaking from the podium speaking Spanish. SB 707 does not define what a reasonable outreach is. So it's kind of up to us on how we address that. Sorry, moved on too fast. So our posting policy, go back one more. Our posting policy will address what can be posted on the board, because we want to ensure that it only focuses on agendas. Anything else beyond agendas will be removed immediately. The legislation does indicate that the city is not responsible for the translations, as we are not preparing those translations. We will look at them, though. I'll have staff review them, the ones that we can read. and see if there's any profanity or anything like that. But ultimately, I don't have speakers in multiple languages, so whatever is posted is posted by those individuals. We will leave them up through the meeting and up to a week after, and then we will remove those in order to provide room for the next one. Like I said, they will be available. It will be in front of City Hall so that people can access it. It will have ADA requirements available to it, so we will add those as well. Okay, sorry, move on. As far as our current outreach, what we're doing now is obviously we have the agendas on our website. We have it on our meeting calendars so that individuals coming to our website can see when our meetings are available. It is shared from what I understand through public affairs on our social media as well. So they are pushing that information out so that individuals can also see that. We need to determine at this point what you would like to do if you want to do anything different. If you think that what we're doing is sufficient, that's fine too. We just need to discuss that this evening. One of the other things we could be doing, we could add it to the Norwalk Now. It was in the Norwalk Now at one point. We could add that back to the Norwalk Now if you'd like to as part of like a calendar corner or something. And then of course we'll be adding the agenda for notification that people can sign up for so they will get those notifications. So that concludes my report. This evening we're asking that City Council adopt resolution 26-30 which would approve our disruption policy and also 26-31 which would approve our posting policy and then we're seeking direction on whether or not Council believes that what we're doing is sufficient or if you would like to find other avenues for us to reach out to unrepresented individuals or any other individuals in the community. so i'm available for any questions if you had any ready for discussion thank you teresa any questions from council

Any thoughts on how our outreach is going? Can we leave as is and revisit and update the policy as needed? »» Yes, we can. »» Okay. So I'd like to go ahead and make a motion considering the revision that was given to us tonight. And to keep things as it is, should you see that we need to change our outreach, bring it back to Council for a revision. »» Sure.

Move first and a second. Can we have a roll call, please? Just to make sure that is adopting both resolutions and status quo. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Zayella?

Aye.

Ramirez? Valencia? Aye. Aye.

And Mayor Perez? Aye. Thank you. Moving on, as mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, item number 22 will be continued to a future date. Item number 23 is our fiscal year 2026-2027 proposed budget. Jesus?

Yes, thank you mayor members of the City Council tonight as every year we are having a study session of the budget. We begin with a smaller session on a Saturday that is more for individuals to participate those that can't come during the week and we have discussions about the budget it is I will emphasize a budget process tonight again another study session and we will propose after tonight's meeting and in your input we will bring back a proposed budget our next City Council meeting I think one of the items that I'd like to clarify is that I think the budget process is dynamic. It goes back and forth depending on what the numbers are, the programs are. I know that there's been some social media advertisement as to what the city council cut and what it didn't. I want to just make sure that I clarify that the senior center food program was not cut We were able to get more grant money. So we didn't have to use general fund as much So we did we did get County grant money to fund the program. So it is not cut it stays as is We are not reducing street sweeping it's gonna stay once a week and i know it's difficult as the discussion goes during the budget process to keep track of what's discussed and what's not and so that's another clarification that i want to make tonight that street sweeping is not being reduced and tonight you'll you'll see as part of the presentation there are very um what I would say iconic events that we are recommending to keep in the budget that were discussed at the study session on Saturday. And I'll name them by title. And those are the Halloween parade, the tree lighting ceremony, Las Posadas, and the 5K run are included in tonight's proposed budget. and again this is a study session is for your consideration and again we'll take modifications that you may have to include or or not in the budget but these these items are in the budget for as a recommendation from staff to to keep in the budget So I wanna make that clarification for our community. I wanna make that clarification for all those on social media who have placed information that probably was too fast, maybe during, or not understood during our study session on May 23rd. With that, we're gonna go through a presentation. Hopefully this is slower. uh for um for our community and um Ms Janna Stewart will present and uh we will have an opportunity for questions as well so with that Ms Janna Stewart

THANK YOU, MR. GOMEZ. MAYOR PEREZ, MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, WE ARE HERE TONIGHT TO PRESENT TO CITY COUNCIL THE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 THAT WOULD ESTABLISH OUR SPENDING PLAN THAT WOULD REFLECT THE CITY COUNCIL'S PRIORITIES AS THEY HAVE BEEN DEFINED IN THE STRATEGIC PLAN that we are operating under right now. This slide may be familiar because it is pretty much the same slide that we addressed last fiscal year and the certain, the point that we are trying to bring to our attention is that we are preparing this plan in the period or era of uncertainty. We are using information that are currently available to us with certain estimates and assumptions. As Mr. Gomez mentioned, this is a living document and as situation changes, any economic or any other situation to the city of Norwalk, we would have to pivot and adjust our spending plan accordingly. The main message is to say that in light of the geopolitical situation, the uncertainty of the election and what happens in Sacramento after today's election, As also the situation of our local economy and the historical information we have for our sales tax primarily, we are very prudent in preparing our financial plan. So the budget book, as we call it, it's a living document that we prepared and it reflects certain assumptions. And the city council directed, as Mr. Gomez mentioned, staff to be ready and prepare 10%, about 10% reductions in our cost to be able to prioritize and see what we should include in a final document or what should be removed from our spending plan. This meeting and why did it happen really? And this was a direction of city council, but the goal is really to remain fiscally responsible. It's our principle and one of those strategic goals. And also to maintain Structurally balanced budget and this slide summarizes what it means because we know for example state does not have Structurally balanced budget and they're dipping into their reserves and so we are Our goal is to support financial sustainability for multiple years into the future and make sure that our operating revenues cover our operating expenditures. The items that are related into city resources, and I'm saying city resources because sometimes we think sales tax is only general fund revenue. However, the pie chart demonstrates that not only general fund receives sales tax portion, 1.75% from the entire 10.5% of sales tax that is effective in city of Norwalk, But other revenue sources that helps us as a city and local governments to fund transportation, street maintenance, social services are also affected by results and sales tax and consumers' confidence in spending. The other very important revenue source for city of Norwalk is gas tax. And as we listen to the informer, I mean, advertisement and on the TV, several governor candidates for the state of California governor's position advocated for eliminating gas tax or highway user tax and that would mean a very important loss of revenues for city of norwalk up to 3.7 million dollars that we are funding our street maintenance type of programs and i already mentioned the the state deficit um This slide pretty much recaps or provides a snapshot of city spending plan by general funds, restricted funds that includes primarily transportation fund, transit, water, sewer, but also our very important special revenue funds that provide services such as housing authority, child care, and social services programs, elderly nutrition and social service program grant. So as you can see, total operations and capital outlays operating budget is $164 million citywide. Out of this amount, about $79 million is funded from general fund. And the restricted funds pretty much, we have to use these funds within the parameters of the granting agencies or tax, you know, if it's a special taxes only for the purposes for which these taxes have been voted on. So as you may see from capital projects, none of the general fund is used to fund capital projects. However, we do have special reserve funds that we use to replenish and use for any infrastructure needs that city may have or where city's match is required. AND CAPITAL PROJECT PLAN IS ABOUT $118 MILLION. SO OVERALL SPENDING IS $291.4 MILLION. GENERAL FUND OPERATING BUDGET DECREASE IS ABOUT 3% AND RESTRICTED FUNDS 5% BECAUSE Not only general fund has limited resources, we also see this, as I mentioned, due to sales tax and restricted funding being reduced from federal government or state due to their problems, financial problems. We also had to adjust our spending in these special revenue funds. It takes 304 full-time positions out of these 194 are funded from general fund, 110 are funded from restricted funds, and in total about 351,000 part-time hours. And majority of those are under general fund, 314,000. This slide just gives you a visual by type of spending citywide, meaning all the funds combined. We spent about $60 million on our personnel cost. That includes benefits, salaries, full-time, part-time, all the workers comp type of contributions, and also retirees benefits. SHERIFF'S CONTRACT AND ALL THE OTHER EXPENDITURES WITHIN GENERAL, ALL THE FUNDS IS ABOUT 36%, CAPITAL APPROVEMENT 40%, AND THEN CAPITAL RESERVE SET ASIDE ABOUT 3%. um this next slide is concentrating now on operating budget also citywide all the funds are combined so our operations um to uh to provide programs services and maintain our uh our streets is 164 million dollars um this slide is uh SHOWING WHAT TYPE OF FUNCTIONS OR SERVICES WE ARE PROVIDING AND WHERE THE MONEY GOES. SO PRIORITY NUMBER ONE CITYWIDE AND WHERE THE FUNDING GOES IS PUBLIC SERVICES, IT'S OUR INFRASTRUCTURE, PARK MAINTENANCE AND ALL THE PUBLIC SERVICES DIVISIONS AS WE KNOW THEM, TREE MAINTENANCE AND SO FORTH, WATER SEWER. Priority number two in funding amount is transit and vehicle maintenance. Number three, public safety, including Hope Team, our homeless outreach. And number four is community development. Community development seems high because we have pretty robust and very active housing authority that pretty much spending is close to $11 million. And I already talked about our spending plan for capital improvement projects. So we are carrying forward from prior fiscal year because these are projects that take a lot of planning, designing, construction, so there are multi-year projects that are carried over from year to year. And we have 57 carryover projects, only three new projects. As we are using our measure P sales tax to, that's what we promised to our voters, to maintain public safety in our street infrastructure. So we continue, majority of our projects are related to street projects, 31% of them, or 16 carryover and two new projects. So all of that, what we had planned for the upcoming fiscal year, operation-wise, capital improvement-wise, as I mentioned, takes 300 for full-time employees. And about equivalent, if we say 30 hours per week, about 225. employees that are on part-time basis and we know that in summer we have more part-timers and then towards the like lower seasons less but on average we are that pretty much estimates 529 employees that we are employing to run the programs activities services and build capital improvement projects you may think why is there such a huge decrease in fiscal year 2021 that is a covet time and then after that we received some arpa funding that we were able to continue our services and we're trying to keep the level of employment the same as in prior years and I'll go into detail a little bit later. So I would like to highlight that there are certain costs that are included in this fiscal financial plan that city does not have too much influence or control over. Of course, we have sheriff's contract. We could reduce the contract. However, this is what we promised to our Residents, we are keeping 35.77 units on our contract, even though we know some of those positions are difficult to fill and we may realize some savings as we will discuss a little later. The contract is actually increasing 3% from prior fiscal year and Liability Trust Fund is 1% increase up to 14% of our cost of the sworn officers. i want to also highlight that as we did in the past years we are committed to still support the school resource deputy we share this cost with norwalk norwalk la mirada unified school district 50 50 so our portion is included in this budget So the areas in which we do not have too much control over is insurance premiums. We received in total 1.2 million cost increase. So total costs for workers' compensation, liability insurance, and other insurances such as property insurance, crime insurance, and pollution or cyber insurance. uh it's 5.1 million dollars citywide also on a highlight that our debt service uh total citywide is 3.9 million dollars so we have several debt issuances that we are still have obligation to pay this fiscal year you may see an increase of half a million dollars and this is due to our solar loan that we entered into agreement several years ago but now when the project is about to be completed and we should start realizing savings from implementing solar panels, energy efficient lighting or even more efficient HVAC units. So this is our time to start paying that service principal and interest. And as we all know, we have obligations to our active employees who are earning their pension benefits, but also to our existing annuitants. And so every year, California, THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM, ALSO KNOWN AS CALPERS, PROVIDES US WITH A BILL TELLING US HOW MUCH WE HAVE TO PAY IN UNFUNDED ACTUAL LIABILITY, AND THIS YEAR THAT INCREASE IS OVER 2.07%, AND IT TOLLS $5.7 MILLION, AND LATER ON WE'LL SEE HOW IT'S GOING TO GROW IN THE UPCOMING FISCAL YEARS. And this reflects really how they determine, we already discussed this subject several times, but when CalPERS doesn't reach their investment objectives, which are at 6.8%, and they realize investment losses, then they have to recoup that loss, and it takes several years, like two years later, we see increases in our contributions. because they have to have enough resources to pay annuitants that are benefiting from the pension. So that increase to us this fiscal year represented another additional $1.2 million. so on this slide i'm going to highlight what is in included in the budget document and those are the positions um just want to mention that we last fiscally implemented cost allocation plan so departments such as finance hr administration city clerk THEY ARE CHARGING, THEY CONTINUE CHARGING TO THEIR HOME DEPARTMENT AND THROUGH THE COSTS RECUPERATED FROM OTHER GRANTS THROUGH COST ALLOCATION PLAN MECHANISM. I ALREADY TALKED ABOUT PERS GOING UP 2.07%. FROM LAST YEAR WE PAID 33.76% OF OUR FULL-TIME SALARIES. THIS YEAR IT'S 35.83. this is the extract from the valuation that we receive from culpers which does provide a required contribution as you can see the very first column but fiscal year 28 29 30 up to 32 are estimates uh... in july we will know what the actual contribution required contribution for fiscal year twenty eight will be uh... but regardless uh... it it is going to grow uh... from five point six to five point nine six point six in fiscal year twenty nine six point seven in fiscal year thirty so that is uh... that is something that we need to be preparing for Also, we benefited from ARPA funding for several fiscal years. However, unfortunately, December 31st, 2026, this funding will no longer be available. We have four full-time positions that are currently funded from this ARPA funding. And so for the remainder of fiscal year 2027, those four positions will be funded from general fund. So that kind of nets to like almost adding two new positions. The change in child care grant under social services, we are eliminating one full-time position, child care coordinator position. And as to part-time hours, the part-time hours that are included in this proposed plan, are totaling a reduction of 25,217 hours, and that's a result of city council's action on May 23rd, and also our balancing act as a staff. As to what other assumptions are used in the spending plan, medical benefits are estimated to grow four percent in the upcoming fiscal year, which is for half fiscal year. Only typically they go up eight, ten percent. We used for from june from january to june that's why it's a half of the actual annual increase that we see in january so we remain the general unit remains at the same level as as now and that's the same 1 600 for active employees and retirees no changes to opt out amount and we are assuming uh as of april uh purse bill uh we had 221 221 retirees who benefited and that we have an obligation to pay their medical benefits so we have 304 full-time employees we have 221 retirees so it's pretty you know ratio that we are having more and more people that are retiring and we have responsibility to fulfill our promises as to medical benefit but also the pension benefit and in order to Typically every year we would contribute to make sure that there is funding for medical benefits for other post-employment benefits. We would typically contribute like full amount of actual required contribution. THIS YEAR WE ARE REDUCING CONTRIBUTION UNDER TRANSIT AND GENERAL FUND BY HALF IN ORDER TO BALANCE THE BUDGET. WHAT ELSE IS IN THE BUDGET? OF COURSE HOMELESS OUTREACH. WE ARE COMMITTED TO THIS ACTIVITY AND SERVICE. WE SPEND ABOUT $1.3 MILLION IN THE UPCOMING FISCAL YEAR. ALSO PROVIDING LOCAL MATCH FOR PARKING STRUCTURE OPERATIONS AND TO COVER THE DEBT SERVICE THAT'S STILL THERE AND ALSO OPERATING A SHORTFALL, $435,000. AND ALSO ALREADY YOU MENTIONED SENIOR PROGRAMS, MR. GOMEZ MENTIONED THOSE. THE COMBINATION OF SENIOR GRANT AND NUTRITION PROGRAMS, IT'S A CITY'S COMMITMENT AND INVESTMENT TO TO FUND THESE PROGRAMS AND SERVICES, IT'S $555,000. I ALREADY TALKED ABOUT HIGHWAY USER TAX. THIS FISCAL YEAR, WE INCREASED THE OFFSET FOR THE OPERATIONS TO $3.1 MILLION. FROM FISCAL YEAR 2026, IT WAS ABOUT $2.5 MILLION. THERE IS NO LONGER THE LOAN FROM THAT THE CITY GRANTED TO FORMER REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY HAS BEEN PAID OFF IN FISCAL YEAR 2026. SO THEREFORE THERE IS NO MORE REVENUES INTO GENERAL FUND BUT ALSO THERE IS NO NEED TO MAKE A TRANSFER TO HOUSING SUCCESSOR FUND. and we are continuing to fund um transit bus security program that we started last fiscal year as a pilot program but we are shifting all the funding to proxy so using special revenue funds in order to fund the program As to capital purchases, the general fund use is minimal. We are using 46,000 and this primarily to make sure that we have equipment, first aid equipment in all the recreation facilities, aquatics and sports complex. And it's about $12.1 million that will be spent from other funds. Transit is the one of the most robust ones. And then there's a minor spending in computer and technology fund, sports complex reserve fund, and vehicle and equipment replacement reserves. When we talk about city has obligations to maintain infrastructure, keep up with the technology, and therefore we have several type of capital reserves that we established years ago. You can see that the beginning fund balance, it's about $40 million. We are replenishing it by $9.3 million. However, the spending plan is about $22 million. Majority of spending is under street and traffic improvement. That's the commitment to our residents, $9.3 million. and we have major park renovation projects that are going on that's another very big category of 6.6 million dollars. Vehicle replacement 2.1 million dollars as you may know several years ago our fleet was obsolete and we were We are seeking the financing mechanism. We entered into agreement with Enterprise, and we completely renewed our fleet, 117 vehicles that we have to pay leases on, and so that's the amount pretty much that we need. We pay these leases from our Vehicle Equipment Replacement Fund, and we also replenish it from General Fund. so that is a overall overview of the city-wide plan what's saying what assumptions have been used and and now we are going to move on to discuss general fund um so general fund uh as you know it's the fund that uh city council has authority to uh um to you know that allocate spending to to fulfill all the programs activities and services so we just start right away from to go to the overview of general fund projections So we are estimating that fiscal year 2026 we will end it at 24 million dollars. Our operating revenues and I'll go a little bit in more detail about what's included and you know you will see it's about 82.6 million dollars. OUR OPERATIONS AS THEY ARE IN THE BUDGET BOOK ARE ABOUT 83 MILLION DOLLARS AND CAPITAL OUTLAYS WERE 177 000. AFTER THE CITY COUNCIL'S DIRECTION TO PREPARE A BUDGET REDUCTIONS AND ALL THE DIRECTION WE RECEIVED FROM CITY COUNCIL ON MAY 23RD City Council reduced spending under different expenditure categories by close to two million dollars. That's one point nine one million nine hundred sixty six thousand. We also are aware that not all the sheriff's positions will be realistically filled for the entire fiscal year. Therefore, we are confident that we can realize additional savings of $1.9 million. Mr. Gomez already mentioned that We did prepare for city council's approval or consideration to reinstate about $225,000 for recreation events that on May 23rd, we were directed to eliminate. So that will be a discussion later on during this presentation. and we also implemented other reductions in part-time hours to bring everything to the level of fiscal year 2026 so that gave us additional savings of about 397 000 and we shifted wherever possible the funding from general fund from that hundred seventy seven thousand dollars to special revenue funds or reserve funds So that brings us to total operating budget of 70, close to $79 million. And we already talked about allocation to reserve funds. That will, if everything comes to fruition, the way it is represented on this slide, we would have a fund balance of about 18.5 million. um eight million dollars which is a reduction of 5.5 million dollars in fund balance and we are still within our fund balance policy Now I'm going to move on to revenue. So this is, you know, it's a lot of numbers, but I will now guide you to, you know, budget 26. Then we have estimated actuals for fiscal year 26 and, you know, variances. So primarily what is of concern is our general, in general fund is the sales tax. It's also in transportation department. So as you can see under blue shaded column, those are projections for fiscal year 2027, though those remain flat, no growth. Thankfully we have, we're anticipating about $1.7 million growth in our property value, real property value derived revenues or property taxes. I already talked about that there was no more repayment of redevelopment loan. So there's a loss of $1.6 million to general fund. And so that's why you see a major decrease under general revenues. And also some decreases under public safety and community development. This slide shows the same information for fiscal year of 2027 general fund revenues, but this shows pie chart like which are our most important revenue sources. And so if there is a major shift under property taxes, sales taxes, or utility user tax, that's something that we need to be reacting to and be concerned about. um so now we are going to spending in general fund i already talked about in the very first slide that we after including and incorporating all the budget reductions as directed by city council we came down to 78.8 million dollars and this pie chart shows that in general fund actually the priority number one is public safety where you may recall citywide it was public services however from general fund the most dollars go to public safety followed by public services and then in general government and and and the other and the other functions So this is just a snapshot to show and compare individual departments as we may know them from starting with mayor and council budget all the way down to community development, comparing budget 2027 to budget 2026. You may have a question about highlighting public services. There is no actual decrease, but because we use special funding, general fund sees a decrease. As I mentioned, we WRAPPED UP CONTRIBUTION FROM HIGHWAY USE OF TAX TO $3.1 MILLION TO OFFSET OUR GENERAL FUND MAINTENANCE FOR THE STREETS AND MERIDIANS. So that pretty much brings me to city council's consideration. We are seeking city council's consideration to reinstate four very popular events organized by our recreation department. um we would like to stay within 225 000 um this slide kind of summarizes the allocation to three lighting las posadas halloween parade and 2027 norwalk 5k event and that norwalk 5k that should be a net cost of any revenues and and that that we may receive So that concludes the general fund section. And I just have one more slide, two more slides. This slide recaps the proposed budget for enterprise funds. as i mentioned they are not out of the woods either transportation departments unfortunately also experiencing shortfall and has to use their reserves in the same way the water utility fund um i want to highlight that the expenses do include our very popular and widely used microtransit service also known as community link that we inaugurated just this fiscal year and the top cost is 1.2 million dollars and that brings me to the conclusion this slide kind of provides the road map actually this this arrow should be much longer because we started back in february It's been a long journey. We are here on June 2nd, if needed, and council needs more deliberation and provide more direction or discussions about the proposed budget. We are here to have a special study session on June 9th. Hopefully we would like to be able to adopt the budget at our regular meeting on June 16th and have our public hearing. for everybody to express their opinion. And that concludes my presentation and myself and the team is here to answer any questions.

Thank you, Yana. I think you did that in like 40 minutes. It's a 500 page book and you got it through pretty quickly. So thank you for that. We do have a few speaker cards for our budget items. So I'm gonna go ahead and call those speakers up first. And this is all specifically on item number 23 regarding our fiscal budget. The first speaker is Blanca. You can come to the podium and as a reminder to our speakers to speak directly into the microphone, straight on, otherwise we do not hear you. Following Blanca is going to be Andy Yu.

Hear me? Yeah, okay. So yeah, I guess I had a speech ready, but I see there's a lot of last minute changes, but

aside from those changes i didn't see any change to any of the cuts being made to the teen center hours and i think that's very important you know i remember the teen center can we stop the timer for just a second we're having a really hard time hearing you levy i don't know if it's the placement of the microphone or the the sound i'm not quite sure it's very muffled we can barely hear you can you hear me No.

Can you hear me?

Try right in front of the microphone for us, thank you.

Can you hear me? Yes, okay. So where was I? Yeah. So looking at these budget cuts and the money being reallocated, all I saw was those events, the 5K, the parade, but nothing about the teen center. So aside from, yes, those other events, it's great for community and everything, and I'm glad that those are being reinstated. The teen center is also very important. You know, I remember the teen center as a teen being a place for kids after school to get mentorship and tutoring. You know, there were also computers there and printers, and not only that, but the teen leaders were also a safe space for some of us that used to frequent that place. Cutting teen center hours will affect those kids that need somewhere to go after school for help with homework, even a place just to hang out and stay out of trouble. Not only that, but you will be cutting into the staff salaries, so this would also impact those jobs, you know, with the looming recession and all. And then also in regards to the notice of the community budget meeting, Ms. Rios, you told somebody in the community that the notice of the budget meeting was posted in the city website, which is not true. And even if it was, I don't think you should be expecting people to be digging through the poorly managed website to look for it. Most of the time it's not updated. And I know because I go on there every so often and a lot of the links are broken. Some of the addresses of the parks are not accurate. And I feel like if you guys are actually serious about transparency and want to reach people and notify them about these important meetings such as the budget meeting, it should be announced on all social media platforms and offline for those who aren't tech savvy and in advance. You should also stream and put it on YouTube like you do these city council meetings. I know I saw the city clerk mention about putting it back in Norwalk now and having people sign up for text alerts. I think that would help, because some people, you know, that's their resort to printed material and not everybody's online. So yeah, that's also, yeah, that's it for me.

Thank you.

Andy you and following Andy is Anthony Tiberius and Again as a reminder, please speak directly into the microphone So

To start with, I know it was mentioned that the meeting was the 23rd and you mentioned this was noticed. It was interesting that it was not noticed as all your other meetings. Every public city council meeting gets a post on social media. It gets put on the city calendar on the website. This one was not put on the city calendar and it was not on any social media as well. So the only way someone would have known to look is looking at the agenda and looking at what was posted. So that's a little bit, I think dubious to say that it was out there in public for everyone to see. I understand having on the Saturday so that people can go because it's not during the week. I think that is, you know, a good change. But doing an 8 a.m. in a conference room somewhere is not very public. Every council meeting is always, you know, streamed. It's always on YouTube. There is always a link to it. And they're recorded, you can watch them afterwards as well. This one is not recorded. If you click on the link on the website, it returns an error and it was not streamed at all as well. So to say that there was a chance for public involvement, maybe because they could look at it, but that's not meaningful public involvement. And I think that's what matters when you're doing a budget for the city and for the residents. It was mentioned that public services, essential services were saved, that there was no cut to essential services. yet I see cuts for traffic engineers and public works inspection. I like my roads, my bridges inspected. I don't want to have them crumble. I think that's important. Also cut was street lights repair, underpass lighting services repair, replacement of bulbs. i guess we can learn to drive in the dark i'd rather not i'd rather make sure i can see where i'm going so i don't hit anyone i don't hit any animals so i think that's pretty important reduce the mental health presentations in multiple languages i guess that's not essential and then the holy county sheriff's savings, it's not a cut, it's a savings because you're hoping that we don't have to pay, you know, $1.8 million for their positions. And even if we don't, next year that number is going to come back right the same. So as every other department's budget is cut and they're going to have to want to ask for more, this sheriff's budget is going to be exactly the same. That's interesting you don't look into that. There's also 2.2 million that we fund for their liability fund. So that doesn't even come out of their general budget. So next time they go and they shoot an unarmed person and we have to pay for a settlement, that's just gonna come out of there without any question. So I think overall, this budget process is very opaque. there is no meaningful presentation and i think these priorities do not match the city's presence priorities which you would know if you allowed more input from the city and made sure that you could actually hear from residents and hear what they wanted before you make all these cuts we don't even know why there was a 10 cut the proposed budget that's online does not match what was presented at the last saturday meeting um we still don't know why that 10 you know cut is coming if there's a public issue with our finances are we losing money you know that's a big question i think we deserve to know

Thank you, Anthony Tavares, and following Anthony is gonna be Sarah.

Check it, check it, can you guys hear me good? Or do I need a mask? We all right? Everybody sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown, wah, wah, wah. us might as well do that every time we're up here fighting with the city council fighting with the board it's very important very crucial that we understand what city we represent see i'm from the 70s 80s we have no programs and i believe that the budget that you guys are cutting is very crucial to the youth now Every single one of you up here has white hair, and if not, you dyed it. That's a sign of wisdom and maturity. That's how we gotta come together. It's our responsibility to guide the next generation away from the dungeon, 95% conviction rate, 98% conviction rate, for them to go out there and go do circles and donuts in the Norwalk Square, preventing them from gang violence, gun violence, Immaturity stuff, that's our duty as leaders, community leaders. Every single one of you up here with a nice suit and tie, fact check. That's preposterous. It should be coming out of the heart. We all volunteer because we wanna be in this city. I know, deputy manager, you're turning your head, but it's okay. You've been there. You've arrested individuals. And I know you felt sorry for those kids. I know that. But it's time to get together, come together, make a plan. Because I know we had a disagreement before about fundraising and you disagree with it. To me, chalecos, it brings finances. And if we gotta go get grants, let's go get grants. If you guys don't got the individuals to run the promoting business in front streets or whatever event it is, it's your job to find them, not let them come to you. That's why you guys get paid. Let them raise the finances. Let them have a percentage. We all could work together. But to try to cut back the projects, the programs? That's nonsense. I didn't have no projects. I didn't have no programs when I was a kid. We would ride around on the bikes with monkey wrenches, because the plunge would be closed, and we would open up all the fire hydrants. Flip the one-ways, that was our swimming pool. We didn't have no programs, so please take it in consideration. As you guys are up there talking about it behind closed doors and not in front of the whole media outlet, think about the kids, man. That's our duty. It's our responsibility as a Norwalk community member, as a board member. Thank you.

Thank you. Sarah, you're up next following Irma Ramos.

Good evening. I just want to start off by reiterating what some other speakers have said about the Saturday meeting. I know that you're saying it was publicized and all that and that there was some confusion from a social media post that you mentioned. I think the fact that it wasn't publicized as your other meetings were and that it did say in there that there was approved cuts, you weren't open with the community, did cause some confusion and I feel like if you had been open with the community you could have curbed some of that. The community kind of felt blindsided by these cuts that you proposed without community input. Second of all, I just wanted to point out that I didn't see any cuts to public safety on there and actually seemed like it was one of the highest costs that the city has. I also heard you say that the sheriff's contract actually went up and that you could in fact decrease that contract, but that that was what you promised your residents. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. That's a little confusing, but it was making me think that all of these other social service and other events that you have done for years and years and years, That is a way you set a precedent with your residents of what to expect in the City of Norwalk. So that is a way of making a promise to your residents, and you're still taking that away, so I'm not sure why you can't do the other thing. Like another speaker mentioned, the cuts to the teen center, Park Pals program, all of that impacts our youth, impacts community wellness. Limiting events, taking away public spaces, all of that where residents gather and build community, that actually impacts public safety and community wellness. Feeling safe with one another, feeling connected, that is the key to community wellness and it seems from your decisions that maybe business is the key to you to community wellness. All of these things, it makes it a little ironic that your motto is connected community because it feels like you really don't want your community to be connected. I see that you did reinstate some of the events, which I'm happy about, but I also saw that some other events that you know are popular haven't been reinstated, which is the movie nights, Front Street Fridays, Santa's sleigh, with talking to other parents in the community. That was a huge blow to the parents in the community, huge blow. You know that those are popular. So just something to think about. I hope that you rethink where you're putting your money and you think more about community wellness and the future of your youth and your residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Irma Ramos.

Hi, my name is Irma Ramos, longtime resident of Norwalk. I found out about these budget cuts in a Facebook post, not from the city's website, not from the city's Instagram, nothing, from a Facebook post, an anonymous Facebook post. Why is it that we're trying to cut $3.8 million in city funding to the community and not letting anyone know about it? Thank you, Janet, for presenting the budget, but there was a proposed budget before these cuts were proposed. Why, from that point when we proposed that budget, did we need these budget cuts? I listened to this entire presentation. I didn't see an answer. Gas tax? This is something we already knew about. I don't think that you have answered that question today, why we need to cut 3.8 million. And I find it, I find the secretiveness of the meeting that you guys held. You called it, the city manager called it a study session. This isn't a bunch of teenagers studying for history. No, this is $3.8 million in budget cuts, and you still haven't given a good answer as to why. I think that's pretty much it. I like that you're instating some of them. I still don't understand why you are cutting them. I saw the cuts to the streetlights. We are a transit city. That is what we are known for. We are at the end of the 105. We crossed the 91, kind of crossed the 91. We are crossed by the five. We are a transit city and you want us to live in the dark because we don't want to replace light bulbs? $400,000 in cuts for that. What are we thinking? I do appreciate the cuts to the city attorneys. I appreciate that quite a bit. I googled him, didn't know much, but apparently he was previously fired by the city of Pomona for ethics and political campaigns. So maybe we could spend less on people who are dubious in terms of ethics. Who you hire, who you keep on this council, on this staff reflects you guys. If it's people who have ethics problems, if it's people who push things. You guys spent, allocated $250,000 last year because you lost, you lost a lawsuit against the city, the state of California. $250,000 could fund what? Everything that you just cut in terms of events? Let's do better.

All right. Bringing it back to Council, I'll go ahead and open it up to any of my colleagues that would like to start and go first. Or if there's anybody in staff that would like to address any of the comments or questions that might have been brought up that we went through previously.

Yes mayor members of City Council in the community as I mentioned at the beginning the budget process is dynamic we start with study sessions this today is a study session we will come back the next City Council meeting for adoption so this is a way that we want the community to participate We do it on Saturdays because some individuals are not available to do meetings during the week. And so we try and have meetings throughout different schedules to get the different community members that may want to participate. The process that we went through was one that We wanted to make sure that the city council prioritize items. If you were paying attention, one of the slides increases our fixed costs like insurance premiums that we have no no power over to negotiate. But it's about $3.8 million. Those are costs that are having to be budgeted for without any options of the city negotiating those items and so those pressures exterior pressures are put on our expenditures our revenues are not growing as fast and we Hope that they will in the future however today there we say that the revenues are flat and so with those increasing extract exterior pressures we have to manage the budget fiscally responsibly and as a city manager I have our directors present our directors have put budgets together and we present them to the City Council then we have to make tough decisions We really wish we could fund everything. And to be able to manage the budget, we do have to look at priorities and we make recommendations to the council. And all your points are well taken. I'm glad you're here and expressing your concerns. But when you have a $3.8 million increase in your expenditures that you have no control over, It's tough, and we have to make some tough decisions. And so while we want everything to stay the same, our revenues are not growing fast enough to be able to keep up with the expenditures that are exterior to our control. SO I JUST WANTED TO CLARIFY THAT TO ALL THAT ARE HERE. I APPRECIATE YOU BEING HERE. I'M GLAD YOU'RE HERE BECAUSE YOU'RE ABLE TO HEAR US AND WE CAN GIVE YOU ANSWERS. WE CAN PROVIDE YOU WITH INFORMATION. IF YOU KNOW ME, I'M AT COMMUNITY MEETINGS. right front and center at our community meetings. And I wanna make sure that you as a resident are informed and can ask your questions. And I hope that we can explain to you how things work in local government. That's one of my passions, to be able to explain to residents how local government works. We are facing gubernatorial candidates who are saying that they want to take a gas tax holiday. That's a huge impact to our revenues. We would have to revisit the entire budget if gas tax was eliminated. That's over $3.5 million. This budget would not look the same. So bear with us. We are listening to what the candidates are saying. We don't know who will be elected, but some are promising that they're going to do away with gas tax. and so we want to make sure that you're informed we want to make sure that you know how we're approaching the budget it is a process we welcome input i welcome input i will meet with you to explain how the budget works i will i will sit with you and explain how economic development works i have i think enough experience to be able to explain in a very um what happened in a very detailed format. And I can show you every step of the way. So I think from my point of view, we're trying to be transparent. We're trying to be as open as possible. And this is a study session. We're not adopting a budget tonight. The council will have a discussion as to how they want us to proceed as staff. So I welcome all the comments and I invite you to meet with me. If you want to meet with me, I am open to meeting with you on one-on-one in groups or whatever it may be. But I've been in the business for 35 years. I have a finance background and I am one that advises the council to be fiscally responsible and be cautious about how we proceed because we don't know what's in the near future. So thank you.

Thank you, Jesus. Rick?

Yeah, I just wanted to, again, thank you, Jesus, well said. I mean, we all make tough decisions up here. We study the budget day in, day out, making the best decisions based on the community. But what's a concern that I'm hearing is some of the comments that you guys didn't know that there was meetings on Saturdays or there was study sessions. I'm not quite sure if any people get their information from different forms and mediums out there. I do recognize some people in the audience here that were there. So maybe you want to raise your hand so that they can ask you how you got that information and how you attended that study session on a Saturday. We're very transparent. We don't do anything behind closed doors. That's public record. The city clerk, by law, has to post things. And those people that were there, and I see them in the audience tonight, I mean, that was a learning experience for you guys, wasn't it? wasn't it you guys saw us in action on where we went through item by item and if not mistaken the budget's posted online as well so you have an opportunity to review that at your leisure we're very transparent we're very open we want you guys to be engaged in this process because it's the tough decisions that we make up here we we get negative comments and feedback from the community while we're cutting this and while we're cutting that. But we take everything into consideration based on what we have to budget with, right? And it's very disheartening to hear all the negative feedback out in the community when we're trying to do our job and if you guys are interested you guys can more than welcome to take any one of these seats in the future and give it a give it a shot right we welcome that so until then let us do our job make the tough decisions move this city forward we do care about our community we do care about our residents that's why we're up here thank you thanks rick any other comments or questions

thank you jesus our city manager and thank you council member ramirez for your comments very much appreciated yes these are very difficult decisions that have to be made i will say that the budget process is something that we go through every year and it's usually in may right yana when do we begin every

WE ACTUALLY BEGIN IN FEBRUARY, THE WHOLE PROCESS, BUT WE PRESENT THE PROPOSED BUDGET TO CITY COUNCIL IN MAY TYPICALLY AFTER MEMORIAL DAY.

everyone's information here for the future. And if you'd like to help your family, neighbors, and friends learn a little bit more, just as having that information ahead of time, as you just heard from our finance director, staff begins preparation of the budget every year in February. And we do that with the intent to adopt our budget every year for the fiscal year. So your fiscal year begins July 1. And as you just heard, presentations do come to the city council in May. We do occasionally have a study session that's on a Saturday or an off day that it's not on our first or third Tuesday of every month when we would normally have our council meetings. And we do that because we really want a couple of reasons. Some of those reasons are we want to afford staff the opportunity and counsel the opportunity and the public the opportunity to just kind of hear, have a little preview of what's being discussed, what's to come. Obviously our public meetings typically occur in these chambers. Our session study sessions also occur for the public. As Councilmember Ramirez mentioned, there were some of you that were there that day. However you learned of the information, I think it'd be helpful to share with others so that they can also be informed. It was a transparent process, again, a difficult process, but it's something that we go through every year. And as I mentioned at our last council meeting, we are not the only city and municipality doing so. Every city that you look at right now is talking about budgets. Some are talking about potential budget cuts, just like the city of Norwalk is. do you want to make budget cuts that's not our first choice absolutely not over the years there's been a lot of mandates from the state that are unfunded so when you hear that when you hear about local control and the fact that we don't have it that's not making an excuse that unfortunately is a reality with state-mandated um with state mandates they'll direct a city council a municipality to take certain actions on certain things but they won't give us the funding for it you know we have to come up with that extra funding i know we heard about the tax revenue which is why i'll just take this moment to really ask that you Shop local here in the city of Norwalk. Every dollar you spend goes towards those programs and services that we all want to keep. And so I've said this before, even if it's just your milk and eggs that you're shopping for, go to the local shopping store, your local market. I mean, something as simple as that. You'd be amazed at how just those simple actions of our residents, our community, that is a way to give back to ensure that our resources are maintained, is just by spending your hard-earned money here in the city of Norwalk. The Of course, we've been listening to a lot of the feedback, always very open to hearing the feedback, very big on transparency. Do we sometimes learn how to do things better or be better? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we're always, all of us, all of us can take the opportunity to, you know, just learn and do better, grow together. But I did want to ask, since this was mentioned, and it was a question that came up during the study session on our street lights. One of the residents mentioned that because by no means do we want anybody operating in the dark in the city of Norwalk. So who from staff can shed some light on that particular item?

yes vice mayor rios the reason why we were able to place that item on as one of the items to be reduced we carry inventory and we feel like we have inventory for at least eight months and so if at mid-year we need funding that's another funding we will request additional funding so that's another budget process for those of you who are here the mid-year budget is in february And so that's when we take a look at the budget closely and either add or change or provide additional resources. But we have those two budget processes in place, and these are all public meetings, to be able to provide the priorities that the city council and the community is asking for. So at mid-year, if we run low on inventory, we will request additional monies. But we have inventory for approximately eight months of equipment and bulbs. You will not be driving in the dark. And if we run out, I will come to council before February. If that inventory runs low in four months, I will be back to city council asking for additional monies to restore our inventory.

Yes.

So that is the budget process that is available for us, for you, and you look at our agenda tonight, we have contracts that we do and provide every city council meeting. So we have inventory.

Thank you. Yes, I just wanted to make sure it's understood. We are definitely keeping the lights on. And please forgive me. I just want to clarify those issues, those misunderstandings. I'm hoping that this resonates with you to kind of clarify some of those questions. And that's all that I'm trying to do here. Now, there was also a mention of the teen center hours. I will share that the City of Norwalk and this leadership team has consistently shown a commitment to our youth. Over the years, we have increased programming, we have increased funding. One of those examples I'll give you is our summer workforce every year since I've been at least on this council since 2017 we have increased the hours and the funding to hire more youth from our city why and I said this during my council comments because our goal is to grow leaders here in the city. So every year, whereas maybe we started hiring just 50 of our youth, we've increased it every year, 70, 50, 60, 70, 75. I think we're over 100 now. And so I don't want that to get lost. And as far as the council, our leadership team, and I think I speak for everyone here safely saying that We are definitely committed to our teens, our youth here in the city through our TAP program, through our summer work program, et cetera, et cetera. So what else did I want to share? As was already mentioned, this is a very fluid process. It's a living document. Nothing has been absolutely determined or decided. We are just doing our due diligence and looking at the budget to make sure that our essential services remain intact. Do we want to keep all of the fun events? Absolutely, absolutely. I think that we are looking at reimagining those to have an ultimate effect and really be wise when we use our funding so that when there is a program in the city, and at least this is how I see it, I look at the attendance. I look at the impact. I look at the benefit. And so I'll be quite honest with you, when we were talking about our Front Street Fridays, because I go to those events, I'm there. I really make an effort to go to every single one of our events in the city. Our attendance was very, very low. As a matter of fact, I probably, there's a lot of, many of you here that I don't see at our front street fridays our summer concerts are you participating in our 5k this sunday i want to see you all out there that's how we keep the momentum in the city of norwalk for our events our resources which events do you want to see which events bring you the biggest impact which events do you bring your family your friends and your neighbors out for I think this budget process has given us the opportunity to look at that, because we want to make sure that whatever events we do offer, that the community is, that's what they want, that's what they're gonna come out for, that's what they see a benefit to. So I'll just, I'll leave with that for now, but I'm always readily available and accessible for any questions, information, from anyone in our community. I readily welcome that. Thank you.

Thank you. Tony?

Yeah, I just want to thank Jesus and the staff. I know from personal experience that putting together a budget like this is a gargantuan task. How much thought is needed? It's almost like you have to have a crystal ball. because I don't think when this started in February that anybody was gonna be thinking that we're gonna have a war in Iran that ran gas prices up a couple bucks or that groceries were gonna go through the roof. And I tell you what, if you're spending all your money on gas and groceries, you're not gonna be buying cars at Norwalk Toyota. You're not gonna be buying cars at Tesla. You're not gonna be going to Target or any of the other stores around here. And that's gonna have a direct impact our sales tax. So will the war be over next week? Next month? The month after that? And do we know at this point, how long will it take for us to know what the actual impact of that lower rate of sales tax due to the economy? When will we know that?

We probably will do, because it lags, so probably six months.

Six months, right? So that means during that six months, it would make sense to be cautious and be ready. And if we get to the point in time that maybe we don't get hit as badly as we thought we would, that we reinstate the funding for these programs because it was always on the table that as we could, we would reinstate many of these programs, right? Not once during that study session did anybody indicate that cuts or changes to these programs were gonna be permanent. It was purely out of abundant caution to see what was going to happen with sales tax and everything else so that we could bring it back in as time went on. Those are the two things I think we really have to do better in communicating. These were never intended to be permanent. And the council is ready, willing, able to reinstate the funding. as soon as we know what the hit is on the sales tax. We really need to communicate that, because it's cleared me. I had my own commissioners that I appointed calling me, because they saw the social media that was erroneous, and they started asking me questions about what it was that was really going on. And when the city is not communicating, it creates a vacuum, it gets filled up, by things that are not correct. And you brought that up earlier. So I would just encourage you and your staff to really explain this in a way that people can understand. And I'm really happy that you made yourself available to explain this stuff, because this isn't stuff that you can learn through an oral communications or a city council meeting. If there's people really interested in learning about this stuff, it's going to take a little while. So I definitely encourage you to meet with Jesus, to meet with any one of us so that we have the opportunity to give you the full story and not just some post you saw on social media. That's it, Mayor.

Thank you. Anna? You know, the cuts that are suggested that are brought to us are not taken lightly at all. And they are very difficult to make. But we are having some really serious conversations about what is really needed, priorities, what have you. And it's tough. Our job is a tough one to decide that. But I've always said that my job as a school board member for 19 years and now as an elected here in Norwalk, as a council member, fiscal solvency. We need to be fiscally prudent. Back then for our district, school board, and now for our city. We need to make some adjustments where they need to be made, just like our own budgets at home. How much can we afford? What money's coming in? What money's going out? And how do we balance? And that's how I see it. I'm here as a person who's going to be looking at what we have, what we can do, how much, and yes, as much as possible, our students, the kids, the events that we have because I see the need and I see how much joy they bring to a lot of our community members. But we also have to look at the numbers. Are we getting ongoing funding? And that's always a really sticking point. But it's also one that I take very seriously. So I do plan on, I mean, I look at our budgets and I look at these reports. And I, of course, take into consideration the questions, the comments. I write them down. Because they're very valid. We have those questions as well. Our own families, friends in the city. So, you know, we ask those hard questions and we take everything into consideration and we try to make the best decisions.

Thanks, Anna. For the sake of time and it being 8.30, I'm not going to rehash everything that was just said. I just want to thank my colleagues because I had some of the same comments. I do want to just note the Santa's float. I'm sure that most of the residents do not know this, but the Santa's float is not a City of Norwalk. item. It's not a City of Norwalk event. The Santa's Float is actually owned by and operated by a nonprofit that is here in the city. And we partner with them each and every year. So there were some other decisions and conversations held. But again, this is not the city helps with it. But it is a nonprofit that actually owns, operates, manages runs, facilitates everything to do with the Santa's Float. So I just want to make sure that that clarification is out there. I'm going to ask staff, by all means, if things change before midyear and you have the urge and you feel that there is something missing in any of our programming, don't wait. Don't wait until January, February and midyear to come to Council and say, I know this is one of the items that we reduced from the funding source, and we really think we're missing the boat on something. Bring it back immediately. Do not wait. If we are in a point and a situation where we have the ability to do that, and we're a little bit more comfortable, around the uncertainty that's going around, please do not wait. Please do not wait. That's our decisions, not yours. The other thing that I will say is Jesus, Ozzie, Alex, as our senior leadership team, budgets are budgets. And at no point in time should it be okay for any program to go over budget without approval. Absolutely not. We are not doing this ask for forgiveness after the fact. There's a reason why we go through this project, this process of a budget, because we are trying to make sure that everything is covered to the best of our ability. So I implore you three and each of the directors to know that that is going to be watched with a fine-tooth comb. Because there is pennies that we're talking about. And if we're sitting up here cutting and reducing key programs and we are spending over budget without approval, that is not acceptable. It's not easy, my friends. It's not easy. And there's a lot that's going on that we're still getting information on. I just looked up election results and so far measure ER, which would increase all of our L.A. County sales tax currently is a no. So that's one thing that you can look at, because that would be more money that you, we, all of us would be paying, and it's not coming back to our city programs. So watch the elections. Watch what happens. We will continue to monitor. We are not taking direction tonight unless there's any changes that council would like to see forward. I did have an additional speaker card, but because we're not taking direction, what I'll do is add it to oral communication so you can still come up and be heard tonight. But with that, I think you have direction from council. on what to bring forward. And our next meeting and the goal for adoption of the budget would be on June 16. All right. With that, we are going to oral communications. We do have a few speaker cards. Again, I apologize. We're hoping that we got the speakers fixed on the dais so we can hear you clearly. I'm going to go ahead and start with the card that wished to speak earlier. And Patty, please come on up. And JV, you are our next speaker.

Patty can you please thank you okay so I had no intentions of speaking today but I felt like I was called out I was at that May 23rd meeting I found out of the meeting because as I mentioned before if you are not involved directly with the city the residents are not informed or properly there's no communication I feel because of the whole Save Hermosillo Park I've made it commitment to my community to attend every meeting until the park is built so I found out about these meetings because I constantly log on to the Norwalk website so if you're not involved I don't see how any of the residents would have known about that Saturday meeting it wasn't publicized anywhere so I just wanted to get that out but since I'm here I just want to say that we're still waiting for the trash cans around the school allen and um there's a lot of um of our residents reporting property damage adjacent to the park that we haven't heard back and no one's heard back i'm getting cold um there's a lot of a lot of issues that have been resolved or um no one's getting back to them if you can please somebody get back to the citizens that are having structural damage or health issues. That'll be appreciated. But anyways, that's all I had to say.

Thank you. Joy V and the next speaker is Irma Ramos.

Good evening. So like the previous speaker, I wanted to start off by saying that I wasn't planning on speaking as well tonight, and I didn't fill out a card until I was thankfully personally invited by Rick Ramirez. You can't hear me? Can everyone else hear me?

It's very muffled. I'm sorry.

Okay, so I'll speak a little bit louder. Hopefully that helps. So I want to say thank you. Can my time go back because you weren't able to hear me, Rick?

I didn't reset, thank you.

Appreciate it. So again, I want to start off by saying that I wasn't going to speak and I didn't plan on speaking, but I want to thank Council Member Rick Ramirez for inviting me to speak. As an elected representative, I applaud your commitment to openness for community feedback. I applaud your recognizing people who made it out to the meeting and were able to participate, such as the speaker before me was able to come up and comment. But when you're a leader, You invite participation and feedback regardless of what it is. And you've clearly shown that with your comments. You've shown to your residents that when they have a concern that they can come up to this podium and provide feedback just for you to admonish them. And if they wanted to be here and take out their Wednesday night, That's the response that they get from you. Would people come share their frustrations on where the city outreach failed them, the ways that the city could reach them, and you admonish them? You scolded them in front of them? That's your response, that you can't face the people you represent without telling them that if they want your seat that they can just come and take it? How disgraceful. I wonder if you took the time to listen and hear that someone brought up the fact that it wasn't posted on the city's social media and the city's web calendar. And if you wanted to use one of your sessions of looking down at your phone, you could have looked that up. Because I did. And I saw that there were reminders for tonight's meeting on the city's Facebook. And I didn't see it for the May 23rd meeting. And I went to your city's website, which is norwalk.org slash calendar dot php. You can go to today's date and you'll see that there's a council meeting scheduled. But if you go to the May 23rd, you don't see that there's anything posted there. It's not listed on the calendar. These are your residents coming to tell you what they needed. and your response was lackluster at best, if your constituent, and actually, sorry, I wanted to offer this as an advice as a non-elected city official, that if you want your constituents to come and be able to openly, without fear of retaliation, come and say something, you take their frustrations, you take what they're sharing with you, that you need to listen to, to listen. You listen, you take a breath, you listen and you digest, and you don't listen to react and respond without taking into consideration what they're trying to tell you, no matter how it comes off. Thank you.

thank you irma ramos and following irma we have andy the question that i asked when i came up here i don't know feels like 20 minutes ago was what were the reasons for these these texts these uh cuts and i've heard worry about the gas tax, the gas tax that we still have $4 million left over from last year, that we're budgeting $3 million for? I feel like you guys are being disingenuous. And that's an ethical problem because if you can't be honest about what you're telling us, you said that this is, I'm going to read you word for word what it says on the approved budget cuts for the streetlights. It's not streetlights. It's reduced streetlight pole repair services. That's not a light bulb. That's replacing broken light bulbs. That's replacing broken poles. Pole purchases, underpass lighting services, reduction in purchases of bulbs, and anti-theft lids. $411,000. And you're saying we have $411,000 worth of light bulbs and that's why we're gonna cut this? I feel like you're gaslighting us. I don't have a solid answer why you guys wanna cut $3.8 million yet. That has not been answered at all. And it's an ethical issue, isn't it? Because if you can't be honest and if you can't be upfront to us, the constituents that you serve, then we can't trust you.

Thanks. Thank you. Andy is our next speaker, followed by Jack Cornejo.

Well, today I wanna speak on something a little different. I think we've discussed the budget. You've heard from us, the process will be ongoing. So I guess we'll see what you have to tell us next week or in two weeks at the next meeting. But some things I wanted to mention is that this week, it's upcoming June 6th actually, is gonna mark one year since Trump sent his goons into this state, into this county. one year since the start of the ICE raids, the kidnappings that have been happening and continue to happen. To this date, two of you maybe have made some comments on this. Two of you had spoken up with some milquetoast comments about, you know, it's not good, something needs to be done. And there's been a couple statements about the city that, yes, we know this is going on, and that's about it. And that's it. While Other jurisdictions have continued to take brave action, have continued to pass resolutions to protect the residents there. Norwalk has done nothing and we continue to have people kidnapped. Just last week there was another resident that was also taken and this is never discussed. We hear that, you know, there's the city manager comments But these never make it into there. So again, and I said this before, your residents aren't calling you for a reason. And I think it's, you need to think why. If you don't make any statements, if you don't make it known that you are standing up, are you here to stand up for them to protect their rights, why would they bother telling you when their family members are taken, why would they bother going to you when there's other people, other networks that they can reach out to because they don't think their city's here for them. And that's something that you know we've heard multiple times whenever we have talked with residents when we talk with businesses we talk about how business has gone down how you know they're struggling and the city has come by maybe a couple times but they didn't really feel supported so we're a year in and this is still ongoing as i said just last week this happened so there's still a chance to do something I think about a month ago, a member made comments about it's time for Norwalk to do something. Well, we're still waiting. It's not, you know, rocket science. There's nothing to come up with that hasn't already been done. Just look at any of the cities around us and the actions that they've taken. Look at the actions the LA Mayor is taking, the LA County continues to take. You have two transit centers on your you know city uh limits that are really big targets with you know the world cup with the olympics eventually coming people are going to be translating all through and those are going to be places that people may feel vulnerable so that's something for you to think about and hopefully have some action so that residents can feel safer thank you jack cornejo and then jennifer friesian is our next speaker

Norwalk City Council to clarify any misunderstanding about what occurred on May 23rd at the special meeting regarding Norwalk City budget. A person can go to YouTube, put in the search bar Norwalk CA behind the scenes and they will be taken to the complete filming of the meeting and they can see for themselves what was presented, what was spoken, what was discussed and that will clarify any misunderstanding or disagreement That was done because a concerned citizen has communicated to the city government about lack of transparency and inclusiveness and also communicated about violations of the Brown Act and They were promised by the city that those issues would be investigated and that the results of that investigation would be communicated to that concerned citizen. That was last year, going on two years. So this concerned citizen took it upon themselves to help the city be accountable to the residents and in full compliance with the Brown Act and with every legal requirement, videotaped the meeting. The last few seconds, I'd like to say, I'd like to take up Mr. Gomez's opportunity to talk to him about the budget and also Mr. Ramirez, I'd like to have a meeting with you to discuss the issue I just brought up and then various other ones that I've brought up before about term limits. That's it.

Thank you. Jennifer and our final speaker after that will be Paki. So Jennifer first and then Paki.

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Friesen. I'm the IAM union business representative for the Norwalk City employees. I'm here tonight on behalf of the employees who serve the city every day and who continue to be asked to do more with less. It's deeply disappointing to be having discussions of budget cuts to community events while the city continues to fund enhanced projects and outside contracts at the expense of its own workforce, including a 3% increase for the sheriff's contract. Employees are being told there are financial constraints when it comes to salaries, staffing, potential wage increases, yet the city continues to find funding for projects and contractors that could otherwise be performed by dedicated city employees. Even more concerning is the continued approval of contracts that outsource work traditionally performed by IAM bargaining unit members. Time and time again, the Council has approved contracts that impact bargaining unit work without first completing the required meet and confer process at the department or HR level. These are not simply bargaining table issues. They are mandatory subjects of bargaining that require discussion with the union before decisions are made. Government Code Section 3505 and Senate Bill 339 were established to ensure employee representatives have meaningful opportunity to discuss impacts, alternatives, and effects of contracting out work before those decisions are finalized. To add insult to injury, employees are now being asked to train the very contractors and vendors who may ultimately replace them. Imagine being asked to transfer your knowledge, skills, and years of experience to someone who has been hired to take away work that has historically belonged to city employees. That is not a recipe for morale, trust, or partnership. We often hear discussions about employee morale recruitment and retention. The reality is that morale suffers when employees feel undervalued, overlooked, and excluded from decisions that directly affect their livelihoods. Morale suffers when employees see outside contractors prioritized over the workforce that has spent years serving this community. Morale suffers when employees are treated as an expense to be managed rather than an investment in the city's success. What's frustrating is that the city's obligations do not begin and end at the bargaining table. Employees expect meaningful negotiations regarding wages and benefits. The city has an independent legal obligation to meet and confer with the union on decisions that affect bargaining union employees. Accountability means more than simply showing up in negotiations. It means honoring legal obligations, respecting the role of the union, and engaging with employees' representatives before the decisions are made, not after contracts have already been approved. At the same time, the city remains at the bargaining table without presenting meaningful proposals on wages and benefits. Employees are not looking for excuses, delays, or talking points. They're looking for tangible proposals that recognize their contributions and address the real economic challenges they face. After years of dedicated service, employees deserve more than vague responses and empty assurances. They deserve serious proposals and good faith negotiations that demonstrate respect for the workforce. Thank you.

Paki.

I was learning how to play drum. Huh, this guy? That was last week. He's with me at the senior hall, senior center. I told him he reminded me of Jericho. My ancestor was there. And they blow a trumpet, right? Seven times. And I sing, it was like . Seven times like that. And walk around in circles. And then bring down the wall of Sherigarh. Can you believe we still use that today in Tonga? When a tornado come in, He called, hey, make some vibration, make some noise. And the tornado chomped and saved the village. We still do that today. What is a tornado, eh?

Make some noise if you don't, save our village.

Eh, what do you think of that? So I was thinking, If we can make, I say we can make a farm by friction. It's gonna drop it somewhere and nobody die. But the area, if it's on sand area, like Saudi Arabia, that's where we come from, the Polynesian. It will open the bottom and go down, you know. That's what I was thinking. We can use this kind of, and if it help change villages, see, I need some money. Remember, I'm the one who tell you, right? Nobody use the idea, but we have to do some search to find out if I'm right. I should want some money. All my story, I should get millions. My story of India, I haven't contacted, I want a billion dollar from this guy over there. I have all kind. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sarah?

I don't know if there was a reason why you said I couldn't speak twice like other people did, but I'm glad that I'm able to speak. I just wanted to respond to a couple of things that I heard you say about the budget. I understand that it's difficult. I understand that budgets are challenging. I understand everyone is suffering. I get it. That wasn't the point. I don't think that was anyone's point. And that's not the issue. The issue is your priorities. Look right outside this city hall and tell me that your priorities are right. The walk website claims to honor the residents of Norwalk and the about estimate about over 90% of comments on social media are against it and are negative. You guys are obviously on social media, you've seen the comments. This space right here, the green space was important to the community. Your claim of connectedness, wanting what's best for Norwalk, telling us to sit down so that you can do your job, this is your job. Your job is to listen to the community and you're not doing it. Look at the parks you're renovating, you're spending money on that goes against community needs. You're saying you don't have enough money. Why did you start these projects then? It's very confusing to the community. And like you mentioned, Council Member Ramirez, there are two seats up for reelection in November. So I hope the residents are listening and they elect someone that puts the residents first. Thank you.

Thank you. That was our last speaker card. With that, our meeting is adjourned.