City Council - Regular Meeting

Bell.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the successor agency of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency meeting of July 7, 2026. I will officially call this meeting to order. And Teresa, can we have a roll call, please?

Agency member Zayala. Here. Ramirez. Here. Valencia. Here. Vice Chair Rios.

Here.

And Chair Perez.

Here. And moving on to the consent calendar, we have two items. Can I get a motion, please? I'll move it.

Second.

First and a second. Roll call.

Agency member Ayala.

Aye.

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

Aye. And Jesus, do we have an executive director's report this evening?

yes chairperson yes we do tonight um just uh let you know that we are closing the bond issue that was approved earlier this year the week of the 22nd we have had a pricing call on monday and a pre-pricing call today and so they're going to be accepting orders tomorrow for the bonds and closing on the roughly 22nd of july thank you thank you for that update thank you thank you

And Teresa, do we have any oral communications for the successor?

None for the successor.

Thank you. We will officially adjourn that portion of our meeting. All right. Welcome to July, everyone. Before we begin, we are going to be reading this at every city council meeting moving forward. I'd like to share some information regarding the new government code regulation that most California cities must comply with for all council meetings effective July 1. Effective July 1, government code section 54953.4 requires cities to implement two-way audiovisual or telephonic services to all city council meetings. As such, meetings will be run slightly different due to including Zoom participants. In-person individuals will continue to submit a speaker card through the Sergeant at Arms. I'm going to have trouble talking today, man. Individuals participating in the meeting virtually through Zoom will need to raise their virtual hand if they wish to speak on consent calendar items or other items on the agenda and under public comment once I ask if anyone wishes to speak on an item. Callers will be muted until it's time and their turn to speak and muted after they speak. When I ask if there's anyone wishing to speak, this is the time for individuals using Zoom to raise their virtual hand. If using Zoom app or website, there is a feature that allows participants to raise their hand and if calling in by phone, press star nine to raise your hand. Each person will have three minutes to speak. Only one comment per person per item is allowed, and no one may transfer their time to other speakers. In-person individuals will be heard first, followed by virtual speakers. Please be respectful of all in attendance by following the rules of decorum. With that being said, I will officially call the Norwalk City Council meeting of July 7, 2026 to order. We tonight are very blessed once again. This evening, we are honored to welcome back Pastor George Borges from New Creation Church of Norwalk. For more than 25 years, Pastor George has faithfully served our community through ministry and mentoring youth pastors. He is continually dedicated to inspiring others of faith and outreach. We are also pleased tonight to welcome Tylan Tims from Santa Fe Christian School, who is a Norwalk resident. As an incoming fourth grader, Tylan has proudly participated in Norwalk's youth sports program for most of his life. He has also represented our community as a Norwalk Little League All-Star athlete. Pastor George in Thailand, please come to the front to lead us tonight. And afterwards, we invite both of you to join the city council for a brief photo. If everyone could please stand.

Well, thank you once again for the invitation. It's always an honor to be here with all the city officials and the city council. And a good praise report is that the churches are always praying for the whole city, for continued investment, continued prosperity of our city. And bring a good report that there's a lot of unity in the faith community with all the churches. We meet together twice a month. And it's just a great bondage that's taking place. So there's a lot of prayer that goes behind this. And I want to commend the leadership for the great city, the great accomplishments that are taking place. Not only do I pastor here, but I live here. So I get to see all the improvements and all the stuff that's going up. It's truly a blessed city to see the great accomplishments that are taking place. So the community sees it and we applaud you for your leadership on that. So I think that we have the best leaders in all the cities around us, okay? But I do want to share scripture with you in 3 John, 3 John chapter 2, And three says, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health as your soul prosper. And, you know, the Bible talks about praying for prosperity. You know, that's something that God wants us to pray for, to ask for. Why? So that we could be a greater influence, so we could be a greater blessing. Lord bless us. so that we could be a blessing. So that's gonna be my prayer this afternoon, a prayer of blessings upon our city, upon our leadership, and of course, upon our residents, too, because God truly is a God that wants to bless us so that we could just shine his glory through our city, amen? So we're gonna say a special prayer of blessing to the city and ask God to continue to move in this powerful new year, 2026. Let's bow our heads and pray. Heavenly Father, we just come before you. in the mighty name of jesus and we lift up our great city we lift up our leadership god we thank you for their dedication their commitment uh they're even their sacrifice lord they're always there with the community lord and they're always there among the people and we see that lord that these that our leaders got our mayor and vice mayor and the council god they really have a heart for people, and I pray blessings upon them and their home and their families. And Lord, now we do say a special prayer for our city. God, let this year, 2026, continue to be a prosperous year, a victorious year, God, in every area, every department, everything planned, everything scheduled, that everything will continue to prosper, Lord. So we pray for the prosperity of Norwalk, for this coming year, this year, and the years to come. So we just pray that everything that is being spoken, everything that is being planned, that everything will come to fruition. And we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus, and we give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please join us in the front.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm doing great. You're doing a great job. Yeah, it's been exciting. Thank you.

All right, let's give him a round of applause.

all right good evening and welcome once again to our council meeting this evening um it is a little cooler in here than it is outside so i hope you enjoy the the air condition on behalf of the city of norwalk um let's go ahead and officially um have a roll call theresa council member zayala

ramirez valencia here vice mayor rios mayor perez here and mr lamb can we have a closed session report please good evening madam mayor city council earlier this evening the city council recessed in closed session all council members were present in closed session for items one conference with legal counsel council was briefed no final action was taken there's nothing to report With respect to item two, this item, although listed, the council did not discuss item two in closed session. Item three, conference with real property negotiators. The city council was briefed, but no final action was taken, nothing to report. Item four, conference with real property negotiators. Again, council was briefed, direction was provided, no final action was taken. Item five, conference with labor negotiators. This item was discussed in closed session, but no final action was taken, there's nothing to report.

Thank you, John. All right. And now moving to Council comments. We'll go ahead and start first with Councilwoman Anna Valencia. Anna.

Thank you, Mayor. All right. On Friday, June 26, we attended the Norwalk Chamber installation of new officers and gala. And it was fabulous. It was a really nice event, as always. And so I want to also congratulate the outgoing officers and board. And of course, Jason Perez, outgoing president, you did a fantastic job. Congratulations to you. And also congratulations to the incoming officers board and new president Yovani Flores who is just a dynamic individual loves Norwalk just lives and breathes Norwalk as well so looking forward to having a great year with her on the helm also Friday July 3rd the city of Norwalk we held our 4th of July celebration and I Alan Perdomo, Director of Parks and Rec and Public Safety and CAP and volunteers and everybody involved, wonderful job. It was fantastic. Everybody that came, and I had some new friends come, and they said, wow, everything was so well organized and so many different activities for the families. They were just blown away. And of course, the music was fantastic. I think Margarita, Jennifer, and I just danced the night away. And the fireworks show, amazing, amazing. Thank you so much. Those of you that enjoyed it, that were there, I know that you enjoyed it and had a great time. And that just, it's a lot of work. We realize it, I realize it, and just very grateful. We're very grateful for everyone involved because it's such a collaborative effort. And it takes so many people. But it fills so many hearts. And I think that's why we keep it. So thank you. And then I wanted to invite everyone till tomorrow, our first summer concert at Norwalk Park. And there will be a lot of food. There will be a lot of music. And I think the night out, yes? Is that, no, not night out. The Expo. I'm sorry. Expo is on the 22nd. It's not tomorrow. Okay. All right. I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll invite you to that too. But it's, and it's going to be every other Wednesday that we're going to have them. And just tomorrow is going to be a, and Jennifer, I'm going to, I'm sure you're going to be talking about the band and everything. But looking forward to that and enjoying some time to, you know, be there with our friends and family and and our neighbors. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. And next, Councilmember Rick Ramirez. Rick. Thank you. Councilmember Tony Ayala. Tony.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I want to really thank the community for coming out to the July 3rd pageant that we had. You know, it's only the second time we've had it at that venue, so it was kind of a leap of faith because everybody was used to having it here. And there was some, you know, trepidation that it may not come off quite as well at Hoff Hill Park. But after the second year, you know, it's clear to me that we had a higher attendance than we ever had here at City Hall. Kids had play equipment to play on. Parents had shade. And so, you know, you know we we're really asking you know the community to trust us on this and they did and uh i think it worked out to the benefit of everybody um it was you know it's all hands on deck with the staff on one of these things and but i want to thank you know department head staff that show up you know to not because they're working because they're there to support their colleagues they're support the community i know i saw theresa devoy our city clerk she was there i saw a couple other people there and that's old school norwalk that's how i was brought up so thank you for being supportive of the community and the city and you know and and just showing showing residents we have that culture here And so, yeah, it was a great event. Fireworks were great. Everything went off without a hitch. I noticed the stuff that other people typically don't notice, whether the parking is going smooth, whether the traffic flow is going smooth, whether the fireworks go off. Geez, I've seen some cities where the fireworks didn't even happen. It happened in Santa Fe Springs a couple years ago. And so, you know, there's a lot of moving parts and, you know, our people across all departments, I'm not even gonna try and name the departments or the people or anything else, but the people across those departments, in those departments, you know, executed and it turned out into a great thing for, you know, for the community. So I wanna thank everybody, but that's what we're here to do and that's what we're paid to do. who i really want to thank is the community for coming out to celebrate you know the 250th birthday of our country and we did it norwalk fashion we had everybody out we had a great time and that's that's what this uh i've been in the city lived here my whole life and that's what norwalk has always been and so it's a proud moment for me to see that happen the way it came down now i'm expecting a message here hopefully i got it Yeah, what I wanna do is I wanna announce the Soroptimus is having a quarter mania here in the near future. I put on my x-ray glasses. Okay, it's gonna be Sunday, August 2nd, 2026 from 10.30 to two. There'll be lunch and fun stuff. It's $30 a ticket. It's gonna be at the Sproul Room at Norwalk Arts and Sports Complex. And can, did the Srapperman's get you some on this, Levy?

Not yet, but I'm happy to receive and promote.

Okay, they get to you and you put it up wherever you put stuff up. And if there's anybody out there in TV land that's interested, you can get in touch with City of Norwalk Communications Department and they can give you further information. I know that, don't laugh at me, door eyes, I'm watching you out there. Anybody here that has any questions about it, Doris Sandoval is here, and she can cover. And my wife Karen, she's up there too. She's a Soroptimist, one of the foot soldiers, but Doris leadership, so I go to her first. And if you can't get the answer, if you can't get the answer, you can go to my wife Karen. But anyway, that's all, Mary. Thank you.

Thanks, Tony. All right. Moving now to Vice Mayor Margarita Rios. Margarita?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to welcome everyone to our meeting, council meeting this evening. I hope everyone's been enjoying the summer. It's going way by too fast for me. The summer is my favorite time of the year. And I can't believe that we're already in July. So I hope that you're enjoying it. And I hope that you're staying cool and you're staying safe. just a couple of things that i wanted to share i also want to take this moment to thank our park and rec that team did really really well in executing our third of july festival there was something for everyone there and it was really nice just to see the diversity of of all for all ages families some had their pets with them there was you know younger elder i mean it was just really really nice uh and it it looked like everyone was having a great time which i mean is is like it it's contagious you know uh so i really want to thank them and i also want to take this opportunity to thank our um public services because they really do a lot of work i mean they were there um even before the date probably i want to say a couple of days before that before the actual festivities just setting up just if you think about all the work that they do to set up you know the the porta potties the canopies the chairs the tables So big, big thank you to our public services team for everything that they do. Please let them know, Albert, that it is very, very much appreciated. I also wanna share that I recently volunteered at Lakeside Middle School. So this is my third year that I volunteered for them. They're always looking for volunteer judges, and this is Lakeside Middle School. They have a robotic program. And their math and science teacher, Mr. Miguel Ortega, is the lead for that. And so they basically, during the summer, these kids volunteer. It's voluntary. But most of them were already in the program throughout the academic year. But it's really for them to fine tune their skills. They look for judges because they do an actual presentation. They select a STEM theme, something that they want to learn about, something that they want to teach others about, really something that they think is going to be impactful to the world. And so they do the presentation in front of judges because they want to get that experience because they want to be ready when they make it to finals for their ultimate competition where they compete with other districts. They've had this program for six years. I have volunteered now for a third year. And it's time well spent. So I just want to shout out to Lakeside Middle School, to their students, to their staff for their commitment to our youth, their academics, and STEM learning. And I was happy to volunteer my time with them recently. The other thing I wanted to share, and I know our social media platform has shared some information on West Nile virus being detected here in the city of Norwalk. We are not the only city. However, I will take this opportunity to remind you all to just take those steps of avoiding standing water in and around your home, keeping your pool if you have one clean, making sure that if you have a water fountain, it's clean. So if you want more information on that, please check back on our social media platform for some information and number and website that you can use if you want to follow up on reporting something such as dead birds. Also, recently, well, a couple of months ago, I was invited to participate at the merchants meeting at the Norwalk Square. The senior marketing director asked me to come and participate in a meeting that they were having with the businesses there locally. We talked about a lot of different things, but mainly how to grow their business. mainly how the Norwalk Square continues to strive to be a very healthy, vibrant economic node in our community. And so it was really, really nice meeting to meet some of the businesses there. And they were challenged with thinking out of the box. How do we draw business? How do we keep business? How do we ensure that we're giving that customer service experience that really keeps, at least I know personally speaking, keeps me coming back, right? When we get great customer service, I'm gonna go back to that business. One of the things that they've been doing, because they were, again, in thinking out of the box, is how do they offer different coupons or discounts, you know, to draw some more, a customer base, to grow their customer base, right? So the senior marketing manager or director, I should say, shared with me that Monty's, I don't know if any of you have been to Monty's at the Norwalk Square. If you have not, you're missing out. I had never had chicken and waffles before Monty's in Norwalk. I kid you not. I always thought that's kind of an odd combo, right? But it's very good. and and the owner at monte's is such such a sweet guy so monte's is doing uh on tuesdays only for public safety now you have to have your uniform or id he's doing a public safety combo on tuesday's choice of chopped cheese or granada chips and soda for only ten dollars for only $10. That's a deal. Rita is like, she's smiling from ear to ear. She's like, I'm there next Tuesday. good food good sandwiches if you haven't been there and their chicken and waffle is good too so again expect other you know promotional um uh offers through the businesses at the no at the public at the norwalk town square this one again public safety combo tuesdays only for ten dollars lt you got that All right. And again, this is their effort to get businesses in, right? Grow their customer base. So we wanna support them. And finally, I wanna thank Levy and his team for helping us to promote the events here in the city of Norwalk, but not just Norwalk events, but also giving other businesses, organizations, nonprofits, the opportunity for real estate on our social media platform. So thank you for that. Thank you, Rosalie and Marcus and all of the whole team for what you do on our social media. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Margarita. All right, I'll try to go fast because there's been a lot already said, but I have some other events that I want to highlight. I was able to attend with the Vice Mayor our annual awards banquet. banquet for ALADS, which is the Association for our Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. There's been many years where I've attended and sheriff deputies from our station have been recognized, but it's very important for all of us to continue to support our first responders, especially our Sheriff's Department, that keep us safe here in the City of Norwalk. With that, our Sheriff's and our Public Safety Department participated in and our annual Kids and Cops Kick Golf Tournament a couple weeks ago, bright and early on a Wednesday morning. It was great to get the kids there. We were at Don Knobby Golf Course, and they transitioned everything to foot golf, and I know the kids had a great time. Of course, there's no cheating in those games at all. It's all about really getting our youth to have that opportunity standing relationship with our first responders, public safety and sheriff's department. So a huge thank you to our park and recreation department as well as our public safety and our sheriff's department for continuing to build that relationship with the youth in our city. I also want to share that I did a tour of the whole child facility in the City of Santa Fe Springs who services the City of Norwalk here. And it's a great extension of mental health services for families in general with the transition for transition housing at the same time. Jesus and Ozzie and I attended a housing symposium for the entire county where we were talking about making local impacts and the legislation that make a difference to really how to describe it and bring it local. And that was put on by the Rose Institute. We officially cut the ribbon for the Firestone Bridge. I know it was a long time coming, but we were there. It's smooth. There's sidewalks now. There was never sidewalks before on that bridge. There's a bike lane. So everything about that completion speaks safety and a clear transportation focus for our residents that not only live in the city, but come in and out of our city at any given time of the day. I also want to thank the residents and our partners, our construction partners and the residents that had to go through the construction of that bridge. completely redoing it because they were directly impacted as well with their housing track right there next to them. So thank you for the entire team for hosting that and really celebrating a big success. We talked about the Chamber Awards installation and gala. So thank you for that. Thank you, Jesus, for installing our new officers for this year. And Karen, again, for your continued support for every single business here in the city. Regionally you are the best. And we are very lucky to have you here. But we'll get to hear more about that later. We've heard about Independence Day and the success of the park. But one thing I would like to share is at the very beginning at 3 o'clock when we started our celebration that day, Recreation's Park Services, Public Safety, Sheriff's Department, Public Services, everybody that was there got to witness a beautiful display of our American flag that took up the entire dimensions of the field. and our teen alliance, our top kids and our volunteers that were there to proudly carry that flag and to make sure it did not touch the ground and wave it proudly as the national anthem was sung. That was a highlight to me. That was absolutely beautiful. So thank you to the partners that came in and really partnered with our youth to make that ceremony possible. It was absolutely beautiful. And to our team on 4th of July and celebrating 250 years of this beautiful country here in our city, to our public safety officers, to our sheriff's department, all of those that were out there keeping our city safe. I hope you enjoyed your time with your families and your friends and lots of great food and barbecue and just enjoying the time and taking those moments into memories. Our Norwalk Now did come out. So please make sure you always look out for that. We did have our senior center bulletin that has come out with a lot of great, great events coming up. One that I'm hearing a lot of traction on is experiencing the magic of Elvis. Elvis is alive, my friends. He's coming to the City of Norwalk July 15th. So make sure you mark your calendars for that. I'm sure there will be some dancing with that program. And we also have our Social Services Center bulletin that came out. The other event that I was able to attend the past couple of weeks was our celebration for the lady cohort for this past year. We got to recognize some beautiful young ladies in our city that have really taken the entire year to dedicate to themselves and growth. So a huge thank you to Gabby, to your team, to Ruth and to Elizabeth, to all of our mentors to all of the families that were there to celebrate those young women. And I want to let everybody know that there is a Mixer for Lady coming up this week on Thursday, July 9th from 5 to 7 at our Social Services Center. If you know a young woman that is just wanting to meet some new people, grab an event and have an experience with some wonderful people in the City of Norwalk, have them come to this mixer. It's really going to be a great, great year with that coming up. I think that was a lot. We had a lot going on. And it's only July, and it's going to get better. So I know Anna had talked about Wednesday. Wednesday, tomorrow is our very first summer concert. And I will tell you, it is my favorite band. Knight Rider will be performing at Norwalk Park for the summer concert this year. They perform every week in the city of Long Beach. Trust me. If you are an 80s, 90s music fan, you want to be there. Norwalk Park tomorrow for Knight Rider. You do not want to miss that. All right. Moving on to one department that we get to recognize every year in July. And it's usually right after a huge celebration. So tonight myself and my colleagues here at the dais get to proudly recognize the month of July as Recreation and Parks Month. The Parks and Recreation Services Department plays an essential role in building healthy and connected community for our residents. Throughout the year the Recreation and Park Services Department provides programs and activities that bring joy. Together we help enhance the quality of life for residents of all ages as we promote wellness and foster connections. Congratulations every single July, and thank you for all that you do to our Department of Park and Recreation Services. At this time, let's give them a round of applause. Welcome them to the floor. And we are going to do our best to have our entire Recreation and Park Services team come on down. I know Levy and the team and Rosalie and everybody will assemble us for a huge group photo. Council, please join me and once again, let's show them our thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

You guys ready? One, two, three. It's like a pirate ship. Yeah.

All right. So Mr. Gomez has a lot to report out tonight, so we're gonna get started right away. Jesus, why don't you go ahead and get started with our city manager comments tonight.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the City Council, and as our Parks and Recreation Department leave, thank you very much for providing some great entertainment to our community. But first, I'd like to welcome Karen Spilsbury, Executive for the Chamber of Commerce, who will provide us with a quarterly update.

Chamber members, you know she's gonna make you go with her.

Oh, you're gonna trust me? Can you guys do it? Thank you. Because I am no good at that little clicker. So good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Mr. City Manager, thank you for inviting us here again tonight to give an update on the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, some of the events and activities we've been doing since we last visited with you in January, and just the overall importance of the Chamber, the City, and all of our connections. So let me introduce a few people to you. As was mentioned earlier, Our immediate past president, Jason Perez. Mr. Rosewood is with us tonight. And our board members, Gary Murphy, Jose Rios, who is also a member of the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District Board, and Dora Sandoval. So where I go, they seem to come with me, which I really appreciate. So in honor of our 250th anniversary, I decided to mix things up a little bit on our visuals so you get some fun red, white, and blue stuff. But I do want to tell you that our Norwalk Chamber, our focus continues to be on creating our connections through our networking, advocacy, outreach, and partnerships. So our role is not just to support the businesses in the community, but to help connect those businesses with every other partner that we work with, so that they're able to know who to contact when they need help with a code violation, or who to contact when they need a plumber, or who to contact when they just need to ask a simple question. And as we build those connections, we develop them not just with the businesses, but with the residents also. And when those connections are strong, our entire community is strong. So next slide, please. So some of our chamber activities at a glance that we were involved with. You'll see that we've had coffees and conversations. We've had multi-chamber mixers. We've had the FIFA watch party. And right there in the middle is our Cal Chamber President's Circle Award, of which that picture on the bottom right is the chambers that were in Sacramento to receive that award from the California Chamber of Commerce. I'm in the middle. So Norwalk Chamber was one of 20 chambers in the entire state that was recognized for their advocacy on behalf of the businesses in our community. And not just this community, but regionally helping out others. So, FIFA Watch Party. First, I want to say thank you to the Norwalk Recreation and Park Services Department, led by Alan Perdomo, for inviting us to participate in that event. It was a lot of fun. We were able to, as you see with Iso and Randy Johnstone, we were able to work with our member Lahara Brewery, have a beer garden. Many hung out there. Many enjoyed the beverages. But really, it was a camaraderie. And the fact that Mexico won that night was not a bad thing. I think it would have been not good if that had ended up differently. But it was a great event for all those that attended. We were really happy to participate and to be involved with that. So next slide, please. So we built connections. And Norwalk is a connected community. So it's about the connections. With ribbon cuttings, with anniversary celebrations. In fact, we just recently celebrated somebody's 10-year anniversary. Mr. Rosewood, Family Restaurant, having those connections shows value to the businesses and it tells the business owners that Norwalk sees them, that Norwalk understands them and the importance of business here in the community. We also help introduce residents to new businesses and help connect new or expanding businesses with city officials, with other elected officials, and with neighboring businesses and communities. For many small business owners, these moments are meaningful. They've invested money, time and energy into Norwalk by coming here to Norwalk. And so when the Chamber and the City and our community show up for these type of events, it sends a strong message to the business community that we support local enterprise, and that you cannot put a dollar amount on.

Next slide, please.

And speaking of legislative advocacy, we worked together with our Gateway Chambers Alliance, the California Chamber of Commerce, and even with the United States Chamber of Commerce to bring good business legislation to the community. Some of the bills that we took action on were SB 1123, which we opposed. This eliminated the SRIA analysis. It has to do with regulations on businesses bringing things in that cost a lot of money and this would have taken away checks and balances that are important to you as residents and businesses to know and understand how much something would cost if we're going to build a train from vegas to wherever we need to know the cost to the people and the people need to know that cost so this would have taken that that trigger away, that would have triggered that analysis. SB 310 undermined our PAGA reform. We were happy that that was pulled out of committee. We also opposed AB 1768. Many of you are familiar with that. Didn't do much good, still got signed, still went into law, and the county still approved the tax increase. So starting October 1st, all of our businesses that sell goods that have taxes on them will need to increase their tax to 11% from 10.5. So that is something that will get the information out to the community so they're aware of that. AB 2136 was a bill by our Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, trying to get approval for Cerritos College to offer three new bachelor degree programs. And those new bachelor degree programs would have offered our local residents the opportunity to get a degree in a trade that's not being offered, out of Cal State in our area and allow them that inexpensive compared to a private university, $11,000 versus $100,000 plus way to get a higher education to increase their earning power and their earning power increases their spending power and that spending power brings more resources into this community. So unfortunately that stalled in committee. And then right now, we've taken action on SB 690, which is SIPA reform. For those that are not familiar with it, SIPA is another PAGA-like or ADA-compliance-like type of procedure where attorneys will go into small businesses, threaten to sue them over consumer privacy acts, and agree to settle out of court for $10,000, $15,000. And it's a way for a group of attorneys to make money on the backs of businesses that are not really violating the law. So that is in the middle of the process. We haven't finalized that one yet. We're hopeful that that will pass. Next slide, please. Membership support. So supporting our members, our ambassador business visits, our resources for new and existing businesses, our small business advocacy, and our partnerships with the City of Norwalk, with the Small Business Development Center, with our Workforce Development Board, with our school districts, all matter to our members and all bring support and information to them. So that's one of the things that's key to our Chamber of Success here in the community, supporting our businesses in that avenue. And next slide please. And we want to welcome some of our new members. You may see a few logos that you recognize up there. Norwalk Chamber has welcomed in big businesses, small businesses, non-profits, and many different sectors in the community as Chamber members. And they all work together helping each other, connecting with each other through the different events and activities that we do to support the businesses. So We're very happy to have them here. And I'm hoping that Chanticleau Yoga's ribbon cutting will include a practice yoga. So I'll let you all know. Hopefully, yes, it would. All right, so next slide, please. And celebrations, as was mentioned, the Norwalk Chamber has been in Norwalk for over 100 years. We were able to celebrate the successes of this last year with our members and our guests, our city folks that attended, our city manager who was our installing officer, our mayor who provided words of welcome, our vice mayor who also, and our council member Valencia who also supported the event. Thank you all for being there. There's not very many businesses in Norwalk that are as old as the Chamber of Commerce. So being here for 100 years really has helped make a difference for our community and for our businesses. So we want to congratulate those that won awards. We want to congratulate Jason on probably happy end of two years of being president. And Giovanni sends her regrets. She's actually on vacation in Mexico. It was already planned out ahead of time. Otherwise, she would have been here with us tonight as our new incoming president. So what a night. It was a lot of fun. And it was my birthday, so even better. All right, so next slide, please. Looking ahead, we've got some events coming up over these next few months that we'd love to see you at. Our Coffee and Conversation is this Thursday, July 9th, Chick-fil-A, 9 to 10, 30 a.m. at the Norwalk Fitness Village. Love to have you out there. As was mentioned, our Business Expo is in conjunction with the Summer Concert on the 22nd at Norwalk Park. We have a mini golf tournament at Golf and Stuff on August 6th, which should be a lot of fun for the families that come out. And then our State of the Nation Luncheon is back in Norwalk this year. We are having our Congresswoman, Linda Sanchez, as our guest speaker that day. And we hope that many of you will come out and hear from her and see just what's going on in Washington, D.C. So you're all invited. So next slide, please. Thank you. We thank you because this partnership matters. The connections matter. The impact matters. When we work together, the city, the chamber, the various stakeholders, it makes a difference in the community. Business is appreciated. So many chambers, as has been mentioned before, struggle, have lost staff or directors. And when you don't have a strong chamber, that lets your business community down. So we appreciate the support that we receive from you and from all of our partners. And I know that this group would like to say thank you, too. So words? Come on.

I'll say a quick one. Come on. Say a few words.

I think Karen sounds a little bit short. Top 20 out of, top 20 chamber out of all of California. I mean, that's a round of applause right there.

Anybody else? We're happy to answer any questions if you have any.

No questions, but before you leave, I'm gonna turn it right back over to Mr. Gomez.

Karen, I just wanna thank you for what you do for our business community, but our residents as well. That's our focus, so I wanna thank you for that. And at this time, I'd like to invite you and the representatives from the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce to come up to the podium. The City of Norwalk would like to congratulate the Chamber on receiving the California Chamber of Commerce's Chamber of the Year. This prestigious recognition reflects the Chamber's outstanding leadership, dedication to serving the local business community, and continued partnership with the City of Norwalk. Congratulations on this well-deserved achievement. mayor members of the City Council please join the Chamber of Commerce at the front of the dais for a group picture right right no you know what and then stay up there because we have a couple of others

Yes.

Mayor and Council, if you may stay up in the front dais, we have more items to celebrate with the community. THE NEXT ITEM RECOGNIZES THE CITY'S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT'S PLANNING DIVISION FOR RECEIVING AN AWARD FROM THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION. THIS IS IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR OUTSTANDING PLANNING EFFORTS FOR THE HEART OF NORWALK VISION AND SPECIFIC PLAN. that has been adopted by the City Council. Congratulations to the Planning Division team on this outstanding accomplishment. I'd like to invite the members of the Community Development Department to come forward to accept this recognition. Please come forward for a photograph.

Thank you.

And we have one more. Finally, I'd like to recognize our Director of Finance, Yana Stewart, for receiving the Government Finance Officers Association Outstanding Public Service Award. This distinguished honor recognizes exceptional leadership and providing excellent public service to the Norwalk community. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition yana and thank you for your continued service to the city of norwalk i'd like to invite yana to come forward and join the city council for a group photo and just to mention this is a nationwide award

Mm-hmm.

And that's all we now we have. Announcements and reports and videos but director public safety Rita reason will give us an update on the 4th of July. Firework or illegal firework update.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor members of the City Council tonight, I'm going to take a few minutes to go over our outreach and enforcement efforts during the 4th of July weekend. As you may or may not know, I spend a great deal of time in the city, not only because I have the privilege of serving as a public servant, but also because I have family and I have strong ties here. Long before I worked for this city, the Fourth of July was a tradition for us. We would spend the day here with our friends and families to barbecue, safely light up the sparklers, watching my children run around, and just creating those kinds of memories, which is important to our community. Those experiences are what makes this personal to me. I understand what the Fourth of July means to so many families in Norwalk because I've shared those same moments. Every family deserves the opportunity to celebrate safely, return home together, and create memories without preventable tragedies. That is why our team's focus is not only simply on enforcement, it's on education, prevention, and ensuring that everyone can enjoy a safe and memorable Independence Day. The objective is to keep Norwalk safe, protect our neighborhoods, and educate the community on the risks and fines regarding illegal firework. I would like to add that leading up to the holiday, we had a decrease.

I saw a few of our youth riding their bikes up here today. Thank you for that. We are grateful for the persistence of our city.

Customer-focused culture that prizes accessible, consistent.

And I know we're working on some things that we're almost very, very close to completing, like our urban forest management tree plan, which is great. And I appreciate all the time that staff has put into this, because I know we all have conflicting priorities and we all have a lot going on. But as our mayor mentioned, these are our goals. This drives the work in the city. This gives direction to staff and the team. This is something that the entire council has gotten behind to support and also give us some focus on where we can place our efforts and our energy in addition to a heck of a lot of other things. It's not just what's in these 20 or something pages in here. There is a lot going on. We are very, very, very busy, but good busy. And I'm not complaining. I love it. I love it. But as I mentioned, I'm going to challenge staff to really make more progress for our strategic goal number four. So the next time that you share this document with us, Jesus, we can also see, as we've seen with some of these other goals, the objectives that have been completed. We know what the objectives are, now let's just get them done. Again, I challenge staff to really look at goal number four, work and assign accordingly, and let's show more completed objectives. Because I'll tell you why. I look at what other cities started when we kind of started with our urban forest management tree plan, talking about our climate action plan. And other cities have already adopted their, for example, climate action plan. They've already completed their urban forest management plan. So when I look at that, my feeling is, okay, we're falling a little bit behind. In Norwalk, I don't want us to fall behind. We should be at the very forefront. And I think we are, probably like 99% of the time. But we've got to strive for 100%, always. The goal is 100%. Do we always reach 100%? Not always, but I think it's a good goal to have because it shows that we have aspirations. So, Jesus, as I mentioned, when we get this again, I would love to see more completed objectives.

Right, so this one is complete from the staff's point of view, but we'd like to get input before we totally put a bow on it from the council. What I would recommend is to have another strategic planning session for the next two years. And so some of these will, what I would say, roll over to the next strategic plan. But it would be great to invest some time and effort to be able to have another strategic plan for the next two years. Because it does help us as staff follow your goals and objectives. And as the mayor mentioned, every staff report is related to one of the strategic goals that you provide to us.

Yeah, no, I think that's a great idea. It's also give us an opportunity to introduce some new objectives, as many of those have been completed. But I don't want to take another two years to make some progress on strategic goal number four.

Correct.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Tony?

No, I just want to ‑‑ I don't want All I want to say is that I think you're right. Mayor, I think this is really important. I mean, I don't think what people realize is that we're not here, all five of us, 40 hours a week. So a lot of what is in this document are relatively short conversations that we've had with each other because we happen to be here on the same day or had a discussion with Jesus and so it really is almost like we see it for the first time when we see it in a document like this or when we run through one of these strategic plan meetings because it gives us a chance to see what we're asking for with some actual structure so that the staff can understand it, so the community can understand it. And I don't think it's any secret that I think you know, the mayor thinks in very strategic ways. You know, whether it's strategic plan or whether it's, you know, our strategic approach to budgeting. I think this is next level stuff, because it needs to be next level stuff. Because I think we have so much uncertainty. We have so many things we gotta plan for. We got so many things we have to avoid. it's a lot and so you you can't uh you can't be sloppy you just can't you don't have that luxury and so I'm just glad that the council's thinking about this thing the right way that we have the right leadership and that uh in the end everybody that lives here will benefit that's all

Thank you anything else right so he sees I would and to my colleagues, I would suggest, if you have any. Specific inputs and completing this particular plan, please get it to he sees before Friday, so that way at our next Council meeting, we can bring it back consider strategic plan 2023 to 2025 closed. and then plan for an additional strategic plan at 2026 through 2028 in the very near future. So that way we can continue to move forward. Teresa, was I supposed to ask if there was anybody wishing to speak on item number 10? I apologize.

Yes, but there isn't, so we're good.

Thank you. All right. Jesus, you have direction for what you need?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you so much. All right. Moving on to public comment. I am going to ask our city clerk, Teresa, one more time. Do we need to play the video again? Are we good since we played it once? All right. Thank you very much. All right. Our first speaker, we do in-person comments first. And I have Ms. let's do Mr. Andy Yu as our first speaker and followed by Cynthia Clemente. Andy, you are first.

Hello. This weekend, a report came out shedding light in the ramp up of kidnappings and deportations occurring with records set by upwards of 2,000 detentions by ICE per day, leading to a recent record of 10,000 detentions in five days. This falls in line with the Trump administration's goal of conducting the largest mass deportation in history. The new Department of Homeland Security Secretary has reiterated his goal to continue that plan in more subtle and less eye-catching ways to avoid the scrutiny of the larger raids of last year. But make no mistake, a quiet kidnapping is still violence. Ripping away someone from their family by stopping them when they're just out on daily errands does nothing to calm the fear felt by our neighbors who worry if their family will be torn apart. We cannot let this be the new normal. A few meetings ago, Council Member Rio said it was time for Norwalk to do something. I believe it was long overdue then and even more now as here we are several weeks later with no public actions taken. ICE's budget has reached record level, rivaling most other countries' entire military spending. This has led to increase in agents and resulting record level people in detention centers nationwide. Another outcome of this slush fund that's been given to ICE has been the purchase of the two largest detention centers here in California from the private ownership to avoid any chance of oversight by the state or county health agencies who have been long trying to ensure that those insights are being treated humanely and investigate the record numbers of deaths that are occurring in these very detention centers where these people are being taken. We have been sounding the alarm for over a year now that action is needed and we are still waiting for any protective protections to be put in place for material resources and a clear statement on where you stand as our city government. It seems we will keep waiting. So instead I will speak directly to our community and implore you to get connected with rapid response and patrol groups in your area. Look out for each other and do what you can to keep our neighbors safe because we have to keep us safe.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Cynthia Clemente. We're gonna push the button. There you go.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Perez and City Council members. My name is Cynthia Clemente. I'm a Norwalk disabled senior citizen. I am here to present to you that at the Norwalk Senior Center, we have a fitness room that is no longer for all seniors. Our manager has made it for ping pong players only. Now we have a new schedule that from 8 to 10 in the morning, that all seniors can use it. From 12 to 5.30. The ping pong players only can use it. And there's only from 20 to 25 ping pong players who play on Saturdays from 8 to 2 o'clock. That means all day the ping pong players get it. Now, this senior center was built for seniors. That fitness room should be for all seniors, whether disabled or not, whether with wheelchairs or with walkers, whatever. It is improper to discriminate against the other seniors. Half of these seniors that play ping pong are non-residents of Norwalk. Since when do we pay more attention to non-residents than residents? That is really bothering me a lot because we're put under the rug. They pushed us under the rug and left us there. Danny Hasbraygo has brought to my attention several things and I don't appreciate what he said to me. Also, oh, I get so upset. Also, that with the fitness room, If he gives us from 8 to 10 in the fitness room, there are two large ping pong tables that we have to walk around. We're not allowed to use the big room. That fitness room belongs to all seniors that go to that senior center. And we should be able to use it at any time we want. Ping pong is a game. It is not a fitness. It's a game. And if people want to play a game, they should go to other recreation departments. I would appreciate it if the five of you would take consideration for the seniors at the Norwalk Senior Center and give us back our fitness room because it is unfair to all of us. A lot of us want to go in there, we can't because they're playing ping pong and we have to stop their game to go into the fitness room and we're only allowed where the equipment are. where the bikes are, where the other equipment that we use. We're not allowed in the area to sit down and do our stretch exercises. We're not allowed in there at all. Just for 25 ping pong players. Thank you. I appreciate your time and your ears. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Gabby, can I ask that you follow up with Cynthia and then maybe get a report back to Council. Teresa, do we have anybody wishing to speak in oral communications on Zoom today?

We do not.

All right. With that, before we conclude, I would like to ask Jesus and either Ozzie or Rita at our next council meeting or even sooner maybe on social media, we give a reminder to our residents about the new day lighting law that took into effect as of July 1. Because I know that the sheriff's department has been putting a lot of attention on that. And this way we can continue to bring that to our residents. and with that our meeting is adjourned