City Council Meetings– San Gabriel City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order. Welcome to the City Council, regular City Council meeting for the City of San Gabriel. Today is Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. The meeting is called to order at 6.33 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Council Member Wu.

FACE THE FLAG, PLACE YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEART, AND REPEAT AFTER ME.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS, A NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. THANK YOU. CHIEF CITY CLERK, ROLL CALL, PLEASE.

MAYOR CHAN.

HERE.

VICE MAYOR DING. Yeah, Council member her Avila president Council member Menchaca here Council member here.

Alright, we will now have some announcements from our chief city clerk.

Tonight's meeting is live streamed on the city's online platforms. If you wish to participate remotely, please follow the procedures outlined on the city's website at san gabrielcity.com under public meetings and agendas. To address the city council in person, we request that you please complete a speaker's card and hand it to the clerk at this time. When speaking, please state your name for the record. Please note that interactions between the city council, city staff, and the public during meetings are subject to the city's rules of order and decorum.

All right. Approval of agenda order. Are there any objections to the agenda order? No. Hearing none, the agenda order is approved. All right. Next item, please.

Presentations. Certificate of Recognition for Broadway Health Care Center. Mayor Chan will make the presentation to Broadway Health Care Center Administrator Rithi Thong. We invite Administrator Thong to come to the podium at this time.

All right. Welcome, Mr. Thong. I would like to read from the text of the certificate. It is a certificate of recognition presented to Broadway Health Care Center in recognition of your exceptional achievement in receiving the 2026 Silver National Quality Award from the American Health Care Association and National Center of Assisted Living the Mayor and the City Council of San Gabriel extend their sincere congratulations on this incredible accomplishment, and thank you for your outstanding service and representation of our community, presented this first day of September, 2026. And Mr. Thong, would you like to say a few words?

Yes.

Go ahead.

Mayor Chan, Councilmember, good evening. My name is Ridhi Thong. I just want to say thank you for this tremendous recognition. I'm honored to receive and accept this recognition on behalf of our team. Thank Gabriel's best and our healthcare heroes in attendance and also on behalf of our residents and the residents families. Tonight's reception recognition and also our achievement with the Civil National Quality Award It's a team achievement. We are indebted to the city of San Gabriel. Under your collective leadership with the sound financial stewardship of resources in our community, especially our police department, our fire department, in our time of need, they're there within five minutes, 10 minutes, so we appreciate the collaboration. The shared accountability and responsibility which the city has provided us has afford us and allow us to do what we do best and that is to take care of our residents who are aging in place in our community and also serve the residents families who are constituents and also residents of the city of san gabriel With that, we would like to celebrate this recognition and have a reception at Broadway Health Care Center on September 22nd between 2 and 5. And we would be honored if our mayor and our council members and the staff here in attendance would come and celebrate in this recognition. Thank you again, and we look forward to our celebration coming on the 22nd.

Thank you, Mr. Tong. At this time, I would like to invite you and your team up front, and I would like to invite my colleagues up front, and we'll take a group photo. Wonderful. Thank you. Present you with the certificate.

I'm going to have everybody look right here. Perfect. Perfect.

Thank you to Mr. Tong, Director Tong, and your whole team. Next item, please.

Police Department promotion recognition. Police Chief Elizalde will make the presentation.

Good evening, Chief. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Chan, Vice Mayor Ding, City Council, Mr. Lazzaretto, and invited guests. I'm here tonight to announce and recognize the promotion of Alfred Hernandez to the position of Dispatch Supervisor, a new position within the organization. A little about Alfred. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in La Puente. He also attended La Puente High School and later went on to Citrus College where he earned a certificate in administration of justice. Alfred began his career with the San Gabriel Police Department on April 6th, 2002. And on August 14th of 2021, he was assigned as the lead dispatcher overseeing the day-to-day operations within the communication center. On July 11th of this year, Alfred was promoted to dispatch supervisor. Alfred has been a tremendous asset to the organization, not only with his abilities as a tenured dispatcher, but also with his high level of engagement in building a more robust communication center. Alfred's level of engagement is off the charts when it comes to working and collaborating with all of our vendors, including the Department of Justice, Cal OES, and surrounding agencies. Alfred also dives into our technology, teaching himself not only the capabilities of hardware and software, but also learning the back end on the technical side. Alfred was instrumental in helping the department transition to our new CAD and RMS system just a few months, and this was a huge undertaking for the organization. Alfred leads a team of six incredible dispatchers who are truly the first responders on every call. I want to recognize and congratulate Alfred on his achievements and recognizing his 24 years of dedication and professionalism to the San Gabriel Police Department and the community of San Gabriel. Would you please help me welcome our newest and only dispatch supervisor, Alfred Hernandez. And badge-pinning Al for tonight is his sister, retired CHP officer Ruth Rodriguez.

Do you like to say a few words? Mayor and council members, thank you very much for this opportunity to be with you guys today. In my 24 years here at San Gabriel, I've seen a lot of change, a lot of ingenuity. I'm very proud to be a member of the police department, and I'm glad I'm able to contribute as much as I can. And thank you very much for this honor. Thank you.

Congratulations, supervisor Hernandez. At this point, I would like to invite my colleagues to come up and take a photo with you. All right, next item please.

Public comment. This is the time set aside for members of the public to address the City Council on consent calendar items and on items of interest that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the San Gabriel City Council. Our first speaker is Mary Camerano on item 4C.

Good evening, everyone. Good to see you. That was just heartwarming to see what the officer being elevated to a new position. I'm here tonight because I want to thank all of you. Item 4C with the waiver for our historical dinner coming up, our annual fundraiser. It's a blessing. We've been able to make enough money that we can sustain and keep the operations going at the Historical Association. So we appreciate all the support we can get, every dollar we can get. We've been very fortunate that we've been able to carry on that way, but a few years ago we did have to come to the city and ask for help, and that was when the new roof was put on the museum, along with some plumbing issues, And again, that year, we were fortunate to have two donors. One of them donated enough money to have the new floor put in the museum. So it's great. The floor is leveled now. You don't have to worry about tripping or anything. It's been done very, very well. The problem inside the museum, where we have the leaks, A little bit of money was left from what the city had allocated for us, and so we were able to have some of the patching done, some of the work done in two of the rooms where the leaks did cause some damage, and enough money to actually have the rooms painted. So we're thrilled about that. So as you can see, every dollar goes as far as we can have it go. We were fortunate to get some grants through the historic preservation and through the Native Sons of the Golden West. They have a historic preservation group. And we applied there and we were able to get $5,000 and the roof on the jail was done. So there's always something being done. We do have a number of things being that are in need. But this certainly helps by waiving the fee to have the event at the Grapevine Arbor. Thank you on behalf of the Historical Association. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I hope to see all of you next week at the event. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Mrs. Camerano. I'll be there.

We now have a remote speaker.

Good evening, Council. My name is Caleb. I intended to be in person, but I started to feel ill, so I'm on Zoom. I'm here to make a comment on the city's Flock automated license plate reader system. I have three main concerns about these cameras. First, they're an unprecedented invasion of privacy, where without any ability to opt in or out, we're all being tracked everywhere that we drive across cities and counties, and all of our information is saved and searchable. for at least 30 days, although the police chief told me that that might go up to 45 days. While you might think that a street camera is what they are, they point at mostly streets, simply observing the public right of way isn't a huge invasion of privacy. I believe personally that it becomes a Fourth Amendment violation to collect and sort that data in this web to be able to map out a person's entire pattern of life and where they go every day. Second, they have poor cybersecurity. They reportedly lack two-factor authentication for accessing the data and have a very low barrier for anyone to approach the camera and gain access, like a non-police officer, to gain access to the live video feeds and stored data. Third, they are subject to misuse by bad actors and do not have sufficient mechanisms to prevent misuse. Some examples of these misuses include an officer in Arizona resigned after allegedly tracking down his wife using Flock, an officer in North Carolina who used Flock to track down her boyfriend's ex-wife while she was off duty, and six officers in North Carolina who were fired for misuse of the Flock systems. The Washington Post reports at least 69 other, or I guess, 69 total unauthorized uses of flock cameras around the country. While I trust our San Gabriel Police Department to do what's right, I don't know if I extend the same trust to the over 300 other agencies that currently have access to our data. which you can see on their transparency dashboard. Flock has proven to be an untrustworthy company, lying to city councils and police departments, and I don't trust them to seriously oppose, for example, if the federal government tried to gain access to the data for surveilling undocumented people in our community or interfering with or chilling elections. I submitted a public records request for the complete internal audits of the system within the San Gabriel Police Department, showing why each search of our database was performed and within what agency and for what reason. a couple months back and the response i got was to just um it was basically a screenshot of like a very basic information that's available on the transparency dashboard when i submitted a follow-up records request asking being more specific i got a message that the city attorney said that they found the documents but they were not released because of a public interest exemption The flock audits only contain a minimum amount of information about when a search of the system was made, by which agency, and for what reason. And so, as public, we can see the broad strokes of how the system is being used. I don't see how this information could be a danger to the public interest, especially when dozens of cities, other cities around the country, have made this information publicly available. and it's just a basic audit of how it's being used. I would like to request that the city reconsider its decision and releases these audits. In the meantime, I also urge this council to learn about why many other cities are canceling, including Los Angeles and six other cities in California, are canceling, not renewing, or deactivating their cameras on flop contracts. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Shimke.

Mr Mayor, there's no more public comment.

No other public comment. OK, thank you. So next item please consent calendar.

All items listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and recommendations will be approved in one motion unless a member of the City Council requests separate discussion.

Alright. Would any City Council member like to pull any item for a separate discussion? I WOULD LIKE THE MOTION TO APPROVE. MOTION TO APPROVE. ALL RIGHT. MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT CALENDAR MADE BY.

I SECOND.

MOTION MADE BY COUNCILMAN WU. SECONDED BY COUNCILWOMAN MENCHACA.

Mayor I just had a quick question for process now that we have the screen like my screen is frozen now so if we want to make a motion we still are going to do it verbally right we don't because it has an option here to hit the button if you can get to it like I said I'm stuck now I can't do that thank you so he's stuck too okay that's why I'm an old man trapped inside a handsome young man's body okay anyway let's get back um okay now it looks like it's working so um adam are you in control of it is that what is that why it's starting to work or sorry i just opened the oh i'm sorry we got somebody here We're now trying to process the voting because it's stuck. Please stand by.

Okay. Mine works.

It'll show.

Just double check, it's a motion by Councilmember Wu and second by...

Sorry, I'm gonna restart the motion.

Sorry, I got a motion by Council Member Wu and a second by Council Member Menchaca, thank you.

Now we vote, now we vote, okay.

Okay.

It's thinking about it.

Sorry, motion passed by a vote of 5-0. Okay.

All right. Thank you for the tech help. Next item, please.

We have no public hearing or continued business. The next item is new business, item A, Dumpling and Beer Festival 2026 funding request for event operator. Economic Development Manager Karen Coe will make the presentation.

All right.

You need to be in care.

event operator. Do I need to repeat that? Okay. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. For the past two years, the City Council has directed staff to explore the possibility of engaging with an experienced operator to produce and execute the city's signature event, the Dumpling and Beer Festival. The Council recognized the significant time, resources, and expertise required to successfully deliver an event of this scale. As a result, in June of this year, the City Council awarded a contract to MPD Events to assist with the planning, production, and execution of our 11th Dumpling and Beer Festival. MPD Events is a full-service event production company with more than 15 years of experience producing large-scale cultural and community events. It is also important to note that MPD Events was the only operator willing to take on the event without receiving an operator fee or direct compensation from the City. Their source of revenue would be a combination of vendor participation, sponsorships, ticketed components associated with the beer garden, and optional enhanced experiences. They agreed to assume the primary responsibility for event planning, production, staffing, and the financial risk associated with producing the festival, with the understanding that the city would provide only in-kind support and no direct financial contribution. MPD events took on the challenge enthusiastically, knowing they had approximately four months to plan and deliver the event. Given their experience and established network in the event industry, they also leveraged their existing business relationships and sponsorship contacts, in addition to the city's contacts, to promote the event and secure participation and support. However, with less than 1.5 months away remaining from the festival, MPD Events has encountered several challenges related to current market conditions and the resources needed to deliver the level of event originally envisioned. On August 20th, MPD events met with the Dumpling and Beer Festival subcommittee, the community development team, and the public information officer to provide an update on their progress, discuss these challenges, and ask for financial assistance. As a result of the subcommittee meeting, the subcommittee recommended there be three different funding scenarios be presented tonight. Today, MPD Events CEO Matt DiMeglio is here to share an update on the event, discuss the current market conditions they are experiencing, and present three potential city funding scenarios. These scenarios will ultimately determine the level of programming, infrastructure, marketing, and overall guest experience that can be provided at this year's festival. And with that, I will turn it over to Matt to provide an update.

Thank you, Karen, Mayor Chen, Vice Mayor Ding, Council Member Herrera-Vila, Council Member Menchaca, and Council Member Wu. I'm excited to see you all here, and I'm here enthusiastically to give you an update on the Beer and Dumpling Fest. This is really building the next chapter of what this festival has been for the last decade. entering the 11th year, coming on as an operator. We really came at this because this was a no-brainer to me, my business partners, my staff, my team. Beer and dumplings, food that unites us. It's an awesome festival. We've raised $29,200,000. We've brought on 13 sponsors, 30 food, beverage, adding a retail component to this as well. We've been able to bring on Delta Airlines through a relationship that we have through other events that we do. And we're really, really excited about this because It's gonna bring more visibility to our festival here. And I'm gonna get into that a little bit further in my slides. However, we have 15 local content creator influencers who are already engaged and who are gonna be here creating content. along with a spot on the ABC 7 Morning Show, which is already secured, and my team has been very heavily involved in developing a PR campaign for this to give the reach and scope that I think this festival really will evolve into. Now, we've had an incredibly strong level of interest and response to all of our outreach, which is very positive. We've created a new website, landing page, for this festival specifically. We've created Instagram. We are bringing the communication piece, I think, into everybody's home and onto everybody's palm, essentially. This essentially, as it says in my slides, gives sponsors a stronger platform and a little bit more visibility, and that's really what we want to build with the sponsors to get them more ROI, which is kind of more of a win-win for everybody. I don't know if you've had a chance to see the website yet, but there is. You can click on that link and check it out. And I really invite you to. The stylizing, the graphic design work that we've done, we're really trying to bring this a more of a night market feel, similar to the success that we've seen with the 626. So hence the neon vibe. We're really trying to create and design something to elevate the experience, food, culture, and community. We've already got some followers, which we're thrilled about. This year is the building year, the way that I see it, because the success of this year will really determine how we can then leverage the success of what we're rebuilding here and what we're going to help to develop it further. A few things that we're going to be adding to enhance this celebration. So we're going to have multi-stage attractions. We want to have the mayor, city council invited on stage. And council member Menchaca, we want to do a dumpling bowl. So we're gonna have you on stage tasting the dumplings and you get to vote on the winner. So we're really thrilled about that. It's called the Dumpling Bowl, which is kind of a play on the Rose Bowl, which is very much part of our SGV community. And we're excited about that. Dumpling Club influencer program. So we're creating a following online called the Dumpling Club, which is directly connected to the Beer and Dumpling Festival. So we want to have a dialogue throughout the year with people who are dumpling enthusiasts and general foodies. With Delta, this is really huge, I think. We've convinced them to do a culinary journey through activation at the event. So they are launching four transatlantic flights that they're coming to promote. we're gonna help them promote it through food okay so for example they have Manila they have Hong Kong they have Tokyo and they have Shanghai so they see value in coming to sponsor and to connect with the community here because they know the people within our community are flying to Asia who are part of you know those communities there which has also brought a arguably the best dumplings outside of Asia to SG. In the world. In the world. Don't forget it. Arguably. So another... Another new enhancement will be the Delta VIP experience. So we're basically trying to have a little lounge area. If you want to buy an extra ticket, you can kind of sit down in some soft seating furniture, meet with city council. There'll be some giveaways and a new retail marketplace, along with an enhanced kids zone, additional family programming in development as well. One of my friends has a slime museum. It's right across the street from the Grove. So we're getting the Slumu Institute to come and give away free slime, which is something that we've found. The response that we've received from a lot of people has been like, we're like, hey, would you like to sponsor this? We need dollars. We need money to be able to put this festival on. And a lot of people have been saying, we would love to, we've already spent all of our dollars if you would have come to us a year ago we could have talked about this however we have product we'd love to get our product in front of people so we've gotten a lot of interest uh that is product in kind which i see as a plus i see it as an enhancement for every single person who comes to mission street and goes to these vendors and takes home something like some sort of unique product that they're trying to market to them right so So we're not saying no. We're not saying, oh, you don't have dollars, you can't come. I'm like, sure, come. Come give away stuff. Let's engage this. Let's enhance this experience. So we have approached hundreds of brands. I think it's over 800. I think it's around 800 hours worth on this. I've hired more people. I have a new team member focused specifically on Dumpling Fest from the 626 Night Market. She did it for 10 years. breath of experience. And I was just like, well, if we're going to do this, we better do it right. So we've had a strong response, great engagement. Major companies have responded to us, and we have put this on their radar. The only problem is the current sponsors, we're consistently being told, we'd love to engage, but let's see how year one goes, and let's go from there. Brands want to experience this event, measure results, and then grow with us from there. That's what we're seeing. So for example, we want to track more data on this year. So we've created a free ticket that you go on Eventbrite and you sign up to come to the festival. So we can have more of a snapshot before the event, more data on who's coming and be able to share that with brands and sponsors who want to engage with the community. As I mentioned, many brands have already allocated their actual dollars. So that's one of the major challenges that we are seeing. Now, unusual challenges to further enhance. So the short planning runway, as you all know, when we first met, when this was awarded to us, we still came at this full force and we are still running at this full force. Strong brand interests, but cash sponsorship conversions have been challenging. As I mentioned, many brands are favoring in-kind support over cash. We were actually really surprised, and I think this is kind of like a reflection of the current I guess community, but brewery participation has been really difficult. A lot of breweries are reporting that they're having low sales. They're not spending more marketing dollars in this type of capacity. They wanted us to either pay them to come or they wanted to be able to sell individual beer products. This one came as a surprise. The LA Korean Festival changed their dates. So we found this out a few months back. They've changed their dates this year to directly overlap with our festival. And I spoke with a relationship that I have at the LA Kings. super interested. We had had multiple conversations, the same with the LA FC as well, who we've, we've done other events with them in the past. And, uh, you know, set up a few calls with them, they seemed really interested, they were gonna bring in Activation, and then I looked on the LA Korean website and they had all signed on with them. And that's because they're two days, it's the second to the fourth rather, and they have over 400,000 attendees, right? So this is something that we didn't really see coming at us. On top of that, for example, we've approached a lot of car companies, Kia for example. They referenced in our conversations that they're no longer gonna be doing any of these types of city festivals given the tariffs. So economically, I think a lot of businesses are looking at these types of sponsorships very differently. Along with that, even in our business, we're seeing the rising cost of production, whether it is transportation, staffing, fuel expenses, a lot of companies are raising costs in some capacities. Three options after we had our meeting with the team here. So no funding, what I see is kind of a scaled back version of this festival. Less dollars to just hire entertainment, basic signage, limited outreach and marketing of this, and no paid media. With the $30,000 city investment, we would see elevated infrastructure. Now, this is not a $30,000 that comes to MPD events. These dollars would go directly to vendors to pay for tents, chairs, generators, lighting, security, which is very important for this. any sort of elements of decor that we can have to enhance experiences, create engaging opportunities for people coming to this festival to have a unique experience, you know, have a really great time and want to come back next year and do it all over again. We're also planning to have paid social advertising. Use this enhanced influencer slash content creator moment, I think, to spread the word and to elevate what you guys have built for the last 10 years. For the third option, if we were to invest slightly more, another $20,000 into this, again, we would just have expanded opportunities for kids and for families to engage with bouncies and with various other kid-focused activities. More seating. As the sun sets, we want to have some sort of shade or placemaking. We could have projections on the beautiful Mission Playhouse. Better lighting. And then basically, elevated entertainment. Expanded regional marketing, because this is an economic development program to bring consumers to the city. And with all this being said, additional cultural programming as well, with all this being said, also we are still actively pursuing sponsorships every day. So, My hope is that let's say if we did approve the additional sponsorship, if we were to land a couple of bigger sponsors, I'm in contact with Karen every day and I would be letting you guys know we don't need it. You know what I mean? Like I'm not asking for this money from the city council to go to me is going to the festival to basically be able to pay for the infrastructure that we're seeing trouble raising sponsorship dollars for, uh, because of the economic situation. I invite questions and thank you for your time.

Thank you, Matt, for that overview. As shared, MPD events presented three different funding scenarios based on the direction of the subcommittee. The Dumpling and Beer Festival currently has $30,000 adopted budget in the general fund community engagement account. Historically, the festival generates about $30,000 to $40,000 in revenue through sponsorships, wristband sales, and vendor fees, which generally offsets the cost of producing the event. The operator reported investing over 800 staff hours already in planning, sponsorship development, coordination, production, and execution of the event. By the comparison, the city's estimated costs to provide an equivalent level of staff resources to date is approximately $55,000, based on fully burdened employee rates. Under the proposed operator-led model, the operator would take primary responsibility for planning, production, staffing, vendors, revenue generation, and event-related costs. The City would provide support for event execution, infrastructure enhancements, and limited day of event staffing. Importantly, no new appropriation is being requested. The existing $30,000 appropriation is the city's budget for the festival, and if approved, we can work with the operator within the existing budget, along with up to $20,000 in available savings in the community engagement account. The city would also provide in-kind support through public safety, public works, limited staff assistance, marketing, and use of city facilities and parking. While the city would no longer receive the festival's historical event revenues, we do expect to receive business license tax revenue from participating vendors. Overall, this approach allows us to work with the operator using the resources we have already budgeted without requesting an additional appropriation. To conclude, the proposed operator-led model allows the operator to take primary responsibility for producing the Dumpling and Beer Festival while recognizing that some financial assistance from the City is needed to support the successful production and enhancement of the event. As discussed, the City can work with its existing budget and resources with no new appropriation requested. With the recommendation of the Dumpling and Beer Fest Subcommittee, staff is presenting three options for the City Council's consideration. First, this Council may choose to make no changes to the current agreement and continue with in-kind city support only. Second, the Council may approve $30,000 in financial support, amend the professional service agreement with MPD events accordingly, and authorize the City Manager to execute the amended agreement. Or third, the council may approve up to $50,000 in financial support, which would utilize the existing $30,000 budget along with up to $20,000 in available savings. And similarly, amend an authorized agreement with MPD events. Staff is seeking direction from city council on which option best supports the festival while remaining consistent with the city's available resources. This ends the presentation. Matt and I are available to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you, Matt and Karen. At this point, does any council member have factual questions for Steph and Matthew to clarify the report?

I do.

Okay.

Councilwoman Menchaca. Yeah, I think it's important before any of us start discussing this that I would like to hear from the subcommittee and find out, you know, you've spent more time with this, you've PUT THIS TOGETHER WITH ASSISTANCE FROM STAFF, YOU KNOW, WHICH OPTION IS OUR SUBCOMMITTEE SUPPORTING?

YOU WANT TO GO FIRST, MAYOR?

SURE. Based on my being on the subcommittee and meeting with the operator and Karen's team, I am inclined to choose option C. And I mean, I can explain a little bit. THE $50,000 AMOUNT, BECAUSE I DO AGREE THAT IT'S A BIT OF A REBUILDING YEAR, AND TO THE OPERATOR'S CREDIT, HE IS RIGHT THAT WE, AT THE TIME THAT WE GOT INTO THE CONTRACT WITH THE OPERATOR, it was already in june and that's a little bit late for you know going to ask for sponsorships and and if we had started earlier in the year i think there would have been more corporate money available so and plus the the fact that i i think we can i mean karen and community development has done a great job over the past 10 years in-house but i think this could be so much more and um We already have 30,000 budgeted and not that, you know, money's easy to come by, but that an additional 20,000, I think, isn't, wouldn't be that much a strain on our budget. And I think it could go really far in really putting our event on the map. And as some of you know, even before I was on city council, I mean, when I was just a civilian in San Gabriel, every year, Dumpling and Beer has always been my favorite event. And again, staff does a great job, but I really want to be able to see it elevated and see how much more it could be. So that's just, real quickly, my but yeah, so that's me and we can- I'm sorry, just clarification.

So you're looking at up to 50,000?

Yes, and again, it's up to, so it doesn't, it just means that we as council authorize it, doesn't mean that they're going to spend it at all. So anyway, that's just my quick rationale and I'll let Councilman Herrera-Avila give his thoughts. And then once we get into the deliberation, then I'll kind of expand a little more, but that's where I am.

yeah same thank you mayor and thank you um councilmember machaca for for allowing us to give you a quick recap on this we've been meeting with with the team a couple of times already i think the biggest challenge is the sponsorship uh that matthew said matthew that matthew mentioned and then another challenge that he brought up and maybe he can clarify that um that piece is that rethinking about the San Gabriel Dumplings and Beer Festival because the name itself has been detrimental and has the beer part. Can you come up and explain that part? That beer part has deterred a lot of sponsors from engaging. Can you share your experience with them?

Actually, a few hours ago, Kathy Bank, Cafe Bank, declined to sponsor and they said because there is the word beer in the festival, along with the local Toyota dealerships. All car brands are interested, however, due to the fact that alcohol is mentioned in the name of the festival, they're less inclined. So I think that's kind of a... a year two thing that I'd love to table for discussion with the committee, just because I think that, like for example, Oktoberfest in its essence doesn't really mention beer. It insinuates beer, right? But it doesn't mention it, and I think a lot of brands, a lot more brands would get behind this, and we'd be able to commercialize this a little bit more without the word beer.

RIGHT. AND NOW IT'S CLEARLY A LITTLE TOO LATE TO RETHINK ABOUT THE NAME, AT LEAST CONSIDER A RENAMING OF IT, DUMPLING OCTOBERFEST OR WHATEVER, WHAT HAVE YOU, A REBRANDING FOR ONE YEAR. AND IF IT WORKS OUT, THEN WE CAN GO BACK AND and keep it like that, but if it doesn't, and if we see no change, then we can bring it back and have it as dumplings and beer. But I think that has been a very, like a very, a hindrance for sponsorship, and thank you for educating us on that, because I didn't think about it, but actually when I go back, I've asked sponsors last year, and it was the same thing. We won't give that much, or we won't give, because that beer component, it's on the actual name. So with that said, our rationale on presenting these three options has been solely based on the one option one, doing nothing, going with the contract. You guys will be expected to produce basically similar experience from what we already have in the past. and that would zero dollars allocated option two uh... thirty thousand which is what is already budgeted for in in the actual budget the year of fiscal year budget which is the thirty thousand uh... THAT REALLY WOULDN'T BE A LOSS FOR THE CITY BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT WE'RE INVESTING IN. AND ALSO WE'RE FREEING UP STAFF. I WANT TO HEAR FROM STAFF HOW HAS THIS EXPERIENCE BEEN, THE FACT THAT WE ARE CLEARING YOU UP SIGNIFICANTLY. CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT A LITTLE BIT?

Sure, thank you Council Member Herrera-Avila for that. Working with MPD events has been great so far, has been amazing just because of their experience. Our staff isn't having to chase vendors around getting quotes and working with sponsors because even with our contact list does not expand to the list that MPD events has. Now we're able to do more grand opening events. We're able to communicate more with our businesses. We've been able to focus on our farmers market as well too. So working with MPD events has definitely alleviated a lot of time, not just for community development staff, but also our public information office team as well.

Thank you. And then thank you for that. And then the last part three of it, right? The option three was taken into consideration given that Other than the 30,000 that is allocated, it's about 20-something plus that's allocated on the side or that's grabbed from different departments from a different pot, correct?

I believe it's a cost savings from just that community engagement account that we have.

Right. Okay, so with that said, I mean, those are basically the facts. For me, myself, we would love to, if we're hiring an outside agency to do this, and they have the capability, I mean, they're going to bring in ABC, you said ABC, right? ABC, and then you have so many different features that you're bringing into this, especially with WITH INFLUENCERS AND BRANDING AND IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT'S GOING TO BE A ONE-OFF THING. I DON'T WANT IT TO BE A ONE-OFF THING. I WANT IT TO BE SUCCESSFUL. WE WANT IT TO BE SUCCESSFUL. SO FOR ME, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE OPTION THREE ALSO ENTERTAINED GIVEN THE FACT THAT we're going to do it let's try to do it let's see what the best case scenario would be if it's just 20 000 extra right i mean i think let's just let's just try it out this one time it doesn't work out if it's done if it's not what we expected then we can go back to the drawing board next year

And I will point out that, piggybacking on Council Member Avila, that it's not just the money, it's the intangibles. We're going to get that ABC 7, we're going to get a lot of free media out there and the influencers and this, that and the other. So that does create value. than beyond just cash.

So yeah, I think that. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So yeah, that's my rationale behind it. And thank you guys for helping. I know it's a lot of work. And thank you guys.

Okay, I had just had a few follow ups. First of all, I do agree. You haven't had a complete planning cycle. I mean, this was, you know, very short hasn't even been six months. So I agree that, you know, we need to allow this new model to have its full year. And so I agree there. But I did have a question, a couple things. Number one, on the beer, apparently you've had some discussion, and so I agree to table it for next year. But one of the things I was going to mention is that studies have shown that the new generation, they don't like to drink. And so I was going to mention it anyway, but like mock beer, I don't know if it exists. I know there's mocktails, but I'm calling it mock beer, but you know. Beer beer.

Yeah, beer beer.

Yeah, okay. What is it called? I'm sorry.

near beer near beer okay that's the industry industry okay i don't drink beer so but um anyway uh you know maybe even bringing that in this year um because you mentioned how oh they are okay there is one or is it sorry maybe i don't want to speak for you is it a mocktail or is it a a zero percent beer

We have, I believe, one 0% seltzer and one 0% beer that is going to be here, 0% alcohol that will be a vendor.

So there is going to be a beer style thing or beer flavor thing.

We're seeing a lot more.

Okay.

Because down the street, we had kind of a grand opening, I guess, for that location next to Paris Baguette. The name is what? Complex? Cigarettes? Complex? Something like that.

Complex, that's right.

Yeah. Pardon? Cigars. Cigars. It's all the bad things. But anyway.

All the bad things.

But they do have... Like, for example, gin and bourbon, but they're all mock bourbon, you know. And so they have a lot of interesting items. Karen, maybe you can direct them that way. Help our local business. I think they would love to participate. But they had everything you can think of, and it was non-alcoholic. So something to think about. But I guess, you know, I've been kind of beating this drum for the longest time. I think it's a great idea to have an operator because our staff, just like you said, Karen, you kind of said everything I was going to say is that it has freed you up or our department freed up to do things with our businesses. I mean, this is so consuming. I was listening to him and I'm thinking, this is what our economic development did for 10 years. How they did it, I don't know, but this, I think, is a great opportunity. I had a question regarding sponsorship and ticket revenues because there was a statement here made that in the past we would sell the tickets and we would kind of recover, let's say 30,000. We would recover, so it was kind of a net wash. In this case, Would we have, like, let's just say we go with option two, which is the 30,000. If you're able to sell enough tickets or sponsorships, would you be able to kind of refund us the money? Because you're going to need the money up front. And then as the revenues come in, because initially when we signed the agreement, all that was going to go to MPD? How is this going to work if we change it? Is there a possibility of recovering this amount of money, whether it's the 30 or the 50?

simply i don't think we've had enough runway to be able to raise the money that i ambitiously thought we could with less than six months to produce it so i don't think that there's enough sponsorship dollars that are that's going to be able to pay for the infrastructure for this event so i don't think that we would be able to at this stage well i appreciate the honesty i i just wanted to at least ask the question and then um

Let's see. Also, I'm assuming after the event, we'll have a really strong debrief regarding to the financial results, attendance, sponsorships, impact, so on, so on. Because it may be time to have that conversation is, A, do we want to continue on? and B, as is discussed, do we want to rebrand it to get the beer out and call it Oktoberfest and dumplings or something along those lines. But I think it's going to be really important that we start, you know, we want to be fair, you know, because I agree, you know, there's not enough time here. The cycle is supposed to be a year. We're giving you less than six months. BUT I THINK WE NEED TO BE ACCOUNTABLE. THESE ARE TAX DOLLARS. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE AT THE END WE REALLY LOOK AT IT CAREFULLY FROM ALL PERSPECTIVES. MAYBE IT IS TIME TO, I MEAN, I mean, we may decide we don't want to do this anymore, or if we do, what is it going to look like? But I have to tell you, I look at this as an investment, okay? This is what this is. We have been listening to council, that's us, been listening to staff, especially like our community services group. I think we need to expand the net of sponsorships. we just can't rely on the same people over and over again. I mean, I'm on the subcommittee for Independence Day and, you know, it's literally one hand of sponsors. And so I look at this as an opportunity, it's an investment, it's a roadmap, it's an opportunity to start cross-promoting. So they start here, they get to know who we are, and then our other departments, I guess mostly community services, could start accessing these vendors whether it's delta or abc also helps with our public information officers i know they have contacts too but you know yours is clearly much more vast than um than what we've had so i mean for that reason i mean i want to listen to my to the last two remaining council members but I AM BETWEEN THE 30 AND THE 50. I APPRECIATE THE SUBCOMMITTEE LOOKING AT THE 50. I'M ALSO LOOKING AT THAT, TOO. BUT IT'S JUST A MATTER OF WHERE WE WANT TO TAKE THIS AND DO WE think there's value here. I think there is, and I think it's much more than just the beer festival. I think it's going to help us going forward to elevate everything we do, whether it's the Christmas party or the holiday party, I'm sorry, the holiday party, the Dia de los Muertos, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day. I think we can enter a whole new A WHOLE NEW LEVEL THAT WE HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO DO IN THE PAST, AND I FEEL LIKE SOMETIMES WE'RE KIND OF LIKE BEATING OUR HEADS, LIKE WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS? WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS? AND I THINK NOW YOU'RE HERE, AND YOU'RE SHOWING US, YOU KNOW, THERE'S A WHOLE OTHER GROUP OUT THERE THAT really wants to be here they just need that opportunity and you seem to have the contacts and uh... i think it's worth the investment this year and who knows maybe you'll help us with other events you know even make them like whether it's our independence day I just think, again, I feel like every time we decide on something, it's a crossroad. It's like, okay, which direction are we going to go? We want to just stay on the same road or we want to try to expand it? And I've always been one that feels like, let's expand. Let's grow that vision. But we can't do it by ourselves. We just can't. Kind of like last meeting with Townsend, you know, we knew we can't do this anymore with regards to the grant funding. We need advocacy. We need X, Y, Z. And I think that's where we are today with this decision that we make tonight. So anyway, I am done. Thank you.

Councilman Wu, question?

Thank you, Mayor. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, my two colleagues. Basically, I like the website so far. You know, it reminds me the situation like when I take an airplane, you know, when I get on a plane, I need to pay $50 extra for leg rooms. Then I just pay additional $50 for the food and drinks. And I end up with, like I understand, then I need to pay $300 to get a key for the restroom. Well, this is a, I mean, I don't mean to criticize anyone, but this is really, we are talking about a pleasant event under an unpleasant situation here. Because at the beginning when we had, I remember at the time that we had a Chinese New Year. Then that year that I had brought an idea about the Lantern Festival, but we didn't work out with the first partner. So then we switched to another partner, which is World Channel. And at the first partner, we spent, I believe, $30,000. But the second partner, we spent $0. But actually, the outcome, actually, it went well. So to us, the city of San Gabriel, we are never taking the lowest beat. We are taking the quality. So that's why when we are sending out the request for proposal that we are telling people what we need so people will come back with that numbers and what service and scope of service they provided. So you know before today I thought that we are getting everything with the Plan C without paying anything. So it just brings, it's a little bit of concern to me because I understand this is, it must be very difficult for Matthew, for Karen to bring this topic to the council meeting and this is like a one month away event. We will be having our beer, dumpling beer fest on October 2nd and today is September 1st. So, I think my first question is, of course, regarding the sponsorship challenge that identified in the staff report. Actually, the report says there are several factors, including the timing of a corporate sponsor budget, a sponsor, you know, preferring in-kind contributions rather than cash, competition events such as, like, LA Korean Festival or limitation of brewery participation, rising labor and infrastructure costs. So I just wanted to know when MPD, right, MPD, when we were selected you, that it's part because you're experiencing event productions and sponsorship, you know, so, As an experienced event operator, were those factors that considered when you are submitting the proposal in June? Because I think that time, we know the time is kind of very limited. And what is the materially change between June until today that has resulted in the current like 30,000 to 50,000 funding gap? Thank you.

I would say once we were awarded this RFP, that's when we went to work to really dig into this, reach out to all the contacts, sponsors, brands, create a new branding, new website, Instagram, all the different ways to reach the audience that we want to show value to. and I don't think that there was enough out there already to be able to show these brands so we had to create more of a story about the festival and I've spent lot of my own personal time and I see this personally as if you guys are going to invest in this, I hope that you can also recognize that I'm also investing in this, not just for this year, the building year, but for years to come. So I will also comment on the fact that I have another similar project where three years ago we took it on, we only had a few months to do it. The first year was the building year, the second year we doubled revenue in that year, and this is the third year where we are exceeding all expectations. So we really do put, I would say, heart, soul, hard work into what we do. Also when you, to use your analogy on the flight, when you book like eight months in advance, you usually get a better rate on your ticket as opposed to a few months in advance where the cost goes up, right? So I feel like that's kind of the situation that we're in where I was brought on less than six months to do this with ambitious goals, but leaning into this kind of economic situation that we're in and trying to leverage as much relationship equity that I have with other events that we're doing. Delta's coming on board because I'm working with them on another project, so I'm able to leverage that for the city event. So I think that's really kind of what's changed is the proper research, educating ourselves, understanding kind of what the product is. the Beer and Dumpling Festival, Dumpling and Beer, City of San Gabriel, and being able to sell it to bigger brands. And I will say, a lot of brands now know about this festival, and I think that we're going to be on their radar for year two, as well as they're going to come to the table, however way they will, with one month left.

Yeah, I just realized I probably took a very risky step that you probably will lose another big sponsor. My joke is not associated with any airline sponsor at all.

They are great. I love Delta.

Well, but I mean, please don't take it personal. This is my job. I think our constituents deserve some answers that they will definitely ask why we were accepting the request for proposal with zero amount but we know that we are getting a good future of this beer and dumpling fest and now we end up with like making decision either Everything just very basic. I understand that it's not terminated, but it will be like scaled back event. There will be no paid media. Everything looks like, oh, that is something we didn't know. But we take that. And I know that the report, the staff report also highlight that, you know, the standalone event, website, new branding, as you mentioned, and logo, I love that, and the dumpling club. And I hope, I mean, not only the Delta Airlines have a taste of Asia, but also maybe Lufthansa has a taste of Europe. But I think I really appreciate the creative, you know, creativity and efforts that you have done. I know that you mentioned you spent more than 800 staff hours for this expanding the scope of work. You know, so, I mean, so what we can, I mean, we can expect it from, IF WE ARE GOING TO, LET'S SAY, FUND 30,000 OR 50,000, UP TO 50,000, And I understand you're mentioning this is not go to your pocket, but this is just try to make, vitalize the event, just make the event a little bit more exciting. So is that something, within such a very short time, and this amount of money, would that be giving you some supplemental support? Because money's here, but how you can find more sponsors because the money or what is the actual benefits you can use the money to leverage more for our event.

I think that the funding would greatly impact the event, mainly for the infrastructure. I would say for the constituents of the city, the chairs, tables, things that they are going to be using at this festival, we are going to be able to bring, I think, enhanced brand awareness, activations, goodies, freebies, handouts. Olipop brand is gonna be handing out cans and they're gonna bring their activation truck there and they're gonna have staff there. So it's gonna have more, I think, of a commercial aspect to this, which might enhance the experience. I mean, also, I had way back when I first started, my friend who runs the Instagram account LA in a Minute, I had him post about this right away. I jumped on a call with him and I know that shortly after that, he also posted a video, I think on Mission Road about the city of San Gabriel and the history and really highlighting the city and You know, this is, I see it as, I want this to be a win-win for you guys, for the city, for the constituents, and for all the companies and brands that we're convincing to come and be part of this festival and hopefully build a relationship this year. that will expand and grow into next year based on the delivery of a successful event. And I think this funding will help us guarantee a delivery of a successful event to be able to pay for the infrastructure, hand washing stations, porta potties. We are changing the scope in which the event has looked where previously we saw and we've read all of the commentary that we've seen that the city staff has given us where it said there were lineups, all the food was in one spot. It was planned in a way that was very economically responsible in that regard, which I commend Karen and her team for doing. We've looked at it from a different perspective, more from a user experience where we don't want to put all the dumplings in one corner and have huge lineups. We want to have retail. We want to have food trucks. We want to have dumplings spread throughout. the footprint of this event which does require uh based on la county requirements to have more places to wash your hands for vendors for guests more porta potties so it's just expanding the way that this is designed to create a better experience for everybody in the SGV and beyond, OC, City of LA, that are going to come here because they're foodies and they want to come experience dumplings at its finest.

OK, so so the report also stay. I think the caring just also mentioned that our MPD provide regular updates to not only committee but also to our staff. So when did MPD first notify you that there was a significant funding gap? That is, you know, or there is an original financial model that might no longer be available, be viable.

FROM WHAT I RECALL, COUNCILMEMBER, WHO WAS, I THINK, END OF JULY, I BELIEVE, BUT THEY WANTED TO KIND OF GAUGE MAYBE THEY WERE GOING TO GET ADDITIONAL SPONSORS, BUT JUST BASED OFF OF WHAT THEY WERE GETTING IN RETURN, THEY FELT, OKAY, THIS IS TIME THAT WE DO DESPERATELY NEED TO ASK OUR COUNCIL TO SEE IF WE CAN ALLOCATE MONEY TOWARDS MPD EVENTS TO PRODUCE THE EVENT.

Mark, my question to you, I mean, usually, for example, if we got a RFP, the request for proposal, so we are getting this because of the condition of like that, but now we end up with amending the agreement. So, other, you know, other competitor may say, Well, citizen giver, it's not fair that you accept this at the beginning with a zero and now you're giving even more than I have quoted. Would that be cause any legal consequences to our city? I just want to make sure.

Once you ended, Councilman Wu, your comment was legal. I'm going to switch that to Martin. But I do want to clarify one thing before Martin takes over. Two things. One, the $30,000 and the $50,000 are still less than what any of the other respondents have asked for. So it would still be less than what they were requesting. So we'd still be under those amounts. And two, with these kinds of contracts, we are allowed to, and the RFP process, we're allowed to negotiate even after the RFPs come in. It's not like a street paving or a construction bid where we are bound by what The terms of the bid are this is essentially a process where we can identify contractors and then negotiate what's on the best interest for the city from there. But I think the more important comment is that the other operators were still not going to be able to meet at this price.

I see. Well, thank you very much for clarification. I think this is important. I have little concern that people will think that we are not taking, you know, we are not making a decision in a very serious manner. And you just take it and just amend it for higher price or something. But thank you so much.

I do think I want to amplify what Karen had said a minute ago, which is that we were trying for more than a month or a month and a half to not have to bring this to council. This isn't something that we enjoy or Matthew enjoys bringing. I think if he had his druthers, he would be here and or not be here at all. And we would be having the after action report without having to have this conversation. The other thing in his defense, when we put this RFP together, it was several months before we actually brought it to council. And so I'm sure he, as well as the other folks who responded, were looking at a longer runway. And it just takes the city several months to be able to get this on a council meeting. So what that idea was at the time, I'm sure he thought he had two or three more months than he actually had by the time we kicked off the contract. Got it.

So the last question may be for Matthew. So based on your experience with this type of jobs or the event that you work with the city or any entities, What is the revenue share that to you will be even easier because there'll be some partners will be working with you or you'll prefer it this way. This is more like a one time at, you know, funding issues. I think, I guess, I mean, I hope this is only one time, but you're, you're talking about like a, this is one time funding and to build up a foundation and just can make the things moving forward. Right.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is an exploratory year that we are, I'm personally investing in, in working with the city to see if this is a viable, you know, continual project. My hope is that, and the potential that I see is that it is, and I have a pretty good eye for this. But I think this is like also it's a two-way street. If you guys say to me, oh, this didn't work out, or I may come to you and say, this didn't work out. If it's all coming out of my pocket and this is the risk I was willing to take on, if the city is going to help fund this and we're going to make it a success, I think that it could end up being a win-win. But I see this as a two-way street and it's a real partnership. and we're working together. I'm in contact with Karen giving her updates very consistently and also with our mayor and Councilman Herrera-Vila. So, you know, we do see this as a partnership with the city and I don't see myself off in the corner making my own dumpling festival. This is something that you all have created and we're trying to enhance and elevate and, you know, we want to make it like as big as the 626. We want to elevate it for the city.

So, Karen, I mean, when you were in charge of this, I mean, do you have approximately, I'm just curious, I mean, is it 800 hours is pretty fair?

That was just equivalent to what, you know, in terms of the $55,000, that's just equivalent to our fully burden rate. Mm-hmm. But in terms, from my recollection from last year, the one year that I was able to help run the event, it did require a lot of investment and time, definitely not to the scale of MPD events. I was designing the whole logo, reaching out to sponsors, Could we have invested more time for last year? Possibly, but we were limited on staff. So having MPD events definitely made it a lot easier and having their contacts because reaching out to sponsorships does require a lot of work. Breweries, there's lots of back and forth with vendors. So I can definitely see that translating to our staff time.

Got it. Well, I just want to conclude this because I truly appreciate it. I think this is a job that I think you have put a lot of efforts. I don't mean that this is not a, you know, we may have a lot of challenge ahead of time, to us, we are not really able to itemize every single working hours, tables, chairs, parties, washing station. We just have no ability to, as a city, we are outsourcing to someone we trust like you. So that's how we want you to accomplish. This is the whole thing is that we can continue the journey and the legend that we have for 11 years. So we do have a high expectation on you. So this is, I think this is very important that I want, we want to make sure this event will be a successful one. We don't want that become something, it turns to another way around. So I truly appreciate for that. I mean, yeah, I would like to listen to other colleagues then we can elaborate. Thank you so much.

Vice Mayor Ding. Thank you Mayor. Oh yeah, it's for constituents. It's a say that they saw it seemed to the Council member who mentioned that. So first of all, like we got up like IFP. It's like on the June right before the June already got so. It's also considerations. How do you feel for the rest of the? The vendor right so yeah. I appreciate you working with Karen and have this kind of proposal. It's really, we want our, this brand name, the event, it's really representing our city of San Gabriel. It's 10 years, it's not easy. Actually, also for me, it's also expecting your performances, like your number C, the performance. That's what we're expecting. You have the professional, the event coordinator to help us. So the question asking Karen, so last year, how much the revenue you're going to get?

From my recollection, in terms of revenues, it was probably about $40,000 to $45,000. $45,000.

$40,000 to $45,000. That's meaning you last year did a good job.

Thank you.

Thank you. So based on the report right now, Matthew, you secured it's $29,000 something?

That doesn't account for the ticket sales and the vendor fees, at least what they've collected so far.

Pardon me?

Is this working? The 29 or about $30,000 that they've received in sponsorship, that does not include the beer garden wristband sales as well as the vendor fees.

Okay. Respend sales, yeah, how much last year?

Last year, approximately $20,000, $22,000. But please note that this doesn't account for the expenses to be spent towards rental vendors working with AYC and the staff time that is involved prior to the event.

Okay. So these are 29,000 not expecting wristband. So wristband, on the website, already start to sell yet or not?

Yes, and majority of them will happen closer to the event, so we don't really have any way of predicting what that would look like. I think it's more of a last minute type of thing that people are buying. Without marketing and without advertising, we do need to have that infrastructure to get the word out.

Yeah, I agree too. But from my experience, for previous event, I hear about from a staff report, near to the festival, two weeks were almost sold out. almost like maybe just maybe 50 or during the pandemic, I don't remember, just only 40 ticket left for the event day that we can sell. So that's my previous watch this event experience. So I agree that maybe one month's still not enough, but the next two weeks should be going up. So I just tell my feeling, okay, too, okay. When you got a IFP, we want like you do the, you save the time for the staff to also do the job. It's really high expecting, okay. So right now, I understand it may be time too short. It's because you don't have any, for your personal, maybe you don't have any experience for the previous event, how do you reach out to the vendor, okay. Actually, it's – I honestly just – it's tough bringing up here. It's a tough decision for our council member. We want to talk to our constituents why this happened. But I like your – this next two option. But how do you, like, within just right now only one month, how do you elevate the infrastructure and the signature? But are you talking about, I remember the council member who you have the better seating, better, is it? Karen, for the last year, you think that the better seating will help more people coming to?

Last year with our rental vendor that we worked with, they weren't able to fully execute the setup. So staff had to come in and help. But in terms of, if I could say, of share, in terms of experiences, last year we would just have our entertainment. We had like a little art contest that we partnered with AYC for our 10th anniversary and the beer garden. But with... MPD events, they're adding additional elements like the dumpling bowl, the dumpling club, working with influencers to just fully activate the event and draw more attention to the Mission District as well as the event. So from years to come, people will remember the evening as a memorable event if we were to compare it from past years. Not to say that the first 10 years wasn't great, but they're here to make it even better.

So for my, and this is also the next question, so if you look on this, this is better because based on the second option. The first contract option, we're expecting it already should be better than our staff to do it, right? So should you have bring more infrastructure, you should bring more better entertainment too. So I know the current, right now it's really tough situation to do it, but like Council Member Wu mentioned also, you do the event for your private, you are not just do the like, you should be get some reasonable profit too right so I understand it but the things for that today it's a really tough things how do you if if we choose the number two what's the deep I want to see the detail promise how do you can go in far to help to better than our staff to do it

I mean, typically, when I take on a client, I have a budget to spend, right? So with this scenario, I entered into this kind of like, with the city as a partnership, with ambitions, with less than six months to pull this off and to raise sponsorship dollars, which I have been successful in doing in the past. And I'm currently successful in doing with other projects that I've been working on for multiple years. I will say that I think it will already be elevated if we were to just take a snapshot today with more social media with graphic more graphic design with the website with the outreach that we've dedicated to this and the focus whereas i'm sure previous in previous years you know the team doing this are also working on like six other events at the same time and it's not just beer and dumpling i've hired specific staff you know out of my own personal funding to focus on doing this communication outreach campaign to be able to grow this festival and to make it a bigger splash within the SGV. And I don't know if you all know too, there's you know, a lot of competition within the SGV on the various different events that happen where people go spend their weekends, evenings and dollars, right? So making this one a little bit more recognized this year and using more of the platform that we all see on Instagram and having content creators talking about this, I think will create more of an elevated experience and we're hoping to have content creators here posting an hour before it starts and sending them gift bags in advance that they can post about. This is all, we're leading up to this plan that we've put into place. However, I wanted to come to raise the red flag because we were not getting the sponsorship response that we had anticipated or guessed with a calculated risk that we would have received. I will say that the response has been very positive, but because of when we signed this contract with the city, the runway did not allow for us to be able to really raise the dollars that we had anticipated would cover the costs and also create some sort of financial recovery for the time that we're spending on this. So it's probably going to be a wash for me this year, or I'll lose some dollars on doing this. But again, I see this as an investment to be able to get through the first year, create a template, and be able to replicate it and enhance it for next year. I think that the event this year is going to be really fun, engaging, awesome for the constituents the the city residents of the city of san gabriel and sgv you know my sgv podcast i met with them this afternoon they're very excited they're going to be there they're going to be activating and and interacting with the audience they're super thrilled to be here we're really engaging the sgv community and also we've we've reached out to every single city you know business in this city but we're going wider and we're trying to commercialize this a little bit more to get more brands here, to create more awareness about this festival. And I'm still pretty positive and excited about this, but I just want this to be a positive reflection upon the city and also upon my community business and I see this as a partnership so that's why I'm here to have this open conversation in advance as opposed to delivering like I don't know if you've seen the movie about the fire festival but there's this producer they fly people to an island and it was a complete disaster and you know I You know, I wouldn't want that to be the situation here. I see this as a two-way dialogue and a partnership to create, to continue, Dumpling and Beer Festival and elevate it and make it amazing.

Councilmember Dieng, I'm sorry, you mentioned something that I think is very important. We've always had limits on the wristbands. With this elevated experience, there's not going to be any limits, right?

just based on the footprint that we'd be able to increase it. You know, we did last year, it was increased the wristbands on Santa Anita Street. They expanded the beer garden based on the supply and demand. So we would be able to

increase it for sure but I mean I feel like a lot a lot of people are not drinking as much right now so I don't know how those sales are going to go we're really focusing and leaning into the foodie aspect of this but as he said you know there's always this limit you know it was cut off at a certain time and it sounds like you know even though people aren't drinking like I still get a wristband but because of the dumplings and all that other stuff but So will there be a limit, like Councilmember Ding said, or will there not be a limit?

I think there will certainly be a limit.

Okay, but it's going to be greater than what we've had in the past?

I would hope so, yeah. That's what I'm hoping for, if there's a demand.

Is that what you're hoping for too, Karen?

Okay. As long as it complies with city regulation, security, and what the police department requires for safety.

Okay, I hope that kind of answers your question.

There's still bill garden not that is expensive to the next to the dumpling right. based on your?

It would be the same footprint as last year, so it would be within the grapevine and extended onto Santa Anita.

Okay, everybody have the ribbon to get in. Okay, another, I remember last year you do the, it's good suggestion for the people, if they driving, give to them the discount they can get in the Beale Garden, the no alcohol, right?

Yeah, we will also be having the designated driver's wristbands as well, and they'll be non-alcoholic beverages for them to consume and to enjoy.

Then I maybe suggest, like Council Member Metchenka, it's a beer tasting, but no alcohol. Probably they have a chance to get it. So hopefully more attended people to attend it, to pay the extra with another beer tasting, but it's some soft drink or something like that. Yeah. Okay. And another question, but only... one month, but I want accountability. Hopefully, like, if you say, like any vendor, we city direct to pay the sponsor, direct to pay the, City fund will be, okay, pay approved, need to approve from the Karen, your department to approve to pay the vendor, right? The city direct pay the vendor, right?

So their intent with the funds is to hire rental vendors for the infrastructure. We will most likely be double checking that these funds are gonna be utilized for that purpose. Because if the city pays the vendors directly, we have a whole process, especially if it exceeds a certain amount because of our purchasing policy.

Purchasing policy. Okay. How about pay the social advertisement? So probably how much you estimate, Matthew?

I'd have to just triple check and get back to you on that. Okay. But we would be able to provide with extreme ease receipts that exceed the amounts that the city would be providing just for the infrastructure, for the rentals, generators, lights, tables, tents, just general like the basics that are required to put on any sort of event.

okay it include entertainment if you pay they pay for the certainly yes just direct to them too correct sure it's a good performance too exactly okay so i for the because the design for me it's feel like it's between the because the time shot to shot okay and the uh between the the right now the current situation i know it's really understanding your coordinator and uh and the staff too uh but uh because we already have the ifp for the previous one so i i die where we want accountability so if the i prefer to option two it's up to the 30,000 we can do first year for next year so maybe if we you can have the new proposal if we really want to increase the our budget it's fine too because you know our way I'm with the council member Wu it's our Latin festival okay actually Previous, even the company and their current award general, we have budget, but are not fully to use the budget. I think it's a partial one. Most of the market, from my understanding, no.

Okay. I don't believe that we use any funds for that. I mean, they just self-funded. So they make their, you know, they got their sponsors. So we are, we just give them, we call the in-kind sponsor, which is our PD fire, but we are not giving them the money. We collect the business license as well.

I can agree, but it's, from my experience, Mark, could you answer that?

Council Member Wu is correct, except we do have costs that we pay directly, things like the barricades and some other costs. So we don't reimburse the operator for that, but we do have costs for Lunar New Year. Still have a cost, but the direct to pay the vendor. That's right. We used to spend more than $100,000 on Lunar New Year. We don't spend anywhere near that these days, but we do have costs for that.

okay all right so they are what you know do a very good job to to help our city save our our tax dollars but also the to the event is pretty good but i i know that every event is different this is called a traditional called a dumpling the beer and the way and i i feel the understanding so it's Actually, my suggestion, it's similar to market, say, some expense, so we just use the budget to direct pay the vendor to help the NPD, the event, to, yeah. because time too short. We still want a good event for even we have a competitor with LA Korea event. So hopefully you can help and say not just go over there and have more people come to our city. Okay, thank you Mayor.

All right, thank you, Vice Mayor Ding. Do any of my colleagues have more technical questions?

Councilman Avila. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And Matthew, just something that we had a conversation on our last meeting with Karen and the team. is that important feature about that Korean festival. I feel, I mean, it will not interfere with our festival as far as the audience, but I understand when it comes to the sponsors, right? Can you elaborate more on the fact that that festival is a two-day festival and our festival is a one-day festival?

I will say, based on the research that we've seen and done on that festival, they have some big car companies there. They have a lot of other bigger brands because they serve alcohol at that event, by the way. Like, definitely. But it's not in the name, so that's one thing. And the second thing is that it's a multi-day, 400,000 person trafficked event. So a lot of vendors who participate in these festivals, the feedback that we've received is that since this is a one night, kind of just a four hour event, It's a little bit more logistically challenging for them to participate because if they're going to be bringing in infrastructure product activation for doing it for just four hours, there's less reward. for them when some of these other festivals are multi-day three-day so you know one of the other you know recommendations that we had discussed is to in future to maybe make this event a longer event maybe it's a friday night saturday full day event which could you know enhance the experience get more brands out there and expand the audience foot traffic And also families. I think that a lot of folks that we spoke to had mentioned that they'd never thought of bringing their families to a beer and dumpling festival. And we had told them there's a great family zone, this is a very family friendly event, community oriented. So I think that's also a very strong recommendation is to focus more on bringing families to this event.

I THINK I WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE GROUP OR COUNCIL KNOWS THAT ACTUAL CAVEAT BECAUSE I THINK IT'S VERY IMPORTANT, RIGHT? THEN WE HAVE OTHER FESTIVALS THAT ARE TWO DAYS LONG AND THEY'RE PRETTY SUCCESSFUL TOO, RIGHT?

WELL, I WAS GOING TO MENTION THE LANTERN FESTIVAL WHICH WAS CALLED, I FORGOT WHAT IT WAS CALLED INITIALLY, BUT LUNAR NEW YEAR, THAT STARTED SMALL. An afternoon or a day, like 10 to 4, something like that. It starts small, then expanded to two days.

I think after pandemic, the first year we just do the one days, and the second year we do the two days. And after the war general happens, we already have the two days event.

But our lunar festival was before pandemic. So before you were on the council.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, before pandemic. Yeah, so it started small. After pandemic, we have the in-person to do the event.

Yeah, in-person, but it was not until Councilmember Wu He had a greater vision, and we expanded it to two days. I think it's a good comparison, but although we've had the dumplings and beer for 10 years, but I think I've heard this year after year, too, that it needs to be longer than four hours.

So I think that would be something, it's a good, some good information to share. I just want to make sure that the whole council knows that conversation as well, because it's a valid conversation. The last comment I want to say is that, right, when we were meeting with karen and with matthew and the team we had an opportunity to bring it back to the team and when i mean the team i mean the council and i think we decided to bring it back to the council with the three options because i feel it should be a decision of the council instead of us saying no and just deal with it based on the contract just give us what what is what we can get for that amount. But I think it's fair to bring this proposal with the three options, with the 30,000 that normally is given, as budgeted for, and understand that there's revenue that comes back from that, right? But given that this is a new opportunity with a new company that has experience with this these type of events I feel that if we give them the up to 50,000 which the money is not going straight to their pocket is going to amplify the actual experience of the event I think it would be very beneficial to see and What they can deliver at the max capacity which would be at giving you guys the $50,000, up to $50,000, that you guys would reinvest. And I believe this is based on the conversation that we had that I wanted to make sure that that money goes towards the event itself. The sponsorship money goes towards the event because I think it's the best interest for you as an organization or a company to make sure that this event looks amazing for your next job or for your portfolio or what have you, right?

We want to make sure it shines.

Yeah, we want to make sure absolutely that it shines. And then we want to see if we can start building up for next year. And I think this is a perfect example of having asked for money earlier on would have been perfect, right? Because a lot of companies, they secure the money not on the year of, but the year before. this year they're already securing money or who they're going to be donating to. And normally they're donating to the same people that they donate before in the past. And it's harder to get in the door with a new proposal, especially when all that money has already been allocated for. So this money, as far as for sponsorships, it should be coming sooner than later, right? The end of this year, it's already a little too late to be asking for money. From my experience in the world of That I came from in the past, right? so My only concern is that if we do 50 It's kind of not budgeted for we budgeted 30, but then with all the expenses then it turns out to about 50 But then we do get a profit. I acknowledge that we get a profit my only concern is that this becomes the THE NORM, RIGHT? NOW EVERY YEAR WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO EITHER REVISIT OUR BUDGET AND IT'S GOING TO BE 50,000 INSTEAD OF THE 30,000 THAT IT'S ALLOCATED WHERE WE COULD HAVE USED THAT 20,000 FOR ANOTHER EVENT, RIGHT? I JUST WANT TO BE CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT THAT THAT'S MY CONCERN THERE. I DO THINK THAT THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPAND TO ELEVATE, RIGHT, BY REMOVING THAT BEER COMPONENT TO SEE WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE. AND I UNDERSTAND, I MEAN, COUNCILMEMBER MENCHACA MENTIONED A LOT ABOUT THIS. IT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME. I THINK YOU MENTIONED IT A COUPLE OF TIMES. The beer thing is going out the window. Not that many people are at breweries anymore. Not that many people are indulging in wine. I mean, the whole alcohol industry. And I think it's a good thing, I guess, right? And the schema thing is healthier. People are living more healthy, right? Hopefully. Hopefully. But I digress. And I think it's a great opportunity to explore what this event could have the potential for. This is an opportunity to look at that with that full 50 to see, hey, what can you deliver with that full 50? Can you give us that experience? I know we talked about that beer garden that last time it felt empty, like there was just a small barricade. You could see right through the beer parking area. It felt very empty. uh we would like to see more games activated in that area right we want to see more family friendly games too right because yes you need the wristband but you might have it might be friendly to to i see breweries that are friendly to kids nowadays right and they bring their families i don't know how that will work out but still i would like to see that area with extra money FEATURES THERE, LIKE COVERED UP, SOME HEDGES OR SOMETHING, AND FOR PEOPLE GOING TO THIS EVENT, FOR THEM TO FEEL, YES, WE DEFINITELY FEEL THIS COMPANY OR THE CITY OF SAN GABRIEL, REALITY, THEY'RE NOT GOING TO KNOW, MOST OF THE COMMUNITY IS NOT GOING TO KNOW THAT YOU WERE INVOLVED, BUT WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THE COMMUNITY KNOWS SAN GABRIEL AND THEIR COUNCIL, THEY'RE REALLY ELEVATING THEIR GAME, AND THEY WANT TO BRING US Grade a experiences and this is one of them right come October. We have this amazing Event with the projectors that we were talking about with all this experience with with all the booths Spread out not having a dedicated kids zone because I felt like the last time the kids zone was in a corner tucked away But entertainment and different things just spread out like you were talking about like we were talking about as an actual experience We want to make sure that that THE RESIDENTS AND THE COMMUNITY OF SAN GABRIEL KNOWS, WOW, LOOK, THIS IS WHAT SAN GABRIEL CITY COUNCIL IS DOING FOR US. AMAZING. SO I'LL LEAVE IT AT THAT.

May I just add a little bit what you mentioned about the beer? Also, I mean, people have asked in the past about wine. Why don't we have wine options? And there's non-alcoholic wine. I know we're kind of stuck because the name is there, but maybe trying that this year just to... just see what the reaction is and again we have you know grapevine central wine it's a local business they just opened you know they would love to participate that's another vendor a local business that we we are having a wine vendor right this year that is grapevine central oh it is yeah so we they are going to be there they're going to be there and i'm not even on the subcommittee yeah yeah good job i i like to

I'd like to add too, we reached out to a lot of healthcare companies as well, like pre-Novo scans and even within the community. And again, like you were saying, with the beer and the title, the healthcare companies are not interested in being there, but I feel like there is definitely a huge opportunity there.

If you can come and scold me for what I'm doing.

Sorry.

All right. I would, at this point, I would like to call a health break recess. It is 829 and maybe 10 minutes is good. All right. We'll be reconvened in 10 minutes.

It's, I don't know if it's, it's not a trend. I think it's a third one. I had one in the last six months. Before that happened. Yeah. People are listening. Oh, of course. We're about 39, right? We can call it 39.

OKAY, AT THIS TIME I WOULD LIKE TO RECONVENE THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING AT 8.39 P.M. SO ARE WE SATISFIED THAT WE'VE ANSWERED ALL THE STAFF, MY COLLEAGUES HAVE ASKED ALL THE STAFF QUESTIONS FOR CLARIFYING? YES. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. THEN CHIEF CITY CLERK, DO WE HAVE ANY PUBLIC COMMENT?

Mr. Mayor, I have no speaker cards. Do we have any remote speakers?

We have one person on video, but she's not raised her hand to speak.

No public comment, Mayor.

No public comment. Okay. Now it is time for council discussion. Who would like to begin?

Anyone?

All right. Councilwoman Menchaca.

Okay, I guess I'll start again. So, thank you to my colleagues. Thank you to Matthew and Karen. I think it was a very productive conversation. You know, I am, because again, I've been dealing with this year after year, and, you know, I really feel that it's an investment. And I'm also looking at how it's going to benefit us. I call it cross-promotion. Maybe there's a better word for it. But I think it's not just about this event. It's about future events. in developing that roadmap, developing that experience, and really this is our opportunity to make our city, as someone mentioned, shine, but also we need to expand. We just can't be stuck like we've been in the past. And I know it's only four hours. and I am going to, you know, listening to the subcommittee, I'm really taking that to heart, what you two have said, because you've been spending more time with us. This is why we have a subcommittee. This is why, you know, coming from personal experience, whether it's the Mission Playhouse or Independence Day, I know there's so much more. When you're a subcommittee, there's more information that you can get than just what we're here delivering about. So I am going to say that I am comfortable going with the $50,000 amount because I think that's what it's going to take and I think we just can't just THINK IT'S JUST THIS ONE EVENT. IT'S MUCH MORE THAN THAT. ANYWAY, I WANT TO THANK THE SUBCOMMITTEE BECAUSE I AM PUTTING SOME TRUST ON THIS VOTE ON YOUR PART, TOO, BUT I JUST FEEL THAT IT'S TIME. IT'S JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE WE'VE BEEN DOING LATELY. It is time to move forward and just everything kind of elevate. And maybe one day we can have a 626 market. I'm looking at this as a 626 market, kind of like the beginning, you know, it's the beginning of something greater than what we've done for the last 10 years. And just like the Lunar Festival or the Lantern Festival, we kind of started small. And look at it now, two days, and it's packed. I mean, there are just so many people there. And I feel like we can do that with this. So I am comfortable voting for the $50,000, up to $50,000. Not that you have to spend it, but at least it's there. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Menchaca. Councilman Wu, go ahead.

Okay. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, all my colleagues that did great work and hard work. I think, you know, making the event success is all our common value. You know, with this, I mean, I'm a business person. I understand that how important to keep the agreement that has been promised. I mean, I do understand that time can be too short. I mean, at a time when we have RFP, we do have several of the vendors. they i guess they have evaluated carefully make sure that they're not losing money or they try to be more conservative so for example real estate people may be more conservatively you know making it like a smaller amount of an offer but if it rejected the higher offer will be accepted and negotiated to a lower price understand that so this is safer it's not nothing there you don't have any sponsor from a real estate right so I think this is a better example it will not be hurting any sponsor but to me we you know any dollars that now we are talking to for this event not really to me it's not really expanding But this is more like a we are keeping assets, but because they could be either too short a time frame and maybe we have so unexpected conditions from other competitors and everything. But as a business, I think if I will be the person that run the business, I'll probably just go for it and do my best and just keep the promise as, I mean, to maximize because this is just a great field that will be creating a great revenue for any of the outstanding person like, you know, Matthew. So, you know, to me, I think this is very difficult because I feel being choked, you know, on my neck that, you know, If we don't do this, then we cannot have a good event. This is somehow, it just makes me a little bit difficult. So I made a different decision than my colleagues today, but I hope they will not discount my beer selection. I still love the event. I got to tell you how much I love the dumpling beers. But to me, this is so, this is more like a, you know, I hope this is just like assets. And I mean, Matthew, your company is actually inherit a great legend from Karen, from the Cedar St. Gabriel. We have built up a really great foundation. So I believe that even without this, we still can have a very good turnout. It may not be perfect. I know that when I see it from your website, it looks really great to me. But I believe that maybe next year it will be an even better turnout. But I just wanted to share my thought with my colleagues. But thank you very much. I don't mean that you're not working hard enough. I just feel that you have really worked hard. I think you're just making the things want to be perfect, which is great. I like this attitude. But thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilman Wu. Vice Mayor Ding? Yes.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. For... We're expecting, actually, for the IFP, the MPD, the events, they should be better than last year or the economic development department to do it. So if like for the constituents would be think about it, how can we compare, you know, compare with the previous that was staffed to do it and our event coordinator to do it, right? like Council Member Wu mentioned that. So we already mentioned this one. For my... I feel that you're understanding maybe like because the name, but we today not really discuss the name of the dumpling in the beer or dumpling in wine, right? It's not our topic, but I know like it's really like maybe the future we can discuss that, but today just say how can we compare with the, because of the short time, I want to like, I know the Matthew and the Karen, the staff, both of you are communicating, and our mayor and the council member here do a good job too. For my feeling, it's how can we like balance it, Because otherwise, I feel it's not fair for another event vendor too. For example, Latin Festival for the World General. They did a wonderful job. This first year, I know they had to get a profit, okay, the second year I know they do a good job also. How much profit, I don't know, okay, but at least they want to continue to support us to do this kind of event. It's for the, for me, it's like I really want to fear to like, try compromise to, I want to like, maybe I can, I just moved the option to use this year budget up to the $30,000 for the vendor. So I think because I also we want our this brand event still going to very good, the event impress our neighborhood, the community too. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Ding. Councilman Herrera-Abula.

Brief, brief comment. So for me, I understand my colleagues and where they're coming from, and I respect that. I want to come from this place where the $30,000 was basically allocated, and I understand that we then, the original plan was not allocating extra money, but this money's not really extra, but it's technically extra, right, from what was originally stated. then going from 30 to 50, we're really only given an additional 20,000. And I feel given that this is the 11th annual, we're past the 10th annual. I think the 10th should have been the one where we would have gone all out. And we kind of did, right, with Karen. I think it was a different experience. But now we have more support. WE HAVE A POTENTIAL TO HAVE THIS AMAZING EVENT. THE IMAGINATION IS THERE. THE DREAM IS THERE. AND NOW WE'RE EXECUTING. AND NOW WE NEED A LITTLE BIT MORE FUNDING. AND I THINK THE 20,000, THE WAY THAT I LIKE TO SEE IT IS THAT AS AN INVESTMENT, AS AN INVESTMENT WHERE THE CITY IS NOT LOOKING TO PROFIT, THE ONLY PROFIT THAT THE CITY WILL GET IS THAT THE PROFIT THAT YOU CAN'T REALLY SEE AND THAT'S HAPPINESS AND JOY THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BRING OUR COMMUNITY. AND THEREFORE, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS EVENT execute it with that heart and that passion in our community in mind and at heart, and that you let them know that we're having this, that it's going to be different, that you market to them, that we make sure that our community comes first, entertain our community first. Guests are welcome, neighbors are welcome, but keep our community at heart with this extra 20, which would be 50, which I'm comfortable, invest in it in our community. Just make sure, please make sure that they know that we're doing that for them. And keep that in mind, and I'm sure you are, but please do that for us. I'm also, as my colleague, I mean, Council Member Michalka is putting the trust on us. We're also putting the trust on you guys because we decided to bring this to the council to make sure that everybody knew and knows where you guys were at and we were at because we were asked that hard question too. And we decided with the mayor to bring it to the council and for this presentation to be ELABORATE AS IT WAS, RIGHT? HERE'S WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET WITH NOTHING, 30 AND 50. AND YOU GUYS DID EXACTLY WHAT WE ASKED FOR, SO THANK YOU. AT THIS POINT, MAYOR, UNLESS YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE THE MOTION.

I JUST WANT TO MAKE A COUPLE MINOR ADDITIONS. in support of my feelings that, again, reiterating some of my colleagues, that I do also see this as an investment and not just an event for one year. But again, since for the last 10 years, our staff has done a great job, again, in putting it together, but they're limited in terms of their staff time and their expertise. Because their economic development department, they don't specialize in event production. And so, I mean, they did a great job, but I mean, I'm looking at how it could be so much more given a professional organization that... specializes in these kind of event planning kind of things and and uh remember when i when we were going through the rfps and and uh and your uh matthew your your original uh presentation and your their your references and the different cities and and events that you have worked for It was very impressive. So, I mean, I know you can do it, but, you know, again, market forces and such, you know, things happen. And, yeah, like I said, I am real excited to see where this could go, and I'm I think I'm willing to make the investment, at least first year, just to see how it goes. And again, just to remind everyone that the $30,000 is already budgeted. And so the only differential would be the additional $20,000. And not that $20,000 isn't much, especially in this economy, but just that My feeling is that, well, number one, it's not guaranteed to be used up. That's just a buffer in case the expenditure is needed for whatever expenses that come up later. in order to make this what I think it can be a super event for, and that'll put our city on the map in the SGB, not just in our city, not just surrounding neighbors, but the whole SGB and LA thing. And again, that's kind of, I'm looking at it as an investment. I'm willing to take that risk, I guess. Hopefully it goes very well and gets, and again, it's not just the money, but what Matthew and his team bring are the intangibles of all the media, the influencers and this and the other that is not necessarily quantifiable in dollar amounts at the moment. But to kind of build a reputation for san diego that we do really cool events and uh and again hopefully next year it'll be bigger it'll bring people on board to join our team and our effort earlier and um and yeah and and again next year if if say if We see that after our event this year, if it didn't move the needle or didn't seem like it was any better than our economic development department did or it was somehow less than or disappointing, then... we have the option to not hire Matthew's group next year. And so it's not like we're locking ourselves or locking the city into long-term contracts. So I'm willing to take the risk. So that's my two cents.

So if any of my colleagues would like to make a motion or whatever you... Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make the motion to go with option three.

Option three. Okay, motion by... Councilman Herrera-Avila. And do I have a second?

Did you want to do the honors, Mayor? I'll do it, but I think you deserve to.

Oh, you're very kind. I would like to second that motion then. Second by me. And then let's go ahead and take the vote. Dang tech. Roll call vote. Roll call vote. Yes, I'd like to call for a roll call vote. ALL RIGHT. SO LET'S SEE. THE MOTION FOR OPTION 3 HAS BEEN MADE BY COUNCILMAN HERRERA-ABUELA. ALL RIGHT. THEN WE'LL DO THE SCREEN VOTE.

I JUST RESTARTED. PLEASE VOTE AGAIN.

See why I'm an old man? Dang technology.

Roll call vote. Mayor Chan?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Ding?

No.

Council Member Hara Avila?

Yes.

Council Member Denise Menchaca?

Yes.

Council Member John Woo? Nay. Motion passes by a vote of 3-2. 3-2.

All right. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. THEN THE NEXT ITEM IS CITY MANAGERS REPORT, PLEASE.

THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TONIGHT, BUT I DO APPRECIATE EVERYBODY'S PATIENCE AS WE'RE WORKING THROUGH OUR VOTING EQUIPMENT. I KNOW IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE MOMENTUM AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU'RE WORKING ON, BUT WE WILL CONTINUE TO TROUBLESHEET IT AND WE'LL GET IT RIGHT. OKAY.

ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. AND OUR NEXT ITEM WILL BE COUNCIL COMMENTS AND CONFERENCE MEETING REPORTS. WHO WOULD LIKE TO START? I'LL START, MAYOR.

ALSOMEN ARERA AVILA. THANK YOU. JUST ONE REPORTABLE ITEM IS THE very prolonged meeting that we just had right now. Our subcommittee met. I think I don't have much more of the report. I think we covered all that. But we met on August 20th. That's all I have. Thank you.

Who would like to go next?

Yes, Mayor, I will. All right. Councilman Wu. Thank you, Mayor. On August 24, I attended the SGVC's meeting with Taiwanese investor at Caltech. It was a very productive meeting where we had an opportunity not only to meet the high-tech professionals and the business leaders from Taiwan, but also to learn more about their strong interest in investing in the United States. I was really pleased to be part of this important dialogue and explore opportunities that can strengthen economic connection between our region and city and with Taiwan. On August 27, we said a farewell to our great friends of our community, Jason Kim of Parasite, as he and his family prepared to begin a new chapter in Illinois, which is already there. The city manager, Mark Lazzarato, and I visited him at the store and presented him with a certificate of recognition in appreciation of his dedication and contribution to our community. Jason has been a really wonderful friend to St. Gabriel and he was truly missed and I wish him and his family great success in the new chapter. On August 28, I had the privilege of attending a legislative night hosted by the West St. Gabriel Valley Realtors. Alongside with my colleagues, we are delighted to share updates about our city from different perspectives and discuss issues important to our communities and real estate industry. I am especially proud that this association, which represents five member cities and is headquartered right here in the city of St. Gabriel, And yay, yes, on August 30th, St. Gabriel Hill is the very first chess tournament at the historic Great Vine Opera. I'm honored I have, you know, I was able to host and organize and create what I hope that will become a new tradition for our great city. With the support of St. Gabriel Valley Chess Club and Rook Logic, we successfully hosted a full-day tournament from 8.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., reaching out maximum capacity of 120 chess players. More importantly, the tournament also served a charitable purpose. I was proud to help raise $2,500 for the St. Gabriel Police Officers Association's annual breast cancer awareness project. Next year, probably sometime in Chinese New Year, I'll work with the POA again, as well as Chess, San Gabriel Valley Chess Club and Rook Logic, to help to fundraise for autism projects next year. My goal is to make San Gabriel Chess Tournament a regular event, held at least two or three times a year, and eventually grow it from a local tournament into a statewide and national level competition. I envision expanding it from a one-day event into multiple days tournament that attracts players and family from across California and beyond. This would support our local businesses, restaurants and hotels, generate additional sales and TOT revenue, and help establish our historic city as a regional hub for chess. So that concludes my report. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Wu. Who would like to go next?

Yes, I will. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to say just we went, well, almost all of us went to the OSIP grand opening. And thanks to Karen and her team did another wonderful opening of a new business. It's right downstairs. It's same owners, the sisters who own Dancing Spoons own OSIP. So you can... have your coffee, tea, and they have some other little goodies. And then if you want something more savory, you just go walk next door. So it's exciting. We keep having new businesses. West San Gabriel Valley was mentioned earlier. I too attended that event. it was it was a good event it got a little competitive because we were saying each city elected were trying to outdo each other of why we're a better city than they are it was kind of funny but anyways all in good gesture and i want to thank the west san gabriel valley realtors for giving us that opportunity to um to talk about our city and all the wonderful things that are going on we did represent well Yes, we were all there, all five of us, so they got an earful. But going forward, I just want to highlight some of the wonderful things happening. Silent Movies, Mission Playhouse, next one is Sunday, September 27th at 2.30. Wings is the name of the movie, and Clara Bao, or Bo, is what's the star that's featured, and again, if you have a chance, at least go to one. It is so exciting because, first of all, it's indoors. Some places have them outdoors. This is indoors at the Mission Playhouse with the Wurlitzer being played, and you just immerse yourself in that era. It is pretty spectacular, so if you have a chance, at least go to one of them, and then after that, I think it's in October, and then we're done with the series. September 11th is the 25th anniversary of that tragic day. The firefighters, as always, will have a remembrance and tribute ceremony. It starts at 630 in the morning. I know it's a little early for some people, but I really encourage everyone to be there and just honor everyone who was lost that day, including my sister-in-law. So thank you. No. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Menchaca. And Vice Mayor Ding.

Thank you, Mayor. It's August 19. With the Councilmember Denise, we attend the contract city meeting. It's a lot of the mixer and the information. Council Member Herrera is there too. It's a good resource to mingle with the neighborhood city and the whole county. And August 24, I go to the SGVEP and the Taipei Computer Association. know workshop at Caltech and with our council member who it's it's they impressed they they try they have the Lakota smart city in the Taipei and try bring them on new technology it's bring that to our local city it's really help they have a have any energy saving or city and the ministry it's several the category okay and august 27 it's a attend the ywca the sangeb sgv 2026 the champion award at our It's really impressed. The YWCA, they do a good job for our senior meal to support it. And they also honor local volunteer, include our city, her name is Helen Chen. got the honor to serve the senior lunch meal. And it's a great event with our council member, Mayor Tu. It's coming, okay. And August 28, and I think, all of us attend the Western SGV Realtor Legislative Meet and Agree. They every year hosting and they have even Their organization also have the liaison for the five city. It's really good, and I really like, proud of the five of us, it's attended this meeting too. No city is same to us, show up to five council member. Yeah, and- Oh, because they are in our city. August 30. It's a great lines club installation ceremony hosting in our city Hilton. So I'm also the line club member too. So it's it's I really like their slogan. We serve. It's same to us too. We serve our community. So yeah, that's it. My report.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Ding. And I'll give my report very quickly. Most of the events, my colleagues and I all went together. We were at the same events mostly. On the 19th, I attended the Contract Cities board meeting in Arcadia. On the 26th, I attended a monthly combined three-chamber networking mixer, which includes Alhambra, Rosemead, and Temple City Chambers of Commerce. And they held it at Raising Cane's in Alhambra. Their second one, by the way. We need to get a first one. I'm working on it. On the 27th, I attended the YWCA annual fundraising gala at San Gabriel Hilton, which has been mentioned. It's a great, again, as has been mentioned by my colleagues, it's a great charitable organization and they do some fantastic work. On the 28th, again, mentioned by my colleagues, I also attended the West San Gabriel Valley Association of Realtors Legislative Day meet and greet. And it is down the street at their San Gabriel office is just down the street on Valley Boulevard. And yeah, I'll just conclude on, please, if you can get up that early, please come to our 9-11 remembrance ceremony at the South Fire Station, 1313 South Del Mar Avenue. And that concludes my report. At this time, we shall move to secondary closed session, which we have none. So I will adjourn this meeting at nine, oh, look at that, 9-11. 9-11, you think I just planned that, huh? All right, 9-11 p.m., meeting adjourned. All right, thank you, everyone.