City Council - Regular Meeting

Starting umbrella. You're supposed to be in the car. Yes.

When you get when you get to consent calendar, I'm going to ask you to pull one of your Okay. You tell me the number. Good. I would like to call the regular meetings of public financing authority, water utility authority, housing successor, successor agency, and city council to order. Roll call, please. Council member Martin here. Council member Mora here. Council member Rounds here. Mayor Pro Tim Rodriguez here. Mayor Zamora

here. Members of the public financing authority and water utility authority receive $150 for their attendance at these meetings. Um, for invocation, I think he's outside. I would like to call Eric Mallerie. He's the coach for uh the cross country.

He's coming in. and Hilda is over here. Yeah. All right. So, if you guys can please stand, bow your heads. We direct our thoughts to you, Almighty God, and ask your blessing on everyone present. Please accept our gratitude for your goodness and generosity. give us wisdom, courage, and foresight to accomplish the work before us. Amen.

Amen. U pledge allegiance. I would like to call Mr. and Miss Agiri and Mr. and Miss Nakamura for the pledge of allegiance, please. Priscilla, can you help them with the microphone, please? this this way. The flag is this way.

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

What's your favorite um academics? You know, favorite subject, color. Jade, do you want to tell us a little bit about the the group that you oversee, one of the committees that you're the chair for? My name Jiri and I've been a resident here for over 40 years and I've been volunteer for over 20 years in this wonderful city. I'm a chairperson of the first chair of the senior advisor committee, second chair for the family human services, and I love my city. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You guys want to take a picture real quick? I'm pretty sure. Or do you want to say something, Gilbert?

Well, I I'm no sure. I'm I'm a member of the senior advisory, human service. We volunteer at the center whenever they need us, whatever they need us. Christmas baskets, Thanksgiving, and uh like I said, we volunteer at Gos. Well, me and my wife, we volunteer a lot for the city. We even serve for the public service center, police service center. We knew at that game,

one PSO We even drive the vehicle.

Be under the watchful eye of of our new mayor. Thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. We're going to take a picture real quick if you guys don't mind standing up. Guys, get in the middle. Sorry. Three, two, one. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Santa Fe High School presentation. Santa Fe High School cross country team. I would like to call up Santa Fe High School cross country coach Eric Mallerie.

You can grow there. Hello everybody. Um I'm presenting to you the 2025 cross country team from Santa Fe High School. We um I going to allow my athletes to go ahead and speak to you guys. um they prepared something, but we uh wanted to express our gratitude for some help that she gave us a little bit early on. So, with that, I'd like to introduce the Santa Fe cross country team. All right. Do you want to call up whoever you want to speak first or have them in line? All our captains are team. So, it's going to be Mila Gyos, Jana Gyos, and Benjamin Zamora.

Thank you. You guys can come up to the podium. Uh hi and good evening. Uh we would just like to start off by uh thanking our the city of Santa Fe Springs for contributing to our cross country uh team which uh allowed us to compete in various uh invitationals this season. And with that, we were able to grow within our sport and within our team. And we hope to become partners once again for this upcoming season. And of course, we will work hard and represent the city of Santa Fe Springs. And with that, we would like to give you this token of our gratitude.

Thank you. out for a picture.

Try it all. We're going to go two lines. Of course, those who are shorter in the front, those who are taller in the back. Then Betty, I'm going to have you guys hold this in the front. the cap. Thank you guys. Thank you. Go for it. Yeah, Mr. Is it Battalion Chief Kurt Buckwalter? You don't mind standing real quick, please?

He doesn't know why. Yeah, you might not know why, but also we brought one for the firefighters association who has also um been generous in support of us this year, too. I wasn't sure we were going to see you, but I brought it just in case. So, please thank you very much for helping us with the season as well. Thank you, Mayor. Can I make one comment? Yes, sir.

Coach Mallerie, um this is a a special night for me. Um you know, first of all, being a Chieftain myself, um I'm really excited to see the Santa Fe uh the running team, the the the cross country team here tonight. Thank you for what you do, the working e efforts. I see you guys running throughout the city and I I'm sure you're aware you're going to be making history as the last uh cross country te a as a chieftain. So uh you know I'm I'm proud of you guys. I my I have a granddaughter that loves to run. So hopefully someday she'll be at Santa Fe running not as a chieftain but as um whatever the new name is. But it's also special for me to see um someone that I coached at Little League and uh so I'll tell you that he was 15. I won't tell you how old I was when it happened, but uh you know and I knew I worked with his dad, great gentleman. And I actually I thought it was his dad when I saw Eric come up tonight. So um but great job, sir. Great career. And uh um thank you for for giving back to your community, your school that you worked with and uh these all these ladies and gentlemen and that you're coaching now. They're going to remember you forever. So, thank you. Congratulations to you. Congratulations to all the students.

Don't move. Don't move. Anybody else? Um, just real quick, you guys don't realize it, but when you guys have that Chieftain logo, when you guys have that Chieftain shirt and you guys are running through the streets of Santa Fe Springs, people look at you guys and you guys have always ran, and I know this sounds weird, but it's you'll notice you guys always ran with respect. You guys are very proud to have that chieftain on you and it could and you could tell people notice that when you guys are running in the streets, you guys are very cordial. You guys are very respectful and it says a lot on your coach and a lot on your players and your runners I would say and say thank you so much because you guys show the discipline, the respect, the integrity that you guys have when you guys are running and you guys run all the time. You guys run by my house every day and um my dogs love you guys. They bark all the time. But it shows the respect integrity just to see you guys running. I see you guys all over and you guys are always working really hard, smiling and showing respect to others when you guys are running. So, thank you so much for representing Santa Fe and representing Santa Fe Spring. So, thank you so much. Uh, I just wanted to say go Chieftains. Remember I said that when I walked in because my grandson graduated from Santa Fe High uh during COVID, he was senior year was co and before COVID was the track. He was he was running too just like you guys. and he made us so proud just like you're making your parents so proud. And he he was off uh he said running is the best thing you could do. It's so healthy for you and when you go home you don't feel like eating all those sweets. You get eat some healthy food. Make sure that you take care of your body and that's what it's all about. And making good grades and I know your parents are very proud of you just like we're very proud of you. Uh, chieftains make me so proud, too, because uh when I saw my grandson

graduate, even through COVID and the hard times that every child went through, it just made me proud of everything that he accomplished during his four years at Santa Fe High School. He loved it there, just like you. And I don't know what grade you're in, you know, 11th, 12th grade, but no one's going to re forget what we went through with COVID, but you're going to remember that this is an era that you're not going to forget because like like uh our council member said, the name is going to change, but you're always going to be achieved in. So, be proud of yourself and remember, stay healthy and keep running even after after high school. Thank you. Well, thank you all and thank you coach for representing um not only the school and the district but our our community. Um I had uh uh two of my kids that did run for for Santa Fe. Uh they graduated three and four years ago. Uh now have you guys seen that movie McFarland?

Okay, great movie. Uh that uh actor Danny Diaz uh I got to give you his phone number. He's willing to come out and speak to the students. We had this uh strange opportunity to speak to him. Uh we took a trip to San Francisco on the way back. My two running kids, you know, going over the 99 freeway, which was the five. They saw the bridge with the runners and we stopped in the town of McFarland. And uh we went to the store where that was in the movie. And so they're looking around and the uh cashier noticed that they were intrigued with the store. Well, I told him, well, they were runners and they saw the movie. He goes, "Oh, do you guys know Danny Diaz?" "We don't know him. He's an actor." He got him on the phone and Daniel Serena spoke to him and he said if any of the coaches want him to come he he was glad to come and uh talk to your team but it was a great opportunity and so yeah cross country is near and dear to my heart because of uh my kids as well. So once a chief always a chief no matter what the name but

amen

proud of you guys. Thank you. It's, you know, hearing um Council Member Morris say once a chief, always a chief. Um you know, it's not always going to be so now. I mean, we thought that we were going to be able to say that um you know, till the end of our days, right? And you know, so having that legacy that the the imprint that you guys have left left behind, you know, may God always bless you guys uh you know, in your endeavors and everything that you guys have in the future. Uh, just want to let you know that this plaque or recognition is probably one of the few that we probably get and all the donations that we give out. Um, so kudos to you guys because, you know, as city council, we do our part and as staff, you know, to make sure that we have the abundance to provide. And sometimes it it can be a thankless job up here because people don't realize what we're actually doing behind the scenes to make sure that we can provide for you guys. And before foremost, the people who provide first are your parents. And they go out of their way to raise money for you guys. They step up. And you know, I know coach Mallerie, I went to co I went to high school with them. I grew up as a little boy. You know, I think we played baseball. We played other sports together. But imagine the time he has to put in the other coaches, your parents having to travel and having to go from here to there. Um, so make sure it's not a thankless job to them. Appreciate your parents. hug them, love on them, because you know what? They do whatever they can so you can run. Um, as you can see, I don't really run, but you know what I mean. Maybe in my dreams, but you know, sooner or later. But May 9th, May 9th, we have our 5K run. Hoping you guys come out. I mean, maybe we can do something, Gus, where we can have a cash prize for first, second, and third place. Maybe, you know, guys and girls, you know, division. So, make it

worth your while, but make sure you guys go out there and promote that 5K for us, too. So, thank you very much, Mayor. At the 5K, I started with one of them and within like 2 minutes, they were gone. I was That was probably him over there. Close.

Yeah, you do want to beat him though, Benny. All right. So, just in case. So, other than that, thank you guys for coming out. But can we get a round round of applause for your parents, please? Yes. Yeah. And then also remember that um the school um well you guys always have different scholarships and the city always has different type of scholarship programs for the seniors and you know just make sure you guys look look them up. Um we do have other programs that give out scholarships too. So make sure you guys are always aware of those things and and do your best to help your parents out you know to ease that pain especially when it comes to that checkbook. So God bless you guys. have a great night and you know once a chief always a chief in your heart. God bless. Thank you guys. So changes to agenda. Uh Mr. Bovilla,

we have no changes tonight. Mayor. All right. Public comments. Public comments are now open. The public may address the city council on any non-public hearing item on the agenda or any other matter within the council's jurisdiction. You will have an opportunity to speak for three minutes. Once the city clerk announces your name, city clerk, do we have any members of the p public wishing to speak? Mayor, yes, we do. We have two. Isabelle Cvantes and Mary Adas. I'll be using her time just in case.

Good evening. Uh we the audience some of the members of the audience are here to inform the council of a very important serious event that recently occurred in the city. Mayor Joe Angel Zamora officially became a senior citizen. That's right. He's officially 50 years old. As a senior myself, along with many of the family friends in the audience, we are here to advise the mayor of some important events and concerns regarding his new status. First, health is very important at our age. Here are some recommendations for taking care of yourself. Celebrate you are now a senior citizen. Could you,

Mayor Prom Rodriguez, could you assist the mayor with this portion? Oh, man. Not yet. Not yet. Stay back. Are you okay? What's this? I mean, Jav, not yet, Jav. Hold this. Not yet. Come back here. Should have been money, homeboy. It would help if uh the mayor would could come to the front. Oh man, you're running out of time. I think I can have some leniency here in this one.

Rick knows better if he wants another quilt. Okay. Vitamins. Taking appropriate old vitamins is very important to your health at our age. So if you could come where are the vitamins? Get the vitamins. Come on. Out of time. Come on. Take them to the front. Please present them to the front. Take them. Go on. Take them. Take them to you got to present them to the mayor.

The prescriptions are refillable at this time. Okay. Health. The city has some wonderful, and I mean it, outstanding ongoing activities for adults 50 years and up. Javi, could you please present him with all those wonderful activities the mayor can now do? Some of them are actually free.

Okay. 225 self-care. Yeah. Self-care. Now that you are part of the older C citizens group, we advise you to stay alert when walking. As a precaution, we are gifting you with some assistance. Make sure.

Go ahead. And lastly, celebrate your birthday with pride. If possible, turn your birthday into a birth month that take advantage of all the free meals and most importantly your favorite cake or in this case your favorite cupcake.

Happy birthday, mayor.

Someone needs to take a picture. Wait here. Let's take that one first. Sure. Okay. All right. Okay. part of it.

I can't see anyone. No, it's

centered. Yeah, I know.

Yeah. I didn't put a card, but

we Jania Gary would like to speak. I don't know if the council or anybody's aware the in the neighborhood they're going around knocking all the trash cans down. They didn't money on in our area. So I don't know they're doing other areas but somebody's going even though they're full. I mean it's not just trash people are doing even they're full somebody's coming around doing it. All right.

I just want to say that we thank you all of you and at the same time why are we wearing our white shirt for the parade is that we are all of us so proud of bringing the float here to Santa Springs. Thank you. Thank you guys. today.

All right. So, now we're going to go to Is that public comments, right? Um any any other comments? Did you already forget? I did. Yeah, I did. Hey, I got cake on me, man. I got cake on me. So, I did forget. So we have no more public comments. No more. All right. I will now close public comments and move on to the next item. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Uh staff communications. Mr. Bobadilla. We have no communications tonight. Mayor.

All right. So we have public hearing. Um annual weed abatement program. The public hearing is now open. Anyone wishing to be heard, please approach the podium and state your name. City clerk. We do not have any speakers. I would like to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion or motion for the approval? I second. Moved by Martin, second by Rodriguez. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. So ordered. Regular business. New business. Uh fiscal year 202526 midyear budget review. I would like to call upon Mr. Bvadilla.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This year we're going to do the midyear budget in two um two tranches. So we're going to start today with just giving you the budget review kind of an overview of the midyear and then at the next meeting we'll come back to to adjust any changes or if any comments from the council we'll make those course corrections at the next meeting. So, I'd like to call on Julio Morales to come and do the presentation if we can find him or somebody can track him down. Maybe Gio fence him. He'll come in and he says he'll say he was reading a book or doing something very important

or saving money for us right on the budget. Yeah, he's he's balancing the budget. Sorry. Yep. How come you don't tell the council you were reading a book or I was reading a book. It's a very great book. It's fantastic book that we had before. So, hello mayor. Happy birthday. Thank you council.

We are going to be brief brief to the point of three slides I believe. So, if you recall uh next slide we had uh last year kind of have our results. These are n unudited which means the audit hasn't completed but general sense of where we ended up the year. We had about $99 million of general fund revenues and expenses of which we use the majority of those monies to purchase a one-time land acquisition part of your economic development strategy. Leaves us a little bit of an imbalance. So we believe that you'll at the end of the year be about $100 million on both sides. Then if you recall last year during the op uh budget cycle we passed a hund00 million operating budget. We can go to the next slide. Um, uh, we'll come back to this. Go to the next slide. We had passed a $100 million operating budget, but one of the problems that we had in our financial management system is that we had too many positions in there. So, we're trying to estimate what the real budget was based on that $und00 million operating. So, when we look at it here, we have $114 million budget in the budget book, but we're expecting to operate more at $und00 million. Some of that comes out to this. And you see the little gray box, it says 242 positions that are lo listed. So when you go in that big 2-in uh budget, you have 242 positions, but you have 50 current vacancies. And this is one of the problems, if I may, is that we had an Excel-based budget that did one thing and then we had what was going on inside the financial management system. This year, I'm proud to announce that we're going to be doing what they call position control. In other words, HR and finance will have one list of positions. We're going to budget what's currently there. We expect to hire. So, there's always a transition. In this case, we have a lot of extra positions. So, there's more fat in this budget. We overbudgeted the size of our medical cost. We did the highest cost. If you had a single individual, they budgeted as if a family. So, there was more

cushion in this budget, which ends up being a more unrealistic number. But having said that, to that final number, where are we this year compared to last year on expense basis when you take out the vehicle acquisitions, we're about $55 million through most of the year through halfway, I'm sorry, through half of the year. So when you go through most of these costs, except for these onetime payments. So if you know, we pay our pension cost in July. So if you back that out, we're right around $50 million, right? You see $15 million of expense, $4850 million, you kind of double those costs. We're going to be at about $1024 million, which is what we expected. Now, note, there's one thing you'll see the adopted budget and what we've done throughout the course of the year. This is a little loud. I'm sorry about that. We added about $1.2 million in additional salaries and positions. Where are we? We're right on track. If you see around 47%, we're actually a little bit less, but we seem to be where you want to be. The simple math you look at it were around 50% close to that number and note those figures that we have are around what you look at and say this makes sense to me. Halfway through the year I've spent about halfway of what we project our budget will be. So I feel fairly comfortable we're on par for the course. Some are higher some are lower just to give you and and also we broke out a couple of things. Um, for example, finance actually has utility costs in it and we increased our utility cost, so they seem to be manageable because we're not quite certain what our electrical cost will be. There are some areas we're a little bit high. Um, fire uh has actually saved about $400,000 so far on overtime. So, we're doing well in some areas. Probably the place where we're charging a little bit more is on contractual services, and that's because we're going through a lot of projects and running up some costs for contractual services. Those are expected to be one-time costs. So we look okay on

the expenditure side. Now go back to the revenue side if you will and you look here and go oh okay there are costs that were recorded some were recorded for example sales tax through November because they delay and when we getting them and we wanted to publish them at a certain date um I think on the 22nd we'll get our other sales tax number that's another $4 million. But how do we look this year compared to last year? Well, we're ahead of where we were last year. We seem to be in a normal position. We seem to be okay. We will not end up with $10 million worth of revenue more than expenses where I'll get to if I believe where we'll be at the end of the year about 103 to 104 revenues and expenses and we should be okay. Now it will present some challenges in the future because remember we had talked about that natural increase that had to take place. We have a 2% increase uh per our uh bargain units and increase in cola and you're going to have step increases and the like. So we hope that we're going to have some additional growth or have to make some adjustments. But right now we look like we're going to meet our budget. We may have some small challenges and adjustments but we look okay. We will come back with even more refined numbers by the third quarter as our audit will be complete. Everything will be in place and we'll have more adjustments. But in summary, we look to be on par for the course if you compare last year this year to hit 100 plus million dollars in revenues and we seem to be in the same place on our expenditure when you take into account onetime expenses. Um this we hope this year we plan to implement a number of changes. Today we started our training for time and attendance. Position control is one where the budget is based on every actual field position inside of Tyler, which was never done in the past. We believe those two changes will help dramatically in our ability to have a more refined or specific budget.

That's really it. We have we're also going through mid-year adjustments in the next meeting or two if there are any other changes, but this is a status update. We seem to be on par to where we're expecting. Our revenues are far more accurate in our projections. Our expenditures were over were more conservatively based and probably overstated where they are in the budget, but in actuality we seem to be matching dollar for dollar on revenue expenses. Any questions? Um, I know that a lot of people usually ask and they always want to bring up the Santa Fe Springs makes a lot of oil money. Can you clarify that we don't make a lot of oil money, you know, when it comes to that because I think, you know, it's on number nine, I believe it was on

oil well. You see that right there. So, we have a very small amount relative to a budget. So, $140,000 oil money. There is someone in the Santa Fe Springs who's probably making a lot of money from their oil wells, but not us. You see, our revenue is $140,000.

Mr. Mayor, the oil operations in our city are dwindling. There's not a whole lot of operators that are pumping and really the cost of doing business in California and refining in California has been made it very difficult for them to continue. So, they don't they're not pumping very much. So, we're not seeing a whole lot of uh barrels being u extracted and and or any revenue collected. So, um our oil revenue is donely down to zero. I I just bring that up because I'm pretty sure my colleagues because whenever we go to conferences, everybody always states, "Oh, you guys have oil money." And it's like, "No, we don't." Like, we we don't really make anything off of oil. I mean, whoever made those decisions back in the days, you know, we didn't they didn't do so well. They didn't have Julio back then.

In all due respect, I you were only going to get a percentage of that. people who own the wells. If we owned all the wells, we may have made some money. And as Rene said, the cost of production has gone down. So $250,000 is what you can come in a $100 million budget. It's not that much. Most of our money comes from sales tax. Exactly. Point of sales. Yes. Point of sales. Any discussion or motion for approval for item number three? So today's a just receiving file. Mayor, we'll bring you an item back at the next council meeting with any potential changes that we will make, any course corrections that we're staff is going through now. So this is just a receiving file. Receive file. All right. Cuz it has a motion in a second. That's why.

All right. So we can move on. Thank you, Julio. Julio. Yes. Go back and read your book. Yeah. Go back and, you know, go through this since he already came through this door, you know. So you know, hey, he didn't finish his book over there. You know it is easier. Look at this.

All right. Consent calendar. Public finance authority, water utility authority, housing successor successor agency and city council consent calendar. Um public financing authority water utilities. Um we got we have a total of 13 consent items. Numbers 4 through 17 excluding item number 12. That's correct. Mayor if you can pull item 12. That item requires a four-fifths vote. if I can have that item pulled and discussed and then uh so we'll pull item number um number 12. So we have um four through 17 excluding item number 12. So can can I get a motion and a second motion? Second motion by round second by Mora. All those in favor say I.

I.

I. Those opposed so ordered. Mr. Mayor, item 12 is uh audio equipment that's going into this council chambers. Um, as you know, effective July 1, the state of California has uh deemed that every city in the state has to follow a new state law where we have to zoom every meeting. Uh, a Zoom has to be available for every council meeting that that we broadcast. Um, it's interesting that the state of California doesn't have to follow that rule. It's just the city, so they're exempt. uh they make the rules but they don't have to follow them but we do and this equipment that we're bringing in um this agenda link software technology is going to allow us to do that but it's also going to automate our dis so we'll be able to vote um automatically from the dis um and and have agenda software for us to follow internally. So, um, we've been working with this, uh, vendor. Uh, that's why it's soul sourced and we're asking the council to support the soul source, but it requires a four fifths vote.

All right. Would you like a roll call vote to make it? All right. So, can I get a motion for item number 12 and a second first? I'll move. Second. Moved by Round, seconded by Martin. All those in favor say I. I. Oh, I mean, sorry, roll call vote. I Council member Martin. Hi. Council member Mora. Hi. Council member Rounds. Hi. Mayor Prom Rodriguez. Hi. Mayor Zamora. I. Hearing. No. Opposed. So ordered.

Mr. Mayor. For the record, the vote you took was to allow the the item to be soul source. So your four fifth vote. So if I can get a motion to actually approve the item. We did that first. All right. You want us to do it again? All right. Okay. Can I get a motion again? A second. Okay. Motion by Rodriguez, second by. No roll call needed by rounds. I. So, we're good to go. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Hearing none. So ordered. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. Council member Martin. Mora. tonight. Rounds? None tonight. Sir

Rodriguez, none tonight.

And I have none council comments. AB1234 council conference reporting. Martin conference report. We saw our volunteers out there. It was pretty cool seeing the Nakamura, seeing Isabelle out there in their uniforms. It was pretty cool. Um, thank Linda Sanchez, Congresswoman today, gave us, uh, over $800,000 check for a project, which is really cool. And, uh, we actually attended an AHOA event, uh, to open the doors more for people to need their passports, people to get paperwork that they need. Um, it's pretty packed. They have it pretty well organized. So, that was pretty cool. And happy birthday, Jojo.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,

Mora. Oh yeah, Penny Carnival was great. A lot of rain but a lot of kids. So that was great to see. And what um Councilman Martin had mentioned, uh AHOA is also hosting the Mexican consulate. They're going to be there till the end of the month. So it's the I think the Mexican consulate on wheels till the end of February. So anybody that want looking for a dual citizenship or any services that uh they'd like to access and not have to go to downtown LA, they're there till the end of the month. Um, also our AV team, those people behind the window, they do a great job. Nobody sees them, but every time they call for next slide or they back up or they go forward, they do a great job doing all that stuff. And I'm sure they're going to have their work cut out now that we're going to Zoom. And so, um, thank you all for attending tonight's meeting and happy birthday, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Rounds. Well, thank you for everyone being here tonight. Thank you for the presentation, the birthday wishes from the residents. That was uh it's the first time I've seen that done. Good job, girls. Good job with that. Um thanks for roasting me. Right. Happy birthday again, Joe Angel. Thank you, sir. Uh don't worry. 50 nothing to it. Just just a number. That's all it is. But uh thank you for everyone again for attending. Thank you to our staff and um we're moving forward. That's it. before you end. Yes. I figured when I saw a net get up. So, we do have u another little special gift for you.

All right. I promise it's not a cane or a portable anything. And whoever got me this, this is actually really cool. Oh. Oh, Janie and Gilbert, thank you. I'm gonna leave that in my office, though. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Mr. Mayor. Happy birthday to you. Make a wish. All right.

Oh, wait up. Good job. All right. Because if I would have blew on these candles, Priscilla would have been mad at me. She would have said, "What are you doing?" That's so beautiful. Thank you very much. This is And this is healthy, right? This is considered fruit. All right. Yeah. Marisell's not here to get mad at us. She checked it. Okay. All right. So, now we have Mayor Pro Tim Rodriguez. Happy birthday. Thank you very much. How does it feel? It feels like any other day. Oh, okay. But only older. Only older. Now I can go to the

I didn't even I didn't believe he was 50. He's too young. Huh? This guy. I've been there for six years.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. I wanted to say to our library and all their staff, thank you so much for our uh our event that took place last Friday. It was a great event and thank you for all the ladies and gentlemen that went to see the the singing and what was it? The lady, she knew five different languages and she sang all these beautiful songs. It was just so so beautiful. and uh the the costumes, the decorations, spot-on. They did such an amazing job and we like that in our city to just keep going and making these programs even better and better. Uh they're going to get too small. We're going to have to open up our library because it's getting to be like a concert in there. So, it was great, right, ladies? Yes. Uh we had a Valentine's Day dance for all of our seniors, including myself. I want to thank you. Everybody wore red. We were having so much fun and we got to do the kumbia and everything. So, I want to thank you all for our Valentine's dance. Again, our staff doing a great job at what they do. And uh we're we're going to keep going, keep on with these these programs to make sure that everybody has a good time for all of our special events. Uh the Penny Carnival, great job. We had a great time there. There was no pennies, but we're still going to call it the penny carnival. Great job, staff. And um again, our mayor over here, he's just doing the best and we just uh thank him and we want we're thankful that he's living he lived another 50 years or he's going to live another 50 years. Thank you.

All right.

Okay. Um I have no conferences to report. Um I know this week coming up we have the silver shields um coming up. So captain um I'll be at a conference. So you know just wish the men and women thank you for all that they do um from Whittier PD for the 30 years of service that we have with you guys. So thank you for the partnership. Um, also I want to bring up um I had the privilege of showing up to our city attorney's um home. Um, they celebrated Nalo and um Nalle is actually the legacy of uh of of our attorney um um Ricardo Olivarees. Uh his uh his grandfather um Mr. Royal was just a person, Congressman Royal. Um he's actually the one who paved the way when it came to Latinos. Um not only when it came to us being in this position as city council, but also even being in the position where Rick is at. Um Rick Renee Nick um when it comes to Latinos, he actually opened the door for all Latinos to to get higher position. So um he he his vision um was uh that there was no divide between Democrats and Republicans that they can actually work together. Of course, you know, we see that right now and it's not happening. Um, but the vision is there. So, um, kudos to to your grandfather, sir. Um, because the fact is, I mean, we wouldn't be up here. So, I do want to thank you. So, I had the the privilege of showing up to that. I'm a lifetime member when it comes to NALO. So, you know, there's no way of getting rid of me, sir, cuz we already paid the dues. to you know um so when it comes to my birthday uh February 13th I mean that was the day uh that I celebrated in the morning I was

actually recognized as the Wasa recipient when it came when it comes to Little Lake um school district. Little lake give gave me the um Wasa award which is uh encompasses all the school districts around here in the city of Santa Fe Springs and and and Whittier. So, I had the privilege of receiving that award uh just uh due to the different things that I do for Little Lakes School District and the fundraising that I do for their teachers and students. So, I mean, it's something that not only do I do it, but it's something that we all do together. So, I do want to thank my colleagues and city manager Renee and and staff that, you know, the the hard work that we put in for for our kids and our community. I you know, I know we were all park brats at one time. I know I was um always at the park, but it's just we want to do whatever we can. Uh speaking of parks, I mean, you know, uh we received a check today for a park. I believe it was $850,000 and the bill is probably going to be a little bit over $5 million. So, we're 15th almost there. Um so, we do want to thank for, you know, thank uh Congresswoman Linda Sanchez for that check. So, thank you very much. Um, other than that, I mean, I do appreciate all you guys for showing up and you know, you know how I am. I do have a sense of humor. So, thank you. I do appreciate it. I know this is something that I'm going to laugh at, uh, even when I'm Yeah. on my own time. You know what I mean? U, so it's great to see that. Um, uh, you know, and I'm just thankful to God. A couple years ago, I almost wasn't here and you know, God had a different plan. So I I am thankful and you know I know you you probably constantly hear you know God come out of my mouth but I I truly love who my God is and I do love Jesus Christ. So I'm not afraid to to admit it. So and that with that being said I would like to adjourn this meeting in in honor of

Alisa Sparza who passed away. So thank you. Meeting adjourned.