City Council - Regular Meeting

There is, thank you, Mayor, members of the City Council. The record to reflect that the City Council met in closed session to discuss the single item on today's agenda, Conference with Legal Anticipated Late Litigation. Closed session is authorized for this item to be heard in closed session pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.92. and 54569E1. There was one matter that was discussed with respect to this item. The city council mayor received a presentation from city staff. Feedback was provided, but there was no final action taken on this matter in closed session. Thank you.

So regular session. Invocation, I would like to call upon Paul Brascia to lead today's invocation. So if you guys can please stand.

Our Heavenly Father, we give thanks tonight for the privilege of meeting together to deliberate on matters affecting our city. We ask for your guidance in our efforts to work for the betterment of our community. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. If you guys can still remain standing, I would like to call upon Jonathan Briones to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Mr. Briones, we usually have a youngster doing our, which you are a young man, and we usually ask them questions. So how long have you been with the city and what do you do for the city, if you don't mind? I'm telling the residents and the audience.

I have been with the city since April of this year, so approaching on four months. Okay. What do you do for this? I am a public safety aide. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mayor, before we proceed, may I read an announcement? Um, before we begin tonight's meeting, I would like to briefly inform the public of changes under California Senate bill seven Oh seven, which expands public access and participation in local government meetings under the Brown act. In accordance with SB seven Oh seven, the city is providing members of the public with additional options to access and participate in city council meetings remotely. Members of the public may attend in person or access the meeting through the remote participation information provided on tonight's agenda. These changes are intended to make our meetings more accessible and provide the public with additional opportunities to observe and participate in the city's business.

Thank you, City Clerk. Presentations. We have Santa Fe Springs Home and Business Beautification Awards. I would like to call upon Library Manager Deborah Rea.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here tonight to present the winners of the 2026 Beautification Awards as judged by the Historical and Community Preservation Advisory Committee. These awards celebrate the efforts of our residents and businesses who take pride in maintaining an attractive, well-kept property that enhances the beauty of our community. Committee members judged the homes and businesses on June 22nd, and we're pleased to share this slideshow highlighting this year's award winners. The first winner, 9360 Pioneer Boulevard, and that's the home of Ramon and Jessica Ortiz. We're going to do a group picture at the end.

OK.

The next home, 10355 Longworth Avenue. That's the home of Jack and Marianne Gibson. The next home is 10822 Roseton Avenue. The next one is 10944 Maidstone Avenue. And then the next one is 11630 Garretall Street, and that's the home of Tim and Rosalind Jacksey. The next home, 11745 Glenworth Street, that's the home of Mr. Patrick O'Toole.

Is that Patty the Batty? That's how you scream for her?

And then the businesses that we honored is 10715 Bloomfield Avenue, 12521 Los Nietos Road, 12623 Imperial Highway, and 12632

Los Nietos Road.

So I'd like to ask the winners that are present tonight and the members of the committee to come forward for a group picture.

And I think we have staff people just in case you need somebody to help you take a photo. Any of staff members, if you guys don't mind helping out.

Hmm?

All right, we have changes to the agenda. Mr. Bobadilla, are there any changes?

Mr. Mayor, we have no changes to the agenda.

Public comments on non-agenda and non-public hearing agenda items? Public comments are now open. The public may address the City Council on any non-public hearing item on the agenda or on 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 public that wish to speak today?

Yes, Mayor. I have one online on Teams, and I have four in person. So I will start with Marie. If you can please come to the podium. Marie?

Is there a last name to it or?

No.

Isabel Cervantes?

Good evening. I was present, as usual, at a recent council meeting where you voted to extend the contract with Merchants Landscaping. Shortly after, I saw Merchants Landscaping at the corner of Roeston and Florence cleaning up the medium, or so I thought. There wasn't much difference from before and after. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to take a picture. In my opinion, they did a lousy job. The medium looked almost the same before and after with just a little, and I emphasize a little, trash being removed. No trimming was done. Also, trash was left behind. A couple weeks later, a public works crew showed up and did an excellent job of cleaning and trimming the shrubbery. In fact, they did such a good job, my cat Simba is very unhappy as he no longer has a hiding place. First, I would like to send out a great thank you to Public Works for the awesome job. Now, it begs to wonder, why does the city have a contract with Merchant Public Landscaping? They clearly are not doing the job. Did they bill the city for services rendered, which was obvious the services were not rendered? If they did bill, have they done this to other areas of the city? If yes, shouldn't the city seek reimbursement for unwarranted billing? Should the city counsel the contract for breach of services? I'm quite sure there's other companies waiting in line to provide these services. Again, a big shout out to Public Works for the wonderful job they are doing. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Mr. Mayor, I was informed the other two speakers do not wish to speak, but I do have one remotely. John 19. We're going to allow him to speak. John 19, if you're there. We have to give him a few seconds. Yes.

Am I audible?

Yes.

Am I audible?

Yes.

May I begin?

Yes, you may.

Good evening, City Council. It is an honor to attend this meeting. It's my first time. My name is Juan Martinez. I am the delegate of the 64 district for the LACDP. And I also sit on KDEM for the Democratic Party for the state of California. I am making it an effort to join every City Council within the 64 district including our water agencies and our Board of Supervisors. So with that said I look forward to getting to know more about this city as I feel that I have a duty to its constituents and I want to work with the City Council here to make sure that communities to the best of our abilities. I do want to say that I'm not here simply to build relationships with people. Politically I'm more here to serve as a watchdog for the community. And a few examples that I can update you guys is that I am currently writing up the City of Downey for a cure and correct and a cease and desist as well as the City of Bell. So the best way I can put this is Let's work together to protect our communities and make sure that none of the cities in the 64 District are committing any violations. Other than that, it's an honor. Mayor, City Council, I look forward to again meeting all of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers?

Mayor, we have no other speakers.

Hearing that there's no other speakers, I will now close public comments and move on to the next item. Staff communications, items of community interest. Mr. Bovadilla, do we have any staff communications?

Mr. Mayor, we have one staff communication, our Director of Parks and Recreation, Gus Hernandez. Thank you.

and members of the city council. It's my pleasure to announce that our Paul T. Nakamura Regional Aquatic Center is now open for the public. We will be hosting our first fundraiser in partnership with the American Cancer Society. That's for Relay for Life, a fundraiser called Pulooza that'll be held on Friday, September 4th at 5 p.m. The city's nonprofit will be matching dollar for dollar all the entries, and that'll be donated to the American Cancer Society for all of the attendees. Next slide, please. And as we open the Aquatic Center, I also want to invite the public to take a look at our fall offerings. We have a pretty robust offerings here. We have group swim lessons. We have learn to swim, preschool aquatics, Splish Splash classes. Classes starting from for people as young as six months all the way to seniors of any age. We also are introducing water polo fundamentals. We have water exercise classes. This year we're including high impact water exercise, low impact water exercise, and we do offer some membership passes as well. Next slide please. And we are also offering leisure activities. We have adult lap swim, therapeutic water walking in the leisure pool. Our spa is now open. We have rec swim. Our spray ground is also now open. If you haven't seen the spray ground, it's absolutely beautiful. And then we also offer private lessons as well. So we encourage you guys to take a look at our offerings. Our lifeguards are ready to teach classes. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Gus. Public hearing item number three, approval of city council resolution number 10038, approving an operating covenant agreement with Legacy Sports Complex LLC for the provision of economic development incentives in connection with the development and operation of a new indoor sports facility. I would like to call upon Mr. Bovadilla, please.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, thank you so much. I'm so excited to announce to the members of the council and the public a new partnership that we're forming with Legacy Sports to bring to Santa Fe Springs USA Volleyball's premier national training and event center here in Santa Fe Springs. This is going to be a 10-year partnership with Legacy Sports, who have been chosen as the operator by USA Volleyball. It's a sanctioned tournament for volleyball and basketball training and dedicated USA volleyball offices. It's 121,000 square foot building here in Santa Fe Springs. This is a huge win for our city. We were competing with other cities, surrounding cities competing for this opportunity and we're happy to report that they have selected Santa Fe Springs. So this will be a training and practice facility. So this will be a training and practice facility for the 2028 LA Olympic Games for Team USA starting next year. So conversations to potentially open up practice training space for other countries, making this a global hub for the Olympics. Inside the building there will be 20 plus volleyball basketball courts, 40 plus tournament training weekends a year, 12 pickleball courts open to community with designated hours, 70 new permanent jobs, 28 full-time, 41 part-time. And Legacy Sports will partner with the city on youth clinics, after-school programming, and other community programs space use. And I'm so proud of staff. I want to give a shout-out to Anissa Levis, who worked extremely hard with Legacy Sports to make this deal come true. I also want to introduce the Director of Junior Girls Volleyball Operations, Kee Yee. And also, I want to introduce Chad and Amber Willardson, who are the co-founders of Legacy Sports.

First of all, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. This is very exciting for us. Thank you, Anissa. As I told the Mayor tonight, without Anissa and her team's support and recruiting us basically to Santa Fe Springs, this definitely would not be happening right now. So just to give you a little background, my name is Chad. My business partner is Anthony. Anthony is not here. He's at his daughter's volleyball game. Very appropriate. So I have five kids. Anthony and his wife have two kids. This is my wife, Amber. Say hello, Amber. And my two youngest children, Bentley and Beckham. There you go. I've got, believe it or not, I'm the shortest of my boys. So I have two boys that are 6'8 and 6'6. And I've got a daughter who plays college sports. And my partner's daughter, who's playing in a high school volleyball game right now, is playing Division I sports volleyball next year. So we got a partnership with USA Volleyball. We've operated another facility for about eight years. And we were asked to find a bigger complex and to find something in LA County. And so for two years, we have been meeting with landlords and cities. And we got very far down the road with a couple of your neighboring cities. And we just didn't feel like it was the right perfect fit for this 10 year commitment and hopefully a lot longer than 10 years. And so we got to Santa Fe Springs and I kid you not, we had a list of all these potential buildings. And we drive up. And I'm with Anthony. And we're in the car. And we look at the building. We literally just stop. And I was like, that's the one. And he goes, that's the one right there. And I said, well, we got to meet with the landlord and meet with the city first. And our meeting with the city from the very first conversation felt like we were talking to business people. And that has never happened. And I'm an elected official in another city. for the last 12 plus years. And I can tell you, it's a much bigger city than Santa Fe Springs, but they have a lot to learn about being business friendly. This was remarkable to me. And it made it so easy to us to go to USA Volleyball and say, we have a spot. It's beautiful. It's brand new. The city's behind it. They have a Big Four initiative to bring businesses here. And we toured the CEO of USA Volleyball. He flew into town. We took him and a couple board members through the entire building. And we said, picture your offices right here in Santa Fe Springs. And we made it happen. So I'm so excited about it. We're going to bring lots of families from all over to this community. It'll bring business to the shops, the restaurants, the hotels, the retail stores. Saturdays and Sundays, we're going to have great tournaments. We're going to have definitely, when we finish the courts, we are on the shortest time crunch in history to create a sports complex, but we're going to make it happen. Our first tournament is coming up before the end of the year. We want to invite everyone here. We're going to have, obviously, a big ribbon-cutting ceremony at some point. We'll involve the chamber. And USA Volleyball will have a lot of representatives, hopefully some athletes there. But I just want to say thank you. We're very excited about this. We are coming out to Santa Fe Springs a lot now. So we hope to get to know all of you. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for welcoming us here. And I understand there's a lot of pickleball players around. So we said, yes, we'll have 12 pickleball courts. We're going to create an annual big pickleball tournament event for your city. We have special benefits for residents, especially seniors in the city for free pickleball. So we're trying to do things that are going to be given back because you guys have been such great partners. And I just have to say thank you. And we're excited.

Just make sure. Just make sure when it comes to pickleball that you teach everybody how to stretch properly. Because just to let you know, pickleball is one of the most active sports when it comes to people getting hurt.

I see we're giving business to doctors.

Yeah. And Mr. Mayor and the council. He's a chiropractor, so he's going to love that, right?

Mr. Mayor and council, and just to put things in perspective, I have two daughters that grew up playing volleyball. played in high school, and then they gave up playing. But I was at your previous facility close by, and I spent a lot of weekends there in her club team. And there was probably, in any given weekend, 5,000 to 10,000 people going through that facility and eating and shopping and doing the things that they do As you can see in the photos, the amounts of people that fit in this facility. But it was really unique to see and be in a place where you see USA Volleyball. This is one of the facilities they practice in. It was really cool to be around that and a sense of pride to bring something like that to our city. So, Chad, thank you and your team for selecting Santa Fe Springs. We're really proud to to be the home for USA Volleyball, so thank you.

I'll add one thing, Renee, if I can. Most facilities, just so you know, most facilities in the state and the country are a home team to a club. Branding is club-specific, and when other clubs come in there, they kind of feel like they're on someone else's territory. This, we're not... we're not club specific, so we are USA Volleyball specific. So we're gonna be welcoming clubs from all over to train and get experience, but the branding is gonna be USA Volleyball through and through. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Chad. And this is a testament to our big four concept that you, the council, have supported with our other three partners, partnering cities of Vernon, Commerce, and Industry. But this is what it's like when we work together as a region to really bring projects like USA Volleyball. So again, thank you. Well, that's the point.

Mayor, may I? Yes, sir. For the volleyball, just a travel ball mom. My daughters are now 34 and 26, and they've been doing travel since they were nine. Yes. Where were you at, like, 10, 15 years ago? I was too young to do that. But, no, it's so great because, like, we were talking, like I said, there's three parents here who travel volleyball. And the closest place that we had was Anaheim, which was, like, so decrepit. You know, Santa Margarita. So this is, like, perfect because... centrally located and it's great. I'm so excited to see it and just to see what you guys come back and what else you guys bring back to us. But our city welcomes you. You have so many parents are gonna love you now because we don't have to travel at four o'clock in the morning, go far away. But no, thank you and we welcome you and we welcome your family. So thank you.

Appreciate it. Yeah, USA Volleyball said their gap was in LA County. And so everyone's, like you said, everyone's driving to Ladera Ranch or to Anaheim or to Irvine or to Corona. And there's just nothing in the area that's big enough. And it's a big undertaking. Financially, this option was by far the most expensive option of all the buildings we looked at. But because the city was willing to partner with us and make this happen, that's why it's happening.

So we're going to actually have each council member, if you don't mind.

What's that?

Each council member wants to say something.

So, John? No, I'll be brief. I just want to thank you for selecting us to start this venture. It's going to be a win-win for everybody. You know, all the families coming in, the local businesses around here, and then all the kids that get to participate in what you've created. So, just thank you for being here. Appreciate it.

Bill? Yes, I want to thank you for coming to Santa Fe Springs. My family usually watch council meetings, and I tell you they're jumping up and down right now because I have two granddaughters that are getting into volleyball. And I know the city's starting a volleyball program this year, but this is going to be a great option for the people. You're going to love our community. We're going to love you. So thank you for being here. And you saved the best for last. You came to us, and we came to you. Thank you.

Worked out perfectly. Annette?

Yes, I too would like to say thank you very much. And you said partnership. That's what it's about. Partnership, working together, making things happen. And that's what we're doing up here. We said that we would like to be a city that is easy to do business with. So by what you just said, you told us that we are easy to do business with. We all made it happen and we work together. And that's how you get things done. So I want to say thank you. You're bringing the youth here. We have youth of our own. We're going to make this a really nice facility for everybody to enjoy. So thank you very much.

I also want to first start off. For those of you guys who don't know Anissa, if you could stand up, please, Anissa, please. Sorry to put you on the spot.

She deserves a round of applause. Yeah, she deserves a round of applause.

So Anissa was brought in as our economic development individual, and that's her focus.

Mr. Mayor, she was brought in as our secret weapon.

Okay, our secret weapon. So when you do that, people don't realize it when they see an individual and they think, well, why is the city spending money or why are they going after an individual that nobody knows or whatever it may be. But I mean- Anissa's job is business. I mean, her job is to make sure she's going to, I'm not saying harass, but do as much as she can to call, you know, Chad. I mean, to call him and Anthony and just make sure she presses him and saying, hey, this is how much we want you in our city. And, you know, the city for a long time, I mean, we never went in the direction of public private partnerships. It's called the three P's. And when you do that, it makes it easier because now you're willing to invest. I mean, how else are you going to make money? I mean, today earlier we had an EIFD meeting and the city is going to be collecting overall within a stretch of time. like 58 million, and that's redevelopment 2.0. But these are the things we have to do, we have to go after, so I just personally want to thank you, Anissa, for your hard efforts, your hard work, because even in telling her, I know I was telling her, call, just call right now. We'd get out of it just like, you know, she was just on it. And it just shows because her perseverance, you know, just the fact of her testament of knowing, hey, I'm going to make sure and have that relationship. And it helps because it's not just Anissa. It's the rest of our planning department that does the work. And we just want to thank those individuals who partner with us. Who is it? Del Date and who's the other one that we have? Yeah. North Star and I'm sorry North Star Alliance right is that correct so thank you to them because they're the ones who help us when it comes to the big four so Chad once again thank you I mean we just you know I know if we play volleyball I want you on my team you know and your boys and whoever else is six eight and above you know but thank you very much to you and your family for selecting the city of Santa Fe Springs for those of you I mean I don't know if we can say who did we beat out but I guess we can't because they're telling me no. But there are some cities that, honestly, I mean, if you were to hear the names of who we beat out, you would be really proud that the city of Santa Fe Springs was chosen. So thank you, sir, and may God bless USA Volleyball.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Okay, so...

Mr. Mayor, this is a public hearing, so at this time it would be appropriate to open the public hearing and receive public testimony.

So the public hearing is now open. Anyone wishing to speak, please sign up at the kiosk. If you are participating by phone, please use the raise hand feature. City Clerk, do we have any speakers?

Mayor, we do not.

I would like to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion or a motion of the approval?

I'll motion. Don't even finish it. It's already moved. I second.

Okay, we have a motion by Martin, second by Rodriguez. All members please vote. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. And just to let you know, Chad, there's plenty of volunteers out here that I'm probably sure they're willing to go help you out if you need any help when it comes to the Olympics. Maybe not my mom, but, you know. On that note, we will be making lots of full-time and part-time hires.

We would love to hire locally as much as possible.

So that's something that's going to be important to us. Good. Good. Also, we have a lot of individuals that are seniors that we brought in to work in our city and volunteer. So hopefully you can follow that model, too. We would really appreciate that because that, you know, allows them to be productive here in our community. So thank you. Okay, next we have regular business. Approval of loan agreement and accompanying documents with a food processing company in an amount of 13.5 for the relocation of its facility to the city of Santa Fe Springs. I would like to call upon Mr. Bobadilla.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the city council. Again, I'm really excited and proud to announce that Juanita Foods is moving to the city of Santa Fe Springs. They are leaving their Wilmington operation and will be calling Santa Fe Springs their new home. Just to give you things in perspective, we were competing against the state of Kansas, the state of Texas, for this opportunity. Quite frankly, they ended up picking Texas and Santa Fe Springs. They concurrently were vetting both states to see which one they would stay in. And I think our offer and our incentive package was competitive enough that they made the decision to stay in California and choose Santa Fe Springs. They will be relocating from Wilmington. They're going to be occupying a 122,000 square foot manufacturing facility that was occupied and is currently occupied by a current canning operation. It's estimated that about $60 to $70 million will be invested into the building for TI improvements. In phase two, they proposed to build another 50,000 square foot warehouse, which will be a satellite location in the city for future operations. And this is also part of our big four effort. I want to thank Diodate, North Star, Anissa, Quan, everybody on the team that helped on this, city attorney's office. This was a very, very unique incentive package that took a lot of collaboration, a lot of outside the box thinking. And I really want to give a shout out to all of you for really thinking outside the box. And I think Jody's here from Juanita Foods. He's the CEO of Juanita Foods. I want to introduce you, Jody. The state of California is in a fierce, fierce competition to keep business in California. So as I mentioned, we weren't competing with Ontario. We weren't competing with Riverside, Fontana, or an e-commerce industry, Irwindale. We were competing with other states. So companies aren't just relocating a few miles east or west. They're leaving the state of California. And this is what the Big Four initiative is, and I'm happy to report that today Senator Archuleta helped us approve a new bill that gives us a definition of an industrial city. In the past, the city of Santa Fe Springs Like other industrial cities, there's only about 20 or less in the state. We were just recognized as normal cities. As of today, the state senate and the assembly have approved the bill that hopefully the governor will sign here shortly. But once it's signed into law January 1st, we will be considered and recognized as an industrial city. So when there's ever any bills or measures or funding equations, they will look at us as a lower population city, but manufacturing city, industrial city with a high daytime population. So we're really excited about that. And also to mention as part of this incentive package, Juanita Foods is also gonna be giving the city a five year $200,000 per year community benefit. So thank you Juanita Foods. Thank you for choosing Santa Fe Springs as your home. I'm really proud to have you here in our city. So before the council takes an action, I'd give you an opportunity to say a few words, Jody.

comments. As you said, I'm Jody Jordan, Chief Operating Officer at Juanita's Foods. For those that don't know, Juanita's Foods has been making authentic Mexican cuisine for families for the last 80 years. And today, we remain the only manufacturer of Menudo, a product with deep Hispanic culinary tradition. We're also proud to be the number one U.S. brand for a category that we've led for many years and with the support of Santa Fe Springs, we hope to lead that category for many years to come. Our products reach retailers nationwide and consumers across the country trust us to deliver quality and consistency on a regular basis. Juanita's has been producing high quality canned foods in Southern California since it was founded by the De La Torre family in 1964. As you mentioned, it was an exhaustive and exhausting search across the nation to find out where the new home for Juanita's Foods would be. And we're excited to bring the next chapter of growth to Santa Fe and remain in Southern California. The facility will become the new home of our hominy and Latin soup production, and we look forward to building a lasting operation in the Santa Fe Springs community. This investment, as you mentioned, is pretty substantial, for us anyway, represents not only just new equipment and infrastructure, but also jobs and a long-term commitment to this wonderful community. We're grateful to the city's partnership and support in making this transition possible, and we look forward to being good neighbors and proud members of the Santa Fe Springs business community for decades to come. I would like to take a moment to thank the mayor, the city manager, staff, the economic development team. You mentioned it was a creative process and I really appreciate the time and effort that you guys put into bringing us here to this really important moment and next step for the Juanita's food story. So thank you very much.

And Jody, I just had one request, and you know what that request is. Menudo blanco. It has to be white menudo. You've got to bring that back. Yeah, I know that's part of the meeting notes. I want to make sure that's in there.

Wait up. Hold on. For the record, he's actually going to go into that kiosk, put his name in, and then put a formal request, right?

My wife exhausted every shelf at the Baja Ranch store, and it's gone. There is no more. And she actually called Juanita Foods and said, hey, where can I get this stuff? He's like, we're not making it anymore. So when they came to us, I said, oh, yeah. Okay.

We're gonna get it back. So as you can see, it's part of the incentive package, right? It just got put in right now, though, so just to let you know. All right, with that being said, thank you, sir, for trusting the city of Santa Fe Springs. We hope to have this, we know that this partnership's gonna grow, and of course, once again, with the Deodate North Star, our staff when it comes to our planning department, And, you know, the three P's, you know, once again, the public-private partnership. Anissa, I mean, Renee, I mean, you know, you also take a lot of this credit. Nick, all you guys, because the efforts that you guys put in, we're a fast-paced city. You know, it does help that we have a city attorney, too, that doesn't just like Menudo the food, but he also likes Menudo the group. You know what I mean? So, you know. He's a big fan, but he helps us out when it comes to... Mr. Mayor, he's a little confused.

It took a time to tell him it's not the band.

It's not the band. He thought when we said Menudo, he brought his shirt and everything, and he was looking for signatures to sign. You know, I'm sorry, it's just earlier when he met Jody, he just made us laugh by doing something that, this is our city attorney. So he does a great job for us. And the fact that he puts in the work and it makes it easier because the process alone, I mean, we can have all the staff, but we need every piece in place to do the work. And, you know, he plays an instrumental role besides the city manager. So thank you, Renee. And thank you, Rick, for your hard effort.

Thanks goes to the team. The team did a fantastic job. They really performed well, and you guys should be proud of the team and how they were able to get this deal done. Whose phone is that? So thank you. Hey, whose phone is that?

It's my mom's phone, right? Yeah. All right, with that being said, we're going to, is there a discussion or a motion for the approval of the item number four? I'll move.

I second.

Moved by Round, second by Rodriguez. All members please vote. And with that being said, sir, five zero. So just to let you know, Jody lives here in the state of California on Monday through Friday, right, Monday through Thursday, and the weekend he lives in Arkansas. So being a family man, he goes home and does his due diligence. But, you know, as you can see, the work that he puts in, I mean, we just can't thank you enough for trusting in us because you could have always went to Texas or felt, you know, going somewhere else that can be more, you know, appealing to you and your lifestyle. So thank you very much, sir. That being said, we have resolution number 10034, adoption of annual appropriation limit for fiscal year 2026, 2027. I would like to call upon Mr. Bovadilla.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is an annual report that we have to bring to you. The report is before you. If you have any questions, we have our finance director here to answer any questions you may have.

If we don't have any questions, there is a discussion for a motion or approval on item number five.

I'll move. I'll second.

Moved by Martin, second by Mora. Members please vote. Motion passes 5-0. Okay, we have item number six.

Mayor, before we go to item six, I need to recuse myself from this, so I'll see you after you discuss this item. Thank you.

Thank you. This is home occupation permit appeal decision regarding a beauty salon at 10728 Lake Center Park Lane.

Mr. Mayor, this is an appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of a home occupation permit for a beauty salon at 10728 Lake Center Park Lane. I'll just give you a little bit of an update on this item. It's a proposed appointment-based home salon providing hair extension services. It's limited in scale. It's in an existing residence. They estimate about two clients per day, four days per week. Appellants argue Planning Commission lacked authority to interpret home occupation permit. Finding number three, pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Planning Commission had authority to interpret and apply the existing code. Code amendment is required. Planning Commission imposed two conditions, maximum of two clients per day, vehicle, clients, park, and driveway. We do recommend that that item be discussed. That'll be a little bit difficult to enforce, so we ask that the council reconsider that, and staff is prepared to do a future code amendment. So staff recommends that the council find the project exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15061B3, common sense exemption, find that the proposed home occupation meets the criteria of zoning code section 155.635, deny the appeal and affirm the planning commission's approval, adopt resolution number 1035, incorporating the council's findings and actions, and take any additional related action as appropriate. So before we hear from the parties, I'd just like to clarify the order and time limits. The appellant will have five minutes total to speak. This is a combined five minutes, not five minutes per speaker. The applicant will then have five minutes total to speak, and after the applicant concludes, the appellant may, if desired, provide a final rebuttal or conclude a statement of up to three minutes total. So I will announce the time limit before each presentation. The Planning Commission previously approved the home occupation permit, and that decision is now before the Council on appeal. Council will consider the CEQA exemption compliance with Zoning Code Section 155.635 and whether to affirm or overturn the Planning Commission's decision. So at this time, we will now hear from the appellant. If the appellant is here and wishes to speak, you have five minutes to speak.

Just for the record, that is Melanie and Richard. Oh, the appellant, I'm sorry. Let me go back to that. Irma Huitron?

Ms. Huitron, you have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Irma Witron, and along with my husband, Alejandro Witron, who is traveling out of the country on business, are appealing the item before you tonight. We are appealing the Planning Commission's approval of the home occupation permit for a beauty salon to be established at a residential home at 10728 Lake Center Park Lane. I want to be clear that this appeal is not personal. This appeal is not a personal attack against the applicant or their desire to run an operated business. It's about protecting the integrity of our residential neighborhood and requiring the city to apply the municipal code as it's actually written. The code could not be clearer. Before approving a home occupation, the city must find that the proposed use, quote, shall not generate pedestrian or vehicular traffic, end quote. The proposed salon will generate traffic. Clients will travel to the residence, park, enter the property, receive services, and leave. The condition limiting the business to two clients per day as established by the Planning Commission does not eliminate the traffic. Requiring clients to park in the driveway as required by the Planning Commission does not eliminate it either. It merely attempts to manage traffic that the code says shall not be generated. The city staff report that was included in your packet today for consideration cites a court case, citizens of responsible equity, equitable environmental development versus city of San Diego. That was in the staff report presented by staff. And it presented that information for the principle of introducing the principle that the city's interpretation of its own code is entirely considerable, that it can be considered. As appellants, we don't dispute that the city may interpret its code, but that's when the language is genuinely unclear or when different provisions must be reconciled. This case does not give the city the authority to rewrite an ordinance or add words that the city council never adopted in its code. In the case cited in the staff report, the court did not simply accept the city's interpretation without question. The court stated that the interpretation of the ordinance of the code presents a legal issue that courts must review independently. The court then found that the city's interpretation must be supported by language of several, that it was supported by several code provisions by state law, the city's established administrative practice, an internal policy document, and formally adopted city policy. That is the court case that was referenced.

They actually had supporting document.

This is very different from what occurred here today for this item. The staff report identifies no longstanding interpretation adopted by city council Those additional words established by the Planning Commission during its consideration of this item were introduced merely by the Planning Commission with no additional support. If the city believes that existing standard is outdated or too restrictive, it has the authority to amend it through the public process. And that would be through a code amendment through a public hearing that's noticed to the entire city so that residents can come into this room and be notified and provide comment to you so that you have the public input so that you can guide staff on that code amendment. Changing the meaning of the code through an interpretation before the planning commission does not create a fair and transparent process. Residents and applicants alike should be able to read the code and rely on its plain language. The decision also made by the planning commission extends beyond one property. If the city determines that two clients per day doesn't constitute traffic, what prevents the next applicant from saying I want three or four or 10 or 15? City Council that you should consider that to be substantial and reasonable. Approving this permit under an unwritten standard creates a precedent that gradually changes the character of our neighborhoods. We are not asking the council to prevent someone from being able to earn a living. We're rather asking for the transparent process so that those members of the public, including us residents, have the appropriate process carried out to amend the code. We ask you to deny the applicant's request and overturn the planning commission's determination. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Withrone. The appellant time has concluded. We will now hear from the applicant, Melody Andrade. And you have five minutes total. And you may begin when you're ready.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. My name is Melody Andrade. This is my husband, Richard Andrade. And we're here tonight to respectfully ask that you uphold the unanimous decision of the Planning Commission to approve our home occupation permit. The appellant's original concerns were already addressed with the Planning Commission and a determination was made in our favor. Our goal has always been to be good neighbors while having the opportunity to work from home. during the last meeting we brought six of our cul-de-sac neighbors to attest to this and spoke on our behalf a copy of this petition has been provided my home-based business is designed to operate responsibly with careful attention to parking traffic environmental impact and maintaining the residential character of our community I've made every effort to comply with the city's requirements and addressed all questions asked by the Planning Commission during our last meeting. They reviewed the facts and determined that based on a reasonable interpretation of Code 155.635 that I meet all of the findings. I respectfully ask that the council affirm that decision. I value being part of this neighborhood and am committed to operating in a way that is respectful, professional, and compatible with the community. In closing, I'd like to ask, what does one gain by continuously trying to ruin the betterment of small businesses in Santa Fe Springs? Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing us to address tonight's agenda item. On July 13th, we did raise what we felt were very valid arguments. The first being that in comparison to overflow parking from Lake Center Athletic Park to the west and the Aspire Complex to the east, one to two clients per day parked in our driveway would be a negligible impact on parking and traffic. We also argued that several cities, such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim, and several others do allow for pedestrian and vehicle traffic under their home occupation permits. Third, we argued that within the city of Santa Fe Springs already, similar client-facing businesses are already operating without any impact to the community, and that would be the cottage food operation and the MECO. lastly we did point out that the city of santa fe spring zoning map shows that lake center park lane falls under a planned development overlay which allows for flexible design and planning this flexibility would allow the city to approve our permit and still maintain compliance with the municipal code in closing i too would like to cite some case law Cohen versus California Superior Court 2024 overruled any previous rulings that allow private citizens civil right of action to enforce municipal code. The ruling was that this is the sole authority of city and municipal governments. This would reasonably apply to the adoption of resolutions and updating municipal code as the city deems fit. While we hope that you would decide in our favor, the sole decision belongs to the council. We want to thank you very much for your time and have a good evening.

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Andrade. The applicant's time has concluded. The appellant may now provide a final rebuttal or concluding statement, if desired, for up to three minutes.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond. The Santa Fe Springs Code does not say that a home occupation may generate a reasonable amount of traffic. It does not say that traffic is allowed if customers park in the driveway. It says that it shall not generate quote, shall not generate pedestrian or vehicular traffic. We agree that the city may interpret the code language, but an interpretation should explain the words that are already in the code. It should not add words or create a different standard. You might have read in the planning commission proceedings or as referenced here tonight that there's other businesses such as cottage food operations and micro enterprise home kitchen operations that already receive customer visits. But those are specific exceptions already created in the Santa Fe Springs Code. A specific exception for food business does not create an exception for a beauty salon operating out of a home. Instead, it shows that the city has knowledge how to clearly authorize customer visits when it intends to do so. This is not about whether or not a business will operate responsibly out of a home. The land use rules must apply consistently to everyone in Santa Fe Springs. Once the city replaces the words no traffic, no vehicular pedestrian traffic, with an undefined reasonable traffic standard, there's no clear limit for the next application. The city may decide that the code may be changed, but the proper process for doing that is a municipal code or zoning text amendment. That's not the case here right now. It's being considered on a case-by-case basis for one homeowner out of all the homeowners in Santa Fe Springs. The City Council should not apply a rule to only this permit today, and we respectfully ask you to apply the code as written, grant our appeal, and deny the home occupation permit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Bittrone. That concludes the presentations and rebuttal. Mayor, the matter is now before the Council for questions, discussion, and consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Bobadilla. Councilmembers, we will now proceed with questions and discussion regarding item number six. The recommended action is to find the project exempt from CEQA under section 15061, find that the proposed home occupation meets zoning code section 155.635, deny the appeal and affirm the Planning Commission's approval, adopt resolution number 1035, and take any additional related action as appropriate. Is there any questions, discussion?

I have a question. We did get a petition for approval, and there's nine signatures on here. Is that total, about? 16? So we got nine signatures. Did we get any of them that wanted appealed? The issue is going to be the car traffic. In my house, I have adult children. And being on council, we do have a lot of cars coming in and out of my house. Something like that would affect our house, affect all of our houses. I think it's, I understand Ms. Withron's, but also on your part, too. Nowadays you cannot have more than, like I said, I have adult children in my home. I have at least four cars at all times in my street, and sometimes I don't have enough for driveway. And the way things are, it's almost no choice but to have a home business. And after seeing these, I did do my due diligence, and I did reach out to some of these residents. And not the ones I did speak to or was able to have contact, not one of them had an issue with it. if any of them did or have a slight issue, and then I would think differently. But none of them did. All of them were very supportive. And they were also, a couple of them actually worked from home. And they say it was never an issue having a car or cars there. So it's just my opinion on this or my say on this.

I'd like to say something. I know how hard it is when you're trying to get out there and work. And I know how hard our small businesses have it sometimes when they try and get out there and make a living. And so I feel like a small business in your home, it's a great thing. You're trying to do something positive. You're trying to earn a living. And you're doing it at the house. I don't see the problem in having a business at the home when it's not causing problems because you said it's two cars and they're in your driveway. So I don't see where the problem is where it's going to cause a lot of traffic if it's in the driveway. And I've had businesses that I've gone to where they they do their business in the home and I just I Welcome it. I don't want to tell you that it's a bad thing. It's not a bad thing I welcome it if you can if you have a business that you can provide on your home so I don't see that there's a Problem with having this business in the home. It's not causing any problems and like like we see right here the people here that are, they say they don't have a problem with it. So I don't think that there's any problems with having this business in the home.

So you wrote down that you're going to have only two clients a day, and that's by appointment. They come in during the daytime. Oh, sorry.

Yes. Typically two, one or two. Okay. Sometimes just one. They last in duration from three to four hours each.

Just real quick, just for the record, this is the applicant speaking, you know. You know, no, just for the record, just in case.

Melody Andrade, yeah. Yeah, by appointment, I don't have people hanging out in the front waiting to come in or anything like that. It's by appointment only. I work around my son's school schedule, so one is during school and one is after school. Yeah, three to four hours apiece.

And it's only you working on them, or you and your husband?

No, just me.

Just you? Mm-hmm. Two clients, okay. Mm-hmm.

I have one question. And you have your license, right? I do. You're fully licensed. Yes.

Mr. Mayor, one concern we have, the conditions that were set by the Planning Commission, we as staff believe are going to be really hard to enforce. Having two cars in a driveway, it'd be hard. If there's two cars not parked in the driveway, we get a call for parking enforcement. We're going to have to determine whether those cars are visiting, therefore doing hair services. So what I recommend is if you do support this action, that you consider not enforcing the driveway and allow us to, as we prepare the future municipal code amendment, to allow us to incorporate that language in a future amendment so that we can kind of encompass it all in one shot.

Well, first off, when you look at parking, Parking is permitted by anybody. You can park anywhere and, you know, it's not illegal at all. So it makes it very difficult. I mean, because here we are, we're hearing two testimonies where one side does not want more parking or, you know, and then the other side is running a business. And nowadays, I mean, we know that after COVID, I mean, a lot of people telecommute, they work from home. And it makes it very difficult because In this day and age, I mean, to have one income is difficult. My suggestion would be that when it comes to the parking, that while the applicant is applying, or this may go for any applicant, that when they get their CUP or conditional use permit or even a temporary use permit, whichever may be, that we make sure that we enforce parking decals. So then at least there, if you're only gonna have two applicants, then we have two parking decals and these are meant for the people who are coming to your business. And so everybody knows that those are individuals for business because we don't want you to park your people, whether it be in the parking or out on the street, but everybody knows these individuals who have your parking decals. when they park, they're going to go to your business. They're going to grab a parking decal. And then from there, they're going to put it on their window. And, you know, and it just makes it easy because we have businesses out there. And the only reason why I'm thinking this way is because, I mean, we have people that are trying to fix cars, you know, at home and they have like 10 cars, you know what I mean? And I think just if we're going to start a precedence when it comes to small businesses, we need to make sure we also start a precedence when it comes to them having parking decals and, you know, And it just makes it a lot easier, makes it cleaner, because then we know how many cars are there. Those individuals, if, you know, I'm not saying law enforcement may be cold, but it's just easier to know who is coming to get their hair done or who's coming to visit, you know, because if someone's coming to visit, you shouldn't be, you know, ousted for something like that. And I know that's not with the what the appellant is trying to do i mean i know it's more about the business side and you know so in order to see both sides um you know i mean that's my recommendation to make sure that you um if we go forward with this um that there is parking decals set in place um just so it makes it easier um for your people just you know and for the future so And of course, in hearing what Mr. Bobadilla and the Planning Commission stated about the parking, bless you. When it comes to parking, when it comes to inside your driveway, I mean, it does make it very difficult. We cannot restrict parking. I think we've tried several times where people have come to us and say these individuals live They park and they're there overnight. There's a lot of different things, but when it comes to small businesses, we notice a lot more small businesses are trying to open up. We just need them to make sure that they follow the guidelines like any other business. That they follow maybe what we could have to is something if you know who's going to be coming. that when they sign in, that not only do they have their name written down, but also if they can put their license plate number. Anything that just shows whatever it may be to help out, this is your business, and I just want to make sure that your business does flourish. But I want to make sure, too, that all avenues are taken care of, that the appellant does see that we are trying to enforce different avenues or different aspects when it comes to it. So hopefully you don't mind that part of being added to that. With that being said, can I get a motion or a second? We have the city attorney. Hold on.

Before we approve item, it seems like there's a motion. There's a motion and a second. We haven't done a vote yet, so I don't know how it's going to. But before we do that, do we want to incorporate the city manager's recommendations in the motion? Okay. I just want to make sure that's clear.

And the recommendation is also to recommend parking decals. And so if she's asking for two, then it's just going to be two. You know what I mean? Just so we know that we're following that sequence.

Okay.

I just want to make sure that's clear.

And then also if we can get Go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, if we may, we'd like to have our city attorney make a brief comment.

Hi, Lloyd Pilchen. I work with Rick. So I think there's a misunderstanding. So there should be some clarification, maybe deliberation among the council. What I heard Mr. Bobadilla suggesting was let's eliminate the parking requirement because we're only talking about two cars in four days of the week. This is... de minimis. We're not talking about an auto shop with lots of cars coming. So it's such a small amount. Why require that they be in the driveway when the street, if one accidentally sees a spot and parks in the street and doesn't go into the driveway, do we really want code enforcement or the police to be called out for that.

So I think Mr. Bobadilla was suggesting- He is suggesting that, but we're also suggesting that if they're out there in the park, not in the driveway, that there is a decal. The reason for that, so if law enforcement is not called, we're trying to be proactive instead of being reactive. So I understand what you're stating and that's exactly what we're going off of to make sure that they don't have to park only in the driveway that it can be in the cul-de-sac area and but the but the thing is to to allow because it's close the cul-de-sac i take it is real close so it's not going to bother anybody if they get a decal hanging in the front so those cars are left alone until the business is conducted it requires some administration exactly someone has to print up a decal Doesn't matter if it makes it easier for people. So our law enforcement is not going to be called upon or our public safety. We just, we're trying to be proactive. So that's the reason.

So Mr. Mayor, I'm trying to figure out how this would work. So we would give the applicant two decals. Two decals? Because, I mean, she's stating that it's two. So when someone comes, she has to give them the decal. They have to put it on their car.

Mm-hmm.

And what if one, yeah, and then she has to take it back. And then if she loses one, she comes back.

I mean, she just comes back to the city and gets another. I mean, I'm just saying because I'm trying to look at, we're trying to look at both aspects.

You know what I mean? I just, Mr. Mayor, I just want to make this comment. I think where you all live is very close to a park. Yeah. So I assume you get traffic from the park sometimes. I assume you do, right? Or? Or you may not, but I assume if there's a big park event, the park traffic spill flows into your area. So you're already affected by other vehicles besides your own and those. So that's probably more on weekends than probably during the week, I would assume. But I'm just trying to make sure we have something that we can enforce that's easy for our staff to look at and not. wonder which side we're taking and i don't want the applicant to be stuck with i lost the person took it i don't have that's fine um that i think if we kind of look at it holistically we can come up with if the whole block needs permit parking we could look at that okay and maybe it's the whole block is parking i think that might help the block for an intended traffic that might park there if that's something we want to look at but i think the the trading of of decals might might create some challenges.

No, and that's fine. It's just, you know, you have 16 homes and the hard part is, I mean, you get a lot of traffic, you know, cause usually when people park or there's an event at the park, um, there's overflow and they're going to be in that area. So this is just, it was just a suggestion to say, you know, let's just protect your clients because what happens if other people are overflowing and you know what I mean?

We just don't want, I think we, we as staff would ask at, Whatever you can do, if you tell your clients to please park in the driveway, if you can make that effort for us, I think that would go a long way.

I mean, even if they park in the driveway, they can park at the park, too. You know, if they want to walk over. I mean, it's just whatever you feel is best for, you know, when it comes to the business.

But we understand it is a public street. It's open to the public and it's available for anybody to park. But if you can make that effort, that would go a long way.

Would you want these decals only if they're in my driveway?

Yeah, I'm trying to see if the council is okay with for now not using decals. And if we do go to that, we study it during our process of updating the code. We can definitely look at that. But I would recommend for now that we do not do decals and maybe we do incorporate them.

I mean, if you want me to put something like on their windshield or something.

I'm trying to avoid that for now. That might be something we do later. But for now, I don't want to because we have other other businesses throughout the city that, you know, have cottage licenses and stuff. So I want to be fair to all those as well. But we do have to holistically look at the entire city and the whole. the way we do this citywide, as the council mentioned.

And I know, too, as for the applicant, you've been waiting for, what, over a month and a half now? So, you know, it's just whatever we can to streamline this process. You know, that's what we're looking at. You know, and we're just trying to make sure that residents, you know, later on, nobody else comes up and says, hey, you know, this is being, you know, intrusive now when it comes to the parking. So it's just trying to nip it now. And it just allows the staff to hear the different conversations that we have up here. And then from there, hopefully they can come up with a better solution when it comes to that. So with that being said, I mean, we can add the recommendation of not having to park in your parking, just allowing just for street parking in general when it comes to your two individuals that you have, two permits per day.

Wait, clarify that again.

So if I may, I'll read that the council consider that this appeal based on the underlying use and existing code standards rather than relying on the condition. So staff is preparing a future municipal code amendment to clarify allowable pedestrian and vehicular activity for home occupations. So that if you approve that, that you allow us to do this at a future municipal code amendment.

And we're taking out the part of the planning commission.

Yes.

Condition.

That being said- What's the conclusion on the parking?

There's no restriction.

No restriction. Okay, so no restriction, no permit if this does pass. No permits, no decals, no stickers, okay.

So is there a motion?

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

We have a motion by Rodriguez, seconded by Martin. The motion is to approve items one through five with the additions that we articulated. Yes.

Okay, thank you.

We can please vote now? Motion passes 4-0 with one recuse. And thank you both of you guys for coming up to speak. You know, I know it's a difficult matter. Either way it goes. So thank you, Ms. Withrone, for coming in. Speaking, and of course, congratulations to your business. With that being said, we have consent calendar. Public Finance Authority, Water Utility Authority, Housing Successor, Successor Agency, and City Council Consent Calendar. We have a total of 11 items, number seven through 17.

Mr. Mayor, before you make a motion, may I pull item 17 just so Julio can explain that item before you take that separate of the?

We're gonna do, we have items seven through 16, 17 being pulled, and we're gonna speak on that as a single item. Is there a motion for the approval of the consent calendar?

I'll move.

Second. Moved by Round, second by Mora. All members please vote. We have a 5-0, motion passes.

Now we have item number 17. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to pull this item just to have Julio present it. This is our annual ACFER, our annual Comprehensive Financial Report. On behalf of myself and staff, I want to apologize for the lateness of this document. Julio will kind of explain what took place and why we were a bit late. But we did want to kind of give an opportunity for Julio to present it and kind of give you the overview of the ACFER. So, Julio.

Thank you, Renee. Thank you, Mayor, members of the City Council. If you recall, on June 13th, I had provided basic financial statements. I looked as such. I said I would be coming back and returning with final financial audited statements. We had discussed a couple areas of concern last time, some turnover, some issues with water and accounting as such. It's important to note that there's some accounting practices that we had in the past. Some of it is just plain delay and being behind. You knew we were behind in processing checks. We didn't quite understand how far behind that would have an impact everywhere else. Note, we have two brand new accountants. We feel we're up to speed in making a number of changes. But there are some small changes between the more recent form, which is the final. And by the way, the accountants will come back. They're on vacation doing their final review of everything else. The partner could not come today, will come the next meeting and present everything as they're supposed to do because they're the ones providing an independent audit of the financial statements. There are some small changes that took place between what we presented on June 13th and what we've submitted now, which is pretty much our final numbers. And I will quickly summarize those. And a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were accounting for our revenues in our water fund. In other words, in the past, we used to take the money as it came in and said it came into that year. In accounting, when you do accrual accounting, they want to know when you earn the money. So as an example for everyone here in the audience, if you got a check in August but it represented service in May, then it has to go in that fiscal year. Now, in the old days, when we were on time, we just said, what we get during the year, we get during the year. And the auditor said, well, we'd like you to accrue, in other words, represent the money that you received Even it might have been six months late, but it represented payments that were for the prior fiscal year. So that's what we did between June and July and August, is I accrued money. And primarily what happened is our revenue in the water fund, instead of representing $13 million, now counts for 15. What that does, instead of this next year having $2 million more collected, which is what we collected in cash, we actually were reflecting that they were actually payments in the prior year. On a cash basis, we still got the same cash money we got in those days, but for the accountants, they want to represent what you received. That was one significant change and probably the most significant one that you're going to add. Two others that you might see is that we actually increased our cash because we recorded investment earnings. We hadn't done that at that point, so we recorded more cash because we allocated our interest earnings. They weren't done at that time. And one other is the fact that we actually implemented the lease payment that we traditionally do, because we now were able to record more revenue. Instead of having an IOU for the lease payment that went from the Water Fund to the General Fund, we actually recorded that. So you'll see that there was a greater expense on the Water Fund and a revenue that went into the General Fund. Lastly, we also increased our expenses in accordance on the General Fund, but those were really advances for grant money. So those went up by $4 million, but that's just money we're going to get this next year. So this might be a transportation grant program that they have. We're asked to forward the money. A lot of this comes down to really what people talk about accrual accounting, where you're representing money that goes out on one year but really went out in the prior year. It was recorded or received. Did our financial position change? Was there any difference? No. But from our accounting perspective, it does look different. We're recording it in the correct year. And the water fund more accurately reflects what was happening on a financial basis. At the end of the day, we're not recording new revenues we haven't seen. We just put it in buckets and timing slightly differently is the best way to summarize that. Now, back to the more important part about being behind and what this does for the for our ability to convey accurate financial information in a timely manner is really critical. I have been playing, I've been here now like 16 months or so. I've been playing catch up since day one. I do believe we're finally caught up. We approved our budget in a more timely manner. We are behind on the audit, but the good news is we're starting and have learned a lot of things. These are not things that people see on the back end. Still get your checks. We're paying our vendors. Everything is working on time, but our accounting has been one of these issues that has been behind. We've hired two brand-new accountants. We believe there is substantial improvement. As you know, we're also taking steps that we hope very soon in the next few months that we will... transfer over our billing process. So I do believe we're making a significant amount of internal changes. They may not be things that are outwardly visible, but I think it's one that have solidified our internal management within the department. I do apologize about having a late submittal of our annual report. I certainly don't want to be late, but I'd rather be more accurate and be timely in the future. Any questions?

I just have one thing to say when it comes to our finance department and the direction where we are now, I, you know, Julio, I mean, you've taken us to new heights. I mean, it's just easier to understand when you're talking about certain things. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes when you're talking about numbers, I mean, a lot of us, you know, have this blank, this blank slate because sometimes we don't understand what you're talking about. But you take the time to really educate us. So I just want to thank you for that because you, The team that we have now when it comes to finance, I mean, it's a great team. And that's a testament to you, sir. So I just want to thank you for that. I know sometimes we joke with you, but other than that, I just want to take this time to thank you, sir.

And Julio, we know, we can see it in your face how you don't want to delay it, but you're so ethical. You want to wait and do the job the right way, and we respect that. So thank you.

I do really enjoy working here. It's a lot of fun.

Julio, your face says it all. The big smile, and I know you're a dedicated employee, so thank you for working with all those numbers and keeping us posted on what we're doing, how we're doing, and where we're headed. So thank you, sir.

last thing our next step then now that we have this final finalized we posted the budget if you've already seen we'll do the citizens budget which will be a summary and we'll have more information and i'm more than available to talk to anyone who really wants to talk to me about finance at any time um for those of you guys who don't know julio is uh considered the most interesting man you know it's

There's an inside joke when it comes to that, so. Other than that being said, let's see, is there a motion for the item number 17? I'll move.

I second.

Moved by Mora, second by Rodriguez. All those, please vote now.

Because we pulled the item, I'll have to take a roll call.

Okay, so can we get a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Martin.

Aye.

Council Member Mora.

Aye.

Council Member Rounds.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. Aye. Mayor Zamora.

Aye. Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you for loving numbers.

Okay. Appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. Council Member Rounds. None tonight, Mayor. Council Member Mora. None tonight. Council Member Martin. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. I'm done tonight, thank you. And I have none. Council comments, AB 1234, Council Conference Reports. We have Council Member Rounds.

Thank you, Mayor. I have no AB 1234 council reference reporting. But I do want to just recap what we've had on the agenda tonight. We've been off for a month. Hopefully everyone's had a good summer. I know it's been a little warm or a lot warm, really warm the last month or so. But concerts in the park, they were amazing this year. I love the fact that we had our stage and where it was at. And the whole concert series just flowed. And we ended it out with National Night Out, which was a great success. We've had a number of dances and events at the GVNC, and they've been awesome too. Aquatic Center, Paul T. Nakamura Aquatic, Regional Aquatic Center will be officially dedicated here soon. So I'm excited about that. I think we finally have a official date, sir. The September 17th?

The September 17th is correct, yes.

At 4 o'clock September. I know I might have given you a different date, sir, but that's what I knew at the time.

Yeah, actually today the senator called and he could not make the 3rd, so we moved it to the 17th. That's the day he's available, and it's very important that the senator wants to be here to honor everybody. So September 17th.

Welcome. U.S. Volleyball, I am so excited about that, and Juanita's Foods. It shows how much passion our staff has. Congratulations to all the home beautification winners, both the homes and the business community. It shows pride in your city, and everything was just beautiful. Even though we took a month off of council, the city was still busy. We were still working, going to events, representing the city. So thank you once again to the residents and to all of our staff.

This whole summer was a, it was a team. Not too much to add to what Council Member Rollins had said, but yeah, it's been a great summer. And especially the National Night Out to finish off our summer series. No meetings to attend, but I did go to the, this one, sorry. And it is weird. It's kind of a cool little place. But it's, you know, just really unique. And how could such an enormous house only be home to just two people back in the day? And probably like 20 servants, I think it was. But the house was beautiful. You know, our princesses showed up, and, you know, they had a good time. Something that I learned that I had no idea where that house even came from, but, you know, the Wrigleys owned it. And these are the people that chewing gum.

Yeah.

And eventually the Wrigley Field. And how this just started. This guy, yeah. Catalina? Yeah, they owned Catalina. Now he made a fortune off of chewing gum, so. That was the fact that I, or the tidbit of information I took away from there. Yeah, Aquatic Center, yeah, tell your friends and family that opening of the Paul T. Nakamura Regional Aquatic Center is going to be a huge deal. It's going to be huge for me, and I'm sure for a lot of people in the community, and of course for Nakamura, so the 17th. I've got to repost that one because I also gave them the wrong date, but, well, it was right, but, Yeah, but we do want our senator to be there because he was a major contributor to our aquatic center. I know our mayor is going to close the meeting, and maybe a couple friends here in the city. Yes. But also Anissa and the economic development team, great job. Now I could say that Juanita's Foods, we have a council member, Juanita's, probably her company, And you know, it's gonna be cool to have a you know that company here in our city wishes she had a share So with that said also a reminder really for life September 26th Yeah, so, you know, that's gonna be a great event that we're looking forward to That just I had the potato bake for the firefighters for a great cause So let have a good night a councilman Martin

Thank you. Everything's been said, but I do have to report out. Mayor Zamora and myself, we're at a conference, so I'll report out for both of us.

ICA.

You're welcome. It was an independent, what was it, ICA?

ICA, Independent Cities Association.

It was really good. I love going to these, and then we're such a small city, but when you actually go and hear the big cities speak, We're on top of things. For us being so small, we are so ahead of the game. A big issue that they were having was passing ballots as in measures. And they're having all these issues of it's very hard for them to pass measures. And then you see us, we pass measures with over 50%. And the main reason why we're doing it is because we're being very transparent, and we're talking, and we're doing a lot of the research, and we're actually being out there and having outreach. A lot of these other cities aren't doing any of that. And when I was talking to the council members, they're like, oh, that's what you guys do? I was like, yeah, isn't that common sense? And I'd like to thank, again, for that. It's our leadership on that, for taking that initiative to go out there. Another thing that they had was independent police and fire and how they're doing. And we're doing it now. And it goes back to, wow, you guys are doing this, you're doing that. And people are coming to us and saying, wow, you guys are already there. It's like, it feels good to see how small we are, but how mighty we are. Another thing that they're having was how they're doing their voting and stuff. Some of these cities have such crazy way of voting. There's two cities that the way they do it is when you go vote, they give you a grade. And so you have to grade, like I'm just saying, like council. Which council do you want? You put your top one, your second one, and your third one, like one, two, or three. And then they have to add them all up. And another city has it, pick your top two. It's just so crazy. It's like, just keep it the way it is. It's a lot of the stuff that these cities are trying to do things differently. I'm so happy that we are Santa Fe Springs and we do things the way we do here. And we're so far ahead of the game for being so small. So I am very proud to be there at these conferences and represent us. And like I said, our mayor was there. And it's great to represent our city. And knowing that we're already ahead of the times and for being so small. So just that report out. Also, shout out. We saw the report, one of our reports, one of our PSO officers. So the other night, PSO Ramirez was at a call. There was a victim, I guess, was having a heart attack. He actually performed CPR. and actually kept the victim alive until police showed up and then fire showed up. And that's our little PSO officers. It's such great commendation of what they do. So Arlene, thank you so much for the leadership and what you're training them to do. And maybe we can bring Ramirez one day just to commend him. And to that, thank you. Mayor, thank you so much. Like we said, like John Morris said, we lost two good, good people in our city this last two weeks. Anybody that knows about the Christmas float, Don Meddy passed away. And even though he didn't live here anymore, he is the main reason why the float is where it's at. And it's sad that we lost one of our founders. And another one, it's Rita Argott, whose children all grew up in our city and were actually part of our program. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor, for actually closing in their honor and the memory. And that's it. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.

Thank you. I, too, want to congratulate all the residents for their beautification and the business residents. The homes and businesses are really beautiful. Everybody has already checked out the businesses. I mean, we are growing and we are amazing. Those tall, not tall, but they're really beautiful businesses. And I, too, am very excited. We are all excited to have Juanita's Foods here and all looking forward to the menudo for our CM right there. And Legacy Sports, because our youth and all of us deserve to have a beautiful place to go and work out and have some fun with our children, our grandchildren. We want to see them. And sports really keep the kids off the streets and help them improve in every shape of life. So I want to thank Legacy Sports for picking Santa Fe Springs and our Big Four that helps us tremendously. My grandson, his first day back to school, along with all the other children that are going to school. I want to thank the parents because it couldn't be easy to have them home all summer, but all the camps that were open to our children. And I want to thank all our teachers for everything, we all want to thank all our teachers for everything that they've done, everything that they do, and to let them know, you know, we have Ms. Carnaval on Bartley, we have Maria Gonzalez on Orenday, we have Vicky that lives on Bradwell, I'm sure you have teachers on your street, and everybody does, and we want to just tell them that we care so much about them, and they are so valued in our community and in every community. We thank the teachers everywhere for everything that they do. And bringing business back to our city. When you see a business that says leasing on it and it's been there for a long time, it's been vacant, watch out because Santa Fe Springs is going to make sure that our businesses get filled. And we are the easiest to do business with. As you can see, we got the best people here to do the best job possible. Thank you, Renee. Thank you, council. And thank you to our staff. Gus, I want to thank you for our concerts in the park. Arlene, thank you because we had a blast over there. And for everybody, it seemed like had a blast and had a lot of good times. So thank you, Nick and everybody here. Have a beautiful evening.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, I just want to, I know you guys give a lot of thanks to staff and you give us the kudos, but I really want to congratulate you five. What you guys approved today is just the start of what we started and the accomplishment of bringing a USA volleyball competing in the country to get a Juanita's and getting your support as a council of what we're doing. We can't do this without your support and your votes up here. So thank you for supporting the cause. Thank you for supporting the big four. and really this community, you're doing them proud, so thank you.

Well, I'm gonna throw it back, like pickleball, throw it back to Rene over here because he says this and doesn't realize, I mean, we've blossomed tremendously under his leadership. I mean, the last three years that he's been here, I mean, you know, We're moving forward. I mean, it's because of him. And, you know, I see a lot of you guys shaking your heads agreeing with me. And, you know, that's what it is. I mean, you, sir, the one who is moving this moving this boat sometimes before this. I mean, the tide was just pretty rough. And you know what I mean? And the business friendly that we thought we were, you know, we weren't always there. And, you know, and when you have vision. and it's a different vision, it makes it easier because now you have staff who get to jump on something that they believe in. And those who may not believe in it may say, hey, this may not be the place for them here. And we've hired a lot of different employees. I know that we give credit to Anissa. Kwong has a new role. We have individuals like Arlene, Nick, Gus. And it just makes a lot. It just makes a difference, makes a huge difference. So, you know, I know Renee will punt it back to the council, but I mean, it's the leadership that he brings to the table and that's where it's really at. And I just want to apologize for the confusion that you saw up here. We were trying to do the parking decal or whatever we're saying yesterday. I had the. was calling Renee because we have a tendency where before the meeting, we like to go over different things. And that was one of my questions. And, you know, just to ask, hey, what do you like? Where are we at? Just because we want to know the different what ifs. And by the time, sometimes we don't get the information all the way through, and you can see that we agree to disagree, and then all of a sudden, we agree to agree. And so I just want to apologize to everybody, the confusion that you saw. But I mean, we're able to clean it up and make it easier. It's just all around. So with that being said, I do also want to report out to ICA. It's not only just a networking place for us, but but you do get to see the different things that are happening in other communities. I know they were talking about things that were happening in housing in Canada, and they give us other countries and other places. And when you look at the housing in general, I mean, the housing market is struggling. And of course, you have the state who's throwing a lot of money at the housing, but they don't realize, I mean, I truly believe it has to be about the maintenance of of the HUD programs. We have those who are on fixed income. We have a lot of seniors that are struggling. And what people don't realize when HUD runs out after 20, 30 years, whatever the contract is, well, you get these new developers who just raise the rates. And nobody has control over it except that developer or those individuals who own that. And that's the thing where I've been talking to individuals in Sacramento and just asking them, Maybe we should look at the maintenance part. So when it comes to throwing money, you throw it before these individuals age out when it comes to, you know, we have certain buildings here, apartment complexes that are terming out. And eventually what happens is the rent gets tripled. And of course, when you have your senior community, your senior community can't afford that. And it makes it very difficult because they are on a fixed income. So we're trying to do the best that we can to provide for them and to make sure that we have housing in the future for them. So also I wanna add about another conference I went to, it's called NALEL. And we get a lot of individuals, probably over 1,000-something people, 1,400 people. And Naleo is actually the legacy of our city attorneys. It's his grandfather. And so I had the opportunity of being there. And you know what? And it allows individuals who are Latino to be elected in office. And so without... Ricardo Olivares, his grandfather. I mean, we wouldn't, you know, people like myself wouldn't have the opportunity. People like Mr. Bobadilla wouldn't have the opportunity to be city manager. So he placed us in a direction that I true, you know, so I do thank you, sir. And the legacy that your grandfather has left behind and the honor that we have to have you here sitting with, you know, within us. So. So I just want to thank everybody for coming out. May God always bless the city of Santa Fe Springs. And I know he's going to continue to do so, as you can see, with Juanita's Foods and with the Legacy Sports USA. Volleyball, and of course they have pickleball courts there. So those of you seniors or of all ages or whoever you may be, you guys want to go play? Of course, stretch first. But other than that, because we hold no liability when it comes to that. Other than that, I would like to adjourn this meeting in honor of Rita Argott and Don Meddy. At this time, I would like to adjourn this meeting at 7.47 p.m. Thank you, everybody, and have a good night.