City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone.

I'd like to call the regular City Council meeting for June 3rd, 2026 to order. Madam City Clerk, can we have the roll call, please?

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Chavez? Here. Council Member Sternquist? Here. Council Member Yu? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Here. Mayor Mann?

Here. Tonight, for the invocation, we are pleased to have Mr. Jerry Jambazian, owner of Wonder Cleaners and Draperies, located at 9136 Las Tunas Drive, who will be providing the invocation. Please remain standing afterwards for the Pledge of Allegiance, which I would like to ask our Commander Meza to lead us afterwards.

Jerry?

Thank you, Mayor. Let's bow in prayer, please. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you tonight asking for your blessing and guidance for tonight's council meeting. Even in this troubled world, there is so much to thank you for. We especially thank you for a city that is well run and managed and for a council that is concerned about keeping its citizens safe and providing an infrastructure that is well maintained. We continue to pray for those that protect our freedom around the world, especially in dangerous areas such as the Ukraine and Iran. Also, we bring before you those that protect us here, such as our local deputies, firefighters, first responders, and public safety. Parks and Recreation are providing another great season of concerts in the park and family fun next month with Campapalooza. Dear Lord, as we celebrate our country's 250th birthday this summer, we continue to pray for our leaders in Washington that they would put aside partisan ideology and do what is best for all the people. We ask all of these things in your name and for your glory. Amen.

Amen. Commander Mazza, if you would do us the honor of leading us in the pledge.

Can you place your right hand over your heart? States of America.

Next, we move on to our ceremonial matters. We have a very special presentation tonight for our Temple Sheriff Station former captain, now commander, George Meza. Tonight, we recognize his leadership his public service and commitment to the safety and well-being of the community served by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department here at Temple Station. Since assuming command of Temple Station in November 2023, It says Captain Meza here, but I'm going to say Commander. Commander Meza has overseen law enforcement operations throughout the San Gabriel Valley, including the communities of Temple City, Rosemead, South Omani, and surrounding unincorporated areas. His leadership reflects a commitment to professionalism, public safety, and community partnership. Prior to his appointment as captain, he served as lieutenant and acting captain at Temple Station, and throughout his career, he has worked to strengthen relationships between law enforcement, local schools, and community stakeholders. We commend him for his service and extend our sincere appreciation for his continued commitment to protecting and serving the public. And just on a more, I don't want to say personal note, but from the city's perspective, I do want to say it's been such an incredible pleasure to work with someone who is so dedicated to his craft. Not just the commitment to... the duties and responsibilities of what law enforcement stands for, but knowing that an important aspect of that is building that trust, building that bond with the communities that you serve in. You have done that so well here in Temple City. I especially appreciate not just your responsiveness to everything, but anytime we had a question, we had a concern, we had a request, you always answered with clarity, with thoroughness, and with a rationale that really none of us could deny, right? It just, everything you said just made sense. And so, thank you for, All the years of service you provide here, we always joke that we get all the good captains because they always get promoted out of Temple Station. So it is a bittersweet moment for us to lose you, but certainly an incredible, immense congratulations to someone who is well deserving of this position as commander. And at this point, before we present the certificate, I do want to allow my council members a moment to say a few words as well. So council member Sternquist, would you like to say anything?

Well, I'm disappointed, obviously, but very thrilled for you. And I don't know if all the rest know, but it's definitely in your blood, isn't it? How many family members are in public safety or... Yeah, five. But I wish you all the best. The time just seems so short that you were here and now you're gone, but you always have a home here, so you're always welcome.

Yeah, three years. It doesn't seem like that. You just got here yesterday. I'll have to tell you a quick story. I remember, I don't know if you recall, I think it was at a Contract Cities conference, and you were there, and you had a hat on. I didn't recognize you. I wasn't used to seeing you in a ball cap. And street clothes, too, I think. I don't even think you were in uniform. So, you know, thank you, of course, as William said. You know, you've done such a great job here, and your promotion is certainly well-deserved. bittersweet for all of us you know we hate to lose a great person like yourself but we wish you nothing but the best and success and hopefully you'll be retiring soon and that'll be even better right so but thank you so much and we're going to miss you council member you well thank you mr mayor i think a lot been said and and the commander may says it's really

I love joy and honor to be working with you on the Temple City site, and I look forward to working with you in the other capacity, if I may, on the county site. And it's really very, very happy. It's well-deserved. I mean, we work with many good captains, but I really enjoy the time that you have with us. Congratulations.

Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

A lot has been said about a commander or... Meza's last few years as captain and what a fantastic job he's done. I think I'll share a little bit of a personal testimonial. Commander, when did you first arrive at Temple Station? What year? April 2020. 2020, okay. So I remember day one, perhaps, I don't know if it was his actual day one, but a number of guys were watching, all right, who is this brand new lieutenant that's just transferred here to Temple Station? And usually when you're the brand new person at a new assignment, you get stuck with the early morning or the graveyard shift. So for the 10 p.m. briefing, I think some of the guys were nervously walking in, and there's just something different about this lieutenant. He held us accountable. He took briefing very, very seriously. He really spent that time to really get to know us and actually conduct training during the briefing. And it was just different than as a reserve deputy. It was nothing like I've ever seen before. And from that day, I really thought, wow, he's really special. And his leadership, I hope he goes far, and sure enough, I think, you know, just we're grateful for the time that you were able to spend with us here at Temple Station and the service that you provide for our citizens. Just, again, like much has been said, he's done a fantastic job here at Temple Station. Again, very happy for you, and congratulations, sir.

And, Commander, I don't know if you would like to say a few words before we present the certificate to you.

I don't wanna lose my train of thought here, but mayor and council and Brian and city staff, I just wanna just really take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for the tremendous support that you provided me while I was a captain here at Temple Sheriff's Station. Yeah, six years gone quick, but it's been truly an honor to serve this community alongside my deputies. When I first accepted this position, I had some family members remind me in their own direct way, I needed to take care of the city. And not only did they hold me accountable, not only did you guys hold me accountable, they held me accountable. This city really has a special place in my heart just because of my family and friends that live in the city. And because of the partnership, I really believe this really has helped make that possible. You know, thank you again. And, you know, I'm confident the station is going to be in great hands. You know, we got some phenomenal deputies. And I know they're going to continue to build on the strong foundation that we built. So thank you guys again. I want to miss you guys, but I'll definitely come back and visit.

And if you're not doing something on 7 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, come back for breakfast. You know it's always going to be there, right? Absolutely. Thank you guys again. Thank you.

All right. Council, let's present a certificate of recognition for George.

A little more. A little more. A little more. A little more. A little more.

Okay, next we move on to public comment on items not listed on the agenda. At this moment, is there anyone who would like to address the council on items not listed on the agenda? Okay, seeing none, I will close public comment. We move on to item seven, consent calendar. All items may be approved in a single motion unless anyone from council would like to pull an item.

Motion to approve consent calendar. Second.

We have a motion and a second. If there are no objections, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Potem Chen? Yes. Mayor Mann? Yes.

Yes, next we have public hearing item 8A, adoption of resolution 26-5877, ordering the levy of citywide lighting and maintenance district assessments for fiscal year 26-27. We'll start with our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Mann and members of the council. I'm going to use Councilmember Chavez's favorite word, perfunctory. This is a perfunctory action for the assessment of our landscape and lighting. There is no increases, so there's no need for a 218 election of any kind. These rates fluctuate with the Valuations, not the rate stays the same, but the reason why we actually see more revenue in the landscape and lighting districts, because the valuation of the property increases, but not the rate itself. Funds, all the things we talked about in the budget earlier today. So with that, we ask for your approval. Okay. And we have a certified engineer's report validating the rate and the expenditures. Okay.

Are there any questions from council at this point?

May I just ask a simple question? Mr. Cook, so when you do the assessment, if somebody improved their property, let's say any ADU or not, does that impact the assessment?

I'm going to defer to Alex for just a minute. But generally speaking, if there's any type of improvement where the assessor does a new assessment of the property, then yes.

Right? I think the biggest ones are probably from sales, especially if a person has owned a property for a long time.

It steps up to the fair market value. And in the commercial areas, major tenant improvements. Okay. Thank you. That's all.

Okay. Are there any other council questions? Okay. Seeing none, I will open the public hearing for this item. Is there anyone who wishes to address council on item 8A? Seeing none, I will close the public comment. Are there any final council questions or comments at this time?

No.

If there are none, may I have a motion for this item?

Mayor, I would make a motion that we adopt resolution number 26-5877, ordering the levy and collection of assessments for fiscal year 2026-2027. Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Soteng Chen?

Yes.

Mayor Mann?

Yes, that has been approved. So we move on to item 8B, introduction and first reading of ordinance number 26-1088, amending chapters 9-12, 9-3, and deleting chapters 9-4 and 9-6 of the Temple City Municipal Code. We will start with our city manager, Cook.

Thank you, Mayor Mann and members of the council. Before you today is a very vetted change to our ordinances related to condominium conversions, subdivisions, and several of which have to comply with state law as well. So a lot of this has to do with dealing with the issues that requires and especially a couple bills SB 684 and SB 1123 which essentially forced agencies to do ministerial approvals of certain types of small subdivision and housing developments. You know this team does a great job of informing both you and the Planning Commission and the Council of anything that is happening, but this is an additional erosion of kind of local control in the sense that stuff that we have to do, and we do a great job, as I said earlier during the budget discussion, of threading the needle between complying with the law and meeting the needs of Temple City. So I want to thank to the Sagecrest and David Blumenthal, who's assisted us not only this, but with the SB9 ordinance that you'll be seeing coming shortly as well. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Cohn, our associate planner, to go over presentation.

evening council um this evening you're being asked to consider oh i'm sorry hold on let me make sure you can see it there you go sorry about that this evening you're being asked to consider a proposal to update the subdivision ordinance for the city there are three primary goals behind this and brian touched on those the first is to implement the city's housing element which was adopted in 2022 And there were things that we promised the state that we would update in our local ordinance. So this is basically enacting that. The second goal is to ensure that we're in compliance with new changes to state law, specifically SB 684, 1123, which are new laws that deal with multifamily development, which we'll get into a little bit later. And then the final overarching goal is to help make the city's current rules for subdivisions aligned with our updated zoning code and also just to make things more streamlined and efficient for our applicants and for residents. I basically touched on that there. In case you're wondering, a subdivision is a division of land into two or more parcels, units or interest for sale, lease or financing. The first major change to the ordinance is just, actually I shouldn't say change, the first major clarification is just making it very clear what the difference is between a parcel map, which is a smaller subdivision of four or fewer lots, and a track map, which is something larger, five or more lots. There's nothing substantial here, it's just making it much more clear and just reorganizing that language. The first substantial change deals with tentative maps, and it deals with the approval body for tentative maps. Right now at this time, any time there is a subdivision of any size, the Planning Commission is the body that reviews and approves that. Now, what we're proposing here is to make the subdivision ordinance consistent with our zoning code. And right now, our zoning code says that for major site plan reviews of seven or more, those go to the Planning Commission, and when it's less than that, done at the director level so we're simply in this change just aligning the subdivision ordinance with the zoning code so just to clarify that one more time for subdivisions where it's seven or more it's going to continue to go to the planning commission if it's a smaller one less than that it'll be a director's approval

And non-residential always go to planning, correct?

Yes.

Yes. Because it says maps with seven plus units or 10,000 square foot.

Correct. So if you were, for example, like the mixed-use project that's going right now that's getting built on Cloverley and Las Tunas, that's an example of one like that. Okay.

I have a question. So the seven-unit kind of threshold, was that part of SB 684 or was that a threshold we decided?

No, that wasn't part of SB 684. That was something that about five or six years ago when the zoning code was updated, that threshold was established for making the difference between, say, a minor site plan review and a major site plan review. And so up until this time, our subdivision ordinance has basically been inconsistent with with the zoning code. Okay.

And when we say units, are we talking about parcels or are we talking about like house and ADU as separate units?

It could be either. You know, usually if it's this many units, it's going to be condos. So not necessarily parcels, but it could be in Derry. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you.

The next change is just a clarification about what a vesting tentative map is, because our current ordinance doesn't spell that out. Essentially, a vesting tentative map is guaranteeing the developer that they're only going to have to comply with the development standards that were in place when their application was deemed complete. The city can't surprise them at a later date and say, oh, we changed our rules, and now you've got to change your project. Well, no. When you submitted it, whatever was in effect when the city reviewed your application and deemed it complete will be the rules that you have to follow. So this is just simply making that very clear. With final maps, the current procedure is that every final map goes to city council. They're put on consent calendar. What we're gonna do here is similar to what we're doing on the tentative maps. So basically if it's a smaller final map that doesn't involve any kind of dedication, it would be the city engineer that would review it. And essentially what he's doing is he's looking at the tentative map that the city had already approved, comparing it to the final map and making sure that they're consistent. So those would go to the city engineer Yeah, exactly mm-hmm and then ones that do involve some kind of a street dedication Those would continue going to the City Council on consent calendar and just to be clear the final maps. They don't involve a public hearing It's just consent

Dedication, not only that, but say for a couple, and not that we have the opportunity to do that right now, but say if there was a development agreement in place for a project as well, that would still be coming into the council. For lack of a better term, like big ticket items.

And if I can just slightly correct what I had said. So if you see on the third bullet point, the City Council will continue to approve final tract and parcel maps with a dedication. Just to be clear, like track maps are the larger ones and then parcel maps are the smaller ones. The next change deals with lot line adjustments. These are really minor changes on a small scale where, say, maybe a property sells a portion of their lot to a neighboring property, and now the lot line is changed. You might have, say, a lot that's very narrow or substandard, and they purchase a portion of their neighbor's lot, which is maybe larger, in order to have a slightly larger lot. So these are very small. up to a maximum of four parcels can be involved in a lot line adjustment. And right now, the way our procedures work, it gives the impression that this is some sort of discretionary review. So we have a public noticing, and there's a public comment period. When in fact, under the law, this is a ministerial review. We're just simply checking the boxes. There's no discretion in it. So what we're going to do here is just make the procedure consistent with that. Because ministerial approvals, things that don't involve discretion, would not normally have a comment period or a public noticing.

So just a question, Mayor. So there's really no limitations to how far the lot line can be adjusted here, right? Like you mentioned here, you can shift the lot line all the way from one side to the other to make it into one lot. Yeah.

And the county doesn't get involved in this at all? Well, once, once the lot line, they have to do a new legal description and stuff like that. Yeah.

It gets recorded at the County and then the assessor's office is going to update their parcel maps. Yeah. The best example I can think of is like maybe you have a really narrow lot, some older lot, maybe it's, I don't know, 30 or 40 feet wide and the neighbor's lot maybe is 80. So the neighbor sells a portion of theirs so that the neighboring lot can be more standard in width.

My neighbor has that situation and it was done maybe 40 years ago where they bought a portion of the backyard and so the house directly north to me has a smaller yard.

They're not all consistent, like they used to be.

No.

Yeah, that happened with a client of mine recently, and I was looking at the title, and they did one of these, a lot of adjustments, and they had to get a whole new deed and transfer it all over. Yeah. Yeah, interesting.

So Adam, under SB 684, you still can't separate one parcel into separate parcels.

We're going to get to that topic a couple slides from now. And then if I'm not able to give you an adequate answer, our consultant, David Blumenthal, is also here in the audience. And he'll be happy to flesh that out since he's been working on this. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. The next change deals with certificates of compliance. This is where, say, maybe a property is being sold and a realtor wants to... basically kind of verify that the subdivision that occurred was in compliance with city's rules. And so the city kind of does a check of its records and then provides them with official communications saying that, yes, this was in compliance with the Subdivision Map Act and the city's ordinance. So right now, we don't have anything about that in our ordinance, so we're just adding this to it. These are pretty rare. People don't usually come in asking for these. The next change with the subdivision ordinance deals with SB9, which you're probably familiar with. What we're doing here is aligning the subdivision ordinance with the city's SB9 ordinance, which is also actually in the process of being updated. And I believe that's scheduled to come to you next month. So we could probably get into more of a discussion on SB9 at that next hearing. But this, essentially, just for tonight, what we're doing here is just making sure that the subdivision ordinance aligns with the SB9 ordinance, which is the small lot subdivisions. The next thing, which is confusing, because they both talk about small lots and dividing them. So this is a new law that was passed in 2024 and then updated in 2025, SB 684 and 1123. Essentially what it allows you to do is take a small lot, say a small multi-family lot, and you could build up to seven units on it. Even it allows, say, a single family lot that is vacant. And you can take that single family lot and put up to seven. Sorry, seven. I said seven. Up to 10 units. Let me be very clear. So we have to update our subdivision ordinance to align with this new law. It's also very similar to SB 9 in that the approval process is ministerial, meaning staff does not have any discretion. And there's a shot clock in terms of how long we have to review and then approve the project. And if you have any follow-up questions on this, I can defer to our consultant. So if you don't have any questions now, keep going to the next slide, and we can hold it to the end.

Just a kind of procedural question. The 60-day shot clock, I guess, for the kind of lots that we deal with and the situations that we deal with, we can't really imagine a situation where we wouldn't be able to respond within 60 days, right?

Yeah, I can't, I mean, I would think, could you rephrase the question again so I can understand?

Yeah, I guess maybe because I'm used to working in a larger agency where sometimes things do take a little longer.

Oh, you're saying if it would be difficult for the city to get back to an applicant within that? Yeah. I mean.

The whole idea of, like, if we don't act, then it's just automatically approved without any kind of review, right?

That's correct, yes. We're little by little getting more used to this because with the ADUs, there's a shot clock on the ADUs. There's also a shot clock on SB9. So more and more staff is adjusting to that reality that things have to be reviewed and approved in a shorter timeline than in the past. I think our director was going to comment on that.

I was just going to say, on a regular subdivision, outside of SB 684 and 1123, the Subdivision Map Act requires us to review – I'm sorry, the Permit Streamlining Act requires us to review those and approve them within 180 days after being made complete. And we have to provide a comment letter within 30 days of receiving the first submittal. So we use that 30-day review period. That's our standard within the department. So when someone makes a submittal, we respond in 30 days or less. It doesn't pose a problem for us.

Thank you. And also, just to respond to what Cynthia's question about the subdivisions, to qualify the subdivision may create no more than 10 parcels. So you could subdivide a large lot into 10 parcels or 10 condos with air rights.

But you couldn't take a lot with four separate houses on it and split those. You could?

I believe you could, but .

Well, if it's zoned single family, the lot has to be vacant.

And if it's not single family?

If it's not single family, if it's multifamily, you could take the lot and subdivide it. The maximum number of units you could put on the property or the maximum number of parcels would be 10. And there's also a minimum density that's dependent on the baseline zoning. So the minimum density would be somewhere between 20 to 25 units per acre.

And that's why this, in the case of the characteristics of this community, That's why this is not maybe as concerning as you would be in other communities where you do have economically depressed areas and stuff like that, where you do have vacant properties, where the by-right ability to do that within the context of this law would trigger some of those. But talking about how extensive our R1 zones are, We have to comply with the law. We have to do this. But at least on the staff level right now, we don't feel that this is going to be burgeoning up a bunch of essentially condominium units in an R1 area.

So this bill only pertains to if you're going to build units, not a parcel that already has houses on it.

Well. in a single-family zone, the property has to be vacant in order to use this legislation.

Okay, that's what that is for, specifically. Okay, thank you.

I do have a question.

I don't know who's going to answer this, but I'm not familiar with the need of these laws. All I know is it's divided into a bunch of lots. When somebody wanted to use the law to subdivide, they still have to comply with certain minimum requirements the city has, right? Such as, I know it's kind of a, there's much smaller lot sizes and stuff, but how about setbacks and all the other things? Parking, do they still need those kind of, or it's just a bunch of small lots?

Similar to SB9, there's a lot of overrides. If they can't get to their minimum unit size, then it overrides our development standard requirements. But there are specific parking requirements, and the parking is less than we would require in our ordinance.

I suppose nobody has tried to use these new laws yet, right?

We haven't had any submittals. We've had some inquiries, but mostly by people who don't know all the requirements in order to comply. Thanks.

Any other questions on that, or else we'll continue? Please continue.

The next big change deals with condo conversions.

So in our housing element, we told HCD, the state, that we would be updating our ordinance. Right now we have a whole procedure for converting a rental property to condominiums. And what HCD wants us to do is, by this, make efforts to preserve our rental housing in the city. And part of that is also enacting certain tenant protections, meaning if somebody decides they want to convert their property to condos, they have to give early notice to the tenants and also give them a first opportunity to purchase it. So these are things that they want us to have in place that we really don't have any choice in the matter.

So let me understand. So you can take a rental unit, convert it into condos, and sell those condos. How does that preserve the rental housing?

It doesn't. What does, in fact, is this. So there's going to be the first thing here. The applicant would have to demonstrate to the city that the apartment vacancy rate is 5% or greater for at least 90 days before we would approve them to convert their units on their property to condos.

That's the city's overall apartment rental? Yeah.

So they would have to do a survey.

Do we know how many rentals we have in the city?

We probably do. I don't have it off the top of my head. No, I know you don't have it now. Yeah, but we do, yes. We do, OK. And they would have to do a survey looking at the whole city over a period of 90 days and demonstrate that the vacancy rate was greater than 5%.

And if it's less, then they can't do it. Then they can't do it.

Sorry. Yes, that's correct. Yeah.

OK.

So the essential idea is that if we know that the demand for rental units in the neighborhood or in the community is low, then we would essentially let them convert them to condos. But if we know that there's high demand, meaning the vacancy rate is very low, then we're not going to allow them to do that.

And this is part of HCD's kind of policy, but also strict direction to agencies and to skag and to the where we'll get the rena numbers for the next housing cycle to provide those categories of housing through a mandated process.

Have we seen a lot of this action in this city? I don't think we have either.

This is very uncommon. We have the procedure in the code, but it's very uncommon that people come to us saying, I want to convert my property to condo. The only instance I can think of in recent memory is where it was a project that was under construction, and they had every intent to make it condos, but they had not moved forward with the tentative map, and they kind of did it at a later date. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about here maybe a property that's been rental units for decades. And the property owner decides, hey, I want to turn it to condos.

Back in the days when I was still designing multifamily, it was something that would give a developer a lot of tax advantage. because they would depreciate the apartment first.

Yeah, because that was a pretty popular thing back in the day, to turn apartments into a condo. Yeah.

I don't know about now, because I haven't done these for the longest time. But once upon a time, that's what we were told. Design it so that we can sell it eventually.

Would this rule, law, apply to begonia? Since those are rentals right now, aren't they? They're not condos that you purchase. They're apartments you can rent. So they could at some point turn those into condos.

Theoretically, yes.

Theoretically, if they wanted to, and sell them. Yeah. Okay.

So besides the survey that the applicant would have to do looking at what the vacancy rate is in the rental units, there would also be rules in place limiting it strictly to residential properties. That essentially means there has to be three or more units on the property to be eligible. There would be minimum conversion standards to make sure that the units are all up to code and maintenance as well.

So Andrew, a question.

Yeah.

So if there's, let's go back to four, if there's four houses on a lot, is that another SB number or is that still this one? SB8? That's SB9. Or SB9. Yeah. So under SB9, you can convert those homes to condominiums?

No, this is something completely unrelated to that. Yeah. What we're talking about here is if you have rental property and you want those rental properties to be able to be sold separately.

Yes, that's what I'm wondering.

You're not gonna be able to do that unless you've demonstrated to the city that the vacancy rate in the city for rental is 5% or greater.

What is our vacancy rate, do you know? I don't know off the top of my head, no. Do you know, Scott? Anybody know?

4.9%. 4.9%, wow, thank you.

Wow.

So something you walk in tomorrow and submit, right?

The roundup. The roundup number.

Well, no. No, they can't. 4.9, meaning they cannot.

It has to be greater than 5,000.

It has to be greater. Meaning that there's a glut of rental units that are unoccupied. So because there's such a glut of them that are not occupied, we'll allow you to convert those to condos.

I don't want to make it personal, but I've always been interested in this, even when I purchased the property. Would I ever be able to sell them individually? There's four. But we can talk about that. I mean, we did at one time, but then these laws weren't in place now, which makes everything so confusing to me.

Yeah. Okay.

All right.

So this is probably the most substantial change that's in this proposed ordinance. And just to conclude, I've kind of already said a lot of this before, the goals here, we're trying to standardize the definitions, remove ambiguity, make the process more predictable and efficient for developers and residents, easier for staff to administer, and just help the entitlement process to be quicker. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Our recommendation is that you introduce for first reading by title only. This ordinance is before you. And then schedule the second reading for June 16th.

Okay, thank you. At this point, I'll first see if there's any council questions. Council Member Yu?

No, I don't have any questions. It looks like most of that is just aligning different sections of the law.

Okay. Mayor Pro Tem Chen, any questions? No, none of that. Okay. Council Member Sternquist, any other questions?

No, thank you.

Council Member Chavez?

Nothing at this time. Thank you. Okay.

I just have one question. I think I know the answer, but I just want to confirm. So is it possible for someone to subdivide under SB9? and then implement the new law?

The SB 9 units, I mean, after the SB 9 lot has already been subdivided? Yes.

Can you subdivide again under a different law?

I'm not sure about that question.

I don't believe so. OK. So it's not like they can't stack them. Right. I mean, I can't imagine a situation where they would, especially in our city.

But I was just kind of curious. And we're going to come back to you with the SB9 ordinance related to the comments we got from HCD as well, which do provide, I would say, some level of clarity as to what you can expect if an SB9 lot split was... initiated by an applicant as well. Not that it's not cleared now, but we'll talk a little bit more about it in the next meeting.

Okay. And I have actually one more question. So under this SB 864, I'm getting all the numbers. 684. 684. Does it require the same so-called objective design standards as SB9?

Correct, yeah. We can't use any subjective rules to apply here.

So in essence, the same rules that apply to SB9 from that perspective also applies in this situation?

Similar, but not exactly the same, yeah.

I guess that the definition of objective design standards is the same for both.

Yeah, if there's anything in our code that's subjectively written, we can't enforce that. And that's why another project that we're working on right now is the objective design standards for the high density residential and for the mixed use. That's kind of to deal with situations like this. When a person submits an application that under state law is ministerial and we can't enforce any subjective rules, right now we don't have any objective rules in place. So that's why we're putting that together. That's something that you'll be looking at later in the summer.

OK, so even if we, I mean, there was a previous discussion where we had kind of templates for multifamily.

Yeah, for the Archie zone.

Yeah, and some of them, I don't know if I'm recalling it correctly, but they had certain architectural styles assigned to different templates. So would those be considered objective design or not?

It would be, yeah.

Oh, they would be? Yes. OK. Okay, thank you. Okay, at this time, I do want to open the public comment for this item. Is there anyone who wishes to address counsel on this matter at this time? Seeing none, I will close public comments. And are there any final questions or comments from counsel on this matter? Well, Councilmember Chavez.

I just view it as another attempt by the state to do a one size fits all, but doesn't really fit all cities. But it is what it is. Thank you to staff for coming up with the ideas to get us in alignment. Good job.

Yes, I echo that. And I know we seem to be getting more and more of these.

Are there any other bills on the floor?

The legislative session just went into recess. They'll start again in September.

Okay. All right. If there's no other, Council Member Yu, Mayor Putnam, do you have any comments?

I just want to make a comment. I think the state is trying to... Well, I think it'll be more effective in some cities than others.

Isn't Senator Weiner moving on? Wasn't he running for something else?

We don't know that, yes.

Yes, Congress. Maybe he'll get selected.

We can only hope.

I mean, that's an interesting point, because we had a lot of discussion about SB9 as it was coming into play. And if I recall, the reports back have been we don't see that very often. If anything, we see a huge demand in ADU construction. So who knows what will happen.

Mayor Potenchan, any comments?

OK. All right, thank you very much for the presentation and keeping us up to date on the legally required changes to our ordinances. So at this time, I would entertain a motion for this item.

Mr. Mayor, I move to introduce the first reading by title only and wait for the reading of Ordinance Number 26-1088, Attachment A, and schedule the second hearing. Second reading of Ordinance Number 26-1088 for June 16, 2026. Second.

We have a motion and a second. If there are no objections, we'll have a roll call vote, please.

Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Yes. Mayor Manz?

Yes. Next, we move to unfinished business. We have none. Oh, yes, yes, of course, the reading of the ordinance, the most important part.

Ordinance number 261088, an ordinance of the City Council of City of Temple City, California, to amend chapters 9.2, subdivision regulations, and 9.9-3, condominium conversions, and delete chapters 9-4, condominium constructions, and 9-6, vesting tentative maps of the Temple City Municipal Code.

Thank you. All right, moving on to item nine, unfinished business. We have none. New business, we also have none. Next, we have an update from our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Mann and members of the council. I know he's left, but I want to thank now Commander, well, technically he's not Commander until Sunday, so I'm going to still keep calling him Captain. Captain is, for his partnership in the last three years, it's been really great. I'm very proud of him, and I'm happy for him as well. Where is he going again, Brian? He's going to the South Patrol Division, so that's the gateway cities, Norwalk, Lakewood, Bellflower, that area.

Oh, okay.

Pretty sure that's what he told me. So if it's South Patrol, that's the gateway cities, essentially, of LA County. In his absence, Lieutenant Dave Hernandez who you've met before at the law enforcement meetings will be the acting captain until the appointment of a new captain. We haven't heard from, we haven't officially heard from downtown yet. LASD headquarters the process just yet. So once I hear about it, as I've done in the past, I will make sure I inform you and you're kept abreast of what's happening with the process with the selection of a new captain.

It seems they always put the cart before the horse on these kind of things because they take a captain and send them off to be a commander but then don't have really any plan to have a captain come in. Or maybe they do, I don't know.

Lieutenant Hernandez is the operations.

I'm sure he's very capable. He'll be fine. Maybe he'll get the job.

Well, the county HR rules is such that you have to move somebody off and have a vacant position before you can appoint, so you can never appoint ahead of time. Right, yeah. That was like too much sense. Mayor, I do have a question for Mr. Cook. Did I remember in the past we were able to interview the candidates before they were appointed?

Yes, there has been a process of which the cities have been able to interview. I'm assuming it's been almost four years since we've done it, just waiting for that directive from the Sheriff's Department as to what process they're going to be following with that. There's nothing in the five-year agreement that speaks to that. That is more of an administrative policy. of the Sheriff's Department, not anything contractually bound.

More of a courtesy, I guess, to us. And would that be then interviewers would be yourself and the other cities at that station services? Or is that just up in the air too?

I don't want to go into too much details. It was a little bit of a mix the last time. But again, I will keep you abreast in terms of what is happening and keep you updated. Lastly, summer concerts starting up again next Wednesday right here at Temple City Park. So looking forward to a very robust

BUSY SUMMER, ACTUALLY. WE'VE GOT CONSTANTINE PARK, CAMPALUZA, I SEE THE SIGN UP ON THE BOULEVARD, AND SOME OTHER THINGS GOING ON IN THE PARK. IT'S GOING TO BE VERY BUSY.

OUR SUMMER PROGRAMMING IS GETTING UNDERWAY. THAT'S IT FOR ME THIS EVENING, MAYOR MANN. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. NEXT WE HAVE AN UPDATE FROM OUR CITY ATTORNEY.

I was actually going to skip because we do have closed session tonight, but I just wanted to give you a little background on SB 1123. As council knows, I live in Altadena and this has become a major issue in Altadena because we have so many vacant lots right now. So what I've learned is that previously to this year, the SB 23 laws existed for multifamily residential lots. And in legislation passed last year, it was extended to single-family residential, but with certain requirements. One requirement, as staff has said, is that the lot must be vacant. So what many cities are doing to avoid too many vacancies or unplanned vacancies is not issuing demolition permits without a building permit going along with that demo permit. You don't want somebody to demo a building and then have it sit for six, seven months and then come back to you and say, oh, well, now it's vacant. So that's one. Two...

So may I ask a review?

Yeah, go ahead.

Is that something that we have or need to institute?

It wouldn't be in your ordinance. It would just be an administrative policy that we wouldn't issue one without the other.

Okay, is that our current policy in the city?

I don't know if it has been, but I... Maybe Mr. Reamer can help us.

So in the past, we've actually been doing the opposite because what we have found is that a site would be left vacant, the building's vacant, no one's occupying it, it becomes an attractive nuisance. So we've been issuing demolition permits in those cases. So across from the Ralphs on Cloverly, you see that vacant lot. That might be a policy we want to change based on this legislation.

A vacant lot could also be an attractive nuisance as well. Yes. Certainly it's not attractive. This is true. I don't know if it's a nuisance, but it's not attractive either.

So that's one. The second is that in the single-family residential zone, the unit or units, if there's more than one on the lot, could not have had tenants living in them in the last five years. That's good reason for the city to keep track of which lots are actually being rented out because then you'll know. Can't knock it down to build more. Finally, while staff discussed it's a maximum of 10 units, and that's consistent with the multifamily regulations, there's a requirement that each lot in the single family zone be no less than 1,200 square feet. So on a 7,500 square foot lot, you could only get six units. Now that's still not great, but it's certainly better than 10. So there are some protections. As I say, living in a community that has an awful lot of vacant lots right now, there's still a lot of fear about it. But I think what the mayor said is correct, and others mentioned as well. Much like SB 9, with the property values in Temple City, the lure of the schools and with the strength of your community, it's most likely that you will continue to see ADUs being built instead of these smaller lot subdivisions.

Happy to answer questions. Mr. Murphy, based on that, I mean, couldn't somebody come and bought up a single family lot that's vacant and stack a 10-story height, you know, so I mean, yeah, that, I mean, could that be, I mean, they're talking about 10 units, could be air space too, right?

I believe there are those still, height is a one limitation you can enforce. I believe it's a two-story height limitation. I'm not positive. I believe that that's one of the guidelines. So we'll keep an eye on those things.

Okay, thank you. I had a question and I lost it, so I'll ask you afterwards if I remember. Okay, moving on to item 13, council reports regarding ad hoc or standing committee meetings. Do we have any?

Mr. Mayor, I don't have a report, but I just want to say that we're currently, the Mayor and I are actually working with city staff on actually reviewing some of the proposed strategies for the pavement management plan. We haven't met yet, but we're reviewing some of the proposals.

Thank you. Is there a report from the commissioner recruitment to council?

Go ahead. Yes. So, Councilmember, you and I discussed. We're very pleased to see that our existing commissioners have all expressed interest in returning. In addition to that, we have a few other residents who have expressed interest in serving on a commission.

How many applications have we got that we get?

So in addition to the existing commissioners... Not counting the existing, how many new applicants? They're like four or six or something like that.

For all three commissions?

Yeah. So out of the abiding by the practice of allowing existing commissioners who have had years and who wish express interest in continually serving council member you and I as part of the ad hoc is recommending that we continue their service but to immediately notify those that have expressed interest new residents that have expressed interest in serving on other ways to be involved with the city and to notify them if and when the city creates additional commission as a way of increasing citizen participation.

It's my understanding that not all the planning commissioners will come and benefit. Apparently they are.

Okay.

We haven't had that for a while where we've had all the commissioners sign up again. It seems like we've always, the last couple of years, we've had one or two empty spaces, and we've interviewed and then filled those, obviously, those spots. But this time, everyone expressed interest.

So if that is the best practice, we'd like to continue that. And if I forgot anything, Council Member Williams?

No, we wanted to notify the full council before we done anything, so...

Thank you. So at this point, Peggy, could you tell us what that next step is after the ad hoc?

The next step is we would notify the current commissioners of the ad hoc recommendation with council's approval that we are going to extend their term for another two years and then notify the applicants who have applied that the council has decided to just reappoint the current commissioners.

Okay, so is that decided today or is that, does council have any concerns about the ad hocs recommendation?

My only concern is that we're not giving at least an interview to these new people, at least to have them heard as to why they want to be on there somewhere. Sounds like we're just going to say thank you but no thanks. And I can see your point, because in the past, you're correct, we have usually when a sitting commissioner reapplies, unless there's a problem there, we usually reappointed them with the recommendation of full counsel. That's always been the way. But maybe it's because we've, in the last couple of years, we've always had at least one or two openings, so we've had to interview those new applicants. But obviously it's changed a little bit. I just don't want to... how should I say this, put a chilling effect on persons who are wanting to apply for a position but can't get an interview, that, to me, that's a little concerning. But, you know, if that's, certainly I would defer to the ad hoc committee's judgment on that. Okay.

Well, I think, Council Member Sternquist, do you have concerns or you're okay with the proceeding as the ad hoc recommended?

Oh, I'm fine with what the ad hoc recommended. But I do agree that I think we should look, and I mentioned that before, at forming at least one other commission, whatever that might be or look like.

Okay. And to that point, I do like the ad hoc's recommendation of informing them about other ways that they could be involved or should new committees, commissions be formed that they be the first to know. So that was a good consideration. So I think with that, we can move forward with the ad hoc's recommendation. And we can also disband the

that ad hoc for the time being.

Okay. So the City Commission Recruitment Ad Hoc Committee will be disbanded today. And we will move to item 14, council items separate from the regular agenda. Let's start on this side with Council Member Sternquist.

Just something to be looking for in your mail, the sanitation district is looking at increasing rates. So it's the public comment period. We had our meeting last week and our district didn't have any protests. but a few of the others did. So I think they are sending something out in the mail soon. So take a look at that and you can respond if you would like to.

Brian, is that cost that appears on our tax bills, the sanitation district? Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. Property tax. Yeah.

That's it. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Councilmember Chavez?

A couple things. Actually, I'm glad Adam said. I have a quick question for Adam, if you don't mind. I know we have Camp Palooza coming up. Do you recall those dates? And the reason I'm asking is I know that Live Oak Park Temple City Americans are going to be hosting the All-Star Tournament for the major boys this year, which is, I believe, a 10-day tournament. I'm assuming that you... Look at those dates, and sometimes there's an overlap between the baseball tournaments and the Camp Palooza. I just want to make sure that we don't have any conflicts, and you're okay with that.

Generally, so we host the Camp Palooza event towards the latter half of July. Usually there's not an overlap between the two.

Yeah, but at the end of July, I think the tournament should be over. You don't have those dates for that. Jerry did.

17 and 18.

17 and 18 from Capalooza.

Well, that's the middle of the month.

Yeah, I'm not sure. Well, we're in the June. Yeah, I think the May. Have you talked with the Temple City American about that tournament? Yes. Don't they have to get the approval, I think, of Parks and Rec to do that? Correct, yes.

So we coordinate with the current president, Michael. We should be okay on the dates. Yes. But there's always an ability to work around schedules. Well, and usually the event –

The only thing I'm concerned is in the past, sometimes what happens is that those night games, if there's a night game, that could go to 10 o'clock at night. We do allow for extended time. I don't want it to interfere with the events that you have planned at Campalooza either because you sometimes show a movie and you want darkness. Anyway, I just thought I'd bring that up just to remind you of that. Okay, thank you. A couple things. Temple City High School graduation this past Friday. Mayor Mann and I attended. Good graduation. We had four of our youth committee members graduate. All are going on to four-year colleges and doing well. So it was good to see and

How many seniors, Tom?

I don't remember. Do you remember how many seniors there were graduating?

It was 420 something. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Yeah. But they actually get through the program pretty well. Jerry, you might have an idea. How many pictures did you take? I mean, how many graduates were there? 440.

440.

Oh, wow.

She's taking 400-some pictures. Oh, he takes thousands of pictures.

Wow. Between him and Terry, they're nonstop.

Yeah, Terry Lynn, going to town. And then a shout-out to our Miss Temple City pageant, which is the 58th annual Miss Temple City pageant, which was held this past Saturday. I want to give a shout-out to our new queen, who is... Sophia Vargas, she's a junior at Temple City High School, gonna be a senior, and there were seven young ladies that participated, all did a great job, and they're all gonna be on the royal court. So we'll start seeing them next week at the summer concerts. So go by their booth and introduce yourself, and all of them very accomplished, well-spoken young ladies. They all did a good job and, of course, said goodbye to our outgoing court, who also did a great job during the year. So that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember, you?

Thank you, Mayor. I really don't have anything to add. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

I just want to really quickly thank my colleague for allowing me to participate remotely at the last council meeting. I attended the International Convention and Shopping Center Conference. As a new council member, I found it very helpful to just be there in person and get a glimpse of the economic development world. All the national brands were there with their representative and they spared gosh no expense when it comes to putting together presentations and putting together an inviting space for between developers between the potential tenants and then various cities officials that were there to try to attract It was just really capitalism on full display.

And that's a national convention, too, isn't it? It was, yeah.

I mean, from all over the country. And I believe they do have West Coast ones as well, is what I learned from the conference. I attended a couple sessions that had to do with electric vehicle charging. I know I've talked about it before. It was kind of looked at as a... amenity for residents before but then in the business world they're looking at it as a development opportunity where they're looking at that real estate the parking lot and being able to co-locate something that not only generate revenue but also would bring a different demographic to the business and in their During the sessions that I've attended, it shows that some of these electric vehicle charging stations would complement and actually bring economic activity to the businesses that are located there. So I thought I took away quite a lot of good information. And I thank the city manager for getting me a registration from our regional economic development group. And I hitchhiked my way to Las Vegas, so we did not have to We keep the expenses low for Citi.

So who's coming to Temple City? Do you want to disclose any?

Given that, I kept my expectations very low.

My understanding of this, and correct me if I'm wrong, but unfortunately, to do well at those things or to attract those types of developers, you need space. And if we don't have space to offer them at this point, like some of these cities where they have a huge vacant lot where they can get a development and people would come and bid on that. We're unfortunately, we're land poor in that regard. So were any of the sessions address those types of situations that you can recall where you don't have that land or you don't have that area to offer but Maybe there are other ways to attract these new, these businesses into the town?

So what I had learned from that, and there were smaller restaurant establishments that do not require as much square footage, so 1,500, 2,000 square foot space that they may occupy. But what I learned from that is they like to co-locate, which means if there's demonstrated success from one types of business, take an example at our Las Tunas and Rosemead Shopping Center, if there's different, like Chipotle or other brands that were already existing, that sends a signal to other restaurants that they wouldn't.

What's the place next to Chipotle? The Ono's? Ono's.

I know in Alhambra, next to Costco, behind Target, there are three businesses, three franchise businesses coming all together to Ed's point. They like to get together. Raising Cane's is the other one I told you.

It's right across from Costco. They're building it right now.

Panda and one other.

So I'll continue to do some follow-up with the information and business cards that I collected during the trip. And while setting expectations low, I think it was good.

Well, also, I think maybe some of the information you've gleaned from that could be helpful to this new development thing that we're establishing with the new economic developer or that position. and share some of that information with them. Certainly.

And as a new council member, I certainly I coveted the opportunity to really just learn about that space and what it looks like. I understand that there's quite a lot that goes into a lot of efforts. I need to go into to that area. quickly report on Foothill Transit. Several cities in our region belong to a cluster and the cluster then elects a representative to the executive board. We re-elected the Cluster Representative Becky Shelvin from Monrovia to serve out her remaining one additional year. And then Rick Barakat, Councilmember from the City of Bradbury, will serve as his alternate. And a year later, he will then assume the Executive Board position. Of course, Temple City is very well represented with our own uh councilmember sternquist uh serving uh in on the executive or in that capacity uh last week i also attended temple city national little league closing ceremony uh and it was uh again another great uh community event um and uh last time wait a minute you were all invited temple city american you know i gotta give them some love too so that's right you can go ahead and say temple city national

swept the city championships this year. They took all three games from Temple City American. I'm a Temple City American, that's Temple City National, but it's all good.

Last year, I think we had several of the Temple City champions from both American and National come to this council chamber to be recognized. If that is something Mayor would be amenable to, we'll reach out to the respective team managers. have them bring the the kids here i think it was a special time to get to be here and uh their city championship titles uh and last and finally i just want to report out that um i've been honored to be selected uh i know councilmember sternquist has been reappointed to the southern california association of government transportation committee uh but i also uh was able to um well, get appointed to the Energy Environment Committee, given my interest in those area.

Excellent. Thank you. Great.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. Thank you. OK. As for me, I echo the Temple City High School graduation being a well-run event, well-attended, and it's just nice to see all our... I guess they're young adults now, all talking about taking a step towards a new chapter in their lives. And this year, I felt the speakers struck a different chord. I mean, there was a lot of jokes about AI and the threat of AI, but I... I think they're very mature. They know what they're getting into. They're not afraid to say that, hey, we're still trying to figure things out. But yet they are all very optimistic about the future. So I think it's an interesting kind of balance not just being wickedly smart and accomplished for someone at their age, but having the maturity to know this is the world they're about to walk into at the university level or at a college level, and knowing what's in store in the future for them. So a big congratulations to the class of 2026. And of course, Principal Elena Lee and our superintendent Kuna and the entire school board for doing a wonderful job making that event especially memorable for the families. And then lastly, I do want to just mention that on June 12th at 5 p.m., we will be showing some appreciation to our volunteers at our annual volunteer appreciation dinner at Live Oak Community Center. I believe June 12th is a Friday. Is that right, Adam?

Okay, Friday at 5 p.m. Next Friday, a week from this Friday. To volunteer? Yeah.

Next Friday, 5 p.m. So... We run on our volunteers, so this is the very least we could do to show our appreciation. Okay, next we move to...

I'm sorry, I forgot one item. Just to mention, beginning back to Miss Temple City, the queen, the queen that was selected, Sophia Vargas, each young lady gets a chance to state their platform or what they would like to see in the coming year. her platform had to do with increased safety for e-bikes. So I thought, oh, okay. So board member Donna Giorgino, we were sitting next to each other and we kind of both looked at each other and said, well, we gotta get her into our standing committee meetings to talk about what her ideas are regarding e-bikes so so that it was nice to hear that because it tells us that it's not just the adults that are concerned but other you know young people are concerned about the use of e-bikes and the safety and things like that so maybe we'll invite her to the next board meeting that's a good idea outstanding committee meeting and give us our thoughts okay that'll be a good thing that's great yeah so

Okay, so we move to the additional public comments. Are there any public comments at this time?

Jerry's the only one sticking out. Thank you.

All right, well, I'll close public comments. And at this time, council will adjourn to closed session. There are three items, which maybe I'll turn it over to our city attorney to just briefly go over.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. There are three items. They're listed in a certain order on the agenda. We're actually going to take them in a different order, and I'm going to explain why. First item we'll take is item 16C, the City Manager Employee Performance Evaluation. The second item is the potential initiation of litigation which is item 16a and then third we're going to take item 16b the significant exposure to litigation without breaking either the attorney-client privilege or the purpose of having closed session which is to have this remain confidential for now after my privileged email to the council i spoke with council member or i'm sorry vice mayor mayor pro tem chen and And there's the strong chance of a potential conflict of interest, at least in the immediate term on that. So Councilmember Chen's gonna recuse himself. When we come back and I report out, I will be reporting for the sake of the public the time that he left. because it's the last item, he's free to go home, which is nice for him. But I will be reporting that so that the city clerk can have that in the minutes for the record going forward. Thank you very much.

Okay, sounds good. And at this point, we will adjourn to closed session.

Let me double check.

Okay, great. All right, council has returned from closed session regarding the three items shown on the agenda. I will ask our city attorney to report out on closed session.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As we discussed before going into closed session, the first item that was dealt with was item 16C, city manager performance evaluation. The council was briefed, no reportable action was taken. The second item was item 16A, potential initiation of litigation. The council was briefed. No reportable action was taken. The matter will come back to council at a future meeting for future consideration. Then the council moved to item 16B. Mayor Pro Tem Chen recused himself at 9.51 p.m. council was briefed and no reportable action was taken closed session ended at 10 24 and we've come back thank you sir okay thank you with that um we are adjourned have a good night good night