City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Temple City City Council's regular meeting for August 18th, 2026 to order. Madam City Clerk, roll call, please.

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

Here. First, we have the invocation. We have our dear friend, Pastor Kelty, from Community of Christ Church, located at 5851 Temple City Boulevard. Services are on Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. All are welcome. So please rise for the invocation. Following that, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance from Scout Troop 161 and 181. Our divine creator,

We thank you for this world that you have created. We thank you for this beautiful day, hot, and for the light that provides for all of us. We thank you that we're able to live in this community and enjoy the benefits that this community has to offer all of us. We would come into your presence in prayer this evening to ask your blessing upon all that we do here this evening. Indeed, we might continue to share the blessings that you have given to us both day in and day out. We remember especially the City Council and their staff. They may have your wisdom to be with them as they seek to do those things that make this an even better community. We know not what the future may bring. We would ask, dear Creator, that in all we do this evening, be not just for today, but for all generations to come, that those generations may indeed look back and thank us for having done a good job. That when we look to the future, we do so with hope, anticipation, and eagerness, and a positive outlook, because here today, we are building a community to be proud of tomorrow. This we do thank you, amen. Amen.

For tonight's Pledge of Allegiance, I'm pleased to introduce Scout Troops 161 and 181, The troops presenting the flags are Howard Ying, Sophia Han, Kiera Han, and Adit Bhandari. The troops will also be holding a car wash fundraiser this Sunday, August 23, at A1 Auto Service, located at the corner of Las Tunas Drive and Muscatel Avenue. Money raised will go towards their camping trips. We urge you to go out and support them. Now I'll turn it over to Scout Troop 161 and 181.

Color guard, forward march. All. Color guard, please place the colors. All those in uniform at our gatherings, please salute. All those not in uniform, please place your hand over your head. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready, begin.

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

To the Pillar Guard uniform.

Thank you so much, troop 161 and 181. Next item on the agenda, ceremonial matters. We have none. So we move to item six, public comments on items not listed on the agenda. The council will now hear public comments regarding items that are not listed on the agenda. Please note that as part of our decorum and rules for our council meetings, each speaker will have up to three minutes. The timer is displayed right in front of our city clerk. So at this point, I will call on Anyone who would wish to address the council, I do have one speaker request form from David McGrath. If you could please come up to the podium.

All right, three minutes, it's gonna be a challenge. Good evening, Mayor Mann and council members. Good evening. And guests and residents and the Sheriff Department. I'm going to list ongoing issues. Outside this building there is a light post with exposed electrical wires at its base and it was reported three weeks ago online and two days online. It's a public safety hazard for children, families and animals. Next one, the city hall front desk receptionist is pushing residents and visitors to use their smartphones for QR code check-in. Unfortunately, elderly and others may not have a smartphone. Please remind the reception desk workers to be understanding and assist with paper and pen check-in. Another issue that's came to my attention that's been going on for three months, Parks and Recreation is using, the workers are using the city vehicles as taxis and they're transporting the workers to the residents in the evenings. So I think this needs to stop immediately and you need to reprimand all the workers that are doing this that are driving those city vehicles as taxis to the employees of the city. I notified Jennifer, the secretary, in person on Thursday, I mean on Friday, I'm sorry, because the last episode was on Thursday evening that Parks and Recreation were using the vehicles, city vehicles, to transport the city employees, and I think it's inappropriate. Next factor is teenagers and children not wearing bicycle helmets. That needs to be enforced by the sheriff. If the sheriff is short-handed or overwhelmed, they're welcome to use the reserve deputy sheriff officers level one, two, and three. The policy for bicycle helmets needs to be implemented stronger. For example, for schools, if a student brings a bike, e-bike, e-scooter onto campus, they must wear a helmet entering and exiting campus. And even if they walk it in and walk it out, they must wear a helmet. So these are suggestions from my ideas for that. And then ongoing issues, Temple City Park's men's public restroom. There's only one soap dispenser At one of the sinks, there's two other sinks that have no soap dispensers. I think that's a public safety health issue as well. That needs to be, they need to implement, put those in, install them. The next issue in the Temple City Park, the Veterans Memorial, they have four lights that need to be working. There's 10 of them. We need to show respect for veterans. And I want to thank you. I'm under three minutes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McGrath. Is there anyone else in the audience who would wish to address the council at this time? Okay, seeing none, I will close public comment. Next, we will move to item seven, consent calendar. All items may be approved in a single motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull it for discussion.

Motion to approve consent calendar. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Before we do a roll call vote, I do want to check with our city clerk if there are any virtual speakers.

Mayor, there are no virtual participants.

Okay, thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second. Unless there are any objections, I would like a roll call vote on the consent calendar.

Thank you. Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sternquist? Yes. Council Member Yu?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Yes. Mayor Mann?

Yes. Next, public hearing, tonight we have none. Item nine, unfinished business, we also have none. Item 10, new business, we have none. So we move to item 11, which is an update from our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Mann and members of the council. Just a couple quick announcements. This coming Wednesday, excuse me, Thursday, at Live Oak Park at 5.30 will be our Neighborhood Watch meeting. tacos, so come hungry, learn a little bit about what you can do to protect your property, and what our great Special Assignment team, one of whom is here as our Sergeant-at-Arms today, Deputy Francis Bowie, will be there to help and if you have any particular issues in your neighborhood that you're facing that's what we're there for that's where we're there to help you provide you with both not only services but also to the team that's on the ground on a day-to-day basis that's servicing temple city and lastly i'd like to thank uh john montes from brook williams lawrenson for stepping in while mr murphy was out today thank him for being here today all right

Thank you. And next though, we have an update from our city attorney.

No update other than pleasure to be here and thank you for letting me be here. Okay, sounds good.

Thank you. So now next we move on to item 13, council reports regarding ad hoc or standing committee meetings. Are there any reports from council at this time?

Mr. Mayor, the Facility and Publics and Infrastructure Standing Committee met last Friday. It's a committee consisting of you, Mayor, and myself. We had a fairly in-depth discussion with staff and the city manager. on our pavement management plan. So we have provided some directions and it looks like there may be one more ad hoc meeting. We would like to bring it back to the City Council for, I think we were suggesting a study session where we can walk through what we were suggesting for the entire City Council to consider.

Thank you. Thank you. That was actually concise, straight to the point. I do just want to add that part of Councilmember Yu and I, one of the desired outcomes that we want when we bring it back to council is really related to how we as a council want to budget for some of the work because in our adoption of the current fiscal year's budget it was I think our city manager and our finance director both noted that in the capital projects column, there wasn't anything listed for pavement work. But that was purposeful due to the work that the standing committee is conducting with Transtech and city staff right now. But the intention is to make it very clear for council to be able to consider deliberately and make a decision moving forward. Our intent is not to keep the capital improvements at zero dollars in the budget.

William, is the plan once the council approves it, then we will move forward with making that public so that the tax measure dollars will be beginning to be used. Is that after October when the funding comes into the city?

Yeah, that is part of it, is we want to be very transparent about what the plan is. And more importantly, I think we have all fielded questions from residents, the most common one being, when is our street going to see work done? So we want to be able to answer that very definitively. And I think in terms of measure TC and its implications, that's one component of it, but part of what we're asking staff to be able to bring back is for council to have a holistic understanding of how this program is gonna be implemented. So all of that is forthcoming. Okay, are there any other reports from ad hoc or standing committee? All right, seeing none, we will move on to item 14, council items separate from the regular agenda, and we will begin with Council Member Chavez.

Nothing, thank you.

Council Member Sterkis.

You know, I just wanted to ask if maybe our youth commission might take on doing some pop-up events or even going to the neighborhood watch meeting to get some voter registration out. I know that I keep seeing on the news many organizations going out to the community. to get people to register for the November election. So if we can make it convenient for people, maybe we can get some people to register. With Foothill Transit today, I was at the Arcadia Yard. Judy Chu presented one of those big checks, we all love those big checks, for $850,000. While that seems like an awful lot of money, it perches it will purchase a portion of a bus so we need a lot more money to come but she is a big advocate of zero emission transportation moving forward so we appreciate that she came out to present that other than that that's it okay thank you next we have council member you

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have anything except that I just want to draw everybody's attention to one of the items that we actually approved during our consent calendar was the approval of professional services agreement with Eagle Leadership Group. And I want to comment on Mr. Cook for bringing this item to us for approval because what it does is emphasizes on leadership development within our executive staff on the city. I think that's a great item. I just want folks to know that that's one item that we passed today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Next, Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

Just one quick item separate from the agenda, and that is I think definitely Mayor Mann and Council Member Ryu have done a lot with regards to our pavement management. I think also this council with Rosemead Boulevard, the beautification, I think it's something that, well, as we go into the 10th year, everybody sees that it's attracting private sector investments and interest along that corridor. But infrastructure is also those that the eyes can't see, and I think particularly I would like to thank Mr. Cook and Mr. Talbot. They've done a lot of work behind the scenes getting fiber optic Internet to parts of Temple City. I'd like a full report, whether that's in a on a consent or like information only or a presentation, I think that's up to the city manager. I think the residents would like to, with the advent of working from home and more reliance on digital devices at home, I think the availability of broadband is important to a lot of our residents, so I'd like to see an update of where we were, where we're at, and where we're going, so.

Most certainly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. I first want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Chen for running the last council meeting in my absence.

I did watch it, and you did a great job.

So thank you for covering for me, and thank you, council, for excusing my absence. I also want to thank you, Mayor, I also want to make sure that in the earlier public comments, if our city manager could keep council up to date. I think any kind of public comment does deserve some context and response for council to be able to understand what's going on. I know a lot was covered, so I won't go into those details. Certainly mayor.

Okay.

Thank you. I also we are now about to enter September and Speaking of the budget there were a couple of items that I think I would like for you to update council on You kind of jogged my memory by mentioning the infrastructure along less Tunis so I know within one of the components the council approved in the budget is a study session or assessment, I should say, of the city's kind of downtown corridor, regarding land use regulations, as well as a lot of the concerns that council has heard about vacancies, et cetera, to kind of the economic development component of the city that council has discussed and talked about for quite a number of time, but now we actually have a budgeted item to do that. So I would appreciate if you can kind of tell us when you think that's going to happen and what the timetable of that looks like. Because I'm sure that's on the top of a lot of people's minds.

Yes.

OK, and having said that, I do want to just note, even though I think there's another council meeting in between, that I'm also looking forward to our collaboration with World Journal for the High Autumn Festival, which is actually next month. So I know we'll still have time to maybe discuss, and I'm sure In the meetings leading up to that, perhaps you or Parks and Rec Director Adam Matsumoto could give us a bit of an update as to what we expect to see, if it's kind of very similar to the past or whether there's any kind of new things we can be looking forward to. Okay. All right, with that, I will move to the last part of our meeting, which is additional public comments on items not listed on the agenda. Is there anyone who wishes to address council at this time? Okay, I will check with our Madam City Clerk if there are any virtual speakers on this item.

Mayor Mann, there are no virtual speakers.

Okay, thank you. And with that, we are adjourned for the evening. Have a good night.