City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the meeting for the City Council of Temple City to order for September 1st, 2026. Madam City Clerk, roll call, please.

Council Member Chavez.

Here.

Council Member Sternquist. Here. Council Member Yu.

Here.

Mayor Potem Chen. Here. Mayor Mann. Here.

Here. First, 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 rise for the invocation, and please remain standing afterwards for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilman, and guests. Please bow with me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, once again we come before you tonight to ask your blessing upon this City Council meeting. I pray that you would give wisdom and discernment to our Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council members, along with all the support staff. We already know that every decision they make always benefits the residents of our great city. We just finished a busy summer and look forward to a wonderful September with World Journal's High Autumn Festival and the Fall Festival and Classic Car Show. Lord, this is September 1st. In 10 days, we are reminded of an infamous event that took place 25 years ago. I am sure that we all remember that tragic day and what we were doing on September 11, 2001, in New York, where 2,977 souls were lost. Even though we have enjoyed peace here, we continue to pray for an end to conflicts, especially in the Middle East and around the world. Citizen safety is such an important priority for our council. To that end, we continue to pray for those who protect us daily, including our deputies, firefighters, first responders, and public safety. Lord, we thank you for all the good gifts that come from your hand. We ask this all in your name and for your glory. Amen. Amen.

Mayor Potemkin, would you do us the honor of leading us in the pledge?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, if you will, please face the flag. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

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

Tonight, for our ceremonial matters, we have the Temple City Youth Committee. And at this point, I would like to turn it over to Council Member Chavez, who has been the Council's liaison to the Youth Committee, to share on their activities from last year. I do want to note that the city received 16 applications to fill six seats on the Youth Committee this year, and there are a total of 10 Youth Committee members. Council Member Chavez?

Thank you, Mayor Mann. As we will see in a minute, they're all, I believe, going to get up and introduce themselves to us so we can see the faces behind the names. So I just want to share a few things with the audience about last year and the upcoming this year. Last year, the Youth Committee completed a self-guided Explore Temple City map. All of us have a copy up here in the dais. Are there any in the back back there? No? Okay. Maybe we'll – I think they're available online, I believe. So this is one of the things that they had worked on last year. As you can see, some of the highlights in the city, it's kind of a self-guided tour. If anybody's interested in taking it, it's not a far walk, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The committee also engaged with outside organizations and agencies on which many of the council members serve, such as the LA County Sanitation District, Foothill Transit, Mosquito and Vector Control. They learned about each of these organizations' mission, services, future plans, and the relationship with the cities it serves, and of course, the role of the council member delegate. Pleased to say that the committee also engaged with city manager Cook and our community development director Scott Reimers to learn about local government and their role in the city. And I'm very appreciative to their help. I know that Scott did a great job in explaining a lot of things of how the city works and what they do. This year, the youth committee will consider objectives to promote the city's council's strategic goals of quality of life, public health and safety, and citizen education and communication. Their first bi-monthly meeting is on September 24th. The members will consider events and activities relating to public safety, mental wellness, and celebrating the city with a I Love TC campaign. So more to follow on that. I'm pretty excited about that coming up. Obviously, you'll be able to see many of them as they promote their objectives and not only lights on Temple City, but the upcoming Camellia Festival as well. And on a personal level, as Mayor Mann mentioned, we had a few openings this year. We get quite a bit of applications. In fact, I always like to tell people that it is much more difficult to get on our youth committee than it is on one of our commissions, just from the nature of the competition. And we're blessed to get so many qualified young men and women that it's actually very difficult to turn down many of them. But we only have room for so many. We have eight fantastic young men and women coming back, or I shouldn't say veterans, but they've been with us for a little while. And two new members, Leona and Tara, who you'll meet tonight as well. And I'm sure they're going to enjoy their experience, and we look forward to a fantastic year. And of course, I have to mention the fact that behind the scenes, Of course, we have our clerk, Peggy Kuo, and assistant city clerk, Roxana Flores. They do an amazing job to support these youth and all the work that they do to keep them going and keep them interested. And I can't express my appreciation enough for all the work that they do. So we wish you good luck, and I'm sure we'll hear back from you during the year. So there you go. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Chavez. So tonight the Council would like to recognize our 2026-2027 Youth Committee members. So at this point, I'd like to invite each of the members to come to the public speaker podium up front. to give a brief self-introduction. And when you are done, please remain by the podium because city council would like to present you with a certificate of recognition for being a part of this youth committee. So if you can make your way up to the front, we would love to hear from you.

Good evening, Mayor Mann and City Council. My name is Sophia Guo, and I'm a junior at Temple City High School. I will be going into my third year of serving on the Youth Committee, and I'm very excited to see what we'll be able to do this year. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Mann, Mayor Pro Tem Chen and city council and city staff. My name is Jessica Guo and I am a current junior at Temple City High School. I really look forward to what the youth committee has to offer this year and really just being able to work with the community and bringing the best of us and representing the youth. So thank you.

Hello, good evening city council and city staff. My name is Samara Sriram. This will be my third year serving on the youth committee. I am a rising junior or I'm actually in my junior year and I've had such a wonderful experience on the youth committee and I can't wait to spend two more years on it. Thank you.

Good evening council members. I'm Tara. I'm the new one in the council team. I'm really looking forward to working with all of you. I'm really excited for what we're going to do. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. I'm Leona Liu, and I'm a junior at, I used to be at Tum City High School. Now I'm at Orion High School. And then it's my first year at the Tum City Youth Committee, and I'm really excited and also a little bit nervous to be here. I'm really looking forward to meet everyone and know more about what we're doing for the committee. Thank you.

City Council and staff. My name is Addison Lee and I'm a senior at Flourish Prep, but I do live in Temple City. So this is my second year here and I'm excited to continue to make a big impact and see what we can offer this year.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Julie Lee. I'm a senior at Temple City High School, and I think I'm very involved on my school level, and I'm very excited to use the Youth Committee as a way to expand my horizons and connect the student body to the rest of the city. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Megan. And I am a senior at Temple City High School. And this is my second year being on Youth Committee. And I've had such an amazing time being in Youth Committee this past year. So I'm really excited to see everything that Youth Committee has in store for me this year.

Hello, City Council. My name is Rylan. I'm a senior at Temple City High School, and this is my third year on the Youth Committee. It's been an amazing experience. I think we've done a lot for the city in terms of promoting its various initiatives and as well as connecting the youth. And I'm really excited to share a little bit more about what we have this coming year in the future. So thank you.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Arthur Zhang. I'm a senior at Flint Ridge Preparatory High School. I'm proud to say I've served all four years on the Denver City Youth Committee, and my brother also served during his duration. So you can say I'm serving the community, friends, and the family, and I'm really glad to share all four years with what a wonderful society as well. Thank you.

I have one more thing to do, and I don't want to embarrass Arthur, but yes, four years. And I can remember, I believe, when you first started, and this is not negative, you could barely reach the podium. Now look how tall he is. Makes me feel old. but all of them that have been with the youth committee, it's so nice to see them mature and grow and be a big part of the city, and thank you all for coming this evening. It's nice to see all of you together.

At this point, I'd like to invite our council to come up and present certificates of appointment to each of our youth committee members. First is Jessica Guo. Sophia Guo. Smira Sriram. Leona Liu. Tara Ang. Rylan Chow. Arthur Zhang. Addison Lee. Julie Lee. Megan Cadavid.

That's perfect. Cynthia, there you go, perfect, okay? All right, here we go.

Keep smiling.

I WILL SAY ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING THINGS ABOUT SEEING OUR YOUTH COMMITTEE IS ESPECIALLY THE MEMBERS WHO ARE ABLE TO SERVE FOUR YEARS. IT'S ACTUALLY QUITE AN INCREDIBLE FEAT. I DON'T THINK WE'VE HAD TOO MANY THAT HAVE DONE THAT.

ARTHUR MAY BE OUR THIRD MEMBER TO SERVE FOUR YEARS.

SO CONGRATULATIONS AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO EVERYTHING THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE WORKING ON THIS YEAR. Okay, next we move on to item six, which is public comments on items not listed on the agenda. If you would like to make a public comment, please fill out the speaker request card. If you are joining remotely, you may use your raised hand feature on Zoom or press star nine if you are calling in by phone to request to speak. So public comment requests will be called in the order that they are received. And so we do have several speaker request cards. The first speaker I would like to call up is Sophia Guo, representing the Temple City Sister City Association.

Good evening again, Mayor Mann, Mayor Pro Tem Chen, and City Council. My name is Sophia Guo, and I was one of the six ambassadors of the 2026 Sister City Exchange Program. And so it's been a pleasure having the experience to go. And I can't thank you guys enough. So just three weeks ago, we arrived back here in Los Angeles after spending three weeks abroad in Australia. And those three weeks were pretty interesting because We didn't really have family. Well, the besides Jessica and I were twins, so we were family, but the rest of us didn't have any family with us. We were staying with host families. And in that situation, we were forced to grow and become a bit more independent. And also a lesson that we've learned in Australia is that no matter what background you have or No matter where you're from, you can always have fun. And so we've had so much fun with the Australian exchange students, the exchange students from Japan, ,, and as well as us, we all had fun. And we all did all these really cool activities and excursions, and we just made the most out of it. And even though there was a language barrier, even though we did have cultural differences, we really enjoyed our time together. And so I think we all really do miss that. And so that experience has really changed us for the better and really unique way to develop and grow as a person. So I'd like to thank the city council for giving us this opportunity. And so as a token of appreciation, we have bought some Tim Tams. It's like an Australian treat for you guys.

So yeah.

I think we have different flavors too. One is double coat, one is original.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Pretty cool. Thank you.

Always enjoy it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah, actually, since you're all here, we'd like a picture with Council and you together since we're all here tonight. And I'd like Mr. Steve and Nancy Terry to come join us. Steve, Nancy, I see you.

It's okay that you have shorts on. We're used to seeing you in shorts. We'll take our cookies up and I'll hold them in front of us.

Okay, the next speaker I'd like to call up is Ms. Jing Li from our Temple City Library.

Good evening, Mayor Mann, Mayor Poutin, and City Council. This is Jeanine from Tampa City Library. September is a library sign-up month. If you follow LA County social media, you probably know there's something special coming as a libraries. So starting September 18, we're going to have a monthly celebration with Hello Kitty and Friends. Yes. We're going to have themed programs for all ages, and also we'll have a special edition Hello Kitty library card. So if you never had the library card, the card is free, but if you have a card before, there's just a $1 replacement for that card. special edition Hello Kitty library card. And then what I expect, we're gonna have a line up, maybe like a crazy Black Friday starting September 18. So we have a game plan for that day. So there's a lot of excitement among the community. We get many calls already. And in addition, we want to encourage the students to participate in our 47th Bookmark Contest. That is the annual event. So it's a celebration of love of reading while also promote community engagement and artistic inspiration and also creativity. The students are competing in the following category, kindergarten to second, and then third to fifth, and then middle school and high school. And then you can pick up the form at the library or you can go to our website to submit online. The deadline to submit the form is October 17. And the library will choose a winner And then we're going to share with the Board of Supervisors. And thanks to the City Council and the City staff in the past having been our bookmark contest judge to celebrate the winners. So the Supervisors will choose the final winner for their district that will be recognized next year in spring. Tampa City is very... We have a lot of talent students. So actually last year we have a district winner from our library. So all this bookmark design will be displayed in our library as well. So if you need more information, please visit our website, lacountylibrary.org, or feel free to give us a call, 626-285-216. I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Jane Lee.

Thank you.

Our next speaker I'd like to call up is Jeff Gordon. It's not you, it's us. Good evening.

Good evening. Thanks for allowing me to speak. Just want to flag, I think you're all aware of the crime issues going on in our area. So I just want to flag that the burglary prevention is underway, although we're still seeing a lot of recognizance and active scoping in our area. There's a lot of casing routines. We've called the deputies. It's pretty obvious. A lot of the neighbors have woken up and they are actively reporting it. We just had an attempted break-in less than two weeks ago. And right after that, next day, or it seems every two days, there's strange people doing things. So we're glad that the sheriff is putting the pressure on. But we need to continue being more proactive, more activity on the street, and doing what we can so that we're not just we're not just kind of response based that there's a little bit more going on ahead of this because they're emboldened. They're definitely not stopping. And you know, we want to do more so that they just don't move to the next street, but they just completely move out of here and we can kind of live in peace. So just wanted to raise that continued issue.

Just ask a question.

Yes, I was just wondering if we could give Jeff the information to give to his neighbors about volunteers on patrol.

Sure.

That's an opportunity for your neighborhood to get involved with the sheriff's department. So Brian can get you that.

Okay. That's something we could talk about offline, right? Yes. Okay.

Most definitely.

Great. Thank you. Okay.

All right.

Thank you. And thank you for being proactive and being a voice for your community. Mr. Gordon.

Thank you.

All right. I will ask our city clerk if we have any virtual participants who wish to make public comment.

Mayor Mann, there are no virtual participants.

Okay, thank you. With that, seeing as there are no other speaker requests at this time, I will close public comment and we move on to consent calendar agenda item seven, which all items can be approved in a single motion unless removed for further discussion. But before we entertain a motion or remove any items, I do want to ask our city clerk if there are any virtual participants who wish to make a comment on this item.

Mayor Mann, there are no virtual participants.

Thank you. And unless there are any speakers who want to comment on consent calendar item, I would ask if council would like to pull any items or make a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. If there are no objections, roll call vote on the consent calendar, please.

Council Member Chavez? Yes. Council Member Sturquist? Yes. Council Member Yu? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Chen? Yes. Mayor Mann?

Yes. Next, we move to Item 8, Public Hearing. We have none. Item 9, Unfinished Business. We have none. Item 10, New Business. We have none. We move to Item 11, an update from our City Manager, Brian Cook.

Thank you, Mayor Mann and members of the Council. I have three things to go over briefly today. One of them is... SOME GREAT NEWS. I KNOW COUNCIL MEMBER STERNQUIST AND MANY AND THE ENTIRE COUNCIL AS A WHOLE HAS BEEN ACTIVE WITH THIS, BUT I GOT A CALL YESTERDAY FROM ASSEMBLY MEMBER MIKE FONG'S OFFICE LETTING US KNOW AS PART OF THE STATE BUDGET, $1.5 MILLION WAS ALLOCATED FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF SERENO PARK THAT WE JUST PURCHASED AT 5003 SERENO. SO THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU. Thank you to the staff and thank you to the assembly members staff as well who carries that through the entire process and we're incredibly diligent. Jennifer the district director and all the other staff that are there and obviously thank you to the person himself assembly member Fong. So That's great news. That will be a huge defray of costs on the construction side for this project and all the efforts that the council has made to bring a neighborhood park into a part of the community that is truly part poor and kind of meets the needs of that community where open space is not as IS NOT AS READILY AVAILABLE. SO THAT'S REALLY EXCITING. WE ALSO HEARD, TOO, THAT THE PARK GRANTS FOR THE STATE HAVE OPENED UP AGAIN. WE'LL BE GOING AFTER SALTANA PARK AS WELL. THANK YOU, MAYOR PORTEMPT-CHEN, FOR REMINDING US AND SOME OF THE ANGLES THAT WE CAN TAKE IN APPLYING FOR THAT FUNDING AS WELL. SO HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE THE THIRD PARK THAT WE'LL BE ABLE TO BUILD, IF NOT WHOLE, BUT PARTIALLY WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S FUNDS AND STATE FUNDING, SO WHICH WILL BE REALLY EXCITING. Last thing I want to note, and I want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Chen as well on this one. He's been very diligent with me and we're talking during conferences about fiber internet throughout the city. So you may know and you may have seen that Sonic Internet has been out in a portion of the city. They have three permits out, two of them are closed out, one still remaining. Once they're completed, about 40% of the city will have fiber optic cable available, mostly in the southern part of the city, scattered in some parts of the northern part of the city. But we're really happy. And one of the biggest benefits has been it's without major trenching, without micro trenching, which As Mayor Mann and Councilmember Yu can tell you from their day jobs is very problematic. It's all through the utility wires that overhang. So that's why not every single house has fiber optic right now because they are concentrating on what the existing utility wires can provide and the point to point contact that they can make that. Roughly about by the time they were done with this existing rollout about 40% of the city will have available to them fiber Connections for cable on before internet connections. So that was a pretty big deal They will they are looking for additional rollouts which may require some level of trenching but we are trying to work with them very actively to minimize that level of trenching that they would do in the city because if As you know, and as Council Member Yu and Mayor, the Mayor will tell you, pavement's expensive, and we're actually meeting this week to talk about that as well. So three exciting things coming, three exciting things which the city has in front of them. That'll be it for me.

Just a quick follow-up. When would Sonic start the service to our residents?

In talking to them, they are slowly rolling it out now. Apparently, there are some customers that it's already active. Not all customers yet in the total rollout area. So some people may be getting solicitations for that. And we have to be agnostic in terms of what we allow for. We have to allow any other provider to come in equally, no different than Sonic or AT&T or otherwise. But we are trying to encourage them to use the existing... overhead utility lines, because that is the least disruptive thing that can be done. Tom.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And since you brought up the 1.5 million, I do want to reiterate and thank especially Councilmember Sternquist and Mayor Tem Chen for your persistence on this matter. A lot of times those are the, I guess, behind the scenes work that perhaps the public doesn't always see, but the council, the five of us, we know what they've been doing and what they've been pushing for, and that makes a pretty big difference, I would say. Additionally, I know We're preparing a card to thank Assemblymember Mike Fong, but I would propose that I work with our city clerk and city manager to draft a more formal letter signed by all five members of our council thanking the Assemblymember for his help in moving Serrano Park forward. So we will do that.

Yes, since we're talking about Serrano Park, what is the update on that now?

So the questions that the council had asked about sidewalks and other costs and $1.5 million of additional funding gives us some potentially a little more flexibility with some of those things. So we will be coming back to you hopefully in late October with kind of like final options for discussion as well.

Do we have an ad hoc that's working on that?

Yes. We're going to go to the ad hoc first. That's Councilmember Strenquist.

It's been at least two or three months since we last talked about this.

Long story short, there's been some complications because there are some housing developments that are happening in and around that area, and we're trying to kind of coalesce the housing developments with the park as well.

What does that mean exactly?

the intersection. So just trying to do the alignment of the intersection and the sidewalks.

And since we're on the top of parks, could you give us a brief update on where we are with the Sultana property?

Sure, we are going out to RFP this month for, as you remember, we got a $300,000 grant from the county, park funds, for design for Sultana Park. So we will be going out to RFP for that design, for the design services this month.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, next we'll move on to item 12, an update from our city attorney, Greg Murphy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This should be fairly brief. There's a bill I wanted to bring your attention to, and it has passed the Assembly and Senate and has moved on to the Governor. It's Senate Bill 577. And it's important for cities because it's a step toward proportional liability when cities are sued. Under California law right now, if there are multiple defendants, there's what's called joint and several liability, which means that if the defense on the whole is found to be liable, then each defendant can be liable for the entire amount. Imagine a situation in which somebody is speeding 80 miles an hour through a residential neighborhood and strikes another car. A jury might find that the intersection in which they struck the other car was maybe not designed as well as it could have been and might find the city 5% liable. Under the law, if the person going 80 miles an hour in the residential area has no insurance, they simply don't have to pay. They can declare bankruptcy and go away. And the city and the city's insurance pool are on the hook for all of it because there was some finding of liability. Under Senate Bill 577, if a public entity is deemed to be 15% or less at fault, then it will only be responsible for its proportionate share. So in the example I gave, the city would only have to give 5% of the total amount awarded by the jury.

Although, so there's no confusion, the example you used isn't addressed by this particular provision. This is only sexual assault cases.

No, no. I've got to get to that part in a second. This is for personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage. So this would be a good thing for the city overall from a liability perspective and from your ongoing insurance perspective. It does apply only to suits filed after January 1st of 2027. So if there have been government claims filed recently, we can imagine that the suits will be coming quickly this fall so as to avoid that cap. I would imagine we'll see plaintiff's attorneys doing that. Still have to wait for the governor to sign it. As Councilmember Chavez said, there are also provisions related to childhood sexual assault cases where the person committing the sexual assault was employed by or otherwise related to a public entity. puts in some new filing timeframes if an entity is named as a defendant, and also requirements about naming the public entity in that there have to be certifications of the entity having negligently discharged a mandatory duty, covered up past sexual assaults, or otherwise having some level of fault other than simply being the employer. And so again, The purpose of the bill is to say, at least with regards to public entity defendants, if you didn't know and you weren't under a mandatory duty to find out, then we're not going to be shifting the full cost to the public entity and therefore eventually to the public as a whole to pay government funds for the bad acts of someone who happened to be employed. If the facts do indicate greater liability on the part of the city than all the existing laws remain. As a final point, cities and other public entities will have to adopt by, sorry, December 1st of 2027, a code of conduct for the protection of minors. And that's something affirmatively that we would all be doing to help with the protection of minors. So it strikes a balance between, as the Councilman said, limiting some level of liability for past acts, but also requiring greater protections going forward. That's all pending. The California JPIA is in favor and is urging the governor to sign it. And we will see what the governor does over the next couple weeks.

And before we start jumping up and down in joy, I would like to remind everyone that there is no cap on these verdicts as well, which is one of the things that some were seeking. And also, if the public entity, and I don't know if you mentioned the amount, but if they're found to be 15% or more liable, then none of these rules apply.

None of the rules apply, yes, sir. Yes, sir.

It's, I guess, a fair thing to say is a step in the right direction, but a small step, but I guess a step nonetheless.

Greg, both those things are under the same bill, correct?

Single bill, yes, ma'am.

I'm just confused initially as to why they were...

It's a liability-based bill. The idea is the various liability pools and the self-insured cities have been concerned about claims rising. And frankly, people, lawyers, members of our profession going after the deep pocket instead of going after the real wrong actor. And so when you have public entities who are Maybe some percentage at fault, yes. But should the public funds, should the public's tax money, should money that could be going for roads and parks and everything else that public money goes for, should that be diverted out even in situations where someone has been really harmed, if the entity's share of fault was very small, should the entity be bearing the full cost? And that's a balancing act. I'm glad it's one that the legislature has taken on, and I'm glad that I'm not a member of the legislature who's trying to figure out where that balance should be set.

I think initially what was confusing from JPIAs standpoint was that we, JPIA didn't want to take a stand if it was just sexual, related to sexual harassment or harming. Abuse. Yes, sexual abuse. And so once they decided to put this other portion in, then JPIA took a stand, but JPIA still has a coalition separate from this that is working, as Tom said, to increase that amount so that it we don't think there ever will possibly be a cap, but getting closer to something that everybody can live with.

Some kind of cap that we can live with, yep.

Thank you. And by cap, we're talking about the amount that a jury can award? Any provincial case?

A couple things. In one case, so as we said, it's 15% right now. We'll just use the city for shorthand. If the city is 15% or less at fault, then... When the jury makes an award, the city is only responsible for its proportionate share. We would love to see that go higher. We'd love to see that go, say, all the way up to 50%. Maybe if the city is the majority one at fault, that's something you could live with. But certainly, anything below 50%, you would say we should only be bearing our proportionate share. So that's a major issue. There also were, as Councilman Chavez said, some hopes that there would be an overall cap on what that would mean. So in the case of, again, use a very small number, a 2% or a 3% fault on behalf of a city, well, if the overall damage... Again, use my example, someone going 80 miles an hour in a residential area, perhaps hits a car, severely injures three young children, each of whom is going to require 30 million or more in care throughout the course of their lives, because they will not die young, but they will need care all throughout their lives. You could see an award of $100 million for those three children, and the city would then be out $3 million even on a 3% share. There are some questions about whether that amount could be capped, again, because you're looking at what's really fair for the city to bear. So there's still, as Councilman Chavez said, this is a first step in a direction to better balance the fact that this is the people's money, and we'll see if we can't get to step two or three.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much for the update.

Thank you, sir.

All right, next we move to item 13, council reports regarding ad hoc or standing committee meetings. Do we have any reports from council?

No.

All right, seeing none, we move to item 14, council items separate from the regular agenda. And we'll start on this side of the dais with council member Yu.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have nothing to add. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Chen.

Nothing to add, Mayor.

Council Member Chavez.

Nothing this evening. Thank you.

Council Member Sternquist.

This isn't where we report out.

Yes. Well, for ad hoc standing committee? No, not ad hoc. This is separate. This is a separate item. Okay. Yes, this is where items separate from the agenda.

For our trip to Oceanside? Yeah, you can talk about that. So four of us attended the Contract Cities conference in Oceanside, and I think for me the biggest takeaway was that the sheriff this time I had seen him just a few days before the conference he spoke at Foothill Transit. And usually when I've heard the sheriff speak, it's usually about public safety or the jails. And this time it was more about emergency preparedness. I THINK AND I'VE SAID THIS MANY TIMES, I THINK THAT WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO WORK ON IMPROVING OUR EMERGENCY PLAN. I MEAN, IT WAS UNFORTUNATE THAT JOSE LEFT. I still think we need something tangible where we all can take a look at it. I've said for a very long time I think we need to work with the school district and plan something. I mean, maybe the Great Shakeout is an opportunity for us to work with the school district and do an event where at least the city and the schools participate in exiting the classrooms, meeting in a central place. But his whole talk with the elected officials was we cannot wait any longer to be prepared, that this earthquake is imminent, that we've been talking about for so many years. And I just, listening to him twice in one week, I really think that we need to work with our staff and Brian obviously with you. I know hopefully we'll fill that position soon, but I don't think we can wait until we finally have somebody in that role. So I just wanted to share that. And then I mentioned to Brian that I scheduled an appointment with our state senator, Sasha Renee Perez, to speak with her about sponsoring a bill regarding vacant lots. Now, when I was in San Diego, I had the opportunity to speak to various city managers and other city council members and just talked about, what are you doing with vacant lots? And everyone in almost every city was frustrated, as we are with the Alpha Beta site. And they were all on board. If Temple City would use this as a test case for, especially on an arterial street where we have a lot of traffic, Why can't we look at that place about, I don't want to say eminent domain, but taking that property if the owners are not willing to do anything? I mean, it's been how many years is that? More than 45, right? 50 years, Brian? A vacant? 47. And there's no movement on from, I mean, we ask frequently and there's no movement from those owners. And yet there's opportunities to partner with the San Gabriel Valley COG to put an affordable housing project there. And when I say affordable housing, I mean an affordable housing project in Temple City is not going to be a $200,000 condominium. You're looking at something that's going to still be substantial, and there will be requirements. But a portion of that building could be allocated to at least some homes in the affordable housing income level. So I'm going to meet with her. Brian's going to come with me. Ed has a very good relationship with Sasha because he was a police officer in Alhambra and he knows her well. So I've asked Ed if he wouldn't mind coming and being in on that meeting. And then quite a few of the other city managers said that they would schedule appointments also to talk to her about sponsoring a bill that would help their cities also develop vacant lot properties for the betterment of the community. So I just wanted to share that so you knew what I was going out to do. OK.

All right, thank you. And I will also just mention that the Contract Cities Conference in Oceanside, it was well done. They had some really interesting topics that covered a gamut of items, including one that's kind of at the forefront of many Contract Cities' minds is the Measure G, although it's impacting the county, what does that change in county governance? How does that impact contract cities and our relationship with the services that the county provides? So that was very interesting to hear the perspective of what the task force is working on, what the challenges are. and how contract cities can really get their voices heard during such a, I think someone used the term seismic or tectonic shift in how the governance structure really is. So there's a lot to kind of keep our eye on for the welfare and benefit of our beloved city since we do depend greatly on county services like the sheriff's fire just to list kind of like the top two. One other interesting topic that kind of caught me from left field was there was a psychologist or psychiatrist who talked about mental health well-being for elected officials. And it just struck me as an odd topic from left field, but it turned out to be rather on point. And I think the focal point was how do we, in our positions, or I could even say this extends to city staff, anyone serving in a public-facing role, how do you handle yourselves in situations where there may be a lot of emotion or anger coming at you for various issues? And we are in a public setting, in a public forum. How do we handle those in a graceful and respectable and professional manner? And a lot of it has to do with preparing ourselves mentally, knowing what our role is. And the way I kind of use my own term is we have to learn how to turn the other cheek and listen. We can't be the ones... acting unprofessionally, lashing out, criticizing our residents or business owners from the dais. I listened to the whole thing and I'm actually kind of proud of the five of us and how we have been operating because I feel like we have been able to maintain that pretty well in our service, not to toot our own horn, I feel like we try our best to make the public meeting a welcoming place. Not just this regular meeting, but we have other meetings such as the public safety law enforcement one that we have every month with our captain and the sheriff's team. So it was just one of those items that I think I think everyone kind of thinks about in their own context, but no one's ever really talked about it in an actual kind of more formal setting as a seminar session for a conference. So caught me by surprise. Other than that, it was good to connect with many of our friends from our neighboring cities to kind of see what they're up to. All right, with that, we will move on to the last portion of our agenda, which is additional comments on items not listed. Does anyone wish to address the city council at this time? Seeing none from our audience, I would like to check with our city clerk if there are any virtual participants.

William, I think you'd like to speak.

Oh, do we have someone?

Yes.

Would you please, Mr. Gordon? Yes, if you could please come to the podium.

Thanks. Brian, we definitely piqued our interest in fiber, and I have a neighbor right here. They literally built fiber right up to our houses. like one house over. Is there anything, and maybe just something to think about, I don't expect an answer, but anything we can do to potentially have them move like, 20 feet to the north. I can speak to you after the meeting. Happy to speak to you.

What neighborhood is this that we're talking about?

It's scattered all through. I will provide you with a formal update on that. And you can see the map. It is somewhat scattered, to be quite frank, in some areas of town. just because of the availability of the overhead utilities is really one of the biggest challenges. So it is somewhat scattered. So it does stop in some parts, like right, in some cases, mid-block.

So that seems to be the main, I guess, logistical limitation for them?

One of them, without going into major trenching and major micro-trenching is the biggest issue.

Because I think just in general what we've seen related to micro trenching is that it is a costly endeavor. Even though micro makes it sounds like it's a small. It's a misnomer almost. But it's actually more expensive than some people realize. All right. I was going to ask our city clerk if there are any virtual participants.

Mayor, there are none.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Then with that, I will close the public comments, and we will now, as a council, move into closed session. There is one item in our closed session that I would ask our city attorney to articulate.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council is going into closed session under provision 54957 of the Brown Act to begin an employee performance evaluation of the city manager. Thank you. Okay.

Council will now move to closed session and we will return to report out afterwards. We are, council has returned from closed session. At this point, I would like to ask our city attorney to report out on closed session.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The council was briefed on city manager performance evaluation, gave the city attorney's office direction as to the process that they wish to undertake to perform that evaluation this year, the details of which are not reportable under the Brown Act. Thank you very much, sir.

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