City Council - Regular Meeting

I don't know. Thanks. Thank you, David.

No problem.

Ready? Ready? Ready? OK.

Okay. Good evening. I hereby call the regular meeting of Warner City Council to order. The time is 7.03 p.m. Okay. Before we begin the meeting, I want to welcome all members of public who are here in person and are participating in the Zoom meeting to award Interference from all Zoom participants. All lines have been muted upon entry into the meeting and will be unmuted if you request to speak during our communication and or during the public hearing or council discussion item. Mayor Putian triggers will now lay us in the pleasure of region.

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

Thank you. Please be seated. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes. Mayor Wu?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Tregar? Here. Council Member Cajules?

Here.

Council Member Friedman? Here. Council Member Law? Here.

Thank you. I want to invite Pastor Gwynne Taylor of Vanguard of Hope Church to lead us in the invocation.

Thank you, Pastor Taylor. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much. Thank you so much for our Walnut community. Thank you for the security and peace that we enjoy here. And we thank you for our city government, for our council members. And so tonight, Lord, we ask for the blessing of your presence and for your wisdom for every member and for the members of the community. as we deal with the business at hand. So Lord, come and facilitate this evening with the blessing of your presence. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, thank you. Thank you, Pastor Taylor. Tonight, we have one presentation on the agenda this evening. And I would like to invite Miss Kim Watts to join us. We are presenting her with a CD product for her 17 years of service in the community service department. Shall we? Thank you. Tonight, my honor, and on behalf of City of Walnut, we are celebrating your retirement. And thank you for your service to our community, our city, our people, and everything for 17 years. It's very important. You see how beautiful City of Walnut we have, and how, oh, I saw it. Happy retirement, you know? That's another milestone. That's good. And we're proud of your service. We appreciate your service. And thank you, and enjoy your retirement. And please, come back to visit us any time. And we love you. Thank you. Now, let me pass on to the AmeriCorps team.

Well, Kim, we've been here many, many years, 15 years, before you started working for the city, and you brought so much creativity to our senior center. Kim can take a milk carton or an egg carton and just build it into something beautiful, centerpieces, everything. So she's... Most creative person I've ever seen. So we're really going to miss that creativity there and all your commitment to the senior city and to this community. But we know you still live here in Walnut. It's a longtime Walnut resident. And you'll still be around. And we wish you the best in your retirement. And thank you so much.

Thank you. We're so happy to have you here, but so sad to see you go. To echo what Nancy said, I always know one of the first conversations we had, you were telling me about all your centerpieces and how you were so, so creative with all of them. We will really miss you and how much you light up the senior center, but we will always be happy to have you back. And thank you so much for everything you've done for us.

Mrs. Watts, because that's how I met her way back when, when she was Mrs. Watts at Collegewood. And she was so involved with Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts because she's been giving back to this community for literally as long as I have ever known her. So when you started at the City of Walnut 15 years ago, clearly you have built fantastic relationships because you have a team back there that's here to tell you how much they're going to miss you as well. But your creativity has already been spoken about, but the relationships that you built. So what we saw today at the reception earlier, your senior community, they are going to miss you. And I know we talk about like, oh, you know, somebody will take your position. Nobody's going to be able to take those relationships. You built them year after year after year. Those seniors, they loved you in that room. And I hope from that you take from the city those memories of that impact that you've just done on so many people. We will miss you. We'll miss your creativity. I definitely will miss everything. All of your invitations were so fantastic. But we wish you the best.

Hi, Kim. Good evening. And again, thank you for your 15 years of dedicated services to the city of Walnut. You know, a big part of the senior center, you know, through organizing events, dance, games, Yeah, the seniors will miss, even the youth will miss all your energy and your love for them. So we wish you all the best in your retirement. Enjoy your crafting, your NASCAR adventures, and time with your family. Congratulations again, Kim.

Thank you. Not only Kim and also Mr. Watts, I remember you was the leader of the 789, right? Thank you. Thank you for the swap family service to the community. And also, please remember we are the big family. You see, the family member is right there at the back. Raise your hand. Oh, hi. Thank you. And now, on behalf of CDO or not, I want to present the city tire to Ms. Kim Watts, congratulations on your well-deserved retirement after 17 years of dedicated service. That's 15, but here's 17. I believe 17. 69 okay all right and dedicate service to the city of walnut wishing you a wonderful retirement ahead august 2026 now it's time for you to say a few words it's okay

Okay. Well, I got plunked into Walnut just quite by mistake in 1980. And I lived in my city now 46 years 46 plus years. I can't imagine being anywhere else. I'm so lucky to have, you know, been a part of this community. And yeah, I'm, I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere. So I know I'll see you all here and there. And but yeah, I'm going to try retirement on for a fit, so we'll see how it goes. All right, thanks.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. All right.

Thank you.

I would like to have you join us. Thank you.

Can we get in there?

You want it from the center?

Thank you very much.

This concludes the presentation portion of the meeting. Now, we'll move on to your communication. City Clerk, please read the following statement.

Yes, Mayor.

Thank you.

Under Government Code Section 54954.3, any person wishing to address any item or issue not on the agenda or any item on the consent calendar may do so under oral communications. The Council may listen but may not act on items that are not already on the agenda. For those who are present and wish to speak, please come up to the podium, state your name, and limit your comments to three minutes. When you have finished, please return to your seat. If you are participating in this meeting via Zoom, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. To raise your hand from the phone, please press star nine. You will be recognized one at a time. When it is your turn to speak, you will receive a prompt and your line will be unmuted. Please state your name for the record and limit your comments to three minutes.

Thank you. City Clerk, do we have any email comment?

No email. I'm sorry, have been received, Mayor.

No email? Okay. And are there any member of the public wishing to address? the council under oral communication. For those who are present and wish to speak, please come to the podium, state your name for the record, and leave me your comment for three minutes. Thank you, please.

Mr. Harrison, Creekside. We're losing two gems. Kim and Jamie were outstanding representatives of the city of Walnut. It would be very hard to replace them. I met Ms. Kim years ago, and she's been the same person day in, day out. So she's a real asset, was a real asset to Walnut. Let's not forget that September 15th is Spanish Heritage Month, and I'm hoping that the council can see their way to representing the Spanish community here in the city of Walnut. We tend to forget to recognize, in my opinion, people of color. State of the Brothers. For some reason we can't seem to get a store. But my question here is not getting a store. Have we reached out to the public to say do we want a Chinese store, Filipino store, Hispanic store, American store? No one's, I'm just saying. We have not reached out to ask anything. We've had several study sessions. We have had one on State of the Brothers. We need to find out what the community wants. And council needs to do a better job of informing the community. Where are you on this? We're in the dark. We don't know what the hell's going on. We're just out there hoping for a store. No one's given us any direction in terms of how close we are to a store, what kind of store we're getting, or are we going to get a fund center, or another 24 hours. Speaking of 24 hours, I want to thank Dr. Wu. When I reached out to Dr. Wu, 24 hours, I'm sure the council are familiar with the incident, 24 hours. If you're not, you've been under a rock. Absolutely an abomination, just absolutely terrible. It took me two hours and 22 minutes to get someone to come out and clean the place up. It was absolutely, I can't say what it was because it would be in bad taste. Oil Man 2. I remember Mrs. Freeman gave him a chance, another chance, another chance. You get a chance, go over and look for a man, too. It's also poorly, I mean, truly poorly maintained. Same goes with 24 Hour Fitness. They're doing a great job painting, and the homeless love it. They're doing a great job. Homeless are out there all the time. I had one, I said, good morning, and he cussed me out. I was like, okay, then I'm not loved by him. So I would think that the city would do a better job of... policing 24 hours. I did talk to the police department. They have no jurisdiction over 24 hours, nor does the city. It's private property. I was told that they're going to have officers out there every day, and that's not happening. The only thing out there every day is homeless, people sleeping in the cars, and we need to do a better job policing all of Walnut, making sure all of Walnut is up to snuff. Thank you.

Thank you.

Please. Good evening. My name is Obi, Obi Okoro. Anyway, I just want to put in attention about the city council. You know, last, for several times I've been reporting the trail. There's a lot of trail that are broken, fallen and everything. it's really looked bad and a sore eye to the community. So I sent several, I submitted online through our city website, but then no one paid attention to that, and still I don't get any result issue. But I know there's a proposal to change those trail, but at least, you know, since the proposal is not in there yet, then probably the council put attention, take care of those trails around the community. Because a lot of people, especially in spring and summer, people are walking and going out and walking day and night. And even here along La Puente, there is a trail in Butterfield Park, an uneven pathway. And at this time, thank God, it's already fixed and they even even the pathway. And so I also comment on give a city comment on that because they fix it and see it's very convenient to walk now. But then there's still a lot of issue along the seat of Walnut that trail and not taking care properly, especially those handrails and everything. So I hope put that in attention. And so to look beautiful, our city. And I know those wood ends are rotten and everything, but then if you put, because that signifies, you know, when you see those kinds of trail, wooden trail, it's the, oh, I'm in Walnut City. So... And again, thank you for at least it's fixed that this time. And I hope some other trail put in action and fix it. And so to make our city more beautiful, not only to the city of Wall community, but also to those visitors. Amen. I mean, so that's a thing that we like to put in all this. So, but then I did not submit any more photos because I said to myself, anyway, not getting for attention, but then, you know, but this time they put one place, but I acknowledge that, and thank you for putting that in order, but I hope every part of our trail in our community will be fixed as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, and the staff is right there with, take the information. Thank you. Yes. Everything OK? OK. All right. Thank you. Please go ahead. Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council Members, City Staff, and Community Members. L.V. Frazier, Library Manager of Walnut Library, here to let you know what's going on at the library. So I wanted to give a shout out to City Staff for dropping by the library and filming a fun introduction to library staff. So you can check it out on the City of Walnut's social media pages. It's pretty cute. I also wanted to announce that in partnership with Grammy Award-winning artist Leve and our Leve Book Club, we've released a second drop of our limited edition Leve Book Club library card. right here. So we still have some left at Walnut Library while supplies last. Each customer may receive one card and must be present to pick it up. If you already have a card but want the limited edition design, a replacement is only $1. Also, if you've been looking at LA County Library social media pages, Hello Kitty and Friends is coming to LA County Library. We've dropped our first clue on our socials, but keep an eye out for more information about what exactly that will mean. And coming up next month, we have Paint Night for Adults on Wednesday, September 16th at 5.30. On Tuesday, September 22nd at 6.30, we're offering a Triple P Parenting Seminar on Developing Healthy Screen Time Habits. So this seminar is for parents of kids ages 3 to 12, and it helps go over strategies on handling issues with screen time for families. and finally in remembrance of dolly parton a true advocate for literacy and belonging for all you can use your library card to access her books music and films in our la county library catalog so to access our dolly parton collection please visit the link in our instagram bio at our walnut library or la county library pages that's all i have thank you thank you thank you for the information

Meeting administrator, do we have anyone raising their hand requesting to speak via Zoom?

No one via Zoom, thank you.

Okay. And this time I will close our communication. There are no minutes of public hearing scheduled this evening. We will move on to the consent calendar, item one through eight. Do anyone of my colleagues wish to put any items for discussion, I will put on number eight. Any?

I will make a motion to approve items one through seven. Second.

I have a motion from Councilmember Low and second by Councilmember Freeman. and please conduct the roll call. Oh, vote right here, okay, right.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. I need your excuse. I need to excuse item number A, Mayor Potan. Could you lead the meeting? I have a conflict. Thank you.

Yes, item number eight is the notice of decision of the August 19th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting dealing with two properties there with one of those being on McAllister Drive and the second one on Monica Way. Is there any discussion on this item?

A motion to approve? Motion to approve item eight. And the second? Second.

Electronic bill, please.

Mayor Pro Tem, I'm sorry, let me make a quick change. May I take a voice vote, please? It's not changing what I need to change. Mayor Pro Tem Traegars?

Yes.

Council Member Friedman?

Yes.

Council Member Long? Yes. And Council Member Cajules?

Yes.

And motion carries 4-0 when absent by Dr. Wu, Mayor Wu. Thank you.

Thank you, all right. We will now move on to council discussion transaction item number nine, city council goal setting workshop. City manager, do you have a staff to make a report?

Yes, Mayor, thank you. Assistant City Manager Chris Vasquez will present information on this.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Mr. Mayor, members of city council, good evening. Item before you tonight is just a discussion related to the council desire to move forward with a goal setting meeting or a workshop. So this evening we are not speaking or talking specifically about goals, priorities related to the city, but this is purely to have a conversation as to whether or not the council wants to move forward with that. and direct staff appropriately. But again, as summarized within the staff report, a goal-setting workshop, generally speaking, is held specifically for that type of meeting. There are no other items discussed during that time. It's typically a day-long meeting itself or workshop in which the council, members of the public, staff are in attendance and the primary purpose is kind of multi fold I guess but it's to identify a broad range of City Council goals and priorities you know as it relates to the city itself both near term and long term moving forward soliciting input from the public it's important to get the community's input as far as what the community feels may be important to them from a goal-setting perspective it also provides the opportunity for the council to provide a framework for which these goals and priorities how they're achieved it gives staff direction in terms of what's needed to achieve those goals but then most importantly it's also to produce a sort of deliverable if you will in terms of How do we get there? You know, we know what the broad range of goals and priorities are. We more narrowly get to how do we achieve these goals? And then again, what the end result is what we're looking for. There are a number of cities in the area that have done such workshops. Chino Hills is probably the closest to us. Most recently in January or this past January, they had a workshop. It was held on a Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So an all day event, they did have a consultant facilitate that meeting. The price to bring a consultant on board, again, ranges depending on what specifics the council may be looking for. But in this particular case, it was just about $18,000 that they expended. And that's just to bring a consultant on board to facilitate that meeting, do some initial kind of work in terms of like quality of life surveys that go out to the community. All this information's gathered to help provide the council with the tools that they need to figure out the direction in terms of, you know, again, goal setting and priorities. That doesn't include any type of follow-up costs that may come out of that for staff to implement or, you know, move forward with that. Oftentimes a goal setting workshop does transition to more of an in-depth strategic plan. I guess the most closest kind of document I can refer that or compare that to would be like the city's general plan, which again is the kind of the blueprint or framework for how like the city is to be developed, you know, and all the different, you know, various elements that go into that. But something very similar. So it's an in-depth package. Just briefly, some other cities in the region or the area that have also had similar type of workshops. You're looking at Rancho Cucamonga, City of Ontario, Eastvale, Westminster, Paramount, La Cunada, Flintridge, and in the They all vary, for the most part. They are bringing on consultants to run these meetings and facilitate them, and then, of course, provide follow-up. So with that, we just want to receive the council's feedback on this and direction as to whether or not this is something you do want to move forward with, and if so, some specifics as to a timeline that you would like this to move on so we can start working on it and figure out what's needed to bring this back. Thank you. Thank you.

City Clerk, do we have any email or comment received for this item?

No emails received.

Are there any member or public wishing to speak on this item? Those of you present and wish to speak, please approach to the podium. And please limit your time, your comments into three minutes and state your name,

for their record, thank you. Mr. Harrison, I think that's an outstanding idea. I'm looking forward to doing that. I'd like to know when would they start it because for some reason we're very slow about getting information out to the public. But I support a goal type of situation where the public's concerns can be addressed and we can move on them. That way we can hold council accountable for things that are not being done in the city. So is there any, if you approve it, how will we know that you're gonna have these meetings? Do we know when we'll start? Because again, like I said, I think it's outstanding. It's an excellent program if indeed we decide to go forward on it.

Thank you. Meeting administrator, do we have people raise their hands requesting to speak via Zoom on this item?

No one via Zoom. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, any city council member have any question or comment regarding this one?

Yes, please. Thank you, Mayor. Assistant City Manager, in terms of the scope that we have looked at at other cities and how they've approached this, do all of them bring on consultants or is it a portion of them? What exactly does that look like? Thank you.

Yeah, so it does vary. So again, of the cities, I kind of just listed, you know, just over a handful, about half of those have retained consultants. But if, but if you take a look at those, those cities, whether they've hired consultants or not, they're, quite frankly, much larger cities. So they've got, you know, a number of staff that they have available to facilitate, you know, these type of workshops in house, if that's what they choose to do. For example, the city of Rancho Cucamonga in Ontario, did not hire consultants. Chino Hills, although a larger city as well, did choose to bring on a consultant. So it's just really at the pleasure of the council as to whether or not they want to do that. And of course, the workload of city staff at the time to be able to facilitate such an event.

Thank you for the information. Mayor, can I?

Yes.

So I actually was the one who suggested bringing this discussion to council after my discussion with our city manager. And I know as a council, and the city should know that this council really is well run in terms of communication. But there is the Brown Act that keeps us from truly engaging in a group conversation. So this is the only time that we get to do it. So when I was with the city manager talking about, I've been here six years, and how many goals that I had set that are what I consider behind schedule, or maybe we haven't hit certain things, talking to our city manager about, well, I'm not sure where my colleagues are on certain directions of goals and that's where i was like is there a period of time that colleagues sit down and do i was thinking study session i do appreciate our um our staff uh researching it to the point of consultant but i i don't know that a consultant is going to be anything different than sorry chris i would put it on you uh guiding a conversation about where our goals are. I know, I feel strongly like the five of us, of course, it's community safety, and of course, it's community development, and of course, it's community engagement. That's three topics that's just generally for everybody. But within those topics, I do feel like, look, if I talk to Tom, I can only, I can't talk to all of them, so then it's like, how do we get our information or our thoughts out on I'd like to see this become a priority for the city, or I'd like to see this. I mean, we've done so much, but I still think we suggest things, and they just get kind of put down the road, and we never quite bring them back. So that was my point on bringing this, on having the five of us sit down together and just be able to talk with the community about what they feel like Where should we be going quicker? We are doing, I have to say, honestly, Community safety. It's great, right? We can't ask more of our sheriffs, our fire. They are protecting our city. They are doing great. But we have invested in it. This council has invested in the idea of keeping this community safe. So without taking anything away from that, I mean, we have a traffic and safety committee and we have We did post and rail, which is a situation in terms of aesthetic, but also safety in the city, if you want to consider that. But just things that we've been doing, I think mayor is doing an advisory council, things we're doing already, but other things that I feel like get pushed a little bit down. And I'm just wondering, that's where I'm, I'm wondering if my colleagues are interested in it. I don't feel we need to spend time money out of the budget on this. It's more just, do we wanna have more of a dialogue about what conversations are? Like, I know we can't, we're not talking about goals, but I'm just saying things that have been moved down. the Mt. SAC sign, right? Where are we putting this on our priorities? Where are we putting the senior center? Where are we gonna put that on our priorities? Where are we gonna put things that we wanna decide? That's my point. I do wanna say, though, to the city staff and to the city manager, I so much appreciate the updates that are given, what is going on, so I truly appreciate that. If I ask any kind of question, there is a response from everybody, but it's more, I don't know necessarily what you guys are thinking are the goals for the city. I feel like we do a good job making good decisions, but that's where it came from. So I just wanted to give a background as to where it came from because our assistant city manager just did a great job on presenting the idea of it, but I don't know if it has to be so global, so big.

On the same page with you there, Council Member Friedman, if we did proceed, I would also be inclined to not take on a consultant as long as staff is comfortable with facilitating that. And furthermore, in terms of the date scheduling, obviously a date that works for everyone, but probably something prior to the holidays, but far enough out that everyone has fair notice.

Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Patin?

Yes, actually I've brought this up previously, calling it more of a goal setting or strategic planning. Contract cities, we did it every year, a strategic planning session every summer, every year at the beginning of the new year with a new board. Sometimes we had consultants and sometimes we didn't. I think it's a good idea so that when we're seeing what the goals are, we're sitting out of expectations. I'm glad it's finally made it here, up here. I don't think we need to expend the money on a consultant, though. I think we can handle that internally.

Council Member Cajoles.

Thank you, Mayor. I agree with the idea, and thank you for the presentation, Assistant City Manager, and thank you for explaining it to Council Member Friedman. My question will be, will this be like every six months or quarterly goal meeting? Or this is different from study sessions, correct? So could this goal in this meeting, if we proceed, will that also go towards the study session? It's like, this is our goal now. So now we have to study. I mean, how will you incorporate the study session in goal setting? How do you differentiate it?

Councillor Magulis, that's a great question. So the next steps, if the council were to give the direction to move forward with this, staff will look at scheduling to bring this back. And so it would be an actual agendized meeting for this particular item only. And again, it would be with the council and the community to be able to come in and provide input. The frequency of it, generally speaking, they're generally annually, either like on a yearly basis, or at the council's direction. It can be something that's either biannually or we've seen three-year framework strategic plans. So it really just depends, I guess, on the goals and priorities that are set and the time that's necessary to kind of check off those boxes. But those timelines would be identified at a later date once we kind of have a handle in terms of what we're looking at and what the frequency to be. Now, there would be updates provided more than likely on a more frequent basis, just to advise the council of various goals that have been, you know, the box is checked off or that we've already met those milestones. But in terms of relooking and evaluating those, no less than usually a year annual basis.

Okay. And I believe in the staff that... You'll be able to handle it. But that's a different, you know, conversation and a different, you know, it depends on the goal setting and but have What do you say confidence with you guys that you'll be able to help us or direct us with the school setting as well. Thank you.

For me, I believe this is a good idea. I support this idea, but same thing. We don't need to spend money. We don't need to. I just don't know, consultant, do they have any computer model to analyze anything, or they just come out with the, how do they analyze the input, I mean, the data they collect from us?

Yeah, so they look.

$18,000, you know.

So that's a great question, Mr. Mayor. So they actually use a lot of different sources of data. They look at economic factors within the city. Obviously, they look at public safety numbers, trends, things like that. They also do, whether we direct them to do like social media campaigns, surveys to the community, quality of life surveys, just to kind of get feedback from the public to see what's important to the public. For some folks, public safety, even though public safety is doing great, that still may be a priority to them compared to other, other topics for example, but they use a variety of data sources in addition to doing their own surveys to compile a list of information to help the decision makers make their decisions on this.

And how many pages of the report we are expecting after we spending $18,000, $500?

It varies. So I've seen reports as small as 50 pages. I've seen some stuff that's hundreds. But again, it just depends on the level of detail and specificity that the council is directing staff to do. Some items may be pretty straightforward. Others may have more, I guess, follow-up or I guess just more boxes that need to be checked off to meet the milestone itself. It depends. The framework really just depends on the direction.

So it varies.

That's correct.

There's other cities, they comment about the consulting service good or something. They say it's something they cannot do it.

No, so like Chino Hills, for example, they've used, you know, consultants for this past year in 2026, they use the same consultant in 2023. It was $17,000 in 2023. So that's about the going rate for it. But the cities that use consultants, they tend to do so more or more consistently than not. And for them, that's what works. But again, every city is different. So Okay, thank you.

Mayor, I believe that a lot of times cities use consultants because maybe they're not as good in communication. And again, I feel the five of us are very strong and a facilitator is really what we're just looking for. I don't think we need a consultant, but it's once we decide on the main topics of goals, a facilitator can chart down what we have at that point. That would be my thoughts.

Mayor, may I? My apologies, just very quickly. Sure. I have expressed recently the capacity that we're at with staff. Here at City Hall, I'm currently down four staff members, including full-time executive team members and things of that nature. I personally asked Chris to look at a nearby city and a recent example of it regarding what they did. Chino Hills is much bigger than us. They have a huge staff. We do not have a big staff. It really is gonna depend on how the council wants to approach this. I've been doing this for almost 40 years, and I've seen these programs happen, and they're great. And it's actually a good thing that the council's discussing this and looking to do this, because it is a beneficial endeavor. But this usually spawns a tremendous amount of work, follow-up, studies, All kinds of things. Outreach. In our community, and we hear it tonight, it's very important that the public is aware and notified and part of the process as well. That takes a lot of work, takes a lot of time. And that's why that was included in there. The council already, I've communicated that to council. We're doing the absolute best. We already run very lean. We have a public works department with two people. Admin right now, if you go upstairs, you see all the empty offices. We are very careful about hiring more staff, trying to take care of business if a staff member leaves, seeing if there's other people that can wear more hats. So that's never been a problem for this staff. We're ready and willing. But the reason that was included in there was because right now, yeah, it's extremely busy. And if you look at our website compared to others, Other cities have deficits and they're still hiring like our neighbor. We don't do that. So I just wanted to make sure the council was aware why we, I asked Chris to put that in there. It wasn't just kind of thrown in there. So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. So do I have a motion for item number nine?

I'd like to move that the council sets a time for maybe an extended study session even, two hours if that's enough, but to set a goal setting facilitated I don't wanna put more on the staff, but again, it's just in that meeting, I'm thinking chart papers at this point, right, of listing goals. So I just don't envision it being that, but I do think from that point, Tom, I think to your right on, could it spawn more work? Yes, but I think that's gonna be important because the council then will have, their own direction on what priorities are. So I think that is important that we do have the discussion. So whether we recommend a two hour study session or call it a goal session, that's fine.

What about the time?

And time frame and I don't know what would work. If staff is so pushed, we could even do it to January and just call it New Year goals if you want, 2027.

Yeah, it really is up to the council. I mean, we can come back very quickly with it. It's just a matter of scheduling it on a study session. And we don't have to wait that long. My reasons to give the feedback wasn't necessarily, hey, let's wait a while. I just want the council to be aware where we're at, what the expectation is, depending on what direction this goes. Because again, I have been involved in other cities in my past experience in five other cities where sometimes it's kind of a mellow process, but many times, with the outreach and other things that spawn from it, it can be quite involved. So as far as the timeframe, whenever the council's ready, we can get things started for sure.

You mentioned about January, right? 2020. I'm okay three months after.

In that regard, if I may, Mayor, I do have a question. I know we are looking for a someone to replace Jamie's spot and will we have them onboarded and will we find someone by that time to be able to have a bigger team before we? By January?

Yes. I hope so. Our standards are pretty high in terms of staff that we bring on board here, obviously. So I would hope so that we would. But again, we're down several staff. We don't have a bloated staff here. That's the point I was trying to make. And on top of that, we have several vacancies, some which will not be filled, one that I quickly realized we were going to try to go the rest of the year without it. After a 72-hour period where Chris and I were dealing with things all over the weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I said, this is probably not going to work. The council knows how staff operates. If you give us a green light to do something and go, we will go. And we'll do the absolute best we can to make sure that we're helping the council achieve the goals, not to be redundant, but it's not an issue. Time frame shouldn't be an issue. I don't want the council to misunderstand my feedback regarding it. Just other cities, big cities, huge staff, they can pick two or three people to run with it. Smaller cities that are already... very lean consultants sometimes are used, but council gives us a green light to go. We'll go anytime they want.

Why don't we wait till January to do it?

Completely up to the council. If you tell us in 30 days, come back with it, we'll have a study session ready to go in September or whatever you want, or it could be January, whatever you want. That's up to the council to talk amongst yourselves and let us know.

I would prefer January, 2027, yeah, thank you.

Yeah, that would be a good New Year's goal setting.

Sounds good, I think it's a good start to the year.

So we'll set, the first goal is to have this meeting in January.

Well done. So then I do, so do we need any kind of, discussion beyond that.

Did you make a motion?

Because it's a discussion, are we making a motion?

I think we have, we don't need a motion on this. I think it's been very clear, it's been a good discussion about it. I think January is a consensus from what I'm hearing from at least three of the council members so we can come back. And that'll give us time too to maybe, we may come to you really quick, whether we wanna do outreach before or anything to set up that meeting. But what we understand is we'd have maybe a two hour allocation for a study session here in January, which will be here pretty quickly. We're already in September almost, so. Okay, thank you. Staff will have that ready for the council.

So we don't need to vote any action on this item, right? Okay.

Mayor, prior to you closing it, I just want to make sure we're okay with two hours. I know we've had two hours before to talk about like Post and Rail and that we were crunched on time. So I just want to make sure I'd rather over-prepare than under-prepare. So if we're eyeballing two or if we think maybe three. I know our assistant city manager went from nine to three. Um,

if my yeah i would agree with council member law because we don't know and if it does end early that's fine but even if we did a three to four hour session and called it and early it's fine but it's a matter of um you know time frames and and would it be a four to eight um session to be called um but i i i do think in regards to council member lost point uh being safer

and giving the time we can do that and you know for the council and i'll take your feedback it doesn't necessarily have to be on a council evening it could be on the off wednesday we start at a certain time and then you know the council eventually will say okay four hours we're done here but that could be done too that way there's we don't run up against a council meeting and it gives us enough time

Right, that sounds great. And I think if we're inviting all the public there, I want to be respectful of their time. So if we're going with four hours on a non-council meeting.

Well, yeah, we can have a start time, and then it's really open-ended from there.

All right, thank you.

All right, any further discussion? Item number nine? No? We all have a consent, right? We have a, okay. Okay, let's move on to the announcement. Should we starting from Mayor Patel first?

Well, we had the opportunity to go to Contract City's event that they host with the Sheriff's Department, ALADS, out at the Arboretum. And it's always a wonderful event to go to. And our staff always, we get a good support from our staff. And it's always a theme. And they always do a wonderful job in decorating. And I really appreciate all your work. And I learned something new. The City of Walnut, we actually have an Olympic torch in our city from the 1980 Olympics. So right here in our city that we have that somebody donated to us. So I think that's pretty exciting with the Olympics coming up that we have one of the torches that was used in the 1980 Olympics. A little trivia, we should put that out in our case so people can see that, I think. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Lowell?

Thank you. I also attended the Contract City's LA County Sheriff's Department board meeting. Great event. Our staff did such a great job. And it was so cool to see the Olympic torch. I've never held an Olympic torch. And I didn't know we had one in WALA. So fun fact. I was also invited to a finance seminar from the Walnut Storytellers, and I was honored to speak to some high school students. And today I was at the California Contract Cities Legislative Committee meeting. Obviously, this is crunch time, and this week is a very busy week for our legislature. So just continuing to monitor all the bills that are heading to the governor's desk.

Thank you. I just wanted to add one more thing about the Contract Cities meeting. Keynote speaker was Sheriff Luna. And I think the other concern here that we all need to be concerned about our residents and everyone is the handling of the men's jail in downtown LA. That is the big concern, because there's a lot of discussion with our county supervisors It's a very outdated old jail. There's discussion about tearing it down, but then there's going to be where are these inmates going to be placed. So I think our city and our staff should be cognizant of that and be giving input on that, because I think it's something that's going to affect all of our cities. If Man Central Jail is closed, then there's not another location.

Thank you. Council Member Linda Freeman.

I want to give a shout out, congratulations to Love Cha Cha, our churros and chili quiles place that this morning, Channel 5 News came and did a segment to promote their business, which they reached out. And I just think it's great anytime we can get some spotlights on our businesses in Walnut. So anytime we can do that and from our city perspective, really appreciate that. the spotlight on business segments. I think that's very important that we continue that in a pretty high level so that we can support our businesses in the area. Also attended the Contract City Sheriff's Center, which was great. but I want to give a shout out to Nogales High School that opened up their new aquatic center last week. It is beautiful. They have not only an Olympic-sized swimming pool that's gorgeous, but then they have new dance room, band room, everything. It was beautiful. So I was able to go with Director Barcelo, and it was fantastic. So congratulations to them. but also I wanna let us know, let the community know two big things happening this weekend from Mt. SAC right here in our backyard, right? We've gotta use what's in our city. So Mt. SAC football team does start this week. So this Saturday they are, welcoming everybody to come and watch. And am I correct in saying that that entrance is free for Walnut residents on Saturday's game? So if you want something to do, I think that's a great thing. We can go and show their support. But the big thing that is happening at Mt. SAC this weekend is the Paralympics Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. This is an international event. So these people are coming from all over the world. That is a Paralympics event, but they will be swimming at this pool. It's also free. So it is just going to be, I think, pretty fascinating to see which world class athletes perform right here in our own city. So. if you want, that's happening Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So lots happening, and I think it's great if we can really shop and eat and entertain ourselves in our own city. So way to go, Walnut. That's it.

Thank you. Council Member Cajoles.

Thank you, Mayor. Also, I attended the contract cities together with my fellow council members. And thank you, city staff, for a well-decorated table. We could have one with our torch. for the Olympics table. And I would like to congratulate our Walnut High School football team. First game, they won 16-13. That's it, Mayor. Thank you. And before that, thank you for the city staff, our law enforcement, our fire department for all you do to our community to make our community safe and for the staff making it beautiful. And again, thank you, council members, for your time, for helping our community to make a better and happy Walnut. Thank you.

Thank you. For me, I didn't go out last two weeks. I stayed in town. I stayed in my city. And August 13, I did attend Jamie Bumi's farewell. city's facility. And August 26, today, I attend the retirement together with Ms. Kim Watts. And I'm hoping the summer will get cool down soon. Yeah. Thank you. And let's move on. There's no city council, lay business. We will now recess to City Council meeting to the Walnut Housing Authority roll call will stand as previous call. City Council, please read the following statement. Thank you.

Yes, Mayor. In compliance with the announcement provisions of government code section 54952.3, council members receive a $50 stipend for each Walnut Housing Authority meeting they attend. Thank you.

Thank you. I will now call the Warner Housing Authority meeting to order at the 8.03 p.m. Okay. Do we have any comment to be read or request to speak during this portion of the meeting?

There are none.

No one via Zoom.

Thank you. Thank you. At this time, I will close our communication. There are no public hearings scheduled, so we will move on to the authority consent calendar. We do have two items under consent. Do I have a motion?

Mayor, I motion to approve items 10 and 11.

Second. We have a motion by Councilmember, oh, Authority Member Low and second by Authority Member Cajoles. Let's vote.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. There are no authority discussion transaction or lay business for this evening. The authority will now adjourn to the City Council meeting. Our next regular scheduled meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 at 7 p.m. I will now adjourn the meeting at 8.04 p.m. Thank you all for attending City Council meeting. Thank you.