Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitzensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

It is true that history repeats itself.

During the August 3rd Monterey Park Council Meeting two issues appeared on the agenda.

Item #6-F Special Event Scheduling for the Geranium Festival and the 1010 Ceremony

This agenda item was requested because the supporters of the 1010 Ceremony wanted to use the Barnes Park on October 8th.

The Council was to decide on the scheduling of two different cultural events: our Geranium Festival and the Taiwanese 1010 Ceremony to be held at Barnes Park on the same day.

The supporters of the 1010 Ceremony then decided to hold their event on October 9th and not interfere with the Geranium Festival that will be held on October 8th at Barnes Park.

I provided the Council with the history of a Monterey Park’s 1010 Ceremony held in front of city hall that I witnesses as well as a copy of the Los Angeles Times Newspaper article dated November 27, 1986 written by Mike Ward.

He stated the facts why the 1010 Flag Ceremony was banned in front of city hall. Monterey Park residents objected to the ceremony as well as the Peoples’ Republic of China.

The Council majority at the time  (Monty Manibog, Lily Lee Chen, David R. Alamada and Rudy Peralta) decided that the flag raising ceremony would be OK using our US flag pole.  The Taiwanese ran our US flag down the flagpole and raised the Taiwan flag over our city hall.

The Americans saw “red” because their raised their flag over our city hall, which is the international sign of being captured by the enemy.

Downtown Monterey Park was already flooded with Chinese language business signs and the Taiwanese were buying up property in our city for two and three times its worth to own a part of Little Taipei that we were called at that time by some California elected officials and the main stream news media.

This Council majority refused to accept a petition presented by Frank Arcuri and Barry Hatch to add English to the Chinese language business signs.

During the 1985 Council elections Lily Lee Chen, David R. Alamada and Rudy Peralta were voted out of office by Monterey Park voters for their total disregard for the all of the residents of the city.

After the Council elections a new Council majority (Barry Hatch, Pat Reichenberger and Cam Briglio) created a law that no foreign flags may be flown in front of our city hall.

The 1010 Ceremony was then celebrated at Barnes Park without our US flag being flown.

I agreed with this Council decision as Monterey Park belongs to all of us.

6-H Tax Rate For Employee Retirement Benefit was another agenda item for discussion.

I reminded the Council that Monterey Park residents and employees should be grateful to our early city fathers and mothers for incorporated us 100 year ago.  We should also be grateful that they voted to establish a tax rate to generate the retirement property tax in 1946 and again in 1952.

Several World War II veterans stated that they became safety officers after serving in the US military. These jobs gave our veterans a chance to protect their loved ones and their community.

The $6.7 million dollars in the retirement property tax reduces our $8.4 million dollars in retirement expenditures by $1.7 million dollars.

The $.091175 per $100 of assessed valuation is not a heavy tax burden.

The Monterey Park Police Officers Association is asking the residents for their support in helping them receive more financial compensation.

Their billboard states the City Manager Paul Talbot receives $190,000 a year in compensation but they have not received a raise.

The new 80 houses for sale will increase their pension fund but we need more sales and bed taxes to increase all of our employees’ salaries.

We are all still waiting for the Market Place, the three hotels and other businesses to locate in our hometown.

It is always about money!

The Alhambra School District made the front page of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on July 29th.

The headline “Some skip conference session to see Clinton?”

The article written by Christopher Yee reported on a trip to New York taken by 15 staff members of the district to the College Board’s Preparation conference on April 18th and 19th.  He reported the trip was approximately $17,800 according to the district expense records.

Our tax dollars were being spent to further the education of the high school students from Mark Keppel, Alhambra, Century, Independence and San Gabriel.

The article stated that some of the staff did not attend all of the meetings that were paid for by the taxpayers. They decided to see the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton instead.

One or more of the staff bragged about seeing her on their social media accounts.

They took our tax dollars to attend this conference and ditch some of the meetings.

No wonder some young students believe it is OK to steal, lie, cheat and commit other crimes because their educators and political role models do it. So it must be OK!

Another insult to the taxpayers and the students was this conference was stated to help Latino students reach college.

Does the Alhambra School District think all Latino students need additional help to succeed in college?

What about all of the high school students from different ethnic groups?

We taxpayers are paying the Alhambra School District to educate all of our students so they can become successful adults.

Do people still think some ethnic groups are not as smart and well educated as their fellow students attending the same schools?

I was very happy to see the Garvey School District reach out to their school students to offer FREE All-Day Programs at two of their schools: George Sanchez Elementary School and Roger Temple Intermediate School located in Rosemead.

The district is offering a variety of enrichment programs and activities for their students.

The Garvey School District wants all of their students to be well educated and successful.

They are spending our tax dollars for their students’ successes.

Maybe the Alhambra School District should follow the example of the Garvey School District and spend our tax dollars to educate all of our students.

The American voters should be following the candidates for president as well as their state candidates, local candidates and other propositions scheduled for our November ballot.

Our United States is at a turning point and this election will determine the fate of our country.

Do you want to live in a Capitalist free country where you can become successful in your life?

Do you want to live in a socialist country where the government promises you everything for free?

You can follow the downfall of Socialism and Communism in the world today when the government can no longer provide free food, housing, education, vacations, health care and pensions.

The television news shows riots in the street of these countries that traded their freedoms for security.

Do you want our United States of America to continue to be a free and successful country?

Do you want our United States of America to continue to flourish as the “Land of the free and the Home of the brave”?

Please consider all of the candidates in this election that may forever change our America and rewrite our US constitution.

Your vote counts in this election more then ever before.

Please remember to vote in memory of all of the men and women who sacrificed their lives in the wars and at home for our freedoms on Election Day!