Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

FAX: 626-307-9081

Monterey Park has been a very busy city in September and October with several city and cultural celebrations.

City Manger Paul Talbot has decided to retire by the end of this year and return to his family insurance business.

Many residents want to wait until after the March 2017 Council election before his replacement is interviewed and a selection is made to fill his seat.

Assistant City Manager Ron Bow can be our CEO until the seat is filled. Perhaps he would like to become the City Manager.  Maybe we should ask him that question before the end of 2016.

Our Special Events Manager Dan Costley has stated that he is retiring in the first quarter of 2017.  He will be missed. He spends hours and hours of time making our city events very special.

The City Council has approved requiring more off street parking spaces for the larger homes in our city. It will not solve the total issue but it will help.

Residents were angry during the September 21st meeting when our City Manager Paul Talbot and staff try to restrict City Treasurer Joseph Leon’ responsibilities in our Investment Policy.

They wanted to allow two city employees: the Director of Management Services and the City Controller to oversee the citywide investment operations.

Residents informed the Council that we elected our City Treasurer to protect our funds.

The Council decided to not allow the revised Investment Policy to be come city law.

Our elected City Treasurer has the final approval on investing our city funds.

Another hot topic at this meeting was the Waste Haulers Contract issue that was approved by 71% of the voters as Measure BB.

Our new law requires that all of waste management haulers can bid for our $5 million a year contract.  The contract will be over seven years and cannot be extended without a new bidding process.

Waste haulers can bid for residential and/or commercial contracts.

Our staff is working hard to comply with our Municipal Code 6.09.050 that states that our contract must we awarded to the lowest bidder.

However, our law does have an escape clause, if the contractor cannot deliver as promised.

The Councilmembers discussed this very important issue. They had pros and cons over the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

Mayor Mitch Ing, Vice Mayor Teresa Real Sebastian and Councilmember Stephen Lam voted for the letter of the law.

Councilmembers Hans Liang and Peter Chan voted for the spirit of the law.

The staff report did state that not all of these 13 companies met our qualifications.

The Council majority advised staff to send out the Request for Application of all of the 13 companies that send in our applications during the Request for Qualifications.

The applications are due back to the city by October 27th.

The city will announce when they will open the bids in a public forum.

There will be a public hearing before the Council makes they final decision on our waste haulers and award our $5 million seven-year contract.

I spoke at Oral Communication during the October 5th Council Meeting.
I told the Council that I attended the Planning Commission meeting on September 27th in support of Commissioner Margaret Leung’s request to have the committee review our Municipal Code 9.06 Aircraft and the additional codes that pertain the airplanes.

Our Planning Commission is a quasi-judicial body consisting of five members who advise the council on policies and legislation relating to the regulation of growth, development, and environmental conditions affecting the city. They make their recommendations to the City Council.

Low flying commercial aircraft skimming the roof tops of our residents living on our highest hills on the west side of town has become a health and safety issue.

Some of the major airlines flying in to LAX from Asia and Australia are not following the flight altitudes as stated in our municipal codes.

They are flying lower than 1,000 feet over our city based on the complaints of our residents.

This City Council needs to review our aircraft codes and add the words commercial planes and drones to our code.

Since we no longer have any city aircraft taking off or landing in our hometown then 9.06.060 needs to be revised.

Two commissioners said that this is a federal issue since the FAA is a federal government agency and we cannot make any changes.

I disagree. “We The People” are the government and we have the freedom to speak up for changes to protect our family, friends and our hometown.

The FAA can have their wings clipped by the American voters.

I could not believe that the powers of the Planning Commission have been reduced to approving zoning changes, air space and other smaller issues.

I also noticed that two of these commissioners only rubber-stamped the staff’s decision.

The historic reason we created the Planning Commission in the 1980s is because the city employees decided how many units could be built on a site.

So our city was overgrown with large condo projects.

We had to vote to change our Municipal codes to reduce the number of units that could be constructed on each site.

It seems our Design Review Board now has the power to approve the construction and design of any new buildings to be built in our hometown.

The Council should keep a close watch over all of our commissioners so they do not

repeat our history and make the same mistakes in our hometown.

Another agenda item was 6-E Ballot Measure regarding benefits for our elected officials.

I agree that we should have a ballot measure curtailing fringe benefits for future elected officials.

Our dedicated elected officials receive $500 a month for serving part time in these offices.

Since the taxpaying voters elect our City Councilmembers, City Clerk and City Treasurer they should have a vote on their benefits too.

The Council was not sure of the correct action to take on pension and medical insurance issue they asked staff to do a survey on this issue with other cities and report back to them at the next meeting.

This ballot issue could cost us about $20,000 but could save us thousand of dollars in payments for pension and medical benefits to these part time employees.

The November 8th election is a very important day as Americans head to the polls

to vote for our next president, senators, congress members, state senators, assembly members, mayors, councilmembers, state, county and local laws.

In California we have 17 propositions to review and decide if they will help or hinder our daily lives.

In Los Angeles County we also have two additional ballot measures.

Voters must be very careful, as this election will determine the destiny of our United States of America.

Ask yourself do you want to live in a free country where you can determine your own fate and share in our American dream?

Ask yourself do you want to live in a socialist country where the government determines your fate and decides what part of the American dream your may enjoy?

Are your ready to lose your Constitution rights to a political correct government?

Are your willing to become a resident of a worldwide government where our Constitution no longer protects your personal freedoms and rights?

Do you want our Constitution to be trashed in favor of Sharia Law or other equally restrictive laws based on another countries religious or social laws?

Our veterans keep trying to remind us “Freedom is not Free”.

We need to see the bigger picture to save our United States of America from becoming another lost civilization.

We have lived in “The land of the free and the home of the brave” since 1776.

Please vote on November 8th to keep us free to achieve our American Dream.