Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

FAX: 626-307-9081

On Friday October 14th I drove a friend into downtown Monterey Park because she wanted to visit the AT&T store located near Garvey and Garfield.

After driving around that neighborhood for 25 minutes or so we could not located the AT&T store because all of the signs were in the Chinese language with small English subtitles.

We stopped at the police department for directions and a nice police officer provided us with the located of an AT&T store near Ralph’s market on South Atlantic.

The foreign language signs do not welcome everyone into our downtown-shopping district.

I attended the September 27th Planning Commission meeting. I don’t believe that commission has the power they should have since the residents demanded the City Councils put the interest of the taxpaying voters first.

The Planning Commission was created in the 1980s to control the overbuilding of our city by developers who were looking to make a fast buck at the expense of Monterey Park.

One developer planned to build a gated condo development in Garvey Ranch Park.

We, the taxpaying voters, passed a law that no one could develop our 13 parks for their residential or commercial projects.

In the 1980s our city staff determined the number of condos or homes that could be built on each lot zoned R-2 or R-3.

As a result many of the housing projects built on the north side of Graves are over crowded with condos that have no green space on their site.

So again, the taxpaying voters, voted to reduce the number of units that can be built on each site.

Two of the Planning Commissions only rubber-stamp the staff’s report because they believe that our staff knows best. They don’t know the history of our hometown and should be removed from their seats.

History is beginning to repeat itself when our employees have the final say on the development of our hometown. Our staff should remember that we, the taxpaying voters, are their employers.

I spoke at Oral Communications during the October 19th meeting. At the Council Meeting of October 5th I told you that I attended the September 27th Planning Commission Meeting to support Commissioner Margaret Leung’s request to have the committee review our Municipal Code 9.06 Aircraft and the additional codes that pertain to airplanes.

Commissioner Leung advised her fellow commissioners that she was advised by the city attorneys to bring up this issue as a recommendation.

Three commissioners recommended that the airplane noise issue be presented to the Council for their review and code amendment chances.

At the end of the October 5th meeting Vice Mayor Teresa Real Sebastian advised me that she removed Margaret Leung from the Planning Commission for a “Brown Act” violation.  She did not explain how the “Brown Act” was violated.

Margaret Leung is a leader in our city against low flying and noisy airplanes.

She created an open group page on Face Book to advise the residents how to report any airplane issues.

Our city attorneys have continually told us we have no jurisdiction over the FAA so the airplane issue is not city business.

At one time two other commissioners were logged into the Face Book page but they did not participate and made no comments on the issue. Therefore the “Brown Act” was not violated according the definition of the “Brown Act”.

Our city attorneys have continually told us we have no jurisdiction over the FCC.

Therefore the city has no power over our Internet and Face Book services.

Our city attorneys determined that Margaret Leung violated the “Brown Act” without all of the facts.

Did our city attorneys review the updated version of the “Brown Act” and the Electronic Communication?

Did our city attorneys request a legal opinion from the FPPC before they took acting against Margaret Leung?

The city attorneys should have reviewed other legal opinions before they made their judgment call. Their rush to judgment could damage the credibility of our Monterey Park government.

During the October 19th meeting the Council heard from City Clerk Vince Chang that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wanted all of the local elections to be handled by the County Register/Recorder staring with the March 2017 elections.

The supervisors determined with the county that low voter turnout was their main reason to require all general law cities to pass their election power to them.

The California Voters Participation Rights Act (SB 415) was passed on September 1, 2015. It prohibits a local government from holding an election on any other date other then a statewide election date, if holding the election on a date non-concurrent with the statewide election.

The elected officials in Sacramento determined that this program would improve voter turnout in California. They are demanded that all of the cities or counties plan their local elections be held in November on the even years by December 2021.

The Monterey Park City Council voted to give Los Angele County the legal right to hold our March 2017 election and plan to reconsider the matter not later than December 2021.

They reasoned that this would save money and make it less confusing for the voters to have only one ballot on Election Day.

This is a power play by Sacramento that brings us to one more step closer to the infamous “One World Government”.

California is the home to many immigrants (legal and illegal) who have no desire to become US citizens and participate in our form of government.

They live here to obtain our personal freedoms of religious rights, free speech, education, good medical care and more.

Some of these immigrants are colleting welfare, food stamps, free medical care and Social Security benefits without paying into our system.

Some of these immigrants are given HUD Section 8 housing benefits over US citizens.

Some immigrants bring their customs and languages into our United States of America.  They demand that their children be taught in their native languages.

They demand that we honor their customs but they are not interested or honor our American traditions.

The United States of America is the only country in the world where you can be from another country and still be an American.

We have a low voter turnout in California for many reasons.  One reason is that some US citizens believe that their vote no longer matters.

They have seen time after time when a proposition wins and the losing side takes that case to court to overturn the voters’ decision. So they are correct that sometimes their vote does not matter.

Another reason is some elected officials preach to their audience that their social-economic group (race, religion, sexual preference, etc.) is special and no one can represent them unless it is an elected official from their same group.

Therefore many voters who do not belong to those groups feels left out by these elected officials and decide not to vote in the election.

Another reason is people don’t register to vote and vote is because they can be ordered to serve on jury duty.  It is one of our civic duties that most Americans rather not participate in …… our legal system.

The major reason people don’t choose to vote is that their lives are so busy and stressful. They don’t have time or the energy to pay attending to our elected officials who run our government.

This is a bonus for the elected officials who are running our government for their own personal agendas and financial gains.

The American voters used their due-diligence in voting in our November 8th election.

They did not listen to the elite of the news media; Hollywood, sports figures and elected officials who declared that Hillary Clinton needed to be elected as our first woman president.

These groups decided that “We the People” are not smart enough to decide the fate of our America.

“We the People” voted to elect Donald Trump as our 45th President. He listened to our concerns about job security, national security and financial security.

Donald Trump supports all Americans and will continue to make our America first in the world again.

“We the People” researched the history of Hillary and Bill Clinton and voted not to allow another Clinton to disgrace us in our White House.

Most people who peddle influence for personal gain are arrested for violating the law and face prison time under the RICO Act.

Now that the Clintons have been defeated by the vote of the people will they be arrested for their crimes? Only time will tell.

Our November 8th Election Day is one for the history books as the American voters took back our country from the elitists “One World Government” who want to destroy our “Land of the free and home of the brave”.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!