Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

In 1971 when my husband, Frank and I moved into Monterey Park the city had an in-house attorney who had his office in the old City Hall. I recall that he was a resident of our hometown but I don’t remember his name.

Our current City Attorney Mark Hensley was hired to protect our city, Monterey Park from harm that includes various lawsuits.

I am concerned that he and his legal team did not properly review the city’s current contract with Los Angeles County who now runs our city elections. It was presented as a cost saving arrangement to save us money.  After attending the Budget Hearings in May I don’t believe that is a true fact.

When One Legacy wanted to open a business in Saturn Park to harvest body parts in a building they designated a hospital complete with helicopter service. Our attorneys and some staff members failed to check on our city laws that do not allow a hospital in that neighborhood or helicopter service in our city. The residents remembered and spoke out against this project. I hear that One Legacy wants to sue us.

Now the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project based in Texas and their attorneys, Shenkman & Hughes based in Malibu have forced us to redistrict our city based on the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 to elect more Hispanics into office or be sued.

Did our legal team ask for a legal opinion from the California Attorney General on this matter? Did our legal team confer with a Constitutional Attorney or a Civil Rights Attorney on this issue? Did our legal team file a complaint with the Department of Justice that we have been forced to amend our City Charter by a Texas group to insure that more Hispanic residents maybe elected into our local government?

I believe that our legal team could have done a better job serving our Monterey Park.

I have suggested to City Manager Ron Bow that the city publish a copy of our Voting District Map in the Cascades with a web address and phone number at City Hall to help educate the voters.

Peter Chan asked our City Attorney after the five sitting Councilmembers approved the Voting District Map if we could delay the Voting By District until after the 2020 Election?

Our City Attorney advised them to move forward with Voting By District in the 2020 Election. He expressed concern that Shenkman could sue us if we do not proceed to Vote By District.

I guess Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian did not explain this legal issue to their supporters.

I want our City Attorney to explain again to the residents why Districts 2, 3 and 4 were sequenced for the 2020 Election. Since District 2 has one sitting Councilmember, District 3 and District 4 do not have any sitting Councilmembers in their districts.

So this was a legal and moral decision based on the facts and to help prevent us from being sued by Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

District 1(Hans Liang) and 5 (Peter Chan) will be Termed Out based on our Term Limits law voted on by the residents in March 2013. District 1 and District 5 will have opened seats for the 2022 Election.

Our City Clerk and City Treasurer will still be voted into office At-Large.

Maybe this Council should think about putting Term Limits back on the ballot for the 2020 Election since we are no longer free to vote for our City Council At-Large.

Maybe our legal team should have consulted other legal experts before they stated that we must Vote by District or be sued?

The State of California did not demand that we Vote By District. We have allowed an outside agency to bully us to give up a right to vote for the best people to govern our hometown.

Councilmember Teresa Real Sebastian (District 5) and Councilmember Mitch Ing (District 1) are very upset that they will not be on the 2020 ballot for reelection and must wait until 2022 to run again for our City Council.

I am very upset that all five of our Councilmembers (Peter Chan, Hans Liang, Mitch Ing, Teresa Real Sebastian and Stephen Lam) did not instruct our city attorneys to research this issue with the California Attorney General, California League of Women Voters, the Democratic Party leaders, the Republican Party leaders, the League of Cities and any other agencies that could of provided us with legal advice.

At the June 5th meeting supports of Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian started a Recall Election to remove Peter Chan and Hans Liang from their Council seats for the 2020 election. Stephen Lam will be up for reelection in 2020 so they cannot recall him.

They are so desperate to retain their seats that they are causing a large division in our hometown.

Their reasons for the recall were not stated during the reading of the Recall Documents.

Mitch Ing was elected to our City Council in 2007, reelected again in 2011 and reelected again in 2015.

Teresa Real Sebastian was elected to our City Council in 2011 and reelected again in 2015.

Based on our Term Limits law they have both served two terms but were grandfathered in because they were sitting Councilmembers before the 2013 law.

Councilmember Real Sebastian was at first delighted that new law would help elect more Hispanics to our local government.

Now she must win a recall election against Peter Chan to gain a new seat on our City Council in 2020.

Now Mitch Ing must win a recall election against Hans Liang to gain a new seat on our City Council in 2020.

Some of the Real Sebastian and Ing supports were yelling and screaming like little children at Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Stephen Lam during the June 5th meeting.

I believed that Mayor Chan should have them escorted out of the Chambers for their malicious behaviors. In the past other residents have been escorted out of the Chambers by police officers and even arrested for their actions.

I live in District 5 and will not be voting for any of these angry residents if they choose to run for office in our hometown.

Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing I am very disappointed in you and your supporters. One of them used a racist slur against another resident and another one used profanity when expressing their anger.

These two speakers owe all of the elected officials, residents and staff a public apology for their outrageous behavior.

One speaker reminded me of the angry youth in “Catcher in the Rye” and the other speaker reminded me of the racists in “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

Maybe Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing should sue Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project for forcing them out of office because we now must Vote By Districts.

I am sure that you can ask for financial contributions from the residents, other elected officials and people offended by the actions of the “Hispanic Think Tank” from Texas and their Malibu attorneys.

Now Monterey Park is again at war because of the legal actions by Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project have caused our hometown to spend over $119, 459 to meet their racist demands.

Perhaps we, the Monterey Park residents, should join with other victimized cities, counties and school boards and sue Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project for interfering with our legal rights to vote for our Elected Officials At-Large?

I hope our elected officials would instruct our legal team to join with other legal teams to sue Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project for violating our civil rights to vote for the best people to serve us, the U S citizens in California!

We cannot re-write our history but can learn from our mistakes.

God help the United States of America when liberals and progressives demand that we amend our laws to suit their political agendas.