Citizen About Town

By Nancy C Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

In the 1980s Falcon Communications requested that Monterey Park allow them to place their cables on our telephone poles so the residents could enjoy cable television.

After much discussion the sitting Councilmembers, city attorney and city manager agreed to allow Falcon to install their cable service in our hometown.

Their decision based on the fact Falcon Communications would build us a cable television station here at City Hall.

The sitting Council, staff and residents were advised that our Council Meetings would go out live. There would be no “Bleep” button to delay the conversation if a speaker used profanity or racial slurs.

The mayor is our only “Bleep” button. He can gavel the offenders, remove them from the room, take a recess, and cancel the meeting.

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.

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. Based on the 2010 Census these districts have the highest percent of Hispanic residents.

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 District 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.

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.

At the June 5th meeting supports of Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian started a Recall Petition for an 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.

Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian are so desperate to retain their seats that they are causing a large division in our hometown.

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.

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

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 am a proud citizen of the United States of America. I enjoy freedom of speech and as the Editor and Publisher of The Citizen’s Voice newspaper I also enjoy freedom of the press.

I want to thank one of the speakers at the June 19th meeting forgiving me an advertising plug.

My husband Frank Arcuri began our newspaper in May 1986 because four of the five sitting Councilmembers refused our request to have English added to the Chinese language business signs.

Monterey Park became the First Suburban Chinatown. We lost thousands of dollars in sales tax because brand name businesses would not to relocate into a town where they may not make their bottom line.

I have been the Editor and Publisher of the newspaper since July 3rd, 1996.  In January 2009 I chose to become an Internet newspaper.  Now my readership lives in California, in the other 49 states, in Europe and in Asia.

Another speaker at that meeting said he is a Concerned Citizen of Monterey Park. He is not a dues paying member of our Political Action Committee. We founded our group to help promote civility at City Hall.

Three Councilmembers: Frank Venti, Betty Tom Chu and Mitch Ing were using their power to harass our City Manager Chris Jeffers, our city attorneys from Anthony Canzoneri’s law firm, other city employees and our residents.

In 2007 they forced Chris Jeffers to quite his job and fired our city attorneys.

Talk about corruption in Monterey Park.  I blame these three Councilmembers for trying to destroy people’s good names and reputations.

This speaker also blamed Judy Chu for any and all corruption in our hometown.

Judy Chu and I do not always agree on issues. I asked her for assistance on the Redistricting issue in December 2018. She is not a happy about it but it is a state issue.

I also spoke with Assemblymember Ed Chau on this racist issue. He said he would check into it but it will take time. We may have to vote by districts in the 2020 Council Election.

Now that all five of you Councilmembers voted to redistrict our city so Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project would not sue us.

You all could have said NO to these intimidators and proceeded to fight back like the Manhattan Beach city attorney.  You could have sued them for trying to destroy our legal rights to vote at large for the best people to govern our city.

NO you caved into their racial demands and carved up our hometown to suit these out of town bullies.

Now Mitch Ing, Teresa Real Sebastian and their followers want to blame Peter Chan, Hans Liang, Stephen Lam, Judy Chu and Mike Eng on the destruction of Monterey Park’s harmony.

They are telling more lies about Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Stephen Lam. No one on this Council voted for One Legacy. The city staff and city attorney did not know about our ballot measures that prevented helicopters from flying over and landing in our city. Or that Saturn Park is not zoned for a hospital.

I strongly suggest Mitch Ing, Teresa Real Sebastian and their supporters use their financing backing to sue Shenkman and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project for forcing you to sit out two years. You can run in 2022 if the residents forgive you for this power play.

I will not support your recall efforts against Peter Chan and Hans Liang.

Mitch Ing I voted for you because you are a good person and well educated on city issues. I overlooked your previous mistakes made with other Councilmembers.

Teresa Real Sebastian I voted for you because you are a good person and well educated on city issues.

I hope and pray that you all will place the needs of the Monterey Park residents over your political ambitions.

Since July 1776 our United States of America has fought many battles over the years to keep us a free and united country.  Many men and women died for their beliefs that our Republic while not perfect is the best form of government in the world.

In the last 50 years or more we have had elected officials and their supporters who want to rewrite our history to suit their own political ambitions.

They want open borders, no fossil fuels to be used for anything, freebees for all and pay people not to work.

My question to them who will be paying these bills?

We, the people, are our government and we cannot afford to support all of the people living on our Earth.

Remember that old adage “Charity beings at home”.  The United States of America is our home. We should be helping our American citizens first before we spend our hard-earned tax dollars on citizens of our countries.

There is another old adage “Teach a man to fish so he can feed himself”. Many religious organizations, service organizations and other groups are helping to feed, cloth and provide free medical benefits to many people in other countries. Some groups teach people how to create jobs in their villages.

We Americans are a very generous people.  We Americans are willing to allow people to immigrate into our great county but they must do it legally.

Some elected officials, judges and their supporters are violating the laws of our land with their sanctuary cities, disregarding our immigration laws and allowing convicted illegals to freely roam our streets.

These progressive/socialist people do not care about the safety of our citizens.  They are only looking to destroy our United States of America.

Please demand that your government representatives honor their Oath of Office to protect us from all enemies both domestic and foreign.