Citizen About Town

By Nancy C Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

By now most registered voters in Los Angeles County received their General Elections Official Voter Information Guide for the November 8, 2022.

It explains the State Ballot Measures placed on our ballots as well as the candidates for several State offices.

I live in Monterey Park where we now have to vote for our City Councilmembers by Districts because of a threat of a lawsuit by a Texas Think Tank that decided that Hispanics in Monterey Park are not being elected to serve on our City Council.

I live in District 5 so I will be voting for Delario Robinson a 20-year resident of our city. Delario has served on several commissions. He also closely follows the actions of our City Council and City Commissions.

Delario Robinson has many good ideas to move our city forward with adding more businesses and keeping our good city services.

He  supports our Ballot Measure MP that will increase our sales tax from 9.50% to 10.25% that will help support our city services.

I also support Jason Dhing in District 1 as a great Council candidate.  He has served on our Library Board for many years and always dressed up as a story book character during the Library Board Fundraisers that were called “A High Tea”.

Jason Dhing is a long-term resident of our city and has many good ideas to move our city forward with adding more businesses and expanding our library hours and services. He supports our Ballot Measure MP.

I also support Jose Sanchez in District 3 as a great Council candidate. He is a teacher at Alhambra High School.  He and his wife have young children.  He has many good ideas to move our city forward by adding more businesses and increasing our education services for our future adults. He supports our Ballot Measure MP.

I support and will be voting for Hans Liang for our new City Clerk. Hans has served as our City Councilmember for the last eight years. He is well aware of how the City Clerk conducts the Council Meetings. Hans Liang will help to teach our new Council members about their new jobs. Hans Liang supports measure MP.

I support and will be voting for Vince Chang as our new City Treasurer. Vince has served as our City Clerk for the last eight years. He is an attorney, a business owner and a member of the Greater Monterey Park Chamber. Vince Chang will continue to keep out tax dollars in safe investments. He supports our Ballot Measure MP.

I support and will be voting on Ballot MP that increase our sales tax from 9.50% to 10.25% to help pay for our city’s services.

I  support Bob Gin and will be voting for him to retain his seat on the Alhambra Unified School District Board. He serves the residents of Monterey Park who live in the Alhambra Grammar School and Alhambra High School Districts. Bob Gin has worked hard over the years as an Advocate for our students.

On the October 5^th Monterey Park City Council Meeting Agenda Item 4-A was a hot issue: Consideration and possible action to adopt a Resolution Finding a Public
Necessity to Acquire Real Property through Eminent Domain and
Authorizing the City Attorney, or designee, to file Eminent Domain
Proceedings to acquire real property owned by Center Int’l Investments
(“CII”) identified by Assessor Parcel No. 5254-002-031, located on
Garvey Avenue for the purposes of completing and maintaining the
Goodview’s Abatement Project (“GAP”).

During Oral Communications one speaker, Maychelle Yee, a candidate for City Clerk yelled at the City Councilmembers and City Clerk about this issue. She slandered them  when she called them “thieves and liars or not”. She stated that they were responsible for the hill sliding by allowing new construction to be built on that property. She also stated that our increase in sales tax would be used to stabilize that hill.

Maychelle Yee lied to the public since our sales tax dollars will not be used to stabilize the Goodview’s hill side.

My nickname for Maychelle Yee is Miss Potty Mouth because she always yells at our elected officials when she or her best buddy Teresa Real Sebastian disagree with them.

She wants to serve as our City Clerk but she left the meeting before the Public Hearing on 4-A so she had no idea of the final vote.

During Oral Communications another speaker, Delario Robinson, a  Council candidate for District 5 responded to her statements. He works with several financial institutions. Monterey Park needs the sales tax income increased to 10.25% to pay for our city services. It will not be used to stabilize the hillside. He is happy in Monterey Park. He will donate money to the city to help repair the Barnes Park swimming pool.

Ron Bow, our City Manager and Karl Berger, our City Attorney addressed the many issues that apply to this property site located at 1688 W Garvey Avenue.  The property is 6.22 acres.

This property has had many owners over the years.

Please see the City’s staff report published on the city’s website for this agenda item.

Goodview’s first purchased the property in 1978 to build single family homes on the site. The property was declared unstable so the developer did not build new homes on the site.

Center International Investments, Inc purchased this property on September 16, 2008 with the idea of stabilizing the hillside and requested R-3 zone to build 31 homes from the city.  Later they asked the city to change the Zoning to R-1 and build 16 single family homes. CII had stated that the project would not pencil out for them.

CII failed to honor their many contracts with the city to stabilize the site so in 2013 the city filed a Nuisance Abatement with their corporation. They had failed to stabilize the hillside. So, in 2015 the city again filed against CII. In 2017 the city and CII reached a settlement agreement. Again in 2019 and 2020 the settlement agreement stated that CII needed to make improvements to keep the hill side stable.

On October 13, 2021 the city took over the project. The city expects the hill side to be stable by the end of this year.

In August 2022 CII had 6 weeks to work with the city. CII failed to stabilize the hill side so the city must secure the CII  property for public safety.

The estimate value of the property is $6.4 million which could increase to $7.5 million. The cost to stabilize this hill is estimated to be $10 million to $12 million.

The property owners need to be liable.

The Public Speakers included Ms. Ong the attorney for CII. She said that on October 4,2022 CII wanted to stabilize the site but the city did it first. She stated that the city wants the property for free. CII wanted to build housing. She claimed the city pulled the grading permit from them.

Another speaker was Teresa Real Sebastian, a City Council candidate for District 5. She questioned the  cost of the project to repair the hill side could be $12 million to $14 million according to the August 18, 2022 staff report. She stated that the appraised value is $8.6 million for two of CCI’s properties. What will be the public use? She suggested the costs to repair the site could be $20 million.

Teresa Real Sebastian served on our City Council for 9 years or more. The Goodview’s hill side has been an ongoing issue that she did not address at that time. Maybe to stabilize this hill side would have cost less money in the past. She as a Councilmember did not address the dangerous hill side issue.

Another speaker was Jason Dhing, a Council Candidate for District 1. He is glad that the city is doing something about the Goodview property that is in his district. He asked if the city is getting their money back. He supports this project but the city needs to get their money back from the developers. The project could cost $13.7 million.

Another speaker was former mayor Frank Venti who said that years ago Willie Lockman said the property was an ancient landslide. He asked who did the soils report? It is an unbuildable site. Please don’t develop it. He recommended that the city also sue CII and their corporate officers for failing to honor their contracts with the city.

Two other residents also spoke. They questioned the public use of the property and where will the money to repair the site be coming from?

Karl Berger, our City Attorney stated the city will not be paying for these repairs. The city has placed a lien on this site for $6.4 million and a lien on their $1.2 million property is South El Monte.  The city is working on the transfer. Monterey Park is not going to use the taxpayer’s money.

This is a Public Project for public health and safety to keep the hill side stabilized. The city expects the cost to be $12 million to stabilize the hill with grading, and filling in the land. They are monitoring the site and there has been no movement since the city’s work.

Ron Bow, our City Manager said we are taking control of the issue of the Goodview slope by adding more walls. The city had a grant to stabilize this site. Over the years Garvey Avenue had to be closed until the site could be stabilized. The city had an obligation to protect the residents.

Councilmember Peter Chan asked if the city had Court Orders to take this property through Eminent Domain. He recalled all of the issues with this dangerous property over the years.

After a very lengthy discussion between Peter Chan, Karl Berger and Ron Bow ( you can see the repeat of this meeting on the city’s cable station) Karl Berger advised the Councilmembers and the public that our attorneys have taken all of the legal steps to take this property through Eminent Domain. CII failed to honor their contracts with the city and never completed their obligations.

Councilmember Hans Liang stated that Peter had provided the history of the site and Karl Berger and Ron Bow answer all of his questions. He was excited by CII’s project to build more homes in Monterey Park. He said the city has done its best and CII failed to meet the deadlines set by the city. It is about safety.

Councilmember Yvonne Yiu said she was excited by CII’s new project to build new homes in our city. They failed to stabilized the hill side. She agreed that Eminent Domain is the best deal to

protect the residents.

Ron Bow again reminded the residents that the sales tax increase would not be used to pay for this project. The funds would used to support our city services.

Mayor Henry Lo said we have been dealing with this issue since the 1970s. CII has refused to make the repairs. We need to repair the hill side now. It is about our future.

The Monterey Park City Council all voted after considering the report and any other relevant evidence from the entire administrative record, adopt Resolution No. 22-xx, authorizing the City Attorney, or designee, to commence an eminent domain action for acquiring real property located at Assessor Parcel No. 5254-002-031 (requires an affirmative TWO-THIRDs (2/3) vote of the City Council).

This was a very interesting issue as the city has been concerned about the Goodview site where the developers cut off the top of the hill in the 1970s to build a housing project.

The Goodview developers may not have had a proper soils report done and have an engineering company advise them on the best way to stabilize the hill side.

Since the property will belong to Monterey Park the Council and residents may decide of the public use of this hillside location that maybe used for a park or maybe a dog park.

Please be sure to vet your candidates running in our local, county, state and federal elections.

Please review all of the Propositions and be sure you vote to make positive changes or vote no to not make any changes to our laws.

Please vote on November 8 as the future of our United States of America is in the hands of us taxpaying voters.

May God continue to bless us and our United States of America!