Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-Mail: nancyarcuri@the citizensvoice.net

FAX: 626-307-9081

My Oral Communications at the March 16 Monterey Park Council Meeting:

Welcome back Anthony Wong, we are glad that you are re-elected to the Monterey Park City Council.  We know that 2,223 voters in the city did not believe the lies that were spread around town about you. Now you have another term to help bring prosperity back to our hometown.

Congratulations Mitch Ing 3,099 voters believe in you and are willing to give you a second chance. Remember to focus on city business and leave the personal attacks out of the chambers.

Teresa Real Sebastian 2,546 voters decided to give you a chance to serve the residents. We expect you to vote your conscience.  Remember you are a Real Estate attorney and government law is a different specialty. If the city attorney and / or the city manager caution you not to speak out on a subject listen to them.  Our hometown does not need to incur any more liability.

David Lau thank you for your service to our community. You are a peacemaker who is dedicated to the city.

Betty Tom Chu you have said many times in the last few months that you want to retire from the Council.  Now is the perfect time since we just had a general election and the Council majority can insuflaveis appoint Bob Gin with 2,080 votes to finish out your term.  Think about it.

Monterey Park needs to work together as we move forward in this period of world turbulence.

We residents expect this Council to be civil towards each other, our staff, business owners and us taxpaying voters.

Do not disappoint us.

Betty Tom Chu responded that she would not give me the satisfaction of resigning from her council seat. I responded to her that is OK with me as I enjoy writing about her.

For several years now Mitch Ing has been requesting an investigation from the city attorney on the legality of former Councilmembers Francisco Alonso and Fred Balderrama receiving medical benefits paid by the city (taxpayers).

The irony of his request is the investigation done by Mark Hensley, the city attorney and his staff found eight current and former elected officials have been overpaid in approximately $85,600 in health care premiums paid by the city (taxpayers).

Paul Talbot, the city manager has sent them letters requesting repayment for their overpaid premiums. According to figures released by the city: City Clerk Dave Barron owes $4,378; Councilmember Betty Tom Chu owes $11,674; Councilmember Mitch Ing owes $11,571; Councilmember David Lau owes $13,147; City Clerk Joseph Leon owes $30,027; former Councilmember Frank Venti owes $2,092; Councilmember Anthony Wong owes $2.52; retired Councilmember Francisco Alonso owes –0- and retired Councilmember Fred Balderrama owes $12,762.

Several elected officials added their spouses and children onto their medical, dental and vision policies. Some of our officials have stated that they did not know that they were receiving these benefits that are more expensive than the state law allows.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this issue in Monterey Park, Alhambra and many other local cities that have the same insurance benefits.

After all the elected officials in Monterey Park, Alhambra and smaller cities are part time employees.  These cities and corporate America do not provide benefits to other part time employees.

Councilmembers Betty Tom Chu, Mitch Ing and Frank Venti hired City Manager Paul Talbot, a former Alhambra Councilmember.

Councilmembers David Lau and Anthony Wong and Council watchers were not sure if he was qualified for the job and concerned about his business/personal relationship with Mr. Venti.

Monterey Park has been without five department heads and another department head will be retiring soon.  Mr. Talbot had requested Council vote to “unfreeze” the position of Management Services Director so he could have some help in reorganizing the management staff of the city.  His plans call for fewer managers with several departments reporting to one manager  (i.e. Finance and Human Resource Departments reporting to the Management Services Director).

Mr. Talbot mentioned his concerns about Monterey Park being one of the cities under investigation by the District Attorneys Office. He said that he and the city attorney’s office are trying to straighten out the mess that former departments heads have left behind.

Well Betty Tom Chu turned on him and said that he should not have made that statement. It is a global investigation of all the cities. She will not be supporting his request. Councilmembers Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian agreed with her and voted against him too.

Councilmembers David Lau and Anthony Wong supported Mr. Talbot. They did not vote to hire him but believe he should be given a chance to succeed at his job. They said the Council majority has tied Mr. Talbot’s hand behind his back.

I suggest that Monterey Park resident John Gee, a retired County employee and budget creator, be hired for $1 a month as not to disturb his PERS pension to work with Mr. Talbot as the city’s Management Financial Director.

The irony of this investigation into Monterey Park was caused in part by former Councilmember Frank Venti planting stories in The Pasadena Star News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune to damage the reputations of former City Manager Chris Jeffers, former Police Chief Jones Moy, Councilmember Anthony Wong and former Councilmember Sharon Martinez.

The District Attorneys Office should investigate Mr. Venti for his actions as a Councilmember.  I submitted two complaints to the Public Integrity Division and my complaints were not investigated.

Makes you wonder if that old saying is true “politicians have strange bedfellows”.

This year’s Tree Memorial honoree is the late Verne Heitman, a longtime resident and volunteer in the city.

Councilmembers Lau, Ing, Real Sebastian and Wong voted to approve the motion and waive the $500 fee.

Councilmember Betty Tom Chu voted against the motion. She said she could not vote for this issue, as Verne Hetman was a member of RAMP that was a racist group against the Chinese immigrant.

RAMP was founded to help reduce the number of condo projects that could be built in the city and the number of units on each lot.

The residents felt it was necessary to protect the city by reducing the condo projects like the one on Pomelo north of Graves that the lot approximately 300 feet deep is completely covered by buildings and a driveway.  The only green space is the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the street. The fire department required the developer put a fire stand half way down the lot because the fire trucks could not use the driveway.

RAMP was and is not a racist group of residents.  They wanted to improve the quality of live for all the residents in Monterey Park.

Betty Tom Chu’s husband is the C in CVJ and Frank Venti is the V. They were developing Monterey Views, the housing project that overlooks Atlantic Blvd.  They wanted to cover the hillside with condos to increase their profits. That part of the project was denied by the city for possible code and safety violations.

They had a business venture and RAMP was looking out for the residents. They did not like it when the residents looked over their development plans.

Remember when a person cannot support their point of view often they call you a racist to try to shut you up.

Well that old trick does not work anymore as people learn to respect all points of view in the United States of America.

The irony of it all is Verne Heitman dedicated his free time and expertise to his hometown.

He had many friends of all races, religions and cultures. One of his lasting legacies is the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library, which he helped to design.

I can’t wait to see Betty Tom Chu’s legacy to Monterey Park.  Can you?