Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

The Monterey Park City Councilmembers have been behaving better after their first team building session requested by City Manager Paul Talbot. Now they agree to disagree without name-calling or derogatory remarks towards each other, our staff and the residents.

During the June 15 meeting the Council discussed the tour bus issue. Councilmembers Betty Tom Chu, David Lau, Mitch Ing, Teresa Real Sebastian and Anthony Wong all agreed that the city can use the tourists’ sales tax and bed tax to help pay for our city services.

The item was pulled from the agenda after a two-hour discussion because they could not determine if the tour buses can be parked on Potrero Grande and Kern Avenue.  It was suggested that maybe the tour buses can be parked at the bus terminal near ELAC or the tour companies can buy a property on Monterey Pass for the buses to park there.

Several residents living off of Potrero Grande are upset that the castillo inflable buses may be allowed to park in the commercial area near the Markland Hotel. They complained to Councilmember Teresa Real Sebastian

The staff is working on trying to solve the issue of the city’s income vs. the residents’ wishes.

I live on the other side of the hill from Potrero Grande so the buses will not personally affect me. I do drive on Potrero Grande when I visit Montebello.

However the city does need the tourist taxes to continue our quality of life in Monterey Park.

During the July 6 meeting the Council discussed having our fire department enter in investigating the merging or sharing of battalion chief resources with Alhambra, San Gabriel, San Marino and South Pasadena. All these cities belong to Verdugo Dispatch Center.

Resident John Gee addressed the issue of Chapter 2.28 of the city’s municipal code 2.40.065 Voter approval for transfer of police and/or fire service. I have included his letter in the Letters to the Editor for your review.

City Manager Paul Talbot and Assistant City Attorney Karl Berger disagreed with Mr. Gee that the voters should have approved on signing the contract with Verdugo Dispatch.

I agree with John Gee that we the voters should determine the future of our fire service.

Mrs. Chu also stated that she has asked to county to do another study about our fire service being merged into the Los Angeles County Fire Service.

The residents should be kept in the loop about any possible mergers with another city or county fire departments as our personal safety maybe compromised.

The residents of all of the cities involved in these discussions should demand a workshop be held in their city by their city manager that is opened to public discussions on any possible mergers and consolidations.

The discussions have been presented to us as a cost cutting measure by the fire services.

However the voting taxpayers are very interested in this issue as it may not be to our best interest to loose our local fire services to other cities or the county.

I am very leery of the firefighters’ union wanting to assist the residents in cost-cutting measures based on their hunger to give our fire service to the county so they can earn more money.

Call your city manager and elected officials to express your concerns on any issue that affects your hometown.

Remember most of these elected officials only call you to solicit your vote at election time.

We are still able to have a say in how our government is being run and the votes to change our elected officials.

It is our duty to our fellow Americans to determine the fate of our cities, counties, states and our America.