Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

Happy New Year!

Monterey Park has several hot button issues in 2012.

One is the tour bus parking issue. During the January 4 Council Meeting they had the second reading of an ordinance to amend Chapter 10.62 of the city’s municipal code regarding the regulations for the operation and parking of tour buses.

It has been claimed that Monterey Park is now an international city with hundreds of tourists visiting our city every year.

The amendment to the ordinance would require merchants to request a permit from the city at an unspecified cost (to be determined by staff and Council) to park their tour buses in the proposed tour bus parking for their use and the use of their guests.

A merchant is defined as “hotels, motels, restaurant, cultural and entertainment centers and other retail businesses within the city”.

All permits must be approved the city staff and members of the Traffic Commission after a public hearing. The City Council will have the final right to approve or deny permits. The residents will still be able to plead their case as each permit will be approved or denied in public.

We maybe called an international city but our streets belong to a bedroom community.

Our hometown is well known for its 100 plus ethnic Chinese restaurants but we don’t have anything else to offer the tourists.  Most of the other shops carry teas, spices and herbs that tourists can purchase in their Pacific Rim countries.

Residents are aware that our hometown needs sales tax dollars to survive. We just do not see our hometown as a Mecca for tourists.

Twenty-two speakers addressed the issue.  Fourteen residents spoke against having tour buses parked overnight in our city as they cause health and safety issues.

They were concerned that this approval would open the floodgates to their hometown becoming the tour bus parking lot of the world.

The residents did not want history to repeat itself. In 2005 tour buses parked on the major roadways causing congestion and safety issues.

The Council majority voted to approve this amended ordinance.

Only time will tell if Monterey Park benefits from charging tour buses to park in our city to increase our bed and sales tax.

The major issue facing the residents of Monterey Park is some of our firefighters want to hand our fire department to Los Angeles County Fire Service.

They claim this move will provide better responses to our emergency requests.

Most of the residents are concerned that we will lose our four-minute or less emergency response time if we become part of the county fire service.

We will lose our paramedic ambulance service if we go with the county.

The county currently uses private ambulance services to transport patients to the nearest hospital.  If the patient is not stable then a paramedic rides in the ambulance with them and the other paramedic drive their truck behind the ambulance to the hospital.

I live near the city/county line and watch the county fire service in action.

One day I timed the arrival of the fire truck from the San Gabriel Blvd. station to Graves in Rosemead/South San Gabriel. Within five minutes the private ambulance arrived to join the firefighters.  Twenty minutes later the paramedics arrived on the site. I prayed that the patient survived to see another day.

A recent county response time to a three-alarm fire in Carson was nine minutes from the first call about the fire to the location of the fire. This was for the first alarm.

The buildings and several homes next to the site were destroyed.

Thank God that no one was injured or killed.

Some elected officials are calling for the transfer of our fire department to the county fire service a matter of dollars and cents.

Can you put a price on the life and health of you or your loved ones?

The Monterey Park City Council is calling for another Ad Hoc Committee of five people to review the two studies on the county fire issue.

The residents have already voted against going county for fire service but a few elected officials owe the firefighters a debt of gratitude for helping to get them elected into office.

Our firefighters are well paid and earn more overtime then their fellow safety officers, the police officers.

Some of our firefighters want to work for the county fire service but they won’t apply for the job by themselves.  They hope they will have a job grandfathered in if they give our hometown fire service to the county in exchange for a higher paying job.

Monterey Park taxpaying voters need to study the fire service issue and determine if you and your loved ones deserve a life saving response time of four minutes or less as our current fire department supports.

If you are interest if applying to join the Ad Hoc Committee call Monterey Park City Hall at 626-307-1255 and request an application for the committee.

Please study the fire service issue and attend all of the meetings to voice your concerns.

Once the fire service is given to the county there in no way the city can afford to buy it back.

The residents of El Monte are still upset that their City Council majority gave the fire service to the county without their approval on the issue.

Each year the county sends the cities they service a bill that increases as the firefighters receive more overtime and higher pay for their services.

These cities have no recourse but to pay and pay these fees.

The residents are not getting the same services each year and the costs keeping going up and up and their local governments cut the services back to a fee they can afford.

Don’t let this happen to Monterey Park where money is more important than someone’s life.

Please speak up and defend your hometown.

If this issue is place on the ballot be sure to vote for the best emergency service for you and your loved ones.