Citizen About Town
By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher
E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net
Fax: 626-307-9081

Monterey Park held their November 20 meeting at East Los Angeles Community College.  It was well attended by students and some teachers.  The students left before the meeting was over so only two residents, staff members and the Council closed out the night.

Two interesting items were on the agenda.

Item 11 was a presentation from Siemens Energy Services to modernize the city’s interior lighting, street lighting, heating, ventilation and air condition systems, demand response controls and the water meters.

The presentation sounded reasonable until they suggested that the city could purchase the streetlights from Southern California Edison. Siemens stated that some cities purchased their street lighting system from the power companies.

Most of the streetlights in our city are wooden poles with power lines, phone lines and cable lines attached.

I am concerned that we would be purchasing trouble with the streetlights, as we would be responsible for changing the light bulbs and all necessary repairs or replace any damages power poles.

Think about it…do we need these additional problems in our hometown?

Item 13 Shared Fire Services with Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, San Marino and South Pasadena.

I responded this is a very interesting option for the independent cities of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, San Marino and South Pasadena.  Montebello should be added to this discussion since these are the mutual aid cities that respond to most of our fires and serious accidents as well as some of the county fire trucks.

Any additional discussions should be held in public forums so the residents can provide their input and recommendations on shared fire services.

The city attorney should address if sharing our fire services violates any part of our Measure J. Will the residents be voting on this matter?

Who will hire the consultant and what percentages will each city pay their services?

Please do not use Emergency Services Consulting International, Inc. (ESCI) as they were very supportive of Los Angeles County Fire Services taking over our Monterey Park Fire Department.

I do recall that several years ago our former Fire Chief Cathy Orchard spoke with the Montebello fire chief on the possibility of shared fire services with the nod from the Council.  Then some former Councilmembers made her life so miserable that she was forced out of her job.

This Council should approve her disability claim since it is now OK for Jim Birrell our current fire chief to enter into these very same discussions on shared fire services.

The Council voted to go forward with the study for shared fire services.

Please attend any meetings being held on this issue.

Fire Chief Birrell announced that he is retiring on December 18.  During the December 4 meeting the Council agreed to hire him for three months as our interim fire chief.

The December 4 meeting had a full house for the second reading of our sign ordinance.

Item 13 Modern Latin Alphabet Signage on our Chinese business signs.

There were 40 speakers on this issue and three letters.

I addressed the issue. This Council majority (Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Peter Chan) requested the city manager contact several organizations to request their legal opinion on adding subtitles on the business signs so everyone could read the signs and determine if they wished to do business with the merchants.  This would help to improve our sales tax dollars.

The residents as well as members of our fire and police departments want to be able to located the businesses by their names since it is easier to remember a business name than a property address to report an incident.  This falls into the realm of public safety.

Three groups responded to date. The Asian American Advancing Justice determed that requiring the business name be in the Modern Latin Alphabet on our business signs is unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union determined that is “Not clearly unconstitutional” to require the Modern Latin Alphabet be added to the business signs. They had a speaker who determined that our ordinance to require the Modern Latin Alphabet on our business signs is unconstitutional.

Members of MALDEF did not support this ordinance.

The ACLU has the repetition of bring justice to people of all ethnic, religious and genders. I guess their exception of Monterey Park’s sign ordinance is political.

Members of the AAAJ seem to support only people of Asian heritage, which is unconstitutional, based the laws of our land.

Members of MALDEF seem to support only people of Latino heritage, which is unconstitutional, based the laws of our land.

Monterey Park is the home to people of many cultures who speak, read and write many languages. English is our common language.

I asked the Council to vote to support our sign law to require the Modern Latin Alphabet be part of the foreign language business signs. Please vote yes on this law to support all of the residents of Monterey Park.

One letter writer and nine other speakers including Betty Tom Chu and Frank Venti agreed that we need Roman letters on the business signs for our public safety and financial health.

The two letter writers and 30 speakers kept saying that all the business signs currently use the Modern Latin Alphabet so this is an unnecessary ordinance.

To date Monterey Park does not have a sign ordinance that requires the use of the   Modern Latin Alphabet or Roman letters on any new foreign language business signs.

The old ordinance requiring English on our business was removed from our laws in May.

Peter Chan, Mitch Ing, Hans Liang, Teresa Real Sebastian and Anthony Wong approved the first reading of this new sign ordinance to use the Modern Latin Alphabet.

The city attorneys wrote the new ordinance and stated they could defend it in court if anyone challenged it.

The issue became political. Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Anthony Wong delayed the second reading until the December 4 meeting.

Many residents said Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Anthony Wong were playing the race card and will never support them again.

High school students and their puppet masters from Asian American Advancing Justice packed the council chambers on December 4.  They asked the Council not to vote on this ordinance and adopt their resolution for harmony.

These speakers determined the business signs use the Modern Latin Alphabet now and the businesses can be located by GPS systems so this ordinance is not necessary.

AAAJ’s attorneys spent 100 billable hours but could not state any case law to support their opinion that this ordinance is unconstitutional.

Point of information all real estate signs in California must use English along with any foreign languages to prove that the realtor is not selling properties to one ethnic group.

Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing explained to the speakers that we do not have any ordinance on the books that require the use of Modern Latin Alphabet on foreign business signs.

They expressed their concerns to protect the health and safety of residents, business owners and visitors in event of any emergency that require a quick response from fire and police personnel.

Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Anthony Wong determined that this ordinance is unnecessary since all of the new business sign are still using the Modern Latin Alphabet.

It was pointed out that the sign manufactures still believe that Monterey Park requires the use of the Modern Latin Alphabet on foreign language business signs.

The discussion on this item lasted for three hours or more.

The Council let the ordinance die.  They did vote to require a report from the city staff in six months on numbers of business signs permits requested and if the signs use the Modern Latin Alphabet.

This issue is not over as the residents are complaining to Councilmembers Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Anthony Wong about all the Chinese only signs through out the city.

The residents will be reading every foreign business sign in the city and will be reporting any issues to staff.

We will be requesting a monthly report from the city on the requests for new business signs and visiting the businesses with Chinese only signs.

The residents of Monterey Park will not have their constitutional rights denied by one ethnic group.

Thank you Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing for supporting the residents, employees, business owners and visitors who want their personal safety protected in case of a fire, medical emergency or violence.

Shame on Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Anthony Wong for kowtowing (a Chinese word in English) to racists groups who used our ordinance for their personal political clout. Why are you betraying the voters who supported you during your run for Council? We voted for you as good people who would support our hometown.

Now we see your true colors. You proved to us that your ethnic heritage is more important than Monterey Park.

When our city is sued for violations of civil rights and constitutional rights by people excluded by Chinese only business signs are AAAJ, MALDEF and ACLU going to defend Monterey Park?

AAAJ, MALDEF and ACLU’s Harmony Resolution states it promotes harmony yet their speakers only promoted one culture.

The students really need to study American history and read our Constitution that we all have equal right under our laws.

Monterey Park solved our business sign issue over 27 years ago and lived in harmony until these “professional minorities” decided to destroy it.

Now you decided that one ethnic group is more important than all of us.

What a way to end 2013.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year.

May God bless all of us!