Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

On July 16 the Monterey Park City Council majority (Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Peter Chan) adopted the election results from June 3 on the zone change from commercial to residential at 2015 Potrero Grande allowing 80 single family units to built on that site.

Councilmembers Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing abstained on the election results.  They were concerned that this developer offered money to a landowner in another city not to oppose their zone change request.  They asked our City Attorney Mark Hensley if the developer’s actions were legal.  They did not want to promote this type of behavior and will not support the election results.

Mr. Hensley said the developer could sue Monterey Park to force this approval. He said the developer offering money not to oppose a zoning change may not be unlawful but it may be a moral issue. He would need evidence of voter fraud to stop the election or set it aside.

During the discussions on the water, sewer and trash rates staff stated that our city only requires the developers to pay an impact fee for public safety (fire and police).

This Council should consider adding impact fees for our library and parks to help reduce the additional expenses required to service a hundred or more additional residents.

They should check with legal council to see if the city could charge the developers any other impact fees since all of their projects will reduce the quality of life for the residents of Monterey Park with more traffic and more people.

Also be sure that each and every property tax bill requires the new property owners pay their fair share of our library bond.

Over the years I have seen the developers go crazy building up this city for their own profits. Now I want to see Monterey Park receive additional profits from these

developers for the benefit of our hometown.

I called Resurrection Cemetery’s office (323-887-2024) at the Rosemead / Montebello location and asked them if they knew about the 80 unit project across the street from their facility. The spokeswoman said she was not informed about the project.

I asked her about the number of funerals they had per day and she told me they average 10 funerals a day.

They have two gates into the cemetery and the funeral processions are instructed to travel east on Potrero Grande to one of the gates.

She reminded me that the cemetery is very busy when family members visit their loved ones and decorate their graves for the holidays and birthdays.

I recall attending a friend’s funeral in early December last year, parking was hard to find as people were already decorating the graves for Christmas. It seems to be a cultural event in California.

The new property owners will need to receive an education on funeral procession etiquette since they will be seeing them almost daily.  The instructions should be included in the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions.

The City Clerk has not received the final bill for the June 3 election to be paid by The Olson Company.  It may take the county until September to send the bill to the city for the June 3 election.

The Olson Company filed another Major Donor and Independent Expenditure Committee Campaign Statement received by the City Clerk’s Office dated July 28, 2014.

This statement reflects total expenditures and contributions from January 1, 2014 until June 30, 2014 of $135,196.96.

Each one of their 2,268 yes votes cost them $59.61 per vote.

Their total cost of each yes vote will be determined when they file the next campaign statement with the final costs of the election. The next filing date will be after December 31, 2014.

It will be interesting to see how much The Olson Company paid for each of their yes votes.

To those Monterey Park residents who objected to the increase in our water, sewer and trash rates I hope you saw the water damage caused on Sunset Blvd. when their 30-foot water line broke. It sent thousands of gallons of water gushing up into the air and caused torrents of water to flow down the street. The water caused very expensive damage to buildings on the UCLA campus as well as the students’ cars parked in the underground parking garages.

The pipe was installed in 1921 according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

This pipe was years younger than Monterey Park’s 100-year-old water and sewer lines.

Their water line brake was a wake up call to all of the cities and states that our old infrastructures needs to replaced or repaired as soon as possible.

The greatest loss was all of the water that flowed into the storm drains and out to sea in the middle of the third driest year in recent California history.

The people can help with water conversation but our government must rebuild or replace our infrastructures.

We, the residents, must share the financial burdens to keep all of us safe and secure.