[0:00] And to turn this time over to the city attorney for report on the closed session. I mayor, members of the council. We had a closed session, a conference with legal counsel on anticipated litigation, but we do not have any reportable action. Great. We will adjourn this meeting to a meeting on Monday, October 3, 2022, that will take place in the council chambers located at 505 South Gary Avenue. I'm on a California closed session items will be discussed at 5 30 p.m. The open session will commence at 7 p.m. Just a reminder to everyone, please make sure that you

[0:29] You put your phones on silent, or just turn them off altogether.

[0:32] Also a reminder, there's no eating and council chambers, but you certainly can drink water.

[0:40] Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to Spanish, if you need Spanish interpretation, I'll call you in a second.

[0:45] If you require Spanish interpretation, we do have a bilingual interpreter.

[0:49] I believe, she hear it.

[0:54] Before that, we need to do the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:58] Wow, I missed that, didn't I?

[1:00] All righty, we will do the pleasure of allegiance if I could ever, everyone to please stay and thank you.

[1:04] Please

[1:10] put your right hand over your

[1:15] head and say some America and to the Republic for which it stands.

[1:20] One nation under God in the visible liberty and justice for all.

[1:25] Thank you, everyone.

[1:28] Thank you, Council Member Priscilla.

[1:31] Okay, if you do require a Spanish interpretation, we do have a bilingual interpreter.

[1:35] If you are speaking during public comment or on an item this evening, our interpreter must

[1:40] provide translation for you at the podium.

[1:42] Please raise your hand at this time to indicate you will need translation assistance.

[1:48] In addition, we have interpretation listening device equipment available for checkout in

[1:51] the lobby.

[1:52] I'll turn it over to you, Rosalia.

[1:53] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:54] If you zweite requiere en la protección en español tenemos un interpreta de engu��e.

[1:58] Es necesario que le importe interpretar, en el podios que usted va a hablar durante el tiempo

[2:03] del comentario publico o va a comentar sobre que uno de las temas en contra de la agenda.

[2:09] Por favor, levante Su mano en este momento.

[2:10] Si quieres interpretación en español, adicionalmente tenemos equipo de interpretación crawl

[2:15] en el vestíbulo.

[2:16] Thank you.

[2:17] Is there anyone that needs a Spanish interpretation?

[2:20] I'm not seeing any hands up...

[2:22] pero quedé más available.

[2:22] Okay, City Clerk, if you'll please do the roll call.

[2:27] Council Member Nolte?

[2:28] Here.

[2:28] Council Member Preciado?

[2:29] Here.

[2:30] Council Member Garcia?

[2:31] Here.

[2:32] Council Member Lestro?

[2:33] Here.

[2:33] Council Member Torres?

[2:34] Here.

[2:34] Vice Mayor Octavello's call.

[2:36] Here.

[2:36] Mayor Sandoval?

[2:37] Here.

[2:38] Okay.

[2:38] We move on to the next item.

[2:40] Next item is presentations.

[2:42] Our first presentation this evening is an overview of 2022 city summer recreational programs, activities,

[2:49] and events.

[2:50] Great.

[2:50] All right, we have Mike O'Suff with us.

[2:55] Welcome Mr. O'Suff.

[2:58] Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor,

[2:59] Council and community members.

[3:01] Thank you for having us tonight here

[3:04] for this presentation.

[3:06] I want to begin by thanking Mayor and Council

[3:09] for their support, really your investment in the community

[3:12] and especially youth programs,

[3:14] which is in part to why we're able to do more things this summer.

[3:17] So we're excited to report out on things we did this summer,

[3:23] We hope this through this presentation you're able to see that the team is really listening

[3:29] to what council is saying, what mayor is saying, what commissions are saying, and most

[3:32] importantly, what the community members are saying in terms of gaps that are in the community.

[3:37] Obviously, we have a long way to go, but the important thing is that we're seeing that we are

[3:42] continuing to make progress, and that there's been significant growth in programming over

[3:48] the past year. So with that, please know that the team has been diligent in expanding

[3:54] programming, offering locations, collaborations, inclusivity, and addressing social emotional

[3:58] needs, especially those that were worsened by the pandemic. Do you know that this presentation?

[4:09] Okay, there we go. This presentation probably should be an hour, but I'm going to try to

[4:14] and then sit down to 10 to 15 minutes.

[4:16] So bear with me as we kind of zoom through here.

[4:19] This presentation was also provided to Park and Rec Commission

[4:22] and will be provided to the Youth Commission

[4:24] if you'd like to hear it in long form

[4:26] and hear other voices besides mine.

[4:28] So here's the overview.

[4:30] This summer we had 32 day camps.

[4:32] So these are regular day camps that we had

[4:34] and other day camps that were offered

[4:36] through our outdoor and active program,

[4:38] which is in partnership with PUSD.

[4:41] This is notable because last summer

[4:43] We provided 10 day camps prior to that we were probably doing about one camp a year in an addition to our normal programming

[4:50] So this is a big shift this year where again

[4:54] We traditionally well offered our after-school programs year-round

[4:58] But in discussion with different community members

[5:01] You know mayor council really hearing that we really needed to tap into

[5:06] addressing the social emotional needs and so we shifted into offering

[5:09] speciality one week, two week camps over the summer that really address those through a wide variety of programs.

[5:16] We offered six overnight camp sessions, and so these were residential camps that we'll talk about in a little bit.

[5:23] We sent 180, 118 youth to overnight camps, we had 2,243 youth touch points, so those are group of catered numbers.

[5:32] And please know that those are, do not include everything that we did, but those were just with day camps.

[5:38] offered six movie nights, nine concerts, and 13 partners this summer.

[5:45] Here's kind of the overview of the different things we did.

[5:49] Just wanted to highlight this because it showed all the different locations that we were at.

[5:54] We really tried to make sure that we spread out opportunities throughout the city at different parks and community centers.

[6:02] So we offered many of the same camps again and again, but again tried to offer them different places.

[6:08] is so that more of the community members could get involved.

[6:11] One of the most important things to mention

[6:13] is that everything that we are talking about is free.

[6:17] So this was, all these programs are free to the community.

[6:20] There's a lot of youth focus here,

[6:22] but we also are gonna touch on some of the other things

[6:25] we did that were not specifically targeted at youth.

[6:29] So in our outdoor and active program,

[6:31] this is our partnership with PUSD.

[6:33] PUSD provided $300,000 last school year,

[6:37] year and they provided $375,000 for this fiscal year for us to get kids active and engaged.

[6:46] And so this has been a really successful program.

[6:49] Through this program, there was 1177 touch points, 402 kids registered, and this is just

[6:56] really again getting kids outdoor active exposing them to different sports and camps and whatnot.

[7:05] One of the things we did through the outdoor and active program, we recognize that sometimes

[7:08] we're going to run programming and sometimes we're going to pay other people to run programming

[7:13] and sometimes we're going to collaborate with people and sometimes if something's already good,

[7:17] just pay for the opportunity for kids to attend. And so in this case, we're able to send

[7:21] 30 Pomona youth through PUSD to St. Thomas Nature Center. So this is through

[7:29] LA County Park and Rec. And so kids got to experience a variety of things, including their

[7:35] animal ambassador program where kids got to be introduced to like birds of prey, for example,

[7:40] that are not able to be able to return to the wild. Get kids out there hiking and it just

[7:46] was a great exposure to kids. The sports camp is really kind of like a general sports exposure,

[7:56] so to the sports of football soccer, track and field, and seven different parks that it took place

[8:03] that provided snacks,

[8:07] many sports camps.

[8:08] So one of the things community has said,

[8:10] hey, we need to serve younger youth.

[8:12] Traditionally, we have been serving seven to 17,

[8:15] but we've definitely heard the community

[8:17] and saying we need to serve younger youth.

[8:19] And so starting with this program during the school year,

[8:23] we started serving ages down to four.

[8:25] And so really with the many sports camp,

[8:26] it's getting youth out there, young kids four to seven,

[8:29] just really showing the very basics

[8:33] of playing together at teamwork.

[8:35] It's just a lot of fun, a lot of silliness

[8:37] for those of you who have younger kids like myself.

[8:40] It's basically like a lot of bunch of ball,

[8:41] but kids are having a great time out there,

[8:43] learning and growing.

[8:46] Youth basketball was focused,

[8:48] obviously on basketball.

[8:51] Kids, you know, they're learning a little bit more

[8:53] as they get older.

[8:54] And so here they get the opportunity

[8:57] to practice and have games.

[8:58] We've been having ruffs.

[9:01] And so it's a six week program

[9:02] and 147 kids registered, ages 6 to 14.

[9:09] Day camps, these are other day camps that were not done

[9:11] through the outdoor and active program.

[9:13] So 386 registered, 1666 touch points.

[9:17] So again, wide variety of programs that we'll go through.

[9:20] So 24 day camps through this particular,

[9:23] these particular offerings, including our innovators club,

[9:26] which is, with steam focus of science technology,

[9:29] engineering arts and math, really getting our kids

[9:31] excited about those fields. You know we've definitely found when you make

[9:36] learning fun kids get more engaged and show greater interest in continuing in

[9:41] those career paths.

[9:44] Teamwork makes the dream work was basically a bunch of

[9:47] team building. Icebreaker type games where you know kids get to learn to work

[9:53] together better at three different locations. Kennedy, Ganesha, Westmont. Again

[9:58] there's open to kids 7 and 17 but as you can see in the picture the ages were

[10:02] where we're more around elementary.

[10:05] We had a summer H2O camp, so took kids to our pools,

[10:09] had some different water activities,

[10:12] including just old school water balloon fights.

[10:17] Don't worry to our public work friends,

[10:18] we did pick up all the water balloons.

[10:21] You'll notice on the bottom, we're using PBTA,

[10:25] so we use PBTA most frequently for our seniors

[10:29] to get to our meal programs,

[10:30] But during the summer, we partnered with them to make sure that we could get kids from point A to point B and to go on different field trips.

[10:39] Life skills focused on the teams, just getting kids ready to adult.

[10:46] They did a variety of activities with them over the summer, including budgeting.

[10:50] They took the kids to target, they all had a budget, due back to schools for helping things like that.

[10:56] this is the second year we're offering this and we're looking forward to

[10:59] expanding this more in the future. Pomona crates. It's art focused. We partnered

[11:07] with the DAW, visited them to kids there. Again, 7 to 17 at six different

[11:13] locations throughout the city and it's important to note here that we

[11:17] realize that people have different levels of experience with arts. We

[11:22] offered it a beginner's intermediate and advanced levels. Young writers so we've partnered

[11:29] for I think this is our third year partnering with UC Riverside and the Illin area writing project.

[11:35] And so this is one of our camps where it's a two week writing camp and someone from UC Riverside,

[11:43] an educator comes out and partners with staff and this year we did it at Ganesha and so they really

[11:50] incorporated a lot of nature, so they would do hikes and then incorporate nature into their

[11:56] writing. At the end, there was a culminating event where parents and family members were

[12:00] invited and each of the kids had an opportunity to read some of their original work that they wrote.

[12:08] overnight residential camps. Last year, we only went to one camp up in Big Bear Campoaks. This year,

[12:16] We partnered with Camp Oaks in Big Bear, Camp Bob Waldorf in Blendale, and Camp

[12:22] Marston in Camp Raintree in Julian. And so we really want to expose kids to as many

[12:28] different types of camps as possible. Camp Oaks, Camp Bob Waldorf, and Marston,

[12:32] they are all traditional camps. Raintree is a, it's a equestrian camp. So kids

[12:40] got to learn how to course back ride. We got this partnership in place a little

[12:44] bit late but just know that we are looking to expand that. I really want to see, you know,

[12:51] tons of kids having experiences they would never have before. I know we want to see that

[12:55] and we're also exploring a partnership with maybe a surf camp.

[13:01] Family camp. So this so big

[13:03] asterisk with this one, this did not happen during summer. This happened in May on Mother's Day

[13:07] Weekend but I thought it was important to mention because it was the kickoff to doing residential camps.

[13:12] So, 109 Pomonians went up to Big Bear for Mother's Day weekend.

[13:18] There were Mother's Day activities, brunch, things like that.

[13:22] And what's really important to note is, going back to the last slide for our residential

[13:26] camps, we recognize that a lot of families may not have any exposure to overnight camping

[13:33] and many of our families might not feel comfortable with their kids staying anywhere else besides

[13:38] their house or with family.

[13:39] And so we did offer informational nights in English and Spanish to answer new questions

[13:43] that parents may have and for some parents, it took them attending the family camp to

[13:51] get comfortable with like, okay, this was fine, this was safe, bears did not eat us, mountain

[13:55] lines didn't eat us, we're good.

[13:57] And so they felt comfortable sending their kids.

[14:00] So we recognized for many of our families for some activities we're starting to introduce

[14:04] and maybe too big of a step for them, too big of a leap.

[14:07] and so we're trying to provide baby steps as much as we can.

[14:11] One of the other programs we were really excited about was our summer

[14:16] beautification youth program.

[14:18] So this really was a workforce development program for high school students.

[14:22] There's something up the mayor, you know, really championed

[14:25] and we were really happy to deliver at the summer.

[14:28] We had 20 youth lined up but through attrition

[14:31] it unfortunately we ended up with 16 but I think the 16 youth that were involved

[14:35] I'm really gained a lot, not only the workforce development side, getting them ready to be employed,

[14:42] but also understanding the importance of keeping Pomona beautiful.

[14:47] Providing, we provided different opportunities for them to do beautification projects and clean

[14:52] up at different parks, and then the kids got to create their own beautification projects

[14:57] and small groups, including placement of trash.

[15:00] They noticed that there was trash everywhere at certain parks, and so they put four new trash cans in Washington, and they put four new trash cans at Garfield Park. They did a beautification project in the back of Garfield Community Center, and then they also did a little beautification project, like a little gardening project in front of Palamaris by where the Little Free Library is. They also participated in National Mind Out where they taught the community about composting, growing their own food and crafts.

[15:30] activities. Initially that was going to be a standalone event, but then we realized it would

[15:34] be better to partner so that we could expose more people to what the youth had been learning.

[15:41] And then there was a culminating event that I know I believe Mayor and Council Member Pressiado

[15:46] attended, where the kids got to highlight their projects. And I think they also shared some other

[15:52] projects they'd like to do in the future if more money and time was available.

[16:00] This program, when it ended, youth were told about other opportunities within the city.

[16:07] And so many of them did apply for positions and I know at least three of them are currently

[16:11] in the process of being hired through a youth employment program.

[16:14] And so we're really excited to create more opportunities like this in the future, but this

[16:18] is just, I think it's just a launching, a launching point.

[16:21] So we're excited for that.

[16:24] We did some video game tournaments this summer, the goals in the future to have an esports

[16:28] league.

[16:31] We had not done senior field trips in a long time.

[16:35] As you guys know, we've been delivering food through home delivered meals, and our

[16:38] seniors have been missing in person activities.

[16:42] And so they were really happy to go all over the street, spend a few hours there.

[16:47] And yeah, it's a great time.

[16:52] We've had a long-standing partnership with Mountsack.

[16:55] And so these are the classes that were offered over the summer, most notably.

[17:00] Summers the only time that we offer the Aquatics class.

[17:04] So we are really excited to have that.

[17:09] Heart and Soul line dancing. This is a partnership that we have for classes.

[17:13] It's basically line dancing.

[17:15] They do a variety of dances to different popular songs.

[17:19] and that's been taking place at Palomaris in Washington.

[17:23] Zoom a gold, it's a Zoom class that's low intensity for seniors.

[17:31] We've been partnering with Project Horseshoe Farm for some time, and they've been doing

[17:34] senior socials at Washington and Palomaris where our senior centers are, and they provide

[17:40] crafts aerobics, brain games, dancing, and social conversations.

[17:44] For those of you that know our participants, they absolutely love dancing, so there was a lot

[17:48] of that going on. Senior meals we have been continuing to operate over the summer with home

[17:55] delivered meals. So in June we delivered 6,830 meals July 7,490 and then during August 6,510.

[18:08] We're excited that Washington Parks in-person program has returned. It opened back up on September 12

[18:15] and Palomar's will open up on September 26th.

[18:20] Through the home delivered program,

[18:21] we did serve a lot of individuals

[18:23] that had special needs or that were homebound.

[18:29] And so some of those who will not be able

[18:31] to make an in-person have been offered

[18:33] the opportunity to continue in-person delivery

[18:35] through a partner agency.

[18:39] The pools served almost 9,000 through open swim.

[18:44] and then, you know, as always, have some lessons available.

[18:49] Some lessons, there were a charge for those, but, and then for entrance, there was a nominal charge there.

[18:57] And then we did make this year through council's action.

[19:00] We did make the extended the last two weekends of swim free for the community to attend.

[19:07] Movies in the park.

[19:08] So I think we've been doing movies in the park with day one since 2016, so this is a longstanding collaboration and this was our largest, most successful year in terms of attendance.

[19:19] This was the first time where the the dive in we hit capacity. We had to have people wait until other people left, and so we are excited to continue to offer that.

[19:31] We had our summer concert with Adelaide who did a Selena cover band in Latin top 40.

[19:38] That was the most people that we've had at 10 to concert that we've hosted.

[19:42] We estimated about 270.

[19:45] From one of concert band did eight concerts with about 100 people attending each one, so

[19:49] about 800 people there.

[19:52] As always, when we know about an event and we're invited to it, we try to be there whenever

[19:57] we can.

[19:57] So we attended three of the community pull-ups that happened and then national night out as we mentioned before

[20:04] Here are some more collaborations and next summer. Really the short for next summer is we're going to do more

[20:13] Again, this was a launching pad

[20:16] The transition back from pandemic has not been easy for anyone

[20:21] Staffing has been been very difficult to to fill part-time positions

[20:26] for everybody. If you talk to pretty much any business, they're struggling with that as

[20:32] have we. But I definitely feel like with our full-time coordinators that we have on, things

[20:38] are starting to click, and we're able to do more and more. Again, we're not at our peak

[20:43] or anywhere close to it, but again, I think we're at a very exciting juncture in continuing

[20:49] to impact more Pomona residents in a more meaningful way.

[20:53] So that concludes my presentation and I'll maintain any questions.

[21:04] I mean, this is exciting.

[21:09] We clearly have a lot more work to do.

[21:12] But what you just shared today, what you and your team have done,

[21:17] this past summer, and then just leading up to this past summer,

[21:21] is I think we're on the right path

[21:25] to increasing the investment we make.

[21:27] I believe our most important asset, which is our children.

[21:30] I think all of us know the tremendous amount of money we spend on the back end in trying to address social problems, people fighting, whether they're in a gang or have a drug addiction or they're faced with being enslaved in humans sex trafficking, a range of social challenges, and we spend a lot of money on that end.

[21:53] And we have to continuously, in my view, put more dollars on the front end.

[22:00] We're working on this incredible project through Bloomberg Harvard on zero to five.

[22:05] And in fact, if I can ask you just to come up one second video, just to say just something because I like the council to hear what you did on Saturday, but also to talk just briefly about the work on the summit.

[22:18] And Mike, you stay up as well, because council may have questions for you.

[22:21] And can you talk about the dashboard work that we're doing as well as the what you did

[22:30] on Saturday at the Children's Festival, which I thought was something that I know I believe

[22:35] the Council would benefit from here?

[22:37] So in August we held a youth summit, and one of the things we were looking at was bringing

[22:44] those who provide youth services together and start a conversation about what people do,

[22:49] to what organizations do and who they serve.

[22:53] And that's the first step that we're working towards

[22:55] to create a dashboard that will provide residents

[23:00] with the opportunity to go in

[23:02] and see what's going on in Pomona,

[23:04] not just from a calendar perspective,

[23:06] but to be able to bring their children to resources

[23:10] that they may not even be aware of,

[23:12] that we have, and to better coordinate the efforts

[23:15] with agencies.

[23:16] And so we started with the use summit and we're working towards creating the dashboard with IT.

[23:24] And then this weekend, one of the things that we've worked on with Harvard Bloomberg is to really study trusted messengers.

[23:32] And who is it that our residents look to when it comes to trying to find out information about resources that are in Pomona.

[23:39] So this weekend during the Children's Festival, we did a little study on asking people who their trusted messengers were and we did it through Avatar.

[23:49] So we didn't do it through a survey, we did kind of a hands-on pick your five trusted messengers and we had everything from librarians to police officers to barbers, baristas, you know, just that people were able to say who does it they may reach out to.

[24:08] and then we ask them what resources do they look for.

[24:11] And so we'll be using that information to start providing a profile of trusted messengers

[24:17] within the city and it was just, it was a fun way to do it.

[24:20] In fact, it was the first time I've ever seen anybody want to take a picture next to their

[24:24] survey.

[24:25] So, that was kind of fun.

[24:28] Thank you.

[24:28] Thank you for that, Vanita.

[24:30] Does anybody have any questions from Mike and if not, we can go and move on.

[24:35] I just want to put in my request for the next summer concert, my non-trivial band,

[24:41] Queen, but thank you, Mike, that was, I was at the Selina concert and it was wonderful.

[24:47] It was great to see that many people there.

[24:48] Thank you for everything you guys are doing.

[24:51] And Mike, if you could just please convey to the staff or out everybody's here.

[24:55] Just how thankful we are for their work.

[24:58] I think they've heard the council talk about this for some time now and at the end of the day,

[25:03] you all executed, you're on the front lines, you get to see what's happening, and I'm sure

[25:08] you've seen a lot of smiles, a lot of happy people, happy kids, happy families, but certainly

[25:15] there's a lot more work to be done, and we appreciate your leadership on that front, so

[25:19] thank you very much.

[25:20] Thank you.

[25:24] Rosie, I'll turn it back to you.

[25:26] Okay, thank you, Mayor.

[25:27] Our next presentation is a proclamation to Clarins of September 14, 2022, as support Latino

[25:32] business day in the city of Pomona.

[25:42] I don't think we do. I think what we'll do is we'll go ahead and make sure that we get

[25:46] it to the individual that requested it. We'll be happy to do that. I always like to make

[25:51] sure that somebody's here to accept it. Otherwise, we're just reading it. That's okay with the

[25:56] council. Okay. Let's go ahead and go to the next.

[25:59] So, our next presentation actually has been postponed to a future council meeting. It was

[26:03] a proclamation recognizing and celebrating Gary High School's 60th anniversary on September

[26:08] 11, 2022, but we're going to go ahead and post on that to a future council meeting.

[26:13] 60 years of that's impressive. All right, I want to go to the next.

[26:18] Our next proclamation is recognizing the week of September 25th through October 1st, 2022

[26:23] as Childhood Cancer Awareness Week.

[26:26] And do we have a representative here with us?

[26:28] I'm not sure.

[26:30] Do we have any representative here on that?

[26:31] But because sometimes we'll have somebody for, somebody will ask us for a proclamation

[26:34] and we hope that they're here and if they're not that's okay, we'll get this proclamation

[26:38] to them.

[26:39] Okay, that's good.

[26:40] We can go on to the next.

[26:41] And our final presentation this evening is a presentation of the Pomona goddess to community

[26:45] member Mickey Gallivan.

[26:47] Okay.

[26:49] And do we have anything that we want to present?

[26:53] Okay.

[26:53] Let's go ahead and go on up.

[26:55] Yeah.

[27:05] Alrighty.

[27:06] Mickey, come on up.

[27:09] I know you spend a lot of time up here as a commissioner, I'm sure, all right.

[27:15] So, you want to go ahead and say a few words and then I'll be at the state.

[27:18] So this is Mickey Gallivan, she's been a resident of Pomona for maybe 40 years now, 50 years,

[27:26] more than 50.

[27:29] And let me tell you a little bit about Mickey.

[27:31] She was the Pomona Valley or Pomona Historical Society President for 19 years.

[27:39] She was also my library commissioner.

[27:43] And then she became a commission and for something else that you.

[27:47] The Budget Oversight Committee, yes.

[27:50] And then where we're standing and sitting right now, she worked very hard with her efforts

[27:57] for the historical recognition and also the architectural

[28:02] protection of this building, along with probably the rest of the plaza.

[28:08] So, you know, it's a pleasure to honor you tonight with this Pomona Goddess.

[28:16] I think you're well deserving of it.

[28:18] You've been such a wonderful resident and such an inspiration to so many.

[28:23] And they also had a corner designated for

[28:26] her at the E. Bell Pomona Historical Society.

[28:29] I was present, it was wonderful.

[28:31] Did you want to say a few words?

[28:37] Well, I think everybody who knows Mickey

[28:40] knows that Mickey has been a pillar in this community.

[28:44] She has been a fighter.

[28:47] She can be feisty in the most positive way.

[28:51] But when I think about how important

[28:55] and historic preservation is in Pomona.

[28:59] It's an important part of this community,

[29:02] and sometimes it's really easy to forget your history.

[29:05] And yet there have been fighters that have made sure

[29:08] that at moments when we're an easy target, the city,

[29:13] but there have been fighters who said city,

[29:15] you need to step up, you need to be stronger

[29:17] when it comes to historic preservation

[29:18] and make it you've been at the forefront of that work.

[29:21] I still remember the discussions

[29:22] that we were having on the stables.

[29:23] I know that caused a lot of sleepless nights for so many people.

[29:27] And while it wasn't easy, we came together and we tried to find the best solution.

[29:33] And we are going to be in the process soon.

[29:36] I just spoke to Chris Diggs before I came.

[29:39] These stables will of course be moved.

[29:41] It wasn't the perfect situation for all, but it will be rebuilt.

[29:45] And maybe rebuilt is not the right word, but there'll be a new structure that will

[29:50] So, resemble this important stable, this important contribution of the community.

[29:55] And not only will the beautiful staff at the Water Department have some nice new

[30:00] Diggs, no pun intended, it will also allow the community to access a historic site that they had not been able to access since the horses, which is a very long time ago. So just want to, on behalf of the council, I want to express our thanks to you for all the contributions that you have made to this community. We appreciate you, know that so many people love you. And then this is your Pomona goddess, and I'll have Council Member Otter-Resco present to you.

[30:30] So, Mickey, with greatest appreciation for your years of service to the City of Pomona.

[30:37] This is for you.

[30:38] Thank you.

[30:39] I give her a nice begin.

[30:41] Thank you.

[30:44] If I could say a few words, I always talk too much, but thank you very much, Elizabeth,

[30:53] and thank you, Mayor Sanderval, and thank you to the rest of the members of the City Council.

[30:58] And I also want to thank all the hard working people of Pomona.

[31:04] You know, Pomona is an amazing community.

[31:09] It is an absolutely beautiful city.

[31:12] I never go anywhere in Pomona.

[31:15] You know, if I drive down the block, I haven't driven down before.

[31:18] I look and say, oh my gosh, that's a gorgeous house.

[31:22] That's a gorgeous building.

[31:24] Look at that.

[31:25] And it has such variety, such diversity.

[31:30] I mean, you can get a world education just by going out and traveling around in Fomona.

[31:37] It's just, it is absolutely wonderful.

[31:40] I really do not feel very deserving.

[31:45] I wish that I could have done more.

[31:48] There's so many things in Fomona that need to be done.

[31:53] And not only in historical preservation, but I was involved in the committee that started

[32:00] the House of Ruth.

[32:01] I don't know whether you knew that.

[32:03] I worked, took three months vacation and worked to start prototypes.

[32:09] Alcohol and drug treatment.

[32:10] I worked full time.

[32:11] There are three months.

[32:14] Bringing the LA symphony to Ramona, I was on that committee.

[32:19] As long as I'm around, and I have no idea how much longer that will be, I intend to keep on working.

[32:29] I think Pomona is the most beautiful, the most interesting city, certainly in California, and maybe in the United States.

[32:39] And we have the nicest people in Pomona.

[32:42] There's not any neighborhood that is not full of really nice people.

[32:48] This weekend we had friends from Tucson and from Cobow City and we went for a walk in

[32:54] Pomona and we were invited to take a dip in somebody's pool.

[32:58] We were invited to come back 15 minutes for tacos.

[33:04] We saw the peacocks.

[33:07] We went home with lemons, oranges, tomatoes, and figs.

[33:12] You know, I went, this is just going for a three-block walk, and it's always that way,

[33:20] no matter where I go.

[33:22] So I want to encourage you to join with me as long as I'm around in improving and in glorifying

[33:32] our city.

[33:33] The biggest problem Pomona has is we do not have the reputation that we deserve.

[33:40] And let's work to get that.

[33:42] But thank you so very much.

[33:44] I am so appreciative.

[33:52] And I know Mickey would say this, but there's you and then there's this incredible family

[33:59] that you have and just want to also acknowledge them because I know that all your accomplishments

[34:05] are with their support and so if you can give the family a nice big hand for their work as well.

[34:10] Thank you very much.

[34:34] And thank you City Clerk Rosalia for helping me get this goddess to our constituent.

[34:40] Thank you.

[34:46] Okay Rosalia, next item.

[34:49] Next item is Mayor Council Member Communications.

[34:51] These are reports on conferences, seminars, and regional meetings attended by the Mayor and City Council

[34:56] and announcements of upcoming events and also items for future City Council consideration

[35:00] As requested by the mayor or members of the city council.

[35:04] Okay, are there any members of the council who want to speak?

[35:07] I see Vice Mayor Condraversa call you up.

[35:10] Good evening, everyone.

[35:11] I'm glad to see you all here.

[35:13] I just want to touch on the event that I was at yesterday, Dr. Vose, Vietnamese community,

[35:19] where they honored the children and they had a costume contest.

[35:25] And it's the, I think it's the mid fall or mid August or autumn type event that they do.

[35:34] It was well attended, and it was a pleasure to be there.

[35:36] Thank you.

[35:38] Thank you.

[35:39] Councilor Garcia, then press you other than guilty.

[35:42] Thank you, Mayor.

[35:43] There's many events going on in Pomona this weekend.

[35:46] But the one I really want to stress to our constituents after our wonderful programming staff's

[35:50] inter-presentation is there's going to be a measure A recreation access program

[35:55] meeting at Washington Park in District 3 from 10 a.m. to noon and this is to help

[36:00] us submit a grant for more recreation access programings for measure A.

[36:05] So if you are interested in expanding the programs that you just saw this

[36:09] wonderful presentation to making sure that we continue the service to our

[36:12] community, please come out to Washington Park for the measure A grant

[36:15] application process. And that is going to be from 10 a.m. to noon at Washington Park Community Center.

[36:22] I will let my colleagues announce their districts events, but I will also take this moment to

[36:28] invite you all to the African-American Alliance building. You're going to have a summer vibes

[36:36] concert or event. It's going to be amazing. I just know it and please be there at six o'clock

[36:42] to make sure that you're there for all the fun stuff.

[36:45] And that is off of Gibbs and Second Street.

[36:47] Thank you.

[36:48] Thank you.

[36:49] Councillor Priscielo.

[36:51] Yeah, I'd like to ask everybody for a favor.

[36:56] Yesterday I had my cousin pass away.

[37:00] And so if anybody could just send some prayers over to my godmother

[37:04] and her family and all of our family,

[37:06] and I just really appreciate that.

[37:08] Thank you very much.

[37:08] I thank you, Councilmember Preciado.

[37:13] Councilmember Nolte.

[37:15] First of all, condolences, Councilmember Preciado, I know we all would send our prayers

[37:21] your way and your family's way.

[37:24] I just wanted to say on Tuesday, I had the great opportunity to join Pomona Beautiful out

[37:29] in my district, Dudley and the freeway basically.

[37:33] And I just want to thank the mayor and that group of people I won't try to name them all,

[37:37] But tirelessly, as I understand it, go out every week on Tuesday mornings and I will tell you it is tirelessly.

[37:44] I mean, I worked hard for a good hour and a half to two hours picking up trash.

[37:50] They cut some of the brush away from a place where there's been people kind of hiding behind some brush and things.

[37:57] And I was really impressed and I know that people thanked him before, but just want to say what a great, great service that that group is doing.

[38:07] Secondly, I have a request to make of my colleagues.

[38:11] I feel like there's been an increase, or maybe it's just I'm noticing it because my son recently got his driver's license, but of traffic related incidents in Pomona, you know, deaths in particular is what I tend to hear about.

[38:27] And I'd like to ask, and this is in conjunction with something that's on the consent calendar which is a strategic plan we have for safe streets that we're going to be passing tonight I assume.

[38:40] But it made me think I'd like to get some, like a report to the city council, I'm just going to kind of read some things I want to see in it and I can email about this as well, but I just want to see if my colleagues would be interested in this.

[38:52] So I'd like to know, you know, the time period, I'm open to whatever staff thinks is appropriate, whether it's three years, five years, ten years, whatever makes sense based on what we keep in terms of statistics, car on car, including motorcycles, car person, car bike.

[39:08] I'd like to know things like the ages of the people involved, traffic laws that were violated by either person.

[39:14] And the residents, city of the people involved,

[39:18] the time of day it happened, locations, maybe a map

[39:21] that shows, or a couple maps showing different kinds

[39:23] of situations.

[39:25] If known, whether the either person was homeless,

[39:29] there's a sense, I think, in the community

[39:31] that a lot of the traffic accidents are related

[39:33] to individuals who might be homeless,

[39:35] who might be crossing the street at inappropriate places.

[39:38] So if we know that information, similarly,

[39:40] really if we know whether substance abuse was involved on either party, I'd like to know

[39:47] the speed of the vehicles involved in relation to the speed limit of the place where it occurred.

[39:53] And then any other kind of pertinent or unusual circumstances, I'd like to see the stats

[39:58] over time and anything else that might contribute to understanding that data better.

[40:05] So, like, kind of a picture of traffic injuries and deaths in our city.

[40:11] I'd like to comparison with other jurisdictions, so to see, is my sense that we're experiencing

[40:17] a lot compared to other jurisdictions right? Anything else that's informative?

[40:23] Any specific projects that we've done in any areas in the city that might show us a way forward,

[40:28] and then just general kinds of analysis and recommendations? And then how those statistics relate

[40:34] to the plans that we do have because I know we do have some plans coming online in a sense

[40:38] of how those plans either do or don't or could be used to address the situation.

[40:47] I know that's a lot and you know I'm not asking for this immediately but I feel like it's something

[40:52] I'd like to hear about. I would be willing to support that. I would just simply ask James, I know

[40:57] that staff has a lot that they're working on so I think it's more of a question of is it easily

[41:04] is some of that information easily attainable?

[41:08] Is it gonna take a lot more research?

[41:10] But if you can just come back to us and so I'd say yes,

[41:13] but if you can come back to us and listen realistically,

[41:15] this is the time frame in by which we can do it,

[41:18] given all the other priorities that you have.

[41:20] I'll talk to the chief and we'll figure out a game plan for it,

[41:23] because it really sounds like a real deep dive into

[41:26] some of the data and we'll get back to you on a timeline.

[41:32] All right. Great. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Anything else? No, that's all. Okay. All right. I don't see any of the hands up. So I'm going to go and go just want to highlight a few events that happened this weekend.

[41:45] Just want to thank everyone who came out to the Children's Festival on Saturday. It was well attended. It's always great to see our children have an opportunity to just have fun, particularly in a very beautiful place.

[41:58] This is our civic center and I know that Charles Wodeck and her team led this effort.

[42:05] They've led it for the last, this is the third annual.

[42:08] It didn't happen the past two years because of the pandemic, but it's a huge undertaking.

[42:13] And the goal was to continue to grow it and to expand it and to give our kids more opportunities

[42:17] to have fun and to connect to resources in the community.

[42:21] Also want to acknowledge, I don't think he's watching, but on Saturday there was a fundraiser

[42:28] for Casa Cleana, which is this incredible institution in the city of Pomona.

[42:33] There are a long time CEO retired, Phil LaVorso, who had been with Casa Cleana since 1998.

[42:42] And so, Phil, if you're watching, congratulations to you.

[42:46] A few of us were there on Saturday to see both the impact they've had on individuals that

[42:52] They highlight in the course of this convening, this gala, and then also just to honor feel as well.

[43:03] Also one last thing, and I think every one of us knows the tremendous talent of young people in this community.

[43:12] And on Saturday at Gary High School, eight students, I believe, eight students were honored by

[43:22] the patent office for the U.S. government as well as MIT who would work with

[43:30] these students who came up with the device when they were seniors in high

[43:34] school. Some of them have been younger. Seven young women, one young man, they're

[43:40] now in college, but they came up with the device to monitor issues related to

[43:48] diabetes, okay, neuropathy. And it was, it received a patent. It's highly, highly unusual

[44:01] for anyone to have received a patent. In fact, people come up with things all the time,

[44:04] but they don't have, particularly people of color, they don't have people to help them

[44:08] through that kind of process. And MIT set up a program with a foundation, I believe, that

[44:15] help to these kids, Pomona kids who are UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona,

[44:23] and UC Santa Cruz. These eight students get a patent for this device.

[44:30] And these are kids who were educated by Pomona teachers, who I believe prepare our young people

[44:38] to go on to do some pretty amazing things. This does not happen every day. And so at some point,

[44:43] if we can get them here and get them back here at a city council meeting would love to honor

[44:48] these eight individuals. This was something they started back in 2018 with two of their teachers

[44:55] and now it has a patent and so...

[45:00] So I just, if they're watching, if their parents are watching, if they're very high school or just, just your Pomona person, you can't be but proud of these young people who are doing some pretty amazing things. So with that said, I will turn it back to Rosalia. Thank you, Mayor. Our next item is city manager communications. These are reports from the city manager.

[45:22] As I've stated before, we're in a drought and we need to save water. There was media reports this past weekend.

[45:29] And that we're entering our third year of La Niña.

[45:34] It's a pretty rare occurrence to go three years in a row of having La Niña,

[45:38] which is reduced rainfall.

[45:40] So keep producing your water usage and help out the city.

[45:46] And my second item tonight is I'd like to introduce to you our new human resources

[45:52] and risk management director, Renee Anderson.

[45:55] Kristen,

[46:04] Renee comes to us with over 20 years experience in the human resources field.

[46:11] She's worked for such agencies as LA City, Los Angeles World Airports and San Bernardino

[46:17] City.

[46:18] We're very excited to have her on board and joining the executive team here at the City

[46:22] of Pomona.

[46:24] So, thank you very much.

[46:25] That's it tonight, Mayor.

[46:27] Thank you.

[46:28] All right.

[46:29] Rosalia.

[46:30] Next item is public participation.

[46:32] At this time, the public is invited to address the council concerning any items not on the agenda.

[46:37] Together, the city council members, city staff and public honor Pomona's important city meeting values.

[46:43] To speak and to listen to everyone with respect and courtesy, to honor fairness in our cherished democratic process.

[46:49] To affirm Pomona's dedication to lead as a compassionate city.

[46:52] Thank you all for keeping these values and this commitment to act with them ever present in our minds.

[46:56] As we proceed with the meeting together in order to address the city council each individual must fill out a speaker card

[47:02] Which is available in the lobby of the council chambers speaker cards must be completed and turned into the city clerk at this time

[47:08] Only those speaker cards turned into the city clerk will be allowed to address the city council

[47:13] No late cards will be accepted each person should state their name

[47:16] And will be allowed to speak once for three minutes all speakers and persons in the audience

[47:21] Was adhered to the city council rules of procedure and decorum

[47:24] Thank you. Okay. We have four speakers on non agenda items and just going to line you up

[47:31] in terms of who's going to go in. We're going to start with Eunice Russell and then

[47:35] and Joyce Baker Smith. You'll be after. Sure. That's fine. Yeah. And then Gregory Estelle and then

[47:42] Cynthia Marina, you'll close us up and

[47:49] you have three minutes. Welcome and Joyce Baker Smith.

[47:54] Thank you very much. As the mayor stated, my name is Emma Joyce Baker Smith.

[48:00] And I was coming here today to invite you all to a form.

[48:05] And it was a candidate form that was scheduled to take place Saturday the 24th.

[48:13] I received commitments from all of the incumbents.

[48:22] And now I receive an email stating that these incumbents will not be able to come.

[48:32] Steve was able to come and I haven't gotten a ratio of that.

[48:38] But based on that fact, being that we're not going to be having a form which would take place from three to six at the Pilgrim Congregational Church,

[48:50] which we are going to have to cancel that form.

[48:54] And this is not the first time that the Willie White Park focus group, which has been

[49:01] in existence for more than 20 years, has put on a form for candidates.

[49:06] Now these particular candidates are running or not in my district.

[49:13] But we see the city as a whole.

[49:15] Not individuals, that's the reason we figure we will do a service to the community by inviting them.

[49:23] I'm sorry to say this Councilistro, but we have to cancel.

[49:29] I want you to know, and I'm going to say this once, and I'm very disappointed.

[49:36] And I'm disappointed because I received verbal confirmation and email confirmation

[49:42] the recommendation that these candidates would be here.

[49:46] The incumbents that I'm referring to are candidates from 2, 3, and 5.

[49:54] I also have candidates that are running that are not incumbents, but

[49:59] unfortunately, they were not included in this group email that I received stating that after discussion with

[50:08] constituent, not constituents, colleagues that they wouldn't be able to attend.

[50:15] So, I come with a heavy heart, I'm disappointed because I think it's one of our duties to show

[50:24] what we are having elected on our city council, no matter what district we're from.

[50:31] This is a city, and therefore that's the reason the Willie White Park focus group in conjunction

[50:38] with true seekers had put on this form, we've spent money, we went and we got a translator

[50:44] because that was suggested and now we will be out of that. So I'm disappointed and perhaps the

[50:52] next time we have an election. Thank you, and Joyce Baker. Thank you very much.

[50:57] Yes, thank you. Eunice Russell, you're up and then Greg and then Cynthia.

[51:06] Council, excuse me, my name is Eunice Russell.

[51:10] I am part of the Two Seekers Coalition.

[51:13] One, we are a political organization,

[51:15] not a religious organization as mistakenly stated by some.

[51:21] When we got these confirmations,

[51:25] we went with everything that was requested of us.

[51:29] You asked for a translator because most of the people

[51:31] in your district spoke Spanish.

[51:32] We got a translator.

[51:33] You knew, over a week ago, two weeks ago, about this date, so anything that you had before you confirmed it was on your calendar.

[51:42] And for you to cancel at the last minute is disrespectful to the city.

[51:46] Not just us, you're not hurting me.

[51:48] I don't live in your district, but I am affected by the ineffectiveness of what some of you do up there sitting on that dius.

[51:56] And for you to disrespect us this way.

[51:59] You mind stopping us if it happens again, I'm going to ask you to go ahead and step out and clap all you want

[52:07] For you to disrespect us in this manner is it's it's unconscionable to me. It's unconscionable

[52:15] You knew you had time you waited until this was posted

[52:19] We posted it on all levels of social media

[52:22] We posted we were having a translator to appease some of you because we didn't have to do that

[52:28] We did that for the city and we did it because we knew your districts were that not so much you Steve, but for the other two districts, we knew that.

[52:37] And this is how you come back with us five days before the event and said, oh, no, we, we'd rather shake hands and drink Kool-A, than come and sit and have a real conversation.

[52:46] Yeah, I said, drink hands, shake hands and drink Kool-A, because you said you had other events to go to.

[52:51] I just heard you were going to a planning event from 10 to 2 in one area and another one nobody said about his district

[52:56] So I don't know I don't know what all is going on in the city

[52:59] But I know it's important for you to sit down and answer questions about how you have been handling it up there

[53:05] We sent you copies of the questions. We were not going blindside you unless the audience asks you something and each and every one of you

[53:12] We're going to answer the same questions so there was no blind signing. There was no backbiting. There was nothing

[53:19] We were non-partisan and for you to do it that way honey God will take care of whatever was in your heart

[53:24] But know this I'm not going anywhere and as long as I'm in this city

[53:29] I'm going to stay on top of each and every one of you because you have a duty

[53:33] You have a duty of in responsibility and some of you need to learn how to read and research a little better and

[53:39] Stop making assumptions on people and stop hastily making decisions and if you're depending on some of these jack leg

[53:46] representatives that you got out here doing research for you some of you might

[53:50] end up in jail like them council people in bail because what goes around comes

[53:54] around and don't ever forget that all right if I can bring up Greg

[53:59] Stell you're up next I'm sorry yes okay yeah my apologies then that's

[54:05] told for a hundred years awesome city of Pomona it's a beautiful city it is my

[54:11] My name is Greg Estell, 695 North Gordon Street, six blocks north, maybe five.

[54:18] I love this city.

[54:20] I went to the city hall today.

[54:23] My friend had a stroke and I took him over there so I could communicate and he could get

[54:28] a permit to do this, that and the other and it was so smooth, it was so, all the departments

[54:35] are open, they text you when you're ready and you're up and it's everything, it's a great

[54:41] place to do a lot of building here and it's beautiful. I mean, I think and I know it was voted the

[54:46] most beautiful city in the state or the country in the 70s and I was trying to Google it and find

[54:53] it but it was voted the most beautiful city somewhere. I moved here in 74,000 ohgs and yes it was a

[55:02] culture shock but you know, hey, my father bought a business here and I worked there and came after

[55:07] school and work there. But I want to give compliments to the quality of life crew. Crews, they used

[55:15] to just be one crew. Now there's two crews. They're doing a fabulous job. I see them working. They

[55:21] work so hard. They clean up all these people's messes. They get paid, of course, but they clean up

[55:26] all these messes. And I can imagine when it was 110 degrees outside, they were still cleaning up

[55:31] messes. And they don't take days off. I see them working on Saturdays and Sundays, Sunday morning,

[55:36] out working okay we need to we need at least another crew I strongly recommend that we get

[55:43] another crew it's not enough it's not quite enough and the city the ordinance code enforcement

[55:50] we don't have enough for them it's you know our real the the real problems in Pomona right now

[55:59] are the homeless and the crime okay it's a serious serious problem and we got you know yeah we got

[56:10] people running red lights, you know, like Mr. Nolk, he was saying about the red light,

[56:15] or he didn't say about red lights, but man, I've seen people running red lights all the time,

[56:18] when you're in, come on, when you're in anywhere, when you see a green light, that does not mean

[56:22] press on the gas, that means look both ways to make sure that there's some not in some idiot not

[56:26] running a red light to T-bone you and kill you. So that's the serious thing. Holt and San Antonio

[56:33] needs left turn signals big time big time big time big time okay and let me see I'm you know

[56:41] it's the most beautiful it's a beautiful place this city is beautiful and we can really keep

[56:47] it beautiful and you know like it costs money to fix these buildings up and keep them fixed like

[56:53] I say it costs a lot of money to fix up buildings and keep maintaining it costs a lot of money to

[56:57] We maintain a city.

[57:01] And congratulations Mickey, Mickey's done just a grip of stuff.

[57:05] She's my neighbor, we're all, I'm neighbors of everybody here.

[57:08] I don't thank you very much.

[57:10] You're out in Miss Santhia Moreno, come on up, and that'll be our final speaker on non agenda items.

[57:19] Welcome.

[57:20] Thank you.

[57:21] Good evening, Mayor Sanvol, Council, and commonder residents.

[57:25] I'm here today to thank Mayor Sandeval and Councilman Steve Lesterow.

[57:32] They have been incredible, helpful with the huge issue that we were faced with.

[57:38] In the end of April, we were faced with our fire insurance increasing from 47,000 to 425,000

[57:47] a year.

[57:48] A neighbor and I mentioned this to both Mayor Sandroval and Steve Lustro and they were

[57:58] willing to help in whatever they could.

[58:02] Part of what raised our insurance was brushed that belonged to the city of Chino Hills

[58:08] and we went to speak to the council with letters that councilman Lustro and

[58:17] and Mayor San, no, Councilman Lestros wrote the letters.

[58:22] Mayor San, well, placed the call to the Mayor of Chino Hills.

[58:27] Thank you.

[58:28] They started on the brush and they have done a tremendous job.

[58:33] There's still a ways to go.

[58:35] It's about 30 years of brush back there, but they are amazing.

[58:41] I want to thank you guys.

[58:42] I will go to the next council meeting for Chino Hills to think Mayor Marquez and

[58:52] You guys are amazing if they weren't for you guys. I don't think they would have listened to us. Thank you guys

[58:58] Also, if I have any time left, I'd like to take a moment of silence for

[59:04] Councilman Pesados cousin

[59:07] Can I yield that time?

[59:24] Thank you

[59:25] All right

[59:27] And I'm not seeing any of the cards.

[59:29] I'll turn it back to you, Rosalia.

[59:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[59:32] Our next item is consent calendar.

[59:34] On matters of the consent calendar may be enacted by a single motion without separate discussion,

[59:39] discussion or a separate vote on any item is decided by a council member that item may be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately.

[59:47] All consent items pulled for discussion will be limited to five minutes.

[59:50] They're not enacted upon within five minutes.

[59:51] the mayor will move that consent item to the end of the agenda after consideration of the public hearings and I believe same manager or

[59:59] emotional.

[1:00:00] Any items that the council wants to remove from consent? We do have speakers on items two and nine, so we'll automatically remove those for discussion. We have a separate vote for item five, please. Thanks.

[1:00:21] So move, we're going to move item five as well. Okay. That's all I see. Can I get a motion on everything minus two, five and nine?

[1:00:36] Okay. Do roll call.

[1:00:38] No vote.

[1:00:43] Nulti?

[1:00:44] Yes.

[1:00:44] Gracias.

[1:00:45] Garcia?

[1:00:46] Yes.

[1:00:46] Antiviros Cole?

[1:00:47] Yes.

[1:00:48] Lestro?

[1:00:48] Yes.

[1:00:49] Torres?

[1:00:49] Yes.

[1:00:50] Send a vote.

[1:00:51] Yes.

[1:00:52] All right.

[1:00:53] Let's go to item two.

[1:00:55] We do have one speaker on this item.

[1:00:57] I just want to read the item and then we'll, Mr. Carpio, so please come on up

[1:01:05] whenever you're ready.

[1:01:07] Do you want to read the item?

[1:01:08] Yes.

[1:01:08] Just so that everyone knows what it is.

[1:01:10] It's consent item number two.

[1:01:12] It's the award of construction contract and my construction ink in the amount of

[1:01:16] at $1,926,245 for Hamilton Park Innovation Project.

[1:01:22] You have a three-minute speech, Carp, you're welcome.

[1:01:25] Bearing consult people, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

[1:01:29] On behalf of the Hamilton Park steering committee, I want to extend a great thank you to the City of Pomona,

[1:01:35] and especially the staff from Parks and Recreation,

[1:01:41] the people that were at numerous meetings with the park's meeting.

[1:01:44] And again, working together with the guidance and stirring of parks and recreation, this became a real issue from a dirty parking lot to now so you can be a class A neighborhood park.

[1:01:59] So again, on behalf of the neighborhood and again, residents, we thank you for your cooperation and job well done.

[1:02:05] And thank you.

[1:02:09] Also, again, I want to give them another kudo.

[1:02:11] I know that during my presentation

[1:02:12] of the activities during the summer,

[1:02:14] I might have missed it, but again,

[1:02:16] I just want to go back on some of the classes

[1:02:18] that we're actually having with the young kids,

[1:02:21] the young young kids,

[1:02:23] they were actually based on science,

[1:02:25] it's not of the science projects

[1:02:27] that also involved engineering,

[1:02:29] and also had creative writing for these,

[1:02:31] and again, but to the kids.

[1:02:32] They also had a class,

[1:02:33] something similar to introduction to basic economics.

[1:02:36] You know, like, what's the checkbook?

[1:02:37] Look, what's a bag?

[1:02:38] So I mean, these are just really great things

[1:02:40] and I like the way they're going,

[1:02:41] using recreation also for education

[1:02:44] and again, future planning.

[1:02:46] And again, two out of the 16 people

[1:02:48] that were part time working for the parks,

[1:02:51] three are now full time hires.

[1:02:54] I think that's really great.

[1:02:55] So you've given these people a future,

[1:02:57] something really to work with.

[1:02:58] And the other one too,

[1:02:59] is a shout out to the senior program.

[1:03:02] We see there was something like three-hours.

[1:03:03] I hate to interrupt you.

[1:03:05] You gotta stay on the topic.

[1:03:06] Okay, yeah, otherwise then you would have wanted to make sure that sometimes these things are slippery slopes and

[1:03:15] I do it for one person and so well you did it for that guy and it just makes it hard for me, but I think they got the

[1:03:21] Just what you're trying to say which is to thank them so if you want to come in any more on this particular item

[1:03:26] I'll have we're happy to listen to it. All right. Thank you. We will do that

[1:03:30] I guess something to come at curiosity on item 2.2

[1:03:39] So if you have any questions, you know, you can go ahead and submit questions, but it's, this is not set up as a discussion between you and Council and the staff.

[1:03:51] But if you have a question, you can always submit it in advance.

[1:03:55] We'll try to get it answered for you in advance.

[1:03:57] Okay.

[1:03:57] But repeat your question because I want to make sure that staff has it looks like you have it Renee

[1:04:02] And then what we'll do is if you'd like when you're done

[1:04:06] Renee would be happy to meet you outside and answer your question. Okay, okay

[1:04:10] Just what was item two in relation to the had a

[1:04:15] I he's some kind of a protest and it was meritless

[1:04:19] Just okay. Yeah, we'll be happy to answer that point all right. Okay. That's anything else on that fund

[1:04:23] No, just great job with some for you guys

[1:04:26] Thank you. Thank you for bearing with me, Mr. Gabriel. Appreciate it already.

[1:04:30] Okay, that was the only speaker on that item. And if you like, René would be happy to meet you on that front.

[1:04:37] Okay. All right, very good. So we have item number two to drive a motion.

[1:04:41] I move the recommendations of the staff. Okay, and then I have a second.

[1:04:45] Did you get a second? Okay, all right. Let's do a roll call vote.

[1:04:51] Roll call, Nazi. Yes. Yes.

[1:04:58] All right, there was a quest to remove five for the purpose of a vote. So I don't use a discussion on it. So let's I'll go and move the item.

[1:05:07] Can I get a second?

[1:05:09] Second.

[1:05:10] All right.

[1:05:11] It's still a roll call.

[1:05:12] Roll call, Nalti.

[1:05:14] Yes.

[1:05:14] Prostiado.

[1:05:15] Yes.

[1:05:16] Prostiado.

[1:05:16] Yes.

[1:05:17] Antiviros Cole.

[1:05:18] No.

[1:05:18] Last row.

[1:05:19] Yes.

[1:05:19] Torres.

[1:05:20] San Diego.

[1:05:21] Yes.

[1:05:22] All right.

[1:05:23] So we go ahead and move to agenda item 9.

[1:05:29] Item number 9 is the appeal of a cultural arts commission decision to name the award of public art fund dollars for public art sculpture to be installed at Lincoln Park.

[1:05:38] Great. Very good. I know we have a staff presentation.

[1:05:41] We were prepared, even though it's on consent. We do are prepared with a brief presentation.

[1:05:44] I'm not sure if you'd like the presentation first, or here from the public.

[1:05:47] I'd rather have a presentation first than here from the public, and then have Council win.

[1:05:51] Absolutely. I'm going to turn the presentation over to a talk on our planning manager in just a moment.

[1:05:56] But for context, just wanted to point out two things for the Council, because typically appeals are on a project by a project basis.

[1:06:03] It's one thing that's coming before you. I just wanted to add for context.

[1:06:07] So this is part of a larger call for art that was potentially awarding over $1 million, $137 applicants.

[1:06:13] So it's part of a bigger project, so just wanted to point that out as you consider it.

[1:06:17] And then also just, I know that some of that, this project may be a bit controversial and

[1:06:22] that the content of the art really wasn't part of the discussion and what was the decision point.

[1:06:27] It was focused around process and financial questions.

[1:06:30] So I just wanted to point that out for everybody.

[1:06:32] So with that, I'll turn it over to a talk.

[1:06:33] All right, thank you. Welcome to

[1:06:36] Thanks, Rita. Good evening there council members

[1:06:38] I just wanted to walk through some timeline of events so we can frame ourselves around some of the content in the staff report and

[1:06:45] Walkie through the appeal for this particular visual art application

[1:06:48] So we'll be walking through these seven steps there together and I'll start with the first here which was back in March

[1:06:54] We released a call for visual art

[1:06:57] Citywide back on March 15. It was open to all ages

[1:07:00] It was a call for temporary or permanent visual art and also visual art programming so it was open to the entire city.

[1:07:10] And from that in April, a month later we received 137 applications, which we were quite excited about.

[1:07:17] And that represented 54 different individuals or nonprofit organizations as there wasn't a cap on how many applications you could apply for.

[1:07:25] So some folks applied multiple times.

[1:07:28] In total, we received $1.91 million in requests

[1:07:32] from the public art fund.

[1:07:35] So getting into the details of this particular application,

[1:07:38] it was, and sorry, before I do,

[1:07:41] I, the Cultural Arts Commission approved a rubric

[1:07:46] as part of this process for staff to use.

[1:07:48] So our staff here in the planning division,

[1:07:50] and it's just a screen grab there,

[1:07:53] but essentially it's either out of 50, 80 or 100 points depending on what you're applying for.

[1:07:58] Scoring criteria is based on budget, the strength of your proposal, whether you submit it

[1:08:02] everything correctly, whether it's in a publicly accessible location, just criteria that we need to

[1:08:08] hit in the planning division against the art and public places, manual and the code. So from that,

[1:08:13] the application we're looking at tonight was from the village P town productions was the official title.

[1:08:19] the artist is Manolita Brown and the subcontractor, the sub applicant is

[1:08:26] Spectra Company. They were requesting $119,000 from the public art fund and

[1:08:32] that was for a proposed statue in Lincoln Park. You could see a smaller snippet here.

[1:08:39] I have a larger photo to show later in the likeness of Harriet Tubman to

[1:08:42] commemorate Harriet Tubman and that was proposed for Lincoln Park. Staff went back

[1:08:49] to that evaluation rubric to begin scoring the 137 applications over the summer and a couple

[1:08:55] of things that we noted as part of that e-vow for this particular application. The first was that

[1:09:00] upon receiving these photos in the application, we contacted the artist and staff did determine

[1:09:05] that the work had already been completed. So the statue was already done and we also were able to

[1:09:11] confirm, for man, we lit a brown, that the artist had already been paid and was expected to complete

[1:09:15] payment within a week of our phone call, which was back in May.

[1:09:21] Also that application was scored against a hundred and two other applications that were

[1:09:26] in the permanent category.

[1:09:27] So again, there's a $1.91 million in total requests, so we're weighing all of those applications

[1:09:32] against each other.

[1:09:34] And then lastly, the application, particularly on the community engagement scoring criteria,

[1:09:39] which was 20 points, it didn't score that highly on it because it was mostly about an

[1:09:43] Ancillary event related to Spectra Company that they were working on that wasn't quite

[1:09:48] to do specifically with the Harriet Tubman statue and it wasn't about engaging around

[1:09:52] the statue a more of a broader event and so it lost some points on that.

[1:09:56] It still ended up in what we call the acceptable category so we still continue the review.

[1:10:03] Now in that evaluation something important to notice is budget and it might be a little

[1:10:08] hard for the audience to read here but I'll walk you through it a little bit.

[1:10:10] But the artist fee as proposed in the updated budget was $98,750.

[1:10:19] And from that, we were able to determine that $66,750 in our estimate had already been

[1:10:24] funded, as the artist was already paid.

[1:10:27] What that left was approximately $22,000 in mounting and other installation costs and an additional

[1:10:35] additional 20,000 for unfunded obligations for overhead, staffing for the installation, materials and supplies.

[1:10:43] So from that, there was approximately $42,250 that represented work that hadn't been funded by anybody yet,

[1:10:52] whether it was the City of Pomona going to fund it, or Spectra Company or the artist herself.

[1:11:01] Now there are a couple of parallel processes here just to complicate things further, but this is a proposed public art that has two interesting features to it. One, it's not in a pre-approved location.

[1:11:14] So the Parks Commission hadn't looked at this particular location yet, which means it has to go to the Parks and Recreation Commission to get approval for the property to be used for that.

[1:11:22] And the screen grab you see here is the center of Lincoln Park and the proposed statue is going to be located within the Rose Garden component of Lincoln Park within the Lincoln Park historic district.

[1:11:33] The second variable there was it is in Lincoln Park historic district, so it's subject to 5080913, which is in the Pomona zoning code. It's a historic preservation section.

[1:11:42] So staff did a couple of things with that.

[1:11:44] Back on June 16th, we did take it to the Parks Commission as part of this evaluation process.

[1:11:50] And the location was approved, the center of the Rose Garden, to sit adjacent to a commemorative plaque that's already located there.

[1:11:58] And then a week later, staff reviewed a minor certificate of appropriateness, which is a historic review we conducted administratively.

[1:12:04] And we approved it for historic review, deemed that statute do not have a negative impact on the district.

[1:12:10] And that was not appealed.

[1:12:11] So from all of that, getting into step six here, which was a joint commission that took place on August 8th,

[1:12:18] we did recommend as staff funding the installation components that I mentioned here in the bottom right,

[1:12:25] the 42,250 but not funding what had already been paid for.

[1:12:30] At that August 8th meeting, it was a joint meeting between the Citizens Advisory Committee and the Cultural Arts Commission.

[1:12:36] and a few things came up at that meeting.

[1:12:39] First was there were still concerns

[1:12:41] about the unfunded budget line items as well.

[1:12:44] In particular, the artist fee, the $22,000 for installation costs

[1:12:49] in the estimate of some commissioners was conflating

[1:12:51] with other installation and overhead costs.

[1:12:54] And there was a lack of clarity they felt

[1:12:56] on why those line items were needed

[1:12:58] and perhaps the budget was inflated.

[1:13:00] So they had questions about that.

[1:13:02] They also had questions about the inability

[1:13:03] for the committee to really offer any guidance

[1:13:05] as an artist committee, because the work had already been completed.

[1:13:08] So in all of the 136 other requests, none of those pieces of art had been produced yet.

[1:13:14] So in that case, the committee offers recommendations on style, on content, on engagement techniques

[1:13:18] and things of that nature, and they didn't feel they had that ability to do that already.

[1:13:22] And then lastly, there was some confusion on P-town productions being in the title, as it

[1:13:28] came up in the public meeting on August 8th for the first time, that they were a non-profit,

[1:13:32] and they were intended to have a role in this project as well,

[1:13:35] although from staff's review of the evaluation,

[1:13:37] that was not made clear and we weren't aware of that.

[1:13:39] There were a nonprofit that was involved in this.

[1:13:42] So that raised some questions about Spectra's role,

[1:13:45] Ptown Productions role, and the artist's role.

[1:13:48] From that, the commission denied the requests

[1:13:52] for funding in its entirety,

[1:13:54] based on those concerns and did not accept

[1:13:57] staff's recommendation.

[1:13:58] From that point, the applicant did file an appeal as the city council, as it's already

[1:14:05] to appeal this commission decision, and that's what's before you tonight.

[1:14:09] So the request is whether on staff's recommendation here, we're recommending to uphold the Cultural

[1:14:14] Arts Commission decision.

[1:14:16] Reason for that is we initially came in with that staff recommendation of installation funding

[1:14:21] based on what was determined and understood at that meeting on August 8th, and the decision

[1:14:26] that was made, staff felt that it was appropriate to recommend upholding what transpired at that meeting.

[1:14:32] Now, all this to say that the applicant can still pursue installing the statute.

[1:14:37] This is a question of funding from the Public Art Fund.

[1:14:40] So the applicant can still pursue installation in Lincoln Park.

[1:14:43] It's approved as a location.

[1:14:44] It's approved for historic review.

[1:14:46] It's just a question of going before the commission as a self-funded project

[1:14:50] and requesting it be installed in the park.

[1:14:52] What was denied was the ability for the Public Art Fund to actually fund

[1:14:55] the installation. The alternative recommendation for you is that you could

[1:14:59] I would recommend...

[1:15:00] So, there's some level of funding as an alternative staff recommendation. Now, that funding would be issued directly to the artist, Manolita Brown, as the Cultural Arts Commission program, we don't have the ability to fund a company directly as it gets into bidding and RFP situations in a public works kind of world. And so the way we've done this in the past, for instance, with the Miller Cheats Fountains, as you funded executing artists, and there can be subcontractors to that.

[1:15:28] but it's ultimately the artists overseeing the project.

[1:15:31] So the artist in this point would have to be centered

[1:15:33] on that project to get funding

[1:15:35] and that final budget and breakdown

[1:15:37] would need to be vetted by an artist.

[1:15:38] But staff's recommendation tonight

[1:15:40] would be to pull the cultural arts decision.

[1:15:42] And we're here to answer any questions.

[1:15:46] All right, so thank you.

[1:15:47] Before we have questions from the City Council,

[1:15:50] we're gonna go and take public comments.

[1:15:53] And when we finish that,

[1:15:55] then I'm sure there will be questions for you.

[1:15:57] and for the team. Okay, let's go ahead and first speak your up is Jim Galvan and then Mickey Galvan

[1:16:05] thereafter

[1:16:12] Thank you mayor and city council members always feel awkward any time

[1:16:17] I have something that that doesn't go against you what what everyone really like to hear

[1:16:22] But really I am basically here to save this project should not be funded and

[1:16:27] and I've gone to all three different commission meetings

[1:16:30] and followed the whole thing through

[1:16:32] in really great detail.

[1:16:34] First of all, I could talk just a little bit

[1:16:36] about the Garfield statue and Garfield Park.

[1:16:38] There is a statue after the great war

[1:16:41] of this warrior returning.

[1:16:44] And behind it is Pomona taking the sword back from him.

[1:16:48] It is one of the most beautiful iconic statues

[1:16:53] that has ever been built.

[1:16:54] Well, there were somewhere between two and 20,000 people that were there when it was

[1:17:00] started.

[1:17:05] But it was also a project that was designed by the city and it was for the city and

[1:17:12] this statue would only look good in Pomona and no other city would this be appropriate.

[1:17:19] It was our symbol that we had there.

[1:17:25] with historical. One of the things that we talked about was the significance, basically,

[1:17:31] of the center of the garden and things like that. And a lot of us do consider that the

[1:17:38] person who was there, what was a neighbor, and he created that this beautiful thing right

[1:17:46] there in the center as a gift to the neighbors of that area because he helped to get people

[1:17:53] to get loans for that whole area. Parks and wrecks were really not given that many choices

[1:18:00] in terms of where things could be. In fact, one of the things is if this one still needs to be

[1:18:06] moved too far they have to start over again.

[1:18:11] Cultural arts, one of the things I want to see was

[1:18:15] meaning put into this statute, whatever it was, it could be something that actually was

[1:18:22] something that was unique to Pomona.

[1:18:26] And I kept being told, well, at this commission, at this commission, finally it was, well, when

[1:18:32] we get to the Cultural Arts Commission, we can do it there.

[1:18:37] But they were only given the option of whether they funded it or not.

[1:18:41] They were not allowed to say, give it a bowl of fruit or something, you know, to make it

[1:18:47] where you look at that and you'd say, this is Pomona, something really to be proud of.

[1:18:53] In fact, well, actually in the park itself, I would like to see either one multicultural

[1:18:59] statue or a statue, four different statues out, you know, showing the different cultures

[1:19:06] and the neighborhoods that these wonderful things were that our city really represents.

[1:19:16] Thank you.

[1:19:17] Mickey Galvin, you are up next and then Miranda Sheffield, you are there after.

[1:19:23] Thank you very much.

[1:19:26] I feel that the whole issue is very unfortunate.

[1:19:31] I love Ray and Michelle and Spectra, and I'm very glad that they are part of our city.

[1:19:40] Their home is beautiful.

[1:19:42] I've been those of their home probably ten times.

[1:19:47] And I really appreciate Ray's initiative.

[1:19:52] But I don't think that the process was the intended process was followed.

[1:19:58] We did not have an opportunity for input into this statute.

[1:20:04] Harriet Tuglin was a wonderful woman, and I won't argue with that.

[1:20:09] But this statute could go anywhere.

[1:20:11] I made it to be in Pasadena.

[1:20:13] I could be in New York, New Jersey.

[1:20:15] In fact, it probably will be the same statute.

[1:20:20] So I don't think it represents our city very well.

[1:20:22] and I don't feel that Lincoln Park is the appropriate place.

[1:20:28] We just heard a presentation of the youth activities

[1:20:33] in our city this summer.

[1:20:37] Lincoln Park was not mentioned as having any of those youth activities.

[1:20:43] Lincoln Park has no parking.

[1:20:45] I mean, if you're going to have a beautiful statue,

[1:20:48] you, it needs to be seen by the people of Pomona. And I think it needs to be seen especially

[1:20:57] by the youth of Pomona. And it's not going to be seen by them in Lincoln Park. I think

[1:21:03] we have one group that plays soccer in Lincoln Park one day. Other than that, kids come

[1:21:09] and use the playground, and they're all neighborhood kids there.

[1:21:14] It just isn't the appropriate place.

[1:21:19] A much, the civic center would be a more appropriate place.

[1:21:23] We have lots of kids here, people come to the library.

[1:21:28] Martin Luther King would be an appropriate place.

[1:21:31] The school administration building, out in front of it,

[1:21:35] everybody goes down Gary, people come to the auditorium there.

[1:21:42] I just think that it needs

[1:21:43] to be re looked at and a better decision made with respect to the statute if the city is going

[1:21:53] to provide public funding for it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, I'll go ahead and call up

[1:22:00] Well, Miranda Sheffield, then I look like I have

[1:22:05] Anita Reynolds, your up button thereafter.

[1:22:08] Welcome, Ms. Sheffield.

[1:22:09] Good evening, Mayor, City Council.

[1:22:11] I'm here to speak in support of the decision

[1:22:16] that was made by the Cultural Arts Commission on August 8th.

[1:22:20] As a former Arts and Culture Commissioner,

[1:22:24] I understand the importance of supporting

[1:22:25] our arts and culture community.

[1:22:27] I was not able to attend the August 8th meeting, but I have a lot of reasons why I do not support this particular statue in the way that it has been presented, not that I do not love Harriet Tubman.

[1:22:44] I think Harriet Tubman should be honored in our city because her values and what she did recognizes a lot of people who are here in our city and we should find ways to do that in a much more meaningful way.

[1:22:56] rather than someone like Ray going on Fox and trying to chalk, trying to cloud chase after the legacy of Harriet Tubman.

[1:23:07] I also think that the biggest thing about this is that a lot of people will say this is about freedom and quality and people love to throw those words around.

[1:23:16] But what doesn't get addressed is that there's actually issues that are taking place here that have to do with a lot of black women.

[1:23:25] And I don't think we have done enough to really honor that or to really set an agenda

[1:23:29] inside around that.

[1:23:31] And from another point that I want to raise is that there was over 137 applications.

[1:23:39] Somehow I feel like particularly with the mayor having such close proximity to this particular

[1:23:45] project, it shows it's not an impartial situation that took place.

[1:23:49] It was as if this involvement with this, it showed that, you know, there was some form of

[1:23:57] favoritism and there was also something that, to me, alluded that this had already kind

[1:24:03] of been guaranteed that we're going to do this, we're going to move forward with this.

[1:24:07] And it seemed like it was already in the motions that it would be guaranteed.

[1:24:11] Another thing is that some of these folks who have done these visual arts applications,

[1:24:15] I would hate that this was set of presidents that when someone gets denied an application that they would then be able to come and waste staff's time, waste everyone else's time to go through this process.

[1:24:29] When it has already been decided that we, there was a process that we honored, there was a process that took place that we don't want this to happen.

[1:24:37] And now we're seeing that we have to come on a Monday night to talk about this.

[1:24:42] Harriet Tubman, it was a wonderful freedom fighter, but

[1:24:46] I think that this whole process, even in the map that has been asked, given that the artists has already been paid for.

[1:24:52] It should not be approved and that we should support the decision that the staff is putting forward tonight.

[1:24:57] And also honor those who have put their applications in like they did.

[1:25:02] who have even, I understand that a lot of them did not even have an opportunity to have

[1:25:06] the applications reviewed because this was taking so much time away from that process.

[1:25:12] Courtney, let's see, Anita Reynolds, and then Anne Toppins, Europe.

[1:25:18] Good evening, Mayor and Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

[1:25:23] My name is Anita Reynolds, I'm the Chair of the Cultural Arts Commission and also a committee

[1:25:29] member.

[1:25:29] This entire project has read of privilege, power, and position.

[1:25:40] It has been done inappropriately and like no other project that we have ever approved

[1:25:47] of before.

[1:25:49] We have as staff stated, we have over 100 submissions for AIPP funding and we have

[1:25:57] artists that work two full-time jobs, you know, they would come in, work with staff, get rejected,

[1:26:05] or have to have their projects refined, but still, they did the correct process.

[1:26:13] Spectra's Flash P-Town Company had a whole campaign, including a website, social media,

[1:26:20] television interviews, a whole kaboom event around this statute and it never got to the commission or to the cultural arts committee as is a requirement for AIPP funding.

[1:26:39] It would be blatantly unfair to every artist in this city who went about it the right way,

[1:26:47] took the time, took their money, took their resources, took their rejection and came back,

[1:26:53] and worked with staff and presented as they were supposed to.

[1:26:58] It would set, as Mayor said, a slippery slope for everybody coming after this.

[1:27:06] It is flagrantly unfair for them to use AIPP funding.

[1:27:11] I am a huge Harriet Tubman fan, but she would not even approve of this process.

[1:27:17] It is unfair to the artists in the city.

[1:27:20] Thank you very much.

[1:27:21] Thank you, Antonin, you're up.

[1:27:32] Good evening, thank you for the opportunity to speak on this item.

[1:27:35] I actually live very close to this park and I did want to speak about my surprise

[1:27:43] is to hear that this project was marked down on engagement.

[1:27:48] Because if there were a project that were proposed

[1:27:51] under this hundred and some projects,

[1:27:54] this is the one that seemed to have the most engagement

[1:27:57] around it.

[1:27:58] And in terms of numerous community meetings, commission meetings,

[1:28:02] I was able to attend the Parks and Rec Commission meeting

[1:28:05] and was really impressed with the speakers

[1:28:08] who spoke in favor of this statue for the Parks and Rec Commission.

[1:28:12] and how much it would mean to them to have a statue like this in Pomona.

[1:28:19] And so to see that level of engagement and the number of people who showed up at the event

[1:28:24] and how excited people were about it and to see my neighbors drawing on their wall facing the park, welcome Harriet Tubman.

[1:28:32] And then to get to the arts commission and say this doesn't qualify because we didn't get to dictate exactly what it looks like

[1:28:40] Or we didn't get to choose the artist, it just, if that's what our program is, I think we need to rework it.

[1:28:48] I think that the goal should be to have art in the city.

[1:28:52] It shouldn't be just murals.

[1:28:53] When you look at the collection of murals that they were approving, their murals are most of the projects.

[1:28:59] They were only, I think, four sculptures proposed, and this is not competing with any other proposed project in Lincoln Park.

[1:29:06] And to suggest that spectra somehow, it would be wrong to have spectra join in, this is a designated historic site.

[1:29:17] To in order to put art in a site like that, you absolutely want to be partnering with an expert in historic preservation.

[1:29:24] That would have been essential to have a project approved in Lincoln Park.

[1:29:27] So to call that a negative or an abuse of the process, when that would be a necessary step to make sure that all parks in the city

[1:29:35] had an opportunity to have art in the park.

[1:29:38] It is really puzzling to me that that could be the recommendation of staff.

[1:29:43] And it sure looked to me like this was simply a bias that they had an overbroad request for art.

[1:29:51] Had too many applicants and this was a large dollar item and thought, well,

[1:29:55] he'll probably just pay for it anyways so we won't, we'll say it doesn't qualify.

[1:30:00] If I and not allocate any funds to it. And that just does not seem fair to me at all. I've read through the manuals. I don't see where this violates any of the manual processes at all. It really seemed very biased to me against both spectra and against this historic park. There were a lot of people speaking in favor. They probably given up by the time that it's got to an appeal after speaking at numerous community meetings. But I did want to share my perspective.

[1:30:29] of the situation. Thank you.

[1:30:32] Thank you.

[1:30:33] Okay.

[1:30:35] That completes the public comment portion.

[1:30:38] I want to make sure I didn't miss anyone.

[1:30:40] Anybody turn on a card?

[1:30:43] Just want to make sure that we capture everyone.

[1:30:46] Okay, very good. All right, City Council.

[1:30:48] This is your opportunity to ask questions to weigh in

[1:30:51] and to contribute to the conversation.

[1:30:55] And I would be happy to start.

[1:31:00] I want to just to the best that I can lay out how this started as an idea to where we're

[1:31:10] at today.

[1:31:11] One thing I do want to express is that one of the things I appreciate about where

[1:31:18] we're at in this country is that you have an opportunity to disagree.

[1:31:22] You have an opportunity to voice a different opinion, but at the end of the day, some of

[1:31:27] you are my neighbors, some of you, we go to events together.

[1:31:31] I appreciate you, I admire you for the work you do, but this is one of those times where

[1:31:36] I'm going to disagree with some of you.

[1:31:38] But I hope that at the end of the day that we appreciate our differences and that we don't

[1:31:44] get into these camps where I won't talk to you, I won't meet with you, I just don't believe

[1:31:49] that that is the way in which we're all simply going to help transform this community.

[1:31:54] So with that, this project came out of a conversation that happened shortly after George Floyd was murdered in this country.

[1:32:06] Okay, hang on.

[1:32:08] I'm sorry, Mr. Fulve.

[1:32:10] You've had a chance to speak.

[1:32:11] I'm speaking.

[1:32:12] I'm telling you about the history of how this idea was born.

[1:32:15] If you don't like it, that's on you.

[1:32:17] Okay, but if you continue, I will just ask politely to ask you to be rude.

[1:32:23] I don't want to do that, but don't question me.

[1:32:27] Okay, you question me privately, you question me outside here, but in this meeting, I am the chair of this meeting, and I'm going to say what I'm going to say because it's factual.

[1:32:34] Okay, already.

[1:32:36] One more time and you're out, simple as that.

[1:32:39] Okay, when George Floyd was murdered, I called my call to our commissioner and I said,

[1:32:44] Josh, you know, I think we ought to do something in the city that perhaps reflects the history

[1:32:54] of the African-American experience. And I said, perhaps we do a statue of Frederick Douglass.

[1:33:00] And at that time, I'd call together a group of African-American leaders to the table to ask

[1:33:05] them, what should we do at this point? What should we do? I want to listen to you. I want to learn

[1:33:11] from you, and a group of African-American leaders met, and out of that came a number of

[1:33:17] things that I did, but that they did, which included the ultimate opening of the African-American

[1:33:22] advisory alliance that they formed, and that we supported with the work at security.

[1:33:28] The idea came out of that particular situation that happened in Minneapolis.

[1:33:35] I did not do anything with it for a long time.

[1:33:37] I did not move on it.

[1:33:38] I did not say anything about it, and it happened that I was at a Christmas party that was organized

[1:33:45] by Spectrum where Ray Adamick talked about his, what he called, the racial reconciliation,

[1:33:51] which as a white man, he wanted to better understand the situation of African Americans in this country,

[1:33:58] and he went through a process, he can tell you more about that, okay? Okay.

[1:34:06] It's incredibly

[1:34:07] disrespectful folks. I am asked to listen for three minutes to somebody who has a different opinion

[1:34:14] but I can't speak the truth of what I'm telling you. It's basically saying that what I'm telling you

[1:34:19] is not accurate and I'm telling you exactly what happened. Because you need to have the background

[1:34:24] when somebody accuses me of not having integrity I have been a mayor that has tried to operate

[1:34:30] with integrity. We're talking about a Harriet Tubman statue.

[1:34:37] We're talking about a Harriet Tubman statue.

[1:34:41] That statue wouldn't even have been possible in the city of Pomona when the city was first formed.

[1:34:47] It would not even ever have been called Lincoln Park was called Lincoln Park because that was palatable when it was first formed.

[1:34:54] But it never would have been called Harriet Tubman Park.

[1:34:58] And there's a controversy about a Harriet Tubman statue in Lincoln Park, and who's going

[1:35:03] to fund it?

[1:35:07] So let me continue.

[1:35:10] So I was at this event, Ray talked about his home city in Canada, that it was one of

[1:35:16] the last stops of the Underground Railroad, and he said there's a church that Harriet Tubman

[1:35:22] used to attend there, and it was somewhat dilapidated, and he wanted to undertake a project

[1:35:28] to help rehabilitate the property and he talked about it there and I thought oh that's great he's

[1:35:34] doing some good work and he's using his spectral work to get to helping rehabilitate this.

[1:35:42] Maybe a week after because this was around Christmas time I think it was after Christmas I called

[1:35:46] Ray and I said listen Ray I talked to my cultural arts commissioner some time ago about doing

[1:35:51] a statue of Frederick Douglass but maybe it makes sense to do a statue of Harriet Tubman.

[1:35:58] And I think it would be a great contribution to the city of Pomona.

[1:36:02] And I thought Lincoln Park for this reason because the fact of the matter is that Lincoln

[1:36:08] is associated with the emancipation and the end of slavery, right?

[1:36:12] Not that other Hamilton or Washington or any other Garfield didn't play a role in the actual

[1:36:23] expression of slavery, the actual exploitation and oppression of African American people.

[1:36:28] But it was Lincoln that's associated with the emancipation.

[1:36:32] But we know that's not accurate.

[1:36:33] We know that's a very complex history, and that blacks were not just free.

[1:36:40] And why would it be important to have an expression of the black experience, the African American

[1:36:44] experience, of Harriet Tubman, to be at this park that at a time where African Americans

[1:36:49] couldn't even live in that neighborhood?

[1:36:50] nor a brown man like me, who lives in Lincoln Park now, was not possible.

[1:36:58] And so I said, maybe we got to do a statue of Harriet Tubman, and I was really excited

[1:37:04] about it.

[1:37:07] So time goes on, and I had already known that the city was going to have a process for

[1:37:13] requesting art proposals.

[1:37:17] And I can't say that I fully understood every aspect of the process, but I know staff does an excellent job of providing people with a process.

[1:37:26] And so Ray and his team engaged the staff on this project. I know that they spoke to you pretty regularly. Is that fair to say?

[1:37:36] That's correct.

[1:37:36] And I believe that there was no juncture was there any rejection of what he was doing

[1:37:48] with his process that said, right, you've been disqualified because you've already completed the project.

[1:37:56] Yeah, we did not disqualify the project at the time of us answering questions about the feature application.

[1:38:05] Yeah, we did not know the work had already been completed.

[1:38:08] Right.

[1:38:08] So once we learn that in the evaluation process, it just raised a question of which portion to fund for staff and recommend.

[1:38:16] And there's no and I want to be respectful of staff and her interpretation, but there was nothing in the process because that's that's what.

[1:38:24] Vanita and the cultural arts commission said it was a process problem, right?

[1:38:29] Not whether they were questioning the statute, or they weren't questioning where it should go because that decision had already been decided.

[1:38:36] But they were questioning the process, right?

[1:38:39] And my question is, at any point in the process where they told you are not eligible because of the manner in which you've done it.

[1:38:46] No, but as I noted earlier, on the community engagement scoring, it makes it very difficult

[1:38:52] to evaluate an application when the statute itself was unveiled and there was promotion

[1:38:58] around it, which made it difficult to evaluate objectively how to score that application

[1:39:05] when there was already publicity around it.

[1:39:07] And was he told that?

[1:39:08] Was he told that he shouldn't do it, should he wait?

[1:39:13] Yeah, it was in my place to tell him what to do on that.

[1:39:17] Right, but he came to us for the purpose of getting funding, right?

[1:39:22] Right.

[1:39:22] Okay, and obviously that was an important part of his decision to go ahead and move forward on.

[1:39:27] I presume, right?

[1:39:28] Because he thought maybe he might be eligible for funding.

[1:39:31] You just had two things, one mayor.

[1:39:33] I think it's important to note on the original application form,

[1:39:37] which was an online application in the initial statement.

[1:39:39] and it does say we're seeking conceptual art.

[1:39:43] So that's one component that just kind of adds to that.

[1:39:45] Can you explain that to us?

[1:39:46] Yeah, so conceptual is what all the other applications are

[1:39:50] that we received, which means it was an idea.

[1:39:53] It was a concept for the commission and the committee

[1:39:55] to weigh in on the content, type of art, all of that.

[1:39:59] And then secondly, in terms of what Ray was told,

[1:40:03] it's a little bit of it was unfolding as it happened.

[1:40:05] So the event was in July.

[1:40:08] this we took this in August right for decision so we weren't fully aware of all

[1:40:14] of the things surrounding the events and it's being fully funded until in

[1:40:19] August we were already deep into the score so a little bit that kind of made

[1:40:23] that a little bit more complex the process as well. That's helpful because what I'm

[1:40:28] hearing you say is that in the language it said conceptual right and I would

[1:40:35] But imagine we can delve deeper into what does it mean to conceptual, right?

[1:40:38] It means that conceptual meaning, like, I need to bring you the idea and then you need

[1:40:42] to tell me how to do it or recommend that maybe you need to change this or change that.

[1:40:48] And conceptual can also mean the person already has the idea in their head about exactly how

[1:40:53] they're going to do it.

[1:40:54] But what I'm hearing you say is you were actually looking for ideas that people had of projects

[1:41:00] that were not yet completed.

[1:41:03] Yeah, that's part of it.

[1:41:04] And I would say that the key point here that's the crux of all of this is that the artists had already been paid right I think that changed the evaluation significantly because it there's a question of providing concept or even if work had been completed as a conceptual and now we were seeking art funding.

[1:41:23] But we wanted to tease out the portion that was in a competitive environment not necessary for funding is that the artist in our conversation had already been paid.

[1:41:32] Right, okay, so very helpful and I'm sure it's probably very helpful to the council

[1:41:39] But you also said that you supported the at least the stock recommendation was that

[1:41:45] You supported the installation of the statue as well as the upkeep of the statue

[1:41:51] Which can you remind me with that amount is yeah?

[1:41:55] I think I have I need I know you sent me that information, but I just want to double check although this phone is out

[1:42:00] So yeah, so that's 42,500 was a recommendation.

[1:42:04] So staff did recommend approving

[1:42:06] the unfunded portions of the project.

[1:42:09] That represented installation and transportation costs.

[1:42:13] Essentially what we determined in our best guess

[1:42:15] were elements that had not been funded yet.

[1:42:18] Okay, and where do I get the $62,000 figure in my head?

[1:42:22] That was the original recommendation, am I just, am I lost?

[1:42:27] So yeah, the original unfunded he originally submitted a proposal that was for a hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars. Yeah, he subsequently revised that down to a hundred and nineteen thousand.

[1:42:39] We didn't have a copy of that.

[1:42:41] Unfortunately, that's an error on my part. He had sent it to me. I hadn't seen it.

[1:42:45] Okay.

[1:42:45] So at the time of staff report writing for the August 8 agenda, I was still under the impression that is one fifty eight.

[1:42:51] So the recommendation of 63 was based on the first budget when we got the updated budget it shranked down to

[1:42:58] 425 right okay, okay, so so that's the number that you've you've since landed on since the cultural arts commission.

[1:43:05] We brought that forward to the committee and commission of the joint session right and they saw they saw an amount of

[1:43:10] 42,000. They saw 4,500 now what came up at that meeting was questions about whether that full amount was

[1:43:18] necessary to execute the installation because I will note that the original amount of 95,000 for

[1:43:25] the artist was subsequently revised to include $22,000 for installation and that was a lot different

[1:43:32] than the original budget. We took it at face value to identify anything that was unfunded and make

[1:43:38] that recommendation because the application was considered acceptable but the commission did have

[1:43:43] questions about wanting to verify whether all of that amount was really necessary to execute the work.

[1:43:48] Thank you.

[1:43:49] Appreciate that.

[1:43:51] Not a little just background in terms of how we're here today is I had organized a community meeting at Lincoln Park.

[1:44:01] That was attended by I know the need that you were there.

[1:44:04] I know Mickey, Jim, you were there.

[1:44:07] I know council member on the various coals there.

[1:44:09] And it was to talk about this very statue.

[1:44:13] I believe, I want to say that was back in June, maybe May or June, it was well attended.

[1:44:21] And I would have to say that the majority of the people that were there supported it.

[1:44:24] There were a few people who clearly did not want to see it there, and I respect that.

[1:44:28] That's, hey, it should go somewhere else, Mickey, I know you said, hey, listen, maybe it goes

[1:44:32] at the civic center, right?

[1:44:33] It's more accessible to people.

[1:44:37] And so there was a range of different opinions, but I think on the whole, the people that

[1:44:41] or there were very supportive of it.

[1:44:43] And then there's a process that you have to go through, right?

[1:44:47] In order to do something like this, in this case a statue,

[1:44:51] it wasn't my mandate, it wasn't saying,

[1:44:54] in fact, I didn't even attend the cultural art.

[1:44:56] I didn't attend any of the meetings, and I didn't weigh in at all.

[1:45:00] On this run. This was the parks and rec, this was the cultural arts commission, and this is the HPC. Didn't write anything, didn't say anything. Okay. And in fact, if it didn't go in Lincoln Park, it just didn't go in Lincoln Park, I'm fine with that.

[1:45:17] But the question here is, does this project deserve funding? And it sounds like to me that you think it does, but to a point. And that's what you told the cultural arts commission, and they rejected it outright.

[1:45:29] with the exception of I believe

[1:45:32] one, my call to our commissioner.

[1:45:34] Two.

[1:45:35] Two.

[1:45:36] Okay.

[1:45:37] So what you're telling,

[1:45:39] what you're telling the council

[1:45:40] is that the council can't approve

[1:45:42] some amount.

[1:45:43] And your recommendation was 42,000.

[1:45:46] Whatever that amount is.

[1:45:48] Even though there were problems in the

[1:45:50] wasn't a clean application process.

[1:45:53] And by the way,

[1:45:53] were there any other community meetings

[1:45:54] around any of these other art pieces?

[1:45:57] So just to clarify,

[1:45:59] by appointing about the community engagement.

[1:46:00] There's no requirement to have community meetings.

[1:46:02] So none of the 137 applications

[1:46:05] have to have a community meeting.

[1:46:06] It's more about an intent statement

[1:46:08] on how, if they got approved,

[1:46:10] they would engage the community

[1:46:12] around shaping their artwork.

[1:46:14] So a muralist coming into Tony Certa Park

[1:46:16] would have to provide a paragraph or two

[1:46:19] explaining how they would do some kind of community event

[1:46:21] or artist-driven event to solicit the youth maybe

[1:46:25] to help out with them or, you know, solicit ideas

[1:46:28] like that. So that engagement is what we're talking about with that. There was no requirement to

[1:46:33] have a meeting about that. Okay. All right. I probably have a couple more questions, but I want

[1:46:38] to make sure we hear from our colleagues. But thank you, staff. I know that it was not an easy

[1:46:42] process. I understand that you were there all night, and I know there were a number of people who

[1:46:48] wanted to speak on that item. Unfortunately, they didn't get to speak on it because it went well

[1:46:53] past midnight, I think. So let's make sure this meeting doesn't go well past midnight,

[1:46:58] and we get this resolved. I see a council member on a vice mayor on a rose call has her

[1:47:04] hand up and then council member Garcia.

[1:47:09] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:47:14] I knew there was going to be

[1:47:15] some type of conflict regarding this issue. First of all, we're not talking about the

[1:47:24] statue itself.

[1:47:26] What we're talking about is the process.

[1:47:28] We're talking about the channels that we have to go through if we are initiating something to the cultural and art.

[1:47:38] I think the Chair, Benito Reynolds, explained it quite thoroughly.

[1:47:42] I think it was explained quite thoroughly from staff.

[1:47:46] Thank you, Mr. Conn.

[1:47:47] My

[1:47:51] feeling is this, if we are to submit some type of a project, we do need to honor that

[1:48:04] policy, that procedure.

[1:48:08] It doesn't matter who you are, but you have to follow it.

[1:48:14] Unfortunately, this was not the case.

[1:48:17] What I read here in this, the application in regards to spectra, first it was considered spectra and then somehow it was suddenly the title reference the village p town productions, but yet there was nothing executing that the paperwork correct.

[1:48:40] Yeah, it wasn't throughout the evaluation process, it was our understanding that it was

[1:48:44] Manolid and Spectra Company.

[1:48:46] Yeah.

[1:48:46] At the August 8 meeting, Ray and public comment indicated that it's actually P town productions

[1:48:51] is involved as a nonprofit.

[1:48:53] We were not aware of that.

[1:48:54] It was the first time we were hearing that.

[1:48:55] Yes.

[1:48:57] And you had notified Manolid to Brown and to understand her role better in this, correct?

[1:49:06] Yeah.

[1:49:07] Okay.

[1:49:07] Okay, she was paid in advance, correct?

[1:49:13] So I contacted Manolito with my staff to ask a series of questions.

[1:49:18] We confirmed her involvement.

[1:49:20] She did confirm that she's being paid for the work and that she wouldn't finish the

[1:49:24] work until she was going to receive full payment.

[1:49:26] I didn't go into it beyond that, but that was enough for me to verify that the artist had

[1:49:32] been paid.

[1:49:33] Well, she wanted to be guaranteed that she was going to get paid, I think.

[1:49:37] That's actually what she said.

[1:49:38] Yes, there you go, the Unity Day LA and and all of the things that we're going on regarding this statue.

[1:49:50] That's aside from what we're talking about tonight, we're talking about funding, we're talking about paying the applicant.

[1:50:03] We need to understand something when we take something before a commission.

[1:50:07] These commissioners are an extension of the council.

[1:50:14] We have appointed these people, and I think they're doing their due diligence.

[1:50:20] I think it's not just a slam dunk, but this is something that they take hours of preparation.

[1:50:29] I believe from what I understood that this particular council meeting was up until one o'clock in the morning from all of these applicants if I if I'm mistaken they sell because this was what I was told.

[1:50:45] And this is a long process.

[1:50:47] Yes.

[1:50:48] It was a lost track of time, but yeah.

[1:50:50] Okay.

[1:50:52] You were there.

[1:50:53] It was one meeting that went past midnight.

[1:50:54] We've had.

[1:50:55] Well, that was.

[1:50:55] That was it.

[1:50:56] Okay.

[1:50:57] This was when we had all of this going on because we're discussing important issues.

[1:51:03] We're discussing issues and projects that are related to the money that we are going to

[1:51:10] use for these projects.

[1:51:15] So, understood that Spectra did pay in advance, probably with the intention of getting paid,

[1:51:23] being reassured that he would get paid.

[1:51:26] But how can we promise that, okay?

[1:51:30] The project was a complete project, so that also had a little ding.

[1:51:37] That's probably why it was acceptable from 40 to 80 points compared to some of the other ones.

[1:51:44] Another question I have, and I have high respect for Mandelita Brown.

[1:51:48] I think she did a beautiful job.

[1:51:50] I think Harriet Tubman stands for something, like I read in a letter here from the project manager of spectra.

[1:52:03] that the citizens of Pomona and Pilgrims are freedom who long to witness the exaltation of the Harriet Tubman statue in Lincoln Park, eagerly anticipate this work's dedication.

[1:52:15] We're not talking about that, we're talking about the funding, we're talking about will this company get reimbursed?

[1:52:25] Another question I have is how could you bypass a commission, a cultural art?

[1:52:37] How can you do that?

[1:52:39] But yet you can go to a park and wreck.

[1:52:43] And another question I have in regards to the Rose Garden, I believe it was Mr. Kuhn,

[1:52:50] who created this Rose Garden, what, maybe 80, 90 years ago?

[1:52:54] I mean, this is a tradition, a traditional historic plaque dedicated to the people and his wife, who love roses.

[1:53:05] So there's a history there, and to plant another historical monument in the same area,

[1:53:13] Will that deteriorate, what is there now?

[1:53:19] Because I think Harriet Tubman's statue should be somewhere where it is appreciated.

[1:53:25] We're spending millions at the library.

[1:53:28] We're doing everything we can to bring people and children to the library.

[1:53:35] I agree with Mickey Gallivan when she said maybe the Civic Center.

[1:53:40] Because people are visiting the Civic Center.

[1:53:43] It's a well-protected secured place for something like Harriet Tubman, and that is something

[1:53:51] that I question.

[1:53:52] I remember about three years ago that we had a mural in one of our parks, and it was

[1:54:00] not done through the process, and the mayor voted to have it removed, and I seconded it.

[1:54:08] Where is the definition, whether it is a mural or a statue, we have to follow the process.

[1:54:20] That's the way it is.

[1:54:21] Why do we bother having processes if we're not going to adhere to them?

[1:54:26] Why do we have commissioners if we're not going to honor their decision?

[1:54:31] And this is what concerns me because this is not just an everything thing.

[1:54:38] Yes, we had a wonderful gathering.

[1:54:40] I was there and I saw the joy and the laughter and all of that.

[1:54:45] I got to meet Ms. Brown and it was an honor.

[1:54:49] I think her work deserves more recognition, not just a district for park,

[1:54:55] which I wasn't even included in the conversation by the way.

[1:54:58] So I really didn't know the process. I didn't know what was going on until Mr. Adamick called me and told me

[1:55:03] But it wasn't even at the Lincoln Park. It was at Ganesha Park, and I said really

[1:55:10] Okay, but all of a sudden it's now at Lincoln Park, but I gave him my my honest opinion

[1:55:18] This statue should be somewhere where it's recognized on a daily basis

[1:55:24] is. I go to Lincoln Park every morning. I do my power walk there. It's a quiet park.

[1:55:36] It is not a park where people will actually go to because it is a neighborhood park.

[1:55:43] Regardless of Lincoln or whatever, it doesn't matter. This is a park and people are calling

[1:55:49] me. We went to see the, we went to see Harriet Tubman statue and it's not there. What happened

[1:55:54] to it. I said, you know what? I do not know. I know it was mobile that day. After that I never saw it

[1:56:02] again. I don't know where it's even situated. But the thing is this.

[1:56:08] I read this carefully. I have marked

[1:56:12] these pages. And I've come to the conclusion that I agree with staff to uphold this decision.

[1:56:29] That's

[1:56:30] As you can always interject, and I'm going to do that right now, to make a comparison to what happened at Tony Certa Park, where there was no process, did this go to the Proxon Recommission, it did, did this go to the HPC, it did, did it go to the Cultural Arts Commission, it did, so don't ever compare what happened at Tony Certa Park to what happened here, there is a process.

[1:56:59] as you may not agree with the process,

[1:57:01] because the process that we're talking about

[1:57:02] is did they follow the process to get funding?

[1:57:07] When you interject the question of should it go

[1:57:10] in Lincoln Park, that's not what's before us.

[1:57:13] And you said that at the beginning, so stick to it.

[1:57:17] But don't make a comparison to Tony Cedar Park.

[1:57:20] It's completely inaccurate and it's disingenuous to people.

[1:57:26] We have a process here, you're here.

[1:57:27] Sure, we didn't appeal this, the applicant appealed it, which it is his or her right to do in our system.

[1:57:37] But don't go making suggestions that somehow this was somehow that process, there wasn't a process, it just happened.

[1:57:46] That's not the case here, we just didn't put the Harriet Tubman statue in their Lincoln Park permanently, at all, two different things.

[1:57:57] Thank

[1:58:00] you Mayor. There's a lot to unpack here. I think most prominent right now for me is I want to thank planning for all the work they've done over the last four years with the Cultural Arts Committee and the processes that have been put into place.

[1:58:18] I don't think our arts fund has ever been this high and I think it's really amazing that we had a call for artists to spend some of that money instead of holding on to it.

[1:58:30] I am also grateful that what happened at Tony Certa Park back in 2018 allowed there

[1:58:38] for me to bring a mural and some utility box artwork to Philadelphia Park.

[1:58:46] Because I think that that's something this council is really good at is if we see there's

[1:58:50] a need, we try to address it, we try to work with staff, we figure it out, it may not always

[1:58:56] be pretty, I mean, not always be easy, but I appreciate that staff is always willing

[1:59:03] to see things from our point of view and to work with us and residents in community.

[1:59:09] I think I'm going to follow Mayor Direction here and just stick to what's before us, and

[1:59:14] that is the funding.

[1:59:15] We can have an entire conversation about whether or not this statute belongs at Lincoln Park.

[1:59:22] I know Michelle Field has some interesting views and I may or may not agree with her views,

[1:59:27] but I understand where she's coming from.

[1:59:32] And it really still irks me that in this day and age Lincoln Park is such a protected

[1:59:39] sacred space.

[1:59:42] I remember walking it and a resident who actually knows me in the neighborhood asked me, what

[1:59:47] are you doing here?

[1:59:48] This isn't your district.

[1:59:49] I said I came to use the path walking path at this park, the only ADA compliant walking path at this park in the city at this park.

[1:59:57] So that's.

[2:00:00] I'm just going to stick to it. There's a lot to unpack. I'm just going to say this very clearly. I would, I have spoken to my

[2:00:08] arts commissioner. I have heard her point of view. She was very firm in her point of view. And I understand where staff is coming from, but I cannot dismiss the joy and the

[2:00:22] the excitement and the spirit for which this statue was built, and I would support paying for the installation fee.

[2:00:33] We could figure out everything else, but $45,000 more or less to make sure that we have some level of representation.

[2:00:46] The NAACP from both Pomona Valley and St. Gabriel Valley was there, Channel 7 was there.

[2:00:53] And this question of where is this statue now is not the first time I've heard someone

[2:00:57] say that because we just haven't installed it yet.

[2:01:01] And so I would really like to see at least the city pay for the installation.

[2:01:07] And we can move forward and waste our, sorry, spend our energy elsewhere.

[2:01:12] everywhere. We could spend our energy elsewhere. Everyone has a right to an appeal. We hear appeals

[2:01:19] from historical homes, from business owners, from community groups. Everyone has a right

[2:01:24] to be heard, as the mayor said. So I will right now end my comments and just say I recommend

[2:01:31] or I would motion. So I guess I'm doing a substitute motion to council member calls,

[2:01:41] vice

[2:01:41] We fund the installation and we figure out everything else through our commissions.

[2:01:45] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:01:46] Thank you.

[2:01:47] Forgive me if I, Vice-Miracle, did you make a motion?

[2:01:51] No, I didn't.

[2:01:51] Okay.

[2:01:52] I didn't think I heard.

[2:01:54] Not at this time.

[2:01:55] I said I was in favor of staff.

[2:01:57] Yeah.

[2:01:57] Thank you.

[2:01:58] Thank you.

[2:01:58] So your motion.

[2:02:00] Thank you for that clarification.

[2:02:01] So your motion is up.

[2:02:02] You're welcome.

[2:02:03] Are you finished?

[2:02:05] Okay.

[2:02:06] Council member Lestro and then Council member Taurus.

[2:02:09] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, I'll second Council Member Garcia's motion, but I just want

[2:02:16] to make a few comments.

[2:02:21] I don't think there's any question, at least for the majority

[2:02:23] of the community, that they appreciate the artwork that was done and recognize the importance

[2:02:31] of Harriet Tubman in history and the important part she played in history and as others have said, I don't think that's the issue in and of itself.

[2:02:45] I think the issue and we've heard this tonight has been process and we can't go backwards and we can't change what we did at this point so I'm not going to focus on that.

[2:03:00] But I hope that it's been a learning experience, I think for all of us, not only for staff, but for the community, that if we go down this road again, and whether it's a call for art or a call for something else, that this has been

[2:03:18] and kind of a lesson for us or a learning experience

[2:03:24] with respect to how we go through the process

[2:03:28] or maybe how the call is put out.

[2:03:32] Maybe we need to put maybe additional details

[2:03:35] in the call, that sort of thing.

[2:03:37] I think we can learn from this.

[2:03:39] It's no, it doesn't serve any purpose,

[2:03:42] I think, to go back and beat up individuals

[2:03:46] or groups or anything like that.

[2:03:48] that we're not accomplishing anything by doing that.

[2:03:51] So all of that said, I recognize that we've gone through this process, and I know that

[2:03:59] not everybody supports the placement, the location of this particular piece of art, but that's

[2:04:08] not what's before us tonight.

[2:04:10] And I was at the beginning of this conversation, I was thinking to myself that the statute obviously needs to go somewhere in this community.

[2:04:21] I think it's appropriate in this community and such I think that I would get agree with councilmember Garcia and be supportive of the original staff recommendation of funding no more than 42,500 for the installation.

[2:04:37] Thank you.

[2:04:37] Thank

[2:04:41] you, Councilor Resto, Councilor Tours, and then Councilor Rdolti.

[2:04:50] Just wanted to say thank you to the speakers and the staff for putting together the report and

[2:04:56] so the community for coming out and voicing their concerns.

[2:05:00] Very interesting issue here at hand.

[2:05:05] You know, when I first heard about the Harriet Tudman statue, it was on Channel 7 or the news.

[2:05:12] because that was how I personally found out about it.

[2:05:15] And then councilwoman Cole called me up and told me.

[2:05:18] So that's how I learned about it.

[2:05:21] But I'm nevertheless, I think it was, you know,

[2:05:23] a great thing for the community.

[2:05:24] I think area tummins and amazing women,

[2:05:27] glad that the mayor and his folks came up with the idea.

[2:05:31] But it's very important that we follow process.

[2:05:34] And I'm not saying that this is just like Tony Certa,

[2:05:37] not saying that.

[2:05:38] But what I am saying is that certain things weren't followed

[2:05:41] in terms of the process with the funding, right?

[2:05:43] And that needs to be fixed moving forward into the future.

[2:05:47] Because, or else what happens is if we're not covering our ass,

[2:05:52] and I'm going to say it's just like that,

[2:05:53] and following the process, what ends up happening is,

[2:05:56] something as great as renaming or building a statue of Harriet Tubman,

[2:06:03] could turn into something so controversial or divisive, right?

[2:06:09] right? And that's really sad, right? Because I don't think that's what the purpose of

[2:06:14] this idea was. So now regardless of whether they get their funding or not, we have folks

[2:06:20] in the community who are divided and been out of shape. So it's just to avoid this issue

[2:06:25] in the future, it is absolutely necessary. We do follow process and we do have, you know,

[2:06:32] especially when it comes to public funding, right? We want to make sure we have a fair,

[2:06:36] thorough thought out clear process, right? Because we don't want folks calling us back in the future and you know for the council, you know, it's just it's important for us, you know, and for me as a council member, you know, we choose certain roads, you know, we take certain paths, but you know, if the road we choose leads us to a point like this, I mean, what good was the road, right?

[2:07:03] You know, I mean, I think that came out of a movie, there will be blood, but it applies to this, this exact moment right here, so, but nevertheless, looking forward to the vote.

[2:07:16] So, thanks.

[2:07:18] Thank you, Councillor Tours. Councillor Renulti.

[2:07:24] Just a question for staff. I'm trying to look here at what, because the applicant saying that they,

[2:07:31] a, you know, there's no prohibition against engaging in art creation during or prior to the evaluation funding process within any of the city's documentation defining this program.

[2:07:42] So that, it seems that there are appeal, at least what they're basing it on is saying that, yeah, we did this art first and then we applied to have it funded, but there's nothing that says we couldn't do that.

[2:07:55] My question is, so the policy and guidelines manual art in public places is that was that part of the what was given to applicants like did they have that manual?

[2:08:12] Yeah, so the IPP manual was linked on the type form. It's a web based application that we put out in March.

[2:08:18] They were encouraged to read it if they wanted to take the deep dive.

[2:08:21] It was also on Pomonaca.gov slash public art or call for visual art, I believe.

[2:08:28] And to answer your first question, there's nothing in the manual or in the documentation

[2:08:33] that prohibited that it was completed.

[2:08:37] The challenge is when staff is evaluating 137 applications, similar to the philanthropic

[2:08:44] world, grant making world. If there's an applicant occasion that's already been funded, does it hold

[2:08:50] equal competitive weight and eligibility for funding as something that has not been funded?

[2:08:56] That's where staff's assessment is part of the application. So that unfunded portion of 4,200 is

[2:09:02] where we landed because that was the necessary ingredient to execute the entirety of the project.

[2:09:07] The question staff had for the applicant was, if you did not receive public art funding, would you

[2:09:13] to execute this project even though it's funded.

[2:09:16] And they said they would not engage in having done it

[2:09:18] if they knew that Public Art Funds from the City of Pomona

[2:09:21] would not be involved.

[2:09:22] So that was the assessment.

[2:09:30] The part about in the,

[2:09:34] I'm just looking at these guidelines.

[2:09:36] So the procedure for, there's a part that says

[2:09:41] the advisory committee works with city staff to select

[2:09:43] an artist or artist team to design the public artwork.

[2:09:47] Is that applicable to this one?

[2:09:48] Yeah, so the manual and I forget the exact section number but there's a process for selecting an artist and you can do it either.

[2:09:57] What we've identified in the manual is a call for visual or call for artist process and that's what we engage in.

[2:10:04] This was the first time we did it using the new manual and that lays out all the eligible criteria.

[2:10:09] It gets reviewed by a committee and then ultimately gets reviewed by the commission.

[2:10:13] What the challenge was and we let the applicant know this in the course of the review is that in the process we did not anticipate as a need to mention this was all for commissioned or it was all for concepts, it was all for ideas.

[2:10:26] I think one of the first lines is submit your idea for our we do not contemplate admittedly something already being done and then us retroactively funding it.

[2:10:36] Traditionally, that would fall into the realm of acquisitions and purchase where a city can purchase completed work happens all the time, but that wasn't what the call for visual art in this case was really structured as so you have a situation in which a fully funded piece of art is now coming through a process that was really intended for conceptual ideas to commission and therein lies the conflict.

[2:10:59] I

[2:11:02] mean, could it even meet the qualifications of that call being?

[2:11:06] I mean, obviously you decided it was acceptable.

[2:11:08] So is that because you like considered it as the whole thing as a concept with the art work is to put something in there that's already created, and that's part of the artwork itself is something.

[2:11:20] Yeah, we wanted to be fair to the applicant and the application.

[2:11:23] I think it's really important to note that with this call for visual art the barrier to entry was incredibly low because we recognize that it's very hard to put together a grant application or an application.

[2:11:35] So we didn't want to unnecessarily reject applicants. We rejected very few like if they just didn't submit half of the form or something like that.

[2:11:43] In this case, we recognize that there was a problem and a challenge we had to overcome

[2:11:47] with some of it being funded and that would have to be reconciled through the evaluation

[2:11:51] process.

[2:11:53] But there was still the intent of doing public art.

[2:11:55] We went through the process of seeing if the parks commission would be amenable to having

[2:11:59] it in their park, in the city's park, and whether it had any historical significance.

[2:12:04] We took it through that realm because we felt like it was important for the applicant.

[2:12:08] But recognizing that ultimately staff felt that while there was a lot of merit to the application,

[2:12:13] we couldn't find a good reason to recommend funding the artist or to be being paid.

[2:12:18] So if I, if in this process, let's say I had a really nice statue,

[2:12:24] and I had submitted an application that says, I think this statue would be great,

[2:12:29] you know, like on a pedestal in a park somewhere.

[2:12:34] Would you have considered that as a proposal?

[2:12:36] So like nobody has to pay the art, it's at all.

[2:12:38] I'm just seeking funding for installation

[2:12:40] of this beautiful piece of art in a park.

[2:12:44] Because that's a great hypothetical.

[2:12:45] So in that hypothetical, if you weren't seeking public art

[2:12:47] funding, the first thing we would say

[2:12:49] is that it would probably not the right vehicle

[2:12:51] because this was just a fund applications

[2:12:52] from the public art fund.

[2:12:54] But what we would likely have done is then

[2:12:56] had you come forward to the Cultural Arts Commission

[2:12:58] to consider whether the art you're proposing,

[2:13:01] or you've done, is something that the city would like to see

[2:13:04] in one of its public locations.

[2:13:06] In this case, it's on a similar vein

[2:13:09] because the applicant, Spectra Company,

[2:13:12] is seeking to do the R and a no point

[2:13:15] is staff recommending denying a Harriet Tubman statute

[2:13:19] that I just want to make that clear,

[2:13:20] that it's really about teasing out the funding

[2:13:23] and who's funding which portion.

[2:13:24] So in a sense, you could consider the staff recommendation

[2:13:27] as a match to what he's already investing in, right?

[2:13:30] That there's 98,500 paid for

[2:13:33] to Manolita Brown, and that there was this unfunded portion

[2:13:36] that if wasn't funded, may put the project in jeopardy

[2:13:40] from being executed.

[2:13:41] So in your example, if you weren't seeking the money,

[2:13:43] we would recommend not going through the call

[2:13:45] for visual art because you're not after public art dollars.

[2:13:48] We would just take you to commission

[2:13:50] through a conceptual design plan

[2:13:52] and then have the committee weigh in

[2:13:54] on the merits of your project.

[2:13:57] But what if I was seeking funding for the installation of it?

[2:14:01] Yeah, so that's kind of this situation, right?

[2:14:04] So it's not one again admittedly that we as staff really anticipated happening where we would get ideas of completed work

[2:14:11] That was just not in my card so to speak and so when we got that this was our resolution to that situation

[2:14:18] And it doesn't violate any of the

[2:14:22] RFP aspects of the thing it does not we did advise the applicant and it was not to my knowledge or Anita or staff

[2:14:29] the last knowledge at the time that they were going to submit, that our work had been completed.

[2:14:33] That was a surprise to us when we saw the allocation.

[2:14:36] It was my understanding that this was going to be commissioned work, but we analyzed it to what we got.

[2:14:48] Okay, sorry. Give me one second here. I'm just how

[2:14:57] how

[2:15:00] If you, how certain are you that if you give the money to the artist, the 42,000, that it's going to be spent on. The installation, I mean, is that? Yeah, so that was part of what I had put in that recommendation of the alternative is that if we did that man, Walita. She would enter into an agreement with the city of Pomona, just like any of the other artists that would be funded. And we've done this for a few times with other projects like the Pomona Public Library and Mirals, probably good example, that artists would be responsible for the execution.

[2:15:29] of the work. So let's say hypothetically there was a $50,000

[2:15:34] dollar amount as a grant that the city's giving or as an award. We typically

[2:15:39] break that up into two and upon an execution of agreement you get 50% of the award

[2:15:44] and then you provide a progress report. You show that you're actually diligently

[2:15:47] working. You show invoices and receipts of you actually spending the money and then

[2:15:51] at that point staff would determine the second issuance based on the terms of the

[2:15:59] If Manolita Brown was funded, she's contractually obliged to execute and deliver.

[2:16:09] And if it doesn't end up costing that much to do it, would she be required to reimburse the balance?

[2:16:17] If our agreements have budget modifications, so if say 4,200 to 500 is something being considered, and she comes back and says it's really the installation is 36 to, it's something that we would amend that budget to reflect the not exceed amount.

[2:16:34] And so that it's accurately captured in the agreement.

[2:16:40] the issue about the right. Yeah, we wouldn't get that's why we don't give the full amount. Thanks. Yeah, that's why we don't we wouldn't give the 42 five out the gate.

[2:16:50] The the issue that's raised about the nonprofit and who's the.

[2:16:56] The applicant can you explain what that was about and whether you're concerned about that or.

[2:17:01] Yeah, so the title of the application was the village P town productions and the rest of the application didn't refer to that being a nonprofit entity.

[2:17:13] I was not aware it was a nonprofit entity and neither was staff. So what we were really looking at in the evaluation was Manolita Brown working with Spectra Company.

[2:17:23] At that August 8th meeting Ray had mentioned that P town productions is a nonprofit.

[2:17:28] and that came up to the commission's review as well.

[2:17:32] It's not something that nonprofits are eligible to apply.

[2:17:36] But as indicated in the staff report,

[2:17:38] the conflation of multiple groups working together

[2:17:41] didn't make that application readily clear.

[2:17:45] And again, staff's not reviewing for content.

[2:17:46] We're objectively scoring how well of an application you put together.

[2:17:49] So it lost a couple of points on clarity.

[2:17:51] And that was for multiple categories.

[2:17:53] But generally speaking, if you're an nonprofit, no, you can apply.

[2:17:56] Yeah, it just wasn't clear when they applied.

[2:18:00] Were there the other recommendations that the staff made to that August 8th meeting, were they all passed and this is the only one that didn't get passed?

[2:18:11] No, there were others that have been denied, we're actually, since the August 8th meeting, which was a little bit of a marathon, we've done two more marathon meetings, it takes quite a long time to get through

[2:18:25] 137 applications, we still have a fourth meeting plan for next week, so we actually haven't

[2:18:30] gone through all of the applications yet. So we've put in about 15 hours of meeting time

[2:18:34] so far reviewing all of the applications. Some of those over the course of the last three

[2:18:39] meeting have been denied. Multiple artists have been denied. They have been denied for

[2:18:45] either the concept or not having enough experience or things of that nature. Typically, what

[2:18:54] What we do, and I think this is just important to know, is, again, we're trying to create a low barrier.

[2:18:59] So a lot of these applications, over the last three meetings, we've referred to what we call as technical assistance.

[2:19:05] It's just a term I'm borrowing from my old grant making world where you don't want to outright deny folks.

[2:19:10] Because again, they're local Pomona artists trying to seek public dollars we want to work with them.

[2:19:15] Technical assistance is a term we use where our staff, and we just did this this morning.

[2:19:20] We're sitting down with those applicants and saying, hey, you weren't quite there.

[2:19:23] This is what you need to do to improve your application.

[2:19:25] We're not asking you to resummit.

[2:19:27] We're asking you to clean up and we'll bring you back to commission.

[2:19:30] So we're doing that with several applications right now.

[2:19:33] It was the first time they applied.

[2:19:34] They didn't really know how it worked and we didn't want to penalize them for that.

[2:19:41] Did the applicant or the appellant says that multiple committee members mentioned that if this installation was judged on its artistic and cultural merits,

[2:19:50] it would sail through the approval process. Do you agree with that characterization of that discussion?

[2:19:56] I don't know. I think that's premature for me to say. I think generally speaking, again,

[2:20:01] I just land on the question of funding. I think that ultimately, if Spectra and Manor Leader were

[2:20:06] proposing an application and none of it was funded, this would be a completely different conversation.

[2:20:18] Sorry, I've lost you there. Can you say that one more time?

[2:20:21] So just to reiterate, so if it's hard for me to weigh in on whether it would just be allowed on some merits, ultimately because I'm not part of the committee and I'm not part of the commission from a staff standpoint, the application was considered acceptable, they they were in the middle of the pack, they wrote a pretty decent application, but they're not competitive because 80% of their proposal already has money.

[2:20:43] So, if they weren't funded, it really changes the tenor of your review because these are public art fund dollars are seeking and if an application already has funding, it's staff wants to relay that to the commission and let them know, is this something that you want to fund and reimburse or is it something you want to commission.

[2:21:06] And again, this is the only issue we've had with this application.

[2:21:09] We hadn't had that come up in any other instance where an artist has already been paid for their work.

[2:21:15] But then the staff's recommendation to the commission was to fund the installation.

[2:21:19] The unfunded portions, yeah.

[2:21:21] Okay. Yeah.

[2:21:23] And the commission can make any decision they want or do they like if something meets criteria they have to fund it.

[2:21:28] Or can they decide not to fund something just for whatever reason?

[2:21:32] So that's where the evaluation criteria came into play.

[2:21:35] They approved what they're going to look at and what the scoring criteria are.

[2:21:39] It was based on budget, it was based on engagement, and by engagement, I don't mean engagement

[2:21:44] during the evaluation process, but again, how they're going to engage in the future.

[2:21:48] Their experience, their portfolio.

[2:21:51] When they make their final decision, do they have to say you were denied because of this

[2:21:56] reason, or do they just say you were denied?

[2:21:58] In other words, does this...

[2:21:59] They could just say they were denied.

[2:22:00] There's no findings.

[2:22:01] There's no findings.

[2:22:02] Yeah.

[2:22:06] Okay.

[2:22:06] last question is if we were to not approve the or to basically agree with the

[2:22:14] cultural arts commission is there another route by which the spectra could seek

[2:22:19] funding from the city to fund the installation or um that I wouldn't know I think as public

[2:22:26] art funding this um is one realm um what I can say is that if they didn't get funding and the

[2:22:33] The project is funded and they found funding for the rest through other source.

[2:22:37] They could come back to the city and go before the Cultural Arts Commission to get the art approved.

[2:22:43] The location has already been approved.

[2:22:45] It's already been deemed historically okay through the minor COA.

[2:22:50] And so they could still get it installed.

[2:22:53] This isn't really about whether it should be installed or not, but about the funding.

[2:22:58] All

[2:23:02] right,

[2:23:04] so the appellant is saying that it was a mis-evaluation, and I guess that's

[2:23:14] what I'm trying to understand, in a sense, it's hard to say, because I wasn't there, and

[2:23:20] there's no findings.

[2:23:21] So in other words, we have what they said, and then we have what was said by some of the

[2:23:27] people here, but there were lots of other people at other meetings.

[2:23:30] So essentially, it boils down to the council saying, do we want this or not want this

[2:23:34] do we want to contribute some of this or not?

[2:23:37] And if I may just add, Council Member,

[2:23:39] I know why you're struggling because we as lawyers

[2:23:41] like to look at the findings.

[2:23:42] We want to know what the standard of review is,

[2:23:44] and then we can judge an appeal.

[2:23:47] And I mean, this is like the most fortunate thing

[2:23:49] for the City Council.

[2:23:50] It's very rare that the City Attorney says

[2:23:51] that the City Council, you get to use your independent

[2:23:54] judgment, you get to impose your policy in this decision

[2:23:57] because there aren't findings.

[2:23:58] We are not talking about a conditional use permit

[2:24:00] where you have to make the findings.

[2:24:02] So really I know that's what you're struggling with but you really don't have to struggle with that you get to make an independent choice

[2:24:08] Yeah, it's just yeah, which is like the freest choice is the hardest one to make so I

[2:24:14] think that my

[2:24:16] You know just to tell my colleagues where I'm at I mean I think in the end here's what I'm gonna

[2:24:21] I think I will support the the installation funding. I understand this is controversial and I see both sides

[2:24:27] I also just frankly see that two commissions passed it

[2:24:32] And one commission didn't, and that's what it's coming down to for me.

[2:24:37] I think that there was more support at that level than not, so.

[2:24:41] And I did want to just clarify one thing for the record.

[2:24:44] It did not go before the Historic Preservation Commission.

[2:24:47] So that minor certificate of appropriateness is an administrative level review.

[2:24:53] There was then posted on the website, it's subject to appeal, it was not appealed.

[2:24:57] So it didn't actually go before that commission for discussionary action, but it did go before the parks.

[2:25:04] I just wanted to clear the

[2:25:06] record, because I think I heard

[2:25:07] that a couple.

[2:25:07] What was the vote in the

[2:25:08] fire exhibition?

[2:25:09] I would have to double check.

[2:25:13] I thought it was unanimous, but

[2:25:14] I'll have to.

[2:25:17] I thought it was.

[2:25:20] Yeah, I wouldn't be able to

[2:25:21] speak to that on the dius, but

[2:25:23] okay.

[2:25:24] Thank you.

[2:25:27] Okay.

[2:25:28] Councilman Priscilla.

[2:25:32] You know, I'd like to also point

[2:25:33] and what Council member Garcia said,

[2:25:35] congratulations on going through almost one more meeting,

[2:25:38] going through 137 projects.

[2:25:41] Just about, we really short, can you really,

[2:25:45] when will we see that, like coming to fruition,

[2:25:48] like when will we get started, if they're all approved?

[2:25:50] Yeah, so the expectation is that we would be finishing

[2:25:54] our last meeting next week.

[2:25:57] So there's temporary, permanent, and then programmatic.

[2:26:02] The programmatic is going to be on a little bit of a longer timeline because there's different risks involved there when you execute a program for working with the youth, there's background checks involved, things of that nature.

[2:26:13] So that's about three to six months out. The projects we can get going on contracts as early as the end of October.

[2:26:21] And you may begin seeing some of that artwork done before the end of the year in one of our 26 parks.

[2:26:27] Awesome. While you were reviewing the permits or the applications where you guys

[2:26:36] able to adjust some of the applications with the applicants while they're

[2:26:39] reviewing them. So we wanted to be fair to the review process because it ultimately

[2:26:44] is competitive, right? But what we did is we held a couple of workshops and if

[2:26:52] it's technical details, somebody couldn't get a budget downloaded or they weren't

[2:26:55] sure how to fill it out. We had grace periods. We walked them through that. I really want to credit Alan fortune or assistant planner. I think he spent a ton of hours on the phone just navigating folks through that process, which I think really led to an increase in applications. So yeah, we did, we did help them with that.

[2:27:13] Again, it was our policy to not be heavy handed on rejecting folks.

[2:27:17] No, I think that's great. I mean, I like what our attorney said on just right now. Also, I'll even, I'll even speak to how many times while we're doing these processes or documents we call them many time living documents, living processes.

[2:27:35] I'm sure that I can't wait to see another call for artists happen.

[2:27:39] and I'm sure the application would be exactly like this one

[2:27:43] because it would now change from some of the stuff

[2:27:46] we've learned now.

[2:27:47] Yeah, the manual is definitely a living document.

[2:27:50] And I could say it's very much alive tonight.

[2:27:55] A-I-P-P-P, is there anything in there that says

[2:28:00] that somebody would get denied

[2:28:04] for some of the work being completed early?

[2:28:12] So, you know, I actually like earlier that the 23rd thing did come up because it was one thing that was very important in that time was that there was a need for art.

[2:28:24] And we see it in these 137 applications.

[2:28:27] And every time I hear about a fight for process, it's many, many times.

[2:28:33] I mean, when we're building housing, it's always like the environmental process or the state

[2:28:37] process or the federal process and it's always seems to be like processes only used to obstruct

[2:28:47] like things that want to get done or things that we feel like, you know what, like we get it,

[2:28:54] that process is not entirely there yet or but although when I hear this, it went through every step

[2:28:59] that it needed to make maybe just some people just didn't like it.

[2:29:04] I mean, that's why we have retro permits.

[2:29:07] That's why we have an appeal process.

[2:29:09] There are a lot of processes to be able to adjust and help with these living documents.

[2:29:15] I can't wait to see all 137 applications.

[2:29:20] And I can't wait to read the next AIPP and or the next call of artists,

[2:29:25] because I think that is just an amazing, amazing accomplishment that started from that

[2:29:32] Tony Sir Park thing because the council here said art is important to us and let's

[2:29:40] dedicate time to it and let's dedicate funds to it and I will agree with Council Member

[2:29:48] Garcia's recommendation as well and now that we're going to take that so about going at a

[2:29:52] chance.

[2:29:52] Thank you.

[2:29:53] Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Priscilla. Just took.

[2:30:00] A couple more things. Just want to reiterate our thanks to you for undertaking this process, which I know has not been easy.

[2:30:11] I'm sure that in your own mind, you can imagine that all the work that you've done would necessarily have to go one by one, by one, by one on every single. That's how you're doing it, right? You've made recommendations, but you're literally going through every single

[2:30:30] applicant, correct?

[2:30:33] Thank you. That is an easy and appreciate the work that's been done.

[2:30:39] I do want to say that this one little piece of this story because you'll hear different parts of this story.

[2:30:47] Oftentimes really sort of along the lines of whether you think it should be in Lincoln Park or not in Lincoln Park.

[2:30:56] And when the conversation in my process, that ultimately has us here today, is one of the

[2:31:05] questions that was important for me was to speak to a number of different African-American

[2:31:12] communities about this particular project.

[2:31:15] And I'm not going to say here and say that I spoke to everyone in the community.

[2:31:19] But one person that I did speak to was Khalif Rashad, who heads up the African American Museum of New Beginnings.

[2:31:27] And I said, you know, we're thinking about doing something like this. What do you think?

[2:31:33] He was extremely supportive.

[2:31:35] But one thing he said is that it has to be an African American sculptor.

[2:31:40] There's not a project that you want to undertake and have somebody else do it.

[2:31:45] And I said, well, do you know someone?

[2:31:47] And he said, I do.

[2:31:49] I know a woman named Manuelita Brown.

[2:31:51] And I said, well, tell me more.

[2:31:53] And it turns out that Manuelita Brown did a Surjourner Truth statue at UC San Diego.

[2:32:01] She is well known as I understand all of the world.

[2:32:05] And I know, staff, if I'm not mistaken, we've received a number of calls asking about this statue.

[2:32:12] Where is it? I want to come see it. I've received emails and calls and text. Hey, where is it? I'm glad that

[2:32:20] wherever you stand

[2:32:22] For against where should it go whether we should fund or not?

[2:32:26] That the public I hope because if in making this decision it doesn't mean that the applicant

[2:32:34] Because they own the statue

[2:32:38] Has to donate it to the city

[2:32:45] So we need to make sure that we understand that the decision that we make he may say and you know what thank you

[2:32:50] I've spent this amount of money. I'm going to put it somewhere else and then I'll have to go through a process

[2:32:57] But I think at a minimum that we should help support the

[2:33:03] installation of this

[2:33:06] Statue of Harriet Tubman and I will also add that one of the things that I would like to do is to work with the school district

[2:33:15] is to have kids come to the park, have lunch,

[2:33:19] and have, because one of the things that I hear

[2:33:22] sometimes people say, you know,

[2:33:23] Lincoln Park is not very welcoming, right?

[2:33:25] Or they have this perception

[2:33:27] that it's just for certain people.

[2:33:29] And I go to the park all the time

[2:33:30] and I see people from all over the,

[2:33:33] because I talk to them.

[2:33:34] I said, where do you live?

[2:33:35] It's all I live over in sophomore and I live over here.

[2:33:38] I believe that some of the things

[2:33:40] that folks have brought up about this particular park

[2:33:43] have roots in history, but I have to tell you communities evolve, they change, they transform,

[2:33:50] and they try to become better, I hope, over a period of time.

[2:33:55] And I have been witness to that, and I think what this statue will allow us to do is to have a

[2:34:00] conversation about some of the most challenging issues that we face as a country that we see

[2:34:06] is somewhat divided as reflected in our politics.

[2:34:10] And so, I say to say that I support this, I support my colleagues' recommendation.

[2:34:18] And with that, we do have a first from Council Member Garcia, and a second from Council Member

[2:34:27] Lustreau.

[2:34:28] And so, I'm going to propose that we do a roll call, do you want to go ahead and do you need

[2:34:32] to do anything?

[2:34:34] No.

[2:34:34] Okay.

[2:34:35] Okay. And just to be clear, it's the amount that has been recommended by staff, which I think is 42,250 or something like that.

[2:34:43] Okay. All right.

[2:34:45] What was the other?

[2:34:46] Okay. Council member Nalti?

[2:34:49] Yes.

[2:34:49] Prasado?

[2:34:50] Yes.

[2:34:51] Garcia?

[2:34:51] Yes.

[2:34:52] Antivitus Cole?

[2:34:53] Okay. So what are we voting on now?

[2:34:55] Are we voting for the installation?

[2:34:57] We're voting for the staff recommendation of the dollar amount to provide support for

[2:35:04] of the installation and the upkeep, right, of the statue.

[2:35:09] And it's not a decision about where it's gonna go

[2:35:11] or whether it's meets the historical requirements.

[2:35:15] So it's really about funding the installation

[2:35:17] of the statue.

[2:35:18] Okay, no offense here at Chapman, my answer's no.

[2:35:24] Last row?

[2:35:25] Yes.

[2:35:25] Doris?

[2:35:26] No.

[2:35:26] Senator Bob.

[2:35:27] Yes, already the motion passes five, two.

[2:35:30] We can move on to the next item.

[2:35:34] Next item is discussion calendar item number 11.

[2:35:36] It's a fine and public benefit.

[2:35:38] the committee at large recommended expenditures and recap of expanded funds.

[2:35:45] All right. And unless there's any questions or comments, I think, oh,

[2:35:55] yeah, I just forgot

[2:35:56] what it was. I wanted to add something that came up after the meeting, but that's fine. I'll hold on for the next meeting.

[2:36:03] I'll go in motion to approve the finding of public benefit. Can I get a second?

[2:36:07] Okay. All righty. Let's go ahead and do a roll call vote.

[2:36:11] Nalti?

[2:36:12] Yes.

[2:36:12] Quasiado?

[2:36:13] Garcia?

[2:36:14] Yes.

[2:36:14] Ante Velozco?

[2:36:15] Yes.

[2:36:16] Lestero?

[2:36:16] Yes.

[2:36:17] Torres?

[2:36:17] Yes.

[2:36:18] San Diego?

[2:36:19] Yes.

[2:36:21] Okay.

[2:36:21] Next item.

[2:36:23] Next item is discussion at number 12 of its introduction and first reading of an ordinance.

[2:36:28] I'm ending the Pomona City Code to include the updated City Council District boundaries map adopted

[2:36:34] by the 2021-2022 Independent Redistricting Commission.

[2:36:37] And I do have a small summary on this item.

[2:36:41] Okay, you want to go ahead and give us a summary, and then we have two speakers on the item, and then the council can weigh in.

[2:36:47] Thank you.

[2:36:48] All right, mayor and city council, the city charter, along with federal and state law, require the city to review a potentially real line.

[2:36:55] It's council districts every 10 years after the completion of the decennial census.

[2:37:00] On February 8th, 2021, the Mona City Council adopted an urgency ordinance,

[2:37:04] establishing an independent redistricting commission to redraw City Council Electoral District

[2:37:09] Boundaries based upon the data collected from the 2020 Decennial Census.

[2:37:15] The commission was an independent body with the authority to adopt a final map establishing

[2:37:19] new Council District Boundaries under the City's code.

[2:37:23] The commission's first meeting was held on June 23, 2021.

[2:37:27] A final district map was approved by the commission at their last meeting, which was held on April

[2:37:32] 7, 2022.

[2:37:33] The proposed ordinance for Council consideration this evening will amend the Pomona City Code to include the revised City Council electoral district boundaries reflected in the final map adopted by the independent redistricting commission that concludes my overview of this item.

[2:37:48] We have to answer any questions at this time.

[2:37:50] Thank you, Rosalia. Before we do that, let's go and take our two speakers.

[2:37:55] We have Eunice Russell, you're up first, and then Anne Tompkins, you're up right after.

[2:38:08] Welcome, Ms. Russell.

[2:38:10] Hello, Council.

[2:38:11] Again, Eunice Russell, I want to address this because one, you, the Council, rushed and put in an ordinance.

[2:38:20] The ordinance that you put in had that you were supposed to have a meeting with the independent redistricting commission.

[2:38:28] what you failed to have. Not one of you has ever addressed that nor have you dealt with it.

[2:38:34] Also, the ordinance that you rushed to put in position that this commission was working under

[2:38:39] is missing two sections. I look to the city attorney. How are you all signing ordinances that are

[2:38:46] incomplete and then having the audacity to act on them? You did the information that was given to

[2:38:54] this independent redistricting commission, they lied, they used the 2020 census data because

[2:39:01] the 2022 census data, I mean the 2010 census data is what they used to make their decision

[2:39:07] because what they, the data was not available for the survey until April of this year.

[2:39:16] So all the information and data they used was old data and then I can prove it, I can show

[2:39:22] to you and I brought it to your attention and nobody has addressed that then they cut district six they

[2:39:29] went against the natural border they split up the street cut the district out they reduced the

[2:39:36] black population from 12 to 6% and not in one chart did they ever show anybody black it's like we

[2:39:45] moved out of the city and all of you represent all of us and they didn't under the guise because they

[2:39:51] didn't want one, they wanted to have one district that was not, as they said, a majority

[2:39:57] Hispanic. That's ridiculous. In the city, the 78% Hispanic, but the lie was the majority,

[2:40:04] because 51% makes a majority. Even though every district in the city has more Hispanic

[2:40:09] than any other group, they didn't have 51%. Now, my district is sitting with 78% and not

[2:40:16] my new city council has just come to a meeting and said he is more concerned with the southern

[2:40:22] end of his district than where we are because I guess he figures we got money but it's a

[2:40:27] whole bunch of retired people up there so you need to consider what we're going through to

[2:40:31] in addition to the other impoverished people because the retired people are living on a budget.

[2:40:38] What you all have done here is unfair and it has to be some illegal oak and the city attorney

[2:40:44] lied. They told I called the contact of the city clerk and she told me that she had

[2:40:51] to contact the city attorney to find out where I put my brown act violation in. The

[2:40:55] commission had more than one brown act violation and the city attorney lied on the public hearing

[2:41:01] and said that there wasn't a brown act violation and I can prove that too. I can prove everything

[2:41:07] I said, every one of you know it and if you vote to have this been put in before you redo

[2:41:12] you and look at this shame or all of you,

[2:41:14] because I did report you to the district attorney.

[2:41:17] And Tompins, you're up next.

[2:41:18] And then we can discuss this item.

[2:41:25] Welcome, Mr. Tompins.

[2:41:26] Thank you.

[2:41:26] I just wanted to request a little bit of clarification.

[2:41:31] I did attend a number of the redistricting commission meetings.

[2:41:35] And I know that under we have our existing charter,

[2:41:38] then we have the urgency ordinance that really leaned in the state law,

[2:41:42] which is the direction the charter commission had been going.

[2:41:46] In its proposal and clearly under a charter, you have to adopt an ordinance with the new maps after they're approved.

[2:41:55] And so I am in favor of your adapting, you know, this proposal.

[2:41:59] I just want some clarification as to the effectiveness and what it means.

[2:42:03] I know there was a reference in the staff report about its use for city purposes, how the city uses it.

[2:42:10] for, and I believe those reference to communications and something else, but I think from attending

[2:42:17] the meetings, it was very clear that the purpose of the redistricting is to rebalance our

[2:42:22] districts for the benefit of voter representation or, you know, community representation.

[2:42:28] And so I just want a little bit of clarification from the city as to how they use the districts,

[2:42:34] So that it's clear that are people's districts changing because I thought that I heard that they don't change until the voters vote in a

[2:42:44] Get a vote on the on the representative for those new districts

[2:42:48] So that just adopting this map isn't going to change your

[2:42:53] Representative even if you're in a different district

[2:42:56] So if we could get that clarified for the public because I've had some questions

[2:43:00] To myself as to whether we move people's districts or are they now in this other

[2:43:04] district and can they serve on the commission and all sorts of questions like that.

[2:43:08] So that was the reason why I won't speak, thank you so much.

[2:43:11] If it's a really quick answer then I'd say go ahead and take it because I want to make

[2:43:16] sure that Ms. Russell raised a number of things and I'm trying to process all that because

[2:43:26] when we undertook this process we know that historically when elected officials play the

[2:43:34] role of deciding boundaries that they get gerrymandered and they look like an

[2:43:39] isosceles triangle and they look split down streets and I did not participate

[2:43:46] in any of those meetings because truly wanted it to be independent and so when

[2:43:53] she's raising some of these issues it just kind of shocks me I say because I didn't

[2:43:59] understand it as such but that's fine everyone has a title that are painted and has

[2:44:03] reviews, I respect that. So, Tom, Ms. Tom, things question, is it a pretty quick answer?

[2:44:09] Really quick answer. Just to say this, redistricting is more difficult because you have a city charter

[2:44:15] that created your districts, your awards in this city. You have a state law that's been revised

[2:44:21] through the redistricting process and where many cities are going to districts versus just being

[2:44:27] at large. And then you have your other charter provision that talks out when you got to adopt this

[2:44:31] new map. So let me just keep this as simple as I can. The law that requires the redistricting

[2:44:37] to balance the voting in the city goes into effect when those districts are up for

[2:44:43] election. So this November 2022, November of 2024. That's pretty simple, right? Pretty

[2:44:49] easy, quick, simple to understand. But the expectations of your residents and the constituents that

[2:44:56] that are now represented by the old lines.

[2:45:00] It's difficult. The state law doesn't tell us what we do about that. So there's a period of time where you could have, and it sounds like you do here, the old lines, right? So you've adopted a new map for the districts that are up in 2024. But those lines really don't go into effect until that election goes into effect, and yet you're having this election. So some cities, they do it different ways. They post on their website, the old lines and the new lines.

[2:45:29] They start to communicate to the constituents of, yes, I was elected by you, and I will

[2:45:36] still be responsive to you in this award era of how we deal with things, but you should

[2:45:42] get to know, you know, your new council member, because you could end up with people that

[2:45:47] have their old area and then under this election might have two representatives, the one that

[2:45:52] they first elected in the second.

[2:45:54] So I think we're just going to have to be patient.

[2:45:55] you're not the only charter city in the state that's dealing with that issue, it has just happened.

[2:46:01] But legally, legally, those new lines take effect when you vote, your charter is requiring you

[2:46:09] adopt this ordinance to update it. But you were in those of you that were elected, you might have

[2:46:15] been elected by other constituents as in the original election. I know that doesn't sound

[2:46:20] And like it clears up a lot, but that's just how it's going to work until you get to 2024.

[2:46:30] Whether you honor, I think Ms. Tomkins asked a very important question, well, what about

[2:46:35] when you're going to appoint commissioners?

[2:46:37] Where does that leave us?

[2:46:38] I think it would be entirely within the discretion of the council to honor both of those lines.

[2:46:43] If you have commissioners that are serving and doing well, we could find out who those

[2:46:48] people are and work with you through those issues.

[2:46:53] Just give me one second, because Councilmember Garcia had a clarifying question, and then I'll

[2:46:59] be happy to go to you, Councilmember Torres.

[2:47:02] Although, Councilmember Preselle, did you have your—was that from—I thought it was

[2:47:06] from the previous—it's okay.

[2:47:08] Okay.

[2:47:09] Whatever, you're—okay.

[2:47:11] There's a clarifying question here, and then, Councilmember Torres, Councilmember Preselle,

[2:47:15] I had his—so just press your request to speak about my apologies.

[2:47:20] and then we'll go with you, okay?

[2:47:21] No, we're going to go with, yeah, okay.

[2:47:24] You had a clarifying question, Councillor Moore.

[2:47:26] Garcia.

[2:47:27] City Attorney, just for my own clarification here.

[2:47:31] So, for example, Vice Mayor Kuala and I share a border.

[2:47:35] I am up for re-election this year.

[2:47:39] Whoever wins the election for district three,

[2:47:42] the north border is going to gain some of district four.

[2:47:47] That will effectively change the representative of the former D4 council members into the three district council representation for district six and one where the boarders have been affected represent council member Torres will still represent district six in its entirety until

[2:48:13] Still, the re-election in 2024 with Councilmember John Nolte, is that correct?

[2:48:22] Because 1 in 6 are not up until 2020 for, right?

[2:48:26] So that, even though there could be a change, and so on the paper, on the paper, it looks

[2:48:32] like 1 in 6 went through some changes.

[2:48:35] But the people who elected Councilmember Torres, the people who elected Councilmember Nolte,

[2:48:39] For all intents and purposes, they can continue to go to those individuals that were elected in 2020, correct, right?

[2:48:49] Because they're not being impacted. Your statement is also true. But if you three and four, you're talking about, yeah, three and four are both.

[2:48:58] three and five are up, two, three and five.

[2:49:00] So four is not up and that's gonna be,

[2:49:02] that's where the confusion is, right?

[2:49:04] So constituent calls, they were in four,

[2:49:07] now they're in three.

[2:49:09] You have to make a policy decision and communicate to them

[2:49:13] who, you know, I think what I've heard from most other cities

[2:49:16] is we all represent you.

[2:49:18] You know, you elected me,

[2:49:19] but we continue to all represent you as elected officials.

[2:49:23] And that's just the uncomfortable position you're in

[2:49:25] until you get through 2024 and everything's cleaned up.

[2:49:29] Thank you, City Attorney.

[2:49:30] Yeah, just real quick, what's the alternative?

[2:49:33] I mean, yeah, what is the alternative?

[2:49:36] I suppose the alternative is you could,

[2:49:38] in adopting this new map, you could say,

[2:49:42] we're gonna treat people, even though the 2024 election

[2:49:46] doesn't happen until 2024,

[2:49:49] we are gonna tell everybody out there

[2:49:51] that they should just abide by this new map.

[2:49:54] Even if you didn't elect district 4 under these new boundaries, we're just going to treat you that way.

[2:50:03] So if someone calls in and under the new map you're in 4, or in the new map you're in 3, you could tell your staff, go ahead and contact the person that's reflected in the new map.

[2:50:13] But for legal purposes, those new boundaries don't go effect until 2024 for one.

[2:50:21] I just haven't been down one four and six one four and six.

[2:50:26] Okay, okay, so Councilmember Pressio and then Councilmember Torres and then anyone else.

[2:50:38] Thank you.

[2:50:40] I think this is just a horrible process, but I understand that there was a lot of cities that

[2:50:47] going through it at the same time even to the point where we were told you have to kind of do it

[2:50:52] now or else the consultants are running out because of their bandwidth as well throughout the entire

[2:50:58] state.

[2:51:02] I don't want to do that again 10 years from now so maybe at a certain point I hopefully

[2:51:09] sooner rather than later especially not 10 years from now. Can we provide guidelines on how it should

[2:51:14] happened next time around like I would even recommend it not be an election

[2:51:19] year in case the census numbers are late again because that's what part of the

[2:51:24] issue was kind of like driving it it felt like numbers were late which

[2:51:28] numbers are we using it felt like six million like a couple of meetings

[2:51:32] happened but none of that information was out until later if we don't adopt it

[2:51:38] today what like what happens so so what we were advising cities and again

[2:51:44] Again, this was across the state.

[2:51:46] Remember that in the old days,

[2:51:48] we had charter cities in general law cities.

[2:51:50] It was really the charter cities

[2:51:52] that had all the districts or wards.

[2:51:53] We had very few general law cities

[2:51:55] that had those district or wards.

[2:51:57] But as the Voting Rights Act challenges started to come forward,

[2:52:01] you know, you had multiple cities,

[2:52:02] even very small cities with 40, 50,000 people in the cities

[2:52:05] that were now having to do by districts.

[2:52:07] You have this state law that came into effect

[2:52:10] and they didn't care about your charters.

[2:52:11] But they also, the state law didn't give us clarification, so we were advising cities

[2:52:16] to comply with the state law, right, because we didn't want you to be sued, we didn't want

[2:52:20] the city to catch a voter writing, voting rights act lawsuit, so we advise you to comply

[2:52:26] with the state law.

[2:52:27] I think your idea of, let's adopt a policy, so in the future everyone will know I think

[2:52:32] that's a good one.

[2:52:33] You have about ten years to do that, maybe about nine and a half, so you know if you wanted

[2:52:38] to do that, that's something you could assign for us to work through that.

[2:52:41] We could also take a look at your charter and see if we need any charter amendments that would match you know the state law

[2:52:46] We could take a look at that too, and you have some elections where you could fix that but

[2:52:51] It's not fixed now and you have to make a decision on how you're going to operate today. Right and while I also just I just wanted to make

[2:52:59] I mean make a statement that while I understand that we want to be as independent as possible

[2:53:04] maybe a combined

[2:53:05] making things making sense in some way because yes, I understand that it was said it before.

[2:53:13] But really, or at least something, some avenue because I feel like some of the maps were

[2:53:17] gerrymandered anyways and just didn't make sense, and with main crossroads, or main community

[2:53:25] dividers that could have been used were ignored.

[2:53:28] So yeah, and everyone has opinions as to that. The only thing I can say to that is you did use an

[2:53:34] Independent redistricting commission to make it less political so you all wouldn't be deciding your own boundaries

[2:53:40] Kudos to you for doing that some cities did not and if people really believe that there was something going on that was illegal

[2:53:47] They had an opportunity to challenge them, right? They could challenge they could bring challenges to those maps

[2:53:53] When they were done as I recall during the public hearings we did not have

[2:53:58] credible folks come up and give evidence to the fact that those maps were wrong.

[2:54:04] If there had been, we would have advised you to evaluate that.

[2:54:07] While I do agree was less political, I think there was also, it seemed to have lack of

[2:54:13] knowledge of those communities that were being affected. But I understand, thanks.

[2:54:19] I mean, I defend your maps as ones that you adopted, which were an expert went through

[2:54:25] working with your city clerk's office, and there was a little process that you used.

[2:54:32] Yeah, I'll leave it.

[2:54:34] Sorry, any other questions, comments?

[2:54:37] Councilmember Torres.

[2:54:39] I'll make brief only because this comes up, you know, relevant to my district.

[2:54:44] I get a lot of constituents who live in that precinct, 16, and precinct, 303, mountain

[2:54:50] metal, Ganesha Hills, and asking me if I'm still the councilman and all that great, great

[2:54:56] And what I tell the community is basically, you know, like with the losses, the bottom line is I was elected to district six map that current one for four year term.

[2:55:08] So I am your councilman from 2020 till 2024. Now, technically speaking, no offense councilman.

[2:55:16] No tea, no tea don't represent that area.

[2:55:19] And if no tea wants to represent that area,

[2:55:22] no tea's got to win that election in 2024.

[2:55:25] That's just the reality of the situation.

[2:55:28] So for those folks who are confused, Fairplex,

[2:55:31] I'm still your councilman for two years.

[2:55:34] So, and if I want to get elected to the new district,

[2:55:38] hopefully it doesn't happen and I do something else better,

[2:55:44] I got to get elected to that district, but it's a little small for me now, so we'll look at other things, but just to clear the air, that's what it is and that's the rule for your term, that's my district, two more years.

[2:55:59] Thank you.

[2:56:04] I mean,

[2:56:09] I'm certainly glad to have Councilmember Torres's help in the district.

[2:56:15] I mean, I think we all represent everybody in the city.

[2:56:19] I think this is a unique situation.

[2:56:20] I don't think that they're in this situation as a legal requirement for it to be either way.

[2:56:29] In other words, if people from Ganesha Hills contact me and want, I mean, I have been to a committee meeting.

[2:56:35] I'm sorry I misunderstood what I said there that wasn't, I wouldn't agree with your characterization at all, but I think from a practical standpoint the people in the new district, like you say, if I decide to run again, I mean, that's a ways out, I would definitely have to appeal to them.

[2:56:56] And so, I mean, it's in my interest right now to, you know, do that and to be interested

[2:57:01] in that district because that's the future district.

[2:57:04] So, you know, if people from the, from west of Fairplex contact me, you know, I'm certainly

[2:57:12] still consider myself their council member too, but I'm certainly happy to have, you know,

[2:57:17] the help of council member Lustro and anybody else who wants to help on projects throughout

[2:57:22] the city.

[2:57:22] So I think we're just in this kind of interim period where we work together and that's how I see it.

[2:57:30] I did have one question.

[2:57:32] Was it a typo city attorney that those letters H and I were missing from that ordinance?

[2:57:44] It was discovered to be a clerical air and sometimes we have multiple versions of ordinances going through.

[2:57:51] We have something that might have been sent to a staff member, then a version we'll get to the city clerk's office

[2:57:57] You know by the time that I get them and to sign the official documents. I'm, you know looking through them

[2:58:03] I I do verify dates. I will have to make sure on some of these that I actually go paragraph by paragraph

[2:58:10] So I think just a different version got through we had multiple versions

[2:58:14] We're doing on an urgency basis and those those sections got dropped out

[2:58:18] We apologize

[2:58:21] there was never any intent to

[2:58:24] mislead to hurt your public, it

[2:58:26] was clearly a clerical error.

[2:58:29] Okay, thank you.

[2:58:31] And if I can add as well, we're

[2:58:33] still in the middle of the

[2:58:34] pandemic.

[2:58:37] So everything was done via email

[2:58:39] zoom.

[2:58:41] I think if we would have been,

[2:58:42] if I've been in person, we

[2:58:46] would have had a lot more

[2:58:47] participation from the public

[2:58:49] it was just a whole it was just a crazy time as we all know so just keep that

[2:58:54] in mind as well. Hopefully in ten years we won't be in a pandemic. And I just

[2:58:59] like to say for the record because transparency is super important to me if

[2:59:03] there are concerns about potential violations of the Brown Act I'd be more than

[2:59:07] happy to speak with the District Attorney's Office I have multiple

[2:59:11] conversations with them and where we've ever made errors or I have personally

[2:59:15] been wrong you know my personal philosophy is if you mess up you

[2:59:18] We've messed up, but I've not heard anything to that effect, and I have not been contacted by the DA's office.

[2:59:25] Mayor, you might not be able to say a more important thing on this.

[2:59:27] You know, just once I don't want to make sure that no of these finishes.

[2:59:32] Okay, Councilor Torres.

[2:59:33] You know what, the census data was delayed.

[2:59:36] It was, I mean, the Senate maps and the great Senate, state Senate maps, I should say,

[2:59:42] and their congressional maps and those maps didn't come out for a while because they were delayed with the information.

[2:59:48] So, the staff was working under those conditions, and I remember that, you know, because I was

[2:59:54] in Washington to say that out loud.

[2:59:57] But I was aware of the process, it wasn't in-

[3:00:00] We were involved in it, but I was aware of it. They were delayed. We were in the pandemic. We didn't have the hearings. And everybody was in the same situation. I wish the state had given us an extra little extra time. They didn't give us extra time in multiple cities. We're having last minute, you know, and then we only had like three companies from the demographers who were working for all 300 cities in California, which made it even harder.

[3:00:29] I just have a couple of questions so this Russell made a comment about the and maybe I heard it wrong but made a comment about the City Council and the Commission coming together.

[3:00:59] I'm just asking I know a little bit of that but I just want to make sure that the public knows right the you know where the city council sits down with the in this case the the body that was selected to be the independent body.

[3:01:16] My understanding that as well as what the two missing sections that was a clerical error.

[3:01:24] My understanding that it was the original draft of the urgency ordinance to have a joint meeting.

[3:01:31] But I believe later on down the road and City Attorney can say yay or day, but it had been changed.

[3:01:39] That was my understanding that it only needed to go to the commission.

[3:01:43] So it would only go to the commission as opposed to, and I'm just curious, if that meeting had happened, obviously we can, I'm asking to speculate here, but our whole intent was to have an independent commission.

[3:01:57] Make the decision our intent wasn't to money morning quarterback and tell him, well, I actually should have moved a little bit here a little bit there.

[3:02:04] I don't believe that was the intent of this body.

[3:02:09] What I think the intent was was we know that these types of

[3:02:15] redistricting is very political.

[3:02:18] Okay, it is.

[3:02:21] And if you have an independent body,

[3:02:24] you hope that in that process that you have,

[3:02:29] you don't have districts set up based on because I know this person

[3:02:33] and I'm creating and trying to create a district for this person that it's more objective than

[3:02:40] me trying to figure out how do I, how do I, how do I create that little eye

[3:02:48] in district

[3:02:50] six, for example, so that I can somehow get those both, because that's, that's very

[3:02:54] mandering. That's what happens, right? And I don't think that this happened in this process.

[3:03:00] It may not be perfect. I mean, not everybody may like it, but what's the alternative

[3:03:05] to, I mean, some of the, I, I went to the whole county

[3:03:10] research and process because I had to learn that Pomona might end up in another supervisor's district

[3:03:18] and I had some concerns about that.

[3:03:20] Not all of us, but most of us had a good working relationship with supervisors.

[3:03:23] Been really helpful in terms of bringing resources to Pomona.

[3:03:28] And I had to spend hours just fighting, if you will, for the position that we want

[3:03:35] We wanted to keep them on the whole.

[3:03:37] We wanted to make sure that the women remained in district one.

[3:03:40] And then their commission listened, and then they made their decision.

[3:03:44] And the supervisors had to accept it.

[3:03:47] And as I understand it, in the case of the LA County supervisors, they adopted it.

[3:03:52] And I don't know if it's just per their rules, they adopt it like immediately,

[3:03:56] like immediately thereafter, where even though you were elected for a certain district,

[3:04:02] you now become this new district.

[3:04:04] maybe they just have a different that may have been their application as I

[3:04:08] mentioned you could do that but I think also as council member Torres

[3:04:12] mentioned those people who were elected for four years to serve that area have

[3:04:17] a right to assert that they are serving that area so I think a city can say you

[3:04:23] know we're going to we're going to honor the past we're going to encourage the

[3:04:26] future people to reach out to their new council members but may I just add just

[3:04:29] one quick thing and it's a late night we've been talking a lot remember you

[3:04:32] We also had a third component of something going on.

[3:04:35] You would have a charter review commission that was looking at the redistricting process

[3:04:39] and had a very, very different type of process.

[3:04:46] Those were all brought to the council.

[3:04:47] Do you recall that conversation?

[3:04:49] So just don't forget that those were everything that was at play.

[3:04:52] You were dealing with that.

[3:04:53] You were dealing with what staff was recommending.

[3:04:55] You were dealing with what the demographer was recommending.

[3:04:57] So it wasn't an easy task.

[3:04:59] you're dealing with late information, you're dealing with the pandemic, and I just don't want the council or the community to think that these errors were yours alone, all the other cities were suffering too.

[3:05:10] Yeah, and then just lastly, I mean, I know that not all of us see, I think that's pretty self evident.

[3:05:21] I ironically probably 95% of the time we all vote the same.

[3:05:26] It's sometimes those two to three things where we might differ.

[3:05:29] And some of us vote 99% of the time the same and some 100%.

[3:05:33] But I think at the end of the day as it relates to this issue is that we as council as mayor is be responsive irrespective of the district.

[3:05:43] And so even though I may be in my case it's the city.

[3:05:48] So I don't have to, I'm not having to work with the district per se, but, you know, if the new district is

[3:05:55] different in district one because of this change, I'd like to think that council member Nolte is not going to say, well, you know, on my district, I'm not going to deal with it.

[3:06:04] I think the right thing to do and I don't think council member Nolte or council member Torres,

[3:06:09] is honor as coal or any.

[3:06:12] It's, if anything, you just maybe help them

[3:06:15] and direct them to the other council member

[3:06:16] to help us system with that matter.

[3:06:18] But the bottom line is that I think what is the right thing

[3:06:21] to do is you're a Pomona city council member.

[3:06:23] You represent the city of Pomona

[3:06:25] and that we should do everything we can

[3:06:27] to assist our residents irrespective of boundaries.

[3:06:30] There's a reason why boundaries and districts

[3:06:31] was set up and major part had to do with the lack

[3:06:34] of representation, checking people of color.

[3:06:38] And, in fact, one was at the forefront, I believe, at that, and now other cities are having

[3:06:43] to comply, and they are doing it.

[3:06:46] So I just want to make sure that we try to support each other in that way, because ultimately,

[3:06:51] if we sort of punt it, that resident may feel even less trustful of government, and we

[3:06:58] give it a time where people don't always have trust in government.

[3:07:00] And I think it's something that we all here have a responsibility to try to make it more

[3:07:05] trusting even though we're not going to please everyone. So with that said I do have a vice

[3:07:11] mayor on Rose Cole if you want to close us out and then we can just want to clarify

[3:07:14] something city attorney what council Taurus mentioned and council Garcia mentioned that they

[3:07:24] have a piece of district you know for instance he has he still considers or it is still a legal

[3:07:35] standpoint where he is still the council for that one particular area that was given to council

[3:07:42] multi and then district three has a piece of district four so that would be considered

[3:07:52] still a legal the legal reality is what I make sure yes what the legal reality is that when

[3:08:01] councilmember Torres ran the people who elected him were in a certain area right they had the right

[3:08:08] to choose him to represent them for four full years. That is their legal right. That's what they

[3:08:15] chose to do because they were, these were the boundaries, they chose him. The reality is today

[3:08:21] because your new redistricting cut up the district and you have Councilmember Nolte,

[3:08:27] you, the reality is you could redraw it any day of the week and you could say, well, Nolte,

[3:08:32] you've got this and you've got that but the reality is the people that elect Councilmember Torres

[3:08:36] may still choose to come to Council Member Torres.

[3:08:39] They may choose not to,

[3:08:41] they may choose to go talk to Council Member Nolte,

[3:08:43] but the legal reality is,

[3:08:46] it's those are the constituents that elected him,

[3:08:48] and that is undeniable.

[3:08:50] That's why some cities are choosing to put

[3:08:52] both maps on their website.

[3:08:54] They have like the original election and they show it,

[3:08:58] they just for purposes of saying this is what it looked like

[3:09:01] when you got elected.

[3:09:03] And then in your case,

[3:09:04] because your charter is requiring this. Your charter is requiring this. Not all charter cities require

[3:09:09] this action you're taking today, then they publish that second one as well. So district two has

[3:09:18] part of a center whereas I have one side of these center. But if the part that district two has

[3:09:33] right now they can still say hey you're still my council person. They sure can

[3:09:40] and you can decide to take their call 24. That's right you could you could

[3:09:44] choose not today. I'm just saying I'd be happy to talk with you offline about

[3:09:49] what your map looks like because I don't want to answer scenarios when I don't have

[3:09:52] the maps. I have this right here but I don't know the streets. All I'm saying is

[3:09:57] that I think the mayor stated it best. If a constituent calls you and they elected you,

[3:10:05] but the boundaries are changed, are you going to really tell your constituent don't call

[3:10:09] me, I'm not going to be responsive to you, I don't think I don't see any of you doing that

[3:10:13] on this council. And I think that's what it really comes down to at the end of the day. At the

[3:10:17] end of the day, there's only two times when these maps matter to you. When you're seeking

[3:10:21] election and you need to go do your walkie and you want to know who's doors to knock on, right?

[3:10:27] And when you're being responsive to people, but I think knowing all of you, you're going to be

[3:10:31] responsive. If someone from two goes to four, you're going to be responsive to them.

[3:10:36] Okay. So in some ways, the lines don't matter for anything but the election in many ways.

[3:10:45] All right. Thank you. Thank you for that. And the idea of doing the two maps, can we,

[3:10:51] Can we do that, Rosalia?

[3:10:53] We actually do have a theatrical map with the old boundaries that are on the city website.

[3:11:00] So we're already there.

[3:11:03] All right, so this is a, we need to take a vote, you need to read the ordinance, do you want

[3:11:10] to go and do that?

[3:11:11] I will.

[3:11:12] Okay.

[3:11:12] It's ordinance number 4317 in ordinance of the city council, the city of Pomona, California,

[3:11:17] I'm ending chapter 10 elections, excuse me, Article 1 in general, Section 10-1 boundaries

[3:11:23] of Council Districts, the Pomona City Code by changing the City Council Electoral District

[3:11:27] Boundaries, adopted by the Independent Redistricting Commission, pursuant to the Pomona City Charter,

[3:11:33] the California Elections Code, and the 2020 Decennial Census.

[3:11:37] Okay.

[3:11:38] I'd like to ask for a motion of the City Council on this item.

[3:11:44] Can I get a second?

[3:11:45] Second.

[3:11:45] Okay.

[3:11:46] All right, we have a first and a second.

[3:11:47] We'll do a roll call.

[3:11:49] Nalti?

[3:11:49] Yes.

[3:11:50] Reciado?

[3:11:50] Yes.

[3:11:51] Garcia?

[3:11:52] Yes.

[3:11:52] Antebello's call?

[3:11:53] Yes.

[3:11:53] Last row?

[3:11:54] Yes.

[3:11:55] Sandoval.

[3:11:56] Yes.

[3:11:59] Okay.

[3:12:00] We're going to move on to the next item of public hearing.

[3:12:05] Okay.

[3:12:05] Next item is public hearing number 13.

[3:12:06] It's the appeal of minor certificate of appropriateness number 18644-2022HPC resolution

[3:12:13] 2-0-2-2-0-1-2, 4-4-1-8, Ken Oak Place.

[3:12:24] Welcome, Anita.

[3:12:25] Thank you.

[3:12:26] Good evening again, Mayor, councilmembers.

[3:12:28] Brief presentation for you this evening.

[3:12:30] This is an appeal of a project to legalize and unpermitted

[3:12:33] six-foot-high vinyl fence.

[3:12:36] And at 4-1-8, Ken Oak Place in the historic district.

[3:12:43] Brief summary of what was applied for.

[3:12:46] It was an appeal originally started

[3:12:47] started out as a minor certificate of appropriateness, which is a staff level decision, that was denied, that was appealed to the commission, they appealed in August 3rd,

[3:13:03] applicant filed an appeal at HPC, HPC made a decision, applicant appealed that decision, and that is before you today.

[3:13:16] The location here is on Kenock Place, again just south of the 110 freeway, north of Orange

[3:13:23] Grove and east of White Avenue.

[3:13:28] There's three main sections of this code that are pertinent for today's discussion.

[3:13:33] One is a Pomona zoning code, which specifies that any fence that is replaced should be replaced

[3:13:39] with like material. Both that's also in our historic guidelines which are dated in 1999

[3:13:46] which were updated in 2009. There were some revisions which also say similar language if there's

[3:13:51] a replacement of offense should be with like material. And then thirdly in our most recent guidelines,

[3:13:58] historic guidelines that our historic preservation supervisor has put together and the commission has

[3:14:03] adopted. As is highlighted also says replacement and I know that's a little small. Replacement

[3:14:09] and a fences should be with like material.

[3:14:11] And that was not the case in this instance.

[3:14:13] The applicant installed vinyl fencing,

[3:14:16] where this is the fence here along the front

[3:14:20] and along the side yard

[3:14:24] installed vinyl,

[3:14:26] where there was previously wood.

[3:14:30] And that is the crux of the issue.

[3:14:33] The HPC, as I mentioned, denied that request, that appeal,

[3:14:37] held staff's decision.

[3:14:39] That was on a four to vote.

[3:14:40] And that is what is before you so some of the other pertinent points is that staff and commission have consistently denied vinyl as an appropriate material and historic districts.

[3:14:51] Commission did raise concerns with potentially setting a precedent of allowing vinyl to be approved.

[3:14:58] And that determined it to be not

[3:15:00] We are not historically appropriate and therefore denied the appeal. And then in that decision, the commission gave the applicant one year to replace the vinyl fence with the wood fence. And so tonight's staff recommendation is to uphold the commission decision, denying the appeal of the minor certificate of appropriateness to replace that, to keep that vinyl fence. Or available for any questions, both myself and Jeffrey Starns are historic preservation supervisor.

[3:15:27] Thank you. Thank you. This is a public hearing. So at the time I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing and we do have one speaker in this item.

[3:15:35] And Tompins, do you want to come forward? I assume is the applicant here?

[3:15:43] Okay.

[3:15:47] Welcome, Ms. Tompins.

[3:15:48] Thank you. Yes. I submitted the speaker card. I did see the applicant here earlier, but I did want to clarify a couple things for the council.

[3:15:57] And there appears to be an error in the staff report about the 99 guidelines.

[3:16:05] We adopted guidelines in 1999, but those guidelines with respect, even though the zoning code was amended in 2009, the 99 guidelines were not amended at that time.

[3:16:19] And I've gone back to the record to try to see when they were amended, but when I was appointed on the commission starting in 2017,

[3:16:26] I talked to staff about that because they hadn't been amended and we have these guidelines

[3:16:32] from 1999 that said you should, you know, it's recommended that you use like-for-like materials

[3:16:38] for fencing, but you're not required to get a certificate of appropriateness.

[3:16:42] It's just if you want to maintain the most highest level of historic preservation, you would

[3:16:47] do it this way.

[3:16:49] And so they were really recommendations because we weren't requiring a certificate of

[3:16:53] appropriateness for new fencing.

[3:16:54] And those are the guidelines that we provided to all of the residents when they were choosing

[3:17:00] to be part of the historic district.

[3:17:02] So those guidelines were widely distributed to most of the people in the historic districts

[3:17:07] that they believe they didn't need a certificate of purpose for fencing.

[3:17:11] So I just want to make sure that the council is aware that that's pretty much the understanding

[3:17:15] of the folks in the historic district for a long time.

[3:17:17] And when we amended the ordinance in 2009, we didn't really go back out to the community

[3:17:22] and tell them we were changing the rules and even today a lot of people don't know we're changing rules

[3:17:27] but we've been doing a lot of work to update our guidelines staff has been doing an amazing job

[3:17:31] Jeffery's been working really hard on this and hopefully this year we'll get all of our guidelines

[3:17:35] updated but I want to give you that level of background to understand why we're having these conflicts

[3:17:40] and the struggle that we have to try to be fair to applicants but at the same time if somebody has

[3:17:46] a visible vinyl fence then somebody else sees it and thinks they can put in vinyl fence and the

[3:17:50] situation gets worse, it gets multiplied.

[3:17:53] So we're trying to be compassionate,

[3:17:54] but one thing that we haven't been doing

[3:17:57] is providing applicants with an opportunity

[3:18:00] to apply for economic hardship,

[3:18:01] which is something that I think our ordinance provides for,

[3:18:05] but we've never developed an application for that.

[3:18:08] And replacing offense, what we heard testimony

[3:18:10] from this applicant is that the offense costs like $7,000.

[3:18:14] So when we tell someone they have to remove offense

[3:18:16] within a year, it's like we're finding them $7,000

[3:18:19] in some respects.

[3:18:20] We've had applicants demolish entire buildings

[3:18:23] with permits and there's a code provision for fine

[3:18:25] but we don't get a staff recommendation to find them

[3:18:27] and so we don't find them.

[3:18:29] So we're trying to be fair to applicants

[3:18:32] but it's really challenging at this point in time

[3:18:35] and I just wanted to give you that background.

[3:18:37] Thank you.

[3:18:38] Thank you, Ms. Tompkins.

[3:18:41] I don't have any other speakers on this item,

[3:18:42] so I'm gonna close the public hearings

[3:18:44] and open it up to my colleagues for questions.

[3:18:50] Councilionalty, this is probably your previous. I have your name up here.

[3:18:57] Oh, okay. Yeah, you're up then. Yeah, yes, that may be was from the previous

[3:19:02] Sorry, thanks

[3:19:06] With is there what's the process for a notifying just based on what this town was saying about how changes have happened since 1999 and

[3:19:15] in 2009 and then 2021.

[3:19:17] Is there a process for notifying people

[3:19:19] in historic districts of changes when they happen?

[3:19:22] Not specifically, I can't speak to what happened in 2009,

[3:19:26] but anytime we don't have a specific process of a mailout

[3:19:30] or anything like that.

[3:19:31] We are working through the, that we had a committee

[3:19:33] for outreach and education as part of the HPC

[3:19:35] because it has been a tenant that the commission has

[3:19:39] and the size over the last year wanting to focus on.

[3:19:41] So I think we have our new guidelines completed

[3:19:45] We will be having some kind of campaign to make sure everyone understands the rules as they are

[3:19:51] Comprehensively updated

[3:19:52] We know that when is the that's supposed to be completed or estimated

[3:19:57] Yeah, by November. I we have how many chapters?

[3:20:01] Four different for different chapters going through window styles architectural styles bent styles shrubs trees

[3:20:08] kind of really everything really

[3:20:10] specific. And so that comprehensive guidelines will be done within the next few months by the end of the year.

[3:20:16] Okay, I would just hope that we would, you know, I mean, send something to everybody's house with some kind of a notice and a

[3:20:25] website and a big, you know, exclamation point when we have that done.

[3:20:29] On this, I saw that the staff considered allowing the applicant to only fix the part that was

[3:20:41] street facing that you could see from the street and then decided that you could actually

[3:20:45] see it from everywhere.

[3:20:46] Is that based on that, I mean, when the gates open, I see you can see the fence all the way

[3:20:51] back.

[3:20:51] Is that the photo that kind of shows what your determination was that you can see it from

[3:20:54] everywhere?

[3:20:55] Well, that whole side yard is so that's visible from the sidewalk right here so that's from the sidewalk

[3:21:02] Just sending it the next property so the entire fence is visible. Oh, I'm sorry. There's one other photo where you're kind of looking straight on

[3:21:10] That one so do they have to fix the fence all the way back then

[3:21:15] All the way to the end of the end of their lot line because I mean, I guess my thought is there's a gate there right if they close it

[3:21:22] you can't see the fence all the way back would it be I'm just wondering what you

[3:21:27] thought about that from that other angle you can't really see the fence past the

[3:21:31] neighbor's fence and we looked at it because you can see that whole side down

[3:21:38] your neighbor's driveway that's all visible from the street and so that was that was

[3:21:43] more the issue was that whole side and then the front is all visible from the

[3:21:47] street. Okay, but just, just, just, she only have to replace up to that, that

[3:21:52] fence line. The commission never really went into that. We looked at it at first,

[3:21:58] just trying to compromise to, because the part that's not visible doesn't have an

[3:22:03] impact on, on the character of the district. You're suggesting maybe from here

[3:22:08] where that one is. You see where the brown fence hits the white fence, like you

[3:22:12] can't really see the rest of it. And it would be cheaper for her to just do

[3:22:16] do that front section plus that front facing section.

[3:22:21] It would be cheaper, it's not the whole thing so it would be cheaper.

[3:22:25] Do you think that that's, did you consider that and then decide that that wasn't

[3:22:29] acceptable because you could see through the gate?

[3:22:31] We were trying to find a way at first but that the whole thing that it was just the

[3:22:36] front that needed to be changed but because you can see that side, that's when we

[3:22:46] on that side from the street.

[3:22:49] So we did not then go back and look at,

[3:22:50] oh, what about from that brown fence back?

[3:22:54] Oh, I guess I'm just thinking.

[3:22:56] Like they look like panels to me, right?

[3:22:58] So I can see one, two, three, four, five panels there.

[3:23:01] You know, if they replace those five panels in that one

[3:23:03] and then they get to, they can leave the 10 panels

[3:23:06] that go to the back of the lot.

[3:23:07] It just seems like that.

[3:23:08] What's that?

[3:23:09] That's an option.

[3:23:10] That's an option.

[3:23:11] That's what council wants to do.

[3:23:13] Okay.

[3:23:13] Okay, it would be appropriate, I mean, the staff denies it based off is there an impact

[3:23:21] to the character of the district, if it's not visible, there's no impact.

[3:23:26] Okay, so I mean, I guess that would be, I wonder if my colleagues would support that.

[3:23:31] So if, you know, I mean, I guess it would be the applicant's decision, I mean, she can

[3:23:35] replace the whole thing if she wants, but if it's cheaper to do wood from, you know, that

[3:23:41] would fence that you can see behind the red car up to the street and then plus the one

[3:23:45] in the front and that's all would and it's okay for her to keep the rest of her fence

[3:23:50] to the back of a lot of line the way that it is because you can't see it.

[3:23:54] That's a suggestion.

[3:23:57] One I like to suggestion, I guess the question is we have an item before us that is an

[3:24:07] appeal. And can we modify the?

[3:24:13] Yes, the public hearing. So, okay. So, so, so what I'm, what I'm hearing you say,

[3:24:19] Councilmember, is that, okay, it's one thing to tell them they have to take the whole

[3:24:24] thing down versus you only have to take part of it down. What you choose to do in the back

[3:24:29] is up to you. We're not going to regulate that. What we're really regulating is what's

[3:24:34] visible from the street, because the city did not make, how can I say it, the district

[3:24:41] when it was created set up these standards for each other in the districts, correct?

[3:24:47] I mean, what I want to make clear is that the city is not saying this is what you have

[3:24:53] to do even though we're saying that people created districts for the purpose of preserving the

[3:24:58] historical architecture and they came and they lobbied and they organized

[3:25:05] themselves and they created GIFTrix. I just want to make sure we'll understand

[3:25:09] that that that we're we're we it was an attempt to listen to people who felt

[3:25:14] this was an important part of Pomona's future present and future but I would

[3:25:21] I support that council member as a recommendation.

[3:25:26] And if we can, you want to just make the motion.

[3:25:29] Yeah, I'll make a motion just that the,

[3:25:33] we modify the requirement.

[3:25:39] So granting the appeal, I guess in part, I don't know how you put it.

[3:25:42] But in other words, the defense just has to be,

[3:25:44] the visible part with the gateclose has to be

[3:25:49] taken down and made wood within a year.

[3:25:50] So maybe to grant the appeal with the modification of allowing final in the rear beyond at the at the fence as a neighboring fence line and then the front portion replaced with lid.

[3:26:05] Yes, that's right. I mean, so okay, something occurs to me, which is okay, what if she says, well, I just want to take the fence down entirely.

[3:26:13] really, does she have the right to do that, the whole fence?

[3:26:16] Yes.

[3:26:17] So I mean, if she's going to do that, she pretty much have to take the whole fence down

[3:26:20] because you can see the back from the front if you don't have a gate there.

[3:26:24] So I guess I would make that part of the recommendation to, like she can't just leave the back up, it

[3:26:30] would have to be replacing the front or taking the whole fence down.

[3:26:36] Does that make sense?

[3:26:37] That's your motion.

[3:26:38] Yeah.

[3:26:39] Okay.

[3:26:39] All right. There's just some of the speakers that won away and vice mayor on a rose coal and then councilmember for Seattle.

[3:26:45] Yes, thank you.

[3:26:50] So I can see the front panel basing the street and then you have one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, five. Okay. Now, I think that's a good idea.

[3:27:07] in regards to just replacing the part that's visual from the street.

[3:27:15] I mean, we have a senior citizen here, and she even requests three to five years in order for her to replace the whole thing.

[3:27:23] That's if we go ahead, you know, the picture that shows all the way down into her lot.

[3:27:31] I mean her lot is pretty deep these old homes have deep lots I know because I have 180 foot deep in my own house

[3:27:38] So I know how important that is

[3:27:41] Senior citizens that strive to do something for their home

[3:27:44] Unfortunately, she did not check about permit. She did not check about the the type of materials and this and that maybe because we're not really being

[3:27:55] You know

[3:27:58] notifying people like Council

[3:28:01] Multicid, maybe send a letter, let people know, especially when they're living in historic districts.

[3:28:07] The applicant even mentioned that there's several homes like that in her neighborhood and in Wilton Heights.

[3:28:15] So these people, you know, I did some research, you know, the home depot for one panel of a vinyl,

[3:28:24] $6x8 is $118, okay?

[3:28:30] Also, if maintained properly, these vinyl fences last 100 years.

[3:28:36] Where if you have a wood fence, you have to consider dry rot, you have to consider maintenance,

[3:28:45] you have to consider putting the seal in on it, a paint job or whatever.

[3:28:48] She says that she can no longer do that type of work.

[3:28:51] So, you know, I mean, people are doing everything they can to maintain their home and vinyl is very popular. It's been out since the 1980s, but now the quality is better.

[3:29:05] And I think that's why so many people are leaning toward it.

[3:29:10] You know, I don't know if she had a professionally installed.

[3:29:15] Do you know if she had to

[3:29:16] professionally install.

[3:29:18] It looks like she did yes.

[3:29:19] And yet they didn't go to the

[3:29:21] city, and that's her permit.

[3:29:23] That's unbelievable.

[3:29:25] So, you know, I mean, he didn't

[3:29:27] do his due diligence and I think

[3:29:29] that caused a problem for this

[3:29:31] applicant.

[3:29:32] But, you know, being a senior,

[3:29:36] she said late 70s.

[3:29:37] I mean, these are people that

[3:29:38] have worked all their lives. They're doing what they can. Now they're retired. I mean, I can put myself

[3:29:45] in their place because when I retired, I couldn't. I finally got to do a block wall and rot iron.

[3:29:51] It took me that long to have a fence like that because it's costly. So you decide, you know, what are you

[3:30:00] She finally got what she wanted, unfortunately, you know, the vinyl in a historic district. I am not an in historic district, and I'm pretty glad that I'm not. But the thing is this, I agree with council guilty that we should amend this so she can possibly just do the front area, which is for five panels. And maybe, you know, have somebody.

[3:30:31] I'm sure she's going to have a professional install it and the cost of wood is very expensive. It's gone up 400%.

[3:30:41] So she's probably going to have to save her money for, you know, if we can grant the year, the one year where she can have this done, give her some time to save up her money.

[3:30:56] because we don't know her financial condition.

[3:30:59] I think we have a solution.

[3:31:02] I think that's a good idea.

[3:31:03] Right, okay, so we have a first.

[3:31:05] A lot of things, Mayor.

[3:31:07] I think he has an excellent idea.

[3:31:09] We have a first.

[3:31:09] I'm a second.

[3:31:11] Let's go into a roll call.

[3:31:12] Thank you.

[3:31:13] Thank you.

[3:31:14] Yes.

[3:31:14] Garcia.

[3:31:16] Yes.

[3:31:17] Antivero School.

[3:31:18] Yes.

[3:31:18] Last row.

[3:31:19] Yes.

[3:31:19] Sores.

[3:31:20] Santa.

[3:31:21] Yes.

[3:31:22] Our next item.

[3:31:23] Next item is public hearing item number 14.

[3:31:26] It's a public hearing to receive comments on the fiscal year 2021-22 consolidated annual

[3:31:31] performance and evaluation report of Caper.

[3:31:38] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:31:39] Be mindful of time.

[3:31:40] Welcome.

[3:31:40] Welcome, Mayor.

[3:31:41] Welcome.

[3:31:41] My 20-meter presentation to 10 minutes.

[3:31:44] Just.

[3:31:46] We're going to chime in.

[3:31:48] Can we open the public hearing?

[3:31:50] Just got it.

[3:31:51] Thank you.

[3:31:51] Yes.

[3:31:53] Mayor Councilmember, thank you.

[3:31:55] This is a public hearing to consider the removal of an existing crosswalk at the intersection

[3:31:59] of Bonnie, Brea and Fellows Place.

[3:32:01] This intersection and a crosswalk is immediately adjacent to a proposed all-de-market development.

[3:32:07] More importantly, the existing crosswalk is right next to the driveway that will be used

[3:32:12] by the proposed, I apologize.

[3:32:16] Did we miss 14?

[3:32:18] It's okay.

[3:32:19] You can continue.

[3:32:20] It's been a while, it's been a while, sir.

[3:32:24] Yeah, let's just finish it, let's finish it.

[3:32:27] Can you start running the clock, Carla, can you press the clock, please?

[3:32:34] That's okay, that's what happens when we go from meetings that last 40 minutes to the last three hours.

[3:32:40] So just, just for clarity, we are on agenda item 15, city clerk, we are on agenda item 15, correct?

[3:32:48] I do.

[3:32:49] Why don't you read?

[3:32:50] 14 or 15.

[3:32:51] René strikes again.

[3:32:53] Item number 14.

[3:32:54] And the title, public hearing to receive comments on the fiscal year 2021-22.

[3:33:00] Consolidate annual performance and evaluation report, Caper.

[3:33:04] So, I am.

[3:33:05] But that's okay.

[3:33:06] Let's move the agenda.

[3:33:08] Okay.

[3:33:08] We can do 15.

[3:33:09] You know, clearly, René was completely out of line, unacceptable.

[3:33:13] But it is what it is.

[3:33:14] and let's let him perform for the next 20 minutes and just so you know Renee your

[3:33:22] colleagues are looking at you. Just wait till tomorrow is executive.

[3:33:26] I know. I'll hear it from now. Yes he's bringing donuts tomorrow.

[3:33:32] And coffee.

[3:33:35] Can he please wear a Pomona high school sweatshirt?

[3:33:43] Can you start your

[3:33:44] item number 15, public hearing to remove crosswalk at the intersection of Bonnie Bray Street and

[3:33:50] Fellows Place.

[3:33:55] This is a public hearing to consider the removal of an existing crosswalk at the

[3:33:59] intersection of Bonnie Bray and Fellows Place. This intersection of crosswalk is immediately adjacent to

[3:34:04] proposed all the market development. More importantly, the existing crosswalk is right next to the driveway

[3:34:09] that was used by the development and by its delivery trucks. Style feels that it creates a potential

[3:34:16] a conflict between the delivery trucks and pedestrians.

[3:34:19] And as such, we recommend removal of the crosswalk.

[3:34:21] It's important to note that the developer does agree

[3:34:24] with the removal of the crosswalk and will do so.

[3:34:28] But they have also agreed to reconstruct

[3:34:30] an implement of crosswalk more visible

[3:34:33] about 250 feet north of this location

[3:34:35] on Bonnie Bray and San Bernardino.

[3:34:38] That's it, thank you, sorry.

[3:34:40] Thank you, so this is a public hearing.

[3:34:49] I'm going to close the public hearing.

[3:34:52] We have a motion by Councilmember Anovero's Coal.

[3:34:54] Can I get a second?

[3:34:56] Councilmember Torres, let's do a roll call vote.

[3:34:58] Roll call, Nalti?

[3:34:59] Yes.

[3:35:00] Reciado?

[3:35:00] No.

[3:35:01] Garcia?

[3:35:02] Yes.

[3:35:03] Antivero's Coal?

[3:35:04] Yes.

[3:35:04] Last row?

[3:35:05] Yes.

[3:35:05] Torres?

[3:35:06] Yes.

[3:35:06] Sandoval.

[3:35:07] Yes.

[3:35:08] Can we just make sure that René stays throughout the rest?

[3:35:12] I just tasted through the end of the meeting

[3:35:15] because it was kind of an end around about maybe being able

[3:35:18] to go home a little early there, I'm sure.

[3:35:20] So, but anyways, let's go on item 14,

[3:35:23] which was where we were supposed to go originally.

[3:35:27] Third time's a charm.

[3:35:28] Public here at item number 14 is a public hearing

[3:35:31] to receive comments on the fiscal year of 2021-22

[3:35:34] consolidated and performance and evaluation report paper.

[3:35:38] We have many comments about Renee's behavior.

[3:35:42] Go ahead and go ahead.

[3:35:44] Good evening everyone, I'm going to be hearing.

[3:35:49] Good evening, Mary.

[3:35:50] Members of the Council tonight, you have before you, a public hearing, to receive comments

[3:35:53] on the fiscal year 2021.

[3:35:57] Consultative annual performance and evaluation report.

[3:36:00] This is a report we bring to you annually that gives a look back on how federal funds for

[3:36:06] or spent in CDBG ESG home housing choice voucher

[3:36:11] all of our federal funds.

[3:36:13] And staff's done sort of the answer any questions.

[3:36:16] Thank you, Anita.

[3:36:18] And this is a public hearing.

[3:36:20] We have any speakers on this item.

[3:36:21] We don't.

[3:36:21] I'll go ahead and close the public hearing.

[3:36:24] I'll move the item.

[3:36:27] All right.

[3:36:28] Does your roll call vote?

[3:36:30] Nolti.

[3:36:31] Yes.

[3:36:31] Araciado.

[3:36:32] Garcia.

[3:36:33] Yes.

[3:36:33] Un tiberosco.

[3:36:34] Yes.

[3:36:35] Last row.

[3:36:35] Yes.

[3:36:36] Sores.

[3:36:36] Sandor.

[3:36:38] Yes, so at the next executive meeting tomorrow, I will

[3:36:41] enable ring donuts, coffee, and bouquet of flowers for

[3:36:45] bidding.

[3:36:46] So the next regular meeting will be held on October

[3:36:48] 3, 2022 in the City Council, Chambers, 505 South

[3:36:51] Area Avenue from one of California procession items will be

[3:36:53] discussed at 5.30 p.m. The open session will come into 7 p.m.

[3:36:57] I have a good night, everyone.

Pomona City Council Meeting 09-19-2022

Transcript