Everybody, we're going to go ahead and get started. Welcome, welcome to our regular council
meeting. It is 704 January 28. I like to call this meeting to order and invite the city clerk
to conduct a roll call. Council Member Keldron. Here. Council Member
Trung is absent. Council Member Lewis. Present. Council Member King. Here. Council Member Finley.
here. Mayor Pro Tem Mardin Del Campo. Here. Mayor Garcia. Here.
I like to invite at this
time the members of the Mayor's Youth Council that are present to do the Pledge of Allegiance.
If you could please come forward.
Hello council members and everybody could you please stand,
place your right hand over your heart, ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
Thank you Hope. We got a
full house tonight. I love to see it like this. Welcome.
Now I just want to let you
know that we did not meet for closed sessions since we did not have a quorum
for that item. So we'll be moving the item to to adopt the agenda on the
next item. So City Manager, I believe that City staff would like to request that the City
Council add urgency items to tonight's agenda. Thank you, Mayor. Due to an imminent public
health threat that occurred after the posting of this agenda, staff is requesting the addition
of two items, Special Item 8C, Environmental Protection Agency presentation regarding
the hazardous materials processing site at Lario Park and Business Item 14B, consideration
to adopt resolution number 25-04,
opposing the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
use of Lario Park as a hazardous waste sorting site
for the eat and fire due to the harm
to public health, safety, and welfare.
All right, so I'm going to call for a motion
to add the urgency items to the agenda.
Motion.
Second.
We got a motion from Council Member Finley
and a second and a third from Mayor Pro Tem
I'm Martin Del Campo and Council Member Kang.
All in favor?
Aye.
Motion carries.
So I'd like to.
I'm sorry, Mayor, sorry to interrupt.
We do need to do a roll call vote to add the item.
Perfect.
I'll let you conduct that.
Council Member Keldron.
Aye.
Council Member Lewis.
Aye.
Council Member Kang.
Yes.
Council Member Finley.
Yes.
Council Member Martin Del Campo.
Yes.
And Mayor Trong.
Yes.
motion carries and I'd like to invite a motion to
adopt the agenda as amended.
So moved.
Second.
All in favor.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries.
So we're gonna skip item seven,
since we did not have a closed session.
Item eight, special items,
we'll start with the mayor's youth council.
Welcome back, Hope Peoples.
Hello.
Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members
and our audience tonight.
My name is Hope Peoples,
for those of you who do not know, I am this year's Mayor's Youth Council president and
here's our report to you this month. The Mayor's Youth Council is wrapping up its homeless
care package drive and we will be partnering with the foothill kitchen in Monrovia in February
8th to distribute the items. And this past couple weeks, the Mayor's Youth Council
hosted a popcorn sale fundraiser and raised over $600 for our spring retreat beach
trip. We would like to thank everybody who supported our fundraiser. Thank you.
And the Mayor's Council presented its Community Stakeholders Award, which is presented to a community member who gives back support to youth and families in our community.
The award was presented to Mr. Ulysses Gutierrez at the Teen Center Winter Holiday Festival. That's what I have for you.
Thank you so much. Colleagues, any questions, comments or hope?
Thank you. Thank you. Hope we were just so grateful for everything that you do for your peers in your community and you're a great leader.
Thank you.
Up next we have special item be public safety department update and the presenter for that will be director Larry, but he said.
Yes, mayor. Thank you so much and thank you to the council. This evening. I'm going to be. I'm very, very happy to announce actually.
that the city of DeWordy has in their part one crimes category,
it has a reduction of 8.95% reduction in our part one crimes.
And that is in relation, absolutely right.
Now, something to especially note about that number
is that's in relation to our prior year numbers.
So last year in 2023, we ended our part one crimes
with a reduction of 15.3%.
so this is on top of the 15.3 percent we had in year 2023. Some
of the key
successes that attribute to this number is I think a lot of it has to do with
the dedication and hard work of our deputies and public safety staff. They
go in day in and day out they're very passionate about what they do but not
only that they work well with the community members and the community
members are well received by us as well because of that relationship and
partnership that we have with them. They're able to direct us to key patrol efforts as
well as share information with us. Hey, there's situations going on here. Hey, there's suspicious
persons there. Hey, you might want to follow up on this. There's all these different things
that really open the lines of communication for public safety to take effect. So it's
really not only the deputies and the public safety staff, but it's also the residents
and the businesses that truly care about the city of DeWarty that help with the
overall crime reduction in the city and the numbers do not lie. They are
significant and they are well. Something else that we've incorporated this year
is in 2024 is we did our e-bike patrol program. So in addition to that we had
our e-bikes so what we did is we went and patrolled preventing crimes of
opportunity for individuals patrolling parking lots, businesses, alleyways,
things of that nature. That allows us to get one-on-one contact with
people both in the public, generally using their stores and walking the streets, as well
as seeing people that might be canvassing the area for crimes of opportunity as well.
So a lot of that visibility and interaction truly has helped us in the overall reduction
of our part one crimes, because as we see in the numbers, our larceny thefts did go
down as well.
And a lot of that also has to do with our creation of our business watch program.
So our business watch programs allows us to communicate with our retail establishments
and again set that set for that communication efforts between the two
and then it allows us also to conduct education material to them and also
conduct special operations that allow us to actually work with their security
offices and actually set up operations where we're inside the business location
as they see people trying to steal from our businesses we actually capture
them upon their exit and we've had very very successful outcomes with
that operation we've done several of those and those are the type of things
things that we're going to be capitalizing on for the year 2025. In addition to that
for 2025, what we're going to be looking at, which council did approve in the past, is
the adoption of our flock camera system, so our automatic license plate reading camera
system throughout the city of DuWerty. So that's going to be another crucial source
of information and resource for our deputies to conduct their investigation, as well as
proactively identify vehicles that might be of concern
are involved in criminal activity.
So these are some of the things that we're gonna be working
on to make sure that we can further expand our reduction
and our part one crimes in making Duarte a safer place
to live and work.
Something else I would like to especially note
is that we've did receive a grant
through Senator Rubio's office
with the Tri-City Partnership with Duarte Azusa
as well as Army Corps and Engineers
and that's for the riverbed area.
So, we did receive funding for that, and what that allowed us to do is send our deputies
and our outreach personnel into the riverbed area and provide services and resources to
those that are unhoused in the area, as well as conduct operations for cleanup.
So, we've already conducted a few of those operations.
You may have seen some of that activity over there, and we're going to be continuing
to leverage that opportunity as well, so that, again, we can kind of further enhance
our general public safety, as well as take care of those that are unhoused.
So with that I think there's a lot of successes that we have and without going
over the entire report I would leave this opportunity for council if you guys
have any questions or comments or concerns. Yes, Council Member Finley. Thank
you. Larry I was down in the went down to the riverbed the other day and was
riding my bike along the bike path there. There's a lot of junk down there.
Who's responsible for cleaning that up? I know it's the Army Corps of
engineers, property, how come they aren't cleaning it up?
Well, they do clean it up, but it takes some time for them.
They're federal governments.
They take a long time to conduct that operation.
They don't take a long time.
I've seen them move real fast lately.
Touche.
Thank you.
That's right.
Very good.
Madam Finley, while they're down there,
you can tell them to pick up the trash colleagues I just wanted to thank you
Larry I did bring a concern just from the clean out of the riverbed there was
increased just unhomed activity throughout the city I did discuss it with
you and since then I've noticed a huge increase of patrol outside of the
McDonald's area as well as many of the other areas where I had concerns and
I've seen the reduction so I really appreciate the fast action there
absolutely no problem thank you Larry thank you as well the last couple
All the weeks there's been a German Shepherd roaming around the city with a lot of us were worried about a lot of residents were concerned about and I know you the team has some trouble getting it.
It's now at the San Gabriel Humane Society. So I hope it gets the carrot. It definitely deserves. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for your update.
Thank you, Mayor and Larry thank you so much for your leadership and you've been so responsive with with the fire with the windstorm with all the outages and so on and now we're having this kind of issues.
In addition, I just want to appreciate Sergeant Fielder and your team, you guys have been tremendous and you guys such a great team and able to go and work with you guys whenever.
gosh, you don't even need to go ahead and see my text.
You knew exactly what I was looking for
and I'm able to go ahead and apprehend these people.
I really do appreciate that.
We need to go ahead and make our city safe
and we need to beautify our city,
make our city strong for all of us.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
I want to highlight, well,
we have so many people in the audience.
Google or crime rates, they are amazing
and it's thanks to the whole team
we're discussing right now.
Word of mouth is so important
and there is a lot of effort.
I know it's easy to see the negative things
that we see when we're driving around the town but you have to recognize and if
you ever need help recognizing reach out to one of us what we what they do do to
make the city so safe for us thank you concern with us how you doing Larry good
sir first I want to apologize for bugging you so much I know I didn't I
didn't nearly call Brian as much as I do you no problem I might start calling
Brian Moore. Hey, you guys give me a number to your assistant. He said he would enjoy that sir.
Well one thing I would just like to also thank you for you know like I said I've called you for
several issues and you got on them right away and I just want to just thank you from for my
constituents. Thank you sir. Welcome sir. Thank you Larry. Appreciate it. Before we move on
Welcome to the next item. I do want to recognize the elected officials and representatives that
are here tonight. We have school board member Tom Reyes, school board member Rosa Olguin,
former school board member Cece Carroll, former school board member Frank Figueroa, former
Mayor Luis Gaston. Thank you. Vicky Paul from Katherine Barger's office is here.
We have a field representative from Hilda Supervisor Hilda Solis's office. Welcome.
and Director Marquez, bienvenido, good to see you.
If I miss somebody, I am so sorry.
I didn't bring my glasses.
We're gonna continue now with Special Item C,
the Environmental Protection Agency presentation
regarding the hazardous materials processing site
at Ladio Park.
The presenter is Tara Fitzgerald.
She is the EPA Incident Commander
and I do wanna let the folks know
that there is a Spanish translation available.
She is in the lounge to take questions after the meeting if you need Spanish translation. Tara.
Good evening and thank you for having me here to discuss the Lario staging area.
The EPA understands that the community has concerns about the use of the staging area to store the household hazardous materials that are going to be collected from the destroyed homes in the Eaton Fire footprint.
It was not EPA's intention to exclude Doherty from this process, but we have been tasked
to move quickly under an emergency response order in order to begin collecting these
hazardous materials so that the properties could be cleared of debris and the property
owners could start the process of rebuilding.
building. We are going to be utilizing the temporary storage area to store the hazardous
materials that would be taken from those areas and they would be stored temporarily at the
staging area and would then be packaged and shipped for disposal at permitted facilities.
So I just want to be, before I talk a little bit about the storage.
I just want to be clear that the area we are planning to use it temporarily and leave
it as we found it before. And we do this routinely during natural disaster responses, including
all of the fires that we've had recently throughout California that EPA responds to. We are hearing
concerns about the health and safety of the community because we will be using this as
a storage area.
And as I said, we do this quite often, but I want to be clear that these materials will
be packaged properly and stored on site in a way that they are not allowed to release
to the environment and that they are also not allowed to come into contact with the
ground.
We will be using perimeter air monitoring, which is to ensure that even though we have stored these materials properly so that they cannot release into the environment, we will also be doing the air monitoring around the facility in order to ensure that we know that nothing is actually leaving the facility that could be of harm to the residents.
We also will be utilizing, we sampled the site before we got there and we will sample
it again after we leave in order to ensure that we did not leave anything at the staging
area.
And I understand that this is, there's a bike lane there, that there's also like a
public park that is, State Parks utilizes this area from the Army Corps.
So that is how we're going to utilize it in a way that will keep the community safe but
also allow us to move forward with taking the materials from the burned areas so that the
rebuilding process can begin.
The reason that we chose this area is because of the speed that we were asked to move as
an emergency response.
This was the closest available area that was appropriate for use, essentially large enough
with the ability to get our trucks to it and also able to store the materials on a flat
surface that we didn't have to do a lot of work to prepare because it was already a
staging area to begin with.
We worked with Army Court, which as has been mentioned, owns the parcel to secure
it.
Without the staging area, we can't continue to collect the hazardous materials which is a necessary step for the first, but necessary first step for recovery.
But again, I said we've had experienced news of fires and we have never had an issue with our temporary storage areas.
We're confident that we will leave the site in as good shape as we found it.
And we will do our best to ensure that we're communicative in everything that's happening.
And now that we have these lines of communication that we're ensuring that we are being transparent
about our actions.
So thank you for advocating for your community and allowing me to come here and talk and
appreciate the opportunity to engage with you now.
We do have a community engagement team available to speak with residents in English and
Spanish and provide fact sheets on the staging area.
Thank you, Tara.
We're going to do questions at this moment.
We'll leave comments for after.
So strictly questions just for the flow of the meeting.
Council Member Finley.
Thank you.
You started out, and thank you for being here.
I appreciate this.
We haven't had this big a crowd in my 34 years of doing this.
I don't think it's ever been quite this big.
So you're terribly popular, Tara.
You said it was not the intent to exclude us.
Was the intent to include us?
I mean, this is, there are three cities that are right here.
Who wasn't thinking when they thought that, oh, these cities won't care?
I mean, and I know it's more of a rhetorical question.
And honestly, and I've talked with your EPA people, they are as nice as they can be, and
I really appreciate that.
But every time I ask a question, it's kind of like this, you know, who did it?
So who do we say, who do we go to and say, what were you thinking?
Why didn't you get a hold of the city managers or the city council or something instead
of just starting to move stuff in?
Well, unfortunately, due to the emergency response nature of this, we moved immediately.
We have been asked by the county, by the local and state agencies to move as fast as
possible.
I'm confident that most of the people have heard those requests.
And we secured the location as quickly as possible and started moving.
But we all have these.
I have mine on 24-7 all you needed to do and again I'm not blaming you but
somebody should have thought to at least call the city managers so then they
could call the councils. I have a few more questions but all like some of our
other colleagues. I just want to tag on to Councilwoman Finley's comment is I've
done emergency management. I was in San Bernardino County Office of Emergency Service OES.
We deal with emergencies. Emergencies is what we do. And I'm baffled because plans and intel
from your ICS should be able to go ahead and disseminate that information to all the
information on NBC four. And I was like half asleep. And then everyone I'm sure all my
colleagues phone started blowing up. And then I started talking to the state state
state senator state assembly. Congress. No one knew about this. But you guys were
already mobilizing and putting all that stuff at L'Oreal Park. So you guys knew this
all along, but where is that miscommunication? Why did you guys do that? It doesn't make sense
to me. There's no SIMS and NIMS. I'm curious.
SIMS and NIMS meaning national incident management
systems and that's NIMS. SIMS is state incident management systems. There are protocols for
this and somehow you guys are not using it or is this intentional? I don't know, right?
We're trying to go ahead and figure it out and you're the IC you're the incident commander. We need to go in and hear from you
Yes, we did work with as I said Cal OES and the local agencies to
Site this to determine this site and they were aware of it, but we did fail to inform
the city of Dworkie
and the city of Azusa and
Senator Rubio and
and everybody was failed to be informed.
Tara, you mentioned you were asked by the county
to move as quickly as possible.
I watched today's county board meeting
and they said they were unaware
and that they were bypassed by the federal government.
Can you talk on that?
I am not aware of that.
So, Tara, I got millions of questions
and one more question I wanna ask is,
first of all, I concur completely with Mrs. Finley
in regards to your staff, they are so wonderful.
They are blunt, they tell the truth,
and so I really appreciate that.
My question is that this is not your first option.
There were A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and this is pretty much your last option.
What were the first few options
and were there a lot of pushbacks from those folks, right?
because we were obviously not at the table and you know there's oh saying this person actually told
me is if you're not at the table you're on the menu so I just I cannot comprehend it's so close by
you have the Rose Bowl you have all these other places that you're able to go ahead and do this
you only need five acres I really apologize to say this but I'm further empathetic and
sympathetic about about the eaten fire with with Altadena and and see a
moderate and so on but half the city got the got destroyed unfortunately my
cousins house got burned my friends got house I'm sure all of you guys have
friends that have their houses burned even some of their people the people
are saying why bring all these toxic stuff and and it's already
contaminated over there bring it over here 15 miles away when you can just
just probably clean it up over there, allocate that five acres, and then start doing, and
then surround it with a parameter, make it safe, and then start doing the sorting, and
then you can, you can, you know, set them all out over there.
Now you want to go ahead and drive through four cities.
You want to go to Siamadre.
You want to go to Arcadia, Monrovia, Gordy, Irindale, Azusa.
Now you're exposing all these risks to probably 100,000 people.
I think that's where I have an actual question.
Like how are we to trust that you are going to keep us safe during the process and years after the process?
Because there's been a failure to communicate that it was even going to happen.
So how do we know, how do we trust that there's going to be communication if there are any risks?
That's right.
Answer my question. Why this place?
I mean it looks like Maline's it's got to be it's got to be
Closest as much as possible if I have a hazmat containment on a 105 freeway or the 210 freeway
I'm gonna go and bring it to the 105 freeway. That doesn't make sense to me
I really do want to see if there's a response to let's allow Tara answer a couple questions
so you discussed the Rose Bowl and we also looked at the Santa Anita raceway and both of those because we're
occupied by the fire response at that time. So they are now demobilizing from those areas
and we actually need additional footprint and are looking to move into those footprints as well.
Tara, you talked about communication, the lack of communication we've talked about trust.
Yesterday the local mayors were at the site. We were told that material would not start
making its way until Wednesday, Thursday. We know now that material was started moving
today. So once again, the information is not matching. There's a disconnect somewhere.
How can we fix that?
Yes, we certainly continue to be pushed on our timeline to move fast in this response.
And we are going to have to do a better job of discussing with you. And that consists
and we do have our community involvement coordinators who can be available to discuss this more.
But I think that we have the lines of communication and we now have the the contacts and and we are able to reach out if we
Need to in case in the event that there's an issue and yet I just want to emphasize that
We've done these fire responses since 2015
On an almost yearly basis throughout the state and we've had to build these facilities every time
That we've done this and we have not had an incident of
or exposure to the community, and we have not had an incident of making the land actually
worse afterwards. So we've been able to do this safely every time we've had to respond
to these natural disasters. We have a proven trace record.
How fast are you being asked to be finished with this operation phase one? I heard months,
then I heard 30 days, and it's six to eight months now.
So, for phase one, which is what we're using the staging area for, that's to take the hazardous
material, these are the bulk hazardous materials from the site.
So these are things like pesticides, propane tanks, lithium ion batteries that we need
to be taken away before debris removal can start.
So that's only phase one is the work that we are doing.
So that we are being we've been tasked to complete in 30 days, but the temporary storage location would remain for several months based on our need to continue to package the material and ship it correctly to permitted facilities.
So having the staging area, then would you use it for phase two?
So EPA does not conduct phase two operations.
So yeah, we wouldn't have any action after we complete our phase one work.
Who makes this decision?
I think you're just kind of the messenger here.
Who makes this decision so that we can talk with them?
I feel kind of impotent here so to speak because we don't know who to talk to and I hear this came from the White House.
Okay, that's great, but I'm just letting you know I heard it came from the White House.
That's what we heard too.
And so I'm sure people of the White House didn't go, Lario staging area.
No.
Who made this decision, Tara, and how can we talk with them?
Well, you're talking to me.
I am ultimately responsible for the decision.
It was a group effort.
We worked with the Army Corps.
We worked with FEMA.
We worked with the county.
We worked with Cal OES to locate this staging area.
But ultimately, in an emergency response,
the decision was made.
And ultimately, I'm the incident commander for this response.
OK, so that's why I'm here today.
The buck stops here is what you're saying. That's why I'm here. Okay. Then you said this was the only
available area that was appropriate.
That's hard to believe because it's not an appropriate area.
Absolutely.
So, I just, the San Gabriel River watershed area, someone yelled out and it's one that
I thought about too.
What about the abandoned Irwindale Speedway, close to the freeway?
It's been abandoned for right now.
They've already had I think everything toxic and hazardous go on in that place that can.
If you've ever been to a night of destruction, so what what can we do at this point to change it?
And I know you're saying it's already we've already got the staging area set
Well, I know that but
Have us somewhere closer
Yes, so around zero as
a
So as I've mentioned we are looking for additional
staging areas closer to the burn footprint now that the incident command has left.
Okay.
I think my concern, too, is just the rush. You keep mentioning that your timeline keeps getting moved up.
Now, I know that they've relaxed a lot of the environmental laws to allow for quick rebuild,
and I know they deserve one, a rebuild.
But when you rush things like this, these laws are in place, and they keep California safe because they are in place.
So if we keep bypassing them and making rush decisions,
I'm just fearful of the impact on this community.
So I do want to be clear that our storage facility
is not relaxing, is not a result of any relaxed
environmental laws.
We will process the waste as it needs to be done
and send it to permitted facilities.
And we are not allowing it to, like I said,
release into the environment.
It's not going to be something where we're being
less careful at the storage area
because of the emergency, the purpose of taking this material from the burn areas,
because right now it is open to the air and open to the community and open to the watersheds.
So we remove it and put it in a place where it's stored properly, where it cannot be at risk of wind
or rain or anything like that. And then we take it to the, you know, we finally dispose of it
correctly. What other like emergency areas have you done? And how did they compare
in size and scope to this project.
Well, there was the campfire in 2018, which is, you know, 12,000, 13,000 residents that
were destroyed.
We responded to the Woolsey fire and we had a staging area in Los Angeles at that time
as well and we did this work safely and there were no releases to the community.
We've done the Sonoma Napa fires, all had staging areas.
because most recently we worked in Maui in Lahaina and had a staging area there as well.
So we've done this quite often.
Were you guys required to use federal property for those areas as well?
We're not required to use federal property.
We used a park, the Maui Department of Parks in Lahaina.
So it was within the city where the incident occurred and everything could be in proximity?
It was actually it was not it was unfortunately not close. There's also issues with land there. So we had to go
It was like a 20-minute drive south. So
Council member King. Thank you mayor.
I
Got a question real quick is how many parcels are we talking about that were burned down?
How many structures so keeping in mind that we're looking only in the Eaton fire
We're responding to all of the fires, so speaking just to the eaten fire, we're looking at about under 7,000.
Okay, so that's great.
I have also been told that perhaps some of the Pacific Palisades toxic materials will be coming over.
Is that a true statement or not true statement?
So we have a separate staging area for the Palisades.
Great, thank you.
So, we'll talk about 7,000 structures or because I read it somewhere it's about 9,500 structures.
Okay, yes.
So, the structures versus parcels, we evaluate a resident's parcel, so like your lot versus
a structure, so one lot can maybe have many structures, but what we're doing is doing
the phase work that allows the property owner to look at their entire lot and say phase one is
done on my lot I can move forward to phase two. So when we talk I know there's a lot of different
numbers and it's all in the thousands but what we look at just parcels when we talk about
completing our work because that whole lot must be done in order for the resident to move forward.
Okay so I just have a question in regards to because you've been doing this for so many
fires, one lot average-wise for phase one, how many tons of toxic waste?
So I should be clear, we are taking the materials that present an exposure risk very early on.
We're not taking all of the debris, we're not taking all of the ash here.
And if I wasn't clear about that, I apologize.
So we're taking a smaller amount of debris that sometimes presents explosive risk before
or it's treated.
So we would take like propane tanks,
we dehead them in the field,
we reduce, we stop the risk in the field at the parcel
and then we bring back the essentially,
empty material to the site.
But we also do collect things like pesticides
and herbicides.
So when you think about a house
and you think about how many things
that you would have at that house
that would, you couldn't throw,
like you'd have to take to a household hazardous waste
site instead of throwing into your trash.
That's what we're looking at for each house.
But of course some people have more materials.
They may have hobbies or things that they do.
And so they may have more,
but this is nowhere near tons.
This is as if your property,
if you had to take everything
that you couldn't throw away now,
and that would be the amount.
And they're all going to be processed
at the Lario site, is that correct?
So they'll be packaged for the transport,
and put on the trucks so they're packaged in a way at the site so that they can't release,
they're put onto the truck and then they're transported to the site where they're essentially
bulked so they're put into larger areas where they can be stored and then shipped off.
So I think you have about maybe 15 to 20 of these flatbed class 4 or class 5 trucks
with your current vehicles and so on. How long do you think it would go
go ahead and take to, to, to remediate the entire burn site.
I'm curious, we're trying to go ahead and figure out
how long you guys gonna be here.
We've been given 30 days to do the work.
30 days?
Yes.
Do you think that's gonna be a smile on?
We've been given 30 days to do the work.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Ms. Tara.
Give me one second.
Council Member Calderon?
Yeah, I have a question.
So if this were to move forward,
how long after you leave decides do you guys continue testing for contaminants? And more importantly,
how will our residents be able to get those results and get their questions and answers once you
guys move on? So we would test, so as we test before and then we would test once after. So we
would take the test that we took, the samples that we took originally and then we would compare
the samples that we took after to show that there's nothing there. And, you know, most
recently in Lahaina and Maui, I made that information available to the parks department.
So I provided that information to them to show that we had, you know, left it the way that
we found it.
And that would be something we would be able to do, you know, here.
Councillor Ember-Lewis.
Ms. Tara, realistically speaking, do you actually think you're going to be able to do that
in 30 days?
now I I've been out to I've been out to out to Dina and there's no way that you're
gonna be able to get all those toxins unless you have somebody out there 24
hours a day seven days a week for the next 30 days and then you and then you
still not gonna be finished can you can you honestly give us a realistic
number because just like the mayor said I also watched the presentation that was
given to the board of supervisors today and the information you're giving me is a
lot different than the information they gave me or and I also was told it was
30 days and then they said it realistically speaking is gonna be more
like six months that the encampment is going to be there.
She said 90 days plus.
I was told six months.
I'm not aware of where the six months would come from.
Like I said, I don't understand how we're getting different information, different information
than the Board of Supervisors, and it's not a unified message.
and then you expect us to trust you when we're getting three different
informations and and we was notified and then you say you know well and I and I
was also waiting to hear the answer from my colleagues how was this what was the
other spaces that were options and why was this option chosen opposed to those
other options because I, I know as well, Altadena has a huge park that burned down in Altadena
and it's flat. And you could, and I, and you already have the park there. And why not just
take the stuff to the park? Then you don't have to go across four cities.
And if you
need it's more space, Dodger Stadium right now is empty.
It's empty that parking lot
of Dodger Stadium. It's more than five acres. That's because you're a, that's because you're
a Giants fan. That's why you're proposing that site. Matter of fact, you could put it on home
plate.
Well, that's our answer.
I think,
I think the question was what site. So I did
mention like the Rose Bowl, the San Anita Raceway. But, but, but we did move to be able to
be able to obtain the access to the parcel and we were able to negotiate with the Army
Corps quickly to do so.
I do want to let the members of the audience, you'll have a moment to speak.
The town hall is tomorrow for Q&A.
We'll give everybody three minutes to talk if you turn in the car.
Let's get to the questions first and then we'll give you a chance.
I have a question.
You talked about lithium batteries and that's one of my biggest concerns.
I've been on Telemundo speaking about it.
But I heard from a captain from the LA City Fire who was a PIO that talked about the dangers
of lithium batteries and how they have the potential to be explosive.
Bringing that type of material to the San Gabriel River that is a high-risk area for
a potential fire, we have seen how one small spark and the right amount of wind, the
damage that can occur.
What guarantees do we have or what safeguards are being taken place to transport and ensure
that something like this won't happen?
So we have specialized teams that are going to obtain the batteries, the lithium ion batteries
from the areas including like electric vehicles and battery storage systems from solar systems
etc. And they do maintain a risk of fire after they've been damaged, and that's why we're
removing them.
So the teams are specialized and are able to safely transport them.
We actually make them not at risk at the storage area so that they no longer pose a
risk to cause fires.
And so we successfully did this and Maui was the first time we did it because it was the first time that we had had such a large amount of batteries and we created a storage area and actually, you know, we there we crushed the batteries in order to basically make them not able to cause any fire again.
So there's still that risk of a possible explosion.
The batteries aren't large enough that we keep a large enough perimeter around the staging
area so that if there was an explosion, there's a safety buffer.
So we would not put them right against, say, like, brush or right next to the river where
something like an ember could, you know, move away from it.
So,
Tara, it's quite interesting, full disclosure, I'm actually a chemist.
I make batteries. So I can ask all kinds of different questions. It would be so much easier
for you guys to do the commission of these batteries at the site. How do you have a spontaneous
is combustion. Sometimes it has to do with thermal runaways, right? Sometimes because
if there's a normal kind of battery, it's because there are dandrites growing at the
cathol and the anil and it touches each other.
And that's how you spark. You have that spontaneous combustion.
And for this thing to, for all the batteries to drive over 15 or 16 miles to come on over,
you are actually increasing the risk of having these batteries somehow shorted if there is still energy.
If you don't go ahead and crush it over there and neutralize it over there, you bring them
over there already, the structure is already pretty much all worn out from the degradations
from the heat and so on.
And if it's not having that spontaneous combustion while driving it over here as they short
as the cathode and the anode starts touching each other, you can have the potential to
go ahead and cause that spontaneous combustion.
So I urge you to have those batteries and it just neutralize it at that location rather
than bring it over here like what my colleagues are saying.
This is the St. Gabriel River.
This is where our water source is at.
I'm not sure if you're from here, but it's like this is where we drink our water, millions
of people.
Actually, my grandmother raised my aunt and my father in Doherty.
My grandmother raised my aunt and my father in Doherty.
I'm from the San Fernando Valley, but they grew up here.
Yeah, so you know how important it is, not just for Doherty,
but for millions of people downstream from this river.
We all use this river and having this risk
to bring them over here 15, 16 miles away,
I just don't find it to be reasonable.
So if you can reconsider, we would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
As you mentioned that you're aware with the area, you do know that this is one of the
most successful superfund sites that we've had, but there's been a lot of investment
and resources put into cleaning up the water that was left from the improper disposal of
contaminants 30 years ago and plus.
So you can understand folks' concern and the nervousness that we all feel having
to think, you know, 10, 15 years from now that if that potential, I mean, today we found
out that federal funding has been frozen. So the chance for grants, for APA grants for water
quality are not available. So there's a lot of nervousness. There's a lot of fears and I will
let Councilwoman Finley ask a question, but I just want to make sure I put that out there.
Thank you. And I'm really glad we're talking to the decision makers. So thank you for coming.
I've been over to the staging area three times now, and I've seen the trucks that this
is going to be hauled in.
I think they're stake bed trucks, they have like poles on the sides.
Every other hazardous material hauling I've ever seen, they are in enclosed containers.
Are these trucks even, are they rated to haul hazardous materials?
I don't understand. I don't know the specific rating that's required for this.
Well, let me be more clear. They are rated to haul these materials.
We are able to do that. We've done it safely throughout multiple fires.
Okay. Okay. And then my question is, I'm going to go back about four or five years. And I
happened to be back in Washington, D.C. for lobbying for regional government back there.
And I've always been a real fan of Grayson and Politanos. And the city congresswoman
Grace Napolitano. She is no longer our congresswoman, which I'm very sad to say, because I really
had a great deal of respect for her. The city manager called me when I was back there and
said, hey, just to let you know, they're going to be hauling 90, what was it, 900?
But I mean, a truckload of debris and infill from the Santa Fe Dam area, which is, I think,
part of the Army Corps of Engineers' responsibility is keeping the sediment that flows in there.
They had to go ahead and basically purge that area so there'd be a lake and it wasn't
just going to be a swamp.
So he said, and it's going to be going along Central Avenue and DeWardy Road,
which City of Hope is along DeWardy Road and Central Avenue is where two of our schools are in the community.
So he said, when you're back there, my city manager said, when you're back there with Grace,
just see if we can go ahead and get this rerouted.
But it doesn't make sense that it goes on our roads and Irwindale, which basically is
all businesses, why it shouldn't go there.
So I said to Grace, I explained the whole thing to her, and she said, Margaret, let
me make a phone call.
She made a phone call, and she had those 900 truckloads diverted so they went through
Irwindale.
Erwindel didn't care. I mean, again, they were businesses, so they didn't care. So my question is,
or actually I'll tell you what I've told a lot of people, and that is where there's a will,
there's a way. And where there isn't, there's an excuse. So I really believe that this is not
not the best place for this. And I believe that you can do something about this. So, again,
it's not a question. It's an ask from all these people. Again, I've been doing this
for 34 years. I've never seen this kind of response for anything. And people are absolutely
passionate about this. I hope you'll listen to us.
Thank you. Thank you, Tara. I'm going to take item 14b. Then we're going to have the public comment. I know you're going to still be here and you will take residents questions in the lounge as well if they don't get an opportunity to speak tonight.
Yes, we'll be here after after the meeting as well. Thank you, Tara.
I also want to recognize school board president James Finley. Dr. James Finley. Thank you for being here tonight. City manager. It's all yours.
Thank you Mayor and Council. First off I want to start off by saying we stand in solidarity
with the cities of Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre. I think we all in this room probably
know somebody or lots of somebodies that lost homes or impacted by this fire. This isn't
a case of NIMBYism. I'm not on social media for a very big reason but I hear that other
cities. Oh, the Nimbis. I don't want to my backyard. There are several articulable facts
that we can state as to why we should adopt a resolution opposing this site. Some of them
are first and foremost, you know, you can't overlook the fact that no one was notified.
There was no chance for public comment, no comment from you or our residents of any
of the cities. We all learned about it on the news. It's the worst way to ever learn
about something when you're in government. This is really a case of ask for forgiveness,
not permission, and that's what happened here. Second is we, meaning Azusa Irwindale and
the city of Gordy have spent a lot of time and effort. I've been in the city now, one
capacity or another now 25 years, working on that river bed, cleaning it up, the
encampments, trying to correct the fire hazards that are in there. I know LA
County fire for at least the last 10 years has been looking to do a brush
management plan. Part of it includes a controlled burn and that they've been
denied time and time again by the EPA. But now the site by the EPA is good
enough to have hazardous waste, I don't get that. The third is that this is a
watershed area. It supplies a lot of water to numerous cities. The county
recognizes this area as a significant ecological area, of which there are only
38 in the county. It's significant.
Fourth, when we had our 2016 fish fire, we
had debris flows after. We had to maintain all of that debris in the city of Duarte prior
to sending it out of the city. It had to dry. It had to be tested before it could leave.
So why does this not apply? I get this is an emergency. So is that.
And last but not
least, you know, there are two alternate sites. And I heard them both, Farnsworth
Park, Altenia Golf Course, both those areas are burned, they're unusable, but
they're right in the impacted area. So if you're going to have a sorting site, why
are those not being used? And why? Because you could say, well they belong to
the unincorporated county, but the county on January 22nd gave up their
lessee rights to this property over at Lario Park. So they could do the same
over there, which is right within the community of where they're burned. So
So based on that, and there are many other facts, it's staff's recommendation that council
approve and adopt Resolution Number 25-04, opposing the EPA designated collection and
processing center at Lario Park.
Are there any questions?
Before we take a motion, thank you, Mr. Villalobos.
I do know that members of the audience have turned in some cards for public comment,
and we're going to go ahead and get started with that.
I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of public comments tonight.
So if you feel that your question got answered or if you feel that someone said something
that you're going to say, feel free to abstain or say I agree, there will also be an opportunity
tomorrow at the town hall to address the EPA and Cal OES at 6 p.m. at the Performing
Arts Center.
We'll give everybody three minutes and city clerk, if you can go ahead.
First card is Bernie Moore followed by Teresa Bakowski.
Good evening, everyone.
For Brian Villalobos, thank you.
You answered my questions about the different locations.
That's wonderful.
I grew up belonging to the Calvary Chapel Church in DeWartie.
And one of our pastor's homes was lost in the fire.
I'm a retiree from LA County Sheriff's Department.
I spent 35 years there.
I've learned a lot.
the place that I work at designates calls to all of LA County from Catalina
Island to Mount Baldy every the desert everywhere you can think of our
emergency operation center is 10 seconds walk from where I worked everything and
anything that happens goes there from the president if if we were under
attack if he's here. Everything happens at my work. So I've made a lot of friends,
commanders, chiefs, the sheriff of LA County came to my home, sat there for a
long time. The pastor at our church wanted to just see if this house was
still there. I thought I could pull some strings and just make a phone call.
But I didn't because I realized so many people lost their homes and he shouldn't be special.
When he did go to see what was left, he wasn't there long.
It was a matter of seconds and he was in complete gear, his wife, and they were overcome
by fumes and all of a sudden they were like, whoa, we're going to pass out and they
had to leave.
They weren't there that long.
Time and history has showed us that when there's been problems, catastrophes like this, in
the years to come, their children end up with cancers and their grandchildren because they're
on property that was affected by this.
And if I'm not a scientist, I'm not a chemist, but there are other places where this can
take place. And even though people don't have those homes, they'd rather be on
property where they can rebuild. If something happens to our city, Irwindale,
Azusa, we're homeowners.
Our homes are going to go down in value because we
didn't take the time to properly see how this is going to affect us,
the
the woman from the EPA, I'm sure that she knows what she's doing, but I don't think
any of that came from L.A. County Sheriff. It might have, but I don't see that happening.
And I think a place in the desert, someplace where nobody goes. Maybe that's the place
to take all these things. And I appreciate you for asking the questions that you did
to the young lady standing here. Thank you.
Thank you so much, City Clerk.
If I can have, as I call your name, have the speakers come up and form a line just for the sake of time, please.
Next card we have is for Teresa Bakowski, followed by Beth Fuller and William Murphy.
Hello, my name is Teresa Bakowski, and I live at 3303 Fish Canyon in Duarte, California.
I'm about a half mile from the Lario site. And yes, Mrs. Finley, I have been down there.
I saw them putting it up on Saturday morning.
I have several concerns having lived there for 38 years now, and groundwater downstream is one of them.
I represent Adventist Health Emergency Planning in Manabello, which is downstream from here.
And that is one of our concerns about the water that comes from the dams up in the mountains.
Okay, the other thing is I have strong concerns about security on site.
having lived there for so many years, how are we going to secure that site because
when I drive up in Kano and someone dropped something off on the sidewalk or
on the side of the street on the Azusa side, I can blink and it's disappeared. So
I want to know how we're securing this stuff because this stuff will always be
available to the purchase and the loss and to will be carried to other places that
we don't know where they're going. I've lived on this my father-in-law lived on
the Santa Ana River we had the same problem we lost tons of things I mean
anything that was out there outside would be lost within a half hour and we
We know that there were trucks driving by picking that stuff up.
I've actually observed it.
So that is a behavior that can occur on that river, and that's one of my concerns.
The other concern is that it's a Pacific flyway, and one of the things about a Pacific
flyway is that where they're going to start having migrations, I get ducks in my backyard
pool.
They fly over the river and there are concerns about them picking up contamination.
So that's a concern that I have.
And the fire hazard, she did address that, but the fires, we do have fires on that river frequently
from those that decide to have some time on the river, whatever they choose to do.
So warming fires probably and cooking fires are one of the sources of small fires there.
So I have concerns about that that leads back into the security issue.
I'll let it go at that, but theft in fire and security and Pacific Flyway and groundwater downstream.
stream. These are all my concerns. Thank you. Thank you.
Good evening. Beth Fuller,
resident of Duarte. First and foremost, I'd like to thank our city council for taking action
once you are made aware that the county, the EPA and FEMA were creating a hazardous situation
for our community. As a resident of Duarte, I have the utmost empathy and compassion for
residents in Alcadena and Pasadena and Sierra Madre. Just like many others, I have friends
who have lost homes. I do not believe for one minute that our county supervisors were
unaware of the plans of the EPA and FEMA and had developed that they had developed
a plan to transport and sort toxic materials from the Eaton fire. How were the EPA and
FEMA even aware of that obscure piece of property known as the Lario Staging Area 1500 feet from
homes on Incanto Parkway their backyards back right up to that street and 500 feet if that to
the riverbed if
someone I believe someone in the Parks and Recreation Department because they
see that property offered it up said here we have a spot for you because they just like
you guys already addressed they think that they're just going to pull one over on us and
that we're going to sit back and just take it and allow them to do this to our city.
I am sure I am sure that if you and the councils of Azusa Irwindale and Baldwin Park
had been consulted, which is really a slap in the face that you weren't, a much
more logical plan would have been developed, reducing the potential harm
to tens of thousands of residents, including the cities of Arcadia and
Monrovia, as toxic materials are driven across 15 miles of residential
streets. Toxic materials from the Palisades fire are being sorted on much
smaller parcels, I don't know how many homes in the Palisades have been destroyed, but
I would say it's probably equitable,
on unused property on PCH and Topanga Canyon. Now if
you've ever been there and they had video aerial pictures of the space on PCH and Topanga
today, it's a much smaller parcel. Why was that not an option in the Altadena area?
area. That area is already contaminated. Why contaminate larger areas? This plan truly
uses no logic. FEMA and EPA and the county need to realize we are not just going to accept
their actions and their lack of consideration of our community. This is not over. And
the EPA, I filed a complaint many years ago regarding the homeless people dropping feces
and urine in our riverbed. And you know what I was told? We can't really do anything
about it. Yeah, we know it's an issue. That's unacceptable. Thank you.
Next speaker, William
Murphy, followed by Ryan Serrano and Lucia Atencio.
Thank you, Mayor and council members.
I have two main concerns. Margaret, you addressed it with the streets. I know that the government's
a big machine. I know once it gets rolling, it's hard to put the brakes on it. So my
My concern is for the residents of Doherty
and all the surrounding communities.
And I would be very interested in establishing
some type of street use that eliminates going
through our town.
If they can come in on Irwindale,
however they have to do that,
because I'm pretty sure they're not gonna stop
their progress.
The other concern is,
is this gonna be designated as a hazardous site?
Because anybody that sells their property in Doherty now
is gonna have to list that.
It's gonna have to be declared
that you live within so many miles of a hazardous land,
hazardous site.
And I'm very concerned about that.
So I don't know if there's any kind of stipulation
that the EPA can do,
or some way that they can do their process and procedures
so that it eliminates that area being established
as a hazardous waste site.
That's it, thank you.
Mayor, if I can, just real quick,
not because we're gonna sit here and answer all questions,
but I do did want to point out that in working with Eric Knowl who is the site supervisor
Over there for the EPA. They are going to transport on the 210 state instead of taking surface streets
That's supposed to start occurring tomorrow small victory. Obviously the bigger victory is not having it at that site
Yeah, I don't know we don't we don't they they have yet to give us any routes even what surface streets
But that was the insurance that at least it would be the 210 so I don't know what route or what the off-ramp is
Mr. Savannah. Thank you, sir
Good evening. Mr. Mayor City Council city staff and all those in attendance to tonight
My name is Ryan Serrano, and I serve as Deputy District Director with the office. Excuse me of Supervisor Hilda Solis
And I'm here tonight to provide a statement on behalf of chair pro temp and
Supervisor to the first district Supervisor Solis the statement begins
I am deeply concerned by the Environmental Protection Agency and their decision to designate
Lario Park as a collection and processing site for hazardous materials.
Left behind by the Eaton fire, including lithium ion electric vehicle batteries, these
materials pose significant environmental and health risks, especially in residential areas.
The EPA as a federal agency holds authority over this matter and its actions supersede
local jurisdiction given the projects takes place on federal land. While I
recognize the importance of addressing the aftermath of the fire and
ensuring proper disposal of hazardous waste, this federal project has not
included consultation or consideration of the local communities that will be
directly affected. The potential risk associated in the hazardous materials
particularly lithium electric vehicle batteries which are highly
flammable impose environmental contamination risks and are a matter
of significant concern, the removal of these materials should not come at the cost of creating
a toxic environment for communities already disproportionately impacted by pollution.
To that end, my office has joined a site visit at Lario Park with Congressman Gil Cisneros
and local leaders to raise critical questions directly with EPA representatives.
As we continue to learn more about the operations plans, I urge our federal agencies
to keep constituents well informed and to mitigate these impacts on our communities.
Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Lucia Atencio. I'm a resident in Fish Canyon in Duarte here.
And I don't think that Tara answered the question about the Irwindale Speedway.
Did she answer that question about looking into that?
I want to know why that wasn't looked at as an option because that
That does seem like a good, other than the Altadena area, the parks over there.
And then that area, the Laurier Park is a highly windy area.
Between the two mountains, the Azusa Canyon and the Fish Canyon Mountain, I want to know
how does the EPA monitor the air in a windy corridor?
By the time the contaminant is in the air and sets off alerts if it does, the contaminant
is gone and then it's too late, a little too late, and I'm just wondering what the protocol
on that is.
And if the protocol was not followed to notify the surrounding cities in the first place,
how can we be confident that they're going to follow protocol when they are handling
these contaminants, these hazardous materials?
They've already lost their credibility as far as I'm concerned.
And I think that, yes, that eat and fire should be your number one priority, clean up, yes,
it should be, but not at expense of the other people of us here in Duarte and the surrounding
communities.
And that's all I have.
Thank you.
Next speaker is Lucia Atencio, followed by Leticia Martinez and David Ranic.
So Leticia Martinez.
Well,
good evening to all. I speak Spanish. So, I want to know why they chose the middle
of the city, in the middle of so many cities to put their garbage.
Before they are putting
Her question is why was this location chosen to be put between three cities?
Oh, we have a translator.
Did you want to?
I'm sorry, I just got here.
Oh, perfect.
She just wanted to know why was this location picked to be put in between three cities.
If the residents are nervous and scared at this moment before the materials are even here.
How do you think the residents will feel if years from now there are any diseases or effects from the material that was disposed
or process for giving me in this area.
Thank you.
Hi, Mr. Mayor, Council members.
My name is David Ronk and I live at 617 Mel Canyon Road
right across Mel Canyon from Encanto Park,
very close to the Lario Canyon area.
My concern is mostly why they put this site
right next to a river
where people get their drinking water.
And I also had a concern with one of the contaminants that wasn't listed as being moved but asbestos
Many of the houses up and out the Dina were built in the 20s. I had a friend who lost one the houses were full of asbestos
And the trucks just driving through the area are going to pick that up, they're going to
carry it with them, they're going to carry it on their wheels, they're going to bring
it into the Lario Canyon area and that asbestos as we're just getting into our rainy season
is going to end up in our river and it's going to end up in our drinking water.
So even though they're not actively picking that up, it's, I talked to somebody just
on Sunday, who is one of the people who goes in and decontaminates houses with asbestos.
And he was telling me that just from the fire, I should be taking my shoes off and watering
down my lawn just to get rid of the asbestos that blew over on the winds without having
somebody driving it in and putting it into our water supply.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next speaker is John, followed by Mary Somerlott and Andrea Herrera.
Good evening. Thank you very much.
I live in the Doherty.
I heard Ms. Tara mention the word emergency a number of times.
It seems to me that when you have an emergency, you have the license to act as an emergency.
but there apparently is something called the emergency planning community
right to know act and apparently the community has the right to know when
there's emergency planning I don't know if the attorneys know about this act I
don't know if this is a violation of the act I don't know if you know about
the Act, but it's very self-evident, emergency, planning, community, right-to-know Act. That's
all I can tell you. Thank you.
I'm Mary Summerlott. I live very close to the site. I'm on the golf course area, Rancho
I find it ironic that it should be called the
protection agency because I sure don't
feel that we are being protected,
not being protected by bringing untold thousands of
tons of hazardous waste to our community and to the shores of the San Gabriel River.
What could possibly go wrong?
The residents of Duarte are horrified that this situation has been inflicted upon us,
and it must be stopped.
We are scared.
Please, please stop it.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Andrea Herrera followed by Melanie Pitts and James Finley.
Hello.
I'm Andrea Herrera.
I'm a resident of Duarte.
already have a nine-month-old baby and a five-year-old that currently attends Royal Oaks.
We have the site that is really close within a mile to a mile and a half of three of our
schools, so concerns for children.
I also heard, it was said right now, that there will not be tons of materials.
So if it's not tons of materials, how come they cannot be kept there?
So, it seems that you don't need that much space if you said it's definitely not tons.
Also as per head of the LA EPA office, it says that stage one will take two to three
months.
This was via Zoom meeting.
So definitely not 30 days and that was head of the LA EPA office.
You also said that you needed an area with no wind.
Somebody brought up a great point.
It's a canyon and canyons have wind, that's what they're known for.
So definitely not a great place to do it.
You also said that ashes are not going to be brought here, so our concern would be like,
I don't know much about fires.
But how is it that a pesticide bottle that burned and now it's ashes not going to be brought
here as ashes?
So if those need to be transported because I've also been in Altadena, I have many friends
that are in Altadena.
My heart goes out.
I've been volunteering in Altadena.
So bringing that here as ashes are going to be volatile,
they're going to be spread everywhere.
And if they're going to be brought through the back streets,
they're going to be crossing schools,
they're going to be crossing parks,
they're going to be crossing homes
for at least two to three months, as it was said.
So are we going to be provided with filters?
Are we going to be provided with masks?
Like what's going to happen at our schools
for our children, no outdoor play?
Like what's going to happen also from the city
and from the school board, what's going to happen to our schools that are around that area,
when winds do pick up.
So we're told not even to blow our leaves.
Ellie County said don't blow our leaves.
But here we are with those beds, and as you said, they were not with the blue bins
with lids.
They were not completely sealed.
So we're having these ashes just flying around when they told us we cannot be even
blowing our yards.
So how come we're spreading this with truckloads because that's what my understanding is even if it's not tons
It's gonna be a certain amount of
Liquids that were burned and now you need to pick those up and bring them over here to be sorted again
So this needs to be done on site and I see that you see knows like, you know, I wish it
Yeah, so so so that's what you know, like are understood
This is where my mind of somebody who doesn't know it's going so it's going to like I cannot let my kids play on
My backyard because I live right up on Huntington and now all of this is gonna be
Blowing 24 seven to be able to meet that that line of the two to three months
Okay
Thank you
For future comments folks if you can please address them to us on the council
Tomorrow's town hall you can address your questions directly to the EPA. No, yes, but just for future and Tara
The the backwards was brought up again
Can you confirm that the 210 freeway will be utilized since you are the decision maker on that?
Okay go ahead. Hi and my voice might be a little shaky because I feel so
passionate about this like the last speaker I have a small child who loves
in Canto Park and loves to play outside and we live off Huntington and I feel
like I'm not gonna be able to have him drink water or even go outside because
of this like most of us I know several families who lost everything and both
eaten in Palisades fires actually, and what has happened is horrible. But I want to turn
to the Lario Park plan. It's frankly negligent that no one in this room knew a single thing
about this until we heard about it on the NBC4 report. My educational background is
public health. I have 15 years experience in the public health industry. And those
of us in public health know that the worst atrocities occur when the public is kept
in the dark. My main concerns are two-fold. Number one, the water. We need continuous monitoring
of the water throughout the whole process, not just the beginning and the end, because
things could have, you know, floated downstream by then. We need continuous monitoring throughout
the process. I know there's a lot of media here today. If I could stress one thing
to LA County, it's that some aspect of your water comes from the San Gabriel River,
which is in feet. We're not talking miles, we're talking feet of these
activities. The second piece is the air. Some of the biggest frustration voiced by
those in Altadena has been that the AQI does not adequately monitor asbestos
in lead and it actually takes some really advanced monitoring that's
going on. The city of Pasadena is working with Caltech to monitor this
ongoing. So we need that level of monitoring because I cannot trust the AQI. I have not
been trusting the AQI the last month. I have not gone outside without a mask because of
it. And then finally, I just want to address a comment that was made on the NBC4 story
that EPA crews don't want to do any of this type of activity out there in the
middle of the community. Duarte, Azusa, Irwindale, our neighbors are unhoused in
riverbed we are all a community this is literally happening in the middle of our community um and
our health our physical and mental health matters I've yet to hear a single reason
shared today of why the already burned down areas in Altadena cannot be used um for this
activity there's literally been no response to that so thank you thank you
next speaker is
James Finley, followed by Terry Browning.
Good evening, Council.
My name is James Finley.
I do live over in the Fish Canyon area.
I was there for the fish fire several years ago,
and then the floods subsequently that happened afterwards.
And as was pointed out by Mr. Villalobos,
that material all had to stay in our neighborhood
until it was tested and found safe
before it was taken somewhere else.
And so I really think that that should be the model
that should be followed.
I also am a member of the school board president,
the school board here in Duarte.
And I would really like to echo what that mother,
the two mothers before me said.
There is very real concern among our families
about what is happening.
And it is if anyone who's ever ridden their bike
up the Lario Trail knows about that headwind that you're going to go into. There is always
wind there. Always. And having that material blown around our city is an inevitability.
These fires in Eaton Canyon happened 15 miles away. Everybody on Wednesday morning woke up
with ash on their car. It is not going to stay there. And as has been brought up, we
have, you know, a very important water source right there next to that site. And one question
that I really would like to get to wrap my head around, I think everyone would, if
it is not safe for it to be there, why is it safe for it to be here? And I'd really
like that answer. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Finley. Do you have any more cards Ms. Juarez?
Thank you.
Hello my name is Terry Browning and I live on Las Lomas Road above Royal Oaks Park.
And my biggest concern was with the testing, the testing that's going to be done once
once, or has been done once at the start of this activity and will be done once again
at the end.
My concern is that the test is faulty because we've all been getting those emergency alerts
with the air quality.
And so the tests that they're getting are going to be tests that have all these particles
in the air that are coming from the fire and who knows what.
And so when they do the test again at the end of the 30 days, those particulates are still going to be in the air.
It's going to be that same faulty test.
So how are they going to ensure that our air quality is good and that those tests are valid when they leave
and they say that they're leaving it like they found it?
And that's it.
Thank you.
I want to voice my appreciation for you. You took this very seriously. You acted upon it
right away. I was a concerned citizen that sent some texts. I was one of the folks that
was speaking on Facebook. I don't know, next door, but I do know about it. And so I want
to make sure that you are honored and we come here and we say thank you because a lot of
this reaction,
a lot of the reaction and the consequence of it is because of your work
and so I'm very grateful about it. What I would like to ask from you is to please
continue with
the educated questions for the EPA.
I was listening to some of the
questions and I was flabbergasted by some of the responses.
You see the transportation of those hazardous materials is the EPA who says how to do that.
Seal containers.
You can go look in there right now.
Go to the EPA site.
It actually spells out how to transport asbestos.
It says how to do it and how not to do it.
It references to CIFRA.
Okay?
The actual federal law on how you're supposed to do it.
If you want to reference more than that, then go to the California CHP website, which also
tells you all that.
It's all there.
I was flabbergasted to hear officials not really be able to answer that.
And perhaps the question may not have made sense at the moment, and so I want to ask
you to please press them on that because if we're seeing state-bed trucks
Transporting asbestos laden material. Okay. On an open canvas bag. There's a problem.
If we're dumping this material, you guys can go look at it, on dirt that we put a tarp on the floor.
I don't know how that's supposed to stop leakage. A tarp.
The same as we can go to Home Depot, all right?
That's what's there.
Go see it.
It's not being made up.
It's there, okay?
So please continue to press that.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Council, thanks.
My name is Travis Patterson.
It's going to be hard for me to even talk because I'm so upset.
I live probably in one of the closest houses to the site, about 1,500 feet.
And I'm extremely concerned for my family and my children.
We don't even think we're going to be able to stay.
Unfortunately, based on what's happened this evening, I think the EPA has very little credibility.
And I honestly, with all due respect, I don't believe that they are our ally or our friend in this.
I believe that they went behind our back and set this up on purpose so that we
wouldn't have a chance to fight back against it and try to stop it.
I think
they gave some very concerning answers. Mr. King said will debris from the
other fire be brought here and the answer was there's another site for for that
debris. It was a yes or no question and you were not given a yes or no answer. So
was that a workaround answer? Was that trying to give us an answer without
giving us an answer? Will that material be here? It's a yes or no question. Is
coming over here or not? The answer was it's going, we have other sites.
The one
month thing, I don't believe that for a second, and I worry that as soon as they
say one month, phase one, what's going to be done with the site next? What will
they try to exploit that land for next? What's coming after this even when
they're done with phase one? They say, well we already got a site here, it's
already set up how you know let's just bring this here too you know we have
not been forthright with us and I implore you the council in the city to do
everything in our power to stop this immediately I'm hoping I
implore the the
lawyers and the city itself to sue to stop an injunction and let let let
Let residents know what lawyers we can contact to file class action when our property values
are destroyed and we have to mark our properties as potentially contaminated properties and
who we call when we start to have, when we can start to develop respiratory illnesses
because I work in the private sector and I know that there's a due process which
was not followed here and I have there's no doubt in my mind that they are not
gonna be able to contain it thank you thank you Travis I
I want to make sure
we give everybody the opportunity to speak that wants to speak so just for
the for time we're gonna do two minutes we have more cards I have one more card
mayor okay we do we'll do three minutes after that we'll go down to two minutes
and I remind residents that there is a town hall tomorrow speaker is Joel
Gregor?
Thank you for, you know, being here and giving us all the information. My name
is Joel Rigor. I moved here two years ago. We bought our house on Highland Avenue. So
I just feel like I have to talk because I used to work with asbestos for seven years
and it's guaranteed that asbestos is in the air, right? And when I did asbestos,
is we would have to contain the area.
And I worked in fire zones where you have to contain it.
It has to be bagged, triple-bagged, double-bagged.
And then it's loaded into a container or a truck
that's also bagged and has plastic in it.
So if they're saying that they're bringing that over here,
it's not in a sealed container.
So on the way here, it's giving to everyone.
So it's guaranteed that there's gonna be a species
here in the air and on the ground
because it's not being properly sealed and that's basically my main concern and
why I had to talk. Thank you sir.
Two minutes. Doris Anderson.
Rosalba Breseda a resident
from Irwindill and Miss Tara I don't believe you're the one that makes the
final decision. I believe there's someone else behind all this and
And I brought these waters just to show that maybe this might be some of the water that's
going to be the last good water because those toxics are very close to all of us.
And there was a comment on the news that said, we can't take it to the desert because
the animals might get hurt.
What are we?
Mr. Mayor, what are we?
You know, I feel that right this moment, if all the mayors of the city surrounding affected,
Irwindale, Baldwin Park, Azusa, Duarte, and I believe Arcadia, should get together and
send those talks back, send them right back, just like they brought them in, with no permits
permits because they do need permits to bring those trucks in. Send them right back because
what do they want? Now, all of us dying instead of burning, now we're all going to die with
toxins and stuff. Please. And I believe we need more representatives from the EPA and
FEMA so they could answer all these questions. Ms. Tara, it was a lot of questions for
you. I commend you for being here and standing here and taking it from all of us, but there's
somebody else besides you that decided to bring them to this area. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next speaker is Doris Anderson, followed by Tina Ermickson, and looks like
Joe Chapjin.
Good evening, Tara. First of all, I want to thank you very much for
coming out and trying to answer the questions, quite to answer the questions.
However, based upon the amount of people who are here, you know that this community does
not want this situation.
Sometimes it's hard to say, I made a mistake, or we made a mistake.
I think that you should communicate to your supervisors that they have made a
mistake and that they should keep this situation in the Al Tadena area. I thank
you. Oh Tara, thank you because you are writing the notes down. Excellent. So go
back and tell them that you have a community that is very very upset and we
shall remember this when it comes time to vote. Thank you.
Thank the city council for letting us know.
Thank you Doris. You are Nura Uno.
Hi my name is Tina Irmakasen and I'm a homeowner here in
And I want to say thank you to the council for taking up your regular meeting to address
this very important issue.
I just want to point out that this meeting and the comments from the EPA created more
confusion for me because I heard the word storage and I heard the word sorting.
And then not from the EPA, I heard processing.
So what exactly is going on on that site?
Is it storage and sorting?
Is it just storage of materials that are already sealed and in U.S. DOT approved trucks?
What is the situation?
from the people who talked about the asbestos and the trucks coming with all of the debris,
will the trucks be cleaned before they leave Altadena and travel through six different municipalities?
What is that situation?
So I think from the beginning we need to know what is the difference between storage and sorting.
What is processing?
Is that going to happen here?
I mean, we don't even know the basic gist of it.
Thank you.
Ms. Juarez?
The next speaker is on her way up.
Okay, thank you.
And that would be followed by,
this speaker would be followed by Neil Furukawa.
Good evening.
My name is Zoe Chapchin,
and forgive me, my heart's already racing
and I don't like getting up and speaking in front of people.
I agree with everything everybody is saying, a thousand percent.
I'm very sympathetic especially to these young families who have kids at Royal Oaks in Valley
View.
I worked at Valley View for 25 years and we have a lot of babies in the community and
it does affect them.
I'm not going to repeat what anybody says other than do not allow it here at all.
Our son has been the first responder with the gas company and eaten since day one and they were told you have to wear a mask, you have to wear a mask.
Because everything there is just as dangerous as 9-11. And I don't know how true that is, but we all know what happened to people first responders in 9-11 months after, years after, fire department, police officers, all of them,
lung cancer, this and that. So we don't want that in our community here. I know
this, again, I've been here for 35 years and there's been a lot ups and downs in
this community and we've always pulled through, we've always done whatever we
have to do but this has to stop. There's no negotiating what they're
going to do, what they're not going to do, they're just not going to bring
it here. Please, these people are very concerned and we don't want it in our
community. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Yeah, this is for Tara basically before
tomorrow's mail. Could you please, please, I'm sorry. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, basically,
we'll be here, Neil. Oh, oh, for you. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, my question is, the
fellow over here mentioned it, and it's a really good question. Our answer is
scrolls canyon closed down. It's a landfill. It was actually built for trash. Why don't
they take it over there if they would have took it to scrolls canyon which is a lot
closer than Duarte. It's on the other side of Pasadena and you could make that nobody
would have even cared about it because it's a landfill. I don't know if you understand
what I'm saying but yeah you might want to look into it. Skulls, yeah. It's canyon.
opinion, I would suggest why wasn't that used? And there's still time to move everything
up there. And I don't think there's anything built up there either.
Okay.
Thank you, Neil.
Is that the conclusion of the public comment?
I have no further questions.
Okay.
Is there anybody else who did not turn in the corner who would like to speak? Okay.
My name is Sergio Campos and I live in Duarte. I've been here about 20 years.
One simple question. How do we stop this? That's it.
It's all I want to know. How do we stop this? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. We got the presentation.
We got a public comment. We have staff's recommendation, which is to consider adopting this resolution
where we oppose the EPA's designated collection and processing center at Ladiopark. Motion
to approve. We have a motion for Mayor Pro Tem. Second. A second from Councillor Finley.
and we're going to conduct a roll call at this time.
Hold on, before we do that, I think the last gentleman brought up a very salient question.
What are we going to do?
And I know it was almost more of a rhetorical question because we really can't take any action right now,
because the city attorney is going to go ahead and be all
It's all over me. But can we do some sort of injunction, a temporary injunction? I know we're
probably going to have to approach this legally. And again, you don't necessarily have to answer
this now, but I think we've seen that there are a lot of people that are very passionate
about this. So take it away, Ty.
Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Finley. Yes, so
there are legal remedies that the City Council may choose to pursue. That would
be something that we would like to, if that is the path that the City Council
so directs, would be placed on the agenda for a closed session as that's a
potential litigation matter. And in the meantime, we would be working
tirelessly to obtain as much information as possible from the EPA
and tell OSHA regarding this matter.
Thank you.
We have a motion and a second
to formally oppose this site.
We'll do a roll call now.
Council member Keldron.
Aye.
Council member Lewis.
Aye.
Council member Kang.
Absolutely yes.
Council member Finley.
Yes.
Mayor Pro Tem-Martin Del Campo.
Yes.
Mayor Garcia.
I feel like David and Goliath,
but yes. Motion carries.
We're going to continue now folks with item nine
announcement of upcoming community events we have Joana Ji from the Dory
Library I do want to invite everybody again to the town hall to a town hall
tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center and thank you again for the
other members of the EPA who are here today to to discuss and give a
presentation, they are going to be in the lounge. There is Spanish translation available
if anybody has further questions that do not get answered tonight. Item 9,
Jo energy from the Dory Library.
Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, City Council. Just wanted to
let everyone know that the library is still closed for renovations. We did paint the exterior,
so as you pass right by, you can see the difference. It is not hidden anymore,
and book drops are still open. If you have any questions, please let me know. We do pick
up our books every day almost almost every day and so we're very diligent in
checking those in. Thank you. Any questions?
Thank you Joanna. Up next we have
assistant to the city manager Andres Vanghel.
Good evening honorable mayor
city council. Just a couple events here. The first one senator Susan Rubio will
be hosting a town hall regarding Lario Park tomorrow at the PAC Center starting
at 6 p.m. local mayors the US EPA and Cal EPA will be in attendance to
provide updates regarding Lauderdale Park followed by a Q&A session where residents can
participate. It's time to celebrate the year of the snake with Duarte at the Lunar New
Year celebration on Saturday, February 8th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Duarte Civic
Center. Enjoy cultural dancers, delicious food, arts and crafts, activities and live
performances. And finally, the city is seeking volunteers from our local community
to participate in the year's 2025 homeless counts happening on Wednesday.
I'll have
to confirm the date. I believe it's February 19th at 8 p.m. The meeting point for this
year's counts will be at the Duarte Senior Center. To sign up, please visit daycountswillu.org.
All into any questions? Any questions? Thank you so much, Andres. Appreciate it. Thank
you. Are there any members of the audience wishing to announce upcoming events?
Seeing
Seeing none, we're gonna continue now with item 10,
oral communications items, not on this agenda.
If you wish to speak on a matter
that is not on this agenda, you may do so at this time.
Each member of the public will have a total
of two minutes to speak.
The council cannot discuss or take action.
The matter is not on the agenda for this meeting.
Ms. Juarez, do we have any cards?
No cards, Mayor.
Okay, anybody?
Seeing none,
we're now at Consent Calendar.
Is there a what our colleagues like to pull anything from yeah, I'd like to pull I'd like to pull seven please excuse me Jay
We are pulling item Jay
Anybody else
Okay
So let's discuss Jay before okay, the only thing I want to take it all together
That's fine. The only thing I wanted to talk about was
Who already did win in court?
back in 1987, when the Rotary Club in California, in Duarte, California, 10 years earlier,
went ahead and said, we're going to admit women and the Rotary International through Rotary,
the Duarte Rotary Club out, and they were the ex-Rotary Club of Duarte.
So at that point, some attorneys from Monrovia and DeWarty picked it up and said we'll do it for pro bono.
Well, 10 years later the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the Little DeWarty Club,
and they have now been called the mouse that roared because they were able to get not just women in Rotary Club,
but Kiwanis, Lions, all of the service clubs.
So, Wartie has had a history back then of winning in court, so who knows what we can
do these days.
Anyway, that's what I just wanted to say.
And that will be, we will be having this women in rotary event, and it will be on
March 7th, it will be at the Performing Arts Center, and I appreciate the support
from the city on something like this.
it's going to be just kind of in kind support.
Nevertheless, it will be important for getting as many people there as possible to this event
to show that, you know what, DeWarty can win and win big.
Thank you, Council Member Filney.
We discussed, Jay, so is there a motion to approve consent as a whole?
Move approval.
A second.
I second.
Got a motion and a second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries.
Up next we have public hearing, Assembly Bill 2561, and the presenter for that is Ms. Peterson.
Thank you, Mayor and City Council. In September, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2561 into law.
It created a new obligation for public agencies to publicly address the status of their vacancies.
AB 2561 requires that public agencies present the status of their vacancies in a public hearing
before their governing board at least once per fiscal year.
We've decided that this would be timely
when we're preparing for the mid-year
coming to the council.
As part of the approval of our 24-25 budget,
the city council approved 45
and three-quarter full-time positions.
This was an increase of one full-time position
from the prior year.
Currently, there's only one vacancy.
Well, I wrote that in the staff report last week.
At the time I wrote it, that was true.
We actually just got an announcement last week that one of our animal control officers
will be leaving us and going out of the area.
So now we do have two vacant positions.
The real purpose of AB 2561 was to ensure that cities are not holding on to vacant
positions in order to show savings or in order to have cushions within your budget.
Well, I can assure you that with the one vacancy in Parks and Recreation, the manager
position, that was advertised January 22nd, and we are accepting those applications until
February 21st, and we are very excited to hopefully fill that position.
And our animal control officer position, who just resigned last week, actually gave
a two-week notice, well, we've already posted it on our website.
And we will be accepting applications for that position for the next 30 days, those
close on February 23rd.
So I am reporting out that we currently have two opportunities for people to apply for
the City of DeWarty.
We are not one of those cities that can afford to have vacant positions.
As you know, we operate a pretty mean, lean fighting machine, and we need every
person and every position filled.
So this report is recommending that the City Council just receive and file.
There's no fiscal impact and I'll be coming to you once a year to give you this report.
That concludes it unless there's any questions.
Receive and file.
This is a public hearing.
So we're going to open public hearing.
Seeing nobody rush to the podium at this time.
Is there a motion to close the public hearing?
So moved.
Second, motion and a second all in favor?
Aye.
Nice.
No approval.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Ms. Peterson, do you have to, for the dog, animal control, you got to deal with dogs?
Aye, we know where this is going.
Yes, you do have to deal with dogs.
So I'm not sure you would be qualified.
I'm not qualified, ma'am.
Your parking spot will be at the dog park.
We're now moving to business items, 14A request
for direction regarding the voter approved measure QQ.
And we have assistance to the city manager again,
Andres Angel presenting this item.
Thank you again and good evening.
Just for a really quick bit of background.
As you all know, the certification of elections
took place on December 10th of last year.
Sorry, Mr. Angel.
And do you mind getting that microphone just a little closer to you?
Yeah, can you hear me?
Our speakers are on their way.
Our back speakers.
No worries.
So there we go.
There you go.
I love it.
Yeah.
The certification of elections took place on December 10th, which included the passage
of measure QQ.
And just a quick reminder, measure QQ authorizes the city council to adopt an ordinance to
permit no more than two storefront cannabis dispensaries and tax cannabis businesses
up to 10%.
Now, staff is therefore requesting direction from council to either move forward with the process of adopting an ordinance, conduct more research, or not move forward with adopting the ordinance.
For reference, Measure KQ passed by a 52-248 simple majority vote, and included in your staff report is also a voter breakdown by district. So this concludes staff's presentation.
I have a quick question on that. Is there an option to possibly delay any decision or
direction mainly because I don't want us to spend a ton of money researching something
that's going to even cost more money for the city when we have a lot of ongoing projects
and we have a lot of things pending where we're waiting to hear back on final budgets,
final amounts, and you know we're paying a lot of these experts and specialists to
research things for us, which is great. I want that for this as well. I just don't
know that we should be spending our money on that right now. That's my
decision. I think there's a possibility to maybe do the research in-house and not
have to get consultants on Mr. Villalobos. That is correct, Mayor. If we were to
move forward with an ordinance and zoning, I have talked to directors
Brasita and Hensley. We feel confident we could handle that in-house and any
research in-house without the aid of a consultant or paying for any more
consultants so or and you discussed postponing it you can't always push
this back to another meeting and we can bring it back for discussion at a
different time. Mayor, I agree with Tara and that is you know what we got a lot
on our plates right now yeah and I think we need to concentrate on this
for the time being.
So that would be my motion is to table this
until a time in the future, but let's-
And I second that.
Let's take care of our residents first.
Council Member King.
I completely agree.
Is there a statute of limitation on this?
I mean, no, no, right?
Let's table it.
I think we have a motion from Council Member Finley
to bring this back.
A second from Council Member Lewis.
We'll do a roll call real quick.
Council Member Keldron.
Aye.
Okay.
Council member Lewis.
Aye.
Council member Kang.
Yes.
Council member Finley.
Yes.
Mayor Pro Tem Martindale Campo.
Yes.
Mayor Garcia.
Yes.
Motion carries.
I do want to recognize Carla Cardenas representative
from Senator Susan Rubio who's in attendance tonight.
Thank you so much.
Sorry I missed you earlier.
Great, thank you.
Thank you so much, Andres.
Item 15, continuation of oral communications.
Do we have any public comment?
No cards, Mayor.
anybody like to speak at this time come on up you have three minutes I came
because of the e-invier and I'm happy with how everyone presented so I'm not
gonna be talking about that I wanted to talk about the cannabis I don't think
we should have one in Doherty I think it would be a really bad mistake to have
one in Doherty I've been raised here I went to elementary school and high
school here I actually went to high school with the mayor so I know that
you know, we have a lot of youth here and some of them are in different positions. Some of them
are really focused on their education. Some of them are really focused on other things. I mean,
you guys have seen the graffiti. Not only is it going to impact the youth that we have here
in Doherty, but it's also going to bring a lot of people here. And if you've ever been to a
cannabis dispensary, it's littered with trash. It is not a desirable, it's a homeless hangout.
I don't think that it's a good idea to bring that to our city, especially with all
the movement that's been made to make it such a family friendly all our beautiful events that we
have and you know the upgrades we keep doing this would be a major downgrade to the city. So I just
wanted to put that out there.
Thank you. Go Falcons. Go Falcons. Falcons all the way.
I just want to tell you that present and the other thing is that you look so gorgeous in
the screen in that conference room. All of you. I'm serious. I'm not kidding, especially
this side. No, I'm serious. Thanks. Bye. It's it's the new cameras that we just
saw. What is he saying? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pars. What
anybody else like to speak at this time?
Barbie Bills Mahouten and 865 Cinnamon Lane
Duarte. I'm just here to say thank you. I'm on my 41st year. I've been
serving since 1984. And I will serve through the end of February and then resign. But don't
feel like you can't call me or ask anything that's historical. I'm happy to help. But
thank you for the opportunity to serve.
Barbie, 41 years.
That is huge, you know, to volunteer your time for that long and
and contribute to the betterment of this community
in the Parks and Rec Commission.
I hate to see you go, because you're a great asset.
But please also call us if there's anything
that we can do for you.
I hope to see you this Friday.
Good, good.
Thank you so much, Barbie.
Appreciate it.
Moving on now, item 16.
Items from the city council, housing authority,
violence authority.
Mr. Ruseida.
Nothing to report.
Mr. Hensley.
Mr. Enriquez.
Ms. Peterson.
I did want to share with you that before I came to the meeting, I ran over to Sushi Fire real quick
to grab a bite and to get my laptop from my husband.
So I left it at home.
But while I was there, I had two different families approach me,
overheard me talking, the meeting might be late,
and said, I want you to know I'd like to thank you
for what the city does and that we trust
you're gonna do the right thing.
We've been watching the news.
Good to hear that there's gonna be a meeting
at the councils on top of it.
And in not so many words,
they were letting us know that they weren't coming.
But a lot of the times I think we all know
that sometimes the people who believe
in what you're already doing already know
that they can trust in what you're doing aren't the ones that always show. So there are also those
out there supporting from afar. Thank you so much for that. Mr. Villalobos.
Thank you mayor. Just to
report out I was officially appointed to the Liability Trust Fund Committee as an alternate.
So I am now representing the city as an alternate in our East Patrol division. I'm still sitting
on with four other city managers, contract cities, and JPIA on our negotiation team for
the LTF Viability Trust Fund. If you remember, we passed everything else on the five-year
agreement, but we held that out for more negotiations. Slow moving. We're still hopeful. Hopefully
we come back with good news. Last but not least, I do sit on the League of California
California City's Fire Insurance Committee.
Oof.
That sums it up right there.
I mean.
Good luck with that.
Yeah, I've been on California Fair Plan personally
for the last 12 years.
So everybody that's continuing to get dropped,
I feel your pain, my rate's tripled.
I'd like to say there's a good outlook,
but this fire almost put the nail in the coffin
of the California Fair Plan.
A lot of talks so federal and state bailout and rewriting of what we do, reinsurance,
you know, hazard mapping that are all things requested by the insurance.
But it's looking kind of bleak right now.
But I will keep you informed as we keep going down that road.
And that's all I have.
Thank you so much.
Ms. Fan.
Mayor Pro Tem, Martin Del Campo.
nothing to report just thank you to this whole team up here we always think
staff I still do you guys have been amazing this last week but also this
group up here the way we all kind of work together to get right on things and
work with staff is pretty cool and I'm really impressed with everybody this
week thank you council member covered it on nothing to report but I echo mayor
pro times words thank you to everyone that showed up and thank you to our
City staff. Council Member Finley. Thank you.
This was a pretty amazing turnout
tonight and I think it is just a real measure of the the passion and care that
people have for our community and how disgusted they are with what the feds
have come in and done. It would seem to me, if the fair plan looks like they may go belly
up, why would we be spending the money and there is a ton of money invested in this hauling
this waste all the way over here? It doesn't make sense.
Honestly, I base a good part
of my life on pragmatism, but to go ahead and see what is happening here, I think we're
probably going to need a closed session maybe sooner than later before all this kind of gets
going.
I think the people that came here tonight expect us to be doing something.
So whether it's going into a room and talking and coming out and going, can't do anything
I think it was EPA or doing something much more.
I think we owe it to all of the people here in the San Gabriel Valley
because this isn't just affecting our city.
And frankly, it's going to affect generations to come.
So if we can maybe kind of figure something out sooner than later,
we know you are the city manager who is a man of action
because I've seen it all these years.
So anyway, that's all I have for tonight.
And again, thanks to my colleagues and our staff
and most importantly, the citizens of our great city
for coming out tonight.
Thank you.
Council Member King.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Where do I start?
Gosh, we've been through so much for a few months now.
non-stop with all these emergencies with all the fires you know this is not our
first rodeo and great team what a great team to activate the EOC working with the
sheriffs fire my colleagues staff this is just it was it was like hey we're
just doing it again, doing it again, right? It was pretty easy until when I thought everything
is like a little bit subsided now. And guess what? We all got blindsided by EPA. And it
was pretty interesting. I mean, I'm just still baffled the fact that they didn't
Communicate with any one of us. I mean locally
First of all, you shouldn't be you got to go ahead and get all the key stakeholders
You didn't even contact the state Senate or
assembly
Or even Congress
But it's like it's from the federal side pushing it down now. I'm still
thinking right I mean I have my my my assumptions about County but it's like
what someone said it's like this is like preempt it just gives you that
perception I'm not saying it is but it just gives you that perception it's sad
we should have that interoperability especially when you're putting
something that's so significant to our city or regionally right next to
this water source that we drink every day and like what Mrs. Finley said it's like
we got to be rational be pragmatic about this me as a practical person I just
don't get I still don't get it why all of a sudden they pick this place out of
nowhere 16 miles away and don't even do sorting when you can sort it right
there. I'm not sure you guys know this term called Six Sigma. It's like, why do you want
to go ahead and do more when you can just go ahead and do one time right at that location?
It just makes no sense to me. And then all the traffic that they were going to go ahead
and induce and we push so hard and staff put so hard to push back and say, this is
huge concern for you guys to say, these are back roads. We're not in the 1800s. That's
Huntington Drive. And whenever there's a 210 freeway accident, Huntington becomes 210.
And I don't think, you know, these people were well thought out and they didn't bring
in the key stakeholders like us to consult. So it's just very, very sad. It's surreal.
It's surreal and there's a few things that you know a lot of the constituents actually said
I want to go ahead and ask is and Ty if you can can you help me out with this in regards to if
That site is going to be deemed as a hazardous site if that's the case
Do you be residents when they sell the property or the agents have to go ahead and report that as near hazardous site?
That's important. I don't know the answer
to that off the top of my head that we can find out for you.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
The second one is the asbestos that they were saying,
yeah, when I was there and a lot of my colleagues were there,
we were trying to go and seek out
and what are they gonna go ahead and do?
Yeah, they're not gonna go and process asbestos,
but you actually in the back,
you actually set this right,
is you're gonna be driving all over
and you're spreading asbestos
all over all these six different cities.
I mean, is that, is that protection? Right? It just doesn't make sense to me. And the third thing is
storage, sorting, and processing. You keep on changing these terms. I didn't hear about storing
before. You were just going to go ahead and process this. Now you're going to go ahead and
over here. Why I'm still made a lot of unanswered questions, right?
Again, I really appreciate everyone. I appreciate everyone for
for working together and regionally. We have Susan Rubio coming in
tomorrow doing a town hall and she's a great advocate. I mean, she's on fire.
And she's so passionate about helping us to hopefully we can have an injunction and stop
this and move it back perhaps to different locations.
And then next week, Gilsa Sceneros is also going to go ahead and do another town hall
in Azusa.
He's also been a great advocate for us too.
So these two leaders really have been helping out.
And also my colleagues, thank you so much.
You guys have been great.
Thank you.
And lastly, today is actually, I got three more hours is Chinese Lunar New Year or Lunar
New Year.
So, I didn't even celebrate.
I mean, I'm supposed to be with my parents or my family right now, but we're here because
we're passionate about helping us.
We want to go ahead and make the city better.
So, anyways.
We'll get you out in time then.
Yeah.
Anyways, happy Lunar New Year everyone. It's the year of the snake. It's supposed to be a good lucky year, but we'll see
Thank you. Thank you customer. Can customer Lewis?
Thank you mayor and
Sam I would like a red bag
Red envelope, okay, you know red bag envelope. I'd rather have a bag, but I'll take an envelope too
first up I would like to I would like to thank all my colleagues and as well and
for the representative from the EPA I mean I have more questions now than when
I had when I came in and I saw a presentation from the board of supervisors
today and that presentation from the Board of Supervisors were a hundred times more informational
than what I just received. And I'm not, what I don't understand is if it's good enough
for the Board of Supervisors it should have been good enough for us. We're just, it's
in our backyard. And so we should have got the same information.
The same people that made the same presentation and we have to make, because I just, you know,
some of the questions, you know, that she couldn't answer was, I mean, it's,
I don't know nothing
about EPA, but I know if you transport, if you transport hazardous materials, it has
to be an enclosed and it had to be placard. I know that and I know you can't transport
on a stake site because the fire department, we used to have to transport our foam and they
considered foam a hazardous material so we had to transport, we couldn't transport it
And in the steak side,
well, well, EFFF, yeah.
Now that we know it is chemical, but so if, and if I, like I said, if I know that, I mean,
come on.
I mean, I'm not a chemist like my colleague, but I got common sense.
And, I mean, if there's just questions that all of us ask, okay, why was this site chosen
opposed to all the other sites?
I still haven't heard an answer that was sufficient.
And if it was, and if you don't know, just, I mean, at least you want to be transparent.
Just say, hey, I don't know, there's a lot of things that you ask someone, or for me,
I don't know everything, but what I don't know, I'll look for the answer, or I'll find
somebody that do know the answer, and that's all we're asking, you know, just to be transparent
parent and to be honest, and you want us to trust you now that you come in our backyard
and and dump something and says, oh, it's not going to affect you, but it's 500 feet away
from our water system.
And you're the EPA.
You're supposed to be protecting us from that.
That makes no sense to me.
It makes zero sense.
but and like and and now to Dina there's there's like I said there's a park big
old park that is flat and it's nothing around that park is burnt the park a
nothing around that park is burned down so you're not gonna impact anyone for
miles, you know? And, you know, I, one of my best friends that I was a county explorer
with, his, his, his, his childhood home burned down. And this guy was literally on the fire
at the time his childhood home is burning. And there's, there's basically nothing
he could do, you know? And so for us to say, we don't care about the residents, you know,
yes, we care about them, but we don't want to process their trash, you know? And it's the risk
of the future. And what's the environment? What's the overall study? And her response was
that we've done this before and there was no impact anywhere else. Well, have you went back
there to check and see the impact there? I'm sure you haven't. What if there was?
was. I know in the Oakland fire, in 1991 in the Oakland fire, 10 years later they were
still getting, they were still getting cancerous air particles in the Oakland fire, 10 years
later. And I guarantee you, they did an environmental study there and they said it was safe to
go back I just you know and we're the city of health the city of health is in
our motto that that would have been common sense would tell me well if this
the city of health I'm not gonna bring chemicals and put it in the city of
health right by the city of hope oh well you know I could go on and I'm
I'm not, because I know Sam's trying to get home
to Lunar New Year, and I'm trying to get my red envelope.
And so, but,
you know, I'm trying to make light of it,
like I said, you know, I mean, this community,
I mean, deserves better, you know, and I address this to,
I talked to the Board of Supervisors today,
And my supervisor, I spoke with her staff and they all assured me that they had no idea.
But the more I hear, the more details, I mean, it's hard to believe.
I mean, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't lie to me.
I'm really praying and I'm hoping that she wouldn't lie to me, but it's hard for me to
believe and I'll just keep my comments about other things to myself, but I'd just like
have a question for the city attorney is there no way that we can get injunction or or just
to stop it? I prefer not to answer this legal answer in open session. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am.
That was my that's my attorney. You know she won't say no she no liability. Yeah. Number
For one customer, I call her a lot too, thank you Ty for saving me.
And that's all I have for tonight and believe me, you can hear from myself and all of our
colleagues and the mayor, we are not going to stop until we have some answers that
we can give our constituents and we can give our residents.
so you can rest assured we're on the case.
Thank you, Mr. Lewis.
Councilor Finley.
And Tony brings up a good point.
It says effective January 22nd.
This is that letter that Vin sent to us.
Basically LA County Parks ceded
all administration to the EPA at that point.
So they knew, somebody knew something
on the 22nd of January and if they did this without reporting to the county
supervisors I don't know who did it but you know what they ought to be fired but
then yeah you're fired no now also one of the point didn't she just say this
was going to be done in 30 days. Yes, that contradicts what was at the board meeting.
Okay, so, and she's the one making the decisions. I am, this is a one-sided bet. You guys don't
have to give me anything if it doesn't happen. If it happens, and I'm going to give them
a little bit of latitude here, March 1st, if they pack up and they move out of there
by March 1st. I'm buying everybody here a cup of coffee from Starbucks. Okay, I'm
talking. I want dinner. Well I can tell you, I can tell you right now, y'all don't
worry about getting no Starbucks because it ain't gonna happen. Because there's
7,000 plots. So you said 7,000, even if they did in a day, it's gonna happen.
Okay. Thank you so much. First, I do want to thank staff. Our city manager was very proactive as on Saturday morning when we found out just the same way that everybody else did, calling other city managers and getting the ball rolling on this. I really appreciate it.
Our PIO has been breaking a sweat the last two days handling all the media-related inquiries.
So I just want to make sure that we continue highlighting all of our staff.
And while we're talking about one federal agency and Starbucks, yesterday, while we
were dealing with all of this, I got a couple of calls from concerned residents about
immigration vehicles at our local Starbucks on Buena Vista and Huntington Drive. After
further investigation they were just having a coffee.
However, however, it does
raise a lot of concerns and it does have people feeling uneasy. If there's
something that I want to say is I want our immigrant community, our Asian
community, our Latino community to feel safe in our city. I want them that if
victims of a crime to feel at liberty to report those crimes as we heard today from our director
of public safety. It is through seeing something and saying something that we are able to have these
low part one crimes and have these low crime numbers. I want folks to feel safe to seek
medical attention. So I just want to, if director Brasita, do our staff, do our sheriff
deputies, would they participate in any immigration sweeps roundups?
No, the policy of the Sheriff's Department is not to participate in those type of
suites. It's handled by that agency in particular. And furthermore, you mentioned
something about the protection of those that are victim of crimes or
witnesses of crimes. There is a Pina Code section that actually protects
those individuals from immigration deportation. So if they do witness
this crime or a victim of a crime,
they cannot be deported in that situation.
That actually is a state penal code.
Thank you, sir.
I am working on getting a fact sheet out
on my social media on immigration resource center
in Monrovie that's a nonprofit
and working with our senator, assembly member
on know your rights cards that we can possibly hand out.
Barbie, happy 41 years of serving your community.
I mean, I just can't believe it, it's incredible.
Happy Lunar New Year to everybody.
On February 8th, we'll be celebrating here.
It's our second annual Lunar New Year celebration
from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There'll be multiple performances.
It's gonna be even bigger than last year.
I invite everybody to please join us.
I do want to adjourn tonight's meeting.
A friend of mine passed away due to cancer.
Stephanie Gano, she also went to Duarte High School
and I am sending the Kano family my heart during these times.
She was a 25-year fighter, so if we can please adjourn
in her memory tonight, I'd really appreciate it.
And with that, take it away, meeting adjourned.
Thank you so much.