[0:17] Hey everybody, my name is Garrett and I'm here hosting this week's episode of City Council Recap.

[0:24] uh the show where we sit and we as a community discuss the events that occur

[0:27] at Monrovia City Council meetings together. Um I'm joined by Jason. Hello. Yep. And tonight,

[0:36] let me run that back. Tonight we're recounting the uh meeting from Tuesday, February 17th.

[0:43] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um we discussed uh many things in this one and uh we first started

[0:52] with our pledge of allegiance uh which was uh performed by uh Sergio Himenez and then

[0:58] invocation was led by uh police chaplain Steve Martinez and the roll call for everyone at that

[1:05] uh particular council meeting was uh full. Everyone was there. All members of staff were

[1:10] there and all council members was there. I'm going to be calling out a time when I start discussing

[1:15] these and this time refers to a timestamp to the YouTube live stream which will be included in the

[1:21] description. So if you want to follow along what we discuss and go and see in the actual meeting,

[1:29] it's good to sort of you know see for yourself especially if you have your own thoughts. Um so at

[1:35] 10 minutes and 53 we also we also have like there there's also in the um in below the um below the

[1:42] video you can actually see a link to where you can actually access more information from the city of

[1:48] Monrovia's website because as we're going to talk about tonight there are some budget reports and

[1:53] stuff that were given by staff and while we're not going to go into a whole bunch of detail in those

[1:58] um those slides are available to the public and you can check those things out too. Yes. And

[2:02] that's that's always good is that they're all like very easy downloadable PDFs. Um I mean I'm'll be

[2:08] honest, I can access most of the stuff just from my smartphone. Yeah, super easy. Yeah. Um so 10

[2:13] minutes 50 seconds in, we get into proclamations as our order of business. Uh returning we have

[2:19] Pasadena Humane Society and their pet of the month. We they had girly pop. She is a lab pit mix

[2:25] who is four years old, hoping to be adopted soon. Um, and they were uh highlighting their field trip

[2:30] program in which uh people who are interested in adopting pets can come and walk the dogs. Uh,

[2:35] which is good because it, you know, takes that pet out into the public and gets visibility. Yeah,

[2:42] it's actually a great program. It's it's a newer program that the Pasadena Humane has done where

[2:47] they um you can kind of sign up. They said like at least a month or up to a month ahead of time

[2:52] and you can even actually with some dogs take them overnight and it's actually resulted in a whole

[2:57] bunch of new um adoptions. Yeah. Which I guess is the goal, right? Find homes for them. Yeah.

[3:04] Like a trial run. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, for sure. Um the next order of business was Oh,

[3:10] you know what else they talked about? They talked about the kitten Oh, I did have that. Yeah. So,

[3:14] um March 14th from 11 to 2, Pasadena Humane. uh they're going to have um like a kitten seasonally

[3:23] you're always anticipating like batches of kittens and so this is kind of like raising

[3:28] awareness like hey we're going to get a huge litter of kittens soon. Um there's always a

[3:33] need there's always a need to adopt kittens. There's a lot of cats that are dropped off or

[3:39] kittens that are dropped off or there are kittens that are birthed there that need to find home. So

[3:45] um yeah March 14th 11 to 2. um look into that. That was that was pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. I would

[3:52] I would always encourage getting a kitty. Y um they also proclaimed February 19th, 2026 as world

[3:59] uh collangio carcinoma day and February 2026 the whole month as collangio carcinoma awareness

[4:08] month. As you can tell, carcinoma being about cancer and this is a rare form of cancer that

[4:15] um manifests at least medically um well not medically visible um in its later stages which

[4:23] makes it particularly dangerous. Yeah, it's a bileduct cancer and um um they don't show a lot of

[4:30] um there's not a lot of symptoms and so a lot of times when it's found out is it's when it's

[4:35] um spread and we had um somebody there that was um Wendy Wendy, right? Wendy. Yes,

[4:41] Wendy was there um to receive the um proclamation for February. um she herself is um is dealing with

[4:51] um with that bioduct cancer. Um but wow, she had a real positive attitude and I guess that's what

[4:56] you really want to have. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's definitely and she was like there's there's hope,

[5:02] you know, in in spreading this awareness that you know there's definitely treatment available.

[5:08] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um the next order of business was the recognition of our um now

[5:15] former um community services director Tina Cherry. In fact, like right now we're taping at right now.

[5:23] We're taping at 5:00 pm on Thursday and right now um at the community uh center there celebrating

[5:30] uh Tina her 12 years that she has given to the city of Monrovia as well as you know more than

[5:36] 30 years of you know community service you know in her field and you know I I I tell

[5:43] you wherever wherever I am Tina was always there and always willing to help and so um she got a

[5:48] lot of praise and support from everyone you know Uh, lots of praise for the like the joy and the

[5:56] energy that she brings. Like and I mean I mean a lot of Monrovians know her as like she's hosted

[6:02] a lot of the parade. Oh gosh. And she's just got that energy and she's great. She's done a lot of

[6:07] good work. I mean what she's done for our library programs, our our recreation programs. Um who was

[6:13] it? I forget who said I think it was uh Mr. Fe that said um she has a give a damn factor. Yeah,

[6:19] the give a damn factor. Which I thought was was great. So, it was a really nice tribute to uh

[6:24] to Tina. Yeah. Yeah. And an introduction to um uh Rebecca Reeba um you know and uh as our new I mean

[6:34] she's been she's been around she's been around for a long time. She's worked with Tina for years and

[6:39] had some beautiful things to say about her and um was looking forward to the responsibility.

[6:44] Her family was there and uh so the newly accepted um community service director. So congratulations.

[6:52] Congratulations. Yes. Yeah. Um after that uh they introduced the current cabinet or club

[7:01] presidents of the senior club of Monrovia which I believe they are sort of the board that oversees

[7:08] the various senior classes and activities and uh organizations. Uh uh yeah. and Tiffany Peterson

[7:16] show uh came to introduce who they were and what where they were at and they got to take a photo

[7:21] with the uh city council. Yeah. And for those of you who aren't aware, I mean right now they have,

[7:27] you know, there's like 150 active seniors in our communities that are participating in the senior

[7:32] activities. There's so many different things going on. if you know if you get our community um

[7:37] wreck guide and they talk about all the different activities that are available. I mean, it's food,

[7:42] it's activities, and if you are um if you're a senior, actually, I think it's if you're over 50,

[7:47] you can um you can actually participate in uh these activities and and you know, it's just so

[7:54] many different things to keep everybody active and keep people, you know, involved in the community.

[7:58] And it was just a great showing of a lot of people there that are willing to stand up and and show up

[8:04] and be involved. No, it was great. Yeah. Um we did not have a student government liaison report

[8:11] uh that night. Uh so then the council moved into our consent calendar actions which are

[8:19] uh just standard order of business uh motions that are adopted like in bulk, right? You've explained

[8:28] on this show many times, consent calendar is just a bunch of stuff that's scheduled. Yeah. Um,

[8:34] and it's not to be done in a shady or weird way. In fact, like we were saying, you can pull up all

[8:40] of these um documents and ordinances on your phone and see exactly what gets um uh passed. Yeah. It's

[8:48] the everyday business workings of the city, right? Yeah. Right. Um so they did and they didn't pull

[8:55] anything for discussion. They just approved it with a motion and a second. We are now moving

[8:59] into 55 minutes uh on this uh live stream and we got to our public input section which is where

[9:08] your voice can be heard if you actually attend um the city council meeting or I believe you

[9:13] can zoom in as well. You can phone or zoom in. There's all instructions are all always printed

[9:19] um through the city clerk. You can contact Alice Atkins our city clerk and you know share any

[9:25] information. You can also email and the um emails will be shared, not read but shared with the

[9:30] um with all of the council members on there. Yeah. And it's not necessarily a talkback. It

[9:36] is a chance for the council and staff to hear you. You are not guaranteed a response. Um talk back.

[9:42] Most of the time they can't respond. Sometimes the city manager will give an update but not respond

[9:47] directly to those things. Exly. Yeah. So, first up was uh our our hostess with the Moses, Chris Los.

[9:53] Uh he showed up to talk about March 15th, 2020. Put it on your calendar. Yes. Put it on your

[9:59] calendar right now. House Party. House Party at the Park from 1 PM to 5:00 p.m. at Library Park,

[10:05] Monrovia, California. Good music, good vibes. Um it was started out as a way for alumni,

[10:11] MHS alumni to reconnect and it kind of just expanded into this like big community gathering.

[10:16] Uh they this is now the third year doing this and each year we pass out the MTON awards in which

[10:23] the community fills out a poll and they nominate particular people that they're like you know what

[10:28] this person was outstanding in this regard. Um and yeah it's really really cool. Definitely don't

[10:34] miss it and it's a good chance to connect with us as well and talk about a way that maybe you could

[10:39] get involved in this show as well. So there'll be lots of different people there. music, food,

[10:44] just connecting the awards. Bring your bring your lawn chairs um and your blankets and bring the

[10:51] kids and play around in the uh library park. It's in the it's in the back where the clam shell is.

[10:57] So is when where they host it. Again, that's March 15th from 1 to 5. It's just open to the public.

[11:03] You don't have to be a Monrovian. Um and and uh yeah, it's no fee. It's free. Come come hang out.

[11:09] Yeah, it's a great time. Yeah. you to get more information about that you can go to community

[11:14] uh re-imagined.org um and uh that's Chris Los's um uh community organization and you know they're

[11:22] working really hard to not just support the community with the house party but a lot of

[11:26] different ways. So yeah, so that's that's a good thing. Mhm. Next was Sher L Sher Lner and Marty

[11:32] Mack returning to discuss uh the topic of ICE raids uh that have been occurring in our community

[11:38] and the country at large and the connection between the two. Um bringing it to the attention

[11:44] of our city council and our city government. Um, a great quote that was brought uh a quote. This is a

[11:50] quote and of a quote brought from Pablo Alvarado, the co-ed uh the co-ex executive director of

[11:56] Endilon, National Day Laborers Organization Network. Um, uh, we should all be worried about

[12:03] state sanctioned violence. Um, and it's just very important that people keep showing up and

[12:11] keep talking about it and keep bringing awareness about it. Um so yeah they came to discuss that. Um

[12:20] uh yeah and then next was Adriana from the assembly members office. Um wanting to thank Dr.

[12:28] Kelly in her role uh for this past was what was it like year and a half or so? Yeah just about just

[12:34] over a year. Um each each year the city u chooses one member of city council to be the mayor prom.

[12:41] You know we have an elected mayor position. Yep. Um and then uh you have the elected city council

[12:47] positions and um they developed a new protocol. Um and so the new protocol designed based upon

[12:55] um like uh city council seniority. They kind of passed the torch for the pro for the city council

[13:02] member to then become the mayor prom. So that would step into the marial duties if the mayor

[13:07] was not able to be able to do that. And um DTK or Dr. to Tamara Kelly. Tamila Kelly um finished and

[13:16] was recognized by the uh congressman's office, but also was recognized by the whole the whole staff,

[13:24] the staff and the and the whole um yeah, city council. She's been very involved here at the

[13:29] studio as well as the liaison. Um and we we love her. She's she's a very very good person. We do.

[13:36] Yep. Um all right. And with that, uh, public comment was closed. And an hour and six minutes

[13:43] into our stream, we get into the, uh, reports of city staff and city council members. Um,

[13:52] I don't believe that the city management had a whole lot to say this. Yeah, I can just kind of

[14:00] You want me to just kind of go through? Sure, if you don't mind. Yeah, I'll do that. So, um,

[14:03] our city manager, um, Dylan Fe, um, you know, you can actually see this. He's got a city manager,

[14:09] city council's directives on different things that he works on. Um, and the city council just had a

[14:16] um a close session in which they kind of created more directives that will soon be add to that.

[14:22] Um he did respond to a couple of things and saying that the city is um in response to

[14:28] Sherry's comments about trying to get more information upon the death of Carlos Valdez

[14:34] um and uh the city is still reaching out um to the CHP to get more info. Actually,

[14:40] they reached out to both the state and the federal government as well to see and they haven't heard

[14:44] anything back. So, um just a quick update from uh from Dylan and then we went into the rest of

[14:50] the city council's um updates. And I'm just going to kind of lump them into bigger things because

[14:56] um they just actually attended the California or the League of California Cities. Yeah. where all

[15:02] the different um city councils and town councils from across the state kind of come together just

[15:07] to kind of get you know share ideas and have different um um you know conferences and groups

[15:15] and that they belong with um and um you know it's I mean the I mean Sergio really kind of kicked it

[15:22] off by really talking about how important it is to really work together and to support one another.

[15:27] They attended um different um uh commissions on housing and transportation and the Olympics and

[15:35] all these different things. And um you know um some of the things that Sergio

[15:41] um wanted to highlight was we're here at KGM and KM was nominated I wanted to shout that out. Was

[15:48] nominated for eight different eight nominations at the Wave Awards. Um and two of those nominations

[15:57] uh went to one particular video that they had made uh last year. Yeah, it was last year. Uh which

[16:03] was the eaten fire carathon. We had shot a um hellathon prior and we want to start experimenting

[16:14] with that format, you know, just that sort of production. So I remember after the fire there

[16:19] was that conversation of we got to do this like this has got to be like a really important thing

[16:24] for the community to come together and basically be a hub of information almost like the idea of

[16:28] this. Right. Right. And yeah I think that is so vindicating to hear because the wave awards is

[16:36] like a big deal to get best of show. Best best in show and best live format. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty

[16:42] amazing. Congratulations. K. Yeah. Yeah. our little KG gem that that could um he also talked

[16:50] about the state of the city. So a couple of last week, two weeks ago, there was a state of the city

[16:55] um and it's the annual kind of like a state of the union or state of the state where everybody kind

[17:00] of comes together and each of the council members kind of report out upon what's been happening. Um

[17:06] and uh it was just really successful. Um it's usually held at our local theaters on Myrtle,

[17:12] but that uh the Look theaters closed. Um and uh thanks to our fast working, you know, city and

[17:21] the people in the office were able to to move it to the high school. Um I attended it was great.

[17:26] Yeah. Um I enjoyed it. It was really nice to hear all these different things. That's good. You know,

[17:30] the parks, the opening of the new parks, our job centers. I mean really talking about and

[17:35] we'll talk about this a little bit more is that the strong financial place that the city of

[17:39] Monrovia is in and this is something that each of the council members talked about with that

[17:44] um League of the California cities is that you know there's a lot of cities that are in a lot

[17:49] of financial troubles right now. Yes. and because of some really really smart financing decisions by

[17:56] the city, um the staff, the council, and everyone involved is that we have an A++ credit score um

[18:04] rating. And um so we're in a good place where we are right now. And I guess we'll get into that a

[18:10] little bit more. Um uh Dr. Dr. Tamil Kelly talked about um uh let's see u really talking about

[18:18] some priorities of affordability um housing affordability housing supply um um they also

[18:26] many of them attended the San Gabriel Valley COG which is the COG is an acronym for the council of

[18:32] government so it's everyone in San Gabriel Valley that kind of comes together on a regular basis um

[18:37] and talks about um what's happening the COG itself is working really hard with the Olympic Committee

[18:44] for 28 to ensure that we can work together to draw people to our city uh whether it's for hotels,

[18:52] for events, for you know getting athletes um from other countries to to come here and Dr.

[18:59] Kelly has been working really hard to to do that and it's kind of continuing. Um she talked about

[19:05] uh we're celebrating Black History Month right now and um on February 24th from 2 to 4 at the library

[19:12] there'll be some events that'll be celebrating Black History Month. Um uh Council Member Larry

[19:18] Spicer talked about um what he attended at the League of California Cities. Yeah. Um he talked

[19:24] about um our community services, our health fair for seniors that's happening on February 27th.

[19:31] Um and then uh the Monrovia Darty Black Alumni Association um is also celebrating um a hundred

[19:38] years of faith that endures and the churches that the um that uh that are you know present

[19:46] in our communities. He named um a couple of different like I think it was like three

[19:50] or four different Yeah. um churches and that's going to be on February 22nd um from 2 to 4. Um,

[19:59] Council Member Belden, um, oh, actually a couple of people talked about the Chamber of Commerce,

[20:04] um, gala that was the Awards Gala was just beautiful apparently, you know, just like very

[20:10] set in the 20s and um, was it the 20s? It was a um, funny cuz our our musical is kind of the same

[20:18] genre. It's the step into the spotlight. Okay. Where it's all like film like golden age golden

[20:24] age. Golden age. Okay. Well, yeah, it sounded like it was just really beautiful and you attended

[20:29] um thought it was uh that was great. Um but that's and then uh the mayor um also reiterated a lot of

[20:36] things that people were talking about with the California cities event. Um then we she talked a

[20:41] little bit more about the newly adopted protocol to determine who the mayor prom is going to be.

[20:46] And then there was a little bit of back and forth where we um thanked Dr. Kelly for her service and

[20:52] welcomed um uh our new prom mayor as of Tuesday night, Sergio Jimenez um saying that he's just

[21:01] a member of the team and is just going to make sure that the team still keeps working together.

[21:05] Yeah. Um um Mayor Chevlin also talked about celebrating the new Lunar New Year um with the um

[21:12] Yang Firehorse every 60 years. Um um it wasn't it was uh back in the 1960s that there was the Yang

[21:22] fire horse. So there's been different years of the horse, but this is the yang fire horse. So if you

[21:26] think the yin and the yang the yin is more kind of calm and the yang is impulsive and so this is a

[21:34] year of maybe some exciting events that are going to be happening. So so happy lunar new year to

[21:43] um to all. Um, she also, Mayor Chevlin also talked about um that the uh Congress member Gil Cisneros,

[21:51] our uh one of our local representatives along um uh with others um uh that rep that that represent

[21:58] us um was just really willing to listen to our community. Congressman Sinesis Neros has always

[22:03] been available to our community and and so it's nice that he's doing that. She talked about, hey,

[22:09] we're trying to get more people um in here for the Olympics. And finally, she talked about one city,

[22:14] one story. And that's a book prog u um the bear project. Yeah. That is kind of going

[22:22] on in conjunction with Monrovia Reads. Yes. Um and that's going to be this Saturday, I think,

[22:28] at Library Park from 9 to 10. Yes. So, that was good. So, I think that kind of covers Yeah,

[22:34] that was that was they they Yeah, the bears the bear is going to be interesting. It's basically

[22:39] like the the whole city including students are having all reading the same book at the same time

[22:45] and it's all going to culminate. Now after that after our um uh city council and staff reports

[22:52] we moved into our administration reports uh where things that are brought to the city council for

[22:57] them to vote on or just read through. Um uh that's usually toward the end of meetings. Um at an hour

[23:04] and 37 minutes in, uh they brought forth AR-1 amendment to Monrovia Municipal Code section 2.230

[23:12] related to city council compensation pursuant to SB 329. So this has to do with the compensation

[23:20] uh that council members get which I think was like a year or so ago there was like a cap and now this

[23:29] cap has been kind of moved a bit. Yeah. And now they're kind of discussing what that looks like.

[23:34] Uh this was the first reading of this. So what the council voted on on Tuesday was to keep looking

[23:42] into this essentially to have further reading. It'll be it'll be voted on officially next next

[23:49] um I think next council meeting or next month. Actually I think it's March that they're going

[23:53] to be doing it. So, so basically, um, uh, the idea behind this is that there are some state

[23:58] regulations that, um, allow for only a certain amount of money that, um, uh, city council

[24:04] members and that can receive, uh, per month. And currently, right now, they receive $1,270,

[24:10] $75 per month. Um, this new ordinance would increase it to 1,359. It can only be, I believe,

[24:18] about 5% annually. Um, this is being voted by the current city council. Um, it is really nominal

[24:26] compensation. Um, for the amount of time that they put in, um, it's it's I agree. It's a no-brainer.

[24:34] It's a no-brainer for me. Um, but what's also important is that even though they're voting on

[24:39] this as a council, that those compensation factors will not change until the new council is set um,

[24:47] starting in November. So, um, unless they're if they're reelected, if they run and they're

[24:52] reelected, then they can then they can, um, they'll benefit from that. But, um, and then also

[24:58] same thing goes, um, yeah. So, yeah, that was it. So, that's they just did a reading of it and then

[25:04] there'll be a further vote on it at a future city council meeting. Yep. Next was AR2. Uh,

[25:10] and this is more discussion about our fiscal year, our 25 to 26 fiscal year budget update.

[25:16] uh schedules of fees, charges updates. Um this is any time that they just bring stuff to the

[25:22] council and say this is kind of where we stand. You know, it's a lot of complicated stuff. Uh the

[25:28] slides and stuff like that, but it's good news in general. Yeah. What I I gathered. Yeah. So,

[25:33] this what they did is they kind of looked back at the um the the previous year and kind of take a

[25:39] look at what the budget was, what the expenditures was, and then how the books kind of ended up.

[25:44] Again, you can go to the city council agenda or go to the city's website and get all that

[25:49] information. You have access to those slides and um did a really nice job in kind of just

[25:55] laying out what that looked like. Um and kind of the summary, if you will, was overall the city

[26:00] of Monrovia is stable financially. Yes. Um and that is a really really good thing. Um you know,

[26:07] um last year we were under u our budgeted uh constraints and there was a $2.6 $6 million

[26:14] uh surplus, right? Um the revenues are stable, the expenditures are stable. Um and even in quarter

[26:22] two, um there was a 1.6 million surplus. And um they talked about uh measure K. So uh for those

[26:31] of you um who aren't familiar with measure K, measure K is a sales tax that um occurs in the

[26:37] city of Monrovia and a an additional sales tax that's on top of that. And all that money comes

[26:43] back to our community, which has which goes to fixing our roads, developing our parks. If

[26:49] you've driven down Mountain in the last couple of months, that's where your money is at work.

[26:55] You'll see how nice that it took a little while to get it all fixed and stuff, but it's really,

[26:59] really beautiful. I drive it every single day. Um, so that's really nice. Um, that, you know, our our

[27:05] new parks. Uh we talked about some fee changes for park use, trying to get fees waved for use of or

[27:13] rental space of our parks for our city residents, right? Um which is actually really nice. Um talked

[27:20] about the 38 different capital improvement product projects that are happening around the city.

[27:25] Um and uh I guess kind of the overall was that for the whole previous year, the 24-25 year,

[27:33] um $1.76 million better than the budget. So, um I'd say that's pretty good. That's not bad. And

[27:40] listening to um I remember talking to Dr. Kelly at the state of the city and she was saying, "Oh,

[27:45] just getting back from this League of California cities and there's so many cities that are just

[27:49] in the red and that can't do things." And so, you know, we're really fortunate. We've got a

[27:54] really really wise city manager, staff and council that is um you know conservative but also puts the

[28:01] money where the community needs it. Yes. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Um and with that there was nothing

[28:07] else to discuss. Uh and they adjourned uh so 2 hours and 2 minutes is the length of that. Uh if

[28:14] you want to go watch that on your own or listen to this where we just kind of blew through it in

[28:18] something like 25 minutes. Yeah. Which is awesome. It was uh adjourned in the memory of Romana Rednik

[28:26] um a Monrovia resident and the next meeting is scheduled for March 3rd at 7:30 p.m. in

[28:31] council chambers. Yep. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Um again, this show is not a closed session. It

[28:40] is an Yes. Uh it is open to any of you that wish to join us and if you have thoughts

[28:46] uh when you watch this or things that you uh want uh clarification on. We are not experts. We get

[28:53] stuff wrong. Uh but we learn together. Yeah. And uh that's why that's what makes this show

[28:58] uh I think really special. So um with that, thank you very much for watching this week's episode of

[29:04] City Council Recap. And we will check you out. Uh we will we'll see you in March. Yes. Yes.

City Council Recap | February 17, 2026

Transcript