Casting on test. Test. Here we go. All right. If we can. We can have everybody take their seats, please. If their seats available. We apologize for the heat, but it’s happening everywhere. Jesus. All right. Those. Nobody else is coming for me there. For the people that are standing in the back.
There are some open seats in front. If you’d like to sit down. So all seats are open at this time. All right. We’re gonna go ahead and call to order our council meeting for August 11th. We’re going to start off tonight with the Pledge of Allegiance from our Girl Scout troop 03865.
And then we’re going to be having our invocation at Pastor Grady Jones from New Commandment Missionary Baptist Church. So if we can have our Girl Scout come up. Good evening, mayor, council members and members of the public, thank you for this opportunity to join you tonight in leading the Pledge of Allegiance.
At this time, please stand. Please. Your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pastor Grady Jones, here. Pastor JP and so maybe Pastor Larry..
Pastor Larry, what about all pastors come up? How about that? All right. Come on. Come. All right, well, it’s good to be here. And, uh, Grady Grady always calls me his his brother. And, um, and so we’re, uh, I’m filling in for him tonight.
All right, so let’s, uh, go before the Lord in prayer tonight. Lord, we do thank you for this wonderful time. We get to be together in this place.
All those people from Paramount and the community and various kinds of things that we do, various kinds of work that we do, various ways in which we honor and care for and love one another. So I thank you, Lord, for this wonderful city of Paramount. I thank you that we get to celebrate tonight. These that were elected and now serving in office. And Lord, they’re not, uh, foreign to this. They’ve been doing it for years.
And it’s great to see them continue. And the facet which they’ve been going to bring this city to the place that it needs to be a place of beauty, a place that that cares for one another, one that has great, uh, relationship with the people.
And so, Lord, we’re thankful that we get to live in this city, work in this city, dwell in this city, commune, communicate with others. And, Lord, we’re just asking your blessing continually upon this wonderful place that we get to serve. And we’re asking you to help make it better and better each and every day. We honor you and we bless this Council in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen, Amen. That was amazing.
Love it. Thank you, Pastor. Jamison. Thank you. All right. City clerk, can we go ahead and get roll call of council members, please? Absolutely. Madam mayor, Council member Aguayo here. Councillor Delgadillo here. Council member Lemons here. Vice mayor Cuellar Stallings present. Mayor Olmos. I am here. All present. Thank you so much, city clerk.
Well. Hello everyone. God, thank you all for coming out. We have a lot of celebration to get to tonight, so I’m going to go ahead and get started with our first person that we want to recognize. Um, I wanted to take a moment to introduce the newest leader of Lakewood Share Station, Captain Juan Briceno.
He was appointed. He was appointed in July and will be serving our community. Captain, Briceno longstanding experience with Lakewood station has greatly benefited our residents. When he served as a station’s operations lieutenant for the past five years.
Well, I was going to ask you to come up to the podium, but you’re already here, so would you like to say a few words to the community? Members of the city council, city manager and public safety director. It is truly an honor to be here before you tonight and to have the opportunity to introduce myself as a new captain of Lakewood Station.
I am grateful for the confidence place in me and for the opportunity to serve this community. I understand that this position comes with great responsibility, and I look forward to working closely with our elected officials, city leadership, and the residents we serve. Thank you for the warm welcome and for the opportunity to serve.
I am honored to be here and I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you. Thank you so much, and we definitely look forward to working with you as well. Thank you. All right.
Before we get into the swearing in ceremony and our recognition of some great people in the community, I think we’re going to share a little video of the Heritage Festival. Not sure how many of you guys are out there. It was a hot day, but it was an amazing event. Let’s run the video. Ninth Annual Heritage Festival. The City of Paramount recently hosted its ninth annual Heritage Festival.
The evening was a celebration of the families and neighbors who make our city a special place to call home. The events began with a recognition of Emmanuel Church for 100 years of service and Paramount, followed by awards for top students in the Paramount Unified School District. Residents enjoyed the festival’s collection of vendor booths, inflatable play activities, and family craft spaces.
They also stayed cool with covered seating and a dedicated water station. Live musical performances played familiar favorites, but residents were especially fond of the many petting zoos positioned along Paramount Boulevard. The Heritage Festival remains a meaningful opportunity to celebrate the unique character and traditions of this city. Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and we’ll see you again next year.
So as usual. Great event. Thank you to all the staff and departments that helped put that together. I know again, it was a long day. I think they were out to like 11, 12, maybe one two in the morning cleaning up. Right.
But again, thanks to you guys. All right. At this time I’ll be turning it over to the city clerk for our swearing in ceremony. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would like to invite Council member Annette C Delgadillo to join us in front of the podium. And her family members. And her family members will be joining her. Right hand.
Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I say your name. I, Annette C Delgadillo. Solemnly affirm that I will support and defend. Solemnly affirm that I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. The Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of California.
Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. To the Constitution of the United States, and to the Constitution of California.
That I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. That I take this and repeat. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. With any without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully.
That I will well and faithfully. Discharge the duties upon which I’m about to enter. Discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations, Councilmember Delgadillo. Thank you. Give me a flag. , and I will bring your certificate of election. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you, my dear friend.
I’d like to introduce my sons to you. Some of you have never met my son. This is my son, Daniel. And he is the proud papa of my granddaughter, Charlotte Grace. And to my right is my son, Nicholas. And Nicholas is a graduate of USC. This past May, doctor of occupational therapy. Wow.
Well, good evening, everyone, and it’s such a joy to see everyone here this evening. And I am grateful beyond words. I am deeply honored to have been reelected to our Paramount City Council.
I am sending a very special thank you to my Paramount community for your undivided support and for truly believing in me and to my colleagues, the team. Together we will continue working for the betterment of our community. Thank you so much. Thank you. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. Perfect. Thanks. And next, if I could please ask Council Member Lemons to join us in front of the podium along with her family. Okay.
He’s come over here a little bit more. There we go. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I say your name. I, Peggy Lemons. Solemnly affirm that I will support and defend. Do solemnly what? Affirm that I. Will solemnly affirm that I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States.
To the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. Or purpose of evasion. Or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully.
And that I will well and faithfully. Discharge the duties upon which I’m about to enter. Discharge the duties upon which I’m about to enter. Congratulations, madam. Thank you. That Bible kept getting further away. Well, I want to introduce you to the lights of my life. This is Jacob, and this is my granddaughter, Michaela. And my grandson, Jacob.
And, um. They kind of look like brother and sister, don’t they? Yeah, I just noticed that. So, um, I really want to thank both of you for being here and making this so special for your nana. I appreciate it. Okay.
I just can’t stop smiling when they’re in the room. I’m sorry. Um, and I want to take a second to introduce you to the rest of my family. So my husband of 52 years, I think. Connie, um, is. Is here. My husband, Don. And my two lovely daughters. Brandi and Shannon.
And literally the best son in law any mother could ask for. Danny. I just want to thank all of you for all the support that you gave us at election time. It truly was an amazing time.
It was wonderful being out in the community and hearing so many positive things about all the hard work that our staff is doing all the time and energy that we’re trying to put into hearing what you want and accomplishing those things. For the city of Paramount. Um, to each of my commissioners, for all of the hard work that you gave and for agreeing to stand up this year and be ambassador to the community, thank you for that.
I want to thank the pastors who prayed over us and protected us, uh, from any onslaughts that we had during the election time. It was truly amazing that everybody stepped up, uh, that the community was so positive. You’re the voice you speak, you make this happen. And we thank you so much for giving us the honor to serve you again. Thank you.
Big smile. One, two. Three. Over there, my friends. One, two, three. And thank you. Yeah. Oh! On behalf of your colleagues, Council member, Cuellar Stallings and Councilmember Aguayo. Council member Delgadillo and Council member Lemons. We’re so proud that you guys are up here with us. Thank you.
We’re gonna knock it out of the park a couple more years. Absolutely. Do it. What do you guys think? We should do it? Yeah, I love. It. All right, we apologize. We were talking about the Harvest Festival film, and I’m. From what I understand, it was not playing up there. So we’re going to replay that for you all. Okay, go. Let’s roll.
It right. There we go. Well, Heritage Fest. The City of Paramount recently hosted its ninth annual Heritage Festival. The evening was a celebration of the families and neighbors who make our city a special place to call home.
The events began with recognition of Emmanuel Church for 100 years of service and Paramount, followed by awards for top students in the Paramount Unified School District. Residents enjoyed the festivals collection of vendor booths, inflatable play activities, and family craft spaces. They also stayed cool with covered seating and a dedicated water station. Live musical performances played familiar favorites, but residents were especially fond of the many petting zoos positioned along Paramount Boulevard.
The Heritage Festival remains a meaningful opportunity to celebrate the unique character and traditions of this city. Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and we’ll see you again next year. Now we give a round of applause. There you go. All right. My colleagues will join me down to the podium.
We have a lot of recognitions to give out. I know I didn’t either until I saw people walking on the streets. Can you hear me now? There’s kind of like an echo. You guys hear the echo? All right. With Hazel Almeida, Clarissa Nevarez and the entire Paramount Girls troop. 03865, please come back up here.
Look at how cute. Right. So Hazel and Clarissa are founding members of this very active troop in Paramount. We are so grateful for all of the hard work they do in participating in several city programs and events to help make Paramount a better place to live and grow.
We invited them in honor of Back to School Month. Thank you all for leading us in the pledge. So we want you to come back up here so we can take a picture. You guys ready for a picture? Okay, come on up. Test. Test. Test. Magnolia, can you hear me? Big smiles up here. Okay. One. Two. Three. That’s perfect. Hold it right there. One. Two.
Three. Good job. Right here. One more. Oh my goodness. Well, thank you so much. Do we get all the flavors? No. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Appreciation for allowing us to be part of. Oh, we. Appreciate that. We will definitely share them. We will. Thank you. Thank you so. Much, sweetie.
All right. Next up, we’re recognizing National Back to School Month. This past weekend, we hosted our sixth back to school event, distributing backpacks, school supplies, clothes and haircuts to students from TK through eighth grade. We helped 500 students every year at this event.
Thanks to all of our generous donors, we had 15 donors contribute resources, services, and funding this year. At this time, I’d like to acknowledge representatives from the following organizations that provided donations or services to this community event. If you are present, please come forward and we’re going to be taking a group picture.
So I’m going to go ahead and announce everybody so we can hold our applause till the end. And I’ll get everybody up here. All right. So we have Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office. Hold your applause. Um, Athens services Inc. head prince. We have Musa bimbo bakeries USA la S.p.A. Paramount Unified School District, Delta Kappa gamma.
We’d also like to take the thank the Paramount barber groups and the hairstylists who came out. There were so many kids who just wanted layers and all these, like, fancy haircuts. So we definitely want to pay gratitude for our stylists. They came out on a Saturday, which is their busiest days to come.
Help our students and our children and our community. So with that, said Alicia Anderson. Okay. Denise Hernandez and Vittoria Lagunas, Christina Cruz and Doris Madero from Elegance Hair Design. We have Alex Flores and Eric Flores from the shop Leucadia, and then Luis Lopez from Twinkies Barbers.
I don’t think they’re here tonight, but if you guys were to see these guys in action, they were whipping through these kids. It was amazing. All right. So thank you guys for all your generosity. It truly makes a difference for our kids. Please give a round of applause to all of these great providers. So provide. Them now. That and. Up here. One. Two. Three. That’s great. Keep it there. One. Two. Three.
We can take one more. Can you mention that photo for backup? Remember the photo you wanted? Yeah, it was up there. I don’t know if you want to mention. We’re going to show a quick photo that we took with all of the vendors and everybody together.
We took a quick one before all the kids got in there. We’re just waiting for the picture. Still waiting. There it is. That was all? Yeah. So that bus is made out of balloons. You believe that? Amazing. So thanks again. A round of applause for all those great people that came out to help us. We really. Appreciate it.
All right. For our next proclamation, we’re director of development and community communications, Diane Nichols from the Children’s Clinic. Please join us. Hi. So August is National Wellness Month, which focuses on self-care, managing stress, and building healthy habits.
We all have very busy lives with things like work and school, but it’s so important to make small changes towards a healthier life. It can start with small steps like eating more greens, drinking more water, or even joining a recreational activity like adult basketball league or yoga.
This month, we’re proud to highlight the role of the Children’s Clinic play and supporting wellness for residents of all ages. Thank you for providing. God, thank you for providing residents with accessible, high quality care. Maybe I should take one of those things up. Yeah. Would you like to say a few words to the audience tonight? Thank you so much. I want to thank you so much for this recognition.
Um, it’s truly an honor to accept this on behalf of the children’s clinic. Um, the children’s clinic, um, provides health care services for those of all ages. Despite the name, the children’s clinic. Um, we provide primary health care, behavioral health care, dental health care. And we just added optometry services.
We have 14 sites throughout Long Beach and one in Bellflower, but very close to Paramount. And we actually were able to, um, serve on over 900, I think 929 individual, um, individuals who live in the city of Paramount this past year. Um, I’ve left some flyers, so it has a little scan cove with our sites.
And if you know anyone that’s looking for a medical home, please refer them to TCC Family Health. And just thank you again so much. It’s an honor to be here. I’m also a resident of the city of Paramount, and it’s just so wonderful to see. And a member of Immanuel Church, which is the greatest church.
And it is really an honor to be here and be a part of this community. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You you. Okay. All right. For our next presentation, we’d like to recognize former Commissioner David Moody, who was not able to join us tonight.
Paramount has five city commissioners made up of five residents, who provide advice and insight to the city council on various issues surrounding the community. This year, David completed his four year term as a city commissioner for planning.
During his tenure as a commissioner, he reviewed numerous projects like Transformation of Paramount, saw into the public market the development of the Entrada Homes and the introduction of Clearwater Specific Plan. David also enjoyed donning, donning a Santa hat and assisting with the Santa Train. Every December.
His firsthand knowledge of construction practices was a true asset to the Planning Commission, and we appreciate his dedication and commitment to Paramount, even though he could not join us tonight. If we could please give David movie a round of applause. All right, now for the tears. Our final presentation is both joyful and bittersweet as we recognize a retiring staff member who will be wrapping up her time with us this week.
What public Works director Adriana Figueroa, please join us. For eight years, Adriana has been an incredible asset to our team and community. As our Public Works Director. While here, she built a strong, dedicated team that shares her commitment to keeping Paramount beautiful, safe and well maintained.
Her leadership has helped shape not only the department, but also many of the improvements our residents enjoy every day. Some of her notable accomplishments include. Moving forward, major street improvements throughout the city, launching phase two of the West Santa Ana Branch Bike God Bikeway Trail near Fairmont Park. That’s the base enhancing our beautiful medians and the construction of water.
Well 16 to help ensure a reliable water supply for our residents. As she begins this next chapter. Adriana is looking forward to spending more time with her family. And if you know Adriana, you also know she’s a huge Disney fan.
Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse she’s often said that if Disneyland ever needed an official greeter, she’d happily take that job, and I have no doubt she’d be perfect for it. Adriana, on behalf of the City Council, our staff in the entire Paramount community, thank you for your years of dedicated service, your leadership, and your unwavering commitment to the city.
This is very hard because you’ve been so great to so many of us. Late night Texas questions about water pipes breaking about street medians. So we just truly want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. And I know you probably want to say a farewell goodbye.
Are you ready? Thank you very much. Brenda and I had to write my notes because I don’t want to get off script. Thank you. To the city council. Uh, and City Manager John Moreno for encouraging, encouraging, always professional growth and providing an environment where I could develop my skills and make meaningful contributions to this beautiful community.
I’ve worked with many city councils before. I have, but the five of you have been an inspiration, and I can say out loud the best I’ve ever had to work for. So thank you. Thank you.
You are a cohesive and caring group of talented and dedicated ladies, and I feel honored to have worked under your leadership. Um, John, thank you for giving me this opportunity eight years ago and allowing me to lead the best. And I’m going to say this, the best department there is, sorry to my colleagues, but I guess I am a bit biased. Um, looking back on my career 27 years ago, three of those were part time.
Um, I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with so many wonderful and dedicated people. After spending 16 years in Norwalk, Paramount welcomed me with open arms, uh, from the city council, uh, City manager, department directors, my public works staff, and of course, this beautiful and caring community.
I have had the privilege of working alongside talented, dedicated and supportive colleagues who have made each day incredibly rewarding. Thank you Maggie. John King, Michelle, Heidi. Lana. Jesse. Uh, for the teamwork and collaboration always. It has truly felt like a family. If I ever needed anything, I knew I could just pick up the phone and call either one of you.
Nick, thank you for your friendship and all the professional advice over the years, not just in Paramount, but during our years with the Gateway Water Management Authority.
Um, and all the struggles we endure with the regional board back then, if you remember, Castle, what can I say? I am honored to have started my career with you as we both navigated this brand new field 24 years ago. The friendship, the teamwork and share accomplishments have created memories that will stay with me long after I leave. A huge thank goes out to my public works family.
You have been an incredible team and by the way, they are here today and I cannot be more honored to have them here. Can you please stand my public Works family? Please stand. It has been an honor to be part of a team committed to excellence, and to work with individuals who consistently inspire me to do my best. You are truly amazing.
Thank you to my family who is here today. My husband Fabricio, my oldest son, also named Fabrizio, and my youngest son Christian. Your continued support has allowed me to fulfill my dream and fuel my professional career. I couldn’t be here without you guys. Thank. You.
As I begin this new chapter, I leave with a heart full of gratitude and pride for all that we have accomplished together. Uh, well, I will miss the daily interactions and camaraderie I look forward to retirement knowing that I have been part of something truly special. Thank you once again for the opportunities, the support, and the friendships.
I wish the City Council continued success, and I know that I leave the department in great, capable and caring hands with Miss Chelsea. And as the interim Public Works Director. Thank you all. Thank you. For. All right. We’re going to do a couple photos. If you can have Adriana’s family, please come up and then Public Works.
You’ll be right after. We’ll have council. So Thursday’s her last day, and I’m sure on Friday she’s going to be at the happiest place on Earth, right? So before we conclude, I’m happy to share the appointment of Michelle. She is our new interim public works director.
So Michelle has faithfully served our community as assistant public works director, and we are confident she will continue to move Paramount forward. Michelle, congratulations on your well-deserved appointment. Well, those are all the presentations for this evening. I want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of it.
Tonight, we’re going to take a short recess, and then we will start with our business section in about ten minutes. So have a great evening everyone. All right. All right, you guys, we’re gonna go ahead and get started. Everybody. Oh my God. Oh! All right. We will go ahead and proceed with our council meeting for this evening.
We’re going to start off with City council public comment updates. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. We do have two follow ups for City Council public comment updates for the July 28th City Council meeting. The first commenter that we’re getting back to is Enrique Alvarez Junior, and his request that he urged the city to emphasize and expand youth programming.
Um, as a follow up, Mr. Alvarez has been in communications with the public safety director and learn about the Youth Activities League and the Spanish Learning Center activities as well.
He expressed interest in volunteering with the city and the Community Services and Public Safety Team will be in constant contact with him to find the right opportunity for his interests. The second is a group of emails that we received from Miss Brittany Graham. Miss Miriam Kothari and Miss Yvonne Nieto expressing concerns with the city’s automated license plate reader, camera system. And as a follow up to that, staff has responded to each email that was received.
So with that, that concludes my report for the City Council. Public comment updates from the July 28th City Council meeting, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. All right. Any questions from colleagues? Can we move on to public comments? All righty. We have two in person and no emails.
Um, our first in person is from Miss Andrea Crowe with the Paramount library. Come on up, Andrea. Try again. Can you hear me? Does that work? There you go. Great. Good evening, mayor Olmos. Vice mayor Cuellar Stallings, Council members and residents of Paramount Paramount Library is excited to offer star tutoring this fall. Star tutoring is L.A.
County Library’s no cost in person group tutoring program designed to help students build their reading or math skills. All tutoring takes place at the library and all materials are provided. The fall 2026 session runs from September 8th through Excuse Me through November 19th, and is open to students enrolled in grades first through sixth. During the 2026 2027 school year.
We encourage families to take advantage of this valuable resource to help their students learn, grow, and succeed. For more information or to register, visit LA County Library. Tutoring or call Paramount Library at (562) 630-3171. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. And our next speaker is Mr. Alejandro Yanez from Lugo Street. Mr. Yanez.
Thank you and good evening, ladies. Congratulations on your reelection. My name is Alejandro Yanez. To all the people who watch me on YouTube. I am the person that posts that stuff on Facebook. That is me. I do stand on every word I’ve posted, every picture, every post. Recently I attended, um, a meeting with the mayor.
Thank you mayor. And also included was, uh, Yesenia in that meeting. In that meeting, we discussed, uh, quite a few topics. And in those topics, by the way, thank you for giving me the a lot of time in that meeting, which nobody ever really goes to.
You know, I’ve gone to meeting with the mayors, with all the council members. I’ve addressed all of you at different times restaurants, cafes, meeting with the cops. You all know my plight. You know, in that meeting. Um, we addressed so many different subjects that it was hard to continue with everything that we addressed.
But, Council, I want you to pay attention on some of the stuff that was addressed at at us in the meeting. I told the mayor, I go, you know what? From now on, I have to carry my passport and my driver’s license in order to show proof that I’m a
legal resident, just based on my appearance. Nowadays, I have to carry my passport. I no longer just need one proof of driver’s license, in that I showed them I felt, you know, this city discriminated against me. And I’ll show you how. In our conversation. Mayor, you brought up how.
Alex, why don’t you guys. Why didn’t you guys want to walk to the public restroom? That was 350ft from you. And I said, well, why did I have to if the the public restroom was ten feet from us and the handball courts? That’s when you seniors chimed in and she said, you know, I’ve been working here for 25 years, 25
years. That door always remained locked. And I said, why you saying it? Why did that restroom always remain locked? She said, well, it’s to protect the women and the kids in organized sports, in the gym.
And I said, hmm, well, what about me and my boys? What if a man and a boy brings his son to the handball courts to use a public restroom? Why can’t I use it? And you guys stayed quiet. You stayed quiet because that’s discrimination. You can’t treat me different than you treat women. You can’t treat me and my son different than you treat you and your kids. That’s discrimination.
And you knowingly city manager, you knowingly knew that. That’s what you did. Cowardly. You wrote up that survey cowardice. Lee. Another person backed you up and said we were all drug dealers and gang members. Well, that’s the same rhetoric that’s going on in our country now.
You got a president that calls us immigrants, animals can’t address us as human beings. Our city council is doing the same thing. You ignore me year after year, meeting after meeting, and you don’t address the man. Just like that heritage video you posted. Not one picture, not one address to the men.
The heritage of this city and handball was the original recreational activity in this city. The first one. And you can’t acknowledge to rebuild our handball courts. You got the money. But the only way we’ll get the money is if I turn around and sue the city for discrimination. That’s when you’ll come up with the money. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. No further comment, Madam mayor.
So much, city manager. All right, colleagues, we have a consent calendar. If I can get a motion and a second from those. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Can I get a roll call, please? Councilmember Aguayo. Yes, Councilmember Delgadillo. Yes. Councilmember Lemons. Yes. Vice mayor Cuellar Stallings. Yes. Mayor Olmos. Yes. The motion carries.
All right. Uh, first item is a mural selection for the Spain Learning Center. Interior. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This first item of business under old business, um, is a follow up to your review of three three finalists. Art finalists that you picked. Um.
And you picked one of them to work on an art mural for the Spanish Learning Center. And the direction was to meet with a Moussa, the nonprofit group that is housed there at this Spanish park learning center, and get them involved in the conversation. In terms of choosing the art that would go on the wall there within the Spanish Learning Center.
So all that has been done, and we are bringing it back to you for your final approval, and I’ll turn it over to Mr. John King, our planning and building director, who will handle the item. John. Thank you. John. Um, thank you, Mayor Olmos and council members.
So we’re happy to get you the the updated version of of the proposed mural. And you’ll recall that the, uh, the theme of this went back to the public Art Advisory Committee. They came up with a theme. What does what does I’m sorry, what is Spanish Park or Spain Park mean to the community? And they ended up reviewing submissions from a over a dozen artists.
Um, um, in March. And in April we took it to the council, to the city council, uh, we took three that they narrowed down to the three finalists. And as John mentioned, we wanted to, uh, get Musa’s input.
So, um, which made a lot of sense because the idea actually originated from Musa that was there thought that this wall inside the center was a little bare, could use a little something. So they they asked for a mural. And, uh, so the space is 300ft.
Um, we brought three, um, the three proposals and talking to Musa, their favorite was, was this one by Brenda Cebrian, who has done some work on utility boxes, one by Walmart and Fashion Q and the other on Somerset by, um, San Jose. So, um, this is the original version, and we had a couple of meetings, a couple of really good meetings with the artist. One was to, um, after getting there.
Oh, actually, after getting Moose’s input that they wanted to go with with Brenda, Brian’s proposal with they met directly with the artist, which was very collaborative, and the artist went back to the drawing board. Um, well, just kind of added a few things. And this is what she came up with. We brought it back to Musa.
We brought it back to Musa in, um, July. And, um, and they’re happy with it. So you’ll see, they added some, some touches, arts and crafts. Um, uh, they do Zumba. There’s some painting, and you can look at the bottom, right. There’s a, there’s a our our proclamation honoring them.
So they that is actually in the um, in the art piece. So with that, we’re recommending that you approve the proposal for a mural inside the center. And I’m happy to answer any questions. Recall, before we have questions, I have to check to see if there’s any comments online or in zoom for this item. There are none online or through zoom.
All right, all right, colleagues, do we have any questions? I have. A question, madam mayor. I’m sorry. I think you said something about the proclamation in the corner. Did you say that was a Musa proclamation or what was that? Yes, it was a city council’s proclamation honoring Musa. Okay.
And then, um, I’ll go to Yesenia on this. I was just curious. Did it get brought up to them? Um, about the goose. And do you remember that discussion? Yeah. I wasn’t part of that conversation. Um, did that come up? I did mention this to Musa when we spoke.
This is months ago when the duck passed away. Or the goose? Um, but I never heard anything in regards to adding something to the mural. Did that come up? King, in the conversation. We went, uh, there was a a robust discussion and but there was no, no talk of the goose.
There was no talk of what? The goose. Well, the goose was part of the discussion with the another art piece with, um, Eric Michael, who had proposed a goose, but they decided to go with with Brenda’s vision. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because they had approached and wanted some kind of detail to that goose, and we talked about maybe Taco included.
Yes. And I was like, are you talking about a moose or a goose? A goose? Oh, yes. Oh yes. And they and they just said they’d have been in park favor for so long and, and it was accidentally killed is my understanding.
And they wanted some kind of tribute to him in the park. And so I said, well, we’re doing this mural. Perfect time to put a little goose in the bottom. But it didn’t come up. I assume that they’re gonna, you know, let it go or find some other way to commemorate.
Yeah, I would, I would suggest we if you approve this mural as it is, um, the artists can add a little moose in the corner and you see, you’ve seen other, um, an example. I think, you know, he could blend in really good in a corner because it’s all playful children stuff.
And you could put a nice big blue or yellow ribbon around his neck to kind of go with the theme, if this is where they want it. But I think it’s the easiest place to incorporate it in my opinion. We can get one. Musa. Yeah, it could. It could easily be added a little add on. Oh yeah. All right. Yeah. You know it was their request so yeah. Okay.
Just making sure it was heard okay. Thank you. You got it. Any other comments from colleagues on this? I had a question. Yes. Sir I sorry, I thought the the ribbon wasn’t going to be included. I thought there was a discussion with a couple of council members kind of not liking it. In that discussed.
That was well, in the end, my recollection is that the council decided to defer to Moose’s decision on this as the primary user, and they actually appreciated the the ribbon. They did. Okay. There’s a question. Yes. Okay. Got it. You don’t like it? We were quiet. All right, colleagues, um, we’re okay with this.
We’re gonna go ahead and approve the proposal for mural. Yes. Motion and a second on it. So moved. Second. A motion and a second. Take a roll call. Council member Aguayo. Yes. Council. Delgadillo. Yes. Councilmember. Lemons. Yes. Vice mayor Cuellar Stallings. Yes. Mayor. Olmos. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. John.
What is the timeline on that mural? Um, there’s going to be some. I’ll defer to Michelle. There will be a few touch ups to, um, the interior. And as soon as that’s wrapped up next month. Uh, there’s currently. Oh. Good evening.
Uh, some of the items that are currently slated for some of the interior improvements for Spanish Park is kind of what we consider phase two. So there’s some hardware improvements, some cabinetry work. Um, but that shouldn’t preclude the mural work from proceeding okay. Within the next month. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You guys are going to move on to item number 14, which is an oral report on the 2026 Paramount Homeless Senses.
Uh, yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, as part of our first order item of new business, uh, this is something that we’ve done annually. Annually. Excuse me. For the last, uh, several years, we’ve conducted a census of our homeless neighbors who are out in the community.
Um, this varies quite drastically from the homeless count that we all hear about and read about in the papers that the county does. Um, this is our own type of census. It’s more, um, involved.
Uh, we do interview the homeless individuals on our streets and ask them several questions, some of which you’ll hear in a moment here in the presentation. And this allows us to tailor the services that we have to our homeless community. So with that, I’ll turn it over to Mr. Matt Bates from Safety Net, our consultant who conducted the homeless survey in May. Matt. Thank you. No, no. Okay. Thank you. Uh, city manager Moreno.
Thank you, Mayor Olmos and the council for having me here tonight. Um, as was mentioned, I’m here to talk about the Paramount census. Just a review of the project. You all have a, um, full report.
And so really, I’m just going to give a review of the project and talk about a few of the things that stood out to us that you might consider moving forward, and then answer any questions you may have about either this presentation or anything in the report. Um, I’m also very intrigued about the goose, but I will put those, uh, those thoughts aside just for the moment. Um, but I, I’m all for was the goose name Taco? Is that right? Taco? Taco. That’s even better.
Anyway, I’m sorry, I, I I’m gonna set those pots to the side. Um, so the the homeless census, let’s see. I need to point. Thank you. So just an overview of the organization. I’m from City Net. We are a nonprofit organization, um, called Kingdom Causes DBA sitting at.
We were established in Long Beach in 2003. Our mission is an organization to end homelessness through housing. We do that through a number of activities, um, including street outreach and engagement, which is listed there.
Part of how we got into doing homeless census is because we had so many teams that were out already engaging homeless neighbors where they were living and engaging in conversations. And so, um, so that started us on that prospect. We also work across the state. We’re in ten counties. Um, and over 40 cities. Um, that’s relevant because we provide, um, censuses to multiple cities, really across the state.
And it gives us a breadth of experience and a knowledge base, um, that we can use so that when something stands out, uh, we can kind of flag that we’ve, uh, in total, we’ve talked to over 25,000 homeless neighbors across the state and surveyed them in these censuses.
So, um, a couple other things that that I’ll get to in this presentation stood out to me because we have a pretty well established expectations of what we what we what we expect to see.
And when something, you know, deviates from that, it really kind of just raises a flag for us as something for further discussion for you to look at, um, the goal of the census, um, in, in, uh, is to identify a baseline number of individuals living unsheltered on your streets and also to determine the demographic characteristics that they share.
Um, because this is a survey based count, the goal is to interview every person that we come across and to collect as much data as we can, as much as they’re willing to share with us so that we have not only a number, but we also have the demographic characteristics behind that number.
Um, in 2026, we conducted this in May, the last week, in May, early Tuesday morning, late Thursday night, we mapped out the city ahead of time in partnership with your staff and with law enforcement to prioritize the areas we wanted to be sure to hit. And those high priority areas we would have hit four times across the census.
So twice in the morning on the 26th and then twice in the evening, we did cover the whole city, and any time we, uh, came across somebody that looked like they may be experiencing unsheltered homelessness, we asked that question. And and if it was confirmed, then we engaged in the survey. So the big number that everybody is interested in is this 34, number 34 individuals that, um, experiencing unsheltered homelessness, this was their geographic representation.
Another feature of a survey based count is because we use, um, the GIS technology on phones. We can drop a Pin in the location that every survey took place or, and, or every person that we identified somebody if it was not, if they didn’t, if they didn’t, um, agree to the survey, we can we
could locate where they are and, and see the geographic hotspots across the city where you’re experiencing where people are experiencing homelessness. Every homeless person is different. Their stories are all different. Just like every person is different.
Um, but it is useful to kind of look at a composite and as a composite of the most frequent, frequent responses in the census, um, we identified a Hispanic or Latino male who sleeps in Paramount. Um, and then really, two age groups were kind of tied 18 to 34 and 45 to 54.
Um, so there was no sort of age, um, differentiator because those two groups were were tied. We asked a lot of questions in the, uh, in the survey about community ties. And all of those questions are listed in an appendix in your final report. And all the responses.
But, um, what we’re really trying to get at is what are the things that tie people to the city? Why are they, uh, if you’re if you’re unsheltered, homeless, by definition, you lack a fixed, permanent address. And so where do you choose to spend your time and where are you connected. And so we ask about last permanent residents.
Um, we ask about where they usually sleep, where they normally stay during the day. We ask about even school attendance just to try to figure out, um, why the people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness are here in Paramount. Um, we ask about a service, um, needs and service, willingness to embrace services.
And so if you look on the left bar, um, that’s case management. Um, some are currently enrolled. And then, um, the overwhelming majority are are willing to engage in case management. And that just means be connected with someone like a social worker who can help them create and implement a plan to connect them to housing or really any resources that they want.
Though sometimes it’s health care, sometimes it’s education, sometimes it’s job. Whatever their plan is. But it almost always includes housing, um, to be connected with someone that just can help them navigate the systems. And, um, find the resources that are missing.
Or maybe enroll for the resources that are available they’re just not aware of and not not currently accessing. Then the second column or the one on the right is the shelter, um, interest. And so, um, the 50% said yes, the 4.2% said no.
And this number, um, out of context could look like, wow, maybe it’s a little bit lower than we expect, but actually, because we’ve done so many censuses and we’ve done them all across the state, when you compare this answer to other cities in LA County that we’ve surveyed, this is actually higher. Usually we expect around 40% interest in shelter. Um, and here in Paramount it’s 50%. The other thing that stands out to me about this is that there is no shelter here in Paramount.
Whenever we ask, people are always willing, more willing to go to shelter if it’s in the town that they’re in. Um, but the fact that they’re willing to go even knowing that there’s no paramount shelter suggests to us that in total, when you combine the case management and the shelter, there’s a real
willingness to engage in services. Um, and I think that’s a real credit to your city and to the work that you’ve done over the years and to the staff that you’ve deployed, because there’s a high degree of trust between people experiencing homelessness and city staff members who are engaging them, and a willingness to, um, to
work together in other cities. We find a lot of fear, a lot of, uh, reticence, because they’re just not sure. Well, if I give you my information, are you going to use it in a way that I’m not comfortable with? Um.
Is this all? Is this real, or are you really going to help me, or is this just a ploy to get me in trouble? And so if there’s a lack of trust, you find a low willingness to kind of participate.
And here, yes, there’s there’s certainly a number of people that, um, you know, initially are resistant and, but keep in mind, uh, this is the first time that our staff, in many cases are engaging these people and they don’t know our staff and and they don’t know why. You know, we explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. But again, they’re just there is some just a natural hesitancy.
And so when we look at these numbers and all of that context, we see that these are actually pretty strong. Um, because we’ve done this survey now five times in the in the city, we can compare the data across the years and kind of get some trends. And so the 34 number, it is higher than the 2025 number. So it’s the first year that we’ve done this where the number went up.
But you can see the overall trend line is still trending in the right direction. Right down into the right is where you want that line to go. And um, and again look at looking in context.
Our experiences that many of the communities that we’re working in, um, are experiencing, you know, an overall, you know, the trend line wouldn’t be down to the right. It would be flat or up into the right, like going up slightly. Um, just because the underlying economic conditions in our communities across the state really aren’t changing in the way that they need to.
And those, you know, the two primary ones are what how are wages tracking with the cost of housing. And those continue to those metrics continue to diverge. And so many communities are struggling with homelessness in a way that they haven’t before. And so I would say that it’s encouraging for all of you and the work that you’re doing here in the city.
Um, to see that trend working in this direction, we were able to overlay the, um, the last three, um, censuses. Uh, you know, in terms of the geography and again, to identify some key hotspots there in the city, you see, along the eastern border, the north south, that corridor, um, continues to be on the, in
the on the west of the city. There’s a little cluster right there. Um, I don’t know what that city is that intrudes there, but just right at the top, there’s a little cluster there. And then different clusters in the city.
And so again, this is just meant to inform your city staff who and law enforcement who are I’m sure are already aware of these. But just to reinforce like these are where we’re encountering people who are experiencing homelessness, we’re able to track, uh, participation in multiple censuses.
When people give us enough of their demographic information that we’re confident that it’s the same person. And and so you see these three intersecting circles from the last three years and the intersections in this in the center are maybe lower than most people expect.
But actually, this is kind of what we see very often is there’s very little, even when the numbers are pretty consistent year to year. Um, we don’t see a ton of, of, um, of people that appear in multiple censuses over time. And part of that is because, um, you know, homelessness for a lot of people is episodic.
You do have people that in the city that are homeless 365 days a year and you know their names and your staff knows their names and the public knows who they are, and they know their names, and they generate a lot of calls for services and a lot of attention. But the bigger group is always the ones that are out of the public eye.
And that are trying to stay out of the public eye and are working hard to, um, to end their their episode of homelessness. And a lot of people are episodically homeless, meaning they’re not homeless 365 days a year. They just happen to be homeless. At the time that we went out on those two days.
And, uh, and maybe later in the year, they’ll find housing and others who were housed that night might fall into homelessness. So there’s there’s a group of people who are these are the people that are very insecure in their housing. Um, they’re impoverished.
They’re the one paycheck away kind of people from being homeless, and they’re falling in and out on an episodic basis. So this is kind of what we see when we do these censuses in multiple cities. And we can track people across experiences or across the years, just to highlight two of the things that stood out to me. Um, one is age.
If you look at that 18 to 34 grouping on the far left, you can see that it’s gone up the last three years from 11 to 25, 11 to 14 to 25. And so these are relatively small numbers overall. Keep in mind, you know, we’re talking about 34 people in, um, you know, in 2026. Right. So um, and that’s that, that royal blue or kind of light blue bar.
So it’s relatively small numbers, but it’s just something that might be worth keeping and keeping an eye on looking kind of upstream, like what’s happening in the city with your youth programming.
Um, are there ways that you can strengthen those, continue those investments? Because if you can prevent and divert people from falling into homelessness, particularly that 18 to 34 grouping, um, it’s much easier than to try to get them off the streets once they’ve fallen into homelessness. So it’s just something to keep an eye on. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything wrong, but it’s worth asking the question and starting kind of a community conversation, at least from our perspective.
It’s something that we would when we look at the number, we’d say, there may be something going on here that you can look at and that you can correct. Same with gender.
If you look at the, um, you know, year over year male dropped and female rose, and anytime you get over really over 25% up into that 30% range, um, that’s a number that starts to raise concern for us. It’s not egregious. It’s not the highest we’ve ever seen. It’s the highest we’ve ever seen, though, in this city. And so it just might be it might be something to look at.
And again, with, with women and with youth in general. There tends to be more support and opportunities for those people to get connected to services. So I’m talking now about nonprofit organizations and faith community and even government programs and government entities. There just tends to be more resources.
Um, and so there may be an opportunity here to because you’ve got a high, relatively higher number of youth and a relatively higher number of females to make some further strides as you make your plans moving forward. Other recommendations, just in general, um, one just, you know, we would recommend that you continue to invest in what’s working. Um, you’ve got a good thing going here.
From what we can see, proactive outreach again to engage those that are falling into homelessness, that are newly homeless, and then reconnecting those that, um, that are not yet linked to services, that continued investment and regional partnerships.
I know that you have a, um, a shelter partnership with an adjacent city, and we recommend that very often because not every community is ready or has the resources or has the willingness or the or the land or the space for a shelter. But if you can partner regionally, that’s a good solution. And so we recommend we always advocate for that. Um, strengthen early intervention.
Just look at that and see if there may be something with prevention. Um, that’s just a good idea in general, but particularly given your your numbers here and then continue to investments in the long term need which is housing in the community.
We want to thank the city, your city staff, your sheriff’s department, public safety department for all of your help and the conducting of the census. And I also just want to thank those people that are experiencing homelessness that agreed to participate in the census. Nobody had to do this. This is all voluntary.
We did have a little a small, you know, we had a gift pack, like a snack pack and a hygiene kit and and a little gift card for those that completed the survey. But really, uh, people that are experiencing homelessness participate in surveys like this because they want to share their information, because they want the support and they want the resources.
And they know that if they share that information that collectively, um, the leadership of the city can take that and use that information to design, programming, programming and services and activities that are going to help them. And so it’s voluntary, and I just want to note our thanks to the homeless neighbors that continue to participate in that census.
And with that, I will conclude my presentation and take any questions that you may have. All right. Looking at my colleagues for any questions, I just have one just on your age screen, um, you have a category of 18 to 34. Have you guys ever thought about dropping that to like, an 18 to 21? Because that is a big gap.
And if you’re looking like at teens or younger adults that are homeless, we I because I if I’m looking at that, I don’t know if they’re 18 or 34. Yeah. That’s a very good question. It’s a good observation.
The reason that we do those that we chose those particular categories is so that it would align with what HUD, um, the HUD categories, for your point in time count. And so we always try to, um, mirror that data set so that then you can take what you’re getting from the point in time count, which is done. I think that is that every other year in L.A. County, I’m not sure, or every every January. Yeah.
So every January you’ll have that other data set and you can align this category with that category. I see the merit in which you’re asking for actually, because there is a big difference between 19 and 33. You know, people are in different stages in their life.
Um, but that’s why we established those categories, because we were trying to mirror that other data set so that you could have some you could use this to, uh, to, to fill in the times. We’ve not done the census with additional data from HUD collected.
But if you find a 16 year old, what bucket do you put them in? So 16 year old will be a minor. Um, and if they’re an unaccompanied minor, then we would mark that if they’re part, if they’re connected with a family, then there would be part of the family unit, um, in I think there was one.
I think there was one that only one minor that we identified. And I don’t believe that was an unaccompanied minor. So they would be connected with their, um, guardian’s profile. Got it. All right. Well, thank you so much. And again, kudos. Thank you for doing that. We appreciate it.
And always kudos to Steve and Public Safety for all the hard work they do in our community. For the homeless resources. So thank you. Thanks. All right. Next oral report we have for the Capital Improvement Program CIP quarterly Update. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is something that we do, as you mentioned quarterly.
We like to update you on the capital improvement projects that are going on throughout the city. These are very, very visible. Residents probably ask you about them when are they going to be done and what’s going on here and there. So, um, without further ado, I’ll turn it over to our interim public works director, who will do her first presentation as interim public works director.
Uh, Miss Michelle, see, Michelle. Thank you very much, John. Good evening. Mayor and city council. Uh, as John mentioned, the item before you this evening is the quarterly update to the city’s capital improvement program.
And since our last meeting in May, which we highlighted completion of several notable projects, you will see this past quarter’s efforts have been focused on design work to get projects ready for bidding and into construction. As you recall, this presentation is typically categorized into three sections. I will first review the projects that have been completed, then projects and construction, and lastly projects that are in design.
This first section covers completed projects. Okay, with the completion of the Progress Park Plaza exterior improvements, city staff has made some interior improvements to the boardroom. This includes refinishing the table furniture along with new seating to give the space a refreshed look.
Next, the arterial street resurfacing project covers the final stretch of Orange Avenue from 70th Street in the south up to Alondra Boulevard on the north. Work included street resurfacing, replacing replacing of driveway approaches, sidewalks, curb and gutter ramps, signage and striping. The next completed project is the Alley Improvement Project.
This project includes the alley east of Orizaba between Somerset to Madison, and the alley west of Indiana. From Alondra to Monroe, as shown on the map before you, the construction portion of this project was funded by Community Development Block Grant, also known as CDBG Grant monies. Next, I will highlight active construction projects.
The first project I’d like to update you is the construction work on phase two of the bikeway trail. More specifically, the area that continues from the north end of Paramount Park through the DWP right of way. The contractor is complete removal of vegetation and is spending most of their efforts leveling and compacting this area.
You will see the image before you what the area starting to look like with compaction efforts underway, the contractor has used a different method for compacting the dirt to address a vibration. Concerns from residents. I’m sorry.
Since the last quarterly update in which council provided input, the construction team has been working with the vendor and designer to incorporate a wall similar to the one at Dills Park that will serve as the buffer wall between the bikeway trail and private properties. The designer will, to account for some footing, work to support this future buffer wall, which will affect the width of the bikeway trail in some of these areas.
Given the required clearance for the existing LA, DWP towers and also emergency access for some of the private properties. The next project and construction are the medians for the remaining section of Rosecrans and Garfield Avenue within city limits.
The contractors started work during the latter part of July, and since that time they have been removing trees, tree stumps, clearing the areas as shown in the photos before you. The work will include a new irrigation system, new trees and plantings, and decorative pavers. This project is slated to continue through December.
And as you may recall, the city had previously awarded the Tree Community Room and Museum Project to a contractor a few months ago. City staff has been in regular communications with the developer and contractor, as they’re still building out the shell, and this work needs to be done before the city’s contractor can enter the site and complete the interior improvements.
Given that the former store building is over 100 years old, the developer’s contractor has had to carefully work around building structures, which has required additional time. But based on information received last week from the developer and contractor, the earliest in which the city’s contractor may enter the site would be around mid-September. And that’s if the developer’s contractor is able to complete certain milestones by that date.
And based on this schedule, the museum community room is slated for completion sometime early next year. Meanwhile, to keep other parts of this project moving, city staff has been coordinating and working through the public art component, as well as the museum displays.
I would also like to mention that we currently have a project that’s currently out to bid. We are currently seeking request for proposals for the replacement of rubberized matting at Paramount Park, and this is the matting at the playground area located east of the community center, as shown in the image before you. The bids are due this Thursday and this project is funded with county funding.
Depending on the bid amounts that come back and any excess county funds will be reallocated towards the resurfacing of basketball courts at various park locations, which is related to another city capital project. Next, I will highlight some of the projects that are in design.
Overall, we have a great number of projects that are in this phase and I will highlight a few of these in this presentation. I had previously mentioned the construction status of the West Santa Ana West Santa Ana Branch Bikeway Trail phase two, which is the red dotted line from Paramount Boulevard to Somerset Boulevard.
The area in which we have been engaged with la DWP is space for the bikeway trail, which is the dotted purple line that runs from the LA River to Garfield Avenue. Phase four will also be on la DWP property, which means that we will need to work with them in obtaining a license agreement.
The city had previously issued or provided the design plans for LED review, in which they indicated the trail had to be 20ft wide to allow for their vehicles access. This requirement would have increased construction costs by $5 million.
With the help of our lobbyist, city staff and Will, Dan met with DWP staff to review the design plans and we were able to get clarification on what is needed by them. In addition, for them to hear our concerns and the restrictions and constraints that we have given the design with existing field conditions, and we will be resubmitting or design plans
based on their feedback for their review. Next, we have the design plans. As you may recall, a city had previously prepared the design plans for the Alondra Boulevard, which are substantially complete, and we are currently waiting on Metro to provide us with the funding agreement.
By way of background, as you may recall, we had received a support from the Technical Advisory Committee for the 91, 605, 405 Committee to recommend Metro to reallocate about 2.4 million towards the construction of this project. But since we are waiting for that funding agreement to come through, we are setting this project aside.
But we will certainly put this out to bid once the funding agreement is in place. But in the meantime, Wheeldon has already been working on the design plans for the next set of medians, which are the ones located on Somerset Boulevard. And by way of an example, this is for conceptual purposes.
They have prepared the conceptual designs and we will then have been meeting with city staff to review the design plans against existing field conditions, and incorporating any revisions before further advancing on the design. This approach would catch items early on in the design process and minimize instances of change orders. Once this project goes into construction.
As an example, one of the items that we are currently evaluating is the possibility to extend the reclaimed water source to some of these medians on Somerset, thereby allowing and promoting a turf growth.
And as you may recall, planting a turf in the medians was one of the priorities that was identified by the landscape ad hoc committee. So wherever there’s reclaimed water sources that we could be extended, we will look into incorporating a turf for those locations. Okay. Another project that is designed are the additional bus shelters based on the locations that were selected based on bus ridership data and as a status update.
Um, since our last update, um staff has confirmed with Long Beach Transit to moving the bus stop location further north on Downey Avenue. So keep it a little bit further away from the welcome fountain. And then also, we’ve confirmed the bus stop location in front of the Sprouts on Paramount Boulevard.
So we’re working through to completing designs for those additional bus bus shelter locations. Um, additionally, we’re in the process of developing alternative bus shelter designs, uh, for certain locations in which the standard configuration will not fit given constraints with a utility, conflicts and or space.
And last but not least, uh, other projects that are in design are improvements to the Clearwater building. So this includes a roof replacement project and the exterior stairwell replacement. Um, currently we are finalizing the specifications in regards to roofing material and color for the roof that will best complement this building.
And we intend to release the bid documents later this month so that we can onboard a contractor to complete this work before the holiday season and prior to the rainy season. Uh, the other project I had mentioned was the, um, exterior stairwell replacement. Uh, we have previously made repairs, and at this point in time, the stairwell has exceeded its life expectancy.
Um, Wealden has completed the engineering last fiscal year. And in this fiscal year, funds were budgeted to proceed with the installation of a new stairwell. So the design would be more of the metal and concrete, uh, configuration so that it will have a longer lifespan. Okay. And with that, that concludes my presentation, and I’m available to answer any questions that you may have.
Perfect. Thank you so much, Michelle. Great presentation for your first time. Any questions from colleagues? I have no question. Okay. Vice mayor has a question. Um, the replacement for the playground at Paramount Park, right? The. Matt, are you going to replace the playground equipment also? Eventually. Um, currently, the project would just be for the playground matting.
Yeah, okay. Because that looks kind of like it needs to be replaced. Okay, I’ll talk to my colleagues about that. Thank you. All right. Mark. Humber comments. We’re good. All right. Sounds good. All right, you guys, we’re moving on to a successor agency for the Paramount redevelopment.
Um, John, there’s no staff report. I’m just asking for a motion on that. Right? That is correct. All right. So, you guys, can I have a motion for the to approve the successor agency for Paramount Redevelopment Agency register demands of July 2026. Yes, ma’am. I’ll take a motion and a second. So moved. Second.
We have a motion. Second and a third. City clerk. We’re good to go for roll call. Councilmember Aguayo. Yes, councillor. Mayor Delgadillo. Yes. Councilmember Lemons. Yes. Vice mayor Cuellar Stallings. Yes. Mayor. Olmos. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you so much. We’re going to move on now to committee. Council reports.
I’m going to start. Um, I’ll start with the vice mayor tonight. Okay. Let me find my my booklet. Do you want me to move on to somebody else? Yes. All right. How about council member Lemons? Um. Let’s see. I visited the Heritage fair. As always. Just amazed with the incredible job staff.
Did I particularly like the new setup with the, um, the stage facing down the boulevard? I think that makes it much more accessible to everyone. Um, I, you know, I saw some new elements this year, as we do every year, and I just, you know, can’t say enough that you guys do the most incredible job.
And thank you very much. That’s all I have, madam Mayor. So much. All right. Councilmember Aguayo. All right. So I attended the Swac, the Southeast Water Coalition meeting. Um, the update on that is that there is an official updated website. Um, looks really easy. So, um, you know, check that out.
And I’m looking at the city attorney. They people asked where Nick was. So, um, you were missed. Um, so that is actually all I have. So check out that website. My colleagues, when you guys get a chance. Thank you. Council member. All right, we’re going to the vice mayor. She has her book out. She’s ready to go.
Okay, I have it. Okay. Anyway. Hello? Paramount. Um, I attended the love carwash. Like, um, council member Delgadillo likes to say the love carwash. Anyway. it was very. Love, love. love love, love carwash. Anyway, it was fun. But even as they were having the grand opening, there was vehicles coming through.
And, uh, I mean, they they’re busy little place. I was really impressed that, um, um, looking forward to taking my car every week. Yeah. Anyway, and then I also attended with, um, council member Delgadillo and our mayor, the L.A. County. Um, excuse me.
Cal cities of Los Angeles County division for the installation ceremony for Maria Quinta became the new president and the outgoing was present. Um Huff from the city of Rolling Hills estate. She’s a very sweet lady. Very nice, very, very sweet. And I look forward to Maria taking on this position. And also, I went to Back to School night. It was very successful. The kiddos were excited. It was very hot.
There was a long line. I told them to be patient as I was leaving and um, they continued coming and driving up. So I’m, I’m sure at the end everybody was very satisfied. I think so, yes. Anyway, um, and one last thing. Uh, thank you.
Um, to our former public works director to Adriana. I’m going to miss you, too. But thank you, Michele, you’re on board now. So, anyway, took her to heart. And thank you. Congratulations on your retirement. And congratulations to Peggy and Annette. Council members on your new four years of dedication to our city. I look forward to working with both of you.
And that’s all I have, Madam Mayor. All right. Vice mayor. All right. Council member Delgadillo. Of course. Madam mayor, on Saturday, I attended the, um, back to school backpack supply event at the Paramount community. Excuse me? At the Paramount Park gym. And the gym was a perfect place for this event. Lots of space. The kids were enjoying themselves.
Parents were having fun, maybe stressing. Kids were getting haircuts for free. And it was great. It really was. And I. And they got ice cream. Yeah, we had a good time. And so to all posed students, best of luck to each and every one of you for the new school year. And that’s my report, Madam Mayor.
All right. Well thank you guys so much. You guys mentioned a lot of the events that we’ve had, and I will concur that they were all amazing. I just have one announcement. I just want to remind the community that the heritage, um, historic. I’m sorry.
The historical society will be hosting at their community dance um, on Saturday the 22nd, from 3 to 7 at the Paramount Park community. Um, center. So please, if you have nothing to do, we’re going to it’s going to be a 50s theme. So you’re able to dress 50. So come out and join us on Saturday 22nd.
And John, any comments on from staff? Yes Madam Mayor, we do. We have a few here. Um, once again, congratulations to council members Delgadillo and Lemons staff. Looks forward to working with you on for the next four years. Uh, as, uh, Councilmember Delgadillo said, school is back in session.
So we encourage everybody to to drive slow during during school hours, please, during pickup and drop off. And we had a very successful, um, walk to school class last week. Um, and in fact on it was really popular on Instagram. We created a video and showed it and had over 1100 likes on Instagram, on, on our Instagram page.
So um, nice job to public safety for getting that going. And Deputy Dare. Um, and Steve Berlioz for for his work in that. So very good job there. Um, again you said thank you to the staff. We appreciate that. Who worked very, very hard at the Heritage Festival this year. It was a great success.
Um, and again, thanks to Steve Police for the homeless outreach that he does day in and day out and the compassion that he shows to our homeless neighbors. And once again, a big thank you and great job to Adriana Figueroa. She, uh, she made an impact on the on the city that will be everlasting.
So we appreciate her work. And that concludes comments from staff. Thank you so much, John. All right. We’re going to turn this over now to our city attorney to discuss conference with legal counsel. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
The council is going to adjourn into closed session to discuss one item, which is conference with legal counsel. Existing litigation, government code section 54956.91. And it’s one case City of Whittier versus Superior Court of the State of California. County of Los Angeles. Thank you. I Rocks and paint have gotten. I forgot. It. Let me know. It’s a fascinating documentary on Netflix. You guys should watch it if you get a chance. Potato bug.
Who was in area 51 with everything. And now? I mean, there’s just so much evidence. All right, you guys, we are back from closed session. We’ll actually hear a report out from our city attorney. Thank you, Madam mayor. The city council just met in closed session to discuss the one item on the agenda.
All five council members were present and no reportable action was taken tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to staff. Thank you to all the residents that attended tonight. We’ll go ahead and adjourn this meeting until September 8th at 6 p.m..