Pasadena City Council: February 24, 2025

Mayor and the Council. We are live. Okay. Good evening. Everyone. Welcome to the February 24, th 2025. Meeting of the passing city council. The Council did meet in closed session, related to items A and B. There is no reportable action. We'll start with the calling of the rule. Thank you. Mayor, Council, Member Cole, present Council, Member Hampton. blessed and honored to be here, customer Jones, here, Customer Lyon, here Customer Madison. Here. Councilmemor Masuda here, Vice Mayor Rivas, here, Mayor Gordo here there's a quorum of the Council present. Okay. Mr. Hampton. Will you lead us to pledge of allegiance. No, I know, Jake. Right hands 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 you need a few. hey? We do have one ceremonial matter, and that's the celebration of women's history month. If I can ask Leticia Lopez and Vanessa Rodriguez to join me. Women of every race class and ethnic background have made history contributing to the growth and strength of Pasadena in countless recorded in unrecorded ways. and they place critical. They play a critical, economic, cultural and social role in every sphere of life. In Pasadena particularly important in the establishment of early. charitable, philanthropic and cultural institutions. In our city, women have served as leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change, movement, and have had leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also in the abolitionist emancipation, industrial labor, civil rights and peace movements which have created a far more fair and just society. For all. Despite these contributions the role of women has consistently been overlooked and undervalued in the literature, leadership, teaching, and study of American history. and it is appropriate that we recognize their numerous contributions. Therefore, on behalf of the Pasadena City Council, I do hereby proclaim the month of March 2025, in Pasadena as women's History month. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Thank you for inviting us here. We are so excited and eager for the month of March as we always are. I will remind everyone that it's not just March. We show up as mothers and daughters and aunties and coworkers, so it's more than just one month. But we really are just so grateful. I will take a minute just to introduce my fellow Commissioners, Commissioner Harrington, Ruggiero. Maria Castellon, Robin Allen, Jill Thompson, Gabby, Perez Crystal Aceves and Jennifer Tebow. Thank you so much. It's such an honor, and we wouldn't be anywhere without our wonderful staffers. We have let the Lopez and Jane Whitmore, who couldn't be here, and the only thing that I will draw everyone's attention to is our annual. Her story event, which is scheduled for March 13.th We would love your partnership. If we could include our flyer in your newsletters. We would love to get you the file and have you share that wide with your constituencies. It's free, and we've been working really hard as a commission to get that kicked off. So thank you again for having us. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and anything else, ladies. that's great. Thank you. Yeah. thank you so much. Thank you. To our commissioners, and all the time and effort that you put into your work. Next. if you don't mind, I would like to excuse me. My voice. I would like to thank all of the Commissioners, and just want to let you all know that. You know, as a man of all sisters and guys raising 2 girls, I would say, they're raising me, and you know, having a wife at home, I want to let you all know that your work definitely does not go overlooked in my household, and I'm reminded all the time. but by my wife. So I just want to say, Really, really appreciate the work that our Commissioners are doing. And if there's any initiatives or anything that you think our Council could work on to strengthen, and making sure that our women are not overlooked in this community, we are here to support those efforts. And I just want to really, really thank you for the work that you do. Thank you, Mr. Hampton. I think that that the rest of the Council can get behind those statements. And and again, thank you to all of our commissioners and and the staff. Okay, public comment for matters not on the agenda we have 9 speaker cards. So 2 min, sure heather. Lee, followed by Burt Newton, followed by Claudia Anderson and Renata Mason. If you hear your name, please make your way to the front of the room. Heather Lee, 2 min. Go ahead. Okay. So last July I sent a letter to Mayor Gordo and Councilmember Leon regarding the air pollution caused by the rose bowls. July 4.th Fair work show. I mostly focus on the health impact it had on my 2 year old son. I won't go into details here just that. He's a completely healthy kid. But still he was affected, and it took us 2 doctor visits also. My son goes to a preschool known for its wonderful outdoor classrooms, but on July 5th they had to stay indoors because the Aqi was above 200. Another thing is that every year a lot of fire retardants are spread around the rose bowl and the royal cycle area ahead of the July 4th show, and I don't know if the cumulative, long-term environmental impacts of this repeated use of these fire retardants are conclusively known. Now, after having gone through the Eaton fire, I feel so strongly that every single day of clean air is so precious, and should be protected, so I hope the Rose Bowl and the city of Pasadena could stop future. July 4.th Firework shows and take a lead in modeling for the people in Pasadena and other cities, other, some environmentally friendly way to celebrate this holiday. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor. What would be the right committee to refer that matter to, I know last year they did a drone show at the Rose Bowl, and I think it was popular and well received, but I know there'd be a lot of conversation in looking at doing away with it permanently. What would be the right committee for that? Well, I think economic development and combination of economic tech, and also the Rboc would be best positioned to advise the Council. Thank you. Mayor. If I could speak to that as the Council's appoint appointee to the Rboc. My understanding is that going forward at least this year any show will involve the drone form of entertainment, so I can confirm that, though, and let the Council know. and no, and not with fireworks, not with traditional fireworks, especially this year, Mayor. I think there's a view that. Okay. Would be in bad taste. Thank you, Mr. Cole. I'm also concerned when we're talking about the air quality index, about the proliferation of illegal fireworks which dwarf the fireworks show at the Rose Bowl in terms of the cumulative impact upon passing air quality, and I know it's difficult for the police department to chase around these fireworks displays, but I think public safety should take a look at at ways in which we can enforce the ban on illegal fireworks which have become rampant in Pasadena, and that certainly affects not only air quality, but also the potential for fire danger. So it's a subject that's often been discussed at public safety, and and we can every feels like every year we discuss it and ask the staff to report back to us the the difficulty of enforcement, of course, is someone has to be there to witness. But your point is well taken, and and we'll do as as we've done before, and ask for the staff to give us an update on enforcement activities a personal opinion. that our police department may have a better sense of. But I think that deterrence is the most important thing. So if we can catch somebody and throw the book at them, that will have a bigger impact than catching several people and giving them a $50 fine not to belabor the point or to get into the merits of it. I just do want to mention that this is supposed to be. It was was supposed to come to us at our January meeting of Public Safety. Of course things have changed the chair of Public Safety is the mayor. But I have requested we look at A are of at our technologies that are used. In trying to. you know, change the way we enforce it. Maybe there's an opportunity to use technology to enforce it or put more enforcement agents out. So I think that's the item for public safety. Let's put it back on public safety. I know, other. The county of Riverside, for example, is essentially deputizes code enforcement officers and parking Enforcement officers. So we'll we'll put all of those on the table, deputizes them for purposes of force and council members. Yes. Mary, the problem the problem we have is that it's illegal in Pasadena, but it's sold in La County, the fireworks. So you know, you have. The fireworks stands all over La County. And yeah, of course, where do they come? They come to Pasadena to shoot it off. We definitely get our share. We should communicate with the county. We'll add that to the agenda. Item. Okay, Mr. Newton. Yes. Good evening, Mayor and city Council. I want to thank you for passing a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza almost a year ago a formal ceasefire finally took effect. January 19.th Since the since the ceasefire Israel has killed at least 134 Palestinians, many of them children. You wouldn't know that from most us based media. But for those of us who followed this for decades, who often read the human rights reports, and have visited Palestine and witnessed firsthand the oppression of Palestinians. There. This comes as no surprise. no Israelis have been killed since the ceasefire. You would have heard of it if that had happened. because that's how us based media tends to report it. When Palestinians fight back. It's a violation of a ceasefire. When Israel kills Palestinians it's just another day. Somehow the ceasefire has not been broken, because that's what's happened almost every day for almost 77 years. So we see this all the time in reporting a bias in favor of the powerful and those who we think are our side. The international court of justice has said that what Israel has done in Gaza could be genocide, amnesty, international has said that it is genocide. So what do we do now well, in the 19 eighties, Pasadena, the city of Pasadena, divested from South Africa because of apartheid. I think Pasadena should now divest from Israel so something to think about. Thank you. Thank you. Claudia Anderson, involved by Rainetta Mason, then Olden Denham, then Alan Shea, then Bill Magnum. Welcome. Great! Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Claudia Anderson, and I'm with the Us. Small business administration office of disaster, recovery, and resilience. And I'm here to provide a brief overview along with my colleague about the disaster loan resources available to assist people impacted by the California wildfires. As soon as the Presidential declaration was signed. On January 8, th Sba began offering low interest loans to homeowners and renters not covered by insurance or other recovery funds in the county of Los Angeles Sba disaster loans are available to homeowners for up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence, and renters and homeowners can seek up to $100,000 to replace or repair personal property and personal property constitutes the contents of your home or apartment that was damaged as a direct result of the wildfires, and this includes damaged automobiles. The deadline to apply for these disaster loans is March 10, th and Sba offers low fixed interest, rates with terms up to 30 years to help in recovery. There's no cost to apply and no obligation to accept the loan if it's approved and the disaster loan rates are as low as 2.5 6 3% for homeowners and renters, and eligibility is based on a case by case review, and there's no interest for the 1st year and no payment requirements for 12 months. Does that mean my 2 min is up 30 seconds. Okay, Sba, disaster loans are a very important way of helping in the recovery process, and we have 2 disaster recovery centers, one at Ucl Ucla Research Park, West, and one in Altadena at 5 4 0 West Woodbury Road, and the hours are Monday through Saturdays, 9 Am. To 7 Pm. And we hope that you'll alert your constituency of these resources. Thank you. Possibly to have the Sba agendize, to have a presentation for the community. We would, I think, Powerpoint presentation to be able to see visuals for our residents. To to understand what's going on would be really helpful. Okay. thank you, Miss Anderson, and and thank you for your service. Renata Mason. All right. So good evening. You all I'm picking up on where Claudia left off. I'm covering the businesses and nonprofits. As mentioned. Sba is providing low interest rate loans to businesses and nonprofits that have been impacted by the disaster we are covering up to 2 million for businesses that have been impacted. We have an interest rate starting at 4% for businesses and for nonprofits, we have an interest rate, starting at 3.6 2 5%. The businesses and nonprofits that have been impacted. Although they may not have received physical damages. We also are providing assistance to loss in revenue with our economic injury disaster loans. We want to get this information pushed out. As Claudia mentioned, our deadline for physical damages is March 10.th However, our deadline for economic injury. Disaster loans is October the 8.th We want to get this information out hopefully, we'll have hopefully, we will have the opportunity to present for you all we do. We do have a 1 year deferral on all of our loans across the board, and during that time no interest accrual. We've had been asked the question for those that have existing Covid loans, because we did provide that during Covid. Yes, you can still apply for a loan with us. If you have an existing Covid loan. If you are having hardship in repaying that loan, then you can request a hardship assistance for that, so I'll keep it short and simple. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. Wish you did. Student loans. old and denim, followed by Alan Shea. Then Bill Mangum, then Kathy Berlin, then elder Miranda. Good evening, everyone. It's no surprise. Why I'm here. And I I'm I'm requesting not requesting, almost demanding, that we put this agendize the Ab. 3, 9, 2, because I went over that law several times, and I know last week. Michelle said. We're in compliance, but I bid to disagree with her, either she hasn't looked at the bill and studied it, or she hasn't looked at the footage. I'm requesting, as strong as I can, that we agendize this because in 3 min I can't show you the evidence I have, but the evidence will show that this young man did nothing threatening. There was nothing that would declare an imminent threat on the officer's life or anyone else's life. and that is the criteria for the bill, Ab. 392, if there was no threat on this man's life. There was no justified. That homicide is not justified. And I originally started. I just wanted to get this guy off our streets because we can't have someone walking around our streets with a gun who has a compensity to shoot somebody in the back because they're running away from him. There was no threat in running away, so I'm requesting. commanding, almost demanding, almost, that we agendize this, to give me the time, because I refuse to stand up here and get cut off in 3 min. Be disrespected like that, trying to get you to do the right thing. And I'm not a politician. I'm not a legal person, but I did take time to look that law up, and I know if anyone looks at it. I gave it to you all a homework assignment to look that law, for if you looked it up and saw the criteria of it, it says, imminent is the key word threat for the officer's life or someone else's life. There's no imminent threat on his life or anyone's life with running away from it. So this bill would have applied if you had applied it to the situation, and, like I said, I originally only wanted to get this officer off our streets. Now this law, says he should have been charged, he should have been charged, and I want to agendize that bill so we can discuss it without me being cut off and disrespected. Thank you for your time, and please give us a date on agendizing this, so we can further discuss this. I'm sorry I tried to get a meeting with you, Michelle, and there's no way you don't meet with people, Mr. Denham. Thank you. Anyways help me out. Thank you, Mr. Denham. Alan Shea, followed by Bill Magnum and Kathy Berlin. Mr. Shea. Welcome, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Ordo and City Council members, as you're well aware. I come before you every week, and my objective to be here every week is to get a date scheduled to agendize the items that I've been coming before you on one of the items is to have a specific date to review the status of the underground wiring, and where we are with that particular project, so we can be clear as to the progress that was made. Because we've had 2 warnings before this last fire windfire of January, the next issue that has been demanded, discussed. And now I'm seeking a date, and that is to have the police commission status of where we are, with the enforceability that should go along with the oversight of our police commission that was kicked down the road. You guys seem like you just keep passing it back and forth. Just agendize it. Bring it before, so that the public can have an opportunity to have a open discussion with you as City Council members, to hear from you. not from the commissioners. That's what we want to have. Give us that opportunity, and if we do that we're in good shape. But if we don't, we come in here every day, and last, but not least, I'd like to thank Councilman Hampton for celebrating Black History month, and I would hope that you guys will close with it because the Naacp was here this weekend, and they showed up, and they showed out they brought money for us, and they showed leadership of what is needed here, and that is booths on the ground for Pasadena and Altadena. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shea. Bill Magnum, followed by Kathy Berlin and Elder Miranda. Mr. Magnum. Welcome. Yeah, thank you very much for the opportunity to chat with you. Gently, briefly, people, I'm here as a resident who lives on 1655 Hastings Ranch Drive, whose house was destroyed by the fire. I want to report to you substantial information upon frankly the failure of our fire department to effectively prevent fires, and to save the homes of residents in East and and in Upper Hastings Ranch. 2 facts that you should know. It took an hour for the Pasadena Fire Department to respond to the fire in Easting's Hastings ranch, and in Upper Hastings Ranch. When the fire engine finally showed up I was the one who asked for it with a specific address. It showed up, and, would you believe it? The engine stopped in front of my house, and my neighbor's house. sat there 15 min, and not a fireman exited the fire engine as a fire existed behind my 3 neighbors homes. I went up to them because I stayed during the fire, and I asked them, What are you doing? You're not responding to the fire, they said, we're waiting for the word. I said, what do you mean? You're waiting for the word. We're waiting for a radio control to find out where we're supposed to go. I said. Look, I have a fire immediately behind my house, a road on both sides of the house to get you to the rear of my house, and above my house is a road behind it. Fire road. paved road. They didn't even use that during the fire, gentlemen, this kind of behavior on the part of the fire department an hour. How many of you would like to call the fire department and wait an hour for sure engine to show up better than yet? Would you tolerate them sitting in the fire engine 15 min before they even got out to engage the fire. This is a serious problem. I've got some information here that you should study. It's an article in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend which says, Palisades, residents want answers. I have talked to many fellow neighbors in the area. They want answers. What was happening with the organization of our fire department. Now, I'm not saying the fire department and the particularly the firemen weren't doing their jobs. Don't misunderstand me. What I'm saying is the way things were organized did not work during this particular fire. This is the biggest fire in the history of the city of Pasadena, and more homes destroyed than in history. You need to set up an investigative committee separate from the Fire department to spend time reviewing all the questions. The mayor, the mayor of the city of Los Angeles, 2 days ago, was fired. The chief of the Fire department for the city of Los Angeles. One of the reasons was lack of pre-planning, and the fact that they had put on Mr. Magnum actual people firemen than a thousand home that day. Don't let this pass over as an issue. That's been resolved, Mr. Magnum. I've been very lenient with your time. If you had a choice to stay or not. Stay, I don't feel comfortable about staying with the performance of the fire department. Thank you for, and we're sorry for your loss, sir, and that of your neighbors, Kathy Berlin, followed by Elder Miranda. Thank you. Hello, Mayor Goro, members of the city Council. Sorry short. There are a lot of people asking you for a lot of things tonight, and I'm afraid that I am one of them. Sorry, but it seems to me we have an incredible opportunity now the disaster and the tragedy of this fire that just destroyed parts of Pasadena and our neighboring Altadena has left us with the opportunity to build back in a sustainable manner. I would like to ask all of you to look up Greensburg, Kansas, where a tornado went through and destroyed most of the town, and they purposefully, 2 decades ago built back sustainably. And this is our opportunity to do this. I know you're looking at timing and permits and things like that at the end of this meeting. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a a local micro grid solar micro grid grid that the Pwp. Could own, and lease that power to the the neighbors we could set, instead of having Pasadena known as a disaster area, which I think is possible. and certainly it is. After this fire. We could make it attractive. We could make it a drawing point. We could make people coming here to see what can be done. Now we have the technology. Let's do it now. It is up to the city council, I think, to to get this rolling within the city. It has to be at your request that the Pwp. Will do this, I believe, and whoever else needs to make the rules and regulations. To make this happen, we need to build back with no fossil fuels and renewable energy that you know it's it's not that you can say to these people who have to rebuild their homes, put solar on your home that, just, you know, adds to their costs. Pwp. Has to, or the city has to somehow provide a micro grid for these people as an example, and then we can build them elsewhere within the city. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Elder Miranda. Mr. Miranda, welcome you. Good evening, Mayor and council members. Today I come with you just with a simple request. So I wanted to talk a little bit about this this organization we have here in Pasadena, called, just serve. and so may some of you might have heard of it. But it's an organization that helps us to connect with the city and kind of obviously the members of the city and find ways that we can serve others. We've done a lot of service, helping others with the fires and helping others donation centers. There's a big one in Kaiser in the city, and we try to connect with all that using this this organization and target quest is just we're trying to find more ways to connect with the city directly with the leaders. And so whether it's like public departments or like whatever it is, we would definitely like some communication email numbers a way that we can call and kinda kind of just be a part of this. We can get between 4 to 14 of us. And we're here just 24, 7, basically just to serve. And so we want to really help the city out. We want to be able to connect with this community and just be able to. We have a goal of serving 10 h every week. And so that's something that we would definitely love to. There's any sort of contacts or anyone that we can connect with regarding that we would love to work with you. But that's about. That's about everything for, thank you, Mr. Miranda. Can we have someone from parks and recreation reach out to Mr. Mannick. Sure. I have some contact information that completes public comment on matters, not on the agenda. We'll we'll we have Mr. Miranda's contact information. We'll forward it to the appropriate departments and and nonprofits. Okay, that completes public comment. Next, we'll turn to the consent. Calendar. We have speaker cards on items. One Mr. Cole, did you have? And also all of consent, Mayor, before we go to consent? I just wanted to make mention that the last City Council meeting, or maybe it was the one before last. I asked that Ab. 392 be agendized for a public safety meeting. at some point. I guess you'll let us know what the timeline will be on when that could be agendized to know we're compliant and etc. Thank you. Okay. Next consent. Calendars are we? Have we have speakers on one and 2, and then a speaker who wants to speak on all of the consent. Do you want to, Mayor? Could I just add a quick question on Item 5. But I'm happy to hear a public comment first, st okay, And so why don't we, since we have a speaker who wants to address all of all of consent, consent and comments. So why don't we have that speakers come forward Kdr. Followed by followed by well, Blavio Andrade, and then Alex. Parker. good evening. I'm actually speaking on some agenda, some not on the agenda that are also related to multiple agenda items. So I checked off for both public comment for matters. Not on the agenda this past. Okay? Well, it's related to the agenda item. So I'll go ahead and just thank you for your time. So I am curious. Why we are well, I'll relate it to agenda. Item 2, which is speaking about inflating the current police budget of Pasadena, which I am against. And I wonder why we're not increasing the 3rd agenda item more, which is to actually put that in. It seems like we are taking money from a community college to increase our fire budget by 10 times less than you are requesting to increase the police budget. So I have concerns about that I have major concerns about where the emergency funding for the displaced residents of the Eaton fire are. And again, how that could be taken from instead of going to increasing the police budgets. Why, we won't have a long term housing for these displaced residents. I have contacted the mayor's office multiple times about this. They passed me to the city manager's office. They passed me to the Red Cross. So I'm here today to just talk about how this is all connected someone else mentioned earlier about how we are funding genocide. And again, all that money could be coming back into local programming. And you mentioned student loan debt. So just for context. the Pasadena sends 9 and a half over 9.5 million dollars to fund Israel, which could provide almost 6,000 households with free months, rent 20,000 families, with one month's free groceries, 3,300 children receiving free or low cost, health care, 103 school salaries for elementary school teachers. 27,000 households with solar electricity and 251 students, student loan debt canceled. I'm also against agenda. Item one. I hope that you will look into how Dell is knowingly benefiting from aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal young children. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Flavio Andrade, followed by Alex Parker. Mr. Andrade. Welcome. Alright, so I'm talking in regards to the number 2. Item, and that's pretty much giving or sending some money to the chp, like I said earlier, I'm sure we could find other options to spend our money, and the reason I say. That is because I always speak in regards to stuff that I go through when we want other officers that are not from our city don't belong here and we're funding them. We get affected, for example, the Rose Bowl, when you guys had the event, for you know New Year's, or whatever that parade is, I couldn't even cross. It took me almost an hour to cross, even though you guys have designated areas for people to cross when it's pretty much allowed for me to cross when it stopped or they're going slow. It took me from Las Robles all the way to Orange Grove until I found a Pasadena police officer that listened to me because the sheriff didn't Chp didn't listen. All I'm trying to do is cross. Where to my job on fair auction Colorado. No one allowed me. It took an officer to come and follow me all the way back. and for me to get late. Be late, to work for me to crash. And then, when I'm coming, all of a sudden. someone that doesn't look like me, that's white. They let them cross. They're letting them cross. So obviously, you know what I mean. They don't know their protocols. They don't know who to talk to. They might just be simple deputies, whatever their you know their protocols are or not. Those are. Those are things that I don't understand. Why we'll be putting more money into officers that aren't going to understand people like myself that live here. So I would just seek other options. Or if you are going to hire these people, then train them right because I was late to work, and that's not cool. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alex Parker. Mr. Parker. I just I just want to echo what the other previous speakers have said, I don't think giving more money to Chp is something that's in the best interest of Pasadena. especially whenever, like one speaker said less than a 10th of that is going to the fire department, and we're getting it from a community college. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That completes public comment on the consent. Calendar. Is there a motion on the consent calendar, Mayor? There's an amendment to Item 4 through the Finance Committee. It's the amendment is to increase the tree planting allocation from $70,000 to $150,000. Okay? And and it's important to point out that the Finance Committee had a robust discussion related to trees and the planning of trees at the urging of Council Member Pole. We're going to be looking at. Some of the root causes no pun intended for the increase lost in trees, and see if we can head those off, or maybe pun intended. but we are increasing the the dollars for planning. And Mayor, I had a question on. Item 5. We discussed this Msc. And you know this is essentially just a risk-based approach that sets target based on operations and infrastructure needs. But I know part of our discussion. We landed on a target of 90 days, but also a minimum of best practice. What I thought would be 45 days, I think Mr. Lyon thought about a percentage of the days landing on to return to city council within 90 or within 30 days, either by report or or by coming to city council to let us know that this target has dropped to 45 days or to a minimum council member, David Reyes, interim general manager for water and power, and we have Lynn Shaymowitz, our Cfo. Here, if the questions get more involved. We had landed on as a staff report presented to you this evening 60 days, with the idea that we would come and report out anyways, but if it ever dropped below the threshold that we identified, we would immediately let the council know what was going on, but regardless of that, we would make sure that we quarterly to let the both the public as well as Msc. And the council, know where exactly we stand on reserves, and where our financial potential challenges would be so that there's greater transparency going forward. That's really the intent. So so if the target is 90 days we're we're working on. But if it drops to 60 days, then we would immediately. Okay, yeah, that's what I wanted to make sure. And would you come back to city council, or is that through like a memo, probably through the city manager, or we would figure out the format, and then we would decide if there was an issue that was large enough to come to Msc. Or to the full Council to report. But I think that the idea would be that every quarter we would make sure we come to Msc. And then, if it dropped below the 60, we would, through some means communicate with the city council and the public. So I'd be transparent. Okay, and I know we have our retreat soon, and I think this would be a good discussion, for like a trigger event reporting to look at other departments throughout the city. And I'm thinking of like Csc, for example, if we get I don't know. 10 graffiti. you know, requests coming in a concentrated area. Perhaps that becomes a trigger event. Report to the city council, and then hopefully, that help inform us in our decision making, or if we wanted to direct staff or direct city manager, I should say, to take some sort of action. So I think just thinking about that moving forward. Mr. Paul, did you have? Thank you, Mayor, for your comments on our discussion at Finance Committee? I just wanted for additional context for both my colleagues and the city council. This will allow the city, which traditionally has planted about 400 trees a year. The the amendment will allow us this year to to plant 600 last calendar year. We lost 500 trees. So this will allow us to actually get ahead and begin to address the need. But there was, as the mayor has said, there's more opportunity to talk about our urban forest and tree policy that will come back at a different time through a different format, but this allows us to significantly increase the number of tree replacements and new trees in our parks and on our streets. Mr. Hampton? Yeah. And I agree with getting ahead. But during the windstorm, how do? And I should have asked this at finance, how do those trees get replaced. Is this a part of that tree replacement? For because there was 400 plus city trees that fell over during the windstorm. I and I don't know the answer to that. I can certainly get back to you on that question, but I believe that you know we didn't plan for the windstorm, so we don't have that budget. But I think my sense is that this increase from 400 to 600 will try to make up for some of the losses that happened during the windstorm, and, as was mentioned in the past, we've done a lot more than 400 trees, and we've had most years. We plant more trees than are removed. But that's not true this year, and I think it's going to be even more true because of the windstorm. So you know, we're grateful for this additional funding to plant more trees, and we're happy to take a look at tree planting and removal holistically. because ultimately, you know, the number of 600 we will still be short, so maybe 600 is the number to go with for next year. But if you could get that information to us to let us know. That is already the 400 plus trees that were that have fallen were part of this calculation. Yeah, that was certainly part of the of the calculus and something we'll be looking at. Okay. With that. Is there a motion on the consent calendar, I'll make a motion or second. So, moved by Mr. Cole, seconded by Mr. Jones. Jones. Okay, roll call, and that's with the amendment. Yes, incorporated. Thank you. Councilmember Cole. Yes, Customer Hampton. Yes, Councilor Jones. Yes, Councillor Lyon. Yes, Councilor Madison. Yes. Councilmemor Masuda. Yes, Vice Mayor Rivas. Yes, Mayor Gordo. Yes, the motion is approved without opposition. Next brings us to item 8, and this is a continuing of a public hearing. It's rather than continue, Mayor, that in compliance with the zoning code, the hearing will be renoticed because it had been continued twice already, so it cannot be continued a 3rd time. It requires it to be renoticed, and the renoticed hearing will occur on Monday, March 3, rd 2025 at 6 pm. And that gives the applicant and the appellant an opportunity to meet and confer on the matter. Okay. there's no action for the council on this item. Okay? And then we move on to Item 9, 9, and I will open the public here. Sorry Mirror. This is a time and place for the public hearing on the approval of the Annual Action Plan Plan 2022 to 2023, and related funding applications for the is that right? No, that's not the right. not the right one. Sorry this is the public hearing. For I got the wrong. Here we go for consideration of a temporary suspension, modification of zoning development standards and processes for rebuilding structures damaged due to the Eden fire and temporary extension of certain land use related deadlines for entitlements, and permits, in compliance with title 17, zoning code, title, 16, subdivisions, and title, title, 14, Buildings and Construction. on February 13, th 17, th and 2025. The public, hearing notice was published in the Pasadena Press. No mailing or posting was required by this. For this public hearing. and for item 9. The city clerk's office received one letter advocating for the city, together with the county of Los Angeles, to rebuild the Pasadena Altadena neighborhood as a model sustainable community and provided comments on the matter. that correspondence was distributed. The Council posted online as part of the record for this item. City manager. Thank you, Mayor. Miss Jennifer, Page, director of Planning and community Development, along with Luis Rocha, will provide a Powerpoint presentation, and then we're happy to answer questions. Miss Page. Thank you. Miguel Lewis is going to walk you through a presentation that provides an overview, a more detailed overview than we've been able to present up until now on the structures that were lost in the fire. We have more details based on zoning district. We've done a lot of research to bring a proposal to you tonight that has the State orders, and we have some additional flexibility that we're proposing to provide for some of the properties as well as some extensions on billing permit time, limit limits and some other orders. So Luis is going to walk you through. We're available to answer any questions. But we're hopeful that this provides some information that's been missing on really some details related to the losses of the fire. So I'll hand it over to you, Lewis. Great. Thank you, Jennifer. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. This next item before you is consideration of temporary rebuilding standards related to the inland fire. This slide before you has a table that has an overview of the total structures lost as a result of the fire, 185 structures, notably 117. Of those were single family dwelling units, 12 multifamily units and 3 adus properties that were destroyed. Properties with destroyed structures are generally located along the northern boundary of the city. within 4 clusters it went in the Natha community, Dundee Heights, Victory Rose and Upper Hastings Ranch in Council district. One properties with destroyed with destroyed structures, are generally located at the intersection of Montana and Glen in the Nathan neighborhood. In the Rs. Zone. also at the intersection of Walworth and Highland in the Dundee Heights area, also Zone, Rs. And there's also a residence that was destroyed at Floresita Lane up at the upper left hand corner of the map. In Council District 4. We generally had 2 clusters of fires on the lower left hand corner of the map. We had the Victory Rose neighborhood that's around south and west of the St. Luke site that's highlighted in blue. This area generally consists of properties in the Rs zone, Rm. And Rm. 32. Multifamily zone. a residential Pd. Zoning district, and the Ps. Zone which constitutes the Saint Luke's Hospital site in the Upper Hastings ranch area. All these properties are in the HD overlay. What's interesting about the Upper Hastings ranch. As we'll discuss further in the presentation, it consists of 3 sub areas that describe 3 different stages of development sub area. One in the middle was built in the 19 fifties sub area 2 to the north was the sixties and seventies and sub area. 3, highlighted in green to the west was in the 19 eighties. In between these 2 clusters along New York drive. We have 2 properties that also had structures that were destroyed. The red dot towards the north is the Pasadena Police Department shooting range that lost 2 structures, and then the other red dot along New York drive is a former Y.M.C.A. Building this table. I know it's a lot to take in, but it was provided to the Council in their agenda packet as attachment A to the staff report. I won't go through the entire table in detail, but it does have a breakdown of each Council district. the neighborhoods, the zoning districts, and the total structures lost. Again, I'll just reemphasize that in District one in both of the neighborhoods identified. There were 16 single family dwellings lost. and 2 adus in District 4. There were a total of 101 single family structures that were lost, one adu and 12 multifamily units. Now that we have an idea of geographically where these structures were located, and where the properties were situated in relation to the fire. We'll give a quick summary of the neighborhoods the structures that consisted in those neighborhoods, and some stats for each of those sites for property zoned Rs. We had 3 neighborhoods. We had Natha Dundee Heights, and Victory rose on this table. You'll see that they were all generally between 1,360 to 1,530 square feet in size. lot sizes between 7,400 9,300 square feet on average. all generally built between the 19 twenties and forties, all primarily single story and all primarily didn't have pools. They all had traditional yards. and the photos below are examples of some of the homes that were lost in the fire. This next slide provides the same level of detail for the Upper Hastings ranch area. As I mentioned earlier. Hastings Ranch was developed in 3 stages, stage One, with which we're referring to as sub area one, which is the 1st roll of information that had 46 structures that were destroyed. Average size of those structures were 2,000 square feet, built in the 19 fifties, also primarily single story, and most of them had pools sub area 2, which was developed in the sixties and seventies, lost 30 homes. Those homes were a little bit larger up to about 2,700 square feet in size. and also larger lot sizes up almost up to 14,000 square feet. We had a quarter of those homes that were 2 story, and half of them had pools. and the last area that was developed in Philips. Upper Hastings Ranch was developed in the eighties on the western side that neighborhood lost 4 homes, all about 5,500 square feet in size, large lots. A majority of them were 2 stories, and they all had swimming pools, and the images below are a depiction of homes that were lost that correlate to the chart above for properties that were zoned Rm. Or Pd. There were a total of 16 dwelling units that were lost, and as far as commercial structures. On the bottom, right hand corner we have a table. We lost property structures in the Ps zone. the OS zone and the Rs zone, 5 structures in total. Now that we have an idea of the structures that we're trying to rebuild. The next stage of the presentation will discuss our approach to rebuilding the first.st The 1st tool that we have at our disposal is the executive order that was issued earlier this year and amended February 13.th This order suspends Ceqa for the rebuilding of structures that were destroyed provided at these structures do not exceed the previous footprint by more than 10%. They don't exceed their previous height by more than 10%, and are substantially in the same location as previously existed. So as an example, if somebody had a 1,500 square foot home and they wanted to add, they could add up to 10% to that original size. They have another 150 square feet to add to the footprint. If they had a 20 foot tall home, they get an additional 10%, so that equates to 2 additional feet in height. If they wanted to. As far as location goes, they would have to reconstruct it in the same location as it previously existed. In order to provide more options to rebuild structures destroyed by the fire staff does recommend the following additional standards that would be layered on top of the executive orders for us, we're proposing that rebuild structures may exceed the previous footprint or overall gross floor area by 10%. Whichever is greater, that provides more flexibility in that floor area takes into account 1st floor or second floor alterations again with the caveat that any added area must either meet current setback requirements or maintain their existing nonconforming setback. As far as location goes, we're proposing that rebuild structures could be at a different location on the site, either by complying with setback requirements or maintaining their nonconforming setbacks. yes, based on on those recommendations. If somebody had a 1,500 square foot home with the added 10% they could use that 150 square foot expansion to modify their 1st floor or upper floor. and as it relates to location, if somebody could choose to rebuild their home at the existing location, or could choose to modify the location of their home, set it back more, detach it from the garage or some other configuration as long as they maintain nonconformities, or comply with standards. The chart now on your screen identifies the typical types of projects in these hillside areas that would require that would trigger an entitlement and a public hearing. What you'll see here is that in the hillside overlay district new residences, second floor additions, additions greater than 500 square feet to the 1st floor. Certain accessory structure sizes would normally trigger a hillside permit which will also require a public hearing. If somebody was proposing to rebuild, rebuild their structures, utilizing the provisions we just went through. There would be no Hcp. Or no public hearing. However, if somebody wanted to build beyond the provisions, we just discussed the up to 10% and ability to maintain nonconformities. Those projects may be subject to a site development permit with a hearing depending on the proposed size. so those are our recommendations related to the rebuilding. We also recommend that, due to the regional impacts of the emergency, we do anticipate that there will be high demand for labor. technical services and materials for the next several years. We acknowledge that this may delay project timeline Citywide, therefore, Staff recommends an automatic 12 month extension for all zoning and subdivision entitlements and building permits, and this would apply to all existing approvals and future entitlements and permits, and not just for properties that were destroyed by the fire, and these would be permits that were deemed complete, while the interim uncodified ordinance is in effect well, we also wanted to highlight, in addition to the rebuilding efforts, Staff did pivot to our recovery efforts, and we did initiate several programs earlier on when the fires were 1st ongoing to provide direct assistance to fire damage properties. We had assigned dedicated planners to assist with rebuild and permitting questions. We also assigned dedicated community connectors to assist with non permitting questions. we launched virtual consultations and virtual webinars, and the virtual consultations have been extremely helpful for folks that are displaced that are not in the area and not able to attend the permit center in person. We also have expedited plan check review when plans are submitted for a new house with a dedicated interdepartmental team to conduct those reviews. We also have next day building inspections, and we're also exploring a standard plans program for single family dwellings very similar to the Adu standard Plan program already in Place citywide, we do have next day building inspections for any residential project that has an active building permit. We've also have been assisting our neighboring community, Altadena. allowing them to relocate critical community serving uses by utilizing the temporary use permit process. We've extended this to private schools, daycare centers, and religious facilities. We do, however, require that our building and safety staff provide direct assistance to ensure fire and life. Safety requirements are met, and they're allowed to occupy the building, utilizing temporary certificate of occupancies that are granted for up to 180 days at a time. Where typically these certificate of occupancies are only granted for 30 days at a time, and our building official maintains the ability to extend these temporary certificate of occupancies separately from the efforts that we're taking on here at the local level. The executive orders have been issued by the Governor to address housing. They're allowing detached accessory dwelling units to be constructed prior to the main dwelling and allowing recreational Rvs recreational vehicles, mobile homes and modular structures to be used as temporary housing prior to the main development being constructed, staff is preparing guidance sheets for Adus and Rvs. And to explain these State orders and assist property owners should they be interested in pursuing these options while their homes are being reconstructed for next steps, staff will continue to assess if other temporary measures will be needed to assist in the rebuilding effort, and this may include, but it's not limited to review of permit related fees and additional development process adjustments. And this could be the 1st in a potential series of temporary amendments with that staff does recommend that the City Council find that these actions are not subject to Ceqa and direct the city attorney to prepare an interim uncodified ordinance that will suspend or modify development standards and procedures to simplify the rebuild process of structures that were destroyed by the inn fire automatically provide a 12 month extension for all zoning and subdivision entitlements and building permits and incorporate the Governor's executive orders related to rebuilding that concludes Staff's presentation, and we're available to answer questions. Thank you, Mr. Cole. Your 1st I want to thank the staff both for a comprehensive and thoughtful report and and set of recommendations, and also for all the work that is going on. Besides that, it's it's a terrific effort on the city's part, one area that that is sort of shoulder to this is at least 8 of the units were presumably occupied by renters in the apartment building. The adus may or may not have been occupied, may or may not have been rented. Some of the townhouses, townhouses, and homes may or may not have been rented. I've asked before if we had information about how many of the households affected were occupied by tenants. Do we have that information? Now? We do not, but we can get that information from the housing department. Okay? Planning staff does not have that information. And and for both tenants and homeowners. have we been able to assist? And have you found a need for assistance for the temporary housing? Not that we have an obligation to house people, but that we could point them in the direction of the Sba loans of the disaster relief centers of the private nonprofits that have stepped up to help people because no one is going to be able to rebuild, for in less than year, more realistically, 2 to 3 to 5 years, and people want to stay close, generally speaking, either because of family or because of jobs or because of kids in school. So what what's been our role in helping people stay connected to Pasdena so they can rebuild or move back in if they were tenants. I can say that from the planning department we included the renters as we did the property owners in the community connector program so that they had a resource. We knew that they may have different needs than bringing an Rv on site or doing something differently. So we've we've had them connected to their community connector. I know that there have been some questions and some outreach on that through our community connectors in terms of us, providing them with access to information and resources. But we could come back or work through the housing department to come back with a more detailed response on some of those efforts. That's not what we were looking at as part of the rebuild piece, but we did make sure that we included them in the community connector program. No, and none of this is is critical. I just know that Altadena has thousands of people who are out in the housing market, and my heart goes out to them, and and and I hope that the county and nonprofits step up to help them. I think we have an obligation to these 125 households to help them as much as possible. Stay in Pasadena if they want to. and we can't step up and make that happen with by writing them a check. But to the extent that we can connect them with the available resources. It's an extraordinarily competitive market out there, and I would hate to see someone have to move to Fontana or to Lancaster, or to you know Orange County, because and take their kids with them and and and have to switch jobs because competing against thousands of other people in an already tight market, they didn't have access to the information that could help them stay here. So that's that's my concern. And we don't have to answer that today. But we're 7 weeks out from the fire, and I hope that we will really focus on making sure that as much help gets to the people in Pasdena who were affected as possible. I have some comments, but that's the end of my questions. Okay, Mr. Hampton, followed by Mr. Masuda. So if we're taking comments at the end, I could wait because I I'm supportive of this recommendation. So I could. I could wait for comments if we're gonna take him at that. Well, go go ahead. And I mean, well, are there any other questions before we go to comments? No. okay. Well, at the appropriate time I'd like to make a motion to move approval of a staff recommendation. And then, if there's only at this time just for comments, then I'll just make a few comments. I want to you know. Commend Staff on moving extremely quickly. I mean, this is. I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of folks that would say, this is not that quick, but this is very quick in in government. So I'll just say, you guys are moving at light speed. So thank you. There are some things that I have brought up in multiple meetings. And you know I'm gonna keep on drumming that until we get it on the agenda. You know, and one is pre-approved plans. Fee waivers And then also, where are we at with? You know I've been doing a lot of research on this since, you know, in my district, and as well as Councilman Masuda's district, we've had. We're the ones that were impacted. So I've been doing a lot of research on. You know how many people moved back after a tragic event like this? And what are the barriers from preventing people from moving back? And so I was just wondering if Staff has done any research and looking at what has happened in Maui. What has happened in the campfire, you know as well as I think the station I mean, you know, there's there's so many homes that have been lost. A paradise, you know, only only a quarter of their population, or less than maybe a little more than a quarter of the population has moved back since. So we have an opportunity to look at what were barriers for them. so that we don't present those same barriers moving forward. So. I like to see that this is step one of what we're going to be offering. But I want to also reiterate to our residents that there's more, as as mentioned in the last slide of the of the presentation. There's still more work to be done, and I just want to make sure that we are looking at. You know the totality of it all. So I want to once again thank you for this, and this is this is great work. Thank you, Mr. Masuda, followed by Mr. Lyon. Thank you, Mayor. 1st of all, I want to say that I agree with Council Member Cole, that our focus is to make sure that our residents stay in Pasadena and try to do the have the the work by our planning department to make it easier for them to stay. Here's my question, the 10% that they can build extra over their existing parcel. Is it every time you build 10% more? Are you always changing the foundation. It depends. We've been encouraging folks to opt into the foundation removal as part of the debris removal, because you don't know. And our billing official Jesse Deanda can come up and provide comment as well. You don't necessarily know if that foundation is going to be adequate enough to support the new structure, especially if it's been through a fire. So you're going to have to do extensive testing, and you have to make sure that the foundation can support it if you had a single story, and you want to go to a 2 story. Is that foundation going to be able to support that work? So we've been encouraging folks to really consider when they're doing the opt-in to also include the foundation removal, because when it comes down to the cost and the work and the studies that it's going to take for the to analyze whether or not that foundation could support an addition or a new structure. You're probably better off doing a new foundation, Jesse may have more to add, but that's really the short answer is, we're encouraging people to have the foundation removed when they're removing the debris. I appreciate the short answer, and that's great, you know. Are you also expressing to the Resident that if they do remove their foundation the cost that is so much higher than when you, when you keep the foundation definitely. Thank you. And good evening, council, mayor and council members the foundation itself. Obviously, there's a cost associated with both. It really does depend on the amount of extent of where the 10% is added to the home, whether it's on the peripheral, or if it's being increased on a second story above an existing one story, and and really the condition of the foundation as it's left. In instances new foundation can be less expensive than retrofitting or damaged fixing damaged foundations. So it really is subject site specific to the condition of the foundation that we find these properties in at the end of the debris removal also subject to the origination of the original foundation. How old that is, the sustainability or sorry. Excuse me, the structural stability of that foundation of the year it was built. Technology has improved. It is better, and the current codes do rely on those later standards of construction foundation technology. So by all means, it is really subject to the foundation condition that we find it in. If there has been physical damage, heat, damage, and really the extent of where the foundation needs to be expanded or or reinforced, if it's the existing foundation to be used overall. So by all means, it is a an element that would tell our property owners to really evaluate and really reconsider subjectively. We think keeping something is, is cheaper than building something brand new. But the 19 sixties, 19 twenties, 1930 homes may be essentially foundations that are not really viable for today's standards, and and to be able to maintain this seismic stability, the structure stability that we are looking for even to current standards at the moment. Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Lyon, followed by Mr. Cole. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the report, and for all the work that's gone into this. I know this has been an incredibly trying and busy