City Council Meeting: June 3, 2024

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PUBLIC COMMENT INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCCIONES PARA COMENTARIOS PÚBLICOS

AGENDA

CITY COUNCIL AND

THE SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE

PASADENA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

JUNE 3, 2024

Closed Session: 4:30 P.M.

Public Meeting: 5:30 P.M.

Public Hearing: 5:30 P.M.

Council Chamber, Pasadena City Hall

100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249

CLOSED SESSION – 4:30 P.M.

A.

SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE PASADENA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8

Property: 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA

Agency Negotiators: Miguel Márquez

Negotiating Party: Designated entities pursuant to Surplus Land Act (Gov’t Code § 54222(b))

Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment

ACTION: ITEM DISCUSSED; NO REPORTABLE ACTION AT THIS TIME

B.

CITY COUNCIL CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6

Agency Designated Representatives: Miguel Márquez and Tiffany Jacobs-Quinn

Employee Organization: Pasadena Police Lieutenants Association

ACTION: ITEM NOT DISCUSSED

PUBLIC MEETING – 5:30 P.M.

ROLL CALL, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, AND CEREMONIAL MATTERS

PUBLIC COMMENT ON MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA

Public comment will be limited to a total of 20 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and will continue at the conclusion of the meeting, if necessary. Comments are limited to 3 minutes each, and the Mayor may limit this time if reasonable under the circumstances.

The City Council may not discuss or take action on issues not on the meeting agenda, except that members of the City Council or staff may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by persons exercising public testimony rights (Government Code Section 54954.2).

CONSENT CALENDAR

(The Consent Calendar consists of routine items which will be approved by one motion and one vote unless removed for separate discussion. There will be one opportunity for public comment on all consent items. Comments are limited to 3 minutes each, and the Mayor may limit this time if reasonable under the circumstances.)

tttttttttttttttttt fording in progress could good evening everyone. Uh, welcome to the JUNE 3rd twenty twenty four meeting of the past the city council. We'll start with the calling of rome. Thank you, mayor council member hamptons here he is not yet in the room. COUNCILMAN Jones is here. He's not yet in the room. COUNCILMAN Leon here, COUNCILMAN Massouda here. Customer service here, customer williams here based me madison here, gordo here. There's a quorum of the council present. Thank you is here esterline will you do sign the regents? Yes. And the other if you please stand as you able place raise your hand over your heart ready begin. I pledge 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. We do have a couple of ceremonial matters before we start the council's business the first being a congratulations to two of our p usd students one from john miller and one from passing a high school. We have with this two incredible student athletes nicholas dellis from john, your high school and latonia miller from passing the high school. They both recently completed the cia swimming competition and both did a terrific job recently competed in both the fifty yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle at the cia state para para athlete championships earning him the best time in both events. His time in the fifty was nine seconds faster than last year at thirty five point six nine and in one hundred he was twenty seconds faster than last year at a minute twenty four 87 he is officially the third fastest in both para athlete sieff events and in all of california latonia also competed this year at both sieff southern section and cia of state under the leadership of coach caitlin mogel in the 50 yard freestyle at the division three cia para inclusion champion yipes latonia one third place throughout the season latonia made great progress and had many improvements over last year and we are pleased to celebrate latonia nicks wins this evening. I'd like to congratulate both nick and antonio on these fine accomplishments. Come on up here and please receive a on behalf of the city council and residents of passino. Thank you for representing our community so well. Thank you . Why don't we invite principal loten gray and jennifer holly to say a few words very brief on behalf of the um the trustees of the pasadena unified school district. Thank you so much for honoring our athletes. This means so much although I must say I am not surprised and i look forward to more and I just want to say to both of you we are so honored to have you in our school system because you bring us great joy and great pride and it's fabulous work. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I will turn this over to one of our wonderful principals. Thank you so much for having me this evening. Thank you so much for recognizing these incredible students and to nick nick not only the great student for swimming but he's also incredible golfer and just an all around incredible person on campus. So just so proud of you, nick and to your family. Thank you for coming out and to our coach coach jenkins, our swim coach. Thank you so much for being here as well. So what's the next we are so proud of you and keep it up the great work in congratulations to both of the athletes and if you're here as a friend, supporter, coach uh or a staff person from those schools, please stand and be recognized . Thank you. Next. As we all know, we had a celebration today recap I'm sorry kicking off a pride month with the flag raising ceremony that took place this afternoon in front of city hall and tonight I wanted to present a proclamation recognizing the flag raising and thank you to those members of the city council who were able to attend the event today. It this event today is just further evidence. As I said this afternoon of pasadena inclusive city and embracing of people from every aspect of our community. And so we should all be very proud of the diversity and the way pasadena embraces that diversity residents and the like. So uh, who do I present? Yeah, you were there. Yeah, ok, no ok. That's our no and one final proclamation um is gun violence awareness day. Uh, we all know the importance of keeping in mind, uh the dangers of guns in the hands of those who are not trained to have uh who who don't take the time to us to understand the dangers of weapons in the wrong hands. And so today we encourage everyone to seek out training and to um support good statewide efforts to strengthen gun safety laws and educate the community on safe gun storage. And it is appropriate to set aside time to honor those americans whose lives are cut short each year by gun violence and the countless survivors whose lives are forever altered now therefore I victor and gordon, mayor of the city of pasadena on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim JUNE seven twenty twenty four in pasadena as said violence awareness day . Good evening mayor gordo and city council on behalf of day one we are really honored to receive this proclamation for national gun violence awareness day as the pasadena resident myself for nearly three decades, I can attest to the increased safety and sense of community that the city has gone through over the last three decades. I do vividly remember seeing some dangerous situations in different areas of pasadena growing up in middle school but over the years the city has definitely become a safer place for everyone. So not only is this testament to what the council has been doing, what the police what the police department has been doing but I would say everyone involved including community as I know there's several community members out there that really, really care about the safety of pasadena and making sure that everyone has equal access to resources that are available to them. So once again, thank you so much your mayor council. Lastly, I would like to invite everyone to our day one happening this friday on national gun violence awareness . It is going to be called home a safe place where we will be going over safe gun storage. But beyond that, what else can create a safe so on that we will be talking about topics such as opioid per opioid overdose prevention, emergency preparedness and other things that can create a loving and safe environment for everyone. Once again, thank you so much and have a great evening. Thank you. ok, next to we'll move on to public comment for matters not on the agenda. We have three speaker cards submitted for matters not on the agenda. Allen shay stacy strickler and eric lensink and who's not so allen shay ok, ellen's not here. Stacy range strickler two minutes spoken. Yeah. Good evening council. MR. Mayor, at the council meeting on APRIL 8th about the sewer rate increases, the director of public works said that he made up the department deficit by moving money earmarked for capital improvement to operation because he sees it as one big budget a week later, finance director mark hawkins worth attempted to reassure council and the community that any transfers of money between capital and operating have to be authorized by the city council. But he never explicitly said this is what happened at the APRIL 8th meeting council member madison's reaction implied that the transfer of funds happened without proper authorization. MR. Madison, I was curious if you have looked further into this matter and are you satisfied that the transfer was proper? I previously asked if there is any record of council's authorization that can be reviewed by the public and where might this be found? MR. Mayor gordon said that he would instruct staff to reach out to me that was two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything yet. I'm sure you're tired of hearing me ask about this and once I see the evidence that the transfer was made with proper authorization I won't come back again at least not about this matter. Thank you. You're a klingon no. Uh, and then we have one other speaker holding as the last speaker on matters on the agenda MR. Adriana battista. MR. Denham, how's everyone over? It was fine with that and I'm not going to take up your time because I don't really have the three minutes I can get a train of thought across the anyway's but over the time that I've been coming through I know you all know what I'm here about so we won't even go over that again. I am I'm holding our government in so much contempt not because of you guys. It's not your fault from the bottom from the top down and it all needs fixing and I'm besieging on one of you stand up all you stand up and let's do something about the wrongs that are in our system and there's so many of them I wish I could come talk about some of the good things that I can see we could do in pasadena. But I've been so busy trying to get the right thing to happen from the academically matter that I've had to overlook the other things. Like I say I don't have enough time for all three to talk so i'm not going to even try. But I'll call on you all to be honorable like the first of your namesake and let's do the right thing. Can we do that them adriana batista is the last speaker so welcome. Thank you. I also want to I saw that in the closed session those a meeting with the passing the police lieutenants association and I want to remind you all that the group who did the independent review of officer edwin doomer guandong murdering anthony mclean on AUGUST fifteen twenty twenty our group recommended the city revisit its agreement with the poa requiring the department that requires the department to preview recorded evidence with officers prior to being interviewed about officer involved shootings they've been recommending since hendrickx mcdade was shot and killed that the view and listen first policy creates the impression the department is attempting to influence the officer's accounts so they can be tailored to the audio and video evidence. So before you all continue to make agreements with powa, you all need to require of them accountability and transparency. That's been recommended by our own our own independent police auditor and also that's been recommended by the county's auditor who came and visited our community police oversight commission. Also I want to say that gun violence prevention is extremely, extremely important and and some of the main causes of gun violence are actually poverty, homelessness, things that the police department does not address. And so before you continue to put millions more in things such as kill room which was recently reported that a pasadena police department has a batistuta room, let's make sure all the kids in pasadena are are well fed both these to your time's expired. Thank you very much. That completes the public comment matters not on the agenda that brings us to the consent calendar and items for five oh report in closed session the council did meet in closed session and discuss item a item b was not discussed at this evening's meeting and there's no record and there is no reportable action now that brings us to the consent calendar and I'm going to hold items for five and six from a sweep motion. Is there a motion make that motion there second set and we have public comment on items for six vote. Oh, I'm sorry. So there's a motion the second for all consent calendar items with the exception of four or five and six any objections c no objections. Those matters are approved with regard to four, five and six we do have public comment on four and six will we'll hear public comment. Yes. Uh, elliott and elliott mcadam is item four and cynthia candy is item six. and then before we bring them on, the city clerk's office received three letters related to item four expressing appreciation, gratitude and support to heritage housing partners for their work in the community, including assisting the community with home ownership that was related item four that those correspondance were posted online distributed the council are part of the record for that item. So the first speakers elliot mcadam not only then call cynthia kennedy for item six is kennedy. Welcome. Good evening. Sometimes it is necessary to throw good money after bad in this case four million dollars for dirty gas electricity from a plant that's going to have to be phased out. But before you approve this, I urge you to consider a few things. One, why is the price right now almost double the original estimate? There's probably a good answer for this but I think I would like to know and even the proposal the communication apparently from general electric is that it could be even more so are we throwing good money after bad? Is there a good reason for this kind of increase? Another question that I would like to know just as a resident who lives here in the summer is is it still true that we won't have the turbine back until the end of the summer and do we have alternatives if it in fact is a peaker plant that we absolutely must have and we can't close it down as people argue what are we going to do this summer? Are there alternatives? And then finally there are lawsuits all over the country against general electric for defective turbines and I think it's important to assess what does this mean? We've had the illusion that this glenarm plant just is kind of safe safe thing that we can lean on as we make the necessary transition to renewable energy. But is it is it safe? Is it dependable? Are we going to have these turbine problems ongoing? So that's that's my question. It MAY be necessary, as I say, to throw good money after bad. But please let's think about what this means. Maybe you have I just don't know the answers. Thank we did have two more speaker submitted as she was speaking adriana batiste four item four and five. You're going to get two minutes for the two items not each but get together and then charles lubman was the next speaker. So adriana batiste for two minutes I I I don't know vocalize my support for items or for transitional use housing. I do want to point out on the staff report it says that nine out of the ten units will be used for transitional use housing. So what will the tenth unit be used for? Is my question and and also I find the regulatory approval of transfers encumbrances a little bit to forgiving I'll say on the heritage housing partner side because it says that in case this transitional youth housing project becomes financially unsustainable they MAY operate it as affordable rental housing for persons at 60 percent of am I and I just want to point out that if this if the city agrees that transition youth housing is so desperately in need like the reports, then why wouldn't they try to find another operator to partner with in that event if this project doesn't work before opening it up to a higher income bracket? And I also want to say that heritage housing they had a unit that went up for resale and the mortgage was almost four thousand dollars a month. So I find those transfer of what would happen in the event of either resale or finding new tenants to be a little bit too forgiving on heritage housing and it actually doesn't create like protection of the of the housing that we that the city is financing and producing in long term vision. So I want to recommend that this be held so that you can vet that transfer area of the contract a little bit better so that you can actually see this project be going on for generations. MISS Urged tenants and not give so much leeway to hp. Thank you. Which I think they've been lubman shlub welcome. Good evening mayor. Members of the city council I was really put the card in so i could answer your questions after the presentation by staff. Thanks. I don't think we need a presentation. Ok that completes public comment on the consent calendar. I told it to move four or five and six. I asked for a separate vote on item five. I'm not going to recuse myself forth so four and six and I'll second that moved and seconded. Are there any objections? C none four and six are approved and I will step out of the room for item five in recuse myself explain oh because I own rental property in the city. Thank you. Ok I'll just stay where I am. I don't expect this to be too lengthy item five, I take it there are no requests for public comment on that. What is the will of the council motion to move item five to approve staff's recommendation? Second in motion and a second any objection? Very well that'll be adopted by that's called effective leadership. Thank you. That brings us to I 13 item. We're going to take item thirteen out of order and here that matter now. Thank you, mayor. The team from the economic development division of the city manager's office is making their way in and they will make it brief I believe it was the ten minute presentation and happy to answer any questions. mr. David kluger, director of economic development. Yes, hi. Good evening. I'm pleased to present the economic development strategic plan. This has been a process over the last eight or nine months or so we have had a real collaborative effort with many of the stakeholders in the community. We've had an advisory committee meeting as well and we've had three meetings with our advisory committee members, one of whom served as double duty on edtech and on the advisory committee and MR. Jason lyon also was a part of this and we thank him for his hearing this a couple of times. So thank you. And before we bring up our consultant lorissa ortiz council member line we want to say something. Sure. Thank you so as you heard we that there was a an ad hoc committee task force that worked on this and then it went through the economic development commission as well. So it's this has been a really long and thoughtful process. You'll hear from the consultants about how what we looked at and how it came together. You have in your packet the list people who were on the task force who represented virtually every aspect of civic life in pasadena not just the sort of economic aspects of life but but but the human aspects of life. And I'm proud of the of the work that they came up with. I did want to say if you haven't had a chance to really look at it deeply, it is I do commend it to you for a careful read because it has significant policy implications for all of the work we do not just in economic development but particularly you'll see in planning and land use where for example, pretty significantly oversubscribed and retail space and will be for the foreseeable future for where the retail market is headed. And so as we're looking at plans that tend to center and prioritize mixed use development for example, we MAY want to reconsider that and think carefully about where we're directing our retail energy in the city so it it it's a really smart and comprehensive plan and I am proud to support it tonight. So thank you. Thank you, MR. Mayor. If MR. Ortiz could step forward she's going to give a brief presentation. Welcome though. Good evening. For the record, surtees managing director of the street sense public nonprofit solutions team. We led the execution of this plan and I'm going to try to go over about a year's worth of work in ten minutes so we should get started. We can go to the next line. No comment. I got. Thank you. So the goal of this plan was really to offer both the city and the economic development division true guidance on policies, priorities, programs and services basically how is this team going to spend their time, their money, their resources and their pursuit of resources in the coming years? So we will be talking about that today. Next slide this is the end of our process. I'll I'll share with you what the the what we've gone through as as council member leon mentioned the advisory committee was really instrumental in developing these strategies. We are now at the conclusion of this. This is our last presentation. Following your review we will be issuing a final plan and final report next slide next slide. So in order to develop a plan we have to give you some insight on what the challenges are and that was the deepest dove that we conducted through this exercise and we worked through that by listening hearing challenges and also looking at your market conditions. So we looked at market demand. We looked at your physical environment. What is enabling customers to arrive and leave and are there points of friction that we can eliminate through intervention? What's your business environment like? What is driving people to pasadena and how can we improve those conditions so that more will come? And finally, what is the capacity of not just the city but the organizations whose participation is vital in executing this plan? So we looked at four elements next slide and we talked to as council member lynn mentioned, you know, many stakeholders and you can sort of look at us this is in your agenda packet but that was really critical to understanding some of the things that don't show up when we look at the numbers next line. So we ended up at a policy framework ultimately that reflects a set of opportunities and challenges that led us to five six principles really the first principle which we're calling zero zero principles about acknowledging the systems and partnerships that are really very important to advancing a plan. When you're talking about economic development that means engaging the private sector. It means making sure that the private sector is seated at the table and that their their interests are in line with public sector interests as well and that we can triangulate all of this with policies that we can support. The second is advancing life sciences and cultivating a deep ecosystem. What we found when we looked at the market was that you have really strong market fundamentals, lower unemployment, a cluster of deep tech and a and a wonderful set of entrepreneurs that we want to support in the ecosystem. The second is investing in local neighborhoods and small businesses. we know that your small businesses face many hurdles to to opening to market entry to getting started and we want to eliminate those particularly for minority and small business owners. The next is acknowledging pasadena is an amazing destination for culture and entertainment. How do we maintain that over time and how do we make sure more people come to pasadena? We're creating we often say how do we create a better mousetrap ? How do we make pasadena a better place to arrive and spend time and have people spend even more time? There are gaps in your offerings particularly we start talking about, you know, the paseo and what's happening at the paseo and we want to be able to fill those gaps with with culture and entertainment. The fourth is acknowledging that not everybody in pasadena has access to the same opportunities as everyone else that we have a very diverse community and and we have wonderful jobs that we want to make sure get to to to this diverse community. So that's expanding and streamlining workforce opportunities. And then the fifth is prioritizing place and accessibility. What does that mean? It means making sure that your streets are walkable, that this is a wonderful place to bike to to arrive at, you know, whether you're arriving by by bus by car, by foot that particularly your central district which is your most walkable district is really, truly accessible. Next slide so so those guiding principles lead to a set of tactics again all in your agenda, hackett and there's a lot to unpack here. But what I want to give you is is almost a little primer on how to read this plan when you get into it every single project that you see here has a set of very, very clear tactics which and this rubric that you see here is applied to that. So we identify the project. We give you a sense of who should be leading that project because it's not always the