City Council Meeting: June 17, 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 17 2024

Closed Session: 4:30 P.M.

Public Meeting: 5:30 P.M.

Council Chamber, Pasadena City Hall

100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249

CLOSED SESSION – 4:30 P.M.

A. A. CITY COUNCIL CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL regarding significant exposure to potential litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(d)(2): One (1) case

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: Non-Rep Non-Management, Non-Rep Management, and Non-Rep Executive Management

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.)

City Manager/Executive Director

1.

AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH SOUTHWEST PIPELINE & TRENCHLESS CORP., FOR fISCAL YEAR (Fy) 24-25 sewer relining and point repairs

project FOR AN AMOUNT NOT - TO - EXCEED $2,337,600 (Public Works Dept.)

Recommendation :

It is recommended that the City Council:

(1)

Find the contract proposed in the agenda report to be categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines in accordance with Title 14, Chapter 3, Article 19, Section 15301,

everyone around you were recording in progress vice mayor and council. We are live. Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the pasadena city council. I'm vice mayor steve madison. As you'll hear in a minute, I'm presiding tonight because the mayor is traveling and let's begin with the pledge of allegiance and I'll oh pardon me. Let's call role first council member hampton blessed and honored to be here. COUNCILMAN Jones here customer line here, casper massouda here, COUNCILMAN Travis here. Customer williams here, vice mayor madison here and mayor gordo is absent. Thank you. There's a quorum of the council present. Thank you, MR. City clerk and ask the city manager miguel marquez to lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please. Thank you. And if you would stand if you were able hand on your heart I pledge allegiance to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Apologize that we started a couple of minutes late. We did have a lengthy closed session and we have no reportable action from that meeting and I believe the city clerk has a statement to read. Thank you. Very smart. The mayor asked me to read a statement. Mayor gordo is not with us this evening as he is currently part of a U.S. Department of state delegation to your van armenia and participating in the first ever U.S. Armenia local democracy forum from JUNE 17th through the 18th 2024, the state department's subnational diplomacy unit and U.S. Embassy in europe organized the two day event to strengthen subnational ties between U.S. Local leaders and their armenian counterparts. Mayor gordon, the delegation which includes three other mayors of U.S. Cities, will be welcomed by the PRESIDENT Of the republic of armenia, vahan koocher touring the forum will feature discussions on technical assistance, service delivery, best practice sharing on how to maintain cross-border relations, ways to build strong democracies at a local level as well as cultural conversations . U.S. Department of state special representative for city and state diplomacy ambassador nina hutcheon is also part of the delegation. During the forum mayor gordon plans to discuss how engagement with local community groups and nonprofit organizations fosters a collective approach to governance, improves the effectiveness of municipal services and strengthens the community's social fabric. An additional topic of discussion that mayor gordo intends to discuss is how regional leadership connections facilitate collaboration with neighboring cities, counties and state governments, which allows for coordinated efforts on issues that transcend municipal boundaries such as transportation, public safety, housing, public health and environmental management. The U.S. Department of state will finance all travel costs including transportation, lodging and food for mayor gordo to participate in the two day forum. Thank you. Thank you MR. Chomsky. So now we'll do a ceremonial matter that we're very proud up and that's to acknowledge octavia butler, a renowned author. So I'll ask nikki and members of nasa to join me and council member hampton at the lectern. Please. So as many of you know, octavia butler was born here in pasadena on JUNE 22nd and we have a proclamation naming JUNE 22nd as octavia butler day here in pasadena this is something that we should all be really, really proud of, especially given that she began her writing career at our central library right here in civic center. Let me read the proclamation if I MAY quickly where I was born in pasadena, california on JUNE 22nd, 1947, octavia butler became one of the most celebrated science fiction writers of her time and whereas the proud pasadena and octavia spent her formative years in this city attending pasadena city college and later transferring to california state university los angeles where she honed his craft and developed her unique voice and whereas her groundbreaking works including kindred parable of the sour and the passionist series have earned her critical acclaim, literary recognition including hugo and nebula awards and lasting place in the literary canon and whereas octavia butler's writing addressed important social issues inspiring generations of readers and writers to think critically about the world and their place in it and paved the way for diverse voices in literature making her a beacon for aspiring writers particularly those from under represented communities. And whereas today we recognize octavia butler's pioneering spirit and important contributions the field of literature celebrate her enduring connection to pasadena and honor her lasting impact on her community and the world. Now therefore mayor victor gordo on behalf of the entire city council hereby proclaim JUNE 20 20 24 in pasadena as octavia butler day and we have nicky high who is the owner and proprietor of octavia's bookshelf. So MAY I present this to you, nicky? Thank you. And COUNCILMAN, you say MR. Daniel, please. Yes, first and foremost I want to thank you for inviting me to receive this proclamation. It's no secret now that octavia butler shaped much of my literary choices since I was about 16 years old in the late 80s. I am a proud pasadena and I was raised in the pasadena unified school district and she has just made such an incredible mark on my life and I'm just delighted to be here particularly in JUNE of twenty twenty four which is when parable of the sower is set in the summer of twenty twenty four. It's just a very timely thing to have this proclamation during the summer of the fictional parable of the sower . I'm really excited and delighted and I think you are I want to thank the council for recognizing octavia butler, one of our very own pasadena residents who also attend passing unified school district schools. Natha was not able to be here. They were one of the organizations that originally brought this to my attention about, you know, honoring octavia butler and the principal of octavia butler middle school could not be here this evening because school's out but they will definitely have representatives here next year and I'm just really grateful that we are honoring one of our own pasadena residents with such a distinguished in and for the work that she has done. It's it's the least we can do and I know there's more to come from this council. So thank you to my colleagues for recognizing octavia butler this day. Thank you. Thank you to the city as well. Very well said council member hampton and a big shout out for our libraries which make dreams like that come true regularly. So thank you. So I'd ask derrick doolittle, the assistant gm of the rose bowl to please come up to the lectern is very important event happening here and it'll be given that our council meeting after tonight is on JULY eight . We wanted the rose bowl to come and tell us about JULY 4th independence day certainly by madison city council members. Good evening. My name is derek doolittle, assistant general manager at the rose bowl stadium and on behalf of our ceo jens fine, thank you for having me with us here this evening to update you on JULY 4th at the rose bowl. As many of you know, the L.A. Galaxy called the rose bowl stadium. It's home from 1996 through 2002 and beyond that the world the rose bowl stadium carries a rich tradition as it relates to hosting world class soccer matches the world cup to the olympics and beyond. With that we were once again excited to partner with aeg and the L.A. Galaxy to host its el traffik match against lafsky. The match is scheduled to kick off seven thirty in the evening and be immediately followed by the annual fireworks display. This is a marquee match up of the entire twenty twenty four mls schedule and the second straight season in which has contested at the rose bowl. As you MAY know last year's match to an all time mls attendance record with eighty two thousand one hundred and ten in attendance. We are working closely with the galaxy on a number of veteran recognition pieces associated with the match and are excited to have that condor squadron performing a flyover prior to the start of the match as well. Tickets remain available for this year's match. Reserve tickets can be purchased through L.A. Galaxy dotcom and premium tickets through rose bowl stadium dotcom. We encourage those attending to arrive early enjoy a day of tailgating with friends and family among the most picturesque tailgating grounds in the world at the shadows of the san gabriel mountains. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, derek. And then the fireworks show is expected around 10:00 P.M.. Yeah, right around 10:00 945 10:00. It'll be a twenty minute display. Fireworks on the field and the fireworks afterward. That's right. An exciting day. Any comments or questions by council members? Ok, thanks to you and gents in the rboc for being here for you event. Thank you. I just had one of these I always have one at the last minute. Do a little good to see you too. Will there be advertisement to let the residents know that the fireworks show will still continue because everything I've read it's kind of confusing. It makes it seem like america fest is no longer happening. That's true. But the fireworks show will continue. That's correct. There will be media advisories. You'll be centralized on our website of course in L.A. Galaxy are going to pump it out as well. Is there a way to say something else instead of saying america this will not happen, we'll just call it the fireworks show is still planned to happen? Absolutely. I think that'll be a priority for us because at the end of the day america fest has always been centralized by the fireworks display but we've always looked for other events to complement that in this year at soccer. So that's a good point. Perfect. And I know that fireworks are extremely traditional but I do receive lots of emails and I'm sure my colleagues as well about exploration of half fireworks have drones just because you know the the amount of noise that the fireworks bring is detrimental to to people that you sensitive to noise as well as pets and animals. I don't know if that's something that you guys are looking at into or whatnot, but I've just gone to a couple of drone shows and I was I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how great they look not at a firework level yet but I do think that there's a potential there. so I hope that you guys look into that and it's probably even the cost savings owner said so thank you. Welcome. Thank you. We'll look forward to that. Thank you. And COUNCILMAN Relion, you have emotion I believe for an adjournment. Thank you, vice mayor. Thank you. I would ask that we adjourn in honor of DR. Edward stone who passed away on JUNE 9th at the age of 88. Dr stone was caltex david morrisroe, professor of physics emeritus having joined caltech in 1964 and throughout the 1970s he was the project scientist lead for nasa's voyager spacecraft mission which as you know went for fifty years and we just lost touch recently with those satellites and then in 1991 dr stone became the director of the jet propulsion laboratory where he served for ten years throughout his career he was a huge figure in in physics and particularly in astronomy. He was on the board of the california association for research in astronomy and in that role he oversaw the construction of the W.M. Keck observatory which is one of the largest land based observatories in the world. And just last year the keck foundation established the edward c. Stone professorship at caltech in his memory actually in his honor while he was still living, dr stone was predecease by his wife of 61 years in DECEMBER of last year and is survived by his daughters and grandsons and in-laws and so loss of a big figure in our science community and here in in the caltech community. So I would request that we adjourn in his honor. Thank you. Very appropriate and right that we adjourn in honor of DR. Stone. Truly a great person and great scientist. So thank you for that motion. I'm told we have comment cards on items not on the agenda. Yes, very. Mayor, there are nine common cards submitted so we can start let's I'm going to give two minutes to many of those. We have very busy agenda tonight with much community interest in some of the items. So let's hear from the first and then if we could have them queue up as well. Yes. So michael williams, are you here followed by leon tunie leon communi you can step forward MR. Attuning. I four item seventeen. Ok, I'll put you in then we can go oh MR. Williams MR. Williams come forward please. You have two minutes. I'll ring a bell when you have thirty seconds left and who's next then it's j r followed by tj followed by nina chomsky, then britney, gina viola and DR. Weisman. Thank you. Welcome MR. Williams. It has come to my attention that I the council member who is now going to be leaving is going to appoint someone to the police commission when a million or over that is an item on the agenda. Public comment, MR. Wurzburg on the agenda and that items on the agenda so you can correct the card and come back when we'll just put you in for thirteen. Ok, ok. Very well thank you. Or others then maybe four items on the agenda. Yes. If you're if you're speaking on an item on the agenda that'll be at a different point. So this is for public comment items not on tonight's agenda. So let's move on to nina chomsky followed by MR. Chomsky here she remains she's remote. Very well. Nina, are you there? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Welcome. You have two minutes. Thank you. Well, I'm calling to talk about a b twenty five maybe up in the legislature. A new statement that we must resist. We must do our best to oppose that. I don't know if you all know about this but b twenty five eighty requires the city's housing element will require to analyze historic preservation practices and assess how historic designations will impact local housing needs and it mandates that the annual report this all historic applications from the prior year and indicate how they impact housing and housing production and it turned out not attack on the historic probation and those that without doing anything for the production of housing without acknowledging the absence of a record to be proud of in terms of producing affordable housing in the right place with the right project and in fact the the proponents of this bill say out loud that tackling the abuse of historic preservation rules requires several steps a ab twenty five eighty is a crucial initial response or measure. So this is this is the latest in the one size fits all state mandates that are crushing cities and local jurisdictions. We need to resist this. We need to acknowledge what his resignation means to pasadena including a survey that's ongoing and we need to be to emphasize productive projects that produce real affordable housing and this is not simply undermines the historic preservation of the process, dismantle historic preservation in california and I don't know what it's going to mean for pasadena but it takes away a vital part of our community including our economic development part of our community. People come to pasadena at the scene our beautiful mischance campinas expired ok anyway, thank you. Post this and do what you can. No, there was a hearing sacramento tomorrow senate. Can I legislate a policy committee doesn't meet for weeks to thank you nina. We will docket that for the next legislative policy. I will say that that passed the assembly unanimously. So clearly there's some headwinds for anyone opposing that but we'll see what the state senate does. Who's the next speaker? Daniel weissman. MR. Weissman. He's virtual as well. Is he not checked in? No. Ok, ok. And then either eric lind lands again or ok and then it looks like J.R. Is for item thirteen so that completes public comment on matters not on the agenda. Ok, great. Thank you. So we'll move to the consent calendar. Are there cards excuse me tunisia ofri tanisha's sorry. Welcome tunisian you have a comment on an item not on the agenda. Well welcome. It's good to see you. Good to see you too. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Vice mayor matt vice mayor madsen and council members my name is tanisha ofri and I'm the call director and linda ofri executive director sharper's door domestic violence resource center here in pasadena. This morning's article in the past the now about homelessness and domestic violence shook me to the core. This article echoes what linda and I have been communicating to our local government funders, elected officials and stakeholders twenty seven percent of the homeless population despite being only eight percent of the population hispanic and latino individuals make up 46 percent of the population. According to the report 73 percent of the homeless population is black and latino. Alarmingly, the count for homelessness due to fleeing domestic violence has doubled over the past six years. We have successfully housed fifty six individuals and families predominantly from hispanic and african-american communities, all of whom remain housed to this day we build relationships to keep families whole. Yet despite our proven success we face significant challenges without adequate funding and support from our city government. Today I urge the council to please reconsider the allocation of domestic violence funding and consider supporting sharper's door in the funding decisions as we are doing the work and our track record speaks success. Community members are depending on us for the support and in services to combat domestic violence and homelessness and we do but we need the funding to be equitable so the narrative that's presented on the papers can change by making finding equitable among organizations we can prioritize comprehensive services, ensure cultural diversity and maintain cultural competency. This will help ensure that those affected by domestic violence particularly people of color receive the support that they need to build the lives and maintain stability. Thank you for your time and consideration and let us work together to create meaningful change and to support those that are most vulnerable in our population. Thank you council. Thank you tunisia. I recently spent a morning at shepherd store and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. They do terrific work and you know domestic violence isn't just the adults. The children are affected too. So this is very important work . I think it's important to note that the comments are beyond domestic violence now tunisia and MISS Or MRS. And MRS. Oprey both have communicated with my office. We've done all we can to continue to, you know, put in the forefront of the city manager in the housing department. But really at the end of the day it comes down to them having access to a database that for some reason I haven't been able to get a legitimate answer from city staff, anyone from the city why they can't have access to this besides their domestic violence organization. Now they do have folks in housing people is important especially based on the data that she just mentioned. It's about relationships. You have to build relationships . There are a lot of organizations I'm not going to name any organizations that aren't willing to build those relationships but guess what they call because I've been in the rooms with them. They call tunisia. They call linda for help to help house the people that we are actually paying to do this work and they're not getting compensation for I appreciate the work that you guys are doing because it's really it's it's really from the bottom of your heart I think there's got to be a way to open as I've said this and it's not just to give to one organization but to open the door so that any organization that is doing the work, especially this ground level work and I could name a list of people that do this work to be able to compete with the larger organizations even if it's a pilot. Let's pilot it. Let's let's try we have to get people off the street and this isn't on the agenda as you know understand it's based on something so sorry for the the the commercial point well taken. Thank you. I thank you so much. Thank you mayor. Good seeing you. Thank you. That completes public comment on matters not on the agenda. Ok, so I did see another card come up but I'm assuming there's a late entry on this police oversight. Ok, so I understand we have cards on the consent calendar. yes we have cards for eleven twelve and thirteen on consent. We asked earlier today if there were any requests to pull items. We got no response but of course sometimes that happens here at the meeting council member jones and he has taken item to item two. I will recuse myself from item two. Ok so we'll pull item two from is related to my direct employer. Yeah, thank you. We'll pull item two from a suite motion. Any other requests MR. Chomsky to so will items that if not then let's hear the public comment on the all the consent calendar. Ok and before I get to the public comment I'll just read a few correspond so we not read them but report out some correspondence we received on 11, 12 and 13 as well for leaving three letters in support of the staff recommendation and providing comments related to the item for item twelve three letters in support of the staff recommendation in providing comments related to the item for item thirteen one letter expressing concerns with the with two of the proposed appointees to the icac in the cpac and one letter providing clarification a clarifying information related to an online biography for one of the appointees mr paul vernon. All the letters were posted online distributed the council are part of the record for those two items we can say since we have a number of cards let's do ninety seconds on these public comments please. Ok, do we want a motion for the remainder? We just want to do it all at once. See how the council feels after the public comment. Sorry but mr jones is conflicted on first. Certainly sir. Mr jones would you excuse us just while we hear a motion on number two? I'll make a comment by mr saluda second we have a second hempton mr hampton. Yes. Do you need a roll call or just any objections item passes so he can return six to zero zero two absent mr mayor gordo absent and yes thank you. Ok so we go the public comments ok so for anyone who's called you're speaking on any of the consent items in your ninety seconds is to include whatever comments you need for your consent items or item. Synthia candy followed by claudia fong followed by o'shay patel followed by liberty mccoy ,michael williams and bridget rooney and they'll be more is cynthia if you hear your name called you can come forward and if you've heard your name you can line up behind you come in the house kennedy well good evening council members vice mayor I'm here with sanford krasner, DR. Sanford krassner and we are speaking on behalf of pasadena one hundred we are here to support the contracts and agenda items 11 and 12. These are very exciting plans for our future and we commend and congratulate pwp, the hardworking staff at pwp. We realize that these contracts are not easy to get together and it's very exciting really both the win contract and the battery storage best contract the transition to 100 percent carbon free electric power will succeed if it is based on five pillars one important chernof of renewably generated electricity to local electricity from rooftop solar three a sound storage strategy for demand reduction and grid optimization and five conversion of the old glenarm gas plant. We encourage pwi to make sure that we include in the optimized plan a systematic plan for converting glenarm the old gas plant to a modern carbon free facility and that we also