City Council Meeting: May 24, 2021

great. Thank you. Welcome everyone. This is the MAY twenty four twenty twenty one meeting of the pasadena city council and passionate community development commission and we'll start with the roll call councilor ivor hampton has not joined us yet. Council member kennedy casamayor madison here council member massouda your council member riva's your council member williams air vice mayor wilson er mayor gordo here there's a quorum of the council present are going to ask vice mayor wilson to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Certainly we stand I your right hand over your heart I pledge allegiance to the flag united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all a we'll be a couple of overshared. We do a couple of ceremonial matters before we get to public comment and I know that a few of you have asked before we get to the ceremonial matters to make a request to adjourn today's meeting in memory of and wolfen and longyear and I'll turn in order of seniority first to mr madison and mrs williams to to make the formal request. Thank you mayor and I. I would like to add one other name to that list. Jim waterston also recently passed away. His services are coming out in the desert so but let me start with anlong and longyear was a longtime west pasadena resident who was involved in a number of community affairs in pasadena. But without a doubt she's most well known for her work in supporting our city's libraries . We all are familiar with the property tax initiative that was passed back in the 1980s and was absolutely instrumental in that. She's raised millions of dollars through the pasadena public library foundation leading those those efforts and in fact just last year and I'm so grateful to michelle for her and others who were able to achieve this recognition last year she was honored as by the california library association as a person of the year and passed away at home on friday surrounded by her family. Her late husband doug had passed away some many years ago in what was really a shock to many of us. But you know, unexpectedly but and soldiered on led by her faith in her her family members and her commitment to to making pasadena really the entire community better for her presence which it was. And wolf, as someone who many of us knew well, she was served on at least one commission for me on a commission on the status of women women. She was obviously a dedicated feminist, also community activist involved in local political clubs and and I believe was very active at act as well and actually passed away yesterday at home with her husband roger biocide jim waterston was someone who was just a profound advocate and supporter for any number of affairs in pasadena. I mean the list is too long to mention but several that I will call out or the pasadena playhouse capacity and a symphony of pasadena dance theater and perhaps most prominently the armory center for the arts and jim and his husband of forty two years, george martin had relocated some years ago out to the desert and he passed away and there will be services on MAY twenty ninth you know honoring and recognizing jim for the tremendous life well that I overlooked all saints church, another local institution and then he was extremely active in florida so I would ask my colleagues to join join us in in addition to all those who've suffered by covid tonight and also adjourning memory in honor of anlong your wolf and jim waterson. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, MISS Williams. Thank you, mayor. Just wanted to add some support for ann wolf who is just a very treasured friend and supporter . Not only was she part of back and foothill democrats and also had the annual potluck at their house roger the aunt's house she also could sell that udia merchandise like nobody's business. So she was on a steering committee for that and always organized the sale of the merchandise there and that's probably how I first met her volunteering as a united democratic headquarters. So definitely MISS MISS her and this is going to roger wolf. Thank you. I'd like to speak up in support of MR. Madison's motion for certainly for our friend and wolf who we've known for quite some time most if not all of us as a just a real community activist in the best sense of the term always standing up for those who and providing a voice for those who didn't have or don't have voices and whether to be women or minorities or you name it, she was always their children. You speaking up for those who are disadvantaged and helping others who to provide voice as well. Let's not just recall her as someone who provided a voice but who help and encouraged others to speak up as well. And so I like condolences certainly to roger and and family for the loss of life and it's a loss that we all that we all feel here in pasadena and for and long year as well. MR. Madison outlined her contributions locally, regionally and statewide to libraries in general. And so we certainly benefit from her great efforts and work. And then jim lauterstein who did not have the pleasure of knowing as well as others but certainly his contributions to the playhouse and to the symphony our contribution to benefit generations of pasadena is and will continue to do so in the future. And so I think it's great tribute to three pasadena residents and contributors who have done great things and we should put your memory and wolf and longyear and jim morrison as well as all families affected by college with a passion beyond thank you. Next we'll move on to public comment for matters on the urgent oh I'm sorry we have a couple of ceremonies matters. I apologize before we move on to public matters not on the agenda we received request and this is an annual proclamation for gun violence awareness day and I'll ask lola ausborn or recognize osborne and ronnie james to step forward and MISS James is the outreach community outreach lead for the san gabriel valley moms demand action and it's my privilege to present the following proclamation whereas gun violence touches every segment of our society and impacts people of all ages, it increases the probability of death in incidents of domestic violence, raises the likelihood of fatality by those who would intend to injure others and among those who attempt suicide it places children and young people at increased risk of physical harm and injury and disproportion in the affects communities of color and whereas gun violence awareness day honors the many lives that have been cut short by gun violence in our community and support efforts to supports efforts to reduce gun related crimes in the united states and whereas it is important to recognize community organizations which assist families that have been directly impacted by gun violence and provide a continuum of care to grieving parents or spouses who must continue to provide for surviving family members and whereas the city supports continued statewide efforts to strengthen gun safety laws and educate the community on unsafe gun storage and whereas 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 importable mayor of the city of pasadena on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim JUNE four twenty twenty one in pasadena as gun violence awareness day and urge all citizens, businesses, organizations and agencies to work collaboratively to reduce gun violence in our communities . Thank you mayor and city council members for acknowledging national gun violence awareness. Osborne from the parks department. I would like to introduce bonnie jane who is a pennsylvania resident and the community outreach volunteer lead for the san gabriel valley moms demand action group phoniest also of gun violence and domestic violence survivor which fuels her activism by violence prevention moms demand action is a grassroots volunteer organization started in 2012 after the tragic sandy hook school shooting in the san gabriel valley. Moms demand action group has been active in the pasadena area since twenty eighteen and I'd like to turn it over to bonnie. Thank you lola for the introduction and for your help in organizing this and thank you to the city council for issuing a proclamation for national gun violence awareness day bringing attention to this important issue national gun violence awareness day is an annual event that takes place on the first friday in JUNE and it's the beginning of wear orange weekend wear orange originated on JUNE 2nd. Twenty fifteen would have been hadiya pendleton's 18th birthday. It began with teenagers in chicago who wanted to honor their friend hadiya after she was shot and killed today wear orange honors hadiya and the more than one hundred americans shot and killed every day as well as hundreds more who are wounded. We wear orange to demand a future free from gun violence. Orange symbolizes the value of each person's life and we wear it to honor those taken and wounded by gun violence and to call for an end to this crisis . Gun violence didn't stop because of covid-19 in fact it worsened in twenty twenty. The number of people killed by gun violence exceeded 40000 the highest rate of gun deaths in two decades. But as gun violence has grown so too has the movement to stop it. We continue to educate, organize, advocate and rallies for safer communities and make no mistake about it we will win from intimate partner violence to police violence, gun suicides, gun homicides and unintentional shootings. We demand a bold plan that must address all of it together we'll work to make this country safe for everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much and with that we'll move on. Thank you, bonnie. Thank you all for joining us. Mayor, before we move on, if you say that the next meeting of the council will be council . That's right. What is the next meeting you had mentioned that finance committee that one particular meeting would be canceled. I just want to confirm if there is no meeting scheduled for next monday because of the memorial day holiday. Ok, so I have an issue that I need to quickly bring to your attention to see if we can get traction because we will not be meeting next week and the vice PRESIDENT Of huntington, john, we have another ceremonial matter. Oh, I'm sorry, mary. Sorry about that. Ok, so next we'll move on to our legacy business program recognition. I'd like to welcome dave anderson and katherine anderson who own the french and laundry . We'll bring in dave anderson. We can't find katherine anderson so maybe they're together. MR. Anderson sorry I could use because if it's susan now that I'm david anderson, my wife katherine and we're not the owners andre where the owners of anderson business technology and the two. Yeah, that's ok. My understanding is we're receiving a legacy award and just great background is we were founded in 1912 by my grandfather. I'm third generation. We are founded in what is now old pasadena when it was just pasadena and we're still within two blocks of our original location and over the years we really benefited I think from being part of the past in the community and hopefully we've also benefited and contributed to pasadena anyway I appreciate the award very much and it'll be nice to be able to share with our employees and our customers as things start returning to normal hopefully in the next month or so. Thank you very much. Thank you MR. Ross. I apologize for the way this was written up. Oh that's ok. So I'd like to also point out that anderson became one of the crew and in the midst of the electron anderson became one of the leaders in sales and service and was a technology giant, if you will, in this arena. And so I'd like to point that out. Typewriter's fax machines, copiers, all those were part of your core products as a society we transition to electronic so congratulations and you're also your business is also a charter member of the past and chamber of commerce and has been significantly involved with the passing of quanah's the tournament of roses, the pcc foundation and the unified school district and youth in our community. And I'd like to congratulate you and thank you for 109 years of business and service to a community, your employees and your family everyone has contributed. Congratulations and thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mary. Mayor gado and city council. I appreciate it. Great. Thank you. Here's to another hundred nine years. Thank you. You guys look so young I know we get up all the time. You do not catch that we are third generation. Well council member hampton is young enough to to promise to congratulate three more years or three more generations of andersens. Yeah. Thank you. Thank next now we'll move on to the french hand laundry and we'll welcome susan mcmanigal. I see. So today we're pleased to recognize the french laundry and laundry that was founded in 1912 by marie and rene kotov, a french couple who wanted to provide find laundry services to the pashtun community some years later dry-cleaning was added to their services and the business was renamed the french laundry and dry cleaning. Susan worked for the owners for many years and was taught a reverence for the traditional cleaning methods of centuries passed in 1994, susan a mother virginia manacle I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly bought a business when virginia passed away in 2003 and when virginia passed away in 2003, susan continued to run and operate out of its original structure built by its founders southlake japanese ranch hand laundry and dry cleaning has developed a nationwide reputation for excellence with customers spanning the U.S. And over the years a company has provided restaurant restoration and cleaning services to the personal history museums, vintage articles, artifacts that are used in their exhibits and assisted with the 2013 wedding dress exhibited entitled I do I do today french and laundry and dry cleaning is a multifaceted company that provides evaluation, restoration and cleaning services for museums, hollywood wardrobe houses and to the passing of community and is one of the few remaining in the country that adheres to the standards of a true handle. Congratulations susan on one hundred and nine years of business services in the community. Thank you very much. On behalf of the city council and in the past african community susan we're golfweek ,you're muted. You can susan can you in your cameras on MAY I'm not sure if susan knows or can on mute will again and nothing seems to be the number of the day. Congratulations, susan. Congratulations also to the anderson family. What an achievement. Tremendous contributions. Thank you very much. Council member hampton will be here for another three generations and the three of us as well. Ok, next we'll move on to public comment on matters not the agenda our practices 20 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and it looks like we have more spare parts than the 20 minutes would allow and so remaining cards will be pushed to the end of the end of the meeting. Before we go to public comment ,I think MR. Kennedy MR. Kennedy, if you can see emergency items are not an emergency item there but since it involves one of our community partners, I'd like to at least approach it and you can tell us how we possibly can handle it. Pamela wetherspoon who is the vice PRESIDENT Of enterprise diversity equity has asked that the city recognize pride month and we will not have a meeting tuesday. They're going to have a flag raising ceremony which is extraordinary for an institution of that size related to lgbtq individuals and employees of the city and a part of the community and she vows that the city of pasadena join with huntington memorial hospital in displaying the flag that you see on the screen and acknowledge and recognize the accomplishments of the gay rights movement and our brave lgbtq advocates prominently showcasing our unwavering commitment to inclusion and unity. And I know that you particularly have been a champion of lgbtq plus individuals and issues and because many lgbtq plus individuals still not feel welcome, respected or firm, we want to show hopefully in this radical inclusion and celebrate that diversity as this flag does. And so they are asking as an institution that we a city government provide a proclamation recognizing pride month and possibly there is a division of city government that's already engaged but the flag is somewhat new and they're going to raise the flag at the beginning of pride month and would like us to join them. Hopefully the mayor or the mayor's representative at huntington memorial hospital and hopefully raise that same flag at city hall, particularly that the council on other occasions have been strongly in support of pride month. So thank you very much, mayor, for giving this opportunity. I hope that we can follow up with kamal wetherspoon who will do that and I'll ask my office as well as the city manager not to do that. Mayor, you next we'll move on to public comment for matters not on the agenda again, our practice is 20 minutes in order to allow the council's business to continue and we'll go for 20 minutes of public comment and then any remaining cards will be heard after the council's business. So MR. Clarke, I had I'm sorry MR. I have a question. I mean there are so many cards. Why not limit the time to one minute so that I mean because I don't know if everybody is going to want to stay until the end of the meeting. We could we could do a minute and a half. MR. Clarke mayor at the the council the council and adjust the time for speaking as it as it chooses generally the statement at the agenda says that we limit the first 20 minutes for public comment and that that comments are limited to three minutes each. That's on the agenda you can reduce it down if you if you if the council chooses or we can institute the 20 minute rule, it's up to you. What's the pleasure of the council? I'm ok. Either way we have rules in place the public is well aware of and there's an important reason for that and particularly on evenings like tonight when we have a privilege and just so we can go with the 20 minute rule or we can cut the time to a minute and a half or a c I don't see why we can't do both. Cut it down to a man and a half get as many as we could get in and then if there's anything left over we wait until the end of the meeting. Ok, how many times do we have mayor fourteen I believe. Oh that's correct. Half minute and a half. Ok, let's do this cleared up the first speaker to that we'll bring in is elise preston mallory MISS Mallory, I'd ask for you to mute your mike and your time start for a minute and a half starts now. Good afternoon. Evening. I am writing our I am public comment because of OCTOBER twenty twenty the pasadena city council took the bold and right step to put a police oversight commission in place. The process has had bumps in the road that inspired many questions and concerns from the community along the way. Despite this, the council successfully selected the three community based organization members for the council or for this commission and your APRIL twenty six meeting. The understanding was that the eight member being appointed by the city council members would quickly follow and this eleven member committee would immediately get to work. We are now a month later and the eight city council member appointees have not been impaneled hiring an internal auditor has been put on hold and finalizing the police oversight commission hasn't been on the agenda. Thirty meeting what is going on at a point where community distrust was just starting to move in favor of the city delaying putting this commission in place raises historical fears and concerns that you want to sweep this under the rug and complete the process. This commission is too important to allow that to happen. I am speaking today to respectful request that you expeditiously impanel the rest of this committee. I'm also requesting the hiring of an independent auditor move forward. Now pasadena has shown that history repeats itself. You have the opportunity to bend a curve by completing the both steps that you have started. Please complete impaneling the committee and hire the auditor now. Thank you MISS Preston. Let me just address quickly there were not nobody is to blame. I'll take responsible for the matter not having appeared on the agenda for the purpose of impaneling the council member appointments the my belief is that the council when it voted to move forward wanted to have the full and housing as well as the auditor hired at the same time and so I think we've appointed an ad hoc committee to work with the city attorney's office to identify the independent police or that committee has continued its work and I believe has identified some candidates who are a candidate for the appointment and some due diligence is being conducted and so you can expect that that matter will come forward shortly. I will work with the clerk and the city manager to agenda the appointment in the eight remaining committee members at our next meeting following today's meeting which I believe is scheduled for JUNE seven. But where you will decouple the two I think I it's the right thing to do and it's I've heard some feedback from people in the community and from members of the council that decoupling is probably the appropriate thing to do. so we'll come forward with first the date and then when the ipa hire is complete then we'll come forward with that process as well. Very important clarification. Yes, that's to be clear you shared with the council and the community last week how do you plan to proceed to I just want to be clear that at our next regular we meeting regularly called meeting you plan to have on the agenda at least the appointment of the eight members of the. Yes, ok, thank you. And that would be those obviously appointment appointees or nominees from the city council. Thank you mayor wilson. Mayor, just to chime in, you are correct the subcommittee has made a number of times we believe the ipa is very important in excess of this effort and we interviewed a number of candidates and I'm happy to report that we have made a selection. We are as you suggest, completing diligence and references. We are actually the we're pretty excited about where we've come out but we want to get through the process. I'm hoping that will lead. It's my expectation that that recommendation actually should come forward and since we have a holiday next week concurrently with empaneling the rest of the commission system with the oversight committee ok next card so the next few speakers first will bring in michael williams followed by jill shook followed by emcs cat ross followed by jun williams. So we will welcome them. Yes MR. Williams go ahead. And you're mike great. And I have a minute and a half right? Correct. I'm here to talk about anthony mclaine and what this city should be doing to take steps to make what happened to him right. I think that there should be a push for the immediate firing of both officers. I think there needs to be an immediate push for the removal of chief perez. I think there needs to be a more tenacious process of weeding out people from the pasadena police department. I think that there needs to be a defunding of the police pasadena police department for years we have seen pasadena do nothing as black people are killed by the police. We've been told that we've we've had oversight board so we're coming we've been told that all our reports are going to solve the problem. I was here when we had the meeting around the report on kendrick meek days and nothing came of it. Nothing happened. You told us that it was beyond statute of limitations. Why you hid why you helped hide twenty five second to report it's time to do the right thing when the right thing is needed fire the two officers, remove chief perez as a chief and start actually making some significant changes to stop police brutality here in pasadena. We are sick of it and I hope you all are sick of it and I assure you the rest of the city is going to be sick of it. MR. Williams, MR. Jill shook followed by cat ross followed by JUNE williams we should chill on mute. Oh, there's a second there you go. Thank you. Good evening. City council I I feel like a story that that I'm going to mention in the bible relates to the previous speakers. It's from luke eighteen and it's about a poor woman who needed justice and she contacted a judge and she so persistently did this that finally she got what she needed but it was because he was just sick of it and just to get her off his back and so I hope that you all don't see me like someone persistent that you want to get off your back. I hope you know how much I appreciate each of you that I have consistently come with you the same request each week for the last month or more to make sure that the congregational hand goes back on to the city council agenda. Churches offering their land for the purposes of affordable housing at a discount is a very generous gift that the city should not be minimizing but be receiving with gratitude and with the right building so churches can indeed accomplish the vision that they have for their own land. Thirty seconds close to 50 percent of our city is spending over fifty percent of their income on housing. That is just not sustainable. It's not good for business and it's really not good for business to have those living on our streets. They need to be in homes. So please receive this gift from the churches, make sure that it's properly zoned those churches buy right as soon as possible. Thank you. MR. Mayor. What is the status of the issue that of MR. Raises to the council staff is continuing to do work on the matter. I'm coordinating with MR. Hampton and we bring the matter forward. Thank you, mayor and city manager. The next speaker is cat ross followed by JUNE williams followed followed by julia diaz martinez. MISS Ross, you have 90 seconds minute and a half go ahead. Fellow city council members today I'm speaking as a co-founder and representative of the organization showing up for resale justice which has active chapters in pasadena and also dena, first I want to express our organization's gratitude to COUNCILMAN Tyrone hampton and john kennedy for continuing to raise questions about police accountability. We appreciate their efforts to bring greater transparency to the city council to challenge the status quo of anti black racism in pasadena policing and to connect with the growing numbers of pasadena residents who are deeply concerned about the horrific video of anthony mclain's murder by officer edwin doomer glenden. We also want to continue to express our concern that there is still no public statement from the city council about north and agenda of the murder of anthony mclaine. Chief perez has announced that he MAY or MAY not retire in 2020 to as if he hopes this announcement might circumvent accountability for the racist violence committed against chris bolu and anthony mclain during his tenure as chief 20 seconds of justice whatsoever has been served for the theft of anthony mclain's. We ask of city manager steve romell direct chief john perez to resign immediately. We ask of chief john perez if you are not going to fire officer dumor glenden it is time for you to resign now. We also ask the city council to look toward innovative approaches to public safety that do not rely and reward ineffective and racist law enforcement agencies but that invest in addressing the root causes of community problem. Can you bring your comments to a close? Ok, we join our local social justice partners in demanding that community investment be the primary focus of the new budget which would require reconsideration of the purchase of a brand new surveillance vehicle. We know that they've tried to rebrand it as a community outreach vehicle but no matter what they call their surveillance vehicle we will not be fooled given pasadena's desperate need for housing for MISS Ross, we're trying to be fair to everyone. If you could just wrap up your home and I was just had one sentence last go given pasadena's desperate need for housing for our growing in-house population and investment in a new police mobile command center when the police already have one isn't wildly unethical expenditure. Thank you. JUNE williams followed by julia de diaz martinez followed by victor hudson williams. Welcome. Go ahead. Hello. Yes. Go head. Yes ok, good. Good evening. Council members. I'm here as a citizen of pasadena. I've been living in pasadena for the last twenty two years. I raised my two sons here and so as a mother I am concerned about what happened to anthony mcclain. I'm I am advocating on as a mother on his behalf and I was saddened and dismayed as I watched a video of how he was running away and was shot. So therefore I am acting that there be police accountability that the officer involved is fired because he does not represent the way we treat our citizens in pasadena. I also ask that 30 seconds that he resign if he is going to conduct his police department and allow the police officers to get away with being abusive acts on citizens of pasadena, then he I would ask that he be removed from his position because as a mother of two sons I am afraid for their lives as they go out into the community and I would ask that you consider the fact that we are citizens and citizens first and that you will consider police accountability and the matter of antsy mcclain, J.R. Thomas and kendrick mcdade court julia diaz martinez followed by victor hudson followed by heavenly hues misty as martinez welcome MISS Martinez. If you press star six it should on mute your phone. MISS Martinez we conditions daigo can you speak up? We can hear it. Go ahead. Ok, thank you so much. First of all I want to thank the pasadena police department for holding an anti asian hate crime last month. Having said that, district seven had a recent event an anti asian hate crime in my local neighborhood it's affected my neighborhood. People are afraid for their wives, their daughters, their sisters, their children as we all the house of representatives and the senate just passed an anti asian hate bill the sponsor of this legislation said hate crimes have been under reported for years and hopefully this measure will lead to better collection of data. How many hate crimes happen each year? Buyer continues to say the truth is we just have no idea. what we do know is that many police departments do not report any data at all. What a shock it was for me to go on to the pasadena police website and find that there was zero data included for the reporting of any type of hate crime 20 seconds it led me to a conclusion why is that there is underreporting is are I am requesting that the police department retrain its officers to be more sensitive to hate crime and it's also extremely important that the the city council create their own resolution that shows their support for their support against any type of anti asian or and or hate crime. I will say this I did contact the chief of police office today and they are willing to change and add data which includes hate crime which does not currently exist on the pasadena police website. And again, I would like to strongly encourage your the mayor I'm just wrapping this up the mayor and the city council to create very strong language showing that they are a stand against anti asian hate crimes and crimes. Thank you, victor. Victor. This house as the chair of public safety that we have an opportune to to agenda as much of what the speaker spoke about and see if there is a way in which public safety could grapple with those issues and bring them to the council for either further consideration or a recommendation from the public safety committee related to all hate crimes against all of our brothers and sisters in this community. Thank you, MR. Kennedy. MR. Basically wants to find out if that would be a plausible way to proceed or if you would have another way to proceed. We were with the city manager and and police department MR. Wilson gregory, I would like to remind my colleagues, MR. Speaker, that actually this council did take action in the end of MARCH to adopt a resolution condemning hate crime and xenophobia. It didn't seem like a despicable is aware of that and I notice you and my colleagues stand firmly against the hate crimes against asian population any any community group in pasadena. So please take like and maybe refresh yourself. I think it was very well-written, properly stated. Thank you both. I was going to chime in and say the same exact thing we did already take a stance against hate crimes in general but I think that the speaker does bring up a good point that I also brought up with the city manager about where is the data? Where are you able to report this? And I believe parks and rec or or coordinating with the police department as well as to see citizen service center as locations where people could report where they've had a hate crime happen to them or be able to explain what's going on. So I think that COUNCILMAN Virginia is right. We should bring that piece of it back to where we collect this data so that people know exactly where they go if they believe that they have been, you know, assaulted a crime or feel like they have been attacked by someone in a manner that was because of the race. Thank you. And just so you're aware of the san gabriel valley council of governments took the same action related to hate crimes next speaker yes. Victor hudson followed by heavenly hues followed by blair miller, followed by allen shay hutchinson. Welcome. Hey. Hello. You have seen tom perez, fire officer edwin w. Quinn who shot at the maclane in the back while running away see john perez, if you're not going to fire officer the good resign now why wait? Assistant city manager steve moore will implement john harris to resign immediately if he is not able to hold his officers accountable. Also start an investigation into the pasadena police cover up of anthony maclaine's murder. We appreciate pasadena city council members tyrone hampton and john kennedy for expressing the concerns of police accountability. Also drillship said earlier charges are offering land for housing make it happen us implement that if needed in our community. Thank you, MR. Gordon and council members MR. Hudson. next speaker is heavenly hues followed by larry miller followed by alan shay. Suze, welcome. Hello victor gado in pasadena city council. My name is have you just one moment can you give me a minute? Take the dog out. Thank you. My name is you co-founder of my tribe brize and we give thanks to council member tyrone hampton or engage in the community in listening to the concerns and calls of actions at the press conference in raleigh at pasadena city hall on MAY 17 organized by national civil rights attorney ben crump, attorney jerry harper the family of george floyd and civil rights activist locally in across this nation the call to action is to fire and prosecute police officer edwin wendys who shot and killed anthony mcclain. We ask every city employee in the past of being a new police cadet to watch the movie thornes on the road the ones on the road black abuse, corruption in the in the path of the police. Thirty seconds can actually be aware of the culture and the humanizing relationship that the pasadena police or so towards black men, women and children in our community chief parents have made it clear law and policy is damaging to our black lives not only are not only are the law damaging these laws and policy are killing us causing ptsd, mental disability in our community. This is mental health awareness month white supremacy is showing up in the leadership of pasadena is affecting the mental well-being of our black community. My words to pasadena steve my mail disregard paris in pasadena city council do something do something to help the black lives in pasadena, california like impaneling the police oversight commissioner. Let's go ahead and get them pouring in the independent auditor we do not need a mobile command center surveillance in our community. I appreciate as well what the churches are doing offering their land for housing or the homeless. You could just wrap it up. I'll wrap it up now by saying thank you so much, mayor victor gardell. Thank you, vice mayor andy wilson for listening to us today. Thank you to all the council members who are listening today and taking action for the community. Thank was who's next speaker blair miller followed by alan shay followed by dan denim. Welcome. Hi. Good afternoon. Council members. My name is blair miller and I am here as a member of making housing and community happen. Her organization is asking the city council to support an overlay zone or other mechanism that would allow religious organizations throughout the city to build affordable housing on their land if the zoning issues are addressed by the city it will allow the development of this housing with less time and expense than for typical affordable housing development working with congregations to make their land available would help meet the need for affordable housing and also help the city meet its requirement concerns that have been raised about this idea include concerns about keeping the housing affordable for the long term and whether the housing could be converted to market rate and covenants can be used by the city to ensure that this housing serves the community for the long term. In addition to the requirements that are typically imposed by public financing. I hope that the county seconds thanks. I hope that the council will agree to look at this issue on an expedited basis because there are churches that are ready to use their land for housing. Thank you very much MR. Moore. How are we doing on time and we have three speakers left. We we are technically I have about a minute left in the twenty minute allotment so I think we should just maybe go through it and finish up with the last three speakers. Why don't we why don't we still find the three speakers please stick to the minute and a half sorry it was four speakers yes we'll ask them to finish with a minute and a half and that would have to stick around to the end of the meeting. That's correct, alan. She followed by old denham, followed by adriana bautista, followed by bert newton and MR. Newton will be the last one. Thank you, MR. CHAIRMAN. MR. Shenmue, welcome MR. Shea and muite came on you we could bring in adriana battista and see if MR. Sheikh and uh, fix that or sorry old and denim old and denim is next. MR. Denim, if you press star six you can mute denim MR. Denim view press star six you can on mute. All right. We can go to there we go. Yeah you go on all yes we can hear you go ahead. You know once again I'm here addressing that in case there's not much I can say about that hasn't been see it and what I will say about the truth has come out and I know if any and I know all you have seen the video and the video speaks for itself. This young man was shot in the back needlessly and we need to stand up for him and even worse than that even worse than the shooting I don't know if it could be worse is the fact that all of a sudden every gun on the scene I want to know where that guy came from and who put it there because anthony mcclain did not have we got to look at the footage. You see him he had a cell phone in his hand when he was in the car cell phone and when he got out of the car he dropped his cell phone right after getting shot. We run behind the tree. He didn't have a gun where the gun goes off and this gun made up three pieces and parts. I want to know if this gun came out of the pasadena police evidence room which wouldn't be a new thing for passing police evidence room next to my apartment and I haven't always been been the best person for the last 20 years I've been working to try to make it a better place trying to clean up the place where I messed up as a young kid. I was I was caught up I moved back in the 1960s for nineteen fifteen seconds into police action. It caused me to deal with police. I know it's nothing new for them to have what you call throw away guns. There's nothing new to any of this but it's got to stop here and now stand up mcclain stand up for the truth. Thank you MR. Will bring in adriana battista followed by bert newton. Adriana, welcome. Go ahead. Thank you. I would like to point out first of all that this city council meeting was suddenly canceled by city staff in light of a protest outside of city hall last week that demanded justice for anthony mcclain this was inappropriate and only one city council member was seen in the crowd. I would also like to raise concern regarding passing the police officers association negociate versions of their current contracts. There is another closed session scheduled for today's agenda with play mormile and your human resources director ucla recently released a report of their findings and their research researcher addressed the fact that the tequila's contract support over time and other pay that exponentially increased each year. This creates a domino effect of heightened pay that increases that that creates the scenario that we are now seeing over time that these are equals regular salaries and other pay that will continue to grow over time. Please study these reports and also vote even normal out of his position. Twenty five seconds keeping all departments in check when it comes to budgetary speaking, he continues to look the other way when it comes to improper spending at pd including excessive salaries and pensions ,former mayor hornig said in an interview with the magazine when you get to the point where you are paying more for retired cops an active cop it's a problem I suggest the city council appoint a city manager that understands people contracts must be negotiated not to just continually benefit these pockets but to benefit the city as a whole. We need a city manager who is able to fire killer cops and hire a chief of police who has not been part of the club to promote and defend killer cops and oppressive culture at pd this means hiring outside of pd, hiring someone who is forward thinking visionary and community oriented. We need that both in the city manager's office and the police department. We need that in city council too. so please look at ways you can support community resources and accountability if you like speaker. So I'll bring in bert newton and then we will try again with that and say after and then we do have one other commenter who dropped to the end of the list because she put it on she filled out a speaker card incorrectly. It's pamela wilson. So first qanoon, welcome mr newton. Hello. Yes, I their mayor and city council. Good evening. I support those who have spoken out on police accountability and I'm back again to ask that rezoning churches for affordable housing be put back on the agenda, putting it into the housing enrollment process is not only delayed it by a whole year but we have no guarantee that we will be part of the housing element. I have spoken with people on the housing element task force and it doesn't seem like that group has the time in their brief meetings to discuss the details of such a policy. Meanwhile, city staff have been studying it for months. We all know the affordable housing crisis. We cannot afford to pass up any opportunities for affordable housing. Also the zoning should be by right because while we can limit density and height and have community input into how it's done and had the housing go through the design commission we should not give power to affluent homeowners who already have a nice place to live to virtually make it impossible to house other people in their neighborhood because they would veto any multifamily housing that sort of exclusionary zoning should have no place in our city if we're going to be an inclusive city with justice for everyone. Also every time the public has been given a chance to weigh in 20 seconds of land for affordable housing which is to city council meeting, the planning commission meeting and a planning department public workshop, the public has weighed in about 90 or 100 to one. We've been counting the comments so I know that you care. I see that item. Twenty two on the agenda is to convert over 500 units of existing relatively new housing to low and moderate income housing. That's awesome. Of course we still need more. We need to rezone churches so they can build affordable housing. Thanks for your service to the community and good evening. Speaker allen shay. MR. CHAIRMAN, welcome MR. Shay. Are you able to commute? You are a muted can we hear you ? I can't I can't hear him either . So MR. Shea, my suggestion is maybe send in your written comments and distribute to the city council will go on to MISS Pamela wilson. MISS Wilson, welcome miss wilson, press star six to unmuted she really has no other she goes this wilson yes. Yes. Well go ahead. Yes, ok. Yes. Thank you very much for having me. My name is pamela wilson. I am a member of lincoln avenue baptist church in pasadena at eleven eighty eleven eighty pass lincoln avenue pasadena. I'm very concerned about the kind of drag in the seat maybe going kind of slow with rezoning of church land for affordable housing. Our church is one of about four or five churches in the pasadena area that serves homeless families and they come to our church and live in our church for a week at a time because they have nowhere else to stay. So this is a very important issue and the churches are very much willing to use their land for such a worthy cause. There are so many homeless people in the city of pasadena not only do our church serve with the family promise homeless but we also provide about over one hundred twenty five seconds once a week to people in our community so we serve about one hundred and twenty five families once a week in our food pantry. So there is a very great need for help here in the city of pasadena. I'd like to also thank COUNCILMAN Kennedy for showing up at the affordable housing prayer vigil that we had last month and I'd also like to think COUNCILMAN Tyrone hampton because he's been very supportive on working with churches with this need for their land to be used for affordable housing and I'd like to thank each and everyone here for giving me this opportunity. You did mayor vice mayor and city council members, thank you. Thank you for your contribution . That completes that that completes a public comment on this matter is not on the agenda. Next we'll move on to the calendar. Mayor, I had just a couple questions before we leave from public comment so just wrap up some of the public comments. JUNE 7th is when you plan on having the commission as well as the epa on the agenda will definitely be a commission. I am hopeful I was I was hoping to bring both for final approval but the ad hoc committee just completed its work for the epa assuming I'm hopeful with diligence background check of the good stuff that the city attorney and the staff have to conduct can be completed by JUNE seven that we can bring both the appointment of the eight members of the cast of commission and the epa forward. But it'll be ok so so the idea MAY come the following week. I'm not I'm not going to know all always wonder I'm hoping I hope they can come together the work is contained has continued is the important thing and I think we're close or the committee I'm not a member of that committee as you know and then to the that's the speaking of the video about anthony maclaine's I've asked this question before. I mean I do agree with the speakers that the officer involved in and I've said this publicly multiple times should be fired but needless to say we have a propaganda video that is up on our city's website that is inappropriate and should be removed and it's the narrated video of what happened that day in that videos beyond inaccurate. And so I would like for that video to be removed. I am only one city council member but I do want the public to know that I don't agree with that video. I think that all of the footage that we have out there is fine because we have all is there why the noraid video is important as it really has no place in that lineup of videos and actually makes the city look really bad in my opinion. I mean as far as public comment goes, this just remark if we continue to do zoom even in person you got to just cut the michael. I mean we've given people a certain amount of time. I understand that, you know, we're being fair. We're being nice. We're being fair to everybody. So fairness across the board is important if we're giving people ninety seconds, we need to cut it off at nine seconds. So we're giving people three minutes and you should be cut off at three minutes unless the council member has a question the person thank you very MAY or MAY I follow up on MR. Hampton's comments just one comment specifically I think the council deserves an answer related to MR. Hampton's former vice mayor and current council member MR. Hampton of concern around the narrated video. And we need an answer either in closed session or wherever is appropriate about the questions that MR. Hampton raised to do less would be disrespectful of our respected colleague. So I think the appropriate person to let us know how to proceed with your assistance is the city manager who put that in the hands of the city manager and asked him to threaten the city attorney to respond to the council. Thank I appreciate that, COUNCILMAN Kennedy. I do say I don't want I don't necessarily believe that we need a meeting about it but the narration is wrong. It's just wrong. And so the city manager should remove the video he has power and authority to do that without us. He's the one who put the video up because that's not one of us, at least not one of us that I know of cosign that video going up saying yes, this is sponsored by the mayor of city. It doesn't say that we have to say we didn't we didn't we did not support you're going to against so why don't we why don't we move on to the consent calendar. Thank you for your comments, MR. Edison. I'd like to pull number two please just for a quick question or two. Is there a motion on the balance? I had a quick question on ten for a while, mayor. I was I had a question on number one for what happened to it a number three and atmospherical and our brand new park which I just don't seem to be crying right. Item fifteen is that right? I'm lifting yes. That is correct. Thank you. You're welcome. So the mayor second ok, MR. Madison, did you want to vote on those we motion for I'm sorry. Yeah. Let's let's vote I must be voted yes mayor on item nine there were three three letters a received stating support for a new traffic signal at the intersection of orange grove boulevard craig avenue but expressing concerns regarding the potential timeline associated with the proposed project voicing opposition to the proposed greenway's striping project, noting the need for input from affected residents and urging the city to install a traffic signal at orange grove and sunny sooner rather than later. That was the one item we had public comment on that was going to be part of the sweep motion two I wanted to announce that so this is to approve the consent items except for items one, two, three, 10 and 15 motion by MR. Kennedy seconded by MR. Wilson sorry sorry. City clerk I do basic grant. My understanding is there is going to be a presentation on it here. So is that not the case if that's the case to pull it from the consent calendar that's a no. Nine. So we'll add number nine as an item to be pulled. So it'll be the the consent calendar except for one, two, three, nine, 10 and 15 motion by MR. Kennedy and seconded by MR. Wilson. Is that correct? Is that ok? All right. But council member hampton yes . Councilor kennedy yes. COUNCILMAN Madsen yes. Council member massouda yes. Council member riva's yes. Council member williams yes. Vice mayor wilson. Yes. Mayor aguado. Yes. The motion is approved without opposition. Let me just respond briefly to the item the public comment or the comments that were made related to orange grove craig and sunny as well as the greenway mr massouda and I have asked that those items the street lights be prioritized but also that the greenway's be given careful consideration including a robust public comment to concerned about the maintenance the look and feel and I think we should pursue all possibilities in terms of pedestrian and bicycle safety. But look at that one carefully including the history of you utilizing greenways in downtown los angeles. i'm not sure that that's that's been the best approach. So with that MISS Williams and then mr oh the question for staff as an email between steve or mel or cranio and myself said that laura was going to do a presentation item number nine. So that's why I held it. It doesn't have a presentation and you and some of them assume that have dealt with that issue then then that could be included in there. But that was my question is isn't there a presentation let's let's take MR. Madison. I didn't realize what was going on. MR. Madison, I'm number two mayor. If you wanted to go in numerical order, I'm fine with whoever questions about number one for but I'm happy to do as you please. Well, thank let's just let's go to the voters and that's fine. Thank you for the number one. That was mr hampton. That's correct. I'm trying to understand is there a presentation on this one council member hampton if you give us a moment we'll bring in manuel carmona, our deputy director of the public health department. Ok, thank you, MR. Mayor. Good afternoon, mayor and members of the city council. This contract is being proposed by our social mentor services division and I do have our division manager whitney harrison with us. She'll have the presentation was for some local thank you so this is regarding a purchase order we have with the select control inc. At the jackie robinson center. You can go to the next slide at the jackie robinson center. The we operate our division through the public health department operates two different programs serve individuals who are experiencing homelessness. The first is is called pay which is transitional age use up to the age of twenty four and the second is a geriatric empowerment model which serves senior citizens who are experiencing homelessness through the programs we operate a mobile shower and laundry unit where we also provide case management and housing navigation services monday through friday mixi during the pandemic we saw an increase in demand for our services at the jackie robinson center and in such an increase in our need for select services, the city entered a contract with select patrol in two thousand nineteen through the department of public works at which time they did complete a competitive bidding process. Our need for security arose after that date so we are not included in the original contract. So at the start of the fiscal year twenty twenty one we opened a purchase order in the amount of seventy four thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars for our our security purposes and so we are hoping to we asked the council to approve an amendment to that purchase order to increase the amount this year as well as extend through the end of our grant from the department of mental health through the end of next fiscal year fiscal year. Twenty two next line here we are I mean that so the the increase would be by one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars and one from seven four nine nine nine and extend through JUNE thirty two thousand twenty two. The question is that the your position. Yes. Ok, thank you whitney. Appreciate. Why did you not go out to bid on this? We didn't go out to bid because the city had already gone through a competitive bidding process through the department of public works and so we in the interests of the city we tagged on to that by opening up a purchase order because it's the same company and same services utilize our need for security arose after the contract was entered the department of public works. Ok, so that's kind of why I asked for this to be pulled because it didn't go to a competitive selection and the opportunity for bypassing the base business to apply for the services or whether they win or not. I think that giving them a fair shot is the most important to me. Why the increase for the security services? I mean is it why the security services need it anyways? Yeah, let me answer that. So the security services I'll start with what they did so they basically patrolled the surrounding areas around the jackie robinson center. They also help us to monitor the shower unit. So sometimes we require there's assistance to keep time because each of our participants has a time limit on how long they use the showers for. So they're really there to support our clients and and really serve them and monitor the surrounding area. The amount increased because during the pandemic we did see an increase in demand and the need for that support and so we added an additional security person for monday through friday from the we increased from one to two P.M. I guess my question is why did you see that increase? Like what what was what triggered you guys realizing you know, we need security in the park for security at the gigerenzer and so we we have a close partnership with our our partners with the parks department, jackie robinson center and the staff there. So it's a constant communication and team effort in the pandemic. We did see that other service agencies closed down during that during the pandemic and jackie robinson didn't we did not hold our services down so we remained open. So our demand really increased but it did kind of increase the volume of participants there and just needing more hands on deck to serve the population. But there weren't any incidents that led to saying we need more security. It just the more people I believe them that that's before my time with the department. So I I can definitely follow up on that item. I don't believe there was a specific encounter council member there there were there was an increase in number of participants who came to the park to the community center and many of them early in the pandemic began camping out. There were interactions that did require us to engage security services as well as the whole team from time to time. But fortunately we're able to avoid any significant issues at the site and we think that that's attributed to the fact that we had security on site to help handle those issues. Ok and the security you would say has been helpful overall with the security and the safety of the patrons at go to go to the senate I, I would and when you can certainly add on but I would say that you know, one of the the benefits of selek patrol is that they have experience working with this population with the homeless population and that the balance between maintaining safety and security of the site with the preservation in our programs and so they relate well to the to the clients. They have, you know, relationships with them saying hello and and not necessarily taking a heavy hand and that's really helped to make sure that people are complying with the site rules making the respecting the facility and the program. Thank you. I know that on some of the people that are in these programs are al