City Council Meeting: July 17, 2023

mayor council we are live recording in progress. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the monday JULY 17th, 2003 meeting of the passing of city council. The council did meet in closed session and there is nothing to report. We'll start with the calling rural council mary hampton is absent but for is due into the chamber later in the meeting, councilor jones here, councilor lyon here, customer from here, councilor masuda here. COUNCILMAN Is here, vice mayor williams here, mayor gordo here. There's a quorum in the council present. Thank you. And council member jones, if you can lead us in the pledge of allegiance right now we are ready to I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We have a couple of ceremonial matters if I could ask dr sandra thomas to join me at the podium many of you know dr sandra thomas and her contributions to our community of over 40 years for 40 over 40 years. Dr thomas has worked as a community advocate who has believed in addressing many of the difficult issues in our community and she and I have had the chance of the opportunity to work together for probably well over 30 years and so dr dr thomas has been involved in the bright future scholars leadership leadership development program has been recognized on numerous occasions by the L.A. County women's commission as woman of the year for the supervisorial district has been recognized by congressman adam shift as a congressional woman of the year and she was inducted as a life member into the national tuskegee airmen association just to name a few. She served multiple terms as a member of the alternative council and has been active on the naacp since 1952 and a life member of the altadena naacp DR. Thomas involved and includes the altena town council chamber of commerce, the league of women voters, the altena crown city kiwanis, the L.A. Chapter of the national congress of black women and the los angeles county human relations commission. Her educational background includes a B.A. In psychology, M.A. In engineering and a ph.D. In psychological counseling. Professionally she was employed as an engineer for 46 years and 55 years ago she girl she created what is known as the listen to this one 800 toll free telephone system and so DR. Thomas has often been the unseen force encouraging group of community leaders and business owners to improve their community and she she's always welcomes you with a hug and a smile and we wish her well. She returns to the next chapter in her life in the midwest. DR. Thomas, I had the honor and privilege of working with you for over 30 years and I've seen firsthand the difference that you've made in our community of passing altadena and generally in the community and so I'd like to thank you for for that work. And of course, you know, we're while we're sad to see you go to the midwest, we know that that it's important for you and your family to to connect and so we wish you the best of luck and wish you well and thank you for your service. Thank you. Let me give you a certificate for thank you, MR. Mayor. As the mayor has spoken to say ,he and I have had a long time and a lot of years to work together. We found out that in the community in our community is more important that we work together to get the work done that needs to be done so that we can prove to all those that say we can't do it that we can do it and we work together, we get the job done. I remember the first time I had the opportunity to work with this gentleman who I'm so proud to acknowledge as our mayor. He was a little shy a little bit and he knew I didn't have a qabbani anywhere and so but he I watched and I watched how he would work so hard to get things done and how he would call upon any of us that he needed so that as time went on he found his footing and he took off and left all the rest of us behind. And so I'm just it's been my privilege to work with I see many of you that I've had the privilege of working with and so I thank you so much for this opportunity and I thank you so much for this honor. GOD bless you all. Thank you. And the community many before many of referred to her as mama thomas. So next I'd like to call up and recognize me, read I can say why don't we start with the introduction by coach. Yes. And then we'll go. Thank you mariga to fellow council members. Thank you for having us here today. My name is joe blackman and I'm the head track and field coach at lasalle high school. Lasalle is located in the great city of pasadena and we are proud to play a role in educating future leaders for the san gabriel valley and beyond this past track and field season, our top athlete mia reed had a spectacular season. She was the del rey lead champion in both hurdle's races. She placed second in the division in the 100 meter hurdles out of one hundred and sixty six schools. She placed second in the southern section out of four hundred and seventy one schools and she qualified for the state championships and placed eighth in state out of over twelve hundred schools. Mia graduated from the school this past MAY as school record holder in the 100 meter hurdles and the long jump and he finish in the top ten in school history in the three hundred meter hurdles and four by 100 meter relay for her achievements she was named san gabriel valley girls track and field athlete of the year and earn a scholarship to compete for cal state fullerton. This coming school year and she just had her first practice today mia set the standard for our team during her senior season and was a great inspiration to me. All our coaches and her teammates some of her teammates are here today olivia banach, a distance runner who jumped onto the school's top ten list in the mile and two mile daniel alvarez who won his hurdle's races at the league finals and alex alvarez astate participant himself and cross country and one of the top runners in our division in the 800 meters and the mile this past season. I would also like to acknowledge me as parents MR. And MRS. Reid for their great support of mia and our program also also our team parents MR. And MRS. Paiser as well as MR. And MRS. Alvarez and MR. Osas all who had a role in making this this season successful. We could not do it without them. All of us share our pride in me his accomplishments and we could not be more proud to have those accomplishments on behalf of lasalle and the city of pasadena, we are honored to share mayor reed's accomplishments with you here today. Thank you. Congratulations mayor. And on behalf of all members of the city council and residents of past you know and present you with this certificate congratulating you for your very, very strong efforts and tremendous success. Yeah, and I'd like to coach since you brought them up alex and daniel should come up here as part of the team and olivia and and is and in the interest of full disclosure and I'm going to get beat up by my family but alex and daniel are my nephews, my sisters, boys and so I have to bring them a certificate later. Sorry and next we have the presentation of the third annual robert gorsky access award and joining us by zoome is andrea jennings and join us in the chambers are sariego coleman and E.R. Ruys and lola ausborn and lola, did you want to ok and chair yes. Yes. I can't thank you so much for having me. You're on. Thank you. This is a significant award at a significant time. This is the disability pride month. It's also our third anniversary of the signing of the ada. So this is a great time to get this award we all remember robert korski. He was an aid coordinator that served with the city for many years and knowing robert he would be very, very proud of this year's recipient release. He is a hero and advocate behind the scenes on the big screen and in his community for improving ssa ability and the quality of life for disabled people. he has visited our commission. He has educated us. He has been a medic. He has given back continuously by volunteering at organizations such as firefighters plus for bernstorff drivers and pasadena based elyssa and rucha burn foundation. I don't want to take up all of our time so I'm going to go ahead and pass this on. Thank you. Thank hello. When I was nine years old I was in a house fire and my uncle and my hero david mosley he helped save my life. You brought me here and the lisa andrews foundation. Thank you, david. Yeah, and pasadena is the lisa andrews burn foundation has always been part of my life and it's just a blessing to receive award and I want to thank you, MR. Mayor and our city council members and my family for help giving me the support to stay strong and move forward and all the other survivors and people of disability that help inspire me to to keep doing what I'm doing. Thank you, whitney. You know this award for her for many of us we remember robert goreski and remember not only his contributions but his spirit. And so this award is a very meaningful award to all of us who had the opportunity to work with robert gorsky and see the the quality of his of his character in his work and his ambition to always do the right thing and help people with disabilities. and so with this award the city of passing is telling you that you exemplify that spirit and so congratulations. This is a tremendous award. Like I said, for those of us who worked with robert gorsky, we know the importance of this award and I want to thank you and congratulate you for inspiring others to to to work hard. Thank you. As robert goreski did on behalf of others where oh ok. Now good morning. Here we go. Thanks . Um ok thank you. Thank you to everyone who uh took the time and congratulations danielle and alex sorry I'll have those certificates this week. Um and next public comment for matters not on the agenda. Uh, MAY we have three speakers uh speaker card submitted for public comment on matters not on the agenda. The first is alan shay followed by old denim is old and in the room followed by jose munoz. Yeah, he's on his that's fine if he wants to participate he has to connect via the phone. Are you ready? All right. You're three minutes or starting. Go ahead. Good afternoon. City council members in mira gordo as I do every monday I come before you in an effort to encourage the city pasadena to demonstrate their excellent leadership by taking on changing the charter. as I have mentioned before, it's imperative to do so to stay current with technology and to enable other cities to see that they need to comply because of what's happening in various communities including pasadena. One of the things I wanted to touch base is on just to reiterate why this is so concerning is in JUNE we had an incident involving a police officer and also a rookie police officer in the rookie police officer is now on leave. What made that a determination and was a video so it was used to make a determination as to what discipline would be applied to that officer and it was the video that should be the same standard when an officer violates or murder someone as they have the mcclain case. What I wanted to do here was just share this little piece of information to figure out what the problem our shamba got one of the car about twenty feet out to me it's got to the units with one more unit with you on the traffic stop just all up in facing south. Please just relax man. You're good. All right. Ok, so like ideas and everybody's pulled a gun out on my partner series. Yeah. You know I just saw I just saw it I just saw it. I just saw it. He's giving testimony on his own video that he saw anthony mcclain pull a gun out the script in this particular video was was actually constructed by a former city police chief and it was narrated by an employee of the city to dissuade the residents what actually happened this was was clearly caught out in the or I report that that should not be the practice. Every week I'm coming in here, I'm going to take a different angle so you council members can take it upon yourself to do the right thing this history let's take the right steps thank you. Speaker thank you. So zaman's us MR. Munoz, welcome. Thank you mayor and city council. I'm here actually as something personal that happened to me here at the city. I work for the city and I had to backtrack. I bought a truck from a coworker and I know what I'm doing here. I bought the truck from a coworker thinking what he had told me was correct and about the truck and it turned out not to be what he told me he was going to be. And so I was trying to give him the opportunity to make things right with me and he decided not to do things right. That's why I'm here and I have a responsibility as a city worker to notify you guys and also any resident or any public that comes to this city wanting to buy a truck from this gentleman because it turns out that he does that as a second job. He sells vehicles. MR. Munoz, if I if that if I MAY stop you you know, public comment is really for city business and so I would suggest that maybe you talk to personnel and then if well if I can if I can interrupt you the reason I'm bringing this up because it's only a coworker he's actually a supervisor, somebody supposed to be a leader in our city and somebody supposed to, you know, be a leader and be an example for all of us and he's doing shady stuff and that's what he's doing and that's why I'm here. I could talk to personnel but it's just a slap on the hand and I want to make people aware because I'm taking the actions that I need to take, you know, going to court and all that. But to me it is important that if we did it to mean that he sees me on a daily basis and he's ok with what he did. Can you imagine anybody else that he's doing that to that he doesn't know and so it just to let people know just to be aware of this person what he's doing because again I work with him and he didn't have a problem doing what he did and so I have an issue with that and I'm going to court I'm taking the action that I need to take but I feel like I have a responsibility to let the public know because here's a guy that he's doing things that he shouldn't doing and let's be frank, he's supposed to be a leader. He's a supervisor, ok? And at the end of the day that's not right as a supervisor ok, it's bad enough I have a coworker does it to you but he's supposed to be something somebody to that we have to look up to and show us away. Ok, and I don't have a problem with saying what I'm saying today because the truth I'm not here to you know, just make things up is the truth, ok? And if anybody is thinking about buying a car, don't use joel garcia because that's who that who did it to me and it was name for a month for myself was for my son who's worked part time goes to college full time. He was looking for a truck and I told him I explained to him to to make things right and he decided not to listen to your time has expired. I just want to let you guys know I think you guys you know what type of person is a leader. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next week old and denim golden star six muite. Yes. Hello. Can you yes we can go ahead. Ok, hello. And greeting those back or greeting and I must follow my call my coworker because we've been working on this situation for almost three years now and I will have to remind any of you what this is of who I am. I really want to put I want to really want to stay if your conscious on on the front lines because I'm asking for the truth have to take doing the right thing and I was surprised to hear you very good a little earlier but doing the right thing every time well, we're trying to get you to do the right thing on this but also we also know that you don't have the power to do it. So we want to address changing misratah and this situation is urgently eneko go away. We're going to go away. We don't have that many people that we're calling for but we're not going to let the situation go away. So we're going to have to deal with it sooner or later. And the other thing is you speak out spoke on the footage that was originally put out by the police, by the police and what took place was put out and it was the statement over was written by by one of the police officers and it was given to the wall of one of the people that worked with me down passing the media. Now they and even look at the verbiage before they it over the footage. I know this fact because I asked him why did you think and they say they are so ashamed of what they did because they know their words don't fit what they see and they can't take it back because it's been done. But that was one of the original lies that must be addressed and we also know that they didn't have a gun. So the fact that somebody brought a gun to the scene also needs to be addressed. These are real negative, nasty, ugly things and we started out just wanting the police off the streets who has capacity complicity to shoot a kid in the back. And I hope I have brought my time up and I hope someone got something out of it. But I say over your time's up. put the truth on the table if you guys are willing to fight for the truth, you MAY not be accountable in the course of your man's law but you will stand accountable for your actions because you been playing and told you and if you've looked you know the truth. Thank you. Thank you MR. Dinham. Thank you. That completes public comment on matters not on the agenda. Ok next we'll move to the concert calendar and I'll look for sweet motion the concert calendar. We do have one speaker card, an item three and also there was a letter on item three that was submitted to the city clerk's office in opposition to the staff recommendation. That letter was distributed to the council posted online as part of the record for item number three. Ok, move the remainder of the consent calendar. So with with the exception of item three, well, there's a sweet motion on the remainder of the consent calendar. Is there a second second seconded by MISS Riva's moved by vice mayor williams. Any objections to the motion? See no objections. Those matters are approved now with regard to item three will order public comment. Yadi yitong consent. So if ok, I'll try to make it brief. Uh, so item number three is for the purchase of more license plate readers uh by company floc and this is in addition to the vigilent license reader cameras that are already in use by pd. And so I just thought that this was maybe not a good time because we're still the public still not sure if the city of pasadena is in compliance with sb thirty four and ab twelve forty two as was stated by the demand letter sent by aclu that said that we're sharing data with the state agencies and that is very harmful for people that are coming to california to seek reproductive and gender. Froemming care and again this is going to be license readers that are put in stationary locations across the city and it's going to be a big impact on surveillance where we're really tracking and monitoring people's movements including when they take their kids to parks going to church among other things. And so I think that this is definitely not an item that should be on consent and the publishers use policy um the presentation indicated aflac recommends 30 day data retention which is even a lot but that has no bearing on what ppd is actually going to do with their with their use policy and law enforcement agencies across the country that use floc have retention periods anywhere from a couple of hours to of course several years. So I would be really imperative that city council and pd work to minimize the amount of time that they keep the records so that we're not harming people that are seeking reproductive gender from me care. Thank you. Thank you, audie. That completes public comment on this item or other questions or comments later this matter or is there motion? I have a quick question there. Um, I had emailed chief harris about this over the weekend and I was wondering maybe if you could share a little bit about what we had discussed. I think it provides some helpful context and background . My kind of initial thought upon reading the staff report is just having where does this fit within our broader scheme of license plate readers? I saw that the staff report cited that we this is part of a previously approved the ap project which is in in terms of pilot and so if you could just talk about where we are in that pilot stage versus moving on to something perhaps more robust just to provide a little bit more background for folks. Certainly, MR. Mayor and vice CHAIRMAN, members of the council agreement tonight we've brought our commander who was actually on the ground when the pilot began to answer those questions for you. The things that I emailed over to if there's any other detailed questions after he's done, then I'll get up here and handle those. Commander aguilar. Thank you, chief commander. Thank you. Good evening. Council mayor. Ok, so the initial this is paul first while this is part of that pilot and what we're able to do is increase our cameras because we're able to get more money but it will continue as as a pilot if it changes, chief is aware that he'll come here and present that public safety and we'll move that great. That was my main concern. Following up with the chief is when we make that shift from pilot to full on program or do I don't that that's a decision the council fully discusses and is very clear and it's not something we kind of just slide into in a consent item. So it's good to hear that we're going to do that. That's correct. Thank ok. Any other questions? I guess I do have one following up on the public comment. Do we share data with law enforcement agencies from out of state? No, we don't, sir. The only information that is shared is criminal investigations. That's the only thing that's shared and we only have it for thirty days after 30 days it gets deleted. There's a tracking system why we even look up any information there is it basically creates a footprint so we can check to see which investigators are looking at license plates for what reason. So it's not just accessible to anybody and it's not just something that anybody can randomly check and it's only for criminal investigations. Ok, with that is there a motion I'll move the item in the second motion in a second. any objections? No, thank you. Thank you sir. Emotions unanimously approved and that brings us to item by item nine and I know there's quite a bit of interest in this matter. The clerk this is the request for direction to respond to concerns related to human coyote interactions and there are third over thirty five speaker cards in the q and so I'm going to ask that speaker try and stick to two minutes and if you can do it in under two minutes that's great. We want to give everybody an opportunity to to state and make their opinion on me or can I just make an introductory sure thing. I'm hoping that everyone that was here uh for this side also was here for your very touching presentation to DR. Tom and I think it's important to remember that we need to talk with one another. We have problems and solutions won't come from sort yelling at one another making ad hominem attacks. Let's try to work together because I'm convinced there's a real situation here. I live in this neighborhood too. I've seen it firsthand and let's have a constructive let's have a constructive discussion . Thank you. Thank you for that, MR. Madison. You know, I I agree. You know, this is this is a an issue that's been debated not just in pasadena but I think i mentioned that the san gabriel valley council of governments actually established a task force some time ago to address the issue. I know that we're we're we're going to be working with the cities of sierra madre, the county of los angeles as well as lakita who've all reached out to me to even work even more closely together than the thirty one cities of the kog. And so this is a very complicated issue and and we should all be respectful of one another's opinion. MR. Carmona, welcome. Good evening, mayor and members of city council for the record annual carmona I'm the acting director of public health. I'm here tonight to present or to request direction from the city council to respond to concerns related to human iot interactions. We'll start with first an overview of what the urban wildlife management plan is. The plan itself was drafted by the public health department. It was adopted by city council in AUGUST of twenty nineteen. We authored the plan primarily due to our responsibility for managing the animal control contract with pasadena humane but also because of the zoonotic diseases transfer between wildlife and people in our community. And so we try to protect the community in that way. The guidance in the plan is needed is intended for city staff but not for residents, businesses or homeowner associations. The overarching strategy is one of focusing on balancing wildlife respect while also protecting public safety. The plan uses a three pronged approach to achieve the strategy including public education for reducing human wildlife conflicts enforcement of state and local laws and categorizing wildlife behavior to identify and respond to emerging threats. The plan does require active community participation because addressing wildlife concerns especially ones that involve coyotes must be done in the moment and calling for supportive responses can usually be too late. The city does place a high value on wildlife but some species of wildlife such as coyotes have adapted to urban environments. The focus of the plan is to prevent human wildlife conflicts when conflicts do emerge, the plan recommends corrective measures that do not harm wildlife or habitat. But that said, the city prioritizes human safety. So when there is an aggressive coyote that's either engaging in confirmed, provoked or unprovoked attack on a human or the of aggressive behavior such as baring teeth snarling or lunging then lethal control is definitely an option that the city will consider to date the city has not taken any measures any such measures but if the need arises the city will consult with california department of fish and wildlife to ensure that any potential actions for coyote abatement are conducted in a humane manner in conformity with state and local laws. State law is rather complex when it comes to hunting coyotes and throughout california coyotes are considered nongay mammals and must be released humanely euthanized at the trap location. While the city does not recommended a state does allow property owners in pasadena to trap if they maintain a state state trap it receive written consent from all property owners within one hundred and fifty yards of the location and comply the state restrictions on trapping methods. I should note that in the staff report we we incorrectly said one hundred and fifty feet of notification when it should be one hundred and fifty yards so they needed tools and skill sets for trapping actually make it a challenge for most individuals to do it on their own and for these reasons we highly recommend that any property owner seeking to engage in trapping guidance from california department of fish and wildlife personnel and engage certified professionals they tend to do so on their properties. There have been wildlife management uses a color coded system to classify coyote behavior based upon rat ranges or threat levels ranging from normal coyote behavior at a low threat level green to a confirm provoked or unprovoked attack on a human at high threat level which is red at the plants classification coyote behavior is in related threat levels in line with the san gabriel valley council of governments with regional coyote management framework in the coyote management plans of several neighboring cities. The plan does encourage community members to report any concerns to different agencies based upon the threat level including the citizen servant center pasadena humane in the pasadena police department. The response to concerns is based on the authority and roles of the city and partner agencies. The plan encourages community members to report concerns and the capacity of public health departments do review review call data from the citizens service center in pasadena humane to assess trends and coyote concerns and locations throughout the city. A review of the research literature shows that lethal control is simply not an effective strategy for reducing human iot conflicts. This graphic by the humane society of the united states illustrates killing coyotes does not work in a stable park. There is typically one breeding pair between the alpha male and the alpha female when coyotes are removed from the pack the pack size is reduced in the short term but in the long term immigrant coyotes join the pack and trigger reproduction and other females and leading to increased reproduction or bigger litter sizes that help the pack rebound to the same or larger pack size than before to start the start of lethal control measures, pasadena public health department consulted with the california department of fish and wildlife reviewed related research to assess the validity of this graphic and found sufficient evidence supporting the conclusion that lethal control simply does not work in the research. This phenomenon has a foundation in it's called a rebound effect or compensatory reproduction and the foundations back to coyote research from the 1970s and 1980s. As I mentioned often females are the only female that produces in the pack and when they do they produce one litter per year with an average of about six pups. But litter size ranges litter size can range between four and seven but can be smaller or larger depending on the nutritional status of the alpha female and the alpha female nutritional status is a function of food availability in coyote population density. As food availability increases, litter size is likely to increase as well. Conversely, litter sizes MAY decrease as coyote population density increases, the alpha female usually produces more popular and ultimately wanted in any back when juveniles reach nine and 11 months they rejected from the pack and become transients they move between narrow and defended zones between pack territories researching for an open habitat occupy or group to join. Many of these juveniles die before they find a pack but nonetheless these trends are transient are ever present removing coyotes from a pack reduces their ability to defend their territory transit coyotes integrate into the terrain on our planet territory and replenish a population if an alpha female alpha male are killed, ovulation is triggered in other breeding age females resulting in an increase in number and size of litters in 2005 arrogates study coyotes in colorado to assess the impact of lethal control and coyote population density. He compared population density using two packs one pack subject a lethal control and yet another nearby pack has a controlled where lethal control was used. Population density decreased by as much as 70 percent but he found that the vacances were quickly filled by integrating coyotes within eight months the population density within the removal area had fully recovered. Similarly, john keigo killgore study coyotes in southeastern united states. He found coyotes to have higher reproductive rates in areas where exploitation such as trap and kill was occurring primarily due to high migration of juvenile males. Gilgo concluded that it would be, in his words, impossible to implement a trapping program over a sufficiently large area to limit the pool of immigrant coyotes like geese. Gilgo concluded that lethal control efforts would be unlikely to reduce coyote populations for longer than a few months. Non-lethal control measures can be effective if they are consistently correctly applied including hazing, removing coyote attractants, keeping pets indoors, strengthening properties against coyote intrusion and enforcing laws prohibiting the feeding of wildlife. Recently there's been a surge in research about urban coyotes in los angeles county. One study conducted by the california state university of northridge and national park service found that sixty seventy five percent of the urban coyote diet is garbage, ornamental fruit and cats coyotes upwell and take advantage of unsecured food sources provided by humans when coyotes associate human activity as a food source, habituation results frequent coyote visits to the same location is a strong sign someone is intentionally or inadvertently feeding them. But coyotes are naturally fearful of humans causing fear. Conditioning helps maintain that fear. Hazing is immediate use of deterrents to move a coyote out of an area or discourage undesired behavior activity. Hazing techniques include making loud noises, spraying water, using bright lights, throwing objects and shouting to be effective active community participation is required so hazing is consistent in every coyote interaction. Some community members have expressed growing concerns about community coyote interactions in their neighborhoods. Their concerns are understandable. It is not often that we come face to face with wildlife in an urban setting. When we do it can be very concerning. Even the behavior is considered normal for that animal. At the APRIL public safety committee meeting, some residents shared separate reports of coyotes entering enclosed yards, injuring unattended pet and killing in an unattended pet, according to the urban wildlife management plan. All of these behaviors are mildly habituated coyote behavior. There were additional reports of coyote sightings during the day stalking residents were walking their pets and sitting or resting in front yards. All of these reports are considered normal coyote behavior has he mentioned the pasadena public health department does collect and compile data about coyote concerns in twenty twenty two we feel that one hundred and fifty nine calls related to coyotes twelve of the hundred and fifty nine calls were related to an injured or killed pet. Over half of the calls were for a normal coyote behavior. Slightly more than a quarter of calls were from mildly habituated behavior but twelve percent was for aggressive habituated behavior. There were no calls in twenty twenty two for an attack on a human as of MAY thirty eight there were fifty one reported concerns twenty two percent in the prior less than the prior year for the same period there were two attacks resulting in a death of unattended pets during this time when we chart reported concerns by threat level from JANUARY twenty twenty two to MAY of twenty twenty three we see that the vast majority of reported concerns are for normal coyote behavior. We also see reported concerns generally coincide each year with meeting and denning season which runs from FEBRUARY to SEPTEMBER when coyotes can be more defensive of their territories. Staff presented to the public safety committee in APRIL and JUNE of twenty twenty three and the committee requested staff review the city of torrance lethal control program seek more information about the san gabriel valley council of governments quality management task force and provide recommendations for addressing the community concerns reported at the APRIL nineteenth committee meeting. We'll start with the city of torrance lethal control program . City of torrance is similar to pasadena in many ways including population, geographic area and proximity to natural resources and open space. Of the 88 cities in los angeles county, torrance's only city to use lethal control to reduce the coyote population as a means for addressing human coyote interactions and conflicts like pasadena, several other cities only consider lethal control when there is a confirmed provoked or unprovoked attack on a human or coyotes displaying aggressive behavior towards humans. The city of torrance adopted our coyote management plan in JUNE of twenty sixteen in SEPTEMBER of twenty nineteen they amended their plan to add a city coordinated beidleman trapping season over the last two years which has expanded their lethal control program first they expanded to trap weekdays year round and then then second they expanded to trap every day of the week around. Since starting the lethal control program, torrance's spent two hundred and fifty six thousand dollars to trap seventy eight coyotes the year after starting their trapping program, coyote sightings increased by fourteen percent in the last eight months, torrance's has reported two hundred and seventeen coyote sightings nine pet attacks in twenty three pet deaths. But the height of the active coyote season is yet to come due to the lack of additional published data. It is difficult to assess if their program is achieving the desired results next I want to turn to the coyote management task force offered by the kog. The kog developed the regional coyote management framework in collaboration with the california department of fish and wildlife county of los angeles and the university of california. The goal of the framework is to discourage coyote habituation through public education, human behavior modification and robust reporting and response. The framework emphasizes coexistence, changing human behavior and a culture of hazing of what happened with the powerpoint there. I just have a few more slides and I'll wrap up. I know this is a lengthy presentation to back up it it's it's a slide. Twenty two great. In addition to the framework states that the nonselective coyote removal programs are ineffective for reducing coyote populations or preventing conflicts in the long run the framework serves as a foundation for approaches to coyote response for several cities including the cities neighboring pasadena such as alhambra, arcadia, glendora, irwindale, rosemead and san marino. The urban wildlife management plan aligns with every aspect of the kog regional coyotes management framework. The task force also established neighbor coyote program. The program offers services similar to those provided by the pasadena humane in the city of pasadena, including reporting tools, community workshops and trainings and pet safety planning. In addition, the program offers an educational access line referrals to research resources and crisis intervention. But the program does not include or conduct field visits or offer trouping services. In conclusion, I want to end with the five recommendations that staff made to the public safety committee in those five recommendations include increasing public outreach services, improving local coyote activity reporting systems, convening a panel of experts to improve our understanding of effective approaches. Hiring a consultant to conduct a field study where community concerns are heightened and supporting residents to strengthen protections against coyote intrusions on their property. I would like to quickly provide more detail for each one of these recommendations with regard to increasing public outreach services. We do see a need to build on or expand current services offered by passing humane and citizen service center targeted public outreach and education MAY help residents better understand coyote behavior. Learn how to remove coyote attractants and help avoid intentional or inadvertent feeding of wildlife. A campaign to encourage the public to report sightings would also be helpful so we can have more data about coyote interactions in pasadena, a dedicated resources focused on coyotes are needed in order for us to coordinate these efforts and respond to community concerns. Second recommendation is to improve local reporting systems . the plan encourages residents to call different agencies based on the perceived threat. If we want to want community members to report concerns, we need to streamline and consolidate the reporting into one point of contact with one reporting system. We can collect more quality data seeking system improvements to map concerns using gis. The data collected can can then help identify neighborhood hotspots launch targeted community outreach and offer hyper local interventions. Third is to convene a panel of experts as previously mentioned, there has been an increase in local research on urban coyotes in L.A. County. Understanding what has been learned would be beneficial to staff as well as the public. Reviewing the results of the research MAY be helpful to identifying public education approaches, addressing problematic coyote behavior and enhancing our data collection and analysis practices. Our fourth recommendation is to hire a consultant to conduct a field study where coyote concerns are heightened and maybe beneficial to conduct a field study that can assess the local coyote population, observe their behavior and identify neighborhood food sources or other attractants. Recently consultants have prepared comprehensive reports for other cities in the county including culver city and manhattan beach and the final recommendation is to support protections against coyote intrusion. There are several effective methods for strengthening properties against intrusion, including using peyote rollers, taller fencing and lighting while effective, these measures require resources and in some instances technical guidance for complying with zoning code. The city would could consider offering incentives or financial assistance to property owners interested in protecting their properties and reviewing the zoning codes to assess waste online priority intrusion prevention measures with code requirements. In conclusion, I want to highlight the five options that we're presenting to city council with our request for direction. The first option is direct to direct staff to take steps to amend the urban wildlife management plan to begin a seasonal trapping program possibly from OCTOBER to MARCH . Second option is to direct staff to take steps to amend the urban wildlife management plan to begin an annual trapping program year round. Third option is to direct staff to implement one or more of the five staff recommendations listed in response to the public safety committee. The fourth option is to direct staff to take no action at this time and the fifth option is to direct staff to pursue an alternative option not presented in this report. And then we have our recommendations including this proposed action is exempt from sequoia through the common sense rule and in providing request for direction whether to initiate one of the identified options or an alternative option not presented in the report. With that I'll take your questions. Thank MR. Carmona questions comments before we move to public comment. As I mentioned, we have over 35 public speakers who would like to address the council. MR. Williams, did you have questions and then I see you in the q and then MR. Massood is in the q so I guess I was really disturbed to see this on the agenda and really kind of saddened to see that we would just from a moral perspective it just seems like animal cruelty to me and and secondly it just doesn't seem consistent with our urban wildlife management plan. So I'm going to ask questions about the plan and I'm going to ask questions about the discussion that public safety committee so the the urban wildlife management plan specifically addresses for staff human and wildlife interactions. So at what point did kind of the criteria change to wildlife and pet interact means that we would consider changing a plan that's really intended for human and wildlife that that's really kind of the standard. So how did we get to a point where we're changing this the the proposal right now to propose action is not to change anything. It's to have a discussion and council direction as to whether or not the council wants to change the plan. Ok, and what was the discussion of public safety that brought this to the city council and what was the recommendation at public safety? The the discussion about public safety really was a complicated discussion involving trying to find an approach that sees us working with other cities that tries to find a solution to to minimizing attacks on or decreasing the likelihood of attacks on pets trying to find a way to educate the public and again focusing on the question of how do we work better with surrounding agencies, with neighbors? But then the question of what the approach that some cities are taking with capturing either capture and relocation or capture and utilization direct was direction was given to staff to to look at those issues as well. And was there a recommendation from public safety? I guess that's wondering I'm wondering how it got on the council agenda without a recommendation from public safety. The request of the committee members was to bring it to the full city council for discussion because it has city wide implications. I mean I don't know that there's any neighborhood in pasadena that's not impacted. I mean I don't live in the foothills and and certainly in my neighborhood, you know, we have coyotes virtually every day on our on our front lawn or in our neighborhood somewhere on the street. And so it was seen as a city wide issue that should be discussed by the full council. Ok, um, I think you know where I stand on it so I don't know can you repeat again so so next MR. Ambassador. Thank you, mayor emanuel for your report in my district probably about five to seven years ago I had two meetings resident meetings just for coyotes. We learned a lot and education was the main thing about this. We had all the experts and people discussing and it was really good. But you're right, we learned about phasing in and how to haze and how to yell. We had ladies hitting pots and pans and all sorts of things, you know, but like the mayor I have coyotes in my front yard and they they lay down and they think it's their home but we had a lady actually feeding intentionally not unintentionally intentionally feeding the coyotes and that was a big problem. So we had to get that stopped. But ever since we've had our meetings everything seems to be ok now but we are always aware of animals, small animals being attacked by coyotes. So the key to our meetings were the the people that were hosting the meetings or speaking the meetings. So you need to put your small animals away and when you're walking an animal have a short leash or something like that many you agree? That's absolutely correct. that's the best practice. So I guess I'm like vice mayor williams. It's a little bit difficult for me to say that we need to do something. Actually the people that came to our meetings thought that we we we trap the coyotes and we bring them up to the mountains. They release and I said no, we don't do that. So you know, I just wanted to voice my opinion on what worked in our district just from education. Thank you. Thank you council member and I just want to make a quick note because it was referenced earlier trap and real relocate of coyotes is not allowed in the state of california so you can only trap and release them at the site of looking at the side of trapping or trapping euthanize them humanely. I see. Thank you, MR. Madison. Thank you, mayor jean. I have people beating pots and pans my town hall meetings and it's not even about coyotes that's another topic or about the COUNCILMAN. Well, I don't know about but miguel, thank you for the report and we had a neighborhood meeting that you attended grateful for that. Grateful for all the information. What I'm struggling with is, you know, like the mayor, like others, this is almost a daily thing like in where I live in west pasadena and I've never called the citizens service center so I struggle with how reliable the data is about whether it's getting worse, whether we have a larger population and the other dimension is I struggle with the brazenness you know, the coyotes that are fearless. I've tried the hazing I've tried and at some point it just seems like you've got to run inside your house and I'm concerned about quote unquote normal behavior because I'm afraid that if a small child were playing in a large yard that normal behavior for a coyote might be to view that child as food. Am I wrong about that or texan humans are very rare. It's not to say that they do not happen. In fact in L.A. County there's been attacks on toddlers but it doesn't happen very frequently. But in those situations it's just like any other thing that you would any other family activity you have to monitor the children and the toddlers and make sure that they're not in an area where they could be subject to wildlife. Certainly these are concerns normal coyote behavior as I mentioned through the report can be concerning. It's definitely understandable if you're not engaging wildlife on a regular basis and the reason we think the public education is really important is to help distinguish between what is concerning coyote behavior and what is not and when there is concern in coyote behavior how to report it appropriately so that we have that data right now the urban wildlife management plan already has methods for response so if there is a you know, a coyote it's acting very aggressively then we will respond and we will work with passing humane california facial models to assess that behavior and then to figure out what the next steps are for that particular coyote. Regrettably, we don't have enough people telling us that that actually is happening. But what sort of play that out for me? Like what would the solution be ? So right now the urban wildlife management plan as a as a shared does allow for lethal control of a very aggressive a coyote or a coyote that is actually engaged in and confirmed provoked or unprovoked attack on a human. And in that situation we would we would basically hire a city would hire a contractor to selective selectively pursue that coyote for removal. But we would not do indiscriminate nonselective trapping or killing drought that has that happened the hypothetical you're describing it is not happening because we haven't had an instance where a coyote presented that that public safety threat and of course again we don't want to wait for that to happen and then say gosh, we had an opportunity to act, you know, so and I have no interest in harming any animal. I mean the irony is the animals are frequently harmed by coyotes and I get that it's quote unquote normal behavior but at some point I think some of the letters really make this point the the habitat. But then there's my backyard where my children play and my my pets should have the right to to sort of play safely to you know, these pets enrich our lives incredibly. They're like family members. And so, you know, again, I'm struggling with the lack of real data and I'm concerned there are a number of recommendations about number three which sort of indicates let's step up our education and outreach and I think our our own data collection that's fine. But you know, if we were to go that way, I don't want it to be a palliative and sort of just how people on the outside and then go back to normal because I really do literally like the mayor. I think if in my household if we were to call every time we spotted a coyote at, you know, close range, it would be at least once a week and probably more frequently. And one thing one of the articles that are in our packet discussed was birth's crashing because I know a lot of the the viewpoints that have been sent to us or are from animal rights activists and the like and and they react and it's not unreasonable reaction about cruelty and taking the life of of animals who are just being what they are coyotes. I get that. But what about birth suppression? Is there an effective way to reduce the population through birth suppression? You know, I wish we had as you all know, I'm not a wildlife biologist. I wish we had callup will be by the time I know probably I think we all well I wish we had california fish and wildlife on hand to answer that question. I'm not familiar with the regulations about that but in general any kind of human interaction with any kind of wildlife is not good and part of it is because they become habituated to the human behavior. What we also know is that the research about trap and kill also applies to birth suppression because as coyote density decreases then you have more immigrant coyotes that would flood in and then trigger more reproduction. So the research even though it's not related to birth suppression could apply in that situation as well. But your question is a good one. We can ask the california fish and wildlife for more detailed response so we can share that with the city council. What's frustrating is it's just sort of like yeah, we can do better but you know, like some sort of you know, phenomenon we're just going to have to get used to losing pets and and maybe someday a child, you know and I don't accept that. So no, we wouldn't accept that either. Council member and I have a dog myself bella and you know, take her on walks in the evenings and we're very careful as a council member masuda shares in this experience, I think that we can empower residents to know what they can do to protect themselves, their pets and their families that we'll see a better response and the coyotes will be on their own because they will become the natural fear of humans will be increased. Ok, thanks mayor. Thank you again. A very complicated issue and one of the additional complications is you know, municipalities don't have don't regulate wildlife. It's the department of fish and wildlife california department of fish and wildlife and so that that's yet another complication. So why don't we now turn to I'm sorry council member jones let's give him a shot and then go back to council vice mayor williams. Thanks, mayor. So as as steve and jean said, it seems like this is an issue that is city wide and the experiences vary. And so I just want to call attention to one of your recommendations is to hire a field consultant to conduct a field study. So will this consultant go in and identify hotspots in a city and then figure out ways to ditmir the coyotes and will they develop a plan for each specific hotspot? Yeah, actually that's that's the gist of it. But we would identify the hotspot for them. So based upon data or like heighten community concerns we hear a lot of it through neighborhood associations we would we would try to figure out where the best investment would be for that particular field study and the goal would for them to assess the coyote population. Right now there's a perceived, you know, notion that the county population is exploding and it could be very well but we don't know there's no like census for coyotes and that kind of thing. So you can identify the hotspot like some folks aren't using the ccf or so that's where that's where the other recommendation would come into play is that we really need a campaign and to streamline reporting so that that way we can improve the reporting system so that we can identify that geographically we can still do that with the current system. It just takes a little bit more work. But nonetheless where would he know where where some neighborhood associations have expressed grave concerns about coyotes. The role of the consultant is really to understand the coyote population in that neighborhood, to understand what's drawing them into that neighborhood and and to make recommendations for us to basically address the issues and concerns and then maybe I missed it. But are we part of the coyote management plan for cog so we're not part of the task force? Yeah, yeah. Through the mayor's work he's highlighted that they've been working on this in so we've we've reached out and got more information about their work as well which is consistent with what we've been doing here in pasadena. Ok, thank you. And I am I am a representative of the kog, our representative on the kog and keep myself informed involved in those discussions. But the city should we'll talk about that in part of our discussion that the city should formally partner the health department I should say, ok, why don't we vice mayor williams I'm sorry. So just just a follow up to I appreciated council member massouda comments. We also had a coyote workshop in district two that was very well attended because we had gotten a lot of complaints and we saw a lot of next door as well, which is not the place to report coyotes by the way. But I was wondering we also get reports that there are coyote dens and they're very visible in our neighborhoods and so we have found that the areas that are experiencing high coyote sightings generally have an abandoned home, poorly kept yard, a house that no one's living in nearby where there is a coyote den and we've tried to partner with kaat with code enforcement to address that. So I'm just wondering what is the relationship with code enforcement and really trying to clean up some of the areas if we do do a field study, will we be able to identify some of those areas where they are being fed, they are breeding so that we can address it through code enforcement? Absolutely. Impact on the urban wildlife management plan has a yard audit checklist and so we do engage that and I mean conduct those those yard audits. We identify a property and usually the neighbors already know that there's one neighbor that's either feeding, you know, coyotes or that they're not keeping their property and maybe they have a large property. So we're able to identify them rather quickly and then we refer them to code compliance, code compliance to make contact and let them know what needs to be done. Of course we're always trying to take an education approach before we bring the hammer down. We don't want to punish anybody . Sometimes it's somebody who doesn't have the means to keep their yard kept. So we do take a soft approach and if they're just not compliant then we move forward to the law enforcement scheme. Ok, why don't we turn to public comment, MR. Clark? Thank you, mayor. We do have to report out some course on ins for the public safety committee meeting that happened on APRIL 19th, JUNE 21st. There were six letters advocating for the city to control coyote population and are expressing concerns with the number of coyotes in neighborhoods. There was two letters expressing concerns with the city adopting urban wildlife management plan that allows the trapping and euthanizing of coyotes in the city with four passing the residents and for residents not stated for this meeting, the city council received seventy three letters in opposition to or expressing concerns with the city adopting an urban wildlife management management plan that allows for the trapping and euthanizing of coyotes. The city 36 letters in support of option three of the staff recommendation and or in opposition to trapping and euthanizing coyotes for letters advocating for the city to trap and transport coyotes to wildlife areas and or support humane measures to reduce coyote interactions with pets and to letters advocating for the city to trap and euthanize the coyotes that linger in the city. We did look at those the correspondence for passing the residents and 25 of the letters were submitted by passing residents that identified themselves 21 or nonresidents 63 were residents not stated and six were from organizations. All the correspondence has been distributed to the council posted online as part of the record for this item we will call speak