CC - 05-10-05MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
ROSEMEAD CITY COUNCIL
MAY 10, 2005
CITY O R 00SQ11EAD
DATE
RY
The regular meeting of the Rosemead City Council was called to order by Mayor Imperial at
8:04 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the City Hall, 8838 E. Valley Boulevard, Rosemead,
California.
The Pledge to the Flag was led by Councilman Tran.
The Invocation was delivered by Mayor Pro Tern Taylor
ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS:
Present: Councilmembers Clark, Nunez, Tran, Mayor Pro Tern Taylor, and Mayor
Imperial
Absent: None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: APRIL 12, 2005 - REGULAR MEETING
MOTION BY MAYOR PRO TEM TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILWOMAN
CLARK that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Rosemead City Council held on May 10,
2005, be approved as submitted. Vote resulted:
Yes:
Clark, Nunez, Tran, Taylor, Imperial
No:
None
Absent:
None
Abstain:
None
The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered.
PRESENTATIONS: NONE
1. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE
THE FOLLOWING IS VERBATIM:
BARBARA MURPHY, 9125 BENTEL STREET: Good evening. I'm here sort of representing
my street, Bentel. And, we have a lot of conversations regarding the state of the condition of
Rosemead Boulevard, especially the northbound side from Glendon Way to basically under the
train underpass. This is probably CalTrans road, not you.
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MAYOR IMPERIAL: Under the underpass you're talking about the traffic on the left, that's
county area there, but under the control of Temple City.
MURPHY: Well, I'm more concerned with from Glendon Way to Valley Boulevard. You need
a tank to drive that any longer. The road is in incredibly bad condition. What are you guys
going to do about it?
COUNCILMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. I agree with you that it is terrible. But, you're correct,
it is a state highway and they're telling us they don't have the money to fix it. But, they want the
City to pave over Rosemead Boulevard, but we won't do it until they repair it. The range is
between $8 and $9 million and CalTrans says they don't have the money. Yet, legally, they're
supposed to repair it. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's where we're at with it. And, it is bad.
MURPHY: Well, it's atrocious. This is like them saying it's your responsibility and you saying
it's them. Meanwhile the street gets worse and worse every time you drive it.
TAYLOR: Have they said that, that it's our responsibility.
MURPHY: Well, if they want you to take over Rosemead Boulevard.
TAYLOR: They're running out of money or they're out of money, but they want the City to
take over ...just take it over, period. But, we're not going to do it until they repair it, if we do do
it.
MURPHY: Do we have any idea if it is ever going to get repaired then?
KEN RUKAVINA, CITY ENGINEER: This has been an on-going concern, especially since the
rains. I have corresponded with CalTrans over the last month or so asking whether or not they
have short-term plans to do any work. I was told that they are looking to put together a project to
do some resurfacing that might occur in about three months. I did notice that they recently did
Rosemead Boulevard north of the 60 Freeway down near the park area, down near Whittier
Narrows. So, I know they are starting to work on Rosemead Boulevard.
MURPHY: The worst traffic is coming off the 10, on Glendon Way and Valley Boulevard.
RUKAVINA: We have been on CalTrans to at least maintain the potholes the best they can.
Actually, I feel they have been more responsive than they were in the past year.
MURPHY: We're one large pothole now.
RUKAVINA: I know. It is bad and we're on them often to...all during the winter when it was
raining, we were on them to get there with their maintenance crews to fill the potholes. And, like
I said, I have been corresponding with them. Hopefully, they will do something within the next
three or four months. But, that is the best I can do. It is a state highway and it's out of our
hands.
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COUNCILMAN TRAN: Can we look at...obviously it is a state highway and there is an
immediate need right now. Couldn't the City go ahead and repair/resurface it and have CalTrans
in three or four months reimburse us for the amount.
RUKAVINA: It is something I can approach the state. They'll gladly give us a permit to do
work, if we pay for it...they have in the past. But, it would be a couple of million probably to do
it right.
TRAN: Resurface?
RUKAVINA: Yes, because it is in pretty bad shape right now.
MURPHY: Can't you get any politicians like Gloria Romero or Molina or any of those people
to put pressure on Sacramento.
RUKAVINA: Well, we could try. Unfortunately, it's one small section of...
MURPHY: Well, you laugh, Jay, but they do represent us.
MAYOR IMPERIAL: Let me just say
MURPHY: Well, that's your opinion. Another issue is, the two John's already have this. The
City of Walnut just instituted this in April. It's a real problem with people putting out couches,
stoves, refrigerators, mattresses, you name it, whenever they feel like it. Finally, a neighbor gets
angry enough to call City Hall. City Hall calls Consolidated. Consolidated comes and picks it
up. It doesn't stop the problem because everyone knows they can get away with it. Either you'll
have to start fining people or pass an ordinance because the City looks like Hell. On top of that
you have people that never cut their yards, weeds are this high and nothing gets done about that
either. The City of Walnut instituted that program and as of now it's working. And, it's a way
of generating revenue if you want to look at it that way. Money is always an issue. That's all I
have to say.
COUNCILWOMAN CLARK: Mr. Mayor. I'd like to follow up on what Mr. Tran said, because
I was going to ask the same thing. Is there any kind of reimbursement that they would
guarantee?
RUKAVINA: No, there isn't. I've had conversations with ...this whole issue about the
relinquishment has become eminent, Councilmember Tran asked about it a few meetings ago so
we've been doing some inquiring about it before we bring it to the full Council. Both the County
of Los Angeles and the City of West Covina have been to looking to take over the State
Highways in their jurisdictions. For the County it is specifically Rosemead Boulevard up near
Huntington Drive, and in West Covina it's Azusa. I've been told by both of those agencies that
CalTrans is willing to relinquish the roadway to them, but they're telling both agencies that they
don't have the money. Both agencies have gone out and done the assessments on the boulevards
to determine what the costs would be to bring it up to a good state of repair. In the case of West
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Covina, they actually negotiated an amount, settled on an amount, and they're going through the
process, which is a lengthy process where you have to have legislation passed. And, ultimately,
the California Transportation Commission needs to be involved to relinquish it. Now, the state is
coming in and saying that "Well, we'll give you the street, but we can't guarantee we're going to
give you any money". So that is where we are at right now.
TRAN: Mr. Mayor. I did have a conversation with Judy Chu about this. She is the Chair of the
Appropriations Committee. She is willing to carry a bill for us. The proposal ...I did talk to
some of my colleagues in South El Monte and El Monte, and also Temple City where we can
have the whole Rosemead Boulevard relinquished back to local control ...tear it all up and redo it
with storm drains, the lights reconfigured to synchronize with the cities. She said she will carry
a bill for us. It makes sense. I understand that there is not that much money, but she'll do the
best she can. If it does pass in legislation and is considered a bill, she can actually be advocating
for it, and down the line can always receive money for it. But, at least we can start the process of
having CalTrans relinquish the street to us. It makes a lot of sense, we actually can have our
own control, and if there is a problem, we can fix it ourselves. 1 know the cost is at least $8 %z
million.
RUKAVINA: That's a Cadillac price too, to start negotiations.
TRAN: Exactly. And that is where we want to be at.
CLARK: Is she willing to, if we do the repairs, without relinquishing, would they reimburse?
That's what I'm concerned about. Because I don't want to take it over with all the bills and
not...and then there are future problems with storm drain management. All the things that we
have to get out of the storm water is billions of dollars, and that's why CalTrans wants to get rid
of it. Because they want us to foot the bill down the road. This is going to be a huge mandate.
The storm drain, NPDES, TMDL, all those things. I would like to see if we could do some of the
repairs and get reimbursed. If Judy carves the bill that way, but not for us to take it over because
we have to pay for...down the road all these horrendous costs.
TRAN: Look at Pico Rivera who has CalTrans relinquish it to them. I think in speaking to some
of the members, it kind of beautified the street a little more.
CLARK: They're not looking at down the road at what's going to happen with the storm water
permits, they may be really, really sorry.
TRAN: Wouldn't that $8 %z million give us an opportunity to kind of clean it all up and provide
the necessary storm drains?
RUKAVINA: Actually, from a storm drain standpoint, the boulevard is actually in pretty good
shape. The issues that Mrs. Clark is referring to is all the TMDL's that we're going to have to
deal with down the line. Right now we're dealing with the trash TMDL's where we have to
eliminate the trash going into the L.A. river, but ultimately there is going to be a TMDL for
metals and....
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CLARK: There are 92 things we have to...
0
RUKAVINA: There's 92 things, metals, biological... down the line, and putting in all the
BMP's into the stone drain to filter out those constituents, is going to be what the real costly
measure is going to be. Rosemead is going to be one small street in all over the City. But,
you're right in that if we did have control over it we could maintain the medians exactly the way
we want. We do maintain them now, but we would be able to do more with the parkways and
modify the signals and keep the pavement up to speed.
MAYOR IMPERIAL: I might say, Gary probably remembers, we tried to take Ramona and the
parking lot for CalTrans, up there right on the corner of Hellman... and it was nothing but a farce.
We spent about ten years on this street with Sacramento and finally gave up.
COUNCILMAN NUNEZ: The alternative would be not to do anything. We need to do
something. Even though in the past, we've failed... not failed, but discouraged. We still need to
work on it and attempt to find different avenues. Find out what CalTrans would do or want to
do.
TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. Have Mr. Tran and Mr. Nunez seen the material we got two years ago
when they wanted us to take it over? I think that should be given to them because here it's
almost two years later and it's getting worse. As far as the residents are concerned, I think you
should be writing letters to the state representative and also to the newspapers. It is bad. It is the
most broken up highway in the City as far as...and it's not just a temporary patch, because what
happens in every rain, it gets unglued. The surface that is out there now delaminates. That's
why all the asphalt is cracking out now because it's lost its bond to the concrete or base that's
under it. There's no way to...they did come out in the heavy rains, they patched it and those
patches are all out again. So, it's not an easy fix. And, I'm not trying to just say it's the state's
responsibility. We'd like to do something. But, if we were to take the $8 million, that would
almost bankrupt the City in one year - taking out our reserves. We have more money, but it's
called dedicated funds. It's gasoline tax money that we have to use for particular street
improvements. We've got other money that's dedicated. We can't take it and spend it to do
Rosemead Boulevard. And, if we did it, we would be bankrupt in one year. It's an expensive
project and the state is the responsible party.
TRAN: I do recognize that. I would not, obviously, not take back the street without the caveat
of the state giving us the $8 % million. But if cities like Covina, and West Covina is just
now, and Pico Rivera doing it and currently tonight South El Monte is discussing
their situation... position to ask CalTrans to take over that as well. Temple City is also going to
be joining in that. We're actually right in the middle, kind of caught there. Why not join in and
see what we can do to join forces and have a bigger bargaining chip for the state. Maybe all
three cities can work together and see how we can actually maintain this boulevard after we get
local control. But, again, I would not ask to move forward without getting the money from the
state, and that was the goal that if that was to be relinquished that one of our legislators would
help us get the funding for it.
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CLARK: Mr. Mayor. I would like to have this item verbatim in the minutes as this item will
probably come up again.
JAMES FLOURNOY, 8655 LANDIS VIEW, ROSEMEAD, first of all I'd like to say that I
agree with Mr. Taylor. If we spend money on Rosemead Boulevard, we'd never see it again.
Our Congress people cannot promise to reimburse money. It's not going to happen. I think we
do need to write letters, we get the political process moving. I'd like to see how South El Monte
is going to get reimbursed or repaid for Garvey or Rosemead, for instance. How are they doing
that? I have no idea. I know that they are working with CalTrans somehow, and if you talk to
them, the City Transportation Engineer has been there a long time. So we do need to get up to
speed on this. Second item Maggie Clark brought up is the storm drain issue. We lost a lawsuit
against the...I guess it was the EPA, or whoever it was that put these new regulations into effect.
CLARK: It was the State Waterboard.
FLOURNOY: There's item CC-B here that says we're looking at doing an appeal. I'd like to,
before we vote on doing an appeal spending $5,000, see if the cities that are upstream on the
Alhambra Wash, the Rubio Wash, and the Eaton Wash, which all flow through our City, are they
involved with the appeal or not? We don't want to be one at the bottom end of the washes and
be the lone person in our area that's appealing this lawsuit and delaying getting fixed on cleaning
up the problem.
TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Flourney, I believe that it states... aren't there 31 cities in this
lawsuit, so we're trying to do it as a body.
FLOURNOY: I understand some of them dropped out, I don't know how many, I don't know
which ones. I did a quick poll and called some of the people upriver and I don't have answers
back from them. At this point they don't know anymore than we do. I do think we need to hang
together or we're all going to hang separate on this. I would like to see...I put together a list of
who the chief people are up in the local government agency, and Pasadena is also working on
this. But, as Maggie said, this can be a very expensive proposition. It's an unfunded mandate at
this point. Talk about the storm drains on Rosemead Boulevard... trying to absolve the
City... they're probably going to have to be completely reconfigured with filters for these 91
different elements... motor oil, antifreeze, arsenic, lead, the whole list. It's going to be a
tremendously expensive thing. I don't know, to me the chances of working the appeal are not
good from what I hear. It will buy us some time, but if we're going to do that to buy some time,
we need to have a plan that what we're going to do when we lose the appeal, if we lose it. That
we're ready to go and don't get stuck with, like Maggie said, billions of dollars of unfunded
liability. As Gary said, it could bankrupt us real quick. So, the real thing there is we need to get
reimbursed for this. Their point of view is, they're your stone drains, you need to clean them up
at the source. Some of these things are cleaned up at the source. Some of these things we may
have to put skimming ponds in on the storm drains for sewer treatment plants on the storm
drains. It's a big item, and I'd like to see what people upstream are going to do on this.
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JUAN NUNEZ, 2702 DEL MAR, ROSEMEAD. You're speaking about Rosemead Boulevard
and this was brought up before. As Gary mentioned about two years ago, probably, it was
brought up again. And I said you'd be taking a tiger by the tail by taking over from the State, a
highway, on which you have a lot of streets that need repairs. You don't have the money to
repair those streets. If you take a State highway that's going to take more money from your City
streets, I think you should give that up. John Tran mentions Pico Rivera, if you drive down there
on Rosemead Boulevard, it's a mess down there on some of the places I've driven... south of
Whittier Boulevard. In fact at the time it was mentioned that North Long Beach had taken over,
Bellflower had taken over Rosemead Boulevard, or down there it would be Telegraph Road, not
Telegraph, Lakewood. I haven't been down there to see how they're keeping it. You're going to
have to put more money into that being a State highway if you have to maintain it, at a higher
standard than you do City streets. And, with the truck traffic you mentioned, that's going to
continue to...
IMPERIAL: Anyone know what the price we ended up at with the problem at Rosemead
Boulevard, remember, going way back? The left turn signal on Valley Boulevard and
Rosemead. We started off with $70,000 and by the time we got permission, it was S 165,000 as
recall.
VERBATIM SECTION ENDS.
Marlene Shinen, 8447 Drayer Lane, South San Gabriel, spoke against Wal-Mart.
Ken Pike, 9220 Steele, Rosemead, announced that the American Legion will be having a
Memorial Day service at Savannah Cemetery on May 30°i at 11:00 a.m.
IL PUBLIC HEARINGS - None
III. LEGISLATIVE
A. RESOLUTION NO. 2005-12 - CLAIMS AND DEMANDS
The following Resolution was presented to the Council for adoption.
RESOLUTION NO. 2005-12
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD
ALLOWING CERTAIN CLAIMS AND DEMANDS IN THE SUM OF
$756,916.40 NUMBERED 48871 THROUGH 49045
MOTION BY COUNCILMAN NUNEZ, SECOND BY COUNCILWOMAN CLARK
that the Council adopt Resolution No. 2005-12. Vote resulted:
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Yes:
Clark, Nunez, Tran, Taylor, Imperial
No:
None
Absent:
None
Abstain:
None
The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered.
IV. CONSENT CALENDAR
CC-A RESOLUTION NO. 2005-14 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF
ROSEMEAD EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR AB 1222 (JONES); AB 888
(DE LA TORRE); AND SB 459 (ROMERO) WHICH WOULD ENACT
LOCOMOTIVE AND RAIL YARD EMISSIONS REDUCTION AND
MITIGATION PROGRAMS; A REMOTE SENSING PROGRAM; AND
CALL UPON U.S. EPA TO FURTHER LIMIT LOCOMOTIVE
EMISSIONS
CC-B ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2005-14 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD, CALIFORNIA
AUTHORIZING THE CITY'S PARTICIPATION IN THE APPEAL OF
THE DECISIONS OF THE SUPERIOR COURT IN RE LOS ANGELES
COUNTY MUNICIPAL STORMWA TER PERMIT LITIGATION
CC-C AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD AND THE
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES TO PROVIDE A GANG ALTERNATIVE
PREVENTION PROGRAM (LAPP)
CC-D AUTHORIZATION TO INSTALL A VIBROTACTILE PEDESTRIAN
PUSHBUTTON DEVICE AT WALNUT GROVE AVENUE AND LANDIS
VIEW LANE
CC-E APPROVAL OF MODIFICATION TO EXISTING RED CURB ON
NEVADA STREET (ROSEMEADAVAR)
CC-F EXTENSION OF AGREEMENT WITH REPUBLIC ELECTRIC FOR
TRAFFIC SIGNAL MAINTENANCE SERVICES
MOTION BY MAYOR PRO TEM TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILWOMAN
CLARK that the Council approve the aforementioned items on the Consent Calendar. Vote
resulted:
Yes:
Clark, Imperial, Nunez, Taylor, Trans
No:
None
Absent:
None
Abstain:
None
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The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered.
Councilman Tran requested that a letter of support from the Council be sent to the
AQMD regarding item CC-A.
V. MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION - None
VI. STATUS REPORTS - None
VII. MATTERS FROM OFFICIALS
Councilman Tran requested that in the future, the CDBG funding program extend RFP's
to all school districts that have schools in Rosemead.
Councilman Tran reported that weeds are growing in several medians throughout the City
and requested a report on how many medians there are. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor requested that
the City's landscape maintenance contractor check the median and parkways tomorrow and
report back.
Councilman Tran inquired about the status of the vacancies on the Traffic Commission.
Bill Crowe, City Manager, replied that the Council usually schedules an interview date.
Councilman Tran requested that each Councilmember appoint their own Traffic and Planning
Commissioners. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated that the Council has always appointed the
commissioners at large and he is in favor of keeping it that way. Mayor Imperial agreed with
Mayor Pro Tern Taylor. Councilman Tran stated that he is requesting that the City Manager
conduct a study of local cities on their policy regarding commission appointments. Councilman
Nunez explained that it maybe beneficial to look at different ideas occasionally. Holly Knapp,
Traffic Commissioner, explained that by appointing "at large", any interested person in the City
can apply for the position of a commissioner, that this process makes it fair to citizens of the
community who want to serve their City, and this has worked well for over 20 years. Mrs.
Knapp concluded that the appointment process should remain as is.
A. MAYOR'S COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
MOTION BY MAYOR PRO TEM TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILWOMAN
CLARK that the Council approve the Mayor's Committee Appointments for 2005-2006. Vote
resulted:
Yes:
Clark, Imperial, Nunez, Taylor, Tran
No:
None
Absent:
None
Abstain:
Nonc
The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered.
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VIII. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE -None
IX. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further action to be taken at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05
p.m. in memory of Jess Gonzalez, founder of the Rosemead Rebels, and in memory of Miguel
Contreras, labor leader. The next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 24, 2005, at
8:00 P.M.
Respectfully submitted:
City Cler
APPROVED:
Y
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