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CC - Approval of Minutes - 07-27-99 NOT OFFICIAL UNTIL ADOPTED BY THE ROS OLEAD CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING ROSEMEAD CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 1999 The regular meeting of the Rosemead City Council was called to order by Mayor Vasquez at 8:00 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 Imperial The Invocation was delivered by Mayor Pro Tern Clark ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Present: Councilmembers Bruesch, Imperial, Taylor, Mayor Pro Tern Clark, and Mayor Vasquez Absent: None APPROVAL OF MINUTES: JULY 13, 1999 -REGULAR MEETING Councilman Taylor requested that the aforementioned Minutes be included in the discussion with item V.A. Foreign Language Translation Cost Increase for Candidate's Statement - March 2, 1999 General Municipal Election. At the conclusion of the discussion of that item, Councilman Taylor requested that item V.A. be deferred and that the Minutes of that section be verbatim for accuracy of comments made. The following item was taken out of order in deference to the City's election consultant from Martin & Chapman in the audience: V. MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION A. FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION COST INCREASE FOR CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT- MARCH 2, 1999 GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION VERBATLM DIALOGUE BEGINS: DON WAGNER, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER: Thank you,Mr. Mayor. I believe Mr. Paul Marshal from Martin & Chapman is here to answer any questions you may have. What you have is 1/2" to 3/4" worth of material. A letter explaining the Voting Rights Act; Exhibit B is a letter from Martin & Chapman explaining the increase in the translation costs; Exhibit C is the Martin & Chapman invoices for 1994, 97, and 99 elections; Exhibit D is Martin & Chapman worksheets; Exhibit E is the City's Resolutions adopting Candidate Statement Regulations and Responsibilities; and Exhibit F is copies of the City's Sample Ballot and the translation of the Sample Voter and Information Pamphlet in Vietnamese. It would be in order, Mr. Mayor, to open it up for questions of Mr. Marshal. MAYOR VASQUEZ: Thank you very much, Don. Council, are there any questions, discussions? COUNCILMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. My questions that I asked that this be put on the agenda for Council to review Mr. Marshal's discussions and the report which we received tonight. I guess the first thing is we can have Mr. Marshal...I've got several questions that I'd like to ask him. (Mr. Marshal approaches the podium). PAUL MARSHAL, CONSULTANT FROM MARTIN & CHAPMAN: Good evening. CC9-27-99 Page el VASQUEZ: Would you please state your name and address, Sir. MARSHAL: My name is Paul Marshal, Martin & Chapman Company, 1951 Wright Circle, Anaheim. TAYLOR: Mr. Marshal, are you familiar with all of the information that is in the report on all the cities? There are 61 cities. MARSHAL: Yes Sir...not in detail, but generally, yes. I've seen the worksheets, I deal with them. But, to remember one in particular, I may or may not. TAYLOR: O.K. There's a big discrepancy, I believe, in the information for itself as far as there are so many blank columns, with no...I don't want to go through all 61 cities. But, as an example, on Rosemead here. In many of these, as an example, since I'm here on Rosemead...do you have the copy there? Kind of follow along what I've got here. An incidentally, the reason that I've brought this all about was to make it clear that when I filed my statement for the ballot, I had talked to the City Clerk and I asked her how many phone calls, because it states in the literature that in the ballot we will not have printed Chinese or Vietnamese statements. The only things that were printed were English and Spanish and I didn't have a problem with that - willing to pay for that particular cost. And, even the Spanish, excuse me, the Chinese and Vietnamese translations, if in your report, in our report, this isn't necessarily yours, the way it was compiled. If we look at the, and there are no numbers for the pages, but it is the billing for Martin & Chapman...there's three elections that we have here. In 1994 on the April 12th election, Spanish translation was $110, Chinese translation was $110, and the Vietnamese translation was $110. So, I had no qualms paying those fees at the time, I thought that was appropriate to go ahead and pay the same for all the translations. So, I paid those fees in the election at that time. Then, on March 4, 1997, the translation fees were, Spanish translations $110, Chinese translations $110, and Vietnamese translation $110. And I'm only going through this for background purposes. I had no idea, and none of us knew what translation fees would be when we paid our fees for Candidate Statement. What brought it about was when I asked the City Clerk how many people called in for translation in the Chinese or Vietnamese language, and I realize there's two different languages there. But, when she stated 25 or 30 call in. That really shocked me in the sense that we've got roughly 15,000 registered voters and percentage may be...I don't know if it was 700 or 800 Vietnamese and only 25 or 30 call in for the information. It just shocked me at that time. I said that's not economically practical. In other words, you pay the $300 and, we didn't know at that particular time, but the last two years, the two elections before that, the fees for Spanish was $235, the translation was $110 and the... I guess it's the actual ballot was $235, and then the Spanish was $293 in '97 and in '99, we didn't know it at the time, but it was $313 for the Spanish translation. And, that's within reason. I can see prices going up. Again, we didn't know those costs when we gave our statements because they weren't available. We wouldn't know until the numbers of voters registered and such. But, getting back to the reason why I brought it up. It was shocking to me that 25 to 30 people would call in, and, again 1 thought that's just not economically practical when you can get 15000 ballots printed with the English and the Spanish. There's 15000 ballots that go out and then for 15, 25 to 30 people to call in and ask for the translation, and I understand there was mailing also, I don't know what those numbers would he and I don't know what they are for any of the elections, this election or the previous two elections. But, Ijust kind of got riled up. That's just not worth spending whatever the fee was. And, incidentally, for the record, the Chinese translation went from$110 to $204; the Vietnamese translation went from $110 to $282, and I didn't get this until May 25th, which kind of shocked me a little bit more. The others were reasonable, the Spanish didn't go up that much. But, the Chinese and the Vietnamese, the fees almost doubled in one case and 150, 160% increase for the Vietnamese translation. Again, we didn't know this when the statements were put in. My objection was that, if we have to pay for the printing of the English and the Spanish, I had no question with that, that was fine...but, where I started to draw the line was, "Wait a minute, we're paying so much money, why can't" and I didn't tell the City Clerk why can't we put it in Spanish...or Vietnamese and Chinese because we had already decided we can't, we're not going to do that. And, looking back, CC:7-27-99 Page*2 the practical aspect of it is the cost in the dollars, it would have been well worth it to pay the difference and have it put in the ballot. So, go ahead, you started to say something. MARSHAL: You need to differentiate between the cost of the translator, literally turning the English into Vietnamese and the cost of printing that pamphlet. Two different things. Your Spanish cost 5110 to translate, but it costs, what was it $280 to print it, wait a minute, $313 to print it... TAYLOR: That's just in the Spanish and the... MARSHAL: $313 to print, plus $110 to translate it. TAYLOR: Right. $423.._ MARSHAL: To print in the pamphlet. We're basically faced with two problems with the Voting Rights Act. It's a Federal law, it is the law of the land and the Federal government tells us you're going to do this, you don't have a choice. Whether you had 25 people request it or zero, the Federal government says it, you don't. There are sanctions against the City and against the City officials, including the Clerk and the Council. The Federal Voting Rights Act says that in Los Angeles County, because the County handles the registration of the vote function, that all jurisdictions within the County are covered by the same laws. In Los Angeles County, the County is required to translate in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Tagalog. Technically, under the law, and I was looking up your figures, if your smallest language minority is Tagalog, if we could prove._I'm making up something here to illustrate a point. If we could prove that you didn't have a single Tagalog speaking person in the City of Rosemead,under the Federal Voting Rights Act, we still have to translate everything into Tagalog and make it available to every voter. Now, the Federal government said we know that's not reasonable. And, so they allow a procedure where the County got together with the various ethnic groups, again, in the five languages and they identified the pockets where there is a census figure that meets a sufficient standard to say you need to translate into this language. In Rosemead it was Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. COUNCILMAN BRUESCH: It's 1%, right? MARSHAL: What they've done basically, is they looked at the census. They determined that within the census tracts that cover Rosemead, that Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese, met the 1% level and, therefore, rather than translate into all five languages, we only do the three. There are some cities in Los Angeles County that don't translate at all. There are some that do five. And, there's a growing movement, and will probably show up in the new census, to add a 6th language, which would be Korean. TAYLOR: There was one of your 61 cities that has Korean, and one has Russian, and one has Portuguese. MARSHAL: And, they did those options. The other problem that we had, and it's been an on- going problem right from the beginning, is that we have had trouble finding any Asian language translator before, that want to do this kind of work. Their used to a more relaxed schedule, they not used to election deadlines. And, when we used a particular firm in '96, and they did a pretty decent job, but they were pushing their deadlines. In fact, one City didn't get their Chinese translations until the day before the election day, which was approximately three weeks later than they agreed to. So, we went back to them for'97 and at the beginning of the season, we called them and said we're going to have these things again, we'll start feeding you information in December. And, they said, "We quit." This was during the nomination period, things were coming in and they quit on us at the very last minute. TAYLOR: When was that? cc.7-27-99 Page k3 MARSHAL: December of '96. Excuse me, December of'98, getting ready for the '99 elections. So, we scrambled to find a translator. TAYLOR: In the last two elections though, I personally never heard a single complaint about the translations. MARSHAL: Except that the translators worked one season and said we don't want to put up with your schedules, we won't do it again. TAYLOR: No, for the two elections, '94 and '97, we had no complaints at SI 10. MARSHAL: But, we still never had a translator that would work a second election - even when we offered to raise the fees, they didn't. The last one quit, you know, during the nomination period for the'99 election and we scrambled to find a translation company that would handle it. TAYLOR: Why are the...there's five cities in the chart here that do not have you do the translations. Is there a particular reason why they don't have you do them? MARSHAL: They've chosen to do them themselves. Either with translators they have on staff because they have such a large population of that particular language, that they have people on staff that can do the translating, or they've just chosen for whatever reason. Frankly, I don't know that we've ever talked to them about it. They just said No, we'll handle our own and we said that's fine. BRUESCH: Mr. Mayor. Is there a way to rate translators? The reason for my question is I know that what I've heard is that there have been times in statements where the translation was more of a literal translation and the nuances were left out, and therefore, the impression is wrong. How do they rate translators in terms of getting the nuances? MARSHAL: I don't know. What the law says for us to be able to use a translator for election purposes, they must meet one of two criteria. They either have to be approved by the Superior Court system of any County within the State, and the translators that were using have been approved by both Orange and L.A. County. Although both translation companies are headquartered in Orange County. They do translations for at least the two, and they, I know that at least the Spanish translators work in Riverside and San Bernardino. The other criteria is that they be a_basically a faculty member of an approved high school or college. So that they'd be, for example, a Chinese language instructor at a high school or at a.... BRUESCH: Is there a certification process they have to go through? MARSHAL: I have a son who has a girlfriend that he went to college with who is presently trying to become a certified Spanish translator. And, there are schools and programs to get this young lady ready to take County Superior Court tests to qualify. I don't know more than that. BRUESCH: The previous translating, they way you got your translators, the company of whatever you call it and the present one, was there a difference in certification? What told you that the new one was better than the old one? MARSHAL: Again, the sense of the quality of the translations. They both met the legal requirement which was that they were Court certified. And, what made the difference to us, basically, was the fact that the company that was recommended to us when the earlier people quit in December...our Spanish translators actually called us. We were talking to them about the problem and they said we know a company that's developing a good reputation. Let us have them call you. So, the principles called and came in and met with us and satisfied us that they would meet the time schedule for legal requirements that we had. They did so admirably. Unfortunately, their prices were higher. And, it was, we will do what you want to do, these are CC:7-27-99 Page '4 our prices. We weren't in any position to argue with them. We, like I said, we had people quit on us during the nomination period. COUNCILMAN JAY IMPERIAL: I want to clarify something here. I've been all over this world and I've seen a lot of people and met a lot of people, and I've heard a lot of languages. One thing I want to clarify is number one, if you come from South America, if you come from Puerto Rico, if you come from Mexico and you speak Spanish, you can understand most times what somebody is trying to say. When you're talking about the Asian language, my wife who is Chinese, was born and raised in Shanghai where there are 100 different dialects in that country and she can't understand anything except for the Mandarin language. So what I'm trying to say in reality, you can't equate these, OK, you can't. Even in Japan, which is not near that bad, I speak Japanese. If I left Osaka and went to Kyoto, I wouldn't understand half of what they were saying. So, what I'm saying in reality, let's take this in proper context Now, let's talk about putting this together. When I ran for my first campaign in the Assembly, I had a Chinese man put some information together and people were asking me what it was all about because he was from Hong Kong. He spoke Cantonese. I had to go through a process where I can get something in a that everybody else read. This is not cheap and it costs money. So, I can understand what you're saying. Let's keep that in proper context and thinking about this thing before we beat it to death. MAYOR PRO TEM CLARK: I wanted to clarify, if you could when you said the Federal Voting Rights Act, we have to abide by of course. But, when you said if you could prove that we had no one that spoke Tagalog and yet we would still, in Rosemead, still have to have it available in that language? MARSHAL: A literal reading of Federal Voting Rights Act is that because we have five languages plus English, six languages in Los Angeles County, that we should be putting out a sample ballot pamphlet to every voter with all six languages in it, period. CLARK: How do you get around that then? MARSHAL: Well, the Fed's said we know that's not reasonable. If you will sit down, which L.A. County did, they have a division within the Registrar's office, they did a magnificent job. They sat down with each of the ethnic groups and reached an accord, basically, that said were going to.-and with the input from the ethnic groups, the County developed what Councilman Bruesch, what he talked about, the 1% plan. Los Angeles County developed that with the help of the ethnic groups. And, they said basically, and the Federal Government had said, if you and the ethnic groups sit down and, nobody complains, we're not out looking for technical violations. And, we will take into account a good faith effort between the cities, the County, whoever and the ethnic groups to come to an accommodation that meets a real need rather then a technical need that might be overkill. IMPERIAL: A point I'd like to bring up on this is the fact that if you look in the telephone book, you might see a whole bunch of Spanish names in there, you might never know that they are Filipino people with Spanish names. So you have to meet their needs. BRUESCH: The agreement that was made was that if they take the population over 18 in a City, and ours happens to be, at the last census, 37,900 or something. When they do the registration they say that there is a problem in understanding English. They.put down another language. If that number that they put that down equals to 1% of the population of 18 year old's or over in your City, then you have to go through that translation process. In our case, it would be 371, over 371 people say that they have difficulty with the English language and their major language is say Vietnamese or Chinese - if 371 put that down at registration, then we have to provide them with translations. CLARK: OK. So, the City has to provide that, available. But, if the candidate doesn't want it printed, the candidate has to pay to have it in the ballot, correct? CC]-27-99 Page$5 BRUESCH: It has to be available. TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. Maggie, if on the last page, or the second to the last page on the legal form papers, like I say, there's no numbers. Just go to the third page from the back of the legal size papers where it states the foreign language policy. This clarifies foreign language policy. It says "pursuant to State law, the candidate's statement must be translated and printed in Spanish at the candidate's request'. And, that's fine. That's what we all did, with the Spanish translation. And, again, I want to stress, I'm not opposed to any language being on the ballot. It's the policy, the way that it's extremely, and I say extremely disproportionate, as I said we get 15,000 printed English and Spanish translations in the ballot. We get 15,000 and, again, I don't know how many were sent out, Vietnamese or Chinese, and I'm not saying it should be English or Spanish. Ijust think that we need to check our policy. What we're doing is too disproportionate. What we paid for as candidates, and I'll get to it in a minute what 19 of your other cities are doing, the candidate pays for the translation and the Spanish printing in the ballots. But, there's 19 of the cities on your list out of the 61 where the city pays for the translations. And, that's where I'm heading that one these particular ones, if you have it printed and it goes into the ballot, then you pay the full price. But, if it's on the 1% scale, the City, I think should be picking up paying for that translation, not the Spanish... MARSHAL: Under California law, and the reason for your Resolution, California law says that prior to the time that nominations open, seven days prior to when nominations open, the City Council has to adopt a Resolution that sets the policy for paying for candidate's statements. The Courts have said, basically, that it doesn't matter what you do, whether the City pays everything, the candidate pays everything, or somewhere in between, as long as you set your policy seven days ahead of time. You have that right. TAYLOR: No, I agree with it. I know we set the policy and that's what my issue is that that policy needs to be changed. It has nothing to do with the languages. The languages, I'm fine with whatever needs to be put in it.. BRUESCH: Point of information, Mr. Mayor. If a city were to adopt that policy and there were 12 candidates at $313, that would mean that the city would have to pay $313 for the translations for each of those candidates. TAYLOR: No, no. Point of information. That's not correct. BRUESCH: That's what I'm asking. Is that true? TAYLOR: The figure is the ballot cost, not the translation. The translation is separate and it's lower than the figure you gave. BRUESCH: What I'm saying is that the translation cost last time was $204, excuse me, $204 and $282. So, there's 14 candidates on the ballot. The city would have to pick up 14 x $204, and 14 x $282, and 14 x $110. MARSHAL: if you chose to set that policy, yes. BRUESCH: So, what we're doing in terms of changing our policy is adding to the cost of an election. It depends on how many candidates run and how much that is going to cost us. Now, if that's what the tenure of opinion here on the Council is, then we need to come back with a resolution and a new policy for the next election. IMPERIAL: And to a point of information, Mr. Mayor. That point is this. It's not the city that's paying for it, it's the taxpayer. BRUESCH: Yes, basically. CC:7-27-99 Page 06 TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. A point of information there too. It's your citizens that are paying for it in the extra donations that you raise the money to pay for it. Either way they end up paying. The only thing that I'm saying is it's for the majority population, the electorate and the entire City, it's much easier, if there's...in our case there's what, 15,000 registered voters...what is it now? IMPERIAL: 17,900 something, isn't it Nancy? Almost 18,000. TAYLOR: So, if there's almost 18,000 people benefitting from a mandated requirement that's imposed on us by the Federal Government and the State Government, then I think that if you're not going to get anything printed where these 18,000 people can get it, and we're not going to pay the printing costs unless we chose to put it in the ballot and each candidate will pay those costs. My only objection is that it's an extremely disproportionate cost to have to pay for a very small amount of literature that goes out to whatever the number may be. BRUESCH: Basically what we're talking about is an additional cost of anywhere between $2,000 and $7,000 per election, depending on the number of candidates. TAYLOR: In this election we only had three candidates. The last election we had five candidates. So, put it back in perspective, not 14 candidates. I don't think that I've ever seen 14 candidates in this City run for an election. BRUESCH: You never know. TAYLOR: OK. Well, don't take the total negative.. BRUESCH: No. I'm saying anywhere between $2,000 and $6,000. That's basically what we're talking about. TAYLOR: No, at least you cut it in half..from 14 down to 6. BRUESCH: No, no. $2000 to $6000. TAYLOR: Getting back to the foreign language policy. The first statement was "Pursuant to State law, the candidate's statement must be translated and printed into Spanish at the candidate's request". Item...Section B. is the next: "Pursuant to the Voting Rights Act, the City is required to translate the candidate's statement into the following language in addition to English: Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese". The City has to do that no matter what the candidate does. MARSHAL: Two separate laws, the State law and a Federal law. TAYLOR: I understand that. MARSHAL: And, the City is required by Federal law to translate and have available, candidate's statements, in Rosemead's case, in the Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese because you meet the 1% rule. TAYLOR: OK. And, that the way our chart is made up in the booklet, it requires...and, who makes up these charts as far as what city is required to do what. MARSHAL: We take that information off of the printout that the Registrar of Voters gives you, which is...which gives a part of this report that... TAYLOR: That goes back almost, I don't know if it's 10 year old information or... MARSHAL: It's 10 year old information. Probably won't be updated until the new census. CC 7-27-99 Page#7 BRUESCH: Mr. Mayor. I'd like at this time to suggest that we ask staff t bring back to a future meeting, either in August or September depending, with a report on ho go about changing this policy. Let's discuss this as a Council and vote on it. It's our choic We have the candidates spend the extra $600 a piece or do we have the City spend the $600 per candidate. It's a policy decision and I think we should vote on it. TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. That's fine and that's what my intent is, to get the policy changed on it. The translations that are not put in the ballot. If it goes in the ballot, I'm in favor that the candidate pay that so it's not...some cities here they pay for the translations and they pay for the ballot printing. ROBERT KRESS, CITY ATTORNEY: You're proposing a change to Section 3, which indicates that the Payment... TAYLOR: OK. But, the other was a matter of clarification. Then on Item C. of the Foreign Language policy it states: "The City Clerk shall have all candidates statements translated into the languages specified in (b) above...", which are the five languages._"have all translations made available upon request in the office of the City Clerk; and print Spanish translations of the candidates who request printing in voters pamphlet". That's fine, that's in agreement there. But, I think since we can't get the Chinese and the Vietnamese translations printed in the ballot, it's a requirement from Federal and State law, or is it strictly Federal law? MARSHAL: Strictly Federal with anything other than Spanish. It's both State and Federal for Spanish. TAYLOR: That's my whole disagreement with what we can't get it printed in the ballot, and that was why I said it wasn't worth that expense just for translation where people have to call in for it instead of being within the 15 or 18,000 ballots that are mailed out. MARSHAL: I believe that very early in the Voting Rights Act, with members of the Federal Department of Justice, which administered this law, the first election that we went through, the cities, this would have been about '93, '92 or '93, I don't remember the year for sure, but early in the '90's. The cities as a group spent almost $50,000 in translation costs. And, they reported as a group, approximately 50 citizens had asked for copies of the translations. About $1,000 apiece. So when the Federal Voting Rights people came, the Department of Justice people came, we showed them those figures. Their statement was we're not here to argue costs, we're here to tell you what the law is. TAYLOR: I understand that, and that's one of the problems with bureaucracy... MARSHAL: The Federal Government is very good at putting mandates on us and not then not giving letting us deal with this. CLARK: Unfunded mandates. TAYLOR: Right. That's were this led me to that we've got an unfunded mandated similar situation. They're telling us we have to pay for this whether we can put it in the ballot or not. And, again, at the time when I filed the Candidates's Statement form with the City Clerk, it states on the bottom here that I do want my candidate's statement in the following language in the voter pamphlet. I checked off the English and the Spanish. That's what I intended to have done, then it states on here the other three languages. They're just blank spaces. So my intent was there that's all that I wanted translated in. And, at the time there, when I was speaking with the City Clerk, she made no statement, and Nancy, I'm going to ask you to correct me again. She made no statement at the time that I could not do that. I did get a call two days later and I don't know who you talked to on the phone, Nancy, Martin & Chapman had talked to you? CC:7-27-99 Page 08 NANCY VALDERRMA, CITY CLERK: When I realized that I did not charge you the right amount, I called them for advice and to let them know what had happened, then I called you to also inform you. TAYLOR: Well, if I would have been told at the time, we would have called them and try to get it straightened out at that time. So, I just want it clear that at the time I said: "Nancy, I don't think this is right and I'll pay the $680 for the English and the Spanish". So, when she called you and I got a call the next couple of days saying that I can't do that. That clears up how that came about. MARSHAL: I understand your concern. BRUESCH: Mr. Mayor. The suggestion has been made to have staff come back with the appropriate verbiage so that we can change that policy. One question that I do have, and I don't mean to be facetious because we always have to think about this. But, I direct my question to the City Attorney. Bob, on this thing, since it would be an appreciable savings to a probable candidate, those of us who are thinking about running, would we be able to vote on that type of issue? ICRESS: Yes. Full Council gets to set the election policy. We understand the discussion to this point that the Council would like to see this issue come back for a vote on the policy as to whether or not the candidates pay for the Federally mandated translations, not printing translations, in future elections. IMPERIAL: If that's the direction that the Council wants to take, that's their prerogative to exercise. But, I will say this, to hold an election intakes anyplace from $35,000 to $45,000 of taxpayers money to have an election in this City. I think if we're going to run we ought to get out there and beat the bushes and get enough money to pay for this and not use taxpayers dollars. I'd rather put that into senior programs, kids programs, or something like that. I'll go on record for that. KRESS: We will bring back that limited policy issue and let the Council debate and decide and then whatever your decision is will he carried forward in the Resolution for the succeeding elections_ TAYLOR: I'd like to continue with this information from Martin & Chapman. If you'll take a look at your Monterey Park city. And, again, when I said that there's a lot of blank columns and blank spaces intermittent throughout. Take a look at Monterey Park, and under the Spanish column, Chinese column, the Japanese and Vietnamese columns, where it's all checked off that they've all agreed, Yes, that they would have Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. What I'd like to know how the candidate down there, the second on, Fred Balderrama, why he didn't get checked off for Japanese and Vietnamese. That's one of the thins I want to verify why he only has two, where they wrote in Yes in Spanish and Chinese, but they didn't even check if off He didn't have to pay for the Japanese and Vietnamese? MARSHAL: Of course, this is our work sheet. This isn't necessarily...and as you can see, it's compiled by hand and so forth. TAYLOR: This is all we have to go on. So that's why I'm asking the question. MARSHAL: And, that's all I have too. I don't know everything that's on the face of the document... TAYLOR: I understand that. That's why I asked if you were familiar with it and I don't expect you to know every check mark on here. That's not fair. Cc:7-27-99 Page 119 MARSHAL: If Nancy wants to call me tomorrow and remind me of this, we can get out the paperwork and I suspect that it was done, it just wasn't checked off. The check offs mean that they went to the translator. TAYLOR: When you look off._all the check offs on this page here where somebody was doing their job pretty well, keeping track of it and checking it off Here,just look back to La Habra Heights, two or three pages back. There's one other question that I've got for Monterey Park and several, half of them roughly, it says "Print in Book". What does that column mean? MARSHAL: It means, basically, is it going to be printed in the Sample Ballot Pamphlet or is just going to be made available. What we normally do...the Sample Ballot goes to the voters essentially in English. The candidate, under State law can say we want our Spanish translations in the book as well. There's no provision in State law to print any of the Asian languages. The Federal law simply says translations available. Some cities have said we want to print them in the book anyway. Monterey Park, basically, printed a tri-lingual book. They printed in English, Spanish, and... TAYLOR: Japanese and Chinese... MARSHAL: I think just Chinese, where it says Yes there. Chinese, Spanish and English, if I recall right. TAYLOR: OK. They checked off...I guess they're providing Japanese and Vietnamese, but they didn't...it's not written... MARSHAL: But, they weren't printed in the book that went to all the voters in the city. But, what we do with those languages then, is we have in Monterey Park, a Japanese facsimile pamphlet, which is just like the English book, I mean it's all the candidate's statements, the ballots, arguments for and against the measures, etc. All in Japanese, and in Monterey Park's case, Tagalog, the City Clerk has a copy. A copy goes into each of the precincts supply sets out in the field on election day so that any voter that wants to look at a Japanese or Tagalog copy has it available to them. They can call the City Clerk and have one mailed to them dr they can look at the one the election worker's have at the polling place. I think what happened; again,just from paperwork, I'm only guessing, Nancy would know better than I, that we did the same thing in Rosemead. That we had an English book that had, in your case, I think all three candidate's asked for Spanish to be printed. We probably printed an English sample ballot, but not a Spanish sample ballot....and then we printed an English sample ballot but not a Spanish sample ballot within the book. But, then we had a Spanish facsimile pamphlet, a Chinese facsimile pamphlet, and a Vietnamese facsimile pamphlet available at the Clerk's office and in every polling place that any voter could look at if they wanted to, or their copy mailed to them upon request to the City Clerk. That's the norm. It is rare that you see anything other then English and some Spanish candidate statement translations actually printed in the pamphlet. I couldn't give you figures... TAYLOR: No... that's_.from what the report is I would say 80 to 90% of them are English and Spanish. Chinese and Vietnamese, and like I said, there was one Korean, one Portuguese and one Russian. But, again, taking a look at La Habra Heights. This one puzzles me on what your staff did as far as...in the Spanish column, all four candidate's checked off they wanted Spanish. But, yet they were required to get it in Chinese and why it's not checked off, that was a city that I needed to verify with. MARSHAL: Check off indicates that our staff person sent the English on for translation... TAYLOR: Into Spanish, if there's a check. MARSHAL: Just off hand, whether for some reason the city told us we don't care what the Federal Voting Rights Acts says, we're not going to translate it into Chinese or whether my staff CC5-27-99 Page 410 person didn't make the appropriate check mark. TAYLOR: I don't know. It's just something that I wanted to verify why it's got a column up there that they must have it and nobody bothered to check it off, because I'd made the comment at the last meeting, I know of Council persons that have run in the election and they didn't have to have any Chinese or Vietnamese in their elections, and not because of their resolutions and such, they just said they didn't have to have it. And, yet, in the books similar to where this is checked off, they should have had it, but they didn't have it. MARSHAL: My best bet is that if we went back and looked at La Habra Heights file, wed see that the Chinese was done, it just didn't get checked off TAYLOR: I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that, but I want to verify it. MARSHAL: And, you'll notice as, maybe you have...if my memory serves me, Manhattan Beach has no requirement for language translation at all. The city has no requirements in Spanish even, which almost everybody translates in Spanish in Southern California. But in Manhattan Beach, they had no requirements. TAYLOR: Like I said, there's 61 cities and as I was going through it, there's so many blank columns and yet in some cities almost every column is checked and filled out, and it's confusing to me, what did these cities really do? When I see it where it's checked off and they didn't_.excuse me, where you have the "Y" in there Yes it has to be in this language and they didn't do it, it says, well, how come they can do it and I couldn't choose. MARSHAL: If in truth that happened, and it's just not the paperwork my staff person didn't make the appropriate check marks when they sent them on to the translators, you understand, I' m sure, that with 50 cities with an election all on the same day that paperwork doesn't always match reality. TAYLOR: I do understand that, that's why I say I need to just verify it and... MARSHAL: The only other possibility, of course, is that the city made the choice that we don't care what the Fed's say, were not going to do it, and we'll take our chances. Frankly, I haven't seen a Federal prison yet that I'd take my chances over it, but...actually I've never seen a Federal prison, but I don't want to, thank you. TAYLOR: Similar, Temple City, our adjoining neighbor_ There were quite a few candidates in that election, but nothing was checked off on any of the columns as far as whether they had it in Spanish or Chinese. And, I made a note- no print in book. Half of them had them printed in the book and half of them don't. That's confusing to me if that's a requirement or not a requirement. MARSHAL: The Spanish is strictly the candidate's option and the other languages are not normally printed in the book. Most cities do not, but occasionally, one like Monterey Park does. TAYLOR: Let me clarify that. When you say in the book, does that mean... MARSHAL: In the sample ballot that's mailed to all voters_ TAYLOR: That is sample ballot. MARSHAL: The voter's pamphlet, right. TAYLOR: OK. We pretty well covered all the blank spaces that were in there. The rest of the questions I had were for the City Clerk and the Minutes. Thank you for your time and it was well worth the knowledge of what we got in this particular item. CC:7-27-99 Page k ll MARSHAL: I hope that I was of some help, glad to do that. TAYLOR: Thank you. You certainly were and I appreciate the information that you gave us. VASQUEZ: Thank you very much, Mr. Marshal. I have two requests to speak on Item V. The first one Dolly Leong. DOLLY LEONG: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Dolly Leong, 9554 Ralph Street in Rosemead. Since the Councilmember was discussing about the increase in cost in candidate's statement and also considering a new policy regarding the City resolution to change regarding the candidate's statement. I like to point out to you and also to present to you the problems we're having with the timing of the release of the translated materials. Here are six (Ms. Leong distributed copies of a Fax dated January 28, 1999). TAYLOR: Excuse me, you said there were six...same thing,just six copies. I think I received that letter. LEONG: We all know that. But the deadline for the nomination period ends December 4th. This was January 28th. I have been coming to the City Hall to ask for copies, even in a proof or drafted translated candidate's statement, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. And, there was not available. I have been to meet some of the candidate's in Monterey Park and they said, they already received it one week ago. On January... TAYLOR: That puzzles me. When you say that you were in Monterey Park. I'd like to confirm the dates because this particular report says Monterey Park received it on, I believe, February 2nd, I think it has 2/2 on there and we got ours on 1/29. I could be wrong, but... IMPERIAL: I rise to a point of information... TAYLOR: February 2nd is Monterey Park.... IMPERIAL: At the same time, Dolly Leong was saying that that was not available here, but it was available in Monterey Park. I was talking to about three or four candidates that said they were still waiting for theirs, OK., so we better check the dates. LEONG: I have these six copies, the same ones is for each of the members of the Council of the City Council. That I came, I called and asked the City Clerk, Nancy, and I also met Mr.Donald Wagner, the Assistant City Manager. That was how upon I was pointed to him by That is a fax for each one of you. So my questions is, since you are all considering to change the policy of the Candidate's Statements, I request you to put in consideration to release the translated Candidate's Statements upon the request of the candidate when available. December 4th is the deadline to submit Nomination Paper, January 28th is 55 - days from the day we submitted the Nomination Paper and still not available. TAYLOR: I understand what you're saying, Dolly. I agree with you because it's only 30 days from the time they get it back, within 29 days, or 30 days of the election that you have to get the materials printed however it's going to be translated, printed and mailed out to your constituents . or whoever you're going to mail to. That is a short time for, especially small elections when you're doing it on a shoe string to begin with. LEONG: Councilman Taylor, the question I'm trying to put before you, is Monterey Park, Martin & Chapman has submitted to the candidates, each of the candidates - they have 11 candidates in Monterey Park. Here, myself and Councilmember Imperial has requested the Chinese and Vietnamese translations in addition to Spanish. CC7-27-99 Page P12 BAUSCH: Mr. Mayor. It doesn't make sense, Dolly. It says that we were mailed ours on 1/29 and Monterey Park was mailed theirs on 2/2. Who were the people that you talked to? LEONG: One of the candidate is Lisa Weng and also the City Clerk is on the Fax I submitted to you, right there. BRUESCH: There's not a Lisa...Lisa Yang? LEONG: One of the candidates... IMPERIAL: Wong was the name, Bob. She was waiting for hers like everybody else and I'd like the City Clerk to call.... BRUESCH: She said that on 1/28, according to Wong, she had hers in hand. LEONG: That's what she said. I saw the City Clerk of Monterey Park, that's the lady there, Ms. C.H.E., C.l.e.m. BRUESCH: What we need to do then to corroborate this is, I'd like to direct our City Clerk to call the City Clerk of Monterey Park and find out when those translations came in for the candidates because Martin & Chapman has the date of 2/2 on it and ours is 1/29, which means that we probably got ours on 2/1 or 2/2 and they got theirs on 2/3 or 2/4. LEONG: Yes. I'm requesting this Council, since you're considering to change the policy regarding the Resolution to the Candidate Statements, will you also please put in there to furnish the candidates the translated material within how many days... BRUESCH: Before we do that, we've got to corroborate that there was a tie-up in the delivery dates of these dates. IMPERIAL: Let the statement say, "when available" like she requested. "When available". It it's not available and it's not correct. You can't give something like that out to the people. BRUESCH: What I'm saying is that your two candidates, Ms. Yang and whoever else, gave you the information that they had in hand, their translation on the 27th of January. This material says that it wasn't mailed out until February 2nd. So what I'm saying is somewhere along the line, either they got a translation through the company, not through the city or the city handed them out before they got them. I don't know how that happened. LEONG: Councilman Bruesch. They stated that the City Clerk as well as the candidate stated that the candidates are given the opportunity to review those translated materials and then sent back to election officials. So that is what I like to request this Council to put a certain date for the election supplier to get the translated material ready to the candidate. BRUESCH: Then I have a question. I've asked Martin & Chapman's representative, these dates that are put down here, is that the final copy or the...that's the final copy. Before that time, do the candidate's get to see the translation to correct them. MARSHAL: Translations are never final until they've been proofed, either by the City or by the candidate, we don't care who. IMPERIAL: That's right. BRUESCH: Then I address the next question to Nancy. The final copies are mailed out on January 29th. Before that time do you have the statements in the foreign languages, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese for the people to review? cc 3-2 7-9 9 Page 613 VALDERRAMA: Na BRUESCH: You did not have them? VALDERRAMA: I may have had them but they were not finalized. BRUESCH: How do you finalize them? VALDERRAMA: I can't speak the foreign languages... BRUESCH: But how are they finalized? VALDERRAMA: They send us a copy, I send it back with the English and Spanish portion of it finalized. I really don't recall the dates, but I imagine those translations are ready to go, and they are our final proofs. BRUESCH: Who finalizes, Martin & Chapman or do we do it in-house. VALDERRAMA: Martin & Chapman does. BRUESCH: I think what it is is just a matter of logistics where Ms. Leong wanted to check the translation before they went back to Martin & Chapman, which is not usually our policy because I know that I've never checked over the translation. All I did was check over the English. And, that's what you're saying, you wanted to translate... LEONG: That's why I'm requesting this Council since you are considering to change the policy regarding the resolution of the Candidate's Statements, please also put that in. BRUESCH: Give the option to the candidate to..-OK, fine. LEONG: Within a certain date to get the translated material available to the candidates. VASQUEZ: Thank you very much. TAYLOR: Mr. Mayor. I'm going to ask that so all of us understand what's been said tonight that these minutes be verbatim for what we've talked about. VASQUEZ: 1 have another request here from Juan Nunez to speak on V.A. JUAN NUNEZ: Juan Nunez, 2702 Del Mar. From what I've heard tonight. I think this is a problem and it's going to get worse. As Jay mentioned, in China there's 110, 120 dialects and the neighbor doesn't know what the neighbor to the north is talking about, and the neighbor to the south doesn't know what the neighbor to the west is talking about. And, I think it's going to get worse because our county is going to Hell, if you'll excuse my language. Our government has been bringing in people and giving them citizenship in their language instead of the English language, which they can learn to speak the language before they are given citizenship. In order to vote I think that would be a requirement. Some of the people that go to vote don't even know probably what they are voting on. They don't understand the language. To be able to print all these languages, it's going to get worse. We'll be getting people from Europe, we'll be getting people from Africa, from South America coming in. They'll be sworn in as citizens in their own language. And, I think this is wrong, in my opinion, because we are losing touch with reality of what we are here for. I think that when they go to vote, and I've worked for the past election for the City, a lot of people didn't even know how to vote or what to do. They didn't even bring their pamphlets. All this material that you're sending out probably isn't even read. Maybe they just look at it and figure it's just another mailer and just throw it away, I don't know. But, a lot of them, they didn't have the material to come in and say where they were voting. Some of them CC 7-27-99 Page V14 came in to ask where they were voting, also. They didn't know where their precinct, what precinct they had to vote on. So, that's another problem. Some of these people don't understand that you have to vote at a certain place. Just because you voted in one place this election, is not assumed that you're going to vote there again. This happened to me. I voted 5 or 6 different places. I had voted at the clubhouse, the park at Garvey... CLARK: Not in the same election, I hope. NUNEZ: No. I have voted at the clinic on Del Mar, Chow's Clinic. I have voted at Williams. I have voted at Biteley School and I think that people have to keep their materials with them so they'll know where they're going to vote and what they are going to vote on. Whatever you...what the government does, the Federal government mandates about having all this material printed in different languages, and as you say, they don't pay for it, and even if they did, it would be my tax money and yours. The same way the City has to pay for these statements. It will be our tax money that we pay, as Jay mentioned. I think that the candidates should pay for that. If they don't want it, then they don't have to include it. But, it's a Federal law, I think working with the Federal people we have working over there, that I don't think they know what they're doing. And I know they don't know what they are doing. Try to change this and then work through the State, you know. Getting back on the road to recovery. IMPERIAL: Let me clarify something for Mr. Nunez. When you speak more than one language, and let's say in my wife's case. She's a very intelligent lady. She taught Biology in China, in Shanghai in the high school. She is a nurse. She is a very intelligent lady, but there is sometimes when you speak a language that is other than English, it's very hard to determine what that means unless you have somebody at home that's going to be able to do that or you can do that and make it explicit in the literature. Going back to the country that's gone to Hell. You hit a nerve. You're talking about a first generation here. My father came from Italy. He was here six months when drafted in the American Army through an interpreter to fight in the trenches in France for a county, who he couldn't speak its language, but he loved the Hell out of it because that's why he came here, OK. So, let's not get into that, Juan. He was one of the best American's I've ever seen and made me a very proud American, OK. And as result of that I had my father in the First World War, my brother in the Second World War, and I'm a Korean/Vietnam Vet, OK. So it must have amounted to something. Now, if the government decides that you don't have to speak perfect English to be able to vote, then so be it. We better work with it. Thank you. NUNEZ: But, your parents did try to learn the language and try to show it, teach it to you also. IMPERIAL: The only thing I'll say is this. In our house we did not speak Italian unless everybody understood it. When you went outside, the family was never allowed to speak Italian unless it was absolutely necessary. It was a courtesy to all the people. But that wasn't a reason for stopping a person from voting. NUNEZ: No, I know. But, the thing is, even people that come from Mexico or South America. Sometimes, I myself, I speak American/Spanish, I guess you call it. But, sometimes when we're discussing something, he runs out of words or I run out of words and eventually we catch on to what we're talking. That's why I think that, even on the pamphlet, you probably wouldn't be able to cover every base of whatever you want to speak there, on all the dialects. I'm not trying to put down anybody, but I'm just saying that I think that the government should go back to basics so the people would learn the English language before they can participate on some of these things. IMPERIAL: I believe in bi-lingual instruction, but I think it should be given to the parents not the kids. VASQUEZ: Juan, thank you very much. It's already getting late NUNEZ: I was against bilingual when they started bringing it CC 7-27.99 Page 015 VERBATIM ENDS. Mayor Vasquez asked Councilman Taylor if he wanted the Minutes of the July 13, 1999 to be deferred. Councilman Taylor requested that the Minutes from Section VII. A. FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION COST INCREASE FOR CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT - MARCH 2, 1999 GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION of July 13, 1999, Council meeting be verbatim to eliminate any confusion. Mr. Taylor referred to his comments on paragraph five of page 5 and stated that that was not what he said at the last meeting nor when he filed his Candidate's Statement papers. Councilman Taylor stated that he had discussed the 25 to 30 phone calls for translations at the July 13th meeting explaining the problem that he had with the small number of requests for translations, and that those actual numbers were not included in the Minutes. Mr. Taylor stated that it makes a difference if the numbers are stated rather than just recording that the numbers are low. Councilman Taylor, then referred to his comments on the next section regarding the tires that were picked up- Mr Taylor stated that those statements are not correct and that the Council is entitled to what was said by everyone about this particular item. Mr. Taylor requested that that section be verbatim because they are not accurate as to the full extent of the contents of that st tion. Mr. Taylor requested that these Minutes be deferred to the next meeting. PRESENTATIONS: None 1. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE Jesse Carlos, from Congressman Matthew "Marty" Martinez's office, addressed the Council, 2550 W. Main Street, Alhambra. Mr. Carlos, responding to Mr. Nunei s comments, invited Mr. Nunez to the Congressman's office to explain the naturalization process. Mr. Carlos stated that an individual from another country going through the naturalization process, must pass an English language test, with responses in English. Mr. Carlos continued that applicants are required to show numerous documents to satisfy the INS, and that a large majority of indivuals that have just become citizens, do know the English language. Councilman Taylor stated that those 50 questions are standard questions, and that a television program profiled schools that were coaching the applications with the actual questions and revealed that other people were taking the naturalization tests for the applicants. Mr. Taylor continued that there were several schools in the area and nationwide that were exposed. Mr. Taylor stated that Mr. Carlos's comment about the majority of new citizens knowing the English language is not a fair representation of all the applicants, and the question is do they really know the language. Mr. Taylor concluded that at least it is a step for them to try and learn the questions in an effort to pass the test. Councilman Bruesch stated that he has visited many naturalization classes over the years and has always addressed them in English because of the mixture of different languages represented. Mr. Bruesch stated that most teachers are truly committed to helping immigrants obtain their citizenship and to understand our government. Mr. Bruesch stated that there are a few schools using the coaching method that Councilman Taylor spoke of, but locally, the vast majority of citizenship classes do an outstanding job of preparing those applicants. Councilman Taylor agreed with Mr. Bruesch's comments. Mr. Carlos stated that there are a set of questions available to candidates who are going to take the test; however, in most cases, they still have to take citizenship classes, and file their paperwork, sometimes through community based organizations because they cannot understand the language. Mr. Carlos continued that the whole naturalization process may take 2 to 3 years CCP-27-99 Page 416 and within that time frame, the individual can learn the English language. Mr. Carlos stated that the INS works extremely hard to make sure that the immigrants coming to America are ones that respect our laws, our individuals, and respect other ethnic communities. The fingerprinting, interview process is a very extensive process. Councilman Taylor stated that the paperwork is there, but, as commented previously, the system does not work because it is so massive and so overloaded. Mr. Taylor stated that the local agencies, i.e. Sheriffs, trash contractors, etc., are trying to do their jobs the best they can, the laws are there, but we are governed by a million laws ranging from aviation, space, dogs, banking, etc., that the system just collapses. Mr. Carlos stated that he will bring those concerns to Congressman Martinez. Councilman Taylor stated that INS will take illegal immigrants back across the border and that they've admitted that those people will be back within the week. Mr. Taylor stated that it is discouraging when people are working hard and trying to do their jobs with this repetitious revolving door type situation. Mr. Carlos stated that the Congressman is trying to re-authorize the Older Americans Act and that the hearing held in Alhambra recently was telecast on PBS. Mr. Carlos stated that anyone interested in viewing the hearing should contact his office. Mr. Carlos encouraged the Council to contact the Congressman's office for any information regarding immigration, social security, or federal issues. Councilman Imperial stated that he tried to call INS about four months ago with an immigration problem and all he could get was a recording. Mr. Imperial stated that he then called Congressman Martinez's office and was told to call the Congressman's office for those types of problems. Mr. Imperial asked for the telephone list that the Congressman's office uses to call the INS offices, and that as an elected official he should qualify to receive that list. Mr. Carlos stated that he will look into the matter. Juan Nunez, 2702 Del Mar, Rosemead, stated that the weeds are overgrown at the restaurant on Garvey near Del Mar and that there is grease in the traps; the bridal shop on Hellman does not have any parking for tenants; there is not a bus Stop sign at Garvey and Jackson; and the new bus benches are not in good condition. IL PUBLIC HEARINGS An explanation of the procedures for the conduct of the public hearing was presented by the City Attorney. A. A PUBLIC HEARING AMENDING THE ZONING MAP FROM P (PARKING) TO R-2 (LIGHT MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL) - 3036 JACKSON AVENUE. THE APPLICANT WOULD LIKE TO BUILD A NEW RESIDENCE ON THE SUBJECT PROPERTY THUS REQUIRING THE ZONE CHANGE. THE POSSIBILITY OF SAID PROPERTY BEING DEVELOPED FOR PARKING APPEARS TO BE EXTREMELY LIMITED Al. ORDINANCE NO. 796 - APPROVLNG ZONE CHANGE 99-208 FOIR 3036 JACKSON AVENUE - INTRODUCE Don Wagner, Assistant City Manager, presented the staff report. CC:7-27-99 Page 417 The Mayor opened the Public Hearing for those in the audience wishing to speak on this item. There being no on wishing to speak, the Mayor closed the Public Hearing. MOTION BY COUNCILMAN TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH that the Council introduce and place Ordinance No. 796 on first reading, and schedule the item for a second reading at the meeting of August 10, 1999. Vole resulted: ID. LEGISLATIVE A. RESOLUTION NO. 99-31 - CLAIMS AND DEMANDS The following Resolution was presented to the Council for adoption. RESOLUTION NO. 99-31 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD ALLOWING CERTAIN CLAIMS AND DEMANDS IN THE SUM OF $1,066,282.33 NUMBERED 2785] THROUGH 27922 MOTION BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH, SECOND BY COUNCILMEMBER IMPERIAL that the Council adopt Resolution No. 99-31. Vote resulted: Yes: Vasquez, Taylor, Bruesch, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. Councilman Taylor requested copies of the legal advertisements for San Gabriel Valley Publishing Co., Check No. 27889, in the amount of$1592.48. B. RESOLUTION NO. 99-32 - CLAIMS AND DEMANDS 1999-2000 MOTION BY COUNCILMAN IMPERIAL, SECOND BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH that the Council adopt Resolution No. 99-32. Vote resulted: Yes: Vasquez, Taylor, Bruesch, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. Councilman Bruesch requested a copy of the 4th of July carnival revenues. IV. CONSENT CALENDAR (CC-B & CC-D were removed for discussion purposes) CC-A AUTHORIZATION TO ATTEND LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES 1999 ANNUAL CONFERENCE, OCTOBER 10-12, 1999, SAN JOSE CQ7-27-99 Page#18 CC-C AUTHORIZATION TO ATTEND CALIFORNIA CONTRACT CITIES ASSOCIATION 1999 ANNUAL FALL SEMINAR, SEPTEMBER 17-19, 1999, BUELLTON CC-E AUTHORIZATION TO ATTEND LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES COMMUNITY SERVICES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE, AUGUST 4-6, 1999, MONTEREY MOTION BY COUNCILMAN TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILMAN IMPERIAL that the foregoing items on the Consent Calendar be approved. Vote resulted: Yes: Bruesch, Taylor, Vasquez, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. CC-B REQUEST FROM CONSOLIDATED DISPOSAL SERVICES, INC. FOR ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT OF RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL REFUSE RATES Juan Nunez, 2702 Del Mar, Rosemead, requested a copy of the new fee structure. MOTION BY COUNCILMAN TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH that the approve the request by Consolidated Disposal Services, Inc. for a 1.9% adjustment in residential, commercial and industrial refuse rates effective August 1, 1999. Vote resulted: Yes: Bruesch, Taylor Vasquez, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. CC-D EXTENSION OF AGREEMENT WITH LAIDLAW TRANSIT SERVICES FOR DIAL-A-RIDE AND SHOPPER SHUTTLE SERVICES Councilman Bruesch asked why the increase in the amount is so large this time. Jeff Stewart, Director of Administrative Services, responded that those costs include obtainine six new vehicles and reflect the additional increase in fuel costs. Councilman Bruesch asked if there was adequate Prop A money to fund this. Mr. Stewart responded affirmative and that this program is supplemented with a portion of the $80,000 in Prop C funds, of which monies also go towards other programs. MOTION BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH, SECOND BY COUNCILMAN IMPERIAL that the Council approve a three-year extension of the City's agreement with Laidlaw Transit Services, Inc. effective July 1, 1999 and authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents. Vote resulted: CC:7-27-99 Page 09 Yes: Bruesch, Taylor, Vasquez, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. V. MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION A. REQUEST TO AMEND AGENDA TO INCLUDE PURCHASE OF SURPLUS CALTRANS PROPERY AT WALNUT GROVE AND HELLMAN AVENUE MOTION BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH, SECOND BY MAYOR PRO TEM CLARK that the Council approve amending the agenda to include discussion of the purchase of the Caltrans property at Walnut Grove and Hellman Avenue. Vote resulted: Yes: Bruesch, Taylor, Vasquez, Clark, Imperial No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Mayor declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. B. AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE SURPLUS CALTRANS PROPERTY AT WALNUT GROVE AND HELLMAN AVENUE (OFF RAMP OF THE I-10) MOTION BY COUNCILMAN BRUESCH THAT THE CITY PURCHASE THE CALTRANS PROPERTY._(No second at this time, discussion continues). Councilman Taylor cited What transpired with the City of Bellflower when they purchased a contaminated piece of property. That City had to remove all the contaminated soil and lead from the property which cost them a considerable amount of money. Mr. Taylor said that prior to our City purchasing the property, an EIR - Phase I report should be obtained first, with the State paying for that report. Mayor Pro Tern Clark stated that she agrees with Councilman Taylor and added that the City does not want to get stuck with any type of contamined property. Councilman Bruesch withdrew his Motion at this point. Mayor Pro Tern Clark stated that the City needs that off-ramp property, but not before a release from the EPA that the around is not contaminated. Ken Rukavina, City Engineer, stated that he has met with Caltrans to discuss various ways of re-configuring the off ramp and that some of the suggestions were to widen Hellman Avenue or, as Caltrans suggested, closing the ramp due to low usage. Councilman Bruesch stated that the off ramp is congested at times and it is difficult to get through. Mr. Bruesch stated, however, that the solution should not include condemning homes in that area and that a free flow of traffic needs to be provided. Mr. Bruech sugggested that the CVC be included in the "Keep Intersection Clear" sign_ Councilman Taylor requested a copy of what the State has been reviewing along with figures and diagrams. CC:7.2 99 Page ea) No action was taken on this item. VI. STATUS REPORTS -None VII. MATTERS FROM OFFICIALS -None 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 9:58 p.m. The neat regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 10, 1999, at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted: APPROVED: City Clerk MAYOR CC:7-27-99 Page k2!