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HomeMy WebLinkAbout091719 - Minutes - Regular MeetingMINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 CLOSED SESSION: 5:30 p.m., Room CC-8 Public Comments: None Conference with legal counsel pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 — Existing Litigation San Gabriel Water &Power, LLC v. Chino Hills, et al San Bernardino Superior Court Case No. CIVDS 1904434 STUDY SESSION: 5:45 p.m. —Room CC-8 Public Comments: None Lighting and Landscaping Assessment Districts No's 39 & 41 Options CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Herrera called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA. Staff Present: Dan Fox, City Manager; Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; Dave DeBerry, City Attorney; David Liu, Public Works Director; Ryan Wright, Parks and Recreation Director; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Ken Desforges, IS Manager; Dianna Honeywell, Finance Director; Marsha Roa, Public Information Director; Amy Haug, Human Resources and Risk Management; Anthony Santos, Assistant to the City Manager; and, Dannette Allen, Senior Management Analyst. CA/DeBerry said there was nothing to report out of Closed Session. CM/Fox reported that with respect to tonight's Study Session and the recent failure of the Prop 218 ballot proceedings (new assessments for Districts 39 and 41), the City will be looking at various service reductions in those areas to attempt to prioritize how they can best be maintained within available resources. SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 2 CITY COUNCIL More information will be provided to the City Council and the community within those districts as it becomes available. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Herrera led the Pledge of Allegiance. INVOCATION: Cantor Paul Buch, Temple Beth Israel, provided the invocation. ROLL CALL: Council Members Chou, Low, Lyons, Mayor Pro Tern Tye and Mayor Herrera, APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As presented. 1. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATES, PROCLAMATIONS: 1.1 M/Herrera and City Council Members presented a Certificate Plaque to owner Dr. Nancy Wang of Argo Optometry, 3220 Brea Canyon Road, New Business of the Month for September 2019. 2. CITY MANAGER REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: None 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Pui-Ching Ho spoke about programs and events available at the Diamond Bar Library during September and asked that individuals go to the library website at https://Iacountylibrary.org/diamond-bar-librarv/ for additional information. She reminded everyone that October is Read Together Diamond Bar month. Marissa Castro-Salvati, Government Relations Manager for Southern California Edison updated the Council on the year-round wildfire season stating that the Wildfire Mitigation Plan is in play thanks to advocates who have helped to pass AB 1054 which was recently signed into law and gives accountability to utilities. Edison is currently working in Diamond Bar to make sure that trees are trimmed back sufficiently to help prevent wildfires. She explained the inspection process and mitigation measures that include immediate necessary repairs. SoCal Edison continues to work closely with CM/Fox and his staff to let them know which circuits might be impacted during a wildfire event. She invited City Council members and staff to visit the Emergency Operations Center in Irwindale. C/Low asked for contact information should a resident have concerns about a tree on their property and Mrs. Castro-Salvati responded that AtoCM/Santos is very good about letting her know of any customer issues or concerns including vegetation management and outages. Residents can provide staff with the address and name of the customer and Edison SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 3 CITY COUNCIL will send a Vegetation Management Specialist to the site to assess the issue for possible remediation. Peggy Chang, representing the non-profit organization Gracias Music Foundation, announced that from September 14th to October 17 the group will be traveling around the world and on September 29th will be performing Christmas Cantatas at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach. Additional information is available at www..qraciasmusicfoundation.org. Allen Wilson asked for an update on the reopening of Sycamore Canyon Park that has been closed for nearly three years. He felt that the amended contract (Item 8.1), was too generous. Douglas Barcon said he noticed that the Draft General Plan is partially up online and consists of scanned items that are not able to be searched. He was curious about the EIR and the railroad noise west of the SR57 along north side of Sunset Crossing Road and has been measuring audio levels of trains from his front yard. 4. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS: CM/Fox responded to speakers. Sycamore Canyon is still under construction which will likely continue to mid to late October for completion followed by a ribbon -cutting ceremony to commemorate the reopening. The Draft General Plan and Environmental Impact Report are available online. The entire EIR is available and due to the size of the EIR, General Plan, and Climate Action Plan, they are in multiple parts with links to each. Anyone who needs assistance in accessing these documents can call staff. This item is not on tonight's agenda. The first General Plan workshop with the Planning Commission and City Council is scheduled for next Wednesday night (September 25th). Noise levels will not be discussed during the first meeting and will likely be a topic for discussion during a subsequent meeting which would be the appropriate time to bring this issue forward. 5. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE EVENTS: 5.1 Planning Commission meeting —September 24, 2019 — 6:30 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. 5.2 Special Joint Meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission — September 25, 2019, 6:00 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 4 CITY COUNCIL 5.3 Parks & Recreation Commission — September 26, 2019, 6:30 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. 5.4 City Council Meeting — October 13 20197 6:30 p.m., AQMD/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, 6. CONSENT CALENDAR: MPT/Tye moved, C/Low seconded, to approve the Consent Calendar as presented with C/Lyons abstaining from Item 6.1 and pulling Item 6.6 for discussion. C/Chou ask that Item 6.8 be pulled for clarification. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Chou, Low, Lyons, MPT/Tye, M/Herrera NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None 6.1 APPROVED CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES: 6.1 a Regular Meeting of August 20, 2019 — as presented. 6.2 RECEIVED AND FILED PARKS &RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES: 6.2a Regular Meeting of June 20, 2019. 6.20 Regular Meeting of July 25, 2019. 6.3 RATIFIED CHECK REGISTER DATED AUGUST 15, 2019 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 TOTALING $1,654,647.00. 6.4 APPROVED TREASURER'S STATEMENT FOR JULY 2019. 6.5 APPROVED FISCAL YEAR 2019-20 APPROPRIATION ADJUSTMENTS FOR GENERAL FUND, SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS AND CAPITAL PROJECT CARRYOVERS. A. APPROVED APPROPRIATION FROM GENERAL FUND RESERVES OF $320,894,97 TO CARRY FORWARD APPROPRIATIONS FROM FY 2018-19 TO FY 2019-20 FOR PREVIOUSLY ENCUMBERED GOODS AND SERVICES; B. APPROVED AN APPROPRIATION FROM VARIOUS SPECIAL REVENUE FUND RESERVES OF $6135544088 TO CARRY FORWARD APPROPRIATIONS FROM FY 2018-19 TO FY 2019-20 FOR PREVIOUSLY ENCUMBERRED GOODS AND SERVICES; C. APPROVED APPROPRIATION FROM CAPITAL SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 5 CITY COUNCIL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FUND RESERVES IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,602,016.07 TO CARRY FORWARD APPROPRIATIONS FROM FY 2018-19 TO FY 2019-20 FOR PREVIOUSLY ENCUMBERED GOODS AND SERVICES; AND, D. CARRIED OVER THE RELATED PURCHASE ORDERS ENCUMBERED IN FY 2018-19 IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,424,478,79 TO FY 2019-20. 6.7 APPROVED FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH INTEGRATED CONSULTING GROUP, INC. FOR CONSULTING AND CONCEPTUAL DESIGN SERVICES THROUGH SEPTEMBER 17, 2020. 6.9 AWARDED CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AGREEMENT TO COPP CONTRACTING, INC. FOR THE AREA 7 RESIDENTIAL AND COLLECTOR STREETS PROJECT (NO. 01419) AND DIAMOND BAR BOULEVARD STREET REHABILITATION FROM MOUNTAIN LAUREL WAY TO CLEAR CREEK CANYON DRIVE PROJECT (NO. 23919), A. ESTABLISHED A PROJECT PAYMENT ACCOUNT CONTAINING SUFFICIENT FUNDS FROM THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR BUDGET TO PAY FOR THE PROJECT; B. APPROPRIATED $55,221 FROM THE PROP C FUND BALANCE OF PROJECT NO, 01420 TO THE DIAMOND BAR BOULEVARD STREET REHABILITATION PROJECT (No. 23919); AND, C. APPROVED AND AUTHORIZED THE MAYOR TO SIGN A CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AGREEMENT WITH COPP CONTRACTING, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,309,1161 APPROVING THE BASE BID SCHEDULE, PLUS A CONTINGENCY AMOUNT OF $115,456, FOR CONTRACT CHANGE ORDERS TO BE APPROVED BY THE CITY MANAGER, FOR A TOTAL AUTHORIZATION AMOUNT OF $2,424,572. ITEMS WITHDRAWN FROM CONSENT CALENDAR: 6.6 APPROVE CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH ALTA PLANNING +DESIGN, INC. FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL ZONE CIRCULATION IMPROVEMENTS AND SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PLAN (SRTS). A. APPROVED BUDGET ADJUSTMENT AND APPROPRIATED $200,000 OF PROP C FUNDS TO REPLACE $150,000 OF GENERAL FUNDS FOR THE SCHOOL ZONE CIRCULATION S SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 6 CITY COUNCIL IMPROVEMENTS AND SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PLAN (SRTS); AND, B APPROVED AND AUTHORIZED THE MAYOR TO SIGN THE CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH ALTA PLANNING + DESIGN, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $159,546, PLUS A CONTINGENCY AMOUNT OF $40,000 TO BE APPROVED BY THE CITY MANAGER, FOR A TOTAL AUTHORIZATION AMOUNT OF $199,564. C/Lyons said that after studying the proposed plan, she does not believe it is good for Diamond Bar. The idea is to get students out of cars and onto bicycles which sounds good on its face, but Diamond Bar is a community with many hills and she does not know how much walking and biking could be done. While the City could encourage these modes of transportation, she does not know how likely it would be to happen. In addition, the document speaks to suggesting improvements that can be made around the schools to improve traffic patterns and she does not know what is being done for the schools in the Pomona Unified School District, but Walnut Valley Unified is already looking at this for some of their schools and this item seems to be a duplication of effort and the school districts have control of their property. Page 94 concerns her because at the bottom of the page there is a very nice graphic which details results of the program that was done by Alta for nine counties in the San Francisco Bay area. The two statements that concern her are that "after this program was over, the average per - student annual miles biked increased by 2.8 miles which seems to her not to be cost effective for the amount spent on the program. The statement that follows is that "the average per -student annual miles driven in the family car decreased by 6.2 miles". To her these are very insignificant amounts of increased biking and decreased vehicular travel over the course of a year and felt that it would not make sense for the City to spend $200,000 on this item. C/Low said she too is concerned about this item and like C/Lyons, she also does not believe this is good for Diamond Bar. The increases as pointed out by C/Lyons are so insignificant and the decrease in mileage is so insignificant, it does not merit the spending of $200,000 for a plan. And what is even more concerning to her is that this plan was really not based on a need that had been voiced to the City and if the school districts are working on this situation she believes they should take the lead and move forward. In addition, the plan as proposed does not take into account the school bus system that is in place in Diamond Bar. It does not make sense that school busing is in place while trying to encourage more biking and walking which was not addressed in SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 7 CITY COUNCIL this proposal. To encourage students to walk and bike is not that feasible because there are a number of students that are coming from outside of the district. For those reasons, she does not feel this is a good use of funds for Diamond Bar and perhaps the City could look at a better way to spend these funds to yield greater benefits. C/Chou asked staff to clarify this proposal because he thought it was about the circulation and traffic patterns around schools and did not see the part about encouraging kids to bike and walk. PWD/Liu, the bottom line is to increase usage of bicycling and school -aged pedestrian walking activities, etc. However, the more important elements for the community of Diamond Bar is to expand on the comprehensive school area study that in 1998 looked at all of the onsite and off -site conditions from circulation, to parking, drop-off and pick-up locations, ingress egress issues and so forth. The City worked closely with the school districts and school principals through a collaborative piecemeal effort with resources provided by the City and the school districts and over the years, the City has continued to invest in off -site improvements. Going forward, this program will take a very complete site -specific look at priorities for improving circulation, etc. and revisit some of those specific onsite and off -site conditions to determine what constraints can be mitigated and how that can happen. Staff is aware of the Walnut Unified School District's schedule and plans and they are taking a piecemeal approach as well to the projects identified in the bond measure as well as, use this as an opportunity for the City to sit down with partners in both school districts and begin to look at everything that needs to be addressed. Up to this point the City has been reacting to specific issues coming from parents and the residents. More important is that this affords the City an opportunity to get all stakeholders involved and identify where all of these improvements should be made and arrive at priorities so that the respective agencies can begin programming and planning the necessary resources for making those improvements. It is important that the City of Diamond Bar have a complete plan incorporating the site -specific information it will provide for funding opportunities down the road including applying for different grant programs, etc. Without an updated and comprehensive study, the City is relying on data and feedback from one school district only, and stakeholders from both school districts need to be at the table to review these specific site conditions. And, this study will incorporate those specific conditions. MPT/Tye said he was afraid that when this process reached the SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 8 CITY COUNCIL end of the $200,000, the consultant would tell the City that it has schools in areas that have lot of constraints which involve things that are already known. Golden Springs Elementary made it so that cars are now not parked on El Encino and Ballina and now pass through the back of the school — they used playground property to get that accomplished. In his opinion, the districts are taking appropriate action to take care of their properties. What he recalls is that the City did site -circulation for Chaparral where there were restrictions on right and left turns. So, how would this study change that? He is glad to hear that it is not about increasing bicycling over a year's period of 2.6 miles or less of a car ride because he does not believe that will happen in Diamond Bar. If you consider Diamond Bar High School where they have delineators up and people are funneled through from Pathfinder Road out to Brea Canyon Road, how might that change with a study by this group? PWD/Liu agreed that the school district initiated a very site -specific study for Golden Springs Elementary and ultimately converted the back area into a parking area to be used by school administration and by parents for pick up and drop off. During that process, the City had to invite itself to the table because the school district did not bring this to the City's attention. So, staff made sure that the district coordinated with the City and solicited input from the residents because in this case, they were not required to work with the City toward any school -related improvements. What this plan provides is an opportunity to build communication among all stakeholders. PWD/Liu said he believes that having all stakeholders at the table offers the ability to facilitate a complete review and while everything might not be resolved, it affords the City the opportunity to get the school district and administrators to the table and to use the Traffic and Transportation Commission meetings as a forum for neighborhood residents to be involved. PT/T ye felt the City was already using all available resources. It seemed to him that a telephone call might work to set up a round table and not necessarily $200,000 to do what the City can do on its own. And Council Members can work to make these collaborations happen through their relationships with stakeholders. MPT/Tye said he was under the impression that Safe Routes to School plans were required by the state and that this was something that the City is being required to do without being forthcoming with the funds to do it. C/Lyons said she was very concerned about the $200,000 but is even more concerned about the buy -in by all three players. If that SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 9 CITY COUNCIL cost was split in thirds perhaps everyone would have skin in the game. She knows from her experience in working with PWD/Liu on one of the schools how hard the City worked to make something happen. Schools do not seem to be as interested in fixing the problems as the City is, and unless they have skin in the game, she believes it will die and that the districts would respect PWD/Liu a lot more than they would respect a consultant. C/Chou said he was inclined to agree with his colleagues. Based on what he is hearing the basic need is to get the districts to agree to a plan which is something that as MPT/Tye said, could be done with a phone call. He is not understanding why it is necessary to have a consultant do the work when the City would be the entity that would have to present the findings to the school district, giving them the option of not agreeing with the report and its findings. It seems that the report is beneficial to the City in order to convince the districts they need to proceed with certain work, but it would still be up to them because it involves school property. CM/Fox explained that the types of improvements could be on City property and/or on school property and each respective property would likely be responsible for making and paying for those improvements. The types of recommendations the City will get out a study such as this one will range from how to educate parents about the appropriate pick up and drop off locations, traffic circulation, rules of the road for that specific school site and each one is different. The City gets a lot of calls on a daily basis for service with respect to traffic enforcement, traffic congestion, etc. The City could probably do this on its own but it might take a bit longer and it might be more incremental as staff focused on one school at a time. The other types of recommendations and questions are "should we be providing additional signage, additional lane striping, and more visible crosswalks" as well as, are there more things the City needs to do with hard improvements involving curbs and gutters and curb returns to help facilitate better circulation. Those are the types of things that the grant funding could help with. Currently, the City provides almost $180,000 in crossing guard services and the school district has made it very clear that anything off their property they will not pay for and that goes for this study as well. So for us to think that we can get the school district to pitch in money is probably an uphill battle, especially for some of those improvements that happen in the public right-of-way. Yes, they are using bond money for some of the schools to make some improvements and to provide some additional parking and drop off, but again, these things interact with the City's street right-of-way and once those improvements leave SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 10 CITY COUNCIL the school property, the City is expected to resolve those conflicts. Having a study of this magnitude also gives the City a little bit of clout if it has to go after grant funding to make some of the more costly physical improvements and, it provides the City with a comprehensive look at all of the schools. Obviously, since 1998 a lot has changed. Schools do not bus as much as they used to and there are schools of choice in a lot of areas where people are just letting kids out of cars. The dynamics in and around the City's neighborhood schools has totally changed since they were built and it causes a lot of frustration for parents and neighborhood residents. The Council could look at it on a more incremental basis and continue to address small individual items as they come up or take a more comprehensive approach, if the Council chooses to move in that direction. C/Low asked if the City had a professional Traffic Management consultant on contract and CM/Fox responded yes. They are mostly focused on the City's infrastructure with the traffic signal implementation and Traffic Management Center. C/Low asked if those folks could be moved to a project if the need were to arise, and CM/Fox responded that yes, the City has on -call Traffic Engineering services that could be utilized on a school or on a case by case basis. In addition, the NTMP process is in place which is more oriented toward the residential neighborhoods to prevent cut through traffic with traffic calming devices, speed cushions and so forth which is not necessarily unique to schools and, the City has a Traffic and Transportation Commission that could vet concerns that are brought to the City's attention. C/Low said it seemed to her that the City needed to get the buy -in from the school districts before embarking on a plan because if the pIan were to reveal something the City did not know, it would likely grow cold. C/Lyons moved, C/Low seconded, to table Item 6.1. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS ChouLowLyons 6.8 ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2019-37 AMENDING THE CITY'S CLASSIFICATION PLAN AND FY 2019-20 MUNICIPAL BUDGET EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 28, 2019. SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 11 CITY COUNCIL C/Chou asked staff to speak to the reclassification and its impact to the Human Resources budget. HRRM/Haug explained that there are two requests as part of staffs report. First is a recommendation to adjust some of the job titles within the maintenance division of the Public Works Department. The second recommendation is a reclassification of an existing Facilities and Assets Maintenance Technician to a Maintenance Supervisor position. The second request is recommending that the City make a targeted investment in the City's succession planning efforts and as a proactive measure, is designed to reduce the liability the organization faces whenever a seasoned City staff member retire. As of July 2019, one third of the City's employee population was age 50 or older and eligible for retirement under the California Public Employee Retirement System and the largest number of retirement -eligible employees actually resided in the maintenance division of the Public Works Department. To aid with the City's succession planning efforts and cross training efforts, transformation of a centralized maintenance division is actually only three years old and the City is looking to broaden the scope of work and job duties that the maintenance employees are focused on rather than having them work in specialized capacities and only working in parks, or streets, or facilities, the City wants to broaden out the scope. Over the past year the City has had the existing Facilities and Assets Maintenance Technician take on additional responsibilities and this individual was more recently named the Acting Facilities Maintenance Supervisor. Additional duties and responsibilities have included preparation of the departmental budget, contract preparation and administration, preparation of Request for Proposals, Request for Quotes, and project management for various maintenance functions although his title was limited to just Facilities Maintenance. In addition, it is planned that the additional Maintenance Supervisor will assist with the supervision of full time/part time staff, contractors, manage contracts for the Lighting and Landscape Districts maintenance, assist with the management of tree maintenance contracts and service requests, provide support to street maintenance and continue to serve as the departmental representative for the enterprise resource planning program (the new finance system upgrade) and assume supervisory duties. The cost to implement this reclassification is negligible because the City is not intending to backfill the technician position and the supervisory position is not eligible for overtime whereas, the technician position would have been eligible for overtime. SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 12 CITY COUNCIL 7. Q C/Chou moved, C/Lyons seconded, to approve Item 6.6. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS MPT/Tye, M/Herrera NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS PUBLIC HEARING(S): COUNCIL CONSIDERATION: Chou, Low, Lyons, None None 8.1 AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT WITH CITY MANAGER DANIEL FOX. M/Herrera explained that the City Council went through an extensive evaluation process with CM/Fox, a process that the City Council goes through on an annual basis. Council believes CM/Fox has done a very good job in his position. He stepped into some very complicated issues during a period of time when the City was involved in many lawsuits and worked very hard to resolve some of those issues. For these reasons, the City Council is recommending that his employment agreement be amended. CA/DeBerry stated that under state law, it is required that an oral report be made of any recommended changes in the form of salary or fringe benefits for a city manager. There are two recommended changes: 1) The City provides the City Manager with a city vehicle and pays the expenses except for fuel, and the change to the contract would be that the City would pay for the City Manager's fuel in recognition that he uses the car for many business trips. This is consistent with the current practice of the City paying for fuel for the other City vehicles. 2) To provide an additional 40 hours of Administrative Leave per year. The Administrative Leave is a "use it or lose it" proposition and cannot be cashed out or be carried over into the next year. M/Herrera further explained that previous city managers were given vacation time and they never wanted to be away from City Hall and did not take their vacation time. Everyone surely recognizes the importance of balancing one's work life with recreation and relaxation and the need to rejuvenate themselves. Administrative Leave affords that opportunity. C/Low moved, MPT/Tye seconded, to approve Amendment No. 1 to the Employment Agreement with City Manager Daniel Fox. SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 13 CITY COUNCIL Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Chou, M PT/Tye, NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None Low, Lyons, M/Herrera 9. COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS AND MEETING ATTENDANCE REPORTS/COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS: C/Chou congratulated the Diamond Bar Brahmas for winning the Branding Iron game. On August 24th he and M/Herrera attended Congressman Cisneros's field office opening in Diamond Bar at 20955 Pathfinder Road, Suite 330. He was glad to see two new restaurants open in the City — Nectar Juices and the new Mexican restaurant, El Pirata Parada, both of which will participate in Diamond Bar Restaurant Week. He attended the LA County Board of Supervisors meeting on September loth to advocate on behalf of the City and SGVCOG to release an additional $6 million carryover funds from previous years, Measure H money to help fund homelessness initiatives, which the board unanimously approved. He will hold a Pop Up Office Hour on Saturday, September 21 from 10-12 at Massage Envy. September 15th to October 15th is National Hispanic American Heritage month which pays tribute to the generation of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society. He thanked and acknowledged the Hispanic community for all they do. C/Low thanked ACM/McLean and Acting City Clerk McLean for a great job this evening. While he is not Tommye, his work is appreciated. Last Saturday she attended the Diamond Bar Chinese-American Association's Harvest Moon Festival at Diamond Bar High School which was a very fun event with Congressman Gil Cisneros attending. Moon cakes are available for purchase at the Chinese Market. She is excited about Restaurant Week and hopes to not gain too much weight while enjoying all foods. In walking and driving around town she has noticed fallen tree branches and she wants residents to understand the trees have suffered through a very hot summer and are in need of deep watering. C/Lyons spoke about Restaurant Week stating 27 restaurants are participating. Residents can that as of this afternoon, Cafe which she visited last week. They serve very good Mexican - American food and everyone should try it. They are open for breakfast and lunch only. You can find the restaurant on Golden Springs Drive at SLPTLMBLR 17, 2019 PAGE 14 CITY COUNCIL the rear of the plaza at Diamond Creek Shopping Center. As Pui-Ching Ho said, the Diamond Bar Friends of the Library are holding their annual Read Together Diamond Bar activities in October in support of three books, each of which are for specific age groups. On Sunday she joined M/Herrera and MPT/Tye at the Diamond Bar Foundation's Beer Fest, a great event with lots of good food and beer. Diamond Bar is taking its next steps on the General Plan update and there are two Public Hearings scheduled on November 12th and December 3rd which will provide an opportunity for public input. MPT/Tye said he has had it with people complaining on Facebook. On the other hand, a resident saw something and heard something and decided to do something and it reminded him of one of his favorite Bible verses from Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -dwell on these things." And he has decided he will dwell on those things. He is going to dwell on Margaret Liu taking action, getting out with gloves on and cleaning up a mess. And why her neighbors did not think of that is a mystery to him, but God bless her for doing that and making a difference in her community. Maybe if somebody picks up after their dog in the park instead of walking away, he will make that an issue. Thank you, Margaret, for taking initiative and not waiting for somebody else to take action. Sunday was the second annual Beer Fest, a terrific and successful event. CM/Fox who is very, very modest and his boss Anne were there. MPT/Tye said the Beach Blond Ale was his favorite and he held his own against larger breweries. Thanks to all who participated for being there and making it a unique event. It was a beautiful evening on the lawn at the Diamond Bar Center with music, games and lots of camaraderie with a great band and good DJ. A great time was had by all and he looks forward to the third annual event. MPT/Tye asked that tonight's meeting be closed in memory of Chuck Bader who passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was a wonderful human being and very involved in the community and with Mt. SAC, and was a former Pomona Councilman, the youngest ever elected to the Pomona City Council. He served as a state assemblyman in California and was generally regarded by all who knew him as a true statesman, someone who could work across the aisle and who could assess a problem and help get things done. Prayers are with his wife Roseanne and her family as they adjust to life without him. M/Herrera said that the Beer Fest on Sunday was a fun event. Many community members were present and there was great support for the Diamond Bar Community Foundation which does great charitable work throughout the City. She enjoyed attending Congressman Cisneros's open house and is very flattered that he chose to locate his office in Diamond Bar. When he greeted all of the participants, he restated that SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 PAGE 15 CITY COUNCIL getting funding for the SR57/60 would continue to be one of his top priorities and something he would be working diligently on, which pleases M/Herrera very much. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to conduct, M/Herrera adjourned the Regular City Council Meeting at 7:50 p.mff in memory of Chuck Bader. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 1st day of October, 2019. (IP 4 4VN�� CAROL HERRERA, MAYOR