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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020.04.24 - Minutes - Special MeetingCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING APRIL 24, 2020 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Tye called the Special City Council meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. Mayor Tye stated that consistent with COVID-19 regulations, all Council Members and staff are participating via teleconference and there is no physical location for public attendance. The Public has been invited to join the meeting online or by phone at the numbers printed on the agenda. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Tye led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Council Members Andrew Chou, Ruth Low, Jennifer "Fred" Mahlke, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Lyons, and Mayor Steve Tye Staff participating telephonically: Dan Fox, City Manager; Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; Anthony Santos, Assistant to the City Manager; David Liu, Director of Public Works; Marsha Roa, Public Information Manager; Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator, and Kristina Santana, City Clerk. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As presented. 1. CITY MANAGER REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: NONE 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS: CC/Santana stated that several comments were submitted by email, each of which were forwarded to all Councilmembers. Emails were submitted by the following: Jason Fu who asked the reason people were being relocated to the Quality Inn in Rowland Heights and who made such a decision; are California taxpayers paying for this and who approved the budget; what are the plans for after the Pandemic is over; and, he expressed support for passing the law making camping or residing on the street or other public places illegal. Sandra Gill expressed opposition to Project Roomkey. Mary Stegemann expressed opposition to Project Roomkey. Douglas Barcon expressed his concerns regarding this program's impact on the City, its residents and visitors, and asked the City to oppose state purchasing and lease agreements with hotels that would suffer from loss of visitor lodging and businesses from being damaged by the homeless. APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 2 CITY COUNCIL Calvin Cai expressed his concerns about and objections to Project Roomkey and recommended a less densely populated city be chosen. Joyce Wong expressed opposition to Project Roomkey. Oscar Martinez expressed opposition to Project Roomkey because in his opinion, it puts residents and children at risk. Eric Fuentes cited opposition to Project Roomkey due to increased transient traffic, possible abuse of drugs, possible violence toward hotel staff and citizens of Diamond Bar, possible transmissions of other diseases and the possible decline of health values. Josephine expressed opposition to Project Roomkey due to concern for her kids and for the community. Jenny Shi expressed opposition to Project Roomkey and asked where the hotel is located, how the homeless will be managed and what will happen after the shelter -at-home order is lifted. CC/Santana then opened the phone line to accept public comment. Paul Wrightsman said he opposes Project Roomkey in its entirety. He values clean streets and expressed concerns about unsanitary and peace disturbing behaviors. He was concerned about the City of Diamond Bar following the insane public policies on the homeless without question or challenge, and not serving the needs of the taxpaying citizens of this community. Bobby Lee said the homeless issue is complicated and complex. His concerns are regarding safety, cleanliness and keeping his home as safe and secure as possible. He noted all of the comments are negative and geared toward "not here" and the Council representing the City should have a fair and open discussion that addresses how we can help and how this could work. Joanna expressed support for Project Roomkey as a temporary measure. She believes with reasonable safeguards, getting the homeless off the street is a reasonable and compassionate measure and helps keep everyone safe. She does not believe this is somebody else's problem that can be shoved down the road to the next community. She would like for the City to be reasonable and compassionate in dealing with this issue. Jason Fu agrees with the previous caller that putting the homeless people in a hotel such as a Quality Inn might be a better temporary solution during the Pandemic and he would like to know what is planned for the homeless after the Pandemic and who will make that call. There needs to be an effective and good solution to dealing with the homeless population long term and he offered comments regarding possible solutions in his email to the City. APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 3 CITY COUNCIL Adrianne Cotterell noted that it is very important that we bring our best selves forward and think creatively and be flexible and be open to new ideas and solutions. If homeless people are housed and safe, it will keep the rest of the population safe as well. She looks forward to hearing more about the program and is supportive of making good use of those facilities so that everyone can enjoy a better life after the Pandemic is over. Sonya Si said while she wants to help the homeless, but the location is too close and dangerous because people can come and go and may bring COVID-19 back to the seniors in the hotel. John Corsan expressed concerns regarding drug crime, drug violence, drug trade and all associated problems. These people are from other areas and while we need to be compassionate, they should be where they belong. He also noted that the vast majority of residents are not in favor of this and expects their representatives to resist, postpone, delay, and fight to make sure this does not happen. He threatened the Councilmembers that if they failed to support the community against Project Roomkey they would be called out during the next election. Sharon agreed with the previous speaker. The governor is trying to spread the homeless people around and once they are here it will not be easy to remove them when the pandemic ends. They should be confined where they are now which is the best solution for Diamond Bar. Wayne Lee wished the City had reached out to the residents for this public process. He is strongly against the process of bringing outside homeless people to Diamond Bar because it would risk the health and safety of the community, especially to seniors and children. Jacob Ryan echoed opinions of previous speakers including the gentleman who plans to post a sign in his yard endorsing Council Members who are protecting the community and the speaker who mentioned that the County of LA is using this opportunity as an excuse to spread the problem to neighboring cities. He expreseed concerns that they would not adhere to social distancing and other safety regulations. He is totally against Project Roomkey and asked Council Members to reject this proposal. Allen Liu wished this hearing could have happened before the decision was made to move homeless people into the City of Diamond Bar community area. He was concerned about how the residents be removed once the pandemic is over and how can we make sure the people are not on the street using public resources where kids play. He does not believe that the area between Rowland Heights and Diamond Bar is a solution and he does not believe it is right for residents to bear this cost. He echoed a previous speaker who said they would pay attention to who protects the City and who will be re-elected. Trisha Tran thanked the City for having this meeting to address this issue and get APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 4 CITY COUNCIL the community involved. MPT/Lyons posted a lot of information on the internet last night which is how she learned of today's meeting. She does not like to make decisions before she hears all of the facts and she is confident that M/Tye will answer questions about where these folks will end up once this is over. She cannot pick sides because while she is compassionate about the homeless, she is also compassionate about the City in which she lives and doesn't want the streets to be flooded with folks who will be sleeping all over the place and does not want to see the crime rate increase. Jenny thanked the City for having this meeting and allowing everyone to express their views. She is against the project to bring the homeless to the City of Diamond Bar. She has heard the homeless are already in the hotel and they can leave the hotel from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. without wearing masks which is unfair to the residents. They are too close to the shopping malls and residences. She asked when this pandemic is over, how will the City handle the homeless situation and indicated she does not believe there is a solution to take the homeless back where they were before coming to this area. Pamela said that she has read that 75 percent of the cost will come from FEMA and who knows where the other 25 percent comes from. Another concern is whether these individuals are sick or not sick because it says they are hoping to use this as a place where the people can be quarantined for 7 or 14 days if needed. Taking a person who is used to living outdoors and putting them indoors and telling them they have to stay there seems difficult. She agrees with everyone who is opposed to Project Roomkey. Steven Chen said he does not agree with Project Roomkey because the location of the project was next to a highly populated area. He believes that crime rate will increase and COVID-19 will get more serious. He suggested the homeless be moved to the City of Commerce which has a lower population density. The homeless have rights within the law, but we need to protect the citizens of Diamond Bar and Walnut, too. Curt Tong agreed with the previous speaker and said he was thinking back to 2018 when they removed the homeless camps in the Santa Ana River along with 400 tons of debris that included metal and hazardous waste. He indicated this is a nice quiet area and the economy is much better than downtown LA and the homeless would have very little incentive to go back. There are so many schools near the hotel and it is a heavily clustered residential area (Walnut, Diamond Bar, Chino Hills) and this area is ill-equipped to deal with this issue. Also, he imagines it will be difficult to evict people who do not pay rent and do not care about the law. M/Tye closed the Public Comment portion of the meeting. 3. COUNCIL CONSIDERATION: 3.1 PROJECT ROOMKEY APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 5 CITY COUNCIL CM/Fox stated that Project Roomkey is an initiative established by Governor Newsom, the idea of which is to move the homeless individuals that are the most vulnerable to COVID-19 off of the streets and into hotel rooms to prevent the spread of the virus and save lives. Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) began implementing this program throughout Los Angeles County, not just in this area. A list frequently asked questions (FAQ) prepared by the County was attached to the staff report and helps explain the program in more detail. The City learned that the County entered into a contract with the Quality Inn in Rowland Heights, located at Fairway Drive and SR60 within the unincorporated area of LA County and not within the City of Diamond Bar. The program is raising a lot of questions up and down the state and the staff report also includes a number of questions that are being asked by officials across LA County. Many of these questions and responses are being coordinated through the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG), Contract Cities Associations and the City Manager's Group as well as, individual Council Members. At this time, it is recommended that the Council discuss the matter and provide any direction as deemed appropriate. Ivan Sulic, Homeless and Housing Deputy for Supervisor Janice Hahn, thanked the Council and public for inviting him to participate in this discussion. It is his job to coordinate all homeless projects including Project Roomkey throughout the supervisorial district which extends from Diamond Bar to Marina del Rey. Project Roomkey, the governor's initiative, is for our most vulnerable, at -risk homeless individuals who are over the of 65 and/or have underlying health issues such as asthma, heart disease, cancer, missing limbs — individuals that should they contract COVID-19, would surely die on the street, and we want to make sure we move these individuals into some of these underutilized hotel and motel rooms throughout the state and throughout the county. Hotel and motel retention within the County of Los Angeles has gone down over 70 percent which puts many of these businesses, many of which are franchisee and family owned hotels and motels, at risk of not only losing their business, but losing local jobs and local tax revenue that would potentially go back into the communities. Mr. Sulic said that the County of Los Angeles is not bringing people to Diamond Bar. Currently, there are no sites identified in Diamond Bar, but should there be one, individuals will be coming from the service planning Area 3 which is the San Gabriel Valley and potentially from the Diamond Bar area as well. These individuals go through a robust health screening prior to going inside and while they are going through a health screening and talking to a caseworker, their items are checked through for guns, knives, drugs and other types of substances that are not allowed inside the hotel/motel. Once the check has been completed, their items are put in a "hot" box and while within the hot box, all fleas, bed bugs and other APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 6 CITY COUNCIL pests are killed. There is a nurse and a Certified Nurse's Assistant (CNA) on staff, there is 24/7 private security on site as well as, caseworkers on site. For the Quality Inn site, the provider is Volunteers of America who have staff onsite 24/7. In addition, the Department of Mental Health has robust outreach teams that are connected to each individual site who are on 24/7 call who will provide de-escalation and/or intervention needed. Each of the individuals are checked twice daily by the Nurse and CNA on staff. This is not a COVID-19 quarantine site. These sites are used to make sure these individuals do not get COVID-19 and do not impact hospitals and do not impact the potential safety of the community. In addition, these residents are provided three meals a day and recreation such as television and games to minimize their going out into the community. Clients are expected to respect the same stay-at-home orders that the general public should be respecting also. This program also pays the local TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) in each municipality. This project is contracted for only three months but there is the ability to extend it for an additional month in case the stay-at-home orders are extended and to give the program some flexibility as individuals are being transitioned to different types of housing options including other types of shelter, prioritized for permanent supportive housing, or receiving a subsidy such as Section 8 or veterans housing. M/Tye asked how many homeless have been located to Marina del Rey. Mr. Sulic responded there is not currently a project in Marina del Rey and there is a project at Dockweiler. There are projects opening in Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Lomita, San Pedro and others areas daily depending on the negotiations between the state and the counties. M/Tye said he believed that part of the problem was things were changing so rapidly with programs such as Project Roomkey and that no one from Diamond Bar, Walnut or Rowland Heights was notified until after the fact. C/Mahlke asked if the eligible population is either 65 and potential health risks or 65 or potential health risks. Mr. Sulic responded that it is 65 and/or so there could be an individual who is over the age of 65 and have an underlying health condition or just be a healthy 65 or older individual. There is an instance of a 44 year old who recently suffered a stroke and had a flesh -eating disease in the brain and while that person is not over the age of 65, they have a severe underlying health condition that should they get coronavirus on the street would be most at risk of passing away. There are possibilities of younger individuals but only if they have severe health issues that could put them at risk for the disease. C/Mahlke asked if they anticipated having anyone under the age of 18 APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 7 CITY COUNCIL participate in this program. Mr. Sulic responded "no" since this is not a family facility. C/Mahlke asked the opening date for the local Quality Inn project. Mr. Sulic responded that it opened Monday of last week. C/Mahlke asked who would decide if there was a one-month extension on that facility and who would be notified. Mr. Sulic responded that the County would make that decision and the individuals notified would be the coordinating council of that unincorporated area. If it was an independent city it would be the City Council of that independent city. The reason Diamond Bar was not informed was because it was outside of the city's boundaries. The Rowland Heights Coordinating Council was notified because they are the governing body of the unincorporated area where the facility is located. C/Mahlke asked if the Rowland Heights Coordinating Council would have the option to say yes or no to the extension. Mr. Sulic said that the Rowland Heights Coordinating Council would not have that option and the County would inform them if there were to be an extension. C/Chou asked what options do the hotel owners have to either accept or reject the offer from the county. Mr. Sulic responded that they have the ability to accept or reject. LAHSA is not doing such things as imposing eminent domain or takeover of the hotel/motel without their permission. The owners have the ultimate decision over what happens at their facility. C/Low asked what the process is when a person is determined to be positive for COVID-19. Mr. Sulic stated that immediately, if a nurse, assistant or staff member deems an individual to be showing symptoms, the individual is required to be quarantined in their room. The nurse will do a screening and if the nurse determines that the individual is showing symptoms, the nurse will call public health and public health will send a team to the location to transfer out of the location to a hospital or local testing site in Pomona or Bell Gardens if the public health officials determine that the individual is positive for COVID-19. C/Low asked how the individuals housed at the Rowland Heights Quality Inn are selected to be in that location and how people agree to the APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 8 CITY COUNCIL conditions to be self -quarantined and to remain in the area. Mr. Sulic responded that within the HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) and CES (Coordinated Entry System), the majority of the individuals have been pre -identified within the system and through the outreach efforts within the SPA (Service Planning Area) and the project is seeking individuals solely within the surrounding area and in particular in the San Gabriel surrounding area to the Project Roomkey site. Individuals are provided wristbands and HMIS cards with their picture that can be scanned. In addition, local law enforcement agencies are provided with a list of clients and staff should they need to respond to the site. If individuals do not abide by the rules they are moved out of the facility. To date, there have been no issues at the Quality Inn where there are three or four security guards. He visited last weekend at 8:00 p.m. which is curfew and everyone was in their room and accounted for and it was quiet. C/Low asked how many people are left in the database that are still requiring shelter. Mr. Sulic said that out of the 60,000 that are in the LA County LAHSA system, 15,000 have been identified countywide that could fall into the categories for the program, which is why the county is trying to lease as many rooms as possible to address the need. Currently, there are slightly more than 2,500 countywide and the goal is to procure a total of 10,000 rooms within LA County. C/Low asked if Project Roomkey had an exit plan. Mr. Sulic responded that as of this time there is no exit plan. The pandemic has pushed this to move forward in such an expeditious manner and as Project Roomkey began, Supervisor Hahn and Mark Ridley Thomas had the same concerns about an exit strategy. Week before last, Supervisor Hahn introduced a motion requesting that from 30 days from that point the project come up with a comprehensive plan to make sure that these individuals who are in our care are moved into their second step whether it be that they are put back into a shelter, prioritized for housing and work toward getting subsidies to make certain we can get them into apartments or shared living facilities. C/Low asked what the county has done in the way of outreach to the local cities,do cities participate in creating an exit plan, do they have input, and are the cities informed. Diamond Bar was not in receipt of any outreach other than what has been in the newspaper which is not acceptable. Mr. Sulic said he has been hearing that from other communities as well and they are trying to do better. The first city that was launched for Project Roomkey was the City of Lomita and that city found out the day before it was opened. And this was happening countywide and we are working to APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 9 CITY COUNCIL make sure that we are giving cities timely heads up and working with the Council of Governments on an exit plan. He is unaware of any city participating in an exit plan but he will bring that issue up and make it a priority at his next homeless committee meeting with his team and LAHSA. M/Tye stated that as he became aware of Project Roomkey, he has driven by the Quality Inn a couple of times and when he drives by in the front, everything Mr. Sulic has said looks to be true. There are a couple of tables out front. He saw one security guard, not four. M/Tye asked Mr. Sulic if he walked the property. Mr. Sulic responded that he visited the site on Friday and walked inside and checked with the service provider and they stated that all of their clients were inside. M/Tye asked if Mr. Sulic walked from the curb around to the back. Mr. Sulic said he did not. M/Tye said the safeguards are leaky and if even 10 percent of the people are asymptomatic and they are outside and not practicing social distancing, who is going to tell them to do it. He pointed out that Mr. Sulic did not see the entire situation because he did not walk the entire property. M/Tye said it is very troubling to hear that there is no exit plan. The problem is that yes, things are moving very quickly and this is moving so fast and so carelessly that things are overlooked. The San Gabriel Valley is a big area. He does not know how many people are housed in the Quality Inn, but he guarantees there are not that number of homeless people in Diamond Bar, Walnut and Rowland Heights, a population of over 100,000, that would have been available to fill the Quality Inn. C/Mahlke said she was curious about the employees working at the Quality Inn. Once the hotel opted into this program, what happened to ensure that the hotel employees are being protected and how is the county making sure they are being taken care of as well? Mr. Sulic explained that all of the sites had access to personal protective equipment (PPE). For the most part, each site varies. He is not certain what staff is being provided at the Quality Inn; however, all staff are provided PPE and in addition, all clients are provided face masks. MPT/Lyons asked if Mr. Sulic had the homeless count for Diamond Bar for this year and last year. Mr. Sulic said while he does not have the number he knows it is very low, APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 10 CITY COUNCIL extremely low like 10. MPT/Lyons said the homeless count for Diamond Bar in January 2020 was four individuals and last year in January the homeless count was four individuals. In Walnut, the homeless count this year was eight and last year it was four. She is sure that Rowland Heights has a few homeless as well, but it seems to her that this area is being unfairly and unduly burdened with this project being located here. A number of people have asked her why the project is not confined to a more industrial area rather than a residential area and from what she has heard, it sounds like it is up to a hotel operator that wants to have the revenue. Mr. Sulic said that was correct along with site availability. At this point, they are looking to every site that might be available to Project Roomkey. MPT/Lyons asked Mr. Sulic to verify that he had not negotiated with any hotels inside the City of Diamond Bar Mr. Sulic said he believed the county and state are negotiating locally but they are nowhere near final negotiations and until it gets to final negotiations he is not at liberty to disclose which hotels are part of the negotiations. MPT/Lyons responded it sounds like Diamond Bar will find out once the negotiations are done. Mr. Sulic said no, cities will be notified once negotiations get to their final stages. As he mentioned earlier with the situation in Torrance where it caused a stir and in the end it did not happen, they are trying to deter that — not only for the protection of the hotel owner, but to make sure there is no misinformation going into the community and causing unnecessary concerns and angst. MPT/Lyons asked if there had been any calls for law enforcement to visit the Quality Inn since the program's inception. Mr. Sulic said that to his knowledge, the only Sheriff's calls that happened was where they were asked to respond to potential protests or to incidents of residents stopping in the middle of the road, getting out of the car with their cameras and walking over to the hotel to take photos when some of the clients were outside. To his knowledge, there have been no incidents where the Sheriff was called because of something the clients did but he will check and get back with staff on that issue. MPT/Lyons asked if the clients were being screened for criminal background prior to admission. Mr. Sulic said he did not believe so because he believes all tier one sites and shelters are "low barrier" shelters. Especially within the pandemic, APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 11 CITY COUNCIL they do not want to discriminate. Because this is a temporary attempt to curb the pandemic for the homeless community, he believes no background checks are being done but he will check on that. MPT/Lyons asked if potentially, a felon could be assigned to one of these facilities. Mr. Sulic responded potentially, yes. MPT/Lyons said for her there are two big areas of concern: 1) the entry plan and 2) the exit plan. She does not believe the county is doing a very good job of letting the cities know ahead of time what is going on. She is the City of Diamond Bar's representative to the Council of Governments which held a meeting last week about this matter. There was a LAHSA representative who spoke during the meeting and two cities, South EI Monte and Covina that both found out about the shelter's opening the day they opened. MPT/Lyons said she wanted Mr. Sulic's assurance that Diamond Bar would get notice so that if Diamond Bar is selected this project can be tightened up. Mr. Sulic responded to MPT/Lyons that Diamond Bar has his commitment as the Homeless Deputy as well as, the commitment of his office that should a site be selected and negotiations appear to lead to a contract signature, his first call and that of his Field Deputy Loren Yokomizo's first call will be to Diamond Bar. MPT/Lyons wanted to know how many days prior to the opening that call would take place Mr. Sulic said that on average, a contract is signed four to five days prior to the selection of a provider and then it takes another three days until the facility opens so about a week to a week and a half after signing the City Council would be notified. M/Tye said that the Council thinks there is a facility in Diamond Bar that Project Roomkey/LAHSA is talking to and MPT/Lyons wanted to know that if when the negotiations were done the Council would be informed. Mr. Sulic responded that the Council would be notified before negotiations are completed. M/Tye said that Mr. Sulic's statement means a contract is going to be signed and Mr. Sulic is letting the City Council know that Diamond Bar is now past the stage of talking about the details and it's a done deal and notification is after the fact. Mr. Sulic reiterated that no councils are being given that decision. M/Tye said that 31 years ago Diamond Bar became a City because we APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 12 CITY COUNCIL were tired of LA County making decisions for it. So that is certainly something Mr. Sulic needs to take back to Supervisor Hahn. C/Low asked if she heard Mr. Sulic say that once the county and the hotel/motel make a deal, there is nothing the City Council or the City of Diamond Bar can do about it. Mr. Sulic said there are always things that can be done, but the question that was posed was, does the city have a decision or right of refusal to say yes or no, and from the county's side, the answer is no. As an example, the City of Norwalk implemented a moratorium on Tuesday saying that none of their businesses can be utilized for a purpose without city approval and the moment that happened, the county issued an Executive Order commencing with litigation because the county believes those actions are illegal — an attempt to stop the Executive Order of the State of California and the county for implementing the Executive Order. The county is suing Norwalk because this is a matter of saving lives. MPT/Lyons said she understands about Norwalk and heard that Lawndale's city attorney sent a letter stating that if the hotel owner did not break the lease by the next day a hearing would be called to consider the hotel's operating permit. Mr. Sulic said that was true. MPT/Lyons said she believed cities were coming out with creative ways against these facilities. Mr. Sulic said that MPT/Lyons was correct and that Bell Gardens was doing something similar and he believes Bellflower was looking at putting in a measure or ordinance saying that no city resources could be incurred for implementation of this project. So there are cities that are taking different and unique acts depending on the situation and council. C/Chou thanked Mr. Sulic for participating. He believes Mr. Sulic can hear in everyone's voice how concerned the City Council is as local government officials in terms of losing control and the ability to safeguard things this Council deems to be important. With respect to Mr. Sulic's comment that cities do not have veto power, consider hypothetically that a city is forced into complying, what resources would the county or the state be willing to give to help the City to increase enforcement by hiring additional security or set up perimeters and use additional staff resources to monitor the site? Mr. Sulic said that the county would incur costs for additional security or staff. Currently, there is no pot of money via the state or county for those types of items through the city at this time. There can be a conversation. Supervisor Hahn appreciates Diamond Bar and wants to work with the APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 13 CITY COUNCIL City to mitigate as many issues as possible. C/Mahlke asked Mr. Sulic if he could let Diamond Bar know about the Comprehensive Exit Plan meeting so the City could participate. Mr. Sulic said of course he would do that. C/Mahlke asked when it is scheduled to be discussed and how would the City be invited to participate in that discussion. Mr. Sulic said that discussions have just started. Every Monday and Wednesday the board deputies meet with the head of Emergency Management, LAHSA and Homeless Mission and he will be sure to bring up the city's wish to be involved in the exit strategy. He will then be in touch with CM/Fox with the assistance of his Field Deputy Loren Yokomizo and make sure that Diamond Bar is at the table. C/Mahlke asked if these would be public meetings. Mr. Sulic said the Homeless staff meetings are not public meetings. There is one public meeting every other Thursday of the month but the meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays are not public meetings. While they are not public meetings, he will see if there is a way to include Diamond Bar. M/Tye said he does not take kindly to a state directive that changes the complexion of Diamond Bar and he does not take kindly to the county falling in lock step with that state directive. Everyone is concerned about an exit strategy that doesn't exist because he sees the county going to the Quality Inn or any other location and saying okay, the pandemic is done, glad everybody survived, time to move out and now the ACLU steps in and says hold on. The issues that have not been thought through are myriad and huge for Diamond Bar. He feels that the solution cannot be worse than the problem and he thinks that's where we are headed. But he knows that we are all in this together and that means we have to come up with solutions, and he advised that Diamond Bar will do what is in the best interest of Diamond Bar. CM/Fox stated that staff has listened carefully and understands the Council's intent to participate in an exit strategy which staff anticipates being involved with and staff will do its due diligence in keeping Council informed and make sure there is a plan moving forward when this pandemic comes to an end. MPT/Lyons suggested that CM/Fox prepare a letter for the Mayor's signature to Supervisor Hahn, Mr. Sulic and other involved parties to get the Council's concerns on the record in writing. C/Low agreed that would be her recommendation as well. APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 14 CITY COUNCIL C/Chou said that the City's government is primarily for the safety and health of Diamond Bar residents. As a part of this greater community, he has heard a lot of comments and assumptions about the homeless population and feels it is not for Council or residents to judge how they came to be homeless, but to be concerned about how this City can deal with this if and when they do come to the City. In discussing this, he would appreciate the narrative to criminalize and vilifying the homeless population to be toned down and the focus to be on a solution. M/Tye responded that the state and county are throwing money at an issue before they know what the problem is and his concern is the well- being of the City of Diamond Bar and let's do what we can where we are. C/Mahlke likes the idea of staff composing a letter which she believes is important and a little bit of what C/Chou said as well, that it is important to focus on solution orientation and in the same way Diamond Bar residents are trying to hold the Council accountable, it is important to hold the county accountable for the way in which they are rolling out this program. She empathizes with the time constraints but is deeply concerned about the county's ability to run this program as tightly as they are saying they can and of course, with no exit strategy, that is the level of accountability that makes this look less and less like Diamond Bar can control what is happening at the Quality Inn let alone trying to attempt to consistently hold them accountable. She is sure the City will learn more going forward as to the City's ability to control what happens with the City limits. She hopes the focus is on the City holding the county accountable for the ways in which they can impact this City with this project as well as, other projects. C/Low said that homelessness is a complicated problem. If it were not so, the problem would have been solved already. Diamond Bar has to be part of the solution and demonstrate compassion while at the same time be focused on the safety and well-being of this community and its residents. Diamond Bar has to hold the county accountable to what they need to do and be part of that solution. She urged the Council to take a proactive role in putting together an exit strategy. She supports the idea of a letter so that this Council is on record about its concerns and want to do what is right for the City as well as for the county. M/Tye said he has issues with there being no exit plan and no screening for criminal records which would be very helpful in determining how much security is needed. He thinks there needs to be a letter written and the Council's thoughts and concerns need to be memorialized. He is not at all comfortable that negotiations are going on with a facility in Diamond Bar. The letter should go forward in the strongest terms possible. M/Tye said that regarding one public comment, if the Council was currying favor from the county it would not be having this meeting and would APRIL 24, 2020 PAGE 15 CITY COUNCIL certainly not be taking any action. A couple of people commented about making this a campaign issue. We have to deal with this today and the campaign will take place in September/October/November and whether or not it becomes a campaign issue has never influenced him one way or the other. M/Tye said he heard from at least one speaker that they only found out about this meeting 30 minutes before the phone call. Anyone who participated in the Tuesday night's Council meeting on April 21St knows that this meeting was requested that evening and was duly noticed, as required by state law, that this would be taking place. As usual, this City does everything possible to keep the public informed. MPT/Lyons thanked CM/Fox for putting this meeting together so quickly and for getting Ivan Sulic to participate. Whereas someone complained that they were not given enough notice, this was an urgent matter and she hopes whoever was unable to participate can feel free to send emails and/or letters to the City with their thoughts. CM/Fox confirmed to M/Tye that staff had direction from the Council to move forward to craft the letter with and for the Mayor to sign that can be sent out in the next couple of days. M/Tye took liberty to speak on behalf of the entire Council using his favorite Abraham Lincoln quote: "We do the very best we can, the very best we know how and we need to keep on doing so until the end. If the end brings us out okay, what's said against us won't matter. If the end brings us out wrong, 10,000 angels swearing we were right would do no good". In closing, this Council needs to keep on doing what we think is right until the end and we will see where it goes from here. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to conduct, M/Tye adjourned the Special City Council Meeting at 12:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted: Kri tins Santana, City Clerk Thejore�oing mi r are hereby approved this 19th day of May, 2020. Steve Tye, Mayor