The El Monte City Council met on Feb. 25 at the East Wing of El Monte’s City Hall to commend local heroes and diverse issues civil issues. The three and a half hour long meeting took place on the Wednesday night with El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona leading the gathering.
The meeting commenced first with an unscheduled congratulations for Arnold Barboza Jr.
Barboza, an El Monte native is the current Interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) Super Lightweight champion. He defeated Jack Catterall on Feb. 15 at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester via split decision.
Immediately after El Monte fire stations 166, 167, 168 and 169 had a presentation for their ‘Outstanding Service During the Easton and Palisades Fires.’ The stations supplied both equipment and personnel to combat the wildfires that ravaged LA county cities in January.
A group photo was then taken with City Council members, Barboza, and the fire stations.
“A big thank you to the fire department, they’re the real heroes,” said Barboza. “I’m very humbled and honored to be recognized amongst them. I’m very humbled to be recognized by the city. I’ve grown up here and they’ve raised me and molded me into the man I am today.”
Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone stayed to give a presentation on Agenda matter 14.1. The matter covers a reimbursement of funds for the L.A. County El Monte Fire Department. It aims to introduce a payment plan to repay $3 million.
That would then be used to upkeep existing equipment, purchase new equipment, train EMS workers and acquire new engines dedicated for handling health issues.
Marrone said, “The expectation was that the city would be open to digesting and processing our ask for full reimbursement. I’m very, very grateful to the city for the unanimous vote to approve. It’s really great news.”
With time running low on the meeting, the city proceeded to quickly run through certain items on the agenda.
Action 12.2 was passed unanimously. That made it so city official’s travel expenses were monitored and allocated based on where their meeting or event took place. If a city’s average meal costs more, then the official would have a larger budget and vice versa.
Action 12.4 passed unanimously as well. This means that the ‘Corazon Del Valle’ event will take place in El Monte on Nov. 2. The event aims to supplement businesses with a place for citizens and them to meet to boost sales.
After those last few minutes were discussed, the council transitioned to the open minutes portion of the meeting. The last discussion of note regarded traffic safety in the city of El Monte.
Motion 13.1 was held to discuss speed limits on three roads. JMDiaz engineering surveyed areas in El Monte who have had recent renovations to their roads.
Contract Traffic Engineer Steve Itajaki said, “We’re here to update three street segments for their speed limits. There were some changes to the streets. We had to do a re-survey and make sure that [the speeds] were still within the proper speed limits.”
The four-hour meeting concluded shortly after Itajaki’s findings with another unanimous vote. This was the city’s third meeting of the short month and sixth meeting overall.
The first call to action in today’s meeting was standing for the national anthem. Third grade student Joseph Ramirez from Payne Elementary School led the salute.
The next City Council Regular Meeting will take place on March 12 at the same location. If you are not able to make it in person, the city also hosts YouTube live streams to watch from home as well as sharing the minutes of the meeting on their website.
