14-G
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
ATTENTION: Jeffrey L. Stewart, City Manager
FROM: Mayra Ochiqui, City Clerk
SUBJECT: Consideration and possible action to approve the Minutes of the April 24, 2023, Special Meeting of the City Council.
DATE: May 8, 2023
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
None
RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL
1) Approve the April 24, 2023, Special Meeting Minutes; or
2) Alternatively, discuss and take other action related to this item.
FISCAL IMPACT
None
ATTACHMENT
Minutes of the April 24, 2023, Special Meeting… ........................ ………………………… 2
MINUTES
CITY OF BELLFLOWER
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BELLFLOWER CITY COUNCIL
MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2023
BELLFLOWER CITY HALL – COUNCIL CHAMBERS
3:00 P.M. OPEN SESSION
1 CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Santa Ines called the Special Meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
2 ROLL CALL
The following Members of the City Council responded present to roll call:
Mayor Sonny R. Santa Ines
Council Member Ray Dunton
Council Member Dan Koops
Council Member Victor A. Sanchez
For the record, it was moved by Council Member Koops, seconded by Council Member Sanchez, and carried without objection to excuse the absence of Mayor Pro Tem Hamada.
Staff Participants:
Jeffrey L. Stewart, City Manager
Karl H. Berger, City Attorney
Mayra Ochiqui, City Clerk
Joel Hockman, Director of Public Safety
Travis Sais, Assistant to the City Manager
Jennifer Poole-Eidd, Management Assistant
3 PUBLIC COMMENTS
Guy Bremer, resident, 1) referencing the staff report materials, expressed the opinion that 36 positive exits within three years is disappointing and needs improvement; and 2) inquired whether The Salvation Army located in Bellflower has similar or more successful statistics for positive exits.
Bellflower City Council Special Meeting Minutes Item No. 4-A April 24, 2023 Page 2 of 4
4 STUDY SESSION
A Consideration and possible action to conduct a City Council Study Session in order to provide direction to the City Manager regarding the City Council’s desire to: 1) continue operations at the Bellflower New Hope Shelter (“New Hope”); 2) make modifications to the operations at New Hope; and 3) potentially expand New Hope’s bed capacity.
City Manager Stewart introduced the item.
Assistant to the City Manager Sais 1) gave a PowerPoint presentation; and 2) along with City Manager Stewart, Director of Public Safety Hockman, Chief Programs Officer (CPO) Timothy Huynh and Program Manager Allison Sanchez of Mercy House, Jessica Aguilar-Bruce of City Net, and Chrissy Padilla Birkey of Kingdom Causes, responded to Council Members’ questions.
At the request of Council Member Dunton, CPO Timothy Huynh of Mercy House confirmed that he would have his data team look into 1) the statistics of clients who are “unknown exits” from the shelter that later re-enter, noting that Los Angeles County doesn’t currently have the data reporting capability to generate the information; and 2) how many shelter clients hold jobs.
At the request of City Manager Stewart, CPO Timothy Huynh of Mercy House confirmed that to date there have been very few supportive housing options in the region with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).
At the request of Council Member Sanchez, CPO Timothy Huynh of Mercy House confirmed that “micro-homes” could be utilized for a successful exit strategy since they would count as the next step in the transitional process and he would conduct research on operators of “micro-homes” in other areas.
At the request of Council Member Koops, Program Manager Allison Sanchez of Mercy House, stated that affordable housing was the main issue with a lack of positive exits.
For the record, 1) Mayor Santa Ines stated that he is not considering expanding the shelter at this time; 2) Council Member Sanchez suggested the City build their own supportive housing in the future; 3) Council Member Koops agreed that the shelter capacity should not be expanded; 4) Council Member Dunton suggested the City obtain more Sheriff vehicles instead of expanding; and 5) City Manager Stewart recommended the City Council issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for shelter services to learn about other models that may be a better fit for cities in Los Angeles County.
Following discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to not expand the capacity of the shelter at this time and extend the agreement with Mercy House to September 30, 2023, to allow time for the RFP process.
Bellflower City Council Special Meeting Minutes Item No. 4-A April 24, 2023 Page 3 of 4
4 STUDY SESSION – Continued
A Consideration and possible action to conduct a City Council Study Session in order to provide direction to the City Manager regarding the City Council’s desire to: 1) continue operations at the Bellflower New Hope Shelter (“New Hope”); 2) make modifications to the operations at New Hope; and 3) potentially expand New Hope’s bed capacity – Continued
At the request of Mayor Santa Ines, Chief Program Officer Jessica Aguilar- Bruce of City Net, 1) stated that City Net was on a limited contract for eight hours a day; 2) suggested communicating to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) that a program was brought online and request prioritization of this region, as they have a bottle neck of requests for services; 3) stated that many clients have been out of work for years and will have trouble finding jobs and affording rent; and 4) shared that the City of Montebello has a permanent tiny home community that is a model of non-congregate shelter, which gives clients humanity in having their own space.
Director of Public Safety Hockman, 1) at the request of Mayor Santa Ines, stated that he could not remember a complaint from an outside source regarding the shelter in the last six months and emergency calls to the Sheriff’s Department related to bad behavior have been approximately three, as well as a few emergency response medical calls; and 2) at the request of Council Member Koops, confirmed that he was no longer facilitating meetings with the neighborhood around shelter due to lack of attendance from the surrounding community.
At the request of Mayor Santa Ines, Chrissy Padilla Birkey, Kingdom Causes, 1) stated that Measure H is under critique and the rules of outreach have changed; 2) indicated that LAHSA pulled out of street outreach due to the bottle neck of requests for services and decided to prioritize housing vouchers instead, noting that they were not initially including the New Hope Shelter or Kingdom Causes; 3) remarked that she has seen the shelter work hardest to house homeless people in downtown Bellflower, expressing the opinion that they received the stability they needed and it would not be a good idea for the City to get rid of it; 4) stated that housing vouchers had been recalled by the County after going through the lengthy process of obtaining living situations; 5) expressed the opinion that if clients were not in the shelter, they would still be in Bellflower as many have deep ties to the community; and 6) stated that many of the clients in the shelter are making an effort and stressed the importance of the shelter, as there are no other resources for them through the County, as this is a resource-dry region.
Following discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to allow the Settlement Agreement (AFN 845) to extend. Mayor Santa Ines requested and received confirmation from City Manager Stewart that the settlement agreement renews automatically, so there was no need for the City Council to take action on the agreement.
Bellflower City Council Special Meeting Minutes Item No. 4-A April 24, 2023 Page 4 of 4
4 STUDY SESSION – Continued
A Consideration and possible action to conduct a City Council Study Session in order to provide direction to the City Manager regarding the City Council’s desire to: 1) continue operations at the Bellflower New Hope Shelter (“New Hope”); 2) make modifications to the operations at New Hope; and 3) potentially expand New Hope’s bed capacity – Continued
Following discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to 1) extend the agreement with Mercy House to September 30, 2023, to allow time for the RFP process; 2) not accept the one-time County grant in the amount of $1.46 million at this time; 3) develop a Request for Proposals (RFP) for homeless shelter services for future City Council consideration; and 4) not expand New Hope’s bed capacity at this time.
16 ADJOURNMENT
Without objection, Mayor Santa Ines adjourned the meeting at 4:23 p.m.
Sonny R. Santa Ines, Mayor
City of Bellflower
ATTEST:
Mayra Ochiqui, City Clerk
Approved: May 8, 2023