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What I've Accomplished in only 2 years.
THE PANDEMIC AND PATHWAY TOWARDS RECOVERY
Introduced HERO PAY Ordinance - $3 hazard pay increase for front-line grocery workers in Montebello during the pandemic.
Built a partnership with the Department of Mental Health to expand mental health resources and workshops for our seniors and families.
Introduced the Delivery Capp Fee Ordinance to limit the exorbitant delivery fees on Uber Eats and other food delivery services to help protect small businesses from losing revenue during the pandemic.
COMMUNITY CENTERED INITIATIVES
Initiated the first Farmer's Market Ad Hoc Committee and brought forth Montebello's Downtown Farmers Market.
Brought forth the first city-sponsored Pet Fair and quarterly Pet Vaccine Clinics.
Promoted LGTBQ inclusive policies and resources to uplift our LGTBQ community.
EMPOWERING BUSINESSES AND WOMEN
Created Montebello's Favorite Women Owned Business Initiative, recognized and promoted female entrepreneurs throughout our community.
Hosting yearly Mother's Day Mariachi Serenata to celebrate and recognize the beautiful mothers in our city.
Lead a Fee Increase Moratorium for small businesses during the peak of the pandemic to financially relieve our struggling businesses being affected by the economic shockwaves of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Two More Years and We Can Accomplish Much More. . .
Support Reliable City Services, Infrastructure, and Address Traffic & Safety Concerns
As your Councilwoman, one of my top priorities has been to improve the quality of life for our residents by supporting reliable, essential, and cost-beneficial city services. As a Montebello resident for 27 years, I take pride in creating a beautiful and thriving city that meets the needs of our residents. I will continue to support and ensure that our city services are maintaining our streets, parks, and community areas safe, clean, and accessible to our community.
Throughout my term, I have been committed to improving our city's facilities, parks, and roads, and tackling large-scale infrastructure challenges. Addressing our outdated sewage system and crumbling streets have been big-ticket items I have supported in order to improve our safety and public health. Reliable city services are crucial to the well-being of our families who live, work, and play in the City of Montebello. These services are also important if we hope to attract new businesses that will help bring in the revenue to pay for the repairs and upgrades our community needs.
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We must begin to address serious traffic and safety concerns in District 2. Hot spots such as Garfield Ave, Concourse Ave, Beverly Blvd, Findley Ave, and other important arterial streets have become dangerous areas for pedestrians and areas of high traffic congestion resulting in accidents and deaths. I will work with our Traffic & Safety Commission to ensure that traffic studies are conducted to begin bringing forth solutions and safety enhancements for these dangerous intersections, to create safer and more pedestrian-friendly streets for our residents.
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Build a Strong and Thriving Economy
Together we can build a stronger and livelier community to incentivize people to shop, work, and live in our wonderful city. There are community gardens to create, neglected areas to clean up, and innovative policies to introduce that will attract vendors and businesses to invest in our city.
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I understand the innovative solutions needed to create a welcoming and fun atmosphere to revitalize our Garfield and Beverly Blvd corridor, attract consumers and investors, keep our sales tax revenue in Montebello and create a stronger workforce.
I have been in favor of policies that can help fund public work art projects, which will help increase foot traffic to these important commercial corridors, without footing the bill on taxpayers. Through a Private Arts Development Fund Program, we can introduce a standard 1% development fee on the permit value of projects; this money will then be reinvested back into our community as public art and cultural initiatives, e.g.: art murals, fountains, landscaping, signage, etc. I'm proud to have supported the expansion of the city's Utility Box Art Beautification Program to transform eligible traffic control utility boxes around our city, into distinctive and fun works of art. This is a low-cost, high visual impact project that has instantly beautified our neighborhoods, and has helped instill civic pride.
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Finishing our city's General Plan and Specific Plan for our shared vision of Montebello is a priority, that will help provide a roadmap for future development in the area, enabling us to attract business, increase foot traffic, and create a livelier area to ensure our residents have the opportunity to spend and shop locally.
I will continue to prioritize the economic development of our District and major city corridors, introduce innovative policies, and build strong community partnerships to create a robust local economy and a thriving Montebello.
Develop Inclusionary Housing
High housing costs in the city of Montebello have become a major concern; our seniors, families, and young professionals are now being driven out of our city. We must be proactive in creating solutions that allow families and life-long residents the ability to continue living in the city we love.
We must create a Montebello that expands homeownership opportunities for young professionals and new families. As well as expanding tenant protections to protect vulnerable seniors and households with a fixed income and those that have been a part of our community for generations. I have been supportive of an introduction of an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance and have advocated for financial and regulatory incentives that encourage the development of more sustainable housing.
Bringing our housing crisis to the forefront of the conversation is a priority to help keep our families in Montebello.
Create an Accountable and Accessible City Hall
Accountability and Transparency: Lack of financial documents to make sound decisions, no-bid contracts, and limiting our resident's opportunities to give their concerns are issues that affect every community stakeholder.
In 2018, a state audit labeled the City of Montebello as a high-risk city and identified poor operational processes that threaten our city's financial stability and delivery of public services. In March 2020, our voters adopted Measure H, which levied a 0.75% additional local sales tax to support public safety and city infrastructure, with an assurance of requiring independent audits and public disclosure of spending.
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In my two years on council, I have consistently called for financial transparency on Measure H funds, demanded access to important financial documents prior to voting on the awarding of contracts, and voted against items that have not gone out to bid properly. I have been an adamant advocate of increasing, transparency, public engagement, and outreach by voting against items that have cut public comment speaking time and items that diminished the ways that our residents communicate and engage with us, and have consistently pushed the council to invest in outreach services to educate our community on important city-related items.
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As your public servant, I will continue to put policies in place to demonstrate to our community that their hard-earned dollars are being protected and managed wisely; and will work to create a more accessible city hall that meets the needs of our diverse community.