Among the issues addressed and discussed at the Los Alamitos City Council meeting on Monday, April 15 were oral communications by three local residents against the proposed Prologis truck terminal off Katella Avenue, the transparency of the Council minutes and voting down of signs for business crime watches around Los Alamitos and welcoming of a new city attorney.
Beth Piburn of Los Alamitos talked about how the proposed truck depot would increase air pollution, noise and loss of wetlands, and Don Seward of Cypress said that for each 18-wheeler, there would be double-time on Katella Avenue. Lois Waddle of Los Alamitos said the proposed truck terminal would result in the loss of wetlands habitat and wildlife refuge.
“Development of this site would result in a tragic loss for the citizens of wetlands and refuge habitat made by natural springs and rain,” said Waddle in a letter to the city council. Migratory birds such as the Canadian geese, mallards, great blue herons, red-tailed hawks, sparrows, ravens and black birds would be threatened.
“The citizens of Cypress would lose half of a Cypress recreational and wildlife park,” she continued. “They would lose the ability to walk and ride bikes around the perimeter while viewing the wildlife on the ground and circling overhead.”
The city council also discussed the need for transparency in their minutes. They had been using “action minutes” for the last year or so, and wanted the more detailed “summary minutes” used now, especially in a time during the proposed Prologis truck terminal.
“Meeting minutes are our legal record,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gerri Graham-Mejia who called for the more detailed version of council minutes as did Mayor Warren Kusumoto. The city clerk has been doing something in between action minutes and summary minutes. Several residents commented that they wanted the greater detailed version of summary minutes for greater transparency from now on. Councilman Troy Edgar agreed that they should adopt the more detailed version. Ultimately, the city council decided to have summary minutes while looking into a service called Granicus, which would allow the public to view minutes on their website.
The city council voted down the proposal to spend $10,000 for signs and poles in and around Los Alamitos for a business watch. According to Los Alamitos Chief of Police, Todd Mattern there has been some night-time burglaries and vehicle break-ins which have come to the attention of the police department. “Thefts from business vehicles and burglaries are incidents of concern,” he said. Currently, there is no neighborhood watch in Los Alamitos.
“Crime increase is not the problem,” said Councilman Troy Edgar who would like the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce’s input. “We do have some crime occurring,” said Mattern. Councilman Dean Grose was unsure if the signs would address the problem throughout the city. But Mayor Pro Tem Graham-Mejia agreed that the signs might grow the numbers of citizens in the business watch and act as a deterent to future crimes. Also discussed was the possible liability to the city about putting citizens at risk with having a business watch group. Councilman Grose called for more in depth information from the Los Alamitos Police Department, and Police Chief Mattern wanted an opinon from the new city attorney about possible liabilities to the city. Utlimately, the signs were not approved by the city council due to their cost. The city council did welcome new City Attorney, Cary Reisman of Wallin, Kress, Reisman and Kranitz to his new position.