Hello Downey, I hope you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy as we continue navigating through Covid-19. As we all know, this pandemic has upended our lives in ways we could have never anticipated. As elected officials, we have faced and continue to confront unimaginable challenges as we lead our communities and balance our residents' needs with the response to the pandemic.

The impacts of Covid-19 will be felt for years to come. Now more than ever, the role of local government and engagement with our constituency is crucial. The age of rapid information continues to evolve, and we must address the need for continuous communication and informative updates. To that end, I would like to encourage you to follow our City of Downey Government Agency Facebook Page along with mine, Claudia M. Frometa Mayor, City of Downey, for regular updates.

This month, I want to thank our residents for allowing me to serve you during this time. I also want to thank our City Manager and the city staff, who remains committed to tackling the ever-changing landscape we are currently living in. They are helping us meet our residents' needs and concerns by balancing the myriad of projects this Mayor and Council bring before them while ensuring we stay fiscally on track.

To start, I'm proud to share with you that as of February 9th, the city was able to refinance its CalPERS Unfunded Actuarial Liability (UAL), resulting in a gross savings of $60 million and increasing the city's pension funding level from 67.1% to 85%. This was not only one of my major goals for 2021 under Fiscal Responsibility but our city's strong commitment to sound financial sustainability and planning.

As a reminder, I will be providing you monthly updates on the efforts previously mentioned in this column. I will also be sharing some of my Mayoral goals for 2021. These are divided into four categories: Fiscal, Legacy & Transformative, Public Safety, and Quality of Life. You will see that some of the efforts below align with those goals to improve our quality of life and maintain/increase our public safety. More on the legacy & transformative goals in next month's column.

A Mayor's Virtual Townhall is currently in the works. Due to the current gathering restrictions, my goal is to offer our residents an opportunity to come together virtually and engage with me. More to come on the date and additional information; please stay tuned.

The extraordinary challenges brought on by Covid-19 have taken a toll on the mental health of many. The isolation people have faced and continue to struggle with due to the safer-at-home health orders, along with the isolation of distance learning, the mental health of our community, especially our kids/youth, is at a critical point now. As a mother of four and three still in K-12 education, I've seen first-hand the impact on our youth during this pandemic.

I believe strong communities are engaged communities, and addressing our youth's mental health needs is important to me. We have partnered with The Whole Child to provide in-person counseling for Downey teens and young adults (up to 24 years of age) who need assistance during the pandemic. The program is titled "Be Kind to Your Mind." The free in-person counseling will be offered Tuesdays & Thursdays from 2 pm-5 pm at the Barbara J. Riley Community and Senior Center. Mental health professionals will conduct it. To make an appointment, please call the city's wellness hotline at 562.299.6857.

City launched a No Cost Rental Counseling

The virtual workshops take place every Thursday via Zoom. The Fair Housing Foundation provides information on Covid-19 and the laws in place for protection. The workshops are presented in English, Spanish and Korean. To register, please visit FHFCA.org/events.

Increase of Transient activity in certain areas of our City

Homelessness is an issue impacting our state and all of L.A. County. We have an ongoing partnership with LA-HOP (L.A. Homeless Outreach Portal), part of LAHSA (L.A. County Homeless Services Agency). The goal is to assist unsheltered people and provide them with services. To dispatch a homeless services outreach team to your area, please visit lahsa.org/portal//apps/la-hop.

City Library Resources and Reopening

Due to current health orders and county restrictions, we cannot fully open our newly renovated library just yet. We are hopeful we will be able to open for curbside pick-up later this spring. We hope to open by early summer for all to enjoy. In the meantime, there are 125,000 e-book tiles to choose from with your library card and thousands of movies too! There are many programs available to young readers. For high schoolers submitting scholarship applications, the library offers free tutors to review your scholarships. Please visit Downey library.org/databases for additional resources.

Updates from Last Month's Column

Our Bin I.T. Campaign, paired with our Downey's Good Neighbor Campaign, aims to tackle the issue of trash and litter throughout our city. Since last month's update, we engaged our Youth Commission for a PSA (public service announcement) video to outreach our youth and not litter, and instead Bin I.T. We will continue this effort with our social media platforms to educate, inform and work with our commercial business partners on this. Keeping Downey Beautiful and the quality of our neighborhoods is vital to all of us. Let's all do our part.

Illegal Dumping of bulky items and CalMet Update

Since Covid-19 started, our city has experienced an increase of 35% in bulky item pick up. Surrounding cities are experiencing a 25-45% increase. To date, CalMet has collected 62,355 tons, and city staff has collected 72 tons. Again, we will continue to address this issue. To report illegally dumped items, please call our hotline at 562.904.1161

Covid-19 rental & business assistance

The city has assisted 923 renters/families through the federal CARES Act and budgeted $950,000 in assistance. The city has also processed 34 temporary outdoor dining program applications for our restaurants. Commercial eviction moratorium is currently in place through March 31st, and residential eviction moratorium follows the state guidance through June 30th, 2021. If you or someone you know has been impacted financially by Covid-19, please contact 562.299.6706 (there are qualifications in place set by the federal government that the city must adhere to). Please visit downeyca.org/rentalassistance for additional information.

Food insecurity due to Covid-19

There is an increase in families facing food insecurity. This year, my goal is to hold quarterly Food Drives in partnership with the L.A. Regional Food Bank and county and state representatives. Our first drive was held on January 22nd, and it provided for over 2,141 families. If you or someone you know is facing food insecurity, please sign up to CalFresh for monthly grocery benefits at getcalfresh.org. Also, First Christian Church in Downey has a weekly food distribution ministry every Saturday morning.

Public Safety and speed enforcement

Our Downey Police Department will continue to enforce speed limits throughout our city. Racers will be cited along with those congregating in various areas to perform 'donuts' late at night.

All in all, we are encouraged to see the number of hospitalizations continuing to trend downward while additional mass vaccination sites are opening in various parts of Los Angeles County. Supply shortages continue to be the greatest challenge. The state continues advocating the federal government for additional supply for California and certainly for the most populous county in the country, Los Angeles. I will continue to advocate for our residents as we pivot to vaccination efforts and outreach to the more vulnerable populations. A reminder to all of our residents, the mass vaccination site located at LACOE (L.A. County Office of Education) is run by the county and not the city. If you need additional information or to make an appointment, please visit VaccinateLACounty.com or call 833-540-0473 between the hours of 8 am-8:30 pm.

In Downey, figures from earlier this week from the L.A. County Department of Public Health indicate there have been 16,692 Covid-19 positive cases with 225 deaths to date. The seven-day average daily test positivity rate is 6.4%, down 60% after peaking last month at 14.3%. The downtrend in numbers and hospitalizations continues and is encouraging! Let's continue to remain diligent, Downey, and follow the guidelines and protocols. If you have an opportunity to get vaccinated, please do so!

Until next time Downey, please stay safe, healthy, and be well.

#DowneyStrong, #UnitingForce, #StrongCommunitiesAreEngagedCommunities