Hello Downey,

I hope you are enjoying the summer months and you are joining us every Wednesday through August 16th for Concerts under the Stars (Summer Concerts Series) at Furman Park beginning at 6 pm, concerts begin at 7 pm.

As we continue with hot days, please stay hydrated and do not forget to check on your elderly neighbors. As a reminder, we do have cooling centers in our city at the Barbara J. Riley Community and Senior Center located at 7810 Quill Dr., Downey 90242, and at our Downey City Library next to Downey City Hall on 11111 Brookshire Avenue.

Community Engagement:

As I always say, #engagedcommunitiesarestrongcommunities. There are many activities coming up for our community residents to join us over the next few weeks.

First, join our Police and Fire Departments next week on Tuesday, August 1 from 5:30-8:30 pm for the 10th National Night Out outside our Civic Center Plaza. There will be K-9 and fire rescue demonstrations, free hot dogs, music, and activities for the family. A great opportunity to come together as a community and interact with our first responders.

Rocket Fever returns on Saturday, August 12 at our Columbia Memorial Space Center with activities for the entire family. It all begins at 10 am.

The annual GOOD (Gangs Out of Downey) Backpack Giveaway returns Saturday August 12 at 2 pm at Golden Park. Over the years this event has grown and thanks to the efforts of GOOD and many volunteers, hundreds of children and families have been blessed with new backpacks and school supplies in time for the new school year. I look forward to seeing you there!

The Mayor’s Movie night is Saturday August 12, at 6 pm at Golden Park, following the GOOD backpack giveaway. There will be activities for children and families, music and we will end the day with an evening movie, Luca.

Because our Youth Matter, we are offering two separate workshops for 7th-12th graders.

Young Men Rise Up one-day workshop makes its debut on Saturday August 19 at the Downey City Library. Topics will include building confidence, interviewing skills, healthy relationships, mental health, personal finance, and social media/cyber bullying. For registration information, ymriseup@downeyca.org

Girls on Fire returns for a one-day workshop at our Downey City Library on Saturday August 26th from 8:30am-4pm and topics on mental health, personal finance, healthy relationships, self-defense, social media/cyber bullying, and healthy lifestyle tips will be covered by great speakers. For registration, email girlsonfire@downeyca.org

Transient Activity, Public Safety & Quality of Life:

We are seeing increased transient activity throughout our city; this has become a greater concern over the last several weeks. I appreciate our residents for notifying us of issues related to homeless encampments and/or criminal activity.

Clean ups will continue in coordination with LA County Dept. of Mental Health, LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), PATH and DPD. As I reported last month, we approved a Homelessness Solutions Manager position to assist with these efforts. As this situation continues to worsen (there are currently 60,000 homeless people in the City of Los Angeles, and another 12,000 in surrounding cities in Southeast Los Angeles), Downey must become proactive and aggressive in its efforts to curtail homelessness activity and its impacts on the quality of life for our residents and impacts to our businesses.

As your mayor, alongside our City Manager, we will be discussing efforts to open a Homeless Center with services in Downey. We can no longer stay idle and hope the ‘clean’ up efforts work. As we look at alternatives and common-sense approaches to address this growing concern, my goal is to protect the quality of life for our residents and tackle the safety concerns. I know my council colleagues will agree, our quality of life and public safety are of paramount importance. Stay tuned, I will update you on the developments.

To assist us, please visit www.la-hop.org to dispatch a homeless services outreach team to your area and, if you know of someone that needs shelter, visit www.lahsa.org/get-help.

On Speed Enforcement & Criminal Activity at Mall:

Traffic accidents in Downey due to speed and erratic driving resulted in fatalities. The most recent collision occurred along Imperial Highway last weekend as a vehicle was traveling at high rates of speed. A portion of Imperial was closed for several hours due to the fatal accident.

With summer out and additional young drivers on the road, DPD will continue to conduct speed enforcement activities throughout our city and look for illegal street racing and individuals utilizing empty parking lots/areas to do donuts. Drivers involved in street racing will have their vehicles impounded and will face steep fines.

Our PD is working with the mall management and will also continue to conduct extra patrols in and around the Stonewood Mall.

Community/Economic Development

For our Small Businesses: In collaboration with the Southeast LA County Workforce Investment Board (SELACO), we are offering monthly Small Business Assistance Workshops at Golden Park from 5:30-7:30pm on the following dates: July 26th, August 23rd, and September 27th. For more information, contact Jessica Flores at jflores@downeyca.org

Downey continues to be an aspirational city where residents take pride in their homes, home values and neighborhoods. Special attention will be placed on unkept yards/lawns, cars on lawns, tents or structures erected on front lawns (this is against city code). Additional focus will be on illegal dumping and excessive trash and debris around neighborhoods and commercial properties. It is up to all of us to continue doing our part to maintain a clean city.

Downey’s anti-litter campaign #BINIT, residents may call CalMet/Athens services at 562.259.1239 to arrange a bulky item pick up. Additional important numbers to save on your phones:

• Graffiti Hotline: (562) 923-4484

• Abandoned Shopping Carts: (800) 252-4613

• Illegal Dumping: (562) 904-1161

Neighborhood Watch group in your neighborhood. This is a wonderful way to connect with neighbors and watch for suspicious activities. If you see something, please, say something. Currently, we have over 230+ groups throughout our city. To find out more information or to apply, please contact Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Stephanie Arroyo at (562) 904-2374 or sarroyo@downeyca.org

As we continue to see a rise in crime in every city, increased thefts with no consequences for criminals, remember those who change policies on crime are those people WE elect to office.

As our communities’ struggle, let us pause and remember, policies soft on crime and soft on criminals will continue to put our communities in danger and diminish our collective quality of life. Let us think about that the next time we vote!

Lastly, I wanted to share with all of you I had the opportunity to attend the 40th Annual NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) in New York City alongside my council colleagues.

I am pleased to report I was voted back to the NALEO Board of Directors and once again voted to the position of Secretary on the Executive Board. I also had the pleasure of Co-Emceeing one of the morning sessions and meeting and introducing three White House Cabinet Secretaries to the conference: Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and US Small Business Administration Secretary Isabella Casillas-Guzman who has family ties to our beautiful Downey! I am honored and humbled to represent Downey on a national board and contribute to the bipartisan dialogue on important policy issues that affect our communities across the country.

I welcome appointments for in-person visits. You can also follow my Facebook page for regular updates at Claudia M. Frometa Mayor, City of Downey, along with our City’s Facebook page, City of Downey Government Agency, for regular updates. Please also download the Downey App on your mobile device. Through this App, you can immediately report illegally dumped items, street repairs, trash, graffiti removal, neighborhood light repairs, etc.

#DowneyStrong, #EngagedCommunitiesAreStrongCommunities, #ThisIsDowney, #CityofDowney, #OperationRestoreOrder #MayorFrometa

Claudia M. Frometa
Mayor