What's on La Verne's Nov. 2 City Council Agenda
A water-rights agreement, an Arrow Highway bikeway, Santa's Christmas morning routes and a firefighter staffing check-in, all on the night before Election Day.
Here's something worth knowing before you read on: there are no public hearings and no discussion items on Monday's agenda. Everything the council will take up is on the consent calendar, the list of items that are expected to pass together in one vote.
Don't let the word "routine" fool you, though. This batch includes a $628,000 commitment for Arrow Highway, a new framework for selling some of La Verne's groundwater, and an assessment of whether a firefighter staffing experiment is saving the City money. Consent calendar items can still matter a great deal to your wallet and your neighborhood, and you can ask to have any of them pulled for a separate discussion.
La Verne City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2
Where: City Hall Council Chambers, 3660 D St., La Verne
How to attend: In person, via Zoom at LaVerneCA.gov/zoom, or by phone by calling 1-669-900-6833 and enter ID 810 8166 8591 when prompted.
🔗 Nov. 2 City Council Meeting Agenda Packet
🗣️ Public Comment Opportunities
Want your voice on the record before the gavel drops? You can email the City Clerk's Office at cityclerk@LaVerneCA.gov up to noon Nov. 2—these comments become part of the public record and are shared with the council in advance.
Prefer to speak live? Show up in person and fill out a comment card, or raise your hand during the item on Zoom. Every speaker gets three minutes.
- In person: Fill out a comment card or raise your hand to speak on any agenda item.
- By Zoom or phone: Go to LaVerneCA.gov/zoom, or call 1-669-900-6833 and enter meeting ID 810 8166 8591.
- By email: Send comments to cityclerk@LaVerneCA.gov by noon Nov. 2. They'll be shared with the council ahead of time and become part of the permanent record. Anything you send is a public record.
Want to talk about a consent item? Ask to have it "pulled." A council member or any member of the public can do this, and the council will then discuss and vote on that item separately. That's exactly what happened to the University of La Verne fee waiver on Oct. 19. Once the council has considered an item, no more public comment is accepted on it, so speak up before the vote. There's also a general Public Comments period near the end of the meeting for topics that aren't on the agenda, though the council generally can't discuss those on the spot.
You can also comment on the closed session topics (below) before the council goes behind closed doors.
Need an accommodation to participate? Call the City Clerk's Office at (909) 596-8726 at least 48 hours ahead.
💡 Civic Tip: Two closed-session topics this time
The council will meet privately before the public meeting to take up two items.
1. Labor negotiations. This is the same conference with labor negotiators the council holds regularly. State law lets the city talk strategy about employee contracts privately so it doesn't tip its hand at the bargaining table. The employee groups listed are the La Verne General Unit, the La Verne Firefighters Association, the La Verne Fire Middle Management Association and the Police Middle Management Association. The negotiators are listed as the city manager, city attorney and a senior management analyst.
2. Existing litigation: "National Opioid Settlement." State law allows the council to meet privately with the city's attorney about a lawsuit that is already underway when talking in public could hurt the city's legal position. The agenda lists only a case label ("National Opioid Settlement CL - 2261838") and doesn't say what the council will be deciding. For background, the national opioid settlements are agreements with drug distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies over the opioid crisis. According to the California Attorney General's office, participating cities and counties receive shares of the money, which must be used mainly for opioid abatement (efforts to address the opioid problem). Whether La Verne receives a share and what Monday's discussion covers isn't stated in the packet.
The council doesn't vote publicly on these topics before the closed session, and any final actions must be reported publicly afterward.
Presentations
Lights & Sirens Toy Drive. The City is supporting the annual Lights and Sirens Toy Drive, encouraging community members to donate new, unwrapped toys to help make the holiday season brighter for local children.
Community Wildfire Protection Plan update. Are you prepared for a wildfire? The City is inviting residents to take a community survey as part of developing its Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), a local plan for reducing wildfire risk.
Consent Calendar
Meeting minutes. The council will approve the minutes of the Oct. 19 closed session and regular meeting. To save you the trip to the minutes, here's how that meeting went: the council approved the ULV Homecoming business license fee waiver 4-0, with Council Member Wendy Lau recused; approved the four-city dispatch agreement with Covina, Irwindale and Azusa; received the legislative report; approved the General Plan Safety Element amendment 5-0 after a public hearing; and approved the paramedic pay side letter with the firefighters' association 5-0. According to the minutes, staff explained "the arbitration process and timeframe" in connection with that last item.
Bills. The council will approve $3,733,797.84 in audited payments dated Oct. 12 through Oct. 25. The summary page lists three large items: $731,415.09 to Three Valleys Municipal Water District, $705,267.58 for LA IMPACT and $259,579.40 for LA CLEAR invoices. About $300,674 is employee benefits and payroll expenses, and $30,954.52 is credit card purchases for July.
Agreement with Three Valleys Municipal Water District on groundwater rights. La Verne would sign a five-year "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) with Three Valleys Municipal Water District to set up a voluntary process for temporarily transferring some of the City's unused groundwater production rights.
Here's the background. La Verne pumps part of its water from underground basins managed under a 1998 court judgment covering six basins beneath La Verne, Claremont, Pomona, Upland, and surrounding areas. The City's base annual right in the "Four Basins" area is 1,467 acre-feet, though the actual amount changes every year. For 2026, the basin's manager (the Watermaster) set the amount available at 15,000 acre-feet, which gives La Verne about 1,140.2 acre-feet. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.) When wells are down for maintenance or repairs, some of that allocation can go unused.
The MOU doesn't approve any specific sale. Each fall, staff would check whether any of the allocation will go unused, and the City could notify Three Valleys by Dec. 1. Price, quantity and timing would be negotiated each time, and neither side would be required to buy or sell. The City could also deal with other agencies. The City keeps its underlying rights in every case.
🔗 See page 43 in the Meeting Agenda Packet
Why it matters: This is a way for the City's water system to earn money from water it isn't using. In 2025, La Verne temporarily transferred 300 acre-feet to Three Valleys at $650 per acre-foot, which brought in $195,000 for the Water Fund. The staff report says the City previously directed those proceeds to its water bill assistance program for eligible low-income and senior customers. It also says staff will bring a policy on how to use future proceeds to the council in early 2027. If you care about where that money goes, that's the conversation to watch.
Christmas Morning parade route. Since 1925, Santa has been driven through La Verne's neighborhoods on Christmas morning, accompanied by vehicles with lights and sirens. This year the council is asked to designate all city streets as a parade route on Friday, Dec. 25, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Under the California Vehicle Code, that designation is needed so emergency-style vehicles can use their sirens and lights, so Santa can ride on a flatbed truck (at no more than 8 miles an hour with law enforcement supervision), and so the amplified sound can be used.
🔗 See page 50 in the Meeting Agenda Packet
Why it matters: This is the legal green light for a beloved local tradition. The event will keep its six traditional routes, and the staff report says about 12,000 goodie bags are expected to be handed out by volunteers, bringing back a practice that stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Aug. 3, the council approved shifting the event to a community-led model, with the Christmas Morning in La Verne Committee and the Community Foundation of La Verne taking primary responsibility for planning, fundraising and volunteers. The City provides limited support, including Police Department RSVP volunteers driving the lead vehicles.
Read More About This Local Tradition
Staci Baird
🔥 Hot Topic
Arrow Highway improvements agreement with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG). The council is asked to approve a cooperative agreement tied to a regional bikeway project, with a city contribution of $628,000. That includes $528,000 for repaving Arrow Highway between White Avenue and Fulton Road and $100,000 for traffic signal upgrades at Arrow Highway and White Avenue.
The larger project, the East San Gabriel Valley Sustainable Multimodal Improvements Project, is led by SGVCOG in partnership with Pomona. It would add a two-way, physically separated bikeway (a "Class IV" bikeway) on the south side of Arrow Highway from White Avenue to Cambridge Avenue/Mountain Avenue, plus pedestrian improvements on Garey and Bonita avenues in Pomona. About 900 of the roughly 11,700 linear feet of bikeway are in La Verne. In La Verne, the work would change the striping to two vehicle lanes with the new bikeway. The eastbound merge lane east of White Avenue would be shifted to the west side of White and end at a right-turn-only lane. Westbound lanes would stay similar to today, with two travel lanes, on-street parking and right-turn-only lanes. At the White Avenue signal, in-pavement vehicle detection loops would be replaced with video detection.
🔗 See page 52 in the Meeting Agenda Packet
Why it matters: If you drive, bike or walk Arrow Highway near White Avenue, this is the one that changes what that stretch looks like. Staff say doing the repaving as part of the regional project would cost the City about $528,000, compared with about $775,000 as a standalone project, a savings of about $247,000. The City's money comes from the approved Arrow Highway Rehabilitation Project budget (CIP No. ST2402), so no new appropriation is needed. SGVCOG would handle design, environmental review, bidding and construction, and the project's regional funding includes Measure M and Metro grants. Construction is tentatively set to begin in early 2027. Here's the fine print: after construction, La Verne takes over maintenance of the improvements within its borders, including the bikeway separators, markings, signs and landscaping, and the agreement makes the City responsible for any added costs, overruns or betterments tied to the La Verne portion. The staff report doesn't put a dollar figure on that maintenance.
Learn More
Staci Baird
Quarterly update on the three-firefighter "Suitcase" pilot program. The council will receive and file a report on the Fire Department's two-year pilot program, approved June 2, 2025, that added three full-time Firefighter/EMT positions, one on each of the A, B and C shifts. Sometimes called "suitcase" firefighters, they fill in where staffing is short and are meant to reduce overtime and forced callbacks. The pilot doesn't change the department's minimum staffing requirement. The department staffs two engines and one Quint (a ladder truck).
🔗 See page 80 in the Meeting Agenda Packet
Why it matters: This is the first look at whether the pilot is saving money.
Comparison of 2025 and 2026 payroll periods
Staff caution that these figures shouldn't be read as savings caused only by the program, because staffing levels, leave and other payroll factors also change. They recommend continuing the pilot. Fewer forced overtime shifts may also help with fatigue and employee wellness, which the report names as goals.
Looking ahead
Next council meeting: Monday, Nov. 16, regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
Also on the City calendar:
- Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day, polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Development Review Committee, 9 a.m. at City Hall.
- Wednesday, Nov. 4: Senior Seminar Series, 10:30 a.m. at the Community Center.
- Sunday, Nov. 8: Senior Dinner Dance Extravaganza, 4-7 p.m. at the Community Center.
- Monday, Nov. 9: Senior Movie Matinee, 12:30-3 p.m. at the Community Center.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day. City Hall and the Community Center are closed. The Veterans Day ceremony is at 11 a.m. at Veterans Hall.
- Saturday, Nov. 14: La Verne Historical Society Vintage Sale and Home Tour, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 18: Senior Advisory Committee, 10 a.m. at the Community Center; Finance Commission, 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Route 66 Centennial Car Show, 10 a.m. at Mainiero Square.
Local Events Calendar
