by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

The Claremont City Council agenda was full and varied at its first meeting of the new year on January 13.

Live music at La Popular
Following a public hearing to consider an amendment to La Popular Restaurant’s conditional use permit to allow live music, the council voted unanimously to defer the matter to January 27 to allow staff to time to draft a proposed policy.

Council member Corey Calaycay requested a review of the 235 N. Yale Ave. restaurant’s permit on December 22 following complaints of loud music by neighboring business owners and customers. His request came after the planning commission’s December 16 recommendation to approve La Popular’s permit amendment for live music on certain days of the week.

“My main thing is to try to see if we can consider some language in there that basically says moving forward, if this operator violates this conditional use permit so many times, whatever that number might be, that we discuss, within a certain timeframe… that the permit can be pulled back for further amendment consideration by the planning commission or even revocation,” Calaycay said.

According to City Manager Adam Pirrie, city staff can issue citations to repeat conditional use permit violators on a case-by-case basis, but cannot rescind permits. The policy staff are looking to craft would put a threshold on the number of times a conditional use permit can be violated before the city can act.

“The direction that we got from the council last week was to establish a threshold of two citations within a 30-day period for violations of conditions in the CUP,” Pirrie said. “And that would trigger a process where we could go to planning commission to recommend either suspension, revocation or modification of the CUP.”

The council will hold another public hearing on La Popular’s permit at its January 27 meeting.

Emergency operations plan adopted
In the wake of the January 2025 Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires, then Mayor Calaycay established an emergency preparedness ad hoc committee to go over the city’s disaster practices and policies and to draft an emergency operations plan.

“The Emergency Operations Plan is a general plan and is not intended to present detailed procedures or solutions to every possible emergency that may occur in Claremont,” according to a staff report. “It provides for the integration and coordination of planning efforts through a whole community approach and authorizes City personnel to perform their duties and tasks before, during, and after an emergency.”

A draft of the emergency operations plan is viewable at claremontca.gov, search “2025 Emergency Preparedness Ad Hoc Committee.”

City staff drafted the plan, which was approved by the council last week by a 5-0 vote. The approval came with the caveat that Pirrie is able to make “non-substantive changes” to the document over time. Future substantive changes must be approved by the council.

Prior to drafting the plan, city staff and the ad hoc committee heard presentations from the city’s emergency management team and agencies such as Service Center for Independent Living, San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, Clean Power Alliance, Caltrans, Foothill Transit, Metrolink, Golden State Water Company, SoCal Gas, Edison, LA County’s Fire Department, Department of Public Works, and Office of Disaster Management for Area D, which includes Claremont.

The ad hoc committee included Council members Jennifer Stark and Ed Reece; commissioners Jason Wong, John Neiuber, Deborah Scott Toux, Richard Weiner, and Tim Dunfee; Kevin Ward, Reco Sanders, Bob Kern, Larry Grable, Leif Cameron, Richard Rivera, and Robert Grimes. Mike Hallinan served on the committee through July 2025.

The plan differs from Claremont’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was last updated in March 2022 and is due for renewal in 2027. That plan, which reads in part, “presents updated information regarding hazards being faced by Claremont as determined by the Planning Team and presents mitigation measures introduced and/or continued since 2015 to help reduce consequences from hazards, and outreach/education efforts within the community. Additionally, the Plan considers the impact of climate change.” That plan was approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and allows Claremont to apply for FEMA hazard mitigation, pre-disaster mitigation, and flood mitigation assistance grant programs.

Calls for transparency in Rios investigation
A majority of public comment concerned the November 2025 death of 30-year-old Diego Rios following a traffic stop by Claremont Police Department officers. Commenters asked the city for more transparency in the ongoing investigation, including the release of officer body cam and surveillance camera footage of the incident.

This week the city released 18 videos related to the incident, including body camera footage from the two Claremont Police Department officers primarily involved in the incident, and 911 audio recordings. They are viewable at claremontca.gov, search “use of force incidents.”

Other items

• The council voted unanimously to designate Vice Mayor Reece as a governing board member to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments Joint Powers Authority and Mayor Stark as the voting alternate.
• The council voted to award a $148,170 contract to Azusa company J&A Engineering to construct and install fencing at Claremont Wilderness Park’s Highpoint, Evey Canyon, and Mountain Avenue entrances in order to prevent people from entering the park outside of operating hours. Some $143,000 will be paid from San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountain Conservancy grants, the remaining $5,170 from Wilderness Park parking lot fund contingency funds.

The next Claremont City Council meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 27, at 225 W. Second St., Claremont.