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LongBeachCC_12052017_17-1112

Speaker 6: Motion carries. Speaker 7: 46. Speaker 6: Communication from Councilwoman Price, Councilmember Supernormal Councilwoman Mongo recommendation to request the city auditor to conduct a review of the city's 25 parking structures and lots to verify the number that collect cash and are not automated. Speaker 7: Councilwoman Price. Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm asking for my colleagues support on this item. I'm not sure how many parking lots would actually fall into this, but based on some of our recent actions and some of the concerns that came to light, I think it's it's only prudent and responsible for us to have the city auditor take a look at what exposure we have, if there is any exposure to risk, and how we can eliminate or mitigate that. So that's really what this item is about. And I thank you in advance for your support. Speaker 7: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 3: I would only add that I know lots is a word that can be interpreted in many ways, and I wanted to include any type of place where you're paying for parking such as Eldorado Park or the such, that have multiple places to park, but are also very risky in terms of cash collection and potential liability. Thank you. Speaker 7: Mike. I want to also add, I actually love this item, especially because I want to just particularly Miss Dowd because I complained about it so many times. The. Cash collection that happens at Eldorado is ridiculous. And I hope maybe since I've been complaining, I don't know if it's changed since then, but I've been complaining about it for a few years and there's still absolutely no change. It's as simple as buying a little scanner for a phone so that we can take actual credit cards and debit. But if we can please specifically, I'm especially interested in the Eldorado Park cash debacle that happens. And when and when folks don't have cash, we then produce a line that goes out the park all the way down the street, and in fact, people turn away and we lose money because they don't want to get in line and because they you know, they have no they only have a card. So we basically turn away customers every weekend. And I see it happen every time I go catch Mongo. Speaker 3: And I would only add that I've had extensive discussions with our new parking lot company that we just approved about Eldorado Park and their potential for offering us a public private partnership opportunity where they would be willing to implement anything. So perhaps dialog with them might be also helpful in this in the course of your study. Thank you. Speaker 7: Thank you for inviting any public comment on this. Sir. Be careful, sir. Speaker 0: At the senior center on Orange. We pay a yearly fee and pay in park. Shit. Speaker 7: You okay? Speaker 0: I'm fine. All right. Okay. Okay. That's your phone. Speaker 7: Okay, there's a yes. Just grab a seat there for a little bit, sir. Okay, mate. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Speaker 8: $17 fee. Speaker 0: For the year. Speaker 6: Motion carries. Speaker 7: Thank you. We will now move on to the second second public comment period. Sir, are you doing okay? This is now the bad shoes. Okay, you're okay. But I know that you've been waiting all day to speak. Are you okay? Speaker 0: It's important. It's bad. Speaker 7: Okay. Okay. Any new business from the council? Vice Mayor Richardson.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Auditor to conduct a review of the City's 25 parking structures and lots to verify the number that collect cash and are not automated. For those lots and structures that are on a cash basis, the City Council requests a report documenting the controls that are currently in place to ensure all cash is being deposited securely and timely into the City's treasury and to make recommendations as warranted that will benefit the ongoing operation of our parking lots and structures. The City Council is further requesting information on the timetable regarding the City's plans to convert the cash lots into automated lots and any other information the City Auditor deems necessary to ensure the City's parking operations are protected from any potential fraud, waste, or abuse during this transition period.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_11142017_17-0933

Speaker 0: Well, thank you and thank you to all that were involved in our presentations today. We're now moving on to the rest of the agenda on the city council. We have a long agenda, so we're going to start with like we always do our hearings. So we have one hearing tonight, and that is a hearing on 320 Alamitos. And so I'm going to begin the hearing and just in just a minute. Okay. I can please have the city clerk please introduce the hearing. Speaker 1: Hearing item one is a development is from development services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, concluded the public hearing and considered third party appeals from Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development, a resolution finding that the 320 Elevators project is consistent with the Downtown Plan Program, Environmental Impact Report and subject to the Downtown Plan Mitigation, Monitoring and Reporting Program and uphold the Planning Commission's decisions to approve a site plan, review and lot merger for the construction of a seven story 77 unit residential development at 320 Alamitos Avenue in the Downtown Planet Development District, District two. Speaker 0: Thank you. And before we move on, I was just asked just because there's a lot of folks here that are not here for the hearing. And so just from from a timing perspective, the hearing is going to come up, which we just started, and then we will go right into the items for the evening. Those that are here for the Innovation Center item that's at the top of the agenda. We're going to go right into both the issues on equal employment and language access and the recreational pot issue, which I think we're most people are here for. So those will all be taking at the start of the regular items. And so we'll try to get through the hearing as expeditiously as possible and then we'll get to the other items as well. So thank you for the reading of the of the hearing item. If I could turn this over now to Mr. Modica. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We will hear a staff report from Kari Tai, our current planning officer. Speaker 7: Good evening, Honorable Mayor Garcia and members of the City Council. Speaker 6: This is an appeal. Speaker 7: Of the Planning Commission's approval of this project as a site plan review for a 77 unit residential development at 320 Alamitos Avenue in the downtown of the Downtown Area Plan Development District 30. The project is located within the city's downtown plan. It's on the east side of Alamitos Avenue. There's an aerial on the screen. Speaker 6: The project site. Speaker 7: Serves as a private surface parking lot. You see this on the larger side here. And then there's a smaller parcel that currently has the billboard on it. Sometimes it has a medical center billboard, and right now I think it has Honda on it. And then those so those two parcels comprise the project site. Surrounding properties include an auto repair facility, a four story residential. Speaker 2: Building. Speaker 6: To the east there. Speaker 7: And auto I'm sorry, auto repair and small scale commercial to the north. So that's across fourth street. Across the street from the project site on Alamitos is a professional office building and then to. Speaker 6: The south is a commercial building that has a that has their surface parking lot right on the corner. And this is going to follow with some photographs. So this is the. Speaker 7: Surface parking lot. It's currently leased. Speaker 6: To, I guess, monthly subscribers through. Speaker 7: An Internet site. Speaker 6: And then also. Speaker 2: This is the. Speaker 6: Photograph of the site that has the billboard on it. So about the project. The proposed project is a seven. Speaker 7: Storey residential building. It would contain 77 dwelling units based on the downtown plan parking requirement. 97 parking spaces are required and 108 are being provided. I think the slide says 105. However, since the appeal was logged and since this presentation was prepared, there has been a refinement to the plan where three additional stalls are actually located on the on the. Speaker 2: On the, in the garage. Speaker 7: And therefore, please note that correction the unit mix includes four lofts, 29 studios, a 31 bedroom unit and 14 two bedroom units. And basically the configuration of the building is that the parking and then the ground floor uses take up the first two levels and then floors three through seven are the residential units. There are tenant tenant amenities included as part of this building, including a roof roof entertainment area, basically a roof deck and a community room, as well as private open space in the form of various balconies, patios and terraces. And that is a combination of common open space as well as private balconies for the units. Speaker 6: So this is a site plan that's on the screen. Speaker 7: Note that it is oriented with the north to your left, and so Alamitos is shown at the bottom. There are two site access points for vehicle for vehicles. One is from Third Street, the other is from Alamitos Avenue. Speaker 2: Due to the there's due to the linear nature of the building that the two access points really. Speaker 7: Facilitate the circulation and usability of. Speaker 6: The garage. Speaker 7: One thing I'd like to point out while we have the site plan on, is that the. Speaker 2: Building is. Speaker 7: Really oriented toward the Alamitos frontage. There's a this is the seven story portion, and the portion on Third Street is a slightly lower at six stories. And there is a significant rear setback. Speaker 6: That is a. Speaker 7: Courtyard on the top of the second level. And so the really the building. Speaker 6: Units all set toward the. Speaker 2: Front and the courtyard. Speaker 7: Is what is directly adjacent to that existing four story. Speaker 2: But multifamily residential. Speaker 6: Building. So to talk a little more. Speaker 7: About the building itself, the architecture of the building is a clean, modern esthetic with pedestrian oriented ground floor spaces, and that is intended to continue to establish a connection between pedestrians on the sidewalk and passers by on Alamitos. A to the actual actual building. The building exterior materials feature wood stained laminate panels, a gray metal panels and smooth stucco framing elements. There's a substantial amount of glazing to afford, a lot of openness to the building as well. And I did talk about the building massing. And this this particular rendering shows that the building is up toward Alamitos. But in the plans that were included in your packet, there are different renderings and there is a point of view that shows the courtyard as well. Speaker 6: The building also incorporates. Speaker 7: A number of sustainable green building features, including efficient mechanical and lighting systems. The actual exterior materials and window systems are also included to better insulate and better for the building to meet the green building standards. Cool paving and also drought tolerant landscaping per the Downtown Plan program are mitigation measures which this project is also subject to. Speaker 6: The project must exceed. Speaker 7: 20% increased efficiency over the current building code standards. And so that does include having solar ready for the roof and also any other energy efficient measures that power the building. Speaker 6: Lastly, a shade and shadow study was. Speaker 7: Prepared and included with your plans. All built proposed buildings that are 75 feet and over in the downtown plan require a shade and shadow study as part of the follow up environmental review for the Downtown Plan projects. This project is actually under that 75 feet threshold. However, the Shade and shadow study was done nonetheless to show whether there would be shadow impacts on the adjacent building. Speaker 2: And one of the features of this building was. Speaker 7: That was to orient the massing toward Alamitos to minimize any shadowing effects on that adjacent apartment building. In terms of downtown plan consistency. The project complies with all of the downtown plan development standards and by development standards that means height, floor area ratio, open space parking, etc. This this includes actually meeting and exceeding the required parking by one space. There is also the added benefit of having the billboard on the corner removed, as the Council is aware. There has been an effort throughout the city as a whole to eliminate non-conforming billboards and ones that are not in compliance with the city's current billboard ordinance. And that would be one of the benefits of this project as well. With regard to environmental review, the downtown plan included the program Environmental Impact Report that analyzed the impacts of development of development within the Downtown Plan. Speaker 6: The Downtown Plan EIA programs are. Speaker 7: New about what development intensity and development density would be anticipated, but did not know what the actual form or configuration of the actual development projects would be. And therefore, every project is subject to some level of follow up environmental review. Speaker 6: That environment environmental compliance checklist was prepared. Speaker 7: And found that the project does not have any new significant impacts that were not analyzed by the downtown plan either. Speaker 6: And therefore the project does not. Speaker 7: Warrant further environmental review. With regard to the Planning Commission's initial action on August 17th, the Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on the project. There was a public hearing and the majority of the public spoke in opposition to the project. Speaker 6: Within the ten day appeal period. Speaker 7: Two separate parties have filed appeals and I should note that the two parties consist of. One of them consists of multiple people who the names are listed on the screen, but I will not read them. And the and the appeals contended that the project conflicts with the downtown plan and that the project introduces environmental impacts that were not identified based on the environmental compliance checklist and the analysis of the program, EMR, as well as the compliance with the development standards. The staff finds that the grounds for the appeal are not warranted. Speaker 6: Based on the project's consistency with both the. Speaker 7: Downtown Plan, Development Standards and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The project was found to be in compliance, and therefore a staff recommends that the planning the City Council uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve this project. And that concludes my presentation and we are available for any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you very much for the presentation from staff. And so we do have comments first from the applicant. So Mr. Mes, do we have are we doing 10 minutes for the applicant or are you doing 15? Okay. So we'll do our we'll do 10 minutes less as a request for more time. We will do 10 minutes for the applicant, which will go first, then we'll be then the appellant. I believe there are the two separate appellants. Is that correct? Speaker 4: Mr. Mayes There's two sets of appellants, but one of the appellant groups listed a number of people. I think there's six altogether. I don't know if they're all here or not, if they're or if they are appointing a representative to speak for them. Speaker 0: Okay. And so what we'll do is we'll do we're going to do one the applicant then one of the appellants will go. We'll go. Then the second group, which is a group of appellants, hopefully they have assigned someone to speak for that, for that group of appellants. And if that's something different, please let the clerk know and we'll try to fix that if that's not the case currently. So we're doing the applicant ten minute, 10 minutes applicant 10 minutes, the appellant another 10 minutes of the second appellant Then the applicant gets a rebuttal of about 3 minutes. Three or 4 minutes, is that correct? That's great. Okay, so why don't we begin unless there's any objection to that from those that are and that are the appellants. We'll move forward with that process. And the applicant, please, can come forward. Speaker 4: Three. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for all the council members that's present over here. My name is Justine Lagarde and I'm the. Speaker 0: Owner of the Arrow, the given. I'm sorry we didn't take an oath for first, so let me make sure we do an oath for everyone that's going to be speaking. So, Madam Clerk, can you do the oath for everyone that is going if we are one of the speakers tonight or if you're going to comment, please stand and raise your right hand and take the oath from the clerk. Speaker 1: You in each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the court now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Why don't you go and begin again? Thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. And thank you all the council members. My name is Justine Lark's body and me. I'm the. Speaker 0: Proud owner of the. Speaker 4: 320. Speaker 9: Kilometers vacant. Speaker 0: Land. And I'm very, very proud to present the whole project. Speaker 4: We think it's one of the great project. Speaker 9: That is going to be making the Long Beach. You know, I know all those areas and everywhere else. It's got to be something that people will be looking forward to. Look at it, look at the project. Speaker 4: I'm going to give it to Michael Bond and he can explain the project and. Speaker 9: I'll be still available over here to. Speaker 4: Michael Bond. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Michael Bond. I'm a senior principal with Studio 111. We're an architecture, urban design and landscape office. Just a side note, we just found out this week that we are not only LEED Platinum as an office, but we are also now, well, gold, the first architectural office on the West Coast. And we just won an award for office, which gets us to 20 awards. Ten of them proudly, I can say, are in Long Beach. But with that, this is the plan that shows in the black rectangle. Our site you can see two circles. One is a five minute walk, the other one is a ten minute walk. And what we what we've learned is that and academics have said that a five or ten minute walk is something if it's a good environment that people can go to. So within a ten minute walk, we can get to the blue line. We also had done some research on Watch Walk Score, which if you're familiar with, is a third party that analyzes the site and determines the walkability bike ability and transit ability of somebody living there and how they can move around without a car to create or to fulfill their daily errands. And on this particular site, the walkability is 94, which is actually a walkers paradise. From a bike mobility perspective, it is an 87, which is it means it has excellent bicycle infrastructure. And from a transit perspective, it is a 77 which is still determined as very high. So with that, we wanted to look at show this diagram here and on the ground floor, as the city had mentioned, we do have a very active ground floor and located in orange here. There's a fitness center at the corner. We have a lobby, we have leasing, we have a bike, kitchen. And then at the other side, as you get closer to Fourth Street along Alamitos, we do have lofts for lofts that are on the ground floor to create a very active edge, which cars just cannot provide when you're a pedestrian in the downtown. Also, we have a rooftop amenity located up here with great views of the ocean and the East Village as well as Alameda Speech. We have open space on the roof with great ocean views for all the residents. We also have another deck on this side and then, as was mentioned earlier, a podium down below. If you take all the square footage of those spaces, we actually are close to double the amount of open space that's required for this project. We are not asking for any variances in terms of parking. We are required 97. We are providing 11 more stalls for a total of 108. Another way to look at it is if you provided one parking stall per bedroom, we would still have an extra 17 parking stalls for guests or spillover within the development itself. This is a view looking north on Alamitos, a third street. You can see the ground floor is very glassy, very open, very inviting for people walking along the street. And then we did step the building closer to third down a floor. You can see a little bit of the amenity room up above. But it does step down and step back from the adjacent residential area. And then this is a view looking south on Alamitos. We did pull the metal in the front building as a material to relate in an abstract way to the Villa Riviera metal roof. And then you see the balconies and how they are faceted and they actually relate to the circular tower, which is not really a truly circular building. It's actually faceted if you look at it closer. And that's known as International Tower. So we wanted to play off those facets and take advantage of the views down Alamitos towards the ocean as well as northward. There is a lot of wood material to bring warmth to a very contemporary building and to make it more attractive for the community. This is the courtyard that was mentioned. On the left side is the taller portion of the building. It's four storeys high. We have a 35 foot wide courtyard and then a ten foot gap between our building and the adjacent building. So from the new residents living on the left side to the existing residence, there is a distance along most of the site of 45 feet. And then walking along Alameda southward, you can see the live work units on the left side or I should say loft units. And then as you walk further down, they're activated by the other uses, like the bike kitchen and the leasing office and lobby. And then finally we have a section here that's cut east west. So on the left side, you see Alamitos. And as was mentioned by Kerry, the highest portions of the building are on Alamitos, so that the math does not minimizes the shading on adjacent buildings. You can see it steps down one floor towards the eastern side. And then there is a significant, as I mentioned earlier, 45 feet from this wall to this wall. That creates an open space between the two buildings. And with that, this concludes our presentation. We think this, as I mentioned earlier, it conforms with the downtown plan. Our city, our region, our state desperately needs more housing. And this is going to be one project that could provide some assistance in that issue. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. With that, we have our two groups of appellants. Our first first appellant, Mr. Borowski, is here. And we're going to go ahead and allow or we do want the other appellant group to go first. Okay. Okay. Sure. Then we will have our other appellant request, which is a variety of folks, and we'll set the clock again for 10 minutes. Whenever they begin, we'll we'll start. Speaker 5: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. And members of the City Council. Yes, it's me. I'm here representing our our H-2A, which is lost on fourth. And we are adjacent to the building, but we're across the street on Alamitos. We have some comments. We we prepared a PowerPoint for you guys to show us art, show you our perspective on this particular project. But before we do, I'd like to thank Councilwoman Gonzalez and peers who have spent time with us to sit down and listen to our concerns. And with that information, we've been able to prepare this PowerPoint. Speaker 6: Thank you. My name is Bebe Jimenez. I'm on the board for the Locks on Forth Association. I'm here representing the appellants Tino HARAMIS, Karen McGinley, Tetsuya Hashimoto and Kazumi Harimoto first item. Let's go ahead and begin who we are. Who are we? We're long term neighborhood stakeholders. We're homeowners. We've been in this neighborhood, in our building since the beginning of redevelopment. Our building was built by redevelopment. We're residents who chose a friendly neighborhood close to the downtown core, but with an easier pace, a little bit slower. We're supporters of compatible development. We support projects that respect our neighborhood. We're not NIMBYs. One of the appellants is a real estate broker. I've worked on both the public and private side of residential development throughout my career, and we support projects that follow the rules. I'm drawing your attention now to the downtown plans. Our opposition to this project really is rooted in the downtown plan. We see that as a good based document that allows for reasonable development that sensitive to our neighborhood. The downtown plan says that good design usually results from projects that were conceived in their total and respond sensitively to their immediate context. The following standards and guidelines underscore design principles intended to produce good buildings, great streets, and memorable places. Standards per the downtown plan standards identify requirements. Guidelines should be addressed with all development projects. Alternatives will be permitted only if the intent of the design guideline is met again. Standards equal requirements are issued relative to 320. Alamitos specifically relates to standard number two new buildings should respect the scale of adjacent structures and respond to their elements in an appropriate manner. And number three, new buildings should be bold and innovative and promote a forward looking identity for downtown Long Beach. Architectural design standards or design guidelines are also included. The applicant proposes a mid-rise design. We actually think a low rise building is more appropriate for this location. But even presuming a mid rise design, the guidelines indicate that the massing and design of mid-rise buildings should be sensitive to the adjacent scales and carefully address the transition to lower height structures that may exist or may be anticipated on the same block. The project fails to meet standard number two new buildings to respect the scale of adjacent structures. Seven storeys is out of scale and inappropriate for this neighborhood. The adjacent buildings are all low rise. Building buildings, no mid-rise buildings, no seven storeys. Most buildings, again, are one and two stories in height. The project fails to meet architectural guideline that I met, the architectural guideline that I mentioned before, that the massing and design of mid-rise buildings should be sensitive to adjacent scales and carefully address the transition to lower height structures. The proposed project is significantly taller, therefore insensitive to the scale of the adjacent buildings. The transitions that it would create would be jarring and abrupt, as there are no seven story buildings or any buildings near that height adjacent to the proposed project site. Again, this is our neighborhood. The project site is identified in red. This I'm going to go through quickly some slides of the surrounding streets so you can see for yourselves what the adjacent building heights are. This is a northbound view of Alamitos in third Street. You can see a two story motel to the left and three and four story condos at the Seaside Villas immediately adjacent to the project site. This is a misleading and false context represented by the renderings included in the plan package from the developer. The building to the far left where the arrow is pointed does not exist. The South bound view of Alamitos in Third Street. Again, one story apartments, one story auto repair, two story apartments, one story auto, and a two story motel. Again across the street. 38 Alamitos. One story. Two story, one story. Another misleading rendering that's included in the plan package, these two buildings to the far left corner. They don't exist. They appear to give us some dimension and height to the surrounding context, but they don't do not exist. Again, here we are at Alamitos and Fourth Street, giving you some more perspective. Again, two storey apartments to the left. One story, smog shop living room is just off the screen. You can't see it, but it's a one storey bar. I'm sure some of you may have visited it from time to time. To the right is two storey condos. Here's another misleading, misleading rendering showing distorted scale. This is also from the project plans. The Villa Riviera and the international towers are not this large when you view them from this location. Here's the actual photo of that location and look at how far those two buildings are in the background. Once again, we're looking here northbound view of Alamitos and fourth, two storey condos, one storey retail, two storey apartments and retail, one and two story motorcycle and auto, no. Seven stories. Once again, viewing towards Alamitos off a fourth. One story. One story. One story. No, seven stories. Here we go. West Bound View of Fourth Street. Alamitos. Two Story. 2.5 stories. One Story. 320 Alamitos fails to meet the standards, also that the new buildings should be bold and innovative and promote a forward looking Long Beach identity or identity for downtown knowledge. The design is not bold. It's not innovative. Many similar projects look like this in Long Beach. Everybody is doing it now, including Studio 111. It's now becoming a cookie cutter approach. And unfortunately, we have a lot of these now in downtown Long Beach. Here we go. This architect in particular likes to use a lot of heavy horizontal lines, giving the building, has a lot of heavy massing, giving it a very block like appearance. You'll see this repeated over and over. This is another project downtown fourth and land in heavy horizontal lines, heavy massing. Here we are, 1235 Long Beach Boulevard. Heavy horizontal lines. Heavy massing. Another same example at 245 West Broadway. And again, glass at the bottom. The glass lobby seems to be a trend. And here's one from Glendale Arts Colony. I found this one online also by Studio 111. Look at that. And now here's the Long Beach version of the Glendale Arts Project. Well, shall we look at that one more time? Look at that. Wow. Look at the paneling up there at the right. We just get all the paneling in this version. Right. Okay. So I'm going to try to hurry hurry this up. The site plan review findings, we found some inconsistencies and errors. Errors. Their exhibit C says the design wouldn't remove any significant trees, but it also says that the Billboard parcel contains two mature eucalyptus trees. I'm not sure who decides what's significant, but they're significant to us if you can see them here. These are the two largest trees, trees on Forest Street, probably in the East Village. For us, they're neighborhood markers. They provide character, they soften the corner and they identify this place as our home. Also, we talked about shadows study. The shadow study that is in the staff report or in the plans is not adequate. Also, one thing to note, your resolution says that the building is 75.5 feet in height, the resolution you're being asked to approve. But the Sigma document says at 74.5 feet, as does the staff report. I'm not sure which is which, but this is too bad that we're here trying to play guessing games because one automatically triggers the requirement for a Shade Street study. There was a shadow or shade study that was included in plans. It's not complete and it doesn't meet the requirements. It doesn't provide calculations. It's unclear who, if anyone, verified those calculations or verified the shade study is accurate. We consider ourself to be a resident, a sensitive youth staff, and their own secret document says it's unclear what a sensitive use is. We say we're a sensitive use. This photo was taken from a window in our condo complex seven in the morning, October 4th. A seven story building will block our morning sun and put us in the shade. Our building, we consider ourselves sensitive to light sensitive uses because we have large windows, extensive glazing skylights, clear story windows, and it's all designed to minimize the electrical usage. We rely on it a lot to light up our homes without using electricity. In addition, there are other flaws in the secret analysis that was included with the Planning Commission staff report. The analysis indicates that the project would not conflict with any any applicable land use plan, policy or regulation. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. And so I know the time that the time is up on this hour. It is the last thing you want to say to conclude. And then we'll turn over to the second appellant. Speaker 6: Sure. Well, I would encourage you to go through and review the rest of the PowerPoint if they're able to send it to you electronically. The project is flawed. It doesn't follow the standards. The developer's going to tell you he spent a year developing the project and trying to come up with a good design. During that year, he never spoke to us. If he was smart, he would have spent that year trying to make a project that fits the standards. That follows the standards. It's a tough site, I get it. But there standards in place. You can go 80 feet. Yes. But if you meet the standards and I think everyone should keep in mind that there's a lot of folks who are concerned about the land use element. And part of their concern is that when things get approved, that the rules that get put in place sometimes oftentimes are not followed. We're asking for you tonight to do is to overturn the Planning Commission's approval of the project and show everyone show all of us that the rules will be followed. Thank you very. Speaker 0: Much. Thank you very much. And make it clear, Mr. Brewer, cruise control. Speaker 5: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Warren Lisowski. I represent Lombard, Citizens for Fair Development. Our mission statement is to preserve and protect the architectural, historical, environmental and community resources of the city of Long Beach, and to guarantee that development in the city is carried out in a manner that reflects the principles of equity, social justice, responsible management of the public's resources. I would like to thank the other appellant for just doing an amazing job of showing how this project does not conform to the downtown plan under Sequa. And I'd like to continue to contextualize what her comments were about the land use element. I think this is the largest uprising of public dismay in the city, probably since the 1991 riots. We had these meetings that the city held after demands at the Planning Commission's study session when the Planning Commission did not want to recommend the land use element and staff insisted it was going to be presented to the Council anyways . Part of this anger that surrounding the Louis and this project is the way that the city uses a program, air program each year under secure were not intended to be the end of environmental review for a project. They were meant to be part of a hearing that happened so that further environmental review can be done. And the way that these program ers are used by the city is to cease to do further environmental input. Like the previous appellant was saying, if the developer would have simply came and talked to them, they could have made some changes to the development. And you'll see that throughout this entire process on this development, there there's been a large amount of community input and there's been absolutely no changes in the project. So what is the community input doing and what effect does it have? Basically none. When this when this project came before the planning commission, there was at least 30 to 40 members of the community. And most of them, the vast majority of them, spoke against the project and complained about parking ratios. Also, if you go ahead and look at the exhibit that was included with the staff report, there's about 40 letters from the public of which 39 of them are against the project due to the lack of parking and only one in support from the downtown business district. There's a problem with the staff's instructions to both this body and the Planning Commission. The staff seems to think that the Planning Commission and the City Council don't have a choice or say on anything and very often tell the Planning Commission in response to questions. You have to approve this. You don't have the right to to disapprove this. And in fact, if we look at the Planning Commission's website, it says that the Planning Commission is does numerous requests from developers for administrative use permit, standard variances, etc., etc.. So these are requests from the applicants. These are not demands that the Planning Commission has to rubber stamp. And in fact, we don't know why. Commissioner Van Horwich The Chairperson abruptly quit in the middle of her term. We don't know why, but she did say at the Planning Commission study session, when the Planning Commission chose not to recommend the L'ue maps to the City Council, she said, I'm paraphrasing, are we meant to just rubber stamp this? Do we get a say on anything? That was one of her last meetings. So I think the Planning Commission themselves is sensing some of the frustration that's going on with the instructions being give to them, be given to them specifically as it relates to this project. When this project came before, Planning Commission Commissioner Richard Lewis recused himself from the vote. I believe that was due to the fact that he is the principal developer. But if we look at the city ethics guide, it says that if there's a conflict, a conflict of interest on page nine could be if you are an officer, director, partner, employee or a trustee or manager of a company with business before you, department or board. Well, he clearly recused himself for a reason. But when you look at page 13. I'm sorry, Page. Page 12 when it says, What are the remedies to a conflict? I'm sorry? Page ten, what are the remedies? Abstain from the vote. And also, number two, you must publicly disclose the interest in the subject of potential conflict. It's my recollection that Commissioner Lewis did not give the public or the rest of the commission the reason or his interest in the developer during that recusal. I think that's problematic when when a commissioner recuses himself. I believe it has a chilling effect on the rest of the commission. How are you supposed to vote against the projects that your fellow commissioners have an economic interest in? Also on page eight of the city's guide to two Conflicts of Interest Ethics Guide, it says The state law prohibits you from being financially interested in any way in a city contract. If your duties call on you to participate in any way or any stage in the approval of the contract. Now, I'm not an attorney, but maybe the Mr. Mayor, the city council might want to ask the city attorney, does this development deal and the conditions of development constitute a contract between Mr. Lewis as a developer and the city of Long Beach? So I think it's problematic. I think Commissioner Lewis should decide does he want to be a developer or does he want to be a planning commissioner? That's only fair to the people of Long Beach. The specifics of this project, I've given you all a copy of a letter that we've written. It goes over the specific reasons under Sequoia Y, the Y in air or further environmental studies are needed on this. And I just wanted to say that, you know, we're here to speak for for the for the people that don't have a voice. 3 minutes in this chambers is really not enough time to express the needs that the community has. If you look through the letters in the attachments that staff has given you, one woman has a story of, you know, being assaulted because she had to park so far away from her place, from her house, coming home late at night. And these stories are just really heart wrenching. So, you know, where do we go from here? We don't want to litigate this. That's that's not our intention. We just want some community involvement and sequel is there for community involvement. And so when the city continues to use program ERs to avoid community involvement, other sequel, that's when we have a problem. That's when appeals happen. So we ask this body to send this back to the Planning Commission. And, you know, why is this so important? It's just one development. You know, democracy. If you look at Washington, it's broken right now. I mean, we've got our the people's attorney up there lying in front of Congress. And so why is this important? It's important because for the residents of Long Beach, we depend on this body to be our local functioning democracy. We depend on you to be a progressive decision making body that represents the people of Long Beach. And so when you see such a vast outpouring of dismay over the lack of parking and the outsized scale of this building, simply following the guidelines under Sequoia could have given community input and could have made this project more agreeable to everyone involved. So I think in closing, we'd just like to give, I think Studio 111 could get one more award and it's the architectural firm that's, you know, least considerate of what the needs of downtown Long Beach residents are. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So we have an opportunity for if the applicant wants to give any sort of additional rebuttal closing comments. I think we said 3 minutes, Mr. Mays, is that correct? Okay. Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is John Mendis. I am the construction manager for the project. I'm part of this project. I think it's a beautiful project and I recognize the concerns that were here regarding parking in the community. And I think we knew coming in that this was going to be a challenging parking site and project because the adjacency to a residential area and it's the border of really where the urban part of the city meets the residential part of the city. That being said, it is. That being said, it's Alamitos Boulevard. It's an urban street. And we feel the scale is in proportion to what that large wide street carries. The adjacent building is in scale to residential, to low mid-rise, to a taller building. And we're comfortable with that and we believe it's a very attractive, good looking project. That being said, I want to address several of the comments that were addressed that I felt were need to be addressed directly. First of all. I'm the construction manager for the project. I was hired by Mr. Luck's body, Dr. Luke's body. And our job is to shepherd it through the entitlement process. I am the owner of Share of Ice 100%. Richard Lewis has no financial interest in this project. And I will just say that that statement that was made was untrue. I have a financial disclosure with the city as I am also commissioner, and you can confirm that. Secondly, I'm proud of the work that Studio 111 has done in this city. And I think there are great financial I'm sorry, business partner to the city. I think they've done wonderful work there and extremely committed to this city and they've done great work. And I think we need to support that. I think this is a super design and I. I urge you supported this project tonight, and I thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you. With that, we are going to go ahead and close the hearing and do public comment, of course. And then and then we will the council. So if you if you're commenting, please come forward now. Well, obviously, we have a long night ahead of us. So please just give us your your opinion and we'll move on to the next person and we will conclude the hearing at that point. So please say your name and begin. Speaker 6: And Prophet and I live at 140 Linden Avenue. I've lived in Long Beach since 1975, and I was very proud of the Planning Commission's decision that they didn't want to approve this, but they were told by staff that they had to. It's an ugly project. It has nothing to do with the neighborhood. It's not the right thing. I know that you want us to walk everywhere, to bike everywhere, but we have no retail, no viable retail downtown, and we're not going to get it with little pockets of. Businesses on ground floors. At the same meeting where this planning commission did not want to approve this project. They asked that the parking situation be addressed again because let's face it, it's not working. The downtown plan is not working for the people who own property, the people who rent property and the people who do business downtown. It is not working. And I know you all want to fidget and not listen to me, but I'm really not happy about that. I've got a lot of notes here, but they're not working out. You have to wonder why Long Beach Development Services didn't want to look at parking options. It's a big call because they want to have this program air where nobody is involved in anything in the city where they do everything and they cater to the developers. That is not right for those of us who have equity and we're building too many apartments and not enough condos. You're not going to get people with equity in this city. And that's what we need. People who will come here and stay here, not come and be here for two years until their lease is up and then leave so that the apartment can charge more money. There are lots of questions about this place. But the. Bulk of the matter is it's not good for the neighborhood. You have a clear opportunity here. You can side with the people of Long Beach who don't want this project's height, its density, and its lack of viable parking options shoved down our throats. Or you can do your callous disregard for the citizens of Long Beach and show that you really don't give a hoot about any of us. What will it be? Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up next, speaker. Good advice. Mr. dan, I just want to make sure that everyone that's speaking is in the line. So I'm going to close the speaker's list. And so the gentleman at the end there will be the last will be the last speaker. Speaking lists is closed. Speaker's list is close. Thank you. Speaker 4: Good evening. My name is Jim Dan. I live in the Fillmore, a historic district. A couple of things. I promised Kathleen that I would stay on point because there are a lot of items that were mentioned earlier that really upset me from my standpoint here. The key here with the developer and also the people involved is integrity. I have worked with Michael Bond in the senior project in the Willmore Historic District. It was tough because it was an abandoned apartment that got transferred over. There's some pushback. He came in. He was extremely respectful. Every project that he's done is had the utmost integrity. I think a lot of people in this city, this is not Iowa by the sea anymore. They're out of touch on the what the youth is bringing to the city people these days. I'm probably the last person among a lot of people here that could actually could afford to buy their own home. People these days are not buying homes. They're not going to the strip malls. They're not buying expensive cars. It's a different there's riding bikes. They're walking. They're skateboarding. They're spending money on designer drinks. It's great. I wish I could do it. Now, getting back on point. Jordan Davis has worked with us on several community projects. Again, integrity. Sorry, doctor. I don't remember your last name, but your. I applaud you for hiring these two gentlemen and having them associated with your project. Again, integrity. I please. I support this project 100%. It changes difficult. It is the beginning of change for downtown. And again you have to the highest rated people that I can think of that I would want to build my project in Long Beach. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Good evening. Mayor and Council. My name is Kathleen Irvine and I am a downtown resident. And I have to say that my favorite part of this project is getting rid. Speaker 4: Of the horrible billboard. Speaker 6: My father was born in Long Beach. I spent most of my childhood here, and I'm happy to see so many wonderful changes happening. There was a very dark period in in Long Beach as history and the newness and the vibrancy of our new downtown is wonderful. I was part of the downtown plan meetings, so I approved it. Despite being a preservationist, I approve of all the things that are going on. I love this project. Michael Bond and J.R. Van Dike do great work. Just because you don't care for that particular look does not mean it's a bad thing. I do not think it. Speaker 4: Is correct. Speaker 6: To use that as a hammer to stop a project just because you personally do not like the color gray or glass or whatever it is. That is not enough of a reason. And to say claim that a building that is across a large street is adjacent is really not correct. If you look at the dictionary, you would never see adjacent. Define that way. So I appreciate their concerns, but quite frankly, I'm thrilled with this project and I really want you guys to support it and move it forward quickly to get rid of that billboard. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Good evening. Counsel lived in the second district for over two decades and the East Village. Has character. That's why people move into the second district. This architectural rendering is a cookie cutter, and it makes me wonder if it's prefab material. And then the other thing, why is it. Speaker 8: Only 20% efficiency if their lead. Speaker 6: To winning 2020 awards for their architecture and green LEED and all that? Why isn't it. Speaker 8: More than 20% efficiency? Speaker 6: Thirdly, again, you guys are greenlighting all of these new constructions. With no parking permitted for the neighborhood that's been there before. All this. Speaker 10: Continual development. Speaker 8: Started rushing in. Speaker 6: It's not fair. And listening to what was just said what the second appellant with regards to the commission. My goodness you've got you've got commissioners playing both sides of the fence. Speaker 10: That's egregious and unethical. Speaker 6: And for you all, if you are rubber stamped us and the community is in such an uproar. What do we have you all representing us for? If if that's the case, we've got five, five council seats up for reelection. And it's time, way past time. We're going into the next new year and you got five seats up for reelection and we're continually have to battle. I also want to know what percentage of this is affordable housing, any of it? Is all these new constructions going to be luxury buildings? And the majority of the people that are going to inhabit these apartment buildings are not from Long Beach. So how are you benefiting the 60% of people that are here already if you're not offering any percentage of it as affordable housing mandated by the city council through your charter, all you're doing. Speaker 10: Is just luxury, luxury. Speaker 6: Luxury all over the place and the integrity of the second street, the second the East Village is shut. Because that's not what me being on the Arts Council Planning Commission the council was supposed to represent in that village area. That's why people move into the village. So I don't approve this. Speaker 10: The the the. Speaker 6: Seven storey plan, the architecture does not meet the integrity of what the neighborhood looks like. Speaker 10: And it's going to impact our parking in addition to the other. Speaker 6: New constructions that's going on. And you all have yet to address that. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Joe Cross and I am an owner of the Loft, one of the units at the Lafayette condominium. I am also a 15 year employee of the related companies, which is a mega developer with dense urban planning skills. I am in favor of this project for a couple of reasons. One, market rate housing is definitely needed in the downtown area. Okay. Secondly, is socioeconomics. I believe the area median income must come up as well. That will help the city drive the quality retail that we sorely needed in the second district. And as well, your goal of bringing more employment to this great city. I think without the housing likely going first, you may not hit those other two goals. But thirdly, and most importantly, I believe in the multifamily concept that it's your sustainability that's built into your downtown plan, the sustainable plan and the city of Delia's plan as well. It clearly states in your plan you are going to get Southern California off of the reliance of the automobile. And without a dense urban plan, you're likely not to hit that. And I truly do support that. I would like to take it one step further, though. As you look towards development in the inner core, with the height restrictions of 250 feet, that you do urban planning that is able to hit a green space development that is not down here to you can easily insert 20% inclusionary housing which is highly successful in the New York City model. And because these projects are built to scale, you can hit parking ratios 2 to 1 that will pencil out to a developer that just takes a little more for planning and getting over a couple of hurdles to where you're currently at. But truly, I do support the project. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. And I know the gentleman. The end was the last speaker, so I think we added somebody. That's okay, but I'll be the last speaker. No more. No more speakers. Yes. Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Members of the city council. My name is Toliver Morris and I'm representing downtown Long Beach Alliance. I'm the former chair and board member for downtown Long Beach Alliance. I wanted to put into the record a multitude of letters that we received from people of downtown and all over the place residents, business owners, property owners who are in support of this project. This is exactly the type of project we need in our downtown. We need lots of these kinds of projects. I'm in the commercial real estate business and bring retail one of the spear heads for retail in downtown. All the retailers who are coming to downtown are counting on these types of projects. The projects that have delivered thus far, the current and the Edison filled up to over 90% in record time, way ahead of schedule. They're doing great. We need more and more of this kind of project. This meets the downtown plan. It also meets with the LBA strategic plan and we are in support of it. Thank you so much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hi. My name is Tino HARAMIS. I live across the street from the project and I moved to downtown in 12 years ago. Brand new into the building from sold a house in Belmont Heights in that area. We never had issues like this. All of a sudden. I love our area because it's a diverse area. It's also in our building. We've got some affordable units that have to the people have to live there for 15 years. It shows stability. I feel that it's really and we had also the the city manager the manager of this company come over and talk to us because Janine brought him over and he there seem to be a lot of things he was saying that do not fit into our neighborhood. The first thing he said was the owner bought the lot at a reasonable price, but nothing below a seven building with an underground parking doesn't pencil. Then they couldn't figure out another way to make it more accessible or nicer for the neighborhood. It's called a village. It would bring down the clock. I would move out. If they build, I'll move out. You'll you'll lose one more neighbor. Because I'm not willing to live in a neighborhood with a big, ugly building in the front that does not fit in the. Speaker 4: Village at all. Speaker 5: The other thing is that those wonderful trees somebody was talking about the billboard. Well, the billboard. I don't even notice it because I notice the trees. It's fantastic. So so maybe they shouldn't you should not combine those lots because those trees are wonderful and we don't have enough green space. We also have to think about the ethical part. We look at the plan. We know it's out of scale. We know they didn't follow the plan. But besides that, what. Speaker 4: About making something that also lets people with lower incomes. Speaker 5: Be able to live in those apartments? I'm just a man before me. I was just talking about the fact that we want to create more business and make more money. No, we don't necessarily only need money. We need quality of life. We need a community. And you know, we voted for you, Mayor Garcia, because you're innovative, you're young, and you probably understand how wonderful it is to live downtown because of diversity, because we also and it's beautiful to live in a neighborhood. I'm Greek in Belmont Heights. People look at me funny because I was playing Greek music here. I can play any music I want. Nobody looks at me funny. We are very diverse. It's fantastic and I want this diversity. I wanted to stay. Do you think in this building we're going to be as diverse as we have been or they're going to be pretty much pretty wealthy high earners coming in, bring in maybe some money, staying for two years and leaving again. So I like consistency. I love the walkability of our neighborhood. This just doesn't fit. And as the gentleman was saying, I bet you he can find a way to pencil it in and make a lot of money as well. And we can have a nice neighborhood. I would love to see something wonderful in front of our building, but not a seven story. I pay $100 a year, a little under $100 a year for electricity because I have the light. I don't need to use much electricity. I save so much electricity. Now I'm sure my bill is going to go up greatly. So all these things do matter. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Hi. Good evening. Speaker 7: Thank you. I'm Karen McGinley. I'm office on fourth and. Speaker 6: I want to thank Bibi for presenting our case so well and also Lina for your assistance. And Miss Pearce, I'll just make a few bullet points. I'm a real estate professional. I've been in Long Beach for 30 years. I moved into the loft on fourth in 2005 with my husband. We've been there 12 years and it is an absolutely spectacular community. As Tino just said, some key issues that I object to as as not only as a real. Speaker 2: Estate person, but as a citizen of the redevelopment. Speaker 6: Area, downtown Long Beach, no affordable housing element. I think that just cries in the face of what you people say you're going to do, both as a professional and also as a citizen. I also object to the seven stories. The natural light is certainly an issue and the high density impact of traffic is just extraordinary. Already on the Alamitos and forth, and I'm not being rude to the gentleman with regard to traffic. He was kind enough to spend time with us last night, but the road diet isn't working and this isn't going to help, okay? It's going to make it a lot worse. So basically I'm asking to revisit the alum in this project, decrease the number of stories, consider decreasing the number of units, therefore parking and density at an affordable housing. And then you can. Speaker 4: Follow the guidelines that you set up. Speaker 6: When we started redeveloping downtown Long Beach in the early 2000s. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: My name is Debbie Tobias. I live at 100 Atlantic Avenue and I am president of TAPS, a citizens parking group. We oppose the project because it doesn't have enough parking. The city has refused for years to make sure those parking requirements are adequate. Stopping the damage has become an urgent matter. Please get the options for immediate action. Action before approving these buildings. Planning staff is. Following the directives of a previous city council when it comes to the support of the downtown's lowered parking requirements, downtown city councilman Robert Garcia and Switzerland pushed for adoption of the downtown plan, which included the low parking requirements. Council members outside of downtown should realize that these issues are likely to come your way. The the Midtown plan was also was already passed last year. That lowered parking requirements without local data or professional evaluation. Speaker 7: During the hearing, the. Speaker 6: Planning Commission was told that there is plenty of parking in the area. A commissioner disagreed with that statement after driving. Speaker 7: The area at 3:30. Speaker 6: P.m.. Planning staff also refuses to include parking guidelines in the alleyway, saying parking will be addressed later in zoning. If you think you can deal with it, then consider how little success we've had fixing this. The downtown plans parking requirements for the new. Speaker 7: Buildings were not. Speaker 6: Based on data or professional evaluation. Back in 2013, planning staff could not provide anything like that to support one space per unit regulation. For years, seniors planning staff has refused to listen to us the public property managers and owners, business owners, owners, our experienced parking consultant and our lawyers. The only reason there's a parking study coming is because of multiple lawsuits. The California Natural Resources Agency told us that the only way to enforce secret is through litigation. That type of lawsuit requires a great deal of money and time. So those at City Hall who want to continue with the inadequate parking requirements know that they only need to continue saying no. The California Natural Resources Agency also told us that while parking is no longer a secret impact, inadequate parking causes, increased traffic, air pollution and safety issues for pedestrians. Because of the increase in cars circling to find parking in the area. The city can study these impacts to protect our area, or the city can continue to do what they think they can get away with. The choice is yours. This can be fixed, or you can continue with the policies that were pushed into law by a small number of people. Please make sure these new buildings have enough parking for their own use. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Hello. My name is Sharon Brown. I'm here reading something for Becky Fisher. She had to leave. She's at 418, Benito. And basically she says there have been numerous studies done indicating that air pollution contributes to Alzheimer's and dementia and people driving around looking for a parking place contributes to the pollution. Last week, Janine Pearce met with local residents to discuss the 320 Alamitos Building. The meeting raised more questions to me than it answered. There are lots of promises made to meet with people before tonight's meeting to provide proof for claims made by staff at planning and council meetings, etc. But to my knowledge, none of this came through . Someone questioned the height of the building saying it's supposed to be in line with the surrounding buildings. Well, it's now she's tells says six stories that's apparent, seven storeys above ground to the four stories above ground next to it. That issue was not addressed. No one could confirm if there's still losing all the parking in front of the building on both sides of Alamitos as originally planned. Nor could they confirm where the claimed 28 new parking places were supposed to be. So no new understanding or clarification to any of our concerns, just promises that did not come to fruition. So on one hand, you have people relating facts that the issues caused harm to the environment and subsequently people, and on the other hand, people just outright denying facts because they don't want to believe. Speaker 0: It or. Speaker 6: Because it doesn't fit their agenda. The agenda seems to be money, money for business, money for people in power, money for developers. But what about the constituents? If you don't take care of us, who does? The Planning Commission tried. They didn't want to approve the 320 Alamitos, but staff told them they had to. If the Planning Commission can't say no to staff, then why do we have them? If council can't say no to staff, why do we have them? It seems that staff is naming the city, running the city, and they aren't elected. They're hired. So basically we have no representatives and as such, no voice. And thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is. Speaker 7: Johanna. Cunningham, the executive director for the Apartment Association. Speaker 6: California Southern Cities. I come before you this evening to express my support for the project at 320 Alamitos Avenue. The 77 unit project is a welcome and much needed addition to the downtown area and provides the development of much needed units within the downtown area. Acknowledging the need for housing supply, this project supports that end goal for both tenants and our hometown businesses. Supply is the issue and it is encouraging to see so many residential projects in the process. Thank you for this opportunity to speak before you in support. Speaker 7: Of the 320. Speaker 6: Alamitos Avenue Project, and I hope you'll support the project and future development as well. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 7: Good evening. My name is Lynnette Firenze. And to approve a site plan review, positive findings must be made. Finding requires compatibility and design, character and scale with neighborhood structure in the community. The proposed building is 75 feet and seven stories surrounding buildings are 1 to 4 storeys in height. The proposed building is up to six stories taller than nearby buildings. How is this compatible with the surrounding buildings? Speaker 6: It is not. Speaker 7: The findings don't address the scale, the building approval. The project will result in a loss of privacy, light air and a reduction in property values to the surrounding condominium owners. Most of El Camino speech is 2 to 3 stories. The new U.S. maps released this weekend show Alamitos Beach went from 7 to 4 stories. This height is more appropriate for the neighborhood. The downtown plan has five guiding principles. Number five is working with and for the community. Dozens and dozens of residents have spoken opposition to this project at Planning Commission. Please listen to your community. The same issue is going to come up frequently in the future has the has many 5 to 6 storey heights allowed. Speaker 6: Which are adjacent to single family homes. Protect your community. Speaker 7: Deny the appeal, and have the developer redesign. Speaker 2: To be compatible with the community. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And a loudspeaker, please. Speaker 4: Oh, thank you. My name is Neal Baker. I live at 940 East Third Street Towers, two condos, which are less than a block from where the proposed development would be in the second district. Thank you to last on fourth for your great presentation. That was very eye opening and I hope the City Council will take that into consideration. I lived in the area for 15 years now as owner of town home, also served on the board of our building for 13 years and I've seen parking go from bad to worse. I've seen what's happened with development. I think it's a beautiful project that you have there. I think a smaller project would be much better for the area. I think having the trees there, I think having a little open space is very great there. I think not being able to see the sunrise is is really impactful for neighbors. And I think this is going to be I don't want us to be guinea pigs for. What is a larger scale development in a historically smaller, low rise development area? We are a residential area. We're Alamitos Beach or on the east side of Alamitos, where this project is supposed to be. And I just asked that the council take that in consideration. Also, I imagine that people who are going to come and rent in this building are going to be paying at least 1500 dollars a month. I don't think this is going to be low income. And I see that the neighborhood changing and going from more diverse to less diverse. So I don't think that's something that a progressive city like Long Beach wants to do. So I urge the council to vote against this project. Thank you. Speaker 0: Well, thank you. That concludes public comment. And so we will now conclude the hearing and go back to the council. And so I'm going to turn this over to Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 7: Okay. I want to. First state. How much I appreciate those of you that are here today engaged in this process. I know that it's been probably the most debated project that's happened in my district since I've been in office, and it is also the smallest of the projects. And so it's been a really hard time for me because it is a project that's in my neighborhood on the other side of Alamitos, on the east side of the district. That feels very different from being inside the downtown plan. And so this is not a project or a vote. That is an easy process for me. And I think you guys have seen me publicly kind of grapple with a couple of things. So I want to give a little bit of context for some folks and just set how my mind has been going and then ask a couple of questions of staff. I think that, one, when I went through all of the letters, the emails I've received in support and opposed, I had to really figure out what's the majority. And I do want to say I want to thank the community members and yon for joining the District one meeting, which while I would have loved to have invited you, I didn't. You just happened to be there. We were at that meeting and we had a meeting last Wednesday and a couple of one on ones as well. And so we've gone through, in my mind, trying to find out how we make this project fit within the downtown plan and how we mitigate the impacts for residents. So within the downtown plan, I think the argument that I have heard from from staff is contradictory, but with some of the the valley, the views from some community members, but it is the roles were set. And when we look at the things in the areas where we have some arguments around if it conflicts with the downtown plan, one of the questions I have is around the height of the building, and that is one thing that I consistently have said is probably our biggest challenge. So I do want to ask development services, if you could talk a little bit about the downtown plan on the areas that we went over previous today around straddling different height densities. Speaker 8: Yes. Councilwoman Pierce, I'm happy to answer that question for you. The the building that's before you tonight is at a height of 74.5 feet in height at seven stories. And the downtown plan, the sub area where this building is located allows a height of up to 80 feet. So the context for that is that the building is located on the east side of Alamitos. And if you look at the boundaries of the specific plan, the specific plan does not divide or bifurcate the downtown plan by use using the street as the easterly border. It captures both sides of the street so that there some context to the development. And you will note that the boundary of the specific plan goes several lots almost to a full block east of Alamitos. So everything within that sub area would be allowed or would be permitted to go up to a maximum height of 80 feet . And that's the context for the height. Did you want me to get into the scale a little more? Speaker 7: If you could get into the scale around some of the other buildings that are there? The appellants presented some photos. I know to the east of that project is some condos that it kind of steps to. Speaker 6: So that's correct. Speaker 8: Directly east of the project, we spent a lot of time looking at the context between the proposed building as well as the especially as it relates to the building just to the east and as the developer indicated in their presentation, but staff tried to cover as well. That was of a particular concern to us. And the design of the building is very context oriented, meaning that most of the height of the building or the heights, the highest components of the building, the seven stories are all oriented to the west of the site along Alamitos. The the designers specifically did attempt to step the building back at the side of the property on the east side adjacent to those the four story units. So at that side, the of the project is four stories on top of the the the podium again in an attempt to minimize the impact of the height of the building on that adjacent property as well. If you look at the top, the other feature of the project to address that the issues of privacy was also that you'll notice on that easterly property line there's a row of trees again to provide some screening and some privacy between the project and the adjacent four story building. So the species of that tree are fairly high, so they will grow fairly tall and would provide, again, some privacy on the site. Speaker 7: Great. Thank you, Linda, for that. I know there's a couple more questions that Councilmember Gonzalez is going to ask before we get to those questions. I also want to give some context, because when I went through District two residents concerns, every single one of them had to do with parking. And so I absolutely feel that pain. I lived on walnut with no parking. I understand the impacts of that. I want to give a little bit of context. So I'm going to ask Public Works to come up and give a little bit of overview. We cannot in my minds, while the downtown plan said it's 1.25. And actually, Linda, while you're still there, the downtown plans at 1.25, I did tell tops that I would get back to them in understanding where that 1.25 came from, what was there previously. And so, Linda, if you could share a little bit of that for us. Speaker 8: Sure. Happy to do that. In terms of the parking standard, the current standard is one unit per space for each I'm sorry, one space for each unit. In addition, the guest parking is .25 or one space for every four units. So that generally comes out to 1.25 spaces per unit. That is a slight increase from the standard that was in place just prior to that. The prior standard was a 1.5, so it got reduced by one half of the space for a unit in the downtown plan. I would just like to note that historically over the years, the parking requirements for the downtown have varied fairly significantly. They were back in the the sixties, they were as low as a 0.5 for the downtown area. They increased to 1.25, they went up to 1.5. And so they've slowly increased over the years until the downtown plan where we have a slight decrease. So it's been a lot of fluctuation in the parking standards downtown. But with the introduction of the blue line, that was an appropriate basis with having very high quality transit in the downtown. That was another basis for the city too, to justify reducing the parking standard for the downtown plan. Speaker 7: So it's my understand when we look at cities like Long Beach that have reduced parking, we're. Diamonds for their downtown. It's because we have other modes of transportation, and in fact, it's because we want to have a walkable, safe city. Speaker 8: That's exactly. Speaker 7: Right. And I know that that is a tough value statement for some folks that live in the parking impacted area because it's really challenging to drive around for 40 minutes looking for parking. So I just want to recognize that. Going to ask public works to go ahead. If you could answer these few questions for me, give an overview of Alamitos and where the parking is. I know we've added back the parking on Alamitos in front of the project. So if you could talk about that and if you could talk about where we are at with the parking study from the lawsuit from from Taps, I'd appreciate that. Speaker 4: Great. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. So as part of the Alamitos corridor, we've recently studied that corridor for a road diet, as part of that road diet between Ocean and Seventh Street, which was approved by council last week. We would add 23 parking stalls in the AM peak period. By removing the peak our parking restrictions, we would also lose five additional stalls all day. So that's the summary on Alamitos Avenue itself. Other parking in the vicinity of the corridor, we are looking at adding over 100 new parking stalls on first and second streets between Alamitos and Cherry. This would be accomplished by converting the angle parking to something closer to 90 degree parking, and this would be accomplished as part of a paving project to take place next year. The parking study you mentioned is one that is being led concurrently by public works and development services. With that, we're studying parking in downtown and Alamitos Beach. The consultant on board has begun their data collection and nearly completed that. They've started community outreach and look to have some initial data early next year or initial results early next year. Speaker 7: Great. Thank you. And I ask for that context because I think it's important to understand that while we we are not in a place where we're asking developers to provide parking for other residents and that this is a challenge location because there's a lot there. And I want to recognize the history of that lot. When the doctor purchased that lot, it previously was not open to the public to rent out those spaces, and it was one of the very first things that he did, and it's been that way for about two years. Is that correct? About four years. And so we have a community asset that was available to us by a developer that didn't have to do that. What we've learned through the process of this, though, is that that process of getting permits hasn't necessarily been our run in the best way. And so as we are looking, I know Councilmember Gonzalez and I are out there every week talking to other locations to try to open up their lots. What we've learned is that there's probably about 20 people that actually use the lot every night. And one of the challenges is the way that we generate those permits. And so I'm working with public works to make sure that we try as we open up lots at Mula, the church right there on third, the Thai food restaurant and St Anthony's in the first district that we're trying to partner in a way where the city can say we want to invest in infrastructure for your lot and we want to help manage doing a parking permit online like we do for the senior center so that every month or every quarter people can get a parking permit, which is not been existent in current lots. And so one of the things that we've learned is that we can manage our parking much better and that's even without getting the results back from the parking study. And so I know that this these do not relate directly to this project being approved. But when I look through and see 99% of the letters are about parking, I need you guys to have that context that we're working really hard to open up those lots and that building more parking isn't an option until we actually use the space that we have. I also want to highlight that we have the Vision Zero plan and that this project coming in is going to help us reach that vision a little bit quicker because we are going to be installing more crosswalks and lighting and safety measures in the area. And so that's something that I want to thank the developers for. They've kind of gone above and beyond the downtown plan and a number of areas outside of issues of height. Let me see before I continue to ramble on. I don't want to take up everybody's time. I just want to give that context. The other question I have, I do want to highlight that the developers have a have met with me and have agreed that any additional parking that is not required within the downtown plan will be accessible to the community. And so that could be done through a permit process that could be done through an open process, and that they are looking at the lifts and trying to figure out if they can add those lifts inside the garage. When you guys talk about affordable housing, I think it's also important to mention that John and several other developers are coming to the table. All the talk about where the appropriate affordable housing is and what the right funding is. This was a private project that was not a city project. But I think that they have a good vision about where we can go. So I'm going to leave my comments there. I want to hear from my colleague and then I will close up at the very end. Okay. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes. I would also like to thank everybody who's been a part of this. I know I had two meetings myself, both with Councilmember Pearce and myself in the first District and then last night with more of my residents. So I appreciate every single one of the residents and everyone who's been involved. I know, unlike maybe other projects, our residents are very well versed. As Bebe mentioned, they come from real estate backgrounds, they come from development backgrounds. So they absolutely have the wherewithal and the knowledge. And so I definitely respect and appreciate that. And I took a lot of notes last night, and as I told them, you know, I dusted off the downtown plan to refresh my memory. And if any councilmember understands downtown, it's definitely me. And the one that lives in downtown raised my kids there. I understand the parking impacts firsthand, and I've been here for about ten years, you know, not just working in the city for almost a decade, but living here. So it's really important for me that all of this was taken into consideration. So with that said, I have a couple of questions in relation to the shade analysis that was brought up. Can you give me a little bit more information about the study and what that entails, please? Speaker 5: Yes. Councilwoman Gonzalez, the shadow study. It's included in the plans. It is the search on page 35 and it goes to page 43. Speaker 4: It did find that the project will cast a shadow. Speaker 5: On adjacent uses, particularly the residential use to the east and commercial uses to the north. And that's particularly during afternoon and evening hours. The without understanding, the developers worked on designing the project sort of around those impacts and that's how they got to push the massing to the Alamitos frontage and pushed the massing towards the north end of the project and kind of scale it down on the south and east sides, which are adjacent to the residential uses. Speaker 11: Okay, great. And so it looks like around midmorning, that will be a little bit at maybe at its height, but then afterwards it could be a little bit better. Is that correct? Speaker 8: That is correct. Speaker 11: Okay. And then light sensitive uses. I understand in these sequent analysis it just refers to Long Beach Unified School District. Can you clarify that as well? Speaker 8: Yes. One of the speakers mentioned or just ask the definition of sensitive uses and suggested that a residential use would be a sensitive use. That is a very specifically defined term in the California Environmental Quality Act or sequel. A In the they're referred to as a sensitive receptor. And a sensitive receptor is a use where the occupants of that facility over a long term may have potential particular sensitivities. And typical sensitive receptors are places that have either young children or elderly or infirm individuals. So it would be a hospital is a risk sensitive receptor a day care facility where you have young kids throughout the day. A senior citizen facility is also a sensitive receptor, but generally a commercial use or a standard residential use. They are not considered sensitive receptors. Speaker 11: Okay. And that would be the only that's clearly defined as that. Just so I'm getting that clear. Speaker 8: That? That is correct. So when we analyze a project per that standard, it would have to be one of those uses. Otherwise, there's no basis to evaluate it as a sensitive receptor. Speaker 11: Great. Thank you. And in relation to the design, so I'll have to be really honest, when I looked at the design at first, you know, you look at it and you went downtown, we want to see bold, we want to see innovative. And so I now looking at the presentation and talking to the developers, I do see that innovation and that boldness in that. And it's absolutely subjective. But I can understand where residents feel as though, you know, this looks like other developments. So I have a couple questions relative to that. So seven stories, 77 units, were pre-sales and were they an option at all and maybe including some sort of walkway to break up the massing at all? Speaker 3: About that. Speaker 8: The I don't think that the the proposed project includes poor sales. I think we look for for per sales. We look for natural breaks in the design of the project to include per sales. But there are some openings in the project, but they're not technically per sales and those openings. Let me just pull up the plant briefly. Speaker 11: Okay. And I guess to help that, I'll just kind of piggyback off of that. Is was there another iteration of this design prior to what we're seeing now? Speaker 8: Yes, we the very first initial design of this project was not acceptable to staff because it did not have the level of articulation. It did not have the the the quality of materials that we ultimately arrived at. But when we expressed those concerns to the developer, they were willing to to work with us and provide some additional fenestration to the building and to change some of the colors and some of the materials on the building to lighten it up and to make it more compatible with the surrounding development in the area. And ultimately, the site plan review committee determined that the project was was compatible and that it did address the the design concerns that staff had originally expressed with the initial project architecture. Speaker 11: Okay. So we have changed somewhat from the original, of course, and there is this new iteration now that is in the Planning Commission's eyes. And in your eyes acceptable? Speaker 6: That is. Speaker 11: Correct. Okay, great. And last question is about the raised terrorist garden on roof, which I think is that a requirement? Speaker 4: It's not a. Speaker 5: Requirement per se, but there is a common outdoor open space requirement and the terrace fulfills part of that open space obligation in terms of square footage. Speaker 11: Okay, great. And that would be considered. With the downtown planet, it's called a green roof or an eco roof deck. Speaker 5: That is correct. Speaker 11: Okay, great. So it's not required. And. All right. And I asked about that. So and the angled balcony, I know we've talked about that as well, but I think that's also another option here that I believe wasn't included in the first iteration. Is that correct? Speaker 5: So there was a lot of work done on the facades between iterations and one of the features that was, I guess, enhanced in this this rendition is, I believe, deeper balcony projections and deeper bay window projections. Speaker 11: Okay, great. Thank you very much. Those are all my questions I will say. And I want to thank staff. I also want to thank Eric as well last night for being there to talk about the Alamitos Road Diet. And again, I know that this is similar to Councilmember Pearce. This is never an easy, you know, decision for us. We have to really think very hard about what we're doing and the plans we're putting in place, because this is plans not just for tomorrow. It's for many years in advance. And a lot of us expect to be here far beyond, you know, a few years, whether you rent or own doesn't matter. And I will say, although, again, it's not relative to the the project per se. But, you know, both she and I have worked rigorously on parking. Absolutely. And yes, they're going to be creating parking lots or parking spaces that are a little over what they need to on site. But just in the adjacent area, I counted between her work and my work alone, almost 500 parking spaces. And I'll go over that 80 spaces that will be working with St Anthony's on over 50 spaces in District two, which would be the lot which I think is health care partners. There's going to be another 41 spaces at the Seventh Day Adventist, 70 spaces that I created in the East Village on the western side of the East Village in the First District and 18 spaces, which is the net result from Alamitos Road Diet. So that leaves us with about 470 spaces and I'm sorry, there's 250 at Mola that I know Councilmember Pearce is working on as well. And when I first took office, that's the very first thing I did was a parking study to look at what we can do in the downtown area specifically for parking before any of this development came out. So there's been a lot of work put into that. So I want to assure you that that absolutely is being done separate to that. And a lot of people talked about affordable housing. And as I mentioned last night, the first district is actually home to the most affordable housing in all of the city. We have over 1700 units, 300 more that are coming on. So over 2000 units that will be created by the end of the year, actually end of next year. And so a lot of affordable housing being done and created. So do we need more affordable housing? Absolutely we do. But we absolutely want to see them in various places in the city. So overall, in addition to that, there's about ten bus transit lines in the area and over 36,000 square feet of green space added, which has become minor park in that area alone and other areas of downtown increase over 30% in their property values over within the last 6 to 7 years. And that's specific to the Willmore area development happening. Lots going on and yet still seeing property values increase with all of that. So I would just like to end with saying that although this is of course a really difficult decision, like I said, for many people, change is never an exciting thing. I will tell you that the city is absolutely moving in a good direction and I think supporting this project would be a good direction. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 7: I yes, thank you. I know I jumped straight into some questions earlier. I did want to highlight two more things before making a motion. I had my staff kind of look at what was required in the downtown plan and what was not required in the downtown plan. And we have a 106 parking stalls. 97 was required. We've got 23 bicycle parking spaces, 20 was required, required. We have over almost 9000 square feet of common space when only 4000 was required. As you guys mentioned, there's a community room that's almost 800 square feet and only 500 was required, 1700 square feet of private open space where 13 was required. I think that one of the conversations that I've had in my neighborhood, particularly with the North Alamitos Neighborhood Association, is the the lack of access to community space and community rooms to be available for meeting. I think one of the challenges with this location is also that it is going to be the highest story in the area. And so making accessible the rooftop community space for residents, neighborhood associations and bids is something that the developers of offset owners have also said that they're open to doing. Again, I'll I'll highlight that this was, you know, a process and a project that I think does fit the neighborhood. Looking at the massing of it. When I think about the current being on Ocean and Alamitos and the change up to where Mola is and all the work that's been done, I really do believe that the design of this project fits with that transition. And so I just wanted to make sure I, I said that. So I would like to ask my colleagues to support us tonight. And I'm going to ask. The City Attorney, I'd like to make two amendments to the special conditions of approval in making amendment number or condition of approval 79 that the property owner will make any additional parking spots outside of the downtown plan requirements available to the public by working with the city to manage permits. I would like the second condition of approval to be that the property owner will make the rooftop accessible, the rooftop community room accessible to community neighborhood associations and business improvement districts when available. And these are both agreements that I've already communicated and been working with the project on. And so I want to thank them for agreeing to those. So with that, I asked for my colleagues to support us. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay, there's a motion and a second to approve the project and the Navy appeals members record casting votes. Speaker 6: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you very much. We're going to go ahead and and moving forward. And next, we're going to be we're going to be moving up the language access item before recreational pot just because of the folks that are here. Next up is Ishinomaki Center, then language access, then recreational pot. So, Madam Clerk, can you please read item 25?

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and consider third-party appeals (APL17-020 and APL17-021) from Bea Bea Jiménez, David White, Karin McGinley, Tino Haramis, Kazumi Hiromoto, Tetsu Hashimoto, and Warren Blesofsky (representing Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development); Adopt resolution finding that the 320 Alamitos Project is consistent with the Downtown Plan Program Environmental Impact Report and subject to the Downtown Plan Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program, and making certain findings and determinations related thereto; and Uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Site Plan Review (SPR17-001) and Lot Merger (LM17-002) for the construction of a seven-story, 77-unit residential development at 320 Alamitos Avenue in the Downtown Planned Development District (PD-30). (District 2)

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Speaker 0: Next up is Ishinomaki Center, then language access, then recreational pot. So, Madam Clerk, can you please read item 25? Speaker 1: Item 25 is a communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez. Recommendation to request that the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee consider renaming the Small Business Development Center, located at 309 Pine Avenue, the Sean Lamouchi Innovation Center. Speaker 0: Slow Maki. But that's okay. Speaker 8: Sorry. Speaker 0: It's okay. Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes, I first want to. But does LaMarche for being here. Desiree, Jeremy Harris from the Chamber and Dave Summers for being here as well. I had a idea about a few years back that, you know, unfortunately, our Small Business Development Center right on Pine Avenue, third and pine was very underutilized. And the whole mission regionally was to ensure that we had business and entrepreneurs that were able to access it for resources, training, workshops, what have you. And it's done, but at a very light level. And so it's in my district and a lot of people said, you know, we got to do something else. And so in thinking about Shawn and everything he stood for, and I'll I'll read his bio in a moment. This absolutely sounded like the right thing to do is name this after someone who embodied, helping and supporting businesses and entrepreneur, an entrepreneurial spirit himself and someone that really was a testament to that. So Shawn was actually raised in the Bay Area, but began his career in 2002 as the vice president of government affairs for the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. He then started his own consulting business Chamber Advocacy, cofounded the Long Beach Post and was an active member of the Long Beach community, serving as a member of nearly a dozen nonprofit boards. Shawn had an innovative mind and continued his commendable work until his last day while he was on a business trip in Florida. Unfortunately, he passed away. Shawn's life was revolved around one quote What's next? And we believe that renaming the current Small Business Development Center after Shawn is what would be next in honoring his life. We received many letters of support from both the Long Beach Symphony Opera and Children Today, which were just two of the boards that Shawn served on. The others include the chair of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network. He was also a board member of Community Hospital, a board member of Long Beach City College Foundation. I think he just was a board member of everything in the city. It seems like Arts Council member, board member for the Playhouse, US Vets, Early Childhood Education Business Advisory Committee in Leadership, Long Beach and an Alumni for Young Leaders Organization. So many things that he did. And I again want to thank Desiree for being here. I know she is absolutely amazing for sticking with us through the night. But when he was around and I knew him, of course, through then council member and Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, he was someone that it was absolutely a joy to work with and someone that, again, really embodied everything that this innovation center will be. And we'll actually see the logistics and operations of what that center will look like in about another month through June. Keisler. So I would like to thank John Keisler and Sergio for helping us put this into fruition. And we'll start to see a center that is seven days a week. Entrepreneurship. Think young STEM classes. Think low cost opportunities for seniors and youth and families. And that's exactly what downtown needs. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Pierce made a second to the motion. Speaker 7: Yes. I just wanted to congratulate Councilmember Gonzalez and the family for being able to celebrate somebody that I didn't get to know very well. But the stories run deep. And I remember, unfortunately, the day that that he passed away in the feeling in the community. And I think that his legacy is going to follow through with the center and just welcome and congratulations. Links. Speaker 0: Thank you, councilman mongo. Speaker 2: I think that this is a very fitting opportunity to name something that's really in line with a person's vision and mission and to really memorialize them in our city. And I think that this is an amazing opportunity. And I know that when we name things after people, we often get people prone against. But I think that the tone of the evening and how many people are here in support and how many emails we've received in support really demonstrates the legacy that Shaun had so excited to support this. Speaker 0: Thank you very much, Richardson. Speaker 5: Thank you. And just wanted to chime in and say the work lean on the we talked about this and you worked hard and really thought about this and and you know and I know he was a good friend, too, to Robert. And a lot of us knew him and learned from him. I remember my first time meeting him was in student government and he was, I think, the keynote speaker like to do two different years in a row at our CSA conference. And when I got to work for the city of Long Beach as Steve Mills chief of staff, he was actually a part of our planning committee when we started our first job summit and we did that for three years. So he helped to sort of shape it in his role as chair of the Pacific Gateway, yet another board. He was who he was on as chair of the Pacific Gateway Board. So, you know, in learning from him and sort of working with him, and he definitely left an impact and made a made an impact on a whole generation of leaders here in our here in the city. And I think that means a lot. And so I stand in full support of naming the center aftershow on the marquee and what he represents. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm going to go to a thread, any public comment, and then I'll close and say some words after the public. Public comment. Okay. Seeing seeing on the let me let me go ahead. Before we vote, I would just say that I think Councilman Gonzales did a great job of kind of telling you a little bit about about Sean and his story. And there's a few things I just would would lift up out of that. Obviously, when Councilman Gonzalez began telling folks, including myself, that she was planning on naming this innovation center that we're creating after after Sean, I immediately was like, Well, that's perfect because he was everything that the center and that everything was center, everything that you want the center to be, everything that the community wants the center to be was really representative of what Sean was about. I want to highlight just a couple of things. The first is a lot of people don't realize Sean's vision in creating the Long Beach Post, the Long Beach Post to to this day tell stories that no other publication is telling is often has a a viewpoint that some might call progressive, others others will call diverse. But I think it covers a lot of of stories that aren't being covered. And I appreciate his vision in creating that organization and leading it. I also there are very few people in the community that did more for the Long Beach Unified School District leading the foundation and raising hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for for kids and preschoolers and in books. And the list goes on and on. And Sean and he did that for many, many years. And he is a huge part of the Long Beach Unified School District family. And if you asked Chris Steinhauser, you know, Sean was like I know like a son to Chris because everything he did for for Long Beach Unified. But I think what makes the most sense is, in my opinion, there was just nobody more innovative than Sean the Marquee. And when you think about what the center is going to do, which is to train folks and to serve as an incubator and to get people to start a business, to help them along as as they move their business. That's exactly what Chantal Markey did in his business. And so I think this is just a really, really fitting opportunity to just to name the have someone that exemplifies that. And from what I understand, I know that this the plans that Councilman Gonzalez has and staffer for this innovation center are going to be pretty , pretty special. It's going to look pretty amazing. And so I think I think it's great. And I want to recognize Desiree LaMarche, who's here, who is a member of our community, a longtime third district resident, actually, I believe, and a very also active person in the city and has been even before and after Sean's unfortunate passing. So thank you. And with that, members, please go ahead and cast your votes. Speaker 11: Mayor, would you like to take a picture with us in front of the. Speaker 0: Absolutely. Did public comment? I did public comment. So we'll do it when we take the vote and then we'll take a photo. Okay. So, members, please cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Great. Excellent. Well, we go ahead and take a photo. Speaker 3: Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you. Speaker 0: And Jeremy won't tell you this, but some give you one of your first jobs. It's why you're here. Okay. Thank you for that. Moving on, we're going to take the next item, which we're going to do, because there's a lot of folks here.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to approve naming the Small Business Development Center located at 309 Pine Ave., the Shaun Lumachi Innovation Center.

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Speaker 0: Okay. There's a motion and a second question. Votes. Motion carries in 26, please. Speaker 1: Item 26 is a report from the city manager and the city attorney. Recommendations receive and file report on a Mendocino and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act related to commercial adult use marijuana regulations and approved. One of the following actions requires the city attorney to drive an ordinance to ban the retail sale, cultivation, manufacture, distribution and laboratory testing of adult use marijuana in Long Beach. Or request the city manager to work with the affected city departments to develop recommendations to legalize and regulate commercial adult use marijuana businesses. In Long Beach City. Speaker 0: There is a staff report, so we're going to do a staff report first and then we'll go into the motions. Mr. Mayor, council members. Speaker 4: We have our deputy city manager, Kevin Jackson, prepared and also our assistant to the city manager, AJ Corey, to this. Speaker 5: Decision. Speaker 4: Kevin. Thank you, Pat. AJ Cleary. Speaker 5: Our assistant city manager, will be conducting the presentation tonight on recreational marijuana. Speaker 13: Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin. Mayors and member members of the City Council. I'm here to provide an update on the state's Commercial Adult Use Marijuana Program and more importantly, to seek direction from the City Council on the preferred approach to regulating the adult use market in Long Beach. Speaker 4: Before I dove. Speaker 13: Into the details of adult use, I want to provide a quick update to City Council on the Long Beach Commercial Medical Marijuana Program. Currently, there are over 100 businesses in the process of obtaining a medical marijuana business license from the city. This includes 32 retailers, which we call dispensaries, 43 grow operators, which we call cultivators, 23 manufacturers, eight distributors and two testing laboratories. The vast majority of these businesses are still working their way through the application process and are not expected to begin operating until next year. So far, only two medical marijuana businesses, both of them dispensaries, have actually received a business license and begun operating. Now to the state level. The state of California recently approved the Medicinal and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act or mask for short. Under the authority of this law, the state will begin issuing marijuana business licenses on January 1st, 2018 to both medical and adult use marijuana businesses. However, the state will only issue business licenses in cities that permit commercial marijuana activity. Long Beach is one of those cities. Long Beach voters through ballot measures may and may approved commercial medical marijuana activity measures, MDMA, to find where and how medical marijuana businesses may operate locally. However, these measures did not address adult use or recreational marijuana. To date, neither the Long Beach voters nor the city council have taken a formal position on whether to allow commercial adult use marijuana businesses to operate in the city. Currently, the city maintains an implicit ban on commercial adult use marijuana activity through its permissive zoning code. However, the California League of Cities has cautioned member cities against relying exclusively on permissive zoning laws to maintain a ban on adult use. Businesses reliance on these laws may invite costly and uncertain litigation from marijuana advocates or businesses challenging the city's interpretation of its zoning code. In other words, there is a risk that beginning January 1st, 2018, some marijuana businesses may attempt to bypass the city and apply for an adult use license directly with the state. If those businesses are successful, the city will have lost its local control over the adult use industry and the state will become the sole licensing authority for adult use marijuana businesses in Long Beach. For this reason, staff is recommending that city council approve one of the following two options. The first option is to request the city attorney to draft an ordinance to ban the retail sale, cultivation, manufacture, distribution and laboratory testing of adult use marijuana in Long Beach. An outright ban would strengthen and clarify the implicit ban currently in place through the city's permissive zoning code. The second option is to legalize and regulate commercial adult use marijuana businesses in Long Beach because option number one is relatively straightforward and an ordinance to ban commercial adult use marijuana could be prepared fairly easily. The remainder of this presentation will discuss staff's recommended process should city council choose option number two. If City Council chooses option number two, staff recommends the following actions. First, the city manager's office will work with affected city departments to research best practices and develop recommendations to appropriately regulate commercial adult use marijuana businesses in Long Beach. It's not enough to simply recycle the medical marijuana initiative that voters approved previously and repurpose it for adult use. The marijuana industry is changing rapidly and our adult use ordinance would need to change with it. Further, over the past year, department staff have developed expertize in marijuana policy and how it relates to public health, public safety, land use, business oversight and enforcement. Staff respectfully request the opportunity to incorporate this expertize into any adult use ordinance development process. Second, the city attorney's office will prepare a draft ordinance to allow license and regulate adult use marijuana businesses in Long Beach using the recommendations prepared by department staff. The ordinance will take some time to prepare. It will need to accommodate changes in state law under the MAAZA, as well as hundreds of pages of draft regulations. These regulations are yet to be released by the state and are expected later this year. Finally, in the interim, the city attorney will prepare a draft urgency ordinance to establish a temporary hold on adult use marijuana businesses in Long Beach. The temporary hold is necessary to avoid legal challenges for marijuana businesses seeking to bypass local approval and apply directly with the state for commercial adult use business licenses on January 1st, 2018. If option number two is selected, the city must resolve a number, a number of outstanding policy issues. Some of these key issues are listed on the next two slides. One of the main reasons for this presentation tonight is for staff to solicit feedback from the city council and the public on these issues. However, this list is by no means comprehensive, so staff is also requesting direction from the City Council on any other adult use marijuana policy that might be incorporated into an adult use ordinance. The first key question is how many adult use dispensaries should be permitted to operate in Long Beach. For comparison, Measure MM required the city to issue 32 medical dispensary licenses. Staff recommends maintaining this level for adult use. The second key question relates to co-location of medical and adult use dispensaries on the same site. Staff recommends requiring any adult use dispensary to co-locate within the 32 medical marijuana dispensaries that have already been identified. This will allow the city to maintain its current cap of 32 total dispensary locations citywide. Without co-location, each adult use dispensary location would be in addition to the 32 medical dispensary locations that have already been selected. The third key question relates to zoning. Currently, medical marijuana businesses may locate in any area of the city not zoned exclusively residential. The Department of Development Services will take the lead in determining if this same standard should apply to adult use marijuana businesses. Fourth staff anticipates that a significant number of non dispensary medical marijuana businesses will seek to convert to adult use licenses. For instance, a medical marijuana cultivator may wish to convert to an adult use marijuana cultivator in order to supply the adult use market. To accommodate these types of conversions. The Department of Financial Management will consider an expedited adult use application process for businesses that have already received a medical marijuana license. And finally, the city will have to decide whether to require a ministerial or discretionary review of adult use applications. Currently, medical marijuana businesses follow a ministerial process whereby businesses are able to obtain a license from the city without receiving input from the city council or residents. Staff recommends reexamining this process for adult use businesses to determine if a more discretionary process could be utilized. That allows for public input on licensing decisions. Regardless of which option is chosen. City attorney will return to city council in December with a draft ordinance. If option number one is selected, the city attorney will present an ordinance to explicitly ban commercial adult use marijuana in Long Beach. If option number two is selected, the city attorney will present an ordinance to place a 180 day temporary hold on commercial adult use marijuana activities in Long Beach during the temporary hold. Staff will develop recommendations on what to include in a commercial adult use ordinance. Those recommendations will be shared with the city attorney, who will then use that information to draft an ordinance to legalize and regulate commercial adult use. The goal is to present city council with a draft ordinance by June 2018. Upon release of the draft ordinance. Staff will present a fiscal impact report to the City Council on Commercial Adult Use. City Council will then be requested to provide further input on the Adult Use Ordinance and submit revisions wherever needed. So to recap, the purpose of this discussion is to seek general direction from the City Council on how to proceed with commercial adult use marijuana in Long Beach. This will allow staff time and direction to begin the process of developing a program around City Council's stated position on the issue. That concludes my presentation and I'm available to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. We're going to go into the council. Councilman Price. Speaker 8: Thank you. I have a few questions for staff and then I'm going to make a motion. And of course. Actually let me ask staff some questions and then if it's okay with the mayor, can we go to public comment and then we can come back to the council? But I just have a few clarifying questions and AJ, thank you for the presentation. AJ and I were both fortunate to have the opportunity to do a webinar on this topic back in August that the California League League of California Cities put together. And so I understand why we're bringing this item forward now, and that is because not doing so would could subject the city to litigation if we were sued based on a denial of a permit. Is that correct? Speaker 13: Yeah, that's correct. Speaker 8: Okay. So in regards to that timing, then, you know, I recall that during this training that you and I received, there was the option to do a temporary ban. Can you talk a little bit about that option? Speaker 13: The temporary ban is essentially what is being proposed if option number two is selected. So we're calling it here a temporary hold, but it could go by a temporary ban as well. Speaker 8: And then the hard sunset date would be the 180 days. Speaker 13: That's correct. But city council would have the ability to extend that temporary hold as long as necessary. Speaker 8: Okay. Speaker 6: I think this. Speaker 8: Is we just received this presentation today, and I know that staff, a lot of times they're working on their presentation up until the time of council. But I will say in looking at this presentation, there's a great deal of information on what would happen if we picked option two. But there's very little information as to option one, why a city would go with option one, what the pros and the cons of option one would be. So with that regard in that regards, can you educate us on what other cities in the region have done in regards to this particular issue? And if they have taken a stance on this, how many of them have made a decision to ban as opposed to allow adult use marijuana? Speaker 13: Sure. We did a preliminary review of cities in Southern California to see which had implemented a ban which are currently in the same position as Long Beach and are only allowing medical and which cities are currently allowing adult use commercially. What we found based off of our review was that, you know, we looked at approximately 20 or so cities. The majority of them had a ban in place. That ban was implemented in many instances even before Proposition 64 had passed. Those cities clearly did not want either medical or adult use in place, and so they passed it over a year ago. Some of the other cities that had implemented the ban did so within the last few months. But a lot of them a while ago there were a handful of cities that are like Long Beach that are currently allowing medical only. They include Santa Ana, Santa monica, which has a proposed ordinance for Medical Compton, which has a proposed ballot initiative for Medical. Costa mesa, Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs. There were only three cities that we can identify that have adult use ordinances in place, and that included Los Angeles City, City of San Diego and city of Carson. Speaker 8: Okay. For the cities that have recently engaged in these discussions and opted to continue a ban, do you have any understanding of what some of the reasons they cited for continuing the ban might be? Speaker 13: I don't. I mean, it's, as you're well aware, a very complicated topic that impacts many different policy areas public safety, public health, the the resources of the city to enforce both the license and unlicensed businesses. So each city is probably looking at different elements of legalization and making a termination that it's not worth some of the consequences for the cities that choose to legalize. They may be emphasizing medical access, potential revenue sources, things that affect. So there's pros and cons to both sides. And I don't know exactly what into each city's consideration. Speaker 8: Well, and that probably wasn't that question probably wasn't phrased in the best way in light of the current situation with the state's bureau on Cannabis Control. Are there any concerns that have been raised in regards to the uncertainty of the regulations, the fact that this is a very dynamic area where there's policy changes literally being proposed every single day in regards to certification, testing, all manner of regulatory processes. That that is a very dynamic area right now. And a lot of cities are hesitant to enter that area right now since the laws really have not been set into place and the regulation regulatory scheme has not been established. Have you heard that? Speaker 13: That's absolutely true. The laws are changing at the state level. On a monthly basis, it seems. The regulations, which are expected to be hundreds of pages in length, are yet to even be released. So it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to propose an adult use ordinance prior to this date. It will still be very difficult to propose an adult use commercial ordinance within the next few months. But staff is confident that if we are provided 180 days by next year, we believe the state will have its laws finalized, its draft regulations released and hopefully adopted as well. And so we'll have the information that we need at the state level to be able to develop a comprehensive recreational ordinance. Speaker 8: Well, and I certainly do appreciate optimism by our city staff when expressed in regards to any projects. But I will say, and I'm sure you can agree, that the roll out of just the medical portion of this has not been the smoothest even for the city. We've had a lot of clarification that we've had to do. It's it's a new venture for us. And so we've had to go through. And although it's been I mean, I'm one of the districts that is having a medical marijuana dispensary operating currently. And I know that the business owner is here. And that partnership has been nothing short of fantastic. And I'm very grateful for the partnership that we have with that owner, and I wish them nothing but success. And so in that regards, it's it's been it's been a great relationship for us. But what I will say is that I think we can all agree that setting policies and establishing regulations can sometimes be a bit of a messy process, and two of the 32 are open. We still have 30 facilities to go. Right, 30 dispensaries to go. Speaker 13: That's right. Speaker 8: So, you know, my my thoughts on this are, you know, I still have the same reservations about the resources that will be consumed through the operation of illegal dispensaries in the city. And what that will mean for the quality of life issues that our residents experience, since they will not have the type of police resources that they deserve, since those resources will have to be routed elsewhere to enforce illegal operations. Those concerns that I have still remain, and I know that many of the business owners, in fact, we met with with the business owners that are going to be establishing a property in might establishing a dispensary in my district at Fourth and Redondo last night. Again, lovely people really enjoyed meeting with them. They're coming to our district by way of voter initiative, and I approve that. And I'm going to partner with them every which way that I can. But that doesn't negate the concerns that I have regarding the drain on our resources. And we have yet to see what the practical application of our regulations and what the resources will be once these facilities are operating and we have a market that might be illegal in nature established in Long Beach. So I bring this I understand why staff is bringing this item. I think that we've only started to implement the medical marijuana voter approved initiative here in the city of Long Beach. The process itself has had some uncertainties, with many requests for clarification along the way. The state policies are changing very rapidly and dynamically, and it would be my recommendation to my colleagues that we can explicitly continue the ban and revisit this issue. After all, 32 of our medical marijuana facilities are opening and opened and operating before we expand the services that they're providing to allow for adult use. I think that would be a better time for us to reevaluate the situation. We'll have some data from which we can assess what the implications or consequences are, if any. Perhaps there will be no consequences, and then we can roll out the cocoa use option. So that's my recommendation, is to go my my motion is to go with option one and continue the ban until all 32 of our medical marijuana facilities are in existence. And then we can evaluate adult use. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. You want to speak to the motion? Councilwoman, go. Speaker 2: If I could get from. Our staff. What? I don't want to be your first name. Age. Watch what timeline you think we will have before all 32 are open. Speaker 13: It's hard for us to say. The reason is because that's mostly out of our control. A lot of it has to do with the quality of the architectural drawings that these businesses submit, how responsive they are to department requests for for changes to those plans when they begin construction. How long that process takes them. If they clear inspections, if they don't clear inspections. So I suspect that the bulk of the businesses will be open perhaps first quarter, second quarter of next year. But there could be a few businesses that maybe for structural reasons, their facility is not working out. They have issues for other reasons that prevent them from opening for perhaps a year or even longer than that. Speaker 2: So I will only add that I. Commend your work on this effort, and I commend the continued work by some of my colleagues to ensure that we are being prudent in our rollout and in addition to policing the band. I would like staff to work towards what a recommendation would look like when and if it comes back, because I recognize that it will take a long time to develop. I think that there need to be incentives for those that are good operators to have the first option of adult use. Should this council decide after the second quarter of next year to repeal the ban and implement some policies. I think that at a time when the staff are confident in the policies that would outline the operation, I think that would be a great time to bring it back. I think that sunsetting the policy at an arbitrary time where we may or may not know what the state is doing is different. But I think that those policy directions should be in progress immediately with a goal of you bringing that back to council. Close the second quarter next year. With a two from four at the minimum. And I would also add that should these policies not only need the direction of the community I'm sorry, the city staff, but the community is who voted for this. And the community should have some input into the adult use side. There are a lot of individuals who are strongly in favor of the option of marijuana but have some concerns about. Which direction the building will face. There are some locations that are going to be built out differently than others, some that will have drive thru, some will have different things that are at least being talked about in the community. That may just be rumors. But I think that looking at and incentivizing those that have strong cash handling policies, those that whatever it is that we feel as the first quarter has opened and closed, whatever businesses are the models is what we should probably establish the requirements after. And so with that, if you're open to that. Councilwoman. Sure. Great. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. There was a request to first go to public comment. I have other council members I want to speak, but I'm going to go to public comment and then we'll go to the council as folks are queued up. So please, there's a lot of council discussion they want, so please try to keep it precise. I think most folks are I've heard a lot of testimony on this topic, so let's keep it brief and let's let the council get into it into the discussion. Okay. But actually, Mr. Parkin, that you have something. I just saw you queue up. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. Just to clarify, the. Speaker 5: Motion is, as I understand, it would be option one to for the office to prepare a ban and bring that back to city council to implement until and then at such time that 32 dispensaries are operational, there would be a report back from staff on the dispensaries. Councilmember Mungo I'm not sure I understood what your requested friendly was. Speaker 2: So my requested friendly would be that it sounds like after the second quarter of next year most would be open. So instead of giving a a firm date of all 32 must be open. I would advise it to say that staff continually work from here forward on a two from four outlining some of the guidelines and to have it back to us by so. Speaker 12: I and if I understand the revised motion then would be due for our office to. Speaker 5: Draft a ban retail sales of recreational marijuana. And at the end of the second quarter of 2018, there would be a staff report, at a minimum a two from four memo to the mayor and Council identifying. Speaker 12: Issues associated with adult use. Speaker 5: Recreational and recreational marijuana. Speaker 2: And opportunities. Should they think the policy is appropriate at that time? What are the best practices? So we would be in a position no matter what direction we felt at that time. We wouldn't have to wait another six months to write something. We would be in that process of what would it look like if we went that direction and keeping abreast of those best policy practices. Speaker 12: I think the clarification. Speaker 5: That I need is that we would not at this report would come back and at some point the council would have to decide to repeal the ban and direct us to prepare an ordinance so there would not be an ordinance prepared at the end of the six months, it would be a report back. And then council can make that decision and or give that direction. Speaker 2: Yes. And at that time, they could theoretically do both at one council meeting. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Let's try to keep our comments brief. Again, we have other council members queued up quite. Speaker 4: Brief, fully supporting the approach of Councilwoman Pryce. But I'd also take this approach everything. If we're forced to travel down this path, every single license every year would cost $10 million and that every transaction would have a $1 million transaction tax on that transaction, no matter whether it was recreational or medicinal. Also if you could point out the that one of the reasons for that. Is this city in too many instances is extremely poorly managed. And that we have a mayor in Kew that is going to be arrested for corruption. And until such time as that gets squared away and the management gets squared away. We need those dollars. To protect the voters. Thank you. Speaker 0: Next speaker. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 6: Hi. My name is Christina Cahill. I live in the second district. These are just my personal feelings about the whole marijuana issue near my home. I guess one of the first medical marijuana dispensaries is opening. I wasn't that aware of it. And then then I was aware of this that you are going to decide. Speaker 7: Whether to ban the. Speaker 6: Recreational. So here I am. I didn't have much time to prepare. But what I don't hear from the conversation is, you know, there's a lot of. Speaker 7: Beat marijuana, there's a lot of. Speaker 6: Harm. It's both psychological and physical. And I don't know if it's talked about or even known. I've known about it for a long time. Just even preparing for this. I looked online. There's a lot of harm. Some of the. Speaker 7: Effects. I want us to be wise in this. Speaker 6: And if it was my choice, I would minimize it completely. That's because a lot of people are vulnerable to getting mixed up with it too deep and affecting their lives in a negative way. Just one little experience I had. It's just one. It doesn't. Speaker 7: Define the whole. Speaker 11: Industry, but. Speaker 6: Me and my friend went to get some medical marijuana. I forgot it was in Orange County and we just I expected it. A brightly lit kind of positive place. Speaker 7: Clean, all that. Speaker 6: Stuff. And it wasn't it was really, you know, they had they said there were medical marijuana. They had huge graffiti inside a pot, smoking animals and stuff. Plexiglass makes you seem like someone's going to shoot any moment and. Speaker 7: It really weird. I want to get out of there. It was very dark. And I mean, let's be honest, it's not all medical marijuana, marijuana. Speaker 6: But some of the negative effects are I don't know if people know. Heart attack goes up 26% after you have some pot for teenagers that the brain is still developing, it. Speaker 7: Affects their brain. Speaker 6: A negative way could change kind of the course of their life. There's also smoke in the lungs, you know? You know, cigaret smoking is very unpopular. Well, that comes from a plant and that's very damaging. There's no reason to think that marijuana also wouldn't be damaging. The only reason it hasn't been studied is much because it was a class one drug for so long. They do know some. Speaker 7: Things, but you. Speaker 6: Know, it's still smoke in the lungs in 10%. Speaker 7: Of the people become dependent. What does that do. Speaker 6: To young people? I have my own experience, not with me, but some friends. When they become dependent, it becomes a major focus in their life as opposed to other things, their growth, their development as a person. Speaker 7: I don't know if that is healthy. I don't know if that's. Speaker 6: A good thing for a community. Also, my research today, I found out there is more crime around these dispensaries and in the Long Beach one. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Everyone. I'm Eldorado Park. This is my first time talking in front of you guys, and I'm kind of nervous, so I had to write some stuff down. Among Eldorado Park Estates, resident and voter from District five, and I'm very concerned about a pot business, medical, recreational opening up in my neighborhood that has been proposed. I would like the city council to know if they don't know already that Los Alamitos High School is a block away from this proposed site. And Newcomb Academy, which is a ky3, is approximately three blocks away. And I want to ask the city council a few questions. Are are these are these dispensaries this close to schools appropriate? Question number two, do minimum standards for locations have to pass the common sense test? And three, what do you say to residents and voters that live here in districts that are going to be impacted by businesses given licenses. Speaker 0: To sell marijuana in their neighborhood? Speaker 4: One more thing is I work in L.A. and I pass by these sites all the time and namesake Kush factory and all the crap that around these locations is something that is visible and something that unless you are around these things all the time. Speaker 0: You might not. Speaker 4: Be aware. Speaker 5: Of. Speaker 4: So good luck, I guess. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next week. Speaker 6: Good evening. My name is Susan Soaries and I'm the executive director of the 501c3 nonprofit organization CARE, where my mission is to advocacy and education of the cannabis plant. I was 33 years old and I was an Orange County Republican soccer mom leader in the Mormon Church when I sustained an injury to my head. And I can tell you that cannabis saved my life. I want you council members and mayor to think about something when it comes to recreational cannabis. At my event on the Queen Mary last year, I had California State Comptroller Betty Yee come and speak to us. And one of the things that she mentioned was that we need to look at tourism and what California cannabis tourism can mean to us. This is money that doesn't come out of your constituents pockets, and it's a big, big number. She said that we, if regulated properly, which is a big if, if regulated properly, we could see a 20% increase in tourism. That's really important to Long Beach. That's a big number. We're talking about statewide, possibly up to 27, 28 billion extra dollars. That's coming from the outside in. We're talking about 300,000 jobs that are not easily replaced by robots. So I think it's time for Long Beach to be a leader. Let's not look at what the other cities are doing. What's Long Beach doing? Long Beach is awesome. We've got the cruise ships coming in. We've got the best port airport in America. We've got some of the best restaurants and hotels. Let's leave California. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next week. Speaker 6: Hi. I read an article in Long Beach Business Journal about. Speaker 8: The warehouses in. Speaker 6: Lower West Side being converted to marijuana large scale production. And to be honest with you, I lived in Long Beach my whole life. And one ka'anapali I had one kid at Cabrillo. We it is everywhere in Long Beach. Speaker 2: It is so. Speaker 6: A part of our culture. And as far as I'm concerned, these owners have just been screwed over and over again with all the permits that they've been trying to get and being. It's just it's taken forever. And they're buying little lotteries in years, turning up and then having to close it. Come on, the kids are selling it. It's this isn't a joke. Okay. So what we have to look at is the pools that are coming through here in mass quantity. Now, I can tell you, if a kid set on dope in the park and I can at a time be like, you know, you really don't want to go home, come in like this. You know, there's security officers all over the side here. They can tell you your eyes are, you know, okay, I can tell the difference between the pools. They're coming through cabrio for $5 a pop. You can get them in the con. It's a X, but I don't think it's Xanax. And then the other issue is they're coming in with clear water bottles for liquor all day long. Now, if you want to look at I'm I'm is communing I feel is yeah to be honest about weed thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you Speaker. Speaker 6: My name is Kathleen Brady, and I'd like to ask that the council prohibit the sale of commercial marijuana in Long Beach and other associated businesses. I'm concerned that allowing such businesses will be a strain on the city's services, such as the Long Beach PD and the other agencies needed to regulate and enforce these businesses and the cost of ameliorating the public health impact. I'm skeptical that taxes placed on these establishments will cover the true costs. And my second concern is that allowing recreational marijuana sends an implicit message to our. Speaker 1: Kids in. Speaker 6: Long Beach that using marijuana is okay. For them. I realize the legal age is 21 and it will be strictly checked. But in the past few years, I've been troubled by what I see here in town. Twice I've seen middle school kids smoking weed and many times more often high school aged kids. At times I see young women about 15 years old with groups of older guys smoking together. These are scenarios I've personally witnessed here in my neighborhood, and as I move about this city, these are obvious problems that I think will be magnified by allowing recreational pot business in Long Beach. I believe that the existing framework for medicinal medicinal marijuana is sufficient. Speaker 1: To meet the needs of Long Beach residents. Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm going down to 2 minutes, guys. We're going to make these quick with that. The counselor wants to get engaged, so please, we set a long agenda. Speaker 5: And in 2013 while working. Oh, sorry. My name is Stephanie Dawson. So I'm a resident of the second district. In 2013, we're working for then Councilmember Robert Garcia. I asked Councilmember Abo Austin why the city can't seem to fix the persistent issues regarding the nascent medical marijuana industry at that time. To this day, I have yet to hear more accurate analysis regarding the burden facing local government in regulating this agricultural commodity. That evening, Al pointed out to the that thanks to federalism, local government is designed mainly to address land use and tax issues. Laws concerning consumer safety, labor relations and product liability are usually designed with the state or federal authorities. As a result. SB 420 In the old medical marijuana laws function as an unfunded mandate wherein local resources were being diverted to enforce poorly conceived laws with potentially large collateral consequences to public safety. However, thanks to the efforts of Assembly member Reggie John Sawyer and his wonderful staff, which includes Councilmember Austin's wife, we have exactly what we were missing in 2013 statewide laws and regulations. We have agencies in charge of licensing discrete and highly regulated business activities. We are forcing commercial cannabis providers to abide by the strictest labor and environmental standards in the country. We're requiring seed to sale tracking throughout the entire supply chain, mitigating the risk of diversion, and thereby thereby keeping the feds out of our city. The voters of the city overwhelmingly voted in favor of three things last year legalizing adult use cannabis via Proposition 64, requiring the city to permit medical marijuana businesses and to tax both medical and adult use locally. Strong. Clearly, there was strong democratic will for these businesses to exist. I don't see a reason, by the way, to expand beyond the number that we have for 32. And I think that this focus on the development of the retail sector is a place mark for determining when we will allow adult use as misguided. We have an existing tax at 6% all the way up to 12% of gross for manufacturing. L.A. City and L.A. County are not going to get their stuff together until next year. Perhaps. In the meantime, we can corner the entire state for manufacturing cannabis on both sides. And if you want that money in those jobs, that's. Speaker 4: Going to be the best way to make sure we have. How many of these businesses right now are applying for these licenses? Speaker 5: We will double that by then. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker and this is it looks the speaker this is closed. Thank the speaker. Speaker 4: Honorable Mayor council members. My name is Matt Bellamy, Executive Vice President of U of CW Local 324 UFC W represents cannabis workers throughout the United States, California and actually here in Long Beach, LBC and UFC W 324 submitted a letter to the Council, the mayor, city manager and city attorney that we support proposal number two to move forward with having staff write an ordinance for adult use and Long Beach. Prop 64 was passed statewide last year, both locally and statewide, showing that the voters of the state and the city want adult access to cannabis. And Long Beach has gone through over nine months of hard work opening the current medical cannabis businesses. And I would just like to say that these businesses have been heavily vetted by the city and should be able to co-locate with the adult use. And the staff should take that in mind as they draft that ordinance. And that's the direction I think that what's been happening here in Long Beach has been the model for what's being used throughout the country. In fact, the city of Santa Ana just last week used the same model to pass adult use in their city. So the two current Carnival medical cannabis businesses that have opened are also creating good, sustainable jobs with fair wages, health care and a pension for the employees and their family. So we would ask that the city continue this work and move forward with directing staff to draft an adult, use cannabis ordinance and institute that temporary hold, which I think should satisfy the entire council until they can move forward and draft an ordinance that would allow for adult use. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker. Speaker 5: Nathan, those are district two. Just quickly to Councilwoman Price's earlier motion. As someone that also works in the public sector, I know that. Speaker 9: Using the cautious wait and see option. Speaker 5: Can be more toxic. Then pulling the trigger. So the fiscal and public safety analyzes have been conducted. Millions of votes have been cast statewide. And I think it's tough to dispute that there's definitely an appetite among citizens to settle this issue once and for all and embrace policies such as the one under consideration this evening. With that said, as someone who does not regularly enjoy marijuana, I have to say that I believe this is about something much bigger than simply allowing citizens the freedom to buy marijuana. This is about a band advancing the values we hold as a city. I moved to Long Beach about five years ago from Riverside, and the differences between the two cities are like night and day. Long Beach is home to an extremely vibrant, diverse and tolerant society, and all of us are very proud of it as well. We should be now at a time when our country as a whole is going through a major identity crisis, we depend on and expect you all our local elected officials to step up to the plate and aggressively advocate for progressive policies that encourage even more openness, more tolerance and more liberty in our city. After all, it's this very open openness, tolerance and liberty that distinguishes Long Beach from other places like Riverside. It would be a beautiful thing. Speaker 9: If we as a society can move past this notion of because I choose not to do something, I don't want other people to do it either. This type of thinking. Speaker 5: Stifles growth of a free and vibrant city. With that said, I also agree with Stat's recommendation that any recreational marijuana dispensaries should co-locate with medical businesses. On that note, I strongly encourage you to direct the city manager to develop a policy that would allow for the sale of adult use marijuana. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Honorable Mayor and City Council. My name is Gregory, left and board of directors for the Long Beach Collective Association. I think pretty much all the council here knows where we stand on the issue. I'm not going to take the full 2 minutes. Rather, I'd like to use this opportunity to thank the city staff, especially the city manager's office, but along with the city attorney's office and all the other affected departments that have been helping this process. Emily, I mean, you know, they've been working so hard for the last nine months and I'm actually can't believe how smooth the process has been. So hats off to you guys. Thank you so much for all the cooperation. And, you know, we're always here to help if there's some from the industry side. So again, thank you and thank you. Speaker Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council Members. My name is Charles Baldwin. I'm the chief compliance officer for Sugar, a vertically integrated California cannabis company with operations both here in California as well as in Nevada. I know that with the 11th hour here, we're all starting to fade a little bit and lose attention a bit. But I would like to just cast my vote for urging the council to pursue option number two. The voters have spoken in Long Beach. They strongly have voted in favor of adult use. California needs your help. Recreational sales are happening in California right now. Children have access to cannabis. The best way to address these public safety issues is to support a robust, regulated industry by choosing to wait and see like many other municipalities are doing. You are not assisting the state in bringing transparency and oversight and regulations into this industry. I would strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to build upon the work that city staff has done and assist the state in bringing regulated cannabis to the voters. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 5: Speaker two Hello, my name is Luke Hiller. I'm from the second district. Interesting. I agree with Mr. Price here and that a moment of prudence might not be inappropriate. We are two dispensaries open so far. We have 30 dispensaries to go. We don't know how they're going to integrate with our community. We don't know what the benefit is. We don't know if, as this young man suggested, that somehow they will reduce youth smoking of pot. So I think just option one might be the best way with the option of reviewing six months to see after they open whether they there is a benefit to our to our city. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 5: Speaker My name is Elliot Lewis. Connected. I have a shop down in Belmont. Belmont? Sure. Hoping to get up another couple. I didn't want to go into the all the philosophical arguments, but I wanted to touch on a couple points. You know, Santa Ana has a recreational bill moving forward. There's likely one coming down the pipe in L.A. Rumblings and Lynnwood Bellflower. A lot of these surrounding cities are going to go recreational. You know, we appreciate the opportunity here to operate Long Beach as medical marijuana dispensaries. If we miss this opportunity to put it be put on an even playing field with surrounding cities, we'll lose market share and a wander undermine the industry. And then the last issue I think and a lot of people have said it's a fundamental issue. You know, my opinion is it's the job of the council to represent the voters, you know, overwhelmingly in Long Beach. There seems to be a mandate for adult use marijuana. There is no question that, you know, almost two thirds of the voters support it. So I would urge the council to represent the citizens of their district. And I know there's a small minority in every district that's. Speaker 4: Really, really loud, but the two. Speaker 5: Thirds is probably the quiet majority and they support adult use. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay. We're going back to the council. Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 11: I'd like to thank everybody for their comments. And this has been a long time coming. And I know that this has been a very busy process, but I feel very confident in providing the option number to legalize and regulate, which I would like to provide a substitute motion for. Substitute substitute motion for and substitute I'm sorry, it's very late tonight. And so I know historically we've gone through this so many times, but I do believe that our voters did overwhelmingly vote for recreational marijuana and over 63% of them. And there are a lot of cities that are doing the same thing. And we do put ourselves kind of in a place where we can really make a statement and be ahead of the curve. And I think that this is an opportunity for us to do that. And there are a lot of good dispensary owners who are investing a lot of money, but they're also being community members, going to our community, talking to our residents, doing the work. That's very difficult for us to do because you all do the work every single day. So that is my motion. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's a motion and a second baseman, Richardson. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I wanted to just go to staff with a few questions. So first, what was the. I know that that was prompted. This is Proposition 64 in California, correct? Speaker 13: That's correct. Speaker 5: And what was the voter? When was that? Was that June or November of last year? Speaker 13: It was November of last year. Speaker 5: So November of 2016 was, which was not a saw case. November 2016. What was the vote percentage in the state of California? Speaker 13: At the state of California? It received, I think, 57% of the vote. Speaker 5: Do we have are local numbers? County, city. Speaker 13: County of Los Angeles was 59% of the vote and city of Long Beach was, I believe, above 63% of the vote. Speaker 5: So city of Long Beach voters were higher than L.A. County voters and higher than the state of California on this issue. Speaker 13: That's correct. Speaker 5: Okay. Well, I know that look, the city has gone back and forth on this issue for years. This is one that's really clear that the voter intent is there. You know, in Long Beach, it was higher than the other state. So I don't really want to debate that issue. But what I will say is you have we know that medicinal we had time and time again to pass an ordinance and we failed to do so. And the result was the industry went to the ballot and sort of tied the city's hands. I don't want to make that mistake again very easily. If we don't take decisive action and begin to own this issue and create public policy is right for our city. Now, we don't do that. We could very well be in a position where folks go to the ballot next year, in 2018, when there's a statewide gubernatorial race . If the numbers were not a statewide gubernatorial last time in California and it will be next time, the numbers will likely be the same, if not higher. So I think we need to we need to move move forward. But one thing that we missed and what I think and I'm going to offer a substitute substitute motion, the one thing that I think is is missing is that I want to move forward with option number two. But but we do have the opportunity to add to those criteria to evaluate, correct? Yes. Okay. So one piece I think we need to evaluate is sort of the jobs labor, labor peace aspect and the social equity aspect. And here's why. So one city of Oakland City of Oakland has one of the one of the most robust processes that makes sure that these permits and licenses that go to, you know, the cultivation and the labs and all that. But there's some sort of a lens that provides local opportunities and makes sure that there are some some, you know, some diversity there. And I think we should take a look at some of those things and how we can integrate that into the recreational ordinance here, as well as the medicinal ordinance passed by the bill passed by the voters had had labor peace, ensuring that there were, you know, quality jobs and and, you know, a living wage being paid. And we want to make sure that that's represented here. So that would be my substitute motion and that would be just go with option two. But to place in place a lens and, you know, evaluate that as a part of it. Speaker 0: Because that's a substantive, substantive motion by Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilman Andrews. That's the final motion on the floor. Councilman Andrews? Yeah. Speaker 9: Yes. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I think I was probably, as I've been on this issue probably long with anybody in the diocese, you know, been up and down, up and down. But now, I think, has come to the time that we as a citizen and voters of the city of Long Beach. I mean, I think the voters have made their choice. And when we do that, you know, that's what we go to the ballots for, to let the citizens make the decisions. And they've made a decision. And with the passage of the recent ballot, I think it's clear that voters have supported the issue of using, you know, adult use of marijuana. So therefore, I support the drafting ordinance and allowed, you know, regulation of recreational recreational cannabis. And we should only offer it to those already who have license that we do not have to start a new process. And that's what it seems like we're doing. We can't keep going back and forth on this because you guys, the longer we wait, the more I think we're going to allow, you know, additional known as we cover these aspects of legalization. I think you can see an enforcement plan, you know, for the black market, because if we don't, someone else will. And right now, we have a chance to really set ourselves above everyone else because of what the citizens have said. They have voted for this. And I think it's time for us to move on this, because it's been over a year since we made this magic pass and it's still only, you know, hurt from to the look. We only have two locations in the city of Long Beach, and I think that's very, very few. So we need to take some time and move on because the longer we wait, the more it's going to encourage illegal behavior in this. And I want this bill. So you guys, Long Beach, if we're going to do it, we better do it now because the longer we wait, we let other individuals come in and take over . And I think it's really the voters have already chosen. They've told us what we want us to do. Let's follow that and thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Members, please cast your votes on Vice Mayor Richardson's substitute. Substitute motion. Speaker 1: Councilmember Huston who motion carries. Speaker 0: Motion carries. Let's go ahead and go to the next item, please. We're going to do a consent calendar minus item five, please.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a report on the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) related to commercial adult-use marijuana regulations; and Approve one of the following actions: 1) Request City Attorney to draft an ordinance to ban the retail sale, cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and laboratory testing of adult-use marijuana in Long Beach; OR 2) Request City Manager to work with affected City departments to develop recommendations to legalize and regulate Commercial Adult-Use Marijuana Businesses in Long Beach; request City Attorney to prepare a draft ordinance to allow, license, and regulate the retail sale, cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and laboratory testing of adult-use marijuana in Long Beach, based on findings and recommendations of the study conducted by the City Manager; and, in the interim, request City Attorney to prepare a draft ordinance to implement a temporary hold on adult-use marijuana businesses in Long Beach until a commercial adult-use marijuana ordinance can b

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Speaker 1: Four, five. Council. Woman Mango. Wishing. Speaker 5: Let's have number five, please. Speaker 1: Item five is a report from City Manager Recommendation to receive and expend grant funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in the amount of 557,000 to fund two positions to support the city's data driven justice initiative citywide. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilwoman. Actually, we've got a staff. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This is a wonderful thing. This is some grant dollars that we've received as part of the team work dealing with high frequency offenders. And so the Arnold Foundation is going to be giving us a grant of about $500,000 to really provide the implementation. Funding for two years will be able to hire a data scientist and to implement the data market and a full time project manager to help run our wrap around case services for high frequency offenders. So this is we're very excited about this, as is our police department. Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 8: Thank you. I wanted to pull this item because I have a similar grant like this in my day job. And there's a couple of things I wanted to request as a friendly on this item. The first is when these two employees get here in January of 2018, I would like the first order of business to be at some point in the early part of their start to meet with all the council officers and to get their thoughts and ideas about how we could what kind of data were would help. Based on the things we've heard in terms of resource limitations from our police department, our prosecutor's office. So I wanted to to make a motion to approve this grant. But with the requirement that council officers be looped in with these individuals, I would hate to have these folks hired here. And then we don't even get to meet them until they make a presentation at council. So is that something that's acceptable to staff? Speaker 5: We'd actually suggest that we do it sooner, that we do it with our I-Team director and not wait for the staff. You know, these are going to be line level staff, but we would love to get the input and actually have our I-Team director do that now. So as we build the grant, that makes more sense to be talking to the team director so we can implement that as part of the grant. Speaker 8: That would be great. I think that would do that would be really, really good. And then the other thing is, I know Orange County's considering creating an app, and I think we've talked about it here before. In fact, it was on the the homelessness item that I submitted several months ago, but an app basically requesting that police officers would have access to what available beds are available in the region for homeless individuals who are seeking either housing or rehabilitation services that they have that easy access of information. So I'm wondering if that's something it sounds from reading this and terms under the discussion items of what type of information could be available through this program . I think that's definitely something that would help both our police officers, our city prosecutor's office, our health department. It would help everyone all around. So I kind of wanted to put that in there early as we approve this grant as kind of a legislative intent of areas where we hope that this grant will be put to use Speaker 5: . Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Just great work. And I look forward to seeing this through and to Councilmember Price's point. We'd love to meet with the staff when they come on board. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. And before we vote, I'll just add it's great to see how far we've come. So we we talked about this as one of the 21st century recommendations from the My Brother's Keeper effort. 21 sort of best practices and 21st century policing. And so to see that we're actually going after funding, receiving funding to move forward and implement some of these things is really strong, very public comment on this item. Senior members, please cast your vote. And I'm like, yes. Speaker 1: Case. Speaker 5: Thank you. So now we'll go to item 22.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary documents, and any amendments, to receive and expend grant funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in the amount of $557,124 over a two-year period, to fund two positions to support the City’s Data-Driven Justice Initiative, beginning January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2019; and Increase appropriations in the General Grants Fund (SR 120) in the City Manager Department (CM) by $557,124, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Did you want to do 21 unfinished business? Speaker 5: Yes. Speaker 1: Item 21 Report from Human Resources Recommendations Receive and file a staff report on Equal Employment Opportunity Plan and 2017 Workforce, Gender, Age and Ethnic Diversity Report Citywide. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. West. Speaker 4: Ms.. Mr. Vice Mayor, council members on the city of Long Beach is greatest assets are our employees, and we take great pride in supporting the highly productive, innovative and caring and customer oriented workforce that we have. So I'm going to turn this over. Speaker 5: To our human resources director, Alex Vasquez. Speaker 4: Who's going to give us our EEO plan and diversity report. Alex. Speaker 6: Good evening, City Council members. This report here is a report that was requested by the City Council on the city's Workforce Diversity. And tonight, we're also presenting the EEO plan report that details a comparison of the city's workforce against the standard relevant labor market benchmark and also similar agencies. These reports build on the city's commitment to EEO principles, and the objective of these reports is to evaluate the city's workforce data and maximize our diversity enhancing programs and activities. Speaker 3: We'll do it. Speaker 6: So as indicated tonight, we have two reports. The EEO plan covers full time employees, details the comparison of the city's workforce against the census data, specifically the relevant labor market. And one of the key findings is that the city's minority workforce exceeds this benchmark in all EEO categories except for sworn and crowd. The diversity report covers all city employees, including full time, part time and seasonal employees. It contains summary statistics based on gender, ethnicity, age and salary. It also includes a review of aggregate civil service applicant flow data. And the main key finding is that the city's gender and ethnic demographic compare favorably to other similar agencies. I'd like to introduce two of my staff members that assisted in putting putting these reports together. And they're also going to give a presentation. So Christina Keisling is our new human resources officer who's over our EEO program, yield training program. And she's going to cover the EEO plan. And Elizabeth Cagliostro put together the diversity report, and she's going to give her summary of that report. Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council for the EEO Plan. This was our report that provides an in-depth comparison of the city's workforce compared to the relevant labor market data. And it serves as a tool to identify possible barriers to the participation of women and minorities in all levels in the workforce. As a brief history of our EEO plan with City Council in 2008 in 2011, the Council reviewed the EEO plan report and adopted a resolution committing the city to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal employment in all hiring activities, and referred the proposal to the proposed EEO plan to the Human Resources and Civil Service for review. Some of our key findings, as stated by Alex for the plan, is that we've made significant improvement in minority representation in the civilian workforce. There are some areas that do require attention and improvement, such as our. Speaker 7: Representation of minorities in fire and police and our. Speaker 6: Female representation in traditionally male dominated fields such as maintenance, skill, craft and sworn protective services. To briefly take you through some of our accomplishments for our racial, ethnic minority workforce. And 2014, we were about 38% for our officials, administrators, and in 2016, we were able to exceed the relevant labor market benchmark by reaching 44% for all civilian positions. So these are areas that exclude sworn we were able to go from 56% in 2014 to 64% in 2016. Speaker 2: Once again exceeding the relevant labor market. Speaker 6: And looking at our female workforce. In 2014, we were 34% for our officials administrators, but we are now at 39.9%, exceeding the relevant labor market for all civilian positions. In 2014, we were at 33%, but we now are at 45%, which is just a 10th of a percentage point shy from reaching the relevant labor market. Comparing ourselves to other cities, we were able to determine that in terms of gender when compared to the city of Los Angeles, Sacramento in Oakland, the city of Long Beach ranks second in terms of our ethnic minorities. We ranked third in comparison to the other workforces. And so at this time, I would turn over into L.A., who will go over the diversity report. Speaker 3: That I got a topic that ranks back in making it look like mayor. Speaker 6: Vice mayor and members of the city council. At this time, I would present to you the key. Speaker 11: Findings and highlights. Speaker 6: Of the 2017 Diversity Report. Speaker 11: This analysis is based on a snapshot in time of the Long Beach workforce as of December 31st, 2016. Speaker 6: The diversity report. Speaker 7: Provides summary data citywide. Speaker 11: And by department, and it is broken down by gender, age and ethnicity. There are about 5600 employees in the city and the majority are in classified positions. Speaker 6: The diversity. Speaker 7: Report contains a comparison of salary. Speaker 6: Between men and women. Speaker 11: As well as in terms of age and ethnicity. Speaker 6: The pay gap between men and women is similar to other public agency agencies, which is in part due to historically lower female. Speaker 11: Representation. Speaker 6: In higher paying occupations such as sworn. Speaker 11: Officials and. Speaker 7: Skilled craft. Speaker 6: First we have here are gender. Speaker 11: Demographics of the city wide workforce. Again, this includes full time and part time seasonal as well as classified and unclassified. Speaker 6: Which is one. Speaker 11: Of the key differences in this data versus the EEO. Speaker 6: Report, which is specific. Speaker 11: To full time permanent. Speaker 7: Employees only. We found that 61% of our workforce. Speaker 11: Is male and 38% is female. Speaker 6: We also found that the highest. Speaker 11: Representation of. Speaker 6: Females is found in the 0 to $60000 income. Speaker 11: Bracket, and the representation of females decreases for higher income brackets. Speaker 6: In terms of age. We found that over 50% of our. Speaker 7: Workforce is over the age of 40. Speaker 1: Which is the age at which. Speaker 11: Individuals become. Speaker 6: Part. Speaker 7: Of a protected age class. Speaker 6: And we also found that. Speaker 7: About 18% of our workforce is at or near retirement age. Speaker 6: Which is important to. Speaker 11: Keep in mind when we think about developing. Speaker 7: Strategies for succession. Speaker 11: Succession planning. Speaker 6: We found that younger. Speaker 11: Employees tend to fall within the lower income brackets, and more seasoned employees tend to fall within higher income brackets as a result of experience and education, for example. Speaker 6: In terms of race and ethnicity. We found that about 41% of our workforce is white and. Speaker 11: 59% of our workforce is comprised of a different ethnic minority. Speaker 6: Latinos represent. Speaker 11: 31% of. Speaker 7: Our ethnic minority workforce and. Speaker 6: They are followed. Speaker 11: By Asian and blacks up 14%. Speaker 6: We found that the largest. Speaker 11: Representation of ethnic minorities is found in. Speaker 6: The 0. Speaker 11: To $60000 income bracket at about 67%. Speaker 6: And that this number decreases as the income goes up. We also found that the largest. Speaker 11: Ethnic minority representation in the highest income bracket is by Latinos at about 18%. Speaker 6: Followed by blacks who. Speaker 11: Represent about 18% of the highest income bracket. Speaker 3: I talked to. Speaker 11: Based on this analysis and our findings, we have identified. Speaker 6: Preliminary. Speaker 11: Areas in which we can improve with regard to gender, age and ethnicity. Speaker 6: In terms of the wage, wage gap. Speaker 11: We did an analysis of the city of the city, white average salaries by gender inclusive of all classifications. And that revealed that in terms of. Speaker 6: Average salaries, women. Speaker 7: Salaries are $0.81 on. Speaker 6: The dollar, on the dollar compared. Speaker 11: To white males. In order to address this pay gap. Speaker 6: We can begin by. Speaker 11: Increasing female representation in higher pay classifications. Speaker 6: Including sworn positions and. Speaker 11: Also in management. Speaker 6: With regard to age. Speaker 11: As previously mentioned, 18% of our workforce is at or near retirement age. Speaker 6: As such. Speaker 7: It is important to increase support of succession planning. Speaker 11: And training programs for current and prospective employees. Speaker 6: Lastly, with regard. Speaker 1: To ethnic and. Speaker 11: Racial diversity. Speaker 6: It is critical for us as an agency to increase targeted support and recruitment. Speaker 11: Of ethnic minorities for employment at all levels. Speaker 6: So in summary, some of the EU strategies that we're taking to address underutilization is leveraging technology and social media to streamline the process and create innovative ways to reach and communicate with potential candidates. We're also increasing transparency in our recruitment efforts to make sure that our applicants have access to information, whether it be through social media, our social media presence, or our websites. And we've collaborated with civil service to have a unified place where all applicants can get information regarding job opportunities. We're also developing training opportunities and career career advancement programs that help retain and train our workforce. And we're also supporting initiatives, projects and groups that work to advance diversity in the workplace by fostering cooperation, acceptance and transparency. Some of our notable accomplishments to date include encouraging all city departments to utilize Internet based job boards, such as jobs available, indeed idealistic boards and so on, to post jobs for higher visibility. We're also utilizing a Fuze executive fellow to conduct a top bottom review of our selection and recruitment processes, including civil service and on civil service to assist us in developing some strategies to streamline our process and make it more available to a diverse candidate pool. We're also increasing our presence in social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and other platforms again to increase our recruitment pool and market the city of Long Beach as an employer of choice. We've also implemented a free, free email subscription service link Albee that allows interested party parties to receive job alerts or alerts for job openings . We've also migrated to an online based application system that creates greater visibility, allows applicants to apply easily, and allows also the city to screen applicants in a more much more expedited fashion. And we're also streamlining the application process through the use of computerized testing systems. And this is being spearheaded by the civil service there, using items such as Wonderlic Montage and other systems to expedite our testing process. So these are some of the things that we're working on. And at this point, we'd like to take any questions, if you have any. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilmember Yolanda. Speaker 12: Thank you, Mary. And I want to thank Alex for her report as well as her staff. So things are just tied up now. Real quick, the equity first initiated the request to do this report. It was to get a picture of where we're at as a city in terms of our diversity and our hiring practices. And this this report certainly points that out. I had a meeting with with Alex. We did discuss some of the concerns that I have about our diversity and our efforts in that area. One of the things that you'll notice on page, in that last page, that the database, the back and that that that page 12, you'll notice that a lot of the stuff that's there is what I call passive recruiting. It's put the onus on people who have access to the Internet to get an application, to get a job description, to apply and then get a notification as to whether they qualified or not. And then eventually, at the end of the road, they come in for an interview and either get selected or not. So one of the things that I brought up was the fact that this is a passive recruiting effort. Many of you, if you don't already know that I worked for the city for 28 years to 16 of those years were in the civil service department as the recruitment officer for the city. I want to say a flat out straight up. There's nothing that succeeds more in recruiting people than pressing the flesh, then being where they were. The recruiters or the applicants are you. We go to we visit classes, you go to colleges, you go to community based organizations. You go anywhere where there's a potential for hiring people or recruiting people. There's also made emphasis that I had at the time that I was there was police and fire recruits. Nothing was more successful than being able to go and visit a police academy somewhere. There's a few here locally. Real Handle is is a big recruiting recruiting station where people go there to get training and police efforts. Santana has another one. And we would visit those places. And they also got to go up and down the state because we weren't getting enough applicants to come in and join the police department. This era that we're in is providing special challenges because of the targeting that is happening out there with recruit and in response to public safety concerns, police and fire being under the gun and literally in regards to the job. And so there might be some apprehension, if you will, of people wanting to apply. So it's one of the things that I think is important, that when we are out there looking for people to apply for jobs, that they see people who are actually on the job and can ask them some questions in regards to how the job is working for them. What is the take questions related to what do they do on a daily basis, that type of thing? Well, when you have recruit pass a recruiting efforts like this that's on line and you don't talk to anybody, he's like, Well, I'd like to be a police officer, but they don't know what I mean. They have no clue as to what the job entails. And that's why I'm always I've always been a very strong proponent of having an actual recruiting team, if you will, that actually goes out and talks to people and and provides an opportunity for individuals to ask questions about the job itself. Now, I know I might be talking a lot right now about police and fire, but that's also true for vacancies in the professional ranks. It's also true for positions in in our professional ranks and our technical ranks, such as are engineers and and other professional in the trades and professions. So what I would like to see is, is a greater and stronger commitment towards recruiting. And I've said it before, if you don't get them at the front end when they apply, you're not going to get them in the back end when we do hiring. You saw that statistic up there at our page on page nine, if you could put it back to page nine where you see ethnicity and you'll see that whites, you Americans. Are the ones that are selected at the higher rate of any other ethnic group. I think that that American Indian statistic is got to be wrong. 30% Native American. I've never seen a number that I. Speaker 3: Didn't know that number. Speaker 12: That's got to be wrong. Speaker 5: That's crazy. It's 30 people. Speaker 12: 30 people. Okay. Speaker 5: Well. Speaker 12: Okay. So 30 people are in 0%. Okay. And I get it. Yeah. Thank you for the clarification. I read it wrong. Speaker 3: If you start. Speaker 12: But anyway, as it's really clear here is that, you know, still white Americans are higher at a higher rate than any other group. Now, why is that? There's something going on there. So we're still being challenged in in terms of what we're doing with recruiting and getting people to apply. And so I would like to see that, you know, we reinstitute a recruiting effort, a strong recruiting effort team, whether it's in civil service or H.R. or a combination of both, I think is a is is appropriate now in this day and age where we're being challenged to really meet our diversity needs. In addition to my discussion with with Alex. I just learned that there's a new way of identifying diversity in the RLM. For me, when I was back in the day, it was the SSA, the Service Metropolitan Service Area or something like that. But it's not changed to to RLM where it's, you know, that is great. So I'm looking at this document and I see it as a good first start of, of trying to identify where we're at as a city in our diversity. I would like to recommend that we get this report on a yearly basis to see how we're doing using this as a baseline at this point. I know there's there's been other reports in the past, but we haven't seen one in Barry in a very long time. So I'm going to start with this one because it's a new format. We've got a new staff. It's a it's a different way. And we've got a new way of determining our what's the the county's and the city's diversity and how we compare with with those areas. So I would like to see that come back every year. In terms of that, would I also like to see is there is no report here that includes our management team. How are we doing with our our city, our managers, our department heads, our ales and bureau managers, anything anyone who's in the EEO category, EEO being the management level of salaries. There's nothing here on that. So I would like to see that included as well and how we we how we rank in those in those regards. What I also would like to see is, is a some kind of plan. What's our plan for recruiting? What's our plan for improving diversity? What's our recruiting plan for when we recruit for managers, for department heads? I've never seen any any of those. So I think it's important for us to know what are our efforts that just a passive like we did right here, you put it out there in the air and put it in jobs available, put it in Incirlik or whatever those other platforms are. That's not enough. I think we need to have people out there pressing the flesh, talking to people and recruiting them here. And that's especially true when it comes to our recruitment teams. Now, another thing that I that I want to emphasize is, are the civil service departments very small? They have a few analysts to handle the whole city, 5000 employees, while maybe 3500, something like that of classified employees. And when we when we have this kind of we don't have a recruiting plan in how to change that, change our diversity. So I think it's important that city departments become part of the solution here. I would love to see. And your city manager, we could we could talk about this off line at another time. But I would like to see each department include a testing and recruiting plan in their departments budgets, because a big part of our departments is personnel. I mean, work when we talk about a city agency and what they do, it's all about people. It's people. It's people serving, serving people. We serve our residents by providing them with water. We provide we serve our residents by fixing their sewage. We. We provide we serve our residents by protect, by protecting them with police and fire. And we also protect our residents by making sure that there's adequate services and whatever they need streets, streetlights, sidewalks, you name it, they're all taken care of by people, people we recruit, people we test the people we hire. So it's extremely important that we look at how we reach out to the individuals to work for the city. And we're back in the day. Used to be the dream of people to get a city job because you got benefits, you got seniority, you get the pensions, you get dental, medical, all that. Thank you, CalPERS. I'm retired now. They get around to that, which is good for me and others. But the point is, is that when you can bring that back, bring that back again, we bring it back, bring pride back into being a city employee where you can get a good salary, a good job. And it's something that you that a person can point to, even if you wear a little emblem right here with its public works, water, gas, whatever, it's a sense of pride. And I know that many times residents, constituents might look at those individuals with a with a special or maybe with a jaundiced eye when they're taking a break lunch. You know, it's a fishbowl. Obviously, we are city employees are looked at differently when they're doing a job. When you see a working crew of gas department employees looking at fixing a pipe and you see five people there, why does it take five people to fix a pipe? Well, each one has a role. Same thing that I always get is like, why did it take ten police units to handle a pulling over a kid on a bike and you have ten police units there? Well, each one has a role. So and that's that's what's not understood. So I'm going to get off my soapbox at this point and just note that we need to improve our diversity. We need to change some of these numbers, especially in the professional ranks, as well as on our our public safety ranks. And if you take a closer look, you really look at it with a with a fine tooth comb. You're looking at the fact that many of our diversity are at the lower level salaries. Your refuge collectors are parking control checkers. They're not at the higher paying wages. And we need to change that. And the way to do that is making sure that we have a recruitment plan. And it's also that it comes from the top. It comes from the top getting our department heads to embrace diversity, to keep that in mind that there is a group of people out there that deserves a shot and a chance at getting a job with the city. So with that, I want to do it open. I see a couple of my colleagues when I make some comments, but this is a good start and I and I hope that we're able to continue this and maybe next time, this same time next year, we could get another report. And this time we might be able to include management as well and as well as some strategies on how we're going about recruiting more people of diverse of diverse backgrounds into the city. Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you, Professor. You mean Councilmember? You ran good. I'll say, Mr. City Attorney. Let's start right now. An ordinance about a noise budget for the city council will just take the model from the airport noise bucket. Well, I'm joking. I'm just. He's got to get a word. Bucket. That's not right. A comment bucket. Speaker 3: Against the lawyers. Speaker 5: It discriminates against the lawyers. I think we'll get a pat on the back, you. Speaker 12: Know, but I'm an English major, so really words are my thing. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilmember Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Good, because I'm a political science major. How about that? Councilmember Wodonga, thank you for bringing this forward. I know this was a great item and thanks to h.R. And Civil Service for putting this together and it it really refreshed, you know, my thinking about what we're doing here and I really appreciate the work that's been put into this and a few things that I picked out as I looked at this and things that I think we need to dig a little bit deeper on. My first question was, I believe the very the original item included veterans and individuals with disabilities. Is that correct? I thought it included that. And then I also I think at that meeting I included an option for us to explore individuals that are LGBTQ. Speaker 6: Yes, the original motion did include those items and we reported in the. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 6: To form for update that we don't presently collect data on disability and LGBT data for from our city workforce or job applicants so that that information was not included in. Speaker 7: This report. Speaker 11: Okay. That's right. And are there any ways so under the EEOC, their website actually states that there are some pre-employment inquiries in and this is specific to disabilities, but perhaps there could be some for other demographics. Basically, after making a conditional job offer, an employer may ask disability related questions as long as all individuals are asked the same questions. So I'm wondering if that could be included going forward so we can collect that data. Speaker 6: So we can certainly look at that. One of the concerns we have, though, with the the definition of disability is so broad that it would include a large number of individuals. We'd also have to look into whether or not we could request that data and whether or not it would have to be on a volunteer basis for current city employees and just in my experience in H.R. over 26 years plus. I'm not I'm not aware of an agency that collects that type of data from their employees or job applicants. And I think there might be concerns that that data would be used to make employment related questions. So it's definitely something, I think that we would need to work with the city attorney's office with and maybe look at some best practices, but we can certainly take a look into that. Speaker 11: Great. I think if we're able to get some best practices and maybe bring that back in A to from for at some point, you know, just to see if that's something we can do. And then I have seen there's two demographics that kind of struck me, and it was women, of course, and African-American employees. And for women, I see the pay gap. We have the report that contains a comparison of salary between men and women. And so it's great that we have that, you know, a dollar to $0.81 is the ratio. I'm wondering if we could dig a little deeper into, you know, what type of demographic of women. And I think we may be able to see that here. But are do we have any other explicit data that includes minority women or women of not just minority women, but white women, everyone, and what they are currently being paid relative to their male counterparts? Speaker 6: So we don't have that currently is certainly the date now that we have this data, something certainly we can look into. I would add that the pay gap data is something that a number of agencies are looking at. We did look at the state of California and the city of L.A. as well to look at what their benchmarks are. One of the things I will note is that the city's workforce is heavily male dominated, and that's true of other municipalities as well. And it's largely because of the occupations that we have in the city workforce, such as police and fire sworn, also the blue collar and maybe engineering type positions that traditionally have been more populated by males. So again, that's certainly something that will be paying attention to and looking at. But that pay gap is, as I indicated, largely attributed to to the occupations that the city has, and then also the fact that some of those occupations are traditionally heavily male dominated. Speaker 11: Great. Well, I would say two things and then thank you for that is absolutely as you mentioned, I know we're going to do a lot of work in trying to recruit more women in these positions, especially engineering and tech and innovation, which I see is male dominated, public works, zero out of 23 women are well, there's no women in public works management whatsoever out of 23. I see that. And so the representation, but also just the pay equity, I think we could find out some some demographics to see where we're at with women just in general relative to their male counterparts, parts there. And then lastly, with African-American employees, I see it seems like it's 0 to 1000. So either high, you know, management level or, you know, very low ranking or low pay. So I would like to see some some more diversity in that sense where, you know, we see representation all across the board in various in various departments. And and so that is what I'd like to see, too. And then I think lastly, I think that was those were all my questions, but I really appreciate the work. I hope to get in for more, more information back that digs a little deeper, as I mentioned. And hopefully we can get some more information to make us a little bit more innovative when it comes to hiring. Thank you very much. Speaker 5: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 7: Yes, thank you. I want to say how much I appreciate the report. I know that the more we can based off user numbers to base our hiring practices, the better off will be. I think there's a lot of numbers in here and I I'm sorry I didn't look beforehand. Did we do all of us in-house or did we hire somebody to work on this? Yes, we did it all in-house. Okay. So I appreciate all the numbers that have been included here and just a couple that I want to highlight for the public that I know are at home watching because you get the emails looking at the last ten years and our female representation of by job category really hasn't changed. And so in the last ten years, even though we've had these conversations at the federal level and the state level around equity and making sure that we have access for women to other positions, those numbers really kind of stayed the same. And the fact that we have office and clerical, 81% of women are in those positions where we have for skilled craft, 2.6%. And to your point, Ms.. Vasquez, I think, you know, saying that the reason why it is this way is because women traditionally don't get those jobs for council. It is our job, I think, to start creating some policies, to start shifting that dynamic instead of just saying, well, women don't traditionally take these jobs. So that's our excuse for not being able to have an equitable and equal workforce. And so down the road, and not necessarily today, but I would like us to start having a conversation around what other municipalities and what other organizations do to try to encourage women into nontraditional women's roles. I know the Building Trades has a big program LBC, Cal State, Long Beach. How are we really looking at the numbers and the population in our city and having a targeted plan to support education in our city to get a pipeline into our city? Because if we don't create those pipelines, we're not going to see this this change. We can get a report every year, but we've got to be able to do that as a council. So I think my colleagues, for bringing this forward, you know, and I hope that we continue to do work on this. I do want to raise one other presentation that was presented to me by our Office of Equity for King County, their Office of Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan. They have a presentation that shows what their population is in King County and then how they've been able to shift their hiring demographics to almost mirror exactly what their demographics are. And so as we move forward for the next report, we'll hopefully give you guys some direction between now and then to work with the Office of Equity and possibly having some hiring practices and pipeline practices to get us to a more equitable city. So thank you guys again for all the work. There's a lot of awesome numbers in here and more to dig in on. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. And before we go to the next speaker, we're going to call for public comment on this items and any public comment now will be the time. Speaker 4: Very briefly, it's a reference to this was about six months ago. When you take the beginning of this meeting we had earlier on, we spent considerable time dealing with hospitals, getting people to hospitals care. When you take your kid to the hospital. You could give a rat's rear end what color, what sex, what country that person is. What you want is the best available person, period. And that applies to any job. Whether it be in the city, the state or a hospital. Anything less than that is politicking. Looking out for votes again. When you take your kid to the hospital, you could care less what color, what sex, what gender the person is. And that's the same thing that should be applied. When hiring anybody in any company or any city. Speaker 5: Thank you. No further public comment will bring it back behind the rail. Councilmember Ranga. Speaker 12: Yeah. During my presentation, I failed to recognize that we have Candice Taylor, the director of civil service in the audience. And I wanted to give her an opportunity if she had anything to, to add to the report. I know that many years ago there was a budget for recruiting and that included advertising and ability to go to job fairs and schools and that kind of activity. So I'd like to give her an opportunity to also chime in on the report. Speaker 5: Absolutely. You have the floor. Speaker 6: Is this on? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 5: Yes, it is. Speaker 8: Just a couple of things I wanted to highlight. I think in general, stepping back, big picture, one of the things we need to do as a city is is just to highlight and promote the trades in general. We over the past ten years have really kind of pushed to our youth and those coming up behind us, the importance of education, but at the expense of trade occupations. And I think education is great, but not at the expense of choosing certain kind of occupations. And so I think there needs to be a push toward highlighting the trades and in so doing, using. I agree and appreciate the comment that you made. Speaker 7: About our small team. Speaker 8: And I think that we need to really partner with the the with the departments. We provide a general recruitment strategies for across the city. It would be really nice to be able to partner in doing videos, maybe focus groups to meet with certain with certain people to see if we can tweak the recruiting message to attract a certain demographic, to highlight partnering with the departments, to highlight a certain type of culture that might be within their department. We have tried to augment the classification specifications with an inside view, interviewing employees about the work that they do. So I think if we can find creative ways to broaden that and partner with departments in highlighting stories and highlighting the employees that perform the work, that's definitely something that I'm interested in doing and in trying to engender support from other departments around that area. I think it would also be helpful to have training on implicit bias, our aios and those people who make the hiring decisions. That's something that could probably be a very good strategy for us to implement. And and then another thought I had is just maybe implementing and partnering with h.R. On some employee referrals, something that might have some incentives. Oftentimes, people know people who would be great to work for the city. So I think that. Speaker 7: Would be a good strategy as well. Speaker 8: We we have typically we have. Speaker 6: A. Speaker 8: We do have social media that we've used one of the areas where I think we could expand. We have a presence on on LinkedIn, but that's one of our weaker platforms. So one of the strategies I've thought of doing is expanding what we are. We use Facebook, we use Twitter, we do some stuff on Instagram. But definitely broadening that social platform and using LinkedIn more than we have in the past is another strategy that I've considered using. Alex mentioned that we're using more online, we're doing a proctor testing. I think anything we can do to streamline a process to make us easier and accessible is definitely something that is going to help. But then also making sure that we're resource for those people who may not have access and just knowing that people can come into our department, we have kiosks and we have computers and we can certainly provide elbow to elbow help for someone who may be a little bit more challenged with making an online application, I think that's something important for us to communicate and get out there, that there are resources within our department to help people who might be challenged with the technology. That's about it. Thanks. Speaker 12: Thanks. Thank you, Candice, for your comments on that. One of the other one of the last things that that this brings up right now, you just reminded me of it, is that sometimes a process just takes too long. I mean, it went from a point of submitting an application to hire can take six months or more. Also when you get people on an analyst our you still have eligible this or bandit list but if you have that that takes even longer because it's the life of a list is three years or so so we might lose we lose people when we the longer we take in the selection process, the likelihood of somebody not being available for hire, the one that you want, that that top candidate will probably move on and take another job elsewhere. So we need to look at that as well in terms of trying to. Make the prices a little easier as we're trying with the with the online applications. But in terms of contacting people and making sure that they're still interested in working for the city and making that process a little quicker in terms of from up to the point of hire. So we need to to address that issue as well. And finally, it's it's always about the money. And I know that we've been challenged over the years. And in terms of where we stand with salaries across across the board, we're always looking at, you know, police and fire, trying to put them at the median in terms of where they are with salary compared in comparison to other jurisdictions. But I think some of our professional ranks are at the same in the same boat in terms of not being as competitively paying as maybe other cities are. So we also have to look at that. I know that we had the A salary study done a few years back. I don't know what happened to that and where we stand citywide with salaries, including management professionals. So that may be something that we want to visit as well in terms of where are we standing with salaries , in terms of our competitiveness, with our our other our neighborhood agencies and neighborhood municipalities. So with that base where I want to go ahead and move that, we receive a pilot report. Speaker 5: All right. So it's been moved and seconded. Members, please cast your vote. And a yes. Speaker 1: Martin KASTE, thank you. Speaker 5: We're going to call an audible. It's getting late. These are great presentations and we want to make sure they all have the respect they deserve. We have a really important we still haven't done a public comment and we still have quite a few items. One big presentation tonight was is the technology item, this item 29. And I know that it's an important item. We want to sink our teeth in, but it's about 30 slides and a lot of conversation. So will the council entertain a motion to continue that, continue that?

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a staff report on Equal Employment Opportunity Plan and 2017 Workforce Gender, Age, and Ethnic Diversity Report. (Citywide)

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Speaker 5: Thank you. So next we have Gerry Glynn. Thomas, are you here next? Malcolm Armstrong, are you here? Okay, that concludes public comment. We are moving forward now with item number 22. Speaker 1: Item two is a communication from Councilwoman Price. A recommendation to begin the review and approval process for the renaming of Examination Avenue between Seventh Street and 10th Street, as Bruin way in honor was in high school. Speaker 8: Councilmember Price I always try to be as much like Councilman Andrews as I possibly can. And when I heard he had Jackrabbit Lane, I decided we need a brew in way. So we had about 20 students and the principal of Wilson here earlier tonight, but the students had homework to do, so we sent them on their way . This is just the start of a process that I hope is not too lengthy, but it will go through the various committees. I think it's going to go through a planning commission and then it'll make its way back here. And at that point, it will hopefully will have students and staff and administrators from Wilson High School here. I do want to point out to my colleagues and anyone who's watching that this particular area of examiner does not have any residential houses on it. It actually goes through the Wilson campus. So Wilson High School is on both sides of the street. So changing the name of the street at this location would not impact any residential properties. So thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Speaker 9: Yes, yes, yes. And boy, I sure wouldn't think that this is a very clear way to show our support to our school district. And you know that I'm totally in support of that. But, you know, in my district we have they call it Jackrabbit Lane and the kids just love it. So I knew you would follow that. And Councilman Price, you you totally have my support on this. I do. Speaker 8: Would be good when we meet beat you guys at golf which we generally do. Speaker 6: But you had gone. Speaker 3: Oh. Speaker 5: At least there's golf we to back. Speaker 3: There. Speaker 6: But it would be you know easier to either go to Jackrabbit Lane. Speaker 8: Or Bruin Way. You know. Speaker 5: I think you started something, Councilman. All right. Any public comment on this item saying nonmembers, please cast your vote. On Panther way. I mean, brewing way. Sorry, I'm a yes motion case. Thank you. Next, we have item 24.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to begin the review and approval process for the renaming of Ximeno Avenue between 7th Street and 10th Street as Bruin Way in honor of Wilson High School.

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Speaker 5: Thank you. Next, we have item number 15. I mean, item number 27. Sorry, I'm seeing double tonight or half. Speaker 1: Item 27 is a report from Health and Human Services recommendation to amend three contracts for lead based paint removal and mitigation services to increase the aggregate contract amount by 1.2 million. Oh. Speaker 6: Yeah. Citywide. Speaker 5: Thank you. Staff, please. Kelly or Nelson? Speaker 3: Yeah. Nelson. Yeah, I. Speaker 10: Think you're now I think her Environmental Health Bureau manager will give her report. He cares. Speaker 4: All this is this is just a movement of a consistent amount of money that was approved by council. Speaker 5: In November of 2016. Speaker 4: For LED remediation jobs. And we structured it as $600,000 per year and we did not spend that money. We're now in the last year of the grant and we need to just move the money over to the last year. It's the same amount of money. Speaker 5: Thank you. As any member of the public would like to speak on this item. Saying None. Members, please cast your vote. Yes.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to amend Contract No. 34452 with Performance Abatement Services, Inc., of Fullerton, CA; Contract No. 34451 with Vizion’s West, Inc., of Menifee, CA; and Contract No. 34450 with Watson Painting Corporation, of Riverside, CA, for providing lead-based paint removal and mitigation services, to increase the aggregate contract amount by $1,200,000, for a revised total aggregate contract amount not to exceed $1,800,000, for the term ending November 30, 2018, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. As our regular agenda goes, we take the hearing first. So we will take hearing out of number 1/1 and then we'll go right into concern, public comment and the regular agenda. So we have one hearing for tonight. Let's hear the first hearing. Speaker 1: Report from Public Works recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution certifying IIR 01-17 Making Findings of fact adopt a statement of overriding considerations for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project and authorize the City Manager to adopt final plans and specifications for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project District two. Speaker 0: Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report will be given by Eric Wood Strahan, our traffic engineer. Good evening, Mayor, vice mayor and council members. I'm here requesting that you adopt a resolution certifying the Environmental Impact Report and adopt a statement of overriding consideration for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project. This project will reduce the cross section of Alamitos from two lanes each direction to one, traveling in each direction with a two way left turn lane and protected bike lanes from Ocean Boulevard to Seventh Street. It will continue the Rhode Island saw last year from Seventh Street to Pacific Coast Highway. This proposed cross section will improve safety for all users in the corridor. The no recross section will calm auto traffic, reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians crossing Alamitos Avenue, and provide a safer bicycle facility for bicyclists traveling along Alamitos Avenue from 2012 through 2016, there are 29 collisions involving people on bicycles and people walking on this segment of Alamitos. There are also a total of 205 collisions. During that same time period, the project will add 23 parking stalls during the peak hours by removing the existing peak hour parking restrictions at a time of day when residents have a high demand for on street parking and will remove five all day parking stalls. The road died on Alamitos Avenue from seventh Street. North Pacific Coast Highway has worked well from a traffic safety and operations perspective and has resulted in fewer traffic collisions, with the collision rate dropping nearly 50% since its implementation, bicycle ridership has also increased after the roadway was installed. This project is consistent with the Bicycle Master Plan update unanimously approved by council in February as the Orange Artesia Corridor is a key North-South connector connecting Central and North Long Beach communities to downtown. And the beach is also consistent with the Vision Zero principles unanimously adopted by Council in May 2016 by improving multi-modal safety. This concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Kate Thank you. And we, as per the hearing, we open up for public comment on the hearing. KFC. No public comment. Council member, please. Hello. My name is Raymond San Miguel. I reside on Ocean Boulevard. I haven't been involved in a lot of this city council and street alterations, but I did grow up here, went to Naples Elementary, Rogers Middle School, graduated from Wilson, went to Cal State, Long Beach. But it seems that we're we're just creating so much congestion with all of these bicycle lanes. I understand that we're trying to make it safe for bicyclists. But what we did on Vista with all these the bicycle boulevard and the turn about, you know, I have a friend that lives there and we worked on his yard for 8 hours and I didn't see one person ride a bike down that street. And now we set up, what, over $4 million on Sixth Street has a bike boulevard. We have streets that need repair. We have gutters and sidewalks and and roadways that need repair. And we're I just feel we're just throwing away money on these. I know we want to be a bike friendly city, but it just doesn't make sense. The congestion the traffic congestion that we're creating is just out of control. We took away two lanes from Temple to Alamitos and made this huge median, but didn't take into account that if we would have taken two feet from each side of that median and gave the cars that parked on that street a little buffer to open up their door and not get hit by passing cars. I don't understand why we have that. And then reading in this thing that I saw last night, we're going to continue that from Alamitos down Broadway, from Alameda down to Temple. I mean, we if we're going to do that, I understand that we need to move traffic. We have to synchronize the lights. So traffic continues to move. While I was younger back in the seventies and eighties and nineties, if you caught a green light from cherry going towards the 710 Freeway and you stay between 25 and 30 miles an hour, you got a green light all the way to the freeway. You don't have that on these streets anymore, you know, and we have the technology to synchronize these lights. So traffic moves through. You've added all these signaling lights on Ocean Boulevard right there at Bluff Park, where I live. And and there's so much congestion or in the rush hours that synchronize the lights. So we move traffic along and don't create all this congestion. Those are my thoughts on this. I think we should, you know, take a pause, consider this and really make it safe and move traffic along and and ease up on the congestion that we're just creating around the city. Thank you very much. See no other public comment on the hearing. I will turn this back. I will close the hearing by turning it over to the council and Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Great. Thank you so much. I really want to applaud staff for finishing this project. I know that this is something that we've talked about in the bike mobility plan. We've been doing this works for, let's say, October 2013. We talked about the mobility element and the general plan. And looking at this corridor and being able to say one is that we have traffic incidents and I believe the number was 67 serious injuries that require some type of medical attention just in between seventh and ocean, just in that small area and that we need to be able to do something to address and getting to Vision Zero. And so I applaud you for being able to think creatively about this stretch of street and being able to do bikes and also add 23 parking spaces, which is not easy to just make up parking spaces out of thin air. And so I know that there's been some concerns around traffic flow. And I took Alamitos yesterday from PCH all the way down and the lights were synchronized. I drove a steady 30 miles an hour and everything was smooth. So I am excited about this. I believe that when we look at the the transition between downtown and our neighborhoods, we need to be able to have a safe space where people feel like, if I live in Alamitos Beach, I can walk to downtown, I can take my bike to downtown, and that there is a vision for that. I think doing this is going to get a lot more people out of their cars as well and hopefully getting to places like Mola, which I appreciate you guys for being here tonight. And so to address any of those concerns, I think that you guys have done a fantastic job. And I also want to applaud you for working with the new developments that are coming online to find creative ways to fund not only the plan that's in front of us, but new traffic signals, street lights and things that we'll talk about down the road. So I'm just thankful for continuing this project down past seventh. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes. Thank you as well, Eric, for your hard work and public works. I know that change in this respect is never very easy and easy to think about, but I know this is all in good a good vision for the next few years. And in addition to what Councilmember Pearce said, I know gun buyer park, that area was a horrible area, worst traffic situation in the city and that really lessen the issues, as you've mentioned, as well as this beautiful intersection that is in between two amazing museums, both more LA and Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum. I think there is room for bikes to travel through there that could, you know, flow easily with with cars. But I do have a few questions. I know it has been in the report. It mentioned AMPM peak hours. What do we do? We see any major significant change in those peak hours. With this plan. Speaker 0: We will see increase. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. You will see increased travel times of up to 77 seconds in the AM peak hour and up to 70 seconds in the peak hour. So that's common when you convert a road to a road that narrow the streets. But we do feel that we will be able to mitigate some of that increased travel time by retiring the traffic signals. When a study of this nature is done. Traffic engineers are generally pretty conservative. If we look at, you know, try and take into account every conceivable development that's coming. Look at potential growth in traffic. And then also look at how the intersections are working together. But as we put this type of plan into operation, we would look at taking a fine grained look at how those traffic signals are operating adjacent to each other and retain the corridors. We have the opportunity as pedestrians are making, have a shorter distance across. Now we would take signal time, take time away from that that crossing and put more of that time into green time on the corridor. Speaker 6: Okay, great. And then I know in that area, I know Councilmember Pearce and I as well are also talking in and length about, you know, new development coming to the area and a lot of new changes happening. Parking is golden everywhere. But, you know, in that area, we hear it quite a bit. And so I know that there's going to be a overall decrease of five spaces, but an overall increase of 23 spaces. Is that. Speaker 2: Correct? Speaker 0: That's correct. It's a5a loss of five spaces over the entire day, but an increase of 23 during the AM peak hours. Speaker 6: Okay, perfect. That is great. 23 spaces. Wonderful. And then last question. I know it was addressed semi addressed in the in the memo one which unified school district. I know a lot of the parents addressed concerns with pick up drop off traffic congestion. And I don't know that we necessarily can do anything about that in general. But, you know, there's that discussion. So do you have an answer to that or how can we I don't know if this helps that in any way. Speaker 0: I think I just say that, you know, all of our schools experience congestion around, pick up, drop off time. And I think the more we can encourage parents to, the more we can provide safe facilities for kids to get to school by some other means than being driven. I think that's a better improvement. And I think that improving of providing a calmer corridor for parents and other motorists to travel on will be a benefit to to kids walking to and from school and for parents driving to and from school. Speaker 6: Okay, great. And we will have signage and all of the appropriate. Okay, wonderful. Speaker 0: Absolutely. Speaker 6: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: I yes, just on the question around Franklin, I know that we are making some changes to some crosswalks around the area as well. So I just want to clarify that we are doing some of that work. I don't know if you can report on that. Speaker 0: Not specifically on Franklin, but as we will be making improvements. Yes. Great. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 0: That's what I'm gonna go. Speaker 2: To Taylor on to Councilwoman Gonzales this point. A lot of the schools have better pick up and drop off than others. And I feel that a lot of the parent groups have really stepped up. I know that the principals rotate often, but the parents are there for the long term. They've done some drop off programs where the dads and certain sons open all the doors for everyone in the morning. They pull in cars in a more quick way. The schools in my district that have those have been significantly better. I appreciate that we want people to bike. I just don't know that we're at a place where biking is actually a commutable option. And so in my experience and what I've discussed with my residents, we are not in favor of removing a lane, but we are in favor of getting to a safer community. And so there have to be ways that we can do that without removing lanes. I recognize you've done an extensive amount of work on this, but I'm going to just make sure to stick with my community on this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Please cast your vote to members. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Kate Moss. In case with that, we move on to the hearing is over and we're moving on to the consent. Minus item number 12, please. Can I get a motion in a second? I'm going to motion in a second and all minus item 12.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt a Resolution certifying Environmental Impact Report (EIR 01-17) making findings of fact; adopt a Statement of Overriding Considerations for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project (State Clearinghouse No. 2017011072); and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to adopt Final Plans and Specifications for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project. (District 2)

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Speaker 0: I'm sorry. I believe those are items 24. Okay. So 22, 23, 24 and 25. And we're doing 24/1, I understand. Right. Okay. And so go ahead. And we're going to begin and we're going to begin by doing item 24. Speaker 1: Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, recommendation to refer to Economic Development Commission to conduct a deeper assessment of economic inclusion in Long Beach by embarking on the Everyone in Listening Tour and providing further outreach to marginalized and disenfranchized segments of the business and working community. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to start off first. Let me just acknowledge, you know, we started a little bit late. We had some really important business in closed session. But I see the amount of people who stood. So thank you for for for remaining with us on this very important issue. It's four items here, but I'm only going to give a presentation on one of them and we'll have just a shorter discussion on the others for the sake of time. So today we have so I want to actually start we have a video. Speaker 5: I loved doing business in Long Beach. Speaker 2: But I don't have access. Speaker 5: To the. Speaker 6: Resources. Speaker 2: That I need to expand my business and to truly thrive. Economies grow faster. Speaker 5: Stronger and for longer periods. Speaker 6: Of time when. Speaker 2: Prosperity isn't limited. Speaker 6: To just a few segments of our population. Speaker 2: Everyone here means every. Speaker 6: Long Beach resident has. Speaker 5: Pathways of. Speaker 2: Opportunity to fully participate. Speaker 6: In the economic life of our. Speaker 2: City as employers, entrepreneurs, consumers and citizens. Speaker 0: The blueprint will be a catalyst for economic activity across the city. Long Beach is well-positioned to take a deeper dove into economic conclusions. Long Beach is strongest when everyone has a seat at the table and an opportunity to thrive. Join us for a conversation on what everyone means to you. All right. So today we have a package of proposals with the theme of everyone in. And the theme ties together our economic development focus of our city as a city with our new economic blueprint, as well as our focus on equity as a city with our new Office of Equity. So this marries the two together. It's a call to action to all segments in all sectors of our community to work together to ensure that our economy grows with everyone in mind. It means making sure that everyone has a place to plug into our economy. No matter what part of town you look you live in, no matter your race, your socioeconomic status, your gender, or your criminal background, it means small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in all parts of town have access to the resources that they need to grow their companies to create local family supporting jobs. But we're not there yet. There's still plenty of work to do. We're not there when five times as many of our Latino and Native American residents are living in high poverty neighborhoods compared to others. We're not there when twice as many black and Latino women are working full time and still living below 150% of the poverty line . We're not there when homeownership among our black and Latino residents is half that of white households, we know we're not there yet. When fewer than 15% of Asian and black residents have access to the resources they need to own a business. So there's a growing body of research that finds greater economic inclusion, fosters a stronger economic growth and a more equitable region. Yet over the past two decades, the critical connection between growth and inclusion has been largely severed. So as as the economy grows, the wealth gap continues to grow as well. So since the Great Recession, every one of the 100 largest metropolitan cities in the United States, including Long Beach, has added jobs and has increased their economic output. But only 11 cities have saw a rise in inclusive growth Denver, San Antonio and Austin, to name a few. While the rest of us, including all of Los Angeles County, saw increased economic inequality. Inequalities across every single economic indicator including employment, earnings, poverty, business ownership and homeownership. Without changing, without a change in course, racial disparities in income, employment and wealth will weigh more and more heavily on our communities across our nation. So this past April, the City Council adopted the blueprint for economic development, providing the city with a framework that seeks to advance a vision of Long Beach as the city of opportunity for workers, investors and entrepreneurs. Economic inclusion is called out as an area of focus, described as increasing access to economic and economic opportunities in low income communities to advance economic equity. The objectives as listed in the blueprint are as follows increase the number of minority owned and women owned businesses. Increase nontraditional capital resources for minority owned women owned businesses. Increase investment in low income business corridors. Increase the percentage of city spending on local businesses with emphasis on minority and women owned businesses. Increase financial literacy and wealth building opportunities for young people and disadvantaged families and decrease the digital divide for low income households. To me, that means creating an environment where everyone has a seat at the table and everyone has an opportunity to thrive. It means making sure every neighborhood is economically viable. It means acknowledging that everyone deserves a path to middle class, good jobs and economic opportunity. Where a young person, a young person who's working his or her first job through the city's youth hire program, learns the fundamentals of financial literacy. It also means making sure that everyone has an opportunity to build wealth and have access to capital, whether you're a small business, a home or an aspiring homeowner, or just a working, working individual. So we know that everyone benefits from a more inclusive economy because economies grow straight, grow faster, stronger, and for longer periods of time. When prosperity isn't limited to a few segments of the population, more inclusive cities can tap into deeper pools of talent and draw from more educated workforce with a broad range of skills. Strong, economically viable regions are able to provide high quality jobs for the residents, producing new ideas, new products, new businesses and economic activity. So the region remains sustainable and competitive. Economically inclusive regions are ready for the future with a skilled ready workforce and a healthy population. Economically equitable regions are places of connection, where residents can access essential ingredients to live healthy and productive lives in their own neighborhood. They can reach opportunities located throughout their city via transportation technology and can participate in the political process and interact with diverse sets of residents. Cities all across. The country are embracing similar economic inclusion initiatives and are taking a hard look and embracing more inclusive policies. For example, in Stockton, they're conducting the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration with a project called Basic Income as a strategy and strategy to address persistent poverty. Policy commissioned a study in Long Island called Empowering Black Long Island How Equity is Key to the Future of Nassau and all four counties as well as New Orleans called Equity. New Orleans the road to equitable government in Long Beach has an opportunity to lead the great L.A. The greater L.A. region has experienced demographic change and economic shock much more much, much before the rest of the nation, and making progress on new commitments to inclusion can inform policy making for the rest of the rest of the region and the rest of the nation's metropolitan cities. And that's why, as a part of the Economic Inclusion Initiative, I'm asking the Economic Development Commission to take a deeper dove into economic inclusion by conducting a listening tour, facilitating focus groups which address traditionally marginalized communities. The motion tonight will assist with the economic assist the Economic Development Department with resources needed to support them through this process. We're also asking the city to take steps to conduct an economic equity profile of our city and to adapt to measures related to access to capital for small businesses and financial literacy for our youth, which we'll hear about later. I want to just take a moment to just acknowledge those who issued letters of support. Senator Steve Bradford, Assembly Member Mike Gibson, our chair of our Economic Development Commission. Randall Hernandez. Central Shah, who I see is in the audience with this pulse for hope. The Maynard Foundation, the YMCA of Greater Long Beach and YMCA Community Development. The Long Beach Local Hire Coalition, the Uptown Business District and Humanity. In six months, I'd like the Economic Development Department to provide a report back to the Commission to the City Council on the Listening Tours findings. I want to acknowledge that the economic development staff, as well as Rebecca on the Innovation Team and our Office of Equity Staff and the Ninth District staff for helping to put together this presentation and helping to launch this everyone in campaign. So that said, I asked the City Council for your support. Okay. I think I'm chairing the meeting. I'll see the the mayor here. Okay. Councilwoman Gonzales? Speaker 6: Yes, Vice Mayor Richardson, I just want to say thank you for bringing this forward. I think a lot of us have been talking about inclusion when it comes to many of these initiatives within economic inclusion as a whole. So I'm glad to see that we're bringing this forward. And I know I've often spoke spoken with Jessica at Central CHA as we brought up the issue of immigrant communities and how we can be more comprehensive in providing resources, not just for to tackle the issue of immigration at its face, but also to look at resources that we can provide individuals for housing and and entrepreneurship and ways to get out of the poverty level. And I've talked to Councilmember Dee Andrews about job opportunities as well, and I often reiterate these statistics. But in the 90813, we have high poverty rates. As much as 40% of our families are under the poverty line and as much as a 19%, I think it just went down to 16% of our families are unemployed. And so I think there is absolutely room for this in the city of Long Beach. I will also say to and I'm glad you brought up the issue of women entrepreneurship. There are some statistics. I was trying to pull them up and I'll find them for you. But I believe there's a banking institution that is looking at women entrepreneurship and access to capital. And I think it's important that we also find women, venture capitalists to provide that capital to women entrepreneurs. It's really difficult to do that. So that's why, unfortunately, sometimes we don't see as many women business owners as we'd like to because of that. So I think it's also finding that that other side, the individuals that are able and willing to fund and that speaks a lot to what we need to do more for women. And then I would like to think Randall as well, I know we've spoken quite a bit just on economic issues overall, and I appreciate your insight into this very issue. And I know that this is going to be a fantastic listening tour. So thank you so much, Vice Mayor. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next, we have Councilwoman Pierce. Speaker 5: Yes. I, too, want to applaud you for your efforts with everyone. And I know a lot of these are issues that we've talked about historically for five, ten years. And to be able to kind of put it in a way that we can get our hands around it and understand what that means. How do we really create opportunities, everyone from small businesses to everyone else in the community? And so I want to thank you and I want to thank your staff, too. I know that you guys have worked really hard on this. And I for me, everyone is about having those conversations. We've been able. Every agenda item I've tried to put forward, I've tried to include deep community meetings. And we know that's where we get the most creative ideas and get people, everyone to roll up their sleeves and do the work. And so I look forward to being a part of some of these discussions and having our constituents be that too. And when I think, again, all the community members who are here and I'm sure we'll hear some personal stories from you all. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Price. Speaker 6: Thank you. Vice Mayor, are we speaking to all the items at once or one at a time? Speaker 0: We're going to speak to this one. We'll have an opportunity to speak to the others. I'm just not life or presence. Speaker 6: I think this one's great and I applaud you for bringing it. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you. Councilman Mongo. Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to speak freely about all economic development. That's fine. I want to give a big shout out. And thank you to our Economic Development Commission. I'm creating the Economic Development Commission, a group of neighbors and business owners in Long Beach who know economic development, who are connected to the industries that really move our city, who are connected to the communities that are a part of our business fabric that really is woven in with our neighbors. It's just such an important decision to make. But choosing the right people and the right leaders has been a huge part of that. And so I want to thank Randall Hernandez for his leadership. I know that in every conversation he is always driving us forward. We are looking at economic development and all different ways. And I really appreciate not only his hard work, but also his mentorship, because I think that this is one of many exciting things that are coming because of the blueprint that that committee took such a thoughtful care with. And so thank you for that. I also want to thank my colleagues on both the Economic Development Committee. I know that the starting point of where we we started together three years ago was very different than where we are today. We are a committee and a council of individuals who now look at the data and know and understand what that data means to our neighborhoods and what that data means to our community. And we're making those data driven decisions to lift everyone up. And I think that more often than not, you will find I live in the ninth, but I have a business in the fifth, I live in the fourth, but I have a business in the eighth, I have a business in the first. And just people love to live and work here. And so the ability for us to invest in ourselves is such a huge opportunity. And so I'll say what I said at the press conference. I have Akiva account and I look forward to many of you joining me and loaning money to our small businesses through becoming Akiva City . Because when we take personal ownership of our communities and our neighborhoods and our businesses, only then can we take that next step together. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Austin, thank you. Speaker 3: And I'm going to keep it short since we have several other items to speak to. I want to congratulate and thank Vice Mayor Richardson and his team for bringing forth this initiative. It's something that I support wholeheartedly. I think they put a lot of innovative thought into it, working with our economic development staff. I think we will lay down something that will be beneficial for many in our city, and hopefully we will we will address the equity gap. I can't stress enough every time an issue like this comes before us. I think, you know, partnerships with our great educational institutions is extremely important because that is the great equalizer. And we don't achieve equity. We don't improve our conditions without improving our educational status. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. And we're going to take public comment in just a sec. I just wanted to also just congratulate, obviously, vice mayor, particularly at Comp Development Commission. If everyone remembers this is the economic blueprint that this council adopted that the commission put together, spent a lot of time putting this blueprint together. It's really a ten year road map for the city when it comes to economic development. And it was a top priority of the commission. And for us to actually get this done, which is really the reason why we reformed the commission, why a restructure the department to have an economic development department. And this is really another step to that. And if you look inside this blueprint, one of the pages is dedicated to economic inclusion. And so, you know, this agenda item and what the vice mayor is talking about is a direct I'm really just he's taking from one of the key initiatives of the blueprint and really expanding it and bringing life to it and ensuring that has the attention that it deserves. And so I just want to commend him for taking a leadership role on that part of the blueprint. And so with that, we're going to take public comment on this item, which is item 24, but feel free if you want to talk. And we hope we're going to have a couple other items on the same topic if you want to just talk kind of once on the whole package. That's great, Mayor. Council members Randall Hernandez, chairman of the Economic Development Commission. And I'll make it brief because you do have my letter, but we really do view the everyone in campaign is a call to action. We want to bring stakeholders together, whether it be education, small business, labor, community organizations and really do a deep dove into some of these underserved communities. It's always been a challenge. For many years I've been doing economic development for a long time and it's always been a challenge, really reaching in particularly to multicultural communities and really getting them at the table to have a real, really frank discussion on what makes them tick. How can we be more effective and what services not only the city can provide, but the services that are available throughout the throughout the community. So one of the things we hope to accomplish through this is really to bring together a lot of the stakeholders and the resources that are available throughout Long Beach to the table and have a very frank discussion on all of this items. I want to thank particularly, obviously, Vice Mayor Richardson for really driving this initiative and really accelerating it forward. But to you, Mayor, for the launch of this a year and a half ago, when you asked the commission to take this on and who knows where we're heading with that. But I think it's we've we've developed a good product along the way. And I also want to thank and commend Councilwoman Mongo for her leadership on the Economic Development Committee, for working closely with the commission on a lot of these initiatives. So I want to say thank you very much, and we look forward to the next phase. We know our work is just beginning and this is going to be a great piece of that continued blueprint action. So thank you. Thank you. Speaker, please. Thank you. My name is Robert Leon Wood. I live at 3602. I really want to compliment you for this fantastic idea that we have here. But I also want to want to emphasize the fact that what we have at Long Beach is many families of young men from single parents and a lot of children being raised by single parents. And they want to get out to get the information. And we're going to have to make a special effort to reach those who have single mothers, who are midst of poverty, who are living in really negative conditions to make sure that they get a part of this economic growth. We also have a lot of young men who do not have skills at this time that are going to have to have a special effort to give them the kind of skills that's necessary to take advantage of the job opportunities that are coming. And we know that what Proposition 47, we have many of our young men coming back home from behind the wall, and that needs to be in this package, some kind of a special effort to ensure that these young men and young women are going to have an opportunity to have a chance to appreciate and to get a chance to get some of the benefits of this great effort that you're having. So it could be universal to the entire community of Long Beach, but I think right now you're really on the right track. But thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Excuse me. Speaker 2: Hi. There's a few things that I have seen as being a parent in language unified that I think would bring everyone in for very low cost in. One thing I would like is for the Long Beach Police Department Junior Scouts program at Caboolture High School to get rid of their GPA requirement at Kabul High School so that ninth graders could go straight into a program like the police. And some of those kids they see, they fall in between the cracks. And we have to realize that Kabila doesn't have the same kind of grades and English learning skills that other schools have. So putting in that GPA, the police putting in the GPA requirement, I don't see as many young black boys able to get on the force. The other thing is the fire department may send in the training in Belmont Shore for the junior lifeguards. And that's how we get lifeguards and police and paramedics and firemen. As long as that program is centered in the NOSEWORTHY area and I'm not sure in the most wealthy pool, our kids don't have the ability to get there for that training to get the first lifeguard jobs in the city of Long Beach. So I've often asked for the for them to come over to the high school campuses for the lifeguard program and try to get the kids around the teams certified as lifeguards. Because we wanted black lifeguard Cabral High School, we had to have a meeting with our whole team and the principal, A.C. Brown Beach, to ask them why they couldn't produce any young black teen lifeguards. And they said that they just don't apply and they didn't have any black lifeguards to give us. So those are two things that if you wanted to listen, I think those things could just be changed and you would start to understand the kids a little bit more. And the other thing is we don't have Special Olympics, a Cabral high school pool. We just have them on the east side of town. So these kids also are at a they are a loss. And the Academy of Global Logistics, all high school has a program that's putting kids into global logistics. And I think what we have is truckers. And if you gave kids that are faster, kids with no homes, that they go out on the street after they're done with high school or in seniors, if you gave me a truck, it would be like a home and they could see the risk to the United States and maybe they could find somewhere to live that they can actually. Speaker 0: Afford. Speaker 2: In order to get out of Long Beach. We love to truckers. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, mayors. City council members, city staff. My name is Tasha Hunter and I'm the executive director of the Uptown Business Improvement District. And I want to say thank you. This is beautiful. This is something that we do. I deal with businesses on a day to day business, day to day basis in my business improvement district. And there's people that want to grow. They want to expand. They want access to the capital and the resources. And we search and we look and we find and this is something that we've been thriving for, wishing for all coming together. So I'm going to put a special thank you to economic development, Randall and everyone that's helped work on this. We're excited and we're here to support. We gave a letter of support. And any way that you want to utilize the business district, we're here. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is Josue Gutierrez and I'm part of the YMCA Youth Institute, and I support this initiative because according to a partner in the scheme, we are the fifth most expensive brand statewide. A one room apartment would cost a minimum of 6000 dollars, but a minimum wage is 1100 dollars a month. My sister is forced to live with my mom and the rest of my family currently because she cannot afford one room, a one room apartment currently. In order for her to move out, she will need my other sister to help her pay rent so she'll be able to live in that apartment, which is a one bedroom apartment . So what I believe what we should do is raise minimum wage and she will most likely she and other people who have this situation will be able to have a life of their own and help support themselves. And people who are there with also helping out small businesses helps make the community give more jobs for kids and people in the city also. It also keeps the revenue within the city that can be used for taxes as well as growing the business itself. This is why the is to support this initiative. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thanks, Speaker. Speaker 2: Good evening. Mayor Garcia, members of the city council. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jessica Quintana and I'm the executive director of Central Asia, and we're here today to support this initiative. Thank you so much. Vice Mayor Rex Richter said. You know, this aligns with the work that we do at Central CHA for over 16 years. Our main priority has been focused on economic development and workforce development in our communities. As you know, the Latino population is at 42% here in the city of Long Beach. And having said that, there's a lot of challenges within our community. We have language barriers, access to capital challenges, and developing small business entrepreneurship. Most recently, we just sparked a new initiative. Speaker 1: With Cal. Speaker 2: State, Long Beach and providing the first ever Latino Entrepreneurship Bootcamp at Central Asia. Because it's a challenge for a lot of folks to start a small business and really understanding how to begin those steps. A lot of people, what happens is they they save their life savings and really don't know how to navigate and start a small business. And for a lot of our youth, we have a lot of our workforce development youth in the audience. So I know Nick would be very proud to see some of his youth there. But, you know, these are things that we focus on. We focus on economic development as a strategy for violence prevention to build our communities. So. So they are, you know, equitable in in different parts, not only in the first District, in the ninth and the sixth, but also on the West Side area. It's important that we're providing these services citywide because we do have an issue of poverty and an economic lack of inclusion with a lot of folks, especially when they're having language barriers. So this is a great initiative. We look forward to having a seat at the table. I think that's important, having, you know, further discussions and conversations. We look forward to hosting a discussion and having that, you know, in translated into Spanish. And, you know, as many of our youth here and just the experiences that they have and and, you know, just their backgrounds are very diverse. So, you know, they're all as you know, you know, with a climate, they're in fear of of their current status. Some are. Some are. Their status is going to be expiring. So it's going to be important that they have opportunities to entrepreneurship, because that's the way they're going to be able to continue to to thrive in their communities. Because we all know that economics is really a matter of a person being able to live and thrive. It's a quality of life issue. So thank you so much again. And we look forward to the discussion, the conversation. Randall, you're in the audience. Thank you so much for your leadership. And we continue to look forward to working with you as well as the economic commission. Thank you so. Speaker 0: Much. Thank you so much, Jessica. With that, I appreciate all the public comment. And to go back to the council. Councilmember Pierce. Speaker 5: Well, yes, thank you. I want to again, thank you all for speaking today. And I just wanted to lift up a couple of things that I heard and wanted to ensure vice mayor, that it's included in this. You've done a great job of outlining which folks should be included. I think focusing on youth in a way that is a just a youth space, being a part of building healthy communities and their youth work groups. It's a unique space where we get to hear from them without a lot of adults putting in their ideas. I would hope that in some of their listening that we would really engage with some high school youth and what that transition looks like for them. Also on that, I just was thinking about the local hire pipeline and one of the challenges we've had with trying to make sure that that's the most robust pipeline because I don't have a history of that in Long Beach. And so using these listening tours is also an opportunity to think about how we strengthen some of the work that we've already started. So thank you. And again, really support everything. Speaker 0: Sure. I'll just I'll just respond with I'm really excited about trying out this equity lens in the conversation. So we're talking with the health department and they're going to conduct training before these happen about how to best sort of use these strategies and tools to facilitate the conversation. So I'm sure a lot of what you talked about can be reflected. Thanks. Great. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries gray in the next one. And we have three items that were related to this.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to refer to Economic Development Commission to conduct a deeper assessment of economic inclusion in Long Beach by embarking on the "Everyone In Listening Tour" and providing further outreach to marginalized and disenfranchised segments of the business and working community; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Economic Development Department (ED) by $40,000, offset by Ninth Council District one-time infrastructure funds transferred from the Capital Projects Fund (CP) in the Public Works Department (PW) to supplement the targeted outreach.

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Speaker 0: So I'm sure a lot of what you talked about can be reflected. Thanks. Great. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries gray in the next one. And we have three items that were related to this. So we're going to do 22, 24 and 25. When I read. That's one. I'm sorry. 22, 23, 25. Speaker 1: Item 22. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson. Councilwoman Gonzales. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrew's recommendation to direct the Economic Development Department to work with Los Angeles Local Initiatives Support Corporation and a Long Beach Community Foundation to establish Long Beach as Akiva City Vice Mayor. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just have a couple a couple of points here to make. So blueprint. Objective number two on economic inclusion specifically calls out increasing nontraditional capital resources for minorities and women owned businesses. Kiva is a nonprofit, innovative, online microfinance platform that works to expand access to financial services for small business owners who have the dream and potential but are locked out of commercial traditional commercial loans. Using the Kiva platform, borrowers can apply for crowdfunded loans of up to $10,000 with a 0% interest rate. Kiva Borrowers are typically entrepreneurs who cannot qualify for conventional business financing due to poor credit time in business or little financial collateral. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Long Beach is home to diverse communities and economies, with more than 9800 small businesses employing nearly 100,000 people. Yet one of the biggest challenges facing these small business owners, especially women and minority owned businesses, is the inability to access capital. That's why Long Beach becoming a key city is vital to the success of our vital of our vibrant small business community. To date, there are only 16 cities across the U.S. with Kiva City designation, and since 2005, Kiva has crowdfunded more than 2.4 million loans totaling over $1,000,000,000, with a global repayment rate of 97%. The Kiva platform has attracted the community, a community of over 1.6 million Lennar lenders from 180 different countries. So the proposal tonight is to help get Kiva off the ground in Long Beach and to support a part time point person. This person will provide support to city staff regarding the Kiva platform. Ten Key Kiva trainings as needed. Market and promote the program. Recruit and train Kiva borrowers to use Kiva Lending Program. Help set up other Kiva trustee partners within the city. Provide annual or semiannual training to Cuba. Trustee Partners and the City of Long Beach. Provide one on one support to help organizations identify and bring forth strong Kiva borrowers. Fundraise for a match that meets previous terms, which has no interest, no fees, and no credit score. One of our partners on Kiva is the Los Angeles Local Initiative Support Corporation, who will bring technical advice, technical assistance to the city to train staff and borrowers to use the Kiva application. So I want to thank. Executive director to new address input for helping to. For volunteering to offer this support. They'll also help us to market and promote the program, recruit borrowers and use their $100,000 accelerator fund to help borrowers reach their goals quicker. In addition, I want to thank the Long Beach Community Foundation, who've already pledged to help support the first year costs. Your support is invaluable to the success of this program, and I want to thank co-sponsors Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilwoman Mongeau and Councilmember Andrews for dedicating one time funds to help bring Keep It Along Beach as well. But it's not too late. If council members have ideas or suggestions, you're more than welcome to put in some funds on these startup costs too. So I couldn't. So that's totally with a couldn't ask before do the Brown act. But we can totally ask now. So anybody who wants to get in on Kiva, now's the time. I'm pretty sure every district it once was off the ground. We're going to want every one of our businesses to participate. So. So you're more than welcome to help us get off the ground. Thank you. And that's my motion. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 6: I just want to say thanks again, Vice Mayor. I think when I first heard about Kiva was in and about in Kenya. Actually, I wasn't in Kenya, but I heard about it as an initiative that was taking place in Kenya for entrepreneurs there in a third world country. And I thought, it's interesting, we're going to bring it here. But now that I looked at this, this is absolutely fantastic, especially in the whole realm of economic inclusion. And I will say as well, just to reiterate the points I've said before with women and just making sure that women are at the table, making sure that women are presenting. So I'm glad to see that, to know it will be a part of that. I know she's a very strong woman. That will absolutely be a great part of this program and making sure that we are, of course, providing opportunities for borrowers to sorry for lenders to understand what the risks are. And really, I'm actually looking at the Kiva website and it shows that the repayment rate is, I think, averaging over 95%. Yeah, 97, 95%, which is fantastic. So I think that. Is really great. This is a fantastic program. I'm glad we brought this here. And I want to thank John Keisler as well for his work in this. And Sergio, thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Pearce. Speaker 5: I want to thank you again for bringing this item. When I think about the second District and I think about how many great startups we have, coffee shops, chocolatiers was actually ended up in the first district. But a lot of these small people that start in their homes could benefit from Kiva. So RECs, I'm in, come in and look. Speaker 0: I'll take that as a friendly amendment. Speaker 5: That's a friendly amendment to include city to maybe to in being a part of, of this initiative. And I really look forward to having some conversations with staff and doing some outreach as well. So fantastic. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 2: Was there disclosure of how much you just committed to? I think it's I think it's 6200 is what. Speaker 6: We're committing. Speaker 0: 62. Speaker 2: And so. Speaker 4: It's less. Right. Speaker 2: That would be true. Five, five, 5000. And so thank you for that. Speaker 0: The five ways. Speaker 2: Now I just want to thank council members for putting their money where their mouth is because I think that's what really demonstrates to businesses. Businesses put money and they finance refinanced their homes. Some of them who even have good credit, they they don't need a loan that's as big as banks sometimes give. And so the process and the paperwork and the work, this crowd funding of loans is just an amazing opportunity. I'm already a lender on Kiva and I hope you'll go online and join me. Get ready. Loan the Long Beach business some money soon. Speaker 0: Thank you. Is there a public comment on this? I know we've heard saying saying none. We have a motion and a second. Please cast your votes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to direct the Economic Development Department to work with Los Angeles Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Long Beach Community Foundation to establish Long Beach as a "Kiva City"; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Economic Development Department (ED) by $25,000, offset by the First, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Council Districts one-time infrastructure funds transferred from the Capital Projects Fund (CP) in the Public Works Department (PW) to support the hiring of a new, temporary part-time staff member.

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Speaker 0: Thank you. And the last one of this group is 25. Speaker 1: Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilwoman Gonzales, Councilmember Pierce, Councilmember Arango. Recommendation to work with the Office of Equity to identify a philanthropic or educational partner to conduct an economic equity study on the City of Long Beach and report back in 60 days. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's a motion in a second baseman, Richardson. Thank you. So to plan for more equitably, economically equitable community, we first need to start. We need to know where we stand. There's a growing body of research that finds greater economic opportunity, fosters stronger economic growth, and more equitable regions. What we need is a truly longitudinal analysis that looks at how dynamics change over time. The first step is a more general top line research assessment for our current environment that can lead to a more intense study to assist communities with this process. There are many philanthropic organizations and educational institutions that conduct these top line studies to identify and measure the various equity indicators that could prevent economic vitality, for example. I know that USC, Sol Price School of Public Policy has a startup grant opportunity for a student Ph.D. student who can provide top line research and economic equity profile in Long Beach. And there are a number of educational institutions that offer these smaller $25,000 grant opportunities. And the idea is this is the smaller amount of research that sets up for the larger grant or the larger ongoing analysis ongoing. The idea here is that we can partner locally, we can partner locally with a local institution and have some tracking evaluation over a three or five year period. But we want to start with one baseline of information. And so we want to start this process of identifying funding or a partner today that can help to help us to present this top line, this top line analysis. The hope here is that we can work with our economic development folks for equity folks and maybe have an update in 60 days and where we are. Sometimes it may not take 60 days to get to get this. We have some people who are warmed up. We have we've identified some sources that might be a good fit for this, but ongoing. The idea is that this sets up for the larger, larger, ongoing funding that can help us in tracking and evaluate. And the final thing I'll say is, you know, for years we hear the term when we talk about Long Beach Tale of Two Cities. And we've we've attempted many times to try to address that close the gap address to equity. But really, this is the piece that I see that allows us to track and see how we're doing over time. So that's that's the hope here. And I thank my colleagues now for their support. Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Yes, I. I want to thank you for explaining a little bit on the funding piece for doing the study. I know that in the past we had the Seattle study that we had asked and we had tried to work with Cal State, Long Beach. I think the number came back in the $200,000 mark. So it's helpful to know that there are grants at USC and that we can build on that. I also want to continue to work with you and city staff on this so that we can look at some of the pieces from Seattle and bring them into this hopefully , and make that a part of the grant as well. So look forward to that. And thank you for the first step. Speaker 0: Councilman Gonzales. Speaker 6: Yeah, this is Grant, the one group I wanted to include, and I know we didn't explicitly included. I'm sure they will be included are individuals experiencing disabilities, so I know we should definitely just include that in. Speaker 0: That makes sense. Yep. Okay. It's Republican on this last one. Casey, nonmembers, please go and cast your votes. Public comment was, Oh, I didn't see Randall. Come on over. Sorry about that. I know time is short, but I just want to re-emphasize that again. We want to congratulate the vice mayor for a lot of these initiatives. And obviously, to really get them up and off the ground is going to take some financial resources. We're going to be looking to city staff to kind of help us through that. But to your point, Councilman Price, I mean, we want to attract financial institutions, third party nonprofits, private foundations. So we're going to go out there and look for nonpublic financial resources that really can help drive this and not only drive it to get it up and off the ground, but to indeed to be partners. I think one of the first steps is indeed going to be reaching out to the banks who do a lot of work with the nonprofit community, community development, financial institutions and organizations like that that can help spur this along more quickly. I've always thought and again, you know, I've been in the banking industry for a long time. I think one of the things that we haven't done a great job here in Long Beach is to attract that kind of attention to the city. But the great opportunities there are here on the west side, north and central Long Beach. I think we've kind of got to do our own marketing campaign to those institutions and have already begun to have some discussion with some of the banks who already see some Community Reinvestment Act opportunities in the city. Now, it's our job, just really kind of to connect those kind of resources with the opportunities we have here. So I just want to make sure everybody understood we are indeed looking for nonpublic funds to make this thing happen as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And with that members, please go and cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: So thank you. Thank you very much. And that concludes the conclusion items. Thank you all that came out. For those items we're going to go we're back on the regular agenda as well here, item 21.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to work with the Office of Equity to identify a philanthropic or educational partner to conduct an economic equity study on the City of Long Beach, and report back in 60 days.

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Speaker 0: So thank you. Thank you very much. And that concludes the conclusion items. Thank you all that came out. For those items we're going to go we're back on the regular agenda as well here, item 21. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilman Austin, Councilwoman Price, Councilmember Super Na, Councilmember Andrews recommendation to request the Mayor to convene the Charter Amendment Committee of the City Council within 30 days to discuss placing a charter amendment for the voters to establish a city ethics commission and a citizen's redistricting commission. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 3: And I'd like to also thank my colleagues and Co-Actors for signing on to this item. This is, I believe, a very important time in the discourse to ensure that there's confidence in government institutions. On this item, I want to be very clear is meant to be the beginning of a discussion that will hopefully make a lasting, lasting reforms to our governance here in the city of Long Beach. From the national to the local level, there has been a clear erosion in confidence in our government institutions, and voter turnout is a key indicator of that. Long Beach has tried to address these issues before. A little bit of history. The Long Beach City Council created an ethics task force in 2001 approving a proposal by then council member Bonnie Lowenthal. And that that as the ethics task force was comprised of many people who were continuing to serve in government today. They presented a report and recommendations in 2002. The City Council also adopted a code of ethics in 2003. We made we made some progress. In a discussion of charter reform, the city council approved establishing an Ethics Commission and redistricting commission in 2007. However, those issues were not those items were not successful on the ballot because they were combined with other issues that were far more controversial. And so it's important to note that every major city in California has an ethics commission or an Office of Equity, and they include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley and Oakland . Cities that we base a lot of our policies on here as a city, these commissions handles duties ranging from conflict of interest, campaign finance, city campaign laws, lobbying, government ethics and including enforcement in some cases. And so I think the time has come for us to have a really serious conversation about improving our ethics laws and codifying them in our governance here in the city of Long Beach. Long Beach also has had numerous divisive experiences with redrawing council district lines. In 2011. It was polarizing and politically charged. The process was polarizing and very politically charged. Hundreds of residents turned out at community meetings about the proposed lines. Lawn signs went up and throughout some neighborhoods, and it was not a pretty sight. In 2008, our state adopted a independent redistricting commission model that has been widely praised throughout the nation. It actually was drafted or put together by a former city council member, Alan Lowenthal, and our current congressional representative. Several cities have followed this approach. And eight cities in California have created citizens redistricting commissions. And those cities include Berkeley, Chula Vista, Escondido, Modesto, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. Common cause. The League of Women Voters and other good government advocacy groups are promoting these citizen commissions to increase transparency and to also restore public confidence. In 2015, I, along with Councilmember Gosar, proposed city proposals that the city state redistricting redistricting commission I'm sorry, again for Long Beach. Unfortunately, that proposal was sent to the election's oversight committee and has been stalled without further action to this point. These issues, I believe, are very timely and really merit our discussion in consideration as a city council and as a city. And therefore, I'd like these issues to be discussed in a meeting of a charter amendment committee. And the item tonight. I want to be very clear, does not seek to lay out the details of what an ethics commission will will do or the scope of responsibilities. We're looking forward to having that conversation. But this is as I mentioned in the beginning, I started the conversation in the item here, and I'd like to just a minute my item briefly, because it asks for the the the for the mayor and the charter amendment committee of the City Council to be convened within 30 days to discuss placing a charter amendment before the voters to establish and the City Ethics Commission and to establish a citizens redistricting commission. I think in light of the timing that we are going into the holiday season, it would be a little rough on staff and to to come back within 30 days. And so I would like to change that, to propose 60 to 90 days and within that window that that would give us, I think, plenty of time to prepare, but also in that period of time allow the Council to do due diligence to do their independent research and come back for that at that meeting with with the information to have a robust discussion. So with that, I ask for my colleagues unanimous support. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Price. Speaker 6: I want to commend Councilman Austin for bringing this item forward. I think it's very important as a as an elected body that we have the confidence and and good faith of the people that we work with. It's essential to our ability to get things done, to have their trust. So I'm happy to support this item. And I believe it's this is a huge step forward for us in instituting good government practices in the city of Long Beach. And I really appreciated the presentation that Councilman Austin gave, because I think it does a really good job of showing the history of this issue in the city of Long Beach, which I was not aware of up until today, and also knowing how many other cities have initiated these practices. I know I work in a county that recently initiated an ethics focused committee or an ethics officer, and I think that's very important. So I'm I'm completely supportive of this, and I look forward to hearing from my colleagues on this. And more importantly, I look forward to having the bigger discussion when staff engages with us and gives us options of what some models could look like and what some of the changes to the way we continue to do things would be and how those would benefit our residents and ensuring that they have confidence in their elected officials. I think that. I am not obviously as familiar with the redistricting process as Councilman Austin is, having not been through it before. But it sounds like it was a very divisive process. And and I don't know that that process has always been fair, not just in the city of Long Beach, but around the nation. That seems to be one of the most politicized processes in governance. So to the to the extent that we can employ some best practices to take the politics out of such a process and enhance transparency and really strive for this concept of equity that I know is important to so many of our colleagues in such a process. I would be completely supportive of that. So again, I want to thank you for bringing this forward, and I wholeheartedly support this item. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 2: Thank you. I, too, want to thank Councilmember Austin for a robust presentation. I think that it was well done and well researched. I appreciate that our community needs to be able to look to those that are leading either the council or city departments and or our commissioners and look at the barometer in which we we really exercise our ethics. And so I appreciate this. And I also am a big supporter, and I will stand beside you in ensuring that we continue to have ethical leadership. And when we when people make mistakes and there are challenges, we need to have a system in place to first and foremost prevent it. And I think that there are lots of good models, including Metro, that lay out some of the best practices and standards to ensure that those that are stepping up are given the tools to be strong leaders and ethical leaders. And I think that if you don't have your ethics, you really don't have anything at all. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Bishop Brown. Thank you. And thanks to Councilman Bronson for bringing this item forward. I'm going to support it. I just had a question and maybe it's for our city attorney in convening the Charter Amendment Committee. Let get the language here. So if we have a citizens redistricting committee that would be made up by whatever standards are set by the redistricting committee, is that how that works? Or it will be wide open. It currently under the the redistricting is provided under the charter, I believe it's charter section 103 or 1 to 1. So in order to change that, to create a independent committee, I believe the motion is to have that discussion to see what that would look like. It would require a vote of the people to establish a charter committee to look at and redistricting. And part of the discussion and process would be bringing back maybe examples of maybe background or certain types of expertize that the council would want those members to possess in order to sit on that committee. Okay. Thank you. So that is yet to be determined. So there there if any detractors on the system, we don't have the system in place yet to be determined. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? Please come forward. I see two members of the public. They're going to speak. Okay. Speaker 2: Good evening, Mayor Garcia and council members. Thank you for the opportunity for me to speak. My name is Sylvia moore. I'm Southern California, organizer for California Common Cause. Two years ago, I was here at the invitation of Councilmembers Gonzales and Councilmember Austin talking about the idea of a redistricting commission. And Councilmember Austin, thank you so much for your great presentation on Common Cause. We definitely support this proposal. We're very happy to see that this conversation is moving forward. So why an ethics commission? It helps promote public trust by providing local oversight and education about a city's ethics laws. And it would also fill a gap as to local ethics laws that the IPC cannot enforce. Similarly, with a redistricting commission, commission, redistricting commissions are now considered the high watermark for fair, transparent and inclusive redistricting. And that's why state and over a dozen jurisdictions statewide, including Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and Modesto, have created citizens commissions to bring community and neighborhood input into the redistricting process. And local commissions have long been pushed by good government groups, groups including common cause and civil rights organizations like MALDEF and ACLU, because they generally result in fairer lines that better respect and protect minority communities. And for the foregoing reasons, we hope that you move forward on both proposals and if you do. California common cause we pledge to lend our assistance to and helping to provide technical expertize and assistance. We have a long history of helping jurisdictions establish conditions, including just last year when we collaborated with the Sacramento City Council in establishing that city's first Ethics Commission and Redistricting Commission. Thank you very much for your account, the council's time and consideration on this important topic. Speaker 0: Thank you. Again, there's more. I just want to just just commend common cause. I think there are very few organizations anywhere that do better work than the work you guys do. And so it just means a lot whenever you guys are here and supportive of the work. I'm a huge supporter, so continue the great work you guys are doing. You guys are are always leading the state when it comes to these important issues. So thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Appreciate that. Speaker 0: Mr.. Good, you. Very good, you resident in Long Beach since 1977 and it's very face. The motion is so obvious. Most people think it needs to be discussed. But let me offer these thoughts on this is looking back on it. This is at this point. Not unlike closing the barn door after the horses are out. And let me make it clear also that I think within this council and within this community, there are people that should get and have the caliber and the integrity to be on this commission or involved in this commission. However. Having our current mayor or any of his criminally blessed fellow travelers involved. And setting up a commission dealing with ethics and honesty would be like Harvey Weinstein opening up an academy to teach female women how to advance in Hollywood, period. Let it move forward, but let it be well distance from the mayor and his criminally complicit fellow travelers. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next picture, please. Thank you very much. My name is Sterling Reagan. I live in the eighth district. I live in fourth range three, just Avenue. And when I heard that this proposal was coming up, I was shocked by the fact that this is not already implemented. I would have thought that as soon as a municipality is established that an ethics commission would be there with it to to ensure that the processes are safe and secure. And so with that in mind, if you are thinking about not doing it, I have a few reasons why you should. So currently we have a grotesque level of political apathy. Speaker 2: Currently, here in Long Beach. Speaker 0: It's something like 13 and a half percent voter turnout in the 2016 election, and it's hope to God that it's not that bad. Speaker 2: In the. Speaker 0: Next one. That's coming up. And nationwide, it's somewhere along 40% voter turnout, eligible voters. Speaker 2: That is just not acceptable. Speaker 0: And maybe this commission can help people more trusting in their government and say maybe I can be a part of the process and help out my community. I also think a city commission is good because it is very personal to the community. So the people that are, you know, you know, organizing the districts and the people that are ensuring that our councilmen are ethically secure, they are our neighbors. They are good local people. So we know them and we can. Speaker 2: Keep them in. Speaker 0: Check as much as possible and we know their motives. So that's a positive thing. And you know, guys, this is just common sense. You want your councilman to be ethically secure. You want your elected officials to have a certain degree of checks and balances with their own people. So this is a very positive I'm very glad that this is finally a part of the discussion, at the very least. And thank you so much, I hope support. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker. Thank you. I'm back again. The part that I think about this is that the Ethics Commission proposal that you have here kind of rounds the picture of the economic development package that we were talking about before, because what it's doing is going to encourage the entire city to know that our leadership is trying to make sure that everyone is involved and everyone is is working together, is trying to make sure that economically we're working together as a as a community. It's going to be the kind of issues that are going to work with all minority groups and everyone is going to win out of this package. So I think tonight has been a very positive night because to know that we're concerned about our ethics, we're going to be concerned about our economics. We're concerned about our community. So so, Mayor, I think this is fantastic. And I hope that the best success and I think it's going to be a great effort to but for us to move forward as a community. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. And with that, I just want to also thank Councilmember Austin. These are issues that need to be discussed. And we look forward to having a good, robust conversation when they come before the charter amendment committee that the charter committee, which of those who don't know is basically the city council. So that will be back will be back to us in a in a in a special meeting. So with that, thanks again and particularly to common cause and please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request Mayor to convene the Charter Amendment Committee of the City Council within 30 days to discuss placing a charter amendment before the voters to establish a City Ethics Commission, and to establish a Citizen Redistricting Commission, in order to promote good governance and ensure public confidence in Long Beach city government, and request City Clerk and City Attorney to develop framework options for the Committee to consider.

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Speaker 1: Motion case. Speaker 0: Thank you. Item 27. Next item. Speaker 1: Report from Economic Development and Public Works. Recommendation to approve the downtown Long Beach Property and Business Improvement District Annual Report. Automatically extending the agreement for funding with the downtown Long Beach Alliance for one year districts one and two. Speaker 0: Thank you. Report from staff. Speaker 6: I think I have to excuse myself. My partner Adam works for the DLP, so I will excuse me. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 0: Okay. Madam Clerk, meet with the item or we'll just read the item. Staff can. Just now. I mean, just backwards. Sure. I mean, members of the city council. This item is the annual approval of the downtown Long Beach Property and Business Improvement District Annual Ongoing Assessment. The recommended action in this item continues the assessment for another year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment. However, the downtown Long Beach Alliance board voted on May 4th, 2017, to raise the assessment rates 3% per the allowed Consumer Price Index adjustment, which is reflected in the annual report. There are no significant changes in proposed activity. Staff requested the City Council approve the annual report and continue the assessment and authorize the city manager to extend the agreement for one additional year. That conclusion report. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Yes. I just want to thank the DOJ for their hard work. I want to thank Eric and the team for working with the Dolby. I know we roll these out a little differently than we did last year. And I also want to highlight that the deal is taking on a little bit more in supporting our arts park , bringing on insurance so we can have that open more often. So again, creating a safe downtown. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Hear, hear. Keep the public comment on this item. CNN. Please cast your votes.

Contract

Recommendation to approve the Downtown Long Beach Property and Business Improvement District Annual Report for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018, automatically extending the Agreement for Funding with the Downtown Long Beach Alliance for one year; authorize payment of $531,523 in City property assessments from the Civic Center Fund (IS 380) in the Public Works Department (PW); and, $5,398 from Successor Agency Fund (SA) in the Development Services Department (DV); and Increase appropriations in the Civic Center Fund (IS 380) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $101,282, offset by a reduction in funds available. (Districts 1,2)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Next up is item number 29. Speaker 1: Report from Public Works Recommendation to award a contract to L.A. Z parking in California for citywide parking operations and management services for a total contract amount not to exceed 9,448,990 978 citywide. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. I know that we have a staff report on this. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. West. Craig Cogen. Hi, Craig. Craig Beck. Speaker 4: And. Come on. It's great. Speaker 0: No, I'm right here. Good evening, Mayor, and members of the City Council. We would like to give you a brief presentation. So this is about a parking services RFP and as information, see if we can get this to work. We can advance to the next slide. Speaker 4: I don't know. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. There we go. So the city does manage 25 different city owned parking assets and that includes seven parking garages. The Aquarium City plays Broadway, Lincoln and 100 Broadway, which is our garden lot behind us. We also have nine different beach lots. So what are we seeking in a parking operator? We're really looking at someone who can provide maintenance for all of our facilities, who can provide customer service, and who can really look to ensure that all of our patrons are safe using our garages. Some of the maintenance work includes sweeping trash removal, regular power washing of the facilities and then minor things paint, touch up, graffiti removal, things like that. To give you an idea of the scale of what we're talking about in fiscal year 17, we anticipate that parking operations will collect almost $9.4 million gross revenue. And our largest structure is the aquarium structure. It receives almost 745,000 visitors annually and generates almost half that revenue, $4.4 million. So quite a big operation. I think. Not only does it support the aquarium, but certainly many of the restaurants and businesses down in the Pike area. We're also interested in supporting our special events. As we all know, Long Beach is a great location for special events. We see our special events growing from year to year. We have some major events in the Grand Prix, our Pride Festival, Long Beach Marathon and most recently we've seen more and more activity occur down on the Queen Mary with the concept of Queen Mary Island. This year's Queen Mary Dark Harbor was so popular that there was special transportation arranged between the aquarium garage where many of the patrons would park to and from the Queen Mary as part of that event. Also need to recognize that we have a lot of filming that happens in our city. Over 500 filming permits are typically issued in a year, and that includes closing down streets and it may include special operations where our parking operator would support. So in seeking providers for this service, we were really honing in on these categories. We wanted our vendors to share with us their experience in parking management, event management, how they deal with customer service, what their customer service plan look like, what their staffing service plan would be for the various assets, especially the aquarium garage, given its high frequency of use. And we also wanted to know their operational plan and what it would cost to provide those services as information. The current parking contract ends in the end of March of 2018. So we did go through an RFP process. The RFP was out to the community in March of this year. We did receive five qualified proposals and went through and those came in in May. We went through interviews with all five firms in June, and in July we we shortlisted two to what we believe were the most qualified candidates, and that was last parking and speed plus. Those two finalists went through a community partner interview where we engaged both the DOJ, the Aquarium of Pacific, to sit on a panel and have a conversation with these two finalists. And then in October, we issued a notice of intent to award for the recommendation of last parking. The city did receive a bid protest. There was a protest issued over the notice of intent to award. Our purchasing group did receive the protest, review the protest and essentially said there was no basis for the protest and moved to support Stout's recommendation. So that is what we have before you this evening. Staff is recommending that council move forward with a contract with LA's Parking LLC. We believe that LA's completely understands the complexity of the parking operations in urban areas and specifically in what we need here in the city of Long Beach. They've identified a personable and experienced individual as their parking manager. Their cost proposal actually came in less than our number two candidate, about $381,000 annually. I think staff also appreciated the focus that LA's has on special events. They have some very notable clients for special events the Emmys, Golden Globes, Academy Awards, and they also support many California operations like LAX, John Wayne Airport and municipal cities in the Bay Area that are listed here, Berkeley and Walnut Creek. So that concludes our presentation and we're available for questions. Thank you. Thank you. I know we have a motion that we're going to, I believe, take public comment first per the request, and so is your public comment on this item. Please come forward. Good evening. My name is Jason Johnson. I'm senior vice president for SPX Plus Corporation. We've been the city's parking operator for the last ten years and unfortunately we ended up on the wrong side of this particular bid. I always hate coming in talking on these items because it always sounds like spilled milk when you didn't win. Right. But there were enough items that we saw throughout the process that we thought we should at least come and have our say. Right. We did protest. The protest was tonight. Hopefully I can give you a few things to think about in a relatively short period of time. So my first set of concerns are around the process, and there's really four items that individually would be concerns. And taking them as a total was an even bigger concern for us. Right. And that was the scoring criteria had no way to get average. Right, which gives a lot of leeway to the folks that are evaluating each of the proposals. We had no scoring sheet was provided. Our FOIA request was denied before this meeting. And then there's a 20% contingency on this contract, which I've been doing this a really long time and I've never seen anywhere anything close to that. And with that 20% contingency, it could take this contract from being less expensive to being considerably more expensive without them without staff having to come back and talk to council. All the value ads that were mentioned in the staff report, we we've recommended to the city over the last few years, we've provided that documentation. So the second set of concerns are with us with the selected provider. They've got no no significant municipal contracts here in Southern California. We have a number of them. They have a history of underbid contracts. That has led to some significant thefts. And we have one that's that's major. And it's come up pretty significantly here recently, which is they had a theft at the MTA in Boston, which ended up in a $5.6 million settlement for that theft. All right. The attorney general for Massachusetts said by failing to implement reasonable revenue controls, laws gave supervisors and parking attendants the opportunity and means to skim cash. So in closing, I'm sure that you guys are all aware that another municipality here in Southern California, Pasadena, just went through the same process. Last was the recommended vendor from staff. City Council rejected that not once, but twice, because they weren't willing to take the chance on someone that has this significant theft in recent history, in recent memory. Right. And so city council voted to extend the contract for another year with the existing providers, and they're going to look at it again a year from now. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. And will the public comment on this item? Okay. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor, esteemed members of City Council. My name is John Special Ed. I'm the senior vice president for parking. On behalf of all of last parking, and in particular our 2000 local valued team members, we wanted to let you know how excited we are to be staff recommendation since the RFP process started. We worked very hard to put our best foot forward. We want to thank staff for all their hard work and diligently vetting all proposals. We sincerely feel that we can bring a renewed passion to the parking operations that result in improved customer service, as well as new technology to improve the user experience. We look forward to working with staff, Long Beach residents and the other stakeholders to improve parking in Long Beach. I know that our competition touched on, you know, our lack of experience here, but we have several reputable clients, both in the municipal and private sector, that we've provided letters of recommendation on to staff. We've been completely transparent and full of integrity throughout this process, and we want to bring that same level of integrity and passion to City of Long Beach if we're so fortunate. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. So, you know, the public comment will close, public comment will go back to the council. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Yes, I want to thank staff for their work on this. I in the last week have met both with both companies that are here today. Went back to staff for several questions. And I wanted to get a couple of clarifying things for the 20% contingency. On the contract, we had discussed what those might be for. And one thing that I don't think was necessarily elaborated on that is one of the things I'm excited about with Lars is the technology, the ability to be nimble, the ability to think outside the box, in using things like a phone app that says, you know, I can reserve my parking spot ahead of time. Often when people come to a downtown, they find themselves anxious about parking. Even though we know that there is parking, being able to take on private lots. So, you know, we had mobile here that was here earlier talking about if we were to take on a private lot, working with the city to partner with that is really important to me. And so my specific question is, can you clarify what the 20% contingency might be used for? Speaker 0: Certainly, Councilmember Pearce, I think it's important to make sure council understands we compared the two tracked proposals apples to apples. So the $381,000 savings annually that I mentioned, that is a comparison of the annual contract regardless of the recommendation that was before council. Whether that was LA's or if if staff was recommended Espn+, we would still be recommending that council provide a 20% contingency to that contract. We think it's important to give us leeway to address some things not only within our structures but within special events. And we believe that that kind of capacity allows us the ability to, say, improve a gate, arm or things that may come up over the course of a contract that we can't foresee at this point in time. Of course, that's all supported by parking revenue. If that revenue is not there to support that additional cost, then that is nothing that we would expend money on. But having that flexibility just allows allows us to move quickly to address issues focused on customer service. So everybody coming in to our downtown and all of our parking assets have the best experience they can. Speaker 5: Great. And can you clarify for me, you mentioned infrastructure improvements, security arm. If something like that happens where I know a lot that's in Councilmember Gonzalez, his district often has issues. If something like that comes up, whose responsibility is that? If it's on a city lot? Speaker 0: Well, ultimately, it's the city's responsibility. But we rely on our parking operator to work with us. Many times we will use our parking operator to actually procure the equipment. Espn+ has done that for us over the years when we needed to do an upgrade and we worked closely with our parking operator to make sure that we had that ability to upgrade the equipment. And this 20% contingency would allow us that flexibility moving forward. For example, right now we know we need to make an investment in our city place garages, that that equipment is somewhat outdated and we want to improve it for the customer experience. Speaker 5: Great. Thank you. I also would like to to highlight, you know, there are several letters in here supporting LA's post, any of the press stuff that has been talked about and following up with those cities that feel really confident and are continuing to sing the praises as one of the other issues, I think it's the right decision for the city, and I look forward to not just having a parking company, but working with you guys in partnership in the private lots and working with you. And how do we take. Speaker 6: That. Speaker 5: App and make sure that it's on my website, council members website, every business in the downtown and the East Village that we really are trying to to use technology and inform our residents of that. And so I expect you guys at my neighborhood association and my board meetings should this move forward tonight. So thank you for for offering that as a partnership. I hope that my colleagues will support staff's recommendations. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes, I am excited to talk about parking, because I think this is something that especially downtown residents have been wanting to see move in perhaps a different direction. And I have a few questions myself and I too have met with both teams and making sure that I'm getting all my ducks in a row and on behalf of my residents, who in the city would spot, check or audit the contract? Speaker 0: Councilmember Gonzales said city staff and public works will manage the contract and will be the primary point of contact for them. Our community projects officer, April Walker, has been involved through the entire RFP. Has been a member on the interview groups as we vetted this whole process. And she'll be the primary point of contact in helping to coordinate any issues that may come up with the contract. Speaker 6: Awesome. I was going to say, who's our Luis Maldonado from back in the day? It's now April. Great. Speaker 0: Now April. Speaker 6: Wonderful. And then given, you know, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority had been brought up, of course. Speaker 2: Could you just go over really. Speaker 6: Quickly the insurance requirements that we have on our end to help prevent any issues going forward? Speaker 0: Certainly, I think that there was a memo that staff sent to council earlier outlining this process. And I want to let everyone know that we really did do our due diligence in reviewing and reached out to Massachusetts and talked to the people involved in this particular incident and every response that we received. Not only commended leis for their cooperation, but also pointed to an individual and this was an act of an individual and not something that was indicative of the corporate environment or the service that Lars provided to the organization. Kind of, as we look moving forward, one of the things that we're requiring of our parking operators is that they have insurance in place that should this happen moving forward, that there's a policy that would cover the city for any incident such as this. Speaker 6: Great. And I, too, am very excited about seeing what could occur with technology. So aquarium barcode scanning, entry exits and also special events. And I know that people don't think that that's maybe a big deal, but it absolutely is with our city, especially as we're growing. I just hosted, you know, 7 to 8000 people over the weekend. I don't even expect that many people. But we did with our Day of the Dead event. And to think that the very first thing that people were thinking about absolutely was parking and how we could be more efficient on the coordinating side to be able to relay to individuals how they can get in and out of our city even before getting in and out of our city, which is pretty incredible. And I also had a question about the parking lot map that we had in the memo. It mentioned a few lots that look like they're going to be transferring hands to development. So seventh and Pacific and third and fourth and Pacific. So how will that be transferred? What would that look like? Speaker 0: So the contract is before we this evening is based on all of the facilities that we're operating now. As those facilities transition to private ownership, then we would no longer be providing parking services there. And those hours or need for service would be adjusted within the contract. And, and, and if the city were to acquire a lot and, and add a new lot. Similarly, we would adjust the contract to add services to say a new parking lot. Speaker 6: Okay, great. And then the final thought that I have is just in relation to maintenance and safety, and that has been a big deal. I know, Craig, we've talked often and we've talked City Place Garages and for us I think that is a key point to ensure that businesses feel safe when their. Speaker 2: Employees are. Speaker 6: Walking to and from the city garages, as well as residents who want a very streamlined process. I hear online payments will be very easy for individuals to make. I used to rent a space across the street from where I live in the city, post garages, and it was a little difficult. And so to make that a little bit more streamlined and a lot easier for residents, I think it will be key as as well as having the safety and just the little things, maintenance, making sure graffiti and trash and the the the markings are all on point because our city is looking and getting a lot better. I also want to thank Craig Kochen as well. We've been working on this, I know, for some time too, so thank you to all who have been involved. I look forward to honoring staff's recommendation. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman Price. Speaker 6: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice Mayor. So just a couple of questions here. You said that the the contract for the recommended vendor is 381,000 per year, less than the second recommended vendor. Was that right? Speaker 0: Yes, Councilmember, that's correct. Speaker 6: So based on the experience that we've had with the second vendor, do we think are we concerned at all that this this. Under this estimate of $381,000 less is going to have any operational ramifications or employment ramifications or anything like that. Like how are they able to do it for a $381,000 less? I'm sure you consider that in your analysis. Speaker 0: Yes. Councilmember, I'd like to highlight a couple of things in response to your question. First off, I think that there was a concern earlier that was raised about the employees that are currently providing those services. And those employees are represented under an IMU agreement with Local 324 Union. I'd like to say and share with this Council that LAS has exact executed a memorandum of agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 to basically honor that agreement, which is in effect through December 31st, 2019. So that collective bargaining agreement that's covering the employees that are providing that service today will continue in place under this new operator. So I think that addresses probably your question about wages and benefits, etc., for those folks providing the service. What we did as part of the RFP response is we asked each of the proposers to give us a staffing plan and an operation plan, and we did that solely to ensure that we were seeing the same level of service from vendor to vineyard, a vendor. And so they a number of hours, the number of individuals, the number of community contacts, project parking managers that were out in the field and available to support these efforts was consistent. And while some may tweak it a little bit between where they have certain individuals, what we're seeing is a like for like hours, number of hours that are provided between the two finalists. Speaker 6: Okay. And what's their responsibility in regards to maintenance of the lots? Six of the lots are in city, three on their beach lot. Speaker 0: So so under this contract they would provide general maintenance trash pickup if there was some striping improvements that needed to be done. Graffiti removal, you know, normal maintenance that you would think about if it was a larger project. I know right now we're engaged in a large construction project on the ground a lot down in District three, and that would be taken on by the city and public works would manage that effort. Speaker 6: Okay. Because that's that's a concern for me going forward when I see a number like $381,000 less per year. What I want to make sure is that the operator understands that there are certain expectations with maintenance of the parking lots, especially the ones that are on the beach, because they are the areas where we see a lot of trash after special events. And that is just completely unacceptable because it really devalues that whole area. So I want to make sure that that $381,000 a year less doesn't mean there's less attention paid to to trash pickup or graffiti removal. And the other things that you mentioned, I will say I did also have the opportunity to meet with both parking vendors, and I appreciate staff answering some of the questions. I did look up as the speaker was talking. I did Google, Pasadena and LA's and so I did read the article. So I'm happy that staff considered that in making its recommendation because prior to that I wasn't sure if staff had already factored that into it. And I feel satisfied that that staff has looked into it and that we're not exposing ourselves to a liability. I would say that if we're having costs come in over the anticipated budget such that the 20% contingency is being triggered, I would want a report back to council. So I would like I would like to make a friendly to my colleagues that if that 20% contingency is triggered, that council get our report back. And so that we have the opportunity to look at what what happened, why was this budget not sufficient and why did we have to tap into that 20% contingency so that we're aware of the situation? Is that agreeable with staff? Is that something you'd be okay with? Speaker 0: Certainly, Councilmember Price, I don't see a challenge with that. And let me just give you an example of where that contingency may also come in. Recently, we expanded the number of monthly parking passes in our city place garage and that the number of employees using that greatly increased to almost 800, primarily connected with Molina health care. And with that number of folks coming and going every day, we really needed additional security service and additional maintenance, but we were receiving the revenue to help support that. So we utilized some of that contingency budget to enhance those services, to support that level of service that we were experiencing in that garage. So providing a report to council on those type of items and where we would engage that contingency is isn't a challenge at all. Speaker 6: And I think if the maker and the secondary, the motion are open to that, I think that would be good. You know, I'm not worried about the scenario that you just mentioned. What I'm worried about is an underestimation of the actual costs under normal conditions. So certainly things are going to happen that are unusual. That would necessitate us to be, as council member Pearce said, nimble and responsive. But if there's normal operations because they've not had experience in the city of Long Beach, we'd want to know what those what those areas are so that we can improve upon them. The one thing I will say that I really liked about LA's is they have experience with private lots, as Councilmember Pearce mentioned, and they have experience with valet, extensive experience with valet with Coastal Commission, which is an issue that is a major factor for the third district and something that I think is going to become very relevant as we see development with Second and PCH and some of the other restaurants in that and that corridor. So restaurants and businesses in that corridor. So I expect that they will hopefully provide a resource to us in those regards. But I appreciate the presentation from both of the the vendors and I think staff for their work on this recommendation. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 2: I'm really appreciative of the answers that have been provided today. And I will only add to it that when there are opportunities to use that contingency for new and creative things, that there is also a partnership opportunity with our Parks and Rec director. And I know that Marie Knight and I spoke about. The opportunity to use some of the parking gate technologies at Eldorado Park, and that especially this year as the community has flourished and thrive. Our level of drive at the parks has gone up. We have been faced with some unique parking challenges, specifically at our parks. And so with the two lanes going in and the opportunity to automate a lane for our members and to move away from our old school pasts and the risks and liabilities of our city staff. I'm holding large quantities of cash on those days when other options of credit cards and the automation process especially. I know that I talked a little bit with potential parking providers, that there's a lot of data available. Once you start instituting these pass cards instead of a tag that's in your and your window now you can start seeing how many times a week, a month, a year are our high propensity users using it or people buying it in your past and using it twice? Are they buying an annual pass and using it every day of the week or once a month? And what does that look like? It also helps us start being able to keep track of those that come in on foot if we want them to start using their pass code to get in or out, that that allows us to start seeing the number of users we have. And so I just look forward to some technology opportunities and I'm appreciative that the contingency is mostly used for new things and not as a gap. And I think that that's a really important point, and I thank you for that clarification. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Yes. I'd like to thank my colleagues for their comments. I accept that friendly. But I would also I understand that sometimes you see something that's new and exciting and it promises a lot. And I know that we also have a lot of challenges with cleanliness and our lots existing right now. So I would also like to ask that city staff just do it could be a two from four a report back in a year into how the changes have happened. And if we see more opportunities to put in place kind of the vision that we set forward today. Just so we have an opportunity to discuss that. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Hastert. Speaker 3: Yes. I wasn't going to speak this evening, but Councilman Mungo's comments sparked an idea or thought. I know we brought an item before the council. I want to say about a year and a half ago to look at meters and using those meters to bring or to raise money for our homeless programs here in the city. Oh, I would really love that for our our public works department to have that conversation with our new vendor. I expect this to be passed this evening to to look at some some creative ways to engage and help develop that, because I know we received too far from the idea was, I think, a noble one, one that is actually working in other cities. But parking meters and old parking meters in particular in business districts would would, I think, help a lot in terms of raising necessary resources to help our homeless population and provide services and to, you know, avoid panhandling in any way possible. So this just one thought that I had and I'm supportive of the item. Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes comment from the city council. So there is a there's a motion in a second by Councilmember Pearce and Councilwoman Gonzalez, our members, to go ahead and cast your votes. Speaker 2: Motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP PW17-033 and award a contract to LAZ Parking California, LLC, of Los Angeles, CA, for Citywide Parking Operations and Management Services, in an amount of $7,874,148, authorize a 20 percent contingency in the amount of $1,574,830, for a total contract amount not to exceed $9,448,978, for a period of three years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods; authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments; Increase appropriations in the Tidelands Operation Fund (TF 401) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $433,489, offset by departmental cost-savings and parking-related revenue; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $479,331, offset by parking-related revenue. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10242017_17-0955

Speaker 3: I know they may be here is Jonathan Flor is here. It's not here. Okay? We're going to. Okay. We're going to move on to the next cab until we get this. Okay. We're going to go ahead and do hearing item number two. Can you read that, please, Madam Clerk? Speaker 5: Item two is a report from economic development and recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and Adobe resolution containing the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area Assessment for the period of Tober first 2017 through September 30th, 2018. District one, two, four and five. Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. With that, let me turn this over to Mr. West. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We'll have a very short presentation. And then I believe the CVB would like to give a presentation as well. So I would turn it over to Eric Romero, our development project manager for EPD. Speaker 7: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. This item is the annual approval of the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area and ongoing assessment. On September 19, 2017, the City Council approved a resolution granting approval of the annual report and set today's date for the public hearing. The recommended action on this item continues the assessment for another year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment, nor changes in proposed activity. Therefore, staff request that the City Council received the supporting documentation into the record, approve the resolution and continue the levy of the assessment and authorize the city manager to extend the agreement for one additional year. That concludes my report. Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. I'm going to now at this time, turn this over to Mr. Goodling. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mayor. Speaker 8: City Council, City Management. Thank you for the time tonight. We wanted to share with you what has happened over the last 12 months and a lot of great news. First of all, as we said. Speaker 2: It's another great year. Excuse me already or no? Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on back there, guys, but come on. Okay, hold on a second. We're going to we're going to get the presentation fixed. And this is just another just reminder that we need to take care of the technical issues that are happening. Last few. Speaker 2: Meetings. Speaker 3: Okay. Oh, just us. Okay. See my point. You're completely wrong. That's still. But we still had it. I'm reflecting on the last technical issue we just had at the meeting as well, so why don't we go in? I met Steve. What? You start over again, okay? Speaker 8: Also, we have popcorn coming up for this because we have quite a few things that we want to share with you tonight. First of all, in terms in many different terms, this year has been a huge success in terms of transient occupancy tax. It's 26 and a half million dollars. What that means is 13 million of that goes to the general fund. 13 million of that goes to the special advertising and promotions fund, which can be spent then to re promote the city, remarket the city. In addition, for every dollar that the CVB got through our contract this past year, we returned $5.73. Also revenue per available room, which is a combination of occupancy and average rate went up 4.7%. The hotels and the management teams have done a great job in managing their assets and in maximizing the revenue that they can charge for the rooms. Occupancy was relatively flat this year, up about 1.7%, so they got most of their gain through rate. In addition, we have ten people across the United States and we believe very much in relationship selling where you have to be in market, you have to know the clients in those markets and we have to be asking for the business in those markets. And that's what we've done out of the business that we found. 50% of it is convention business. 50% of it is also in-house meetings or IEEE meetings that take place within one hotel. We do not believe in transactional relationships. A lot of spaces, a lot of cities and a lot of convention centers basically give me your space and your dates and your rates, and it's purely a transaction. We form partnerships. We form long term friendships so that we can ask for the business back, but we also help them in executing their conventions. When a client comes into town, we have either a lunch or a community breakfast where we bring all of our hotel partners and the convention center together. I had one client tell me that in 25 years of doing business and selecting cities, she's never had any city meet her with their general managers and their marketing directors and walking them into the city. That's one of the differentiating points of Long Beach versus any other city. We also go on the road. We were in Washington, D.C. this year. We also were in Chicago. We also were in San Francisco. And believe it or not, we were in Orange County. And we had 70 clients show up. In addition, we brought clients into Long Beach for The Cove opening and also for Grand Prix. And also for A-6 Volleyball. In total, we had over 850 clients that we met either on the road or bringing them into our city, representing over 300,000 room nights for an estimated impact of $120 million. In addition, we have attended over 20 tradeshows throughout the U.S.. And this outreach effort is just part of what we do. In addition, service is really key, especially in our business, because if we aren't providing service again, you can't ask for the business back. So whether it's our sales team which first finds the business books, if our service team comes in behind and services links them up with the city and the partnerships in the city. The convention center comes in behind and services as well. Our hotels do the same and even cash a day with the Office of Special Events gets involved with many of our conventions and Intarsia is just a wealth of experience and the clients love her. We had two you, which is the largest online learning education program system, Internet system in the U.S. with us this past June. And they had a party on the beach and Tasha Day helped them get down to the beach with the USC marching band. So again, these are the types of things as a full city that we do and that we pull off. In addition, we've gotten awards across the board from almost every publication. But aside from the service, what also differentiates us? I was reading today how Lord Taylor in New York City just sold their flagship store. It's hard to believe that a 100 year old institution had to sell their asset, but they did for 850 million and they retained the bottom three floors. If assets aren't constantly reinventing themselves, assets become antiquated. We learned by hosting the TED conference how people nowadays want an asset or a convention center to perform. And quite honestly, convention centers are really becoming old school. They're really looking for a conference style facilities. They're looking for places to network. Yes, you too can have a one piece which can Jayna pajama. So just let us know and we'll order it for you. Give us your size. But when we had Twitch this past weekend, all throughout our convention center, the promenade side, the exhibit hall side, the arena, all of it was used. All of our different breakout spaces were used. It sees spaces which permit people to collaborate and connect, to actually talk, to share ideas, and to know what's happening within their industries and renew and renew acquaintances and make new acquaintances. Twitch Khan was here last week. Most of you saw the purple T-shirts all throughout the city and the purple hair and everything else, and it was really, really a phenomenal convention. This is the outside the Pacific Ballroom really was the start of our trend in what we were doing. And for those of you who didn't get to see inside Twitch come. Basically the Pacific Ballroom where the arena became a large ESPN studio, so all the gamers were put on a round platform. Above were all the different LED screens to watch what the gamers were doing. Off to the side was a panel discussion with people critiquing and expounding upon what gaming, what the gamers were doing. And the audience was in the foreground. That was how the arena was used this past week. All of our tracing grid system, which we did four years ago, was completely used and it made it a turnkey space for Twitch. In addition, we've had multi-level marketing groups using our arena. And we've had special events inside the Pacific Ballroom. What I'd like to share with you is since 2013, we've had a 56% increase in the arena or the Pacific Ballroom. And what used to be a building that was quite honestly going into obsolescence has now become an adaptive reuse or reinvigorate IT facility, bringing additional economic impact to our city, not only in terms of the events in that space, but in terms of the conventions that want to use that space. In addition, tomorrow we have the president of Chicago's Navy Pier coming to look at us because they'd like to model what we're doing in Long Beach. The Cove was our next endeavor. And as as most of you know and thank you for coming this summer. It was a great event. And it was basically an underpass, a dark underpass that quite honestly didn't add much vitality to our city or to the facility. That space now is completely ablaze with lights. It's alive, and it's yet one more tool. National Association of Ports used it less than four weeks ago. International Association of Movers just used it for their party, as well as a topless terrace theater. And I'd like to share with you the opening party. Speaker 1: Oh, I can't believe this is history. It's a party now. Speaker 8: This new space has been a home run this past. As I mentioned, the port used as recently for the National Association of Ports, a convention here from Puerto Rico and talked to Mario Cordero. Mario pulled me aside. He said, Steve, I want you to meet this person. We we talked briefly. She was out of the 25 years I've been going to conventions, Long Beach is the best convention that I've ever attended for the National Association of Ports, and the closing party was in this space. In addition, the Terrace Theater Plaza is another space. We've added trusses under the lip of the plaza. We've also put trusses at the first level where the greenbelt is. The plan is to add two more trusses leading out to Ocean Boulevard, which will basically turn this plaza into a Rockefeller type center space. It'll be absolutely lit at night and brilliant. The mayor has been asking for a while for beautiful fountain display. And we'd like to share with you what we're doing. We like to thank council member Janine Pearce and also the mayor for their support on this and city management team for believing in it and the rest of the council for supporting it, because this will be our third turnkey special event space. I can't underscore how this is setting us apart from the competition. It's these types of spaces that's unique and different, and we're beginning to be recognized for our innovation. Everything you see here is the full functionality. Speaker 2: You Venuto because of your piano. Who has done more to become yo yo yo this thing. Oh, a certain cool cool cool around called. Speaker 9: A see sort of a son of Hollywood trophies won for. Go. Oh, man, you. Been burning for a long. Even. Some of. Comatose, you'd honor. Dan Brown. Speaker 8: And we're even retaining him to sing at our opening. Thank you. In addition, we worked with the city and Eric Lopez in the team. There were seven RFP. This was the winning RFP. We thank city management for their support and belief in this suja early on. Jeanine currently and the mayor currently. This project is such a key project. Again, another TED inspired request. The owner of TED, the curator of Ted, said, Steve, we need the ability to get around the convention center quicker. And of course, the residents also enjoy the pedestrian walkways as well. With that, we, I think, have a beautiful, functioning piece of artwork that happens to be a bridge, and it easily connects the promenade to the Terrace Theater Plaza. So now we have a campus. We don't have disparate parts of our convention center anymore. And this is just a shot. It's not finished. And, of course, is a beautiful apartment complex going up behind it, but taking it a step further. There's 3000 LED lights inside this bridge. And so it is going to be a really cool space leading into and going all the way around the building. With that, it's been a phenomenal year. Believe it or not, we finally broke through with the New York press. New York is where most of the press resides. Successful meetings labeled us as basically one of the top 25 trailblazers in the U.S. We were the only city mentioned, the only convention center mentioned, the only CVB mentioned. No other cities were mentioned in this. And I think that's so great because we always are talking about innovation and we are an innovative city and people are recognizing the innovation here in Long Beach. In addition, Bill Bash also inducted us into the Hall of Fame this year back in May. Again, it was another great event. We were, again, the only city and the only facility that was actually recognized into this Hall of Fame. In addition, we would like to share with you what others are saying about our city and about our facility. Speaker 6: In my 20 years being a meeting planner. Speaker 1: I think the Long Beach CVB ranked number one in my mind. There's just nothing like it in the entire U.S.. Speaker 2: Long Beach Convention Center. Speaker 3: Is one of those. Speaker 0: Places. Speaker 2: That makes me want to actually look. Speaker 0: Forward to the meeting or. Speaker 3: Event that I'm actually going. Speaker 2: To. They built Long Beach Convention Center in a way that every time you go there, there's a different experience. They have activated spaces that you cannot believe. They've activated hallways to make them into one of the most premier event spaces that you'd ever find. Everyone is looking for that unique thing. That unique thing that doesn't cost a gazillion dollars to recreate, which is the most important thing at Long Beach, creates these venues that are just there and you just add your magic and your people to it and it works. Speaker 10: In comparison, Benson centers the Long Beach Convention Center has spaces and allows you to be creative and innovative with your meeting. They're the most creative, innovative, forward thinking space I know. Turkey is especially important to planners. It makes it very simple to plan your events. You don't have to bring in different pieces because they're all bright. Speaker 2: They're available for you. Speaker 1: You know, just that personal touch, just adding things that are just unique and original and open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. And I think that really sums up the Long Beach experience. Speaker 2: When you go. Speaker 3: To Long. Speaker 2: Beach, you feel the love. You feel like you want to come back. Speaker 0: There on a regular basis. Speaker 2: And it is your second home, if not your first home. The thing that makes them pioneers and trendsetters is really their leadership. It does come from the top down. What makes them different is they've always been very forward thinking and they've always been one of the early adopters of. Maybe technology or infrastructure development. They're always on the cutting edge and they're always looking for what's next. Speaker 10: We would definitely come back to Long Beach because. Speaker 1: We found the. Speaker 10: Constant change at the. Speaker 1: Center, the improvement of the facilities, the additions to great event space really feeds our need as we grow and we continue to look for space that's innovative and interesting for every topnotch. The service is wonderful and you don't always get that kind of service at a convention center. Speaker 10: If the people are as friendly as they appear. But they are definitely very easy to work with. They are willing to be flexible and create spaces even in spaces that they have already set up. Speaker 2: They are very much. Speaker 10: Interested in helping you make the best product that you possibly can. Speaker 1: They do whatever it takes to make that happen for you and you walk away feeling, I have a true partnership with Long Beach. Speaker 10: It was really a true. Speaker 2: Partnership. Speaker 1: From start. Speaker 10: To finish. You don't get a lot of destinations doing that. So kudos to Long Beach. Speaker 2: Working with the crew is an amazing experience. Speaker 3: It is so imaginative and innovative. Speaker 2: I think there's probably the most innovative CVB in the country, not the world, really. Speaker 8: As I mentioned, we've just finished three conventions. We finished International Movers Association. We finished the National Association of Port Authorities. We just had to which con which we just got word back today that it was their best convention ever. Both prior conventions have said the same thing. From the food at this at the convention center to the service at the center, to our hotels, to our city partners. The city has continued to just blow everyone away. This is a type of momentum that we're looking to build. And that coupled with service, that coupled with our infrastructure improvements that are innovative out of the box, nobody has them and they aren't a lot of money. That Cove project was basically a million and a half dollars, and it in terms of rebooking conventions, bringing new conventions and special events has will far outpace a million and a half, as we just saw, with the 54% increase in usage days at the arena. At this time, I'd like to also just highlight though, we have competition. Anaheim just added 200,000 square feet of space. That's a lot of space. They're saying that you from the second floor of there, 100,000 square feet. You can see the fireworks from the ballroom. Of course, we have true turnkey spaces, which I think are more creative. So it's our job to outsell that. But in addition, they have many new hotels opening up. Los Angeles just opened up an 800 room intercom. And that size is the problem is as you open these big boxes, if you don't have citywide conventions, they start looking for business that basically is in our ballpark. And so we start competing them with these folks. So again, service and our our creative spaces are key to us being and maintaining our success in pleasure and travel. We've also partnered with the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific. We were in West Ways magazine in the summer and two of their issues were in sunset as well. And by partnering with them, we were able to take two pages instead of the Queen Mary on a top third page, the aquarium on the bottom right hand page, and Long Beach somewhere in between. We brought everyone together so we could own the real estate and come out with a huge message that it stops and you take a look. In addition, the 2 million circulation Sunset West Ways was 12 and a half million. But also our PR effort between Bob McDougal and Lauren Simpson and their team. We had some great home runs there, and I'd like Lauren Simpson to share what our PR team has done this past year. Speaker 4: Thank you. So it's been an awesome year in terms of media hits for the CVB. We've had tons of publications, print stories on Long Beach throughout the nation, and we have ten still in the pipeline. I wanted to share a few of those placements with you tonight. Travelocity printed a story on Long Beach which garnered over 10 million an article. Impressions. Southwest Airlines In-flight Magazine published a story which garnered over 445,000 in print circulation. AM York, a daily newspaper in the city, published a story which had over 170,000 in circulation. Dallas Morning News. Their story garnered over 9 million online visitors and an L.A. parent magazine. That story garnered over 7000 in print circulation. We had additional stories in the bay area. Reporter Southwest. So successful meetings excuse me, sunset magazine, the oklahoman blade conveying San Diego family as well as Thrillist. Our overall media result. Excuse me, I ended up with a circulation of over 114 million and add equivalency of over $1,000,000. Overall impressions across print, broadcast and online resulted in over 100 million. We also hosted media visits for both groups as well as individuals. And as you know, as an industry, publications continue to downsize their staff. So a lot of editors are being let go and a lot of them are becoming just freelance writers, unfortunately. So for us to be able to have those people in our city is huge for us. Aside from that, once they're in destination, they tend to write additional stories as well. Recently we had two ladies and two editors from two major meetings publications and from New York flew them out and they experienced the Cove opening. They wrote three stories, and those stories went over, went out to over 200,000 and print circulation. We also had a writer come out who a freelancer for San Francisco Chronicle. Last summer we had her come out and experience pow wow. She had such an amazing time. The San Francisco Chronicle printed a story on our city which, as you can see, went over, went out to over 6 million. This year's power visit with just these four ladies alone garnered over 4 million impressions. These ladies were here for two and a half days, and in those two and a half days, we got 400 I'm sorry, 4 million impressions. We also got featured on the Instagram stories for Travel Channel. As Steve mentioned earlier, our PR efforts are solely based on relationship building and through those relationships we are able to get great opportunities. One opportunity being that with the Latina bloggers, the group came into our town and they were in need of someone to host 90 of their digital influencers. While because of our relationships as well as our proven ability to service. They chose us as a CVB. Their day alone garnered over 6 million in potential reach out of those 90 people. We had over 590 stories and social media posts written just on our city. Now, for the day, we decided to tour around our city. Of course, that included a Harbor Cruise Bay toward the Museum of Latin American Art. We lunched on the veranda at the Aquarium of the Pacific, and then they also went up in aerial tours of the city via helicopter. Now understanding we're unable to have 90 digital influencers in the sky at one time. We decided to have a little bit of a party, so we turned the hangar of the for the helicopter company into a party. And here's a glimpse of what that look like. Needless to say, we still receive emails to this day and social media posts related to the excursion that they had here in the city. Again, going back to those individual media trips that we hosted, there's one for Louis. If you look to the left, he's the one doing the back flip, as any mega YouTuber would do in a photo. I stopped this man for over a year. He's a huge digital influencer, huge YouTuber. He's got millions of followers across all channels. So, yes, I stopped him and finally was able to intercept him from Mexico as he headed to Fiji. Nonetheless, he decided to do a pitstop excuse me in Long Beach. Now, of course, he didn't travel alone. He decided to bring a few friends. And his friends just so happen to be mega digital influencers as well. So over 5 million people saw the group enjoying their time here in the city. And I wanted to share a day in Long Beach. Looked like for Louis. Speaker 0: Good morning, guys. We're in Long Beach, California. To explore this amazing city. Speaker 10: Florida will try to block it. Speaker 2: Trip. I love California weather Schmidt. Speaker 0: This is the. Speaker 2: Most beautiful marina in the. I can't believe we got to play with penguins. Speaker 0: That's like a dream situation right there. We're going out in a gondola. We're just going to catch the last light before the sun sets. Speaker 4: Now for him to say those things about Long Beach is huge. I wish I could take credit for writing the script for, you know, everything that even my video. But it was purely based off of what he experienced. He had an amazing time. We got an itinerary, built that for him, worked with our member organizations, and he had a fantastic time. And now we have he was supposed to just do one Instagram post. He did, too. He also did a Twitter post and then he created three videos for him for us, one that was about 14 minutes long, which is unheard of as a CVB. We handle three, we manage three handles, one with a leisure focus, another with a meeting attendee and a meeting planner focus. And then finally, the convention center is handles across those handles. We've seen amazing growth ranging from 10% to 33% and following. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 4: I'm glad. I'm sorry. Increase in growth. Those handles we found serve as a guide for those who are visiting our city to, you know, for things to do, things to see as well as for meeting planners who are looking to host event in in Long Beach. They look to our convention center and meeting planner handles to see what kind of inspiration they can draw from the photos that we post for their next huge event. An example of that in a post that we did about the Pie Bar. Now our meetings handle data posts at a pie display from high bar writes beautiful photo. Well, it just so happened to be seen by a DC meeting planner. That meeting planner was so inspired that they immediately reached out to the pie bar and contracted with the pie bar to be at their event, their opening event, nonetheless, which occurred just two weeks ago here in the city. What I've shared with you are just a few examples, just a few of how we continue to feed the pipeline for media in digital and in print. Thanks so much for your time and thank you so very much for your partnership. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Speaker 8: In addition, we worked on the arts, the performing arts. We know any vibrant city, any vibrant downtown, these performing arts. And with that, this past year, we did a direct mail piece of 80,000 pieces which just went out. We worked with the Business Journal and it had, again, an insert on all the different activities, all the different concerts, all different plays. In addition with the Gazette, we did the same thing. Also POW Wow this past year had 20 murals throughout the city. Believe it or not, we're up to 50 murals citywide in three years. And POW Wow came to us three years ago by Julia Wang from Inner Trends and her team and also Ron Nelson at the Long Beach Museum of Art. And we can't thank them enough for bringing this concept in this group to us. It's been great in terms of of quite honestly, enhancing our city, but it's also been great in terms of public relations and also pleasure travel. A couple. Speaker 2: Of weeks ago, I got a call. Speaker 8: From Lillian Ferrell. Many of you remember Lori, and she was the finance director here in Long Beach. She's currently the assistant city manager in Huntington Beach. And Lillian said, Steve, we're working with Long Beach. We want to go after Amazon, but we want to make it sexy and we want to make it sizzle. So I said, Well, Lillian, there's there's one person that with only three weeks notice. That really, I think, could help do this and would be interested. And that would be Julia SWEIG. And so when I connected Lorene and Julia and short story Julia pro bono did the entire she and her team worked 24 seven for three weeks . And the Long Beach team and the Huntington Beach team with John Keiser and Sergio and Lori and team, we all met and we pulled together a coffee table book, which was the RFP and then also a video we'd like to show you the video. I know Pat West is going to take this surfboard soon, so we have it on a very short leash. But the. Speaker 2: Coffee table book of the RFP was. Speaker 8: Delivered to Amazon, complete with a surfboard by the Huntington Beach staff. And we'd like to show you the video that we put together in three short weeks and Ed Trends, who quite honestly came up with most of these concepts. And we provided all the inlay and the details. Speaker 2: What's dangerous is to. So here is the place. First, I need you. Speaker 0: You're sure about this? Not the first place I think of for a job. Speaker 2: Besides, every operation needs a long term view, and this is a hell of a view. Besides, who's better than one? Both cities get everything you need. You want to hustle? There's plenty of it. You want to relax? Lay low, eh? The beach is your backyard. If the job ever feels too big. There's people everywhere who've got your back. Need a clean getaway. They got three airports at your back. At the end of the day, I can't think of a better place than right here. It's a perfect stretch of coast to work hard, have fun and make history. Package delivered. This is going to be interesting. Speaker 8: Inside business called this one of the seven most audacious plans. We were thrilled to have been selected for being audacious. And in addition I it our hope is that this will at least break through some of the clutter, if not just become Amazon's campus, to get some of their other real estate projects and some of their other business projects. Community partnerships. I. Speaker 2: As a CVB. Speaker 8: We realize that we're part of the community and it's very important to us to be involved in the community. We love what we do. We love the conventions that come in. We love the press that comes in. And we love to promote it. But we also love to help others who run nonprofits in the city and help them to be successful. We believe that if the city successful in all of its aspects. So all of us. And with that, I'd like to introduce John Thomas, our board chair. John. Speaker 2: Good evening, counselor. Mr. Mayor. Wonderful to be up here to talk about our wonderful CVB and our community partnerships and our continual outreach program with our community partners as a as a de facto follow up to our community development, our cultural tourism outreach. We've identified community partners for the last several years, local community nonprofits such as the Center, our arts community or performing arts community. All these wonderful partnerships are strategic in that we get to sell Long Beach not only as a convention to town, but a cultural tourism town with our ranchos, our museums, our wonderful Queen Mary, our wonderful Aquarium of the Pacific. How to get the Queen Mary in there. Sorry. But it's just really, really wonderful asset. And as we look citywide, not just downtown, but as we look citywide, we have identified some wonderful strategic partnerships with the arts community, again with the center and others. So we have a short video for you to see. I believe it's the final one. So we're doing a video you out to take a look at this. Speaker 1: And they have. Giving us such a great start here. Speaker 6: We moved from the East Coast in the year 2000, joined the CDB in 2003, and it has been nonstop growth for us ever since. Speaker 1: We have worked with a. Speaker 6: Number of different convention and. Speaker 1: Visitors bureaus. We actually belong to several others here in. Speaker 6: The Midwest and Long Beach is by far the best. They are so integrated. Speaker 1: Into the community, I think they are a fabric of what. Speaker 6: Makes Long Beach. Long Beach. Speaker 1: I don't know how many other cities really know and support their local community based organizations. And what I know is our local convention bureau really supports and knows their community based organization and really comes and sees how can we help you? How can we promote the work that you do? The CVB has taken a leadership role in positioning Long Beach as a destination for arts and culture, which is incredibly exciting and potentially transformative for our city. They are a major resource in our community. They are a major part of our economic redevelopment in town. And they are incredible colleagues and partners with all the different arts organizations in town. Speaker 2: You know, I think that probably. Speaker 1: We had the best. Speaker 2: Community involvement. Speaker 1: With our CVB than almost. Speaker 10: Any city. What people also don't know about the Convention and. Speaker 1: Visitors Bureau is that they. Speaker 10: Also support the youth, but that's part of their community involvement and they've done that for many years without asking for us to broadcast that. Speaker 1: They have. Speaker 10: Pride and community because they invest in this. Speaker 1: Community. So one of the most remarkable things that the CVB has done for us is rallied meal partnerships with the CVB members, and in year one, we had over 400. Speaker 6: Commitments of meal providers for the families we serve here. Speaker 11: They are the conduit of our culture and our character in our city. What I mean by that is that they're the first point of contact many times for visitors who are coming to our city. So they have to clearly understand not only the culture but the character of our city. What makes long language unique? Speaker 2: Now the Convention Visitors Bureau of Long Beach thinks of the whole city as a whole. It's not just conventions. It's not just big business. They're promoting the city and everything that we have to offer. Speaker 6: They have been influential in growing our city, growing our convention center and even areas beyond the downtown area into something that. Speaker 1: People really will travel miles and. Speaker 6: Miles across states to come and experience. Speaker 10: Long Beach is a wonderful. Speaker 1: Place for repeat business, and a lot of our clients are coming here year after year because of the innovation that has happened at the Convention Center. So each year they come, there's a new experience for them. Speaker 11: When you engage our CVB, it's almost like you're going home. Even though you're in another state, you're so personable. It's like you never left home because they make you feel welcome at every stage. Speaker 2: There's always this expression about Let a million flowers bloom, and it's okay if there's other folks doing similar things. But let's be the most brilliant flower. Let's be the one that really showcases what our city has to offer. Earlier, I was talking to somebody about the movie This The Spinal Tap, where they turned the volume up to 11. The CVB operates continuously at 11. Speaker 1: But the CVB. Speaker 2: In Long Beach. Speaker 1: Is better than any in the United States. Speaker 2: Pretty wonderful. Speaker 3: Thank you, John. We're going to we have a couple of comments here as well. Sure. Steve, do you have anything else? No. Okay. Speaker 2: I just. Mr. Mayor, if I might, I'm going to introduce two groups altogether. I'd like to thank the convention bureau board if they would like to rise. The wonderful staff of the CVB, our wonderful hotel partners, our restaurant, and our local nonprofit organizations that are here this evening. I want to thank all these folks for making the CVB a home run. I'm going to take every one of you as well. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Okay. I mentioned this over to the council for for the hearing. This is part of the hearing, correct. Okay. So so let me let me let me go ahead and and and start actually, we have to do public comment is your public comment for this hearing. Cap. Speaker 11: Yeah, I know. Speaker 2: Yeah. Don't you ever. Speaker 3: Do we have to go now? Speaker 11: You go first. Ladies first. You go? Speaker 10: Good evening. Hello. I love Long Beach and care for over 30 years and I've lived through all the redevelopment since the Navy has left. Now that we're an international city on a tourist map, please do not forget the residents that has held this community, especially in the downtown core, up for this duration and continued duration of redevelopment . All the revenue coming in here. There's a lot of city work for the residential neighborhoods that has yet to be done. In all of this space of time and all of this new technology in 2017, we've got a lot of work to be done in our individual districts. So while tourists are coming here, cruises are coming here, it's it looks beautiful. There's still pockets in this beautiful area that continue to need work in each individual district and the residents that pay taxes and that uphold the local businesses in this community when the tourists are gone and they're not here and the conventions are not here . They deserve to benefit from all of this beautification as well. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. See no other public comment, please. I need you to please be lined up. Speaker 11: With ladies first. She goes first to. Speaker 10: Show you start swarm group and associates. And as I sat and listened to all the accolades and the celebration and as I glanced around at all the people sitting in this room that were in support of the celebration, I wonder how much. How many of you. I'm sure you're cognizant of your homeless community because you have to see them every day, especially those of you who trek down here to city hall every day. What would the homeless say about that? What would they be happy for you? For us. The Scripture says that. The Lord listens to the prayers of those who are poor and homeless. What what will your homeless be saying to God tonight about all of this? And you're planning on more. How many of you are making sure that your council person. I'm meeting their requirement. To service those who are living outside of doors. There is no such thing as a homeless person. There are homes that have not found those people. And how long will you continue to come in here and celebrate yourselves? And you saluted that flag tonight again, one nation under God, indivisible. But what is God saying to you about those people that you are passing every day? I consider this a rebuke to you tonight. And he sent me to tell you again. What is God saying about this city tonight? I don't care how you're celebrating. What is he saying to you? And are you listening? Pastors. You only saying things to these people up here? They get more money in your pocket. Now you yourselves are not getting to giving to the homeless. When are you going to do your job? He has promised you seven years because you are a man or 70 years because you are a man or woman on the earth . But as a pastor, as a prophet, as an evangelist, as a teacher, you are failing in your responsibility. And he will remove you. He will remove you because you are responsible. But these people not being able to do their job. Shaking your hands every January 25th on National Religion Day. That means nothing if you don't do your job. Nothing pass through as I help you in here tonight. Because this is your warning. And I'm standing in front of the house because in God's mind, there is no separation of church and state. Speaker 3: None taken. Mr. Sardonic Speaker, please. Speaker 2: Talk. Speaker 3: Like Mr. Pete. Speaker 11: Yes, sir. Okay. In Jesus name. And I need to have an image of him so you can know who he is, because, hey, that may be good for everything. I don't want them to lose any money. The business people. I love your hair. You make much money. But this cat right here, he went to visit Bloomberg. We talked. Okay, I have a few issues. Okay. First of all, my man said okay. He said some of my friends in Long Beach. What? Like we're trendy. Like what? The first in the California have drag queens. He's itty bitty kids. Did you play? You brought that back. I saw that dude was from Brooklyn. So when you went to you saw Bloomberg let it happen. So you brought that back? I say, so what? Teaching that to kids, man, said others. What others are saying. I tell you what others are saying. This is viral. They're saying you are here, damn mine. That's what they said. And I want to find out exactly what is it you or who was with you because hey, this one. Hey, this is a family issue. It's going be trouble on this. Hey, Democrats and Republicans is on this one. So we on this one already and the churches and all that, you ain't getting away with none of that if you want. Thank you. Mr. Know, you do. Speaker 3: Have to speak to the item. Speaker 11: This is the issue. The whole issue. I'm answering what they said. They were talking about how people feel. Speaker 3: And you have to speak on the tourism improvement district. Speaker 11: Shut me up. Speaker 3: I'm just. I'm just letting you know. You have to speak to that. Continue. Speaker 11: Anything you need to listen. I'm. I have some other ones. So this as far as drag queens. No drag queens in here. Hey, Mr.. Speaker 3: Pete, you have to speak on the business improvement. Speaker 11: District, okay? The business improvement. Business improvement. Okay. I don't know fully what money going what's going, but he was talking about how people see us and you making people see us real bad. Now, the business won't be improve because there's a lot of these people that are Christians here. Yeah, they might be making money off of it, but hell, when it comes to visiting Long Beach, hell no. They don't want to tell the kid, okay, I'm going to get an Airbnb. And then they go, okay, kids, you can go to the library. Kids, come back. What happened, Mommy? It was a guy with horns. He scared me. He looks like the devil. Well, what the heck? And it would be your fault because you knew that was coming. Yeah, I didn't until I saw it. The thing went viral. You ain't saying nothing about it. You had nothing to do. I'm checking and will be on your ass. F for be on it for that. Speaker 3: Please please say sir why you're holding a so let's not use negative words, please. Thank you. Speaker 11: You ain't got nothing to do with this. I got this for your vampire ass. That's why. Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. Speaker 3: Because you're going to be removed for disturbing the meeting. If you keep disturbing the meeting, you will be removed. You're actually. I already shut you often. I can hear you anymore. So thank you. Not. Not the public. Not the rest of the public. So seeing it seeing, seeing any other no other public comment. We'll go back to the council. Thank you. And Mr. Petey, to serve the meeting one more time, reduce profanity. You will be removed from the meeting. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much. So thank you. So now we're we're going to go ahead and go back to the council. This is America. And everyone gets a chance to give their opportunity, to give their comments and and have the freedom of speech. And so I appreciate everyone with their diverse viewpoints. Now, we're going to go back to the city council on this item. And let me let me just start just, of course, to Mr. Goodling and just everyone that came out. I just want to congratulate you guys again. I think, obviously, one of the amazing bright spots of of the city is the incredible drive that we have around tourism, the hotels, the restaurants, bringing the conventions. And I want to just thank everyone for their work. I particularly just want to mention I'm really I know, Steve, you've been hearing a lot from me about the fountains for a year or two, and I'm really glad that we got that project going. It's going to really be it's going to transform that space to an active space all, all year round. I can imagine, you know, Christmas music during the holidays and all sorts of different music, different times of the year. And it's going to be a really great special space. And so I just want to congratulate with you on that as well as the bridge and so many of the other of the great projects. So congrats to the team and everyone that's out here. I want to thank all of you for your for your very hard work, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 4: Yes. Thank you and thank you so much, Steve. Thank you, Charlie. Lauren, you guys have really rocked it and demonstrated, I think, that having a turnkey space really does change things. And when we look at some of the numbers and I think you said that we are in the last year kind of at flat occupancy, but we still had 4.7 revenue per available room. I think it demonstrates that we're able to start inching our way up a little more. And you know, funding the general fund is something that is really important, that has allowed us to spend dollars on things like tackling our homeless challenge that we have. And so that 13 million in total is definitely something that the city continues to count on and look forward to seeing that grow in the several years. And I want to thank those of you in the room that have participated in making sure that we're engaging with our homeless population down by our hotels are and I know that mental health America has tried to provide a training for folks to work in that area and I hope that we continue to do that as well. So definitely want to thank you guys for doing that work. A couple other things that I just wanted to to recognize is, you know, you not only do you go above and beyond, you make sure that with certain folks that come into the city that we're connecting them with myself or other people in the city structure. And, you know, like the A6 tournament that happened, that introduction allowed us to start making other introductions in the city that now we hopefully will have a youth sports scholarship that we don't currently have with national partners at the table. And so I really appreciate you guys always involving us in those discussions. I will say I've never been on a helicopter or taken a tour like that, so I need to live in the day of the life of a tourist in my city, I think. And then the other thing I would say that we need to do better. We need to get the kids on more of the the advertising for, you know, your little munchkins. Adorable. But thank you guys very much. There's not much more to say after that beautiful, awesome presentation. And just thank you guys for the work. And I look forward to partnering with community members and the CVB in new ways in the coming years. So thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes, thank you as well. And congrats on another successful year. I would like to say to all of you, Steve, Lauren, Charlie, the whole team communication is definitely the key and you all do a incredible job at and engaging us as city council elected officials and our staffs. I get emails from Steve quite often just giving us the rundown on how events went. It's a great talking point to give to our residents so they know what exactly is going on. And even when we engage with people outside of the city, it's fantastic to do that. Just like Twitch Con Lauren You do a fantastic job on social media. I would say it is just beautiful to see our city from a tourist lens. And often I tell people that you have to be a tourist in your own city sometimes because that's when you really get to appreciate it. So great work, everyone. Speaker 3: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 0: After that presentation, I'm pretty sure some people are going to want to change their careers to social media. Influencer had no idea an influencer had perks like that. So obviously you guys come every year. We get a great presentation. This is the best. This is the best. I've seen these presentations for six, seven years. Lauren, I especially liked your part. I learned a lot, so I think I'm going to pick your brain. Steve John. I know Charlie's here somewhere. You guys have an amazing team. There was something I pulled out of that said. It's all about the service. Somebody said it's all about the service. And every experience that I've ever had with this CVB has been just something this memorable, great experience. And I got to tell you, we, you know, we had League of Cities in Naco. And, you know, as I sort of visit other elected officials, other cities, all people talk about is the great time they had in Long Beach and Legacies is coming back. And it's making that quick rotation because I had such a great time last time. So people so this is, you know, in our state, probably on the West Coast, this is the place people want to be. So whatever you doing, keep it up. You have my complete support and thanks for all that you do. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 12: Thank you. And thank you for the wonderful presentation. I sat here and took notes during the presentation on my comments, but the words were already used by so many of the the folks in the videos as well as the presenters. I just want to just chime in and say thank you for the great work that you do the the innovative approach, the aggressive approach to attracting new conferences and conventions and visitors here to the city of Long Beach. It truly does take a team effort. It takes a team effort all with the CVB and all of its staff, the city, the hotels, the employees and the community partners as a as a whole. It does take a team effort and we're all working together to a to market our city. I wanted to just just say great presentation with Lauren. Keep up the great work. I, too, learned a little something about social media and the the marketing that goes on with that and very good, well done. And, you know, two words come to mind and one person comes to mind, you know what? And I've never, never put those two words together to describe Steve Goodling, but sexy and silly only only you can get away with this. The I think the the CVB obviously is a great example of a high performing organization. It takes it takes a team to do that. And great job, great leadership, good work. Congratulations to the board and the staff. And we just think the Convention and Visitors Bureau for for being a motivating and positive force in our city. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 1: I want to thank you guys. I've been exposed to Lawrence Talent many, many, many years ago. And she doesn't just work on or downtown. She's citywide and a force to be reckoned with. I also want to say that I know that when Councilman Gonzalez and Councilmember Supernanny collaborated on the item related to Amazon, we could not have dreamed of a better package. And I'll tell you that a member of Amazon who works for them sent me a text message after watching the video and he said, It's so awesome. I sure hope that we pick you. It's not just the sunshine, but it's the people and you guys go all in every time. So I think that that says it best. I think that your impact was created exactly as you had hoped for. I think it's what we had hoped for. And I look forward to many, many more years of full convention and visitors bureau business. And I hope that every person here or watching at home will take the venture downtown to walk the pedestrian bridge because it's an investment that will really transform downtown. Speaker 10: So make make the drive. Speaker 1: If your company is having a convention in downtown, even if you live nearby, stay in one of our hotels, it'll be worth it. Speaker 3: Thank you. Councilman Andrew says. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mayor. This was not a night I plan on coming because the fact that most of you guys know this is Dodger night and day. Speaker 10: And the power is out on the east side. Speaker 2: I just really felt like I'm just not coming. But after I saw on the agenda that Steve and his group would be here. Steve, it's just you guys, you look around a lot of people I knew they would. I didn't think we'd have 11 people here tonight and I could just sneak right out. But someone came here to listen to something and I'm sure it was because of you guys program. So thank you guys. Again, you're doing a great job. And don't forget, Steve, please, like the young people are saying, you know, you all over the city of Long Beach, not just downtown. And I want to thank you for really working in my district. You guys, you're doing a great job and keep up the good work. I wholeheartedly support this motion. Job well done as you do every year. And I hope that you keep it coming. Keep it coming. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. Now. Thank you. Great job, team. Great job. All the partners. And Steve, we ran that video in our weekly newsletter on Friday. And the number one question was, did you actually deliver with the drone? So if you didn't, don't tell me. We'll just keep that go. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes council comment. Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 5: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you. We're going to and we're going to the there's the item that's attached to this, I believe is item 15. So we'll take a vote on 15 as well if you want to read it in 15.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt resolution continuing the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area assessment for the period of October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to extend the agreement with the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau for a one-year term. (Districts 1,2,4,5)

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Speaker 3: And okay, we're going to go ahead and hear item 14, first item on the regular agenda, then we're going to public comment. Madam Clerk. 14. Speaker 5: Item 14 is communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Peers Recommendation to receive and file report from the International City Theater in recognition of National Arts Month. Speaker 3: Councilwoman. Speaker 6: Yes. So I'd like to say I'm so very excited. It's a very special evening because we have Karen Dhesi here, as well as many of our fellow many of my fellow board members. And it is a fantastic way to celebrate them through National Arts Month, which is October. In addition, if many of you did not know, they are actually our very own theater company. The ACT International City Theater has been a leader in the live theater world for over 30 years. In addition, this year they have not one, not only one, ten, 25 or 30 thereabout, almost 40 awards, basically envying theaters such as the Center Theater Group in L.A., the Geffen in L.A. and the South Coast Rep, among many others. And I'm so very proud to present them with a recognition today and also bring them up to say a few words I'd love to have carried up to the podium. We also have a presentation via video as well, and I hope we can get it right for you. So thank you so much. Speaker 1: I'm Karen Deci, artistic director, producer of International City Theater. I want to thank Mayor Garcia and the Honorable Council as well for allowing me a couple of minutes to talk a little bit about these awards stage. Since L.A. recently announced their awards and I received almost 40 awards and one of the most important was named Best Larger Theater. And we were named we of South Coast Rep, the Geffen and the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles. As you can imagine, our budget is much smaller, but and we are the only company our size that was included for that award. And also last year, if you didn't know the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award gave us outstanding season, and that's out of hundreds of theaters in L.A. and Orange County. Why is this important? Quality work enables us to attract extraordinary talent. I'm talking about actors with Broadway credits, television and film. Why is this important for Long Beach? I and other cultural organizations play an important role in the city's future development. Residents seeking an urban urban experience need things to do. I City is also an economic partner with the number of jobs we give annually more than 150 for artist, SMG employees and ancillary businesses, graphics, printing, etc.. We also serve our community with six education programs that's in every district, all nine districts from elementary school age to low income seniors. With 32 years in this community, we've created many ambassadors with artist workers and patrons continue commuting from L.A. and elsewhere and going back to their cities and talking about Long Beach. Now, I would like to share a short. Video. I hope that tells our story. Thank you very much. Speaker 10: BCT is one of the best things we have in our city. Speaker 2: I grew up in a in a community that really didn't have anything like that. And it wasn't introduced to me as a kid, and I wish it had to watch her see it for the first time. I can only imagine what it would have been like for me at her age, from music halls. Speaker 7: To West Coast premieres to classic revivals. I can't think of a single production that I haven't enjoyed. Speaker 2: I knew immediately what quality level was in these productions. Just from seeing the first one or two that I attended. They're always outstanding choice of material, of scripts, of directors, of casts. Speaker 1: The kinds of shows that they have been putting on. Speaker 2: Over the years. Speaker 1: Build on the diversity in our community. Speaker 7: The casts are amazing. They are full of some of the best talents. Speaker 1: What I think is going through our communities is really changed our life. Speaker 0: They have programs that go inside the community. Speaker 2: Reach out, grab them. Speaker 0: And expose them to. Speaker 2: Go to the they. Speaker 10: Go into the schools. Speaker 1: They have special programs on Saturday free for families. Speaker 13: At the end, you do like a 45 minute show, and it's really fun to actually go on the stage and show people what you've been doing for the last six weeks. Speaker 1: The PACT program is a program where the ICG personnel come into my school and they teach a theater arts. Speaker 6: Program in the classroom. Speaker 7: It ranks right up there with passing a playhouse marked paper for the Gap. And it's one of our finest houses, and I think it's one of the undiscovered treasures of Los Angeles theater. Speaker 2: I see. T is opportunity giving enhancement, having people engaged in theater, and you allow yourself to grow. Speaker 13: With the community. I want to go back and see every show by. Speaker 1: I also want to recognize my board members that are here tonight and my staff person as well and thank them for their patience and support and your support. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you very much. Give her a round of applause, an actor or so. We are so thankful to have you guys in our community. Councilman Gonzales also offers some additional remarks. Speaker 6: Yes, I would just I do have a little recognition for you. It's not a little too big one because you deserve it. But I would also say that if you haven't if any of my colleagues have not been to the theater, please go. The issues are thought provoking, really fantastic actors, but the issues are also very timeless for for today's the day and what we're dealing with. So thank you so much again. And if you can all come up, we'd love to have a photo with you as well. Speaker 2: We have a motion. Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to get that first. So we need a motion in a second. First. Okay. Councilmember Pierce, to any comments? Speaker 4: I do have some comments. I just want to say I want to echo what my colleagues said, which is you guys are a gem. You know, when I first got elected, you do the insane run around where you get to meet as many people as I never met before and fall in love with the city. And while I love the presentation that the CVB gave us, I fell in love with the city. When you and I sat down and talked about all the programs that you do, the outreach that you do, the community engagement and then coming to the theater. So I think I've been to three shows now and every one I'm just blown away, the intimate setting that's there. And I just feel like Long Beach is that city that, as they said, is an undercover gem still. And while we can do the lights and the shows and everything else, it really comes down to a thought provoking art. And so I'm really honored that my colleague asked me to be on this agenda item, and I look forward to getting other people to come with me to future shows. So thank you so very much. I really appreciate having you guys in the city and all you do. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Any public comment on the IKT presentation? Speaker 14: Hi. My name is Emily. I live in West Side, Long Beach. And I do have to say that raising my two boys in Long Beach, we were able to go to the International City Theater free programs on the weekend. And I they were things that I could say to my boys, look at this picture. Do you want to go to this? You know, they trying to get them into the arts. And I was able to at least get them in the door. We were able to park and and it was like intimate venue. We were right up front. We did this for years and I have to do things that are free with my art, with getting my kids in the arts. It has to be free or we just can't go, including parking. And they did that for my kids for the last 20 years. So that's real access in the arts. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. See no other public comment. Please cast your votes. Speaker 5: Motion carries. Speaker 1: Of course. I was telling you. Speaker 3: It was nice. Speaker 1: Thank you. Okay. Speaker 2: Close. Thank you so much. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: Okay. Just as an announcement. We are going to be adjourning the meeting later tonight in honor of Rick McCabe, who was a longtime city employee, as well as a member of the LGBTQ community and the former second District field deputy who passed away earlier this month. And there were some folks who wanted to honor him. I just want to make sure that people know that the we will be closing the meeting in memory of Rick McCabe, who had a lot of friends here at the city. And so that will be it at the end of the meeting. Speaker 0: Okay. So we'll proceed with the city council meeting. Let's take up the consent calendar. We we took that out. Where are we now? Well, let's take a public comment.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a report from the International City Theatre in recognition of National Arts Month.

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Speaker 0: You have a good. So that concludes public comment. Well, we'll go ahead and move forward with I believe we have item number 16. Speaker 5: Item 16 is a report from City Manager Recommendation to create and administer a pilot program of workshops to promote energy efficiency efficient mortgages among home buyers in Long Beach during calendar year 2018 citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. West. Speaker 2: Mr. Vice Mayor, council members. This is an item that was brought to us to the city council a couple of months ago. We took it under our wing and worked with the the people who brought it to us. And Larry Rich is going to talk about how it can be implemented Larry. Speaker 15: Thank you, Mr. West. Good evening, Mayor Richardson and members of the city council here to give you a quick overview of our proposed residential greenhouse gas reduction pilot program. You brought this to us back in May. And tonight, we're proposing a pilot program to educate homebuyers on their energy efficiency financing options during the 2018 calendar year. So what is an energy efficient mortgage or an ETM? Homebuyers or refinancing homeowners automatically qualify for 5 to 15% of their home value added to their mortgage loan to finance energy efficiency improvements. This 5 to 15% can also be used to purchase a home that is already energy efficient. This program has existed since 1980, but a lack of awareness and education has led OEM's to be vastly underutilized. The potential benefits of energy efficiency. Long Beach has an aging housing stock with 80% of owner occupied units built before 1970. Older buildings have large potential energy savings through upgrades. Upgrades provide an average of 25% savings on energy bills. Upgrades also create healthier indoor environments with cleaner air and better climate control. Upgrades can create economic dividends through job creation. And finally, greenhouse gases or goods are also reduced, helping to meet state and local greenhouse gas reduction goals. So the residential greenhouse gas reduction pilot program. So in partnership with local nonprofit Green Education Inc, we plan to provide a series of five workshops during the 2018 calendar year in locations spread throughout Long Beach. Workshops will cover energy efficient mortgages, other energy efficiency financing options, and rebates and grants that can be paired with financing. We will market workshops to local homebuyers and conduct in-person outreach to Long Beach. Employers will utilize prizes and giveaways to encourage attendance at the workshops, and we will follow up with workshop participants to evaluate program performance and energy savings. The financial impact. The budget for the pilot program is $40,000 and would be funded through the Gas and Oil Department's Cap and Trade GHG Reduction Fund. This budget will provide for a one year pilot program, including marketing campaigns and materials that are reproduced by city staff. Green Education Inc's services and conducting in-person outreach and teaching the five workshops. And finally, monitoring and evaluation of the pilot program. That concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you, as always. Speaker 6: Yes. I want to thank you, Larry, for this work. I'm glad to see that we're moving in this direction. And I just have a couple of questions for you. How long do we expect the pilot program to be scheduled for? Speaker 15: So we plan on rolling it out over the course the entire course of 2018. Right now, we're planning on doing a workshop every other month with a target start date in February and having the last one in October. Speaker 6: Wonderful. And do we know when where those meetings will take place yet or have we gathered that information? Speaker 15: We do have five potential venues spread across the city. The first one is potentially at the gas and Oil Department auditorium. But then we want to go to places like Chavez Community Center, something in West Palm Beach. We're also looking at Michelle Obama Library or as other park community center. And maybe I'm missing one, but that's the idea. Speaker 6: Great. Well, thank you so much for the work. What you and your team do and sustainability is fantastic. And I appreciate you partnering with us and with green education. I'd really also like to thank them both, Marcia and Stella, because if it was for them, they, you know, this item would not be here. And you all have a vision for this type of program. This is exactly what I envisioned in this program. And I want to thank you for your work. You've been doing this for many, many years, and I appreciate that. And so we're a coastal city. We have to strive for even more initiatives in the sustainability. And I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. So thank you so much. I look forward to seeing the benefits from this after the workshops are done. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Ganga. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mayor. I also want to extend my congratulations on on the Green Inc. for putting this forward for us for the city. Just one question. Is there a benchmark in regards to how many households you want to reach within this pilot period? Speaker 15: Well, we've estimated that there are 3000 home transactions in the city. Through our five workshops, we're hoping to get at least at least 30 participants each, which is over the course of the year, 150 direct participants in the workshops, ideally more. But hopefully through this process will reach a lot more home buyers that don't necessarily come to the workshops, but that the program will create a buzz. Speaker 2: That sounds great. And I really would encourage people out there who are might be interested in and participate in this program to go ahead and reach out to the city and hopefully get their homes so more energy efficient. Thank you and thank you for your work. Speaker 0: Thank you. Any public comment on item number 16? Seeing nonmembers, please cast your vote. Speaker 5: Councilman Andrews. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 5: Weisman. Richardson. Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Congratulations, Stella and everybody involved. Next, we'll have 17 items.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to take all actions necessary to create and administer a pilot program of workshops to promote Energy Efficient Mortgages among home buyers in Long Beach during calendar year 2018; Increase appropriations in the Gas Fund (EF 301) in the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department (GO) by $40,000, offset by funds available; and Increase appropriations in the Development Services Fund (EF 337) in the Development Services Department (DV) by $40,000, offset by a transfer of funds from the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department (GO). (Citywide)

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Speaker 5: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Number 19, please. Speaker 5: 19 is a report from Human Resources. Recommendation to receive and file a staff report on Equal Employment Opportunity Plan and 2017 Workforce, Gender, Age and Ethnic Diversity Report Citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Braga. Speaker 2: Yeah. I'd like to move that. We delay this report until the 14th. Speaker 0: Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Any public comment saying, members, please cast your vote. Oh, wait, we have one public comment to make. Speaker 1: Yeah, just want to. Speaker 11: Okay. This I don't I don't know a lot about it, but in the name of Jesus, I come. Robert Okay. But the thing. Let me turn this around. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 11: Okay. It says recommends that nation to receive. I mean to receive and file staff report on equal employment opportunity plan equal to equal opportunity employment plan. I don't see that out here. I don't I mean, but I hope it. Speaker 0: Just just Mr. Pitt. And you won't lose your time. Okay. Does the only need speak to the motion to continue. Speaker 2: The motion on the floor is just to continue the matter until November 14th so that we're not discussing the merits of this item. Speaker 0: So you just. Speaker 11: You speak to. Speaker 2: The motion to comment on a motion would be whether you want to continue it. Speaker 0: Or not to another date. Speaker 11: Fair is fair. Well, can. Okay. Well, I'm happy. Can I say one thing? Speaker 0: Go for it. Speaker 11: Okay. And I said sure. 15. This didn't even ask a question. He said, Comment, boom, man. Why is he using black folks to get money for the city? I don't know what that's for. 15th Amendment. I know about that. We got our rights to vote and everything. Speaker 0: I'm pretty sure that's not connected. Speaker 11: So you know more about me. Ask later. Oh, thank you. I'll try. Maybe I'll make it, you know. But I want to be enlightened. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time. Right. Members. Go ahead and cast your vote. Yes. Speaker 5: Which increase. Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes the city council agenda. So now we have. I know. What can I say? So next we have a second public comment period for any, you know, any items on the agenda, please come forward. This is General.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a staff report on Equal Employment Opportunity Plan and 2017 Workforce Gender, Age, and Ethnic Diversity Report. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Okay. So now we're going to move on to our hearing agenda. And so well, let's go ahead and cue up hearing number one. Speaker 0: In a report from Development Services recommendation to receive this supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and consider third party appeals from Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve a site plan, review and merger for the construction of a seven story 77 unit. Speaker 4: Residential development at 320 Alamitos Avenue. Speaker 6: In the Downtown Planned Development District. Speaker 0: District two. Speaker 1: Thank you. And Tom, I know you have some comments here. I think this is just to make a motion to continue this to October 24th. Okay. So it's been moved and seconded. Any public comment on containing this item saying no members, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: Mr. Vice Mayors, voting on this matter. I'd just like to point out that in the agenda packet for this item, there is a resolution that relates to. Speaker 1: Environmental matters that is also in the. Speaker 2: Packet and it's on the clerk's website. It did not make it as part. Speaker 7: Of the recommended action for this item. So you will be receiving a revised staff. Speaker 1: Report on the supplemental agenda. Speaker 2: So it'll be available next when the hearing takes place. Speaker 1: Thank you. So, members, please cast your vote.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and consider third-party appeals (APL17-020 and APL17-021) from Bea Bea Jiménez, David White, Karin McGinley, Tino Haramis, Kazumi Hiromoto, Tetsu Hashimoto, and Warren Blesofsky (representing Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development); Adopt resolution finding that the 320 Alamitos Project is consistent with the Downtown Plan Program Environmental Impact Report and subject to the Downtown Plan Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program, and making certain findings and determinations related thereto; and Uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Site Plan Review (SPR17-001) and Lot Merger (LM17-002) for the construction of a seven-story, 77-unit residential development at 320 Alamitos Avenue in the Downtown Planned Development District (PD-30). (District 2)

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Speaker 0: Motion case. Speaker 1: Thank you. Listen, hearing number two, please. Speaker 0: Report from financial management, parks, recreation and Marine recommendation to receive supporting. Speaker 4: Documentation into the record to conclude the hearing and approve the hearing officer's recommendation to deny the business license submitted by the. Speaker 0: Long Beach Cannabis Club for a medical marijuana business located at 5752 East Second Street, but reject the hearing officer's findings that Naples canals are not a public park. Speaker 6: As defined under Chapter 5.90 of the. Speaker 0: Long Beach Municipal Code District three. Speaker 1: Thank you. Is an oath required here? Yes. Okay. Let's go ahead and conduct the oath. Speaker 0: So parents, anybody who's giving testimony, please stand. Do you and each of you solemnly state, state that the testimony you may give in the course now pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 1: Thank you. So, Mr. Modica, go ahead and take us away. Thank you. Mr. Vice Mayor, the staff report on this will be given by Brett Jacobs, our business service officer in the Financial Management Department and supported by the city attorney's office. Good evening, honorable vice mayor and members of the city council. Tonight you have before you a recommendation to uphold the hearing officer's determination to deny the business license application and a21701137 submitted by Long Beach Cannabis Club for a medical marijuana business located at 5752 E Second Street in Council District three. In addition to the calculator, you have been provided the hearing officers recommendation and findings, the appeal hearing packet, the appellants brief in support of their argument and the city's brief in support of its argument to provide some background on this item on February 22nd, 2017. The Long Beach Cannabis Club submitted an application to operate a medical marijuana dispensary at 5752 East Second Street on May 31st, 2017. The Department of Financial Management denied the business license application due to the proposed business location being within 1000 feet of a public beach and being located within 600 feet of a public park, which is in violation of one beach baseball code. Section 5.90.030. On June eight, 2017, Luggage Cannabis Club filed an appeal of the business license application denial. And on July 18, 2017, the City Council referred to appeal to a hearing officer on August 14, 2017. The appeal hearing was held and the presiding hearing officer assigned by the city clerk's office was Larry Minsky on August 23, 2017. The hearing officer recommended that the denial of the business license application submitted by Long Beach Cannabis Club be upheld due to the proposed business location being within 1000 feet of a public beach Mother's Beach, which is in violation of Long Beach Coastal Code Section 5.90.030. In addition to the hearing officer, in addition, the hearing officer concluded that the city did not meet the burden of proof to show that the proposed business location was also within 600 feet of a public park with respect to Naples canals. If the city council affirms the hearing officer's finding that Naples canals is not a public park within the meaning of Long Beach, most of the code section 5.90.02 of the Naples canals must be removed from the medical marijuana business buffer map. The Long Beach Medical Code Section 5.90.02 defines a park as publicly owned, natural or open areas set aside for active public use for recreational, cultural or community service activities. The city maintains it enables canals clearly meet the definition of a park under the Long Beach Morse Code, Section 5.90.02. Because the Naples Canals is a public open water area with a primary purpose of recreational use with activities such as kayaking, boating, swimming and paddleboarding. As such, staff recommends council adopt the hearing officers determination to deny the business license application but reject the hearing officer's determination that Naples Canals is not a public park. That concludes my report. And staff are are available to answer any questions council may have. Thank you. And so at this point, we'll go to public comment. Is there any member of the public would like to speak on hearing number two, please come forward. Larry Goodhew, a cleric as he addressed a stadium before. The landlord has proven himself and the owner of the property a highly irresponsible individual. He is essentially allowed his property, which he owns, in which he's currently trying to establish the objectionable business in, as well as the one next door to become a sanctuary for the two individuals at the epicenter of an insidious criminal syndicate period with which he could have easily done, i.e. simply by fencing off in the closed hours with an attractive fence, as other residents have done, as other business owners have done. But he has refused to do that. He essentially gives the middle finger to the residents again, his location. It was a primary location for that episode, for that criminal activity or the the nest for those two individuals until until he started applying for this. But he still ingratitude the odious owner of the building next door that is essentially run by the turd that floated into the shore, across the shore, across the pond about a few years ago. And he, together with his equally odious number two guy, which is certainly an appropriate description, championed those two individuals by play, by publishing articles favoring those two individuals. Those two individuals are ones that one of them threatened to kill. Threatened to kill a shop owner, catty corner from that location the other bit and put someone in the stomach. Those who have been banned from the library for a similar type of conduct and every time the female, the elderly, senior citizen librarian staff would walk out on the street for lunch break, they would spit. Which period the individual, individual owner and the manager of that facility has proved himself highly irresponsible. Yet this guy supports supports him and his equally odious individual, his number two guy, who when he was out on a medical leave and it looked as if it was he was not going to make it to pearly gate, not only to where the pearly gates immediately shut the day. The guy down below said even he had his standards and closed him off. You can't have landlord, you can't have people giving sanctuary to criminal activity. And it speaks ill of the very character of the individual who would want to open up something which is steps away from essentially nothing more than child trafficking, sex trafficking and child. Thank you. Sex trafficking. Thank you for your testimony. Saying no further public comment will close public comment. I want to just ask for the record, is the appellant at all in the audience? Okay. I don't see the appellant here. No one's responding. Just need to do that for the record. So public comment is closed, so we'll take it back behind the real council in place to overcome it. Speaker 0: I want to. Speaker 6: Thank staff for their efforts on this. This is an example of what we're to see from now on in regards to these establishments and some of the buffers that in my opinion, this one is a no brainer. But I thank staff for their excellent work and of course of the analysis of the Naples canals. I think I think it's hilarious that the hearing officer would have concluded otherwise, given what a huge source of recreational activity that particular canal provides for the entire city and never mind Christmas. So thank you very much. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you. Members, please cast your vote.

Public Hearing

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing, and approve the hearing officer’s recommendation to deny the business license MJ21701137 submitted by Long Beach Cannabis Club for a medical marijuana business located at 5752 East 2nd Street, but reject the hearing officer’s finding that Naples Canals are not a “public park” as defined under Chapter 5.90 of the Long Beach Municipal Code. (District 3)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10172017_17-0935

Speaker 0: Motion case. Speaker 1: Thank you. Let's have hearing number three. Speaker 0: Please report from. Speaker 4: Financial management recommendation received supporting documentation into. Speaker 0: The record. Conclude the hearing and approve the hearing officer's recommendation to uphold the denial of the business license application submitted by easy greens for a medical marijuana. Speaker 4: Business located. Speaker 0: At 135 five West Willow Street, District seven. Speaker 1: Thank you. And I believe another oath is required to administer the oath. Speaker 0: Witnesses, please stand. Do you and each of you solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Modica. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. The staff presentation will again be given by Brett Jaquez, our business services officer. Good evening, Honorable Vice Mayor and members of the City Council. Before your recommendation to uphold the hearing officer's determination to deny the business license application, NJ 21701212. Submitted by Easy Greens LLC for Medical Marijuana Business located at 1355 West Rose Street in Council District seven. In addition to the counsel order, you have been provided the hearing officer's recommended recommendation and findings, the appeal hearing packet and the city's brief in support of its argument. To write some background on this item on February 21st, 2017, Easy Greens LLC submitted an application to operate a medical marijuana dispensary at 1355 West Grove Street on May 31st, 2017. The Department of Financial Management denied the business license application due to the proposed business location being within an area zoned exclusively for residential use, which is in violation of the Long Beach Municipal Code. Section 5.90.030. On June 8th, 2017, Easy Greens LLC filed an appeal of the business license application denial. And on July 18, 2017, the City Council referred the appeal hearing to a hearing officer on August ten, 2017. The appeal hearing was held and the presiding hearing officer assigned by the city clerk's office was Elio Palacios. On August 29, 2017, the hearing officer recommended that the denial of the business license application submitted by E-Z Green's LLC be upheld due to the proposed business location being in an area zoned exclusively for residential use, which is in violation of Long Beach Municipal Code Section 5.90.03. It is requested that the City Council accept the hearing officer's recommendation to deny this business license application. That concludes my report. And staff are available to answer any questions Council may have. Thank you. And Mr. City Attorney, do we need to ask for the appellant on this? Okay. Is there is the appellant present? Okay, please come forward. You have a reasonable amount of time to make your case. Let's just cue up 10 minutes here. I probably need that long. Okay, well, let's queue up five. Okay. Mr. Vice Mayor and City Council, thank you for giving me a chance to speak. Be a being that we applied for this this medical marijuana license. It is. It's currently zoned on is on the map. It is zoned residential. But that's that was our point of contention, why we appeal this process to begin with. My father purchased this property back on August 8th, 1980, from Mobile Oil Corporation. It was it was an existing gas station at the time. My father at that point converted it from a gas station to a convenience store dairy market, which is which is how it's been operated since that time. So for the past 37 years, it's been operated clearly as not a residential use. We we so since during that time we've had a beer and beer and wine license from state of California. And during that whole time and basically the zoning I believe we believe to be amid something made a mistake with the zoning not back in 2013. We we I think we realized that it was not zoned and we attempted to preliminarily change the zoning on this property. My father contacted various business owners along the the block that we were located on. Some of them did agree to for us to go ahead with the zone change and we would all split the cost. And then early 2014, we were approached as personally, we were approached by 7-Eleven to to purchase this building from us, along with the license, the beer and wine license. So at that time, my father tried to rush the process, going because the 7-Eleven was not going to purchase it, being zoned incorrectly. But at that time, my father, we met with Monica mendoza, who was at the was a planner at the time. And we had she and my father met with Linda, to whom was also in in the works for the city in planning. And at that time, they told us that the the zone change was already going to be part of this citywide general plan change. That's still hasn't occurred from 2014 til now. We were under the understanding that that process would have taken between six months to a year. And here we are three and a half years later and still has not been done. And I understand that there's a bunch of little hiccups that go along the way with that. But as a direct result of this this thing, we haven't been able to we were denied for this application, as well as not being able to sell our business and the building property to 7-Eleven. We've been we've definitely been harmed by this through the slow process. This is taken. And we're hoping to get this the zone change done, if possible, prior to this general planning, because we don't even know when that's going to happen. We'd like to apply for if we're not going to be able to open a dispensary, we'd like to still be in this in the medical marijuana business. But if the zoning is not changed by the time, you know, we'd like to do the cultivation side if possible. We're exploring that as well at least. But if that's yeah, that's that's basically we just want to get this thing done. This process is, you know, started from 2013 and like I said, it's been a commercial use since 1980 at least, at least. And I'm sure mobile operator discussed that as a gas station for 20 years before that. So that's all that saying. Thank you. So this time we'll get a public comment. Is there any public comment on the side of. Very good. Upfront. I don't know this specific location, but I would offer this suggestion to this city. There will be obviously a number of people that will always want to come down and we're going to try to do this. And in any neighborhood, they are problematic. Here would be my suggestion. If you feel that you have no alternative in some locations, this is what and this is what. In the final analysis you should you should do is take the top two or the next to the top floor of the Long Beach Police Department. Clear it out, rent out space, and then have a lottery. And people can apply for one of those places to operate a marijuana establishment there. And there's ample parking in the garage there for them to do that period. And that saves a considerable amount of time. It's there. They can go buy a lottery basis and for each district they will have a certain you'll work it out with a certain number of lottery spaces will be opened for each district. And then you go to the downtown, to the police department and do your stuff. The city then gets at least some revenue from it to offset the damage that will flow from being forced to sell it. Thank you. Thank you. So say no further. Is this public comment coming forward? Thank you. Is there any other public comment on this item? Okay. This is our last speaker. Speaker 5: Thank you, Shirley Bassey. With regards to the denial of this license, I believe that it is in the overall best interests of the city being the medical marijuana and the regular kind. There is no difference between the two. It's all marijuana. It's it's all doing the same thing. So we have saved some toddlers. We have saved some met middle school high school children from walking by that business and getting a contact high. We've saved the necessity of the residents to have to explain to their children, what's that smell? Mommy, Daddy, what is that? We have saved a generation that live in that area from the necessity of getting that much more closer because marijuana is a gateway drug. We've saved that many children from being that one step close to the use of opiate drugs. Heroin. We saved them. Cigarets are now in front of us. They are in some of our houses, even though we've required now smoke free zones in restaurants and other public places. Because years later. Through cancer and death. And all kind of malfeasance in our human body. We have say we are now having to answer that question. But with with marijuana, we're going down the same road. And some of us years later. Are going to hear your children say, I don't care if you do put medical in front of it, Mommy. They offered me a joint and then they said, Well, why don't you try a primo. That's marijuana kid dipped in cocaine. And then they offered that to me. Dad. And while you voted, it was illegal. You said, Mommy, that you said you voted it right, Mommy. You're going to have to answer that in the generations ahead. As your children? Some of them. Who voted. I don't care if you are selling it legally now. You're going to have to answer your children and your children's children. Mark my words, some of you will weep for this decision. When you know, deep in your heart, forget what they have allowed you to do here in your heart of hearts, you are entertaining this not because you have a medicinal necessity. You're entertaining it because it is now the trendy thing to do. When you don't want to deal with the stresses of life and the many of us who are either Catholic or Protestant. I'll finish later. Thank you. Speaker 1: So we closed public comment, but I see one additional speaker. Is this one or is this too one? This is one. So I leave that there. Speaker 3: Well, you see something? Got it, Roberto. Well, you got something to say to me. Merry Christmas. Speaker 1: You ain't got to say nothing to me. All right, so you have 3 minutes and time starts now. Speaker 3: Well, I think you give an honor to Jesus. I don't. I disagree with her because I saw a documentary on the History Channel. Nixon was giving out marijuana, medical marijuana in 73 and everything. So. And I got glaucoma, I found out in 2011. And that's the first thing the doctor said to me is marijuana has no side effect. The team along the left hand approach that I take and the Santa press makes my eyes twitch so no one is all right. You know, I use all of them. But the thing is, is marijuana back in the days was the peace pipe, not the regular tobacco marijuana. And and the Native Americans wanted the indigenous holiday and everything. They were here last week. If we had they maybe they need to smoke marijuana because when we got finished and I got kicked out, everybody remembers. Right. And this is has to do with marijuana. When they got finished, the natives, you know we used to smoke piece pipe of cool but see when we got out there I was with the white lady and the white man and Fred that was over there and the police escort is to a car because it was a little commotion. They were following us, La Raza people. So what time we get out there? I'm in the back seat. They don't see me like this has to do. I'm getting to it. They say. Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, now, come on. Speaker 3: It's not a warning. I'm talking about marijuana. Why it needs to be. Now, come on. Don't do that. Because you got to hear this. We need marijuana because I would like to smoke marijuana with them and they would have peace, not jail. The ones who was here last week and if we had back in Long Beach and I could smoke a doobie with them, maybe they wouldn't be trying to beat us up and kill us. Okay. So the thing is, is Uncle Jerry would like that, but they don't. So the thing is, as far as them, what they did, they caught us and they try to reach in to take those phone and assaulted us. And then I went to police tell them it took too long to get there. So as vice mayor, before I leave, I want to ask you this. I want to make sure I wanted to make sure that step doesn't happen again because, hey, we come here to talk, not to fight, but if we got to be our own police, I'll do that and I'll go get some brothers a hand with that . But I don't want to do that because I don't feel like going to jail. And that's why we got the police. We got good police here. I remember when crack was all up in Long Beach. That was such a good job that this is a very safe city now. So just I just tell the police what's up and let me handle this because they handle this in Long Beach and hey, remember, next time they come with this indigenous stuff, when we get out there, I ain't having no more of that bull crap because the brother ain't having it. I'm gonna get some brothers down here. We're going to handle this. That's the last thing I'm saying. So, you know, hey, tell that man to handle his all that stuff. Hey, I ain't going down Long Beach. Speaker 1: Thank you. And we didn't see Frances come forward. Francis, you have your 3 minutes. Speaker 8: I am Francis, Emily Dawson Harris and I reside in District one and I wholeheartedly support this surge and this matter. I felt that the hearing officer's recommendation is sound and is and should be about the denial of the business license. I'm also staying on the subject matter. I kind of was listening to the appellant and I just was wondering about a point of clarification because I kind of got a inclination that there's a possibility that he realizes there's a probability that the license may be denied. And I'm kind of concerned about the matter about still having a business or something there. And I don't know if there's a separate business license that has to be got for. I'm kind of wondering what's going to happen with this denied? What's going to happen with the facility? Because I think that needs to be made clear as to what's actually going to happen with this location. Thank you very much and I appreciate it. Speaker 1: Thank you. Public comment is close. We'll take it back behind the wheel. Councilmember Durango. Thank you, vice mayor. I know. I know. That little stretch of land between the river, the 17 freeway and Santa Fe as well. This property lies around the corner of Easy and Little Street, and it has been a dairy for town that I've been in Long Beach. But I wasn't sure. I wasn't aware about the early history that it was a gas station. So that's that's enlightening. We were saying that has been very difficult for Mr. Wayne and his son in their property is that they have made efforts to sell that property and make it something else and convert that use into something much more not only useful for the community but profitable for them. Of course, during the course of my being on the city council, it was revealed at that location it's what they call a legal non-conforming use, which complicates matters in terms of properties that are that are designated as such. So I want to ask our planet, our department service people, if they could please give a definition of legal or performing use so that we can proceed with with how we move forward with the time of the sale here. Kerry. I will respond to that. Speaker 0: Thank you. Good evening, Honorable City Council, and thank you for your question, Councilmember Miranda. The legal, legal nonconforming use is one that was approved, legally permitted during a certain time, and then subsequently the codes changed. So, for example, for this particular property, it was zoned commercial back in the forties and fifties and sometime prior to 1979 it was zoned residential. And the existing development on the site, which was permitted legally at the time, remains legal, non-conforming and status, even though the underlying the zoning is are one which is residential and now only allows for residential uses. Speaker 1: And and that that presents a quandary because it is a legal non-conforming use. Yet it was resolved to be residential and and so Mr. Wang feels that he's been treated unfairly and I don't blame him for that because he's not. Now at this point when he was trying to sell the property to 7-Eleven because 11 does sell wine and beer, he could no longer be that type of service. He could no longer be there. So he's of in a in a quite a quandary here in terms of what was he going to do with that property. It's not about marijuana. It's about his property and what he can do with it at this point. And it's a shame that that he was unable to at least be able to consider another use for that property. But then the law is a law. We did pass a measure m m it was the definitions are very clear in terms of where you could put some dispensaries and some growth. And being that this is in a place where there's a residential very nearby, he can't they can't convert that property into that. Also, when he did his application, there were a maximum of 23 points to achieve in the application. And he didn't he didn't get the 23 points. So he was deemed eligible to continue in the lottery. So at this point, it appears that Mr. Wang is not able to apply for a medical marijuana dispensary or apply for 7-Eleven or apply for any other use, which is a shame. So at this point I would like to direct staff of the audit services and Mr. Kaiser to please meet with the Wangs, talk to them, give them some ideas as to what would be a very usable, well appropriate use of that property that may be able to give them some relief and and give them an opportunity to stay along because it's been a long time for 30 plus years, they've become a part of the community. They also own the car wash down the street on the corner of Santa Fe and and well, so they they are very familiar with Long Beach. They're very familiar to the people who are who live in the West Palm Beach area. And I think that they deserve a fair shake. So, Mr. Warwick, is that possible that we can be able to work with the banks and this mayor, councilmembers, vice mayor, councilmembers, certainly will have an economic development department meet with the Wangs, talk about zoning, what opportunities that exist. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And again, you know, this this is a parallel situations where I did meet with planning a building during this period of time. We were talking about 711 and how the land you sell that was coming in. And we're looking at changing some of those those those rules. And that is one of the stretches right there that is very complicated because of that corner and plus the other properties that are to the west of him, where there's a church, there's a laundromat, there's a restaurant, and there's a a playground and a library. So it's very mixed and it's very a talk about nonconforming. I don't know what that street is in terms of where there's residential, whether it's commercial or what. It's very unclear. So we as we move forward, we're probably touching a little button here that they should at least wear this item. But it's it's something that we really need to clarify and get clear and territory that stretch land so that Mr. Wang and his son can can have an appropriate use of that property. So having said all of that, I recommend that we go ahead and accept the the recommendation of the of the administrative judge and move forward . I hope my colleagues will as well. Thank you. Thank you. And that motion has been moved and seconded. Councilman Art and any remarks? Speaker 3: No, I think Councilman Urunga made the case and I support his motion. Speaker 1: Thank you. Those are remarks. So members to. Catch a vote. Speaker 0: Gonzales motion case. Speaker 1: Thank you. So that concludes our hearings. So I just want to clarify the order of the meeting this evening. So right now we have just a few people queued up for public comment. Just five names we will take up public comment next.

Public Hearing

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing, and approve the hearing officer’s recommendation to uphold the denial of the business license application MJ21701212 submitted by EZ Greens, LLC, for a medical marijuana business located at 1355 West Willow Street. (District 7)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10172017_17-0948

Speaker 1: Case. Thank you. So at this at this time, we're going to go ahead and have item number 16. So, Madam Clerk, please read. Speaker 0: Support from Public Works recommendation to request the city attorney to prepare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to prohibit the use of single use food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene foam, rigid polyester, rigid polystyrene number six and non-recyclable and non compostable material for prepared food distribution citywide. Speaker 1: Thank you. Will go to staff vice mayor councilmembers. Our public works director Craig Beck is going to present this item along with bureau manager of Environmental Services Chico Mokonyane. Speaker 10: Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. We are pleased this evening to be before you to discuss the item that came to council on December of 2016. And in that time the city council, our staff to go out and look at what it would take to implement a polystyrene ban here in the city of Long Beach. If you look at this slide, there were essentially four actions that the council requested staff to do. One was to reach out to the Environmental Committee to conduct a public outreach with the community and stakeholders while we worked on drafting an ordinance. Also, you requested the city attorney to work with staff to draft that ordinance, to ban expanded polystyrene and other polystyrene disposable food service containers. You requested staff to develop a public education campaign related to the ban, and you also requested that we work with the Economic Development Commission to find financial incentives for local businesses. We were able to to. Speaker 1: Accomplish these. Speaker 10: Four items. We spent some time over the last four or five months doing that. And we have here this evening the outline of that effort and the ban that we're proposing tonight to go through the details of the work the staff has done and to get into some of the technical aspects of a polystyrene ban. I'm going to ask Deacon Mokonyane to go through the rest of the slide presentation. Diko. Speaker 1: Good evening. As members of the Council. So let's start off with a quick definition. What is polystyrene? There's two forms of polystyrene. There's expanded polystyrene, which is a petroleum based polymer. It's used for packaging and insulation. It's lightweight and consists mostly of air, about 95% of air. It's made of pre expanded polystyrene beads and it's also made of Styrofoam. Styrofoam calling it Styrofoam. I call it a tissue, Kleenex. Certain forms are banned. It's it's not the name of the actual product. And there's also rigid polystyrene. And rigid polystyrene is a number six plastic. If you look at the bottom of your cups, oftentimes you'll see a number with a with arrows running around it. That would be a number six. It's an unexpected form of polystyrene that's more thin and rigid. So the purpose of the ordinance to ban polystyrene is three fold. One, Litter Prevention. Two, to protect public health. The National Institute of Health has identified styrene as a reasonably anticipated human carcinogen. And four three waste reduction. What we are going to propose today will address each of these issues with regard to little prevention. Expanded polystyrene is problematic because of its lightweight and easily moves in the world and in the waterways. Study by the Clearwater Water Action Group found that 60% of litter is food and beverage packaging on the beaches, and 60 to 80% of that litter comes from upstream. It comes from inland. It doesn't come from the actual beach user. To protect public health against either as a reasonably anticipated human carcinogen. This ban would reduce human exposure to this chemical and with regard to waste reduction and diversion, will see that the recommended recommendation will include only to substitute this material with recyclable items only. Also the audiences. There are over a hundred jurisdictions in California alone that have regulated and expanded polystyrene in some way or another. There are different levels of that regulation. You'll see that most of these as I go to the next slide, you'll see that most of these are along the waterways. Here you can see there's 19 cities in L.A. and Orange counties that have some degree of polystyrene regulation, some as simple as public facilities, other as thorough as banning it from retail. Oldest one we have in California was done in West Hollywood in 1990, just a matter of interest. So the council asked us to get stakeholder input as part of this process. We had five public meetings. We met with the through the Environmental Subcommittee, the Sustainable City Commission, Economic Development Commission twice and then once again with the Environmental Subcommittee. During this time, there's a lot of public comment and a lot of good discussion among the committee members about the pros and cons of this over different issues that should be considered as part of it. And we're going to go over a few of those things right now at the Environmental Committee. So you can see there's a number of items that came up. I'll give you the the high view, the strong. The big considerations were for a phased in implementation, giving small businesses an additional a longer grace period, allow businesses to use up their existing food inventory and targeted public education campaign regarding the proper disposal of all take out packaging. All of these items were put into consideration as part of this recommendation at the Economic Development Commission. Again, it was also recommended a phased in implementation specifying an additional six months grace period for small businesses and to consider financial incentives, as was recommended by the Council for Businesses that voluntarily comply before implementation. And also discussion was had about an administrative citation procedure for enforcement. Finally, the Sustainable City Commission meetings, it was recommended that Long Beach Unified School District be included in the ban. The ban be based on the recyclability and compostable of single use food, where items also supported a strong educational effort with an emphasis on reaching small businesses and making it multilingual as well, as well as a campaign to encourage people the public to use reusable food where containers. A boomerang campaign, if you will. So we have identified serious food rules that are proposed in this ordinance, including expanded polystyrene would be prohibited, as you see in the first picture, rigid polystyrene as again you see in a picture and a non-recyclable food and beverage containers. The scope is food service can be in containers for onsite and consumption of to go. It is not for insulation or any of those other reasons. So very acceptable alternatives would include reusable food where some restaurants like to use or will use materials for servicing. In the restaurant, we would propose they use plates that are reusable. The public can bring their own containers to go recyclable or compostable materials. As the examples you see in front of you and in the side, there are recyclable options include plastics one, two and five, and there are common alternatives to plastic. Number six, aluminum is a highly recyclable alternative. Compostable options include paper containers, sugarcane and corn derived alternatives. There's a number of there's a number of items out there that can be that can replace the polystyrene assembly. 3.1 was passed by the state a while back. It already requires businesses generating every four cubic yards of trash to have recycling. So recycling is available at these establishments. And so 1826 was also passed in 1826 is focuses on organics and requires businesses generate a certain amount of food waste to begin food waste recycling programs. If someone were to choose compostable materials as a replacement, they could use the food waste program to have their materials composted. So businesses would be included in the proposed ordinance include all city facilities and food establishments that sell or provide food or beverage for immediate consumption or to go. That would include brick and mortar sort of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, food trucks, food vendors, grocery store prepared, food section only, and other prepared food services that you might see at hotels and hospitals and schools. In light of the recommendations made at the various public meetings, we have suggested a phased in approach. I'd like to point out that it is my belief that Long Beach would be the first to have a phased in approach. The other cities in California generally do a deadline and everybody complies. Phase one would be three months after adoption by the council. It would be effective at city facilities or local government facilities and special events. Phase two would be six months after that. Food establishments that serve food and beverage for immediate consumption are to go. We are focusing on larger businesses, larger restaurants that we've identified as being having 31 seats or more. And that would be six months after the initial phase and nine months after the adoption. And then 15, six months later, 15 months after adoption, would expand to smaller restaurants that have 30 or fewer seats. And. And this gives them the extra grace period that was recommended by the public hearings that we attended. We also. There will be exemptions. Sorry, there would be exemptions are offered to people will be allowed to exhaust their current inventory as was recommended to us. If if a company or a restaurant is already under contract to purchase beer food containers, they could be given an extension as part of their exemption. And if for some reason there's no reasonable alternatives. This can be evaluated on a case by case basis, and the Director of public works would have the authority to grant an additional exemption. Economic incentives. We met with the Economic Development Commission, as I mentioned earlier, and met with them twice and we did some research on and other jurisdictions have done for incentives. The incentive program could take a lot of different looks to it. It could include the city providing some assistance in purchasing materials that may be a little more expensive initially. It may include the opportunity to I'm a strong advocate of just recognizing those businesses that decide to comply early and promoting them and have a program where they're recognized. They can have a sticker on their window, they can get an ad in the paper recognizing them and appreciating their commitment to the environment and to this particular ordinance. As far as education and assistance, depending on the decision made by this council, we could have a variety of different educational assistance programs . Certainly we would like to focus on bill like our Sustainability Commission recommended. Manhattan Beach has a very nice, robust program currently that promotes bringing your own. We would have a website that would dedicate information to people understanding how the band works. We would have a hotline dedicated for people to call and report concerns or issues. We would also meet and canvass the restaurants as necessary, and we would have a multilingual campaign to make sure that we were reaching out to all of our all of our restaurants throughout the city. Compliance provisions, ensuring compliance is going to be central to the implementation here. And so we will work with the health department. The health department will absorb this annual visits to the restaurants. They use a very educational approach when dealing with restaurants, very much the carrot as opposed to the stick, and especially with the new new ordinance that they're going to look at it very sensitively and work with the businesses to ensure compliance. And the Environmental Services Bureau would work with them as they needed to help that education program go out. So summary of our recommendations today to the audience, we recommended the audience include all polystyrene, both expanded and aged, polystyrene and minor sackable or non compostable containers. We recommend a phased approach which gives extra time to small businesses to comply. Excuse me. We are committed to having an expansive education and assistance program. We want to have a collaborative approach. This is not intended to beat anybody up. It's intended to work with them to help them comply. Ultimately, the goal would be to reduce litter on our streets and beaches to prevent that pollution from getting to our ocean and habitats. Reduce the public's contact with harmful chemicals. And promote the use of reusable items over single use items. Speaker 10: So I just want to recognize all the work that the team did in reaching out and working with the various community members. I want to thank all the community members that came to the various committees to provide input to this process. Staff has a recommendation before this council and we stand ready to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. We'll go to Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 4: I'd actually like to, if it's okay with everyone, to go to the public first for comment. I know many people have been waiting, so absolutely. Speaker 1: Let's pull up public comment. Anyone interested in speaking on this item? Please come forward at this stage. I'm going to go west of everybody so we can get a sense of how long public comment will go. Let's have health officials line up if they can. If you're able to find. Hello. All right, just. Just a moment. Just want to make sure I have an accurate read the day with my. Okay. So I see about, you know, about 20 people in the audience. So we're going to go to 2 minutes on public comment and then I practice three kind of tight. I got talking stick it. Just want to make sure we I mean we have a few big items on to make sure that we have every everyone has an opportunity to talk so I'm gonna make the call as as chair to go down to 2 minutes. Given this amount of public comment. And so when you're ready, ready, set go ahead and proceed. Okay. Many of you are aware of the movement to promote Long Beach as the aquatic capital of America. In just over a decade from now, we will have the chance to reinforce this branding as several of the 2028 Summer Games aquatic events are held here. The main focus of the group I founded 23 years ago, while Goleta Marine Research and Education is to mitigate the unsightly and unhealthful effects of plastic waste in our aquatic environments. Between 2003 and 2005, Goleta received half a million dollars from the state water board. To find out just how much plastic waste comes was coming down the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers and ending up in our marine environment. What we determined was that in the three representative days, we sampled 23 billion pieces of plastic weighing 30 tons were delivered to the ocean by our bordering rivers. That's three days less than 1% of a year. The numbers are staggering, but our grant required us to not only find the quantity of plastic waste, but also to do something about it. And we did. We found that 236 million of these plastics, 10% of the 2.3 billion total were preproduction plastic pellets. These small resin beads, the size of a grain of rice are what the plastic industry melts to make consumer goods worldwide. They make the weight of the entire Earth's population of humans in these beads yearly. We put screens in the storm drain catch basins near the plastic factories and found that they were losing them to the receiving rivers by the millions. Our report resulted in Assembly Bill 258, colloquially called the NOTO bill, which prohibited the discharge of these pellets into the environment. Enforcement actions resulted in no fewer pellets are found in our rivers. Unfortunately, this good news is not reflected in the amount of expanded polystyrene beads that are still flowing down our rivers by the millions. Thank you. Actions must be taken. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Paul Buchanan. I'm a chef and I own a business here in Long Beach. It's a food service business. Polystyrene is difficult to recycle. It's a major source of pollution in the city and more importantly, in the ocean and our waterways. I have run my food service business without it. For the past eight years or more, I have focused on using compostable vehicles such as natural fallen palm leaf plates, bagasse, or a variety of paper products. I fully support this proposal and believe that it's the right step for our city. And the person that was in front of me, Charlie Moore, knows more about plastic than anybody in this room and most people probably in the state. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: I am Francis, Emily Dawson Harrison, Homicide in District one. And I want to thank Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez. I brought this matter actually to the entire council about a year ago about the fact that I got the crime of the Pacific and attended the lectures. And I learned a lot. And they were showing how the staff found the different plastics were affecting the marine life. And so heartbreaking to actually see the actual pictures of the fact that they had on the me, my marine life, my nursing, my background's nursing. And I go, wow, this is amazing. I need to share this with other people. So thank you so much, Councilwoman Leanne Gonzalez, and your staff is awesome. And then there was an event that you had around the holiday and I said to your chief of staff, Sequoia, it's just awesome that you are moving forward on this. But, you know, you brought to my attention that that I brought it to you. But actually, I want to say that this is a really good thing to have. And when I saw about this this the strikes being not to limit the use of that, that was awesome matter of concern. I want to thank you for that. And then also, I don't know if there's any type of incentive to really increase people to bring their own containers. And I was thinking of the cost of being less for the restaurants to have to provide a different form of containers. And maybe they can have a kind of an incentive. Like if you go to the movie ten times and maybe 30 times or something, you get a free movie, but maybe you can get a free dessert after you come ten times for something. You have a little card that they stamp. I think it's good to have an incentive to try to get people to bring their own. And there's some some country in the Middle East. I mean, I think in the in the Asian part of the world where they actually take the plastic and Styrofoam and they use it and they put it and mix it in concrete and delay the road. So, you know, maybe the city can look in to that to see maybe if some of the plastic can be used for mass fashion to try to help protect the earth further. Thank you very much. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hi. My name is Donna. Pressure on Birch. I sit on the Sustainable City Commission for the eighth District, and I only have a couple of things to say, but I do have a visual that I'd like to just hold up for you. And I think we live in a time where consumers and businesses and manufacturers need to come to the realization that disposable, single use, non reusable or repurposing items are just not beneficial for humans, for insects, for any anything that lives on the planet or the environment in general. It'd be different if we didn't know better. But we do know better. We know what's the right thing to do. Speaker 0: Insisting that we need to continue the. Speaker 5: Manufacture, sale and use of expanded polystyrene, which after its initial use offers little to no value and pollutes the environment to the extent that it is virtually impossible to correct is very shortsighted. So having said that, and I also have something about the business community that I found, Mr. Scott Kanis, who is the. Speaker 0: He is the executive director of the downtown San. Speaker 5: Jose Businessmen's Association, which also has a polystyrene. Speaker 0: Ban, and he represents many of the affected restaurants. Speaker 5: He says that the restaurant owners haven't been complaining about the switch at all. He said that the customers are the ones that are saying good riddance to Styrofoam, and that is because the restaurants obviously want to accommodate the preferences of their customers. I would think that most of Long Beach, that would be their preference to have the thing that is healthy for the environment. So here is my visual. I just wanted to share this. I can't be tall enough. I'm 510. By the way. Speaker 0: There are 110 cities in the city of Long in the state of California that have some type of polystyrene ban. I apologize for wasting all this paper, but I'll recycle it. At any rate, I just wanted you to see this. And it's alphabetical and Long Beach terms then. Speaker 1: Thank you. We're fine right here. There it is. Speaker 0: So that's where we need to be. Speaker 1: Fantastic. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Hey, Larry Bolen. I just wonder if you could call up in your mind a visual of the vessel that left Long Beach and we're out of the mid-Pacific and the area where vessel walked on the polystyrene in the mid-Pacific. How many of you remember that? Yeah, I was on my boat. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. Speaker 1: You. Right? I could. I never forgot that. There must be millions of tons of this stuff. So where are we missing? Looking at some oversight here. And that is the Port of Long Beach. Why don't we take a look at that cruise ship and maybe we could convince them? Because I tell you where you know where that stuff goes. A friend of mine was on a a tanker for 20 years. ExxonMobil, not all that polystyrene goes off to the stern of the vessel into the water. And that's a huge problem. And it's even a global problem. But why don't we take a look at the port and see what they could do to nation with some of the the cruise ships and maybe the other ships coming in to get rid of that stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Hi, I'm Annie Buchanan. I live in District eight and I'm also a member of Long Beach 350. Speaker 2: I just want to commend this city council. You know, several some years ago we got rid. Speaker 0: Of plastic bags and we grumbled about that for a while. And now it's a no brainer. We all have these in our car. So I think it's time to take some personal responsibility. I bring this with me to every restaurant I go to. It comes back home with me, with my take home. It's easy. It goes right in the dishwasher. I wash it and goes back in the car in this bag for the next restaurant. So I think it's time we do this for Mother Earth, and I commend. Speaker 2: The city of Long. Speaker 0: Beach. Let's do it. Speaker 1: Mother. All right, make speaker, please. Good evening, members of the council. My name is Mark Coleman. I live in the third district where I've lived for over 30 years. And I'm here tonight on behalf of the board of directors for the Peninsula Beach Preservation Group. And this is the neighborhood association that represents the families of the peninsula in the third district. The Board of directors of the PB, PG has voted unanimously in favor of the proposed ban, and that has been communicated to our elected representative as well. We recently conducted a survey of Peninsula residents and 95% support the ban. I can also say, having lived in Belmont Heights for nearly 30 years, I don't know if Maureen's who lives here, but I would say the residents of Long Belmont Heights probably overwhelming support this ban as well. It's just good for our community. Why is this important? If you've been to Peninsula Beach any time in the last 20 years, you'll see it's polluted on a daily basis by trash, including Styrofoam and plastics that come from a variety of sources, including the Port of Long Beach, the L.A. River, the Cerritos Channel, and the citizens of the city of Long Beach. The beach will not survive much longer. And the Al Goleta Marine research has led the scientific study to show that the Styrofoam is breaking down at such a level that we will no longer be able to clean our beaches. It's incumbent upon the council to act. And I say to my brothers and sisters in the restaurant industry, you use the beaches, too. This is not against the restaurants. This is attempt to make all of us responsible global citizens and more importantly, protect the resources that have been entrusted to us. I hope you act courageously tonight and take an important step in protecting our beaches from the pollution that is overwhelming them. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Oops. Hello. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 4: Good evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is Saucony. I'm one of the co-founders of Long Beach Environmental Alliance. I am for the polystyrene ban. Speaker 0: With our economic growth. Speaker 4: Industrial output, increased population and transport, we make more extensive use of natural resources. What I have learned from being an. Speaker 0: Environmental and community. Speaker 4: Activist is that some people do not know what to do when it comes to being green or more sustainable in their lives. Some may believe that it takes more work to be green when actuality it is. Cost saving enriches our lives and our future. Speaker 0: By proposing. Speaker 4: This dark polystyrene. Speaker 0: Ban. Speaker 4: We can help enact change in others. In other words, we need to have a paradigm shift in regards to our behavior mindset of industrialized people. We need to think about next generations and lessen our use of fossil fuels. Speaker 0: Think about the plastic ban bag. California wanted it and now we have. Speaker 4: Learned how to adapt to those changes. All it takes is time for people to get used to these things. Speaker 0: Changing our behavior is necessary. With your help, we can. We can show them the way. In the end, we all share. Speaker 4: This place. Speaker 0: And what we should do, sorry, and what we should do. Takes to protect our environment and for the damages and pollution. Speaker 4: Let's be an inspiration to other cities and countries and have them move forward with us. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Seamus Innes. I live in Long Beach and the fourth District Council in Supernormal District at 39512 or away. I'm on the advisory committee of the Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and we started working here in Long Beach in 1999, and one of the first things we started doing was holding beach cleanups. And it was a way to get people to realize that the beach belongs to them. And so we started doing these beach cleanups and we sell plastic bags and cigaret butts and Styrofoam, and we started activating, working against Styrofoam and plastic bags. We killed the bags. That was great. And then in 2006, after a long time, we started making these postcards that say, ban the foam, get rid of Styrofoam, and we send them we've been sending them ever since we sent thousands. I remember sending them when a couple of you guys were staff for other council members and some people's wives were council members and previous mayors. So we've sent thousands of and you guys have received them and realized that this is what a lot of your constituency want. So I'd like to take this point, this moment to point out that all these people who've written you over the years of beach cleanups and tabling events, this is what they want. They want to ban Styrofoam in Long Beach, the EPS and the other hard, rigid polystyrene. As part of that whole we've been working, Surfrider has been working on it for a long time. The city has been working on it a year ago when this first came up. The city had already been working on it for eight years. Now it's going on nine years. And then by the time the ordinance is going to be written, it's going to be nine plus years. They're going to have an implementation phase. It's 3 to 15 months. I would ask that we cut that down to six months because ten or 11 years of working on this is plenty enough . Thanks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening. My name is Sarah. What'sgoingon? I'm here on behalf of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, also known as Best Fed. And I am also a resident of Long Beach. I'm here representing more than 160. Speaker 4: Business organizations and millions of workers in L.A. County, including the. Speaker 0: City of Long Beach. The motion to ban on polystyrene will be a huge blow to small businesses and their employees. Ban in a single material and food service packaging will not. Speaker 4: Address the amount of litter in our public spaces or. Speaker 0: Bring us closer to zero waste. Food service containers made of polystyrene are a minor component of litter, and if banned, this material can. Speaker 4: Easily be substituted for. Speaker 0: Others that would simply similarly go into our waste stream. In 2015, the California State Water Board acknowledged the statewide trash policy that products bans do not help communities reach compliance with their stormwater permits because they do not reduce waste. Rather, the board found that product bans are more likely to involve a substitution of the banned item and the substitution would be discarded in the same manner. There are more effective and practical approaches to reducing trash, such as expanding recycling, stepping up an anti litter enforcement, expanding recycling education, and partnering with the business community to identify other solutions and opportunities for more recycling investment. But rather than substantively addressing the issue of litter, today's motion will hurt restaurants, caterers, delis and other food service providers who would see their operating costs increase as a result of such a ban because replacement products are 2 to 3 times more expensive than polystyrene products. This Fed supports policies that achieve the best solution and have a record of supporting sensible environmental policies. But these policies must be reasonable, and they must actually help achieve the environmental goals that the city has set. We encourage you to look for alternatives to the ban that will actually address the issue in an effective and comprehensive way . Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: No vice mayor, council members and staff. Speaker 2: Thank you so much for this opportunity. My name's Stellar SEWA from Green Education. Speaker 0: And I want to thank Councilwoman. Speaker 5: Gonzalez for having the courage to bring this up as well. I have four friends that are suffering from cancer right now for family members that are also suffering from cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer. Speaker 0: Other types of stomach cancer. And, you know, after a while, we start out. Speaker 5: Stop asking, well, what what caused it, right? Who knows what caused it? But, you know, we we live with so many materials. We use so many materials on a daily basis that might be might be causing these situations. They're nonsmokers. They're healthy individuals. You know, it's it's it's a it's a wonder, you know, what what's causing it? Could it be from styrene, from benzene, foam in these Styrofoam products? How many of us go to a restaurant, have leftovers that are packed up for us in a Styrofoam container, only to heat up our leftovers in a microwave where the hot foods and liquids start. This breakdown of that Styrofoam causing toxins to be absorbed in our skin. I'm asking for your vote for the health of your constituents, for your kids, for Luca, for do you believe for all the folks that have kids on the council for your future grandkids? Note The Green Price Festival has always required something that we do every year, required that our food vendors not bring Styrofoam to those festivals, not bring straws, plastic utensils. Everyone complained about the plastic bag ban. This is something that I think we can get used to. It's behavior change that I believe most of us will be more than happy to to take on. And so I ask for your support. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening. My name is Stephanie Mathews and I'm an organizer of a monthly beach cleanup here in Long Beach. Polystyrene is the single most fun item during our beach cleanups. Over time, it breaks down into tiny pieces, which are by far making up by. Speaker 5: Far the hardest item to remove, both. Speaker 2: Commercially. Speaker 0: And by hand. By its nature, polystyrene is very bristle and fragile. So when the city bulldozers come to clean up the beach. Speaker 5: They actually break it. Speaker 0: Down even into smaller pieces and leave them behind. Speaker 2: Instead of removing it. Speaker 0: And disposing it accordingly. It is. It takes a lot of effort, hard work, and it's mainly impossible for our volunteers who then sift through the sand for hours to get these tiny little pieces. Speaker 2: Out of the sand. And it is completely mixed in. Speaker 0: The only way we can protect our waterways and enjoy our beaches as a resource for public health is to prevent this material to enter our community. So I'm very happy to hear that the city is moving forward with the ban, and I congratulate you on your leadership in this matter. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Hello. My name is John Kendrick. I'm one of the co-founders of the Long Beach Farming Alliance. I'm also the vice chair of the Gray Panthers here in Long Beach. Speaker 3: A member of the. Speaker 1: Long Beach, 350. And also don't waste Long Beach, and I'm going to go farther than what people have been saying. I'm going to show you what actually has been going on over the years in Long Beach. Now this city makes money from tourism and all kind of water activities. But how long can we go like this? And people don't want to come to this city and do things they do. May be somebody that lives here. Or somebody coming to visit. Nobody wants to come to a city that looks like this. No, but the whole year around and a lot of times this is days that not after a storm, but just on a regular day. This was going on. It used to be a time you saw this trash. Only when it when it rained and after it rained. But now we see it is on a daily basis through our whole city. It doesn't matter if you don't have any river. If you're sitting there a San Gabriel River or walking through the city of Long Beach or no parks, this is going on everywhere. We talk about being a green community, but we don't act like one. And what does this say for our children? Because what we don't clean up today, they got inherited. And this goes on to health issues and other things. It's time for us to put our actions where our mouth is and do it for ourselves and for our children. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor, Honorable Council. My name is Chris Duggan. I am representing the California Restaurant Association. We happily represent over 500 members here in beautiful Long Beach. Speaker 2: Sierra opposes the item before you tonight. A ban on foam and our takeout containers are opposition. Speaker 1: Is also with all. Speaker 2: Bans on single use food service products. Speaker 1: Bans are essentially mandated cost increases that often hit the. Speaker 2: Smallest mom and pop family owned restaurants in your community. The mandated costs are real and you have seen over 120 individual restaurants have written letters to you explaining this. These are not big restaurants. Speaker 1: This is the economic backbone of your community. Most of these restaurants are the smallest restaurants. Speaker 2: In Long Beach, and the proposed ban would adversely. Speaker 1: Impact them the. Speaker 2: Hardest. The new mandate cost just adds to the cumulative. Speaker 1: Impact of the rising food costs and the rising labor. Speaker 2: And health care cost to our industry. Speaker 1: Additionally, a phased in approach. Speaker 2: Is not the answer to these increased costs. Whether you pass the ban today or pass it with a phased in approach, small businesses will feel the impact truly. Speaker 1: Earlier this year. Speaker 2: The CIA commissioned a price study again that was sent before you. It showed the cost ranged between 54 and 145%. This is with. Speaker 1: Both your hot cuts and your cold cuts. Again, bans are not the solution. Speaker 2: Bands lead to more bands. Speaker 1: What Long Beach needs is a comprehensive litter prevention recycling program in place. Therefore, the CIA S.R. urges you to oppose the item before you tonight. Thank you. Thanks for your time. Speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Mike Centers. I'm CEO of Titus Services. We're a recycling company in Los Angeles, California, and we primarily work with material recovery facilities. I like to call a murphy MRF, and what they are is they take all the material that's in your blue bin from your home or a lot of times from the bins put out at businesses and take them to a center and they separate the material by material type. We believe that bans are not the way to solve the recycling or the litter problem. We think that taking that material and using it in another manner is the best way. And our secondary murf takes material from the Merced, from the blue bin that isn't captured originally from the murf. And we recycle deeper. We recycle for polystyrene, expanded polystyrene and rigid recycle for polypropylene, pet htp, aluminum and metal. And when we see materials banned, what it does is it reduces our volume, makes it more difficult for us to get to truckload quantities. And that's what you need to make recycling work. You have to get to a point where others can use it as a resource and replaces Virgin material. We've done work in California. We've been managing to recover about 50% more from a material recovery facility. By taking it and designing different equipment and removing it. One of our products is expanded polystyrene. Polystyrene. We did some work in Culver City when they were looking at a ban. We actually took material that was going into another company, took what they were missing, and we recycled about 40% of it and divert it from landfill. So we've been pretty successful in delivering. We'd like to divert 50%. It depends on the customer, but generally been pretty successful in doing it. And by doing that we've been creating jobs. We have created 23 jobs over the last five years and our goal is to put one of these in every major city in the United States. And we believe it's a win win. You get further diversion, which is important for the city and state mandates, and you also get an opportunity to recycle material rather than having it end up in the wrong spot. Thank you. Thank you. Next week, please. Speaker 6: Hi, guys. Speaker 5: You know me as the chair of the Sierra Club, although I do live in one of the council districts. We've got members in all your districts. Several of them are really emailing you about this issue. Everything we've heard today, you could almost take out the. Speaker 0: Word polystyrene and put it in single. Speaker 5: Use grocery bags. It's the same conversation we just had. People a couple of years ago freaked out, said it was good to close grocery stores. People would lose jobs. We'd have no way to get our groceries home again. But we made the transition pretty easily. Business fears change and I get that. But we just made a small change by by getting rid of the single use throwaway grocery bags. And now there was a lot of talk back then about proper disposal and littering being the real problem. But they're so lightweight, just like the polystyrene clamshells, they're so lightweight they blow out. But since we banned them, how many of you guys have seen what I called the jaywalking jellyfish? Those things that would kind of slowly grow across the street. We don't see them anymore because they're not there to be blowing out of our trash cans and stuff. Now, I see a lot of people here that have never been to our council meeting. I know this because we don't have a blue bin. We've never had a blue bin, but these people care and I don't want them to lose their jobs. People have gone out and bought matching t shirts. They really made an effort. They really must be in fear that their jobs are going to go away. But we we got rid of the single use throwaway bags and nobody lost jobs. Grocery stores didn't close. 110 other cities have gotten rid of throwaway polystyrene, and they've still got thriving restaurants. They still got catering business like Paul's. So nobody should be losing your job over this because 110 other cities in California have done it. So if they can do it without closing restaurants and losing people's jobs, if we got rid of our single use throwaway grocery bags without closing what little mom and pop corner stores are losing jobs. I think we can make this transition without any of these people who shown up tonight losing their jobs. And DeKoe had provisions for small businesses who were financially strapped by this. So it sounds like we've got a great plan in place. Thank you for your yes vote. Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor Richardson, Federal Council. My name is Tommy Fireblade with IBEW Local 11 here in Long Beach. We care about jobs and environment. We do not believe that they are mutually exclusive. This is why we oppose the policy that would ban expanded polystyrene single food service containers. Such a policy picks winners and losers. Manufacturers of expanded polystyrene food service products have facilities here in Southern California that provide important jobs to our recovering economy. Bands could risk these jobs. We need more investment in our recycling infrastructure. It is outdated and it often does not capture all of the recyclable material. In fact, some recyclers may only recycle less than half of the material. Bands, such as the proposed EPS Food Service Container Band does not work the only harms manufacturing insults in small businesses and further delays solutions that will improve recycling and create new good paying jobs. It is time to develop solutions that are good for jobs and good for the environment. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Peter, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor Richardson, council members. As other speakers have spoke tonight, we have people from the restaurant industry here that are working mom and fathers, sons and daughters are with us this evening. I want to commend them tonight for coming. Thank you very much. Please stand. The reason why I commend them is you all recognize how difficult it is to come to a council meeting. We're now, what, almost 7:00 and they've now spent their evening 2 hours to come down here and tell you that they're opposed to a ban . They're opposed to a phased in approach. There's no two ways about it. We've only been impacted with the minimum wage. We've already been impacted with sales tax increases. Let's take a different approach. Let's find a solution. Let's don't go with just political rhetoric of 110 cities. Heck, there's 300 cities in California that don't have a ban. Big deal. The reality it is find solutions. Those solutions are data driven. The council has proven in the past that they look at facts and statistics rather than just the emotional rhetoric tonight. Figure out a way through coming up with a solution by getting the city, whether it's through the private sector, whether it's working with city staff, whether it's through a third party, get a survey done that determines what impacts have happened with these other cities that have passed the ban. Take a look and see what's out there before you pass this ban and impact mom and pop restaurants. Don't be quick to make a decision tonight. Take a slower approach. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Hello, Council. My name is Elizabeth LAMB. I'm executive director of Low Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust. And our mission is the protection and preservation of our local wetlands, the low cerritos wetlands, my organization and the thousands of supporters and members that. Speaker 0: We have support this. Speaker 6: Ordinance. Speaker 5: We decided to support. Speaker 6: The ban because of the harm that. Speaker 0: Polystyrene does. Speaker 5: To low Rita's. Speaker 6: Wetlands. It not only pollutes our wetlands. Speaker 0: But it also harms the wildlife. Speaker 6: That depend on this fragile ecosystem. It breaks up into small pieces that are mistaken as. Speaker 5: Food by some of. Speaker 0: The wildlife out there. And it also. Speaker 6: Hampers nesting and other. Speaker 4: Activities out there because it clutters up the. Speaker 6: Wetlands. And as you know, there aren't very many left in Long Beach at this time. When the lows through this wetlands are being restored and becoming more and. Speaker 0: More of this. Speaker 6: Great community resource, we need to do things to make it a more robust and inviting place for the community and for habitat. And the polystyrene ban helps do that. While I am not an expert on business, I was talking to. Speaker 5: The proprietor of a local business in the third district, the owner of a coffee house called. Speaker 0: Viento e Agua. Speaker 6: And he hasn't ever used Styrofoam, he told me. Speaker 4: Because he thinks it's so damaging. Speaker 6: To the environment and his business is thriving. And I am as compassionate as anyone about people's small businesses. And I would urge those who are concerned about this ban to talk to these. Speaker 4: Successful. Speaker 6: Local businesses and learn how they were managed, how they managed to do so well by taking what is really a small step for protecting the environment. Speaker 0: It is a bit of a cliche, but it is true. Speaker 5: That. Speaker 6: Someday. Speaker 4: The way. Speaker 6: That we inhabit the planet will come back to impact our children and their children and their children's children. This modest. Speaker 4: Proposal that makes Long Beach. Speaker 6: A good example for other cities is something that I support and I. Speaker 4: Hope you do as well. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor Richardson and members of the council. My name is Rob. No, tough. I'm the director of the Don't Waste Long Beach Coalition. And our coalition believes in a zero waste city with recycling, composting and good green jobs for all. And we're here to speak in favor of tonight's proposal. Not only is this material nearly impossible to recycle, but it also often times open, ends up on our local beaches and threatens our local wildlife and marine life. And if we want some data and stats at the rate we're going by the year 2050, there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish. So let that sink in because we are a city that enjoys a large stretch of the Pacific coastline and we should pause and think about what that truly means for us, our quality of life, and what that means for the future of our beaches and what it means for residents of our city. The Donors Coalition has participated in several beach cleanups, as you've heard from other speakers here over the past year. And the number one item we find on our beaches is Styrofoam. It breaks up in a tiny bit, as you've heard. And when that happens, it's mistaken for for food or for fish eggs. We have sea, we have fish, we eat it. We have we have seagulls who eat it. And of course, they suffer the consequences from this. But even beyond the immediate threat to our environment and quality of life are the workers themselves who actually produce this stuff. Many of the chemicals used in the manufacturing. Process are toxic. The workers who manufacture and the workers actually manufacture it are the most at risk. And so it's for these reasons that 110 other cities have actually already moved ahead with this policy. So let's not be the last to jump on this train. It's good policy. It's good science, and it's the right thing to do. So let's move forward with doing what's right and protect our workers, our environment, and let's ban polystyrene. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good night, council everyone. Good night. My name is called on Decenas. Speaker 3: I am worried about. Speaker 1: That the band because I depend heavily on his jersey for our material and the band will incur the cost to my business by 20,000. I know that more than I can use to do. I invest in my business. I worry about the the peace with the city is alive. The cost. Right now, we have a lot of problem with the Turks put in the streets their language. So right now, increase the band the cost impact in our restaurants. We are part of the restaurant in this more business and. I worked really. Speaker 3: Hard to build my my. Speaker 1: Business for three years. So every everything happened in the city in park made it hard to my my business my business is family business. So my family depend the business is I pay a lot of the fees and I get money for the everything. Speaker 3: The brand, the light. Speaker 1: The legacy, everything that, the things I need in my restaurant, in fact, very hard. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Castle. My name is Brennan Holley. I'm here representing Sebastian Gomez, owner of Casa Sanchez, number four, where I work. Um, it's been here for 15 years. And Long Beach. I'm here opposing the ban on polystyrene and number six, plastics. Also, I oppose any type of phasing process. Thank you. Thank you, Max. Speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening. Dear council members, my name is Lorelei Levis and I work at Daily Bread Bakery, which recently opened a year and a half. Speaker 0: Ago on North Long Beach. I'm here to say my opposition to the proposed band of the polystyrene containers. Speaker 4: We're a reason business. And we did struggle a little bit at the beginning to start it. However, though we are concerned with this because this increases our expenses as it is, it's brand new. And as you all know, starting a new. Speaker 0: Business, it's it's a little difficult. Speaker 4: And now even more with. Speaker 0: This van it it a like it makes. Speaker 4: Us double think of. Speaker 0: We can do this or not and we appreciate you guys. If you guys would like like they all said would. Speaker 4: Double consider and. Speaker 0: Not like vote on this that fast without looking. Speaker 4: At the other cities that have already. Speaker 0: Passed this ban. Speaker 4: So, yeah. Thank you all so much. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Good evening. City Council. I live and represent Long Beach, California. I mean, I love doing these Long Beach years and I work as Santa Claus is number one. And we totally opposed the ban of Styrofoam products. And number six, we feel that this is a ploy to cripple the small business owners. I mean, like right now, our costs of the products are $200 a week. With the ban, it will go up to $400 a week, if you notice. Look at the people who are opposing this ban. You know, it's the larger companies. You know, if we if you if you guys do this will totally cripple us, maybe put it out of business. You know, I ask you guys to not vote for this ban. Thank you. Thank you. Next picture, please. Speaker 0: Well, I want to start with Mitt Romney's agenda. Speaker 1: Garcia good afternoon. My name is General Garcia. I am also translating for. Speaker 0: Your trouble in capers, burgers or negosyo. I stayed on Long Beach for the U.S.A.. Speaker 1: I work at Gabriel's Burgers, a business that has been in Long Beach for over ten years. Speaker 0: Yesterday, I keep an undeclared army position alla provisioned a container, loaded the plastic of my metal safe. Speaker 1: And I'm here to declare my opposition to the prohibition of our number six plastic containers. Speaker 0: Yes, the material. The plastic was economical, efficient. Yes. And cultural negotiable. Speaker 1: This material is both affordable and efficient and very essential for my business. Speaker 0: Are there masala provisions basil weed lost causes among the theses meal dollars alone? Speaker 1: In addition, given if the double in increase of cost is, is, is accurate, it would increase my costs by $16,000 a year. Speaker 0: At Alamosa water. Speaker 1: Twice as much as we play right now. Speaker 0: Nosotros get a month in plastic. Go for muchos personas. Enchiladas on your trabajo neighborhood record. Speaker 1: We would like to keep using this material because there are a lot of low income people in our communities that rely on this. Speaker 0: I personally am pregnant and also said the Leviticus letter here to proclaim either. Speaker 1: There are many of our customers that ask if we accept MBT, which is the, you know, food support program by the state. Speaker 0: Is so significant a person asking Napoleon comprises alimentos continental you know. Speaker 6: Be the new. Speaker 0: Local gobierno. Speaker 1: I mean, these are people that cannot afford to buy their own food supplies and ask the government for assistance. Speaker 0: Sierra Leone I somebody that Andrea of Jezebel of fuels a la comida if I look at no Podemos I say. Speaker 1: If you guys approve this ban, we will definitely be forced to raise our prices, and that's something we can't do. Speaker 0: BURGER Muchos personas. GABBANA The NLD nettle by the palazzos element of. Speaker 1: Because there are many people that obviously don't have the money or barely have the money to pay for their own food stuffs. Speaker 0: Them unite person to get by some Paula can yes online order the launcher either c than zero to comida in order for them or the food vendors continued orders. The comida. The plastic is the one that both parties give. Speaker 1: And we also have a lot of people that want to take their food to go and they don't have their own containers to, you know, do that. They rely on these containers less. Speaker 0: Peter Consiglio cannot comment on when I was in contra restaurants back in your boat, they're not l'approvazione. Speaker 1: I asked the council members to don't commit an injustice and vote no on this ban. Speaker 0: GRACE Yes, thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. And before we take the next speaker, I see the gentleman in the suit is the last in line. If there's anyone who wants to speak, now's the time to get in line. Otherwise, sir, in the suit. You are the last, last speaker and public comment. Then proceed. Speaker 0: Hello. Good evening. My name is Cecilia. This is one, darlin. And this is Sophia. And we are here to represent Polly Burgers, a business that has been in Long Beach for 24 years. We are here to state our opposition to the proposed ban of polystyrene containers. We're worried about the ban because Polly Burgers depends heavily on the use of the this affordable material. And the ban will increase will heavily increase the cost to the business at Polly Burgers. Speaker 5: We are also concerned that the City Council Council is planning to ban a product that is in fact recyclable. The city can now recycle it on its purple and the purple bins. We have worked really hard. The business has worked really hard and we urge the city to vote against the ban and unfairly target small businesses. Even a face out approach is going to hurt small businesses in the long run. You know, we think we're doing a good, but in fact, we're going to end up hurting ourselves later on. I think that the city and the businesses should come together and promote recycling instead of this ban that would just hurt small businesses and small business owners. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you for your testimony next week. Please. Hi. Good evening. I am Vincent. I work for Casablanca Restaurant, Mexican food. And there is some for a stay here is too opposed to the ban. One of the reason is that if you give somebody else blade like could be reusable. I don't think somebody wants to go to their house and watch the place that they have been using for and go back with the same plate. They are bad bags, you know, are very full. I don't think they are going to use and are played for. I think we going back 50 years ago that way, you know, we are going back 50 years. So I just I don't think is a good idea to go in the plate and use it again because it is food, you know, and food got bacterias and everything. So I opposed to the ban. And thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Yes. I'm Brenda Smith and I'm with Patricia's restaurant in Bixby Knolls and I'm representing them as the band on the food containers, which is going to hurt the businesses for the restaurants. And I work with quite a few small mom pop restaurants and for the band the. The containers is going to be a hardship on them also as well as the community to go up on their prices in which most of the people in poverty do go and buy their readymade food from these different types of small restaurants. And along with abandoned them. And if they want to ban something that's going to hurt the environment. I can agree with trying to protect the environment, but also why no one's focusing on what are we breathing in the air from these jets flying and spraying us and we don't know what we're coming down with and we want to blame it on the Styrofoam. It's making us outcasts, and no one knows what's causing us to become ill but banned and something that's helpful to help people to get their meals home from a nursing male to nutritional for their bodies. They want them to bring back containers to bring their food home. A lot of times people don't even have enough money. They stand and panhandle to get money to buy a fast hamburger, a fast taco or whatever it may be. But to ban that, it is unsanitary to bring your own containers back to a restaurant. Now, when the health department are going to step in on, they're going to turn around, said you cannot accept reusable containers from your home or whatever. So you're going to run into so many situations. So something's got to give. And I believe strongly that it should fall into the favors of the small communities to where they are playing a vital part in the community, to where they have jobs. And so they don't file it to become a statistic of unemployment. Those are nice. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Thank you, Vice Mayor. Speaker 4: Richardson and Council. My name is Samantha martinez and I. Speaker 0: Represent the Plastic Foodservice Packaging Group. We are a trade association that represents the resin manufacturers, resin suppliers and the manufacturers of all different types of foodservice packaging. Talking about the apps and apps that you're speaking about, talking about all rigid plastic paper, poly coated paper, compostable degradable, all of the different types of materials that are food service packaging. And we agree. Speaker 4: We do not want to see our products in the literature and we do not want to see. Speaker 0: Them in the landfill. We would love to see. Speaker 4: And work with you on recycling and on litter removal. Speaker 0: But a ban will not address that. Speaker 4: A ban will take one material out and replace it with another. Speaker 0: Material, which might even be more plastic material. Speaker 4: Or. Speaker 0: Material that doesn't doesn't degrade and or isn't recyclable. So we think and we have heard from experts that a ban doesn't address and doesn't reduce litter, doesn't reduce waste whatsoever. It's just replace with another product. What we really need is a real solution that's. Speaker 4: Going to address recycling and other. Speaker 0: Ways to effectively address litter. Also, as you've heard, it would affect jobs by banning polystyrene foam, both in terms of manufacturing, but potentially in terms of hours at restaurants. I'm want to address the health issue, the FDA, the U.S. National Toxicology Institute of the Environment, the U.S. toxicology program, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis all say that polystyrene is safe for food for food service consumption. Speaker 6: Styrene occurs naturally. Speaker 0: In strawberries, in beer, in. Speaker 4: Cinnamon, and a lot of things that we eat and ingest in. Speaker 0: A lot larger. Speaker 4: Percentages than in a in a polystyrene. Speaker 0: Foam cups. So we hope that you'll take a step back and look at the full issue. Speaker 4: And we would love to work with you on real solutions. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening, city council. Hopefully I'm going to try to get as far as I can with this with the baby. My baby sitter canceled tonight, but that was very important for me to be here. I'm the executive director at Al Goleta. Many of you are familiar with our organization. We are local here and we work to prevent plastic pollution. It's our job. We have become very embedded in this issue at a global level. We have toured, you know, facilities on a global level, local level here in the States. And we have seen how difficult it is to process not just the polystyrene, but all plastics. And there's a lot of complexities behind this issue on both sides. It's not about just Long Beach. It's not just about the states. But we're looking at a material that is low in value. Therefore, it is not recovered and recycled at the rate that it should be. We have seen that even with the machinery that the plastics industry gives to the facilities, that they still have a very hard time selling the expanded polystyrene. In fact, we toured a facility where they were having to pay customers to take the polystyrene away because they couldn't afford or because they had to meet the quota and that they had to divert a certain amount of material. So we're working with plastics that literally are designed to be used once yet designed to last forever. We've been very irresponsible with this material when we should have feared the consequences of plastics from the very beginning. And that's ultimately how we ended up in this position, is we were not responsible with a persistent and polluting material that now is ubiquitous in nature. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening, City Council. My name is Sona Coffey and I'm a resident of the fourth District and I also serve as the vice chair. Speaker 4: Of your Sustainable City Commission. Speaker 0: I'm here tonight to speak in support of this item. I really see this challenge of how we deal with disposable food waste materials as an opportunity for the city, as an opportunity for the city to really help our most vulnerable communities, most vulnerable people in our communities, the hardest working people in our communities. As you can see, several of them are here tonight. We want to do to take that responsibility and as local government to really help pave the way. I hope staff here can bring these two groups together. We have a sea of blue and a sea of green, and I think it might look really beautiful from down here . But I know there's a lot of opposition and contention. And from the comments made tonight, there's a lot of education that needs to happen. And I think that really is the role of the city. That's the role of staff here as you are hopefully providing direction to bring back an ordinance for the staff to move this forward and work with both sides so we can come up with those creative solutions. And there are creative and cost effective solutions available. Many of you know me from my work in local government. I worked for one of the cities, one of the 110 cities that did pass this ban. There were no impacts to our local businesses. We didn't have hardship claims. They were not shuttering their doors because we had to replace the products, getting rid of foam and the rigid polystyrene and replacing them with recyclable alternatives. So those options do exist. I would share one example from the city of Seattle and the Sustainable City Commission. Speaker 5: We would like the city to include a. Speaker 0: Request for businesses to only provide straws upon request. And Seattle did this with their straws in Seattle campaign playing off of their Sleepless in Seattle, great hit in that area, but really looking at 150 restaurants for 30 days. They did not provide plastic straws. People didn't complain. They the ones who did want it got a paper straw upon request. They were able to cut out 2 million straws in that 30 day period. We use 500 million straws a day in America. So it's a big problem and we're looking to local government to help us solve it. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker this evening, city council members and staff, my name is. Thank you for allowing us to speak and thanks for all you do. I know it's often a no win situation. You can't please all the people all the time and you put in a lot of time. So I know you're going out of here. Just hopefully get out of here with your health and your sanity at the end of your terms. I'm a retired schoolteacher, 36 of those years. The next minute, just for that comment. You're a good man. I don't care what any of your ex-girlfriends say, sir. My wife got the final word. Good man. You've learned. Well, I taught in Long Beach for 36 years at Long Beach State. Rogers and Marshall, when they were junior high schools and finished my career at Wilson High School. I'm here to speak on behalf of the polystyrene ban. I think this is a litter issue. It's all over the beaches. It's all over the city. It never biodegrade. It will always be there and has always and has already been identified as a human carcinogen. It never goes away. It may get smaller, but it's always there. Polluting and causing disease in human beings. 19 city regulations and restrictions in L.A. and. That's a great start. I'm hoping we're going to be the next. This is a health issue. I hope you allow us to be the next city. Fish and birds are dying because they ingest it. They get no nutrition from it. I've seen it happen. It's a simple equation. If the fish die or the ocean dies effectively not supporting ocean life, then we follow. We die. We as a city need to start now and preserve the beauty and health of our oceans, beaches and ourselves before it's too late. I do believe that safety trumps economics in this case, and this is a public health and safety issue. The polystyrene ban will be a wonderful step in that direction, and this will be for us and those who follow us. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Council members. Thank you very much. Tim James, California Grocers Association, representing many of the grocery stores operating here in Long Beach. I think we need to start with the false comparison between the single use plastic bags. Single use plastic bags were never used to contain prepared foods. We never put prepared foods in those plastic bags. What we're talking about with this issue is products that we as grocers who have both a legal and a moral responsibility to be as safe as possible with our packaging options as well as ensuring quality. Have concerns with bans on packaging. The things that we need to be concerned about with grocers as we choose. Our packaging items are called holding temperatures, hot holding temperatures. The amount of time that packaging is going to be used not only inside the store but at home with the consumer. That gets into various details about oxygen transfer rates, moisture transfer rates, a lot of detail. But all of that comes back to the singular point that for our responsibility for our consumers is, number one, we have to use packaging that is safe for the product. That's our number one choice. The second one is then to maintain quality. When you think about a lot of the foods we package in the stores for several days, then as consumers you bring them home, use them over another period of several days. So that's why the packaging grocers used is chosen very specifically for very specific purposes to hand up to hold up to those rigors both in the stores and at home. That's why we're asking you not to move forward with this ordinance today and continue to look at other opportunities to address some of the issues you believe you have in Long Beach so that we can still retain those opportunities to make sure we have safe and quality food that's being provided by our grocery stores. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor and council members. My name is Kobe Sky. I'm a second district. Speaker 2: Resident environmental engineer. Speaker 1: And I'm very proud to be the chair of the Sustainable City Commission. I wanted to speak in favor of the proposal before you tonight and wanted to thank staff for doing such a great job in reaching out to stakeholders and developing a proposal that really tries to balance all of the feedback that they've been receiving over the months that they've been working on this, since they got direction from this council to move forward 15 years ago. There is a book written called Cradle to Cradle, and it talked about the need to shift our economy to rely on either recyclable or compostable materials so that we're not creating materials that are used once and end up Speaker 2: . Hurting our environment indefinitely, literally for. Speaker 1: Centuries. And that's what we're talking about doing tonight. It's not just about expanded. Speaker 2: Polystyrene or. Speaker 1: Styrene. It's about all the products that are being used that aren't recyclable or compostable and shifting to ones that meet either of those two approaches. This is the heart of the proposal that staff has put together, and it's going to put us on a path to a sustainable future. This is where the state of California has been moving for many years. It's something that is inevitable because we can't continue to use materials that aren't recyclable or compostable. We need to get these materials. Speaker 2: From renewable sources. Speaker 1: And have them be able to be recycled into the economy. Otherwise, we're creating environmental harm and doing damage to the economy in the long term. So I urge you to take action tonight. If we fail to take action, it just means that much more. Speaker 2: Material. Speaker 1: Will continue to be polluting our beaches, harming our tourism and our businesses. And so I urge you to vote yes on this draft proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Honorable Vice Mayor and Council. My name is Connor Locke. I'm a third district resident. I studied economic policy at Georgetown University and in Munich and Germany. I'll tell you from firsthand experience in Washington, D.C., where I think they consume more coffee cups and more takeout food than anywhere else in the world. They use compostable paper products. These work they work for hot sandwiches, they work for salads, they work for hot and cold food. I can carry them in a blizzard on the metro to a Verizon center. It's the cap center game. Now, I can carry these around with me as a student. I can carry them to my internship on Capitol Hill and back in Germany. It's not even a question. This is 80 million people in the entire country of Germany have been doing this for 60 years. They recycle even more than us and they ban products that are detrimental to their people, to their wildlife and to their environment. What you have before you tonight is a beautifully compromise driven proposal by staff that apparently took like nine years to build, which means that it's been on their docket for longer than all of you have been here, except maybe the Andrus for its longevity. It's it's been community sourced. It's been put before business, it's been put before environmental advocates, and it's been put before people who are now really quite old. And it started when I was 13 years old. Sorry, 15 years old. I can do math. It's something that's very crucial that you pass. You want to build a society that you want your kids to live in. Many of you have young children. I'm looking to have young children in the near future here in Long Beach. I don't want them to go down to the beach in the third district, down to the peninsula beach where I go on a morning run and see these tiny little bits of Styrofoam and plastic forks and bits of sharp, spiky things digging into their feet. I don't like New Puppy to be eating this stuff when I'm out for a walk and I start paying attention for half a second. And I know you don't want that either. So yes, we have very valid concerns by the restaurant workers and organizations. Their cost will increase somewhat, but we have mitigation aspects not only for employment, but within this proposal. So please trust your staff. They're paid to serve the constituents and the businesses. Thank you. Thank you. And our final speaker. Thank you for being so patient. Waiting in line behind closes out. Good evening, Mr. Vice Mayor and Council Members. My name is Craig Cadwallader and I'm speaking on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation South Bay chapter. And I'd like to just go through a few points that were brought up earlier. First of all, the problem with polystyrene is not just on the beach or in the oceans. It's in our parks, it's in our neighborhoods, it's everywhere. So we it covers everybody and we'd like to see it removed, expanded. Polystyrene is a unique product. We heard some testimony about it being replaced with another product. Well, no other product breaks into the small pieces like expanded polystyrene does. So in my opinion, I consider that a defective product. And because of that nature, we spend a lot of money trying to clean that up. That money, that money for that cleanup comes from taxes. So some of these people are working so hard, like I do, are paying extra money in taxes to clean up the mess that is coming from the polystyrene. There's a lot of misinformation about the cost of the replacements. In some cases, the costs are less. And so we've had a lot of misinformation. And I can tell you that we have studied, tried to find a business that has been impacted. The city of San Francisco failed to hardship clauses. They actually worked it out with the businesses and they were withdrawn. We can find no examples of a hardship. And last of all, it's it's really a leadership thing I would like you to consider and a pardon request clause, which just requires putting utensils and straws in carry out things when the customer asks. This could save enough money for the businesses to offset and because they put things in the bags that people don't want. So thank you. Hope you're thinking. Thank you. And that concludes public comment. So now we'll take the discussion back behind the wheel. Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 4: Thank you, everybody, for being here. I know it's been a little bit of a long night, but a lot of us have been here for many other things much longer. So I really appreciate it, though, on various different sides. So I appreciate the hard work of the research and of course, all of the discussion tonight. I would first like to thank our city staff because I do agree as well. Both Craig and DeKoe and the Environmental Services Team have worked with my office, you know, very closely to make sure that we understand it and we're getting it right and providing the best education to both businesses and our advocates. So I want to thank you for this work over the last almost a year in getting this to where it is now. And I'd also like to thank quite a few other people, because they have done all of this work for many decades. So when we talk about studying this, this they have done this beyond any of us here on the council. So the support from the last three days, wetlands alga algal aida research marine institute, of course. Captain Charles Moore, we thank you so much. I have your book in my house, surfrider, sierra Club, Cal State, Long Beach Environmental Club, The Don't Waste Coalition. We Are the Next. Long Beach 350 Heal the Bay Rubber Band Arrangements Californians Against Waste, Long Beach Environmental Alliance, the Green Education Inc, Los Angeles Waterkeeper and many ocean friendly residents. I'm sorry, ocean friendly? Yes. Residents and restaurants who are participating in this. So I really appreciate all of their work. Let's give them a big round of applause. So as many of you heard I mean, we've heard the statistics. Of course, the EPA has stated that less than 2% of Styrofoam is successfully recycled. There's no lucrative market out there that will actually recycle this. And, of course, it's not biodegradable in any of our lifetimes. You know, you have two paper products versus one Styrofoam product. The two paper products will biodegrade in 40 years. The Styrofoam products not going to biodegrade until 500 years. So neither are any of our lifetimes here, sitting here in this audience, it will happen. And we've also seen many statistics originating around the composition of this. So we've seen that the California Coastal Commission actually commissioned a study in 2011 with the Clean Water Action Plan that showed that Northern California, where bans were being proposed, basically has a litter composition of 60% originating from local restaurants, primarily forms of polystyrene. So this isn't an attack against business, small business. In fact, we want to be your friends in this process. We understand that there's a lot of burdens of small business owners. And I think this is our opportunity to work with you, not against you. And with that audit, it actually showed that in San Francisco there was a 44% reduction in polystyrene on the streets after the ban. They enacted theirs in 2010. So we have some work to do, in my opinion. And our own local research firm, as we've heard, Goleta Marine Research, did a local research study with Cal State Long Beach students. We have it all here. And their results found that one in every four pieces of litter on the streets of Long Beach was expended. Polystyrene and about 4 million pieces of polystyrene were actually found in December 2015 during a beach cleanup from the pier to the end of the peninsula, which is less than two miles of beach. That's incredible. And it's true. It's costing not just our business owners who I know many of you care about litter as well. It's a blight. It's not just we're not charging the business owners. It's a taxpayer issue, too. Right. Both residents and businesses that have to recoup these costs day in and day out from cleaning this issue are clean. Just all of the cleanups that I attend and my office attends on a monthly basis, we about 20 community organizations, and we are participating in cleanups every single basically every weekend to ensure that our streets are cleaned. And I believe it's worth reiterating that we need to take an action tonight to move this city forward with this expanded polystyrene and rigid polystyrene ban. And let's not forget, I know I did a PowerPoint the last time we were here, but this topic has actually been before the city council on ten separate occasions over the past 12 years, starting back in 2005. So we've seen this, we've heard it. It's been discussed. Former councils actually recommended this. Former city managers actually recommended this. And then we ended up banning plastic bags. And we ended up also supporting resolutions at the state level as well. And over the course of the past ten months, in addition to the five publicly notice meetings regarding this topic, my chief and my chief of staff, Corey, who I have to think because he's been everywhere with everyone talking to all of our business improvement districts in addition to myself, every single business improvement district, Bixby Knowles, Naples Island , the Council of Business Associations to include downtown uptown Bixby Knolls, again East Anaheim Business Association, the West Siders. Everyone got a presentation from my office personally and with the number of businesses that were said that they were in opposition by DART. We contacted them and I speak two languages so I was able to speak my office was able to speak with them in Spanish and we were able to educate them on what this this policy was actually able to do, not, again, to work against them, but to work with them. And in this we know we noticed that a lot of them didn't even realize that there was a phased approach. There's 15 months that we have to implement businesses, small businesses. There will be workshops that will be set up. There will be a hotline, and many have rescinded their opposition after hearing this. In addition, there will be a cooperative purchasing vehicle, and I keep bringing this up because I actually work as a technology consultant for one of the largest corporations in the world. And I work to get small businesses excuse me, have a little bit of a called small businesses to cooperative purchasing agreements. And in this case, we actually have one called the Green Town, Los Altos. And they are a cooperative purchasing program where a lot of small business. Just like yourselves, are able to pull their resources and lower their costs by 25%. So it can be done. In many cases, the alternative products that you could use could be cost neutral. They can cost a penny. Every business has a little bit different of a business model. But we want to make sure something works right for that specific business, and we'll do everything that we can. I know our environmental services group here are their bureau is absolutely committed to making sure that we get this right for business and related to recyclability, Sedona recycles actually did a study to truly determine the value of recycling polystyrene and came up with this report. Talk about a lot of labor costs in energy and time. The pallet took over one month to prepare and with all of the labor and staff time required to prepare, clean and build the pallet, it ended up being a net loss of over $700 per pallet just to recycle polystyrene. And of course, we know that the behaviors are not in place. So it's a little bit more difficult because of of this. And so, therefore, we lack a lot of recycling and sourcing. And additionally, the city of Long Beach, we're already studying a variety of innovative ways to increase recycling. We have our Litter Free Long Beach program that was implemented back in 2006 because of the similar discussion we had years ago. And we are looking to reduce waste with the zero waste five year notice and which calls for a study around issues of recycling as well. And this summer, the mayor presented an update to the clean Long Beach plan. It's an initiative where we will be cleaning up a lot of our business corridors, and many of you have seen that. And in that, I actually asked for a litter audit to ensure that we are looking at that coincided with what we're doing here today. And overall, we know that the behaviors are not in place inherently to recycle polystyrene. It's labor intensive, it increased costs and there's no lucrative market. There are people are not purchasing this up and saying that this is a a good reusable item because, again, it doesn't it doesn't biodegrade. And if it did and if it was lucrative, retailers would be doing it now. And let's be clear, the cost to local business to shift over to non polystyrene is pretty minimal. As I mentioned, in many cases it can be a lower cost or cost neutral and we have taken great strides to be a business friendly city and work hard to make sure that the policies we implement, support and guide our local businesses versus become a detriment. So other cities have actually had a hard deadline, were phasing this in and in addition in about as May actually I'm sorry, as of May of this year, the Clean Water Action Organization did a price comparison and it includes in the packet in the packet that I provided, it shows the real costs for this ban. In eight of the 11 categories, the straight line projection is either cost neutral or cheap, cheaper to polystyrene, and when you average them all together, the average cost again is less than one penny. And all manufacturers currently of polystyrene polystyrene currently have alternative products. So instead of asking us as a city to stick with something that is not biodegradable, I ask those large manufacturers to really look and start diversifying your portfolio to see what else is available and offer those to our small businesses. You have the opportunity to lower the costs in many cases. And so as many of our small businesses and I have many of them in the in the first district downtown, we have one called Crest Market who has used polystyrene non polystyrene products for many years. There are Latino owned business from Acapulco. They have weathered the storm. Like many of you, they were in the recession and from day one they were using a non polystyrene product because that was their mission and their business model. Was it difficult? Sure. And now that there's opportunities in place to help them, I see them being a mentor to many of your businesses, especially the Latino owned businesses that can benefit from this. So overall, I would say I we have enough studies, we have a litter audit, we have the don't waste study. We have our Goleta study. Many of the study, the decades of research that is sitting here, and we have over 120 cities that have implemented this ban. We also, as a city council, a few months back, we supported SB 705. Unfortunately, it didn't hit the governor's desk, so it didn't make it. But we unanimously supported that, which basically stated that a plan for waste diversion by 2040 is to reduce landfills by 75%. And it would in order to do that, SB 705 asked for a statewide ban. And so although we supported it unanimously, like I said, it didn't hit the. The governor's desk. But I think that spoke volumes to what the city is able to do. So again, I'll just say that we're offering 15 months. We're offering small businesses a cooperative purchasing option for discounts. We're offering educational workshops, undue hardship waivers. So if any businesses feel that they cannot weather this policy, then will absolutely help them. And overall, the state hasn't made a decision. The county, they're unincorporated. They only take care of unincorporated areas. They haven't made a decision. So when is it time for the city of Long Beach to make a decision? In my opinion, the decision is now. So I hope my council colleagues will will vote in favor of the staff recommendation. They did a lot of hard work. And our residents and businesses, I know will will benefit from this. So thank you very much. Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilmember Pierce. Speaker 0: I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Gonzales, for bringing this item forward, for leading on this item and really doing a lot of research and spending a lot of time to make sure that she had the facts right. I know that this is like other items this council has been hearing lately tends to be divisive. And I have five pages of talking points similar to what many of you guys have talked about. What are the numbers? Right. What are the facts that we know about? Can polystyrene be recycled? Can it not be? What does it take to wash it? How much does it fill landfills? But I want to address just momentarily the fact that these conversations are often based on fear and business being scared that something that we're going to do is going to have a negative impact on them. And we have a lot of these policies that we come across where we have that fear. And then we look back five years and we look back ten years down the road and we see that we've been able to adjust. We see that it might be a penny or two pennies added on to my meal, which I'm okay with. When we first brought this item forward. We had Retro Row businesses in my district come out and all of those restaurants and the Retro Row area and some beyond that came out and spoke in support of this. There are businesses like Holy Moly, who are small businesses that used to use polystyrene for every single plate, whether you ate in or out. And now they no longer use that. Now they use something that is biodegradable. And so it breaks my heart to see that sometimes we use fear to get some big business, some dollars, or to get some people that rally big business, some dollars against what this council has time and time again that they care about with, which is health equity. So whether we're talking about the fork that's broken in the beach where our kids are walking or our dogs might ingest it. This is an issue about health equity. We know that these products have carcinogens in them and we have an ability to limit that exposure. Well, we limit it across the board, whether it's in some food products or not. No. But we have an ability and we have a duty as council to protect our residents and to make sure that we're leading by example. And leading to me means stepping over that fear and knowing that we've done our best. And nine years is a long time. Nine years of kicking the can down the road has kicked that can, which I forget what even cans. Even if you don't recycle cans, they last forever, let me tell you. Well, my daughter and I went on a hike and we went to the nature center and they had products of everything that we use with the years that it takes for it to degrade. And it's it's shocking, you know. And so if this is one area where we can do a little dent and it might take a penny more, even though we have studies that show that the cost reduction is is not that much, I think we absolutely have to do that. I think that the council and the staff has spent so much time on this that now we're spending so much money where we could be saving the taxpayers a lot of money by not revisiting this item again and going forward with the plan that we've worked really hard on. I have two questions for staff. One of the things I've talked a lot about in my district and with residents is we love the big belly trash cans. We have put those along our our tidelands area. It's one of the areas that I would love to see them at every single bus stop. And I mention this because I know that I did meet with Dart several months ago and we had the conversation around, Well, can't we just divert trash? You know, instead of banning something, let's just make sure we have places to divert it. Putting it in big belly trash cans is one of those areas because that the wind doesn't blow them or anything like that, but they are extremely expensive. So I just wanted to hear from staff if there was any plan to do a a master plan for big belly trash cans, maybe in business corridors or by our transit Speaker 10: . Councilmember Pearce, thank you for the question. It is true that many of the business corridors have looked to install big belly trash cans. Certainly down in Belmont Shore, most recently in the fourth, on fourth Street, the fourth Street business district. The cost for a big belly when we purchased them for Fourth Street was roughly 40 $500 a piece. As you know there, they require a manual service. So while they do have a compacting system in them, which means the frequency of of disposing of the waste is is longer, you don't necessarily have to do it every day . Sometimes it can be weekly. It just depends on the use of the facility, the cost of the labor to clear those those receptacles and the upfront cost to purchase them really kind of make them prohibitive at this time for that kind of an investment. Plus, the the battery for the solar versions, many of them have a solar option to them for the compacting unit. Those batteries need to be replaced currently and in about a 4 to 5 year cycle. So we look at that as a significant investment. What we would like to share with council this evening is staff is looking at adding additional recycling receptacles at our bus shelters. We're working currently with Long Beach Transit, so there's roughly 500 bus shelters across the city. This the city's responsible for some of those shelters and Miami Transit's responsible for some of those shelters. And we're trying to come together in a in a cohesive effort to address both the cleanliness of the bus shelters, the collection, and then recycling opportunities at those locations. Speaker 0: Thank you so much for that report. I think my point is that I want to continue to work towards a place where we can in our corridors and with transit. That's great to hear that we're doing that, but we know that's not enough. We have to be able to ban the worst products. And I think that this plan does that in a way that is quickly, quick enough. And I think 15 months. You don't see other cities that have banned products like this doing a phased in approach or saying, here's a here's a hardship for businesses if they need to come to us. I want any business owners that are here to also know that we've done a lot as a council to support you, and we will continue to support you. And I would not vote on something that would that would minimize your guys business. Right. Folks are going to be able to take care of this and pay a penny or two extra. And we're going to be able to save our kids. And health equity is something that we care about deeply. So I think that we should do this now. I think the work has been done. And I want to congratulate again all the community members that are out there that are volunteers every single month at those cleanups and really put their heart in doing that work. So I hope our colleagues will understand that 99 years is long enough and the phased approach is the right approach . Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman. No. Speaker 0: I want to thank everyone who's taken my call over the last several weeks more closely in the last week. I know we have a controversial item at council almost every week. So a lot of you get a lot of calls on Wednesday about the following Tuesday about what we're talking about. So if you have something next week, you'll know to get a call starting tomorrow. These are complex issues and we talk a lot about the different opportunities to improve the quality of the water in Long Beach and to get rid of the trash. And what we've heard tonight is that polystyrene is recyclable. And when I read some of the studies referenced, when we eliminate polystyrene, we replace it with another product that is also recyclable or sometimes one that's not. And I appreciate the conversation I had yesterday about, well, we want to take a cup that was X amount of grams and replace it with a cup that may not be recyclable because it's paper on the outside and plastic on the inside, but that paper over time will eventually degrade in the ocean because it is being subjected to the water and so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, what I really want to see is us attacking the really hard issue of what is causing the complete litter problem. Litters one. I get that the big belly trash cans can be a support of eliminating the litter. And on top of that, we need to discuss that in some of the studies that I've discussed with some of you that in year one, we don't see a huge impact. And even in year two, we still see a huge replacement of the original litter from Styrofoam to plastic. And so we need to attack the whole issue. I have some ideas on that. I want to hear from my colleagues before making any friendly amendments, but I believe we should explore a public private partnership that includes big belly trash cans, like Councilmember Pearce said, both on the. Business corridors, the beaches and the parks. I also would like to see the definition of the businesses at each different size level adjusted. I know we have three main sizes of business, the small that are outlined in the current ban. The medium size which is the 60 and then the large. I really would like our phased approach to start with large and then us to do a study to see that impact. I recognize that it happens over time, but I feel that the more important thing that I see when I'm collecting trash at a beach clean up is the tiny little dots that come from the products that are at retail. So in our community the other day in an alley, I see a beanbag chair and a beanbag chair with a knife like a slit in it that's filled with billions of little beads that are running into our alleys. I'd like to see us replace phase three with a ban on selling those Styrofoam coolers, selling the beanbag chairs. And there was another item I have discussed with some of you that we feel is pretty important. You just ordered beanbag chairs. I hope they don't have polystyrene in them. And the polystyrene beads that you can buy at the store for crafts, those you can just literally go to the store right now and buy five gallon bags of the actual little beads that everyone's concerned about. And so when I go online and I see Joanne's fabrics on Palo Verde Avenue has those available for sale. That concerns me because those are the actual little dots that we're talking about and they're not even addressed in the. So I'd like to come to an agreement where we phase in some of those other options. So I'll listen to hear from my colleagues on what they want. I think that the work that each and every business owner does is important. I recognize in talking with some of my businesses that it's inconvenient for them or they don't have the credit to be purchasing some of the stuff in the large volumes. And as much as it pains me to hear that they drive outside of the city borders to go to a Costco or a smart and final to buy these polystyrene containers, I don't see that forcing them to buy something that doesn't meet their consumer needs is going to help. Because in my experience, people who take those home, they eat out of them and then they throw them in their trash can and then they tie a knot on that trash can and they put it in their trash bin and it goes to the incinerator in Long Beach. And so looking to find where that middle ground is and this is a complicated problem of litter versus recycling versus all of that. So I have something prepared as a possible bring everyone together on both sides that I've worked on while all of you spoke. And I tried to include as much of what you said in it. But I'll I'll listen to my colleagues first and see where we can end up. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Yolanda. Thank you, ma'am. I, too, want to extend my gratitude to Councilmember Gonzalez for bringing up the issue. Her presentation was awesome. It covered all aspects of what we're dealing with here. She talked about the economics and the cost of polystyrene, the social implications, the environmental effects and the health effects. She touched it all, so there's not much to say in terms of those areas. I do have some statistics, but I'm not going to throw them out there. I think we've heard enough for the night, not only from behind the rail, but from the audience. And I, too, want to thank you from both sides of this issue for coming out here tonight, because that's how we learn. We learn from you when you voice your concerns and you express your ideas, we learn from that and we listen. And some of the things that come out of here are those that we've adopted from you. So I want to thank you for being here, especially at a late hour, when you've probably missed your dinner like like we did. But does it matter? That's our job. I also want you to reflect on the fact that Long Beach is uniquely situated. We're at the mouth of two rivers, the San Gabriel River and the L.A. River. A lot of trash comes into Long Beach through those two rivers. And we're a big city. So we have people who come to visit the beach to enjoy its sights and maybe perhaps a nice sunny day out there. So the little that we get is not only our own, it's from from up north, from other cities north of us. So this issue of polystyrene in not only our beaches but in our rivers is a very serious issue for us. And we really need to look at what we can do to impact to to impact that very issue of litter in Long Beach. And we can do our small part and our small part is to. Clean it up. If it takes a man, it takes a man. But I think more importantly, we need to look at other ways of getting our food from a restaurant by market, from a a food truck to a home to store it and then have it eat it, eat it, finish it to say eat it again if you eat it once again. So it's one of those complex issues that we have. What we're looking at, do we recycle or do we throw away? Do we take it to serve, which is our recycling plant out there? Great energy? Or do we take our own plates and containers made out of glass or other kind of a compost? That would be a better a better use and a better way of preserving our food. So what you're saying is that's most important here tonight is that only how do we deal with this issue of polystyrene? But what effect is it going to have on the businesses that use polystyrene? There's been a concern expressed. We've we've heard testimony from some of the workers who work at some of the restaurants and how they use that polystyrene and how important it is to their business. So I'm also looking at maybe make it our friendly in terms of how we can better impact businesses and minimize the impact that it's going to have on them . Should we vote to a to impose a ban on polystyrene in Long Beach? I'm also a member of the Coastal Commission, as was mentioned, and I had a had meetings last week in San Diego and then we passed the resolution that in November we will we're going to adopt a no Straus month for November. So of course, the Commission is very much aware of the impact that even straws, its one little straw can have on our environment. You know, we have to consider that every piece of trash that we throw sometimes well that sometimes in many ways reaches the beach and the impact that it has in our beach environments are huge . So we're trying to affect that at least one little straw at a time and hopefully that it'll make a difference in litter. I also sit on the River Simmons Conservancy, which through my district a river runs through it, the L.A. River. We have river cleanups. And one of the most common pieces of debris and trash that we pick up is polystyrene. So this is a huge issue. It's very it's very impactful not only to our rivers, streams and our beaches, but to our cities. So I hope that when we finish this discussion tonight that we could come up with a plan that would be workable and amenable to everybody, that will make a difference and will have an effect to essentially deal with our trash, deal with that litter, and be able to address the the the issues of health and safety and clean up our environment. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 6: Thank you very much. I, too, want to thank everyone for being out here tonight. The residents, the businesses, the advocacy groups. I really appreciate you being here tonight. And as I shared with Councilman Gonzalez this morning and I have in the past, I think this is a fantastic item. I represent much of the coast. And I agree that this is a step, definitely a step in the right direction. I do think that this is a bigger conversation that we should be having with other entities within the region as well, not in lieu of the discussion we're having tonight, but we need to be talking with Orange County. We need to be talking with L.A. County, where the recipient of a lot of garbage that comes from other cities. And we need to be having that discussion. I also want to talk with city staff about the recycling some some of the comments that were made about recycling and how we might be able to better optimize efficiencies in regards to recycling. Our is our public works team able to address that or talk about that a lot. I know we heard from one of the companies, Titus or Titan. I don't remember the company, but somebody spoke about different things that other jurisdictions are doing in terms of recycling. Speaker 1: Councilwoman Price, thank you for asking the question. In our current curbside program, we accept clean polystyrene that's generally packaging like you see if you see your stereo component package. We do not we do not take soiled food polystyrene, which is really what's being identified here in this particular program with regard to the recyclability of polystyrene, it's it's there's a lot of different opinions out there. We do have a couple of facilities locally where we heard some speakers that they do do some recycling of expanded polystyrene. And yeah, my guess would be that it's clean polystyrene is my guess on that. Speaker 6: Okay. So, so there may be some opportunities for, for us to maximize our efficiency, but not to such a degree that it would probably make an impact that would be measurable. Speaker 1: If I understand you correctly. Yes, I agree with that. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 6: So my concern from the outset of all of this is and I and I've heard from a lot of residents, but but specifically, I've had a lot of meetings, one on one with small businesses in my district. And I've talked with owners who are very concerned about the impact that this is going to have on their business operations. And I fully understand the argument of saying to people who say, I have a fear that their fear is unfounded. It's not the first time this council has been asked to tell people who have a fear that their fear is unfounded. We had issues, for example, with the airport where people said this If you vote on this, it's going to impact our lives. And advocates would say, no, it's not. That fear is unfounded. But the fear that people have or that entities have is real. And I think we have a responsibility to try to do our very best to work with those communities to alleviate that fear. And I'm very grateful that the program that is presented in the staff report and staff should be commended. The staff report was excellent. I thought you did a very thorough job and I thought it was very balanced. And most of it I agree with, but the phase three that's listed in there for small businesses. First of all, I'd like to hear a little bit more from my colleagues regarding what the definition of the small businesses would be. But I have a an issue with phase three, and that phase three specifically affects the small establishments. And so I'd like to offer a friendly at this time regarding our small business establishments. And that friendly would be that we implement phase one and phase two of the plan. But that as two small business establishments, we do not implement anything until we have after a year of implementation of the ban. As to phase one and two. Speaker 0: We author issue a report. Speaker 6: That is done on the impacts of the ban on the city. And at that point, if council finds that there is a measurable benefit, then we roll out an implementation plan for the business community and do it in the 15 months that's outlined in the staff report. So basically what it says is let's let's start with this ban right away. Let's start with phase one and phase two. When we get to phase three as it relates to small businesses, let's take get a report from an independent objective analyst to talk to us about the measurable results of the ban. And if there is a measurable benefit, then we roll out the small business incentive package and the implementation plan, which is 15 months. So that's my friendly. Speaker 1: Thank you. So that was a proposed friendly amendment is accepted. Speaker 4: Response. I would still like to hear more, but I at this time, I don't want to accept that. I think what the staff recommended was very fair. And again, I think we have a lot of studies and with all due respect, Council Member Price. I think our our advocates have studied enough. This is again to be in partnership with our businesses and I think we're going to give them a lot of guidance along the way. So I'd love to hear more, but at this time I do not want to accept the friendly amendment. Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilwoman Price, continue the discussion. Speaker 6: Now, that was my my my one offer to try to move this forward. So thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilman Andrews? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge my colleagues for, you know, bringing this item forward. But I do have some reservations about this. I would like the audience to really think about what this ban means if it is passed. Are we really enhancing our city sustainability? Let's compare two cups. This is my take. Mine here by rail, two and the other. There you go. A Starbucks cup. It's a plastic coated paper that is likely to go to a landfill because it's hard to recycle. Most restaurants use cups made of form number six, which can be recycled into other food products. If this item passes and we've been. Speaker 2: Recycling. Speaker 1: Material. I think it's important that we consider other ways to protect the environment. Is this item benefited the part of the vice mayor proposal? Five years notice for commercial Hurley and I truly appreciate having this dialog, but perhaps a ban isn't the solution. Maybe it is time that we look at a way, another way to change our consumer behavior. Because I would really like the make of this motion to really come to a situation where we can kind of come together and let everyone realize that we can get this put in a situation where we all can come to a more, I think, substantial solution. And I'd like to hear more, too, but this is what I would really hope that we can come to, that everybody can kind of go at this having a feeling that we did try to do our best in making everyone know we can't make everyone happy, but at least let you know that we are concerned about your concerns. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilman. Next, this councilmember sabrina. Thank you. I'd like to thank all the folks who attended tonight and for putting in these 3 hours so far. I'd also like to thank the Sustainable City Commission has a special place in my heart as a charter member of that commission served two terms as chair. I'm sorry that all of your items you forwarded to council don't appear here tonight, but I think it was a great effort that the Commission made. I'd also like to thank the vice chair of that commission for speaking here tonight, and she referenced the division here tonight. And in my view, this is far too great a division than we should have at this stage of the game. And I think that's our fault. I think that's a direct result of the lack of outreach on this and the lack of stakeholder input. Had we gone through a more robust process, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation tonight. Six months ago, I sent a memo to staff because there was a question about including the school district and whether or not Pasadena had included their school district. And in my research, I found that Pasadena, when they were talking about their ban, they had a stakeholder group that met for months, and there were a dozen members of that stakeholder group, including the Pasadena Health Department. And when you think of that, that makes all the sense in the world. We're talking about food containers, and there's very few cities in California that have health departments. Pasadena is one, Long Beach is another. And to my knowledge, they weren't part of this process. Going back to I'll just shift gears to our environmental committee. I chair that group and the members are Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilwoman Pierce, and we had specific guidelines that we forwarded. So I'd like to ask staff about that. One of the questions I asked, because we'd heard so much hearsay about Titus recycling, we'd asked for an assessment of that. Can staff tell me if that ever was brought forward? Speaker 10: Councilmember Supernova. The presentation that was made to the Environmental Committee and what was adopted was staff's recommendation of forward it to council. I don't remember. Call a specific request to go beyond forwarding the recommendation at council. Speaker 1: Okay. So just just for clarification, that reference came from several bullet points that we listed that that our committee wanted brought forward. And we actually mentioned them by name. And we were. The the direct transcript reads as public works to see that Titus does or doesn't do exactly what is being proposed as opposed to hearsay evidence. So this is the type of thing that that we just didn't get answered. So here we have the CEO of Titus here again tonight making claims. And we just don't know what can be done by this recycler. And my point is says whether or not you believe in recycling Styrofoam, the folks here in this audience deserve an answer on that is what are the facts? And then just a couple of questions along those lines. That's kind of been brought up a little bit by my colleagues. We're asking for a replacement products here, so I would just ask staff to weigh in that, you know, we know that polystyrene is hard to recycle. That's but it's been testified to it's got to be clean, free of food residue. What about the other containers? Is food contamination an issue for the substitute products that are being recycled? And will we be able to recycle those? Council member. Supervisor. Thank you. Certain plastic materials are more easily recyclable than others. Plastics one and two tend to be the more recyclable materials. Okay. And then we heard a lot about there's no second market for polystyrene. You know, we happened to attend a surf meeting tonight. That's not the issue. RF time. That's about the facility we have down on the port and we have an annual meeting and they mentioned that plastic is not being taken by China anymore. How does that affect our overall recycling program and how will that affect the possibly the substitute products or straws or whatever we might have? Have we done an assessment of that? Thank you for that question. Council Member Super. And I, in fact, a couple of weeks ago I was in Sacramento on this discussion, came up with the head of calories cycles. This is not just a Long Beach issue. This is not just a California issue. Frankly, it's a it's a countrywide issue. And the industry is is just now starting to try and figure out how to how to deal with this issue. We're working with our recycling contractor and the material recovery facility, and we're trying to study and figure out how we can go forward in the future on this. But as of the beginning of 2018, China has said that they will no longer be accepting certain materials to be delivered from other countries, including the US. Okay, thank you for that. I just wanted to follow up on the friendly proposal by Councilwoman Price. Do we have a definition of small companies like 100 employees or what what constitutes a smaller establishment? Speaker 10: So the presentation that staff is recommending is that small would be designated as 30 employees or less. And that follows the city's business license. 30 seats? I'm sorry, 30 seats in a restaurant which follows the city's business license definition. So if you qualify as a small business for business license purposes, it would be the same for the ban that we're proposing this evening. Speaker 1: Okay. So we might have to massage that into place for an establishment that is 70% of their business through the drive thru that we might have to look at that matter moving forward. So I'd ask staff to examine that, provided any form of that friendly is accepted. Okay. Well, I'd like to hear my colleagues on their motions. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 0: I yes, I'm one to address just the one issue around whether the items are recyclable or not. Something that I didn't mention earlier. I met with Atco a while back and they talked about how some of these products are recyclable, but they also talked about the process they have to go through and something that Councilmember Gonzalez mentioned in the cost associated with that and the fact that it cost more to recycle them than it does not to have them. So I just want us to be clear that we're the recycle conversation isn't one that's going to save our beaches or our community from that issue. I also wanted to reference the comment that was made by one of the speakers around making straws and utensils available upon request. And I think that one of the comments was around how much money it might be able to save the business if we do that and make it upon request might help offset some of the costs there. So I'd like to ask my colleague if that is a friendly that she might be willing to make to accept. Speaker 4: Can you say that again? I'm sorry. Speaker 0: Yes. It's making utensils and straws available upon request for takeout. Yes, that sounds good. Okay. And I do see that there's some other folks lined up the conversation around small business being 30 seats. If we're going to make a different process for them, I think the staff has already done a fantastic job, but I am curious to see where that conversation goes. So thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman. Speaker 3: Thank you. I'll be very brief and I'll try to be brief. First of all, I want to thank our staff for the great report. I want to thank Councilmember Gonzalez for bringing this issue forward, as well as all of the public comment that we heard this evening on all sides of this issue. I want to just say that I support the direction that we are headed as a council and as a city on this particular issue. I think it's good to have policy before us for consideration Olympic impacts, not just a handful of people, but the entire city, this entire city, for their will, impact for generations to come potentially . I would like to really see us walk away this evening with something in place that will respect all of the interests before us, but move us in the right direction. I want to just speak about my constituency on a district. We represent a lot of diverse opinions and diverse people, but we also have a lot of small business in the district as well. And I've heard from many of our our business owners who are very concerned about this this ban before us. My my I've heard from my constituent and I was glad to see Donna here. She's our our sustainability commission representative. We have constituents who are very sensitive to the environment, but also very sensitive to small business. Most of the small businesses and restaurants in my district are residents and in the city as well. They're not coming from other places. They're stakeholders here as well. And I think we all agree that our beaches and environment would benefit if there were less carelessness in terms of litter and plastics and polystyrene throughout our city. Limiting Styrofoam. And the city of Long Beach, I think will help in the long run. I do like the the conversation around litter because I think that is a core issue here. We can't get away from it no matter how we look at it. We have an issue there and I think we can do a lot of better in terms of managing that litter and the with the tools that we have in front of us in and the big burly trash cans is is one I think obvious solution that that I think it's almost unanimous. One, when I hear the councilmembers talk, everybody wants to see them in their districts, in their business corridors. I think they should be in our districts. I think they should be in our parks. I think they should be on our beaches. And I think they should be on business corridors and prioritized business corridors that are closer to waterways and our streams that lead to the ocean. In the eighth District, we run a lake parallel to the L.A. River, and there's a lot of talk. We had a presentation just last week with the Lower L.A. River Revitalization Group that I'm a part of. The mayor is a part of several cities up and down the L.A. River are part of that that that that a task force is looking at doing other things with the L.A. River. And one thing that came to mind is if we're going to be creating more more recreation and bringing more people to the L.A. River, we're going to have to be considering more pollution and the potential for more pollution. And so to that extent, I think we need to be also in that that group, I'll be recommending that we look at a waste receptacles along the L.A. River as well, I think, as well as elected leaders, our responsibility to improve the environment whenever we can. And and I have a good feeling that tonight we're going to take a step in the right direction in doing that. I think at the same time, we need to be fair to all of our stakeholders and understand this financial impacts and mitigate those impacts as we implement the new policy. I don't think there's a rub in terms of direction. I think the rub may be how we implement the policy. Right. And so I would really recommend some flexibility here from all of my colleagues so we can we can land in the right place. This evening, we've had some experiences where inflexibility has has resulted in hurt feelings. And so and I will also say that I think that a regional and statewide approach is is will be more in our benefit, because if not a band is band is just going to be a band aid unless we get the rest of the county on board. Well, what we're doing, most of the litter that we're dealing with is coming from other cities up the L.A. River. We need to do our part as a city, but we can't do it alone and we're not going to fix the problem unless we bring everybody on board. Speaker 1: Thanks. Thank you. And I'll I'll insert my comments here. So so I had an opportunity on Friday to sit down with a number of restaurants in my council district. And we had a we had a great conversation. We are you know, we had a pitcher of beer and some pizzas and. We kind of sat down and worked it out. And they came in and they were kind of worked up about information, saying things like, my costs are going to double and this and this and that. So we sat down and we went sort of piece by piece and talked it through. And what I found is that we don't engage our small businesses enough, frankly. And and I know there's a lot of people here that were told certain things and that, frankly, just are not true. And I think that we need to we need to really get to the point where we can do some real engagement, real outreach in terms of supporting these small businesses and frankly, not exploiting them. When I got to sit down with them, they told me things like, hey, it's going to double my double my cost at a minimum. So we sat down and started looking up, you know, looking up. My staff looked up some some price sheets and and there was significant interest in, you know, doing some localized sort of in district purchasing consortiums or bringing people in to have them actually compete for your business. And and so, you know, that said, I want to take a take a step back from the sort of the politics here. I see that there's a lot of talking points. Everybody came down and said the same thing. And I want to get back to the purpose here. Councilwoman Gonzalez has been a good a good leader, a good champion on this on this policy. And when it first came, the council folks might not remember, but we asked for a phase. It was a big discussion. And city you know, Councilwoman Gonzalez, the rest of the council got on board with that phase in and city staff worked on that and brought it back. Secondly, there was a lot of concerns when it initially came about impacts to small businesses. We asked them to take a look at incentives for small, small businesses. And there was a lot of conversation about an economic hardship because I do remember the plastic bag ban and everyone likes to applaud it. But in reality, not a lot of people were happy in a lot of it. There are still grocery stores today that don't have plastic that are still using plastic bags. So it still it did lack in education and and we didn't create the real pathway for people to have to get access to their hardship waivers and things like that. So so what I want to say is, you know, we are at the mouth of the L.A. River. We are the second largest city in the county, arguably between six and eight feet. An eighth largest city in the state fluctuates depending on what list you look at. And we do need to make a statement that if folks are going to enjoy our beaches, if we have communities to live along our rivers, we have to make an example for all the cities that are that are up river. And and we need to make a statement tonight. Now, in terms of the the the sort of the the policy discussion here, I saw that Councilwoman Councilwoman Gonzales initially came out and outlined a process and there were some friendlies that were added. My hope is that and you know, and I agree with what Councilman Andrews and Councilman Austin said, I want to make sure that we get something done tonight that the city council can live with that maybe, maybe not the folks who are organizing all the restaurants, but maybe that the restaurants can live with and that the and and, you know, something that the residents can live with. And so I'm hoping that we can sort of drown out the politics and the consultants and just have a conversation about what's right for Long Beach. Because reality is the state, the state I anticipate after election season, the state's going to take this up in the next cycle in 2029, after the 2018 elections. And the more time, more heads up we can give to our small businesses to prepare, the more of a system that we can put in place so that they actually adjust to it. I think I think we're actually going to do our small businesses a favor. So first, I want to ask Councilwoman Gonzalez. So I know that we built in we already built in a delay for the small businesses in phase three. And what is that? That was a delay. It was 15 months. Okay. So I think everyone here would probably support a longer delay. So is that something you're open to? Speaker 4: What are we thinking? Speaker 1: Wilson was having a conversation. Speaker 4: Well, I mean, if you're thinking like an additional three months because we've done three months, I think that would be fair. So if you do like an eight. Speaker 1: How about a window? So if we didn't like if we went from 15, what if we did 18 to 24? Is the implementation window? No. Well, 18 to 21 gives you an additional 3 to 6 months time out. We're having a conversation on our side. We listen to you guys. We're trying to we're trying to put together some public policy that works here without. So the only thing I. Speaker 4: Would say and I appreciate that is that when we are crafting economic incentives for these businesses, we're going to be prolonging the incentives we give back to these small businesses. So a lot of businesses existing that are currently using alternative products would benefit from these economic incentives that we're hopefully going to put together. So whether that's we've talked about small grants, we've talked about a green business program where you get recognition, whether it's a logo, a window decal, a certification of sorts. A lot of the existing businesses will exhaust all of those resources, first and foremost. So I would hate to delay it even further, but I would say 18 months is. Speaker 0: A good. Speaker 1: Place to work with that now. Let's say 18 months. That's a friendly at 18. So I think additional three months. Let's let's talk about the undue hardship exemption. It's just a question for staff. So my understanding and this was a you know, this was good intel that came to me in my meeting on Friday with the small businesses. They said that a number of cities established undue hardship provisions or processes, but they hadn't been implemented. Can you speak to sort of what cities have them that haven't been implemented or what we can do to make sure that those are in place before the before the ban actually takes place? Yes. Vice Mayor Richardson, San Francisco can use them as examples of observe, if you would, the Cadillac of this type of model where they've done everything from bans in all restaurants to retail sales. They have undue hardship exemptions. They had only three businesses request an exemption, and none of those businesses were restaurants. So what we found in most cases is most restaurants aren't taking advantage of undue hardship exemptions. Okay. And the other piece of this is, you know, I saw that there were some economic incentives. Can you just talk a little bit more about what those are and what's on the table? How's it how's that looking? Sure. We're we're putting together some plans with the Economic Development Commission and the Economic Development Department. There's some recommendations that came out of the commission. They include recognition, as was described, similar to what we've done in the past with our no litter zone businesses, where the businesses would be recognized in the press, perhaps for complying with the ordinance early on in supporting the city's desire to exercise this ban. They would get a thank you. They would get recognition. They could put in their storefront in their window. People would know that they're complying with these environmental laws and drive business to them. There are other options as well where there could be some assistance given to if there's excessive financial hardship in new products being purchased. There's Encinitas has a model where they use or they give a small, small grant. And we'd have to work with our city attorney's office to see how we could do this appropriately. But they give small granted a couple hundred dollars or so. Based on when they phased in. So the earlier they phased in, that dollar amount might be a little bit more. The later they phase in it, be a little bit less. Okay. So I'd want as we get closer to really be tight on the messaging there. Next, I have a question for Councilwoman Price. So I know that you you started off with a conversation about some things that you'd like to see, but it's. Speaker 6: Just one thing. Okay. Speaker 1: But I want to I want to I want you to jeroboam. I just want to drill down on that a little bit. Can you elaborate what are the things you're specifically looking for in that study? What are you looking for? And then if you could, you know, in the hope of making this productive conversation, draw out the pieces that are different than what's already been studied by staff. So what elements, more specifically, you want to see? Speaker 6: Well, and I appreciate the question. I don't take well to being cross-examined by my colleagues. So but I do appreciate the inquiry. And and and always I try to make the conversations productive. And just because people here aren't hearing exactly what they want to hear doesn't mean it's not productive. But in terms of a study, I think my my biggest concern from the outset has been that I, I seek to try to protect our small businesses as much as possible. And although I appreciate your comments, Vice Mayor Richardson, regarding keeping the politics out of it and something about consultants, I mean, let's be honest, there's advocacy groups here. There are special interests here. There are residents here. There are businesses here. The reality is it's a typical Tuesday night when we're addressing a controversial issue. So let's not single out any particular person or entity. What I will say is that having heard from small businesses, I think before we implement a ban on them, we should definitely have the data to support the ban. There is the data on this particular topic in regards to Styrofoam is fractured. Having said that, I think having a Styrofoam ban is a good policy. I think at the very least, it will make a dent into a much larger, complex environmental problem that we have. But the data, Vice Mayor Richardson is completely fractured in terms of the role of Styrofoam, specifically on the environment. So what I would like to see is an impact study, whether it's done within the city of Long Beach, because, you know, we're going to be implementing phase one and phase two immediately. So we will have some data of our own to look at. We'll also have the opportunity to look at data from the 100 cities or so that have not yet produced a report. And based on that data, then we can implement to our small businesses this 15 month rollout plan. It's not saying, let's not ask the small businesses to follow the ban. The small businesses, by the way, and the consultants that you point out, by the way, have repeatedly said at the podium they don't want a phased in approach at all. They don't want a phased in approach. I'm saying I understand that and I hear you, but we're going to do a phased in approach. We just want to wait until we have the data to impose it on the smallest businesses, because it is extremely expensive for these businesses to stay in business. Restaurants are now going to Postmates and Uber Eats and all sorts of delivery services, so most of their expenses are now going up because of delivery service. The industry is changing. And so what I'm saying is I'd like us to be able to say, yes, we are going to implement this for small businesses, but we're going to wait and have a study first and then we're going to implement it on that way. I would feel a lot more comfortable doing it. That's my personal opinion. I understand that the Friendly wasn't a. But it's my effort to compromise every other aspect of it, of the staff agenda item I love and would want to implement tomorrow Speaker 1: . Great. So I would I would just say, you know, you know, my comment about consultants, it's because, you know, I represent the businesses and the residents of Long Beach and I try to put their their probably, you know, their interests ahead of consultants. And the reality is, I didn't single out any single consultant, but when I met with my businesses, we had a certain connection, a certain conversation, and that happened. And then what ends up happening was end up getting a letter, refocusing, or after the meeting got a letter from a consultant refocusing the discussion, and it totally mischaracterized the meeting we had. And in reality, those were not the words of our small businesses. And so we have small businesses here, and they are concerned, but we need to do a better job as a city engaging them. Frankly, it's a little bit of exploitation. Now, I had never met this particular consultant before, but in general, I want to make sure that we're actually making public policy that meets the needs of our long term businesses that are here, not necessarily someone who's an organizer is going to move on to another campaign. I'm sure you understand that. And so my hope is my hope is and I'm going to give this one more try because I didn't didn't get much, much clarity if there's. So you're saying evaluate what actually the evaluate phase one, a phase two before implementing phase three. Is that what you're proposing? Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 1: Okay. So what I'm what I'm hoping to see is, rather than put a pause, because we have this conversation about cannabis, we had a conversation about minimum wage. I have no problem with looking at data, but what I don't want is for people to get sort of a have a unclear timeline when they leave here for whether or not this is going to be implemented. I think that's reasonable. I think enough people have said, hey, we want to support a ban. You said it yourself, Councilman Price. I've heard enough people say they want to get there. What I want to get to tonight is somewhere we can say, look, we're going to address these concerns, perhaps, you know, have a delay, do some studying right now, but actually have a very clear timeline that folks can support. And Councilman Andrew's councilman, Councilman Austin, a number of people said we're not looking for people to say what they these you know, the public said we don't want any phase in whatsoever. Well, guess what? They're not elected to make policy. And we are. So I don't mean, you know, this not coming off a lecture, but we've been here before. We've seen how sort of these issues that should be something where we understand a vision of where we're going as a city. We get caught up in the details. Chickens, goats and bees, you name it. Right. Where we actually should be taking steps in the right direction. So so I'm going to close with Councilwoman Gonzalez, given that discussion around a study. Are we open to doing asking staff to conduct a study on day one and not conduct a study specifically on two issues? One. Excuse me. Let me finish. Let me finish. We can, you know, a few more people cued up. One on the impacts of phase one in phase two. And secondly, gather more data, more information. Want more data on impacts of cities we have just implemented. But we but we're not going to say don't implement, don't move forward with phase three. But we say bring back a study to the city council to be seen. And without necessarily saying don't implement phase three is understandable. So you'll do something like that? Speaker 4: Absolutely. I've asked this before from many other policy items that while we implement this at a three months, nine months and then maybe 18 months for small businesses, while we're doing that, absolutely. We can bring back for the. Speaker 1: Larger businesses, for. Speaker 4: The. Yes, yeah, we can absolutely bring data back. That includes information about various cities. Speaker 1: And if. Speaker 4: Any aggregate we're doing. Speaker 1: And if we're doing three months, six months, nine months on larger businesses at any given point, that can be the trigger point for city council to say, hey, before you move forward with this other additional phase, we're seeing some data that that may not be favorable. Speaker 4: Sure. Yes. And I will remind you that, you know, our environmental services staff is working very hard on this, and they've done a lot of research and information on this. And with all due respect, you know, a lot of the studies in our city, as much as we want them to come back on time and they know , unfortunately, they're so bogged down with work that they often don't come back in time. And I don't want this to delay any further because unfortunately, our city work, you know, employees are working so very hard. So I would love for us to keep the timeline, but absolutely and you know, respective to Councilmember Price's information is to bring back that. Speaker 1: So, okay, so I'm sure there will be additional things to add. So I'll just close with this. You know, when I was in elementary school, my, my, my teachers would tell me, hey, styrofoam is bad. You know, I'm 34 years old. I was elementary school. But Styrofoam is bad. It never goes away. It pollutes our fish. We're at the mouth of the river. Where? The home of the aquarium Pacific. We need to be on the right side of this issue, but we need to do, in a way, doing it in a way that acknowledges progress as we move forward, but has some sort of a timeline, incentives in place and data in place. So my hope is that with that conversation, it sounded like and this will be further defined, I'm sure, but it sounds like Councilwoman Gonzales is open to some some part of a study that that has come up tonight. So that concludes my comments, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 0: I would really love for us all to come together. I'm going to quote a communication I received from someone that spoke tonight with a green board. The first year of the study that we've seen in other studies that he was referencing show minimal benefit. And so my concern is that what we're starting to. This is one of your own that's still here. The first year of the study shows minimal benefit. The second round of the study is where you see the reduction. And so that's the general goal of the ban. I get that the goal is to reduce polystyrene. I also want to really speak to Councilmember Durango, who really gets and all of his comments were just so on point tonight about how we are the receiver of all of the different trash from the whole region and a ban in Long Beach. The study isn't going to likely show a large increase in that right away because, again, we're the mouth of everyone. And so I also want to comment that Councilmember Durango mentioned food trucks, and I'd like to add food trucks to this ban, because those are people who are not Long Beach businesses and they drive their dirty trucks into our community and then they park on our streets that don't have very many parking spaces to begin with, sometimes in front of our small businesses and restaurants that are trying to make a living, and then they use their polystyrene to put their food into the community. And those individuals are usually eating that food on the street and they're the most likely to throw it into a trash can. So I had kind of thought of a few friendlies, but what I'm going to do right now, what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to I'm going to make a motion. I hope that Councilmember Gonzalez will be the second on that motion, because I really think it it really takes all the things said here tonight. But I think that she really deserves the credit on the work it took to get here. But I think that this pulls everything together from a long time. So and mostly also because I don't know other what other Friendly's she's accepted that I'm not in agreement with because I was so busy trying to aggregate all the ideas I've heard. So first I want to request a study to explore a public private partnership for the purchase of 100 big belly trash cans for the deployment along business corridors, parks, beaches and specifically areas that take food trucks, often with primary deployment to areas with food trucks and water adjacent areas with the goal of reducing all litter of litter and bring back a two from four within 180 days of any options or costs that are available. I'd like to prohibit, since it's a city property, we don't actually need an ordinance on it. I consulted with the city attorney earlier, so a policy prohibiting single use food and beverage containers made of EPS rigid polystyrene number six and non-recyclable and non compostable materials for prepared food distribution at city facilities and city permitted events effective July one. City events permitted prior to the ordinance are adopted with exemption or receive an exemption. Adopts Adopt an ordinance prohibiting single use food and beverage containers made of EPS rigid polystyrene number six and non recyclables on noncombustible materials for prepared food distribution at large food establishments, which is the third tier of our food establishment guidelines defined as having as defined as the third tier and bring that back within 18 months of full implementation by all of them verified within 18 months of the adoption of the ordinance and include a ban on all this is this is a new one this is adding to what we need to ban ban on retail sales of polystyrene disposable ice chests, beanbag chairs filled with polystyrene and polystyrene beads used in crafts and sold in craft stores at the same timeline as the entire ordinance include and undo. Most of this language is still from Council Member Gonzalez's item include an undue hardship exemption that would allow, business says, to apply for a compliance waiver similar to the Pasadena Municipal Code. 8.67.06. So. Conduct and present a study regarding the benefits of the ordinance. And if the Council determines that the ban has been measurable made measurable data results. Let me try that one again. Conduct and present a study regarding the benefits of the ordinance. And if the Council determines that the ban has made a measurable, data driven outcome, consider implementing the banned citywide on all restaurants. Provide a business license refund. This is a smile, a slight rewording of the incentive program. Provide a business license refund to businesses of less than 100 seats that voluntarily comply with the ban within 180 days of the adoption of the ordinance. So that means for you restaurants, if you choose to take on the ban and you are not included in the third tier of restaurants, then you can fill out a one page form similar to what Councilmember Price and I adopted for new and small business growth in the city. So one page form that says, look, you didn't require that I get rid of Styrofoam, but I'm getting rid of Styrofoam. And I would like you to refund my business license for the year so it'd be free for your business to operate in the city for that year because you've chosen to make a good decision and make it easier on our community to not use Styrofoam. So I'll put that out there. I hope that Councilmember Gonzalez will second. It was my keyboard, but if she will not, it's as I've motioned. If she won't, I hope one of my colleagues will, because I think this really pulls together all of the thoughts of all of my colleagues and moves towards a citywide ban. And it and it includes, quite frankly, a lot of items that were not originally up in the discussion that I think are very harmful. Speaker 1: Thank you. And next we have Councilmember Turanga. Wait, I don't see a second. Is there a second on that motion? If not, okay, there's a second. Councilmember Turanga. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Again, I agree with you. 18 months, I think that's fair. It gives small businesses an opportunity to review and look at how their business is functioning with the with the ban. The other aspects of it, I don't know if I can with the Stacey's Councilmember Mango's motion, because that would be I mean, I think we will get what we want, but there's unintended consequences, I think in some of that that is being proposed mainly that if we give back or create a free business license deals for for that year, we're going to lose all revenue. Hold on, hold on. Let me finish. Let me finish. And don't get excited. It's been it's been a long week. So, I mean, I can see that. And plus, I don't think that there will be many businesses who would jump on that. But we do need carrots. We need we need to give them carrot, because the bottom line that I'm hearing here tonight is two issues. One, we have trash. It doesn't break up. We can't get rid of. It stays for hundreds of years. We got to deal with it. The second is that we need that trash because it's cheap to make. They're very versatile. We could do a lot of things with it and we can make a whole ton of them and be able to serve the needs of our customers. In terms of restaurant business, it's economics, you know. So we're dealing with economics versus the environment. And I hate to put those in terms of just supporters. Both of them get together, but hopefully that's not what we want to do here. We want we want to go to a middle ground here where we can have something that the businesses can work with that will help our environment. So. Correct isn't a lot. Okay, answer my question. So how do we get there? How do we get there? So the stick may be the ban, but it doesn't have to be a ban. It could be businesses that would convert over to composted types of materials like paper bags or box or cardboard or anything else. That that is just for now. Not call it a ban. Let's just say an incentive to use other materials other than polystyrene. And there would be incentives to using that because that would, in fact, help our environment. It'll be biodegradable and it would be easily disposed. How do you get there? Well, you know, until we find something that's made more cheaply, it's going to be expensive. We know that that's that's the argument. The argument is that polystyrene is very cheap and very versatile, but yet very toxic to our environment. I don't know how many of you have seen a movie. I forget the name of the movie right now. But they show where there's a whole portion of the ocean that is nothing but plastic all over for miles and miles and miles. And we can't do anything about it. We can't because we can't recycled. So let's go to our senses. Let's deal with the reality here that we're dealing with economics versus the environment. So how do we get there? I don't know. Perhaps. So my colleagues here has this idea. They know Stacey is chomping at the bit, ready to tell me how. But we need to. To look at the fact that polystyrene is toxic. We know that that's a fact. And we know that it's polluting our oceans. And it's polluting our rivers. That's a fact. So in the absence of doing that, perhaps we can look at if these companies are willing to make more public staring, let's make them responsible for it. Let's have them clean out. Really? How can I help us clean our rivers? How to clean our oceans? You're helping create that machinery that we could put at the mouth of the river that will capture all that polystyrene waste and get rid of it. Or how do you take it? Get some ships. Go out to that that black zone in the ocean where there's nothing but plastic out there. And clean that up. Help make them responsible for what they're creating, to help us clean our environment. Make them responsible for making cheap products that everybody was use, but take more responsibility. So what it does to the act, to the environment. So in a nutshell, we're at a crossroads here. We've we've discussed this now for about 3 hours now. We're going 3 hours with this discussion, and we're still trying to find a middle ground that would be happy for everybody. And I don't know if we're going to find one that could please everybody tonight, but I would like to to make a friendly, if I can. Is that in addition to whether I can make a friend of yours or anybody's motion? Well, we'll do your motion and maybe make a friendly later look at we'll come back to it. But I'm not going to finish with that now. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. There was a question made to the make of the motion. Speaker 0: So the question related to where the money would go for the business incentive program, there was $100,000 set aside into a special account for those new businesses. And I verified with the city financial officer, John GROSS earlier this evening that we would be able to use that same funding for this. We would just add on an additional option of a way to draw down those funds for the businesses. So there is money in the account and then make them responsible. I appreciate that. Councilmember Turanga, I spoke to some of the members of Surfrider Foundation and others about an option of having the In-Dash industry fund a water wheel that a lot of people have posted on Facebook. And it's a very interesting idea and it not only cleans up polystyrene, but it also cleans up cigaret butts, one of our biggest issues and others. But they didn't feel that they could trust the industry to do that. So I feel that we cut off that dialog before it was even possible because of the lack of trust between the two sides today. And I think that's what we're all trying to bring together. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 4: Yes, I am so sorry. I have. Speaker 0: To apologize. Speaker 6: Because I you know. Speaker 4: I think that you all have certainly seen us go back and forth, both business and green advocates, and I really appreciate it. So I'm going to offer a substitute substitute motion, and I hope this will make everyone satisfied in some respect because it's going to take components from everybody's discussions here. And I really appreciate the robust discussions because I think this is what we need to and what we need, in fact, to really make really great, robust policy. So taking into consideration what everybody has mentioned, I would like to make the substitute substitute motion that would include the same timeline, three months city facilities and events. And I believe that also I'm sorry, so do city facilities, events, nine months, large restaurants. And let me ask you, Environmental Services Bureau, why was 30 selected as small business? As if I'm sorry, defined as large business 31 and under. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Counsel reasons The Health Department has detailed information on restaurants based on a number of seats, and they break them up in certain certain numbers. So 0 to 10, 11 through 30. And we looked at 1130 being the threshold, pretty much split the city up into 15 50%. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 1: And so we figured half the restaurants would be at that point and then the other half would follow suit afterwards. Speaker 4: Do you think we would be able to. Okay. So I see what you're saying there. So that's fine. Speaker 1: The next threshold would be 60. Speaker 4: So that would be 60 and then 100. Okay. Do you think we'd be able to increase that? You know, for so for large restaurants, we can include we can define that as 60 or 100. What would be the would there be any issue on the back end with an on your side on city staff in enforcing that Speaker 10: ? Councilmember. No, there wouldn't. Speaker 4: Okay, so let's move the large restaurants to 100. I think that's something that was recommended by Councilmember Mango. Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez. It would have to be 101. Speaker 4: 101, that's correct. Yes. 101. And then 18 months as recommended by Vice Mayor Rex Richardson to incorporate the smaller businesses. And at that point, I also believe we can incorporate the ban on retail sales of polystyrene disposable ice chests. Beanbag chairs filled with polystyrene and the polystyrene beads at that same time. And I also want to make sure that I believe I saw in one iteration that food trucks were included. Is that correct? Speaker 1: Because it food trucks are considered as part of the first not the first part of the second phase of the large businesses, as are franchised chain restaurants such as McDonald's. Yes. Speaker 4: Okay, great. So food trucks are included. And that was something Councilmember Mungo brought up. And I think they should be included. Absolutely. Because they are part of the issue as well. So we're at 18 months. And then I would also like to add the study, as Councilmember Price had mentioned. I do believe that we should have, you know, any any more information we can get the better, of course. And I would hate to burden our city staff with this additional study, but I think if it's going to keep us in line with the timeline, but include, you know, more information, that would be great. So if that could be provided, maybe add a year or a 15 month mark, possibly earlier so we can make a better decision. That would be great. Well, hey, I'm giving it to them. I say 12. It might be 18 months. No, I'm sorry. I don't mean to say that, but it's true. Speaker 10: Certainly the staff can provide a report on the impacts as we see it. Speaker 4: And. Speaker 10: Provide that to you. I think we'd want to see at least nine months worth of data, so maybe somewhere around that 9 to 12 month time frame would be appropriate. Speaker 0: Perfect. So we'll receive a. Speaker 4: Study back from 9 to 12 months and that will include information relative to the impacts of other cities and litter. And we'll have that. I would like to just comment, though, so I appreciate that. So I would like to comment on the business license refund. I don't personally believe that we should be dictating what types of economic incentives at this point. And I also feel, although it might be something we can do, maybe something it doesn't necessarily mean that we should do it. And the reason I say that is because what has been proposed is to refund business licenses for people that are for businesses that are going to comply voluntarily, meaning that they're not complying currently. But what about the businesses that have been complying for ten, 20 years? We need to find some sort of incentive for them as well. So I just ask us to explore, which I think we're already doing. Speaker 0: And what I'll ask our Environmental Services Bureau to do, and I think I spoke about this before, is there's a. Speaker 4: Green. Speaker 0: Business program provided through. Speaker 4: The state. And I don't believe at this time that the City of Long Beach is certified through that program. That program allows small businesses to represent themselves with a green reputation. On the state website you're on the state website with a green reputation, people can locate you in the city of Long Beach. Speaker 0: But we're also afforded. Speaker 4: For for being a part of that and certifying ourselves some funds to help small businesses. So I think there's some leeway in helping both existing and new businesses that are voluntarily going to comply with this, maybe even prior to the 18 month date. And then lastly, I do believe we should implement a study to. Speaker 0: Explore the. Speaker 4: P3 for the purchase of big bellies. I don't know if it's 100 or 200. I don't know what that looks like. A hundred would be great. But I mean, if we can. Speaker 0: 50. Speaker 4: Gets us there, great if it's 200. But I do believe we need some sort of study. I think that's something that was. Speaker 0: Brought up by. Speaker 4: Councilmember Pearce Price and Mango. Speaker 0: So with all that said. Speaker 6: I know this was. Speaker 0: A very robust process. I hope that that. Speaker 4: Brings some clarity. Speaker 0: I hope that. Speaker 4: That brings some compromise to the table. And I hope that we also look and thank again are green advocates, but are small businesses, because. Speaker 0: The end of the day, bigness, big business is going to want what they want. But it's really the small. Speaker 4: Business that we have to advocate for, and it's the individuals who are going to be affected by this. It's carcinogens. It's it's deeper than just litter. It's the environment that we need to protect here in the city of Long Beach. So I hope that helps. Thank you very much. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman. And I just want to recognize your willingness to compromise, integrate a lot of feedback you've got here. And so I'm going to I'm going to go ahead. And second, your motion next is Council Suber. No, thank you. Okay. Now I have just a little tiny bit of a friendly it's barely anything. You'll even notice what I thought I heard when Councilwoman Pryce first made that friendly. She never mentioned staff, and then the vice mayor mentioned staff. And then you picked up on that. So I would like to ask for a friendly that we have a third party study and maybe we can come up with some funding sources here among the groups. I just I just feel for what I see on both sides. All right. But just to add another burden on the public works, they do a just a tremendous job. And I just I just think that if we could take this off their plate, that would be a real nice move. And then also, just to clarify, because there are a lot of moving parts here, so everyone knows that the small businesses are exempt from the ban immediately. Is that what you are saying? So I just want to reiterate right now. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Oh, no. Councilman Price. Speaker 0: Okay. So I want. Speaker 6: Clarification, please, on that. So. So the point of the study and and I appreciate the robust discussion as well, but we started off this discussion with one friendly and and now we have a whole bunch of other points, which is fine. I agree with all of them. But the basic premise was to hold off on implementing on our small businesses. And the reason I was suggesting a study is because I don't want a study just to do a study because my colleagues are right. We often get studies just to get studies. The whole point of the study was to dictate and justify the implementation of the ban on the smaller businesses, which are very limited in number when we're looking because of this definition now that we have. So the whole point was to have a study that we can then use data from to be able to justify for our small businesses. Look, we know for sure this is going to have an impact and we want you to get on board and give you this time to to phase it in. When we were saying this that the folks here want to have a timeline by which to count on its city staff that said they would need nine months to one year from implementation to be really able to measure the results of the data. That's the time that we need to conduct the study and therefore we can't implement on small businesses until the time that we've had to analyze the data results and then apply the the ban on small businesses, which again. Speaker 0: The the record should be very. Speaker 6: Clear. What I'm hearing my colleagues say is that everyone is on board with the ban. It's just a matter of when and at what point in time the ban moves on to the small businesses. And what I'm saying is I'd like to have a study in place of how the implementation of the ban is impacting the city and use that data to justify imposing the ban on small businesses at that time. So I'm a little bit confused here. Are we going to because Councilman Supernovas question I think led to a different thought than I had. Are we now saying that we're not going to impose the ban on small businesses until the study? Well, what I think that was my friendly. Speaker 1: Let's just have the city attorney go ahead and recap the motion, the substitute substitute on a recap of the substitute subsidy motion made by Councilmember Gonzalez, seconded by Vice Mayor Richardson. It would be to keep the phased in approach three months after the adoption for the city, city facilities, renters and the others. Then a nine month with a change from over 30 to 101 seat restaurants. And then at 18 months it would be 100 or less. It would be implemented. It would include a ban on retail sales at the same time of the implementation of phase three, 18 months of ice, just bean bags and crafts. It would add, require a study to be done during the implementation to come back to council between nine and 12 months. Regarding the impacts of the ban, and I'm not sure if the friendly was accepted to have a third party conduct that study or that would be a city study. Speaker 0: Well, I'd like. Speaker 4: To find out what the costs are, because I you know, I would love for our city staff at. Speaker 1: This time, the friendly is not accepted and they could come back at the time the ordinance is brought to you and have you get a further discussion on that. Speaker 4: I think that would be good. I would be fair. I would hate to add more costs to you. Speaker 1: Would also include to direct staff to explore the incentive programs such as the Green Business Certification through the State of California and out a study for the purchase of big belly type trash cans, big bellies, a brand name. There's other types of vendors that have similar products for and to come back with a memo to council as to the cost and the impacts of that. Okay. Thank you, Councilman. So you have more. Okay. Next council on Monday. Speaker 0: I was just trying to get some of the things. The pours for small businesses is 18 months, but the study will come back after 12 months. But that but that doesn't mean that there's been 12 months of data and it doesn't go to the comment that I specifically showed earlier, which speaks to a specific comment from someone from the Surfrider Foundation. Related to that, the data doesn't usually support it within the 12 months. And so I wouldn't want to put ourselves in a position where the study would come back and not support the ban. The goal is under the motion. I need to eventually have a city wide ban, but it would demonstrate yes or no if it actually worked or and by the way, in this option, the big bullet, the the big berry like not brand named trash cans can be a part of that impact that makes all the difference. So I, I, I see the areas that are significantly similar to the motion I made. I think that the motion I made really brought everyone together. I think that in your outlining of all the things you said, Councilman Mims, I think that it shows how close together our two motions are. And so I would again ask that you reject your motion and come on board with my motion, because I think that I sat with and tried to line those things out to make sure there wasn't the confusion. And I really feel passionately about the business incentive, and I also feel passionately that the study has to have time to show effectiveness. And in that vacancy of time, we have to incentivize the businesses to do it anyway. And so that would be my comment. But I think we've come so far and I really, really appreciate all the great work. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 4: Vice Mayor, if I can just go something really quick. So the study, from what I. Speaker 6: Understand, if we can get clear on. Speaker 4: This, is not our own study within the city. It's going to be a study of additional cities and additional impacts that have already implemented this ban. So the impacts of and that was requested by Councilmember Price as to various other cities that have impacts what they're doing with the ban and all of those details. Speaker 0: So I think that was my misunderstanding because I read the study from San Francisco 2008 that showed that there wasn't an impact. And so I thought she was asking. I mean, we can ask her for our own study to see if our ban works and if it's different because we're at the mouth of the river and there's other components. And because we know the Surfrider Foundation's going to work hard to get Lakewood and Cerritos and Downey to take on a ban as well. Speaker 1: So before everybody chimes in, just to be clear, the study that Darrell recommended that Councilmember Sabrina recommended was independent. And if you could just articulate a little bit more, Councilman Sunak's, we understand it was an independent study. Am I right? Was that it internally or was that externally to other? So I would say, for lack of a better term, third party, maybe an independent third party study. Right. Because I immediately heard, Adam, Adam, it's late. I want to use my words carefully. A little bit of pushback from public works like this is tough for us to do. We have a lot on our plate. It's like, well, okay, I have a way around that. We can get a third party group in here to do it independently and maybe the sides here can fund that so that, as the city attorney pointed out, the funding mechanism and whatnot that can come back, we can decide that later. So when you know the long answer. So, Councilwoman Gonzalez, it seems very consistent. What you're saying is if there was an independent study asking staff to evaluate the funding, a feasibility, can that be a part of your motion to make sure that's reflected? Speaker 0: Absolutely. Speaker 1: Okay. And then the reporting internally is not a study that's just tracking and reporting. That's reporting out on a regular basis. That's something staff can do. So can we make sure that that's reflected in your motion as well? Sure. Speaker 4: Absolutely. Speaker 1: Okay. So it seems like those are captured now. We're going to go to the next speaker, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 0: Yes. Thank you for restating that. I do want to ask staff, when we're doing our reporting that we report on how many businesses are adopting this early because I know I can't remember if somebody in the audience said the number, but I know we already have over 100 small businesses in Long Beach that already do this voluntarily . So if we get include that, I think that would be helpful for the council to see how that would impact future small businesses. And then I just wanted to clarify, at the beginning we made I made a friendly that was accepted by the Councilmember Gonzales on including it was on the first but it was okay so I'm going to make another friendly I'm going to do it again since we're on the sub sub to include that utensils and straws are given upon request for takeaway items. That is my friendly. Do you accept? Thank you. Before I came up again, I just want to make sure there's no other comments that I include. I think that we've come a really long way, the councilmember that has done the work on this for the last two years. He's done a great job, and I think it's just going to applaud us for trying to make it the right thing, but recognize how much work has gone into this day. And that is probably why it's kind of difficult to go back and forth. But just want to thank everybody for their efforts. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 6: Okay. So I agree. I want to commend everyone who's worked on this. And, Councilwoman Pearce, you two have worked really hard on this. And I know that, you know, your name is and on some of the signs, but I know you have a lot of passion for this item, so congratulations to you for getting it this far Speaker 0: . So what I the. Speaker 6: Question I have and I guess I'm going to try to make another friendly if we're proposing a study and that's going to take 12. We're going to wait 12 months to start the study. And then we're going to do a study and start implementing the business incentive at 18 months. Then during that. Speaker 0: Presumably it'll take. Speaker 6: What, 30, 60 days? Let's give or take that. If the study is late, we'll have a few months during that window to look at the analysis from the study and make a determination as to the next phase, which is the implementation of the business point, the business aspect, the phase three. So what I'd like to do is incorporate something into this that allows us to, as a body, review that data before implementing that. The business push the small business portion of it. So I don't know if that makes sense, but my friendly would be that after the study is completed, but before the implementation of the small business portion commences, that that item come back to council so that we can make any adjustments that are necessary based on the data that we have received. So that would be a friendly. Speaker 1: Was that like a study session? Yeah. Like the other. Speaker 6: Day, the session or just for us to get the data and we might have to tweak the roll out of the implementation. Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the problem is necessarily if you get the study back on on any Tuesday, you could do an amendment to the ordinance to change the implementation date of Phase three. At that time, you could you could amend this ordinance at any on any Tuesday. Speaker 6: Right. And I get that. But my friendly is specifically saying, before we roll out the implementation of the small business portion, we as a body together would receive information on the data so that we can move forward with that implementation phase. Because you're right, if a TFF comes back that outlines a study, a council member may want to put it on the agenda, may not want to put it on the agenda, it may get lost in the mix. I want it to actually come back so that we can hear the data and we can report to our small businesses. This is the data your rollout is about to start and it's based on this great positive data. Speaker 1: So if I just understand it friendly correctly, then the 18 months wouldn't be a hard date. You wouldn't determine that date until you received the study. Speaker 0: Yes. Okay. Speaker 1: So, Councilwoman, the resolution responding to the request. Speaker 0: Sure. Speaker 4: That is fine. We can do a study session, but I would really advise this council to stick with 18 months. I really would do that. But we're. Speaker 1: Getting somewhere. All right. Okay, Councilman Austin, you're up. Well, it was an acceptance. That's. I think I heard an acceptance. Okay, Councilman Austin, listen, city attorney. Sorry, I didn't hear the acceptance. I heard that the 18 months. Speaker 0: Can you do it again? Yes. Speaker 1: Sorry. And then I didn't hear the study session. Now there's a study session out of the city council. Should this. Speaker 0: Be a a meeting. Speaker 4: A study session? Just some sort. Speaker 1: Of report, opportunity, practical. Speaker 0: Review that. Speaker 1: Yeah, I fell for the question. Well, you're the last speaker, so no need to call for the question. Okay, so that concludes comment. Members, please cast your vote. This vote is on the substitute substitute on a substitute substitute motion. Speaker 0: Motion carries. Unanimously.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to prohibit the use of single-use food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene foam, rigid polystyrene #6, and non-recyclable and non-compostable material for prepared food distribution. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10172017_17-0942

Speaker 1: Wow. Congratulations. Congratulations. Now we'll move on to item number ten with a clerk. Please read item number ten. Speaker 0: Communication from Councilmember Pearce, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Andrews and Councilmember Your Honor recommendation to request the City Attorney and Department of Health and Human Services to draft an ordinance requiring all restaurants within Long Beach who have bundled kid's meals to offer water. Speaker 1: Well, I'm sorry. Just just for a moment, we're going to take a two minute recess just so people can we'll just take a 20 minute recess. All right. Thank. Speaker 2: The organization. Speaker 1: Okay. Madam Clerk, let's call the council meeting back to order. Please call. Speaker 0: Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pearce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember. Super Now. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Councilmember Urunga. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 1: I am here. Let's have item number ten, please. Speaker 0: Communication from Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Andrews and Councilmember Your Honor. Recommendation to request the City Attorney and Department of Health and Human Services to draft an ordinance requiring all restaurants within Long Beach who have bundled kids meals to offer water, milk, or a 100% pure juice beverage that is under 60 calories. Speaker 4: As the default choice. Speaker 1: Councilman Pearce. Speaker 0: Thank you. And as you can tell by the empty left side, this is the easy item. We'll try to make it smooth tonight. And I want to thank all of those that are here tonight to speak on this item that have been doing a lot of hard work on this, not only with my office, but with the community members and the small businesses doing great outreach. So thank you so much for that. Before we move forward to the presentation, actually, I'll do the yeah. Before we move forward to the presentation, I want to make an amendment to the recommendation. So that amendment should read to request the City Attorney and Department of Health and Human Services to draft an ordinance requiring all restaurants within Long Beach who have bundled kids meals to offer water or milk as the default choice. No, you got that. I think that that was pretty easy, just removing a part of that. So I'll explain that as we go through the PowerPoint. And then I want to hear from community members and then we can take it behind the dais. Okay. So obesity is an epidemic in our community with more than 2 billion adults and children around the world who are obese or overweight, that's equal to one third of the world's population carrying excess weight with help of our Department of Health and Human Services, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. We were able to study Long Beach residents, but among adults, 31% are obese, 37 are overweight by children between the ages of two and five are overweight or obese. 27% of fifth, seventh and ninth graders are considered obese. The Food and Drug Administration recommends that people age three and older should consume more than no more than 12.5 teaspoons of sugar added each day. Our problem here in Long Beach, most recent adult numbers that we have is that over the past 30 years, obesity among adults and children has increased nationwide. So for California, we have adults at 25%, fifth graders at 40%. And in Long Beach, the number is 25% for adults and 44% for fifth graders. Approximately another 30% of children and adults are overweight as well as dental health. So some of you guys might not know. I worked at a pediatric dentist office for, I don't know, six years. My aunt is a pediatric dentist and I got to help assist. And so I personally saw the effects of sugary beverages, particularly juice that was impacted on children because juice is higher in sugar and calories, water and milk are always the best options for your little one. This is from the Association of Pediatric Dentist. In fact, a child under one years old in a pediatrics academy suggests completely removing juice from their diet. And there are some other recommendations around juice, but it basically says that it should be minimal. And often with, you know, my daughter Jubilee, who's five, if she has juice, it's half water, half juice, because we see a lot of times people believe that juice is healthy for you, but it completely takes away the enamel on your teeth. And we know whenever your dental health is impacted, it can get into your bloodstream and have a really negative impact on children. So for that reason, we removed the juice from this motion. The risk of sugary beverages among children. Sugar sweetened beverages are single, largest contributor to caloric intake. I'm so tired. I can't believe I'm doing this at 930 at night. Children who drink at least one sugar sweetened beverage per day have 50, 50, 55% greater odds of being overweight or obese. So the consumption clearly doubles the risk of dental cavities for children. Once they are obese, then children have increased risk of type two diabetes, heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, social discrimination, tooth decay and poor academic performance. So we definitely want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can as a community to prevent that from happening. We want to provide healthy choices to make it easier for children's and parents to make healthy food choices by creating environments that support healthy habits. Audience Requiring that all restaurants with bundled kids meals to offer milk or water parents will still have an option to choose other beverages upon request. We know we have over a thousand restaurants in the city and about 209 of those restaurants actually provide bundled kids meals. So this isn't something that is, you know, broad and would tackle every business in the community. We also know that other governing bodies like Santa Clara, Stockton, Paris and Davis have implemented this as well. These guys all agree milk and water should be a first choice. I mean, come on. And on top of these guys, we had a letter today from McDonald's that said that they support our policy. We met recently with Coca-Cola Brand and they talked to us about how they do zero branding at events at parks or anywhere else for Coca-Cola products where the children might be present. So even doing something like a soccer club where you might want to have corporate sponsorships, they wouldn't do that because there are kids around. And so if industry leaders in other cities are saying this is the right choice for our community, I think it's time that Long Beach take that step, too. Plus, you know, are a little cute kids here. We want to make sure we benefit all the community. Increasing the number of healthy beverages consumed by Long Beach children establish healthy behaviors in childhood that continue for life. And create a better future for our children. I'd like to additionally say that we know that while parents are doing what they can at home, a lot of times we go out into the community and we see standards that are normalized. That is what we we base our culture off of. And so going to a restaurant where they're saying, water, milk first, water, milk first. It's going to help parents understand that might not have had the education around the impacts of sugary drinks. And there is a lot out there. I know that a lot of us feel like kids not having soda is a no brainer. Those six years that I worked at the dentist office, you would be surprised at how many four year olds came in with no front teeth because parents didn't understand the impact, even if it was a no sugar soda pop that the the impact it has on our kids. And so I think it's great that we've got other cities that have done this. I think it's great that we have corporate sponsors that have said they're doing it. And we had four small beach, small beach, small businesses that were lined up to speak tonight but weren't able to stay as long. So I hope that my colleagues will support this item. I look forward to hearing public comment and getting a nice, robust conversation. So thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Bianca. Thank you. And I want to thank Councilmember Pearce for bringing this forward. It is long overdue. We've known about the impacts of sugary drinks and the impact they've had on our children. And I really appreciate bringing this forward. I was part of a household cohort years back and we dealt with this in regards to the impacts of sugary drinks to children as well as at that time because of this several years ago now. But the number to the growth of fast food chains and how you could see them and course, for example, Long Beach. All right, a rule there is a Burger King a with a local, a culture, a subway and the McDonald's. All right, there. Corner where? The corner. So the the the influx and the impact that these businesses have on our health is can be understated. And your report right now really stated that. So thank actually the point. I wholeheartedly support this. Thank you. Councilmember Andrews us. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Also, I'd like to thank Councilwoman you to. Speaker 0: Hear from me. Speaker 1: Oh. Oh, no, no, no. Okay. All right. So we're going to take public comment first. Speaker 0: And while we're waiting for public comment, I would like to say how much I appreciate the work that the vice mayor did on this item before it fell into my hands. Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. Thank you. You have 3 minutes. Thank you. Wow, 3 minutes. Thanks. Chef Paul Buchanan have a business here. And I've also been teaching at the at some of the Columbia schools about days of taste, which a child learns from. About food and nutrition. From three main places. One at home. Two at school. And now from TV and social media ads. So children are going to school to have chocolate milk with sugar added with salt added to the chocolate milk. I don't think that's a really great, healthy choice. So I hope that's not going to be included in the milk that can be offered to promote soda and sunny delight, which is not really an orange juice. It's just it's just the food coloring and sugar water at home. We can only hope that a beverage can be given to our child that is not laden with sugar or food coloring or phosphoric acid like Coca-Cola. So that being said, I'm happy to see that you're proposing that we encourage them to have something water. I don't know why you took away the juices, because I think lemon juice and two teaspoons of sugar and water would be 60 calories. That would be much more healthy than some of the other sugary drinks. So I think that would be a great option. My child in 16 years has never really ever had a soda at the at any place because she hasn't bought any of those packaged meals because they are usually fried food. And that's not what we really encourage because there's no vegetables usually involved. But thank you for for your efforts. And I think this is a good direction for us. Thank you, chef. Paul, just a moment. Councilmember Pearce has a suggestion for public comment. Speaker 0: Oh, you can put it on me. Oh, I'm okay with reducing the public comment time since it's ten 930. Are you guys good with that? So you guys want to do a minute and a half in one minute. Speaker 2: All right. All right, guys. Speaker 1: Let's see now. Support, we're going down to one minute. Lightning round. Speaker 0: Thank you for self-regulating. Speaker 1: You have the floor. Speaker 0: Hello. My name is Chu Irrational and I live in District eight and I've lived in Long Beach for 27 years. I also work as a health education education advocate at the Choices Clinic. I am here to speak in support of the Healthy Kids Choice Ordinance. I am pre-diabetic and I have made many lifestyle changes to ensure that I do not become diabetic. Cutting out sugar sweetened beverages such as soda is one of the lifestyle. Speaker 5: Changes that I have made. I am also. Speaker 0: Pregnant. I am looking forward to becoming a first time mom. I know that is. It is very important for me to continue to set a good example for my children and make sure that they do not become diabetic. I know that I can control the items that are in my home, but it is much harder to control the temptations that my kids may be exposed to outside of the home. By making the healthy choice the first choice, my children will have less, one less temptation to face. Thank you very much for your consideration. Considering this item tonight, please make the right choice and vote yes. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is Joyce Flynn Adams. I'm a member of Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness LeBoeuf. Speaker 5: I support this. We have gathered over 250 signatures in three different languages from Long Beach residents supporting this measure. All of them support the adoption of a healthy drinks and kids meals ordinances in the city of Long Beach. So the city council members, city officials, we thank you very much for this opportunity and we hope you'll vote for this. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening. Speaker 4: Vice Mayor Richardson and council members. My name is Claudia Gauthier. I am the government relations director for the American Heart Association. I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this item forward. Speaker 0: And part of my work has been. Speaker 4: To talk to the community, talk to businesses, talk to all of you about the goals of this ordinance and and your leadership and bring this forward is is much appreciated. As stated by Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 0: This effort will help. Speaker 4: Reduce the amount of sugar kids consume. It's going to help parents access that same environment and same messaging that kids get from then from home and in school. So let's adopt this and make healthy options. The first default for kids in Long Beach. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor, City Council, City Staff, everyone. Speaker 2: My name is Alfred. Speaker 1: Montoya with Public Health Advocates and the Healthy Eating Active Living Cities Campaign. I manage our Heal Cities campaign here in Southern California, and as many of. Speaker 2: You know, Long Beach joined the campaign. Speaker 1: In 2012, committing to making the city a healthier place. And today's discussion about the healthy default drinks and kids meals is right in line with that healthy eating, those healthy eating efforts. And I'm here today on behalf of my organized organization, Public Health Advocates with along with these folks from the Long Beach Healthy Kids Choice Coalition to speak in strong support for tonight's item. By voting yesterday, you're saying you want to make the healthy choice, the easy choice for young kids in the city. And you're shifting norms so that when you think of that drive through and the nagging child in the back, that that first option is going to be water or milk, right . Very simple, but beautiful idea. I think so. I applaud you all for taking leadership. Being the first in L.A. County to look at this ordinance. And I want offer myself and my organization for support for next steps. Thank you very much. Please vote yes. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: I think this is a great idea, but I would ask if you could also include the schools, not just the restaurants. Have them just offer the water, milk or 100% pure juices. And Long Beach Unified School Districts is what you have governance? Well, they're separate entities. However, I think that they should also be included in a conversation for them to. Speaker 2: Join this recommendation. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. When I was Leslie Wilks, founder CEO of Little Enterprises 2016, rolled out a happy, healthy mind and body program. I'm also an author of children's books, and these are the first two books that we came out with Eating Bad for Good Health and Eating Backwards to move Forward is the first two of a series of six books. 2017 we start. We moved over to consulting, which we are targeting our school districts, also any youth organizations. And we came out with a series of many books and it's the first book that we came out with is Why Is My Sugar So Sweet? And it talks about sugary drinks. The effects of the has is brief and to the point how much sugar are in these drinks, how much are needed for the body, and what the effects are on the youth? And we are here to offer our assistance any way we can to the sea Long Beach with our book program . And we have another book coming out, check and see what's inside of me. And all of these are children's books that are focused from the age of five and up for the illustrated books. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening. Hello. My name is Jennifer Pond. Say hi, Janine and I am here to speak in support of Healthy Kids Choice Ordinance. I live in Long Beach and District eight with my ten year old son and husband and have worked at the Children's Clinic for the past 17 years. I see how hard I have seen how over the overconsumption of sugar sweetened beverages have affected my neighbors, my friends, my families and community members throughout Long Beach. I see how hard parents work to provide a healthy home environment for their children while managing family and work responsibilities from one or two jobs. For many busy parents, keeping up with everyday circumstances is difficult, and we often turn to outside food as one of those parents restaurants that offer healthy beverages for my son as a first a possibility and not as a last possibility is helpful. It's supportive. It's a it's a way to let us parents know that we're supported and that our community supports healthy beverages. Lastly, I just want to thank you for beach streets, uptown, the. Speaker 1: Streets. Speaker 5: Up, and it's a great event and I'm looking forward to riding our bikes. Fantastic on Atlantic thing. Speaker 1: Make sure you make your way to the village first. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening, Dr. Jessica Schumer. I'm a pediatrician. Speaker 4: I work in District one at the Children's Clinic and a resident of District three. Speaker 0: Honestly, I think medical. Speaker 4: Residency was easier than city. Speaker 0: Council just putting it out there. So, you know, it's pretty it's pretty simple. Sugar is killing us. Actually, the most. Speaker 4: Recent recommendations are less than 25 grams a day of sugar for kids. Speaker 0: Which is a can of coke is about somewhere between. Speaker 4: 40 and 50. Speaker 0: So I would say this is one. Speaker 4: Step and is a no. Speaker 0: Brainer. It's less than 50 for us adults. Speaker 4: Just ask why. Speaker 0: But the American Academy of Pediatrics absolutely supports this recommendation. And juice, no matter what. Speaker 4: Is is not healthy either. Speaker 0: So sugar is killing us. We have to do something about it. Speaker 4: And I need your help. I counsel about this every single day to pretty much every single patient and their family. Speaker 0: So they can make informed decisions. Speaker 4: But we need to have just common sense legislation to support healthy environment so that kids can thrive. Speaker 1: Thanks again. Fantastic. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening, everyone. I'm the director of communications for Pizza Rev. Surprisingly, I'm speaking in favor of the ordinance. Speaker 0: We are a build your own. Speaker 4: Pizza concept that has grown to 20 locations. Speaker 0: Including one at the Long Beach Town Center. Speaker 4: We have always been committed to giving everyone options to meet their dietary needs. Speaker 0: And we know that. Speaker 4: When it comes to kids meals, we're. Speaker 0: We're putting a lot on parents to make good decisions. And so we've actually always. Speaker 4: Had milk and juice that only has 40 calories as the default option as part of our kids meals. Speaker 0: So we support, you know, improving the health and. Speaker 4: Healthfulness of kids meals served by all restaurants. Speaker 0: Including in Long Beach. Speaker 4: And therefore are in favor of the ordinance. And I will be leaving kids vouchers up here for anyone who's still here, who has children. Speaker 1: All right, help yourself. Yeah, let me have one. Speaker 0: Thank you, guys. Speaker 1: Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening. My name is Natalia Kabaka. I live in the fourth district. I'm a proud parent of five year old. I'm Vizsla Buff, and I also volunteer for the Headstart Preschool Program, as well as a policy conference as well as in the classrooms. And while hoping during the classrooms the headstart serves low fat milk or water to their children and they haven't seen or heard from anyone of them that they're not happy with the choice. They bring their milk, they enjoy it. Speaker 5: And no one will ever ask that if they want saw the in there. Speaker 2: Or even juice. Speaker 0: And in the past few months, I have seen so many parents faces getting excited when they come to know about this initiative. And they have heard from that that I'm always. Speaker 2: For healthier choices. Speaker 0: So young children, they usually want what is promoted, what they can go to right away. I was happy to see that some restaurants already supporting this. Speaker 2: Town. Speaker 0: Hosted drinks and kids news. And I would ask you, please oppose this proposal. Yes. Speaker 5: And hope parents of Long Beach too to grow up healthier kids. Speaker 1: Thank you. Testimony next speaker, please. Speaker 11: When I started. Speaker 1: Almost double the time. Speaker 11: I mean, I'm kind of in check on a point on this thing. I mean, they started the NSF program, this program and medical school committee that thera estao ka sunanda Yosuke brother the ATC because they were not familiar list in front of me that your field commando commander Marcello Laplace Mr. Seahorse near lost in that unknown photo Remy Nystrom all of you the city and myself. Lebanon illegally the moochers amphetamine crats. Speaker 0: Good evening. My name is Carolyn Chacon. I live in the ninth district. I unconditionally support this ordinance because of the medical problems that eating fast food causes. I suffer from diabetes and I come from a family who also suffers from this illness. I believe that by eating healthier meals, our children and grandchildren will have a better future. Also, our lifestyle would be better off as well. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Next being please. Speaker 3: Here we come in the name of Jesus once again. Okay, this is good and nothing bad about it, but I think more study needs to be done. I saw some documentaries and high fructose corn sirup. Seems to be the mirror seems to be the problem over in Mr. Austin's district. I live over it. Well, no, that ain't him in his district. That's Lakewood. We got a fresh and easy over off of Paramount. I went there one day. I hadn't been there for a while. I go there. Boom. It's not there. It doesn't divide it. I see. I saw in the documentary how the high fructose corn sirup when it gets in your body. It was made in Japan lab so the body doesn't recognize the sugar, doesn't make insulin, so therefore the liver and the kidneys have to filter it out. My ex wife, she needs a new kidney. Everybody's coming down. If you can really do something about. We've got to get that out. Consider when I was a kid, wasn't killing off like that. We weren't highly obese, that high fructose corn sirup. So I'd say. Speaker 1: All right, thank you. So that concludes public comment. And we will now take it behind the railing. Remind the city council that the public did a fantastic job making their comments as they got it down to one minute. Let's see if our city council can do the same. Councilman Andrews No. Councilman. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 4: Yeah. I just like to say, you know, I'm. Speaker 0: A mom of a little. Speaker 4: Two and a half year old and I really appreciate both the medical field as well as the advocates for being here. Joycelyn I, we've talked about many different. Initiative. So I really appreciate it. And I know from my house personally that it is only good when my child has the ability to drink only water or milk. And I think for many other kids I remember back about I don't know, I want to say about eight years ago, I actually walked the first District from parks. We started at a park and we walked to the nearest food establishment. And on the way to the from the park to the food establishment, there were billboards advertising unhealthy meals. There are cracked sidewalks. So kids are having a tough time getting places, of course. And then, of course, at the even the little convenience stores, healthy, unhealthy food options are right in the front for kids to purchase right after school. And so I think this is a fantastic initiative. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce, for bringing this forward and I hope our council colleagues will vote in support. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 0: I would just like to make a friendly to add back in juice up to 40 calories. So I know you said no to the 60 calories. We have a business who's already making good choices and proactively doing the right thing in the community. And so I would hope that we would be able to thank them and use them as an example and allow them to maintain themselves. I'd like to hear from the from my my colleagues first. Sorry. Speaker 1: Councilman Price. Speaker 6: So I want to thank Councilwoman Pearce for bringing this item to and for taking the lead on it. I know she's done tremendous outreach and has genuinely expressed a willingness to incorporate other ideas and concepts into tonight's agenda item. And I appreciate that. I will say we do. Several of us here have business corridors in our district, so we wanted to make sure that the businesses were okay. And and I know I spoke with some of you who have been leading this and actually the businesses or most of them very, very supportive of this idea. I mean, they they're parents, too. And so it really wasn't something that many of them they couldn't really measure any sort of financial impact that it would have. And so I was very pleased to hear that and the support of the majority of the folks I spoke with and my business community. And I appreciate the folks that are bringing this forward because you did your own outreach, which was really fantastic. You went and you talked to business leaders and business communities and educated them about the benefits. And that really helps us a lot on our end, because then you've already done that work of educating them and letting them know what the options are. So I really appreciate that and I'm happy to support this item. And again, I want to thank my colleague for bringing it forward. Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 3: Thank you. And I'll support this motion. I've been a long time champion and believer of healthy options and choices, particularly for here at the city. I'm not exactly sure what happened to our efforts to do that. We'll have to get a report back. But healthy children grow into healthy adults. I think most of our businesses are actually doing this already. And so this is, I think, just a great step. And I'd like to see us do this even further for to encourage a healthier living for for all of our residents. Speaker 1: Thank you. I'll have my comments here before Councilmember Pearce closes it out. Obviously, this as this has my support. You know, five years ago when we when we passed a resolution become a heel city, we looked at the landscape and what this look like. And the politics were very different. And today you've seen that McDonald's and others have embraced this. And it makes a lot of sense. And frankly, you know, eating healthy shouldn't have to be the choice. That should be the standard. Eating bad should have to be the thing that you think about. Right. So we have to sort of rework how we sort of retool and break these cycles that have happened for generations about bad eating. So this this has my, my, my strong support. And congratulations, Councilmember. This is a great item for Councilman Pearce. Speaker 0: Thank you. I do want to apologize for running through the presentation kind of quickly. When I sat down, I had ran upstairs and run back downstairs. And so I definitely want to make sure we recognize that you guys really did a lot of the work when I first came into office a year ago. I spoke with a couple of my colleagues who had met with you guys, and we decided to start working on this. And when we talked about the businesses, we said, Well, we've got to do business outreach, you know, and you guys really did it. We mapped everything. We worked with our health department and really went out there and engaged with residents and businesses in the right way. And so I want to really just applaud Claudia, Alfred, Katy, you guys have really been fantastic. I also want to say how much I appreciated Kelly and our very own health department on this, and I wanted to just hear any last thoughts from you, Kelly, because I was going to call on you earlier, but I just went right on through. Go for it. Okay. My right. Speaker 2: Is that at the time that we have been participating in this partnership as part of the outreach and the design, and. Speaker 1: We are in full support. Speaker 2: Of this effort. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. In in reference to the friendly, I don't think I'll be accepting the friendly because I feel like, you know, sometimes we craft policy and we fear about which side is going to support us and which side isn't. I feel really confident that the businesses we've reached out to feel good about the choice without juice. That's what we talk to the businesses about up until the very last minute. And so knowing that knowing that the Pediatric Association and the Dental Association all say we need to reduce juice as much as possible, I feel like it's the right choice for our families. And because it is a choice and not a ban, that it's the right move to make. So I hope that you guys will vote in full support. Thank you. I want to thank my colleague for for trying to engage on it. I just feel like the work has kind of been done for a long time and that it's the right vote. So thank you. Speaker 1: Councilman Longo. Speaker 0: I urge you to reconsider. I mean, the work has been done, but that doesn't mean that it's 40 calories. It's a small amount and it's 103 calories. It's not a milk. It's not about the calories. Stacy went on mango. When we talk about juice on our on our teeth, we talk about decaying teeth. We talk about it eats away. It's not necessarily a calorie intake, 40%. Or 40 grams. And when I hear from doctors that say they don't recommend it at all, I want to I want to govern based on that. You know, it's a choice. It's not a mandate. You can say, I want juice. It's first choice. So if you if you go in and you say, I want to order this, you know, this kid's meal for my daughter, and you forget to say, Oh, I'll have a Coke with that, then the worker is going to say , Well, would you like milk or water with that? If you say No, I'd rather have apple juice, then you can have apple juice. So you're saying that on the menu it can show all three options. It'll have all the beverages somewhere else. But yeah, it's. What if you forget to offer something? Speaker 3: That's the question. Speaker 1: I excuse me. The conversation, the orientation behind the rail. Speaker 0: To make sure they have a choice. This is about choice. That's saying first healthy choice student. They could still order whatever they want to have to drink for their kid. I just feel like we have businesses who have proactively make it made steps to move in the right direction and now they're being subjected to additional regulations. And I feel that this I don't want to go into the details of it not being comprehensive, but I appreciate that doctors make recommendations. I appreciate that there's a best case scenario. I also appreciate the option for free choice and the ability for a community to make their own decisions. And they can say, honestly, sorry, and quite honestly, there are people who have had a terrible sugar upbringing and still seem to have excellent teeth and excellent gums and excellent athletic ability and are below the average weight of people of their height. It's a very comprehensive option and I'm just asking for a small friendly and I am very disappointed in the decision because I appreciate that there's 25 of you here who've done a lot of work and there are a thousand businesses in our community who may choose not to have kids meals. You've already taken out the main component of the original driver of the motion, which was that items I'm sorry, that packaged children's items were incentivized by toys. You already eliminated the toy component and made it food groups as a whole. And so I'm I'm shocked that there would be no option for compromise. I've even asked for it to be a lower calorie count and. Thank you anyway. Speaker 1: Councilmember Sabrina. One of the speakers tonight asked about the school district. I just went online and I wanted to ask staff if you have any coordination with the school district because they offer 100% free fruit juice with their meals and milk. Speaker 2: The school district has their own policies and to the day set, they set that structure. So we will if this when this goes through if this goes through, then we'll continue to have those conversations. We do a lot of health, education and nutrition eating. We run community gardens, all those kinds of things. But we would after this conversation tonight, we would continue to have that conversation with the school district. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Councilman Austin. Speaker 3: Just have to ask the question. And this may maybe for the city attorney or health department. But if a restaurant is found to not be in compliance with this ordinance, what would be the consequence? Speaker 2: So it is at this stage, the Environmental Health Department is it's doing its restaurant inspections will be adding a box as to whether it's complying with this. And they may be utilizing, as they do. Speaker 1: For other times when it's safe from real safety issues. They do a lot of education around why things. Speaker 2: Are needed to it, to actually an opportunity for the health department, to the. Speaker 1: Environment through environmental. Speaker 2: Health to educate folks about about why this is in place in. Speaker 1: It would be found, as you know, roads and roads. Speaker 2: Not taking place and we would be able to circle back in the future. And if every time that we go back after a couple of times in a certain place, then we would start here and. Speaker 1: Possibly be unfound. But at this rate, this is an educational tool. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilmember council members. You know, I think one of the reasons why I felt passionate about not accepting the friendly is because of my experience of working in a dental office and watching how much damage this does to kids and feeling like this is an item that is about first choice. We just went through a three plus hour exercise on compromise. I do hope that we as a council can recognize the work that's been done and the thought that's gone into two policies when they come up here and respecting that that process. So I will accept your friendly. At 14 at 40 calories. I think that this is a great policy moving forward and I think that people have done a great job. I hope that we can continue to see milk and water as the first choice. And the conversation around use and education is something that I hope, as we do our education campaign and outreach in the videos and things that we're working on that we highlight a difference in between that and water and milk. So I accept your friendly. Speaker 1: All right, Councilman Mondo. Speaker 0: I appreciate you accepting the friendly, especially because if we're going to have a talk about things like this, where the item published and circulated in the community says one thing, I think it's disingenuous to change it at the dais. And so if you weren't going to accept my friendly, I was going to ask that we even delay the motion a week to give the community the opportunity to read the item differently, because there are businesses that make decisions about the things they provide, and I'm happy to still advocate for them not to allow those juices, but for businesses that do, I think it's the right thing. And it also did a little bit of research and I talked to Vice Mayor Richardson about this earlier today, that some of our local smaller businesses that purchase bulk products at Costcos and Smart and Finals and the such, there are nearly no juice options under 90 calories that are 100% juice available for purchase in bulk, almost none. I walked the aisles, I looked into this and I did it because the item was published to the community in a way that included juice. And so I appreciate you accepting the friendly. Speaker 1: Thank you. And it seems like the theme of the night is consensus. Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: I think. Speaker 0: Motion case. Speaker 1: Fantastic. Congratulations. We will now move on. We've already handled the consent calendar. We've had the public comment. Now we'll take item number nine.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney and Department of Health and Human Services to draft an ordinance requiring all restaurants within Long Beach who have bundled Kid's Meals to offer water, milk or a 100% pure juice beverage that is under 60 calories as the "default" choice.

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Speaker 0: Motion carries. Speaker 1: Thank you. Number 12. Number 11, please. Speaker 0: Report from economic development recommendation to approve the downtown Long Beach. Speaker 4: Parking and Business Improvement Area Annual Report. Continuing the assessment for the. Speaker 0: Period of October one, 2017 through September. Speaker 6: 30, 2018, District one and two. Speaker 1: Thank you. Staff Report. Our Carmel has a brief one honorable place Mayor and members of the City Council. This item is the annual premier of the Downtown Garbage Parking and Business Improvement Area Ongoing Annual Assessment. The recommended recommended action on this item continues the assessment for another year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment nor significant changes in proposed activity. Therefore, staff request that the City Council approve the annual report and continue the levy of the assessment and authorize the city manager to extend the agreement for one additional year. That concludes my report. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 4: Thank you for the staff report. Speaker 1: Thank you. PEARCE Councilmember Pierson. Okay. Any public comment on this item saying no members, please cast your vote. Speaker 0: Motion carries. Speaker 1: Thank you. Can I just make one motion for all the rest? I'm joking. Item number 12, please.

Contract

Recommendation to approve the Downtown Long Beach Parking and Business Improvement Area (DLBPBIA) Annual Report continuing the DLBPBIA assessment for the period of October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018; and authorize City Manager, or designee, to extend the agreement with the Downtown Long Beach Alliance for a one-year term. (Districts 1,2)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 6: Thank you. Have hearing number two, please. Speaker 1: Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation under the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution adopting mitigated negative declaration and deny the appeal for more than BlueSky representing the Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve a site plan, review standards, variance and conditional use permit for construction of 365 foot high for 44,500 square foot buildings for a 300 megawatt battery storage facility on the Alamitos Generating Station property located at 69 zero North Studebaker Road in the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan Area District three. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Speaker 2: I yes. I believe an oak is required for this item. Yes. Speaker 6: Okay. If there's an oath. Mr.. Ms.. Madam Clerk, can you administer the oath? Speaker 1: Witnesses, please stand. Do you and each of you solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the courts now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. Modica. Speaker 2: Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the staff report. We will have a presentation from Linda Tatum, our planning bureau manager, and Carrie Tai, our current planning officer. Speaker 5: I'd like to turn this item. Speaker 3: Over to Carrie. Speaker 5: Tay, who will do the staff presentation. But I'd just like to acknowledge the support and assistance that Kerry received on this project from the. Speaker 3: The project. Speaker 5: Planners. Scott Kinzie and Alexis Oropeza. Speaker 3: Kerry. Speaker 4: Thank you. Good evening. Mayor Garcia and the city council before you tonight is an appeal of the Planning Commission's decision to adopt a mitigated negative declaration and approve a site plan reviewing standards variance and conditional use permit for a battery storage project at the AEC site. And there's a PowerPoint presentation on the screen. And so just a quick description of the site. The project site is located at the existing Alamitos Generation Station site, east of Studebaker Road, south of the 22 Freeway and west of the San Gabriel River. The yellow outline on the screen shows the northern portion of the site, and the red outline shows where the proposed buildings would be located. I will note that the site is large enough that it actually goes off the screen and the southern portion of the site is actually in the coastal zone. However, you'll see from the the red portion on the north that none of that is within the coastal zone. The property directly to the north of the site, just for context, is the Southern California Edison Switchyard. And then the site's entrance is just south. Speaker 3: Of. Speaker 4: The the 22 eastbound on ramp there. There's a Signalized intersection that leads into a guarded gate entry and the site is not open to the general public and it's guarded 24 hours a day. So just some context on the existing structures on the site. Here are some photographs of the site. And the upper left photo is one of the generating generating units. It is approximately 160 feet tall. The upper right photo is from the eastern edge of the project site, looking west towards Studebaker Road. And basically the parking lot here shows where the proposed buildings would be. The lower right photo is from the project site looking over north to the switchyard and then the lower left. I'm sorry, the lower yeah, the lower right looks at the units and the lower left is standing from the southern edge of the project site, basically in front of that generating unit looking north toward the to the switchyard. The three proposed buildings total 44,550 square feet each. They would be constructed, like I mentioned, just south of the Switchyard there. So you see them up here on the screen. The building closest to Studebaker Road would be set back over 300 feet from Studebaker Road. The buildings are 50 feet tall, but on the rendering you can see there's a sloping roof element and that results in the maximum building height at the front of the buildings, 65 feet tall. There would be associated landscaping and site improvements, and there are also existing parking areas on the site that would accommodate for the buildings. And it is anticipated that the buildings will take about five employees to maintain. Speaker 3: So just some quick. Speaker 4: Building elevations here. The building elevations are on the screen. They're also in your agenda packet. The buildings are designed in a modern esthetic with clean lines and primarily neutral colors. The color scheme reflects the AEC sort of color branding, if you will. And while the buildings have no windows and generally resemble basically data server buildings, there is significant architectural articulation that has been incorporated to ensure that there is even some visual interest, despite the significant setback from the road. So there are several entitlements that are required for this application. And just a little bit of clarification, this project is only for the buildings and only for battery storage that is regulated under the city's zoning regulations. Power generation is regulated by the California Energy Commission, which is a state agency, and then power distribution is regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. And so that's why the request is only for the buildings and only for the battery storage. The three entitlements are the site plan review approval for the construction of the buildings. The standards variance would be to allow the 365 foot tall buildings because the sea dip, which is the Southeast Area Development Improvement Plan, has an. Speaker 3: Overall allowable. Speaker 4: Height of 35 feet. Even though the sub area is zoned industrial and industrial is allowed 60 feet in the rest of the city. And then a conditional use permit is approved. Approval is required for battery storage facilities because they are considered gas, electric and sanitary services. In terms of environmental review, an initial study and a mitigated negative declaration were prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. That document was circulated twice, the first in the fall of 2016 and the second in the summer of this year, 2017, due to project an architectural changes, namely to the building height. Because in working with the city, the applicant incorporated a more defining architecture onto the building. As a result of the recirculation. There were comment letters received, three of them to be specific, and staff did provide supplemental information regarding the topics received in the comment letters. Those were presented to the Planning Commission and also in the City Council packet. In terms of public noticing, I wanted to give this some attention because there is a distinct detail here. The public noticing consisted of the standard 750 foot radius mailing to property owners and occupants as well as nearby neighborhood groups. However, the Long Beach Municipal Code requires that for all building height, variances, story poles be put up. Now there are existing overhead power lines and also regulatory limitations that prevented a putting the placement of storage poles in on the site in its existing condition. Speaker 3: So therefore. Speaker 4: In consultation with the city attorney's office as well as the applicants regulatory agencies, visual simulations showing the building height from different vantage points were provided. And we were we mailed those to the radius as well, as well as posted that on site on posters. Oh, how'd that happen? So on August 3rd, 2017, the Planning Commission conducted a public hearing, heard public testimony, and voted to adopt mitigated negative declaration for the project as well as approve the project within the ten day appeal period on August 8th, Warren Lisowski of the Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development filed an appeal, citing the inappropriate use of a mitigated negative declaration and also that an environmental impact report should be prepared for impacts to wetlands and the coastal zone. So with that, I did want to mention that to reiterate that the environmental was prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. And as a result of the initial study, it was found that the project with mitigation would not have significant impacts to the environment, and that's why the mitigated negative declaration was prepared. There is a mitigation, monitoring and reporting program that accompanies the documents for the project's approval, and therefore staff finds that the appeal does not have merit , and with that recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution to adopt the mitigated negative declaration, deny the appeal, and also uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project. Thank you. And that concludes staff's presentation. I would like to mention that the city's environmental consultant is with us, and I know the applicant is here and the appellant is here as well. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. So the applicant is here. You have an opportunity to come forward and you have a reasonable amount of time to add to the add to the discussion. So would you like to provide comments? Speaker 2: It's the appellant Vice Mayor. Speaker 6: The applicant doesn't get an opportunity to speak before the appellant. Okay. Well, let's start with the appellant. Thank you. So let's have 2 minutes. Speaker 2: Vice Mayor. I think Mr. Olsavsky came in after the oath was provided. So if we could. Let's do the oath. Minister, you. Speaker 1: Do you solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Speaker 8: I will. Speaker 6: Thank you. Mr. Pisarski was 10 minutes up for. Speaker 8: I'd like 3 minutes to report as well. Speaker 6: Well, let's start with the comments and then the applicant gets to rebut since you speak first. Speaker 8: Yeah, but at the last appeal hearing the mayor allowed. So is short about time. I'm fine with 10 minutes plus three. I don't think I'll even use all of it. Speaker 6: Okay, that's fine. Thanks. So. So what? You mean you want to give it all right now, 30 minutes from. Speaker 8: Now and three, if there's anything that stuff says that I might have. Speaker 6: Necessary to see the attorney. Okay, that's fine. Thank you. Go for it. Speaker 8: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor and City Council. My name is Warren Blue, Soft Sky, Long Beach Citizens for Further Development. I just wanted to give a little context to our appeal. It's a pretty interesting climate here in Long Beach. Around the land. Land use issues. I guess an exciting time to be a politician. We've got standing room only town halls across town that the newspaper reports are being taken over by liberal citizen groups. So I think that's probably exciting for the council, Mr. Mayor, and it's also exciting for us as environmental community activists to see this upswing of community involvement. There's a term known as the Urban Growth Machine, some smart guys, scholars M.H. and Logan wrote in their book Urban Fortunes. And basically the idea is that capital seeks to get the maximum possible profit from land, because in a city like Long Beach, the land is the most important commodity in terms of how you can get profit. So the developers looking for the highest exchange value, but the residents of the city, we see the city in a different way. We see the city in how it's used and how it can better our lives. And so we know on the national level the government's not going to help us on the national level. And so really, cities are the last bastion of progressive politics. And so that's why we bring this appeal before you tonight. I have enter I sent you all a letter today from our Counsel Coast Law Group, and I'd like to just briefly run through this. This project has significant impacts and sequel calls for an environmental impact report when there are significant impacts. Also, this project is going to affect the views in the area that the developers renderings are not to scale. And really, in the absence of the story, poles that are part of the city code and now have been waived by the Planning Commission. Really it doesn't give the citizens an opportunity to see how these 70 to 75 foot buildings in the sea area where there's a 35 foot commercial height limit, so a solid 40 feet over the height limit. How that conditional use variance helps. Long Beach. Also, I think the biggest problem with this project is not battery storage itself, but it's the location of this battery tower. This battery tower is the largest battery array that will be deployed anywhere in the world, the largest one. And so, you know, Los Angeles County has other areas, quote unquote, wasteland areas that could or better suited for this battery tower. If you go ahead and look at the figure on the screen, you can see that the property and the project site are less than a mile away from the low cerritos wetlands, less than 500 feet away from the Los Rios Channel, directly bordering the San Gabriel River. And if you look at that neighborhood there, I think that's the hole right between Loynes and Studebaker. You've got hundreds of homes right there across the street from this 90,000 gallons of lithium ion. 90,000 gallons. Let's think about the Samsung note five. When Samsung came out with that phone. You couldn't bring one milliliter of it on an airplane. Everyone heard about it. You couldn't bring a Samsung note on an airplane. And they want to put 90,000 gallons of that between our wetlands, between the rivers and near thousands of homes. It's not a good place for this. Furthermore, there's never been a fire study that's been done on a battery array of this size. So even the fire departments and the fire hazard consultants don't know how to put out a fire that's caused by this size lithium ion batteries. They did some smaller testings. I have submitted those quotations in my letter, and it was very difficult to put these lithium ion fires out. Also, lithium ion fires release toxic gases, toxic chemicals. And when I objected to this project at this site at the Planning Commission, I noted that there was that there was the same day as a budget hearing, the same week as a budget hearing in this body. And there was no additional money being allocated to the fire department. And so your staff responded to that in their staff report saying, oh, Long Beach has 21 or 23 fire stations and we're also part of the local joint fire authority. And so other cities will come help us put out the fire when this inevitably happens on this battery array. All it could take is some storm surge like we saw in Houston, like we saw in Puerto Rico a couple of feet over to get into the electronics of this building. And once the cooling system goes out, you can easily have a meltdown. It's not a nuclear meltdown, but it's a lithium ion meltdown. It releases toxic chemicals. And I ask you to have you consulted with your fire chief to ask him if he knows how to deal with 90,000 gallons of toxic, flammable lithium ions and the gases it releases, it releases hydrogen, hydrofluoric acid as a gas. That's the same chemical that the residents in Torrance were fighting against at the refinery there. So that's what that's what you're. The potential fire damage can happen if there's some type of failure in the cooling system that's needed to keep these batteries cool all the time. So what's the big picture? The big picture is this part parcel in this property are part of the wetlands. They might not be officially part of the wetlands complex, but go ahead and look at this map on the screen. You've got the loss of Rita's channel on one side, the San Gabriel River on the other side, and the wetlands right across the street. So just because 75 years of bad decision making were made on our precious water, air and land resources on this side of town, the city does not need to continue to facilitate. These mistakes are being made. The environmentalists. We thought that the city should have intervened in the S.E.C. process, building a new gas fired power plant on this site. And yet the city chose not to intervene. So the city should use its zoning power, Mr. Mayor. And. Not make this the wasteland of Long Beach anymore. This area should be restored along with the rest of the wetlands. I urge you to grant our appeal, denied a conditional use permit and add some sensible planning to dangerous 70 foot flammable buildings in close proximity to residences. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. Is there a staff or applicant rebuttal at this time? Thank you. We'll give you 5 minutes. Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. My name is Steven Kane. I'm with a yes. I'm director of Sustainability and Compliance. Thank you, vice mayor and council members for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I did have a quick couple of slides prepared. I'm not sure if you were able to get those up. I don't want to go through a point by point rebuttal. You had all the written material. We've been through. The City Planning Commission staff has done an excellent job of detailing the the laws, ordinances, regulations that apply the mitigation measures that are in place and why any are not required for this project. And that DEC would be. But I would like to give you a little more background and context to exactly what this energy storage project is and what this project means and what it'll do for the city, our electrical grid and the state. The AC element is very energy storage project is truly the definition of a sustainable energy project. The entire purpose of this development is to enable greater integration of clean, renewable energy into the electrical grid that serves Long Beach and will result in the retirement of existing inefficient fossil fuel generation and pave the way for the eventual demolition removal of the old power plant on State of Studebaker Road. This project is economically viable, environmentally responsible and result in greater quality of life for those residents living closest to the plan. I brought the only two images to share with you to try and demonstrate the amazing transformation we can affect at the AC Alamitos Generating Station, which is located at one of the few eastern entrances to our city. What we saw before us was a two scale, a two scale Photoshop the simulation of the proposed energy storage buildings, which would be 50 feet in height. The other building 65 to the top of that architectural feature. So a little bit lower than what the appellant stated there. And the next slide here is units one and two at at Alamitos. These these are the two units that are right at the entrance to the plant closest to the Studebaker road and represent the same amount of generating capacity of those three buildings. We can take three quiet, innocuous buildings, barely visible from a public vantage point with no stacks, no emissions, essentially zero water use other than a couple of restrooms. And we we can replace that. Excuse me. We can replace 350 megawatts of gas fired generation, which require us to store 75,000 gallons of oil there. 20,000 gallons of aqueous ammonia for pollution control, 3000 megawatt hours of lead acid battery. That's all what's there right now? And so we will replace it with something much less hazardous. And we would these units emit up to 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. A battery energy storage system emits zero. And if anybody who lives within a few miles of this plant, occasionally these 60 year old units, they get a system fault. And it might be a little bit noticeable when we have to release steam. That kind of noise will also be completely eliminated with the use of three buildings to to provide the electrical service to this area. This project and others like it is critical to expanding our reliance on clean, renewable energy and reducing our dependance on fossil fuels. In Southern California, we're blessed with an abundance of solar power, but not able to harness that power to use it now or when we most need it in the evenings and at night, as opposed to when as generated during the daytime, we've got to store it. And an energy storage system is one of those critical components that is going to help us manage our grid much more effectively. You've also heard that this project, or better than you described, is a bit of new, unproven technology. I will use the term transformative technology, but certainly not new and unproven, as has been operating lithium ion battery storage units since 2008 and in constructed systems across the U.S. and the world. Today we have systems operating in the UK, the Netherlands, Philippines, Chile, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona and California. And in fact, just south of here earlier this year, 120, 120 megawatt hour system was commissioned for San Diego Gas and Electric, which is currently the largest system in the world. The Alamitos project would would be the next one on that list, but I doubt we'll keep that title. This is new. Technology is being implemented and embraced around the world in electrical grid systems everywhere. In order for us to clean up our grid, reduce emissions, reduce our water consumption and reduce noise. I know it's a bit strange getting really excited about batteries and power generation, but I hope you feel some of that energy. Pardon the pun, as this will really will be transformative for the views for the city, the noise, the reduction in emissions and the greater integration of renewable energy. So I urge you to take the staff's recommendation and deny this appeal of the Planning Commission's decision. I thank you, and I'm available for any questions you may have. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Appreciate that. We're going to go in to the appellant does have an opportunity to rebuttal, so we're going to give the appellant, Mr. City Attorney, I think we should. 3 minutes. Speaker 8: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I E.S. is does not care about the environment. Okay. S is one of the largest coal burning companies in the world. Okay. So they're disingenuous when they say that. They're also disingenuous when they show you a picture of the old plant is going to get torn down and fail to let you know that a new one's going up right next to it. That's gas fired. So. But he has made a mistake and they put a lot of research and energy into these battery towers and now they're trying to dig themselves out of that hole at Long Beach's expense. Don't let these be the 20 teens Enron at the expense of Long Beach citizens. They don't care about renewable energy. They just care about their bottom line. They had this site between the wetlands and the San Gabriel River. And they're going to put thousands and thousands of toxic flammable gases and liquids on this site. So once again, I urge you to simply. Approve this appeal to dine the conditional use permit. And let them go get an environmental impact report so that the citizens, the homeowners that live in the hole across the street. Those of us that take Studebaker Road every day. Those of us that are affected by these toxic proposal on our wetlands get a chance to enter in to the environmental discussion. That's what Zeke was there for. That's what environmental reviews are for. And finally, I'm glad that the representative from AP has brought up the fact that the old plants coming down and the new plants going up and this battery tower is going to go up all on the same site. They're calling it the Alamitos Energy Complex. And. If there's not a better example of piece mealing underscore this is it. You should not have signed an mou you to tear down the old power plant, not entered into the process for the new gas fired power plant and the acceptance of this battery tower. This is one project seek what has tearing guidelines that these environmental reviews should have been done in a stepwise tiered manner so that this piecemeal thing that's happened and this wonderful I mean, the gentleman said that the residents of the city are going to enjoy the view of these buildings. Hardly, hardly. We want our wetlands back. The petroleum industry has run roughshod over Long Beach for long enough, and it's time for us to get our resources back. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. We're going to go ahead. That concludes the appellant and the applicant comments. We're going to go to public comment now and then we'll go back to the deliberation from the council. So any public comment now would be the time. Speaker 2: Very good. In all candor, I had not really gotten inside of that issue of the environmental aspect. But it's obviously is a problem and we haven't done our homework. I'd feel more comfortable in the beginning if they would sign an agreement that this this. The gentleman that spoke in favor of them will commit to in writing that his family would live there forevermore and in succeeding generations. There's obviously we haven't done our homework. And we need to go back and look at that. So that's certainly that's part ugly, but I don't think from what I understand, the other side is going to be any different, but it's the danger there is. Lurking there. And as a good faith gesture, they should have they had no problem saying, okay, our CEO and the gentleman who made the presentation will commit in writing that he and his family will live in the immediate area now and for future generations after. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 9: Could I have the start when I start speaking? I've already lost five, 7 seconds. Speaker 0: Go ahead. I always let people go a few minutes, minutes, seconds after if they need it. Speaker 9: Go ahead, Lee. Speaker 0: Go ahead. Misconstrue. I'll go ahead and start. Speaker 9: When I start talking. Speaker 0: Go ahead. Speaker 9: Good evening. And Cantrell. And I'd like to remind you. About Sequoia. There are several levels of Sequoia. And one of them is. A complete environmental impact report that was not done for this project. What they did was a lesser environmental impact report, which is called a negative declaration, which means, oh, there's nothing wrong here. We don't have to mitigate anything. We'll just build this. Even though the height limit in this area is 35 feet. We're going to make it 65 feet. And I was kind of amused by the fact that the design of this roof can have future solar panels on it. If this is going to be for solar, put solar panels on it to begin with. I'm really concerned about the safety of the people not only living around this area, but on the freeways. We've just seen what happens when a fire hits a place and there's a lot of wind. Imagine what will happen if this facility catches on fire to the whole area around here. And I doubt there is a fire company near that has a 65 foot ladder to access this building. Councilmember Price, this is your district, and I know the rest of you look to the councilperson whose district these issues are in for guidance . So please, will you please protect the people not only of your district, but of all of Long Beach? And I'd like to also remind you why we have these power plants in the location they are. It's because they use the water from the San Gabriel River and the Los Cerritos Channel to cool. But they are no longer allowed to use this water. And so these plants do not have to be in this location. As Mr. Plastic said, there's other places in California where this would be a much better place to put this than in of highly populated. Speaker 0: Thank you, Ms.. Control. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 0: Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Your becoming. And it started racing that clock. Anna Kristensen, local resident since 1945. And in some ways I feel like this is kind of a Groundhog Day moment. Most of you on the council and in this room were too young to remember the phrase What's good for Westinghouse is good for America. Speaker 2: Westinghouse built the. Speaker 3: Nuclear power plant in Japan that went down during the tsunami. This is a tsunami zone just south of this area. Maybe you remember when. Speaker 2: The council. Speaker 3: Came back and said over here and the extra panelists presented a project for Long Beach, a liquefied natural gas facility, to be located in our harbor just offshore. And as the expert. Speaker 2: Talked about, a firestorm. Speaker 3: That stretched would stretch to San Diego should this particular fluid that none of us knew much about. Speaker 2: Explode. Speaker 3: Our mayor passed notes about. Speaker 2: Real estate to our. Speaker 3: Third district city councilman. I'm looking today. I don't. Oh, Mr. West decided to leave. He was just visiting with Mr. Modica. When somebody was talking about public safety. We need you. We need you to help us be safe. We need our 100 plus thousand dollar salaried Long Beach Development Services to be our protectors. All right. And just for context, as the developer said or the staff said, just for context. Right. Just south of this amazing. Speaker 2: Transformation that's at pure. Speaker 3: AD and the amazing transformation that this facility is going to occur runs the Newport-Inglewood earthquake fault line. All right. An earthquake fault line that caused the 1933 earthquake and according to some scientists at Caltech, was triggered by a single oil well, a single little thing or just nature. And this is a real thing. This is a fault line. Now, we're not the right messengers. It's obvious. Nobody's looking at me except for Mr. Super Stacy. Just what? Pisarski me and control. Speaker 2: Your local. Speaker 3: Environmentalists. We know that. We know where we are. We're used to it. We come here all the time, and we're. We're consistently used to it. But but every once in a while, you know, Mr. Modica, it's not or I'm sorry, it's Chris that said that over there. It's not just in a Christian sense opinion, it's the Coastal Commission's opinion that some things are dangerous. Why would a developer tell you something is dangerous? That if he doesn't have to, that's your job to figure this out. I don't know if any of you on the council other than Mr. Duran, who's also on the coast commission, really read it. But I would just ask you, you know, I know the young people. I met them the other night at a public meeting that work for Long Beach Development Services. They're nice. They're nice young people and older people. These people work hard for a living, but it's not enough. It's never been enough for us and Long Beach. And that's why the city gets sued over Home Depots. And that's why we we don't we don't want to have to do that. I want you to take your time to make it right. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. My name is Arthur Shopper. Speaker 8: I am a resident of Torrance, California. What sparked my interest to speak on this matter was for someone to make references to the upheaval regarding the Torrance refinery and the fact it is it is a very diligent, yet small, yet loud contingent on the vast majority of residents, including myself, who have lived there for the greater part of our lives, feel no threat to our safety. And I think it's a disconcerting aspect when someone says we've had lots of people overwhelming town halls trying to scare or diminish or intimidate elected officials away from projects. And I think it's very important to keep that in mind. I am a direct I have been affected by that. Many people in our community are affected by that. I understand mitigating concerns regarding this project will affect other people. All in and around the L.A. basin here. But the fact of the matter is it's important that we have a cool head regarding all projects with the attitude I hear from some environmental activists. It's almost as if they wouldn't want anything built at all. So just I feel compelled to make a comment about that. It bothers me when people want to use a talking point from something in my city in order to stop a project which is followed other procedures as is needed. Torrance We're not big fans of the loud green lobby. Speaker 0: That essentially wants. Speaker 2: To shut down our refinery, and you can be sure it will affect. Speaker 8: People in this city. As I know you have employees in the city who work in that refinery. And I'm certain that with this project, as it goes forward, you'll have more jobs, you'll have sustainable growth, you'll have an opportunity to do what's good for the environment as well as for the city. So don't allow a small contingent of loud green activists pressure you or intimidate you. It's all it's all bark and no bite. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. I believe it's the responsibility of the city council to looked after the interests of the people in the environment of Long Beach. Speaker 6: I think that's the main priority, right? Speaker 2: I believe a full impact report is needed for this. Speaker 6: The guy talked about how they're minimizing. Speaker 2: The waste from the existing structure and how it's so much better than the past. It's we have new technology now and we have a new understanding of how. Speaker 6: How our technology impacts the natural environment. Speaker 2: And so it's about finding out how the full impact. Speaker 6: Of to the environment. Speaker 2: Affects us. And we need a full. Speaker 6: Report to do that. We can't just measure how much better we are from the past. And it's it's important to the environment, to the people here. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. And we have I'm closing the speakers list. So it's we have four speakers left in the speakers list. I'm sorry, Mr. Austin Harris, are you going to speak, too? Okay. So the five speakers and then the speakers list is closed. Please continue. Speaker 9: Hi. This is carelessly and you have my address on file. What I wanted to bring up was your business evaluation of this. Having worked in aerospace for 25 or 30 years as a manager, I went through many project reviews. In every project review. It's the same discipline, it's cost, quality and schedule. And then you take a long, hard look at risk. And what I'm hearing here today is that we don't have our arms around the risk. There's something called a kill zone that, you know, I haven't heard mentioned. And normally with something that has this kind of an environmental impact, you would want to know if there was any kind of a natural disaster. What is the kill zone? I know no one on this council would want to be responsible for looking backwards, even when you're gone. If suddenly this thing went down and some huge fire occurred, you need to at least ask for the air, ask for the full amount of information you can get before you make this decision. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: My name is Janet West, and I live in. Speaker 1: District four. Speaker 3: And I. I was at the torn city council meeting when they discussed the explosion there and the debris that landed ten feet from the tank that carried that chemical that I now understand is. Speaker 1: Going to be at this bad battery. Speaker 3: Tower. The most vivid thing from that meeting was a kill zone map, and it came to East Long Beach from Torrance. And I heard no one, no one dispute that there would have been a kill zone if that tank had been breached. So I ask you to please take that into consideration and do a full. A full. Yeah. Yeah. Of this this development. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Actually, I'm going to have Miss Emily now. Dustin Harris. You'll be next. Speaker 9: I am Francis Smith's. Mary's and I reside in District one. While this is a subject matter that's kind of beyond my level of expertize, certainly with the background that I have in nursing and other things. But I'm kind of sitting here and I'm thinking about all that took place to get here today because there's a lot of different things that occurred for us to get here today. And I'm hearing both sides and everyone has a right to have, you know, their opinion on the right side or the left side, so to speak. But when there was mention about as other areas are a better place to put this, if I, I didn't hear where the other areas are. And then when I think about the future and they speak about like lack of trauma, impulse threats, I feel comfortable that the buildings contained that in a way there's no emissions. I was kind of wondering why they didn't have any windows, but I think it's a good idea because nothing can leak out. And so I understand about the wetlands, but you really have a hard decision on. The site, the charm. And I'm glad I'm not sitting among the seats right now at this moment. And I wish you the best in the course of making that decision. But I believe that is I just can't see how we got here today. And it's not pretty finite that this that which way to go on this thing. And I feel comfortable that whatever decision you make is going to be the best interest of the city of Long Beach. And the fact that we have to have battery storage factors to reduce a mess and there's not going to be emissions. I feel comfortable on that. So I just try to share that with you and thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Speaker 0: And next up, believe is person. Speaker 3: Thank you. My first comment. Larry, could you fill that in? Because if the owners this is a private company and if they just live on the premises. I agree. Just just set a condo right up in their in the construction and commit to be there because it's that safe. The next would be the insurance policy for the range of damage for each person that would be that would be impacted should a crisis occur. Individual insurance policies for each family member in each house should be part of this company's commitment to this community. Emergency. Emergency plans for residences. Evacuations should be in place and each house should have a copy risk benefit plan monitoring because it's all going to boil down to money. So start paying the dividends. Now, the moment they open the plant, pay some dividends to the residents, to the community from the moment they turn a switch. Each member of the community gets paid not because the damage has occurred, but because the fear factor not being able to sleep is like the airplanes flying over. This is this is more damaging to the emotional life than the airplanes over their heads. You cannot hold lithium in your hand. For a very long period of time without your skin starting to do something negative. So the fear factor alone, even if it's mitigated so-called but we don't have an environmental report, so we don't know. But even if it's not legitimate fear, pay for it because the plant's going to be real. The plan's going to be a real thing. And the fear that is maybe that is presented just by having that lived. When I left the Amato, I didn't plan to speak on that, but here I am living. Okay. Let's remove the monetary benefit to the city if there is any. Billionaire somebody somebody a billionaire. His daughter comes up with breast cancer. They say spare no expense. Speaker 2: Or doctor spare no expense. Speaker 3: I just want my daughter. Well. We're saying to this company. No environmental report do you need? We're telling them we're going to let you spare some expense. Oh, don't go through all the stuff necessary for a normal citizen to feel good about this. Put the plan up. It's going to be good. Oh, okay. Well, thank you. We're going on one of. Word only. Oh, no. This is more dangerous than the airplanes flying over. After 9 p.m.. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Next speaker for our final speaker. Speaker 3: Okay. I'm Karen Reside and I live in the first district and I've actually gone to a number of meetings hosted by the county and actually looked at the science related. You know, we all carry lithium ion batteries in our cell phones. We carry them all around with us every day. I'm also one of those wild green environmentalist, but I like to look at what the science says. This plant is a great thing. It is going to reduce and a significant amount of pollution and clean up a big environmental mess at the power station. Speaker 1: When I was growing up. Speaker 3: My family went to the Colorado lagoon and when I was in high school, I had boyfriends that surfed. One of the big issues with the lagoon and going out surfing in local facilities was the fact that the water was heated at it, encouraged the growth and development of jellyfish and sharks coming up. The channels and the beaches would be blackballed and we couldn't go in the water. That was because of the heated water that was necessary to cool the gas fired plant. I can't wait for that plant to go away. The battery operated system is going to actually move us into the next phase and help us reach our emission goals of going to zero emissions by 2030 as a state. So there are people that do support this plant and can't get it in fast enough. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes public comment. We're going to go now deliberate from the city council. I'll start with Councilman Price. Speaker 5: Thank you. I want to thank the appellant and the members of the public who spoke as well as the applicant. I'm going to ask staff a few questions regarding some of the statements that were made. First of all, is there are there any statements in particular? I know that the appellant made a lot of statements and and allegations that that perhaps weren't entirely based on fact. But are there any statements in in particular that were made that should perhaps be corrected in terms of the record moving forward? Speaker 4: Thank you. A councilwoman and place for your for your questions. I jotted down several topics and I would like to just clarify. First of all, I noticed the reference to the wetlands, and I would like to clarify that the site is not in the wetlands. And in fact, in terms of measurement, whether you're measuring from the entrance or from the closest proposed building to Studebaker Road, the measurement is about 1800 feet to 2000 feet to the nearest point of the low cerritos wetlands. Second, I would also like to point out that as part of the City Council's recent approval of the C CIP, the southeast area specific plan, the site and its immediate immediate area there between Studebaker Road and the San Gabriel River was zoned industrial. And and on a side note, actually, that zoning has a height limit of 65 feet. And so based on the future zoning, the proposed height of the buildings would be in complete compliance with what the zoning is with regard to in safety. And actually, let me talk about fire with regard to the appellant mentioned. Speaker 3: The the. Speaker 4: Fire resources of the city and the well-known procedure of mutual aid when when firefighting resources need to share jurisdictions. You know, even as we speak right now, Long Beach has a firefighter team over in Anaheim. So I would like to point out that certainly what is cited in the environmental document with regard to firefighting resources is a is a current and ongoing practice. And also that all new development pays into public service fees, impact fees. And so there would be development impact fees associated with new development of that would pay for additional needs and services. One more note about regulations, the environment. I'm sorry. The initial study does include a discussion about on hazardous materials and specifically with regard to lithium ion cells and electrolyte within them. There are existing regulations that any building or facility or use of batteries must comply with. And given the existing regulatory infrastructure that the business and or building must comply with, there are regulations in place to ensure the safety of battery storage as. Well as those who work around them. And lastly, with regard to the review of the proposed project in association with the Alamitos Energy Center, the appellant cited that this might be an example of piece mealing, and I would like to point out that this project actually is not physically connected to the generation units. Rather it actually connects to the switchyard to store surplus energy in order to feed surplus energy back into the grid during times when extra energy is needed. This type of facility could actually go anywhere except that there was a available site and piece of land here and a convenient connection to the Southern California Edison Switchyard So those are several points that I heard. If you have any additional questions, I'd be happy to address them. Thank you. Speaker 5: No, and I has one. I would like to just add one other item that the appellant mentioned that was carefully looked at. And just to note that it is in compliance with all state, federal and local requirements regarding the seismic. There are very specific building codes that address seismic structures. And due to the sensitive nature of this structure, we, of course, at the staff level are really concerned or careful to make sure that any facility of this type are completely compliant with all of the building codes, especially as they relate to seismic safety. Okay. And I appreciate staff answering those questions. I think it's it's always good for us to have a healthy debate about projects that are being proposed for the city. But I think it's important when we have that debate that we're all operating on the same fact sheet. And so when I'm hearing things that perhaps are inconsistent with what staff has reported, I think it's important. And we have a duty to actually correct that record as we engage in the conversation. And so I appreciate that that correction there in regards to allegations or implications of any sort of increased danger to the community by virtue of the implementation of this project. Is there any data or research that would suggest that there's any truth whatsoever to those allegations? The staff is not aware of any any immediate risk or danger regarding the particular type of facility that's posed here. As the applicant mentioned, this this type of facility or facilities of this nature have been built in other locations around the state and around the the world. However, the size of this is what makes this one extraordinary, but the size does not equate to any additional risk in terms of the the technology and the type of facility it's being operated. And that's important. I ask that question because according to some of the comments that were made, I think I and our city attorney both live in the kill zone. So I just want to make sure that that is a risk that is mitigated, if at all there. But I also want to highlight and I think some of the comments that were made, this is a battery storage facility, not a coal mining operation, is that correct? Because I heard some references to coal mining and I was a little confused how that relates to the item. It does not relate at all. This is a battery and it's the energy storage that they're not producing. They're storing the energy on this facility. Okay. Well, I want to I'm going to be moving this forward and recommending to my colleagues that this appeal be denied. I think that it's very important to highlight a few key things that staff has already pointed out and regards to some of the the factual inaccuracies in the statements made by the appellant in regards to the designation of the wetlands, in regards to the height requirements or the height limits, in regards to procedures for public safety services to this area, in regards to the existing infrastructure that's already in place and what this means to it, if at all. I do want to say that, you know, one of the comments that was made was, you know, well, maybe the folks who are proposing this should live in the area. And although it's not relevant nor appropriate to talk about specific addresses of people who run this company, I will tell you that at the very highest levels of management, they do live in the area. And I think that says a lot. When people are willing to stand by a project in such a way that they'll say they're there exposing themselves to the very same risks that are being complained of, as has thus far been an incredible community partner to the third district. They have had numerous community outreach meetings with residents who live in the immediate area. Although the appellant may have been at some of them, I don't personally recall the appellant having been to them. A lot of these issues were discussed at many of the hearings and so on. I think A has gone above and beyond to try to address the concerns of the residents and some of the misinformation in regards to the the potential risks. Again, this is a highly specialized area of expertize, and our city staff did a tremendous job working with the regulatory agencies and within this area of subject matter expertize to identify potential concerns and to work through them and come up with the proposal that they did. I fully support this project and I ask my colleagues to deny the appeal and allow this project to move forward. And I thank everyone for expressing their their opinions in such a respectful way. Thank you. Speaker 0: Q Thank you. There's a motion to deny the appeal, and there's a second by Councilman Austin. Councilmember Pierce. Nope. So I'm sorry. So there's a motion in a second. No other council comments. Members, please go out and cast your vote on the motion, which is to deny the appeal. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt resolution adopting Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND 02-16); and Deny the appeal from Warren Blesofsky representing Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development; and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Site Plan Review, Standards Variance, and Conditional Use Permit for construction of three 65-foot-high, 44,500-square-foot buildings for a 300-megawatt battery storage facility on the Alamitos Generating Station property located at 690 North Studebaker Road, in the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP/PD-1) area. (District 3)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10102017_17-0891

Speaker 0: Motion carries. When moving on to hearing item three The last hearing please. Speaker 1: Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and accept statutory exemption. 17-136 Declare ordinance amending various sections of Title 21 of the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to accessory dwelling units. Read for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading. Adopt a resolution directing the Director of Development Services to submit a request to the California Coastal Commission to certify an amendment to the Certified Local Coastal Program and adopt a resolution modifying the established development impact fee structure for accessory dwelling units in accordance with the California Government Code pertaining to accessory dwelling units citywide. Speaker 0: Okay. Before we go to this is a question. So right after this item will go the regular agenda of which item four from consent will be up first and then we'll go into all the other items. Okay. Just for the folks that asked, we have the hearing up the last one. So turn this over to staff. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report on this item will be given by again, Linda Tatum, our planning bureau manager, and Carrie Tai, our current planning officer. Speaker 5: And at this time, I'd like to acknowledge Carrie Tai, who's the our current planning officer, who will give the presentation. And this is the item that both Alexis Oropeza and Scott Kinsey participated in. Speaker 3: Providing staff support hearing. Speaker 4: Thank you. Good evening again. Mayor Garcia and City Council. This is a city initiated ordinance pertaining to local regulations for accessory dwelling units, which, as you know, the state of California is requiring local jurisdictions to allow. And so just some brief history for the audience of what is an accessory dwelling unit. An accessory dwelling unit is a unit that's in addition to one single family home on a property. It may be attached or detached from the main house. Accessory dwelling units are complete units, so they are distinguished from rumpus rooms and you may have seen detached bedrooms that might have a half bath, but these are complete units and they include separate exterior entrances, kitchen bathing and living facilities. Some other common terms for accessory dwelling units used over the years are second units, granny flats in law units, teenager units. But from here on out, we'll be referring to them as accessory dwelling units. And just to clarify, per state law, accessory dwelling units do not count as a unit for density purposes. And so some background. The first California state law addressing Adus was enacted in 1982. A number of amendments have been made to state law over the years five to be exact, and each time increasing the permissibility for ADAS and reducing local control. ADU regulations were first adopted by the city of Long Beach in 1988 and they were called secondary housing units or granny flats. So Senate Bill 1069 and Assembly Bill 2299 were approved by the state of California last year and took effect on January 1st. And what these bills did was streamline the approval process and basically set forth development standards that cities had to approve accessory dwelling dwelling units under. So basically, if they had a set of standards and if a unit met that we had to approve it. So no public hearing, no conditional use permits, and they require what's called a ministerial approval, which means it's a building permit or it's an over-the-counter or plan check, which is they submit plans to the city staff. They check them in accordance to the code. And if everything is good, there's approved with no discretion. Long Beach is existing 1988. A granny flat ordinance was deemed null and void because it was no longer in compliance with the new state legislation. And then until adoption of a new local ordinance, only state law applies, which means we are required to approve them under under state law. So state law does allow cities to adopt their own ordinances to refine the state regulations. There are some things we can do. There are some things we can't do. But local ordinance can or ordinances can designate a lot size for properties that qualify for an 80 you. Local ordinances can specify the size of accessory of the edu. We can refine processing requirements and require covenants and the like. And also we were we had to look at our impact fees to ensure that the impact fees that we were charging were consistent. And one of the overarching goals is that. Speaker 3: The. Speaker 4: Ordinance would be consistent with state law, but also be customized to Long Beach in accordance with the character of the neighborhoods, with the city's policies, the city's general plan, and the city's housing element. And so that one overarching goal is certainly to allow additional housing production. So some of the differences between the state and proposed local regulation. The state law mandates that cities allow to use in single family zoning districts, but allows cities to permit them in multifamily districts that are proposed. Local ordinance would allow 80 use in 17 residential zones and that includes single and multifamily zones, but only on properties developed with a single family residence. So for example, a property already developed with two units would not be eligible. The city can also designate areas in the city where 80 youths are allowed. So the proposed local ordinance designates that areas within the designated parking impacted areas or the coastal zone cannot have an 82 unless they provide parking. And I'll talk about parking and because there is provision, there are provisions in state law that govern how and when the city can require parking. And so just some just a little tangent here on the parking impacted area that was established by the City Council in 1988. And it was established based on on street parking conditions that were found to negatively impact the health, safety and welfare of the community, as well as impeding and obstructing traffic flow. It was last updated as part of the mobility element in 2013. The proposed local ordinance for ADA use would prohibit any use in the parking impacted area unless parking is provided then to the coastal zone because the state law mandating approval of ADA use is a state law, it does not automatically supersede the Coastal Act, which is also state law, but it does specify that we cannot conduct public hearings in order to approve them. The city's local coastal program, which all development must comply with, seeks to maximize access along the coast and therefore staff finds the development of adus without onsite parking that has the potential to conflict with the policy and therefore staff is proposing that in order to allow ADA use in the coastal zone that parking would be required. I would also like to add that in terms of processing requirements, most development along the coast requires some form of a local coastal development permit, which requires a public hearing, and the proposed ordinance would add adds to a list of categorical exclusions to coastal permits so that a public hearing would not be allowed and that would allow us to comply with state law. So moving to some of the proposed development standards, the table on the screen compares what the standard is. And development standards are lot size, lot with setbacks, height, floor area ratio, lot coverage, which all in totality govern, how much building can go on a property. If you look at the column for state law, you'll see that generally there's no standard for most. Of these categories, with the exception of the side and rear setbacks for certain instances, the proposed city standard would specify that any aid you must comply with the development standards of the zoning district. And I would point out that specifically that any property qualifying for an 80 you has to be a minimum of 4800 square feet in lot area and it has to be at least 27 feet wide. Also, I'd like to point your attention to building height. Currently, the state is silent on building height. The proposed local ordinance would designate that any proposed ADU would have a maximum of two stories or 25 feet. And one thing that's important to understand is that these development standards are used in totality. None of them are used singularly. And so then I'll take us on to unit size. So the state law allows for an 80 you to be 50% of the existing living area of the primary dwelling with a maximum of 1200 square feet. So for example, if somebody has a 2000 square foot home, they could they could propose an 80 U of a thousand square feet, a detached one could be up to 1200 square feet, regardless of what the primary unit size is. So the proposed city standard would require that 80 is basically be proportional to what is on the lot already. So four so that any adu attached or detached could only be 50% of the living area of the primary dwelling or 1000 square feet, whichever is less. And so if somebody had a 1000 square foot house, they could have up to a 500 square foot 82. And that's only if they meet the setbacks, the lot coverage, the and the floor area ratio of that particular zone. There is one exception and that is for properties that have a primary dwelling of less than 1280 square feet. And in those cases, an 80 U of 640 square feet could be constructed. The reason for the 640 square feet is that is what our current 1988 granny flat ordinance allows now. And it was deemed to be a unit that was large enough to ensure livability. And so for four properties that have a primary unit that's a bit smaller, it would at least allow a second unit that's livable. So now I'm back to parking. State law prohibits cities from requiring parking for 80 youths under five conditions. And the most significant condition for the city of Long Beach is any property located within one half mile of public transit. There are other conditions, but I'm going to focus on that one because on the map in front of you, colored in gold or gold is the area of the city that is served within a half mile of a transit stop. And that is overwhelmingly I mean, it's over. It's an overwhelming part of the city. And so as part of the proposed local ordinance, there would be no parking required for 80 use, with the exception of the parking impacted area and the coastal zone. Now in those areas, the AEW parking requirements would be one space for 80 ewes that are 640 square feet or smaller, and it would be two spaces. For anything over 640 square feet. One important element of this is that replacement parking for the primary unit is required. That means if you have a primary unit and you have a two car garage and you legally convert that two car garage, you must replace those two spaces somewhere else on the property outside of required setback areas. But it can be outside of a garage and it can also be tandem. And that's what the last bullet referencing the state requiring flexibility in in providing parking is about. In other words, replacement parking does not need to be in a new garage. I did mention that covenants are required for A2 use. One of the reasons is that accessory dwelling unit is supposed to function exactly as it's called accessory to a single family property. And in order to ensure that the character of single family properties and single family neighborhoods retains its integrity and remains intact, covenants are required for properties. Proposing an ADU covenants would require that the property be owner occupied, that the 80 you cannot be sold separately from the primary dwelling, that there is continued availability of the on site parking that is required prohibiting short term rentals and by short term that means 30 days and restricting the size and status of the ADU. And that would prevent somebody from coming back years from now to add on to an 80 that has already been built to the maximum allowed size. With regard to development impact fees, staff is proposing to adjust the city's development impact fees to be commensurate with the size of 80 use. AIDS are typically smaller than a traditional home, and the state does not allow the charging of impact fees that is disproportional. So in other words, charging the same impact fee for a home that's 2000 square feet versus charging that same fee for something that's 500 square feet. And so staff is proposing the adoption of an interim fee resolution with a fees that are specifically sized for use to ensure that those those fees are proportional. The Planning Commission. Recommended that the City Council adopt the proposed zoning code amendment on July 6th as part of the Planning Commission's recommendation. They did ask that the adus be a maximum of 1000 feet, as opposed to the originally proposed 12 1200 square feet, and also recommended that that second parking space for 80 use over 600 square feet in the coastal zone and parking impacted areas be increased to two two spaces. Public notification was published in the in accordance with the Long Beach Municipal Code. That means it was published in the newspaper, also posted to libraries and sent out to an interest list that we have been keeping for the past ten months or so, maybe more, maybe a year now. And we received four letters of opposition. The letters of opposition. I received for the first letter stated that a maximum size of 80 is should be 600 square feet. The second and third letters objected to the change of zoning to allow multiple residents on one property. And the fourth letter was regarding how to use would affect equestrian zones. So with that stuff is recommending that the City Council adopt the zoning ordinance which adopts a local standard for its use as proposed by the Planning Commission, and that does include the zoning code amendment and local coastal program amendment, which will need to be certified by the Coastal Commission and also modify the established development impact fee structure for any use. And that concludes steps presentation and we can answer questions. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. We are going to go ahead and do public comment first and then we'll do or I know this hearing is a little bit different. So we just do the council first and then public comment like a regular item. Mr.. City Attorney We do that. Thank you. Councilman Price. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, staff, for this presentation. I think sometimes when issues are presented by staff, people assume that staff is the entity that's initiating the concept or the idea. And I think in this situation, it's really important to point out that staff is reacting to state legislation and really has done an excellent job of trying to mitigate the impacts of that state imposed legislation. So I want to be very clear and appreciative of staff for making that effort. Having said that, I think the current proposal still has some opportunities for improvement in terms of the concerns that have been raised by our residents regarding the impacts of the additional density in some of the proposed neighborhoods. So just a couple of things I support. Well, let me just go to the staff report. So on page three of the staff report, you outline the development impact fees. And I think this is a really I'm going to I'm going to be honest. If this has been part of projects that we have approved in the past, we certainly have not spent as much time talking about them this particular impact fee as we should. It is absolutely true that when we add density, we have a whole host of new needs, increase needs for public services such as police, fire, public works , Parks, Rec and Marine. As a result of the increased density. And so I'm happy to see that we're specifically talking about the development impact fees here. And I'm wondering if you could maybe use this opportunity to talk to us a little bit about what those fees are and how it is that we can ensure that the funds that are obtained from the development impact fees, whether it's on a development of a residential property or the development of a commercial property, that those funds are routed directly into the departments that are now needing to service the additional impacts of the additional density. Certainly. Thank you for that question. Councilmember Price. The way that the process, the development process works is that when applicants come to our counter and pay their fees, they essentially pay at a central location and we have a computerized system for issuing permits. And as a part of that system, the fees that are allocated to each of the departments and we've you've briefly summarized those. It includes the school fees, the police and fire safety fees, the public works traffic impact fees and the open space or park fees. Those are all built into the system. And when the the applicant pays their fees, the system essentially codes in those fees. And those fees go directly to those departments. They do not go into our department's budget, the development services department, even though we collect the fees, they are coded and go directly into the budgets of the the other or the appropriate departments. Okay. And how long have we been doing that? It has been quite a quite a while, a long time. I would say more than 20 years. 20 plus years. Do you have any sort of estimation of how much of a department's budget is based on development impact fees? Speaker 2: I'll take a crack at that. So it doesn't pay for a lot of the it does not pay for operating costs, though, because they are based on new development. They are also regulated by state law. And so we use them for basically new services. We're not able to use them for current services. But if we're, for example, building, doing park projects, we would look at increasing open space to allow for additional opportunities rather than just funding maintenance for an existing park, for example. It is not a significant portion of their budget, but it is definitely a very needed funding source to plan for additional police, either equipment or or facilities that need to be improved to handle additional police officers. Those types of examples. Speaker 5: I think that's fantastic. And moving forward, I, I expect to ask a lot more questions about that when we move forward with development projects because it really when I was reading this item and studying up on this item, it really was when it came to light for me that, you know, whether it's building a new station or a new substation or enhancing the capacity of a station that we have or or our building more open space, as Mr. Modica said, whatever the case may be, development projects and additional density should go hand in hand with those new services. For the residents, there's got to be something that makes it worthwhile for people to have to deal with the increased density. And so I'm glad to see that we have this development impact fee. And like I said, it's probably just me who was not plugged into it prior to reading this item and getting familiar with this item . But I expect to be a lot more plugged into it now, so thank you for educating us on that. So I support the covenants that are outlined in the proposed ordinance. So the actions of Planning Commission. I would like to ask my colleagues to approve this item with the following changes. I'd like to reduce the square footage that is allowable from 1000, which is currently proposed to 800 square feet or 50%, whichever is. Speaker 1: Less, which is the. Speaker 5: Same exact language as we see on page two of the item the staff report. But instead of the 1000 square feet, I'd ask that it be 800 square feet. I'd like to increase the open space requirement from 25% to 30%. And beyond that, I'm open to hearing from my colleagues on what other changes they'd like to see to this. But in my opinion, these changes are at a minimum what would be required to make the additional density something that's bearable for our residential communities. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Council Member Pearce. Speaker 1: Yes, thank you. Staff. I wanted to thank you for doing a great job presenting all the details. Obviously being in a parking impacted area. The details on parking was really important for me and a couple of residents reach out and also did my research on the reducing the square footage and adding the green space to 30%. It's something I definitely support. And so I want to thank you all for this work and thank my colleague for making that motion. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Andrews? Speaker 7: Yes, thank you, Amir. You know, I think the state has created a lot of promoting, you know, more housing opportunities for the city and can only exercise some of, you know, directions as how this law is administered. You know, I think our focus should be on enforcement of the neighborhood protection under this law that provides, you know , prevent them from being rented out short term. You know, I would urge my colleagues not to, you know, create limitations in size of the setbacks and would be trying to would discourage these, you know, accessory dwelling units for, you know, from happening. You know, I think everyone can agree that it is better to live in a 1000 square foot unit with a bedroom and a kitchen rather than a four square feet unit with the bathroom and kitchen. You know, if we allow the natural market to create these housing opportunities, my guess is that the state will take away the directions and regulate these, you know, accessory dwelling units. So that's one thing I think we have to really be careful of because of the state. As you know, it's trying to mandate something, which they do. And if we go against that, I think they can come in and take over and now they take all the little things away from us. So this is something I think we have to really take time and look at it. And so this is my recommendation. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, staff, for the presentation. And, you know, we had a conversation at Scaggs, Southern California Association of Governments about the ways that cities are starting to address and, you know, the accessory dwelling units. Some of the things that were brought up tonight in terms of making sure we have a really tight process and making sure we have some type parameters and support. But I do want to say that there's a reason for this. And the reason is, you know, as people, you know, there's this there's this concept, this NIMBY, not in my backyard concept that the state has said literally, yes, in your backyard, we will provide housing so that as people age in place, maybe they can, you know, shift to a smaller, you know, team up with families, shift to a smaller unit and open up the home that they might have lived in on a different at a different place for maybe a family can who can use those additional bedrooms. What I'm most hopeful and my question tonight is going to be about, you know, in North Long Beach and all over town, people have been illegally using accessory dwelling units. Anyway, when I bought my first home and had a, you know, had a legal structure in the garage, I got my sledgehammer out and knocked it down and, you know, went through that process. But how can we make sure we have a process that allows people to come out of the shadows? People are living in garages. There are illegal garage conversions today. So my question is, how does this process help people who are already treating their garages as accessory dwelling units? Is there a path for them to modernize, bring an end to code and to and to come out of the shadows? Speaker 5: Yes, I, I can respond to that from a staff perspective. I think we did take a look at that issue because some other cities are providing different approaches to how they address that. And I think the approach that we considered here is that if a unit can indeed meet the standards that the council adopts in this ordinance , they would certainly be able to legalize any units that meet the standards. However, if a unit does not meet the standard, I think that as a part of the process of notifying the property owner that they need to bring that particular property up to code. I think it will be incumbent upon staff to work with them to make sure that they understand the provisions and that they're pretty they're really clear on how they can bring their current unit up to code. And if not, then we would just have to work with them and go through our standard code enforcement procedure. Speaker 6: So I just want to keep folks in mind. Keep, keep keep in mind the intent here that it's to create legitimate housing opportunities for folks. I don't want to be overburdened with a process or fees that that diminish someone's ability because because reality is people are going to do this, they're going to do this. And some may do it because they have the capital, they have the space, and it's an asset or an amenity. But some people are doing this out of necessity. And we've seen the tragedies when, you know, when our laws are too rigid and it forces people to do things sort of underground. So, you know, I can I can, you know, I'm going to support this, but I'll make sure that we do have ability to tweak it as we learn and correct. We will have opportunities to tweak this. Right. Speaker 5: Vice mayor. Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 5: Once this is adopted, certainly there is an opportunity. I think it will be appropriate for us to see give it some time to see what comes out, what the demand is for these structures and how workable they are, and even to identify if there are any particular issues or problems. There are particular issues or problems with the standards that we've developed. So the suggestion would be to give it approximately 12 months or maybe 18 months to see whether we think that they are functioning in the way that this council intended. And we can certainly go back and take another look at the standards and modify them as appropriate. I would like to make one other comment related to the two councilwoman surprise requests for the a reduction in the size of the unit or two to reduce the minimum unit size. The recommendation was for 800 square feet. And I would like to just point out that if that recommendation moves forward, we would need to modify one of the provisions in the detailed ordinance itself, which is on page 11 of the actual redlined ordinance. We one of the things we did was correlate the minimum unit size to the bedroom count and should the council proceed to adopt the 800 square foot minimum. Speaker 3: Or whichever. Speaker 5: Is less the 50% of the lot area or the 800 square feet we would need to strike line number 21. That refers to. Speaker 3: Three or more. Speaker 5: Bedrooms being 1000 feet. But I would just like to go on the record of acknowledging that in terms of coming up with a unit size, staff thought very long and hard. We actually thought long and hard about each and every one of the standards. Speaker 3: But there was a. Speaker 5: Lot of consideration given to the unit size and generally we arrived at the standard of 1000 feet. Speaker 3: Based upon the the primary issue. Speaker 5: Of proportionality. Speaker 3: The other factor or. Speaker 5: The consideration was that the the size of the lot, the size of the existing unit, and even the whole issue of quality of life based upon the open space that was required, the the lot size itself and the unit size that all informed us arriving at the 800 square feet because we also thought about the comfort based upon the size of the unit and that was our recommendation. Speaker 3: So we felt that. Speaker 5: The standards, all of the standards, when you take them into consideration, the lot size, the primary unit size and all of the other considerations, we thought that the eight, the 1000 square feet was appropriate because it was proportional, however, that if the will of the Council is to reduce that unit size, we would need to strike that statement regarding the three bedrooms as a part of the ordinance so that that could be a part of the motion if. Speaker 3: The motion goes forward. Speaker 6: And so I'll just conclude so that Councilmember Kim can respond. So it sounds to me like there is. So, first of all, that that actually was good because my my next question was specifically about the up to 800 with less or more. And I would just suggest that if it's whichever is less, I would think we should flip and say whichever is more. Right. And why having the 800 cap, I think would be easier to understand if we said 800 is the max, right. Eight hundreds of max? I don't know. I don't know. Whichever is less, whichever is more. I want to give the floor. I want to err on the side of if we're going to limit it from a limit it from 1000 to 800, then people should be able to capitalize on 8000. That's that's my thought. And with the standards in place in terms of proportionality, it means that people won't have a mansion in their backyard. I actually like the idea of not having three bedrooms in the backyard. It's kind of you know, my first apartment was about 600, 700 square feet, clear room for me. So I would be okay with going down 800. But I think we should say no more than 800, not whichever is less. That would be my suggestion. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We'll just keep going right now and through the other the other members. Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Thank you. And I appreciate all of the comments thus far. I want to commend staff for doing a lot of great work. When we brought this item up for several months ago. We asked you to come back with recommendations. And, you know, I appreciate the process going through the planning commission, having public comment throughout that process and bringing us here today. This shows a lot of great professional work. I'm I'm thrilled. I'm glad you brought up the impact fees. We had development impact fees on the most recent project approved in the eighth District, the Riverdale Project. And we collected significant fees on that one. I'm I'm really kind of caught on this 800 versus a thousand square feet. So I have a couple of questions as well. The the average and to staff, if you've researched this if you have that question answered, I think that would be great. But I'm curious to know what the average lot size for for single family homes in Long Beach actually is. Speaker 5: I think we have some data on that. Speaker 1: From a reader. Speaker 4: Um. Councilman Austin, thank you for your. Thank you for your question. Let's see, I have a chart here. I'm going to focus in on the r one and lot, if that's okay with you to use as an example that is the city's most prevalent single family zone. There are a total of 53,718 R one end lots in the city. The median lot size is a 5912. And so in terms of the percent that is above the 4800 square feet that we are proposing for the minimum lot size for it is 54% of the cities are one and lots are above that. And that means they would be able to accommodate an 80 you that's 54%. And then of the we have I have data on the ones that are smaller, but they I don't think that's relevant to this discussion. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of data that. Speaker 8: That does help. And then I'm really curious about the the conversation regarding density. Obviously, it's something that many people care about, but the proposed parking requirements that that you have staff has recommended. Isn't that meant to help limit the density? And doesn't that help manage that? Speaker 3: Actually, the the state. Speaker 5: Limits our. Speaker 3: Ability to provide parking. And it says that if you're. Speaker 5: Within transit, you cannot require parking except. Speaker 3: In very specific. Speaker 5: Circumstances. Speaker 3: And so generally throughout most. Speaker 5: Of the city, even though there they are within transit, we can't require parking. But the state does give us special circumstances where we can allow parking. And that is what we've done by requiring parking in the parking, the designated parking impacted areas as well as within the coastal zone. The state's coastal regulations are preempted by they preempt the the current ADU legislation so we can require parking in the coastal zone. And those are the two areas there where we are requiring parking and it's not intended to limit them so much as to just address existing conditions and essentially the parking scarcity in those areas. It is not intended to to limit the their availability. That is not the intent. But the practical result will be that they will be limited. Speaker 8: So going back to the slide where you had three cars in a driveway and the single family home and accessory dwelling unit, are the three cars or three parking spots not required or or is only required in the parking impacted areas. Speaker 4: For example. And yes, and I don't know if we need the slide, but the slide that Councilman Austin refers to is the the slide that shows a single car wide driveway with three cars stacked tandem. So back to back. And I think that situation would be if you had a single family home that had a two car garage, maybe the detached garage in the back. As Common is commonly found in Long Beach. You converted the garage legally in the back, and then you had to replace the two parking spaces that are in that garage because those are for the primary unit. So those go on the driveway. Plus, if you are in the parking impacted area, you need to add one more. So in that instance, that driveway is deep enough to accommodate the two that were displaced by the ADU, as well as the one additional that would be required. And I hope that explains what that was. Speaker 8: Yes. And I really like the fact that we were thoughtful enough to to limit or prohibit short term rentals to 80 years from being used for short term rentals. But I would love some a little bit more clarification for my benefit, as well as the Publix over the limited accessory accessory dwelling units versus conforming. What what what is that? Speaker 4: Sure. So there are two categories of accessory dwelling units. One, we've called limited and one we've called conforming. And the reason for that is the limited ones are the ones that are designated by state law as the city, basically not having any discretion other than to approve them. And those are the ones where. Speaker 3: You carve out the. Speaker 4: Existing you carve out from the existing home or the existing any existing space on the property. Basically, you carve out and cut out a new entrance, build a kitchen, separate it out for the accessory dwelling unit. And so that doesn't change the footprint of anything on the property because all the structures are already existing on the site . The conforming ones are the ones that have new construction or whether you're building a new detached one and those you do have to meet all of the setbacks and height limit and floor area ratio and lot coverage that we've put forth because those you are changing the footprint of the site and you are changing the intensity of . A development on the site. Speaker 8: Okay. So thank you very much for that clarification. I'm going to support this motion, but I also want to just just give my my opinion on what the intent these were accessory dwelling units. Units. They've been called granny flats. I do not believe that the the intent was to to build extra single family homes on on on lots. I think they were the intent was to to to accessorize and to allow for a single individual or a couple or to live. I'm not sure that the intent was to create single family homes on single family homes. And so I do and will support the the the motion provided by Councilmember Price to reduce the 800 to 800 square feet and 50%, whichever is less. However, I do have a question. One last question for staff of somebody who has a relatively large lot, you know, does 2000 square feet or would that be permissible under a variance? Speaker 5: No variances would not be permitted because the state law requires unusual circumstances such as a slope on the property or topographical issues or an irregular shaped lot. So assuming that it's a standard rectangular shaped lot, a variance would not be permitted to waive the standard that gets established by this ordinance. Speaker 8: Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman Mongo. Speaker 3: I want to thank so many people who I've spoken with in the community about this matter. I think that I'm of the mind that when you look at the standards of 80 well, when you look at the standards of 80 years and what other cities have approved, they range from 600 up to 800, but not many are at a thousand. And so at least in the staff report, is there a specific reason why we're not going closer to the standard of the other cities provided in the Stuff Report? Speaker 5: The reason is just looking at the this is a very large city and just looking at the vast variety of lot sizes in this city. We just talked about the the lot size, the average lot size and the most numerous are one in zoning. But if you think about the low Cerritos or other neighborhoods, for example, there are very, very large lot sizes. So the the we arrived at that 1000 square feet based upon looking at the the very wide variety and the lot sizes throughout the city. Speaker 3: So I guess my thought would be if we could come up with something where if the lot size was 4500 and below, you would get the maximum allowable build of 600 square feet. Then if you're between 4500 and. 6500. You could be in the 800 square feet and then that would give the room that you needed on, say, a 12,000 square foot lot. I just recognize that even in the fifth District today, we have 5000 square foot lots with 961 square foot homes on them. And so in that particular case they wouldn't be able to go above 481, I would guess, because that's 50% of the current dwelling. Speaker 5: Well, I think that certainly could be an approach. But again, if you go back and look at the intent of how the the structure of the standards that were recommended by staff, we think that the lot size in and of itself, combined with the size of the existing unit, will self limit the size that's allowed for the accessory dwelling unit. And I think you could get to a point where you I dare to use the. Speaker 3: Term, overthink it or overregulate it. But I think. Speaker 5: That if if the direction from the council is to be able to limit the unit size, we think that that's a that's a fair approach. And and we think that the the limit that has been proposed of 800 square feet would certainly achieve the council's general objective of allowing uses, but still not allowing them to be too significant. So I think it could be cumbersome to try to go to a tiered system. But if that's councils, those are it's something we could certainly look at. I'd hate to try to craft what that would look like up here. Speaker 3: At the DYAS, but we. Speaker 1: Already have. So. Speaker 3: There was so much said. And I appreciate you so much, Linda. I think that you're one of the one of the stronger staff members that I've spoken with on anything planning. I respect your history and and. Speaker 1: All the work you do. Speaker 3: And I appreciate that staff has a position. And I think that that. I appreciate you advocating for that position, but I think that the staff report is sufficient in that area. And so I think that what we're doing now is trying to engage in a dialog among those of us who represent the community and have heard from the community what their concerns are and as much as overthinking it. Sounds terrible. I actually don't think it sounds terrible at all, because if we don't do that significant amount of thinking, someone is going to be living next door to something that's not. Appropriate. And so I'll hold off on a friendly amendment and listen to my colleagues before I decide where I want to go from here. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman Supernanny. Speaker 6: Thank you. I'd like to get to a part of the presentation involving parking. And actually, Kerry Ty described a different scenario from the presentation. But in the presentation I think it was stated that if a two car garage is converted, parking for two cars must be provided. So my question is, considering our muni code states that you cannot park in the driveway once a garage is converted, where would those cars park? Speaker 4: Uh, Councilman Supernormal. Yes. To clarify that. Speaker 3: With. Speaker 4: Traditional structures and uses. That is correct. However, based on what the state law limits our ability to do, we have to allow parking in various configurations that otherwise would not be afforded to, say, a duplex or a single family home or a triplex. So for accessory dwelling units, for example, tandem parking is allowed, but that wouldn't be allowed for a single family home or a duplex. And so parking in the driveway is allowed. And also as long as you I mean, there are certain setup regulations like in the front set that nobody can park in the front setback and that that would not be made available to ADAS. But certain exceptions and changes have to be made to accommodate parking onsite for a to use. Speaker 6: Okay. So if we let that the scenario would be an attached garage where there's only one car unattached to car garage only one car length on that double car pad in front of the driveway that would be allowed once the two car garage is converted to allow parking right there in front of the house. Speaker 4: That's correct. Speaker 6: Okay. So that that does not apply to any other situation. So I think if you understand that from the council position, this would be a tough one to explain to constituents why is it allowed for my neighbor but not for me? So that's I would like to have an official explanation so I can pass it on to the neighbors. So anyway, you've clarified it. So thank you for that. Also another topic would be parking impacted areas. And you had a map up there for just a second. But I believe parking impacted areas do not include necessarily preferential parking districts. Would that be correct? Speaker 5: Yes, there are some preferential parking districts that are within the parking impacted areas. Speaker 6: But my question, it's just the opposite. There are some that are not. Speaker 5: That is correct. That is correct. Speaker 6: Okay. Therefore, we can designate that an area is so impacted that you have a preference of parking districts, but it doesn't qualify under under this ordinance. Speaker 3: That is correct. Speaker 5: It would not qualify as being exempted now. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 5: So based upon current state law. Speaker 6: Now, if we change that here, would that comport with state law? Speaker 5: My understanding is that. Speaker 3: We are that we. Speaker 5: Can make findings for special local circumstances and conditions that would have to be valid and measurable and adopted by the City Council in order to do further exemptions such as the parking the designated parking impacted areas. Speaker 6: Okay. So since my district does not have is not a parking impacted area, but we probably have more preferential parking districts than any other district in the city. I guess I could add that be added as an amendment that I would support this given that designations if I if my colleagues accept that, if not, I wouldn't be able to support it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you for the information and staff report. So I would also like to support the motion by Councilwoman Price. I. I actually sat down with all of our respective historic districts about a month ago and had a really good conversation with each of them and in the Wilmore City area and the First District, but we spoke in length about many of these issues. And of course, about 800 feet was brought up and also being able to provide green space because you figure in downtown, I know in the Willmore City area, we are very dense. We do have about 1100 students coming to the downtown area and I'm sure even more they will have housing, but they'll be more attraction to the area and thinking about how to provide more housing in a way that would be mindful, not just throwing, you know, a thousand square feet or, you know, a large lot in back of another large house. You know, I think this is a really reasonable concept. And I think, Maureen, I know we spoke in length about this, I think the Belmont Heights Group as well. And so I like that motion. I think it's fantastic. I would also like us to just think, of course, overall about historic districts. I know we constantly do, but just to continue keeping that in our discussions here. So I'll be supportive of that measure. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 5: Thank you. So I want to follow up on a few of the comments that were made by my colleagues. So if I think council member Supernova's friendly, if we can implement that additional parking factor into the ordinance, is something I would welcome wholeheartedly. So for staff, is that something that we can fold into the ordinance or are we precluded from going there? I would defer to the city attorney, but my general understanding is that you can, as long as their findings made as a part of the statement as to its impact on the surrounding neighborhood in the area. Speaker 2: And I would agree with that. I think the obviously we don't have any case law or test case on this. So we would have to make significant findings that it is impacted to in order to include that. But we could certainly attempt to do that. We certainly can't do all of these amendments tonight. We would have to bring it back to you for a first reading again after depending on how your motion goes in the amendments. Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. So and I too, appreciate the report given by staff. And I think I started my comments with that. But I think it's worth mentioning that when staff presents a report to us, it need not be stated that staff has done an incredible amount of work in reaching the proposal to begin with . I think our job as policymakers is to listen to our constituents and then implement the will of our constituents in light of staff's recommendations. So, you know, I will say that kind of volunteering again, why staff chose 1000 over the others is definitely not necessary in this situation, because we understand that staff has done the work and made that recommendation. And while we respect it, the questions are really targeted at what can this policy bear in light of what our residents are telling us? So I think there's there's a level of advocacy there that maybe isn't as productive to the conversation, because I understand that staff's recommendation is a thoughtful one. And generally speaking, I think. In the three and a half years that I've been here, there have been very few staff recommendations that I've tweaked or made any changes to. But this one, I think, based on talking with my residents and understanding that this is a state mandate that is really being imposed on the communities, this is really something that they are now having to deal with as a result of state action, that it's our duty to try to mitigate as best we can. So while I appreciate staff's position on it, I want you to know I understand that the thousand square feet was a recommendation that was made out, made with a lot of thought and consideration. And I respect and appreciate that. I will say that, you know, one of the questions was asked, if other cities are going with less square feet, why do we need a thousand? And the response was will work or a big city. That was one of the one of the responses given the size of the city per say is one factor, but the size of the dwelling as it relates to the neighborhood and the neighbors living there is a whole separate analysis. And certainly there are cities that are larger than the city of Long Beach that are adopted, maximums that are far less than what staff was proposing. Oakland at 800 square feet. San Jose at 6 to 800 square feet with a maximum of one bedroom. Newport Beach with 750 square feet. Santa monica with 650 square feet. Sacramento County with 400 to 600 square feet, depending on the lot size. So I certainly think that it can be done. And while I understand that a thousand square feet would provide more living space for individuals, I think if we're truly talking about the intent of this legislation, which is a granny flat, a thousand square feet, is is not necessary, is it would it be great to have as an option? Absolutely. But I don't believe that it's necessary, nor do I believe that at 800 square feet, people are going to be living in substandard conditions. 800 square feet is certainly not a matchbox living condition by any stretch of the imagination. I was talking to some of my colleagues and the very first home I was able to buy was slightly larger than that 800 square foot limit. And we had a child in that space and we started a family there. So I really don't think that 1000 square feet is is a magic number and anything below that is substandard. So while I appreciate and respect staff's recommendation, I think what what staff should be hearing is that we as policymakers are making an effort to effectuate the will of our constituents in light of a state mandate, and that that is no reflection at all on the the the lack of care that was put into staff's recommendation. It simply is responding to our community. So thank you very much. And I ask my colleagues to support me. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 3: So is the current. The city attorney stated that a current standard at the current motion would have to come back. We're not prepared to pass anything tonight, is that correct? Speaker 2: Yes, it would come back if passed as currently amended with the three amendments that I have listed. We would need to just update the documents, update the ordinance, and make sure we have it all as directed and we bring it back to you for first reading. Speaker 3: Would you mind reading those three amendments as you have them? Speaker 2: Certainly the motion is staff recommendation. With the change to reduce from 1000 square feet to 800 square feet or 50%, whichever is less to to increase from 25% to 30% the open space requirement. And three, to add preferential parking districts to the parking impacted areas under the restricted where they would be required to provide parking. Speaker 3: And what is the timeline that you think that this would take to come back? And I'm not asking you to rush. I actually see that there's a couple of other major things that are going on in the city and that the time might bring some value in terms of our better understanding where this fits into things. We're talking two weeks. We're talking a month with only in six weeks. Speaker 2: 30 days or less. Speaker 3: Okay. I think there are places in the city and I get that there's overthinking, but I think there are lots of places in the city where 800 is even too much. As I've mentioned, we have. 961 square foot homes on 5000 square foot lots. And I think that 800 square feet can be, in some cases, too much. I think that lots under 4500 square feet should be less than 800 square feet to use. And I also believe that. More than one bedroom is unacceptable. I think that one bedroom is more than enough for. Speaker 1: An edu, for a granny flat or a mother in. Speaker 3: Law's quarters. And so I think that there's going to be more time to think about this. And I worry that if it comes back again, that I'm not set on where I want to be on that on that part of it. Because I don't hear from the council that we're we're far enough along in terms of all of those details. And I recognize that you don't have too many details, but if you don't, I feel that the character of our neighborhoods could be in jeopardy. So with that, I don't know that I'm gonna be able to support this yet. Speaker 2: Councilman Rago, if I may on I think if I heard you correctly, if a lot is 4800 square feet or less, it would not an 80 you would not be allowed on that lawn, period at all. Speaker 3: At all. I appreciate that. I didn't. What is the minimum lot size for the Adu at this time? 4800. That is better. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We're going to go back to the main motion and that we have the adjustment sort of made by Councilwoman Pryce. So just to be clear, it's 800, which is the maximum. Correct, Mr. City attorney. Speaker 2: That is correct. Okay. Speaker 0: That's that. That was a motion made by Councilman Price. Can I just make sure we clarify also? There is also we're going to clarify so that the parking issue that Councilmember Supernormal that was added is a friendly amendment as well. Mr. City Attorney we have that. Speaker 2: We have that. And the third item that I have is to increase the from 25% to 30% the open space requirement. Speaker 0: Okay, great. So, members, just go ahead and cast your votes, Mayor. Speaker 2: If you need public comment. Speaker 0: I'm so sorry about that. And actually, no, the reason why I did that is because we actually have more council comment. So I'm sorry. We'll be right back. Councilman Mango. Speaker 3: So what is the bedroom requirement we're at now? We went down from three, so that makes it two. Speaker 5: That is correct. That's my understanding. We eliminated the three bedroom as an option. Speaker 3: So we're still allowing up to two bedrooms. Speaker 5: As currently is. Yes, that is the current proposal. Speaker 3: Are they okay? Speaker 4: I'll hear from public comment. Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay. Now we're gonna go to public comment and please come forward. Thank you very much. Grammy. Speaker 9: Right. I am Francis. I am Francis. Emily Dawson Harrison. I reside in District one. I listened to a lot that was sad and I want to kind of look at it with a wide vision. And although I 800 is some bad dilemma now I'm going to ask you to look at 900 in terms of the number of bedrooms. I want us to look at the possibility because no one knows from moment to moment, you can wake up and be disabled and you may need more square footage because you need a place that has a larger space for the specific issues that you need to have on hand. The other thing too is lighting units, although they're not wanted, so much might be needed because you have some individuals that cannot afford to pay higher rents. And so you have families that are like living in a household and you say two bedrooms, one bedroom. But unfortunately, you have families that cannot afford to have a smaller unit because you have too many people in the house and there's too many people that are going to be just cramped into the house. So I understand what you want to do, but we have to look at what's happening right now. Today, we don't know from moment to moment what's going to happen in terms of federal funding or anything else in terms of parking. I want you to also look at the fact that there are some families that have a person that's disabled and they're going to need to have a handicapped parking space. And so to have a limit on parking for housing is wonderful. But you've got to have an open door to have parking for handicapped parking space in terms of additional parking in terms of launching units. There's a concern about the fact that there needs to be loading and unloading zones because there are some persons in need to have access service are down there, come to pick them up and if you limit the parking space, then you're limiting the area possibly for them to be loaded. They're unloaded because not always. Can family members or friends intervene in terms of helping people to get to where they have to go? I know you have a really awesome amount of information before you, but I'd like you to look at the things I've suggested to you, and I wish you the best, and I believe you'll make a good decision. But please keep these things in mind. Thank you very much. Speaker 6: Thank you for your time. Next week, please. Speaker 3: Hey, I am Karen, retired resident of the First District. I live in subsidized HUD housing. I live in a 375 square foot studio apartment, along with two other 200 other people in the building. Some of them have one bedrooms, but we're all being moved into the studios so that they can charge market rate for the one bedrooms . The granny flat is they are poor. Originally were for elderly family members that needed to be have some help and to keep them close by so they could engage with their families and not be socially isolated and. If I can live in three 375 square feet, I think that 640. Speaker 5: Is more than adequate. Speaker 3: 800 is luxurious. Now, I've seen some of the existing granny flats that were built in the early section. I would be more. Speaker 5: Than happy to live in a. Speaker 3: Number of them, especially the ones, some of them in Bixby Knolls or in Belmont Shore. The reason that nobody's talking about rent costs of rent this initial discussion was because we're in a housing crisis with a 2% vacancy rate. We're in crisis in terms of people being able to find affordable housing. Larger buildings are going to cost more in terms of rent. So the buildings need to be smaller. And seniors. I'm going to talk on behalf of the Gray Panthers. Seniors are being disproportionately affected by these increases and rents and they're being removed from their places because they tend to stay in facilities for a longer time. They don't move, particularly when they reach a certain age. And as a consequence, they're paying very low rents, that the landlords are kind to them, they're quieter tenants so they don't have and don't pay higher rates. So the landlords, when especially when buildings are purchased, are they're the first ones to go. And if the true intention is to help with our housing crisis, because I see that the people that are going to want granny flats are going to be single mothers. They're going to be students. And they're going to be seniors. And if the rents aren't controlled or monitored, it's not going to help our housing crisis. So thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Thank you. I'm Fred Boettcher. I'm a general contractor out of San Pedro, and I'm representing my clients here regarding this a deal. He has three pieces of property in hour in your community, Long Beach. And the things he asked me was ownership, which is a topic which is touchtone for your staff, is that if you have an ownership of a you, that's the only piece of property you can own in the city. And I'm not sure if everybody's aware of that and because if you have anything more than that. You can't because the ring that you're going to sign the grenade you. We'll say that you can have only 180 you and only one property in a steady state. That's my understanding through talking to Mr. Scott, who I've talked with a couple of times already, who telephone and once in person. And I came by to check that this morning to be sure I was on base and I am to say that there can only be one ownership of your assets. My client has three pieces of property and he wants to put a deal on each of them. Now there's a way to do that, of course, and a way to do that would be to form a corporation. And that entity, which is the corporation, would own it and not him directly. So I don't know how that's addressed in the paperwork that you have in there. So if my client forms three corporations and the three corporations own the property, how can they live on the property? That would be another question. So those are the things I'm concerned about. As far as the general contractor goes, and that's my responsibility and my lifetime and I build what you tell me I can build and don't build things you don't tell me. But if you approve something with whatever we like regulations has with regard to parking sizes, I comply because that's the only way I can get a permit to build what you would like me to build or I can build. As far as being in the size of something, just to add my own personal opinion on that. I think everything should be at least 4000 square feet. I was raised in a place that was about 700 square feet. Two brothers and a sister, mom and dad. So a thousand square feet would surely be great to have as we grew up. Thank you so kindly for listening. Speaker 6: Thank you for your comments. Mike. Speaker Police. Speaker 2: Hello, all. Thank you so much. My name is Kevin when I come to town. First of all, I'd like to thank the staff for doing so much work. Thank you. Also, I move. In 2004, I bought this house in West Palm Beach, and I'd like to thank Councilwoman Price for bringing up the topic about the size a lot, and that is build the 1941. So it's a small 800 861 square foot house in the back of the lot, rectangular, all usable lot, 69 square foot lot. So there's a lot of room. And I've been waiting for this this moment here to see if I can. Now I'm getting older, my wife and I getting older and mid-fifties, and we're looking to buy to build on something bigger and our lot. Hopefully we tie on that and we'll rent out our existing home. But if you put a 640 square foot or 50% of that, it doesn't make no sense for us. Have been waiting so long and Long Beach. There were and I've been living here so long and I've been just happy to be in a nice big lot that I found. So thank you so much and put in a lot of thought. And and Councilwoman Mingo, I'd like to also thank you for thinking up the of largest staff and putting the research and limits on the size and what you can build to have. Good night, gentlemen. Speaker 6: Thank you. Next week, please. Speaker 9: Good evening in Cantrell. Grammy Flatts give you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling. Doesn't have granny living in the backyard. She can help take care of the kids. She can cook for you. But as you've heard by from these last two speakers, that isn't what a lot of people are envisioning. One wants to be a corporation so they can build a rental house. The other wants to build a bigger house and rent out his second house. That is not what accessory dwelling units are supposed to be about. And I think the bigger you make them, the more likely it is that this is what's going to happen. They're going to be rented out. I notice on this chart that it says that a one bedroom can be 450 square feet and a two bedroom can be 750 square feet. So 800 sounds like it's excessive. I think a lot of cities have you mentioned some of them. Councilmember Price but Thousand Oaks has 222 660 square feet homes and. And Beverly Hills is 650. So you could go a lot lower than 800 square feet. I'm a member of Carp and I think we recommended 500 square feet. I'm also very concerned about the part. I'm I think I heard that your parking map with the impacted parking was from 1989. Is that correct? Things have changed a lot since 1989. I think there's a lot more parking impacts and all over the city. And if you allow these granny flats to come, there's going to be flight parking compaction in places that aren't impacted now. So I I'm concerned about this parking issue. I think you should do a reevaluation of where the parking impaction is and make some kind of accommodations for the parking that's going needs that are going to be coming with a granny flat. People parking there on the street. Thank you. There's not going to be any place for parking. Speaker 6: Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Speaker 9: I am carelessly from the fifth District and I belong to three separate groups in the city. I belong to carp citizens about responsible planning. And I am also on oh, let's see, we have our neighborhood organization and then I have one other that I'm involved with. So all three of those have been involved in this density issue. And I will tell you that we have not gone forth trying to sell the public against density. All we have to do is show them a map. If we show those density maps to people, they lose it. And I know that Stacy and Daryl have both been to the to one of those outreach meetings. And you have seen the outrage, how upset people are that you're messing with their property, that you're messing with their life. There are three things that are hot buttons that are affecting density, and it's crime. More people is more crime. It's parking is the other one. And traffic. So those three things, if you can solve those three things, you can move as many people as you want into the city. But pay attention to those three because people are not going to vote for you if you if they see you as supporting density. Nobody wants increased traffic, increased parking or increased crime. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kathleen Brady and I live on the border between the second and third district. And I would like to ask that the city council reduce the allowable size of the aid used to 800 square feet or that 50% of the existing primary dwelling, whichever is less. I helped deliver our Belmont Heights Community Association newsletters so I have access to their real residences. The ideas that have already been added to the single family residence, lots under that are two of 20 years ago and frankly, most are too big and they're incongruent with the neighborhood. I know these were built under. Speaker 3: Previous rules, but I fear for. Speaker 1: The future of livability in our communities if the 1000 square foot adus are approved. And I would also like to ask that the amount of accompanying open space be increased to 30% from the proposed 25%. When I'm on. Speaker 3: The delivery route for the newsletters, I've. Speaker 1: Noticed many of the homes with Ada's in the rear are completely cemented in. Speaker 3: And with very little landscaping. Speaker 1: Perhaps along with the increased open space requirement, the city could encourage even more unpaved areas. This would allow for the rains to soak into the earth rather than flood our streets and run into the ocean and used in this summer. Mine paved areas around the homes with Adus would cut down on the heat from the added buildings, and I think the above adjustments to the proposed plan could lead to a more sustainable city for all of us. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 3: I'm speaking to parking, traffic and parking is going to be impacted with these IOUs with the minimums that they have to have for their own parking spaces. Keep in mind that they have visitors coming into the communities as well. And I think that the highly dense communities need to have permits and time limits that they can't park in the residential areas because with the three new buildings that are being built in the area here, it's just getting impossible to find parking in the community. So I ask that you take that into consideration parking permits for your residents that are in densely populated areas as well, as I noticed on one street, fourth, fourth, alamitos. Two blocks of that. It's only one hour of parking. And then you go one block over, it's two hour parking. And I thought that that's extremely odd, that that's a primarily residential street and that they would get an hour on a street and a business area, get 2 hours. It just doesn't seem right. So fourth Alamitos. And in addition, again, traffic turning signals boggles my mind why there is not a left turn signal on every major intersection in the city. That's something so simple that you could do. When we got the countdown, traffic lights, I thought, okay, money thrown at that. Why not turning signals? You have the bike. I mean, like on one street, there's eight or nine, ten traffic lights where the bikes are. But yet we cannot seem to get from each district turning signals on the major intersections that would at least alleviate some of the traffic when people are coming and going during rush hours. In addition, I would really love to see those bike lanes be rid of on the on ramps and off ramps to the freeway. Of all the places you all could have put that, it makes no sense given all the activity, given all the events that Long Beach does, given all the popularity, all the people that have moved into Long Beach being now the city that we should have that there, when you have the off ramp from the 710 coming and going, third, sixth, seventh, put them somewhere else. I'm not against bicycling, but I just it just I don't see a slew of people going on those bike lanes. And you've taken a lane away from from commuters. That's not fair to the community. It really is not fair. So that's what I would love for you all to please please help us with that. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Come up here, okay? Yeah. My name is Robert Peel in the name of Jesus. Okay. And I want to show you something that deals with this, for one thing. I don't know if you know him, so I want to show you. This is the guy who runs stuff, right? And dealing with this. Everybody, this is Jesus. This is God Almighty right here. So, see, this is what I represent. And I don't know a lot about this, but I heard the vice mayor, wherever he ran somewhere he's talking about was. Sometimes you have a structure on your life and he had to bust it all down and it was illegal. Well, it's just like, you know, sanctuary city, this stuff is illegal. Is this dealing with this structure as a principle and all this? You know, and so sometimes we have to take something that was put in and we have to break it down, break the things that aren't right, you know, aren't right, and deal with that now. As far as this, I don't know. So I just wanted to get this in and I'm going to say this before I go. She has to go. Ginny Pierce has to go. And that's in the name of Jesus. What's right and justice. Justice. If I do that, I go to jail. Well, she did all drunk driving and all that. So I'm going to get out of your hat to tell me I'm out of here. But in the name of Jesus and what is right, you know what's right right here. She got to go. And you ain't going too far behind. Love you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Just, you know. And Mr. P, you can actually always speak all the amount of time that you have. Just want to make sure it's on the topic. That's the that's the important thing. Okay, sir. So it's not about going. It's about just staying on the topic. Speaker 8: I just want to get that out. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you, sir. Next speaker. Speaker 2: Hi. I live in City Santana and my opinion is the one. Redskins goes high. Goes high. When it goes up, then people start cramming up into apartments and that's why you can't find parking. And so I can understand why people are moving into garages or moving to the back houses because it's hard to find affordable housing. So the more you let these greedy landlords raise the prices, you're going to see more, more traffic. And also, I want to congratulate the city council members that support Black Lives Matter, the support sanctuary city that supports the football players to stand up against racism. And now there is a hate group here today and we have to stand up to hate. And thank you very much. Speaker 0: Okay. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Speaker 8: Hello. I will. I will identify myself. I hope future speakers do, too. I'm Joe Weinstein, president of Citizens About Responsible Planning or carp. We sent you a letter earlier today. And I must. Speaker 2: Say that. Speaker 8: Our principal concerns with density, you have heard plenty about the traffic impacts, which are magnified because the state is operating under a rather silly theory that the less parking you have, the less traffic you're going to have. So you are trying to creatively cope with that. And I think that what Councilman Supernova suggested is maybe one of the tools you would have, namely to proceed to find that more areas indeed are parking impacted. But the principal tool you have is indeed to cut down the size of the units so that they really conform to the original idea of a granny flat. The proposal. I'm I'm glad to see the direction of movement on the suggested sizes, but in reality the granny flat does not have to be anything like 800 square feet. And I know this from my personal experience. My son constructed himself a one storey full service house. Comfortable for permanent living for himself and at least one other person. And it was all done on a footprint of under 400 square feet, a very attractive house. It can be done. So if, in fact, you really want to go for the concept of a granny flat rather than an excuse to bring in intolerable density, it can be done. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Thank you. My name is Maureen Neely. I'm the president of the Belmont Heights Community Association. And I would like to thank the council and staff as well for consideration of this ordinance. I know what the state was asking and requiring, and the staff has done a good job of hitting all the spots and trying to make it unique to Long Beach. We have an overarching observation about the ADU ordinance as it currently is presented, and then a couple of specific suggestions which I think we've heard tonight. We'd also like to note that several of our residents did speak at the public comment period at the July six Planning Commission. So we I think the Planning Commission heard us there as well. As a volunteer leader of one of the city's oldest neighborhood associations, I've had the experience with how two homes on the lot impacts the community. Our board understands that accessory dwelling units do not just affect individual parcel owners. The ramifications include impacts on sunlight, breezes, noise and pollution. Housing. More people on a single lot increases the school population, utility needs, parking and traffic. So for these reasons, we urge you to weigh carefully the size and the placement of the additional units ten, 20 years down the road, as lots as more lots include secondary units. It makes sense that we plan today for less concrete and more open space. These attributes make for good neighbors. Specifically tonight, though, we hope you amend the ordinance to what Councilwoman Pierce Price has suggested, which does reduce the ADU size to 800 square feet or 50% of the existing primary dwelling, whichever is. Speaker 3: Less increase the required. Speaker 1: Amount of accompanying open space from 25% to 30%. And we do think that these minor amendments will still achieve the state's intent to create more available housing. And the smaller size. Speaker 3: Should translate. Speaker 1: Into. Speaker 3: More affordable housing. Speaker 1: Especially for young adults just starting out, new graduates getting on their feet. Speaker 3: Studios extended family. Speaker 1: Needs even for older residents who want to downsize, yet still live in their neighborhoods. So these make sense. So thank you for consideration of this request. We know that every district does have different needs, but we do think these two small changes will work well throughout the city, achieving the intent of the state's legislation that keeping our Long Beach neighborhoods desirable, sustainable and ultimately livable. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please enjoy the last two speakers and the public speaking list is closed. Speaker 1: Hi. Mayor and City Council. I have to be honest, I'm not that well read on this subject because of the many, many issues that City Development Services has going on with regards to like the general plan and land use elements and c CIP. So I really didn't know that much about it and I've just recently read up on it and I just want to talk to you about some of my questions and concerns. And that's why I showed up today and didn't wasn't able to write anything in advance. My district is district three. I live in Bluff Park. Susie is my council rep and her initial statement that staff is reacting to the state regulations or state mandates regarding this issue, and that's why it's a city initiated. I am really confused about that. Speaker 3: I'm just learning. Speaker 1: That we are we operate under a charter and so we're a charter city. So I read about being a charter city, and one of the foundational aspects of being a charter city is that when it comes to municipal affairs, a city's charter overrides state regulations. And a lot of times, especially when it comes to core issues, this is especially true with land use and zoning decisions. So I keep hearing that the state has new regulations and that we must adopt these. So I just have questions about that, if you could answer that after my, my, my period of talking. The primary advantage of being a charter, as I understand, is that allows greater authority for a city's governance than provided by the state laws. We know best what what should be done in our city. And I think that we need to have a larger conversation about what it means to be a charter city. Lynda Tatum from Dolans Services kept talking about what the state requires and the state law limits our ability on what to do. And I'm just confused on being a charter city and state regulations. So I appreciate when Miss Price asks for making what she called increased density variable for our neighborhoods. Yet I'm confused. With regards to the document that was put out by Development Services on October 10th from city staff regarding the recommendation on this ordinance 88, their statement is an 80. It is not considered an additional unit for density purposes, and that's really concerning to me, especially since we're having such an uproar with regards to land use elements and density. I'm not sure how that applies here and that is very confusing to me. The document states that 82 areas may be designated based on criteria that can include like water and sewer and the impact of issues on traffic flow and public safety. As Susie. Speaker 3: Probably remembers from our community. Speaker 1: Meeting, I'm very concerned about Redondo Corridor, Fourth Street Corridor and traffic flow bike lanes getting into my neighborhood. Have studies been done with regards to this issue before or is this going to be done after some of those things. Speaker 3: Come into effect? Thank you. Speaker 0: Very much. Speaker 1: So we would just appreciate it if you would answer some of those questions with regards to that. And also, thank you very much. Are these covenants going to be. Speaker 0: Thank you. Time is up. Thank you. We got to keep it time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Good evening. My name is Ali Shibley and I am at Moral Poles because I am a residential architect in the neighborhood and in Long Beach, and I also am a citizen currently living in an accessory dwelling unit, a legal course. First and foremost, I want to commend staff on their hard work. I would not I do not envy your position at all. And I think what you guys have done to regulate local ordinances and address the state mandate is awesome. Additionally, I want to commend the Council on the points that they made in addressing what they're calling the three amendments to what the staff is currently doing. I do want to address a fourth point that I don't think is spoken for that I think would address some further concerns that the community has and still allow for their adus in conformance to what the staff is proposing. And that is to add another overlay and that being that your existing. Speaker 3: Home. Speaker 1: And the property should be conforming before you add a secondary unit. I think an issue that that we have in the third district and a lot of the parking impacted areas is that a lot of the garages are only one car. The housing a house in our one district technically needs two garage spots. So if we address the main house before allowing an accessory dwelling unit, that would help a limit limit the A2 use and the density and address our current situation, which is leading to a parking impacted zone. I also I think the map of the the access to transit areas is phenomenal. I love that. I think it you know, it puts a chip on my shoulder being a resident of Long Beach and having that much access to to public transit. However, I think the reality is not everyone's using it and that is why we continue to have parking impacted zones. So addressing the existing home non-conformity before allowing an accessory dwelling unit would also help the situation, I think, at hand. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. We're going to go back to the council. I just want to just make a comment and then I have a question as well and then enter this back over to Councilwoman Price one. Let me just let me just add to the the letter that just spoke. I think the issue I'm not on the nonconforming or possible non-conforming related issues to the property is that addressing that, that's actually a great idea. Is that a dress in the an ordinance? Speaker 5: Mayor That's a great question. It is not currently addressed. And again, I would defer to the city attorney. However, the city's land use and development regulations have long rested on the premise that what we call legal nonconforming structures are vested, meaning that the use was legal, legally permitted and comply with the laws at the time it was built. There's always been a presumption of protection for those units and those legal non-conforming cases result when a unit is permitted and the code or some standard changes subsequent to that approval. That creates essentially what we call a non-conforming status, and property owners generally have long relied on the protection of them when they go through the process and get a permit and and legally construct a unit that they have the protection, the protection that the city isn't going to change the code later. And they then have to be required to come up to speed retroactively to some new requirement. So to your question, yes, that is something that the city could do, but that is not anticipated in the ordinance as it's currently written. Speaker 0: Mr. PARKER, is that is that something that we would we would able to do? Speaker 2: Yes. I think what Lynda indicated is there is such a thing as a legal non-conforming use. It's allowed and we wouldn't require that to be changed during this process. But if during the permitting process or during the inspection process, there was found to be illegal conversions or some sort of other code violation, then yes, that could be addressed at that time. Speaker 0: It would seem that I mean, for the benefit of building an accessory dwelling unit, that the property owner would have to have a property that is conforming to all the other requirements that before we would address of giving them a permit to move forward. That would that would be something that obviously. Make her the most. You would have to. But I think that's we have so many. I think one of the big issues which I know is harder to address is the numerous non-conforming properties that we have, that there are folks that aren't going through the process. And I think that this would be a great way of addressing that in this way. Can I ask a question to staff too? Because I just want to make sure I'm mentioning this right. And I obviously support the reduction to 800 square feet. I'll tell you personally, having owning a property that's about 800 square feet, that's enormous. So I think I mean, square feet is a very comfortable, large living area. And so I think the idea of this is always to build, I think, a small unit possibly for a transitioning senior or a family member, that it's part of a family. I think certainly it wasn't to create a second home in backyards. So can I ask you on the bedroom issue, because I'm a little bit just confused. If you're planning to do one bedroom, Ms.. Tatum. Can you only build up to 450 square feet? And if you do, too, it's it's. Can you explain that piece to me? Speaker 3: The third the chart we were referring to. Speaker 5: Is actually, if you go to let me call the page, page 11 of the ordnance, which is attached as let's see, it's going to give you the number. I presume that that's the table you're referring to, Mayor? Speaker 0: Well, I think you had mentioned that, which is why I was looking if you hadn't mentioned. So I just want to make sure you can walk me through that. So if I am applying for it for an accessory dwelling unit and I only want to build one bedroom versus, let's say a contemplated to if I want to build a one bedroom, can I still build what I then at that point still be able to build up to the now propose 800 square feet? Or do I have to build two bedrooms to get to 800? Speaker 3: No, you can build one. Speaker 5: Bedroom up to that 800 square feet. That 800 is a maximum of the unit size and it doesn't. Speaker 3: Require a particular room configuration. Speaker 0: What happens inside the square footage? Is it not connected to the amount of square feet of the square feet that you can build? Speaker 2: That's correct. Speaker 0: Can I add then? I was just curious. I know that different cities have a range of different square footage in in San Jose's case, if I just could ask, it's because I think it's a community that's similar to ours where it's you have a lot of suburban neighborhoods, you have a downtown. So they're doing 6 to 800 square feet. And we try to understand what the six 800 is. What requirement is that a range or because obviously you can build below 600 square feet? Or is that is that the the floor? Speaker 5: We're not familiar specifically with that. We looked at a number of other cities and we generally looked at it for their maximum allowable size. So where there is a range, it's not entirely clear to us the kind of what drives that range. And it could be a number of factors. Generally, I would I would kind of speculate that it might be something like the unit size or even I'm sorry, the property, the size of the property, or it could even be the size of the primary unit that drives how they pass that range. Speaker 0: And and. Wow, and what's that and can you repeat the minimum again? Speaker 5: Our current minimum, the minimum lot size that you are could build a unit is 4800 square feet. If you have a lot size that smaller than that, you're not eligible to build a second of the. Speaker 0: Minimum square footage total per for the excess of the. Speaker 3: Lot. Speaker 0: Yeah. No of the unit. Speaker 5: Of the unit. Right now our minimum unit size is 640 square feet. Speaker 0: That doesn't seem. Speaker 3: Do you mean the unit or you relate it to the bedroom? Speaker 0: The the accessory dwelling unit. Speaker 5: The minimum size is. Speaker 3: The. Speaker 5: 640. Speaker 3: But let me let. Speaker 5: Kyra answer that. Speaker 0: But thank you. Speaker 3: Go ahead. And that's the mini max. We'll get a clarification. Speaker 4: Mayor, thank you for the question. Just to clarify, the minimum unit sizes, there's a couple of categories, and I'm not going to try I'm going to try to not overcomplicate it. But for a studio that's detached, for example, it's 300 square feet. Speaker 0: So I got into. So the one bedroom there, a 4/5. Correct. Correct. Okay. I just want to just to clarify, and I do think before I turn this back over and I appreciate the conversation, I think the conversation is going in the right direction. I just want to clarify one of the questions that we get asked that question about charter cities often. And there are obviously additional protections for charter cities in many cases and in many cases there are not. Do you want to Mr. City Attorney, maybe explain that? I think. Speaker 2: Yes. Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council. You are correct. On a charter city, we have what we call home rule in a charter city, which does allow certain planning and implementation authority beyond what a general law city is capable of. But when the state legislature decides or determines that the matter is a matter of statewide concern, they can pass legislation applicable to both general law cities and charter cities. And in fact, that's the case with the EU law. They specifically found that it would apply to local agencies, both charter cities and and county charter, city county charter counties pursuant to Government Code Section 65 eight 52.2. So it is applicable to the city of Long Beach and the state has over time determined certain things that used to be a home rule or a charter city purview as a municipal affair has become that of a statewide concern. And an example of that would be in the area of voting and elections. Speaker 0: And that and I think that and that's correct. And I just wanted to just to add so I think we oftentimes whenever a state law is passed, the very first thing we look at is whether charter cities are included or not included. And sometimes we're not and oftentimes we are. Of course, after your analysis. So we'll go. Let's go. Keep going. I know we have a motion on the floor right now, Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 5: I'm going to withdraw. I was going to explain municipal affairs versus statewide affairs. So thank you. I was I was going back to, you know, public policy school. I was very excited to answer that question. But thank you. Speaker 0: Gentlemen. Speaker 7: Yes. Yes. My question is, if you have an illegal wallet in the back and all of a sudden they and it was only 300 and somewhat feet, could we bring it up to code like, say, if it was illegal, could they start and and they wanted to bring it up to like, say, another 300? Would that be possible? Would they have to tear it down and start all over? Speaker 3: They the the laws that are. Speaker 5: Adopted in this. Speaker 3: Ordinance would apply. Speaker 5: To that unit. So they would have the option to if it did not comply as it was currently built, they would have to modify. Speaker 3: It to a point where it. Speaker 5: Was compliant with the law. Speaker 7: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Shipowner. Speaker 6: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank Councilwoman Price for accepting my friendly on the parking lot. And also, I just want to address one statement that was made there suggesting that council is supporting density. I don't think that frames this issue correctly. We are trying to mitigate a state mandate. If you want to spend that as supporting density, I guess you're free to say that. But I certainly don't see it that way. But there just seems to be a lot of moving parts here. I appreciate the city attorney's going to craft this and come back at 30 days. We'd have another shot of it. But one of the last things I heard was we can have a one bedroom unit up to 800 square feet. Am I correct on that? Speaker 3: That is correct. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 6: So much of my district is impacted by Cal State, Long Beach. That's a lot to do with the parking issues. The other thing we have an issue with is bedroom splitting and it's very hard to detect these once they're done. I believe if you allow one bedroom units of 800 square feet, you're inviting bedroom splitting. And so I'm going to rethink my support of this item based on just so many issues here. So I'm going to reserve any comment stuff with you. Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongeau. Speaker 3: I'd like to make a friendly. I was looking at page 11 of the. Written document and I think that the 4800 square feet for so my original intent was that there would be a graduated scale 600 square feet. 800 square feet. I'm trying to mitigate the impacts to our neighborhoods. And so first, I think that. Because of so many things going on in our city right now. Not now is not the right time to take on this issue. So I'm also rethinking my support of this item. Even though I generally wanted to have this dialog, I just think that there's so many moving parts of things going on that I'm hesitant to get on board. But I would be. Potentially more supportive when it comes back. If we were limiting the lot size, if you did not have a lot greater than I would say 50, 200 square feet. So if you're a lot was 50, 200 square feet and above, you could potentially have an ideal. But if it was below that, then I think that we should restrict it. I'd be open to hearing the the. Speaker 0: 600. Speaker 8: That people. Speaker 3: I'd be open to hearing the maker of the motion's ideas on that. Would you be open to a friendly that would research so the 4800 as the minimum lot size going up to 5200. Yes. Wonderful. Speaker 0: And just to clarify, I think I think and I want can I clarify this, Councilwoman? I think what we're saying is, is possibly if it was between 48 to 52, maybe I would misunderstood. It could you could build up to 600 square feet. But if it was up over 52, you could build 800. Is that what you're saying? Speaker 3: I'm saying in in in this new phase, this is kind of giving us a trial period where I would say 5200 is the minimum lot size. Let's look at this. Let's bring it back in a year. Let's see how many people built 80 use. Let's see where they requested them. Let's see where they didn't and let's learn. But when we have a majority of the units in the city. Speaker 2: Andre is confident. But when it comes to. Speaker 3: Touchdown, I think that's a support. I'll take it with that. I don't know how I could beat that. Speaker 5: I think what I'm hearing as the as the maker of the motion is that properties would not be eligible for an accessory dwelling unit under 5200 square feet. That's what I'm hearing. Speaker 0: That that would be the friendly, I believe, to the motion, and. Speaker 5: I would accept that. Speaker 0: Okay. So just let's let's go ahead and clarify the motion before we have an advice is up next. Mr. City Attorney, can you clarify the motion? Just about everyone knows where they are. Speaker 2: I will certainly attempt to do so, Mayor. Thank you. The motion would be to adopt staff's recommendation with now four amendments. One is to reduce from 1000 square feet to 8800 square feet or 50%, whichever is less for the unit size to increase from 25% to 30% open space requirement to add preferential parking districts to the parking impacted areas as defined previously. And number four, I believe is, if I understand correctly, is to increase the minimum lot size from 4800 square feet to 5200 square feet. So the impact of that would be if your lot is 5000, 5000, 199 square feet or less, you would not be allowed to have an accessory dwelling unit. Yes. Is that correct? Speaker 0: I believe that's the motion. Okay. Okay. So let me go ahead and go back to Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 6: A couple of questions. So I get it. Folks want to make it tight. I'm all about that limited and limit the impact on neighborhoods. But where did the 4800 number come from? Where did that how was the 5200 number justified? And what is the average lot size in Long Beach? What I what I don't want to do is inadvertently create a policy that that half the city is excluded from participate. Speaker 3: Absolutely. Absolutely. Speaker 0: Why don't we have. Why don't we go ahead and have staff answer the questions on that to the best Richardson place? Speaker 4: Mayor Richardson, thank you for your question. Just to clarify, so your first question was, where did the 4800 square feet came from? We used our existing granny flat ordinance as a starting point, and that is the existing minimum lot size that are not that is in our ordinance. We use that as the starting point. Furthermore, as earlier actually furthermore as earlier state. Actually, I didn't state this earlier. I apologize using the r1n lot inventory of the city as an example. So that's. Speaker 3: With over. Speaker 4: 53,000 or one end lots in the city representing the traditional single family zones. There are 87%. Speaker 3: Of. Speaker 4: Properties that are over 4800 square feet, which means, conversely, only 13% of lots would be excluded from building an ADU. Furthermore, in the current are two zones of the city which are duplex zoning. The minimum lot size is 4800 and that the zoning ordinance basically has an existing. Q that that says 4800 is a minimum lot size to allow for two units. Speaker 3: And therefore the three. Speaker 4: Reasons I just stated were compelling enough evidence for us to use 4800 as the threshold. Thank you. Speaker 6: So 48 square, 4800 square foot lot can actually have two full units on it, but not an accessory dwelling unit under the current friendly that we were telling me. Speaker 3: That is correct. However. Speaker 5: That is not a guaranteed number of units because any proposed development has to comply with all of the development standards the floor area ratio. Speaker 3: The setbacks, the. Speaker 5: Parking, the height and open space so that two units for the 4800 is a theoretical maximum. It is not a guaranteed number. Speaker 6: So what I don't want to do is continue to create policy out of numbers that we we're just tossing out there. I like that you have the justification for 4800. I'm okay with evaluating 5200, but I'd like to see what that analysis is on 5200, the way that you broke down. Hey, this is what percentage in R one in and the other zones. I'd like to understand that. But you know the difference between 4850, 200 and what? How that fundamentally changes the program. So so is a way that we can come back with some data on that before we cast a final vote on something like this or , you know, kind of open to. Councilmember, if you want to just address how you would reconcile that or where you came. Speaker 0: From, some. Okay. So Vice Mayor, I. Speaker 6: Like I'd like to have a back and forth if that's. Speaker 0: Okay. But also Councilman Mongo. Speaker 3: So I was actually mining data on the assessor portal and I was trying to go back and forth on some of the S.F. hours and the square footage on them, because I'm trying to be able to carve out the ability to try this and then but not necessarily at 90% of the city. I'm saying let's try it. Let's try it at a more reasonable amount. And I thought 5200. Speaker 1: Carved out another. Speaker 3: Percentage of the city that actually gave us some good data. I don't want actually. Speaker 6: Makes a lot of sense. You want to pilot it on a smaller set of properties. That makes a lot of sense. So is there a way, Steph, can we can you tell me the difference? Like how many, how how you know, between 4850, 200, how many housing units are excluded between now and then? Do we have that data available or Stacey, is that available on your. Speaker 3: That's a lot of number. Speaker 0: So I would be shocked if staff can't pull it. I'm sure that I'm that data. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3: So when you go in the portal, you can do a filter. And then when you filter, you can filter for temporary residents and we can let up. Speaker 6: Right now, let's just agree on the number and move it forward tonight while. Speaker 0: We keep going through and see this stuff and find out what the number is. So next. Next up is actually Councilman Mongo. Speaker 3: I was going to answer the question we have. Speaker 0: Okay. So we move on to Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: That takes us some of my questions were answered. I just wanted to go back because I asked the question originally, what was the average lot size and and I get numbers on our went in and that were there was you gave me a 54% stuff. Speaker 2: To figure out the answer to the first question. Speaker 8: There hadn't. So the number was 54% of homes available in our women would be eligible for accessory dwelling units. Was that the answer is I got a 54% number. Speaker 6: Oh, you said 87%. Speaker 3: Was the councilman. Speaker 4: Austin, thank you for your question. To clarify, you've asked, as the ordinance is presently proposed, how many. Speaker 3: How many, what. Speaker 4: Percentage of the cities are one and lots based solely on lot size. So not on anything else. Speaker 3: Like law coverage or or floor area ratio would be eligible. Speaker 4: For an 80 you and that would be 87%. That would be based on a 4800. Speaker 3: Square foot lot size. Speaker 8: And so what we're trying to figure out is what would be the eligibility under 5200? Speaker 5: And the. Speaker 3: Number for the 52 is is. Speaker 5: Roughly. Speaker 3: The numbers that we have here are very general, because what. Speaker 5: We did is in our data mining, we mined it for. Speaker 3: Each we took out. We didn't consider all the properties in the city. We considered the properties that had. Speaker 5: One unit on it because you have to have one existing unit to be eligible. So it's not the entire universe of. Speaker 3: Lots, but we have. Speaker 5: A total of looks like. Speaker 3: Roughly just around. Speaker 5: 30%, just over 30%, and that's. Speaker 3: Very rough. So then I'll. Speaker 8: Just just say that, that I'm I'm challenged with the direction we're going in right now because this started out and I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Mongo, who originally brought this forward as a as a solution to our housing crisis, not only in the city and in response to state legislation. Speaker 3: Yes, correct. Speaker 8: 30 excluding we we have, I think of a responsibility as a city to to help solve this this crisis as well. I don't know. We're looking at other other avenues. We're studying our land use element. You know, housing is going to be a key issue of discussion not only tonight, but for many years to come. And let's just keep in mind that this is a this is a Tuesday night. This is a recommendation that is coming from staff. There's been a lot of dialog. I think there is a will here to to get somewhere. But I don't I don't want to get to the point where we're not we're restricting our ability and restricting our residents ability to to help their family members with housing. Right. To to restrict our ability to to truly start providing answers to the the issues of homelessness. Right. And let's keep in mind with the intent of these accessory dwelling units. Are those keep in mind the intent of the state legislation. We get to the point where we're just trying to restrict it down so that it doesn't fit in everybody's backyard or or next door neighbor. And that's not going to that's not going to really fly with, I think, the intent of the legislation and or what we have asked staff to come back and study. So I just want to keep keep that in mind as well. Speaker 3: And so so I appreciate that I was a person who in this first past of the state, I brought this to council to say, let's get our arms around this and see where we are. I definitely feel that. But what I'm feeling is a considerable hesitation on too many open items and questions. So there are residences, single family residences throughout our city that have already. And I don't want to jump in front of Councilmember Super last question. Six people living in a single family residence that is a two bedroom. And we have, like you mentioned, the nonconforming and an opportunity to get these properties in income from income to conform would be ideal. And this is a huge shift and a huge change during a time that is uncertain. We don't have a current approved area. We we don't have a current general plan. We don't have any of these things. And so for me, I'm happy to say bring it back as it is in January or February, when we've had time to nail down all the other components of our city, and we've had additional healthy dialog , but we're not there yet. So I still don't know if you have the single family residence on the front and you add an accessory dwelling unit. What is the maximum occupancy of people living on this property? I don't actually know. Speaker 2: But I think I still have the floor. Speaker 3: Though. Like you're asking me. Speaker 8: I do want to ask a question of staff on this. This law has already gone into effect. Speaker 2: Is that correct? That's correct. Speaker 8: And if someone today wants to build an accessory dwelling unit, can they do it? Speaker 2: Yes. Until the city adopts its own local ordinance, the more the more the state regulations are applied. Speaker 8: So right now, the the exercise we are going under is to to to to actually get some local control. Speaker 3: That's about the item six. Speaker 8: But pushing it out will limits our our ability to. Speaker 3: Absolutely. I get that. Speaker 8: I will. Again, I want to get back to the intent. Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate that. And I'll I'll wait till my turn again. Speaker 0: Let's go let's go through the rest of the those folks that are cued up. So I come from a soprano. Speaker 6: Thank you. Just one question and one follow up. And that councilmember, Mongo, just touched on it. So on the ADU, is there a limitation on the number of residents to occupy the ADA? Speaker 5: That's a really good question. And essentially. Speaker 3: The zoning. Speaker 5: Regulations and anything that we're doing here will not speak specifically to the occupancy of the unit. And again, I'm going to specify this very generally in the city. Attorney can weigh in. Speaker 3: But cities are very specifically limited. Speaker 5: From. Speaker 3: Regulating occupancy by. Speaker 5: The the the health and safety code and. Speaker 3: Court case after court case. Speaker 5: Has resulted in city's. Speaker 3: Attempts to regulate occupancy. Speaker 5: By. Speaker 3: Being declared null and void because the state has a compelling interest. And again, I'm not speaking from our perspective, but just how the state articulates this issue. The state's compelling issue is that people have the opportunity. Speaker 5: For housing and they. Speaker 2: Are. Speaker 3: Typically less concerned with the quality of the. Speaker 5: Housing than the fact that there they are and do have the opportunity to be housed. So the courts have repeatedly thrown out cases where the cities have attempted to limit occupancy. So we. Speaker 3: Have through the zoning. Speaker 5: Code, we have absolutely no control over how many people live in a unit. Speaker 6: Okay. So that's the first part of the the question. The second part, before I get to that, I just want to commend Councilmember Austin that, yes, we do need to get back to the intent. And I just want to explore the unintended consequences, because we have a duty to the public, I think, to explain what could possibly happen here. So in addition to no controls on the number of folks living in the ADU, a scenario might be that you have a three bedroom residence saying single person occupancy who built the Adu, moves into the Adu and then rents out the three bedrooms. And that's what we've found to accommodate like student housing, whatnot. I guess that's not a question, it's just a statement of reality. So thank you for your time. Speaker 0: A Council council member. Speaker 3: So with all of these, I recognize that 30% is a small amount, but I think that it is still a large enough amount to see a good test case. So I may ask my colleagues to stand with Councilmember Price and myself. And I see Councilmember Pearce is the second door on the motion and support the 5200 square feet as a phase one and to get a report back from the development services in a year of the number of permits polled and locations and all of that. So we can see where we are. And by then, hopefully we can have seen how many cases where individuals who are non-conforming and became conforming and what the health of the city was and what great things it turned around. Or we can see that if in six months we have to bring it back because there's too many requests that don't meet the requirements because 5200 is too great. We can see it at that time, but I'm going to stand with 5200. I think 30% is a great test case and I'm confident that it's a step in the right direction. Speaker 0: Face me, Richardson. Speaker 6: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. It's been a good, healthy debate. I didn't think this item was going to go so long tonight. So I. I want to say, I think where we started, 5200 square feet. A thousand square feet, we've we've come back a lot and that should be acknowledged. So we had almost unanimous support here for limiting from a thousand down to 800. That's a good step in the right direction. Almost unanimous support from public comment on that. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think we have clarity in terms of our exposure while we don't have an ordinance and that it's in our interest to speed it up. I get that as well. The one place that I do have some rub and I'm going to appeal to the maker of the motion and the maker of the friendlies and see if we can not go into a political up or down on this. I think people want to get to the right place. Going from staff rec staff's recommendation of 78% down to 30% is a big 87% excuse me, down to 30%. That is a big difference. And I feel and I know that certain areas of town do have a lot smaller, lot sizes. Some have larger, lot sizes, and it will completely exclude certain areas of town, which wouldn't be a good sample for a pilot. So I'm going to propose for the amendment that we meet in the middle at 5000. I'm going to ask before I offer it, I'm going to ask staff to tell me what that does in terms of between 30 and 87%. Where does that where do we land with 5000? Speaker 3: I'd like to first just clarify that when the when councilman Councilwoman Mongo ask about the the the number of units that were the. Speaker 5: 5200 square feet, the response of 30% was that that is the number that is the 30% loss that we have, 30% that are 5200, which means that above that number we have approximately 70%. So I just want to make sure that. Speaker 3: That is clear. So there will be. Speaker 5: 70% of the city's housing stock that will be eligible to have a second unit on it. Speaker 3: That's very, very different. Speaker 0: That's not what I heard. So can I get clarification? Get some clarification? You're saying that if we go to 50, 200 square feet, we have about 70% of the city that would be eligible still. Speaker 3: Again, that's a very rough estimate. I'm going to say 65 to 70%. That's. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Last May. Richardson, you have the floor. Speaker 6: Thank you. That's a big difference, I think. I think I'm okay with it. I'm okay with going with 52. Speaker 3: Thank you. I thought the number looks surprising considering your support. Speaker 6: Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Pierce. Speaker 1: I think my my questions were answered on the percentage. I think staying at around 70% is a good test case. I think coming back down the road and looking at what's being effective, what's working. If we need to make adjustments after land use element and everything else, I think it's a smart move. So I appreciate the good conversation back here on how we craft good policy. So thank you. Speaker 0: And Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 5: Thank you. I appreciate the discussion and the offers by everyone to try to work a solution that's that's acceptable to all of us. What I don't want to do and I and I hope we can move forward on this tonight and get the ball rolling and move into the next step is to just kick the can down the road, because this is a reality. This is a reality that we as a as a result of a state mandate, have to deal with. And I don't want us to get into a situation where we're saying, you know, well, let's study it more. I think we've mitigated it to a place that appeases our residents that staff can live with and that we feel still provides a sufficient housing supply. I have to say I would not have been okay with the 30%. So I'm glad that that was that was clarified because the whole point of this is to provide opportunities to have additional housing. And if there were 30%, it really wouldn't do that. So I asked my colleagues to move forward on this and let's let's get this into motion so that staff can incorporate these amendments with the city attorney's office and give us an ordinance that we can work with. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Great. Excellent comments. There's a motion in a second which is repeated by the city attorney. Please cast your votes. It's good and it's. Speaker 1: Adapted to the work. We just have to do the findings. Is Andrews. Motion carries. Speaker 0: Great, unanimous. Thank you very much. I think that was a very good discussion. And I want to thank thank everybody. We are just finished our three long hearings and now we go to the regular agenda of the city council. First item up will be the item that was pulled from the consent calendar. So that'll be that's item number four was pulled by Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilman Gonzales.

Ordinance

WITHDRAWN Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 21.15.050, 21.15.063, 21.15.930, 21.15.1720, 21.15.1770, 21.15.2400, 21.15.2410, 21.31.360.B, Table 31-1, 21.51.110.A, and 21.51.275; and by adding Sections 21.15.045, 21.15.447, 21.15.915, 21.15.935, 21.15.2165, 21.25.903.C.5, 21.41.233.A.3, and 21.51.276, all related to accessory dwelling units, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

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Speaker 3: Motion case. Speaker 0: Item to maintain. Speaker 1: Report from Parks, Recreation and Marine. Recommendation to adopt resolution authorizing the City Manager to submit a grant application to the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Outdoor Environmental Education Facilities Grant Program. Speaker 0: Kit is in motion in a second. Councilmember. Speaker 2: I believe this could be a short staff report that has a comments afterwards. Speaker 0: Is there a short staff report? Speaker 2: Steve Scott and Meredith Reynolds, Mayor and members of the City Council. We're really excited to provide you tonight with a brief presentation on a $500,000 grant application to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Outdoor Environment Education Grant Program for the completion of the Willow Springs Outdoor Education, Trailhead and Trail Network. The Willow Springs Outdoor Education Trailhead Project and Grant Application was developed in partnership with the Office of Sustainability and will help serve as a center of sustainability operations, enabling them to provide programs, host events, and create educational opportunities that promote environmental stewardship, sustainable practices, and hands on sustainability. Focused training for at risk youth. The project will recreate the Environmental Visitors Plaza and California Avenue Trailhead Project originally envisioned for the 1907 Southern Pacific Depot building, which was unfortunately destroyed by fire last year. This Re-Envisioned project will serve as an outdoor environmental classroom and shaded gathering area that connects to the various park amenities, while maintaining the original Environmental Visitor Center and Trailhead concept of communicating and educating visitors about native habitat in the history of the land. The project will include a large shade structure and interpretive signs in an open outdoor gathering area and will provide an introduction to local habitat. Habitat Insight, Sustainability features history and direction to the park's trail network. It will also include additional wayfinding and several adventure planer nodes with logs and boulders. An educational signage focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship. So we're excited that this project will help further implement the Willow Springs Master Plan, which was adopted by the City Council back in 2013. This grant. Speaker 3: Opportunity. Speaker 2: Is going to help supplement the existing city funding that we have for this project, which in total would be close to $1,000,000. We look forward to breaking ground on this project a little bit later this year and expect to hear on notification of the Grant Award in April of 2018 by the leader at the latest. That concludes our staff report. Happy to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay. We have a motion in a second. Yeah, I'm a transformative customer. We were in the. Speaker 2: Thank you, Mayor. As was stated by a by Mr. Scott, it was a project that was in the making and unfortunately got sidetracked by the fire of the depot last year. But I'm very happy to see that we have the almost now close to $1,000,000,000 to be able to develop this Little Springs Park area and looking forward to having it activated and having people being able to enjoy some more open space that is very much needed in the seventh District. So I want to thank Mary Knight and her team for searching this out. And I wish them very much success in being able to get that grant and get em looking forward to a ribbon cutting, hopefully very soon. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Just congratulations to our parks team as well as to Councilmember Wodonga. This is a great plan. Speaker 0: Thank you. And public comment on this. Seeing none members, please go out and cast your votes.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution authorizing City Manager, or designee, to submit a grant application to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Outdoor Environmental Education Facilities Grant Program; accept said grant, if awarded, in an amount up to $500,000, for completion of the Willow Springs Outdoor Education Trailhead and Trail Network; and, execute all documents necessary to accept the funds and implement the project. (District 7)

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Speaker 1: Motion Case. Speaker 0: Next item. Speaker 1: Report from police recommendation to execute a new agreement between the Long Beach Police Department and the Long Beach Unified School District to staff school resource officers in an amount not to exceed 865,649, with an estimated net cost to the city's general fund of 216,412 citywide. Speaker 0: There was emotion in a second, Councilman Gonzales who queued up at the Councilman Price. Did you want to say anything? Are you okay? Councilman, I said no. Okay, then. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Yes. I'd like to know which schools will be. I'm sure you predicted I was going to ask that question. Absolutely. Get it in, Councilman Gonzalez. So the contract would include four full time school resource officers assigned to. Speaker 4: Millikan, Cabrillo Poly and Jordan high schools. Speaker 1: Okay, fantastic. And then were is there a reason why it was just high schools? Are we looking at middle schools at all? At this time, that is the service. Speaker 4: Level requested by the school. Speaker 3: District. Speaker 1: Okay, perfect. And then I would sorry, one last question about a safe Passages model, and I know that we've been talking about that just in various different locations. Is there a an idea to go to a more of a safe passages model that includes community leaders and parents versus PD? Or is this I know this contract is until June of next year, but I don't know if we're inching towards that a different model at all. We currently have a model that is. Speaker 4: Near execution of a contract with county. Speaker 1: Probation, and that model does include partnering with a local community organization to. Speaker 4: Facilitate volunteers from that neighborhood. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm not sure if you guys can answer this question. Do you know if the counselors in those high schools, they have the same number of counselors that they have in other high schools and junior high or if we have PD stepping into some of that counsel role for Councilman Pearce, I don't believe so. Speaker 4: However, I cannot say so definitively we could report back. Speaker 3: On that item. Speaker 1: Okay. So just one last clarifying question. The role of PD and these schools are exactly what they are providing full time support, school resource officers, they are interacting with the students. They are working with administration. Speaker 4: At these school sites to. Speaker 1: Address potential crime trends that may be observed by administration. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Is there any public comment on this scene? And please cast your votes.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute a new agreement between the Long Beach Police Department and the Long Beach Unified School District, to staff School Resource Officers, in an amount not to exceed $865,649, with an estimated net cost to the City’s General Fund of $216,412. (Citywide)

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Speaker 3: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next item, please. Speaker 1: Report from police. Recommendation to execute an agreement with the Long Beach Public Transportation Company to provide law enforcement and security services and an estimated annual amount not to exceed 2,429,477 citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you. I have a couple questions and comments. Councilman Price, did you have anything? First. Okay, Councilman Austin. Okay. Just also just I first officer, I know just a chief in the team. I know the transition to taking over all of the Metro stops on that transit side. You guys have just done amazing. And I just think it's it's needed I needed to repeat that this the response we're getting from riders and from the community. You guys are doing a great job. I know it's it's a new job. It's the first time we've done this work, but it's excellent. I wanted to just transition that to the Long Beach Transit conversation. I know obviously that LAPD, for example, does some transit work. The sheriffs obviously do do a lot of the metro bus stops as well as transit on the Long Beach transit contract. But the the patrol is for both kind of bus stops as well as inside the busses, is that right? Speaker 8: Mayor, members of the city council? Speaker 2: That's correct. The current contract covers Long Beach transit busses and the stops throughout their contract, which is beyond the city of Long Beach as well. Speaker 0: And there is there are all transit stops within the city of Long Beach patrolled solely by Long Beach PD. I think that's correct. Right? Speaker 2: Yes. Although Long Beach Transit bus stops are. Speaker 0: That's correct. And this contract does just cover the non Lombard Transit bus stops. I'm just assuming it's all bus stops, whether they're Long Beach Transit and or operated by the city of Long Beach because Long Beach the city of Long Beach operates about half the stops and then lobby transit does the other half. Is it is this inclusive of just theirs or does this also include the cities or is that just fall under normal kind of city process? Speaker 8: Sorry about that. That would fall under the normal city process. Speaker 2: So in in essence, Long Beach PD covers all the bus stops in the city of Long Beach. Speaker 0: Okay. So we cover we, but the 2.5 million that we're getting from transit is only to cover their bus stops. I'm assuming not the bus stops you guys regularly patrol as part of. I mean, I get it. No, it's not. You have a map. You know, you guys, you're saying, oh, this is a Long Beach Transit one. This is a Long Beach one. But it essentially allows you to fill in the gap and cover all the bus stops. Correct. Speaker 2: I'd have to double check that mayor. I don't know exactly. I'm trying to think right now how many bus stops we have in the city of Long Beach that are not Long Beach Transit. I know there's some out there by Cal. Speaker 0: State, Long Beach. There's about 200 to be 195. Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd have to double check that. But if something happens at any bus stop in the city, Long Beach PD is going to be the first responders to there. And then beyond that, we can figure out who or what jurisdiction covers it. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. And I just bring this up because I've become a little bit obsessed with our our bus stops lately, as you know, as Tom is laughing because I, I am pretty, pretty consistent about this. I just want to make sure that we have our our guys are doing such a great job. But I just want to make sure that we have the resources to adequately patrol the city's bus stops. Bus stops have become transient campgrounds. In some cases, they have become. I've seen seniors being forced off bus stops. I have seen folks not in a safe environment, able to take the bus. And we don't have the resources to ensure, obviously, that all that all these bus stops are are taken care of appropriately. But I don't know that the when was the last time that we increased this number? It was it was recent or not. But I would just hope I. I'm concerned that this is not enough. From our transit agency to provide adequate resources to patrol all the bus stops. And all the work that you guys are doing is, in my opinion, a bus stop. Safety has become a much larger issue in the last couple of years. And so I wonder if you have any thoughts on that. It's something we're. Speaker 2: Going to have to take a very hard look at. I agree with your earlier statements. The men and women of our department are doing an extraordinary job with the workload. Speaker 0: And. Speaker 2: Expectations that are driving us. But as we look forward to serving our our customers here at Long Beach Transit, we'll continue to look at this as a challenge. And if it is something that is exceeding our resources, we will not be shy about going back to the table and asking for additional resources to cover this, if it is, in fact, a challenge for us. And it sounds like, from what you're describing, it may be. Speaker 0: I appreciate that. And I support this tonight. I just wanted to make sure that, you know, that I support us, ensuring that we have enough resources to do this job appropriately as well. So thank you for that. Any public comment on this? Speaker 2: Very good you. With all due respect to the good chief, the very concept of that you entered into. It was an absolute disaster, period. And I speak as one who has more experience on the blue line than any single person here in this room. Period. Transit policing is a specialized detail. Period. No ifs. No answer. No buts. Period. The crime rate here and the incidents on the tracks, on the trains. Have. There's been a steady increase. They may not be reported to the police because the police don't get there in time to stop the problem, period. This is you're you're an absolute denial. And in time, I think the MTA board will be enlightened enough to reverse the disastrous steps you took period to try to enhance your political career by extending that. It's an absolute disaster. Speaker 0: Thank you. And you know the public comment. Catherine Ashton, did you have comment? Speaker 8: Yes. Chief, and I want to thank you for that. I think this this discussion is worthwhile. I just have a couple of quick questions regarding the staffing dedicated to Long Beach Transit. Is there a specific number of officers or detail that is specific to this? Or is it just kind of. Well, we do in the normal course of business. Yes, sir. Speaker 2: We have eight total sworn officers that are attached to this contract. That is their sole task that they do. Speaker 8: Great. Great. That's all we need to know. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Members, please cast your vote.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and any subsequent amendments, with the Long Beach Public Transportation Company, to provide law enforcement and security services, in an estimated annual amount of $2,429,477, for a one-year period, with the option to renew for three additional one-year periods; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Police Department (PD) by $222,244, offset by reimbursement revenue. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Item 25. Speaker 1: Report from Technology and Innovation Recommendation to receive and file a staff report regarding the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month of October. Speaker 0: The question in a second. Any public comment scene and please cast your votes. Speaker 3: Oh. Speaker 1: That is nice. Speaker 0: You want to start from what you said? Speaker 1: I think. Speaker 2: Francis, focus. Oh, sure. Speaker 3: They stayed this late with them for then. Speaker 2: Thank you for that. An honorable mayor and city council. We would like to announce that the city of Long Beach is joining the Department of Homeland Security in honoring the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month held annually in October. This is an annual campaign to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. And just as the technology continues to evolve, so has the malicious cyber threats and landscape on corporations, governmental agencies and individuals. So here tonight to talk more about this is the city's new cyber risk officer, Veronica mitchell. Veronica comes from us from the Department of Defense, and we're glad her to have her on board. So before I turn this presentation over to Veronica, I'd like to bring your attention to the screen for a brief cybersecurity video clip. Right. Speaker 3: So you. Speaker 0: Just take people. Speaker 3: A joke. But during the interim, I will say that I saw your new poster in the elevator on the way to our floor. Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Speaker 3: Just a note, perhaps a conversation with Mr. Julie as that drop in roll. We now have fire retardant clothing for children and the new campaign has actually closed the door. Just a little piece of information about the fire service. Speaker 0: Q With a motion in a second on the item, is there any public comment saying Please cast your votes. Speaker 3: Or what happened to the video? It was on. Speaker 0: The video player. They couldn't get sound on it.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a staff report regarding the National Cyber Security Awareness Month of October.

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LongBeachCC_10102017_17-0922

Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: The term 30. Speaker 1: Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to adopt resolution recognizing the second Monday of each October as Indigenous People Day. Speaker 0: I know I have to. Speaker 2: You don't have to. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a motion in a second. Public comment. Please come forward. Speaker 9: Thank you for this time. Speaker 3: Good evening, everybody. Thank you for listening this long. First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy National Coming Out Day, which is in about an hour and a half. I'm 28 and never going back. I've been deeply conflicted about whether or not I should speak to this. Certainly last time. Last week it was time for a white lady to get up and discuss this issue. And I hope you're going to find my story kind of interesting. I wasn't sure what I should do then. One of the indigenous women who did come on stage, everybody last week walked up to me at the start of the meeting tonight and handed me this unbelievable bone artifact. Speaker 9: Which obviously is a talisman. And I took it as. Speaker 3: An omen to go ahead with my very short presentation. I usually talk about you, but tonight I want to tell you something about me. I grew up in a very privileged house decorated with Barry Goldwater glasses and John Birch documents. My only counterpoint was my Uncle Bill, who rode. Speaker 9: In the cavalry against Hitler, lost half of his hand. Speaker 3: He died in 2011, leaving me his documents, his Purple Heart, his favorite cap, and his papers. It was then I discovered the bigotry of my family that kept me from even knowing that my great grandmother was Potawatomi. Her name was Eulalia, and she was bought with fur pelts by my great grandfather, a French trapper. I have traced down their marriage license to 1868. They had ten children, the youngest of which was my grandmother. Many Potawatomi girls were sold to trappers, and since the villages were set on fire. Speaker 9: I believe that possibly she had a safer outcome. Speaker 3: But the invisibility that the bigotry of my family forced on me would not have happened. Hopefully in years to come, where we have Indigenous Peoples Day. There are a lot of people don't even understand what these original landowners have done for us. And finally, let me point out to you, you might find this interesting. I hope you do. But actually it was the Quaker women. Speaker 9: At Seneca Falls who brought forward the 19th. Speaker 3: Amendment. They were educated by the Iroquois. Speaker 9: They had become friends with the. Speaker 3: Iroquois who were not using labor. Speaker 2: Divided by. Speaker 3: Gender, but rather by skill and. Speaker 9: Size and capability. Speaker 3: So we I'm one to congratulate you. I'm here to thank you. I know that had a nuclear meltdown about an hour ago, but every now and then, I rise to say thank you very much for everything. Speaker 9: You do for the city of Long Beach. I'm just so proud to be a member of this city. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. That was not a nuclear meltdown. So we've seen we have seen plenty of those. Thank you very much. That concludes the. I'm sorry. It does not include one vote. No, the public comment. And we need to cast their votes.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution recognizing the second Monday of each October as Indigenous Peoples Day.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10032017_17-0872

Speaker 0: Very sweet. Yeah, he needs a home, so it's good to get him a home. Thank you so much. Okay. We're going to go on to our agenda. We have hearings today. So where I get to, of course, like we normally do, go to all of our hearings first. So, Madam Clerk, we're the first hearing, please. Speaker 1: Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to receive supporting documentation under the record. Conclude the public hearing and declare ordinance. Amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to establish the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program. Read for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading. Adopt a resolution approving the form of the. Speaker 5: UHC. Speaker 1: Contract and authorize the City Manager or director of Development Services to execute such contracts and adopt a resolution directing the Director of Development Services to submit a request to the California Coastal Commission to certify an amendment to the Certified Local Coastal Program Citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. We have. Speaker 7: A short presentation by Oscar Orsi, our deputy director of development services, and Larry Rich, our sustainability. Speaker 0: Coordinator. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Mayor. Members of council, Mr. Larry Rich, our sustainability coordinator, is here to give you a brief presentation on this matter. Thank you, Mr. Orsi. Good evening, Mayor. Members of the City Council. The item here before you tonight is the Long Beach Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones. We have an ordinance that will implement this. So first, some quick background. Urban ag incentive zones were created by the city of California in 2014. In 2016, the County of Los Angeles adopted an ordinance that would enable incorporated cities to establish their own local programs. In May 2016, the City Council requested that staff explore the feasibility of implementing the UAS program in Long Beach. And then just a couple of months ago in June, city council requested the city attorney draft an ordinance to establish the Urban AG Incentive Zone Program and to define land use zones eligible to participate in the UHC program . So what is UAC? What it means basically is that eligible owners of vacant lots can enter into a contract with the city to use their land for agricultural purposes for a period of five years at a minimum. If they do this, the owner's property taxes would be reduced based on an assessment of the property value as agricultural land. And once that happens, we would like to see that vacant lots are cultivated, which would reduce blight and increase access to locally grown organic produce. The nature of the zoning component of the ordinance that you're considering tonight would be to adopt the state definition of urban agriculture with additional language clarifying that this does not include cultivation of marijuana. It would additional changes to zoning would allow urban agriculture as a matter of right within multifamily, commercial and industrial zones. And it would require an administrative use permit within single family to family and heavy industrial zones. The other part of the ordinance would establish a Long Beach UHC program, including the approval of a form UAE, the contract that property owners would enter into with the city of Long Beach. It would authorize the city manager or his designee or the director of development services to execute UAE contracts with eligible vacant lot owners. And then the basic process that this goes through involves the County of Los Angeles to see it all the way through. But first part of the process, the owners would apply to the program through development services. Applications would be reviewed and then referred to the County Assessor's office and the Treasurer tax collector. Approved contracts would be recorded with the L.A. County Registrar recorder and then recorded contracts would be filed back with the city of Long Beach and the assessor's office and property owners would be able to realize their tax benefit. So why are we doing this? Benefits of the program. We would help build more robust local food systems and access to locally grown produce. These would potentially create gathering places for community and opportunities for gardening education. We want to reduce blight and create opportunity for neighborhood scale, economic development and green jobs. There are co-benefits and means of compliance with the proposed vacant lot registry, which you'll also be hearing in the next hearing. And then finally, the access to incentives through the county of Los Angeles, meaning the county of Los Angeles set aside funding that would offset the property tax. So none of that property tax benefit would hit the city of Long Beach. And the city can implement this and access that those incentives at a minimal administrative cost to the city. So that concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. We're going to go in. Is there any public comment on this? I know we've discussed this issue before. Please come forward. Okay. Is there anybody else? Okay, I'll just be these two speakers. That's all close speakers. Let's go ahead. Okay. Hi. My name is Charles Moore, and I'm the founder of Long Beach Organic. And Larry's history went back a couple of years, but the actual vacant lot task force organized by Councilman Ray Bensky and Councilman Alan Lowenthal was active around 1993, and there were a number of problems with vacant lots at that time due to the closure of the automobile sales along Long Beach Boulevard. And there have been quite a few vacant lots left there and there was other areas and other problems with vacant lots and a lot of ideas were put forward as to what to do with them. But the only one that really came to fruition was creating urban organic gardens, and that's when I founded Long Beach Organic in 1994. Our first one was on First and Elm downtown. We then got what we called that first, the Wild Oats Garden when they came to town along the Pacific Electric, right of way between Loma and Grand, that was. And a donation from Wild Oats to Long Beach Organic to establish that garden, which is still active and thriving. And I just want to come forward and support the concept of creating organic urban agriculture, especially important to a city that is next to the ocean. One of the jobs that we did after the riots at Long Beach Organic, when along Atlantic Avenue, several businesses burnt down, was to instead of spraying herbicides to keep the weeds down on these vacant lots, we got local gardeners and tree trimmers to bring their mulch and we hired local folks to spread the mulch and keep the weeds down that way. And then they became urban organic gardens. And actually one of the gardens then was turned into a house for humanity there on Hill and Atlantic. So it creates what we call softening of the urban hardscape when you do these organic gardens, allows rainwater to percolate, allows bioremediation of toxics before they enter the marine environment. So I sort of felt there was this land and sea connection. I started the Marine Research Foundation to emphasize the importance. They were both founded on December of 1994, and it was to emphasize that the ocean land connection and to bring that concept of softening the urban hardscape. And that's what this will do. It will soften the urban hardscape. So I encourage you to vote in favor of this proposal. Thank you. Next Speaker And actually, I had I had close the speaker's list. Ms.. Oh, I'm going to let you speak. But just, you know, once I call the coastal speakers list and no one else is in line, we need to close it. So I'm going to say you're the last speaker. Okay. Go ahead. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor and members of council Tony D'Amico here with Long Beach Fresh, co-director of Local Food Policy Council. Make it really brief, because I know we've talked about this initiative a lot. I just want to take the opportunity to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for his leadership on this and also definitely to thank city Staff. Speaker 8: Larry and his staff and development services for their amazing work. Speaker 0: And really pulling this together, you it's been a long process, but we're very excited to help with implementing this program. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hello. Speaker 2: And thank you for giving me the word. My name is Daniel Kovach. I'm a resident of First District and a member of the Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness of Star Central Long Beach. And I also volunteer for the Head Start program of Long Beach Unified School District is one of the policy concepts and plus volunteer in the classrooms so important. And I live in a multifamily residential area as many of the Long Beach residents do. And I'm here today to ask you to approve the adoption of the Urban Agriculture Scheme program. And so the. We can increase the land access for the production of housing, look locally grown fruit on rock and lots. Many of my neighbors and restaurants would be happy to able to grow those natural foods themselves, and many of them would be happy to be able to buy locally grown and affordable produce. And also, this is an amazing learning opportunity which their children would be able to have during their field trips and quality family time. Being able to use this vacant lot for such a great cause and not only will make our city community health better, not only for the sustainability of our city, but it will also reduce the high deserts which are created by this work. And lots of they are full of trash and broken furniture and simply dangerous places, an eyesore. So I want to ask you again to stop the ordinance and empower all your city residents to take control over their health. And thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. I have close public comment. We're going to go and go back to the city council, Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to just say a few things, so I want to acknowledge, Larry, the development service team, Allison, Amy, Oscar, everyone who's played a part in this. We started the conversation over well over a year ago about how this put this ordinance and a vacant lot registry could work together as a sort of carrot and stick. We know we have vacant lots and of remain vacant for 20 or some some eight years. They're a strain on our code enforcement, a blight on our corridors, our neighborhoods. And we also know, on the other hand, urban, that urban agriculture, it's exciting. It brings people together, it makes them volunteer, and it gives them some real it really inspires people to really get involved in their neighborhoods. And we've seen it from the library garden at the Michelle Obama library, the Victory Garden in North Long Beach. A lot of the community gardens, we see what happens when we bring gardening. So what happens when you take sort of penalties on vacant lots in place that partner that with opportunities and incentives and and we hope that we will become the first city in L.A. County to actually implement it in and have someone take advantage of these incentives. And so, so good work to all of you. Larry, just have one question. So what should this this ordinance and the next item both pass this hearing in the next hearing? What's implementation look like next year? Speaker 0: Before the Urban League incentive zone. It should go into effect in mid-November after the second hearing and 31 days passed. However, there is a deadline of the end of the calendar year to get new requests in to make it into the tax year next year. So it's it's. Possible, but not likely that we will get takers that we can get through the county process by the end of December. So basically what it means is we have all of next year to sign up property owners to get their benefits secured for 2019. And then the good news is the governor signed a bill just recently that extends this program for another ten years. So once once we're looking for properties next year, we'll have ten years to sign people up. Speaker 7: So thank you. So consider the call to action once this goes into effect in November. Let's try it. Let's you know, let's once it goes into effect after the next reading, let's see if we can get a property to take advantage of the first round so we can have an example to point to as we go through and do outreach next year. Thank you for your time and obviously as my support and I encourage city council support you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Got some repairs. Speaker 5: Great. Thank you. And Larry and the whole team. Thank you guys for all the work that you guys did and think you vice mayor, for your leadership on this. I think this is a fantastic step in the right direction. So, Larry, I also had a clarifying question. It seemed like a big process for folks to go through. We think they can get through that process in two months. Is that correct? Well through a whole year. You mentioned that you wanted to have people through the county process by December, is that correct? Speaker 0: Right. It's conceivable that if we had and we're willing to work with someone prior to the ordinance officially being implemented to get those discussions going. What we don't know is how long it will take to get through the county's process. So you saw there is three different county agencies we need to check in with. So we're it's worth a shot, but people will have to come and talk to us right away. Speaker 5: Great. Okay. Thank you so much. And again, congratulations, everybody. And thanks for the community for working hard on this item as well, too. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Table 31-1 in Chapter 21.31, Table 32-1 in Chapter 21.32, Table 32-1A in Chapter 21.32, Table 33-2 in Chapter 21.33, and Section 21.52,260; and by adding Chapter 8.77, and Section 21.15.3155, all related to implementing the City of Long Beach urban agriculture incentive zone program to promote urban agriculture in exchange for reduced property tax assessments in accordance with California Government Code Sections 51040 et seq., and County of Los Angeles Planning and Zoning Code Sections 22.52.3400 et seq., commonly known as the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) act, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10032017_17-0845

Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you. Were going to go into our third hearing. Speaker 1: Report from economic development recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record to conclude the hearing and adopt a resolution continuing the Bixby Nos parking and Business Improvement Area Assessment for the period of October one, 2017 through September 30, 2018. District seven and eight. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Modica. Our staff report will. Speaker 7: Be given by Eric Romero, the development project manager for the Economic Development Department. Speaker 0: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. Since Eric Ramirez, representing us. Speaker 2: At the International Shopping Center Conference, recruiting new businesses to. Speaker 0: The city tonight, I am here to to give you a report on the Bixby Knolls. Speaker 2: Business investment area. And ultimately this is. Speaker 0: To continue the contract. And on September 12th, the city council approved a resolution granting approval of the annual report and set today's date for the public hearing. The recommended action on this item continues the assessment. Speaker 2: For another year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment nor significant changes in proposed activity. Speaker 0: Therefore, staff requests that the City Council received the supporting documentation into the record, approve the resolution and continue the levy of the assessment and authorize the city manager to extend the agreement with Bixby Knolls for one additional year. And that concludes our report. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? Please come forward. Any other public comment. Okay, now close the speakers list. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council members, city management. First of all, happy birthday, Blossom. It was a good one today. This past year, Will called. We called it a stay the course year. And we really focused on our clean and safe programs. Work with Seaside Patrol and Language PD to address any issues in the area. We also were out making sure that we were replacing or installing new security lights up and down the districts to keep it lit and safe. And we also consider this a crossroads here. We have a lot of moving parts on our chessboard of Georgia's fifties. Diners now building out after their fire, the new cheese addiction. And Nicky Sports is building out. E.J. Malloy's is renovating their space. Ambitious ales and liberation brewing are going through their process and will soon change our name to Brewery North. We will see an expansion for one more wine bar. The owners of the former Nino's property will begin their construction this month, building out a for a restaurant retail, the Bixby Business Center on Atlantic and San Antonio. It's about to get a major facelift beside Edgar and James and all the market's open. Lazar Fish purchased the land at 35th and Language Boulevard and are looking to expand their operation there. Harbor Freight is in escrow of the former Royal Buffet property on 33rd. The former Harborside space will become the Greens, the submitted plans for a multi restaurant space and will have a new restaurant opening on the 12th at 40 to 62 Atlantic. Also, Powell came and got us another mural on Atlantic Long Beach Boulevard and also received another mural through the Arts Council. And we're working on a third one on the boulevard through Howard City. Let's hope the big thing for us to finally remove a big eyesore on Language Boulevard, which are the oil tanks at 35th right next to Phil trainees property. So we're very close. The owners seem to like the concept and just really matter of of us hand-holding them through it and giving them some renderings of what those tanks could look like. But it'd be a fun project. We also have a Boy Scout that is in line to do an Eagle project there. He'll take care of the landscaping and the shed that's on the site and we'll have our artists come in and paint those tanks. We also welcomed the merchant, a coffee and bakery, some of Jack's Razorback green olive, encore fitness, Torquay hashtag burgers, Bixby Trading Post Sister LV and first floor at last bar this year big shout out to to seal craft game changer for the whole district not just out of the boulevard but it's our go to spot and it's really the example. If you build it, they will come and they certainly are. We maintain our multi program so the community is eating, drinking, walking, reading, cycling, dancing at concerts in the parking lot stores and enjoying first Fridays together. Our quarterly business breakfast remain our strongest member outreach. We bring 90 plus business owners together to discuss current issues and resources that are pertinent to them. We're getting ready for Beat Streets to come through on October 28th, and we just launched our own Small Business Saturday promotions for the upcoming November 25th to tell story. Now just a few shout outs. Okay, I'm going to I'm here because it's a hearing on an extended time just by its public comment. So we really got to be people said, well, this is just a thank you because we don't operate alone. So we have to think, of course. Well, I think our staff Kate Yoshioka and to go to Ashcraft, all of our board members, the seventh and eighth Council officers are sparring partners in the city management office. Of course. Mayor, thank you very much. Craig Beck, Art Cox, Frank Ramirez and Public Works, Long Beach PD for Chief Durant, Terry and Brant. And of course, all those and development services that help us all the time getting people through the process. So again, thank you to all city staff. Thank you very much. Pleasure. Big round of applause. Good job. A great organization, as always. I'm gonna turn this back to to the council. And Mr. Cohen got I think the only thing we were missing out of there was a 40th anniversary of the best car wash and anywhere, anywhere , which is the biggest, you know, car wash, 40 years. We had employees there, some as old as 39 and 38 years at that place. Long Beach folks. So congratulations, Councilman Austin. Speaker 4: Yes, and thank you there, Blair, for the very detailed report. And I'm will make the motion to approve the recommendation to to extend the the agreement with Briggs Minerals Business Improvement Association for one year. I wish we could do a four or five year term. The the productivity and the the results speak for themselves. Um, our business district is, is, is alive and well and improving more and more. Every day. And so a large thank you to a big black hole in the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, but also to the many businesses, the small business owners in that association. Along those both corridors, Atlantic and Lamberts Boulevard, who are working very hard on a daily basis to to upstate, to to maintain and improve the quality of their business district. So thank you very much. And so moved. Speaker 0: Councilman Turanga. Speaker 3: Thank you, Brian. I want to echo Councilman Brosnan's comments. I also want to thank Blair for his work with the Bixby Knolls Improvement area. Does fantastic work. He's always been innovative. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but they're they're great. And they're always an opportunity to expand not only the the footprint of the Bixby Knolls neighborhoods, but also in terms of creating a good economic development area for people to enjoy in and a shop and just have a great time along the corridor. Councilmember Archer, a good point. There was he said you wish you could get, you know, three or four or five year contract. Is there a reason why it has to be year to year? Where can't we just go ahead and move to towards having a an extension that would be multiyear as opposed to just a single year ? Seems like every year we come back with the same thing and I enjoy your report. Obviously, I think they're great, but I think if we were to have a multi year service contract with with you, I think it would be a lot more helpful and less stressful, I would think, in terms of your your being able to keep the organization going to the attorney, is there a reason why we we only have to go year to year. We can't go on a multi-year contract. Speaker 7: Many members of council councilmen ignoring it. Yes, there is a reason it's under the streets and highway code. It's required that they this is approved annually. Speaker 3: I tried to look at that. I wholeheartedly endorse and support this the second this motion. Speaker 0: Q Thank you. A Councilmember you spoke already. So with that, there's motion in a second for the last hearing. Congratulations. You guys do a great job and cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: It is difficult. Earth hasn't popped up yet. But then I think some folks missed the motion. They knew it was a90. Okay. For some reason that my my advice to you got stuck a little bit over here. Okay. So motion carries. Thank you for the third hearing. I'm going to take the consent calendar minus someone has pulled 16. So consent -16. Can I get a motion in a second? Candidate. Any public comment on consent. Mr. good here.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing, and adopt resolution continuing the Bixby Knolls Parking and Business Improvement Area assessment for the period of October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to extend the agreement with the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association for a one-year term. (Districts 7,8)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10032017_17-0847

Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Great. 16, please. You. Speaker 1: Report from Economic Development. Recommendation to authorize city manager to execute documents with cameo to accept $13,696 in grant funds to support paid youth internship programs citywide. Speaker 0: Councilmember Ringa. Speaker 3: Thank you. Better I yes, I want to pull this program out because it's very special in terms of what we do with here Long Beach and trying to provide internships for students not only from the Long Beach Unified School District, the Long Beach City College as well. I've had the student intern who worked for my office last year. I had one working for me this year. It's a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about not only city government working for the city, but in other internships that they might have throughout the city. It's a mentoring program. It provides mentors with an opportunity to meet with students, to learn about their experiences, and gives them an opportunity, a heads up, actually, on what to expect in the world of work. It exposes them to how to work computers, how to how to meet people, public speaking and just general good work behavior. So I strongly endorse this program and I hope that we are able to not only support it now, but grow it in the very near future. So I strongly support it and make a motion to support this funding. Speaker 0: Vice Mayor. Speaker 7: I'm good. Speaker 0: That's when I said yes. Speaker 4: I'd like to just echo the comments of Councilmember Yolanda. The bicameral program I was a beneficiary of in turn, this this past year as well. Actually, last week was his last day with us. But the young man was is a student at Jordan High School, lives in the community. And I want to say it's probably been one of the best in terms that we've had the opportunity to work with. This program works and they give provide quality in terms of beyond just just giving opportunities to young people. They really work hard to place the young people in the settings and work environments that they can thrive in. And so I'm happy to support this as well. Speaker 0: Thank you. Going to do. I'm actually going to go take a bow because I wouldn't speak already. I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. Is your comment on the counter pull consent cameo item? Please calm down. Just go ahead. Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor and City Council. I'm going to jump right in because we have a pretty packed agenda. So I'm going to start with a quote. And in a 1982 interview with Claudia Tate, the incomparable Audre Lorde articulated how black women write from a space, a personal and emotional. This interview has been a powerful tool for reflection. As I spend time envisioning my own future and I quote Our real power comes from the personal or real insights from living come from the deep knowledge within us that arises from our feelings. Our thoughts are shaped by our tutoring. As black people, we have not been tutor for our benefit, but more often than not, for detriment. We have been tutored to function in a structure that already existed, but that does not function for our own good. Our feelings are the most genuine parts to knowledge. They are chaotic, sometimes contradictory, but they come from deep within us. And we must key into these feelings and begin to extrapolate from them. Examine them for new ways of understanding our experiences. This is how new visions begin, really, how we begin to posit a new future nourished by the past. This is what I mean by matter. Following energy and energy, following feeling our visions begin with our desires. And if you repost this, please kindly credit me as the artist Melanie Cervantes and I am living, breathing proof of what Cameo is capable of. Moreover, I'm also a graduate of the Youth Leadership Lab in Long Beach, Class of 2016, and I sat in your chair in the 2016 Government Day, Mr. Garcia, and it has been integral to my emotional development. Additionally, Honorable Roberto Oranga has been the most memorable pillar in my life, and I really look forward to working with him and along with all you council members and an honorable member to run his words, Viva la Revolucion. And so I recommend City Council unanimously vote yes on this item and continue to support Cameo because we, as our son stated, are quality interns and we devote our entire lives really mostly because of lower socioeconomic status. And I've lived in the West Side my entire life, 19 years in the West Side, and I'm a proud diehard West Sider until the day I die. So thank you and I look forward to your vote. Thank you very much. And as to any public or other public comment, please come forward right here. Speaker 4: Okay. My name is Robert Pete representing Jesus. Okay, as far as this. Okay, could be good, but I didn't like the way he rolled a few too many eyes. That sound like La Rosa to me, you know? So I'm here to. I'm here to go against Brown try. It may not be the way, but anything you do. I was this cesspit, actually. Speaker 0: You know what, sir? You know, you have to start to the internships. And actually, we're actually going to talk about the internships. Go ahead. Talking about a point of order, Mayor. Speaker 3: This conversation is, you. Speaker 0: Know, you know, you're not in charge. You'll have a. Speaker 4: Meeting, so you don't say nothing. Speaker 0: So continue on the cameo internships. Okay. Speaker 4: That's what I'm talking about. Okay. Now what I'm saying, my point is this. I just hope some black folks get involved because I see black people in this city. Your city, you're the mayor, my cabinet interns. You do America about changing that. Speaker 0: And we have white people. Speaker 4: Everybody else's district. Speaker 0: So, sir, we have to talk about the cameo internship. Speaker 4: I'm talking to you about that. Speaker 0: You're sure you're not talking to the county? Speaker 4: I'm saying I hope so. Speaker 0: You're you're not muted, so. Speaker 4: You're wasting my time. Speaker 0: You're right. We can't hear you now, so go ahead. Speaker 3: I'm trying to say something. On the topic. We're off topic. I'm not after to something but I'm saying I heard the. Yeah. Good time. Speaker 0: Time's up. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay, so now go ahead and take a seat. Take a seat. Speaker 3: All right. Speaker 0: Black and white. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. You're not. You're not talking on the topic. Thank you. Speaker 4: You can do it. Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay, guys. So listen up. Listen up. Just an announcement. Number one, people in the audience. There's no booing. If you like something. If you don't like something. Someone saying there's no hissing. No one's please talking. Okay? You got to just all keep it. Keep keep it respectful. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. So everyone needs to please keep quiet. And I just told everyone to be respectful. And also, you have to stay on topic or you will get cut off. That's just that. Just a rule. And if you start if you keep disrupting the meeting, I will ask you to leave. So keep disrupting the meeting if you want to leave. Okay. So we have the motion in the second, and I would like to also ask the council to please do the same. I will. I am going ahead and moving forward with the meeting. So next up, we have custom directive. Any additional comments? Nope. Councilwoman Price. Speaker 5: Thank you. I want to focus of refocus on the positivity of this program. My office, too, has had the pleasure and the honor to host cameo interns. They've been of all colors. Brown, black, white. We're very proud of the program. And I want to give. I just want to let the speaker who spoke about Councilman Ranga know that it really warmed my heart to hear your comments about what a role he's played in your leadership and in terms of leadership for you. And I think that says a lot for all of us council members, because as you might be able to imagine, there are times when we sit here and listen to things and wonder why it is we're doing what we're doing. And when we hear comments like those coming from you, it reminds all of us of the great work that we do because of people like you. So thank you and thanks for being here and thanks to all of you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. There's a motion and a second. Please go ahead and cash for votes on the consent calendar item. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents and any needed subsequent amendments with CAMEO, a professional auxiliary of Assistance League of Long Beach, to accept $13,696, in grant funds for the period July 1, 2017 through November 30, 2017, to support paid youth internship programs; and Increase appropriations in the Community Development Grants Fund (SR 150) in the Economic Development Department (ED) by $13,696, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_10032017_17-0887

Speaker 0: move it from the end to now. So if we can go and hear that item. I know there's a lot of folks here for that. We'll just try to hear that one next. Okay. So with that, Councilman Pearce. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mayor. So I would like. Well, you guys need to read the item. Yes. You want to read that? Why don't you go ahead. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Price and Council Member Super Non recommendation to enact a resolution recognizing October 9th, 2017 and every second Monday in October, henceforth as Indigenous People Day. Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. So you understand. Speaker 0: Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Thank you. And thank you guys for your patience. And thank you for reading the agenda item. So today, I think, is a day that's really important to a lot of folks. And a day, as I said, outside, has been long coming and it's a little too late. But it's it's today is the day that we get to celebrate our indigenous people that live in Long Beach, that make Long Beach great and that make the United States great. So I want to thank you guys for your sacrifices, for your love, and for reminding so many of us what it means to love Mother Earth and stay connected to that. And so, as I mentioned outside, I believe that you guys help bridge cultural divides and that it's really important that we have a space to celebrate your contributions. And so what I'd like to do today is ask Amy ERICKSEN, the chair of the Human Relations Commission, to come and speak. And then if we could then have a little presentation from you guys a short 3 minutes, and then we can go behind the rail and hear the rest of public comment. Okay. I know I just kind of took over the meeting, Mayor, but that way we can do this, so I'll let you go ahead. Thank you, Councilwoman Pierce, honorable mayor and of course, city council. I'm honored to. Speaker 2: Be here on behalf of the Human Relations Commission to read our letter of support for this important item. Also, before I read, I would like all of those in support of this item to please stand while I read the letter. The Human Relations Commission requests the City Council of Long Beach to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday of October each year. Currently, several municipalities and states recognize some form of indigenous peoples day, including the states of Vermont, South Dakota, the cities of Phenix, Seattle, Denver and of course, now Los Angeles. By observing Indigenous Peoples Day. An appropriate focus is placed on important current and historical events related to the genocide, struggles and contributions of Native Americans. Long Beach has its own historical ties to Native American history. The Indian village of Fonda, near Kelsey, Long Beach, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. During the 1990, the Save Permanent Coalition successfully organized to stop the historical site from becoming a commercial development. The proving the grounds remain a sacred site for the Abilliono and Tongva Indians. Earlier in the year, local leaders addressed the Human Relations Commission to advocate for official recognition of the contributions and history of indigenous people and Native Americans . During their presentation, they shared how the traditional approach to tribal decision making has a focus on transparency and consensus building. The Commission agreed that these were values in line with our commission and important for the promotion of inclusivity of all people in our local government and our communities, especially at this time. As Lombard City Council's Principal Advisory Commission promoting better understanding among the diverse ethnic cultural groups in Long Beach, the Human Relations Commission submits to the Lombard City Council the following. Speaker 5: Recommendation. Speaker 2: The Human Human Relations Commission strongly urges the City Council to enact a resolution for the City of Long Beach to observe Indian Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday of October on an ongoing and annual basis. I would like to invite Cheyenne, Phenix students at Lombard City College and a resident here in Long Beach as the next generation of our elders to really come up and speak to what this means to our community. And she's a president of the Native American Student Association and Lombard City College. Thank you all. Speaker 0: Hold on. Hold on 1/2. I'm just trying to I'm trying to understand, is this part of the presentation or just public comment? Speaker 2: It's part of the presentation. Speaker 0: Okay. Because we have to do this as part of public comment as well. And so I'm going to just include this is part of public comment. Okay. So please go ahead. Continue. Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a minor who council. Speaker 2: Thank you for having us. Thank you to Supernova Councilmember Supernova Price. Speaker 5: And Peirce for bringing. Speaker 2: This resolution up. And, Amy. My name is Cheyenne Phenix. I'm a student at Long Beach City College. I wanted to start off with. Speaker 6: The personal testimony of when I was in elementary school to all the way in high school. Speaker 2: Of the experience that I faced of oppression and marginality within elementary school all throughout high school, that I was ashamed of who I was, of my long hair. Speaker 5: And my name. Speaker 2: Because students would see me as something other than what they were. And I didn't have many friends. Speaker 6: And I was always made fun of because the way my name is and my the way I. Speaker 2: Looked, which was different from other students. So from then on, I guess going into a little bit of history from 1490 to beginning the colonization of the Americas, North and South America and Central America to 1776 declared the US independence all the way to current day 2017. Indigenous people have faced genocide, colonialism and also the values that we did not live by, which is capitalism and greed. And those are the values we do not live by. And we also acknowledge our ancestors. And we lived here in harmony and peace with the land and the earth and each other. And I wanted to acknowledge our ancestors and the people of this land as well. The Tonga, people who are no longer here, but only the descendants are here and still carrying their voice. And I am the result of that. I am still here. Our people are still here. Despite all of the atrocities that happened to our people, the devastations and massacres of Wounded Knee, the massacres in the Navajo Nation, in the Navajo territory, in the Cherokee Nation, all the way to the Iroquois, all the way to across Mother Earth, throughout Turtle Island, to the Philippines, to Africa, to other indigenous communities. I want to acknowledge all the indigenous people that are here. We faced historical trauma for 525 years and it's continuing today. And as the great chief Sitting Bull said, let us put our minds clear and see what we could do for our children. That's what we should do here. And that's what I urge you to do, is to vote unanimously to maintain the right side of history, and please do something that will be better for this community, for the world to see as a as an international city. Long Beach and the county of L.A. this morning has just passed and recognized indigenous Peoples Day as the second Monday of October and as well as the city of L.A.. So please do the right thing and vote for this to happen. Okay? Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. But so we're going to go thank you very much. We're going to go back to the council for up for some discussion and then I'll open it up for if there's additional public comment, I will put it up for public comment after the council. Speaker 5: Councilmember Pearce. Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you for presenting that to us. I first want to thank my colleagues that have signed on to this item and recognize that this room has some people, that this matters a great deal too. But this is not everybody. And recognize that Councilmember Supernormal, this was an item that was dear to him. And I know there were people that you had asked us to reach out to, but we are moving quickly on this. So I just want to recognize that not everybody could be in the room today. Second, I would like to say that I need to make an amendment to this item just to make sure that we move this the correct way. I want to make an amendment that it reads that this is a recommendation to direct the city attorney to draft a resolution that would then return back to this council next Tuesday to make the second Monday in October henceforth as Indigenous Peoples Day. And so that is what I'm asking my colleagues to support us on today. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 5: Thank you. I want to thank Councilwoman Pearce for bringing this item forward tonight, and I appreciate the comments that were already made, especially from our Human Relations Commission. I was student body president at Cal State Long Beach during the debates and during those times, and I remember them vividly. And I am very fortunate to be alongside colleagues who believe it's important to recognize the role and the history of the indigenous population in the city of Long Beach. I thank everyone who came out tonight and I thank my colleague for bringing it forward. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 5: Yes. As the city council before has supported Standing Rock. We will absolutely. I know I will absolutely support this item. And I also think, Councilmember Pearce, for bringing this forward. This is absolutely what Long Beach needs and I look forward to celebrating that day. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 7: A standing, strong supporter of this recommendation. I think it's a no brainer for me. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Durango. Speaker 3: As the child of immigrant parents whose parents my great grandparents were Native American, when we phrase it, they were. They were Mexican. Indian. Up in the hills of Sonora. I strongly support this. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Yes. If there was a time for us to support anything, it would be this item here today. And I strongly support this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Mango. Speaker 5: I also want to lend my support to this item. Congratulations. Speaker 2: I can count. And I think you can, too. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Supernatant. Speaker 7: Thank you all. I'll follow with my colleagues in being brief. I signed on to this item and I stand in support. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Well, you all got a unanimous vote, which is great. So I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and open up. There is a second public comment if anyone else wants to speak. But if I can, please ask you to just keep it brief, because I think it's worth well where this is going to be a unanimous vote. So and I moved it up from the end. So it's for you guys. Okay. Speaker 2: So thank you. Speaker 5: All, mayor and council members. My name is May Lee Blackwell. I'm born in Long Beach, raised in Long Beach. And this is the first time I've ever had the honor to appear before you. I teach at UCLA in Chicano studies, in American Indian Studies. But I'm a product of Long Beach, and I live in Long Beach, so I commute to UCLA just because my heart belongs here. I'm also a native member of District one, and like many urban American Indian folks, I was born here in Long Beach. I am Cherokee and Thai heritage, but I grew up in a largely Mexican neighborhood, and that's how I teach in Chicano studies, and that's how we do in Long Beach. Right. We're part of a diverse community. And I want to say that I'm completely honored to follow Cheyenne and the youth that's taking leadership here for us and and speak with you. And I wanted to say, as a faculty member at UCLA, we have this really amazing mapping indigenous L.A. project that's not just about honoring the Tongva whose land we're on, who are not just in the past, but members presently who are doing educational workshops for LAUSD and hopefully for Long Beach Unified to help them develop materials to teach to our children so that things like teen suicide among American Indian youth don't continue to be disproportionately so high because people. And so students like and won't continually to be shamed in the classroom by distorted histories. I also want to say that indigenous people are among the Latin American Indigenous Diaspora. We have a huge Zapotec and Mayan community. We have a Samoan and Pacific Islander community and American Indian community. And so I feel like this resolution honors all the indigenous peoples of our community. It's part of the diverse face of who we are and it gives an important view. It also sometimes I think we hide our own diversity hidden. I'm a founding member of Cats, the city of Long Beach to Spirit Society, and we're in every kind of civic and political and social group. So Native people are among what we call to spirit LGBT community. And so we are here honoring your I was going to encourage you to support, but since you're already supporting, I'm honoring your support. And also just I'm you know, also alumni of Cal State Long Beach was there during the struggle and and just completely honored that Long Beach is joining the right side of history and that we're acting to stand up to celebrate our actually existing diversity, because lots of folks want to put Indian folks only in the past. But we're here right now in front of you, speaking with you and being with you. So with the open heart, I honor your decision and thank you. And we'll be here, I think, next week for an. Their motion. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you very much. I am so L.A. Gonzales is the last speaker of the speakers lists of close the speakers list. Very good. Hold on a second. If you could hear and close the speakers list, are you going to be Christiansen? Are you going to speak? Okay. Christiansen is the last speaker. And please, if we can just keep this brief, I'm going to because I think I'm going to go after Mr. Good here. We're gonna go down to 2 minutes. Mr. Good here. I support this, but I want to support it in an enhanced and slightly different way instead of limiting it to one day. I want to meld this paradigm into what I have often suggested before this council is that instead of having just one day what we will do, what will should be done, is take Speaker 3: . The. Speaker 0: Weekend of the longest day of the year in the middle of the summer. Starting at noon on that Friday ending at 9:00. That's that the following Sunday. And what they can do and what I've always said to all these different groups is we'll have a people's day and they can march from sunup to sundown here and there , over here, all over. They'll take in the biggest park up this road, down this road, under this road here and there, wherever. Not just for one day, but starting Friday night, all Saturday, all Sunday till Sunday night, no matter who it is. Indians, blacks, whites, combinations of gay, straight, even Democrats. All right. That makes sense. Instead of just having it one day and then also every week, a council is devoted to items like this. This day, it's this group. Next week, it'll be another group next week. All right. The business of this country is business. That is the only thing this council should spend its time on, period, because without the business we don't have the money. To pay for people's housing food. They don't have jobs. So let's enhance it. Don't limit it to one day. That's three days. Friday night till Sunday march. Here and there. Everywhere over hill, over Dale. Under the bridge. Over the bridge, up the road, wherever. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, friends. My name is Red. I am an organizer with refuse fascism dot org, which is the movement unifying around the single objective to drive out the Trump-Pence regime. And we are here today uniting with red earth defense in their call to support Indigenous Peoples Day, and we would like to officially endorse that. And also, I have a message for the city of Long Beach on November 4th, 2017. We are calling on the masses nationwide to take to the. Speaker 2: Streets in. Speaker 0: Cities and towns across the country, including Long Beach. Speaker 2: At first denying. Speaker 0: In our thousands, declaring in our thousands that that this regime must go and this regime is illegitimate. This has been a nightmare, a nightmare for Native American people in Donald Trump, pushing a vicious Make America Great Again mantra, which glosses over the fact that. Speaker 3: The. Speaker 2: This country was never great. Speaker 0: It was founded upon the. Speaker 2: Extermination and. Speaker 0: The dispossession of Native American people. This is a nightmare for immigrants who. Speaker 2: Their next step could mean. Speaker 0: Deportation, detention or being. Speaker 2: Separated. Speaker 0: From their loved ones. This is a nightmare for black and Latina people who are being openly targeted by this administration, who are having vicious police brutality unleashed upon them, mass incarceration and the wanton murder of our youth by the police who are supposed to serve and protect. This is a nightmare for women and so rectified, degraded. Thank you so much for your time, please. So we are. Speaker 2: Calling on. Speaker 0: The masses. Thank you. Join us November 4th. It begins November 4th. We realize there are fascists in the house, but we are calling on the masses to join us November 4th. Go to refuse fascism. Speaker 7: All right, folks. So the mayor stepped out. We're going to continue to run this meeting in order. We have 2 minutes. Please try to remain on topic and we'll make sure everyone has an opportunity to speak. Thank you, sir. Please come forward and provide your testimony. Speaker 0: What a living in that beautiful world, a beautiful country like United States. My name is Guillermo Hernandez. And I am so happy to come back to Long Beach to see Beautiful Faces, a stressed out when a lot of stuff happened here and all over the place. Why do you have them here? I am here for one main reason. Get reconnected and try to convey in a message to everybody in a way that we need to go back together and remember all the struggles they are ancestors went through. For us to be in the position that we are right now. Your ancestors and my ancestors went through hell. And they come back and they help us to go to a school to do beautiful things. So that way we can have these positions. So I know I'm not tell you what we need to do and how we need to do it, but let's go try to find a way for us to get together so that we weaken this stage, finding a way to put together the story. Up the continent. And a good. Great. So early and early. I was invited to do the ceremony outside and I was expecting to have a lot of upside in the ceremony. And for whatever reason, consulted. At first it was real brave to be in front and and be part of that ceremony. And when we do some of these activities, always we have a special gift that we give to people who help us. Same thing that you guys give and recognize. So when all you permit. If so, right. When you counsel Paris, I want to give you a gift. Coming down front. Speaker 7: Thank you. Thank you for your time. Perhaps the council maybe can meet you for that gift. Thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 0: Please. Speaker 5: Good evening. I'm Kristie Castro. I'm a citizen of the Navajo Nation and the vice chairwoman of the Los Angeles City and county Native American Indian Commission. We celebrate a month ago, Los Angeles City, changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Speaker 2: We celebrated this morning in Los. Speaker 5: Angeles County, replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. And I'm very excited to hear that. I think there's unanimous support for Indigenous Peoples Day being established in the city of Long Beach. So I really want to applaud your leadership. And I actually am going to ask you to continue to be leaders on behalf of indigenous peoples. The the change around indigenous peoples day is not just symbolic. Some people confuse it and say it's just a holiday. Why does it matter that? I just want to share a few reasons why there are real consequences about why why this holiday matters so much? We're protecting our children. As you know, the federal holiday still stands. The second Monday is critical because we are working to counter the negative images, stereotypes and false history that our children are subjected to during this time of the year. The American Psychological Association has come out against these racist aggressions based on a growing body of social science literature that shows. Speaker 2: The harmful effects of racial. Speaker 5: Stereotyping and inaccurate racial portrayals on the social identity and development of American Indian young people. Our young people suffer suicide. Speaker 2: At 300. Speaker 5: Times the national average, and we can't afford to continue to harm our youth. So establishing Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday of October will serve as an antidote to these negative messages. I can list a lot of other statistics that show how native peoples are continuously dehumanized in this country, whether it comes to sexual assaults against are women, poor, you know, educational outcomes because of a biased school system that doesn't teach our history. But I really appeal to you to continue to support indigenous peoples in issues. Speaker 7: Absolutely. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Wilhelmina Tucker. Yes. Thank you. Long Beach City Council for honoring this day. It's really special to me because I'm actually a Long Beach resident myself. I was born at Saint Mary's Hospital in Room 155. And I grew up in a small town which is called Mingus, which is on the outskirts of Long Beach, which is 90810 zip code. I always considered coming as being a part of Long Beach as my roots had established here long ago. My great grandmother, I mean, my grandmother actually owned one of the last houses on Locus, which, you know, and a building up a condominium right there. My grandmother, my mother and my sister used to work for the copper penny. A Brief History by myself. I'm a Lakota, Oglala Sioux, Muskogee Creek, Chicano of this nation. And my grandmother had a left elbow, fixed coat. She she was a narrator of a documentary called Wiping Tears of the Seventh Generation, which is my generation. And it's been prophesized that we would come back to show our strength, to show that we are still here, that we are still making a fight for our people and just not our people, but everybody who actually is living on this land because we honor them. We have sacredness to this land. And I thank you, all of you guys of whom you talk. Yes. Thank you for. Speaker 7: Your time with 40 seconds to go. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening, members of the council. My name is Gail Werner and I'm a member. Speaker 2: Of the KU. Speaker 5: Panel LUSANE, you and Kumi that are small tribes that are located in north San Diego County. And I really appreciate that you are unanimously voting for. Speaker 2: Indigenous Peoples Day because, well, in 1903 the Capilano ban was forcibly removed from their lands to a reservation at gunpoint. And I think that these are the kinds of histories that most people don't know, and that happened right here in Southern California. And I think that by taking this step that it. Speaker 5: Helps to change that. Speaker 2: And also. I've tried to live a positive life. I've moved here 35 years ago. Speaker 5: I've been made my home here and I came up to CSU AB to do my MFA in In Art, my Master of Fine Arts. I've been a teacher. Speaker 2: At Long Beach Unified School District for I was for about 20 years and I've been try to live a positive life for my all my relations in the from the past. Speaker 7: Thank you it can we remain on. Speaker 5: The topic of race and so. Speaker 2: I'm just hoping that by doing this that will help make a more positive image for the past. Speaker 5: And the. Speaker 2: Present and future. Thank you. Speaker 7: Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hello, counsel. And we're going to take a second. I know the time started, but I do want to take a sip of this water right here. I think really what I wanted to. Speaker 5: Speak tonight, so I'm going to give her a chance. Speaker 2: Oh, my God. Water is very good when it's clean, water is low. Excuse me. And thank you, counsel. I'm going to say across there, I grew up right here in the seventh District. My family has lived in Long Beach over 40 years now in this beautiful city. Speaker 5: And this beautiful city, beautiful land. Speaker 2: I love Long Beach. I went to high school, Danish Poly High. Speaker 5: School, I went to UC Irvine and I got my degree there in political science. Speaker 2: I got a degree there. And what I learned of that, I was pretty raw, actually. I learned to give back to your community, give back. Speaker 5: Participate. Speaker 2: That was what I learned out of. Speaker 5: My poli sci experience. And so. Speaker 2: I have been a musician. Speaker 5: Locally and I perform for my city because I want. Speaker 2: To give the energy of love. This is not my first time in this chamber. I've been here numerous times for numerous different issues. But today's a new day council. And tonight I'm here because this this issue has everything to do with my heart. Speaker 5: This this indigenous peoples day is. Speaker 2: As my sisters and my brothers said earlier, is not just about a hurrah for this one day. It's a symbol. It's a symbol of our indigenous roots on this land. Okay. And tonight, I speak beyond myself, beyond Navajo. I speak for our Earth. And as indigenous peoples, I offer as an indigenous person, I offer a solution because I've been here all night on my own most of this evening, and I've been listening to everything, these new developments in our city, which, you know, are very nice. Speaker 5: And I see. Speaker 7: Ma'am, I'm going to have to be fair, we're at the 2 minutes, but thank you for your time. We can conclude your statement. Speaker 2: Thank you. I do appreciate it. That's true. I would have had a minute left, but it's okay. I'm just going to finish my thought there. I want to work with you to support honoring the sacredness of this land. I, as a political scientist, I feel that our community is spiritually malnourished. And you've seen that in this. Speaker 5: Chamber with people. Speaker 2: With a mental illness that is. Speaker 5: In our inner city. My solution is. Speaker 2: That spiritual connection. We revive the. Speaker 5: Spiritual connection to the earth, and that has everything to do with our indigenous peoples who lived on this land and honored our land in that way. That spiritual connection has always been important. That's what we have to offer to you. Speaker 2: I would love to work with all of you what you're doing. Speaker 5: I see it's great. Speaker 2: By. Speaker 7: The people behind you, but thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Thank you to my sister. My name is Sandra Koster with protectors of Earth Mother. I am Chicana and that is Mescalero Apache Yaqui City on this North American continent we call Turtle Island. And I want to thank Councilmember Jeanine Pearce, who supported this when we brought this to you before you were sitting on this council. And thank you to Councilmember Superfone. Speaker 5: Price and to Councilmember. Speaker 2: Muranga for sharing your history tonight, because that's important. I'm declaring the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day is changing the universal consciousness for the better. My concern is a cultural genocide that continues to happen, as our sisters were saying, you know, in our schools, public spaces. And as a result, there are millions of Southern Indians who suffer from cultural amnesia. Many call themselves Hispanic and deny their indigenous heritage. I don't see illegal immigrants hustling in washing cars at the car wash. I see the original peoples of Turtle Island and they're in some of the poorest communities in this country. Our promise today and in the future is to make sure that the next generations know who they are and can seek strength in that. And it starts by first existing. So thank you. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I thank you, Mr. Mayor, and council members. Speaker 7: This is my first time speaking at one of these events. Speaker 0: I'm a local resident of Long Beach of the sixth District, also a student at Long Beach City College. I'm here today to ask you. I mean, it's. Speaker 8: Already been decided. It's cool. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. But. I do want to put an end to this whole notion of celebrating the genocide and the exploitation of native peoples. Speaker 7: Not only here in. Speaker 0: America, but throughout the world. And celebrating indigenous peoples day is a great way of doing that. From what I've heard earlier about the whole. Urban organic farming. That would be a great way of, you know, doing the whole indigenous part, because way before settlers came in from Europe, there was actually vast edible forests that the indigenous would just go around. Yeah, the whole point of a confederacy. Right. That was taken by the U.S. later on. Yeah. I'm just ranting right now, but thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker and Miss Christianson was was the last speaker and close the speakers list. I'm going to but I'm going to allow you, ma'am, to speak. But the absolute last speaker is a lady in the at the back of the line. That's it. Speaker's list is closed. Good afternoon. I'll try to be brief. I want to talk about what brought me here today. I'm an environmentalist. That is, I've made a commitment for the rest of my life to protecting the environment. I would like to live in a planet that is habitable for future generations. And as we all know, the planet is under threat. Life on Earth is under threat because of the destruction created by capitalism, created by occupation, genocide and imperialism. I wanted to mention something that I think is missing from the conversation of being an environmentalist, and that's that we are not only called to be protectors of the earth , but also to honor those who were the original caretakers of this land. To be an. Speaker 2: Environmentalist, to. Speaker 0: Me, means more than having a set of policies or voting a certain way. It means having. Speaker 2: A. Speaker 0: Relationship to our earth mother in the. I want us to acknowledge and have an open mind, open ears to listen to the. Speaker 2: Indigenous. Speaker 0: People and have an open heart to understand the pain of the Earth. Mother of the Earth is speaking out. She is asking, where were where are her original caretakers? She is asking us, where are the youth of the people whom she gave sacred languages to? I was speaking with a friend about why it is important to recognize indigenous rights as we do this work for the environment. And I want her to understand and I want all of us to understand that we will be we will create that future that we all want to see a sustainable future. But that will only happen if we know who we are, that we are the descendants of a people who once walked proudly upon this earth. If we acknowledge the history and the truth of this land, that is the only way we will reach a future that is sustainable. A future that we can all live in existence of peace. And that begins with acknowledging the truth. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker 2: Hard act to follow, Elliot. I just want to say, as the mother who raised her children in a Long Beach Unified School district and really tried to incorporate a very different understanding of treaties of the missions of. Colonization that this is a long day coming. And I also want to thank you guys for unanimously supporting this. I want to say that we were all indigenous once. You know, the content of our character. Like Martin Luther King said, it's the content of our character. And we were all indigenous once. And what does that mean? That means that somewhere back there and we all had the same ancestors, you know, and we were families. That's what tribes are, their families. I don't write that stuff in the paper when it says, Oh, they're getting tribal. Tribal is your family, it's your relatives. And in Lakota way, your relatives are all alive. You know, the rocks. The rocks are alive. So with that, I want to invite this council to a couple of things. I want Cheyenne ask me to make sure that you guys know about many went through this gathering. We're bringing it back. The Indian people are bringing it back up in Angels Gate Cultural Center. That's the 13th, I believe, through the 15th. And it's wonderful. The first Many Wonders gathering was in response to 500 years and peoples up there said the elders said, you know, John Fund Maker, you've heard George here speak his son. We're not going to talk about Columbus. We're going to honor our ancestors and we're going to teach many winters gathering. We're going to teach our youth. So I would also say that the messages of indigenous people are important. And the message from Rebecca Roberts, a hard to read, is Don't frack our wetlands. No oil development on wetlands. Please join us in a demonstration to defend the loss of those wetlands from beach oil company in Mineral Partners. 200 million oil bill adventure. Speaker 0: Thank you so well quick. So I miss Christianson who was the last person on the speaker's list I left the lady coming up is the last person on the speakers list we ed next you gentlemen sir, the speakers list is already closed. So next item now? Nope. She's the last leader on the speaker's list. She's she's the last person on the speaker's list. Go ahead, ma'am. Speaker 2: So I'm glad you all are. Speaker 6: All in a majority for Indigenous Day. Speaker 0: Gentlemen, gentlemen, we're going to let the lady speak. You guys, you guys could grab a seat. She's the last person on the speaker's list. Oh, I know. Thank you for that. Good to see you. Good to see you, as always. Absolutely. Go ahead, ma'am. Speaker 2: You know you all. Forget that the. Speaker 6: Workers, which majority minority. Speaker 2: Built Long Beach to this international city that it is today. So I don't I don't really feel you need a comment because like the like people have said, your heritage runs Indian heritage runs through pretty much all of your you. I think you all should increase the time that the community gets to speak. 2 minutes. 3 minutes, 5 minutes. I mean, a comedian gets 5 minutes, you give the community 2 minutes. You all only value this community, so called community, because I don't think you all know what it is when you all need our votes, when we need you to stand up for each individual district and do your jobs. You all don't show up. The only time you show up is for the stakeholders and the business people of this community, of which working people, people of color, build the businesses in this community. So I don't believe you all need a congratulation for doing the right thing and one day is not enough to celebrate Indigenous people. The original people of this land. So I would ask that you extend it to a three day weekend the way you have all these other celebrations or festivals or all this going on in and this international city of Long Beach. And I'm talking to you. You and you especially. You know your neighborhoods. Speaker 0: They are atrocious. Thank you. Speaker 2: One of the simplest things. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. Speaker 2: That makes me know that you all are still. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. Time is up, Bill. Speaker 2: Thank you. Slaves on the plantation. Speaker 7: I like my neighborhood. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. So we're now going to go ahead and take a vote. Members, she's going to cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. And to everyone that came out. Congratulations. Of course. It's obviously a big win for Long Beach and we look forward to celebrating every single year. So congratulations to all of you. We'll move on with the regular agenda. Thank you. Hey, next up is we're going to move on to item number 41.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to enact a resolution for the City of Long Beach recognizing October 9th, 2017 and every second Monday in October henceforth, as Indigenous People's Day.

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Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Seeing that there, that concludes public comment. Thank you all that came out for public comment. I appreciate you guys coming out. Okay. Next up is going to go ahead and be item number. What's the next 30. Speaker 1: Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to request the city attorney to prepare a resolution adopting a plan to implement SB 415. Changing the date of the Long Beach Municipal and School District Primary and General Elections Citywide. Speaker 0: Mr. City Attorney. Speaker 7: Thank you, Mayor. And members of the Council. Senate Bill 415 amended the election code was signed by Governor Brown in 2015. The intent of Senate Bill 415 is to improve voter turnout at local elections. SB 415 requires the local public agency with a nine concurrent election to change its dates either the statewide primary or a general election . If the agency's voter turnout for the municipal election held on a non concurrent date was at least 25% lower than the average voter turnout for the last four statewide general elections. SB 415 only impacts regularly scheduled local elections. Primary and general. It doesn't affect the timing of special elections. So those items may go on a ballot at any time as allowed by state law. For nearly two years, it was unclear whether this bill applied to Long Beach as a charter city and the provisions of the Charter of the City of Long Beach directly conflict with the provisions of SB 415. In 2016, a request was made to the California Attorney General to clarify that issue. And in July of this year, the Attorney General issued opinion, holding that SB 415 does in fact apply to charter cities and school districts governed by their city charter. So while the Attorney General opinion is not legally binding like a court decision, they're viewed by the courts as highly persuasive excuse me. And local agencies generally follow them as they would a court decision. So what is required? SB 415 requires a political subdivision may hold an election on other than statewide election dates. If, by January 1st of 2018, the city has adopted a plan to consolidate future elections with a statewide election no later than January of or no later than 2022. The bill or the law doesn't really go into what the specifics of the plan are. But it is our recommendation that we recommend the Council to adopt or direct us to prepare a resolution for your consideration. Adopting a plan. The There has been a change since this item was placed on the agenda. The governor did sign Senate Bill 568 568 further complicates this this already complicated item. What 568 does is it will move effective 2019 the state's primary election from June to March and allow the governor to move that even earlier in the year during presidential elections. So the impact of this would be beginning in 2020. The city would have to move their elections or the city has three options. They could adopt and move in 2018, 2020 or 2022. Our office is not recommending moving for the 2018 elections. This is a matter of just practically being able to do it in that time frame. We already are in the election cycle. The it would also, we believe, create additional confusion for the voters because in 18 they would vote in June, in November and then in 2020 you would vote in March and November. So we and also the city clerk can weigh in here, too, that the we may not be able to consolidate with the county in 18. We're hoping by 2020 the county would have their new election system in place so that we can consolidate and that would save money. We also need to work with our partners at the school district to bring them into the process. We have reached out to them and we will work with them on a go forward basis on how that implements and impacts them. So tonight, if the motion as provided would direct us to prepare a resolution adopting a plan to implement SB 415 and to move the primary general elections pursuant to state law and the effective date we are asking or recommending it be 2020. If that recommendation is adopted, what would be the next steps we would return with that resolution? Adopting the plan to change the election dates further, the resolution would direct the city attorney to draft amendments to the Long Beach Municipal Code to make the necessary changes to implement the plan. That would include ordinance to change the election cycle when election funds become surplus. What date? So the elected official would take office if elected in November. It could be the third Tuesday in December. It would take we would have to look at how long is it for the certification of the election and what would be the desire . So we would come back to council with those recommendations. We're not asking for those decisions to be made tonight. That would come back. We would have the resolution directing us to prepare those amendments. We would draft those amendments, come back and get input from the city council. City council can direct that to committee. They can do what they like without. Then we would come back with a final version. So at this time, we believe that the city is required to move their election under the law. It does invalidate, in essence, a portion of our charter on when the election dates are held. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. There is a motion on a second to approve the city attorney's recommendation for 2020. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 5: Thank you. I actually would like to hear from our city clerk just her take on this item before making any comments and hearing from my colleagues, if that's okay. Just your. I know that there's a legal recommendation right at the state level. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the 2020 timeline. Does that allow us, you think, the right amount of time to work with the county? Speaker 1: The information that we have received from the county is that they will be ready for us in 2020 if they are if they have their election system certified and are ready to take us in 2020, I think it's a good opportunity for us to go forward and consolidate our election with them. It is a an election cycle that is not city wide, it's the even district. So I think it's a good testing ground at that at that time for us to move forward. Speaker 5: And in your opinion, if we did it in 2018, that would put you guys in a little bit of chaos. Speaker 1: I think it would put the county in a little bit of chaos. Our election cycle for 2018 started on January one, 2017. So we are already in the middle of our election cycle and we've already started the process working with candidates campaign finance. So I think right now our 2018 election would be best held with the city clerk's office. Speaker 5: Great. Thank you for for that. I, I support the 2020 timeline. I want to thank the city attorney for providing us with a detailed report. And I know that that has been a big question if Long Beach actually had to do this. And so it's great to have that clarity. I also you know, I think my two concerns is making sure that we go with the 2020 timeline and making sure that we're actually working with Lexi and with the school board and that before this item come back for its final vote, that we actually have some some clarity on where everybody is in their election process and that we're working as a city holistically moving that stuff forward. And you did clarify that this we can take this vote today and then it'll come we can put it back into the Elections Oversight Committee. Speaker 0: That's correct. Speaker 7: We would bring back the resolution, adopting the plan, and to request us to prepare the ordinance. It maybe be it would be my recommendation that we move forward with obviously what I've recommended tonight. And then when the motion came back or the resolution came back, adopting adopting that resolution at the time I came back with the draft ordinance to the entire body, I think would be the time that if necessary or if that's the desire of the council to send it to the Election Oversight Committee for further discussion. Or you may pick just specific items that you want to discuss. So we would bring the entire thing, all the draft back to the council to bring them an up to date and tell them where we are on this. And at that time, if that at the Election Oversight Committee or whatever committee the council decides to send it to. We'd be happy to do that. Speaker 5: And what is the timeline that we need to work within if we go with the 2020? Speaker 7: Very good. The under SB 415, the council has to adopt a plan by before January 1st of 2018. We believe that the resolution we would bring back to you is kind of the 5000 foot view of what your plan is. Your plan is to implement the change and to move to the statewide primary and general election in 2020. The the details of the plan are to be determined. We would be working with that. So we would come back to you as we prepare that. I'm not sure we can get to it by the end of the year, but early 2018 we would have the resolution. Are the ordinances in front of you maybe after the holidays for you to consider and we would have everything in place hopefully no later than spring of 18 so that we would be prepared for 2020. Speaker 5: Great. So we have from now until spring of 2018 to finalize that plan, working with the clerk, working with NBCC and School Board as well. Speaker 7: And I say that that's optimistic on when we would have it. We have until obviously 2020 to get everything we need to have it everything in place. I have reached out and spoken to the Long Beach Unified School District and to Long Beach City College. They are aware of this item tonight. I have told them that depending on the action of the council, we would be following up with them after this evening to keep them updated and then into the process. One of the concerns for the school district, for example, is. The November election. They adopt their budget, I'm told, in December. And so having a new person coming in, either the night of the budget adoption or the first week after that may cause them some issues. So they want to talk to us about the impact of those changes. Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you for answering the questions. I just want to say, you know, that this is, I think, a move in the right direction. I think we have a lot of hope that aligning our election cycles will increase voter turnout. I know we've had voter turnout as low as 10%, as high as 40%, and that the highest is whenever we have it in June and November. And so as much as we can as a city, I know that our our city clerk has spent a long time and for the last three city clerks, it's been a long time trying to make sure that we're engaging with as many residents as possible so that, yes, African-Americans, Latinos, that the diverse population is fully engaged in our election cycle. And so I think that this absolutely is the right move, and I urge my colleagues to support this as well. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Count summary Rango. Speaker 7: Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 3: Gray averaged a disparity. Speaker 0: Council Councilwoman Mango. Skip to skip you. I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So thank you. Who. Who prepared this report was this city attorney's office? Yes, it was. I think you did a did a pretty good job at justifying whether or not the city of Long Beach qualifies as a as a city under as SB 415 in terms of the 25% decline. Would you mind walking us through the methodology here for a moment? I'm going to. We asked the city if we're talking about the math on the 25%. That's why I went to law school. Speaker 0: The the city clerk. Speaker 7: We gave her the numbers and asked her to verify these numbers. And so if there's specific questions on the turnout or the years of the of the numbers, they provided those numbers. Well, I think it's what it does is it presents a strong case for not if, but when. Right. It narrows the conversation to make it very clearly that we we do meet this threshold that's that's required here. And it's and it's not even close between 25% and some of the percentages that I see here. So I think it's important because this is a really important debate for our city. I think it's important that the city understand our residents understand how far we compared to the 25% decline in turnout between and alignment with the state with the June, November versus our local turnout. So walk us through your methodology. Speaker 1: And we. We used numbers provided to us by the Registrar Recorder's office in Los Angeles on voter turnout for all the elections in this item to to use as a base for our comparison. And then we used also our own statistics for our turnout over the last four election cycles. So you can see that. Speaker 5: We. Speaker 1: Clearly fall under that 25% threshold in elections where it was not a citywide election and it was maybe just one or two districts. We took that into account when we were doing our math. I know that questions come up and it was the total voters that were involved in that election that we used as our base for this statistical analysis. So everything is even across the board. Is there any particular election that you had questions on? Speaker 7: No, not specifically. So the numbers that I see here, it says the percentage difference between the city's district primary election turnout and four statewide general election average is as follows. I see 68% decline in 2010. So between the states turnout and our local turnout was a 68% difference, way higher than 2576 in 2012, 66 in 2014. And just as recent as 2016, a 75% difference in turnout. Now, I know that there's been a lot of conversation about what we can do to increase participation. SB 14, whether it was popular or not. The title of it was the Voter Participation Act. And this is one of the simplest things we can do to simply ensure that voting is simple and easy and more people participate in the civic process. That's something that support. Therefore, I think the question I can support staff's recommendation because it allows us time to to prepare for that, submit this plan and get our affairs in order by 2020. It wouldn't make any sense by 2018. My final question, city manager or city attorney, when do we have to evaluate any potential fiscal impact here? We since this is required by state law, I think that the clerk is going to depending on the action of the council tonight. When we come back, not with the resolution, but with the ordinance. We could certainly, I believe that would give us enough time to talk about the fiscal impact. One of the unknowns is, as the clerk had mentioned, the county, if they're ready for us, that's one cost. If they're not ready for us, that's another cost. If we're we're doing a two vote Tuesday on both the June or the March and the November dates, you're looking at significant costs similar to what you're probably incurring now. Okay. So we anticipate cost would likely be similar, but we will have an opportunity to vet that out some other time. Speaker 1: We will we will know more as we get closer to 2019 and 2020. It's hard to make that call right now because the county does not have their voting system in place. So we don't know what our share of that will be. We only know what it has been historically. And I don't think that's going to be a fair representation of what it will be in 2020 if their new election system is in place. Speaker 7: So I think it gives us time. This motion gives us time to to get this right. And I think fundamentally, this just. Means, you know, we have an opportunity to state whether more or fewer people should have the right and the opportunity and easy opportunity to vote and determine their own future. And I think that that's I feel really good about staff recommendations, so I'll be supporting that. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Ringa. Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, well, for me, it's very simple. It increases voter turnout and it aligns the city of Long Beach with the states and the feds. So I think I'll be supporting this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman. Super. Now. Speaker 7: Just very quickly, the what we have in place currently would be. Speaker 0: An April. Speaker 7: Primary, followed by a June election that will go away no matter what. So if you're in a runoff election, you have six weeks between April and June moving forward. I guess the primary would be in March possibly, and then the runoff would be in November. That is correct. Under SB 415 and the way we need to implement the law, obviously the council would have other options to consider in the future. If there is a, you know, a instant runoff type of situation, you could study you could study different items if that period of time is too long between the two elections. And I certainly, as I sit here, realize how long a period of time that would be. It's forever. And so but. SB 415 that's a separate issue for for a different night and a different discussion. But yes, you're absolutely correct. The April and June will go away and 2020 we would be on the state's schedule. Okay. Thank you. So we can decide that at a later date. I just thought that was important to bring out right now in terms of transparency. And a few of us up here have participated in the runoff and that six weeks seems like an eternity. I can't imagine waiting till November, our whole summer in and around the runoff. Speaker 0: Imagine. Yes, Councilman Austin. Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll be very brief. My, I'm going to be supportive of this item because I think it makes a lot of sense. Number one, I mean, obviously, there's going to be some impacts to our local elections here in Long Beach. But on a national level, I think it's very, very important that California be a strong voice and be relevant on the national electoral process. And so I'm kind of I'm very happy to see that the legislation was passed and there will be move in our primary up. But I will agree with Councilmember Supernova's assessment, though, if we're going to have a move the primary up to March and possibly a runoff in November, that can make for some very interesting campaigning dynamics. So but but I will support. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And Councilman and. Yes, thank you, Mayor, because increasing voter turnout is important, I think, in all our neighborhoods and our residents here, you know, no city matter. But, you know, I'm hoping that we can consider transit transitioning this into to 2020 in order to provide, you know, sufficient outreach and time to those who are, you know, coordinate this election. It will be done quick and faster and everyone will be have a chance at least to come out and vote, because that is a very important November is very important, I think, for everyone. Thank you. Thank you for supporting this counts already. Any public comment saying we're going to go out and cast our vote as we're casting? I just want to also just add I'm very supportive. Mr. City Attorney, I know you worked very hard on this. I know there was a lot of a lot of work from you and your team. But this is for I think, for a lot of us who have been watching this issue and particularly around the issue of voter rights and ensuring that that that people have access to voting and to ensuring that people aren't voting sometimes 3 to 4 times a year. I think this is absolutely the step in the right direction. So I'm very happy about this moving forward as well. Cast your votes, please.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare a resolution adopting a plan to implement SB 415, changing the date of Long Beach Municipal and School District Primary and General Elections. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Any public comment, please cast your votes. Motion carries mixed item. Speaker 1: Communication from city attorney recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code related to the implementation of the state's Medical and Adult Use, Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Speaker 0: There's a motion in a second. Kate, is there any public comment? Please come forward, Mr. Goodhew. Speaker 2: All. Speaker 0: Larry. Good. I'm going to suggest that the council amend this motion to preclude awarding at any time a medical marijuana of a marijuana license, be it medical marijuana or other to any business owner or landlord. Who are the public records of this police department? As well as in the hands of the U.S. attorney. Reveal that the landlord or the tenant. Has provided sanctuary. True criminal conduct, those engaged in violent criminal conduct. And specifically, I'm talking about the properties at 225 and 227 East Second Street. The owner is the individual that owns 227. He leases the building to 225. There is essentially run by the turd that washed ashore some eight, nine years ago. And has provided sanctuary. Too violent. Criminals. One of which threatened to kill. Threatened to kill a female shop owner a block away because they she reported the use of crack cocaine. Equally dangerous is the female. Who kicked and stomped. Kicked and stomped. Another panhandler because she thought that panhandler was taking the spot that the police department had endowed to her. That pair. Just give you an idea to also spit down. Spit at the lip, the senior citizen library staff member, Bay Shore Library, because they have been banned from the library. The mail spit at the US postmaster. They used a walk back and forth on the second floor of the balcony at the Chase Bank. That tenant and that owner that the owner of that property should not be granted a permit. For medical marijuana or any type of marijuana period, it sends the wrong message. That's separate and distinct from the issues which I've raised before, and we'll raise again next year, next week about it being in the pathway of kids going to their after school locations. A paradigm that each of you should consider when you're looking at districts with shops such as shops in your district. See you next week on that. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. In other public comment, members, please cast your votes.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Section 5.90.300 related to the implementation of the State's Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

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Speaker 11: Motion case item number three adopt resolution establishing the Southeast area specific plan pursuant to sections 65450. Dash 65458 of the California Government Code. And my motion includes adding language to sea set the Sea Set plan to require that the general plan land use element update be completed within five years. And if it is not completed within that time period that the Department of Development Services would be required to return the Sea Set Plan to the Planning Commission for Adjustment. Speaker 0: Can I get a motion in a second, please? Speaker 11: I'm sorry. One more. And what this is was a very long sentence and that the sea set plan likewise be amended to require that all new buildings being developed within the planned boundaries be constructed to lead LEED Silver Standards. That's the motion. Speaker 0: It's the motion in a second. Okay. Members, please cast your votes. Motion carries next item.

Resolution

Adopt resolution establishing the Southeast Area Specific Plan, pursuant to Sections 65450-65458 of the California Government Code;

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Speaker 0: So I just. Just the point of how we're going to transition here. The next item up is the hotel item. And what I'd like to ask is, obviously, if you were here for C sip, if we could exit that to create more space for those that are here for the other items. And what I'm going to do is just take. Speaker 4: A small. Speaker 0: Short recess as we let those folks exit and then fill in as many of those empty seats with some of the folks that are in the lobby. They'll sit those seat and then maybe in about 2 minutes will reconvene with the items so we can get our fire department can move those folks into these seats. So we will begin the item in 2 minutes. Two minute recess. Okay. We have we're going to end the recess. Hopefully folks got brought in so they can sit down. So everyone, please take their seat. We're going to go and start. Everyone, please take their seat. I can. I can have everyone. Please take a seat. Okay. And just as a note to our our fire guys out there, there does seem to be open some open seats. So I think we could probably, as we begin, let a lot of you folks come in and grab the empty seats that are here as well as yeah, we do have empty seats. So. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go ahead. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Gonzalez Council Member Pearce. Speaker 9: Councilwoman Price. Council Member. Speaker 4: Suber. Not here. Speaker 0: Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 4: Councilman Andrews. Council member your UNGA presented. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Mary Garcia. Speaker 0: I'm here. Thank you. I want to. Before we take this over, can the clerk please read the item? And then I have an announcement actually about this, the process. So we make sure that everyone that wants to speak can speak. Go ahead. Communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilmember Pearce, Councilmember Turanga and Vice Mayor Richardson. Recommendation to direct the city manager to draft. Speaker 4: An ordinance regarding hotels. Speaker 0: With 100 rooms or more. That includes but is not limited to the following panic buttons. Notice to hotel employees notice in guestrooms hotel employees rights, humane workloads, voluntary overtime recordkeeping, anti retaliation. Speaker 9: Waiver and. Speaker 0: Enforcement. Okay. Thank you. Before I turn it over to the councilwoman. Just want to make sure obviously, we're going to begin to we're going to do what a call public comment. There's obviously a lot of folks here for the item will have public comment, but there's also a lot of folks that are not in here that also want to do public comment. So I just want to make sure that we're getting obviously are I know are our fire team out there. Once we get through public comment or as we're able to get folks in, if you can please let folks that are here to speak on the item on the hotel issue item so that everyone gets a chance to speak. So I want to make sure that people that are outside, I know that can hear the proceedings. If you're here for the item, you'll have an opportunity to speak on the item regardless of where you are outside. And so I know that we'll just try to keep everything as orderly as possible, but I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. So with that, I know there's folks coming in. Please, please take your seats. I want to turn this over to Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 10: Yes. Thanks, everybody, for being so patient tonight. I know it's a very long night. It's a very big night. And in my opinion, it's one of the largest nights we have here in Long Beach. There's a lot on our plate here. And I have actually created a PowerPoint presentation. I wanted to make sure that I got my point and my message across because we've been hearing so much, whether it's in the news or media and from each other, and it has been a bit divisive. And so I want to make sure I'm driving the message home. So we'll start now. Okay. So this is the ordinance, the Long Beach Hospitality Workload and Safety Ordinance. That's our logo here that I'm sure you've seen and all of our social media outlets. So the next item we're going to talk about the various events we have in the city. The city of Long Beach has never looked better. And in fact, we actually have 2017 hospitality by the numbers. Speaker 2: We're the third largest. Speaker 10: The hospitality industry is the third largest industry in downtown Long Beach. There's over 360 conventions and meetings. 1.4 million visitors in downtown alone through the busiest cruise terminal on the West Coast, 80% occupancy rate in downtown hotels, which is 15% percentage points higher than the national average. That was a quote actually retrieved from the Long Beach Business Journal under hotel occupancy skyrockets. And in addition, there's over $660 million in estimated economic impact from the convention business alone as well. As far as annual attendance, we can see here, 1.6 million convention business, 1.5 for the Aquarium of the Pacific, also 1.5 for the Queen Mary , and over 67 million attendees and tourists annually. And I know given all of this information, we can see clearly that the city of Long Beach, we're doing really well. And ah, we must also be cognizant of the physical effects and demands though of the industry's growth that has that they have on the hotel workers, particularly those who clean and service nearly 5000 hotel rooms across the city daily. The hospitality industry, by all accounts, is strong and growing on an annual basis and serves as one of the most visible industries in our city. However, the working conditions of these employees must be improved, in my opinion. As a city, we have consistently invested in improving our convention facilities, negotiating the total return to the city of Long Beach for new hotel developments, and recruited countless organizations to bring their event business to Long Beach. Now it's time for the City Council to adopt an ordinance that puts workplace protections in place for our hotel housekeepers here in the city of Long Beach. As we go to our next slide. While Long Beach tourism grows rapidly, how can we support our Long Beach working women in our local hotels? A few points to add here. 85% of housekeepers are women in Long Beach. As an industry, hotel housekeepers are increasingly subject to indecent behavior by guests. Per the Chicago and Seattle reports that we've seen, over 50% of housekeepers had experienced some sort of harassment. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 68% of sexual assaults go unreported. Our Long Beach housekeepers endure exhaustion and intense workloads in an eight hour shift, heavy mattresses, exposure to germs, etc.. And in Long Beach, we have seen the annual supply of room rooms increase, while the hotel workforce shrunk by about 7%. Again, this is with almost 70 million visitors each year. Now, the policy at hand, it does about four things here, provides reasonable protections for women in the workplace, creates an achievable standard for humane workloads, empowers housekeepers to voice concerns without fear of retaliation, and for fulfilling Long Beach's promise to create a world class tourism industry. We know that in downtown alone, the Long Beach hotels that we have here at 100 rooms or more represent about 85% of all available hotel rooms. That was from the debate economic development report. And in Long Beach between 2007 and 2013, as I stressed earlier, over 11% were occupied. Hotel rooms increased by 11% and the workforce decreased by 6.9%, thus providing more workloads and more issue to our hotel employees. Now, here's a matrix that's really key to to look at. We see four of one of our major hotel chains, four of our hotel chains here, their rooms average size of their traditional room, daily room quota . So it's about 14 to 15 rooms per day. And the square footage. We have from 3000 upwards of 4200 square feet. That's an average of about 3777 square feet that the city of Long Beach hotel workers are currently working in one day. So as we go on, I want to address what will not work in this policy. There has been a lot of discussion about what may work and some ideas out there, so I'll go over a few. There have been few reported incidents of sexual assault and harassment, so there is no problem. One too many. Once one assault is one too many. In Long Beach, we cannot minimize women's voices in our hotels by demanding more reports. The importance here is that we're providing safeguards for our our hotel workers. To say that there is only one or two reported really is too many. And we should not have a threshold to say that there has to be 50 in order for us to see that there's a problem. We know that that's not true. The second point is let's work on the sexual harassment issue, but set aside the workload discussion for another day. The two items, in my opinion, need to coexist. As our city grows, both protections and workload improvements provide humane working conditions to our Long Beach working women. It's important that these two issues stay together. Thirdly, Seattle has 5000 square feet. Why can't we just keep it the same here in Long Beach? Based on a study of downtown Long Beach hotels, 4000 square feet, as I had showed you, represents less than a 10% change in workloads. We would be compounding the issue to add 1000 more square feet to this ordinance. Lastly, this is putting the safety of hotel guests against the safety of hotel workers. Creating a wedge between the safety of our hotel guests and our workers clearly is just an irresponsible statement. I don't know why a business would market themselves that way and say that has to be one or the other. It's unfortunate. And then I'll finalize with this approx. This is actually a 2014 police report. Approximately 5 minutes later, the suspect and I'm going to read this and it may be a little disconcerting to many of you. It will be, I'm sure, very uncomfortable. But this is what's happening in some of our hotels. Approximately 5 minutes later, the suspect moved the cart from the front of the room and entered the room. The suspect was unclothed and had a bath towel covering his lower torso. The suspect asked about a late checkout and before she could answer, he dropped his towel and walked towards her. She said, I'll find out for you, but you need to leave the room. In the notes provided in the police report, it should be noted. It was stated that it should be noted during my interview with her. She was still very distraught of the incident and was fidgety and appeared to be nervous. At one point she began crying and was unable to continue for a few minutes. So this information I know we have talked about this issue for many years. I've been elected now for three and a half years like many of my council colleagues here. But we've been talking about this issue well beyond three and a half years. And I felt and my colleagues, I want to thank them for being on the item with me. But I really did feel that it was at this point in time that we really need needed to address the concerns and move forward with this policy because it's not the political thing to do. It's the right thing to do. And as many of the hotel workers that I've met with both, you know, when I first got elected, you do a day with a hotel worker, and I did that. And to see the day in, day out, you know, the incredible workloads and to see the unpredictable situations that may occur from going into a hotel. This, I believe, is is a policy that is beyond reasonable. We are not only addressing the fact that we're making a Long Beach connection by addressing the fact that 4000 square feet already works for us because that's currently what our hotel workers are doing. But it also addresses the fact that there needs to be some some protections and safeguards for sexual harassment and assaults. Very reasonable and minor protections, I think. And I will say that personally, I've sat down with our hotel industry for many years. Just recently I sat down with the Hospitality Alliance, the Long Beach Business Chamber. I met with the president. I've met with everyone involved, Steve Goodling from the convention bureau. I've met with many business interests, but I've also met with Unite here. I've met with hotel workers. And more importantly, the hotel workers is is what is really the root of the issue. Those individuals, these women primarily, are the ones that give a good first impression to many of the tourists that come in our city. They're the first line that many tourists and people see in our city. And I want to thank them for their service to this city. They often don't get a lot of thanks. Speaker 6: I'd like to thank them. Speaker 10: So I don't think it's unreasonable to provide all of these stipulations in this policy. And quite frankly, I also read I told many people, I read investor reports myself, maybe it's the nerdy thing to do, but I've read them. And many of the investor reports for our hotels don't even suggest that labor issues or unionization or any sort of thing like that would be a detriment to business. In fact, I think it reaps more benefits to provide safeguards to your to your local, to your hotel work force than it would provide negatives. Seattle, in fact, for the first quarter of their fiscal year, 17, received a jump in about 12% of their adjusted room revenue. And so I see the benefits for cities, for a city on the waterfront where a city that has so much diversity. And now it's our time to provide the dignity and respect back to those hotel workers that do everything they can to make sure that our city works at its best. So thank you. I suggest I want to just offer as well to the colleagues that signed on with me. I thank them for their work. I want to thank my city staff and my city hall team for for all their research and work. And I also offer this to the other colleagues that are not on here, as I really wish that we can reflect on what has occurred so far. And I hope that we all make the best decisions for our city, not for ourselves personally. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman. So. Okay. So you just answered my question. So you made the motion as submitted, correct, councilwoman? Okay. And so the second of the motion is Councilmember Ginny Pierce. Speaker 2: All right, everybody, this has been a long time coming. And I want to say how much I appreciate everybody's commitment to partnering and sharing your conversations. And especially I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Gonzalez, for leading on this item. We've been here before, guys. We've been at this moment before. And so I'm excited and I'm really proud today to be standing with hotel workers and with women, because I've been standing for a long time. And you guys know that we've been at this point before when business said, we can't do that, we can't give workers a living wage because we'll go broke. We can't take another dollar out of the bank because we'll leave. We can't do that or they won't come and build here. Today, Long Beach is thriving. It's strong. Our downtown has multiple new hotels coming in. This is the day for us to continue to say we can do it and we can do it the right way in a measured way. That is the Long Beach way, right? Because in Long Beach we don't just say, hey, you know what, we're going to pass a minimum wage and we're going to do it our way today at the highest rate away immediately. No. During the minimum wage talk, we sat down with everybody. Right. And we actually voted on something that was a middle ground. And I think that we've had this item out there for a long time. We've had this item since that hotel worker went to PD. I got to meet with her back in 2014. And that moment where when she was crying, doing the police report. What? Did it feel like right after? And how much time did she have to sit with the things that have happened to her? This is not about the union. This is not about our political futures, guys. This is about women coming up here. And I'm sure we'll hear today their stories. And that's the one thing before we start public comment, two things I really want to echo is that those are personal stories. And for us to ever tell a woman that her reality was not her reality is not okay. It's not okay. For us ever to say, you know what, it's not as bad as you thought, because what I have in front of me is from the women's shelter. And they have a long list of reasons why women don't speak out against sexual assault. The numbers are stark, guys. 15 to 35% of women actually report their domestic or sexual abuse. And there are lots of reasons. RICHARD Retribution, fear of what might happen at home, immigration status. The list goes on and on. As somebody who has personally been sexually assaulted 14 years ago. It took me three years to tell somebody, anybody I didn't even tell my best friend. And whether or not it's something, someone tapping someone's sign and doing that multiple times and someone saying, shake it off, we've got to get back to work. It wears on you. And I know that we'll hear from people about the emotional impacts of that. And this policy is about a vision that says that Long Beach, we're thriving and we can do better. We've got great managers there. We've got great staff. But we have to recognize that there's a problem in an industry and we can fix it. We can be the leaders with measure. In a year later, we have 7% increase in profits. So this is a city that can do this. They can say, we stand with women that can say we can have an industry that's going to thrive. No dollar is worth too much to make sure that women every day do not get scared or worried or have panic attacks before they knock on a bedroom door by themselves. So I am excited that this policy has a vision. It fits the needs of Long Beach. It's measurable, and it's something that we can all be really proud of. So as we're continuing to thrive, when we're talking about our conventions in downtown and we've got great Steve Goodling, who does a fantastic job. He can say, you know what, we are one of the few cities. There are others. There's Chicago, there's Seattle, there's New York. There are other cities, guys that have done this. But we are one of the few cities that you can come to on the water and have an awesome, awesome time and know that workers in every single hotel feel safe and respected and dignity is treated to them. So I'm thrilled to hear from you guys today. I hope that those two arguments around sexual assault and the idea that this is just a union ploy are taken out of the conversation right away. So before I close, I will address the union conversation. Right. Because I know that we'll hear that. We heard it about a month ago. To be clear, the sexual assault piece, we want to make sure that every hotel is included in that, that that is something that every single hotel has. When people say in the letter that we got from the chamber, it says, just come to us and talk to us. Right. Just come and talk to us. Well, people have people have come in and talked. And there's class as a class action lawsuits that have happened in this city. And I'm not going to name which hotels or anything. Class action lawsuits. There's been unfair labor practices filed time and time again for things like interrogating workers concerning union activities, making statements, equating support for the union disloyalty, prohibiting workers from accessing certain floors, etc., etc., that have been won at at the level that it needs to be won out, that have taken years. And so this policy is not about that because workers have decided to unionize. They've gone through a process. This is about creating an industry across the board that has the highest standards, where women can walk in and walk out and feel proud every single day. And so I'm excited to hear from you guys. It is the day that I stand with workers, that I stand with women, and I really hope that I can count on my colleagues to stand with women as well. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember. So unless there's unless there's any objection. Councilman Gonzalez, the presenter of the motion, is asked that after the motion of the second here from public comment and then to come back to the council to continue the comments. So unless there's any objection. Great. So we will go ahead and do that. So we will now open it up for public comment on the hotel item, please. And so please again, begin lining up here. And again, if you're outside, we will have an opportunity, of course, to let folks come in as well. Okay. We will. We will go ahead and. Okay. All right. Well, I know that the middle is getting a little crowded, so if you take a seat, well, once this line goes down, we will allow everyone else to to come back up. So please, everyone else, just take a seat. The lines for right now. Allow us. Please take a seat. I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to start with three and I go down to two. Okay. Well, going to be good public comment, please. Speaker 4: We've got to convince you. Speaker 3: Okay. I like that. I agree. Speaker 0: What we're doing what we're doing is we're just like last time we're starting at three. And then after a while, we go down to two, and then we'll do the same thing for the next time, like we did for the first one. Go ahead. Speaker 4: Great. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor. City Council Member Staff Jeremy Harris, senior vice president with the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce here tonight on behalf of our over 850 members. These members include hospitality partners, many of whom you will hear with hear from tonight. But more importantly, we're here tonight on behalf of our members in the Long Beach business community and all industries. Because tonight's item is just bad public policy. Long Beach hasn't experienced an unbelievable economic rebirth and has risen out of the recession, which has been noted. Great. Thanks due in large part to your vision, Mayor, and the development community. So the question is why slow the momentum down? Because if this proposed ordinance is allowed to move forward. That is exactly what's going to happen. The chamber, for years, if not decades, has made it a point to ensure the government doesn't hinder the progress of the private sector. In fact, one of these areas we focus on this year, and I quote, mitigate costly business regulations. What does that simply mean? Or just an excerpt from our policy manual for this year. We will protect business sectors that currently drive the local economy and seek ways to support their efforts, oppose any state, county, local or other governmental agencies, mandated business regulations that put Long Beach area businesses at an economic disadvantage. But since we're not just in the business of saying no, it further reads we will secure reasonable solutions in order to balance business interests with the creation of new regulations. So at a minimum, we've asked in the past to compromise when we cannot agree. Tonight's item is example, an example of the exact opposite. There's no compromise here. Our members and partners will speak later tonight on exactly what is at stake to their civic energy industries and mainly the hospitality industry and the negative impacts on our area hotels. I believe the greater issues at stake here are the leadership of the city is on the verge of passing something that will set an example not only in our region but throughout the nation. A bad example. I ask the question, why does Long Beach want to be the forefront of passing bad public policy and baseless facts and statistics that one entity or group has portrayed through a false narrative? That group has not reached out to us. We've done all the educating through our Long Beach Hospitality Alliance. It was only a month ago we hear before you providing data and facts about how the industry works and necessary safety protocols that are already in place. We talked about the hospitality industry as one of already heavy, heavily regulated. The state and federal levels once again, others will dove deeper into this issue. The language that is included in tonight's item is wrought with misinformation and looks too heavily regulated. Private industry where the government has no business and being. And we need to ask ourselves, is this the kind of city we want to be known for? This potential policy penalizes industry that's provided good paying jobs, help put Long Beach on the map through its total dollars and provides a positive local economic impact wherever hotels are located . And with this agenda item tonight, the city wants to say thank you on behalf of our chamber members, the business community. I urge you to oppose this idea. Speaker 0: Commissioners. Okay. Thank you. Next Speaker Please. Speaker 13: Do. It took a lot for me to stand here and listen to that. Take control, sister. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez, for your courage and for your leadership. So members of the city council who have the same courage. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. My name is Marielena Durazo and I am national vice president of Unite Here Hotel and restaurant workers throughout the United States and Canada. Tonight is a momentous night for all of us. It feels consequential for all of you in front of me because you are being asked to take sides, and that can be an uncomfortable place for you to be in. But in all honesty, it is much more significant to all of the Long Beach housekeepers and immigrants who are forced to live in fear, fear of the whims of a pathological president, fear of what is on the other side of a hotel guest door, fear of having an unreasonable workload demanded of you and not having the power to say, Yeah, basta, enough is enough. Tonight, these brave men and women have stood up. They have pushed to make their voices heard. And tonight they look to you, the mayor and the City Council of Long Beach to match their. Courage. In this political climate, we are all faced with hard decisions and we have to choose sides. Tonight, you have the power to tell these immigrant workers and their families that you are with them and that you are watching their back. I urge you to take the lead and stand on the side of women who work so hard every single day and their immigrant families. Gracias. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I am Father. Speaker 4: William Connor, the pastor emeritus of St Joseph Catholic Church in East Long Beach. I am here asking for your support to help some of the hardest working people in our city. Speaker 0: These are the. Speaker 4: Women. Tending guests and cleaning rooms. It is because of their work that our city's hotel industry. Speaker 0: Has grown. Speaker 4: To meet the needs of visitors from across the world. These women are the economic engine driving the hotel industry in Long Beach. The Bible is full of passengers calling for the fair treatment of workers by their employers and showing how exploitation is against our Judeo-Christian faith tradition. Today. You all have a decision to make. Speaker 0: Will you stand only on the side. Speaker 4: Of the rich and powerful of our city? Or will you listen to the voices of those that are most vulnerable, the voices of these very hard working women? I would like to think that we Long Beach residents will look back on your. Speaker 0: Decision as the day that. Speaker 4: City leaders. Speaker 0: Stood on the side of justice and righteousness by standing with these women. And I would simply add that. Speaker 4: The very few unionized hotels we have in Long Beach, where the rights of workers are observed and they are treated with dignity and respect and given a living wage and decent working conditions. Speaker 0: Those hotels are thriving. Speaker 4: And so will the other hotels continue to do better and thrive more if they give rights to our workers. Thank you for having me. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 4: Members of the council. My name is Rusty Hicks. I'm the executive secretary treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. And I appreciate the opportunity to stand before you and ask you and call upon you to support this important policy. My friend from the Chamber stood before you and said that Long Beach had been rejuvenated, that its economy was thriving in large part due to the policies of this body. And unfortunately, there are some in our community they are being left out of that that prosperity. The workers that are paying the price in abuse, whether it's inhumane workloads or sexual assault, and both bring indignity to their work. And it was Dr. Martin Luther King that said that all work has dignity, and that includes the work of a housekeeper of women here in here in Long Beach. And so you have the chance tonight to really live out the words of of Dr. King, to stand with these workers and support them in their in their struggle. These policies are sweeping the nation, whether it's in Seattle or Chicago or other cities to follow. And I only hope that Long Beach will be the next in line. I know there's been a lot of back and forth about this particular policy, but the choice before you, in my view, is really pretty simple. It's pretty straightforward. It's the question of where you will stand. Will you stand on the sides of workers or will you turn your back on them? I know many of you have spent your careers fighting and working with and supporting communities just like this. I hope you will continue that work. Speaker 0: Tonight and support this policy and pass it. Speaker 4: And implement it as quick as possible. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Her Linda Chico Field, deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. And I. Speaker 10: Have a letter on behalf. Speaker 3: Of the supervisor that I'd like to read into record. Dear Mayor Garcia and Honorable Counsel, thank you for your consideration of an ordinance that puts workplace protections in place for the men and women in the hospitality industry. And I strongly encourage your full support. I have been fighting alongside our brothers and sisters in the hospitality industry for years. They are the individuals who welcome us when we first arrive and provide warm and satisfying experiences while we are away from home. Sadly, we have heard all too many stories about hotel guests who violate the standard code of conduct and sexually victimize our housekeepers. We must do better to protect our workers as one of the most desirable tourist destinations in the United States. The city of Long Beach must be a leader in protecting hotel workers from inappropriate sexual advances and burdensome workloads by requiring safe and humane workspaces. Seattle has already passed an ordinance to protect workers, and Chicago is currently considering a similar ordinance. The leisure and hospitality industry employs over 7 million women in the United States. In 2015, the majority of them been women of color. As Long Beach thrives and grows, so does the hospitality industry in the city. And while we welcome, welcome that growth, it must not be on the backs of our hotel workers. It is up to us to recognize the physical effects and demands on our hotel workers who clean and service the nearly 5000 hotel rooms across Long Beach Daily. I stand with our hotel workers and urge you to pass this ordinance to reinforce the protection of all of our hotel workers. Sincerely, Janice Hahn, supervisor for supervisor, local district. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Thank you, mayor and council members. My name is Reverend Janet Prager. I am a Lutheran. Speaker 2: Pastor, a representative of Clu. I teach at Cal State Fullerton, the Religious Studies Department, and I am part. Speaker 3: Of Clue Empower. Honestly, sir, you're my first speaker. My heart is pounding because as a former hotel worker, I can tell you that that is not a false narrative. The work that. I did as a hotel worker. The amount of abuse. I really can hardly speak at your denial of my reality and the reality of all of these women and others who have spoken about what it is like to be a service person in this industry. It requires long hours. It requires safety issues. And I ask you tonight, as a person, speaking of my own experience and from the point of view of a pastor, it is the right thing to do. I do not. I find the argument of regulations to be ludicrous. There are regulations in every field to protect your workers rights and their dignity. This is not an add on. This is a requisite for the dignity of these women who service each of our visitors and all those who who are requiring YouTube to have a wonderful place to stay. Who is the first person that you meet? The woman who is in your hotel room, who smiles and then makes it clean? And I, as a person who goes to hotel, the first thing I check on is how clean is my room? So I ask you tonight to remember the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You are sitting. Speaker 10: In a council. Speaker 3: Chamber with many protections. Police this nice space. Can you not give women who clean room, who work every day of their lives, who make sure that your industry and your city thrive and that you become the Long Beach that you are talking about earlier today? Please do the right thing. These women need and deserve your protection. They need and deserve your dignity by giving it to them. By dignifying their requests. And and above all, we are here to respect and give it to each other. And I speak to you from experience, but I also speak to you as a pastor. Harmony, respect and dignity creates economic benefit. And in that we have a quality of life. So please do the right thing. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. What's wrong again with the Los Angeles County Business Federation? Speaker 10: As stated earlier, Biz Vet is a massive, diverse, grassroots alliance of business organizations, employers and employees. Speaker 2: Throughout Los Angeles County that. Speaker 10: Advocates for policies and projects. Speaker 2: That strengthen our regional economy. And we are here to express our concerns with the motion to draft an ordinance which would further regulate the hotel industry. Speaker 10: Language hotels are hotels in general are some of the most regulated. Speaker 2: And regulated businesses in the state. Speaker 10: So far, Long Beach Hotel has worked extremely hard to ensure a safe working environment and takes sexual harassment very seriously. Over the past. Speaker 2: 18 months, these 18 months season hotels have mandated training programs for their employees, such as sexual harassment, human trafficking and self-defense. To date, hundreds of employees. Speaker 10: Have participated in these programs. We encourage you to review the protections that are already in place and before you make your decision. We thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, Mayor. City Council and staff. Speaker 10: I'm Sherry Bastian, the executive director of the Long Beach, Ronald McDonald House. Many of you know and are familiar with what our mission is. Speaker 2: We are a home away from home for families with critically ill children. Speaker 3: We provide a place to. Speaker 10: Stay, a source of comfort and care, and a chance for parents to focus all their energies on what matters their child becoming well. Fulfilling this mission is possible because of the generosity and commitment from our community. More on that in a moment. These gifts of time, talent and financial support the Long. Speaker 8: Beach Ronald McDonald House. Speaker 10: Provide, receives or receive 365 days the year a year for the families with these children facing critical, often life threatening illnesses. In 2016, our mission served over 2800 guests. Our occupancy was over 80%. Our average length of stay for these families is anywhere between ten and 12 days. Speaker 2: We had five over 5000. Speaker 10: Volunteers assist us with this mission. Speaker 2: Which includes 15000 hours served. Speaker 10: Now back to the community component. Speaker 8: We have some. Speaker 10: Unbelievable individuals, businesses and community groups that have supported us since we opened in 2011. One particular business group and partner that has been with us since the beginning, our hotels and their wonderful staff. Speaker 3: When our house is full. Speaker 10: These hotels are the first to come through for. Speaker 8: Us and help. Speaker 10: Put our these families up. Speaker 2: When we cannot. Speaker 10: These are some nights when we don't know whether or not we'll be able to accommodate these families and our hotel partners help us with reassuring that when they also when we also provide meals for the families who stay with us. Many of these hotels staff volunteer to do so with us, both in cooking at our house and providing food from their respective properties. Speaker 3: We've created. Speaker 2: Wonderful. Speaker 10: Relationships with both the operators of the hotels. Speaker 11: And their. Speaker 3: Staff. Speaker 2: We view the hotels in. Speaker 10: Long Beach as a wonderful as a both a wonderful partner. Speaker 3: And a very viable, valuable. Speaker 10: Resource. Speaker 2: To help us. Speaker 10: With our mission, our house, and those we assist for all the families that. Speaker 2: Walk through our doors. We know that they do this. Speaker 10: Because they care about our families and the commitment to the. Speaker 3: Community. We hope that. Speaker 10: This business model is allowed to continue for our direct. Speaker 2: Mission. While it would be difficult. Speaker 10: After hearing. Speaker 2: What I've heard tonight to say. Speaker 10: I ask. Speaker 3: You to oppose it. I do hope you. Speaker 10: Will strongly consider the. Speaker 3: Good that these hotels. Speaker 8: Are doing for our. Speaker 10: Mission and many others. Speaker 2: I hope you'll support in seeing that support. Speaker 10: Seeing the value in this agenda item on both sides. Speaker 3: I appreciate. Speaker 2: My opportunity. Speaker 8: To give comment. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Larry Goodyear. During college years, I spent a number of years working for a major hotel and restaurant chain. And then for five, six years after was under the management staff of that chain. And I have a healthy respect, profound respect for hotel workers, restaurant workers. No ifs, no answer, no buts. And the panic button dynamic is something that's a 2/2 conversation. They should have that no ifs, ands or buts, period. It does not. And but equally what I'm troubled about is the way this was advertised to protect immigrants and protect this group or that group goes back to all lives matter. Does it make any difference whether or not the person was an immigrant? Or born here in the United States, that third generation, fourth generation family. There's some people who like working in the hotel industry, in the restaurant industry. They deserve the respect and the protection. If that panic button, if it rises to that level or if that's what is needed, that should be put in place, period. But again, I go back to it is not a case of being an immigrant. It's not a case of being in this race. That race all lives matter. All people matter, particularly when it comes to women. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. So this is our this is our 10th speaker. Our first 30 minutes of public comment. So after listeners objection, after the speaker will then move down to 2 minutes like we did for the first hearing and continue that. Speaker 4: Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Kent Peterson. I'm the chief operating officer of repeat to US Engineering here in Long Beach. And I have the pleasure of serving as chairman of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors this year. I'm here tonight on behalf of our board and our members. I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about the potential overreach. If a proposed ordinance is indeed drafted with the language that's included in the agenda item as written. This will have immediate impacts on our entire business community. Our hotel and hospitality members can speak to you about their business models and the lengths to which they have gone to in order to ensure safe work environments for their employees. Tonight, my goal is for you all to respectfully understand the potential consequence of etc. ordinance with the language as stated, will have not only to the hospitality industry but other sectors of the local economy. The item before you is merely political. This is not even close to being good public policy. The chamber in the Long Beach business community have heard this tune before when a particular group or in this case an organized union cannot force its will upon the private industry. They look to the folks such as yourselves to provide the answer when it should be decided by the market in the private sector. Speaker 0: The language on the agenda item is riddled with half truths and. Speaker 4: Potential legal ramifications. But the more troubling issue about the item is the blatant potential overreach of local government to enact and regulate an industry that is already heavily regulated through the state and federal levels of government. Unless you start the collective bargaining process, of course, that begs the question what industry is next? As the mayor and council know, Long Beach is currently undergoing a renaissance as it comes to development increase in the local economy and revitalization through many of the neighborhoods and business corridors. Business in Long Beach has faced its fair share of increased regulations and costs just in the past two years through the minimum wage increases and increased sales tax to our retailers. No one is saying tonight that business should not be regulated. We're just saying it should be done with collaboration and much discussion based on the facts and not on the will of one entity not getting their way in the private market. I urge you to oppose this agenda item and protect the industry that provides so much economic value to Long Beach because we know if this passes, other industries are next and that is just setting a bad precedent for the city and the local economy. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you for being up. Now we're going down to 2 minutes. Thank you, Mayor and council. Speaker 4: Members, for this opportunity to comment. My name is Lynn Moore Feldman with the California Hotel and Lodging Association. I'll just be commenting on some of the legal and related concerns we have with the proposed ordinance. As a preliminary matter, the proposed square footage requirement is completely arbitrary, with no foundation and scientific studies or analysis. Which leads me to a second point. Local government is not an appropriate body for these standards. In California, Labor Code Section one for 2.3 expressly provides that Carlos Jazz Standards Board shall be the only agency in the state authorized to adopt occupational safety and health standards. Therefore, this ordinance would be preempted by state law. In fact, Carlos, the Standards Board has been looking at this issue since 2012 when the same labor organization that represents a number of our hotel employees here in Long Beach petitioned the Standards Board to adopt a square footage limitation following numerous advisory committee meetings, soliciting expert testimony of scientists , industrial hygienist, ergonomics, economist and others. The Standards Board released a proposed standard that notably does not contain a square footage. Speaker 0: Limitation and identified. Speaker 4: Such quotas has not appropriate in the workplace standards and something that is better left to collective bargaining. Equally troubling is maintaining a blacklist of guest against whom mere allegations have been made, sharing that list with employees and prohibiting such a guest for at least three years. These provisions violate the due process rights of the hotel guests under the California Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution will embroil both the hotels and the city in years of. Speaker 0: Expensive and time consuming. Speaker 4: Litigation. These provisions are also unnecessary as the Fair Employment Housing Act already makes hotel employers liable for sexual harassment committed by third parties, including hotel guests. For these reasons, if this proposed ordinance is poorly drafted, not scientifically based, and is preempted by state law and raises significant legal and constitutional issues. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good afternoon. My name is Mary Ketchikan. Speaker 2: I work in Health and Long Beach for about six years. Speaker 5: I start like a rona tender at 3 p.m. to 1130. Speaker 2: And then I transfer to the morning 8 to 430, then transferred to lovey like areas. And then usually I start 4:00 in the morning to 1230 and I never feel unsafe even if I work runner tending or a public area. Right now I'm doing housekeeping supervisor. I've been trained for how to be safe. Safety training. We always get it. We always get advice from our managers saying how we can protect ourselves. We get tools like whistles, like alarms. If you're in dangerous, you can call somebody. And also we have security like 24 hours a day walking on the floor. I never feel unsafe. Also, one thing that I want to mention, security. It's if you want to protect yourself, you have to put it and practice. It doesn't matter if the company bring you all the tools that you need, but if you didn't practice, that is nothing we can do. Speaker 5: And another thing that I want to mention, sometimes the room attendant never put the. Speaker 2: Cart in. Speaker 5: Front of the doors. Like our manager. Speaker 2: Mentioned every single day, you have to put the cart in front of the door. So that way you're not put yourself in dangerous. So if you want to be in danger, you're not going to like you going. Speaker 5: You're not going to do that. Speaker 2: I mean, that's all. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Get in America and council members. My name is Catherine Conrad and I live in the ninth District. So I thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson, for supporting this ordinance to protect the hard working and brave women present tonight and all hotel employees in the city's city of Long Beach. I am a member of Gabriela, a grassroots organization of Filipino women dedicated to advancing the rights and welfare of women and children and linking these issues to root problems in the Philippines. I care about the health and safety of the hotel workers because we should all care about the safety and dignity of the people working some of the hardest jobs in our city. This issue is also personal to me because my mother worked as a housekeeper when she immigrated to California from the Philippines in 1971, and every day she went to work in fear that she would be sexually harassed by her employer, whom hired advances toward her. She would ask her cousin, who worked with her, to stand guard at the door while my mother cleaned each restroom of the facility, scrubbing floors on her hands and knees. At my job at ABC, I'm grateful that I do not face the same fear and anxiety going into work that my mother did as a housekeeper. But safety in the workplace should not be a privilege. Safety in the workplace should be a basic human right. Speaker 2: And the fact that now not all. Speaker 8: Of our council members agree is unacceptable. In Long Beach, there are many Filipino and Latino housekeepers who depend on these jobs to support their families, and they should not have to go to work in fear of being verbally, physically or sexually harassed and harmed. The various hotels in Long Beach made huge profits from the hard work of hotel workers, and without housekeepers and other workers, these hotels would not be successful. When housekeepers are overworked, hotels are more concerned about how much more profit they can squeeze from their employees, not about their health and well-being. This is why we admire the courageous hotel workers here who are here tonight standing up for their rights, standing up against abusive employers that see them as a commodity rather than as human beings. As Gabriela, we stand in solidarity with the Long Beach Coalition for good jobs and a healthy community to stand up for hotel workers fighting for safe and humane working conditions. As city council members, you have a responsibility to protect all workers in our city, and we encourage you to take a stand to thank you so much for the hardworking women in our community who dare to organize and struggle for their rights. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Speaker 3: Honorable Mayor Garcia and Council Councilwoman Gonzalez and Pierce, I applaud you. My name is Bishop Bonnie Redden. I am the senior pastor of Refined Aspire Fellowship United Church of Christ in the Eighth District Youth District. I'm also a member of Club Clergy and Lady United for Economic Justice. Let me also. Speaker 9: Say. Speaker 3: That one of the first jobs I had at a high school was cleaning rooms and it trembled. Causes me to tremble the day to even think about that job. I'm here tonight because I am deeply invested in this community and walked. Speaker 0: Alongside. Speaker 4: These working. Speaker 3: Women, listened to their stories from these Long Beach hotels experiencing injustice in their workplace. Speaker 4: These are working women. Speaker 2: Who are the foundation. Speaker 3: Of our local tourism. Speaker 4: Thanks to their. Speaker 3: Hard work in cleaning these rooms and serving these guests, our city thrives and we attract thousands of guests. I host conferences here from my organization and bring hundreds of people every year. Unfortunately, many of these women work under inhumane working conditions that subject them to heavy workloads and unfortunately, sexual harassment. For years. Speaker 4: We as clergy. Speaker 3: And Lady United for Economic Justice have stood time and. Speaker 4: Time again. Speaker 3: With these hotel workers through their struggle. Speaker 4: We come together. Speaker 3: Tonight again and we say this is shocking. In this day and age, women must still. Speaker 7: Face this type of behavior. Speaker 3: Really, as persons of faith, I believe that we all have the responsibility to be the prophetic voice and the prophetic witness to these issues, to take a stance, to make a statement, and to take action so that these workers no longer have to experience this injustice. My father had a saying and he said this do what's right because it's right and then do what's right. Please do that. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: When you ask that anger District seven, I'm. Speaker 3: You know, when I got elected to the council years. Speaker 13: And years ago, I was so excited because finally I could be a voice and make. Speaker 3: Decisions for women. And as a woman, I had a lot of. Speaker 13: Ideas of. Speaker 2: What what needed to be done. And I was so happy to cast that vote. Speaker 3: On any policies or any actions that would improve their lives. And as a former executive director of this sexual assault crisis agency, I have to tell you that the majority of assaults go unreported, the majority of assaults go unreported. And this definitely is a woman's issue. And I'm proud that we have four women on the council, and I hope they dig deep in their hearts and know that this is right. This is what has to happen for women who are working for working. Speaker 13: Women, not only in the hotels, but everywhere. I'll tell you, it is also an immigrant issue. When you talk about the majority of. Speaker 3: Housekeepers being women and being from immigrant backgrounds, then this is an immigrant issue. Don't pussyfoot around. Speaker 2: This is what it is. And so you have to take a stand on behalf of women and on behalf of immigrants. And thirdly, I was so happy because I was able to. Speaker 3: Make decisions about the working families in our in our city. And when you have a good job, then you have a great city, a good job at Dignity really, really promotes a great city. Speaker 2: And so. Speaker 13: I'm here to ask you to really consider dig. Speaker 3: Deep, think about what this is about. And, you know, I know we have to consider the hotel industry. We have great hotels in the city. I have family that work in the hotels. They it's a good living for some. And I have to tell you that the bottom line is this. They were crying. You know, the sky is falling. When we had measure in. Speaker 2: I mean, we had a proposition. Speaker 3: And nothing happened except that their their their profits went up. Speaker 13: And it is this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. We've had workshops and seminars. Speaker 2: And we asked everyone to come to the. Speaker 3: Table and to listen and to learn. So I want you to think about this and think about the women in this audience. Thank you very much. Yeah. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, Mayor and Council. Speaker 10: My name is Reverend Melinda Teeter. Dodge and I serve as a pastor in East Long Beach in the fifth District. I also live there. I work and serve the community of the Los Altos United Methodist Church. I'm here today standing with the women working in Long Beach Hotels, and I'm asking you to stand with us today. Similar to many other speakers, I can attest personally to the hardships, having heard the stories and walked alongside them in their journey for years. Not only must they complete heavy workloads, they are also at risk of physical and sexual assault, as you have heard, because there are simply little too few protective measures on the work site for them. And even when these incidents do happen, as again already spoken to women, the majority of women stay silent because of an existing and very powerful culture that says the customer's always right. As city leaders, you have the ability to ensure that there are common sense security measures, such as the panic button and signage that can make a significant impact toward hotel worker safety. And these are included in the ordinance before you. This ordinance is not a radical demand. It is common sense. And it comes from and through the hotel workers there themselves. Speaker 11: My faith. Speaker 10: My Judeo Christian heritage teaches me that all of God's children are born of inherent worth and have every right to live and. Speaker 11: Thrive and prosper. Speaker 10: In a work environment that is both safe and conducive to their capacity to succeed. Let us stand with women today and pass this ordinance. Prioritizing the safety and well-being of long beaches. Primary Welcoming Force. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 13: Hi, my name is Ann Burdette. I am a Cradle Long Beach resident. I live in the seventh district, but in 1980 I moved away. I was away for 30 years and then I came back in 2012 to a very changed and much improved Long Beach. I was so happy to see the development in downtown. I was so happy to see zip codes that I had been raised in no longer just white people. And that made me so proud of the city. I share it on Facebook. Speaker 2: All the time. Tonight, though, I'm here to urge. Speaker 13: You to protect some vital human. Speaker 10: Resources. Speaker 13: In our city, and that is these hotel workers who make all of these attractive elements of our city possible. It was great to see that you had passed the minimum wage increase in 2012, but that's an earmark of an international city and that's what we call ourselves. The spirit and the right thinking of those wage increases is completely lost if hotels respond by increasing their employees workloads, or worse yet, deny them the simple protection of a way to call for help when their safety is threatened. Our city's hotel. Speaker 10: Workforce needs to not only be compensated fairly for their work. Speaker 13: But protected from abuse. Otherwise, we lose our credibility. As an enlightened city. These workers, kids go to school here. They pay taxes here. And the dollars they earn are spent here. Please pass this policy to protect women from heavy workloads and sexual harassment. Let's demonstrate that Long Beach is a true international city, honestly committed to respecting and protecting all of its residents. I think Michelle Obama said it best. She said the difference. Speaker 2: Between a broken community. Speaker 13: And a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued. I want to thank Councilman, Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez and the co-sponsors for this leadership in bringing this forward. I want to commend every person in this audience who has worked for years to press this policy. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening, Mayor Garcia. Council members. My name is Richard Hoyt. I'm a member resident of the seventh district. When I read the background information expecting to learn important facts about this issue, I was surprised that I learned everything I needed to know about average rates and occupancy rates in 2015, 2016, 2017, and how this thriving hotel industry in Long Beach is looking at a glorious future. But nowhere did I find any data or evidence whatsoever concerning the issue that we're talking about. There's no reference to assault. There's no reference to safety issues or workplace injuries in Long Beach. Speaker 0: Only anecdotal comments based upon alleged. Speaker 4: Conversations and hearsay. The only fact that I found provided is a memo from Police Chief Luna in which he reports that only two incidents were reported to have occurred in an entire one year period. Speaker 0: One male, one female. Now, we seem to. Speaker 4: Have forgotten the male because we're here supporting Long Beach working women, apparently not the men. And if you do the math, if we're cleaning 5000 rooms a day, that's 1,000,825 rooms a year. And we've had two incidents out of 1,825,000. I agree. One is too many. This isn't the answer. With all due respect, I question not only your motives, but your level of expertize in this matter. How can you provide these solutions without considering expert opinion? Speaker 0: How do you define a human workload as. Speaker 4: 4000 square feet? Cal OSHA Standards Board Standards Board has come to a completely different conclusion that contradicts your own. You're violating the California Constitution, Article one, Section one. The blacklist is not private or confidential. You're violating the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. You serve due process. Speaker 0: Next week, please. Next weekend. Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is John Howard and I'm the owner and operator of Chick-Fil-A at Long Beach Town Center. I also serve as the incoming chairman of Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Board, a board of directors. I'm here tonight to encourage you to oppose this agenda. I know from firsthand experience that the hospitality industry is already heavily regulated and has in place safeguards for their employees as. Speaker 4: And since we do as well. Speaker 0: It begs the question of my industry. The restaurant industry is next when it comes to overreaching policies such as what we were discussing tonight. We face very similar regulations in our business on a daily basis. As you know, we've already faced such an example when politics forced public policy to be shaped around a few interests and not based on facts and economics. Speaking to my industry specifically, we operate on the thinnest of margins. When government begins to interfere with regular business operations based solely on the responsiveness of one group, it puts jobs and local economic output at stake. Good businesses have a long term strategy based on market conditions in order to meet expectations of owners. Speaker 9: Shareholders and ultimately the community. Speaker 0: It serves so it can remain in business when government places unnecessary burdens on business, disrupts the business model and may jeopardize its continued success. We need our leaders in Long Beach to recognize when our community is being used as a pawn. This item is an example of this and it's concerning if not recognized. We cannot allow Lambie's to be a test case for political maneuvering of one particular entity. On a personal note, I will say my grandparents grew up on sharecropper's farm and their grandparents were brought here as slaves. My grandfather wound up working as a housekeeper in the DeSoto Hilton in Savannah, Georgia. During the Jim Crow era. And he always ensured and made sure that I believe that hard work and getting my education, keeping my nose in the books would pay off someday. Even as he worked in the Jim Crow era and couldn't even rent a hotel in his the hotel that he cleaned. He encouraged me to continue to work hard and do my best. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. All right, let's do double the time for interpretation. Speaker 5: Bonus when I'm not a member of the concert hall. Speaker 2: Good evening. Speaker 5: City Council Mi Nombre de Yolanda Zavala, Estonia, kiko Motorhead, Laura la compania. But. But I put the hero logo here. My name is Yolanda Zavala. Speaker 2: And I'm here representing the Stand with Women Campaign. Speaker 5: Aprovado in La Industria or the hotel area in Long Beach for our news camera. Camera. If we go in El Distrito Nuevo and Long Beach, I have worked in the. Speaker 10: Hotel industry in Long Beach for eight years as a housekeeper and I live in the ninth. Speaker 2: District in Long Beach. Speaker 5: Como como my my a esposa. Your character had a Luna Ambiental Seguro Papi Quero guitar. You got beba e Salvadorian mi casa but are poor there. So the net are mi familia tengo dignidad como muerte embrace respeto. Speaker 2: As a. Speaker 10: Mother, wife and daughter, I want to work in a safe environment because I. Speaker 2: Want to arrive home alive and healthy and be able to. Speaker 10: Care for my family. I have dignity as a woman and I deserve respect. Speaker 5: M was a leader and was a leader. Alaska Mutual basis. Mujica though i key. But I get my attention. Speaker 2: We have marched in the streets many times and we have come here many times. Speaker 10: To call your attention to this matter. Speaker 5: Jabba the Gate. Amos He can be a star citizen. Enough is. Speaker 2: Enough. We want this situation to change. Speaker 5: Necesitamos the need only get the inner city the commune. But up to here. No sur la muerte is killing Pyramus Waters. Speaker 3: And Long Beach. Speaker 2: We need a common sense law that will protect us. Women who clean rooms in Long Beach. Speaker 3: Los. Speaker 5: Lobos head into the Delos hotels estan biondo north nostro nostro bajo para la para la policia para protected areas a uses 10 billion though in in contra. Speaker 3: Nosotros. Speaker 2: We are upset because those hotel managers here today that are watching us as we stand for ourselves and women against abuse a law that they are fighting against us. Speaker 5: For far more unethical nosotros. But I provide noise properly so please. Speaker 2: Unite with us to pass our policy. Speaker 5: Nosotros muertes. No, no, no, no, no. Shameless. Speaker 2: As women, we will not be silent anymore. Thank you. Speaker 14: Thank you. Thank you for the testimony. Speaker 4: That's for the police. Speaker 2: Good evening, council members. My name is Elizabeth Garcia and I'm here representing the Democratic Socialists of America Long Beach chapter as an organization that focuses on ending the economic exploitation. I'm here standing with the women that work in Long Beach hotels. Hospitality is the second largest source of wealth for the city of Long Beach. That success is made on the backs of mostly women, a majority of them immigrant and women of color. Without the work done by these women, local hotels would not be able to function, let alone profit. The hotel owners and management know that, even if they're unwilling to admit it. In 2000, 12 Long Beach voters passed a minimum wage increase for hotel workers. But none of that matters of the hotel workers are over. The hotel owners are allowed to respond by increasing workloads to unreasonable and abusive levels. The hotel industry has shown that if left to their own devices, they will protect their bottom line and profit margins over the lives and safety of their employees. We want we all want to live in a city with a vibrant economy, but are we willing to sacrifice the bodies of our working class communities in order to have one? We have an opportunity to stand up and protect the most vulnerable and marginalized residents in our city. We cannot purport to be a diverse, welcoming and progressive city while at the same time turning a blind eye to the economic exploitation and sexual abuse of the women on whose back our economy is built. I hope to see all of you do the right thing today, not the politically expedient thing and stand up for our hotel workers. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor and council members. My name is Greg Keebler. I'm the general manager of the Hilton Long Beach. Speaker 4: And I have heard a lot of incredible stories and incredible. Speaker 0: Opinions of which I value everything that I've heard tonight. Speaker 4: Even while there may be some things that I don't agree with. Speaker 0: Or I think there may be factual. Speaker 4: Inconsistencies. The one thing that I know to be true is that this is my 37th year. Standing up for immigrants, families, all workers, females, people with disabilities. Any one who needs a job. And I'm not standing here to make this an emotional play, but rather to say that our industry is one that is absolutely about people. It's not about the buildings. It's about our guests. Speaker 6: And our employees. Speaker 4: My personal concern with this ordinance as written is not in its intent, because we absolutely are diligent in making sure we have a safe workplace for our people. We issue panic buttons. We have all the policies and procedures and trainings that any other industry has to safeguard against these risks that are in our society everywhere we go . The difference is in the wording of this ordinance and the things that are so prescriptive that they have been written to not allow for a resultant outcome which may be worse than what you expect. They were written by people who have not spent 37 years in the industry. To know what was up on the board is not exactly possible. There are many ways to address these concerns. Councilman, we can counsel people. Speaker 0: This is not the way. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Let's take a police. Speaker 3: Good evening. My name is Linda Calderon, and I am the president of the National Council of Jewish Women of Long Beach. We are a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action inspired by Jewish values. And KW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children and families, and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms. Ideally, we are always striving striving to embody the Jewish imperative to make the world a better place by caring for those who are most vulnerable and most in need of our compassion and our defense . Tonight, I am here to ask you to support the ordinance to protect women from physical and sexual abuse in Long Beach Hotels, workers in Long Beach hotels, the majority of whom live in Long Beach, face working conditions that are simply unacceptable. Speaking from personal experience, when you allow the existence of sexual harassment, even one example in the workplace, you are creating a hostile work environment which violates many labor laws. Moreover, the lack of humane work assignments also contributes to this unhealthy work environment. The workplace environment becomes one where communication is curtailed and replaced by fear of losing one's job. We're asking for your support for the working woman and immigrant families. The success of our society is judged not by how well the rich and powerful are doing, but rather how the most vulnerable in our communities are being treated. Please cast your vote tonight to ensure that Long Beach is on the right side of history. When our children look back at this moment, let them say that on this night, Long Beach said yes to respect and dignity and no to fear and injustice. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: My name is Holly Stewart. I live here in downtown Long Beach. I've been here before the council and the mayor before. And I want to say I'm here to support this idea of protecting women from sexual harassment and from overwork, from heavy loads and things. Maybe none of you have a daughter or a granddaughter. I have those, and I don't want to see them groped by anybody. And one of them works. And, you know, the entertainment, not entertainment in the food and hotel industry. And I'm not going to tolerate that. And and if you have daughters, you shouldn't want to tolerate that. It's interesting that most people have tried to talk against this thing are men, you know, not women. And those men may not have been groped for all I know, but if they would have been, they probably would have been talking different because it's a different thing. And I think it's time that we really look at it. The women have a right to be protected and they shouldn't be allowed or pushed or made to do work that is beyond their physical capability. This is a matter of human rights, not women's rights versus men rights, or the corporation has a right to not boss. People around know these are human rights and the dignity of all of us, both men and women, because, as I said, the men behind you wouldn't do this to women. I don't think the women behind this thing would allow it to be done to them. And so you can't allow it to be done to other women. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hi. My name is Nicole Ababa and I'm with the Filipino Migrant Center. Speaker 3: And my name is Don. Speaker 7: Markings, an organizer with Black. Speaker 2: Lives Matter. And we're both here tonight as women who care about our workers here in Long Beach. Speaker 11: Because what matters. Speaker 2: Most to us is that Lumbee stand up for workers rights and stand up for justice, dignity and respect. And it's no surprise today that we heard from so many hotels and those who represent the industry that hotels don't want to regulate because their bottom line is profit. But what the hundreds of community members here are, bottom line is justice. Speaker 3: And it's important. Speaker 2: For us to recognize that minimum wage is a regulation. Overtime is a regulation. All of these were fought for by workers themselves. And it's up to us and the community and city council members to really support them and make sure that we do everything we can. Earlier today, another previous speaker said It's not the local government's responsibility. It's absolutely your responsibility. As the hotels here have received heavy subsidies, including the Hilton Long Beach, where I've met hotel workers who've been overworked and forced into retirement because they've been injured on the job. Speaker 3: So as Black Lives Matter, we stand and we stand in the name of those who have been harmed by the state. Right. We're looking out for lives that have been impacted by state violence in so many ways. And tonight you have the opportunity to represent as a responsible acting representative of the state, as local government, to look after these women who are being harmed in the workplace. I'm hearing a lot about the protections that they currently have, but if that was working so well, then we wouldn't have to push for. Speaker 2: Policies to protect them. We stand in solidarity with these workers. Speaker 3: We stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are in this struggle to represent for workers rights, for human rights. You have a responsibility to look after that, to represent for that. This is even more important because these are predominantly women of color, and we cannot continue to view women of color as disposable if it are Filipino women, black, Latino, Latina, right. Loading them up with the over burdensome workloads and then turning them out of the out of the profession more quickly. You have a responsibility to act responsibly. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 13: Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Reverend Carolyn. Speaker 3: Wilkins and I'm with Clu. I'm here today. And so much has been said that I won't repeat, but I'd like to leave you with three points. First. I spent time. I'm not just a minister, but I spent over 30 years in corporate America doing operations, product, launch management and quality analysis. So you can make up numbers to say and do whatever you want. Speaker 13: So there have been conversations. Speaker 3: Tonight that said regulations and rules may be overbearing for the hotel industry, but I encourage you to look at not the quantity of the regulations, but the quality and the effectiveness. And if they're not working, they need to be changed. Speaker 13: Secondly. I invite you to look at the two levels of service. The women and the men. Speaker 3: Who are the hotel workers provide service to the clients who receive the service, and in between is the infrastructure and the management. And it is the management that is trying to say that these are. An ordinance that does not work. Please honor the women who are doing the work. I've been a recipient of the service and I invite you all if you haven't ever made a bed, lifted a mattress, cleaned a toilet. Speaker 13: To go do it yourself and see if you'll change your mind. And lastly, I implore you to be pull by a vision, a vision of dignity, justice and peace, a dignity of a vision of inclusion, rather being push by the management. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and the members of the Council. My name is Cab Off, Managing Director of Ensemble Investments. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. First of all, congratulations to Mayor Garcia and the city of Long Beach for co-hosting the upcoming 2028 Olympics. Our industry will be a major part of that. We want to show off our beautiful city to the whole world. The hospitality industry is a very good industry for Long Beach or for any other city for that matter is clean, brings in substantial tax revenues to the city and provides good jobs to a wide spectrum of people with different skills. Most cities seek and encourage hotel development. Long Beach has excellent brand name hotels such as Hyatt, Marriott Hilton. Most of these hotels continue to reinvest and modernize their properties and continue to be great assets to the city and its residents. The hotels in the city are run by professional managers and reputable owners. The hotel industry is in the hospitality business. We're here to take care of our guests and visitor to the hotels and to the city. Our employees are the ones who are the direct contact with our guests. They are the ones who interact with our customers, not me as the owner of the property. We respect, honor and care for our employees so they can care for our guests, even for selfish, profit oriented reasons. If you want to call it that, it is in our best interest to take care of our employees. I am sure you have been to. Speaker 14: Restaurants or hotels where you. Speaker 4: May not have been treated well by an employee. Would you go back? You would think twice. The way the preamble to this ordinance reads, if someone not knowing the hotels in Long Beach and just reading it off, you would think that Long Beach hotel owners are bunch of slumlords. Speaker 14: Running hotels with. Speaker 4: Dirty rooms occupied by substantially large number of sexual predators. It is embarrassing. Is that the message you as a city council want to send to the outside world because your baby works very hard. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. This is Commissioner Nicholson, and I'm proud to be bringing you the letter of unanimous support for agenda item number 22 from the Human Relations Commission. I am going to sum this up a bit, but I brought you the full letter as well. Our perspective on this topic has been informed by the testimony of community leaders, hotel workers and data provided by the hotel workers advocates. Long Beach hotel workers have reported verbal and sexual aggression or assault by hotel customers. To add further concern, Long Beach hotel workers have stated that managers have asked them to return to their work floor , even after reporting inappropriate behavior or harassment from hotel guests. It has been reported that when hotel security has been called, responses are either delayed or designated as inappropriate. Local hotel workers also report inhumane working conditions related to workload shift lengths and the inability to refuse overtime for fear of retaliation. Worker testimony suggests that the current policy in many local hotels is inadequate in addressing issues related to workload safety. Following consideration of our charter and purview, it is our view as the Human Relations Commission. We voted unanimously in support of agenda item number 22 in its entirety, with the hope and vision that Long Beach, where a city continues to embrace the values of justice, equity, respect and dignity for all its residents. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, Mayor Garcia, city council members. My name is Alexandra Wayman and I am a research. Speaker 10: Analyst with Unite Here. Speaker 2: Local 11 focusing on the city of Long Beach. And it has been my privilege to work on this issue. This policy addresses three key issues in the hotel sector. Heavy workloads, mandatory overtime, and the risk of sexual harassment and assault by guests. We have collected reliable data from four of the downtown hotels with 100 rooms or more, and we found that. Speaker 10: These hotels already have standard daily quotas for housekeepers of. Speaker 2: Less than or just slightly above 4000 square feet. Our methodology included obtaining. Speaker 10: Information. Speaker 2: From hotel workers, data collected from hotel management, as well as information from hotel websites and phone calls to these hotels. By multiplying the traditional average room size by the standard daily. Speaker 10: Quota, we were able to. Speaker 2: Calculate the total square footage cleaned in an eight hour shift. Our research shows that in downtown Long Beach, 60% of the overall number of. Guestrooms in downtown Long Beach. That is, three of every five guest rooms is already cleaned by a worker whose daily workloads are below or just slightly above 4000 square feet. Speaker 10: The threshold is modest, in achievable the proposed. Speaker 2: Daily maximum workload of 4000 square feet, after which premium. Speaker 10: Pay for the shift is. Speaker 2: Required, is a reasonable approach in the contact context of the Long Beach hotel sector. Two other cities, Seattle and Emeryville, have already adopted similarly similar legislation. Speaker 10: It incentivizes new hotels to provide reasonable workloads for its housekeepers, providing reasonable workloads, while also ensure that housekeepers have. Speaker 2: Enough time to properly clean hotel rooms, including doorknobs, remote controls and other places where germs spread in. Speaker 10: Order to protect public health. We look forward to working with you on these much needed protections. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 13: My name's Nadir Tushnet, and I live in the third district. I'm a member of the Long Beach Area Peace Network and LabCorp and join the coalition because we are concerned with granting women equal access to good jobs and safe environments. But I'm going to speak tonight about my per my own life. Before I retired, I traveled 2 to 3 weeks a month. I was in lots of hotels. I want to tell everyone that people behave differently in hotels than they do at home. Inhibitions are gone. There's more drinking. There is more everything. I'm going to one story I will share. I'm not going to talk about the sexual harassment because we all know that that's true. Once we were all a group of us were in a hotel for a conference and my supervisor invited us into the room for cocktails and snacks and they were throwing peanut shells on the floor. Nobody does that at home. And that housekeeper has to clean that room in 30 minutes. Imagine doing that with the peanut shells on the floor. And I'm sure we're not the I was not the only room that had that. I was in my room. I wouldn't. I actually said something not to endear me to my supervisor. Long Beach has been known to be a city where you can find a good job, raise your family in a safe community, and provide them with a good education. We believe that this is still possible, and we ask our city leaders to act on behalf of these women and pass this policy to lift standards in our tourism industry. I want to thank Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez for her bringing this forward and for the other council members who are supporting it. Thank you very. Speaker 0: Much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: Good evening. My name is Natalie Schuman and I'm a research analyst for Unite Here Local 11. Speaker 2: I'm going to briefly. Speaker 10: Reiterate and expand upon some of the information that Councilmember Gonzalez already mentioned during her presentation regarding why this ordinance is so important at this particular moment. Well, the number of hotels in Long Beach has increased in recent years. The workforce has not. Speaker 2: Between 2007. Speaker 10: And 2013, the supply of hotel rooms in Long Beach. Speaker 2: Increased by. Speaker 10: 12% and the annual number of occupied rooms increased by 11.2%. During that same period, the hotel workforce shrunk by 6.9%, indicating that workers workload had increased. Speaker 2: Across the hotel industry nationwide. There has also. Speaker 10: Been a trend towards. Speaker 2: Hotels putting. Speaker 10: Building their brands with unique amenities, such as high quality bedding, more pillows and heavier mattresses, which make housekeepers jobs harder. The workload and voluntary overtime provisions of this policy are closely related to one another and reinforce. Speaker 2: Existing law to support Long Beach hotel workers. First, the minimum wage for Long Beach hotel workers that voters passed in 2012 would be undermined if hotels are allowed to increase workers workloads. Speaker 10: Beyond reasonable levels. Second, it is not possible to make voluntary overtime a reality if we do not also ensure that workloads are reasonable. Speaker 2: Otherwise, hotels can respond by simply making housekeepers squeeze more. Speaker 3: Square feet of. Speaker 10: Work into their normal eight hour shifts. Together, the proposed ordinance will incentivize hotels to provide workers with a humane workload and ensure overtime is truly voluntary. We urge you to move forward tonight with this policy. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I just want to start off by telling the hotel workers that have testified and shared their stories tonight and over the past several years that you're heard, you're appreciated, and that I believe in you. My name is Miles McNeely. I was born at St Mary Hospital and I've lived in Long Beach almost my entire life. I currently live in the second district. Professionally, I work in the field of social science and health behavior research. So I have a special appreciation for data. And I wanted to highlight highlights some of the data and research related to sexual harassment among hotel workers. But first, I wanted to point out that because hotel workers, particularly housekeepers, often work alone in the intimate setting of visiting guests, hotel rooms without security cameras or witnesses, it seems intuitive that housekeepers may be at risk of being sexually harassed or assaulted by guests. As for data, in a 2016 survey of hospitality workers in Chicago, 58% of hotel workers reported being subjected to unwanted sexually harassing behavior by a guest. A 2016 survey of downtown Seattle housekeepers found that more than half of their survey respondents had experienced sexual harassment on the job. On a local level, the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community has collected their own data, showing Long Beach is not immune from what seems to be a widespread issue in the hotel industry. And I'm not very shocked by these numbers and data. I believe that this sometimes unsafe and unsavory work environment will continue unless legislation is passed to ensure that hotel workers basic human dignity is protected. And I believe that providing workers with panic buttons, creating signage, and allowing workers to cooperate with law enforcement and reassigning workers from the workplace if they feel unsafe work are tremendous steps, yet very reasonable steps. Thank you. Stopping abuses. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: When I'm not just me, I'm with you. Speaker 0: Double time, please. Sorry. Speaker 10: Good evening. Members of the council. Speaker 5: I mean, early that year. Yesterday, again, Representan de la Campagna. But up to here. Let's move, Highness. My name is Elida Aguirre. Speaker 10: And I'm here representing. Speaker 2: The campaign to stand up with women. Speaker 5: Everywhere having a little My Paradis in the I news.com.au recommended. Speaker 10: I have worked in the Hotel Maya for 19 years as a housekeeper. Speaker 5: Sorry, mother, that addressee was M.I.A. So you're somewhat the then I propionic. Also, I. Speaker 10: Am a mother of three children and my husband and I are the owners of our own business. Speaker 5: Just keep working. So my data is there. Look, isn't the owner here when those things went wrong one time and now they are causal six? Well, they parted ways, but there isn't one. Don't no one has all the same idea that our home is the only one. Those parts are not animals, see, all of which are finished. Demos. Are you there? Speaker 2: I am here because I am a housekeeper and I know what it feels like to be a woman. Faced with the. Speaker 10: Threat of sexual harassment from guests. Sometimes we have to work alone in our work areas, and if something happens to us, we don't know if someone will hear us. If we need help. Speaker 5: It's a little scary which I business you got lucky on a hunter del consiglio must be escaped bodily contact but I am out of sweat. Speaker 2: And so I have marched in the streets and I have come here to city council meeting more times than I can count to call your. Speaker 10: Attention to this. Speaker 5: A strike on Saturday. Yeah. They believe that boys are seeing onerous boys attacking. Speaker 2: I am tired of. Speaker 10: Asking for your support here without a clear answer. Speaker 5: Estamos aqui. Alright, but I sit in a safe area or that I ask cannot bear on this at Amazon. Silencio, you can sing it anymore. Luciano, for my daughter's condition, this button was thrust, but I'm not certain out of them. Head hit in no less. Speaker 2: We are here again today because we will not remain silent and we will continue to fight for better working conditions for ourselves and women in our hotels. Speaker 5: For far more unethical nosotros parable of our own Napoli Success When the solution consented Giacomo. Speaker 2: Please unite with us to pass a polity policy that has common sense. Thank you. Speaker 5: In a sentimental spirit, the hera bearing in mind that audience at Boyan del Norte Boyan the waste automation man, has brought the heat up. Orcas will no protection from me. Speaker 2: And I feel. Speaker 10: Less protected today because I know our managers are here watching me and I feel less protected that they're not supporting this lot. Speaker 2: Tonight. Thank you. Speaker 6: Phenix, the police. Speaker 0: Translation. Okay, so we'll make sure, obviously, all translation will double the time. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 5: Hey, when I notice a member of the concert hall. Speaker 2: Good evening. Members of Council. Speaker 5: Min Comrades Maria Mercedes to represent Angela company appropriately. Hitler's mockery. Speaker 2: My name is Maria Meza and I am here to in standing for the ordinance to protect women. Speaker 5: And terrorism in this Rotel era. Puerto Rico Madeira. Speaker 2: I have worked in the in this industry for 12 years as a housekeeper. Speaker 5: So mother of little seahorse, the tobacco opera musical thing and on patrol you know this bonanzas. Speaker 2: I am a mother of two children, and I work hard to make sure that my children are full of hope. Speaker 5: I meant asking the mother that the Center for Telethons will be no matter what. The local heroes added me. No. Meanwhile. Speaker 2: While the number of hotels and the earnings of hotels have increased, the number of workers have decreased. Speaker 5: Significantly with their role as cargo. The Trabaho. Speaker 2: This means that they are have REO workloads. Speaker 5: At the moment especially the TRABAHO and the socialism virus could travel Hamilton in the throttle era and for the time I mean that's are the course of sexual patrols was but this protection I think protection alone. Speaker 2: In addition to heavy workloads we women who work in the hospitality industry confront the throat of sex, the threat of sexual harassment from guests with very little protection. Speaker 5: It's a communal monster industry. Speaker 2: This is a very common practice in our industry. Speaker 5: Which is reflect routine. I mean, that's how they set up personas, experimenting with tobacco for particulars, what's personal and for middle of May, the ones that can avert. Speaker 3: A. Speaker 5: Hazard. Speaker 2: Many woman who who who face the threat of sexual harassment from their guests do not speak do not speak out because they're scared that they might them and they're ashamed that they might be retaliated against. Speaker 5: And with a little escapism, which are the basis IMJ are they keeping in line with our neighbors? Speaker 2: Must we have marched? We have marches throughout many times and we have come here to ask you to help Estamos aqui. Speaker 5: Paracelsus were not there when they said Amazon's insulins here. You can think of them as a trend upon what is continuing as the time. Speaker 2: When here again today to let you know that we will not remain silent and we will continue to fight for better working conditions. Speaker 5: Necesitamos the national effort to protect the hair. A hint that homophobia, tourism is companeros. Tribal committees among the court is commonly seen as a taboo. Speaker 2: We need a strong law to protect people like me and my coworkers who deserve better working conditions. Speaker 5: But if I unethical nosotros para providing a police case when the coalition comes into the common place. Yes. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker and I just want to make sure I just from a point of view in 1/2, I believe and maybe our fire folks can our fire captain can confirm everyone that wants to speak is here. Correct. Okay. So who's the last person in this line? Okay. So I'm going to close a speakers list. I'm going to. Okay. So I want to make sure that if you want to speak on this item, I have everyone that's has your hand up. So you're okay that we just just want to make sure that we're going to close the speakers list. Okay. Unless I'm going to close the speakers list. Everyone from the outside wants want to speak on this item is inside, so please continue. Thank you so much. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is Ciaran Paradis. I am a field representative for Congressmember Alan Lowenthal and I. Our office submitted a letter in support of this ordinance. Speaker 10: I'm not going to read the entire letter, but I would like to read a couple of extracts from it. Speaker 2: The working conditions of the employees of the hospitality industry must be improved. We know of the existence of sexual harassment, excessive workloads and mandatory overtime in our Long Beach hotels. Workers should have the right to an environment free of sexual assault, a right to safe workloads, and a right to rest. The City of Long Beach should be a leader in ensuring safe and humane workplaces in our growing tourism sector. Speaker 3: I urge you to stand. Speaker 2: With the working woman of our Long Beach hotel workforce by supporting the Long Beach Working Woman Hospitality, Workload and Safety Ordinance. This ordinance will improve the quality of the workplace for hundreds of our hotel workers by providing protections against inappropriate conduct by guests while also addressing increased workloads and mandatory overtime. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Couldn't be. My name is Maribel. And as you know, our country is facing many challenges at this time. We have a president who during his campaign, openly bragged about his sexual harassment of women. Now, as a president, he has called for the increased deportation of immigrants, which tear families in our community apart, regardless of what the federal government does. You, as local leaders, have the authority to pass laws that can protect local residents. This includes hotel workers. These people are some of the most vulnerable and mistreated members of our society. Hotel workers, particularly housekeepers, work in intimate settings of guests, of guests, hotel rooms without security cameras or witnesses. This puts housekeepers at great risk of being sexually assaulted by guests. Unfortunately, the incidents are common and many attacks go unreported because they are scared. I hope tonight you will send a clear message that Olympic stands in the side of justice and is committed to protecting workers who make our city economy thrive. On a personal note, I would like to say that my mom has been working house cleaning houses for the last 20 years as a student of and graduated from Wilson High School. After school I would go and help her clean houses some afternoons and I saw the hard work that that that is. And I can only imagine these hotel workers multiplying that by 50. So I want to go ahead and thank all those workers for their hard work because I think they're not appreciated enough. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is Lauren Saunders and I'm a Long Beach community member of the Second District. I am also a licensed clinical social worker with a background of providing community education and therapy services to. Speaker 10: Survivors of sexual assault and domestic. Speaker 2: Violence. I wanted to speak particularly on the issue of low reporting rates of sexual assaults and why having safety measures in hotels for our workers may be important. As a therapist, I can tell you there are many reasons why individuals may not report sexual assault. For example, fear being one of the primary ones. There may be fear from retaliation of an employer or coworkers. Fear of loss of employment. Fear of not being believed. Fear of being blamed. Fear of nothing being done even if they did speak out. There's also an issue of re traumatization. These experiences are very uncomfortable and very upsetting, and just coming forward and telling your story can be very, very traumatic in and of itself. So that's a reason why people may not speak up. Not wanting to confront your abuser, especially if it's in the workplace, can definitely be a hindrance to speaking up shame, guilt and embarrassment. These are really uncomfortable topics that we're talking about, and to come forward with that is a very difficult thing to do. And this is not just me and my professional experience speaking out about this. We heard a statistic of 68% of sexual assaults go unreported in my own research, that's consistent with what I find. So I just wanted to bring some of this information as a community member, as a professional who does work with folks on the receiving end of these traumatic events. And as a Long Beach member, I'm really proud of my community for coming up and speaking out about such a tough subject. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. You have someone cell phone. You left their cell phone on the podium. So, yeah, we're going to put it up. But actually, can you give it to the clerk, if you don't mind? And if you left your cell phone up there, please. We have one over here with the clerk. Thank you. Speaker 5: Good evening, Mr. Garcia Miembros del Consuelo Mino Press and Jose Trabajo Global Organization, Marriott Ultimate Strength a unanimous settlement as they travel hand-in-hand. Residents seeing the light of Puerto Rican optimism. Speaker 0: The president of Brazil, Rita Wilson, they think it's what you need. English. Okay, it's okay. It's just the way they must be able to to an English case. Speaker 5: Go yellow alert in English. Anything. Speaker 0: You okay? Don't respond whatsoever to the empathetic position USS. Speaker 5: Comienzo gave me. No sign of Jose Trouble Gallup Organization. Maria Good until ultimately the unanimous atonement this rebel handing out residency in the little Puerto Eric Erika Carrera Trabajadores de Departamento de PSA. You may foreshadow I travel her I stopped in their own opposition. The heron they may encounter mi trabajo amy empleyado or proporcionar un ambiente trabajo seguro don't the Nootka is in below me so guilty that esta ambiguous call me empleyado to offer assistance. Yes confidential is lobbying to cuatro Sylvia you oversee the mutual scholastic and frenemy Anton you're a conflict are more just there? Yes. They estas classes incluyendo maneira de identificar evidencia a la cosa sexual well mas the train Tania Diferencia Newcastle Free Bill Seguimiento six one or more thi I'm in asada banning una manera mi empleyado a priority saddle la seguridad de nosotros woman aliados moussavi Amazon estoy lucky for real men the of is that ordinance no no. Are you that are less b look at what they know being a store announcer in esta propuesta which was gracious. Thank you. My name is Ana Hosey and I have been working for Myriad Organization for the past 21 years. Currently, I am working at the restaurant scene in the airport. I have spent my career working in the housekeeping department and work and worked my way up to a manager position. I love my job and my employer provide a safe working environment where I have never felt that my safety was at risk. My employer offer 24 hours a day confidential assistance in-house, offer many training classes. I have completed many of these classes, including ways to identify and report sexual harassment in my over 30 years of experience. I have never experienced harassment or have felt threaten it in any way. We have not asked for a la for housekeepers, the loves. We have work. My employer has brought really safe safety and we has employees not. I am here today because I truly believe that this ordinance will not help us. I am asking you to vote no on the proposed ordinance. Thank you very much. Speaker 6: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Well, thank you. Next week. Good evening. Speaker 4: My name is Jeremy Blasi. I'm a staff attorney with the Unite Here Local 11. I'm not sure I've ever sat through a hearing on a measure to improve labor standards for low wage workers in the hotel sector or anywhere else, whether it's minimum wage or wage theft, where lobbyists or managers from the industry did not claim that if it went forward, it would cripple the industry. The sky would fall or it would be illegal for one reason or another. And those claims rarely stand up to scrutiny. Tonight is no different. Briefly, I'd like to respond to a few things I've heard tonight. First, the Hotel Alliance has claimed that repeatedly in an op ed in a memo to counsel at least three times tonight, that that the measure would create a blacklist that would bar guests from staying in hotels. That's simply not true. There's nothing like that in the measure. It simply would require that hotels advise workers that if they're being asked to clean a room where a guest is staying and that guest has previously been reported to sexually harass or assault a worker or is a registered sex offender that the worker be notified so that they can enter that guest room with some caution? It would not require that any guest never prohibit any guest from staying in any hotel anywhere. That's simply not true. Not true. And it's just a red herring. There's also been representations made that there's a preemption issue that's also simply not true. Cities absolutely have the right to regulate wages and hours and basic labor standards as they are here with the voluntary overtime provision and the premium for workers who are made to work more than a reasonable workload. Emeryville has had a measure just like this on the books since 2008. If it was truly illegal, it would have been challenged and overturned. The measure is hardly arbitrary. As other speakers have mentioned, three of five hotel rooms in downtown Long Beach are already cleaned by workers whose workloads meet the standard or just above it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening. City Council Members and Mayor Garcia. My name is Gary Hetrick. I live in the fourth district and I'm a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and Health, a community. I'm also a member of the California Faculty Association at Cal State Long Beach, where I teach. Thank you for this opportunity to clear up a misconception of the opt out clause for hotels that have collective bargaining agreements. As you may know, collective bargaining agreements are mutually negotiated by the hotel employer and the workers at that hotel. That was language included measure, and that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in Long Beach in thousand and 12, an ordinance which seems to have a very positive impact on the industry. We know that workers at some unionized hotels have successfully negotiated collective bargaining agreements with complex clauses to ensure workers have reasonable workloads and humane working conditions. Laws and policies should not appear with that process or these agreements. What is important to keep in mind is voice and choice. The collective bargaining process allows workers to negotiate on an agreement that is consistent with their needs and priorities. This includes workload, health and safety, wages, wages, ways to balance work and family personnel, our personnel and sick days mechanism to solve problems, among many other issues. We know that workers have a guaranteed right to form and join a union if they choose to do so. They have the right to sit at the table with their employer as an equal to discuss all aspects of the workplace. The collective bargaining super session clause preserves that right. I urge you to vote yes on this ordinance. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. What are you doing? Speaker 4: What do you want? Speaker 9: My name is Cesar Galing. I'm proud. A union member and leader as a servant for the restoring academia. Speaker 0: I have been an employee. Speaker 9: Maya, for almost 17 years. I'm everything. I have a beautiful daughter. I work hard every day to improve working conditions in the Long Beach Hotels so that I can provide a bright future for my daughter. I recently learned that our general manager, Chris Island, use an incomplete clip of a video of me explaining how much I enjoy working at the hotel in my hotel. I was very confusing upset when I learned what happened. I do love my job. I love welcoming visitors to language. I love serving people in our restaurant. However, the part that crazy, not including the clip she showed you is, is the part where I explained that where we have a good job, so we course we. Speaker 4: Have a union. Speaker 0: Contract. I did not give. Speaker 9: Her permission to show any part of the video to City Council as propaganda against a policy to protect women working in the hotel industry. Which. Speaker 0: Which I, in fact. Speaker 9: Support. I'm here to set the record straight. We have good jobs and they all tell me I have because we have a union I will hire so that all your hot sales and lobbyist can enjoy the same join in benefits that I do in the end to constantly improve working conditions at my own hotel. I'm here to tell you myself that I stand with women against abuse in our hotels in Long Beach. We do need to pass policies that protect my workers because they face the risks of sexual harassment and assault from guests. And this is not tolerable. I will continue to speak out against abuse and the hotel industry. I will not be silent and I stand with my coworkers and women are under siege. And thanks very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Next week, at least. Good evening. Speaker 4: Honorable Mayor Garcia and our esteemed council members. First of all, I want to thank all of our hotel workers who have been here all night. And I want to thank them for coming out here because each and every one of them has to go to work tomorrow, early in the morning. I'm not here to give you data, sir. I'm not here to tell you it's not good for the city. I'm not here to tell you that. Most of what we have heard does not have any basis. I'm not here to. To ask you even why hundred rooms or less or more? 100 rooms. Just. I'm not here to ask you that all. All I'm here to tell you that we work really hard to make sure that our associates are taken care of. And most of them are here in support of that. And I do appreciate when you make your choice, all these things that you've heard on our side. I consider and I thank you a lot. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next week a least. Speaker 13: Thank you, Mayor Garcia, and council members, for allowing me, Harriet Ellis, to speak to you tonight. I represent Clews Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice to support those people working in the prosperous hotel industry in Long Beach. I particularly want to focus on the women who must work so hard, even endangering their health, to keep up with the many hours demanded of them, often asked to work far more than the normal workday and often uncompensated for this. In my book, that brings us back to the days of slavery. I was born in the South 93 years ago. And I can remember how our second class citizens were treated. And I never expected to see a city as progressive and enlightened as Long Beach in 2017 to drag its heels over a policy that would bring a measure of hope and health to its citizens. These immigrant hotel workers have a right to work in a safe environment to be free of harassment and sexual assault by hotel guests, and not to be criminalized if they should ask for support. When these things happen to them. The guest is not always right. They came here to work because they heard that in America they could be given a fair chance if they worked hard. But they did not imagine that they would be struggling under intolerable workloads. Our hotel industry needs to face up to the fact that it is their workers who keep their industry successful and thriving and humming. They could not exist without the energy and work that these women and men put out every day. No person should clean more than 12 or 13 hotel rooms a day and still function at the day's end. And remember, this is not just changing sheets and washing a sink and a toilet and vacuuming a room. Think about how you sometimes leave a hotel room when your vacation or your business trip is over. Speaker 0: Thank you so much, because you've lived a much longer life than the rest of us. I'm going to let you continue, but we're almost out of time, so please continue. Speaker 13: Okay. Especially if you brought your children with you. Just a couple of more words. Citizens like me are urging you to enact Claudia's law to help some of the most vulnerable in our community. People who pay their taxes, who came to America to better themselves and give their children a good education. Just as you and I do. My parents were immigrants, and I know how hard they worked to give me and my two sisters an education. These workers need Claudia's law. They have a right to humane workloads and to be compensated for overtime work. In my Bible, the last requires that we help and protect our workers, even to paying them before we pay ourselves. Our faith traditions demand that we confront injustice no matter where it happens and to whom it happens. This is a moral issue, not a politics. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Speaker 13: Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Tough act to follow. My name is Catherine Benhamou. I'm a resident of District two. I've been a resident of Long Beach for five years. Over that time, I've come to know the work of the Long Beach Coalition, and I've been following the struggle of these hotel workers for about three years, and I've heard of many of their experiences. I've also seen that when they brought up their concerns with their managers, they were not addressed properly. And when that happens, I think you have to step in and help them out. I'm also a and so as a citizen, I'm concerned with maintaining a climate of civility, of equity, of respect for workers in the city, all workers, including women workers, including immigrant workers. And as a college professor, sorry, I'm an ant eater. I teach at UC Irvine. But we have worked hard to revise our protocols and policies to ensure that those who feel vulnerable to sexual harassment will feel safe reporting this. Our protocols were not working, and a. Speaker 2: Couple of years ago. Speaker 3: Some new measures were put into place. So if I feel strongly about protecting women from sexual harassment on my campus, I also feel the same way in my city. I as a college professor, I want to address the question of scale. You know, 100 rooms or more. That's not all hotels at certain hotels. As a college professor, I travel I travel to many conference hotels. I was surprised that only one person works a floor in many conference hotels. Two people are working the floor and working in twos does provide a measure of safety. So workload is linked to safety in very interesting ways. Finally, I want to call attention to investigative reporting at UC Berkeley that has revealed the risks of women working alone at night and how they have suffered assault. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time. Press testimony. The next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Castillo and I am a sexual assault. Speaker 11: Nurse examiner. Speaker 3: And a member of the California Nurses Association. And I stand with Women Against Abuse. As a nurse, I have dedicated my entire career to protecting the public health, whether it's providing care for my individual patients. Speaker 2: Or advocating for policies to make our community healthy. Speaker 3: And gravely concerned about the lack of safety that exists in the city's hotels, especially the treatment of the hard working women. These women face the risk of being sexually assaulted by a guest on the job and have very few avenues through which to address these assaults with their employers. Nobody should ever have to endure or live through the trauma that comes with sexual assault. The question you. The question you as city leaders should reflect on is how many more rapes or assaults will it take to put policy into place to protect workers? Those opposed will claim that there are minimum reports of sexual assault on the job. The truth is, these incidents are often underreported and no charges are levied because of fear. If fearing for their own safety isn't bad enough, these women are extremely overworked. While the number of hotel rooms in the city have increased, the workforce has decreased, resulting in larger and larger workloads for these women. Such working conditions are exploitive and abusive. The hotel's reckless policies in regard to their employees has meant that in many cases, women are forced to clean without proper tools and supplies, often on their hands and knees. Providing reasonable workloads will also help to ensure that housekeepers have enough time to properly work clean hotel rooms, including doorknobs, remote controls and other places where germs can spread. In order to protect public health and make Long Beach, the city that respects the safety and. Speaker 2: Dignity of working women. Speaker 5: I asked Long Beach City Council to stand with these women and lift the. Speaker 3: Standards in the city's hospitality industry to ensure that these hardworking women come home safe to their families every day. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next week, Apple's. Speaker 2: Good evening, Callisto. My name. Speaker 5: Is Graciela Beatriz and I. Speaker 2: Am a featured organizer with Clergy and later United for Economic Justice. I stand tonight in support of Long Beach hotel workers in the ordinance to protect workers from sexual harassment and excessive workloads. This is a long time coming. This is what I call a kairos moment. Let me explain. When we think of chronological time, the abuse of housekeeper has gone on for far too long in the hotel industry. For years, workers have been coming together, speaking out in organizing for basic, basic rate and respect in the workplace. Tonight, as elected leaders in Long Beach, you can honor the commitment of the workers who for years sacrificed their bodies by cleaning beds, mopping floors, scrubbing bathrooms and dusting rooms so that this industry thrives. I am asking you to be a light of justice by valuing and protecting the workers who make your city profitable by the labor of their hands. And like I said here today, tonight this moment is a kairos moment. Kairos is a theological concept of time. Kairos refers to the time of God working in the world. Kairos refers to the moment when change is only able to occur because the Spirit of God is at work in a special way. Though we have been in this struggle for a long time, the spirit of God in the spirit of justice is here today. Let this let justice roll down. Let it ring from the mountaintops. And I ask you to please stand with women tonight. Speaker 0: Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, council members. My name is Bibiana Lagunas. I am a mental health social worker as W employed in Long Beach, according to the National Research Council. Every 98 seconds a woman is sexually assaulted in the workforce. Unfortunately, sexual assault is vastly underreported. About 70 to 80% is under reported to law enforcement. In my daily practice, I hear stories about women feeling shame, guilt, distrust, loss of control, shock. And lastly, they feel fear, fear of retaliation against themselves. They report the assault. As a professional, I witnessed many victims living with depression, anxiety, addictions, PTSD. We cannot ignore the mental health impacts on these women who have experienced sexual assault. So I urge you, please council members. Speaker 3: To vote yes. Speaker 2: On this ordinance to protect women against physical and sexual abuse. Speaker 0: Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening, counsel. My name is Ebony Pearson. I serve as president of the Long Beach Democratic Club, the same club that unanimously, unanimously voted in support of Claudia's law. But I also stand before you as the daughter of an immigrant mother whose word countless hours for a low wage job that saw her as disposable. And because of that, she was afraid to advocate for herself because she was scared of being fired, just like hotel workers, in fear of retaliation. And when you're supporting a family, you can't afford to lose your job. And what's worse is the number of workers not reporting sexual assault. As a as a survivor of sexual assault, I can say there are countless people who. Speaker 8: Go on not reporting for many. Speaker 2: Reasons, many times silenced. Speaker 8: By a traumatic event. Speaker 2: We need an ordinance to protect our hotel workers, and we need a vote that chooses to protect people and not just profits. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you for your testimony next week, please. My name is Reverend Darnell Wilson, organizer and director for the City Program. We Unite Here, and I also serve as. Speaker 4: The chaplain for our union. I worked in this. Speaker 0: Industry for 45 years as a chef and has been very good to me. Now, as I look at the council tonight, I don't see you guys really. Speaker 4: Sweating. Speaker 0: Because in fact, you don't have any panic buttons up there. Right. And the reason why you don't have a panic button up there, because you've got the Long Beach police officer sitting behind you yelling, saying, let them, but that's protection. And all we ask them for is protection for our. Speaker 4: Women, for our Roma tenants. Speaker 0: They deserve that protection. You cannot afford to put a Long Beach police officer on every. Speaker 4: Floor at a hotel and you know that get a button form protection button. Speaker 0: Work overload. Speaker 4: Then we come to your home or one. Speaker 0: Inch to tear. Speaker 4: Up your room. Speaker 0: Put it in the mess and make that bed up and fix that room for 8 hours a day. Think about it. Work overload issue. Repetitive motion. They get injured. The hotel is wealthy enough. They make a lot of money to. Speaker 4: Hire other people. Speaker 0: And talking about hiring, if there are any hotel operators still in the house, you need to change your hiring practices. Practices, because nobody has said nothing about the lack of hiring African-Americans in the hotel industry. And that needs to change as well, because we once had these jobs and we're not here to push the current workforce out , but to be included in it. So when you have to hire more people and you should because you're in a healthy industry. Long Beach, come on now. So when you start hiring hotel operators, make sure I can bring a busload of African-Americans. We're training them right now in the Hospitality Training Academy. All right. And you say African-Americans do not come in this industry, apply for a job, but I can bring you busloads and they are good workers. So take that in consideration and don't panic making this decision and do the right thing. Amen. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Good evening. My name is Tracey McGee. I am a project supervisor at the Hospitality Training Academy. We are the Taft-Hartley Fund, Labor Management Partnership and training arm of Unite Here Local 11. For the past four years, we have operated a program funded by the city of Santa monica for $150,000 to target and ensure local hire and diversity in the city of Santa monica. This program has been hugely successful and we for the past four years, we have exceeded our placement goals. Additionally, I run a program called the Accelerator Initiative, which has $425,000 in government funding, and that is to train and place African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and trans transgender individuals into union hospitality jobs with good wages, health and welfare benefits. The HCA is very interested in bringing our targeted local hire, particularly focused on the African-American population, to the city of Long Beach. As we all know and we have heard before, only a job to stop a bullet. And this is something that I truly believe. And we are here to let you know that the MTA is interested in working with the city of Long Beach and the Union Hotels to ensure that if there is any initial, initial hiring that needs to be done to fulfill the demand of any current initiatives, we are here to track and assist with targeted African-American local hiring. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Hi, Council. My name is Wayne Murchison, second district and I too have had a lot of chapters in life. One of my chapters, I was working in the hotel industry, actually in a four tulip hotel. Wow. You all know what I mean? I started out as a bellman. Night porter security. After two weeks, I went to my supervisor, who hired me and said, you know, there's been some incidents and you got to get some walkie talkies because people shouldn't be going into behind into a room where they don't know what's going on without the safety of being able to contact someone, whether you're a male or a female, actually. Wow. They got walkie talkies and y'all write. Speaker 4: It off on taxes anyway, so it's not. Speaker 0: Costing you anything. Sorry. And that's safety for people. That's a no brainer as far as the the work load. If you're overworking your people, the rooms aren't getting as clean. How many people are going to come back if they don't got a clean room? You know, not taking care of your employees and putting them in danger like that. I'm going to call it crimes against humanity. Speaker 4: That's what it is. And all your. Speaker 0: Blue shirts that are supporting your owners and whatnot. You're all culpable. Crimes against humanity. The next picture, please. Speaker 2: Because every day Mayor Robert Garcia and member of the Council. My name is Chad Hobson. I'm a resident of the second district and. Speaker 5: Also the executive director or the power, in my opinion, association located in the. Speaker 2: District, my organization. So a diverse student, woman and. Speaker 3: A family. I'm here today in front of you to ask you if the hotel industry located in. Speaker 5: The diversity allowing they should employ the diverse. Speaker 3: People work. So we would like to see a diverse employee and any hotel industry in Long Beach. Speaker 5: I'm here to support. Speaker 3: And protect the hotel worker. I'm here this evening to ask you, the mayor and the city council, who, as the parent. Speaker 2: The mother and the father think about the woman worker. Speaker 3: In the hotel. All those women. Speaker 5: Regardless of their status. Speaker 2: Is a person who deserves respect. The same as. Speaker 3: Everybody. Speaker 2: An immigrant, a citizen. I woman, love and care. Speaker 5: For their. Speaker 2: Children. They work hard to raise them to be healthy, strong and productive men and woman. Speaker 3: For the future. Speaker 2: They are overworked and undervalued. Speaker 5: It is. Speaker 2: Not only the. Speaker 5: Mother that suffer, but the. Speaker 2: Children who. Speaker 3: Also pay the price. The future. Speaker 2: Of the children. Speaker 3: And their hope. Speaker 2: To become productive citizen. Speaker 3: Civil society, subjugated. Speaker 2: Woman and mother. Speaker 3: Of color. Therefore, I would like to offer your full support to protect and provide safety to all this woman work by passing the policy tonight. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next week. Hello. Speaker 7: I'm Ron Herrera. I am actually not prepared to speak tonight, but I was standing up back there and, you know, listening to all the testimony here, all the opinions compelled me to come up here and speak to you tonight. Quick introduction. I am the principal officer of Teamsters Local 1386, about 10,000 members, which 6500 of them are your UPS drivers. And we service the city of Long Beach. The other amount of members that we have are part of the commercial waste drivers here that pick up most of the trash here in Long Beach. I heard an argument made that this was about collective bargaining. It's not about collective bargaining. I'm an interesting person, not because I'm a union official, but because I'm also a resident of the city of Long Beach. This is a no brainer. I follow all of your careers, every single one of you. And I live in a progressive city. And I'm not going to be disappointed tonight because some of you may not support this this this measure. But interestingly enough, this is a worker's rights issue, specifically a women's issue. I'm here to support all you council women on this board and tell all the men on this board that you better support them. What's wrong with sticking up for women's rights? But here's the most important reason that I stand in front of you. And I came down here. How do I look for granddaughters in the eye and say that I didn't come up here and speak on their behalf? Because that's what this is about. It's about women's rights. All of us have stayed in hotels when we're the last room in the hallway, and we would be remiss to say that we didn't look back to to secure our safety, whether a card is in the front of the door or on the side of the door. There is no way that anyone is going to tell me that a housekeeper is so my attack. And another thing. One last thing, but. Speaker 0: We've got to wrap it up. Speaker 7: Okay. Mr. Mayor, I hear you. One last thing I hear about I hear about a blacklist. You touch one of my granddaughters. You've been on Ron's list. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next picture, please. Speaker 2: When? Not just. Speaker 5: Me. Nobody's Maria Lopez. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is Maria Lopez. Speaker 5: I am a resident. Speaker 2: Of the First District and I'm also a community organizer for housing Long Beach. In 2008, during my college career at LBC, I worked at the Hilton Hotel to be able to. Speaker 11: Pay for my college. Speaker 2: Because I'm undocumented. Speaker 11: And financial aid was. Speaker 2: Not accessible at that time. So I worked. I worked like everybody else. My shift started at 11 p.m. and I had to clean everything by two. Am I clean the floors of the restaurant, several bathrooms and the basement? I carried a vacuum bigger than me, literally, to vacuum all conference and party halls while having to put up with a boss who consistently tried to make me apply for a housekeeper. I got paid $500 a month minus the first week of what was considered deposit. I quit a month later every day. Speaker 13: I hated going to work. But I loved going to college. I decided to quit because I could not handle the workload, and I felt that there was not an answer I could give my. Speaker 2: Boss to get him off my back. As a rape survivor, I know all too well that feeling. I didn't come out to my mom until I was 22 of my rape. And so when I hear someone say that every place is safe for me, I have to make it safe. Oh, is. Speaker 13: It my fault I got rape? Hmm. Speaker 2: Because that's all I'm hearing as a rape survivor. That deep feeling of fear that you may not be able to protect yourself and that no one will help. And it's not an emotional show when you have been raped, when your own words. Speaker 13: And fight was not enough of a know for your perpetrator to stop. This policy is common sense. But if it's not. And if you need more encouragement, here they are. 850 to 851 individuals. Speaker 2: Pledges were gathered so few 43 community organizations supported. Speaker 13: Jonathon Lowenthal. Barbara. Laura. Laura. Megan Kerr. Speaker 0: I got to keep this. Speaker 2: I can keep going, but I urge you to vote yes. Speaker 0: Thank you so much for. Speaker 13: Our providers of life and for our leaders. Speaker 0: Morrow Thank you. Next speaker, please. And I'm just trying my best to just be respectful of the time, obviously, to give everyone equal time. So please. Speaker 2: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. City Council. My name's Christine Pettit. I'm a resident of the sixth District and I wasn't planning on speaking tonight. I'm not even feeling well, which is why I was sitting down instead of standing in line. Many of you know me as executive director of Building Healthy Communities, Long Beach, and we did early on vote to support this policy. But I'm and I'm not going to even tell you all the reasons because you heard them tonight, right? There was a lot of compelling testimony. So that's not why I'm here. I'm here really as a resident of the sixth District, I called my councilmember today. I called Councilmember Andrews office today. And I heard that you were undecided on this very important issue. And I want to urge you tonight to vote yes on Claudia's law for all the reasons that you have that have been articulated, as well as the fact that as a district with some of the city's highest poverty levels, we know that the workers that we're talking about, many of them live in the sixth District. And so this is an important item for our district because of that. And so I just really want to encourage you to, you know, stand up for the workers of our neighbors and also just say that standing with women is an investment in our hotel industry. It's an investment in our workers and in our city. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: What about? Shows me. No worries. Alicia Carlos. You'll be on the street those days. Will you let me, though? Because they have the Andrew Gay whatever personally. But I the hairdresser. How old is your tailors? They also confront them in the street in Colorado. Is your telescope more concerned about the industry's capital gain? Gay uses water. You saw people come back and say, help paraprofessionals. Yes. My name is Alisha Carlos. I live in the sixth district. Speaker 2: I asked them why City Councilmember Dee Andrews votes to pass this law to protect. Speaker 10: Workers in our. Speaker 2: Hotels from the abuse that we face as city councilperson in our district. I ask that you use your vote and. Speaker 10: Your role to protect us. Thank you. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 5: Whether or not just a todos. Graphic protester Kiko nosotros. Good evening, everyone. Speaker 2: Thank you for being here with us today. Speaker 5: Estella keep out of retirement when they'll kill us and us outside without us, a.k.a remove from us. Speaker 2: I am here to yell to the whole world that abused women will be silent no more. Speaker 5: I mean this one. Aladdin. My name is one Omolara Josiah. Huh? Esposa, Willa or Goliath? Are they both ninos or. No, they are all. You go through the cuatro and yes. Speaker 2: I am a daughter, a wife and a proud. Speaker 11: Grandmother of. Speaker 2: Two grandsons of eight and four year old. Speaker 5: Daughter back home in Long Beach. Joe Throughout our home in Long Beach, Jutras, Commodore, Paramount and Mi Familia. Speaker 2: I work in Long Beach and I work very hard to maintain my family. Speaker 5: Secondly, you are going through a media business event. Speaker 2: And I know that my job contributes. Speaker 11: To the economy of the city. Speaker 5: Better. Monsanto Invisible. Speaker 10: But I feel invisible. Speaker 5: My polka persona and theme. The lucky person must be the last mile head of travel harmless airline industry with the. Speaker 2: Very few people know what we go through every single day. Speaker 5: Those of us. Speaker 10: Who are housekeepers in the hotels. Speaker 5: And thank the listeners felt that our handle must empower them. If this was business man 5046, swell, young. If both of those parties intimate for me. Speaker 2: In the 22 years that I have been working more than a few times, guests have asked me for sexual favors and expose their private parts to me. Speaker 5: If calls make that of the borrower one. The only thought that though they offer to travel a better look at get their last 15 feet period if cuando Libya fifth I'll head into sovereign locust sobre el paso colonia the assassin berekum sephora to culpa. Speaker 2: This alone is very disturbing to deal with when you are trying to do your job. But what makes it worse is when you tell your manager about it and he or she makes you feel like it's your fault. Speaker 5: Lost her enticing a lapel. Nathaniel Bear. Theodore I.M. Yes. Companeros de Trabajo. Guilherme Marathon. Erika Moreira. Fabiola La Yellowtail Durante, La Scala, del Grand Prix. Speaker 2: The managers at the hotel have told me and my coworkers that once a housekeeper was raped during the Grand Prix races at our hotel. Speaker 5: They think our last bit of order and meditation Gwendolyn Membrane throws a rock on Jamila Puerto. Speaker 2: They say that she was vacuuming the room when he came in and locked the door with his key. Speaker 5: A little Kyle Kahlil daughter Ella, they hope and diva mientras la law. But I came up there for the rescue. Charla. Speaker 2: He tied her up with a vacuum cord and he left the vacuum running while he raped her so that nobody could hear her. Speaker 5: You're not observing, require evidence, and you gotta look past the Alamo here for your ladder. Speaker 2: The managers often remind us. Remember, ladies, what happened to that woman. Speaker 10: Who was raped in the room? Speaker 5: So, Santiago McKeithen. The Scandal. Canada Hand mouth case total Serrano's water. They make us. Speaker 2: Feel like we have to make sure that to us. Speaker 5: But honest enough, in the manner known about us, they would rather give them a real meaning if they would have loved it. Speaker 3: But they are. Speaker 2: Actually doing nothing to make sure that we are safe in our workplaces. Speaker 5: Golden Lozano's durante el Grand Prix I mouth three thoroughbred or the Latin or the will beloved one. Speaker 2: Every year during Grand Prix, there are more and more. Speaker 10: Tourists around our hotel. Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm going to let you continue. But we got to we've got to wrap it up. So thank you. Speaker 5: Yeah. Win the day. You'll need to get us on with belief. Speaker 10: And some of them. Speaker 2: Are not even guests at the hotel. Speaker 3: I'm walking. Speaker 5: Your thing, Olympia, but I'm your key. Then on third is the problem. Speaker 2: I have the courage to. To talk up here to you all and announce what's going on at our. Speaker 5: Hotels where I'm which I'm working a lot. And then at the end, they merely think I unlosable so six wireless major Garcia Gonzalez of telephone no sonic go get the poor there they come yet after he put as a statement like that. Speaker 2: Yes Mayor Garcia and all of the city council people, you are the. Speaker 10: Only ones who have the power to change this. So we're asking for your help. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you so much. And of. Our final speaker. Speaker 2: Good evening. For those who don't know me, my name is. Speaker 5: Mary Ada Soto. Speaker 2: I live in the ninth district and I was born and raised in Lumbini. I have worked in the hospitality for four years now and working at a hotel is a very different from most jobs. Very different. We interact with our guests in a very personal level. We must serve their meals. We must be the first person they see in the morning, like I do, that we have to clean their rooms, scrub their toilets, clean their restrooms, serve them, serve all of their friends. Speaker 3: But often times, hotel. Speaker 2: Hotel guests try to take advantage of our situation. Speaker 3: Particularly at their drunk. Speaker 2: Or under the influence of substance. I know because it has happened to me. After that happened, I felt scared. I was humiliated. I was mad. And I didn't know what to do about it. I didn't say anything. How was when I was part of the 68%? That was me. I take pride in being a strong woman now and a strong woman that I have become. I take pride in that. But that pride should not come with having to be sexually harassed and assaulted. I should not be strong. On that aspect. That should not happen, but it does. And we need protection. And I'm here and I'm asking for it. I no longer want to be part of that 68%. When my coworkers come to me and they ask me that either I'm like, I don't what are we going to do? What's going to happen? My coworkers that have been assaulted, I don't know what to tell them because council and the mayor have been silent for two years. What do I tell them when they look at me for help? I look at you and I get silence. I urge you to vote yes today. And to stand with the woman that make our whole hospitality industry run every single day. It is us that make your profits. It is us that keep your rooms clean. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 2: It is us that keeps the convention center full of business. It is us. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. We will no longer stay silent. Speaker 2: And even though we leave today, we will come back. Speaker 0: Until we get what we need. Thank you very much. We need protection. Just as. Shit. Thank you very much. Panic buying. We won't panic buying. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you to all the all the speakers. We're going to go ahead. We've closed the speakers list. So now we will go back to the city council for discussion and deliberation. So you sort of take take the names as they come up here on the order. So we did council member Gonzales and price for the motion and Pierce for the motion. So we go now to Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to start with just thanking everyone who attended tonight or communicated with our offices in weeks past. I also want to acknowledge I have a number of letters that were submitted to the clerk. So I do want to acknowledge the Human Relations Commission for expressing their support tonight. I think acknowledge Supervisor Hahn, Senator Laura and both Congress members that represent Long Beach, Alan Lowenthal and Annette Berrigan for expressing support. So I thought it was important that we acknowledge that this has been a conversation that's taken place for quite some time. I do remember, you know, the initial conversations of this prior to when I took counsel, I spent some time as a chief of staff to former councilman Steve Neal. And I remember this was a conversation in the downtown and and I do remember sort of the last council beginning these conversations. So I haven't had an opportunity to sort of watch and follow. And I do want to just acknowledge and take a moment just to acknowledge the two council members that represent downtown. So Janine Pearce and Lena Gonzalez. And you know, Lina, just want to say thank you for taking the courage of stepping up. This conversation is not an easy one. And and sometimes it's more convenient to let the conversation come to you. But I do acknowledge, you know, sometimes a political risk on the threats, the pressure when you step out and raise and elevate. Speaker 4: An issue. Speaker 0: To a local body to engage on that issue. Now, I think the fact that this came tonight is a good thing. I think it's an opportunity for us to cut the politics for a minute and get to the policy and actually take a look and talk with our city attorney and talk with our council members and get to the meat and the crux of this issue. So I'm going to start my comments just talking about the issue that's come up the most aside from me. And I do want acknowledge the, you know, the issues related to women and buttons and all of that. But I want to start with the square footage now. The presentation I saw tonight. You know, I've seen some of these numbers before, the numbers that shows an average among some of the bigger hotels, larger hotels about how many square feet people clean. I also, you know, I am here every year when we receive the presentation from the Convention and Visitors Bureau on how tourism is is growing and thriving. And we do pay attention and that is something we're proud of and we pay attention to. I think the square footage conversation, if the average what I saw tonight and what I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, councilmember, but it said something like 3800 square feet was that was the average. And I saw, you know, one hotel was maybe just over 4000. Some were just below 4000. But you know, the conversation about economic impact, I want to sort of dig into that a little bit. If the square footage cap is 4000 square feet, that means you lock it in what it is today. And it guarantees that as tourist, tourism and industry grows, that that additional economic benefit is not squarely placed on the backs of workers, but rather it sets a cap on work load and says we should hire additional staff in order to accommodate this economic growth. So if the if if the 4000 square feet is average today, there shouldn't be an economic impact today. The economic impact should be realized as economic benefits are realized. So what it says is, as we grow, we're not going to place that burden. We are going to share in the benefit in higher additional workers. Now that I can support. Ensuring that as we grow, we hire additional people. And that is an opportunity for me to say, Brother, I never met you before, but what you said about doing the hospitality, training and all of that, that makes sense to me. That says let's create the economic opportunities in the future. As the Olympics come to Long Beach and these other things happen. What message do we send to the world? What message do we send to the women of the world? I think it's a strong message to say, as we grow, we keep our local folks in mind and we hire additional people. That's the way I'm breaking this down. I know there will be, you know, contrary opinions. Speaker 4: But that's the one issue that I haven't. Speaker 0: Heard a specific response to. You know, economic impact to me means they're hiring additional people. So where is that threshold? Where is that threshold? You know, where the square footage is of 4000? The data shows me 4000 is above average. That means there shouldn't be an impact here. So I spent the moment talking about that. They don't want to just acknowledge, just in general, I know how difficult it is to have conversations. And and I want to acknowledge the people who did come down to the dais and share their stories. And and I acknowledge those stories. As a son of a domestic worker, my mother was a home care worker. She cleaned. She took care of people. All right. I heard someone mention sharecropper. That's something I'm really proud of. I can trace my lineage back to sharecropping and to slavery. Speaker 4: I acknowledge. Speaker 0: That. You know, I you know, I'm a father, two daughters, two Afro-Latino daughters that are beautiful. And that's my pride. And nobody better than, you know, Rick's List. But the reality is to say that and to also somehow diminish the evidence that exploitation of workers in this country or the history of that says that we are not acknowledging our past. Now, whether this happens in your hotel or not. That does not prevent me from saying What can we do to prevent it from happening in the future? That is our responsibility. We should create policies for the future, the next generation of workers as they come in. I mean, we can debate all night about what happens to the middle class, which is getting richer, poorer, getting poorer. But the reality is the service industry needs to be supported. These are the most vulnerable workers. And it is our job as as, you know, as as a regulatory agency, as a government to take that into consideration . This is not and, you know, city attorney, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not something that's absolutely unheard of. Truck drivers regulate work load. Nurses regulate workload. Public safety officials regulate workload. This isn't something that is inappropriate in front of city council. I'd rather get down to the actual nuts and bolts of the policy and and get the feedback from the city attorney. I'd rather get to that point and cut through the politics. So I'll conclude. My. My, I'm gonna sleep well tonight. I would like the opportunity to actually vote on this item if there's other things going to happen. Substitutes now that I actually want to vote on this item tonight. So I want to hope I hope that we do get to that point. I do want I don't what I want to be able to do that. And I know I want to close and just say I hope, you know, I want to sleep well tonight with my daughters, with my wife and and sort of this is one of those moments where you just have to have a gut check on where you are. I acknowledge the I acknowledge the impacts, potential perceived impacts of the community to communicate it to us. Let's actually go forward. Tear off the Band-Aid. Start this conversation that will evaluate what that is and see if we can mitigate or talk about the economic impact in the city, because that's a conversation I want to have. But thank you again to all of you who who spoke up in this motion has my support. Thank you. And just before we got to count some of your anger, I just to clarify also, Mr. City Attorney, so the motion would be, I believe, councilwoman to the city attorney to craft an ordinance, is that correct? Speaker 10: Yes, I mistakenly added city manager. So if I can just amend that to say city, to direct the city attorney to create this ordinance. Speaker 0: And just for Mr. Parking, just for the public so that we they understand the process. So essentially the motion would be for you to craft an ordinance. And then the ordinance, of course, would then come back to the city council. Is that correct? Speaker 9: That's correct. Through the discussion this evening, we would clarify the motion and any amendments, and then we would craft an ordinance and bring it back for a first reading and then a second reading, and then it would go into effect subsequent 31 days after it's signed by the mayor after second reading. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you, Councilmember. Your income. Speaker 1: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank all of you for sticking around, staying here. I know it's late into the evening, and I know it's bedtime for Rex, so I hope Richard has a good night tonight. Little known fact is that I have a son and a daughter in law who work in the hotel hospitality industry . So this issue was a no brainer for me to get into because I do very much care about their safety and where they work and how they work. There was a person earlier who spoke and threw out two statistics that out of 5000 rooms that were cleaned over the last year, there were only two reported instances. One of those two were my son or my daughter. That's too much. That's enough. There was also some commentary made about this is bad public policy. Well, when that public policy deals with employee safety. Is it bad policy when that public policy deals with the public interest, when that public policy deals with civil rights and employee health ? Is that public bad public policy? I don't think so. Speaker 0: There were arguments made. Speaker 1: When we were dealing with Measure N and raising the minimum wage for hotel workers. There was this big discussion about Chicken Little. This guy is going to fall. Tourism is going to drop. Hotel rooms are going stay empty. The economic impact will be tremendous to see Long Beach. We've actually heard quite the contrary, read after measure and pass. We've had a burst of growth and a burst of economic interest in Long Beach, but yet employee workloads increased and employee hiring went down. But yet we still benefit from measure in because because salaries went up and has been steady. We're looking at a future where we're building more hotels, which means more rooms, which means more conventions, which will affect our ability to house people when 2028 comes to town. And there is going to be a huge, huge economic interest and economic benefit to the city of Long Beach. Are we going to be prepared for that? That's what we're talking about. So what kind of future do we want for our employees, for for our hotel workers, for our housekeepers? We want to secure a future for them that is going to be violence free, that is going to be making them happy to go to work, to want to come to work. And finally, there was a discussion earlier made about the possible loss of hope to our philanthropy, to smaller nonprofits, because this would affect the economic bottom line of our hotels. I hope that does not happen. I hope that is not true, and I don't think it will be. But it had to be stated because there's a genuine concern out there that if hotels don't thrive and don't make money, their ability to support nonprofits is going to go down. I hope not, and I don't think it will, because this measure that we're dealing with today, the ordinance that we're working with today, is going to actually strengthen us. It's going to strengthen our hotel. It is going to provide them with greater opportunity to hire more people, to do more beds, to do more work, and to. Not only that, the best part of our tourism industry is when you go anywhere in this city and you're greeted by a hotel worker, a service worker, a police officer, a firefighter, and they give you a greeting with a smile that's going to want you to come back. Speaker 4: Not stay away. Speaker 1: So I'm very supportive of this measure as it is, and I hope it stays that way. And I hope my colleagues my colleagues can support that as well. Thank you. Speaker 0: Very much. We have Councilwoman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to my colleagues for speaking and thank you to my colleagues who brought this item forward. And, Councilwoman Gonzalez, for bringing this item forward and for giving us the presentation. I know that this is something that she feels genuinely passionate about, and I respect that. And I think that there are a lot of issues that were raised tonight that are incredibly worthy of consideration and talking about and I want I want to talk about those a little bit. I also want to thank the folks from Unite here because they have taken the time to meet with me and they've educated me on the topic and they've asked me a lot of questions. And from day one, I've been very honest with them about my concerns. And I have to be honest, I still have those concerns today about aspects of the proposed ordinance. So I do have a few questions and I think I'll direct them to city staff to the extent that city staff can answer them. But then if city staff can't answer them, I think I want to raise the questions and hear from my colleagues. So in reading the the item that was filed tonight, it looks to me I know that Councilman Gonzales in her presentation talked about the issue of safety and the issue of controlling or limiting or regulating workloads. Go hand in hand. I personally am having difficulty with that nexus and I look forward to hearing from my colleagues of what that nexuses. And what I mean by that is. If we were to put all the safety measures into place, the panic buttons, the notices, the every type of support, the training, everything that we can do, which I think is absolutely important. The public safety aspects of it, I think are of zero issues with them. I'm completely 1,000% in support of the panic buttons, doing everything that we can to make sure that women and men are safe in their work environment. I think that's really important. But reducing the workloads, so limiting the number of square feet that a person cleans, will that make them less likely to be the victim of sexual assault? And that's what I don't understand. And so I would like to hear how how is that? Is that is it because if if they're cleaning more, then they don't have I don't understand if they're cleaning less than how are they more able to prevent a sexual assault from happening? So I can't see the Nexus. And so I just so that's just something I'm putting out there is a concern because I think to me, in my opinion, they are I understand they're being brought as a as a package of issues. But it's you know, we have a test that we do and legal analysis that we say. But for this, that wouldn't happen. So can we say but for them working. Speaker 2: More square. Speaker 11: Footage than they should, a sexual assault wouldn't happen. We can't say that. So to me, whether you're cleaning 2000 square feet or 7000 square feet, you still have the same risk of coming into a room with a man who or a woman or anybody else who is drunk, has bad intentions, is disrespectful of you, as Anita pointed out, is is on a vacation or something. And that has no inhibitions. Whether you're cleaning 2000 square feet or 7000 square feet, that client doesn't know the difference of that. So if they're going to attack you, it doesn't matter how many square feet you're cleaning, they're still going to attack you. So I think we really need to be thinking and maybe I'm missing it. I'm more than happy to listen, but I just don't know what that nexus is. I'm sure I am. So that's why I said I'm looking forward to listening and having a civilized debate about it. So I really would love to hear more about that. The question that. Speaker 2: I would have for our. Speaker 11: Police department, I guess, and I don't know if the chief is here, Chief, I know there was a staff report produced with some data based on questions that council was asking. And I think one of the questions that was asked was what are the number of sexual assaults that have been reported? And look, I'm a prosecutor. I know that. Speaker 3: Most. Speaker 11: Sexual assaults go unreported. That is that is absolutely true. I know issues whatsoever with that. Having said that, we did have two incidents of reported activities that were violations or alleged violations of the law, one against a male and one against a female in the period of time that we studied. Is that correct? Speaker 0: That's correct. Speaker 11: Okay. Do we have any data that says that people are more likely to be assaulted if they're working in a hotel with 100 rooms versus working at a hotel with less than 100 rooms? Speaker 0: I don't know of any information like that. At least I haven't been exposed to that. Speaker 11: Another. I mean, one of the things that concerns me, too, is if generally people who stay at hotels are more likely to commit sexual assaults, I would think that would be true for motels or even hotels under 100 rooms. I could be wrong. And again, I'm open to hearing if that's that data. But my curiosity is why aren't we trying to protect workers at hotels for under 100 rooms? Speaker 6: So I guess that's not that's not really a question. Well, it's not. Speaker 11: Really I guess that's not really a question for the chief. But maybe I more I think we should adopt a policy tonight to put into place safety measures for all of our housekeepers. But I think we should do it for all hotels. I really do. Does it matter if you have ten rooms or if you have 300 rooms? If we want to protect housekeepers, we should protect them regardless of whether they work for a national chain or not. So the other question I would have for the city attorney and I don't know if you know this, but one of the comments was that there was no litigation that resulted out of similar statutes passed in Emeryville and other cities. Do you know if that's true? Because that's not the research I did and I could be wrong. But I'm just curious if you know anything about that. Speaker 9: I'm not the expert on it. But we did look at Emeryville, and I don't believe that they had the panic button issue. They passed an ordinance that had a square footage. Oh, cleaning requirement. Seattle had an initiative that had the both the notice requirements and a cleaning limitation. Speaker 11: Mm hmm. Okay. And so with. With either of them, was there any litigation, if you know? Speaker 9: Yes, I do know. And yes, there was litigation in both situations. In Seattle, there was a challenge under preemption issues as to the square footage and cleaning Seattle. And that was under the I believe it's called the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act. And there the court found that there was not preemption, that the city of Seattle, the language in that statute was did not preempt the city of Seattle from issuing that regulation and limiting the square footage. And then there was also challenges on constitutional basis as to the list. And in that case, the court found that the challenge was a facial challenge. And the the court found that there was no facial challenge, that it was constitutional. But they left open the question of as and as applied challenge, that there was no list and there were no people on the list as of the time of the oral argument. Speaker 11: Okay. I understand. And do you have any idea how much those those suits cost the cities or how how significant they were, if at all? I mean, lawsuits are common, so that's certainly not a deterrent from us engaging in good policy. But I'm just asking the question. Speaker 9: That's certainly not. But the my information from the city of Emeryville is they spent approximately 750 $800,000 in defending their suit. I do not have that similar information for the city of Seattle. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 2: The I. Speaker 11: I want to stay on the topic of the safety concerns, because then I have a few questions on the workload concerns. On the safety concerns in on page two of the item. It talks about providing notice to hotel employees, requiring hotel employees to provide notice to the employees prior to starting their scheduled work of any guests on the list of alleged harassers or a sex offender. Speaker 2: So I have a couple of questions about this. Speaker 11: And really, it comes down to privacy. So if someone is a convicted sexual offender and required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Penal Code Section 290, the law gives them the right to stay at a hotel. The largest allows them to stay at a hotel. What I'm concerned about is alleging violations of sexual misconduct and that person ending up on some sort of a list. And the reason I worry about that, I'm sorry that. Speaker 5: It's not an item. Speaker 11: It says of any guest on the list of alleged harassers. So, okay, so maybe I guess my question would be it says here that there's going to be a list of alleged harassers. So if that is actually in the item on page two, I could be wrong. I'm just reading the item. If that actually is on the item, then my question would be, who is making the allegation? Where is the list going to be maintained? Does the allegation have to be corroborated like it would in, you know, a criminal justice setting and what privacy information of that guest would be made available pursuant to that list? So I could be wrong. Maybe it's not on there. Speaker 2: Regarding workloads. Speaker 11: So there's a lot of the comments we heard tonight and in my meetings with Unite Here. One of the things that they said was that it's important to regulate. Square footage of hotel rooms, because hotel rooms of today have a very different realities than hotel rooms in the past. Heavier mattresses are used. The pillows need to be treated with different care because of the quality of the pillows. More glass is used in the room requiring more wiping down. And so that makes sense to me that the work load time you're spending in the room might be longer. But in looking at the item on page three, what it says is that. Speaker 3: The square. Speaker 11: Footage limitation, it says this limitation should apply to any combination of spaces, including guests, rooms and suites. Meeting rooms are hospitality rooms and apply regardless of the furniture, equipment or amenities in any room. So I guess my question would be, does this mean that if a person is cleaning a banquet room, does that go into the 4000 square feet calculation? And the reason I ask that is because I'm certainly not an expert in this industry, which is probably why I have concerns about us regulating workloads in this industry. But the arguments that were made to me by Unite here had to do specifically with hotel rooms, and that's not how the item is written. So I'd like some clarity on whether that applies to all rooms and all spaces. And I know these are kind of nuanced details that that aren't very exciting to talk about, but nevertheless, there are questions that I have. Speaker 2: In regards. Speaker 11: To. I did have a question regarding the protections about workload that we provide to our own city employees. Other than what. Speaker 13: We go through with OSHA. Speaker 11: Do we have any limitations on the workloads of our own employees that our city and that's for the city manager, that our city regulations not having to do with OSHA, like do we limit the number of police reports a police officer can write or do we you know, do we have anything like that that has nothing to do with OSHA? Speaker 9: Most of our regulations come to us through our muse, and our meeting confers whether it's whichever of our 11 organizations that we work with. Certainly, as you mentioned, we do have OSHA regulations in our fleet and public works departments. There's D.O.T. regulations for our refuse department on how many hours a driver can work or how many how many hours per day. We certainly have other regulations for use and our fire department, we have four man crews instead of three man crews, and we limit how many hours in a row a fire department fireman, a firefighter can work. Same thing with a PD officer. But most of the limitations that we have would be through our memorandum of understanding when we go through our labor contracts with our organizations. Speaker 11: Okay. And and do you know, Mr. West again and I know this is kind of an unfair question to ask you, because this isn't a staff item. But do you know if. Speaker 3: There are. Speaker 11: Overtime requirements and things that. Speaker 13: Are regulated through. Speaker 11: The state that we have to follow for our own employees? Speaker 4: Yes, FLSA we have to require we have to provide. Speaker 9: Overtime when people work certain hours and things and that's regulated by the state. Yes. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 11: And again, since this isn't a staff initiated item, I'm not sure who to ask the question of, but I don't how many hotels have mandatory overtime because I've not heard of too many that have mandatory overtime. So I'd like to know the answer to that question if anyone has it. And of course, anti retaliation, I'm 1,000% supportive of that. People should not be getting retaliated for advocating for their own rights or for engaging in a collective bargaining association, which I've been a member of for 18 years. I'm fully supportive of that. And they shouldn't be retaliated for for involved getting involved in that activity. In regards to the workload regulations, I will say one thing. I mean, I know this was presented and has been presented a lot as a woman's bill, but I will I will tell you guys one thing, and I can already anticipate what the reaction is going to be. But I'm going to speak genuinely and I'm going to speak from the heart. I am a woman and I am a working woman. And it is very, very important to me that I be given equal pay for equal work that I do in my work environment. And what that means to me is I don't need any accommodation in terms of the number of hours I work or the type of assignments that my employer gives me in my job, which is a male dominated job, I can do every single thing my male counterparts can do, and I expect to be paid exactly the same as my male counterparts because I will work exactly the same hours. Speaker 4: That they require. Speaker 11: And so perhaps I'm missing. Something here. Speaker 2: But if. Speaker 13: We're going to regulate. Speaker 11: Workloads, we should be regulating workloads for men and women, not just for women. We are equal in every way. Whatever a man can do, whether it's in the battlefield, in a in a mechanic shop, in an operating room, a woman can do two and she can do it at the same level. And I would argue in some cases better. So, so for me, I, I, I, I think there are aspects of this proposed ordinance that are fantastic. And I would be and I want to hear comments from my colleagues. I mean, no disrespect in expressing my genuine opinions on this. I am engaging in this debate in the spirit of civility and respect, respecting my colleagues and understanding that we may not agree on everything. I will tell you, if there was a will, I'd be ready to vote on the safety issues right now and make that an ordinance. I have concerns about the workload conditions. I shared a story with a couple of the folks from Unite here who came to see me today. And again, I'm sure there's going to be internal and external eye rolling as I share the story, but I think it's an important story to share. I flew back from Montreal on Sunday night with my husband. We were seated at the back of the plane. There were 33 rows. We were in row 32, and so we got to spend a lot of time with the flight attendants. I'm kind of chatty and I talk to anybody who will talk to me. My husband won't. So I was talking to the flight attendant and I she doesn't know I'm a council member. She certainly doesn't know about Claudia's law. But I asked her, I said, Well, how do you like these international trips? And she said, We actually really don't like international trips because when we fly international, the flight's a little bit longer and people eat more on the plane, so they put more things in the seat back. There's always crumbs and things on the floor. And so when we deplane the effort and the work that's required by the flight attendants to get the ready, the plane ready in a short period of time for the next group of passengers is very cumbersome. It's a really hard process. It's it's hard cleaning. They don't like it. They prefer the one hour flights because people don't eat full meals in the one hour flight. And so I was thinking to myself, obviously, this woman doesn't know what I do, but I was thinking to myself what would happen next if the airline industry union came to us and said, we want you to regulate the number of international airplanes that our flight attendants have to clean per day, or if any other industry came to us and said, we want you to regulate, and maybe they're not an industry that's represented by a union. Maybe it's just a group of employees at a at a carwash or at a nursery or whatever the case may be who say, you know what, we feel overworked. What are we going to say to them that, I'm sorry, your industry is not as thriving as the hotel industry, so we're not going to get involved. Speaker 2: Or. Speaker 11: Your interests, whoever is representing you is not as significant to us. So we're not going to worry about you right now. Speaker 2: Or. Speaker 11: There's less than 100 of you. So sorry you're on your own. I just think that's not fair. So it's so in my opinion, if we're going to do this, then let's be prepared to really do this. We can't say yes to one class, one class of employees. I mean, I was just thinking, what about the janitors and the chefs and the people who work the front desk? Like what aren't they going to be sitting there saying, Well, what about my workload? Speaker 2: You know, when we have a. Speaker 11: Big convention and nobody's I'm having to, you know, be standing on my feet the whole time at the front door dealing with entitled people who, you know, are upset that I'm not getting their bags. Speaker 2: I mean, what. Speaker 11: About those people? So so for me, I don't know why we're picking this one classification and not everybody. These are just concerns I have. I remain completely open minded. These are genuine questions. Speaker 2: That I have. Speaker 11: So we all work hard. You're right. So I think it's really important that we allow one another. This is a democracy. And one of the beautiful things about our country is that as long as we're engaging in civilized and respectful debate, we are in a in a room that respects democracy and differences of opinions. And just because we don't all agree on everything all of the time doesn't mean what someone has to say is funny or rude and not worthy of consideration. Everything everyone said in this room tonight is worthy of consideration, including what I had to say. And I thank you for listening. Speaker 0: Thank you. We're going to we have definitely a lot of folks lined up. I'm going to go through them here in a minute. But just want as a reminder, obviously, make sure that everyone on the council, regardless of their opinions respected and that we're obviously listening to what folks just saying. So. Councilmember Austin. Speaker 14: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to, first of all, just just to say thank you to everybody who came out and spoke this evening. Appreciated all of the letters, all of the social media attention and all of the comments here this evening. I want to first explain something as well when we bring forth an agenda item. There can be no more than four people on an agenda item. Right. And also, our brownout prevents us from being able to converse. And so that is somewhat limiting for for for the city council in terms of our ability to to really coordinate and talk about our concerns and to to to to reach public policy, sound public policy. And so we this is our forum. And our forum is as public. And and, you know, usually the lobby city council is is well attended. And so I'm glad to see so many people here this evening. The the issue of domestic workers, I'll just give you a little history. My grandmother was a domestic worker. My mother was a certified nursing assistant. She cleaned beds and made beds. My grandmother scrubbed floors on her hands and knees in a hospital for many years and retired with very bad knees. I have spent a career in all of my my my adult life here in City of Long Beach, working for better working conditions for not only hotel workers, but all workers. Right. I was on an organizing committee over 20 years ago when there was this vision to make more hotels, union and unionize more hotels in Long Beach. We saw a need. I supported measure in I've walked picket lines with hotel workers over the years and those struggles will continue, I'm sure. But I want to just let you know that I've been there over the last five years. We three large hotels in the city of Long Beach have were unionized and entered into collective bargaining agreements. We all we have agreements in place for new hotels that are in development for those to be union hotels as well. That's progress. Am I right? And it's also those hotels and the workers and unite here for for reaching into entering into those agreements. And I believe those moves have significantly impacted the growth of convention and banquet activity in our city. When this this policy idea was first brought to my attention almost four years ago now, Suji Lowenthal was on the city council, and I thought she was going to bring it forward. For some reason, it just never came forward. Janine Peirce was an organizer with with the hotel workers at the time. And I think she was the first person to bring this to my attention. I did express reservations then and concerns, as did many council members, I think, over the years about moving forward with such a policy. But I have kept an open mind and I did keep an open mind and hope that I would get sufficient data and evidence to be gathered and shared with the Council in support of a need for such a policy. What I heard here tonight was a lot of people talk about sexual assault. And, you know, that's that's not acceptable for any workplace, for any worker to experience that at any time. Right. And and and I'm not going to argue whether or not it happened or not, because I don't know the hotel guest. And they're not here to tell me whether or not it happened or not, but I'm not going to second guess someone's experience. Mike, my question is whether or not this policy as proposed will do much to change. And I'm not sure the policy as proposed will do much to change. The, the, the, the, the work, the nature of the work of a hospitality worker and the risk and that that's that's the difficult part I'm having here. No matter how big the size of the rooms or what we regulate or if we regulate anything or whether or not there are even panic buttons, I think panic buttons or and or other technologies should be employed and looked at and we should in. Courage that strongly. From the hospitality, the hotels and for our workers, I represent and work with people who work in our state correctional institutions. Right. In some of our most volatile state hospitals, they have panic buttons, they have security systems, and they also have correctional officers close by. But guess what? They get their victims of violent attacks all the time. And as a union rep. And that's my profession. I and I've committed my, my, my, my, my, my life to this to this work. I am always in contact with Cal OSHA. When something like that happens, I make sure to put it on record because it's so, so important for future reference. When I go back and to see what happened and not, not have have a record of it happening. Makes it very, very difficult to talk, to inspire or to make change or to change a policy even in the workplace. I've got to say that I'm a little bit disappointed. I'm a lot disappointed in the tone of this issue because I want to dig in and fix it and fix the issue. To use a vice mayor's term. I want to do a deeper dove. Right. I think this this this policy, as has presented, is very, very complex. And there were a lot of pieces here that we can we can really, really work on. I'm not sure that it is something that we can do in one fell swoop tonight, though. I think there are a lot of unanswered questions here. And I like to get get information from both, you know, the hotels and and and the advocates for the workers who have done a, I think, very good job of bringing data. But I asked for a lot of this data like two years ago, and I got it today. You know, unfortunately, I didn't get it. If I'd had it last week, it would have helped me shape. My, my, my, my thoughts a little bit differently on this issue. And so, like I said, I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get that. And I'll be the debrief. And while I appreciate the Iraqi's advocacy on this issue, I really didn't appreciate some of the like I said, the tone, the subtle threats, the direct threats. I found that to be very disparate, despicable, but also duly noted. And clearly from many of the comments that we received here this evening, I think some of the folks in the public are confused about the real intent and the complexity of this proposed policy. I'm sensitive I'm very sensitive to the issues of workplace safety and for hotel workers and all the workers in our city. And I hope we can walk away tonight with a commitment to support a safer, more dignified work environment and hopefully get something done. I'm enthusiastically in support of the right for union workers or workers to organize a democratic workplace and to choose a union to be their exclusive representative. Unionized workplaces result in better wages, benefits, and safer, fairer working conditions for all workers. Collective bargaining agreements work. And if you don't have one, you know, when I look around here tonight, if every one of these advocates and strong supporters of this policy were to go and talk to a union employee or nonunion employee and get them to sign a card, I think would be 100% unionized in Long Beach in no time, because it doesn't seem like we're impacting thousands and thousands of workers. We're talking about a few hundred workers. Recent Gallup polls released showed that over 60% of Americans understand the need for unions to support unions. And so to the hotel industry, it's not a matter of if, but when these hotels go union. And so I think when you and I when you sat down with me a few weeks ago, I said, I think you should get ahead of this as much as you possibly can and be prepared to work with with the the employees groups. That said, the item before us doesn't feel like super public policy, in my opinion, and it's not supported by my facts or the record of report it or there's no record of reported incidents. I'm still troubled with that. And I think, you know, we can do better. And I think tonight it would would would serve us well to do a reset hit a reset button. To to to to commit as a council to continue to work on this issue. I mean, this is there's not. I'm trying to figure out what what is the rush? This is we'll go back to the airport issue. What was what was the rush to get a policy? Why does this why can't we. Speaker 0: Take our time. Speaker 14: And deal with this issue by issue? Because truly, I mean, the clock there is a favor by giving us an abbreviated reading of this. This is this needs to be very, very, very complicated. And and it does a lot as it seeks to do a lot. I like to take our time and and break this down issue by issue and work on this to get a sound policy. And I want to have a question for the city attorney in terms of the enforceability of this. If we were to look at every element of this this this proposed policy, what role will the city of Long Beach have in terms of enforcing it as drafted? Speaker 9: The motion seeks to have the enforcement be a self enforcement by the worker or a representative of the worker under the. The last bullet under enforcement. All of the provisions would be via a private right of action in superior court. Speaker 14: So there would be no responsibility for the City of Long Beach to enforce this. Speaker 9: As I currently read the motion. That is correct. Speaker 14: I want to hear from some other council members on this. I in my opinion, this this this would be more of a vague. I think we'd be better served as a city council by offering a very strong resolution. I heard some things here tonight that I heard from the very first time that I'm interested in in pursuing. I know our hospitality industry will grow and is projected to grow over the next several years significantly. We will be hosting the Olympics and in several years we will be ramping up for that. And we will have new hotels on on on board. I'm interested in in diversifying this workforce, I think and I'll just be very honest with you, the the mental image that we have of of a hospitality worker is, is, is and so much has been made and made about Marion, the the the issues of immigrants and workers . And I get that that's important. But African-Americans should be represented in the workforce. Cambodians, the diversity of the city should be represented in that workforce. I'm not sure that the way this issue has been put before us that that is that is really reflected here. And I'm I'd like to know more about what that workforce looks like. So I'm going to just just take a take a shot at a substitute motion to request the city attorney to draft a resolution by the states, the city council, strong support for safe work, environment for all employees and Long Beach's hospitality industry that protects women . And encourage encourages the best technology with in terms of panic buttons and surveillance. You know, in the hospitality industry, in all hotels. Second, I'd like to encourage the hospitality industry to work with the London's police department to develop and review their safety plans and predict that and protect our guests and employees to come up with the best safety plan possible. Three I like the city of Long Beach to support the rights of employees to organize and democratically select a union of their choice and support collective bargaining process in the hospitality industry. Four I'd like to encourage the employees or I'm sorry to encourage the hotels and motels in Long Beach to place a priority on hiring local residents and diverse residents and the diversity of the city to fill jobs. In fact, I'd like to resolve that we support these protections for all workers and guests at Long Beach hotels and motels, regardless of their size. And that is my substitute motion. Speaker 0: There's a substitute motion. Is there a second for that second councilmember, I think got some more stupider. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. We have that. We have to conduct a meeting. Please. Please. There's a second by Councilmember Supernanny, and I brought. Speaker 14: Them to Friendly's from colleagues. Speaker 0: There's a there's a motion. And the second customer I should probably want to speak to the second. I don't have to at this point. I want to make a couple of points. We can wait to hear from our colleagues. Next up is Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 3: I want to take the time to thank everyone who came tonight and. Speaker 2: Brought their voice to this council. I think that discussing working conditions is always an important matter. Many of you know that I worked in a factory in Santa. Speaker 3: Ana as one of my jobs out of college, and I have stood behind. Speaker 2: Workers, stood beside workers and been a worker. Speaker 3: When workloads get difficult. Speaker 2: Times change and seasonal employment changes and the components of a workload are stressful and challenging. I echo the comments of Councilwoman Pryce that in any of those conditions, though, I want to be treated as an equal, and I want men and women to be treated the same. And I want to earn the same wages. Speaker 3: I also want to thank the members of Unite here who. Speaker 2: Met with me about two weeks ago or three weeks ago. And we discussed point by point throughout the policy that they had proposed and some of the concerns. Speaker 3: That I had about the policy at that time. Speaker 2: It was disappointing that in those dialogs and conversations there was no openness to modifications. I have some personal experiences. Almost two years ago, a member of my family who does work in downtown Long Beach, who does not work in the hotel industry, who does have a panic button in her workspace, pressed the panic button more than 12 times and nobody came for more than 40 minutes. She was held hostage and nobody came in her building. Our L.A. County Sheriff's. And nobody came. And so I have consistently stated that relying on technology is never enough. I am open to supporting ideas. Speaker 3: Related to real change and real protections. Pairs of people working. Speaker 2: Together, not just women, but women and men. And to other ideas that could be seen throughout this policy. And we sat through an hour and a half of public comment on this. And often the individuals speaking at the dais talked to how they had come to meeting after meeting and provided their feedback. And we accepted that feedback and made modifications. 100 meetings, 50 community meetings that came about with a policy that I know all of us feel very confident in and strongly behind. Speaker 3: And I want to get to a place like that for each and every. Speaker 2: One of you, because abuse in the workplace shall never be tolerated in Long Beach. So. I look forward to a continued dialog and I appreciate any opportunity to move in a direction of strong policy. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, we have Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you, colleagues, for your comments and your questions. So I'm going to address some of the questions. Councilmember Price, you had asked the question, why together these items together are an item about inhumane working conditions, whether it's sexual assault or whether it's having to work overtime or missing your 15 minute breaks. You've heard I was in your office several years ago when we heard from women talking about increased duties because they were skipping the bathroom, because they weren't allowed to use the bathroom on the floor that they were cleaning. And there's been a lot of tension and there's a lot of fear in some women to come forward still. But this item is not an item that is here today and hasn't been here for three years. We've had the only request that we've really had has been, can you give us more data? Can you give us more data about the sexual assaults? Well, the data we have on sexual assaults is 91% of our victims are women. That's why this is a women's issue. 80 plus percent of the women in our hotel and the people in our hotel industry are women. That's why it's a women's issue. And I think we had men come out and speak to that as well. And there are men in that industry as well. But we cannot ignore that. While we've been fighting for equal pay, while we've been fighting for equal treatment of women, it still doesn't happen. Even when we have people that are fighting for that, it still doesn't happen. And so we have to, at a local level, be able to create as much opportunity to talk about structural oppression. It's not necessarily that the manager at that hotel is the one that says, we're going to do this to our women. It's because that's the way structures are created. It's because some of these women are immigrants. And whether they're documented or not documented, they come over here and they're fighting to get the best job they can or a job that they have family already in. And that's why these industries are that way. And so I just you know, why women that's that's why women live together, because it's about inhumane working conditions. And it's not about OSHA. It's about I tell you, my first year in council, I mean, I was tired, I was exhausted. And I went through some some trauma in my first year in council, some a lot of other things. And not sleeping well at night and going through the things that I'm going through at home meant that it made it worse. And that's what we're talking about when women are overworked and they have sexual assault on top of it and they have that on top of it, and then they have to go home and feed their families. They have to go home and try to do their homework with their kids. The days that I'm exhausted or the days that my kid is the most hyper or the days that she wants my attention the most. And so that's why this is packaged together and that's why workers have asked us to keep it that way. And I agree. Councilmember Price Let's go to zero. Let's do all hotels in the city. Let's say we need to have sexual assault protections for all hotels. Speaker 6: All of them. Speaker 2: And I do want to again embark on the conversation that we have been here for three years. Yes, Sergio was in the seat and this conversation was here and we've sat down. And when I first got to office, I really did make an effort. And whether you guys, some people out there want to short discount that effort. I sat down with every manager I had to beg for a meeting with the with the last manager of the Westin and another hotel still refused to meet with me. And I came to them with the message and I met with with you, Jeremy. I met with a lot of folks. And I came and I said, You know what, guys? I've worked with you right here for ten years, not on their payroll as a as a partner for ten years. And I understand this policy more than anybody. If anybody can sit down and say, where's a middle ground here? Where are the areas that we I can learn about your industry in a better way that might help me craft the very best policy. But what happened instead of that? Whenever me and the vice mayor and several other on this council said, you know what, let's create a long process. It could be a year where we do roundtables and we talk about the research and we do all of this instead of that. We got some complaints about my role at a nonprofit that doesn't make any money off of this policy one. And so basically we said we're going to wait a year. In that year, you guys could have been doing some research and bringing back to us some actual reasons to not pass this policy instead of don't Governor. You could have done that work and been able to come back and say, here's what's reasonable. Here's what works for us. We never heard what works for you. Besides, don't do it. And that's my frustration, because I saw people in this audience and I'll put you on the spot here a little bit because we partner every policy I've done the up, the entertainment stuff, everything I've done, I've put forward a full process. A roundtable sometimes includes people throughout the city to say, I'm not going to dictate. We're going to do this together. On this one, I didn't have a partner on the other side that was willing to sit down and do that. And that's my frustration today, was saying this is not a well-made policy. This is a policy that was done by people that are experts in this field. Right. These guys are there in hotels every day throughout the world. And they've seen best practices. And we know that in New York, these practices are there. We know that in Seattle, things are happening. And so I just really want to discount that. I know the process has been difficult. And as you mentioned, the Brown Act, you know, ties us from being able to have the really get in the nitty gritty with it. But the time is now. These women have been waiting, the time is now. And so what I want to do is I would like to make a substitute substitute motion. That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, my first substitute substitute motion to pass the original motion, but to phase it in the 4000 square foot requirements over two years. In the following way, year one would be hotels over 300 rooms. Year two would be hotels 299 rooms down to 100. And I would like to see, you know, 0 to 99 in that group as well. I think that the city attorney has met several times with probably both sides. And they're this is a well-crafted policy. We've had the city attorney say that policies like this have been had litigation and they've fallen short. So I feel like we could do the right thing with our city, protecting our city and protecting our workers. And I really hope that I can count on you all to support something that people have worked really hard on. There's been a lot of research. We know that this square footage and one last time when you look at the square footage, that's something that took a long time to get to a number to understand what people are doing right now. And that's not a number that's too high. So when we know people are already cleaning that, it's about the extreme days. It's about the extreme days when we have conferences in town and conventions in town and a worker is asked to work ten or 12 hours. That's what this is about. So it's saying that we need to be able to protect that, and that's why that number is there. It's not arbitrary. Again, my substitute substitute motion is on the floor. I hope I can count on my colleagues support. Speaker 0: They can just. Thank you. Let me let me just clarify also, just so where you just clarify, there's a there's a substitute substitute motion, which is the final motion. There's a second, but is there a second for the motion? Councilwoman Gonzalez. Okay. And the district attorney I think I think the reps have a different seconder because it's the same as the as the first motion or doesn't matter. Speaker 9: Fine. It could be seconded by the councilmember from the first District. I just need clarification on the phase in period, if you could. Yes, repeat that. Speaker 2: Thank you. It says that the phase in with the 4000 square foot requirement would go over two years in the following way, year one would be hotels over 300 rooms. In year two would be hotels 219. Well, yeah, 299 rooms down to zero. Speaker 9: So that motion then eliminates the 100 rooms or more for the purposes of all of the issues the panic button, the meeting and everything, or just for the square footage. Speaker 2: For the sexual assault piece. Speaker 9: Well, that that's different than the square footage. Speaker 2: We want it for everything. Speaker 9: For everything? Yes. Thank. Speaker 0: Okay. So we have a subset. There's a lot of speakers, so we're going to go through each speaker and continue the conversation. Councilmember Supernova. Thank you. And I'd like to thank everyone who's here tonight. Many of you have been here for 7 hours, so we really appreciate your diligence. I also want to thank Councilmember Austin for his substitute motion, which I think he said, let's hit the reset button. I like that language, but I really think what we need to do is fine tune this going forward. And I don't think the substitute substitute motion really addresses that. A couple of things that I want to follow up on that Councilmember Price had mentioned. First of all, was the Emeryville case and the cost of that. And Mr. City attorney Emeryville is a much smaller community. So if if the cost of litigation there was $800,000, I think we could anticipate it would be a greater sum here. Speaker 9: Councilmember I think that's difficult to to make the analogy that based on the size of the city, the cost of the litigation would vary greatly, but the litigation would be expensive regardless. Yes, sir. Right. Speaker 0: So if you look at the responsibility we have as council members, one of them is to protect the taxpayer. And it's one thing to say that this might trigger litigation, but we don't have consensus here right now that the. Speaker 4: System would work. Speaker 0: So we might be litigating an item that that didn't wasn't successful in terms of of initiating change. The other issue that Councilwoman Price brought up was mandatory overtime. That piece I don't know if we've discussed it enough, but I think the issue I have here and again with our responsibilities, that is. Speaker 4: This is something that we don't have for. Speaker 0: Our own employees in the city. So I have a hard time philosophically with that, that. Speaker 4: How can we not how can we have mandatory overtime for our city employees? Speaker 0: But now we're going to tell the private sector, you cannot have mandatory overtime. It's a classic do as I say, not as they do. And that's a real tough hurdle for me to get over. So back to the original point, I'll support the substitute motion by Councilmember Austin. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, we have Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 10: I. I want to thank Councilwoman Councilmember Pearce for bringing this forward. I know all of us. It's been a very long night, but I really do believe in this substitute substitute motion. I believe that we need to stick with the original plan. This is something that we cannot waiver on a resolution over. An ordinance basically tells. I think many of us that this is not something that should be taken seriously. To bifurcate the item to talk about again, the data, the non reports I think is just really a slap in the face to many of the victims that have have dealt with this. So. It is. And I will say council member, super or not taxpayers, sexual victims are taxpayers, too. Speaker 6: And so I think it's they are. Speaker 10: And quite frankly, to sit there and say that we owe it to taxpayers only. Well, we are all of us are taxpayers as well. And I think it's really important that we look at, you know, the overall investments that we're making here in the city and what we're doing with our taxpayer dollars to invest into the hospitality industry. We need to get that money back to be able to and reinvest in our hotel workforce. So I hope that we we do that. And as far as facts, you know, we absolutely need additional facts as much as possible to make a more formulated decision. But I think your facts are the people that are sitting right here talking to you and telling you how it is that they are dealing with this every single day. So I will say this, that I believe we should stick with the substitute motion. I'm certainly I think we're both open to friendly amendments because we want to make sure that this is right and we get it right. But they need to be reasonable and they need to make sure that they address a lot of the issues we've addressed here today. So with that said, I hope we can stick with the substitute motion, substitute substitute motion. And again, I hope we also are able to offer some ideas that would be that would work for all of us. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Next up, I have Councilmember Andrews. Speaker 4: Yes, thank you, Mayor and I. So I also would like to thank everyone who stuck around here tonight to listen to this very important, you know, item here on the diocese. But what I'm really seriously I do understand the efforts of all the workers in the hospitality industry and this. And I sympathize with the struggles that they face. You know, I think in both the hotels and the workers, the wonderful access to our city. Without another, we would not be able to be called or be known as the tourist city of Long Beach. You know, in my opinion, a resolution is a way, I think, to express hotels that we can be a city recognized, need to address issues in the workplace, but we also want to provide them. Speaker 0: To an opportunity to resolve these matters. Speaker 4: In a collaborative way in which we're going through, you know, not result. Your work is to understand each other and work together to identify problems that are needed in a feasible option and benefit each other equally. Speaker 0: So as a city, I do think. Speaker 4: We can do what we're working for them. But what we can do is support we can support their conversations and their resolutions. So my my support would definitely be like we do the pause button because the fact that this is a very, very, very complicated situation, I think we need to really understand all of this before we start making these decisions, because this is going to be a very important decision for all of us out here tonight. And if anyone out there do not believe that we do not believe in safety or a safe place for workers, not only for FEMA's, but for me, and also because we are struggling in that. And I want to thank you very much for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next up is Councilman Austin. Speaker 14: Thank you. And appreciate the support for the the reset, the pause. And I want to encourage strongly encourage all the hotel workers as well as the hospitality industry to work together. And I think Councilmember Gonzalez and peers, we can all work together to continue to have these conversations and work on these issues because we are a world class city and we are a tourist destination. I want to know why are our city hotels and how our city hotels are different from Santa monica and how they're different from Los Angeles and in Anaheim? You all know that. I don't know it. I want to I want to learn more about this this industry that is that is very important for the future of the city. I came to this city as a as an aerospace worker or as an aircraft worker from over 25 years ago. And that industry is gone. Right. The hospitality industry is more and more important today than ever before. And so I don't want to be rushed into any sort of decision on emotion. Right. I want to make sure that we're making measured decisions, that we're making decisions that are going to be in the best interest of of of all residents. And I want our residents and hospitality workers to to to enjoy the benefits and the the profits that that that will come. From this industry in the future. And so I think we need to be very careful and measured in how we do that. And so I'm going to stand on my motion, my substitute motion to start a resolution, but also ask that that labor, that community, that the city council continue to work together. And we can come back next week with other propositions to to to continue to study this. But I think this is going to be a longer term study then. Then. Then I felt a fell swoop. And let me just say something about the council and everybody behind this dais. Everybody has a story. Everybody comes from a struggle from one way or another. I think this this this council reflects great diversity, but also from and from at every level. We've got baby boomers, we've got Generation X's, we've got millennials. And none of us were raised in the same household. So, you know, we come with different ideas, and that is what the process of making policy is all about. And I really appreciate working with all of you all. I have nothing but respect for my colleagues, even though in disagreement. So I'll be standing on my subject to most thinking. Speaker 0: Next up, we have Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 10: Hi, I'm back back on on the mic again. So what I would say to that, Councilmember Austin, is if you would entertain this is, you know, I really am adamant that we need to move forward with an ordinance. I really am adamant on that. I think the substitute substitute motion provides that. Look, you've been on council a lot longer than many of us have. So you've had and been privy to this information a lot longer than we have. We actually have a lot to learn from you. What I would say to you is that if we move forward with this ordinance, this can still you know, we have to. Is it two readings that we have to do still? Speaker 0: That is correct. Speaker 9: After it would come back. Speaker 10: We have two readings we still have to do in the interim as we've done before and former ordinances. We can get you that data and information. I think you bring up a really good point about Santa monica and other cities. So what I would suggest is it wouldn't be unreasonable for us to provide that information in the interim while this ordinance is being crafted. But tonight, we have to make this decision. I think it's really important for us to stay on the side of workers to make sure that we're that we're moving forward with this. So that's my suggestion. I'm hoping that that will be looked at in a way that will be positive and make us all happy in some in some way. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 2: City attorney, can you clarify for me the timeline that we have on this? Because I don't have it right in front of me right now. Did was there a timeline in the original motion made to come back? Speaker 9: There is not. It's a request. The as amended, the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would include these ten bullet points. But there is not a timeline to come back. Speaker 2: Okay. I was going to echo the same points that my colleague said. I would love to to ask my colleague, Councilmember Austin, if there's a timeline that you think would be suitable for us to say we'll keep going forward as an ordinance. But how long would it take for us to. Is it 30 days? Is it 60 days to come back with some numbers to where we can continue to have this conversation? I think the after all the work and a policy being out there written for three years, it's really hard to go to, you know, to to just to support in general for me. So I just wanted to ask, is there a timeline that you think that you would want to see some of these questions come back and what specific questions to? Speaker 0: Well, I really wish. Speaker 14: I had the specific questions right now in front of. Speaker 0: Me, but usually they say no. Actually, no, actually, I can't. I can't. I'm so sorry. We did public comment already. Was the council deliberating for 5 hours? I can't wait. We have to. We have to. We've done public comment. I'm so sorry, Councilman Austin. Yes. Speaker 14: I appreciate the offer. I'm going to have to respectfully decline. I really believe that moving forward with the resolution is the right way to go here and and coming back and like I said, breaking these down. Issue by issue. I'm willing to work with you to study these issues moving forward. And, you know, I don't want to put a put a timeline on on anything. Right. Well, look, I don't see it as a as a as a what's going to happen to what's what's going to be the difference between what's happening today and 30 days from now? Now, now, look, look, look. Speaker 0: Okay. All right, guys, guys, we have to we have to go back to my we had to deliberate. So, Councilman Austin. Speaker 3: That's the story in the first place. Speaker 0: Sorry, guys, guys, guys, we have to. We we I understand. We have to. I have multiple speakers, so I got to keep going through the speakers less. Councilman Austin. Speaker 14: Under. Speaker 0: Councilmember Blanca. Speaker 1: I think we paid enough discussion to call the question. Speaker 0: Okay. Questions being called. Mr. City Attorney, you wanted to cue in? Speaker 4: Yeah. Speaker 9: Just to. I need to ask for a couple clarifying on the motion, if I could. The the the waiver provision, I think, Councilmember Pierce, you mentioned that the waiver provision would apply to the workloads, I assume, and the voluntary overtime and the record keeping if there was a collective bargaining and all of the provisions would apply to all hotels. Is that the motion? Speaker 2: So the motion would be that the. The what is it called the union union opt out? I guess it would apply only on the square footage. Speaker 9: It's entitled waiver. Allowing for a waiver of this ordinance of a bona fide collective bargaining agreement is established with equivalent protections. And what I'm asking for is a definition of what is equivalent protections. Speaker 2: So everything outside of the sexual assault piece, just as you lined out, as you outlined it, I took mine apart on my binder. So I have it and multiple pages. So apologize. I mean, 1/2. So the things that would be excluded from that let me go that way. Okay. That would be panic buttons would be employees to be informed of guests info who is listed as a already as a sex offender. Speaker 9: On and if I may in that issue there it does state that of any guest on a list of alleged harassers or is a sex registered sex offender. Okay. So I'm assuming then that there would be a list of alleged harassers. And if someone could further do that for me. Speaker 2: Please exclude that from there. That's no longer included in this. Speaker 9: Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Notice of law protecting hotel employees from harassment on the back of each door. Speaker 9: Okay. Speaker 2: Unwanted sexual advances towards hotel employees and guests be able to contact the police or counselor on paid time and hotel employer to cooperate with investigation me 1/2. Let me read through the rest of these. Those are the ones that would be excluded from the union. Opt out. Speaker 4: So. Speaker 0: Hey, guys, we. Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Let me make sure that. Speaker 4: I may repeat a. Speaker 2: Long day. Speaker 9: If I may repeat it back to you as I was looking at it a little bit differently. But I apologize. Everything would be included with the exception. Yes. And under the opt out or what would be waived under the waiver provision would be the workload requirement, the voluntary overtime and the record keeping of the workload requirement. Those three items, everything else would be included in the ordinance applicable to all hotels phased in over two years. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 9: Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. There's this is that this is the substitute substitute motion on the floor by Councilmember Pearce and Council member Gonzalez. So please cast your votes on the substitute substitute motion. Speaker 3: Motion fails. Speaker 0: Motion fails. Now, now we're going to the substitute motion, which was by Councilmember Austin and seconded by Councilmember Supernanny. Please cast your votes on the substitute motion. Speaker 10: Motion passes. Speaker 0: That motion passes. Okay. So that that negates the the main motion. That's the motion that actually ends up passing, which was the Austin Superman motion. Okay. We're going to go ahead and take a one minute recess and go right into the Long Beach Values Act item, which is which is coming up next. Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 0: Shame on you. Shame! Speaker 6: Shame! Shame! No. I. Know we had. Oh. Oh. Have. I believe. Speaker 4: Get. Speaker 0: Okay. We are going to go we're going to go ahead and hear item number 23, which is the Long Beach Values Act. So if I can please get the council, we're going to go ahead and do a a roll call here. I don't know, cause I don't really know what to do. We can't do it at her. So I got to wait for Councilman Gonzales. It's okay. We are. We're just going to wait just a minute. We got to we've got to have the author to be here. Speaker 3: They turn up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes or no? Yeah. Speaker 2: Because I think out and. Speaker 0: Okay. We're going to go ahead. And while I can't do this, I'm not sure we're okay. We know we have to wait for the author. The item that's up. Why do we move on to it? We're going to do maybe one of the consent item real quick and then we'll wait for Councilman Gonzalez. So we're going to we'll call, please. Speaker 8: Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pearce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember. Super now. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Speaker 2: Councilmember Barangay. Speaker 5: Percentage. Speaker 8: Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to direct City Manager, or his designee, to draft an ordinance regarding hotels with 100 rooms or more that includes, but is not limited to the following: · Panic Buttons: Requiring that hotel employers provide panic buttons to each hotel employee assigned to working a guest room without other hotel employees present, at no cost to the hotel employee. · Notice to Hotel Employees: Requiring hotel employers to provide notice to employees, prior to starting their scheduled work, of any guest on the list of alleged harassers or is a sex offender under Long Beach Municipal Code Section 9.66.010 who is staying at the hotel and the number or name of the room assigned to the guest and warn the hotel employees to exercise caution when entering that designated room during the time the guest is staying in the hotel. · Notice in Guest Rooms: Requiring hotel employers to provide a sign on the back of each guest room door, written in a font size of no less than 18 points, that includes the heading "The Law Protects Hotel Housekeepers and Hotel Employees from harassment," no

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Speaker 8: Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 10: Mayor Garcia. Speaker 0: Okay. We're going to go ahead. And Councilman Byrd, we had a consent item number 17. Speaker 1: Yes. Our consent item number 17 deals with the park project in my district, the Willow Springs Park. And I like to hold that for the next meeting, either October 5th or October 12th. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a there's a motion to do to hold it over for two weeks. Uh, is there a second on that motion? This is any public comment on consent item 17. Okay, please cast your votes. I am glad to see some of the donors here. Speaker 3: The Court. Speaker 0: Could we get the tally? Okay. That passes. We're going to do we only had one member of public comment. We're still waiting for Councilman Gonzales to be able to do this item. She's an introducer to Mr. Goodhue. Did you want to come forward and do your public comment? 3 minutes.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution authorizing City Manager, or designee, to submit a grant application to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Outdoor Environmental Education Facilities Grant Program; accept said grant, if awarded, in an amount up to $500,000, for completion of the Willow Springs Outdoor Education Trailhead and Trail Network; and, execute all documents necessary to accept the funds and implement the project. (District 7)

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Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Why don't we go ahead and do that at one of the other hearings? Really, really briefly. Actually, no, we're we're we're back. So we're going to go ahead and do the item, actually. So, Madam Clerk, why don't we read item 23. Speaker 8: Communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilmember Pearce, Councilmember Ortega, Vice Mayor Richardson direct city attorney to draft a resolution entitled the Long Beach Values Act of 2017, affirming the city's commitment to. Speaker 3: Laws. Speaker 8: Adopted and SB 54 and the city's continued support of the California Trust Act. Direct City Manager through the Office of Equity to partner with local immigrants rights organizations. The City of Long Beach. Sanctuary City Coalition. Central Charter. California State University. Speaker 3: Long Beach. Speaker 8: Long Beach City College and Long Beach Unified School District. To write and present a local policy that expands on SB 54 and 60 days. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. I might turn this over to Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 10: Yes. I want to thank everybody for their hard work on this. I know many of us have been working on this for some time and and all of the organizations are here. And I'd like to thank them as well. Central Cha, the Sanctuary City Coalition. I know Long Beach Unified School District. We've involved them as well. Latinos in Action, Filipino Migrant Center, Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition. There's so many of them. Long Beach City College as well as Cal State. Long Beach. So as we know, this is a city that is the most diverse, in one of the most diverse in the United States, home to large communities of Latinos, Cambodians, Filipinos, Asian Pacific Islanders as a whole, and so many other cultures from all around the world. And as we know, one in four Long Beach residents are foreign born, and roughly 20% of those are considered undocumented, which means every resident in the city of Long Beach will be affected by these policies of some sort. As the daughter of an immigrant myself, I know firsthand the value of our immigrant community brings to the city of Long Beach. And frankly, if it wasn't for my mother's and my great grandmother sacrificed to come here, you know, we I certainly wouldn't be sitting in this seat. And I don't think that they ever thought that as immigrants, that their daughter, granddaughter would be now pushing policies to protect our communities in that sense. In addition, we heard from the federal government recently. The administration decided to end DOCA and we know that there are thousands of DOCA recipients here in the city of Long Beach, Cal State, Long Beach, Long Beach, City College and beyond. Approximately 800,000 of those young women and men received work permits and deportation relief through DOCA since its inception about five years ago. But I believe we need to do more here as a city. So what the item entails for all of us to understand is that there is two things. First, we're going to reaffirm our SB 54 promise. We put a lot of our efforts into State Bill 54 to ensure that it was passed, which it did, but it limits the detention for inmates with ice in it, curb state and local agencies from collecting and sharing personal information and release dates from local jails. So it will reaffirm our our our support there. Secondly, we will work through the Office of Equity to partner with our immigrant rights organizations, many of whom I mentioned earlier, and to make sure that we're partnering with them to do things such as protect our DOCA recipients and our immigrant communities as a whole, prevent future deportations, and to make sure we're working together to integrate our immigration, immigrant communities such as in ways like the work for making sure that immigrants have a place to access to employment, recognition of various things such as recognizing their out of country diplomas, affordable housing. There's so many different touch points. And I want to thank Jessica from Central CHA for bringing that information forward, because I think it's really important that we not only address the fact that there are issues going on with deportations, but it's a really comprehensive issue. This, in essence, is our this is our sanctuary policy. And it's a Long Beach Values Act is what we're calling it. We're revamping it because this is something that I know that is very important to the city of Long Beach. Every city has something a little bit different, but this is us. So not only does it provide protections, it will provide resources to our immigrants. So, again, I want to thank each and every one of you for your support in this and just know that we I personally will support you going on through through the many years as we tackle through these very hard challenges. And again, I want to thank everyone that's been on board with me to educate me as to what we could do a little bit better here locally and also as our as the first city to have signed on to the resolution with SB 54. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember, during the second hour of the motion. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I, too, am the result of immigrant parents. They came from to our vehicle. They came to El Paso, where I was born. So I'm a mixed Tex. Then came to Los Angeles, came to Long Beach to do my studies and then and so on and so forth, through to the present to where here I am today. That is very important. Back when I was a community college trustee back in 2004, 2005, there a resolution was brought forth for the DREAM Act that went through various iterations, but it never got passed. So DOCA came forward as a response to Congress's inability to pass the DREAM Act. The Dream Act. As many of you may know, is provides a pathway towards citizenship, something that I guess Congress has a hard time dealing with, but I guess are dealing with it now. And actually it's getting some bipartisan support. But that doesn't resolve what's happening with Chuck. We still have students that we represent participants who have submitted applications and who are now in limbo in regards to where their application goes from here. Should it sunset in March or at a time when kind of the president feels appropriate for him? So we have a quite we're in a quandary because we also have new applicants, people who want to apply for a new, darker status and want to continue their residency in the U.S. and work and most importantly, study, because that affects a lot of students who want to continue their education. They came over as young people went to our school system, are now ready to go into higher education, get their degrees and go on into the workforce. And there are some examples of people who have gone through our educational system and become lawyers and doctors but are afraid to practice because of their status. So Darker provides an opportunity for those individuals to apply for a work permit and continue their careers until there is a pathway towards citizenship, which the DREAM Act will hopefully someday provide. Whether the events that I held this weekend, I have the Fiesta in the park on Saturday for a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The day before, I had a reception. I and Dr. Connolly from Cal State Long Beach co-hosted a reception for Latino leaders and students at the Miller House, which is the president's, for lack of a better word, mention, I guess. Full. Very nice. Very beautiful. But whether the thing. Well, and one of the items that she brought out that day that morning, in fact, was that Cal State, Long Beach was setting aside $200,000 to help DOCA participants pay for DOCA status. That brought it. Yes, please. That brought a chill in my skin, brought a tear to my eye, because there's nothing that I care more about than anything else is the education of our children. And this provides that opportunity. So what we're doing here today is to protect those students, to protect those participants. I may not be well-known to everybody here, but it certainly is known to the 14th floor. I have a target participant working for me. I'm here and I'm proposing this and supporting this motion to protect her because of this fails and she goes away. She's out of a job. Not only is she out of a job, but she's in the registry where they can find her and deport her. And I cannot stand for that. She needs to be protected. As all, not the participants need to be protected. And I hope that with the assistance and the support of my council members that we will in fact not only protect Dhaka students everywhere, but our Dhaka participate on the fourth floor. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, we have Councilwoman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this item. And I am very, very happy to support it tonight. I'm grateful to the governor and the folks in the state legislature for working together to come up with amendments to SB 54 that I think were definitely deficient in the first draft of the ordinance and long until just until recently were fixed. And at a place where I think they allow for for prudent dialog between local and federal authorities, but not on the issue of immigration. I fully support us doing everything that we can to support those who want to gain naturalized citizenship here, helping them in any way that we can. This is I to let Councilwoman Gonzalez, my mother, naturalized here as a citizen, and I came here when I was seven and learned how to speak English when I was seven. And I believe that we live in a country that should be doing everything that we can to help people find comfort and freedom here. So I'm grateful to support this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thanks. Just want to chime in from a spot on this item. And you know, I hope that we can continue to follow the conversations in congress. Speaker 4: Around daka. Speaker 0: We have a special fed led committee meeting tomorrow night on disaster preparedness, but we plan on passing our federal legislative agenda at the following meeting in November. So. So at that meeting in November, we will likely evaluate where the the law is in Congress and try to take some action there. But again, I'm going to vote in support of this. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Councilman Gonzales. Speaker 10: I'm sorry. You can go ahead. Speaker 0: Councilman Austin. Speaker 14: Thank you. And I will be supporting this motion as well. I don't believe I believe that our dreamers have contributed greatly to our country. They contributed greatly to our city. I, too, have a dreamer on my staff as we speak. And she's doing great work. She went to Cal State, Long Beach political science major, and she's come in and and done some wonderful work in our office. We would hate to lose her at this point. And and but more importantly, her family is a wonderful family. And this the the the repeal of of DOCA by the administration proposes to to to break up families. And I think that is the absolute wrong way to go. And so I'm in full support of this motion, and I think our city should be fully in support of of our dreamers. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you to. Speaker 2: Well, I as one of the sponsors obviously stand with all of our immigrants. And I'm going to continue to stand with them. And I'm really glad that we have the state that kind of laid out some some boundaries for us so that we can continue to say we support workers and immigrants here in our city because we've done so at the state level. And so I'm very thankful to have my colleagues on this item. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 2: I support chambers. I support state. Speaker 3: Law. I really wish that we would follow our own process. 54 has passed. Speaker 2: And this should have gone to our state legislative committee. And I think that a lot. Speaker 3: Of the components of this are moot at this time. But I feel that we are a. Speaker 2: City, that we support our residents. Speaker 3: And with that, I hope that we can work through a process where state items. Speaker 2: Go to the state committee and federal items go to the federal committee as we have set forth as our policy. Speaker 3: So for that. Speaker 0: Okay, Councilman Andrews. Yes. Thank you. Speaker 4: I think the individuals in line, I think you can tell that this is a no brainer. You want it? Okay. Yeah. I'm totally supporting this item. Speaker 0: But thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 14: Yes. So it's great to see, though, that there's a majority in support already on this item. But I did have have a question quickly regarding the specifics to the author. Councilmember Gonzalez, it says, direct the city manager to the Office of Equity to partner with local immigrant rights organization to lobby Sanctuary City Coalition, Central Charter Council, their Long Beach Lobby, City College and Long Beach Unified School District to write and present a local policy that expands SB 54 and 60 days policy consideration should include blah, blah, blah. Is that coming back to the Council for the policy? Because we set the policy is that are those stakeholders going to recommend the policy to the city council for us to bring forth. Speaker 10: Well, that they can add in. Yeah, absolutely. They're going to work together. And I think in conjunction with everything we've provided here, which is a lot of what they'd been asking for already, I think we can bring something back that is solidified within 60 days. So yes, they will work with the Office of Equity. They're going to craft something, come back in 60 days, and. Speaker 14: Here we are. And it'll come to the city council. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. There is a councilman, mongo. Speaker 2: Any chance it'll see the light of day at that state ledger before it comes back? I mean, if it's brought back with enough notice. Speaker 14: For the state led committee, it's already passed. Speaker 3: I realize that. Exactly. I think we should follow state law. I think that's a reasonable position. Speaker 2: Just a. Speaker 4: Thought. Okay. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a there's a motion in a second. Let me go through the public comment now. Please come forward and we're going to do the first couple of three and then we'll get down to two like we did all the others. Go ahead. Speaker 3: My name is too short and it won't stay down and I can't read. Speaker 0: The thing on the podium goes down actually, which will lower it a little bit for you. Go ahead. It'll lower for you technology. Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. Speaker 13: My name is Linda Fox. I'm a recovering that is. Speaker 3: Retired academic, but I'm here tonight representing National Council of Jewish Women Long Beach. I am a recently retired state policy advocate for California. There are three of us in the state from the national organization Anti-gay. California supported SB 54 in its most visionary form as a priority bill. And in fact, 75 around the state supported through a lobby day and made 40 visits to legislators that day. It's not a perfect bill, but it's a crucial step forward. And what we need here without any delay is a local sanctuary policy which will address the gaps, the gaps in SB 54 and end and ensure that Long Beach City resources are not used for deporting people. The faith, faith based perspective of National Council of Jewish Women informs our actions on behalf of repairing. Speaker 2: The harm and separation. Speaker 3: Caused by a broken immigration system. We, as people of the Jewish faith are commanded to help heal the world, not cause destruction. And so that old adage, love your. Speaker 2: Neighbor as yourself does not mean. Speaker 3: Only citizens or people with papers living in the constant fear of deportations and law and and also fear of law enforcement have has a great impact in a number of our Long Beach neighborhoods where immigrant families. Speaker 2: Live and work. I don't have to go into the fear factor. Speaker 3: You know, it affects adult. Speaker 2: Children. Speaker 3: Young adults. Speaker 2: DOCA, everybody. And no one should be. Speaker 3: Forced into these difficult situations. A.J. W Long. Speaker 2: Beach supports a Long Beach where everyone, regardless of immigration status, can live and work. Speaker 3: In safety and dignity. A citywide sanctuary for all policy drafted with community input will defend the dignity and civil rights of the people who call Long Beach home. Please vote yes on drafting this policy. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hello, everyone. My name is Carla Jimenez, and I'm with Latinos in Action. Every human being matters and does not deserve to be filled with walls of UN security when taking their children to school or conducting daily chores. The safety of our community is important if our immigrant community is in fear. Speaker 3: We suffer. Speaker 5: With them because. Speaker 2: We cannot have a peaceful community. Long Beach needs a local sanctuary policy to prevent future deportations from families being separated. If families live fear of deportations or the law enforcement, this is going to keep causing a negative impact in the community and then even in the people's health, every human being matters. Let's go sanctuary now. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay, thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 2: Hi. Good evening. My name is Gaby Gascon. I'm a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach and on a bi and Long Beach, which is a Filipino youth and student organization. And both of these organizations have been involved in the Sanctuary Long Beach campaign. And I work in the Second District. I speak to you today from a place of privilege. As a second generation Filipino American, I don't have to spell out the struggles that immigrant communities are facing today. I'm sure you are all well aware and I've seen my own family members go through these struggles while they're in the process of getting their papers. And it's I'm sure it's a common experience among your constituents and the people in this room. The city should be prioritizing the safety and well-being of those who make Long Beach a rich, multicultural city and ensure that their quality of life is just as good as everyone else's. And honestly, but last item is really frustrating to sit through. So I'm going to do my best to stick with this speech. But, you know, there has been support from city leadership for campaigns and developments that would directly affect those people that we need to be protecting the most, such as the 2028 Olympics. And, you know, like enticing Amazon to come set up their headquarters in our city when inviting with them the issues that directly affect immigrant communities like, you know, gentrification, contractual jobs and displacement, a militarized police presence, it drives out diversity, as we can see in the city of Seattle, which already has the Amazon headquarters. Tourism may be good for the rich, but we should be more concerned with the long term effects on the working class people who call Long Beach home. We have a chance to shift that focus from profits and revenue to the needs of the people. And yes, immigration enforcement is not a productive or appropriate use of local resources, but the Long Beach Police Department already. Speaker 10: Has like 48%. Speaker 2: Of the city budget. So with all of that money just assuring public safety for a, you know, a certain class of people and not the most vulnerable in our society, it's crucial now more than ever to show support for this legal fight here in America and protect everyone so our communities can continue to thrive. When people are not living in fear of deportation, they're more willing to report crimes, utilize public services, and enrich their lives by working or going to school. And especially now with talk of being rescinded, we often hear the language used to humanize the undocumented with their worth being placed in their occupation, their degrees, or their GDP value . First and foremost, these are human beings. And now before him, American I and everyone and on a bond is reminded of a community's forced migration. It's caused by 100 years plus of U.S. imperialism, which has kept our country economically undeveloped. That is why 6000 Filipinos leave the Philippines every day to find work overseas. 1 million out of 4 million Filipinos in the U.S. are undocumented. 20,000 Filipinos reside in West Side, Long Beach, and 130,000 Filipino youth are eligible for it. So do one right thing tonight and vote yes on this. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I'm really apologizing in advance. Speaker 4: There is no way I would be able to follow that up. Speaker 0: My name is Stephanie Morrison. Speaker 4: So I'm a resident of the second District and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Long Beach Branch. When I originally made the speech, I was intending really to be able to compel some recalcitrant members of the council into voting in favor of it. However, with the unanimity that's being expressed here, I think that there is a real good basis for going forward, perhaps with a more expansive form of this sort of legislation, purely because if we are in put it frankly, if we are not provoking federal response against it and against the city, it is an inadequate policy. The federal government has made it clear, it has made it clear that they are going to be continuing on a race based deportation strategy, taking away residents and of the city people who have lived here for. Honestly, who cares how long and who cares about the amount of economic value that they contribute to the city? They're human beings with rights to exist without without fear. Speaker 0: That if they complain about. Speaker 4: Unsafe work conditions on their job, then they could be risking deportation. Speaker 0: Or if they drop off their child. Speaker 4: At school personally instead of that, they could be risking deportation. Robert It wasn't until 1986 with the amnesty bill that your own family had the ability to be able to stay here without fear of retribution from the fear of ice. And it was linked to a comparably sane Republican, you know, Ronald Reagan, that you had a legal status to be able to be the mayor. Here today, we have a much different federal government here today. We have a Republican Party that is refusing to acknowledging to a demographic shift and is refusing to organize politically outside of anything beyond white supremacy. That said, we need a local policy that strenuous and direct enough to be able to challenge the federal government and show them what the real intent of their this sort of deportation strategy is that you never get it. Speaker 0: Thank you, Stephan. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening. My name is streaming chair and I'm a senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, which is headquartered in Los Angeles. So Long Beach is long overdue in passing a policy to protect immigrant residents who have been facing the threat of deportation since long before the current administration. ICE agents and. Speaker 10: Deportations have been present in the city for years, terrorizing communities and separating families. Speaker 2: So I applaud this effort to begin work on an ordinance. Speaker 3: And some key. Speaker 10: Points of an ordinance, I think, would be to make sure that information. Speaker 2: Collected that's related to immigration status is not shared with ICE. Also making sure that local law. Speaker 10: Enforcement is disentangled from. Speaker 2: ICE and not spending local resources on immigration. Speaker 10: Enforcement. Speaker 2: We know that often people go to the city for critical services and we don't want people to feel deterred or scared. Speaker 10: To access these services out of fear that somehow their personal information, including their status or their home addresses, will be shared with ICE. In addition. Speaker 2: I wanted to stress that what you're undertaking is fully legal. Speaker 10: As you know, the city has the discretion to decide how to use your local funds and also the discretion to decide how the local law enforcement resources are used. It's been. Speaker 2: Jurisdictions that have decided to comply with ICE, that have. Speaker 10: Been the ones that have faced lawsuits and often had to pay out settlements. Speaker 2: So language should. Speaker 3: Really craft. Speaker 2: Policies that protect the dignity. Speaker 10: And human rights of all its residents. Speaker 2: And I encourage you to do so as. Speaker 10: You'll be standing on the right side of history. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Just 1/2, sir. We may have just lost quorum, so I just need to make sure we get it back. Give me one. Give me 1/2. Okay. Okay. Go ahead, sir. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 4: And council members. I'm Bob Collegian. I live in the third district, but my church is two blocks north of First Congregational Church of Long Beach. And I am the chairman of the Board of Social Outreach, Outreach and Justice. Speaker 0: We take care of a lot of the. Speaker 4: Members of our local community. We offer afterschool tutoring and a summer day camp. We we have a charter school, lots of Hispanic kids in the area. And all I can say is that I'm really grateful and want to applaud your courageous and compassionate move today. And I want to also recognize and I hope you recognize that it's just a small thing that you're doing in some ways because it's giving some protection. But the work that we have to do, as many organizations here in the city is ongoing to create a rapid response teams, to educate the the undocumented community and so forth . And I want to us to both applaud the efforts of many organizations here in Long Beach who are going to carry this sanctuary movement clearly into the next few years because of the chaos in Washington. And I want to thank you very much again for voting for this this resolution. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 7: Hello. Can I can I give you this document before I start? Speaker 0: Sure thing. The Political Ticker right over here. Speaker 4: The attorney. Well, yeah. Speaker 0: Well, we'll give it to the attorney. No problem. Speaker 3: Well. Speaker 4: Pretty much. Speaker 0: I'm going to the mike so we can get a recording. Speaker 4: I want you to start by saying. Speaker 7: That a lot of these problems are side effects. The real problem that's not really being addressed, and that is that the cost of living is too much. So how do we get the cost of living down and how do we get more money into their pockets so they could spend it on your infrastructure and your business? Right. So how about we propose an idea on how we can make the common person pay to build their own home? Solving a lot of these issues all in one fell swoop. And making the cost of living zero. How is that? How is that wrong? How is that bad? And how is that not a solution to a lot of how these problems are coming up? And there's a lot of talk about buttons, right? And so how about this is a solution to not push that button or make it where we don't have to push the button? It's that simple. It's everything that we're doing already is just how we're doing it from this point on could be different. So what I'm proposing is a bill to allow that to happen. Is that okay with you guys? Speaker 0: You can continue. Speaker 7: All right. Well, first of all, you know, there's all this money getting thrown away into the garbage, literally by spending the money on getting rid of the trash. So how about we create a new industry on making the trash into the homes and making it safe and healthy for people because people are already doing it in parts of the world that aren't as fortunate as the United States. So how about we make jobs that way and we turn deserts into rainforests and make houses for people who can't pay for them for themselves? Right. But I'm sure that if there's an empty lot that's $3,000 a month, I'm sure 12 people could get together and pay that off every month. And if in two months you could finish the development, in six months, you could grow your food and look for zero. How does that not get money in everybody's pocket? And how is that not make everybody satisfied with how they're living? Because honestly, I'm not that rich and I'm pretty fucking happy. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hello. Hello? Council members. Speaker 4: Mayor. Speaker 0: Some of you guys know me. Some of you guys don't. My name is Rashid Daka, and I'm a business owner. I live on the second district. Speaker 4: I own a business with my family. Speaker 0: I'm a barber. Our business has received salaries. Honor. Speaker 4: Honor as California Business Day Award for our efforts with our community. I'm also a board member. Speaker 0: Of the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition, and my speech was a little different. But instead of I urge you, I thank you for seeing us, for. Speaker 4: What we are. We are not a number or a word. We are people. We are sons, brothers, dads, moms, neighbors, coworkers, friends, and your local barber. Speaker 0: Who, by the way, we employ as citizen. We are part of a big puzzle that makes Long Beach. Speaker 4: Long Beach. Thank you for seeing who we are and how important it is to protect. Speaker 0: Us, because protecting us is protecting lonmin's thinking. Thank you so much next week. Speaker, please. Good evening. Speaker 4: Counsel folks. Speaker 0: My name is Chris and I am a campus leader at Cal State Long Beach, and I'm here in support for the for a sanctuary city. The students of Cal State Long Beach have been advocating for undocumented students since way before the establishment of similar situation. Speaker 4: We have been applying pressure to our ministration for a time. Speaker 0: And resource center. As of now, the the funds that were allocated for DACCA students was not just out of the kindness of. Speaker 4: The administration, but through the pressure. Speaker 0: Of the students as we organize to inform the needs of undocumented students. As a student leader, we have been targeted, being privileged and documented here. I can only imagine the fear that undocumented folks experience on a daily basis. And I urge you to move forward in this ordinance. And thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hi. Speaker 5: My name is Riley. Never Meet is. Many of you know me for many times that I have been speaking in this podium. But it's not a secret that I am an undocumented person. But at. That doesn't stop me to be helping my community, to be involved in my community, try to fight for truth and justice in this time. I'm not a scare about me. I know that I'm the comment, the person, but I'm not a scary mommy. I must care about those kids that sometimes has been talking with some of them and they say, I don't want to go to the school. I ask them Why? Because if I go to the school, when I come back, maybe my mom and my dad is not going to be at home because they are going to be. Take it. It makes me feel really, really sad seeing those kids, having those trauma kids who are in preschool practically three years and a half , something like that, because they hear they know kids are really, really smart. And I really here to us to protect these families. I work with community when I do door knocking and I tell them I'm working with housing issues. Do you have to report your landlord? You have to call this back. Don't you have to do this? You have to do that. And they say, no, I'm scared because the landlord to me that they going to send immigration, they're going to send ICE and they don't talk because the laws. Things that there is living in this condition. Living in this way. I. Because I am that position and in that situation I know how is that? But like I say, start thinking not only. And those parents that thinking on those kids are the future of this country. The young ones, those kids being charming their whole life be growing without their parents. Is what you earn in this city. We need to do something and we need to do it now. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker. But just like we did for the other items. So now we'll go down to 2 minutes, please. All right. So good evening or good night, city council members. My name is Jerry Menez. I'm a resident of District two and I'm a youth organizer with the Filipino Migrants Center. I'm born and raised here in Long Beach, and my family came from the Philippines in the late eighties. And I'm also a son of a former undocumented mother. My mom has been in this country for over 24. Speaker 4: Years as. Speaker 0: A caregiver taking care of the elderly. She has always loved giving back to the elderly and making sure that they are well taken care of. Caregiving jobs are one of the only jobs available for Filipinos that are leaving the Philippines every single day just to provide a better life for their families. My mother has faced lots of struggles raising her two twin boys, and we wouldn't see her for months at a time since she lived and with the patients she experienced being taken advantage of by her employers because she was undocumented. Sometimes she she wouldn't even receive or check on time and wouldn't even get paid for all the hours she worked. Other times, employers call their racist names and degrading names. These are some of the things that undocumented caregivers like my mom go through, and they give everything to the elderly and to our communities. But in return, they're left in the dark and treated inhumanely. She's not the only one that I fear for. I also fear for the youth that I also work for with the Filipino Migrant Center. A majority of the youth are immigrants and some are undocumented and recipients, just like my mother. The youth and the families came to this country to have a better life. My youth fear for the families, friends and communities and even themselves. They may be deported. They have worked so hard to get an education in this country and now they and their loved ones can be deported tomorrow. I have learned so much from them because they are our future leaders in our communities. So we do need a local sanctuary policy and we want you all to vote yes to I mean, creating and drafting the sanctuary for all policy for Long Beach and for the city. So whether it's a mother, caregiver, doctor, recipient, youth, family. We're all people and we're not illegal. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Council members. My name is Christopher Chavez. I'm a resident of the sixth District. And first, I'd like to thank council members Gonzalez, Pierce, Yanga and Richardson for bringing this resolution. Speaker 4: To the council. The proposed ordinance of the council. Speaker 0: Even though that it appears that there is definitely a majority for this or that, I still feel that having this public comment is an. Speaker 4: Important exercise to go through because it. Speaker 0: Shows not only do you care about our undocumented residents, but it shows that Long Beach cares about our undocumented residents and this community stands for its people. Speaker 3: I also. Speaker 4: You know, I can't claim to be a representative of the undocumented community because I. Speaker 0: Myself was born here. But I am most of the grandson of immigrants. I have many friends, many, many friends who I care deeply about who are under ICA. And personally, I feel that those people are more representative of America than any Nazi, any clan member, any writer, anybody who threatens the threatens the diversity of this country. So, again, members, I thank you for your work on this, and I look. Speaker 4: Forward to seeing what Long Beach does to continue making me proud on this issue. Thank you very much. And go beach. Speaker 0: Thanks, Chris. Always keeping that school spirit, which is good. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hi. Thank you for having me here. My name is yes. I am a staff member of Filipino Migrant Center, but I'm also a member of a grassroots migrants organization called Migrant. And I would like to share some of their stories with you because they got be here tonight. One of our members here in Long Beach works for as a caregiver. She's been working for an agency for more than three years and she's being paid $8.75 per hour, which is below minimum wage. We all know that. She asks for a raise, and when she did that, her employer told her, You don't have papers. Who are you to ask for a raise? She found out later that that employer reported her to ICE. She is a single mom and she is having a hard time finding a new place to work where she is safe and still being paid well. It's hard to find places like that just because of her status. We have another member and she's being paid $6.50 per hour as a caregiver as well. And she's undocumented as well, but she's too scared to file because her employer has too many connections and she's scared that her family will be divided because of that. Her family lives with six people in a one bedroom apartment. Because that's all they could afford. I have a lot more examples that I can bring up. It could be much worse, too. But my point is that there are people, employers out there who use the fear of undocumented immigrants to exploit them, abuse them, and get more money off of them. And what we're asking is actually quite the minimum. I feel like the California Values Act is getting watered down. So I'm really asking for a Long Beach to consider a much stronger just trust act. I mean, and so yeah, just use your position because you know, the more they're getting criminalized here, the more they're being abused. And you have this opportunity to make some change in that. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hello. Speaker 4: My name is Michael Sole, author. I live in the fifth District represented on the city council by Councilmember Stacy Mango. I am chair of the Social Justice Council at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. One of the seven core principles of Unitarian Universalist churches affirms the democratic process. We believe that everyone should have a voice and a say in matters that affect them. It should therefore come as no surprise that we are nearly universally registered to vote, and we exercise that right and obligation in every district in Long Beach. Today I speak in favor of sanctuary for all, regardless of what our county, state and federal governments do. We need a local sanctuary policy to prevent future deportations by limiting information collection. Ending cooperation with ICE and ensuring city resources are not used for deporting people. Unitarian Universalists believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That belief is unqualified. It does not assert that someone's worth is predicated on a piece of paper, the land of their birth, the language they speak, or the color of their skin. We believe in justice, equity and compassion, something that is sorely lacking in the policies being coming out of Washington. While we will work for comprehensive immigration legislation at the federal level and at the very least DOCA, we also expect our local communities to resist unethical and immoral treatment of human beings who are, as some have noted, Americans in every sense of the word except for a piece of paper. I urge you to support sanctuary for all. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hello, council members. My name is Donna Leone. I live in the seventh. Speaker 10: District and I'm with the Democratic Socialists of America, Long. Speaker 2: Beach. So I myself am. Speaker 11: The child of. Speaker 10: Immigrants. My parents were undocumented immigrants. They came to this country from Mexico. Speaker 2: And for 23 years, they were undocumented. Speaker 10: And for. Speaker 2: 23 years, they lived in fear every day. Speaker 10: That it would be the last day that me or my sister would see them. Me and my sister would come home from school. Speaker 2: Afraid that we wouldn't see my parents again. And we need to make sure here in Long Beach that nobody ever needs to go through that again. Nobody deserves to live. Speaker 10: In that fear. Speaker 2: We don't we're not we're not a free country. Speaker 10: If we can't just secure this basic right that people don't live in. Speaker 2: Fear of being deported every day. Speaker 10: We can't call ourselves a free country. We don't have even that. Speaker 2: And ice, I want to. Speaker 10: I can't emphasize this enough that ICE. Speaker 2: Is a soulless agency. ICE doesn't care about human rights. They violated numerous, numerous human rights multiple times. And they don't deserve an ounce of any support of any resources from Long Beach. Forget that. They don't deserve any support. They don't. They shouldn't exist, period. But they do. So Long Beach needs to make sure that zero resources go to ice, because ice. Speaker 10: Plain and simple, is going to terrorize our immigrant communities here in Long. Speaker 2: Beach. So I want to thank you for your vote. I want to thank. Speaker 10: You for helping us out. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Goodnight, Eden. To have us feel representative for Congressmember Alan Lowenthal. He wanted me to read this. Speaker 3: Statement. Speaker 2: About this item. I want to express my support for the Language Values Act of 2017, affirming the city's commitment to SB 54 and the city's continued support of the California Trust Act. I also encourage. Speaker 10: The city to work with local immigrant rights organizations. Speaker 2: To write and present a local policy that expands on SB 54. A city wide policy will help prevent future deportations by protecting the confidentiality of local immigrant residents and their information, and by ensuring that no city resources are used to create registries based on religious affiliation, immigration status, or any other protected class like gender, sexual orientation or race. The presence of federal immigration agents in our community has a negative impact in neighborhoods like Cambodia town and central Long Beach, where many immigrant families live. Living in constant fear of deportation has a tremendous impact. Speaker 3: On the health of those immigrant families in our community. As you may know, I have. Speaker 2: Been a longtime advocate of immigration reform and family reunification. Deportations destroy families and communities. Please support the Long Beach Values Act and protect these vulnerable communities. Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 11: Hi. My name's Angela Perez. I'm a resident of the second district. Sorry, I'm. Speaker 5: A little sick. Speaker 11: As an undocumented student, we often say undocumented, unafraid. Speaker 2: But I am here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I am here to say that I am undocumented and very afraid. There is fear in our community. Fear of separation of families and the country we grew up in. Speaker 8: My parents brought me here at. Speaker 13: A very young. Speaker 3: Age to. Speaker 2: Show me the importance of education. They started juggling 2 to 3 jobs, each while raising four children. Speaker 8: Them, themselves being undocumented, often. Speaker 2: Faced a lot of discrimination and hatred for fighting for what. Speaker 8: They believe. Speaker 5: Then all they hoped. Speaker 2: For is for their children to have access. Speaker 3: To higher education. Speaker 10: This nation was. Speaker 2: Built on the values of freedom and. Speaker 11: Strength. Speaker 2: My parents, as well as myself, deserve to live in a community away from fear and deportation, as well as discrimination. As a doctor recipient, I may temporarily receive some protection, but I fear for the two people who raised me and taught me the strong values I hold and act on. For the community who showed me how to fight for my rights and for my undocumented sisters, brothers and parents. Speaker 8: The time is now. Speaker 2: To act for all undocumented communities. For the dreamers and their parents. For a safer space. A sanctuary city and inclusive city to all because we. Speaker 3: Acknowledge hard work. Speaker 8: And commitment. Speaker 2: I urge you to make Long Beach Sanctuary City and continue to push for SB 54 and open the discussion. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Oh, thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Speaker 9: Hi there. My name is Connor Locke. I'm a resident of the third district. Thank you, honorable mayor and council for being up this late. Thank you to all your staffs for being up this late and the staff that's here supporting as well. I remember the last time that this kind of resolution was here before the council. I was here then as well. I thought that was a late meeting. It's my first really lake meeting since I moved to Long Beach, and I remember that the four honorable members of council who proposed this resolution were in support of the original SB 54 as well. So thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales, Councilmember Pearce, Councilmember Urunga and Vice Mayor Richardson for supporting it the first time as well under the cover of the state advocating in favor of this passing the bill. It's much safer now for members of the Council to support such a such a message to the federal government supporting the citizens and the residents, whether they be citizens or not, whether they want to be or not of our city. And I thank you for for affirming this today. And I hope you continue to live up to that, that you decided to seek public service to serve those people who live here, those people who we have invested in and who will invest in our communities. So thank you. Please keep it up. And the next time a decision like this comes before you have the courage to support it the first time. Rather than waiting for someone else to give you cover. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Good morning, everyone. My name is Kieran Harper. I live in the third district and I'm here representing the Long Beach Area Peace Network. We want to thank you all for still being here and caring about this issue. We want to be on record in support of the expanded Long Beach version of SB 54. We want to state that we want local resources to build better lives, not to terrorize, and that just like no babies, a bastard. No child or adult is illegal, capable and corporate can cross borders easily and wreck wreck wreak havoc in communities. People are worth more than absurd, nasty laws. Thank you. Speaker 0: So much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hello again. I might not yell this time, but I can't make any promises. Again, for those who don't know me, my name is Nerida. I was born and raised in Long Beach and I live in the ninth District. I was born I would lived in the ninth district my whole life. And what I've seen growing up in Long Beach has never Long Beach has never felt safe for me, even though I love my city and I love the people that live here. Long Beach City Council has never represented me or my community. And I'll tell you why. Growing up. My. The worst thing somebody could go through, I couldn't document. My mom is undocumented and my sister is undocumented. I was born here. But to grow up with that fear that maybe. Speaker 3: Would take my support system would be taken away from me is the worst thing you could live through. Speaker 2: I grew up in Long Beach, where in Long Beach Boulevard and 53rd Street Ice Van showed up during the Bush times and took my neighbors took everybody that was there. We happened to get away and we ran and we told everybody and everybody here. But that's Long Beach. That's the Long Beach that I know. That's the Long Beach that I grew up in. And that's the Long Beach that still exists. We need a sanctuary city that represents us. I am tired of being called an immigrant. We are native to this land. This is our land. I am not an immigrant. My mom is not an immigrant. The border didn't cross. I didn't cross the border. The border crossed us. Speaker 3: We have been here since the beginning of time. Speaker 13: Go dig in the freeways. Go dig in the dirt. Speaker 2: You'll find my ancestors there. Speaker 13: I know that my people go to the museums. They look like me. Speaker 2: We are native to this land. This sanctuary city is to protect the people that are. Speaker 3: Native to here. We should not be kicked out because colonizers because people like Trump. Speaker 2: Want us out. They're afraid that America is looking brown again. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Thank you. Council members. Thank you for for this discussion. I really think that this this legislation this this ordinance doesn't go far enough. We need an ordinance that helps people register to become a regular real citizen workers. They come here and they're in the shadows. There's 800. Speaker 1: 800,000 students that are in the shadows. There's 11 million people that are in the shadows because. Speaker 4: They don't have a path to just becoming someone. They have names. They have they have mothers and daughters and sisters and everything else. And we just decide to call them aliens or decide call them whatever the colonizers want us to call them. When you say tomato, that I our God, that you're speaking that while you're speaking native language, that's from hearing me say Seattle, you're speaking native language. From here we are brown people. We were mixed. We're we're Caucasian. We're from everywhere. You guys clearly represent the. Speaker 1: Diversity in this nation. Speaker 0: And our poor. We we we exploit. Speaker 4: Others, and we bring the price cheap here. Why not make them here and pay people here and have them register here instead of bringing basically allowing this illicit work to happen, instead of just letting them register and being real people. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: And a christianson, my son George. Two horses, Christensen, Lakota, my daughter's Omaha. You've already met her fighting against having a whole bunch of white people dress up like Indians. A fun activity every year. Put an end to that. Thank you. With your help. Miss Price for that. My son was talking with somebody about immigration who was saying, you know, we got to get these people out. And he said so. When did the door close? Like, when did that clock stop? Like, did it stop? Like last year? Did it stop when your parents came in to stop 100 years ago? When did it start? When do you get to say you're proud to be an immigrant but you don't want any more immigrants? When do you get to say that? Because it's interesting about time. You know, if you like I talked to a lady who doesn't want in Stacey's district, she doesn't want a five storey building on her corner and she blames it on these Mexicans coming up here. And I said, well, we're pretty far apart on that issue since my kids are Native American. And I believe that Native American people have been here a long time. And Native American is America is a European name, but indigenous is indigenous. India, China and India. Los Indios. They Christopher Columbus called them the indigenous people with God. Maybe. Who knows? He was lost. Still is. But the reality is, okay, I've only got 32 seconds, so I'm going to change the topic. But just just think about that. When you sit and make a law, we're still asking to make laws in spite of all the horrific laws, laws, you know, removing Indians, massacring its in the state, massacring Indians by law. So we're asking for another law. I'm all for it. But when you're making this law, I'd like to turn to the prosecutors in the room, Mr. Parkyn and Ms.. Price, and ask their special help in changing a pattern of our police, which is to overcharge everybody that gets arrested with a felony and then let them plea out to a misdemeanor. When you're charged with a felony, sometimes you get deported. This is a pattern. It's not prosecutor pattern, it's habit. It's our pattern. So let's change that pattern. Let's put a real hold on overcharging. People are charging them at all, really, especially if they're undocumented. Speaker 0: Can the government next speaker, please? Speaker 5: When does not is what. Speaker 0: It's not just we're going to do the double the tempo and put them in double time. Speaker 5: When it's not just an hour, I'll call Robert Garcia equals the hell is the personnel. Number is loaders Navarro DICKERSON is sooner Euna Lee literally be known as L.A. because like he Lagardere is he enters Wednesday and Thursday listing the legacy Angola Atlantic as a key and a presentation. Let me congratulate you on the icon and the fake communities organizations estoy para appoggiatura la comunidad immigrant. There can be a body that maybe an Iraqi immigrant they love a scene to San Quentin and lost an acquaintance but okay you always to your point but I guess was the Rachel's Santos but that was reporter for them believes in needle integrity that for families it's almost a parental support position is what case was now focused on Randle get less familiar so this integrin what if I were both a parakeet? Long Beach said I want us to that Santuario What is the madrassas? Yes support your is the competency on your Lisbon vigor aluminum. Speaker 3: Mr. Mayor. Robert Garcia. Speaker 10: Council members and staff. Good evening. My name is. Speaker 2: Lourdes Navarro Dixon. Speaker 10: And I'm a member of the Church of Divine Nazareth. That if you don't know Sereno, it's located at 600 East Atlantic and Fifth Street. And I'm here representing my congregation. I live in the Second District. I'm here representing my congregation and Echo, which is interfaith community organization. I'm here to support the immigrant community. My father also came as an immigrant in the fifties around 1950, and I'm asking that their rights be respected and that they can live without fear and insecurity. Speaker 2: Please, we need the. Speaker 10: Deportations. Speaker 3: To stop. Speaker 10: And this is causing families to break up. Please vote for Long Beach to become a sanctuary city. Thank you very much for your support and your understanding. May God bless you and shine his light on you. Speaker 0: Just let just thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good morning. My name is Kevin Yeager and I'm a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a District one resident. Tonight, we're talking about people living in our city, working in our community, in our hotels and our port, making Long Beach into the beautiful city that it is. Despite this, many of these people live under threat of arrest, after which they could be sent to a for profit detention center, subjected to physical and sexual assault, and finally separated from their family and community. For many, the only community they've ever known leaving one's home and relocating to another country is an extremely difficult process. But we know many of the reasons why people are forced to do this. We know that many of our community members come here from Central America or Southeast Asia, fleeing conditions that the U.S. has wrought on their home countries, be they economic policies, military intervention or natural disasters supercharged by climate change, by Western countries emissions. So all this to say, it has always been and will always be the case that people are forced to migrate. We will always have many neighbors who are undocumented. And while we recognize that this racist and class's immigration system is largely outside of Long Beach is control, there are still steps that we can legally take to protect our most vulnerable communities by ending cooperation with ICE and ensuring that city resources do not aid in immigration enforcement. We can help protect we can help prevent some future deportations and help keep some families together. So I urge the city council to stand up for the dignity of everyone who calls Long Beach home tonight. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good morning. I'm going to make this quick. Our animal mayor and council members, thank you for being here this late. My name is Krystal Vasquez and I live in the third district. Miss Price, I am an alumni I call State Long Beach and a member of the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, which you all know. But most importantly, I am undocumented. And I want to thank you, Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, for putting this in the borough, as called sponsors of the center city. It is recognized and sincerely appreciated. I am here tonight presenting this for the hundreds of thousands of Thacher recipients whose heart sank after the Jeff Sessions announcement two weeks ago. But I'm also here to represent my people people like me, like my mom and my dad and my two brothers, both of whom were deported. It is something that most of you have never experienced. All of you have heard about this, but it's just something that it is taken away. It's part of you from. A part of your history and part of your own. And they deserve their dignity and justice to know that we are here. For four months, we debated this entry policy policy. But our committee cannot afford more time. While you debate, our families are fighting this a partizan machine. In the last eight months alone, I have seen my father's business impacted his loss workers through the petition machine. And also I stood by my mother. Who? Bears the emotional burden of the situation. This is a way of life that is unjust and unbearable. To top it off, I haven't seen my older brother in over five years because of our immigration status and his birthday is this weekend. So I sent it as a testament to the relentless work of undocumented people have conducted. We have risked our livelihood, the safety of our families, and we have been on the front lines of this movement. And now we need you to be as brave and courageous. Immigrant community. And this is a lot of it. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good morning. As my colleague researchers said. Speaker 9: My name is Jonathan Solorzano and I am a resident of the ninth District and also a lifelong resident of the city of Long Beach. Speaker 4: I wasn't planning on speaking, but I did hear. Speaker 9: In the beginning that you were mentioning SB 54 and how we should follow state law. And I'm here to just point out a few things that are that can be problematic with that. We all heard of the passage of SB 54 out of the assembly and heading to the governor's desk. So this hasn't been signed into law yet. So we still need some work that we need to get done as far as advocacy efforts go. So for everybody out there, please call the governor and let him know we want SB 54 passed. Speaker 4: However, with SB 54, two things that I want to point out, the biggest loss that came out of this bill as far as the amendments go is that the sharing of databases is still allowed. And this has been one of the biggest deep water causes of deportations that exist right now in the state and on a federal level. The biggest walk away that that came out of this is that local, local cities can adopt higher standards, and that's in the language. So we urge you to please take leadership and make the sanctuary lobby's policy a stronger policy that we can work with. We are looking forward to beginning those conversations with the city leadership and people like Jose Alvarez, who we all heard about last year, would actually still be here if there was a sanctuary policy in place. Unfortunately, he isn't. And because of that, there has been you know, it's been a helter skelter situation for him and his family. So please help us help people like Jose Alvarez, his family, and pass a sanctuary policy that benefits not just the DOCA students and the Dreamers, which is very easy to get caught up in. But the people who are most at risk of deportations, of people with felony convictions, the people who are most at risk of being deported. We need to help these people and we need to help them now. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hello. Before me. Just make sure the speakers list looks like we're. We're close. I know we're going to have room. The Chico will be last on behalf of Janice Hahn, but I guess for everyone else, the speakers list is closed. Gentlemen, the back will be the last speaker. So thank you. Actually, Mr. Colby. The last speaker. After the gentleman in the back? Yes. Speaker 4: Hello. Members of council. My name is Betto. My name is Norberto Lopez. But I go by Betto and I've been living in this country for the past 22 years. I came to this country at the age of one. I just recently graduated from Cal State. Long Beach did five years there. My goal is to return to grad school and become a counselor that doesn't discriminate folks based on status or religion or race. Right. I want equal fare for everybody. On behalf of the Sanctuary Long Beach campaign, I would like to present 622 postcards signed by Long Beach residents. And every single count in every single district. For the past five months, we have collected these postcards and heard story after story of people who have been living in fear. We have also heard stories about how taking a stand to in cooperation with ICE locally can help improve people's lives. People like Josette Alvares live, right? So I was a student during the time that his deportation took place. Right. And having to confront CSU or be police the chief and tell him, you know, that's unfair. What you did right otherwise and you did it is still part of your responsibility. And the fact that his family had to go through that trauma is very heartbreaking on behalf of all these people who signed cards, shared the stories and couldn't stay here. Late this morning, we ask you to support your local policy and vote yesterday. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Can you also get the clerk to grab the card so we can take those? Thank you very much. Speaker 3: Right? Speaker 0: Yes. Next speaker. Speaker 2: So good morning. One of the asked. My name is Maria. Once again, I am like a. Speaker 11: Whirlpool of emotions right now. Obviously in the last month my life has been turned upside down and then right side up and then upside down and then right side up. And pretty much people play with you because you're undocumented. Speaker 2: And it's not cool. But today I am glad to say that I would like to see a sanctuary policy. It will happen. But I'm also here to say that my family did face the deportation. My older brother was a victim of the present, the education and prison pipeline, and he was deported my first semester at Cal State Long Beach. I since then I filed probably before graduation like eight incompletes. I didn't know my brother's deportation was going to affect me the way it did, the way that it made me become a second mother to my brother and sister. But I do realize that my brother deserved a second chance. And I'm here for him today to tell you all that our education system failed him. Our legal system failed him, our immigration system failed him. He went to court. He got he got free and then was handed over to ice immediately. So I know that these things happen. I saw it. My family felt it. My family lived it. We continue to live it. We continue to support the families. But now we need to we need to start dividing communities. We need to stop using this narrative of dreamers. We are all dreamers. My mom's a dreamer. My brother's a dreamer. And we're all going to fight for something that protects us all. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Everyone stay calling. Clancy. Wylie Mosley. Good morning. When you see us. Oglala Lakota. Michiko. Michiko. No o'clock. Well, I'm here to let you know if you want to make America great again. Well. Speaker 0: Take it back, you know, to real immigrants out there. This is our land, the great Turtle Island from Alaska all the way to Argentina. It's our lands. Speaker 4: We are many nations as one. So I don't consider my brothers and sisters from the South to be immigrant. Speaker 0: Why? Because she got a great culture out there. Speaker 4: I have four years here. Speaker 0: You see? Missing out on a bloody Spaniard, complimenting your own blood. Now what? So with that I would say classic asthmatic milk. Speaker 4: To all my brothers and sisters that wants really to help me out here. We also do support them from each reservations out there. Speaker 0: We all have banks out there for them without even asking IDs. Speaker 4: We don't even ask in Social Security numbers. Our whole method called Yahtzee on my relations. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good morning, Bear Garcia, members of the city council, actually. Morning. I'm sure this is a record. I just also want to congratulate the council today and thank each and every one of you for your leadership and really putting protections in place. Speaker 3: To reduce the stress in our community. Because I can tell you there is big time stress among our residents and youth. Every day we're processing applications and answering telephones and and this is all we hear. So I just want to applaud the city council and thank you so much for your support and putting protection in place. So we ensure that we're not criminalizing our. Speaker 2: Families, our youth. Speaker 3: Heads of household people who are really. Speaker 2: Trying to do a good job and. Speaker 3: Live as families here in our city. Speaker 2: And also, I'm looking very forward to working with the city manager and the Office of Equity. As you know, our organization has been doing. Speaker 3: Services for Latinos here in the. Speaker 2: City of Long Beach for over 20 years. And so, you know, we. Speaker 3: Still have not there has. Speaker 2: Been over. Speaker 3: 100 years of immigration here, and we still haven't immigrated. We're still living in poverty. We still. Speaker 2: Are living in silos and really need. Speaker 3: To focus on immigrant integration. So this is where we're really. Speaker 2: Excited into working, you know, in partnership with the city and really integrating our communities into. Speaker 3: The workforce development system, into our health system, into our neighborhood. Speaker 2: System, into civic engagement and ensuring that, you know, they do have a voice and and that they're, you know, being consumers and they're being considered in affordable housing and being able to be homeowners in our city. So, you know, really looking forward to that. The needle. Speaker 3: Definitely has to move for a lot. Speaker 2: Of our Latinos living here in the city of Long Beach and so very proud. This is, as we know, welcoming New Americans week. We'll be celebrating on this Saturday, conducting applications for naturalization in Dakar. We look forward to hosting you, Mr. Mayor, at our at our welcoming event this Saturday. But again, just very proud of this council today, even though it's in the wee hours of the morning. And we all need to be out here and everybody that came in and provided their voice on this very important issue because it really affects us all. I heard all the council members say how they have, you know, students and dreamers while. Speaker 3: Organizations do, too. Speaker 2: And so, you know, we're working very hard. We're ensuring their. Speaker 3: Protection, their safety, their. Speaker 2: Education, really looking out for their economic development. And so we're doing our part and you guys are doing yours. Speaker 3: And truly appreciate. Speaker 0: It. Thank you so much. Just thank you. Speaker. Speaker 9: When was the last? Good morning. And we keep it short. It's been a long day. Long night. I'll be honest, I'm not even from Long Beach. I'm from Gardena. But I came to support a friend. And I must say that as much as, you know, the son of an immigrant father, I can't imagine the fears that really run through their minds. But I'm really coming here as someone as someone who's coming from Cal State Dominguez Hills. I recently heard that Cal State Long Beach allocated certain funds for their doctor students. I wish I could see that at Dominguez Hills. I just wanted to really give you guys that shout out. And I. I know that it's not something that's easy. You know, I'm working with with the population, a population like that. I'm a part of an organization on at Dominguez Hills called the Male Success Alliance. And we are our goal is to improve the access, retention and graduation rates of young men of color. And that's something that's really big with a lot of the a lot of the middle school and high schoolers that I'm a mentor to. A lot of the fears, a lot of the their concerns. But in terms of what I really want to just really thank you guys is that the allocation of funds from Cal State Long Beach to their students, which is something that I wish Cal State Dominguez Hills would really pick up and get the message on. But thank you. Good night. Speaker 0: Thank you. The president of council at the MIGA Sells is a Long Beach resident, so we'll have to let him know. Speaker 3: Next Speaker Bass always getting that plug in her. Linda Chico Field deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn and I have a letter to read into record. Dear Mayor and Honorable City Council. Among many things, the City of Long Beach is revered for its diversity and inclusivity. It is a reflection of the mosaic of people unique to Los Angeles County, including a vibrant immigrant community. I commend you for your efforts to strengthen policies to protect all your residents through the Long Beach Values Act and support your resolution to the laws adopted in Senate Bill 54, as well as directing the Long Beach Office of Equity to partner with local immigrant rights organizations and educational institutions. I am proud to have coauthored an item at the county level that will also strengthen protections and increase resources for undocumented community. This is a very personal issue for me, as I also have a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient working in my office. He is a hard worker and does an exceptional job of assisting our residents in need. I have committed to him and to all other DOCA recipients that I will do everything in my power to help them continue leading productive lives free from fear of deportation. Here in the United States, the only country most of them have ever known. I strongly encourage the Long Beach City Council to make the same commitment to protect their residents by passing the Long Beach Values Act. Sincerely, Janice Hahn, Supervisor, Fourth District. Speaker 0: Thank you. And Ms.. Chicka Pink. I know, I know. Part of the agenda item is to work with the county we've been talking to, to Janice about the legal defense fund locally and how the county can be a partner in that. So please thank the supervisor for her support on that. No see, no other public comment. We're going to go back. Councilman Gonzales. Any other additional comments? Speaker 10: I just wanted to say thank you all again. I know we've been saying it's very late and you all have stuck through the whole night. So really appreciate the comments. I look forward to starting the discussions this week with all of you about how we can strengthen this. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 0: And this will be and this will be back. Mr.. This will be back when Mr. Weston was sitting with the Office of Equity back to the Council in 60 days. Is that correct? Okay. With that Members, please cast your votes. Speaker 8: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Motion carries. Believe it or not, we have a full agenda which will now start. So we actually have two hearings which we have to do. I'm going to encourage us to, beyond the hearings, maybe move everything to the next agenda. But we do need to do the hearings. So and if there's people here for any other items, we should get to those out of respect for folks that are here. So can we hear the next the hearing? I think I'm going to not sleep for the breakfast in the morning.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to: 1) Direct City Attorney to draft a resolution entitled the Long Beach Values Act of 2017, affirming the City's commitment to the laws adopted in SB 54 (De Leon) and the City's continued support of the California Trust Act; 2) Direct City Manager, through the Office of Equity, to partner with local immigrant rights organizations, the Long Beach Sanctuary City Coalition, Centro Cha, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach City College, and Long Beach Unified School District, to write and present a local policy that expands on SB 54 in 60 days. Policy considerations should include: · Protecting and advocating for local DACA and DREAMER students. · Preventing future deportations of local residents. · Examining partnerships with LA County for local legal defense fund. · Protecting the confidentiality of local immigrant residents and their information, and ensuring no City resources are used to create registries based on religious affiliation, immigration status or any other protected class such as gender, sexual orientation, race, etc. · Affirm an

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Speaker 0: But we do need to do the hearings. So and if there's people here for any other items, we should get to those out of respect for folks that are here. So can we hear the next the hearing? I think I'm going to not sleep for the breakfast in the morning. I'm going to just stay up. Standing together, you and I are going to just sleep over and just stay for breakfast. Oh, man. Okay. We're going to do a little later. There's a big labor breakfast in the morning. No, it's here in Long Beach. Go ahead and read the next hearing. Speaker 8: Item number two report from Economic and Property Development Recommendation to conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution continuing the Fourth Street Parking and Business Improvement Area Assessment for the period of October one, 2017 through September 30th, 2018, and extend the agreement with the fourth Street Business Improvement Association for a one year term District two. Speaker 0: Mr.. MODICA Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have a very short staff presentation from from Eric Eric Romero. Good evening. Good morning. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. This item is. Speaker 4: The annual approval of the Fourth Street Parking and Business. Speaker 0: Improvement Area Annual Ongoing Assessment. On August eight, 2017, the City Council approved a resolution granting approval of the annual report and set today's date for the public hearing. The recommended action on this item continues the assessment. Speaker 4: For another year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment nor significant changes in proposed activity. Speaker 0: Therefore, staff request that the City Council receive the supporting documentation into the record, approve the resolution. Speaker 4: And continue the levy of the. Speaker 0: Assessment, and authorize the city manager to extend the agreement for one additional. Speaker 4: Year. That concludes. Speaker 0: My report. Okay, great. Is there any public comment on this item? Okay. Seeing none any council customer appears. Speaker 2: I've got lots of comments, guys. Now, this is great. Thank you, everybody, for your work. Speaker 0: Okay, Councilman Gonzales. Speaker 10: Fantastic. Speaker 0: Okay. There's the motion in a second, and please cast your votes.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt resolution continuing the Fourth Street Parking and Business Improvement Area assessment for the period of October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to extend the agreement with the Fourth Street Business Improvement Association for a one-year term. (District 2)

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Speaker 8: Pearce motion carries next hearing. Report from economic and property development. Recommendation to conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution continuing the Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area Assessment for the period of October one, 2017 through September 30th, 2018, and extend the agreement with the Belmont Shore Business Association for a one year term. Speaker 0: Mr. MODICA. Mr. Romero will give us our report. On August eight, 2017, the City Council. Speaker 4: Approved a resolution. Speaker 0: Granting. Speaker 4: Approval of the. Speaker 0: Annual report and today's. Speaker 4: Date for the public hearing. The recommended. Speaker 0: Action on this item continues the assessment for another. Speaker 4: Year. There are no proposed changes to the basis of assessment nor significant changes in proposed activity. Therefore, staff requests that the City Council receive the supporting documentation into the record, approve the resolution and continue the levy. Speaker 0: Assessment and authorize. Speaker 4: The city manager to extend the agreement for one additional year. That concludes my report. Speaker 0: People comment on this item saying not Councilwoman Price. Speaker 11: I just want to congratulate Eric. And is this the first time you're presenting this item? Speaker 0: Yes, it is. Speaker 11: It was beautifully done. So welcome to the Belmont Shore Business Association bid. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's a motion, Councilwoman Pierce. No, I guess you have no comments. Castro votes. Motion carries Kinect that I think is 2626.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt resolution continuing the Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area assessment for the period of October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to extend the agreement with the Belmont Shore Business Association for a one-year term. (District 3)

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Speaker 8: Motion carries. Speaker 0: 1727. Speaker 8: Report from Long Beach Airport recommendation to authorize the city manager to execute all documents necessary for month to month nonexclusive licensing agreements with transportation network companies registered with the California Public Utilities Commission to provide transportation services at the Long Beach Airport. Speaker 0: Citywide Motion in a second. Any public comment seen on Councilman Munger to have anything? No. Councilmember Pearce, you kicked up its price. It says Pierce. It's weird. Speaker 2: There's no motion on the second. Speaker 0: Oh, there was. Speaker 3: It was. Yeah. Speaker 0: Yeah. Mango and price is a motion in a second. It was okay. But I'm saying this comes with a pierce of a comment. Speaker 2: Because I do I actually had one question and I was just curious on why. It was simply month to month. It was some. Speaker 4: And I believe what we're doing here is we've done a six month pilot program and now. Speaker 9: We're just coming back to do month to month. That allows us some flexibility if we need to make changes to go forward. And we just. Speaker 4: Expect it to roll over and just continue to be month to month. Speaker 3: And that's what I. Speaker 2: Wanted to hear. Thank you. Speaker 0: Got to go. Speaker 2: My only comment is that I guess in a recent other item, we may have folded in some things related to transportation at the airport. Speaker 3: Where trips to the. Speaker 2: Airport that were previously free and provided by local nonprofit groups in hotels and other groups going to and from the airport are now no longer able to be free. Speaker 3: And so I'd like someone to bring that back whenever it works into the transportation methodology. Thanks. Speaker 0: Okay. Please cast your votes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary for month-to-month, non-exclusive licensing agreements with Transportation Network Companies registered with the California Public Utilities Commission to provide transportation services at the Long Beach Airport. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Councilman Austin. Speaker 0: Pushing case. Speaker 2: Thank you, adam. 14, please. Speaker 0: Item 14 is a report from Public Works Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute a public walkways occupancy permit for sidewalk dining at Sterling Diner Restaurant located at 411 fourth is third street district three. Speaker 2: Thank you again to Councilman Price. Speaker 1: Thank you. I recommend my colleagues support this item. This is. I know normally we don't have patio dining permits on. We don't take them out of consent. But this is one where the community was very involved and it's at the request of the community that we've pulled the item. So I imagine they would like to come and speak to it. I'm not sure. But I will say that we've worked very closely with the community on coming up with the particular design for this patio dining area. I believe the architect is also here. The business, the community and our public works department have worked very closely to address the concerns in this for this particular location, because it's located within close proximity to a lot of homes. Have also talked with the business owner who has been very receptive in terms of making some operational improvements that will continue to enhance the relationships between the business and the community with this expansion into the patio dining area. So with that, I'd recommend approval by my council colleagues. Speaker 2: Thank you. Is there any public comment here? Speaker 1: Yes. Very quickly. My name is Maureen Neely. I'm the president of the Belmont Heights Community Association. And I'd just like to state that we really appreciate the opportunity that the councilwoman prices allowed us to have a public opportunity to speak. Fortunately, I think we've covered all of the the bumps and areas that could have been controversial. And we're at the point where we've got a design we can live with. And like the councilwoman said, she's also committed to working with the operator to make sure all of the other smaller bumps about having an operation and right inside a neighborhood next door to residences is as painless as possible. So thanks again and appreciate the opportunity to speak. I don't see the architect here, but the design looks pretty good, so. Oh, hey, Nathan. Okay, thank you very much. Speaker 2: Thank you. Fantastic. And I love to see the see some images at some point. Sounds like a great project. Members, please cast your vote.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute a Public Walkways Occupancy Permit for sidewalk dining at Starling Diner restaurant, located at 4114 East 3rd Street. (District 3)

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Speaker 0: Gets motion carries. Speaker 2: Thank you. 18, please. Speaker 0: 18 is communication from Council member Urunga. Recommendation to receive and file presentation on the Century Villages at Cabrillo 2017. So Social Impact Report. Speaker 2: Thank you, Councilmember Younger. Speaker 5: Thank you, Vice Mayor. The Villages, the Cabrillo is a wonderful nonprofit organization that provides housing for 2000 individuals there and then the 900 of which plus are veterans. So I'd like to invite members of the association to come up and make a presentation and to cover a little bit more about what they do. And it's in the seventh District and they'll welcome. Speaker 2: Come on forward. You have you have the floor. Speaker 1: Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kimberly Wee. I am the director of residential services at Century Villages that Cabrillo. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here to present our 2017 Social Impact Report. As you can see, it looks wonderful. And this is our sixth iteration, and you've probably seen each, each and every one of them. But I wanted to just take a few moments to go through it with you. Of course, I can't go through the entire report, but I want to call your attention to a couple key areas . And really I'll walk you through the process and give due credit to all of our wonderful partners that help make this wonderful report possible every year. So this is truly a collaborative process at the Villages that Cabrillo, we have more than 20 partner agencies that contribute to this report by providing data, photos, clients, stories and their time to make sure that this comes together. This is a ten month process, and we work really hard to make sure that we can give you a really good, succinct, but really vibrant picture of what happens at the villages that Cabrillo and all of this successes. So as the councilman mentioned, in 2016, century villages at Cabrillo provided housing and services to more than 2000 individuals, including 980 US veterans. We provide these services with the help of all of our partner agencies and 283 staff throughout the year. In addition to the staff people, we have over nine with 995 volunteers and interns that help contribute their time to the villages at Cabrillo. That equates to about 30000 hours of in-kind services that are provided to our residents. And all of this support and all of this data that's in this report really is to show you that all of the work that the staff does in all of the work that the residents do to stay housed is a really a collaborative process. And it requires a collective impact, the collective impact model that century villages that Cabrillo follows. So we are proud to show, to present this report to you and show you that we have achieved all of our goals in many ways. Again, I can't go through the entire report with you, but I hope you will take a moment to go through and and look at the successes. I think one of the things that I like to pull out, especially as my role as director of residential services, is out of the 742 adults that were permanently housed on our campus, 99% of them stayed housed after six months, and 91% of them were still housed a year after coming off the streets. That's a huge accomplishment that we credit our partners for. We credit the staff, and most importantly, we credit the resiliency and the hard work of our residents and our community. While that number can seem like a very small number and a report, it really represents a lot of hard work on everybody's part. There's also a few new concepts in Social Impact Report this year. It's our civics guiding principle, as I said, is collective impact. We've updated that a little bit, and one of the key pieces that we've worked really hard to include is the community's voice and so which we have worked very hard to have authentically engage the community and our residents in our decision making processes on site. And as you can see on pages eight and nine in the spread, we really we really engage the residents in focus groups on really what what safety means to them and how we can create a safe environment for them to live and with respect and dignity. So the feature story really represents the three focus groups that we did with staff and residents across all of our programs to make sure that we really understood what they need. And several themes that emerged from that is that safety is relative. They do feel a lot safer than they did when they were on the streets, that they need to feel connected to their community, to feel safe, that everyone needs to work together to make the community safe. And most importantly, what we found is that the residents. We're ready to jump right in there and do what they needed to do to make our community feel safe. And we've we've worked with those concepts and we've expanded on them in our monthly town hall meetings and our community watch initiative and our Pathways to Health Initiative. So we are really taking heart all of the recommendations that come from our residents. And as soon as our next building opens, we will be having at least 1500 people on any given day there. And to say that the majority of those residents feel safe and respected, it makes century villages at Cabrillo and all of our partners proud. So on behalf of Century Villages and Gabriel and our villages, that Cabrillo Collaborative Partners, I want to thank you for taking the time to look through our report. Speaker 2: Thank you. Council meeting, wrangling. Final comments. Speaker 5: Mr. D'Andrea Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Staff Thank you, Kim. I just wanted to share a few thoughts as we've shared many a time, the magic of what we do out in West Long Beach doesn't reside in any one organization, but it really reflects the rich fabric of organizations public and private, big and small, that have come together and banded together around a common goal of of ending homelessness. This report that you had before you really celebrates what was achieved out in West Long Beach over the past year. And the city is a really big player in that in a lot of ways is the is the ultimate backbone to the work that we all do. That support comes in many different forms, shapes and sizes and from many departments across the city, whether it's capital support from housing and neighborhood services, rental subsidy, support from the housing authority, supportive service funding from Health and Human Services, general support from planning or building public works. The city manager's office there. The city really should be incredibly proud of what's been accomplished out of Long Beach. It's been 20 years since 1997 was when that property was conveyed to our our nonprofit organization. And so next year, we're actually going to be celebrating our 20th anniversary and we'll be looking forward to sharing that with you . And so much has been accomplished. Clearly, we have lots of work to do, as we all know. And reading the papers and and participating in, you know, council meetings and many community meetings around the city, we're encouraged by some of what's happening. We have a wonderful new development called Anchor Place that'll be coming online here within hopefully about a month or so, providing homes to 120 formerly homeless households, including veterans and families. We've just updated our master plan that will hopefully shape development at the villages over the next 15 to 20 years. We have lots left to do there and then I think our work in West Long Beach has really served as a springboard for our work throughout the rest of the city. We're excited about the beacon that we just celebrated the groundbreaking for a few weeks back. We have another project. We're working very closely in Council District one called Beechwood, a really nice renovation of A and all HUD property. So like like many communities around the state, Long Beach clearly has has challenges. We're encouraged by the leadership of the council, the mayor and the staff in terms of the the Affordable Workforce Housing Study that was recently published. And we look forward to continuing to play a role with the city and helping make a difference. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Any closing comments? Speaker 5: Yes. I want to thank the members of the Villages DiCaprio team, Renee Castro, Steve Coleman. And there is a step rather wonderful work they do. It's a wonderful project to have in West Palm Beach. And and it's the holistic approach that you use in making sure that your residents receive all the services that they need to keep them on their feet and keep them striving and and and being a good citizens for the Syrian army. So I wanted to commend you and thank you for your work. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. So we have a few comments from the council. I'll just say this is once again another great social impact report. You had a few people behind the dais breaking it down as soon as it was handed out. So continue this good work. And, you know, and just, you know, switching hats to my AG folks, I mean, you guys are leading the way on cap and trade. People are still trying to figure it out. And here we are in Long Beach, the century villages. Cambria has been successful twice. And while while communities are still figuring out how to get their fair share. Long Beach, Southern California. Although we make up 65% of disadvantaged communities, we only receive 30% of the of the cap and trade funding. So you're doing something right and it's a model that other communities can pay attention to. And so continue the good work. We have a few speakers here. Next is Councilwoman Price. Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to echo the comments of the vice mayor and Councilman Aranda. This is really impressive. I can't wait to actually be able to read it and pay attention to it. So thank you very much. You know, I was reflecting and I was just talking to Jack. He's going to reach out to you because I think it would be really worthwhile for my community to have you guys come and do a presentation at one of our community. Meetings and educate them because we talk about you a lot and we reference you a lot. But the great work that you're doing every day, I think a lot of the residents don't know about. They often will post things on social media that points to other cities. You know, why don't we try this or why don't we do that? And I have to go back and say we are actually doing that right now, and I want them to your website so that they can see things. But I think it would be worthwhile to have you do a presentation if, well, obviously our district would want one. But even citywide, I think it's really important and I know that you have taken the time to give tours of your facilities to staff of council members. I know that my team and I would like to come and do one soon. We've heard nothing but amazing things. The work that you do and the products that you provide in terms of sustainable, long term support and a life changing infrastructure is really to be commended. So thank you very much for everything that you do and addressing an issue that's really complex and presenting a lot of public policy challenges to cities all around the nation. You're helping us really address some of the long term sustainable tools that we all should be mindful of. So thank you very much. I appreciate you being here tonight. I thank my colleague for bringing this forward and educating us and reminding us of the great work that you do. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 3: I yes, I also, of course, would like to echo a lot of the same comments. And I think what makes you guys so unique is that you are that hub for partnership. You know, that you have so many organizations at the villages that are working on a holistic approach to a population that really, when they have the support, thrives. And it's an honor to see this in Long Beach and I, my first year in office has been a exciting year in office and frustrating year and trying to get my hands around the homelessness challenge, the mental health challenge and all the resources needed and all the things have to fall into place to make magic happen. And that is why the Villages experience is so unique and so amazing for us to look to as a model and to learn from. And so I want to thank you guys for being a resource to me and my staff for the tours that we've been able to take and understanding everything that goes on and anything that we can do, as you guys know, thinking outside the box around resources and dollars, and how are we as a city saying, let's invest in this model, whether it's at your location or other locations where we can really capitalize on the success that you guys have have laid out. And I want to say congratulations also for being forthright and honest and doing surveys and relaying that information in these surveys around how residents feel and what you guys are doing to address that. And so just congratulations on on being really thoughtful and thorough. Thanks. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilmember Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Yes. I, too, want to say thank you for all the work that you do. The Social Impact Report. I tell my residents that it gives us a really good snapshot of who are serving in the city of Long Beach and not just to the cost benefits, but the people that we're serving. You know, we see here single mothers, single fathers with children. We can never even imagine children being out on the streets. But unfortunately they are and they have been in our city. And so we're serving those individuals needs. And we couldn't thank you enough for all the resources you provide. Very excited about Beacon and very excited about Beechwood. Two other fantastic projects. Thank you again. Speaker 2: All right, so any public comment on this item? Now be a time. Come forward. Please come forward. You have 3 minutes. Speaker 4: All right. Speaker 2: Thank you. Please give your name and you have 3 minutes. Speaker 8: Oh, can I get going first so I can get a light on, but I can't. It's like he wants to rush. Hey, you did that last time the mayor was in New York. Don't hassle me this time, anyway. Give an honor to Jesus. I mean, I hear what everybody's saying, and that's good with villages of L.A., Mr. Andrew. All right, I hear that's cool. You know everything. But then you talk all this good, comfy stuff. I asked last time, what happened to the 50 million? 25 million? You pass 25 and then the homeless ever heard of this stuff? So I hear all this nice talk and I see no action because I see money bleeding from this piece every week. Bleeding. I hear the people blaming gentrification is the rich white folks, but it ain't the rich white folks. Because I see a man whose parents is illegals. He's always bragging on that. I see a vice mayor who I don't see doing anything for black folks. Straight up, man. I'm beyond the jokes. I see another black guy, they told me Muslims are Christians. Heads, offices, brothers. Yeah. You, Al, you say that by the elevator. Don't try to. Speaker 2: Address the chair, please. Speaker 8: I'm addressing you. And the chair is the chair. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 8: Anyway, I'm doing stuff. Then we got. Oh, Karl Marx. Always eaten up at first. Speaker 2: Just keep it focused right here on the because. Speaker 8: I'm focused on the whole lot because this is what we deal with communism. I don't like this comment. Speaker 2: I don't think that's on subject. I think you're off. Speaker 8: Communism is a subject you try to change the government from. The Great White time is too ism. So this is subject. That's what I'm saying. And so all this all this mumbo jumbo and stuff you talking, you cannot keep it real. You on a socialist agenda. The man that was mayor, he took money from conservatives and turned. Indeed, if he failed Castro, which I miss, Mongo stopped me from saying that. Speaker 5: Mr. Mayor, this topic is off topic, but, you know, every priest is. Speaker 2: You actually. You don't have. Speaker 8: To shoot nobody up. So you can turn around, walk away, whatever. You ain't running nothing. Speaker 2: So let's try to be more secure. Speaker 8: In Jesus name. There is justice. And there will be justice. So change your ways up. And as far as you Republicans are up here. When Republicans start going unanimous with them every time. I'm serious. Speaker 2: We went off topic list. Speaker 8: I know this is on top. Okay, I'm back on topic. Thank you. It's a nice thing, but get it right or we're getting rid of you and I'm especially being a bum watching you. I'm especially why she stood for the union for black people. That's what you do. Hey, well, you know. All right, these people, you didn't prosecute to prosecute. Speaker 2: This, right? That's enough, so you better get rid of it. Thank you for remaining. Speaker 8: You know. Speaker 2: Right. So, yeah, we're done. So let's move forward. So saying no further is any further public comment. You guys tell the same non members. Please cast your vote. Trump. Speaker 8: Donald Trump. That's what I'm saying. I'm coming back. Speaker 0: Catch my reprise, which in case. Speaker 2: Thank you. We will move politely and delightfully on to item number 19.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a presentation on the Century Villages at Cabrillo 2017 Social Impact Report.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. We will move politely and delightfully on to item number 19. Speaker 0: Item 19 is a report from Health and Human Services, a recommendation to execute an agreement with the County of Los Angeles for a contract term effective June 1st, 2017 to June 30th, 2018, and accept funding in the amount of 898,000 to provide bioterrorism preparedness and public health infrastructure development citywide. Speaker 2: Thank you. And this is a great item. Councilman Austin, would you like to speak to it? Speaker 7: No, but I'd like to get a staff report. Speaker 2: All right, let's have a staff report. Mr. West. Speaker 5: So Mayor council members, this is a county grant that we getting to help us with funding in the amount of $890,000 to provide bioterrorism preparedness and public health infrastructure development. The additional allotments for fiscal year 1718 will be used to build on these efforts, strengthening the city's capacity under the core public health preparedness capabilities established by the CDC, including community preparedness, emergency operations coordination, emergency public information and warning, emergency information sharing and mass care, medical countermeasures, dispensing medical material, management and distribution. And we recommend approval. Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 7: Thank you for reading that back. Mr. City Manager. Speaker 2: But a fantastic staff report. Speaker 7: This is for the public benefit to get the past staff report we all have in front of us. And I think it's a great item and I encourage us to support it as well. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 5: Tells me Ranga, as a former employee with the Department of Health and Human Services, I'm very proud of the services that they provide and the grant that they go after to make sure that we have that we are prepared if in the event of any major catastrophe. Speaker 2: Thank you. I think probably comment on this item. Speaker 5: Very good. The way that the phrase it captured my attention was bioterrorism. On hearing that and my sense is what we should do is take the U.S. flag, turn it upside down and fly it. This city can't even deal with normal day to day crime, let alone bio terrorism. That came that was self-evident a few weeks ago. And the good Councilwoman Pryce had the city staff present their views relative to budgets in policing and so forth, and it was clearly evident to any reason to mind. That the our police department now. It's a classic case of denial of the first order. It's not that they don't know. They don't know. They don't know. They cannot even control simple crime in this city. They cannot clueless as to the problems with the MTA. Period. How in God's name are they going to deal with bioterrorism? This turns to the argument into the case. For asking for before it's forced upon you, a federal master to oversee the city's, oversee the city and the police department until such time as it gets itself squared away. Period. We're a sitting target. For any of biotech, for anybody interested in that type of product, all they have to do is look at this functionality. Other police department. And too often too many members of this council. Period. I'm very serious on this. Step up to the plate. Request a federal master to guide you through and to show you the things that you don't know. You don't know. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. I see one additional person in line. Two additional people in line. Speaker's list is closed. Speaker 1: I can't let that go. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 1: My name is Karen Whiteside and I'm a resident of the First District. And as someone who has gone through the training and gone to training sessions at the Emergency Preparedness Center, I can totally say that the previous speaker does not know what he's talking about. This city is incredibly prepared. And one of the reasons that the building I live in, a 200 unit, senior building, low income, and one of the reasons that we were able to survive without serious injury or discomfort was because seven of our members had gone through the training right before the power outage. We were able to respond and take care of all the needs of the tenants in our building. And that's just one small example of the services that the city provides. Jay Kaplan, who coordinates for the fire department, and David Ashman, the staff. Reggie Harrison, they all do an amazing job to help our community be prepared. And there's a safety fair that they put together the last couple of years that's incredibly valuable in terms of connecting with resources. So I think our city is actually more prepared. And actually I went through training in the city of L.A. at one point in time, too, and the training that Long Beach offers is better than L.A.. So I feel. Speaker 5: Comfortable. Speaker 2: Thank you for your time. All right. So, Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 0: Motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and any subsequent amendments, contract renewals or extensions, with the County of Los Angeles, for a contract term effective June 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, with an option to extend the contract for four additional one-year terms through June 30, 2022; Accept funding in the amount of $898,411, to provide bioterrorism preparedness and public health infrastructure development, for the period of July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018; and Increase appropriations in the Health Fund (SR 130) in the Department of Health and Human Services Department (HE) by $91,531, offset by reimbursement funding. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Motion carries. Speaker 2: Thank you. And we have item number 20. Speaker 0: Item 22 Report from Health and Human Services. Recommendation to execute all unnecessary documents with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to accept and expend measure H funding in an approximate amount up to 2.8 millions. To implement homeless initiative citywide. Speaker 2: Thank you. Will go to the city manager. Speaker 5: Kelly Connell, FBI director of Health and Human Services, has been the point of the spear working with the county for Measure H and to try to bring homeless initiatives here to the city of Long Beach. So Kelly will walk us through the measure. Measure H money. Speaker 6: Good evening. The $2.8 million that we are accepting tonight is a focus on prevention for single adults, rapid rehousing, enhancing the coordinated entry system, enhancing our outreach efforts, and also our emergency shelter system. Approximately $1.8 million of that is specific to direct services now. And the remaining funding will allow for the ability to provide physical enhancements to a building for a year round shelter, as well as services for the year when those are identified. We're looking at hiring a number of case managers, including an opportunity to actually support those who are have experienced homelessness, who are currently living in Section eight housing and the ability to support them so that they remain in their housing, as well as more housing, navigation and being able to support people as they're moving into housing and helping keep them there and housing, location services. We'll also be doing more outreach with the possibility of adding a public health nurse or psychiatric nurse to those teams for increased outreach opportunities. In addition, some of the funding will be utilized to help support the administrative functions with within the Homeless Services Division. Speaker 2: Thank you for the staff report. Councilmember, you can get anything. Thank you. Councilman Austin. Speaker 7: Yes. I just want to congratulate the city and also commend. Ah, ah, director of health services for for some excellent work working with the county to secure these funds. Is this on top of the 11.5 million that we budgeted already, or is. Speaker 6: This is on top of the continuum of care funding as well as the others that we brought in from other grants? Yes. Speaker 7: It's also we've heard some public comment about where the money is going. And I just I wanted to be clear on that. We have a full breakdown as to how those funds are going to be spent and where they're going. And also, I wanted to just recognize Supervisor Janice Hahn's deputy, who is here. And obviously our supervisor has been instrumental in helping us secure those funds, the sorely needed funds for our homeless. So thank you very much and thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 3: Yes. I also just want to say thank you so much, Kelly, for your work on Measure H. We know that this is a huge asset to Long Beach and I think it really shows how important it is to have our own health department advocating for Long Beach to not only get funds that were already prioritized, but from what I understand, there's also five specific strategies specifically to Long Beach that these funds are going to. And so I wanted to ask, let's see, the process for negotiating for next year. Yeah. Is that how often is the group meeting and what does it look like in deciding where the funds are going to for the future year Speaker 6: ? So those conversations have not yet started. So they're just now sort of finishing and we are in the process of contracting for this year, I believe probably starting sometime in the spring, that they'll start to look at what are the resources coming in. By then the tax increment will begin, will be coming in, they'll have a better feel for what those amounts will be. I believe that the strategies will stay the same, but that within those strategies there'll be a line different amount of resources, one based on what's been able to be spent in the past. So what were they really be able to utilize and then what would be needed in the future? So those conversations, I believe, will start in the spring. Speaker 3: Great. And I know the answer, but I want to make sure we talk about it. There's been a lot of discussion around the heart team and trying to identify different resources. It's my understanding that Measure H cannot go towards public safety. Speaker 6: That is correct. Speaker 3: And is that specific? Does it say just general public safety or does it say PD and fire explicitly? Speaker 6: One of the strategies within the 19 strategies overall focuses on a team similar to quality of life. And in that spectrum, the waste is designated as that. That police officer is not covered by Measure H, but the support behind with the outreach or mental health or support person with that police officer is covered by Measure H. So it's that it's, it's the breakout between those two. Speaker 3: So you could put together a team similar to a heart team that has funding from Measure H. Speaker 6: No paramedics here. There's nothing that's outlined that talks about paramedics that's very much about outreach and navigation. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 3: Great. That's that helps me. And so, again, just congratulations. I think having a health department here, making sure that we have a supervisor that is advocating and prioritizing homelessness. I think, you know, seeing our numbers decrease by 20% and being able to partner this with the 14.1 million towards homelessness this year demonstrates, I think, to so many of the constituents that said, 80% of them said that homelessness was a priority. And so this demonstrates that we're listening and we're prioritizing that. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to echo the comments of my colleagues and thanking our health department for being involved in the discussions regarding this county resource. And of course, I want to thank our supervisor and her representatives. Mr. Chico is here for being a partner with us on this huge project. She she has expressed a commitment to partnering with us on this even before she was elected, and I'm very appreciative of that. I did have a question for our health department, and that is, was there anything that, based on the amount of funding we got or the limitations on the funding that we got, we would have liked to have accomplished but were unable to fund. So was there anything that we that's kind of outstanding that we just don't have the resources to fund? We could have if we had more? Speaker 6: I think the dynamic under Measure H is that some of those funding is coming directly to us to manage and to engage with the outreach and those kinds of things that doesn't fund areas around, clean up and more of a response that cities face. It is very focused on service. However, there are other funding streams through Measure H that are coming that we have access to that may or may not come directly to us. So, for instance, permanent supportive housing, which we know is one of the key things that we need to provide to start to reduce homelessness is that we are in negotiation of a process that we have greater access to that. So the funds don't come directly to us, but the system is in place at the county level that will be able to operate through and to engage in those services. So there are a number of other things that are like that. So it may not be dollar value specifically, but there are places that we're increasing our partnership to be able to increase access. Speaker 1: And I know you and I have talked about this and, you know, we've we've written reports and and summaries read reports and summaries regarding in regard to this. But generally, from the public's perspective, one of the biggest issues in this area is rehabilitation services and what measure H moneys are available specifically either directly to us or, as you just stated, with the kind of ancillary type services that could support rehabilitation efforts by the city. Speaker 6: You know, under permanent supportive housing. Those supports include access to substance use treatment, but there's not a space that is, you know, unless it's tied to permanent supportive housing. I don't believe that there is a sort of substance use treatment availability in terms of the rehabilitation. The same would be true for mental health services. There are there are some services and supports for those coming out of incarcerated settings who are homeless. That also would be able to connect to some of those services that are being operated out of the county jail. But they're not available specifically to the city jail at this time. But there isn't sort of a path that says substance use treatment on it. As part of the strategy. Speaker 1: Do we expect that through any other source? If it's not in Measure H, can we expect to see that with Prop 47 or Prop 64 or any other moneys that could help with that? Speaker 6: Yeah. So the so the county, L.A. County wrote for Medicaid waiver for what they're calling drug Medi-Cal. Drug Medi-Cal kicked into place in July. And so we are tracking on that. They're really just sort of getting things going. But what that does, it expands the number of services, the types of services that can be provided and covered under Medi-Cal, which is the primary funder for low income folks. And then from that, we so where we are connecting at the county level with the director of substance use services there and to sort of determine greater access and how we start to build our capacity that way within the city. But those contracts all run through the county. But it does it does mean that we'll have greater access to substance use treatment within the city of Long Beach, hopefully within the next six months or a year or so. Speaker 1: As that for adult substance abuse treatment are also youth. Speaker 6: You know, I'm not sure about that. Okay, great. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks for the report. I appreciate it. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Thank you as well, Kelly, for your work in this. And I'd also like to thank Supervisor Janice Hahn's office, her Linda Chico as well for your work. I have a question. I know in here it specifies homeless prevention for single adults. And so we that's who we're focusing on. Correct. There's no. Speaker 6: The. Yeah, well so the the funding that we get specifically at the city level for our continuum of care is for adults. There is also prevention services for families, but that model is being determined at the county level and they're providing services. Speaker 1: Perfect. Okay. And then I believe at one point we were talking about and I know it's not explicitly stated in here, but employment efforts working with Pacific Gateway in some sort. So is that I'm sure that's underway. What is that looking like right now? Speaker 6: So the planning is in place. We're actually meeting in the next week or two. So through the workforce investment networks there, there is funding directly through Measure H to the I think I said to the L.A. County workforce and they'll be partnering with our local provide with our local feed unit. And so we'll be in a conversation there to figure out what that can look like and provide some employment training and supports moving forward. But I don't know what that looks like yet. Speaker 1: Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilmember Super nice. Thank you. Just a quick follow up to Councilmember Austin's point about the total budget. Now, it's actually the second to the last sentence in the report. And a figure we can use now is the 14.1 or we can have it this. We spend over $14 million a year on all those issues. Speaker 5: Does that sound fair? Speaker 6: Yes. Yeah. So part of that is, you know, is our work with Parks and Recreation, the hurt teams, quality of life, it's citywide. All of the funding that we spend as a city. Yes. And with it and with the grants and measure H coming. Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll just I'll just say, you know, it was from what I hear from the director of homelessness, the homelessness initiatives, the homelessness initiative in the county, is that this was a pretty hands on process to get all the partners to consensus. And you were a part of those conversations, and everyone didn't get exactly what they what they asked for. But you got unanimous support at the end of that process. So that really says something about the direction of this initiative. I'm very hopeful that the measure process will reap real, real benefits and rewards and that we can really stem the issue. And then I'd say and, you know, I would just say, I know that a portion of this is the funding that we were waiting on, a fully implemented landlord and savage incentive package in the housing authority . So it's all good stuff. So, you know, no questions, just came with the good work. Is there any member of the public would like to speak on this item? Now be a time. Please come forward. Let's form a line. So we have an idea how many people we have. Okay. So I see three in line. Thank you. Speaker 8: Okay. Give an honor to Jesus. Okay. I hear you. All the stuff you said on this one and work on the Pacific Gateway. That's the first thing that got me out of this Pacific Gateway. I don't like that at all because I remember a few meetings ago. Everything about Pacific Gateway was to give money to train non-English speakers. And I saw that whole agenda with Pacific Gateway is for illegals to give them jobs. It was something, man, I forgot. That agenda was about three meetings ago. But no, I'm not with the Pacific Gateway and I don't see them talking about anything for everybody else in first. Mr. Pearce over the you mentioned Janice Hahn. I'm talking about this. She gave her that job on the board of the crazy people. You know, all that after she did that thing on, you know, with that little thing in the middle of the night, drunk driving and she got favoritism and everything. And then she called later and then I guess you scratch the man's face up. I don't know. That's how I heard it, you know. So if I do something like that, I go to jail. But she gets special treatment. Speaker 3: The things on the border is not correct. Speaker 8: You know what? I'm talking about you. And you ain't going to shut me up because you're the one that did it criminal. Speaker 5: You're spirit point of order. He's on a tough topic. Well, then you. This is not. Speaker 2: Public. So respectfully, if you guys don't hold us together, how you expect me to get them though, anyway? Anyway, don't speak out of turn. Please don't be recognized. He has a flaw at this point. That's what this is. If you remain on topic, you have 3 minutes to speak. It's that simple. Okay, so just stay on topic. Speaker 8: Thank you. My seconds. Back from the talking. Speaker 2: No, you cannot because you were way off topic. But you have the rest of your time. Speaker 8: Thank you. Stop me no more then shut up. So. So anyway, she gets this thing from Janice. Speaker 2: Now you're off topic. Speaker 8: Oh, no, no. Speaker 2: That's it. Speaker 8: No, no, it. Speaker 2: Is city attorney about to cut him off. Okay, well, I'm. Speaker 8: On topic now, so you. Speaker 5: Need to stay on the topic. It's not public comment. Speaker 8: Okay. The topic is measure H and everything. Yes, that's the topic. Thank you. This I don't see how it's going to work with the same old thing even dealing with her. And then if that's not my best, that's part of the topic. She spoke so I can speak. I want you to retire. You'll retire and I want you to stay in your place and let me talk. That's what you do. As for the time taken. Yeah, I know it's thick and you need to be quiet. So, Janice Hahn, I'm not with her. She's a sellout. She's alive. She's for illegals and everything. She's a one term and she's going to have her time. And so is everybody here that keeps on doing what you doing? Section eight, you mention Section eight. You're doing everything it takes to run Section eight out because Section eight has a limit with this with this rent control, everybody's boosted up to 300 and that's run a Section eight along. These is not is not gentrification from these rich white folks. It's black folks like you, black folks like you doing this to your own people. And it's like that mayor, the son of illegals is doing it. So don't blame it on white folks. If anything, homicide up with the white folks against you and that illegal mayor. That's the best way to go. Speaker 2: So first I'll say I think we have a fantastic county supervisor and thank you for our support with with respect to this issue. Secondly, I know that it's difficult for members of the council sometimes during public comment, but there is a fine line that we have to sort of follow to make sure that we don't skirt the law as an open public meeting. And so we we work very closely with our city attorney. Sometimes it's difficult sitting up here. I get it. You are just, you know, the object of of some other people's frustrations at times. But that's our job as public officials sometimes take those take those hits and it's not okay. I just want to say it's not okay. But we have to stand in front sometimes and take those hits. So no further public comment. We will. Okay. One final public comment. Speaker 5: Sarah going back on the item 24 again, I would suggest. Speaker 2: I'm sorry. You have to speak on item 20. This is. I'm 20. Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Speaker 2: Measure is funding. Speaker 5: I apologize. I thought you were an item. Speaker 2: You don't have to speak on it if you are prepared to speak on it. Thanks. Members, please cast your vote.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary documents and any subsequent amendments, with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, to accept and expend Measure H funding in an approximate amount up to $2,863,945, for the period of October 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, to implement Homeless Initiative strategies adopted by the County Board of Supervisors to combat homelessness in Los Angeles County; and Increase appropriations in the Health Fund (SR 130) in the Health and Human Services Department (HE) by $2,863,945, offset by Measure H revenue. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_09122017_17-0748

Speaker 0: Motion carries. Speaker 2: Thank you. Item 24, please. Speaker 0: Item 24 is a report from financial management. Recommendation to declare ordinance approving and adopting the official budget of the Long Beach of the City of Long Beach for fiscal year 2017 through 2018. Creating and establishing the funds of the municipal government of the City of Long Beach and appropriating money to and authorizing expenditures from state funds for safe fiscal year, declaring the urgency thereof and providing that this ordinance shall take effect on October 1st, 2017. Read and adopted as read. Speaker 2: Is there any public comment on this? Please come forward. Speaker 5: Very good. I'm suggesting, again, as I referenced earlier, that you really get some guidance relative to the bioterrorism, notwithstanding the comments from a well-intended lady speaker earlier there referenced a situation where, quite frankly, it's a city we're doing the job in the first place. A lot of that wouldn't have been necessary. But but. A well-trained Eagle Scout troop could have addressed those issues. I'm talking about bioterrorism. I'm not going into the specifics of them because I'm not planning I don't want to plan any ideas, but that's an entirely different world. And again, it goes back to the fact that, again, the classic example came up 3 to 3 weeks ago. It's not that you don't know. You don't know. You don't know. And I would strongly suggest you reach out and get some experts in that field and get some guidance. Right now, as I pointed out. The police department fully can't grasp how to deal with the broken window paradigm, let alone bioterrorism. So I think you should take the needed steps. Spend what money you have to if you have to get out. Since consultants are work with the federal government zero in on specifically that. Don't wait for it to happen. As too often is the case. Just like you waited too long. Why do we had all these power outages? You didn't zero in on the electric companies to see and find out they were skimping and not bringing everything up to code. As a result, many buildings were out of power. Now, that's not a catastrophe, the first order. It's something they can work through with a good group of Boy Scouts to help solve that immediate problem. But I think you have to come into the 21st century. Spend some money, find some experts to guide you through that. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Next speaker, please. And so first, just before you begin. Speaker 8: To talk. Speaker 2: About. Speaker 8: My time. Speaker 2: The moment you get off topic, let's talk the time for a moment. The moment you get off topic, this exercise is over. Okay, so I order. Time out. You let me explain this to you the way this is going to work. You have 3 minutes to speak. You can speak and say what you want to say, but you need to remain on topic. There is an opening public comment at the beginning of the meeting, a closing public comment at the end, and you can speak on whatever topic you like, but this one just stick on this particular issue . And that way you can get your 3 minutes. Okay. So now it's time to start. Speaker 8: Yeah. Anyway, so given that it's a law in which you need to start reading the Bible so you can be fair. Remember what you were taught when you were young. Okay. Now, as far as dealing with this term fiscal year, we need the budget and everything done right and we need the many money spent right. We need the money spent for the people, money spent for the city. Not all this finagling help. The homeless are not going to go off and just say anything. This is real. That was real to do for the people. The people really need it. I keep on hearing about these bills for the homeless in everything I do for the people. Every time you ask Where's the money going to go to? Yeah, somebody says, okay, we'll figure that out. The third time I heard it was $225 million bills before, and I heard it. And like I say, hey, I guess I am about to go off topic because you need to quit now. I'm about to quit this off topic. Quit. Ginny Pierce. Speaker 2: Thank you for your time. So, members, please cast your vote.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance approving and adopting the official budget of the City of Long Beach for the Fiscal Year 2017-2018, creating and establishing the funds of the Municipal Government of the City of Long Beach and appropriating money to and authorizing expenditures from said funds for said fiscal year; declaring the urgency thereof, and providing that this ordinance shall take effect at 12:01 a.m. on October 1, 2017, read and adopted as read. (Ordinance No. ORD-17-0020) (A-17)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_09052017_17-0730

Speaker 0: So I just we made that one change because there's so many folks here for four Alba. And so we're going to go back to the start of the agenda and finish up the budget hearing. And I will turn this over to the clerk. We can please read the first item. Speaker 2: Report from Financial Management Recommendation to receive and discuss an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2018 budgets for the following departments harbor and water and receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and take the actions necessary to adopt the fiscal year 2018 budget citywide. Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you, Mr.. Speaker 0: Mr. WEST. Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. This is our last series of departments for budget hearings. We're going to hear from the harbor department and also the water department. So first up is the chief financial officer with the harbor department. Welcome back, Sam. Sam, Joe Blake Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayors. Members of the City Council, the harbor department is pleased to present the proposed budget for fiscal 2018. As Wayne mentioned, my name is Sam John, but I'm here on behalf of our executive director, Mario Cordero, who is currently traveling on port business. Our proposed fiscal 2018 budget is conservative, reflecting the financial challenges and ongoing uncertainty facing the maritime industry. The budget projects a modest revenue growth while keeping operating expenses in check and headcount flat. It reflects investment in the community and our commitment to be a good steward. It is important to remember that the harbor department is not a taxing authority and does not rely on tax revenue to fund its operations. Our operating revenue is derived from private businesses leasing port properties. Looking back, fiscal 2017 was a year of transformation within the shipping industry, with new alliances being formed, which has a significant impact on cargo volume and a major shipping line ceasing operation which impacted the port directly. Our industry leading capital investment program to modernize the port infrastructure and to provide world class service to our customers today and in the future is about 3 billion over the next ten years. Among our projects is the ongoing construction of the iconic Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement. We have 215 million for this project, which is about half of our total fiscal 2018 capital project budget. It's a major project and we are making progress. As you know, Long Beach container terminal at Middle Harbor is among the world's most technologically advanced and greenest. And our fiscal 2018, we have budgeted about 94 million for continuing construction. Part of the new terminal opened in 2016 and more acreage comes online later this year. Port staff is excited about moving to downtown closer to the port and other city staff in fiscal 2018. We have over 5 million budgeted for the Civic Center. We have 30 million budgeted for safety and security programs in 2018. This year we have seen delivery of the second of our two new Firebirds. These are the protector and the vigilance appearing in the slide, putting on a very impressive show which were commissioned to update our fire protection and safety capabilities and this big ship age. These state of the art vessels are two of the most advanced and powerful fire boats in the world. Our proposed fiscal 2018 budget is conservative, reflecting the fiscal prudence of the harbor department leadership. The budget protects modest revenue growth while keeping our headcount flat. The proposed budget totaled 748 million, which include for 57 million in capital investments, or about 61% of the total budget. As part of our investment and a multibillion dollar modernization program that is the largest of any seaport in the country, we expect operating revenue to slightly increase to 380 million or about 2% compared to fiscal 2017 budget . This comes as we faced increased competition from other gateways and the expanded Panama Canal. Here's a breakdown of our sources of funds comparing the proposed 2018 budget to the 2017 budget. Of course, the biggest source of funds is our operating revenue. Some of the users highlights, again, modest operating revenue growth. We have also 225 million and planned new bond issuance in fiscal 2018. Of course, we will come to the City Council and seek approval before issuing any new debt. Our fiscal 2018 proposed budget of 748 million represents a 3% decrease from fiscal 2017 budget, mainly due to slightly lower capital spending. Still, the for 57 million capital program in fiscal 2018 leads the industry. And here's a breakdown of the uses of funds compared to 2017. Some of the highlights of our expenditures. As you know, the Tidelands transfer of about 19 million for fiscal 2018 was recently requested by the City Council. Protecting the environment continues to be a top priority for the port. Our air quality programs have reduced emissions dramatically compared to 2005 levels. This slide shows our very impressive report card. We are currently working with the Port of Los Angeles to update our joint pioneering 2006 Clean Air Action Plan to continue to reduce emissions and to aim for zero emission operation in the future. Public comments on the draft updated cap clauses on September 18 and the proposed plan is scheduled to go to a joint session of the two boards on November 2nd. And we continue a multi-year program that will provide 400,000 and fiscal 2018 for community mitigation grants to reduce the health effects. Of pollution. We continue to partner with the community and the city to make Long Beach a better place to live and work. One way is through our community sponsorship program, where we work with local groups to help reach residents. For fiscal 2018, the Board of Harbor Commissioners has budgeted 1 million for sponsorships. The first round of call for applications is open this month. So far in fiscal 2017, we have awarded 911,000 and sponsorships to 272 community groups. In addition, we also conduct education outreach. Since 1993, the port has awarded 721,000 and scholarships to 425 students pursuing careers in international trade and goods movement. Lastly, I would like to highlight our commitment to service, which really sets us apart. As you may have heard, we were ranked the top North American Seaport for the 19th time in 22 years at the annual Asian Freight Logistics and Supply Chain Awards in Singapore held earlier this summer. We are committed to provide the highest level of customer service to all those who interact with the port, from our customers to our community. This concludes my prepared remarks along with other staff. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Sam, and welcome back. So we're happy to have you back. I'm going to go ahead and Lester's objection to take the water presentation and then do questions for both that there's questions. So, Mr. Gardner. Speaker 5: First, I want to point out there is no harbor without water. Speaker 6: So is this on? Speaker 5: Can I get my presentation, please? There we go. How do I do this? Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 5: Oh, there we go. Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to present the War Department's Fy18 budget. We are forming the citizens of Long Beach in 1911, and the White Port Department now provides water and sewer services to 90,000 service accounts, along with the delivery of safe drinking water. Customer service is our top priority for the Water Commission. For myself and for 220 employees. We are staff to handle water and sewer emergencies. Calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, handling over 10,000 such calls annually. With all the recent concerns across the nation regarding the quality of drinking water, our residents can be assured that Long Beach's drinking water meets or exceeds all federal and state regulations. To ensure this is the case, the water department has a team of highly skilled scientists, technicians and engineers who perform nearly 60,000 water quality tests annually. The backbone of our system is our 2500 miles of water and sewer pipelines located underground in every street in Long Beach. We have a strong pipeline replacement program, having replaced over 225 miles of water main pipelines since the early 1990s. For fiscal year 2018, we will be reinvesting $17.5 million of our ratepayer revenues back into the system for pipeline replacement and other critical infrastructure improvements. This chart demonstrates a great success story in the 1990s. We averaged about 150 water main breaks a year, with some years reaching nearly 200 main breaks in the late 1990s. The water department strategically targeted the long range replacement of our aging castor and pipelines as they were the most vulnerable part of our system. As you can see on the chart, our main breaks have dropped by 80% and now number about 30 year compared with the average of 150 a year previously. We're wisely reinvesting our customers water revenues back into the infrastructure, resulting in reduced long term costs. Another key area of investments in the area of technology. On the screen are three examples. This next fiscal year, we'll be assisting Parks and Rec by installing 20 smart meters to locate leaks in their irrigation system. As you've heard, they have quite a bit of leaks in the system. And with the smart system that we'll be installing, we hope that they will be able to help locate them and monetize the value of the lost water. On the sewer side, we have trench list technology, so sewer pipelines are below the ground, much lower in depth than water gas pipelines. And so we're using this new technology where we unfurl a sock, if you will, into inside the old damage pipeline and then we put treated water through there. And what it does is forms a brand new resin coated pipeline within the old pipeline that prevents us from having to trench the entire alley or street. And it's something that we're looking at doing on the water side also as we go forward. The last is a something called the smart cover. So on our sewer system, we have certain areas where we have rising sewer levels and we've installed these new smart covers which use sonar technology that hangs down from the lid of the manhole cover. And it will give us a text message in advance of the sewer level rising up to the street level. And so we'll get that either through text mail or email or through text messages. We get it. We installed at a local hotel and they receive a text message a few hours in advance, and we're able to prevent a sewer spill. With the full support of the wider commission, we have reorganized the Department so as to increase focus on quality control. Specifically in our pipeline work, we have created two key positions. One is the director of field operations to oversee both our water and sewer field planning and operation. The other is a superintendent of water construction to directly manage our water pipeline crews. Another key changes we have contracted back in the inspection responsibilities, increasing our team from two inspectors to now having eight inspectors on the team. They oversee the quality of both in-house and contract work. In the past, our in-house work was not subject to inspection and quality control suffered accordingly. Importantly, from the standpoint of the public and their neighborhoods, this reorganization includes much more attention on how we impact and leave the streets when we do our pipeline work. Previously, work was separated by main and service work performed by two separate field crews under two different supervisors. The work was poorly coordinated, resulting in lengthy interim period during which temporary patches could be left in place for up to a year rather than the preferred maximum of ten days. This was the chief complaint that we had from our neighborhoods. We're now treating all pipeline work as one project from start to finish and under one field supervisor and reviewed by one inspector. The result will be a finalized project with permanent paving that will be completed a much shorter period of time and fully in compliance with public works projects, without exception. What long drought has officially been declared over. I'm glad to say that the efficient use of water is a normalized way of life in Long Beach. Our Long Beach residents and businesses continue to use the water wisely, resulting in double digit reductions in water usage every month this past summer. As I mentioned before, Long Beach residents and businesses use in total about the same volume today as they did back in the 1950s, despite a 40% increase in our city's population. Most people don't realize it, but about 65% of a home's water usage is for outside irrigation. As such, Long Beach water continues to provide Lundegaard incentives up to $3,750 for eligible customers. The details are available on our website. Our successful lawn and garden program has resulted today in 6 million square feet of thirsty lawn being replaced with drought resistant plants. For future capital needs are utility constantly plans ahead to meet the long term water and sewer needs of our customers. On the near horizon, we expect to be investing in the development of new local water wells to maintain or at least expensive source of water, expanding the availability of reclaimed water to additional areas of the city, greatly increasing our replacement of our large and medium valves to enable better control of our pipeline system and the possible transition to smart meters for 90,000 customers, similar to what the gas utility has done. In terms of dollars, our fiscal year 18 budget is roughly $106 million in expenditures, with a forecast of $103 million in revenues. The bulk of our expenditures are tied to the purchase of imported water supplies. The cost for pumping locally produced water. The treatment of the water to ensure safe quality. And then the delivery of the water with all aspects of customer service. Some of the cost drivers include what we paid to the Metropolitan Water District or MWD for the purchase of imported water supplies from Northern California as well as from the Colorado River. This cost is increasing by 4% next year. Likewise, we pay a fee to the water replacement district or D to replace the groundwater we pump locally, which makes up about 60% of our water supplies. The cost paid to our D is increasing by 5% in 2016 I'm sorry, 2018. And the suicide or expenditures are about 22 million and our revenues are about 19 million. Sure costs are fairly stable. However, some costs are increasing primarily due to regulatory requirements for inspecting and maintaining our nearly 1000 miles of sewer pipelines, as well as the department responsible. Paying down some outstanding debt in the sewer fund. To keep the needed rate adjustments moderate and affordable. We will be drawing down our reserves in both the water and sewer funds. This allows us to keep our rate adjustments to 4% for water and 2% for sewer for the average residential household. The impact for water service will be a dollar 71 per month, while the sewer increase is only $0.23 per month. The chart behind you shows the combined average water sewer bill in Long Beach in comparison with similar usage in the other major California cities. As you can see, Long Beach is average residential bill. Even with the proposed rate adjustment included, it's far below those incurred by residents in other major cities. Thank you for your time and attention and will try to answer any questions you may have. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Gardner. Excellent. Speaker 5: Oh, you know. Speaker 0: That that's. That's actually true. Let's just give them more money. Okay. You're so funny. Okay, let's out. Any questions for for your presentation? And we'll start with Councilwoman Price. Speaker 3: Q I have a question for Harbor. So, Sam, thank you very much for the presentation, and thank you very much for the briefing that you provided to me and presumably other council members as well. So I appreciate that. One of the questions that I talked with you about during our budget briefing that I know is something that I get asked a lot about because of press coverage and things like that is can you explain in terms of revenue sources and revenue expectation the fluctuation we've seen and how the sources of revenue that we are committing to our capital projects are going to assist us with future revenues, hopefully in the years to come? Speaker 0: Absolutely. First of all, if I may, I would like to just mention that, you know, in the presentation I mentioned that we are striving for eventually a zero emission operation. We are also working on waterless harbor. So that may also come to pass. So the as far as the operating revenue is concerned, as you may remember, in about a year or so ago, one of our major tenants filed for bankruptcy, hanjin shipping, and we were able to replace that tenant with another major shipping line, which is really the second largest shipping line, and that stepped into Hanjin shoes. However, that caused a major hiccup as far as our operating revenue is concerned. So for 2017 we are slightly trailing behind, but we expect to close that gap by the end of this fiscal year. The predictability of operating revenue, which ties directly into the transfer to the Tidelands Fund, it's at the mercy of what happens in the shipping industry. So in April of this year, there was a major change in the shipping alliances. And shipping alliances really determine what cargo goes to what port having shipping lines. It took them quite some time to figure that out. So there was as well a bottleneck in the Far East that was caused by the confusion that the shipping lines were trying to figure out who goes where and and what. So hopefully all this is behind us. It is still unfolding as we speak, but that is part of the reason our operating revenue is very conservative, that we are only budgeting 2% one given what happened in 2017, but also given all the competition that we are getting from the East Coast Port and Panama Canal. And North West ports and Canadian ports and Mexico. My God. Speaker 3: Thank. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions, Councilwoman Pierce? Speaker 4: Oh, sorry about that. Yes, you can go ahead and stay. Stay. Yes. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Sam, I really enjoyed meeting with you and the team, I believe, a little over a week ago. And I appreciate the budget and the conversations that we had around how our sport has adjusted to a very, you know, uncertainty that we've had. We also I was going to ask if you could talk a little bit about the TARP program. Speaker 0: Sure. So the two ports allocate what's called technology advancement program funds and projects come in front of a committee that's formed of the two ports, and I think it has outside members as well, HMD and possibly CARD. And they decide those projects as which ones are technologically advanced that merit funding them. So a lot of these projects are innovative. They're projects that cannot find funding otherwise without the ports help because they are out there that they're not proven technologies. They're at the cusp of trying to, you know, breakthrough into something that is great and that will be of great benefit in the future. So the two ports fund those projects and those are very vital component. Speaker 4: Thank you. And I just for my colleagues, a little bit of context. I think as we're talking about what a great resource it is to have the port in our city. We also talk about some of the high asthma rates we have. And I know that in Long Beach our asthma rates are still exponentially higher than L.A. County. And some of the conversation we hear from our port is we don't have the technology to go as fast as we'd like. And some of the community conversation is, you know, we'd like to see more advancements to get to zero emissions quickly. And one of the pieces that we don't talk about publicly enough. Speaker 3: I believe, is the fact that we invest. Speaker 4: In technology and that that is something that our port on top of being, you know, a huge economic engine is that we do have money allocated to do some of that. And so as we're moving forward, I think that we need to make sure we educate our community about the resources that we're doing and that we're investing in technology and trying to help create opportunities to move that technology faster. And any conversations that we can have in the, you know, with council or folks here at the city to to help assist that I think is really, really important. Speaker 0: Good point. Speaker 4: Second. I know we had some conversations around the fire station and I didn't ask the question before the council. But could you did you get an answer on whose property that is? Speaker 0: So whose responsibility that is partly funded by by the port that's fire station five and partly by the city. So we are working with the fire department on some renovations there. Speaker 4: Great. So I know that, you know, for our city, obviously, as the Queen Mary development gets built out, making sure that we have fire, I think our new fire boats are fantastic. But I know there's still some challenges with how they get in and out around that area. So anything we can do to make sure that our investments are protected. Thank you very much, Sam. I appreciate it. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Those are the two comments. Is there a second on the motion? Mayor, just to receive and file? Speaker 4: Yes, I did have. Please go ahead for. For water. Speaker 5: Mr. Gardner? Speaker 4: Yes. You want to go first? Speaker 3: You know, I had a couple of questions, too. I apologize. Just one. In regards to the in assisting Parks and Rec with the smart meters to locate leaks in the irrigation system, have you identified where those smart meters will go? And do you know whether any medians will be included? Speaker 5: I don't believe I don't believe medians will be included. But we met with Parks and Rec last week and we asked them to give us the list of 20 sites that they would like us to put the smart meters on. Speaker 3: Okay. Because I know that I mean, obviously, there's a great need throughout the city, but in some of our medians, we've recently and not just in my district but throughout the city, we've invested a lot of money in plants, new plant palettes and some design work and things like that. And it would be nice if we could have some way to monitor that and be able to be more efficient with that. I know they're doing a great job, but that's something to keep in mind. Maybe a smaller smart meter for the medians cheaper will. Speaker 5: Eventually mini eventually. But we're looking at IS and we're studying it right now whether we should install smart meters on all 90,000 accounts and so we may get there fairly soon. Speaker 3: That's great. Thank you very much. And I apologize. I did have the question earlier. So council woman Peirce was very kind to let me jump back in. Thank you. Speaker 0: All right. Councilman Pierce? Speaker 4: Yes. I also want to thank you for the meeting that we had last week and this powerpoint looks awesome. Nice changes. I the same comment. I think that our water department has done a phenomenal job and technology like we just talked about. We don't share that information with all of our constituents and making sure that we're talking about how we as a city are saving saving those dollars. And so I think that that's really important. And I wanted to just ask if you could give an update on the California Water Fix and if the city has taken a stance on that yet? Speaker 5: Actually, we're going to be having the general manager of the Metropolitan Water District come speak to our Water Commission on 26th, September 14th, I believe, at 9 a.m. at the Water Department. And so we have issued a press release and trying to get the public aware of that so that they can come out and hear directly from the general manager. All aspects of the California Water Fix. They expect that there will be a vote of the Metropolitan Water Board at the end of September. It may be pushed back a bit, but right now it's scheduled for the end of September. Gloria Cordero, our water commissioner, is on the board from Baltimore district and she'll be voting. She does not represent the water board. She represents the city of Long Beach on that board. Speaker 4: Great. And then my last question is, we talked about recycled water and capture storm runoff, is that I know that we have some of the infrastructure in place. How are we with applying that citywide and what projects are? Speaker 5: Stormwater under public works, but we're certainly in discussions with them on ways that we can assist them. Speaker 4: All right. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Casey, no other questions for the reports if have a motion in a second to receive and file both of those reports. Any public comment casher votes. Speaker 4: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We're going to go we're going to go ahead and go on to item 1.2.

Public Hearing

Recommendation to receive and discuss an overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budgets for the following Departments: Harbor and Water; and

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Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 5: 1.30. Speaker 2: Report from Financial Management. Recommendation to declare an ordinance approving resolution establishing the rates and charges for water and sewer service to our customers as an emergency ordinance read and adopted as red and laid over in the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading. Speaker 0: It is a motion in a second is any public comment? So please. You can you can do it from up there if you like. The fact that Mike's on it. Are you going to tell you what to come down here? Come down. Come down, sir. Speaker 1: Be patient and you will be in New York. Donald Trump in 18. We had a sign for you to write here. Can I put it right here? Go ahead, sir. Hey, why do you start my time already? I mean, of seconds back. Okay, I'm getting character. Okay, now, doesn't this. I believe this means more charges, right? This is going to be more charges for the people. And I know everything has to have charges, but you have screwed everything up so much by making this sanctuary and all the stuff you did with all this communist stuff and you're making it bad on the property owner. So that's the only reason why I don't like that. Like good water. But when it comes down to it, I remember the time you call them Trump and you had all the illegal aliens and you're proud of that. And then you try to set me up. So every little thing you do now without that won't be a Jet Blue, but you flip on them. Okay. And you did this here? None. The movies here, you keep on 25 million for the homeless every time I talk to them. They never heard nothing about it, you know, to manifest. You messed me up and put my life stream on. But I'm to have it on before foolishness and we're going to do this anyway. So no, you need to get all the property, in this case, double communists. And that little trick about sending Janine Pearce, I don't know if you did it at that time. You think you did it to some my friends who had an organization and then they're not going together and I'm not with them because she went in telling a white woman to dissolve the organization. You know what I'm talking about. Yes, you do. And then you told of make sure you address that. Speaker 0: You can address me. Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm dressing up in her cooking, sir. That's it. That's your goon or whatever. So you don't do, then you can pick her. Speaker 0: Yeah, I think. I think it's not appropriate to call people names, but please address me. Speaker 1: I all the names. I said you're good. Speaker 0: You can direct direct your comments towards me. Speaker 1: Well, no, I don't like nothing. You do. And I think you're a bad mayor. I think you're a socialist. I think you like Fidel Castro because you took money from conservatives that I know. And then you flipped and went straight socialist. So you need to be strong for Americans and start trying to say, look, I care where your family came from. You're an American. Now, act like it. That's what you need to do. No. As far as, hey, you know, why are you still here? You need to be worshiping Karl Marx somewhere. You need to get them out of here. And then somebody else had that. See, now, hey, I like your program at the park, Mr. Andrews. I'm helping, you know everything. But stop voting this way so soon you can have his job. You be better than him. So anyway, Miss Mongo, you look good in them dresses as well. That save you as far as I've been. You got to. Speaker 5: Go. Speaker 1: You get your stuff, right? You still represent Americans. That's all I got to say to you. Stay out of my face, Case. Don't be intimidated. Nobody else, man. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Any other public comment on this item, Mr. Good? Him? Speaker 1: Very good, Hugh. This is the third. Speaker 0: Time this evening, I believe, that we've heard the word and an emergency exist. And that goes to the issue of why I believe it makes sense to put a freeze on all. Speaker 5: Of your traveling period. Speaker 0: Again, if you want to. Speaker 5: Further your political. Speaker 0: Career by traveling all over you, do that on your own expense, not on the taxpayers dime until such time as we do, do not have an agenda. Speaker 5: That has real world emergency. Speaker 1: On it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Q Sir, we're going to go out. Please calm down. And this is on item 1.3. Speaker 3: Yes. And it's a better time than when I had sent in a speaker card. So thank you. And I wanted to thank Councilmember Richardson, Pearce and Gonzalez. My name is Jessica Sullens. I'm a summer intern with Food and Water Watch. And I wanted to speak to the California Water Fix and thank you to your offices for meeting with us already. We really appreciate it. Speaker 4: So if you want to watch as a national nonprofit consumer watchdog. Speaker 3: We take no dollars from corporations and the government allowing us to stay accountable to public interests. Food and Water Watch made a public records request, which revealed that 6.6% in total of its residential customers of Long Beach water had their water shut off in the last two years. And while Long Beach has done a really great job in water conservation, it also needs to continue making the best investments. Which means this Council should take a strong stance in opposition to the proposed 17 to $70 billion Delta Tunnel project. Speaker 4: Metropolitan is geared to vote on the tunnels on the 26th of this month. Food and Water Watch looks forward to formally presenting our concerns to this Council on behalf of Long Beach. Speaker 3: Constituents who will. Speaker 4: See no new additional water from this project yet will have their water rates. Speaker 3: Drastically increased. Speaker 4: This month. Food and Water Watch is slated to give presentations to Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale. Speaker 3: Compton and L.A. City in addition to Santa Ana, San Fernando and other agency municipalities on the Metropolitan Water Board. Speaker 4: So we look forward to including. Speaker 3: Long Beach in that calendar of events and we will also see everyone on the 14th. You know, the public really doesn't know a lot about this project. I just tried to Google that, the press release that he mentioned prior about the 14th meeting and I didn't find anything online, so hopefully that'll be out well three days prior to. But the public really. Speaker 4: Doesn't know anything and really deserves to know since it will affect. Speaker 3: Their dollars. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's a motion in the second member. Please go and cast your votes.

Emergency Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance approving Resolution No. WD-1376, a resolution of the City of Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners establishing the rates and charges to be charged for water and sewer service and declaring the urgency thereof, and providing that this ordinance shall take effect at 12:01 a.m. on October 1, 2017, read and adopted as read. (Ordinance No. ORD-17-0019) (A-3).

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Speaker 2: Councilman Andrews. Motion carries. Speaker 4: 1.7 recommendation to adopt a motion to prevent fiscal year 18 budget for the Long Beach Community Investment Company formerly known as the Lumbini Housing and Development Company, in the amount of $3,324,867. Eight seven. Any member of the public wished to make a comment on this item. Please come forward. Are you coming down, sir? Speaker 1: Very good. Can I go down? Those bad guy. Okay. Well, one thing hit me on this. So they get my sign, right? Speaker 5: Okay, whatever. Speaker 1: Okay. One thing hit me on this. Soon as I get my life to one. Okay? Yeah. Okay. One thing that hit me on this that came to my mind is it says Long Beach, housing, development, community development, housing, development, housing. Because you're pushing for rent control and rent control is going to bring housing down. So that seems like a deception here. Just cause eviction, you can't get dope dealers out. You can't get molesters out of this communist agenda. And it's just bad for the people, period, is bad for the property owners. And that's the only thing that people know when they talk. And I mean, you're in the wrong you need to look. They taught me that when I was young. Look at people. Respect them. So the thing is, there's no Long Beach house and I don't even know how to spell. But they read me wrong just because of the things you doing. Said one of them to. Yeah, well, you talk. And you and this Karl Marx, you're the one that needs to be listening. Oh, stepping down. Come on. At least try to do your job that's eating up there and everything. So, you know. Oh, I don't even have enough to say. I'm really keen to get here. Get on your case, because I wish you would quit. That's what I wish you would really do. You're not a good mayor. You're socialist. You felt like you were a conservative. Whatever. You got people's money. The same thing Fidel Castro did. He took American, sir. So you see what? Yes. Speaker 4: You were really kind. In the meeting at this time, that's not really pertinent to the item at hand, so it would make sense. Speaker 1: To do it this way. I talked about a Long Beach housing development and a big development like that because, you know, rent control lowers housing, lessens housing. So that's what I'm talking about. And with that, I'm sorry to have to say about him. So why are you trying to talk about my seconds up? I like this guy. He needs to be out of here. I want to see him, Senator. Definitely want this to be the end of the road for you. Just like this. That Bill is the man at the end of the road. No more. No fouling lava, no foul on motel three, though. Go back to wherever. And by the way, you're the highest paid man in the land. Why you get so much money? You're a money man. That's what it seems like to me. So I'm through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're sucking money out of this town. Make it for the people. Stop doing what you're doing. Let me put this back on me so you could see me telling you. Yeah, that's what I said. I ain't got no good lighting here. We got to get rid of this mayor. He's no good. That's what I have to say. Oh, man. Okay. Speaker 4: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 4: Say no more public comment. Please cast your votes. The motion case will next move to item 1.8 recommendation to adopt a motion approving the estimated transfer of $18,661,550 from the Harbor Revenue Fund to the Tidelands Operation Fund.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to adopt a motion approving the FY 18 budget for the Long Beach Community Investment Company (formerly known as the Long Beach Housing Development Company) in the amount of $3,324,867. (A-7)

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Speaker 4: See none. Members. Cast your vote. Motion carries. At a 1.10 recommendation to adopt a motion approving the financial policies as adopted by the Budget Oversight Committee. Earlier this evening, September 5th, 2017. Any member of the public wish to approach the Council on this item? See none. Members. Cast your vote. Oh. Oh. So this is in regards to this. No. Okay. Go for it. Actually, fiscal policies. Just the fiscal policies. Okay. This was just. Speaker 3: Because of this one. Speaker 4: We actually discussed that several weeks ago, a budget oversight committee and provided it via memo for any council member. A few weeks ago, a councilmember price. Speaker 3: And this is with the understanding that or approving the fiscal policies except as to the grants. Correct. Which will come back at a later time. Speaker 4: It'll return to the DRC. Speaker 3: Okay, great. Speaker 4: Any member of the public wish to approach the Council on this item? Seamen Members Cast your vote. Speaker 2: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to adopt a motion approving the Financial Policies as recommended by the Budget Oversight Committee on September 5, 2017. (A-10)

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Speaker 4: And the next out of turn, we're going to take item 23. Click we read the item. Sure. It's long. I can try. Speaker 2: Communication from Councilwoman Mongo and Vice Mayor Richardson. Recommendation to direct the city manager to implement mandatory general fund budget saving saving targets for fiscal year 2018 and direct city manager to work with the Department of Financial Management to provide a mid-year progress report. Speaker 4: So I want to thank the community for the overwhelming support and feedback that this Council is doing a fiscally appropriate job in setting out goals and targets so that we can fend off the currently anticipated shortfalls in the next fiscal year. We want realistic opportunities for savings, and we look forward to working hand in hand with our department partners to ensure that the future ahead is bright and that no city services will be cut in the future fiscal years. Because we know that those are the kinds of services that our quality of life is dependent on. Vice Chair. Vice Mayor. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilmember. And I second this motion strongly. I think we all know we've seen the three projections that we may have to make some difficult decisions in the years to come. You know, having worked in the city through some very difficult budget years, I remember those those were tough choices. And so as we, you know, adopt a budget tonight, I think we immediately look to the future by identifying ways to sort of balance our budget next year and diminish limit the impact of the programs that are important to all of us by starting to identify those efficiencies today. You know, this is a tool. I think this is a smart tool. So thank you, Councilwoman Mongeau, and all the budget staff and city manager staff that have advised our advisors through this conversation. The budget savings target is a great tool to start. You know, with the carrot approach, you get to set a target, keep that money in your budget, but try to find ways where you can spend a little bit less without major impacts to staff or major impacts the program to where in a year from now. When we come back, the homework has been done. So we're taking the problem of stretching over a year and figuring it out over a year's time, because we know that this budget conversation, it comes up on it pretty quick every year. So it has my strong support. I encourage the city council and city staff to really embrace this and build support. Thank you. Speaker 4: I actually have had some dialog with some of our department heads already and they did targets even this year and created some scenarios before we knew where we were. And so some of them are already a year down a path and hopefully halfway to the new goal. So we like to set ambitious goals so that we can achieve them. So I urge my colleagues to support this item. Speaker 6: Public comment. Speaker 4: Oh, public comment on this item. See CNN. Speaker 1: She? I was saying this time I got a public comment on the part that he moved without eliminating jobs or programs. Well, as a black man in Long Beach, too many jobs for black folks. Everywhere I look, black folks sitting around doing nothing. But everywhere I see you can almost look at it. You can't always tell who's illegal and who's not. But everybody who has a job seems to be Hispanic. Is that your doing, mayor? I'm pretty sure he didn't do it, so I didn't do it. So the thing is, is what I'm here to ask you as mayor is when are you going to try to help black folks out? When are you going to do it? Yes. Rhetorical. Because I really don't think you're trying to do it. You know, so I'm here to represent that. Help us, Mr. Mayor, because you go about Section eight office. Look right across this all over. When you walk right out here, when you walk right out here, they're laying right by the library. You got those? You passed $225 million bills. I went with my camera asking and nobody heard nothing. They couldn't get in shelters. Right. So I don't know where the hell that money's going to. So you got the we fought a civil rights movement. We came over as slaves and we ain't got work. We came here to work and we ain't got work. This ain't the white man's fault. You talk about the gentrification, all the little groups that you find in everything. This is your fault. You're the mayor. The white people seem to be on Main Street with cops. They got a problem, just like the black people. But that's your problem. I just did a thing over of Chair in the Alamo, and there was a three foot dam high. There's so much. This place is starting to look like what? This place is looking like. What? You got people up and down. Cherry Guy Cab. You can't even be a citizen. He's selling watermelons. Ever since. I've been living here for four and a half years, and everybody got to see him. But let me get my ass out there with a barbecue pit. See if I can stay out there for two days. Get out of here. So maybe I should start selling barbeque fried chicken and potato salad out there and see, you know, see if you protect me. I know you've had to pass it. So what I'm saying is I'm asking you to make sure there's some justice. Justice? You see something legal? You drive around this place, you see this ghetto that you make. And I never heard of a Republican get all my life. And I say these Republicans, we have a PR angle, miss. No names start voting like Republicans and act like Republicans because well, we call them as rhinos when you vote like that. You vote everywhere with a Democrat and a liberal. First of all, Democrats have nothing for black folks in Iowa. How many years away? I'm just saying, change your ways as far as brothers. Start helping brothers and Republicans start acting like you and Janine Pearce leave town or something. That's what you need to do and change your ways. Do something for somebody else. Thank you for your time. Speaker 4: Senior Fellow Public Comment. Members cast your vote. Motion carries item 1.1 to recommendation to adopt the budget oversight committees proposed funding recommendations as amended to the fiscal year 18 proposed budget. And I will read those now. So as mentioned, Budget Oversight Committee, the budget process has changed considerably over the last several years.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to direct City Manager to implement mandatory General Fund budget saving targets for Fiscal Year 2018 for all departments at the maximum level possible without eliminating jobs or programs. Further, direct City Manager to work with the Department of Financial Management to provide a mid-year progress report of such budget savings efforts to the City Council.

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Speaker 4: Senior Fellow Public Comment. Members cast your vote. Motion carries item 1.1 to recommendation to adopt the budget oversight committees proposed funding recommendations as amended to the fiscal year 18 proposed budget. And I will read those now. So as mentioned, Budget Oversight Committee, the budget process has changed considerably over the last several years. There was a time in many members recent memory that there wasn't even a budget oversight committee, and so the budget appeared and the council would pass it. I want to thank my committee. We took a great amount of time to start off our year with some thoughtfulness around fiscal policies that every few years we need to visit those and ensure that we are ensuring that the policies of this Council and the committee of this Council, as passed a few moments ago, represent our priorities. And so I think that that started with a great tone. I think we had healthy dialog throughout the process. It's difficult to do in a year where we know that we're tightening the belt, and so most of our allocations this year are one time. And so I appreciate that community who came out to council meetings, to budget oversight committee meetings, to individual budget meetings in each of our districts, and then also to approached us wherever we are, where we work in play, whether we were at concert in the park or in line at ground bakery, people had questions and they were excited to ask them. And I think that that says a lot about my colleagues, that we are approachable and open to answering those questions because we actually study the materials presented to us by the city staff and that they put countless hours into to make sure that we have the information necessary to make the tough choices. So here are our proposed tough choices. Motion to use 700,000 and general fund one time funding, including 300,000 from fiscal year weapons funds, year end funds available, and 400,000 from expected election cost savings . This funding to be appropriated for the following one time purposes. 454 Business Corridor Improvements in order to spur, enhance sales and revenue for the city in the following three business corridors at 150,000 each Pacific. Anaheim in Carson 100,000 and Health and Human Services Department to support My Brother's Keeper and limitation of 10,000 in the Health and Human Services Department to leverage grant funding and fund community health programs, furthering the 125 and ongoing funding for the 125. An ongoing funding from Proactive Homeless Initiative can also be used to support the community health programs in addition to the homeless rapid response activities. 50,000 in Parks, Recreation and Marine Department to address the results of the City Auditor's Animal Care Services audit findings with a goal of increasing adoption rates for the city of Long Beach Ocean to use special advertising and promotion funds revenues in order to show that again motion to use as AP funds, special advertising and promotion funds to appropriate 114,000 and ongoing funds in Parks, Recreation and Marine Department for the following purposes 54,000 to support nine community concerts, one in each district similar to those outlined in the two from four 20,000 to leverage matching funds for dealers, supporters and event 20,000 to leverage matching funds for Jazz Festival Annual Event 20,000 as supplemental matching funds for additional community concerts throughout the city. The entire plan for community concerts should be revisited annually based on equity and return on investment for a proposal and consideration of the Budget Oversight Committee, including, but not limited to leveraged funds, attendance, etc.. Motion for first contingent appropriation of fiscal year 17 General Fund one time year end surplus in amount of 750,000. Subject of funding availability for capital infrastructure. Existing city programing to be divided equally between the city council districts for district priorities. Any exception must go to the Council for review and approval motion for contingent appropriation for fiscal year 17 time one time year in surplus in the amount of 1 million subject to funding availability in the Public Works Department for one time improvements to the Convention Center, which will free up 1 million in measure funds. Motion for contingent appropriation of the 1 million in measure funds is freed up based on the contingent appropriation aforementioned in the Public Works Department for Sidewalks, Sidewalk Repair Replacement Rapid Response Program on a go forward basis. The city shall make city wide investments in streets and sidewalks based on need at any additional fiscal year. 17 year and surplus in the general fund should be set aside for the fund to fund the city's critical one time needs for fiscal year 19. Again, looking forward subject to the Budget Oversight Committee review and recommendation motion that the city staff return to the Budget Oversight Committee with recommendations to allocate any additional fiscal year 17 table fund one time year in surplus above the million in a manner that is fair and balanced and consistent. With the reprioritisation criteria established by City Council in 2015. Oh. Speaker 0: Have the question for you. Speaker 4: I guess I did not make the motion. I thought I did make of the motion. Mr. AGAGU Maybe they did a second part of the motion. Councilman Austin. Speaker 5: Oh, thank you. And thank you for the. Speaker 6: Very detailed rundown of. Speaker 1: The Budget Oversight Committees recommendation. Speaker 6: Second, in this motion, as a member of the Budget Oversight Committee. I also want to commend my colleagues on the committee, Chair Price and Chair Mungo and Vice Chair Price for their due diligence and patience and. Speaker 5: You know, really working to. Speaker 6: Collaborate with all of the city departments and other federal council members to get to this point. We know that as a vice mayor, Richardson would say winter is coming, and so we need to be prepared for it. And I think this budget recognizes that. But it's also one that is responsible and balanced and that. Speaker 1: Meets the needs of. Speaker 6: Services that we try to all of our constituents depend on. So I'll be supporting this motion. Speaker 4: Thank you. Member Price Pierce. Thank you, Councilmember Pierce. Speaker 3: Still a. Speaker 4: Year. We still get confused, huh? I want to thank the BRC for all of their effort and the work that you guys have done. I think as a city we've talked a lot about equity and that shows through the commitment that we've made to our health department around community health programs, around My Brother's Keeper, and also the work around our homeless community, which I think is really important. I wanted to to clarify a couple of things and and ask a couple of questions for our homeless conversation. Can you address for me? Well, let me let me clarify this for the heart team. I know that Councilmember Price, it was a conversation that you brought up. And so I would like to know, where are we having conversations outside of the budget around that? I know I've I've met with our county supervisors and we're having some of those conversations about how can we find dollars to make sure that we make this heart team the strongest team that it can be. And so is there a plan already from the BOC on a next step for that? So the first step is that this budget includes structural funding for the heart team, which is the first time, and that's as a large one, large commitment. It also includes the one time costs associated with the vehicle and other components of the heart team. Additionally, it asks that the Finance Department bring back some information to Budget Oversight Committee for consideration so that we'll be in a better place to discuss that a few months from now. Great. Thank you for that. And on the conversation around the other funds, one time you said around the convention center. I just want to you know, I think that our convention center, the numbers I have is $300 million in economic impact in our city, that this is something that generates a lot of revenue for our city, and that any time we have a conversation around Tidelands, that we really need to make sure that we're being careful about having those conversations with the two council members that take over or that that governance in that area. I think that this is smart and I support this because we should be using Tidelands funds where available on our convention center and freeing up $1,000,000 for Measure A to go back into infrastructure I think is smart. Where I'd like to make a friendly is you have on here that it just goes to sidewalk replacement and I've heard the comments for that and that on the back it says that moving forward the city would make citywide investments on streets, alleyways and sidewalks based on need. I would only feel comfortable with freeing up those measure $8 if this is based on need, whether that's if it's sidewalks, if it's alleyways. But I think we need to give that discretion to those that have worked on the measure plan for a long time. So let me also you're not the only one to ask that question. So we have already committed to a certain set of maps and that set of maps. We want to continue that commitment. They've been presented at this council, whether it was for measure or whether it was for a measure and whatever it was, maps have been seen by the community and the public, and we don't want to ever put ourselves in a position where we promise something and then take it back. So that is why there's that there will be wording in there to ensure that the maps that have been seen are protected on a go forward basis. The city shall make citywide investments in streets, alleys and sidewalks based on need. That really speaks to funding that has not yet become available and will become available in the future. With regard to the sidewalks, the rapid response program for Sidewalks is to fund programs on a as needed basis for repairs that are a safety issue. And there are currently there used to be $9 million over the three year period that were available for allocations. There are considerable number of sidewalks within the community that have not been repaired and so they have an extensive list. I believe that the city staff will need to come back to us with a two from for on the specifics of what that would look like. ERICKSON Did you want to comment on that? Yes, Chairman, go. Traditionally, the city staff does return to city council with a timeframe for explaining how we plan to implement the city council approved changes, and we would do so in this in this regard as well. I hear your your concern. I guess my concern is I'm taking $1,000,000 out of the convention center, you know, taking that millions of dollars that was allocated to the convention center to free that up for city wide use for the measure. A The priority in my district, I don't want to set a priority for the city. That's why I would rather give it to city staff to say is is sidewalks a priority or is the dirt alleyways a priority? So alleys under this plan would be prioritized. I guess the way it reads on the front pages, it says sidewalk replacement. So if we could make a friendly to say so this as a. Are a part of motion, a component of what I mentioned. And all alleys would be paved with the $5 million in allocation that are outlaid. So all the alleyways would be paved with the 5 million. That's just a checklist stuff. I have another document on the that. Hold on. Just because I got some really bad alleyways, guys. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I guess what my point chair is just making sure that we're not saying that sidewalks are a priority for one councilmember. Therefore, we're taking that money and putting this is city wide. And specifically here it is. This is city wide. And if I wanted it, there were some recommendations that we move this money into park bathrooms. But if anyone looked at the park bathroom list, the next three park bathrooms on the list are all mine. And I was trying to be equitable as chair and ensure that all citywide priorities are managed. I want to fight for my district and city wide and make sure that when we're doing that, we're doing it equitably. And so that's why sidewalks were chosen. This council had to make a very tough decision several months ago in light of a lawsuit that drained all of our sidewalk funding for the whole city for three years. And so that was something that I made a commitment to back then, that I would go out and work hard to find some supplemental funding. It's no $9 million, but it's a small step for those that have been on less waiting for sidewalks for six and seven years. And so it is a safety concern and I wouldn't put a non safety concern over a safety concern. So I appreciate that. You know, that's that's fine. I mean, as long as it's included in there, where it's driven on what we've already said as a priority and that support that was important for me. And then moving forward that those conversations around if additional funds come up. I think Councilmember Price's suggestion at the BMC is one that I support and making sure that the two of us are having these conversations around the Tidelands funds moving forward. I think the other statement that I wanted to make is I think that it's exciting to see our city as a whole looking at community concerts in the eyes of economic development. We are excited out of our office, have worked on a couple of the entertainment items with city staff. So I would hope that outside of just working with the body on these items, that we're also including our economic development team because we will be coming back soon with some recommendations and how we talk about entertainment as a whole. And I would want this to be separate from that when I feel like there's likely some dollars that we can use out of that outcome. Speaker 3: To support. Speaker 4: Entertainment as a whole in our city moving forward. So noted. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 4: Great job on a budget, guys. Councilmember Gonzalez. Speaker 3: Yes. I want to thank you as well. I know I definitely do not envy you. You get a lot of requests. And so I just want to thank the effort from the Budget Oversight Committee for putting together what I think is a really great plan. And so thank each and every one of you as well as our city staff. I may I make them every year we conduct an English budget meeting and we conduct a Spanish one. So we have to. Speaker 4: You know, look at all of our. Speaker 3: Spanish language and make sure it's translated correctly. And it's really tough, let me tell you. So I want to thank staff for just being available to our residents in the first District for that. I appreciate it. Just a couple quick questions. I know. Speaker 4: The business core. Speaker 3: Corridor improvements, which will be divided evenly among Pacific, Anaheim and Carson. That looks to be about $150,000 each. Are we because that doesn't stretch far, but are we looking at additional funds on top of that? I know. Speaker 4: So some of it's actually gap funding. So some of the corridors when discussing economic development opportunities. The first thing I always sit down and talk about is what can we do to increase revenues? Because if we can increase revenues, we don't have to cut costs and especially revenues in areas where we have visitors ship and likes. So the original intent was to take a SIP funds and hopefully use them in some corridors that we thought we could activate for visitors. It didn't end up working out that way, so we ended up finding this other opportunity in working with the Economic Development Department head. There are some corridors that already have funding, but there's gaps between major areas. And so to make a contiguous look and feel and to amplify the effectiveness of the money that's already been spent. Some of these are the adjacent, so every one of these has something adjacent to it that's already exciting and funded, and that's how these were funded. Speaker 3: Great. Thank you very much. And I look forward to that. I'll also say as well, the community concerts, which I know have been a big priority in my area, but I appreciate them certainly, and making sure that we are looking at the whole city. And so I really appreciate the efforts there. And then I want to make sure with that that this is an ongoing use. So it will be structural. Speaker 4: Correct. So what we did is we put in the plan that the community concerts as a whole would be revisited, because a component of this is that this year the mini band is funded. And perhaps looking at what that looks like and putting all the numbers together are really going to be able to provide a bigger, broader picture for consideration. I know that this dialog started late in the year and so we want to ensure that the city staff work to ensure all of these are successful and then bring back the areas for improvement in case additional funding is needed in certain gaps as we go forward. Because what we set up was matching funds. So theoretically, every council district could submit that they wanted to fund and then it would be matched. But that is unlikely to be the case. And so when we look at that, we'll know better. So this is a test pilot on the fourth component of that, which was the supplemental matching. Speaker 3: Okay, so we'll rereview, but hopefully they're all successful like UPS in and then we'll go from there. Speaker 4: And some of them are already independently successful without the funding. And the challenge is that they would be even more successful if the community didn't have to spend as much time fundraising and could spend more time advertising and getting out the word and bringing people in. Speaker 3: I couldn't agree with you more on that one. So thank you. Perfect. And then the last the last question or basically comment that I have is similar to Councilmember Pearce with the sidewalks and alleys. So I'm just wondering in terms of I wasn't really clear as to how that was going to be. Speaker 4: So there's two different items in there. There's two different sub motions and the master motion, the one related to on a go forward basis, the city shall make citywide investments in streets, alleys and sidewalks based on need. According to my dialog with Mr. Beck, that would mean that the $5 million that we as a council have set aside for alleys would first and foremost go to need based turning our dirt alleys into paved alleys. Okay. I think that was in alignment with your comments at a prior council meeting. Right. Speaker 3: And you're saying we expended, of course, our the ADA lawsuit that happened that was expended. So this is so the convention center, just so I'm getting it clear in my head, will be used for sidewalks based on need priority as well as all of our other streets alleys which are already in the process. Okay. Just want to make sure I'm clear on that. That is it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Speaker 4: Thank you. Speaker 0: But let me let me add to one one piece of matches to be very clear for for staff as well. Speaker 4: And I know I while you were gone, but go ahead. Speaker 0: Okay. And Councilwoman, go. I want to mention this, but I just I know I was asked by staff to clarify all of the maps that were already presented, both the measure maps, as well as the Capital Street Map overlay that this council saw about a month ago or so at the at the. All of that is already locked in. And this is for additional streets or sidewalks in this case beyond that, correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 4: Councilman Price. Speaker 3: Thank you. I just wanted to echo a comment made by Council member Pearce regarding the Hart teams. I think having Hart teams in every battalion in the city would serve the city very well. Our council colleagues were not privy to the presentation that was made earlier today regarding the budget survey, but we had 485 surveys submitted as of yesterday, and among the top priorities for the residents who completed the survey are public safety concerns, response to homelessness, issues that are presented by transient activity. And I think the Hart team can really go a long way for us in terms of identifying opportunities to get people into long term services and care. And so one of the issues that I had raised at BMC, I think it's something that will come back for us to consider, is really evaluating what funding opportunities may be available for Hart teams. There was mention of of possible money from the county coming that that I'm not personally aware of. But I do know that the first responder fee is is performing better than projected. And it would be my intention as we move forward and continue to look at that source of funding to put that money back into the fire department, to have more Hart teams servicing the entire city so that each district has a Hart Team presence, so that these individuals with our fire department have the opportunity to build the relationships with folks who are homeless and build that credibility that's necessary to get them into long term sustainable programs so that they can make long term life changes. I think I think there's a lot of opportunity there for us to see meaningful change and. So I'm just putting that out there. I know it's not one of the recommendations. I wish it were, but I realize that it's not yet. And I hope that my colleagues will consider how we can find more moneys to fund additional heart teams for the entire city. So thank you. Speaker 4: Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 5: Thank you, Chair Mungo. I wanted to chime in and just say what a what a wonderful job. You and both members, Austin and Pryce, on the Budget Oversight Committee did on making sure that there's you know, you take in consideration, you know, the city manager's budget, the mayor's budget recommendations, and now I see a whole bunch of council recommendations here. So I see a real intentional effort to really build a bridge, really build consensus. And I want to just acknowledge that. So. So good job. I do want to say, you know, we want to maintain our focus, you know, over the course of the next year on what we can do around things like expanding our our fire academy and expanding the Hart team. And so as revenues or fees are adjusted and we look at those things as a. Speaker 6: Conversation, I'm. Speaker 5: Certainly looking forward to having once we once we conclude this. But again, thank you to all the members of the council. This this recommendation, I think, is very balanced and has my full support. Speaker 6: Thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you. Any member of the public wish to comment on the proposed motion? Speaker 5: I fully support any moneys that can. Speaker 0: Be put into concerts that I would also like to see some money put into some opera. APRA and I hadn't heard that word all evening. What if we have to find some money? Put it into get three or four opera productions. Thank you. Speaker 3: Honorable mayor and council members. Thank you for helping me out today. Speaker 4: I'm Janet Powell, small. Speaker 3: Business owner and Long Beach animal advocate. I'm here today. Speaker 4: Because I partner. Speaker 3: With and support several incredible Long Beach based nonprofit volunteer run animal rescues. I believe Emily Gosh has already spoken with several of you about our comprehensive report and the programs and staff support we're asking for for Long Beach Animal Services. Thank you for earmarking $50,000, which is a great start, but it cannot be won and done. We must look long term. Speaker 4: Allow me to pose. Speaker 3: Two questions and I'm willing to bet you don't hear them very often here. First question What can we do to bring more money to the Long Beach economy nationwide? The industry has grown by $2 billion every year for the last ten years, and it's already at $69 billion this year. How much of that is being spent in Long Beach? How much of it is growing in Long Beach? If we implement better adoption, facilitation and educational programs at the animal shelter that directly results in economic benefits, more adoptions and more responsible pet owners. I mean, more money being spent at the hundreds of businesses in this city that specialize in vet care, pet supplies, pet grooming and setting services. Speaker 4: This is a significant market with a lot of room for revenue growth. On average, a pet owner will spend $1,000 per. Speaker 3: Pet per year. 15 years means up to $15 million additional spending coming into the Long Beach economy. If we just get 1000 more residents to adopt, more spending means more sales tax dollars cumulatively, far more than what we're asking for to get these improvements started. Second question how can we help the city of Long Beach save money? Better spay neuter enforcement services and educational programs mean fewer unfixed animals dumped onto the street, which creates. Speaker 4: Even more. Speaker 3: Homeless, ill and dying animals. Speaker 4: Already, their presence. Speaker 3: Is lowering property values, and that means fewer property tax dollars coming in year after year. Unless you empower us to implement flood gates and might not significant savings be made if animal behavior educational programs help to prevent potential lawsuits against the city? Why wait until a police officer shoots a pet dog based on a misreading of its behavior? Just last year, the City of San Diego was sued for. Speaker 4: A half million dollars because their dog was shot by a. Speaker 3: Police officer who came onto their property and reacted too quickly out of fear. The dog bled slowly to death for 2 hours while the police officer failed to respond to the family's pleas to get immediate help. Also last year, two cities in Colorado and Michigan have already paid out over $360,000 combined to two families whose dogs were shot by police officers. Why wait until something like that happens in Long Beach? Education is the key to prevention. Help us make a meaningful, tangible, long term difference in animal rescue. And we will be your champions. This can be your legacy to your family and to your community. Long Beach Animal Advocates Members. Please stand up. Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3: Well done, Janet. Mr. Mayor. Council members. Good evening. Speaker 1: Of course. Speaker 3: Also. Thank you. My name is O'Reilly. Vander Hook and I have been a proud member of the Long Beach community since 2001 and an even prouder member of the rescue. Speaker 4: Community since. Speaker 3: 2012. I am the founder of Zoe's Place Rescue, and I would like to address my concerns over the budget consideration for the Long Beach Animal Services. Speaker 4: Since I started to get involved in rescue five years ago, it seems that the. Speaker 3: Shelter's need for help has not decreased. And every year we, the rescue community, feel that we are not making a dent. Speaker 4: In 2016, Long Beach Animal Services killed 2360 animals. Speaker 3: Or 22% of its intended. Speaker 4: Statistics to date. Long Beach Animal Services has already killed. Speaker 3: 896 impounded animals, knowing that 500 of. Speaker 4: Which were cats due to kitten season. Speaker 3: This is not a 90% live release rate. Speaker 4: This is a staggering. Speaker 3: Number that can be prevented if the shelter and the city can issue adequate programs and budgets. It is shocking. Speaker 4: That adoptions only contribute to the success rates by. Speaker 3: 6%. That is not enough. We cannot sit here and pretend these numbers are okay simply because we are lower than the Downey shelter. Speaker 4: That should not be a. Speaker 3: Consolation by any means. Speaker 4: Let's also be clear that without the help of the rescue community, this these numbers would be far higher. Speaker 3: In 2016, rescue support, 1161 animals from the shelter, or 11% of its intake. And already in 2017. Speaker 4: We have saved. Speaker 3: 1121 lives, or 18% of the intakes rely on us to continue. Speaker 4: Making those statistics bearable is simply. Speaker 3: Not fair. Speaker 4: The rescues are full to the. Speaker 3: Gills and completely trapped financially. Speaker 4: As well as. Speaker 3: Emotionally. The amount of. Speaker 4: Debts each of us have accumulated just to weather. Speaker 3: Keep animals from being turned into the shelter or save them from the dreaded red list is simply not sustainable. Speaker 4: The City of Long Beach should instead look to put pressure for relief. Speaker 3: On another contracted partner in SPCA with an annual rent of $120 to. Speaker 4: The city. SPCA should be pulling a lot more from the shelter than the 15%. Speaker 3: Rate it is currently holding. The Protection for animals. Speaker 4: Their organization stands for. Good start there. Speaker 3: Long Beach is an animal friendly city. And I believe we if we empower. Speaker 4: Their residents. Speaker 2: And give them the opportunity to rise to the challenge. Speaker 3: We can come together and do significant change. Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Good evening, everyone. Honorable Mayor City Council. Speaker 4: I would like to give a special. Speaker 3: Thanks to the BRC for listening to our concerns and making a little bit of wiggle room there. You know, it's encouraging to get $50,000. It's obviously not exactly what we need, but we're encouraged by that and we really do appreciate it. So, yes, thank you to the BBC. I can assure you that your attention to this matter means more than to just me and the animal rescue founders. It means a lot to the community members and they are watching what's happening here. Our team will wholeheartedly continue our efforts to support the city shelter and the rescues will continue to make our city look good and our mayor look good by keeping those kill rates as low as we possibly can. The shelter team, as I've. Speaker 4: Said before, are a really dedicated. Speaker 3: Group of people, and it's our honor to support them in this $50,000 will help us to do that more effectively. Our group are looking forward to the completion of the city. Speaker 4: Audit at our backs. Speaker 3: We have full confidence that the audit findings will be accurate, informative and therefore will influence further initiatives to increase funding and implement programs. Speaker 4: Also allowing us to reach our goal. Speaker 3: Of a 90% or greater live release rate for shelter pets. Thank you again for your support of shelter animals. I know that we're a unified city of animal lovers, and together we will continue to deepen our efforts and make Long Beach a progressive animal shelter city. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Okay. Robert, repeat once again. Represent Jesus. No organization. But one thing I have on this, I heard somebody mentioned homelessness. Now we had to $25 million. I know it wouldn't last two years. Bills or something, you know, for the homeless. Now I'm hearing about homeless in here and then people talking about dogs. I mean, I love dogs. You know, that's cool. But, you know, so many people out in the streets coming from L.A. Fitness on Carson and Terry at night, I would go late to get my workout. And as I'm leaving, I go around, I forget what restaurant there is. There's a guy right on the concrete. When it was freezing and I got pneumonia last year, I could see I could see fog coming up. That guy just had a blanket wrapped. I mean, the dogs are cool. I want to help that guy. There's so many people out there really hurting, and we need to help the people. Now, all my life, mainly, I seen minorities out there. But now in the last well, since and at Long Beach, I never seen white folks like this out in the middle of the street asking for money. We have an epidemic. We got white folks have same problem black folks do. We got to get together and stop just catering to the outside. And I mean, dogs are cool, but hey, we got to take care of people for dogs. We got too many people out there that messed up off of meth. Heroin. And this is serious, you know? Oh, I hear all the stuff talk what I heard, I see what has been passed for this money being passed everywhere. But we got to do something about it. So I'ma say I'm I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but let's do some. America for Americans is help the veterans. Let's help our citizens. And as far as these jobs and all this stuff, listen, I want to see I like to see blacks and whites working again everywhere I go. I have nothing against Latinos because I'm not Tino Cubano, you know? But damn, I want to see blacks and whites working. It was a day when blacks and whites had jobs in America. Not anymore. Every time I see anything going, I mean city jobs. I said where they only want to do it there nobody else to do it. Not want to see city jobs, want to see counter top jobs. What is the every job? It used to be back in the seventies when you got a construction job, you started out at $20. You could buy a house, look at a construction site, see if you could find a see if you could find the right guy in there, a little black guy. So 28/2 use. The rest is up. Remember that. Hey, that right? Martin Luther King said we better do black and white together. He said it back in the sixties, black and white today. That's what this nation started. I'm everybody in between to break. We're going to have this race war stuff because it ain't no nine, no Nazi KKK. I never been that. I worked Trump on me and I'm Nazi KKK. Fascist. I mean, all fascist meant to it not long ago. Speaker 4: But thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. Please Americans and remember you book. Speaker 4: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Oh. Speaker 5: Good evening, our honorable Mary Garcia and council members. My name is Patrick Goddard. I am president and board member of Action Sports Kids Foundation, also known as Ask Long Beach. Tonight, I am here as a private citizen and resident of the fifth District to request $100,000 in next year's budget to be set aside as seed funding for skate park improvements, specifically for the Michael K Green Skate Park at Pacific and 14th. After attending a few budget briefings and talking with parks, I believe that seed funding and commitment to this project from the city will help get matching funding from outside. Sources will. Speaker 6: Be able to use this to leverage. Speaker 5: Funding that I know is out there. The city council and staff have an incredibly difficult job allocating funds and support for an overwhelming amount of needs and interest. I fully recognize this, but I think skate park improvements are very worthy cause and urgent at the time. At this time, during last the last week, I visited several of our local skate parks, particularly in the evening hours at Osoba, Robert Gunn, Byner, Eldorado and Michael K Green. These skate park spots were the only amenities in the parks that they were located in to be fully utilized. During my visits, there were kids and scooters, adults with skateboards and bikes, all respecting each other, exercising, engaging in healthy activity. And while the basketball courts and other amenities were empty, I know that's anecdotal, but I see this again. Again, I just want to drove here past Robert Gunn Byner again. Most of the park is empty, but the skate spot was being fully, fully utilized. Skate parks helped keep our parks activated. And with the talk of parks shuffling funds for afterschool programs, keep in mind that skate parks are, in a sense, outdoor community centers that act as areas where youth can recreate, socialize after school. A well-placed, well-built, well-designed, all concrete skate park is a fiscally conservative investment that requires very little maintenance and years of benefits for the community. It's time to improve and build the next chapter of Michael K Green Skate Park, a spot that has already provided benefits, great benefits for well over ten years. Thank you for your consideration of $100,000 in seed funding for skate park improvements, and thank you for your time. I'm here with a group of other parents and skaters that are in support of this, including my son Dylan, who skates in. Speaker 6: Long Beach every day. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Good evening, counsel. Thank you for your time. My name is Amber Sullivan. I'm a resident in the third district with Councilwoman Pryce. I've lived there for the last 12 years with my son, who is also a skateboarder and as a single mom, having a place for him to go and get actively and be social and be active and not sitting in the house saying I'm bored is priceless. He he skate for 8 to 10 hours at a time every week and every Saturday, every Friday through skateboarding. He's had opportunities to travel, to go to Minnesota, to compete to compete in the California state games. Having these opportunities available in Long Beach is I can't thank you enough. And so I'm here to show support in getting additional funding to help renovate and improve the Michael K Green Skate Park and the other skate parks within Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Hi. My name is Nicole Stewart and I live in the third district and I like really like skateboarding. It gives me something to do and there's different skate parks. But personally for me, I don't have a car and there's not a safe way for me to get to a skate park. And I feel like we should get a new skate. Speaker 3: Park that is concrete. Speaker 4: And have something for the community to do. And it'll be used for things. Think in a speaker, please. Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Steffie Hans and I'm a resident of the fifth District and I'm also here in support of improving our skate parks, not only the Michael Green Skate Park, which really needs a lot of help, but also a lot of the other skate parks and that it's included in the annual budget. My son has Scooter did at the Michael K Green Skate Park when he was eight years old. And I go hang out there when my brother comes into town. He's 40 years old and he still skates that park. So I really see the skate parks as something that brings together our community, brings together our kids, brings together the parents that have the kids there. And it's it's an integral part of our community. I was here with McDonald and when he started that first skate park and how tough it was to get that one going. And now we have several. And they really do need maintenance. They do have safety issues. And I understand the challenge with that that the director of Parks and Rec has, but we would like them included in future budgets. And we appreciate the work that you have done on this budget. I know it has been very difficult and a lot of work has been put into it. So thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: All right. Hi. Thanks. My name is Mike Stewart, resident of the third district. I'll be really brief for as brief as I can be. I just want to reiterate, I'm also here for skate parks. A couple of things that were not mentioned. Skating is an Olympic sport. Due tour is awesome. It's brought 30,000 people as an event this year. Due tour is also used for snowboarding for an Olympic trials. It's very likely that the Dew Tour in the future will be used for that here. There's it's good visibility. It's good good opportunities. If new skateboard parks and rambling. Excuse me. Long story short, there are a bunch of us that realized recently and it's hard to organize over a long weekend to even show up on a night like this. But a lot of us leave the city in order to go take our kids to skate. I attended a meeting last week. Speaker 1: With with. Speaker 5: Councilmember Price and brought up the idea of working with developers to help retail retailers suffering. We've got a lot of really interesting retail projects going on in the city. Entertainment is going to be key for the success of retail. I'm sure you know this, but there's there's a lot of research out there that suggest if retail is going to survive entertainment, you needed you need a draw. You need a reason for people to go out. So I'll quit. I'll quit again. Skate parks. We'd like to see more. And I know I've missed ten things. I urge you strongly. One of the main things, main points that Pat had mentioned earlier is the utilization. It's extremely cheap versus the utilization. So it is a conservative investment that lasts for 20 years. Speaker 4: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Instead of him into a war zone. The third district again just reiterating proposed funding for specifically the Michael K Green Skatepark. As a professional skateboarder since 98. You know, I've been there many times and the city. Speaker 5: Has helped shape my career. Speaker 6: That park is made of prefab material. And it's a it's at this point, it can be kind of dangerous. There's holes. You know, if they were to re-implement that, I don't think it would be that much of a budget for whatever you guys can do. It would be really appreciated just to implement a concrete park. Speaker 5: Well designed. Speaker 6: I did have some snow in the McBride skate park. Believe injuries as a part of that one. Speaker 5: Anything you can do to concrete. Speaker 6: Well this last a. Speaker 5: Really long time and again it it. Speaker 0: It's. Speaker 6: Good for the kids. It gets them off the street. It teaches them perseverance, patience, so many things. Thank you for listening. Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you for coming back. We appreciate you. Next, teacher, please. Speaker 5: Good. Good evening, Vice Mayor Richardson, City Council Member, City Staff Rich Gardner, District four. I want to thank the city for approving the $125,000 for the Commission on Aging. I just got news from Karen from the Long Beach Gray Panthers that that happened. And I implore the citizens out there to get behind any efforts to increase activities with the seniors. Some people call it the silver tsunami. I don't know if you've heard of that phrase, but let's face it, a tsunami is an underground earthquake that happens all of a sudden. And basically the baby boomers are growing at such a rate that it's more appropriate to call it an iceberg. And if we look back at one of the greatest disasters in the history of mankind, which is the Titanic, basically our technology is so much better nowadays. We have the ability to see that iceberg. We know it's there. The problem is, just like with the Titanic, I don't think America or the world has really put enough lifeboats on this ship called the World. And that's the main reason that I'm sorry that 1500 people died on the Titanic because they only had 20 lifeboats and they had the capacity of 64. So I encourage the council members. I'm sure a lot of you have assisted living facilities in your own districts to go and visit and find out some of the needs and concerns and the citizens out there that are caring for the people. Let's face it, it's an overwhelming responsibility. A lot of you know, I know this firsthand because I took care of my wife who had Alzheimer's disease. And I can tell you that it's just it's more than you guys can even imagine. So with that in mind, the Gray Panthers are also going to be having a booth. They just looked it up. It's called the heart of Ida Walk, which is September 23rd. I haven't been there yet, but I hear Rosie the Riveter park is pretty nice. I'm not sure whose district it's in, but it's going to be a senior safety walk to help raise awareness. So I encourage the citizens out there to come on out, help, support and once again and I organized the Purple City Alliance, Riverside, California. We recently got the city of Corona to partner in with us. I'm inviting the city of Long Beach. Whoever can make this happen to come and share our information. Last year, we put together five symposiums on the issues of dementia and Alzheimer's. And October 22nd, San Cornelius Church. We're going to have a little throwdown from 2 to 5, get some people out there to celebrate life with those that are struggling. Thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is Vince Poggi, and I'm a 40 year resident of the third District and an alumni of. Speaker 6: Long Beach State Beach. Speaker 5: I'm also an animal. Speaker 6: Activist, and I just wanted to acknowledge. Speaker 5: Some of my fellow activists who are here tonight in support. Speaker 0: First of all. Speaker 5: Thank you for allowing me an opportunity. Speaker 6: To express my views. Speaker 5: In a Grunion Gazette article from August 24th of this year. The writer Ashley Rule cites there have been three straight years of record low in LBS and euthanasia and at Animal Care Services. These are important and positive results. This is a result of the hard work and commitment of Ted Stevens and his staff and his willingness to work with volunteers and rescue groups. These steps are to be applauded and are a step in the right direction. But as the article mentioned, there is more work to be done. There is a national and international movement to stop killing healthy, adoptable animals in shelters. There are 35 states currently with programs to include 420 cities that have successfully achieved their target goals. They are saving taxpayer dollars, city resources and lives. There are 13 cities in California, including Palm Springs and San Francisco. This goal. Speaker 0: Is not the. Speaker 5: Sole responsibility or burden of animal care services. It is a city wide community endeavor requiring cooperation from residents, volunteers, foster families, adopters, donors, related nonprofits and rescue groups, fundraising endeavors and grants, spay neuter education programs. Of course, some of these require funding. Congressman sorry, Councilman Mondo's proposal for 50,000 in additional funding is truly, greatly appreciated. But realistically, it's just going to take more. Just to give me an idea of some of the cities that are doing this are really quite diverse in size and economic. But Kansas City, Missouri. Charleston, South Carolina. Jacksonville, Florida. There are quite a few. Des Moines, Iowa. They're all different, except they have an openness and a. Speaker 6: Willingness. Speaker 5: To try and change this antiquated belief that this cannot be solved. So again, I say Congressman Councilperson Mungo's increase is appreciated. Speaker 6: But it's just a step in the right direction. Speaker 5: Lastly, I would say that it's going to take a while and a lot of work and cooperation, but I personally would be very proud if we were able to add our great city to the list of compassionate communities that I had mentioned. Thank you for your time. Speaker 4: Thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 3: Good evening, everybody. Speaker 4: Can we say to us that is not the first district and a proud member of. Speaker 3: The Long Beach Gray. Speaker 4: Panthers? Budget processes are hard. We have to make hard choices about. Speaker 3: Where our money is. Speaker 4: Going to go and balance all the needs in the community. And there's always more needs than there is money available to address all the needs within a community. I want to commend Stacie Mongeau for chairing the Budget Oversight Committee. I've gone through a lot of budget processes. She did an amazing job and the people comments and discussions that Susie Price in Austin. The questions you brought really made me feel that this is a shift in the way we do our budget in our community, that we're going to consider the needs of all of our community going forward. Personally, I want to address and. Speaker 0: Thank you all. Speaker 4: For including the money for the establishment of the Office of Aging within our. Speaker 3: Community. Speaker 4: As Richard said, we have this huge tsunami coming of seniors and. Speaker 3: 10,000 nationally every day and not a large number in. Speaker 0: Our. Speaker 3: Community. Speaker 4: We don't get the acknowledgment of what we contribute to the community. We're huge economic engines for the community. Seniors own 80%. Speaker 3: Of the United States. Speaker 1: Wealth. Speaker 4: Something that we need to think about. We're often discounted, but we feel that this office and aging is the first. Speaker 3: Step to. Speaker 4: Really, truly engaging seniors in the processes of our community. And some of you. Speaker 3: Are on the council are seniors. Speaker 4: Just barely. But we look forward. We always think that we're the age that we will at some point in time. And we want to be. Great Panthers look forward to working with the Office of Aging to make our community truly an age friendly community. And Mayor, we accept your. Speaker 3: Challenge at the you did at the aging in. Speaker 4: Mount Maginnis event to make Long Beach the best community for seniors in the U.S.. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate everyone for coming out. There are some really amazing things in this budget, $2.65 billion. And here we are at the end discussing the final 20,000, 50,000, 70,000. If we could get a quick answer to a question from Ms.. Marie Knight. I know that the comments made here tonight related to skate parks are something that I have experienced. I'm very fortunate. I have a concrete skate park in the fifth District, Eldorado Park. I was at Michelle Obama Library the other day and in route I passed a skate park in the ninth district. Then it was 9:00 at night and leaving the event it was still activated. So I do appreciate that they are a activated component of our city. Ms. Night What are the repairs needed and or conversion process to concrete that is being discussed by the community today? Speaker 3: So, Chairman Go Members of the council, the 14th Street Skate Park is a combination of concrete elements and as one of the gentleman mentioned. Speaker 4: Prefabricated. Speaker 3: Elements. Speaker 4: The prefabricated. Speaker 3: Prefabricated elements do not last, obviously, as long as concrete, concrete is ideal. So although I was not here at the time that that skate park was constructed, I can't tell you the logic behind that. But we just recently spent about $12,000 doing some. Speaker 4: Repairs to the. Speaker 3: Prefabricated elements, and they take a lot of wear and tear. That is a very highly utilized skate park as all of our skate parks in the city are. And so without the conversion to concrete, those elements will continue to need repair. Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, we. Speaker 3: Were unable to convince the original manufacturer to make those repairs, and we had to find an alternative contractor to do that. So I don't see that. Speaker 4: We will. Speaker 3: Be able to continue to have such success with that in the future. I have talked to some of the skate park advocates as well. As far as you know, depending on funding that's available, we have looked at grant funding. There isn't a lot of grant funding available. Speaker 4: For skate parks. Speaker 3: They're generally in the realm of 5000, 10,000, 25,000 at the most. But potentially, as funding is made available, we can phase in the replacement of the prefab elements. Speaker 4: I appreciate that. I see that two councilmembers are queued up from that area of town. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 3: Yes. Thank you, Marie. And thank you to Councilwoman Mongo for bringing that forward. And I want to thank the parents and Patrick for being here and the kids. I know Michael Kay Green is a big park in the first district and for the area. And so I just want to thank you for bringing light to the fact that, you know, I remember when Mrs. King was out and we put it all together in the very beginning stages when it was Vice Mayor Robert Garcia then at the time and now being the councilmember, I know how important this is for the Washington neighborhood. I actually have a meeting coming up with both Pat West and Marie very soon to talk specifically about parks in general, but just also about Michael K Green and what we can do there. I'm wondering, though, and knowing that we have this contingent appropriation, I'm wondering if we can even just take a third 100,000. I think the figures for Michael K Green may have been around 300,000 or so. We're not give or take quite a bit, but if we're able to expand on 100,000 and provide that as part of the contingent appropriation, if we should have surplus for Measure A, if that is a friendly amendment, I would. Speaker 4: Actually not be for Measure eight. So what what we could potentially look at is so contingent appropriation. What that means is if we come in under budget and there's money available, it goes to a set of priorities in a priority order. And so we've started to outline what those priorities are. I think 100,000 is a stretch. But I think that if we have a commitment that we use it in partially to match and or phase in an approach I see nods on that side of the table. It's also important to know, though, that you won't know if that money is there for quite some time. It's not available October one. It's not available until the budget closes. And we actually know there is money. We can't spend money that we don't have. And so you're not the first in the list, but I think that it is important to send this message. And I think that. The city staff can work even harder to come in under budget. Yes, they're nodding as well. So I'll accept a friendly for 100,000 towards matching and moving towards a concrete skate park at 14th. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 4: And I know a second. Want to accept that friendly as well. Speaker 6: Well, as one of the I think the few districts without a skate park. Speaker 4: Aren't you getting one soon, though? Speaker 1: I don't know. Speaker 4: Is anyone coming to a park near. Speaker 6: You those days? Speaker 1: Of course I do. Those funds have not been identified. Speaker 6: And I would just. Speaker 1: Just say that I know that we also have a firm in the the General Fund. Speaker 6: For Capital Infrastructure or existing city program to be divided equally for the city council districts. That one could be used for for that purpose as well. Speaker 4: It could that would only amount to 70. The 78,000. Speaker 6: 83,000 only. That's all. Speaker 1: Could get you. Almost there. Speaker 4: I understand if we can't do it at this time. But then I would ask that the IOC look at it again in our. Are you in close? Is that. Speaker 3: That works? I just want to start. Speaker 4: Let's do that. That would be great. Then let's put that at the top of our agenda for the b0c when we come back. Okay. That helps us. I know that it's an important need. I want you guys to know that you're heard and that it's in a a list. I think that part of it is that we're here at the last minute. And I appreciate you all coming out. And the process of the budget takes several, several weeks. And so I think that as numbers firm up and we have a better plan and where some of those matching funds could come from, I think that at prior community meetings there was a talk of matching funds that would come in in larger quantities. So the research needs to be passed on to our Parks and Rec department because part the report, they're coming in a little bit lower. So let's talk through that over the next several weeks and when we come back mid-year. And let's look to find a positive way to make that happen. Wonderful. See? No further comment. I have one more, Councilwoman Pierce. Thank you. I just wanted to say, you know, someone that has a skate park in her district and have talked to a couple of you guys, I couldn't think of a better program. Speaker 3: That we can add. Speaker 4: To parks that don't require too much staff time, but have a lasting impact. I recently had a conversation with our assistant city manager and Marie Knight, our parks director, around how to how do we partner better with community organizations to invest in our parks, in areas that we might not have the funds to do so. And so I would encourage you guys to have a conversation both with the council member and our Parks and Rec around our Peps program and possibly drafting a proposal for what that skate park would look like and possibly reaching out to, you know, the Mountain Dew event that happens and saying, can we get some funds that would help us have a program? Maybe it's a Mountain Dew program in the in the community that helps fund our skate parks because as I think the PSC chair mentioned, we all have those projects and I think that an area that people like to put money. Speaker 3: To is investing in youth and. Speaker 4: That there's a lot of corporate opportunity and professional skaters out there that say, I want to invest back in. That's an opportunity that you guys can help us partner with where we might not have direct access. So I encourage you guys to have that conversation. Likely you could get something done faster than waiting to see if we have some extra money in that aspect. So I just wanted to put that out there for you guys. Absolutely. Councilman Price. Speaker 3: Thank you. I do want to say I want to thank Mike is still here. He was at my community meeting the other night and it prompted me to reach out to a developer who is working on the second and PCH project in my district about bringing in a Vans type private facility like they have at the block over at the second PCH site. I think that actually would be a really great offering to have at that development. I think it would like Mike said, it's got to be an experiential retail experience for people to go and for it to sustain. So I'm hoping that that's a possibility. If we are allocating money citywide for skate parks, I would love one as well. I don't have one and our district doesn't have one. We get a lot of requests for them and I actually think Rec Park would be a beautiful site for a skate park facility because there's no homes around it. And so we're not going to have concerns from residents. I think we could build a fantastic one there. And it's a place where we've seen a lot of recent transient activity, so it would really activate that space in a positive way. So I think the idea of looking at this for future funding would be great. It would be fantastic to have skate parks all throughout the city because I agree it's a great way to get the youth engaged. So thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you to all my colleagues for your club. This process. I know it's not easy, and I appreciate so many members of all the communities and constituencies coming out. I think that what we've put together today is fiscally responsible and very collaborative, and I'm appreciative to everyone who was a part of it, especially the staff who have gone through many iterations with me, I think run like iterations 74 or something of of different multipliers of where we could put different things. So thank you to everyone and I urge everyone to support this motion. Speaker 2: Motion case.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to adopt the Budget Oversight Committee's proposed funding recommendations, as amended, to the FY 18 Proposed Budget. (A-12)

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Speaker 0: KING Next item, please, is item number 23. Speaker 2: 26. Speaker 0: I'm sorry, 26. My bad. Speaker 2: Report from Technology and Innovation and Financial Management Recommendation to Award a contract to Utility Solutions Partners LLC to provide maintenance and integration support related to the city's utility systems in a total amount not to exceed 4,044,595 and authorize the city manager to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract citywide. Speaker 0: Kitties in and a second attorney public comment on this item. Speaker 1: Circling. This is a 20. 20. So, you know, if you didn't do 23 years, right. Speaker 4: A long time ago, you spoke on it. Speaker 1: You slip. Speaker 4: You spoke on it. Speaker 1: Oh, we are okay. Okay. Okay. Speaker 0: There's a motion and a second. No other public comment. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Tony.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP TI17-095 and award a contract to Utility Solutions Partners, LLC, of Rancho Cordova, CA, for the purchase of managed services to provide maintenance and integration support related to the City’s Utility Systems, in a total amount not to exceed $4,044,595 for the first year, and thereafter, in an amount not to exceed $2,286,100 annually, for a period of two years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods for ongoing maintenance, at the discretion of the City Manager; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Report from city manager and city attorney. Recommendation Receive and file a report on the Medicinal and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act to update the City Council on new state buffer requirements, including youth center and daycare center, buffers for marijuana facilities and request the city attorney to draft. Speaker 9: An ordinance amending Chapter 5.90. Medical marijuana businesses of the Long Beach Municipal Code Citywide. Speaker 0: Okay. Now there's going to be a report, I believe, from the city, from staff. So let's go to go into the report. Thank you. Speaker 4: The report, a brief report from AJ Corey. Speaker 12: AJ Thanks, Pat. Thank you, Mayor, and members of the City Council. I'm going to go over recent changes to state law governing medical marijuana businesses and the impact those changes will have on where medical marijuana businesses may locate in Long Beach. So until recently, medical marijuana businesses in Long Beach were regulated by two sets of laws. At the state level, the Medical, Cannabis Regulatory and Safety Act, or Mersa at the local level. Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.90, which is approved through Voter Initiative Measure Aims to date. City staff have been relying exclusively on these two sets of laws to guide our medical marijuana business licensing process. In November of last year, California voters approved a second set of laws specifically for recreational marijuana market called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, or Yuma for short. Because Yuma regulated recreational marijuana businesses, Long Beach staff continue to refer to Mirza and Chapter 5.90 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to implement the local medical marijuana program. However, on June 27th of this year, the state legislature merged regulations for medical and recreational marijuana into a single regulatory framework called the Medical and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, or MSU CRC. Under this new law, the rules for where medical marijuana businesses may locate changed. Prior to the passage of the MSU CRC medical marijuana businesses in Long Beach were prohibited from operating within 1000 feet from K through 12 schools, 1000 feet from beaches, 600 feet from parks or 600 feet from libraries. We call these buffer requirements under the MSU CRC. The state established two new buffers for medical marijuana businesses a 600 foot buffer for youth centers and a 600 foot buffer for daycare centers. A youth center means any public or private facility that is primarily used to host recreational or social activities for minors. A daycare center means any public or private child daycare facility other than a family daycare home. And includes infant centers, preschools, extended daycare facilities and school aged child care centers. The map on this slide shows where marijuana businesses could locate before youth centers and daycare center buffers were added by the state. To simplify things, we like to say that businesses may locate in any of the areas shaded in Pepto-Bismol pink in the packet in front of you. This map has been broken down by council districts. These maps have also been made available online for viewing by the general public. The map on this slide shows where marijuana businesses can locate after youth and youth center and daycare center buffers are added. The youth and daycare center buffers are shown in red and black colors. Bottom line, including youth daycare center buffers, reduces the total allowable area the medical marijuana businesses may locate by approximately 10% citywide. The States granted local jurisdictions the option to change or eliminate the new buffer requirements for youth center and daycare centers. Using this authority, staff is presenting City Council with the following options. The first option is to do nothing, in which case staff will apply the youth and daycare center buffers retroactively. All the medical marijuana business applications that have been received to date will be reassessed based on these new buffer requirements, and any new applications that violate these buffers will be rejected. The second option is to eliminate the daycare center and youth center buffers. This can be described as the status quo option because it holds medical marijuana businesses to the same buffer requirements originally set forth in measure. Mm. The third option is to affirm the youth and daycare center buffers as defined by the state, but to make them effective January 1st, 2018. This provides a window for businesses who have already applied or taken steps to apply to continue through the licensing process under the same set of buffers buffer requirements as before. This option will also provide fair warning to property owners and future applicants well in advance of the new buffers taking effect. The fourth option is to eliminate youth center buffers, affirm daycare center buffers, and have the daycare center buffers become effective. January 1st, 2018. Staff is recommending option number four, so I'm going to go over this option in more detail on the next slide. The recommended option would eliminate youth center buffers for a number of reasons. First, the state left the definition of youth center extremely open ended. It's not at all clear what qualifies a facility as primarily serving minors. Youth center facilities might include karate studios, swimming classes, music classes, dance studios, painting classes, gymnastics programs, birthday party rooms, and so on. Second, there's no reliable database on youth center locations in Long Beach. They're not required to register with the state, and the city does not track businesses at this level. Third, youth center locations frequently change, and the marijuana buffer map would need to change with them. And finally, each designation of a youth center could be open to legal challenges that would tie up our licensing process and require significant staff resources to resolve the recommended option would. However, a firm daycare center buffers day care centers are clearly defined by state law. They're licensed by the state and easily tracked on the state's Department of Social Services website. Recognizing daycare centers will also correct for a deficiency of our local initiative measure MM which recognized kindergartens as buffers but not preschools. With this recommendation, new medical marijuana businesses will no longer be able to open close to a preschool or other types of child care facilities. Finally, by setting an effective date of January 1st, 2018, the recommended option will provide businesses with sufficient time to adjust before the new buffers take effect. This will ensure a fair treatment of applicants who have acted in good faith prior to the passage of the new CRC, but who would otherwise be rejected due to the new buffer requirements. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm available to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. Mr.. Mr.. City Attorney Giovanni. Some additional comments to this. Speaker 4: Note at this time. We're available to answer your question. Speaker 0: Okay, great. Thank you. So I'm going to take this back to the city council. I have a two speaker so far. If you want to speak, please let me know. Councilwoman Mungo's first. Speaker 1: City staff have been using a GIS model to determine these 600 feet margins instead of survey reports. Why is that? And what can we do to change that practice to be more accurate for the residents? Speaker 12: So fairly early on in the application process, we settled on using the gas system to measure distances between buffers. We were anticipating hundreds of applications and we would have to measure those applications against hundreds of more buffers throughout the city. And so we also were facing an aggressive timeline set forth in that ordinance to complete our application review process. And so, given all of those competing priorities, we settled on a measurement tool that is accurate. It's accurate, we're told, by tech services down to a foot or two, depending on the distances that you're measuring. And that method, once we settled on it, had to be consistently applied across all applicants in order to be fair and consistent in our our measuring tool. Speaker 1: Well, I'd like to add a friendly. Well, I'd like to make the motion that within option one, that all priority one and priority two applicants should be surveyed that are within 50 feet of the required buffer and on non-priority properties that should be surveyed that are within the 50 feet of the required additional 500 foot buffer, that's required to score maximum points on the non-priority application. Speaker 4: Vice Mayor if I can that that's not on the agenda this evening. To add that in addition, we'd have to come back and have a discussion with that. We can't add that to what the council item is this evening. Speaker 1: The council item tonight is talking about buffers. Can we include in the friendly amendment the way in which those buffers are measured? Speaker 4: The I think the answer is no at this time. You have to. We could certainly bring something back to direct staff to change how they calculate the buffers. However, I think what AJ is saying, and I think he's doing a good job saying it, is that staff had to make a selection and there isn't, as far as I know, any issue that calls into question the accuracy of the GIS system. It's accurate to 1 to 2 feet. So I would assume that you have some reason to believe that the survey is more accurate. I don't have that information. Speaker 1: So residents in the community, when this item posted on the agenda, stated that they're concerned about some of the buffers, that the GIS includes an area of availability that is within five feet and they would like it surveyed. And so if we're going to be looking at these the intent of the voters and in this case the state legislature is very clear that they'd like it to be accurate. And so my only thought would be when we apply any buffers. I understand the staff's perspective that they want to do the most efficient opportunity. But those locations that are within and I started with 50 feet, but the front of a home in the fifth District is 50 feet. If we want to go to a more citywide standard of ten feet or whatever, we'd like it to be. But within one home length, those should be done accurately. And so in discussing buffers, I'm open to asking the staff to bring that back at a future date. But in discussing buffers, how they're measured seems to be appropriate, whether it's through the original or the new buffers. So that would be my comment at this time. Speaker 12: Right? So we can come back to council with that. We might ask to play with the distances a little bit. I think 50 feet. We can be very confident in our system to those distances, but if it's a smaller amount, say five or ten feet even, it might be doable within the timeline set forth in the ordinance Speaker 1: . And it would be very, very few locations. I think even telling us it would be three locations or it would be 40 locations, I think that's a big difference. But if it is three or four locations, it'd be a minimal amount of effort to ensure that taxpayers are protected. Our immediate concern tonight was their intent. Thank you. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you very much. Next up is Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 8: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to I want to make a motion here, but and I want to add some comments. But I wanted to start off. Councilwoman Mongo. Was that was that motion to that motion to have a second? Is that the main motion on the floor? Speaker 0: I don't think she made a motion. Speaker 8: Okay. I'll try to integrate what you have. Speaker 1: Wonderful. Speaker 8: Into the motion here. Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. Speaker 8: Okay, so the first question is, I see a number of maps in it, and it's one map that has as what it is today with no action. And the other map has both the buffers. I would love to have seen the map and I looked at and deduced it, but the map that actually represents the recommendation today would have been really helpful. And I don't know if that if other people would have that would be helpful to others, too, but I would have liked to have seen that my motion here for a couple of reasons. I'm going I want to support the staff recommendation here. Option four. And firstly, I think, you know, I believe I introduced the, the concept when we were thinking about passing our own council driven motion, the concept of, of child care centers, daycare centers originally. And we, we went through this whole conversation about how do you define them? And it's interesting to see that across the state, other people are starting to have that same conversation and that you and our city attorney and other cities across the state have finally come to a really trackable definition of child care centers or daycare centers . So the fact that staff has that recommendation really shows is along the spirit of how this conversation has gone across the city. And and, you know, and as it relates to the other option, the ambiguity, I really given this was a vote, given the fact this is a voter driven initiative, I would be feel very hesitant to include the other element if we're not concrete on how we enforce it. Because I don't want to steer away from what the voters, the voter intent, the voters, you know, took action on this. And I want to make sure if we're going to go in and further prescribe things, we should be rock solid on that. So a motion is staff's recommendation of number four. Now, I want to add to that. That's the that's my emotions that are second. Okay, so move. Speaker 1: Second. Speaker 0: To second. Councilman Mongo. Speaker 8: Okay. Now, in terms of, you know, it goes into effect January one and I know that the rules begin to change around recreational and I know that, you know, city attorney we've. I brought this to you about, you know, there are issues related to how those work. And if you could just sort of elaborate on those conversations and where you think we should go from here in terms of how we address what happens in January and some of the hot topics we discussed and what steps we might need to take to make sure that we have some clarity. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. Members of council. Vice mayor. Yes. The as you mentioned, the state is working on regulations for commercial cannabis regulations. It's estimated that they will. Hope it's hopeful that they'll be January 1st of 18. It may be somewhat a little bit after that before those regulations are issued. And so at some point between today and the end of the year, staff will need to come back to council to get direction from the city council to see if the city council is has a desire to allow cannabis, commercial cannabis in the city of Long Beach. And under what conditions you would like to see that that activity regulated, which would include what zones you may want it in or located, and any and all buffers that you would want applied to the commercial cannabis. So the item before you this evening is limited to the medical marijuana businesses and MGM. As you mentioned, as being a citizens driven initiative, we are unable to craft a buffer other than what the state has drafted without going back to an amendment for the people. So and there is no way or availability of the as someone who is interested in commercial cannabis to apply at this time to Long Beach. So we envision or our office envisions that that a staff item will be coming back to the council to get further direction from you. And at that time you can give us direction on buffers and and or zoning. Speaker 8: Thank you. And in terms of timing, you mentioned between now and the end of the year, so we can make sure that we're prepared before it goes into effect. Do you imagine you anticipate that this would this conversation would begin around the time this would this item before, so need to come back for first a second reading , right? Speaker 4: That is correct. If the item passes this evening as your motion, we would prepare the ordinance and it would come back to as an amendment to 5.90, and it would come back to you as first and second reading. Speaker 8: Okay. So when would we anticipate so if that's a first and a second, we probably take about how long to bring that back for the first and say it would probably take two. Speaker 4: Maybe 30 days at the most. Okay. Then it would be first and second reading and then it would not go into effect until January 1st of 2018 as far as anybody who is in the system or has applied by that day. Speaker 8: Understood. And at that point, after the second reading is when we pick up the conversation on recreational, is that the way you would anticipate. Speaker 4: That final commercial? Yes. On commercial, yes, sir. Yeah. Speaker 8: Okay. So that I'm satisfied there. And if we could somewhere in that timeline, answer those questions that Councilwoman Mongeau had, you know, given that this motion is very you know, we have to, you know, given Brown act limited to what we're discussing here. When we come back to talk have a larger conversation about buffers, I would like to learn more about what Councilwoman Mongeau raised. So thank you so much. Speaker 0: Thank you. I have a couple more speakers. Can I have a clarification question, Mr. City Attorney, off of the motion on the floor. I want to make sure that I understand that well, how I know that the the voter approved ordinance, which was which was approved by the voters, set out a variety of things, including buffers, as well as the process of the application, including the application process as well for dispensaries and so forth. How what is the impact to the dispensaries that are already in the application process and how does for affect or not affect that process? Speaker 4: Mayor, members of the Council, thank you. And Jake, jump in here, too. But my my interpretation is that those people who are in the system and this would be similar to the council adopting a moratorium and you have people who are in the process or have submitted applications would be exempt or would remain in the in the process and not be locked out, if you will. So the anyone who has already applied or applies between today's date and the end of 2017 would not have the 600 foot buffer applied to their location. And so anyone who applies after January 1st of 2018, this 600 foot buffer would go into effect. Speaker 0: So essentially there's a grandfathering that happens. Speaker 4: That's correct. So we believe that that's fair to treat the folks that have been working with the city and applied in good faith and have been part of the system and in the system not to change the rules in the middle of the application process. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Moving on to Councilwoman Janine Pearce. Speaker 10: Thank you. Sure. You guys can hear me. You can hear me. Okay. I want to commend staff for. The work that you guys have done. I also want to say how much I appreciate you coming out to the neighborhood association meetings and working with folks in the industry to make sure that we're the ones that are going online, are working closely with the neighborhoods. So just overall, I think staff on this has gone above and beyond what happened last time. And so I really just want to say thank you for that, too, is I wanted to ask I know that whenever the discussion around the medical initiative was coming up and there was looking at day care centers, do has staff run a number to see if we went with option number four how many new shops would be able to locate, like how many how much buffer space in between? Because I know it limits how many we would be able to have open in the in the city. Speaker 12: Right. Well, the the number of dispensaries that will open in the city is capped at 32. We will be a. Speaker 10: Medical or recreational just medical. Okay. So when recreational comes online. Speaker 12: When recreational comes online, that city council has the ability to make that decision. It could be fewer as many as city council wanted. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 10: So I guess I'll I'll ask the question offline around the buffer zones because I believe that because we would be adding in the daycare centers that it would limit the number that we would could have in the city. So just don't want community members to feel like because recreational is coming online that and that we're looking at the zones again that there be an opportunity for more shops to open. So again, maintaining the number of 32 for medical and not increasing recreational add couple of comments on that. Speaker 2: So look. Speaker 10: I'm good, I'm good with that. And then I just want to say I support the motion on the floor. And you know, when we're talking about measuring, just making sure that is a small number, that it's around ten because we don't want to be able to have to go back and have a tough conversation with those that already have their licenses. So support the motion on the floor. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, we have Councilwoman Susie Price, remote location. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I do support the motion. I just have a couple of comments on it, obviously. I mean, I think that our city has worked really hard to operate in good faith as we work with the business owners who have rightfully submitted applications as a result of a voter initiative. And I think that the practical realities that arise as a result of our Voter Pass initiative make any integration of state recommended buffers for state mandated buffers a challenge for us, both from an ethical standpoint, as we have been partners with these businesses with certain expectations, but also in my opinion from a legal standpoint as well, the state has obviously come out with buffer distances around daycares, which I wholeheartedly agree with and youth centers. And we're trying our best to implement the state law in a way that's most practical based on the restrictions that we have. So when evaluating the to assess and looking at the options, I think option one, in my opinion, it's unfair to the businesses that have acted in good faith with the city and followed the rules as they were set out by the voters and measure em. And I believe that they would be penalized through no fault for any action of their own. We had a meeting of the minds when they submitted their applications, and by changing the standards at this point, the amount of money that they paid for, for rent or purchase of property and the investments and tenant improvements that they have made would all be lost as a result of no negligence or deficiency on their part. So option number one is an option for me. Option number two, in my opinion, is not ideal because it doesn't accept any recommendation from the state which seeks to address the impacts that occur on communities near businesses. So I'm not in favor of option two. Option three, although the timeline for implementation of this option is appropriate, the inclusion of youth centers is not workable due to the vagueness of the definition, as AJ has stated. And even if this is this the state's definition was broadened, it would require the tracking of business type, which we do not currently have based on an unclear definition of youth matters. And it implies, based on everything I just mentioned in his staff report, that we would need voter approval for this, which would really frustrate and complicate what has already taken place in regards to our medical imaging option for is the best option, as it in my opinion, seeks to follow the state law around daycare centers. So that can be reasonably seen as the goal of voters to keep buffer zones and in effect for young children, typically as young as kindergarten, it seems reasonable to apply the similar. But for children younger than kindergarten as well as the Jay already stated, realistically, if someone would vote to protect a five year old, then they would also vote to protect a four year old from the same impacts, whatever those may be options for the need to. The vaguely defined youth centers set up a definition for youth centers, an option for also treating businesses that have begun this process fairly by not implementing this until January of 2018. In my opinion, this option represents the choice that strikes the middle ground that we must find in order to address the point of state law while being realistic about what works best here. Given that we have our own voter initiative that is already in the process to implement now I did hear comments from my colleagues regarding when recognition comes online. I have my own note about whether or not Long Beach should be opening up to the commercial marijuana market. And as you can imagine, my approach would probably be for us to allow the medical market need for a while. If we were to adopt the commercial market. Having said that, I think this stuff should apply to any medical establishment that seeks to convert to recreational should the city vote to allow recreational or commercial use in the future. I know that's not on the table right now, but should any of the current medical marijuana dispensaries choose to convert to recreation? If Beach allowed recreation and I believe the expanded buffers of youth centers and daycare centers should apply to that those existing medical marijuana dispensaries so that the state's intent is in effect for commercial sale . Those are my thoughts. I want to start I want to recap the recommendations and for talking with my team frequently on this issue in the past few days. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Thank you and aloha. Councilmember Price. This has been an evolving issue for the last several years. I've been on the council for five years and I think a ban went into place about two weeks or so before I took office. And I've seen many machinations of the medical marijuana policy. It has been a moving target and I'm glad that the state has given us some guidelines to work with because it has been very difficult to create a local policy and to come to a consensus. This item I will be supporting because it just makes good sense. I think it's morally correct. This is a an issue that was debated and argued before this city council, I want to say a year and a half ago, two years ago, and we couldn't come to consensus on it. And so I'm glad that that the state has given us an antidote to to work with, and that there seems to be a consensus here among the council that this is the right thing to do. At least restricting daycare centers is, I think, like I said, morally correct for us and respecting also the will of the voters . And so I will support this. This continues. You know, one of the arguments that has been made for many years on this issue is local control over our land use. This provides that for us as well. And so it checks the boxes that that concern me. But also I think of honors the will of the voters here in the city of Long Beach. And I look forward to having the extended conversation about recreational. Very so. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Next up is Councilman Andrews. Speaker 11: Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. I am definitely going to support this item. And I would I really would like you know, since I've been here, along with anyone, you know, dealing with this marijuana issue is that we're finally getting to the point that we should have been a long time ago, because I think we've been really seriously just kind of where can I tell? I'd like to thank all the applicants who started off when I started out with it, who went above and beyond and gone along with everything in which the city's asked them to do. And I want to thank every one of you guys. So I think we're close to being where we should be. And thank the vice mayor again for bringing this forward. Speaker 0: I think that with. Speaker 11: Excuse me and Mrs. Price, please hurry home. We miss you. Speaker 8: Vice Mayor Quigley, just the just the question. Do you think we can get those maps? So, yeah. Okay. And how about, you know, as people progress through the process, I'd love to hear I'd love to get that map start to identify the folks who are continuing through the process on a more regular basis. So maybe it's time for that time to start doing more regular check ups now that we're at this point in the process, at least for my district. So I hope we can pick up this conversation next week, I'm sure. Thanks. Speaker 12: We have a list online that we'll turn them in the maps. I'm sorry, we have a list online for the businesses in the process, but we'll make them. Speaker 8: On the map. Yeah, I would love to plug. I saw the list. It's kind of hard to. Yeah, right. I mean, it was a lot of applications, so I'd love to see the ones that are advancing so we can start wrapping our minds around this conversation with some of our community members. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 1: When staff made the decision on the cut off date, was January selected because that's on the state date and it goes into effect? Or is there a reason why September 1st or October 1st wasn't selected? Speaker 12: It was just a date that aligned with the day that the state would begin issuing licenses. Speaker 1: With the state. Wonderful. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Will take public comment. There's a motion on the floor. Please come forward. Speaker 2: Very good. You echoing the comments that were made last week? I think the city. Did not in good faith, went forward, but they really didn't do their due diligence in providing buffer zones. That I referenced before and it should be in every district should have these. I.e. you certainly don't put it next to a school. Other places as you have listed. But I think it's it's naive to think and shows that it wasn't given the thought that he should have been given that where those kids go, the routes they take to and from school, and particularly the locations they go to after school . And I'm using in the example the in Belmont Shore, the Rite Aid drugstore, where they go for ice cream or a block or the other way. The Jack in the Box. Every district has that type of thing, and that's up to the district, to, you know, your neighborhoods. And you've got to isolate and find out where those kids go. And I as I said yesterday, the Port of Long Beach and last week, I think we can get the Port of Long Beach to fund whatever legal challenges need to be, undertake and take in and take it, if need be, to the United States Supreme Court . So we don't have the kids sandwiched in between cavalcade of perverts. To smoke marijuana. I don't care if it's medical or recreational, as far as I'm concerned. If they want if they want to set up a place on the ninth floor, the 10th floor of the city hall next to the jail, fine, but certainly not in your neighborhoods. And nobody would, when they think about it, it has any sense of decency would allow that to be placed in neighborhoods where kids. Are going. So give that some thought and get the port on board. And I think they'll do that just to spend whatever is necessary, to spend whatever necessary to take that challenge, to take it up to the United States Supreme Court if necessary. Thank you. Speaker 9: Hi. My name is DeLuca. I am. Well, I have a business in the third district. I have a preschool. So I come here as a citizen, as a mother, as a preschool owner who has 60 children every year. And I'm really happy to hear the morality behind all of your your views here in support of having the buffer zone for preschools and daycare centers. So that's why I was here, to protect my preschool in my business. And, you know, not everyone has the same view with medical marijuana. And I wouldn't want parents having a judgment on my school and then not providing a brilliant service to these children in my district. Now that we've established that preschools are already included. Now, my concern is obviously youth centers as a mother as well. And my suggestion or maybe even query is how can we defined youth centers? Do karate places, do swimming academies have to apply for licenses under the license of a youth center? I don't know. That seems to be a lot of ambiguity with buffers as well as definitions. And I think those all need to be established and ascertained before any decisions are made. Speaker 8: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Diane Alekhine's advocates for disability rights. The very first question I have is why don't we have these same buffers around all of the alcohol distributors? I don't get it. Alcohol kills. Alcohol is a very bad drug and I just don't get it. It seems like to me that every opportunity this council has thrown something into the into the works. I mean, these this initiative that the they put forward was voted on by the voters. It has been voted on in statewide. It's been voted countywide. It's been voted here in the city. Mm. And then you keep talking about M-A, which is the taxes that you will get from these sick and dying people and how you're going to spend it. And yet it seems like every time you just demonize it is not a bad thing. It is a medical we're talking medical use. Okay. And and to keep demonizing, I mean, do you actually picture parents are going to be letting their little kids go to daycares alone? I mean, they're going to be with them just like any. Just like if they took them into a restaurant, they saw people drinking. Well, are we going to ban them now from going in, taking their children into those? I mean, how do they deal with that? They explain it. But to to demonize it and to put so many restrictions on after these people jump through hoops have asked, I mean, who are you representing? Are you representing the people? Because the people have voted already and they did not have those two buffers, but they voted. So if you actually I my favor would be to go to number two. But anything other than that, you were going against what the voters have said they want. So who are you representing? Are you really representing the voters? That's what you need to do. And we need to stop demonizing. It's not a bad thing. Medical marijuana is there for good reason. Thank you very much. Speaker 8: Thank you. Next week, a police. Mr. Mayor and. Speaker 4: City council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Bill Loucks. I'm a Long Beach resident, and I also own a cannabis manufacturing business that I look forward to moving back, moving to Long Beach, to be closer to my home. My company is actively involved with the BCA and we donated money and the use of my employees to help the initiative get passed. Regarding the issue at hand, it's my understanding that this is an optional thing that the city can choose to do or not do. And regarding adopting this state buffer, my contention is that any major changes to the voter initiative that are not mandated by the. Speaker 8: State should be put back to the voters to decide if their. Speaker 4: Initiative is to be modified. I'm uncertain if the city has a legal right to go in. Speaker 8: And just change it. However, from a. Speaker 4: Moral standpoint, I think it's only fair the voters spoke. They asked for this to be passed. It passed. If it's to be modified this way, I think it should go back to the voters on the next election. In the meantime. Speaker 2: I would encourage. Speaker 4: You to stop putting up roadblocks that will prevent business owners from finally getting open and generating revenue and also generating tax revenue for the city. I'm old enough to remember when when cities used to. Welcome and help new businesses come to their community. And somewhere along the line, this seems to have changed. And now most cities seem to be in an adversarial position to businesses. This is a major factor, in my opinion, as to why, you know, they started keeping records back in 1960 and for the first time since 1960, we have more small businesses closing than opening in this country. Remember, small businesses employ the most people in this country. And and I think putting up more unnecessary rules will only help to make this. Speaker 8: Birth death rate get worse. Speaker 4: And we need jobs in this community as we do all over the state and country. I would encourage you to take a bold stand to become partners with new businesses trying to open up and Long Beach and not make it more difficult for us to come here and get it open. I think it would make the city a much better place to work and living. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And I'm going to go ahead and close the speakers list after these two gentlemen. Go ahead, sir. Speaker 8: Hello. My name is Elliot Lewis. I have three ownership interest in three dispensaries in Long Beach. Just wanted to touch on a few issues, a lot of which was already said. But just to kind of get an understanding of where some of us are at in the process, you know, we've complied with with all the rules. We worked with staff. Jay and Emily have been great. I've reached out to city officials, to the local business area. I'm already in the, you know, the middle of building my store down on Second Street, spared no expense spent, you know, quite a bit of money on it. You know, I just think at this point to throw you centers and daycares and it doesn't actually personally, you know, affect any of my stores. I just think that, you know, for other people that are in the same place that have complied, done everything that they should to throw you centers and daycare in the mix would be inappropriate. And then, you know, touching on the youth center issue. I have the best, you know, marijuana attorneys and consultants in the business. And they've been unable to tell me because, you know, after this issue came up, we went back to the map. We wanted to make sure that all our properties were clear of these potential new additional buffers. And the best attorneys, the people who are most in touch with Sacramento, who are up there every week, can't tell you what a youth center is. So I think on that issue, the ambiguity is just so ridiculous. It's kind of a a no brainer. Just one other thing to bring up about the daycares is something to think about. And, you know, I'm, you know, I think too would I'd be leaning for I get the fallback position but what's going to happen if you include daycares in this initiative? You know, people are just going to go around and buy up daycares. You know, the marijuana businesses tend to be lucrative. Daycares tend to be less lucrative, not in all cases. So I think you would you would end up have, you know, happening is it you know, marijuana businesses will go around buying up daycares. The the end result would be that there would be less daycares. And, you know, we're really appreciative that the you know, the voters voted for the medical side. I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I wanted to touch on the recreational issue. Look, of the 32 stores that are going to be opened, those spots were selected with, you know, a set of ground ground rules that we believed that we were selecting those spots out of. So I think once the 32 stores are determined and, you know, however they get determined to then apply a daycare buffer or a use center buffer on a recreational basis, you're just picking winners and losers. It's an arbitrary thing done after the fact. So I think all medical facilities, if they do have an opportunity to become recreational, we don't know what's going to happen. But I think picking winners and losers out of that group would be problematic as well. But I want to say one last thing. I really appreciate the staff, everybody that, you know, we've worked with over at the city. I think the implementation of the program has been. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Your time is really nice. Thank you so much. Next, our final speaker. Go ahead. Speaker 2: I agree with Dee Andrews and. Staff has done a good job. I really don't care which option you take. You know, I know that with the I've I've been an athlete and I've been in some very high security areas where you can't. I never had the pleasure of actually enjoying marijuana. But all of my friends that have tried it, I've never seen any major issues with it. I've had some friends that have had some medical issues and it's really helped them settle their stomachs and stuff like that. So I know particularly a guy named Jeff that had Hodgkin's, it really helped him. So I know the benefits of what it can do. Despite what a lot of people say in high school, I think I was the only guy that never smoked it. You know, I was a square, you know. So you're not going to keep it out of some of these institutions where no matter what you do, the kids are going to find it. They're better at finding it than than the police, you know, they just do it. So all I'm saying is, I know you guys are going to make the right decision and whichever way you go and I'm going to keep it short and say thanks for your service and thanks for the presentation, everything looks great. I also agree with all the concerns that Councilman Price iterated on. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. With that, we have a motion and a second which is to go with number for anything. Additionally, Vice Mayor. Okay, we're going to go ahead and there's no other public comment. So roll call vote. Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 3: Here. Speaker 1: Is that a yay. Speaker 3: Oh, yay. Sorry. Speaker 1: Councilmember Super now. Councilwoman Mongo guy Councilman Andrews. Council member Your Honor. Councilman Austin. Speaker 9: Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 0: Okay. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And thank you all for that. Came for the item. Item number six, please.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a report on the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act to update the City Council on new State buffer requirements, including youth center and daycare center buffers, for marijuana facilities; and Request City Attorney to draft an ordinance amending Chapter 5.90, Medical Marijuana Businesses, of the Long Beach Municipal Code, to eliminate the 600-foot radius buffer for youth centers, add a 600-foot radius buffer for daycare centers, and establish an exemption from the daycare center buffer requirement for businesses that submit medical marijuana business license applications prior to January 1, 2018. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Thank you. Carries number nine, please. Madam Clerk. Speaker 1: Report from Public Works. Speaker 9: And Parks, Recreation and Marine Recommendation to award a contract to John s Company for the leeway sailing pier and shed structure structural rebuild for a total contract amount not to exceed 2,519,831 District three. Speaker 1: Moved. Speaker 0: Back. Well, let's look. Councilman Price, do it. You want to make a motion, Councilman? Speaker 3: I did. Thank you. I didn't know how to get word to you that I did. Speaker 0: Okay. Yeah, go ahead. And then is there a second? Speaker 1: Second. Speaker 0: Okay. Is there any public comment on this case? None. Roll call vote. Speaker 3: I just wanted to thank staff for the for their efforts on this. This is a really exciting project for my district. It's a big issue and people are so excited to see this area. Even the whales are coming to see it. So we're very supportive. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you very much. A roll call vote, please. Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilmember Pearce, Councilwoman Price. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: Councilmember Super now. Councilwoman Mongo here. Speaker 8: Councilman Andrews I don't know. Speaker 1: Councilmember Your Honor. Councilman Austin Vice Mayor Richardson Yeah. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. And next item, please. Ten.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7031 for the Leeway Sailing Pier and Shed Structural Rebuild; award the contract to John S. Meek Company, Inc., of Gardena, CA, in the amount of $2,099,859, authorize a 20 percent contingency in the amount of $419,972, for a total contract amount not to exceed $2,519,831; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments. (District 3)

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Speaker 1: Communication from City Attorney. Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to preferential parking district. You declaring the urgency there thereof and. Speaker 9: Declaring that this ordinance shall take effect immediately. Read for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading District Court. Speaker 0: Mr. City Attorney. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. This item. We will need two votes, one on the urgency, and then one on the parking district itself. The urgency allows us to implement the parking restrictions before the start of Cal State Long Beach. All right. Speaker 0: I'll do public comment for both items. Casey, no public comment for either item. There's a who's made the motion superhot and Andrews is the second. A roll call vote, please. Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pierce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember. Super Now. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Councilmember. Here I go. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 0: Okay, great. That concludes item ten doing. We're doing. Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 0: I'm sorry. The second one, councilmember supernova. And. We're taking the second vote. Speaker 4: In second vote right now on the actual parking improvement district. Speaker 0: Council. Speaker 11: Yeah, we want to move this under urgency due to the start of this is that we're talking about now. Speaker 4: Yes, the vote the first vote was on the urgency. This vote is on the parking district itself. Speaker 11: Okay. Yeah, this is a parking parking district adjacent to Cal State, Long Beach. And unanimous votes by the residents. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a motion by Councilmember Hooper now and Vice me Richardson and Rockport Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Councilmember Pearce. Councilwoman Price. Speaker 9: Councilmember. Super Now. Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 1: Councilman Andrews. Councilmember, you're on the High Council. All right. Vice Mayor Rich. Speaker 0: Okay. We're going to go ahead and do new business as the announcements.

Emergency Ordinance

Recommendation to declare urgency ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Section 10.32.110 relating to Preferential Parking District "U"; declaring the urgency thereof; and declaring that this ordinance shall take effect immediately, read and adopted as read. (Ordinance No. ORD-17-0018). (District 4)

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Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you, Madam Clerk, please read item 13. Speaker 2: Please report from Library Services Recommendation to accept 5000 in award funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for being the recipient of the 2017 National Medal for Museum and Library Services Citywide. Speaker 3: Thank you. And we'll we'll have a staff report and so Glinda so Mr. city manager the floor. Speaker 6: So mayor vice mayor council members thank you very much for this opportunity. We just want to highlight that our city library system has participated in the 2017 National Medal System for museums and Library Services across America. We're just notified that we were one of the top five library systems in the entire United States, so that I'm going to turn it over to our excellent library director to tell us what that means. Glenda, where to go? Speaker 0: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson, City Council, and thank you both for those kind words. Good evening, everyone. The 2017 National Media Medal sorry for museum and library service is the nation's highest honor given by the federal government and recognizes the extraordinary civic, educational and economic contributions of your Long Beach Public Library to our community. This award also celebrates our significant community partnerships with Long Beach Unified School District, the YMCA, Early Childhood Education and Safe Long Beach, just to name a few. I also thank the Long Beach Public Library Foundation for funding our Family Learning Centers, studios and other initiatives. I was able to attend the award ceremony last month at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C., with community member Bryant Beane, who volunteers his time to teach camera classes on Saturdays at the Mark Twain Library. Please see your program booklet for more information. In addition to the National Medal, we can receive a $5,000 award, which is on tonight's Agenda for Your Consideration. I was deeply honored to accept this medal on behalf of the women and men of the Long Beach Public Library. It is a testament to the services and resources that they provide to our residents every day. I also greatly appreciate your support of our department that drives our commitment to help our residents reach their personal and educational goals. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you. And before we go to city council, I'll just so I see that there was a request for the Library Foundation to speak. I think we can take that now before we open up city council comment. Speaker 0: Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Speaker 1: My name is Kate Islam, the executive director of the Library Foundation. For 20 years, our sole mission has been to advocate for and raise funds. Speaker 0: For. Speaker 1: The Long Beach Public Library. Over those two decades, we've had the pleasure of working side by side with the talented men and women of our libraries. These library staff members have dedicated their lives to improving literacy. Speaker 0: In Long Beach through winning this. Speaker 1: Prestigious award, which they very much deserve. Speaker 0: They've won this prestigious award because. Speaker 1: Of their programs that serve youth families, veterans, seniors, the disabled and everyone. Speaker 0: In between. Our library staff are truly. Speaker 1: Worthy of this National Medal for Museum and Library Services and this recognition from the city council. I appreciate it. Thank you to all the staff of the Long Beach Public Library for all your hard work every day serving our community and to the board and staff of the Long Beach Public Library Foundation, as well as our donors and the library patrons. We couldn't be more proud of you all. We should all be very proud of. Speaker 0: This recognition, this national. Speaker 1: Recognition. And I'll take great pride in what our libraries have turned out to be. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you. So I'll offer my congratulations. So, you know, since we've had the new Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, I've experienced firsthand the transformative power the libraries have on a community. So and I can tell that it's really a true partnership. It's not just, you know, just just Glinda alone. This is, you know, her entire staff, the librarians, the foundation, the donors, the friends, all these people work really closely together to make sure that we have a quality, well-funded, well supported library. And so this is congratulations, well-deserved. There's a whole list of of council members who like to speak on this. We'll start with the maker of the motion, Councilwoman Price. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I completely agree with those comments. Congratulations to you, Glenda, and your entire team. I think that we are very fortunate because we have the foundation who's so actively involved. And but for the foundation, the our ability to be able to progress with our library services would would be significantly hindered because they are a really a great ally and partner and really part and parcel of the success of the of the program that we have here. I'm you know, everybody knows I'm a huge supporter of of the libraries, my my kids and I often go to the Sunday library hours. And today my son was at the Michelle Obama library actually, because three books that I reserved online were not available at my local library. So he went there and sent me pictures and was loving it. So I think I think it's fantastic that we can use the technology to find out what our library has and be able to expose our kids and people of all ages in the city to the great services. I will say I'm not sure where that $5,000 is going, but I having spent a lot of time on our website, I think there's some opportunities there to make it more user friendly in terms of where what book you're requesting and where you want it sent and when to go and pick it up. It's not it's not as easy to figure out as one would predict. And I say that from my own personal experience, trying to figure out the site. So maybe doing some application based upgrades might be good because I think that'll make us even even better and more prepared for the trends in library services. And it'll get us really ready for main library when it opens so that we can really showcase our offering. So congratulations to in your team. This is amazing. It gives me a great pride to have a library that's a national awardee in our city. So thank you very much. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 5: Thank you. And I'll be short as usual. But I do wanted to offer my congratulations to Glenda and the Library Services Department and are your supporting cast of The Friends, the Foundation. Library Foundation and the patrons who throughout the city who patronize the library. Obviously, our library services are doing great work and they're getting a recognition that this council already knew that you were already one of the best. And this is why we continue to to support our libraries with the budget, and we will continue to do that. I again wanted to just offer my congratulations and keep up the great work. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 0: What a great honor it is when you read through this. Picture of you in the in the handout. It really talks about the amazing things that your team are doing, and we really appreciate that. I, too, have checked in and out some books lately. I use the online digital library as well, but I use it for audiobooks. And so it is always just so easy and convenient to download them right there. And I never have to. Speaker 1: Even go to a library to pick. Speaker 0: Them up though. I have picked up a few that you did not have an audiobook version. I'm just. Speaker 1: So proud of you and all the things you're doing and to see the collaboration across with. Speaker 0: Nonprofit partners in a meaningful way. We as a council didn't have to ask you to do that. We didn't have to come up with a process for you. You guys just went out there, and the good work of the librarians and their relationships have been so strong. So congratulations to you and all of them. Speaker 3: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 0: Yes. I also wanted to. Speaker 1: Echo the same and just say that it even highlights more the fact that libraries are the core of our communities. I drove by Alameda Library the other day before it opened and there was a line outside of a library in the middle of the day. I loved. Speaker 0: It. Speaker 1: I might have known half the people in that line. But it's great to see the partnership. It's great to be able to see so many advocates on council for more library access. I know I grew up going to a library and never having books that we owned in the house, but only library books. And I look forward to hopefully getting to a place where we can have more access to libraries for all of our youth. So thank you guys very much. And congratulations, everyone. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilmember Sabrina. Thank you. And congratulations. I did want to give a shout out to fourth district resident Bryant Ben, who went back to Washington to receive the award with Glenda Williams. And we actually featured you two in our July 28th newsletter, complete with a link to the video where you get the award from Cokie Roberts . So if you'd like that link, just contact our office. And Bryant is a fourth District resident, but he conducts his program in the sixth District. So I have to talk to Mr. Andrews about that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Urunga. Speaker 7: Thank you, Vice Mayor. I had the honor of attending a foundation event that earlier this summer, and I was when I was told that the library had won its war. And being there, I saw so many librarians attending that event. And that is where the rubber meets the road. It's with our librarians and the great work that they do, working with our kids, working with our adults, making sure that the programs are in place, and making sure that all the materials are readily available and can be found. So I want to congratulate not only Library services England Garland, of course, as their leader, but all the librarians who work in our system. Congratulations to all. You earned it. Speaker 3: Thank you. Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 4: Congratulations as well. I think this is an. Speaker 1: Amazing success with. Speaker 4: Both in partnership with. Speaker 1: The foundation. Speaker 4: And our library. And just reading, Glenda, your. Speaker 1: Quote that we also. Speaker 4: Want to go beyond our walls to meet them in the community, I think is is definitely what the Long Beach libraries do, is going out in the community to ensure that. Speaker 1: Kids everywhere around the city are able to check out books, but also have that whole. Speaker 4: Experience. And your Instagram is the best. Speaker 1: Because I love the book Face Thursdays or whatever you do. It's another way of engaging our residents. Speaker 4: So thank you all. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 6: Councilmember Angel. Yes. And again, I want to just give our kudos to you, the fine work that you're doing, because you find out in certain areas where kids will never get a chance to fly, go anywhere with a book, will take you all over the world. And I want to thank you again for giving us that opportunity, you and your staff. Congratulations again. Speaker 3: Thank you. And once again, congratulations to everyone on this well-deserved award. Is there any public comment on item number 13? Seeing nonmembers, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you. At this time, we'll we'll go ahead and take up our budget hearing. Madam Clerk, you want to read that?

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to accept $5,000 in award funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, for being the recipient of the 2017 National Medal for Museum and Library Service; execute any documents necessary for the administration of this award; and Increase appropriations in the General Grants Fund (SR 120) in the Library Services Department (LS) by $5,000, offset by award revenue. (Citywide)

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Speaker 3: What a fantastic conclusion of public comment. Thank you so much, Zoe. So at this point, we'll move forward. We have item number 16. Madam Clerk, would you please read. Speaker 2: A report from Economic and Property Development recommendation to declare the city owned property located at 1675 Santa Fe Avenue as surplus and execute any and all documents necessary with Wood Cliff Corporation for the sale of subject property and the amount of 1.2 million. District one. Speaker 3: Now there's a bunch of these, right? There's more than one. Is it possible to like. Councilwoman, you wanted to speak to all of them at once? Yes. Speaker 7: Just know we're going to have to take them each individually on the sale and the vote. Speaker 0: Yes. Speaker 3: Well, I was just thinking the comments. Speaker 1: Right. That's fine. Speaker 4: The comment? Speaker 0: Yeah, well, no. Speaker 3: I think. Councilwoman, you've got the. Speaker 4: Floor. Speaker 1: Thank you. Well, Sergio, if we can go over just a quick staff report on this particular. Speaker 4: Location, I just want to make sure. Speaker 1: I'm wrapping my head around what will be happening there. Speaker 6: Sergio Ramirez. Thank you. Good evening, Vice Mayor and honorable council members. The this item and. Speaker 7: Actually the following three items pertain to the disposition of successor agency properties. As you know, we are in the process of selling former RTA properties per the Longreach Property Management Plan. These properties were taken out to RFP back in March 2016 but unsuccessfully sold in that time. Subsequently, the properties were assigned to Leon Associates, a professional real estate brokerage firm, for the solicitation of offers via the open real estate market. The subject property before you is approximately 38,000 square foot lot 1675 Santa Fe and is owned industrial Leon Associates received an offer for 1.2 million from Wood Cliff Corp. for the development of an industrial incubator industrial complex. Speaker 6: By the site. Speaker 7: If approved, the plans will be submitted to development services for approval through the city's entitlement process. And we recommend approval of the disposition. Speaker 0: Thank you. I just had a question as to what. Speaker 1: We what we're defining as incubator spaces is. Speaker 7: Definitely the the applicant has has agreed to try to promote the sale or lease of these spaces in compliance with the livable well West Long Beach implementation plan to try to encourage entrepreneurs and startups for these spaces. Speaker 0: Okay, great. Speaker 1: So it is what I'm thinking. It's an entrepreneurship incubator and from what I understand, I think would Cliff is the same. Speaker 0: Group who constructed the Michelle Obama library. Speaker 7: That is correct. The owner of Wood Cliff is actually a developer, a contractor, general contractor. Speaker 6: And acted as a general contractor for the Michelle Obama Library. Speaker 0: Wonderful. Okay, great. Thank you. Speaker 1: Very much. I appreciate the work on this. Speaker 3: Fantastic. Is any public comment on item number 16 saying nonmembers, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: Motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to declare the City-owned property located at 1675 Santa Fe Avenue, Assessor Parcel Number 7432-006-914 as surplus; authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary, including a Purchase and Sale Agreement, with Woodcliff Corporation, a California corporation, or Assignee, for the sale of the Subject Property in the amount of $1,200,000; and, accept Categorical Exemption CE 17-168. (District 1)

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Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Next we have item 20. Speaker 2: Report from Economic and Property Development Recommendation to execute all documents with the Department of Defense through the Office of Economic Adjustment to accept funds totaling 1,342,406. To continue implementation of a project that addresses the economic and workforce impact of the C17 plant closure citywide. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Speaker 6: Yes, we have Nick Schulz, the director of our Workforce Investment Board, who has worked to get this grant from the Department of Defense. Nick, so good evening, Mr. Vice Mayor and honorable members of Council. This is actually a phase two of our economic adjustment project here in the city of Long Beach. As you may well may well be aware, our first. Speaker 7: Project was for a total of about. Speaker 6: 4 million, just under $4 million. And that project, integrated direct services to dislocated workers created a master plan for our C-17 plant and surrounding parcels to ensure future users would maximize economic benefit of the facility. Work product from phase one included again a master plan. Speaker 7: Document to help guide decision making concerning site use. Once Boeing Corporation has ultimately vacated the site, it created an. Speaker 6: Online skills transfer platform. Speaker 7: To help impacted workers prepare for. Speaker 6: New employment and opportunities that looked at special. Speaker 7: Zoning and planning activities. Speaker 3: Prepare to prepare the site. Speaker 6: For future use and it created an economic and labor market study to analyze and help identify impacted firms and help them transition successfully from suppliers of Boeing into other available markets. Speaker 7: Phase two of the project will bring the city just over $1.5. Speaker 6: Million and will build on the efforts. Speaker 7: Of our Phase one approach. And the major phases to be included of this Phase two project. Speaker 6: Include expanding the economic analysis to better understand the. Speaker 7: Impacts of the C-17 to the closure to the city a. Speaker 6: Few years out, the ultimate economic well-being and condition of the workers who have been impacted and continuing efforts to support and transition the supply chain away from aerospace and defense opportunities into other market opportunities. Speaker 7: As well as completion. Speaker 6: Of planning and site analysis to guide any future development on the site. I can speak further about any of those elements if you have any questions. Speaker 3: I think we're okay, but good job tonight. Is any public comment on this item? Speaker 0: In the supporting material for the agenda. It says earlier this year, OCA, which is the federal government, notified Pacific Gateway that the city would receive additional funding of one and a half million dollars plus to continue and expand the project for this new round of grant funds. Pacific Gateway will work with various businesses to assess their economic competitiveness, conduct, asset mapping, and support the city's modified planning and zoning documents. I don't think I heard that in that description. So the federal government notified a local business that the federal government is sending money to the city of Long Beach to give to local business so they can contract with two additional businesses to support planning and zoning changes now being considered. Why is the federal government providing money to higher businesses? To be a proponent of pending laws which should be supported locally. Why is the federal government including intruding through three businesses in a matter that needs to be supported or opposed by the citizens of this city and our city council? I strongly oppose acceptance of these funds. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you for your testimony and seeing the federal public comment. Members, please cast your vote.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents, and any needed subsequent amendments, with the Department of Defense through the Office of Economic Adjustment, to accept funds totaling $1,342,406 funded by the Community Economic Adjustment Assistance for Reductions in Defense Industry Employment, to continue implementation of a project that addresses the economic and workforce impact of the C-17 plant closure; execute an agreement, and any needed subsequent amendments, with project partners in the amount totaling $1,125,000, for the period of January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017; and Increase appropriations in the Community Development Grants Fund (SR 150) in the Economic and Property Development Department (EP) by $1,342,406, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 2: 21 Please report from Financial Management Recommendation Receive and file the fiscal year 2017 second Budget Performance Report Citywide. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Can we have a brief staff report, please? Speaker 6: Leah Erickson. Speaker 0: Good evening, Vice Mayor, Members of City Council. This is the second performance report for fiscal year 17, which covers the first eight months of the year. And this information that is in this report is consistent with the projections used for the fiscal year 17 in the manager's proposed 18 budget. So general fund revenues are expected to end the year lower than expected due to a one time drop in revenue. This is due to a $5.4 million decline from successful property tax appeals by companies in the harbor area. This results in a one time large revenue impact as well as smaller ongoing revenue reductions in future years. Partially offsetting the shortfall are higher than estimated property tax revenues and oil revenues, which are coming in at $45 a barrel instead of 35 a barrel. On the expenditure side, we're projected to end the year with the savings rate under budget. This includes factoring in unbudgeted medical marijuana expenses. It is expected that general fund departments will save the point 5% of their budgeted appropriations per the city manager's request. And given the revenue shortfall, departments have been asked to save additional funds above those 0.5% targets to mitigate the revenue shortfall and end the year in a balance. So it's expected that with this approach, the city could ultimately end the year with a small surplus. However, at this time, the General Fund is not projected to have significant zero funds available and may not have any additional funds left over four 5% for unfunded liabilities or any funds for FY 18 one time uses. Also, measure a ballot initiative was passed for this year and we have 35.6 million of anticipated revenues this year. And so to date, as of as of June 30th, 15.2 million in revenue has been received and the 11.2 million has been expended and 8.5 encumbered are obligated for ongoing and one time public safety and infrastructure purposes. While these revenues are in line with estimates during this ramp up period, it is a new revenue source and so it's being closely watched from other funds. There are no revenue concerns and no significant issues identified for expenditures. While all revenue is coming in higher than projected, as mentioned, the revenue is being used to offset previously mentioned shortfall in the general fund revenues. So therefore only a small surplus is possible for uplands and in the Talents Fund. The overall status of the fund makes it unlikely that any additional capital funding will be available at the end of 17. But we will know more at year end close as it continues to closely monitor revenues and expenditures for the remainder of the year and report any significant changes. This concludes the staff report and I'm available for any questions. Speaker 3: Thank you. And then I go to Councilman Andrews, just your good Councilwoman Price. Speaker 4: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice Mayor. So, Miss Erickson, that was a really fast recitation. And I understand, given the hour, the night, that this seems kind of like an important topic to me. So I know that you reached out to all the departments to ask for us to reduce our budgets, and that was including city council . Can you tell me, did did all the council officers participate in that? Speaker 0: It is my understanding that they are. Speaker 4: Okay. And and I know we did that last year as well. Right. Okay. So that's I think that's great. In terms of the surplus, you said that we're it's possible we'll have a small surplus at the end of the year. Is that correct? Speaker 0: That is correct. If departments are able to meet their savings targets and save additional funds, we should have you know, we should end the year in balance or have a small surplus. You know, there is a risk, though, that it could could be a small shortfall. And that's why we're watching it very closely and asking departments to save more. Speaker 4: And so what is that amount? Speaker 0: The small surplus. Right now, we're actually officially estimating zero. So no, no funds available. No extra funds available and no shortfall. Speaker 4: Okay. And so when will you know whether there will be a surplus, if at all? Speaker 0: So really, we it takes a while to close our books. So we come back to city council in February, but we'll have a better feel of probably in November if there's going to be a major problem. If there was a major problem, that's why we do have an operating reserve and the operating reserve is used for these . And it's unanticipated one time or mid-year shortfalls that we did that we had with revenue. We're hopeful, though, that between other revenues coming in higher and department savings that will that will end the year in balance. Okay. Speaker 4: And I just want to note one thing, and that is, you know, we talk a lot about the Tidelands funds. And sometimes people say, well, we don't have a Tidelands Fund in our district. There are different enterprise funds in various districts that you can benefit from those funding sources and some where you can. We talked about it earlier tonight in terms of grant moneys and things available. But I just want to just so that we're clear the bathrooms and all the things and the parks and the things that we normally maintain through the Tidelands Fund in in 17, we don't expect to have any capital improvement, but we will still have operating. So a small amount of operating moneys coming in. Speaker 0: Councilwoman Price We have 1.5 million of capital investment planned in the 18 proposed budget using funds available in Tidelands. But there is no anticipated any additional surpluses at this time. But that also could change when we do year end. Okay. Speaker 4: Thank you. I appreciate that. I will not ask any more questions. Thanks. Speaker 3: Thank you. Next, we have Councilor Mungo. Speaker 0: You mentioned a reduction in property tax revenue from a port port from port related locations that did a property tax appeal. What year was their appeal? Was it a multi-year refund that impacted an end to future fiscal years? Include the new adjusted rate. Councilwoman Mingo. So it was over several fiscal years, I believe at least three might have been four when you count the current fiscal year. And so that's why it is considered a one time hit. But we do believe that that appeal alone, those appeals alone could result in about $1,000,000 of ongoing revenue shortfalls. And that is hopeful that that it would be offset by other properties going up higher than anticipated. So right now, that's something that we are concerned about and we're watching for FY 18. And then also, there could be additional appeals filed. And so we're we're looking at that as well. And the. Speaker 1: Volatility of those properties also can be. Speaker 0: Restored at the same rate in which they were decreased. Speaker 1: So let's make. Speaker 0: Sure to keep track of both sides of it. Correct. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you. Any public comment on this item saying please cast your vote.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file the Fiscal Year 2017 Second Budget Performance Report. (Citywide)

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Speaker 3: Thank you. I think we're just going to keep going. Is there only public comment on this item saying no members, please cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Romo. Number 24, please report. Speaker 2: From Public Works recommendation to execute a license agreement with Crown Castle and G. West for the nonexclusive use of city owned properties, for wireless telecommunications facilities for a ten year term District one and two. Speaker 3: Thank you. There is a brief staff report on this. Speaker 6: Craig Beck. Speaker 8: Good evening, Vice Member, Members of the City Council. Just real quickly. We're excited to bring this item before you this evening. The city staff has been working diligently with the telecommunications industry to bring forward small cell. And as you know, many people are using smartphones these days, mobile web browsing, video streaming, and that has led to the need for more data. The telecommunication companies are trying to address this by filling gaps in their cell sites with micro cell. And what that really means is they're they're asking the city to use our assets, primarily our street light poles, to place antennas and equipment that will allow them to have these facilities in place. We have worked we have a number of applications pending. The first application is before you this evening with a license agreement with Crown Castle. Crown Castle will install the equipment and essentially lease it to an operator like an AT&T or Verizon. One thing we would like to do to clarify the recommended action before you this evening is that this particular item is for 21 city owned sites. I want to make sure that we have that clarification in place, because it is likely that will we will we will be bringing additional Crown Castle applications to you in the future . And so this particular license agreement is for those 21 sites. The sites are primarily located. If you look at Exhibit A, they are down in our city's waterfront. So Shoreline, seaside, etc., primarily, they're down in the waterfront. I would add that your staff is working closely, both planning and building and public works, to bring forward a master license agreement that would help streamline the entire licensing process for the telecommunications company companies plural. We do have multiple companies that have filed applications that staff is working with. We anticipate that that master license agreement will come before council, hopefully before the end of this calendar year. That concludes the staff report. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Beck. If there's no objection, we'll just go to public comment. Any public comment on this item saying no members, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: Councilwoman Price. Motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute a License Agreement with Crown Castle NG West, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, for the non-exclusive use of City-owned properties for wireless telecommunications facilities for a ten-year term. (Districts 1,2)

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Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm number 32, please. Speaker 2: Communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez recommendation to increase appropriations in the General Services Fund in the Technology and Innovation Department by $24,724, offset by the first Council District one time infrastructure funds to support the purchase of two outward facing security cameras to be installed at Washington Middle School. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilwoman. Speaker 4: I just wanted to say briefly thank you to the Long Beach. Speaker 0: Unified School District. Speaker 4: Superintendent and board members on and also. Speaker 1: My council colleagues on the Joint Youth. Speaker 4: Committee. This is something that. Speaker 1: We needed to do for Washington middle school students to keep them safe. Speaker 3: Thank you. This is great use for one times. Is there any public comment on this saying no members, please cast your vote. Speaker 2: Motion carries. Speaker 3: Thank you. So now we're on to our final public comment section. If there is any remaining public comment from members of the council, now will be the time to come forward. You have 3 minutes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to increase appropriations in the General Services Fund (IS 385) in the Technology and Innovation Department (TI) by $24,724 offset by the First Council District one-time infrastructure funds transferred from the Capital Projects Fund (CP) in the Public Works Department (PW) to support the purchase of two outward facing security cameras to be installed at Washington Middle School in the First Council District.

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Speaker 2: You don't want to be. Speaker 1: Do you want to do what. Speaker 0: We're going to hearing at number one? Okay. Speaker 1: Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, adopt resolution finding the project to be consistent with the downtown plan, programmatic environmental impact report and subject to the Downtown Plan Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program and denying the appeal from warn blue soft ski representing the Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve a site plan review for the construction of a seven story 142 unit mixed use residential development at 500 West Broadway and the Downtown Plan Development District District two. Speaker 0: Okay, thank you for that. We're going to go ahead and get into this hearing. So just just to go over the order of the hearing, I'm going to first introduce our staff to go over the staff presentation. Then after that, we will have the applicant can make comments for up to 10 minutes. You don't have to use the full 10 minutes, but you'll be able to make comments. And then the appellant there is one appellant and the appellant will also have 10 minutes to make comments. You don't have to use the full 10 minutes, but you're welcome to as well. And then after the appellant goes through the 10 minutes, the applicant gets 3 minutes if they want to do a rebuttal. But again, you don't have to take those 3 minutes and then we'll of course, have the deliberation and public comments and will conclude the hearing. And so with that, let me go ahead and turn this over to staff for the presentation. Speaker 10: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Before we get started, if the clerk could administer the oath on this one. Speaker 1: Is there anybody in the audience? Could you please stand? Please raise your right hand. You and each of you solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God. Speaker 0: Okay. Excellent. I'm going to go ahead and turn this now over to Mr. Modica, who will do the report. Speaker 10: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff presentation on this will be provided by Christopher Koonce, our advance planning officer and the Department of Development Services. Speaker 5: Good evening, city council members. We are here regarding 500 West Broadway. That's and Council District two. To orient you on the screen, you have a diagram and if you made it to this building, you actually know where this site is as well. It's across from the Deukmejian courthouse. It's the empty parking lot there. The importance of this diagram is to show that the location of this development is in proximity to bikeshare to multiple bike routes, including the segregated bike route on Broadway. It's walking distance to the Metro Blue Line and walking distance to a large amount of employment base here in downtown Long Beach. Here's a aerial photograph of the location we're talking about at Broadway and Magnolia. Again, within our downtown area covered by the downtown plan PD 30. This is just a look at the adjacent properties. And you see there in the center the prominent building, which is the courthouse across the street. So this project is a seven story project. It is an NFL project and currently vacant parking area. It will rise seven stories to add 142 residential units, 191 parking spaces more than is required. It's 84 feet tall from its highest point from the lowest point there on Magnolia. It includes amenities for residents, including pool, spa, fitness, center, deck areas, balconies and community room. But also important, it provides a number of public amenities, including the ground floor, cafe seating area enhancements to the street, as well as visual improvement to the site. This gives you a site plan. So to the north is the section facing Broadway, and that's where you have your active users to promote an active downtown street life. So you have your cafe and retail, your lobby and entrance and leasing area for the future residents, as well as what's called a bike cafe, which the idea there is that we're really promoting biking for residents and visitors and that's not just a place to park your bike, but that's a place where you can also do any appropriate repairs and servicing to your bike that you may need to do. Vehicle access is from Magnolia. As we talked about, there's 191 parking stalls, which is more than is required in a three level garage. Pedestrian access from Broadway there there's landscaping along the sidewalk, which will be installed as a part of this project that does not exist today. So I know we're here this evening due to an appeal, but from the staff table point of view here, this is the exactly the type of project we like to see in our city and that we encourage as your planning staff. It was supported enthusiastically by the Planning Commission. It provides new housing units in close proximity to transit, biking, walking and sources of employment. It's a major investment and expansion in downtown, consistent with the city's housing policy and consistent with exactly what we told the development community and the community at large that we expected with the downtown plan . It was heard by the Planning Commission on May 4th. They voted unanimously to approve it. They did include environmental documentation at that time. Upon receiving the appeal from Mr. Polaski, staff did conduct further environmental analysis which simply confirmed our previous conclusions that the project does not result in any environmental harm and is consistent with the program environmental document that was prepared when the downtown plan was adopted just over five years ago. So as we talked about when PD 30 was adopted back in 2012, there was a program, environmental document, which means we actually went to the expense and complication of analyzing what the environmental impacts of not just one project, but the entire buildout of downtown over time would be. That's what the secret guidelines and the state law advises you to do. You're then advised to not do redundant review so you don't start over again when that project that you previously anticipated comes forward, as happened in that case. In this case. And for that reason the environmental review tiered off of our utilize the PD 30 IIR. There is no significant impacts that were not previously identified. The project is actually smaller than what's allowed in this section of PD 30 where someone could do it two 140 foot building. But as I mentioned, this is an 80 foot range and is a important contributor to that site. So that is staff's brief presentation. We're available to answer any questions, and thank you for your consideration. Speaker 6: Thank you. So for this hearing, we are going to allocate 10 minutes to the applicant for applicant comments and then we'll have another 10 minutes for appellant comments and then we'll allow another three or 5 minutes for a rebuttal from the applicant. So is the applicant present? All right, come on forward and you have 10 minutes. Take us away. Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Tyson. Speaker 4: Sales here from Ensemble Investments on behalf of the applicant, and I'd like to thank staff for their hard work. Speaker 5: And prep and. Speaker 4: Presentation and preparation for this hearing tonight and city. Speaker 5: Council. Speaker 4: For their consideration. And we're here. Speaker 7: To answer any. Speaker 5: Questions. And we have our team and experts here if there are any technical questions that council members would like to ask. But we believe that the written record can speak for itself and we agree with staff's presentation. So I'll hold my comments and interest everyone's time. Speaker 6: Thank you. So you want to. So you're deferring your time or you're done. You're good. Okay. Thank you. How about the appellant? Please come forward and you have 2 minutes. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you, City Council. I'd like to reserve 3 minutes of my time. It's only fair that if there's a rebuttal that I would get to respond to the rebuttal. Speaker 6: Up to the city attorney. So. Speaker 4: Mr. Vice Mayor, generally we don't allow someone in this. Speaker 2: Particular position to reserve. Speaker 4: Their time. The reason the applicant gets a rebuttal is the applicant actually has the burden of proof here to establish under city council that this project merits going forward. And that's why they get the last word. Speaker 6: Understood. Speaker 3: Mr. Vice Mayor, that's not how Mayor Garcia has previously run these. I'm going to always let there be a rebuttal time. Speaker 6: Well, thank you. Considering that the applicant. You only spoke for about 2 minutes, I think this is fair. So I'm going to just defer to the city attorney's advice. So you have 2 minutes and we'll start your 10 minutes with you. Thank you. Speaker 3: Warmed Lisowski. Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development. The reason that we are bringing this appeal is under California Environmental Quality Act. And I understand that staff has instructed that there is a downtown plan, also known as a programmatic air. But there are many exceptions to a programmatic air. And staff was referring to the tearing of square tearing can be used and is being used in the situation. But when there are certain substantial, even mitigated effects that does not allow further environmental review to be completely avoided. So this project sits directly across the street from the George to Deukmejian courthouse, which is 63 feet tall, and this proposed project is 84 feet tall. So it's a full two stories higher than the courthouse, and it also sits to the south of the courthouse. And I don't know if you've been in the courthouse in the main lobby, but there's a great amount of light that comes in. It's a vast improvement over the original courthouse, and this building is going to tower over it. When you look at all of the renderings that staff has created and that the developer have created, none of those renderings show the courthouse and the development in relation to each other. So really what you're going to have is this seven story building really kind of dwarfing that beautiful new courthouse that we have. Another issue is they're proposing to only use the existing curb cut. There's only one curb cut on Magnolia Street and Broadway, Ocean. And seventh and seventh are the six are the only major entryways from the 710 Freeway into downtown Long Beach. And so, you know, this downtown plan, this council envisions this beautiful pedestrian interaction between the courthouse, the Civic Center and these other downtown Long Beach areas. This is going to this should be a major vital pedestrian intersection. Putting a seven story building there is going to significantly reduce the visibility for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic and the parking these these right turn only parking strategies. We all know when we leave parking lots in downtown, there might be a sign that says Don't turn right, but most people turn the way that's more convenient for them due to the one way nature of the. Of the. Of most of the streets in downtown. I apologize for boring the city council, so I'll try to try to make it interesting and short here. So the downtown plan was the programmatic air was adopted and in the draft air it stated that further environmental review might be necessary to examine whether there are project specific significant effects which are peculiar to the project or its site. Our position is that this is a peculiar project site being on this intersection right near the new civic center, right across the street from Deukmejian courthouse, as well as the major entryway that Broadway is from the freeway. This creates a situation in which this is a unique or peculiar project site. Also the program E.R. promised that further environmental review would be done and that this planning, the planning commission, as well as this body, continue to approve projects inappropriately using negative declarations or exemptions from seek that are not appropriate. So. Here's some of the. Some of the unique things about this site are the esthetics. I've already spoken about the courthouse being an award winning, glass walled building. That's part of the pride of our Superior Court district here in Long Beach. I've also talked about the traffic, about the ingress egress on Magnolia, and that the Broadway corridor is a vital part of vehicular entry to Long Beach from the 710 Freeway. The population and housing? Yes. The downtown plan calls for high density housing, but every week we read about pedestrian deaths in our city. And you can only imagine that these pedestrian deaths are caused by gridlock and driver frustration. We've all driven down Seventh Street before. We've all driven down Broadway. These are narrow streets. If there's a bus in front of you and there's pedestrian stops, many cars lurch out and these lead to pedestrian deaths. We've all driven down Pine Avenue before, and I've been told by parking staff that they are specifically instructed not to ticket commercial vehicles. So tell me about the intersection of Broadway and Pine. Where you've got an unsafe, an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing and you've got multiple commercial trucks parked in the middle of the street. And it's just one of these days before a child or a pedestrian gets into an accident and gets hit by a car that they can't see around. So these overly dense parking, these these are the reasons that this project deserves an environmental review. The environmental documentation that the city and the developer have chosen to use is an exemption. It's not even an initial study. There's no negative declaration. There's no mitigation. It's just simply an exemption. And the Class 32 exemption that's being used in this case. States that if there's a reasonable possibility that there's a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances, then the categorical exemption cannot apply. So once again, we find that staff and developers work together to back in to these environmental reviews. And when I say back in, I mean I get the result that you want, which is we don't need an air. And then let's figure out how to make every single line of our report match so that there's no environmental review needed. So we've got the unusual circumstances. I'm going to use my last 3 minutes since Mr. Vice Mayor said I can't use it later. Let's talk about guest parking. The downtown specific plan changed the parking ratio for from one per unit plus to a quarter of a space. For guest parking. I don't know if anyone on the council and Mr. Vice Mayor have used any of those combined guests and commercial parking. But they fill up quickly. They fill up fast. And there's nothing there's nothing that keeps long term guests from occupying those spaces that are supposed to be commercial. I don't know if you've ever been to Pet and Pooch, I believe it's called or the Stav bar on the promenade and you try to pull into the alley there. There's only one egress, ingress, egress on a small alley. The name escapes me. Liberty Court, possibly. And. And very often all those guest spaces, those commercial spaces are taken by long term guests or residents of those buildings. So we do not feel that these dual use guest and commercial use spaces are appropriate. If you're going to have commercial on the first floor, then you should have the appropriate number of spaces for commercial as well as for the guest spaces. Those should be unique parking spaces for each of those two groups, not overlapping as they now are being approved very often both commercial as well as. So. So once again, what we're asking for and we will continue to ask for is that when there's a programmatic E.R. that's been passed, that this body and the planning commission insist that the developers follow the California Environmental Act, the reason that environmental reviews there or is to create a period in which citizen citizen input can be made. The problem with using these negative declarations or exemptions is that there's we're only limited to 3 minutes of public input when there's an E.R. The law gives many opportunities for the public to interject. And so by using this inappropriate exemption, you're depriving the residents, the citizens of Long Beach protection under the Environmental Quality Act. Speaker 6: Thank you for your time with the applicant. Like the rebuttal. Speaker 5: Good evening, Damon. Mama like us from Armbrister, Goldsmith and Dell back on behalf of the applicant. Just like to so. Speaker 6: Just a moment. Let's set the clock to 3 minutes and if you need an additional two, well, we can go up to five, so 3 minutes. Speaker 5: I'll make it short. I'll try to keep it within the three. Thank you. I'm just a couple of points to address that the appellant has raised and I'm sure staff will address them as well. First off, upon further review of the appellant's appeal, staff determined that we no longer needed to pursue a categorical exemption under sequel, but rather as allowed for under the school guidelines. We were able to do environmental analysis under the programmatic air for the downtown plan. And despite appellants claims, additional environmental analysis was done specific to Sequoia. That went. Speaker 4: Through all of the issues. Speaker 5: That are raised, all 18 impact issues that are raised under Sequoia to determine whether or not there was something. Speaker 4: Unique or peculiar to. Speaker 5: This project. And the record contained ample evidence of that, not only including environmental analysis by our Sequoia expert, but also technical experts as well. There's a shade and shadow study, for example, that looked at the courthouse and the near sensitive receptors and determined that there would in fact be no shade shadow impacts. Speaker 4: As to traffic. Speaker 5: And ingress egress. That was also subject to a very thorough traffic study. And again, no impacts were determined. Nothing unusual, even if we were to be under a categorical exemption, was there. And there's nothing peculiar about this quickly under population and housing, as was already represented by staff, this project is smaller than what is contemplated under the downtown plan and is fully sufficient with it. And finally, even if one were to look at the categorical exemption and determine whether or not there were unusual circumstances, it's not enough to show that it's appellant's opinion. There's something unusual here. Rather, the test is unusual circumstances leading to a reasonable possibility of a significant impact. And as I mentioned, the record contains a full environmental analysis that shows, in fact, there is no reasonable possibility of significant impact. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you for your time. So that concludes the hearing. So at this point, we're going to open it up to public comment. Is there any public comment on this hearing? Number one. Thank you. Please come forward. State Stage Name. Speaker 4: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor. Members of the City Council coaching with the. Speaker 7: Downtown Long Beach Alliance. Speaker 4: On behalf of our board. Speaker 6: I just want to let you know that we do support this item supporting said city staff's. Speaker 4: Recommendation. We have submitted a letter into the public record and this is consistent with PD 30, as mentioned by staff and certainly in alignment. Speaker 6: With our strategic plan. So we look forward to your support and your consideration for this project. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Laurie Angell 458 He's quite straight. I think what's missing here probably is a fair evaluation of a plan as it's maybe morphed or changed over time, and to give the individuals that may have changed over time because the planning process can take decades. And so you have individuals that find themselves all of a sudden in a development that they had no input on. And they're astounded by the magnitude of the of the development that's going to occur. And they're not given any opportunity to weigh in. So in terms of fairness for the individuals that actually live there, it really isn't a very considerate process. And I think it's important that people that have moved into neighborhoods have an opportunity to weigh in on projects that are going to impact them, possibly for the rest of their lives. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Very good. On the very face of it. Trying to avoid an environmental impact report, lengthy as they may be. Strange the olfactory senses giving. If you have if you have nothing to hide, let that forward. Let that go forward. Period. The only reason you'd want to curtail it is because you have something you want to hide. And that does not speak well for anybody that would support that. Their brain is not on fire here. Another evening of notifying the public that this is going to happen. If you want this in your neighborhood, let us hear what you have to say. And I know a lot of people that understand this, the sequels far better than I do. It would probably be shocked at what you're doing. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. You got it, Mayor. Okay. Any further comment saying on the public comment is close. We'll take it back behind the rail. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 2: Yes. I want to thank staff again for their time on this. I want to thank the developer for not just putting in a proposal for development that met the standards, but you went above and beyond with parking, with environmental concerns. You guys have been a partner that have really tried to step it up and say, this is what a top notch housing development can look like in our city. And so I appreciate that as somebody who was involved in the downtown plan, as an outside community member, I had my own concerns and my own opinions at the time and understanding what the downtown plan goal is. This development meets that goal, and we've had a process at the Planning Commission for people to come and be engaged, and we have a process tonight. And so the fact that we have a few people tonight, you know, it tells me that this is something that community members except I only have one question for our city attorney's staff. I. What is your take on this appeal today? Are we in line with the law? Speaker 4: Councilwoman Pierce. Yes. Speaker 2: Fantastic. I urge my colleagues to support my supporting of this development. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. With what counsel in place like to speak to this. Speaker 8: One question for our development services staff, you've had a chance to hear the Opposition to your recommendation. Is there anything that you heard in the course of that presentation that changes your opinion regarding the recommendation on this particular item? Speaker 5: No Councilmember Price based on the factual record and the entirety of the analysis that was completed, including the environmental analysis, we're very comfortable with the recommendation and nothing we heard tonight would change that. Speaker 8: Thank you very much. Speaker 6: Thank you. And I'll just add, you know, there's a number of developments across this city. But, you know, Tyson, your teams have been very forth coming and educating the city council, being very public about it. So I'm really excited about this project. And it was interesting to hear the discussion tonight. Allow me to better understand the process and what the intent of the downtown plan was and to see it realized. So thank you so much, Mayor Garcia. Speaker 0: Okay. Just to close, I just want to, of course, congratulate the team that put this project together. This is a will be a huge part of filling in the downtown with quality projects, residential projects. I think the architecture and the look of the project is a quality development is going to be, I think, a great complement to the other projects that are happening in and around the courthouse, including the Civic Center, of course, which is just going to be catty corner and just right down the street from from this project. So I just I want to just thank you guys for investing in this project, but also the other projects that you guys are partnering with across across the community. So I'm very I'm very excited about this this parcel being being developed, and thank you for your interest in it and look forward to a successful project ahead. Thank you, Cam Tyson, the whole team. Members, please go and cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. And we're going to go on to the next hearing.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, adopt resolution finding the project to be consistent with the Downtown Plan Programmatic Environmental Impact Report and subject to the Downtown Plan Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program and denying the appeal from Warren Blesofsky representing Long Beach Citizens for Fair Development; and Uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Site Plan Review for the construction of a seven-story, 142-unit mixed use residential development at 500 West Broadway in the Downtown Planned Development District (PD-30). (District 2)

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Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. And we're going to go on to the next hearing. Speaker 1: Hearing to report from Public Works recommendation to receive supporting documentation, including the petitions into the record, conclude the public hearing and request the City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the Long Beach Municipal Code to expand preferential parking district. You as recommended by the City Traffic Engineer District for. Speaker 6: Okay. Mr. City Manager. When introduce this. Speaker 10: Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. The staff report will be given by Shaun Crombie, our deputy director of Public Works and our city engineer. Speaker 4: Good evening, Honorable Mayor Council. Item two seeks to move forward. Preferential Parking District to the district lies on Los Santos Drive between Garfield Street and Chatwin Avenue. The district has been requested or petitioned by the residents and meets all of the conditions necessary to qualify for implementation of preferential parking district. This requested action tonight also includes the possibility of moving forward with an expansion. Preferential purchasing districts should not cause overflow of parking to impact the neighboring streets. Five neighboring streets are included within this approval. If an impact were to overflow into those streets, the residents on the streets can petition for preferential parking district. And if the required conditions are met, it would allow for a streamlined and more streamlined process to move forward with that expansion. That concludes staff report. I'm available for answers questions. Speaker 6: Thank you. Is there any public comment on this hearing? Seeing none. We'll take it. We'll close the hearing. Take it back behind the real council members who are not. Thank you. Thank you to staff for putting this item together and we fully support it. I'm one of the many. Cal State Long Beach impacted areas of Los Altos. And the attachment to this item shows a petition with unanimous support that says it all. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brice. Speaker 8: I have no additional comments. Speaker 6: Thank you. Seeing no further public comment. Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 6: Thank you. So we have a third hearing. So we set up for that or take it now.

Public Hearing

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation, including the petitions, into the record, conclude the public hearing, and request the City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the Long Beach Municipal Code, to expand Preferential Parking District “U” as recommended by the City Traffic Engineer. (District 4)

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Speaker 0: Yeah. Let's go ahead and set up for a hearing. Speaker 6: Okay. Let's set up for our public safety hearing. Staff, can you read here? Number three p hearing. Number. Item number 46. Speaker 1: Report from financial management. Recommendation to conduct a budget hearing to receive and discuss an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget for Police and Fire. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. I'm going to go ahead. This is a continuation, of course, of our budget hearings and our third hearing of the night. When I got called in to turn this over to staff for the report and the presentation, mayor, council members. Speaker 4: We're going to go through two of our public safety hearings tonight that starts the budget hearing process. We're going to hear first from Chief Robert Luna with the police department presenting that budget. Then you're going to hear from Chief Mike Derry, from the fire department presenting that budget. So before we get into it, we just want to remind us all that we look at taking care of the public safety needs in our city. It's just not police. It's just not fire. We call this the continuum of public safety. Basically, it's incredibly important for all of us in all of the departments to think about public safety, to work closely with our police department, our fire department. Speaker 11: Whether it's the city prosecutor. Speaker 4: Or the city attorney, just the infrastructure that we build, code enforcement, our library services. We also have health and help. Homeless and health services. Workforce development. Parks. Recreation, marine. Affordable housing. Graffiti removal. And also neighborhood services. And that's all important. So our city looks beautiful, looks clean, graffiti gets removed, trash gets picked up. Kids are involved in our parks and our libraries, and we have opportunities for youth to get jobs and get off the streets their workforce. So again, we do want to highlight that we're all here to support police and fire in their mission. So with that, I'm going to turn this over to Chief Luna. Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and members of the City Council. As you know, our public safety efforts in Long Beach are a true partnership. So I would like to begin with some acknowledgments. First of all, I would like to thank the city manager and all of you, the City Council, for your continued support . I would also like to thank the other city departments and our community for your partnership. We could not be successful without all of you. We achieve greater success when working together and dealing with the challenges facing our community, such as crime and quality of life. I want to thank the men and women of the Long Beach Police Department. Their courage, commitment and dedication towards keeping our community safe is truly appreciated. They are doing an amazing job or they're doing amazing work. In addition, the leadership of our command staff has helped to strengthen trust and collaboration by being visible, accessible and responsive, working in partnership with our most valuable asset, our community. On this slide, you will see a list of our core services which are guided by our strategic vision and the concepts presented in the President's 21st century policing report. These core services include safeguarding lives and property, providing law enforcement services in a constitutional manner, proactively seeking to build partnerships with our community and responding to calls for service. And that's why 16 and 17 the police department achieved many accomplishments that have been and that have enhanced public safety in our community. We would like to express our gratitude to our community for the passage of measure. These funds have sustained police department resources that otherwise would have been eliminated from our operation. As you can see, our officers were dispatched to over 211,000 calls for service in calendar year 2016. This translates to patrol officers responding to an average of 579 calls for service making, just over 1000 officer initiated contacts and making approximately 50 arrests per day. In addition, our response time to priority one emergency calls for service has remained under our goal of 5 minutes. As you know, the city was awarded the Metro contract. Thank you to our team for creating and implementing a solid, well-thought out plan. Also, the community support. And the mayor's participation on the Metro Board, which was critical in securing this agreement. So I want to thank all of you. Due to staffing enhancements for Missouri and the Metro contract, our department is currently preparing for our fourth back to back police academy that will take place in FY 18. We could not have done this without the help of our civil service department. Since FY16, they have assisted us with over 100 recruitment events and as a result of those efforts we received over 5400 applications tested close to 2000 individuals, of which approximately 1400 passed. And we presented 291 individuals for our final selection of the 291 presented for selection, 167 police recruits were hired and we graduated 108. I would like to recognize the efforts of our Support Bureau and the Academy staff. This is quite an accomplishment. I am also happy to report that as of today we have received over 800 applications in the past seven weeks for our upcoming Academy class, which will start in February. The South division became operational in February of this year, and we also began construction of the substation at the Public Safety Building. This project was also funded by measuring resources. In addition, we continue to seek grant opportunities that may be used to assist repeat offenders and individuals experiencing homelessness in their FY17. The department was awarded nearly $1 million to fund outreach and support services for these efforts. The police department has experienced an increase in service requests for our mental evaluation teams. As a result, we redirected resources to provide two additional police officers and mental health clinicians to assist on calls for service. As always, the police department strives to be present and active in our community, attending hundreds of community events every year. The summary shown here highlights the proposed FBI 18 police department budget totaling $241.8 million and will support over 1200 full time equivalents, including 848 sworn personnel. Thanks to Missouri funds and the Metro contract, the FOIA team budget adds 40 new personnel to the department, including 34 new sworn positions. When compared to the adopted FBI 17 budget. Our budget is supported primarily by the General Fund at 92%. The title of the title ends fund at 5%, general grants at 2%, and proper funds at 1%. The FY18 budget represents a 9.5% increase over the f y 17 budget. The police department will continue to actively apply for grants in Fy18 to support programs and equipment purchases. We forecast that our grant awards will total approximately $7 million in FY 18. The Fy18 budget proposal includes many notable changes. We will benefit from funding opportunities that will sustain a girl. Certain police department operations, specifically $1 million in Measure eight funds, will be dedicated to the Neighborhood Safe Streets Initiative, which will allow us to conduct special crime reduction operations through Event Action Plans, Event Action Plans, increased police staffing and visibility in neighborhoods, corridors, parks and commercial areas that are experiencing an increase in crime. This has been a very useful tool over the years and has proven successful in improving safety in our community. As proposed, we will receive $900,000 in general fund one times to be used for discretionary overtime. This will help support overtime for our Investigations Bureau to clear cases and other initiatives such as the Hazard Incident Management Team. The police department is also grateful to receive measure funds to support police recruit academy operations in Fy18. We will hire a recruit class that brings us to maximum capacity. We are excited to hire a larger than average class size to help with our staffing needs. In addition, we will receive Measure M.A funds to support drug recognition, expert training for patrol officers and overtime for short for sworn presence at the Civic Center. The Metro contract will add a total of 28 sworn and civilian positions to the Fy18 budget and will be assigned to the field and administrative teams for the new Metro Transportation Section. The police department will also convert several clerk typist positions into analyst positions, furthering our objective to be more data driven. To be a more data driven organization, and the department will convert an administrative sergeant position into two civilian positions in the community engagement division as the department looks ahead. There are a few challenges that I would like to point out. Although the principles of policing remain consistent. Our environment has undergone significant shifts that will redefine police filled investigative and business operations. We are all fully aware that homelessness has been a challenge citywide. The police department continues to support the Health Department, our health department to impact homelessness by implementing creative solutions with all of our city and community partners. Also, increased workload demands have constrained our ability to undertake initiatives outside the police department's scope of core services, such as additional quality of life officers. We understand and support the city's efforts to attract and promote special events. However, the growing number of special events continues to be a challenge for the police department. Planning and staffing. From a staffing and planning perspective. Criminal justice reforms also continue to negatively impact public safety. And we continue to receive unfunded mandates for technology, mental health training, as well as procedural justice training, only to name a few. In addition, the continued use of aging facilities and technology infrastructure, including the police academy facility and outdated records management system, continues to be a challenge. Our body worn camera pilot program will continue or will come up to an end in November. We will be reviewing the results and exploring our options. We look forward to presenting our findings over the next several months. So far, we have learned that body worn camera technology is complicated and requires a huge investment for any city that chooses to fully implement this program. However, despite these challenges, there are several opportunities are available to the police department allowing us to better address contemporary public safety issues. We are currently evaluating field operations to maximize swarm presence in our community. Specifically, we are researching various models that would limit patrol officers from transporting and escorting inmates to obtain medical care at hospitals and clinics . This would free up patrol officers to answer calls for service, as well as providing more time for proactive policing and engaging our community. I also wanted to highlight that our department has been working closely with the city's innovation team to research police operations. This partnership has allowed the city to identify opportunities for intervention to help reduce repeat criminal offenses in our city. With their help, the city has implemented an administrative regulation which will permit data sharing between city departments to address high utilizers of city services. Additionally, we are in an ongoing participant to the Data Driven Justice Initiative in collaboration with the Technology and Innovation Department. We are developing a strategic technology plan to identify best investments in public safety technology and software applications. In Fy18, the police department will begin the RFP process for a new law enforcement records management system. This will ensure the department meets the FBI's updated federal crime reporting requirement. It will also assist our efforts in being compliant with AP 1953, which will require us to collect and report specific data to the Attorney General regarding all of our stops. In closing, the police department will continue to build public trust through a number of efforts which coincides with our mission of public safety through partnerships with your assistance and support. We will continue to expand our technological capabilities. We will employ a data driven approach to our enforcement and investigative strategies to maximize our resources, reduce crime, and improve the quality of life. We will continue to address violent crime increases through a variety of initiatives, including our continuing support and participation in the city and in the city's public safety continuum violence prevention plan and working with our city's innovation team. This concludes my presentation. We will be available to answer any questions after my partner, Chief Terry, makes his presentation. He's currently staged and ready to go. Speaker 0: Thank you, Chief. We're going to get our other chief, the great chief, to load up the presentation. And then once we have both presentations, we'll go into city council. Questions or comments? Speaker 11: Good evening, Mayor Garcia, members of the city council. This evening, I will be giving you a brief overview of the Long Beach Fire Department's fiscal year 18 proposed budget. My presentation will also touch upon services provided by the Fire Department. Some of our key accomplishments for the current fiscal year. Notable changes in fiscal year 18 proposed budget and some major issues and opportunities that we foresee in the upcoming fiscal year. The Fire Department delivers fire rescue, emergency medical services, marine safety response, hazardous materials response, and non-emergency response services to residents, businesses and visitors within the city of Long Beach. We provide 24 hour operation for which all first responders must be prepared at all times. Additionally, we work to ensure the safety of the community and to prevent fires through proactive fire prevention and code enforcement programs. And we also provide training and education that is essential to the delivery of our core fire and rescue services. I would now like to outline some of the fire department's accomplishments and highlights for the current fiscal year. Over the past 12 months, we've responded to over 71,000 fire, emergency medical services, marine safety and other emergency incidents. This equates to more than 150,000 individual unit responses. Included in this number are over 51,000 medical calls and over 5700 fire calls. This number also includes hazardous materials responses, airport responses and other non fire responses. A major highlight of the current fiscal year has been the restoration of fire engine eight in the Belmont Shore area and the restoration of Rescue 12 in North Long Beach. These restorations have improved the department's fire and emergency medical response capabilities citywide and would not have been possible without the Long Beach measure. A funding excuse me. We also continued our multiyear multiphase plan to address workforce privacy issues throughout our facilities, working in partnership with public works and utilizing capital improvement funding. We are completing improvements at three of our fire stations this year stations to Station ten and Station 22. With one time funding from the City Council, we implemented a new and innovative program our Homelessness, Education and Response Team, commonly referred to as our Heart Unit. This team is comprised of two firefighter paramedics who work closely with the city's continuum of care partners, including the city's Department of Health and Human Services, to assist individuals who are experiencing homelessness. This program has been highly successful, and as you'll see later in this presentation, the proposed FY 18 budget provides resources to structurally fund this program on an ongoing basis. Additionally, our Fire Prevention Bureau actively managed and participated in 512 film days and 450 special events, doing our part to enhance the city's reputation as a destination for special events and filming. Finally, for the first time ever, we conducted two simultaneous fire recruit academies. This was a tremendous undertaking by our training staff and was highly successful as we graduated 39 new firefighters. The proposed fiscal year 18 budget for the fire department is $116.9 million. We have a total of 528.91 full time equivalent staff consisting of 403 sworn Ph.Ds in the fire ranks. Another 27 full time year round marine safety first responders, over 180 seasonal lifeguards and 26 full time ambulance operators. Additionally, the fire department is supported by a civilian staff in fire operations, support services, fire prevention and administration. 74% of our budget is in the general fund, which supports most departmental activities. The proposed Fy18 General Fund budget for the fire department is $86.6 million. The Long Beach Airport provides support in the amount of $5.3 million for fire and rescue services provided to the airport. And this is included in the fire department's general fund budget. Additionally, the Tidelands Fund supports marine safety activities as well as our fire operations in the Port of Long Beach. The Harbor Department provides cost reimbursement for the services provided in the port in the amount of $18.5 million, and that's included in the $27.4 million Tidelands Fund budget for the fire department. Proposition H from the Oil Production Tax continues to provide additional support for fire staffing in the amount of just over $2 million annually. And along with the Health Department, the fire department content provides environmental protection services that are supported by the Cooper Fund. This stands for Certified Unified Program Agency and through permit fees, it provides funding for inspection services and businesses and business emergency plan reviews to ensure hazardous materials and hazardous chemicals are handled, stored and transported in accordance with current state and local standards. The Fire Department's proposed fiscal year 18 budget includes several notable changes that I would like to highlight. First, as I mentioned earlier in my presentation, this proposed budget includes the resources to structurally fund the Homelessness, Education and Response Team or Heart Unit. The mission of the Hart team is to reduce the number of fire department responses to individuals experiencing homelessness through rapid response to 911 calls for service, collaborating with our continuum of care partners, and educating the fire service and community members about issues surrounding homelessness and available resources. By all accounts, this has been a very successful program and we look forward to continuing it on an ongoing basis. Therefore, 18 budget also includes funding to add a battalion chief in the Fire Operations Bureau. This additional staff person will give us the subject matter expert who will be responsible for managing the fire department's 26 facilities, providing supervisory expertize and testing, procurement and inventory management of equipment, and providing consistent oversight of specialty programs such as urban search and rescue, hazardous materials, airport rescue, firefighting. The proposed budget includes additional staff for the medical marijuana program as well, based on anticipated demands of the and inspecting all the medical marijuana facilities. Additional staffing is necessary to maintain a reasonable turnaround time for the inspection process. The firefighter slash investigator will be the lead staff member during annual inspections for sanctioned businesses and will also take the lead from the fire department on enforcement activities related to illegal or unsanctioned businesses. We are also proposing the upgrade of two positions that will improve management and administrative oversight, upgrading a battalion chief position to Assistant Fire Chief and our Community Services Division and upgrading Marine Safety Sergeant position to Marine Safety Captain and our Marine Safety Division. Finally, the proposed budget includes the increase and increase in ambulance transport fees. The Long Beach Fire Department has not adjusted these fees since fiscal year 14. And since that time, the rates authorized by the County of Los Angeles EMS Agency have increased and now significantly and see exceed Long Beach fees. For this reason, we are proposing an increase of $217 for advanced life support transport and $105 for basic life support transport. These proposed increases will improve our cost recovery and bring us closer to the ambulance transport fees charged by the majority of providers in Los Angeles County. Looking forward to fiscal 18, the department has several significant challenges and opportunities. The first is to improve our response times and response capabilities and to continue to meet the expectations of our community by maintaining fire suppression and emergency services staffing levels. As I mentioned earlier in my presentation, the restoration of Engine eight and Rescue 12 has improved emergency response capabilities, not just in their immediate response areas, but also citywide. Another significant challenge is to continue to train new firefighters and new fire recruits into firefighters and existing staff. With regard to fire suppression, emergency medical services, wildland firefighting and specialized services such as air aircraft, rescue and firefighting, urban search and rescue and hazardous materials. We are an all risk department, meaning that we respond to all the needs of our community, regardless of the nature of the incident. Therefore, we must train all of our employees to be ready to effectively respond to a wide variety of emergency incidents. Another significant challenge and opportunity is to prepare the next generation of firefighters to step into positions of leadership. To that end, the fire department continues to train up potential for future leaders in areas of supervisory skills and management development. These succession planning efforts are critical to the long term continued success of the Long Beach Fire Department in coming years. Finally, we will continue to work with the Department of Technology and Innovation to utilize new technology to help streamline operations, implement performance management tools, and overall increase our efficiency. Mr. Mayor, Council Members, thank you for the opportunity to present an overview of the Fire Department's fiscal year. And that concludes my presentation. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Fire Chief. And think, of course, our police chief as well. A great presentation. We're going to go ahead and go into now. The city council. Is there anything else, Mr. West, that you wanted to add to that? Speaker 4: No, sir. Speaker 0: Okay, great. So how do we go ahead and go into the council? We have a motion in a second to receive and file the hearing and move to the next hearing. But let me start with Councilman Price. Speaker 8: Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Very well done. And there's a lot of very exciting news that both departments share. So I appreciate that. I want to start with the police department presentation and Chief Chief Luna. First of all, I cannot support. Any more. If it were even possible your commitment to increasing RDR. So for the folks who are not familiar with the program, D.A.R.E. is an international program and the state of California has more dealers than any other state in the United States, and dreams are going to be needed and used a lot more in light of the passage of Prop 64. So there is no roadside test that is reliable to detect the presence of drugs in an impaired driver's system. So the drugs are going to become a very useful tool statewide. And I'm personally very involved with this program through my work as a prosecutor and trained statewide on this. So I'm very, very encouraged that our chief is going to make a commitment to include D.A.R.E. training for our officers. Do you know how many certified dealers we have on our force right now? Speaker 7: We have approximately between ten and 12 and then working to get more or gain more. Speaker 8: Okay. So one thing that I'm thinking of and I'm putting it out there to my council colleagues and of course, you know, a good case will have to be made for it. But but I do believe there are agencies that are considering providing stipends for officers who will become certified degrees and maintain their certifications. And that's something I would like the city of Long Beach to think about or participate in. So I'm putting that out there because I think that's something that the association might be interested in, including in negotiations next time around. I think a a stipend for each certified degree multiplied by the number of degrees I hope we have, would be a very insignificant amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but would encourage our officers to maintain their certifications and would make the city of Long Beach one of the first cities to have a stipend for degrees, which is a trend that a lot of agencies are currently exploring. So I want to put that out there so that that dialog and discussion could be had. But even if we were to double the number of degrees, a 20 $500 a year stipend, for example, for each officer that maintains their degree certification really would not be that big of an impact on the city, but would mean a lot to the officer and provide an incentive for them to continue their certification. So I completely support that, that program and that commitment, and I think it's very timely right now. And when we're in a situation, when we have a drug impaired driver involved in a horrific collision, which happens all the time, but there are those collisions that get the attention of the media. And when we're asked what is the city of Long Beach been doing to combat this issue, I want us to have a story about our proactive response in terms of training up our officers to become certified dealers. So thank you for that. The Neighborhood Safe Streets Initiative that we allocated $1,000,000 for. Could you provide a summary for the Council of what types of projects or needs were funded with that money in 17? Speaker 7: Yes, Councilmember Price what we've used that money for in the past and what we intend to use it in the future is it goes to the basis of our philosophy of policing. As you all are aware, because all of you work hand in hand with our division commanders. The community comes to you. We work closely, hand in hand, with all of your staffs to listen to our community and the needs, those needs can be anything from violent crime, property crime or quality of life issues. Every division in the city is different. So commanders will come to us when they need resources outside of their allotment to handle some of these specialized challenges that we have. It has been a very successful program for us in the police department, I think really for the whole city in the past. And I think as as you see our crime rate, which right now we're very fortunate as a city to have an overall 5% reduction, a big contribution or a big contributor to that, I should say, is the fact that we're through data analysis, we're able to see some of these challenges. We're listening to our community and we're using those resources to apply to specific problems. At the end of the day, a simple math equation is that it really adds more FTE, but we put them out there on the days that are needed, at the times that they're needed, and it's been very effective for us. Speaker 8: Now I know when we talked about this issue, when we first allocated these funds, it was very important to to me at least, I can't I can't speak for any of my other colleagues that that this money be used to address specific needs within districts and not necessarily prioritized based on the type of crime or the particular district. The basically the allocation of the funds be equitable and not really prioritized within the crime category. Do you believe that that that goal has been followed in the allocation of the funds? Speaker 7: I believe it has. And that's not only listening to our patrol bureau where our division commanders are, patrol division commanders reside, but a lot of feedback from our community members and all of you. So hypothetically saying North Division, the commander up there, Rudy Camisa, can have a challenge where he asks for these funds, this funding request. And Liz Griffin, who's in the audience, she is listening to her counsel, people out east, out in east division and the challenges are facing out east are very different than maybe the ones out west or out north or down here in South Division. So I do believe that they're being utilized for that specific community's needs and they're done by patrol division. Speaker 8: Well, that's good. That's very encouraging to hear. And, you know, I want to go on and on record in making it clear that that that money should be distributed in an equitable fashion throughout the city to address the different needs in every district, and that it really shouldn't be looked at from a district wide standpoint. But that and it sounds like you're doing deferring to our commanders in determining what the needs are. I know I meet regularly with with the commander and my division and we talk about the needs. And so she has a very good handle on what it is that our residents, what is keeping our residents awake at night, which may be different than what's keeping residents and another division awake at night, but nevertheless it's keeping our residents awake at night. And so just making sure that those those concerns are reviewed kind of holistically would be very important. And I appreciate you. From what I'm hearing, you're continuing your commitment to that, that kind of analysis. Speaker 7: Yes, ma'am. Speaker 8: For quality of life officers, I realize we have resource restraints and limitations. But I have to tell you, I think that is one of the most effective programs that we have, because it combines social work with law enforcement, which is something we rarely see. And so my my question is, did we give any thought to requesting more quality of life officers? And if so, what was your recommendation in terms of whether that was a feasible option for you? Speaker 7: The simple answer to that is yes from a perspective that our quality of life officers are very effective at what they do. Policing has changed. But at the end of the day, our core services from a calls for service perspective, homeland security obligations and investigative obligations. We we do our best to prioritize where the people should go. And something that the council needs to be aware of is that the quality of life officers that we have for the Long Beach Police Department are not budgeted as quality of life officers. They are patrol officers, calls for service officers who each division commander. Going back to what we talked about on your previous question. They they're listening to their community. They're responding to the community's needs. And they determined to pull somebody out of calls for service to apply themselves to that specific task. We have had they are so successful that we have had requests to increase the size of them. I do not have the capacity to do that at this point. So any request to add additional quality of life officers would be asking for additional FTEs for the police department sworn to ease. Speaker 8: And so I'm guessing that based on the challenges before you the recommendation on the FDA is and the new FTAs that we've already discussed and where those would be assigned, you made those recommendations based on the totality, given what your resource needs are. Speaker 7: Yes. Speaker 8: Okay. Okay. So I want to talk about body worn cameras. I have to say, I understand the frustrations with the technology and the lessons learned. I'm experiencing that every day in my capacity, in my other job with agencies. But I will say, I think that. It's something we need to figure out and implement and in full force soon. A lot of other agencies are doing it and we have a stellar police department. We set policy for a lot of the region, set standards for a lot of the region in terms of things we try and do. And I would like to see us get moving and operational on the body worn cameras. And I don't know what you think about that. Speaker 7: It is becoming more of an industry standard out there. It is. And that's why we are currently in the middle of our pilot program. The pilot program will end in November, and we are already gathering facts and will be doing a thorough report that will we will be bringing forward at the end of the pilot program. And as I stated in in my presentation, it is a challenge because as we are studying not only what we're doing here at the Long Beach Police Department, but we're paying very close attention to what's going on in other police departments in this region and across the country. It is extremely expensive. And if this policy body wants us to move forward with that technology, we're going to have to make a significant, significant financial commitment to do that. And that is not in this year's budget. Speaker 8: And I and I get that and I appreciate that. What I would be interested in moving forward is how many cities of our size don't have body cameras. Because I will tell you, in the numerous law enforcement roundtables that I host and attend statewide, they are becoming the standard of practice. It is rare to see an agency not have body cameras, especially a large agency. And I don't want to be one of the only agencies who doesn't have one if that's where the industry is headed. I think I think it speaks to the to the the credibility of the agency in terms of responding to and adopting trends and standards. So I understand the fiscal challenges, but I also think that we need to do a very good job of educating the body on, you know, what the what the best standard standard of practice is in the industry right now and being able to articulate if we can't come up with the resources to invest in that technology, why we believe that's not going to set us back in terms of using that the latest resources and tools. So I just think it's very unusual to be in a room with multiple agencies, at least in the Southern California region, and say who's not, who's using. But it used to be you'd say who's using body cameras six months, eight months ago, and one or two agencies would raise their hands. Now, you say who's not yet using body cameras and one or two agencies will raise their hands. That's been my experience. It could be very different in L.A. County, but I think that's data that we need to know in terms of our budgeting. And, you know, how many urban cities with a population similar to ours are not going to be using them? I think that's an important issue. I think that's a huge investment that we're going to have to talk about. And and we can use one time dollars for it, which is which is good, is my understanding. We would have to have ongoing money for training in that and such. But I think that investment needs to be something that's a priority for us. I don't know if you agree or disagree with that. Speaker 7: You ask some very good questions. Many of the questions you're asking will be part of the assessment that will be presented to this body in several months when the pilot program is completed. And then just I don't have a list right off the top of my head of what agencies do or don't. But just as an example, the Los Angeles Police Department does have most of their officers are carrying body worn cameras. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is not. So those are two examples of two agencies that are doing it just a little bit different. Now, I know that Sheriff McDonnell's considering a pilot program sort of like ours. So are they going to go that direction? That's to be seen. But those are we're trying to keep our finger on the pulse of what others are doing so we can be on the front end and not the back end. Speaker 8: And I think that's very good. I would be shocked if in the next 3 to 5 years there's a single agency that's not working on body worn cameras. I mean, I would just be completely shocked to hear that. So I think I think that's just something that if it's not an expenditure we have scheduled for this year or 2019, we certainly should be planning for it in 2020. But that's just my $0.02. So thank you, Chief. I appreciate that. Chief Tory, I do have a question for you on the Hart team. So I was speaking with a council counterpart, I guess, in the City of Orange, and I know that they too have a Hart team. I'm not sure if exactly the same composition as ours, but it sounds like this is something that a lot of cities are using and that, from what I heard, the successes has not have not been as as impressive as ours. And the attention to the team in terms of what the public knows the team to be has not been as successful as ours. So I want to commend you on the outreach that you've done on that. Do we have any data on where we're deploying the Hart team citywide? Because one of the concerns that I hear and I don't know if it's if it's rumor or myth, but that that they they're really not going citywide. I know that's a lot to ask for one team, but what efforts are we making to to make sure that the allocation of that resources equitable. Speaker 11: Councilmember the the Hart team in working with the continuum of care partners at the Health Department and our partners at Long Beach PD with the quality of life officers and acting on basically what they know from being out on the street, they target certain areas where we know that people are experiencing homelessness, congregate or where they're directed to. It's not uncommon for the Hart team to be given a tip, if you will, that a constituent will call the fire department and say, hey, you know, there's a number of people that are experiencing homelessness in this area. Can you guys have somebody go out and check it out and we'll do that. The majority of their work tends to be in places where people who are experiencing homelessness congregate. So they're not specifically directed to be in one specific geographic location or another. And as you well know, people who are experiencing homelessness in the city of Long Beach are all over the city and in places sometimes that you can see and sometimes that you cannot. So we've done our best through Deputy Chief Rex Winkle in operations, has done our very best to get them to go out to the various segments of our community that have people who are experiencing homelessness and do the best we can with the two people we've got. So the short answer to your question is, no, they're not. I can't I can't tell you they're specifically assigned to one place. We're doing our very best to be in as many places at once as we can. But really, the information that we get from that community and the information we get from our otherwise bigger community dictates how we deploy that resource. Speaker 8: Would it be feasible at all? And this is not something that you have to answer right now. I'm just I'm really just thinking out loud. But would it be feasible at all to take that resource, the number of hours they work during the week and have half of their shift each you know, half of their shift be designated to a particular either either a police dove initiative. We want to do it that way or a district and then have the other half be responding to constituent calls or tips or things like that. But that that they that they touch every part of the city in a week on a weekly basis, that they they touch it in the sense of they're driving around actively and proactively identifying people who might need help or assistance, and that there is some sort of a schedule whereby we know the Hart team will visit our district on this day, on this day. And, you know, we know for sure we can tell residents. Yes, the Hart team, you know, comes to the third district once a week, and this is the day they come, but they also come as needed or they also come as tips are given and that kind of thing. Is that of is that even feasible? Speaker 11: COUNCILMEMBER Yes, the answer is in the fire department we have three battalions right there. Battalion two typically is the east side of Long Beach. Battalion one is kind of downtown central Long Beach, and Battalion three is North Long Beach, the Hart Unit, like, as I mentioned, through our paramedic coordinator and under the direction of Deputy Chief Rex Winkel. They are directed to hit those specific battalions. Right. We might get information that there's a person or people experiencing homelessness over on the San Gabriel River Channel. And so they might get directed on any given day to go over there and work. And typically what happens, what we're finding, I think, with them is that when when they get to a specific geographic location, for instance, maybe they're down on the beach, that typically one conversation leads to another, to another, to another. It becomes a very time consuming process for them to interact with folks. But they are making a difference, I think. I think to to put a little number on it for you, I want you to know that there were about 300 since they been started. There are about 346 calls that came to our dispatch center that the team was actually attached to 164 calls that they went on like welfare checks. They actually just went out and did welfare checks like you suggested. They physically proactively go out and address things. And the number of times the heart unit was first on scene on those was 261 times. So they are proactively out in the community making contact with people. But perhaps the biggest number that that I'm happy about is just under 100 times they were able to cancel incoming resources, fire engines and rescues that otherwise would have been tied up dealing with that issue. So it's proving its worth. And I would love to have, you know, 150 more people doing that on a daily basis. And I think that's something we're actually getting to the education that we're getting with this heart unit. The heart unit then comes back and is educating the rest of our floor personnel. So ultimately down the road, we will have a better a more well-educated workforce as it relates to this specific issue. And every man and woman that's deployed in Long Beach fire should be able to interact in the same way that the heart unit is. Speaker 8: And I think that's fantastic. And it's a it's a very it's a great goal because it's really using our existing resources and teaching them a new skill, which is good for them, but it's also good for the city. But but I will say that, you know, I think regardless of where you are in the city, the residents in that district believe that the homeless or the transient problem is the absolute worst in their district. It doesn't matter where you're at. And so if we say to them, the heart team is going where the need is, but that need may not be always in third or, you know, oftentimes it's another area that's something that that's data that they can't relate to because to them, the problem is the absolute worst than it can't possibly be worse anywhere else in the city. Right. And so we hear that a lot. So I think if we were able to represent to our residents that, yes, we know there's this resource that's designed to make it. We know this resource makes a difference. We know it works. And we can guarantee that this resource will spend an equal amount of time right here helping you with your need, as they will in other parts of the city. Because I think that that's important is that they may have a different perspective on where the need is, but the residents of a particular area may or may disagree with that. So how can we, you know, take what you and I and everyone in this room probably knows is the data and marry that with perception and allow people to see their city working for them. So that's kind of where and this is something Commander Griffen and I talk about all the time, because you can tell people about data all the time, but if the perception is different, you need to actually back it up with presence in order to get over that perception. So that's kind of where the the nature of these comments comes from. And I'm again, I'm not looking for any particular answer right now, but I realize that that's a resource that we can't replicate right now because of our budget limitations. But to the extent that we can allocate it in a manner that is quantifiable and explainable, I think that would be very helpful for those of us sitting behind the dais. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have nothing further. Speaker 0: Council in Austin. Speaker 3: Thank you and thank you to our chairperson of the Public Safety Committee for her great questions and comments. We have been working on these issues for for some time. I want to thank our chiefs, both Chief Luna and Dori, for their great presentations. The work that you, the men and women in your department do to provide public safety goes without mentioning. It's extremely important. I think it's one of the obviously a core service of the city and some of the most important work that we do and commitments that we make as a city council member when it comes to budgeting . I had a couple of areas that I wanted to just get a little bit more information on. And so I'll start with the Chief Luna regarding some of the challenges that you raised. You raised the challenge. One of the challenges being unfunded mandate mandates for technology, mental health training and procedural justice upon the department. Can you elaborate on what those challenges actually are? And specifically what changes have been placed upon the department that are unfunded that we as a council can need to know about and can help possibly fund. Speaker 7: So some specific questions is especially like, for example, the last three years in law enforcement, when we see high profile incidents that happen across the country, there's definitely a reaction, sometimes a response to it. And a lot of the reaction usually is that very well-intended legislation comes across where, for example, there there's a request that police departments do more procedural justice training, implicit bias training, cultural sensitivity training, or there are databases, for example, to track racial profiling and things of that nature. The majority of the time, when somebody comes up with the legislation, people jump on board. But they don't recognize that in order to conduct the training or just in the technology realm, that that costs money and sometimes it costs people. So, for example, for us, we I talked in my presentation about the technology strategic plan that we're working on with with our technology department in another year or so. The FBI has changed the way they're going to collect crime statistics. So they are changing their system. And our technology doesn't match those systems currently. And as we adjust and by the way, the technology or the request to change the statistics and the information being imported into the statistics, I think will make us all better will have better information. But we're playing catch up with that level of technology that costs millions of dollars to get there. And those are the things I talked about and working in partnership with our other city partners to make sure that we get there. From a training perspective, it always sounds good and it sounds sexy to say, Hey, we need more procedural justice training and all the ones I just listed and this department is doing that. But at the end of the day, each full time equivalent is allotted 28 hours. And then when you start subtracting training time and other time out of the field, we start doing the math of what we are able to deploy. And when you get into too much training, you pull too many people out of the field, and that's not serving our community the way it should. So we've got to find balance. And the the overtime we're talking about is to backfill a lot of patrol functions or other investigative functions when we have people away at training. So that's just something that has to be managed. So when we hear about these great ideas or great legislation, I think a a question that our community needs to ask our policymakers need to ask is, where's the money coming from? Because we're pretty strapped as a as a as a city, just like any other city. Speaker 3: Understand. And that's, I think, a great explanation. I don't think I agree with everything, obviously, because as a policymaker, we have a responsibility to a constituency that is responding to these actions at the same time. My question to you is. You know, of the 2088 hours currently, you say per per officer. How much of that or what percentage of that is dedicated to training with, I guess, period? Speaker 7: There is mandatory post training and that is at least 40 hours per year. And then on top of that, every day before an officer goes out in the field, they're in a roll call where they are getting usually between 20 or 30 minutes a day, minimum of some current event or something that's changing across the board. So there is constant training that's going on from that perspective. Speaker 3: Okay. And then the training in regards to and we you listed them implicit bias, cultural sensitivity, racial profiling, etc.. Speaker 7: Implicit bias. Speaker 3: Yes. Right. Do you think in any way that that training may be reduce may have an impact on reducing costs later potentially or improving police and community relations? I mean, there has to be a or has there been an evaluation in terms of cost benefits of such training? Speaker 7: The straight answer on that is absolutely it helps. I think all training that we're involved in, there's an old saying all training is good training and some is definitely better than others. But from that perspective, every time we have people in a classroom and they're learning how to better deal with our community members, all of us are better for it. And I want to throw this out as we're talking about that. If I start giving you numbers or statistics of how many calls or how many people are employee's contact per day, it's in the thousands. And if I start giving you the ratio of if you think of police work and no one dials 911 when things are going well, it's when things are falling apart. And all officers time and time again are able to defuze de-escalate and handle situations even with armed suspects on a daily basis to such a professional level. So when you start throwing in the amount of complaints in there that we get, that goes to your question. It is it's minimal. It is less than half a percent. If you look at the ratios of contacts per complaints or we start getting into uses of force, your officers are doing an amazing job out there every day in this environment that we're in. Can we always get better? Absolutely. Are do I believe that this police department is on the upper levels of the training we're getting, comparatively speaking, other police departments? Absolutely. We're getting the best training and it's all good training. I'm not complaining about getting the training. I'm just saying that it does have an impact on us. And as time goes on, we get more and more requests for more training and to do things differently. And those things costs money. And it and most of them are great investments. Speaker 3: And I think I don't disagree with anything you said. Matter of fact, I agree with everything you said. Our police officers have the toughest jobs out there. Some of the toughest jobs. And I have nothing but respect for the work that they do, the situations they encounter on a daily basis. I know that the average citizen myself wouldn't want to deal with and so much respect to your department and the men and women who do the work. I will say that I think that policing is changing this dramatically. The profession, the practices, the management and administration is changing. And so we have to be flexible and recognize that balance as well. I would also go go to the the the issue of body worn cameras. I will agree with my colleague, Councilmember Price, that I think this is something that we we must commit to as a as a city moving forward. It is the future, and we need to make it work. I think these cameras inspire public confidence as well as reduce liability for our city. And again, can they may be an initial investment up front, but I think the long term benefits in terms of just public confidence and the potentially the potential to reduce liability is is well worth it. And so I'd love to have more conversation about that and look. Forward to getting the the results of the pilot project that we currently have. And when it comes to two to policing, Long Beach continues to lead. And I want to commend you for for your leadership. The the the the chiefs before you for their leadership. And I know we will continue to do that. In addition to body worn cameras, I just want to throw it out there that I think we should also be looking at investing in and cameras in our. I know we have them in some places, but in our business districts and in key corridors that are important to economic development, I think we need to to invest in cameras in those areas as well. Again, inspiring confidence, but also sending a message loud and clear that that we're not going to tolerate crime in those areas because they are important to the the economic vitality of our city. I also I know in the past we have you mentioned also the the RFP process for the new records management system. Is that is that that budgeted or or do we have have we budgeted that in this this f y fiscal year? Speaker 7: We have some money for it. And we're paying a consultant to come in and assist us to make sure that we're identifying the the right equipment for for our city. But that's something that we're going to have to work together as we move forward. Speaker 3: So it may not be budgeted this fiscal year. That may move into 19. That accurate or safe? Yes. Speaker 7: My financial chief behind me saying yes. Speaker 3: Thanks to you. And then I know you councils passed in not too long ago. Over the last few years we have made strong stances on issues like human trafficking, task force and task force to address issues of prohibited possessors, to get guns off the streets and crack down. How are we dealing with those issues in this budget. Speaker 7: With our existing resources, our our officers on the street specifically are directed enforcement teams that are working out in patrol, are specialized and investigative units. And our investigations bureau continue to focus. And what we're doing is through better data. I talked about what the I-Team is doing for us, and I'm really excited about the opportunities we have in front of us. And there will be some technology needs that go along with it. But really, instead of going out and and doing sweeps like we once did is where we're so much more data driven and focused on individuals. We're looking at criminal histories and and really looking at patterns and then trying to figure out who we can surgically removed from communities who are causing problems and victimizing people in our neighborhoods. Speaker 3: That's good to know. And I'm glad to hear that we're getting smarter, I think. But perhaps those those task force have provided some sort of tools and best practices to help us help us identify problem areas. But I'd like to, too, you know, if in any way make sure that we're in place in a strong emphasis on those areas and not walking away from them. Speaker 7: But we are and we appreciate your leadership. I know you've always talked about human trafficking. And and I'll tell you what, the city of Long Beach as a whole is a leader in that arena and not only its police department through the leadership in this room, but we have so many community members who have done so much out there in organizations that we're working with too many to name right now. But this is just a completely different issue. We look at it a very different way, and I think we are one of the most effective communities in dealing with not only the suspects, but more importantly, the victims. The other side of the equation of this horrible crime. Speaker 3: All right. Thank you for your your patience. And I know we'll be continuing this conversation in the weeks to come. Chief Tory, again, thank you for your presentation. I just have a couple of quick questions for you. And forgive me, I've been I wasn't able to attend the budget hearing last week, and I'm looking beyond the head here for good. But in I've just been able to to kind of grapple with the budget here today. But is there an Academy plan for the fire department in this fiscal year? Speaker 11: Councilmember Yes, part of our part of our annual our fiscal year 18 budget does include the revenue, the dollars to do a fire academy. Yes. Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. And then I wanted to follow up on the Hart team. I think, you know, I think Councilmember Price was on to something at our last public safety committee meeting. We went out into the community and there was a detailed presentation not only on the Hart team, but also the Met team and some of our efforts in terms of public safety outreach to to deal with our homeless issues, but also those with the mental illness in the streets. Is it possible and I guess my question specifically is what would it take to employ a Hart team in every battalion? You said that what currently there is a Hart team in the employ or I don't know if it's one to but one battalion but or it's moved around between three different battalions. If every battalion had a hard team dedicated. What would be the cost? And is that possible to. To achieve? Speaker 11: Councilmember Each each a structurally funded heart unit costs about 300, and just under $350,000 is what the cost would be. Currently, the existing heart team that we have deployed is it's a citywide resource. It goes it goes all over the city. And as I mentioned earlier, wherever the hotspots are is where it will go. So but the structural value of that is about $350,000. Speaker 3: And I guess with existing resources, is it possible to develop that or to, say, tweak our system in a manner that would actually provide that service? Speaker 11: Councilmember the no, not not without additional additional funding that we don't have. You got to remember, when we first put the hard team into place, it was put in as a pilot program. We had one time dollars to put that in place. What this proposed budget does is it turns that pilot program into a structurally funded resource, so it becomes an ongoing resource that we can use whenever. So beyond the dollars that have been allocated in this proposed budget, I don't have any other discretionary dollars that I could apply toward that. Speaker 3: You couldn't rely on your great administrative management skills to kind of make that happen. Speaker 4: Councilman, I might be able to do it once. Speaker 11: But no, we don't have any additional revenue in our budget that's not already accounted for in other programs or resources. Speaker 3: Okay. Well, I'm not going to give up on that that that thought an ideal. I think we we have some there's some opportunities. And again, with and with policing, I think with our fire services, we need to be adaptable to to change to 21st century needs. Specifically, we know that, you know, fire services has changed quite a bit over the last few decades. And medical responses are are pretty much what we do. But but there's a there's a certain level of proactivity that I think is necessary for us to be the city we want to be. We we have. And I'll just say I get constituent calls and correspondence on a daily basis. People are concerned about homelessness. They're concerned about, you know, people on our streets that could get services. And if we were more proactive in reaching out to them, you know, our quality of life and our neighborhoods would be a lot better . So with that, I will reserve my comments and look forward to hearing from the rest of the colleagues at the council. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. That's me. Speaker 6: Richardson My goodness, that is a lot to follow. And so, yeah, I had like three or 4 minutes, so, so let's just go through what I have here. So first, there's a lot to be proud of in this budget, but I want to begin just just talking with the fire department. So we've we've worked over the last few years to identify the resources to finally put paramedic services back into District nine and at Station 12. So and I know that we've we've worked on this. We found different iterations of of wait means to do it. We finally got it done with measure. A So what has been the impact of the system since we've placed Rescue 12 into service? Speaker 11: Vice Mayor When we put prior to putting Rescue 12 in service, the average response time in Station 12 was first in area for a paramedic resource was about 8 minutes and 40 seconds. Since we put Rescue 12 in service, that number has dropped down to 5 minutes and 36 seconds. So it's been a significant decrease in overall response time in that geographic area and citywide. The addition of Rescue 12, because it really is a citywide resource has taken it's not as significant, but it has shaved about 30 seconds off the expected response time citywide by having that resource in place. Speaker 6: So I'm gonna pause for a minute because that that is a significant number. So we've shaved 3 minutes of paramedic response time off of the response in North Long Beach. I mean, it's just unheard of to think about the fact that we've had response times for that long eight minute response time. If you imagine a cardiac arrest, a heart attack, you know, a major events, life support, emergency, the fact that folks had to wait that long and we're finally addressing that with shaving 3 minutes off. That's something the entire city council and everybody who supported Measure, that's something they should all be proud of. So congratulations to you and thank you for that. And I do want to say citywide, 30 seconds is significant. That means our system is healthier. It is stronger because we didn't think so much just about our backyards, but thought about the entire system. And so this should be evidence to us that we should we should certainly think about. The human element of the choices we make, how it really impacts and makes a meaningful difference in the lives of people. So thank you. Thank you, Chief, for that are my next question. Let's talk about the fire fee. So this council went through a process and we walked down a road and explored a a first responder fee. How is that common and how is that how is that developing and how we approaching that in the budget this year? Speaker 11: Vice mayor. The first responder fee has been in effect for the past year, roughly. I'm not prepared to give you an actual the exact number that we've pulled in. I can tell you that is it has trended a little bit over initial projections on the amount of dollars that have come into the city. We projected that it will receive over to over $2 million this year from fire impact fee. Speaker 6: And is that what we saw? We met our projections. Speaker 11: We went over our projections. We initially projected we'd reached about $1.6 million. Speaker 6: In how we budgeting that surplus. Are we utilizing that? Speaker 11: Now, if you go back a couple of years, Vice Mayor, the fire impact fee was was used to plug a hole that was left with the elimination of the RMD program. A portion of it was used to plug that and the rest has been allocated in the proposed budget general fund resource. Speaker 6: And so do we anticipate to that trend to grow that we can see that as an amount that we can continue to budget on and make other enhancements to the budget with Vice Mayor? Speaker 11: I think that would be a financial policy decision through financial management. We're working with them to determine that that is a stable funding source, but we don't anticipate in the fire department that we'll see a reduction in our annual calls for service in EMS. So we believe that's a pretty it's a pretty stable number. Speaker 6: What is the fire fee? The same level it was when we initially established it? Speaker 11: Yes, same same. Speaker 6: Number. Okay. And how does that compare to the fire fee in other of the regions? Speaker 11: Vice Mayor That that number is literally all over the board, throughout the region and throughout the state. In some places it's as high as 5 to $800. In some places it's as low as $50. The study that we put forward to the Council prior to implementation of the first responder fee outlined a number of cities throughout our region, and this placed us directly kind of right in the middle and it's actually included in the budget book from last year. If I, if you want me to refer to it, I can. But in the middle. Speaker 6: I think where I'm heading here is, you know, I don't I would love to know there was a significant discussion about how this might impact low income residents. And we established a like a a program or a system to identify them and provide fee waivers. Have we have we had to use that? And at what levels like how did this impact our low income community? Speaker 11: Yeah. Vice Mayor The when, when we do get cold calls from time to time, we'll get calls into the fire department from people who express that they are unable to, to pay the first responder fear they have. They can test the bill or whatever, but most of them will take their information. We then pass that information on to our partners over in financial management. And the financial management folks are very good about educating them what process or what steps they need to take in order to get the fee waived or come up with a payment plan or whatever they want to do. We don't receive a great number of those calls, but there have been a few. And Director Gross's here, he thank you, can speak to that if you'd like. Speaker 4: Since we implemented the first responder fee and at the request of city council, we've we've tried to be very sensitive about those concerns. I would say that the number of fee waivers has probably tripled or quadrupled since we implemented it. But I think that's all been for the good. We have I think we have done a very good job of making sure that people who have those concerns get a fee waiver application. The city attorney reviews it in general. Most of those fee waivers are approved, and I think we have considerable satisfaction in that process. Speaker 6: It's fantastic. There's been a lot of conversation about, you know, you know, we've made progress, but there's still interest in expanding, say, the Hart team. I've, you know, learned a lot through Councilmember Pierce and our fire chief about the Hart team when it was an idea. And it's something that it seems like folks folks like and it seems like it's making an impact. And the narratives are great and the data is great. And, you know, based on the narrative today and other conversations that I've had, there is significant interest in expanding it. I think we should think about maybe a plan rather than look for a short term solution in this budget. But I think we should evaluate our ability to bear to, you know, look at that fire fee and compare where we are with other cities and see without, you know, sort of without placing a burden on our our low income communities or the folks who might opt into this fee waiver, see how much and someone who's insured, how much we can increase to offset a, you know, additional support in terms of the Hart team. Because what we see is a value added here with this this new model with the Hart team. There's definitely interest and need to be proactive with with homelessness. So maybe we should be creative and take a look at maybe doing a study over the course of the next year on what we could bear and how that could help us to support additional Hart team apparatus. I can tell you, you know, less than a year ago, less than a year ago, my my neighbor called us because, you know, there's a gentleman you know, there's a gentleman sitting on my bench on the front porch having a good old tall can of beer. And they said he doesn't look like the council member. I don't think he's a he lives there. And so, you know, we we responded and Petey responded and helped us. And we, you know, we helped get this gentleman support at our local shelter and helped it out. But if that happened to me that, you know, that could tell you homelessness is a is an issue all across our city. And our residents want us to do as much as our guys as we can to evaluate ways to address it systemically, but also to respond to the needs of neighborhoods. So that is a balance. So I do appreciate all the dialog tonight about, you know, hey, I have a real need in my district and people want to see that response in their district because if you see your house, no matter whether you feel as equitable or not, I want to see a response. I completely understand that. So I support the dialog as far as it's gone. In terms of the Hart team, we should look at, we should look at rather than, you know, dictating police resources and saying, just show face. In my district. I don't see a meaningful I don't see a meaningful impact. And if that means add additional resources or or look at this first responder fee that's really working, I think that I think we have two things here that could match up and say first responder fee and an Hart team match up. And, you know, and I'd have to give once again credit to Councilwoman Pearce, because this is a conversation we've been having for a while now that we you know, we'd like to see more of this Hart team, and this may be a potential solution. So hopefully we can take that up in the in the months to come. Switching over to PD. So there's there's a lot to be proud of in the in the police department budget as well. So we've got for you know, before I do that, what do you think about Mr. GROSS? What do you think about what I just proposed? Mr. wrote Mr. GROSS and Mr. Dery, we've got to both right next to each other. We think about that putting the plan together to leverage, to reevaluate the level of first responder fee and see if it could offset structurally funding heart or expanding heart. Speaker 4: Now my my job in the gets to be a little beyond just the financial numbers but part of part of our responsibility in financial management is to collect the fees, the first responder fees and issue you pointed out, deal with the waivers and deal with the calls. Speaker 6: So is this something we can look into from the both of your opinions? Is is this a direction that we can realistically explore? Speaker 4: Yes, it can be explored. I think there would be a lot of resistance to an increased fee in that area. Speaker 6: Okay. And Mr.. Mr. Dooley, what do you think? Speaker 11: I think I typically defer to the director of financial management on on policies related to financial management. But I. Vice Mayor, I would certainly I would certainly provide any necessary information and that would be required to have a robust discussion on that. And we would definitely have a seat at the table and and see if that's something that could be done. Speaker 6: Absolutely. So. So I'd like to I'd like to understand that resistance and understand if this is feasible. So so moving on the police department. So for back to back academies, that's certainly something to be proud of. When I started working here years ago for Councilman Neal, you know, just we were fighting just to have one one academy . And I see Greg Abbott shaking her head. She remembers nodding your head. She remembers one was a big feat and we've done four back to back and we are supporting them in this budget. And that's so that is something to be proud of. The Neighborhood Safe Streets Initiative and I haven't tracked it very closely. I remember when the discussion came up and my understanding was, you know, this is a resources that as needed, we can draw down and make sure we sort of focus on certain areas. Mr.. Mr. Chief, how does this connect to the impact team's? Are these related to the impact teams? Because I know we utilize impact teams to really when there's an incident, we want to have a heavy response. We utilize the impact, the impacting. Are they related? Speaker 7: Vice mayor, if you're asking about the are directed enforcement? Yes, directed at, for example, our north division directed enforcement team, which is very effective in doing what they do. Those moneys that we are talking about are apart from them, although they can be utilized as the resource on overtime. If the commander data directs us that way. But usually it is a a problem that occurs on on any specific given day or time of the day. Wherever the data takes us. So, for example, if it's auto burglaries on graveyard, we're going to figure out how to get more people on overtime during the days that we see that that's happening to us. So it is different, but they could be kind of the same. It just depends on where the data takes us. Speaker 6: Okay. And I'm sure we're likely to hear much more on this from my colleagues. But it seems to me, I mean, crime crime is heading in the right direction. And in our city, we've seen crime, certain categories of crime hit in the right direction in North Long Beach. I meet regularly with our commander. It seems like the resources from from, you know, the are the direct enforcement team as well as the neighborhood safe streets team is being deployed in a in a meaningful way that's making a difference. And so I'd like to continue to evaluate that and make sure that, you know, our body, you know, as elected officials, were not influencing things based on a different value model, anything other than need, anything other than, you know, need and crime and keeping our community safe. So I'd love to I'd love for, you know, to continue to hear that. And I think it would go a long way to here, you know, city manager, one of these memos on a memo to come out soon, just giving an update on that that that program, because since it first came out, I haven't really received an update on it. So I'd like to see that. Yeah, that Miss Malika got it. Thank you. So I'm really excited about some of the data driven justice stuff. So we had a conversation maybe a year ago, Mr. Chief, who was in your office and we, you know, we talked about a number of things from, you know, rap lyrics to to models that we've seen all across the country, from Oakland to New York. And since then, you know, we've been heading in that direction. Our innovation team has pivoted and establish a new a new sort of focus here. You know, we had a community community discussion around 21st century policing, you know, over two years ago with our ministers alliance and so so clergy and community partners about really doubling down on things like diversion and things like sort of body cameras and things like implicit bias steps have been taken to head in that direction. Specifically, the innovation team's work, specifically the violence prevention work that brought in an expert to talk about implicit bias training and the establishment of the office equity. And the way I see it, they're all aligned. They're all really aligned. And what I'd like to see really is a more comprehensive approach, since, you know, we've heard a lot of discussion at council tonight. And frankly, I think that's what our people on staff has been waiting for. You know, significant people on the council to start saying these things, hey, we want to be serious about body cameras. We want to be serious about 21st century policing because this conversation is really only taking place in the communities. It's taking place at the Federal Legislation Committee. But I think it is appropriate that we have this conversation. So I want to say thank you to Councilwoman Price, Councilman Austin, for helping to breach this subject at the council , because it has been difficult the last few years to get this amount of focus on this. So I look forward to working together on more comprehensive. Comprehensive we looking at how we can address 21st century policing. I know that there was a study came out of the White House and that we evaluated and we placed into our process with the establishment of the My Brother's Keeper Local Action Plan. And we pointed to a number of a number of things, including the version to focus on. And just two weeks ago and I'm not sure if the public is aware of this, our work has been recognized because we hosted a national summit right here in Long Beach with the Obama Foundation and the My Brother's Keeper Alliance discussing this very subject matter. So I think it's really encouraging to go to this summit and thank you to all city staff and the mayor for helping to land this here in Long Beach. But to take that and here we are two weeks later at the at the city council during a budget discussion, talking about making these things real. So so I want to say, this is this is fantastic work. And I want to see I think I want to see some tracking and some discussion publicly about these 21st century policing tactics. And in turn, specifically on body cameras. On body cameras, you know, the pilot that we set out, set out on, I do want to see where we are in terms of data, because I know it took us a little while to get up because of the issues with data and information and the legal circumstances surrounding that. So I don't want to put any pressure to keep up with another city. What I'd like to do is put a put a real program together that's structurally sustainable and makes make sense and that the community can have a little bit of confidence and faith in so that so that's that's good. So kudos to everyone who's discussing that and hitting that heading in that direction. The next thing I want to talk about, fireworks. So, you know, fireworks lived in North Long Beach for seven years now. And I got to tell you, it's different when you have a when you have a three, three month old. And, you know, before I would when I was a young guy or a single guy or when me and my wife were just alone, we just we didn't the impact that as much we didn't hear the impact as much because we always spent 4th of July away with family. And I can tell you, it is a disaster. I saw our response, the fireworks to the public. And I know our fire, our police officers and our firefighters work hard. They are slammed. I completely get it. I completely get it. And they work hard and I've had conversations. We speak with our commanders and our fire folks all the time, but in reality, we've got to figure something out. And what and what I think is I think the in the hearts and minds of our residents, we need to do a better job at communicating the circumstance. The conundrum wherein in terms of this region I live, you know, my district is adjacent to Compton, Bellflower, Lakewood, Paramount and Rancho Dominguez. And all of them have different rules on fireworks. So living as close to different borders, I hear the impact across the border. So what I'd like to really see and where we can work together on, because there's no easy solution to this. I'd like to see us to engage in a real conversation around sort with these adjacent cities to see if we can talk about a regional a regional solution to this. Because I, I think the city councils in those areas, we've had off the cuff conversations. I think there's something there we can talk about constraints or maybe engage the county about a response regionally. But I think we need to have that conversation. So those are those are my remarks on on fireworks. And I would also say that I think physically people want to see a certain level of response like I don't think we bad to grab certain parks and heavily impacted areas and literally set up set up tents with some of our have set up a firework fireworks information station on the 4th of July at a park in the middle of the neighborhood where you can talk about where you you know, where to go to report something and you can get information in. And people will feel like feel like we're not just running around putting putting out fires, literally, but rather we have a central location to where the community might feel safe. And we can rotate these things around because I know resources are different, but I want to see like a visible response beyond what we did this year on lawn signs. So I definitely have had to do that. The last thing I'll say is I think I think it was really smart in this presentation to outline your challenges. So I do want to acknowledge that the fact that you outline these challenges, it helps us as a city council to to maybe, maybe can put ourselves in your shoes a bit and understand what your what your what your problems are so that we can think be solution driven. Right. And so I would I would like to. And Mr. City managers, that's something that we're encouraging all the departments to do. Yes. Is that is that new? I don't remember. That is a new thing. Speaker 4: We've done it before. Yes. Speaker 6: Okay. I think it should be standard moving forward. Just standard, because, you know, it really helps put things in perspective. So so thanks again to everyone on this. And this has been a good dialog. And again, you know, the my take away from here is that our police department is doing great work and they need and, you know, everything has a cost. And we should really think about how we can be intentional to identify new resources, support them. And secondly, three minute response time, three minute cut on our response time in North Palm Beach is something that that I'm going to be proud to talk about. Thanks a lot. Speaker 0: Now next up is Councilmember Ringo. Speaker 9: Crime is headed in the right direction. Must be like. I don't understand it. I mean, in the right direction. Up, down, sideways. You know, whatever. I mean, either way, I know it's a positive statement, not a positive statement. But the bottom line is, is that, you know, there are some challenges in this budget that the both chiefs have mentioned. We're not exactly where we want to be. Of course, you know, I don't know if we ever will be where we want to be in regards to budgets for our public safety personnel. But I and my focus mostly is that we're talking about people and we're talking about those service providers as first responders that we need to have on duty to ensure that those response times are done, to ensure that crime is headed in the right direction, to ensure that. Speaker 4: Our. Speaker 9: Residents feel safe, and that when they call 911 or the non-emergency number, that there's going to be somebody there quickly and efficiently and provide the the needed response that they need to have. So my comment on this is going to be very brief, very short. And it's dealing with if we're going to want people coming out of our academies who are ready and have all the equipment and all the tools that they need to do their jobs, we need to do it at the front end as well. So my emphasis is mostly and I've spoken with the city manager about this before, is that we need to dedicate more money, more resources to our recruitment efforts to ensure that we get the most qualified people out there to apply for our jobs in police and fire. And that includes dispatching security, all that. And it's a full service that we want to provide our residents. So I want to ensure that we have enough money in our budget here and identify. To provide some recruitment teams and advertising dollars to make sure that we get the word out that Long Beach is hiring. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to live in this great, great, great, great place to raise family. So I hope that from here on out, we are able to get that message out there that low is hiring coming to work for us. It's a great career. And and we don't do that unless we get the word out with a good recruitment budget and advertising budgets around. That's my message on that. And that's about police and fire. What we need in both areas in regards to the budget, of course, it always is challenging and I think that one of the things we haven't really paid any attention to on the city council and I think it's with us at this point, is the the declining condition of our police academy. I mean, I remember back in the day when it was a nice Rancho style Academy lockers, showers, you name it, it was a very nice place to be. Our recruits loved to be there. And now we have where bungalows, trailers. And I think that they're getting old. They they have to be old and they have to be falling apart. So I think that we have to look at dedicating some of our budget into replacing those trailers and getting an academy that's top notch state of the art that provides all the full abilities of our police department to train our police officers the best that they can and that there's a department that they really want to come to because we've got a great topnotch academy. I don't know what the stats are right now in regards to our academy being used by other agencies. I know we used to have recruits coming from other agencies to train with us. I don't know if we're doing that anymore or do we have the capacity to do that anymore? Put both police and fire. Speaker 7: We for the police department, we currently in this class, this recruit class, we have four members from outside agencies and we did in the previous one as well. Speaker 9: Well, that speaks well for us, but I'll be probably turning over here because they don't have academies themselves. So but regardless of the growth of that, I think we can expand that opportunity for other departments as well. If we get an academy that that's top notch. And I would like the city council to look at ways that we can create a better Academy experience, if you will, for our recruits once they join a department. And that goes for both both departments. So I hope we can get something if if it takes a bond or whatever. That's something that we can discuss in terms of what we need to do to ensure that we have a police academy that that and fire academy. That's a top notch. I know a lot of the emphasis has been on homelessness and the the increased services that we need to provide to those individuals, as well as to respond to requests for service when there is a homeless individual out in the in the street and what the response is going to be, we have we have the response teams for that. But from from speaking to some residents, you know, their feel they're feeling isn't without perceptions and some of it is factual. Some of mine that might not be is that they're getting bolder and more aggressive as time seems to go on. So we need to look at how we can best deal with that with our homeless issues and problems. We're going to be getting some additional funds for an account from a county measure h. H. H. H. Therefore, H or three. H. Speaker 4: H or. Speaker 9: Okay, we're getting 1hi here. I was hoping for a4h program, but that's another story. So we are going to get some help and some relief. But, you know, we need to a few more. So I'm sure that our our departments are going to be looking at that. And given that, has there been a a decrease or a re a new focus on gangs? And back in a few years ago, we're talking about the elimination of the gang unit and its possibility of reinstating it. And I haven't heard any talk about that lately, and I haven't heard the police department really address that the last at least the last two budgets. Are we beyond that? Have we have we restructure, reorganized our departments in such a way that we're addressing it, but not really calling it that anymore? Speaker 7: Councilman, your anger regarding gangs. We have not stopped working. Gang enforcement. We never did stop, I should say. Once upon a time during the recession, when we lost over 20% of our staffing, our field gang unit was eliminated. But we still had a gang investigations section, a very effective one, a very good one. And to this day, they're very effective at what they do. We have to use other resources within the department. For example, directed enforcement teams in each patrol division are very effective at dealing with violent crime, specifically gang members. But again, as I've said earlier, very good questions asked. We just have a very different way of approaching it. I think it's a much smarter way of approaching it, a very data driven, focused way of approaching it. And I think and I knock on wood, that's why our murder rate year to date is down over 30%. Our gang shootings are down about a third over 30% as well. So the men and women of our department and I got to say, our community, our partners, it's a it's a whole team effort, are doing a very effective job at managing that challenge. And it is always a challenge, but we continue to take it on and. And. Yeah, I mean, they're. Speaker 9: That's great. You know, that that's a statement that that carries very, very well with me in terms of the police department is doing an excellent job in, in addressing ah gang issues and problems and if it being able to get done without having a specific dedicated gang unit to it, all the better. I mean that means that we're, we're are using our resources effectively and efficiently. That's all I have to have. That's all I have to say to. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pete. Speaker 2: Okay. Well, first, I want to echo a lot of what my colleagues have said. It's great to hear people talking about equity, even though we might not be using the word equity. When we talk about police cameras and we talk about data driven results. These are things that we need to be able to do to govern for everybody in ways that might help those that have the least tools at their disposal to those that have the most. And so I'm going to try to be quick and not go through all of my questions. I'll start with fire. We've had a lot of chat about the Hart team, which I, of course, love. As far as the first responder fee, is there anything keeping the city from saying that we would have a policy to stay at the rate of the county first responder fee? Speaker 11: So, Councilmember, I think I want to let me clarify that. So the county of Los Angeles does not establish a first responder fee. The county of Los Angeles, the local EMS agency, does established establish a guideline for ambulance transport fees. So the first responder fee is something different. Let's make sure I clarify that. Speaker 2: It might be a long night. Speaker 11: To your to your question, though, I think I understand your question. That would be a a decision that the council would make to determine how you how the council wanted to direct financial management or the department to establish, ah, ambulance transport fee as it relates to what it currently is. Speaker 2: Great. And my understanding is we have three battalions in the city. Speaker 11: Yes, ma'am. Speaker 2: And one proposal that we're kind of playing around with through conversations with you and financial management is if we it's fantastic that we have one that's going to be structurally funded. I think that's great that the pilot program demonstrated numbers that that say this is taking time, that we're not having to use elsewhere. So if we were able to increase our first responder fees to a level that we could do another pilot program for one of the battalions, I've also been in conversations with our county supervisor around funding and possibly another one so that we could hopefully get to three so that we're at the city capacity, because we do know that there's great need on, you know, underneath our freeways by the airport. You know, my colleagues just talk. So I want us to try to explore some options outside of the box to try to figure out where we can get funds to do that. I'd also like to ask you, how soon could we possibly get just a really quick memo on the Hart team and the impact that you guys have seen, because I know after three months of being employed that are being utilized, that we already had some good numbers. But I didn't see those numbers. Speaker 1: Directly in your report. Speaker 11: And Councilmember, we can put together we can put together a memo to the council that outlines all the data points, some of the many of the data points I brought up earlier. But we can go through a kind of a chronological history for you, and I could probably provide that within 30 days. Speaker 2: Okay, fantastic. The other conversation that's been coming up is the need for another academy for fire. I know in my district alone, we've got several hundred new residential units coming on and obviously we want to make sure that we have enough fire to to handle that. And I might not be restoring an engine, but just doing the basics of the academy. Where are some funding sources that financial management or fire might be looking at if we wanted to give some direction? Speaker 11: Well, Councilmember, as I mentioned earlier, that the fire department is funded for one fire academy. Typically that's going to depends on the lengthy academy, but that's typically around 20 for new recruits that would start the academy. And we do have some attrition typically. So the key question here for us, we're finding now that, you know, the council has with Measure A and a lot of the council allocations over the past couple of years, we've actually begun to hire people again. We're still kind of playing catch up, though, from a number of years with no academy. And you're correct, even though we we brought on two academy classes this year, we're still showing numbers. It looks like we're going to be down a number of firefighters over the next two years. So we're exploring creative ways inside our existing budget that we can potentially add more recruits to our existing fire academy. But certainly any dollars, any kind of one time dollars, I suppose, that were available to help us bring in new firefighters to the system would be would be beneficial for us. Speaker 2: Great. Thank you for that. I know that you guys also have a long list of any other one time fund opportunities. So obviously we want to support fire as much as possible. I think what you guys have here has been great being able to see us upgrade different staff and I just want to make sure that as our city grows in population that we have enough firefighters and the resources necessary for that. So obviously fully support. Trying to think creatively about a Hart team option for police are awesome PD department I want to say. How great it is to see in this report back that we're looking at data analysts, that we're shifting over some resources to make sure that we're doing that. How closely is the department working with the Office of Equity currently? If at all. I know we're working with the team. Speaker 7: We are absolutely working with the team. We've been in meetings regarding the Office of Equity. It's a new office. It's just coming online. So we have had conversations and we're looking forward to working with them. Speaker 2: That's fantastic. And I know that you guys are working with the with the team on some of the data. I think what would be really exciting is to see the Office of Equity with the team working with you guys to share with us what data points you guys are hitting on. I know that they're you know, we could pull data on small areas or on a very long list and looking at what other cities have done, like St Louis, like Seattle, what are the data points that have helped them kind of see a shift would be really helpful. But I really want to just celebrate the work that you guys have done that you've put into this. I fully support our additional academies. I wanted to ask on the national incident based reporting system that we're going to be shifting over to in the future. How is that different from what we're currently doing? Speaker 7: Give me a second and I'll get a document I have that actually explains it in a just a quick paragraph. It's actually pretty exciting stuff. Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. It's where I'm trying to talk fast. Speaker 7: So in the past, the FBI collects well, actually, we turn in our crime statistics on a monthly basis to the Department of Justice, State, DOJ, and then they in turn turn it over to the FBI. And that's the what we call the 3010 or refer to the 3010 report in here. And usually that was just crime stats that they're asking us for. Like, for example, part one divided into violent crime and property crime. What this new system is going to do it. It collects it collects each offense within each incident. And what I what I find exciting about this, it actually asks for characteristics about victims offenders and arrestees property data. So it gets more specific into the incidences. So we'll have potentially the ability to better identify patterns and trends and things of that nature and have more information that people typically ask us about offenders and victims that were not always readily able to answer without doing an extensive hand search. Speaker 2: That's great and it's great to hear for the camera conversation. Obviously, you guys know my opinion. I completely echo that and think that it's, you know, as you mentioned, that it's cost savings if we're investing in this in the long run. When we look at any. Times that we've been we've had to pay out because of legal challenges. And, you know, I'd be interested to see what other cities have seen reduce as a result. Speaker 1: Of having those cameras. Speaker 2: So I like to say that my colleague, Councilmember Price and I definitely almost everything she said I agree with today. So that's fantastic, which is great. The last question I have is on property crime. While our crimes overall are going down, property crime obviously is still a challenge and we know that crime rates are directly correlated to poverty after school programs, making sure that we have some of that in place. But what is the your department's angle at trying to reduce those property crimes? Speaker 7: I'm sorry about that, Councilman or Councilwoman Pierce, regarding the crime stats, our property crime is actually in the negatives. It's for the 3010. In June, it was -8.6%. Where besides homicide and rape and violent crime, that's unfortunately the crime that's going the direction we don't want it to, but we're working hard to do that. But overall, the city crime is down 5.4%. From a property perspective, property crime perspective. Our officers are responding to it because our community is more active, I believe, than it ever has been. From a community watch perspective. They're seeing something, they're saying something, they're calling us. We're getting to the calls. Usually priority one calls. We're getting there below 5 minutes. That teamwork is really helping. Our investigators are working as hard as they ever have to get the cases filed with the district attorney's office or the city prosecutor's office. So we're effective in that sense. And I think it's it's important to recognize that we as the city of Long Beach are doing good, comparatively speaking, to the cities around us who are not doing good for a lot of the challenges that we've talked about before in here with Proposition 47, for example, and the challenges with the criminal justice system, we have more people on the street who are not incarcerated and a lot of them for good reasons. But we have repeat offenders who are committing a dozen burglaries, 18 burglaries that we're catching are putting away, and then they're coming right back out. So those are the constant challenges we have and we're trying to do a better job. Again, going back to this I-Team concept of being more data driven. So we focus on those not that we're going to ignore any crime, but we want to be more focused on these individuals and their histories of why they're there in the first place. Is there some education issues, some health issues, substance abuse issues, mental health issues? So I'm really excited about the I-Team and the way we'll be able to use the data to drill down and really focus on these individuals, not only from a police enforcement perspective, but a trying to get them help in a more holistic way for me. And I'm going to just focus on the substance abuse part of this, where if we can go to our partners out there and specifically say, hey, we have a grouping of people, how can we help with these individuals? And they use them as examples, positive examples. Maybe we can turn the tide and keep them away from committing some of these property crimes. Speaker 2: Yes. Thank you for that. And I know you guys are working closely with our city prosecutor's office and that's been huge. So thank you for that clarification. My very last question is the percentage. I'm curious for financial management. We use Tidelands funds right now to cover some overtime for public safety. How does that percentage right now compare to other years? Speaker 1: Is it about. Speaker 2: The same or have we dipped into. Speaker 1: That more than we have in the past? Speaker 10: We can take a look at the report and come back. I believe it's the same as we have in other years that we're not decreasing, but we're not increasing. But we can look into that and get your response. Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I know that fire brought up, you know, special events. Obviously, we are seeing an increase in special events. A big chunk of those special events happen to be in our Highlands area. So just want to make sure that we're exploring ways that we can have a conversation around making sure we have resources there so that we can use other resources throughout the city to to cover in those areas as well. So those are my questions. Thank you, guys, very, very much. Appreciate it. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 1: Great. Lucky for me, most of my questions have been answered. So. And for us. For all of us. Yes. Okay. Well, I appreciate each of your departments and all of our employees and each of you. I have had just such great back and forth with each of you on on many of the initiatives that we've put in place. And I think we are in a really great position currently as a city. So I'll start actually with a question for both of you. How about that? This is a question about, you know, we've been often hearing about and we see it in downtown, unfortunately, the opioid epidemic. And I don't see anything in the in the budget specifically tackling that. But I know we're working on that. Of course, some cities have put together like a city county task force. Have we are we doing that or is there intention to do that? Speaker 11: Councilmember. Yeah. Thank you for bringing up that topic. This is a it's not just a Long Beach issue. This is a national issue that the fire service and our police partners are dealing with on a national scale. There's been a great emphasis and effort lately from the state of California through our federal partners down to the state and now coming down to the local level, level, greater levels of education for our employees as they deal with some of these drugs that are out there in the community today in at levels that we've never seen before. I will tell you that we in fact, just today at fire headquarters, we're having a conversation about this very subject and and the information that we wanted to give to our nurse. Educators are our team, our education team to then get out to our paramedics, get out to our crews in the field, things to be aware of . And that that also stands true with the police department as well. I mean, there's been a number of cases recently in the local region where police officers will arrive on the scene first and they will be exposed to drugs and opioid, you know, fentanyl and some of these other drugs. They get exposed to that and creates a hazardous materials environment. Fire department ends up coming in and cleaning it up. So it is a very, very serious, very pressing issue. We're taking it seriously. We're beginning to address it through proactive training of our folks with our existing resources. Speaker 1: Great. And I think we all just kind of needed to hear that, because I know it is a national we hear it. We're hearing it everywhere. And it's just it's scary. I mean, you see people on the street and they just look, you know, they're just completely lost and it's unfortunate. So thank you for that. Speaker 7: I just. Councilman Gonzalez, just real quick, just to add, from the police department's perspective, actually, Councilwoman Pryce asked me this question probably I'm going to say about a month ago or so. And we have a current project that we're working on within the police department, number one, and we're working with our partners in fire in trying to figure out it is we're definitely hearing about it. There's a significant challenge on the on our East Coast, some of our East Coast departments. You hear about it every day in the news. My major city chief meetings, it's been brought up, but it's we're doing a stat review to see if it's really a challenge here in our city, both on the police and fire side of things. Because when we talk to our employees, they're not identifying it as something they're seen as we're hearing about it in other places. But as always, we've got to be ready for these things. So some of the questions that Councilwoman Pryce had asked about was the use of Narcan that's been used more and more by police departments. So we're currently looking at that and looking at potentially buying it for some officers, trying it out. And again, I really appreciate Chief Gehry's help in it, because at the end of the day, it's it's almost like applying a medication, and that's kind of a new area for our officers. So we're looking at it, we're studying it, and we hope to have more information for all of you here in the very near future regarding that topic. Speaker 1: Great. And I'm glad you brought up the stats because I think if there's, you know, not a clear enough issue with that, then obviously we have to direct our resources elsewhere. But we know it's somewhat of an issue here. So I appreciate both of your responses on that. I will start with fire. So great that we have a new academy, 24 new recruits. Sounds wonderful. I also wanted to ask about the increase in the ambulance transportation fees. Do we have financial projections as to what that will look like in the coming years for us? Speaker 11: Councilmember? No. All we can use all we can do is base current kind of current projections on historical data. What we know we've collected in the past. We do know that if we raise raise the ambulance transport fee, the two on the Ehla side and the blue side, we expect to generate an additional $722,000 a year. Speaker 1: OC. Okay. Great. And then on the last question for you, Chief Derry, the fireworks I know has been, of course, an issue for everyone city wide. And there was a thought out there about and perhaps it's just a collaboration, but a thought of having more free firework shows, perhaps funded through the foundation of sorts. So I don't know if that would even be a deterrence for individuals to not pop off that are, you know, not on 4th of July, but just a thought out there. You know, I don't know. Maybe we'll see what happens. And then I also want to commend your your Marine Safety Department as well. I think they do an incredible job out there. So overall, great job. And thank you so much for everything you do. So, Chief Luna, also incredible work as well, the innovative recruiting that we're talking about. I just want to make sure that as do the civil service. I saw that in the proposed budget and it will be done through civil service. This is not an extra position. Correct. That will be designated for recruiting. Speaker 7: We're doing it through our existing resources. Speaker 1: Okay. Perfect. Speaker 7: And civil service is a great partner. They've been doing an amazing job with us. Speaker 1: Okay, wonderful. And then the Neighborhood Safe Streets Initiative. I love to see that. It's great that we're creating a robust bus program around that. I know that. I hear you on the bus transit all the time. See something, say something. It's in English. It's in different languages. I would say if we can continue that. That would be great, especially in the communities that you know are non English because we know a lot of our we have a homicide that happens and no one calls. And so any more outreach that we can do to just continue that discussion that we need, you know, people out there calling and being proactive is important. And then lastly is do we have a separate dataset for gangs statistics? I know we I don't know. I'm sure it's embedded perhaps in violent crime, you know, violence and other stuff. But do we have a separate data set for that? Speaker 7: We're getting better and better at tracking specific gang information. But we do have a stat we keep away from the 3010 regarding gang shootings. And that's why I indicated earlier that our gang shootings are down year to date. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. And then last that I'll leave is with, of course, security cameras. I know with our tech services as much as we can get those up and running as fast as possible, the better. I know we're adding some on our Washington middle school and I have to commend Commander Burke and Camp and Commander Lewis, who've been working with us. They have been incredible. I will tell you, you know, when people say that you guys need more training, we need this, absolutely everyone needs more training. But at the same time, to be able to put these groups together and just have a panel, we had Doug Halbert with us. We had our of course, our Commanders and Ministers Alliance Central, and we built a really good collaboration with great feedback. So I just want to commend your commanders for that as well. And I think those are all of my questions. And actually, I'm sorry, I have one question, and this is actually since we're in the PD field, this is actually directed towards our city manager. And I don't know if you have a question for me or I'm sorry, an answer for me relative to our safe passages at Washington Middle School. Speaker 4: So what is the question? Speaker 1: Our Safe Passages program at Washington Middle School. Speaker 4: I'm going to defer to the chief on that. Yeah, if you can. Speaker 7: Councilwoman Gonzales, if you could ask me, between myself and Mara, we should be able to answer it. Speaker 1: Okay, great. D r update council woman Gonzales that we're waiting for the contract to be received from the county. So it is in process and we're working towards executing that agreement. Okay, great. Any help that I can provide in speeding that up, you'll let me know. But I thank you for all your work in that. I appreciate it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Speaker 4: Thank you. First of all, I. Speaker 5: Want to thank all the individuals for sticking around tonight because we only have 32 more items to go. And I know some of you are going to have to stay in the others. You guys are warriors. I find that being close to L.A., you can just sit around and listen to Councilwoman. Speaker 4: Price and Vice Mayor Richardson. You'll get all the overlays if you just stick. Speaker 5: Around, listen to them because they're going to tell you what's going on. I went to sleep, woke up, and they were still talking. But it's okay. It's all right. And I'm going to rush right through this. I don't have two questions. And that is the two things that I heard from. Speaker 4: Both our chiefs was that it said that crime in the city was down 5%. Speaker 5: That is wonderful. The other 3% that, you know. Speaker 4: Response time, that was wonderful. Speaker 5: You guys just keep up the good work. I have nothing else to say. Everyone else has said everything. Speaker 4: That's it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman. Speaker 2: Mongo hearing the applause and knowing that everyone else has said everything. Perhaps we should start with the rule that the maker of the motion gets 2 minutes. Then every council member after that gets one minute with unlimited recues. As long as you go to the end of the line so that we each get the opportunity to ask the questions that may have been important to our district, but perhaps people at home weren't. They might have been awake at that time. It's after 10:00 now, so who knows? I have a couple of quick questions. Hopefully not too many. I love the Hart team. Think they do meaningful work. Meaningful impact on the homeless study did show that homeless is down in the city as a whole, but that homelessness is up in the East Division. And so I think that when we talk about deployment of resources, while there's still a majority of homelessness in the downtown area, we do have to be mindful of where it is migrating to and do our best to sometimes get ahead of things. So I kind of think of the potential deployment of the Hart team to be kind of like what we're doing within public works in terms of slurry, sealing some of the streets that we can save and addressing the people who are about to become homeless and or are just becoming homeless and or are moving because of new mitigating factors and what opportunities there are within that. So there was an infographic online. I've actually been asked to find it and I actually don't remember where I thought if it was Twitter or Facebook or if one of my colleagues had posted it, but it showed a map of the city and it was blue dots of everywhere . The Hart team had responded and they were all in one council district. And I think that that was alarming to the community. I don't know if it was meant to be. Look at all the great work we've done. We're out in the community. There's a lot of dots. I don't know if it was data or if it was just made up. And I think that part of that will be rectified by how we are implementing some communication strategies and public safety. And I think that we need to be do a better job communicating because I think you guys are doing a great job and I have seen the Hart team on the East Side, but when I looked at the end of the graph, the moment it was when I thought there was not a single blue dot. Where's where's Commander Griffin? From the cherry line over of the East Division of Police Department. There wasn't one blue dot. And so I think that that's a messaging more than a real resource allocation, anything to achieve. Speaker 11: So Councilmember the the infographic you're referring to was posted on Facebook and the fire department every month puts out a series of maps basically based on council district that shows in that council district how many calls for emergency medical services we had, how many fire calls, non fire calls and Hakeem calls. So I suspect what might have happened is you might have been looking at a specific council district and the Hart team calls in that council district were specifically posted there just for that council district. If you looked at a different council district, you'd see the Hart team calls their I will tell you that we deploy the Hart team to respond anywhere in the city where the work dictates we go. They they go where we find people who are experiencing homelessness. And that work will take them all over the city. Yes, it's true that we seem to experience a larger number of people experiencing homelessness concentrated in our beach and downtown core. But they are very active in North Long Beach to the best of our ability and very active outreach to the best of our ability. It is important to put it in perspective that we have one Hart team and and it's the success of the program, the success of the pilot program and all the outcomes, the beneficial outcomes we've seen have driven demand to a level that is difficult to keep up with, but we're doing our very best. Speaker 2: I would hope that we don't communicate information in districts anymore because I think that when those get out, it leads to misinterpret misinformation in the community. And I think that while we are elected by districts and we do a lot of work ensuring that our districts are. Are getting their fair share of resources. We also and that it's equitable. I appreciate that too. We also have to think citywide and this is a $3 billion one city budget. And so I think it's important that we keep that in mind. We were talking about the ambulance transportation fees. I know there's a number of fees within the fire department. Do you want to name a few that are the more recent acquisitions to the department, including the ambulance transportation fee and what that amount is and what the increase is looking like because in the budget book I see $700,000 variance, but it doesn't say like it's going to go up $32 or it doesn't say the specifics. Speaker 11: Councilmember The budget does. When you talk about ambulance transport fees, we're proposing it's a 270, $217 increase in Allison, $105 in bills. That's in the budget pages as proposed. Speaker 2: I must have missed that. So I was looking through when I saw the total net. So what is the current rate and what is the new rate proposed? Speaker 11: Go ahead, David. David Honey City. Speaker 0: Council Councilwoman Mango. Speaker 2: Or you can tell me what page to go to. I have all 500 pages here. Speaker 5: I'm not sure what page it's on, but the the current rate for advanced life support transport is $1,675, and under the proposed budget, that would go $217 to $1892 for transport. Speaker 2: And what percentage of that is currently reimbursable by a majority of the insurance providers in the region that are 100% reimbursable for the first call a year? Or I mean, how much how much are we really burdening our taxpayers? Speaker 11: Councilmember. That's a question for financial management. You're asking about revenue billing returns. Am I correct in that? Speaker 2: I mean, I guess if we want to have a robust discussion, I think that's a quote from earlier. You have a robust discussion about fees. What we really need to talk about is how many addresses are being billed this fee annually. How many of these addresses are getting multiple billions annually? I know that we have a couple of addresses within the community that are over users of the system, but then there are others that are moderate users. And then to know and understand, are these the fees that are being burdened by the resident or are they being burdened by insurance? And if they are available for cost recovery for the resident through insurance, what percentage of them are actually being paid by insurance companies? Because a $200 increase doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a lot to a person living on a fixed income. Speaker 4: Was that a question? Speaker 2: So the question is what percentage of these fees are paid by insurance companies versus single payers? Speaker 4: For the most part, to the extent people have insurance, it will be covered by fees, by insurance. Speaker 2: Even the new rate. Yes. Speaker 4: That's what we believe. Speaker 2: And will there be a chart that will be getting it sometimes similar to when we increase fees in any of the other departments in the city that kind of show current fee total rate cost recovery. What percentage of these fees go to collections? A breakout. Yeah. A I mean, this is a large fee to just fold into the budget. Speaker 4: Councilmember, I'd like to weigh in here. Speaker 11: So the proposed increase in ambulance transport fees would actually put us it's about 50, 50% of what would be required to actually get to what the county rate what Los Angeles County is currently charging for ambulance transport fees. Long Beach if you remember in 2014 we we as a to a one city we went beyond what the county was charging for ambulance transport fees. We said we wanted to set our rates higher. We went about almost $200 higher than what the county was charging, which prior to that we had traditionally always kind of married up with what the county was charging. There are 31 fire departments in Los Angeles County. 28 of them used the county rates as the baseline and it's built into their budgets. The other the other, there's two of them that are above county rates and a couple that are below. We are now one of them that is below. So this proposed increase would get us about 50% of the way to getting to what the current county rates are, what's being charged in Los Angeles County. So it's it's I think I just want to make sure that we're clear on what we're talking about here. Then when we're talking about raising the fees, Long Beach will still be below 28 other fire regional fire agencies for the same service. Speaker 2: So there are some fees that we charge for that L.A. County does not yet charge for. Speaker 11: Your speaking of the first responder fee specifically. Speaker 2: And are we proposing an increase to that? Speaker 4: We are not. Speaker 2: Okay. And if we do get a report back to have a discussion about the fees, I think that it would be a good dialog because I think that part of the first responder fee was to deter non appropriate utilization of the system. And I think that there are certain addresses that are consistently utilizing our services. I think we've talked about some of these sober living homes that don't have appropriate staffing that we can't do anything about because they're mandated by the state and others such like that. So I think that some of the data that we probably need to have in that discussion that we hopefully will have is what those utilizations look like next body worn cameras. So I appreciate the dialog today. I am a personal supporter of body worn cameras. I strongly encourage any police officer whose department or agency does not supply them to choose to wear them on their own. They are available for purchase. I think that if we're going to deploy body worn cameras as a department, I appreciate that we've gone with the pilot program. I think that it's really important to discuss the true long term costs that are required. This is not a one time investment. A true body worn camera program includes retention and data and management. And storage of that data is a long term cost. It includes upgrades and technical assistance that I think really need to be evaluated. And so I was wondering if part of the reason that this is still a challenge is because we've actually started modeling what those costs are for an agency of our size. Do we know what those costs are? Is that still a part of the process? What's the timeline on knowing that? Is that a part of the pilot program council? Speaker 1: One month ago, we selected a very unique technology solution that was not readily available several years back when we started this program. And part of determining the cost depends on which solution we pick. The vary depending on how data is uploaded and how it's stored. And so that's a cost consideration that we have not yet fully undertaken, but we will do over the next several months. Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I think that that is a really important component of the dialog. I think that there are not only concerns about the data and its access, but the security related to it. Because when a police officer goes into the home of a community member, they are in their most vulnerable moments as well. And while I appreciate that the cameras are there to protect everyone in the in the situation, I think that oftentimes the victims of violent crime, the victims of. Domestic violence. The victims of all of these things are often portrayed in those videos. And then you have to talk about what does it look like to redact out people who don't want their identity shared and their personal situations shared? And I really think that we need to have a serious discussion about what that looks like, because these videos without proper security can be very salacious in nature. Speaker 7: Agreed. Councilmember Mongeau. And that is spelled out in our our pilot policy, very strict and direct about the victim privacy. So we're very concerned and and that'll be part of our assessment as we move forward. How did that work out? And not only looking at how it worked out for the Long Beach Police Department, but still looking at best practices around us to see what we've learned. And with body worn cameras, it still is a newer technology. We're learning things every day from all of our law enforcement partners. Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that. I think that I know that not many people take the time to delve into all 510 pages. But I appreciate all the staff that have put in the work. I appreciate even throughout this dialog, the many questions that staff have been available to answer. On the two dividers worth of data we've been provided so far. And people do read the book. I know that a lot of staff take a lot of time to put it together. So thank you. Thank you to everyone. And I hope my proposal on the two and one minute is seriously considered by this body for speaking. Speaker 0: Councilmember Soprano. Speaker 6: Okay. Thank you. I think I'm the last speaker. So if that doesn't get a round of applause, I don't know what will happen. Oh, thank you. Speaker 8: One minute. Speaker 6: All right. I'm just following up on a couple of issues. I want to go. Speaker 7: Back to the fire first. Speaker 6: Responder fee to Chief de re. As I recall, that was implemented two years ago, July 2015, and it was projected to generate about 1.8 million -200 K for administrative costs or whatnot. Is that about right? Speaker 11: Yes, sir, that's correct. Speaker 7: And do we have data? Speaker 6: I just know what was proposed at the time. I don't know if we have data to to see where it is now, but we're not increasing that fee is the point. Speaker 4: That is correct, sir. And we projected. Speaker 11: That we would receive about $1.6 million. We believe it's trending towards about $2 million of revenue that would come in. Speaker 6: Okay, great. Speaker 11: We are not proposing an increase in the first responder fee. Speaker 6: Right. But we're we're trending a higher amount than we projected. Yes, sir. Okay. And the other I just want to make a comment regarding the heart unit, and that is I just want to put in a perspective that this might be the best resource of funds, but I'm concerned about counsel, cherry picking services. My feeling is that the heart unit is part of a system, a consortium of care, and that's who needs to make the decision. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember, and thank you for that. That was definitely the best, most concise of the night. Thank you, Councilman Sabrina. Just Chase, I just want to say thank you for your work. Crime is down. Response times are down. We're hiring more cops. We're hiring more firefighters. And you guys are doing a great job. So thank you. Okay, let me go out and take public comment on this issue as what I will also do is, believe it or not, we're still in the last year and we have even started the council meeting. And so what we're going to do is right after this hearing, we're going to go round up public comment for the council meeting and then the full agenda for the actual council meeting. So it's I know it's difficult with all with this timing, so I apologize for that. Mr.. Mr.. Goodhue, obviously the budget public comment on the budget and they're going to go right into public comment for the council meeting. Speaker 4: That is correct. And this follows up parenthetically some comments made earlier on a different subject. I'm going to read an email that I sent out to the chief, to the prosecutor and a number of you. So forgive me. As I read it, the specter of such was brought into sharp focus over the last few days. My sense is a close examination will reveal that, notwithstanding the ill served Chief Luna's mantra, if you see something, say something. There are those within his ranks and the dispatch center that do everything they can to discourage people from reporting crimes or reasons for reasons ranging from rank stupidity to laziness adding to the malignancy. The above have found a fellow traveler, in my view, in the Long Beach City Prosecutor, the above tolls to the imperatives of a federal master to oversee Long Beach police and the California Supreme Court's judicial review paradigm. If it is not suspended or revoked the city prosecutors license. It should be noted that the above is separate from the pending U.S. Department of Justice arrest, prosecution, conviction and imprisonment. The self inflicted mayor, selfie addicted Mayor Robert Garcia and a bipartisan U.S. circuit rebuked Camilla Harris. So rebuked for the epidemic of corruption. The former Willie Brown squeeze engendered said arrest and imprisoning, flowing from the criminal complicity of Garcia again to Harris's criminal conduct in the violent, wanton intercourse and destruction of Marine Stadium much needed support structure to us. What remains to be seen is if the scope of the federal master purview will include include overseeing the entire city of Long Beach. A close order inspection of the revenue stream from the pen for the pending elections in Long Beach should prove to be instructive. Speaker 0: Thank you for the next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Time and money. I've been here for five and a half hours. The person to whom I wanted to direct my comments just left this room. It falls under the category of safety. And I think the problem is idea and it's been discussed by the entire council to body cameras is great. It probably would have saved untold tens of thousands of dollars had they been warned on June 26th when one of your council members had an interaction with the police. I think there would be a lot less vague comments with regards to what happened, when it happened, what the timing was, because nobody seems to want to reveal this information. I'm a pharmacist, so I know a little bit about blood alcohol levels and I did a little bit of calculation. Alcohol was excreted from the body at a rate of 15%, 0.15% per hour. If indeed Councilman Pierce had 80 minutes of delay, her levels would have risen to .08 from the .06 that was reportedly measured. That would make her in violation of the law. Most citizens would be picked up. Even at the level she blew at the severely prolonged time in which it was administered. This speaks to the training. It is my understanding that there was a program put in. I believe the training was so that people with the record would be more clearly identified more quickly. But I'd like to speak to the 22 interviews and 300 hours that had to be put in such that the case could be put back to the L.A. district attorney so that it could be explored by the Integrity Committee. Waste. Unbelievable. Waste and cover up. And what a moral canvas for this city. This city. It's just amazing. And I have a great idea for you. On you seem to like to have first responder feet. So let's talk about this one. People call about the homeless all the time. They won't press charges. They won't follow citizen's arrest. And so nothing happens. But if the homeless person manages to collect 24 of those citizen's arrest, then they get to go before the prosecutor, and then they get approximately 5 minutes jail time. The citizens need to know this. I see that. That's red. So I'm assuming I'm cut off. Speaker 4: Any pressure. Speaker 2: Charge them for it. If you get a call and have somebody come out because you don't like somebody standing on your porch or standing on your edge, your property, or they're over there doing something that you don't like and you won't press charges. Charge him for it. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Hi, Warren. Lisowski. Couple of comments on the budget hearing here. I've got a problem with the overall budget. I Councilperson Mhlongo alluded to this large binder 500 some pages, but I don't feel that the detail there is necessary to really analyze the budget. You know, there's a website that you can click with some charts and stuff, but you really can't click through $100 Million line item here to find out where that money is really going in so many of the different department budgets. There's operating transfers and interphone charges tends to raise hundreds of millions of dollars that citizens don't have access to. So I would propose that this council, in doing their budgets for public review, I don't know if it needs to be brownout compliant that we be able to really click through the budgets and find out where the money's really going. Now, the one area that you can click through is on this the staffing, the the wages and salary charts. And just a comment I had on the fire department. You've got 12 battalion chiefs for $200 million. Sorry, 12 battalion chiefs at $2 Million. Do we need 12 battalion chiefs? I mean, if you cut that number down by just a few, you could go from 29 ambulance operators to easily double that number. And with respect to the Department of Justice's Budget Office, in their 2013 report regarding police, city of an average city spends $279 per year per resident in Long Beach, spending $489 per resident. So I think there absolutely is to echo what Councilperson Price was saying, money in the budget for body worn cameras and the first responder fee. I apologize in my ignorance, this is the first I'm hearing it of this. I was not as vigilant, you know, watching this this body over the last few years as I probably should have been. But I'm really surprised that that type of regressive tax is being charged to somebody in need. We pay property taxes. We pay sales taxes. God forbid somebody breaks something or gets in a car accident. And now they have to be worried about getting billed back $250 to collect $1.4 million of your $3 billion budget. It just really seems abusive and not a good way to raise $1.2 million. Just final thought, is that out of our $3.3 billion budget here, it really seems like only about 500 million that goes towards the general fund really gets discussed in this body. There's vast sums of budget that go through the harbor and the tidelands that I think should have the details that this does also. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker, please. Speaker 2: Very angel. I'm speaking right now on behalf of the Jane Addams Neighborhood Association in North Long Beach, and I sent an email to all of you. And basically, we have concerns about crime. I mean, we talk to our police. We have a good relationship with the police. They come and speak to our organization. They tell us what's going on. There's always something going on and they encourage us to call. We go ahead and call. And they said, you know, sometimes we're just not going to be able to make it. We have priorities. And so the priorities are the most difficult crimes. And so the crimes of maybe quality of life or, you know, maybe arguments between neighbors, whatever it might be, I mean, those won't even get addressed because there isn't time to address them. It's only the most critical crimes that are getting addressed. So I think police and fire may be making do, but the truth is, is a lot is getting away from us because we don't have the resources to address them. And I appreciate that they're doing everything they can to make do. But the truth is, it's not enough. And I think the community in the neighborhoods and business deserve more. And I understand it's expensive, but I also know that we spend a lot of money on other things that aren't nearly as critical as public safety. And I think it's important that that we address this. So we're asking, in fact, the neighborhood association is demanding. Speaker 4: That we have more. Speaker 2: Resources put toward police and public safety for the good to the neighborhoods. I mean, it isn't even safe to drive down the street anymore. We don't do traffic enforcement anymore. I see cars going. Speaker 4: Through red lights. Speaker 2: Concert. Gently. And that might seem, you know, maybe it's not a big deal. But I tell you, every time a car goes through. Speaker 4: A red light, there's. Speaker 2: An opportunity for a death and a devastating situation. So we're I don't see that we're even doing traffic enforcement anymore to any great degree. And the fact that we have people living almost caravans still. Speaker 4: Along our major corridors. Speaker 2: Because there aren't enough people to enforce or because we don't. I know that's being addressed a little bit later tonight. Speaker 4: But the fact that. Speaker 2: It's been allowed to get to this point is really critical as well. So I'm just hoping that you'll pay attention to the needs of the neighborhoods and maybe it isn't bad or maybe it's improved in parts of town, but considered that maybe in other parts of town it isn't quite as good. And we do need more resources. We appreciate the work that the public safety units are doing, but we need them more than what we have resources for. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Good evening again, Greg. Average Eighth District. First, I would like to thank Council member Marengo for the questions that you asked. You didn't pose it as if everything. Speaker 4: Is. Speaker 2: Great and I appreciate that because it isn't great. You know, I have two passions in this city and one of them, as you all. Speaker 10: Know, is the. Speaker 2: Airport, but the other is public safety. I think that the responsibility of our government, whether it's at the federal level, the state level or local, is first and foremost public safety at the appropriate levels. Not at not at the level where the chief has to say, we'll do the best that we can do with what you give us. I think we've gone way past that. That's been the comment that's been set before the council for many years and not making do like Lori just referred to. You know, there's a brief history of back in the 1980s, we had a hiring freeze in the late eighties and crime was on the rise. And there was a they coined the phrase white flight because crime was increasing. People were leaving. Then they had to hire additional cops to make up for that time that they had the hiring freeze and they hired many new officers. Actually, those officers are now a year, maybe two years away from retirement. I know that PD has attrition rates of usually 30 to 35 a year. I would like you to ask, what are those numbers projected for 2018 to 2021? During that time that as I read it, if I read it correctly, the budget projections for 2019 to 2021 are deficits of $10,000,009 million. So what do we do when we get there? Today, we have substations that are closed to the public after spending millions of dollars to bring community policing closer to our residents. Today, we have 200 fewer officers than we did in 2009 to 2012. Today, we have an outdated citywide camera system when we spent millions of dollars to improve community safety. I know that Long Beach PD has taken on a study by the Institute and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. I went to one of their two meetings that was held last week. It was poorly attended because it was poorly advertised, but they will return with their recommendations to to the police. And I'm going to guess that. Speaker 10: Based on their best principles. Speaker 2: They may even say that we're not capable or that we can no longer afford our own police department. He shared what they base their their percentages on, and we don't come close to it. So the more development we have, the more residents we have, the greater needs for visible public safety in our community. Today, Vons made a call. They had a. Speaker 10: Man exposing. Speaker 2: Himself and terrorizing the women that were taking over the new shift. It took 3 hours for a police officer to get there to the bonds in Bixby Knolls. Code Enforcement. I've been calling for three weeks and I still haven't had a response on a home that's abandoned and taken up by homeless people. So we have a lot of needs. I ask that you look at. Speaker 4: Where we. Speaker 2: Were with the number of police officers. Back when Mayor O'Neal took over, we were 791. Foster promised 100 more and had to cut. And today we have. Speaker 4: 46. Speaker 2: Fewer than we did when Mayor O'Neal took office. So please look at those numbers. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Hi. I'm cluelessly and I am from 307 to Knoxville in Long Beach and I'm here to speak on the Planning Commission and the latest appointment to the Planning Commission. I'm a member. Speaker 0: So we're going to do that public comment right after the budget. Public comment, which will be right after these gentlemen over here. This is only on the budget. You want me to wait? Yeah, it's only on the budget. And then we'll get to the public comment in a minute. I think, Speaker. Speaker 4: Yes, I'm not I really wasn't here to talk about body cameras, but now that you have it, I'm going to get into this thing. Very controversial situation, body cameras. I was here maybe a couple of years ago when you got into it the first time. And I it to me it was an overpriced deal. It was not a deal that you should have got into. There were some free goods involved. There's different things involved here. And it was not as bad as Los Angeles, I'll say that much. And frankly speaking, there are municipalities in this country, you who have litigation trying to break contracts on body cameras. There's been it's very controversial. Prices are ridiculous to the extent of, well, I'll be kind. I won't use certain words, but the charges down the road are going to be humongous and they're going to get worse. And you people have ignored certain things. And in many ways, I stopped trying to do business on security equipment three or four years ago on this with Long Beach. Maybe it's changed now, but I'll just say there are there are ways to overcome the humongous charges that you're going to get with your cloud situation on your present supplier. That's all I'm going to say on on this. I don't I don't want to say the wrong word. Wall Street jeer or jail roll up, uh, a lot of things about some of the scams going on in body cameras. The city of New York has had all kind of litigation. There's litigation all over the place about body cameras and Jim McDonald, I told when he got into office, be it be the last guy in stay away from body cameras as long as you can. And to me, he's the smartest guy around. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next picture, please. Speaker 2: Franklin Sims, fourth District soprano was my councilperson. I just want to say that. Speaker 4: I'm very grateful for the work that the police chief and the fire chief are doing. I was very outspoken on Measure A and I was really happy to hear about this report as I was listening that I couldn't help but hear the hypocrisy. And it kind of remind me that this cool guy named Jesus, you guys may have heard of him. Speaker 2: And he said. Speaker 4: Why are you looking at the mote in your brother's eye but cares not for the beam in your eye? When I look at it, I agree with Powell. I think this is about our kids and making sure that our streets are safe. Speaker 2: But I remember talking to Chief Luna about what that meant during those tense discussions about Measure eight. And what he told me was that when he sends his force into. Speaker 4: Our. Speaker 2: Tough neighborhoods, he said that the first line of protection wasn't a body cam. Wasn't cultural sensitivity or implicit bias. He said the first line was public trust. A lot of people here have reiterated that same claim. As a black man. I'm having a hard time trusting right now because I think that if I was pulled over or stopped at 2:40 a.m.. And I was intoxicated. And a black woman was in the car with me. She was intoxicated. I'm having a hard time believing that I'm going to be. Able to call a friend. This undermines the work that Chief Luna does. This undermines the public trust when his forces go out and they serve a warrant. And to access community, I ask community. Where's the public trust that they're going to get the same sweet deal that happened that early morning? They're going to get that same sweet deal where the police escort them home and the squad car. I want to be able to tell my daughter that maybe her husband's going to get a sweet deal like that one day. But I'm not sure. Appearances matter. Perhaps white. Speaker 4: Privilege matters. There is no public trust. Speaker 2: If the public can't trust the city council. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you. And I think that was our last speaker on on the budget. Is there anyone else on the budget? Please think no other speakers on the budget. Okay. Then there's a motion in a second. Of course, the motion is to continue the budget hearing to the next meeting, which will have other departments present. So, members, please cast your votes on the continuation of the hearing. Speaker 1: Richardson and Austin. Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We're actually now going to go in to the council meeting. Believe it or not, it is ten 1040. Let me let me name who. If you're here, please let me know. Folks that signed up for public comment.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to conduct a Budget Hearing to receive and discuss an overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Budget for the following Departments: Police and Fire.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_08082017_17-0628

Speaker 1: This motion carries. Item 17 Report from Financial Management Recommendation to award a contract to Utility Coast Management to perform an electric utility billing audit citywide. Speaker 0: Vice Mayor Richardson Utility. Speaker 6: Staff Report, please. Speaker 4: John GROSS Mayor and Council Members, thank you. This is a was an RFP and a recommendation to award for a service where we're trying to make sure that the city's electric bills are appropriate and that we're being charged at the right level. So we are we put out an RFP for audit services. We got four responses. All of these responses use the standard method of compensation. They get a percentage of the savings. So there is no net outlay to the city, there is only a savings. And again, the firm will get a percentage of the savings. We had a selection committee review the proposals and unanimously the committee unanimously selected a firm called Utility Cost Management UCM and that is our recommendation to award. And we would hope that when their work is done that there will be savings to the city and we would be sharing those savings with the company for about 24 months. That's the end of my report. Speaker 0: That's me, Richardson. Speaker 6: Thank you. And anytime we can, we can look for more savings. As always. Great. I had a conversation with City Manager a while back. It seems similar, but we talked about selecting a firm or going through a similar process. Take a look at our phone lines and other things. How does this how do we anticipate doing something like this before we move to the new civic center? Or is this an opportunity to save more money? To look at some of our other services in addition to electric? Speaker 4: And we, in fact, are going to look at this. And then I would not be surprised if we find that it will be beneficial to move on to other services also. So I think you have a good idea. Speaker 6: Thank you. Speaker 0: That's a woman. Pierce, do you ever get comments? No. Okay. Any public comment on 17? Speaker 4: Yes, Your Honor. Yes. Speaker 0: Please come forward. Speaker 4: I may. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. Vice Mayor Richardson. My name's Cliff Smith. I'm the Southern California representative of Troy and Banks, Inc, one of the bidders for this contract. I'm joined by Kathy State Cock, who's a Northern California state shark, who is the Northern California representative of Troy and Banks. As a side note, I was born in Long Beach at the Long gone Seaside Memorial Hospital. I learned how to swim on the beach in front of the old Pacific Coast Club, and my grandmother took me to the pike when it was the pike. And it's certainly a vastly improved area down there from what a child remembers. Troy And this contract is not minor. The RFP calls for and essentially the language is to identify and recover past overcharges. However, the contract awarded to the firm UCM does not provide for identifying and recovering past overcharges. For one simple reason Try and Banks is the largest company in the United States that identifies utility cost overcharges. It has recovered over $500 million in charges from for over 10,000 clients. It's the nation's leader in this business and what exactly is involved here? This is a four year lookback that looks at nearly $70 million of utility charges that Long Beach has paid the we object to the award for two UCM for three reasons. One, the bid price trillion banks is by far the lowest bidder, which you seem will have to identify a dollar 45 in savings compared to the dollar that Troy and Banks would get in order for Long Beach to break even. The you cannot audit utility bills unless you physically inspect every street light and every installation in the city. I will note that in the RFP at section 3.4, it calls for the bidder to examine and identify non-existent equipment. However, the staff report drops that requirement. Now that may be in there in the contract someplace, but it is cost it is absolutely cost intensive to put a staff person into a city to count. That's what Troy and Banks does. That's how Troy and Banks found over 3700 missing street lights in the city of Buffalo, New York. They start this week for the same function in the county of San Diego. And one of the issues that that financial management raised in awarding this to you seem was that, well, you seem knows California Troy and Banks was selected by the United States Postal Service to audit all the facilities in California, including every single service area of Southern California. Edison, Troy and Banks today is now going doing this work for the city of Manhattan Beach, for the city of Corona City, the City of Hope, National Medical Center and the Beard of Troy. And banks included putting a permanent, say, a full time staff inside the city of Long Beach to physically count and examine all your streetlights. All of your back meters. Speaker 0: Is 3 minutes a person. So if I can have others from from your group speak over. You have 3 minutes if you'd like. Speaker 4: I may. This is a serious contract. Speaker 0: It is. But also each person is only allowed 3 minutes per the rule. And so if she'd like to speak for 3 minutes, she's welcome to do so. Speaker 4: And I guess you go ahead. Go ahead. And can she give me her three minute? Speaker 0: We we don't do that. The only if that if the council wanted to vote and extend your time, that that would be up to them. But each person's 3 minutes but she definitely gets 3 minutes. Speaker 4: Well. Speaker 0: If there's an interest from the council. Speaker 2: He's going to extend. Speaker 0: Okay. It's okay. If there's interest in that from the council, I'm happy to extend. Okay. So so I will give you an additional 2 minutes. Speaker 4: Thank you. Go ahead. Appreciate that. That's all I'll need. The the issue is the price. The second is the scope of service. The scope of service provided by TRAI and banks is vastly superior to you. Seems you seem does not even have the experience or background. In addition, Troy in Banks for six years has been the utility auditor for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. You seem has no experience with major airports and major commercial terminals and seaports. That's exactly what Troy and Banks does. That's why it was the number one choice. But as far as doing this audit, how do you audit a bill when you do not go out and physically check every single thing you're being charged for? And that is what the city of Long Beach will end up. If this contract with UCM is approved and Troy and Banks puts a team of 4 to 6 people inside the city, drives around, checks GPS, takes a look at everything. And that's what they're starting in San Diego this week. And that's what was not. We tried to make this case to the financial management people and then we're told, well, you don't know California. And that's just simply not it. If this contract is approved, all we can say is that Long Beach will leave a lot of money on the table, because once you have resolved this audit with a once over with Southern California Edison, you don't go back. Thank you for your time. That's. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Public comment? Yes, sir. So maybe I can come to you. Okay? Okay, sir. Speaker 4: Good evening. Thank you. I just want to be clear while I be given 5 minutes as well. I'm with my name's Michael Krikorian. Speaker 3: I'm with Utility Cost Management. Speaker 0: So unless there's any objection. Go ahead, sir. All right. Speaker 4: Thank you. Utility costs. Management has an unmatched 26 year record of success reviewing electricity bills and obtaining refunds and savings for California customers. We have worked for more than 250 public entities in California, including more than 100 cities. We have recovered. We have reduced California electricity bills by hundreds of millions of dollars and have recovered more than $50 million in refunds. We have received universally positive reviews from clients and have provided dozens of references from public entities to the city of Long Beach. Troy Banks has achieved some success as well, reviewing. Speaker 3: Utility bills, but their success. Speaker 4: Has been limited almost. Speaker 3: Exclusively to New. Speaker 4: York. Electric utilities are regulated at the state level. Every charge that the city of Long Beach pays to Southern California Edison is regulated by the PUC. And so what happens in New York has almost zero correlation to their ability to perform here. Yes, they point to a few customers in California that they have worked with a handful, maybe three or four cities, but they cannot provide a single example of success they have had with customers in California. Not one. Troy Banks is new to California and quite simply is not qualified to audit California customers. Electricity charges, especially the charges for one for a customer as large as the city of Long Beach. So what they do is they engage in aggressive marketing practices and hire lobbyists like the the previous speaker in an attempt to overcome these deficiencies. Any firm can throw out a cut rate price and cast aspersions, false aspersions on their competitors. But if the city is hiring any professional, whether an accountant, a lawyer, the city needs qualified representation. There's simply too much at stake. Let me be clear we welcome competition and are happy to engage in an honest debate comparing Ukraine's qualifications, experience and achievements to theirs. However, what we find very troubling are Troy and banks misrepresentations and totally unsubstantiated and false allegations all espoused to council members except for tonight outside of the city's normal procurement process, making it impossible for us to respond. Except for the time I've been given here. Here are the facts. You seem performs the most thorough, complete and sophisticated analysis of electricity costs available. We have we've provided ample references to support this statement. California has by far the most complex electricity regulatory environment, environment in the nation. We lead the nation with all the programs when it comes to electricity. You seem works in this environment every day. Troy and banks does not. So if they were to be retained by the city, a lot of what they would be doing would be new to them. Troy Banks has never, not once appeared before the California Public Utilities Commission. This fact alone makes the firm unqualified to review the city's electricity charges. The CPSC approves every charge you pay. And in contrast, UCM has been involved at the CPAC for decades, has testified dozens of times before. Speaker 3: The CPC. Speaker 4: Regularly participates in Edison's general rate case process and has obtained over $20 million in refunds through the CPC process alone. We work with Edison and CPC personnel at the highest levels every day and this is what enables us to get results. Simply put, UCM provides a far superior and different service for Edison customers than Troy and Banks. And I. I believe the record makes this clear. The city staff concurs, and I urge you to approve the recommendation to approve to retain utility costs management. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Okay. We're going to go in and go back to the city council. Councilmember Austin. Speaker 4: Thank you. Speaker 3: And I appreciate the comments from the the I guess the applicants, their potential contractors. This appears to be a very complex issue, and I don't think I'm personally prepared to to vote on this evening. And so I'd like to move to the table, this item, to give us an opportunity to to study this issue a little bit longer. Mr. GROSS, is there a time sensitivity on this matter? Speaker 4: No. Speaker 3: So I'd like to make the motion to do that, if possible. Okay. Speaker 0: Motion for how long? Speaker 3: I think we need 30 days. Speaker 0: Okay. So we want to schedule it back for another 30 days? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 0: Okay. So there's a motion in a second to schedule this item delayed over for 30 days. Councilmember Superdome. Speaker 4: I had a question for staff. Speaker 6: One of the speakers mentioned port and airport. Would that be the case that that this those areas would be reviewed or which is the city of Long Beach? Speaker 4: This this contract does not include the port. It doesn't include the harbor. It does not include the harbor. It does include the airport. Speaker 6: Okay. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 2: Does the port have a separate contract? That's for the similar services? Speaker 4: I do not know. Speaker 2: Can we make sure we find that out before we come back to council? And then specifically. And I'll happy to meet offline about this. I'd like to know. Why auditing the port or airport or whatever port of that was included was not included. And if it's different, why that's not included in the qualifications or how that was come about. I'm sure there's a staff logic to it. Speaker 4: I can answer that. Speaker 2: Oh, wonderful. Great. Speaker 4: The the harbor is not under our direct control. That's. And the airport is. Speaker 2: Right. But the airport was not included as a qualification. Speaker 4: No, it is it is included in our contract. That's what I was saying. Speaker 2: And does the current recommended provider currently provide services to airports? Speaker 4: The current provider is currently auditing an airport. The the it is as far as I know, absolutely correct that Troy and banks has audited airports. That's my understanding. But we don't see that overall. We do not see that as an issue. Speaker 2: Okay. I'm looking forward to doing more research over the next 30 days. Thank you. Speaker 0: But I actually, sir, that actually no, sir. Sorry. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 6: Says we're heading down this path. I'll just ask I'd like to know if there was a bottom line difference between the two contractors. I mean, the whole point of order then to see if there's a return for the city, was there a difference? Because there were some claims here tonight that I was unaware of that state. The scope of what folks responded to might have been different, might have had different numbers. So either we can respond to that tonight or when it comes back, maybe an outline of who generates more money, because that's what it's about. And I'd also like to, you know, think about maybe we could talk offline, you know, what are the other opportunities? So we talked about phones, but what else like what else can we audit and take a look at? And it just seems seems interesting to me. Maybe it's an expertize, but I would imagine that within the scope of what the Auditor City already does, we should maybe have a list of things that the city doesn't do. So we could take a look at those things. Thanks. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a motion and a second on the floor to lay this over for 30 days. Is there any other council comments on this case? None. Members, please go and cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. That completes a consent calendar. So this will be back in 30 days in front of the council, and I'm sure that staff will be in touch with folks that are involved in this. Moving on next as item three.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP FM17-009 and award a contract to Utility Cost Management, LLC, of Fresno, CA, to perform an electric utility billing audit, for a period of two years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, and authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter the contract, including any necessary amendments. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: We did 3435. Oh, you know, actually, there's a request from one of the council members who has to leave. What item is that, Councilmember? Which one is it? 40. There's no objection. We'll hear item 40 next. Speaker 1: Item four is a communication from the city attorney recommendation to declare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code, all relating to parking of oversize vehicles. Read first, read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading. Speaker 0: There is a motion and a second. Is there any public comment on this scene? Senior public comment. Councilman Ringa. Speaker 9: Yeah, I just wanted to bring it forward to clarify that the next steps in this process is that it goes through the Courts Commission. Is that correct? Speaker 4: Mayor or Vice Mayor? Speaker 10: Councilmember. Your Honor. That is correct. The action tonight would be to. Speaker 4: Adopt a resolution directing them to submit it to the California Coastal Commission. And if you. Speaker 10: On your action tonight, if we could take two different. Speaker 11: Votes, one on the ordinance. Speaker 4: And one on the resolution directing us to go to Coastal. Speaker 0: We'll take two votes. Okay. So that's one mango grace. The joint speak on the second told Councilman Price. Councilman Mango. Speaker 2: I know that even earlier today we were trying to get some clarification on the gate in the the keeping of RV's behind the gate. I know there was some debate between two staff members and we get that figured out and what the resolution of the answer is. Speaker 4: Catherine Longo That is correct. I think when we made the presentation the first. Speaker 5: Time, there was some discussion about storing our RV's behind a gate. Speaker 4: That isn't referenced in what's before the council this evening. That would be handled under a different item and it would be in our zoning code. You are correct that we are still working with department services staff to verify whether or not that is in the zoning code. I will follow up with you if in fact you want to move forward with addressing a change if it does exist. Speaker 2: Now, if it is, this would be the first step. Thank you so much. Speaker 0: There's a motion in the second in the public comment scene. And please cast your vote of first vote, which is the vote, the approval of the item, and then we'll do the resolution to the Coast Commission, correct? Speaker 10: That's correct, Mayor. The first vote will be. Speaker 4: On directing to prepare the. Speaker 0: Order. The ordinance will. Motion carries him in the second row. Please. This is on the resolution.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 10.24.005, 10.24.077, 10.24.078, 10.24.079, and 10.24.080; by adding Section 10.24.081; and by repealing Section 10.24.076, all relating to parking of oversized vehicles, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Right. Good work. These are going to be great. Next item is 39. Speaker 1: Report from Technology and Innovation Recommendation to allocate public education and government fee revenue equally among three categories of cable access providers citywide. Speaker 0: Certainly public comment on this. Public comment, please. Hey, how are you? Speaker 4: Good to see you. Good to see you, Mr. Mayor. Council members. I'm very sharp. Long Beach Unified School District is here to say thank you, because these funds help us to continue providing educational instructional programing into the classroom in the community. So we appreciate your support. We appreciate your partnership. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker. Hello. Speaker 2: Hi. Hello, everyone. Goodness, it's a long evening. Speaker 8: My name is Marissa Semenza, and I'm the chief operations officer at Lambert and Lambert's Community Action Partnership. I also want to say thank you. We are the providers for payment, and it's been such a joy to work with the city, especially Dennis and all of the support the Council has provided us in the four years that we've been operating. So thank you very much. I also want to send my grades for Derek Simpson. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be here, but we did wanted to invite all of you to come be guests on our Lambie talent show. We are going to be doing special elections for the upcoming elections and we feel this is a great platform for all of you to connect with. Speaker 2: Your districts as. Speaker 8: Well as share your visions and your accomplishments. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you guys very much for all the work you do. And thank you to our team over there. You guys are doing an awesome job. So you guys are rocking it. Mr. Mayor? Yes. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries three necks is 40. I have a question. Mr. City. Attorney, we have two, three, four. We have five separate historic landmarking items. Can I just call them? Always want to just rewrite the addresses? I mean, it's all the same motion. I'd like to make a motion to to Landmark 501 East Broadway. 909 to 915 Elms Avenue. 287 Granada. 350 512 Pedro and. 360 21a pair if there's a motion in the second for that.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to allocate Public, Education, and Government (PEG) fee revenue equally among the three categories of cable access providers, each receiving one-third of the total available; and Increase appropriations in the General Services Fund (IS 385) in the Technology and Innovation Department (TI) by $955,701, offset by PEG fee revenue. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Thank you. So at this point, we're going to move forward with hearing number one. Madam Clerk, would you please introduce the item? Speaker 6: Item one is a report from Development Services. Recommendations to receive supporting documentation into the record conclude the public hearing except categorical exemption and consider the appeal from Sue New and deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission's decisions to approve a conditional use permit permitting the operation of a bail bonds business at 1420 East Pacific Coast Highway in the Regional Highway Zoning District District six and authors require. Speaker 0: Thank you. I hand it over to Mr. Modica. Speaker 1: If the clerk can do the oath, please. Speaker 6: Anyone wishing to speak on this item, please stand and raise your right hand. You in each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the court now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 10: Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor, for this item. The staff report will be given by Linda Tatum, our planning bureau manager. Speaker 8: Good evening, Vice Mayor Richardson, members of the city council. I'm here with Gina Cassius. She's the project planner on this case, and she will be supporting in the this evening's presentation. This item before you is a public hearing to consider an appeal of a planning commission, approval of a conditional use permit to allow a bail bonds operation at 1420 Pacific Coast Highway in the Highway Commercial Zoning District. This slide just gives you a vicinity map of the area. It shows the location of the site, which is highlighted there at the red with the red arrow. And it's on the south side of Pacific Coast Highway at Gundry Avenue there at the south west corner. The site is currently developed with a multi-tenant shopping center and a car wash, and the car washes from the views of the center that you see here. The car washes over to your right or west of the actual building. And it is the physical wash itself is located behind the building. The next slide. Oh, I'm sorry. If you could go back on the prior slide. If you see a red arrow there to the left of the site, that is the location of the proposed bail bonds operation. Would also like to share with you some slides of these around the area. These are photos of the adjacent area. To the north is Long Beach City College and directly behind the site is the Whittier Elementary School to the south. And there's also a an adjacent motel and I'm sorry, the Motel six. And there's also a CVS to the West Side. Just talking a little bit about the current zoning of the site and how we how those see you p that's currently being applied for applies. Right now the zoning code does not call out a bail bonds operation as a permitted use. And the way the zoning the city zoning code is structured, if a use is not called out, it is expressly prohibited. However, in this case, because the bail bonds operation is a financial institution, there is a category called all other financial services that are not specifically listed. So under that provision, the code requires a conditional use permit for this type of operation, and that's the basis for the conditional use permit hearing before the planning commission that was undertaken previously. Next slide, just to give a little bit of history and background on the Illinois bail bonds. They've operated for more than 20 years at a location here in downtown Long Beach, Ocean Boulevard. They're adjacent or directly across the street from City Hall. Now they are licensed by the California State Department of Insurance. And it's one of those very unique uses that does not a handful of uses in the city do not require a city business license. And a bail bonds operation is one of those that is completely regulated by the state, the Department of Insurance. So there is no city approval. However, they are subject to the city's land use controls, and that's why they are required to get a copy. Just a little bit regarding their operation. We know that they've been in business. It's one of the largest bail bond industries in the the United States. And they've been currently at that location on ocean for more than 20 years. But just talking a little bit about other bail bonds operations in the city, because they do not get a city business license, we don't have an exact count or how many are operating in the city. We know that just by a website search that there are probably approximately 30 that say they serve the city of Long Beach , but we don't know how many of those are physically located in the city since the city does not have a license for them. Also, just a little bit of background about the the the project when it came into our city and we reviewed it, the things that we were looking for were compatibility of the site with the adjacent neighborhood and those kinds of considerations. So as a part of that, the applicant reached out to the neighborhood and we did get a letter of support from the neighborhood association. The Central Neighborhood Advisory Committee provided a letter of support for the project to the to the city staff. Next slide. So the item was heard by the Planning Commission in a public hearing on July and June 1st, 2017. And during that Planning Commission item, there were a couple of individuals that came to speak against the project, and we also had a letter of support from the neighborhood association. We also received a another a couple of letters of support from I'm sorry. The letter of support was from the neighborhood organization and two individual spoke against the project. However, at the Planning Commission, they deliberated on the item. They spoke to the applicant to get a better feel for the nature of the operation. The applicant, Elwyn Bale, Bonds's representative, spoke that the the business essentially operates like an insurance office. They don't they don't exchange funds there. It's all done electronically. And they their position is that they operate more like an insurance office than anything else. What we do know is that the nature of their operation, when someone is arrested, they operate as a bail agent, essentially. And the the family member or whomever comes to represent the the person who's been arrested provides a surety or a bond to ensure that the arrested person is available for the trial. So in that sense, the staff nor the police department had any concerns about the nature of the operation. And once Planning Commission asked many questions of the applicant to get a really good feel for the operation, and also based upon some of the very specific conditions of approval that were put on the project. And those were the city standard conditions of approval for any type of operation where we asked them to make sure that the property is maintained, that it is always clean and neat and does not create any impacts. We also added several special conditions of approval to the project and those included enhancing the exterior lighting on the project to eliminate the entry, the parking lot in the rear, any rear exits to the to the business. We also asked them to install security cameras with a 24 hour video feed that would go directly to the Long Beach Police Department. We also established another condition of approval to prevent loitering or any noises on the site during the hours of operation of the bail bonds. And of course, another condition that we thought was appropriate was just making sure that they didn't use any advertisements that created noise or any type of disturbance to the surrounding area. So after planning commissions, deliberation and the consideration of the conditions of approval, the Planning Commission voted 5 to 0 to approve the project subsequent to the Planning Commission approval on June 1st. We did get an appeal of that decision by Mrs. Sue New, who expressed her concern that the perception of the area as being a high crime area, and she thought that the bail bonds operation would contribute to a negative image. However, staff did do research on the area prior to the approval or recommending approval. We determined and through coordination and getting data from the police department is that the location of this site is not within a high crime area and that dispelled our concerns. So based upon the fact that it was not high crime and that we put appropriate conditions of approval to ensure a fairly safe and secure operation. The staff recommended approval to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission concurred and they approved the conditional use permit. So in closing, I would just like to note that we did receive a letter from the applicant in support of the project, and that letter was provided, I think, to the City Council in your packet, but I wanted you to be aware of that. You may have a copy already. And with that, I would like to close by recommending that the City Council deny the appeal that was filed by Mrs. C sue new on this project and recommend that you adopt the the approved the categorical exemption for this project in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and that you approve conditional use permit number 17 03-38. That concludes staff's presentation and we're available if you have any questions on the project. Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes Mr. Monaco staff's comments. Speaker 1: Yes, it does. Speaker 0: Okay. So at this point, we're going to invite the applicant forward as the applicant here. I. Thank you. And according to our city attorney, you have in a reasonable amount of time to make a case. So let's call it 10 minutes. Speaker 1: Thank you and good evening, Vice Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Mike Recuperar. I represent Aladdin Bail Bonds. At first like to thank staff and the city for working with us over the last year on this project. Speaker 10: And thank thank the leadership of the city of Long Beach and Councilman Andrew's office for working with us, encouraging us to do outreach to the local community. We met with the CDC and had a really constructive meeting with them. The. Speaker 1: Bail bond industry is misunderstood. And all of the comments that you will get from people who believe that is going to draw crime. Speaker 10: To their neighborhood. Speaker 1: Are frankly misplaced. It is an insurance. Speaker 10: Transaction where the loved one is coming in to bail out someone who is incarcerated. And so it is not a place of loitering and it is not a place where headhunters like you see on TV work. Speaker 1: In fact, a land bail bonds doesn't hire, doesn't. Speaker 10: Have headhunters or fugitive recovery agents, as they're called in the state code. And so there is a misinterpretation that from what you see on TV and frankly, what you see in other parts of the city is going to happen here. The other, there are approximately 20 other bail bonds facilities, none of which have a use permit in the city of Long Beach. And you will see that some of their guerilla marketing and advertising techniques. Speaker 1: Are less than desirable. Speaker 10: ALLEN Bail Bonds is the largest bail bond company in the United States. They have about 50 locations throughout the Western states, and they have a high degree of professionalism, as you would expect in an insurance transaction. So we are here to answer any questions that you have, but I want to thank you for your time and your consideration. Speaker 0: Thank you. So now we'll invite the appellants to the front with a similarly reasonable amount of time. So no more than, say, 10 minutes. Please come forth. Give us your name and proceed. Speaker 5: Good evening. Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Speaker 6: Good evening, council members. My name is Sunil and I am an owner of the Quadriplegics. This one street down from this proposed business on 17th and Gundry is about 20 feet away. It's very close, I would say. I actually put an appeal on Exhibit H and I would like to kind of recap what I see in the exhibit. The neighborhood, as is, has a reputation as a high crime area and the presence of this bail bond company, but only enhance and reinforce the reputation now. And the perception of a safe neighborhood is a major selling point for a rental business such as mine to get business. And this high criminality image will lower the brand of this area, which currently is actually much lower than elsewhere in the city. It will make it more difficult for small business owners like ERs to survive and. I would like to appeal that the council member denied this bail bond company and not drive us out of business. Otherwise we may have to resort to leaving the area. On the point that the Neighborhood Advisory Committee has supported this business. I can say that I did not get any notice from them about this business until I got a letter from the city about this motion of having the business in the area. So I really denied that I had any interest that they are representing me at all. And my greatest fear about this presence of business is that other business of the similarly nature. Speaker 5: Will. Speaker 6: Be encouraged to open their businesses here. Speaker 5: And it would definitely. How do you see? Cost the value of my resale value of my property due to plummet. Speaker 6: That's my concern. I hope. Speaker 5: You will. Speaker 6: Be able to put yourself in my shoes and empathize my situation, because the reason I had invested in this building is to take care of my retirement. As well as to provide decent housing. Speaker 5: For the neighborhood. So I hope you. Speaker 6: Will consider that. And. Speaker 5: Be able to. Speaker 6: Empathize my situation. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Is there a second appellant? No. Okay. So we'll invite the applicant back to rebut if he chooses to. So the rebuttal is no longer than 3 to 5 minutes. Speaker 1: Thanks, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you. I think we heard from staff that indeed this is not a high crime area, despite the fact that one individual considers it to be. And second of all, with the the concern is that. Speaker 10: This is going to become a. Speaker 1: Area where you're going to get a lot of bail bondsman moving in. I would suggest that's probably not the case for a lot of reasons. But I think it's also important to remember that of all the bail bondsman in the city of Long Beach, this is the only one that's coming before you currently for a use permit . To the best of my knowledge, we're trying to. Speaker 10: Do things right, and staffers conditioned this project to work in a professional manner. And so I think that deserves some recognition. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So that concludes the hearing. Now we'll take it back behind the rail. Councilmember Andrews. Speaker 12: Yes. I don't have very much to say about this. I would like to ask the young lady if that's okay. What do you. Speaker 0: Yes, you have the floor. Yeah. Speaker 12: I just want to ask one question. Do you live in the area? I'm sorry. Do you live in the area? Speaker 5: Yes, I. Speaker 12: Do. Okay. You live in there? You have property in the area? Speaker 6: Yes, I have a property in the area I have a vested interest in. Speaker 12: Do you live in the area? Do you have property in the area? Yes, I do. You live in the area? Yes. Okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. That's that'll. Speaker 1: That's all I have to say. Speaker 12: To my colleagues. Will you support me on this issue, please? Thank you. To Peru. Speaker 0: Thank you. Any public comment on the side? Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 0: Please come forward. Before you proceed. Is there just two or is a third person that needs to speak? Please line up. Please. Mr. Goodhue, are you in line? Okay. So, Mr. Good, he was the last speaker. Thank you. Please proceed. Speaker 2: Hi. Warmed Lisowski along with Citizens for Fair Development. Just as a point of order, I wanted to read your agenda here at the top. It says Ordinance C, 7594 provides that hearing shall be set at 5 p.m. each Tuesday. Such hearing shall be held at a specific time for which they are set regardless of otherwise order of business. This hearing should happen at 5:00. Anyways, getting back to the SO Lobby Citizens for Fair Development. I would like to offer our support, our moral and ethical support to the appellant. Let's be honest, Bell Bonds is not an insurance business. Bell Bonds is a predatory industry. In fact, the California legislature is moving to basically abolish the bail bond system. If we look at the July 13th, 2017 Los Angeles Times headline from George Skelton, it says Our current bail system is indefensible. The bill that aims it needs work. Okay, the bill that aims to fix it needs work. But point taken that the current bail system's indefensible. So the way that the city issues conditional use permits it's suspect it's unfair in this situation you've got a resident small business owner versus a multimillion dollar self-professed the largest bail bonds company in the country in front of this council. Who's going to win that battle every time? Of course, the multimillion dollar company is going to and the small business owner resident will lose this issue. So we just wanted to point out the fact that we're supporting this opponents and the way that conditional use permits are issued by the Planning Commission and this council are clearly unfair and weighted towards larger business. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next week, please. Speaker 1: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Chris Goshen, and I'm the owner of the car wash that's on the same shopping center as the alarm bell bond. And I'm here to give my 100% support to the bail bond. As you heard from the bail bond, they are the their reputation is great. They've been a great, great standing in the city of Long Beach. They've been here for 20 years. And I think it's it's a great business for the area. They have a great structure. And when they come. Speaker 0: In, they do things right and. Speaker 1: They do things clean. And and it's great for the neighborhood. Also, I believe that they are open very late or 24 hours a day. And I think it's good to have somebody there 24 hours a day because it's not a high crime area, but sometimes the homeless people at night in the area. And it's good to have somebody there that monitors. Speaker 0: The area and there's. Speaker 1: You know, some things going on. They can call the police. Also, the business before this bail bond was the hair salon and they had ten chairs there, about seven or eight for four barber shop and four or five as a hair salon for ladies. And sometimes on weekends or Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the place was really busy and there was no other parking for anybody else, nobody else for the carwash or the subway or anybody else. So I know that bail bonds usually do two or three. Speaker 0: Transactions a day. So it's a. Speaker 1: It's a it's good for the other businesses that people can come in and park in that shopping center. So 100% support the Aladdin Barber Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Seeing no further help Mr. Good you come forward. Speaker 1: Very good. You quickly. It occurred to me that there might be a conflict of interest. A little conduct conundrum, if that's the word. While we're fortunate and having on this council and employed by this city, an overwhelming majority of people are overwhelmingly honest, straightforward, and would never need a bail bondsman. However, that cannot be said for all that work in this building, some of which are not here tonight. So I'm wondering whether or not there's a conflict of interest in this city, in this form. Voting one way or another on this. And that just struck me as I sat here. Overwhelming majority of people are honest. Obviously, as referenced earlier, we have a mayor that. Takes it gave the middle finger last week on national broadcast nationwide that he doesn't believe. That the people of this city are entitled to a corruption free government. So I suggest this measure puts the city in a position of facing somewhat of a conundrum and whether or not it should even be dealing with this or how to deal with it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So that concludes public comment. So at this point, members, please cast your vote. Speaker 6: Right now, I'd just like to correct for the record. Speaker 8: The recommendation that I earlier indicated misspoke. The project number. The project number. The correct project number is C up 17 dash 006. Speaker 0: Thank you, Linda. Speaker 6: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. I'll take a moment just to do some housekeeping. First, I want to. Mr. City Attorney, do we need to report out from the closed session earlier? Speaker 10: There was no reportable action. Closed session? Speaker 0: Fantastic. Thank you. Secondly, I'd like to just acknowledge that our mayor is not with us tonight. He's he's in New York City with 40 mayors as a part of our Bloomberg and Harvard Leadership Institute. And I'm excited to see what great ideas comes back for our city. So he's not with us tonight. So you've got me tonight. So we'll move forward with so the next hearing, let's open up hearing number two and it will be continued. So that motion will just be to continue to date certain.

Public Hearing

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, accept Categorical Exemption CE-17-078, and consider the Appeal from Siew New; and Deny the Appeal and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Conditional Use Permit (CUP17-006) permitting the operation of a bail bonds business at 1420 East Pacific Coast Highway in the Regional Highway (CHW) zoning district. (District 6)

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Speaker 0: Thank you. So we're going to take up item number 28 next. Speaker 6: Item 28 is a communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Mayor Garcia and Councilmember Urunga. Recommendation two Request that the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee consider. Speaker 11: Renaming the Senior. Speaker 6: Meals Program at Cesar Chavez Park. The Ruth Reichl Senior Meals Program. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes, I would like to first thank Mayor Garcia, who is not here, but Councilmember Suranga as well, for joining me on this item. As many of you know or may have known in previous meetings and discussions, we've talked about Ruth Recor. She was a strong and passionate person whose advocacy changed the lives of many, not only here in Long Beach, but really across Southern California. She long advocated to see the affordable housing was in place for many seniors as well as the senior meal program. I would often spend many times with her at the coffee shop right next to Village Treasures. Now Dollies, that was her favorite spot. And we would talk about the senior meal program. And when she passed away, I thought, what a perfect program to reinstate at Chavez Park, but what a perfect person to name it after. I also want to acknowledge Don Darren, our who is here from our senior advisory commission and Barbie as well, and many of the community members who have long supported Ruth in her life and also afterwards. I would also like to acknowledge her amazing family here. Juanita Ricker, who is Ruth's daughter, Jason Ricker, her son Macksville, of course, owner of Village Treasures on Broadway, Carolyn Christian Hines, Gayle Wilson, Julie Nemechek and Wynn Collins. I want to thank you all for being here and supporting her. And so, with that said, this program is currently in place at Chavez Park and it is serving many seniors in our area, especially those who happen to be of incomes that are lower income. And with that said, I want to just thank everyone for being a supportive as possible with this. I ask my colleagues to be all be supportive of this as well. But the contributions of Ms.. Ricker on behalf of older adults across the city of Long Beach should not go unnoticed. She was truly, truly a community leader who fought for the reinstatement of this program. And now here we have it. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next, we have Councilmember Elanga. Speaker 10: I mean, for support of Councilmember Gonzalez's motion. And I hope that this moves forward. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Angie. Speaker 12: Yes. Also, you know, as chair of the Housing and Labor Committee, you know, I will be very, very excited and happy to have this. You know, when we do bring it up to make sure that this, you know, go into full operation. We want to thank you guys for being here to support this item. Thank you again. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: Yes. I also want to thank my colleague for bringing us forward. I had the opportunity to meet Ruth on several occasions and so it's great to be able to name something that brings such value to our community. And so thank you very much. Great job. Speaker 0: Thank you. And I'll just I'll just add what an honor this is for your mother and congratulations to you and your family. And you have my complete support. And thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez and our mayor and councilman, your angel, for taking a lead on this. And I do encourage the whole council to support this. Is there any public comment on this item? Speaker 1: Good evening, Don. Darn. Our vice mayor and council members. I just wanted to make a couple comments regarding Ruth. She was on the Senior Citizens Advisory Commission with me. She was the little girl that I tell you. She had a lot of spunk and energy and she come up with all kind of ideas and she'd make sure they followed up on. And that just explains the kind of person she was and why we should be honoring her with this. We're so glad to have this this senior meals program going. And I think I hope it's going to continue because we need support on this. And I'm so glad that we're going to honor her with this name. Also, we were talking about having a tree planted in her honor and also in the Chavez park there. But I just wanted to make a point of of what a grand lady this is and her her the children that she's raised. They're great people. You just can't believe what a wonderful family this was. No. As I see her leave this earth as she did. And I really admired her. And I just want to support this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Speaker 1: Counsel. Name's Jason Berger. I'm son here of my sister. Speaker 0: And I just want to thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you, leader. I know one mother put a lot. Speaker 0: Of work in with with you. Speaker 1: And Mayor Garcia, and so I just really want to thank you for that and no vanity at all. But that you know, and you know, I'm as humble as my mother. We're all as humble as she was. So we just appreciate the thought. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And makes me the boss. Speaker 1: Good afternoon. I also knew Ruth not very well, but at every committee community event she was there. Our Wilmore Heritage meeting. She would show up at the for the need or whatever it was need to be supported. She was a lady with a lot of class and greatly missed. And I wholeheartedly support this. And I mean, we should be outside of the statue, but a tree. Speaker 10: Definitely should be at Cesar Chavez. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Rabbi Pete from California, greater vote, Republican like local Republicans, but more Republican. So that's good. She has a good name, it seems like I don't know her, but she had to have had a good name in order to be there, unlike some other people that shouldn't even be here. Who's asking? Councilman Woman Anything about what I don't want to hear about? Nothing, she asked, respectfully. Speaker 0: That's off topic, brother. Speaker 2: Hey, this is the topic. This is a good one. Speaker 0: Been on time. Speaker 2: I'm on topic. I'm talking about the name and this is topic and I'm here. Listen, you guys are here to listen. You guys are getting paid by the people, so I don't need my conversation guide. I'm a tell you what's on topic. It would be off topic if she would resign and she wasn't here. That's what I'm saying. That's the. Speaker 0: Last time. Speaker 2: What do you mean? Warning. Speaker 0: You need to stay on topic. This is not general public comment. Speaker 2: So hey, I don't already mixed. I'm talking about this and now you're going to tell me what to say? Is that what you're going to do? Can you give me my time back? You want to play hardball first? You told me I couldn't do something that the man said was legal. And. Okay, going here, you're going to start telling me stuff that I can do and I can't do. Just off winging it, because that's what you did. Now you're going to stop me. Yeah. Now she's glad because I'm not on her and I'm talking to you now. But like I said, she shouldn't be here. I'm sick of seeing. Speaker 0: Her for your time. Sorry. So. So we'll take it back behind around Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Or city attorney, would you like to go first? Speaker 10: Thank you. Councilmember Gonzalez, the the issue, I think, has become this is a new thing in naming a program, and it's as part of a park program. It probably should also include a referral to the Parks and Rec Commission for their discussion and whether and how. Speaker 1: You decide. Speaker 10: That. But I would hope that you would amend your motion to send it to Parks and Rec Commission also. Speaker 11: Absolutely. We will definitely do that. And since this is a the first time that we've done this, I appreciate the amendment. And I would just say that just to have the last word about Ruth, because this is really about Ruth, is that she was a very forward thinking person. And I know that she would be very happy if we that we're obviously reinstating this. I want to once again thank the family for being here. I know that she lives definitely in each of you and her humbleness and her gratitude for community. And thank you again. Speaker 0: Thank you so much for the public comment. Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 6: Motion case. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next, we'll have item number 29, please. Congratulations. We'll have item number 20.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to approve naming the Social Hall or Kitchen at the Cesar Chavez Community Center in Honor of Mrs. Ruth Ricker.

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Speaker 0: Thank you. Next, we'll have item number 29, please. Congratulations. We'll have item number 20. Speaker 6: Notice item 29 is communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Andrews, Councilmember Urunga and Vice Mayor Richardson, recommendation to request the city manager to work with Parks, Recreation and Marine. And report back to the City Council within 120 days with an overview of citywide park programing and with a plan to incentivize the use of underutilized parks that do not overburden community organizations. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Zollars. Speaker 11: Yes. I have a PowerPoint to join us, but I want to thank everybody here for their time, for being very patient. I know this has been a. Speaker 6: Very slow moving. Speaker 11: Meeting, but I appreciate everyone's time here. First, I'd like to thank my colleagues for joining me on this item Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilmember Andrews and Councilmember Saranga. Before we start our brief presentation, I want to make sure that everyone understands that tonight's item is not as it's been referred to. It's not a veiled attempt to attack the municipal band. In fact, many of our communities want the municipal band in our in our in our neighborhoods. In fact, one of my community members, our community groups had asked when the municipal band would come back and return to Drake Park. We had hundreds of people last year that really enjoyed it and we would have hoped to have had it at future events. However, we were told that we. Speaker 6: Wouldn't receive. Speaker 11: One but once every four years. Speaker 6: So this item. Speaker 11: Is more so an item that will look at equity in all facets, both citywide assets, park programs, etc.. It's also an item that will not talk badly or attack our city employees or anyone who works in our parks. As an eight year employee myself of the City of Long Beach. Speaker 6: Three of which have been elected, five. Speaker 11: Working alongside many of these parks staff members. I've seen firsthand the outstanding work of these employees, what they do and the attention they put into serving our children and our parks every single day. As a now an elected member of the City Council, my duty to every resident in the city as it is a steward of our resources, is to sit down and the diocese to ensure that I challenge thought and to ensure that equity is at every conversation, especially in the way we're distributing our funding and our park programing. Tonight's item represents months of research and data collection. My amazing staff who is. Speaker 6: Sprinkled around here, there's Andrew and. Speaker 11: Christian and Jennifer and Corey. Speaker 6: And we work together to actually go through every. Speaker 11: Single page of the. Speaker 6: Parks program and. Speaker 11: Guide and ensure. Speaker 6: That all of our. Speaker 11: Communities were represented. And as you'll see here, we've done a lot of brainstorming, but we're looking to have this information come back in the next 120 days as we work together as a city on Park Equity. So first we'll go over let's get my ID. So here it begins. So it's important to understand that we're talking about equity, as we will talk about later in this presentation, the city of Long Beach has multiple documents and master plans that speak to the need for more active programing in Central Northwest and in downtown Long Beach. Yet we continue to allow these programs to only exist in on the east side of the city. Now, how do we do that? How do we know that this is the case? We'll go on to slide three. So these are. Speaker 6: The two programs we went. Speaker 11: Through extensively, went through page by page. This will just be a slide. This is our first one that actually addresses contract classes. It represents the vast majority of park program programing in the city of Long Beach. I cannot make up the data. Speaker 6: All we did is we put. Speaker 11: This information and put it into an Excel spreadsheet. And as you can see, we decipher are divided it in per district. So as you can see here, there are classes that are only promoted in detail through the quarterly recreation connection, which is mailed to every household in Long Beach. However, this guide does not represent a fair and equitable distribution of these classes. As we go on to Slide four and five, my staff also took every class that was offered in both the spring and summer guides, which represents a total of six months of park programs. We separated the data into age categories preschool. For an adult 50 plus. We then calculated the hours a week. Each park was programed and arranged them by council district and as you can see, north central and west Long Beach are at a severe disadvantage. Again, we just transferred the data. And I want to be clear that these are solely the contract classes at park facilities. So contract classes are small business owners that want to work at our parks and they're then offer a they're asked to they ask the public basically to pay a small fee in order to participate in these classes. And this doesn't take into account the teen senior center hours, which represent the normal operating hours of our community centers and are loosely structured. We have a lot of senior hours there about, you know, from 10 to 2 or 10 hours, and those are all throughout the city. It also doesn't reflect the specialty classes such as the nature center or the cultural center, which are limited in scope as they are sporadically located around the city. Now onto Slide six. And if the realization of inequity in north, central and west Long Beach was not apparent enough, we wanted to walk through some direct scenarios that further detail the issue. So Slide seven Aquatic Classes. I know aquatics has also been a large issue as well. A lot of individuals have said, you know, we only have three pools Belmont, MLK and Silverado. However, among the three pools which are distributed equally around the city, we don't distribute the classes equitably either. In fact, in the spring 17 guy, the temporary Belmont Pool represents 74% of all the aquatics classes the City of Long Beach promotes. That is more than both MLK and Silverado together. As we go on to Slide eight, some individuals have made the argument that East Long Beach has more programing because they have more park space to program. But that's also inaccurate. College of State Parks, for example, is on the eastern border of the city of Long Beach. It is 2.3 acres in size, including a community center, and has 50 hours of weekly contract class programing. In summer 2017, as compared to Cesar Chavez Park on the western side of Long Beach, it is 32.9 acres with a community center and represents 0 hours of weekly contract class programing. Onto Slide nine. Other examples of it equity are based in where we place programing versus where the need is for those that program, those programs. For example, in 90813, we've seen in many media reports, which covers portions of central and west Long Beach. There is an average of about 16 to 18% unemployment. Recently, the mayor had talked about 4.4% as a citywide number. This is clearly 12 to 14 percentage points higher than the rest of the city. However, all of the adult career enrichment classes, which include resume writing, how to utilize LinkedIn and others, are housed in Eldorado Park, where unemployment is an average of 3 to 4%. Onto the next slide. A few years ago, our Health and Human Services Department did a community assessment. This detailed further this detailed report further communicates the need for healthy and active programing in north, central and southwest Long Beach. We've also had information relative to life expectancy, and life expectancy is a big map and it details quite a stark statistic all around the city. Our own research shows that the life expectancy when you live in north, central and southwest Long Beach is anywhere from 5 to 7 years less than those living in East Long Beach and south east Long Beach. Activating our parks in an equitable way will go a long way to combat these staggering and staggering statistics. Now, the solutions part. Basically what you see here and what I've shown, I know it's very stark and I know we we don't like to see these details often, but it has to be said. I mean, the inequities are there. We often have many plans that tell us that these inequities are here, that we have plans that tell us that there's high unemployment rates, high obesity rates among children, high poverty levels among some families. I know in the Washington neighborhood, in my district specifically, families are about 40% of families are living under the poverty line. Yet we don't have the park programing to supplement and to support those those programs. So knowing that these inequities are a huge issue throughout Long Beach and as we move forward with crafting a way to correct these issues, I want to go over some solutions that we have identified. First, as I mentioned, we need to utilize existing master plans that the City Council has approved as a foundation for how we program our parks. For example, see x three study, which shows us the areas of greatest need as it relates to healthy eating and obesity. Perhaps in those areas we can have classes on food and community gardening the Livable Westside Plan, which seeks to enhance the community's physical environment and improve accessibility and connectivity to the rest of Long Beach. The Downtown and transit oriented development pedestrian plan, which talks about how we can access transportation in dense areas and how to get individuals out of their houses to be more active. Yet no programs in downtown the bicycle master plan, which creates the infrastructure for people without a car to get to and from every corner of the city, including our parks and of course, My Brother's Keeper, which speaks to the need for more programing for our boys and young men of color to help address the issues of violence. Unfortunately, and I know many of our community partners who are here like Central Char Wilmore, North Pine, so many of them have been working so very hard. And unfortunately, there are challenges still in some of our districts. And I'm glad that some of my council colleagues don't have to they don't have to deal with some of the issues that we've had to deal with in the First District. Unfortunately, we've had a historic issues with gang violence in Drake Park, Seaside Park, some of our West Side parks. So this is just to be able to say, look, we have these issues. We know that there are challenges. We're working very hard as a community. Let's work together to fill in the gaps. Let's work together to look at our citywide assets and see how we can fund them equitably, inappropriately. So the solutions I'm going to provide today include and I also want to thank as well our Parks and Rec Commission. I actually spoke with three commissioners over the last couple of days. They had been very open to these suggestions and I know a lot of them had these issues as well. They had issues and concerns. For the first solution I'd like to propose is the multiyear permits for annual events. For example, the Wilmore City Heritage Association has transformed themselves from a neighborhood group to a501 C3 in order to support park programing. They have raised over half a million dollars in the past five years to program Drake and Chavez Park with annual events. That is a huge yes. That is a huge undertaking for a community group that has most of them have full time jobs. And however, they must apply for a fee waiver every single year for every event when they're really doing the city's work. So we should look at multiyear permit agreements similar to what the Coastal Commission offers the Grand Prix. I think instead of coming each year they go, they have this multiyear agreement that makes a lot easier on both sides. So waiving park fees, we should also look at the possibly waiving fees for these community groups who are vetted out and specifically want to program the parks that our city is not focused on programing. This is a great supplement to providing equity in programing and we should not create roadblocks for these organizations if they're doing our work. Secondly, the mobile rec program, I know we've talked about it in prior discussions. Another solution we could explore is revamping this program so we can proactively program are smaller parks that do not have community centers or restrooms, which I know is an issue. Thirdly, that the plans, as I mentioned, we have to update some of our plans. We need to update the open space and recreational element of the general plan in our prime, our Parks and Recreation and Marine Strategic Plan. We have not been updated since the early 2000s. I think they can provide clarity to a lot of these issues as well. And so the amended motion, I know this is a lot, but I want to thank you again for being very patient, is to request the city manager work with our Parks, Recreation and Marine as well as our Parks Commission Department and on this item and return to the City Council within 120 days. Detailing the following We need an overview of citywide park programing hours and funding expended in each location basis of prioritization for programing in each area. An Overview of current park programing participants based on zip code. Currently, we are not tracking where these individuals are going, where they're coming from. It would be good to to have that information, policies and processes that can be reviewed outlining clear rules for citywide park entertainment so that it either includes each region of the city or provides the additional funding in lieu of for the areas that did not receive the benefit of the Citywide Park Entertainment overall suggestions for more equitable park programing from our Parks Department and our Commission, and a timeline for updating both the open space and recreation element of the general plan, as well as the Parks, Recreation and Marine Strategic Strategic Plan. In addition, I had also mentioned sending to the Parks Commission the issue of park fee waivers, and that is it. So I will just say in closing, I again want to thank our Parks Department. I know that this is a huge undertaking that I'm asking for, but I also do believe in inequity in all parts of our city. I know our parks commission. Also works very hard ensuring that they're looking at this with a wide lens as well. But I think this is something we can all work on together. I don't I know that it is just not fair. It's not fair when we have these issues in some of our communities and we go outside and there are no park programs to be found. But yet we have high unemployment, we have high obesity rates. We have high issues with poverty and people that are jobless. My community. Speaker 6: Actually, my staff, about a couple. Speaker 11: Of years ago, we walked to the Washington neighborhood twice. This was not an election year. We walked it twice and we wanted to see what people wanted out there. And the two number two things were jobs. And they wanted park programs. It's vacant, it's barren. There's nothing to do for these kids. And we need to be able to do something for them or for seniors as well, for everyone. And so I asked the council, my colleagues, to be as open minded as possible. This isn't an attack against anyone. This isn't a place for us to be defensive or to be. Take this personal. This is really just looking at this with a very wide lens and making sure that we're taking care of the whole city, not just a few of us. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So we'll go to Councilmember Yolanda. Speaker 10: You don't speak to your second vice mayor? Speaker 0: Yeah, I speak to her later. Okay. Got to. Sure. This meeting. Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank Councilwoman Gonzalez. She did an excellent report, did her research and and did a collected data, which shows where we're at in terms of the city and programs within our parks. One or the other the other concerns that we have is obviously it's been a big issue for a number of years that the city of Long Beach does just doesn't have enough parks. Period. And with that, we also have that program. So it's a it's a it's one of those issues that, you know, without Knope, without parks and no programs. And yet when we do have the parks, we don't have the programs. So we still need to have a long way to go in regards to equity in terms of programs. One of the other things that that concerned me a lot and it didn't come in your presentation, but you might want to also include that, if you don't mind me making an addition to your motion is that communication is the biggest part of it. I mean, in my community, you know, I have a very diverse community. I mean, it's if you look at my at my district, you'll see that I have three, maybe even four distinct communities in in my district from upper middle class, working class to middle class. And along with that, I have, you know, very fluent English speaking communities and those that are bilingual and those that are monolingual Spanish, monolingual Tagalog or monolingual Hmong or other Southeast Asian languages. And that's where the I think the biggest problem is, is that we're not communicating with our residents in terms of even if when we do have programs, do they know about it? And if they don't, what are we doing to make sure that that communication that is that that is being communicated to them? So I started at the city council two years ago, three years ago, and we brought forward a language access program that we wanted to get funded and we were having issues with that. Well, now we're seeing that without language access, we're actually suffering the community is suffering from being left out of the information loop as to what's available and what is not. So language access has to be a very important component as well in this in this study and all that, the city manager staff will look at language access issues when we're talking about the communications that we're setting out there and programs that are available. And that and that, again, brings the other component, because you can't have one without the other. If you're going to have language, access, communications and making sure that people get the information we need, language access programs, people with bilingual skills, and people who can communicate with the communities in Tagalog, in Spanish, in Hmong or and other Southeast Asian languages. You want an informal community, you want a healthy community. Then we have to do it in all languages and making sure that all sections and all members of our communities are treated equally in an equitable way. So that's my my $0.02 into this report. I want to thank again I want to thank Kazimir Gonzalez for bringing this forward, because it is an issue and it's just not just about one program or two, and it's just not about one side of the town, one side of Long Beach versus another. It's about all our communities and it's about all of us being on the same page when it comes to services for all of Long Beach. And the way we're going to do that is by making their sales access accessible to every part and every segment of our community. So again, I want to thank Gonzalez and Richardson for putting this forward. Thank you, Councilwoman Malone. Speaker 5: Yes, I appreciate the item and look forward to hearing the input from the data. I think that something that we should be mindful of is that the district lines can occasionally change. And I know that in other items that we've looked at in the past, some things that we've come up with our zip codes, which is where a lot of the data is available through. So I think zip codes are great. But if we wanted to aggregate data, I'm not sure that aggregating on park programing by zip code of where events happen is as effective as the participants by where they come from. And then too, perhaps if we were to aggregate into some other kinds of districts, I know when we were discussing previous items, we talked about code enforcement districts. So code enforcement districts don't change. They've been significantly similar to what they are for 60 years and they're definable through a mechanism that people really understand. An example of this is last week at my community meeting some. Individuals had heard about the meeting and we were addressing a specific neighborhood and the neighbors don't know what district they're in until an election year. And so I hope that in looking at any of the distribution of things, that we come up with a more reasonable area because when things are on dividing lines between districts and they're counted in one versus another, we have to recognize that these parks, they don't belong to districts, they belong to all the residents. And oftentimes I will go into Eldorado Park and I'll be talking with the coaches of the North Long Beach Pop Warner Group, because that is where the park space was available that week and that's where they come to. And so I think that if possible, in any place that we are discussing distribution, my council district, if you'd be open to aggregating that data by code enforcement district, I think it would give a clearer picture and I think it would still accomplish what you're looking for in that it's dividing the city into three areas that are really more geographically acceptable than, say, for instance, the fifth District, which makes up multiple zip codes. But if I were to address a90815, well, that is in the fifth District, it's mostly in the fourth District. And it can get a little confusing, especially on the east side. So just something for consideration. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 7: Thank you. And I appreciate the item. And I think it is worthy of our attention. Any time you talk about equity and I appreciate the data and the work that went into the presentation, I would just say in terms of this item and this issue, I work toward equity every single day. I too represent a very, very diverse district, not just in park programing or park development, but in public works resources and everything else that we we do as a city. We have to be thoughtful and mindful of that. And I think at least I can speak for the city council member, me and my staff. We we are on that. And it's it's part of our guide every single day and has been for the last five years. I like to look at Long Beach as one Long Beach. And, you know, it was once characterized and it has been characterized often as a tale of two cities. I think my district is a microcosm of that characterization, but I want to offer, I think, a little bit more of an optimistic lens regarding our park programing in our Parks and Recreation Department. You know, we were here just a couple of weeks ago. Parks and Recreation Department has been lauded and recognized nationally and is recognized nationally. And no matter where and what part of the city you live in, I think our young people grow up with great experiences in our parks. I have a number of questions and I'm sure that could be disputed no matter what. You know, there are there are challenge parks. There are there are parks that are program. There are parks that are more passive. There are different types of parks in this and different ways to define our parks. And they offer different types of experiences for different people. Neighborhood parks there, you know, larger parks. We have regional parks. And when we talk about the geographic equity in terms of parks per residence, there are areas that are far more dense, like the first district that has far less parks space, you have more broader geographic. And we we have to define ourselves in districts, districts like the fifth District or third district that have more sparse geographic space where your parks are larger. I'm proud of the work that we are doing in North Long Beach. We are in my district alone. We are developing over 40 plus acres of green space as we speak. You know, Molina Park, three and a half acres, phase two of Davenport Park, five and a half acres. The forest wetlands, another almost 38 acres. That's green space that will be enjoyed for for many, many years, decades and decades and decades after we are all gone from this dais, this work that that's worked, the city council and the city should be proud of today. I know Councilmember Urunga was able to get grants to develop the Willow Springs parks, and that's another, you know, 30, 40 acres. That's significant. Those are those are those are areas of the city that have been ignored. Those are areas of the city that will probably have park programing impacts in the future. Those are areas of the city that are going to have park maintenance impacts in the future as well. And so I'd like to have that considered in this study when it comes back. I have a few questions for city staff as well. And let me just say, in terms of when we talk about equity and programs, I am one who supports 100% US improvement on what we have. Right. I think we should always be doing that. We should always be looking for continuous improvement as a body, as a city. And so I commend Councilmember Gonzalez for bringing this forward. But oftentimes, it's as a budget oversight committee member and as a city councilmember who's been here for five years. And I can tell you, the very first year I got here, we were 17 and a half million dollars upside down. I oftentimes on talked about that. We have a very different budget outlook today, looking looking forward. We were told that we were headed for some tough times. But this is math to this. We don't we we don't we can't add without taking away. Right. And so that that will be the mature adult conversation that this this in challenging conversation that this council, this city council will have to face when when this issue comes back. And we really break this data down as well. And so I'm looking forward to that as well. But for I'm not sure if anyone from Parks and Recreation is here. I have a few questions. And if you can answer these questions tonight, that's great. And if not, you can add them to the for the study and get back. But this in this item has inspired a lot of thought for me just over the last couple of days as as I was reading the item, I wanted to. Staff to explain the difference between contract classes, which are listed in the reconciliation guide that was referenced in the item and programing that is provided by Parks and Recreation staff. Is there a very distinct difference? Speaker 6: Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the Council, thank you for bringing the item forward and the staff looks forward to looking at and working with our commission, who's very dedicated to the programing that we provide in the community, to come back with this report. Yes, there is a difference between the contract classes, which is what was looked at this evening and our overall general programing. So as Councilwoman Gonzales explained, our contract class program is our way as a city of supporting small businesses. For example, a yoga instructor who does not have the financial wherewithal to have their own brick and mortar facility to do yoga, will come to the city and ask if they can do their classes and run their business in a city facility. So we facilitate that through our contract class program. The city works out an agreement with those instructors. They charge a fee to the community to take the class. And then the city receives a percentage of that fee for overhead, for maintenance of the facility, for wear and tear based on the use of that facility. So our contract class program is the majority of what is in what's called our record recreation collection brochure because that overhead fee is also we do the registration for the program for the class and we take in all the fees for the class. And so that overhead is charged. But that's a piece of what we do. We also have an quite robust list of programs and services that we provide throughout the city. We have 26 community centers that are staffed, and we provide programs, afterschool programs, seniors, youth sports team programing. Our summer day camps are summer free lunch programs. So there is a number of other. Speaker 5: Programing that goes. Speaker 6: Alongside of what was listed this evening that we provide to the. Speaker 8: Community at large. Speaker 7: And thank you for that. And are there any incentives currently in place for contract, quote, class providers to provide workshops at parks with fewer classes? Speaker 6: Yes. So we do not solicit contract class instructors, and we have not had to solicit instructors for many years because we have on a regular basis proposals coming into our office. And the proposals generally come in with an identified location if that location is either busy or doesn't accommodate the type of class. Our first recommendation is those areas that we currently do not have classes. We have tried in the last couple of years to strongly suggest those areas where we do not currently offer classes. And in the last year, we have incentivized instructors to offer classes on the west area of the city where we have a few, only a few contract classes. And so there is an overhead fee that is charged per participant. And so for new instructors who are willing to offer classes in. Speaker 8: Those areas, we. Speaker 6: Will waive that participation or that overhead fee so that we can hopefully incentivize instructors to branch out from what they're comfortable with and use other areas of the city. But at the end of the day, for these instructors, it's a business decision and they are looking to put their classes. Speaker 8: Or run their business where they believe there. Speaker 6: Is a demand for those businesses. Speaker 7: Okay. I mean, I mentioned earlier, a little earlier about new park space being developed. Do you know off the top of your head how much new park space is currently under development in the city of Long Beach and by acre and percentage by zip code? And I know that a lot. If not, I would love to get that information at some point. Speaker 6: I don't know. Off the top of my head, we have a lot of. Speaker 8: Development going on throughout the city. Speaker 6: We do have a, you know, obviously our soccer. Speaker 8: Fields that are under development, some new. Speaker 6: Parks that are coming up. So that is something that we can come back to. Speaker 8: To you in the study. Speaker 6: Based on the both district or zip code. Speaker 7: And we have in the last, say, three, three years where we develop new park space through the you know, the new parks that have been developed. Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 8: You're going to test my knowledge for three. Speaker 6: Years and I'm a year and a half in. So, again, we've got two forest wetlands under construction right now. We have our new soccer fields that Admiral had at Seaside. We opened Gum Beaner Park recently. We've got the Red Car Greenway that we are just about to start the. Speaker 8: Third phase of, and we completed the. Speaker 6: Second phase last year. So we've had multiple openings throughout the city in the last three years. We've done a lot of park development and and in. Restructure. Speaker 7: Investment in my family is actually a field as we speak right now. And that's a great new part. Absolutely. I can tell you right now, if you go out there, there's probably 200, 250 people enjoying that park. And it's not necessarily program, but there are many coaches and there's a lot of community out there on a daily basis that's a great resource for our community. And you know, in terms of programing needs in the future, when we talk about all of this new park space being developed, how will that impact programing in the future? Speaker 6: That is going to be a discussion that we're going to have to look at as we continue to open new parks. Obviously, we want those parks activated at a certain point in time. When the recession hit, budgets across the city were reduced hours along with them. Yet we have continued to open new spaces and will continue to do that. So we are going to be looking at and that's one of the reasons why we had the Peps program come earlier. We need our community partners to help activate. We won't be. Speaker 8: Able to do that all on our own. We don't have. Speaker 6: The financial resources. A lot of the programing that we offer, our youth sports program, our afterschool program. Speaker 8: Our day camps are free programs. Speaker 6: And so to offer those free programs, resources are needed to go alongside that. Speaker 7: So I think the number is 170 parks in the city of Long Beach. Speaker 6: Yes. And counting. Speaker 7: And how many of those parks are actually programed? Speaker 6: Well, we have 26 community centers that are staffed so that we have our general programing that take place at those community centers. Speaker 8: And then through things like our youth sports. Speaker 6: Programs. Speaker 9: Or other types. Speaker 6: Of programing, we staff our nature center, for example, or the cultural center. And some of our specialty centers are pools. So we have a number of sites that are staffed. Speaker 7: Okay. So I'm going to wrap my comments up. I'll just say that in terms of equity, when I took office, we didn't do movies in the park north of the Alamo. We added movies in the park at Grace Park. We added movies in the park at the Carlitos. We added movies in a park at Davenport Park in an effort to be more equitable with our resources and to reach more people. And in my district in North Long Beach. Secondly, we also, because of this issue of equity, there were there was a meeting over summer nights lights program in Central Child was very involved in that. That was happening at King Park and Silverado Park and Drake Park. And I was wondering, what about North Long Beach? And so at the time, Steve Councilmember Steve Nyland, I made an issue of it. We said, hey, we need to, to do something creative with our budget to to address summer programs in North Long Beach. And so from that we were able to add similar programs. Is now the be safe program of it at at Schiller Park and it out in park. A short time later that that program was adopted and is now something that is I think, far more equitable and distributed throughout parks throughout our city. So I just want to say that this is a worthwhile conversation. I'm looking forward to getting the information back in and digging really deep into this this issue. But I think our Parks and Recreation Department should be lauded for the work that you continue to do and will continue to do. Our employees are phenomenal and the programs reach so many people. I'm always if there's something that we good at in the city of Long Beach, it's good. We're good at park programing. And so I think we should not walk away from this discussion with our heads down, but. But with our heads high. And with that, I said. And lastly, if I can do one thing in the next three years on the city council, you know, I'd like to get a beach in a district. Speaker 0: When Councilman Price with sea. Speaker 10: Level rise, you probably will. Speaker 0: Sea level rise is coming today to. Speaker 8: Say, Councilman Arango, that was excellent. Speaker 0: Councilman Price. Speaker 6: Thank you. So thank you very much. Speaker 8: To my colleagues for bringing this item forward, and I really appreciate the presentation. I have to say that sometimes the way items are triggered or talked about in the media or social media before they get discussed can inflame passions that perhaps wasn't intended in the item. So I read this item and on its face I thought, you know, this is a great item and the presentation. And I thought it was a great item, but there were a few, you know, social media posts and articles in the paper that I thought maybe weren't as productive to the conversation. So I'm very grateful for this discussion. And we are one amazingly beautiful city with lots of different, diverse neighborhoods, and that's why all of us are here. You know, many of us could have chosen to live other places, and we live here because of the diversity. And I love that. And I also so I want to thank you. That was a really great presentation, very thorough. I'm grateful. Like I said last week with the with the mayor's clean item that there was so much thought put into the agenda item. And I'm thankful for Councilwoman Gonzalez that staff. Gave her item support because having staff support on an item that's important to your constituents is really important on staff, looks at your items and is supportive of the approach you've taken. It really, I think, helps have a productive discussion. So I'm grateful for her because it seems like she has a lot of support from staff in terms of moving forward. I like the questions that Councilman Austin asked because I think there's a real difference and it wasn't totally clear to me during the presentation. In terms of the fee based courses. And then I know that the city offers a lot of programs like afterschool care and like. Senior programing and things like that that maybe we don't have and a lot of the districts and that data wasn't included in the report so or in the presentation so I would love when the report comes back to find out what afterschool you know three years ago I brought an item to council asking for a report back on what afterschool programs we have in the city. And we still haven't gotten a response on that because I know that there was some transition with our youth commission, but that's information that I think is relevant. We want to ensure that every child in the city, regardless of what zip code they live in, has a path to success and has the support and the foundation to be able to thrive. And so afterschool programs really do provide that opportunity. And if they don't have afterschool programs available in your in your local park, then you have to obviously pay for those as as my family and many other families do in order to be able to accommodate the schedule of working parents. So I think it's important to find out what kind of afterschool programs does the city offer and are there areas where we're not offering them that maybe we could? I'd be interested in that. The other is senior programing. I know that Councilman Supernanny and I took some of our divide by nine money and put it aside for senior programing because we didn't have any senior programing in our area. So we set aside about $50,000 to try to sponsor some senior programs and tried to turn the lawn bowling center, which isn't really a senior center, into our makeshift senior center. That was our creative way. No realizing how limited the general fund dollars are. That was our way of trying to figure out a way to have some programing for our seniors. So I'd love to see what senior programing we have available in the city as well and where those are distributed and where there's opportunity for for expansion of those programs. I also think that it's important, you know, there were some some comments made. And again, I think sometimes, like I said, sometimes how things are promoted before a meeting or on social media have a way of leading us down a divisive road and pitting districts against each other. And I and I hate for that to happen. You know, for example, there was a comment about how budgets are allocated and how the BMC, you know, makes recommendations. And, you know, I'm a member of the BMC and I will say last year alone we allocated the only part programing recommendation we made was for the Be Safe program, which is a fantastic program and one that I'm happy to support. So I think we should be really sensitive and mindful of the hard work that we're all doing this. We aren't a city that's divided. I know technically were divided by districts, but really were when there there's a success in one area. It makes the city better overall and our parks are fantastic resource for all of us. They provide fair access to everyone and if they don't, we should be working hard to make that happen. That's very important. I mean, who wouldn't support more concerts in the park and more programs for us to be able to take advantage of our park assets? I look forward to working with my colleagues as we begin the budget season in the coming months and prioritizing and planning for where we allocate our dollars. I think supporting neighborhoods and neighborhood programing is important. I also think this is probably part of a much larger conversation regarding other city resources too, and how we allocate those and where we can work together on that. I think residents across the city, as well as residents from other cities, come to Long Beach. For the programs that we have here, we have amazing events that are deeply rooted in culture and in history and sometimes even in recent trends. And I would love to continue those and be able to expand on them and set those as a priority for the different areas, depending on what it is that the residents in those areas want. So I think we provide great classes already, contract classes. We provide great services that are funded through our general fund that are offered in parts of the city. We provide concerts that are offered in parts in the city and events that I truly hope can be expanded for every district in the city and for every community. And I thank everyone who came out tonight, and I thank my colleagues for this very well thought out item. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: Thank you. And thank you to my colleagues. I think most of my colleagues actually touched on a lot of my my talking points. I wanted to say how much I appreciate those that brought this forward, particularly Elena. I know that it was probably six years ago we started Long Beach Rising, which was a civic engagement program, you know, focused on bringing in residents and educating folks on how they should get engaged in our local government. And one of the big topics was equity. And one of the first maps that was really striking for people was park space. And I think what we've what we've heard today is, one, is it doesn't just dictate where park programs are, that we are fortunate on the east side to have bigger spots of park space. In my district, I have three pocket parks, you know, Miracle on Fourth Street. We've got the arts park and now we've got the park on the promenade. And so I think it's a really exciting time that we've made the conversation to where it is today. We couldn't have had this conversation, I think, without all the work of our residents and our colleagues here talking about equity. I did really appreciate your presentation and answered a lot of questions that I had. I would like to just echo a couple of things. One is making sure that we are tracking not only the programs that are contract programs, but where are we providing services for our constituents through the city? I think one of the great things that we also have is that we have long polling, which, yes, I have been long bowling three times. It is free. Your first three times. Guys, you should go. I've also been many times to the pool. And so how are we diversifying our assets across the city to say this is where we go to swim, this is where we might go to lawn bowls because it's a special day. What are we putting on the west side? What are we putting on the north side to say, let's have another attraction where people are going to want to come to this park to come do something they can't do somewhere else. And so I'd be interested to kind of look at the programs we have. And when we're talking about capital improvement and we're talking about infrastructure investments, are there opportunities in the next ten years to try to think outside the box about how we put something citywide and not just, you know, where our bigger slots of property are? And then I go the same thing I said the the weeks prior, just looking at identifying new funding sources, which I know we'll have that topic through our budget cycle and also bringing up sponsorships as well. But really great job presenting all the data today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Lupino. Speaker 1: Thank you. First, I'd like to commend Councilman Austin. He framed this perfectly when he said equity is something we deal with daily. For those of us who have the privilege of representing diverse districts, that's that's just what we do on a daily basis. Here's a fascinating slide. I don't know if our technicians have the ability to bring it up, but the one on life expectancy, if you show that slide, I represent the fourth district, which is primarily made up of zip codes 90815 and 90804 on life expectancy. One five was the highest. Oh four was was not the highest. So this is something we work out continually. And first, I'd like to commend Parks and Rec for the great job they do in making this equitable in terms of the parks. And thank you for the parks commissioners who are here tonight. So, for instance, we have Whaley Park, which Maria, I won't put you on the spot, but I think it's the most popular in terms of programs across the board, if you can imagine that that's in the shadow of the YMCA and the 49 year camp. So that geographic area is incredibly popular. I can't imagine taking programing away from that. We have a couple of municipal band concerts at Whaley. We don't have them in other parks, but Parks and Rec has has helped me out there. We have symphonic winds performing next week at or Isabelle along with the movie in the park. They'll be at Stearns performing. We have a lunch program at Stearns. I have a lunch program at or Zorba. I see a Rotarian in the audience and we actually have a luncheon next week at Rotary Park. If you don't know where that is, that's on PCH between cherry and wine aperol. So I think just with the way we strive every day for equity, these are the types of things we can do. The only. Speaker 0: Area I want to. Speaker 1: Challenge, Councilman Austin, is if if we to improve these areas, we have to take from somewhere else. I'd like to start off this discussion. Like, let's just do the improvements. Let's see if we can leave every thing in place and get very creative and see if we can add programing without taking it elsewhere. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 5: I think that we've had a really set of great comments, too. And I do want to if Parks and Rec is up for a couple more questions, address a couple of things that I know have become an issue not just at our parks, but also at our beach space. I know we had parks squatting and programing being provided outside the purview of the city. And I know that you've done a lot of work already in cleaning up people's ability to use the park and informing them of the process. So that, for instance, if you're an accountant, you can't just show up at the park and run an accounting firm similarly to if you're a yoga instructor. There's a process and a procedure that engages our community in that. Would you like to share a little bit about that? Because I don't know how much of it is still around and if that should be included in the project as well. Speaker 6: We have actually been working with our city attorney's office in the last year to look at. Speaker 8: The issue of. Speaker 6: Commercial operations in the parks. And so how do. Speaker 8: We allow, for example, the. Speaker 6: Contract class instructors to go through that process. Speaker 8: And to be able to legally provide. Speaker 6: Their businesses using park space? On the flip side of that, we. Speaker 8: Are constantly challenged with others who do. Speaker 6: Not go through the process. We don't have monitors out in the field. Speaker 8: We don't have the luxury of having that number of staff to be making sure that all of those activities that are taking place. Speaker 6: Are sanctioned and licensed to the city. Yet we get. Speaker 8: Complaints on a regular. Speaker 6: Basis from folks who feel or think or believe that they are related to city services. Speaker 8: And then we also have injury claims and things like that on our parks. Speaker 6: By these I would. Speaker 8: Call them maybe rogue service providers. Speaker 6: So we've worked very hard over the last year to address a lot of that and clean some of that up and to try and convince folks to come through the process so. Speaker 8: We know who's out there and what they're doing. And when we get calls. Speaker 6: The other calls we get are from our residents. For example, some of our some of the robust fitness providers that are not sanctioned through the city will show up in an area with loud music and whistles. Speaker 8: And things that if I. Speaker 6: Am to try and get the boot camps going and we get the complaints from the residents and these aren't. Speaker 8: Things that we have sanctions or programs. Speaker 6: So we are trying. Speaker 8: As best we can to balance that activity. Speaker 5: And then we worked really hard this year on a partnership opportunity where organizations such as the organizations. Mentioned on the slides could partner with Parks and Rec to provide the programing as is needed. And so far, we're moving strongly in that direction with that fold into this pretty well. Speaker 6: Absolutely we are. Speaker 8: And as I said earlier, we need the partnerships. We need community organizations that are willing to come forward and partner and help us activate the parks and provide some of the programing. Speaker 6: Especially as. Speaker 8: We are looking at the next coming years where we may not have the financial resources to do that. Speaker 5: And then to kind of ping off of councilman, councilman super knorr's comments about don't take anything away. I'd like to add a comment that we kind of need to start from a standpoint of what do the people want. Councilman Gonzalez talked about walking her community. And I know that's something that Councilman Superman and myself that we do regularly to get people out to community meetings and host those regularly. And we have to be honest with ourselves. Some of the programing doesn't work, whether it's not a match for the community, whether the demographics have changed, and millennials are interested in different types of things. I remember watching Park Activation when Pokémon Go was all the rage. No one talks about Pokémon Go anymore, especially not our vice mayor, who used to play it all the time. And so. Speaker 0: I still do. Speaker 5: And still does. But we as a city also have to look at not putting rules in place that are forever, almost any law that we discuss. If you want to pass a law, perhaps we discuss that there's always a sunset date of either a program or a law or any of these things, because we need to be challenged as your elected officials and whoever comes after us to address and understand the community. And it's dynamic and it's changing. So I appreciate the comments about seniors. I think that this does talk to a bigger, overarching citywide discussion because while some communities might not have a be safe program, other communities might not have leagues, other communities might not have sun hours or after school librarian help. And so it's really about a whole city view of what is everywhere and what does that look like and what non-profits can provide those services or local businesses that are doing it through the contracting. So I look forward to this coming back. I do want to also ask, I know that Nick is no longer here from workforce development, but we talked a little bit about in the program I'm sorry, in the presentation, Councilman Gonzales addressed some of the classes that are offered at the Eldorado Community Center for Reemployment. And I think that there was no real part of that that addressed the amount of programing that's offered on Atlantic at our actual workforce development center, because a lot of workforce development doesn't happen just in our parks, but it happens in our libraries and it happens in our workforce development center. So we're going to look at that. I hope that the city staff will look at it all encompassing, not just at facilities that are called underneath the parks umbrella. So I look forward to the report. I recognize that it is a stringent timeline. So I hope that we can, if we have to choose between expediency and accuracy, I hope that we move towards the accuracy, but not so far that this gets left behind. It needs to come back in a timely manner, that we can address it through a process before our budgets could even tighter. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrew. Speaker 12: Yes, thank you very much. First of all, I think Councilman Juan Gonzalez would bring this item forward because the fact that looking at the statistics up here on the board, you know, I see a lot of things that would kind of sad me also because the fact it seems like sometimes we talk about I would always look at what our Long Beach is, one long beach, no matter what, you know, area it is in the city of Long Beach. And a lot of our kids, I want them to feel free to be able to go to any park, not just talk about central, north, south, you know, because the parks is for everyone. And I think in my district, in not only my I think when every district, the parks are the kids, I think Lifeline, if you're not working too in the summer, where do you go? And I would really like to see the parents get involved also, because the fact that there's so many things that we can do in our lives. But I think it's going to take a family, you know, participation in that. Just don't send your kids to the park, be a part of the park if you're not working. And we do have any programs. And I want to thank our park director. I know she has a big job when she says 100 somewhat. Parks I didn't know we had that many. I thought we only had four because that's what I have in my district. But, you know, and but like I said, don't take anything away because that's what it's all about. I think all of us grew up and, you know, Parks and Recreation. And I want to thank you guys so much, especially you talk about Chick fil A. You know, that's my gold mine in my district. But, you know, there's so many other things that I would really like to get involved in. But I don't because I talk about equity, you know, we talk about fairness. But then again, our kids, they don't even look at it. They just want to have some place to be a part of something that really keeps them active. Because if you don't, you know, we have to sit Friday night, you know, night lights and all of that. But yet and still, when the parents even send their kids to the park, they look about safety, they look about something to do. And that goes memory. I said, a tired kid is a good kid. Send them to the parks. But you know, most of this when I end up thinking about all of this, when we all really comes to a fruition, I heard our you know, said when he said he'd like to be able to get a I think ocean at a beach, well you way behind because when I go home and wake up tomorrow, I'm just looking for some Thailand right in the sixth district. And then then I'll show you what a party look like. Speaker 0: And that's why I want the beach so I can get the diamonds. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Peterson. Speaker 9: Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I wanted to. There are two things that I wanted to bring up that I didn't bring up earlier. I mentioned the fact that we have some passive parks in my district. So the Arts Park and also Miracle on Fourth Street are two parks that have a gate and that are locked often. And Emery, you know how many hours we've tried to spend, figure out how to program those parks in a way that's responsible and and respect of of the neighborhoods. And so in this report, I'd really like to see if there's some way that we can identify how we activate those parks or what a pilot program might be . Because I know my staff has spent tons of hours with the Arts Council, with the Dolby, with everybody pulling together, M.O. use to activate those parks. And so I want to thank all of those partners that are stepping up, but also recognize that if we're going to take the responsibility to create park space, it should be our responsibility to have that park space opened. It's very frustrating, you know, to walk to Miracle on Fourth Street, to find it closed one day when it's in the middle of the day. Second, as you brought up a comment around the fact that a lot of these small businesses use our parks because they don't have a storefront maybe to do their yoga or Pilates. And that brought to mind for me, community benefits, which we often say if we provide a business, some kind of resource from the city, that in return they give something back. And so I'm curious if we could explore for every hundred and 50 hours that a yoga instructor has a paid class , you know, on one part of town that they, you know, be asked or if there's an incentive program to say that you then do 5 hours of a program in a park that doesn't have programing, because if we are in fact providing them a community benefit by providing them a space and access to our residents, maybe that is a way where we can try to say, you might have an assumption about the other side of town, or it might be 15 minutes drive for you versus across the street from your house. But trying to build that community across the city, maybe there's some thinking outside the box that we can do on that. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And so I imagine Councilwoman Gonzalez wants to close it out when I'm at my comments here. Before you do so, first, I want to thank I want to just thank the whole council first for the tone tonight. I think this was a good example to set for the city. And I think we can all learn from how we took on this conversation tonight. Well, thank Councilmember Gonzalez and her staff for a really impressive presentation and councilmembers Andrew and Ranga for signing on. I think park staff know it's a tough conversation sometimes when people are looking at your work, but that's a part of our public policy in serving the public. We have to sometimes have those conversations. Last night I had my district nine harbor crews. We, you know, go down to the port and about 150 residents get to go out and tour the port. And it was talking with the resident. I won't I won't name who it is. But, you know, we were having a conversation about the Long Beach City Council and how the job, you know, what kind of job we're doing. And something stuck with me. And what that was, was this resident. She said the city council spends too much time fighting over the things that don't that aren't as important and not enough time fighting on the things that are fighting about the things that are really important. And I thought about that, you know, thought about all the time that we spend discussion so many different things in our city and how it is. It would be good if we took a step back and really thought about our role as council members citywide and what we can do to really change our system and leave it in a better position than when we found it. This is a difficult, difficult conversation, but in my opinion, it's a part of a larger shift that's happening in our city, in our city hall on culture shift. Janine talked about Janine and Lina talked about Long Beach Rising. Last year, we established an officer equity in the budget to take on conversations that place a lens of equity or context, the need on our decision making. And this won't be the last conversation. This is Park Equity. We can have conversations about transportation, transportation, equity, health equity. And that's just the nature of our city. We have a very diverse city and we have to be about the business of equity. Equity means making decisions based on a context of need, and our history tells us that, you know, maybe we haven't we could do a much better job at considering need to make decisions about resource . Allocations. You know, typically when I get that book in the mail, I used to rarely peruse that book. And now I have a two year old. And we open up the book for the first time last year and realize every single part program you're in, you're getting in the car and taking a ride to Eldorado Park for a majority of the contract classes. You know, I got to tell you, I have a car and I'm willing to take that time and go to do something simple as kids love soccer, which is a great program, by the way. You know, we get in the car and we take that trip. Not everyone has the means to take that trip. And I think we do need to do a better job at looking at the how we leverage these contract classes. Because I got to tell you, kids are interested in soccer all over our town, not just at, you know, one park. So, you know, so, so so that's that. The other thing I would say is that. Sometimes it takes a long time to bring the attention to a certain issue. And when it's just like one council member championing that issue, it's even harder. But when the city city council gets behind a set of principles or values a lot easier, the concept of Be Safe came up earlier and I was a part of those conversation in that fight to expand Be Safe. It was modeled after some night lights program and talking with central char and, you know, city of Long Beach. And it took a long time. But what people forget is that it took about three cycles to be safe before it actually made it into the budget. Structurally, it was, you know, every year was funded either through one times or figured out some way to do it. And if we agree that everyone is entitled to quality public services, quality of life in their neighborhoods, then we can sort of approach the conversation that way. And it's not in my opinion, it's not really about parks. You know, this is a you know, this is a conversation that will allow us hopefully to think about not just slicing up that pie. It's always like what part of the proposed slice of the pie do we get? I think it's about growing the pie, having a conversation about growing that pie and making sure that everyone has an opportunity to eat. Not necessarily. My slice of the pie isn't as large as it needs to be. We have to grow that pie. Next what I will say. She says she. What do you want? Your slice, Stacey? She wants total influence on her pie. Pie. I think we all want a little time to sprinkle on top with. Speaker 10: Sea level rise. Speaker 0: Sea level rise. You are so. So the other thing is I think we have to be honest about a conversation about the status quo in the future. Now, a lot of times we have conversations about how we make decisions and is based on this is how we've always done things. And if we were future focused, we ought to think about who who actually has a role or right to determine the liberty of their future, whether they have a have or whether they have the right to talk about the condition of a neighborhood moving forward. If we continue to grasp that the past and the status quo, we'll never actually address the systems of inequity. So I think Parks is a great first step to, you know, to start talking about equity and letting folks see that this is not about you versus me. This is about one city. And if we can get behind that sense and sense of principles and values that say all of our all of our neighborhoods have value, that your quality of life, no matter what neighborhood you live in, has value, then frankly, I think we'll leave the city in a better position. A couple things I wanted to just add in. You know, from a place of just strategy, I think that and we've talked about this councilmember, we we probably should you know, our Office of Equity, although new, is doing some amazing work at identifying what cities are doing to address equity. And I think as a part of this conversation, we need to make sure that we add in to the recommendation for the Office of Equity to take a look at two things. One, looking at a park equity lens that other cities have considered or think about what that tool might look like to help guide our decisions. And then secondly, I think we need to think about language access. So the Parks and Rec brochure, although it's expensive, we send it out. We should think about how we, you know, Spanish or a link to Spanish combined Tagalog, you know, the four languages that we we agree on as a city that we're going to disseminate information . And so we definitely need to look at that. And so those are those are my comments on the bank, everybody. And Councilwoman, if you wanted to close this out and I will be the time. Speaker 11: I just wanted to thank the Council for the open mindedness. And I look forward to our new discussions. And again, thank you to the community and our commission staff as well as our park staff for indulging me over the last couple of days over this great item. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So now is the time for public comment. As any of any members of the public would like to speak on this issue, please come forward with way to do so. Please give us your name. You have 3 minutes. Speaker 1: Good evening, counsel. My name is Bill Thomas. I'm with the. Speaker 0: Just. Just a moment, folks. Speaker 1: Restart my time. Speaker 0: Just. Yeah, please. We're going to hold off. So let's be respectful of the speaker and then I'm counting. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. So if we do 3 minutes, this is an hour of public comments. We're going to go down to 2 minutes on this unless everybody just says absolutely no. Is everybody pretty cool that we go down 2 minutes so everybody gets a chance to speak? I see. Thumbs up. Great. So you have 2 minutes. Thank you. You have the floor council. Speaker 1: My name is Bill Thomas. I'm with the third district. I'm going to try to fight dog fast. I'm here to support Parks and Rec and all of the efforts they do. I'm particularly familiar with their effort with a very tight job on an expensive project called Municipal Band that is only six weeks out of the summer and worked on all year long by a lot of people. The best thing I can offer to this council is my experience in supporting the municipal band. For the last three years, the publicity or social media, as people have said here, was totally inaccurate on a number of points. So I thought just explaining the involvement of myself and a group called the Friends of the Municipal Band, well, how it how things transpired and why we are not involved this year in the program we started 19 2014 and we our objective was try to get an increase to six weeks. We helped in 2015 to raise funds and talk about how to what do we do to get six weeks. We find out we had to send our money through partners of Park with a 10% service fee to handle it. The money we raised at the end of 2015, thinking it was going to the $30,000 we committed to raise for the six week, got pulled off at the end of 2015. So we started over with Community Foundation and we did raise the $30,000 and we did make a contribution this year. We did nothing because we didn't want to interfere with the project the Partnership Park has done. That's been very good so far this year. Amazingly, a number of the businesses that I raised money from last year came along and wanted to put. Money yet. I said, Why don't you make the donation to the community foundation and we'll see if we can make that contribution for 2018. And I have left the employer the employer the. I was one of the founding members, but left the friends of the band because I felt my services were not needed this year. But I'd like to have them have the thank you. Speaker 0: So that was okay. I was counting the three, I thought, too, but thank you for your time to talk to me. Absolutely. Thank you. Next, discipline batter with no need to say the man is not in jeopardy. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Honorable Vice mayor and council people. I appreciate you taking the time today discussing this measure at length. I will tell. I do enjoy. I am. My name. My name is Ben Goldberg. I'm the current chair of the Parks and Rec Commission. And so we will be the ones looking at these items that you've put forth if the measure passes, which I assume it will. I did want to mention I did appreciate specifically and I did appreciate actually all of your work, and I appreciate Councilwoman Gonzalez reaching out. I was one of those three that she spoke with in the last few days to kind of clarify the original press out there, certainly frame this a lot differently than what it ended up being. So I'm pleased with what what I've heard from all of you. I just wanted to mention I liked Al Austin specifically when he mentioned what things were like five years ago, because that's when I was I was on the commission. I've been on the commission for seven years now on parks, and I've been in the commission system for about 15 years. And I do remember tearing up tremendously when we were so strapped for funds that we were looking at closing centers that were serving a lot of the areas that were reflecting on right now that are underserved on in these contract classes. And it was an act of mercy with the city manager as well as Mayor Foster, who was able to find the necessary funds to keep those programs going. I bring this up as kind of a aside. We're certainly going to look at all the things that you're mentioning, and we certainly enjoy taking the direction from the council , which is what we do. But I just want to mention that, you know, we were looking for water when we were having a drought and we were under budget on that and we couldn't even water the parks we have. So every time we talk about opening a new park, I cringe. I start to see some of the hairs come up on the back of my neck because I know that we don't have the money for the water for that park no matter what, how we open it or how we landscape it. So anyway, I just wanted to again thank you for bringing the measure forward. We look forward to helping city staff to get that report back to you. But, you know, again, if money was no object, we agree 100%. Let's open up a new beach for Councilman Austin and let's bring snow to every district and let's have a good time with it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mayor. Be please. Speaker 5: Hi. A lot of people. Speaker 6: Don't understand the west side that we. Speaker 5: Don't have access with. There are two bridges there, very scary. Speaker 6: And the Children's Commission, the. Speaker 5: Mayor's Commission for Children, meets on the east side. As far as I know, when my son was on it, I had a tumor and I couldn't take him and he couldn't get transportation to represent the West Side. And there was a meeting in the evening. So that's probably why you don't know about the children's programing results and the bathroom in City Hall. The disabilities bathroom is broken. So if a lady in a wheelchair goes in the stall, she can't shut the door. And we had the Mayor's Commission on Disabilities do a walk through of Cabrillo High School in Kid Park, because I've never seen a handicapped or disabled special needs child at the Boys and Girls Club in the West Side. So my intuition sent me down here and I asked for a walk through. We did a surprise walk through and it would be USDA denied. They said, we can't have the services that we need. So what we need is a crosswalk on work between the Boys and Girls Club and Cabrillo High School, which has the best air conditioning and serves the most disabled special needs students. The curve does not go in a cut so that a wheelchair could even get over the curves on Commission on Disabilities that lives on Canal Street, could not access the front of Curiel High School, which has to do with MLK Park, where I won't even walk down Oak Park. There's too much danger. The reason why we need these programs is so we're not creating a hotbed for criminals to kids tell me they go across to the park and just talk about how they're going to rob somebody's house. And that's why I'm creating relationships with other districts to make them realize we need these programs so that I can call the cops and next door we can talk to each other because they're committing the crime and driving back to the west side, I see it. I call the cops and they never. So that's why we need to get programs that kid. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time next week a please. Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Council District three Lena. Thank you for a great presentation. You educated me tonight on this thing that I was always skimming on. Just is kind of like you said, Susie. I just read it on social media, but thank you for the clarification. But the reason I'm speaking is because, again, for the LGBT issue, I'm probably the only voice in here that's going to speak up on that. So I am and I'm glad you hear me because we are deficient in LGBT programing in our city, in our parks. I am not a parent, but if I was, I have to send an LGBT trans child out to the mountains for programing. So we need to. Why we're embracing youth and we're looking at everything. Now is a great time for you to reach out to LGBT parents or parents of LGBT children to find out what kind of programing we can be that will be inclusive within the city by establishing LGBT programing, whether it's for seniors, adults, children that's run through the city or contract services that really set us apart from all other cities. We would establish a new level of community engagement with all our citizens. So when I ask you to kind of look at that, what are you. Speaker 5: Going to look at everything now? Speaker 1: Because I'm speaking on behalf of those parents that are not here. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Good evening, Genevieve Peters. And having taught in this community since 1990, also getting my teaching credential at Cal State, Long Beach. I absolutely love this idea. So thank you so much. This is amazing. Now, the thing that I didn't hear and the thing that obviously our concerns for students and children in the community is there are pockets that are very unsafe. And let's be honest, unfortunately, there are areas that business owners or yoga instructors don't want to go because, one, they probably aren't going to get the business. Or two, they're they're scared. They're afraid. So I think we have to we have to address that. We have to address that situation, because I think it's a fabulous idea in theory. And I think every park should be able to welcome the citizens of that area and offer these amazing programs. I think that two questions that weren't answered is why okay. And what is the crime statistics in those areas of those parks that aren't being utilized? Because I think if we address that and we get some equity with the crime situation, then I think you're going to have people because I have had children, students come to my class and say, you know, Miss Peters, when I went past the park, I saw a dead body. This is true story. I'm not making this up. Okay? Now, these are kids that want to go into the park, but they're afraid. They've been run by drugs, they've been run by criminals, they've been run by homeless people. So let's be serious, okay? And let's take you of those pockets so that those parks are actually something that people want to go to. And I think once we do that and then instead of just waiting also for businesses to come to you, how about going solicit businesses that are actually in line with that particular community? Speaker 0: So thank you. One one good tactic to make a park safe programing next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Hi, everybody. My name is Evangelina Ramirez. I was living next to the Drake Bar for 17 years and now I'm living at District Six and next to MacArthur Park for six year. And knowing those areas is really, really important. And I support that recommendation because we have a lot of moms that they have kids if we want to keep our kids, I've got rocks and gangs and all this kind of stuff. They need to be busy and the way they need to be busy is having those programs and those parks in their communities. Inside their communities is hard for a mom having two or three kids carrying them in the bath to go to other parks in the money that they have to spend because it's $1.25 for it in this hard for them. That's why I feel like it's important. Having those programs inside of our communities is really, really important. If you want to really, really work with all kids, they are the future and then one day they are going to be there or they are going to be in jail, or they are going to be on the streets. But if we want to see them being in programs. Being in places like this one, we well, we have to offer them those parents in those parts. That's that's was my my life practically. We had a lot of programs at the Drake Park many years ago. My kids, they were going to those programs. Now they are successful. They are at the university. In the end, for me is something good and I want to see those things for other moms in my community. That's my message and I support this recommendation. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Hello. Good afternoon. Liana Gonzales, my council member. Thank you so much for bringing this up. It needs to be addressed. It's been sidetracked for far too long. And thank you for that and thank you for the council members that supported her in this equity. Our parks need more equity. During my daytime job, I'm telling you, I go through each and every one of your districts, and I will tell you that the third district has got a lot more going on than, let's say, districts on the west side just the way it is. Okay. We need to correct that. Even the city manager, Mr. West, I had talked to your office once or twice about having connecting Drake Park to Cesar Chavez. I brought this up a couple of times. PD is behind it. They love the idea, being able to patrol that back nuisance area and not gather cars 24 seven and it will instead of having the community across a freeway onramp and offramp, now they've got access and continuing to help offset some of the health issues that are going on. So I look forward to talking more with the council office and the rest of you. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Oh, he got my speech. But anyway, thank you, Linda Gonzalez, because you brought this to the table is very important. But about the ritual is not about the party. It's all about people, you know, about people. And this one is I live here in Long Beach, like 30 years living here in Long Beach and living almost in the same district. Isabel, one district for Grenfell, for Lumbee City is a lot or would it be overcrowded? The parks to remedy that situation. We have police, but not enough and, you know never really never buildings and then they don't people they have no programs they have no programs and their children, they have no plans after the school. Then what is the future? Yeah, well, they are going to live a very short time. That's why we need programs for the young people. We knew the programs after school and and also that the parks is not around. The parks have other people. But anyway, the park, they knew like they knew many, many these. But I see like many council they no support of this program that they know about. This one is they are not these are not champion in poverty is one listed forget it neglecting. Speaker 1: For for. Speaker 6: For Long Beach. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hi there. I just want to thank you, Vice-Chair Richardson for, for what you said about the tone of the meeting. I think it even changed a lot of what I was going to say because my my passion is with the Long Beach Municipal Band. I was glad to hear that you say it's not in jeopardy. As Councilperson Price said, there was a lot of inflammatory statements in some of the Facebooking and articles that went on, and it might be good to have staff maybe refrain from using some of that inflammatory language in their Facebook pages because then the rest of us wouldn't get so upset. The municipal ban, of course, has been around for a long time. It's a very, very successful program. I appreciate actually what Roberto said as well about communications. When the band does go play in some of those other parks, like Drake, like it's about to and veterans. Better communication of what's going on is absolutely, positively necessary. I work with the Friends of Long Beach National Band. I worked with Parks and Rec before that for the Municipal Band, so I'm very familiar with everything that goes on. I would hope that perhaps our friends group could work with Mr. Andrews Council District to try to help promote that veteran's concert. So that way we have a lot more people there than we did at Craig Park last year. And I would be happy to make to reach out tomorrow evening and see if we can put some discussions together. Definitely all neighborhoods have value and I would love to see more contract classes as well. And that might be also something about communications that perhaps in the First District and all those districts, maybe they don't know that contract classes are actually available. And you might actually have a lot of instructors who would love to do something like that. So again, it's about getting more of the word out. I will come back to talk again about the municipal band, if there are any issues, shall we say, that come up. But I hope that we can continue to have the wonderful band that we do have that serves about 10,000 people a week among all the parks and also continue to see if we can manage to have them go to more parks in the future as well. Okay. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please go ahead. Got it. Speaker 1: I've been the lead volunteer at Law three, this park for the Municipal Band Conference for at least 27 years. And we could be 28 or 29. But time flies. Speaker 0: When you're having fun. Speaker 1: I chose this attire tonight because this is what the public has seen me in in the last three weeks at law for this park and are going to see me that way for another three weeks, a lot through this park. Speaker 0: And to that extent, I want to tip my. Speaker 1: Hat to Marie. Speaker 0: And her underling, Gladys Kaiser, for having come through with. Speaker 1: The volunteer T-shirts this year. She did yeoman's work. I also want to thank. Speaker 0: You folks and the mayor. Speaker 1: For he here and the city manager for providing us with six concerts this summer. I'm used to contract seasons lasting eight weeks, but six is better than four. Speaker 0: Also give you a. Speaker 1: Brief history lesson. Speaker 0: Former Councilman Verbinski, who. Speaker 1: Portrayed himself as a great egalitarian. Speaker 0: Created a lot of pressure in his day to move municipal band cart around other places. Speaker 1: The results were abject failure. The people just didn't show up. Also. Speaker 0: Another Ray Ragi Ray garbage in her first term behind that rail. Speaker 1: I stood here at this podium and challenged the entire council to personally donate funds to the municipal band. My wife was still. Speaker 0: Alive at that point and we were each giving $100 a year to. Speaker 1: The band. Ray responded by saying, I'll give $1,000 a year for the rest of time and I'm on the city council. So how about it? How many of. Speaker 0: You are willing to step up? In fact, I'll make you an offer you should refuse for any one of you who is willing to write a personal check for a thousand or the band. I'll match it. I don't care if all all nine of you do it, I'll match it. And also. Thank you. Good news. Good news. I appreciate it. Speaker 1: Will be two additional counter to life. Speaker 0: Thank you so much for your time. We are willing to hear all this. Thank you so much. And we will have our next speaker, please. Thank you. Speaker 6: Good evening, everybody. First, I want to thank you. Speaker 5: All for your time. I know it's it's a hard job to sit through this and listen to. Speaker 6: All the comments. So we appreciate your attention. So my name is Nicole, and I'm the community organizer. Speaker 5: At Building Healthy Communities Long Beach, one of the community organizers. Speaker 6: And I'm speaking in support of the equitable, equitable distribution of. Speaker 5: Public programing throughout the city of Long Beach. Speaker 6: Watching the presentation in those numbers was very disappointing and sobering to me. And according to the. Speaker 5: Long Beach Club website, the Long Beach Parks, Recreation. Speaker 6: And Marine Department is supposed to serve the community. Speaker 5: With recreation programs and services. Speaker 6: It was pretty clear that from tonight's tonight's presentation that the community wasn't being served in that center. West and north Long Beach are being neglected. I worked closely with help on Youth Counseling Care and. Speaker 5: Wyatt, who also spoke about programing this evening. Speaker 6: On training called People's Planning School. During this training, residents engaged in a curriculum where they learned about city planning and organizing, and at the end, they had to create a project. They decided to do a project on mentoring and tutoring because there were no opportunities in Martin Luther. Speaker 5: King Park for the. Speaker 6: Youth to engage in tutoring programs. The participants of the People's Plan in school have invested hours to create this mentoring and tutoring program, but it shouldn't all be on the burden of these community organizations to do this work. It's also been difficult for them to reserve space. Speaker 5: In the park to do their programs and building other communities. Long Beach has also had that problem as well. And shouldn't we shouldn't have to go through hoops to do the programing that we want to do. I had a lot more that I. Speaker 6: Wanted to say, but I will end it there. Thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Speaker 2: Okay. My name is Robert Pete May, California grader. Okay. The thing I have to say, you talked about equity and everything, but I don't see equity when I go back to item number 12. And I see you're talking about, oh, $500,000 in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds for Pacific Gaming to implement a Workforce Navigator program, English language learners and Immigrant Workers. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. What I'm talking about, Mr.. Mr. Vice Mayor, why are you leaving when I'm talking to you? Okay. You're the vice mayor. You're supposed to be listening. Can I get my time back? Come on. Speaker 0: You can have the time back. Okay. Speaker 2: Check this out. You're always doing something out of a manual. Never do anything for black folks. And you're supposed to be black. That's the thing is is. Listen, as far as America, you point, if you want, I'll deal with you later. Ain't nobody ever asked you for nothing. At any rate. At any rate, the thing is, is America for Americans? And as far as equity, you got you talking about two separate. It is two separate cities because you are always trying to do for illegals and other people and and you may yeah this respectfully I was. Speaker 1: We have to. Speaker 2: You got to let her talk. Just take your time. Can I have. Speaker 10: My time back? Me, sir. Speaker 0: Is this a sitting topic? And is this off topic and irrelevant? Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 0: Sir. I'm sorry. This is the second time tonight. You can speak on the next item when you're done on this item. Thank you. Speaker 2: You've got your vertical on one side. But anyway, no deal. You. Speaker 0: I mean. Speaker 1: Can we get a little more on it? I mean, if he stays on topic. Speaker 0: I'll give you another 45 seconds. If you stay on topic, sir. Speaker 2: On top of you what I did, this is if. Speaker 0: I really just not want to do it. So legally, do I have to let this guy speak? Speaker 1: Yes, he has an opportunity to speak. Speaker 0: Although I'm city attorney. Do you have an opportunity to speak if you stay on topic, but we're not going to continue to disparage people's documentation status. Things about that chair sir, please address me. Address me. Thank you. Speaker 2: Cannot rebut what you say. Continue to say stay on topic. You could just say anything would is it. Speaker 10: Serves no time to ask questions you can't you have your 45 seconds to speak. Speaker 2: With my 45. So that's 30. I want 45. Okay, there we go. Now, you ain't gonna be bullying me anyway, so. Okay, you talking about. Okay, you got that be safe program for Sheriff Park. We got the police station in Share Park. Why? We need to be safe. That's wasting money, number one. Okay. You mentioned leaving the city better than you found, not bringing communism. And that missed call that's back there. We ain't going to be better. You get rid of her. It'll be better. Now, you talking. We're talking about this. I'm talking about. You said no. Those making decisions based on me. Well, then stop helping illegal aliens and help America help them. People in the middle of the streets. I'm. Yeah, we got 8 seconds. I'm finished. We can help them. Help Americans in the veterans in everything and stuff. Skinning and grin and try and help it. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. And great job making America great. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Dr. Kathleen O'Brien 539 Daisy And I was really worried that I was going to be too bitter, but I'm not really worried anymore. Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor and City Council. And thank you to Parks and all the rest of the staff that's here. The first thing I would like to do is to thank you all for everything you do all the time, because I know you are very, very patient and I would not be able to be as patient. And the second thing I wanted to say is that I do appreciate budgets. I understand that Parks has and has got a lot to do and to take care of, and that's not my issue. I really admire a lot of the things they do. Certainly our program is great. And you have my letter. I sent a letter to your district office about my concerns as a WCHA member, but I want to talk about myself as a person, and I'm the granddaughter of immigrants. I was lucky that my mother was educated. She took me to the see the New York City Ballet and it changed my life. That's all I want for our neighborhood is that they have the opportunity to see things that they would not otherwise see. We have to bring them there however we do it. It's not fair to them. Otherwise I can go across the city to El Dorado. They can't necessarily do that, and I don't want them bused to that Paris theater one time in their life. I want them to be able to take it for granted that they can come to our park and see quality. Speaker 1: Paid. Speaker 5: Union musicians or theater people and think that it's just ordinary and that they can just go there without any kind of controls or embarrassment or anything. And you know, if you've been in our neighborhood, they do not feel welcome everywhere. You know that. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Hi. My name is Kelly Carroll and I am a resident of the First District and involved with the North Pine Neighborhood Alliance. And I also have worked in the community with a nonprofit, and there's two points that I want to make. And the first being is, is that there's been some comments made in regards to events and nobody showed up. And so then we just have to abandon it. And I work for a nonprofit that's been in business for 113 years. And if we decided after the first event that we did in Long Beach that it only made $25,000. Speaker 5: To save lives, that it needed to go away because we didn't get enough people. We dug deeper. Speaker 8: And we got more people in the community and we got more people involved. And we do that everywhere we go. And we now have for this particular event over 5000 events in the country. And so I see it as something that it just has to keep trying. And so having people yes, it was maybe dismal attendance at. Speaker 5: Drake, but when you only do it once every four years, nobody knows it's there. Speaker 8: So communication's going to be really huge as well and really letting people know that it's there. Speaker 5: My other point is being a. Speaker 8: Resident in the community is, is that I do want to see things there. Speaker 5: I want to see things. Speaker 8: For my neighbors that I work really hard to represent as well in the neighborhood alliance. And I want to see things that they can benefit from and the kids not playing in the alley by the dumpster and that they have somewhere to go and that they have programs that they can play with. And if you don't believe that they do that, come on over to Lily, way in between Pine and Pacific and you can see the kids there. So I just want to end with saying thank you to all of you. Thank you to Councilwoman Gonzales for bringing up this concern. And Vice Mayor Richardson and I appreciate all of your attempt. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Carol Sergi. I also live in the First District and I'm part of North Pine Neighborhood Alliance. And I just have a few important comments. And one is that everybody should be able to have green time every day. We have a lot of parks. We have wonderful parks where we we live. Cesar Chavez, Drake Park, Admiral Kidd, it's another park. I was able to do a neighborhood leadership program last week. We did a lot excuse me, last year, a public safety fair. And there were so many children there and it's such a wonderful park. And I can't imagine that we don't have more programs for for all these kids and families. A lot of the children there come to the park because they can't play outside their homes because it's too too dangerous. Their parents won't let them go outside. And I think that's something that when we say that children can can go to afterschool programs in other parts of the city, the families can't afford the programs. And they they're not able to get their children to these programs. But we have a great this is an opportunity to show the great city that we are and we can use creativity to promote. The programs that we have. And and and makes me even better. So I thank you. And I can't wait to see what's going to come next. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker, please. Speaker 1: Hi. Yes, my name is Holly Stewart. I live in the first district over here in Walker building. I spoke here before I use Chavez Park. I go down there sometimes I lift weights and do things like that. I find no problem there. So I but when I hear people in this say they're afraid to come down here some, I understand it. I'm not afraid to go down to Chavez Park. I'm not afraid to go to Jerry Park or anywhere else. But I do. Grew up on Alvarado Park in Denver, nice big park. And I go over by the big swimming pool over there and I go down to beaches and I see a lot of people there, but I don't see them come over to my neighborhood. For some reason, it's assumed that people in my neighborhood can go all these other places, but people, they don't want to come down here. Why not? Well, maybe we need to get more and more equity in our parks so that people feel free to come down here to take advantage of the things that are at Chavez Park . It's a beautiful place Drake Park can be at. I think it's already okay. It could be a whole lot better with some more stuff there. What it is when you talk about equity is making sure that our city is a place where I can feel safe going anywhere in that city and participate. And the people from all those other parks can come down here in the First District and the West Side and feel safe. And I don't know why they shouldn't, because to me, if we all live as one large family and we get to know each other, then we really love each other. We can do that. We can accomplish those things. But but we have to take has set up the situation where it'll work. And one of them is equity. If somebody said, well, people are worried about this or that, if they come down to that park, well, we will turn that around. But we can do it because that's what we're all about. You're city council, we're people. The city we live in all different places and we want it to work. And if we do that, then we can get equity. There is a way to get the way it is to spread the things around. I didn't come here from downtown area to say, take a step away from the east side of the north side, anywhere else. My thing is, there's enough in this city for all of us. So thank you very much. And I think you are doing a good job. And Linda Gonzalez is my councilwoman and I've met some of the others. I think it's beautiful. Speaker 0: Thank you to the next speaker, please. Speaker 1: Good evening, Don Don, our first district resident. And also I'd like to commend my council member and her staff. They've done a terrific job. A lot of research. And she articulated everything so well. It was just terrific. And I like to commend her as well as I'd like to put a plug in for the Parks Recreation Marine , the employees at every park, every building you go to, they're just terrific. I've never heard complaints about them. Maybe there are some, but I've never been able to find them. And the prime staff, the same way they're leading from the top and they're doing a great job. I wouldn't want that job. Parks, Recreation, Marine. You think I would think of all that involved? It's unbelievable. But they're doing a terrific job. Just like anything, you can always do better. And that's what we're here to try to help do. And in all due respect, Councilmember Austin, it isn't always the case that something added require something deducted. I think we can work things out and do things without taking something away from something else. The seniors, as a senior, as a commissioner on the seniors commission, I would like to point out that this is the fastest growing segment of our population. I mean, the first concern doesn't should not be the millennials. You got more people downtown in senior category than anything else. They have trouble with transportation. They can't get to different places. I've been trying to have a roundabout bus. I would take them to places, but that's I don't know. And in a feeding program, we've got language problems, too. I mean, there's one senior building, an eight story building that's three fourths of them are Korean language. Another building, three or four or some or all of them speak 11 different languages. So that's that's an issue we have to address to transportation and equity and all kind of respects. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Oh, it started already. First, I want to. I live. Speaker 11: In District. Speaker 6: One and I want to say thank you to Lena, our councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, for a. Speaker 8: Thorough presentation. Speaker 6: I have something written here. So Long Beach is one of the most diverse cities in the nation. And yet, when I see 100 Days of summer website, I see a handful of images displaying our diversity out of the 100 plus images on its site. And these images are representative of its programing. A large portion directed and catered to three districts, District 45 and eight, where the bulk of Long Beach summer events more than 50%. Three out of nine districts host most of Long Beach summer events and concerts. Not surprisingly, these districts have the more affluent neighborhoods in our city. And so I ask why? Why are some districts not being afforded the recreational and educational opportunities when programing should and can be more equitably distributed? What is the criterion for programing? How are funds allocated to serve all of Long Beach and not a selected few? As a community member of District one and a business owner in Long Beach. I am frustrated and angry with how little attention parks programing in less affluent areas receive while others burst at the seams with the level of support in events like 100 days of summer, Long, Long Beach, Park and Rec's mission is to provide leisure programs and services through people, places and partnerships to residents and visitors which enhance neighborhoods and improve quality of life in Long Beach course services to provide recreational opportunities to meet the diverse needs of the community. But where these programs and opportunities for District one and underserved areas. There is a plethora of studies and research demonstrating the importance of music and recreational programs for our children. So I won't quote any here, but I am here to fight for more equitable programing, for more recreational opportunities for all of Long Beach. My dad in a well who's here, would like to attend a cool concert summer event program, just like those who walk over and even reserve their spot at the park week after week. The owners should not be left to the neighborhood. Associations like City Heritage Association to bridge bridged the gap without any funds from Park and Rec. The Olive. I'm sorry. Parks and Rec is funded through city funds, sponsorships and donations meant to serve all of Long Beach, not a select few. So I stand here today to challenge you to review the inequities in undeserved districts that we're facing. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Our next speaker, please. Our last speaker. Speaker 6: Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the city council. My name is Jessica Quintana and I'm the executive director of Central Asia and also an eighth District resident. I just to also want to congratulate our councilwoman, Lena Gonzalez, for being a champion in bringing this forward. In regards to Park Equity, and I know it was discussed earlier about a lot of other equity issues, but I think that there's a place for conversation. You know, currently in the Office of Equity at the Long Beach Health Department, which I soon hope to be part of that equity discussion. You know, the organization in Summer Night Lights was brought up many times. And so, you know, as we're talking about the parks and this was activated in 2000, you know, when we're faced with high crime, poverty, the schools were shut during the summertime. We had homicides on the Santa Fe corridor in around King Park. Drake Park was on fire. You know, it was important for us to really, as a nonprofit organization, is to take action and work with some of the resources and leverage those resources in our community. Since then, we have brought you know, we talk about communication and really knowing what our community partners are doing. We have spend over $2 million in parks program in summer jobs, providing 11 $12 an hour jobs at the parks for our students. You know, so I think, you know, when our councilwoman brought this, you know, to the to the council, it wasn't about taking away from another park to give another park. I think her intention was, you know, we need to have the same thing. We need to look at how do we create more robust, safe parks for everybody in our community? You know, it's the resources. You know, it was great to see summer night lights and really work with the collaboration with our city and turn in to Be Safe initiative. And I want to tell you that, you know, working with Parks and Recreation and working with Murray and her team, you know, we've been able to activate a lot of programing at Advocate Park at Silverado Park, but it's working with her staffing to ensure that it's happening. Can we do better? Is there a better permitting process? Absolutely. You know, but it's took in seven years, if you can imagine when we first started Summer Night Lights to be safe now, you know, so we talk about, you know, equity and equity lines. We deal with that every single day in our communities, in our Latino communities after. In American communities, as you've seen today, we had ignorance here today. Every single day we're faced with those equity issues. And so, you know, I know there's big conversation about equity and equity lens, but it all depends on whose eyes are you seeing that from and who's at the table and who's at the car. And, you know, folks need to participate in those those conversations. And so, you know, our recommendation is, you know, Parks and Recreation as we grow, grow and grow and that's wonderful. We're getting where acquiring more park land. But the programing is going to be. Speaker 0: Spent on how. Speaker 6: To keep up. Speaker 0: We went 3 minutes, if you can conclude. Speaker 6: I would conclude that as we have other funding measure A as we're getting collectives, marijuana collectives, that the tax on those collectives go to these type of programs. Because what I can tell you, keeping our young people away from those collectives have been very difficult. So as we're trying to change them for work experience and jobs and career development and going to college is very hard. Speaker 5: Thank you. So fantastic recommendation. Speaker 0: Thank you. So thank you all for for coming out. And that concludes public comment. So at this point, members, please cast your vote. Speaker 6: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to work with our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department on this item and return to the City Council, within 120 days, detailing the following: • Overview of city-wide park programming (hours and funding expended in each location); • Basis of prioritization for programming in each area; • Overview of current park programming participants based on zip-code; • Policies/processes that can be re-reviewed, example: - Waiving park permit fees for organizations that are activating our parks in low programmed areas; - Providing umbrella permits for annual community events vs. having community groups apply each and every year for the same event; - Outlining clear rules for city-wide park entertainment, so that it either includes each region of the city OR provides the funding in lieu of, for areas that did not receive the benefit of the city-wide park entertainment; - Overall suggestions for more equitable programming city-wide from our Parks department; and Request City Manager, or his designee, to retur

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Speaker 0: Thank you. So let's move forward with item number 27. Please. Speaker 6: Item 27 is communication from Councilwoman Price, Councilwoman Gonzalez and Councilmember Peers recommendation to request the city manager to report back to council within 90 days on current city ordinances regarding residential parking requirements for garage use. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 8: Thank you. This item actually has come to us as a result of a parking study that was commissioned by the Belmont Store, Belmont Shore Parking Commission. And they came back with a series of recommendations. And this is one of the recommendations that staff has communicated to the residents they would be supporting. So I'm not sure I know there's someone here from Public Works, but the item pretty much speaks for itself. It's trying to encourage people to clean out their garages so that they can park in their garages. We have a lot of parking impacted neighborhoods, and the goal is just to try to encourage and streamline the permitting process so that people who want to remodel their garages so that the modern cars can fit. And some of these homes were built in the twenties and thirties. They can't fit their cars in there. So we want to make sure that we provide an environment that allows for that to happen and support our neighborhood organizations who are working on efforts to do community cleanups and things of that nature. And since staff is supporting this recommendation, I ask my colleagues to do so as well. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: Yes. I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Councilwoman Price, for bringing this item forward. I think it's important, you know, that we are enforcing the rules that are on the books. And if we're not enforcing them, we should, of course, revisit them and make sure that we're adjusting as needed. And so I'm thankful for this item as being in a parking impacted district. I also want to say that while we're looking at the permitting process to try to assist people that are going through this process, they were also included in the report to establish a process for those who might be able to prove financial hardship by giving them more time to adjust the situation, whether it's, you know, rebuilding their garage or cleaning out their garage, that we include that in the report as well. I know I've had a couple of calls into my office from constituents that have had that issue, but I do ask my colleagues to support us in this item. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So the scene is open. Any public comment on this item saying no members, please cast your vote.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager return to council within 90 days to: • Report back on the current city ordinances regarding residential parking requirements for garage use, what efforts the city undertakes to enforce such ordinances, and recommendations of how these ordinances can be better utilized to enforce these ordinances in parking impacted areas; • Work with Development Services to report back on the permitting process for garage expansion and retrofitting permits, and the feasibility of expediting and streamlining incentivizing residents to bring their garages up to code for parking use; and • Report on the feasibility of the city sponsoring a community garage clean-up day where large-scale trash disposal and hauling is provided for the residents who choose to participate in the clean-up day.

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Speaker 6: Motion case. Speaker 0: Thank you. Item 30, please. Speaker 6: Item is the report from Development Services recommendation to approve the 2018 through 2022 five year consolidated plan and Fiscal Year 2018 Action Plan for the Community Development BLOCK Grant. Home Investment Partnership Grant and Emergency Solutions Grant Funds City Wide. Speaker 0: Thank you. Staff and Property. Speaker 1: Development Services Director Amy Burke. Speaker 8: Mr. Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, thank you very much. We are here today for your annual hearing on the CDBG action plan, but we're also here today for your annual your every five year report on the CDBG CDBG consolidated plan. I will need to get up and get the clicker. So hold on 1/2. If you could have the slide advanced, that would be great. One more before that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. So we're here to talk about the federal funding program, CDBG home and the Emergency Solutions Grant Program. Those three programs come through development services and they are administered through our grants administration division. And I wanted to talk to you about what the consolidated plan is, how it relates to our housing element, etc.. So the chart behind you and for the audience shows that we're here today to discuss the consolidated plan in the annual action plan. But we feed into that information from our housing element and from our recently adopted assessment for for Fair Housing, which was also a federal housing and urban development requirement. CDBG funding has declined significantly since our high of almost $14 million in funding back in 2003. We get roughly 5.3 to $5.6 million a year right now, and that's what we will be getting for our fiscal year 18. We as this chart shows that we will be getting 5.5 million in CDBG, $491,000 for ESG, which is, again, the emergency services grant, and about $2.1 million for home for a total entitlement of 8.177. We are an entitlement city, which means that it is not a competitive process for us. And so we do have the ability to receive this money directly from HUD. Here is your CDBG eligible areas. Last a few months ago and we spent some time talking to you about our assessment for fair housing and racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty. Those areas are in black throughout the CDBG eligible areas, and then the areas within red are those areas where we're going to be focusing our new place based neighborhood improvement strategy areas. This place based neighborhood improvement strategy area is a new CDBG initiative. They are trying to focus our dollars in very specified areas to enhance our abilities to make noticeable improvements in the quality of those neighborhoods. Again, this slide shows you how we are required to include our five SFH goals into the Consolidated Plan. These are directives by HUD, and so we don't have a lot of opportunity to be creative in how we administer our consolidated plan. We are required to go through a HUD planning process. We are required to do an analysis based on census and the American community surveys. We're supposed to do social service records and consultation with agencies, a robust public input process define where gaps and services are defined, the eligibility for funding based on HUD rules, and then actually try to work through all of these processes to determine how to best spend our limited resources. So we went through an eight month public participation process that included door to door outreach, particularly in those recap areas. We had a multi-lingual housing and community needs survey. We did that both online and through hard copies. We had that in the four language access languages. We had workshops and community meetings, housing resource fair and a community forum. We did consultations and focus groups. We did a version of participatory budgeting in the recap areas. And then we had two public hearings and a study session at our Long Beach Community Investment Company, which is designated by the City Council for determining the use of the funding received by HUD grants. Couple of images of some of our community input process. And then here are the five community, the five priority areas that we're required to be focusing on in conjunction with our assessment for fair housing. Housing needs, homeless needs, economic development, community facilities and infrastructure. And then community services needs. We also have five common plan goals again affordable housing, homelessness, supporting activities that assist with basic needs and eliminate blight and or strengthen neighborhoods. Expanding economic opportunities. And then promoting fair housing choice. All of these go into our considerations as we are working through this process. So again, it's a combination of public input directives from HUD, our own research and analysis, and then the results of our assessment for fair housing. So in fiscal year 18, we are looking at allocating dollars to those five goals, and that is in your presentation as well as in the PowerPoint presentation behind you. We're going to continue to fund, for example, the Multi-Service Center in the same level that we are funding it right now. We're continuing programs like our Security Deposit Assistance Program, which actually helps people who may be able to afford rent but cannot come up with a security deposit. So we fund this program through the health department and through the Multi-Service Center. We spend money on emergency shelters, rapid rehousing, street outreach. We also spend dollars on new construction, acquisition and rehabilitation, particularly through our home dollars that we receive as well. You're probably familiar with our home improvement rebate program that we have the $2,000 home rebate program. We're proposing a new home improvement loan program in a $10,000 amount because the $2,000 just doesn't stretch far enough. The graffiti removal program would remain funded. We would continue to fund the Neighborhood Resource Center, the Neighborhood Leadership Program, which also gets outside resources, senior services, afterschool and weekend recreation programs. Code enforcement is a significant user of CDBG dollars. And when we spend money on code enforcement, that is only in those CDBG CDBG eligible areas. We're also funding the Sidewalk Improvement Project as part of our obligations. We have a tree planting program and then this targeted placemaking program is really in those place based neighborhood improvement areas that HUD is directing us to spend our resources in now for economic development. We are proposing we worked with the Economic and Property Development Bureau to come up with some ways to spend our dollars on economic development and there to continue to support the SPDC, the Small Business Development Center at Long Beach City College, providing a new line of credit loan program as well as a business revitalization program, specifically along corridors. And then number five is we are obligated by HUD to enter into contracts to promote fair housing choice. And so we do have an annual contract for Fair Housing Services and we do an RFP for those services. Right now, Fair Housing of Long Beach is providing those services for us. So with your consideration tonight, we would be approving the five year consolidated plan, the one year action plan for the $8.8 million in budget that we would be receiving from HUD. We would be submitting this report to HUD by the deadline of August 15th. If they certify it, it would be effective October one, and then our program year would begin October one as well. That completes my staff report. I and my staff are available to answer any questions. I want to point out that Alem Hagos and Liz Salcedo did an amazing amount of work on this and the assessment of fair housing over the last year in doing community outreach and putting together all of the prioritization areas and then, of course, complying with brand new HUD directives on very short notice. So with that, thank you for your consideration. Speaker 0: Thank you. And before we go to the Council for comment, would you mind elaborating more on the new targeted program? I want to understand what that is. Speaker 8: So HUD is basically suggesting that we go back to the the old concept of a neighborhood improvement strategy area. They're calling it place based initiatives. But what they're saying is that they want you to aggregate your resources in geographically concentrated areas that would be allowed to take advantage of naturally occurring improvements in those areas and then throwing additional resources into those areas to create more evidence of positive change. Speaker 0: So can you be specific. Speaker 8: In the areas or in. Speaker 0: What like what tangible things are included in this? What, ten tangible activities. Speaker 8: So what tangible activities? So some of it can be for those areas. Some of them may not have very strong leadership, very strong neighborhood leadership. So focusing on working with those neighborhood groups, defining what those neighborhoods need, some of them have commercial corners in there. So it might be a massive facade improvement program, specifically along that commercial corridor for that portion of the town. It could also be enhanced code enforcement if that's what that specific neighborhood needs. So it does depend on each of the neighborhoods and how we focus those resources in those neighborhoods. Speaker 0: Thank you. I think I'll have more questions later, but we'll go to the council. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: I think you staff and thank you, Amy, for the good presentation. Can you elaborate a little bit of how the outreach and how you outlined it in here, but just how it's different this year versus previous years? Speaker 8: Yes, we went door to door, which is something that we don't normally do. So we actually did fliers door to door specifically in those recap areas, which are the dark outlined areas and black trying to get people who typically do not participate in surveys or community meetings to get their feedback and interest. And so there was a lot of knocking and walking that we did. We also did a YouTube video. I'm not sure how many likes we have on it, but it was an additional attempt for us to try to communicate in a different way. And we had those videos translated as well, traditional community meetings. We did some forums, a resource fair. Speaker 5: Where we brought other. Speaker 8: Interested parties to participate and use that opportunity to educate people on what we were trying to do. And then, as I said, the online surveys and then the in-person surveys as well. Speaker 9: Great things I really enjoyed whenever we met this week, hearing the stories from staff and how much they enjoyed going door to door. I know that none of these areas are in my district, but I think of those opportunities as a great opportunity to partner with the council offices so that we can help walk and talk and get some of our residents engaged in and knocking and talking to their neighbors as well. Can you answer for me? Do the changes to the subsequent one year action plans impact the five year consolidated plan? Speaker 8: No. The five year consolidated plan is the umbrella plan. And then our one year plan has to be consistent with the five year plan. Speaker 9: And is a five year plan of our subject to change in that five years, or is that just. Speaker 5: It is. Speaker 8: Actually even our one year plans are subject to change. So we do have amendments, I believe, proposed for this year, for this action item related to some of our other older action plans. If we make a change to funding for any of our action plans, we are now required to amend those action plans instead of just carrying over any excess revenue that we used to have. So in our action tonight, we are actually asking you to amend the 2016 and 2017 action plan as well as for specifically for infrastructure purposes. Speaker 9: Great. Thank you so much. And now looking at 418 action plans, I know how much this council has talked about supporting activities and homelessness. And so it's great to see, you know, our action plan focused on that. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Andrews. I'm sorry. Okay, Councilwoman. No, go. Speaker 5: It it's been a while since we first started talking about this. I know that I had the opportunity to sit down with Miss Bodak on almost a year ago when you were working on this project and gathering the data and the input on the targeted placemaking, how many specific designated areas off the map would that $700,000 go to do? Does the grant decide that it's a lower number of higher concentrated placemaking, or are you trying to spread it out more? I only ask because there's a lot of dialog about activating our corridors and I noticed a lot of these areas are along some corridors and some of my colleagues had asked for corridor activation type ideas for the upcoming budget and perhaps this could meet those needs. Speaker 8: Understood. Certain neighborhoods are going to benefit more than others on corridors, for example, the one in the very far northeast corner of the city, we are mostly looking at economic development along that corridor. We don't see other opportunities. That's the very red one at the very top of the map. So I say east, I meant west. I'm from the East Coast. So the one on the very top of the map, that one we view as being a prime example of where we can focus some dollars on economic development for those corridors because it's a very stable neighborhood otherwise. But the business district up there is is wanting investment and there is the ability for us to make some targeted improvements up there. We don't envision that the $700,000 will be spread evenly. We do think that there will be different needs for those different areas and that we'll be responding to those needs appropriately. Speaker 5: And I also noticed the concentration of boxes on the Anaheim corridor is that another area where placemaking would be ideal. Speaker 8: In Anaheim and PCH or the other two East-West corridors that we're looking at as well. And one of the red areas, the place based neighborhood improvement area, does cover the Washington neighborhood from. Home to PCH along Pacific Avenue. Yes. Speaker 5: So could you give a couple of examples of the types of things you'd be doing in these neighborhoods? Speaker 8: So for something like that neighborhood, we might be focusing a little bit on corridor improvements along Anaheim, but we also might be focusing on some fair housing issues in the neighborhood itself. So it will depend on the geography of the neighborhood and the needs within those each individual neighborhoods as to how we we target those investments. We may, for example, contribute to park development. We may try to focus on a key acquisition of a piece of property that that might assist us in park acquisition or park development. It just depends, again, on the neighborhood. And then will that be. Speaker 5: Braided with the funding over goal four, which is the business revitalization program so that you really love Regina for $1,000,000? Speaker 8: We hope so, yes. So we do have the business improvement, economic development focus as well. So if there's a way for us to combine, for example, the letter of credit and a facade improvement program and sending somebody to the Small Business Development Center for additional business training, we can leverage different resources also from different agencies to try to make improvements in those areas and at the speeds. Speaker 5: Of those pay as you go. So if you refer 15 people, they send you a bill or you giving them an outright 110 hoping that we utilize it, we. Speaker 8: Actually give them an outright 110, but they are required to provide a certain number of trainings and technical assistance classes over the course of the year, and they're required to report to us quarterly on those activities in exchange for that flat rate. So we negotiate that in advance and they have trainings and offer one on one assessments and consultations throughout and they do have benchmarks that they do have to meet. Speaker 5: I'm very supportive of SPDC. I appreciate the work that they do with the businesses. I would say that the trend nationally is towards outcomes, not ours, and that we probably need to be looking at that as well. It's great to say they've provided 70 hours of X, Y or Z, but what are the outcomes that we are looking for as a city? And no matter how many hours it takes for them to accomplish those, whether it be less or more, yes, that trend is coming. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Speaker 8: It's been a long haul. Speaker 5: To get here. Congratulations and thank you for the work that your team has done. Speaker 8: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes, thank you. To Amy and Alim and and Liz, I really appreciate this work as well. And I am glad that we are focusing on corridors that like Anaheim and PCH that we've long worked on together. I know, Amy, we had a discussion about us CDBG funding, and I had asked about whether, you know, in Anaheim and PCH, historically, a lot of the business owners are not able to fund and front the the funding to be able to pay for their storefront and then get reimbursed. So is there a way that the city is able that we are able to front that that money for a business signage program? Speaker 8: Right. That question is still being discussed between Alem and our Los Angeles region. Great. So we don't quite have an answer for you yet. Speaker 11: Okay, perfect. I'm glad we're we're at least thinking about. Yes, I think that would be great if we are able to do it. But I know that there's sometimes some hurdles we have to go through. Right. Thank you. Okay. And then in terms of I'm looking at the consolidated plan priority areas and I see under housing needs, which I know in some areas of my community, I see in there rental security, deposit assistance. Is that just for individuals experiencing homelessness or are we looking that at that kind of broadly? Speaker 8: It is for individuals who are experiencing homelessness or may be experiencing homelessness. It does include the ability to refer folks like college students who may be, you know, bouncing around from apartment to apartment. They actually would actually qualify for that. And we've had discussions with Cal State, Long Beach, as well as the Multi-Service Center on how to direct kids in need who may be able to hold down a job and pay rent. But they're just not able to come up with that first month, last month security deposit situation. So it is definitely income based and you do have to demonstrate that you do have the ability to continue to pay rent once you are in a in an apartment. Speaker 11: Okay, great. Thank you. That clarifies my question. And thank you for the work. This looks fantastic. And I look forward to working with you again on on future discussions on this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Super. Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks for the report, Director Buddha. I just have a question, if we could from, from the presentation on the 418 action plan activities. The number for code enforcement. Could you just give a very brief delineation of what that looks like? Speaker 8: So the one we are requesting budget of $1.159 million for code enforcement. Code enforcement is funded by CDBG. A portion of the staff is funded by General Fund. And then there's a small portion of staff that is funded by the prep inspection program. So we are not able to increase the number of staff who are funded by CDBG. Without getting into issues of supplementation. We can't supplant the general fund in any of our expenses. So we are not able to reduce our general fund and increase our code enforcement to cover additional costs. So we're very careful about that proportionality between General Fund and CDBG. Our CDBG funded folks only work in CDBG eligible areas. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Also on on the funding for the Multi-Service Center, is is that a flexible number or is is that kind of locked in at this point? Speaker 8: It is as high as we can go without cutting other services. We have a category called public service, and we are limited by HUD regulations to only funding 15% of our total entitlement for those things in that category. And we are somewhere hovering around 14.91%. And so we don't have the ability to increase that without cutting something else. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. And I know you're 292 page report is an E version here. What about the presentation? Do we have an electronic version of the of the slide show? Speaker 8: Yes, it is actually attached to the led to start item for this item and it's available through the city clerk's web page. And I can certainly make it available. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. I'm not quite through the 290 pages yet, so I'll get there. Speaker 8: Thank you. The council meeting is still going on right now, so. Speaker 1: You don't have to tell me. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Speaker 12: Yes, fine. First of all, I want to thank Amy and our crew, which has done a fantastic job, because the fact that, as she noticed, you know, I'm just constantly in whenever I get a chance, I'm going to drop by and see Mrs. Moore. That because the fact that I know what she and her staff does and I just like to listen to her talk about it because it makes me feel excited because I know they're doing something in my area, but want to think that like, you know, just one thing I'd like to ask you, Mrs. Amy, is that, you know, you said that $2,000 for businesses and it's from 2000 to 10000, it's $2,000. Speaker 8: We currently have a rebate program right now for $2,000. We are looking to create a brand new program that would increase it to $10,000. Speaker 12: That's that's the one. Yeah. Thank you so much. Because that's but the same project, right? Yes. Thank you so much. Yes. Speaker 0: Thank you. Gasoline place. Speaker 8: I just had a question about this map. That's up. Can you just tell me what's what is that property on the southeast side of it is this sea tip wetlands. We do not really address that. Okay. According to HUD's data, it is a CDBG eligible area. Hmm. Okay. Those birds are innocent. We. We do not know how that happened, but they are on our map. Okay. That's what Jack and I were looking at the map thinking as. Are we reading it correctly? Is there an area that we didn't know about? Okay. It's a racially and ethnically challenged, concentrated area of poverty, according to HUD. Thank you. We have not found that one wetland plant that is suffering yet. Speaker 5: So that sounds good. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. So I just have a couple a couple of things. So, Ms.. Barack, we brief monthly and I enjoy those briefings on Joy, our conversations. And, you know, I've been following this, but apparently I haven't been filing that close enough because of a couple of things. So, one, I didn't know about some, you know, two specific things that I think I probably should have known coming into tonight. One is the specific strategies and tactics associated with the with the budget. I would have loved to, like, have some time to talk with you about those tactics that are in, you know, page seven or I don't know which side that is page seven on the handout and page eight, because, frankly, a lot of these programs are, you know, good, successful stuff. But I would love to just better understand how they work together to improve, you know, these these corridors, the corridor, this highlighted in the northwest portion of the map. So that does have two active neighborhood associations who meet monthly are really engaged. I would love for them to, you know, be able to weigh in specifically those two neighborhood associations on this. And then secondly, like, you know, just south of there, south of Artesia, we've got an all hands on deck approach. And I'm saying that you know this, but the public may not, but we've got an all hands on deck approach to clean up those motels because the recent homicide and luxury in the history of human trafficking and it just stands out to me that we are literally a block north, you know, a block north of that. And if we had had this conversation sooner, I would have probably said, hey, we need to look at how this can be a part of a larger strategy for clean up the motels and the human trafficking on that corridor. So, you know, secondly, I would kind of like to know if we did and I know this is and we joke P.B. late, this is your attempt to be like, I'll give it to you with not fully participatory budgeting but you know, we'll agree to disagree is fine. But I would say my question is that we do any specific outreach with those neighborhood associations adjacent and they'd I'd like to know which residents like how much of the total surveys came from residents in that neighborhood. How was how much was this informed by that engagement? Is that an answer we have handy? Speaker 8: I do not have the survey addresses with me on where the survey results came from, but we can certainly get those for you. I will say that I'm not sure that the discussion with the motels and the human trafficking would have actually been CDBG eligible. I do take responsibility for, frankly, forgetting about that one place based and neighborhood improvement strategy area up in your district. I literally completely forgot about it as being an eligible place best air area, and it is my responsibility to brief you on those things. Having said that, I do believe that that corridor is in need of economic development. We have done additional facade improvement work, as you know, up there. We've also granted a few $2,000 facade grants to new businesses just north of Artesia. And we'd like to continue that trend because there are still vacancies up there and business owners that are wanting to come in there, we can get you the information on the specific neighborhoods that we did brief. And if you want specific names, we can try to get you those as well. Speaker 0: I would I would just say that. I would like some time to talk about this with you, given that, you know, largely this is in north, west, central Long Beach. I feel and, you know, this is a five year strategy, a five year plan. I feel like we need to have some time to make sure we're all comfortable and on the same page, given how much of a focus we placed on Long Beach Boulevard with human trafficking and the issues there and you know, the liquor stores, it's all been hand in hand with your office. So my question for you is we're on a timeline to get this submitted to HUD by August. We've discussed that timeline. Do we have any time to make some changes to this? Speaker 8: I think that would be very difficult unless it was changes that were made and re recirculated to the public. These documents have been out in draft form for a number of months and we've had two public hearings and a study session at the Long Beach Community Investment Company, where they've had robust discussions about where the money should go as well. As I said though, earlier, the dollars and how they are implemented on the place based neighborhood improvement strategy areas get defined based on availability of dollars and then also based on additional input with the communities. We do not have those strategies laid out right now, and so I'd be a little bit reticent about delaying this discussion because we we have completed all the community outreach and do have all the data that was based on HUD's requirements in order for us to move forward. Speaker 0: So I get that I want to be sensitive to that deadline. What flexibility do we have? I don't like when the council get something and it's like, you got to pass it now. No time for changes. So what changes can we actually make without running afoul of the deadline? Speaker 1: I mean. Speaker 2: The document is due regulatory. Speaker 1: On August 15 and. I think the breakup of the place was neighborhood improvement strategy. It's not fully defined, so we can always come back and talk in terms of allocating resources and programs. But as far as this document is concerned, we might have a couple of weeks before we really need to submit it to heart because there are other paperwork we have to take care of before submitting it on August 15. Speaker 0: Okay. So here's what I would ask. You know, I would like to specifically the question of the boundaries. Do we have was that something we established on these placement targets or was that. Speaker 1: The. Speaker 0: Boundaries of data? Like what was the criteria to establish. Speaker 8: That the red boundaries we established based on public input and areas of need and resources. Speaker 0: Okay. Speaker 8: And any periods or defined. Speaker 0: Are already defined for the red areas, is what I'm concerned about. I'd like to be able to weigh in on that. Speaker 8: Yes. Speaker 0: And so if we had a conversation between now and placing it back on the agenda in August, do we have time to have a limit conversation about the red areas? And you know, and I don't want you know, I don't want if other council members are comfortable with it in their district, that's fine. I'm just not comfortable. It was in my district. So. So I think I would like to have that question answered before we submit this to to to the feds. Speaker 8: And the answer is yes. Speaker 0: Okay. So what I'd like to do if the council is open to this. I would love to continue this to, you know, council meeting on August 9th for to complete it and then. Ms. BODAK I'm willing to get together this week if we need to, to talk about I need to better understand it, the criteria and the strategies around that, that red area, because it's a major it's a major sore area for North Long Beach, given the recent homicide. Given the history of prostitution, gang activity on that corridor adjacent to another city, we've had a bunch of circumstances where a crime happens in one city and someone may flee into the other. There's a where, you know, we have a joint task force with, you know, Compton Lynwood to address some of this stuff. And I feel I don't feel completely comfortable yet. So, you know, so if that is possible, I'll offer that as a, you know, friendly to the maker of the motion. Ms.. Pearce. Speaker 8: May. May I make a suggestion? Yes. Due to the timing that we have to comply with, we could remove that area, adopt the rest of the document as it is, and then come back and do an amendment to the document at a later date. Throughout this, you're. Speaker 0: Comfortable approving the document with or without the corridor there. So how is it we can amend it later before the deadline, but we can't take some time with it. I don't understand. Speaker 5: Why it would. Speaker 8: Be amended after they have certified it, so we would be able to do additional community outreach. I don't feel comfortable coming back to you August 8th without having gone through additional research and additional community outreach and having detailed discussions on whether the goals that you're trying to reach are even eligible for this funding source. Speaker 0: So, so, so here's the issue that I have. And, you know, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to allow this to sort of move forward. But the issue I have here is when something comes from the council and there's no flexibility to make changes, and I think that's unfair to the public that we're held accountable to. And and frankly, you know, if we're talking about expanding it to include something and not taking out what was already circulating in the community, I don't see how the community would be shorted if they say, hey, we advocated for this corridor, but we said we're going to keep that, but maybe extended a few blocks to make sure there's some intersectional ism, you know, with with the strategies that happen. To me that makes sense. And I don't think it's a tough argument to to a community to say, look, we're doing this, but the council expanded its scope. So is that something we can do at the dais today expanding? Yes. I would like the. Speaker 8: Area. Speaker 0: Of the red boundary south toward to be able to look at the CDBG, CDBG areas, those motels and the strategies adjacent to that. That's something we can do on the floor without doing something that's already there. Speaker 2: We really walked. Speaker 1: Through the neighborhoods. We are talking about the north part of this corridor. But how far south are you suggesting to the Alamo? Well. Speaker 0: I mean, you know, honestly, I don't want to say limited, but there's a lot of activity in LA of these one of our even south of even north of the Alamo, frankly. But what I what what I would suggest is in my recommendation. Speaker 8: I want to just make it clear that we are we still have CDBG money for the other areas. We are not. Speaker 1: It's not. Speaker 0: Other funding. It's a strategy. And when we go out to the public and we say that the public is backing this, I want to feel comfortable standing by it. We don't have a lot of sources of funding limited to these areas. We don't have access to redevelopment anymore. We don't have access to Tidelands. There's almost no funding to be creative about our solutions. So this is more important than most people understand. Four counties like North Long Beach. So what I would do here's what I'm going to suggest. We move forward with this as is unless, you know, someone wants to kind of chime in in support of this, maybe we look at an addendum to add some include a couple of areas because frankly, I just don't know that we would have a coordinated strategy, city strategy, a block away from an important coordinated city strategy that addresses some of the similar things, which is blight, activating certain area, dealing with the condition of people who live in a certain condition. And so that's that's where I'm coming from. But I see that there are other people queued up here. So we'll continue the conversation. Councilmember Bianca. Speaker 10: Thank you, Mayor. Well, the concern that I have with this whole whole the report is that, you know, I haven't really had a chance to review it, digest it and really understand it. And in regard to that map right there, I can't really tell. In my in my district where the borders are. And secondly and most importantly for me. I'm colorblind. Speaker 1: You get rid to take two. Speaker 10: Different types of red. You got a thick creating a thin red that's black or white or whatever. I can't tell you the color. So, like, you are pleased. Please deal with my frustration because like you, it's a real disability. And when I'm not given an opportunity to really evaluate it and look at it and digest it and determine where are those areas and borders that we're talking about. And when you're talking about Mozart, I didn't even know how south, how far south you're talking about, Rex. But you were north for for whatever it is. But, you know, I basically bottom line, I just haven't had a good opportunity to review this with my staff or with anybody, any anyone else concerned in my community to look at this. I feel like Rex does in the sense that if we move forward with this, you know, you want to feel comfortable that when I'm asked, you know, what did you do? What did you have for CDBG monies in your in your district? I won't I don't have an answer because I don't know. And I'm very I'm in dark on this right now. And I would have loved to have had a prior type of orientation on it to share these these concerns with with staff so that I can have a better understanding as to what what these borders are. So I'm going to make a the motion to please hold this over for until October 9th. Speaker 0: You said an amending motion. Speaker 10: In August that. Well, you said amending motion. Speaker 0: Is that a friendly to make a motion or a substitute motion? Speaker 10: Because you were the one you were the one saying that. Speaker 1: You. Speaker 2: Do the things you're willing to do to do. Speaker 0: So that's a friendly to the making of the motion. No, not at all. I'll get the first meeting in August so it wouldn't need to be re agenda as it is continuing. Right. We can continue to a date. Certain is that. Are you open about making the motions open to that next speaker please. Speaker 5: Councilwoman Mongo So I'm compassionate to the idea that it's hard when things come back with a short deadline. I get that. Vice Mayor, you and I spoke about these funds last year at the end of budget, at which time eight months ago, Ms.. Bodak and I sat and started the discussion and dialog related to this. And one of the things that I want to be careful of is the raw community input process that was done by the staff. And so I think that I would like to be respectful of their input and data. I'm happy to add to it, but I definitely don't want to take away from it. So, Ross Bodak, if we approve tonight, what is on there? Could we add another zone at a future date that would allow you to continue forward with the process without limiting your abilities? Speaker 8: Yes. Speaker 5: Okay. So. I. I. Councilman Pearce, you took the friendly before. So do you want another friendly or would you prefer me make a substitution? No, I don't. Okay. So my friendly would be that we make a motion to approve the substance of the community input the components that are required for HUD, the legal register, regulations that are binding, and that we ask development services to bring back to the Council an additional area to be considered at a future date. Hopefully, if you can get the input in time August 11th, but that we would still I'm sorry, August 10th, eighth, eighth, August 8th. Thank you. Tuesday, August 8th. There is a great opportunity the Tuesday before in neighborhood night out to potentially gain some of that input because the community will be activated and available. And so hopefully that would be possible. But I also don't want to one, miss out on a deadline or to rush an important process that I know you've been working on for eight months. So my friendly would be to approve the report as it stands today with an expectation of an amendment to this council. Quickly, hopefully. August 8th. Speaker 9: I accept. That's wonderful. I think I accept that. Definitely I do. You know, I want to recognize that. I think it was last week we had a briefing to discuss. I'm sorry. I'll accept it. And then any other comment, Stacy, before that? Speaker 5: That's all. I don't want to hold up any of the others. And as stated by Ms.. Bodak, just because those areas are highlighted doesn't mean all the funding goes to those areas. And I do respect that. Vice Mayor Richardson wants to highlight another area as a part of a greater citywide strategy. But to do that appropriately, I worry that it might take longer than the deadline, but I'm opening that window that it's possible that work for everyone. Speaker 0: In the city staff. I'm comfortable with it. If we can have that discussion before, that's something we can do. Speaker 8: I don't know if we'll be able to come back by August 8th in either situation. Speaker 0: So let's keep let's keep going in. This could keep the conversation going. Councilmember Patricia, next. Speaker 9: Yeah, I wanted to, you know, set the friendly with the recognition that you guys have been doing. The you guys have been doing the work. You've had the meetings with us. Hold on. I'll wait for everybody. Speaker 6: It's okay. Speaker 9: Sorry, ma'am. It's okay. I know it's an active topic, which I think demonstrates that sometimes we have briefings with staff and it kind of comes in and it's like, this is what we're doing. And not to take away from all the work that staff has done in your leadership, with your staff and direction that you've given them . But when there's areas like vice mayor, as mentioned, that we clearly care deeply about, sometimes there is a there's trying to understand where do we have input early on in the process and where are we best partners with you? And so and able to be that best partner with you early on will keep us from feeling like we now all of a sudden, oh, there is a decision that we could have had an input on earlier. And so again, really echoing that, particularly with with strategies like this, that we really need to be partnering ahead of time. And so I'll accept definitely the the friendly. But you know, I think the vice mayor and everybody else's has done a lot of work on this. So as much as we can get approved right away and make those amendments and that we are constantly having those conversations on, are there other amendments and things that we can be looking at to make sure it's aligning with other strategies that we're already working on and that we feel comfortable with so we can go back to our constituents. So, yes, thank you. Speaker 8: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 7: Thank you. And Ms.. Burdick, if you have already explained this and I missed it, please forgive me. But the addendum or amendment process that you were speaking to, can you walk us through what that that is and how that looks like with what that would look like in terms of a timeline? We would I'm inclined to support the friendly on the floor that that would allow us to approve this document this evening or the plan this evening and then move forward with that. But I'd be full, a lot more comfortable if I knew what the process was. Speaker 5: Right. Speaker 8: So we would like to be able to submit this to HUD and then work closely with you and the vice mayor and any other council members that are interested in re addressing this. We would actually have to have a public hearing to do an amendment and it would be actually be called an amendment to the con plan and our 2018 action plan. If you notice on your recommendation tonight, as I said earlier, there are two amendments to the other action plans because we are moving budget from one item to another and that's considered an action plan. So it is procedural for us to do that. It's not too difficult. It's just a little bit time consuming, particularly when there is neighborhood outreach. I do want to address one question that was asked earlier. We did reach out to College Square and Star King neighborhoods in particular and did get survey results back from them. So that does. Speaker 6: Those were the two groups that we were working. Speaker 8: With in that northernmost area. Speaker 7: Okay. And the last part is, obviously, there are areas that I'd like to see addressed in my district that I think would be great, particularly in those red zones in terms of neighborhood space, placemaking. And there was a I think I lost my thought. There's talking going on there area. What do you want to do? Just go to school. Okay. Speaker 0: I mean, we all have areas that we'd like to address. Speaker 7: But again, I'm looking at that and having a better understanding and getting a better understanding this evening. I think it would be good. And I would also just say that dealing with the unknown variables in Washington, D.C., dealing with HUD today, I don't think it would be wise for us to to push the envelope. Dealing with the unknown here. And I don't think I need to speak about what that is in the administration. Remember, Ben Carson is the guy who's going to ultimately approve this. Speaker 0: Thank you. Before we get to Customs, I have a question. So in terms of the process, we're an amendment process, and I'm inclined to go that direction if if it makes sense. But have we considered what it takes to actually get an extension from her? What is that process? Speaker 8: We actually tried to get an extension last year on our assessment for fair housing and. Speaker 0: And they didn't go well. Speaker 8: We did not get an extension for our employees. Speaker 0: Not looking. Speaker 1: Good. Speaker 8: And that was in December of 20 1716, excuse me. So it was a different administration and we still did not get the. Speaker 0: I get it. I get it. Okay. So next we have Councilmember Braga. Speaker 10: To follow up on. That is the amendment that we would make if we were to go ahead and say, let's move forward and we had an amendment, when would that take place or what would be the the timeline on that? Speaker 8: When we felt that we have addressed all of your questions, we would schedule an amendment to come back to city council. Speaker 10: But it's got to be before August 15th. Speaker 8: It will not be before August 15th. Speaker 10: Okay. So then there's there's an opportunity then for us to readdress our concerns or to express our concerns and added to the document as an amendment when it's to the original document. Yes. Okay. Because I do have obviously questions, as Councilmember Austin mentioned to you, I have concerns about the outreach in my West Palm Beach area as well. I mean, so it's like I mean, we all have these little pockets of neighborhoods and associations and and community based organizations that have not did not reach out to me saying that we were reached out about this these these CDBG funds. And so, like, I was not aware that there was anything going on, but yet because I was not aware, I wasn't able to reach out to them and say, this is coming up, please respond and and participate in this evaluation. So if we can do this, I mean, we're sort of backtracking a little bit, but I would rather backtrack a little bit and get it right and move forward and get it wrong. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember. So now before we wrap this up, so just to restate, so we're moving forward with the document today. We will ask for staff to begin a discussion around an amendment relatively soon, let's say within the next six months request an amendment. You think that's realistic? Speaker 8: It will be far sooner than six months. Speaker 1: Yeah. We will be engaging. Speaker 5: With your. Speaker 0: Office. We should rush it. We should do sincere. We shouldn't rush it. We should do some sincere engagement. I don't think we're asking you to go double the size of everything we have on there. What we're talking about here is some adjustments, right? Speaker 8: Understood. Speaker 0: Some adjustments. Look at maybe some input or value that we could add from the council's perspective. And I'm very comfortable with with that amendment process. So so it has my support. So as any public comment on this on this item. Seeing no members. Please cast your vote. Speaker 10: Before we get we had a city attorney. Speaker 0: It seems only want to restate. Speaker 10: Emotionally the the motion as I understand it with a friendly from the fifth councilmember from the fifth district is that. Speaker 0: All our CDBG we. Speaker 10: Would adopt the motion as staff recommended and adopt and and bring back a proposed amendment. And as you would the vice mayor just stated, within a time reasonable time frame, including public outreach. Speaker 0: All right, members, we thank you both. Thank you. Speaker 6: Washing cars. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 1: All right. We are.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to approve the 2018-2022 Five-Year Consolidated Plan and Fiscal Year 2018 Action Plan for the Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnership Grant, and Emergency Solutions Grant Funds; Approve the First Substantial Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2017 Action Plan, and the Second Substantial Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2016 Action Plan; and Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary documents with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to receive these funds, execute agreements necessary to implement and comply with related federal regulations, and expend these funds for the purposes of implementing the Plans. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: All right. We are. Speaker 0: On to what item on on next. Speaker 1: Year? Speaker 0: 31 item 31, please. Speaker 6: Item 31 is a report from financial management. Recommendation to award three contracts for. Speaker 11: As needed. Speaker 6: Citywide fencing for a total annual aggregate amount not to exceed 1 million for a period of three years citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you. As a staff report. Speaker 1: Yes. One from business licenses. Good evening, honorable vice mayor and council members. The item before this evening is requesting approval to enter into contracts with various Ensign companies for as needed, permanent and temporary fencing services. These services include furnishing materials, parts and labor for as needed installation of permanent and temporary fencing, removing of old fencing and altering or repairing existing fencing. A throne. The local fencing vendor will service the temporary fencing needs of the city. And quality will be the primary vendor for all other fencing services, as will be awarded as a secondary vendor for permanent fencing services. The award represents the combined annual requirements as estimated by various city departments authorizing multiple contracts with ensure that the city departments are able to receive service for repairs and large scale fencing project projects in a timely fashion. The approval of this recommendation will also provide for continued support to our local economy by assisting in the preservation of employment for 12 full time employees residing in Long Beach. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. And Vice Mayor, I apologize. I didn't introduce Mark. Admiral, our purchasing agents. Thank you, Mark. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mark. Thank you. As any public comment on this item saying that members, please cast your vote. Speaker 5: I mean, yes. Speaker 0: And Stacey's a yes. Speaker 1: Often. Yeah. Speaker 6: Wishing case.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. ITB LB 17-068 and award contracts to Quality Fence Co., Inc., of Paramount, CA, and A-Throne Co., Inc., of Long Beach, CA, as primary vendors, and AZ Construction, Inc., dba Ace Fence Company, of La Puente, CA, as the secondary vendor, for as-needed citywide fencing, in an annual aggregate amount of $926,000, with a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $92,600, for a total annual aggregate amount not to exceed $1,018,600, for a period of three years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Thank you. Next we have item 32, please. Speaker 6: Item 32 The Report from Public Works. Parks and Recreation is Marine recommendation to water contract to pass to sack plumbing company for the Rainbird Harbor Sewage Evacuation System Repair and Upgrade Project. For a total contract amount not to exceed 1 million District two. Speaker 0: Councilman Pierce, care to speak your motion speaks that report, please. Speaker 1: Tom Modica This is the project to. Speaker 10: Essentially. Speaker 1: Upgrade our sewage system down in. Speaker 10: The marinas. It says a critical system that is at its point where it needs to be replaced. So we've been out to bid a couple of times. We're lucky to have a really good contract here and looking forward for approval from the council. Speaker 0: Thank you. Public comment on this item. Single member. Please cast your vote. Speaker 6: Oops. Speaker 0: Well, a motion fail. Let's do that again. I think we broke the Internet. Speaker 8: Okay. All right. Speaker 1: All right. Speaker 6: No. Speaker 0: Let's just do a can we just do a hand vote? All in favor. Raise your hand, please. Speaker 6: Any oppose motion carries.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7089 for the Rainbow Harbor Sewage Evacuation System Repair and Upgrade Project; award the contract to Pastusak Plumbing Company, of Long Beach, CA, in the amount of $811,600, and authorize a 25 percent contingency in the amount of $202,900, for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,014,500; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments. (District 2)

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Speaker 0: All right, let's reset the screen, please. Speaker 6: It's two nine. Speaker 0: And bring up item 33, please. Speaker 6: Just for the 30 3 a.m.. Speaker 5: Quick read 30. Speaker 6: Item 33 is a report from Public Works. Recommendation to Award a contract to SIEGEL Contractors for Street Improvement on Bellflower Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and Atherton Street for a total contract amount not to exceed 1.9 District three and four. Speaker 0: Councilman price care if this item. Speaker 8: Is there. Staff report. Speaker 1: Shawn Crombie Good evening Mayor Council. I'm 33 six to work construction to sequel contractors in the amount of 1.965 million. The project will rehabilitate Bellflower Avenue between Pacific Coast Highway and Atherton Street. Protected bike lanes will be added as part of the project and we're funded with 397,000 and bicycle grant funds. I'm available to answer any questions that you have. Speaker 0: Thank you for coming on side of me. Speaker 8: I have a question. Would you be willing to reconsider the green on the bollards? White bollards? Maybe. Now it's green. Purple. I had to ask you on the record. Speaker 1: Green ballots are the choice to represent bike lanes, and this area is going to have bike lanes on it. So green is what the standard would be. Speaker 8: I'm hearing that's a soft. Speaker 5: No. Speaker 1: Very soft. Speaker 8: Thank you. Speaker 0: All right. Kate Lewis next. Councilmember. Speaker 1: Oh, yes. If Mr. Crombie would like to explain and we've had this conversation, so I know what you're going to say, but for my constituents and I think a lot of them are probably still watching tonight. If they're wondering how the separation, the bike lanes work at the driveway of the YMCA and the restaurant, and then across the street, the medical building and the gas station, there's actually no separation of the bike lane at that point. Cars will be able to cross over. So really, the the bike lanes, the protected bike lanes stops at Dalton Creek, which is the border between the third and the fourth. That's correct. The protected bike lanes do have brakes at intersections and at all crossing driveways. And so that would be the case here. It would stop short of the intersection. Okay. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Mungo. Speaker 5: I want to thank the public works department. I know that the bike lanes in my district are also not as popular. And to Councilman Price's comment about the color of them. I will say that I did a little bit of additional research after the green was so firm from public works and all the ones that are in L.A. that are white. They look terrible. They actually don't maintain very well. They're the worst looking bollards you've ever seen. The green actually maintain their color better even against fading. And people who do hit them, which we're glad they hit those instead of the biker. So while Green can be alarming, then there are there are other setbacks. The only thing I would recommend is that they're not as close together as they are right now, even when I'm biking inside them, which I've done now a few times to get to dinner and kind of experience it, I don't know that the density of every however many feet apart they are is as necessary. If we could spread them out a little further, we'd save some funds and perhaps not be as alarming to the drivers. Speaker 1: I would say that. Speaker 7: We're refining the design of the of the protected. Speaker 0: Bike lanes, looking at things like spacing to. Speaker 7: Try to make it more. Speaker 1: Appealing. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Super. Now, once again. Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Crump. I would hope that public works can reach out to Cal State Long Beach. I know they have some construction projects that are about to start. One is a sewer project on Earl Warren Drive that will redirect busses in this area. So I think that's your standard operating procedure, is to reach out to the university and make sure your construction projects don't conflict. Speaker 0: Okay. Any public comment on this item saying members, please cast your vote.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7006 for Bellflower Boulevard, between Pacific Coast Highway and Atherton Street; award a contract to Sequel Contractors, Inc., of Santa Fe Springs, CA, in the amount of $1,786,611, and authorize a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $178,661, for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,965,272; authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments; Increase appropriation in the Gas Tax Street Improvement Fund (SR 181) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $397,084, offset by reimbursement grant revenue; and Accept Categorical Exemption No. CE 14-125. (Districts 3,4)

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Speaker 6: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Item number 34, please. Speaker 6: Item 34 is reported for public works. Recommendation two What a contract to Aldridge electorate for Long Beach Blue Line Signal Prioritization Project four Total contract amount not to exceed 2.3 mil. District 126789. Speaker 0: Thank you. And I made a motion so I can speak up on this one. You know, I'm really excited about this one. We get not just synchronization of the blue line, but we get Atlantic Avenue all the way up to the 91 from downtown, all the way up to 91, seeing signal synchronization that's going to do so much to improve the flow of traffic on Atlantic Avenue and for the blue line. So good job, city staff. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yeah, same thing. Great job. This is just more improvements, more efficiencies. It's wonderful. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. And you know, if you want to have a brief, brief staff report, please. Are we good? Okay. Councilman Pierce. Speaker 9: Super exciting, I believe is going to shave off like 10 minutes of a trip from downtown, which is huge. So just rah rah. Speaker 0: Yeah, fantastic. Great. Well, thank you so much. Is there any public comment on this item? Senior members, please cast your vote. Speaker 6: Anyone keeping track. Wishing Karis. Speaker 0: Thank you. And so I believe that it satisfies our agenda. So now we have our second public comment period. Members of the public would like to address the body. Please come forward. You have 3 minutes sing. No public comment.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7091 for the Long Beach Blue Line Signal Prioritization Project; award the contract to Aldridge Electric, Inc., of Libertyville, IL, in the amount of $2,078,187, authorize a 15 percent contingency in the amount of $311,728, for a total contract amount not to exceed $2,389,915; authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments; Increase appropriations in the Transportation Fund (SR 182) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $1,330,000, offset by funds available; and Accept Categorical Exemption No. CE-17-052. (Districts 1,2,6,7,8,9)

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Speaker 0: So one announcement and then we're going to move on to our our items. Our first item is item 21, Madam Clerk. Speaker 1: Communication for Mayor Garcia recommendation or request of city manager to report on a new clean Long Beach initiative. Speaker 0: Thank you. So I wanted to just begin by saying this is on the agenda. Tonight is really a culmination of a lot of conversation that the council has had on a variety of topics when it comes to ensuring that we have a clean community and a safe community that's litter free. I believe that a clean and beautiful city is a core service and a core thing that people look for and in every neighborhood across the community should have access to a clean neighborhood, a well manicured, street efficient trash services, clean alleys, clean walkways. And so we want to make sure that we kind of redouble our efforts in this area, if we remember the city. Probably ten, 15 years ago had some real issues when it came to cleanliness. We had graffiti that would often stay on buildings for weeks at a time. We had a lot of trash all over the city, and I think we got pretty serious, particularly about ten years ago, and focusing on those issues. We started a rapid response around graffiti and eliminated that time to about 24 to 48 hours. We put in some teams and dedicated code enforcement that would do proactive code enforcement, which was great. And then during the recession, we lost actually some of those efforts. And so a lot of the work around code enforcement, around proactive cleanup and proactive beautification really slowed down. Now, fortunately, over the last few years, the city council has been very committed, whether it's to focusing on dumped items or whether it's been focusing on expanding clean team service across the city. But I know I believe I know the council believes that we can do a lot more. We should not be satisfied with the level of cleanliness that we have on our streets today in Long Beach. While we have some streets and communities that certainly are are maintained, but by local residents more and are cleaner, we still have large parts of our city. And really, every part of our community can be cleaner and better maintained. And so there's a variety of actions on here. And I want to just kind of briefly go over some and why they're why they're important. The motion asks the city to review all of our efforts around clean out of the clean and safe team and our investments that we've made to improve response capabilities. I want to review the work regarding the illegal dumping action plan that the Council requested earlier this year. It's a review of the clean team operations for improvements or efficiencies. This one's important. I want the city to officially map every single freeway onramp and off ramp and work to improve cleanliness and conditions across the city. Caltrans has indicated to me that they're willing to work with us more in this, but we have to also be aware of where exactly every off ramp and onramp is and which ones are problematic across the city. Because I don't know about you, but I'm tired of driving on to an off of our freeways with large trash that we can't clean because it's Caltrans property. This includes a review of all of our trash cans citywide to identify opportunities to replace and or add trash cans to our budget process . I'd like to explore a city ordinance around locking trash cans in alleys. There are some cities that require dumpsters to be locked in their alleyways. We don't require that whether or not we want to pilot that in Long Beach. I have heard from some neighbors. There have been some businesses that have done this on their own. And it's unbelievable how much more clean those alleys have become overnight when they lock their large trash bins. And so it's happening already across the city. We don't require it. Should we require it? I want to see if that's something that we should do or not do. I want to review all of our supermarket and retailer shopping cart theft technology systems. This city passed probably an ordinance. I want to say maybe 12 years ago that required major retailers to begin to include shopping cart locks systems on their shopping carts. How should we expand that and go and add additional stores, including smaller stores that still include shopping carts? We're seeing more shopping carts across the city. I think we have to review the current technology. Is it working in all of the stores and tighten that up? We want to modernize our Golden Beach app, something this council's brought up numerous occasions. We need to, once and for all purchase a customer relationship management system so that every time a resident can communicate with the city about an issue, it's available online. And a record of that person is kept for every department to look at over one interface. We should review our graffiti standards. We should look at the staffing levels for proactive code enforcement, which we don't do currently because we lost during the recession. Also, laws around private and public lots and how we can strengthen those lots from being left with the trash. It is the responsibility of the property owner to keep those up. It doesn't always happen. We want to work with Long Beach Transit to ensure that every bus stop is well lit and. Has trash can service. We'd love to revisit a new litter free Long Beach campaign with our schools. We'd love to work with our kids more. And then the last two things is one is consider establishing a citywide volunteer corps that would work with neighborhood services staff for citywide cleanup events. I know that we do these regularly through council offices, which is great, but it would be great to have a consistent volunteer corps that's accessible to the city for large scale cleanups. And finally, explore any marketing campaigns that the city can be involved with. To do this, I'm really hoping that that staff will put this on the agenda because this is important. I've told staff that every city, every single city employee should be involved, whether it's a manager to a employee doing code enforcement involved in making our city look better and be a better place for our community. It's a I think it's a basic service we should be providing. And right now, the city is not the level of cleanliness that it should be, and we've got to do a better job. And so I hope that this organizes this effort. I'd love to get a report back from staff about what we're doing. I've asked all of this information to come back at a study session to the council, can ask a lot of questions and that we can get a plan in place so that one year from now we can look back and see that the city is dramatically a cleaner place. And so that is the item. I know there are some comments. I'm going to start with the maker of the motion by Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes, Mayor, I'd like to thank you. I know this has been a major sticking point for you personally, having worked with you for many years. But for our city, I know just driving anywhere in the city, we see this abundance of litter and it doesn't make us put on our best impression to outsiders of the city. So I would certainly love this item. And I want to thank you, Mayor, for bringing this forward. A couple of things that I want to add in addition to what the mayor had addressed. For one, I know many people have asked, as we were talking about expanded polystyrene, etc., is about a litter audit. Perhaps this could be entertained, but it'd be an annual litter audit to ensure that we're understanding what the physical makeup is of the trash that pollutes our streets and waterways. And secondly, he mentioned the trash receptacles, which I think is great. I know big bands are often, you know, talked about in our districts. I think those would be beneficial as well. I would also like to see a way we can get creative with our city prosecutor's office in terms of our volunteerism as well. I know we have the program where they come out, they volunteer and pick up trash or they do some, you know, some minor work at some of our events. And so perhaps that's another opportunity or other volunteers, whether that's through, as the mayor mentioned, through this corps or perhaps youth opportunities through Pacific Gateway, through our workforce development . And then lastly, the CRM or the constituent relationship management system. I can't speak enough to that. I know that it's still very important. Currently in my I work for Microsoft and we use Google at my office, if you can consider that. But we, we, we really need something like that. I think that just goes beyond just litter and tracking that. I think just for constituent cases in general, it's definitely needed. It's something that will keep us efficient, keep us on track in our city council offices, but also just citywide. So I definitely recommend that as well. And then lastly, as a lastly, a breakdown of current code enforcement timely timelines to clean up a property based on violation, a current list of properties that have received extensions for cleaning up their property and opportunities. And I think that's already included. But I would also like to just emphasize that we need to get a little bit more aggressive on that as well. I think far too long, so many property owners are given some extensions and it just delays the process and cleanliness. So thank you again to the mayor and I look forward to seeing this return. Speaker 0: Thank you. The second councilmember Orengo. Speaker 10: Thank you very much. I want all to want to thank the mayor for bringing this forward. I know it's one of those situations where we look at the city as our pride and joy and there's nothing else like we treated our own house. You know, we have been my guests. We want to make sure that it's clean, that it's litter free, that it's acceptable for treating our guests here. So that's the way I look at it. And as far as having a clean city, we also look at what our infrastructure is. And I think this goes very well with our major aid moneys in terms of getting our potholes fixed and our sidewalks and our trees trimmed and keeping our our neighborhoods up to speed in regards to making it a welcoming environment and clean our trash and keeping our streets passable and our sidewalks. Certainly adds to all that. And I know, Councilmember. Gonzalez added a few. I'm sure I'll have a few, but I don't have any today. But during a study session, when our staff comes back with their recommendations, I'm sure that there's going to be some additional things that we can add to it. But I want to I want to start this conversation and looking forward to the study later on. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 6: So I want to thank the mayor for bringing this item to and beyond just bringing the item and opening the discussion. I want to acknowledge the quality of the item itself. This item is is expertly drafted in the sense that obviously someone put a lot of time and effort into identifying and providing very specific suggestions. And I think that's really important. I appreciate items like this. I have in the past tried to bring items like this, and I think some people might think they're intense or a little, you know, too specific. But I think it just shows that you have given thought to every aspect of the particular item and evaluated opportunities for the city and provided suggestions for the city of areas that they can explore, that staff can explore and provided some direction. So I really, really appreciate items like this because it gives a lot of direction. Not that people need direction, but I think it's important kind of to get a starting point. So I really appreciate the item. I think that the trash cans in the alleys is a fantastic idea. I think it's it's something that we hear about from our residents all the time. In addition to cleanliness, I think there some public safety benefits of having locked trash cans in the alley because we do have a lot of people going through the trash cans at night and a lot of our homes back up to an alley. So I think that would be fantastic. I would support that tomorrow. The other thing that I've I've often talked to our Parks Rec and Marine team about is the possibility of having consistent trash cans throughout the city. So we have big bellies in some areas. We have some of the blue trash cans in the parks. Some of our trash cans are covered. Some of our trash cans are not covered, allowing trash to blow, especially near bodies of water. So if we could consider having consistent trash cans, I think that would be good. The on ramp, off ramp, our staff actually today aborted a mission that they started a couple of weeks ago, which was taking photos of every on ramp, an off ramp off the 405 in the city of Long Beach, because this is an item that we had planned to bring to council because the condition of the off ramps and on ramps are horrific. They it's not just trash. There are potholes. The paint has completely worn off some of the on ramps and off ramps. There's weeds growing completely out of control. And it doesn't matter what part of the city you're in. They all every single off ramp, an on ramp looks terrible. And I don't understand why that's not the same situation in other cities. You know, when you get off the off ramp in Irvine, for example, you're you're not, you know, rupturing a tire because of the level of the potholes that you have to drive over. So I don't understand that. And so I would love a report back on how that resource is allocated within Caltrans and how we can maybe work towards bettering that. I mean, I really like the idea of a volunteer corps. I will say one of the things that is very frustrating for me and perhaps some of my colleagues is we often hear that there's a lack of resources, and I understand that in response to that, we try to get creative and we organize the community and we try to get community cleanup efforts and community planting efforts. And then we're then there's a lot of why we can't do those things. So whether there are legal parameters or organizational parameters, whatever the case may be, it's like we don't we don't want to hear is we don't have the resources and we can't use volunteers because then there's no response. There is no answer. So I would love for this report to include some sort of a mechanism that takes away that level of frustration. I understand resources are limited, but if we're willing to get the workforce in place to try to mitigate some of these issues, why can't we do that ? Why can't we find a way to make that happen? So bravo to the mayor for bringing this item. Oh, the other thing is, I think the report should really include some more education for us on noticing requirements. So when people leave items behind, there's a noticing period prior to the removal of the items that are left in public. Would it be possible for us to reduce the number of days that are required for something to be noticed prior to removal? That would be great. And I think that that when we don't pick things up as quickly as we can, I think there's a lot of negative feelings that develop among the residents because they're continually looking at these items for days on end. So with that, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I completely support this discussion and where it's headed. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 4: Yes. I also really appreciate the item and I know it's something that you've talked about a lot and it's something I fully support a proactive, integrated approach to cleaning up our neighborhoods. I feel, deputy, since our first month in office, has been doing two days a week where he drives around and does proactive field work. And I wanted to share some of the numbers to demonstrate what a difference you can see. The first month that we the month prior to us being in office, there were 167 reportedly illegally dumped items reported and resolved in that first month. After April, we are April numbers were around 357 resolved issues. And so you can see whenever you're being proactive, you can really have a double the impact. And so I think going back to our trash cans, I think one of my big things I've talked to staff about and talked to will be transit about is the big belly trash cans are a great way to make sure that people aren't digging through our trash and then leaving trash around that we should have those at every single bus stop. Bus stops are where you can see a lot of trash that gathers around. And not only that, but they're also a great opportunity to use for whether we're doing education campaigns around some of our health initiatives, whether it's around recycling. But they provide us another avenue to communicate with residents. The other thing that I think has been really helpful and I want to say that we support is looking at getting volunteers out. What we've done in my district is also doing neighborhood audits. So we go out with Craftsman Village or we go out with Rosa Parks and we walk every single street talk about where the trash is due, their graffiti pickups, and really try to identify those areas so that we can have volunteers out there. I would like to also have an understanding of what the education is around big item pickups. So it particularly in my district where we have a lot of turnover and resident because we have a lot of apartments. How are we making sure that residents in those buildings understand what's available to them? And is there a way for us to increase that? Because maybe you guys staff have you could answer for me how many large item pickups does a building get per year without having to pay a fee? Sorry, I know that's a spring on you question. I think it's one you can it might be more. Speaker 0: For residential households. I believe it's two in terms of buildings that have to be more. We'd have to get that information for apartment buildings. Speaker 4: If we can include that in the report, I think that would be a way for us to make sure that we have less illegally dumped items, and that is it. So congratulations on bringing this item forward. Thank. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrew. Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. You know, first of all, I want to thank you for bringing this item forward. I'd like to suggest that the code enforcement be added to the go along with APP also. And my staff does weekly drive through the district and report illegal dumping and graffiti, which is why I know how our streets are looking . You know, the thing I think that we have, you know, as various ways that we can do more, which is why I support this item. But the biggest part about it, I think you as a resident and a person who lives next to an individual, like we just said, we get free dumping. So if you know someone, if you're planning on moving, just don't throw your whole furniture out in the middle of the street. You know, tell someone and we will help you get that taken care of. You lobby individuals, you move and you throw everything out in the middle of the street. We'll get it up, but just don't leave it out there. So I'm making this a suggestion for you as an individual. If your neighbor, you know, their moving, say, hey, we can get that taken care. So that's the only thing I have to say. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And, you know, just to that point and then I go to Councilman Mongo and this is something to add to what Councilman Andrew said is we should also work with our apartment owner partners. And I know some of them are here and how do we get information to them so that the tenants are aware that there are pickups and that we can help instead of seeing all the stuff out on the street? Councilman Mongo. Speaker 7: Yes, I am excited about this item. It is a lot similar to item 24, which is proposed tonight by Lena. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Super not myself related to similar issues that we have in the parks related to this item. I want to make sure to emphasize how proud I am that the mayor's including an item that has been near and dear to my heart since the day elected and I have not been able to see the movement I have encouraged for our CRM system. It is unmanageable that we don't have a system that connects with our community in a meaningful way. I love the goal of reach out for the ways in which it does work, but I love that the logo along each app is included in this item because it still needs significant improvement. Furthermore, I think that it's time to address, and I can say it here and now and put it in this item as well as item 24. The condition of our public bathrooms throughout the city, the condition of our public bathrooms in some cases is exemplary and in other cases it's just not acceptable. And we need to work on that. Additionally, weeds on our corridors and. The timeliness of weed removal and how we can better partner with a lot of our nonprofits in the community with that workforce. I know that in the fifth District we've done that a lot, but it needs to be something that's regular and scheduled and thoughtful in terms of a schedule. And finally with the trashcans, I agree it would be great if we had universal trash cans that were similar and branded throughout the city. I would also like to recommend a Adopt a Trashcan program so that when these trash cans are put out into the city, many people don't realize how expensive they are. They can be upwards of $5,000. And so when there are fundraising campaigns and they exceed their goals of a nonprofit, wants to adopt a trash can and pay for a trash can to be branded with their nonprofit. I think that there's just a lot that can be said about that. We currently have the Parks Partnership Program that was brought to this council several months ago, and the partners, the partnership opportunities are available within Parks and Rec to sponsor a trash can, sponsor a bench, sponsor any of those things. But citywide, that should be an option. You should be able to adopt a trash can on any commercial corridor. So there's also in our commercial corridor, we are allowing businesses to adopt the trash can in terms of there's no trash can here. We in this business corridor want trash cans. We recognize there are some specific issues related to the city being able to maintenance those trash cans. So each of the business owners has come forward and said, I'm going to bring that trash can. And every night it's not one of the affixed ones. And or I will empty it every night if it is affixed because of the issues related to not having lids in the things. So there are communities out there that want to help with this and we need to make sure that there are methods and avenues for that to be a possibility. So thank you again for the opportunity. And I know we're going to have a little bit of a repeat on item 24, but for the community to know how important this is to us, both in the community and in the parks, I think is important. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 9: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to say thank you and acknowledge you for for thinking broadly and including a lot of the work that our city staff is working on, a lot of the issues raised by the council in the past, and they want to be careful that we are very specific in terms of what we want to see. What I don't want to happen is we raise an expectation and it's and is difficult to meet. So I want to be as specific as we can about, you know, where we want to be in terms of like where we're going to prioritize our focus here in District nine. So the 91 freeway only bisects it only it only sort of goes through District nine. So we deal with these on and off ramp issues pretty regularly. I actually remember grabbing the when I was chief of staff to Councilman Neal. We are I got the district director for our local senator. We got the Caltrans representative and we literally got on a van and drove on and off every off ramp. And we accomplished that with about 75 letters from residents to Caltrans about the condition of the off ramps. And it made a difference for a little while because like Councilwoman Price said, you know, since we border a lot of other cities, we would see the difference when you leave Long Beach, an entire Bellflower complete difference in terms of the offering. So I want to be real specific about, you know, let's think about let's think about what we can do specifically in Long Beach, just last week, just last week, I believe me and Mr. West went on and off an off ramp in Bellflower to show on the difference between a Bellflower the belt with bell flowers done. And I remember, Mr. West, you said it took about ten years or something to get to get there. What they've done, they've literally enhanced it. They did bio soils, all this other stuff. But it's a beautiful entryway to the city, but it took them about ten years and the city took over that off. So so I do want to be really specific about what we want to do. There's a lot of interest to do in the Bellflower off ramp, and I don't know that that's actually possible within the scope of what we're talking about here, but there are some things we can do. I also want to suggest, you know, someone brought up the adopt to adopt a highway. Our residents, our neighbors in the in the Hamilton neighborhood in Long Beach just finished the process of adopting the 91 embankment adjacent to their neighborhood. They they're beautifying it. They've got a mural going up. They've they're literally taking that work on. And I want to continue to encourage work like that, people to sort of reclaim those on off ramps and those embankments. Next, I think one of the most dramatic changes I've seen on the Atlantic corridor and our in Artesia Boulevard is when we actually brought out and Mr. Mayor, you were with us when we deployed those green uptown trash cans. They made a big difference. Occasionally someone kicks them over, but in general, it makes a huge difference to have them deployed along the corridors. It'd be difficult to do. But I do recognize that we have there are budgetary concerns but it made a. Huge difference. Whether someone's picking up trash or not just made a huge difference to have those there. And the final thing I'll say is that we've tried, you know, it's all hands on deck approach in North Long Beach . We've we've tried this thing called the ninth District Spring Cleaning Challenge. We've done it probably the last four or five years. And what it is, is simply challenging the residents to do as many cleanups on their block, on their street as they can within a, you know, a month or so. And we recognized them. What if we were to take a concept like this and just put a challenge out to all the neighborhoods? And I know there's neighborhood associations in every district just said, hey, this month we're going to focus on service. We focus on cleaning up, and we're going to recognize the people who really step up and and stand out in terms of clean up their neighborhoods. So those are just some of my suggestions. I think this is certainly a step in the right direction. I just want to have some some real red meat, some, you know, some real red meat to show to the residents at the end of this effort. Thanks a lot. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember. Super Non. Speaker 9: Thank you, Mayor Garcia. This is quite an item and we appreciate you bringing it forward. Just a couple of points here. Just following up on what the vice mayor just said, our office actually did an adopt a highway on the four or five freeway. And you don't have to have a neighborhood group to go out there and do the work. You can pay for a service to have that done. I think here across the board, education is the key and we have to get everyone educated and I think we have to enlist the help of the private sector for that. We have private recycling waste haulers that can all be a part of this solution. And I have to give recognition to Frank Ramirez of Public Works, because I've had this discussion about locking dumpsters for a long time. I think the official position of public works right now is that we do not like locking trash cans. The net effect is that more trash is left outside the trash can for folks who can't get in. Now, I don't think that policy has to stay static. I think with education we could come up with a solution. But we're back to that education word again. I think the well, really, that's that's the key. And all the neighborhood cleanups and whatnot, we can coordinate those better, I believe. And and really that's it. I think education is the key outreach. In fact, one piece that we try to do in a business friendly way is just to tell business owners what their responsibilities are. Most people are shocked that they're responsible for all the sidewalk and the top of the curb. The horizontal part not as a curve goes down vertically. So if there's weeds on the sidewalk, some people think that the city is going to come by and pick those. That's not the case. And alleys and residential areas, same thing that the resident is responsible for maintaining the alley. That's all I have thinks. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember. And I want to thank everyone for their comments. And just to close. Just as a reminder to you that this is cleanliness has, you know, key connections to public safety. And we've all read all those reports that essentially show that that the cleaner community, the more that's invested when it comes to ensuring that dumped items are off the street, there is a connection to public safety and civic pride in that neighborhood. And so I hope that we view this also with a an eye towards safer communities for everyone. And and with that, I'll just send it to Mr. West. I, I think I shared with you and you can hear it from the council tonight. I view this as a top priority. There's a lot of things that are important that we're doing citywide. It's public safety. We're making sure that we've got great jobs, we're fixing our infrastructure. But I think it's time that we that we really from the top down and from you down. And I've said you have a reputation of being, you know, Mr. Clean and what you did in Paramount and as head of the redevelopment agency in a city manager. And I think that this is something that you that we could own and and really aim to being the, you know, the cleanest large community anywhere. And I think we can do it, but it's going to take everyone in the organization to focus on it. And so I'm looking forward to the results. So there's the motion of no seconds or any public comment on this. Please come down. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. My name is Danny Flores Owens, City Council Staff. My name is Danny Flores. I'm a single father. I'm a resident for 20 years. I'm a homeowner for the past ten years. And I'm also recently hired as the central child safety and justice manager. I'm in full support of your initiative. I brought some parents with me. I brought some youth with me. We feel that is an important initiative because it's evidence proven that clean communities, the businesses thrive. The children are healthier. Clean streets provide a safe community, healthier environment for everybody. A lot of council members talked about driving around the city. Well, we do a lot of walking around the city. And when you when you walk in certain zip codes, there's gum like massive gum all over the place. It's like thousands of pieces of gum on the floor. And sometimes I'm speaking to the community members or the residents, and I say, man, we just need to get some spatulas and clean this up ourselves. Because it's like Councilman Supernormal said, it's education. It's education that needs to be taught to the children and to the apartment owners and the highways and the property managers. I remember once the Chief Luna said at a public conference here in Long Beach that it was small things, it was a small things. And he was talking about when dogs poop on the floor and everyone started laughing. And I only thing I thought is, why. Speaker 11: Is everyone laughing? You know, it is a small things, you know. And if somebody poops on your front yard, you know, people get angry, you know, and it causes problems, you know, and and when. Speaker 0: You see there's gum all over the place or trash everywhere you go, it does cause problems and it's unhealthy. And it can bring violence in your in your community. And I just want to say. Speaker 11: That. Speaker 0: Central Cha, we're really anxious to be part of this solution and that we are here to support you, Mr. Mayor, and city council. And I think I just want to thank you for this initiative. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm Robert Fox, executive director of the Council of Neighborhood Organizations. Thank you for bringing this forward. Wonderful idea. We would like to participate, of course. And you're calling for volunteers and we represent the neighborhoods and we'd like to participate in a constructive way. I know you're going to be having a study session and we'd like to participate as much as possible that if you would invite us. We do have a few suggestions because we did think about this before we came to council. And today we do have like free pickups for large trash per owner twice a year, but we do have some problem properties and we just organized a neighborhood association on Wilton Street near Community Hospital and there was a problem property there and it's overwhelming to the owner. We get some I've been on the hoarding task force where and we're dealing with somebody who can't really handle the issue. And when we have a pickup problem like that, where it's to the benefit of the community, I put forward to you that maybe could we possibly tweak the pickup to include instances of major hoarding or major debris around problem properties in our neighborhoods? I don't know if we have a mechanism for that. We only have like a you can pick up a mattress or a chair, but what if there's just a ton of stuff and these people don't have the money to really address the issue? So those are the kind of little things that we'd like to bring to the table. But all neighborhood associations in the city of Long Beach are right on target with you in terms of cleaning the city and making it beautiful. It improves our quality of life tremendously, and we want to be a partner with you and doing this major vision. So we will be volunteers for you and we will spread the word for you. And I hope that you will invite us to the table to discuss more. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thanks, Speaker, please. Speaker 11: Good evening. My name is Jane Templin, 63 Rose Avenue. I'm very excited about this being brought forward. There were a couple of things that we expect. My husband and I caught our eye in discussing the one modernizing the Go Long Beach app. We think that would be awesome. It used to be if it's used more, it's more effective. The mapping, the freeways, I mean, finding all of them. I think we all know you can leave here. And if you hit the 710, those gateways are not very nicely representative of our city. We would really like to see those type of things addressed. All of them are good issues. The last one that is especially awesome and the previous speaker and all considering the ongoing volunteer development. I think the more you have residents involved, the more ownership they have, the better it is. And we do love our city and being involved in it, people getting out and showing that it gives them stronger ownership. It can only get better. So thank you for bringing these forward. I appreciate you're looking at these issues. So Long Beach. Oh, and just one other issue. Congratulations on your new status. Speaker 0: Oh, thank you. Next speaker, please. Very good you, Kirk, I suggest. Certainly a commendable project. I've echoed the support of every other person that has spoken. I would extend it, though. I do. I would extend the new clean Long Beach initiative to also clean up an out corruption period as well as as well as the malfeasance of but a few but a few that undermined the good professional work that is done by the overwhelming majority of employees in the city. Period. There's no question we've we're very fortunate to have a Legion's legions of good, dedicated employees. But there are a few that are problematic. They need to be eliminated as well as the corrupt and the nation. Tomorrow will see on tape the manifest evidence. Other support the corruption gets. From the highest level of this city that's now will be played in the United States Senate and Congress. So I would suggest and I really mean if we start taking the needed steps to eviscerate that corruption. And don't wait for the pending arrest and trial. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Okay, there's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. There's been a request to move up item 28. Speaker 2: No, 30. 30. Speaker 0: The 32 next requested food stamps are let me let me do 32 and then 28.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to report on a new Clean Long Beach Initiative in 120 days. The report should include goals and an update to City Council at a special study session set by the Mayor.

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Speaker 0: The 32 next requested food stamps are let me let me do 32 and then 28. Speaker 2: Can go seasonal kids. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilman Andrew's recommendation to approve the use of f y 17 general funds transfer from Parks, Recreation and Marine Department into the Economic and Property Development Department in the amount of 100,000 to support the Summer Youth Employment Program. Speaker 0: Councilman Andrews. Thank you, Mayor. Speaker 2: I would like to first that as a kid in the appearance of this summer job program to raise your hand. Thank you for coming in supporting this item tonight. You know, I'm asking for the support of this item as it's a job program that is going to benefit kids and we are going to be able to keep an eye on them because they are and will be place in parks and local eligibility working site. I have a staff report ready by one of my staffs who's actually went through this program many years ago and I'm very proud of that. And I always say, and you guys, if you ever listen to me, you know, I talk about jobs. I know what a job would do for an individual. I always said a job would stop a bullet. And I'm hoping that this summer our kids will be employed getting something put in their pocket so they can go back to school and not to worry about whether they're going to get something to wear, a food to eat in their houses, because these jobs not only will happen, the school will help them everywhere else. And thank you, individual, coming out and giving us his support. So now I'd like to show that staff support from one of my staff members. Speaker 3: Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. Many years ago, when the Summer Youth Employment Program started for at least two years, it was administered through the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. After the first two years, this program was administered through workforce development, as they have the infrastructure to better manage the program from beginning to end. Tonight's item requests park funds to be used to hire youth to work in central on beach parks and other eligible work sites. Speaker 6: The vast majority of the youth participating. Speaker 3: In the program live in central Long Beach. That includes the sixth, seventh, first and eighth District. In the audience, you see some of these youth and their parents. Please once again stand up and wave at the council. Don't be shy. Hey. So up on the screen, you'll see a picture from last year's orientation. And like councilmembers said, I was one of the first youth employees when this first program started seven years ago. I was the sixth district resident. I still am, and I was attending Wilson High. So I'm very proud for Councilmember letting me present the staff report. As a result of the program, I was able to help offset back to school costs, increase my self-esteem, and start a career in public service. So this concludes my staff report. If anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr.. Thank you, Mr.. Andrews. The motion on the floor. Let me go to the make of the second councilman, mango. Speaker 7: First, I want to congratulate you on taking the time to become a part of a program such as this and for the hard work that you put in, and to really admire how difficult it can be to work through some of these programs. They're not always the easiest to apply for and maintain. And so the perseverance, I really appreciate that. I do have a couple of quick questions. Is this a drawdown on we Iowa? And this is our share. What are the components of the Summer Youth Program? Are we using OJT funds on the job training funds? What is the makeup of the total cost of the program? And is this coming to us now because it wasn't part of the budget process originally? Or is this a transfer of funds between departments where it's going from one to another? Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mangwana, my chief of staff. John, would you please tell me? Speaker 0: What is doing. Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the City Council. Speaker 11: Actually, this was part of the original FY17. Speaker 0: Adopted. Speaker 11: Budget and these funds were identified in the Parks and Rec Department, programmatic funds. Speaker 0: They're being transferred to economic and property development because. Speaker 11: Our workforce development, Pacific Gateway, is equipped to help administer and manage the program. Speaker 0: So this is not related to we are funds, although we have programs through federal. Speaker 11: Appropriations for youth. Speaker 0: Hire and workforce programs. Speaker 7: Are we not trying to utilize any we allow or matching or draw down any of these types of. Yeah. How are we leveraging this? Speaker 0: Yeah. Speaker 11: Councilmember. Absolutely. So this is an existing program through federal funds and this helps to supplement and expand opportunity for youth. So where we're actually limited in the federal funds that we have available. Speaker 0: For the Summer Youth program. Speaker 11: This will help to actually increase the number of of youth that can participate. Speaker 7: So I appreciate that. I appreciate the word supplement. I recognize that this is a transfer in one area to another. And but I also think that it's important to note that when we do utilize these federal programs, they only reimburse at the federal the federal minimum wage rate. And so it is required of us to come up with that variance. And it doesn't always mean additional youth get employed. It often means that we are drawing on the general fund to ensure that they are paid the wage of the state of California through that variance. So I think that that's an important designation and I think that there are lots of economic grants that we can work on. But that kind of those kind of grants take programs like this in an initial year or two to show the results, to really be able to draw down the greater funds. So I appreciate this item. I think that it was worthy of a few extra minutes for everyone to have a greater understanding of these funds. And I strongly recommend that we look at some of the economic driver grants that are coming on board in the next two years. So thank you for that. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 6: Councilman Price So I support this item and I love, love the fact that Isabel did the presentation of what a great testament to Councilman Andrew's for giving her that opportunity and what a great testament to her for making something out of the opportunity. I'm such a huge fan, so thank you. And I didn't know about this program at all. So I love that we have city funds going to a program like this. I am curious, how are the districts that we work in identified and how many students do we have the opportunity to service and help? Speaker 0: I'm sorry, what were the question again? Speaker 6: How how do we determine what districts we have the program in and how many students can we there? Speaker 0: The parents are on CalWORKs, which is a public assistance. So the kids are are any any parents are on public assistance. The kids are eligible for the program. Speaker 6: And how many students or kids are we able to help get secure with jobs? And if we know if we. Speaker 0: Sorry, I don't have the exact number, but I know of at least 25 that we did some local outreach in the sixth district and then from the workforce development. I believe it's an additional 50 kids. Well, and it will extend their hours as well. So the federal program only takes up so long, but now they'll work the entire summer as well. Speaker 6: Well, regardless of the number of kids or the number of districts or whatever, I think this is an amazing program. I completely support it and I love that every student lives in here who got an opportunity to participate in this program, gets to see someone like Isabel and gets to see that that opportunity can can be a ladder in many ways. So thank you very much for bringing this item. Very, very cool item. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes. Councilmember Andrews, just want to say extend my gratitude as well to you and your team. I know you all work very hard to ensure that not only adults are receiving and able to have opportunities for jobs, but for youth as well. My son just got his first job and it's so rewarding as a parent to have your son finally pay for his own shoes and also for, you know, as a parent, you're just prideful of of what they can do in terms of their own development. So congratulations to each and every one of you for working in Long Beach during the summer. Speaker 0: Thank you. Any public comment on this? I. Very good. It's absolutely a great program. And to the extent that it is possible, I would urge the city to try to get as many of the parents involved to the extent that they can, because that is the backbone, the backbone of keeping a program going. The city itself can't do that 100% at the time and so forth. So the more you get the parents involved, the stronger the program's going to become. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 7: Mayor Council audience. I've speaking as a community. Speaker 11: Member and as someone who previously worked at. Speaker 7: The Boys and Girls Club and hired a lot of these youth. And it's about you did an amazing job on the presentation. Speaker 11: You did better than most adults. Speaker 7: And I can't tell you how important these programs are to youth, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and keeping them safe and out of gangs and giving them the opportunity to help their families. Many of them, it makes the difference. Speaker 11: Between putting food on the table. Speaker 7: And having new clothes for start of school. And the only bad thing about it is the program is only in the summer. We really, really. Speaker 11: Need employment programs for our youth all year round, not just in the summertime, even if it's. Speaker 7: One day a week. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. See no other comments. We're going to go ahead and take a vote. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to approve the use of FY 17 General Funds transferred from the Parks, Recreation, and Marine Department (PR) into the Economic and Property Development Department (EP) in the amount of $100,000 to support the Summer Youth Employment Program; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Economic and Property Development Department (EP) by $100,000, and decrease appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Parks, Recreation, and Marine Department (PR) by $100,000.

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Speaker 0: Great. Thank you. And thank you, Councilman Andrews and your team. Let's move on to item 28. Speaker 1: Report from Health and Human Services recommendation to receive and file a report on the development of an incentive program to encourage landlord acceptance of subsidized tenants through the Housing Choice Voucher Program citywide. Speaker 0: By Sam Richardson. Speaker 9: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm pleased to see this report come back this evening as chair of our housing authority. I've had the opportunity to work with Ms.. King and her team, as well as a number of landlords, property owners, members of apartment association on ways to modernize and improve our housing choice voucher program. And it wasn't it wasn't particularly easy, but we were able to put together a package of things that we think we can we can support as a city. And and and the hope is that it will increase participation and adoption to increase our Lisa Lisa up rate. So at this point, I'd like to just hand it over to staff and ask for a report on where we are. Speaker 0: Alison King, bureau manager. The Housing Authority has been working on this for quite some time. Alison. Speaker 11: Thank you. As part of the incentives that we'd like to roll out, we are, first of all, grateful to the County of Los Angeles for the measure h money that is forthcoming. We have not yet been made aware of the exact amount that we would receive, but we are replicating the program that the County of Los Angeles Housing Authority is currently doing, and they are rolling that out to other housing authorities in the county that are choosing to participate with this effort to incentivize owners and to house the homeless. It is a three prong incentive that provides, first of all, a holding fee for owners. That holding fee would allow an owner who has a unit to turn their paperwork into the housing authority and have it inspected. And we would then provide them a fee while we are forwarding and referring homeless applicants over to these owners. It prevents the time that they generally have to wait for payment. They are still going to be allowed the opportunity to vet clients as they see fit, and there is no requirement that they select a tenant, but they would use their own criteria for that. In addition to that, there will be a damage mitigation fine a fund that will be set up should a client within the first two years of their occupancy create any damage to the unit that would exceed the security deposit? The third prong of the incentive is for needed items for the participant themselves, whether that would be a security deposit assistance with getting utilities turned on or the required appliances. That program for the first year we have requested to house 220 homeless persons in our community and we are getting additional funds for subsequent years. 429 Fiscal Year 2019 and fiscal year 2020. In addition to that, the Housing Authority is setting aside some nonfederal funds to be able to assist the first 75 clients that also have been searching for units for a significant amount of time but are currently holding vouchers. They do not indeed meet the HUD requirement for homelessness, but they have been displaced for some time and are unattached to a unit. They too would be able to access funds that will come from the Housing Authority for the first 75 using those same incentive strategies. Speaker 9: Thank you, Ms.. King. And I like it because it addresses the folks actively searching for housing who are holding a voucher, and also individuals who are facing homelessness and dealing with homelessness. And one thing I don't know that I heard mentioned was we were able to talk with both housing authority and development services about coordination on the inspections to make sure we reduce the burden on landlords and tenants. So thank you so much for your hard work on this. Councilwoman Mongeau. Speaker 7: I have really enjoyed working with your department. I think that the things you are doing are really exceptional. So thank you so much for your partnership and I look forward to continuing to work together on the amazing things that each and every one of you put a lot of thought into. And I can tell that you really run this department from your heart. Speaker 9: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 4: Yes. I just wanted to thank Vice Mayor. I was happy to be on this original item. Do we have a timeline on when we expect these incentives to go into effect? Speaker 9: Ms.. King. Speaker 11: Frankly, no. The county fiscal year did start as of July one. There are still some final details yet to be determined. So we are hoping to hear and we are one of a few housing authorities at its request to roll out the program before December. So we are asking for first quarter funds. Speaker 4: Great. And I did want to ask just briefly, I recall creating the incentive package, which I think was a great idea, as well as waiving some of the permits and things that we've sat down with some of the apartment association. Has the discussion been brought up around rental insurance yet? Speaker 11: It has not. Okay. Speaker 4: That's fine. We'll save that and make sure that we bring that back. Okay. Thank you, guys. Speaker 9: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, Mrs. King. I'd just like to take just a moment to thank you and your staff, because I know how hard you guys work, because you guys do give me a chance to come back every now and then. But the work that you've done in this situation, I think, is going to open a door for so many people out there trying to get them a place to stay. And I want to thank you again and again, you and your staff. Please keep up the good work. Speaker 9: Thank you. Any public comment on this item? Please come forth. Speaker 11: Good evening. Speaker 0: I would like to thank Vice Mayor Reg. Speaker 11: Richardson for all the work that he's put in over the last few months in putting this program together. I'm a firm believer of this program because I do believe that it helps a lot of people who might otherwise be homeless, and it might help some homeless people come into housing. I want to especially thank Alice and King because I've been working with her over the last several years to try to put programs together and understand the programs a little bit better. Speaker 0: You have worked tirelessly to. Speaker 11: Do this, and I appreciate the outreach that you've had to the community, the housing provider community and all the people in the community. Speaker 0: But I want to thank Vice. Speaker 11: Mayor Reg Richardson for putting the organization to it and reaching out to the community and making the progress more progress than I've seen in quite a while. And I'm very excited about that and I appreciate it. So thank you very much. Speaker 9: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good afternoon, Mr. Vice Mayor and members of the Council and Staff Gary Shelton's. My name is a couple blocks from here. You might know I've been following issues of housing and homelessness for a lot of years. Thank you, Mr. King, for all your work on this. I've known you for some time. I wanted to direct your attention to item number two or paragraph number two, whatever you want to call it. It's the waiving of the fees, which I somehow missed in the in the staff report. It might have been there, but I'm sorry if I missed it. And I I'm wondering if know a couple of things that you might ask Mr. King. Number one, did Los Angeles waive the fees as well? And if they did, how were they able to afford it? Because it seems like an unaffordable possibility here under under the way it would work for us in Long Beach. So if Los Angeles did do it. How did they manage to do it? And I hesitate to use this word, and I use it in the most positive sense. It looks like there's a couple of perhaps false assumptions in the in the calculations that are used in this in this part. I'm not positive whether $57.50 is a per unit fee. If it's a four unit building, a six unit building or a ten unit building, or if that's only if it's at a $230 base price for a four unit building, it calculates to 5750 per unit. But is that actually 57, 50 and a ten unit building as well, or is it the $23 that we might expect it to be instead of 57, 50 if it's less. The larger the the the number of units in the building, then, then the loss is the less and the number of FTE ees that would be unavailable to us would be less. So maybe the impact isn't all that great. Also, the inspections are over the course of a five year span. And so even though it appears that there's an annual fee for the inspections, I'm not sure if that is every five years or if it really is every year at 57, 50 or $230, wherever the annual fee is per apartment. Finally, even regardless of that amount, if we were able to afford to give a landlord $57.50 back or whatever it might actually be or not, charge him that for a for an inspection. That might be a small amount, but actually the perception is very great and the incentive would be very great, I would say. So I appreciate your finding a little bit more out about the waiving of this fee and whether we really can afford it or not. Thank you. Speaker 9: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Good evening, City Council Robert Fox, Executive Director of the Council of Neighborhood Organizations. I had the privilege of sitting down with Ms.. King and having lunch and going over a lot of issues. And I'm gratified to find that she's a good woman and she's done a great job. And I admire the proposals in front of you. In fact, I admire them so much that I'd like to expand them a little bit. We're dealing with only the homeless population in this particular proposal. We have at present 4980 vouchers rented out. However, we are able to take 7398. And the problem that Ms.. King and I talked about was how do we get landlords into this program? So I've been trying to do that, and the incentives that are here in front of us seem really pretty good. I would encourage waiving the fees because again, it's more psychological than $57. But what a landlord is looking for, if we really want to rent up that 30%, which is not rented up in vouchers at this point in time, if we could incentivize landlords with a damage mitigation fund, I know that it's we're proposing $200,000 here in this particular thing for a very limited number of people. But I would like you all to consider the idea of taking this incentive program beyond the homeless and beyond the 75 to make it concurrent for the entire department, even if it were on a temporary basis. So because if we lose the federal funding, because we didn't rent everything up, that's a significant chunk of change that we will have a difficult time getting back in the future. So I want us to think about that particularly I'm not as concerned about. The fee is, as I am with the damage mitigation fund, which is really important to landlords, whether we use it or not. It's just psychological more than anything else that we're there to help you make this thing work. And I like the holding fee idea because it does take a certain amount of time when you're taking a Section eight tenant or a housing voucher tenant before all the paperwork is solidified. And that gives the landlord an incentive that they're not going to be losing rent over a certain period of time, as Alison and I had talked about. It's a great idea. I guess my suggestion is, is there a possibility somehow with the money that's coming in from Proposition eight, Measure eight, to expand this program, if maybe this will be an experimental program, but maybe expand it in the future so that we can move this to all housing voucher program participants. Thank you so much. Speaker 9: Thank you. And it's open to both homeless and non homeless at this point. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Good evening. Speaker 4: Vice Mayor and the City Council members. My name is Johanna Cunningham, executive director for the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities. Speaker 11: I first want. Speaker 4: To thank the vice mayor for including. Speaker 7: Us and having the collaborative spirit that he's had since the beginning of this project. And I greatly appreciate working. Speaker 4: With Allison King. I have worked. Speaker 11: With her since I started working. Speaker 4: Here in Long Beach. It's been four years now. Speaker 7: And I appreciate that collaboration. In that partnership. Speaker 3: Working on this particular project. Speaker 7: I do like the current recommendations that have been brought before you. I think they're a good start. Speaker 6: I appreciate working with. Speaker 4: The Housing Authority and it's. Speaker 6: Always they're always open to new ideas and to having a discussion and to really vetting different ideas. Speaker 4: And situations around this. Speaker 7: And we have a lot of work that we still need to do as we continue to work on this issue. But again, I just want to say thank. Speaker 4: You for the work that's been done so far. And I appreciate. Speaker 11: Look and look forward to continuing. Speaker 7: Our work together. Thank you. Speaker 9: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 0: Josh Butler, executive director for housing. Ron Beech And I first like to think all the landlords for coming out tonight. Maybe they could all stand up. They're not here because tenants aren't asking for any rates, so they don't show up. But when they ask to step up to the plate and be involved in the process, I don't see them packing the house. If every one of them took one Section eight tenant, we might be able to do something. But they can't because vacancy rates are 2% in the city. There is nowhere for people to go. At last count, 1000 Section eight vouchers in the hands of residents who cannot use them. Our vacancy rate. There wouldn't even I don't even know if there's enough available apartments to put every single one of those people into. You'd have to start moving people out. And that is a real concern of your current renter population, is that they're going to get moved out. They're not going to get opportunities at units that are available. So you have a housing crisis here. It requires real solutions. And the landlords, you keep going to the table asking for landlords to solutions to these problems time after time after time. Yet they are not going to do it. Their job here is to make as much money as possible. And I think it's very ironic that we're going to use Measure H funds that were approved by taxpayers that those groups openly opposed that will now go into their hands that they can use. It's like, how is this even become a reality that we look at this situation that they can fight against all these measures, then turn around and take their hand and open it up and say, go ahead and we'll take that money now. And yet they'll turn around and send threatening messages to their tenants saying, You voted for this measure. So now I have to raise your rent. So not only are you taking the money from the taxpayers, you're raising our rent, too. So the landlord community will double dip on this. It's time for us to start talking about renter protections. It's time for us to start talking about building affordable housing in a serious way. And we are making steps forward. But the years of lagging behind have caught up with us, and we're now paying the price. Cities all over the state of California talk about Long Beach, and they can't believe that we're the largest city in the state of California, the largest population of renters on the entire West Coast, from San Diego, all the way up to Seattle. That doesn't even have basic renter protections. We want to be a world class city. Then we should treat 60% of our population like world class citizens and give them the same basic rights that they have up in Portland. You know, it takes more than crosswalks and microbrews and coffee shops. It takes a population, it takes a community to make a city. And it takes investing in your current base of residents to make that happen and not just continually outreaching outside of our borders to attract people in who yeah, they're moving here because it's cheaper than everywhere else. We have a lot of work to do. I'm disappointed that more landlords haven't shown up tonight. We're very hopeful that they can help us solve the problem because we could lose significant federal funding as a result of this. Thanks. Speaker 9: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yeah. The world's. Speaker 0: Secret. Good afternoon. Speaker 11: The Honorable Council. Speaker 0: People are Malcolm Bennett. Speaker 11: A proud landlord and property. Speaker 0: Manager for. Speaker 10: Over 42 years. And I certainly like to thank the council and thank Councilman Richardson and working with me. I think. Speaker 11: This is a obvious sign of how. Speaker 10: People can come together. Elected officials, community rental owners. We can come together and work on some positive solutions to a housing crisis that we have here. This is just an example of how we can come together, talk about issues, and collaborate and come up with kinds of issues at work that everyone, our property owners and developers in the building. We're the only ones that can provide housing because we're the only ones that either have housing or can develop it. So we look for positive incentives so that we can work together to make it a level playing field so that. Speaker 11: We can create the kind of housing. Speaker 10: And I commend Long Beach for the lead that they've taken. I just understand now you're looking at expanding the second unit, the Granny Flats, and these are the kind of things that really put people in housing. Speaker 11: We can talk about it and all we want, but. Speaker 10: Coming together, sitting down at the table and coming up and taking having the courage to take positive steps and move for it. So once again, I commend the council, thank Mr. Richardson, and certainly have been a pleasure working with Ms.. King. We work with a lot of Section eight housing throughout. Speaker 11: The city, and I think Long Beach is really taking the. Speaker 10: Lead on some of these issues. So you be commended for that. And once. Speaker 11: Again, I'm proud to be a rental property owner, property manager into my. Speaker 0: Fourth year of this. And I think now we've been. Speaker 10: Coming together more. Speaker 0: At the table. Speaker 11: And talking about things and really making them. Speaker 0: Happen. So, once again, thank the council, everyone. Thank you. Speaker 9: Thank you. Mr. Bennett. Seeing no further public comment, members, please cast your vote. Speaker 0: Councilman Mongo. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a report on the development of an incentive program to encourage landlord acceptance of subsidized tenants through the Housing Choice Voucher Program. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. And we'll go on to the next item. Madam Clerk. I think we'll do 24. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilwoman Mongo, Councilwoman Gonzales, Councilmember Supernanny recommendation to refer to the Parks and Recreation Commission. The review of and request the City Manager to direct the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine to prepare a report within 90 days on current and long term deferred park maintenance issues. Speaker 0: Thank you. Item 24, please. Councilman Mangled. Speaker 7: So we got to touch on this a bit earlier in the item related to cleaning up Long Beach. I think that we have worked as hard as we can with as many nonprofit and community groups. And quite honestly, there are some recovery groups that we've worked strongly with in the community to do our best in cleaning up parks. We've done Volunteer Day and a lot of those things, but we need some structure to what is being done right now. It's a lot of one off opportunities and there isn't a uniformity. We've grown as a city so quickly and even Councilwoman Pearce was mentioning we're bringing on board another dog park. And the challenge for these things is that the community wants them. And so we want to be supportive. But a lot of times these comes from from funds that are only available for starting things and not maintaining them. And so it's really important that we have a maintenance strategy. And so I appreciate that many of us on the council have worked together to come up with a item that is robust enough to bring back some recommendations on how we can do that and make sure that it's funded. And so it is a tight turnaround, but we need to put our money where our mouth is and really stand up for the youth of our community and the cleanliness of our parks. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 6: Yes. I, too, want to thank Councilmember Mongo for bringing this forward. I know. Ah, you know, we've just talked about litter. Now we're talking about cleanliness at our parks. And to be able to take a deeper dove into what this will mean for our city is fantastic. So I thank you for bringing it forward. And I know I believe there was a report and I'm just trying to pull that out. My apologies. It was the or a newsletter. I'm sorry. It was the it was there was a section basically highlighted the number of hours worked in certain areas of the city regarding litter pick up at our parks. But I think it just related to just one park. And so I'd like to see if there's a way we can get that information for all of our parks. I know that's a big feat, but if there's more information we can receive in terms of number of hours worked in certain areas related to litter pick up and maintenance, I think a lot of our residents would like to know about that. And so I look forward to working through this with our Parks Department as well as working with the other council members here on the dais. I know we can also get creative in terms of volunteerism. Perhaps there's a program we can create for parks in that respect too. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. We have Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 6: I support this item and I want to thank Councilwoman Mongo and my other colleagues for bringing it forward, and I look forward to seeing the report back. I completely agree with Councilwoman Mungo regarding the dilemma that we are in, in regards to responding to constituent concerns with the limited resources that we have. So I look I look forward to more creative opportunities being brought forward, and I look forward to us getting to a point where even though things may seem not feasible or viable at the outset, we're looking and seeking every opportunity to make them a reality for us in a way that works. So thank you very much for this item. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 4: Yes. I also want to thank my colleagues for bringing this item forward. Bixby Park, obviously one of our very active parks that has had a lot of challenges with restrooms, cleanliness, tree trimming as well. And we've also had I've had a lot of conversations with different entities that are coming to our city, whether through conferences or doing our World Series here. And so I think it's also a good time for us to bring back the conversation around corporate sponsorship. And if there are some opportunities like we had, you know, I had a meeting today with the Spaulding, right? That makes the basketballs. Is there an opportunity to try to get them to participate in funding some of the opportunities outside of just youth programs, which they love doing, but also adopting different parts of our park so that we can have a plan, whether it's three years or five years, what limitations there might be, too, that. Speaker 6: We can put a basketball hoop in the in the pool and they can fund that bet. Speaker 4: That's a great joke. Let's do it. Speaker 0: I'm going to go back to Councilman Mongo. Speaker 7: So to address the sponsorship opportunities. I want to thank my colleagues that worked with me on the item that is now published on the Parks and Rec website. So if Spalding wants to sponsor a park or any other thing in the city, they have a method to do that through a one page application process. So you can work with the outside entity to craft what you think might be a good fit for the city. And then we can pull that all together through a one page transparent process. And they're working through the next phase of like showing the community anything that's been applied for and what's been approved and where it is in that process or why it's not a good fit at this time, but could be in the future. So I would encourage that and I look forward to more opportunities such as the ones that we have really nurtured like Spalding. Speaker 0: Thank you. Any public comment on this item saying non, please cast your votes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to refer to the Parks and Recreation Commission the review of and request City Manager to direct the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine to prepare a report, within 90 days, on current and long-term deferred park maintenance issues, specifically related to graffiti removal, trash pickup, restroom cleaning and playground upkeep, and proposals for partnerships for park support, revenue-raising, joint-use agreements and/or any other options to ensure optimal park conditions for all users.

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker 1: Item 26 Report from Financial Management. Recommendation to adopt a resolution requesting that the Board of Harbor Commissioners approve the transfer of 5% of fiscal year 2017. GROSS operating revenue from the Harbor Revenue Fund to the Tidelands Operation Fund City Wide. Speaker 0: Mr. Wester, any comments on this? An expression by an instructor. John GROSS. This is an incredibly important resolution tonight. John on Roman Council members, thank you. This is an annual event where we are required. If we want to get money from from harbor, if they have surplus funds, we have to request it. This is our annual request compliant with the charter. We expect once we make this request, if you so choose, that they will approve it and we will receive about $18.6 million from the harbor operations which will support our Tidelands Fund and our beach operations. Thank you. Councilman Price. Speaker 6: I support this motion and urge my colleagues to do so as well. Speaker 0: And consider the comments. Okay to the motion for a second. Any public comment? Mr. Good hear. Obviously we fully support this. But it also goes to remind that if it were not for the Tidelands moneys and the more that flowed to the city for this, we would undoubtedly be. On the road to bankruptcy, period. Jettisoned by the $90 million debacle that we're now standing in, i.e. the new civic center. Keep that in mind. Never forget it. Thank you. Thank you. There's emotion in a second signal. Public comment. Please cast your votes.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution requesting that the Board of Harbor Commissioners approve the transfer of 5 percent of Fiscal Year 2017 (FY 17) gross operating revenue, from the Harbor Revenue Fund (HR 430) to the Tidelands Operations Fund (TF 401), with a true-up adjustment if necessary, to reflect the final gross revenue amount upon issuance of the Harbor Department’s FY 17 audited financial statements. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: 27. Speaker 1: Report from Financial Management Recommendation to award a contract to COBRA American West for payment processing. For City Services. For a total annual contract amount. Not to exceed 984,396. And authorize the city manager to eliminate the utility bill convenience fee for credit, debit cards and electronic checks citywide. Speaker 0: We have a staff report on this. Yes, we are. So. Our finest moment. Jon GROSS is with us tonight. And this is something that he's been working on at some time. I know it's been something that the city council has been trying to achieve for quite some time, and I think we're close to being there. So, John, thank you. Honorable mayor and council members. I don't often get to do anything as exciting as this is on the surface. We're recommending a contract for award to Cooper America West for payment processing. And payment processing is a a kind of a boring operation where they process credit cards and debit cards and check payments for city bills. But this is exciting because we're also making a staff recommendation to eliminate the convenience fee paid by utility customers to use use credit and debit cards and E checks. And the use of credit and debit cards to our customers will then be free for utility customers when they make payments. Right now, these utility customers pay $3.75 if they pay by credit or debit card and $0.95 that they pay by. E check. This will now be no charge and those completely free services will encourage more use of our fast and easy internet and telephone payment services. And we will now be able to offer mobile payment options on your phones at no additional cost. The overall cost of this contract, in addition to all that, is lower than the previous contract. When we look at the combined cost to the both the customer and of the city, however, by the city absorbing the convenience fees, the city utilities, not the general fund, but the city utilities that is refused gas and water will have an increased cost estimated at about $720,000 a year. Those extra costs will be absorbed into the normal cost of doing business. And I want to point out that that's very similar, if not identical, to the way the city already handles the cost of processing cash payments and the check payments that we receive for utilities. Those extra and those credit card costs, those are projections that could be higher if uses are higher. Overall, we believe that Cooper will be an excellent service provider, and we are very pleased to make the recommendation to eliminate utility convenience fees. That's the end of my report. I stand ready for any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. GROSS. And just to clarify, I think there's a couple of council questions as well. This is the elimination of that additional fee that we charge when someone tries to pay their utilities online, which is a constant complaint from the public. Is that correct? That is correct, except I would I would clarify that we don't actually charge we don't receive any money from those fees. It is a third party service provider. Okay. Thank you very much, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 7: So I am 100% behind getting rid of the convenience fee. That is important. I also am curious as to. I am under the understanding that several years ago we had the opportunity to have our bank provider such as, say, Union Bank. Do this in house where we would be able to as a city, not have the 5%, where we would take 2%, they would take 2%. And that this $900,000 cost would not be burdened. I'm wondering why we don't bring some of these types of things in-house. We have quite a bankroll at Union Bank, and I'm interested in knowing what have we done in terms of exploring getting rid of the service charges that come from agencies like this? Speaker 0: Councilmember We did a we did and a bid processing request for this. And and these were the cheapest services in terms of we do have some Citibank or some bank processing. But in terms of this particular service, we did we did do an open bid request. And we did analyze every proposal that came. And I don't believe there was one from Union Bank. Speaker 7: Well, I think that part of it and again, I think that we need a little bit more time on this to discuss it more thoroughly is that we were asking for something very specific. So people who have those types of services responded to what we asked, and I wonder if we should be asking a different question. And so my thought would be to move forward on the elimination of the utility bill, convenience fee for credit, debit cards and electronic checks. What was the timeline on signing this contract? Speaker 0: It is our intent to move as quickly as possible to sign this contract as the other one is expiring. We would we would need to explore. We would need to continue the next the old contract for a period of time. We think we can do that. But we would like to move on the new contract quickly so that we can begin the implementation of elimination of the convenience fees without the new contract. We're not in a position to do that. Speaker 7: However, if there was more of a cooperative agreement with the banking system, we would be in a better position because there's actually is increasing costs to our city departments where at least according to your staff report. Speaker 0: I can't I can't say that I can think of a relationship with the bank in a way that would reduce our costs below what we have. I may be mistaken on that, but I'm not aware of a mechanism that that would reduce our costs. Speaker 7: I'd like to listen to either public comment and or my colleagues before I might have a few additional questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Austin, do you have any comments? Speaker 8: Yes, I seconded the motion to support the item, but I do have a couple of quick questions. So the the elimination of the the service fee. Who does that benefit? Speaker 0: Who does the elimination of the convenience fee benefit? It benefits directly the utility customers. It does not have any benefit to the city. It is intended to benefit and make life easier on our customers. Speaker 8: So this is this is a benefit, direct benefit to our our constituents, our senior citizens, to the ratepayers in the city. Speaker 0: It is a direct benefit to the people who pay utility bills, our residents and our citizens. Yes. Speaker 8: And I didn't read it in the staff report, but is there a mechanism or will there be a report back to determine whether or not this is performing the way we want, that this contract is performing, the way we want it to perform after one year, after 18 months? I know there's a three year contract. Do we just reevaluate it then? Speaker 0: Yes, we would reevaluate it then. If there was a problem with the service provider and with our reference checks, we honestly do not believe there will be. But this is a very important contract with something goes wrong with these services. I can't even begin to tell you how unhappy people are because they get sensitive about their money and they get sensitive about it very quickly. So we are we we believe this will be an excellent provider. If there is a service problem that is that continues, you will hear about it very quickly from us. Speaker 8: Okay. Well, you have my full confidence. I support giving a break to our taxpayers and ratepayers to the city of Long Beach or in the city of Long Beach. And so I will be voting in support. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Base me, Richardson. Speaker 9: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a couple questions. So this makes a lot of sense to take steps toward removing that fee. I think it's a hassle. It's annoying. You know, I used to do that. Then I just switched over to online Bill Pay and just sent a sound check directly from my account just to avoid that fee. The question for me is about the process. So we hired this consultant and it says, and correct me if I'm wrong, it says not to exceed $984,000. Now, will that will that consultant actually remove the fee or is there some additional funding required or necessary in order to implement whatever changes the consultant recommends? Speaker 0: Thank you for that question. I'll I'll try to clarify. The 984,000 is is not a consultant. It is a it is a service a service to process the payments that come in to the city, either by way of credit card, by way of debit card and to process e checks. And they provide an intermediate service between us and the banks. The banks typically do not get involved in this, so that is the service of processing an individual transaction. In addition, in terms of answering fully answering your question, there is an implementation process so that 984,000 back to the 984 is really a charge per transaction. We estimate based on the number of transactions that the cost will be 984,000. But if we had two transactions, the cost would be $6, something like that. We do have a cost that we estimate for implementation. There are 14 interfaces and and lots of all those interfaces have to be designed and. Programed. In addition, their computer changes and programing changes that need to be made. Those costs, we estimate, at $600,000 as a one time costs. Almost all of the costs, both the 984,000 and the 600,000 will be paid by utilities, not the general fund. Speaker 9: So about 600,000. That's for the consultant. Speaker 0: That is for about 200,000. Of that is for the consultant. The rest is for programing and other needs associated with implementing that. Speaker 9: The final expense in order to achieve what we want to achieve. Will there be additional expenses beyond that? Speaker 0: It is an estimate. It's the best estimate we can do. We do not change these services very often. We have spent a lot of time on those services. We have done some discussions with consultants. We think that 200,000 for the consultant is is on target. The rest in terms of programing, we have to get into it to see what's going on. But it is our best estimate, I will assure you. And we have utilities watching us. If we spend less, that's what we will do. If it turns out, we will need to spend more and we hope we don't. We would let the utilities know and they would be paying those costs. But our best guess is that 600,000 will do it. Speaker 9: Thank you. And I feel a little bit more comfortable understanding that 200,000 of that is for consultant. The rub that I have here is that we pay a consultant to eliminate a fee before we've we opened up a RFP to go look for that service before we just checked around, who's already managing our money to say, hey , what would it take to expand your role to take on this service and we eliminate this fee? It seems like that would be a step that we should take. But I like the way this conversation is going, and thanks for a thank for your responses. Speaker 0: Vice Mayor If I can clarify on that, because I think you raised some very good points. Yes. The consultant we're using or we would be using has not been selected. And yes and no consultant was used to date. So the whatever consultant we hire will not have had a role in what we've done so far. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Speaker 7: So is when we did the original RFP, did we consider purchasing our own merchant line so that we would run our own credit cards and be the processor in-house and save that money? Speaker 0: No, we did. We did not. I'm not aware of of governments doing that. I actually can't comment too much on that. I can't think of a single government that has done that. I'm not saying they haven't. I don't know of any. And I would be concerned if we could as to why we would get into that. I can't tell you it's good or bad, but it would certainly be a major, major change in the way we operate and the expertize we would require in-house. Speaker 7: So. I know that this has come up before. There are groups that have talked about this in the past and that it could be a significant savings to taxpayers. That's why we would explore it and that it would be through an addendum on potentially our banking contract or other contracts. So I'm going to I made the motion tonight. I'm going to be supportive of it. But I think that we also need to be creative about the future of how money is collected, the future of how people interact with money and the ways in which things are paid. Because as we move more and more online, these fees are being incurred at larger quantities of the tax bill. And the reason the convenience fee was initially added. It was not a Long Beach choice. It was the determination that we could not pay. That we could not collect different amounts from different types of people. If you pay online, you have to pay the exact same amount to the government as the people who build in a check. And that's where the convenience fee originated from. And there were several regional committees supported, both through GAG and other agencies talking about this challenge through the years. And so I know that people have come up with solutions. And I'd like for us, as we move forward, to look at those best practices, because at the end of this three years, I think that we're going to be looking at a very different banking system in terms of how how millennials interact with government, how our our taxpayers are interacting with government. So thank you for the information. And I look forward to the potential that at the end of this contract that we have a more creative solution in Councilwoman. Speaker 0: One thing as you move forward and we move forward with that. One of the things we would be look at and that that I and I think the the 82 Tidd chief of department had have tried to avoid is getting involved in credit card processing that involves the type of security with credit cards. We have worked very diligently to this point to avoid having to maintain credit card numbers and maintain those things and do that kind of data processing security. So that's been an important I. Speaker 7: Think that is a very wise choice. I also think that the the the menu of services available to us in the future is changing. And we need to instead of taking out the old RFP from years past and just regenerating over and over again, what we've always done be creative about the future to make sure that, I mean, $1,000,000 of processing is a lot of money and that's that's streets that sidewalks, that's a lot of trees. And so we need to talk through what are these creative solutions for the future? Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 6: Thank you and thank you to my colleagues for their thoughtful comments and, of course, staff. I think when our in-house financial expert starts off his staff report by talking about how excited. Speaker 3: He is. Speaker 6: About this item, it makes you think he needs a more exciting life. But also he rarely, you know, express his usually very, you know, objective and analytical on these items. So the fact that he's recommending this item makes me more drawn to it. At the same time, I think Councilwoman Mango has, as she always does, raised some very valid points regarding financial consequences and future considerations for us to have. So and it's really not my area of expertize, so I do defer to a lot of her comments in that regard because this is just not my area of expertize. But I think as she stated it well, you know, I support this item tonight, but of course, as we move forward, hopefully we start early with looking at things that even if other cities are aren't doing them, things that we might be able to do to reduce these costs associated with these in the future and see really to what level we can maybe even start a pilot in another context so that we can see what we can do in terms of our own application in this regard. So thank you very much for the staff report and for the conversation. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson, just a quick question. Speaker 9: When does the banking RFP come up again? Do we know? Speaker 0: Can I get back to you? Can I send you a note on that? I actually don't know. Speaker 9: Okay. Sounds good. Thanks. Speaker 0: Customer. Speaker 4: Pearce I just wanted to say I really appreciated the comments of my colleagues, but definitely if you start off saying how excited you are, I think anytime we can look at reducing costs for the city and pass those on to residents, those costs add up. Whenever we have small fees like this. It's a small things that that hit us in our pocketbooks sometimes. So I appreciate the effort and the conversation and definitely we'll be supporting this. Speaker 0: Thank you. And let me just add, just lastly, I want to thank everyone. I think those are some really good comments. And I particularly like the conversation around the future of banking because that is going to have a big impact on our services. But let me just say that this and believe me when I say this, this council will do a lot of things in our time together. There will be very few things that will be more popular than the one you're voting on tonight. The second it's implemented. And I guarantee you that the amount of correspondence that I get on this one issue is almost at the top of the list of things that come to my office and eliminating this burdensome additional fee for the taxpayer. This is an opportunity that we really have to essentially give something back to our constituents. And they're going to appreciate this so much and are going to be so happy that they don't have to pay that additional fee. That's a complex fee. And obviously there's reasons why we've had it in the past. But I just want to thank staff. You guys have worked been working on this incredibly hard. We've been talking about it for a long time. And we've come up with a solution that is a little burden to the city, but a huge benefit to all of our residents across the community. And so I just want to thank you for for doing that. Any public comment on this? Great. Let's vote.

Contract

Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP FM16-153 and award a contract to Kubra America West, Inc., of Tempe, AZ, for payment processing for City services, in an annual amount not to exceed $820,330, authorize a 20 percent contingency in the amount of $164,066, for a total annual contract amount not to exceed $984,396, for a period of three years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods; and authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments; and Authorize City Manager to eliminate the utility bill convenience fee for credit/debit cards and electronic checks as soon as implementation to Kubra America West, Inc. is complete. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Can't. Exciting, please. Speaker 1: Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code related to local enforcement and penalties for illegal marijuana businesses read and adopted as read citywide. Speaker 0: Emotion in a second. Councilman Price. Do you have any comments? Speaker 6: No. I ask my colleagues to support this item again. Please. Speaker 0: Okay. Public, please come down. I really do. Clark has the address. I address this a few weeks ago, and though this measure has some merit to it, this is one of the I think the first time I'm going to suggest that you. Undertake an action tantamount to reconvening the Council of Trent. And going back and correcting. A very serious error that was made. The city did a good job of saying, hey, we don't want these facilities near our schools. We don't want these near our parks. As I mentioned two weeks ago, what was fair, what we failed to consider or is failed to take into consideration is the avenues and the byways by which those you're trying to protect go to and from schools, period, in the instant kit. And I don't know all of your neighborhoods. I know development your area rather well. And I do know kids patterns. All right. Kids don't don't go to banks. Kids don't go to shoe stores. Kids don't go to jewelry stores. All right? They don't go anywhere where mom and dad goes. All right. But what they do go in. I our area, I know is Rite Aid for ice cream and a block away of. However, a jack in the box. I know you have correlative locations in your district that. So what you've got to do. Is go back and provide those corridors that the kids take as safe zones, period. Somebody has a wet dream of opening up one of these right down in the middle of wells of of Belmont Shore. As he comes to read. You will see he is. The police records show perhaps the most irresponsible landlord in. They're not sure if not in the city. As is a major tentative is next door. Equally odious. And it responsible for five years, providing both of them, but providing sanctuaries to an insidious criminal element. One of them threatening to kill a shop owner because a block away, less than a block away because she reported that the use of crack cocaine. Another one biting the female biting somebody in the stomach. Both of them spitting at the branch librarian every time she goes out on the second street for a lunch or a break because they were banned from the library for that type of conduct. So what you've got to do is go back to the drawing board and redesign that your protections for the community. Thank you very much. Any public public comment saying now there's a motion and a second, please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding section 5.90.290 related to local enforcement and penalties for illegal marijuana businesses, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

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Speaker 0: Kane. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 26. Congratulations. Congratulations on having. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilwoman Gonzales, Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Mango. Recommendation to request the city attorney to draft an ordinance to regulate elevator repairs related to equipment failure and across the city manager to report within 120 days on the current elevator code enforcement procedures, incentives for property owners and policy recommendations for hardship reimbursement to disabled persons. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes, I. This has been actually an item in the making for many, many years. And I first would like to thank one of my residents, the first district resident who is extremely passionate about advocacy for individuals with disabilities. And I would like to recognize her. Frances, Emily, Dawson, Harris. I think everyone knows her, so let's give her a big round of applause. I'd like to thank her because not only is she an advocate, she's still very active in the community, but about, I would say, five or six years ago or so. I remember connecting with her over the holidays and it happened that she was actually confined to her building for 73 days because of an ongoing equipment failure with the elevator. It is an unfortunate thing situation that occurred and now many years later, now being on the council, I wanted to make sure that we got this address and we got it right. And so this this will ask the city attorney to look into drafting an ordinance for various things. I mean, we're going to ask for a current elevator code enforcement procedures violations to make sure that we are getting it right and that repairs are done right away, not 73 days later, that they're done in an efficient and a timely manner. And so there are roughly about 45,000 people living with disabilities, 55% of whom with live with ambulatory disabilities, and a total of 42,835 seniors in Long Beach. There are over 30 senior buildings and many large multifamily buildings within Long Beach, and many of them reside in the First District. Individuals with mobility impairments sued the New York City Housing Authority because they failed to maintain its elevator in working conditions. The lawsuit resulted in a supplement settlement agreeing agreement requiring the New York the city of New York to repair elevators within 24 hours. So a member of the provincial parliament of Trinity Hendon put forth a bill to amend Canada's current law with respect to elevators or crying repairs. And I and I know and I think that Long Beach can certainly do better. I'd also like to thank my staff member, Jennifer Kumi. I'm a back here who also worked with Francis in drafting this ordinance and works as well as the founder of the Wheelchair, Miss Wheelchair California, but also for her advocacy and making sure that this saw city council's desk. So with that said, I hope my council colleagues can support this item. We'll ask for report back in 120 days. But I think it's a definitely a great item for us to ensure that we are improving the working and living conditions of many individuals who happen to have disabilities. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Durango. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank Councilmember Gonzalez for bringing this forward. It's a very important item. As we all remember a couple of years ago when we had our power outage, there were a number of people who were stranded in their buildings because they couldn't get down because of elevator operators. So I think it's important that we address this as quickly as we can. But I'd also like to ask a question from our staff. Do we require buildings to have emergency sleds, especially those that are multi-story buildings? I don't believe so. Okay. If a council member would indulge me, I would like to make an amendment to the motion. If we can have our staff also look at requiring an emergency sled, emergency evacuation, sleds in buildings that are over five stories to ensure that if there is a power failure or there is a fire or there's another emergency or there's a power failure that these emergency sleds would be available to in buildings that are five stories or greater. Speaker 11: Absolutely. I'd be happy to include that. Speaker 6: Okay. Thank you. I'd like to welcome that amendment. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: Yes. I, too, want to thank my colleague for her foresight to to consider this. I think sometimes we find ourselves in situations that seem isolated or building by building, but it makes sense to try to make sure that there's protection for those. And I to remember folks in the second District being trapped in their buildings at a time whenever our electricity went out. I have to just clarifying questions. One I'd like to ask the colleague, you're Roberto Duran. Is there a reason for five stories instead of maybe. Speaker 2: Three. Speaker 4: Or. Speaker 6: No? I mean, whatever the consumer goods dollars would be available to, I just thought that five would be it would be the a threshold. But that's really available to 2 to 3. Yeah. Speaker 9: Okay, great. So if we could just look into that as a whole for any two story or three story buildings. Great. My second question is for the city attorney and just clarifying, because it says city attorney and it says city manager to request back. So just clarify. This is a report to come back and then we would then do an ordinance. Speaker 5: The I was just going to ask I actually I was queued up to speak to ask that very question. I think there are some issues of preemption when you're dealing with elevators in the state of California. All elevators are overseen by the Department of Industrial Relations. And so I think if we could the motion would be to do this study during which time we could look into what the options are. Available to the City Council for an ordinance and then include that in the report that comes back to you. And then we get further direction to prepare whatever ordinance. Speaker 11: Yes, that was the intention of this. And thank you for. Thank you. Yes. Speaker 9: Great. Thank you. And I'm proud to be a cosigner on this. And thank you for all the work that you did, Councilmember. Speaker 0: Thank you. And I'm sure city attorney. I know you were a cutup. Did you have anything else or did you already know? Okay, then, Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Thank you. And I want to thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez and the rest for bringing this item forward. I will certainly support it. I think it merits the city staff looking into ways to improve and support the health and welfare of our residents, and particularly those who are most vulnerable in older buildings. City attorney kind of preempted me because I did have some questions regarding jurisdiction over inspections and who governs elevators, but I think this is a great item. I'll be certainly supportive. And then to any young people out there looking at future careers, I will tell you that there's always a shortage of elevator mechanics throughout the state and throughout the country. And so it's a great, great career that pays very, very well. So if you want to get a strategic advantage on on a career option, become an elevator mechanic, because obviously there's going to be a need. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilmember Mongo. Speaker 2: I want to give a great, great, great bit of gratitude to the first District staff member who put an exceptional amount of work into the persistence of the community. This is a really important matter that often comes up only when it is too late when an emergency has occurred. And so we are looking forward to the opportunity to find what we are able to do. And if it only means that from here forward new buildings that are built, the city has the ability to put some restrictions in place. I think that we would go that direction, but we just need to be mindful of our scope and span of control and whatever we can do to make the world a more mobile friendly place for all of you. So thank you for your patience and cooperation in this important matter. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Andrews. Speaker 3: Yes. Thank you very much, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank Our Lady Gonzales for bringing this item forward because of the fact that any time you speak of our senior citizens, which I am one myself, you know, and we talk about exits. I think this is a wonderful idea. And I was glad that both of our council members here talked about our height, because the fact that a lot of our seniors do live in very high places. But this is a very, very important item that you brought to the diocese year because the fact that a lot of us do. That's the only way of getting to and both to our, you know, place of residency. So thank you again, Mrs. Gonzales, for bringing this forward, and I truly will support it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: Yes. I also wanted to acknowledge Heather in our city for working on many of these issues as well as Delores from the Disabled Resource Center. Thank you both for being here as well. Speaker 0: Okay. Well, thank you very much. We're going to have any public comment on this item. Please come forward. Speaker 4: We're going to. Okay. You. Speaker 10: I am Francis. Emily Dyson Harris and I reside in District one. You have quite a bit of information that I have given to you, and I want to say thank you very much. Cast member Elian Gonzalez, Jenny Pierce and Stacey Monaco for, you know, bringing forth this agenda item. My very God daughter Amaya are being taken to school one day in November 2009. Said, Grandma, it's not right. The Miss Frances can't get out of out like us. What a profound statement and compassion for Sister Chow, which was, unbeknownst to me, the beginning of a horrific, horrific, horrific nightmare. I endured a non-operational elevator until January 29th, 2010. My goodness. 73 days. City Council members to have a power to flash a red light and stop such access, which may be considered a form of involuntary imprisonment. Similar incidents have been well documented on various news broadcasts. Every day is a process day and people have a right to lift it to the fullest. Days calm cannot be relent. Now please review attachment A as a notice of inspection by inspection, notice was served to the property where I lived at on the 16th of December 2009, and on the 23rd of December 29, I called the property manager. I mean, Ribo have her and he said, Francis, you're calling to tell me that you're out. So I'm going to tell you I'm not out. I've been in for my Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and New Year. I mean, I'm going to who knows when I'm going to get out of here. So he was livid. His time. I served them and can scare the heebie jeebies out of him. Well, you know, they still did absolutely nothing. How sad that serious numerous violations would not adhere to until January 29, 2010. And then I have here about allowing a temporary interrupts a service, but I'm forced it has not clarified the number of days. What the problem is, is the federal regulations, which you have and I wrote a federal bill. It's kind of Washington. It came back. Congressman Albert has sent back to Washington. It has to be clarified the number of days when a temporary interruption services in town has defined no family status to the entity composed of fine. So that's been moved forward. But I just want to commend you for going ahead and putting this in place, because it's absolutely essential after two months of not having medical care, my condition just was just beyond words. Just and I had to find someone my friend found to carry me out of the building. I pay the thousand, sometimes $80, for grass assistance to get out of the building twice. Thank you, Councilmember DeAngelis, for asking me in 2010 words you can. And I told you basically that I was trapped up in the building. When people are in a decimation of lives, surely a non-operational hour puts them on a detour. Okay. And so back in March after that and then I have, I believe, most frustration it's created and met expectations and this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. So thank you very much. And I have a poem that I have for you, our, our friend. Speaker 0: And we have, we have and. Speaker 10: I'm going to give back to you as part of that. Speaker 0: We have it already. The site. Thank you. Thank you so much. Make speaker, please. Speaker 10: Mayor, city council members and the community. My name is Karen Reified and I happen to live in one of those multi-story buildings. I actually live on the 17th floor. And during the power outage, the elevators became a major issue. I want to suggest a couple of things. There's the evacuation and it's actually done by the fire department. And you've never lived till you've seen the fire department have to evacuate a woman from 17 floors and carry her down the stairwell who is over £300. We do have sleds in our buildings that they get removed and they don't get replaced. So that's another issue. Seven days is really too long for seniors to go without elevators. When the power outage hit, we discovered that we had an emergency generator, but it was not connected to operate the elevators. So we were without elevators for four days. I went personally up and down the stairs, 17 flights and I'm a mobile person. There are immobile people on my floor. Each floor has about 12 units. We had five people that had to sleep in the lobby on benches, hard benches, because they didn't weren't able to climb up the stairs to their third and second floor apartments. Elevators are absolutely critical for senior citizens. We also have issues not necessarily just for the repairs, but when they go down on the weekends. The moment this lasts Memorial Day weekend. We only had one elevator working in a building with 800 people. That's very critical. The elevators were very slow to get in and out. If you have a critical situation, fire department has to climb up those stairs and evacuate those people. So this is great that this is coming forward. I would suggest some some more changes and maybe some special provisions for on the weekends, because there's not always someone on call to respond if there's an elevator down. And oftentimes, it's just that they need resetting. And the seniors are without elevators for the whole weekend. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 12: Male mayor, council members and others in the auditorium. My name is Ben Rockwell. I would like to let you know, I have experienced over the last 35 years that I've been using a wheelchair. Many times when elevators have gone out. Sometimes I've gone out while I've been on the elevator waiting to get down. And has taken hours at times to get out of that stopped elevator. It's very frightening indeed. Of course I do get to sit down and relax, which is better than most of you would. But even so, it's not very comfortable to be sitting there waiting for hours for the elevator. It would be nice if we had elevators that worked every time and were always doing what they're supposed to do. But we all know that isn't a good way to live in anticipation that that's going to always happen. But we do need to plan for the future and plan to get these things taken care of properly. I would like to have each person consider what it would be like to have to be stuck in their apartment for more than 24 hours or 48 hours at one time. It's not very much fun. But I will say we can get by with a little planning, planning for food as for any disaster, because elevators are a disaster, especially for those of us that do not have the ability to climb stairs. I would like to suggest that we continue to work on having quicker aims rather than seven days to make it a three or four day stay. Because seven days is a long time to get stuck, especially when it's a day before you are planning on going out to buy some milk. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Rockwell. Speaker. Speaker 1: Good evening, Mayor Garcia and council members. My name is Dolores Cindy, and I'm the executive director at Disabled Resources Center in Long Beach. And I am here to support the Reliable Elevators ordinance. And it looks like all of you are, to which you're a great council. You really are. Since I have worked at DRC for the past 25 years, I know how important it is for people with disabilities to have the same freedom to live their lives independently like the rest of us do. I have had the experience of knowing firsthand how tragic it is for someone to be trapped in their living space like Frances was for 73 days. During the time Francis was confined, she often called me and she would share with me what she was going through all season. Also, Cindy Soto worked at DRC for many years, and I remember all too well when Cindy would not be able to come into work because her elevator wasn't working. It's just inexcusable for persons with disabilities or for anyone else to have to be trapped in their homes. You often hear the excuse. Oh, well, the elevator is old, and it's hard to get parts. Speaker 6: Oh. Speaker 10: Well, you need to install a. Speaker 1: New elevator, then. Speaker 10: That's the bottom line. Speaker 1: There should be no hardship for owners of these buildings. If they can afford to keep their elevators working, then they should own the building. They need to sell it to somebody else. You know, Francis is here tonight, and we need to put a face on people. More than than just a broken elevator. It's a lifeline for people like this. So thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next week, Speaker, please. Speaker 12: Good evening, Mayor. City Council members. My name is Richard Hernandez and I'm a system change advocate at. Speaker 8: Disabled Research Center. Speaker 5: We are located. Speaker 12: At 2758 Spring Street, Suite 100 and Long Beach, 90806. We represent the disabled community and seniors. And I'm also a commissioner for the Citizens Advisory Commission on Disabilities, Cape Cod. Speaker 8: I'm here in support of Lena. Speaker 12: Gonzalez's elevator ordinance. It is, which is long overdue. People with disabilities want to be independent. We want to go wherever. We want to go whenever we want to go. And when the elevator is down and we're stuck at home, we can't go nowhere. We need to be dependent and we want to be dependent. We don't want to dependent friends or family members to. Speaker 8: Buy groceries or buy food. Speaker 12: Or pick up our medicines. Not only is this not right, but it is dangerous because in an emergency, there's nowhere to go. I've heard. Speaker 8: Stories of people. Speaker 12: Being stuck in elevators for weeks and months at a time. It's unacceptable. Broken elevators should be fixed within a reasonable amount of time. So I'm asking for you to do to do the right thing and support this ordinance. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Speaker, please. Speaker 10: Hello. Honorable Mayor and City Council people. My name is Mary Sandy. Have a seat. Okay. My name is Mary Sunday House and I work with Cal State Long Beach, and I'm also the executive director for Professional Abilities Association of America. And I'm also a first district member resident, I should say. I want to thank Councilwoman Nina Gonzalez, her staff, Corey and Corey Allen and Jennifer Miyama for working so hard with Heather from the city of Long Beach. And also Francis. I know that that I'm a firm believer in things happen for a reason. And I think that the reason this happened to Francis because she has a very strong voice and she was going to do something about it. And I'm very proud of you, Francis, for bringing this forward and actually, you know, thinking of other people, because it's not only about Francis, it's about everybody else. So one of the things that's very important is that, you know. As a disabled person, we strive to be very independent. And when we get when we get stuck in a situation that prohibits us to be independent, we struggle and we struggle to ask for help because we're so used to being so independent. And so, you know, even though this is a big step, I'm really happy. And that Long Beach City Council is actually looking at this ordinance and saying, you know, that something needs to be done because it really does need to be done. And I see a community where, you know, we think of the people with disabilities, seniors as a before thought and not an afterthought. And and I really like that. And we need to continue doing that. I actually experienced both with you know, I experienced Frances being stuck in the elevator wondering when is she going to join us ? You know, I've also experienced Cindy Soto being stuck in her in her elevator. My worry was like, you know, as a professional, how is she going to get to work, you know, okay, maybe one or two days. But if you tell your boss, oh, again this week, my elevator still not broke. And so I'm going to have to miss another week. But that week turns into like a month. And it's just not no, it's just, you know, something has to be done and it is very inhumane. So thank you very much. Long Beach City Council for considering this ordinance. Speaker 0: Thank you, Ms.. Sun House. Appreciate it. Next speaker. Speaker 4: Please. Speaker 10: Good evening, Mayor Garcia and councilman and also councilwoman. Thank you for being here and thank you for your service. I am here to tell you that I am 110% in support of the ordinance to regulate the elevator repairs related to the equipment failure. We are asking for the required repairs to be completed within seven days in the commercial buildings, also in the residential buildings as well that serve seniors, elders, people with disabilities and any other health conditions that makes it difficult to navigate the stairwells. Tenants pay rent for these services, so they should be able to request a reduction in rent if the elevators are not working. And that is just fair play for tenants and landlords. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. This is the last speaker. Mr. Goodhue, please. Speaker 5: It's Larry Goodman. Obviously, it's a it's a much needed. Ordinates. I mean, it's just so obvious. It really doesn't need to be discussed. But one suggestion I would make is also reduce the time and the turnaround time. One day, one day. And that the company is not in a position to do that yet another company, period. And it doesn't make any difference to the age of the group. Whether they're seniors, whether they're kids in high school. College. If they're stuck, they're stuck and they need to get out of there in one day period. It was a good point pointing out the job opportunities with the elevator repairs. But they should understand there's some ups and downs to those type of jobs. Speaker 0: Now, Mr. Goodyear, that was pretty funny. That was good about that. That concludes public comment. Let me go back to the council. Speaker 12: Vice Mayor Richardson, thank you. I just want to chime in and obviously say good work to the council members who raise this issue. But what really prompted me to chime in and speak was sort of how enlightened I am now, just hearing the public comment, all of you come in here sharing the stories, helping us better understand there were a lot of people who were impacted. But you had a very specific impact, and it really impacts your ability to participate in society. Those are the kind of issues that we should take on to the city council. So so I feel really good about supporting this item. So I want to thank everyone associated with this. And I hope we can we can do something here to, you know, improve, you know, your quality of life. So thank you so much. Speaker 0: Thank you. And Councilman Gonzalez. Speaker 11: I just wanted to wrap up saying thank you again for for speaking. I appreciate each and every one of you and Mr. City attorney, if we can. I know things sometimes delay, but if we can get this back in 120 days, if not sooner. And also listening to speakers, if we are able to look deeper into that seven day window and tightening that up a bit, that would be most appreciated. And thank you guys again. Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay. We're going to do some of our public comment now before our to take a vote. So please, members, cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay, great. I'm going to have our first three speakers of groupies by topic. There's a few folks here for the same topics Patrick Kelly, Duane Wilson and Dan Daniel. I think it says winner. I'm sorry for misspelled there at the.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft an ordinance to regulate elevator repairs related to equipment failure. This ordinance should include verbiage that requires repairs due to equipment failure be completed within 7 days for residential and commercial buildings that house or serve seniors, people living with disabilities, and/or people with health conditions that make it difficult to navigate stairwells, and 14 days for all additional residential and commercial buildings; Request City Manager, or designee, to report within 120 days: a. A report of current elevator code enforcement procedures, number of violations for elevator failures due to faulty equipment, the initial number of days granted to repair and any extensions granted. b. Incentives for property owners with elevators to modernize equipment. c. Policy recommendations for hardship reimbursements to disabled persons who spend money on medical and quality of life services during the time an elevator is out of service.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_06202017_17-0504

Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes public comment. We're now moving on to the rest of the agenda. We're going to hear items 27 and 28 next, which are the two entertainment items. And so, madam, we I'm assuming and as we do get ready for that, we have a deal. We do have a report out of closed session. Speaker 5: Thank you. Mayor remembers City Council. Pursuant to the government code in closed session in the matter of Fulcher versus Secretary of Veteran Affairs by a vote of 8 to 0, the city council approved an amicus participation in that matter. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And with that, we're going to turn it over to the clerk to read item 27. Speaker 1: Communication from Councilmember Pearce, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilwoman Mongo and Vice Mayor Richardson. Recommendation to request the city manager to study and make recommendations that further support smaller, low volume and less intrusive options for music venues. Speaker 9: Thank you. And I want to thank this guy comes away far. I want to thank everybody from our Arts and Music Council for attending today. I want to thank the mayor's office as well and give a big thanks to the Music Council for approaching us with these ideas back in March. Our work over the last several months shows the power of the community groups engaging with their electeds around issues that matter most, where you can see a difference. In April, we hosted a terrific event with the Music Council and the Arts Council to discuss ways that the city could better support our music community. With over a hundred people there was nicely packed in. One thing became really clear. We had a strong and vibrant music community and no shortage of talent here in Long Beach. What's also clear is that the music and arts and culture are huge local economic drivers for our city. In 2015, the Otis study found that a total economic output for the L.A. region creative industries is $176.9 billion and generated over $7.7 billion in tax revenue for L.A. County. That's huge. In Seattle and Austin, the music industry directly creates over 11,000 jobs and 18,000 jobs generated 90,000,040 million and local tax revenue, respectively. Here in Long Beach, we have a higher portion of people employed within the arts and entertainment design and media industry, directly accounting for over 9000 jobs. That's from a Beacon report that the city commissioned last year. As a city, we're struggling to fully capitalize on the talent opportunity because of outdated or restrictive regulations. In December, we took an important step forward with the percent for the arts program. And now we must make sure that our tax dollars are paired with regulations that support and not hinder our arts community. We are in the process of many forward facing challenges here in Long Beach, whether it's our draft economic blueprint for our for our city or our 2040 general plan. These changes reflect a city that is setting a vision for its future. And tonight's proposals are no different. And we haven't updated our definition of entertainment activities since 1996. One of the defining factors in many large cities across the U.S. and the world is that they have a vibrant arts community . This isn't by accident. It's by design, by policies and frameworks that cities have laid out over time, which don't just tolerate the arts but cultivate them, welcome them, and embrace them in an internationally recognized report. Making Music Making a Music City. They laid out five essential components to a successful music city. These are the presence of arts and musicians, which we know we have a thriving music scene, which we also have available space and places for music which we're trying to grow in a receptive and engaged audience, which I've definitely seen a record labels and other music related businesses, which we know that, you know, places like or organizations like Front Porch Records started in the second District, which I'm proud of. Of the seven strategies listed, number one is creating music friendly and musician friendly policies. Tonight, we're taking an important step forward as a city to support the arts in all its forms, acknowledge music both as a cultural and economic driver, and ensure economic growth in years to come. So we've got two items on the agenda, and I'm just going to briefly go over the first one and then we can have our colleagues have a discussion. Speaker 0: Councilmember We're going to do because I know we have the same folks want to speak for both is I mean, have you read both items and that way we understand what both items are and with the public comment for both items, I like it and we go from there. Okay. Speaker 9: Sounds good, mayor. Okay. The first item is about having our regulations, Max, to match the reality of a wide range of music venues we have here in Long Beach. The problem right now is that the code which defines entertainment activity as whenever amplified or more than two people, uses a lowest common denominator approach to regulating and puts almost all venues in the exact same category. As a council letter says, this means that a jazz trio in a small coffee shop is subject to the same rules and regulations as a rock club that serves alcohol to 100 people. The average cost of an entertainment permit is 1700 dollars, and this number is higher in denser areas like our downtown. The other option is where to get occasional event permits. Each time may be less expensive on a one time basis, but ends up treating casual live music as a special one time event. And as we also know, many places that would fall into this category actually don't end up pulling their permits at all. And so it makes it difficult for us to say as a city how much music and entertainment we actually have. And so we again, we want to make this easier. In both cases, the existing regulations discourage business owners from hosting live music, provide less options for musicians, and ultimately lead to less music and potential economic activity in Long Beach. Our goal is for the staff to study the issue from all angles. Review current definition of an entertainment activity. Consider factors such as decibel levels, crowd size, and determining whether a business has to apply for the cost of the application. For example, some cities exempt business. Says that don't serve alcohol or have an admission charge from having to even apply for the entertainment permit. We're not here to say that there should be no oversight, but that the oversight and the process should match the impact they have, not hold them to the same standards as a result will increase our number and consistency of live music throughout the city. So that's number 27. Okay. I am going to very quickly try to get to number two. It's much shorter, don't worry. So our second item is let me just skip over that part. The second item is making sure that we have music at cafes and street performing. That is directly connected to economic activity by attracting people to areas where there are businesses and enhancing the character of everyday experience. So this is the idea around busking and live entertainment on our sidewalks and in our downtown corridors. If you've ever visited a first Fridays in Bixby Knowles or newly installed fourth Fridays on Retro Row, you'll see the way the street performing can bring street to life. Something as simple as waiting for the for the walk light can turn into a memorable experience. So we want to make sure that street performing is not commonly looked down upon and that it's done in areas where we can make sure that we're doing some great placement making, often due to confusion both within the code and inconsistent enforcement and misunderstandings between businesses. These opportunities are shined away from, for example, Title 14 says a permit is required to perform in the public right away, but no permit exist. So our goal is to have the city sit down with business associations, performers and definitely residents to understand where we're at, how to encourage this, and how to balance the type of entertainment that will bring life to our corridors. So I respectfully ask for our council support on both of these items. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Councilman Gonzalez. And then we'll go to public comment for both the items. Speaker 11: Sure. Thank you. I want to thank Councilmember Pearce for bringing this forward. I think we are exactly everything that she mentioned. We are absolutely a music city, an arts and culture city. But certainly with music, I don't think we give us give ourselves enough credit. And I think these two items will kind of make things start and initiate that credit that we deserve as a city that has really enabled so much talent to get even more popular. As I was saying outside, we can even name a multitude of of artists that have made it big just from this city alone. And in addition to that, the locally, organically grown artists that are here that will make it big one day. I would hope that we make it a lot easier. It's been a struggle for musicians to just play at a coffee shop. I have North Pine residents, business owners, in fact, who want to start a Twilight walk again every Thursday. And all they want to do is have a jazz band out front of their cafe. And to do that is so cumbersome. To do that is such a hassle. And so I really thank you for digging into these details to make sure that we get it right. And I also see down the down the line that we look at this a little bit more comprehensively as well. There's a lot more that we can do here in terms of music. And I look forward to all of our ideas and making sure that we make it happen here in Long Beach. So thanks again and I look forward to public comment as well. Speaker 0: Thank you. If there's no objection, we've got a public comment. Okay. So why don't we go in here for the public on these two items? Please come forward. Speaker 8: Good evening, Mayor. Council members. My name is George McCaleb. I'm a resident at Lena Gonzalez's first district. I'm a musician. And I also host a weekly open mic here in Long Beach. I am continually amazed at not only the level of talent here, but the variety. The diversity that I see is astounding. I don't know why it should surprise me. Long Beach. Speaker 5: Has a history. Speaker 8: Of great music in a variety. Speaker 5: Of areas. Speaker 8: Charles Mingus. With Birdland. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band came of Long Beach folk music. The Carpenters. Popular music. Sublime Rock Music. Snoop Dogg rap. You name it. We've done it here and we've done it well. And I'm proud to be part of that community and that legend. When I was looking for a place to host my open mic, I found a venue that would have been excellent. Management was on board. The owners were interested in doing it. Till they ask the question, What kind of permit do we need? I did some homework. I found out it would cost over 1500 dollars, actually over 1550 just to apply and have the inspections done. That's nonrefundable money. That would get them in front of the council where they could ask you for a permit. If you said, yes, that's another thousand dollars per year. This to host a one night a week open mike and a pizza parlor. They were willing to make the room available as a service to the community. They were not willing, and very understandably so, to spend over $2,600 just to get the first act in their. Long Beach has a great tradition of music. It has great potential for music. Like I said that the talent here is phenomenal. Variety is amazing. You can't find another city this size that has that kind of. Variety and that level of talent. I'm very happy to be here. I just wish the city would make it easier for small venues to get a license to do this and do it within the law instead of doing it kind of on the quiet, like a lot of things are happening right now. And I thank Councilwoman Pierce for doing this. I want to acknowledge my councilwoman. I want to acknowledge the other people that have signed on with this. And for those of you who haven't. I hope I've been able to educate you a little as to what it's going to take to make this happen. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Hello. My name is Tim Donovan. I've been playing on the. Speaker 6: Street in Long Beach Music for over 25 years. Is this thing. Can you hear me? Okay? Just talk. Okay. Over 25 years. All right? I'm a one man band called Testament. Some of you may see me for different events. I've worked with several. Speaker 5: City organizations over that time, over the 25 years, as well as small businesses, members of the art community who have hired me. Speaker 6: For street events. I've done private parties. I played the farmer's market every Sunday. Speaker 5: For a long. Speaker 6: Time, these farmers market sometimes downtown. Speaker 5: I've been involved with the Armature Business Association, Public Corporation for the Arts. Speaker 6: East Village Arts District, which we know is Business Improvement Association. Long Beach City Nursing School has hired me. Fourth Street Rose Park Organization has hired me. I also have been instructor at kids camps and poets. Word is as well as afterschool. Speaker 5: Programs for Drumline. I played on the street in many locations. I try to. Speaker 6: Always choose them carefully and ask those local businesses, like in the case of Shoreline Village, there's a bunch of kiosks and I talked to them and I said, you know, they get to know me and they say. Speaker 5: Sure, come on. You know? And then it would be every Saturday was okay, somehow that's been ruined. I don't know. Speaker 6: Why it doesn't they won't allow me to go on down there anymore, but I feel that some of these groups are misrepresenting me. Speaker 5: There's been advertising on the Internet and. Speaker 6: Maps to inform people of the places and locations that I've researched for years and in basically been my whole life is just plain. Speaker 5: Going and doing. My one man band and playing all the items for my one man band are found objects from. Speaker 6: Long Beach, from the city, from going around on my bike and finding things. And that's how it started, you know, and it's been 25 years into it and now I see it in the paper and I get a couple of days ago that this is going on and no one's asked me and no one's bothered me at all. So I feel pretty left out and I feel like I'm being misrepresented in this case. I like some of the ideas that I've seen, you know, finally this evening seeing what's going on here. But I feel it's kind of. Speaker 5: Vague, a lot of it. And I want to be involved with with any major decisions. Speaker 6: Going on with this, you know, and I'll be I'll be, I hope, speaking and meeting with the council members soon. Speaker 5: And I thank you for your time. Thank you. All right. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next week. Speaker 10: Karen Retherford, a resident of the First District. I'm going to talk about this from a couple of perspectives. I ran the Cultural Alliance of Long Beach for three years on Pine Avenue. When we started. Kalb There was nothing. We had all four spaces in the bungalow buildings. I thought artists that we were just initially going to be a gallery, but the requests from the community were for music, music, music. So we were one of those unpermitted places that treated the concern of the artists and musicians basically just want to play for an audience. So we let musicians play whether they had an audience of three, and our largest puts about 150 people. We hosted bands and that just wanted to play who then went on national tours. We hosted some really large groups. We hosted Grammy Award winning artists in our gallery. That was very, very secret. I can attest that the cost of permits we did a jazz event over at the Mad House. The cost of permits makes it really difficult for musicians to perform in our professional capacity. I also want to mention I love the fact that these ordinance suits are coming forward. Music is a great activator and the arts are a huge economic engine for our community. In my work with the Boys and Girls Clubs, I could see the differences that access to music and music instruction made in the lives of at risk kids. The kids need more places to stay, to play, to present themselves to the community. One of the groups that we. The only time we got a police car was from a neighbor across the street because we hosted a birthday party for a group of teens who brought in local teen musicians. And my first encounter with social media and the power of the message. And we had over 300 kids, you know, they were very well-behaved. But the neighbor, because I was trying to do crowd control and limit the attendance, the police made me cram everybody into the building. So because the neighbors were complaining, but we still didn't have any incidents. I can't stress to you how important it is that we create more opportunities for artists and musicians and performers to have places that are affordable and accessible and available, available equitably. I also want us to look at when we bring concerts and events to our community. How many local artists do we feature as opening acts? Where do we give our artists opportunities to perform? Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Give an honor to Jesus. This is a this could be good, but then it could be a bad, too. Because if you're talking about all these regulations on sound and everything, I don't like it. I went to the Long Beach Jazz Festival over a decade ago. James Brown is on the stage. He's just getting down. 10:00 comes Long Beach. Police say turn it down. How are you going to turn James Brown down? That's that's number one. I mean that was bad you had mostly white crowd Newcastle the police out themselves you know and that was back when I was a Democrat you know . But check this out. Hey, so you know, all that regulation now this is cool for the music, but not the regulations. I mean, you got to let the music grow, you know, all that, you know. So that's what I think about that. I'm too much on that. So good for the music. But regulations easy up you know you can't have a a rock band be the same as Mingus would eat I mean jazz is different. You got to let a rock rock be rock. You know, jazz isn't how are you going to have them regulated same levels. You can't do that. So, you know that's all I've got to say on that. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: So I am mayor and council. My name's Liana Cobb, and I'm the owner of Hard Knock Life Entertainment. I'm a music manager, actually. Entertainment Management industry. I also became a member of the Grammys in 2016. I'm very involved in the entertainment industry firsthand by experience. Knowledge is power, so you can definitely research a lot of information. But for me, I need it. I need to partner that out with experience. I'm also in charge of entertainment for Jacqui, a boxing gym here in Long Beach. We are having an event July 15. So my first question to the owner was, is there going to be live music all day? He said, Yes. I said, okay, we need a permit. At first he was like, Wait, wait. I said, We need a permit. Now the app, which is an occasional entertainment permit at this time, is only $100. Like I explained to my venue, if you can't afford $200 for that permit, there's much bigger issues than entertainment. Now with the OSP, you can only have two events per month, up to 24 events per year, which is understandable because you are in a non zoned entertainment community. If me myself, if I purchased a home in a community not by clubs, I want to be able to have some peace and quiet while your business is turning up. And then you go home and wherever you live and I have to sit up when insomnia or insomnia, try to recover from your business just turned up and it's not fair. So we want to make sure that we are looking at all aspects. I do have some questions with regards to some of the things that are being proposed with regards to the venues. Are the venues or where are the different licenses such as city licenses and BMI and Mascot? I know what the difference is. Someone in someone that's in the music community would say there's a difference. Yeah, I know that. But people who are not business inclined may not know that. So we need to make sure that they understand that if the city says you don't need a license or a permit for this, then being might ask as soon something. They don't like what the city just said. We have to make sure that we understand all the information that's being provided. Has special events been engaged with regards to the consideration of changing the permits? Does the venues understand why this submission has so many restrictions in the community? What measures will be put in place so that a coffeehouse doesn't turn into a full time music venue? Our chance of being made to these other locations and see how they're doing with these venues be allowed to serve alcohol. Sometimes we will say business is technical. Oh, you're being too technical. Business is technical and everything is all fun and games. Until something happens. You can have ten great unpermitted events are permanent events, but you have that one permanent event. Then it becomes a problem. So let's just make sure that we have all of the information. Again, I think I'm a resident and second District. I work in sixth District. We have such a great support from both district, especially from Councilman Eddie Andrews. So again, let's just make sure that we have all the information. The entertaining license does not come into play unless you want to do more than two events per month. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Honorable Mayor. Council Members. City Manager. My name is Mark Judah and I'm the one who is managing the second Saturday artworks in downtown Long Beach for 20 years now. And as you know, half of what we do during the art works is music, and we do have a permit for that purpose, although the permit that we hold is only for so-called background music to only 50 decibels per performer. And it's it's just about equal to two people talking on the sidewalk, you know, and a little louder. So it's impractical on top of. Speaker 8: That. Speaker 6: Because we are a public event on the public street. We facing other challenges. And I wanted to address a couple of those before I go to the event that we host for every month, for 20 years, is free to the public for the public from any charges or any submission fees, and it's accessible to everyone. And this event was is hosted since 1997. What we are struggling with is, is the surprising fact that the organizers, me and the non-for-profit that organizes the event, pays a repetitive fee to the city of Long Beach, to the special event office every six months for the same exact permit for 20 years. It is, as I mentioned, it is free to the public. So we kind of struggle with the fact that we actually have to pay for it as a non-for-profit organization providing service to the city residents. And also on top of that, the special event officer requires us after 20 years to sign signatures from residents and business owners every month in a number of 80% to approve the street closure, which, you know, in fact, is practically a solid part of the East Village reality. And we would feel that it shouldn't be even necessary. So what we believe is necessary at this point, as it made it three points we would like ask you to help us with grandfathering in this public event into the East Village structure and calendar and waive all the survey signatures, also waive all the city fees. And most of all, we would like to ask you to help us to dedicate a budget that would come from 1% for the arts for Long Beach to our non-for-profit organizations so we can continue running the second Saturday artwalk for the future generations. So with that, my might ask, what should we do at this point? What will be the next step? Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 8: Good evening. Mayor and council members. Thank you for for allowing us to speak tonight. I am standing with a member of the fifth District. I live in the fifth District. I also am the Minister of Music at Grace First Presbyterian Church, also in the fifth District. And I am also a member of the Long Beach Music Council, which is the organization that helped bring this along with the Arts Council. To your attention, today's matter of fact, I brought my sign to prove it. So that's my son. We are very excited about the chance to bring these things to you. And I wanted you to just. Speaker 12: Address. Speaker 8: This from a slightly different angle as my role as Minister of Music. We have music camps through the summer. Starting next week. We have a school of rock camp for high school children. And one of the things that I know that one of the reasons I joined the Music Council was because I wanted to do things to support musicians and to support the music culture in the city and to grow it. And these proposals are designed specifically to do that, to give musicians a chance to make a living and to stay here and want to help make Long Beach grow. Speaker 12: And what that does one of the things that does that I've seen with the kids that I work with, they get a chance to work with people like Coon, who's going to be closing our concert, our camp next. Speaker 8: Week, and Sarah Green of Spare Parts for Broken Hearts, both of whom are being in one was in. Speaker 5: Music taste good festival last year and one is going to be in. Speaker 8: It this year. And to have these local musicians be able to grow up and do these amazing things, and then to be able to watch that spill over into the education of the kids they get to touch with. The things you're considering to do today will not just help these particular things. These are helping to grow Long Beach as a as a music city and to make music an economic driver in the city. And that will have spillover effect in many, many ways, particularly for our kids and our youth. So I thank you for taking this on today. Thank you so much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I close at speakers list. So. So, Mr. Cogen and then Mr. Goodhew. I'm sure he'll be the last speaker. Thank you very. Speaker 5: Much. My name is John Serge. I'm in the fifth district as well as Stan. And I am a musician. I have a band, John, Serge and the Haymakers playing at the Shoreline Summer Fest, August 18th. Got to promote. But we're here. I'm with the Long Beach Music Council, which I think just a quick introduction to what we do. We we're here to. We're a volunteer group. We have absolutely zero budget. You see our signs up. There are people who become together in work, been working. The group has been working for about four years now. And I think it's really cool. It's a it's kind of the power of of a volunteer group of people getting together with passion for something that they think can make change in our great city. Because I think a common bond is we all love the city and we've come together. And frankly, you know, a lot of the folks here, you've been open to us bringing our issues to you. And we thank you for that. I mean, it's really been kind of an open or an eye opening experience. Like, wow, maybe we could get some change, maybe we could make some difference. And I feel like this is a first step. We feel like and the idea is, hey, Austin, New Orleans, Seattle, we can be as good as them. There's nothing stopping us except. We don't have the energy, the momentum, the passion. And we want this to happen because we can build a lot of build big buildings, we can build all this other stuff. But people go to Austin for music. In fact, their their slogan is a trip to Austin is not complete without live music. So that's what we're doing. We're kind of setting up. This is a first step. Come on. Small venues, two people in a corner playing acoustic guitar and singing harmony. Right. Street performers on a beautiful day. Colors of sound and in colorful clothing and people out and not asking permission from business owners. Really, we want to be respectful, but we also have to realize the musicians have their place. This is just a start and we hope to take this as far as making Long Beach a music city. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 12: Hi there. Hi. Members of the council. Mayor. My name is Connor Locke. I'm a resident now of the third district, formerly of the fourth, and before that the third. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a community that valued music education, teaching kids to follow their dreams and their passions. I got to travel to San Diego, to Florida, to Walt Disney World, and to Hawaii as a member of a jazz band, and then the vice president of that jazz band and as the member of the marching band. So I learned to love music. Seeing my friends from that time in those bands try to make it in music in areas like Long Beach, like Northridge, in parts of Los Angeles and areas as far away as Berkley as Austin and Seattle, some previously mentioned cities. They're struggling really hard to get venue space, to afford to play. Speaker 5: To find places to do what they were told they'd be able to do by following their passions. Speaker 12: The opportunity. I know it's only a study at this point, but the. Speaker 5: Opportunity to figure out ways that we can encourage our young people. Speaker 12: And I think I'm the youngest person to talk tonight on this one. To follow their dreams, too. To bring art into our lives and to make that the soul of the community is something that you don't often get to do. So I don't want to use too much of your time, but please vote in favor of this. Please support young people following those passions and bringing our city a happier environment, whether it's. Speaker 5: Tourism or not, although I'm sure it would be, is not the most important issue here. It's that we teach these kids and we invest in them as students from elementary school through high school to college here in Long Beach, and especially with the college promise that they're going to be able to make a living and do what they love. And we should really stand up to that and keep it going as they transition into adulthood. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: Good evening. Suarez, the director of the arts council for long beach. Thank you. Mayor garcia, vice mayor richard, sitting council members for hearing this item tonight. Thank you to Councilmember Pierce. You know, it's been a great pleasure to work with your office and also with the Long Beach Music Council on this issue. And I'm so glad to be here tonight. We're glad that we are helping to amplify the voice of the arts here in Long Beach. As you know, we support our artists and musicians, and there are many a handful tonight that actually have received neighborhood micro grants to do their performances. And the musicians and performers of Long Beach are a vibrant sector of our arts. Ecology and music can transcend language and barriers and in many ways brings people together. So beyond the cultural benefits, music here in Long Beach also has an economic impact. As you know, customers come to businesses to listen to music. Tourists come to the city to listen to music, making Long Beach a place where people want to live, work and play. Recently, the Arts Council participated in a national study. The Arts and Economic Prosperity Index. And through that, our national study and the data that we've collected of our grantees throughout the years, we learned that the average person spends $31 on top of the admissions to a music or performance. So that means that dollars are coming into our city and that our musicians and performers are part of that. We also are known as a Long Beach Unified School District. We are known to be an amazing music education district. And so in making this item, bringing this city forward, we're actually helping not only build audience, but also build spaces, places and venues and business owners interested in employing our young musicians as they grow into their art form. We have made many strides in support of the arts and here tonight I think the music community and the performers are going to be part of those strides. Adapting our policies. Some that are as old as 20 years is a way to ensure the future growth of the arts. Thank you for bringing this to council tonight. And we encourage you to make Long Beach a destination for arts and culture and especially music. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: Good evening, Mayor Garcia. Members of the council staff. My name is Tasha Hunter, and I'm here on. Speaker 2: Behalf of the Uptown Business Improvement. Speaker 10: District. And I want to say thank you to Councilwoman. Speaker 2: Pierce for bringing this. Speaker 10: Study or this item to the agenda for allowing. Ah, the music. Music is an important part of, of our lives. And, and as far as the Uptown Business Improvement District, we do support this in our local venues as well as our street vendors. It's an economic driver. And with along with Long Beach, solidifying its reputation as a destination place, our street performances will create that positive impact that we love to see. I love walking somewhere. And like someone said ahead of me, when you hear those music performances, when you are allowed to have bands perform inside, it will not only draw people from within the city, it'll draw people from outside of our city continuing to make Long Beach a destination place. And we already know when they come to hear the music, they're going to want that slice of pizza, that ice cream cone, that jacket, when it gets chilly, which are all parts of it, could be an economic driver. And the more people on the streets means economic vibrancy. This will give us the proper ammunition, especially as we in Uptown Business Improvement District bring in additional businesses and help support the current businesses that are there. There's something special about other cities that we've seen and we know of Santa monica of Venice Beach that recognize street performances and music in our coffee shops and venues. Speaker 2: As public. Speaker 10: Amenities, as long as it takes place in a reasonable place and at reasonable times. So there's still many questions that we have and we look forward to working with the city and COBA, the Music Council and residents to take a peek at this study and just answer a lot of the questions that we still have. And also, I must say, as the current president of the Arts Council, Long Beach, and a Long Beach resident, I personally know that Long Beach is home to so many musicians. And it would be a very nice gesture to be able to allow musicians not only to go outside of the city to practice their art, but to allow their neighbors and community to appreciate what it is that they have in their own city. So thank you. And we look forward to helping in supporting any way we can. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: Greetings, honorable mayor and Honorable City Council. First of all, my name is ah, Netta Maslow and I am the ambassador for Make Music Long Beach. First of all, I'd like to thank the Arts Council, Long Beach. The Long Beach Symphony. City of Long Beach. Honorable Councilwoman Janine Pierson. Her office. Long Beach Public Library and downtown. Long Beach Alliance. Because tomorrow, June 21st is the first day of summer solstice and Long Beach is going to be lit. And what I mean by that is that the city is going to be lit up orange in honor of summer solstice . And the first time that Lone Beach is being part of this global event, which includes 800 cities across the United States and 120 countries globally. What I found in organizing this event is so many people, organizations within our community wanted to participate, even nurseries, youth organizations, but they were concerned about permits. And so many people declined because of that. And we've got to change that. There are so many opportunities and so many creative people here within our city. It's just amazing and it's also. Speaker 8: So very beautiful. Speaker 10: So tomorrow what I'd like for you to do is come out and support over in the fourth District, also on First Street, on fourth Street. There's going to be it's going to be lit up orange at the arts building, the arts theater. The fountains here in Long Beach are going to be lit up, orange, Queensbridge and another other installations. And you can check that out and make music wellbeing. And next year, we'd like to have this event just be something phenomenal. This was put together rather quickly as I was brought in at the last minute, and I was thinking, Oh, okay, yeah, we'll do this. We'll have it ready for 2018. They said, No, we want it this June 21st. And the outpouring of love in this city and just the outpouring of just participation just warmed my heart and just elevated me. And to remove these constrictions, these financial constrictions on these smaller businesses that can benefit from this. It'll just be phenomenal and even better next year. So I thank you. And anyone who wants to participate, you can contact us at Make Music, L.B. and you can find us on Facebook and on Twitter as well. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Now, I had Mr. Good. Who can you come down? I had to close the speakers list, sir, but I will let you stay in line. It's okay. But these are the last three speakers, Mr. Cogen. Speaker 5: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council, Craig coaching with the downtown Long Beach Alliance. Our organization has been producing events in our downtown for many, many years. We would never consider having an event without entertainment. Speaker 6: Not only. Speaker 12: Because of the value that it brings to the artists and to the community, but also to the economic benefit that it. Speaker 5: Derives from creating events with. Speaker 12: With the entertainment. Our downtown has a dining and entertainment district ordinance. We've had that for many, many years. And so it's I would be very interested in seeing how this materializes. This conversation continues to materialize relative to what we already have in place. I'm very supportive of the idea of having a 120 day period to study both of these agenda items. It certainly gives us the council offices, the Council of Business Association and. Speaker 5: All the neighborhoods that are impacted with improvement districts, as well as those neighborhoods. Speaker 0: Outside the improvement districts. Speaker 12: To have that discussion, to have that. Speaker 5: Open public display. Speaker 12: Of transparency and understanding really what we're getting ourselves into. Speaker 6: This is something that I. Speaker 5: Think is long overdue to look at these policies and reevaluate these. Speaker 12: Policies. Thank you, Councilmember. Speaker 5: Pierce and those other council members that signed on to these two agenda items to be able to bring this forward. And we look forward to this ongoing conversation. Thanks very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 12: First of all, thanks for having me. I was actually handling some other stuff for another music event that's going to be happening. I just moved here in January. I lived in Austin, Texas, for 12 years. I could really see when I moved here, I I'm constantly, you know, in any city I go to, I've traveled all over the country and United States have been very fortunate and almost been to all 50 states. And every place I go, I have my ear to the ground looking for what sound is going to lead me. You know, in here it's been quite interesting trying to find that because it you know, we do have Alex's bar. We do have we do have places that have live music. But it's it's just so separated that it it's it's saddening to see because I know that this is going to be symbiotic for the for the city and for the musician. Obviously, there's a lot of loopholes and a lot of things that you have to make type before. And but it really looks like this is this is something that we've a lot of people have been waiting much longer than I have. But as soon as I got here, I realized that, you know, it's kind of it definitely is an issue. You know, there's there's that's the culture of the city is when you hear the sounds and I know that's it sounds redundant because I know everyone's been saying that. But, you know, with anything you have, there's a song that that kind of puts you in that same place. And I hope the song that that we will all be singing this time next year will be out there. And if somebody moves to the city from outside, they can they can actually find their way faster and enjoy the the culture that Long Beach has. The thing that I the reason one of the reasons why I moved from Austin to Long Beach in particular is because of the diversity, you know, in in Texas, there's there's not that diversity. And I'm really interested to see what what does Long Beach Street sound like? Thank you for your time. And I hope this all works out. Speaker 0: Thank you. And our last speaker is Mr. Goodhue. Speaker 5: You do the address on file? I'm a strong supporter of music, as you'll recall. I had suggested that we play opera in this chamber, soothing opera from 430 to 5 until the beginning of the meeting. But it was our mayor that said, no, that couldn't be done. Period. The key to having music in a neighborhood is to make sure that is appropriately located, period. There are many areas in our city where such as Second Street and on Broadway are. Music is very problematic in many times. So that is key to what's going to any growth of music is to make sure you have the right place. And the right neighborhood. And when I say right neighborhood, it doesn't make any difference what neighbor or who you're in. Probably 95% of the people do not want to hear when they go in their house at 10:00 at night. Music pounding for two, three, 4 hours. Coming floating from a block away or even two blocks away. So having it appropriately located. Is absolutely key to that period. Thank you. And I would urge the mayor again to consider soothing opera music from 430 when the chamber opens to 5:00. It will it can have a very soothing effect on those people that are sometimes rather riled up. Riled up. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Goodhew. Which are back to the council councilman Mongo. Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate the feedback from all of the groups here. This is an important item. I especially want to take the time to think. Councilmember Pearce for being really inclusive in her item. I know oftentimes we get an item and we ask colleagues to sign on and one of the things that I thought was really important about this item was being really collaborative and I thought that she was really collaborative. And not only did she make necessary or recommended edits, but multiple edits. And I think that that was reflective of a really collaborative approach that she has taken all the way through on this item. And I think it's the only way an item like this will ever be successful. With that, I want to say that I hear from the community that there are current abilities to have some permits that are limited to a month. But I think a lot of the discussion also is about the seasonality of music. And I think that in discussing the potentials, perhaps certain businesses don't want music during certain months, but they want to aggregate all of their permits every Friday in the summer or different types of aggregation like that that make it really neat. So for that, I want to continue to support it and explore this opportunity to have a study come back and see what we really can do to make it a worthwhile opportunity. I can't tell you how many times when my husband and I are choosing where to go to dinner, we might say, Oh, doesn't so-and-so play on Wednesday nights at restaurant A or B? Do we want to go by this place because it has like a nice background? Or maybe we want to go hear what these people who are in from out of town because it's more than just great, great food, but it's also great music. And so I think those are really great components of some of my favorite places like Forbidden City and others that have music and while you eat and or drink coffee or any of those things. So I'm really excited about this item. I want to thank everyone who's done the work. I think it's important that we continue to maintain input not only from the music community but from the business community and from the residents, because all three need to work in harmony for any of this to be successful. Speaker 0: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 12: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to just you know, I've collected some thoughts through this whole conversation. So I want to start with thanking Councilwoman Pierce for reaching out and asking me to be a part of this conversation. I think music is is sometimes coolest words, most unexpected. It's been really core to what, you know, a lot of the changes we've seen take place in North Palm Beach. You know, when I first started working up here, it wasn't a place where you think of as a center for music. But nowhere else in the city have been able to get on the stage with Talib Kweli or the Far Side or D.W. Three, even Ozomatli this Saturday. You know, I've seen more elected officials come to North Lambie's for music than any other purpose. And, you know, when Beach Streets kicked off in North Lawn Beach or activate uptown, people didn't come North Lambie's for mobility improvements. They came because the music was the attraction. And and, you know, as retail continues to struggle with, you know, increasing demand of the on demand economy, you know, people are looking for more of an experience . And so we don't need to look at maybe the corridors and things have been successful in the past. We have to sometimes take a leap of faith and think about what could what experiences could be successful in the future. And music and art is core to that experience. We have to be more flexible in terms of how we how we regulate and allow music. Well, a couple other thoughts. You know, I noticed I was taking a like an executive leadership class at USC. It was. And they were looking at different models for civic engagement. And there was an example, a case study on a program called There's a Festival for that in Decatur, Georgia. And it focused on one area, one particular corridor that, you know, had some violence issues. And the way that the city and that district sort of resolved it was those violence prevention issues was by relaxing not just the entertainment permit, but also, you know, some of the special event permits. And essentially the rule was you come to this one corridor, you can you know, if you come, this one corridor will relax our festival permit. As long as you don't conflict dates with anyone else. Well, limit our will limit are no permit fees. You can only use local vendors, only use local artists. This area had two restaurants in a period of four years that had over 20 restaurants in that same little corridor, despite relaxing and creating a different culture. I also think we have to think about right now, California is paying attention to this and establishing new cultural arts districts, a process by, you know, to be designated for certain areas to be designated as cultural arts districts. I think this is a huge opportunity for us to think about how our policies align with that process and how we can help facilitate that some. Because if you notice a lot of the corridors that have violence issues or a history of violence, a lot of times are the same corridors that have a rich cultural history and diverse, diverse make up in those neighborhoods. Maybe if we look at some of, you know, some of the strengths in the area and then communicate with the people through music and art and culture and reflect and see it as a way to be a way to highlight that corridor. And then perhaps we can also mitigate some of the violence, violence, you know, use as a violence prevention tool. Another thing is, I think we should be I think we should maintain our flexibility and keep the the tools to protect the quality of life. Last thing I want to do is take away a tool that our planners, our code enforcement officers have to crack down on a, you know, a dove bar. That's really been a nuisance. And so I do want to make sure that we do have the flexibility when appropriate to go in and say, look, you know, you don't get to play because you're not playing nice and you're doing these illegal activities here. And I think we should also be I don't think every neighborhood in town is going to be the same. So we should maintain some level of flexibility and tight things, the corridor to certain corridors. So I hope that we can work together with our community, with our business districts and with city council offices to determine where we think less restriction would be more palatable than other other areas. So that's something I think is really important. So those are some of the thoughts that I have here. And, you know, I'm going to go ahead and give a plug. Saturday sixth Annual Uptown Jazz Festival, Ozomatli DWI three partnered with my buddy Roberto Durango and a number of others to make this happen. So I hope you join us there. And Thursday, we have Pop Up Town, a pop up music event at the Michelle Obama Library. Nobody thinks about library and music at the same time, but I hope to see you all there. Thanks. And you have my support, Jeanine. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Grace. Speaker 11: Thank you. I, too, want to echo my support for this item. I everything that the speaker said in terms of the. Benefits of music. I agree with my family and I all enjoy live music very much where frequent concert attendance and we often choose places to eat based on whether they have live music or not. So I am a big supporter of that. I do agree with Mr. Goodhew. So his his batting a lot of successes tonight and Vice Mayor Richardson, in regards to us having the flexibility and hopefully this report including the flexibility for us to be able to, you know, tailor any sort of ordinances or changes to particular neighborhoods. I can tell you in neighborhoods that have a business corridor that has close proximity to residences, this type of ordinance are relaxing the standards for music and talking about music. Music levels is a subject of major sensitivity. We often have our city crews out there with a noise meter trying to determine what the level of the noise reading is from a particular restaurant or bar and so on. In Belmont SHAW For example, a noise is a is a major quality of life issue for the residents, as one of our speakers talked about. And it's certainly something that is above all else a major priority for me, respecting the quality of life of the residents there and ensuring that they have the opportunity to sleep and have their kids sleep is really important. You know, this year we had a fantastic pride celebration, but that night at the Pride Festival, something went wrong with the music and we could hear it in East Long Beach. In my own home, the windows were rattling. My kids were not able to sleep. It was a school day the next day and we were the next door decomposed, were going off the charts in regards to people not being able to sleep because of the music. Obviously that's an unusual situation because you rarely would you be hearing music in East Long Beach from downtown. But the point to be made is that if you're not partaking in the music and you're just trying to live your own life and do whatever it is you're doing, hearing music may be a nuisance to you, even though the music may be beautiful and maybe, maybe the music is enjoyable to you. If you're not participating in the music, it may not be the time and place for it. So we want to just make sure that the music doesn't travel to the residential neighborhoods. And I can tell you there's a lot of businesses in Belmont Shore who would love to have an entertainment permit to play amplified music. But that's just that's something that we're like I said, we're very sensitive to and very carefully monitor. And this item, it's a fantastic item. It was on the supplemental agenda. So we have not had the opportunity to do the outreach with our community. So we're grateful that this is a report and allows for us to have the time or have the staff go out and do the necessary outreach and determine what's possible and feasible to Mr. Good. He was point again in the city of Sacramento. They actually pipe classical music through the downtown. I don't know if anyone's walked there recently. And there's data that shows they have a reduction in crimes in the downtown area, a reduction in transient activity because not everybody wants to listen to classical music all the time . So it may not be a place where they perch. I probably would. Speaker 10: Choose to perch there. Speaker 11: Because of that, but some are not. And so there definitely is a lot of data that suggests behavior is associated with music and the type of music. The other thing is that I'm hoping that the report also considers if there are any legal issues, this is more to the busking item, whether there are any legal issues regarding regulating content or regulating that type of content or anything like that. I know that's a discussion we've had in the past. So if we've got statutes that prohibit some content but not others, I just don't know what legal issues, if any. There may not be any, but I would hope that the report would also include that because those definitely raise some flags for me. Other than that, I think Councilmember Pearce and the folks who were asked by her to sign on to the item should be commended. I think it's a fantastic item and I think from what I'm hearing, everyone on the council really enjoys live music and we want to do whatever we can to encourage its growth in our city. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Thank you so much. I want to thank Councilmember Pearce for bringing this item forward and allowing me to to sign on. I know she has been researching and our staff's been working on this for many, many months. So it's good to see it finally come forward, obviously, to the Music Council and Arts Council for providing your support . For this item as well. I see. We are we are engaged in a new economy. And it's been said many times we've we see many issues come before this council that suggest that. And I think this is what the new economy we have to take creative approaches to to to to creating jobs and economic opportunity. These both of these items will will create income for artists throughout our city, which I think is very, very important. It was mentioned regarding quality of life. Just yesterday, I live around the corner from Schiller Park and it was live music emanating from the park as the Be Safe Long Beach program kicked off. And to me, that was a quality of life moment because it was good to hear live music coming from the park. It was great to hear the laughter of many kids and families enjoying our public park as well. The obviously it's been mentioned there'll be many economic potential economic benefits from from these items. It's an opportunity to build community and hence our overall experience, particularly on our commercial and business corridors. I tell you, every first Fridays, Atlantic Avenue comes to life in a way that that is unique to to the Bixby Knolls experience. Many of you have participated. I see some of the artist out here, some of my favorite artists who Cybill Fly and Chair Bishop and, you know, many others who are performing on a daily basis. And yes, they are a week monthly basis. They are household names in throughout the city of Long Beach. They would not have that opportunity to be known throughout the city, would not be able to share their art if we weren't for us being amendable and open to to them sharing that particularly through our with our business improvement district in Bixby Knolls and the businesses that that invite them to perform. I think I'm going to obviously support this. I'm not too convinced that Long Beach isn't the best city in the country when it comes to music and the talent. I'm convinced that we are certainly headed toward that path with these agenda items. So, again, I want to thank you, Councilmember Pearce, for for bringing these items forward. I want to thank the many artists who who came out to speak in support. And, you know, let's do it. And I do want to say to one point that in terms of how we go about doing this. One size does not fit all. It does not have to be a blanket approach. We have to understand that we have we are a city of very unique neighborhoods and very different experiences throughout this city. And I think we need to appreciate that. Well, classical music can be playing on one corner, rock and roll the next. Reggae music, hip hop music. We we we have every genre represented here in this city. And when I look out in a crowd here tonight, we have every genre represented as well. And let's just appreciate our diversity moving forward. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I just want to thank Mr. Spears to bring us to the diocese. You know, you talk about music that savage just you know, when you talk about music that smooth the savage beast. Mr. Donohue, I mean, good. You I tell you, guy, you are on to something. But when I hear my young brother, he is talking about James Brown and no, how can you have any kind of anger in your heart when you listen to James Brown and a little opera at the same time? There is no harm in any of that. So I think we are on the right track. Long Beach is music. You talk about it. So all you look at all your great ideas that came out of you. So I think everyone should have a chance to be able to. And we talk about the Bears ordinance that we have to have. We need music, you guys in really special in order to get it. We're going to have to really do those corners so people can get a chance to be able to express their opportunities. And things were here in the city of Long Beach because we're growing so fast and so rapid. We've got to have any and everything we talk about. Strong beach music makes Long Beach strong. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. You're. Speaker 6: You know, talking reflected on this topic. You know, when you have music, you have dancing. And Joe LeDoux, the shameless plug again, Uptown Jazz Festival, Ozomatli. Well, you know, in regards to how music can also be soothing, we are in the council chambers. I brought it. We bring some chamber music to welcome people to the council meetings at around 5:00. Be nice and soothing, gets people relax and gives people a peaceful so that when we come in, we're all already in a good mood to have the business of the city take place like James Brown, get on up, like get out of bed. And we say, How about I will read? We read in Spanish, but yeah, I will be supporting the. And thank you, Councilmember Pearce, for bringing this forward. Speaker 4: Thank you. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you. I'm going to Kasra Pearce is going to close with a couple final comments. I want to make some comments as well and a couple requests of staff. Want to thank Councilman Pearce. I think this is really a great discussion. I know that her office has been working also with my office and particularly Mark Taylor, who has a little bit of a music nut to talk about some of these issues with the Music Council. And so I want to thank the Music Council for their really hard work on. This would have happened without you guys. You guys have led the way on this issue. So a couple of points to reinforce which I think are really, really important. One is the issue of flexibility. I want to reiterate what Councilwoman Price said. I guarantee you that the you know, the the reaction from Belmont Shore and the businesses community there would be dramatically different than an appropriately different than perhaps in the downtown or in other places. And so there is obviously it's not really a one size fits all approach, I think, with the city. So I'm just I'm just hopeful that that that message is heard. I also want when we when we're reviewing our new rules, I just am hopeful that we also take a look at some of the best kind of live music locations in the country. So we had someone from Austin here. We obviously should be looking at what Austin has for their some of their rules in their entertainment zone and other cities like Austin. And I will say my personal opinion and I've shared this with Councilman Pierce is I think that the downtown entertainment district needs to be looked at extensively. I think personally that it's overly restrictive in the downtown. I also believe that the boundaries are currently of the of the downtown entertainment district are no longer necessarily should be the boundaries considering that the downtown has grown. And so those boundaries were drawn and written at a time where you had nothing going on above third street in the in the downtown. And so the downtown now is stretched all across the first District. And so I think the boundaries have to be looked at within the downtown entertainment district. I think we often have more restrictive rules in the downtown entertainment district than we do in other places in the downtown, which to me is crazy. And so I'm really hopeful that you guys take a good look. Obviously, we need to work with the Dolby and the board there and neighborhood groups, but that is something that for me my main request is out of. This is a strong and hard look at the D, at the downtown entertainment district, the zone, the rules and being much less restrictive than we currently are, in my personal opinion. And the last thing is, please also look at rules regarding these kind of pop up music parklets that are happening on the backs of trucks and busking is happening. So I mean, I'm at the Socialists and I might be having like a burger and a beer and this truck pulls up and is just playing music. And I love that. And we're and I, you know, it pains me when sometimes our folks are going by and shut these guys down. And it's to me, it's it's adds to the community. And so I'm not sure if the rules, whether it's amplification on the sidewalk and inside of venue and then these pop up music. Parklets, I just want to add that we're including that in the discussion, so I don't know if that counts as a street music or not . It's busking, I know, but can we please look at that as well? So very supportive. I'm looking forward to getting this done. And and and again, I think the message is the flexibility to really in hopefully some areas, particularly the downtown is dramatically reduce restrictions. Councilmember Pierce. Speaker 9: Well, you stole all my talking points. I'm kidding. I want a just one last time. Thank everybody. And also, it was mentioned a little bit about who we be working with. So I wanted to clarify for folks that we have made sure that we'll have financial management and special events working collaboratively together through the process as we engage other stakeholders in this and made sure that we did this in much partnership with them. And the items changed a lot over the last couple of months by us working with city staff. So I want to thank Julia for doing that and also thank my staff for working closely with Mark Taylor. One other thing I wanted to say is, is the clarity on the flexibility. What we have on the item is that we want to see if it's legal to allow bids to make decisions on what those regulations are, how they would apply the policies that we have in place that way. In Belmont Shores, you might not have busking, but on Fourth Street where we love busking, you would be able to have that. And I had those guys serenade me many a times, and so I just wanted to clarify that for folks watching at home. I also wanted to just ask if we could also include looking at other cities and if they've done anything to lower permit cost for possibly like youth programs like the vice mayor was mentioning. As we I know there are a lot of groups in the city that do open mics for youth, particularly those that are. In difficult situations. And so if there's anything that we can do to encourage more youth programing around music and entertainment, I would like to see that included in the report. So thank you, guys, everybody. And again, this is just the beginning. We have a long list of fun, entertainment and live music things ahead of us. So thank you. Speaker 0: Hey, thank you. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Kill. The Vice Mayor is going to item 25 May 28.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to study and make recommendations that further support smaller, low-volume, and less-intrusive options for music venues and return and present recommendations at a future council meeting in 120 days. Report should consider a tiered approach to regulation of music venues and consider the following: • Encouragement of smaller, low-volume, and less-intrusive options for music venues. • Look at volume (sound level) considerations. • Look at number of people being entertained and/or size of facility. • Consider exemptions to what are currently restrictions based on characteristics such as lack of alcohol, dancing, admission charge, etc. • Consider time periods for the entertainment. • Review current definition of entertainment activity and fees. • Review whether any options should not include fees or licensing. • Review potential monitoring and compliance processes. • Impact on existing entertainment permits. • Impact on surrounding businesses or residences.

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: 25. Speaker 1: Communication from city attorney recommendation or clear ordinance, amending the Long Beach Municipal Code related to local enforcement and penalties for illegal marijuana businesses. Read for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Speaker 12: Councilman Price. Speaker 11: Mr. Vice Mayor. Speaker 12: So I've had the probably should have went to staff, but I thought this was yours. I should probably go to Stafford. Speaker 11: That's crazy. Speaker 5: Thank you. City manager, vice mayor, members of the City Council. On May 2nd, the council requested that our office prepare an ordinance, and we did so amending Chapter 5.9 of the municipal code. And we believe that this proposed ordinance will assist the city in its efforts in conjunction with the enforcement remedies already available to the city to ensure compliance with 5.9 and hopefully discourage illegal operations related to medical marijuana dispensaries. Very quickly, the ordinance we have added, the ordinance did declare non licensed facilities a public nuisance. And so we have added in the ordinance in the discretion of the court to issue a maximum civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day per violation for those illegal dispensaries. We do talk about and authorize the disconnection of utilities after following all the proper procedures. The criminal penalties we believe, were already in place. And so this ordinance at this time does not impose additional or further criminal penalties. And we also have additional enforcement tools allowing us to to institute a one year ban or end up to a five year ban. And with that, we're open for questions. I would like to thank Monica Goleta, deputy city attorney, who was who wrote the ordinance and did a lot of work on it. Thank you. Speaker 12: Thank you, Mr. City. Attorney Councilwoman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you. I, too, want to thank the city attorney's office and Monica specifically for working on this. I think the ordinance includes all the components that our report requested and the agenda item, initial or agenda item requested. So there are civil penalties associated with it. There is a punishment for the commercial property owner who's leasing to an illegal dispensary. There's the opportunity to get involved with the operation of of utilities at the site, which will hopefully discourage illegal operators. In short, I think that the statute covers all the different aspects that were raised and all the areas of concern. And obviously, once we've implemented the statute, if new situations arise and that's obviously something we can go back and modify or amend our statute to deal with any trends that we might be seeing or may not have anticipated. Again, the genesis of this item is that illegal dispensaries or illegal businesses in general doesn't just have to be dispensaries, illegal businesses, and especially illegal marijuana businesses, because there are several categories of marijuana businesses that will be permitted in the city of Long Beach. Those illegal operations are a disservice to the residents. There's no quality of life regulations that are in place at an illegal operation to ensure that quality of life concerns and issues are accounted for. They're unfair to the legal operators who are paying taxes and incurring the costs associated with following the regulations that the city and the state have set for them. And they're obviously very detrimental to the city because the costs of enforcing our existing laws, state and local regulations, is very burdensome for the city and can cost the city millions of dollars per site, as we have seen from past experience. So thanks to the city attorney's office for for giving this ordinance to us to consider tonight, and I think you did a fantastic job giving us a great start that we can modify later as situations present themselves. Thank you. Speaker 12: Thank you, Councilmember Ewing. Speaker 6: Thank you, Ms.. Mayor. And I want to agree with Councilmember Price and all the concerns that are out there regarding the illegal activities in illegal dispensaries. I think it's very important even those individuals who are planning to have legal dispensaries applied and want to get some business going here would agree with with this ordinance. They also would would support something like this in order for them to be able to operate legally, which is the total effort that we're trying to do here. So I'm totally supportive of this ordinance. When I thank the city attorney for putting this together, I think it is going to work very well for the city of Long Beach. Thank you. Speaker 12: Thank you. Councilmember Andrews. Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, Mayor. Councilman Price, I think that this all of a sudden finally we got some tooth and nail to this ordinance, because I know when we came to it the first U.S. on the diocese at that time, but it was really hard to get to those individuals who were illegal. But now I think that this will let them know when you talk about $5,000 fine, that will let them individuals know. I don't know how much money they'll be making, but that will at least make them understand that we are serious about the illegal operation of the marijuana. And thank you again for bringing us and especially our city attorney putting us together. Thank you again. Speaker 12: Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? Please come forward. You have 3 minutes. Speaker 5: Very good who Kirk has the. I won't go into all the details that I referenced last time the subject came up. These would be the fact that the Long Beach Police records. Incontrovertibly. It will show that the landlord for that property has been highly irresponsible and has provided, in essence, a sanctuary for extraordinarily violent criminals. Signet. Syndicate. Syndicate. Period. No trier of fact will ignore that. And I know the city attorney may have given thought. Some flock to this issue. But I think it and the council failed to think about that, which you did not think about. All right. And I'll be going into more of those details later. But essentially, you established areas where you felt it was inappropriate to have that type of activity. But what you failed to consider is the roots that those same individuals that you're trying to protect more often than not on a daily basis. Walk. Like. Scooter. Right past. Period. And that's something I admonish you to. To do that and to consider that. And speaking of and banishment, I think if my math and history is right, we're about nine days short. You know, nine days shy of an admonishment that you might consider, i.e., that one that was admonished by highly, slightly . 30 years ago at the end of this month. Thank you. Speaker 12: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 5: Good evening. Seven more. Sincerely a second district. I wanted to speak on behalf in support of this particular measure. It's a great, solid piece of legislation that provides clear guidelines and explicit consequences for those who are choosing to operate illegally within the city. The only two comments that I have about it are concerning kind of a policy issue behind us. I spoke to some of the council offices earlier about the use of the Long Beach Police Department during these administrative citations. Christopher Ingraham from The Washington Post recently wrote an article detailing some pretty good information that's been gleaned from police, from national police statistics showing that these so-called kinetic or militaristic raids using the law, using the police departments in general raises the specter for violent incidents to occur during where essentially now completely civil and administrative procedures. That's both a waste here locally. The use of police during these administrative inspections essentially is a waste of resources and largely unnecessary, unless there's a specified and articulated reason to believe that the operator, the illegal operators there would be armed and dangerous. I say that being entirely conscientious, that the Code Enforcement Department suffered a murder believe within the last decade of an inspector by mistaken about that. I'm sorry, but I believe I remember that happening. So obviously there is a concern for inspectors out in the field and we and that is to be respected and that has to be upheld. But again, without a specified reason for believing that this could be the case, most of these illegal operators I mean, I'm sure all of the people here would be shocked to believe this actually don't know that they're operating legally. Many of them have just decided it will decide to just start putting plants on the ground without ever consulting an attorney or reading the municipal code. Hopefully, this particular instance provides them the notice that's necessary so we don't have that happening again. But it is. Two other quick comments, too. SB 94 has been recently just was signed, I think today by the governor. So unfortunately, Charlie, the wonderful regulatory packages of the AMA and the NCR say that your office has been working with for the last couple of months, there have now been more or less erased and they're being combined into one particular bill, which means that we might have an entirely new comment period to three starting soon with all new regulations from the state level. In terms of in addition to this, the only this particular ordinance, I would recommend highly that the code that the code enforcement or whoever has the jurisdiction over this particular issue develops a disposal policy for any seized cannabis they that they might obtain. Not all of it will be useful for it will be useful, are being put are being able to be cultivated immediately. But for those that I know, the Santa Ana Police Department is suffering from an overwhelming just barrage of seized materials. And so developing a policy to provide those medicine to the people who need it would be a good idea. Speaker 12: Thank you. You got it in 3 minutes. Seeing no further public comment. Members, please cast your vote on this item. Speaker 1: One motion. Speaker 12: Carries. Thank you, Madam Clerk. What is the next item we have? I know we're a little out of order here. Speaker 1: Study session one. Speaker 12: I don't know if you're ready for that. Yeah. Thank you.

Ordinance

Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding section 5.90.290 related to local enforcement and penalties for illegal marijuana businesses, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)

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Speaker 0: One, two. We're going to move on to our our our first our study session that we have scheduled tonight, which is actually a pretty important one. And so I just want to just give everyone just a minute to kind of a shake off their tiredness as we go into it here. But we're going to go we're going to go right into this first and then into the study session, and we'll then we'll continue the rest of the agenda. So our staff are going to give you I'll give you guys a minute to get set up. Speaker 5: We can please load the presentation. Speaker 4: The team. Speaker 0: Carrie. Ready to go? Okay. Let me let me just make a couple opening remarks and we'll get right into it. Just I want to say that this is I know going to be, I believe, part one of a of a two part major presentation on ah, the state of our streets and the payment management plan that this council has been working very hard on ensuring that we implement. There has been a lot of excitement around infrastructure. I also want to add that the city is and has embarked on its largest infrastructure plan and street plan that we've had in probably 40 or 50 years. And so the amount of dollars that are going into our streets over the course of the next decade is significant. It's it's, of course, thanks in large part to the support of the voters with measure. It's also because of legislation that's gone that's come down the pipeline that's increasing our ability to to improve local streets. And so we are we're grateful that we're also grateful that Measure M, which was also passed by the voters, also adds to this to this pot. And so it's a incredible opportunity for us. This report, I think, is very important for the council to understand kind of where we are, what are pavement, what our street patterns look like, where we're going. And then and then moving on, we'll have we have some good questions. And so I would encourage the council to engage on this topic because it's it's very important. With that. Mr.. West Mayor, councilmembers members. Speaker 5: You're absolutely right. This is a tremendously important topic that we're going to review tonight. In 2015, the council authorized us to begin a RFP to hire a company that would do a pavement management plan for us. That pavement management plan has done and I'm going to turn this over to our public works director, Craig Beck, and also our traffic engineer and deputy director of Public Works, Sean Crumby. And they are going to talk about the pavement management plan and our alley management plan as well. So, Craig. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Good evening, Mayor, and members of the City Council. Speaker 0: We are excited to. Speaker 5: Bring forward. Speaker 0: Tonight an updated pavement management plan, as the manager indicated. The council first adopted a pavement management plan back in 2015. It is best practice for city organizations, especially cities the size of Long Beach, to go through and update their pumps on a every 2 to 3 year basis. So we're back before you here this evening to provide you with an update and to go over what is the conditions of our street in the city. This is a. Speaker 5: Prelude to kind of kicking off. Speaker 0: The budget season, if. Speaker 5: You will. Speaker 0: We believe that the CHP program is an important element of the budget. As I know, council also supports that. And within the capital improvement program or CHP, streets will be a major category of expense. So again, tonight, we're going to go over the elements of of the condition of our streets. And the next time we come forward in part two, we will talk specifically about the amount of funding we have available and where we're making recommendations to prioritize that funding. So with that, I would ask our city engineer, deputy director Sean Crumby to go through the details of the presentation. Speaker 6: Creating on our mayor and council. It's great to be here tonight. The presentation, as was mentioned, is going to focus on the state of the city streets and in particular what's been going on in the last few years. Speaker 4: How do I fast forward? Speaker 0: Can we get the presentation on the screens in front of us? Just to take services, please. Because it's not. Also, we're. Speaker 5: Not able to advance the slides. Speaker 0: Okay. So having some tech difficulties we need we built the slides to work and for us to be able to see it on the screens. Thank you. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 6: So what is pavement management? Pavement management is it's a process, a formal process where the city inventories, catalogs, inspects and prioritizes the repairs that will happen throughout the city in the most fiscally prudent manner. It's not just good practice. It's also people may not realize that most of the funding that comes into this program is through transportation funding, and a lot of that funding requires our pavement management. As was mentioned, best practice is every 2 to 3 years. And so this report seeks to come and do that. So pavement management rates every street in the city with a score called the Pavement Condition Index or PCI. The square starts at a high value of 100 for new streets and goes down to a low value of zero for a completely failed street. The scoring methodology is standardized across the entire country and has both structural and esthetic components that make up the score. For Poppy for pieces between one and zero. Those are excellent streets as shown in the top layer and green there that really don't need maintenance. 80 to 65. The next category down is our good condition streets. And those receive preventative maintenance, which in our case a slurry seal. And the cost for that is roughly around $2 a square foot. The next category down are the streets that we see in fair condition. Those streets go between a high of 60, 65 to 40, and those receive an overlay or just a recoding of the top layer of the pavement, which typically costs roughly around $10 a square foot. And the red layer in the bottom shown there are poor or failed streets. Those streets typically get completely reconstructed and they're the most expensive streets to do and typically run in the neighborhood of $20 per square foot. So this graphic shows the benefit of preventative maintenance or a slurry seal. Ultimately, what we're trying to do is extend the life of a pavement and keep it in the the best conditions possible for the lowest possible price. The next few slides are going to show conditions are typical. Streets that fall within the condition ranges we just talked about on this slide shows poor streets those are poor and failed are in the PCI range of 0 to 40 and those are streets that have an excessive amount of failures throughout the pavements. They have uneven surfaces and we receive a lot of complaints about those streets. Next categories fair. Those are the streets with between 40 and 65. These streets still have a lot of failures, but not not extensively as much as the completely filled streets. These streets can be overlaid. So the repair costs, it's effective to catch these before they fall into the failed category for repair. Streets there in this slide showed streets are in the good condition. These streets can receive preventative maintenance like slurry seal. And we were able to do every street, hill, street in the city in the first part of measure, the majority being this year, which really got a lot of the streets and kept them in this range for a very cost effective price. And finally, excellent streets. These are the top of the range, the 80 to 100 that were shown at the top of that previous slide. These streets don't require any maintenance initially. Like it's likely that the first three seal will be roughly around seven years after they're built. So street inventory. There's a lot of streets within the city of Long Beach and people don't realize how extensive the Street network is. The value of the street now is over $1 billion, and the total length is just short of 800 miles, 786 miles. And that's enough to build one street from here all the way to the city of San Francisco and back. That's a lot of streets. So conditions. The condition of the PCI within the city in 2015 was an average of 60 and that number has gone up to 62 in 2017. So there's been an increase or an improvement in the city. Arterial streets have increased from 63 to 68 and residential streets have gone from 56 to 59. That increase in residential streets is largely due to the slurry seal. Streets that happen for measuring the amount of poor streets in the city also increased and that increase has a large impact on how much funding is needed to maintain and repair our entire network. Speaker 0: Before you move on to go back real quick. So just just to for clarification, so can I add, this is this is a number. No, go back to the slide, please. Watch this on the screen. This one. No, the one in front of me. I mean, I don't mind looking at myself, but. Speaker 6: The one with the. Speaker 0: Okay, that's okay. I'll just look behind me. The one that was up on the screen before. That's okay. Yeah. Can we get to the PowerPoint? There we go. Thank you. So I just want to stop here for a sec, because I know this is this is the main number that we look at when we're looking and grading our streets and kind of what will be greater between street and other streets. Overall, just regardless of the fact that with the very poor streets, that slight 2% overall, the pimp from 215 and two in 2017 has gone up, correct? Mr.. Mr.. WEST Well, I'm sorry. Mr.. BECK Yes, it has. Okay. So so our streets are in better shape today in 2017 than they were in 2015, correct? Speaker 6: Yes. And and to two points is a large increase in just two years. Speaker 0: Correct. And and so one, I want us to say a few things. One is many cities right now there are going down. And so you're seeing that in a lot of places. And I talked to mayors that are, you know, obviously obsess about these these scores. And I just want to just thank staff before we move on that the fact that we increase that pump up over those points just in the last two years, I think is a huge accomplishment for the city, is we're going in the right direction. The change is the right direction. And did we were we able I know to ask you this question, were we able to capture all the year one measure, eight streets in the 2017 number or. I don't believe we've captured all of them. Correct. Speaker 6: We were able to get all of the slurry seal streets that were done this year within the. We did. We did. Speaker 0: But not so weak. So all all year one. I don't think that's true. Are you sure that's true? So just for clarification, Mayor, as you know, we're actively involved in slurry. Speaker 5: Sealing streets and all of the streets that are that. Speaker 0: Are. Speaker 5: Under Measure eight, we. Speaker 0: Will accomplish roughly. Speaker 5: 95% of those. Speaker 0: Streets in what we're calling year one, which is fiscal year. Speaker 5: 17. The remaining 5% will. Speaker 0: Be picked up in year two, which is fiscal year. Speaker 5: 18. And so I think your question really. Speaker 0: Relates to when we look at this PCI number and we're value evaluating our street conditions. Speaker 5: When we went through. Speaker 0: And did that analysis, were all the slurry seal. Speaker 5: Streets done? And the answer is they were not. Speaker 0: So while we did have a majority of them as part of that evaluation, we did not we were not able to capture all. Speaker 5: 95%. Speaker 0: Of the streets that will be done in fiscal year 17. A-Train. Okay. That's what I thought. And why I think that's, you know, additional good news is because while we've had the the improvement in our streets that didn't even capture the complete measure a year one street network that we're working on. And so that number will hopefully even increase once that full complement of the measure, eight year one streets are actually completed. And so again, this is great news for the city and happy to see that the PCI went up. I know moving even one or two points is very difficult, so thank you for coming. I would just add to that, Mayor, if I can, that we we do fully expect with the continued investment that. Speaker 5: Council has supported moving. Speaker 0: Forward, that we will see. Speaker 5: Our. Speaker 0: Street average improve again. Speaker 5: When we do this in 2019, 2020. Speaker 0: I love it. I'll keep you on. Speaker 6: So comparison with some surrounding streets and other agencies is shown on this slide. The state of California average pieces 65 Orange County, L.A. County and San Diego are above that. And we fall just just right under that average. So progress there's been this slide shows the summary of what's happened since the last PCI as our last payment management has been done two years ago. In summary, the the pieces have increased $70 million, over $70 million have been invested in our city streets, in large part due to measure that $70 million investment this year included 35 miles of roadway slurry sealed with measure eight, with another five miles of that remaining portion. That will be done next year. So to address all the needed improvements, the PMP recommended $420 million in investments in 2015. That's a $42 million investment over ten years. That would take the average PCI from its current level to a PCI of 80. The current PMP. That same need increased to a total of 510 million. That increase in costs is due to streets that have fallen from fair the fare category down to our poor condition. That cost is called the backlog of the PMP and is shown at the bottom of this slide has having gone up from two or 5 million to 309 million. Speaker 5: So before Sean goes on, I just. Speaker 0: Want to make a point on this. I think it's important to articulate why we are seeing some of our very poor streets increasing. That was a conscious. Speaker 5: Decision. Speaker 0: That we made as staff in council that we wanted to stop any further decay of streets that were in the fair and good range. And so we focused our investment in those categories. So I think the expectation is that we would see some of this growth down here in our worst streets. But at the same time, we were able to improve our PCI overall and make that investment to save those streets and extend the life of those streets where we could. Speaker 5: For less investment, if you will. If you remember the earlier slide, it's much cheaper to do an overlay than it is to do a full reconstruction. Speaker 6: So there are investment opportunities for investment in the future. There's three new funding opportunities that are coming up that everybody's talking about. Measure em is half cent sales tax increase. County of Los Angeles. SB one is a statewide gas tax increase. And of course, the measure that we've been talking about for City of Long Beach that's gone into effect. So Alice, just a few slides on Alice this year. The city's measure funded the first alley management plan. Many of the transportation funding sources that we have are not eligible to be spent on ALS. So that's the real reason why we haven't had one to this point. The measure does provide $5 million total identified for Alice. So condition of the. There's over there's 220 miles of alleys throughout the city. 80% of them are concrete, which are in generally in general in good condition. 15% of those alleys are asphalt and those alleys are not quite in as good a condition as the concrete. With an average PCI of 36, there are 5% of the Alice 11 miles that are gravel. Those have a PCI of zero and they have a replacement cost or a construction cost of $5 million. Add all those up. We have a total in needs for Alice. Just a shade under $100 million. So next steps, detailed funding options will be coming forward with the budget in July. This will also include an update to infrastructure needs and technology needs. That concludes the presentation. Available for questions. Speaker 0: And if I may go to Councilman Mungo here in just a second. Actually, Councilman Austin is the maker of the motion. Is there a second on there? Okay, Councilman Mango, one thing I want to add for the council beginning presentation, it's my understanding that in the next few months you're going to come back to council with more specifics about the sources of funds and then and how much we expect will actually be put into the budgets for additional street repair on top of what we've discussed with Measure. Is that correct? Speaker 5: Yes, Mr. Mayor, that's correct. Tonight, you're really seeing two of our components, which is streets and alleys. There's a lot of other infrastructure, too. So we want to be able to come back to you with more of an assessment of the other infrastructure needs, which includes sidewalks, includes facilities, includes technology, and then match that up with the revenue sources that are coming in and and make some recommendations on where some of those investments could best be best be made. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to Councilman Austin making the motion. Speaker 8: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank our public works director and Mr. Crumby for their their very, very thorough report. I know we entered into the payment management plan process a few years ago, and we've been anxious to get these results back. And so this is, you know, very, very informative and sobering, so to speak. But I will say that that, you know, I think I'm encouraged a lot more today than I was three years ago because, you know, at this point, we have at least four different funding sources to work from. Whereas three years ago we only had one funding source and that was Measure R for arterial streets. Today we have, as a result of voters here in Long Beach, measure a L.A. County, measure M, as well as the most recently passed legislation, SB one. I think items that we all or measures that we all support it. Here are the Council recognizing the important need to invest in our streets and infrastructure here in the city of Long Beach. So I'm encouraged where we're going and it's good to see that the pavement management plan is actually moving up in a positive direction. You know, what I don't see here on the street conditions is a category four alleys. I know they're not streets, but the alleys is a the number there is very low and very concerning for me as well. And I know we get weekly calls from residents regarding the poor conditions of alleys in my district. And, you know, we are at a loss for options oftentimes to to provide them in terms of funding to fix those alleys. And so I'm really looking forward to this this matter coming back in the future with and hopefully staff can have some some recommendations and plans to to address those needs as well. I guess a couple of quick questions. Regarding where we're going. And perhaps you discussed it and that was part of the slides. I may have missed it, but where do we expect our PMP to be in the next five years based on the funding that we have, the options that we have today and the current plans that we are moving forward with? Speaker 5: Customer Austin As I mentioned earlier, we believe with the. Speaker 0: Money that's available in the new transportation funding that was recently passed. Speaker 5: By by not only voters. Speaker 0: In Long Beach, but of L.A. County and the gas tax that was increased at the state that we see that there's an. Speaker 5: Opportunity to actually increase the. Speaker 0: Amount of investment we're. Speaker 5: Making in our infrastructure. Speaker 0: And as a result, we would expect that the PCI. Speaker 5: Would would increase rapidly. So while we do have good news this evening and are able to point to a 2% increase overall excuse. Speaker 0: Me, a two point increase overall. Speaker 5: That there that will likely be greater if we stay the course in the coming years. Speaker 8: Well, I like the likely grader, but it would make us and I think our residents feel a lot better if there was some sort of forecast. And that actually brings me to my next question, because it took us quite a while to to get and it was a significant investment to even get the pavement management plan done . What is the the methodology utilized to to actually project or so increases that we've had over the last couple of years? Since 2015. How do we measure that? Speaker 6: So we hire an independent third party expert that does pavement management plans for cities and organizations across the country. They have a scoring methodology that's been adopted throughout the nation in which they drive automated vehicles over every single street and alley throughout the city. There's three criteria that go into developing the score. One is a structural criteria where they drop £11,000 on the street and measure the structural integrity of the street. There's also a lighter. It's like a radar that measures the surface friction or the surface of the street and all the cracks and potholes and all of those sorts of things. And all that data is used to come up with the the high score that you see on the screen that helps to develop the repair strategies and costs that go into forecasting for the report. Speaker 8: So actually getting that data requires some some investment in itself, right? Absolutely. So what does it cost to do a PMP for the city of Long Beach? Speaker 6: So this PMP update, it was about 200 to $250000. Speaker 8: So so we do a PMP in 2015 and in 2017. Speaker 12: Yes. Speaker 6: But the the updates, once the system is up and running, the updates are significantly cheaper than the original. Speaker 8: Okay. Thank you very much. And like I said, I look forward to having this discussion ongoing. Obviously, this is this is one that is very, very important to to our residents. It's encouraging. I'm really encouraged, particularly as to where our arterial streets are. It looks like we're going to be in in a good status fairly soon. And obviously, residential investment, we can't do enough of it. And that's it for now. Keep up the great work. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilwoman Mango, please. Speaker 2: Yes. I want to thank the public works staff and I want to thank them so genuinely, because it's been a tough two years in the fifth District. When I was elected, we had. $40.6 million of residential street need, and the next closest district was the seventh with 23 million. And the only reason the seventh District was even close is because they have so many concrete streets that have a need and a cost that's higher than an asphalt street. And to that, I'd like to say that that is if you were to say that each part of the city is a ninth. I had double of a night. They had point 22% versus the point 11%. And so one of the challenges that I see is that all of these numbers are so big and overwhelming that we don't really get our arms around it. And I would love to see a council that makes a commitment not only to the 45 million now 510 I'm sorry, 51 million a year that we're going to need to get to the 510 in ten years. But I want to work towards being a council that says I'm replacing my roof today. It costs me $20,000 to replace my roof. My roof is good for 20 years, and therefore we should be putting aside $1,000 a year so that when it's time to buy a new roof, we have the $20,000 in the bank that we can loan out to ourselves and borrow from ourselves throughout that time. But so that we have the money in the bank to be fiscally prudent and pay for the streets that our residents are entitled to. So I appreciate both of you for coming to so many community meetings and explaining the challenges. I recognize that we really need to be patient because the amount of work we're asking of public works at this time is an insurmountable amount of work and the number of streets that we're planning for and the complexity of our streets. I know that the second PMI study was needed because we had some challenges with the first one, and I think that that revision was important to make sure that everything was in that network. But I also think that in the future this street inventory needs to be talked about in things that are more digestible. So when we talk about 609 miles of roadway, I think we in the city of Long Beach need to determine what we believe an average street is. So let's say the 3400 block of shade way or an average street in the city. And then we need to take that 609 miles and say that is 6000 streets or it's 12,000 streets or whatever it is. So people recognize how many streets are in that process. So when we as a council say we're going to slurry, seal 92 streets or pave 600 streets or whatever we're going to do, it's equitable and understandable to people because Miles don't mean anything to a resident. And so what I hope we'll have when it comes back with the budget is how many streets or street equivalents we have in the city and then how many of our streets are in each category, and then how we put that out over time. How long will it be before we start being able to do the real work on the very poor streets and the poor streets, and then to the good work of the council that we've done on the alleys, how many street equivalents do we have in alleys and what does that look like? Because an average alley might not be the same. And so we're able to start saying, okay, with this money million, we can do this many equivalent streets in those categories because the numbers are there, the $10 per square, the 11, the four, the two, all of those are usable. But if you don't know what an average street looks like and you're not able to save shade, why is 1.5 of an average street or point seven of an average street? That discussion with the people who elected us to be here, the taxpayers that deserve good streets is just not equitable. So I'm looking forward to an aggressive budget where we plan out our infrastructure for enough time where an average resident can say, My street is getting paved in and you should know that year it might not be 2018, it might not be 2021, but we should have a date and time where we've made a commitment to the residents of when their street is going to be paved. And then I really appreciate the additional considerations that public works have made. I know that some of our streets are less safe to walk on than others because our residents don't have sidewalks in certain parts of the city. And so I appreciate that in those parts of the town where we're talking about the mobility of our community, walking in the edge way of our streets, that those streets are considered of a little bit differently than the rest of the city. So with that, I appreciate the hard work to date and I say we have a lot more work to do. Speaker 0: Councilman Andrews. Thank you. Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilwoman. I really especially most of the things that you just spoke about the same I'm I'm hearing the same thing in my district, especially with the alleys and everyone just what they want to know, win. And like I said, I can't give them a definite date on that. But I'm asking, you know, I what works? Do we have some dates on some of those when we talk about our alleys? Because most of alleys in certain district, they're just they're just all dirt. And if I could be able to tell some of my constituents, you know, this is a date that we will be working with . Usually I would feel very comfortable and I know they would be too. I just can't say, Well, it's on the list. And that's what I'd like to kind of hear from you guys. When can we give these people some definite days that possibly, you know, we and I know you're going to go to the city and find out some of the. I'm assuming that you're going to find out some of the worst allies or do we do that and let you know and then you would take it from there? That's kind of where I am because I'm getting a lot of feedback from my constituents about their allies. Speaker 5: Councilmember Andrews I think what I would would respond. Speaker 0: With is we are at the beginning of the budget process. Speaker 5: And we fully plan on bringing forward. Speaker 0: Information that will allow this Council to make decisions and allow this Council to be more informed about where those investments will be. And so. Speaker 5: Where we sit here. Speaker 0: On the edge of July and typically council goes through a lot of budget deliberations in July, August and September. Speaker 5: And my feeling is by the end of that budget timeline, you'll have a good feel for when and what type of investment will be making in both streets and alleys. Speaker 3: And I appreciate that because I think since the measure has been passed, they think this will just start tomorrow. It's not going to be like that. So I'm sure now that our constituents have a better understanding that there it is on the list and it will be taken care of. And thank you very much for give me that information. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Pearce. Speaker 9: Yes, I want to I also think everybody for their work and I guess echo what everybody else is saying, that alleyways are the things that we get the most concerns about. And definitely in my district where we have so many apartments where people use alleyways. And I think one of the things that we've noticed is it's not just the cement, but it's just drainage overall. So I was wondering, is there are there other measures going to be taken besides going flat with it? Or there are areas where we know we need to look at our drainage system before we go in and repave our alleyways. It's trying to understand the how. Speaker 2: Big it is. Speaker 5: Because, remember, Piers, maybe I can respond to that by saying. Speaker 0: That when we would go in, let's take an unpaved alley as an example. So we know we have a number of dirt alleys across the city, pretty much in every council district, at least one or two. If we were going to go in. Speaker 5: Part of that project would include not only paving, but flattening. Speaker 0: Any rough edges, doing the appropriate grading so the slopes are appropriate. Speaker 5: And then when we put an alley in, you would typically put in a concrete what's called a concrete ribbon. So that drain down the middle of an alley would be concrete. And then the side dry, miles, would be asphalt. Speaker 0: That would be the type of investment that we would recommend to this council. Speaker 5: As opposed to, say, doing an all concrete alley, which would be much more expensive. So would be a way for us to. Speaker 0: Stretch our dollars and get those alleys improved. Speaker 9: Great. Thank you for that. And then just wanted to say that, you know, I know that as we move forward, measuring dollars, fixing our alleyways and addressing some of the illegal dumping and potholes is something that I know we're looking at overall. But really just thinking about our alleyways is not holistic. It's a whole other system that operates very differently from our streets and our sidewalks and everything from lighting to where our trash bins are. And if there's designated areas that we can make sure we're trying to manage that going forward, I think the whole city can really benefit from that. So thank you guys so much for the work. I look forward to the follow up report. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 11: Yes. Thank you both for your great work in this. I think this is definitely what we need to accomplish here, and I think this is a great plan. I will also reiterate the back alleys, of course, and will more courts in ways many people have identified them not as allies, but as courts in ways as they are . And so a lot of our historic districts will identify them that way. And looking at that, I know that we've already talked about dirt alleys. I know that that is definitely a major priority. I've even talked to Craig directly about that. I had a question, though, as to some low hanging fruit that I think has been done before that we could possibly work on. And that would be like our urban greening grant, for instance. Lorraine Away, that was completely repaved and we added benches, we added some landscaping. I believe that was a state grant that we received for that particular location. Did that state grant include the repaving or was it just the landscaping? I don't know if we have an answer to that, but. Speaker 6: I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that that was a that had a lot of features within that that grant and it did include the resurfacing. Speaker 11: Okay. It did. I would say that many of our historic districts, particularly Willmore and Craftsman Village in their courts and ways and alleys, will be I know that they would be yearning for that type of project and another urban greening grant, maybe that is. There's also opportunities through Southern California Association of Governments in that respect. So I think aside from what we're doing and just repaving them, perhaps there's an additional avenue we can take that would not really take away from this pot of money, but perhaps a state funding. And then the difference between the slurry and full cement. I know that some of our courts and ways may just need a slurry coat. So I think that was identified. But is that going to be in the the report coming back as well? Speaker 0: Yes. So part of the presentation that will come back would be a recommendation and how to invest the dollars that that we have available and what those strategies would look like. Speaker 11: Okay. I just wanted to make sure that. Great. Well, thank you very much for the plan. This looks great. I look forward to more. Speaker 0: Councilmember Rinker. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mayor. This is a obviously a very important discussion for us up here because obviously when we run for reelection, we will run for election period. Streets and alleys and sidewalks are the most important and most common questions we get asked. You know, when are you going to fix my street? What are you going to do about my alley? That's I mean, that's a common question every time and every time that we get that that question as elected officials, we look back at staff and we say, well, well know, what's the answer there, staff? Do we have a timeframe? Do we have a timeline when these alleys, streets and sidewalks are going to be addressed? And usually it's like, I don't know, there's no plan. So I'm glad that this is coming forward for us to review especially. I've seen that we had some great progress with our with our residential streets. But I'm also interested in what's going on with our alley management plan. I'm glad to see that you have one here and that that's going to be addressed, because if there's any one topic that always bends my ear and I'm always being chastised for is that you're not thik you're my alley. And for some folks, especially those in apartment buildings, the alley is very important to them. It's their only access to their to their homes, to their garage, or to their to put put in their trash cans. There has been some discussion about from residents who said, well, if I can't use my alley because it's so bad, can I put my trash cans on the front? And the answer inevitably is know that that's where the trash trucks go. They go through the alley to pick up the trash cans and however in disrepair it may be. So I'm looking forward to to see what the alley management plan looks like. I would especially like to know if and when we could get those grading points so that we can look at the priorities for some of those alleys . Because, again, I say that those alleys are a lot of a lot of residents depend on them for to get into their garages or to get into their homes. And I think it's very important that alleys become a priority in this management plan. Also, we there's a mention here about the 11, 11 miles of dirt and gravel alleys, and that will cost about $5 million, according to the study that you have right here preliminarily anyway. And I would like to see those dirt and gravel alleys paved right away. But then again, you know, a lot of them are concrete, which is more expensive, which is probably probably if there is a plan out there, probably take a little more years and then we would like to have them take. But it's something that we need to to plan on. And I think that if there's anything that we can do as elected officials and we're we're approached by our residents about what are you going to do about my alley, that we can at least give them a plan, that we can at least give them a date or that we can give them a cycle of where we're at with our allies. And I think that that's going to go a long ways in helping our residents not only have access to their homes and their garages, but also making making our streets a lot better and our alleys a lot safer as well. No question. Just come. Speaker 0: Thank you, counsel. Really open up. Speaker 12: Okay. I'll turn some of that commentary into questions. The first one. Well, first of all, let me let me second what Councilmember Grainger said about the alleys. I think a lot of folks who haven't experienced this would be shocked that we still have dirt alleys in Long Beach, but we do. You haven't separated out the dirt from the gravel? I don't think it's one category for public works at this point. To the point that Councilwoman Mongeau made, I think everyone understands that the idea of doing the slurry sale on the good streets, that you're going to get more mileage out of that because there I guess we could call that the low hanging fruit. What is the plan moving forward to to continue that completely before we get to the poor streets? Speaker 5: Councilmember Suber, not again. Speaker 0: When we come back with the second phase of this presentation, the staff will be providing options to counsel in our recommendation. I think the good news to share. Speaker 5: Is that we will hear shortly through. Speaker 0: The measure of funding. Speaker 5: Be be completely up to. Speaker 0: Date. Speaker 5: With all of our slurry program. Speaker 0: And that's not to say that we won't have a street or two out there that may fall into a slurry category. But again, at the time when we did our last payment management plan, we identified all those streets that were eligible for slurry. And we are prioritizing measure $8 to fund those streets. Speaker 5: And as I mentioned earlier. Speaker 0: We will get through roughly 95% of that list by the end of this fiscal year and the rest of them. Speaker 5: Early in fiscal year 18. Speaker 12: Okay. So I think your point is we're going to get to the end of it either way, whether that's our plan or not. Okay. The other question I have is. What I guess is asking you to do. Can we have dates when these things are going to be done? And I think that might be doable on the very good quality streets. Now, when you get into poor quality, I think our gap analysis has more of a function that is what are if you want to define gap analysis, be my guess, but it's what you envision is going to happen versus actual performance. And when you get into a bad street or a bad alley, it can eat up dollars and time and lots of other things. So it'd be very tough for you guys to come up with dates when this street or this Al is going to be done. Would you like to comment on that? Speaker 0: Sure, Councilman. I think generally our goal. Speaker 5: Is to provide a three year snapshot that we believe that that with. Speaker 0: Some certainty, we can achieve a certain number of streets each year over the next three years with some. Speaker 5: Some. Speaker 0: Confidence about the funding. Speaker 5: Levels. And that's likely what we would be able to bring to this council for for as staff's recommendation. Speaker 0: So, again, there's. Speaker 5: $300 million of needs in very poor streets over three years. We're not going to be able. Speaker 0: To address all $300 million of that need. So there is going to have to be some prioritization that is made. Speaker 5: What we will be bringing. Speaker 0: Forward is the pavement management plan. Again. Speaker 5: This is a robust plan. There's a lot of information. Speaker 0: And data that is part of the analysis. Speaker 5: And we can look at the available dollars and that. Speaker 0: Pavement management system, if you. Speaker 5: Will. The program itself will. Speaker 0: Help prioritize what street it recommends. Speaker 10: Again, the system. Speaker 0: Would recommend be. Speaker 5: Prioritized first. So as your staff, we take that. Speaker 0: Information into consideration. Speaker 5: Along with those priorities that we've heard from, from individual. Speaker 0: Council members. Speaker 5: And we've that. Speaker 0: Into our recommendations that. Speaker 5: We bring forward. Speaker 12: Okay. So it sounds like you're confident that you can make a pretty good guesstimate as to where we're going and we won't deviate too far from that. The last question is, I don't want to go beyond the scope of what we're discussing here tonight. So involving other departments are coming up with efficiencies, with other departments that are involved. When you do a street repave like utilities and not necessarily city departments like Edison and whatnot. Is that not part of this discussion tonight? Speaker 0: So I think the way to answer that is that this council has asked staff to look at a dig once policy, and we. Speaker 5: Are moving forward with that to the point where we're hopeful that within the next 30 to. Speaker 0: 45 days, we'll be bringing an item. Speaker 5: Forward to council to request authorization to implement a software program that would allow for. Speaker 0: Coordination between all of the utilities and our city paving program. So if we know we're going to be paving Anaheim Street as an example in a year and a half, we would align that with any. Speaker 5: Water piping that needs to be done or sewer work that needs to be done or gas worked and needs to be done. We also are meeting with Edison on a. Speaker 0: Regular basis to engage them as well as other public utilities, just so we can ensure that we're doing our very best to coordinate that work. Speaker 5: And then additionally, I think this council has strongly defended our five year moratorium, and I think that that's an important thing to bring up when we pay the street. We cannot allow another utility to go in and cut that street up for five. Speaker 0: Years without coming to this council and getting support to do that. Speaker 5: So I think that you've defended that very well and that ensures that our investment. Speaker 0: Is being maximized as best as it can. Speaker 12: Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Great job. Speaker 0: Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Yes. I just wanted to get a couple of things clear. And again, I want to thank you for the great presentation. You know, to our public works director, Mr. Craig Beck, you have a huge job, huge responsibility. But as was mentioned earlier, we have, I think, provided our city manager's office and public works department with a great deal of resources to get the job done. Resources that we couldn't have imagined having just a few short years ago. So again, I'll say it once. I'll say it again. Too much is given. Much is expected. We we we are expecting results that what was presented here tonight. I don't want to I want to be clear, it wasn't a pavement management plan. This was more of it. And I'm glad you use the word outlining the system more of a pavement management analysis or assessment. We we are really looking forward to the phase two or the next conversation where we can get into the details. And I actually have a plan, a forecast and talk about what our deliverables will be to the taxpayers of Long Beach. And so, again, great presentation, big responsibility. And I have full confidence that we're going to be successful. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Last comment. I just want to follow up on something, Councilman Super. And I said and I mentioned this I think many times. I know Mr.. Mr. Beck and we talked about it recently, but the, the issue around utilities is so important. And I feel like the, you know, it's taken a long time to get this policy in place, but we cannot continue to rip up streets. And because gas or water is doing a project and leave it in the conditions that we're doing, I mean, drive it down Atlantic, which used to look like a great street through parts of the sixth District and going south and it just now has this Ms. colored. Formal water pipe looking, covering all up and down the street. And that's we're doing this all across the city. And I feel like there is not enough attention being paid to the fact that when a utility is going to be disrupt street a street project, it has to be repaved corner to corner the entire street and at a minimum, a slurry so that there isn't the discovering of pavements that happened. The other thing I hope you look at when we do this is when we redo streets and we've done this sometimes when when we even even when we redo a crosswalk at a four way intersection, we leave, you know, will darken that part of the street so that it's it's like a slurry just over the crosswalk and it's completely discolored to the rest of the street. And so we need to figure out a way of creating a clean palette of the streets. When something is when we're repaving a crosswalk, even a crosswalk or a corner, we're oftentimes fixing a four way stop. We're fixing a corner. And they were repaving like six feet away from the corner into the corner of the street. So now you have this dark piece that really throws off the entire look of the of the four way stop. So I just when we when this comes back, we're going to address the Street plan. But I also want to make sure that we've addressed the corner to corner we've pavement plan that we're not just paving over a small strip and then leaving the street discolored and that we're just doing a better job of making sure that visually we're leaving a good looking street and good looking just infrastructure wherever we go. Thank you, Councilman Mango. Speaker 2: To piggyback on what the mayor said, I think that there's also, at least from my talks with certain community members, whether it's true or perceived truth, we need to educate people at those seams is where we get potholes at those themes and where they start to. Speaker 10: Deteriorate is. Speaker 2: Often where water gets in and then the road starts to deteriorate. And we've pave over, over and over and over and over again. So. To another point about utilities. Perhaps it could if you want to bring back. Or we can discuss an item where if Southern California Edison is not ready to get their stuff done, too bad we're going to move forward. And then when they need to come back, they'll pay for the whole street to be paved again. Because I have recently undergone a process with Southern California Edison to get some things installed at the county. And the process has been us dragging them to water to get them to meet deadlines and things like that. And I don't want our residents to have to suffer and wait for their street to be delayed because the the agency hasn't met the requirements. So if we need to create a city policy or ordinance that says we give them notification, and if they are not responsive within a reasonable period of time, that they will be fiscally responsible to repave that street again. Then I'm open to doing something along that line, something that would motivate them to prioritize our residents in our projects. Speaker 0: Councilman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you. I could not agree more with the mayor on the issue of when we have utilities that are worked on and how that impacts the streets. We actually have some beautiful streets in in my neighborhood that really didn't need any work until the utilities were worked on. And now they look awful because the street is multiple colors and it just I'm sure on the pavement management index, it would rate really well because the street was fine before they ripped it up. But it just looks it just it just happened recently on Sixth and Santiago. If you guys want to drive and look at it, first of all, we had to drive over the utilities that had not been refilled for days. And so everybody's cars were you know, the neighbors who lived on the corner were getting the noise. And it's just took three or four or five days for them to get filled. But it's a shame when that happens because it degrades the quality of the street and it degrades the quality of the neighborhood. So to the extent that we could be mindful of that, where we have control, that would be great. The other question that I had is how often do we do we have any system in place for refreshing paint? Like stop, you know, the stop painted stop signs, crosswalks? I mean, is that is that done as reported or do we have a system that's similar to Pavement Management Index that requires you to go out and assess that? Speaker 5: Councilmember Price. We do have some small. Speaker 0: Amount of street maintenance dollars available. Speaker 5: I wouldn't call it a program where we. Speaker 0: Systematically go throughout the city and. Speaker 5: Repaint everything. We tend to. Speaker 0: Address it on a case by case basis. Speaker 5: Generally through either. Speaker 0: Councilmember offices or complaints that we. Speaker 5: Receive from the community. Speaker 11: Well, I think that's something we want to take a look at, because even the pavement management index may say that a particular street is not in poor condition, but if the paint is completely worn out or the the signs on the street are cracked, then it appears as though the condition of the street is not very good . And I think just a fresh coat of paint at the crosswalks at stop signs makes a world of difference. And there have been times that I've called myself or John Go Long Beach app for it and I didn't realize that the funding was so scarce for that because to me it seems like that's a really great way to refresh the look of a street at a much lower cost than than repaving or doing a slurry. So I think that's something we need to think about because I think degraded paint just just does not look makes the street just look much worse than it really is. But I want to thank you guys for the work that you put into tonight's presentation. And I'm mindful that there's a lot more to come as we go into budget season. So thank you for taking a look at this from a broader view and helping us assess priorities. I think I think Councilmember Mongeau made a statement a few minutes ago that is really accurate and that is as as it relates to many of these things, there are public perceptions and we have to do a better job of educating on the costs and the processes associated with streets and sidewalks. And I think that's a question. That's an area where we get asked a lot of questions, as Councilman Urunga mentioned. And so the more you can educate us, the better we'll do at representing the priorities that we set as a council and the justification for that. So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. And to ask thanks. And I have to add these in here. So when it's important and I know it'll save me the multiple conversations we always have about these things. The other thing I want us to look at when this when I hope this policy comes back and I'm not sure if the the dig one's policy is coming back, but I'd like actually to see what are what the actual policy is. I think we I want to know exactly, you know, what exactly our policy is when it comes to how we repave streets for utilities. I'd like to know what the timing issues are. I still I will often drive over a street and it will be like six weeks of markings on the street that the utility has come by and done. And a project won't start for a month after the markings. And so do we require or do we have rules about when utilities can actually make markings? I mean, I kind of feel like those markings should be made like a week before the project, not a month before the project. And then the markings will stay after this. You know, oftentimes on the sidewalk weeks and weeks after the actual street project is done, and those really, in my opinion, become blight and are almost like tags on the street that we end up leaving there. So when we when we come back, we need to look at, you know, how we're how we're repaving the streets, how we're what is our policy and when it comes to markings. And so that we should, I think, be tougher on both our local and also the outside utilities to ensure that we're not we know that we're we understand what the rules are and that we know whether we can keep hold people accountable to making the streets look good. Also, just Mr. Beck, I there's a couple questions about the alleys and just my impression that we actually are repaving all of our dirt alleys. Isn't that part of measure? I think. Right. Mayor. Honestly, we have a $5 million commitment in measure for alleys and it will be up to this council. Speaker 5: To adopt how that money gets prioritized. I think as staff, even though we're really not. Speaker 0: Fully prepared to share that with you this evening, certainly we believe that dirt alleys would be a priority because I was under the impression that when we discussed the Alice that the priorities were going to be the, you know, five or six dirt alleys that are remain in the city of Long Beach. So those would be the first Alice fixed. That was my impression from, I think, Mr. Modica and Mr. West when we had the discussion a while back. Those were the target. The alleys that are currently dirt alleys would be the first Alice fix regardless of their location. Speaker 5: So part of what we wanted to do was do the data and take a look at the pavement management plan. And we had set aside $5 million in measure. And the data that you saw tonight shows that there is $5 million in dirt alleys. Coincidentally, those numbers line up. So I think, as you heard Mr. Beck say, those were, we believed, would be a very good investment. And that does line up with the dollars and we'll be looking further at that recommendation. Speaker 0: Great. Thank you. Any public comment on this? Speaker 8: Before I start, I'd like to tell Miss Mungo. Speaker 6: She's spot. Speaker 5: On. Speaker 8: Okay. I wish I'd represent approximately 175 people in North Long Beach. We've been inflicted with this new so-called bicycle lane that you're putting in through here. We do not understand why the money is being wasted on this and why it is being put in when the money could be more used for the street maintenance, the repairing of the alleys and other things. We've seen the disaster that it is up on Artesia Boulevard. I have talked with virtually every owner of businesses along through there and every one of them. Speaker 5: Do not like them. Speaker 8: The young lady over here, she went through and in less than two days got 175 signatures. And I am sure that if I finish up going along the street and this is only on three blocks and Mr. Austin, these are going to you because these are all people in your district. We have a chance of getting people killed. I have seen what happens when you interact cars, people trying to get in and out, especially handicapped people or people in wheelchairs like my son in law. I cannot imagine you wanting to move my parking spot out into the middle of the street where it will be in conflict with busses and cars going through on Orange Avenue. The speed limit for you there is 35 miles an hour, and I'd be willing to bet that the average speed down that street is 50 miles an hour. Can you imagine a mother trying to get her child into the back seat, into a child seat? And someone told me, well, why doesn't she just go in through the passenger side where she has two children? What about someone in a wheelchair trying to get in and out of a out of a vehicle? I think that this is a hazardous thing. I have photos to kind of give you an idea of what it looks like. It's dirty. There's no place to put trash cans out onto the street. I understand we want to become more friendly as far as bicycles are like that, but I don't think this is an appropriate project for North Long Beach. I think it's money that has been wasted. We could have what it cost to do what they're doing. And if they put those black rubber things that they have on on Artesia Boulevard, along through that street, that's going to cost another $100,000. And I don't know how far $100,000 would go towards fixing an alley, but I'm sure that that would be a far better thing to do with our money. This particular rise in the sidewalk and all that, you see this? My daughter, when she was six years old, fell and broke her arm. She's 38 years old now and this has been there that long. And this is their answer to fixing this pouring asphalt. There's another picture of these things and I've got pictures of unsafe cars parked and what it looks like with trash cans out there and like that. And I'd appreciate if you folks are just, you know, rethink this. The people there want it taken out. They don't want it there. I almost can guarantee you I can get about a 90% signature rate on a petition to have that removed. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Speaker 10: I'm Mr. Mayor. I'm bringing forward me to you. Now, we all know. I know you live in Long Beach, and we'd like you to come and travel to Orange Avenue. It's really because of the way it's paint that take 80% of our parking. And we don't have a parking when I'm on a bicycle in my head with a beat at the outside, not on the curb, because it's a very in danger. And the people that very angry. So you guys have to do something about it. I would appreciate it if you do something that we're not. We're on the beach. We no have a particle. We need a lane of a bike lane on the curve. It's no safety for and nobody. I would appreciate it for your do something. Speaker 0: Just to clarify, you were talking about orange and orange. Speaker 8: Okay. And our teacher. Speaker 4: Boulevard. Okay. Speaker 10: Got it all. Oh. I would like for you to come look. I would. You could come stop and see me. I'm Bernadette Taylor. That's my business. You could come and fix your cross. Speaker 0: Well, I've been down the street. I know. I know it well. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please nominate mayor. Speaker 10: Mayor. Council. A council. People. I would like to ask each one of you who rode their bikes to the council meeting tonight. Raise your hand. Any of you. Why are you insisting that the citizens have to have all these bike lanes everywhere taking highways away? It's. It's not okay. What I think it is, is it is Agenda 21. Sustainable Development is the action plan to inventory and control land, water, all materials, plants, animals, construction, rent control, all information and energy, all human beings in the world. Have you wondered where these term sustainability and smart growth and high density urban mixed use development come from? Doesn't it seem like in the last ten years, ten years, we never heard of this? Where did these concepts come from? Is it that just is it just coincidental that every town and country and state in the nation, in the world would be changing their land use planning codes and government policies to align themselves with what? In 1992, President George H. Bush, along with 178 other world leaders. The U.N. called it Agenda 21 because its agenda for the 21st century, according to the U.N. secretary general strong, the affluent, middle class American lifestyle, is unsustainable and includes a single that includes single family homes, private vehicles. Why the bike lanes are private vehicles, plants is air conditioned meat eating. They are all a threat to the planet. This might sound silly, but. But. And it may. You may not think it doesn't affect you. But look around. This economic collapse is a U.N. agenda 21. You'll hear that this plan is non-binding and that it's an old, dusty plan with no teeth. That's a lie. In fact, over the last 20 years, this plan has been implemented all over the United States. It's called Sustainable Development, Ecology, Income, Economy and equity. After George Bush signed in 1992, was brought back to the U.S. by President Clinton in 1993, when he created the President Council on Sustainable Development for the sole purpose of getting into every city, county and state in the U.S. through federal rules, regulations and grants. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. Time is. Thank you, ma'am. Time is up. Speaker 10: This is what they want to do is pack and snack housing, restrict mobility. Speaker 0: From time to time as that time is. Actually, that means government surveillance. Speaker 10: You know what we're talking about. Thank you. Speaker 0: Man Time. Time is up next. Speaker 8: SPEAKER Amen. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. So, you next speaker, please. Speaker 10: We're being lied to. Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. There you go. Next speaker, please. And and just as a reminder, this isn't this is our on the patient management plan. Agenda item. Go ahead, sir. Speaker 8: Given that is Jesus on the dealing with his pain management plan, I just hope it's not being used to, you know, just spend money because well, just because of the color of the streets, it doesn't matter to me. I don't care if it's orange as long as it's smooth, you know. So whatever. And as far as the bike lanes, you know, I mean, I've checked out these proposals, 25 million bike lanes. You could have gave me $500,000 and saved 24,000,000.5. Me and my son, we did take paintbrushes and we done that. We didn't spend all that much. I didn't use Lucite, you know. So I'll come on. We got to look past this and we got to do what's best for the people. I mean, I ain't even going to drag this one out. Speaker 0: You can expect a piece. Speaker 10: Hello. My name is Janet West. Speaker 2: And I've lived in Long Beach for the. Speaker 10: Past five decades continuously. The proposed land use plan has high density. Speaker 2: Mixed use buildings, which allow the developer. Speaker 10: To provide substantial parking. Speaker 0: Hey, hold on 1/2, ma'am. This is not general public. Speaker 10: I know, but I'm getting into the street. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 0: Absolute. Go ahead. Speaker 10: Okay. Because this leads into it. Can I have my time back? Speaker 0: Keep going. I'll give you your time at the end. Speaker 10: It allows the developers to provide substandard parking, as is included in the proposed CSP plan per the law. After the. Speaker 2: Land use. Speaker 1: Plan is put in. Speaker 2: Place, you will incorporate complete streets policies. Speaker 10: Quoting from AB 1358 The Complete Streets Bill. This bill would require that the. Speaker 1: Legislative body of a city or county, upon any. Speaker 10: Substantive revision of the general plan, modify the circulation element to plan for a balanced. Speaker 1: Multimodal transportation. Speaker 10: Network that meets meet all users of streets, roads and highways defined to include. Speaker 2: Motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. Speaker 10: Complete streets means equal weight will be given to motorists. Speaker 2: Bicyclists and pedestrians. Speaker 10: They include bulb outs, curb extension. Speaker 1: Narrower traffic lanes. Speaker 10: Raise crosswalks, shorter blocks, more stop signs and or traffic lights. Speaker 1: And less traffic lanes, which is called. Speaker 2: A road diet. A classic road diet means taking a road with. Speaker 10: Two lanes in each direction and make it into into one lane in each direction. Why? To add bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks. Speaker 2: Complete streets calls. Speaker 10: For traffic calming, which is a ridiculous way to say slowing down traffic. The techniques of. Speaker 2: Complete Streets is. Speaker 10: Meant to provide for less parking, slower and more congested traffic, and more stress to force us out of our cars. And I ask the same question How many of you walked or biked to the meeting tonight? One. One out of. Speaker 1: Ten. Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 2: I hope everybody's going to be doing that next meeting. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Jim. Speaker 0: Next bigger piece. Speaker 6: Here. Speaker 4: Oh. Speaker 8: Yeah. My name is Dominic, sir. You know, and I'm here for the bicycle thing again. They put it in front of my house. They have my whole complete street is red. I had two parking places in front of my house. They painted those red to the left of me. They painted it red. There was there was room for four cars there. Now, they put one car on my whole block, so. Okay. So now when I come home at night, there's nowhere for me to park because there's only one spot. It's all duplexes, a lot of duplexes and a lot of apartments down the street. So Park has been real tough to begin with. So now with this, I have also a pizza shop in front of my house that I was planning on opening back up. Now I can't even open it back up because there's no room to park. A customer would have to park at least 150. Speaker 6: Feet to. Speaker 8: 300 feet away in either direction, if they could find a place to come to my shop. So that's going to take away my business going the value of my land and everything. Now on top of it now was having to park out into the street when I open up my door. Okay. I don't know if you guys are, but I have to get out of my door. I'm in the lane. Your euros. You have done swung your door out into the. Into the lane. You have to get out of your car in the lane. Now. You got to hurry up and time it that you could do a quick enough before a car comes through. Because if it takes 8 to 10 seconds to get out of your car, you got a car coming towards you at least a quarter mile away. So you get out of your car, walk around your car and feel safe. Now, that's the one problem they created, but they also created a problem. Speaker 5: On the passenger side. Speaker 8: Because now the passenger, which is mostly little kids and stuff, is going to open up the door on the. Speaker 5: Passenger side. And they have just easy of a chance. Speaker 8: To get hit by a bicycle. As so now you created the problem both sides of your car. Yeah. Okay. So, anyway, that's one of the main things. So one of the policemen told me that I am from my street. Every car was part of legal because they were all up against the curb. So I had one hand parked. There were supposed to be parked and another policeman came by and gave me a ticket. Give me a ticket, but no parking on it and I'm parked inside your bicycle lanes. Okay. So that's mostly my concern as I think I know parking I'm. Speaker 10: I'm not handicapped. Speaker 6: We have my little sister is she's got nowhere to park. Speaker 8: People come visit me. They got nowhere to park now. So there's I mean, you guys just totally interrupted my quality of life. Like you guys were saying, every equality, not just me, but other residents in my neighborhood. That's my main thing. Okay. And it's an Orange Boulevard. There's not there was no. Well, we were out there at a meeting with all your city workers. There's four of us. Not for you guys out there for an hour and a half. Not one bicycle came down the street. Not one. Okay. So I'm just wondering if you ride your bike. Speaker 6: I think you wrote it down orange. Did you? Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 8: But maybe you come down orange or ride your bike and do some sightseeing instead of going. I mean, I can understand, you know, Belmont Shore, the beautiful area. Speaker 6: Sure. Speaker 8: But it was Long Beach mean, was there? Are the tweakers the only ones? All right. Thank you, sir. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. And finally, finally, Mr. Good, please come down your next. Speaker 4: Three to look at the we are communists. Everything's ready to be democratic and we've become communist. Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Good. Speaker 5: Hugh Laurie. Good. You look as the address for visitors coming into the city as you approach the Willow Street Station. If you look at to your left and up the slope that leads to Long Beach Boulevard, there are two prominent. I don't know if there are alleys or streets that T-boned down into the edge of the railway. All are dirt, the air t orange color, whatever, sand colored dirt. And that's been that way for at least ten years. I don't know what the solution is, but somebody should go out there and figure out something to camouflage that it doesn't present a good image to the city. Obviously, the other side is nice. It's got the grass part there, but it's just it stands out really prominently and something should be done about that. Thanks. Speaker 0: Thank you. We have a motion in a second. This is just a receiving file. The study session. There's no action here. Members, please cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion carries.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive a presentation on the Pavement Management and Alley Management Plans.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_06202017_17-0498

Speaker 0: Thank you. We're moving on to the next item, please, which is item 20. Speaker 4: If you. Speaker 0: If we could read him. Speaker 1: 20 Communication from Councilman Price Councilmember Supernova Councilman Andrew's Councilmember Urunga Recommendation or request of City Manager to work with Police Department and Technology and Innovation Department to report on the feasibility of creating a free, voluntary online bicycle registration program. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilwoman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. So as as most everyone here knows, bike theft is a continual problem throughout the city, but not just for our city, for for many cities in the region and throughout the nation. The problem that we see with bike thefts is that, unfortunately, they are underreported. So the data that is maintained by our police department and many other police departments doesn't accurately reflect the the magnitude of the problem in Long Beach. We have 30 to 40 reported bikes, reported stolen bikes every month. And many of the reported many of the bikes are not even reported stolen. Bikes are the only item of personal property that we have that we actually leave outside in public for extended periods of time. And we have, generally speaking, no documentation of ownership. People don't report their bikes missing when they're stolen, so the data doesn't show the full story. And when they do report it, they often don't have a serial number, make or model or any photos they can provide to the police department to get the bike returned to them. There are currently opportunities for residents to. Speaker 2: Register their. Speaker 11: Bikes through a few different companies, but the data is not connected to the Long Beach Police Department, making it impossible for the police department to access those databases and get stolen bikes returned to their owners. This item came about in order for the city to get more proactive and take an active role in confronting this growing problem . It's important that the public be a part of the solution, so making registration easy for individuals is essential. And why a program like this needs to be free to encourage people to sign up and voluntarily ensure that such a program is not punitive. We see cities up and down the state dealing with this problem, and if we're to claim we are a bike friendly city, we need to find ways to reduce bike thefts occurring citywide. Bike theft and any theft should not become so normal that we accept it as a part of urban life or a cost of living in a coastal community like Long Beach. Craigslist and eBay, for example, have made it even easier for bike thieves to sell bikes or bike parts. We see bike thefts, funding, additional criminal activity, as we have seen nationally, bike thefts being used as a currency for possession, for purchasing controlled substances, for petty theft and property crime, because bikes are vulnerable and can be stolen relatively easily. We can't expect the residents to fight this problem alone. So the city getting involved by providing an easy way for individuals to register their bikes and have their bikes returned to them if they're found is, in my opinion, a common sensical approach. This item requests a report back from our hopefully our multiple departments working together to determine whether or not we can create an app based program that allows residents to register their bikes with the police department so that the bikes can be better tracked and returned to their owners if in fact, they are retrieved at a particular location . I asked my council colleagues for their support in moving this item forward so that we can determine from the city what is feasible with the resources that we currently have in place, so that we can be a little bit more proactive with tracking bikes and allowing bike owners to have a vested interest in the investigation and the recovery of any bikes that they have that are stolen. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Ringa, please. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mary. And I want to thank Councilmember Price for bringing this forward. You know, when I was a kid, I remember registering my bike with a fire department. You know, I would go to the fire department. It would be there. And and they give you a little sticker and a number, and your bike was registered and protected. And I'm surprised, actually, that that we got away from that. I think we need to go back to that. Unfortunately, in this day and age of of bigger and better bikes and more expensive bikes, especially, this type of program is is it's critical and it's timely. So I want to thank you for bringing this forward. I totally support it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Andrews, please. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mayor. I would like to thank Mrs. Price, Councilwoman Price, for bringing this, because this item is also supporting the request. You know, actually has had bike registered in the past, and I provide an effective service to the public. You know, being in the age of information, we have easy access to right on our fingertips. But, you know, bike registration apps would improve the line of communications between our department and residents and would also reduce the storage of unregistered and recovered bikes and decrease the number of bikes registered as theft and loss. I want to thank you and I truly will support this item. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 9: Yes, thank you. I want to thank my colleague for bringing this item forward and reaching out to the second district on it. Obviously, in our district we have chop shops and alleyways behind my house that we continually to go back and try to catch the guys, also our parks. I personally have had three bikes stolen in our city, so I feel the pain. So I think this is a great idea, making it be something that's accessible to everybody that that we can. So I just really hope that we come back with some exciting new opportunity that we can broadcast and use widely. Speaker 10: So thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 2: I want to praise the councilwoman for her commitment to bikes and bikes after I know that in the fifth District, what we're trying to do is get people to keep track of the information that Councilman Price talks about. But what I definitely want us to also explore as a part of this is there are already bike registries and within the last several months, different bike registries have started to merge to make a national bike registry. And so I think that it is important for people to take the time to register their bikes. I think that what we really need to look at is some kind of partnership with the organizations that sell bikes. I know that it is challenging that not all places that sell bikes take as much ownership as, say, a bicycle shop like a performance bikes or a jacks bikes. A lot of places when you buy a bicycle at a generic big box store, they don't give you any encouragement or information along with the registration of that bike. And so how to register that bike. And so what I know is challenging is that. The culture in which we owned bikes has changed. And you don't just go down to the fire station anymore and register your bike. But the fire service is also changed and our calls for service are up and the number of calls are up. And so I don't want the city to take on a responsibility if we can also, as a part of this item, explore the options that are available for partnership and to potentially find perhaps a partnership program with the bike shops in the city to take the ownership. Because what is challenging for me to say once again is we already have apps in the city that need significant time and effort. And I'm still frustrated that our Go Long Beach app is still not at top shape. It's marginal at best at this point. And so what I don't want to do is create more apps are online data portal is still not to where it should be. And so while I support the general idea of this, I just don't see that our departments have made the strides that we need to in technology to open up another platform. And so I'll be supportive of the study, but I really hope that in it we bring back alternatives where we don't have to take the ownership of another app, where where the world is changing and the platforms are changing and the city is not yet at the speed we need to be to keep pace Speaker 0: . Thank you, Councilmember Supernanny. Speaker 12: Thank you. I was happy to sign on to this item. The one thing I did request is that the app would work with fares that we might have on the weekend, so that it's an easy app application that if we had a bike fare or something, we could have a canopy set up to registered bikes at our various events. We have also. Not only do I support Councilmember Price's idea that it should be cheap or free. I think we have to look at incentives. And an example I'll give you is 20 years ago, Cal State, Long Beach had a real bad bike theft problem. So they came up with a plan where if you registered your bike, you got a you lock for $5 and it was a $30. You like I'm not saying we can put something that robust together, but let's look at those opportunities, too, as we move this forward. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Price. Speaker 11: I agree. I think there might be some grant opportunities available since we're encouraging more bike ridership that we can explore. Just a couple of quick points that I wanted to make. The Councilwoman Mongo is correct there. There has been for many years a national bike registry and it recently merged with I think it's the company I forgot project 5 to 9. And the problem is that, yeah, that's wonderful for residents to register with the national registry, but Long Beach PD is not connected to it. So so we used to be, but we no longer are. So obviously that's something that we will also consider. But in regards to the app base, that was just a suggestion because obviously the way people would register would be through the Internet and sometimes that's a little bit more cumbersome. Speaker 10: So it would be. Speaker 11: Using technology that already exists or that is being used in other cities for us to be able to make it easy for people to register, which is the whole point of it. And I think on moving forward, we have a lot of emphasis on bikes in the city and if we're going to do that, we may want to. And I thought I talked about this with Craig Beck. We may want to think about an app that is kind of a bike friendly app so that even the bike rentals that we have, the bike share program, you can keep everything in one place almost like a bike wallet, where all the information that you need in regards to getting around town, whether it's maps, whether it's the bike share card code that you need, all of that could be through one particular app with so many different apps in the city of Long Beach, we just recently looked at the newsletter that the Go Long Beach newsletter that we have, and it had featured the go along beach apps that we have, that we have some police department specific ones, we have some public works specific ones. I know there's someone here from our I.T. department. We're doing a lot of great things with allowing residents to report things and file things more readily through an app or through the Internet. So if we can do that with bikes, I think we'll be in great shape. So I look forward to seeing the report, too, and excellent comments by my colleagues. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Any public comment on the registry? Mr.. GOOD. You. Speaker 5: It's certainly a good idea. And I think we should also consider given the impact. Do run the numbers and. Get a firm figure, a firm handle on the benefit of getting people out of cars onto a bike. Whenever they can. And then. Figure out its aggregate benefit in terms of reduction of smog, traffic and all the nine yards that are connected with going someplace. And then increase the fine, which is deadly, and make it a 3 to 5 year prison sentence. In addition to that. I think we're. I'm not a techie guy and my Homer Simpson isn't around tonight, so I can't ask him. But it seems to me that one of the things we could do is develop same type of devices that can be in cars that when they manufacture or you get it from the dealer, they can weld into the frame of the bike, a tracking device. And I don't know how long the battery would last like that, but it would certainly, I think if the volume is there, that would drive that down and so you'd be able to track it. But I think going back to the original penalty, I think it should make it to find some people in Sacramento. That understand the import of it and pass a law that it would be. Put them away for 3 to 5 years period. And increase the increase in the penalty that would bring it down dramatically. Couple that with the tracking device and I think probably 95% of the problem would go away. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. See no other public comment. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Manager to work with Police Department and Technology and Innovation Department to report on the feasibility of creating a free voluntary online bicycle registration program for use by residents and Council offices, an app-based registration system, and an education campaign to inform residents of this service.

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_06202017_17-0492

Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next item, please. Speaker 1: 21 Report from Financial Management Recommendation Receive on file a report and presentation on the city's plan to recruit and include Long Beach businesses in City of Long Beach procurement opportunities citywide. Speaker 0: There's a motion and a second. Is there any public comment? CNN Please cast your votes. Or you want to comment? Speaker 11: We have a whole presentation. Speaker 0: Oh, I did not know that. Speaker 11: Don't mind. That would be great. Speaker 0: Okay. Sorry. It just said it just said financial manager. So I didn't see anything else on there. So. Mr. West. Speaker 5: Mr. Mayor, council members, we have a presentation by our finance department, our deputy director of Finance, Leah Erikson, as well as our purchasing manager, Sandy Sung Palmer. So I'm going to turn this over to Leah to walk over how we can do a good job, what we do with getting local folk in our procurement process, what we do good and what we can do better. Leah. Speaker 10: And I'm actually going to turn it over to Sandy Sang Palmer, who will be taking us through the presentation for you tonight. Speaker 2: Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the City Council. At its meeting on August 9th, 2016, the City Council asked the city manager to create a comprehensive plan to recruit and include Long Beach businesses in all city of Long Beach purchasing opportunities, as communicated in a memo to the Mayor and City Council dated April 13, 2017. Staff has conducted a review of the city's current efforts, completed a benchmarking survey looking at the efforts of other agencies, and identified a plan to further strengthen our existing program. And this presentation will give you an overview of staff's findings. Overall, what we have found is that Long Beach efforts are among the best of the agencies surveyed. We have a number of activities that are of direct or indirect benefit to our local business community, which I will outline in later slides. And that said, Council asked us to take a look for opportunities for improvement, and we did find some areas where improvements can be made, both from our own review and by looking at those other agencies. And those opportunities will also be discussed. First, it's important to note that all of the city's practices related to procurement are reflective of and coordinated with our specific regulatory environment. In addition to our own charter, there are state contracting code requirements that allow cities to advertise and do some local preference, but still require us to go with low bid and do not allow us to only use local businesses. Also, we have funding sources or certain types and scopes of work that may require contractors to comply with additional requirements. And some of those requirements may benefit local businesses and employees. And also, California law prohibits both discrimination and preferential treatment on the basis of race and gender. So that's sort of the foundation for some of our policies and programs here in Long Beach. The slide presents some high level information from the benchmarking conducted by staff, which included agencies identified by the City Council, along with others identified by staff's research. One of the major components we looked at was local preference. Under California law, local preferences intended to offset price disadvantages for local businesses when there is a higher cost of living and operating locally. The local agency, which is in this case the city, treats bids from local businesses as discounted by a set percentage for comparative purposes when determining the lowest responsible bidder. And as you can see from the chart, our local preference is the second highest percentage of all agencies surveyed. The acronyms in the last column, which are defined at the bottom of the slide, indicate that some agencies limit the reach of their local preference programs to certain sizes or types of business enterprises . And Long Beach offers a more broad based local preference that is a separate tool from our Small Business Enterprise program. Among broad based local preference programs, we have the highest local preference percentage. We looked at outreach activities of the agencies shown, and there was a wide range of outreach activities and levels. Long Beach has a strong outreach foundation that uses multiple avenues to reach local businesses. However, one aspect we saw through the benchmarking was that some agencies had branded their programs for better marketing of the services they provide, and this is an area that we think we can improve upon, and this will be discussed later on in the staff report. So regarding our existing program, we currently spend $88 million annually with local businesses. We do offer that 10% preference for local businesses that was outlined on the prior slide. We have an SBA program where we set contract goals to encourage small and local business participation. We also have a small business incentive program that provides credits towards business license, tax bills to encourage small businesses to start, expand and relocate in the city. And we have an online bitters tool that we use to we recruit local businesses to register in it, and then they receive electronic notifications for procurements that are relevant to them . We do targeted advertising to local businesses. This is through the Long Beach Business Journal and as well as to community based organizations via email blasts. And we make some special efforts for outreach at local events, including matchmaking sessions, where we meet with local businesses and help them identify procurements that are appropriate for them and help get them registered in our bidders database. We also conduct email and phone outreach to prospective vendors. We compile a list of prospective vendors based on the particular procurement, and that is out of our database as well as research specific to that procurement. We do direct outreach to vendors who have, after that point, access to our online documents to encourage them to follow through with a bid. We have developed written instructions and phone support that is targeting small and local vendors to help them navigate the procurement system and upload process that they might not be as familiar with. And we also have online resources that are targeting small and local businesses to help them meet the procurement requirements, such as help with insurance opportunities and that sort of thing to meet our regulatory requirements. And we also conduct PRE-BID conferences for complex projects to help vendors understand the specifications and the compliance requirements that apply to those particular procurements. Many of these efforts that were described as beneficial to local businesses also help support small businesses, minority owned businesses and women owned businesses. We specifically target these particular business types by doing targeted email blasts to a number of community based agencies. I've listed a few examples on the slide. The top two that are listed alone have a combined circulation of over 12,000. We also when we do these blasts, we explicitly state our commitment to providing maximum opportunities for these types of businesses, and we encourage them to register in our bidder's database so that they can become aware of our procurements, which are then provided on a weekly basis. We also, once we have businesses registered in our Bittar database, they identify as belonging to the various categories. And then when we come back to Council on particular Procurements, we then report back to show the effectiveness of that outreach for those particular procurements in the body of the council letters. So I would like to walk through an example procurement to demonstrate how some of these efforts come together. For a recent procurement that came to council, which was a vehicle purchase for multi-year, we would have previously already recruited businesses to register and planet bids. We would have taken a moment to see if there were any other businesses we could identify that we should also reach out to to get them registered in our database. We would then use that database and that research to develop a prospective bidder list that would include local vendors as they were available to provide the goods or services. And then we would conduct outreach prior to the PRE-BID meeting to inform them of the opportunity and to provide them any additional information or encouragement to compete. And then we would do additional follow up at the close of the bid window to encourage vendors to submit those responses. And this, we believe, is of particular benefit to local businesses to provide a bridge to help them get engaged in our procurements. And so I've shown some statistics here on that particular procurement. I'd like to note that I have a correction to the table on the downloaded bid row. I apologize that last second the last column should say nine, not 11, and then the percentage would be 27%. But what this is showing is the fact that we have reached out on a number of outreach calls and tried to encourage and engage those local SB and B and WB, which is minority and women business enterprises to get engaged in the process and be competitive in our procurements. And so what I show here to demonstrate the benefit of some of those phone calls, this slide is showing the real life examples of our outreach calls from that particular procurement. These outreach calls range from encouraging participation in the procurement to providing technical assistance to the vendors, to providing clarification on the procurement itself. And again, that's that bridge to help local businesses or who tend to be small businesses participate in our procurements. So as I mentioned in the beginning, we were looking for areas for improvement and we did find that there are opportunities and wanted to start with the fact that, as mentioned, some of the other programs that we saw had significant marketing efforts that ensured that local businesses were more aware of the resources available to them through the city. While we do outreach, we believe that creating more of a branding and marketing effort of our opportunities to make it more recognizable to the business community could provide additional benefits to ensure that those local businesses are aware of those opportunities, and that would help us reach more of them. And we'd also like to look at opportunities to coordinate with other city programs and resources in order to again continue to expand on how many businesses we are able to reach with our given resources. And both of these planned improvements align very well with the economic development blueprint and financial management has. We have connected with the Department of Economic and Property Development and will be looking to coordinate our efforts with them. And for example, we may be able to use Billboard as an opportunity to get out some additional information about our procurement process and get people more involved. We also are looking for ways to create more and better opportunities for local business participation, and we believe there's some potential to do that. A couple of ways that we think we can do so is to use our bidders database to help provide a source for our informal, quote, process. So our bidder database is primarily driven towards our formal procurements. But departments are engaging in a lot of informal procurements, and getting them our bitter database as a tool will help them reach more local businesses. And we also want to evaluate transitioning to a more detailed commodity and service type code, because the way that we match our vendors in our database currently with our procurement opportunities is that they self-identify with the types of procurements that they're interested in. And right now, those categories are probably a little more broad than they need to be. And there's an opportunity to go to more detailed commodity codes to better make those matches. And both of these improvements are integrated into our ERP project known as LP Coast ERP being the replacement of our financial and H.R systems. So these these are things we'll be looking at and have begun looking at already. And we're also looking for opportunities to we believe that there might be opportunities to simplify our documents and requirements to make participation for local businesses easier. And some of that might be to review our bid and RFP documents to identify ways to simplify, modernize them and make them more approachable. Also to evaluate whether or not we're using the appropriate requirements based on the risk level of the procurement. So essentially to look at possibly creating a sliding scale of requirements and where feasible to improve vendor education regarding some of our requirements that we have on our procurements related to state, local and federal regulations such as labor compliance requirements, so that they can better navigate that regulatory environment. We also believe that we can continue to support and strengthen local businesses ability to compete and succeed on our PS we. Many of the planned improvements that I just described are equally applicable to our PS as to bids and so they will directly benefit local businesses ability to compete on those RF PS as well as the bids. And while there are some legal hurdles to overcome, we will also be continuing to work with City Attorney to explore whether there are any additional ways to apply some form of local preference to RFP. So in summary, we have a lot of great efforts to support local businesses participation in our procurements, but we do believe that they can be improved and we have some work to do and we've already started making some of those first steps. And with that, I will conclude my staff report and I'm available to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. And now we're moving on to Councilwoman Pryor. I'm sorry. Go back to Councilwoman Gonzales. Speaker 11: Yes. Thank you, Sandy, for the report. This was a great report. When I first initiated the item back in August, I wanted to make sure that we were creating a definitely highlighting what we have existing, but also adding a bit more and making that more robust. And it seems that we're headed in the right direction. And so I thank you and the team for your work, Leah, as well. Thank you very much. So a few things, a couple questions. And I also have some suggestions just looking over a few of the of our adjacent cities and what they've done as well. I think we certainly can do more specifically the marketing as we talked about. I do feel that we need a name to this plan. Pasadena has a buy local plan. Whittier, I think Whittier is Whittier first something of that regard. And this could be anything I mean, Long Beach business is first. I don't know what that will look like, but I definitely envision a, you know, a marketing strategy in that sense to be able to allow people to know that this is a place that they can invest, but also that will be given preference. And so I think we're headed in that direction. In addition, there's a few other points encouraging city department heads to purchase local as well. Do we have that in our plan? It seems to be informal, but it would be nice to have that included as well, creating more of a culture of local procurement. And then, as we mentioned, it seems that we are doing quite a bit of business community outreach. Of course, our business improvement district districts, regional Hispanic Chamber does a great job of letting the general public know about the local opportunities available. However, I think we can push it a bit further. Are we offering this information in various languages? Not at this time, no. Okay. I would suggest that we do that through our language access policy, because I believe that this the Spanish speaking community, the Cambodian community, they only they feel more comfortable reading in their native language. And I think it's another opportunity and avenue for us to market to these businesses in that sense. I personally have a lot of Latino owned businesses. Many of them I can speak to in the language. But I think that they would appreciate having that information, especially because it could be so technical in a different language and then promoting the benefits of our successes. So do we have I see that we have a table here with our information. You know, the WHO has registered in Planet Bids, downloaded, submitted bids. And then do we have a comprehensive information as to how many have been awarded overall and over a certain period of time, are we capturing that data to know how many minority owned businesses, women owned businesses that we currently that currently exist and that are working with the city? Do we have that information? Speaker 2: We have it available for procurements that we are conducting centrally. Currently, we do not have that information available at the department level for underneath the central purchasing threshold. And that is something that I believe we will explore whether there are opportunities to do so under lbe coast as we're looking for what abilities we have there. That's not something we've gotten into that level of detail on. So I, I'm not sure if it's there, but it may be and it's something that we'll look to do if it is okay. Speaker 11: I would suggest that and I know other cities have a vendor list that they keep that is just ongoing, you know, based on the various opportunities available. But it would be good to have that information so we can quantify that. And as we're promoting to to be able to let the general public know that this is, you know, we have X amount of women business owners that are working with the city. I think that would be a great point for us to talk about. And then I know we're encouraging current suppliers to subcontract as well with local suppliers, so I'm happy to see that talked about the business strategy. In addition, I know there have been some other cities that have fared well with a vendor fair of sorts, whether that's held at City Hall or any general location. I think it would be good to have some sort of event of of sorts that invites local businesses so they can understand face to face with some of our city employees as to what the process is and how they can be a part of the opportunities available. In addition, as far as our website, where does this currently exist? Because I tried looking myself and it was a bit cumbersome to find where you would even find the process to look for opportunities. Speaker 2: Councilwoman. I agree. When we were looking at our own resources, we found some immediate opportunities to realign the access online to our information. Specifically, there's some really great resources that are set up through economic and property development where they're they've consolidated the information available to businesses. And currently, our information is on the financial management page, which is not quite as intuitive to businesses that are coming on to our website. And that is something that through the branding and marketing improvements, we would like to look to consolidate and make more visible. Speaker 11: Okay, great. That would be wonderful because it right. It's not very intuitive. You would often think maybe it's under economic development or some other place. So great. I also think there's an opportunity at our development services desk as people are coming in, applying for business licenses or they're asking about expanding their business, what have you, that perhaps brochures could be made that highlights this opportunity. So I think any touchpoint that we have here at City Hall to provide additional marketing, that would be great. And then lastly, the ways that we can work to incorporate local procurement preferences for RF piece. I know that we are working on that, but it would be good to get additional information from our city attorney as to what could be done in that respect. I know that there are legal challenges and hurdles that we need to, you know, work with, but any way possible that we can provide additional opportunities, that would be wonderful. Now, all of that said, you know, I don't I guess the intention of this item was not to make you know, to put it out there and not have anything happen. I would like actually for us to report back again on additional I know I don't want to continue prolonging this, but I think it's important that we report back with the implementation of all of these items. I think a lot of the business individuals that I've been talking to really want to see something that works for them. And it would be great to find out, you know, how we're going to market, who we're going to market to and including all of these recommendations , creating how are we going to create, encourage a better culture with encouraging city department heads, how are we going to promote benefits and data? So it would be great to come back to council. I don't I know this item took a while. I mean, I would say 30 days, but that might be too tight. So what would be I'm going to leave it open. I'm completely open to this. I know that it's not crucial, but I want to leave it open for a good time to come back. 120 days. Speaker 0: Mr. West. Speaker 6: Go ahead. Go ahead. Speaker 12: Leah or Sandy. Speaker 2: I believe that we can come back in 120 days and give you an update. Some of the items identified for improvement may extend beyond that time frame, but we could certainly update you on our progress on where we are on those items. Speaker 11: Okay, great. That would be wonderful. And if it could be reported back here to the council, the full council, that would be great. And we can then go on to next steps and if you need to, I can also send additional recommendations in writing as well. Or did the recommendations that I included. I'm sorry. Thank you very much for the work, though. I appreciate it. I think our city is headed in the right direction. As I mentioned with this program in the beginning, it says a good program made better. I'd like to see this be a great program made better so I know that we'll get there. And I thank you both for your work in this. Speaker 0: Councilman Price, let me go to Councilmember Wingard, who is the second. Speaker 6: Thank you, Mayor. Very thorough. Councilmember Gonzalez, you've addressed a lot of the issues that I had. And I want to ask specifically, when you're talking about maybe women's small business, enterprise, women, own breed appraisers, minority owned enterprises skills are that's not reported here. And I didn't see any kind of strategy actually in how to address that need for representation and diversity in our procurement process. So you addressed that very well, and I will glad you did, because it's important to us. We have to know that. We have to let people know businesses that we are accepting of all applications that in fact we do not have. You know, that we have a nondiscrimination policy when it comes to procurement, regardless of race or gender. And that and I'm glad that that will be addressed. The other point that I wanted to to ask about was when we look at the types of outreach that is done out there, you named a few here in terms of the regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Black Business Association and other local maybe WEAVES and other organizations like that. Are you concentrating those in the Long Beach area or are you looking at it regionally? Because I think that would be important as well when we we're doing that kind of outreach. Speaker 2: Council member the majority of the community based organizations that are on our distribution list are local, a few are regional, and we are looking for opportunities to expand that list. Speaker 6: Yeah, because I think talking about if we're going to be making an impact and having more diversity in our vendors, we need to look beyond just Long Beach. I mean, there's a regional organizations that we can look at to help with in their recruitment and the procurement process as well. So I would want to see outreach in these areas, especially because, you know, when you look at when you really consider it, while Long Beach might be a large, considered a large city, some of these are procurement opportunities, are very specialized in nature. And you're not going to get that specialized vendor that is a a small a women owned or minority owned business or you stay within Long Beach, you have to go outside of that. So I want to see some outreach opportunities to go into those other other areas as well. And I'm speaking generally in terms of a regional effort. Tara, you made a great, excellent point in terms of, you know, getting a brochure ready. And a lot of times it's education. I mean, a lot of vendors are really aware of what our process is. And I've had a lot of and I'm sure, as all of us have, I'm on the city council. We get people, make appointments with us to talk about, to sell, to sell their business to us. And we always ask them, are you on our vendors list or have you talked to our. Managers have regarding getting on the list and what the process is in doing that. And I as I refer them over there and and I really don't know at this point if they actually contacted you or not and what the follow up was, if any at all. So I would like to see some feedback on that when I'm able to refer somebody to you a little note saying, I met with so-and-so, who whom you refer to us can, you know, we're looking at their application or we've we've guided them through the process, giving them some information just so that it could close the loop in terms of when I meet with with potential people who are going to who want to do business with us and knowing that they got they got served. Because there have been a couple of occasions where I've had small business people come back to me and says, you know, I tried to contact your people, but they never got back to me. So I would like to to have an opportunity to close those loops and perhaps we can have some kind of a report or at least a feedback in terms of who you talked to when he talked to them. And just to close the loop for for my benefit so that I know that they've already been they've been helped or assisted. And on page 11, 11 and 12, page 12, you have there your first bullets continue to support and strengthen local businesses ability to compete in success on RFPs. How do you what surprises you do that? How do you support and how do you strengthen their abilities? I mean, is there a is there a plan? Do you have a plan? Is there an effort that you're doing in terms of educating these potential contractors with the city in regards to the process? Is there are there workshops that you put together on a yearly, monthly, quarterly basis that would invite people to come in, learn about the procurement process of doing business with Long Beach? Do you have one now? You have a plan or can you explain that item for me a little bit? Speaker 2: Councilmember your target currently we go out to a lot of community events that are local events to educate vendors on how to do business with the city. We speak at local vendor fairs and do outreach at various trade events, and that is part of what we do at those events. We do that equally for bids as well as for RFP, as a lot of our outreach strategies are dedicated towards both bids and RFP. And so we're capturing RFP in our outreach efforts. So we have not we have been engaging with the business community at those community events and through our phone and Internet outreach. Okay. Speaker 6: So I so if I understand you correctly, then a lot of that is done through the RFP, RFQ process. Is there a you say a general is talking about the website? I would I would guess I didn't I haven't done it. But I would guess that if you go to Long Beach dot gov, there's going to be a link that would provide people with information on the types of procurement opportunities that are there with the city or RFP that are currently active or those types of those that type of information. Speaker 2: That's correct. If once on our website, you're able to navigate to our portal for procurements where you can go in with inquiry access to see a listing of the current procurements, vendors can then register to see the details of those procurements. Speaker 6: Again, and they would be also receiving information as to how to submit an application on our RFP, RFQ. Speaker 10: That's correct. Speaker 6: Right. Yeah. Those are my only comments at this point. I think that Councilmember Gonzalez had a very thorough presentation on this. It's her item. And right now I'm very, very, very confident that hopefully this this will I'm very confident that hopefully now I am confident they were going to come out with something that's going to be possible positive for our vendors and lobby. I'm especially and my city manager West knows that many times when we've come up with the awards of contracts that I'm always bringing up, how many minority and women owned businesses applied? Because that's very important. We need to we need to show that we are a business friendly city and that we do offer a lot of opportunities for people who are interested in applying with us that we are that we are looking at their application seriously. Thank you. Speaker 0: Councilman Price. Speaker 11: Thank you. I want to thank my colleagues for their comments on this topic. Very, very good discussion. The one question I have is if we adopt a policy at council, is every city department bound by it, including harbor or harbor department, gas department, water department, or does that have to be presented to them separately? Speaker 5: The Harbor and water department will be separate their separate jurisdiction under the charter. Speaker 11: Okay. And do we know I know for actor we do have a small business incentive and recruitment program and policy. Do we know if the harbor department has a similar policy? Speaker 5: I believe and I'll have to double check, but I believe they do have a policy. There is an issue with the harbor department and to a lesser extent with the water department on the restriction of those funds, the being tidelands funds in the harbor department, they would be prohibited from having a local preference. Speaker 11: Great. Thank you. I have nothing further. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Speaker 8: Well, first of all, I want to thank the financial management department for a very comprehensive presentation. I think most of my questions have been answered. My colleagues have asked excellent questions. This price you just saw, Councilmember Price, you just asked the question that I had in terms of enterprise funds and if they applied. So I think the 10% local benchmark is something that we should be proud of. But, you know, I would just tell staff that we should be striving for continuous improvement. It's it's good to be good, but let's strive to be better and even the best. The L.A. County, the 15%, I think, you know, that might be a benchmark for us to to look to to get to in terms of local procurement. Speaker 2: I'm next, but we don't have an AMC if you're taking over NBC. Speaker 10: So. Speaker 6: Councilmember Mondale, you have the floor. Speaker 10: Thank you. A couple of quick. Speaker 2: Things so related to the other departments that are not bound. I completely agree with Councilman Price. Councilman Gonzales and I wrote a letter to another commission to discuss potential options. Are we able to refer to other commissions or recommend consideration or. I mean, what is that process by which we can recommend that they consider local preference or let them know of our desire for them to to at least take a moment and consider it? Speaker 5: Yes. That's been done in the past and certainly possible to do if it's a decision of the body to recommend to those commissions to consider a certain policy or direction. Speaker 2: So I'd like to add that to this motion. And then additionally with language, I do believe we need to do a better job of identifying specifically within the city of Long Beach. And when you look at the language access numbers, the two categories that were utilized were our Cambodian. Speaker 10: Access and our. Speaker 2: Hispanic population and Spanish speaking. And so potentially we should target the businesses in those particular corridors and categories. In L.A. County and East L.A., they did a walking outreach. Speaker 10: Where they took. Speaker 2: Some of our Spanish speaking staff members and did the outreach as a walk campaign where they let the community know in advance so that the store owners or the procurement managers would be there on a certain day. And then they walked that corridor and provided them the information they wanted in small groups where they felt really comfortable . And then with relation to the local preference, currently at 10%. L.A. County has not yet had 15% for even a year yet. And so we don't know the implications or turnout of that percentage yet, but I think that we should keep an eye on it. Also related to our $88 million in annual spending, I think that's great. One of the other exercises that L.A. County did as a part of the budget process was they asked each budget manager before they after their ninth month budget status report to take all of the expenditures in their department and say, so take your household budget , for example. If your household budget is, let's say, $1,000 a month and you already know you're going to spend X amount on your mortgage and X amount on this, that or the other, you know, those are set aside because you're committed for multiple years. But then they found out what percentage of their budget was discretionary and available for purchases on an annual basis in the S.A. categories, certain things obviously aren't available. For instance, you pay your utilities as a department and so on and so forth. But outside of that, they said, here's how much could be spent on small businesses. And then they said what percentage they currently meet. And then they use that as an annual benchmark in their open data portal of where they show their budget. And so I think this is just another opportunity to talk about the open data portal and why it's so important. And then to loop in Councilmember your anchor's comments to the intention of the item as originally brought forth by Councilman Gonzales and myself. I think that we really want it to be focused on local and from the regional standpoint. One of the things I think we could work on is phase two. Of what I think Gina and I have talked a lot about is employ Long Beach. Employ Long Beach would be the next phase of a of a a buy local program. So we as the city of Long Beach need to buy from businesses within our boundaries. However, there are businesses that are outside of our boundaries where a majority of their employees. Speaker 10: Are. Speaker 2: Long Beach residents. And so that's that regional perspective that we could build that actually still benefits Long Beach and Long Beach residents. And so I know that within our statistics as a city, we currently ask every business owner, how many employees do you have? We could start asking that of our. Speaker 10: Contractors and ask them of. Speaker 2: Your total employee count. How many of them are Long Beach residents? And that will help us. Many of you read today that we're at a historic low with our unemployment rate of 4.4%. But if you're a business and you're willing to go out of your way to hire Long Beach residents or you're currently a Long Beach vendor , you should be hiring Long Beach residents even if you're outside the city borders of Long Beach. And so I know we're not there yet, but just something to keep in mind. I appreciate everyone's feedback and comments and I look forward to a report back in 120 days. Thank you very much. Speaker 11: And I'll accept those friendlies, by the way. Thank you. Speaker 8: So, Councilmember. Speaker 6: Pearce. Speaker 9: Thank you. You guys have said a lot. So I will say I agree. And I also want to echo the need to have it in multiple languages. We have a lot of business corridors, whether it's off of Anaheim or in other areas, that we just need to make sure that we include everybody that can be a part of it. So thank you so much. Speaker 8: Councilmember. Speaker 6: You want to? Yeah, I just I just want to make a brief clarification on gun control bongo's referral to regional businesses versus local. I meant that obviously for minority owned businesses and women owned businesses, because I know that we're not going to have the high number of of those kinds of businesses in Long Beach. So it would it would be it would behoove us to go outside of Long Beach and recruit individuals from those from those communities to to encourage them to apply for opportunities here in Long Beach as well. So I'm looking at regionally for those those where we will find them here. Let's extend the application process a little longer so that we could do an additional recruitment or effort to advertise to ensure that we have a good, diverse applicant pool when we're looking at these various procurements. And the other question I wanted to ask also was, does this outreach and data, does it include like consultants? I know a lot of we talk about procurement. We're talking about maybe cards or or tree trimming or, you know, paving or whatever. But we don't talk about much about consulting services or or legal services. Are we looking at that as well? Speaker 2: Councilmember Yes. When we're doing formal procurements through central purchasing, we are doing outreach on on services as well as as goods and contracts. And that includes professional services, for instance. Speaker 6: Okay. Thank you. Speaker 8: Thank you. I just wanted to clarify my comments earlier. I know I compared Long Beach to L.A. County. L.A. County is a huge behemoth county with a large, very large scope. And so I know that's a that's a big number to get to. And I recognize that I like to go public. Comment Now, is there any public comment on this item? Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Members, please cast your votes. Speaker 1: The motion carries. Speaker 8: Okay. Next up is item number 22.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to receive and file a report and presentation on the City’s plan to recruit and include Long Beach businesses in City of Long Beach procurement opportunities. (Citywide)

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LongBeachCC_06202017_17-0493

Speaker 8: Okay. Next up is item number 22. Speaker 1: Report from Human Resources Recommendation to purchase insurance policies for excess municipal liability, airport liability and aircraft liability and whole insurance for police helicopters for a total aggregate cost of the liability renewal premiums not to exceed 1,000,275 one. 75,575 citywide. Speaker 8: Okay. This item has been moved in, seconded. Is there a brief staff report? Speaker 6: We have a very. Speaker 5: Brief staffer from our insurance manager, Randy Sellers, or our H.R. director, Alex BASKAS. Speaker 6: I'm Randy Sellers, risk manager, and I'm briefly going to cover items 22 and 23, if I have your permission. Item 22 is for the annual renewal of the city's excess liability insurance. Speaker 12: Policies, as well as to. Speaker 6: Smaller aviation policies. We're recommending authority in the amount of $1,271,575 to procure those policies. The main difference this year from the expiring policy. Speaker 12: Involves the excess liability, where we previously. Speaker 6: Had a self-insured retention for all departments. Speaker 5: Of $5 million. But the insurance. Speaker 6: Company proposed that we have a self-insured retention for the police department only of 7 million, with the other departments remaining at 5 million. And by doing that, we, we avoided a fairly significant cost increase. And this is an item that we come to counsel with every year. Speaker 5: The purchase of the excess liability. Speaker 6: And the the purpose of those policies that protect us from high exposure losses. Speaker 12: Item 23 pertains to the purchase of property insurance, which covers city. Speaker 6: Buildings, contents, equipment and vehicles. And this year we're requesting authority of a premium of up to $1,341,143. Speaker 12: This also includes coverage for the Queen Mary, although the operator of the Queen. Speaker 6: Mary Urban comments does reimburse this for their share of the premium. We do come to council. Speaker 12: Every year also with. Speaker 6: The recommendation to renew the property coverage. So we do recommend that both both types of coverage coverages be approved, the liability and the property. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. No further comment on this, so please cast your votes. Speaker 8: Thanks.

Contract

Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to purchase, through Aon, the following insurance policies: Excess Municipal Liability insurance for the period of July 1, 2017 through July 1, 2018, for a total premium not to exceed $1,161,524 with Allied Insurance Company, Berkeley National Insurance Company, Allied World National Assurance Company, and Navigator’s Insurance Company; Airport Liability insurance for the period of June 30, 2017 through June 30, 2018, for a premium not to exceed $72,751 with National Union Insurance Company; and, Aircraft Liability and Hull insurance for police helicopters for the period of June 30, 2017 through June 30, 2018, for a premium not to exceed $37,300 with National Union Insurance Company, for a total aggregate cost of the liability renewal premiums not to exceed $1,271,575. (Citywide)

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LongBeachCC_06132017_17-0448

Speaker 0: through Measure H. And so I want to make that announcement and and thank you thank you all for your support on that on that important issue. With that, we're going to go ahead and go right into the first hearing. So, Madam Clerk. Speaker 1: Hearing item one is a report from Public Works recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and find that the area to be vacated is not needed for present or prospective public use. And a resolution ordering the vacation of the alley portion south of 520 west Willow Street, east of Daisy Avenue, District seven Speaker 0: . Thank you. And to turn this over to staff. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report was given by Deputy Director of Public Works John Crumby. Good evening. On a Roman Council item, each one seeks to move forward a vacation of the portion of the alley south of 520 west Willow. The recommended action tonight has three parts, which are to conclude and conduct a public hearing, find that the alley is not needed for public benefit and adopt the resolution for vacation, said Alley. This item has had a general plan consistency finding by the City Council on February 14th of this year. Also, a notice of intent to vacate occurred on May 9th of this year. I'm available to answer any questions that you. Speaker 0: Kate, thank you. So thank you for the staff report. Let me move that public comment on this hearing or public comment. Please come forward. Home EC to put up these two? Speaker 2: Absolutely. So we got to. The. Perfect. Just a test. Speaker 3: Because you're paying attention. Speaker 0: Sitting back there just a little bit. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the city council. My name is Delgado. My address is on file. I represent Raymond Jensen, who is here. And we are opposed to the to the proposed Ali vacation. The way I have organized this in the interests of time and I believe this will save us a lot of time, is to have each of the people that are speaking in opposition speak very, very briefly. First, Michael Polley, who is a private investigator who I retained to do some work on this. And he did some counts of. Of vehicles in the area. Secondly, the owner of the adjacent property property, Raymond Ginn, on third, Esmeralda Zambrano, who has for more than 20 years been the general manager of the Priority Care Medical Group, which is at 500 West Willow Street. And then Dr. Dariush Kashani, who is the medical doctor at Priority Care Medical Youth Group. And then Dr. Sam Gibney, all of whom will take it very briefly, and then I'll sum up. So first, I would have Michael Polley address you. Good evening. My name's Mike Pauley. I'm a private investigator, licensed with the state of California. I was retained by Mr. Otto to conduct observations and. Speaker 4: Monitor and document vehicles. Speaker 0: Accessing the alleyway today from 7. Speaker 2: A.m. to 4 p.m.. Speaker 0: And I counted. Speaker 4: 339. Speaker 0: Vehicles accessing the east west alleyways. 1/2. Actually, Madam Court, can you help them with the fix the mike? We have a little issue with the mike we're going to fix right now. There we go. Okay. Thank you very much. They're much better. Speaker 4: The east west alleyway, along with the North-South Alley Alleyway. Speaker 0: Next, the property owner from five 500 West Willow Street. Good evening. Speaker 5: My name is Raymond Johnson, owner of the 500 and 520 East Crest Villa. By closing that alley, whatever the traffic is, going back and forth is going to come through. Speaker 4: Behind our. Speaker 5: Property and whatever. It doesn't go there. It double the traffic over there and is not safe. If it is not safe for West Westland people, it would be double for our people coming and going from the parking to the building and for the trucks. Speaker 0: Trash trucks. Speaker 5: Going there. It is going to be close the alley. How that truck. Speaker 4: Can turn and go out from. Speaker 5: One way the back up to they see the back side. It just happened last year that the lady got flattened with the asphalt near up near our home. So you have to consider that. Speaker 2: If. Speaker 0: Next we'll have. Dr. Dariush Kashani, who is the medical director of the Priority Care Medical Group. We can we can turn the clock off. I think it's just a reasonable amount of time and so they're okay, keep going. Speaker 5: Good evening, council members and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Doris Kashani. I'm the CEO of Priority Care and Medical Group. I run a nonprofit organization. We serve the uninsured and underinsured of the community. We there. Speaker 4: Has been a clinic. Speaker 5: In 500 west well over the last 25 years. We just recently took over the clinic over almost about a year now. And the population that we serve are generally low income or uninsured from the surrounding community. So we serve the community for that purpose. The patients who utilize our services are mostly with physical disability. They either have hearing visual, they might be pregnant carrying a baby or two babies on toes. They might be on wheelchair, amputated on crutches. I don't think the city council realized the impact of putting a gate at the end of this alley. What it will cause to people who have to cross the parking lot to come over. These people are not going to be able to react to any impending danger as easily as a healthy body can react to it. As I understand it, next door neighbor is a real estate company and a construction company. These are able healthy bodies that need to cross from their parking lot into their building. If it is unsafe for them to cross from their parking lot to their building in healthy, abled working bodies. How do we expect people who have visual hearing, disability or other physical disabilities illnesses that utilizing the community clinic to be able to safely go from the parking lot to the building? This is a real danger for our community and people who utilize our clinic. Again, we serve the under insured and uninsured population of the community. Most of our patients do come from the neighboring area and I am of great concern for their safety. If this goes in place, all the trucks and delivery and other cars that need to address and go through this alley, we're not going to be able to go through. They will end up having to back up and they will get stuck and will cause significant amount of hazard. Speaker 4: Thank you so much for your time and listening to me. Speaker 0: Thank you. Now, Esmeralda Zambrano. Speaker 3: Hi. Good evening. My name is Esmeralda Sembrano. I been the office manager priority care for 24 years. I don't even see how this is even considered. To close this alley, we use this alley all the time for our patients. We've called 911 several times. Patients have gotten severe sick. And how are they going to have access? How are they going to have access to come in and out fast? When we call them, these patients need access to these alleys. I myself have to go around because if I take well in Magnolia, there's been accidents there. Look in the records almost at least once a month. There's accidents on Willow and Magnolia. People getting hurt every single month. You have to really consider this for our patients sake to really consider closing this alley. It's very important to us. I really appreciate if you consider this. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Then. Dr. Samuel, get Blake. Hi. Good evening. I have a. Speaker 5: Practice in the building for more than 20 years and I think definitely we see the impact of the patient and my colleagues have been. Explain how this important if you consider about their safety for sure the patient safety number one definitely is. We see the cars go in and out and it began up like the alley for sure. We're going to have a lot of cars that have to make a U-turn to bring it back to go to the main street. And I think this is going to do impact plus, like they mentioned, the handicap wheelchair. Speaker 0: All the kids, you know, the running, walking from the parking lot to the building. Speaker 5: So definitely it should take this one into consideration as of the block in the alley. Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Then I'll I'll look. Sum up what the argument is here. Basically, when is a street or alley vacation supposed to happen where you start off with the idea that it's a gift of public land? What happens is you're saying we no longer need this public alleyway. And so because it's unnecessary, we're going to let the people that are adjacent to it or have some claim over it take that land. They can only do so, however, with a finding by you that as follows. And this comes from streets and Highways Code Section 6324. If the legislative body finds from all of the evidence submitted that the street, highway or public service easement described in the notice of hearing or petition is and these are the critical words unnecessary for present or prospective use. The legislative body may adopt a resolution vacating the street, highway or public service easement. The process that has to be gone through is that there must be a conformance with the general plan finding and that is delegated to the Planning Commission. This has come up several times over the last couple of years and the Planning Commission has never made a conformance finding. In fact, at the hearing on December 1st after public testimony, the Planning Commission discussed the matter and determined that the proposed alley vacation would not be in conformance with the general plan. The Planning Commission determined that the portion of the alley proposed to be vacated had the potential to provide public use or convenience due to its existing access points to existing residential and commercial uses currently provided by the existing East West Alley. That's the alley that we're talking about and the therefore that the alley vacation had the potential to be detrimental so that the alley would no longer be available for present or prospective public use. Now I've put up two boards here and unfortunately I can't see either one of them. So I'm going to have to sneak a peek so we can talk about this. This board here shows the actual area that is supposed to be vacated. It is the western westerly half. And we've talked about the westerly half of this alley directly behind for a 520 west Willow Street. The other half of the alleyway is where my client's business is. And they purchased that that that building in January of this year. The second board that I have here, I put up to show you just this that alleyway is an integral part of the circulation patterns of District seven and the Wrigley neighborhood. In fact, many, many, many people use that alleyway to get around so that they can avoid Willow and and having to get out on major streets. This is between Magnolia and Daisy. And you can see here how right goes. Right in between Magnolia and Daisy. It drives up just, you know, 50 feet and then it goes all the way to a building. Well, wrap it up the time. Oh, okay. And so that's the process is this I challenge anybody in the city, in the planning department or in the public works department to tell me where a half of an alleyway has ever been vacated before like this. And finally, I would say, no, you can't make the finding, because just today there were more than 300 cars that showed that this is presently in use and needs to be kept as it is and not vacated or given away to someone, which is what's been requested . Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. We're still doing public comment. Hello. Good evening. Speaker 4: Can Greenspan from 520 West whether from Westland. Speaker 0: So I just wanted to take a few minutes. Speaker 4: To respond to some of those comments. Speaker 0: And it's interesting to me that the argument is that by blocking off. Speaker 4: This section of the alley that we are actually increasing the safety hazards. It would. Speaker 5: Seem to me that if we block the access of the. Speaker 0: Alleyway, we're going to get a lot less through traffic, through the alleyway. Speaker 6: Which is going to make things. Speaker 0: Safer. And of those 300 cars, probably 150 of them, give or. Speaker 4: Take, maybe even 200 of them came from my office. Speaker 6: Alone with my. Speaker 4: Own. Speaker 6: Tenants and people that are customers that are coming into my. Speaker 0: Building where we're going to be stopping those people from driving by the medical office. Speaker 5: Which I think is. Speaker 6: Is actually an increase in safety. Speaker 4: We looked at at the last few times, we came up here and presented we also talked about the trash issue. Speaker 6: And found that the trash actually does not. Speaker 4: Need to come through that alleyway. There is a. Speaker 6: This is not blocking off happening. There's actually a. Speaker 4: Three way alley and there is we're not. Speaker 6: Blocking off it. Speaker 4: Making a dead end to the alley. There's still an exit path through this. Speaker 6: Alleyway so that cars can continue to drive through without having to make a U-turn or anything like that. Speaker 0: We also did some. Speaker 6: Research on the accidents. Speaker 0: Reported on Magnolia. Speaker 6: And have found no records of any car accidents at the exit of the alley at Magnolia. Speaker 0: We've also been able to show through our previous presentations that the circulation pattern here in this area, actually, many of the buildings don't have these alleys behind them. And in fact, our alley, our building is absolutely unique in the way that it has no actual buffer. Speaker 6: Between the back of the building and. Speaker 4: The alleyway. So we talk about safety from our perspective. Speaker 0: You open our door to our building and you are literally in an. Speaker 6: Alley with 300. Speaker 0: Cars. Speaker 6: Driving by. And it it can become a it is a danger with the medical office and the other buildings on that block. Speaker 4: They have a good. Speaker 6: 20, 25 feet buffer between their back doors and the alleyway. And that's what I wanted to say on this. So thank you very much for your consideration. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 4: Hi, Mayor. Council people. My name is Dr. Levy Freed. I'm the co-owner and founder of Long Beach Beer Lab at 518 West Willow Long Beach First Manufacturing Brewery as of Friday. So we're very excited to be here. I'm at 518 and I use the West Land Alley and I use the West Land parking lot. And I'm concerned about the through alley because me and my employees and my staff have number of times always been hit by people zooming through that alleyway. So I think the safety concern should be that we should worry about too much traffic through that alley. And I think that application of that alley and and a stop in there would help people cross that alley on their way to work or away from work, especially my patrons who will be parking in that alley and walking around the building to my entrance. So I'm concerned about them, especially late at night. And well, people are just zooming through on their way, bypassing any sort of whatever on Willow Street in also in the future, I hope to be able to use that alley for some sort of neighborhood festivals that we could do through our brewery and through the community. And having that access to the alley would definitely help that arrangement. If cars were to zoom past, that could be a huge safety concern. So I'm in favor of the vacation and that is it. Thank you very much. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. That concludes public comment for this hearing. So I will go back now to the city council and I'll start with Councilmember Murang'a, which is this areas in his district so customary, Ringo. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank all the people who testified today regarding this L.A. vacation just for staff. Can you please review the process as to from initiation to where we're at at this point in terms of the different points of contact and different points of studies that we did starting from the beginning. Just to get a historical perspective. Speaker 0: Happy to. When a request for a vacation comes in. Speaker 5: To the city, a formal. Speaker 4: Application is filed, and the city reviews several criteria to determine if public benefit is needed for the alley. Several things are not allowed or would not be recommended to move forward by the staff. One being we would never move forward. A vacation of an alley that forms a dead end alley. Every alley needs to have a in and out. And that is the case with after the vacation that moves forward here. Speaker 0: But petitions are filed and. Speaker 4: Notices go to the surrounding properties and they're provided opportunity to comment positively or negatively to the proposed action. And the staff works with with the surrounding property owners that receive those notices. Also, utility companies are public safety departments in several internal functions of the public works department. Speaker 5: Go through. Speaker 4: That process to determine if public benefit is needed for their services. Speaker 0: Within the public works department. Speaker 4: Traffic and trash departments are consulted and both in both cases, those departments or those divisions of the department agreed that the vacation could move forward and there would not be an adverse impact to vacation in the alley. A couple. Speaker 5: Other comments on a. Speaker 4: Few of the things that were said. It's important to note that only a portion of this alley is being vacated, and the gentleman who spoke about traffic counts mentioned northwest are north, south and east west. It's really only a portion of the. Speaker 0: East west. Speaker 4: Alley that's being vacated. And the other comment was the general plan, consistency, finding. Everything was said, was accurate, but the city council did make the general plan consistency finding in February of this year. Okay. Thank you. Now, when it comes down to the issues of ambulance or emergency vehicles going through to that area to address issues regarding the the medical services and next door, has there was every record done or account done in terms of how many calls for service there were and what impact that would have to that business. Speaker 0: As part of the notification process. Speaker 4: Emergency services consulted in terms of both in terms of emergency response. Speaker 5: On ALS and in this case. Speaker 4: The response. Speaker 5: Was that. Speaker 4: Coverage would be. Speaker 0: Still provided at the same service level. Speaker 5: As. Speaker 4: Whether the vacation occurs or not. Okay. And just to clarify, the accidents that that were alluded to were regarding the alley to Magnolia. Correct. I mean, in terms of either turning north or south out of the alleyway, is that correct? Speaker 0: So we haven't. Speaker 4: Personally researched those individual accidents. Speaker 0: As part of the. Speaker 5: Process. Our staff does. Speaker 4: Go through a database of accidents to look to see whether vacation has a safety impact. And that was not found in this case. Okay. Well, based on the report from staff and regarding the also the input that was put in by the fireplace fire police departments as well as public works in terms of trash pickup, I support the indication they would ask that my colleagues support it also. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. There's a second on emotion, which is Councilwoman Gonzales. Any comments? Okay. Well, I see no other comments from staff. Mr. City Attorney, do you have something on addressing? Okay. There is a motion in a second by Councilmember Durango and Councilwoman Gonzalez, our members. Please go ahead and cast your vote. Speaker 1: Motion case. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you very much. And thank you to everyone that came out for that. We're moving on to consent. If I can get a motion any second, please, on consent. I. Okay. There's a motion in a second on consent.

Resolution

Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, find that the area to be vacated is not needed for present or prospective public use; and Adopt resolution ordering the vacation of the alley portion south of 520 West Willow Street, east of Daisy Avenue. (District 7)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_06132017_17-0443

Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We're now going to hear those. It's going to take the council requests. And we had a request to hear item 16 at the top of the agenda. So we do. 16, please. Speaker 1: Item 16 is a report from Public Works, recommendation to request the city attorney to prepare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to prohibit parking of oversize and recreational vehicles on city right away within residential neighborhoods citywide. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Speaker 7: Is there a staff report on this item? Speaker 0: Yes, Mayor. Council members, we have our public works director Craig Beck and also our traffic engineer, Eric with Strom. So Craig. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mayor, senior council members were pleased to be before you this evening to try to bring forward an item that had originally been been requested back in October of 2016. At that time, there was concern about some of the RV parking in many of our parking impacted communities and neighborhoods. Staff spent a lot of time researching what other jurisdictions are doing and what would fit in Long Beach. By uncovering that work, we we found that that the current the way that the municipal code is currently written is a little bit confusing and contradictory. So sometime in March of 2017, we provided a memo, a staff report to this council detailing some of the the conflicts that we see in the code and some recommendations that staff believe they would bring forward to the full body for consideration. So what we have before you this evening is a recommendation for council's consideration. And I'm going to ask the city's traffic engineer, Eric Woodson, to go through that presentation. Eric. Good evening, Mayor. Council members. If I get the presentation brought up. So start off quickly just with. The definition of an oversize vehicle in the Long Beach municipal code. Speaker 5: Vehicle exceeding. Speaker 0: 85 inches in height or 80 inches in width or. Speaker 5: Longer than 20 feet. If there is. Speaker 0: A trailer or objects on the trailer, all those features are included within those dimensions. Some of the current issues we face with oversize vehicles are parking impacts, especially in parking impacted residential neighborhoods, visual blight, safety and sanitation concerns, potential citations, issues at driveways, alleys and intersections, and then trash and debris from vehicles left and the right away . There's also concern with Long Beach Municipal Code and the California vehicle code being somewhat contradictory in their requirements. And then oversize vehicle restrictions are not employed uniformly across the city. They're implemented on a case by case basis. So staffers researched ten municipalities within the vicinity of Long Beach to see what each of their restrictions and regulations call for. Speaker 5: We looked at vehicle dimensions. Speaker 0: Issuance, number of permits issued annually, and also also duration of the permits. So based on the review of those of other jurisdictions and our own recommendations and discussion, we recommend change in the overall length of the oversize vehicle minimum from 28 to 22 feet, excluding pickup sport utility vehicles, prohibiting the parking of oversize vehicles in residential neighborhoods . And any vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods on private property would need to be behind the gate of current zoning requirements. The exception to parking in a residential neighborhood. Speaker 5: Would be through the use. Speaker 0: Of permits. Maximum issuance of permits would. Speaker 5: Be for. Speaker 0: 72 hours and 20 permits would be available annually. These products are currently available online, so we continue with the current online system. Other suggested changes to the code, consolidating oversight of vehicle restrictions and permit issuance to the city. Traffic Engineer requiring parking prohibition signs be posted at all city entrance roadways along the city perimeter and freeway off ramps and allowing parking to continue in certain commercial industrial areas, areas on a case by case basis based on approval of the city traffic engineer. Next steps for this process. Amend the musical code to include the suggested oversize vehicle changes and post signs prohibiting oversize vehicle parking at city entrances. Include a mailer in the utility bills of residences and then post on the website and social media to alert residents of the new policy and then meet with the Coastal Commission to discuss the ordinance and draft language and then submit the ordinance to the Coastal Commission for Certification. This will be followed by a public hearing held by the Coastal Commission. The fiscal impact of this change would be the cost to for city staff, city crews to install the science courses estimated at $18,000. Complaints would be a complaint based. Enforcement enforcements and additional staff are proposed and it would be expanding the current online permitting system. Happy to take any questions at this time. Thank you. Let me go back to Councilman Price and please, if you have any questions or comments. Speaker 7: Thank you. So, first of all, a big thanks to staff for doing an extensive research project to get this item to the place where it is today. I really appreciate that. And I also appreciate that you looked at cities that are within the region that are similar to us in size, might be larger, might be smaller. But that gives us a sense of what other cities that are in the region are doing. And it's it's obvious to me that other cities do have some more consistency than we do in terms of RV regulations. I want to start with fiscal impact. You mentioned the $18,000 for the if we had a consistent ordinance that affected the entire city. But if we were to continue doing individual neighborhoods and individual signage, what would that cost look like? Speaker 0: So let me let me try to address that. Currently, what we do is we we approach any restrictions on parking oversize vehicles on a case by case basis. And many times we will either receive a request by a council district or a community group that are citing particular impacts. We'll go out and analyze those particular streets and then we have to put up signs on that street. And where it becomes real challenging is the cost for maintaining those signs. So similar to the experience that we had when we went through updating our street, sweeping changes, if we were to do that on every street in the city on a case by case basis. And I would anticipate we would continue to receive more and more complaints about this. You know, it would be potentially a seven figure number. Okay. Speaker 7: And over the years, in terms of the city's history with this topic, has this been an issue that's been a consistent source of complaint in regards to constituent issues? Speaker 0: Yes, I know that the council offices have received many complaints, but as a staff have received those as well. And many times we're asked to go out and enforce codes that are confusing and conflicting, and it makes it challenging on the enforcement side. One of the things that we're asking for this evening is, is to really update the municipal code, to make sure that it's clear on what is being proposed and that enforcement of whatever action council takes this evening is easier to do, not only from an education perspective with the community, but as a staff perspective in enforcing that Speaker 7: . Okay. Couple of questions on the recommendations. I know that the recommendation is for 22 feet. Can you give me any sort of justification for that number? Speaker 0: So the current dimension is is 20 feet. And looking at neighboring cities, many of the neighboring cities did have a vehicle, oversize vehicle length limit. Speaker 5: Of 22 feet. Speaker 0: So we felt that going to that dimension seem reasonable. This would exempt some of the pickup trucks and sport utility. Speaker 5: Vehicles that are on the market today. Speaker 7: Great. We also have 72 hours as a maximum for the permits. What's that based on. Speaker 0: The 72 hours? Again, we're looking at consistency with neighboring jurisdictions and also vehicles are currently required to be moved after a 72 hour period. So we felt that was also consistent as well. Speaker 7: Now, would there be an opportunity if a resident had a need for additional time to request an extension of that 72 hour period? Would there be any sort of a process by which they could petition for an extension? Speaker 0: So the recommendations before you do not currently include that kind of an option? I think that that is reasonable. And if council were to take that action this evening, certainly staff would be able to implement it. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 7: And then how about the 20 permits per year? What is that number based on? Speaker 0: We took a look at what some of the neighboring cities had, and we also looked at what the current Long Beach municipal code had. Currently, we had 12 permits for a two day duration each, which allowed for 24, basically 24 days of oversize vehicle parking. So we felt that we wanted to be a little more consistent or, you know, increase that number. So we increased it to a three day or 72 hour limit and going to 20 instances per year. Speaker 7: What total does that give us in terms of the number of days that you can have an RV parked outside of your home? Speaker 0: That would give us a total of 60, 60 days per year. Speaker 7: Right. So I would like I have made a motion, but I would like to be a little bit more specific about the motion. I'd like to make a motion and ask my colleagues to support staff's recommendation with with the following caveats that the number of hours that the 72 hour permit could be extended on a case by case basis at the discretion of our Public Works Department, Traffic Engineering Bureau. And the 20 permits per year could also be evaluated for an extension on a case by case basis through our traffic bureau, so that if there is an unusual circumstance or something that requires special consideration, the discretion would be within your department. That would be my recommendation. The other final changes I would make from staff's recommendation is I would recommend that I'd ask my colleagues to. Speaker 3: Support. Speaker 7: Approving this, but not requiring that the oversize vehicle that's parked on residential private property be behind a gate because some homes don't already have a gate. And we don't want people to take on an additional cost. And also putting a gate in front of your property may change the character and the curb appeal of the property. So with those three changes to the recommendations, I move this recommendation forward. Speaker 0: Q There's a motion, there's a second by Councilwoman, Mango, Councilwoman Mongo. Mayor, may I interrupt? Just not sure. I'm sorry. On the third. Speaker 4: Recommendation or amendment that currently is the gate requirement is currently part of the zoning. Speaker 0: Ordinance. So if that's adopted tonight, then it would have to go back to Planning. Speaker 6: Commission before we could come back with a revised ordinance just for timing purposes. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 7: That I would I would be okay with that as the maker of the motion. I'd like to hear from my colleagues if someone would like to make a friendly that's different from that recommendation. But I think allowing that flexibility for our constituents is important. And I might add that our office has received over the last year or so, hundreds of emails in support of adopting a city wide, consistent approach to handling RVs. Because when the police do get called out, it's incredibly confusing what ordinances and what place on what street. So I'd ask for my colleagues support. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilwoman, go. Speaker 3: Yes. I have a lot of the same notes as Councilman Price, specifically with the gate, because there are a lot of communities, even within the districts that are historical districts, that they cannot aggregate actually. And so we have one of those in our area. We prefer that it stay not behind the gate. So I'm really supportive of that. I also want to thank the staff. This was a lot of work and it's been a long path to get here. We really appreciate that. Under bullet three, on page two of the item, it talks about the length being from 20 to 22 feet. It has the ability to exclude pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. I want to take a minute to thank in our our newsletter, we encourage people to make public comment via the E comment. And we get these comments and we get them in advance of the council meeting. And so we can read them and really talk with our staff and the city staff about them if we have the time. And so one of the concerns was that there are some commuter vehicles that are currently in use, specifically the Mercedes sprinter van, which is a seven passenger commuter vehicle that is used by a lot of the van pools. And so my only concern would be if there were vehicles that on a case by case basis fit within this guideline. And with the 20 to 22 feet, I hope that this would not be a problem anymore, but that we would somehow work through what that would look like. There just has to be a process by which an exception can be made. And so with that, and I really want to thank the neighbors who supported a lot of this throughout the last several months. There is also a concern about consecutive use of the permits. So if I applied for a 72 hour permit under the current regulations, would you theoretically be able to stack those four consecutive days? Speaker 0: Currently the way the musical codes are written is that there has to be a 24 hour waiting period before refiling for the permit. Speaker 3: Perfect. That's wonderful. Thank you very much. I hope my colleagues will support this important item. Speaker 0: Thank you. Clinton reports. Speaker 3: Yes. I want to thank my colleagues for their work on this. And thanks to city staff, I know back in in October, I had many unanswered questions around the legality enforcement and the costs. I appreciate everybody's work to resolve these. I want to make clear tonight that this is not banning people from sleeping in their cars and their actions tonight should not be seen as a way to open the doors for more vehicular living restrictions. So I have a couple of questions for staff just to make sure that's clear before we move forward. I know that previously we talked about the code that we should amend was 10.2 4.078. And I want to make clear that we are still not able to enforce that part in our code and that we would be abiding by that. Mr. West. Speaker 0: So we would be amending. 10.2, 4.078 and 10.2. Speaker 4: For oh in the code. Speaker 3: And can you clarify for everybody that that, in fact, does not make it where we will give people tickets for sleeping in their cars? Should they be sleeping in a VW van that doesn't have a permit in a residential area? Speaker 0: Those sections of the code don't address those topics. Speaker 3: That's true. Sorry. I have a list of codes in front of me. Let me take out the code question and let me rephrase it. Previously, when we were here in October, the concern was that passing this would ban would mean that we were going to be banning people from sleeping in their cars and enforcing that ban. The concern I had at that time is that we could not enforce that ban because of other laws on the books. I know that the city attorney, Charlie Parker, answered a lot of these questions for me last time. So perhaps the city attorney could help me out here. Speaker 0: As proposed today, that doesn't address the other laws that. Speaker 4: You're discussing. Speaker 0: Or referring. Speaker 4: To. So I guess my question it it is a bit broad. Speaker 0: On your question. And so the Volkswagen van may be under 22 feet and it wouldn't be subject to this. So that may not be a good example. But we are only proposing to amend the two sections. Speaker 4: For you this evening and not addressing the other issues that you've raised in. Speaker 0: Those laws. This would have no impact. Speaker 6: On those laws. Speaker 3: That is what I was looking for. Thank you. I did want to clarify for everybody that we wanted at the same time to bring forward a a transitional parking policy that we've been working with churches over the last several months. Our health department, as well as our other staff have been working on that. So just quickly, I'd like to ask if Mr. Modica could possibly give just a brief update for folks on the point of this questioning is just to make clear to everybody that has called my office with concerns that this is addressing homelessness, that in fact, we have another program that will possibly be voted on in the near future. Speaker 4: Thank you. Councilmember, I believe you're referring to the safe parking program that the council has asked city staff to look into. But we were asked to look into is is there an ability to go through a process to. Speaker 0: Allow. Speaker 5: People who do currently sleep in their car. Speaker 4: Who are homeless, to to have a space to do that within parking lots? We've been doing the research on that and we've. Speaker 5: Produced a memo. Speaker 4: Fairly detailed from Health and Human Services outlining some cities that do that, some of the challenges that come along with that and some of that, some of the possible benefits as well, as well as the costs. I do want to point out, though, in our in our review, what we really learned was that people in RVs and people sleeping in cars are two different populations. So people that are in there and have recreational vehicles don't consider themselves homeless for the most part where and they have different standards of living and different incomes than people living in cars who tend to be lower income and do consider themselves homeless. So those are two different populations. We provided that report back to council with the cost impact and so that, you know, that's something the council wants to look at. We can discuss that further, but that's different than what's happening here tonight. Speaker 3: Great. Thank you, Mr. Modica. We will. We are working with several nonprofits right now, and we'll hopefully bring that back in the next month or two. So I just want to clarify that there's another process for that. And then my last question is on the location of these vehicles, I just want to get clarity that the item that was before us talks about commercial industrial corridors and that that is still the case, even with Councilmember Price's amendments to a case by case basis that we're still looking at that in those corridors. Can you clarify and define the process for identifying those corridors? It's challenging for me to know if they're not in my district and I'm doing a vote that says I'm going to push them all to somebody else's districts. That's not an impact that I necessarily want to be on the hook for. Speaker 0: Councilmember I think what we would do is look at the zoning code. So I think there was a presentation earlier today on the general plan update. And so certainly within the city's general plan, there's designations on what areas of the city are considered residential and what areas of the city are considered commercial and industrial. And so that's where we would start, is in those neighborhoods that are designated as residential. Speaker 3: Great. Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate everybody's work on this. I'll be supporting this item. Thank you. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 0: Okay. Next up is Councilmember Ringa. Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank staff for their work. Good staff work on this. There's been a lot of complaints that I have been getting also regarding not only RV but boats, kind of boats that are all over the place. And I think that that is the most prevailing complaint that I got in in neighborhoods around my area. So I'm glad that there is a item in there that includes trailers and boats in regards to moving that. The other portion of it as well. When this came up a couple of months ago, obviously I was concerned about having a blanket ordinance that would cover this issue. But yet we have a big coastal area, coastal. His own that would not fit because of other communities up and down the coast who are trying to address this issue and have encountered some difficulty in being able to adopt an ordinance that would address people's access to the beach because of restrictive ordinances or vehicles being able to stay overnight or for a few days along the coast. So I do see that there is an item or bulletin here or at the end of saying that we are going to pursue Coastal Commission acceptance or at least a hearing with the Coastal Commission to address this ordinance and hopefully work something out between between the cities on beaches, LCP, local coastal plan and the ordinance. So I'm looking forward to that and having having this issue resolved because I think it's important. Thank you very much. Catherine and I will be supporting the. Speaker 0: Motion Council in worship. Thank you. Speaker 5: Thank you. I want to go back to one of the points made. If they can pull up slide five, I think I can explain some of the confusion on that item. That's possible. And because we've had inquiries at our office, let's see. And I think, right, if you look at the title, it says Recommended changes to the municipal code. Okay. Now go down to the bullet point about the fencing and we have some subject verb agreement disagreement here. So it is not a change. The title says changes and then down at that bullet point. But we're going to go with an existing. So that's where the confusion came from. So I think that's what we need to resolve that it was in the past it's been complaint driven. So nothing has changed to the city attorney's point that it would take a different change than what we can do here tonight to to do away with that. But that's where I believe all the increase to the officers came from. Secondly, to the point of the special circumstances where you have to extend the 72 hours, this has to be seamless because that might be a mechanical problem with the vehicle or something like that. So that shouldn't trigger the use of one of the special permits that has that 24 hour window. So I think that that's what my colleague, Councilwoman Price was was driving it. Finally, on the 22 foot distance, we would ask how that would be measured. And I don't think we have any patrol officers up here who are traffic enforcement officers. But I think you run the plate and the DMV record would give you the length of the vehicle. And that's we just have to I don't I'm not sure how it's done, but we have to determine that. Or else we have people getting out a tape measure every time they go out to look at one of these vehicles. But there's not necessarily agreement on the registration versus what the actual length of the vehicle is. So that's something I'd like to see staff address before we have problems moving forward. I think that's different naturally. Okay. I think we're good. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So my position is rather a little bit since the last time we had this conversation initially, you know, I, I said if someone has had their RV, has a had any issues neighborhood, sort of hasn't complained about it, then we should give that person a break. But in thinking about it, over the last few months, my district in particular, we border a number of different cities, Lakewood, who has a different policy than Bellflower Compton, Paramount. We bought all those cities, and I think it is clear that we have a very clear message on this policy. So I do support, you know, having, you know, one clear restriction across the city that that will be very clear to people who live along the borders as well. I think the permits online and free is good and renting an RV for the first time this past holiday, you know, between Christmas and New Year. And, you know, I kept it on my street for a couple of days before and a couple of days after. And I think I wouldn't want to have to take an additional step to go somewhere and get a permit, you know, while I'm coordinating vacation. So the fact that you can, you know, you can get it online is free. And how would this work? We just simply printed out online and posted. Okay. So print out online, print on dashboard. I think that's seamless. That's great. So good work on thinking that through. There's been a lot of chatter on next door and in the neighborhood associations about this concept of a sanctuary district. I've tried my best to try to refute this concept that it wasn't driven by city council or city staff. But can we can I just have city staff respond? Is there a proposal for a sanctuary district anywhere in town that says, Hey, our district is open for RVs and all the rest of them are closed? Speaker 2: No. Speaker 5: I think you can't get more clear than that. And then my final question is, and it might have been in the presentation, but how long until this is implemented should the city council adopt this? Speaker 0: I'm going to let Mr. Beck respond. But if we add the aspect of going to the Planning Commission for. Speaker 4: The gate issue, that could certainly. Speaker 0: Add several months to the time before it comes back to the council. Speaker 5: Okay. I'll just ask ask that, you know, once we get all everything worked out and we do have it ready to go for prime time, that we give a break to the people who, you know, we don't immediately start hammering people who take a minute to adjust to this. So we should have some some warmup grace period. So, you know, people who may not be too happy about this, we get a chance to kind of get in the warm up to it a little bit. So we should we should just, you know, think about our residents in that way. Thanks a lot. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Speaker 7: Yes, thank you. Great work to staff and great work to Councilmember Councilwoman Price on this item as well. I will be supportive here, but I do want to mention a few things that my colleagues have mentioned as well. And I look forward first, I look forward to the safe parking program that Councilmember Pearce is talking about because we can't talk about this issue, I feel, without addressing the fact that people are living in their RVs, and I think it is a real issue that has to be tackled and we have to figure out some way to tackle that. And although this doesn't address that specifically, I look forward to hearing more information from her office. Secondly, can you clarify I know that it is included in here as to the commercial use of oversize vehicles. For instance, in the first District, we have the Magnolia Industrial area who where many business owners have overnight vehicles and they have them there at two, three in the morning and they start, you know, at four in the morning. So can you just clarify for me how that would work into this ordinance? Speaker 0: Councilmember. I think I think there's two ways to address your question. The first would be that generally in a municipal code, a vehicle has to be moved within a 72 hour period. Otherwise, it can be cited and potentially towed. So in a commercial zone such as Magnolia Industrial, we know that we have oversize vehicles that are used for commercial purpose, but those are being moved constantly. If there was a need to address parking issues, we would look at those particular areas on a case by case basis and devise an appropriate restriction based on the needs of that particular district. I think you're you're very familiar with the area in your district. And I think what we would look at is how if if restrictions were needed, how would they be addressed in MiG? Speaker 7: Yes. And I'm wondering if there is a way it seems to me that it would be a case by case basis. But since areas like that are primarily like over 75% commercial, I'm wondering if we could maybe air towards the, you know, allowing the vehicles to be there a little bit longer because they are you know, there's no residential in the area. So I'm just wondering how that fits in. But of course, it's, you know, up to your discretion to to figure that out. And that should be fine. I just wanted to point that out. And then I think those are all the questions that I have, but I think this is a great item. I know many residents in the First District have had the same issues related to just overnight vehicles staying for, you know, significant amounts of time. So. Thanks so much for the work. Appreciate it. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. Awesome. Speaker 8: Thank you. And I think most of my concerns have been addressed by my colleagues. I didn't want some clarification on the the was it a substitute motion or the from Councilmember Price regarding a case by case basis? Can can we clarify with that which you actually met on that. Speaker 7: An original motion. Speaker 8: It's in the original motion so so in the staff report it says the currently currently the city approaches parking restrictions on a case by case basis. So in the original the motion basically it sounds like it does the same thing that we're currently doing. Speaker 7: Well, no, I don't think so. I think right now we don't ban our RVs on every residential street. And with the passage of this, we would and then we would allow certain limits to how long RV can be parked outside of a residential in a residential neighborhood and the public right of way for a certain period of time. That particular aspect of the exemption would be subject to case by case determination at the discretion. So if they wanted beyond 72 hours or if they wanted more than 20 permits. So just as to those two areas. But but the idea of whether you can park your RV outside of your home would would be addressed through the change of the ordinance. Speaker 8: Thank you for that clarification. And to staff, I think obviously, are we supporting this? I do recall having some some conversation when this item first came before us regarding RV being parked in commercial corridors and business or in impacting businesses. Does this particular item address that in any way? Speaker 0: Councilmember Again, we're focused tonight on residential neighborhoods and communities, and then we would look at commercial areas and industrial areas on a case by case basis if a restriction was needed to be added in those those particular zones. Speaker 8: Well, I certainly have heard enough from our residents to know that this is this is something that most of the residents in my district would see as something welcome. This is a welcome change. It provides uniform uniformity and clarity. And so I think staff has done a great job on that. I mentioned the commercial corridors because of the potential for the unintended consequences. And I do figure I do figure that we will be discussing that more in the future. So I'll be supportive tonight, but also be watching very skeptically about how those how this policy impacts our business districts as well. Speaker 0: Thank you very much, Councilman. Councilman, Mongo. Speaker 3: So one of the things that we don't want is for this to be delayed tonight. So I think that I'd like to offer a firmly back to your original motion where we pass this as written tonight and instruct the city manager, help me of what I can do on the gate so that it is a second degree thing, so that you'll bring this back right away as is. We'd still like to address the gate. Speaker 0: Being a requirement. So tonight is a. Speaker 4: Is. Speaker 0: A consideration to request my office to prepare the ordinance as amended by the friendly that we would be going to Planning Commission to amend the zoning. Speaker 4: Ordinance to remove the requirement. Speaker 0: Of. Speaker 6: Parking that it must be parked behind a gate. Speaker 0: If you eliminate that third portion. Speaker 4: Then we could. Speaker 6: Create the ordinance. Speaker 0: Bring it back. But you still have to. Speaker 4: We'd have to do the signage before you could ever implemented. Speaker 0: And we'd also need to go to a Coastal Commission and have Coastal Commission. Speaker 6: Weigh in on either accepting it or proposing whatever changes they would. Speaker 4: Propose to that before you could implement the ordinance. Speaker 3: So having to go to the Planning Commission would not include a delay. Speaker 2: Well, because of the. Speaker 0: Others, I would say that it does. Speaker 6: Include a delay. Speaker 4: Of some amount of time. I know. Speaker 3: So I'd like to ask that we take that component out and then maybe you and I can work on a separate item that we'll bring back to council immediately to ask the instruction to go to the Planning Commission, asking them to consider removing it. Speaker 0: You could certainly go separately to have that item considered at a later date and would amend this. Speaker 6: Ordinance if. Speaker 0: It was passed almost. So, you know, do have. Speaker 2: A. Speaker 3: Dual track. Wonderful. Speaker 0: Mr. Park. And hopefully, I think as the council process move forward in the other and the signage process, hopefully those two separate items align, you know, as we come out the gate certainly and as an ordinance could come back on a Tuesday after that process. Speaker 6: Has happened with the commission. You could. Speaker 0: Amanda. That's great. Speaker 3: Wonderful. So is that accepted? Wonderful. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Next up out Councilmember Pearce. Speaker 3: Okay. Let me try this one more time. Just to clarify for the record, as I mentioned, I had a long list of codes in front of me. So Mr. Parkin, the code that I was referring to is 10.18 .040, which we talked about at length whenever this was originally here, which says no person shall user occupy any recreational vehicle, trailer coach van or other vehicle or any public on any public street for human habitation or camping purposes. And when we are here back in October, we had a full conversation about how we don't enforce that because we're fearful that we would be sued for constitutional rights because other cities have been sued. And back in October, I had asked that we address that in our code. So will this policy could we use this opportunity now to remove that from our code since we're not enforcing it? Speaker 0: You could add in in the staff report, I think in March of 17, that item was identified and addressed in the. Speaker 4: Cases were cited. Speaker 3: Okay. I'm not remembering seeing the cases. Well, I would like to ask if could make a friendly to include leaving that portion out. You know, so long as things are, people are getting their permits if they're in that 72 hour zone and they're at least abiding with the law if we're not enforcing it already, having policies on the books that we don't enforce, I'm certain that we didn't. Speaker 7: That's okay. I'm not sure I understand what the request was. But let me just make it clear that this item tonight is limited to the issues presented, in my opinion, with what we've heard from residents about regarding traffic safety, visual blight, vehicle corridor obstructions, consistency throughout the state with having the same ordinance in place. I did not intend, nor am I prepared to intent, nor am I prepared to discuss and have received zero notice that we were going to be speaking about ordinances involving people sleeping in their vehicles and the legal parameters of such that it's just not on the agenda. And in my opinion, I think we're talking about two very different issues. And I think that the recommendation that's being brought forth by staff is really being brought forth as a cost savings to the city, as a consistency issue for the city. And I think to conclude that particular item by including issues of constitutionality of other ordinances would just really be out of scope with what this particular item is. Speaker 3: So thank you for your comments, Councilwoman. I brought it back up because we had a full discussion about it last time not to try to slide something new. And we will be bringing back my colleagues and I will be bringing back the transitional parking. I'm comfortable with having that discussion with the transitional parking conversation, and I'll have comments with staff as well. I'll be supporting this tonight. I just wanted to make sure that any time that we have codes on our books that we're not enforcing that we've said that we're fearful of us being sued for, that we take the opportunities to address those because that seems like smart governance. So we'll bring it back at the time with the transitional parking, and I'll make sure that you and I have an opportunity to sit down and chat before then. Speaker 0: That'd be great. Thank you. Well, there's a motion on a second on the floor. We also have public comment now, so please for comment. Come forward. They give you cookies the address the suggestion this in advance a couple times before in fact last week at the Mac committee and that commission. One of the things this city should take a look at is what other cities have their private organizations that are private companies that do it, but what they build and I'm thinking of that to PCH and Studebaker, the old tank farm, the old electric plants is to build and it doesn't have to be there. A three story, maybe four story, depending on the area it's in building in which people can store their boats on elevated platforms. What the paradigm is, if you have a boat, you call up the facility the night before and say, I want to come down and I'm going to pick up my boat and trailer at a certain time. The next day they arrive, they take it and go out and do it, whatever, and then they come back. So I think that's something we should take a look at. They're highly successful. They're operated. I've not personally been in any of them, but they're in the coastline of this state is inundated with those. And I think if we can put the word out and provide the areas to put them in, I think that would be great. And I again, as I say, it doesn't necessarily have to be close to the water if you've got some places that are up in the knees, Jesus, that doesn't that has the square footage where they can put that in. That would be great. Thanks. Thank you. Speaker Hi, I'm Anthony Cruz with the fifth district. I want to thank all the city council for bringing this item up and also other city leaders. And I'm hello, mayor. And it was I just want to say that I think this is very important. I mean, personally in our neighborhoods that are along especially along the park areas, we deal with a lot of RV issues and a lot looking at, you know, people sleeping in their vehicles. I understand that it is a touchy subject, but at the same time, you're looking at our these and like what one of the gentleman over here had brought up the issue that are not the issue, but the the fact that people in RV do not consider themselves homeless. All right. And I live in a pretty ideal neighborhood. Okay. And I love I love the district. But at the same time, you know, when you're living, you know, in your neighborhood and you're doing what you need to do to to to, you know, be neighborly and love, you know, the businesses and what's around there, you know , then you find these unintentional neighbors, you know, what I call curbside neighbors that are living, you know, in your street that just, you know, sometimes it's cool and a and they they they're there for the time being and they leave when they, you know, leave. But a lot of times they're staying there. They become an intentional neighborhood residents. You know, there's been issue with a couple of them that I have even seen suspicious activity where they come, you know, they have people coming in and out where, you know, they're doing some sort of deal. All right. And it's it's like that's not the neighborhood I'm living. And these people roll in with their wills, come in and and plant themselves. You know, I would like to see some special consideration as well, being in front of a park, you know, I mean, kind of considered like a beach because we're not Crystal Cove, this is not a campground. And to have all these RV constantly coming in and staying there for days, you know, it's a it gets pretty annoying. You know, I don't pay what I pay for my mortgage to open up my window and see our vehicle along my street, you know, there. And again, it is a, you know, only in America kind of problem. But at the same time, it is an issue that does actually affect my neighbors, myself and a lot of us that, you know, that live here as a motorcyclist. You know, also dealing with the safety issue. I see it all the time when I'm riding past RVs and what have your cars cannot see when they're backing out of the driveways. It's a it's also very unsafe, you know, anyways, I'm coming to an end. But at the same time, I just want to say I'm I'm for this. I hope that you guys would consider this and not add too many implementations that would, you know, give them still leeway and freedom to, you know, continue doing what they're doing. Again, I want to thank City Councilwoman Stacey Mongo for her support and help and her awesome staff. They're very patient and they've dealt with me. So I got to say, you know, kudos to you guys. Thank thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: And Jenny Hall, back Salters and Belmont Shore. I want to thank Susie Price for all the work that she and her staff have done. On this because we brought it up multiple times and it's very important to a lot of people. So thank you. I just wanted to add a couple of things. That 72 hour criteria, you know, might be a good idea to get some guidelines written down about that, because I can just see, you know, people saying, well, my neighbor got an exemption. Speaker 0: I didn't. Speaker 3: You know, and so I think that it may not be need to need to be written into it's being approved, but at least there has to be something in writing maybe by the parking group as to what will be approved for an extension and what won't. The other I have a question or I'm not really familiar with this requirement about the gate and all. I just wouldn't want to see people now suddenly thinking that they can just have a 22 foot vehicle parked in a driveway. And then we're trying to back out of our driveway and our neighbor right next to us has this huge vehicle and we won't be able to see who's coming. We won't be able to see pedestrians, little kids. That could be a problem. Speaker 0: I just want. Speaker 3: To say also that I don't think our city streets are the place for camping or vehicle storage. Just to say that we've had multiple meetings with our police department and the they've said this and also the neighborhood. Speaker 0: Watch. Speaker 3: Group, one of the cornerstones of that is know your neighbors, know who lives on your street by name, know what their habits are and know what vehicles they have. And we really can't do that with a lot of strange vehicles parked all around our neighborhoods. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 3: Good evening, council members. My name is Sommer Temple and I am the owner of Downtempo, Storage and Long Beach Shoe Store. Mark here in Long Beach. My father, Dawn Temple, opened the first self-storage facility in the L.A. Basin right here in Long Beach. Nearly 50 years ago, the family, business and self-storage industry has been a part of my life since the day I was born, and I have watched it grow and developed over the course of my lifetime. Now, I'm not here tonight to tell you that you should or shouldn't pass this RV ordinance. I'm here as a business owner in this city who will be directly impacted and who is intimately involved in this industry. That correlates back to all of this. Right now in Southern California. RV Storage space is tight. RV RV Parking space availability, such as what our facility offers, is not just rare in our city, it's nonexistent. We are completely full, and yet we get 45 calls every day for people looking for RV parking storage. The closing of our tourist RV facility has trickled down to our city. We are getting phone calls from those displaced customers looking for places to store their ARVs boats and other vehicles because they have nowhere else to go. Shane Carson RV storage is being chipped away at as the also cemetery next door reclaims their land that they owned. We have a serious supply and demand issue in this city and surrounding issues surrounding cities. Excuse me. But as land is not becoming available to build Newport for storage facilities on at the same rate that we're losing storage facilities, another example of this of using RV storage spaces in Long Beach is our own facility at 3750 Spring Street at the April 11, 2017 City Council meeting. And sorry, last week that you granted Urban Development LLC the exclusive negotiating rights to develop land for absent that part of our company currently leases from from the airport commission. The person in question currently holds 79 spaces. We didn't analysts of these 79 spaces. Based on current addresses we have on file for them cross-reference them to the district lines and determined by each district the percentage of their costs constituents that would be left without RV parking if this goes through. I came here tonight because I do have concerns about what happens if the ordinance eventually comes to pass. Where can my 79 little customers and your constituents go to safely store their vehicles in the city? And I have to wonder, both sincerely and respectfully, how you can complement, how you can consider both banning RV parking in Long Beach and control at the same time, reducing the amount of RV spaces available here as well. I thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Angela Kimball. I live in the unincorporated county island area. I testified before you on this issue. I want to thank Susie Price for bringing us back to the council floor and discussing it. We recently enacted a similar ordinance in the unincorporated county island of Long Beach. It is working. It has been it is effective. There's some bumps in the road that, you know, have to be ironed out as some of the council members, I believe it was. Councilman Richardson said there was a grace period involved to kind of ease neighbors into the new policy. It's this has been a long time coming. It's been a as I said, it's been effective. Yes. RV storage is sometimes difficult to find in your own city, but there are spaces available. My family owns RV. We store it, we bought it. We understood we needed to store it and not impose that upon our neighbors. When we bring it in, we bring it in for 24 or 48 hours. Load it up, go have a great time. Come back, do the same thing. Get it out of the neighborhood. It doesn't belong on our public streets. Our public streets should not be a storage yard. That's the bottom line. It's a public safety issue. We've had people in the past in our community who've turned them into third, fourth and fifth bedrooms. They're living in them with water lines strung across the street, electrical lines strung across the sidewalks, and they tell their neighbors, tough. I have a neighbor who bought a home across the street a block away from me, and she said it was almost a deal breaker for them to buy that home with an RV parked out front where the neighbor had his nephew living in it. And then, of course, about a year later, he goes to sell his house and oh, lo and behold, he realizes, hey, it's not really a good marketing tool to have a 35 foot RV parked in front of your house. I'll go move it near the school so the kids can deal with it. Trying to cross going back and forth to Patrick Henry. Nice guy. But really, the bottom line is the nation's largest RV and camping organization, the Good Sam's Club, they've said it best. The residents want a long term solution to a decades long issue. The public streets are not a place to store your RV. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 0: Next speaker. Hi. My name is Ramon. The main thing that I wanted. Speaker 4: To emphasize was the same as this the young lady. Speaker 0: Who was here regarding Temple. I have a lot of people, friends that are in the storage area, and I just want to reiterate that they all they're all saying and there's like six of them that are saying that there's no room for ARVs in their storage facilities. Now, I hope that before we get going in, we do that there's some kind of a a look see in to see if there is some if this space is available for people to go, we are going to see escalated costs for sure, you know, to store their their vehicles. Another thing that I would like to mention is that it relates to to Jeannie and to Lena Gonzalez, the concerns they have for homeless. And I know we don't want to mix those issues, but how do we discern the two? If someone is is living in their RV and who isn't? We need to kind of have a rule on that, something that that coordinates that. Also I noticed that when we picked the the cities that are about our size. I think that's what somebody Susie Price said that those cities were different than the ones that the first responders were were had chosen for their examples. So I'm hoping that we're not cherry picking. I don't know if that's true or not. I know Eric. He's a good guy. He's not going to do that. But we should have a standard. If we're going to pick on, we're we're going to choose cities of the same size. Let's be standard and pick the let's be standard and pick the same cities instead of play that game. You know, the gate thing as far as as far as what Stacy Mungo has said, if you want to go that route, that's fine. But let's make sure that we give those guys a waiver who are in that area, you know, before implementation, till all that stuff goes that are in those areas. Um, also visit Vitter visitors that come in. I know people don't want to have all this stuff in vacation, but if somebody comes from another area and they just need a couple of days in that realm, in some area, whatever they are supposed to park it, I think we need to probably have a sign where they need to know. I mean, we're going to have the sign saying, you know, you can't park 72 hours, get a permit, but maybe even like an email or an address for them to go to get the permits to make it easier for someone who is who is trying to get a permit and trying to do things a legal way. So, I mean, I'm not going to say one way or another which way you should go, but these are just thoughts that I have. All right. But the next speaker, please. Hey. Good evening. I'm going to have the counter speakers. Listen, these are our last two speakers. Looks like a case of the gentleman in the church. The last one. Thank you. Speaker 4: Good evening. Thanks for hearing my comment, Chris. Jake was from fifth district. I'm concerned about. Speaker 0: So the gentleman in the red shirt was the last speaker before I cut off the speaker's list. The want to speak on this topic, sir? Okay. So you'll be the last speaker. That's the last speaker. Okay, then. Anyway, so I was concerned about separating the gate issue and I think there might be a timing. Speaker 4: Issue that could come up. So is it that we'll see the gate issue reintroduced into this bill, you know, say a week from today or whatever, so that we could see that that would be part of it. Also, does the permit process allow you to take out multiple permits at the same time so that you can depart and arrive? And another concern would be for guests guest permits. Something that would allow them to, I guess, stay maybe move out of the way of the street sweeper and then come back. Right. It may not be practical if you have out-of-town guests and they have to leave for a day and then come back to another permit or something. Given the fact that they you can you can actually get a permit. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. All those issues will be. We'll look at those. Okay. Next speaker. Speaker 8: I repeat, with black votes matter. And one thing I was trying to find out, because I didn't really know what this agenda was all about. And I was listening as Rahm was speaking. And I remember another time Ramos speaking just like that. And you were joking, shucking and jiving, laughing. And he he got angry and he blasted you. And then he walked out angry. Now it was you work for we the people. You make money and you're the boss here and everything. But you work for us. So why don't you stop doing that? Every time he looked at you, you did. And then he has to look over Mr. Richardson, Mr. Austin, whoever, because you are joking. Now, this is only Republican, but you got to get your votes. Republicans, stop voting with these suckers. Now, listen, you got to be more respectful. Yeah, I think I thank you today for paying attention. They were respectful. Stop that. And what are you still doing here, Miss Karl Marx? I thought you was leaving. I'm done. Speaker 0: Next speaker. My name is Sarah erm from Park Estates. Thank you, Susie, for doing this. We've been dealing with this issue for years. I've been there for five years and we've been struggling with the RV issues. It's temporary parking, temporary living. And we have it's an incessant problem. And I want to thank you very much for taking taking the bold steps to get this taken care of. Appreciate that. Just a couple of questions for the people that are visiting. Speaker 4: How are they going to print. Speaker 0: The the parking passes if they don't have a printer in their RV with them? There's got to be some way for them to print it. And the second would be, as I used to live in the neighborhood, that young or the young lady behind me over in the unincorporated Longreach area we have over there, we had issues or people that had limousine services, so they would drive their limos, their limos are their work and so they're parking their limos and they're definitely longer than 22 feet. And so how are those going to be addressed? Has there been any thought as to the impact that that's going to be on their livelihoods? Just just a question. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. In the last speaker, please. Speaker 4: My name is Mark Levin. I live on Flint in the third district and I 100% support this as an RV owner. I keep my RV in storage. I'm responsible. I just want to I appreciate you bring it up to the two questions regarding the permitting process. I just want to would like some clarification that if you need an extra permit that it's seamless and not you don't have to jump through hoops. It's relatively easy to get like the first one. And then the second is the tow permit limit that would limit you to ten uses of your RV per year. It seems a little like some people use their RV several times a month. Some people use their RV for for sports, for their you know, for their kids. I just think ten uses is it might be a little light. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes public comment. I'm going to go back to Councilman Price, and I just want to add a short comment. Let me just first say to particularly Councilman Price and concern monger who have both worked on this, very supportive of this. And I just want to also just note and staff and I were discussing this when this issue came before the council, when I was on the council maybe five years ago or so, it was incredibly contentious and unorganized and unproductive process that ended up not going anywhere. And I think that getting to a point where I think the community has been heard and there's been comments and there's been a lot of work done by Councilman Price and Councilman Mongo. I know Councilmember and has been involved on this issue as well, I think is a testament to the hard work that's gone into getting here . It just didn't overnight happen. I think there's been a lot of conversations and a lot of community input on this process, and so I'm very thankful that this process has gone the way it has because the last time was one of the worst possible processes that I've seen since I was on the Council. And Mr. Russell knows exactly what I'm talking about because he was here, too. And it was it was terrible. So so thank you to everyone that's contributed to this. I want to just add, Mr. West, when we're working on the interface for the permits, I think I think you heard a lot tonight about ensuring that it's an interface that is easy to use and is not complex and is hopefully something that for residents that can easily, you know, do go through that permitting process online in a way that it's easy for them to do. So that would be great. Councilman Price. Speaker 7: Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Mayor. And a lot of my colleagues have of share the responsibility of how the item has come before us now, and their partnership has been really, really vital to the process. So it's really just definitely was a team effort. I will say that in regards to RV storage availability point, very well taken. My chief of staff, Jack Cunningham, did have an opportunity to make some calls today. So we know that there is RV availability in very short distance from the city of Long Beach, and Carson has lots of availability right now. So we called and confirmed it today, $130 a month. So if you need help with that or if you're a third district resident and you're concerned about that and that's causing you stress, please contact our office. We will help you do what we can to identify various RV sites. And the original item that I authored and brought in October had a list of storage facilities that you could also call. And at the time, several of those had vacancies as. Well, so we can send you that item or we can help put you in touch with an RV storage yard. So thank you to the residents who came out, and thank you for sharing with us the concerns you have in your community. And I'm glad that we were able to move something forward that addresses your concerns. Speaker 0: Councilman Mongo. Speaker 3: Yes. I also appreciate, Summer, that you came down for this today. I spoke to Marlene on Saturday, and I do my best within the legal authority to within what Charlie will allow us to share, update her as I can. And I know that you're running the organization right now, and I hope that we can have a better relationship. I know we have some distance in terms of mileage, but perhaps that we can can be on the same page a little bit more with that, because there are facilities even on Carson Avenue that do have availability and there is no intent to want to close down RV storage facilities. But we do need to explore all of our options and job creation within the boundaries of the city, and that process does have to go through certain steps along the way. So I appreciate your continued partnership. Great to see you and your your entire group here today to support and be here to voice your opinion. It's really valuable. And we appreciate you. Thank you. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. There is a motion and a second and then Mr. City attorney will get to work on this. Please cast your votes. Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. All that came for the item. We're going to be moving on just now. We're going to be doing a public comment. And then I'm going to take the two items on the farmers market and the urban ag item.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance amending Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) Section 10.24.078 to prohibit parking of oversized and recreational vehicles on City rights-of-way within residential neighborhoods; and, amending LBMC Section 10.24.078 relating to the oversized and recreational vehicle parking permit process. (Citywide)

LongBeachCC

LongBeachCC_06132017_17-0455

Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 0: Thank you. We're going to hear the urban ag item, which I believe is ten. Speaker 1: Item ten is a report from Development Services recommendation to request the city attorney to draft an ordinance amending Title eight of the Lombard Municipal Code to establish the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program citywide. Speaker 0: Mr. WEST. Mr. Mayor, council members, we've been working on this for some time, and. Speaker 4: Larry Rich, our sustainability coordinator, is going to give us a presentation on it. Thank you, Mr. West. Good evening, Mayor Garcia. And Members of the City Council. Assembly Bill 551 The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act was enacted by the State of California to promote small scale agricultural activities on urban vacant lots. The County of Los Angeles implemented its own program in 2016 that allows cities within the county, including Long Beach, to create local urban ag incentive zone programs of their own. This program would give eligible, vacant property owners the opportunity to realize a significant reduction in their annual property tax bill when they commit their property to an agricultural use for a minimum of five years. Agricultural uses include urban farms, community gardens. Speaker 0: And educational gardens. Speaker 4: Conversion of vacant lots to urban agriculture can produce multiple benefits to the community, including connecting residents to the broader food system, providing greenspace and recreational opportunities, building community and promoting food access, public health and economic development potential. The Department of Development Services, primarily through the Office of Sustainability, would administer the program. This administration will include accepting and reviewing applications, executing contracts with eligible property owners. Interaction with the L.A. County Registrar, recorder, assessor and treasurer, tax collector offices and initial and annual inspections of the property to ensure compliance with the UHC contract. The Office of Sustainability will also market the program and help connect potential farmers with vacant land owners, ideally utilizing the proposed vacant lot registry. City Council approval of the recommendation today will direct the City Attorney's Office to draft an ordinance to amend Title eight of the Municipal Code to create the UAC program and Title 21 to define land use zones eligible to participate in the UAC program. This concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Speaker 0: Thank you. We have a motion and a second on this summary. Richardson. Speaker 5: Thank you. I just have a few things. So. So this ordinance coming back, I want to just applaud the Sustainability Development Services team for bringing this back. We requested this back in May 2016. It took a year to come back. But the reason why is because this item and the subsequent item number nine, the hope was that they will work together. Item number nine, which we'll hear about, is the the vacant lot monitoring program, the vacant lot registry, which would offer a stick, if you will, to the city, to lots who have been vacant for, you know , some some 20 years. And work with this as a carrot to say, listen, you know, you have additional standards on your lot. You need to keep it well-maintained and white picket fence. You know, no more code enforcement issues. But if you work with a local, local agricultural group, you can receive not only assistance in maintaining your site, but you could also receive a tax benefit. And so the hope is that the two of these worked together. So I do want to just thank staff for bringing this forward. We look forward to seeing where there will be, you know, grant case specific fee exemptions and what we have that in this ordinance for vacant lot owners who agree to let let let these lots these vacant lots be used for these these services. So we're really pleased to see this come back. And the registry, which is the next next item. And what I really envision is hopefully is vacant lots are placed on our our data lab site. So if you are interested in doing urban agriculture, you can access the registry and really see, you know, see in real time. These are the opportunities to go ahead and sort of partner with a local property owner. So thanks to city staff and thanks to the city council for their support. Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Gonzales. Speaker 7: Yes. I just wanted to say thanks to Larry Rich and your team for working on this. And I know Vice Mayor Richardson had been working on the vacant lot program as well. And I just want to clarify, it will be on the data LP or open LP site, is that correct? Are there any other places that it will exist on our city websites to try to market what we're doing here? Speaker 4: So the Office of Sustainability will definitely support this through. Speaker 0: Its own website. But being on data, albeit if I'm not as familiar with that, but if that's possible, that will help too. Speaker 7: Okay, great. Thank you. And I know there's a few people here from the urban agriculture community, and I want to thank them as well, because I know many of them have worked very, very hard to ensure that they're, you know, keeping up these vacant these lots that they have and creating good, healthy food. And so I want to thank each and every one of you for what you do. And hopefully this is another avenue for us to provide even more spaces for people. So thanks so much. Speaker 0: Thank you. Will not take public comment on this item. Any public comment saying. Oh, okay. Speaker 3: With the union, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Natalia Kovach. I am a resident of the First District. I also am a member of the Alliance of Food for Food and Fitness. I'm a member of Best Start Central Long Beach, and they serve on the Headstart policy console. I'm a mother who lives in the multi-family residential area, as many of Long Beach residents don't. In my neighborhood, one small community garden is garden in Martin Luther King Junior Park, which is fairly small in full in existence. It is not very safe and easy. There is a need for more in my neighborhood. For me and mine is for many of my neighbors. We would be happy to be able to grow and purchase local, naturally grown, affordable produce. Sometimes I'm able to get to the big park farmers market by traveling there with my child on foot, fix the lawn and it's not affordable. Having the opportunity to purchase quality produce grown on the vacant lot on my block would be amazing. The proposal would attract and encourage these opportunities and empower my neighbors and I to take control of our health. Thank you. Speaker 4: Hello, Mayor. City Council. My name is Ryan Serrano. I live at 81 Chestnut Avenue. I'm the founder and owner of a company called Earth Steward Ecology. We're an ecological landscape development company. My crew and I are a team of ecological thinkers, designers, builders and educators. And a lot of our work is basically. Speaker 0: Retrofitting our outdoor. Speaker 4: Spaces, our urban outdoor spaces to be more regenerative that is beyond sustainable, beyond just, you know, offsetting the resources that they're consuming, but producing more beyond that. And our work is predominantly working with California native plants and edible and medicinal plants that are endemic to this bioregion. We do a lot of work with developing. Food production, food production systems. We also build greywater recycling systems and rainwater catchment systems. I'm interested in this issue because I've been involved for years in urban agriculture, advocacy and work in the city. I previously had in a nonprofit. Speaker 0: Organization called Food Scape, and. Speaker 4: We were focused on agricultural literacy and and a demonstration project that went on for years right up the street at eighth and Chestnut. And we had a vacant lot that we were building a demonstration food forest, and we had an agreement with a private owner that was terminated when they wanted to sell it. But nevertheless, it was a great and powerful project that a lot of people got to experience and be fed from, both spiritually and and literally, you know, as as a food source. And, you know, it's a shame that there aren't more projects like that and there. Speaker 0: Not more projects being invested in. Speaker 4: It's an emerging market to be producing food locally. And it's it would be in the interest of the cities, you know, in terms of valuing the area to have more of that going on. It could offer alternative vocational opportunities and learning opportunities for young people who maybe don't. Speaker 0: Have a path. Speaker 4: To college or don't have interest in that. It also is is a way for you to be regenerating energy in the city. For as long as we aren't producing any any of our own food, we're dependent on imported food. And as long as we're dependent on importing anything, we're permanently exporting funds out of the city. So being economically regenerative is tied into this as well. I think that it's a no brainer to to approve this incentive zones. I think city properties should be considered as part of it as well and find a way to, you know, open up those spaces and not just speculatively value them, but what can be built there. And I think creating a clear path to how to do this is really important and not create a bureaucratic. Speaker 0: Vortex that people get. Speaker 4: Captured in and to turn away from using these spaces. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Oh, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 8: Council. My name is Damon Lawrence, and I'm from Long Beach Grocery Cooperative. Our Long Beach Grocery Co-operative has a mission of opening up long beaches, first property owned, community owned grocery store. Okay, we started we incorporated in 2015, March 2015. We started taking shares in April of 2016. We currently have to almost 250 member owners to date, and we have completed a feasibility study that says that the co-op would be a really good fit for our area. Aren't the co-op would probably would make somewhere between 4 to $8 million ish projected in the first year. We wanted this urban agriculture agenda item. It would be a gold for us to be able to use locally sourced, grown in Long Beach produce at the cooperative to be able to sell that with cooperatives. That's what they do. They start local and try to keep the money local, and having that as a. Speaker 0: As a resource. Speaker 8: Would be, as an expanded resource would be great, would be absolutely outstanding for us. Note the also thinking about it, the farms that we do have in Long Beach Farm 59, the going experience. These are beautiful places. These vacant lots are a blight on us right now. But you can imagine turning them into farms so kids can actually see the fruit growing that they'll eat, you know? And actually, when you think about it, the co-op will actually allow it to be monetized and actually allow it to be sustainable over a long period of time by buying from those farmers, buying from those local agricultural agricultural farmers and supporting them and and their effort. And so it will be something that that they can they can pass forward. Also provide jobs. Okay. As we're as they will be, we'll have they'll be hiring people to work on these farms to sell the produce to to the cooperative. All right. Is to have several. Speaker 0: Co-Ops in Long Beach. Okay. Speaker 8: Over the long period of time so we can keep money inside of Long Beach. We're currently looking for a property right now. Speaker 0: Or a. Speaker 8: Property right now to open the first one. So you guys in your districts that have vacant properties that you would think that would be a good fit for the co-op. Please contact us right now is we're in property search right now. I want to thank you guys for your work in this area. Really this really is really makes this possible. The work that you guys have done has made this cooperative possible. Speaker 0: Thank you very much, sir. Next speaker, please. Speaker 6: Good evening, Mayor and council members. I'm Dan Rodrigues, third district Columbus resident and current president of Lomita Organic, a nonprofit community garden organization. We currently operate eight gardens in the city, three of which are located on private property. And as part of our mission is to educate the community on the importance of being caretakers of the environment by promoting organic and sustainable gardening practices. We accomplish this by converting empty lots into community gardens. Over the past 20 years, this Long Beach Organic has been in existence. We've had positive experiences developing agricultural projects on empty lots such as these and that are privately owned lots. However, we still have a waiting list for some of our gardens that span about two years long, so we're still not able to meet that demand that the community has in this area. As you're aware, a good portion of Long Beach housing is on multi family dwellings that don't provide space for these types of activities or much outdoor space in that matters as a whole. So from that perspective, community gardens such as ours are places where Hands-On Education, Training and Discovery is provided for children and adults as well. Most of our gardens have gardeners that have no previous gardening experience, but as such, we foster a collaborative learning environment where seasoned gardeners and beginners alike can learn from each other. And in this process, community gardens also provide multiple benefits to the community. Two of which, as you're probably aware, that provides a place for our gardeners and then in their own neighborhood to grow their food for their tables. And secondly, as has already been mentioned, neighborhoods with empty lots that are often blighted, full of trash become converted into vibrant community gardens. And even the neighbors that aren't directly involved still benefit from the existence of these locations in their communities. Additionally, landowners also benefit as they are relieved of the maintenance responsibility for this property. This Urban Agricultural Incentive Act would increase the potential for additional community gardens in the city. The tax incentive would be enticing for, excuse me, an enticing factor for someone who is considering such a use for a vacant lot that they might own. And of course, a five year commitment would allow lobbies, organic and similar organizations, to further their mission in this area. So thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker. Speaker 3: Hi. Dana Buchanan, a member of the third district and owner of Primal Alchemy Catering and Events. I want to thank Larry Rich and your staff for working on this and everyone here for not letting this. Speaker 4: Go super important. Speaker 3: I come from a little bit of a different perspective as a business owner in the food industry. We are the farmers markets. I don't know what that guy was talking about, but we're at the farmers market five, five or six days a week. We had all the markets in town to provide food for our our organic catering business. So this would help alleviate some of the supply demand issues that we have in the city for a lot of restaurants. I know of ten or 15 chefs right now that would totally support any urban farm growing produce for their restaurants, including including our business. So this is just a no brainer. It makes a lot of sense to me. One of the things I would invite you to once this passes is to seriously look at a way of streamlining, creating, licensing or permitting process that creates removes obstacles rather than create obstacles for people who want to. Speaker 4: Get into urban farming, because that's, I'm sure, going to be an issue. Speaker 0: So thank you. Thank you, Dana. Next speaker, please. Speaker 7: Hi. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. And council members. We're all together, all four of us. So I would like to have them stand next to me. Speaker 0: I'm there. That's great. Yes. Please come down. Speaker 2: Tell them we love that stuff. Speaker 7: We are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and we use gardening as a form of healing for us. My name is Laura Song. I am a property owner in the fourth district as well as the sixth District and also the founder of a nonprofit called the ME Center. And these are all the members who are benefiting from the ME Center just to introduce this as Miss Kim Tam. She lives in the fourth district. This is Mr. Lim Ching, who lives in the ninth District. And this is Ms.. Veteran who lives in the fourth District. At the May Center, we use meditation, agriculture, yoga and education to promote healing from trauma as survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. My bio starred in Long Beach. I came here in 1992 as a refugee. I was ten years old. No one knew I had PTSD. No one knew I lived for 20 years. Seeing my own mother, being near death in a refugee camp. No one could understand that. The spark of my success. Going from a homeless kid to a property owner to a founder of a nonprofit that is helping my first generations, my elders who are now still suffering from PTSD. The spark of that genius actually came from my interaction with plants and gardening as little as Long Beach House in terms of gardening, space and plants. And we are known as te generation of the cement generation and many of the younger generation are actually suffering from nature deficit disorder. I decided to create a center that uses gardening as a platform for me to teach science and teach the survivors about the science of their bodies so they could empower themselves to heal. And I realize the time is ticking, but we do share the 12 minutes. Right? Speaker 0: Just continue. Speaker 3: Okay. We have a small. Speaker 7: Property where we practice natural farming methods to grow native vegetables and traditional Cambodian herbs and plants. Though we have an organic certification. We were surprised to learn that the properties that lie in the residential zones are not permitted to have agricultural use. We have identified several vacant lots in our community and that we would like to use to farm and share produce with the community through small markets, restaurants and community health centers. Many of our community suffer not only from trauma but also from illnesses that could be prevented with better nutrition. Unfortunately, our neighborhood also lack grocery stores and farmer's markets where residents can access healthy food. We're in central image. Passing this proposal would enable us to better feed our community and grow together by legalizing urban agriculture in our neighborhood and providing incentive to property owners. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you, all of you. Thank you. Next speaker. Speaker 2: Please. Speaker 3: Good evening, Mayor Garcia and City Council. My name. Speaker 7: Is Mary Redfern. Speaker 3: And I live in the fifth District and I'm here to voice my support for urban agriculture in Long Beach. I don't represent a specific organization, but I'm deeply involved in advocacy advocating for sustainable agriculture locally. I'm a master's student at Cal Poly Pomona studying environmental sustainability. I'm a gardener at the Long Beach Community Garden at Eldorado Park. I volunteer to teach gardening at Mark Twain Elementary through. Speaker 7: The. Speaker 3: UC Master Gardener, L.A. County Master Gardener program. And I also work part time for the University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources supporting local urban farmers. I love what I do, and I never thought that I would get so much joy out of teaching third, third to fifth graders gardening. But on a more serious note, as we move into a future where climate change will have a real global impact, the decisions we make for the future of urban areas are crucial. Making the path easier for urban ag in our city with incentive zones is a win win, and it's really. Speaker 7: The minimum that we can do for social. Speaker 3: Health and economic benefits of urban AG are well documented. I want to thank everyone here that has supported this idea. From those of you at the city, to the advocates behind me and also the advocates that couldn't be here tonight. But let's keep in mind that this ordinance is just the beginning and that the real work comes next, because like the soil and a garden that must be nourished before we can plant in it. Good things take time. So furthermore, we have some great advocates who work full time, have families, manage gardens, run farms. Yet they make the time to advocate for this because it's truly a transformative cause. So let's join our partners in the city of Los Angeles, where urban agriculture incentive zones passed this morning, and move forward with ideas that benefit the greater good. Speaker 7: Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Speaker 3: What's your plot? Number five. I'm an observant. Speaker 5: Jew. Greetings. My name is David Herron. I'm a district resident. I am an industrial designer by trade. I'm an educator at Cal State Long Beach. But one of the things I'm most excited about is urban agriculture. So I work with an organization. It's a nonprofit social enterprise called Our Foods. And we are just setting our claim here in Long Beach, or I'm helping bring it to Long Beach, trying to do more. And I think that advocacy of this program and taking it forward will greatly expand those opportunities. We are a strong regional organization. We have programs going all the way up to the jail system in San Francisco. We have programs in Riverside and throughout L.A.. So just trying to bring more of that here into Long Beach as well. Our most recent project here in Long Beach was implementing, designing and implementing in a very short amount of time the learning garden at the Michelle Obama Library. And of the times I've been there on a weekly basis, sometimes many more. I interact with a lot of the patrons that come and use that space and of this grand amazing library that the garden is one of their highlights. So just to show the impact that's already created and that was an empty lot previously. So this proposal increases opportunities to work with local communities, and it also enables others to grow more food and organizations to come from that opportunity. It also addresses some of the current barriers and some of the things like lack of space opportunity. There's other issues in helping the urban ag industry take off. It's relatively new and there's a lot of growth in its future. But we do have a lot of barriers in place. So land is one of those things. So some of the key points that I see with Urban AG and what gets me excited is the diversity that's around. You know, we have local breweries, you know, talking earlier about making local beer. Well, we can also grow local hops for those breweries. We have a lot of amazing chefs and restaurants that are being showcased, especially at like music, taste good festival. People are coming into this town to see the amazing food being prepared, but we're also growing a lot of amazing food, like at the Garden Experience and some of these other farms that I work with. And one of the last things I want to end on in terms of my work with our foods is we're not really about growing food as much as growing jobs and education, and the food is just a great byproduct. So with that in mind, you know, creating more incentives and encouraging this proposal going forward is actually creating job creation as well. So special thanks to council members Oranga and Richardson for pushing this forward and thank you for your time. Speaker 0: Thank you so much, Councilwoman Mongo. Speaker 3: I still say that I'm excited about this great possibility. Speaker 0: Councilman Super now. Speaker 5: Thank you. That caught me off guard. That was a quick statement. I just wanted to respond to our friends from the Cambodian community who spoke here tonight. I think they've already left. Maybe they're home by now and watching this. But we're well aware of the issues with PTSD and the need to have these kind of agricultural experiences. And so, Larry, Rich and I have actually identified properties in the fourth District on the corridor that that might come to fruition just in May. May is two things. Mental Health Month and Asian Pacific Islander Month. So it's a perfect time. We got together with the Asian Pacific Islander Mental Health Facility is in the fourth District, also that's at PCH and Exhibitor and I went into depth with them about this critical need. So just rest assured, the fourth district will be working on it. Thank you. Speaker 0: Thank you. Vice Mayor Richard. Speaker 5: Just wanted to give a shout out to Tony. I thought he was going to speak, but Lambie's fresh and my chief of staff, Sharna, really picked this up, making sure that the organizing and all that stuff did take place. So. Tony, we see you keep up the good work, brother. And thank you so much to Shana. Speaker 0: Thank you very much. There's a motion and a second on the floor. Thanks again to all of the folks here today. Good stuff. Please cast your votes.

Agenda Item

Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft an ordinance amending Title 8 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to establish the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) Program and Title 21 to define land use zones eligible to participate in the UAIZ Program. (Citywide)

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Speaker 5: Thank you. I do remember this. Speaker 1: Item was a report from Human Resources recommendation to adopt a resolution approving the 2016 through 2019 MCU with the Long Beach Supervisors Employees Association Citywide. Speaker 5: Thank you, Lisa. Have a quick update on this. Speaker 0: Vice Mayor, council members are really. Speaker 4: Happy to. Speaker 0: Report on this memo. You, Alex Vasquez and Ken Walker. Speaker 4: So Alex, our H.R. director. Speaker 5: Honorable Vice Mayor and members of City Council. Since October 2016, city management has met with representatives of the Long Beach Supervisors Employees Association to discuss their initial and new terms following the bargaining instructions from the City Council. Tentative agreements have been reached with LPC. The proposed merger with LBC and the City Council resolution to approve the memo. You are included with the Council letter. The proposed MRU is for a three year term from July 2016 through September 2019, with the following major provisions. General wage increase of 2% effective October 1st, 2016. A 2% within the pay period of council adoption of the MRU and the final 2% on October 1st of 2018. These compensation provisions are consistent with recent agreements reached with the IAM. Other major provisions of the IMO. You include the elimination of floor warden skill pay and increase in health care, cost sharing with employees and an economic crisis. Re opener you have before you a resolution to approve the merger between the city and the Long Beach Supervisor Employees Association. This concludes my brief staff report. Thank you. As any public comment on this item. Seeing numbers, please cast your vote.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution approving the 2016-2019 Memorandum of Understanding with the Long Beach Supervisors Employees Association. (Citywide)

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Speaker 1: Motion carries. Speaker 5: Thank you, Adam. 13 police. Speaker 1: And in 13 is report from Parks, Recreation and Marine recommendation to Adobe resolution authorizing the City Manager to submit a grant application to the California Natural Resources Agency for the completion of the 14th Street Park Project and accept such grant funding in a in an amount up to 3.1 million District one. Speaker 5: Thank you. Let's go. Let's start with city staff, then Councilmember Gonzalez. Speaker 0: A quick report by our second Marine director, Murray Knight, and we also have Meredith Reynolds. Speaker 3: Good evening, vice mayor. Members of the Council. On March 2017, the state of California, California Natural Resources Agency began soliciting grant applications for their urban greening grant. There is a total of $76 million available for an urban greening project statewide, and that's funded by the California Climate Investments. And this is a competitive grant program, and only one find funding cycle is anticipated. Eligible projects needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grant funds can be used to acquire, create, enhance or expand community parks and green space. As a first step in a two phased grant application process, the grant agency accepted one page concept proposals, which were reviewed in advance of the full application, and projects that were clearly meeting the grant objectives and were the most competitive were identified. City of Long Beach submitted multiple concept proposals for the park projects, and the grant agency provided feedback that the 14th Street Park Project concept was the most competitive and met multiple grant objectives. As a result of that feedback provided during the concept phase, we submitted an application for the second phase for the completion of the 14th Street Park Project. Park Project Scope includes community outreach and completion of the 14th Street Masterplan, as well as design and construction of grant eligible park improvements that could include bike and pedestrian improvements connecting currently separated blocks to adjacent traffic, upgrading irrigation and onsite stormwater capture reforesting park segments, upgrading park amenities to meet ADA and safety standards, etc. We are requesting to apply and accept an amount of up to 3.1 to $5 million for this 14th Street Park project. There is no matching funds required in this grant, and there's no minimum or maximum funding request for this grant program. That concludes my report. Speaker 5: Thank you, Councilwoman, because I. Speaker 7: Guess this makes me incredibly happy because as city manager Pat West knows and I thank you, Mary and Meredith, for your hard work. This has been a neighborhood that I'm really, really passionate about personally, but that I know a lot of our city staff has spent a lot of time in that neighborhood mentoring students at Washington Middle School. I myself going out there, I think, every week with my staff just to ensure that the kids know that their support not only at the school but offsite. And so I thank you all for really just committing to investment there in the Washington neighborhood. Thanks so much. Speaker 5: Congratulations and good luck with this as any public comment on this item. Sing. No members, please cast your vote.

Resolution

Recommendation to adopt resolution authorizing City Manager, or designee, to submit a grant application to the California Natural Resources Agency, through the California Climate Investment Urban Greening Program, for the completion of the 14th Street Park project; accept such grant funding, in an amount up to $3,125,000; and, execute all documents necessary to accept the funds and implement the project. (District 1)

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