I would like to bring the August 11 meeting of the Budget Oversight Committee to order. Can I get a roll call for peace?
I'm Eastern roll call. Can I get a roll call, please? Councilman Allen.
Vice chair.
Chair Rick Zoddy.
Chair Rick Quorum.
Wonderful. First item, please.
I, one, is the recommendation to approve the minutes for the Budget Oversight Committee meeting of Tuesday, August 4, 2020.
Okay, I'll get a motion of first and the second.
Any comments or changes from my committee members?
Seeing none. We can go to public comment.
If any members would like to speak on this item, please line up in front of the podium.
Seeing none, that concludes public comment.
Okay, then we can take a vote.
Motion carries.
Next item, please.
Item 2 is a recommendation to receive and file an overview presentation on measure U.S.
Can I get a motion of first and the second, please?
Thank you.
I believe we have a presentation from staff.
So please go ahead when you're ready.
Thank you.
All right, so good afternoon.
Chair members of the Budget Oversight Committee.
I'm Theresa Chandler, a deputy city manager, and I'm here with Erica Valencia Dachi, deputy director from the Department of Health and Human Services.
And today, we're going to share about measure U.S.
And how it's evolved over the past several years from a voter-approved funding measure into a citywide strategy for investing in children, youth, and healthier communities.
We'll also discuss where we go from here as this funding source begins to fund that.
Click. Click. Click.
There we go.
Okay. So just as a reminder of what measure U.S. is.
So in November of 2020, Long Beach voters made an intentional decision to invest today's natural resources into tomorrow's generation.
So measure U.S. double the city's oil barrel production tax, but more importantly, the city council established a clear policy direction for how these resources should be prioritized.
So the focus is was on children and youth, community health, and climate, and the environment.
So what makes measure U.S. significant isn't simply the revenue it generated.
It gave the city an opportunity to rethink how we invest in upstream programs and services for youth and families.
These priorities have guided every measure U.S. investment since adoption.
This timeline tells the story of measure U.S. is evolution.
We started by pulling departments together to reimagine a vision for transforming these dollars into true resources that could serve youth and families.
We began with foundational investments and youth participatory budgeting, then focused on building the partnerships, staffing, and infrastructure needed to support long-term success.
Those early investments eventually grew into strong beach, a city-wide prevention initiative that brings together departments, schools, community organizations, and residents around a shared vision for youth well-being.
Today, we're entering the next chapter, preserving what we've built and identifying sustainable ways to continue this work beyond the life of measure U.S.
Since measure U.S. was approved, funding has supported initiatives across all three priority areas.
The majority of investments have focused on children and youth while also supporting community health and environmental resilience.
These investments weren't intended to create isolated programs.
They helped departments build capacity, strengthen partnerships, and create systems that continue benefiting residents along after individual projects have completed.
In many ways, these investments became the building blocks for the collaborative work you see today.
And on the slide, it's just a breakdown of the different priority areas.
Under U.S. development, we have the youth participatory budgeting process, the U.S. strategic plan, office of U.S. development, steam programming, and enrichment,
team mental health and the list goes on for health and well-being.
Community health and well-being is trauma-informed approaches, violence prevention services, youth and family mental health, support for older adults, and racial equity and capacity building.
And then under climate and environment, we have climate action initiatives, screen house gas reduction, air and water quality, community education and engagement, and the list goes on there.
So, as you can see, there's a lot that we were able to do with this source of funding.
So, measure U.S. investments have remained consistent over time.
Since fiscal year 22, approximately 70% of funding has supported children and youth, nearly 20% has supported community health,
and the remainder has supported climate and environmental priorities.
Those percentages closely reflect the policy direction established by the City Council when measure U.S. was adopted,
and the consistency demonstrates that these investments were intentional, allowing departments to build programs over multiple years.
It also demonstrates that Long Beach State true to the priorities voters endorsed in 2020.
I'm going to turn it over to Erica for the next few slides.
Hi, good afternoon.
One of the most transformative investments made possible through measure U.S. has been our youth power participatory budgeting.
And so, in this program, rather than asking adults what young people need, we ask young people directly, how they want to invest in their own communities.
And since 2022, we've invested more than 2.3 million and youth designed and youth selected projects,
reaching nearly 16,000 young people and their families across Long Beach.
The true impact isn't measured only by the dollars invested or the number of participants.
It's measured by the shift in how decisions are made.
Young people moved from being recipient of services to becoming partners in public decision making.
They identify priorities, develop proposals, vote on projects, and help shape city investments.
For the last four years, the city has partnered with Committee Girls in Action, the nonprofit partnership,
and helped save Long Beach to plan, prepare, outreach, engage and implement and evaluate the participatory budgeting process.
They're experts.
T's, experience and roots in community have been invaluable for this process, ensuring fidelity to the model, intention to community engagement and continuous quality improvement.
We absolutely would not be here without them and we are so grateful for their engagement and I wanted to thank, I see some of them in the audience and so I wanted to thank them for being here today.
I think it demonstrates the importance of the project in the program.
These experiences continue to influence not only the programs we fund today, but also the priorities that guide strong beach and our broader youth investment strategy.
As we listen to young people, something else became very clear.
Success isn't created by one program alone.
Healthy youth development doesn't happen in one place, it happens at home in schools, in parks, in community organizations, neighborhoods and workplaces.
Measure US allows us to invest across the entire ecosystem, rather than funding isolated programs.
By listening directly to young people, we gain a much clearer understanding of where they spend their time, who influences their lives and what support they need to thrive.
That community informed approach guides many of our prevention strategies and also as a result of measure US, we've also begun to see a shift in how city departments themselves work together.
Today, departments are working together around common goals, stronger partnerships and common understanding that improves outcomes for young people and this requires all of us working together.
We evolved from supporting individual projects within individual departments to building a stronger coordinated citywide strategy.
This is an interdepartmental collaboration with shared vision, goals and data and all of this is reflected in the strong beach initiative.
Strong beaches guided is guiding a broader citywide investment strategy centered on prevention, collaboration and shared outcomes and this is what guides are measure US investments and expands opportunities for youth and their families.
So the proposed fiscal year 27 budget continues to reflect the priorities established by the city council and measure US was adopted.
At the same time, we have to and need help planning responsibly for the future.
As oil production declines and measure US revenues gradually decrease, we want to continue focusing on structural investments, even if measure US can no longer be the source.
In the meantime, we may have to focus on strategic one-time investments that maximize the remaining revenue.
This allows us to preserve flexibility while continuing to invest in youth, health and environmental priorities during the remaining life of measure US.
It also positions us to begin identifying sustainable funding sources for the work we've built together.
This is especially important because measure US has served as one of the few dedicated funding sources for youth centered investments, and there has not historically been a stable replacement source to support this work at the same level.
As the fund sunsets, we will need partnership and direction and identifying what comes next.
So the infrastructure relationships and programs built through measure US are not lost.
Measure US has made quite an impact, including enabling organizations to launch, expand, and strengthen programs driven by youth priorities.
It funded projects of projects reach diverse communities and participants from their neighborhood throughout the city.
Youth participatory budgeting funded programs foster meaningful relationships among youth peers, mentors, families, and community organizations.
And youth participants gain access to mentorship, career exploration, wellness activities, educational enrichment, and community engagement opportunities.
The question before us is not only how we use the remaining measure US dollars responsibly, but how we protect the youth investment ecosystems those dollars helped build once the funds is no longer available.
Measure US demonstrates something incredibly important, investing in young people works.
We've built partnerships, we've strengthened community organizations, we've created opportunities for youth leadership.
We've established a prevention infrastructure that didn't previously exist.
For fiscal year 27, the total investments are 1.16 million.
That's 945,000 investing in youth, 114,000 for healthy communities and 105,000 for climate.
The challenge before us isn't whether this work has value.
The challenge is ensuring that the partnerships systems and momentum we've spent years building continue long after measure US sunsets.
That's why our focus moving forward is continuing youth investment, strengthening cross sector partnerships, and identifying sustainable funding that allows us to work to continue.
Measure US transformed today's resources into tomorrow's opportunities.
It allows long beach to test a different model, one centered on prevention rather than reaction, collaboration rather than isolated efforts, and partnership rather than government working alone.
The funding itself was always temporary, but the relationships, the infrastructure and the lessons we've built together have lasting value.
As we look ahead, our responsibility is not simply replacing a funding source.
It is preserving the vision that Long Beach voters have supported in 2020 and ensuring future generations continue benefiting from the foundations we've built together.
Measure US became a catalyst for changing how Long Beach invests in its young people.
So I just want to thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration, Eric and I would be happy to answer any questions that committee may have.
Thank you so much for that presentation. Before I go to my committee colleagues, I got a message from someone in the public that says that the presentation is it presenting online, so they can see the chamber, but they can't see the presentation.
That's typically how we-
I'll see you don't show the presentation.
Oh, okay. Well then now, if they're watching, they now know.
Any questions from my council colleagues about the presentation?
Vice Mayor Oranga.
Vice Chair, can you?
Yes, the sunset date is projected for 2030.
2020, thank you.
I thank you, Chair. Thank you for that presentation.
I know that we've definitely seen the impact of these dollars, especially in district two or of spaces like the bluff and have been activated with kickboxing and wellness classes.
I don't know if there's anything that is at the one app, roller ring and all of that. So we've definitely seen that.
And it's great, the majority of this is going to use services.
So I love all that.
Unfortunately, I think seeing this funding source decline has got to be one of our biggest priorities.
I know that the city has seen the decline and the oil production and the tightments revenue.
Which helps support a lot of these services and investments.
So my question would be, do we have, are we communicating with anyone from the state?
Or are they indicated that they would be willing to provide any kind of funding for cities like Long Beach who have been, you know, reliant on oil production?
So I have to check with our legislative team.
We have ongoing conversations with our government team.
Just about all that's happening in the health department, all that's happening across our city.
And that definitely is a top priority for us.
So we're going to have to have lots of conversations about, because we want to continue these funding sources.
We want to continue not having to just search for grants that sunset every, you know, couple of years,
which has been the majority of how we've been able to do this work for so long as the grant.
But now there are a few in far between and further between.
So I think we need to have more conversations now.
And perhaps we could even ask that committee just to make sure that from the budget that's okay with the chair,
just to make sure that that's on their radar to be advocating for these funds and any help that we can get from the state.
If I could add to what Teresa mentioned.
So our, the next phase of this work includes bringing back this particular challenge to our interdepartmental committee,
so that we can begin to brainstorm how we can continue the success of this work.
Now that we're entering into, you know, we're approaching 2030, even though if it's difficult to say.
So that would be phase two of this work is figuring out now how we prepare for the future and so that recommendation will certainly be added.
And just as a piggyback on what Councilman Allen said,
I think your recommendation is for this to be something that protects our effort governmental affairs committee,
takes up and adds to their legislative agenda for us to advocate at the state and federal level.
Correct. Okay. Understood.
And then just one last question if that's a k-chair.
So are there any state or a federal grants?
No, you guys are always looking for ways, but if anything on the radar that you say,
you know, where do you plan for this is something to help us sustain this?
Is there anything on the radar right now?
Nothing's on the radar right now.
It's a really tight year.
There was a big grant for violence prevention that we have gotten the last several years.
We actually did not receive.
They decided not to fund cities and they're funding non-profit organizations.
So yeah, it's a tight time right now.
All right. Thank you for your presentation and thank you chair.
Absolutely Councilman Allen and your questions were essentially the same once I had.
So I promise we weren't sharing notes. She's just very smart and so she had very similar questions.
But I do want to just uplift as somebody who has worked in this for a long time.
I understand the realities of where we are, but it's, you know, we did this presentation because it was important to do.
People to know the status of where we're at as a city.
But, you know, obviously it's incredibly disappointing, right?
When we think about the work that we've done over the last few years to really invest in these programs,
we're talking about youth power, health equity, climate action, all things that are really important for a vibrant and equitable city.
And, you know, we've had, you know, all of our strategic plans, talking about the importance of investing in our youth and our young people in our next generation.
And so to Councilman for Allen's comments, right? Really thinking about, as we move forward,
how are we figuring out how to strategically plan for how we're going to prioritize what gets funded,
how are we going to, you know, explore partnerships with nonprofits, as you mentioned Theresa around that maybe getting grants that we currently are not eligible for.
And then, how are we working with, you know, we have created this really fantastic, I think,
ecosystem of youth and nonprofits in the city, so how are we leveraging their skill sets of their knowledge bases,
to figure out how to stretch the dollars that we do have to make sure that we're still making meaningful progress
on many of these outcomes that I know that are so important to us.
I did have one question, can we go back to slide six?
Yes.
So I had a question, because I was looking at the youth served over time, right? Obviously, it looks like the partnerships that we've had with youth purchase for budgeting has changed.
And just you all know, as a resident, I got to participate in the first two years of participatory budgeting that we had up in with Long Beach.
So PB is a near and dear to my heart, and it's something that I absolutely am going to advocate to continue into the future.
But I see in 2022 and 2023, so it looks like in 2022, we had these 100, many in mid-sized grants.
And then in 2023, it looks like we had YPVB and youth, the youth 100 fund.
And I see the numbers of youth served in those years was higher than subsequent years.
Can we talk a little bit about, or can you all share a little bit about how we were able to engage that many youth like what the structure of those programs constituted?
And is that something potentially we could replicate in the future if we're going to have to do some of these partnerships?
Yeah, of course. So just for some context, the minigrants and mid-sized grants were allowed us to fund more nonprofits at the time because the minigrants went up to about $5,000.
And so when we shifted over to YP, youth part of the power participatory budgeting, the grants became much larger.
And so for instance, we funded, I think in 2024, we funded fewer organizations, maybe like between six to nine, but they had much more money.
So if they had, if I look at my notes, so the youth 100 grants were between $500 and $2,000, the mid-sized grants were between 10,000 and $25,000.
And then now our YPB grants are between $25,000 and $50,000, which is why we kind of see this fluctuation in the number of people served in addition to the number of organizations that were served.
And so it took us a little bit of time to get our youth power participatory budgeting off the ground in terms of the direct voting.
And in fact, we're still always continuing to refine that process with our amazing partners.
So every year, we get better and better at the things that we do. So we like, as of now, you know, the feedback has been that people enjoy having the larger pots of funding to be able to provide more centered and focused services.
That exactly answers my question. Unless three said, did you have something you wanted to add?
No, this is very good. This one.
Anything else from my colleague?
That being said, then we can go to public comment.
I have this time if you'd like to speak on this item. Please line up at the podium.
It looks like we have a total of four speakers, so it will be three minutes.
That's awesome.
Okay, can I start?
Okay, awesome. Good morning. Oh, nice morning. Good afternoon, chair.
And members of the budget over six, maybe my need is to tell you on a limb.
And I'm here representing cry goes and action and then that's in use coalition.
I kind of want to get ready into it. I know I recognize that this.
I think it's important to uplift, especially in a time where so many young people feel that shaping their futures out of reach is more than necessary that our city continues.
Education and its love to a young people and ensuring that they feel that they can shape the city of their own ideas and process.
Personally, the YPPB process has enabled me to grow more into my leadership or how the opportunity to share ideas that shape and change the youth of the city while having the ability to meet other young people that care about the same things I do.
In this process, I was able to directly shape a summer program with other young people like me where we collaborated and I got to see the first hand commitment of my peers.
And learn from their own expertise and their different backgrounds and their knowledge.
Through it, I gained the invaluable experience of collaborating with others who think totally different from me utilizing our different values and our different backgrounds to shape a very well-rounded program.
And from there, I want you to, as you guys consider this year's budget, I respectfully ask that you preserve the use power, participatory budgeting program by limiting reductions to YPPB and preserving what we've built up.
We're asking for an additional $125,000 to ensure adequate resources to both engage, want me to and fund enough youth selected community programs to have a positive impact on the lives of want me to.
Essentially, this investment would maintain a close to $400,000 investment for a project.
And by maintaining this investment, we can continue empowering young people, strengthening civic engagement, and ensuring that youth remain active partners in building a stronger lump each.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Members and my dear oversight committee.
My name is Walter Horner.
I'm representing the set of challenges and a best youthful initiative.
First, I want to thank everyone for taking a time off today to be here and listening to us and hear our stories and experiences.
We truly appreciate you be here and give us the opportunity to share our voices.
The youth participatory budgeting process had a lasting impact on young people who participated.
Last year, we celebrated 10 years of PV among each.
Even now, we're continuing to legacy participating.
Budgeting process through the collaboration and community engagement issued decision making.
You've developed confidence, strength, leadership skills, and gain a deeper understanding of local government and civil responsibilities.
The program demonstrates the value of giving young people authentic opportunities to help shape the future of their communities.
I first have been involved with the youth power participatory budgeting for the past four years.
As a youth budget delegate and as a member of the Youth Theatre committee.
Through this experience, I've grown as well for a leader in the aggregate.
I've learned how to identify many needs, work to leverage, to develop solutions, and help bring youth driven projects to life.
Most importantly, I've gained the confidence, to speak up, engage with city leaders and realize that young people can please plant meaningful role in local decision making.
Through youth power, participatory budgeting, I've witnessed young people's life change in ways I never can imagine.
I've seen youth find jobs, it's a care housing, and build a community where we show up and support one another.
I first think around a lot throughout this process.
I've learned to facilitate, make my voice heard when I was set to a room.
Being a part of this process has taught me that our voice student matters when young people come together to speak up and stand together.
We have a part to create a real change, not just for ourselves, but for our entire community.
My experience is just one example of the impact this process has on hundreds of young people across Long Beach.
These investments do more than in front of community projects.
They prepare the next generation of several leaders by giving me youth to tools and knowledge and experience to take a difference today.
As you can say to this year's budget, I respectfully ask that you continue investing in youth power for their supported budget by an additional $125,000 for youth in 2027.
This investment of power is young people to turn their ideas into straight things,
our communities, and the shared that at Long Beach continues to develop top in it in the fourth millionaires.
Thank you for your leadership, and you're continuing to invest in youth in Long Beach.
Good afternoon chair and members of the budget oversight committee.
My name is Kaylee Wagner, and I'm here representing the Investing Youth Coalition and the Sex and Challenges, where I participate in the hype program.
Walter shared why youth power participatory budgeting is important.
I want to share what that investment can actually look like when it reaches young people like me.
For the past three years, youth power participatory budgeting funding has helped success and challenges provide yet and now hype for transition to 18th and long Beach.
Through hype, we are learning about things that directly affect us as transition age youth like housing, financial literacy, employment, physical and mental wellness, leadership, and becoming more independent.
These are things we are expected to understand as adults, but not every young person has someone that can teach them these things our safe place to ask questions.
One thing that has stood up to me personally is the better community that you have around you to teach and for knowledge and to you will set you to the right path.
Through that experience, I learned that what this is about this view, and how out of reach and may seem, there's someone who has already walked in those shoes and is willing to walk you through it to see the succeed and learn by any means necessary.
Being part of the investment youth coalition allows us to advocate for young people being part of hype allows me to see what happens when advocacy is backed up by actual investing.
Youth voice is important, but young people also need resources and opportunities behind that voice.
I respectfully ask you that you continue investing in youth power PV.
By adding an additional 125,000 or 27,000, why PPB cycles, so more young people being involved in high access opportunities like these things.
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the budget oversight committee.
My name is Rylan and I am also a participant with the Invest in Youth Coalition and Success in Challenges.
You heard about youth power participatory budget and some of the opportunities it has created.
I want to talk about what that means to us as young people.
Before participating in hype, slash year, I was honestly in a really low place every day felt the same stain inside.
I'm moving towards anything and not having any productive to do.
Through this program, I learned how to understand and manage my money in a way I never knew how to before.
I learned the basic skills of financial literacy, things like budgeting and saving.
I also learned about mental health which is very important.
Something I will take with me from this hype program into my daily life is the confidence in skills to actually manage myself for my time, my money and my goals.
Programs like hype give young adults more than somebody to go.
They give us a place to learn things we need to navigate adulthood.
Meet people who can support us, experience new opportunities, build long lasting relationships and think about what we want for our futures.
Through the Invest in Youth Coalition, we're also learning how to advocate for ourselves and our community.
We're learning the young people, we're learning that young people don't have to wait until we're ordered to have something meaningful to contribute to our city.
The young people standing before you today are an example of what happens when long beach chooses to invest in its youth.
But we don't want this opportunity to stop with us.
There are young people coming behind us who deserve the same opportunity to learn, lead, advocate and prepare for the futures.
So when you consider this year's budget, we're asking you to continue investing in youth power participatory budgeting by adding an additional 125,000 for a 2027 YPPB cycle.
Continue giving young people a voice.
Continue giving us opportunities and most importantly continue giving young people the resources to turn our ideas into actions.
Investing in young people isn't only about our future.
We're already here and we're ready to be a part of building long beach today.
Thank you.
Thank you to all the youth that came out and expressed the impact that PB and our programming here in the city.
What it's really done and I think it's just a showcase of why I think I can share the sense that we as a committee, you know we as a committee, but I think we as a city are really working hard to figure out ways that we can preserve that.
So what that being said, we can go ahead and vote.
Motion carries.
Next item, please.
Item three is the recommendation to receive a file presentation on the fee study audit development impact, please.
Okay, get a first and a second, please.
Councilman Rowland.
Not working white, but.
All right, well, we handle that.
I know staff has a presentation for us.
Fun with impact fees.
Good afternoon, but to chair members of the committee.
April, up a DACA are administrative and financial services bureau manager.
We're going to change that name and make a better at some point.
Um, is going to give us the most exciting impact fee presentation you've ever seen.
All right, thanks, Chris, very good afternoon.
Members of the budget oversight committee.
As Chris, for mentioned, I'm April Apadaka and I have the mouth full of a title administrative and financial services bureau manager.
We're here together to talk to you today about our development impact fee update.
Before I dive into the details, I always like start with a quick road map, so that's what you see on the slide up in front of you today is.
And what you see is that as we go through this presentation, what we'll cover will include an overview of development impact fees and what they are.
A recap of the key issues that were highlighted in last year's audit report and update on the progress that's underway and an overview of next steps to implement recommendations.
So starting kind of back at the beginning of our foundationally, uh, I want to describe what development impact fees are.
Those are fees that are paid by developers that help offset the cost of our additional infrastructure needs that are caused by new development.
There are several regulatory codes that inform how and when those fees can be charged, including the California mitigation fee act 8602 and the Long Beach Municipal Code.
The codes themselves are meant to add clarity and ensure that agencies are charging these fees, the agencies that charge these fees are doing so in a way that is directly related to the need created by development.
That is, the funds have to be used to make improvements that address the increased demand that comes from those projects.
The city's impact fee program was established by the adoption of various fees per started in 1990 and it provides resources for the following.
We have our fire facility fees, parks and recreation facilities, police facilities, transportation improvements, sensitive coastal resources, the utility sewer capacity and then Long Beach Unified School District fees, which are collected by the city during a development project but not set by us as an agency.
Next I'll go into some examples of how we use these fees in recent years but before I do that I do also want to highlight some of the general rules that inform the eligible uses of these funds.
Impact fees do not generally directly affect most residents or homeowners and are only assessed on projects that are adding residential capacity or new workers.
The development impact fees collected have to be used for infrastructure projects that are related to growth in the residents and workers that are added.
So we have to use them for physical improvements we need to support our growing community.
It means we can use the impact fees for things like capital improvement projects or facilities and equipment that expand capacity.
However, they can't be used for things like staffing, fixing or addressing existing deficiencies or for our routine operating or maintenance costs.
The city reports under development impact fees every year in March with review and adoption of a resolution that approves annual and five year reports providing an overview of each fee.
How they're used and the plan public improvements associated with each fee.
In recent years, our four primary impact fees have helped fund the following.
Our park fees have helped fund park and recreation facilities and facility improvements like new playgrounds recreational equipment and sports fields.
Examples of that include the 10th Street Green Belt, heart well park artificial turf and howton park playground and sports complex.
The police fee has funded police department facility and capital projects including vehicles and equipment.
Most notably for the police academy building improvements that were needed to facilitate agility testing and enhance the training capacity.
The fire fee is eligible to fund fire department facility and capital projects and recent examples of the dedication of those funds have gone towards new paramedic ambulance unit and one time medical equipment needed to equip that unit.
Transportation fee funds facilities and capital projects that meet our increased traffic resulting from economic growth.
And examples of ways that has been a program for use is with through our T.J. Great Boulevard.
The Schumacher Bridge replacement and shoreline drive realignment.
Development impact fees are one important tool in the development process but they're only one piece of a complex puzzle.
And there are other factors to consider when we think about these fees.
We always want to make sure that the fees are supplementing other existing funding that they're set in a way that's clear that fees are proportional to the growth related need.
And it's done in a way that balances our other priorities like housing production, investment in the city and the future of economic development.
The work that we'll talk about in the next few slides will help provide more context.
But the goal with this slide is to emphasize that we want to make sure a fees are balanced and that we are mindful of the laws that limit how they can be assessed, especially on things projects like ADUs or change of use.
The impact fees are not a one-size-fits-all solution.
And they vary by agencies. So it can be challenging to try and assess and compare fees, especially when we're looking at other cities, or some of our partners charge more, other to charge less, and some even charge zero.
The 2025 audit, for really, though, and its recommendations get at that complexity. The auditors review, focused on our four primary impact fee types, the fire parks police and transportation.
And the primary findings of that audit can be thought of in two major sections.
It was that there was a need to evaluate impact fee amounts to make sure that they are updated and better aligned with our current need, and there's a need to strengthen the interdepartmental coordination to effectively manage the fees.
In reviewing the audit study, we focused on certain key points that are part of the larger context that's important to consider when comprehensively discussing the fees.
Some things I'd like to highlight, or is that it is important to note that not all cities collect these fees.
Some of our comparison cities do, but others like Lakewood, Compton, Downey, Norwalk, and Santa Fe Springs do not.
And then the different adoption dates for each fee in the municipal code section do tend to create some confusion.
They were written at different times, and there's a lack of consistency, and so we do need to work better across departments.
A thorough detailed next study is fundamental to addressing these issues.
It'll provide a defensive foundation for any proposed fee changes, and help ensure that we're all working from the same information when we discuss the components of the fee.
Whether that's administrative costs or how to handle the need for dealing with inflation as we go forward.
To that end, the community development department and our partners in fire parks, police and public works have all been working together on an in-depth effort to make sure we get the new nexus study right.
And in a way that complies with state regulations and demonstrates that fee recommendations are directly related to need.
The effort first began when we identified a consultant who began their work in 2024, and has been working on detailed analysis.
The draft of that analysis is expected to be ready for consideration by the city council and the public later this summer or an early fall.
When that action is brought before the full council, we'll address the audit recommendations by including proposed code updates that better add standardization and more uniformity across the fee types.
As part of the nexus study, we've seen improvement on interdepartmental collaboration.
We've been working together a lot every day.
A lot of my partners out there in the audience to try and get this right.
And so we'll also continue to build on that, looking at ways to have shared guides and more standardized times to meet to talk about the use and reporting of the fees.
While we do report on these fees annually, the upcoming council review the nexus study will also give us an opportunity to provide an overview of how that fee calculation works and how the analysis was designed.
And so we'll include recommended fee adjustments and code amendments when we're back before you later this fall.
Because the nexus study itself is still in draft, we do not have specific amounts to discuss with you today.
That said, the interdepartmental team has been driven by the need to make sure that we're striking balance between revenue generation and also keeping development in long reach something that makes sense.
But you can expect to see that fee recommendations will likely be based on the type of fee.
They'll include phasing to make sure that we're smoothing the impact over time.
Edalen, include recommendations for adding inflationary factors, so revenues can keep up with rising construction costs for infrastructure improvement.
And now that I've covered some of the details about the audit itself, I'm going to turn the presentation over to community development director Christopher Coons, who will give you some more insight on how the fees fit into the bigger picture.
Alright, thank you April. So I think my part of the presentation is the so what part of the presentation.
So what I'm striving to do is help BOC understand this very specialty revenue source impact fees, how that fits into the larger context of the budget that you're looking at and the work that you do you're around as part of this committee's work.
So impact fees are within a larger source of revenue.
You know, we have the page and the budget book that talks about the largest revenue sources, but we actually have, you know, more than 30 different revenue sources as a city.
This is one individual one time source.
So the audit focused on improving the administration of the impact fees.
We couldn't agree more right now.
Can you need development collect these fees?
But it's hard for us to answer questions from customers about why the fee is what and what it's used for, because the administration of the fees is spread across multiple departments.
It's parks, it's public works, it's there's a large role for FM, there's a role for the fire department.
So I think that we can fix that internally, so that the customer, the person on the other side of the counter,
the counter always gets a positive consistent answer and experience from the city when they're trying to do something that's important to the city,
whether it's building a building or just doing a bathroom addition to their home.
All of those things matter to the customer, right?
And we absolutely agree we can do much better in evaluating how the fees are collected and then accounting for those fees,
so that they can be spent as expeditiously as possible to meet the city's needs.
But I do want to, if you take nothing else from this presentation, I want to really impress upon you the one time nature of impact fees.
So when it fees are set appropriately and all of our other tools are in place, we have zoning that works, we have friendly staff, we have economic development policies that work,
it all comes together and it creates a project. So that creates one time revenues, that includes impact fees,
but that also includes permit fees that help pay the employees within community development,
and other one time fees depending on if there's construction equipment, but was really important to the city,
our structural revenues, our recurring revenues.
So when a development occurs, they build the thing, whether it's an apartment building or hotel,
and then they will pay property tax, sales tax and other taxes on that development, not just one time at every single year.
So in 2025 we worked with a consulting firm Cosmaut to look at what does that mean?
So once upon a time when residential property values were lower,
we would quote unquote lose money on every single residential development.
It caused more to service that building than a generated in tax revenue.
And that's why cities love car dealerships and some cities don't love producing housing,
but as property values have changed, that whole math has changed.
So we do break even or modestly see revenue on residential development.
So to give you an example, we looked at a hypothetical 48 unit building here in downtown.
They would pay about $300,000 in one time fees, which is great,
but they would pay about $166,000 every year in various taxes to the city.
So by year two, those recurring dollars are more important than the one time dollars.
So each fee is different.
We think about impact fees in the aggregate, but the city has different fees with different needs.
So in our fee update, which will come back to city council on the fall,
we're really looking at individual responses.
So on the fire facility side, we really don't have other sources of revenue other than just general fund dollars
that are in short supply.
There's not a lot of grants for building fire stations, there's not a lot of other sources.
So obviously that's a fee that we're going to target to go up considerably.
Parks, we all love parks.
I love parks, I'm at city parks with my family all the time,
but for parks, for transportation facilities, there are other sources of funds.
Those include grant funds, gas tax dollars, county measures, state measures,
and the impact fee is paying for a very small portion of those projects that we build for our parks and our streets.
So it doesn't mean those fees don't need to go up, but what it means is we have different options there,
then we do on the fire side.
So legal limits matter.
So two things are going on and both can be true at the same time.
Well, we have an interest in increasing our impact fees, but the state has been very aggressive,
both in the legislature and in the courts in signaling to cities to do the opposite.
So the state has significantly strengthened rules regarding impact fees.
They're directing cities to limit impact fees and the courts have been very aggressive in limiting impact fees,
including a case that went all the way to the US Supreme Court.
There was about the development of just a guy that wanted to place a mobile manufactured home on a lot,
and the city was trying to charge him tens of thousands of dollars in fees.
And unsurprisingly, he wasn't very happy about that, and over the course of almost a decade,
he pled his case through the various courts and the US Supreme Court as well as when it came back to the California courts,
concluded that that was improper.
So each new improvement leads to city maintenance costs, that's the other thing to important.
So impact fees don't buy police officers, firefighters, life guards, or parks staff,
but when we build a park, we definitely need parks to maintain that park.
When we build a new fire facility, we fill it with firefighters and their equipment,
and we have ongoing needs.
So BOC and the city as a whole has to think about all of those trade-offs.
And impact fees can only pay for growth.
We are not a city that's growing a lot.
We are growing, but this is not a high growth city.
This is not a place that its population is booming.
So our impact fee revenue is never going to be a huge source of capital
because we're a mature city.
And many of our challenges and strengths are the fact that we're a mature city.
And we have the beautiful buildings and water pipes and sewer pipes that are over 100 years old and need updating.
The other thing, just for BOC to understand, it's a great revenue source,
but impact fees are a highly unpredictable revenue source.
You could have fees generated in the millions of dollars one year and close to zero the next year.
The city, therefore, has to set impact fees appropriately, use them expeditiously as we can,
but not necessarily budget based on large amounts of them coming in.
They're highly dependent, not just on the economy, but on interest rates,
and the higher interest rates are, the less development activity usually occurs,
as real estate is a business where people build things with borrowed money,
and when interest rates are high, the cost of doing that is high.
All of the 80 years that you see going up around the city, almost none of those pay impact fees
because, again, the state has legislated that we can't collect impact fees on any 80 year that's under 754 feet.
So in terms of what happens next, we're giving you this update because we're in the middle of the budget,
but they actually update to the impact fee ordinance and the fees themselves will come in.
It says September 22nd.
That is a goal, so please don't hold me to that.
Anything could happen between now and September 22nd.
That could become the first week in October, or the second week in October,
or sometimes the nine of you at City Council don't all agree,
and we might have to come once or twice or three times.
Hopefully we get at the first time, but that's our approximate day.
And then we will be able to after that, do our close out process with the auditor,
and then revenue accrues accordingly, but there is a gap.
So what happens is impact fees are assessed when a builder pulls a building
permit, and then they go build a thing, typically that could take up to 24 months,
and then before they finalize, they pay those already accrued fees.
So if we change the fees tomorrow, it could be 24 plus months before the city starts to see that higher fee revenue,
actually hit from a cash flow standpoint.
So I think those are our updates.
We hope that they were helpful, and we would be delighted to hear the public testimony and take your questions.
Thank you so much.
I will go to my committee colleagues.
Do either of you have any questions?
Looks like Vice Mayor Ranga has one.
You guys have a more question.
Well, in the mid future of the budget, how much of an impact here are you at the fees?
In the overall budget, was it percentage of the budget?
Rebecca, what was our total revenue last year?
Let me look it up really quick.
We collected $26 million in impact fees last year, which is a small amount compared to the denominator,
but that math I can't do in my head.
So Rebecca is going to help us all.
Are there any other?
Excuse me.
Any other impact being going to meet considered for the future?
Any additions?
So these are the main impact fees.
There are some special TPs that apply only in certain locations.
In Council District 3, where the wetlands are, there's a special fee for wetland impacts. I think that only applies to five or so properties. But that is on the book for those properties. We did evaluate whether additional fees for libraries or other facilities should be considered, but based on keeping the city competitive.
We decided against that. The reason for that is if we were to add additional fees, that is going to limit how much we can charge on the fees that we have already.
And something that we had discussed with the departments and with the city manager was really solving for everything, but prioritizing improving revenues for fire facilities. So that's how we got to where we are today.
If you are free, related to tolling, parking, another customer, customer, or residential impacts, also calling in this.
So these are not related to those and I think Rebecca got the answer that is impact fees are three to four percent of general fund or about 0.6 percent of toll all funds.
Thank you.
Councilwoman Ellis.
Thank you, Christopher, for that presentation. I know that as we're facing significant deficits, whether it sells tax going down and heard a lot about oil, money, declining.
I think it's important that we look at other ways to strengthen city infrastructure and revenue. So I think that the development impact fees are definitely a way to, you know, to start that conversation.
And I think it can particularly help, you know, with some of our infrastructure as a city continues to grow, but now at the same time the presentation makes it clear through one time revenues.
So while development, which I support and I wish we have more of it, you know, can generate that as you explain so great that that reoccurring property tax and sales tax and other revenues that we have for future and that's really good.
But I just want to make sure that we're careful we're not creating additional barriers to, you know, to meeting our housing production needs.
So as you know, Christopher, I drew the short straw, it's gag and you know, I am on on rena.
And so which, you know, we, those of you don't know what that is, it's a committee that oversees housing assessments and develops a methodology and all of this kind of stuff.
As I look at our near at our city, so we have Lakewood, Compton, Downey, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs, they don't collect any, any development impact fees at all.
So I just want to make sure that we're still good at implementing something like this or we're still in remain competitive and it's not going to be, it's not going to interfere with any of our, you know, construction or housing that we,
we really need for the future.
Yeah, I think we share your goal council member and we'll have more to share about that on September, 22nd or other date.
But we, you know, it kind of give away the headline, we will be coming back with fees that are higher than what they are today.
But our below, what a maximum fee we could be.
We think it's very important to charge the fee that will continue to attract investment of a city including housing.
And I think you can't, every city is different, so you can't compare long beach to San Diego, which has some of the highest fees in the state.
But it's the hottest real estate market in the state.
You really do have to compare us to our neighbors who have pretty limited fees.
So we're trying to strike that balance and we'll bring more to the council in September, October about that.
Well, thank you. And just as you do bring that back that proposed fee increases, just making sure that if you have some type of.
You can just present to us on, I'm just making sure that, you know, we looked at it and we were not decreasing housing production that we want to promote that.
So that's my comment. Thank you, Christopher. I know what, I know you do a great job over there.
And I know we're, we're, we're both wanting to make sure that we're increasing our housing production. So I just want to make sure that any policies that we are implementing that is encouraging that as well.
So I think councilwoman Allen is saying, please don't make my life hard.
I do want to thank the Department of Community Development for this presentation on the development impact fees.
I feel like I learned something and I'm always, I always, it's always a pleasure to learn more about how our city works and how our fee structure works.
And I generally appreciate the time and effort that went into breaking down what can be a really complex and I think often misunderstood area of municipal finance.
So this presentation is given as much clear understanding of what impact these are and how they can and cannot be used.
And that clarity is invaluable to make decisions about our city's infrastructure needs.
What I found particularly helpful is a reminder that the impact fees are one time revenue is meant to offset capital costs caused by development.
They're not flexible funding sources that can't be used for salaries, routine maintenance, general operations. So I understood when you said, please focus on this one slide if you get nothing from it.
So I was paying attention. And I think that distinction is critical as we think about how to fairly allocate the cost of growth.
We're protecting our general fund, which is the conversation that we're all having right now is equal to budget.
And I think understanding the legal and fiscal boundaries helps us be more honest.
I have more honest conversations with developers, residents, and our own departments about those fees can be really realistic.
We achieve. I think it's our own version of myth busters, right? Because I think sometimes we hear a lot of conversations internally and externally around why doesn't the city just do X, Y and Z with these funds, right?
And so having all of us beyond the same page around the limitations, right?
And the flexibility that I think is really important.
Additionally at the same time, the presentation highlights important challenges we need to address.
As you mentioned, the next study will help us identify the direct link between development infrastructure needs and project costs, which is essential under what you mentioned with the California mitigation fee act rights.
So there's limitations to what we cannot do.
I also appreciate the recognition that we must balance cost recovery with economic competitiveness.
As councilwoman Allen, aptly noted, especially when nearby cities as you noted, Lakewood, Compton, Downey, etc., do not collect these fees.
And I think about those specifically for myself, because I neighbor as the district nine councilwoman, I neighbor many of these cities as well, right?
And that was actually something that I didn't know. I didn't know that many of our neighbor and cities don't collect the impact fees that we collect.
And so I'm looking forward to the ongoing work on that next study.
The clear we are about what the impact fees can and cannot fund.
I think the better position we are to effectively leverage them in the growth that we do have here in the city.
So I just had a couple of questions.
And one of the slides, I think it was slide seven, you commented about proposing automatic indexing for future increases to be able to basically keep our fees up with.
I'm assuming a version of inflation, essentially. Can you talk a little bit about what automatic indexing is and what we potential, how would we implement that?
Yeah, so I think people are really familiar with inflation that we experience in our own pocketbook.
So we measure CPI, which is the consumer price index and that's when I go to the grocery store and I get angry because baking costs more and butter costs more and
I just bought milk and now I have to buy it in.
But so it's the same concept, everything costs more every year here at the city.
But we don't met where the city is not a consumer in that way, that's not what we measure.
So we measure based on what's called the construction cost index.
So that is the cost of doing construction and we do that for two reasons.
We are charging a fee on is construction and the value of that construction goes up each year.
And we're trying to recover a portion of that.
And then what we use these funds for is building infrastructure, building fire stations, building roads, building parks.
So we would adjust each year.
We are charging a percentage of a maximum fee.
So if you think of every year that maximum fee is going to go up by some amount of change in the construction cost index.
Be it three years one year.
It's a really high inflation year.
The next year maybe a 7% maybe the next year is 1% so it's going to vary each year.
But that's going to change kind of the basis of what we can charge.
And then the fee itself will also adjust based on that.
You know changing the index but also based on whatever policy adjustments we've made.
So like I mentioned before we're not going to recommend charging the maximum that we can charge.
But the amount that we do charge would still adjust each year.
We it's automatic but it's also not automatic because we do still have to come to council every year.
It's a legal requirement.
So that automatic adjustment would instruct staff and how we adjust those fees and how we report that to council.
But there would still be oversight.
There's a highly regulated area of our our law as a city and we would still fulfill the need to discuss impact fees with the council every year.
Can you go back to slide 16 I just had one question.
And the question I had is now escaping me give me a second.
It was about the last point but not all remember what I was going to ask you.
I should have written it down a set of different down slide number.
I don't remember what it was. I'm sure whatever it was it must not have been that important or either that or you've already answered it and so the question went away.
But anyway, thank you so much for this presentation.
It was really great very informative and I think helpful as we're thinking about how to leverage these dollars moving forward.
So that being said we can take public comment.
I hope this time if you'd like to speak on this item please line up at the podium.
Hi Karen.
Hi.
I'm sorry I paralyzed my vocal cord so it's different called for me to talk but I'm going to bring up some things.
People love the younger generation.
We support giving them a money and developing them more fully.
I'm not thinking about the impacts that older adults have on their futures and on the impact date.
I know one of the issues I get a lot of questions about is older adults who have a medical emergency.
They call 911.
They get an ambulance.
They don't want to be a problem.
They don't want to be a father to anybody.
So they say no no I don't need to go to the hospital.
I saw a man that refused treatment crawling on his hands and knees to get back into our building because he didn't want to be transported by the fire department.
Most of the M.T. calls are for older buildings.
I know the M.T.s are in my building.
I think that's pretty much the same for a lot of older adult housing.
So when older adults refuse to get transported, a lot of times they're insurance.
We'll not cover the cost.
They don't know this.
So they get us bill for like a thousand dollars to get transported.
I don't know what the current rate is.
And they can't pay it because they're on social security.
This is barely impacts their income.
Social security does not keep up with the cost of inflation.
We got close and then so that creates a real burden for our older adults.
And they can't pay the bills.
So I'm sure that has impact on the city.
If we can get them to the point where they understand, then medical, most of them are on medical.
We'll cover the cost of that transportation.
I think that could save the city.
And you know, I don't like impact beef at all.
But there's a couple of other issues with older adults that they're talking about.
They're getting to a point where their houses paid off.
They're living on their retirement and they can't afford the property taxes on their property.
So they don't know what to do.
So I know that people are getting, they're losing their housing in LA County for small tax bills that they can't afford to pay.
So I think we need to start looking at that.
Thank you, Thomas Lobs.
And the young people are going to be our caregivers.
That's going to impact their lives.
Thanks Karen.
And it sounds like I think from most of us we recognize they already are.
Okay, that was close.
Pop a comment.
We can take a vote.
Motion carries. Thank you. Next item.
Item 4 is the recommendation to receive a file. Council district correspondence.
I don't believe we had any this time, right? Oh, sorry. Yes, first and second. We didn't have any. Correct. Correct.
Then unless my council colleague had any comments or something they do, we can go to public comment.
At this time, if you'd like to speak on the side and please line up at the public comment.
Seeing none that concludes public comment. All right, like and vote. Motion carries. All right, item 5.
Item 5 is the recommendation to receive and file list of follow-up items from the budget hearings and or budget oversight committee meetings.
First and the second.
If we have any this time, probably probably for next week, maybe from last week's meeting. Correct. We will have items for both the standing council district correspondence and the follow-up for next week. Great.
Public comment. At this time, if you'd like to speak on this item, please line up at the public.
Seeing none. All right, vote. Motion carries. That ends the regular agenda, so we can go to general public comment.
At this time, if you'd like to speak on any issues, not on the agenda, please line up at the public.
We have one speaker, chair.
Excuse me, I guess. Okay, good afternoon chair and a few members of the budget oversight committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to express my concerns and I appreciate this platform.
My name is Swing Velas. I graduated from UCSB in 2024 with a major in English.
I'm an incoming law student and gold honors scholar at USC Gold and I'm not a resident of Long Beach.
I'm probably from Lakewood, but as a close neighbor of the city, I really do consider Long Beach my second home.
This school's I attended. This sports team site played for my family's favorite restaurants and all my best friends homes are located here.
Additionally, some of my favorite libraries are in Long Beach.
I walk with my childhood library where my mom would let me check out 12 random hard covers and the librarians would smile knowing I'd probably only read about three of them.
Bock is where I took my first all-sap practice test and scored something that didn't make me want to pass out.
And where I still go to browse titles on days I crave a quiet moment.
Michelle Obama held a community event I attended in high school with a club I founded and holds a fond place in my heart for offering a space for young adults to explore valuable community resources.
When I recently learned of the proposed budget cuts to library hours and stopping, I knew I had to make my gratitude for Long Beach libraries known.
How amazing is it? How proud are you to be public servants of a facility whose facilities are this dear to members outside of your community.
If I feel so profoundly impacted by the downsizing, stripping down of and shutting of your libraries, imagine how your residents might feel.
How the students of Long Beach may not have a safe and stable place to start their weeks off focused and hopeful in Monday's might feel.
For a land consistent access to these books, computers, tables, desks, chair, the air conditioning and overall safety to continually empower and invest into themselves as they pursue higher education.
Education that they in turn will eventually use to pour back into this city.
Or the members of your community who eagerly look forward to Mondays to receive a smile and hello from the front desk staff.
Who's only consistent social interaction we come from when they're librarian asks them what they're reading.
As our world continues to wrap the be change and every space that seems to be safe, clean, exciting and stable comes out of cost.
Libraries are one of if not the last third space is still accessible to the public at large.
Where educational personal and creative growth isn't limited by your zip code, your mode of transportation, your tax bracket or how much you have in your wallet.
Libraries are the playgrounds for the dreamers, the worldly laparines for the curious and the rest stops for the weary.
Long Beach. Why limit the potential of your community by limiting the accessibility of your libraries?
In the time between this moment and the upcoming budget revision meeting, I implore you to keep the dreamers, the curious, the weary and all those in between at the forefront of your mind when deciding the best interests for your community.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much.
They've got closest public comment.
All right, we'll see you in the additional comment.
We are adjourned.
Thank you everyone.